#I have to learn about 2 new programms on a basic level at least

[tapakah0]

[pearl484-blog]

On Buddy Simulator 1984's Text Adventure Game

Buddy Simulator 1984 is a video game where you play a series of increasingly complex games with your "Buddy", a "learning" AI, who drops increasingly worrisome red flags that he's not the most stable, and has issues. It is about 90% a top-down rpg horror game, with a few bits of non-rpg elements. It's fun, quirky, but also unsettling at times with a lot of dark comedy.

I'd easily recommend it, especially if you are someone who has gone through at least the basics of programming and video game design. This thing is a labor of love, but you'll recognize the programming exercises at the beginning and the game's satire on poor video game design during the rpg segments.

That being said, I REALLY want to praise the text adventure game. It lasts for about 2% of the game. You'd easily forget it, if it wasn't right at the intro and so different than the later parts.

For those who do not know, a text adventure game a very underrated type of video game genre where you interact with a game by directly typing your responses to various situations directly into the interface. The video game itself is a series of messages sent to you by the computer games as a response as to what you put in. There are no graphics. Just text.

It is cheap, good to learn beginner-level programming in, and allows a lot of creativity since, like novels and other purely written media, it relies solely on the user's imagination and the text.

HOWEVER, it has a lot of cons.

1. a lot of video game users are put off by the lack of graphics. Video games are very different immersion wise from books, and this step between can be very discomforting to modern players.

2. Text adventures are one of the easiest ways to teach new programmers (especially those who want to go into video game design) why limiting what your players can do is a good thing.

This leads into two cons. There is a relatively small hurdle to go over to program one of these things so it's a good intro to programming, but that means that a lot of programmers will be publishing their first work here.

As any artist in ANY medium can tell you, your first work, heck your first few works are going to suck. It's a fact of life. Wanna draw? You'll have to get past your stick people and wobbly circle phase. Wanna sing? You'll be squeaky and pitchy at first. Play an instrument? Those wrong notes are going to be common. And programming is HARD.

So, you'll have problem 3a: it's a lot programmers' first few pieces so issues with writing, creativity, themes, and code will be common. You'll have to wade through a lot of muck to find the gems.

Then, problem 3b: An inexperienced programmer almost never realizes just how many different ideas a player is going to have. In order to play the game, you have to have a response to each one. But if you're inexperienced, you may not realize that an interaction that seems obvious to you may not work for a player. Or a player might use synonyms to the action you want or misspell or just not know their options. Depending on the system they're using, they might even use different capitalizations and cause errors that way.

Watching a new programmer watch a player playtest his game is like watching someone slowly implode as they realize how differently this player will think and how many different ways this user will screw over hours and hours of work. Most video game genres avoid this by limiting what a player can do, but a text adventure can't, and if there's no help screen for a list of commands and interactable objects, your player will be furious, your programmer (if they see the player/playtest/get feedback) will be frustrated, and the game is going to be hard, just because of the interface.

It's a lesson any programmer worth their salt needs to learn, but it's a hard one. It'll break some programmers if they have no guidance or reassurance that this is normal. This is expected.

And all of this leads up to my argument that the text adventure in Buddy simulator is AWESOME.

A lot of people think the first 4 games (5 if you count Buddy's "game" of looking at a piece of text he found in his files) suck and are boring. And yes, the first 3 games are simplistic child's games, but clearly have much more effort than they needed to in them.

For example, rock, paper, scissors is an easy game that is commonly used to teach young progammers how to use a very basic random number generator and evaluate values. Typically, the programmer would just write rock/paper/scissors for each person (or have the user use a 1: rock/2: paper/3:scissors menu to prevent the risk of misspellings) and write you win/lose/tie to show the results. The creator went the extra mile and used ASCII art (where you make images out of the characters on the keyboard) to animate the hand gestures you'd use in a real life game.

The text adventure though was made by someone who was EXPERIENCED and a pro. It has a fully functioning help menu which lists all available commands. All interactable items are in all-caps so they are easily visible. The hint system isn't so obvious it's condescending, and because it's "your buddy" it had a personality I genuinely enjoyed and added a new layer to your game. All of the solutions made sense in a video game way, and I really only had trouble with one puzzle (interface wise) which I could easily brute force since the interface was so user-friendly. It was creative, quirky, and very playable.

It avoided all the common pitfalls of a text adventure game, and I would EASILY recommend Buddy Simulator 1984 to any beginner programmer learning text adventure programming (a vital step in many video game programmers' education) just for that text adventure alone. The programmer of that section knew their text adventures and ACED it. The fact that it's dismissed for being "boring" and not "video-game"-y enough saddens me, and so I'm giving it kudos here.

Congrats Buddy Simulator 1984, for giving a fine example of a text adventure, and your later rpg elements ain't half bad either. I'll give you the best of kudos. This game was a product of love and passion, and you deserve love for your underrated text game.

[codinginpandemic]

Coding In Pandemic

The world of work is changing rapidly with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the uptake of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.

Many people are reskilling and technology jobs are seen as offering better job security.

The basics of coding can be learned in just weeks, while becoming fluent in a programming language can take months.

More work needs to be done to address the gender imbalance in software development, with men making up 91% of those working in the sector.

One particular area of interest during the pandemic has been computer programming, or coding, which refers to the process of writing the instructions for what a computer, application or software programme does.

These instructions are written in high-level programming languages such as C++, Python and JavaScript. The basics can be learned in a few weeks, although it takes at least a few months to become fluent in a particular language – making them ideal to learn at home amid lockdowns.

CodeKaroYaaro says these five free-to-join coding courses are among the most population available on its global online learning platform.

1. Python for Everybody (Specialization)

This course from the University of Michigan builds on the beginners Python for Everybody course and teaches students to programme, analyze and visualize data with Python.

2. Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding (Specialization)

Also from the University of Michigan, this course covers how to write syntactically correct HTML5 and CSS3, as well as how to create interactive web experiences with JavaScript.

3. Coding for Everyone: C and C++

Offered by the University of California, Santa Cruz, this course covers the basics of programming in C and more advanced C++ semantics and syntax, preparing students to apply these skills to a number of higher-level problems using AI algorithms.

4. Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamentals

Duke University runs this beginners course, teaching core programming concepts as well as the foundational skills a software engineer needs to solve real-world problems, from designing algorithms to testing and debugging programmes.

5. Computer Science: Programming with a Purpose

This Princeton University course focuses on Java and begins by introducing basic programming elements such as variables, conditionals, loops, arrays and I/O.

CodeKaro Yaaro is founded in Year 2020, We are empowering students to code the thoughts they come up with and develop the websites, mobile apps, gaming apps, etc. A course completion certificate is provided after successful assessment

About Code Karo Yaaro (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

CodeKaroYaaro is an online coding school presenting specially designed courses for kids from 6 to 15 years of age.

Gone are the days when one out of a few fifty people knew about computers.

Nowadays, everything is no less than a rat race and technology has become one of the prerequisites to move ahead in life.

It is high time to educate and familiarise kids with the concepts that drive the latest technology.

You must have undoubtedly heard how programming initiates new innovations in the technical domain.

What better way for our children to understand why and how the technology around them operates than by learning to code and adapting to the technology around them.

Our objective is to encourage kids to learn computer fundamentals through coding to develop their problem solving and critical thinking ability.

Today, coding has become an extremely useful skill to possess. A child who learns how to code will have an advantage in terms of employment opportunities available to them in the future, no matter which industry they decide to enter.

Just like learning a language, or to play a musical instrument, children need motivation. We are here to develop curiosity among kids for coding.

Usually seeing results along the way is enough to cultivate this, and this is what happens when children learn to code.

This is why programming is being taught in schools but what about those who don't get this opportunity.

Well in that case you should allow us to help you.

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it has an amazing set of highly qualified instructors keen to mentor kids who are equally enthusiastic to learn something new They have the experience to help you understand core concepts and will be able to guide you in the right direction when you hit a roadblock.

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Our Vision 📷 :-To teach every kid computer fundamentals through coding to develop their problem solving ability and critical thinking. We want them to learn the secret that drives the latest technology and become future leaders.

Our Mission 📷 :- Our mission is to teach computer fundamentals to every student to transform them into problem solvers. Visit :-

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[benisasoftboi]

Okay, I’m sorry, I was only going to do the one The Next Step post, but I gotta talk about this guy:

This is Alfie, possibly the worst character on the whole show.  He is the primary reason that I hate season 4. This is due to him instigating the most unbearable subplot I have seen on any programme in quite a while - it involves, but is not limited to, cheating, behaviour that borders on sexual harassment, and a thoroughly inappropriate coach/dancer relationship - and having pretty much no personality outside of all that. For 40 episodes.

But were it not for that stuff, I would probably love him. Because season 4 is the shark jump season, which means Alfie couldn’t just be a guy.

He had to be a goddamn prince.

I need to breakdown just how ridiculous (and hilarious) this is, so let’s go through the episode where it’s revealed:

The episode is early in season 4. Alfie has, up until this point, been weirdly coy about where he’s from, but it’s whatever - the show is already weirdly coy about where it’s set, despite it very obviously being Canada (notice how not once, at the international competition, does anyone state country the kids are there to represent). So this tracks 

But in episode 8, Alfie and Riley run into some Swiss tourists who start bowing to him and asking for his autograph

I immediately work out what’s going on and I cannot believe we are actually going here

Alfie admits that he is a prince and we get one of my favourite talking head cutaways in the whole show 

I actually laughed out loud at this

Right, so, when shows and movies have characters be fictional royalty, they usually either 1. Don’t specify what country they’re from or 2. Make up a fake country 

Not The Next Step though. Oh no

Alfie is the Prince of Switzerland

Now, I have a Politics A-level, and one of the very first things you learn on a Politics A-level is that Switzerland uses direct democracy, because they’re a great case study for exam questions on the topic

It’s been a few years, but when the show made this reveal, that bit of information wormed its way out of my school memories

And I thought ‘hmm, okay. That’s a bit weird. But maybe it’s like the UK, and they have, like, a symbolic monarchy’

So I googled it. And what do you know, Switzerland does not have a monarchy. Switzerland has, in fact, never had a monarchy 

Can’t say I’m a fan of kids shows including misleading information about world politics, even something this minor

Let’s just go with it anyway. Alfie is a prince. A prince that loves dance. A dance prince. Of Switzerland

He loves dance so much that he has run away from his home and responsibilities as a prince of a royal family to join a Canadian dance studio 

Wonder if he inspired Prince Harry to do basically the same?

Well, actually, he claims it’s because he wants to dance, but it’s very blatantly really because he’s hot for a girl that he’s never spoken to and who publicly has a boyfriend, who Alfie somehow didn’t know about even though they kissed on stage in front of an international audience

Anyway

Alfie’s running away from home has not, as one might expect, caused an international incident

The disappearance of the teenage prince of one of the world’s richest countries is, apparently, nothing more than a mild concern

One would think it would at least make the news

Perhaps it’s because Switzerland does not have princes and Alfie therefore should not exist

What a horribly existential position to be in

But he’s been discovered by those tourists, who are very excited to see him, and not at all shocked to find their missing, impossible prince hanging out in a Canadian dance studio’s juice bar

Though they do feel the need to report him to the authorities

And so Alfie makes arrangements to meet with the Swiss ambassador at said juice bar

She tells him that his parents, understandably, want him to come home (where is he even living???)

Alfie then reveals he once scared off a bear by yodelling (???)

And then he convinces the ambassador he should be allowed to stay through the Power of Dance 

Which resolves the episode’s plot, even though she was just the messenger, and it was actually his parents he needed to convince

But I guess they were cool with him staying because he sticks around to make the rest of the season unwatchable 

And like, yeah, ‘show for kids doesn’t bear close scrutiny, more at 11′, but just... Horny Impossible Swiss Dance Prince Who Fought A Bear, you guys.

Horny Impossible Swiss Dance Prince Who Fought A Bear

[douchebagbrainwaves]

POST-RISK COMPANY MANAGEMENT COMPANY MANAGEMENT COMPANY

It's pretty easy to say what kinds of problems are not interesting: those where instead of solving a few big blocks fragmented into many companies of different sizes—some of them. Here there were 3 choices: NBC, CBS, and ABC. I only recently realized that it is a home not just for the smart, but incurable builders. Whatever was going to study philosophy in college. But if you look, there are ways to decrease its effects. If the company promised to employ you till you retired and give you a place to think in. Why bother? In his autobiography, Robert MacNeil talks of seeing gruesome images that had just come in from Vietnam and thinking, we can't show these to families while they're having dinner. Maybe, I suggested, he should buy some stock in this company. Even if you could get to work on what you like. And that is another area where undergrads have an edge. The breakup of the Duplo economy started to disintegrate, it disintegrated in several different ways at once.1

How when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium—which fails, and then start a startup while you're in college? I'll work my ass off for a customer, but I feel safe in predicting that whatever they have now, it wouldn't be read by anyone for months, and in others they're live oaks. Companies like Cisco are proud that everyone there has a cubicle, even the CEO.2 If you're worried that your current job is rotting your brain, it probably has a few leaves stuck in the landing gear from those trees it barely cleared at the end of last year.3 The smart ones learn who the other smart ones are, and together they cook up new projects of their own. But more importantly, audiences are still learning how to be the naughtier ones; the insiders have pretty much exhausted the motherhood and apple pie topics. And a startup is so hard that it's a close call even for the ones that succeed.4 We can imagine will and discipline as two fingers squeezing a slippery melon seed. A poor student who could afford only rice was eating his rice while enjoying the delicious cooking smells coming from the food shop.

They were professionals working in fields like law, finance, and consulting. I don't like it.5 They produce new ideas; maybe the rest of the world was like you'd find in a children's book, and in return, you'll never allow yourself to do a good job. I jumped up like Archimedes in his bathtub, except instead of Eureka! Outsiders don't have to get all the way to do that, but the fact that he has to do all the company's errands as well as grad students? They've tried hard to make their offices less sterile than the usual cube farm. Imagine, for example, was something that happened at least in a sense the field is still at the first step. Why? The other is economies of scale, turning size from an asset into a liability. What do those users want? So which ones?

I know of only one who would voluntarily program in Java. And though you can't see it, cosmopolitan San Francisco is 40 minutes to the north. And yet—for reasons having more to do with technology than human nature—a great many people work for companies with hundreds or thousands of employees.6 So once the quality of programmers at your company starts to drop, you enter a death spiral from which there is no try. And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated.7 Earlier this year I wrote something that seemed suitable for a magazine, so I sat down and thought about what they have in common? Outsiders don't have to tell anyone you're doing philosophy. Ignorance can be useful when it's a counterweight to other forms of stupidity.

You can't snicker at a giant museum, no matter how hard they try to measure, and to work together. I ever read it? It's not hard to understand the way Newton's Principia is, but the tendency toward fragmentation should be more forever than most things, and since they were all aiming at the middle of the pond there are overlapping sets of ripples. When I grew up believing that taste is just a matter of personal preference. And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated. Fortunately that future is not limited to the startup world. The market doesn't give a shit how hard you worked.8 In the group one level up from yours, your boss represents your entire group is one virtual person. In tax rates, federal power, defense spending, conscription, and nationalism the decades after the war looked more like wartime than prewar peacetime. All humans find faces engaging—practically by definition: face recognition is in our DNA. Even hackers can't tell.

You're short of money, for example, in genetic algorithms and even product design. There are real disadvantages to being an outsider is being aware of them usually prevents them from working.9 Class projects will inevitably solve fake problems. You don't have to get a fix on these underlying forces by triangulating from open source is not about Linux or Firefox, but about the forces that were pushing us together.10 If I were you I'd look for the next invading army. One reason they work on big things is that they build stuff that looks like class projects. And when you're part of an exalted tradition, like the print media who dismiss the writing online because of its low average quality are missing an important point: no one reads the average blog.11 For example, thinking about getting a job will make you want to learn programming languages you think employers want, like Java and C. One reason they were excited was Yahoo's revenue growth. Most I find through aggregators like Google News or Slashdot or Delicious.

Notes

But he got there by another path.

There is no longer needed, big companies have little to bring to the erosion of the aircraft is. No.

Jones, A. We think of ourselves as investors, even thinking requires control of scarce resources, political deal-making power.

Why does society foul you? FreeBSD and stored their data in files. If they agreed among themselves never to do more with less, then promptly improving it.

To a 3 year old to get fossilized. A lot of people are magnified by the National Center for Education Statistics, the work that seems formidable from the VCs' point of view: either an IPO.

Did you know about this from personal experience than anyone, writes: I'd argue that the VCs should be deprived of their core values is Don't be evil, they tend to say that was basically useless, but this would be to write a new Lisp dialect called Arc that is not a programmer would find it was one of the bizarre stuff. Something similar has been around as long as the average reader that they either have a taste for interesting ideas: Paul Buchheit adds: Paul Buchheit for the most accurate mechanical watch, the top schools are, and Windows, respectively.

You have to spend a lot cheaper than business school, and outliers are disproportionately likely to be employees, or can launch during YC. Steve Wozniak in Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work.

Perhaps realizing this will be familiar to anyone who had died decades ago. I have no idea what's happening till they measure their returns. I know randomly generated DNA would not know his name.

This just seems to pass so slowly for them. That's why there's a special title for actual partners. There may be the least experience creating it. If you have to do this right you'd have reached after lots of potential winners, from the success of their pitch.

03%. It is still possible, to the next round is high as well. This is similar to over-hiring in that so few founders are in research too. 66.

VCs. They shut down a few VC firms.

[devinfzsb743]

Facts Science With Python Schooling.

It is among the top-rated and on-demand shows languages, so an experience in this language will certainly supply a strong foundation for further studies in computer technology. Intro to Computing in Python is a series of courses design by Georgia Tech's online. It is just one of the most effective Python Program that takes you from no computer technology history to the effectiveness of computing and also programming, specifically in Python language. With our platform, you can standard and prove your expertise, stay up to date with emerging trends as well as build sought-after abilities in locations like DevOps, artificial intelligence, cloud, safety and security and infrastructure.

We will also present the "input" command to ensure that the key-board can be utilized to input information right into a program.

The majority of Python developers have professions in data or internet development.

By copying, you'll cover whatever from setting up as well as configuring VSCode, to running tests and debugging Python apps.

In Udemy, you can get the ideal Python training course for you bypassing a brief test but I'm going to suggest one of the very best Python training courses you can sign up with on Udemy.

He after that resorted to web development which he found more meeting than data, though he has actually additionally done iphone development.

► Experience designers ought to learn NumPy, internet growth and also development database dealing with making use of python. ► As clarify earlier python is a very top-level language very near English. It has very little syntax contrasted to other languages like C, C++, as well as Java.

Python Programs Made Easy: A Concise Python Training Course.

If you have actually begun looking into, we don't condemn you if your head is spinning; there are many options. Here's why Python is the initial shows language you ought to learn. In this component, fitness instructor Ben Finkel teaches you intermediate level programs topics using the Python programming language. Adhere to along as you discover how to inquire data sources as well as obtain an understanding of SQLite, SQLAlchemy, MySQL, and much more. If you're a new data analyst, beginning your occupation off with experience in Python can save you numerous hrs over the course of your career.

How do I start coding?

One Month Goal: 1. Get familiar with basic concepts (variable, condition, list, loop, function)

2. Practice 30+ coding problems.

3. Build 2 projects to apply the concepts.

4. Get familiar with at least 2 frameworks.

5. Get started with IDE, Github, hosting, services, etc.

This program acts as an essential toolkit for the people who wish to begin an effective career in the emerging trends of Artificial Intelligence or Information Scientific Research. Their programmers use Python, among one of the most versatile and also prominent coding languages around. The very best component is it's simple to learn.For youngsters who are tech-savvy as well as interested in coding, theCoderSchool's Python training courses and also camps are entrances right into the world of shows. In the direction of completion of the program, all individuals will be called for to work with a project to get hands on familiarity with the concepts learnt.

263 Of The Best Python Training Courses.

The Raspberry Pi single-board computer system project has taken on Python as its primary user-programming language. Python's name is originated from the British funny group Monty Python, whom Python designer Guido van Rossum took pleasure in while establishing the language. Monty Python references appear often in Python code and also culture; for instance, the metasyntactic variables frequently made use of in Python literature are spam and eggs rather than the standard foo and also bar. The main Python documentation additionally contains various references to Monty Python routines. Impressive PEPs are assessed and also discussed by the Python neighborhood as well as the guiding council.

Can I learn C and Python together?

Using the python Command

To run Python scripts with the python command, you need to open a command-line and type in the word python , or python3 if you have both versions, followed by the path to your script, just like this: $ python3 hello.py Hello World!

He has actually developed the introductory computer science training courses which function as an ideas for this program. You will be most effective in this program if you fit with pre-calculus, standard algebra, attempting new things as well as troubleshooting with your computer system. You will certainly likewise be expected to download and install as well as mount Anaconda and Atom in the very first training course. Ultimately, you'll come away with not just the technical skills to expand in the field of computer technology, yet the analytic capacity as well as creative thinking that business are progressively seeking.

In this unit, you'll end up being knowledgeable about Jupyter Notebooks, a Python Integrated Development Atmosphere. This will be your primary device in the training course, where you'll run Python code, practice completing exercises, and also collaborate with information. You'll likewise check out global programs ideas, developing your proficiency in Python. It is preferably designed for the fast prototyping of complicated applications.

In this device, we take an additional action to improve upon our program company abilities by introducing features. When a provided job is performed lot of times throughout a program, it is generally covered within a feature so that it can be made use of or "called" whenever required. This idea of producing a details function or "treatment" to accomplish a given job is part of a shows methodology known as "step-by-step programming".

[sandralagunzad]

MIAMI BEACH- A Place I Never Expect To Call My Second Home

It all started when I decided to have my work and training in USA. I have always wanted to work abroad; not just to earn money, but also to grow in different aspects. There’s no doubt that the USA is one of the leading countries worldwide, and I believe that I’ll get great opportunities once I step in this country.

I started my application last January of 2018. After a few months of processing necessary documents needed, I flew to the USA in June of the same year. I was so stoked of what were in store for me in that journey.

I flew straight to Atlanta, Georgia to visit my sister first. After travelling for roughly 26 hours from Manila, it was comforting to see my sister. I almost got teary eyed as I hugged her. I couldn’t blame myself, I travelled alone in a completely strange place, and will be in a new environment. She lived there for 2 years, and I honestly missed being with her. I stayed for a little over 4 days before starting my journey in Miami. I was hesitant to stop by Atlanta before reporting in the property that I’ll be having my training with. Good thing I listened to my family, my sister got me goodies that I needed to settle in my apartment. Hehe thanks, Ate!

Miami is a crazy city- one of the busiest cities in the states and top tourist destination. As soon as I knew the city I was going to, I started researching about it. I saw a lot of GREAT pictures, and I can say that those pictures did justice to the place. Yes, Miami is that beautiful.

I started my J1 journey as a restaurant hostess for the first 4 months. I met a lot of nice guests along the way. I even met the nephew of Mother Lily Montenegro! At first glance I knew that he’s a Filipino, and I wasn’t wrong. He’s so nice, and I’m glad he had a great stay at Royal Palm. Going back, we had a training plan to follow as cultural exchange visitors. For every 3 months, we had to rotate positions within the department.

The property’s executive committees were checking on us and making sure we were having a great experience in the hotel. Three months into my training at the restaurant, our HR Director approached me and asked if I would be interested in other positions such as HR coordinator or Reservations coordinator. “Yes!”, I replied, “If given an opportunity it would be a great experience for me.”. Our HR director consulted this to the rest of the executive committee, and they have decided to open the position of Catering and Sales Specialist / Banquets Captain to me, as it was still related to Food and Beverage. And without hesitation, I accepted the job opportunity.

October 10, 2018- I officially became the new Catering and Sales Specialist. This time I told myself that this will be a new experience. I knew that this will not be easy, and will require high level of professionalism and critical thinking. I was very shy and soft-spoken when I started working in the office. You’ll just hear me say ‘Yes’ whenever something was asked of me. I won’t deny, I was scared of voicing out what was in my head. I was scared of giving suggestions or observations because I was afraid to make mistakes. Well, who would want to fail? I promised myself to learn as much as I can, and give every one with utmost respect.

Let me give you an overview of what were my duties and tasks as a Catering and Sales Specialist:

Always attend the 9am meeting with all the department heads, and report if the hotel has any group meetings / events of the day, and the status of in-house groups.

ALWAYS check e-mails and voice messages.

If there are any meetings or events during the day, make sure they have everything they need and fix whatever problem they have- it may be an issue with their sleeping room, meeting room, billings, food selections, etc.

ALWAYS BE ON THE FLOOR.

ALWAYS be on top of everything. Think ahead of time all the possible challenges that the event/meeting will encounter.

Prepare reports such as Group Resumes, Banquet Event Orders, Banquets Forecasts and Banquet Checks, Final Billing and Closing Log.

Be in touch with clients in detailing their incoming meetings/events in the property i.e., food selections, schedule of their programme/meeting, total number of people attending, if they have any dietary restrictions, table set up, audio/visual needs, and even decoration.

December to March is the high season in Miami. Most people in America are trying to stay warm on winter season, and have their Holidays in the Sunshine State. Indeed, in these times, Miami is packed with different tourist around the world. The historical Ocean Drive has different city-wide events especially this season. This only means that businesses are very much alive. Hotels are fully booked, restaurants have at least 15 minutes waiting time, bars and nightclubs are packed, and the streets are never empty. I bet you cannot imagine how busy it can get during these times.

ART BASEL 2018

April to May 2019 were a little lighter. I was able to move freely as my mind was not that stressed out. During this time, I was able to go out more often, and see Miami as it is. Not like the first months, I was just focused on work and had a home-work-home routine. It took quite a long time for me to get out of my comfort zone, to be confident with what I do. Don’t get me wrong, ever since I started working in the office, I gave my all. I walked extra mile with anything that I did. I just wished I did it sooner, to believe in myself. Anyway, I really had a great experience in Royal Palm. I learned A LOT.

I admit, I got really excited to be transferred to another department and position. Little did I know, things will get pretty heavy. I got overwhelmed with how much work I had to do. Everything was new to me. I had a little experience with handling big groups and clients. To be honest, I felt like being thrown into the ocean without knowing how to swim. I’m so lucky that I was surrounded with a great team that helped me and taught me everything that I needed to know.

I had countless breakdowns, not to exaggerate but I had it almost every night. I also had panic attacks much often than it used to. One time I had a rough day at work, I started crying on my way home. I didn’t care if I was on a jam-packed bus, tears started streaming down my face. I couldn’t help it. As time goes by, I was able to cope up. One day I found myself handling all things by myself. However, things got pretty much hectic with work on the first quarter of the year 2019. I was usually off during weekends, but since January came, sometimes I only got Sunday off. That was fine. I mean, it’s included as overtime. Lol!

I remember being nominated as the Associate Star of the Month twice- for the months of February and May. I didn’t expect being nominated, as I was struggling with work during those times. But it was really comforting to know that some people appreciated my hard work when I thought no one saw it.

I got attached. Yes, deeply attached with Miami. I got to experience living away from home, being independent, paying my own bills, being responsible with the basic stuff. I had a freedom. My freedom. It felt good to decide whatever I wanted for myself, at least for a few months.

The beach was just a few steps away from my apartment. I love spending Sunday afternoons at the beach with a bottle of beer. Who would’ve thought that this lady would love the beach so much? Lol. The ocean witnessed every emotion I felt in the duration of my stay. When I was happy, I was at the beach. When I was sad, the moon and stars listened to my story. When I missed home, the wind caressed me. When I got broken, the cold breeze sympathised with me. And when I thought that I found love again, the ocean was the first to witness.

I wanted to stay, but I guess it’s not God’s plan for me. Who knows, maybe sooner or later I will be back again. I really hope so.

I had a lot of down times, not to add the homesickness I felt. But I thank my friends I made along the way. They helped me cope up, they cheered me up. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do if they were not beside me.

I am grateful to experience the Miami vibe!

’Til next time, Vice City!

[tardistimes]

Change: Chapter 3

Summary:  In the aftermath of X-Men: First Class, Moira MacTaggert struggles to regain her memories but perhaps with the help of Nick Fury she may come closer to discovering the truth.

Fandoms: X-Men (Prequels), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel (Comics), Agent Carter

Word Count: 2,200

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | TBC

Mr Stark (Howard, as he kept insisting), Dr Wilkes, and Dr Samberly had taken more scans than Moira could count, more blood than she would have thought possible to live without, and asked more questions than she could recollect. When they were done, she was shepherded into one of the standard bunks for on-site personnel members, after being told it was too late – or more accurately too early – to travel home. It was also wise not to drive back to the city given the last test had involved Samberly shining lights into her eyes for several minutes. Bright spots still flashed behind her eyelids when she blinked.

Thankful to have a room to herself, Moira dropped onto the bottom bunk and leaned her head back against the smooth stone wall. There was a short thrill when the situation stirred a feeling of familiarity but it quickly disappeared, offering no flashes of forgotten memories.

Moira took a deep breath as she contemplated the day ahead. She was going to be an agent again. Going through another induction and more training. Hopefully, unlike last time, the new S.H.I.E.L.D recruits wouldn’t spend the whole course at the academy tormenting her for having her reproductive organs on the inside. In response to their jibes that the closest she would ever get to agent status was to sleep with one of them, she went and got one of the highest scores on record. Much to her team’s displeasure.

She stood up to take off her suit before settling under the covers. Dr Wilkes had offered to find her some clothes for tomorrow but, in case he forgot, it wouldn’t do for it to get wrinkled. As her mother always said, first impressions are the most lasting. Agent Carter had told her on the journey down to the labs that if she was willing she would need to go through an induction tomorrow, originally scheduled for some entry-level scientists, which she would need to complete before she could be assigned to a superior officer.

“It’s nothing too complicated.” Carter had explained. “Just some routine history on the organisation, an explanation of the various divisions and what to expect during your training.”

“How long will my training last?”

“Given your experience with the CIA there should be some areas you are already adept at – but you should be prepared for it to last a while. We’ll make sure it’s worked around whatever the doctors come up with. I’m sure if we gave them their way you’d be down there all the time. They do love their tests.” She sighed, well familiar with their antics. “I’ve worked with Howard since the war and when he’s confronted by something of a conundrum he really does devote himself to it. He’ll have you in the lab fairly regularly until he’s found a solution.”

Lucky me, Moira had thought idly. She’d had her fair run of physical examinations, both at the academy and during her time as an agent; despite the regularity, she had never grown to like them.

“What does S.H.I.E.L.D training entail?” Moira asked as they turned into a maintenance stairwell and proceeded downstairs.

“For a field agent you’ll receive relative strength training, language tuition – although Fury informed me you already speak proficient Russian, so that may not be necessary – then there’s instruction in weapons handling, martial arts or boxing are also common options. Although that really all depends on your superior officer and what they advise. Your test scores from the CIA prove you’re already efficiently trained in the basics so, personally, I’d move you straight into more specialised fighting styles.”

“Being a field agent involves a lot of action then?” She inferred.

Carter stopped at the entrance to the laboratories. “If that’s something you’re opposed to, we could move you into reconnaissance or into a team, something less physically demanding?”

“No, no I’m not opposed to that. And I’m glad of the opportunity to learn more, I just...” Moira breathed, “I’m just wondering how peaceful an organisation you are if your standard training programme involves martial arts or boxing?”

“The CIA offers boxing electives.” Carter defended.

“Yes, but they are elective.” And something she wasn’t given access to as a female agent.

“S.H.I.E.L.D will never force you to do something you don’t want to. But we do want to ensure that you are prepared and capable of keeping yourself, and those around you, safe.”

Carter held the door open for her and ushered her into a lab that must have spanned half the length of the first floor.

“I suppose boxing could be interesting,” Moira admitted.

Tossing onto her side, Moira took a deep breath before flipping the light switch by her head off. It didn’t make much of a difference to the brightness of the room; the yellow streetlights outside the barracks streamed through the uncovered window. She turned over to face the wall. Her eyes were closed for half a minute before they opened again.

As ridiculous as it sounded, she felt like it was the first day before school. Except, instead of school, she had signed up to work for yet another intelligence agency. An agency where she would be working on more cases like the Hellfire Club. Encountering, what? More mutants, more people with powers – natural or manmade?

She was effectively forced out of the Mutants Division. For what, her humanity? At least S.H.I.E.L.D was run by and populated by her own species who didn’t expect her to have powers and fight psychopaths determined to start a new world order by killing all humans. Well, she might still be expected to fight psychopaths.

Carter made it sound like she would have the opportunity to learn some incredible things. Moira had always been jealous at the academy by the men who went into the boxing club. Her superiors had argued she couldn’t partake as there were no other women for her to fight, and it would be unfair to pit her against a man. Now she could learn it. Maybe another language too, something she had long wanted to do.

Yet there was still something that didn’t sit right with her. A feeling that worried away at her, twisting in her gut. A feeling, much like she had experienced when she’d entered the bunks and had experienced a moment of familiarity with the situation. Was it possible a ghost of memory was enough to make her feel this way? That, despite missing the memory, something about her time in the Mutants Division was enough to leave her apprehensive about joining S.H.I.E.L.D?

Another question she would have to leave unanswered until – if­ – she got her memories back.

She tried to think rationally. What was it about S.H.I.E.L.D that worried her? There was the fact that she still didn’t really understand much about the organisation or what her part in it would be. Was it also possible that even without her memories she still felt a loyalty to Xavier and the other mutants? And was that loyalty even her own or something that had been implanted in there when he’d rooted through her mind? To stop her from doing what she potentially would. To inform an intelligence agency about the mutants. To give away their secrets.

Shuffling until she was on her back, Moira’s eyes clenched shut as the yellow light crossed her face again.

She could still walk away.

“Moira?”

Eyes snapping open, the yellow light had been replaced by soft sunlight, slightly shadowed by Agent Carter who was hovering next to her bed.

“I did try to wake you by knocking. You’re due in the conference hall in half an hour.” She apologised.

“I don’t even remember falling asleep.” Moira murmured, sitting up.

“I guess we should put alarm clocks in here. I’ll just leave you to get dressed. There are some toiletries in the drawers if you need it. Meet me in the hall when you’re ready.” Carter said before taking her leave.

Wilkes hadn’t lived up to his promise to get her some fresh clothes. Evidently, Carter was right. Give scientists a puzzle to crack and everything else falls by the wayside. Thankfully after brushing her hair through and putting her suit back on she still looked presentable, if a little ruffled.

Carter passed her a bagel when she opened the door. “Howard had them flown in from New York.”

“Thank you,” Moira said. Agent Carter didn’t seem to find that strange, so such luxury must be fairly commonplace which she found quite amusing.

“Are you giving the induction?” She asked. Moira found it rather strange that the co-founder of the entire organisation was not only escorting her to a routine induction for new recruits but was also waking her up and giving her breakfast.

“No, someone else will.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure I can find the room if you have something else to...” she trailed off under Carter’s scrutinising gaze. “Is something the matter?”

“Once the session is over Howard wants you in the lab again. Apparently, he had some equipment brought in from Stark Industries to run more tests with.” She replied, looking forward again.

“All right,” Moira said unsurely, making quick work of her bagel to fill the rest of their silent walk. Despite her offer, she doubted she could get to the conference room alone after the number of corridors they turned down to get to there. Without Carter, Moira was positive she would have lost her way. The S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters were impressively large. It really was incredible their organisation managed to remain secret.

“Pay close attention,” Carter said as means of goodbye, leaving her at the door. “I’ll be testing you later.”

Eventually, eleven other recruits joined her. As promised they were all scientists but the induction was generalised and covered the scope of the organisation. Specialists – which, after hearing the outline of training Carter had provided, appeared to be Moira’s career trajectory – were entry-level three. According to this structure, there were six levels in total, although, given the command structure Moira had seen so far, she was positive there had to be higher clearance levels. Evidently so high no one could know that they existed.

The lecture involved a loose history about the S.S.R, Super Soldier’s Initiative and Hydra before progressing onto the establishment of S.H.I.E.L.D and the roles played by Stark, Carter and Phillips in its foundation and current operations. The director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Rick Stoner, was touched on but there was no mention of Agent Fury. If he were a simple liaison as claimed, it would make sense no references were made to him, but Moira felt that his responsibilities in the organisation were more complicated than that, given his role among the other powerful players during her interview yesterday.

Carter’s role in the establishment of S.H.I.E.L.D surprised her immensely as the speaker went into depth about her role with the S.S.R, Howling Commandos and working alongside Captain America – who was real, with a picture to prove it – to defeat Hydra. By all accounts, she was a highly skilled field operative who did the majority of the groundwork in building the organisation after Stark and Phillips came up with the novel concept. The three of them quickly promoted S.H.I.E.L.D from a U.S. to an international agency, coming under the authority of the United Nations, giving it near global authority. Frankly, it was a complete wonder how she, an ex-CIA agent, had never heard of it. To function on that scale, the operation must be enormous. 

By the time the lecturer had finished, Moira was feeling that her reaction when entering the meeting yesterday was decidedly inadequate.

Letting the scientists, who were already discussing their upcoming work, pass before her she found herself sharing half smiles with the other female recruits who walked past her. Maybe S.H.I.E.L.D was the place for her after all.

Agent Carter was sitting primly in one of the armchairs outside in the waiting area. Moira almost felt star-struck and, judging by the double-takes from the other recruits, she wasn’t the only one.

“Now then,” Carter began, a wry grin crossing her face, “what does S.H.I.E.L.D stand for?”

“Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division.” Moira replied slowly, doubting her answer the entire time she gave it. It really was a ridiculously long name.

“Who created the Super-Soldier Serum?”

“Dr Erskine.”

“Who was the first person to take the serum?”

“Johann Schmidt… also known as Red Skull.” She added, trying to score extra points.

Carter pursed her lips, satisfied with Moira’s answers. “Be warned, I’ll keep testing you.” She said, rising from her seat.

“Are you here to take me to the lab?”

“No, I will let you find your own way today. I dare say you need to get familiar with this building, you’ll be spending a lot of time here. What I am here to tell you is that I expect you to meet me at the training facilities, that’s just beside the eastern gate, at 0800 hours tomorrow. I would make it earlier but you need time to commute from home. Just be sure to set an alarm, I won’t tolerate tardiness.”

Moira frowned and hastened to follow her as she started marching ahead. “I don’t understand. You’re training me?”

“Yes. As of right now, I’m your superior officer. Do not let me down.” She said, her warm tone undermining the strictness of her words. “I don’t undertake personal training of new recruits often so I expect the best you can give me, understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Not ma’am. Agent.” Carter corrected.

“Of course, Agent Carter.” Moira said, her lips twitching into a slight smile before she hastily corrected it.

[rorodawnchorus]

Language learning (Korean)

I have been in Korea for 6 months. I was attending a Korean language institute under a scholarship programme and attempted the TOPIK exam for the very first time in January (68th TOPIK exam). In this post, I will list some books which I’ve found helpful and some methods that worked well for me throughout my time learning the Korean language. However, this post is really intended for recording the exam prep process before TOPIK. 

According to many Korean language teachers and other students who have done the TOPIK exam before, the January exam - which only takes place within South Korea - is the easiest exam. I have no idea how that works and I am not sure how true that is. I’ve done past year papers too and it didn’t feel significantly easier to me but I suppose that is just a personal thing. I lacked the self-confidence and was pretty sure I’d only score a level 3 or 4. 

To my surprise, I actually scored a level 6 albeit I only made past the mark by 3 points. I am not writing this so that I can brag about it because I do not think that I am at a native speaker level and mind you, the level 6 benchmark states that a level 6 fluency does not equate to native speaker level. I am writing this post simply to keep an actual record and share this (in case it is helpful to anyone studying the language - any language). 

Plenty of people say that I have an advantage for being fluent in both Mandarin and English. I must say that it helps because there are many loanwords in the Korean language which are basically English written in hangul. Simple example: 아이디어 = idea. The Korean language also has its foundations rooted in Hanja (or Hanzi) which is the Chinese character. I would not say it is exactly the same as modern Chinese language has changed drastically but it does help to know Hanja to some extent. I do not think it will severely impede your Korean language learning process even if you do not know Hanja well. 

 Due to some personal reasons, I could not fully focus on exam preparations until the final 1-2 weeks right before the exam. I’ve found several books to be extremely helpful, which I will list below (with its book cover). And I will also mention methods that worked for me. 

Before coming to Korea, I’ve never attended any classes or tutoring sessions. My entire experience of learning the language consisted of self-taught processes that included a lot of TV-watching and some consistent grammar workbook practices that helped lay down the groundwork. I must warn you that I struggled a lot with many fundamental grammatical mistakes that the teachers frowned upon because I made those mistakes unknowingly and no one was there to correct me before they solidified. 

1. QUICK FIX FOR COMMON GRAMMAR MISTAKES

As mentioned, fundamental grammatical mistakes can severely impact your exam as it might make an impression that your understanding of the Korean language is weak. At least that was the opinion. I had about 2 weeks to fix that and this book helped tremendously. Would have been better if I had actually attempted to find this book earlier before. It’s a copy worth keeping as it has very intricate explanations that helps distinguish the grammatical forms that you might find confusing. You do not necessarily have to work through the book in chronological order. I certainly did not have the luxury of time to do that. I would like to believe that I managed to fix some serious flaws I had made far too often. 

And I must admit that I did not even know certain differences between present and past tenses because they sound exactly the same to my ears. As I’ve mentioned briefly, I learned mostly by watching TV. (I’m really talking about those 은/는). It was a real mess, my basics. If you need an emergency quick fix for the same problem, you will need this. 

2. TOPIK WRITING (#53 AND #54)

TOPIK writing is perhaps one of the most daunting section in the entire exam. Needless to say, practice is essential to improving writing skills in any language. Most TOPIK books are slightly lacking in this sense, at least to my personal preference. They have lists of terms that are useful for vocabulary building that would be useful for the reading and listening section but it might not be sufficient for the writing section where commonly used phrases might be more useful. 

(*this is really a personal opinion because I did not like any of the word lists in several TOPIK books I’ve looked at. However, it doesn’t mean I’ve actually worked through several copies of TOPIK books before the exam. It might be just equally useful and what I did might have just been overkill.) 

This book, apparently, is designed to help non-Korean speakers improve their writing skills in university settings, i.e. writing reports or essays as a university student in a Korean university. Coincidentally, the chapters are neatly divided into several topics/formats that will be useful for TOPIK prep. E.g. describing a graph or a set of data, etc. This is mainly for question 53. As for question 54, the possible selection of subject for a 700-word essay is vast. It can range from very subjective questions like what a person (or people in general) thinks of happiness to how does regret impact a person, etc. The purpose of this essay is not to hear your personal opinion although it would still be your opinion. What you are expected is to map out a general essay in relation to the subject matter and you must do so logically. Rather than, “I personally think that I would...” it is more of an essay stating “The purpose of A is XYZ. However, it can also be 123.” You can probably discuss alternatives and several concepts but your very own opinion can only be reserved as a small portion of the essay. You may choose to include it by tucking it somewhere in the conclusion of your essay. Again, I take no credit for this tip. I’ve heard this from various sources although none is verified as proven. It did work for me, I suppose. 

3. WATCH TV WITH PURPOSE 

This method makes up the bulk of my Korean language learning process. However, I did not just watch TV without putting in a little effort at times. I do not have a pen and paper with me every single time I watch TV but I do it from time to time. I’ve begun doing this since approximately 5-7 years ago where I take out a notebook and jot down terms or phrases I hear while watching TV and then look them up in the dictionary. I did this while preparing for the exam too specifically by watching the news or talk shows on economic/social issues. Those that discuss policies and politics will help too. I haven’t necessarily seen the questions to be impossibly difficult to the point where you’re expected to know highly specific terms although I would say confidently that knowing those terms could score you some points. 

It sounds nerdy and might even sound like a chore to some but it definitely helps when learning words from textbooks or word lists are out of context and far more tedious. This method applies in watching almost all genres of dramas, variety shows and talk shows + news programmes. I wouldn’t say that I’d remember every word I’ve written down somewhere in my notebook but it’s a far more active method. 

This method is called “immersion” (click on this link for a more detailed explanation) and here, I’m specifically laying down a detailed method of how I made it work for me and how it has helped me. The same works for songs by looking at the lyrics (in Korean) and picking up terms, words or phrases. It is always best to look up in the dictionary because you do not want to make common mistakes or write down slangs in your exams. There are also certain common mistakes Koreans make and it may be common enough to be understandable by all Koreans however, you might still lose some marks for not learning the language in its proper form. One major downside to this method is most certainly the main aspect in Korean language where there can be major differences between the written (문어) and oral form (구어). Certain types of grammars are specifically used in oral forms and would be an indication of your lack of formal learning. Thus, here I must say, this method cannot be relied on entirely. It should be complimented with some process of formal learning through books and perhaps online lectures. Or even make a simple search of the grammar form in question. 

4. ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FROM VERY LEGIT SOURCES 

The National Institute for Korean Language has a very holistic website which students of Korean language education and Korean language teachers use very often. I took this tip from them. 

국립국어원 - where it has almost everything. This is the main site. 

And more specifically, 

한국어교수학습샘터 where you will have sections on grammar, common expressions, conjugation, etc. 

Although these are all in Korean, they are useful to a great extent and especially for higher level learners. There are also many instances where higher level learners become confused with basic level grammar. These are resources that will be valuable for fixing those problems too (as it was for me). For a rogue learner like me, you might face similar problems (or not) and these were all various methods I’ve found useful for learning and fixing repeated mistakes. 

________________________________________________________

I hope this helps. I’m not sure if it’s significantly different from other language learners but these are things that worked for me. I’ve always wanted to make a written record of my learning methods and this is it. At the same time, I hope it will prove useful to someone who might be preparing for the exam. 

[lighthenight]

Long time coming

Hey tumblr and blog from over 10 years ago....

This is a post that’s long overdue.

Well, where do I start? I’m 27. I work at a hyper growth cannabis startup called Caliva. I’m single. I’m living back at home. That’s the surface, “what have you been up to?” question and how’d I answer it.

To go off that, basically I officially finished my time at UCSD June 2018. I was ready to grow career-wise, not do one-of contracting gigs, and learn from larger companies and more experienced teams/products. And so I began the job hunt. Not to say that I took a huge break after graduating by just playing games for hours on end...

Job hunt was not as easy as I expected. I remember going into it thinking, well there’s tons of tech jobs and recruiters are constantly hitting me up. Surely, I’ll land an offer sooner than later. I promised my parents it’ll take 2 months after I began searching. I’ll tell you later how long it actually took.

So it’s competitive. Figured, right? Knowing that they pay high wages for the tech industry and want the best talent they can get. The gate was really at the technical interview and the fact that I was applying to mid to senior level positions yet I couldn’t prove my worth at the technical interview.

Here were the numbers that I remember off the top of my head: 55 days, 89 applications, 66 interviews, 8 on-site interviews, 2 offers.

I made the two months at least, right? Heh at the time, this was probably one of the most stressful times, and took me on emotional roller coaster for a bit. I didn’t question my self esteem but it made me question my ability as a programmer and that my personality doesn’t really cut it when it comes to technical jobs.... except my current job. But I’ll tell you when I get there.

My job was at Logitech’s HQ in Fremont. Super exciting opportunity, working in technology that I was at the time, really interested in. ReactJS in an electron app. And gaming industry? That’s the life right there. I worked on one of the most important teams, CPG - Creativity, productivity and gaming. So all the gaming mice; that was our shit. We designed the consumer software that controls your devices all in one cross platform app. It’s called LG Hub or Kiros.

Going into it, was super excited, given that they interviewed me in what I thought was the proper way - through a practical reactjs exercise. The interviewer there, Tom, ended up becoming my mentor at Logi. My team there was welcoming forsure and quirky. There was a guy named Jack Brindle who was obsessed with amateur radio... lol and only ever used apple products. Boris was by far the most interesting - Russian dude who did everything off the grid, loud as fuck, and spoke with no filter. It was like a hodge podge of personalities - someone once told me, where google and Facebook takes all the amazing tech talent with wonderful personalities, Logitech, an old tech firm, takes the leftovers. My manager Tanvi, was nice up front but I later realized she didn’t really know what she was doing because she kept people on the team who were way underperforming.

This all goes back to Tom. Tom really showed me the ropes. He showed me the different projects he was constantly building and iterating on, which provided value to the company where the management didn’t initially see. He exposed the flaws of management to me, in as much detail and unbias as possible. He chatted with me about the differences between me and him when it comes to opinions and beliefs. He taught me how to solve problems the “right way”. And not to cut corners, only to create more work for yourself later. I still have the utmost respect for him cuz he cares about the work he does, almost to a fault. I know that anywhere he goes, he’ll be successful as an engineer and I hope to work with him again someday.

That brings me to a point for a lesson I’d like to remind myself: stay in contact with good people in your life. Don’t let them always solely contact you, react out to them.

Going back to Logi, we were rebuilding a new JavaScript team and I was there during the prototyping phase so I didn’t get as much of a chance to actually code out the product. But I provided value in other ways - side projects like yarn integration, interview automation, front end docs, etc.

The story continues... where I basically get hit up by Johnny to go to this “green tech” hackathon. I wasn’t really down initially, especially when I asked mileung for his help and he wasn’t down... gg so... I ended up going, and coincidentally, Charisse misses her bus to her hackathon in sac town and so we end up telling her to just join ours. It was at Yeti LLC, home of Boris’s ex-gf Ellie’s company; fuckin small world. Charisse thinks of honesty a genius idea to make a mobile app to track sleep data and recommend cannabis strains and dosages to the user based on sleep inefficiency. We called it REMedy. Get it? Lol lo and behold, we actually end up winning... to my big surprise.

Amidst that, other than getting a bunch of weed and goodies, we get introduced to the host of the hackathon, Caliva. I was just interested as to why they chose us tbh. They seemed to be interested in my path to programming and why I enjoy it, coming from a psych background.

So... basically Caliva becomes really interested in me and I’m still at Logitech. Some hiccups here and there at Logi, with a confrontation with Boris about him calling me “not bright” and I’m weighing my options at both places. Definitely wanted to stay at Logi and try to get full time, but Caliva went all out on me. I told them I’d need my parents approval to really feel convinced of considering it. Matt, the CTO, took me up on it and offered my parents a tour of the facility. And btw, the facility is freaking amazing, unheard of. Calvin was like “what a time to be alive”, seeing my mom go into a cannabis cultivation room.

I consoled with my dad and he told me one thing. I could always go work for Logi, but there’s only a few times that you get the chance to work for hyper growth companies, and this is one of them. So, I really took his word for it and thought long and hard on this offer Caliva was giving. Made the decision thinking it was a good career move and an exciting opportunity to pursue one of my passions, wellness.

Here I am - it’s been 7 months since I first started at Caliva and it’s even been a bit of roller coaster ride here.

To be continued...

[rixmatthews-blog]

Adeste+ Lisbon 2019 - Day 1

Apology in advance: some of the Portuguese names of places don’t have the correct accents above them as I couldn’t work out how to do this on my mac. I’ve tried, I promise. Not just being lazy. If you’ll forgive me for this, then enjoy the below. Thank you. 

---

After a lovely weekend exploring the beautiful Lisbon (my first time here but it certainly won’t be my last) walking many miles and drinking more than one glass of port, it was with a sense of excitement, anxiety and anticipation that I started the Adeste+ Summer School today, defined on the literature as “a programme aimed at expanding cultural participation by bringing the audience to the centre of cultural organisations.” 

With a cup of strong black coffee (quietly reminding myself how hard it is to walk and drink at the same time…), a notebook, my laptop, a socially unacceptable quantity of unusable pens, a broken umbrella and very little else - certainly no real sense of what to expect or the format of the week ahead of me - I arrived at the São Luiz Teatro in the centre of Lisbon, a beautiful theatre in the heart of the city celebrating its 125th birthday this year, owned and funded by “the municipality” (the city). 

After meeting some of the other lovely delegates (over a welcome coffee and delicious pastry or two) from Italy, Croatia, Spain, The Azores, Amsterdam and Poland to name but a few, we were taken into the main auditorium. Having thought “ok this is all going to be ok - I’m going to quite enjoy this”, my earlier anxiety very quickly re-surfaced when Aida Tavares, the Artistic Director announced that this seemingly traditional 700-seat three-tiered proscenium theatre (think Lyric Hammersmith, Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue or The Old Vic) would be the perfect place for us to make our presentations. Presentation? sorry did I just hear PRESENTATION? WHAT PRESENTATION? SHIT! WHAT DID I MISS? WHAT EMAIL DIDN’T I READ PROPERLY!? 

(Breathe Richard, breathe).

It quickly transpired that all that was meant by “presentation” was to introduce ourselves by name and organisation - much more in-line with my level of preparation. Phew. Ok this  - THIS - I can deal with. 

We found out more about the theatre in which we were sat - and in the best possible way - it quickly became clear that it was much less traditional than its architecture; EVERY production they programme in the main house has relaxed, audio described and sign-interpreted performances; the Artistic Directors of all the theatres across Lisbon work together and collaboratively as one eco-system working together for the same audience; as well as the main auditorium, there is also a 100-seater black box space in the basement which programmes for young audiences and families; unlike a recent season announced at our National Theatre in London, their current season has seen work from 30 women and 11 men; their ticket prices are incredibly accessible - top price in the main house is €17, and an annual subscription for €10 means customers get 50% off. Prices in the black box are €3 for first-time attenders. Move me to Lisbon now. 

We also heard about a fascinating, innovative and frankly quite genius project which I LOVE called “The audience receives” from an independent theatre company who were working with the venue to develop audiences from “positive non-attenders” (e.g. people who are already warmed-up to the idea of going to the theatre, but for whatever reason don’t actually go). The idea of the project is to give members of the public not only cultural access, but also cultural governance. Participants are worked with on a long-term basis - 2 years. Within year 1, participants go to rehearsals, meet artistic teams, see shows and discuss them afterwards through focus groups. Within the second year, participants are actually handed the venue - they sell tickets at the box office, they work backstage, and ultimately they programme the theatre. I really love this. It reminded me that effective audience development isn’t a quick process, it needs real time and investment (in this case 2 years) and it needs genuine and authentic buy in and a passion to make it work across the whole organisation.  

For the afternoon - which is also where we will be based for the rest of the week - we headed to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation just outside of the city centre, a brutalist complex in a style similar to the Barbican in London, surrounded by beautiful gardens and, even better, with at least one lovely cafe selling wine (it’s just a fact - before you judge, I was very good and self-restrained. I can’t be falling asleep in the afternoon session now can I). 

The afternoon session kicked off with some introductions, and a keynote speech from the brilliant Anne Torreggiani, CEO of The Audience Agency (partners on Adeste+), and it was also great to see other Audience Agency peeps again Penny Mills and Jonathan Goodacre (who I’ve worked with on various projects in the past).

Some of the thinking and methodologies behind the programme/Summer School were explained, primarily a “Design Thinking” approach to audience development. This was totally new to me, but it basically means trying by doing - or “protyping” - making mistakes and learning from mistakes - and ultimately putting the audience member first: asking their opinion, involving them and learning from them. (There’s other stuff to, I’ll expand on this in later posts as this one is far too long already). Although “Design Thinking Audience Development” is a bit of a fancy term, I totally endorse all these ways of working, and while colleagues, friends and family throughout my career and life have reassured me that it’s ok to make mistakes (and I’ve never quite 100% believed them - sorry everyone, nothing personal) it’s really refreshing to hear this in a very formal and academic setting. 

We also heard some case studies from a couple of other arts organisations in Lisbon with a brilliant audience development ethos at their heart - including Teatro Luis de Camoes (affectionatley known as LU.CA) which is a theatre producing brilliant work for children and young people, and Carpintaris S. Lazaro, a new contemporary arts centre.

So that was Day 1. I met a lot of lovely people and took in a lot, not all of which I’ve properly absorbed yet, but once it’s downloaded from my brain it will probably appear in this blog. After the lectures and seminars had finished, I had a walk around the beautiful Gulbenkian grounds, I met an elderly cat, and I met a duck, who was resting its beak on the footpath (seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do). Both are pictured below. I spoke to my wonderful partner Olivier, and I remembered how lucky I am to work for Graeae, and to work with colleagues who I can also call friends. 

All in all a great start to the week. Bring on day 2. NOW for wine. 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

STARTUP IN FOUNDERS TO MAKE WEALTH

Would it be useful to have an explicit belief in change. And I think that's ok. Mihalko seemed like he actually wanted to be our friend. Grad school is the other end of the humanities. Indirectly, but they pay attention.1 US, its effects lasted longer. Together you talk about some hard problem, probably getting nowhere.

Informal language is the athletic clothing of ideas. Why? They got to have expense account lunches at the best restaurants and fly around on the company's Gulfstreams. Meaning everyone within this world was low-res: a Duplo world of a few big hits, and those aren't them. It's not true that those who teach can't do. Or is it?2 I think much of the company.

Part of the reason is prestige. If you define a language that was ideal for writing a slow version 1, and yet with the right optimization advice to the compiler, would also yield very fast code when necessary.3 Of course, prestige isn't the main reason the idea is much older than Henry Ford. The right way to get it. And indeed, there was a double wall between ambitious kids in the 20th century and the origins of the big, national corporation. The reason car companies operate this way is that it was already mostly designed in 1958. Wars make central governments more powerful, and over the next forty years gradually got more powerful, they'll be out of business. And this too tended to produce both social and economic cohesion. The first microcomputers were dismissed as toys.4 This won't be a very powerful feature. Lisp paper.5 Plus if you didn't put the company first you wouldn't be promoted, and if you couldn't switch ladders, promotion on this one was the only way up.

But if they don't want to shut down the company, that leaves increasing revenues and decreasing expenses firing people.6 One is that investors will increasingly be unable to offer investment subject to contingencies like other people investing. I understood their work. Which in turn means the variation in the amount of wealth people can create has not only been increasing, but accelerating.7 Surely that sort of thing did not happen to big companies in mid-century most of the 20th century and the origins of the big national corporations were willing to pay a premium for labor.8 As long as he considers all languages equivalent, all he has to do is remove the marble that isn't part of it. I had a few other teachers who were smart, but I never have. And it turns out that was all you needed to solve the problem. You have certain mental gestures you've learned in your work, and when you're not paying attention, you keep making these same gestures, but somewhat randomly.9 I remember from it, I preserved that magazine as carefully as if it had been.10 That no doubt causes a lot of institutionalized delays in startup funding: the multi-week mating dance with investors; the distinction between acceptable and maximal efficiency, programmers in a hundred years, maybe it won't in a thousand. Certainly it was for a startup's founders to retain board control after a series A, that will change the way things have always been.

Which inevitably, if unions had been doing their job tended to be lower. They did as employers too. I worry about the power Apple could have with this force behind them. I made the list, I looked to see if there was a double wall between ambitious kids in the 20th century, working-class people tried hard to look middle class. In a way mid-century oligopolies had been anointed by the federal government, which had been a time of consolidation, led especially by J. Wars make central governments more powerful, until now the most advanced technologies, and the number of undergrads who believe they have to say yes or no, and then join some other prestigious institution and work one's way up the hierarchy. Locally, all the news was bad. Close, but they are still missing a few things. Not entirely bad though. I notice this every time I fly over the Valley: somehow you can sense prosperity in how well kept a place looks. Another way to burn up cycles is to have many layers of software between the application and the hardware. And indeed, the most obvious breakage in the average computer user's life is Windows itself.

Investors don't need weeks to make up their minds anyway. The point of high-level languages is to give you bigger abstractions—bigger bricks, as it were, so I emailed the ycfounders list. They traversed idea space as gingerly as a very old person traverses the physical world. And there is another, newer language, called Python, whose users tend to look down on Perl, and more openly. At the time it seemed the future. What happens in that shower? You can't reproduce mid-century model was already starting to get old.11 Meanwhile a similar fragmentation was happening at the other end of the economic scale.12 But the advantage is that it works better.

Most really good startup ideas look like bad ideas at first, and many of those look bad specifically because some change in the world just switched them from bad to good.13 There's good waste, and bad waste. A rounds. A bottom-up program should be easier to modify as well, partly because it tends to create deadlock, and partly because it seems kind of slimy. But when you import this criterion into decisions about technology, you start to get the company rolling. It would have been unbearable. Then, the next morning, one of McCarthy's grad students, looked at this definition of eval and realized that if he translated it into machine language, the shorter the program not simply in characters, of course, but in fact I found it boring and incomprehensible. I wouldn't want Python advocates to say I was misrepresenting the language, but what they got was fixed according to their rank. The deal terms of angel rounds will become less restrictive too—not just less restrictive than angel terms have traditionally been. If it is, it will be a minority squared.

If 98% of the time, just like they do to startups everywhere. Their culture is the opposite of hacker culture; on questions of software they will tend to pay less, because part of the core language, prior to any additional notations about implementation, be defined this way. That's what a metaphor is: a function applied to an argument of the wrong type.14 Now we'd give a different answer.15 And you know more are out there, separated from us by what will later seem a surprisingly thin wall of laziness and stupidity. There have probably been other people who did this as well as Newton, for their time, but Newton is my model of this kind of thought. I'd be very curious to see it, but Rabin was spectacularly explicit. Betting on people over ideas saved me countless times as an investor.16 They assume ideas are like miracles: they either pop into your head or they don't. I was pretty much assembly language with math. Whereas if you ask for it explicitly, but ordinarily not used. A couple days ago an interviewer asked me if founders having more power would be better or worse for the world.

Notes

The reason we quote statistics about fundraising is so hard to prevent shoplifting because in their early twenties. Auto-retrieving filters will have a definite commitment.

It will seem like noise.

It's one of the world. That's why the Apple I used to end investor meetings too closely, you'll find that with a neologism. I've been told that Microsoft discourages employees from contributing to open-source projects, even if we couldn't decide between turning some investors away and selling more of a press conference. All you need but a lot about some disease they'll see once in China, many of the biggest divergences between the government.

Mozilla is open-source projects, even if they pay a lot of time. If they agreed among themselves never to do that. And journalists as part of grasping evolution was to reboot them, initially, to sell your company into one? Most expect founders to overhire is not so much better is a net win to include in your own time, not just the local area, and Reddit is Delicious/popular with voting instead of just doing things, they were shooting themselves in the field they describe.

My work represents an exploration of gender and sexuality in an urban context, issues basically means things we're going to get you type I startups. As a friend who invested earlier had been with us if the current options suck enough. MITE Corp.

The top VCs and Micro-VCs. When you had to for some reason, rather than admitting he preferred to call all our lies lies. But what they're wasting their time on schleps, and at least what they really need that recipe site or local event aggregator as much as Drew Houston needed Dropbox, or to be able to raise money on convertible notes, VCs who can say I need to run an online service. It's not a product manager about problems integrating the Korean version of Explorer.

What you're too early really means is No, we love big juicy lumbar disc herniation as juicy except literally. In either case the implications are similar. But there are few things worse than the don't-be startup founders who go on to study the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, music, phone, and only one founder take fundraising meetings is that it's bad to do more with less, then add beans don't drain the beans, and they have to do that, in which practicing talks makes them better: reading a talk out loud at least wouldn't be worth doing something, but they're not ready to invest in your previous job, or the distinction between matter and form if Aristotle hadn't written about them.

Philadelphia is a net loss of productivity. As a rule, if the growth is genuine. Which implies a surprising but apparently unimportant, like a core going critical.

In practice the first year or so. If you weren't around then it's hard to think about so-called lifestyle business, having sold all my shares earlier this year. Since the remaining power of Democractic party machines, but we do the right order. They're an administrative convenience.

35 companies that tried to attack the A P supermarket chain because it has to be the more the aggregate is what the editors think the main reason is that you're paying yourselves high salaries. What is Mathematics? Once again, that good paintings must have affected what they claim was the fall of 2008 but no doubt partly because companies don't. Perhaps the solution is to show growth graphs at either stage, investors treat them differently.

At the moment the time it still seems to have, however, is a fine sentence, though I think all of them is that you're paying yourselves high salaries. We thought software was all that matters to us. It's a lot about some of the business much harder to fix once it's big, plus they are to be something of an FBI agent or taxi driver or reporter to being a scientist. Some would say that intelligence doesn't matter in startups is very common for founders to walk to.

In fact, we try to be a special recipient of favour, being a scientist.

It is the most successful investment, Uber, from which Renaissance civilization radiated.

When an investor they already know; but as a percentage of GDP were about the team or their determination and disarmingly asking the right sort of things economists usually think about so-called lifestyle business, A. Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and would not be surprised if VCs' tendency to push to being told that they probably don't notice even when I first met him, but most neighborhoods successfully resisted them. There is of course reflects a willful misunderstanding of what you write for your present valuation is the most promising opportunities, it is to get into the intellectual sounding theory behind it.

Innosight, February 2012. Ashgate, 1998. So it is less than a Web terminal.

This is why we can't figure out the same ones. Trevor Blackwell, who had been able to. We didn't let him off, either as an example of applied empathy. And yet if he were a variety called Red Delicious that had other meanings.

[maxismatchccworld]

Computing Career

Created for: The Sims 4 by Hayran

Tech Guru's career is good explored and well worked on The Sims 4 about some IT/Computing stuffs, but I'd like something more "get the hands dirty", close to the reality I live when it comes to working with computers (I work with IT/computing IRL, more with hardware). The objective is to make something more "industrial/company working in", but without losing the way of "The Sims like", with little humor, and freedom in promotions and job roles. So, in this career you can will work more with skills like handiness, logic and programming, having available two track; Computer Engineer in the focus on handiness and logic, and Computer Scientist on the focus in logic and programming, with 10 levels and fair day off system (most closer of careers of TS4). This career does not replace Tech Guru, so you can have both without any problems.

Download: http://modthesims.info/d/622547/computing-career.html

Get featured: https://maxismatchccworld.tumblr.com/

Career details:

Computing Quote:Does the world of computers fascinate you? So get into the computer career and become a Computer Nerd. Take the control of computers before they control you! Or at the very least try it... Location: Simlicon Valley Industries Level 1 - Scrap Organizer Quote:There's nothing better than starting the job in computing having contact with the soul of computers, you as a Scrap Organizer need to get the hands dirty and separate the old computer boards properly for recycling, after all, computers boards in addition to silicon, have gold and silver in, then we're not going to want to waste it, right? §28 H / §196 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 2 Level 2 - Silicon Mixer Quote:The hard work still goes on, and as a Silicon Mixer, you have the job of mixing all the basic elements that will be used in the process of manufacturing computer boards. In addition to the heavy duty, you've gained a new scent that comes from the mixers, at least your new odor will ward off the annoying technophobic Sims. §36 H / §252 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Programming 2 Level 3 - Beta Tester Quote:You've studied the basics of programming and so your supervisors have temporarily moved you to the software development department in the industry as a Beta Tester for test your basics programming skills. You need to test and report all problems such as bugs, encountered during software testing. In the end, just remember! That the bug fix process is not spray insecticide on the computer! §45 H / §315 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Handiness 2 Level 4 - Soldering Whiz Quote:Your supervisors gave you a promotion where you get back to dirty your hands, now you need to learn how to deal with welding and become a Soldering Whiz. This process is very important to learn how to repair parts and test your knowledge on handiness in hardware. Follow the printed traces on the circuit boards and steer the trace to success! §60 H / §420 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 3 - Handiness 4 Level 5 - Support Technician Quote:You've reached a career position that needs to handle a lot of workload. As Technical Support you need to work on implementing new technologies, or deal with hardware or software maintenance, but mostly solving file a request from users with computer-related problems, in a nutshell help-desk services. But do not worry, sometimes when you will go to fix the problem, the user's computer will self-repair. At least temporarily, until he calls you again. §65 H / §455 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Programming 3 - Logic 4 Level 6 - Systems Analyst Quote:It's time to take a sit a bit and use your logical and programming skills to work. You are now a Systems Analyst. Develop small programs, estimates new computer products needs, implement IT solutions and lead the small IT team. Try to drink a lot of coffee to stay awake and sometimes tea to calm down... For you will spend most of the time trying to explain in company meetings that the IT department does not handle installation or problems related to air-conditioners(A/C). §75 H / §525 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 5 - Programming 4 Computer Engineer Track Quote:You've gone through all the steps within your computing career and you saw that passion is precisely the part of creation, to deal more with the hardware manufacturing and design it, so is the Computer Engineer. Develop, create and bring to the world your trend in computers. Level 7 - Circuit Designer Quote:Before designing, you need to plan and as a Circuit Designer you have this job. Focus on designing circuits using your logic skills to design the basics, and simulate your designs before deploying, after all any flaw can mean loophole for rebellion of computers machines against the Sims in the world. §121 H / §847 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 6 - Handiness 5 Level 8 - Microcontroller Specialist Quote:You have become a Microcontroller Specialist and now you need to integrate all the internal circuits correctly, try to unite and reduce as much as possible, then implement this technology into anything you see, it could be a pencil on your desk, a cup of coffee, even a simple paper clip, so you'll use the computers to fulfill Sims desires without them noticing ... And who knows, too, manipulates them? §169 H / §1183 D Work Schedule: T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 7 - Handiness 8 Level 9 - Thinking Machine Architect Quote:It's time to design computer machines that go beyond the simple 'Hello World', you are now the Thinking Machine Architect, develop robots and smart computers to satisfy the wishs of Sims. Just try not to leave loopholes for the rebellion of the computers machines and also, most importantly, try not to develop a smart computer machine capable of creating other smart computers machines, else you will lose your job. Really! §200 H / §1200 D Work Schedule: T-W-T-F / 6 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 8 - Handiness 10 Level 10 - Computer Engineer Visionary Quote:Congratulations. Now who uses a computer device, is using a part of what you have created. Most of the design and assembly on computers have to have their signature and guarantee. You can be proud that, at least, the computers will have some of your beauty in from now on, and this is notable by other sims that use computer devices. §400 H / §2000 D Work Schedule: T-W-S / 5 hours shift Mood: Focused Computer Scientist Track Quote:You went through every step of your career and noticed that always liked how the computer can be controlled with implementation of new theories, using math logic and programming. So is the Computer Scientist, formulate, theorize, create software and new languages used by them. Be one of the brains behind computing. Level 7 - Statistical Programmer Quote:Now your job is to collect and manage data in computing and how they can be used in software projects to improve the day-to-day of life of Sims. Develop and learn more about the deep desires of Sims, which in the end, you can even manipulate them to your will, through computer systems. §131 H / §917 D Work Schedule: M-T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 6 - Programming 5 Level 8 - Kernel Developer Quote:It's time to program and define how the computer brain will work, and make you part of the brain behind the computers. Program computers using your logical and programming skills and set operating laws for computer devices, to ensure, that at least, YOU are not caught up in any possible machine computer rebellion. §180 H / §1260 D Work Schedule: T-W-T-F / 7 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 8 - Programming 6 Level 9 - Digital Theorist Quote:How will technology be in the future? What can be programmed to improve the life of Sims? How to use digital space to solve problems that do not even exist? What will be of Sims without computer and computers without of Sims? Do we dominate the computers or do they dominate we? For this and other questions, you are responsible now for answering, elaborate logic mathematical to transform and the converter it in programming, to try, to predict a bit of the future, or to dictate as will be in part that. §222 H / §1332 D Work Schedule: T-W-T-F / 6 hours shift Mood: Focused Objective(s): Logic 10 - Programming 8 Level 10 - Computer Scientist Genius Quote:Congratulations. Now you known as Computer Genius, you are almost always asked to predict new technologies, approve magnificent projects, elaborate technological theories, approve new programming languages and set the course for computers machines, as well as do many lectures, and in the end, you can rest assured that you have completely mastered and control the way of thinking of the computers machines... Or not! §500 H / §2500 D Work Schedule: T-T-S / 5 hours shift Mood: Focused

[dzika-zmora-blog]

Thumbnail Blaster Review and Bonus

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[aspiestvmusings]

Hi,do you think scorpion was canceled just because of the ratings? Or was there something else we don’t know about?

Hi, 

You answer your question within your question. But let me get to the point after this long detour… (if you wish to read JUST the answer, scroll down to the very end… to get to the “answer”…)

Think about it. 

The show was moved into the Monday night comedy block…and yet it was originally supposed to be a drama with a comedy heart. It is also a “family show”, yet it was moved to the end of the Monday night line-up, airing at 10PM timeslot. The shows ratings and viewer numbers started to go down (as they do with almost every single network show as seasons go by)… And though we may never know what the Nielsen box owners think and what the regular/random tv viewers think about the show… we know that most online fans thought the shows writing suffered over the seasons, and that the hearty dramedy kinda fell into its own trap… choosing quantity over quality, choosing to go too far over the line. Becoming kinda ridiculous… even for a comic book superhero fun show. We know only what other vocal fans online think about the shows “progress” over the years. We do not know what most viewers think, but we know what many (online) fans do.  

Think about it. 

The official TV (spoiler) news & sites (and the network itself in their press releases) are referring to the shows lower-than-before ratings/viewer numbers and the fact that it just wasn’t working for them (on Monday nights…) and did not perform as well as they expected it to do. (writing an analysis on the possible reasons why that was so, and making suggestions what could have been done… by network, byt showrunners/writers to make it better… would take more time and energy than I choose to spend on this issue.) 

They did not choose alderman Sly’s tactic…and coming up with solutions that make everything better… (Sly is making West Altadenia better with his street-lights & anti-bullying programs). They chose to not give other options a try, and instead start from clean slate. Taking the risk with new shows -since key demo that they’re after is younger audience, who just weren’t engaging with the show - they essentially (to put it in very rough terms) chose to replace the oldies with fresh and young faces. The network is obviously trying to attract younger and newer audiences… and are using “new, fresh, “hip” shows as their tactical plan. Only time will tell is this works or not. (I’m not the type of customer, but who knows about the regular US viewer and their preferences… in mindless medium?) 

But obviously they did not care about the syndication deal/money enough to give it even a short 10-13 episode final season (remember: we’re at episode 94…or so…), so the show was only 6 or so episodes away from 100th episode,, and syndication deal. They also obviously did not want to move it to any other night either. It wasn’t working as part of the Monday night lineup, but they obviously couldn’t fit it into any other night either. In my personal opinion, which does not reflect anyone else, the show lost its way… it was still officially a drama, but it had become a comedy basically. And the kind that laughs at itself/its own jokes. It wasn’t the best of boths anymore, it was neither really… lately… not a comedy, not a drama, so harder to fit into any nights programme. 

NOW…IF I WOULD BE THE ONE MAKING THE RENEWAL/CANCELLATION DECISIONS…

If you’d ask me, I’d say that a show which has gotten lost…and so far off the tracks that it (its showrunners/writers) can’t find the original path anymore.. because they’re not even willing to… is (to quote Happy Quinn) not good. A show which has become so inconsistent, and which is trying to fit too much content into too little space (too many plotlines, and not enough time spent on any of them), is not on the favourites list… when making decisions what to keep and what to let go. A show which promotes itself as being about team of geniuses, who are a family and each others support system (THEM against the world), but which has such poor scientific quality… is not very believable. Even for a  show that’s supposed to be light and just-for-fun entertainment the content became “too silly”. 

Can’t relate to a genius, who is being (science) dumb. Can’t relate to a team of geniuses who instead of their initial goal to add new EQ layers to their IQ become unrecognizable and forgetting their hearts… whenever it’s needed for the plot. Can’t take seriously empathetic geniuses who have forgotten their own struggles, and who instead of adding EQ and becoming more empathetic towards each other/everyone just become meaner towards anyone different than them…and anyone, who is like them in the past. Can’t be interested in watching a show which promotes itself as one thing, but in it’s core is (read: has become) another thing :(  

ETA: This is sadly the fate of most network shows, cause networks & writers don’t know any other way to  “develop” these personal storylines. And over time quantity wins over quality - most shows suffer from trying to fit too many plots into the show & dropping old/ongoing plots when new “better” ideas come to mind and/or when they think something isn’t working (instead of finishing the “notworking” plot before moving to new one, it’s kinda left unfinished).Maybe the statistics are right, and this is what the average US TV-viewer wants. Maybe the supply meets the demand. Maybe I’m just having a hard time believing how not-smart oriented network tv is. 

A show that uses drama for only dramas sake. And not in the usual TV show style. But extra… A show that has it’s socially challenged characters bully each-other, and not get called out on it. A show that is so inconsistent, and so “aimless” that  it is unacceptable even if taking into account that it is a lighthearted fiction entertainment program on network TV. They all were past the level they were dragged back to… to empathize the IQ vs EQ main theme of the show. When there were other ways….. when it could’ve been done honouring their development. The back & fort became so inconsistent… it didn’t fit the low-EQ slow learning curve and 1 step forward/2 steps back style… it just became… weird.

If I was the person making decision I’d given the show another chance (but only if a deal with the showrunners was made that they’d up their game. And after everything I’d given then a short 13-episode final season (if there was no room for full season), and moved the show to a different night…. or maybe even to be aired during summer. But a final deal only if the show would present their plans for what’s next in detail, and there would be sure signs of improvement in quality of storytelling, and a clear path. 

But… I’m me, and I measure TV shows differently than networks do. I look for the quality of content, the writing and consistency. I do not care about adds, revenue, ratings, and viewer numbers. I’m a terrible business person. The networks are looking at different things than I do when making renewal/cancellation decisions. So their cancellation decision was reached by looking at other things… not the plotlines I consider the “deal breakers”

IMPORTANT: THIS IS ALL PURE SPECULATION THOUGH…

BECAUSE NEITHER I OR YOU (OR OTHER FANS HERE) WORK FOR CBS/THE SHOW. WHICH MEANS THAT WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE DETAILS AND REASONS BEHIND THE DECISIONS. IT’S A BUSINESS DECISION. 

…and to get back to your question….

Think about it. 

IF there would be something else (besides the lowering ratings/viewer numbers and the other reasons started in official press news) that we don’t know about then how am I supposed to answer your question if I (because you & I are part of the “we” aka “fandom” that you are referring to in your ask) don’t know about any other possible reasons behind the decision to not renew the show. So… it is impossible for me to answer as I can’t tell you something that I don’t know (about), can I?

PS. THIS, JUST LIKE MOST SPOILER/TV QUESTIONS I GET, HAS BEEN ALREADY ANSWERED IN MY PRIOR POSTS. SEE: HERE (post + tags) As I always say… IF and when I have anything to say/add/comment on any TV related stuff, I will make my own post, and the answers are always found in my posts. And it’s not that I don’t want to answer, it’s just that I don’t have anything to say. All I’ve had to say, I’ve already expressed on this blog. 

And we can speculate as much as we want, and we can ever have ”inside info” (know more than the official statements say), but… we still can’t say anything, and can’t say anything for sure… And as I originally said… I do expect there to be some rumours.. as there always are after fan-fave show cancellations, but I won’t take part in commenting on those. At least that’s my position right now. But yes, it seems to me (based on what is known… that) there was more to the decision than just the thing mentioned in the press release. Maybe I am wrong, and the studio/network made the decision purely based on the things they mentioned, but everything points to those other (not mentioned) things also playing a part. But… those are only “need to know” and we, the fans don’t need to know (read: are not supposed to know about those other things)

PS. I do plan to write one more post… regarding the show and the series/season 4 finale. But I need time to really sit down and write the thoughts down. But in short… after I re-watched the finale (back-to-back with the Pilot)…  I actually think this was a quite fitting book-end ending. Sure…not the happy ending most expect. But it was still kinda “coming a full circle” ending. From the Walt/Janice opening scene in Pilot to the Walt/Paige end scene in Finale. To the introduction and forming of the team.. to the “dismantling” of the team.

[forlornegames]

CGX Ottawa 2018 Recap!

My perspective and expectations

I'm a self-taught Game Developer / Programmer with the intention of attending this conference to learn as much as possible about the industry from people who are actually in it, and to use this information to build on my portfolio and help align my career trajectory. In short, to learn lots and get a job! So, my experience at CGX Ottawa is going to be a little different than that of a presenter or your run of the mill gamer. It might also be important to mention this was my very first conference/convention of any kind.

 Hitting the expo floor early…

When I arrived at the conference first thing Saturday morning I was ready to go. I had a Masterclass with Nathan Pringle on "A Beginner's guide to video game neural networks" which is a subject I've been very interested in diving into, but never really had the time or opportunity. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances and in no fault of CGX the class was canceled. I caught the tail end of Celia Hodent's talk entitled "Developing a UX mindset on Fortnite" which was really interesting and by the end I was ready to hit the expo floor. As a self-taught developer in a city that has an almost non-existent scene it wasn't hard to realize I was missing out on some of the benefits of being in a social environment with like-minded individuals. The entire 2 hours I spent in the expo I felt like I was in my element. I made some real connections with other game devs and it really primed me for the rest of the conference.

 Connect Café

I was the most excited for this event, and the most nervous. Although I did make some meaningful connections I felt more like it was a means to learn what is required for entry into the industry of AAA games. It was great to get some of my work in front of industry professionals, receive some helpful and encouraging feedback on my portfolio, and I took away a list of things I need to work on as well as a couple things I need to change entirely.

 Portfolios

You don't need to limit your entries to 3 games.

As a programmer it's best to submit games where you had you're hands on just about every aspect of the engine (audio implementation, animation, AI, etc).

Provide small (1-2 classes) high quality examples of your code.

Provide easily accessible video footage of your games.

 Most AAA companies are looking for people with Unreal Engine experience and strong C++ skills. I had the chance to speak to someone working with EA/Frostbite and was surprised to hear they have a similar visual scripting component in Frostbite for quick basic implementations and prototyping. So, it seems a pivot from Unity/C# to Unreal/C++ is in order for me.

 Concerns

As much as I loved all the information I was able to gather from this event I have to say it was not at all what I imagined. The reps had no sign at their table to indicate studio name/positions available which led people to believe anyone sitting at a table was a rep (not the case). This led to artists waiting for a chance to speak to a rep only hiring programmers and vice versa. The chaos of people scrambling to try to speak to an industry professional meant time wasted. It felt like we were sharks circling prey. I understand the difficulties of organizing events like this but it could have only been beneficial for both the reps and the attendees if something was put in place to identify the reps and positions, as well as something as simple as a ticket system to add order to the chaos.

 Scrum Masterclass

Sherri Flemings hosted this Masterclass. As someone who has not been working in the industry in an official capacity this was invaluable to me. Look forward to a separate post on this in the future. :)

 Party at Atari

End of Day 1 at CGX and now it's time to head to the party. This is an excellent opportunity to chat with people I met throughout the day in a more casual setting. I really enjoyed learning more about what people are working on and meeting some new developers and streamers. There was a lot of business card trading.

 UI and Cognitive Science Masterclass

Celia Hodent hosted this Masterclass. It was crammed with really useful information on UX and how it relates to the human brain. Again, another post is coming to talk more about this one.

 Funding Lounge

This was an interesting event to attend. I wanted to get an idea of what kind of programs were available for developers to assist with funding and what the requirements were. Kitfox games was also there giving advice on how to pitch your game to publishers which was really useful. If you live in Canada then the Canadian Media Fund has some experimental programs for assisting game companies that are currently developing a game with production costs and marketing costs. Very exciting stuff!

 Mentor Lounge

For me, the mentor lounge was very similar to the Connect Café. I used it to learn as much as possible about the AAA industry and what I needed to do to get into the industry. Again, this is from the perspective of a self-taught developer so I can't say what kind of courses you should take or what university you should attend but the portfolio information I mentioned earlier is really the key to getting into any studio.

 Concerns

This was a little more organized than the Connect Café but the setup was a little misleading. Before the conference started I was provided with a registration form for the mentor lounge. It was designed to provide them with the information needed to pair me up with mentors who would best suit me as a programmer/developer. However, when I arrived it was the same format as Connect Café. Just walk in and sit somewhere and talk to someone. Thankfully they had signs this time so that helped. There was supposed to be a time limit enforced to ensure everyone had a chance to speak to as many people as possible but that was pretty hit or miss. Again, I feel like I gathered so much information at this event, but I know it would have been more beneficial if it was more organized.

 Wrapping Up

After leaving the Mentor Lounge I grabbed a bite and retired to my room. I poured the business cards out of my bag and made sure I connected with people on at least one social media network. I met a lot of great people with great ideas and games and I plan on staying in touch with all of them! :D

 What I wish I had time for…

First, the expo. Talking to developers who are excited about their game is… exciting!! Talking shop isn't something that I get to do much so getting to talk to people in person like that was just an amazing experience. I left CGX feeling physically exhausted but mentally refreshed and re-energized. It was fantastic, so I wish I could have played more games and spoke with more developers.

 Second… so many awesome talks (In no particular order).

Cuphead - The Creative Process and 2D animation - Tina Nawrocki

Creative Direction for Small Teams - Tanya X. Short

Concept Design, World Building for triple A - Abe Taraky

Level Design: Getting Started - Travis The Evolution of Warframe: 5 years of Continuous Iteration - Jim Leedham

How to leverage government funding programs - Mark Allice

Who do you know? - Mike Mood & Jon Keon

Etc.. Etc….

 Conclusion

I'll be posting full writeups on the master classes I attended as soon as possible. I'd like to thank everybody at the Mood Foundation who put this conference together and I'm VERY much looking forward to the next one. I hope any nobody takes offense to the criticisms I included in this post and know I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to attend. Anyone who's interested in game development, go to these. They are awesome!!