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ladyluscinia · 2 years ago

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As someone who is nebulously in the “Izzy is a bad person/ not an Izzy fan” camp, your posts have helped me realize something pretty important. A big part of why I hold those opinions is because I view Izzy through the lens of symbol and allegory rather than complex personhood. Maybe that’ll change in season 2 as we learn more about him, but as of now I think that’s a big reason why I and many others are quick to judge and excuse wrong doing against him. For some it’s simply difficult to connect with him as a character, and much more accessible to see him as a reminder of hypocrisy within the queer community. Hell even a reminder of that one old friend who for whatever reason just CANNOT let the fact that you’re growing as a person go.

I don’t know, what do you think about the concept of there being a difference between analyzing characters as people and analyzing them as representations of larger societal issues?

Interesting question...

I mean, I am a big proponent of "characters aren't real people and that's important to remember when discussing them", which does dovetail nicely with a lot of discussion on "What is this character in the story?" And a character being a symbol or representation of something else abstract or systemic is a perfectly valid option. Nigel Badminton, for example, has a twin brother who loved him, but absolutely none of us give a shit about how his death affected Chauncey emotionally because both of them are really just symbols of oppressive societal power / Stede's childhood trauma / bullies in general / etc. The show only cares about their deaths insomuch as it affects Stede, and Stede literally admits he doesn't even feel bad about it.

They are such straightforward examples of narrative tools all the way down to their deaths, which are pure symbolism via black humor. Like, Nigel falls on his own sword because he can't stop mocking Stede to take him seriously for two seconds, and Chauncey shoots himself in the head the moment he fulfills his role in Stede's story because it's a hilariously dark joke that this happened to Stede twice.

To take this to Izzy however... Ok, so three major questions once you think a character is representing something:

What is this character representing?

What is the story trying to say about it?

How direct is the represention? Or to put it another way: How much of a person are they vs just a symbol?

Because most characters with any decent amount of screentime are going to naturally become more "people" than "symbol". It's not an either/or situation. OFMD creators have been very open about how the show is looking at toxic masculinity, for example, so I think it's pretty safe to say Izzy is the character on screen most pushing that mindset via the abusive pirate culture he's firmly planted in. I also think the show has a lot to say about classism, and Stede is pretty obviously the designated character for that. (I also think Lucius is, because he's kinda picking up the furthest extreme of Stede's version of piracy just like Izzy is Edward's, but that's a meta a little to the left of what you asked.)

But Stede is a lot more than just "rich guy", and despite the fact you don't exactly root for the rich guys in classism narratives, we are supposed to root for Stede. His arc is about learning. The show's message is broadly not upper class positive - look at the French partiers - but Stede can escape it in a way they can't because he's also a character in his own right, and the show's overriding theme is about growth.

I think Izzy is certainly complex enough to be a character, unlike the other antagonists who are kept mostly offscreen. He has a major connection to one of the mains, which tends to automatically convey a level of depth. He also just... doesn't function effectively as a pure symbol of oppression, because he's not bad enough. There's so many writing decisions where it would have been so easy to make him worse. More aggressive. More textually bigoted. More directly harmful. And they didn't. (...Fuck it. Linking to that time I said this and got immediately blocked.)

An example that's been getting me recently: In his very first episode, why didn't Izzy steal the hostages? That's like basic antagonist setup. Especially for people that think overt racism is at play here at all (I very much do not) it would be the simplest thing in the world to have him steal them from the natives for some stupidly easy early work on that front, and establish it with a line of dialogue. Instead the line we get is "Oh, we sold them to some guys." They had him pay for them.

And all of this I think ties back into that second question of "what is the show trying to say," because I do not think the answer is "Izzy is just our stand in for bad people and we do not care about him." Especially not if he's the designated representation of toxic masculinity, because I think Izzy-as-a-character is clearly suffering under toxic masculinity. He's specifically also a victim of the system, and it's kind of a fucked up and pessimistic message to say victims of a shitty system deserve to be written off as a comedic punching bag and die unhappy. Isn't it better thematically if he's a person like Stede who can learn to be better???

We're in a world where Edward's backslide into the toxic masculinity aligned system starts with 7 attempted murders + mutilation and abduction, and we're going to forgive this and give him a happy ending. At this point the show's message is approaching incoherent if Izzy is irredeemably evil and deserves to suffer.

#our flag means death #i feel like there should be a cut in this but i didn't know where to put it so...#also i skimmed past question 1 because it's both really simple and really complicated #but like. there is a reason there's so much debate on what exactly izzy represents and it's entirely possible he's just not meant to be X #(for example - homophobia. the writers have said they downplayed its importance in the show and izzy is the main onscreen antagonist)#(that plus how much i dislike the implication of edward being close to someone bigoted against him means i just don't see it)#i joked earlier today that we're all just gambling on our interpretations of izzy being the right ones until season 2 drops #and like. we kinda are 🤣#izzy hands ofmd #character arcs #ask #anon #ladyluscinia #doylist vs watsonian

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lovemesomesurveys · 4 years ago

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What is the closest book to you? Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa TerKeurst.

Are you reading it or someone else? I'm reading it. It’s the book for the Bible study I’m currently doing.

What is the most expensive thing you own that plays music? My MacBook.

Do you have any siblings? If so, what are their names? I have two brothers. Ever wear colored contacts? No, I've never worn any kind of contacts.

What color is your hair? Naturally, it’s dark brown, but I’ve been dyeing it red the past 6 years.

What kind of shoes do you have on? I'm not wearing any shoes.

Do you like watermelons more or cherries? Watermelon.

Do you like it when it rains? “I’m only happy when it rains, I’m only happy when it’s complicated.” Anyway, yes, I love when it rains.

What was the last thing you bought? My brother’s birthday gift and something for me.

Do you get cold easily? No, I get hot easily.

Do you have a job? Nope.

Do you own a dictionary? No. I just use Google if I need to look up a word.

Do you like to mow the yard? I’ve never done it. I don’t have any interest in doing it. It would be hard for me to do as well.

Besides your mouth, where is your favorite spot to get kissed? Neck.

Who was the last person you ate with? My mom.

Did you take a nap at all today? No, it’s only 12:45AM. I took a nap yesterday, though.

Who was the last member of the opposite sex you laid in a bed with? No one.

What color is your father’s car? Green.

Where’s the last place you wore a hoodie to? To my doctor’s office.

Are your nails painted any special color? They’re not painted at all. I haven’t painted them in years.

Give us your plans for the next three hours? Right now I’m doing surveys and listening to ASMR. In about an hour or so I’ll probably make my usual nightly bowl of ramen and catch up on some YouTube videos while I eat. Then I’ll go back to surveys and ASMR.

Can you live a day without TV? Yeah, easily.

Have you ever had a best friend who was of the opposite sex? Yes, a few.

Do you prefer broccoli or asparagus? Broccoli all the way. I don’t like asparagus.

Do you have any complaints about your life? “Hey, wait, I got a new complaint.”

Where was the last place you stayed over? A hotel last year.

Skim, 1%, 2%, or whole milk? None of those, I use vanilla almond or soy milk. Lately, I’ve been really into the Almond Breeze vanilla milk that has a hint of honey in it.

Are you reading any books right now? Yeah, I’m reading two: “Autumn’s Game” by Mary Stone and “Forgiving What You Can’t Forget” by Lysa TerKeurst.

Now what are you listening to? I’m still listening to ASMR.

Do you have any bug bites? Nope.

Do you have any flowers in your room? No.

Do you know anyone that owns horses? No.

When was the last time you used one of those temporary public toilets? Are you referring to a porta potty? Never.

Do you live anywhere with any interesting landmarks? Not in my city particularly, but yeah my state has a lot.

When you were little, did you ever go to feed the ducks? Yes. When I got older I learned you shouldn’t do that, though.

When was the last time you visited the zoo? Did you get to feed any of the animals? About 5 years ago, I think. I got to feed a giraffe, which was awesome.

Would you ever want to own one of those little teacup pigs? No.

Do you like the taste of champagne, or do you think it’s a bit overrated? I didn’t care for it.

Given the chance, would you take a trip into outer space? Nooo. Just the idea of outer space creeps me out. I can’t even look at pictures.

Have you seen any of the seven wonders of the world in person? No, sadly.

Do people ever try and start poke wars with you on Facebook? That hasn’t been a thing in over a decade.

What’s a restaurant that you won’t ever eat at again? This Mongolian BBQ place I used to love just because I can’t eat spicy food anymore. :(

Did you have your morning coffee this morning? Or do you not like coffee? I haven’t gone to bed, yet, but I absolutely will have my coffee after I get up later. That’s a given.

Do you ever let scary movies get to you, and end up scaring yourself? Nah, not anymore. I love ‘em.

Is there someone you know that is absolutely repulsive? No.

Are you tired from last night? I’m always tired.

Do you have over 400 songs on your iPod? Are all of your songs good? I definitely had more than 400 songs on my iPod. I couldn’t tell you the exact amount cause it’s been stored away and unused since like 2012, but yeah. Well yeah, they were all good to me hence why I had them on there.

Do you eat randomly, just whenever the hell you want? Yeah.

Did you have trouble getting up this morning? Like I said, I haven’t gone to bed yet. However, I always have a hard time getting up so I could just say yes to this question now.

What’s a few things that automatically make you go, “Awwwe”? My doggo just existing, basically. haha. Do you have soft hands? Do you like holding hands? My hands could use some moisturizer. And yes, but I get self-conscious because my hands get clammy a lot.

Have you ever burnt a food, and make the whole house smell gross? Yeah. Why does burnt popcorn smell so awful? You wouldn’t think something like that would have such a strong, gross smell. I know I’ve had that happen with some other microwave food, too.

If so, what was the food you burnt while cooking? ^^^

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you had your own personal jet pack? This reminds me of a random dream a friend of mine had several years ago (that I still remember for some reason) where she said I had a jet pack and used that to get around instead of my wheelchair, lol. Suuuuper random, but apparently it stuck with me all this time.

What’s your opinion on perfumes that are REALLY expensive? Do you like them? I mean, there’s some really nice smelling expensive ones for sure, but I just couldn’t bring myself to spend a ton of money on something like a perfume. Everyone has their thing and that’s fine, but that wasn’t one of mine. Name a thing that melts in your mouth that you love: Walkers shortbread cookies do when I dip them in my coffee. They’re so good. Do you like roasting marshmallows? Can you toast one perfectly? I do, but I haven’t had much experience doing so.

Have you ever burnt your tongue like REALLY bad? If so, what on? Yeah, with really hot coffee, really hot cheese on pizza, ramen that wasn’t cooled down enough, Pizza Rolls, Hot Pockets...

Do you like having random power naps now and then? I wouldn’t say I like them, but sometimes sleep just wins and I give into them. I just always feel groggy and more tired after a nap.

Is your hair soft? Do you ever brush it at work or school? Yeah. I used to carry a travel brush in my bag when I was in school and used it sometimes if needed.

What do you think about lip gloss? Do you ever wear lip gloss? I like how it looks, especially a tinted one, but I didn’t wear it often. It’s been a long time since I’ve worn lip gloss.

Are you currently worried about your parents finding out about something? No.

Don’t you hate it when your drink is too hot to drink? I want my coffee to be really hot, but yeah I get impatient ha.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever made in a metal/wood work class? I made a simple doll house. It was super basic, but still.

Do you like concerts? If so, do you like being in the mosh pit? Yesss. Concerts have such a cool energy and vibe. I love singing (shouting) along to the songs and just having a good time. It’s been over a decade since my last concert. :( And no, I never went in a mosh pit. That would not be my idea of a good time at all. I imagine getting claustrophobic, overheated, and hit and shoved.

Do you like a lot of dairy products? What’s one of your favorites? I love cheese. I’m lactose intolerant, but thankfully cheese doesn’t seem to bother me. I’ve actually read a lot of people who are lactose intolerant can handle cheese.

Have you ever “liked” two guy best friends at the same time? Yes.

Who can you trust more secrets with, a best guy friend or a best girl friend? It wouldn’t matter what gender they were.

Where are the best cinnamon buns made? Do you love cinnamon buns? Cinnabon from my experience. Mmm, that sounds so good right now.

Have you ever had a REALLY bad rug burn? Did someone drag you? No. Those look and sound so painful, ow.

Do you think pasta and salad go good together? What’s your favorite in mind? Spaghetti and salad do. I love mixing them together. I eat my spaghetti with ranch anyway, so it doesn’t bother me.

Do you like going go-karting in the summer? Do you floor it when driving? I’ve never been.

Did you like eating Happy Meals at Mcdonald's as a kid? Yeah. I remember how exciting it was to be able to get McDonald’s, haha. And if you were the kid who got to have McDonald’s for lunch at school, you were so envied.

You can go to any restaurant; what restaurant, and what do you order? Wingstop. I’d order my usual, boneless garlic parm and lemon pepper wings, fries with extra parm seasoning, and a couple sides of ranch.

Have you ever sat on the computer for more than 4 hours? Uh, countless times. Even longer than that.

Do you ever go on youtube and browse and look for new songs? No, I don’t use YouTube for that.

Do you have a brother who is quite the video game fanatic? He’s not a video game fanatic, but he has some favorites. Are you a video game lover? Whats your all time favorite video game? I wouldn’t say that, but there are those I like. Mario Bros anything, really. I was into this series called Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2 a few years ago. I’ve also been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Switch for the past year.

When your cat stares at you, do you stare back? I don’t have a cat, but I do that to my dog sometimes.

What grandparents are better, the ones on your mom's or dad's side? I was closer to my maternal grandparents, who sadly have both passed away, but I wouldn’t say either set of grandparents are better. I just had a different relationship with them. I have a good relationship with my paternal grandparents as well.

Do you like to have cake on your birthday? Which kind of cake in mind? Sometimes I’ll opt for cheesecake.

What is your absolute ALL time favorite song at the moment? I don’t have a current particular favorite at the moment. I haven’t been listening to music lately.

Do you like drinking Mochas? (Hot Chocolate and Coffee together): I like white chocolate mochas. Peppermint white chocolate mochas, especially.

Do you ever get random headaches? If so, why do you think the reason is? Yeah. *shrug* It’s just one of those things that happen.

Have you ever seen your mom cry? Is it hard for you to see your mom cry? Yes, several times. Anytime I’ve seen her cry it just hurt my heart and made me really upset, too.

Are you sick and tired, of being sick and tired? I really, really am.

What’s your favorite cereal? Did you ever eat the cereal Trix? All the sugary ones, basically. ha. And yes, I like Trix. Are you allergic to anything REALLY weird? Do you know someone who is? I’m allergic to tangerines, which seems pretty random. Do you like Oreo cookies? Or are chocolate chip ones better…? I like both, but my favorite cookies are sugar and shortbread.

Are you a fan of spicy foods? What’s the spiciest food ever in your opinion? I used to be back when I could eat spicy foods. I was obSESSED. I can’t have it anymore, though. :(

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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yoon-kooks · 7 years ago

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Troublemaker- Part 4

Pairing: Namjoon x Reader

Summary: You made a bet with your friend that you could make the class president fall for a troublemaker like yourself.

Genre: Fluff

Part: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 [END]

“So how would you find the acceleration at t=10 if v=5t²-8t+26?”

“You change the t² to t and multiply the 5 by 2 and take away that other t and 26 becomes zero.”

“And then?”

“The equation would be a=10t-8. Solved it! Yay I’m doneeee~~~!” You threw your hands up in the air, half in celebration and half in surrender. Namjoon had been tutoring you after school for the past five days, and as much as you kinda enjoyed being around the boy, cramming a whole year’s worth of calculus into such a short amount of time was quite taxing on yourself. But with only one day left before the final exam, you had to keep pushing.

It was only when Namjoon wasn’t celebrating with you that you realized you had made some kind of a mathematical error. “Reread the question please,” he said.

“What’s the acceleration at t=….. oh fuck.” You had forgotten the simple step of plugging a number value into your new equation. But what frustrated you more was the fact that a careless mistake like that on the real exam could be the difference between winning and losing your bet with Yoongi. “The answer’s 92….” you sighed, looking out the window at the moon. You were running out of time.

“Ding-ding! Correct,” he nodded while checking his watch. “The school’s gonna close soon. Should we end here and call it a night? Are you ready to pass that exam?”

You weren’t so quick to give him an answer. Your eyes slowly moved from your piles of calculus notes and practice problems to the boy who had taught you more than any teacher, the boy who had held your hand, the boy who you shared ice cream with, and the boy who promised to say I love you.

You shook your head. No, you weren’t ready.

Namjoon bit his lip and tapped his finger on his desk, trying to come up with a solution that would help you succeed. You only looked at him silently, feeling selfish for taking up so much of his time for your own benefit.

“Do you wanna study at my house? That way, we can keep cramming all night if you need to,” he finally said.

“But don’t you need to study for your own exams?”

“I’m actually taking calculus right now too, so technically I’m studying just as much as you are, Y/N.” He gave you a nice warm smile, as if to reassure you that you weren’t a burden wasting his time.

“Okay.”

You were just about to doze off from looking over your notes when a strong toasty aroma awoke your senses. Namjoon placed two mugs of coffee on the low table in the center of his room and sat himself down next to you.

“Thanks,” you blushed, certain that your face was only heating up due to the steam of the coffee. As you blew on your coffee and hesitated to take your first sip, you noticed the boy’s eyes on you. His gaze was warm and gentle. A gaze that would take good care of you.

“If I drink all of this, do you think I’ll focus better?” you yawned. “Or do you think I’ll just get hyper?”

“You’ve never drank coffee before?”

“I never had a need for caffeine,” you rested your head down on the table and closed your eyes. “I’m not the diligent type to study all night for an exam.”

“If that’s the case, what’s motivating you so much now?” he chuckled. Winning the bet. That was your motivation, wasn’t it?

“You.”

“Me? I’m motivating you?”

“Mhm…”

“I’m glad I could be of help to you then.”

“Namjoon.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I really have a chance at passing the exam?”

“If I say yes, are you gonna quit studying?”

“Yup, I’m sleepy…”

“To be honest, I have confidence that you’ll at least pass with a C, but if you want a higher grade-” You cut off Namjoon’s words with a sudden embrace. It was a mix of both a hug and you falling asleep on the boy. You waited for him to wake you up with some words of encouragement so you could be a whiny brat before getting back to work, but instead he lifted your body up and very gently laid you down onto his bed.

After curling into a ball to make yourself comfortable, you watched the boy sit back down at his table and open up one of his own textbooks. You thought it was cute how he alternated between skimming the text, jotting down notes, turning the page, and taking a sip of coffee, always in that same order. And it amazed you how calm and relaxed he was despite doing some last-minute studying at 2AM.

And then thought of the bet popped back into your mind. Was it selfish to have feelings for the boy, but also want to use him for a stupid bet with Yoongi? Was it fucked up to not know which was more important to you?

As Namjoon took the final sip of his coffee, he glanced at your full mug and chuckled to himself before turning his head in your direction.

“You’re still awake?”

“I can’t sleep~”

“Didn’t you say you were sleepy?”

“I changed my mind~!”

“It’s possible to change your mind about feeling sleepy?”

“Yeah! Seeing you study makes me wanna study more too…”

“You should get some rest, Y/N. Sleep is just as important as studying, you know.”

“What about you? Shouldn’t you sleep too then?”

“I will, as soon as I look over a few more concepts, okay?”

“Fine! Then I’m not sleeping until you finish studying~” You rolled out of the bed and plopped down right next to Namjoon. With your very first sip of coffee, you latched onto the boy’s arm and smiled. “I’ll keep you company. That’s the least I can do after all the tutoring you did for me~” you blushed.

The boy looked at your arms all cozied up around his. “You’re gonna stay up even if I tell you not to, right?”

You nodded, nuzzling your way to his neck.

“If you really insist, Y/N,” he patted your head.

“Just hurry up so we can sleep~”

“Hey, you’re the one who chose to stay up with me, so you can’t complain.”

“It’s only because I won’t be able to fall asleep unless it’s with you~”

“Can I ask you a question, Y/N?”

“No~”

“Do you like me?”

You froze, knowing very well what the answer to that question was. But you couldn’t just tell him that. Because if you did, you knew it would only make things more complicated. And you’d certainly lose the bet.

“I’ll only answer that question if I pass my exam~”

“I really hope you pass then.”

A/N: the next part may or may not be the finale!

#bts scenarios #bts fanfic #bts fluff #namjoon fanfic #bts imagines #namjoon x reader #bts #namjoon #rap monster #troublemaker

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markmceachran · 5 years ago

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Pacing Algorithm for Advertising Campaigns and Inventory Allocations

I’ve was trying to figure out what to do with my Sunday. My options were: build a little header bidding ad server plugin for WordPress; run, sleep and eat; or write up some blog post on a pacing algorithm, because people still seem to be producing crappy ones. Since you’re reading this, you can probably guess which choice I made. I mean, it’s not the first post I’ve written on the subject.

It showed up again last week. I didn’t expect it, but I guess I never do. A saw-tooth pattern on a chart, indicative of a capping of sorts. A chart that says, “I want a thing to happen, but only so much.” In this case it was a traffic allocation. This was a surprise.

A little history

Most of the time when I run into a bad pacing algorithm it’s in the form of a campaign trying to limit itself. It only needs to acquire a few thousand impressions every five minutes, for example. So the hastily written algorithm might divvy up the impression allocation into five minutes buckets. Effectively that’s 12 buckets every hour. So it takes an hour’s worth of impression needs and divides it by twelve. One twelfth of the impressions are purchased every five minutes. Unfortunately at that point it switches to a simple counter that says, “for the next five minutes buy impressions until the number purchased reaches 1/12th of what I need in this hour.”

You end up with a purchase graph that looks like this.

See that blue spiky thing? That’s the one that’ll get ya.

The algorithm has no idea how much inventory is available for the campaign. In many cases it is plentiful. So the campaign serves it’s entire five minute allocation of impressions in the first minute. Then the buying goes dormant for four minutes until the next allocation is released and we start the dance all over again.

Apparently this can happen on both ends of the equation. A media owner or seller can cap the amount of media made available to particular technology partners. In much the same way a campaign pacing can reveal itself with the buying pattern, an impression allocation can show up in a similar way.

Details on the cause

How might one come to write such a curiosity? If this happens to speak to you, then yes, I’m talking to you. You’ve written a odd thing. In an effort to really speak to you about this, I’m doing my best to get inside your head.

Whether due to inexperience, or lack of thought about the magnitude of the problem you were about to introduce as your solution to another problem, or a lack of faith in an alternative approach, you thought this might be a good solution. The thought process probably when something like this:

We have you campaign or impression allocation for the month. Let’s start by dividing that by 30. Now we have a day. Let’s break that down by 24. Now we have an hour. Okay – well, buying all the impressions in an hour right up front might lead to a big spike at the beginning of each hour, right? So, well… let’s just divide it by 12 and we have five minute intervals. That can’t possibly cause a problem, right?

Impact

Problems are what it causes. Not just for you, but for your partners, and their partners, and they tell two friends and so on, and so on. Imagine if everyone did this. We’d have a sixty second blitz of liquidity every five minutes followed by four minutes of empty ad space.

We’d have intensely busy servers to handle the inventory for one minute, and then absolutely idle machines for the other four. Now you’re thinking, “Wait, would I need five times the infrastructure to handle that momentary load?” Yes, yes you would. And so would your partners, and they’d tell two friends… you get the picture now, right? It’s a snowball turned avalanche.

Fixing your pacing algorithm

You might be asking yourself, “How then might one go about fixing this, or rather, build a proper pacing algorithm in the first place?” I’m so glad you’re thinking about this, because I think about it all the time. I think about it a lot when I see some crap, saw-tooth graph. But even when one of those is not available, I still think about it. I imagine the graph just so I can get mad at it.

The answer is akin to flipping a coin, as my friend Dr. Neal Richter might suggest. Rather than basing your pacing algorithm on counting and capping, base it on a percentage allocation of impressions. Instead of serving til you hit the cap, flip a coin and only serve when it lands on heads. Of course, this simplified model only works if you need 50% of the inventory (or are allocating 50% of the inventory to a partner). For a moment though, imagine that it’s a D&D die instead of a coin. Then imagine that you only need to occasionally win, like you need the equivalent of two of the sides of that die, relative to the other 18. Winning twice in every twenty roles is just about perfect.

How to apply a simple percentage based pacing

Mathematically you’d want to boil this down to an equation so that you can write code against it. I’m not going to challenge you with a series equation here. You’ve already written a questionable algorithm, let’s not test the deeper mathematical waters just yet.

Instead I’ll write something akin to pseudo-code. Let’s say allocation requirements are 15% of the available inventory. Your algorithm should do something like:

Choose random decimal number (float) between 0 and 1.

If that number is less than 0.15, then serve.

Almost anyone can write that into code. It’s like two or three lines. Nice, right?

Determine the volume

At this point you should have figured out that you need to know how much inventory is available in order to calculate the percentage that your campaign or inventory allocation needs. Good. You’re asking the right question.

Fortunately you don’t need to burn the house down to make a perfect forecasting solution in order that you might have a better pacing algorithm. You could, I suppose, if you wanted to. Nothing’s quite as nice as a perfect forecasting tool. It’s like a fluffy pillow or a warm blanket. You can cozy up on the couch knowing the exact availability of the thing you’re looking for.

My friends all love to quote Akin’s laws of spacecraft design. In this case: 14. (Edison’s Law) “Better” is the enemy of “good.” So don’t run down the rabbit hole of a perfect forecasting tool.

How much inventory do you have left?

You simply need to determine how much volume you’ve got left available for your campaign’s duration. For that, you just look at what happened in the past, like yesterday even. “Hey, how many impression did I have yesterday? 1,000,000. Cool. So let’s just assume I’ll have 1,000,000 every day.” Seriously, it’s that simple. I mean, you can make it more complicated. Look at last week and divide it by seven, or even last month and divide it by 30. You did that before, remember. It produced a piece of garbage and cost everyone a 5X on their AWS bill, but hey, “learning.”

So, if your campaign needs to run for three weeks it looks like you’ve got about 21,000,000 impressions available to it. If you’re campaign only needs 3,000,000 of those, then you’re allocation percentage is 14.3%.

3,000,000 / 21,000,000 = 0.142857142857143; about 14.3%

Seems like I’m writing a lot of fluff in here for a few simple equations. I’ll be sure to highlight the important bits. Most of us are skimming posts these days and miss things. I guess for news it’s okay. Skimming posts like this might lead you to write a “pacing algorithm,” but maybe not the right one. If you are skimming, you might also be missing all my snark. Sad really. My snark is top-shelf.

Varying the time frame

One of the fun parts about pacing with this algorithm is that you get to follow the rise and fall of the traffic tide with your allocation. It just naturally happens! If there’s more traffic at noon, you’re still buying your 14.3% of it. When traffic dwindles at 11PM (23:00) your just buying a bit, but still 14.3%. You get to follow the ebb and flow of internet traffic for free!

Your old algorithm didn’t do that, did it? If it did, you had to do some crazy coding gymnastics to make it work. I tried to help you avoid all this, and I guess I failed some of you. This other post is on the same subject, but it had those tricksy series equations in it.

Varying the addressable audience

We’ve got three more points to cover before you’re ready to go. Firstly, the audience factor. Really this can be any sort of targeting parameter applied to the campaign or inventory allocation. Basically you want to look at how much of the inventory had that parameter in the past, to determine the allocation percentage. It will modify your equation’s denominator. Instead of 21,000,000 impressions you will have fewer. Maybe your campaign is only aiming at shoe enthusiasts and your system only expects to see 8,000,000 of those in the next three weeks. That means your allocation percentage is now 37.5%.

3,000,000 / 8,000,000 = 0.357; 35.7%

Competing campaigns (and how to address)

Now you’ve got your campaign humming along buying 37.5% of all shoe enthusiast impressions. This a really fantastic progress. Consider where you started. It’s really quite astonishing. Nothing can stop you now, except maybe another campaign that is also, for whatever reason, buying up your shoe enthusiasts. Holy Moly! Now what?

Are you supposed to look at all the campaign targeting and try to determine which campaigns are targeting the same users that your campaign is targeting? Good lord, what a mess that would be, right? Can you imagine the (Mom’s) spaghetti code you’d have to write in order to accomplish such an omniscient technology? That’s some Nobel Prize winning ad-tech is what that is. (Yeah, I’m totally in the “dash” camp of ad-tech. Deal with it.)

Don’t overthink it

There must be a simpler solution. There’s totally a simpler solution. All you need to do is incorporate the win rate (or render rate) into your calculation. Imagine you are only winning 65% of the time. Oh, snap! That’s gonna hit the denominator again because the reality is that you’ve only got 65% of your 8,000,000 impressions available to your campaign now. So I guess the math gets a little trickier now.

3,000,000 / (8,000,000 * 0.65) = 0.576923076923077: about 57.7%.

This just makes your campaign buying a bit more aggressive than it usually is. It’s the equivalent of giving your campaign a dagger to go all stabby on the other campaign.

Of course, an alternative here would be to raise the price your campaign is paying for the inventory. I’m not going to assume your system is in a bidding environment. If it were, you could also pull the pricing lever to actually change the win rate to something more to your liking. That’s where things get a little more complicated. You have to monitor how the new prices change the win rate and populate a lookup table so you know what happens at different prices.

For this exercise let’s keep it simple. I’m thinking that you’re just trying to make pacing decisions with non-monetary levers to pull.

Now you’ve got a complete algorithm that, in a perfect environment, will conclude your campaign exactly at the correct allocation without over or under performing. Then again, when was the last time you saw perfection?

Guardrails

Total Cap

Much like the Price is Right, you want to get the exact amount without going over to win that bonus $100. So you need to add a little logic to your pacing system to put the brakes on when the campaign hits the goal. Ad-tech systems are kinda big these days with servers spread out all over the world. Sometimes you just need a handbrake to stop buying on the thing when it’s done what it needed to do. So add that.

Overburn

The other thing you’ll want to do is run your campaign hot. Add five percent to the numerator. If your total cap function is working then you should hit the hard stop in advance of the final hours of your end date. I’m saying five percent for simplicity’s sake. Maybe you over burn at one percent at the beginning of the campaign and five percent toward the end, with some graduated increase over the weeks or months of the run. Heck, maybe you run hot at the beginning, slow in the middle and hot at the end.

I asked my good friend Neal. He says overburn for the first 80% of the campaign’s budget, then you can let it chill on the beach for the last 20%. He didn’t use those words, but the sentiment is there.

I don’t know. Do what feels natural. Fly casual.

Recalculate again and again and again

Absolutely reevaluate your campaign hourly, every half hour maybe? Do it often. Redo the numbers:

How much inventory is available in the time I have left?

How much of that inventory does my campaign need?

What’s my win rate?

The equation

In case you want to start adding more fun stuff to the equation here’s the template to follow:

allocation percentage = campaign goal / (available inventory * win rate)

You’ve finished and you’re winning

If you’ve made it to the end here, good on ya. Thank you for reading. I hope this helps, really I do. I know I’ve been hard on you for the questionable decisions you’ve made in the past, but that’s all behind us now. Let us look forward to a bright future where your campaigns are humming along, or your inventory allocations are distributing smoothly. Turns out that unbeknownst to any of us, you’ve just implemented a sensor feedback proportional controller. Tell your grandparents, they’ll understand.

If you enjoyed this post, pick something out something nice from my Amazon wish list and hit the one-click.

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https://j.mp/3fGtvDd May 11, 2020 at 01:33PM

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Does A Vegan Diet Benefit Your Skin?

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-women/does-a-vegan-diet-benefit-your-skin/

Does A Vegan Diet Benefit Your Skin?

Ramona Sinha March 12, 2019

Ever wondered how much your diet can affect your skin? Turns out, a lot. At least, that’s what research says (1). Changes in your diet affect not only your overall health but also your skin. This holds especially true for vegans. Ditching poultry and meat is certainly going to help the environment by reducing your carbon footprint, but is it really good for your skin? The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. That’s what we will decipher in this article. Let’s begin.

Vegan Diet And Your Skin: Does It Improve Your Skin?

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What exactly is a vegan diet? A vegan diet excludes all kind of animal products, including dairy, eggs, and meat. It involves eating only plant-based food items. How exactly does a plant-based diet help you get naturally beautiful skin? Well, when you switch to a vegan diet, you provide dense nutrients to your body. More vitamins and minerals mean a healthy body and glowing skin.

Your skin can benefit from a plant-based diet in multiple ways:

When you switch to a plant-based diet, you cut down the amount of saturated fat you consume every day. As a result, your body’s insulin function improves, and the production of glucagon increases (2). This controls the sugar metabolism in your body. Imbalance in insulin levels is a major cause of increased sebum production, which clogs the skin pores and causes acne (3).

When you switch to a plant-based diet, your intake of fruits and vegetables that are rich in antioxidants increases. These antioxidants prevent oxidative damage and keep you healthy (4). Additionally, an antioxidant-rich diet helps you fight the harmful free radicals that often cause premature aging. It also prevents photodamage, wrinkles, and inflammation to keep your skin healthy and glowing (5).

The antioxidants found in a vegan diet also help reduce acne and keep your skin clear. They prevent oxidative stress, reduce the formation of zits, and improve your skin’s radiance (6), (7).

Collagen is the building block of your body and the component that maintains your skin elasticity. Nutritional antioxidants prevent the degradation of collagen and elastin and, as a result, prevent skin aging (8).

Did you know that you can get that pinkish glow on your face without using a blush? You can also naturally improve your complexion without using any fairness creams or bleaching agents. It is all possible with a vegan diet. I am not joking! A vegan diet increases the levels of vitamins and carotenoids (aka the plant pigments that are usually red, yellow, or orange) in your body (9). Carotenoids can improve your complexion and enhance the overall appearance of your skin (10).

Whoa! I bet you never imagined that going vegan could improve your skin this much! Veganism has sparked a lot of debate in the past few years. As far as your skin is concerned, it’s clear that there are several benefits of switching to a plant-based diet. But is it right to ditch animal products entirely? Wouldn’t that affect your skin? Let’s find out.

How Ditching Poultry and Meat Affects Your Skin

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The answer to this question is not as simple as you think. Some animal products can be the culprits behind several skin issues while others are beneficial for your skin. We will explore both sides of this argument in this section.

An animal-based diet can be the worst food culprit for several reasons:

1. It Causes Acne

A study involving 47,355 women found a definite link between milk consumption and acne. This is because milk produced by pregnant animals (cows and goats) contains high levels of the growth hormone, which causes excess oil secretion and breakouts (11).

2. It Causes Inflammation

Consuming high-fat dairy products, pork, and red meat increases inflammation in your body. It also causes insulin imbalance, which then affects your health and skin (12), (13). Increased levels of inflammation can break down the collagen in your body, joint tissues, and skin. As a result, your skin its loses elasticity and youthful glow.

Additionally, in the first few weeks of quitting an animal-based diet, you may also notice an improvement in your cholesterol levels, energy levels, bowel movements, and sleep. These changes in your overall health have a positive effect on your skin as well.

Quitting an animal-based diet can also negatively impact your skin. Here is how:

1. It May Cause Protein Deficiency

Meat and poultry products contain “high quality” protein (14). It is very difficult to get sufficient protein from a vegan diet alone. The primary sources of protein for vegans are soy, rice, beans, and veggies. Hundred grams of each (about ½ cup) of these foods contains between 5-20 grams of protein. On the flip side, 100 grams of an animal product contains 20-30 grams of protein. Less protein consumption may have a negative impact on your skin, nails, and hair and also affect your immune system.

Of course, you can have hemp protein (which is a high protein source) to bridge the gap, but overconsumption of hemp can increase the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in your body, which could spell danger for your immune system (15).

2. It May Cause Vitamin Deficiency

Most of the time, people choose simple carbohydrates when on a vegan diet and forget to include enough fruits and vegetables to meet the needs of their body. This can affect the skin. Not supplying adequate vitamins and minerals (especially vitamin B12) to your skin may cause dark circles and dull skin and affect the quality of your hair and nails. Vitamin B12 deficiency can turn your skin pale and also affect the red blood cell levels.

3. It May Cause Calcium Deficiency

A study found that vegans are at high risk of bone fracture because of their low calcium intake (16). Calcium is not only crucial for your bone health, but it is also vital for your skin health. Calcium can affect the structural and biological functions of your skin, which may cause skin issues, such as dry skin (17).

You may be surprised to know that five out of six people who quit meat for a vegan diet return to being omnivore again! A survey done on 11,000 people found that 70% of vegans returned to animal-based diet while 80% of vegetarians did the same (18).

No, we are not discouraging you if you have already made up your mind to turn vegan. We are presenting the facts that might help you make an informed decision. It may seem that a plant-based diet is not sustainable in the long run as it comes with a host of challenges. It’s not impossible, but to follow such a diet, but you will need to consider your social setting, geography of the place, agricultural practices, and availability of fresh produce. What’s the way out?

Striking The Perfect Balance (Which is Equally Cool!)

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Research says that a balanced diet that contains a variety of nutrient-rich foods is always good for your health (and your skin). A diet that strikes the perfect balance between animal-based food items and vegetables reduces the risk of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and a host of other health and skin-related issues (14).

You don’t need to sacrifice your chicken nuggets for glowing skin. Instead, you can tweak your diet a bit to enjoy the best of both worlds and still have healthy skin. Reduce (or cut down completely) your intake of processed food. Do not drink skim milk. Make sure that the milk you are drinking and the meat you are eating are from grass-fed animals (organic and hormone-free).

A vegan diet can be very healthy for you. However, a diet that includes seafood, poultry, and dairy products, along with whole grains and vegetables, can keep your skin healthier. But, at the end of the day, what you put on your plate is entirely your decision. Hope this article helps you gauge the effects and make an informed decision.

What are your thoughts on veganism? Leave them in the comments section below!

References

“Diet and Dermatology…” The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology.

“Vegan proteins may reduce risk of…” Nutrition, US National Library of Medicine.

“Changes in serum desnutrin levels…” European Journal of Dermatology, US National Library of Medicine.

“Antioxidant activities of various fruits…” International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, US National Library of Medicine.

“Systemic antioxidants and skin health” Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, US National Library of Medicine.

“Oxidants and anti-oxidants status…” Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science, US National Library of Medicine.

“Discovering the link between nutrition and skin aging” Dermato Endocrinology, US National Library of Medicine.

“Skin anti-aging strategies” Dermato Endocrinology, US National Library of Medicine.

“Vegan diet in physiological…” Acta Physiologica Hungarica, US National Library of Medicine.

“You are what you eat…” PLOS One.

“High school dietary dairy intake…” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, US National Library of Medicine.

“Saturated Fatty Acid…” The Journal of Nutrition.

“How Does Meat Cause Inflammation?” Nutritionfacts.org

“Role of poultry meat in a balanced diet…” Food and Nutrition Research, US National Library of Medicine.

“Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid”, ScienceDirect.

“Health effects of vegan diets” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

“Role of Micronutrients in Skin Health and Function” Biomolecules and Therapeutics, US National Library of Medicine.

“Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans” Humane Research Council

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