#and live my life by 13 maxims

[berrynes]

ok this account is now an improv account. there’s no improv on tumblr and this is a Problem!!! we need more yes anding and silly mistakes being gifts and a culture of just showing up

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Sphinxmumps Linkdump

On THURSDAY (June 20) I'm live onstage in LOS ANGELES for a recording of the GO FACT YOURSELF podcast. On FRIDAY (June 21) I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On SATURDAY (June 22) I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel and a keynote at the LOCUS AWARDS.

Welcome to my 20th Linkdump, in which I declare link bankruptcy and discharge my link-debts by telling you about all the open tabs I didn't get a chance to cover in this week's newsletters. Here's the previous 19 installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Starting off this week with a gorgeous book that is also one of my favorite books: Beehive's special slipcased edition of Dante's Inferno, as translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with new illustrations by UK linocut artist Sophy Hollington:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beehivebooks/the-inferno

I've loved Inferno since middle-school, when I read the John Ciardi translation, principally because I'd just read Niven and Pournelle's weird (and politically odious) (but cracking) sf novel of the same name:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Niven_and_Pournelle_novel)

But also because Ciardi wrote "About Crows," one of my all-time favorite bits of doggerel, a poem that pierced my soul when I was 12 and continues to do so now that I'm 52, for completely opposite reasons (now there's a poem with staying power!):

https://spirituallythinking.blogspot.com/2011/10/about-crows-by-john-ciardi.html

Beehive has a well-deserved rep for making absolutely beautiful new editions of great public domain books, each with new illustrations and intros, all in matching livery to make a bookshelf look classy af. I have several of them and I've just ordered my copy of Inferno. How could I not? So looking forward to this, along with its intro by Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky and essay by Dante scholar Kristina Olson.

The Beehive editions show us how a rich public domain can be the soil from which new and inspiring creative works sprout. Any honest assessment of a creator's work must include the fact that creativity is a collective act, both inspired by and inspiring to other creators, past, present and future.

One of the distressing aspects of the debate over the exploitative grift of AI is that it's provoked a wave of copyright maximalism among otherwise thoughtful artists, despite the fact that a new copyright that lets you control model training will do nothing to prevent your boss from forcing you to sign over that right in your contracts, training an AI on your work, and then using the model as a pretext to erode your wages or fire your ass:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

Same goes for some privacy advocates, whose imaginations were cramped by the fact that the only regulation we enforce on the internet is copyright, causing them to forget that privacy rights can exist separate from the nonsensical prospect of "owning" facts about your life:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/the-internets-original-sin/

We should address AI's labor questions with labor rights, and we should address AI's privacy questions with privacy rights. You can tell that these are the approaches that would actually work for the public because our bosses hate these approaches and instead insist that the answer is just giving us more virtual property that we can sell to them, because they know they'll have a buyer's market that will let them scoop up all these rights at bargain prices and use the resulting hoards to torment, immiserate and pauperize us.

Take Clearview AI, a facial recognition tool created by eugenicists and white nationalists in order to help giant corporations and militarized, unaccountable cops hunt us by our faces:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/20/steal-your-face/#hoan-ton-that

Clearview scraped billions of images of our faces and shoveled them into their model. This led to a class action suit in Illinois, which boasts America's best biometric privacy law, under which Clearview owes tens of billions of dollars in statutory damages. Now, Clearview has offered a settlement that illustrates neatly the problem with making privacy into property that you can sell instead of a right that can't be violated: they're going to offer Illinoisians a small share of the company's stock:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/14/clearview_ai_reaches_creative_settlement/

To call this perverse is to go a grave injustice to good, hardworking perverts. The sums involved will be infinitesimal, and the only way to make those sums really count is for everyone in Illinois to root for Clearview to commit more grotesque privacy invasions of the rest of us to make its creepy, terrible product more valuable.

Worse still: by crafting a bespoke, one-off, forgiveness-oriented regulation specifically for Clearview, we ensure that it will continue, but that it will also never be disciplined by competitors. That is, rather than banning this kind of facial recognition tech, we grant them a monopoly over it, allowing them to charge all the traffic will bear.

We're in an extraordinary moment for both labor and privacy rights. Two of Biden's most powerful agency heads, Lina Khan and Rohit Chopra have made unprecedented use of their powers to create new national privacy regulations:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

In so doing, they're bypassing Congressional deadlock. Congress has not passed a new consumer privacy law since 1988, when they banned video-store clerks from leaking your VHS rental history to newspaper reporters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

Congress hasn't given us a single law protecting American consumers from the digital era's all-out assault on our privacy. But between the agencies, state legislatures, and a growing coalition of groups demanding action on privacy, a new federal privacy law seems all but assured:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

When that happens, we're going to have to decide what to do about products created through mass-scale privacy violations, like Clearview AI – but also all of OpenAI's products, Google's AI, Facebook's AI, Microsoft's AI, and so on. Do we offer them a deal like the one Clearview's angling for in Illinois, fining them an affordable sum and grandfathering in the products they built by violating our rights?

Doing so would give these companies a permanent advantage, and the ongoing use of their products would continue to violate billions of peoples' privacy, billions of times per day. It would ensure that there was no market for privacy-preserving competitors thus enshrining privacy invasion as a permanent aspect of our technology and lives.

There's an alternative: "model disgorgement." "Disgorgement" is the legal term for forcing someone to cough up something they've stolen (for example, forcing an embezzler to give back the money). "Model disgorgement" can be a legal requirement to destroy models created illegally:

https://iapp.org/news/a/explaining-model-disgorgement

It's grounded in the idea that there's no known way to unscramble the AI eggs: once you train a model on data that shouldn't be in it, you can't untrain the model to get the private data out of it again. Model disgorgement doesn't insist that offending models be destroyed, but it shifts the burden of figuring out how to unscramble the AI omelet to the AI companies. If they can't figure out how to get the ill-gotten data out of the model, then they have to start over.

This framework aligns everyone's incentives. Unlike the Clearview approach – move fast, break things, attain an unassailable, permanent monopoly thanks to a grandfather exception – model disgorgement makes AI companies act with extreme care, because getting it wrong means going back to square one.

This is the kind of hard-nosed, public-interest-oriented rulemaking we're seeing from Biden's best anti-corporate enforcers. After decades kid-glove treatment that allowed companies like Microsoft, Equifax, Wells Fargo and Exxon commit ghastly crimes and then crime again another day, Biden's corporate cops are no longer treating the survival of massive, structurally important corporate criminals as a necessity.

It's been so long since anyone in the US government treated the corporate death penalty as a serious proposition that it can be hard to believe it's even happening, but boy is it happening. The DOJ Antitrust Division is seeking to break up Google, the largest tech company in the history of the world, and they are tipped to win:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

And that's one of the major suits against Google that Big G is losing. Another suit, jointly brought by the feds and dozens of state AGs, is just about to start, despite Google's failed attempt to get the suit dismissed:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-loses-bid-end-us-antitrust-case-over-digital-advertising-2024-06-14/

I'm a huge fan of the Biden antitrust enforcers, but that doesn't make me a huge fan of Biden. Even before Biden's disgraceful collaboration in genocide, I had plenty of reasons – old and new – to distrust him and deplore his politics. I'm not the only leftist who's struggling with the dilemma posed by the worst part of Biden's record in light of the coming election.

You've doubtless read the arguments (or rather, "arguments," since they all generate a lot more heat than light and I doubt whether any of them will convince anyone). But this week, Anand Giridharadas republished his 2020 interview with Noam Chomsky about Biden and electoral politics, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind:

https://the.ink/p/free-noam-chomsky-life-voting-biden-the-left

Chomsky contrasts the left position on politics with the liberal position. For leftists, Chomsky says, "real politics" are a matter of "constant activism." It's not a "laser-like focus on the quadrennial extravaganza" of national elections, after which you "go home and let your superiors take over."

For leftists, politics means working all the time, "and every once in a while there's an event called an election." This should command "10 or 15 minutes" of your attention before you get back to the real work.

This makes the voting decision more obvious and less fraught for Chomsky. There's "never been a greater difference" between the candidates, so leftists should go take 15 minutes, "push the lever, and go back to work."

Chomsky attributed the good parts of Biden's 2020 platform to being "hammered on by activists coming out of the Sanders movement and other." That's the real work, that hammering. That's "real politics."

For Chomsky, voting for Biden isn't support for Biden. It's "support for the activists who have been at work constantly, creating the background within the party in which the shifts took place, and who have followed Sanders in actually entering the campaign and influencing it. Support for them. Support for real politics."

Chomsky tells us that the self-described "masters of the universe" understand that something has changed: "the peasants are coming with their pitchforks." They have all kinds of euphemisms for this ("reputational risks") but the core here is a winner-take-all battle for the future of the planet and the species. That's why the even the "sensible" ultra-rich threw in for Trump in 2016 and 2020, and why they're backing him even harder in 2024:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckvvlv3lewxo

Chomsky tells us not to bother trying to figure out Biden's personality. Instead, we should focus on "how things get done." Biden won't do what's necessary to end genocide and preserve our habitable planet out of conviction, but he may do so out of necessity. Indeed, it doesn't matter how he feels about anything – what matters is what we can make him do.

Chomksy himself is in his 90s and his health is reportedly in terminal decline, so this is probably the only word we'll get from him on this issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/chomsky/comments/1aj56hj/updates_on_noams_health_from_his_longtime_mit/

The link between concentrated wealth, concentrated power, and the existential risks to our species and civilization is obvious – to me, at least. Any time a tiny minority holds unaccountable power, they will end up using it to harm everyone except themselves. I'm not the first one to take note of this – it used to be a commonplace in American politics.

Back in 1936, FDR gave a speech at the DNC, accepting their nomination for president. Unlike FDR's election night speech ("I welcome their hatred"), this speech has been largely forgotten, but it's a banger:

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/acceptance-speech-at-the-democratic-national-convention-1936/

In that speech, Roosevelt brought a new term into our political parlance: "economic royalists." He described the American plutocracy as the spiritual descendants of the hereditary nobility that Americans had overthrown in 1776. The English aristocracy "governed without the consent of the governed" and “put the average man’s property and the average man’s life in pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power":

Roosevelt said that these new royalists conquered the nation's economy and then set out to seize its politics, backing candidates that would create "a new despotism wrapped in the robes of legal sanction…an industrial dictatorship."

As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, this has strong parallels to today's world, where "Silicon Valley, Big Oil, and Wall Street come together to back a transactional presidential candidate who promises them specific favors, after reducing their corporate taxes by 40 percent the last time he was president":

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-06-14-speech-fdr-would-give/

Roosevelt, of course, went on to win by a landslide, wiping out the Republicans despite the endless financial support of the ruling class.

The thing is, FDR's policies didn't originate with him. He came from the uppermost of the American upper crust, after all, and famously refused to define the "New Deal" even as he campaigned on it. The "New Deal" became whatever activists in the Democratic Party's left could force him to do, and while it was bold and transformative, it wasn't nearly enough.

The compromise FDR brokered within the Democratic Party froze out Black Americans to a terrible degree. Writing for the Institute for Local Self Reliance, Ron Knox and Susan Holmberg reveal the long shadow cast by that unforgivable compromise:

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/045dcde7333243df9b7f4ed8147979cd

They describe how redlining – the formalization of anti-Black racism in New Deal housing policy – led to the ruin of Toledo's once-thriving Dorr Street neighborhood, a "Black Wall Street" where a Black middle class lived and thrived. New Deal policies starved the neighborhood of funds, then ripped it in two with a freeway, sacrificing it and the people who lived in it.

But the story of Dorr Street isn't over. As Knox and Holmberg write, the people of Dorr Street never gave up on their community, and today, there's an awful lot of Chomsky's "constant activism" that is painstakingly bringing the community back, inch by aching inch. The community is locked in a guerrilla war against the same forces that the Biden antitrust enforcers are fighting on the open field of battle. The work that activists do to drag Democratic Party policies to the left is critical to making reparations for the sins of the New Deal – and for realizing its promise for everybody.

In my lifetime, there's never been a Democratic Party that represented my values. The first Democratic President of my life, Carter, kicked off Reaganomics by beginning the dismantling of America's antitrust enforcement, in the mistaken belief that acting like a Republican would get Democrats to vote for him again. He failed and delivered Reagan, whose Reaganomics were the official policy of every Democrat since, from Clinton ("end welfare as we know it") to Obama ("foam the runways for the banks").

In other words, I don't give a damn about Biden, but I am entirely consumed with what we can force his administration to do, and there are lots of areas where I like our chances.

For example: getting Biden's IRS to go after the super-rich, ending the impunity for elite tax evasion that Spencer Woodman pitilessly dissects in this week's superb investigation for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists:

https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2024/06/how-the-irs-went-soft-on-billionaires-and-corporate-tax-cheats/

Ending elite tax cheating will make them poorer, and that will make them weaker, because their power comes from money alone (they don't wield power because their want to make us all better off!).

Or getting Biden's enforcers to continue their fight against the monopolists who've spiked the prices of our groceries even as they transformed shopping into a panopticon, so that their business is increasingly about selling our data to other giant corporations, with selling food to us as an afterthought:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-12-war-in-the-aisles/

For forty years, since the Carter administration, we've been told that our only power comes from our role as "consumers." That's a word that always conjures up one of my favorite William Gibson quotes, from 2003's Idoru:

Something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections.

The normie, corporate wing of the Democratic Party sees us that way. They decry any action against concentrated corporate power as "anti-consumer" and insist that using the law to fight against corporate power is a waste of our time:

https://www.thesling.org/sorry-matt-yglesias-hipster-antitrust-does-not-mean-the-abandonment-of-consumers-but-it-does-mean-new-ways-to-protect-workers-2/

But after giving it some careful thought, I'm with Chomsky on this, not Yglesias. The election is something we have to pay some attention to as activists, but only "10 or 15 minutes." Yeah, "push the lever," but then "go back to work." I don't care what Biden wants to do. I care what we can make him do.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/15/disarrangement/#credo-in-un-dio-crudel

Image: Jim's Photo World (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimsphotoworld/5360343644/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[darkshrimpemotions]

Rereading The Hunger Games trilogy due to the whole THG Renaissance going on over on Tiktok and I'm a quarter of the way through Mockingjay and my god, Katniss does not give herself enough credit!

And not in the usual YA "oh I'm so plain and average" protagonist way, either. For Katniss, it's that she's completely convinced she's a terrible, ruthless person who uses people and thinks of them like they're game pieces and doesn't feel for other people the way she should.

But she's lived her entire life in deprivation and constant danger, nearly starving to death before she was thirteen years old and then being forced to risk her life daily to be the primary provider for her family afterward. Not to mention the yearly horror of the reapings and the games, always knowing the children dying could be her. Or her sister.

And then her worst nightmare comes true, and she's thrust into a fight to the death where she's forced to playact being in love to survive.

And yet, throughout all this, the thing that most consistently drives Katniss's actions is compassion.

Volunteering for Prim obviously, but also the way she acts towards Rue. Partnering with her, sharing food with her, singing her to rest and burying her in flowers. Then there's the way she worries throughout the series over how her every decision will affect others: her family and friends, but also people she's never even met. Her entire friendship with Finnick in District 13.

Her bonding with the Morphlings over fingerpainting. Her guilt and sorrow over her failure to help the redheaded Avox girl, despite the fact that Katniss was herself a child in a dangerous position and could have died in the attempt. The way she later helps Bonnie and Twill, giving them her bread and showing them how to forage. Her going to bat for the other tributes when District 13 wanted them executed.

Her horror and disgust at the weapons Gale and Beatty were building, weapons that preyed on human terror and compassion to maximize casualties.

Even killing Cato, who she hated and feared, wasn't about vengeance or even survival in the end. It was an act of pure mercy.

Throughout the whole series, Katniss inner-monologues about how awful she is, often comparing herself unfavorably to Peeta and Prim, who she sees as deeply good and kind in a way she isn't. But if Katniss was truly as ruthless and unfeeling as she thinks she is, the Capitol would have actually had far less power to hurt her. It was her compassion that Snow attacked, every time. Her worry for and love of her family, her district, her friends, Peeta...even her fellow tributes. Even people she'd never met. It was her greatest strength and her biggest weakness.

[lovelytayforce]

since you're doing hcs

HCs for the 13 primes in 200 words or less so it's challenging 🫢

Bro thinks Imma FOLLOW THE RULES WHEN RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN Anyways, ladies and non binaries; let's get this show started!

I've actually written very small vignettes for the 13 for a RP for the people who are out of the loop, no they aren't published but maybe one day I can post em if someone asks nicely 😘 I'd have to explain the context of it all but basically I made this whole sim area based off of Elysia realm; that game mode left a lasting impact on me and it made sense for the Prime's to enter their wisdom as data that embody who they are when they are updated for wisdom is not given, it's earned through mistakes and strife in life. Anyways let's start from the top with my favorite of the Primes: Onyx Prime He doesn't get a lot of screentime which sucks cause he's like THE SHEPARD of the group: He should be guiding Optimus more than Alpha Trion does come on writers THATS HIS WHOLE THING LEADING! (IDW was Shockwave so that doesn't count) I need more of his friendly and kind hearted personality to shine in the main series so BADLY and like again I'm the Predacon addict; let him be my token PREDACON 😭 Anyways onto HCs - with his Triptych Mask; I often give him the aesthetic of opening doors to many places across the universe since he's so spiritually connected to nature and life as it is, he basically has a "Tunnel of light" that can not only guide him but the souls of dearly departed or maybe a lost living soul looking for a reason to keep going forward. - He wanted to live peacefully on Cybertron for a very long time but alas Cybertron wasn't the best place for predacons and maximals with their connection with nature and as transformers I feel he would gladly take the call to transform, adapt and evolve for the betterment of their people - Also, he smelt that functionism bs a mile away and decided to cut his losses while he could. His kids come first! - Can be considered the most motherly and emotionally aware of the group, he's got a good head on him which is why he's so well liked 💙 - He's best friends with predaking in all continuities idc they always find each other - Despite being apart of the Well of Allsparks, he has a physical form but it takes a lot of energy to stabilize so don't expect long talks at night. Onto my second favorite- Quintus Prime! Can I just mention how beautiful this design is? He's so pretty I love him 💙

I never really agreed with him being unimaginative considering he created life but I understood the perfectionist plights he held as for idealism, where his concepts really that unrealistic? I loved questioning that because despite his good intentions he made probably one of the worst species alive but it brings about a funny thing about life; you can't mold individuals with free will to your vision. One way or another this would have unfolded considering many would do anything to reach their god much less creator to understand their purpose in life. okay no more philosophy, lets move on to those hcs~ - After many of his failed attempts at making allies for Cybertronians he withheld himself in the land of his daydreams casting aside his perfectionist habits, he paints. He creates for the joy of it, for within a dream nothing can escape his control. It gives him time to think things out and truly understand how life exists and the beauty of nature that once puzzled him that his brother Onyx knew so well. It's a slow process but it opens this scientist's horizons beyond anything even primus could anticipate! You already know whose my next favorite is if you know me and my love for Transformers Cybertron and Armada those shows were my CHILDHOOD BRO Let's set the timer for Vector Prime! ⏰ YOU'LL ALWAYS BE ICONIC QUEEN THE FIRST PRIME I EVER STANNED OPTIMUS PRIME WHO /jk

I subscribe to the majority of his Ask Vector Prime answers which as follows: He's a fan of the dinobots He used to "boogie down" with a disco ball. Despite having traveled far and wide, he could not see why kids loved Cinnamon Toast Crunch. If he had to choose a beast mode, it would be a large sea mammal. Everyone he ever cares about will grow old and die in what, to him, is just the pulse of a spark. Sometimes, he feels alone even when he's in a crowd. His favorite human movie was Back to the Future, due to the performance of lead actor Eric Stoltz. He revealed himself as a Point One Percenter (after the Shroud).

Please read what this man talks about on tfwiki, he's a national treasure who brings me joy during my great depression. Anyways onto my own hcs 🥰

He's a stickler for being on time! Don't you dare be late! You're wasting his precious time!Vector Prime - The clock that always strikes on time!He's the first POP (Point One Percenter) and was the mold for many POP's in the future such as Skywarp As a being held by the constraints of time, even though he wants to save as many universes as he can, he simply cannot; he's stuck between a physical form and a form distorted by the whims of time and space what little control he has is simply a delicacy that must be treasured with the utmost care. He keeps small trinkets from his favorite universes and planets and leaves clocks around for the sole purpose of helping those looking for his helping hand. Also, I just think it'd be neat to find a giant clock and if you strike right for midnight he'll appear!!

The rest are in the reblogs. 👏🏽

[echodrops]

The Promises I’m Making (2025)

After the absolute garbage fire that was my life in 2024, I'm kind of just sitting here like... "What do?" What do I even try to focus on for 2025? Will the promises I make right now even be relevant in two months' time, given how many plot twists my life has become prone to?

There's also definitely a correlation between not having money and struggling to come up with resolutions. Why does everything in life cost so much?

Please 2025... let me live in uninteresting times...

2025 Promises

1) Ensure the plumbing repairs in the Utah house are completely finished and the ceiling/floors are restored.

2) Pay back as much of the loan I had to take out as quickly as possible to reduce the monthly payments.

3) Have the AC unit in the Texas house replaced and paint the ceiling where there are water spots from the leaks.

4) Clean up the kitchen area of my Texas house; there is a bunch of kitsch accumulating on the far edge of the counters that I just don't need in a kitchen.

5) Get all the bookshelves/books organized in my Texas house.

6) Clean off my back patio/car port area in the Texas house so I can park my car there again.

7) Call a handyman and have the Texas house bathroom faucets replaced.

8) Clean out the Texas house closets and figure out what to do with all the old boxes like my old computer boxes that I've been cramming in there.

9) Put up a shelf in my room for my figures so that they're not completing clogging up the top of the dresser.

10) Fix the damaged spot on the backyard fence of the Texas house.

11) Clean out all the drawers in my desk/side tables/etc. What is even in there???

12) Take better care of the Texas house lawn, like fighting weeds and trimming the hedge more often.

13) Assemble my new display case and actually successfully organize/display all my plushies. I have... too many plushies...

14) Change the burned-out lightbulbs in the recessed lighting in the Texas house ceiling. It’s like twelve feet high and the lightbulb changer stick I bought didn’t work, so I’m going to have to find someone with a ladder. Save me, handyman. Save me.

15) Help my brother reorganize his furniture in the room he's staying currently; dude has never heard of the concept of maximizing space and it shows.

16) Help my parents tear out the carpet in my old childhood bedroom.

17) Actually use the yoga mat I bought forever and a day ago. This year... for sure...

18) Walk the dog more. Even if the dog herself doesn't like walking when it's hot out lol.

19) Lose at least twenty pounds.

20) Do a complete re-read of Noragami and post some of my closing thoughts on the series.

21) This is super nerdy, but my bro got me the FFXIV cookbook and made me promise to actually use it, so I guess I’d better at least try to make something from it. (Years later, I'm still... trying... lol)

22) Take at least one decent picture of a wild sea turtle.

23) Reach the new level cap with all jobs in FFXIV. I'm late, whoops.

24) Spend less on gacha games and Starbucks. Gotta save money…

25) Close out my old credit union account and call to check in on closing any old credit cards I might still have.

26) Fully deep clean and vacuum/detail my own car at home. No more of the “It doesn’t make sense to clean it out now; the dog is just going to go back in it.” The dog is always going to go back in it. Clean it, Echo.

27) Complete my follow up medical appointments and handle all medical situations in a timely manner.

28) See at least three new species of birds. Doesn’t matter where, just three new ones!

29) Get a new battery in my watch so I can go back to wearing it.

30) Waste less food; I buy things all the time and then don't get to them before they go bad. It's the worst.

31) Make use of the Sam's Club membership my parents bought me for Christmas.

32) Repair the lovely one-of-kind ceramic plate that my dog broke with kintsugi. I want to try it at least once!

33) Block more people. I know this sounds odd but I have a terrible habit of getting into debates when I see bad takes on social media and honestly there's no point in wasting so much time. I gotta block and move on a lot more lol.

34) Put all the small prints, postcards, and stickers I have collected in my new mini-print books. I can even use up washi tape to decorate too. (Finally, a purpose for the washi tape…)

35) Get the situation with the IT systems at work resolved so that all data can be correctly submitted.

36) Apply for online adjunct positions to help make extra money on the side.

37) Make sure my classes are ready to go before each semester, including properly scheduling the announcements and everything.

38) Buy birthday cards in advance for everyone so I have them available to send when birthdays come around.

39) Draw more this year. Maybe I won't have time to fully line and color artworks digitally, but I should at least not let my tiny amount of art ability wither into nothingness...

40) Write and post something... Anything at this rate, please.

41) Build the pretty koi paper lantern my brother got me, or the Korean temple model my coworker gave me after his trip to Korea.

42) Visit the beach more often... Need relaxation...

43) Take better care of my kitty. It's not like I don't take decent care of her, but I definitely put more effort into doing things with the dog than the cat and I think she is big jealous.

44) Go see at least one play. Live theater is good for the soul.

45) See about removing the PMI from at least one of my house loans to try to save money. I’ve been paying on these loans long enough I shouldn’t need PMI anymore.

46) Take a day trip to Santa Cruz Island with Kacchan.

47) Read the book that has been on my "To read" list for the longest time. I don't know which one that is off the top of my head, but I will finally finish one that has been on the list!

48) Try to go to bed earlier more consistently than last year; I really punished myself with terrible sleep over the last few months and its not helping the health situation.

49) Go through my bookshelves to find books to donate, then donate the books to people's little free libraries.

50) I will keep my promises! 

Good luck, 2025’s me!

[justicegundam82]

3.0 D&D to PF1 Conversion: Torturer Devil (Kocrachon)

This is a conversion of a rather famous creature that originated from Planescape. Since this is a rather low-ranking devil, I tried not to go overboard on the abilities, while attempting to give the Kocrachon its own flavour. I also got several pointers from a previous 3.5 conversion of the same creature, which appeared in the EN World Forums. Of course, you guys be the judges if my conversion is satisfying.

DEVIL, TORTURER (KOCRACHON)

Image (c) Wizads of the Coast, artist unknown

This horror looks like an overgrown bluish-black beetle with a long proboscis for a mouth, but its face has a disturbingly human look to it, and its legs end in slim, dexterous claws.

TORTURER DEVIL       CR 7

XP 3’200

LE Medium Outsider (devil, evil, extraplanar, lawful)

Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see in darkness; Perception +14

Defense

AC 22, touch 15, flat-footed 17 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge, +7 natural)

hp 76 (8d10+32) 

Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +9

Damage Reduction 5/good; Immune fire, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10

Spell Resistance 18

Offense

Speed 40 ft., flying 60 ft. (good)

Melee bite +12 (1d6+2 plus disease), 2 claws +12 (1d4+1 plus excruciate)

Special Attacks disease, excruciate, sadism, sneak attack +2d6

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th, concentration +12)

     At will – cause fear (DC 15), darkness, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. objects only), stabilize, suggestion (DC 17)

     3/day – cure moderate wounds (DC 16), invisibility, magic circle against good, major image (DC 17)

     1/day – breath of life, summon (level 3, 2d4 lemures or 1 torturer devil, 45%), waves of fatigue (DC 19)

                   

Statistics

Str 14, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 17, Cha 19

Base Atk +8; CMB +10; CMD 24 (30 vs. trip)

Feats Dodge, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse

Skills Acrobatics +12 (+16 jumping), Bluff +13, Diplomacy +12, Fly +14, Heal +18, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (planes) +14, Perception +14, Profession (torturer) +18, Sense Motive +18, Stealth +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Heal, +4 Profession (torturer), +4 Sense Motive      

Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.

Ecology

Environment any (Nine Hells)

Organization solitary, pair or team (3-6)

Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Disease (Su) An opponent hit by a torturer devil’s bite attack must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 18) or contract devil chills. The save DC is Constitution-based

Devil Chills: Disease – injury (bite); save Fort DC 18; onset 1d4 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d4 Str damage; cure 3 consecutive saves.

Excruciate (Su) A living creature hit by a torturer devil’s claw attack must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 18) or become sickened with pain for 1d6 rounds. A creature that is already sickened becomes nauseated for 1 round instead. The save DC is Constitution-based

Sadism (Ex) If a torturer devil inflicts 10 or more points of damage on a single creature in the span of a single round, either with a single attack or with multiple attacks, it gains a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saving throws and skill checks for the duration of the next round.

Kocrachons are also known as torturer devils for their specialization in inflicting prolonged pain on helpless victims. They are mostly tasked with extracting information through pain, and it is a job they thoroughly enjoy. In what spare time they have, they enjoy sharpening their skills on damned souls and other prisoners; ending up in the claws of the kocrachon is considered one of the worst possible fates, for these devils are merciless and go out of their way to deny their victims the sweet release of death. Torturer devils are fond of mental torture as well, and will gleefully manipulate and gaslight their charges in order to maximize their anguish.

Torturer devils are not particularly fond of combat, and will usually retreat if an opponent looks dangerous enough to fight them on even footing. If forced to battle, they will usually break up and confound the opposition with spells like cause fear or suggestion, and then strike from ambush, often with the cover of invisibility, and debilitate their victims with their painful claws and diseased bites. A kocrachon that inflicts enough suffering on a victim is bolstered by the act, and can briefly fight with enhanced vigor.    

Kocrachons are mostly found in infernal citadels, working for more powerful devils; they are 5 feet tall on average, and weigh roughly 110 pounds.

[dustedmagazine]

English Teacher — This Could Be Texas (Island)

The four members of English Teacher — Lily Fontaine (vocals, guitar), Lewis Whiting (guitar), Douglas Frost (drums, piano) and Nicholas Eden (bass) — met at Leeds Conservatoire nearly a decade ago and have been writing songs together and refining their sound ever since. Although This Could Be Texas is their debut album, apparently some of this material dates back to as early as 2016, and a sizable portion of the album (five of the 13 songs) has already been released. 

The most obvious points of comparison are probably fellow Brits Black Country, New Road and Dry Cleaning. As with Black Country, New Road, prominent piano melodically weaves its way alongside clean, Slint-like guitars. And much like Dry Cleaning, Fontaine’s delivery can be deliciously deadpan atop post-punk backing, though Fontaine’s lyrics don’t quite match the wondrous non-sequiturs of Florence Shaw. Fontaine’s delivery is alternately impassioned and snarky, and her words are always engaging, whether she’s scrutinizing the minutiae of small-town British life (“Broken Buscuits”) or musing on the potential pitfalls of venturing beyond the earth’s atmosphere (“Not Everyone Gets To Go To Space”).

Though catchy single “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” is sequenced early on, the majority of the album’s first half is surprisingly varied in pace and density, with not a weak link in sight. The three-song, mid-album stretch of “Not Everyone Gets To Go To Space,” “R&B” and “Nearly Daffodils” is especially good, but the album loses some steam beyond that point. “Best Tears Of Your Life” has an off-putting digital crispiness to the beats, plus some unnecessary AutoTune on Fontaine’s voice, and the piano chord sequence on “You Blister My Paint” is naggingly familiar and a tad uninspired.

At 51 minutes, This Could Be Texas feels like it’s at least a couple of songs too long. Much like BC,NR’s magnificent Ants From Up There, the album feels like several potential closers have been strung together during the album’s final stretch, which could have been trimmed a little to maximize the impact of what’s left. Nevertheless, this is an extremely colorful, fun and addictive record that showcases the enviable talents of a young band with a bright future. I’ll bet they’re great live, too.

Tim Clarke

[the-hem]

"The Fragrant Wood." From the Mundaka Upanishad, "the Exploration of the Mysteries of the Timber."

We continue to discuss renunciation. Renunciation includes sex, spending, any kind of extras, activation of lazy tendencies, and finally it means restraint of all nonsense and nonesuch. No more Jesus Christ saving souls, or being washed in the blood, literal interpretations of the Torah or Quran or unholy Bible, pure reality is to enter the mind and the body alone. All ignorance including party politics, uncharitable and filthy acts must cease. During the hermitage, the mind must be forced to learn how reality, looks, feels, and registers on the Self such as it is.

I-ii-12: A Brahmana should resort to renunciation after examining the worlds acquired through karma, with the help of this maxim: ‘There is nothing (here) that is not the result of karma; so what is the need of (performing) karma ?’ For knowing that Reality he should go, with sacrificial faggots in hand, only to a teacher versed in the Vedas and absorbed in Brahman.

I-ii-13: To him who has approached duly, whose heart is calm and whose outer organs are under control, that man of enlightenment should adequately impart that knowledge of Brahman by which one realizes the true and imperishable Purusha.

Special faggots, my favorite, include fragrant incense woods like acacia and sandalwood. Their sacrifices prepare the mind to upgrade once auxiliary desires are allowed to return. If you find yourself feeding pigs on hookup apps but go home hungry all of the time, then the hermitage, which will help the body and the mind be more selective are just the thing for you.

To end all Karma Yogas, we subtract and subtract all that is not of God and add all that is beneficial but incurs no debt. This is how a saint lives and still has a happy life. Start today. Your good habits will lead a good man right to your doorstep. This Lord Shiva Shambho swears.

[jayconner-raisingprivatemoney]

Resiliency: Scott Aaron Secret's To Success with Jay Conner

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He never saw any of these as setbacks, instead he saw them as the foundations of his comeback story. LinkedIn became his outlet for moving himself and his business forward because he was seeking 3 things…..Connection, Community, and Impact.

He found all 3 with LinkedIn and his life and business have never been the same and with his strategic approach and systematic ways of using LinkedIn, your life and business will never be the same too!

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00:01 Raising Private Money Without Asking For It

03:35 Resilience is key to an entrepreneurial success mindset.

08:21 Dad encouraged individuality, not filling his shoes.

12:47 Maintain positivity, humility, and openness to help.

13:51 Failure teaches; asking for help shows strength.

17:23 Gut punch led to self-reflection and change.

20:35 Teaching LinkedIn strategies led to a successful business.

23:53 Connect with Scott Aaron: https://www.ScottAaron.net   / scottaaroncoach  

26:31 Optimize your LinkedIn: clarity, keywords, recommendations.

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[ancientacademy]

Redefining Happiness: A Singaporean Couple’s Balanced Path to Fulfillment! Discover how this dynamic Singaporean power couple is redefining true happiness. She thrives on continuous learning and personal development, while he finds inspiration and meaning through connecting with nature and embracing new life choices. Together, they forge a path of empowerment, balance, and authentic fulfillment. Subscribe now to gain insights, motivation, and practical strategies for cultivating a happier, more purposeful life. Please visit my website to get more information: https://ift.tt/wAOuUpr ✨Get transformative learning and personal growth with Ancient Courses—explore now at https://ift.tt/rx9LpKH ✨ Join the A2 Affiliate Program to maximize earnings with competitive commissions and fast payouts—start now at https://ift.tt/0UlODGs 🔔𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. https://www.youtube.com/@Natasha.ANCIENTACADEMY.A2/?sub_confirmation=1 🔊 Listen To My Podcasts 🔊 https://ift.tt/f0Rbaqg 🔗 Stay Connected With Me. Facebook: https://ift.tt/WE0FcaC Instagram: https://ift.tt/SEcRFUP Company Instagram: https://ift.tt/wJ8BOsc Pinterest: https://ift.tt/P9rkHdl Website: https://ift.tt/wAOuUpr 📩 For business inquiries: advisory@ancient-academy.com ============================= 🎬Suggested videos for you: ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_RmJYZKSLY ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtqZAK3NBbM ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p66IE2II5s ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN9D5C3rlpo ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiXlo9ojhMg ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsPleTrHz6w ================================= ✅ About ANCIENT ACADEMY. Welcome to ANCIENT ACADEMY, where I offer education, courses, programs, books, consulting, and coaching services based on an Intelligent Algorithm to align your emotional well-being with practical solutions for lasting happiness. My revolutionary Meta Duality Theory combines Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Operational Intelligence (IQ) to align emotional well-being with practical action. Discover your unique Competency Signature with the EQ Test, powered by intelligent algorithms, and gain personalized insights to unlock your potential. My courses, coaching, and tools empower you to overcome challenges, embrace change, and succeed. For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below: 📩 Email: advisory@ancient-academy.com 🔔 Subscribe for transformative courses, coaching, revolutionary programs, & intelligent algorithms that align Emotional Intelligence & Operational Intelligence! https://www.youtube.com/@Natasha.ANCIENTACADEMY.A2/?sub_confirmation=1 ================================= 🔎“Personal Development in Singapore” “Nature-Focused Lifestyle” “Emotional Well-Being and Growth” “Balancing Learning and Living” “Achieving Authentic Fulfillment” “Couple’s Journey to Happiness” “Inspired Living Strategies” #PersonalGrowth #Happiness #NatureInspired #Empowerment #Singapore via NATASHA LAJEVARDI - ANCIENT ACADEMY https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRugNszJCFNWM_C0ops7geg December 13, 2024 at 02:44PM

[krillest1]

Week 13: Culture Pretzels

A DAY LATE, A BUCK SHORT I'm sure everyone was waiting on tenterhooks yesterday to see when I would post. Sorry I missed it, I've been trying to get back to living a real life (i.e. working, being around others), which was more or less unsuccessful this week. I have been spending more and more time on social media, and playing an economy of pleasure. I also got my feewings huwt multiple times this week, but there will be more on that below. I've been trying to practice a more fluid form of gratitude, but that has also been somewhat unsuccessful. That being said, there is much to be grateful for this week. While I haven't been reading as much this week, I did start the collected writings of Gertrude Stein, which is nice. She has a pretty distinct style, though I'm still working through the earlier works. I was also forced to confront my (boredom and anxiety) head-on this week, which was uncomfortable but helpful. This will be a rambling week, but oh well.

FOLD 1: INTEREST Some CEO or another got killed this week, it's kind of the news of the week and will probably be forgotten by 2025, but it got me thinking about the types of cultural structures I could build. Before we put this assemblage together, however, we should outline the pieces. The first is self-interest. There is a cultural strain (tl: this is all vibes-based, but if you also find these pieces as given you can build cool things too :3) that views the human animal as always acting in its own self interest, or at least in an effort to provide the self pleasure/power/etc. There is a correlating view of the self as rational, not in the sense that we think through everything we do, but in the sense that we are always acting in such a way to maximize self-interest. We also, of course, have a view of the market as something rational, or at least as something which generates true information. The market-as-information is a sub-strain I've been obsessed with recently, but that will have to be a post for another day. With our pieces laid out, we can start to build. I am, simply put (and in non-bannable language) surprised that incidents like the UHC one are rare. If we think the market funnels information/money to the most adept, and if we think of ourselves as acting in self-interest, there's no reason we shouldn't drag carrion to the front steps of the powerful. They are (deservedly) more powerful, more intelligent, and more capable than we (I, me). It is in our interest to make our problems the problems of the powerful, as they are the only ones capable of solving them. I am not, to be clear, advocating this position, just laying it out lol. The construction above isn't perfect, though. We are social things, a fact I'm extrapolating from our simian cousins. A social, externalized thing cannot survive if we are trying to act purely as atomized individuals. On the other hand, however, the cultural logic of our time says that we are atomized individuals, who act in self-interested ways in a rational (in the sense that it produces information) system. Even the bourgeoisie notion of the atomic family is crumbling, for all sorts of interesting and maybe inevitable reasons. So, the first strand of our nice cultural pretzel is rolled out.

FOLD 2: PLEASURE I, as mentioned in earlier posts, deleted my dating-app profiles. This was a weak way of signalling to the world (empty, digital) that I am no longer pursuing love or sex (the sex thing, in typical masculine fashion, is more of a posturing denial than anything). This week, however, I've been hit by two things. The first is a crippling fear that I am going to wake up 30 years old one day and want to kill myself, because I am alone and not grateful in my unknowing. There's a sense, in other words, that there's a way things should be, and that I am not able to make things be that way. The second thing I was hit by this week was a sort of non-egocentric-desire. While at a concert (horrible fucking opsec, who cares) I was jostled by all sorts of beautiful women, whose fashion matches the outsider look and approach that I think would maybe possibly put up with a whining, pretentious thing like me (false). I was taken-up in a desire that had no basis in reality, but was overwhelming (compare porn, maybe). We'll use the pieces outlined above, and try to make our second strand. First, pleasure is a more complicated thing than we make it out to be. I don't get pleasure from talking to people, especially women (and especially attractive women (I'm pretty much only attracted to women)). Sex in a vacuum, or in onanistic form, is nice but in reality I find it completely and totally horrifying. There's no way I could function under that sort of pressure. I find this fact shameful. In the face of these dysfunctions, I'm not sure what rational action looks like. Even though I know I should want to procreate or be rich or whatever (more on this below), I don't encounter these things as possible of being given. I'm cut off, I'm unable to reason, and I can't quite reason my way through my inability to reason. There are strains of my hatred of my idiocy going on here, but again I'm practicing gratitude in unknowing. Last, and not least, is the also-rational-construction of the market. I don't want to stretch the idea of a market too far, as I think that does a disservice to analysis. In stretching the concept of, say, a dating app however we can show that it is also an information-producing thing. Our swipes produce information that determines the next person show which determines our next swipe which determines our possibility of matching which determines our relative 'worth' (this gets complicated, there are a couple of different viewpoints from which to gauge/analyze worth in the context of dating apps) in the digital ocean (fish in the sea). I'm realizing now that this was not a construction, but a negative definition. Things, like me, are dysfunctional.

FOLD 3: OVERLAP Let's look, then, at where our strands overlap in this delicious and definitely sensical pretzel Evopsych: There's a specter haunting my sorry ass, the specter of human-as-animal. There a certain cultural signalling that claims that people are, in the final analysis, biological and that all of our rationality and self-maximization can be reduced to this biological level. I'm not a fan of this view, but I am not equipped to really dismantle it (I haven't even laid it out fairly in this already long-winded scree (redundant)). I'm more interested in the fact that this notion of man-as-animal popped up in both analyses. Whether it was in the form of an hierarchy, the want to procreate, or the simple animal scrabbling for life this view was lurking in my meta-analysis. Maybe it's unfair to call this a cultural pretzel, but it certainly is a pretzel-thought. At any rate, a view of human as biological in a reductive sense lurks in both the strands of our pretzel. Self: My self is also flavoring all of these analyses. I've been noticing more and more recently how much of my life I spend feeling scared. I don't want to overcorrect, and claim that this feeling is unnatural. I do think, however, that for some people fear is a rarer and more concrete thing. My fearing flavours all of the things I do, which is probably painfully obvious to everyone but me. In a similar way, there's a bit of resentment I have, which also gets filtered out. This is a long-winded and boring way of saying that this pretzel has been filtered (scatalogical, gross) through a pretty dumb, pretty angry thing. Knowing: As mentioned last week, I've been working on being grateful in my unknowing. I feel, however, as though I've been getting a pretty depressing and desperate cultural message. Some how there are more single men than women in my age bracket, which when paired with women's growing independence in the market (work force etc), is bad news for me (sexually). Without the need for a patriarchal entry in to the market, I have nothing to offer women. I'm not smart, or funny, nor can I provide. I'm, maybe, doomed to be alone. <= This is boring, and not grateful. That said, I'm not sure why I should engage in a meaningful way with a culture which offers me nothing, and to which I can offer nothing (this project is contradictory, you don't have to point that out, I know already). I can be grateful in the vistas that are opened to me by gratitude in unknowing, but my current approach cuts me off from pursuing things in a culturally consistent way, or something.

WHEN I MOVE I'M FLAILING Yeesh. Maybe you can tell that I've slept little this week, and spent a lot of time online. I'm always shocked by how negative and muddled these tracts turn out. It's good practice, maybe. I'd like to take a bit more care, in general but especially in thinking/being 'logical' (whatever that means). This coming week I would also like to spend less time on social media, and more time reading etc. This was, again, a negative post which is not what I've been feeling all of the time recently. I have, to be fair, been feeling a lot of fear and boredom, which is a mixture I hate. Still, there are interesting things in my day all the time, and I (hopefully) am getting closer to a consistent approach to things (gratitude in unknowing). At any rate, I love ya and I'll see ya soon :)

[trustfallwithgod]

Day (Lost Count) - Practical Tips on How to Abide in Christ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. - John 15:4

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free - John 8:31

 the devil himself is always attempting to sift us shake us and so we must pray daily as Jesus taught us: “deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13). We need to remind ourselves that Jesus does not leave us to ourselves. Even though He commands us to abide in him—and we are responsible to abide there, He primarily does the work of keeping us there. Proof 1:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:27–29) Proof 2:

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me. . . . While I was with them, I kept them in your name . . . and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 17:11–12) Proof 3: Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32).

Jesus prayed for Simon’s keeping, saying, “When you have turned” not “If you turn.” God’s answer to Jesus’s prayer was "Yes. Simon will falter but he will not fail after sinning by denying Jesus." Hence, he was not cut off from the vine. We are not idle in the battle to abide in Jesus. But it ultimately does not depend finally on us: No one can snatch us out of Jesus's hand. This crucial stage in the life of a Christian involves suffering

Pruning means to be cut. Our "branches" are being cared for (to make us maximally fruitful) both by internal life flowing to us from the vine and by a vinedresser, who with his very painful scissors or saw cuts us and hurts us, so that by these painful providences in life we experience the fullest possible impact of the inner life of Christ. The whole design of our not being the vine, but being utterly dependent branches grafted into the vine, is to give glory to God.

His promises when we abide: The Fruits

 When we dwell in God’s presence and remain in His Word, we experience His power and peace.

His truth uproots misconceptions and confusion as we remain in God’s Word. He prunes any wayward thoughts and prepares the soil of our hearts and lives to produce good fruit. 

As we abide in Christ and as Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly…” the fruit we produce will be lasting and also affect those around us.

[mbakiezariealfonso]

The Power of Personal Branding

As an individual working in sales, I continuously find myself in awe of the creativity and ingenuity of marketers. They possess the remarkable talent of fashioning something truly compelling out of what appears to be a simple product. The most exceptional marketers not only captivate our intellect but also enchant our emotions through their advertisements. Mr. Dean Aragon once emphasized in one of our class sessions in 'Issues and Trends in Business Management: CEO Series' the profound impact of these emotional features in marketing.

I found this session incredibly captivating as it gave me a unique glimpse into the world of one of the industry's top marketers, Mr. Dean Aragón, also recognized as Shell’s Global ‘Brand Guy’. It's truly inspiring to witness someone's passion radiate through their words. I could feel it, even through the lenses of my 13" laptop screen. One of the valuable insights I gained from Mr. Dean pertains to the concept of differentiation and its significance. Mr. Dean emphasized, "It is intellectually impossible to be preferred if you are not sufficiently differentiated," which resonated deeply with me. As a consumer, I am drawn to products that offer unique features or exceptional value, whether in terms of price or quality. This consumer behavior extends to personal branding, prompting me to reflect on what sets me apart from others. This thought-provoking statement made me consider how I can distinguish myself in my life, in school, in my relationships, and in all aspects of my personal and professional journey.

In relation to this, he also introduced that each of us have distinct superpowers that distinguish us apart. We can maximize our talents by identifying and emphasizing our strengths. This is the power of marketing in your personal life - finding and promoting your unique traits in all aspects of life. Whether in our employment, relationships, or personal lives, properly using our superpowers can lead to opportunities that match our particular strengths and desires. Embracing our strengths enables us to achieve success and fulfillment.

Moreover, Mr. Dean's words of wisdom that resonated with me the most were, “You need to be curious” if you want to be in a higher position. He emphasized that the beauty of today’s technology is that you can access knowledge for free. He advised knowing your stuff thoroughly and committing to understanding the details of your business, sector, organization, and processes if you aim to climb the corporate ladder to roles like CEO or GM. Every detail matters, much like the saying from Mulan’s emperor, “a single grain of rice can tip the scale.” You can be intelligent and inspirational, but shallow knowledge of the business components won't suffice. You need to know your stuff inside and out.

Furthermore, Mr. Dean stressed the importance of curiosity not just in our careers but in all aspects of life. This curiosity is one of his key traits. He also spoke about the value of paying it forward—repaying those who helped you and also helping others. True success, he noted, lies in being a net giver rather than a net taker.

These insights from Mr. Dean are truly motivating and have given me a lot to reflect on regarding how to apply these principles in my personal and professional life.

[notebooknebula]

Ascend Your Success In Real Estate with Alex Pardo & Jay Conner

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Alex is also the Co-Founder of Holiday Mastermind, which was created to unite entrepreneurs who are passionate about go-giving, and enhancing their businesses, all while doing so in a world-class setting.

Alex is the host of the Flip Empire Show, a top-rated podcast designed to help anyone achieve financial freedom through real estate investing.

The show was launched in 2016, features industry thought leaders, and covers a variety of topics like entrepreneurship, real estate investing, marketing, team building, systems and automation, personal development, vision building, and more.

Through his businesses, masterminds, coaching, and podcasts, Alex can fulfill his purpose of helping others achieve Freedom, while passionately living his vision with his family

Timestamps:

0:01 - Raising Private Money Without Asking For It

0:46 - Jay’s New Book: “Where To Get The Money Now” - https://www.JayConner.com/Book

2:00 - Alex Pardo, The Flip Empire Show (Podcast): https://www.FlipEmpire.com/podcast

5:10 - What makes you give up your wholesaling business?

9:18 - Describe how you felt when you made that decision to make a change.

10:44 - What is giving you a sense of fulfillment now?

13:51 - Why is it important to have a vision? How do you figure out your vision?

18:02 - Alex Pardo’s Vision in Life

21:26 - Do you agree that it’s more challenging to find deals in today’s real estate market?

26:49 - Alex Pardo’s best advice.

rivate Money Academy Conference:

Free Report:

Join the Private Money Academy: 

Have you read Jay’s new book: Where to Get The Money Now?

It is available FREE (all you pay is the shipping and handling) at

What is Private Money? Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner

Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. He maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $67,000 per deal without using his own money or credit.

What is Real Estate Investing? Live Private Money Academy Conference

YouTube Channel

[umichenginabroad]

Week 6 - Kiwi Chronicles

G’day folks! 

New Zealand, my god.

It was everything I had hoped for and so so much more. More than I could ever put into words. But it’d be a shame not to try… Here’s my week:

On Tuesday we hopped off AJ Hackett’s Nevis Bungee jump. Standing from a suspended cable car over a ravine nearly 140 meters or 450 feet above the rocky stream below. The world’s first bungee jumping company gave us an experience that makes my palms sweaty just thinking about it. 

The pounding Pitbull tunes… then the count down, 5,4,3,2,1…

Goodbye Queenstown: We began our last day here with a last-minute booking at the spa pools of Onsen for a relaxing hour to reminisce on all that had already happened and all that lay ahead for us.

After checking out of our hostel, we made our rounds through downtown Queenstown, shopping and renting the food and gear that could get us through the upcoming camping excursion. New Zealand has twelve “Great Walks”, these are typically multi-day hiking trips that span all parts of the north and south island. We decided to follow Kepler Track located outside the town of Te Anau. It is a three-day, two-night, 60 km Great Walk that cuts through the Fiordland National Park. 

The food list was focused on maximizing calories while minimizing cost, space, and required prep. This meant a lot of canned meats, rice, wraps, peanut butter, and jelly. 

We drove to the trailhead and assembled our packs, making judgment calls on clothes, food, tents, and who carries what. Finally, we set off with two hours of sun remaining.

The trail unraveled into a living canopy of moss and streams that felt at times like a set on Lord of the Rings. We made it to the camp with a little time to spare, just enough to get our tents up and bring our food supplies to the bench. Cooking in the dark was no easy feat. But the whispers of the company, hushed music, and countless stars outlining the night sky above kept us working through the night.  

Thursday: the best hike of my life.

We woke up, slept in a little late, and got to work immediately. Even so, we didn’t end up heading off until around 10:30. This day's hike is 13 miles long but with all of the Kepler Track’s change in altitude. The first part of the hike was a climb up through the canopy. From there we took a gruelling climb up and over multiple mountain peaks over five hours. Some of the most stunning natural views I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t recommend this hike more. Everyone we met on the way greeted us with a smile and salutation. We did get a “you’re not even close�� early on in the hike when we first got above the canopy but other than that the other hikers were overwhelmingly encouraging and friendly.  

We had our first encounter with the Kea, a large majestic bird native to the area that the rangers and locals treat reverently. In fact, at one stop, a ranger told us that it was our job to get out of the way of the Kea rather than to shoo it off. Of course, 30 minutes later this exact situation happened when we left our bags at the base of a scenic lookout that branched off the hike. We came back down to find a Kea picking around and investigating our packs. 

After hiking for over 11 hours we made it into camp just as the sun was sinking below the mountains. We broke our group into those setting up camp and those cooking food. But, much to our dismay, we found that we had left a night’s worth of canned chicken in the car. Luckily, we overpacked in other areas so our dinner instead became rice and a handful of tuna cans with some ripped-up lunch meat sprinkled in with some all-purpose seasoning. Pack more than you think you will eat!

That night I was awoken several times to rustling and scratching, I looked outside to see both a Kiwi and a Kea making concerted efforts to break into our tents. A few slaps on the tent wall were enough to send them running, but not for long. In the morning the damage was assessed and the kiwi had broken through the netting in two areas and the Kea had ripped a hole into the side of the tent near our heads.  YOIKES. The tents were of course rented so we swore to find sewing materials when we got back to civilization. 

The Kiwi in question the morning after.

Our last day of the hike was another 13 miles but with pretty much flat ground the whole way until we emptied out on the parking lot we left in the beginning. In some ways, this day was the worse of the two, Joe and I had rented hiking boots that really didn’t fit and they left us swimming in the boots so the promises of blisters from the night before were in full bloom for the last day. But nonetheless, it was a stunning and memorable day in its own right.

What did I learn from the backpacking adventure?… Bring more food than you think you’ll need, bring a sponge for cleaning dishes, and you are likely overpacking clothes: bring one core outfit with options for layering and spare underwear and socks. And prepare for the bold wildlife!

The next day we unanimously decided on no hiking, instead we hopped on the Te Anau boat to the entrance of New Zealand’s Glow Worm Caves. The tour took us into the caves and, once deep enough, took us on smaller boats that were guided in the pitch dark, other than the cosmic-like glow from the clusters of worms. The bioluminescence was breathtaking and fascinating to learn about its evolutionary origins. 

We weren't allowed to take photos but here's a decent one I found online:

After the tour, we had some time to kill in Te Anau so we ran a load of laundry at the local laundromat, walked through a nearby art gallery, and purchased some souvenirs to memorialize this trip. Across the board, every local we met carried a gentle, relaxed disposition with a passion for dry humor. 

That night we set up camp at the Cascade Creek camping grounds, the nearest camping spot to Milford Sound. It got much colder than we had initially bargained for and the three-person tent we were all huddled in while we were still up became everyone's bed for the night.  

The next morning everyone woke up laughing over how they swore their night of sleep was worse than everyone else’s. Not doing that one again. We packed everything up and set off for the boat tour at Milford Sound. 

After the stunning ride through the glacier-made channels, we made our way to the start of our final hike, Gertrude Saddle. It’s hard to exaggerate just how beautiful our final hike was. We walked under golden grass growing off the sharp mountainside cut only by the aqua-colored streams coming from the lake placed in the “saddle” of the mountain. On the way down we thought the lake looked like a great spot to cool off...

That night we had previously planned on camping at the same grounds but we had enough and frantically looked for last-minute accommodations for seven. Our search brought us to an Airbnb apartment back in Queenstown for the night.

We said goodbye to two of our companions and set off for the day’s adventures. Our first stop was jet boating. It’s essentially a Mario Kart-like drift through the surrounding rivers. It was thrilling, but it admittedly got old after the first 30 minutes.

Next up was river boarding, essentially boogie boarding with a wetsuit and helmet in grade three rapids. Everyone had a blast and the trip actually ended with us sharing a pint at a nearby bar with one of our instructors Pav.

This trip has been memorable and greater than my already high expectations. There was nothing like being on the ground looking up at the steep mountains and into the starry sky. The group was reverently silent more often than any group I’ve been a part of. If any of this peaks your interest I cannot recommend visiting this beautiful country enough.

Take care everyone,

Grant Touchette

Aerospace Engineering

University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia

[asksampugh]

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