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perseverantdt · 2 years ago

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How ChatGPT was Trained

Moving to the actual training, we can look at OpenAI's paper about how they trained GPT-3, which can be found here. Since InstructGPT, and ChatGPT by extension, is based on GPT-3, we can find some insights on how they were trained by seeing how GPT-3 was trained. It is important to note, though, that ChatGPT uses GPT-3.5 rather than GPT-3. While GPT-3.5 is considered a subclass of GPT-3, OpenAI does not classify GPT-3.5 in GPT-3, and there's likely a reason for this. Unfortunately, I could not find this reason. If anyone knows this, let me know.

Continuing the train of training architecture, GPT-3 is "trained with the same model and architecture as GPT-2". In the paper which details out GPT-2 is trained, which can be found here, GPT-2 was trained using a web scrape made by OpenAI which focuses on data quality. Called WebText, this web scrape "only scraped web pages which have been curated/filtered by humans". Interestingly, OpenAI used Reddit as a starting point for WebText, as "filtering a full web scrape would be exceptionally expensive".

OpenAI writes in the GPT-2 paper the training model used for that series. However, this is where my lack of expertise shows. I'm having a hard time understanding the details of this training model, and I am not going to read 4 additional papers to fully understand the intricacies of how GPT-2 was trained. For those who want to look deeper into that, this is what OpenAI says about how GPT-2 was trained.

We use a Transformer (Vaswani et al., 2017) based architecture for our LMs. The model largely follows the details of the OpenAI GPT model (Radford et al., 2018) with a few modifications. Layer normalization (Ba et al., 2016) was moved to the input of each sub-block, similar to a pre-activation residual network (He et al., 2016) and an additional layer normalization was added after the final self-attention block. A modified initialization which accounts for the accumulation on the residual path with model depth is used. We scale the weights of residual layers at initialization by a factor of 1/√N where N is the number of residual layers. The vocabulary is expanded to 50,257 [tokens]. We also increase the context size from 512 to 1024 tokens and a larger batch size of 512 is used.

Source: Language Models are Unsupervised Multitask Learners (openai.com)

If anyone knows exactly what this means, feel free to chime in.

Going back to the GPT-3 paper, OpenAI outlines the datasets used to train GPT-3. These include:

A Common Crawl dataset, filtered using a classifier based on WebText, Wikipedia, and their web books

WebText2, an expanded version of WebText

Two internet-based books corpora

English-language Wikipedia

Given that ChatGPT does not know anything beyond September 2021, I can confidently say that OpenAI used a filtered version of CC-MAIN-2021-39 as the CC dataset for training GPT-3. CC-MAIN-2021-39 is the dataset that Common Crawl released for their September 2021 crawl. The original dataset contains 97 versions of Archive of Our Own's website and more than 12 thousand entries under the /works endpoint. This endpoint contains every story in Ao3. That count is not an exhaustive count. I'm sure that 12921 entries only accounts for the first block of data that they retrieved with my query. It wouldn't be an overreach to say that every single chapter that was posted before September 2021 is most definitely in CC-MAIN-2021-39.

And it's not like this was a new thing. Common Crawl has been crawling the web since 2008, with CC-MAIN-2008-2009 being their very first dataset. I don't remember exactly when AO3 included the option for writers to hide their works from web crawlers, but if you posted a chapter before that option was released, it's very likely that Common Crawl has it in CC-MAIN-2023-14, their latest dataset for March/April 2023. If a search engine can find your work, Common Crawl certainly can.

Conclusions and Speculations

Knowing all that, we can say that OpenAI uses/will use prompts to fine-tune text completion models that they are developing. With how fine-tuning works, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that ChatGPT is included in this list of models that they're fine-tuning. Plus, as someone who is actively using ChatGPT, I can see that it is constantly improving over time. I have a prompt that I sent to ChatGPT a month ago which it consistently lost context on the next message. However, that same prompt now remains in context in the next message as of today. This is a clear indicator that some level of fine-tuning occurs behind the scenes. However, having prompts used for fine-tuning does not mean that those same prompts will be used as basis for its responses. It has to be trained on those prompts. Fine-tuning will only improve the quality of its responses. It won't learn anything new through that.

As proof, ask ChatGPT, without using any form of browsing plugins nor providing it with any context, about any of the following. These are topics which either should have received quite a lot of prompts on ChatGPT by now or are famous enough to be in multiple websites, all of which have most definitely been crawled by Common Crawl. And yet, by virtue of its training dataset having a cutoff date of September 2021, I can guarantee that it will not be able to tell you anything about them. If it does, it is most likely a hallucination. Try it again and see if ChatGPT returns the exact same thing.

.NET 7: This is a version of .NET that was released in November 2022. Its first preview version was released February 17th 2022.

discord.py 2.2.3: This is the latest version of discord.py as of me writing this. The latest version before September 2021 is 1.7.3, released on June 13, 2021.

Stranger Things Season 4: The first set of seven episodes was released on May 27, 2022. The second set of two episodes was released on July 1, 2022.

Harry's House by Harry Styles: This is the third studio album of Harry Styles, announced on March 23, 2022. It was released on May 20, 2022.

As to whether they use prompts to train their models, there's not much for us to definitively say yes or no. There's arguments for and against that notion. On one hand, their prompt dataset is a treasure trove of writing samples. It contains all kinds of writing styles, contexts, and other information valuable when training text completion. On the other hand, it is also filled with prompts with improper grammar, typographical errors, potential misinformation, and various other garbage. It could be filtered out, and they've said that they do filter training data. How they do that is very much a blackbox, but with how they filtered Common Crawl for GPT-3, I'm inclined to believe that they at least have that covered. They could easily do the same with their prompt dataset.

After seeing one-too-many posts about how sending prompts (stories, specifically) to ChatGPT allows it to use that prompt to base its response on, I decided to look into what really happens when someone prompts ChatGPT with something. I looked into the various policies that OpenAI adheres to, as well as the various blog posts they've made on their website. Even without knowing what goes on in the blackbox that is ChatGPT, we can still figure out quite a lot about what OpenAI does with user prompts.

It's extremely nuanced, and I would like to invite everyone to read this in full, just to know what happens to their prompts. I won't try to convince you that you should or shouldn't use ChatGPT. This isn't the purpose of this post. This is just meant to be an informative text about the stuff that most people wouldn't know about.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an expert in large language models, nor in machine learning in general. Moreover, parts of these may be inaccurate as I do not have access to OpenAI's internal systems. All of these are inferences based on their policies, papers, and the assumption that nothing extremely shady happens behind closed doors.

TL;DR: Prompts you send to ChatGPT gets used to fine-tune their text completion models. Because of how fine-tuning works, it's not a stretch to say that this includes ChatGPT. However, ChatGPT cannot learn from your prompts, as it is not being trained on those. If you provide it with writing through a prompt, it won't be able to replicate that writing style permanently. On the other hand, it is possible that text completion models in training are being trained from your prompts. This is not explicitly stated, but it is plausible that they use a filtered version of their prompt dataset to train their text completion models.

Training LLMs With Prompts?

What Happens to Prompts

Let's take a quick look at ChatGPT and the company behind them, OpenAI. Reading into their Terms of Service, they outright state that whatever data you send them gets used to train their large language models (LLMs). In their words:

We do not use Content that you provide to or receive from our API (“API Content”) to develop or improve our Services. We may use Content from Services other than our API (“Non-API Content”) to help develop and improve our Services. ... If you do not want your Non-API Content used to improve Services, you can opt out by filling out this form. Please note that in some cases this may limit the ability of our Services to better address your specific use case.

Source: Terms of use (openai.com)

Now, what exactly is it that they consider as API and Non-API Content? This is actually pretty straightforward. If you head over to OpenAI's API Playground, you can have a look at what they consider API content. If you're using the API Playground for your completions, that is considered API content. Whenever you use their API, OpenAI bills your account depending on your usage. This is likely the reason why API content is an opt-in when it comes to data collection. On the other hand, prompts and responses from ChatGPT, is considered non-API content. OpenAI does not bill you for using these services. Although ChatGPT Plus is a paid subscription service that gives access to more functionalities, the use of ChatGPT is completely free. As such, your prompts to ChatGPT get used to train their LLMs, even if you paid for ChatGPT Plus.

OpenAI's Privacy Policy states exactly which kind of information they collect from you. Reading into them, there's nothing noteworthy about them. I'm not going to say that them collecting "your name, contact information, account credentials, payment card information, and transaction history" is some sort of danger. These are the usual kinds of data that any company with some form of online payment will collect. As stated in their privacy policy, these are data that you provide when "you create an account to use our Services or communicate with us". When pertaining to prompts, they explicitly state that they "may collect Personal Information that is included in the input, file uploads, or feedback that you provide to our Services". As such, it is important that when you use ChatGPT (or any text completion AIs for that matter), you do not include any identifying information in your prompts.

OpenAI's API data usage policy states that they retain API data (that is, user prompts) for 30 days "for abuse and misuse monitoring purposes." We can assume that this is their policy for data that does not get used for model training. As for data that gets used for model training, OpenAI does not explicitly state how long they store them. The only thing they say about such data is that they "only keep this information for as long as we need it to serve its intended purpose". This is written in their blog post about how ChatGPT and their other text completion models are developed. Given that such data needs to be stored long-term to be usable for model training, I think we can safely assume that these kinds of data are stored essentially forever. If such data is no longer necessary or useful for training, then they might remove it from their systems. Whether they do so isn't something I can confirm or deny.

#do-not-reblog-yet

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bardic-tales · 2 years ago

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🍇 I want to get to know your work better

🍈 Your pairings are totally shippable

🍉 Your use of all five senses is phenomenal

🍊 I want to meet your characters IRL

🍋 Your descriptions are transportive

🍌 I want to pick your brain about your creative process

🍍 Your writing has taught me something new

🥭 I want to buy your book the moment it hits shelves

🍎 Your world-building is incredible

🍏 Your cast is super diverse and exciting

🍐 I want to read everything you write

🍑 Your vocabulary is astounding and helps me expand my own

🍒 I want to visit the world you’ve created

🍓 Your work inspires me

🥝 I want to see your story made into a movie or TV series

🍅 Your emotionally-charged scenes feel real and engaging

Hello. Thanks so much for sending this in. This really made me smile today and almost made me cry as you copied the entire list. I hope your day is going well.

I also apologize with how late this is. I was on vacation from social media.

I'm going to put this beneath a read more.

🍇 I want to get to know your work better

Thank you for wanting to know more about my work. I am a dark fantasy author who has been writing for more than a decade. For my WIP, I have three: Cold as Ice, Flight of the Dragon, and Pale Fire.

I have a few other WIPS that are floating around in my mind: mainly one based on a Dullahan and another that would take place during an event like Halloween Horror Nights involving a serial killer. But I know that I need to focus on the WIPs that I want to finish first. The others can be worked on at a later date.

I typically write in past tense and third person limited.

My inbox is always open if you have any questions or are curious about something.

🍈 Your pairings are totally shippable.

I really love hearing this. When I am creating pairings, I try to create the relationships as realistic as possible. My characters will have their ups and downs, but they will support each other.

I'm curious. lol. Which pairing did you have in mind?

🍉Your use of all five senses is phenomenal.

As silly as it sounds, I try to envision how I would feel and react in a scene. This includes all five of my senses.

🍊 I want to meet your characters IRL

I am thrilled that you would want to meet my characters. I've spent so much time honing their personalities so that they would come across as relatable.

Out of curiosity, do you have preference of which ones you would like to meet?

🍋 Your descriptions are transportive

I'm glad that you choose this one. I feel as if description is one of my strong suits in regard to writing. I haven't been placing so much description in my newest work, but I am grateful that you enjoy them.

🍌I want to pick your brain about your creative process

This is actually a hard one for me. My creative process changes on whether I know what to write about or not.

If I am unsure on the details, but I decided to write a specific novel, I will start to watch documentaries, play games, or read a book or magazines. I've even been known to draw inspiration from a trip to a museum.

Then, I go on from there.

🍍 Your writing has taught me something new.

I always love to hear this. Other people have taught me new things on here too.

🥭 I want to buy your book the moment it hits shelves.

I do plan sell Cold as Ice, as well as the proceeding final trilogy. I don't know if I am going to go the traditional publishing route or self-publishing for that. Each has its pros and cons.

Regardless of what I decide, I'll announce it on here.

🍎 Your world-building is incredible

This means so much to me. I have been worldbuilding the Planes of Existence since 2009. It started off with a small project and grew to where it is today.

I have many details that I am planning to share with everyone over the course of my time on Tumblr. I also participate in the weekly writeblr ask games. My inbox is always open to if you have any questions about my worldbuilding.

🍏 Your cast is super diverse and exciting

I try to make my characters as diverse as possible. I like that that is coming through. It does take me some time as I tend to spend a lot of time researching and talking to people who are represented in my novels.

🍐 I want to read everything you write

This means a lot to me. While I plan on selling the Dark Savior trilogy and any proceeding novels, I plan to publish the Flight o fthe Dragon trilogy and Pale Fire on my Wattpad: bardic-tales.

I also have a fan fiction that I have been working on over there. It's based around the Star Wars game: the Old Republic. I don't mention it much as this Tumblr is for my original writing.

I am also working on a Discord for artists and writers to share their work. I'll be posting in the channels there, so be on the lookout for if that would interest you.

🍑 Your vocabulary is astounding and helps me expand my own

This means alot to me as I have aphasia. It will often take me a long time to write anything as I struggle to find the words. Even answering asks can take me several hours.

I've read a lot of books within many different genres over my years to expand my own vocabulary. If I'm writing a period piece, I try to find articles and dictionaries that include words from that time period.

🍒 I want to visit the world you’ve created

This is so wonderful that you want to visit the Planes of Existence. A lot went into building the world to make it as realistic and gritty while maintaining the elements of dark and epic fantasy.

If you don't mind me asking, what makes you want to visit Cirel and the Planes.

🍓 Your work inspires me

Again thank you. This means a lot to me. There are many writeblrs on here that inspired me also.

I enjoy reading what you share on the writeblr event days.

🥝 I want to see your story made into a movie or TV series

This is awesome. I was talking to a good friend and my husband about Cold as Ice. They called it Game of Thrones meeting Lord of the Rings. That couldn't be truer.

I was inspired by Tolkien and the breadth of his worldbuilding in Middle Earth. I try to do a fraction of that for my world.

If any of the WIPS were made into visual media, it would have to be on something like HBO as it is gruesome at times.

Does it have any particular media that they remind you of?

🍅 Your emotionally-charged scenes feel real and engaging

I'm glad that you find my emotionally-charged scenes real and engaging. I pride myself in making my readers feel along with my characters.

#tumblr games #nl answers #about nl

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stephenmccull · 4 years ago

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To Free Doctors From Computers, Far-Flung Scribes Are Now Taking Notes For Them

Podiatrist Dr. Mark Lewis greets his first patient of the morning in his suburban Seattle exam room and points to a tiny video camera mounted on the right rim of his glasses. “This is my scribe, Jacqueline,” he says. “She can see us and hear us.”

Jacqueline is watching the appointment on her computer screen after the sun has set, 8,000 miles away in Mysore, a southern Indian city known for its palaces and jasmine flowers. She copiously documents the details of each visit and enters them into the patient’s electronic health record, or EHR.

Jacqueline (her real first name, according to her employer), works for San Francisco-based Augmedix, a startup with 1,000 medical scribes in South Asia and the U.S. The company is part of a growing industry that profits from a confluence of health care trends — including, now, the pandemic — that are dispersing patient care around the globe.

Medical scribes first appeared in the 1970s as note takers for emergency room physicians. But the practice took off after 2009, when the federal HITECH Act incentivized health care providers to adopt EHRs. These were supposed to simplify patient record-keeping, but instead they generated a need for scribes. Doctors find entering notes and data into poorly designed EHR software cumbersome and time-consuming. So scribing is a fast-growing field in the U.S., with the workforce expanding from 15,000 in 2015 to an estimated 100,000 this year.

A 2016 study found that doctors spent 37% of a patient visit on a computer and an average of two extra hours after work on EHR tasks. EHR use contributes to physician burnout, increasingly considered a public health crisis in itself.

Before COVID-19, most scribes — typically young, aspiring health professionals — worked in the exam room a few paces away from the doctor and patient. This year, as the pandemic led patients to shun clinics and hospitals, many scribes were laid off or furloughed. Many have returned, but scribes are increasingly working online — even from the other side of the world.

Remote scribes are patched into the exam room’s sound via a tablet or speaker, or through a video connection. Some create doctors’ notes in real time; others annotate after visits. And some have help from speech-recognition software programs that grow more accurate with use.

While many remote scribes are based in the United States, others are abroad, primarily in India. Chanchal Toor was a dental school graduate facing limited job opportunities in India when a subcontractor to Augmedix hired her in 2015. Some of her scribe colleagues also trained or aspired to become dentists or other health professionals, she said. Now a manager for Augmedix in San Francisco, Toor said scribing, even remotely, made her feel like part of a health care team.

Augmedix recruits people who have a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent, and screens for proficiency in English reading, listening comprehension and writing, the company said. Once on board, scribes undergo about three months of training. The curriculum includes medical terminology, anatomy, physiology and mock visits.

Revenue has grown this year, and his sales team has grown from four to 14 members, Augmedix CEO Manny Krakaris said. Sachin Gupta, CEO of IKS Health, which employs Indian doctors as remote scribes for their U.S. counterparts, projects 50% revenue growth this year for its scribing business. He said the company employs 4,000 people but declined to share how many are scribes.

Remote scribe “Edwin” gives internist Dr. Susan Fesmire more time, freeing her from having to finish 20 charts at the end of every day. “It was like constantly having homework that you don’t finish,” she said. With the help of “Edwin” — Fesmire said he declines to use his real name — she had the time and energy to become chief operating officer of her small Dallas practice. Edwin works for Physicians Angels, which employs 500 remote scribes in India. Fesmire pays $14 an hour for his services.

Doctors with foreign scribes say notes may need minor editing for dialectal differences and scribes may be unfamiliar with local vocabulary. “I had a patient from Louisiana,” said Fesmire, “and Edwin said afterward, ‘What is chicory, doctor?’” But she also praised his notes as more accurate and complete than her own.

Kevin Brady, president of Physicians Angels, said their scribes start at $500 to $600 per month, plus health care and retirement benefits, while senior scribes make $1,000 to $1,500 — middle-class family incomes in India. Employers are required to provide employees with health insurance, although many scribes are contractors, and the job site Indeed.com says the average salary for a scribe in India is $500 a month. Scribes in the U.S. get about $2,500.

Remote scribing is still a small part of the market. Craig Newman, chief strategy officer of HealthChannels, parent to ScribeAmerica, the largest scribing company in the U.S., said that the firm’s remote scribing business has increased threefold since the pandemic’s outset but that “a large majority” of the company’s 26,000 U.S. scribes still work in person.

It’s a highly unregulated industry for which training and certification aren’t required. The service typically costs physicians $12 to $25 an hour, and studies show scribe use is linked to less time on patient documentation, higher job satisfaction and seeing more patients — which can mean more revenue.

For patients, studies suggest scribes have a positive or neutral effect on satisfaction. Some have privacy concerns, though, and state laws vary on whether a patient must be notified that someone is watching and listening many miles away.

Only 1% of patients refuse a remote scribe when asked by physicians at Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, said Dr. David Ting, the practice’s chief medical information officer. His group, an IKS Health client, always seeks patient consent, Ting said.

Scribes aren’t for everyone, though. Janis Ulevich, a retiree in Palo Alto, California, declines her primary care doctor’s remote scribe. “Conversations with your doctor can be intimate,” said Ulevich. “I don’t like other people listening in.”

Some patients may not have the opportunity to decline. With limited exceptions, federal laws like HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, don’t require doctors to seek a patient’s consent before sharing their health information with a company that supports the practice’s work (like a scribe firm), as long as that company signed a contract agreeing to protect the patient’s data, said Chris Apgar, a former HIPAA compliance officer.

About one-quarter of U.S. states require all parties in a conversation to agree to be recorded, meaning they require a patient’s permission. Some states also have special privacy protections for certain groups, like people with HIV/AIDS, or very strict informed-consent or privacy laws, said Matt Fisher, a partner at Massachusetts law firm Mirick O’Connell.

Remote scribing also raises cybersecurity concerns. Reported data breaches are rare, but some scribe companies have lax security, said Cliff Baker, CEO of the health care cybersecurity firm Corl Technologies.

The next step in the trend could be no human scribes at all. Tech giants like Google, EHR companies and venture-backed startups are developing or already marketing artificial intelligence tools aimed at reducing or eliminating the need for humans to document visits.

AI and scribes won’t eliminate physician burnout that stems from the nature of the health care system, said Dr. Rebekah Gardner, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University who researches the issue. Neither can take on burnout-driving EHR tasks like submitting requests for insurance company approval of procedures, drugs and tests, she said.

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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To Free Doctors From Computers, Far-Flung Scribes Are Now Taking Notes For Them published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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cutebeam · 7 years ago

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hi! I'm kinda new to jpop but i kinda want to escape kpop and jpop seems to be just as exciting. i only know Faky well and i do know the names of the big girl groups in Japan but not many songs by them are familiar to me. Do you mind making me a short list of groups and songs for newbies and maybe a website where I can get the latest news or something? Thank you!

☆(yooooo!!! it’s the first ask in 2018 and it’s this exciting!!! would you believe!!)

anyway, coming straight to the point...

as you can see i absolutely LOVE Hello! Project groups, they are really easy to listen to and have excessive international fanbase (compared to other acts), so you will find news about them without trouble. As for now Hello! Project consists of:

Morning Musume (’18) - literally group that is 20 years old. They started in 1997 as five members, then kept adding new ones, while previous members were quitting (or graduating, if we keep the jpop vocabulary). As for now we had 41 members over 14 generations (a generation is made when members are added - the number of members added at once varies from 1 to even 4, but 15 person lineup is maximum).The biggest hits they had include: love machine, koi no dance site, ren’ai revolution 21, happy summer wedding, aruiteru, one two three, wagamama ki no mama ai no joke. there are so many good songs for them, so if you want to know more, send me another message, i don’t want to flood it there...

Angerme (formely known as S/Mileage) - they are also generational, but they started in 2009 as 4 members. Since then, only one original member left is their leader Wada Ayaka. They had so many good songs lately, but i personally love Umaku Ienai, Dondengaeshi, Mahoutsukai Sally and Taiki Bansei. The member Sasaki Rikako is part-filipina!

Juice=Juice were touring south america lately and they have many foreign-inspired songs such as ca va? ca va? and fiesta! fiesta! and also their dream road is a gem!

Country Girls - are the group i personally love, but they become something like holiday-unit, since 2 members decided to focus on their studies, and 3 others were transferred to other groups (the ones i already described). But they are still active since like 1999 (with yearly-long hiatuses but still!). From the newest generation i personally adore ALL their songs, so here you got the playlist.

Kobushi Factory and Tsubaki Factory - they are the newest groups, so they are just starting, esp Tsubaki. But i recommend Dotsukoi! Kenkyo ni daitan, Sakura Night Fever, Kobushi no Hana, for Kobushi and for Tsubaki - Hatsukoi Sunrise, Uruwashi no Camellia, Shuukatsu Sensation.

So it’s Hello! Project. For keeping up with them the best site you can find is hello-online.org and for translations projecthello.com also there’s helloprojectwikia, so if you want to learn about their history and find some trivia, it’s a go-to.

AS FOR NON-HAROPURO.

I personally love Keyakizaka46, they are part of Sakamichi Group, which are produced by the same guy who created AKB48, which you might heard about, since they are doing the Produce48 with Mnet, lmao. Anyways, Keyaki are quite young, since they debuted last year and CREATED A FREAKING BLAST in Japan, so i think every song they released was a hit? There are currently 43 of them, and 23 are in kanji keyaki (the main group), others are in hiragana keyaki. Songs that i’d recommend, include: Silent Majority, Sekai ni wa Ai shika nai, Shibuya Kara PARCO ga Kieta Hi, Futari Saison, Otona wa shinjitekurenai,Bokutachi no sensou, Fukyouwaon, Eccentric, Kaze ni Fukarete mo.The thing about Keyaki is that you can’t view the original videos from their official yt channel if you don’t have japanese proxy. So the views on links i provided are way lower than what you’ll see on their original, japanese-targeted channel.

AKB48 - are legends, and you can find anything ALL48 related on stage48 and their wikia. Biggest hits include: Heavy Rotation, Koisuru Fortune Cookie (they performed it on MAMA this year lmao), and my personal fav, Kimi Wa Melody, Kuchibiru ni Be my Baby, Ue Kara Mariko.

PASSPO☆ - they are... flight attendant themed group, like i’m not joking. Their leader is named Captain, sub-leader is Chief Purser... really. But they are also a band!! Like full-time band, not the sub-unit kind (ex. AOA Black). The best songs in my opinion are Mr. Wednesday, GPP, Bachelorette wa Owaranai, 7′s Up, Perfect Sky.

And last, but not least, my little kiddies from Team Syachihoko, who started as local idols, but then expanded and are doing budokans now?? How??? I love E-Kurashi, J.A.N.A.I.C.A., Shampoo Hat, Ultra Cho Miracle Super Very Power Ball and Cherie! I posted performance videos where i could, simply because 3BJunior (their agency) has anti-lipsync policy and they are always doing shows live HOW???

Lastly, if you want to get to know other groups, there’s jpop-idols.com, they provide you with music-related news and have quite the database about idols. As for downloading, it’s a pain in the ass, but if you can use torrents, then go to aidoru-online, there’s everything you wish for.

I hope it helped and sorry for such a long reply!!

#ask #anon #jpop #morning musume #angerme #juice=juice #country girls #kobushi factory #tsubaki factory #keyakizaka46 #akb48 #passpo #team syachihoko #Anonymous

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dinafbrownil · 4 years ago

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To Free Doctors From Computers, Far-Flung Scribes Are Now Taking Notes For Them

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/remote-scribes-taking-notes-for-doctors-electronic-health-records/

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haab-blog · 5 years ago

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Advancing Computer Vision by Leveraging Humans

vimeo

Abstract: Historically, humans have played a limited role in advancing the challenging problem of computer vision: either by designing algorithms in their capacity as researchers or by acting as ground-truth generating minions. This seems rather counter-productive since we often aim to replicate human performance (e.g. in semantic image understanding) and we desire humans to communicate with vision systems (e.g. in image search, or for training the systems). In this talk, I will describe my recent efforts in expanding the roles humans play in advancing computer vision.

In the first part of my talk, I will describe our recently-introduced “human-debugging” paradigm. It allows us to identify weak-links in machine vision approaches that require further research. It involves replacing subcomponents of machine vision pipelines with human subjects, and examining the resultant effect on overall recognition performance. I will present several of our efforts within this framework that address image classification, object recognition and person detection. I will discuss the lessons learnt and present subsequent improvements to computer vision algorithms inspired by these findings.

In the second part of my talk, I will present our work on allowing humans and machines to better communicate with each other by exploiting visual attributes. Visual attributes are mid-level concepts such as “furry” and “metallic” that bridge the gap between low-level image features (e.g. texture) and high-level concepts (e.g. rabbit or car). They are shareable across different but related concepts. Most importantly, visual attributes are both machine detectable and human understandable, making them ideal as a mode of communication between the two. I will present our work on discovering a vocabulary of these attributes in the first place and on enhancing the communication power of these attributes by using them relatively. We utilize attributes for a variety of applications including improved image search and effective active learning of image classifiers.

Speaker: Devi Parikh is an Assistant Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech (VT), where she leads the Computer Vision Lab. She is also a member of the Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems (VaCAS) and the VT Discovery Analytics Center (DAC).

Prior to this, she was a Research Assistant Professor at Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC), an academic computer science institute affiliated with University of Chicago. She has held visiting positions at Cornell University, University of Texas at Austin, Microsoft Research, MIT and Carnegie Mellon University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 and 2009 respectively. She received her B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rowan University in 2005.

Her research interests include computer vision, pattern recognition and AI in general and visual recognition problems in particular. Her recent work involves leveraging human-machine collaborations for building smarter machines. She has also worked on other topics such as ensemble of classifiers, data fusion, inference in probabilistic models, 3D reassembly, barcode segmentation, computational photography, interactive computer vision, contextual reasoning and hierarchical representations of images.

She was a recipient of the Carnegie Mellon Dean’s Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Outstanding Reviewer Award at CVPR 2012, Google Faculty Research Award in 2012 and the 2011 Marr Best Paper Prize awarded at the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). Likes: 1 Viewed:

The post Advancing Computer Vision by Leveraging Humans appeared first on Good Info.

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automaticvr · 6 years ago

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vimeo

#GlitchGoddess of Art Basel Miami 695, in Reddish Wireframe Archival Digital painting on aluminum with print-triggered, Chronometric Sculpture, Augmented Reality App on iOS and Android app, with Audio. Media: 3dCG modeling and rendering, Motion Capture, Animation, print, sound, and augmented reality. 35" X 50" By Marjan Moghaddam 2019 In-app recording from targeting to launch #GlitchGoddess was born through my #arthack Net Art project on Instagram which started in 2016. She was derived from #GlitchedOdalisque at the Whitney (2017), and then gradually evolved until her final iteration in "Kavanaugh Haunted My Frieze London #Arthack" (2018). She was simultaneously a feminist response in the #Metoo era, and also a digital intervention as a 21st century style of figuration alongside other #digitalbodies in my art practice. Last December, #GlitchGoddess and #GlitchedOdalisque both appeared in my Art Basel Miami hack as feminist intervention with voices of women artists complaining about inequality in the art world. This hack then went viral, with over 3.6 million views on my Facebook page, and another 1.5 million views on Arts In Paris Page. In my digital art practice, I deal with Glitch as a conceptual element and an aesthetic one, representing how the digital alters the physical, and can expand on it. #GlitchedGoddess glitches existing ideas of the female as defined by a single body type, and its associative meaning. Employing the plasticity of the digital through animation, she morphs from skinny, heavy, buff, slender, pregnant, to stylized, and even abstract, in defiance of the idea that the nude in art is a singular body type. Last November she appeared out of a Fractal Niche wall print, as an animated Augmented Reality app, for the #EnamoredArmor exhibition at Rowan University gallery. As identity expands exponentially through the possibilities of the virtual, humanity is re-engineered in ways that go beyond the physical. In this way the digital becomes an art historical intervention, and her appearances in my #arthacks are part of my primary mission of creating this collection as a disruption. To hack is merely transgressive, but to do so with a critical discourse is transformational. In this version the print image is derived from frame 695 of the Art Basel #arthack, and the animated chronometric Sculpture AR is set to a stream of consciousness voiceover with women complaining about their bodies and also inequality. Many of the comments on these voiceovers were taken from comments that appeared on the viral video by women from across social media, in this way expanding and crowdsourcing the digital art through net interaction. The wireframe background resembles quilting when examined up close, a craft form ascribed to women in multiple cultures and in various eras, while simultaneously suggesting the digital and the virtual. My glitched #digitalbodies also utilize aesthetic styles that I have evolved since the 1990s in my CG practice, as part of a figural vocabulary that explores the evolving nature of humanity. They can be seen in various collections that I have exhibited since. Some of these figures have been covered in Fractal dermal pigmentation (1990s), been aggregated out of platonic primitives, or digital kitbashing, constructed as energy (2009-2016) or as morphing continuous forms, indicating various ways that our hybrid physical and digital lives have changed us. Since 2008 I have been using Motion Capture in addition to other channels of animation starting with Scab (Siggraph CAF and Best of 2009), culminating in an aesthetic and conceptual style that I have since termed as Chronometric Sculpture. Using Motion capture, pose-to-pose-animation, simulations and dynamics, this technique blends the aesthetics of animation with that of sculpture, drawing from an art historical repertoire in addition to contemporary CG and cinematic influences. These figures remind us, that every aspect of our experience is now glitched as they push against a backdrop of late stage capitalism, patriarchy, economic and social injustice, and Climate Change, in a bid to define this century, just as early modernism did with the last.

#Vimeo

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ecl461teachingwhoiam · 6 years ago

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Vanuatu - My library project

On a teaching placement in Vanuatu in 2018, I came across my school’s library, which had been locked and unused since a Cyclone had torn through the school in 2015. The library was filled with donated books, primarily from Australia and New Zealand. The neglect of this space disheartened me and was where I learned a truly cherished lesson on my values as this became my personal project for my trip.

Fig 1: Ifira Library, closed since Cyclone Pam, 2015

Cleaning this library space became of utmost importance to me, and my supervising mentors on the trip repeatedly asked me why I cared so much. They were dubious at me taking on such a large project in my short time there. Nevertheless, it became a personal mission to see this space useable by my students. At the time, I had no clue why I was so determined to complete my mission, until reflecting on my decisions made me realise the significance that reading has had on my vocabulary, as the language skills model of English encourages ‘teaching such language skills in a meaningful social and cultural context’ (Thomson 2009, p. 13).

Fig 2: Cleaning the library with a broom

Fig 3: Cleaning the library with the help of my year 9 students

Fig 4: The new, cleaned and (mostly) organised Ifira library

I was so proud of myself and the students. Once the library had been cleaned I couldn’t wait to bring the students in for a lesson. The particular lesson I taught that day was not ground-breaking. I let the students pick whichever book they were drawn to, and to simply discover and explore. Many students picked up encyclopaedias, fiction and non-fiction books, chapter books and picture books, and began to discover their own interests. There were no limits to the type of book they were able to pick up. I was equally as amazed by the excitement of exploration. The students were intrigued by my personal enthusiasm, which invited a rhetorical perspective, where through a dialogic approach I emphasised the importance of a balanced power dynamic in classrooms and viewing the teacher as another interested reader, not the one who holds the answers (Andrews 2009, p. 42). I asked them to complete one simple task at the end, which was to write down one thing that they had learned from that lesson. The answers were astonishing. Through this lesson I encouraged a ‘model of English which nourishes individual self-development, provides pleasure and opportunities for creativity and personal growth’ (Peel & Hargraves 1995, p. 45).

Fig 5: A lesson on the pleasures of reading

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2015) state that in the Year 7-10 English Curriculum, ‘students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment’, and ‘texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic’. Yet, there is little emphasis on enjoyment within the interpretations of the crowded curriculum as set texts often take precedence. Without realising it, reading wide and reading for pleasure was expanding on the Ni-Vanuatu students’ vocabulary and skills as writers and speakers of the English language, particularly as English is not many of the students’ first language. That day I learned the value of reading wide and reading for pleasure, not isolating skills of past and present tense, but within contexts (Thomson 2009, p. 9). In an Australian classroom context, I acknowledge that not all texts hold the same level of value, however, the role of value judgement must become a shared responsibility between the teacher and the learner (Thomson 2009, p. 9). This lesson was a favourite and one I will truly treasure, as I learned the simple value of enjoyment and pleasure increasing students’ skills as a text- participant, user and analyst (Freebody 2007, p. 25) within a classroom context.

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afrikaansislekker · 8 years ago

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Sinonieme

My sincerest apologies guys! It’s been a rough few months - my laptop got stolen AND I was in the middle of my mid-year exams. Now, V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N! (and a lot of studies, language wise).

I would love some feedback! Are the resources helping? Stuck on anything? Any suggestions? I would really love to hear from you guys.

As you know, there isn’t a lot of resources available, therefore most will be mashed together, bits and pieces compiled by me!

Where can I find synonyms to Afrikaans words?

(Spoiler alert: “Small part of my life”-story ahead). From experience, because my mother was crazy about crossword puzzles, I know you get a lot of books that help with this (MAKRO Blokraaiselwoordeboek, Pansegrouw, 2009, here). I know this is like, ‘uhmmm, but why? give us real resources’, but I really understand your frustration. This is just something small that can really help to expand your vocabulary.

What about Google Translate?

Burn it. Now. It helps to a certain extent, but as someone who’s a native Afrikaans speaker, no, it does more harm than good.

This is just something small, since I will most likely be posting daily for the next month or so.

Please, please share this with everyone you know!

______________________________________________________________

Ek vra opreg omverskoning, julle! Dit was `n rowwe paar maande - my skootrekenaar is gesteel EN ek was in die middel van my halfjaar eksamens. Nou, V-A-K-A-N-S-I-E! (en baie studietyd, taal gewys).

Ek wil graag terugvoering hê! Help die hulpbronne? Brand julle vas op enige iets? Enige voorstelle? Ek sal mal wees daaroor om van julle te hoor.

Soos julle weet, is daar nie baie hulpbronne beskikbaar nie, dus sal meeste klein stukkies wees, bymekaar gegooi, deur my!

Waar kan ek sinonieme kry vir Afrikaanse woorde?

[Ek besef nou eers daar is nie `n Afrikaanse woord vir ‘spoiler’ nie *facepalms*.] “Klein deel van my lewe”-storietjie oppad). Uit ervaring, en omdat my moeder mal was oor blokraaisels, weet ek dat daar baie boeke is wat hiermee help (MAKRO Blokraaiselwoordeboek, Pansegrouw, 2009, hier). Ek weet, ‘uhmmm, maar hoekom? gee vir ons regte hulpbronne’, maar ek verstaan julle frustrasie. Dit is maar net ietsie klein wat regtig kan help om julle woordeskat te verbreed.

Wat van Google Translate?

Brand dit. Nou. Dit help tot `n seker mate, maar met Afrikaans as moedertaal weet ek, nee. Dit doen meer skade as goed.

Die is net ietsie klein aangesien ek vir die volgende maand of so daagliks iets sal oplaai.

Asseblief, asseblief deel met almal wie julle ken!

#afrikaans #south africa #african #language #languages #learn #Learning Resources #Resources #langblr #newlanguage #study #studyblr

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bardic-tales · 2 years ago

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🍋🍎🍐🍑

Hello, Verba. I hope you are having a wonderful day.

🍋 Your descriptions are transportive

🍎 Your world-building is incredible

🍐 I want to read everything you write

🍑 Your vocabulary is astounding and helps me expand my own

🍅 Your emotionally-charged scenes feel real and engaging

Thank you so much.

I think my ability to describe is my strong suit when it comes to writing. It takes me hours to sit and create the atmosphere that I actually want to write.

As I have alphasia, this means so much to me. I'm always astonished when someone compliments my vocabulary as I'm always self-conscious about using the right world when I share snippets on here. Most of the things that I have shared haven't really been edited beyond a look through.

When I write an emotionally-changed scene, I try to think back and isolate how I felt with a similar emotion and go from there.

I've been worldbuilding the Planes of Existence universe since 2009. It has changed much since then, eventually expanding into what it is now. I would hate to think of how many hours I just spent worldbuilding as I tend to get lost in it.

This is a reason I'm using the Leviathan method, which focuses on making your outline first and building around it. It does help that I have reams of papers as well as a scrivener file to draw from.

It makes me smile to know that you want to read what I write. Flight of the Dragon and Pale Fire will be available for free on my Wattpad- Bardic_Tales. This account does have a SW fan fiction project I'm working on, too. I have two taglists that are set up for this purpose: my chaptered taglist and my one-shot one, which includes snippets of my WIPs. If you want, I can put you on them?

#nl talks #nl answers #tumblr games #lets talk shop

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nebris · 8 years ago

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Hitler's secretary, Christa Schroeder, with Hitler, 1939

I was Hitler's secretary

As Hitler's right-hand woman, Christa Schroeder had a unique insight into his intelligence, his temper, and his quirks. In this exclusive extract from her memoir, she describes her time at his side

by Christa Schroeder

7:00AM BST 26 Apr 2009

When replying to a tiny job advertisement in the German newspaper, Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten, I had no premonition that it was to determine the future course of my life.

It was 1930, and aged 22, I had just arrived in Munich from Bavaria, eager to explore a new part of Germany. The post was a secretarial one and I was invited by an unknown organisation, the 'Supreme SA leadership (OSAF)' to present myself in the Schellingstrasse. In this almost unpopulated street the Reich leadership of the NSDAP, the Nazi Party, was located at No. 50 on the fourth floor of a building at the rear.

In the past, the man who would later become Adolf Hitler's official photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, had made his scurrilous films in these rooms. The former photographic studio was now occupied by the Supreme SA-Führer, Franz Pfeffer von Salomon and his chief of staff, Dr Otto Wagener. Later I learned that I had been the last of 87 applicants. That the post was awarded to me, someone who was neither a member of the NSDAP nor interested in politics nor aware of whom Adolf Hitler might be, must have resulted purely from my being a 22-year-old with proven shorthand/typing experience who could furnish good references.

Once Hitler had become Reich Chancellor, stenotypists were requested to volunteer for the NSDAP Liaison Staff in Berlin. In March 1933 I arrived in the capital.

Tea with the Führer

After seizing power, Hitler had installed himself in Berlin's Radziwill Palace. His study, the library, his bedroom and later, alongside it, Eva Braun's apartment were all on the first floor.

Directly opposite the door to Hitler's study a couple of steps led to a long corridor, beyond which was the so-called adjutancy wing with the rooms for Hitler's aides. The first room was the Staircase Room (Treppenzimmer), where at least one of us would be permanently on standby, regardless of the hour, should Hitler need to give a dictation. Then came the rooms of Julius Schaub, Hitler's rather unprepossessing factotum, Dr Dietrich (Reich press officer), Sepp Dietrich (commander of SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Hitler's personal bodyguard unit) and Hitler's chief adjutant, Wilhelm Brückner.

If one descended the staircase beyond these one came to the so-called ladies' saloon, actually the reception room, to the left of which wing doors, always pegged open, led into the film room. To the right was the Bismarck Room, also known as the smoking room. The dining hall was next to it and annexed to the Winter Garden, which ended in a fine semicircular path. Breakfast was taken in the Winter Garden and in the afternoon Hitler held most of his talks strolling its length.

One day Hitler happened to pass the Staircase Room at teatime, saw us sitting there and asked if he might join us. This hour of easy chatter was so much to his liking that he later came to tea almost daily. The Staircase Room was a place where he felt unburdened and I always had the impression that what he said there came from a secret memory box which at all other times he kept locked shut.

He would often recall pranks played in late childhood, for example, the time as a 12 year-old when he wagered his classmates that he could make the girls laugh during a religious service. He won the bet by intently brushing his non-existent moustache whenever they glanced at him.

He also spoke of his mother, to whom he was very attached, and of his father's violence: 'I never loved my father,' he used to say, 'but feared him. He was prone to rages and would resort to violence. My poor mother would then always be afraid for me. When I read Karl May once that it was a sign of bravery to hide one's pain, I decided that when he beat me the next time I would make no sound. When it happened – I knew my mother was standing anxiously at the door – I counted every stroke out loud. Mother thought I had gone mad when I reported to her with a beaming smile, "Thirty-two strokes father gave me!" From that day I never needed to repeat the experiment, for my father never beat me again.'

Hitler's tailor

For Hitler, clothing was purely functional. He hated trying things on. Since he made lively hand and arm movements to emphasise points he was making in his speeches, and also liked to extend his body while strolling in conversation, especially when the subject was one which excited him and which he did mainly by raising the right shoulder, he had an aversion to a close fit. His tailor had to shape all uniforms and suits for comfort in this regard. This occasional raising of the right shoulder may have been due to the left shoulder being stiff. During the putsch of November 9 1923 Hitler fell to the pavement, dislocating his left shoulder. Dr Walter Schultze, the leader of the SA medical corps, could not convince Hitler to have it X-rayed. Hitler feared being 'bumped off' at the hospital. The shoulder was therefore never properly fixed and remained stiff ever afterwards.

'Imagine my face without a moustache!'

I found Hitler's eyes expressive. They could look friendly and warm-hearted, or express indignation, indifference and disgust. In the last months of the war they lost expressiveness and became a more watery, pale light blue, and rather bulging. One could always tell his mood from his voice. It could be unusually calm, clear and convincing, but also excited, increasing in volume and becoming overwhelmingly aggressive. Often it would be ice-cold. 'Ice-cold' or 'Now I am ice-cold' were much-used phrases of his. 'I am totally indifferent to what the future will think of the methods which I have to use,' I heard frequently. 'Ruthless' (rücksichtslos) was common in his vocabulary: 'Force it through ruthlessly, whatever the cost!'

Hitler's nose was very large and fairly pointed. I do not know whether his teeth were ever very attractive, but by 1945 they were yellow and he had bad breath. He should have grown a beard to hide his mouth. During the years of his friendship with Ada Klein, who worked on the Nazi party newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, he told her: 'Many people say I should shave off the moustache, but that is impossible. Imagine my face without a moustache!' and at that held his hand below his nose like a plate. 'My nose is much too big. I need the moustache to relieve the effect!'

'His face turned to stone'

Hitler set great store on hygiene. He bathed daily, often several times a day, particularly after meetings and speeches, from which he would return sweating. Harsh and inflexible as Hitler could be with others, he did not exempt himself. He would reject tiredness and would call upon endless reserves of energy. No wonder that the trembling left hand was such an embarrassment to him. The knowledge from 1944 onwards that he was no longer master of his own body was a heavy burden. When surprised visitors saw his trembling hand, he would cover it instinctively with the other. Yet to the end he remained master of his emotions. Should bad news arrive during a private conversation the only clue would be a movement of his jaw. I remember him receiving the report about the destruction of the Möhne and Eder dams, which flooded much of the Ruhr. As he read it his face turned to stone, but that was all. Nobody could have gauged how deeply the blow had struck him. It would be hours or days before he would refer to such an event, and then give full vent to his feelings.

Memory man

From his youth onwards Hitler had a great lust to read. He told me one day that during his youth in Vienna he had read through all 500 volumes at the city reference library. I was always amazed at how precisely he could describe any geographical region or speak about art history or hold forth on very complicated technical matters. In the same way he could describe with amazing detail how theatres, churches, monasteries and castles were built. The Oberbürgermeister of Munich, with whom Hitler enjoyed discussing the expansion and beautification of the city, related how surprised he was when Hitler recalled the minute details of a conversation they had had months previously. Hitler had reproached him: 'Six months ago I told you I wanted it done this way!' and then repeated word for word their conversation, a fact confirmed by architects Speer and Giesler post-war.

It is confirmed that from his youth onwards Hitler had the gift of an unusual memory, but his secret was that he trained and expanded it every day. He said that when he was reading he tried to grasp the essence of a thing and fix it in his mind. It was his practice or method during the tea hours and when chatting at the hearth over a subject he had been reading about to repeat it several times in order to anchor it more firmly in his memory. Despite the effort Hitler made to surprise people with his rich trove of knowledge, and to show them his superiority, he made sure he never let them know the sources of this knowledge. He was expert at convincing his listeners that everything he said was the result of his own deliberations and critical thinking. Nearly everybody was convinced that Hitler was a profound thinker, and a wonderfully sharp, analytical spirit.

Once I began working for him, I wanted to get the thing straight. One day Hitler launched into a philosophical dissertation on one of his favourite themes. To my astonishment I realised that he was reciting a page from Schopenhauer, which I had just finished reading myself. Summoning all my courage I drew the fact to his attention. Hitler, taken a little aback, threw me a glance and explained in fatherly tones: 'Do not forget, my child, that all knowledge comes from others and that every person only contributes a minute piece to the whole.'

Dictation with the dictator

Back in the Staircase Room I would wait on standby until a valet shouted through the wing door: 'The chief is asking you to come for dictation!' He would open the door to the library and shut it as he withdrew, hanging a notice on the latch: 'Do not disturb.' As a rule Hitler would be standing at or bent over his desk, working on the punch lines for a speech, for example. Often he would appear not to notice my presence. Before the dictation I would not exist for him, and I doubt whether he saw me as a person when I was at my typist's desk. A while would pass in silence. Then he would close in on the typewriter and begin to dictate calmly and with expansive gestures. Gradually, getting into his stride, he would speak faster. Without pause one sentence would then follow another while he strolled around the room.

Occasionally he would halt, lost in thought, before Lenbach's portrait of Bismarck, gathering himself as it were before resuming his wandering. His face would become florid and the anger would shine in his eyes. He would stand rooted to the spot as though confronting the particular enemy he was imagining. It would certainly have been easier to have taken this dictation in shorthand but Hitler did not want this. Apparently he felt himself as if on wings when he heard the rhythmic chatter of the typewriter keys.

The typewriter had its own mechanical noise. As Hitler would never be seen wearing spectacles in public, typewriters were later manufactured with 12mm characters so that he could read the script in public without glasses. The 'Silenta' brand machines had the advantage of typing quietly but the keys tended to tangle if one typed over a certain speed. Since Hitler did not – or did not want to – notice this and kept on dictating, this was naturally very unsettling for the typist and often made her very nervous. One became anxious that while unscrambling the keys a sentence might be missed and the text would not flow.

On one occasion I did not like the way he had phrased something. When I dared mention it, he looked at me, neither angry nor offended, and said: 'You are the only person I allow to correct me!' From the outbreak of war Hitler would never deliver a speech without a manuscript. 'I prefer to speak, and I speak best, from the top of my head,' he told me, 'but now we are at war I must weigh carefully every word, for the world is watching and listening. Were I to use the wrong word in a spontaneous moment of passion, that could have severe implications!'

The smoking ban

The day at FHQ Wolfsschanze had been as dull as any other. After dinner I saw a film in the hope of relieving my boredom, then I went to the officers' mess from where Hitler's manservant winkled me out just as I was getting comfortable. In the hope that the tea session would perhaps not last too long, I promised to return to the mess afterwards. Torn from a convivial environment, I now came to a Führer who wore a frown. I knew that he would be in a bad mood, for the situation at the Russian Front was not good.

Today's theme was that old chestnut, smoking. He would start out with special reference to narrowing of the arteries caused by smoking. How awful a smoker's stomach must look. Smokers lacked consideration for others, forcing them to breathe in polluted air. He had really toyed with the idea of outlawing smoking anywhere in Germany. The campaign would begin by having a death's head printed on every cigarette pack. 'If I should ever discover,' he often said, emphasising the depth of his antagonism to smoking, 'that Eva were secretly smoking, then that would be grounds for me to separate from her immediately and for ever.'

At that time I was a heavy smoker. Hitler said that because tobacco products were distributed to them freely, even young soldiers who had not been smokers previously had now taken up the habit.

They should be given chocolate, not cigarettes. Everybody nodded in agreement, but I, already in a rather spirited frame of mind from my visit to the officers' mess, chipped in and declared: 'Ah, mein Führer, let the poor boys (I might even have used the word 'swine' here) have this pleasure, they don't get any others!' Ignoring my idiotic outburst, Hitler went on to explain how nicotine and alcohol ruined people's health and addled the mind. Now I brought up the big gun and said, referring to photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, 'One cannot really say that, mein Führer. Hoffmann smokes and drinks all day yet is the most agile man in the shop.' At that Hitler clammed up.

Without another word he rose quickly and took his leave – 'ice-cold' and with an aggrieved expression, from which I finally saw what I had done.

Next afternoon when I inquired of the manservant in what mood the boss found himself today, Hans Junge gave a colleague and myself a long look and said that tea would be taken today without the ladies. Albert Bormann had been told to inform us officially. When I asked him, Bormann admitted in embarrassment that the boss was annoyed with me and would not be requiring the ladies' company at tea.

I no longer existed for him. It was to be many months before Hitler forgave my faux pas.

'You are sentimental'

In 1978, Henriette Schirach [the wife of Baldur Benedikt von Schirach, head of the Hitler youth and Reich Governor of Vienna during the Nazi occupation] reminded me of an encounter she had with Hitler on Good Friday, 1943. I remember that evening Eva Braun had sat at Hitler's right before she went upstairs, and to the left of Henriette.

While the other guests were talking, an argument developed between Henriette and Hitler, the subject of which was an occurrence in Amsterdam a few days previously. She had been awoken at night by an unusually loud disturbance and had watched from a hotel window as some weeping women were ordered forward across a bridge and disappeared into the night.

The next day she learned from her friends that this had been a deportation of Jewish women. She promised to bring the matter to the attention of Hitler, which she was now doing. Hitler answered her in a very brusque manner: 'Be silent, Frau von Schirach, you understand nothing about it. You are sentimental. What does it matter to you what happens to female Jews? Every day tens of thousands of my most valuable men fall while the inferior survive. In that way the balance in Europe is being undermined,' and here he moved his cupped hands up and down like a pair of scales.

'And what will become of Europe in one hundred, in one thousand years?' In a tone which made it evident that he considered the matter closed, he declared: 'I am committed by duty to my people alone, to nobody else!'

'He Was My Chief: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Secretary' by Christa Schroeder, introduced by Roger Moorhouse (Frontline Books, £19.99), is available from Telegraph Books for £17.99 + £1.25 p & p. Call 0844 871 1515 or visit www.books.telegraph.co.uk

WHO WAS CHRISTA SCHROEDER?

Working as Hitler’s secretary from 1933 until his suicide in 1945, the young Christa Schroeder never knew a private life. In 1938, she became engaged to Yugoslav diplomat Lav Alkonic. When Hitler refused to give his blessing to the liaison, Schroeder raised the possibility of leaving his employment. Hitler replied: ‘I would know how to prevent that.’ The engagement was broken off in 1941.

After the collapse of the Third Reich Schroeder was arrested by the US Army Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC). Initially convicted as a war criminal, she was later reclassified as a collaborator and released days later, on 12 May 1948. Dr Karl Brandt, formerly Hitler’s emergency surgeon, described Schroeder under interrogation at Nuremberg: ‘Clever, critical and intelligent, she had a turnover of work which no other secretary matched, often spending several days and nights almost without a break taking dictation. She would always express her opinion openly...and in time became sharply critical of Hitler himself. Her boldness undoubtedly put her life in grave danger.’ In civilian life, she worked in the metal and insurance industries, retiring at 59, and living in Munich until her death, aged 76, on 28 June 1984.

Christa Schroeder was never a National Socialist in the true sense: ‘I was told I had to join the Party since only NSDAP members could be employees. I suppose I went a few times to the big assemblies, but I felt nothing in common with the speakers or the masses and I must have appeared terribly stupid.’

An alternative view of her appears in a US Army intelligence report of May 22 1945: ‘Mr Albrecht… interrogated her. She was rather stupid, dumpy and an ardent Nazi.’ Schroeder wrote of this event: ‘After the interrogation was over, Lt Albrecht...had a very friendly conversation with me. When I expressed regret that my whole life, all the years, had been for nothing, he replied, “No, everything has a purpose, nothing is wasted”.’

Anton Joachimsthaler

@evahitler

#Adolf Hitler

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mastcomm · 5 years ago

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Luka Doncic Is Good, in Any Language

CHICAGO — After Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks revealed that Kobe Bryant hit him with some Slovenian trash talk from courtside during a game, admiration for Bryant’s linguistic versatility was a common reaction.

Bewilderment was another.

Bryant had long been known to speak Italian and Spanish in addition to English. What was never clearly explained: how or when Bryant managed to pick up a few unprintable words in Doncic’s native tongue.

Sasha Vujacic knew. One of the first Slovenians to reach the N.B.A., Vujacic played alongside Bryant for more than six seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers — and let’s just say he helped Bryant expand his vocabulary.

“Kobe and I connected in Italian from the very first day, but we would fight a lot in practice,” Vujacic, drafted by the Lakers in 2004, said by telephone.

“It was a big brother, little brother kind of thing,” Vujacic continued. “I would cuss him out in Slovenian or Serbian when I got mad. He would find that interesting that I didn’t back down. And then we would talk about it.”

Vujacic said he has struggled to talk about much publicly since Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. He turned down numerous interview requests over the past few weeks but agreed to this one after he was told it had been inspired by the brief but now well-chronicled interaction between Doncic and Bryant on Dec. 29 at Staples Center.

Doncic was preparing to inbound the ball for the Mavericks in the second half, right in front of Bryant and his daughter Gianna, when he heard things in Slovenian that he never expected to hear. Doncic turned around, spotted Bryant and shook the iconic Laker’s hand.

Six weeks later, Bryant is tragically gone. Doncic has since turned the background of his Twitter page into a tribute to Bryant and an encounter he called “something amazing.”

“It’s going to be one moment that I remember for the rest of my life,” Doncic said in an interview on Friday. “Obviously I was hoping there would be more times with him, maybe even practice with him some day, but a terrible thing happened.”

The opportunity for an up-close look at the Doncic phenomenon — and a chance to take pictures with him after the game — is what drew Bryant and his daughter to Staples that night. Although Doncic doesn’t turn 21 until Feb. 28, he is averaging 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.7 assists in his second season. He has quickly established himself as the new basketball darling in Dallas in the wake of Dirk Nowitzki’s retirement at the end of the 2018-19 season.

On Sunday, Doncic will become the third Maverick in franchise history, after Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, to start an N.B.A. All-Star Game. He’ll also become the youngest All-Star starter since LeBron James, who was also 20 when he started in 2005.

Vujacic has found that talking about the rising star from back home is a good way to try to detach himself from his sorrow over Bryant’s death.

“I think he’s the best player in the league, to be honest,” Vujacic said. “I love his demeanor. I love what I see in his eyes. His eyes talk championship.”

Over the top as some might find such praise, even for a fellow Slovenian, Vujacic is hardly the first to heap adulation on Doncic. The onslaught of positive reviews has meant that the three teams that could have had him at the 2018 draft — Phoenix, Sacramento and Atlanta — have been subjected to constant second-guessing. (Atlanta drafted Doncic third overall but only as part of a pre-arranged deal to trade him to Dallas for Trae Young, another All-Star debutante this weekend, whom the Mavericks took on the Hawks’ behalf with the fifth pick.)

Doncic, of course, has yet to appear in a playoff game. He has also missed 11 games this season after spraining his right ankle twice, raising fears that the injury will linger.

Doncic is shooting just 32.3 percent on 3-pointers and 76.5 percent from the free-throw line — two areas where he could clearly improve. He has likewise chided himself publicly about his penchant for arguing with referees.

So the 6-foot-7, 230-pound playmaker is hardly infallible.

But he is about to step onto one of the game’s biggest stages. In earning this summons to Chicago, and a starting spot in Sunday’s All-Star game, Doncic has strengthened his case to be perceived as one of the 10 biggest stars in the league, through both his popularity and his statistical production.

On Friday, at the request of N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver, Doncic appeared on a heavyweight panel at the league’s annual technology summit alongside the TNT commentator Charles Barkley, 10-time All-Star Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder, W.N.B.A. star Candace Parker and Vivek Ranadive, the owner of the same Sacramento Kings that selected Marvin Bagley rather than Doncic with the No. 2 overall pick in 2018.

Doncic also will get a chance to meet the former Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan in person for the first time after he signed a five-year sneaker deal with Jordan Brand in December.

“It’s everything I dreamed about as a kid,” Doncic said.

He returned to the Dallas lineup on Wednesday after a seven-game injury absence. Mark Cuban, the Mavericks owner, has been joking all week that Doncic would have played in the game “in a cast” if he had to in order to prove his readiness for the All-Star game on Sunday.

“He’s so excited,” Cuban said. “Especially to play on the same team with someone he looked up to like LeBron. I know this is important to him.”

Miami’s Goran Dragic is the only other Slovenian, of the 11 N.B.A. players born there, to earn All-Star status. When Doncic was 18, he and Dragic combined to lead Slovenia to the EuroBasket championship in the summer of 2017, to the shock and delight of a basketball-loving country of just 2 million people.

Doncic was only 5 years old when he and Dragic met. Dragic, in his second pro season, had joined the team Slovan for the 2004-05 campaign and played alongside Luka’s father, Sasha Doncic.

Luka was a ball boy for the team who, as Dragic tells it, could not put the ball down.

“He was just happy all the time — that’s what I remember,” Dragic said. “Even now he always has that smile on his face. He’s just enjoying, having fun.

“In this league you have a lot of unhappy players. I don’t know why, but sometimes they just lose that drive, that happiness. Luka is still young, but I feel like he’s never going to lose that.”

If Dragic was the N.B.A.’s most decorated Slovenian player before Doncic, Vujacic was the most successful from a team perspective, earning two championship rings as a role player alongside Bryant in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.

Vujacic joined the Knicks before the 2015-16 season and eventually played alongside two fellow Europeans who were big Doncic fans: Kristaps Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez. They were eager to feed him updates on the rising prospect.

Porzingis and Doncic, of course, are teammates in Dallas now. Daily exposure, not surprisingly, has given Porzingis, 24, an even higher regard for what the younger Doncic is doing.

“He’s just one of those, like, super talents,” Porzingis said. “He’s born with it. The way he plays, with his confidence, he just has it. It’s something you can’t learn. It’s something you have or you don’t. And he has it.”

Said Dragic: “Luka is huge. People don’t realize how big and strong he is. And he plays at his own pace. Nobody can rush him.

“You can see he never feels pressure. It’s always a game to him. That’s something rare.”

So rare that Dragic, even with the benefit of having watched Doncic from the beginning, said that things are coming together for him faster than anyone could have predicted.

In any language.

“It’s Year 2 and he’s already playing at an M.V.P. level,” Dragic said. “I always thought he’s going to do great things in this league, but if I’m honest, not so quick.”

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automaticar · 6 years ago

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jeremystrele · 7 years ago

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Marion Joseph · Associate Director, Media + Public Affairs, NGV

Dream Job

by Elle Murrell

NGV International on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, featuring the famed waterwall. Photo – courtesy of NGV.

Marion Joseph has been working her dream job as Associate Director of Media and Public Affairs at NGV since 2014. She’s pictured here with Holly McGowan-Jackson, Senior Conservator of Frames and Furniture, Conservation. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

NGV attracted six million visitors last year! Photo – courtesy of NGV.

Marion and Carl Villis, Senior Conservator of Paintings, Conservation. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

In the office with colleague Georgia Logan, Media and Public Affairs Officer. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Nick Cave soundsuit installed at NGV International. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Maz’z office details. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Maz with Tim Jones, Senior Publicist. Pictured with installed artwork for the current MoMA exhibition El Anatsui, ‘Bleeding Takari II’ 2007. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

The National Gallery of Victoria’s entry waterwall is truly magnetic. This captivating glass-and-running-water feature has been vividly etched in the minds of Australians and tourists entering its doors since 1968. And I’m sure you’ll agree, the urge to run a hand across it hasn’t diminished over half a century, no matter your age. Imagine if you got to encounter that gateway, and it’s promise of vast discovery, every day!

Marion Joseph gets to. But not only that, as Associate Director of Media and Public Affairs, she plays a pivotal role in attracting people to visit and expand their minds at this famed institution.

This RMIT Bachelor of Arts (Professional Communication) and Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) graduate has fit an impressive list of roles into her 33 years. While still studying, she sought out next-level internships, including just cold calling the BBC, and subsequently jetting off to London for six-weeks work (serendipitously taken on, thanks, in part, to the stellar reputation of another Aussie already employed by her responder!).

Marion also up-skilled through community newspaper roles, and later penned hard news and a shopping column for Leader Newspapers. She didn’t miss out on a live-abroad experience either, working in Singapore throughout 2009. Upon returning home to Melbourne, she juggled writing, publicity, and even a retail job too.

An advocate for just picking-up-the-phone or sending-that-email, Marion’s first formal interview actually came in response to an advertised Senior Publicist position at NGV. Since being hired four years ago, Marion has progressed to managing an inspiring team, and to her current role as Associate Director of Media and Public Affairs.

The diehard storyteller dishes on her passion for art, provoking wider introspection, and learning for a living. She also manages to group TDF in the same sentence as The New York Times (expect blanket NGV coverage from now on!!)

The most important word in the get-your-dream-job lexicon is…

Perseverance.

There’s a lot to be said for never giving up. If there’s a job you know you want (I had wanted to work for Harper’s Bazaar or Vogue since I was nine years old, and had collected books on fashion from a very young age to improve my knowledge) you must pursue it with single-minded determination. I spent a lot of time reading fashion criticism of my fashion writing heroes and studying their work. I also spent a lot of late nights in Singapore working on think pieces about fashion trends and movements, trying to find the right language and structure for those pieces, and ensuring I researched the subject matter as much as I could.

When I was living in Singapore my roommate asked me, ‘What job would you come home for?’ and I said managing the publicity team at the NGV, as it would combine my passion for creative writing and promoting the world’s best art, fashion and design. I think when you want something you just have to go for it until you eventually get there. And you definitely will get there with a focus on constant learning, honing your craft, being patient, and never giving up.

I landed this job by…

When I was at university I undertook internships at the BBC in London, the Melbourne International Motor Show, The Age, The Melbourne Times newspaper and Royce Communications.

A friend I’d made in a tutorial, with who I’d had great debates, was working at a community newspaper and recommended me for some casual writing jobs. This turned into a full-time contract at the end of university. After a couple of years, I moved to writing hard news at Leader Newspapers (based in Mornington and Northcote). For two years, I covered all kinds of topics, including a shopping column. I learned from some amazing old-school sub-editors – their vocabulary in writing headlines was incredible and their brutal editing taught me to be succinct and clear.

Another friend from university was writing about beauty for Harper’s Bazaar in Singapore and mentioned that a senior fashion features job was coming up. So I arranged to fly to Sydney to have a coffee with the Editor-in-Chief when they were in town. I was so nervous because that was the only job I ever wanted. But I was also super nerdy/obsessed and had spent a lot of time reading about designers, the history of design and engaging in online fashion forums. The Editor-in-Chief saw I had solid background knowledge and was passionate about the role beyond belief!

I ended up getting the position and working in Singapore throughout 2009. I had always wanted to live abroad and understand a different culture, plus I was given license to think about the zeitgeist of that time and relate those to fashion-focused features.

After a year, I wanted to come home to be closer to my friends and family. I was able to fill a maternity leave cover role at Leader Newspapers, writing lifestyle features on food, fashion and bars. At the same time, I also called Arts Centre Melbourne and did some publicity for them, as well as worked in a knitwear shop.

My Arts Centre Melbourne publicist role later became full-time and I worked there for two years before a friend notified me of an advertised opening for a senior publicist at NGV. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to promote the NGV Collection and the incredible blockbuster exhibitions. There are thousands of incredible stories to tell on a daily basis about the people and the practices behind the contemporary and historic art and design, and that is a veritable gold mine for a diehard storyteller.

The NGV application was the first I’d ever done, and I’d never had a formal interview before!

A typical day for me involves…

… meetings with artists, curators, and exhibition designers to find the stories within a particular exhibition and then communicating these to journalists, editors and producers. Most of the work is underpinned by constantly seeking out the ‘why’ of a story: why this exhibition, why now and why is this work particularly relevant, significant or fascinating?

There can be incredible backstories about how and why a work was painted, how it’s been conserved, as well as the personality of the artist and designer, and how the artwork came to be in the NGV Collection.

I remember telling David Hockney that I loved his iPad drawings of crystal glass teacups (I’m a big collector of teacups), he smiled and told me those came about because painting faceted crystal glass was very challenging, so he would constantly practice perfecting the depiction of crystal glass by drawing these teacups on his iPad! It is the little anecdotes like that, which are so deeply enriching and create lifetime memories! There are always so many stories and nuances behind each individual artwork, practice, and process.

A typical day also involves staging media calls, facilitating interviews between journalists and curators, preparing media kits for launches, creating content pieces and finding new and creative ways to get the message out about all of our stories.

The most rewarding part of my job is…

… learning for a living. My curiosity is satiated on a daily basis, by getting to delve deeply into the NGV’s collection and asking the NGV’s incredible staff about their knowledge of an artwork, art movement or artist.

It is an incredible privilege to have this kind of access into an artist’s/designer’s/curator’s world… to understand their work or a particular premise behind an exhibition, and what drives them.

It’s also deeply rewarding to see these important stories communicated to a wide public, as the work NGV does is so vital to the community. I think people come to the gallery more and more to see the contemporary art and design of our time and to understand the world we live in. So there is deep meaning in communicating these stories because they build connection and understanding of the world and our place in it. The stories behind the art can provoke introspection and shift our perspectives.

And in a changing media landscape, there are limitless opportunities to be creative in the way we communicate these stories via media. We can do a 360 film of the new floor-to-ceiling salon hang in our European 18th and 19th century galleries or we can live stream a media in conversation event with Ai Weiwei.

We have done some rewarding partnerships in recent times including with TDF and The New York Times, which have resulted in some very engaging talks presented at the gallery which delve into questions like ‘Can design make us happy?’ and ‘Can artists be agents of change?’.

I think there’s a desire for many people to ask deeper questions through the prism of art and design; there’s an appetite to understand how art and design can shape or reflect the world we live in and be a catalyst for very contemporary conversations about politics, race, identity, globalisation, and more.

On the other hand, the most challenging aspect is…

There are hundreds of stories behind every artwork, every new display, exhibition design and exhibition, all very worthy of being told.

And sometimes journalists will say ‘we can’t do every story Maz’ [editor’s note: sorry!!] So the challenge is always finding the right placement for a particular narrative at the right time. Ultimately, this is rewarding because eventually, all the stories find their rightful home.

The culture of my workplace is…

The NGV has some of the most talented, hardworking and intelligent staff who I’ve ever had the privilege of working with. They are all deeply passionate in their pursuit of enriching the lives of the public through the displaying some of the world’s best art and design.

My team inspire me on a daily basis. They are very bright, kind and curious people with exceptional work ethics and are all truly creative and engaged thinkers. Just this week, Georgia Logan and Isabella Radevski (who have junior positions in my team) presented their kids PR strategy to the curatorial team. It was so awesome to witness the growth of their ideas – their passion and intelligence blew me out of the water.

I am also always truly supported to think outside the box and be as creative as possible in finding new ways and platforms to communicate narratives.

The best piece of advice I’ve received is…

…“You don’t ask, you don’t get”. When I was a journalist I had some incredible mentors as editors who always encouraged me to grow as a writer and editor by constantly trying new things, writing features on different subject matter and generally widening my scope of reporting. I think the pace of newsrooms and their openness to new ideas has definitely helped me in my current role to constantly ask questions, expand and improve the way we communicate.

I always have huge respect for people who take a punt and just call or email. Make that contact because you never know when something will come up – consider the serendipitous circumstances of me securing an internship with the BBC because the person I contacted has a wonderful colleague hailing from the same country and university as I did, or even Georgia Logan just emailing me randomly. She became an intern, then a casual employee, and is now an invaluable part of our team.

The other piece of advice is to constantly read. I read as much news and as many features across myriad topics. I think this definitely helps with my writing and creative storytelling.

Over the years, NGV has…

… become an incredibly vital space for the community – you can come and experience pure joy or beauty through the art and design in the NGV Collection, understand contemporary life and times through a dynamic program of talks or reflect on the world quietly in our gallery spaces.

It is now a welcoming place for everyone to come and I think Melbournians are rightly very proud of it.

In the next five years, I’ll…

… travel more and see as much of the world’s best art and design as I can! And continue to find new and creative ways to tell stories and collaborate with like-minded people.

Marion Joseph is involved in promoting NGVs collection and blockbuster exhibitions, from The House of Dior to Andy Warhol x Ai Weiwei, and the current Masterworks From Moma: Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, on until October 7th.

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unschoolingfamily · 7 years ago

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What I Wish I’d Know When I Started Homeschooling

We’ve been homeschooling since 2009. During that time, a lot has changed. I’ve learned a lot and my children have taught me a lot. Here is what I wish I’d known back then:

1) There Is Only One Way Home Education Works.

Yep, you read that right. It’s the way that works for YOUR child! After years of trial and error, we discovered Liz requires structured learning and assignments. Sara? Open-ended and free-flowing learning. Both are on opposite ends of the learning spectrum and both are learning a ton!

2) Keeping Doubters In The Loop Is Important.

Remember, it is their fear that motivates them. Try creating a daily log update, or a weekly update, something that is encouraging and shows the learning. With Sara, when my in-laws didn’t quite understand why we were educating her at home, and without a curriculum, I made sure to take pictures every day and at the end of the month create a slideshow presentation showing her progress in all subjects. They loved that they had an update on their granddaughter and could see her learning subjects more in-depth than school and it gave them something to brag about at luncheons. For me, it showed a progress of learning which felt good to look back upon.

3) Prepare Yourself For Spontaneous Learning.

Sounds like an oxymoron, huh? Here’s an example: when going to the playground, I look up physics terms and explanations. I focus on only one or two because truthfully, I never took physics and my memory for it won’t be grand. While we are there, I introduce the concept, the vocabulary and the explanation – all while having fun. We also do an SAT word of the week. So Sara, who is 10, has a full vocabulary of large SAT words at her disposal in her conversations. If everything is learning, then learning is everything.

4) Keep Your Priorities Straight!

For some, that is keeping everything organized, for others, it’s making sure you enjoy the beautiful weather and allow the dust to gather for a rainy day, for another it is keeping up on the latest gaming updates. Remember to check in with yourself and your kids on a daily basis. Priorities change daily. Ask yourself and your kids what your daily goal is and check in at night to see if it was accomplished. If it wasn’t, did something happen to usurp that priority? Did it change? Why didn’t it happen and what could be done differently next to for it to be accomplished? Use small opportunities like that to introduce the concept of priority planning. It is a lifelong skill needed for almost every aspect of life, from bills to vacations.

5) You Won’t Feel Qualified and You Will Doubt Yourself.

Yep. It’s going to happen. You may doubt the curriculum. You will try things on and take them off. You will wake up in the middle of the night and think: “OMG! What am I doing?!!!” and fret all night long. That’s pretty normal. Forgive yourself and move on. If you are feeling that way, and if you keep a log, go back and look at it. That helps me. I keep a log of things completed each day because it makes me feel better. I grew up in a home/society that placed a high value on education and higher education. I’m stepping off that treadmill because it doesn’t work for my girls, but the old tapes sometimes come and bite me in the butt. The logs are for me and my sanity. (I like The Well Planned Day the best. It has 4 lines per day, per subject=lots of room for my girly handwriting.)

6) The Heart Of Your Child Will Direct You.

This doesn’t mean that they will always know what they want. When they first come home, if public schooled, they will be lost and irritable and confused. They will watch tv, disinvest and sleep a lot. Then, over time, their interests will arise. Sara, who’s never been to school, has no idea what she “isn’t supposed to do” and loves science. She is 10 and working on high school freshman science concepts. She learned to read 2 years ago but her ability to absorb the concepts is there. Liz loves artistic expression. She does a ton of artwork every week. She volunteers at an art studio. She is directed by her love for artist expression from blue hair and gauged ears to photography and watercolor. Each child is different and we use those differences to expand their world of knowledge.

7)The Habit Of Listening.

Listening isn’t done just with your ears. Listening is also done with the eyes. Reading body language. Listening to the unsaid word. Learning how to read body language is very important. I specialized in sales in my prior life and had to learn how to read body language in order to actually hear what was going on with a potential client. I use that same skill set with my children and husband. Arms crossed? They feel defensive. Voice changing in pitch? They may be lying (or going through puberty). Learn to read your child. You will be able to listen more and be in the moment with them.

8) It’s A Lifetime of Learning.

Learning isn’t just done when you finish a book. Maybe your child doesn’t want to finish a book you loved. Liz hated Lord of the Flies and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. I loved both. I had hoped to share them with her. Wasn’t her thing. Instead, she changed books, introduced me to some she loved and my world was expanded into a new genre of vampires and magic. Take each opportunity presented to you and learn from it. Keep your curiosity going! Lifetime learning has a benefit for all.

9) Blessing Of Time.

The greatest part of home learning for us is that it can happen at any time of the day! It’s a beautiful day out, we spend it outside exploring our world. Is it rainy? Let’s watch documentaries and snuggle. It’s 10 pm and suddenly Sara has an urge to do abacus math? Great! It’s midnight and Liz suddenly has an inspiration to write a story? Great! Time is our friend, not our enemy. There is no learning time because it’s all the time.

10) Family Unity:

This one can take some time to come into its own. It ebbs and flows in our home. Sometimes, Hubby feels on the outside because we girls spend SO much time together and he’s more like a visitor in our world than a pillar. That’s hard for him sometimes. Other times, our family unit is stronger because we do spend so much time together. Our communication is stronger. We know all the nuances which occur between one and other and can shift and adjust on the fly. Being together 24/7 can be a challenge. It requires dedication to open communication, honesty, and vulnerability. In the end, it’s worth it but it can be scary getting there.

Overall, since 2009, I feel learning at home, at all hours, has worked best for us. It’s not for everyone and that’s okay. The glorious thing about the U.S.A. is we have a choice to homeschool or not. Places like Germany, there is no choice. It is not allowed.

There will be good days and there will be bad. There will be days you jump up and down and exclaim: “They got it!” and there will be days you shake your head and wonder: “Will they ever get it?!” In the end, they balance out.

My best advice, dear Reader, is following your gut and follow your heart. Let those lead you down a new path, one customized just for you and your family. Read all you want. Research all you want if that makes you feel better. Enjoy YOUR education and lifetime learning experience. You see, lifetime learning isn’t just for kids anymore…it’s for everyone once you step off that edge and go for it.

#homeschooling #new to homeschooling #parenting #learning disabilities #LD #vision disorder #unschooling #child led learning #self directed learning

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