#it just... is easier on the brain when i can run automatic scripts for things fhfjdl

[dandyshucks]

i like thinking about the weird little quirks i have (gestures and phrases and whatnot) and how Guz would find them delightful and silly and endearing

[autistic-lalli]

I dont know how to properly frame my question, but autistic!lalli has always been a headcanon I readily claimed as canon in my heart because it MAKES PERFECT SENSE in my brain. But besides me, what I'd like to ask is what traits/habits/behaviors Lalli has that immediately clicked to you that he was autistic? Or showed that he was? Like, gush to me about them

(this is mainly so I can get better at writing him and also because I'm curious to know! Actually, SLAP me with EVERYTHING about Lalli, if you can 😂 I'd love to actually know everything)

This topic was also requested by @the-story-isnt-over-yet ! This post is for both y’all :)

I’m going to try to keep this organized, but we’ll see how successful I am. First up, I’ll talk through Lalli’s general traits, then the traits I picked out quickly and resonated with, and then I’ll touch on a couple other things that stand out to me!

Sensory Experience

Lalli repeatedly displays sensory-avoiding and sensory-seeking behaviors. He likes soft textures and sweets—he picks himself up a big ol’ fluffy cloak in Adventure 2, and his mind conjures him a nice and soft one in his dreamspace, and we all know how he feels about pastries. He’s always willing to eat sweets and breads, which suggests that Lalli has samefoods as well (samefoods are like a comfort food, but taken up to eleven; foods that always sound good, sometimes to the point that they’re the only thing an autistic person can eat.) It’s just a single line, but where Lalli tells Emil that he hates blueberries, it makes me think of a very specific picture (I’ll link it later if I can find it.) Blueberries, and other fruit, don’t taste the same every time! Some are sweet, some are sour, some are mushy, some are grainy, and some are juicy. When you don’t know what to expect from a food, this makes it hard to want to eat it, even if some aspect of the flavor is good.

But I digress! One thing that I resonated with right away with Lalli is that he clearly has sensitive proprioceptive awareness. That just means the sense of where your body is in space. When Lalli sleeps or hides under a bunk or table, he’s reducing his sensory input. Being in a small space is comforting because there’s less space to be aware of.

Lalli is also sensitive to touch, which is a fairly easy trait to spot. He doesn’t like the friendly punches the crew delivers, and even balks at Emil’s touch when he’s upset. There are exceptions, but those exceptions come at times when Lalli is calm and expecting the touch to occur.

And sound! Lalli doesn’t like loud sounds, in particular loud people (sorry, Sigrun.) This is a great place to talk about Lalli’s shutdowns. We don’t see Lalli experience meltdowns, but he does have a shutdown a couple times. Shutdowns are a response to stress and sensory overload. It looks different for everyone, and since it’s internal, it’s hard to tell how exactly Lalli’s shutdowns run. However, we see him cover his ears to block out sound and hum (“mrr!”) in order to calm himself down. He’s just trying to regulate his sensory experience. His humming is also an example of vocal stimming.

Social Difficulties

Lalli definitely has social difficulties, but it can be hard to tell which difficulties are due to the language barrier and which are due to his brain chemistry. But! Paying attention to the first part of the story, when he’s with all Finnish-speakers, as well as the dream sequences can really help us hone in on those traits.

Lalli, in general, doesn’t understand other people beyond what they say. He doesn’t understand body language or sarcasm—he doesn’t get why everyone’s punching him, he doesn’t know when Tuuri’s joking and when she’s serious, and he stares at Emil because he’s curious about him and doesn’t realize it’s impolite. He doesn’t notice when Emil is rude and doesn’t understand social scripts like saying “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” When he wants to express approval or comfort, he gives a soft pat to the other person. More touch than that might be too much for him, but he does want to express something, and pats are an excellent tool in that way.

Lalli’s inability and/or refusal to learn or use the crew member’s names also gives us insight to how Lalli faces social conundrums. To him, everyone else is more distinguishable by the epithets he gives them—their names don’t mean anything. It’s like naming someone “flower delivery guy” in your phone contacts instead of “Greg.”

Lalli also isn’t easily frightened. The only times we see him be really afraid is when someone he loves is in immediate mortal danger. The everyday stuff like trolls and omens don’t scare him, which is certainly in part just because he’s used to these things. Trolls and spirits are an everyday part of his life. But an unusual lack of fear is a common autistic experience as well, so I suspect it goes beyond Lalli’s accustomation.

Other Traits

A couple other things that didn’t fit into either of the former categories! First of all, the rubik's cube. That’s just autistic solidarity. Emil picked up a stim toy for his bf, we love to see it.

But also, Lalli relies a lot on his routine. That’s probably why the military, and scouting in particular, suited him. He has his own personal routine that is the same day in and day out. He tries to keep a routine on the expedition, but isn’t able to, which increases the amount of stress he’s under. Nothing is predictable, which automatically makes everything more stressful.

Relationships

I also think the dynamics of Lalli’s different relationships are super interesting and really highlight some things that aren’t often covered in media with autistic characters. It’s super heartbreaking the way Onni and Tuuri don’t seem to understand Lalli. Tuuri especially doesn’t understand why Lalli does the things he does, and doesn’t seem to make any effort to understand, which is sadly a common experience for many autistic people.

On the other hand, Emil’s reactions are the complete opposite. As I put it to a friend once, Emil often makes mistakes with Lalli, but he never crosses the same boundary twice. He lets Lalli have agency in their relationship. If Lalli has a boundary that inconveniences Emil, he doesn’t complain about it, he simply adapts. Lalli has very specific needs in his relationships, needs that are both unusual and difficult for him to communicate, so it’s far easier for him to just default to being a loner.

Me & Lalli

On a personal level, I have a whole lot of these traits. I stim with soft things, I’m sensitive to sound, I tend to be hypersensitive with my proprioceptive sense, I had to intentionally teach myself to read body language (I work as a theatre artist, which helped a lot,) I’m not easily frightened, I’m sensitive to touch and sound, and I certainly struggle socially. Furthermore, I actually had an untreated sleep disorder until about a year and a half ago, so I deeply resonated with Lalli’s chronic exhaustion.

Truth be told, I headcanoned Lalli as autistic from his introductory card, and I knew he was autistic within ten pages. Chronically exhausted and doesn’t know what’s going on? Mine now.

The Autism Metaphor

I talk about this some in my autism and superpowers post, but I really love that Lalli is both autistic and is living an autistic metaphor. It’s not uncommon for characters who can see or sense other things (ghosts, spirits, emotions, danger, etc.) to read as autistic, because that’s what autism often feels like. Our sensory experience is so distinct and we are so aware of it that it can feel like a superpower at times--in a good way and in a bad way. We’re living in a sensory world that a lot of neurotypical people don’t understand. Furthermore, these kinds of powers or sensitivities usually come with an isolating social impact in these stories, which only strengthens the metaphor for autism.

But Lalli has both actual autism and is a mage. He sees spirits and omens and can sense when trolls are near, and also is sensitive to sounds and doesn’t like to be touched. These things aren’t related to one another, but they all read as being in the same category, which both deepens the metaphor and makes him really interesting as an autistic character.

This is also why Onni readily reads as autistic as well. We don’t have as much direct evidence for him, and in many ways his trauma seems to run much deeper than it does in Lalli and Tuuri, so it’s hard to separate out what’s a trauma response and what’s an autistic response. Overall, I’m quite a fan of “no Hatakoinen is neurotypical,” but that’s a post for another day ;)

I’ll also be posting a panel or two of an instance where Lalli is displaying an autistic trait each day for the month of April!

[toomanyfandoms02]

Thoughts - Part 1 // Matthew Gray Gubler x Reader

This timeline is set around 2006 because that's when the actually 2nd season of Criminal Minds was going on. So Matthew is about 26.

Summary - Soulmate AU! Once you turn 18, you can hear some of your soulmates thoughts. And when you meet, your thoughts go silent for 30 seconds. Readers soulmate is quite the character. (Anything you see in bold is the other persons thought.)

Word count : 2.1k

This is kind of experimental lmao, lemme know if you like it :)))

"What was your first soulmate thought y/n?" I got this question often, everyone did. This time it was asked by a new friend of mine, we met in our cinematography class this semester at LAFS ( Los Angeles Film School ).

"I think my story is one of the more fun ones."

"I bet mines better." Her eyes held promise, but I wasn't sure she could beat me.

*It was currently 1:15 pm, and I was waiting patiently for my first soulmate thought. I was with my best friend Marley, we sat in the cafeteria of my college, mind you, surrounded by other people.*

*"What time were you born again?" She had asked the question so many times this hour, by the way she was bouncing, you would think that we were waiting for hers.*

*"1:19 pm for the last time Marley." I giggled, nudging her shoulder. I took a bite of the cupcake she had bought me for my birthday. It took no time for the clock to hit 1:19, I anxiously waited to hear something, anything.*

"Now disclaimer." I told my friend, who I now knew as Alex. "I knew that some people had reported that their first soulmate thoughts were kind of, *loud*. But I can tell you that I was severely unprepared."

*Only 30 seconds after my watch ticked past 1:19, I heard a near deafening screech in my head.*

***"What the fuck?!"** The thought was so obnoxious and loud that I spit the fluffy pastry from my mouth and directly onto the back of another person, holding tightly to my ears, this did not help.*

*"What's going on? What did they say?" Marley leaned over to me, rubbing my back with a horrified look. Not long after, the man I had spit on turned around with a furious look.*

*"Hey I'm so sorry." I choked out, waving a hand at the man. "My soulmate thought was painful." The man rolled his eyes with an angry huff, taking his cardigan off and turning back to his table.*

*"What did they say y/n?!" There she went again, bouncing like a dodgeball.*

*"What the fuck." My eyes darted to hers, narrowed slightly. She furrowed her brows at me. "He literally thought, what the fuck, so loudly."*

Alex was on the floor giggling like a fiend, she held her stomache as if her guts would spill out with so much joy.

"Nope, you're right." She could barely speak between laughter. "I can't beat that." She promptly wiped the tears from her eyes, composing herself. "So you haven't met him yet?" She let out a final sigh.

"Nope. When I meet him, I kinda wanna slap him." A sly smile made it's way onto my lips. "The little shit thinks the weirdest things! I have had to deal with his thoughts for 4 years, and I'm ready for the complete silent bliss when I meet him." I laid my head back on the couch.

**I would really like a fruit roll up right now.**

"Speak of the idiot, he really wants a fruit roll up right now." Alex shook her head at me.

"Maybe he will be funny?"

"We'll see about that. What was your first soulmate thought?"

-

Tonight was Marley and I's 'introduction night.' Similar to a movie night, we have a night every two weeks where we either introduce the other to a new show or movie, alternating turns.

"I think you'll like this one." She plopped onto the loveseat, nearly throwing and spilling the hot popcorn on me while grabbing the remote. "It's a crime show, just started last year so after this season we can just keep up with it. If you like it of course." The show was flipped onto the first episode, it was a man talking about an unsub, or unidentified subject. Then a younger guy walked in, interrupting him.

"Who is that guy?" The words flew from my mouth before I could even think them.

"Spencer Reid-"

"No, I mean his *real* name. He looks *so* familiar." It felt like my brain was eating itself alive, why did he look so familiar.

"I think his name is Matthew Gray Gubler." Marley shrugged, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Has he been in anything else but this?"

"He models a lot. That's probably where you saw him." She pushed some magazines around on her coffee table and threw one at me. "He's on page 16, Hilfiger Jean's." I flipped to the page, seeing his face again.

"Wow, he is something else. I must have just unknowingly saw him in a magazine somewhere."

"I know! Once I saw him on here, I knew you would think he was cute too. Plus, he's a genius. I figured this would be another Peter Parker situation again." She teased, poking at my giant crush on Spiderman AKA Toby Maguire a few years ago.

"Shut up!" I snickered, throwing a pillow at her head. My own thoughts were interrupted by one that was not my own.

**I wish Halloween would come faster.**

"Its literally May." I whispered to myself, earning a weird look from Marley. This is the typical weird thought, Halloween is big on his mind.

I of course ended up loving the show. ~~And may or may not have had a huge crush on Spencer Reid already.~~

I informed Marley that we would most certainly be catching up on the show regularly, making that out new weekly thing for a while.

Though I could truly not get that Matthew guy out of my head, and I had a weird feeling it wasn't just because I thought he was super hot.

Matthew

**Who is Matthew Gray Gubler?**

The thought nearly made me spit out my coffee as I walked through the set. I knew for sure that wasn't my thought.

*No shit sherlock.*

Now *that* was my thought.

The question swirled around in my head, I really wanted to just think,

*I'm Matthew Gray Gubler!*

Just to make this whole process easier. Who knows if she could even actually *hear* it if I did answer her, or that she would believe me.

So lost in my train of thoughts, pun intended, I ran right into a punch cart.

"Holy shit!" The punch came spilling down right onto my khaki pants. I rested my forehead on the rim of my coffee mug. "I'm so sorry Terry, I was really caught up in my head."

"It's alright." He pulled a towel from his back pocket, throwing it onto the puddle that was forming on the wood floor. "Thinkin' about a girl?"

"Yes actually, thinking about my soulmate. Let me help you with that." I kneeled down on the floor, wiping up the spill. "Sorry again."

"It's all good Matthew." He dragged the cart to the opposite side of the room.

**Why can I not focus damnit?! This trip is suppose to be fun. Focus y/n. Focus!**

Y/n! I've never heard her name before. Maybe shes getting closer to me.

I set my coffee on the table of the reading room, pulling my script out and sitting next to AJ.

"You seem out of it today, are you feeling okay?" She tapped my shoulder. "I saw you run directly into the lunch cart." She clearly tried to suppress a giggle.

"How did you meet Nathan? How did you do it?" My script was not slammed onto the table, my hands pressed firmly on top of it.

"Are you worried about soulmates again? Matthew, she will come to you-"

"She said my name!!" My hands flailed wilding in the air. "I heard her think it! This sucks." I laughed a bit at the end, feeling ridiculous and vulnerable. Ask phone buzzed on the table, interrupting my dilemma.

"Well I hate to stop you in the middle of this debacle, but we have a film class coming in to observe, I guess sit was suppose to be a surprise." AJ shrugged with a pity smile, which is my least favorite version of a smile. I dramatically slammed my head on the back of my rolling chair, groaning like a child.

"Come on Gubler, we don't even have to do anything, we just have to act normal so they can observe. Let's go educate some college kids." She stood above me, patting my head and dragging my seat from the table a few inches. I reluctantly stood up and left the reading room.

To be clear, if it were any other day than the day that I found out my soulmates name, I would be totally in the game. I love teaching people, I love being an inspiration, but all I could think about was how close yet how far I was from meeting the love of my life. I shook it all off, physically and mentally, while heading to the set.

*Time to get my head in the game.*

I hope my soulmate heard that and started thinking of highschool musical.

-

"Action!" I held my prop gun in my hand while following Shermar, he proceeded to kick a door down that had a camera on the other side to capture it. The class that was observing sat on the other side of the door, seeing all of the behind the scenes that goes on during filming.

To avoid making direct eye contact with the camera, I often look right past it. So instead of making eye contact with the camera, I made it with a girl.

Then it was silent.

I stopped in the doorway, leading AJ to slam right into me on her way through the door.

"What the hell are you doing Matthew?"

"Cut!"

**You have got to be fucking kidding me.**

We did not break our stare, her eyes wide now with the realization.

*Wow.*

The girl sitting next to her was shaking her shoulder violently, but she sat unfazed.

"Can you excuse me for a second?" Bobby Roth, our director for the day looked at me like I was dumb, inevitably giving in.

"Whatever, take 5 guys."

I immediately waltzed past the cameraman and over to, who I could only assume, was my soulmate. The girl next to her was promptly slapping her arm and squealing like a pig, but she was giving her quite the death stare.

*She's my kind of girl already.*

Right as I thought that, she looke duo at me with a large grin and a tilt of the head.

*Shit.*

**Damn, even cuter in person.**

"Thank you." I couldn't suppress the automatic pep in my step meeting her. "I'm Matthew, you must be y/n?" It came out as a question because I was worried I would be wrong, and embarrass myself.

Which I've done, many times.

"You know my name?"

"I uh, I heard you think it." I pointed to my head, nodding awkwardly.

"You are so weird." She laughed, which made my face reddened more 3x more than I'm sure it already was.

"What?" I managed to murmur out.

"Well, you just think about weird stuff, mostly Halloween though." She was slowly smiling more as she spoke of me, which made my heart skip a few beats. She was so much more beautiful than I had pictured her. Her eyes held every intelligent thought that I had ever heard from her, and I knew right then that the eyes were the door to the soul. "Now that I'm here," she finally stood to my level, poking at my chest. "Do you wanna do a couples costume? This year?" She did a cute half shrug, as if I would say no.

"Oh my God, you really are my soulmate." I pulled her into a hug, a tight one, never wanting to let her go now that I'd found her.

"Alright guys! Let's go!" Bobby motioned everyone back to the set.

"Yeah, get out there *Spencer*." She patted her hand on my cheek. I didn't know if I hoped that she *did* see or *didn't* see how much I already liked her on my face, but I could feel the admiration spilling from my features.

"I- I'll talk to you after this!" I stumbled backwards from her, going back to the set and awkwardly running my back into the cameraman.

"Can't wait!" She waved with a flushed face, sitting back down next to her friend who was now shaking both of her shoulders violently.

*This is the best day of my life.*

**Same.**

---------

I've got a few more Soulmat AU ideas if you want more! I just don't know if theres any demand, so LEMME KNOW.

[languagelearningcorner]

30 Days of Learning Persian

I started my langblr about three years ago as a side blog with no real aim (other than the fantasy of magically becoming fluent in my three targets). I'd kind of been coasting through, having bursts of studious diligence followed by long droughts that withered away all the knowledge I'd previously soaked up. So, during the early stages of the pandemic, I came up with a rigorous study plan for each target. The only problem was, I was getting too much information for too many different things. I also became so overwhelmed with studying so much that I ended up anxiously thinking about studying but not actually studying. Learning three languages at once at the same intensity was not possible for me, especially with everything else going in my life. It was a hard decision because I was (still am) afraid of regression in my other two targets. I also felt like everyone in the langblr community is effortlessly juggling two languages if not three at the same time. I had to let go of some of my pride and accept that I might experience regression in my other two. I made the decision to focus almost exclusively on one language for 6 months so I could really immerse myself, stay consistent and see proportional progress to the amount of time and effort I'm putting in before switching. I chose Persian because I felt it would be the one to suffer the most if I put it on the back burner. I know I’m only 1/6 of the way so far but I wanted to share my thoughts on my first month regarding all skills of language starting from where I feel like I've made the most progress to the least.   Before we get into it, though, I want to thank everyone who has been super supportive here on tumblr, both native speakers and language learners (either learning Persian or not), my tutor, and people in my life who know me and know that I love to learn languages. I started these “learning persian” posts for myself as a way to track my progress and hold myself accountable. However, they have turned into much more than just that and I’m really grateful to everyone who I’ve met through these posts. 🥰

Speaking (tot. ~30-40mins)

This has been night and day. Before my 30 days, I had met with my tutor a couple of times and I simply did not speak to her in Persian.  I was not ashamed of my accent but I was terrified of my grammar. Not having control, not sounding "intelligent" because I had (have, let's be honest) the sentence structure of a drunk 4 year old was really my biggest block to starting to speak. I think having a tutor really really helped in the long run. Though it took a while, it's been nice to have a model and someone who will just listen and instantly correct and teach. I am still very slow and often wrong but I know I will try and have a better idea of what I'm doing than before. 

Writing (tot. ~2hrs) 

My writing has always been fairly strong, especially in terms of orthography. Since I've gotten better at expressing myself, I've gotten much better at it in writing as well. I'm much more comfortable writing and writing longer, and comparatively more complex sentences on my own. I can definitely create much more complex thoughts and ideas with writing than when speaking. The only reason I didn't put this category first is that in comparison to before the 30 days I don't think that the difference is as much as with speaking.  

Reading (tot. ~10hrs)

Similar to writing, reading's always been an easier task. Over the 30 days, I have certainly felt an increase in fluidity and easier understanding (despite not knowing absolutely all the words). I'm increasingly able to use context clues to determine the meaning of words and overall meaning of the sentence. I used to see texts in Persian and feel my brain sort of glaze over it because I had a hard time registering the letters as words I could read (even though I could!). Now I can occasionally automatically lift certain words and even some simple phrases as I would when glancing at a page in latin script in a language I know.  

Listening (tot. ~23hrs)

I think I have a problem because this is probably the skill I spend the most time on but feel like I have made the least progress in. It's incredibly valuable and has definitely contributed to boosting all of my other skills except the skill itself. I struggle to fully grasp what I just heard, even "simple" things. Part of the issue is I do a lot of passive-ish listening. A lot of the material I consume does not have subtitles. A lot of the times, I spend a whole hour back to back just listening and it can be quite draining especially when I'm straining to understand  so I tend to lose focus quickly. Sometimes I also feel guilty because I hear an English cognate and can situate myself or I make use of the visuals to understand better. It makes me think that the only reason I could understand was because I “cheated”.

Overall, I know I have made so so much progress as compared to the last year I spent dabbling in Persian here and there. Sure, on paper, my level was a little bit higher; I could complete a lot of grammar exercises and knew how to form basically any tense. But using those concepts spontaneously and correctly when it mattered? Not a chance.  I still have a very long way to go and hope to continue to see progress over the next five months.  I will definitely be keeping some sort of updates on tumblr, hopefully in a more quantifiable manner and I also hope to transition to making or helping to make more resources. 

Thank you and happy studying!

[dream-journalism]

journal entry | 3-10-20 | regarding shifting

I feel like i’ve been close to shifting these past two days (like really close), especially the day before yesterday. I think that if I’d been persistent and resisted scratching my side (it was too much I was dying) maybe I would’ve been able to do it.

Unfortunately last night was a bit of a mess and didn’t go as well as it had before; I tried some new methods involving songs, but youtube ads had this really funny idea of wanting to completely take me out of the experience and then Spotify also did me dirty by automatically playing more songs than I had queued (and no, the queue wasn’t looped, so it wasn't that either). The setbacks made me feel super frustrated, which obviously didn’t help, so I decided to keep giving those methods a try some other day and went back to using the raven and sunni method combination, which (as I mentioned in a previous post) has so far worked the best for me and shown me the most progress. 

Now, there’s two aspects of this that I want to explore, firstly it’s why I think I’m getting close, what have I noticed that changed? What’s different? What am I doing right? And the second one is why I feel like I haven't shifted yet, what am I missing? What am I doing wrong?

-

As for what I’m doing right, I feel like the Raven/Sunni method combination is working the best and most efficiently, and think I should stick to that one until I manage to learn how to shift with ease before trying something else and risking setting back or stalling my progress the way I did last night.

Now, there are a couple of reasons why I think I’m getting close: the symptoms have been coming way easier and more persistently than they did the first few days. The first few days that I started trying to shift I only seemed to get to a point of meditation and stopped there, which is great, it helped me concentrate and focus on visualizing, so that felt like a good first step, but recently, I’ve gotten past that and actually felt a bit different.

I’m going to talk a little bit about the symptoms that I’ve felt in more detail, mostly because I feel like most people who talk about them just say “dizziness, feeling like you’re floating” which, yes, that is what it feels like but personally for me, sometimes its hard to just base everything off of one word, because to me, there are different kinds of “dizzy”, for example.

Now, because I know these symptoms aren’t necessarily something that everyone experiences, but they seem to be the most common and generally accepted ones, as well as the ones that I have personally experienced so far and I will list them. They are in no particular order, since they all happen but don’t seem to have particular pattern in which I experience them.

Floating

This one is a bit confusing for me, not in the literal sense of the word, but it sort of overlaps with Detachment. The closest thing I can compare it to is when you’re swimming and you just completely relax your arm in the surface of the water and it’s, well floating.

I like to think of it as air fairies holding my arm up so it doesn’t fall through the mattress, I sort of stop feeling the sheets of my bed and the cold air of my AC, it’s this sort of just neutral feeling. In general, it’s just very relaxing. However it is with this symptom that I personally have the most trouble dealing with because as I start feeling it, at first its just calm and comforting, but after a few minutes, I start to get itchy spots (mostly in my legs and torso, which are the worst for me personally) and I have to concentrate really hard not to scratch them or think about them.

Dizziness

I felt dizzy, but it was a strange sort of dizzy. I’m anemic so, I’m pretty familiar with bed-dizziness, and for a second, I thought it was just that, but, it felt different. Instead of it being like everything around me was moving, it felt like I was the one moving. My back was still to the bed but it felt as if I was standing and the mattress was behind me. And yes, the world around me does move a little bit, though its not painfully disorienting, it just feels sort of like when you get off of a trampoline, or done a lot of exercise a lot and your legs make the ground feel wobbly, but in my head.

Detachment

I don’t know if this is what people call but the best way I can describe it is feeling detached from my body, something similar to disassociating (if you know what that feels like). To me, it feels the way a 3D movie without glasses looks, off kilter, like my body is the red and I am the blue. When I say I, I mean my brain, my soul, my essence, whatever you’d like to call it, but thats what it feels like. They’re not quite separated from one another yet, like in a 3D movie, they’re still touching, but they’re definitely out of phase.

The most noticeable parts for me are the arms, sometimes they feel a bit shorter for my actual, physical arms (which makes sense, since I did script that I start at a younger age in my DR) and they want to move forwards and reach for what I’m visualizing in front of me. The only thing that has stopped me from actually doing this (re: reaching out) is that a lot of different elements are still the same (i can still feel my sheets, i can still hear my AC running, etc.) and I don’t want to break concentration until I’m sure 100% I’ve shifted.

Other Symptoms

Some other symptoms that I’ve been feeling (but honestly I don’t think too much of them for a couple of reasons) are seeing Angel Numbers and Migraines /Headaches. Now why am I talking about these separately? Because they don’t particularly mean anything to me, but they are listed as some of the most common symptoms you experience during the day when you’re close to shifting (but not necessarily attempting).

Migranes/Headaches are something I experience quite often, it’s just something that runs in my family and my caffeine addiction doesn't help at all, so even though I had one throughout the entire day yesterday (the day after I have felt the closest ever to shifting), I don’t want to get my hopes up about it, since it’s not an uncommon thing to happen to me, however, it is still worth noting (if this is something you experience though, and it doesn’t happen to you often, then I’d probably take it as a sign that you’re close! Hooray!)

And as for Angel Numbers, they’re something that I’ve been seeing a lot of in these past two-three days (of course, when I say “a lot” I mean once a day or so.) I don’t count the Angel Numbers I see on my fyp on Tik Tok for example, because it makes sense to me that I’d see them on posts regarding Shifting Realities because those feel a bit like cheating, of course I’d see them under that particular topic. Though not gonna lie, I’m a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to Angel Numbers (I know i shouldn’t be but i just can’t help it), but it doesn't take away the fact that I HAVE been seeing them

-

Now that I have the positives down and the changes I’ve felt identified, I want to focus on why I think I haven’t shifted yet. Other than the fact that yesterday all the shifting setbacks really threw me off from the progress I thought I had made, it made me feel really frustrated and I feel like that negative thinking and feeling carried on with me until I fell asleep, which is never good, so I need to stay positive, and I think I will, now that I’ve mulled it over, so that should be good.

I’ve also had a really busy week so I’ve been super distracted in general and haven't been able to prepare as well as I would’ve liked for the Sunni method, but I’m going to try to get some preparation in before I go to bed, and since I can sleep in tomorrow, I won't feel as much pressure. I hope that’ll give me the last little push that I need to shift.

-

As of writing this, its 11pm and I’m going to prepare as best I can for the Sunni method before I wash off and then go to sleep. Hopefully today will be the day, and if not, I hope it’ll be soon.

[kats-kradle]

This is for @saeyounq for the happiness circle! I hope you like it!

It was the first Christmas after the reverse snap. Morgan had been bouncing around the house for a week, chattering about what movies they would watch and what games they would play and did Santa know that everyone wasn’t going to be in their own houses at Christmas? Would he know where to send the gifts? Pepper had been churning out cookies by the dozen, and when Tony had asked in the fifth batch if maybe she had enough, she simply said:

“You really think these will survive teenage boys and super solders?” and he decided to leave it alone. This would probably be the most amount of people he would have in his house- Happy, Rhodey, the five Bartons, Natasha, Bruce, Steve (and by extension, Bucky and Sam. Or as he had dubbed them since Steve passed on the shield, Barnes and Noble), Thor, Peter (and May), and Harley. Sixteen people. Counting Morgan and Pepper, eighteen. He couldn’t remember the last time he was in a room of eighteen people he actually liked. The idea scared him a bit, but he felt as excited as Morgan did as he prepared.

——————

The morning of Christmas Eve, Bruce was the first guest to arrive. He was no longer a half-hulk, so he actually fit in the house this time. After talking to Morgan and Tony for a few minutes, Pepper roped him into the kitchen, and he was too sweet to say no.

“Just until Laura gets here,” she promised, “you’re good with measuring and staying neat, unlike someone.” She tossed a glare in Tony’s direction, and he gave a mock gasp.

“Madam, you wound me!” He clutched his chest as though he had been struck, staggering to the ground as Morgan tackled him with glee. A patriotic sounding knock came at the door.

“Mr. Spangled-Butt is here!” He proclaimed. Morgan dashed over to the door and yanked it open, leaping into Steve’s arms with happy exclamation. Tony followed her to the door.

“Well, if it isn’t Capsicle and Barnes and Noble,” he greeted with a grin. Sam rolled his eyes at the name, but smiled nonetheless. Bucky hung back nervously.

“Come play! Daddy let me set up my toys in the corner!” Morgan squealed, dragging Steve over to her dollhouse. Bucky trailed along like a lost puppy.

“You know, I was thinking about some adjustments that could be beneficial to your wing pack. For example, some arm and leg protection wouldn’t hurt,” Tony suggested to Sam as they wandered over to the kitchen table. Sam laughed.

“I’m not wearing a full tin can, if that’s what you’re implying,” he joked, swiping a cookie. Bucky suddenly appeared behind Sam, making him jump and choke on the cookie.

“Dude, really?” Bucky ignored his friend, looking like he was a kid who had a risky question for their parent.

“Uh, Morgan wants to know if she can play on my arm like it’s a jungle gym,” he said, avoiding eye contact. Tony snorted.

“Of course she does. Fine with me if it is with you,” he assured, “Don’t worry, she’s not heavy enough to pull it off,” Tony joked, seeing the hesitation in the former assassin’s eyes.

“But I- why are you so nonchalant about this? I could hurt her,” Bucky questioned, eyes finally meeting Tony’s. he’s killed with that arm, children, families, your family-

“I know you won’t,” Tony answered unwaveringly. Bucky gave a short, awkward nod, turning to go.

“You could just replace all of Sam’s limbs with metal,” he said suddenly. “That would be good armor.” Sam threw a napkin after him as he ran back to the corner with an evil grin.

—————

Rhodey and Happy arrived almost at the same time, then Thor, then the Bartons and Natasha, and then May and Peter. Tony greeted everyone and did a headcount, checking to see if anyone was missing. One was missing... Harley... where was he? Had he missed his flight? Had the plane crashed? Tony wasn’t exactly sure how his brain had jumped from a missed flight to a crashed one, but there he was. His heart began the familiar burn of panic, his breath becoming heavy. He couldn’t have one now. He didn’t want to scare Morgan, to worry anyone-

“Tony? Are you okay?” He jumped a bit, turning to see Steve standing next to him with his mother hen look. He opened his mouth to produce a well practiced lie of “I’m fine” but stopped himself. He knew it wouldn’t work on Steve, and he had already ruined their relationship enough with the accords and what he had done to Barnes and-

“Tony?” Steve pressed again. Tony snapped back to reality, trying to say something. Why couldn’t he say something, anything?

“Do you want some fresh air?” Steve asked. Tony nodded vigorously, and Steve guided him discreetly through the room and onto the porch. He gasped in the air, coughing a bit as the chill air whipped his throat. After a few shuddering breaths he felt somewhat normal again, but Steve was still watching him with his stupid worried eyes.

“Are you okay now?” He asked. Tony huffed a bitter laugh.

“Well, I just managed to send myself into a panic attack because Harley is late and I automatically assumed his plane had crashed, so yeah, just peachy,” he snapped. He sighed deeply, the sudden spike of anger receding. “I... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you,” he groaned out. Steve looked mildly surprised at the apology.

“It’s okay, and it will be okay. Harley is probably just fine, the car rentals can take a while,” he said gently. Tony raised and eyebrow in surprise.

“When did you become educated with the world?” He teased. Steve rolled his eyes with a smile. They stood in comfortable silence for a moment, admiring the blanket of snow covering the yard.

“How long have you been having panic attacks?” Steve asked cautiously. Tony shifted, knowing that Steve wouldn’t be happy with the response.

“Since... New York,” he muttered.

“That long?”

“Yeah.” He braced himself for the accusations of withholding information from the team but-

“Tony... I... I’m sorry I never noticed...” Steve said, running a hand through his hair. Tony frowned in confusion.

“Uh... what?” He asked bluntly. “This is supposed to be the part where you get mad because I could have been a burden to the team. You’re not sticking to the script, man.” Steve gave a soft, sad laugh.

“Maybe life is better when you ignore the scripts,” he said.

“Geez, how many fortune cookies you got memorized?” Tony muttered. Steve gave a shrug, and they sank back into silence.

“I never apologized for... everything, so... I’m sorry, Tony. I really am.” Steve said after a while.

“No, don’t- I’m the one who should be apologizing. It wasn’t fair what I did to you, or Barnes, or- or anyone,” Tony decided firmly. Steve gave his sad smile again- he seemed to give only sad smiles anymore.

“Maybe we were both wrong, to an extent,” he suggested. “I missed you, Tony.”

“Yeah, I missed you too,” Tony admitted. Steve held out his hand in hopes of a friendly handshake, and Tony raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

“Dude, come on.” He wrapped his friend into a tight hug, trying to convey all his “I’m sorry”s and “I missed you”s. The sound of a car broke them apart, and a weight was lifted from Tony as he saw who the driver was.

“Hey Tony!” Harley called out cheerfully, striding up to the house. “You wouldn’t believe how many jerks need to rent cars on Christmas Eve- are you okay?” Tony launched himself at Harley, trying to prove to himself that he was here, he was okay.

“Yeah, you were late so the obvious answer was that your plane had crashed- you’ll never stop giving me panic attacks, will you?” Tony huffed, pulling back to look at his kid, who looked apologetic.

“Sor-”

“Nope! No apologies. Come on, Morgan’s been dying to introduce you to Peter.” Harley’s eyes lit up in excitement, and he hurried into the house. Tony and Steve followed, and as Steve darted into the kitchen to keep Cooper from eating all the cookies, Tony led Harley over to where Morgan kept her victims of doll playing.

“HARLEY!” She screeched, flinging herself at the older boy- older man- was he already twenty one? She almost knocked over the dollhouse, which was saved only by Lila’s quick instincts.

“Hey, squirt,” Harley laughed. She dragged Harley two feet to where Peter was trying to confusedly shove some shoes on a dolls feet.

“This is Peter! Peter, this is Harley!” She exclaimed joyfully. Peter scrambled to his feet, holding out his hand.

“It’s uh, it’s nice to meet you, Tony’s told me a lot about you.” Harley took his hand and shook it with a warm smile.

“He told me a lot about you as well.” Peter looked surprised.

“Daddy! Can you get Aunty Nat?” Morgan asked, slapping on her puppy eyes, “Mommy and Aunty Laura are busy, and we need all the girls to play!” Tony snorted, gesturing to Rhodey, Happy, Peter, and Harley.

“What, are they girls too?” He asked. Morgan shrugged with a mischievous smile. “You know what, don’t answer that,” Tony decided, and made his way across the room to Natasha. He had to do some careful navigation around where Thor was entertaining Cooper, Nathanial, Steve, Bruce, and Bucky in the middle of the floor with various tales. Natasha watched in amusement as he said “excuse me” at least eighty-seven times and finally ended up climbing over the couch, making no effort to make his job easier.

“Natashalie! Morgan hath doth sent me to fetch you, fair maiden, to extended the invitation of doll playing to you,” he relayed his message with a mock bow. She rolled her eyes with a laugh, but she didn’t move. She seemed frozen, not knowing what to do.

“What’s wrong, you never played dolls before?” Tony asked. Natasha shifted, looking down.

“Lila didn’t really have any dolls, and... I wasn’t allowed any when I was a kid,” she murmured, watching the dolls climbing the house on the other side of the room with a hint of longing. Tony once again vowed to himself that if he ever found who ran the Red Room he would kill them slowly and painfully. He grabbed her arm and dragged her back through the room.

“The only thing you have to remember is don’t say anything inappropriate. Hey, Aunty Nat doesn’t know how to play dolls,” he told Morgan, who let out a gasp.

“I’ll teach you!” She declared. Tony smiled as Morgan launched into a detailed description of how doll playing is done, much to the chagrin of Happy, who had heard the speech a dozen times. When he glanced across the room a few minutes later, Natasha’s face of pure joy as she dressed a doll was truly heartwarming.

—————

Pepper insisted they take a group photo. After many a “stop shoving,” “I can’t breathe,” and “for the love of everything good just look at the camera and smile,” they finally got one where everyone could be seen and everyone was at least looking in the general direction of the camera, but it was a family photo and it was wonderful. Everyone scattered like ants when Pepper declared them free.

Lila found Monopoly lying around and decided to challenge Steve, Thor and Bucky to a fierce game against her, Cooper, and Clint (Sam joined in halfway through as a consultant to the “clueless old man” team, as Clint had dubbed them). After an hour or so of Morgan cheering on both sides, she decided to sneakily move the pieces to jail whenever she could. Tony entered a fierce discussion with Bruce about different types of chemicals, which was interrupted when Harley tapped on his shoulder.

“Could you check on Peter? He said he just needed some fresh air, but... could you see if he’s okay? He’s on the porch.” He was clearly worried, which did nothing for Tony’s nerves. “Also, could you bring him his coat?” Harley held out Peters coat.

“Can we finish this later?” Tony asked Bruce, who nodded in agreement. Morgan quickly took her chance and snatched the scientist to play with. Tony slipped out the door and saw Peter hunched over on the porch.

“Pete?” He called out. The kid quickly straightened up, trying to subtly wipe away tears.

“Oh, uh- hey! Morgan said that it’s, uh, it’s gonna snowing again in about fourteen minutes, and I wanted to watch it start,” Peter said, a painfully fake smile on his face.

“That’s great! I’ve always liked watching snowfalls start,” Tony said firmly as he lowered himself down next to Peter. “You forgot this,” he added, tossing the coat at Peter. Peter squirmed into it sheepishly.

“I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that now you can know the exact minute it’s going to snow,” Peter admitted. Tony nodded. He knew that wasn’t the only thing the kid was having trouble with.

“Anything bugging you?” He pressed. Peter deflated, his smile sliding off his face.

“It’s just... there’s so much I missed, like... Morgan’s favorite show, the Owl House? I just have no idea what’s she’s talking about, and-” he broke off, looking away, looking lost. Tony wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close.

“It’s okay to feel overwhelmed by all the new stuff,” he said quietly. Peter sighed.

“And there’s just small things, like how Harley’s already twenty-one, and I’m still sixteen, but we were born in the same year, and... it’s just confusing.”

“I know, kid. I know,” Tony murmured. Peter let his head fall to the older man’s shoulder.

“Harley’s actually the one that sent me out here. He was worried about you,” Tony commented after a few minutes.

“Really?” Peter asked, as if he wasn’t expecting anyone to notice him gone. Tony gave him a squeeze.

“Yeah, really. You know, he’s always wanted a younger brother,” he noted, “and I think he’s decided on you. Good luck getting rid of him.” Peter snorted, not seeming to mind his predicted doom.

A sequel of “Peter!” and the slamming of a door reached their ears as Morgan came flying out of the house, her coat only half on. Harley came running after her, clutching a hat in his hand. Morgan climbed over Peter and dashed off into the yard as Harley shuffled past with a muttered “sorry” and ran after her.

“Morgan, you need your hat!” He yelled. She laughed, running as fast as she could. Harley managed to catch her after a minute, and he firmly zipped up her coat and jammed on her hat before she could run off again. Morgan grinned at him, wriggling free and running back over to Peter and Tony.

“Pete! We’re doing a snowman building competition, and we need you to join!” She exclaimed, yanking on his arm. Peter laughed, letting himself be dragged into the yard. Harley sprinted back up the steps, yelling that he would be right back, and not to have too much fun without him. Tony grinned and watched as Morgan flung a snowball at Peter and declared a snowball fight, to which Peter responded with a snowball of his own. Morgan somehow ended up in a tree and flung herself at Peter, dragging them into a snowbank, eagerly yelling that she had won as she sat on him. Tony’s heart swelled as the laughter of his kids filled the air. The happy scene was interrupted by something warm and fuzzy yanked down over his eyes. A hat. He freed his vision in time to see Harley run into the yard.

“Santa’s leaving you coal this year!” He yelled after him. Harley turned around long enough to stick his tongue out, before freeing Peter from the snowbank, dusting off his head, and shoving a hat on, despite the other boy’s protests. Morgan began trying to tackle both of them at once, and Tony decided he should intervene before someone got hurt.

“Hey!” He yelled, “I thought I was going to see a snowman building competition!”

“We’re waiting for the Bartons!” Harley yelled back. “They’re almost done with Monopoly! They’re beating Steve’s ass-” Tony threw him a warning glare, gesturing to Morgan. “-sets. His assets.” He cleared his throat awkwardly as Peter laughed at him.

“It’s Starks against Bartons!” Morgan proclaimed happily. Tony had been through a lot, and had lost track of how many times he had tempted death, but he knew that in that moment he could have died from the sheer amount of joy he felt. Starks. His kids, all three of them. Three Barton spawn came tumbling out the door, chattering excitedly about how their team had completely obliterated Uncle Steve and Uncle Thor and Uncle Bucky, which didn’t surprise Tony, considering how those three were generally clueless, and he was pretty sure that Clint cheated when he played.

“Okay, some rules!” Clint shouted over his spawn, “no physical violence! No sabotaging the other team! You have ten minutes, and you’ll be judged on structural integrity and overall glam. Go!” The six kids scurried off as fast as they could, and Clint sat down next to Tony with a laugh.

“You should’ve seen the game... it took Sam a good five minutes to explain to Thor that just because there was a ‘free parking’ space didn’t mean there was a regular parking space you had to pay- HEY! WHAT DID I JUST SAY ABOUT NO SABOTAGING?” Clint yelled as Peter flung a snowball at Lila.

“She threw one first!” Peter protested.

“It’s wasn’t me, it was Cooper!” Lila proclaimed. Cooper just shrugged, not even making an attempt to deny what he had done. Tony laughed wholeheartedly as Clint shook his head in exasperation.

“Kids, huh?” He asked with a huffed laugh. Tony made a noise of agreement, watching the kids throw snow at each other until suddenly he couldn’t see Peter, only the dust- his yard was gone, he was on Titan and Peter, shit, Peter-

“Tony?” Tony shook himself, inhaling deeply and unclenching his hands. Peter was okay. Tony’s eyes stayed glued to him as the kid dashed around, rolling a snowball.

“The snow, it-” he exhaled shakily, trying to avoid Clint’s worried gaze. He didn’t like worrying people, especially on Christmas, it was supposed to be a happy day. “I’m fine,” he muttered. Clint raised a doubtful eyebrow, but didn’t say anything for a moment.

“The first time we had s’mores after I got them back, Cooper got a little too excited with throwing dirt on the fire, and uh...” he looked off into the trees, not really seeing them. “It went everywhere. I thought I was going to die, I got so scared. Laura said I was screaming.” Tony looked down, not knowing what to say. Clint tapped him on the shoulder, making him look up again. “You’re not fine, but that’s okay. No one is.”

“Dinner!” Pepper yelled from the window. Tony and Clint quickly leapt out of the way as the six younglings charged into the house, the competition forgotten as random snowman parts lay around the yard.

Happy took it upon himself to keep the kids in line. There was no kids’ table; Tony had never liked kids tables. He always felt it was just the way adults got rid of their kids for as long as they could. Fortunately for Happy, everyone behaved themselves (after receiving strict warnings from the parents). After dinner came the movies- they only had time for a few, so everyone wrote their favorite Christmas movie on a piece of paper and mixed it up in a hat. Surprisingly, only a few people were asleep by bedtime.

————

The kids camped out in Morgan’s room. Tony had told them very sternly that if they didn’t sleep, Santa wouldn’t bring them anything, but he could swear he still heard someone trying to sneak out of the room to catch Santa.

The adults had sleeping bags rolled out everywhere, making it harder for Tony to do his job- it probably would have been easier to climb out a window and go down the chimney, like Santa. He chuckled at the idea, almost tripping on one of the lumps on the floor.

“Of course you have to sleep in the middle of the hallway,” Tony muttered, trying to maneuver his way past the sleeping bags. He wasn’t as lucky as he had hoped he would be, and his foot caught on something sending him flailing to the ground with a manly squawk and a loud crash. Most of the dark shapes were flung upright almost instantly, and someone turned on a lamp. Tony glanced down to see what he had tripped on and oh he was going to kill him-

“Barton! Why did you have your bow in the middle of the floor!” Tony hissed, kicking himself free.

“Why were you sneaking around in the middle of the night?” Clint replied, narrowing his eyes. Tony groaned, hauling himself to his feet.

“Because I’m Santa Claus!” He searched around for his sack. Thor handed it to him, studying him closely.

“You do not look like him. Morgan has shown me pictures of this ‘Santa Claus’ and he is much older,” Thor decided.

“No- Thor, that’s not what-” Bruce let out a long sigh. “I’ll explain it in the morning, okay?”

“How is Mr. Stars and Stripes Senior still asleep?” Tony asked in bewilderment, gesturing to Steve, who was dead to the world. Bucky rolled his eyes, a look of annoyance on his face.

“He snores through anything and everything,” he muttered. Tony chuckled, continuing his route.

“Go back to sleep or Santa will leave you coal!” He hissed behind him. He heard a faint “Santa will get his ass handed to him if he gives me coal” from Clint, but the lamp was turned off.

Tony carefully set the bag down on the couch, surveying his surroundings to see whose presents should go where. The kids’ gifts would go under the tree, Pepper’s could go on one side of the couch, Happy’s could go on the fireplace, under the stockings- his eyes were drawn the the stockings.

Nineteen of them. Nineteen stockings- he sat down on the couch, suddenly overwhelmed.

He had never had much growing up- family wise, anyway. He had an allowance big enough to buy a house and he had toys that every child would envy... but even as a kid he would given it all away in a heartbeat if he could just have a big, happy family. But to see all the stockings, each belonging to someone in his family-

He heard a noise from Morgan’s room and hastily arranged the gifts. Santa wasn’t getting caught this year. He snuck over to the room, cracked open the door, and saw Peter, Harley, and Lila huddled together playing uno.

“Santa only comes when you’re asleep!” Tony hissed, making Harley let out a startled squeak, throwing his cards. Lila and Peter instantly burst into giggles, and Harley’s face flushed as he grabbed the closest pillow and hurled it at them. Tony shushed them, gesturing to the younger kids who were still sleeping.

“Go to sleep or you don’t get Christmas pancakes tomorrow,” he threatened, closing the door softly. He maneuvered back down the hallway, and gratefully noticed that Clint had moved his bow out of the way. His arrows, in the other hand...

“BARTON I WILL BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH A CHRISTMAS TREE WHY ARE YOUR ARROWS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR!”

“It’s not my fault you aren’t watching where you’re going!”

“That’s because YOU TURNED THE LAMP OFF!”

————

Christmas Day dawned bright and early with a “WAKE UP SANTA CAME” shrieked down the house by at least three children. Tony had insisted that presents wait for after everyone had eaten, but allowed stockings before breakfast. Tony watched anxiously as everyone dumped out their stockings, sorting through the little trinkets. He had slipped into everyone’s stocking a picture frame ornament labeled “Our Family Christmas, 2023” containing the group photo they had taken. Should he have done that? What if they didn’t like it? What if-

“Tony, it’s- thank you,” Natasha said, sounding choked up. Various interjections of agreement sounded around the room. Tony blinked a few times.

“Really? You like it?” He asked carefully.

“Of course!” Thor declared. “We could never partake in family portraits on Asgard, Loki would not hold still long enough. I am glad to be able to now carry family portrait with me at all times!”

After breakfast was presents. There were many shrieks and “thank you”s and oooing and ahhhhing. The tree was almost knocked over a few times. It was lunchtime by the time everyone finished, and after lunch came more movies. Tony grabbed the couch first, and Peter sat down next to him, clutching a bowl of popcorn. He jerked the bowl away when Tony tried to grab some.

“Minneeee,” He hissed, looking half gremlin. Tony wisely backed away. Harley, however, flung himself down next to Peter, stealing a handful of popcorn. Peter yanked to bowl away, only for Tony to pull the same move. He gave a halfhearted groan, and gave up after that. Somehow Morgan ended up running off with the bowl, returning once it was empty to keep a constant stream of questions flowing into Tony’s ear. Eventually the long day caught up with her, and she fell asleep slouched against Tony.

Halfway through White Christmas, Tony glanced next to him to see Peter also asleep, his head having fallen onto Harley’s shoulder.

“How late did you guys stay up?” He asked. Harley made a face.

“Not too late. My leg is cramping,” He complained. Tony laughed, enjoying his discomfort.

“I could move him-”

“All due respect, but if you move him I will end you,” Harley promised. Tony held up his hands in surrender, turning back to the movie. He didn’t miss how when Peter made a noise and started to twitch and the other boy wrapped an arm around him soothingly Peter immediately relaxed. Tony wished Harley didn’t live so far away, he- wait.

“Harley, you got a job?” Harley rolled his eyes.

“No, Dad-” he froze in the middle of his half-mocking statement, his face turning red. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I uh, not right now, no,” he muttered. Once Tony recovered from the explosion of joy and love at the fact that my kid thinks of me as his dad, he continued his purpose for starting the sentence.

“If you ever wanted to move to the city, there’s an opening at Stark Industries,” he mentioned, watching Harley carefully.

“Really?” The younger man exclaimed, jostling Peter awake by accident. “Oh- sorry Pete,” he apologized. Peter looked around blearily before dropping his head back down with a “you’re the worst pillow.”

“I’ll think it over for sure,” Harley promised, his face glowing with excitement. Tony grinned. Pepper came by with a blanket and settled next to Morgan, tossing one end of the blanket to Harley.

“I love Christmas,” Morgan murmured as Tony tucked the blanket around her. As he looked around the room at his assortment of family, all happy, together, here- he decided that yeah, he loved Christmas too.

[continuations]

World After Capital: Bots for All of Us (Informational Freedom)

NOTE: I have been posting excerpts from my book World After Capital. Currently we are on the Informational Freedom section and the previous excerpt was on Internet Access. Today looks at the right to be represented by a bot (code that works on your behalf).

Bots for All of Us

Once you have access to the Internet, you need software to connect to its many information sources and services. When Sir Tim Berners-Lee first invented the World Wide Web in 1989 to make information sharing on the Internet easier, he did something very important [95]. He specified an open protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol or HTTP, that anyone could use to make information available and to access such information. By specifying the protocol, Berners-Lee opened the way for anyone to build software, so-called web servers and browsers that would be compatible with this protocol. Many did, including, famously, Marc Andreessen with Netscape. Many of the web servers and browsers were available as open source and/or for free.

The combination of an open protocol and free software meant two things: Permissionless publishing and complete user control. If you wanted to add a page to the web, you didn't have to ask anyone's permission. You could just download a web server (e.g. the open source Apache), run it on a computer connected to the Internet, and add content in the HTML format. Voila, you had a website up and running that anyone from anywhere in the world could visit with a web browser running on his or her computer (at the time there were no smartphones yet). Not surprisingly, content available on the web proliferated rapidly. Want to post a picture of your cat? Upload it to your webserver. Want to write something about the latest progress on your research project? No need to convince an academic publisher of the merits. Just put up a web page.

People accessing the web benefited from their ability to completely control their own web browser. In fact, in the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the web browser is referred to as a “user agent” that accesses the Web on behalf of the user. Want to see the raw HTML as delivered by the server? Right click on your screen and use “view source.” Want to see only text? Instruct your user agent to turn off all images. Want to fill out a web form but keep a copy of what you are submitting for yourself? Create a script to have your browser save all form submissions locally as well.

Over time, popular platforms on the web have interfered with some of the freedom and autonomy that early users of the web used to enjoy. I went on Facebook the other day to find a witty note I had written some time ago on a friend's wall. It turns out that Facebook makes finding your own wall posts quite difficult. You can't actually search all the wall posts you have written in one go; rather, you have to go friend by friend and scan manually backwards in time. Facebook has all the data, but for whatever reason, they've decided not to make it easily searchable. I'm not suggesting any misconduct on Facebook's part—that's just how they've set it up. The point, though, is that you experience Facebook the way Facebook wants you to experience it. You cannot really program Facebook differently for yourself. If you don't like how Facebook's algorithms prioritize your friends' posts in your newsfeed, then tough luck, there is nothing you can do.

Or is there? Imagine what would happen if everything you did on Facebook was mediated by a software program—a “bot”—that you controlled. You could instruct this bot to go through and automate for you the cumbersome steps that Facebook lays out for finding past wall posts. Even better, if you had been using this bot all along, the bot could have kept your own archive of wall posts in your own data store (e.g., a Dropbox folder); then you could simply instruct the bot to search your own archive. Now imagine we all used bots to interact with Facebook. If we didn't like how our newsfeed was prioritized, we could simply ask our friends to instruct their bots to send us status updates directly so that we can form our own feeds. With Facebook on the web this was entirely possible because of the open protocol, but it is no longer possible in a world of proprietary and closed apps on mobile phones.

Although this Facebook example might sound trivial, bots have profound implications for power in a networked world. Consider on-demand car services provided by companies such as Uber and Lyft. If you are a driver today for these services, you know that each of these services provides a separate app for you to use. And yes you could try to run both apps on one phone or even have two phones. But the closed nature of these apps means you cannot use the compute power of your phone to evaluate competing offers from the networks and optimize on your behalf. What would happen, though, if you had access to bots that could interact on your behalf with these networks? That would allow you to simultaneously participate in all of these marketplaces, and to automatically play one off against the other.

Using a bot, you could set your own criteria for which rides you want to accept. Those criteria could include whether a commission charged by a given network is below a certain threshold. The bot, then, would allow you to accept rides that maximize the net fare you receive. Ride sharing companies would no longer be able to charge excessive commissions, since new networks could easily arise to undercut those commissions. For instance, a network could arise that is cooperatively owned by drivers and that charges just enough commission to cover its costs. Likewise, as a passenger using a bot could allow you to simultaneously evaluate the prices between different car services and choose the service with the lowest price for your current trip. The mere possibility that a network like this could exist would substantially reduce the power of the existing networks.

We could also use bots as an alternative to anti-trust regulation to counter the overwhelming power of technology giants like Google or Facebook without foregoing the benefits of their large networks. These companies derive much of their revenue from advertising, and on mobile devices, consumers currently have no way of blocking the ads. But what if they did? What if users could change mobile apps to add Ad-Blocking functionality just as they can with web browsers?

Many people decry ad-blocking as an attack on journalism that dooms the independent web, but that's an overly pessimistic view. In the early days, the web was full of ad-free content published by individuals. In fact, individuals first populated the web with content long before institutions joined in. When they did, they brought with them their offline business models, including paid subscriptions and of course advertising. Along with the emergence of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter with strong network effects, this resulted in a centralization of the web. More and more content was produced either on a platform or moved behind a paywall.

Ad-blocking is an assertion of power by the end-user, and that is a good thing in all respects. Just as a judge recently found that taxi companies have no special right to see their business model protected, neither do ad-supported publishers [96]. And while in the short term this might prompt publishers to flee to apps, in the long run it will mean more growth for content that is paid for by end-users, for instance through a subscription, or even crowdfunded (possibly through a service such as Patreon).

To curtail the centralizing power of network effects more generally, we should shift power to the end-users by allowing them to have user agents for mobile apps, too. The reason users don't wield the same power on mobile is that native apps relegate end-users once again to interacting with services just using our eyes, ears, brain and fingers. No code can execute on our behalf, while the centralized providers use hundreds of thousands of servers and millions of lines of code. Like a web browser, a mobile user-agent could do things such as strip ads, keep copies of my responses to services, let me participate simultaneously in multiple services (and bridge those services for me), and so on. The way to help end-users is not to have government smash big tech companies, but rather for government to empower individuals to have code that executes on their behalf.

What would it take to make bots a reality? One approach would be to require companies like Uber, Google, and Facebook to expose all of their functionality, not just through standard human usable interfaces such as apps and web sites, but also through so-called Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). An API is for a bot what an app is for a human. The bot can use it to carry out operations, such as posting a status update on a user's behalf. In fact, companies such as Facebook and Twitter have APIs, but they tend to have limited capabilities. Also, companies presently have the right to control access so that they can shut down bots, even when a user has clearly authorized a bot to act on his or her behalf.

Why can't I simply write code today that interfaces on my behalf with say Facebook? After all, Facebook's own app uses an API to talk to their servers. Well in order to do so I would have to “hack” the existing Facebook app to figure out what the API calls are and also how to authenticate myself to those calls. Unfortunately, there are three separate laws on the books that make those necessary steps illegal.

The first is the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA. The second is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The third is the legal construction that by clicking “I accept” on a EULA (End User License Agreement) or a set of Terms of Service I am actually legally bound. The last one is a civil matter, but criminal convictions under the first two carry mandatory prison sentences.

So if we were willing to remove all three of these legal obstacles, then hacking an app to give you programmatic access to systems would be possible. Now people might object to that saying those provisions were created in the first place to solve important problems. That's not entirely clear though. The anti circumvention provision of the DMCA was created specifically to allow the creation of DRM systems for copyright enforcement. So what you think of this depends on what you believe about the extent of copyright (a subject we will look at in the next section).

The CFAA too could be tightened up substantially without limiting its potential for prosecuting real fraud and abuse. The same goes for what kind of restriction on usage a company should be able to impose via a EULA or a TOS. In each case if I only take actions that are also available inside the company's app but just happen to take these actions programmatically (as opposed to manually) why should that constitute a violation?

But, don't companies need to protect their encryption keys? Aren't “bot nets” the culprits behind all those so-called DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks? Yes, there are a lot of compromised machines in the world, including set top boxes and home routers that some are using for nefarious purposes. Yet that only demonstrates how ineffective the existing laws are at stopping illegal bots. Because those laws don't work, companies have already developed the technological infrastructure to deal with the traffic from bots.

How would we prevent people from adopting bots that turn out to be malicious code? Open source seems like the best answer here. Many people could inspect a piece of code to make sure it does what it claims. But that's not the only answer. Once people can legally be represented by bots, many markets currently dominated by large companies will face competition from smaller startups.

Legalizing representation by a bot would eat into the revenues of large companies, and we might worry that they would respond by slowing their investment in infrastructure. I highly doubt this would happen. Uber, for instance, was recently valued at $50 billion. The company's “takerate” (the percentage of the total amount paid for rides that they keep) is 20%. If competition forced that rate down to 5%, Uber's value would fall to $10 billion as a first approximation. That is still a huge number, leaving Uber with ample room to grow. As even this bit of cursory math suggests, capital would still be available for investment, and those investments would still be made.

That's not to say that no limitations should exist on bots. A bot representing me should have access to any functionality that I can access through a company's website or apps. It shouldn't be able to do something that I can't do, such as pretend to be another user or gain access to private posts by others. Companies can use technology to enforce such access limits for bots; there is no need to rely on regulation.

Even if I have convinced you of the merits of bots, you might still wonder how we might ever get there from here. The answer is that we can start very small. We could run an experiment with the right to be represented by a bot in a city like New York. New York's municipal authorities control how on demand transportation services operate. The city could say, “If you want to operate here, you have to let drivers interact with your service programmatically.” And I'm pretty sure, given how big a market New York City is, these services would agree.

[brandon-seifert-comics-writer]

Writing Comics: The Brandon Seifert Way!

Hey folks! So, some comics writers have been posting about their script writing processes. I've been finding it an interesting look into other peoples' creative processes. So I figured I'd join in!

Laying out my creative process serves a second purpose, too. I have a tendency to... well... forget how to write scripts. It happens every so often. I'll get partway through the process of writing a script, run into trouble... and then realize that I've blanked on the Best Practices For Brandon Seifert Scripts that I've learned through trial and error. So having a written breakdown of the best method I've found for me to write my scripts will be useful for me too. So I can go back and reference it sometimes, and make sure I'm actually following it.

Okay. So, this is the most effective way I've found for the kind of scripts I write, and for the kind of brain I have.

1. Come up with a story idea. For me, this is the easy part. My brain is overflowing with ideas. (Oh god. So many ideas. Somebody make them slow down!!)

2. Brainstorm the living shit out of it. Once I've got the story idea, I unload my brain on the page about it. I write down potential plot points, ideas, questions to answer, things I might research relating to it. Pieces of dialogue. Sequences of panels. Entire pages, or sometimes entire scenes, that appear in my head without me having to work them through. Anything and everything I can come up with based on an idea, I write down. Plenty of this won't make it into the finished comic. But I write it all down anyway.

3. Make outlines. Make too many outlines. Once the ideas aren't coming quite as frantically, I take the plot points I ended up with, organize them, throw out the ones that don't seem to fit, and see what I have. From there, I build an outline. Or rather, I build several outlines.

My first outline is the one with the plot points that I brainstormed. It's a list of sentences, paragraphs and sentence fragments, arranged in the order that I think they'll occur in. (I do my writing in Scrivener, and all these pieces are individual text files. That way I can easily drag and drop them into different orders, delete some of them, and add new ones.) I flesh this out, adding more plot points until the story starts taking shape.

Meanwhile, I'm also writing outlines in my notebook. (Writing things out longhand is very important for my creative process. I find that writing something on paper, with a pen, frees up my brain a little. Since my final drafts are never written in pen ink, anything I write on a page automatically becomes a rough draft. So there's zero need to get it "right" the first time. Next time you're in the middle of a story and you have writer's block, I totally recommend trying it!) There's a couple different plot structures I find it useful to play with. One is Blake Snyder's "Save The Cat!" formula (which is VERY formulaic but can be a useful starting point). Another is Nigel Watts' Eight Point Plot structure. I often use one or both of these as a starting point. Basically as a writing exercise. I see if my plot points fit into these structures. If they don't, I see how they COULD fit... and then I either make changes based on that, or I don't. Anyway, this stuff goes in my notebook rather than on my laptop. (I don’t know why I do it that way. I just do.)

Think I'm done outlining? Think again! Next, I usually do a prose version of the outline I've decided on. I write out what I think happens in the story — the broad strokes, at least — in simple-but-complete sentences and paragraphs. Once the prose version reaches about a page long, I generally have enough material to start actually writing the issue.

...So then I start the issue. Right? NOPE! MOAR OUTLINES!

Well, one last outline. My last one is a page breakdown. It's a Google Doc with lines numbered 1-20. Each line represents a page of story in the final comic. I write in a really brief summary of what happens on each page. Usually starting with the page-turns. (I think of comics mostly in terms of two-page "units," a page-turn and a facing-page.) I take the material I've produced in my already-too-many outlines and plug it in here.

4. Place my brainstormed writing-bits in a script template. In Scrivener, I have a 20-page script template full of placeholders for panels and dialogue. Page-turns have three panels in the template because page-turns often have big reveal panels and lower overall panel counts. Facing pages have five panels. Each panel has a dialogue placeholder in it. (My scripts don't exclusively have three panels on page-turns and five on facing pages! It's just a good reminder for me that I'll likely need around that many panels or more on that page.)

Remember all that brainstorming I did? Which involved "pieces of dialogue," "sequences of panels," "entire pages," and "sometimes entire scenes?" Now I take that stuff and begin dropping it into the script template in the approximate place that I think it'll go. When I'm done with that, I've got a script template that's partially populated by actual script! That way, I never actually have a "blank page" in front of me when it comes time to do the actual scripting. There's always something in there!

5. Expand what I’ve got. That reveal panel, that I wrote for the page-turn on Page 4? Well, there's got to be set-up for it in the last panel of Page 3. So I make a note of that in the placeholder panel that's already there. Got three panels for Page 11, and then a beat I need to figure before I set-up the reveal on Page 12? Time to figure out that beat! Basically, the rest of my scripting process involves filling in those partially-populated pages, and then filling in the gaps between those pages.

There's two main ways that I write pages: Action-first, or dialogue-first.

Action-First: I figure out what happens (action-wise) in each panel in a sequence. And then I figure out exactly what the characters are saying.

Dialogue-First: I write out all the dialogue that a dialogue-based scene may involve. Then I cut it up where it’s easily cut, condense it, stick it in placeholder panels. And then figure out who’s in each panel, and what they’re doing.

Of the two, “Action-First” is much easier for me to do... with action-based scenes. It’s usually impossible for me to do for dialogue-oriented scenes... but for some reason I always forget the method of Dialogue-First when I initially attempt scenes like that!

6. Write the pages in whatever order works for me — starting with the easy pages. I do this because they’re easy, so I might as well get them out of the way! My finished-page count quickly soars. Man, this is easy! I’m on top of the world!

7. ...Realize that I left the hard pages for last. The further I get into the script, the harder things get. The slower things get. The more demoralized I get. I did it again. I saved the hard pages for last. I did the easy pages, and they went fast, and I got an unrealistic idea of how long the script would take. Deadlines loom.

8. Write the hard pages anyway. Oh. That wasn’t so bad.

9. Revise and polish the whole thing.

10. Send it in, with a feeling of relief and accomplishment.

After this, theres stuff like getting notes and doing additional drafts based on them (and based on any weaknesses that I manage to identify after the fact). But this is how the primary phase of my scripting process goes.

The important thing here is: This is what I’ve found works for me. You need to find what works for you. Maybe it’s something like my method. Maybe it’s wildly, massively different. The thing about writing is, everybody’s process is different. And:

The only “right” way to write is: Whatever way works. 

[collaborativedocumenteditingsoft]

Colleges With Post Production Editing Majors In Louisiana

If you’re interested in this kind of thing, check out this post on editing keyboards, controllers, mice and more. This is instead of using the supplied ‘Editor’s Mix’ from the location sound recordist, which are intended for dailies. Organization of your edit begins at the project level with your Bin structure. Eddie shared some of his workflow tips in this fantastic interview with PVC writer Steve Hullfish, which provides some of the detail in this post, as well as other interviews with Eddie that I’ve read or heard over the years. Eddie’s essential philosophy is that everything should be so clearly labelled and logically laid out that any other editor could sit down in his chair and quickly find anything they needed.

Whether you are a Production Company, Broadcaster or Distributor, we can tailor a script that is right for you, including shot-lists, timecodes, dialogue, voiceover, captions, credits and music cues as required. Finally - there's no excuse and no reason not to brainstorm a video and take it into the pre-production phase as soon as possible. If you haven't yet incorporated video marketing into your content marketing efforts, now's the best time to do so.

What is the final stage for picture editing in the post production workflow process?

Introduction (with title, release date, background information) Summary of the story. Analysis of the plot elements (rising action, climax) Creative elements (dialogues, characters, use of colors, camera techniques, mood, tone, symbols, costumes or anything that contributes or takes away from the overall plot)

While a traditional review process requires all of the stakeholders to be in the same room at the same time, an online review process can happen from anywhere. Online feedback as an alternative is growing rapidly, as increasing internet speeds have made it easy to upload new drafts of work-in-progress edits. In the past, most video collaboration involved uploading a video to a storage site or video sharing site, then a back-and-forth barrage of emails would ensue among all the collaborators.

As part of the apps suite, Google Docs is a word processing app for teams and it allows you to create and manage documents online very easily. Let’s look at the first insight that’ll allow us to make a collaborative text editor.

Purpose of process mapping

Media Composer is one of the first nonlinear editing solutions in the market. It was developed to provide a computer-based offline editing alternative for film and movie tape-based workflows. Out of the box, you can now connect your Mac to your Jellyfish over 10GbE–direct–making this pairing the most seamless plug-and-play experience between workstation and shared storage solution ever created. Access and edit media right from your iPhone or iPad with a Jellyfish that’s on your internal WiFi network.

mediaPLAY Software and Kits

The new Media Composer looks exciting! :) https://t.co/6NHaHuf5ER

— Projective Technology (@ProjectiveTech) June 19, 2019

And because the interface, which includes hardware by Blackmagic Design, is designed to be open and flexible, you can use it with Avid and other creative tools too. Company 3’s data department handles any transcoding that might be required and then we archive everything.

Can 7zip open BIN files?

Click the "Tools" button on the menu, and then select the "Convert Image File Format" option. The "convert" dialogue will be pop-up. Press the “Browse” then choose a BIN/CUE file you wish to convert and choose the “ISO files(*. iso)” option.

Adobe Audience Manager

How do I convert a BIN file to ISO?

A BAT file is a DOS batch file used to execute commands with the Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe). The danger: A BAT file contains a series of line commands that will run if it is opened, which makes it a good option for malicious programmers.

Ultimate with Avid NEXIS shared storage. Editors working on Media Composer can use the embedded MediaCentral

Are movies getting longer?

Part (but not all) of the reason why top-grossing movies have a longer average run time is that there is a great number of extremely long outliers. 10% of top-grossing movies are longer than 140 minutes, compared with just 96% of all movies in cinemas.

Focus Check: Upgrade Your Production and Post-Production Workflow

The text editor offers full Unicode support, automatic saving of documents, and advanced search and replace options. If you know how real-time collaborative editing works, then you may know that handling concurrent editing in multi user environment gracefully is very challenging. This needs to be causally ordered before applying either by undoing history, or by transforming the operations [operational transformation] before applying them to make them seem commutative. The brain behind the famous real time collaborative editing applications is a cool algorithm called ‘Operational Transformation’.

By avoiding the overhead of converting from one type of network to another the overall system complexity and efficiency will be improved, resulting in faster projects and easier repair of problems when they arise. Avid Nexis

I’ll never forget the first time I read “Behind The Seen” about Walter Murch’s journey editing Cold Mountain using Final Cut Pro (I fondly refer to this book as “Porn for editors”). One of the most profound things I learned from this book was his intricate system of creating colored index cards and putting them up on a wall to help him organize the structure of complex films. I was mesmerized by this concept – it was like Tetris mixed with screenwriting and film editing…my own personal version of heaven. It is easy to see by observing technical adoption, how useful accurate metadata is in streamlining the production workflow all the way through final post processing. Providing vast sets of data based resources for FX departments to draw from for their work, and for editors to have at their disposal, helps to streamline productivity down the pipeline.

Software Production Pack

Instead, distributors should be supplied with a lab https://www.toodledo.com access letter which enables them to order copies of the motion picture. Likewise, the filmmaker should retain possession of all original artwork, photos and chain of title documents.

[fumpkins]

Overcoming Writer’s Block with Automatic Transcription

IF you’re a writer — of essays, scripts, books, blog posts, whatever — you’re familiar with the phenomenon: a looming deadline, the blank screen, and a sinking feeling in your gut that pairs poorly with the jug of coffee you drank earlier.

If you know that rumble all too well, this post is definatley for you. Maybe it’ll help you get out of a rut; at the very least, it’s good for a few minutes of procrastination.

Here’s the core idea: thinking out loud is often less arduous than writing. And it’s now easier than ever to combine the two, thanks to recent advances in speech recognition technology.

Of course, dictation is nothing new — and plenty of writers have taken advantage of it. Carl Sagan’s voluminous output was facilitated by his process of speaking into an audio recorder, to be transcribed later by an assistant (you can listen to some of his dictations in the Library of Congress!) And software like Dragon’s Naturally Speaking has offered automated transcription for people with the budget and patience to pursue it.

But it’s only in the last couple of years that automated transcription has reached a sweet spot — of affordability, convenience, and accuracy—that makes it practical to use it more casually. And I’ve found it increasingly useful for generating a sort of proto-first draft: an alternative approach to the painful process of converting the nebulous wisps inside your head into something you can actually work with.

I call this process idea extraction (though these ideas may be more accurately dubbed brain droppings).

Part I: Extraction

Here’s how my process works. Borrow what works for you and forget the rest — and let me know how it goes!

Pick a voice recorder. Start talking. Try it with a topic you’ve been chewing on for weeks — or when an idea fits your head. Don’t overthink it. Just start blabbing.

The goal is to tug on as many threads as you come across and to follow them as far as they go. These threads may lead to meandering tangents— and you may discover new ideas along the way.

A lot of those new ideas will probably be embarrassingly poor. That’s fine. You’re already talking about the next thing! And unlike with text, your evil thoughts aren’t staring you in the face.

Consider leaving comments to yourself as you go — e.g., “Maybe that’d work for the intro.” These will come in handy later.

For me, these recordings run anywhere from 20–80 minutes. Sometimes they’re much shorter, in quick succession. Whatever works.

Part II: Transcription

Once I’ve finished recording, it’s time to harness ⚡️The Power of Technology⚡️

A little background: over the last couple of years there’s been an explosion of tools related to automatic speech recognition (ASR) thanks to huge steps forward in the underlying technologies.

Here’s how ASR works: you import your audio into the software, the software uses state-of-the-art machine learning to spit back a text transcript a few minutes later. That transcript won’t be perfect—the robots are currently in the ‘Write drunk’ phase of their careers. But for our purposes that’s fine: you just need it to be accurate enough that you can recognize your ideas.

Once you have your text transcript, your next step is up to you: maybe you’re exporting your transcript as a Word document and revising from there. Maybe you are firing up your voice recorder again to dictate a more polished take. Perhaps only a few words in your audio journey are worth keeping — but that’s fine too. It probably didn’t cost you much (and good news: the price for this tech will continue to fall in the years ahead).

A few more tips:

Use a recorder/app that you trust. Losing a recording is painful — and the anxiety of losing another can derail your most exciting creative moments (“I hope this recorder is working. Good, it is… @#*! where was I?”)

Find a comfortable space. Eventually, you may get used to having people overhear your musings, but it’s a lot easier to let your mind “go for a walk” when you’re comfortable in your environment.

Speaking of walking: why not go for a stroll? The pains of writing can have just as much to do with being stationary and hunched over. Walking gets your blood flowing — and your ideas too.

Audio quality matters when it comes to automatic transcription. If your recording has a lot of background noise or you’re speaking far away from the mic, the accuracy is going to drop. Consider using earbuds (better yet: Airpods), so you can worry less about where you’re holding the recorder.

I have a lot of ideas, good and bad, while I’m thinking out loud and playing music at the same time (in my case, guitar — but I suspect it applies more broadly). There’s something about playing the same four-chord song on autopilot for the thousandth time that keeps my hands busy and leaves my mind free to wander.

The old ways of doing things — whether it’s with a penor keyboard — still have their advantages. Putting words to a page can force a sort of linear thinking that is otherwise difficult to maintain. And when it comes to editing, it’s no contest: QWERTY or bust.

But for getting those first crucial paragraphs down (and maybe a few keystone ideas to build towards)? Consider talking to yourself. Even if you wind up with a transcript full of nothing but profanity — well, have you ever seen a transcript full of profanity? You could do a lot worse.

This article was originally published by Descript.

New post published on: http://www.livescience.tech/2018/09/17/overcoming-writers-block-automatic-transcription/

[finsterhund]

Work on  the revived official Heart of Darkness website is never over! - a little update

Even though the website (or as much of it that wayback archived) has been up in its entirety for a while now, the archivist work behind getting the site up to snuff is never truly over. Whenever I’m at a particularly low place in my life I do more monotonous tasks.

This week, I figured I’d give an update because I finally got around to fixing something that’s been bothering me for a while.

The hit counter!

But I’ll save that for last. I have some more smaller updates.

While probably not the biggest deal, mostly because many people wouldn't bother checking them, I've decided to work on the HTML of the pages themselves, making the code appear much more closely to how it actually did on the original website. This basically means tiny little changes like capitalizing tags such as the <BR> and <BODY> ones that one of my HTML editing programs in the past thought it was okay to “modernize” and shifting up orderings of some stuff. Purely aesthetic, and not even something that visibly looks different on the pages themselves.

I've also been shifting around directories. Originally when uploading the site it was easier to just dump every single image file into the /images/ directory, but originally the site split things up neater, with more of them like /jpg/ and others. So I've been starting the slow process of moving the images around just so that in the code itself and the sitemap it more closely resembles the original.

I've also changed up some slight aesthetic things to text I've added on the site. The donate button and message is less intrusive.

Heads up though. I accidentally overwrote the second frame of the French HoD_main. So it’s not there. I’m working on getting it back from my backup, but I figured I’d finish with the English main page just in case I accidentally do it again.

(and on that subject, I’m never going to fix the typo in the 404 page. I've grown too fond of it. Even though it was something I made for my archive, I think it’s a staple of the site at this point, what with how much everything used to 404 in the early days of bringing it back.)

Also on topic, but I noticed some directories were accessible. Similar to the Paper Beast leaks, this is rarely left on purpose. If you discover any please let me know and I’ll patch them up. Visible bare directories feel so wrong to me. Like just looking at them will make the webmaster angry with me. I also noticed that our beautiful custom 403 page isn't working. Who knows really? Idk. I've tried everything I can think of. From the option in cpanel to manually editing the htaccess. Nope. Giving me the ugly default one. Maybe it’s temporary.

I also noticed a little issue with Opera internet browser that adds some tiny little transparent spaces after things that can mess with <center> aligned pages. It’s a really stupid thing and it makes me annoyed with Opera a bit. It’s most noticeable on the pages where the images are split up into multiple parts because it shifts the last one to the left a bit, making the image look like it was glued together poorly.

Fortunately it isn't a problem with Firefox or Chrome, and I was able to fix it in Opera without ruining it in the other browsers. It does mean that on many pages a single <BR> tag is in a different exact spot in the page than it was on the original site, but it’s so minor I figured everyone would prefer it looking right in Opera over the historical accuracy of the HTML itself. I’ll be going through the site every so often in Opera to see if this problem shows up elsewhere.

And now, for the hit counter!

Originally, on the 1997-1998 version of the second frame of the menu page (Main_frm02.html) there was a hit counter. It used the font that the menus of the site use. The function of this counter seemed to be in PHP and had each digit from 0-9 as its own separate .gif file in the directory “/images/digits/a/” 

When I first set about fixing this counter I had no idea how to create one in PHP that would use the original .gif digits, so I instead made another one that listed the full number of visitors in a single image that it created automatically. This is a more advanced and modern option, but it’s one I obviously didn't want to use for that reason, as well as it not visibly looking like the original one. I made a chart to demonstrate:

as you can see, you needed to manually set the font size, and in order to make it closer resemble the original I’d have had to adjust the spacing between the numbers too, which I didn't know how to do. I also noticed that the natural way the numbers fall in the fontface is different than how they were centered in their original .gif files, which means that using this method would never recreate the original to a tee anyways,

so I scoured the internet for code that I could create a hit counter with individual image files for the digits like the original and then I’d modify it to suit my needs. Which evidently happened. It took a bit to implement, mostly because I’m an idiot and decided to do this at 2AM after taking my sleeping medicine. 

The way my brain works is it’s not sharp enough at the intentional sleep deprived state I often am in to negate the effects of PTSD. Turns out I need my hypervigilance to work with code because the lifestyle I use to dull it also muddies my brain when it comes to programing languages, even simple ones like PHP. I’m hoping this can be avoided when I finally am put on new medicine. The entire process was rather humiliating when I woke up this afternoon and immediately figured out what I had been doing wrong. I needed to embed a php file of the script running. Not put the script into the page itself. Aka I was trying to write it out in the file when I should have just wrote it out in another php file and then stick a “<?php include” into the page. The page also needed to be a PHP file, not HTML, which I didn't want to do for authentic “just like the original” sake, but you can’t really tell unless you dig in the code. Looking back on social media where I was whining about how I couldn't get it to work was pretty embarrassing. This is the exact way my brain muddies itself in all situations though. I had it explained to me like this once: “You’re too smart for your own good. You think you need to work harder to solve an easy solution and you just end up blinding yourself to it in the process.” It’s extremely frustrating.

BUT!!! It’s finally working!!! It looks just like the original! It even uses the same directories for the images! It now logs all hits instead of unique ones though so... hmmmm... be careful.

I did have to create new .gifs for 0 4 and 9 because they weren't originally saved by wayback though. You might be able to tell that because they have strange red-ish pixels around the outside of the white number. I’m going to be working on making them look like the official ones but for now you’d have to zoom in on them to see it.

but anyways, that’s it. I don’t usually provide updates like this for the website, but I decided I wanted to in order to help myself feel better. 

A reminder to Heart of Darkness fans who may not know, but there used to be an official website at HeartofDarkness.com but it went down in the early 2000s. I painstakingly downloaded every file from Wayback and recreated the website at HeartofDarkness.ca that you are free to check out and run around in now. 

It’s got rare promotional art, a press bible with character write ups, some level screens, and a ton of 90s-tastic frames! Only the best websites are built with frames! 

It’s missing a few things that weren't saved like some images, so if you have those old files from the original site I’d be very much interested in getting them from you. I originally recreated the site because it wasn't accessible on Wayback due to robots.txt protocol. Briefly though it was, so I rapidly saved everything. Originally the highlight menus (in java) didn't work which made navigating the archive hard. As of late the current owner of the domain allows Wayback to show the archive, and Wayback even added Java support so the menus work, but I've managed to fix some issues with images being missing that a friend had managed to save after all these years so I think my archive is still the definitive version. Wayback has also been acting up for me lately, so other that citing it as the official source (it’s proof that those pages existed back then at all) it’s likely more reliable to use my archive instead.

[sharionpage]

Overcoming Writer’s Block with Automatic Transcription

The Self Improvement Blog | Self Esteem | Self Confidence

If you’re a writer — of books, essays, scripts, blog posts, whatever — you’re familiar with the phenomenon: the blank screen, a looming deadline, and a sinking feeling in your gut that pairs poorly with the jug of coffee you drank earlier.

If you know that rumble all too well: this post is for you. Maybe it’ll help you get out of a rut; at the very least, it’s good for a few minutes of procrastination.

Here’s the core idea: thinking out loud is often less arduous than writing. And it’s now easier than ever to combine the two, thanks to recent advances in speech recognition technology.

Of course, dictation is nothing new — and plenty of writers have taken advantage of it. Carl Sagan’s voluminous output was facilitated by his process of speaking into an audio recorder, to be transcribed later by an assistant (you can listen to some of his dictations in the Library of Congress!) And software like Dragon’s Naturally Speaking has offered automated transcription for people with the patience and budget to pursue it.

But it’s only in the last couple of years that automated transcription has reached a sweet spot — of convenience, affordability and accuracy—that makes it practical to use it more casually. And I’ve found it increasingly useful for generating a sort of proto-first draft: an alternative approach to the painful process of converting the nebulous wisps inside your head into something you can actually work with.

I call this process idea extraction (though these ideas may be more accurately dubbed brain droppings).

Part I: Extraction

Here’s how my process works. Borrow what works for you and forget the rest — and let me know how it goes!

Pick a voice recorder. Start talking. Try it with a topic you’ve been chewing on for weeks — or when an idea flits your head. Don’t overthink it. Just start blabbing.

The goal is to tug on as many threads as you come across, and to follow them as far as they go. These threads may lead to meandering tangents— and you may discover new ideas along the way.

A lot of those new ideas will probably be embarrassingly bad. That’s fine. You’re already talking about the next thing! And unlike with text, your bad ideas aren’t staring you in the face.

Consider leaving comments to yourself as you go — e.g. “Maybe that’d work for the intro”. These will come in handy later.

For me, these recordings run anywhere from 20–80 minutes. Sometimes they’re much shorter, in quick succession. Whatever works.

Part II: Transcription

Once I’ve finished recording, it’s time to harness The Power of Technology.

A little background: over the last couple of years there’s been an explosion of tools related to automatic speech recognition (ASR) thanks to huge steps forward in the underlying technologies.

Here’s how ASR works: you import your audio into the software, the software uses state-of-the-art machine learning to spit back a text transcript a few minutes later. That transcript won’t be perfect—the robots are currently in the ‘Write drunk’ phase of their careers. But for our purposes that’s fine: you just need it to be accurate enough that you can recognize your ideas.

Once you have your text transcript, your next step is up to you: maybe you’re exporting your transcript as a Word doc and revising from there. Maybe you’re firing up your voice recorder again to dictate a more polished take. Maybe only a few words in your audio journey are worth keeping — but that’s fine too. It probably didn’t cost you much (and good news: the price for this tech will continue to fall in the years ahead).

A few more tips:

Use a recorder/app that you trust. Losing a recording is painful — and the anxiety of losing another can derail your most exciting creative moments (“I hope this recorder is working. Good, it is… @#*! where was I?”)

Audio quality matters when it comes to automatic transcription. If your recording has a lot of background noise or you’re speaking far away from the mic, the accuracy is going to drop. Consider using earbuds (better yet: Airpods) so you can worry less about where you’re holding the recorder.

Find a comfortable space. Eventually you may get used to having people overhear your musings, but it’s a lot easier to let your mind “go for a walk” when you’re comfortable in your environment.

Speaking of walking: why not go for a stroll? The pains of writing can have just as much to do with being stationary and hunched over. Walking gets your blood flowing — and your ideas too.

I have a lot of ideas, good and bad, while I’m thinking out loud and playing music at the same time (in my case, guitar — but I suspect it applies more broadly). There’s something about playing the same four-chord song on auto pilot for the thousandth time that keeps my hands busy and leaves my mind free to wander.

The old ways of doing things — whether it’s with a keyboard or pen — still have their advantages. Putting words to a page can force a sort of linear thinking that is otherwise difficult to maintain. And when it comes to editing, it’s no contest: QWERTY or bust.

But for getting those first crucial paragraphs down (and maybe a few keystone ideas to build towards)? Consider talking to yourself. Even if you wind up with a transcript full of nothing but profanity — well, have you ever seen a transcript full of profanity? You could do a lot worse.

This article is originally published by Descript.

Overcoming Writer’s Block with Automatic Transcription published first on https://bitspiritspace.tumblr.com/

[pcgamesdaily-blog1]

Data Recovery: 10 Most Effective Computer Backup Tools

Donna GunterData Recovery: 10 highest Effective brain Backup ToolsComputers Articles | February 26, 2009How complete you continue to trial when your computer get-up-and-go down? in case that you have a backup computer that's synchronized to your initial computer, it becomes abundant easier to move forward. However, if you prohibition and have to harbor a different or borrowed computer in the time yours is being repaired, here are 10 adding machine backup apparatus to support you receive back up and functioning quickly: absorb (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.comDespite my best efforts, this previous week I lost the pair my constitutional and unimportant computer systems. After defeated my leading desktop considerable years ago, I declare I would never certify myself be caught out an driving PC. at the time that they say, "the road to h*ll is surface with acceptable intentions," and I already again was caught with my acknowledged pants sinking without an operating artificial intelligence when my desktop, which had last exhibiting part of problem light in the last month, died suddenly and would not turn on.I later went to my laptop, which I had certainly been lazy about protection updated, and turned it on. urgently the bay update proceeding started, and asked me install Service Pack 3 for aperture XP. get done that successfully on my desktop, I wasn't too perturbed about each installation dilemma on the laptop. However, upon execute the installation, the azure screen of death appeared, which is NEVER a good trace with a Windows-based system.After trying for about an hour after success to revive my laptop (which is only 8 generation old and still beneath warranty), I knew that I was in stress and starting looking for alternatives. Fortunately, my consort keeps a laptop on hand that he practice for match when we travel, and he handsomely offered to let me install my programs and files on it until I put up repair one of my computers.After lastly acknowledging that there was no means I keep have prepared for this situation, I distinct that I needed to s*ck it up, get over, and move on. So, i.e making do with a partially customized laptop that will complete until one or the other of my PCs is returned.Despite having ended through similar situations previously, I hushed learned a few unusual things onward the means about statistics recovery and computer backup. Here are the 10 most efficient tools that saved my bacon as my modern computer meltdown.1. Automatic backup software. dive been using 2 installed backups, Carbonite and Syncplicity. I have had to restore from Carbonite previously, and I found the process to be lengthy and fairly confusing. So, several second ago I began using Syncplicity because it overture online entrance to all backed up files as well as the capability to synchronize an unlimited number of computers. However, it enjoy taken a week to restore 20 GB of data with Syncplicity, and some of the evidence was wasn't really restored, despite what Syncplicity mention me in my account. However, I can regularly download this missing info to my computer from the accessible vault. separate process that makes this backup organization easier is that I store all of my data list in My Docs so I embargo have to hunt them down in Program Files, or anywhere they are typically stored.2. Email applicant software. I still value the dinosaur Eudora for my email client. Old habits drown hard, I suppose. However, somehow I missed noticing some indispensable Eudora folders to rearward up, and so I was initially using my webmail access providing by my hosting company to access e-mail because of this overlook with Eudora. I do to dishearten of that quickly, as I had no way to create watch free movies online now folders in the particular systems, so I again decided to manually configure Eudora and open folders and emails as I need them in the program. This experience acquire made me very tempted to diversity all of my coming in and communicative email servers on all domains to Gmail blameless to have access to everything online, come hurricane, flood, tornado, or calculator crash.3. Bookmark service. um an thirsty researcher and resource collector, so acquire access to my bookmarks, or choice file, is vital to my day-to-day operations. I had move using Spurl, but over of frequent periodic outages of their service, I've changed to Foxmarks. I like that this office offers me the strength to entrée all of these online, as sound as have them at my fingertips any turn I demand them from my Bookmarks menu as well as easily synchronize them to any computer.4. Contact management. Even nevertheless I don't use viewpoint for email, I move use it for list and meeting management. I had breathe using Plaxo as an online backup for my contacts, but it doesn't permit me to stock my report about exclusive contact. dive been testing Airset straightaway for different months, and it repeatedly syncs my contacts (with notes) and my diary to their online service. I found this scads more timely than trying to rescue a backup PST dossier to perspective and formerly repeating that again when my primary computer is returned. Instead, I blameless make development to contacts and my calendar on Airset, and I'll blameless sync that to vision on my desktop.5. Passwords. I've prevail using Roboform for agedness to use me regulate my passwords. I've receive my Roboform data in My Docs, so it was a breeze to reinstall Roboform and replica the evidence folder to the new computer and permit me to entry all of the spot requiring a password and username. Finally, something that worked seamlessly!6. Project Management. Smartsheet enjoy been my project board service for the crowning few months. I taste that it has the ability to create an item and allow you to adhere a script and exchange to that item. kind of than get to interrogation down knowledge about a project, all I had to complete was timber into my Smartsheet story and there it was.7. Software licenses. Roughly 99% of the new spreadsheet I plant is downloaded and I don't earn a natural copy on CD. Therefore, I compose sure that I have the downloaded version in a My Downloads folder that's a part of My Docs file, which is favored up regularly. And, I make a PDF photocopy of the software charter that I get by email and store in a spreadsheet folder, too in My Docs. Lastly, I pick up a very inexpensive program, Registration Vault, that authorize me stock all of my program license and purchase info and permission me to back increase my evidence to My Docs. during the time that I had to reinstall software on a unusual computer, it was clear to recover the Registration Vault files, get my software right number, and have a fully functioning piece of software in minutes.8. Accounting. I value Quickbooks for my auditing needs, and while they do bid an connected version, I haven't yet moved to that. Instead, I behind up Quickbooks after every use in the My Docs folder. When I needed to invoice consulting clients at the beginning of this month, all I had to do was reinstall Quickbooks and restore my latest backup. I forthwith had business I essential again at my fingertips.9. Alternate complimentary services. a little software I use, cognate CuteFTP and TraxTime, embargo permit evidence backups. So, I easily do have to dawn all bygone with my FTP info and my time apprehend info meanwhile my clone dies. comparatively than installing these programs on the new computer, I aloof used any free recourse to land me through. FireFTP, a Firefox add-on, has fashioned quite trim for me as my FTP client, and MyHours.com has rise in quite well for TraxTime, although it desire a petty more impression for use than TraxTime.10. Email marketing. While not a tool, I discovered that both text and HTML form of E-message broadcasts material in E-message marketing. I wasn't initially able to get my normal email client rise and running, so I was account my email from my webmail systems. I've pull 2 hosting accounts, and the state-of-the-art one receive a quite sophisticated webmail system and let me read HTML emails with no problem. The other, however, doesn't permit hetman viewing. So, those emails sent individual in HTML were masses that I was weak to read. If you're wise and your E-message marketing program permits you to shoot emails out in the couple plain theme and HTML, do it, even nonetheless it force seem cognate a excessive pain. You just nevermore know whence members of your file might be forced to ready your emails.As you might gather, I've opened that connected services have provided me with the greatest backup to service me over this calculator crisis. My lesson? Duplicate as full as you can in online systems. In this way, yowl have entry to your data during you travel, when you have a computer crash, or during you're risk with a natural disaster. Article Tags: Data Recovery, Most Effective, Computer Backup, Email Client, Software License, Email Marketing Internet Marketing Strategist & Boomer Biz Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online fallback businesses that they taste by demystifying the means & strategies needed to market and grow their businesses online. To claim your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your wired Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com

[markhorrell-blog1]

Data Recovery: 10 Most Effective Computer Backup Tools

Donna GunterData Recovery: 10 largest Effective artificial intelligence Backup ToolsComputers Articles | February 26, 2009How complete you linger to task when your computer force down? conceding that you have a backup computer hates synchronized to your leading computer, it becomes full easier to move forward. However, if you restriction 123movieshub have to spot a different or imitated computer during yours is being repaired, here are 10 calculator backup engine to support you earn back rise and running quickly: absorb (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.comDespite my best efforts, this spent week I lost the two my constitutional and secondary computer systems. After losing my constitutional desktop certain years ago, I affirm I would never certify myself be caught beyond an running PC. at the time that they say, "the course to h*ll is tar with great intentions," and I earlier again was caught with my archetypal pants descending without an operating calculator when my desktop, which had prevail exhibiting part of problem light in the last month, died quickly and would not trend on.I suddenly went to my laptop, which I had indeed been sleepy about charge updated, and turned it on. promptly the bay update proceeding started, and asked me install duty Pack 3 for bay XP. receive done that successfully on my desktop, I wasn't too worried about whatever installation trouble on the laptop. However, upon do the installation, the turquoise screen of death appeared, which is NEVER a good hint with a Windows-based system.After trying for about an hour without success to revive my laptop (which is individual 8 turn old and still downward warranty), I knew that I was in trouble and outset looking for alternatives. Fortunately, my consort keeps a laptop on hand that he handling for sport when we travel, and he abundantly offered to let me install my programs and files on it before I put up repair one of my computers.After definitely acknowledging that there was no form I put up have likely this situation, I decided that I needed to s*ck it up, receive over, and move on. So, um making do with a partially customized laptop that will move until one or the other of my PCs is returned.Despite having retired through similar situations previously, I hushed learned a few new things forth the way about dossier recovery and computer backup. Here are the 10 most impressive tools that saved my bacon midst my late computer meltdown.1. Automatic backup software. ice been working 2 installed backups, Carbonite and Syncplicity. I have had to restore from Carbonite previously, and I found the process to be tedious and considerably confusing. So, several past ago I began proving Syncplicity over it action online approach to all backed rise files as well as the strength to synchronize an limitless number of computers. However, it receive taken a week to restore 20 GB of data with Syncplicity, and some of the evidence was wasn't really restored, despite what Syncplicity disclose me in my account. However, I can handily download this missing info to my computer from the accessible vault. sole process that makes this backup system easier is that I store all of my data notebook in My Docs so I embargo have to hunt them down in Program Files, or whereabouts they are typically stored.2. Email patient software. I still practice the dinosaur Eudora for my E-message client. tired habits succumb hard, I suppose. However, somehow I missed denominating some crucial Eudora folders to back up, and so I was initially using my webmail entrée providing by my hosting company to access email because of this lapse with Eudora. I inaugurate to annoy of that quickly, as I had no way to set up additional folders in the above-mentioned systems, so I next decided to manually configure Eudora and open folders and emails as I need them in the program. already stated experience acquire made me very tempted to advance all of my approaching and communicative email servers on all domains to Gmail conscientious to have access to everything online, come hurricane, flood, tornado, or artificial intelligence crash.3. Bookmark service. ism an eager researcher and resource collector, so having access to my bookmarks, or choice file, is vital to my day-to-day operations. I had prevail using Spurl, but because of constant periodic outages of their service, dive changed to Foxmarks. I like that this duty offers me the intelligence to entry all of these online, as sound as have them at my fingertips any second I right them from my Bookmarks menu as well as easily synchronize them to any computer.4. Contact management. Even still I don't use attitude for email, I execute use it for calendar and unity management. I had prevail using Plaxo as an online backup for my contacts, but it doesn't permit me to cache my synopsis about all contact. ice been working Airset now for different months, and it repeatedly syncs my contacts (with notes) and my calendar to their online service. I organize this scads more good than arduous to restore a backup PST information to perspective and later repeating that again during my primary computer is returned. Instead, I just make adjustment to contacts and my calendar on Airset, and I'll decent sync that to perspective on my desktop.5. Passwords. I've breathe using Roboform for generation to use me dominate my passwords. I've land my Roboform data in My Docs, so it was a breeze to reinstall Roboform and photograph the dossier folder to the new computer and permit me to entrance all of the scene requiring a password and username. Finally, something that worked seamlessly!6. Project Management. Smartsheet acquire been my project authority service for the end few months. I taste that it has the ability to create an item and allow you to adhere a script and review to that item. comparatively than enjoy to interrogation down word about a project, all I had to execute was log into my Smartsheet explanation and there it was.7. Software licenses. Roughly 99% of the new software I invest is downloaded and I don't pull a substantial copy on CD. Therefore, I compose sure that I have the downloaded version in a My Downloads folder that's a part of My Docs file, which is backed up regularly. And, I make a PDF photograph of the software license that I get by email and store in a groupware folder, likewise in My Docs. Lastly, I pick up a bona fide inexpensive program, Registration Vault, that give me reservoir all of my software license and purchase info and charter me to back rise my dossier to My Docs. during the time that I had to reinstall software on a unusual computer, it was straightforward to restore the Registration Vault files, get my software right number, and have a fully functional piece of software within minutes.8. Accounting. I help Quickbooks for my accounting needs, and while they do action an connected version, I haven't yet moved to that. Instead, I rearward up Quickbooks after every use in the My Docs folder. When I needed to invoice consulting clients at the outset of this month, all I had to execute was reinstall Quickbooks and restore my latest backup. I right away had lot I desired again at my fingertips.9. Alternate paper services. Some software I use, agnate CuteFTP and TraxTime, injunction permit statistics backups. So, I well do have to dawn all by with my FTP info and my time capture info when my calculator dies. comparatively than invest these business on the new computer, I just used a few free recourse to get me through. FireFTP, a Firefox add-on, has fashioned quite trim for me as my FTP client, and MyHours.com has erect in rather well for TraxTime, supposing it miss a less more impression for use than TraxTime.10. Email marketing. While not a tool, I spotted that the two text and HTML variant of E-message broadcasts thing in E-message marketing. I wasn't initially able to get my normal electronic mail client jump and running, so I was knowledge my voice mail from my webmail systems. I've receive 2 hosting accounts, and the modern one include a quite sophisticated webmail system and let me read hotly emails with no problem. The other, however, doesn't permit HTML viewing. So, those emails sent only in homely were public that I was impotent to read. If you're wise and your voice mail marketing plan permits you to express emails out in the two plain content and HTML, do it, even nonetheless it potency seem agnate a pointless pain. You just nevermore know according to what members of your series might be forced to ready your emails.As you might gather, I've perceived that accessible services have provided me with the greatest backup to service me through this brain crisis. My lesson? Duplicate as abundant as you can in online systems. In this way, yowl have entry to your data during you travel, when you have a computer crash, or although you're risk with a natural disaster. Article Tags: Data Recovery, Most Effective, Computer Backup, Email Client, Software License, Email Marketing Internet Marketing Strategist & Boomer Biz Coach done Gunter support baby boomers create effective online retirement businesses that they taste by demystifying the tools & strategies needed to market and grow their businesses online. To plea your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your connected Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. request Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com

[gta-5-cheats]

Can Netflix Use Technology to Reinvent TV and Movie Production?

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Can Netflix Use Technology to Reinvent TV and Movie Production?

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Despite having practically created the streaming industry, Netflix finds itself today in a defensive position as one-time content partners like Disney make moves to set up their own streaming services. That’s perhaps one reason why Netflix has been keen to stress that it is both a content company – it announced plans to spend $8 billion on content in 2018 – and a technology company. Speaking on the sidelines of a press event at the company’s office in Los Angeles last week, a Netflix representative pointed out, “we don’t just use technology to get the shows to you, our tech side is also being used to make shows in a better way.”

Later, Gadgets 360 got to speak with Chris Goss, Director Studio Technology at Netflix, and Amie Tornincasa, Production Technology Manager Netflix. Goss has a studio background, having worked at Paramount, ABC, and Universal, while Tornincasa comes from an engineering background. Together, their teams are working on ways to improve the production process with the use of technology, and the result is Netflix’s newest app – one that’s not meant for the viewers, but rather for the filmmakers. Called Move, it’s a progressive web app (PWA), which is a kind of app that runs in the browser, and it’s used to manage all planning for a production.

“Traditionally, technology adoption has been very slow – we went from film to digital, from practical effects to CGI, from broadcast to streaming, but the production side is still all about lots and lots of paper,” said Goss.

Tornincasa, who is based in Netflix’s Silicon Valley office in Los Gatos, came to Hollywood and spent time working with a production crew to figure out how technology could make a difference.

“The tech was still fax machines and copiers, it was an archaic workflow,” said Tornincasa. “And when we looked at the current marketplace and landscape for software applications in this industry, it’s very limited. There are some startups that have attempted to pioneer and take over the space and provide solutions, but they tend to be more of an all-in model where they compartmentalise and they kind of keep their data, and you need to use all of their services. We [Netflix] are a growing, global studio, and we can’ fit ourselves into a defined box.”

To get around this, Netflix started work on Prodigal, a group of apps that can be used for production work. Of these, the first one to be deployed is Move, which can send notifications to crew members, let them access scene info, read the sides and update call sheets, and generate automatic status reports. It’s built as a responsive PWA so it can be used on any device, and supports SMS and email notifications well, so that everyone in a production can stay up to date.

Netflix only started using Move recently – on the production of two still unreleased series, Glow Season 2 and A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 3. The process has been a work in progress with features being added as the productions moved forward.

Each unit can see its production schedule and other details like locations or shooting notes are available by tapping on the entries.

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  The obvious line of thinking is that this kind of change – which is quite dramatic for any production – would lead to improvements in efficiency, savings in time and money, and be a lucrative change. However, Goss quickly quelled the notion, and said: “We don’t want to spend too much time thinking about that because we think that’s somewhat of a setup for failure, especially seeing the past failures and why there hasn’t been a lot of innovation in this space.”

“Instead, we really talk a lot about crew empowerment,” he continued. “It’s the concept of giving someone technology that reduces the administrative friction, to do their jobs and allows them to be more creative. It’s not about digitising paper, it’s about creating a new workflow, a new way of doing something, that comes from collaboration, communication, and data.”

The goal with Prodigal in general, and with Move specifically, is to change workflows by making it easier to collaborate and share information though notifications and other channels, but the data aspect of it is what holds promise for future productions. “They’ve [filmmakers] got to make the decisions quickly,” said Goss. “If we can use historical data to help them make those decisions quickly, they’re going to produce a better piece of content for us, and so our goals with data is really to enable those productions to operate with that level of intelligence.”

“So when you build a production schedule, it’s all based on tribal knowledge, right?” he explained further. “It’s… a producer comes, and they say oh, you know, I think on my last show that had a car explosion, it took three days and then we did two days of prep, and it was X-amount of dollars. That historical knowledge is in their brain. If we’re able to capture that knowledge using tools, then you could very quickly use that information.”

Building this up in a significant manner would require it to be used by other studios as well, and Goss says that Netflix wants that to happen. It’s started with some originals, and although it’s not mandated for Netflix shows, Goss hoped that more and more will use Move. “It’s a big question mark for us right now,” he added. “We’re still in our infancy. We want to first make it a really solid product across the board, and then have those conversations about what does it look like to release wide, and what would that strategy be.”

At the same time, the team is also working on a larger Prodigal umbrella, and aside from scheduling, it’s looking at things like scripting, and budgeting as well, as some of the big questions to answer.

“One of the things we are working on is breaking down a script for shoots,” added Goss, “how we use the script information to plan our roadmap; the schedule which is how long it is going to take to shoot and what are we doing each day, budget, how much is is going to cost, and crew administration. Move fits in that scheduling piece, but we’re building tools around each of those areas.”

Disclosure: Netflix sponsored the correspondent’s travel and stay for the event in Los Angeles.

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[luv-engineering]

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book in the network monitoring genre yet

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't be blindsided by the IoT - read and put this book into practice! As we enter the murky age of Internet of Things (or "Internet of Insecure Things", "Internet of Evil Things", "Botnet of Things", take your pick) monitoring your home network has to become a common skill. Although by no means confined to application in home environments, The Practice of Network Security Monitoring does allow a modestly technically adept user to do just that. This book walks you through understanding the concepts, installing the needed software, configuring network monitoring components, and using some of the many free solutions for detecting unwanted or malicious traffic.For those who want to apply this work at home, allow me to make a few suggestions about corollary purchases you may need to make. I recommend dedicating a desktop or tower computer to the task of server. It doesn't need an especially powerful CPU, but it should have a lot of RAM, at least 8 GB. Purchase your RAM with a view to exanding; using 8GB as an example, don't buy 4 2GB sticks, but rather 2 4GB sticks. Later you could by 2 x 4GB or 2 x 8GB sticks to upgrade memory. You will also need at least 1 extra NIC (Network Interface Card), which will be in permanent 'listen only' (aka "promiscuous") mode. You will be using the free Security Onion solution, running on the free Ubuntu 12.04 Linux, so you can skip buying a license for Windows if you purchase everything from scratch. Finally you will need at least one network device that can duplicate traffic.Read more › Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars You must read this book Most computer books are badly written. The information in the book is fine (usually, hopefully), but the actual craft of writing is poor. They read like computer programs. This isn't surprising, as most computer books are written by computer professionals. By the time you're good enough at a computing topic to write a book about it, your brain automatically arranged things in machine-friendly order. That's human nature. The downside of this, however, is that most computing books lack the things that make books interesting to human beings. We readers grit our teeth and plow through them because we need the information.I'm pleased to say that Richard Bejtlich's The Practice of Network Security Monitoring is not one of those books. The damn thing is actually readable. By normal people.That's a vague assertion. How about a metric? Season 6 of Burn Notice just hit Netflix streaming. I watched a few episodes Saturday. They ended on a tense cliffhanger, but I finally had to go to bed. Sunday, I finished reading this book before seeing how Westin and company got out of their fix. (Okay, that's not exactly a metric, but it's a good sign.)Bejtlich graduated from Harvard and the Air Force Academy graduate. He led CIRT teams in the Air Force, built a security team at General Electric, and is now Chief Security Officer at Mandiant. He's on television as an electronic security guru. And for the last decade-plus, he's been beating the drum about intelligent attackers and the need for a holistic approach to security. When everybody else was going on about firewalls and antivirus and access controls and penetration testing, he wrote books like The Tao of Network Security Monitoring arguing that we need to think about network defense as an ongoing activity.Read more › Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars best book ever in my life for network security monitoring This book covers almost everything from network security monitoring perspective. It also covers basic things such as Session Data, Transaction Data, Statistical Data and Metadata. What I most like is Chapter 4, "Distributed Deployment". I remember that I spent tons of time for trouble shootings to finalize all distributed server plus sensor systems. This chapter makes network engineers' life easier than before. Other than WireShark, it covers Xplico, one of open source network forensic analysis tool and Network Miner. I haven't used these tools before for my e forensic. However, I realized that these tools are pretty useful tools to save my time and visualize stuffs from my research. I like his approcahses for Servier Side Compromise and Client Side Compromise. I completely agree with his methdologies to investigate those on their own way. Don't forget to refer the following chapters regarding SO SCRIPTS and CONFIGURATION. Even if those were placed at last chapter, you will use those information usefully anytime if you want. Go to Amazon