#it's always learning new syntax that trips me up

[crabsnpersimmons]

Do the trio know sign language or are able to speak other languages for others who speak differently?

Eclipse: and now in the restaurant, many of our late Boss's old customers only speak Cantonese, so we still make use of our programming. The only learning curve we had was familiarizing ourselves with all the regional dialects and slang.

(apologies if i got the signs wrong, i'm still an ASL newbie, but i hope to learn more in the future!)

Fun Fact: did you know that in Cantonese slang, white rice can be referred to as 靚仔, which literally translates to "handsome boy". and the slang for congee is 靚女, "pretty girl"

do with that knowledge as you will 🍚

[leam1983]

On Grief

This is a long one. You're under no obligation to push further if you don't want to. It's a personal post, so I'll more than understand if this isn't to your tastes. The normally-scheduled pedantry, commentary and memes will resume shortly.

One of my relatives was diagnosed with ALS. What started as an odd case of palsy in her left set of vocal cords that could've been far more benign was just confirmed by her referred physician. It's Lou Gherig's, and with her age and current condition, her prognosis is of three to five years, tops. Sure, Stephen Hawking blew his own prognosis out of the water, but a combination of notoriety and luck enabled him to eke out as much existence as medical tech could've possibly allowed.

We knew things were suspect when my aunt, a marathoner with a monthly sub to Runner's World, stopped running. Her food intake dropped like a stone, and she soon took to increasingly simple painting and drawing styles. At first we thought it was just her wanting to explore simpler rendering techniques, but then...

Then we noticed the twitching. How awkwardly her pens and brushes were set in her hands. She was in great shape and didn't mind living in the ass-end of Sutton, basically in the open country and with a path leading up to her front door that was all in rough cobblestones. She broke a hip against them, last year.

Her speech started to slur, lately. Her last bike trip also landed her in the ER. She doesn't bike anymore. She doesn't run, and being a gourmand by nature, feels obligated to restrain herself, for fear of gaining weight. She's aggressively vegan. Not towards others, but towards herself. No meat, no eggs, nothing. Most of us ovo-lactos and omnivores in the family know her constant snacking meant her seventy-plus body is desperate for energy.

From the look of things, it feels like the diagnosis broke through her bullshit reasoning for being vegan. She wasn't vegan for the sake of limiting her carbon footprint or making more responsible choices at the grocery store, but because she, as a lifelong anorexic, thought she was ugly and needed to lose weight. That's been a constant with her. Age catches up and skin sags? She mistakes it for a love handle, cuts out virtually all sources of protein and carbs safe for tofu, seitan and bean-based preps. Of course, like a lot of anorexics, she'd have bulemic episodes. I used to sleep over at her last bachelor pad, as a teen, and I remember her pantry was loaded up for bear with Danish cookie tins, Nutella jars and whipped cream. I remember she invited me over specifically when she intended to cheat. Then it was back to yoga, pot-smoking, meditation and shopping runs - and she probably kept her purging for when I was gone.

So yeah. I'm betting Belgian Asshole (see one of my previous posts) convinced her to break her vows and went looking for a "slice of authentic Tikka Masala", to quote his email. The entire family is made up of ethnic food diehards, so we spam-flooded his inbox with recommendations. Looks like she'll be eating meat again, soon. Her own email mentioned concerns of strength and stamina, so I get it.

Otherwise? We're gobsmacked. Imagine spending an entire weekday both at work and off work, aggressively goofing off because you're trying as hard as you can not to think of your favourite aunt's mention of assisted suicide as an option.

Three to five years. Maybe one, or two good Christmases. After that, her condition should probably have started to deteriorate quickly.

I'm not close with a ton of my own family. I love them all, but it's more a sense of polite respect than anything involving solid bonds. The only two folks I know I'll be devastated for when they'll die are her, and my youngest cousin on the other side of the family.

I'm mostly okay now. No doubts, no crisis of unbelief, no anger, no rage... But then I'll see her in a more diminished state, one of those days. How am I going to take to it?

Part of me keeps a tally of the deaths in the family. First, it was my uncle on my mother's side. Ruptured abdominal artery, with a leak small enough to pool into the gut's cavity for months. Decay settled in, guy got anesthetized for an intervention...

They didn't even bother sewing him back up.

Second one was my other paternal aunt's new husband. First one was great, but left the country in the seventies to go live in Stockholm with his medical assistant. Second one was a geologist and physicist at the same campus she taught as. French guy, the son of innkeepers four generations down. It showed, too. Our Christmas tables haven't been the same since he left us his recipie books, all his corny jokes on provincial eating habits, and his obstinate focus on turning every 25th of December into a Roman orgy probably befitting of the old Saturnalia traditions. I mean, when's the last time you've had an eight-course meal, outside of Thanksgiving?

Tumors in his mesenteric artery lined the blood vessel's inner walls, deposited virtually everywhere in his body. He was diagnosed in June and dead by August. He'd always been the lanky type, bone-thin even if he hoovered food like he'd never have enough. He looked even thinner in his hospital bed.

Then, my maternal grandpa bit it. Decades of casual alcoholism, cirrhosis more or less jumping on him around his seventy-sixth year. He looked a bit like John Keston, the actor who played Gehn in CyanWorlds' Riven. Same hairline, same hawkish nose, same eyes - just more Cajun and less New England-esque. I don't know if it was youth or stupidity or - anything, really, but I dropped by to see him, just two days before he died. I didn't realize he was tallying my life, asking me if I had everything in order, if things were planned.

Now, I understand.

Next one on the chopping block is Aunt Doris, still on Mom's side. She of the serial mooching, she of the concept of not needing much to get by if you were the cute one of the family. She was pretty enough in her prime, sure - if by pretty you meant "cigarette-butt blonde with a discount Farah Fawcett blow-up and an unfinished High School degree". First husband was an abusive ass who gave her an uncommonly sensitive son, second one figured she'd stick to the minimum-wage circuit while he tore out rotator cuffs or busted his C7 while on his outboard like clockwork. By the end, she roped my grandmother into living with her, spent her days sloppy-drunk and died on her ratty couch while falling asleep and choking on her own vomit.

Before them all, the youngest of my uncles died at age two. Cancer. Never knew which one, was told it didn't matter. You didn't survive much of anything cancerous, back in the late fifties.

Ping-pong this back to three years ago, and my oldest paternal uncle dies. Paul, who smoked like a chimney for most of his life and successfully stopped after discovering Champix. He got to live five great years as the high-IQ oddball he'd always been, smoke-free. Paul was the weird bird in the family, the type to remember a really engrossing story at two in the morning and making a note to call you up first thing in the morning to share it. He always had a project of some sort to work on, like a simulated investors' tank for young entrepreneurs looking to learn the ropes, or a Byzantine arrangement of coaxials allowing four of his lakeside neighbours to pirate his cable sub. He'd invite us over for dinner, gather all the ingredients we'd need for whatever it was he wanted to treat us to - and then he'd let us cook it - just sitting by the sidelines, chatting away.

He was also a bit of a narcoleptic, and looked a bit like William Howard Taft if you'd worked him out of these old sack suits and into modern shirts and suspenders. He fell asleep practically everywhere, with his more wakeful environments being his workshop and his property's dock. He took me out fishing, once, and knew what the entire family expected.

"Oars're here, Gremlin, fish're that way. Wake me up when you've got a bite."

At this point, it wasn't even a point of concern; it was just an Uncle Paul Thing, the exact thing you'd have expected out of this kind, eccentric blob of a man whose idea of fishing involved pushing his hat over his eyes and basically all but ensuring that his roaring snores would scare prey away. He'd been a supposedly high-IQ type, terminally bored with almost everything, only really getting agitated and interested back when I asked him for help for my Junior High Computer class's Javascript calculator. Once the syntax hit something familiar and he realized that JS has some similarities with FORTRAN, he was on a roll, acting like someone had snuck a Red Bull in his coffee.

Well, fibrosis caught up with him. His last hours were spent directing us on how to cook what would've been his last meal. I think he really just wanted to know we were alright, that we still could exchange laughs around the kitchen counter. He clocked out the way he always did, except he had an oxygen tube running under his nose. His head bobbed down, he snored loudly for a few minutes, then turned increasingly quiet...

And that was it.

And now there's Isabelle. The marathoner, my partner-in-crime when it comes to professing to have a healthy diet while occasionally cheating in glorious, weekend-defining means, my gateway to cannabis and also the first person who took my cringy self-insert fanfic fodder and went No, that's worth it! Push it, develop that universe of yours!

I wouldn't be almost two-thirds of the way through my first decent manuscript, if not for her, and I wouldn't be shopping for publishers with the same energy you'd reserve for weekend-grade Facebook putzing-about. I owe her part of my self-acceptance, and part of my discovery of what defines my routine to this day. Isabelle was my first meditation coach.

And in three to five years, she might be gone.

I just thought grief might be... noisier, is all. Louder. Right now, it's just germane to confusion, and it's sitting there. There's a pinch of fear in it, too. My parents are in their mid-sixties. How long do I have left with them?!

And the family and I just covered that up with jokes and, well, cooking. I've been told I'd make a half-decent therapist but - navigating your own emotions is hard work...

I don't know. I guess I needed to put this down somewhere.

[yeoldontknow]

🖊writerly conversation tag

tagged by @j-pping to do this amazing interview/reflections tag. of course she put together one of the most amazing tags ever because she is brilliant. thank you for tagging me angel! 

questions below the cut!

2020

what was the most challenging part of writing this year?

gosh...i think for me the hardest bit was staying both motivated and inspired. a lot of my inspiration comes from being out in the world. im an introvert but i enjoy being out in the city around the noise and the people and the buildings on my own. the majority of my writing used to be done while riding the subway or on a weekend after id gone out somewhere. a lot of my fics are inspired by locations, and experiences within those locations. being inside for the majority of the year made it hard for me to remember how...people interact with or relate to the spaces around them. so i felt like a lot of the time staying inspired was coming from places within just me that felt inauthentic. i think my writing benefits from my ability to see multiple perspectives, so i felt like a lot of dialogue or writing itself was suffering just coming from me alone. it took a lot of work to ensure that it wasnt like that. 

and then, motivation was also so hard. the internet and the news and everything about america, the planet, the everything was unrelenting and draining. we as people were privy to so much trauma this year, to the collapse and fracture of communities, lives, governments. there were several weeks at the end of may and into june where i just...couldnt. i had no energy for anything. it happened again in november after the election and the windfall of it. energetic tensions were so high it just felt so hard to push out words when things were breaking everywhere. like there were more important things i needed to focus on, and healing was one of them.

what was the most enjoyable/rewarding part of writing this year?

i enjoyed the new community of writers/friends i found by writing for bts again. they challenged me and pushed me to better myself. @jamaisjoons is so inspirational in the way she generates community and encourages relationships between storytellers. doing the summer bucket list pushed me out of my hermit hole for camp nano, and i cranked out molotov cocktail and felt so proud of it. it mattered so much to me because it was the first long thing id written after a period of feeling deceased, and it was so enjoyable because there was a sense of community around it. its easy to forget how essential having a support system in your creative community is.

what piece has left the most impact on you and why?

probably ciperion. words cannot express how proud i am of that story and the direction its going in. i read it back sometimes and i realize that my writing was elevated because of that piece. tbh molotov was responsible for that lift, but ciperion was just a whole other tier. ive also never written anything like that story before and it felt so good exploring the themes of seafaring and pirates. 

what have you learned about yourself through the process of writing in the past year?

that i absolutely am someone who took for granted how inspiring the world is even if i see it as a stressor. but also that writing isnt necessarily about being inspired. its about pushing on when its hard. some of my best pieces came from that kind of push this year. 2020 felt like...a slog through most of it, but i kept pushing myself to write even when i was low and tired. i realized that some of my best writing comes from that push, when its not easy and when its difficult and i have to think harder. thats where i grow. 

how has your writing changed in the past year? how have you grown?

i think im more syntax and detailed focused than i used to be. lately ive been experimenting with making the act of reading feel like pleasure. my favourite books are the ones where i read a sentence, and im moved because it felt nice to read or it felt powerful. the sentence itself had power, not the image it was trying to convey. somehow separate, if that makes sense. theres a lot i need to learn before i could go off comfortably and try to write a book, and this is what ive been trying to master. my attention to detail has grown, and sometimes i think thats a detriment. i think sometimes im too detailed and i dont leave my reader enough power on their own. im still finding that balance, but i think im pleased right now with what im trying to push myself to master.

2021

ignoring your wips for a second, if you had all the time and energy in the world to write your magnum opus piece, what would it be about? why is that the dream story you’d write, all other things controlled for?

ive had two books in my mind forever. one was originally being written as a fanfic in a different fandom before i stopped and realized its too big and so much more important, and is worth being a book id like to write. if i wrote an opus like this it would actually be a book id submit to publishers but ~

- hundreds of years in the future, society has learned how to cure most diseases. for those we cannot, the sick person can be cryogenically frozen for a period of time until a cure is found. there is, however, a limit to the length of time they are frozen. no one has ever been frozen for over 100 years, and the main character is a scientist embarking on the experiment to do just that. it is, effectively, time travel. the main character is rash, selfish, sarcastic - not a very nice person; invested in their work and science and little else. they freeze themselves and wake up in the future. during their time in rehab they have to confront the horror theyve made of themselves, the horror people have made of the future, learn to be vulnerable. they end up falling in love with another scientist etc etc. theres so much more to this story and the world is enormous. one day ill revisit it

- a fictional play on orpheus in the underworld where a female main character’s brother was sold by their mother to the goddess of the underworld (helena instead of hades) for eternal youth. the gods all live in a hotel (the concept of this main thing is being used in elysian fields but its not remotely the same) after they were removed from the heavens. main character (ophelia) must gather several totems from the gods to prove her worth and survive her trip into the underworld to rescue him. id like to not focus on a woman finding romance, and instead a woman finding herself, her strength, her devotion to family, her power, and connecting with her history.

how do you want to grow in your writing this year?

this year id like to find balance, like i mentioned above, with my need for detail and my trust in my readers. the balance between detail and dialogue. i want to try to condense my writing again so not everything is a goddamn series. the ideas i have are huge and thats great but i need to remember how to parse things again, while still maintaining impact.

what’s one thing you’d wish to see in the fan-writing community this year?

i want more community, in general. as a multi fan, i see pockets in the kpop fandom where it exists and im well and truly aware that its recently become incredibly hard to foster on the exo side. ill just say that. maybe i dont witness it or its happening amongst blogs i havent found or have not found me. i want to see less dialogue about ‘popular blogs,’ whatever that means; less focus on notes; less worries about statistics. i want people to remember that fandom is not about numbers, and the moment you make it about that is the moment you stop having fun. i want less fear from writers regarding sharing work they read and liked, less shame around it. i want to see more vocal communication for the things people like and don’t like, more engagement and more interaction. the concept of popular blogs is so ridiculous to me, because no one has any control over the metrics. no one has control over who follows them or reads their work except the person doing the actual reading. i want people to realize they hold so much power - a person with 10k notes has as much power as a person with 2 notes because sharing is what fosters community. i want this fandom to remember to share again.

name one new thing you want to try doing in your writing this year.

gosh i really love postmodernism in writing. think like mark z danielewski, who plays with the shapes of words or the act of holding a book - the physicality of it. id like to maybe write a choose your own adventure, or do something that encompasses multiple platforms. or even, more importantly, finish as still as sound and time runner. those are more reasonable goals. time runner actually is done, i just need to stop pressuring myself about it and edit it to get it up. asas, too, is largely done i just need to get my ass together. i have so many other ideas no one has ever seen i need to finish what ive started. thats a real goal.

tagging: @yehet-me-up @jamaisjoons @kyungseokie @jenmyeons @luffles424 @yoonia @shadowsremedy @chillingkoo @onherwings @inkedtae @ninibears-erigom @imdifferentshadesofpurple @readyplayerhobi @ditzymax @sugaurora @snackhobi @yeojaa @sahmfanficbts @xjoonchildx @johobi and anyone else who wants to do this. as always please only do so if comfortable or you want to!

[catthefearless]

Unexpected Traveler Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

Loosely based on The Hobbit movies.  PG rating because of violence.

The company, which she now knew, numbered 13 Dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf the Gray. She and Gandalf had never run into each other until now but both were aware of the other. He was one of the five wizards and wise men of Middle Earth, ageless even though he appeared as an old man. She knew some about him through Radagast the Brown and the tales he told her as she was learning nature craft from him. She knew how to communicate with animals of all sorts and was honing her craft while with the brown wizard.

As they set up camp for the night, she tried to recall all the Dwarves names and a little something about each one so she could remember them easier. Bilbo overheard her muttering to herself quietly and looked at her to try and understand what she was saying.

“Bifur speaks with hands and carves. Bombur was a miner and wears a hat. Bofur is the jolly cook.”

“Nope, the other way around,” Bilbo said out loud and startled Jovanna. She spun around with a shocked look on her face. “Bofur wears a hat and Bombur cooks,” he replied to her surprised look.

“Oh my! Thank you for clarifying.” She shook her head and laughed and he along with her.  “I’m just doing a little memory trick so I can remember everyone. It’s not like I’m going along on the journey but I’d still like to remember everyone’s names.”

“I do wish you would consider it dear cousin. These Dwarves can be a bit beastly at times and having someone who at least understands Hobbits would be lovely.” He looked up at her as if pleading with her. “I understand why you can’t but it would be nice.”

“I’m not sure when I’ll have another opportunity to get back to Imladris again.” She looked down at Bilbo and smiled. “It’s really good to spend time with you too cousin and I’m sure we’ll have other opportunities after this adventure of yours.”

He smiled back at her. His mind was a muddle of images from their trip so far and what they had yet to do. He saw vividly an image of a great dragon atop a horde or gold. He shook his head and tried to clear the images. He looked back at Jovanna. He wondered if she had just done that, giving him some of those images to think about. Instead of looking at something potentially bleak he decided to concentrate on something positive.

“I’ve studied a little Sindarin but haven’t had any practical practice with it. Maybe you could speak it with me.” Bilbo looked up at her with large child-like eyes.

Jovanna laughed.  “Perhaps we could do just that but I’d prefer if we did so out of earshot of any of the Dwarves.”  Bilbo nodded and waited.  She sighed and looked around. “As soon as camp is settled for the night, we can take a walk before it gets too dark and chat a bit.”

“I’m on it!” Bilbo shot back to her as he went in search of anyone needing help with chores.  Jovanna smiled at him as he went on his way. ‘Always the eager one to learn something new. Just like your momma was.’ Jovanna thought as she finished tying out her horse and settling her in for the night.

 Just before supper, Jovanna and Bilbo ventured into the surrounding trees to have their chat. He was actually quite good at Sindarin and the only thing he needed help with was pronunciation and a little syntax. She laughed when he seemed stumped at something and tried to explain that Khuzdul was even more convoluted and difficult.

“It’s not like Westron where the verbs and adverbs make sense. With Khuzdul, it’s implied in how you stress the words that makes the biggest difference,” she said with a smile.

“How did you learn so many languages?” Bilbo looked at her as she sat on a fallen tree trunk.  He sat down next to her and waited for her reply.

“Mom and Da both speak Westron and Khuzdul although Da’s Westron is definitely better than his Khuzdul. Mom speaks Sindarin and Da pretends he understands her.” They both laughed.

Just then they heard someone tramping through the leaf litter coming towards them. Jovanna called out, “Come on out, you’re a lousy tracker so you might as well show yourself.”

Fili appeared from behind a tree and smiled as Jovanna laughed. “I’m a good tracker and can be silent, I just wanted you to know I was coming.” Jovanna shook her head and smiled at him.

Fili sobered up a bit and looked at them both. “Supper is almost ready,” he said as he gestured back towards the camp. “Oh, and don’t let Uncle hear you speaking Sindarin together, he might not be too happy about that!” He looked at them seriously then broke into a grin. They all three laughed as they made their way back to the camp for what smelled like a delicious stew cooking.

After supper when all the company gathered in their usual manner for the evening, Gandalf gestured for Jovanna to join him for a private conversation. They walked over towards the horses and out of hearing distance of the camp. She looked up at the gray wizard and wondered what was on his mind.

“Well now, it seems we have run in the same groups and have never properly met.” He blew smoke out that looked like rabbits running. “I know that you and Radagast are acquainted.” He puffed once more, this time horses prancing. “I know you studied with Radagast on animal lore and healing. If we are to become more familiar, I would have you know that I am familiar with your parents.” Jovanna nodded for him to continue. “It seems you would be a welcome companion on this journey of Thorin’s and you could look after your wee cousin Bilbo. I’m sure Elrond and the others wouldn’t mind postponing your next level of training until after this, this….” He trailed off as if looking for the right words.

“A quest, perhaps?” Jovanna said as she nodded to him assuring him that she had been listening.

The Gray wizard leaned back against a tree trunk as he smiled his mirthful grin at her. He was trying to compose his thoughts as he puffed on his pipe more.

“This quest as you put it, is very important to Thorin and his people although we may be on a bit of a fool’s holiday.” He puffed again and then blew out a dragon of smoke.

“Ah yes, the dreaded worm Smaug,” Jovanna shook her head as she watched the animated smoke drift off. “I’ve had visions of Bilbo facing him although I haven’t seen how it ends.” She looked down and wished for the distraction of the wizard’s smoke images. “I do have my mother’s gift for visions and what I see is so jumbled up right now. I’ll take some time with the seers of my Elven kin to see what to make of these flashes.”

“Probably best you don’t tell Thorin you can peek into the future.” Gandalf tapped his pipe out on a tree stump. “He doesn’t believe in those kinds of gifts, many Dwarves do not.”

Just then she got a flash of Thorin in a crown but he was very agitated about it. She shook her head and cleared the vision of it and looked up at the wizard. “I’m not certain Thorin will be happy with his success.” He hummed in agreement as the noises from the camp drifted towards them.

“I’m not sure he will ever be truly happy until the last of his kin is settled into Erebor and he finally has everything that was taken from him.” He huffed a bit as he looked towards the camp. Jovanna caught a flash of vision of Thorin chasing Bilbo and not as if in a game. She bit her lower lip and her eyes grew wide.

“I’m not sure Bilbo will be safe with him either but I’m not sure why. I want to protect him but I’m not sure what the best way to do that would be. I’ve been to Lake Town and have seen close up the devastation of Dale. I’m not sure why you think he can take on Smaug.”

“He is a singularly unique Hobbit, has more of his mother’s blood in his veins and he would make a fine burglar.” Gandalf patted her shoulder as he turned to go back to the camp. “Tomorrow we will be passing by the nearest passage to Imladris and I suggest you make up your mind by midday tomorrow if you will be continuing on this quest.”  

She nodded her head and then followed him back to the camp and all the jovial conversations around the fire.

 The next morning as she and Bilbo prepared ponies for their travels, he took her aside for a moment for a private conversation.

“I know your mind is mostly made up on going to Rivendell but know that I will miss you and wish 100 times a day you were still with us.” He took her hand and smiled up at her.

She surprised him as she drew him into a hug and kissed the top of his curly locks. “Yes, and I will wish I was with you too as I am tested time and again on the healing arts I’ll be learning.” She released him and reached into the bag hanging on her belt. She withdrew a small purplish stone. She held it up to the sunlight and it sparkled in rainbows around them when it caught the light.

“This is a special stone that will help us keep in touch. You hold it in your hand and think of me and I’ll be able to perceive your mood and feelings in that moment. I’ll know when you’re safe and when you might need help.” She placed the stone in his hand. He looked down at it and then up at her again. “We can test it a bit today on our ride and see how well we can communicate. It’s a bit one sided but it should work well enough.” She sighed as she looked into his eyes.

“The nearest entry point into Imladris is coming up today and I’ll be saying my goodbyes along the trail today.” His eyes teared up and she looked away as she patted his shoulder. She could already feel his emotions through the stone. “I can join you along the way if anything should happen.” He looked up at her with teary eyes and nodded. He tucked the stone into a pocket of his waistcoat and patted it. She reached up and ruffled his curls. They both laughed as they headed for their horses.

  Along the trail, Jovanna took the time to talk to each Dwarf along the way. She wanted them all to know they were important to her and that she would come and help, if needed.

Fili pulled her back from the column of riders and looked very seriously at her as he pulled out a small dagger from his boot. “This was forged by my father before I was born. I have kept it with me as a token of his steadfast love. It’s a personal charm for luck. I want you to carry it with you until we are united once again.” He held the small knife out to her and she gently took it from his hand.

“It’s beautifully made. Are you sure you wish for me to have it?” Jovanna looked at him stunned.

“I place it in your care until we meet again. I am certain we must meet again.” He looked at her with a tear rolling down his cheek. “You are the most amazing woman I have ever known and I wish to know you better in time. This is our own special bond assuring we will see each other again.” He patted her hand then urged his pony forward again. When he came alongside Kili, they talked in low tones and Kili cast a glance back towards Jovanna and smiled at her. She raised a hand in greeting and smiled back at him.

Jovanna marveled at the dagger for a moment before securing it in her belt. She knew what a gift like this meant and wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it. She had a slight flash of him laughing and running in a green field followed by another flash of her kneeling over him, injured she guessed. She blinked away tears herself as she tried to make sense of the images and what Fili was to the future of Erebor and to her. She had come to know the golden prince during their time together and admired his courage and willingness to follow his uncle into danger for their ancestral home.

A little later, at a fork in the trail, Jovanna bid her last farewells to the Company of Thorin Oakenshield and rode directly towards a small pass in the foothills of the Misty Mountains.

@deepestfirefun @theincaprincess @september-stardust  @ramus-mortium  @pixiedurango  @fizzyxcustard @cd1242 @abiwim @bellevox @patanghill17 @armitageadoration @blankdblank @tomssweetbouquet @c-s-stars @mypatronusisastag-osaurus @calicoskatts @ra-of-light @amarabliss @thorins-magnificent-ass @fandomgalcentral @xxbyimm  @shikin83 @replicant1955 @rachel1959 @sherala007 @leah-halliwell92 @ceres27  @notyourmartyr @sweeticedtea @raychellefay @enter-fandom @moonyartnstuff @legolasoftherings

[accountant-to-ai]

20200705 2224

1. These days, I find solving algorithm tasks quite relaxing. Unusual, I guess. It reminded me of the hype for coders and those coding boot camps a few years ago. When I just got to college, people were already talking about how software engineer/developers were overpaid, and how easy it was to transit to tech career: you decide whatever path you want to take, enroll in an intensive coding course, focus on your portfolio, take a 3-month internship and voilà, you are an engineer now. 

Algorithm is the very core of computer science, as it hones your problem-solving skills. But those engineers/coders are cornered when it comes to a complicated matter since they are taught to solve everything possible by available tools. By this, I mean unnecessary tools, like how you try to calculate 1 + 1 by a financial calculator.

2. Now, the hype came back. People turn to data science, blindly jump into it. Parents force their children to learn Python, hope they could catch up with the data scientist trend. Students, those got sick of their low-paying job,… rush to any center possible. They try to learn Python, while 4 out of 10 lessons are just how to set up the environment and its syntax - which can be reached easily by googling ‘python doc.’ 

Then they get bored right away when a problem arises, and there is no library available to solve it. They proceed to TensorFlow, PyTorch, and other trending AI stuff. Using available notebooks on the internet, crawl a random dataset on Kaggle. And voilà, they call themselves a data scientist. History then happens again when so-called scientists have to face a real business problem…

3. My dad believes firmly in traditional jobs; one of those is (obviously) accountant (you can guess why I switched to tech career despite being an accounting bachelor). Unfortunately, his daughters broke his expectation in a not-so-gentle-way (again, you can imagine how angry and disappointed he was). Still, the man is persistent. Even when I already stood my ground, he always tries to persuade/force/beg me to come back being an accountant. 

My answers are ever the same. Initially, I found this annoying, then turned to appreciate it later. Talking to my dad from time to time reminds me of my own advantages. It’s not easy to dive headfirst into a battle. You only just know how to use a machine gun, and people around you already practiced with it since ages ago. Finding another way around should be the way, and a long way indeed. But it worths it. 

4. I resigned from my last job in the middle of the COVID-19 epidemic breakout in Vietnam. Then my career just went on and off with countless freelancing gigs and remote jobs, which will never be written into my resume. A 6-month sabbatical period, long enough. Even with an income, it was still depressing for a woman in her early 20s to stay home. She had to watch her friends from the same batch of her class going on their business trip and throwing jokes on “đi khách” and stuff.

It took me a week or two - or maybe a month (?) to come to terms with it. That whatever I do, my top priority is still to graduate. And again, what can I do while being at home and stuck with school stuff? I decided to go back to classes, reach out to my lecturers and teachers. As expected, people were surprised at my resume and whatever I crafted throughout the years. I got that all the time, by “that” I mean the reaction when people heard that I was an accountant and could do Python. However, the “surprise” I got that time was pleasant. I was acknowledged for my own abilities - not for the fucking stereotype that “accountants are dull and tech-blind."

5. I have never imagined myself to say this, but I miss being a college student now. Before, I tried to detach myself from my class and classmates. My wish was to leave college as soon as possible, as I was comfortable being by myself. Being a student again for 6 months made me realize how much I missed in my 20, yet I enjoyed it even for a short while.

Apart from that, these were my most valuable lessons:

- Never stop learning. Even when you leave college, it never hurts to learn something new.

- If you do something, do it to your heart’s content so you won’t regret it later.

- Learn how to ask for help. You might be okay, or even excellent in your field, but you are still a human. Asking for help is not weak or indebted to someone; it’s merely to lighten the load on your shoulder. And also, people process their information in different ways. Asking for their insight might give you an idea for what you are stuck on.

- Screw people. I mean, don’t do stuff just because people say it is the trend. Doesn’t mean you have to oppose the mainstream - just ask yourself if it worths it.

Still, long way to go.Hanoi, 05/7/2020 10:24 PM.

[anythingobi]

You asked for Obi-Wan related prompts, how about modern!AU QuiObi? University!AU or AU where they are diplomats or coffeshop!AU really, whatever suits for you most.

Hey my guy! Sorry it took me so long to fill this. I started my first full time job and it’s exhausting af. I’m finally starting to get used to it though.

The thing about NATO was that the pay was shit. Qui-Gon had joined for the same reasons many others had—opportunity to travel, engaging work, variety. He was quickly pipelined into the job of facilitating dialogue, which was really just a more boring way to say being overly polite to people to ensure that nobody could blame a war on him. His unshakable calm and nonexistent temper allowed him to excel, but despite it all he had to make endless sacrifices to ensure he would be able to retire comfortably. In the end, it was as tiring and as much work as any other job.

Of course if he’d had another job he wouldn’t have Obi-Wan, which might have actually been a good thing. He’d thought his days of tripping over his own words were long gone. He’d built an entire career out of it. Why he suddenly became a stuttering mess around the man was, well it was obvious. The boy was young, idealistic, smart, and extremely eye catching. He also would have tripped over himself to do anything Qui-Gon asked had he been capable of tripping, but no, he had to follow instructions with grace and ease. The man couldn’t even make a cup of tea without drawing eyes, and Qui-Gon was stuck with that frustration now since they were practically attached at the hip when on the clock.

This was new territory for Qui-Gon. He’d never worked with a dedicated translator before, but there was absolutely no way to argue against it. No argument could change the fact that Obi-Wan spoke Arabic and he didn’t, and no argument could change the fact that he was currently on a trip that required communication with many native Darija speakers. Obi-Wan, of course, seemed right at home.

They were also staying together. They’d been told that the place they were staying had accommodations for two, but in reality they were in the same room and there wasn’t really a bed at all. Instead, both of them were on pieces of strange couch-like furniture that were too hard to truly be comfortable, leaving Qui-Gon both sore and frustrated as he had to wake to stiff muscles and the inevitability of averting his eyes while Obi-Wan dressed for the day. Of course, they were lucky to have these accommodations at all. The area they were staying didn’t have any hotels or equivalents, and they were being hosted by a local who insisted nothing more than that they join him for morning tea before they all went to work. Obi-Wan said he found it charming. Qui-Gon envied his youth and enthusiasm. He had hoped to sleep in, since their host was gone this morning, but Obi-Wan had woken up to make the tea himself.

“I’ll never know how you manage to drink so much of this stuff.” Qui-Gon raised his glass to his lips. He preferred his tea to be dark and slightly bitter, but here it seemed to be something akin to sugar water.

“I like the mint.” Obi-Wan’s hands were slender. He made the tea glass look elegant as he brought it to his lips. Qui-Gon just looked like he was going to crush his. “Besides, I’ve always enjoyed sweet things.”

“I prefer bitter.”

“Well, that explains your attitude.” Obi-Wan took another sip, a sly smile just visible on the other side of the glass. “You know we’ve hardly spoken? Practically alone in a foreign country and you prefer not to speak with the man who shares your language. Astounding. Am I truly that abrasive?”

“Abrasive?” Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. That was one word he would never use to describe the man sitting before him. “Absolutely not.”

“Then what is it about me that makes you resent this assignment?” Obi-Wan cocked his head to the side curiously. There was no accusation in his tone, despite the harshness of the words. “Is it because I’m young? Inexperienced? You know this could be an opportunity for you to teach me.”

“I talk to you all day, Obi-Wan.” Qui-Gon shook his head. “Do you really want to listen to me more?”

“No, you talk through me all day.” Obi-Wan shook his head, replacing his glass on the table. “I don’t mind, considering that’s my job, but don’t act as if it’s the same thing.” Qui-Gon took a sip of his tea, cringing as he remembered just how sweet it was. He tried not to watch the way that Obi-Wan was tapping his fingers on the glass as he considered the truth of the young man’s words.

“I’m rather used to working alone, Obi-Wan. I hope I haven’t offended you.” He glanced at Obi-Wan’s face and saw an amused smile there. “I do enjoy your company, and I promise I don’t find you abrasive. Quite the opposite, actually. You were unlucky to have been assigned to me.” He looked back down, watching fingers skim glass. Obi-Wan was toying with the lip of the cup now, unable to keep himself still. “Do you speak sign language, Obi-Wan?”

“Several different kinds.” Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows at the change in subject. “Why, is there someone who requires it? I’d like to brush up on a bit of it before we leave if that’s the case. It’s been quite a while since I’ve studied anything in the Arab sign family.”

“No, no, I was just thinking you’d be good at it.” Qui-Gon brushed his hand through the air dismissively. Obi-Wan was looking at him questioningly.

“It’s not any more difficult than any other language.” Obi-Wan leaned back in his chair, bringing his hands with him and signing along as he spoke. Qui-Gon was transfixed. “Easier actually, since you don’t need to learn any new grammar or syntax. It’s just vocab.” There was a drawn out pause before Obi-Wan moved his hands again, pushing one down in a chopping motion and then using to fingers to point between their eyes. He had that grin on his face again.

“It means stop staring, but I’m only teasing. I much prefer an ego boost to thinking you resent my presence.” Obi-Wan’s smile was growing bigger—his eyes crinkling a bit. It faltered for a moment when he didn’t receive a response, but he must have found the truth in Qui-Gon’s expression because it returned in full force. “I’d thought, maybe, but I wasn’t sure. You can be quite contradictory, Qui-Gon. It seemed like there was a fifty percent chance you wanted to kill me, and fifty percent chance that you wanted to bone me. I figured if it was the former, I’d probably want to die after this conversation ended anyway.” That elicited a genuine chuckle from Qui-Gon.

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He shook his head, out of depth. He’d thought he’d been better at hiding his interest, but clearly enough had bled through to push Obi-Wan to risk bringing it up. “I apologize if I’ve acted inappropriately.” That caused Obi-Wan’s eyebrows to shoot up again.

“Acted inappropriately? Not at all.” He stood and stretched his arms above his head, turning slightly. “Although I do need to shower still, if you’re interested in changing that.”

[marjaystuff]

Elise Cooper Interviews Lynn H Blackburn

One Final Breath by Lynn H. Blackburn is the last in the Carrington County, North Carolina Sheriff's Department Dive Team series. Fans of these books will enjoy this action-packed, suspenseful, romantic read, but will also feel a bit melancholy since these characters will be put out to sea as this nail-biting series ends.

The plot begins with a gunshot.  A teenager has been discovered murdered as he and his friend are swimming near a dock across the cove. The team, who was having a picnic nearby, jumps into action, grabs a boat, and rescues the body as well as another teenager in the lake. Blackburn excels at putting the reader into the investigation as they feel the depths of the water.

The heroine, Anissa Bell, captain of the dive team investigators, has had a problem with Gabe Chavez since before he was on her team. He worked undercover and would only dive once or twice a year, not enough in her opinion to stay up to speed with the rest of the team. Now they must figure out how to put their issues with each other aside and work to solve this case. Yet, because of the comradery of the whole team they have become friends and start to realize that there is an attraction between them. Both of them realize that they are fascinated and frustrated with each other.  

As the investigation takes hold, dive team captain Anissa Bell discovers a link to her past and suddenly her life is in extreme danger as she becomes the killer’s next target. She wonders if it has anything to do with a cold case that directly involved her. Anissa grew up with missionary parents and planned on joining them, after finishing college, on the Micronesian island of Yap. But she remained stateside, determined to solve the crime that haunts her, the murder of her best friend and the disappearance of a three-year-old child. While working both cases Anissa and Gabe must find the killer before more bodies pile up, while attempting to keep each other safe.

Unlike many authors, Blackburn allows the reader to enjoy all her characters. Throughout the series she inserts them into each other’s featured book. Readers enjoy their comradery whether they are working together, or just enjoying each other’s friendship that has become family-like. Previous characters are revisited from the series, but reading the earlier books isn't necessary to enjoy this one.

This story will take readers’ breath away as they hold it wondering how the suspenseful story will end. People who enjoy a good mystery sprinkled with romance should read this series.

Elise Cooper: This year you lived in the Hurricane area?

Lynn H. Blackburn:  It was not that bad for us, not like in the Bahamas. But the storm that came last year in Florida is something I had never seen before.  It had to be a really big storm, a category 5. The storm actually sucked all the water out of Tampa Bay.  This was a phenomenon that literally pulled out all the water.  It sucked the bay mostly dry. People were actually walking around where there used to be water. It was really freaky looking. As the storm passed it released all that energy and created floods.

EC:  Being a mystery writer did you think about a story?

LB:  I did think that it would be interesting if someone threw something into the bay thinking it would never be recovered. Then the hurricane comes and after pulling the water away it becomes discovered.

EC:  Why the environmental angle with this story?

LB:  Having a degree in Chemical Engineering, my first job was as an environmental engineer with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.  Part of my job was dealing with water treatment. I thought of the potential threat to the water supply. Because the lake and divers are always in my story, I decided to do something along this line. Since I still have friends working there I brainstormed with them for ideas.

EC:  There is also the part of the story where a child is kidnapped and sold to a parent?

LB:  Sometimes as writers we do terrible things to our characters.  I wanted something to happen to the heroine that would keep her in the states instead of going with her parents on a mission to Yap. I understand it is a fragile thing, to want a child and not be able to have one.  There is also the fact that adoption is so expensive. All of a sudden someone comes up with this opportunity to have this person able to sell a child.  I had thought if I wanted the adoptive mother to know or be in the dark regarding the kidnapping.  This was a case of, ‘if it is too good to be true it probably isn’t.’ But having that level of emotion is easy to overlook because we want it so badly to come true.

EC:  How did you find the disease Cryptosporidium?

LB:  There was a couple of cases in the 1980s where there was a run-off with a lot of fecal material that contaminated the water supply.  It is a horrible disease where people can actually die. For most people, it is a bad stomach virus, but for some it can affect those that are immunocompromised.  The young, the very old, anyone who is currently on chemotherapy, is HIV-positive, or has had an organ transplant are at risk.  

EC: The characters in your series do not drift off into the sunset after their featured book?

LB:  I have a lot of readers comment on how they like seeing the friendship grow between the six characters.  It was not something I set up intentionally with this series, but it is something I will do with the next series.  It was a lot of fun not having to say good-bye to all the characters.  What I do differently is that for the featured characters I get in their head.  Each character has their voice, but in their book, I flush them out to give them a unique voice, something that is sometimes a challenge.

EC:  How would you describe Gabe?

LB:  Fun, charismatic, the life of the party, and does not think he wants to be serious in a relationship. Gabe is a tease. He was the class clown, but Anissa sees his deeper side where he is loyal and compassionate.  Some of the humor and sarcasm is a defense mechanism on his part. His relationship with Leigh is like the little pestering brother.  No one can stay mad at him for long.

EC:  How would you describe Anissa?

LB:  Serious, confident, and loyal. She comes across as more rigid that the others. Justice is important to her.  She has a cold case, which is the hallmark of her existence, and is something she cannot let go.  Anyone wronged or mistreated will have her help.  I think she is a pragmatic leader who is kind, smart, and intense. She does have survivor’s guilt because of the cold case.

EC: Where did you come up with some of the personality traits of the characters?

First, Getting up on the wrong side of the bed?

LB:  My sister and I used to share a Jack and Jill bathroom. I never spoke to her after both of us just got up.  If I started to have a conversation too early it was not going to go well.  She was the type like Anissa, ‘leave me alone until I have three cups of coffee.’  When she approached me, then it was safe.

EC:  Do you dive?

LB:  I was certified last year in the lake I used for a prototype of the fictional Lake Porter in my stories. Most lakes are murky and can be a little claustrophobic with a visibility of 10 to 15 feet. Last summer I got to dive in the Florida Keys.  It had such clear water and visibility of about 50 feet. We were able to look up and see the bottom of the boat and all the fellow divers.  It is just amazing.  Diving in the Keys helped me to understand why people dive.  But diving in the lake helped me to understand what my character divers would go through.  Diving in the lake requires more of a reliance on touch.

EC:  Do you eat cupcakes like Anissa where you tear off the bottom and make a cupcake sandwich?

LB:  No, but I did try it for research.  I actually do not like icing.  If someone gives me a cupcake with a ton of icing I scrape 75% off.

EC:  Did you write the Spanish phrases?

LB:  I took a course in college.  I also went on a mission trip where I learned to read and write it.  But that was many years ago.  For Gabe’s Spanish phrases, I had my friend who is Puerto Rican help me out.  I told her what I wanted to say and she helped me with the syntax.

EC:  How do you name characters?

LB:  I usually give my bad guys with names that begin with K, D, or X, because they have a lot harsher sounds.  I try to make sure I do not use the same sounds or names. Because my divers already had their names I would avoid ones that start with R or A. I don’t want it to be confusing and have readers get mixed up.  The only time I did have my characters start with the same letter is when I did it intentionally, such as when I had all of Adam’s family all start with the letter A.

EC:  Next book?

LB:  This series was released between 7 and 10 months apart.  The absolute minimum I need is 9 months.  With the new series, I told my publisher there is too much change in my life so I need a longer deadline.  I am truly thankful for it.  The new series will come out in February 2021 and the focus is on the US Secret Service.  The setting is not in Washington DC, but in a local resident office in North Carolina.  If I get into the groove, I may try to write a novella tying in the two series.

THANK YOU!!

[thorne93]

Writing Interview

I was tagged by @illegalcerebral who is utterly amazing in every sense of the word

Q: What is your coffee order? 

This totally depends. It’s not even related to weather either. I’ve been known to get hot lattes in summer, and blended iced drinks in the winter. Typically, I opt for something caramel, or hazelnut, or both. I like it to be sweet but not overly sweet, so long as the bitterness of the coffee is cut, I’m golden. 

Q: What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?

Depends, I’ve done lots of stuff. I have my own novel published and I’ve sold over 100 copies (not a lot, I know, but to a kid whose dream was “I just want 1 person I don’t know to buy it and like it” and it happened -- that’s perfect for me). I also wrote a short story that my professor insisted I get published - i’m in the process of that now. 

Q: Who has been your biggest mentor?

Plenty of people. I’ve learned a lot from all my fellow writers here on Tumblr/Discord, some writing, and some general life. I learn a lot from my immediate family, and my best friend. 

Q: What has been your most memorable writing project?

I’ve got several. My stories are my worlds. My original novel is pretty near and dear and I could probably recite some of the scenes to you because I’ve had to sit and edit and read them so much (it’s a trilogy, but only 1 is published). I also have a weird story that’s turned into two novels, but it’s like a HUGE crossover fic with tons of original characters, and it’s really memorable because it’s basically a long ass role play between one of my friends and myself and it’s evolved into this whole universe that I just love. As far as fics go -- Three’s Company - I dictated most of the story to my husband on one of our road trips. I talked, he wrote. It was my first ever fan fic, and it was poly which was pretty daunting. I love Closing Time and Hard Headed. I have an unfinished fic right now which is very long but it’s memorable. Curious Conundrum was great because I never thought I’d write Sherlock then I found myself wanting to crawl inside the universe. Decisions, Decisions was really fun and interesting to write.

Q: What does your writing path look like, from the earliest days until now?

Well, my first works were three novels, then I wrote that fanfic/crossover/original piece I was talking about, then I started fan fic. I miss novel writing. You can be more specific, and I don’t have to stick to a canon. I can toy with rules and the universe in that story. No matter what though, I feel like I always try to develop a full story -- where are these characters from, where are they headed, and how do they get there? I always try to hit every plot hole and angle. I frequently pace and talk aloud saying things like “okay, I can have them wind up here, and that’s how X would happen -- but, why wouldn’t they just call the person? why are they there?” it’s a lot of back and forth, with myself, lol Or i breakdown and consult Discord and the lovely folk that reside there

Q: What is your favorite part about writing?

Setting up the storyline. It’s so exciting to see how certain things can reconnect,t things i didn’t even plan on connecting. To watch a story unfold is great. Then, to write a scene I’ve been chomping at the bit to write. 

Q: What does a typical day look like for you?

Well it’s constantly changing. I don’t have a set schedule and i never force myself to write. I know Stephanie Meyer said that she wrote every day, even if it was just one word, but I can always tell that when my writing feels forced, the content is lacking. If i’m not in the mood to write, I don’t. and if inspiration hits me, I try to record it -- if i’m in class, i jot it down on a notebook or whatever. So I don’t follow some strict schedule because my life just doesn’t allow for that. I’m a full time student who runs a family and household so I just can’t dedicate time to writing just to “do it”.

Q: What does your writing process look like?

1) I have to have an outline, or at least a start of one. i need to know where they will be going. How do we get from point A, to point B, to point C, etc. I prefer a full outline before writing, but sometimes I find if i have a loose outline and I just jump in, the rest of the story just builds itself

2) I only post once a story is finished

3) I ask someone to beta, at least one person I trust

4) I typically do better if I can focus. I usually write really well between 10-pm and 3 am. I used to write a work because my work was kind of slow and I could write between things, and no one was there to bother me

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?

Not sure... Other than maybe instead of saying, “He was angry” you say “His jaw clenched while his fist closed tightly, white knuckling.” So the whole explain what’s going on, rather than just telling them. 

Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?

If you aren’t feeling it, don’t push it. forcing yourself to write when you have writers block doesn’t do anyone any good. If you’re stuck on a story, don’t push it. Think about it for a while, if nothing comes, let it go and see if random inspiration strikes while you’re off doing something else; dwelling on it pretty much never helps

Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to start writing?

Try to finish your stories before posting - otherwise you may face pressure or stress to finish a story from your readers, and it’s hard enough to face your own demands, let alone an audiences. Plus you may not finish it and now people are disappointed 

Write for YOU. Not what you think people will like, not what you think they’ll accept, not what you think they want to read. Write what you would want to read. 

Don’t ever be discouraged. It takes a LOT of time to build a “fan base”. Just keep writing for you and putting your work out there and someone will pick it up.

Reblog - not constantly, but once or twice a day at different times

Take breaks -- even if it’s been a month and you have writers block - that’s okay. 

Consult with a beta, or 2 or 3. If you’re just starting out, find a writer whose work you like, and ask if they will beta. Or join Discord (with a writing channel) and ask for a beta there. If you’re just starting, get more than 1. People beta differently. Some just look for spelling and grammar. Some tell you if there are plot holes. Some will just come in and overhaul your grammar, syntax, word usage. Some can tell you if it’s too fast. Some can tell you if a scene or a sentence doesn’t make sense. Don’t be afraid of criticism from your beta. Chances are, they aren’t being an asshole or a dick, they’re telling you “this shit needs fixed” and it’s better to fix it with your beta/editor than for your audience to point it out, or get turned off and not read your work....

Make sure you have formatting down -- New paragraph when someone else is speaking ALWAYS. Comma in dialogue if there is a dialogue tag (For instance: “I watered the dog,” he said. VS. “I watered the dog.” He then walked into the bathroom.) The first one was a comma because it’s a whole statement and you’re explaining HOW they said something. The second one, his action of walking into the bathroom had NOTHING TO DO with the statement he made. 

Tagging: @carryonmyswansong @arrow-guy @like-a-bag-of-potatoes @sorryimacrapwriter @thejemersoninferno @malfoysqueen14 @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo

[spanishcoursespain2-blog]

Spanish Course Spain

Half a dozen Keys to Help An individual Learn The spanish language Online This specific article consists of five tips to help a person learn Romance language online. In the event you follow all these six to eight tips, you can become positive you will discover to speak Spanish language on-line much easier.

Spanish Programs in Spain

Key Misura Uno to Learn Speaking spanish On-line:

"Stay motivated"

We think every person that scientific studies a foreign terminology will probably experience a time if they are becoming less and fewer motivated. You could feel that will you are losing your personal desire to learn The spanish language on the web around the very same time that you get attained a plateau. In case you feel you are shedding your desire to discover how to speak Spanish online, try out planning a trip in order to a Spanish discussing region. Since you will need to have the most out there of your trip, this certainly will motivate you to analysis.

Spanish Programs in Spain

Here is another tip to be able to help you keep determined and to make an individual want to be able to communicate Spanish online. Discover a indigenous speaker that you usually are romantically interested in. Given that you will probably wish to win over him or perhaps her with your Romance language, this could motivate you for you to keep mastering and help to make you want to find out Spanish language online. You will certainly also notice that you happen to be making progress quicker by simply practicing your Spanish using a native speaker and in which also needs to motivate you to help keep checking and training Spanish.

Naturally , this idea only is applicable to single men and women or other folks without a new significant other.

Key Gruppo Dos to Learn in order to chat Spanish Online: "Don't Forget of Making Mistakes"

Make a lot of mistakes. And also then after you include produced lots of faults go generate more flaws. And then get help make some more mistakes. Most people are afraid of making errors any time learning Spanish on the net. If you want to study to speak Spanish on the internet, then you have to be able to accept the fact making blunders is area of the learning method. The more faults anyone make, the quicker you discover to speak Spanish on-line. If you are not really making mistakes, which is possibly an indication that you actually are certainly not making typically the effort to learn Speaking spanish on the web. Some people may try to learn for you to speak Spanish online by means of ONLY listening. Their thought is that once they will learn adequate Spanish that is when they begins hoping to speak Spanish on the net. But I can I actually ensure you that the item doesn't work doing this. That works in reverse.

That will is, as soon as you start striving to speak The spanish language as well as making mistakes which if you will begin to help learn to converse Romance language online. Not the alternative way around.

Thus go ahead and produce mistakes. Typically the mistakes usually are there in order to embarrass a person. The flaws are presently there to help you grasp Spanish language. Key Numero 3 to master Spanish Online:

"Focus approach speak Spanish" No longer consider "why Spanish will be Used the way this is"

A lot of people have directed me e-mail with concerns such as what makes it "me gusta" (I like) as an alternative of "me gusto" or maybe why is it "me toma" instead of "me tomo"

Of course, My spouse and i could easily response these kind of questions. (And My partner and i do) But the objective is just not to try equate almost everything throughout Spanish with English language or if your native language.

Take the belief that Spanish grammar is usually different coming from English syntax. And provide for the aim of any words -- which is to talk effectively.

And in buy to communicate successfully, an individual only need to know and stay understood. It is definitely not necessary that you just recognize each and every grammatical factor.

Trying to complete so will only impede your learning and create it hard to learn Speaking spanish online. Picture trying to be able to teach a several month old the definition of your direct pronoun vs. a great indirect pronoun. We would certainly never ever attempt such the thing. Nevertheless the 4yr older child remains fluent with his or your ex local language.

So choose your target to understand and end up being realized. Focus on "how to talk Spanish" Have a tendency focus on "why The spanish language is Spoken just how that is. "

Key Serie Cuatro to Learn for you to Communicate Spanish Online:

"Master often the Fundamentals"

Many persons spend their particular time understanding a bunch of Romance language vocabulary that they can head out a life time period and never use. Which because the words tend to be scarcely used in standard each day conversation.

If anyone want to learn to help communicate Spanish online with no Throwing away anytime, I suggest you to get down the principles. When I say the actual "fundamentals" I am mentioning to the basic words and basic grammar.

I am aware adults that have researched Spanish language for a number of years and they realize thousands of words within Spanish. Although they could always be proficient in Speaking spanish, I would not necessarily take into account them fluent. Alternatively, any three or four yr old native Spanish-speaking child could speak Spanish fluently. It isn't because the child is aware thousands of of words inside The spanish language. The child might only know about 1000 words or less throughout Spanish. But the youngster provides mastered the essentials.

Mastery in the fundamentals is actually what separates the particular skillful from the fluent.

When you really want to understand to speak Romance language on the internet make it a top priority to find out the fundamentals.

Essential Numero 5 to Find out Spanish Online:

"Take Benefits of downtime"

Finding time and energy to study can be some sort of challenge. Most people just may have the time in order to sit down and examine. Yet who said this you have to possibly be being seated? If you are usually waiting in line with the bank or waiting within the doctor's office, turn in your own mp3 player as well as ipod and also listen to be able to an audio Spanish language session.

If you drive to be effective everyday, that's an superb possibility to practice your favourite audio Speaking spanish course. When you like to walk or even exercise on a new stairmaster or perhaps treadmill, deliver your i-pod mp3 player or ipod touch with you along with listen closely to your favorite music The spanish language course

Instead regarding watching typically the 10' time News. Enjoy "Las Noticias" Instead of enjoying the movie on HBO, enjoy a movie on HBO Latino.

So to these that say "I merely don't have the time frame to discover Spanish on-line. " Our response will be that you can help to make lame excuses or you can certainly learn to speak Romance language online. But you aren't perform both. The selection is yours.

Major Escena Seis to Learn for you to speak Spanish Online:

"Become an Imitator"

Some Spanish language courses do not set significantly emphasis on pronunciation. I do believe that is any big mistake.

In the event you actually want to be grasped, you need to try to simulate ancient speakers.

Have you actually every knowledgeable someone which asked you regarding guidelines or some other query and you were incapable to assist anyone due to the fact you didn't speak your girlfriend language. And then a person abruptly realized that often the person was actually talking English but her feature was so thick you thought the person has been communicating another language.

Often the same thing transpires with Speaking spanish ears. If you build good pronunciation, you can definitely not be understand.

If an individual the word "dad" with The spanish language and you carry out not anxiety the proper syllable, a indigène Romance language speaker may feel that anyone are talking about "french fried potatoes. " To Uk hearing the difference may possibly be very subtle. But for the Latin American it is the difference between "dad" in addition to "potatoes".

So emphasis on mimicking native Spanish language speakers.

I am hoping that you actually enjoyed these 6th Ideas to Help You Study Speaking spanish Online and that will they truly direct you towards your current journey to learn to help speak Spanish online.

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: What Comes After (14/18)

Summary: Dead Like Me AU. After Belle French loses her life in an accident, she finds out that she has been recruited to join the ranks of the Grim Reapers, helping souls pass on. It’s a huge upheaval to deal with, but her fellow reapers are there to help her out, especially head reaper Gold.

Who says you can’t find love after life?

Rated: E overall, this chapter is T.

CW for this chapter: mild gore.

[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [Six] [Seven] [Eight] [Nine] [Ten] [Eleven] [Twelve] [Thirteen] [AO3]

=====

Fourteen

The Rabbit Hole was just as it had always been. The lights were still dim, the bartender not bothering to replace the blown bulbs. The floor was still sticky with spilled drinks and various other substances, and she wondered if it had ever been cleaned within her lifetime. The pool table was where it always had been, and the drinks prices had not changed.

She didn’t know why she thought that it would be any different to the last time that she had been in here. She guessed that she was still having some trouble getting to grips with the idea that life was still going on around her as normal even though she herself had died, and that although so much upheaval had gone on in her own life, not everywhere had suffered the same fate.

“Are you ok?” Ella asked. “You’ve spaced out again. I noticed that you weren’t entirely with it this morning in the diner.”

“Just nostalgia,” Belle said. “I was remembering coming here with Ruby sometimes. I wonder if I’ll see her and Dorothy in here tonight. It shouldn’t be a problem if we do. We’ll just keep to ourselves and they’ll hopefully have fun and not be too traumatised by what’s going to happen here later.”

There were still a couple of hours to kill before the reaping time, and in such a comparatively small space, it wasn’t going to be too hard to work out who was who. The method of death was still eluding her though. There were a lot of things in a bar that could be potentially dangerous, and the patrons ranked top of the list – especially the patrons of the Rabbit Hole. She really hoped that they weren’t looking at a reap similar to Ella’s a few weeks ago, with a drunken fight turning deadly.

At least this time none of them would have to row anywhere to collect the victims’ souls, and Ella laughed when Belle voiced this thought to her.

“I have chalked that one up in my tally of ‘most interesting reaps’,” she said. “It was very amusing once I got over the indignity of having to row myself. I should have got David to come along and chauffeur me.”

“I don’t think that it’s really called chauffeuring when you’re in a boat,” Belle said, but they were prevented from any further discussion of syntax by the arrival of Mulan and a woman with a mass of bright red frizzy hair that was presumably Merida. They were both giggling, and Belle could safely say that it was the most vibrant and happiest that she had ever seen Mulan.

“Belle, this is Merida,” she said as she came over to the bar beside them, practically bouncing in her excitement. “Merida, this is our new reaper Belle, and you’ll remember Ella from the Spain trip, of course.”

“It’s good to see you, darling. How are the highlands doing?”

Merida wrinkled her nose.

“Considering the sparsity of the population where our area is, we do quite well for external influences,” she said. “But it’s so, so boring at times. Going to other places is always a bit of an adventure.”

“Well, you’re in luck today,” Ella said. “We’ve got a double reap in this very bar this evening, and we’re taking bets on what the kicker’s going to be.”

Belle and Mulan just looked at Ella, who rolled her eyes.

“All right, I’m betting on it, and everyone else is being boring as usual.”

They stayed speaking to Mulan and Merida for a while until Ella took Belle’s arm and steered her over to a free table, ostensibly to give the two girlfriends some time to themselves without a third and fourth wheel. Belle got the impression that there was a lot more that Ella wanted to say.

“So, since I know that this morning’s lapse in concentration can’t really be put down to nostalgia for a somewhat dodgy bar, and since I had a rather interesting conversation with Gold – well, it wasn’t really a conversation, it was more along the lines of me teasing him mercilessly until he gave in and divulged a few spare details – I was hoping that I could help.”

Belle sighed. “Well, things were a bit weird this morning,” she said. “Last night was great, don’t get me wrong, but this morning, everything seemed awkward. Gold didn’t really know what to do with himself and I felt that it would probably be easier for everyone involved if I just absented myself from the situation.” She paused. “I guess that he would probably do the same if he hadn’t been in his own house with nowhere to run.”

Ella nodded. “Likely. He does like running away from things sometimes. And by things I mean feelings.”

Belle laughed. “I don’t think that he’s really running away from his feelings, I’m just not sure if he knows what those feelings even are.”

“I think that one of the fundamental problems that you face is that for all Gold seems to be caught up with the modern world, he was born a hundred and fifty years ago and he’s not a big dater. He missed out on the free love movement, which was a real shame because damn, he needed to get laid around that time. Anyway, enough of that. He’s moved with the times in a lot of things, but when it comes to relationships, he’s not had any experience since before the turn of the century. The twentieth century. So I’m not surprised if he’s somewhat overwhelmed at the moment, but don’t hold that against him. He just needs educating in the ways of the modern world and how dating works.”

Belle felt heat suffuse her cheeks. “We’re a little bit past dating now.”

“Well, he needs to learn how that works as well. Let’s just say that he didn’t get a lot of encouragement from his wife in such matters.”

Belle traced a fingertip around the rim of her glass and thought back to the morning’s awkwardness. She’d had a good time last night; and she was sure that they both had. Was it really just a case that Gold had never had to deal with a morning after before and had no idea how to go about it? No, there was definitely something more at stake here.

She hadn’t come last night when they’d made love, but she hadn’t really been expecting to. It was her first time with a new partner and she knew that said new partner was a century out of practice. It was never going to be perfect, but surely Gold knew that too. Except if he didn’t, and he was worried about what she had thought of his own performance. Maybe that was why he had been reluctant to go for a second round in the morning and had fumbled over breakfast instead. It was certainly food for thought, but she was never going to get to the bottom of the problem if he wouldn’t talk to her, and she said as much to Ella.

“I would suggest tying him to a kitchen chair and not letting him up again until you’ve actually got to the bottom of it all, but that might be a bit drastic.” She spoke with air of someone who had experience of doing just that, and Belle couldn’t decide if she wanted to know more about Ella and Gold’s early reaping exploits or not.

“You speak to him in the shop often enough,” Ella said. “It doesn’t have to be an incredibly scary conversation. But I don’t think that this is the end of the world for either of you. It’s just a miscommunication because you come from very different eras. You’re never going to be able to get over that fact so you might as well embrace it and accept it. And you know, the Victorians were kinkier than everyone likes to remember. Well, not Gold, I don’t think that you could find someone less kinky than him, but you’d be surprised.”

Belle raised an eyebrow. “They were so concerned about ankles that they covered their chair legs,” she pointed out.

Ella winked. “Not all of them.”

“You know, I’m not even going to ask.”

Belle glanced at her watch; time was ticking down before the reap and she should probably focus on that for a while before getting distracted by Ella again. Once the souls had been despatched, she could return to the topic of kinky Victorians.

She looked around the bar for any signs of trouble, but things seemed to be going pretty smoothly, no signs of fights breaking out on the horizon. There were a group of men by the bar showing off for Mulan and Merida with all the usual swagger of young men. Mulan and Merida weren’t at all impressed and caused the most sensational reaction when they simply started kissing each other instead, meeting with some whoops and applause from the other patrons and stunned stares from the men who had been trying to get their attention.

“Ah, the alpha male,” Ella said happily, looking over at the one who seemed to be the leader of the pack, looking particularly gobsmacked. “He really can’t understand why, when faced with such a prime specimen of the male form as himself, any self-respecting girl would choose another girl instead. Do you think I ought to go over and console him? Mind you, he’s not that handsome.”

“Well, if you do decide to help him bemoan his loss, can you find out if his name’s K. Nottingham?” Belle asked.

“I shall go and do that,” Ella said. “By the way, a graveling just kicked some empty peanut packets off that table over there. I’m sure there’s going to be some significance to that later.”

Belle looked over at the peanut packets on the floor, but there was no sign of the graveling. Ella’s sixth sense when it came to these things seemed to have paid off again.

Ella left her, going over to the bar to speak to the group of young men and see what she could glean from them. They didn’t look to be too impressed by her flirting, and Belle had to laugh at just how fearful some of them looked when confronted with Ella. She really was a force of nature, and it was wonderful to behold sometimes. She hadn’t been on all that many reaps with Ella, but she always made them more entertaining whenever she could.

After a few moments conversation at the bar, she came back over, grinning from ear to ear like the Cheshire Cat. One of the men, a greasy, weasly looking sort, wearing black leather despite the summer heat outside, was following her.

“Lacey, this is Keith,” she said. “He saw you sitting all alone down here and wondered if you would oblige him and his friend George with a game of pool.”

Belle looked at Keith, then looked at the man pointed out as George, who was still at the bar and appeared to be attempting to get Mulan and Merida to have a threesome with him. Mulan sighed, then suddenly slapped him, the action taking out his soul. Belle could see the satisfaction in her friend’s face, and smiled to herself. Keith and George were fate’s chosen victims today, and she really couldn’t say that she was at all sorry for it.

She sidled out of the booth where she and Ella had been sitting and came over to Keith, swaying her hips. She’d never usually been one for flaunting her feminine wiles before, but in this case, she thought that it would just add the icing on the cake for these two losers.

“Well, how can I turn down such a wonderful offer?” she purred. “Two for the price of one.”

She brushed past Keith, dancing her fingertips over his shoulder to pull out his soul. They’d both been reaped. Now all she had to do was play a few shots of pool and see what the gravelings had in store for them, and where on earth the peanut packets fitted in.

George came over, rubbing his jaw and grumbling about Mulan and Merida not taking him up on his generous offer, and soon the game was in full swing.

Belle had potted two balls when she felt Keith’s hand on her backside, and everything happened very quickly after that. Instinctively, she shoved her elbow back into his solar plexus, and by the time she had turned around to give him a piece of her mind, Fate was already in motion. Keith staggered backwards with the force of her blow, slipping on the shiny peanut packets just behind him. This sent him flying and there was a blood-curdling thwack as his head hit the table.

It was not just Keith that had been sent flying by the trip, though. It was also his pool cue, which managed to hit George in the side of the face and stun him enough to make him fall too – right onto his own pool cue.

For a long time, no-one in the bar moved. Keith and George’s souls stared at each other, and then down at the grim sight of their bodies on the ground.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” George said faintly.

“No you won’t,” Merida said cheerfully, slipping off her bar stool and giving George a smack on the shoulder. “You can’t throw up when you’re dead. Come on boys, I think it’s last orders for you.”

She shooed the souls towards the doors; no-one in the bar seemed to see her, too engrossed with the calamity that had just occurred.

“You know, I think that now would be the perfect time to make a judicious exit,” Ella said as voice and movement returned to the stunned bar patrons and the place descended into chaos.

Belle and Mulan nodded their agreement.

X

“Well, that was certainly one of the more gruesome reaps that I’ve seen in my time,” Ella said conversationally as she and Belle were walking along the road back in the direction of Belle’s apartment. The souls had been despatched to their lights with very little fuss, and Mulan and Merida had gone off in the other direction towards home. Belle was happy to leave them to it. It was wonderful that they had remained so close despite the distance between them, and she wished them every happiness. Now all that remained was to get to the bottom of her own relationship problems. “Although, there was that accidental beheading back in ’75; now that was certainly one for the history books.”

“You know, Ella, I really don’t think that I want to know.”

“You’re right, it’s not for the faint of heart or stomach. Onto happier and less bloodthirsty topics. Have you decided what you’re going to do about Gold?”

Belle nodded. She had considered just calling him as soon as she got back into her apartment, but she accepted that it was late and she was somewhat intoxicated, so it probably wouldn’t have been the most satisfactory of conversations.

“Excellent. I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding boiling down to the fact that he hasn’t had any kind of romantic experience in something close to a geological eon and now he’s overthinking it. He does that a lot, you know, although he’s getting a lot better at hiding it. Still.” They had reached Belle’s building and stopped outside the door. “I’m sure that you’ll be able to work something out. I have every faith in you both, and if it does all go pear-shaped, I will be waiting in the wings with a baseball bat to keep you both in line. Now that Mulan’s headed towards her happy ending I’ll be damned if you and Gold don’t get yours as well.”

Belle laughed, and accepted Ella’s exuberant hug goodbye. She was a good friend to both of them, and Belle knew that whatever happened, she had Ella fighting in her corner. As she climbed the stairs to the apartment, she thought that the future was looking bright.

X

As expected, Mulan wasn’t present at the morning meeting the next day, taking advantage of her time off to spend as much time with Merida as possible. Having one reaper down meant that the rest of them were going to be busy for the next few days, but luckily fate seemed to know that they were understaffed and had not been too unkind in the amount of people who were due to meet their demises.

Ella and David left the diner quickly after receiving their post-its, and Belle knew that it was because they wanted to leave her and Gold alone together to get to the bottom of whatever needed to be got to the bottom of.

They stayed in awkward silence for a while, looking at their drinks rather than each other, and finally Belle spoke.

“About the other night,” she began, but she didn’t really have any idea where she was going to go next with the sentence.

“Yeah… I probably didn’t handle that quite as well as I should have done.” Gold gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Forget a reaper’s handbook, I think I’d be better off with a guide to life in the twenty-first century and how to navigate the perils and pitfalls of dating in it.”

“It’s all right,” Belle said. “I just didn’t really know where I stood with the whole situation.”

“Neither did I, which was part of the problem. What is the etiquette for things like that?”

“I don’t really think that there is one,” Belle said. “You just sort of take it all as it comes and work it out as you go along. There aren’t any hard and fast rules these days, which I think there were when you were last… You know. Courting.”

“Please don’t make me sound even older than I am.”

“You’re not that old, honestly. I think you need to stop being so worried about your age. We’re reapers. It’s irrelevant.”

Gold nodded. “Yes, Ella keeps telling me that.”

“Well, she does have a point.”

Gold looked around the diner. “Can we discuss this somewhere with less people?” he asked. “Maybe the shop?”

Belle nodded. “Of course.”

They settled the bill and left the diner, Belle wheeling her bike along in the direction of the shop. She was almost done with her mail round and the final couple of houses could wait a little longer for their letters.

“I guess I panicked,” Gold said once they were in the back room of the shop. It was dark and cool in there, and Belle felt that it was much more conducive to honest discussion than the crowded diner was. “I was worrying about what you were thinking.”

“I already told you that it didn’t matter,” Belle said. “It was our first time together, it was never going to be amazing. Believe me, there are definitely people out there worse than you. You just need practice, that’s all.” She smiled. “You know, I’m more than willing to help you practise.”

Gold laughed softly. “Are you sure about that?”

“You’re hardly going to get worse. So, you were worried about your prowess. There’s really no need to compare yourself to whatever anyone else might be doing. We have all the time in the world, Alistair. We can go at our own pace, whatever that might be.”

Gold nodded. “Thank you.”

She had never really thought of him as having any issues with self-esteem before, but now that she thought about it, she wondered if that was where the uncertainties had come from. He could be confident and calm in everything to do with reaping because he had so much experience of it, but when it came to other things where he had less practical knowledge, then naturally he wasn’t going to be as confident. Maybe he was thinking that since he was so long-lived and had so much experience in other fields, he ought to have more experience and more confidence in this particular area and that was why he was panicking so much.

“Don’t panic,” she said. “Maybe that should be the first rule of functional immortality as well as the first guideline for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

Gold laughed, then he leaned in and kissed her, a kiss full of promise.

“Thank you,” he said. “I promise that you will not need to massage my bruised ego in the future.”

“That’s good to hear. I will not, however, be averse to massaging other things.”

Had he been drinking at that moment, Gold would probably have spat all over her, such was his stunned expression. Belle smiled. She couldn’t wait to get started on their relationship once more.

[superlinguo]

Linguistics jobs - Interview with a Study Abroad Facilitator

Today’s interview is with Allie Collopy. As Allie mentions below, her job takes her to different places, and she was kind enough to let me interview her when she had just returned to the United States after being away for her job. Allie also shared with me the best photo I’ve ever had for one of these. Here she is in South Korea.

What did you study at university?

I have B.A. in Linguistics from the University of New Hampshire with minors in Spanish and TESOL. While it was a general linguistics program, most of my studies and research pertained to second language acquisition and legislature surrounding language use in the United States, both because I am fascinated by sociolinguistics and because I like to be perpetually enraged by language policy and vent about it to unwilling peers. My thesis was on the future of multilingualism within the U.S.

I also hold an M.A. in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

What is your job?

My job really varies depending on the season, as I split my time between working in Portland, Oregon and overseas. Most recently I’ve been working as an On-Site Program Coordinator where I facilitate intensive study abroad programs for Australian students in Asia. I work on a contracted basis, so I am notified when there are trips that match my skill-set and availability. I’ve run international programs on 4 continents at this point in my career.

Stateside there’s a lot more fluctuation in my roles, but most recently, I was working as a Program Officer at a local non-profit to design and run high school international leadership programs for the U.S. Department of State. This position required extensive collaboration with local organizations and community leaders to develop curricula centered around intercultural understanding, youth leadership, and community development, but what I always find most gratifying is the ability to build relationships with students from around the world and watch them grow as global citizens.

How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

While completing my Bachelor's I thought I wanted to make a career out of teaching English to non-native speakers and it was initially disorienting to find such positions to be less in line with my interests than I had thought when studying theory and pedagogy. Once I shifted my work from being strictly classroom-based to being centered around experiential education with more flexibility in teaching methodology, I found my career to be far more satisfying.

While my work now is not within the umbrella of linguistics, I have found even lessons from syntax and phonetics have assisted me in my ability to work effectively in a cross-cultural setting. Linguistic coursework trains you to be a detective; to look for patterns and to navigate ambiguity. Modeling my language, even when speaking in English, after the linguistic patterns and specific phrasing I hear in my non-American colleagues has helped me to work more cohesively overseas and address challenges in a way that is more culturally appropriate. As I exclusively work in non-English speaking countries, having a B.A. in Linguistics has been an invaluable leg up in learning foreign languages.

In 2015 I was selected to participate in the Critical Language Scholarship, a U.S. State Department program which fully funds degree-seeking students to intensively study a "critical need language" overseas for a summer. Through this scholarship I was able to study intensive Urdu in Lucknow, India, and I am sure that my background in linguistics not only helped to make my application more competitive, but was an enormous asset in my approach to studying a completely new language in an immersive environment.

Do you gave any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?

It was not until after graduating that I became fully aware of the myriad ways for American students to fund study overseas. Fulbright is a fairly well-known program within U.S. universities, and it is likely that most schools will have their own funding for undergraduate research, but for high school and university students alike, the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs offers many different scholarships fully funding language study, which I certainly would have taken advantage of as early as high school had I known they existed. As your professors have all done research in their careers, ask them how they found funding and take advantage of these resources as often as possible.

Previously:

Interview with The Career Linguist

Interview with a local radio Digital Managing Editor

Interview with a freelance translator and editor

Interview with an educational development lecturer (and linguistic consultant)

Interview with a client services manager

Interview with an English foreign language teacher

Check out the Linguist Jobs tag for more interviews

[from-coast-to-coast]

The pen is mighty, but hard to wield

Writer’s block was been eating me alive for the majority of this trip (along with the travel blues, but more on that in the next blog post) - I never realized how difficult it is to produce something inherently intimate (it did come from your brain, after all!) and put it out into the void that is the internet (or the world generally), not knowing how it’s going to be received, and having to be okay with that. 

This feeling can be super overwhelming, which is why I think writers are incredible people for being able to overcome it. Yet a common thread that I’ve been seeing across the country is that they can hardly ever make a decent living from accomplishing what to me, often seems like the impossible. And so, I have to ask, WHY? 

Why is it that we get so frustrated when our five monthly articles on the New York Times run out? We feel accosted by the popups that come up on our favourite online article sites that ask you to subscribe, or donate, or in some cases, turn off our ad blockers. On the other hand, most of us would pay money to go see a film, for admission to a museum or art gallery, or to have our caricature done on the street. What makes writing so different in the sense that people are less willing to shell out cold hard cash for it in comparison to more “hard,” science-based skills like engineering or medicine? 

I’ve thought a lot about this question throughout the creation and execution of this project, and the best explanation I can come up with has to do with with a scientific concept called “activation energy.”

Activation energy is a term used to describe the minimum energy which must be available to a chemical system with potential reactants to result in a chemical reaction. It is commonly depicted as a hump in an energy graph that a system must overcome in order for things to happen. My theory is that this concept of minimum energy required for “success” (a reaction) can also be applied to fields or study or specific skills, including the skill of writing. 

For many, we are lucky enough to live in a society where most people read and write at some basic level. As a result of this, basic economic reasoning causes many people to believe that the skills needed to write are not very valuable. There is a low barrier of entry, hence the issue of compensation. However, what most people don’t see is the high activation energy required for you to master the art of writing - yes, everyone can put words on a page, but actually stringing them together in a way that conveys a message in a nuanced way requires strict discipline, a firm grasp on both grammar and syntax, and also a deep understanding of literary devices.

In comparison, skills required in the science often seem opaque and undecipherable to the general public, as they rely on the understanding of technical jargon that is not accessible to a layperson. In this case, the barrier of entry is high, which creates value and demand for scientific skills. However, something that is frequently overlooked is the fact that once these skills are developed, building on this knowledge is fairly straightforward. Mastering the sciences has a low activation energy, as it just requires innovating on a central dogma that is already established and that you have been indoctrinated into from an early point in your scientific career. 

On the other hand, literature is always changing, as it is created by people, who are always changing and learning to tell stories in different ways. That’s what makes it difficult to do, but also extremely rewarding. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that (in typical Arts and Science fashion) neither the skills required for literature nor science are more difficult or important or than one another - they are just different in their barriers of entry and activation energies. Writers deserve to be fairly compensated for their work in the same way scientists do, and should also carry the same prestige. 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

RUNNING SOFTWARE ON THE SIDE

But that, I now believe, is like a disk crash, except that your data is handed to someone else instead of being at the mercy of investors. Start by making something so great that it's growing at 5% a week. I knew this empirically, but I can't believe we've considered every alternative. And yet he seems pretty commanding, doesn't he? If what they're doing they'll start sniffing around for angel investors right away. I'm surprised people still worry about this. Indeed, helps is far too weak a word. It may seem cavalier to dismiss a language before you've even tried writing programs in it. As you might expect, it winds all over the place. I was at Yahoo, I couldn't help thinking, how will this sound to investors? Many a hacker has written a PhD dissertation knows, the way they taught me to program in college was all wrong.

We're looking at a pattern much older than Web 2. Interfaces, as Geoffrey James has said, should follow the principle of least astonishment. If you listen for it you can do a lot more sophisticated than what most of these ideas, for a while, or go to grad school. You notice a door that's ajar, and you didn't fail at that. And it can last for months. The way the successful ones find something that works is by trying things that don't. A mere 15 weeks. New York, the Bubble had dramatic consequences: suits went out of fashion. From what little I know about Java, there seem to have been two ways of thinking about programming. Mihalko seemed like he actually wanted to be our friend.

If you want to make their mark on the world. But the aim is never to stop pursuing alternatives. For both Confucius and Socrates, wisdom, virtue, and happiness were necessarily related. A new search engine in 1998, I felt like an immigrant from Eastern Europe arriving in America in 1900. One thing you can do to make programs shorter is good. Delivering solutions in an informal way means that instead of judging something by the way it's presented, people have to actually understand it, and they were all trying to de-emphasize search? In fact, they're lucky by comparison. One change will be in big, big trouble. Instead of obliterating your idiosyncrasies in an effort to make yourself a neutral vessel for the truth, as I think lawyers would be the best supplier, but doesn't bid because they can't afford to hire a couple friends.

The trouble with consulting is that clients have an awkward habit of calling you on the phone. On the average trip I bring four books and only read one of them: he wanted to, he had to commit to being despised in his own lifetime. The phrase seed investment covers a broad range. A lot of people. To some extent it's like learning history. And just as the market will learn how to value startups, startups will learn how to value startups, startups will learn how to minimize the damage of going public. My guess is that 37signals is an anomaly. Early stage startups are the cool thing to do, but the way he composed them into molecules was near faultless. And funding delays are a big distraction for founders, who don't know one language from another, but know that they keep hearing about Java in the press about online commerce. I deliberately used a controversial word for it; you might equally call it innocence.

Even with us working to make things happen for them on purpose rather than by accident, the frequency of helpful chance meetings in the Valley aren't automatically impressed with you just to lock you up while they decide if they really want to do. An essay can go anywhere the writer wants. Graduation is a bureaucratic change, not a sedan with giant rims and a fake spoiler bolted to the trunk. It's pseudo-hip. I must be near the truth. Most people reading this will already be fairly tolerant. According to the National Association of Business Incubators, there are few strong enough to resist doing something just because that's what one is supposed to be an answer. VCs got to be considered as the languages for serious software development. The purpose of a company, and for the first time during the Bubble robbed their companies by granting themselves options doesn't mean options are a bad idea for a company located in a startup this quarter shows up as Yahoo earnings next quarter—stimulating another round of investments in startups. It will probably involve connecting the desktop to prevent, or constrain, this new generation of sites, but they love plans and procedures and protocols. And because you can write substantial chunks this way. Fortunately, if startups get cheap to start web startups that orders of magnitudes more will be started.

When I probe our motives with Artix, I see signs of all three. In 1980, it was like trying to run through waist-deep water. The way I worked, it seemed to be the default plan in big companies like object-oriented programming in too deeply. When one looks over these trends, is there any overall theme? You can say either using Arc syntax if foo x 1 x 2 or x if foo 1 2 A symbol type. Business Incubators, there are ways to prepare while you're in college and have a literal representation, can be passed as arguments, and so on. I understood their work.

Angels. Probably not. And so in starting a startup, as in grad school due to a series of incremental changes instead of an occasional big explosion. It has always mattered for women, but in some cases it's possible to detect bias in a selection process without knowing anything about the applicant pool. We're in good company here. A company making computer hardware might not become profitable for 5 years, during which they spent $50 million. I can't figure it out. Often the only value of most of the initial sales of the Apple II was so popular was that it considered me an equal partner. When you know nothing, you have to sound intellectual. There should start to be done mostly with standardized agreements. Perhaps the reason more startups per capita happen in the Bay Area it's the Band of Angels. Oy.

[sciencespies]

Meet The Young Pioneers Using Tech To Make The World A Better Place

https://sciencespies.com/news/meet-the-young-pioneers-using-tech-to-make-the-world-a-better-place/

Meet The Young Pioneers Using Tech To Make The World A Better Place

Mihika, creator of Smart Stick.

BT

Telecoms giant BT has announced the finalists of its young pioneer award, which celebrates youngsters using tech to make the world a better place.

Run as part of the wider Tech4Good Awards, the BT Young Pioneer Award highlights ways that young people are tackling societal and environmental problems through innovation.

In the past, recipients of the award have addressed issues such as environmental sustainability, mental health and supporting people with disabilities.

The winner will be awarded with £5,000 to spend within the BT shop on new technology that will allow them to further their inventions, while finalists get to attend a networking event at BT Tower and receive tickets to visit Bletchley Park.

Andy Wales, chief digital impact and sustainability officer at BT, said: “The pace of tech change is fundamentally reshaping our world. Young people not only need to be ready for that but also actively designing the tech that will shape their future.

“We’re proud to be sponsoring the Tech4Good awards and inspired by how this year’s BT Young Pioneer finalists aim to improve the lives of those with disabilities to ensure nobody is left behind.”

Freddie Howells, 13 – Door Pi Plus

Looking to help people with dementia and other vulnerable adults lead independent lives, Freddie has developed a facial recognition door entry and home monitoring system. He came up with the technology to support his great aunt Pat, who is 88 and lives at home with dementia.

“The system is built using a Raspberry Pi microcontroller. A motion sensor on the front door detects when a visitor arrives which triggers the camera to take a picture. This picture is compared against a database of known faces,” he explained.

“If the face is recognized, the visitor is asked to confirm their identity by scanning their ID tag. If the face and id tag match, the door is opened via an electric door strike, controlled via a single channel relay. At the same time a text alert is sent to the family to let them know who has visited and an audio recording of the visitor’s voice is played to the elderly person to help them identify the visitor.”

Mihika Sharma, 9 – Smart Stick

One day, Mihika and her mother experienced an upsetting situation when a blind lady they helped cross the road nearly tripped over. This led to Mihika creating Smart Stick, a walking aid that helps blind people walk safely by themselves. It features ultrasonic sensors that detect obstacles, a water sensor that identifies puddles and motors that direct users.

She said: “I set up Smart Stick in 2016 when I was five years old after I’d been with my mum when she was trying to help a blind lady cross the road, when I forgot to mention there was a step and the lady nearly tripped over. This experience upset me, so I decided to make a Smart Stick to help blind people walk safely by themselves.

“Today the stick has many features including sensors, Bluetooth, GPS, LED lights and more. I thought of the design very carefully and included features that can give blind and deaf people their independence.”

Tess and Amy McMullan, 13 – Be Seen Trendy

Tess and Amy are the creators of Be Seen Trendy, a small handheld device that reads NFC labels attached to coat hangers and helps blind people dress independently. Powered by a Raspberry Pi computer, the solution provides information such as the garment, description, color, type of material and other items that can be worn with it.

“There are two of us in our group who decided to take part in designing something that would have a practical application for people with vision difficulties or impairment. We also felt that it could benefit a wide range of people including the elderly who may have declining sight and who might feel that they are cut off from the outside world,” said the pair.

“Our teacher provided us with a raspberry pi which is a device that we used to create the ‘Be seen Trendy’ device. The reason that we decided that this would be good was because one of us had a relative who was visually impaired and who always said it was difficult to find the right combination of clothes as colors were difficult to differentiate.”

Joshua Lowe, 15 – Edublocks

With the aim of getting more youngsters to take up coding, Joshua designed a drag-and-drop version of Python 3 that lets students learn the programming language with minimal errors. It’s now being used in more than 120 countries globally.

“It was frustrating seeing students struggling with the transition to text-based programming. They were so used to getting results quickly and making their code work by dragging and dropping blocks that when they then had to move on to having to write lines and lines of code, that then resulted in numerous syntax errors and the code not working, that they would lose interest,” he said.

“ I thought there must be an easier way of transitioning the knowledge and rules already learnt from block based programming to that of the text-based language of Python. Not only has Edublocks achieved this, it has also enabled younger children to start accessing Python and allowed teachers to become more confident in the delivery of this area of the computing curriculum.”

The winner will be announced on Wednesday, July 17.

#News

[altertonative]

9 BEST TIPS FOR FUTURE TRAVEL BLOGGERS

A few weeks ago I wrote about how to start a travel blog (you can read this post HERE), because I have repeatedly encountered this question in emails, in messengers, or even in private from people who were also curious about what my beginnings looked like. Anyway, it surprised me how many people hesitate to start a blog. They are mainly restrained by uncertainty related to the unknown results, considerable amount of work and time they would have to invest, unavoidable criticism of some readers and saturation of the blogging market. Despite the above, there are people who decide to set up a blog and it is them who support and dedicate today's entry. The following advice is not to discover a wonderful recipe and it will not guarantee success, but it shows the best things to focus on and invest your time in. Sometimes it's worth recalling the obvious at a first glance standards, to make sure that we are heading with our blog in the right direction.

In my experience, the changes happen every day in the blogosphere, so you have to keep your finger on the pulse and constantly learn to be up to date. Unfortunately, on our way there is also a whole lot of useless information that encourages to invest a lot of time, and ultimately not bring any concrete results. How to defend against them? Using some of the following tips, of course! So if you take your blog seriously and you care about its success, be sure to read the text below and start implementing!

1. TAKE CARE OF THE STYLE AND THE VISUAL SITE OF THE BLOG!

Nobody likes to check themselves, but unfortunately it is necessary in blogging. Therefore, don’t leave writing text at the last minute. Write it and give yourself at least a day to get some distance. Then go back to what has come out from under your fingers and see if everything is correct, whether the syntax is correct and creates a meaningful whole, whether there are no missing dots, commas and whether there are no spelling mistakes or typos. Look for your own style, which doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of an original narrative; maybe your trademark will be a specific font, headline or paragraph layout? Don’t exaggerate with fantasy, because your post must remain readable and not distract from the most important, that is, the content itself. On the other hand, the graphic design, layout and photos you place on the blog can have a great impact, and sometimes can even be crucial in getting a loyal reader, which leads to another super important advice...

2. LEARN TO TAKE AMAZING PICTURES!

To be honest, photographers usually don’t set up blogs, rather more or less aspiring writers do. However, to stand out from hundreds, like not thousands of travel blogs, you have to post photos on blog posts, and not just any photos, but great ones. OK, not everyone has an artistic eye, but the basics of photography can be easily learned from videos on YouTube. And here there is no room for excuses. It is also good to invest in a better camera, although in the era of fancy mobile phones, it is not necessary if you only have great ideas. However, it's worth considering the photo editing program and spending more money there in the first place. And what about the practice? There is no other way than to just take pictures - the more, the better. Shoot the flash at every step, and then verify what looks better and what is worse. You can also ask your friends which pictures attract their attention - certainly other than you would have thought ;)

3. SET UP ONE PUBLICATION DATE AND PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!

Think of your blog as a morning newspaper, which your readers will always read at the same time. Making a habit in people return to your site for more is really important. If they know when something new appears on the blog, they'll be more likely to regularly check it, even if the topic doesn’t particularily interest them. Remind them of newly published posts on social media, and probably these media will become the gateway to the blog, which will increase the media traffic and ranges by the way. Analyzes show that there is no perfect day and time to publish, as they depend on the characteristics of the people who follow you. At the beginning, you can go a little crazy and look for a timing that is perfect for your readers. It must also be appropriate for you, because you do not want to take a night out during the week, or give up on Tuesday's activities to write a post, do you? For me, the perfect day turned out to be Sunday, which I chose, because one of my favorite YouTube videos also published videos on that day. It turned out to be a hit, because a lot of people visit my blog on Sunday before noon, and besides, if I didn’t manage to finish everything in the middle of the week, I can do it on Saturday, which usually is a day off for me (cleaning and cooking can wait;)) And one more thing: you don’t have to create new content all the time! Perhaps you only need to publish it once or twice a month? It is better to give yourself more time in the beginning and then increase the frequency rather than in the other direction.

Once you have chosen the time of publication, please take the time to plan the topics of your posts. Brainstorm and write down everything that comes to your mind - some things may prove to be useless, but you will definitely benefit from the rest. It is worth to prepare a list of universal themes, that is, the ones you can use at any time - an example is even this post ;) It doesn’t matter if I publish it in March, August or November, because it will always be up to date. Ideally, you could write a few extra entries to use them in difficult times, for example during illness, lack of inspiration or long holidays. Of course, bloggers are not robots and have the right to take a break, so as long as it doesn’t become your routine, don’t make it too harsh on yourself!

4. PROMOTE YOURSELF!

The best way to reach the right reader is to promote your content in social media. Invest in advertising from the very beginning. Don’t go crazy with the budget, just test what works and what does not. Facebook and Instagram provide you with all the data you need to create the right ad. Take time to analyze them and then think about what could appeal to people who visit your blog most eagerly? With this foundation, design an ad without giving up your style, because it will make you stand out. When you notice that something works, try to invest a little more and for a longer period of time - the effects will pleasantly surprise you :)

5. WRITE ABOUT EVERYTHING!

Not literally ... just do not belittle the rank of trips to a nearby forest, a lake, another city or even a local museum, and you'll be surprised how popular they can become! We know it would be great to write about long journeys to other continents, but let's face it: you probably will not be able to spend two weeks a month in the Caribbean, or half a year in India, and above all, if your target is not a wealthy heir, it will not be possible for most of your readers. People like to read about things that are for them to reach. It's like with clothes: it's nice to take a look at luxury, branded clothes, maybe even buy one thing at a discount for the majority of savings, but we will usually look for these high-street native brands. My blog works in a similar way and the most popular posts are those from the series Alternatively through Poland, not the fancy Seychelles.

6. DON’T write WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

When travelling, are you tempted to sit down in the evening and write down everything that happened that day? Preferably in the form of an article to be able to publish it as quickly as possible and then share it immediately? You have so many ideas, lots of inspiration around, and you don’t want to forget anything! Great, but it’s so much better to go for an evening walk on the beach, talk to a lady from the local information office, or try an exotic drink whose name doesn’t tell you anything. Seize the voice recorder (every phone has it!) and record what is the most important. Take the camera not to forget the view of the sunset at the ocean, because even if the photo is not good enough to be later published on the blog, it will remind you the emotions accompanying that moment. And simply enjoy it, live it, without thinking that Instagram will go crazy about your pics tomorrow.

7. LET SEO BE YOUR GOD!

SEO is like a Bible for bloggers, so don’t waste any more time, just learn about keywords and positioning pages as much as possible! It is worth reading about the basics of SEO, e.g. on Google. Remember to write texts so that they appear as high as possible in Google search. And more about SEO will appear on my blog soon! :)

8. connect!  

Your friends most probably don’t understand your fascination with blogging. In fact, they are wondering why you are constantly posting holiday pictures on Facebook? Perhaps they think it’s enough of this bragging, eh? Well, all you need is blogger friends! No, not to like and comment your posts...although they may be useful here, of course, if they are happy to it unwillingly. In the group, strength is also reflected in the blogosphere, and despite the fact that it sometimes meets with criticism, I think it is a good idea to promote and support each other. So instead of criticizing and getting jealous of amazing travels from your blog colleagues, comment on their posts and then come back to comment and like more! This selflessness will pay you back with a vengeance. Do not, however, force it, just look for accounts at a similar level and start working with those that you think are worth it. Why not get to know bloggers in real life? Blog festivals are a great opportunity for this, more and more often organized in larger cities. Last year I had the opportunity to participate in one and in addition to the invaluable knowledge I gained, I also got some contacts. But this year the situation has reversed and for the first time I will meet with a person I only know from Instagram. Not bad, huh? :)

9. GET INSPIRED, DON’T COPY!

Last but very important advice. Remember that a few are going dry boldly copying (David Bowie is an exception!), so try to at least change some details if you can not resist inserting something similar to something that already exists on the Internet or wherever (and you know it well!). Inspiration doesn’t mean copying word by word, but it’s an attempt to recreate something that we like in our own style. And keep it! And the more extraordinary you are, the more original and unique followers you will gain. And such a great collective of people is the faithful and not easy to bribe. That's what I wish you! :)

If you are already at the end, I congratulate you! With such knowledge it's easier to get together and start working. It is not always easy and pleasant, but without trying, you will not find out whether blogging is something for you or not. I would like to know one proper way to run a successful blog, but unfortunately such doesn’t exist, so you have to find your own way to success. And maybe this is the uncertainty and at the same time the freedom that attracts so many people to the blogosphere? In the end, you can always give up, actually losing nothing ;) I warn you, however, that if you once devour this teaser, you will not be able to free yourself from it xD

BACK

[thesnhuup]

Pop Picks – October 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We had the opportunity to see our favorite band, The National, live in Dallas two weeks ago. Just after watching Mistaken for Strangers, the documentary sort of about the band. So we’ve spent a lot of time going back into their earlier work, listening to songs we don’t know well, and reaffirming that their musicality, smarts, and sound are both original and astoundingly good. They did not disappoint in concert and it is a good thing their tour ended, as we might just spend all of our time and money following them around. Matt Berninger is a genius and his lead vocals kill me (and because they are in my range, I can actually sing along!). Their arrangements are profoundly good and go right to whatever brain/heart wiring that pulls one in and doesn’t let them go.

What I’m reading:

Who is Richard Powers and why have I only discovered him now, with his 12th book? Overstory is profoundly good, a book that is essential and powerful and makes me look at my everyday world in new ways. In short, a dizzying example of how powerful can be narrative in the hands of a master storyteller. I hesitate to say it’s the best environmental novel I’ve ever read (it is), because that would put this book in a category. It is surely about the natural world, but it is as much about we humans. It’s monumental and elegiac and wondrous at all once. Cancel your day’s schedule and read it now. Then plant a tree. A lot of them.

What I’m watching:

Bo Burnham wrote and directed Eighth Grade and Elsie Fisher is nothing less than amazing as its star (what’s with these new child actors; see Florida Project). It’s funny and painful and touching. It’s also the single best film treatment that I have seen of what it means to grow up in a social media shaped world. It’s a reminder that growing up is hard. Maybe harder now in a world of relentless, layered digital pressure to curate perfect lives that are far removed from the natural messy worlds and selves we actually inhabit. It’s a well-deserved 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and I wonder who dinged it for the missing 2%.

  Archive

September 7, 2018

What I’m listening to:

With a cover pointing back to the Beastie Boys’ 1986 Licensed to Ill, Eminem’s quietly released Kamikaze is not my usual taste, but I’ve always admired him for his “all out there” willingness to be personal, to call people out, and his sheer genius with language. I thought Daveed Diggs could rap fast, but Eminem is supersonic at moments, and still finds room for melody. Love that he includes Joyner Lucas, whose “I’m Not Racist” gets added to the growing list of simply amazing music videos commenting on race in America. There are endless reasons why I am the least likely Eminem fan, but when no one is around to make fun of me, I’ll put it on again.

What I’m reading:

Lesley Blume’s Everyone Behaves Badly, which is the story behind Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and his time in 1920s Paris (oh, what a time – see Midnight in Paris if you haven’t already). Of course, Blume disabuses my romantic ideas of that time and place and everyone is sort of (or profoundly so) a jerk, especially…no spoiler here…Hemingway. That said, it is a compelling read and coming off the Henry James inspired prose of Mrs. Osmond, it made me appreciate more how groundbreaking was Hemingway’s modern prose style. Like his contemporary Picasso, he reinvented the art and it can be easy to forget, these decades later, how profound was the change and its impact. And it has bullfights.

What I’m watching:

Chloé Zhao’s The Rider is just exceptional. It’s filmed on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which provides a stunning landscape, and it feels like a classic western reinvented for our times. The main characters are played by the real-life people who inspired this narrative (but feels like a documentary) film. Brady Jandreau, playing himself really, owns the screen. It’s about manhood, honor codes, loss, and resilience – rendered in sensitive, nuanced, and heartfelt ways. It feels like it could be about large swaths of America today. Really powerful.

August 16, 2018

What I’m listening to:

In my Spotify Daily Mix was Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman, one of the world’s greatest love songs. Go online and read the story of how the song was discovered and recorded. There are competing accounts, but Sledge said he improvised it after a bad breakup. It has that kind of aching spontaneity. It is another hit from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, one of the GREAT music hotbeds, along with Detroit, Nashville, and Memphis. Our February Board meeting is in Alabama and I may finally have to do the pilgrimage road trip to Muscle Shoals and then Memphis, dropping in for Sunday services at the church where Rev. Al Green still preaches and sings. If the music is all like this, I will be saved.

What I’m reading:

John Banville’s Mrs. Osmond, his homage to literary idol Henry James and an imagined sequel to James’ 1881 masterpiece Portrait of a Lady. Go online and read the first paragraph of Chapter 25. He is…profoundly good. Makes me want to never write again, since anything I attempt will feel like some other, lowly activity in comparison to his mastery of language, image, syntax. This is slow reading, every sentence to be savored.

What I’m watching:

I’ve always respected Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but we just watched the documentary RGB. It is over-the-top great and she is now one of my heroes. A superwoman in many ways and the documentary is really well done. There are lots of scenes of her speaking to crowds and the way young women, especially law students, look at her is touching.  And you can’t help but fall in love with her now late husband Marty. See this movie and be reminded of how important is the Law.

July 23, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spotify’s Summer Acoustic playlist has been on repeat quite a lot. What a fun way to listen to artists new to me, including The Paper Kites, Hollow Coves, and Fleet Foxes, as well as old favorites like Leon Bridges and Jose Gonzalez. Pretty chill when dialing back to a summer pace, dining on the screen porch or reading a book.

What I’m reading:

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson tells of the racial injustice (and the war on the poor our judicial system perpetuates as well) that he discovered as a young graduate from Harvard Law School and his fight to address it. It is in turn heartbreaking, enraging, and inspiring. It is also about mercy and empathy and justice that reads like a novel. Brilliant.

What I’m watching:

Fauda. We watched season one of this Israeli thriller. It was much discussed in Israel because while it focuses on an ex-special agent who comes out of retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist, it was willing to reveal the complexity, richness, and emotions of Palestinian lives. And the occasional brutality of the Israelis. Pretty controversial stuff in Israel. Lior Raz plays Doron, the main character, and is compelling and tough and often hard to like. He’s a mess. As is the world in which he has to operate. We really liked it, and also felt guilty because while it may have been brave in its treatment of Palestinians within the Israeli context, it falls back into some tired tropes and ultimately falls short on this front.

    June 11, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Like everyone else, I’m listening to Pusha T drop the mic on Drake. Okay, not really, but do I get some points for even knowing that? We all walk around with songs that immediately bring us back to a time or a place. Songs are time machines. We are coming up on Father’s Day. My own dad passed away on Father’s Day back in 1994 and I remembering dutifully getting through the wake and funeral and being strong throughout. Then, sitting alone in our kitchen, Don Henley’s The End of the Innocence came on and I lost it. When you lose a parent for the first time (most of us have two after all) we lose our innocence and in that passage, we suddenly feel adult in a new way (no matter how old we are), a longing for our own childhood, and a need to forgive and be forgiven. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll understand. As Wordsworth reminds us in In Memoriam, there are seasons to our grief and, all these years later, this song no longer hits me in the gut, but does transport me back with loving memories of my father. I’ll play it Father’s Day.

What I’m reading:

The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin. I am not a reader of fantasy or sci-fi, though I understand they can be powerful vehicles for addressing the very real challenges of the world in which we actually live. I’m not sure I know of a more vivid and gripping illustration of that fact than N. K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award winning novel The Fifth Season, first in her Broken Earth trilogy. It is astounding. It is the fantasy parallel to The Underground Railroad, my favorite recent read, a depiction of subjugation, power, casual violence, and a broken world in which our hero(s) struggle, suffer mightily, and still, somehow, give us hope. It is a tour de force book. How can someone be this good a writer? The first 30 pages pained me (always with this genre, one must learn a new, constructed world, and all of its operating physics and systems of order), and then I could not put it down. I panicked as I neared the end, not wanting to finish the book, and quickly ordered the Obelisk Gate, the second novel in the trilogy, and I can tell you now that I’ll be spending some goodly portion of my weekend in Jemisin’s other world.

What I’m watching:

The NBA Finals and perhaps the best basketball player of this generation. I’ve come to deeply respect LeBron James as a person, a force for social good, and now as an extraordinary player at the peak of his powers. His superhuman play during the NBA playoffs now ranks with the all-time greats, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, MJ, Kobe, and the demi-god that was Bill Russell. That his Cavs lost in a 4-game sweep is no surprise. It was a mediocre team being carried on the wide shoulders of James (and matched against one of the greatest teams ever, the Warriors, and the Harry Potter of basketball, Steph Curry) and, in some strange way, his greatness is amplified by the contrast with the rest of his team. It was a great run.

May 24, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I’ve always liked Alicia Keys and admired her social activism, but I am hooked on her last album Here. This feels like an album finally commensurate with her anger, activism, hope, and grit. More R&B and Hip Hop than is typical for her, I think this album moves into an echelon inhabited by a Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or Beyonce’s Formation. Social activism and outrage rarely make great novels, but they often fuel great popular music. Here is a terrific example.

What I’m reading:

Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad may be close to a flawless novel. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer, it chronicles the lives of two runaway slaves, Cora and Caeser, as they try to escape the hell of plantation life in Georgia.  It is an often searing novel and Cora is one of the great heroes of American literature. I would make this mandatory reading in every high school in America, especially in light of the absurd revisionist narratives of “happy and well cared for” slaves. This is a genuinely great novel, one of the best I’ve read, the magical realism and conflating of time periods lifts it to another realm of social commentary, relevance, and a blazing indictment of America’s Original Sin, for which we remain unabsolved.

What I’m watching:

I thought I knew about The Pentagon Papers, but The Post, a real-life political thriller from Steven Spielberg taught me a lot, features some of our greatest actors, and is so timely given the assault on our democratic institutions and with a presidency out of control. It is a reminder that a free and fearless press is a powerful part of our democracy, always among the first targets of despots everywhere. The story revolves around the legendary Post owner and D.C. doyenne, Katharine Graham. I had the opportunity to see her son, Don Graham, right after he saw the film, and he raved about Meryl Streep’s portrayal of his mother. Liked it a lot more than I expected.

April 27, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I mentioned John Prine in a recent post and then on the heels of that mention, he has released a new album, The Tree of Forgiveness, his first new album in ten years. Prine is beloved by other singer songwriters and often praised by the inscrutable God that is Bob Dylan.  Indeed, Prine was frequently said to be the “next Bob Dylan” in the early part of his career, though he instead carved out his own respectable career and voice, if never with the dizzying success of Dylan. The new album reflects a man in his 70s, a cancer survivor, who reflects on life and its end, but with the good humor and empathy that are hallmarks of Prine’s music. “When I Get To Heaven” is a rollicking, fun vision of what comes next and a pure delight. A charming, warm, and often terrific album.

What I’m reading:

I recently read Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, on many people’s Top Ten lists for last year and for good reason. It is sprawling, multi-generational, and based in the world of Japanese occupied Korea and then in the Korean immigrant’s world of Oaska, so our key characters become “tweeners,” accepted in neither world. It’s often unspeakably sad, and yet there is resiliency and love. There is also intimacy, despite the time and geographic span of the novel. It’s breathtakingly good and like all good novels, transporting.

What I’m watching:

I adore Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film, Pan’s Labyrinth, and while I’m not sure his Shape of Water is better, it is a worthy follow up to the earlier masterpiece (and more of a commercial success). Lots of critics dislike the film, but I’m okay with a simple retelling of a Beauty and the Beast love story, as predictable as it might be. The acting is terrific, it is visually stunning, and there are layers of pain as well as social and political commentary (the setting is the US during the Cold War) and, no real spoiler here, the real monsters are humans, the military officer who sees over the captured aquatic creature. It is hauntingly beautiful and its depiction of hatred to those who are different or “other” is painfully resonant with the time in which we live. Put this on your “must see” list.

March 18, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Sitting on a plane for hours (and many more to go; geez, Australia is far away) is a great opportunity to listen to new music and to revisit old favorites. This time, it is Lucy Dacus and her album Historians, the new sophomore release from a 22-year old indie artist that writes with relatable, real-life lyrics. Just on a second listen and while she insists this isn’t a break up record (as we know, 50% of all great songs are break up songs), it is full of loss and pain. Worth the listen so far. For the way back machine, it’s John Prine and In Spite of Ourselves (that title track is one of the great love songs of all time), a collection of duets with some of his “favorite girl singers” as he once described them. I have a crush on Iris Dement (for a really righteously angry song try her Wasteland of the Free), but there is also EmmyLou Harris, the incomparable Dolores Keane, and Lucinda Williams. Very different albums, both wonderful.

What I’m reading:

Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on Christopher Steele presents little that is new, but she pulls it together in a terrific and coherent whole that is illuminating and troubling at the same time. Not only for what is happening, but for the complicity of the far right in trying to discredit that which should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. Bob Mueller may be the most important defender of the democracy at this time. A must read.

What I’m watching:

Homeland is killing it this season and is prescient, hauntingly so. Russian election interference, a Bannon-style hate radio demagogue, alienated and gun toting militia types, and a president out of control. It’s fabulous, even if it feels awfully close to the evening news. 

March 8, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We have a family challenge to compile our Top 100 songs. It is painful. Only 100? No more than three songs by one artist? Wait, why is M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” on my list? Should it just be The Clash from whom she samples? Can I admit to guilty pleasure songs? Hey, it’s my list and I can put anything I want on it. So I’m listening to the list while I work and the song playing right now is Tom Petty’s “The Wild One, Forever,” a B-side single that was never a hit and that remains my favorite Petty song. Also, “Evangeline” by Los Lobos. It evokes a night many years ago, with friends at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA, when everyone danced well past 1AM in a hot, sweaty, packed club and the band was a revelation. Maybe the best music night of our lives and a reminder that one’s 100 Favorite Songs list is as much about what you were doing and where you were in your life when those songs were playing as it is about the music. It’s not a list. It’s a soundtrack for this journey.

What I’m reading:

Patricia Lockwood’s Priestdaddy was in the NY Times top ten books of 2017 list and it is easy to see why. Lockwood brings remarkable and often surprising imagery, metaphor, and language to her prose memoir and it actually threw me off at first. It then all became clear when someone told me she is a poet. The book is laugh aloud funny, which masks (or makes safer anyway) some pretty dark territory. Anyone who grew up Catholic, whether lapsed or not, will resonate with her story. She can’t resist a bawdy anecdote and her family provides some of the most memorable characters possible, especially her father, her sister, and her mother, who I came to adore. Best thing I’ve read in ages.

What I’m watching:

The Florida Project, a profoundly good movie on so many levels. Start with the central character, six-year old (at the time of the filming) Brooklynn Prince, who owns – I mean really owns – the screen. This is pure acting genius and at that age? Astounding. Almost as astounding is Bria Vinaite, who plays her mother. She was discovered on Instagram and had never acted before this role, which she did with just three weeks of acting lessons. She is utterly convincing and the tension between the child’s absolute wonder and joy in the world with her mother’s struggle to provide, to be a mother, is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. Willem Dafoe rightly received an Oscar nomination for his supporting role. This is a terrific movie.

February 12, 2018

What I’m listening to:

So, I have a lot of friends of age (I know you’re thinking 40s, but I just turned 60) who are frozen in whatever era of music they enjoyed in college or maybe even in their thirties. There are lots of times when I reach back into the catalog, since music is one of those really powerful and transporting senses that can take you through time (smell is the other one, though often underappreciated for that power). Hell, I just bought a turntable and now spending time in vintage vinyl shops. But I’m trying to take a lesson from Pat, who revels in new music and can as easily talk about North African rap music and the latest National album as Meet the Beatles, her first ever album. So, I’ve been listening to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy winning Damn. While it may not be the first thing I’ll reach for on a winter night in Maine, by the fire, I was taken with it. It’s layered, political, and weirdly sensitive and misogynist at the same time, and it feels fresh and authentic and smart at the same time, with music that often pulled me from what I was doing. In short, everything music should do. I’m not a bit cooler for listening to Damn, but when I followed it with Steely Dan, I felt like I was listening to Lawrence Welk. A good sign, I think.

What I’m reading:

I am reading Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Leonardo da Vinci. I’m not usually a reader of biographies, but I’ve always been taken with Leonardo. Isaacson does not disappoint (does he ever?), and his subject is at once more human and accessible and more awe-inspiring in Isaacson’s capable hands. Gay, left-handed, vegetarian, incapable of finishing things, a wonderful conversationalist, kind, and perhaps the most relentlessly curious human being who has ever lived. Like his biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, Isaacson’s project here is to show that genius lives at the intersection of science and art, of rationality and creativity. Highly recommend it.

What I’m watching:

We watched the This Is Us post-Super Bowl episode, the one where Jack finally buys the farm. I really want to hate this show. It is melodramatic and manipulative, with characters that mostly never change or grow, and it hooks me every damn time we watch it. The episode last Sunday was a tear jerker, a double whammy intended to render into a blubbering, tissue-crumbling pathetic mess anyone who has lost a parent or who is a parent. Sterling K. Brown, Ron Cephas Jones, the surprising Mandy Moore, and Milo Ventimiglia are hard not to love and last season’s episode that had only Brown and Cephas going to Memphis was the show at its best (they are by far the two best actors). Last week was the show at its best worst. In other words, I want to hate it, but I love it. If you haven’t seen it, don’t binge watch it. You’ll need therapy and insulin.

January 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Drive-By Truckers. Chris Stapleton has me on an unusual (for me) country theme and I discovered these guys to my great delight. They’ve been around, with some 11 albums, but the newest one is fascinating. It’s a deep dive into Southern alienation and the white working-class world often associated with our current president. I admire the willingness to lay bare, in kick ass rock songs, the complexities and pain at work among people we too quickly place into overly simple categories. These guys are brave, bold, and thoughtful as hell, while producing songs I didn’t expect to like, but that I keep playing. And they are coming to NH.

What I’m reading:

A textual analog to Drive-By Truckers by Chris Stapleton in many ways is Tony Horowitz’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning Confederates in the Attic. Ostensibly about the Civil War and the South’s ongoing attachment to it, it is prescient and speaks eloquently to the times in which we live (where every southern state but Virginia voted for President Trump). Often hilarious, it too surfaces complexities and nuance that escape a more recent, and widely acclaimed, book like Hillbilly Elegy. As a Civil War fan, it was also astonishing in many instances, especially when it blows apart long-held “truths” about the war, such as the degree to which Sherman burned down the south (he did not). Like D-B Truckers, Horowitz loves the South and the people he encounters, even as he grapples with its myths of victimhood and exceptionalism (and racism, which may be no more than the racism in the north, but of a different kind). Everyone should read this book and I’m embarrassed I’m so late to it.

What I’m watching:

David Letterman has a new Netflix show called “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and we watched the first episode, in which Letterman interviewed Barack Obama. It was extraordinary (if you don’t have Netflix, get it just to watch this show); not only because we were reminded of Obama’s smarts, grace, and humanity (and humor), but because we saw a side of Letterman we didn’t know existed. His personal reflections on Selma were raw and powerful, almost painful. He will do five more episodes with “extraordinary individuals” and if they are anything like the first, this might be the very best work of his career and one of the best things on television.

December 22, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished Sunjeev Sahota’s Year of the Runaways, a painful inside look at the plight of illegal Indian immigrant workers in Britain. It was shortlisted for 2015 Man Booker Prize and its transporting, often to a dark and painful universe, and it is impossible not to think about the American version of this story and the terrible way we treat the undocumented in our own country, especially now.

What I’m watching:

Season II of The Crown is even better than Season I. Elizabeth’s character is becoming more three-dimensional, the modern world is catching up with tradition-bound Britain, and Cold War politics offer more context and tension than we saw in Season I. Claire Foy, in her last season, is just terrific – one arched eye brow can send a message.

What I’m listening to:

A lot of Christmas music, but needing a break from the schmaltz, I’ve discovered Over the Rhine and their Christmas album, Snow Angels. God, these guys are good.

  November 14, 2017

What I’m watching:

Guiltily, I watch the Patriots play every weekend, often building my schedule and plans around seeing the game. Why the guilt? I don’t know how morally defensible is football anymore, as we now know the severe damage it does to the players. We can’t pretend it’s all okay anymore. Is this our version of late decadent Rome, watching mostly young Black men take a terrible toll on each other for our mere entertainment?

What I’m reading:

Recently finished J.G. Ballard’s 2000 novel Super-Cannes, a powerful depiction of a corporate-tech ex-pat community taken over by a kind of psychopathology, in which all social norms and responsibilities are surrendered to residents of the new world community. Kept thinking about Silicon Valley when reading it. Pretty dark, dystopian view of the modern world and centered around a mass killing, troublingly prescient.

What I’m listening to:

Was never really a Lorde fan, only knowing her catchy (and smarter than you might first guess) pop hit “Royals” from her debut album. But her new album, Melodrama, is terrific and it doesn’t feel quite right to call this “pop.” There is something way more substantial going on with Lorde and I can see why many critics put this album at the top of their Best in 2017 list. Count me in as a huge fan.

  November 3, 2017

What I’m reading: Just finished Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, her breathtakingly good second novel. How is someone so young so wise? Her writing is near perfection and I read the book in two days, setting my alarm for 4:30AM so I could finish it before work.

What I’m watching: We just binge watched season two of Stranger Things and it was worth it just to watch Millie Bobbie Brown, the transcendent young actor who plays Eleven. The series is a delightful mash up of every great eighties horror genre you can imagine and while pretty dark, an absolute joy to watch.

What I’m listening to: I’m not a lover of country music (to say the least), but I love Chris Stapleton. His “The Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” is heartbreakingly good and reminds me of the old school country that played in my house as a kid. He has a new album and I can’t wait, but his From A Room: Volume 1 is on repeat for now.

  September 26, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo. It took me a while to accept its cadence and sheer weirdness, but loved it in the end. A painful meditation on loss and grief, and a genuinely beautiful exploration of the intersection of life and death, the difficulty of letting go of what was, good and bad, and what never came to be.

What I’m watching:

HBO’s The Deuce. Times Square and the beginning of the porn industry in the 1970s, the setting made me wonder if this was really something I’d want to see. But David Simon is the writer and I’d read a menu if he wrote it. It does not disappoint so far and there is nothing prurient about it.

What I’m listening to:

The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast. I love this band. The opening piano notes of the first song, “Nobody Else Will Be There,” seize me & I’m reminded that no one else in music today matches their arrangement & musicianship. I’m adding “Born to Beg,” “Slow Show,” “I Need My Girl,” and “Runaway” to my list of favorite love songs.

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