#just call me ms coder | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tabzanite · 4 years ago

Note

Don’t tell people who I am,,, I don’t want my name on this work,,,

Anyways, I’m like 20% sure that I accidentally deleted part of this but whatevah

~~~~~~ My lover’s a poison, I won’t drink it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mommy pig was not always a mother but she would not trade it for the world.

She loved her two children more than anything. Peppa had a bit of a mutation causing her to have 4 eyes but Mama Pig wouldn’t give her up, still.

She loved to see the look in their eyes every time she killed a little cock roach, it was as if she had hanged the moon into the night sky.

Despite her loving nature towards her kids, she remembered a time before.

She and daddy pig had just met. He wore a wedding ring on his finger despite never being engaged.

They were only 17, Mama pig was a cheer leader for the team that Daddy pig had played on.

Every time after a game, they would get drinks, nothing drastic, just... Drinks.

Until it wasn’t. They were about 20 when it became something..more.

Mama pig was attending community college while Daddy pig was studying to become an architect.

They met up, just to kill some time with a friend.

And... Well..... Mama Pig couldn’t resist taking off her long orange dress for once. She revealed her beautiful body to daddy pig and he revealed his.

Passion and pleasure was all that was felt that night, followed by a nice, warm sensation of them hugging eachother, laying in the same bed.

Long gone were the days when Mommy pig was enough to satisfy daddy pig, though.

He threw himself into his work and even when he didn’t, he’d prefer to spend time with... other people.

Mommy pig would not judge, after all, her husband was a busy man.

It was not until he had not worn his wedding ring for three days straight that he had gotten just a twinge of worry.

Surely, he was loyal. Mommy pig just wanted to make sure is all.

So, while Daddy pig slept up in the room above, she came closer to him. She knew the spots where daddy pig liked to get his love marks, so she checked it.

His chest was full of bites. Lip stick smudges made his-usually pink chest- become a bright red.

Mother Pig wanted to be enraged, surprised. But she was simply, sad. Sad that she had not been a better wife. Sad that she would have to tear the family apart.

Well, that is, unless she just.. ignored it.....

And that’s what she did... for a few weeks...

But, well, since she knew, she started becoming more aware of the ‘signs.’

Oh, how it hurt her every time that Daddy pig whispered her name in his dreams.

Every time he saw him texting what he called a ‘friend’, she knew he talking to another girl.

Despite what Mommy pig thought, everyone else was not quite oblivious. Her gal pals noticed her slightly less cheerful attitude, trying to be kinder to her by giving her gifts and taking her out to cafes and restaurants.

Ms. Sheep was especially accommodating, having had a divorce herself not too long ago, she could tell exactly what was keeping her friend down. She just didn’t want to meddle, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to cheer Martha up. She even styled her hair, having become a barber to try and support her daughter after the big break up.

Her friends aren’t the only ones who noticed. Her parents were mostly oblivious but her children and nieces knew something was up.

Peppa told Chloe about how she thought her mom was acting strange. Chloe told her that her mom used to tell her ‘if your man’s acting strange, he best have a good reason or else he cheating!’

Peppa pig tried to shield George from this awful secret but George was able to figure it out soon enough.

They needed to figure out a way to let Their mom know what was happening. They suspected she already knew, the thing they needed to do was wreck their father’s dumb fucking ass-

“What’s a fuck?” George asked, sad from talking about their parent’s little ‘issue.’

Peppa gave a sad giggle, telling him not to worry about it.

She was going to try and steal daddy pig’s phone and find just what was going on and who their dad was seeing.

After a successful mission, what they found shocked them to their very core.

About a dozen messages to some dumb zebra, calling her his ‘striped sugar baby’ and ‘lover.’ Like he wasn’t married!

Actually- Peppa realized she knew this woman. And this woman knew her dad. And she knew that he was married!

She was pissed.

She called for George and arranged a plan.

Peppa would tell her mom that she wanted to hang out with Zoe, meanwhile George would ask to play at the park so Their mom would be out of the house.

The day struck. The plan was getting set into action.

When mama pig left and it was just Zoe, her, Daniel Pig, and Mrs. Zebra, she was ready to unveil the secrets.

She told Zoe about what was going on, Zoe started crying but agreed to help Peppa in their plot.

They opened up the door to see that their so-called ‘parents’ were fucking FLIRTING.

“What the fuck!?” They both shouted, as their parents started making excuses and telling them they shouldn’t be upstairs.

Tears stained Peppa’s eyes. She didn’t realized just how much this would hurt.

Her beautiful red dress had tears drops them, the sleeves of Zoe’s purple one having snot covering it.

Peppa snapped at that moment, shutting both of the adults up.

“HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO MY MOTHER!? TO ME!? TO GEORGE AND ZOE!? “

“TO THE TWINS?!” The small zebra added with a glare at her mother.

The two continued on their tirade, even after Daddy pig had ‘apologized’ and Zoe’s mother started crying.

If anything, that was practically wood to the hell fires of rage that they had building up in them.

...Until Mommy pig came home and heard the shouting.

It like her entire existence slowed and her heart shattered.

Oh, how could she do this to her poor daughter. How could she do this to George.

Most importantly, how could she do this to herself?

She realized something. She needed to grow a backbone. She needed to stand up and walk away from this toxic relationship!

She was a fucking coder and earned more than enough to take care of herself and her children!

She was going to give this pig a piece of her mind and he was going to have to fucking face the truth. That she is not some fucking carpet he can just walk all over and use.

She opened the door to the room where Mrs. Zebra and her hus- no. That fucking man-child was.

She wasn’t going to scream. She just took off her wedding ring and told him.

“I want a divorce.” Before looking away and hugging her children.

As they stomped out the house, they called Mommy sheep. They wanted to crash at her place for a bit and she let them.

George was playing pretend with Peppa and her best friend Susie while Mommy pig told Ms. sheep what happened.

As she finished her story, Mommy sheep blushed a bit. She looked conflicted but slowly whispered her confession.

A confession of love.

Mommy pig loved her back... It’s just that- she wasn’t ready!

That’s what she told Mommy sheep. She looked a bit embarrassed but said that she understood.

Mommy sheep, her being okay with Mommy pig’s boundaries... It made her have a small smile on her face.

Maybe she was just a little bit more ready than she thought she was :)

I know who you fucking are and this hurts but good job (redacted) im proud of you

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dancinglifeboat · 4 years ago

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Sign Language Coder Bfs Fanfic Part 2

Title: Sign me Your Love (which is what I’ll be signing it from now on!)

Pairing: Coder Boyfriends! (Leif x Tobin)

Post Canon (But max wasn’t fired in this fic bc I make my own rules)

Chapter 1:

https://dancinglifeboat.tumblr.com/post/622574506020601856/sign-language-coder-boyfriends-fanfic

Chapter 2/?

The One in Which Abigail and Tobin Run the Office Gossip Mill

5 days to launch

Fast forward a few months and Leif thought he was ready. He had been steadily ignoring what he could of Tobin’s signing so that he could fully understand instead of picking up bits and pieces. The launch of the Chirp was at the end of this week, meaning when he dropped that bomb that he now knew sign language after a week of Tobin thinking everything he had signed was beyond Leif’s understanding at the launch party, it would be a very satisfying double victory.

Leif left the apartment earlier than Tobin did; as usual. He spent the bus ride to work only half-listening to his Dracula Audiobook. (He had it close to memorized at this point anyway) He got off at his usual stop, near his and Tobin’s favourite coffee shop. They had discovered that Max and Zoey frequented that same one; but they were easily able to avoid them. Neither Zoey nor Max were blessed with the “Morning Person” gift that Leif and Tobin had. Plus he had overheard them talking about scouting out a new place- so he assumed that he wouldn’t have to worry about running into them. He gave the barista Autumn his and Tobin’s usual order, who seemed cheerier than usual as she wrote on his cup in swirly writing. He didn’t ask- but if he had he would have found out that the reason was that she had gone stargazing the night before with her new boyfriend, who would be picking her up after her shift to go out to lunch with and meet her parents. The service was quick, as usual, and soon he was out the door and in the elevator at Sparkpoint. He dropped off the coffee at Tobin’s desk, who in favour chucked a yogurt at him, assuming (correctly) that Leif had once again forgotten to eat breakfast this morning. Leif lowered his desk from the standing position to a height more suitable for sitting and pulled out his swivel chair before snatching a spoon from the fruit bar and starting into both the yogurt (it was strawberry, one of his favourites) and one of the many last-minute coding issues with the chirp.

A few hours later, Leif swiveled in his chair in time to see Abigail return from her lunch break. He bit back a small grin as he watched her throw a sneaky glance at Tobin’s desk before whipping out a paper airplane and throwing it at him while Zoe wasn’t watching. Leif almost rolled his eyes when it bounced off Tobin’s head, who started and nearly dropped his fidget spinner before spinning to face Abigail with an equally mischievous looking face. Leif had to question if they really thought they were being or if they were just messing around for the fun of it.

Leif had been keeping an eye on Tobin all morning- and it had yet to yield much he didn’t know. Other than that Tobin knew far too many vine references than what was normal. And that any insults he did sign were far more juvenile and kind than he let on. Leif didn’t know why he found that surprising- Tobin was both the most intelligent and most stupid person Leif had ever met, but he wasn’t mean, at least not intentionally. So far “Mrs. Frizzle” was the most insulting thing he had signed that day, and admittedly Zoey’s sweater had been a bit...unorthodox that day.

But this had been what he had been waiting for, Tobin and Abigail's daily gossip session. They had hit it off when Abigail first came to visit- and now that Abigail was interning at Sparkpoint and they were seeing each other on a near daily basis, they had more or less become the prank duo of the floor. (Rip to all of Zoey’s pens) Luckily, as Tobins “BFF” Leif rarely found himself on the pranking side of their escapades. At least that was the excuse Tobin gave; Leif suspected it was because he, as Tobin’s roommate, had a great vantage point for revenge pranking.

Leif finished a line of code before subtly settling himself in to watch, if all went well, he could get some excellent blackmail material out of this.

-------------------------------perspective change *lightning noises*------------------------------------------

Tobin started off by melodramatically holding up the offending airplane;

“Lose something?” He dunked it into his trashcan and paused for effect before continuing, “I mean of course, something other than your fashion sense?” He jokingly raised a judgemental eyebrow,

“Says the one wearing his e-girl wannabe hoodie for the third time this week” She snarked right back, grinning as Tobin mimicked gasping in mock offense before also breaking into a smile. Greetings out of the way, she moved on. “Any updates?” Tobin rolled his eyes,

“Unfortunately Zoey is still oblivious as ever; she needs to step it up- I’ve got 10 bucks on them getting together before the launch” Abigail pulled a candy bar out of her purse and took a bite out of it.

“And Max? Any progress on his end?”

“He used a truly awful pickup line on her this morning, and that’s Me saying that. Luckily for his dignity and unluckily for my 10 bucks she didn’t even seem to notice.”

“Good Grief”

“I know! They’re so oblivious! At this point I might have to intervene!”

“Please do, it would be hilarious to see you butcher being match-maker.” She signed, biting off another chunk of the candy bar, pointedly ignoring the playful glare being sent her way. “Besides, it’s not like you have much room to talk, huh Mr. Floofy Hair?”

“ONCE, I called him that once! And we are not having this conversation again!”

“Why not? I for one think it’s adorable that you like him. And isn’t it kinda the queer agenda? Pining for your best friend?”

“Bold of you to assume I would adhere to any agenda- queer or not!”

“Yet here we are.” She signed, smirking.

“You are vexatious as they come Ms. Pugnat”

“And you aren’t?”

“Fair enough, and how was I not supposed to fall for him? Have you seen him? He’s flipping adorable!”

“None of the rest of us have.”

“You all have bad taste.”

“Sure Tobin.” She rolled her eyes, biting the last chunk off of the candy bar and crumpling up the wrapper. “But do let me know when you finally make a move, I have twenty bucks on you two.”

#coderboyfriends #I will not be able to update next week as Ill be out of service but will do my best to get on schedule after that!#Tumblr got rid of a lot of my italics and stuff :(#tobin x leif #Leif x Tobin #Zep #Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist #Hope you like it!#:D

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samblogz · 6 years ago

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GATE 2019 Preparation and Experience

Having scored AIR 56 in GATE 2019, a lot of people asked me how I prepared for GATE so this is the reason why I decided to write this post. I have explained in great detail the work I did. I have also discussed the problems I faced and how I solved these problems. Everyone will make mistakes and everyone will have some unique problems. But figuring out the solutions to these problems is part of the preparation. So don't give up and keep on working.

The two most important resources for me were GateOverflow and RavindraBabu Ravula (RVB). I am very thankful to both of them.

During my third or fourth semester, I learned about RVB through my friends while I was preparing for a test. I got to know about GATE through him (specifically through this video - "After BTech, MS or MTech or MBA or a job??"). I started thinking about the long term options I had and GATE seemed like a good option.

Growing up I never studied for getting good grades. I always studied to learn. While studying anything I just had one goal - To understand the concept clearly enough so that I could at least explain the concept to anyone. I always got good grades but I missed something, the feeling one gets while working hard. I never thought I gave anything my 100 percent. My thoughts were very nihilistic.

I thought about the 10,000-hour rule and to be a master I had to dedicate years. I knew I needed to focus, I needed to learn working hard and for that I needed to practice sitting for long hours. So in my fifth semester, I started studying for lengthy periods of time. Even if I was not studying I would sit on the chair and table in my hostel room. I watched movies sitting on the chair. No sitting on beds for me since. I used bed only for sleeping. After one year I was more comfortable sitting on the chair than anywhere else. I bought RVB's video package for GATE and started making notes. It was a slow process. I made most of my notes in my third year besides a few subjects.

My college required me to have an internship for 8th semester, otherwise, I would have to stay in the college and do a project under some professor. In 7th semester, companies came to my college. I knew I studied my subjects well and was decent coder so I didn't work on the technical skills. I continued working for GATE and was making notes even at this time. To get a job offer or an internship I worked on quantitative aptitude, group discussion and my interview skills. I was pretty confident I would get an offer and I needed the offer just so I could decide after 8th semester what I wanted to do, either to pursue GATE or to continue with the job. I knew my preparation wasn't enough to crack GATE that year i.e. GATE 2018. For me cracking GATE meant to get into IISc or IIT-B, anything other than that would be failing. I got an internship at a start-up called 'HealthKart' which is based in Gurgaon.

I continued studying for GATE before I got to Gurgaon but once I was there I didn't have time to study. I hadn't attempted any mock test till then nor did I solve any previous year GATE question but I still attempted GATE 2018 and got a rank of around 6,000. I knew I could do better. I started thinking about what I should do going forward. I thought about what I would like my career to be and what options can I pursue. Thinking about these things proved very productive for me. As I would take a year to prepare for GATE, I knew I would get bored at some point of time and I would need something to continue pushing forward. Any GATE aspirant or any student who is preparing for an exam should have a very clear goal.

I was doing great at my internship and I was sure to get a job offer. But 2 or 3 years down the line, I knew I would need some higher qualification. I decided I wanted to crack GATE. But cracking GATE wasn't my only objective, I wanted to learn how to focus and I wanted to do it for a year. Failing at GATE wouldn't be a problem if only I could learn how to focus.

I left the internship around 20th June 2018 and headed to my home in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh). I completed notes for some subjects - Database Management System, Digital Logic and Design, Computer Network, Computer Organization and Architecture. This took me around two months.

After that, I started practicing previous year questions. Before starting with the previous year questions I would study a subject once from my notes, this took me 2-3 days. My notes were very detailed. Then I started solving the questions. Starting out, this was very tough for me. I never prepared seriously for JEE so I had no experience preparing for a competitive exam.

After I read the subject, I would think how difficult would it be to solve these questions. I would be able to solve 50% of the questions correctly. For the remaining questions either I wouldn't understand a question or I would do some silly mistake or I would forget the information needed to solve the question. Another unusual thing happened, starting out I thought that in one sitting I should easily be able to solve 150 questions. But in reality, I could do only 30 questions in the whole day.

When I was not able to solve questions that was failure for me and I didn't know how to deal with failure. With each question I failed to solve was a slap on my face. I was close to giving up.

Then something nice happened. I was solving questions from a book which was compiled by MadeEasy. In this book, the questions were first sorted according to the subject and then according to the topic. For each question, the answer was given along with an explanation. Sometimes I wouldn't understand the explanation or sometimes I wouldn't agree with the given answer. I would search the question on Google and would check various answers. This is the time I discovered GateOverflow. I would see a great community where people would solve the question using multiple approaches. If I had some doubt with the given answer, I saw the comments on that answer and I would find someone who had the same doubt, I would read other users' response and this would clear my doubts. If my doubt wasn't already asked, I would raise a question and eventually someone would resolve my query.

A lot of answers in this MadeEasy books were incorrect. I thought who are the guys who answered these questions. They are definitely the teachers at MadeEasy. They have taught these subjects for years but still they made so many mistakes, so it is very trivial that I too will make mistakes. I knew if I was going to continue solving these questions I will meet failure daily and it is good to make mistakes because if I made mistakes now I won't make these mistakes in exam. From then on, each day I would wake up ready to fail and at the end of each day I tire myself wrestling with failure. Now failure was a very good friend of mine. Once I was ready to accept failure, the number of questions I solved increased over time. (By the way, if someone from MadeEasy wants to correct the wrong solutions, then I have marked all the questions with incorrect answers in their collection of previous year questions.)

I developed the following system to solve questions and clear my concepts. I would solve the questions on one topic, then I would mark them right or wrong according to the given answers. Then I would read the questions I solved once again, if I had some doubt in the question or if my answer was incorrect, I would search the question on 'GATE Overflow' (or 'GeeksForGeeks' in some cases) and would clear my doubts. This went on till the beginning of November 2018.

I read somewhere that to get AIR-1 in GATE one should solve previous year questions two times at least, but I didn't have time for that so I tried to absorb the concepts completely the first time.

While solving questions during this time I also used to revise subjects. Whenever I got bored with solving the questions in one subject, I would start revising some other subject. I did this so as not to waste time. When we are bored with something, we take longer to perform that task. Then later after I finished the other subject's or topic's revision, I would get back to the previous subject. I revised according to the strategy given by RVB ("How to revise and remember the topics for long!!"). After I finished solving previous year questions I would still need a day to revise the whole subject, earlier I thought this time would reduce to 2-3 hours but it didn't. This would be a problem according to my plan. I had planned that in January when I will be taking full-length test I would revise one or two subjects each day. Since I was taking a day or a day and a half to revise a subject completely, this plan won't work. Then again something nice happened.

One night I was sleepless. In the last 4 days I had completed the subject revision of Algorithms, C & Data Structures and Theory of Computation. And in these 4 days I was worried that I may not have the time to revise these subjects once again as I hadn't attempted any topic test, subject test, multi-subject test and full-length test and I had to solve them too. So I worked extra slowly trying to stuff these concepts in my mind. Remembering things isn't my strong suit and the tension that I won't be able to revise kept me from sleeping that night. I had an idea. I had tried studied these subjects very carefully this time, observing the arrangement of topics within my notes. If I could remember the name of the topic and its order, then I would able to remember the things I learned from the notes. So I did a mental revision. It took me two hours. But in these two hours while laying on my bed I revised 3 subjects completely and the types of questions asked from each topic. While doing this mental revision I identified the topics which I had learned completely and the topics where I was missing something.

I knew I was onto something. I hadn't prepared any short notes and I didn't have the time to prepare short notes. I decided to prepare short notes but in my way. For each subject, I started with a single topic. I would read the topic, if I knew everything in the topic I would just write the topic name in one line. If I knew I couldn't remember something then in-short I would write contents of this topic or just create a diagram to capture this concept completely. I did this for all my subjects and this took me one and a half months approximately.

Preparing for Mathematics was a different game altogether. I knew I didn't have grasp over all the concepts needed to solve the questions. I knew I didn't have the time to do it in the way I wanted. And I was doubtful whether I would be able to remember these concepts. Scoring in Mathematics was never difficult for me but when I prepared for Mathematics earlier it was in a very different fashion. This is the kind of problem most students face in India. I knew I had to handle this differently starting now. I wanted to pursue Machine Learning (ML) during my M.Tech and for those of you who don't know ML is a dwarf which stands on the shoulders Mathematics and modeling. I knew I had start visualizing Mathematics as I will need it in the future and I will need it to understand and solve questions faster in GATE.

I was scared what kind of questions will I get in Calculus and how will I be able to remember all the formulae in it. Then I did some research, talked to a few friends in other departments. I found out that in GATE CSE the focus wasn't much on difficult questions in Calculus. It focused more on discrete mathematics - set theory, linear algebra, probability - and somewhat on graph theory. To clear my concepts I learned some things from Khan Academy. For Mathematical Logic, Combinatorics and Probability I saw the complete playlist from PacketPrep on Youtube. For combinatorics, TrevTutor helped me. All this was in addition to RVB content.

I joined the GATExcel test series by RVB. I started giving topical tests around 13th November 2018. I had to make up for less time. I gave multiple tests a day. After topical tests and some other tests, I made short notes that I described earlier. During my preparation I didn't solve any question from GATE 2018, so after I was done preparing I took GATE 2018 full-length test. I performed terribly. That is when I realized I had to start giving full-length tests. I needed to learn managing time in the paper. Before this I was just postponing the full-length tests. So I started giving full-length tests around 20th January 2019. Apart from RVB's tests, I also gave full-length tests by mentors on GateOverflow. With each test, I could feel the improvement.

Eventually, I took GATE 2019. Even on the day of exam I made a mistake. I had problem understanding a NAT question so I left it for the end. In the last two minutes I got back to the question, understood it and did the calculation. Only one minute was remaining now. I entered the value but I thought of rechecking the answer, I rechecked the calculation and found that my answer was correct. By now the time was over and I hadn't saved the answer. I realized this only when at the end of the examination I saw 7 questions were unanswered.

RVB is an amazing teacher and his course is great. When you will solve questions you will find that some topics are not covered by him and you will have to work on it yourself. Well that is because these questions have accumulated over a long period of time and the syllabus kept on changing. Also his test series has a good level of difficulty. While taking the tests I found some questions were erroneous. Any test series you take will have some questions with incorrect answers. But RVB's team was a great help, they helped clarify my doubts or cleared their errors. I don't know if any other coaching provides this kind of support.

'GATE Overflow' was also a tremendous help. CS students are lucky that we have such a great resource. They also have great tests. I recommend buying the question bank compiled by them. It is very good. 'GeeksForGeeks' is another great resource. The articles or short notes provided by them were a great help.

#ravindrababu ravula #GateOverflow #gate #gate 2019 #gate preparation #gate experience #gate result #made easy #ace academy #gate success #gate coaching #computer science #computer science and engineering #gate cs #cs

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fly-pow-bye · 6 years ago

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Lights Out!”

Written by: Haley Mancini, Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: John West, Angela Zhang

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

It’s an uphill battle, in more ways than one might expect.

We're at the beginning of the episode, and we already get our peek at this episode's special guest. That's right, it's that guy that looks like Guy Fieri wearing a toupee, checking out that jetpack to Flavortown. No, just kidding, it's actually the giant wacky inflatable tube man, making his return appearance from Man Up! That was the very first episode I ever reviewed, and it gives me good memories. I remember when I actually thought this show was going to be okay, and then I watched it!

So what are all these people gathered around for? It's the Townsville Town-Topia Fair, "the town of the future", where people of all countries get to show off their inventions!

One of the exhibits is a Japanese cat robot which gets the mechanical heart of Schedulebot. He appears exactly one other time, and they completely forgot about him and his love. I am sure we are all crestfallen at how we avoided seeing yet another character in this reboot get a love interest for a sake of a love interest.

Not forgotten is a running gag where Sitcom Dad decided to go on the roller coaster that consists only of an infinitely tall lift hill. It kind of explains by itself why it is useless, both as an invention and as a joke. It just builds up and builds up, and it has no real payoff. I might as well call all of the terrible running gags uphill roller coasters.

But enough joking around, this episode main attraction is everyone's favorite DeviantART OC, Blisstina Insert-Fifty-Other-Names Utonium, or Bliss for short! She's here to show off an invention from the Universal Protection Bureau: the Buggly! Just put it on your ear, or the place where an ear is supposed to be, ask it for anything, and it will magically generate it for you.

At first, I was thinking it was called the Buttly, as it's basically a butler one wears on their ear, but I appreciate that calling it Buggly prevents any unnecessary butt jokes. Isn't that right, Buttercup?

Buttercup Wheelz: No, WHEELZ! Wheelz with a z! I'm reinventing myself for the international stage!

Speaking of unnecessary jokes involving something that has the word "butt" in it, Buttercup wants to be called Wheelz. Why? I dunno. I wish I could say it disappears after one time like Schedulebot, but sorry, it lasts for most of the episode. Needless to say, this is uphill roller coaster #2.

Blossom especially loves this device, because the thought of generating pizza from thin air can give her more time to over-analyze everything she says! That's what she says, just roll with it.

In comes Jared Shapiro, whose "hi" causes her to over-analyze about how she should have went further than just saying "hi" back! This comes up a few times after this, so this is uphill roller coaster #3. Thankfully, I'm not talking about Jared, as he disappears after this scene.

His only role in the episode, and vast majority of his appearances, is to show off how much Blossom loves him. I'm sad they didn't decide to change his character to the dork he was in Phantasm Chasm. It would have been a slight improvement.

As the Buggly is able to generate more Bugglys for everyone to share, the Puffs have more fun with it. Bubbles is busy tinkering with it, because, surprise, this is a coder Bubbles episode, too! As for Blossom, she makes a kale smoothie from Penguin Pete's just by asking the Buggly to make one for her.

Bubbles: Why didn't we just go to Penguin Pete's? It's right here!

For starters, Penguin Pete's costs money, and this thing can make kale smoothies for free! I was expecting a twist where the Buggly was actually stealing stuff from the nearest vicinity. However, that crime would be far more fitting for Discount Jojo than the villain of this episode.

In fact, Discount is too busy getting pied in the face for daring to think Wheelz is a terrible name. Also, the Buggly can also be used to give Buttercup Wheelz another accessory for a toy line that will definitely never exist at this point.

The real villain will be revealed right now, as a sudden shockwave knocks down the Reboot Puffs. Even Bliss gets knocked out by this. Clearly, something must be going on. I mean, Bliss getting knocked out?

Also, the power went out, and worst of all, the Bugglys stop giving everyone free stuff. That's the real problem here! The Powerpuff Girls turn to Bliss to ask her what happened, and she reveals that it's all her fault.

She teleports away and appears on every TV in the TV repair shop, laughing maniacally. It was her, Blossom, it was her all along!

And Silico decides to abort the ruse immediately and show himself. I guess even he thought the "evil doppelganger" plot was too cliche. And yes, Silico just happened to know everything about Bliss, including the name of her intergalactic protection agency. At least I could say being able to take the form of anyone isn't unheard of for Silico; the cliffhanger of the last episode featuring him had him turn into Sitcom Dad. Having him become Bliss is an upgrade, I would say.

He also reveals that the Bugglys were not from space, but they were invented by him. Along with being able to create anything out of nothing, he programmed in another feature on the Bugglys.

Specifically, the ability to reprogram everyone's brains to hate the Powerpuff Girls! But wait, one might ask if they really cared that much, weren't the Powerpuff Girls wearing these Bugglys too? Is this another situation where the Powerpuff Girls are immune to mind control because the plot wouldn't work otherwise? No, because Silico says that he disabled their Bugglys, but all the other ones are under his control. He probably could have reprogrammed them to play dead, but plot.

They even get attacked by their various weapons, like a giant crayon bazooka from Ms. Keane, and a croissant grenade from a random French guy, all coming from their Bugglys. Now I realize another reason why they decided not to call it the Buttly. Bubbles tells her sisters that she wishes the Professor were here.

Yeah, that uphill roller coaster sure wasn't shoved in here, I completely lie. What could the Professor do even if he wasn't on this roller coaster? After flying away from the people of Townsville, they run into a familiar face.

The real Bliss shows up. There is one line that explains that she came to Earth for Town-Topia, and presumably saw all the carnage, so it's not entirely unexplained. The Puffs immediately assume it's just Silico doing another trap, but Bliss proves that it's her by stopping them with her telekinesis. Yes, her defining trait, being able to stop the other Powerpuff Girls. A trait that seems to shared by Silico, but that doesn't seem to cross their mind.

Bliss figures that Silico wouldn't be anywhere without power. Yes, Bliss happens to know that Silico exists. Maybe they talked about him during another webcam chat where Bliss talked about how she moved a planet just by not thinking too hard about it. Sadly, that's not much of an exaggeration.

But, oh no, these reprogrammed townspeople are in the way, ready to sock them with...well, anything. I'm sure you can probably throw a sponge at them, and they would drop dead.

They could fight all of the people they loved, something they did in the original, but there's also the possibility that Bliss can just use her ability to teleport right into this building. Which they actually do. Only a second later, they get hit by a laser beam.

Turns out, this was indeed where Silico was hanging out, but, being the excellent planner who is always two steps ahead, he planned for Bliss to teleport inside! This leads to the one fight scene worth talking about.

See, this fight is actually very interesting, as it pits the girls' powers against Silico's ability to generate anything he could think of. He uses a cannon, and Blossom makes a net aura to catch the cannonballs. Bliss then lifts the cannonballs up and throws them using telekinesis. He then makes a giant, and says "you're out". Silico is rather jokey here; reminds me of one of the better parts of The Trouble With Bubbles.

Wheelz, actually, they kind of forgot about that uphill roller coaster by then, tries to fly right to him and bust his lights out, but he generates a giant brick wall. Silly Silico, he should have learned from the theme song why that shouldn't work. It goes like this:

Breaking all their bones

When they hit a wall

They gon' quit

(Who's got the power? They certainly don't!)

That might be a misquote, but that might as well be how it goes. However, this does distract Silico, as Blossom and Bliss do a team up plan to strike Silico when he's not thinking about defending himself. With the combined minds of the Game Breaker and the smartest Powerpuff Girl unless she has to do math or coding...

...they just punch him in the face. Honestly, I don't mind this at all. At least I can say they're using the abilities they had before this reboot, too.

I got to say, it's also good to see that this is a fight scene where Bliss just fights alongside the existing Puffs. No special Powerpuff Sisterhood, no Bliss just taking care of everything by herself, just good old fashioned teamwork. This is one of the better fight scenes in the reboot overall. This is not saying much, but it's something.

Bubbles sneaks up on Silico and puts her reprogrammed Buggly on him, and you can watch the episode to find out what happens next. Honestly, I already spoiled enough when I mentioned Silico is in this. I will say it's an ending similar to that one episode of Codename: Kids Next Door, and it doesn't fit the "gives you anything you want" device. However, neither does reprogramming people's brains.

Maybe they might have been aware that this could be his final appearance, as, unlike all but one of his episodes, this episode doesn't end with a cliffhanger. It's a fitting end for someone who was angry at little girls for breaking his toys. What does it end with?

Rest in peace, Sitcom Dad. You were such a Sitcom Dad. No, it's just uphill roller coaster #1, which happened to be the uphill roller coaster.

Does the title fit?

The lights going out seem to be more of a side thing than anything else.

How does it stack up?

There are some pretty bad running gags that take up far too much time. If they took out those, this could easily be a top ten episode for me. As it stands, it's merely only good by reboot standards. The fight scene is interesting, Silico actually manages to get some good lines in here and is not a total dingus, and it manages to have Bliss be useful without making her overpowered. A decent episode all around.

Next, finally, Barry gets his own episode! It could be just what I always wanted, as the monkey's paw bends one of its fingers.

← Brain Freeze ☆ Bucketboy! →

#fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #fpb reviews #cartoon network

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feminismisafraud · 6 years ago

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Moral Outrage As A Means to Influence Corporate Policy

I just read an article on The Verge titled ARENANET FIRINGS CAST A CHILLING SHADOW ACROSS THE GAME INDUSTRY‘ You’re just waiting for the wrong tweet to end your life now’.

Apparently, some customers (in the vein of Gamergate trolls) sick of gender politics in gaming, used a tweet they deemed offensive to get a female developer fired at a company called ArenaNet. ArenaNet’s management was more concerned with the devisive opinions of its trollish customers than the unpopular opinion of its employee.

The article is incensed by this, but isn’t this the exact same reason Google fired James Damore, when he wrote an anti-woman blog which the leftist gender warriors cheered about?

A tumbler user named @callingmyangel just messaged me the following question: Question: why do you hate feminism so much?

My answer is because of situations like the above. The tagline of this blog is:

Feminism is a fraud. To justify the fraud requires hypocrisy. To enforce the hypocrisy that justifies the fraud requires intimidation. Once you take an open minded, critical eye to the movement you see this is true. If you deny it you are either disingenuous, delusional or mentally deficient. It's your choice, but you have to choose.

Feminists have consistently used moral outrage tactics to intimidate others into following their ethos. If you voice an opinion other than ours we will slander you as sexist and get you fired. When the nuts on the other end of the continuum use the exact same tactics, feminists hypocritically denounce it.

Either “Moral Outrage As A Means to Influence Corporate Policy” is wrong or it isn’t. If it isn’t wrong, don’t bitch when others use your tactics against you. If it is wrong, don’t use it in the first place. Feminists are hypocrites who want to have it both ways; free to use outrage to influence corporations and get people fired themselves, while simultaneously be outraged when it is done to them.

A female coder named Jennifer Scheurle is quoted as follows:

Scheurle tells The Verge that incidents like this demonstrate why “large corporations letting their communities dictate and influence how to treat their employees is a very dangerous approach and obviously a slippery slope.” She adds that “this behavior has painted a target on all of our backs” and that it gives harassers “an angle to target us knowing that we won’t receive protection from our employers. Wanted or not, it makes us vulnerable and ultimately leads to many of us rather staying silent because we won’t know if an angry internet mob demanding our heads will be enough for us to lose our jobs and ultimately our livelihood.”

James Damore is nodding his head right now and agrees with Ms. Scheurle’s every word in that statement. So do I.

That feminists (and Ms. Scheurle herself) are completely oblivious to their hypocrisy, or more accurately don’t care and view it as their right and no one else’s, is bad. That the movement has normalized intimidation tactics like the above as a path to success is worse.

That’s why I hate feminism.

#feminism #anti feminism #arenanet #james damore #jessica price #feminist hypocrisy #jennifer scheurle

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therorrimsystem · 6 years ago

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There should be a chatting app/social network only for a persons internal system. (And other software/app ideas for DID/osdd/multiple systems and software that already does work for us)

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some kind of app or program that allowed alters to talk to each other, where they could all have their own profiles, avatars, usernames, and status updates and dms? It would be so useful to have something like that . Especially when it comes to communicating with alters you might not have a lot of co-consciousness with and for having everything being documented with memory being such a big issue for us.

I’m trying to learn basic programming, ( java, and ms visual basic ) to try to make something like this. I was even messing around with autotype in word (well actually openoffice) thinking I could have shortcuts for alters with an avatar and their name and could easily insert themselves whenever they wanted to talk. But I’m not sure how I can make it to where they can also save their own font/size/color profies for themselves and it’s pretty complicated. Maybe I could learn more about how macros work and that would be easier than coding a whole program?

After a lot of researching I was able to find an old project on github that had a local “chat room simulator” an it was very interesting but also very simple. I tried looking at the code hoping I could learn something from it but my knowledge in coding is still very novice.

And mostly the apps we could find that had to do with “chat simulator” were apps that were for making “fake text conversations”. The best we could find was one called “whatsfake” and it’s main problem is that it’s difficult to switch between people quickly so it’s easy for an alter to lose their train of thought by the time they get to select themselves from the conversation, (as obviously the app wasn’t created for this idea or for long conversations). “texting chat story maker” is really good if you are only looking for a chatting app for 2 alters as it’s incredibly functional and you only have to click your name on the top to take turns typing.

I wrote to a few of these apps sending in feature requests like easier switching between characters, or adding more people to the conversation, although I don’t expect much to hear back but it can’t hurt to try!

None of those apps have the full functionality I would want but maybe they are good starting points in learning the programming I would need. I decomplied the “fakechatstory” app to see if I could learn to decipher it eventually and write something smilar that allows for more people to type in a conversation easily.

-------------

I also have a lot of ideas for things that could go together in a software suite that would be helpful to systems with DID. There needs to be a lot more apps and resources specifically created for us and our unique needs. If anyone has any ideas or examples of apps or programs that already exist specifically for DID/Osdd systems or aren’t for that but you really like to use for yourselves we would be really interested in hearing about it.

Another idea we had was like a wikipedia situation where alters who like to take notes and keep track of the others could have a place to more easily organize them and link around to other pages when necessary. Maybe even a place to write about specific events that have happened in their life that were significant to them. And of course others in the system could edit and help just like real wikipedia and the site/program would be entirely private and password protected ideally. Maybe this wikipedia can also be connected to the chat profiles idea so alters who want to edit can select themselves before they do etc.

A more lighthearted idea would be a coloring/drawing app especially made for littles in a system. Where you could have multiple coloring pages up at once (and maybe it ties into the same profile/avatar system as the other idea) where they can each save their favorite pages and color palletes, and they could all color roughly at the same time. (even the bigger parts could join in if they want) I know it’s a big problem in our system that several littles will want to color the same page and won’t be able to agree on which colors to make things so it would be cool just to have duplicates side by side.

Another idea would be to have a visual system mapping software (again tied into the profiles already created in the other ideas) It would make it easier to make a system graph if you don’t like drawing it out on paper. You could just add a new alter profile whenever and just click on one you already have to add it to the map. It would also have other visual aids maybe like having a different color highlight around their picture for certain alter jobs (persecutor, protector, manager etc) And different types of lines (dashed, straight, double) to make connections between alters.

I would also want some kind of character creator like the sims where you can create the world and the people in it, but they would be more like dolls you could drag and pose around in the scenes you created (like recreating your inner world for example). It would just be simply for visualizing so it wouldn’t have to have all of the other extra things the games do so it would take up less space on the computer, less resources, load faster etc.

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Some apps our system like to use regularly that help us even though they weren’t made specifically for DID:

Antistress

It’s an app with several little toys that our littles love to play with if they come out in a situation like in public where they are stressed but aren’t able to go home to play with their own toys and it really helps to calm them down and help the system to feel more grounded and safe. They are basically fidget toys (there is even a fidget spinner in it!)

Character

There’s an app on the Ipad just called “character” and we aren’t able to find it on the app store again lately. It’s an app that is useful for writers to organize their “characters” and give them names, traits, and even have a picture of them. We found it a few years ago and were using it to organize our alters all in one place.

Notepad++

It’s a notepad software that is mostly meant for programming and coding which we downloaded originally so we could practice and try to learn coding for ourselves. But then we realized how useful the tabbed feature is for several parts wanting to do different things at the same time. Although other writer softwares do this we like how simple and fast N++ is to open.

Avatar creators of course. There are so many different ones that can be found online and in apps. :)

Please share if you can think of any!

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Overall I would love to see more programs, stories, apps, and games specifically for a system sort of audience. For example “Dear Little Ones” which is a fantastic book addressed to littles.

Even for things that may seem “insignificant”. I know our whole lives we’ve been taught to think that we don’t deserve better or that we just have to “tough it out” and that our needs are trivial. But I really think that each and every one of our individual needs are important and I think it would be so important if more was being done to address those needs to make our lives just that little bit earlier. If anyone wants to steal any of my ideas feel absolutely free to do whatever you like with them. My only request is that you share the finished product with me if you do and maybe give me a little credit ;P.

And if anyone's interested maybe we could try to collab sometime? Or possibly make some sort of facebook group for DID artists, coders, and creators in general, who want to get together to try to make life easier and better for systems like us! And maybe we can try writing to developers and creators and letting them know that we exist, and expressing interest in features that could be added to software that we use everyday that would accommodate us like they do for any other accessibility issue that people might have.

#dissociative identity disorder #actuallydissociative #Multiplicity #multiple personality disorder #did #osdd #osdd1b #alters

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sycriptouk · 3 years ago

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Three Consecutive Congress Hearings Follow Crypto Crack Down https://bitcoinist.com/congress-hearings-following-biden-administration-crack-down-on-crypto-as-bitcoins-momentum-builds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=congress-hearings-following-biden-administration-crack-down-on-crypto-as-bitcoins-momentum-builds

Just this past Tuesday, the United States Congress held three simultaneous hearings regarding the uses of crypto and its potential use in existing financial institutions. Though recently the Biden Administration has scrutinized the use of digital assets on the basis of tax evasion, Bitcoin steadily climbs with the hopes of a close above $40K.

Led by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, three witness stepped on to the house floor to discuss the following question posed by the committee, “Cryptocurrencies: What Are They Good For?” The three witnesses were Professor Angela Walch, Professor of Law, St. Mary’s University School of Law, Research Associate, UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies; Mr. Jerry Brito, Executive Director, Coin Center; and Ms. Marta Belcher, Chair, Filecoin Foundation.

What Did The Hearings Entail?

The hearings on Capitol Hill had their fair share moments, but a few stood out above the rest. As stated by Marta Belcher, Filecoin General Counsel and Head of Policy, the hearings were “…a little less bipartisan than [one] would have liked.” Commenting further, Belcher explains that those on the political right were thinking about “…the potential future of cryptocurrency,” and potential uses that are “…beyond what exist today.” On the other hand, those on the political left raised questions concerning U.S. monetary policies and the application of cryptocurrencies in future financial transactions.

Others, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, called for “coordinated and holistic” methods when mitigating potential risks. Continuing, Senator Warren commented, “Instead of leaving our system, our financial system at the whims of giant banks crypto puts the system at the whims of some shadowy, faceless group of super coders and miners, which doesn’t sound better to me.”

Related Reading | The Bitcoinist Macro Report: Dollar Disrupts, Gold Melts Down, & Sideways Bitcoin

Though words such as these left their mark on the floor, they were certainly not unanswered. In his opening statement, Senator Patrick J. Toomey brought light to the undeniable amount of growth taking place in the crypto market. In response to the growth seen, he remarked, “13% of Americans bought or traded cryptocurrency in the past 12 months. That’s more than half of the total percentage of Americans who invested in stocks during the same period.”

Despite differing opinions, Bitcoin has been gaining momentum and become all the more relevant as time goes on.

Crypto Continues To Rise

Bitcoin Continues To Rise As Of Last Three Weeks | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Irrespective of any scrutiny on the Senate floor it has received, Bitcoin continues to gain momentum. Though it has definitely had its setbacks as of recently (much of which is due to an Amazon spokesperson’s denial in Amazon accepting Bitcoin as a viable means of pay) it has rebounded nonetheless. According to Bloomberg, the price of Bitcoin shot up 30% in just over an hour on Monday this week.

Some, such as executive director at digital-assets hedge fund ARK36, Loukas Lagoudis, pipped in upon hearing about the surge, “It is exciting to see Bitcoin rally 10% overnight. However, investors should proceed with caution and avoid overtrading, noting that the liquidity is still relatively low as we are heading into the holiday season.”

Though Bitcoin continues to gain momentum, nothing is for certain. Upcoming regulations and hearings most definitely play crucial roles in determining the success of Bitcoin and other coins. After an unprecedented turn towards bearish tendencies, bitcoin finally appears to be on the rise again.

Featured image from iStockPhoto, Charts from TradingView.com

#IFTTT #Bitcoinist.com

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elisabettacormac · 4 years ago

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CHARLIE JANE ANDERS: I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS

I’ll have you know

“Tell me about your dreams,” Dr. Webbo says, without looking directly at El. Instead, she keeps her gaze focused on the middle distance, because El’s vitals and medical records are scrolling across her corneas.

“Boring. Weird,” El says. “A lot of shoe salesmen trying to get me to wear birdcages on my feet. I wake up feeling amazing, though.” Dr. Webbo’s private office looks just like a secluded meadow full of wildflowers.

“Hmm. It says here that you’re only on the most basic sleep package. Your dreams are keeping you young, but they’re not teaching you anything.” Dr. Webbo refocuses her view, and now she’s staring right at El. “You’re a hundred years old now—happy birthday, by the way!—so it’s more important than ever to keep learning.”

“What if I don’t want my dreams to teach me?” El says. “I still learn the old-fashioned way: by making a series of increasingly disastrous choices.”

Dr. Webbo doesn’t even laugh at El’s joke, which, let’s be honest, was only half a joke. El did try to re-skill as an interior-decor coder at age 83, right when all of the decor-scripting languages were becoming obsolete. And then there’s the matter of El’s roommate, whom we’ll get to soon enough.

“This is a quality-of-life issue.” Dr. Webbo furrows her high forehead, causing her locs to shift around. “You could live for another 25 or 30 years, and you want to make the most of the time you have.”

“Yeah. But I read online that these dream lessons are just a lot of mind control, to reprogram your behavior. That’s why they want to give them to old people, so we won’t make any trouble.”

“Don’t believe everything they say on the bubbs,” Dr. Webbo mutters. Then she shrugs. “Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“Yeah.” El takes a deep breath. “I want to do it. I want to start hormones and nano-therapy. I wanna transition from male to female. As a hundredth-birthday present to myself.”

Yes

“Are you sure? It’s a big step at your age.”

“Yeah. This is probably the first good decision I’ve made in 40 years.”

Dr. Webbo asks El some more questions, but meanwhile the doctor’s already using her left index finger to click “yes” on a bunch of boxes. El produces a hologram of her therapist, Dr. Russell, winking and giving a big thumbs-up, and Dr. Webbo only glances at it. Seems like gender transition has gotten easier and less gatekeepery since the last time El looked into it.

El always pictured the first gender-confirmation treatment being a kind of glittery mist blown into her face from a cupped palm, like fairy dust. And yeah, that’s one of the options, but there’s also a kind of body paint (starts blue, turns pink, very on-the-nose) and a lozenge you can put under your tongue.

But El wants to make a wish and snort fairy-dust, so that’s what she goes with. Head rush!

“You should start noticing the effects pretty much immediately,” Dr. Webbo says. “Your body will look and feel different, and you might have some mood swings.” She gazes at the enhanced scan view. “Meanwhile, I’ll mark on your file that you declined the dream enhancements, but they’re still going to send you some literature.”

El’s head is still swimming from the sparkly flakes, and her whole brain is doing a happy dance. Today is the first day of my life as a woman, El says to herself. I finally found myself, and it only took a lifetime.

Then she registers the thing about “literature,” and starts to argue—but stops. After all, she’s starting her second century on this planet, and she just finally took the plunge and flipped her gender. Today of all days, she ought to be gracious. “I’ll check out the literature. I promise I’ll think about it. I’ll even talk to my roommate about it.”

Dr. Webbo shakes her head. “I would avoid discussing this with Goaty, if I were you.”

El still doesn’t feel any different when she by-scrolls away from the Hyper-Endocrinthology Center—but the world looks quite transformed. Her gender marker changed in every datasink while she was finishing up her birthday checkup with Dr. Webbo, so everywhere she looks, the shops are advertising these wraps that morph from sundress to corset-dress at sunset. Cartoon characters and knights in armor call her “Ms.” or “Ladyperson” as they pass on the scroll, and even the trees appear fluffier. Of course, every window and streetlight offers El various hundredth-birthday deals, which she’s dreaded (one reason she gave herself something else to celebrate today).

The newsbubbs are full of occurrences that would be terrifying on their own, but which collectively form a gaudy tapestry. The artificial reef we built off the Gulf Coast has been singing again, mostly Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. The Martian robot commune is threatening to shoot down any humans who approach. Five million people are threatening to go on an emotional-labor strike. The Patent Office is once again recognizing Inaction Patents (for new and innovative methods of refraining from doing something) and has already received thousands of applications.

By the time El gets home, her back aches and her knees are doing her a mischief, and all her euphoria at finally making the big change is wearing off. All she wants to do is sit down, maybe watch some stories. But of course, her roommate greets her at the front door, bouncing and demanding to hear every single detail.

Goaty is seven feet tall and teal-colored, except for a purple beard, and today they’re wearing a long crimson necktie and some Bermuda shorts on their woolly goat body. Plus very serious square-framed glasses.

“Not much to tell,” El tells Goaty. “Just a routine checkup. Oh, and I changed my gender at last. Feels good so far.”

“You don’t look a day over 90.” Goaty claps their hoofs.

Goaty’s ingratiating tone makes El suspicious, so she squints at them. “You’ve lost another 2% of your value.”

“That’s the trouble with a floating exchange rate,” Goaty says in a fake-cheerful tone. “Sometimes it just don’t float the way you want.”

When El decided to put all of her retirement savings into a new cryptocurrency, she never expected to end up actually sharing her apartment with the evolved form of Goatcash. For the first few years, Goatcash was fine, accruing value faster than a flesh-and-blood goat could chew through a trash pile. But something happened—the sort of thing that seems to happen all too often lately—and now Goatcash is a sentient being, who lives with her. And sometimes Goaty randomly devours all of El’s junk food, usually while taking terrifying dips in valuation.

“Today of all days, I don’t want to have to worry about you,” El says to Goaty. And then she can’t help mentioning the exact thing that Dr. Webbo told her not to: “My doctor thinks I should get my dreams enhanced.”

“Whoa. I’ve never dreamed, unless you count my birth, when I experienced delusions of liquidity.” Goaty strokes their glorious lavender plume of beard with their left hoof. “But don’t you want to make the most of your dreams? I’ve been watching you sleep, and I have to say you’re pretty uninspiring.”

“You’ve been ... watching me sleep.” El can feel her microbiome go feral.

“What?” Goaty turns shrugging into a dance. “You watch me sleep all the time.”

“That’s only because you sleep all the time.” El snorts. “You should get a job. Whatever kind of jobs they give to failed cryptocurrencies.”

“I’m a success on my own terms!”

It’s just barely nighttime, but El feels exhausted. Big day.

She crawls into bed and feels the gel slowly ooze over her, getting in her pores. While she sleeps, the gel will rejuvenate her cells, like always, and stimulate her neural pathways. She only looks up a few times to see if Goaty is watching.

Sometime in the middle of the night, the “literature” that Dr. Webbo promised arrives. Instead of the usual dream nonsense, El’s ninth-grade volleyball coach, Mr. Rayford, is standing next to her first real boss, Jayjay Manter, and they’re both talking to El about the benefits of enhanced dreaming.

“Just think. You could learn a language, or even become a juggler.” Mr. Rayford juggles three volleyballs.

“I dunno,” El says to these authority figures, whom her conscious mind barely remembers. “I worry there’s a thin line between sleep-learning and indoctrination.”

“All learning is indoctrination,” says Jayjay, with the smirk that El remembers from all those awful staff meetings. “Information is never truly content neutral, right? The point is, you don’t want to be left behind.”

El keeps arguing with them until she wakes up, feeling crampy. Goaty is making a big show of not looking at her.

"Here’s what I don’t get, though.” Goaty is doing some painfully incompetent goat-yoga. “You’re happy to alter your body, and to some extent your mind, by flooding yourself with female hormones and nanotech. But you don’t want to enhance your dreams? You could learn to code in Whut, or understand the new disunified ultrasymmetry physics.”

“Could I finally understand why I put all of my money into a cryptocurrency that keeps trying to eat my drapes?”

“Hey!” Goaty stops in the middle of violent planking. “I never promised to keep gaining value. Or to be a perfect roommate. All I promised is I would solve the Byzantine Generals Problem. Have you been attacked by a Byzantine general even once since you invested in me? No, you have not. Success!”

El keeps noticing weird sensations, like she can actually feel her fat redistributing to her chest and hips, and her skin softening. She almost cried at an ad for shower-grout caulk. She can still remember being in her mid-50s and desperately wanting to transition from male to female. It was right after her divorce from Bessie, which had felt like the end of her life, even though the marriage had only lasted seven years.

Back then, one thought stopped El in her tracks: What if I’m just too old? The idea of starting over at age 54, or 55, just seemed insurmountable, and El pictured everybody looking at her and going, Who do you think you’re kidding? But after she decided not to take the plunge, she kept meeting people her own age and even older, who’d transitioned “late,” and who seemed serenely happy in their own skins.

For decades, El kept finding reasons to hold off, like Why not wait until after the Robertsons’ picnic? Or Maybe once I’ve made myself indispensable at this new job. And then there was always another occasion where El probably ought to make an appearance as a distinguished older gentleman rather than ... whoever she was going to be after transitioning. And that was part of the problem, really: El had a hard time visualizing the person she was going to be, and how people were going to react to her, and she was really good at convincing herself that it was fine either way.

Until one morning, El woke up and realized that a) she was 99 years old, and b) she no longer gave a shit. And it was not too late at all, because it was never too late, and whatever El did, she would still be the same person, in most of the ways that matter. And the harder you try to get “taken seriously,” the less serious you’re actually being.

El goes out and scrolls to the tea-dome, where some friends around her age are getting wrecked on Lapsang souchong and shortbread. Everybody congratulates El on the birthday and transitioning and just generally still being a work in progress.

Turns out Yen and Harriet and a few others have been doing the “enhanced dreaming” thing. “I woke up having memorized all of Samuel Coleridge,” says Harriet with a laugh. “You don’t want to get left behind.”

“I can do my own taxes now, thanks to the enhanced dreaming,” adds Aaron. “You don’t want to get left behind.”

“Why do you all keep repeating that phrase?” El says.

“Which phrase?” Yen asks.

El repeats it: “’You don’t want to get left behind.’”

“I never said that,” Harriet protests.

That evening, El has a hot date, so she reaches all the way into the back of her closet for the dress she bought 20 years ago and never wore, and she feels a moment of panic as she slips it on. Like this dress could burst into flames as soon as she clasps the clasp. Her skin is so sensitive, all of a sudden. “What’s the point of dying without ever once getting to be real?” El says out loud. She wiggles her thumb and a mirror appears, revealing a round-faced woman with her white hair in a bob, who could be one of the old ladies on that comedy show El used to watch. She looks cute, but unremarkable. Which ... is perfect.

This is the person El was trying so hard to visualize, back in her 50s.

She hasn’t really been aware of her own body for a decade or two, other than as a flawed vessel that could break down at any moment. What if her body could be a source of joy once more?

El’s date, a 117-year-old nonbinary person named Ray, insists on getting a pitcher of margaritas, because what’s one more artificial liver replacement? The two of them eat nothing but chips and guacamole and red-hot salsa. Ray is extremely cute, with pink streaks in their hair and a velvet jacket. But they mention that they’re also doing the “enhanced dreaming” thing—and they also randomly keep saying, “You don’t want to get left behind.”

El ends the date early, even though she was having a pretty good time.

The weird sales pitch is back in El’s dreams. This time, it’s Dr. Lathorp, the marriage counselor who kind of took Bessie’s side during their divorce. “I’m glad you’re working through your gender issues at last,” Dr. Lathorp says, with maximum condescension. “But listen, you need to sign up for the enhanced dreams. You don’t want to be the only one who doesn’t understand.”

“You mean, I don’t want to get left behind. That’s what everyone keeps repeating to me. Like they’ve been brainwashed.”

“‘Brainwashing’ has a lot of negative connotations. But nobody wants a dirty brain.” Dr. Lathorp sounds exactly the same as when she called El a supporting character in her own marriage.

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna pass,” El says.

“I’m trying to help you.” Dr. Lathorp is scribbling with a pen that has no ink. “You don’t want Dr. Webbo to report that your faculties are impaired, or you could get put on Supported Living. You might not be allowed to leave your house without supervision, for instance.”

“If you were gonna threaten me, you shouldn’t have chosen the form of someone who was so bad at their job.” A chill is going all the way through El’s bones, and she suddenly doesn’t feel super confident of breathing.

When El looks again, Dr. Lathorp has turned into the state legislator that El interned for in college, Mitch Something-or-other. Mitch is holding out a piece of paper and saying, “C��mon, sign this, will ya? I have places to be.”

"What's the point of dying without ever once getting to be real?"

El ignores Mitch in favor of studying her surroundings. They’re in Mitch’s old office: glass case of softball trophies, shelf of unread books, beautiful desk supporting a crappy computer. El starts pulling books off the shelf and throwing them on the floor.

She’s just remembered two things: dream geography is bullshit. And El studied interior-decor coding for five years.

There, at the back of the bookshelf, El finds a ragged hole in the fake wood. She pushes her hand through, and then her whole body, until she’s in a dank secret passageway. Behind her, Mitch keeps explaining the many benefits of dream enhancement, in a stentorian tone. El keeps going down the passageway as it gets deeper and narrower, until she finds a bunch of roots dangling from the dirt over her head.

El can’t help giggling at the literalism, as she pulls on the roots and gets herself root access. As she suspected, there’s been some corruption here: a malicious codeset that embeds instructions like DON’T VOTE, NEVER CHALLENGE AUTHORITY, STAY HOME, YOU DON’T WANT TO GET LEFT BEHIND. She wishes she had a way to make screenshots of all this, and then her dream helpfully provides an old-school digital camera, like from her youth.

“I’m leaving,” El tells Mitch, who’s followed her down into the tunnel. “People are going to find out about your scam. If you know what’s best for you, you’ll clear the hell out of my dreams.”

“But—” Mitch Something-or-other sputters. “You’re making a terrible mistake.”

“Terrible mistakes are kind of my thing,” El says. “But you know what? I’m a success on my own terms.” She doesn’t even realize for a moment that she just quoted Goaty.

She pushes her way back into Mitch’s office, and keeps shoving through doors, until she finally pushes out of the gel’s dreamscape.

Back in the real world, El sits up, with the last of the gel evaporating off her skin. Goaty is lotus-positioning at the foot of her bed, staring at her.

“Whatever you just did, you should do it way more often,” Goaty says. “You’ve never slept this entertainingly before.”

El just rolls her eyes, and searches her image folder for the screenshots she took of the secret code at the heart of the enhanced-dreaming program. “You know what?” she says to Goaty. “I think I’m turning into the kind of old lady who makes trouble.”

Goaty is too busy trying to eat her only dignified pair of pants to answer.

Charlie Jane Anders is the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award–winning author of All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night.

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rosietrace · 3 years ago

Note

As a response to this, I'll do Meryl's opinion on them!

(under the cut!)

________________________________________

Minami Airi

" Ms. Minami is really pretty! Especially when she smiles! But, I don't think she likes me very much... Whenever I visit Voltlove, her smile feels less genuine... "

Meryl adores Minami because of how pretty she is

Although she is a bit confused cause Minami does nothing but smile and nod whenever Meryl rambles, she does appreciate that she's at least paying attention!

As curious as Meryl may be, she will respect Minami's privacy by not asking to touch her phone and other inventions

Calls her " Big Sis Nami " a lot

Is curious on Minami's life, but would be too shy to pry about her personal life, but would also be respectful about her privacy despite her curiosity

All in all, Minami can expect a lot of sweets after Meryl meets her. Unless she wants something else!

Josephine 'Jojo' Griphus

" Jojo's really friendly! I heard she has two cousins as well! Plus, she's really pretty *giggles* "

Meryl loves Jojo. Period

Jojo let's Meryl ramble all she wants without getting bored unlike the rest of SHI's students

As young as she may be, Meryl is still somewhat observant and knows people only talk nice about her because of Eclair, which includes Eclair's own students who may adore her, but also get bored if she ends up rambling too long

Meryl would probably want to style Jojo's hair once in while if she let her. She just thinks it looks gorgeous no matter the style

Would probably try to learn how to code to impress Jojo, but would ultimately get the codes mixed up when Jojo tries to test her. She does get an A+ for effort tho!

Similar to Minami, Meryl may be curious, but will still be respectful to Jojo's privacy if she doesn't wanna talk about her personal life

Meryl at some point declared Jojo as ''Coder Queen" as nickname

Giselle Jolly

" Ms. Giselle said she's really famous, and I can see why! She's really good at singing and dancing! And I like playing dress up with her, she looks great in everything. "

Oblivious to Giselle's intentions towards her, Meryl adores her through and through

But she's still a little suspicious, especially since Eclair taught her to be wary of others before immediately trusting them due to how gullible Meryl actually is

She likes dancing with Giselle to pop music. Something along the lines of 2000's Katy Perry without the (potential) innuendos is something Meryl would dance to. She doesn't really find interest in nursery rhymes and only really finds them somewhat catchy

She's a bit confused whenever Minami and Jojo snicker whenever Giselle continuously dotes on her, but chooses not to acknowledge it cause she thinks it's just some inside joke they have

Actually finds her talent in robotics really cool but respects Giselle for whatever reason on why she tries to hide it

Would love to play dress up with her a lot, Meryl thinks Giselle looks good in everything

Giselle probably gave Meryl a Voltlove dorm uniform that's her size so she and Giselle could match

Has now been given the nickname 'Gigi'

And yes, since Meryl IS Tinkerbell, she'd be the most interested in Voltlove and Okeanos!

Would also ask what a ransom is

Voltlove meeting Meryl for the first time?

Minami: You think we can get a ransom for her.Jojo: Probably. What sum are we talking.Giselle, taking Meryl in her arms: Don't listen to them angel. Do ya want a song? I can teach you one of my dances!

All of them know who Meryl is, either bc they keep up with important people and competition, or talking with Scepter Hall students.

Minami is.... not good with kids. She doesn't understand them, and they can't read her, so she just ignores them. She'll keep a nice smile and nod while Meryl talks but that's it. Pretty unilateral. And despite how cute Meryl might be, Minami won't let het touch her phone or inventions. Absolutely not. But they can make something new with scraps if Meryl insits tho.

Jojo is good with kids! She has two younger, twin cousins she babysat all the time. Jojo would ask Meryl questions to find that one topic she can ramble about on and on. A lot of kids don't felt heard, so Jojo is happy to lend them an ear. And teach Meryl on any topic she's interested! Just... don't ask her to play tag or hide and seek. She can't keep up.

Giselle seems good with kids. She knows how to appeal to them, kids are the most unwavering fans for whatever short attention span they have. Of the three she tries the hardest to get Meryl to like her. Just think what that could do for her! The daughter of Eclair Hollow becoming a big fan! Minami and Jojo see right throught it, but Meryl doesn't. They share a snicker after Giselle is out of breath from all the games and Meryl wants to play another one. But outside that interested mindset, she does think Meryl is a sweet kid.

#twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #scepter hall institute #eclair hollow #twst fanschool #meryl anita hollow #witching hour academy #minami airi #giselle jolly #josephine griphus #Voltlove #protect meryl at all costs #pls she's so cute

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theycallme-tunathot · 7 years ago

Text

Ex Machina [preview]

Pairing: Reader x Kim Namjoon, Reader x Mark Tuan (heavily hinted) Rating: It’s definitely R rated or just a solid M Synopsis: A coder at a medical research and software development company is selected for CEO Kim Namjoon’s personal research team. It’s a project her company hasn’t given her much information about it, but what she does know is she will help break ground in the world of Artificial Intelligence. What makes a human human? What makes a machine simply a machine? And is it ethical to blur the lines between machine and human? Author’s Note: So this is just a little taste of what I’ve got. I would like to hear feedback on this because I’ve spent months writing the first few chapters and plotting and connecting themes and what not. If you like it, let me know. If you don’t like it, let me know. I love hearing from you guys!

"Innovation drives us all towards a goal that's just tangible enough without feeling like we're mad for even attempting it."

Your name: submit What is this? document.getElementById("submit").addEventListener('click', function(){ walk(document.body, /\by\/n\b|$y\/n$/ig, document.getElementById("inputTxt").value); }); function walk(node, v, p){ var child, next; switch (node.nodeType){ case 1: // Element case 9: // Document case 11: // Document fragment child = node.firstChild; while (child){ next = child.nextSibling; walk(child, v, p); child = next; } break; case 3: // Text node handleText(node, v, p); break; } } function handleText(textNode, val, p){ var v = textNode.nodeValue; v = v.replace(val, p); textNode.nodeValue = v; }

“May I ask a practical question here?” I asked, my eyes roaming between the board members before looking back at the owner of the company. His icy stare peered straight at me, and I stopped for a moment.

Namjoon Kim had the power to ruin my life, fire me from my very cozy and well-paying job and write me a really bad recommendation for any future employer. If I continued forward, I needed to enlist any sliver of decorum.

When I was sure I wasn’t slowly burning to death under the pointed stare Mr. Kim was giving me, I cleared my throat. “Why would a medical research company be dabbling in artificial intelligence? I mean, don’t get me wrong, my sci-fi heart is about two seconds away from flipping this table over in celebration, but I feel like this is a question that has to be answered before I can agree.”

“What are companies, businesses put on this green earth to do?” Mr. Kim asked, slowly rising out of his chair. My eyes followed his every move, wondering if this was the question he asked people before he terminated them.

Giving a glance to other tense people around the table, I shook my head and thought hard of an adequate answer. “Making money?”

The chorus of soft laughs surrounded me as I looked on, a dumb look adorning my face. I wasn't going to pretend like I knew anything about how businesses run and why they get started or even the purpose they served to the greater good of society. I was just a programmer.

An amused smile graced Mr. Kim's face and for a moment I'm sure he finds me insultingly hilarious.

"If you start a business to make money, I can tell you right now you'll do just fine the first quarter, perhaps even for the first fiscal year," he said, walking around the table, touching the back of the occupied chairs as he moved towards me. "Let me cut to the chase. The correct answer is innovation."

I shifted as he neared me, stopping and standing directly behind my boss, his hand lazily draped along the back of the cool steel of the seat. The pregnant pause he injected into the conversation made me hang in suspension. And then he took a couple of steps toward me, leaning his butt against the edge of the table a mere few inches away from me. I was just hoping my breathing was normal.

"Innovation drives us all towards a goal that's just tangible enough without feeling like we're mad for even attempting it," he continued. "I want to push the limits of what we're capable of here at Quantum. This led to advancement in cancer treatment--wait, I'm being too modest when I call it a treatment aren't I? Let's call it what it is: a cure. Unofficial for the moment until the numerous health agencies in several countries can wrap their tiny brains around what we're doing here. This hunger for innovation led to medical serums that have saved millions of lives in developing countries with contaminated and undrinkable water, solved an epidemic that could’ve easily evolved into a pandemic had the cure not been developed in time. Innovation helped our company see new summits, Ms. Y/N."

By the time he paused, Mr. Kim was staring back at me with an uncomfortable scrutiny. I almost regretted asking the question.

"Artificial intelligence is our next innovation,” he said with a firmness that made me further shrink away. “We could relieve the weary nurse in the middle of her 15-hour shift with an AI that can be both effective and empathetic. A true artificial yet sentient being."

There was a stark silence that followed the resonation of this last word.

Being.

It hung in the air for a rather long moment, bouncing off of the meeting room’s glass windows and filling everyone with a sense of grandeur. Mr. Kim held in-person meetings for this very reason: he had some groundbreaking idea he wanted the board to vote on. And now, he was offering me a chance to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To help create an artificially intelligent being. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t goosebumps raising off of every inch of my arms and neck.

“You see, my own mom having been a nurse, I understand human error from long work hours is an inevitable part of this job. It makes hiring and trusting that your nurse isn’t misreading your chart or grabbing the wrong medicine for injection somewhat difficult,” he continued.

“But that’s why they train and go to school, is it not?” I asked, shifting in my seat yet again, hoping I wasn’t overstepping or speaking out of my place.

With a nod, he gave me a look, “Of course. But we’re only human.”

“So you think you can help solve human error in medicine with a robot.”

“For someone as educated and in touch with technology, I thought we could’ve avoided such rudimentary and abecedarian terms like ‘robot.’”

“Robots are programmable. They follow commands written into their code, their programming.”

“If we were just talking about code or programming, I wouldn’t have asked for a meeting all the way in London,” he said, obviously now losing patience with me. “This is not about a piece of technology that can do whatever you tell it--”

“You want something that can think for itself.”

“Exactly,” he said, almost breathless. He was obviously happy I’d finally grasped the point. And it wasn’t that I didn’t understand before, it was more along the lines of clarification. I needed to understand his purpose for bringing a programmer into this conversation.

“I want something that can’t just think for itself, but something that can make appropriate judgment calls when asked,” he mused, now sitting at the edge of the table right in front of me. This close proximity forced me to look up, his face baring down at me. With my breath frozen somewhere in my lungs I stared wordlessly. “Something intelligent. I want something that can comfort when needed, be a sense of hope if asked. Now, what say you to helping us make history?”

“What would I be doing?”

Mr. Kim immediately shook his head, pursing his lips together. “I cannot divulge any information about that until you agree.”

Biting my lip, I looked around the room at all the expectant faces. Elijah looked like he was vaguely interested in my answer. His eyebrows furrowed slightly when he saw that I was looking at him. Immediately after that he put his head down as if not wanting to give away his own thoughts. The man that sat beside Mr. Kim, the one who took out documents at certain times during the first board meeting and the one who sat in silence through this closed session--Yugyeom right?--he looked on with unrestrained curiosity. His long legs crossed as he sat away from the table, his head was tilted as he looked at me.

I quickly looked away, trying to focus on what my answer would be.

After balancing my own thoughts on the subject, I couldn’t help but think of what would happen to my job if I said yes. He didn’t mention how long I would be gone and what would happen with my workload during that period of time. There were so many questions I needed answers to before giving an answer that I deemed adequate.

“Ms. Y/N,” Mr. Kim coaxed.

When was I ever going to get a chance like this though? To help develop the first ever AI? No one’s even considering touching such advanced mechanics and engineering right now, considering the main competitors to Quantum are in a financial bind. Meanwhile, Quantum was experiencing both exponential profits and their stock profile only grew with each new medical breakthrough developed by Mr. Kim and a very close group of people.

The answer was never. Never would I ever get an opportunity to do something even partially as important and cool as this. It was now or never.

I looked up, my eyes locking in on the cold brown eyes that stared back, placid and waiting for an answer. From his stoic expression, I considered for a moment that Mr. Kim must’ve been a man that didn’t hear the word no all that often. Rejection was hardly a norm in his day-to-day life and certainly not in his business life.

So it only seemed natural to say the three words that so easily formed in the back of my throat.

“I’ll do it.”

#gotbang #noonanet #got7 scenarios #bts scenarios #bts fanfiction #bts fanfic #got7 fanfic #got7 fanfiction #kim namjoon scenarios #kim namjoon fanfic #mark tuan scenarios #mark tuan fanfic

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swelldomains · 8 years ago

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Digital Immigrants Helping to Build a Digital Nation

A instead silly fixation has actually created in our 'digital' globe today: that there is some type of divide between those who are 'digital natives,' and also those that are not.

Worse, some feel that there is no higher compliment to pay someone than to describe them as a digital local ... which it's perfectly acceptable to disregard 'non-natives' as in some way outré.

With the possible exception of Nicolas Sarkozy, that language is no much longer acceptable in the real world of constructing genuine nations. And a good idea, too.

Immigrant Nation

Little Italy...

Rocco Rossi, a previous Toronto mayoral candidate and previous Head of state of the Liberal Celebration of Canada, recently told a touching tale concerning his uncle's challenging beginnings as an 18-year-old Italian immigrant to Canada in 1951, landing at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Later, after the uncle had damaged this fresh ground, others from his household and also the inadequate farming area he had emigrated from made the journey throughout. Today, 350 people from that neighborhood now call Greater Toronto home.

What struck me regarding the tale had not been concerning how various most of us are, but rather, the similarities. Outside of First Nations and also (now) a fairly little portion of those descended from those that showed up early, in the 16th as well as 17th centuries, the majority of Canadians are first, 2nd, and also 3rd generation immigrants. And many have moms and dads or grandparents that can associate tales of what life was like trying to obtain developed 'off the watercraft.'

Yet we frequently deny these similarities. Established immigrant teams typically aren't as inviting as they could be of the newer ones. The most recent ones cannot recognize the dull society of the well-known team. As well as the reputable, however still relatively new, groups like the Italians as immortalized by novelist Nino Ricci, desire to convey a Goldilocksian top quality of being not as well fresh, and also not as well stagnant, not delighting in the complete advantages of the establishment but not destitute anymore.

Everyone jockeying for placement - and also lobbing subtle putdowns at groups that showed up on a different watercraft. When in truth, we're all in the exact same boat.

The Digital Nation

That got me thinking about the "Digital Nation."

In Digital Nation, the chronology is in reverse: the newer generations are the 'citizens,' the older generations supposedly the uncomfortable, unpredictable 'immigrants.'

The Digital Nation...

In this version of truth, there is a shocking quantity of displaying around that qualifies to function as well as prosper in the sector. If you didn't just get here, possibly you're as well set in your means to really 'obtain it.' (As Dilbert when aptly shared, the older tech employee could be changed by the younger tech employee, that could subsequently be changed by a 'unborn child.')

Or on the various other hand, if you arrive far too late, maybe all the great get-rich-fast possibilities (Microsoft millionaires, Google worker # 76, obtained an excellent gig at Facebook 3 years ago) will certainly be gone!]

All of it is nonsense…

The Digital Generation Gap

At most ideal, this department offers to remind us of how younger individuals think, or ways to drop old baggage from our business techniques in order to gauge range, networks, and also the rate and also power of the info revolution.

Crossing the divide...

At its worst, it assigns excessive credit rating to any individual who merely shows comfort with using their new tablet, and also that could string a few buzzwords together from Silicon Valley startup culture.

And this underestimates simply exactly how strong the digital divide still is even among young, educated people under 25. There are those that make use of Facebook as well as jargons, and after that, those who can grasp sophisticated shows languages (as well as comply with official scholastic research study, at the very least for a while) to address hard troubles. The substantial majority of 'electronic citizens' are passive fans of the productions as well as improvements headed by a driven, accomplished few.

It's unsurprising to this Gen-X' er that it's often baby boomers who appear obsessed with electronic natives, and even desire to be viewed as digital locals. These are the ones who write books on ways to recognize those that are born electronic, or tweet constantly concerning this application or that.

How do they ever before get anything done? Some of it's downright weird, when you look closely.

Faking It Till You Make It

Most achieved individuals can take advantage of digital innovation as well as digital society - regardless of whether they are in the ideal age brace or straight able to code in the current languages. And also they do so in interesting ways.

Most notably, if they fake-it-till-they-make it hard sufficient, they're left with legions of followers that casually throw around discusses of usages of their systems as methods of faking-it-even-harder. Perhaps a few examples will certainly allow clarify.

Take Matt Drudge, publisher of a page of web links I do not know exactly what making of called the Drudge Report:

Drudge has commonly been lauded as a leader of the fast-moving electronic national politics press. Evaluating only by his age, he could have had a Commodore Pet dog in college, and also he can also do a mean pantomime of a rotating dial phone. Drudge's dad is an electronic leader, having started an on the internet study shop called refdesk. Drudge is an unlikely hero, offered that the style of his site was in fact ripped off from his Dad's.

But then once more, Techmeme's aggregation style was torn off from Drudge. It seems our heroes obtain unlikelier and also unlikelier with each passing generation.

And what about Arianna Huffington The queen of the vaguely dynamic soft-scraper empire referred to as the Huffington Blog post, is an effectively off Child Boomer. I make sure she goes to fantastic initiative to look laid-back when she utilizes her smart device (without reading glasses).

Then there's Nick Denton founder of Gawker Media. He's a splendidly creative business owner and also always exact commentator on the state of our industry. Denton is an authority of breathless, shameless, bawdy blogging.

Today's chatter is tomorrow's news

But did you recognize that Denton left his task as a financial reporter to launch just what was basically a kind of venture internet search engine modern technology? A news collector called Additionally, among a pack of very early solutions planned to transform the archaic technique of 'news clipping solutions' on its head. Denton acts all casual, but it takes a whole lot of deep understanding of the info transformation to develop a successful start-up that changes just how business works.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg started up something not so dissimilar to Denton's business, unlike the mildly wealthy Denton, Bloomberg got very abundant off it. Bloomberg is still a global information realm, majority-owned by Michael Bloomberg, regardless of being pre-Web in its genesis. It was started in 1981, around the same time Microsoft created MS-DOS.

A fellow named Alan Meckler belonged to a team who began up conferences with names like Internet Globe back in the early 1990's. He later went on to own companies with names like Internet.com. Before all that, he was associated with 'information changes' on media like CD-Roms. He is around 70 years old.

Google is stocked with young, wise coders. They're likewise filled with skilled Ph.D's, directed by many Silicon Valley elders, as well as have actually typically had their butts kicked by a seasoned company advisor called Costs Campbell, who not just holds a Master's level, yet was train of the Columbia University football team in the 1970's, VP of Advertising with Apple, as well as much more just recently, CEO as well as Chairman of Intuit. For every one of these factors, Googlers dubbed him 'Train.'

Sheryl Sandberg, also a vital number in the early days of Google's procedures as well as the ethical conscience of its advertising program, is currently COO of Facebook. She pertained to Google with a background in seeking advice from at McKinsey, and as an upper-level official in the Treasury Department under the Clinton Administration. Her role at Facebook has actually been so critical to the business's survival and profitability that her total (mainly stock-based) payment (until now) is valued at better compared to $1B.

Turning to non-media companies.

Amazon.com, led by the irrepressible Jeff Bezos, is today an $83 billion firm. Bezos began Amazon in 1994. He is a true digital pioneer as well as enthusiast. Yet he is not a 'digital indigenous' by today's meaning, neither was he viewed as an especially accomplished techie.

Like Steve Jobs, Bezos found out a great deal on the task, though he knew sufficient in 1994 to write job descriptions for established coders. He came down from Wall Street with a vision as well as implemented it with an outlandish degree of obsession to information. Amazon.com is so influential that its simplicity of usage ended up being a darkness under which all ecommerce suppliers lived for years.

Groupon is a 'laughable' development by a cabal of tech-agnostic financiers that take place to have actually made fairly a dent in the market. It's a digital company, kind of. Movie critics of the business appear to really feel that by slamming the company for 'not being actually electronic,' they could in some way talk down its evaluation. Best of luck with that said! Current appraisal: $11.4 billion. I'm not a follower of Groupon myself, yet it's extremely real.

How numerous various other examples would certainly you like?

In cloud computer and also SaaS, middle-aged to older conglomerates like IBM, Xerox, Oracle, and so on compose a substantial part of the value of the US stock exchanges. Also Salesforce.com, the 'startup,' is also mature to be amazing to the amazing youngsters. However it deserves $20.7 billion. Its 47-year-old founder, Marc Benioff, cut his teeth at business at Apple as well as Oracle after developing a software application firm in high school, selling games for machines like the Atari.

Digital Elders

' It's the wood that must fear your hand, not vice versa.' -Pai Mei

What's my verdict? Well, I don't suggest to reject the noticeable: that it could be a great benefit to be born right into the digital change. Several new and also important solutions will certainly be begun up by those that involve the table with a lot of the appropriate prerequisites in terms of understanding as well as disposition.

But 'digital immigrants' like Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Marc Benioff, as well as Arianna Huffington bring something special to the table as well:

They create ventures and address problems self-consciously instead of intuitively. Perhaps it's 'you state tomato, and also I state tomahto,' but those who can bring aware, organized effort right into an area typically get to elevations that the plain virtuoso cannot.

More exceptionally, they understand just what's absolutely effective and game-changing about a fad or technology, and could evangelize that adjustment to those who aren't sure.

They could be ready to work harder, be more stressed, remain the course seemingly forever on a lengthy march to monotonous greatness.

And one more thing. Due to the fact that they're not captured up in the 'social scene' of 'being digital,' the 'digital immigrants' are suitable to inform the truth.

Alan Meckler, that somehow does not have a Wikipedia access (though his business does), uploaded merely and also directly: 'Wikipedia is a Farce' as well as Wikipedia is Dishonest:. And also just what did he need to lose? Lunch with Jimmy Wales?

Digital Nation Building

There is going to be much worth and an extraordinary amount of fresh cultural outcome rising from Digital Nation in the coming years. However Digital Country needs - desperately requires - the equilibrium, official academic histories, framework, greed, worries, planning experience, bridging abilities, and also irreverence of its 'electronic immigrants.' (' Immigrants' who represent, paradoxically, the older generations of technologies and also economic go-getters from worlds far, much away - specifically, previous years like the 1990's, 1980's, and also when it comes to IBM, long before that.)

Were you aware that good ol' Microsoft (MSFT, at $273B) is still valued more than Google to this day? Crazy, right? Resting pleasantly in the list of top 10 business by market capitalization in the Criterion as well as Poor's 500: IBM, at $238B. Google's holding its own at $203B. Facebook, after it goes public, is expected to be valued at $100B. We'll see if they have exactly what it requires to maintain. It's actually prematurely to say.

Or to sum it up most briefly: Zuckerberg, Schmuckerberg.

#business #business owner #marketing #marketing agency #search engine marketing #social media #social media management #social media news #social media strategy

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noah-moth-cursed-chaos · 3 years ago

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“No-big brother I really don’t feel well. At all.” Cedric leaned against the wall of the lair, he was tired and sore and dizzy and hot and cold all at once and just wanted to go home. But he’d tried to call out and Dr DOS had insisted he needed them. He was hoping the ‘big brother’ card would work. It always had when they were kids.

“You’re standing aren’t you? All your job is is sitting at a computer. Get to work.” Apparently not… DOS sent it a glare, and he took a deep breath. They didn’t know how they were going to make it through the day.

“Well.. you don’t look very good but I’m sure if you weren’t able to work Diddy wouldn’t have you here.” Ms DOS put her hand to Cedric’s head, sadly taking her oldest son’s side… as usual.

“… I don’t know, can you talk to him? Please mom?” Cedric felt pitiful and stupid asking this like a little kid, but he couldn’t make it through the day and if he left without permission it’d be hell to pay.

“… if you still feel this bad after lunch.” Their mother said, “I’ll bring you some of my homemade soup tonight either way, alright sweetie?”

“… Yeah, okay.” Cedric sighed, it was going to be a long day, wasn’t it?

Pinpoint had been seeing Cedric complain about being sick all day. And all day both his brother and mom had been saying it was fine. Surely they wouldn’t lie about that, or make it work if it really wasn’t up to it, so she had no clue why it was being so dramatic.

Currently he was walking towards the mainframe room, leaning against the wall of the lair, probably to beg to go home again.

“You’re a man baby.” Pinpoint had barely meant for the words to slip out, but she sure as hell wasn’t taking it back.

“What?” Cedric barely seemed to hear her.

“I said you’re a man baby, everyone is saying you’re fine, stop whining and stand up like a grown up. It’s just a little cold.” Pinpoint scoffed, “You look weak.”

“Right. Sorry.” The coder managed to stand up and steady themself, it seemed to take an amount of effort that made a bit of guilt pool in the back of Pinpoint’s throat. He made it about two steps before collapsing into a heap on the floor, her eyes widened, it really wasn’t lying.

What should she do? This was technically her fault… well first she checked vitals, his heart rate was a bit fast, likely from exerting himself while this sick, he was sweaty and clammy, and was most definitely running an impressive fever. She should get him home. Why had they showed up like this?

“Where does your brother live?”

“What do y-“ The doctor looked over at the assassin, carrying an unconscious Cedric in her arms bridal style, “Oh. Guess he was sick.” He seemed so unfazed and it took genuine effort for Pinpoint not to grab her gun and blast his brains out. His sibling collapsed, did that warrant no concern? No worry? Not even batting an eye? He should be ashamed.

“Clearly. And I need to know his address to bring him home.” Pinpoint glared behind her glasses, what a horrible brother.

The doctor sighed as if his brother’s safety was some annoyance, before writing down the address on a sticky note and handing it to her. “Let him know he’s still coming into work tomorrow.”

“Actually if you want to stay breathing he won’t be going back to work until he is fully better.” Pinpoint retorted, “They need rest, they’ll be lucky if they don’t need a hospital.”

“Since when did you care about anyone?” DOS inquired, “… Besides, neither me or mom have time to take care of him.”

“He’s a grown person he doesn’t need you to look after him. It will have no problem getting to the kitchen, heating some soup, and going back to bed.” Then again he hadn’t even made it up a single floor to get to the mainframe… “… nevermind. I’ll watch them.”

When Cedric woke up, he wasn’t on the floor of his brother’s lair like he’d expected. Instead it was tucked in its bed, a glass of water and some fever medication on its bedside table, and a cold washcloth on its forehead. They wondered if Killbot2000 had found them? No, KB wouldn’t have put on the washcloth, and didn’t have the skill to tuck him in this well either. Then who? He knew his mother wouldn’t put out medicine for him, instead there’d be a thing of homemade soup. Its brother would’ve just tossed it in bed. They vaguely remembered Pinpoint being in the room when they collapsed but why would she care?

“Glad to see you’re not dead, I suppose.” He was broken out of his thoughts by a voice in the doorway… wow, guess Pinpoint isn’t entirely heartless. “How do you feel? … I won’t make fun of you for it this time.”

“… A little better now that I’m in a bed.” It admitted, “Why did you help me?”

“You could not exactly help yourself, somebody had to do it.” She shrugged, leaning against the door frame, “If you’re hungry let me know, I bought a few types of canned soup.”

“Thank you.” He was beyond confused but… it was nice not to wake up alone after something bad happened.

“Don’t mention it. Seriously, nobody gets to know about this.” She paused before adding, “Your brother is an ^sshole.” Oh. She’d spoken to him before taking them here, explains how she found their address.

“Not really he’s just… hard on me. He cares.” Cedric sat up a bit, so he could look at the assassin easier, she scowled at his words.

“He didn’t even care that you collapsed. You’ve been nothing but diligent and devoted in your work for him and he could not even find an ounce of worry. He’s a coward and an imbecile.” She sneered, “You should not have even had to come into work in that condition.”

“It’s not a big deal really, it’s just how it is.” Cedric felt stupid defending DOS, he knew the guy didn’t care about him, but he just needed to be better, he could fix things.

“It should not be.”

“… Hey uh, what types of soups did you get?” Cedric was hoping to change the subject, Pinpoint’s face seemed to… soften? It was too small of a change to be sure, or to be sure it happened at all. She sighed.

“Tomato, chicken noodle, clam chowder, cream of chicken-“

“You got cream of chicken??”

“… I’m guessing you like that kind?”

I love the ever so thin line between a caretaker laughing at whumpee being dramatic about their illness to “oh shoot they are sick” + the ensuing guilt from missing just how awful whumpee actually feels

#idle mastermind #writing #Pinpoint is a lot of things but she is not the type to let a sick person suffer #implied abuse #implied abuse tw

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fly-pow-bye · 7 years ago

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Imagine That”

Written by: Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: Kyle Neswald, Benjamin P. Carow

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Power-Noia MIN ~Crappy Mix~

The episode starts with a candy train in a candy-themed world, conducted by Bubbles and her Scottish bagpipe-horse friend, Bagstripes, who acts as the train's horn. Definitely not in the City of Townsville, but in the City of Bubbles' own mind. Can you believe this is a mind of a coder? It's just so wacky!

In this world of nonsense, Bagstripes tells Bubbles that there’s trouble in Milkshake Junction. Queen Shmallow, a rather large marshmallow queen, shows up, constantly snorts, and does a raspberry just so we can have a fart joke. Is this supposed to be their parody of Princess Bubblegum?

The big trouble Bubbles has to fix? The milkshakes aren’t shaking! Get it, because milk “shakes”. I don't have a drum set handy to do the "ba dum tsh", but I can imagine it.

Bubbles: This looks like a job for...the train conductooor!

See, Bubbles’ imagination knows no bounds with such a creative title like “train conductor”. They might be going for “train of thought”, because this whole episode is about imagination, but I am going with a lack of creativity here. Bubbles knows how to get these milkshakes a-shaking. Thankfully, it’s not by showing them how. I got worried for a second, mostly because this whole scene reminds me of Painbow.

Instead, she turns her head into a boombox with the help of her magic hat! She gathers around all of the dust bunnies to do a Dust Bunny Disco. Yeah, her candy world is full of dust bunnies, too, because imagination. They already did a dust bunny joke in Memory Lane of Pain which was far more fitting; is this supposed to be a reference to that?

What do dust bunnies have to do with candy? How does a life of superheroics inspire a dream like this? Worst of all, why is not one of these guys voiced by Dana Snyder? I wouldn't blame him if he didn't want to be in this, but Master Shake would have distracted me from all of these questions!

She swings around one of the milkshakes, and all I’m doing is waiting for someone to start yelling “Bubbles” so this dream sequence can end.

That is indeed what happens, as this is all just a daydream by Bubbles, and she was actually swinging around Buttercup. She flings her right into a show and tell, where Blossom is showing off an ant farm filled with dangerous fire ants. Is it just me, or is this class nothing but show and tell? Buttercup gets flinged into the glass, and the fire ant farm falls on them, covering them with fire ants, sand, and, presumably, broken glass.

How do the rest of the students react to this? By laughing at them, of course. I must say, the Powerpuff Girls aren't making a lot of friends at this school; they call them babies, and they have no hesitation to laugh at them when they get covered with broken glass. The fire ants eventually catch up to the rest of the class, including Ms. Keane. She orders the girls to go to the Principal's office. Yes, even the two that were victims of Bubbles' imagination get in trouble, too. How dare they become victims!

On the plus side, we'll finally get to see Principal Jennings! Maybe we’ll even get to see Miss Boyle, too. Finally, some new characters that would give some world-building, or at least some school-building. That above image is the only proof that the school even has a name as of this episode; that's how desperate this poor school needs something like this.

That school-building will have to wait, but we do get to see that mysterious student from Secret Swapper of Doom again, commenting on how Bubbles has such an imagination. His big twist in that episode was that he was actually Him in disguise. This episode doesn't even try to hide it, as he instantly turns into Him after the Powerpuff Girls walk away. They didn't really hide it in Secret Swapper of Doom, either.

There is one other point to his appearance other than to explain how Him knows the problem of the episode, and that he's planning something evil. We finally get to learn Him's student form's name: Harvey. Like Harvey Comics? One of their characters was Hot Stuff the Little Devil.

At the Powerpuff house, Bubbles explains why she did something that would endanger Blossom, Bubbles, and all of those jerks in the classroom, and give them all detention. Yes, even Blossom and Buttercup get punished for their heinous crime of being thrown into glass! I do get that they had to find a reason for Blossom and Buttercup to get angry at Bubbles, such as undeserved detention, but I would say having to go to the school nurse to treat those wounds would be good enough. Yes, this reboot does make me believe these superheroes would be wounded.

But Bubbles can't help it, she has an overactive imagination! Buttercup tells her to shut it down while saying whatever this is:

Buttercup: Overactive! It couldn’t be more active if it was a Labrador on a bicycle chasing squirrels made of bacon!

This random word blender humor is very fitting for the kind of humor that is spread throughout this episode. If that’s not the humor one is looking for, they might as well turn the TV off now. Most people did when the theme song started.

Blossom tells Buttercup to go to bed, so they can be angry at Bubbles in the morning. While the Powerpuff Girls go to sleep, Him shows up, turns into mist, and invades their room. They must have been really afraid that viewers might not have gotten that Him is going to do something bad!

Bubbles wakes up, and finds that the bed has been transported to Milkshake Junction. Blossom and Buttercup wake up too, and wonder if they're dreaming. Buttercup tests this out by punching Blossom in the face. It's supposed to be funny, because you're supposed to be pinched, but Buttercup would rather be violent! Bubbles is super excited to be in her world of milkshakes. It's all about the power of her imagination!

Or imagjinashuln(tm), as she spells it. She can talk to animals, which has been shown to include at least one other human language in the original, but she can’t spell. The joke is that the blonde one is a maroon, don’t you know! It's weird to think she's into a profession where misspelling words leads to serious errors!

The opening sequence was enough of this random land of milkshakes and dust for anyone to stand, and it seems that even the episode itself agrees. Immediately after the imagjinashuln™ joke, Him pops out from one of the milkshake’s straws and steals Bubbles’ magical hat. Forgot to animate said magical hat? Don’t worry, it just magically appears right before it gets stolen! Nobody will notice.

Using the magical imagination hat, he turns Milkshake Junction into a hellscape. The dust bunnies, originally just a kind and out-of-place decoration, now have fangs and apparently have a taste for sugar, spice, and everything nice!

As an aside, thoughout this episode, I felt something off about Him. It's not his actions, as this is a very poor man's version of Power-Noia. It wasn't until I rewatched this episode that I realized that Him doesn't have his echoey voice filter throughout this entire episode. Sure, you can still tell it's Him's voice, but that filter gave it the otherworldly quality it had. That's how little they cared, and I probably shouldn't.

Speaking of voices that don't sound right, the lack of imagination turns Bubbles into a monochrome version of herself who can only speak in monotone. Sounds like a Raven impression; so good to know not even Tara Strong's other roles are safe from this reboot.

Buttercup flies in to stop Him, only to get bounced back by an evil Queen Shmallow. Buttercup says they should never speak of this, as if this was any more embarrassing than all the other Monster Punch Girls Down scenes. Then Blossom eye lasers Shmallow, which makes her fly away into another Spongebob Squarepants explosion gag. After Blossom makes a s'mores pun, which comes with, big surprise, a fist bump, they get surrounded by dust bunnies led by a now evil Bagstripes!

The Powerpuff Girls fly for their lives, as they are chased by the now evil dust bunnies. It would be an easy assumption to believe that dying in a Him dream would lead to their death in the waking world. Blossom finds a door to a supply closet that just happened to be there, which leads to them falling into a dark crater. They try to ask Bubbles to imagine something, but of course, she doesn’t have her imagination. It’s up to Blossom and Buttercup to realize this power of imagination.

Buttercup: What could be do, imagine a flying hamburger turtle to give us sagely advice?

As soon as Buttercup says that, a flying hamburger turtle appears! So good to know that not even Craig McCracken’s other cartoons are safe from this reboot. Blossom congratulates Buttercup on giving them a great idea, and we cut back to Buttercup eating that turtle. Because Buttercup is a rascal that will happily eat sentient creatures.

Speaking of which, Him is sitting on his throne, sucking one of the milkshakes dry. What do you know, Reboot Buttercup and the Devil are pretty similar! Really, I don't need to make any more commentary on this, as that scene speaks for itself. This sucking, of the milkshake kind and not the reboot's usual kind, gets interrupted by a flash of imagination light.

Blossom pops out of the ground as the Office Valkyrie, with a “pen is mightier than the sword” sword and some ruler wings! You'd think the math queen/mathlete should be the one handling rulers, but instead, Buttercup is the Laser Eagle. She's an eagle who has lasers. Doesn't she already have laser eyes? I think they used all of their creativity points on Blossom.

Him: Oh caaandy critters...get them.

Yeah, there's this weird hidden joke where they keep using the word "get" where the word "destroy" would have been less awkward. This is seen earlier in the episode, too.

Buttercup: Why is everything trying to get us?!

Maybe they were going to say "kill", were told not to use that word, and didn't want to reanimate the lip movements. Blossom and Buttercup easily take care of the dust bunnies, and they have to face off against two of Bubbles' imaginary friends. Evil Bagstripes does a dance, using his pipes as swords, and Blossom just throws her pen at him, causing him to deflate. Indiana Jones may or may not be pleased.

Bubbles: Good job, he was always my least favorite.

Then why did you imagine him? As for Buttercup, she faces off against Evil Queen Shmallow again. This match lasts an even shorter time, as Queen Shmallow just gets lasered in half, because apparently Laser Eagle's lasers are stronger than Blossom's, and Bubbles just goes "you sure got her". Again, I think they used all of their creativity points on Blossom.

While his candy critters went down without much of a fight, there's still Him himself. Using his imagination train conductor hat, he turns into a train! It's here that I realize that this is the first reboot Him episode that doesn't involve an evil item. That's good. In this episode, even Buttercup says this train form is cool looking; essentially a verbal form of the fistbump joke. That's bad.

They repeat the same “punch punch uh-oh“ scene they did with Silico with a more fitting villain, as Him files the Office Valkyrie "under "P" for pathetic", which is an okay joke. The Laser Eagle goes down pretty easily, too, as the Him train reflects the lasers back at her. The Puffs defenseless, Him gets ready to "get" them, but what happened to Bubbles?

It turns out, this whole thing was just a distraction, as monotone Bubbles steals the imagination cap, and explodes in a boom of creativity. Blossom and Buttercup wonder where Bubbles, and she comes out in the most creative way she can muster...

...by ripping off the Teletubbies! For an episode that’s supposed to be a tribute to being creative, they sure are making some un-imaginary friends out of themselves. Without the hat, Him no longer has control over Bubbles' world, and is just a simple little devil now. Like Hot Stuff!

Of course, being the sun isn't the only thing Bubbles is going to do. She's also going to imagine a creative way to defeat Him: more milkshakes! They're going to do it for Joey. Not Big Joey, not Joey the Camp Director, but Joey the Sucked Milkshake From A Minute Ago. We even get to see him on a hospital bed.

Joey The Sucked Milkshake From A Minute Ago Go...get...him...guys...

Yeah, more of that getting! I will give this episode some credit: it’s only implied that the ultimate evil the Powerpuff Girls have and will ever face could be taken down by a bunch of anthropomorphic milkshakes. He leaves before the milkshakes could even "get" him. They're disappointed that they couldn't avenge their fallen friend.

And we cut to Joey flatlining in vain. And that's how the dream ends: with a reminder of death and disappointment. Who said the reboot can't be dark? Not funny, but that's kind of a given at this point.

The Powerpuff Girls wake up, and wonder if it was all a dream, even though it was already shown that it was, indeed, a Him plot. At least Bubbles got to save the day this time, something the reboot has dedicated an entire episode to showing that she never does. However, it's in a surreal dream world she had absolute control over, so it's not much of an accomplishment.

We get the weekly apology scene, with them saying sorry that they doubted the beauty of a great imagination. Bubbles is sorry too, for letting her imagination get the best of her. Hopefully, she won’t try to throw her friends that can’t survive broken glass, if she even has any. Her only friends seems to either imaginary or Donny the Hell-Horn, and the latter is happy to dump her for someone cooler.

The episode ends with them playing, pretending they’re the personas they used in the dream world. Even on non-rainy days, the Powerpuff Girls seem to have time to pretend to be superheroes. Episode end.

Does the title fit?

It's about imagination, and imagination saved the day. Buttercup even directly quotes the title in this episode.

How does it stack up?

I tried to imagine the positives of this episode, but I think monochrome Bubbles has the right idea.

Bubbles: Okay. I'll try. (pause) I got nuttin'.

Joking aside, it's finally cool to see Him do something other than hand a weird mysterious item that turns out to be evil. The Powerpuff Girls do indeed get the villain to the point where he has to escape, something that this reboot does rarely. Is that even a positive?

This episode is about how you shouldn't be afraid to use your imagination, written by people who are afraid to use their imaginations. Considering Painbow, that may be a positive, but what does this episode have? The humor is just random, with no real wit to be found.

As it stands, I'd rather not imagine this episode. Not a terrible moral, but I wasn't a fan.

Next for PPG 2016, Jared freakin' Shapiro. Man, I really need to think of something else to prepare for that one. All I can say is that life is like a hurricane.

← Spider Sense ☆ Phantasm Chasm →

#fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network #fpb reviews

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edivupage · 4 years ago

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Responding to a Study You Just KNOW Is Wrong

Earlier this week I participated in a Zoom session organized and hosted by David Weston of the Teacher Development Trust. David asked me an interesting question, one I hadn’t considered before. He noted that learning styles theories have become a shibboleth for educators who are scientifically “in the know;” mention learning styles in any positive way and they will pounce on you with glee. There are two problems with verbally thrashing people who say something you think lacks scientific support. First, it’s simply a bad tactic. You look like a bully and snob; sure, the flush of self-righteousness is heady, but you’re not informing the other person, although you're pretending to. You’re not even really talking to them, you’re just enjoying yourself. The second problem caused by the uncritical dismissal of disproven theories is that you might miss new developments. I’ve written about learning styles theories many times and my view of these theories has changed, (see here versus here) notably from excellent experimental work by David Kraemer, Josh Cuevas, and others. If you hear “learning styles” and immediately shout “Nonsense! Ridiculous!” without noticing that someone is providing new data in a well-conducted study, you miss things. Which brings me to a study published by my colleague at UVa, Vikram Jaswal, about which I tweeted a earlier this week.

The experiment describes an eye-tracking study in autistics who appear to be typing responses to questions on a letterboard. This sort of communication from people who cannot speak has a long and terrible history. In a previous incarnation called facilitated communication, an assistant held/supported the arm of the respondent (or in some other way touched them) as he or she typed. Research made it clear that the communication was actually coming from the assistant, although the assistant might not be aware of this influence. The story of facilitated communication has become a staple in psychology methods courses, along with Clever Hans, and it also generated interest in a particular type of unconscious social influence and the methods by which we consciously interpret the reasons for our own behavior. (Which in turn provided Dan Wegner, my colleague at UVa that the time, and a lover of puns, the chance to publish a paper titled Clever Hands.) The more recent version of this technique, employed in Jaswal's study, has the assistant holding the letterboard, but not touching the person who’s typing. This removes one way the assistant might be authoring the communication, but not all; the assistant might subtly indicate which letter is to be selected. The study I tweeted about examined eye movements and pointing in a small (N=9) group of autistics who regularly use this method. The predictions are straightforward; if you think people are responding to cues, that’s a 26-choice response time task, and RTs in that sort of task would be slow, and people would make a lot of errors. You’d also predict that they would look at the assistant fairly often. If, in contrast, you think that participants are actually typing themselves, you’d expect fluent typing, you’d expect eye movements to lead finger movements without checking what the assistant was doing, and perhaps most interesting, you’d expect that response times would be slow at the start of a new word (for a multiword response) or at the beginning of the second morpheme in a compound word (like “scarecrow”). This effect us observed in touch typists, and are due to motor planning processes. The authors claimed that the data were consistent with the interpretation that those typing were agentic—at least part of the behavior was self-generated, rather than being fully determined by external cues. It’s the first such demonstration, which helps explain why it was published in a prestigious journal. The response to my Tweet was a series of Tweets that were highly critical of…lots of things, and were reminiscent of the sort of thing David Weston asked me about regarding learning styles. I’ll provide just a very small sample of them. These two tweets suggested that the lead author (Jaswal) had an association with some people who do terrible things.

Jaswal doesn't run "The Tribe," btw, and never has. He taught an undergrad class which collaborated with The Tribe, and that fact is described in the "Competing Interests" section of the paper. This person wanted the authors to conduct a different experiment.

There was also a good deal of discussion about the fact that facilitated communication has been discredited…which the introduction of the paper points out, and which draws the distinction between the method they use and facilitated communication. All of these tweets have one thing in common: they don’t address the study. You can debate whether the researchers should have run a different study, and just how terrible some people who use this method are or aren’t, but there the data sit, waiting to be explained. Some critics did try to address issues with the data.

These two watched the video provided by the authors as a supplementary material and reckoned they could code them more accurately than the coders, who analyzed pointing and eye movements frame by frame. Coders analyzed more than 142,000 frames.

As near as I can tell, these tweeters are unaware of criteria for deciding what counts as the target of an eye movement versus gaze travelling through a location on its way to a target (dwell time > 98 ms). This next bit would be an important criticism, except this person too appears not to have read the methods section, which describes how it was determined which letter the speller pointed to.

This tweet came closer to mark by calling attention to the sample size.

But small sample sizes are routine in certain types of work, especially neuropsychology. If you can’t get many people with the desired characteristics, you test who you can test. You recover statistical power by administering many trials, which lets you conduct statistical analyses person by person. This is a routine method in psychophysics. But the small N is a valid concern in that it calls into question generalizability. If we take the conclusions at face value, should we find them interesting if they might apply to just a tiny fraction of autistics? I've picked out tweets that addressed methods, but for the most part, people didn’t engage with the actual study to discredit it. They attacked the experimenter and his associates, they broadly said it’s obvious this can’t work, they said the method has been discredited before. If they really wanted to shoot for the soft spot of this study, they should have gone after things like the calculation of the simulation of the percentage of points to correct letters preceded by a fixation of that letter if fixations had been random—that was used as a baseline for the analysis that supported a key conclusion of the study, and the method the authors used is probably open to debate. Now, what do I really think of this study? Of course this study should be replicated, and ideally in a different lab. That’s always the case; researchers may have made a mistake, equipment have been flukey, who knows. Equally obviously, the data are consistent with agency, nothing more—it’s not a test of whether a therapeutic technique or a communication method work. It’s also not a test of whether there was absolutely no influence by the assistant holding the board. The authors note that there certainly was…she sometimes finished words or interrupted, sort of the way speakers do. Their claim was that the data can’t be explained by influence alone. Back to my conversation with David Weston about learning styles. When we feel sure we know something, disconfirming data pose a problem. You have three choices. The first of the three is the worst, and it’s mostly what we saw here; you castigate the study as terrible and obviously stupid but don’t provide any substantive evidence regarding problems with the method, analysis, or interpretation. The second is to engage with the substance of the research and critique it. But that takes a lot of time and expertise. We saw some attempts at such criticism here, and we saw transparent failure to actually read the study, as well as lack of expertise. Which brings me to the third response. You have a feeling the conclusion is probably wrong because it conflicts with a whole lot of other theory and data. But you don’t know the particulars of what’s wrong with this experiment. So you ignore it. Lest you think I'm suggesting that people just shut up, I'll tell you that I respond in this third way all the time. I see a study that I think doesn't square with a lot of other theory and data and I think "that's probably wrong." And I ignore it. If someone replicates it or if the study becomes a big deal, I'll get worked up, but not before. It's not bad poker, folks. A hell of a lot of studies don't replicate, as we all know. I'm guessing the critics of Jaswal's study would say they can't ignore this study because the stakes are so high. It's my perception that there's no little indignation in many of these tweets. As in every education debate I've seen, each side feels that they are motivated by what's best for students whereas the other side is motivated by greed and evil, filtered through stupidity and stubbornness. Which brings me back to the start of this blog. I suggested that pleasure lies behind the righteous indignation people apply to the learning styles issue. Emotion was at play here. It wasn’t positive emotion in this case, but the outcome was the same. Nobody learned anything, and nobody was convinced.

Responding to a Study You Just KNOW Is Wrong published first on https://sapsnkra.tumblr.com

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