#maybe my only option is to expand on this with sources and publish

[jasper-book-stash]

October 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

The eight books of this month really made me experience the whole span of human emotion. And maybe a couple of the shrimp ones.

Religious Text

None applicable.

1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?

None applicable (thank the gods).

2/10 - Trash

Pure Magic: A Complete Course In Spellcasting | Judika Illes

The amount of times I screeched about citing sources or admitting that the author has none...I didn't get too far. The author was wholeass pulling things out of her ass. This is the epitome of bullshit "feminist" pseudohistory. I couldn't even get to the parts about occultism because the bullshit made me throw the book.

(Side note, I don't think it's very "feminist" to depict women of the past as having a beautiful matriarchal society and then having that taken over by men... Like girl, you are actively shitting upon those who came before you! You are downplaying their struggles and lying!!!)

3/10 - Meh

Horses And The Mystical Path: The Celtic Way Of Expanding The Human Soul | Adele Von Rust Mccormick, Ph.D., Marlena Deborah Mccormick, Ph.D., Thomas E Mccormick, M.D.

Here's the thing. Except for the emphasis on combining a whole bunch of cultures together as Celtic, this was just...not the book for me. I'm not Christian, I'm not struggling with finding my faith in any way, and while I like horses I don't care much for the approach. It was just...boring to me.

4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier

The Husbands | Holly Gramazio

This was a decent book. It's about a husband-producing attic, and the main female character trying to find out what's going on. But it was very difficult to keep up with all of the characters (because their details often changed with each husband) and the female character got to the point where she was just regularly speedrunning husband options. It feels like this was a little too long for what it was. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it was a novella instead of a novel. But hey, it was a debut novel, and we always love to see more authors coming up and out.

7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats

Mead Mishaps 2 and 3: That Time I Got Drunk And Yeeted A Love Potion At A Werewolf & That Time I Got Drunk And Saved A Human | Kimberly Lemming

I read and enjoyed book one in September, and book two was just as good and fun, with a mystery incel cult going on. Book three was a little less enjoyable than the first, because it felt like it was setting up for things that never came through, and there's only so much new stuff you can tread with the same approach of "male dragon and [redacted for spoilers] human woman". But it was still stupid and fun and very, very horny. And these ones put content warnings in the beginning, which is very nice!

Mothman: Behind The Red Eyes…The Complete Investigative Library | Jeff Wamsley

My overall feelings about this book is that it's fine, the author's interviewing skills suck shit. There are a lot of newspaper clippings and some of the formatting makes me want to chew rocks, but it's otherwise pretty good. We take a very interesting detour into aliens and the Men in Black. It's also important to note that this is apparently the second Mothman book he's written and he repeatedly references the first one, which I do not have, but it also kinda stands on its own.

It's funny because I did not buy this book. My stepdad's coworker heard my stepdad talking about hopes to eventually go to West Virginia to see the Mothman statue and just. Had the book. And gave it to my stepdad.

Honestly, what a fitting way to acquire such a book.

9/10 - Very Very Good

Providence Girls: A Sapphic Horror Romance | Morgan Dante

This book made me want to chew a hole through sheetrock. That is a compliment. DEFINITELY mind the content warnings. Spoilers coming up, but the spoilers aren't actually that surprising when you remember that this is a Lovecraftian lesbian romance.

So the framing of it is that it's letters between Lavinia Whateley and Asenath Waite. Lavinia escapes being sacrificed in Dunwich and runs until she winds up in East Providence, where Asenath finds her and takes her in. Asenath is slowly turning into a fish person because she's from the mess going on in Arkham and they live together and it's simultaneously an analysis of Lovecraftian horror, living in the 1930s, and sapphic romance. They're so freaking cute.

Lavinia's letters are framed as being post-Azzie's fishification while Azzie's are from before that, but the letters alternate to create a linear narrative despite this non-linear framing.

10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone

Doing Justice: A Prosecutor's Thoughts On Crime, Punishment, And The Rule Of Law | Preet Bharara

If you've been paying attention to the most recent posts on this blog, you're not going to be surprised that I've been going insane over this book. Narrative nonfiction wasn't one that I thought I would enjoy, but now I know that I do. There was only one part that I had to skip, personally, because of the details discussed...but honestly, it was so good. I look forward to reading more of what this author writes.

[rachaelwilterdink]

The Top 10 Best Benefits of IIBA® Membership

I joined the IIBA® a long, long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away – well, maybe not – just kidding). The organization has grown enormously since its inception 21 years ago. As the institute has expanded, so have the benefits it offers its members. I would not have achieved what I have in my career without the knowledge and support of the IIBA®, so it’s with gratitude that I share my favorite Top 10 Best Benefits of IIBA® Membership. Free digital copy of the Business Analysis Book of Knowledge First and foremost, the IIBA® is the publisher of the Guide to the Business Analysis Book of Knowledge®, what I and other Business Analysis call our “BA Bible.” Now in its third major version, the BABOK® is the definitive source of knowledge for practicing the profession of Business Analysis. As a member of the global organization, you have access to a free digital copy of this standard, which is foundational to become a business analysis professional. It's also available in multiple languages.

As an IIBA® member, not only do you have access to the BABOK®, but there are many other digital publications at your disposal, including the Agile Extension (2nd version), Product Ownership Analysis, and others. Online digital library Access to the online digital library is one of the most overlooked and undervalued benefits of IIBA® membership. The cost of membership is worth of every penny even without this perk, but with access to so 11k+ books, this benefit is, well… priceless! You’d be a fool not to take advantage of FREE books!

The library covers so many topics relevant to our profession - everything from agile to leadership, to (God forbid) project management. If you want to learn something new, the IIBA®’s digital library should always be your first stop. You might be surprised at the quality of content you may find. Membership to a local chapter of your choice Recently, the IIBA® introduced a concept they called “harmonization” which merged the global organization with the local chapters. Now, when you become a member of the worldwide institute, you can join any local chapter of your choice. There are local chapters across the globe, and they’re your closest community resource.

Local chapters have boards that you can volunteer to participate in, or if you just choose to be a member, you can enjoy in-person and virtual chapter meetings, study groups, mentoring, and more (depending on each individual chapter’s offerings). Ability to attend ANY chapter’s events, worldwide! When you join the IIBA®, even if you elect to join a specific local chapter, you are still able to attend any chapter’s meetings (whether virtual or in-person). This is a HUGE benefit! If you are certified, you can earn CDUs by attending, and the variety and options of topics are limitless!

I have attended chapter meetings from coast to coast of the United States, and Canada. But that’s just Northern America! The IIBA® is truly a worldwide organization, and if you want to attend a meeting anywhere, you can! Member-only webinars to continue your education and earn CDUs In addition to many webinars that are open to the public, the IIBA® also reserves some of its best speakers and content exclusively for its members. Members-only events provide relevant and timely topics that can help you continue to grow and expand in your own Business Analysis career.

Their calendar is chock-full of engaging opportunities to learn new tools and techniques, along with the opportunity to network with your fellow business analysis professionals from around the world. The IIBA® sends out regular reminders with upcoming topics, so there’s no excuse to miss a chance to learn something new! Reduced cost for certification application, exam, and renewal fees It’s not cheap to pay for a certification, especially ones as respected as those offered by the IIBA®. As a member, you’ll get a discounted rate for all certifications offered, and the savings are substantial! I have three different IIBA® certifications, and I have saved a ton over the years, thanks to my membership.

I should also mention that from time to time, the IIBA® offers even further discounts, whether for a specific certification or for all their offerings (usually toward the end of the calendar year). If you’re looking to get maximum savings, be on the lookout for these special prices. - Online jobs board for both employers and potential employees I haven’t had much need for a job-hunting tool during my career as a Business Analyst, but if you want to go directly to the source, you couldn’t do much better than the job boards that are available as part of your IIBA® membership.

While it’s obviously a third-party service, like the online library, it’s worth the effort if you’re looking to find your next business analysis job. You can create your own profile and rest assured that the job postings are from companies that understand what Business Analysts do! - Competency model to gauge your level of experience An excellent addition to the many other benefits offered by the IIBA®, their competency model can help you figure out where you are in your professional development. Their assessment tool can help you identify your areas of strength and weakness. You’ll know exactly which areas you need to beef up in to grow your career.

As a member, you have access to the competency model as an individual; companies can also license this tool to help their overall Business Analysis practices mature, as well. - Discounts to attend the IIBA®’s global annual conference I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that IIBA® members also get early bird and membership discounts to attend the official annual conference of International Institute of Business Analysis: Building Business Capability (BBC). This is a “can’t-miss” event that brings together the global community of Business Analysis in one place (usually alternating between Florida and Las Vegas, USA).

I have attended this conference more than once, and I can absolutely guarantee that it is some of the best money a company can invest in growing their Business Analysis capabilities. Analysts of any level will learn new skills and techniques and grow their professional networks. - Access to annual Business Analysis Survey Finally, the IIBA® conducts an annual survey on the profession of Business Analysis, and a periodic salary survey. If you want to understand the state of the profession and assess whether you’re fairly compensated for your professional skills and experience, the IIBA® conducts a very thorough survey and analysis of our profession.

As an IIBA® member, you can access the results of the surveys; you can also participate as a contributor. The surveys are extensive, so there is a time commitment to taking a survey, but trust me, it’s well worth your effort.

Final Thoughts

Well, that’s it. Those are my Top 10 Best Benefits of IIBA®Membership. If you’re a member, I’d love to hear what you think. Do you avail yourself of all these benefits? Are there other benefits I neglected to mention that are worthy of note? Let me know in the comments below! Read the full article

[mrsgojosatoru]

so i’ve had the theory of daenerys’ story being coded as a woman of color’s story for a while now. for a character routinely accused of being a colonizer, imperialist, and white savior, she has a lot of fans who are in fact women of color. (very often from or with family from formerly or currently imperialized or colonized lands. myself a member of the palestinian diaspora included.) i actually started thinking about this back in like 2016, before i went to school and really got a lot of the language to talk about what i was seeing. 

i have a background in popular culture studies, my BA and MA are both in popular culture. i received a minor in film studies. i also have a graduate level certificate in women’s studies. in the fall in will be a phd candidate. likely in american culture studies. i tell you all of this now to firmly root myself as an authority in this position. i have six years of formal education in media studies. 

i maintain this position, that her story is one that belongs to a woman of color. daenerys is white in art and casting because white is an unmarked identity, to even the author he feels that if daenerys were anything other than white it would need to be remarked upon. (though at one point he does describe her as dark enough to be mistaken for dothraki, that is largely ignored by both audience and author.) despite the fact that daenerys is not racialized via race characteristics in text, her story is familiar to so many women of color. 

she is a young girl, sold into bridal slavery. part of a diaspora. a refugee forced from her home after the few remaining members of her family are killed after war and conquest in her homeland. while these traits aren’t necessarily racial ones, they are familiar to many people who have or their family members have been brutalized by western imperial powers. 

it goes deeper than that though, though these few markers make her relatable to those of us who have been or have family who has been brutalized by the west, daenerys is also orientalized within the text. and the fandom reaction is to quite literally hate this dragon lady. 

daenerys is contrasted to sansa within the fandom often, and i do think these contrasts are interesting because sansa reads as very white. she is protected by the author in ways that daenerys is simply not. this is most glaringly obvious in the ways that george sexualizes daenerys and does not do the same to sansa. 

the girls are only a few years apart in age. daenerys’ body is remarked upon almost immediately. viserys makes comments about her breasts and touches her, and almost immediately in her story the reader is given a sexualized rape scene with daenerys. throughout agot where daenerys is 13-14 she is consistently exoticized with her white silver hair, and violent eyes, and eroticized through the spectacle of her body. george writes about her breasts and vagina in scenes where that is often not even necessary (such as bathing scenes.) 

this is contrasted sharply by sansa, who by asos is the same age as daenerys, and forced into a marriage against her will, but is not raped. nor does george spend time lingering the gaze on her breasts or gentiles. sansa’s body is protected in a way that daenerys’ is not. this is particularly telling as white womanhood is worth protecting, while the other then has to function as the site of desire. the only other characters eroticized the same way daenerys is arguable are arianne and taena of myr. even catelyn and ygritte who have sex scenes within the book are not constantly eroticized the way daenerys is. (to my knowledge i can’t recall a scene where cat thinks of her breasts moving under her dress the way daenerys does about the painted vest at the end of acok.) 

this exotic/erotic spectacle is not uncommon in the orientalism of women of color in 19th century paintings and stories. 

further more along the lines of orientalizing the targaryens in text, most people in westeros treat the targaryens as if they are other worldy gods, or mad barbarians. that every targaryen has the potential for “madness” which always translates into inferior intelligence and violence is not unlike the way white people have thought about people from the orient. they are less civilized in position to the rest of westeros who is much more civilized. 

fans have internalized this “madness/greatness” paradox and consistently use it as an attempt to brand dany as a foregin invading threat. they argue she has no right to the country (even though targaryen blood is what the baratheons claim allows them the throne), and consistently paint her as a threat. once daenerys comes she will burn the water gardens, she’ll burn king’s landing, she’ll burn the whole country down. this is not a far cry from similar rhetoric we see about refugees and immigrants coming into the country. white people consistently paint people of color as a threat to their country, one that must be stopped from “invading” at all costs. 

it’s this orientalism both in and out of text more than anything that codes daenerys as a woman of color. because she is not offered the protection of white womanhood, because she is written as an erotic / barbarous other, women reject her in favor of clinging to sansa a proper representative of white womanhood. 

[mugglenet]

Wizarding WReform: Hogwarts Curriculum Revision

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Wizarding WReform: Hogwarts Curriculum Revision

You may have wondered why some of the classes that are offered at Hogwarts function the way they do. In our world, classes are supposed to build up skills for students to be successful on standardized tests and in their future careers. In the wizarding world, only some courses are required and directly correlate with their academic success and futures. Many of these courses even go so far as to cross the boundary between just and unjust. It is our hope, as readers, that Hogwarts has made the necessary curriculum revisions to improve the way of life for its students. If not, I am happy for them to be adapted based on my suggestions!

  Source

  Beginning with Muggle Studies, readers do not know much. We do know that this is a course that could benefit many characters, especially pure-blood families who don’t seem to know much about Muggles. For Harry and co., this course is one they overlook, especially given that it is an elective. Rather than having this class be one that students can opt to take (or not), maybe Hogwarts could include this in their required curriculum.

Some other ways to increase course enrollment:

Have a Muggle-born instructor: Who better to teach about the life of a Muggle than someone with a foot in that world?

Include knowledge of Muggle Studies in job requirements: Any job would benefit from having an applicant who has even a basic knowledge of the world wizards coexist with.

Have a robust syllabus: Learning how to perform Muggle tasks (laundry, cooking, cleaning, driving, etc.) without the use of magic is highly beneficial in case of an emergency.

Arguably, this class is one of the most important courses offered since magic and Muggle folks must coexist in order to prevent conflicts, something we have read about (and seen) within the history of the wizarding world.

  Source

  Speaking of history, History of Magic needs revamping as well. Professor Binns may have been a wonderful instructor at some point, but that era is long gone. This course needs to be updated to reflect the current magical world – post Voldemort and Grindelwald. There are many ways to have a more fun and inclusive history course, which would benefit all students by giving them a more rounded view of their world.

Some changes that could reflect this:

Include perspectives of different species: How is it possible to talk about conflicts between wizards and centaurs without including the opposite perspective on the matter?

Strictly defined unit goals: What is the point of each lesson? What are some unifying themes of the course? How will this knowledge help students succeed in their careers beyond Hogwarts?

Consider expanding staff: Rather than ridding the school of the institution that is Professor Binns, Hogwarts should consider expanding the staff and having instructors only teach one grade level.

Improving faculty life by minimizing courses and making the class more engaging for students can only be mutually beneficial, as many schools in our world can attest.

  Source

  When we consider including the perspective of various species in the Hogwarts curriculum, we must remember the courses that blur the line between sentient and non-sentient beings. Transfiguration, an important skill for student success and survival, often includes the transfiguring of objects into animals or vice versa.

A few options to make Transfiguration more humane:

Ban animal use/change in Transfiguration: Students are often told that it is not ethical to change a person into an animal without their consent, so why are they taught to change animals into non-sentient things?

Include a unit on Animagi: Becoming an Animagus is, in a way, a form of personal transfiguration. This should be an optional part of the course, allowing students to choose whether to become a registered Animagus and learn to do it safely.

Focus on survival skills and usefulness: How often would a student (or adult) transfigure a living thing into a cup? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to turn one non-sentient thing into another?

The use of skills learned in Transfiguration can only be an asset, but it would feel more moral if the use of living things were removed entirely.

  Source

  Finally, Defense Against the Dark Arts is a subject that, over a seven-year span, has had seven different professors, each one having very different opinions on what should take precedence within the course. This changes what students learn year to year, rather than having them follow a predetermined guideline.

Some revisions to improve the course:

Standards for Defense Against the Dark Arts: Universal standards for each year would ensure that students are developing the required skills and that changing Defense Against the Dark Arts professors would not derail the course.

Ministry and school collaboration: Since the Ministry decides what skills are included in the OWLs and NEWTs, there must be close consultation and collaboration between the two institutions to create a coherent curriculum.

Instructor insurance: This position seems to come with a fair amount of personal risk, making it difficult to find instructors willing to face that danger. By implementing an insurance policy between the school and staff, the incentive to teach this course would improve.

Defense Against the Dark Arts is a course that is heavily regarded when applying for many jobs post graduation, but it is difficult to be assured that a student has gained the skills they need when any instructor is able to teach whatever they want.

  Source

  While these suggestions are merely that (suggestions), it is this author’s belief that these changes need to be made to Harry Potter’s alma mater to truly make Hogwarts the best place for young witches and wizards in the United Kingdom.

  Source

[snowdice]

Lessons From a Book [Part of the Sometimes Labels Shift Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Virgil & Logan, Virgil & Patton, Patton/Logan

Characters: Logan, Virgil, Patton

Summary: Virgil cannot get anywhere in his training. He guesses he finally manged to piss Logan off.

From the prompt “Virgil accidentally gets hit by Patton or Logan and thinks it’s a punishment.”

Notes: Past Child Abuse, Superhero AU, accidentally striking a child, self deprecation

This is a dealing with events set after my story Sometimes Labels Fail.

This was part of my 100,000 word special event that I did on my blog. This fic marks 100,000 published words in the Labeled Universe. Thanks again to anyone who prompted, voted, or read this as I wrote it yesterday. The event marked this milestone better than I thought it would! Thanks for to anyone who’s been reading this series!

Training had started to not be as fun as it used to be. At first it had been all about messing around and testing the abilities Virgil was good with. That had been cool! Logan would have him do different things with his shadows and they’d basically just try a whole bunch of experiments.

Then, Logan had gotten The Book. It was an introductory book about light manipulation powers that basically explained different techniques light manipulators could do laid out in order of difficulty.

The introductory section was basic things kids usually did automatically like glowing and manipulating the direction of already existent light sources. Virgil could do those things already and they were mostly used as warmups every session. Then, the first 10 chapters were supposed to be the standard basics that most light manipulators learned early on. After that, there were 5 optional chapters each with different directions one could take their powers. Those were things like learning to separate white light into different colors, beginning to expand into other powers like fire-starting and sound wave manipulation, and different ways to influence common technology. It was an awesome book.

Virgil absolutely despised it.

They were currently on Chapter 1: Making Light Beams, Section 1: Location Control of Bodily Glow. Currently, Virgil’s entire torso and one foot was glowing. His fingertips were supposed to be glowing. He’d been working on this for almost 2 weeks and hadn’t gotten any better.

There was a small frown on Logan’s face as he scrutinized Virgil’s latest fuck up. He glanced back down at the stupid book. “I think you are perhaps focusing too hard making more of your body light up then necessary. The book suggests thinking of ‘the light as running water flowing through your hands.’ Whatever that means.”

Yes, Virgil knew what the book said. He practically had the section memorized at this point since Logan wouldn’t stop reading it out loud to him. He was probably hoping repetition would get it through Virgil’s unbearably thick skull; Virgil wondered how long it would take him to figure out he was too stupid for this.

Probably not long considering the crease between his eyes as he looked at him. “Perhaps we should take a short break,” he suggested.

Virgil nodded miserably.

“I’m going grab some supplies from my office upstairs,” Logan continued. “Please consume an adequate electrolyte replenishing drink while I’m gone.”

“I will,” Virgil promised. He nodded, still seeming lost in thought about how much of a fuck up Virgil was as he walked toward the stairs.

Virgil sighed and walked over to the mini fridge to grab one of the small purple Gatorades and took a few sips. He glared at the book, but then his shoulders slumped. It wasn’t the books fault. He set the half drank Gatorade down next to the fridge and walked over to the table where the book was propped open. The section was only a page and a half full of the most basic steps possible and a fucking picture. He couldn’t even do it with fucking pictorial instructions.

He bent over the book to slowly read the passage again. Maybe if he just kept reading it, it would stick. After a few minutes of staring at the open page, he heard footsteps descending the steps. They were only about halfway down the stairs when the book that he’d been leaning over suddenly rocketed up and slammed into his face, shoving him back as it went flying through the air. He fell back onto his butt, stunned for a millisecond as his face smarted from the impact.

Oh. He guessed he really had managed to piss him off.

It wasn’t the first time Virgil had been smacked in the face with a book for being stupid. He had hoped that since Logan had kept saying it was okay that he was taking a while to figure it out that maybe this wouldn’t happen, but he guessed everyone had their limit.

“Apologies Virgil,” Logan said from the foot of the stairs. “I did not want to hit you.”

Of course, he didn’t. Virgil was just that stupid and pathetic that he’d made Logan hit him.

“Yeah,” Virgil replied.

“Are you alright?” Logan asked.

“Fine,” Virgil said, steeling himself before shakily pushing himself to his feet.

“Do we need to stop for the afternoon?” Logan asked not unkindly, but Virgil could guess at the concealed resentment behind his tone.

“No, it’s fine,” Virgil lied. It was easy, actually, to just say what an adult wanted, like slipping into an old worn t-shirt.

“Very well,” Logan said. “I brought some diagrams that I’d printed off.” He was looking down at the book in his arms now. “There seems to be a few other schools of thought about what exactly the move feels like.” A paper floated towards Virgil and he managed to not flinch. It hovered in front of him. “This diagram seems to compare it more to heat as though imagining there is a fire between your palms.”

Virgil looked at the paper. It was a picture of a featureless body and there were arrows and words, but Virgil had trouble understanding what they were trying to say. He stared at it blankly for a few moments. “Okay,” he said. The paper fluttered away.

“Very good,” Logan said. “Go ahead and try again.”

Virgil nodded as he walked past him to sit on his usual bench; his eyes tracked him all the way there.

Virgil looked down at his hands. He took a breath and tried to make his fingertips glow or even just his hands; that would be progress.

He didn’t even glow at all, not even in the wrong places.

He felt himself want to tear up, but he repressed it harshly. He just had to make his fingertips glow. It wasn’t even hard. It was for babies. He was such a fucking failure if he couldn’t even do that. Virgil was surprised that he hadn’t gotten more than smacked in the face with a book.

“Virgil?” Logan questioned.

Just do what he wanted. It would all be okay if he just did what he wanted.

Why couldn’t he just do what he wanted?

“Virgil,” Logan repeated, louder and closer and Virgil flinched.

There was a beat of silence.

“Okay,” he said softly. “I think we’re done for the day.”

“No!” Virgil said, eyes jerking up to meet his. He was really, really close. “No, I can do it. I can.”

“Virgil,” he said one more time, firmly. His hand came up to rest on Virgil’s shoulder.

“No!” Virgil yelled, crumpling down and away onto the floor.

Virgil was surprised to see his feet move away a bit so he was out of Virgil’s space. His arm moved and Virgil curled even more into himself, but nothing happened.

Well, something must have happened, he realized a couple of seconds later, just not to him because he heard footsteps all but running down the stairs from the kitchen. Patton appeared at the bottom of the steps out of breath. “What happened?” he asked.

Logan just made some sort of awkward gesture toward Virgil.

Patton came to his knees in front of him, hands placed flat on his own thighs. “Hey, kiddo. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Sorry,” Virgil breathed. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better.”

“Honey, can you tell me what you’re talking about?”

“I made Logan mad because I’m so stupid,” Virgil said, trying not to cry.

“I’m not mad at you,” Logan said, sounding confused. Virgil curled up tighter into a ball. Patton made a hand motion and Logan slowly came over to kneel in front of him.

“Why would you think…” he said and then he paused, seeming to mull it over. “Virgil, I think we may have had a very large communication error. You seem to be under the misconception that I intended for the book to hit you, but that is in no way the case. I simply had wanted to check on something in the book and was unaware you were in its path when I summoned it. I would never purposefully harm you. Not for any reason and especially not because of something as minor as struggling with learning a concept. I am very sorry for hitting you and for not noticing there was a misunderstanding earlier.”

Virgil looked at him. He was on Virgil’s level, Virgil noticed and maybe it was a weird thing to notice right now, but it felt nicer than looking up at him. He looked serious, his eyes sad and worried.

“Really?” Virgil asked tentatively.

“Yes, of course.”

Virgil thought and both Logan and Patton gave him time to think. Logan had never hit him before. He hadn’t even done anything close or even threatened to do anything, and it was an accident that could happen. Virgil thought… well maybe he could believe that. He hoped it wasn’t just because he wanted to believe it.

“Okay,” Virgil said at last. “Okay.”

“Want a hug?” Patton asked.

Virgil bit his lip and nodded.

“From Logan?”

“If that’s okay,” Virgil mumbled.

“It is,” Logan confirmed. He scooted forward slowly on his knees and opened his arms in offering. Virgil leaned into him and arms were wrapped around him snuggly.

Virgil rested his check against his chest. The familiar scent of their laundry detergent hit his nose as well as the faint sent of chalk that always lingered on him even when Virgil hadn’t seen him use a chalkboard that day. Virgil relaxed into hug with a slow exhale.

Patton’s gentle fingers touched his forehead and he started to stroke though his hair. “Oh, baby, it’s okay,” Patton said softly which is when Virgil realized he’d started to cry. “You didn’t deserve any of that.” Virgil just held Logan tighter and got a gentle squeeze in return. Patton moved forward to press a kiss to his forehead. “We should go upstairs,” Patton said. “Dinner is probably burning.”

“We can order in,” Logan said.

Patton nodded. “Virgil can pick where.”

“I don’t know any places that deliver.”

“Don’t worry,” Patton said. “Logan has a list of all approved places as well as updated menus for each. Even though we order out once every 3 months.”

“It’s good to be prepared.”

“I know, dear.” Patton leaned forward to kiss Virgil’s forehead again. “Logan might even let us eat on the couch if you give him puppy dog eyes. We can watch another Disney movie while we eat.”

Virgil chuckled softly. “Sounds good.”

“You have to give him the puppy dog eyes though!” Patton insisted.

Virgil pulled away from Logan and Logan let his arms drop away. Virgil bit his lip looking at Patton and then looked back at Logan unsure what he was supposed to do.

“Yes, yes,” Logan said. “You’re adorable and you get anything you want.”

Virgil giggled and Logan gave him a fond smile.

“We really do have to go upstairs though,” Patton said. “I left the stove on.”

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Labeled Master Post.

My Masterpost.

[squarecarousel]

Challenge 144: 10 Years, Looking Forward: A-Frame Studio Life Buckle up-- this is a long one! Wow, ten years. It’s hard to believe a whole decade has passed since Square Carousel began, and since I graduated college. In some ways, it feels like another lifetime, and in others, it feels vastly shorter than the decade before that, from ages 12 to 22. Time is fascinating that way. College was such an incredibly impactful time period, but just a measly 4 years-- I could have done college 2.5 more times back-to-back in the years since I graduated, but somehow those four, from 2007-2011 were monumental.  It’s hard to believe I’ll be in a post-college world without Square Carousel, since the group has been a constant in my life these last ten years. I’m really proud that we made it this far and are able to choose to end the journey, rather than it fizzling out or dying from lack of interest. Sometimes it felt like that might happen, but other times it felt like we were blooming. There have been many ups and downs over the course of this journey. And damn, it was a lot of hard to work to keep running, but I am so grateful for the learning experience. I know so much more about leadership now than I ever would have before-- the delicate balance of having rules to keep the group running (deadlines, participation requirements, our dreaded “strike system”) and keeping up morale (knowing when to forgive slip-ups, keeping challenges sufficiently entertaining and well...challenging, making sure the group feels like it’s a community). Elizabeth and I were reluctant leaders, just naturally having to take those roles as other original members of the group left and were replaced by folks who needed guidance. We definitely didn’t seek it out, but we knew that if the group were to stay alive, we had to put some structure into the system. Pretty early on we made our rules and guidelines, extended the challenges to 3 weeks from just 2, and worked on our visual image online. Our awesome logo was made by former member Casey Crisenbery, and we switched from Wordpress to Tumblr, purchasing a URL, and Casey using special code for custom organization on the site. Sketch critiques were now a halfway point through our 3 weeks-long challenge, which helped a lot with the community aspect and engagement. We started doing interviews for each member, reaching out to other illustration groups, blogs and submission sites and had our work featured on a few of them. Some of us even got jobs from the connections made through Square Carousel!  There was a bad stretch several years ago when I wasn’t sure we’d make it through, with toxic behavior and a few folks petitioning for removing deadlines and structure, making everything optional. One thing I can tell you with certainty after ten years of working with artists is that 95% of us require deadlines to do anything, and incentives/obligations for meeting those deadlines, or it just isn’t going to happen! Elizabeth and I, along with a few other solid members, were able to keep the structure we’d worked hard to create, but the toxic culture had already killed group morale and we lost a lot of members simultaneously. That was a sad and scary time for Square Carousel, but I didn’t want to go out on a sour note. So the small group of us picked the pieces back up again, did a little refocus on our goals as a collective and created an “Admin” so Elizabeth and I didn’t have to carry the entire burden alone. I am forever grateful to Sayada and Jordan for stepping up into these roles to help us get the train back on track. Sayada especially picked up a lot of responsibilities that a newer member shouldn’t have to worry about, and was a total rockstar for Square Carousel. I wish we’d had her with us for the whole ride. I’m so happy that we’ve had a few really great years with some really loyal and talented artists to round out the experience at Year Ten.  There is nobody I’m more thankful for than my Good Cop, Elizabeth, though. She was so reliable, always able to provide balance in our leadership roles, and such a wonderful shoulder to cry on when things got too stressful. Elizabeth, thank you for this journey and for being my SC Wife all these years! It’s so funny because of all the original members, you were one of the only ones I hadn’t really known from SCAD classes, yet you’re the SCAD Illustration friend I have remained most connected to most consistently. Nothing bonds you quite like running an illustration collective does! It also cracks me up that in all these years, we hadn’t ever facetimed or talked on the phone until a few months ago--I didn’t even know your mannerisms or voice, but knew you so well anyway. My greatest internet friend! I love you dearly and it truly won’t feel right, the absence of our weekly SC conversations. Thank you for all of the memories! As just a member and artist, this group has helped me grow so much professionally. It was my client when I didn’t have clients. It was my motivation to paint when I didn’t feel creative. It was my source of portfolio-worthy work, but also my safe place to experiment and fail when I was trying something new. The girl who started as a Square Carousel member freshly graduated in 2011 was working part-time at Urban Outfitters, had basically no money, and no clue how to promote herself. The “studio” was a corner of the bedroom and nobody took her seriously. But a stubborn dedication and the security, purpose and structure of Square Carousel helped the slow change from that lost girl to a full-time freelancing woman. Now, in 2021, I have been doing freelance illustration fully for six years, through contract jobs, editorial, publishing, advertising, commission and local work, as well as selling prints and products online, in local shops and events. I am not making the big bucks, certainly, and I still have goals I’m working towards, but damn, if that isn’t a glow-up, I don’t know what is. Thank you for helping me achieve my impossible dream, Square Carousel, and always being a place with the right amount of advice, support and critique. Ten years, 34 artist interviews, 38 artists, and 144 challenges. I’m the only member to have completed every single one. 144 illustrations through the years. Some were game-changers for my style and my portfolio. Some were total stinkers and I hope you don’t go looking for them. But all were an important step in my career.   So, in ten more years? I’ll be 42 years old, which is very weird because I have never imagined myself that old before... it’s hard to honestly say what that would look like, especially considering the world we are currently living in and how the last 4/5 years have proven that anything (awful) can happen. Jordan and I have a goal to move to Colorado in the next 4 or 5 years, and I’d love to have a little A-Frame in the mountains with a loft studio, shown in my illustration here. Texas has become extremely problematic, especially after the winter storm in February of this year, and will be impacted greatly by climate change, both environmentally and economically. Right now, Austin is still booming, but at some point the lack of foresight in this state’s government is going to screw over the residents and it will be one of the places from which climate refugees run. Is that tomorrow? No, obviously not. But I want to already be settled someplace more stable, having grown some roots, before other folks start to roll in. But, to be able to do that, I need to rely less on my local jobs and connections and be able to have an “anywhere career.” So right now I am focusing on expanding in that way, particularly with book cover illustration and design. I’ve been doing a lot of portfolio work and self-publishing jobs, and hope to get an agent that can shop my work to big-time publishers sometime in the next year or two. Let’s say I succeed at all of those things in five years-- we’re in our Colorado A-Frame, I’m illustrating book covers (and I’ve also convinced my parents to come with me, and maybe a couple friends!). The next five years after that? I don’t know... hopefully a lot of adventures. Hopefully a lot of cool jobs, but also a lot of work/life balance. Right now, I don’t want kids, so the A-Frame will be filled with cats. Maybe we’ll have an old camper van for regular road trips around the western National Parks. I’d love for my work to reflect those passions-- more jobs with outdoor brands, parks, organizations. More book covers for stuff I’d personally love to read and keep on my overflowing shelf. That’s the vague goal for me in ten years, but I don’t want to plan any further than that, because life just also needs to happen the way it’s going to happen. There are parts of my current life I planned for in 2011... and there are parts I never, ever would have guessed. I hope there’s some fun surprises in 2031, too. Thanks for the decade, Square Carousel. Joining illustration collectives will always be the first bit of advice I give fresh graduates. Caitlin

[joshfornerwrites]

Navigating the COVID-19 Reality

How our scrolling habits and sources of information are changing amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Editorial by Josh Forner (www.joshforner.com)

In our new reality post-COVID-19, it's easy to get lost in the torrents of information being spewed out from the news and media platforms daily. Figures, graphs, charts, new lingo like “flatten the curve,” and “social distancing;” but one thing that hasn't yet been spoken about in any great depth is people's reactions with their devices.

I – for one – have certainly noticed a heavy increase in my social media use and news scrolling, and I figured that surely, I wasn't alone.

The reason for spending so much time on social media may be obvious to some, as we begin our lives in isolation, it only makes sense that we turn to the most convenient option available to keep in contact with loved ones. Yet, I am one person who is still out at work in the public, and I too see my social media scrolling hit an all-time high.

For me, I presume it is the worry for friends and loved ones, the fear of misinformation penetrating the communities that I am involved with, and certainly a way to release my over-arching worry.

Facts and education are the main reasons behind one Victorian's recent habitual scrolling. AJ - a 51 year-old educator and business owner from Victoria's Grampians region - had strong and immediate reactions to the first news of COVID-19 becoming a problem in Australia.

AJ has a non-functioning adrenal gland which puts her in the highly susceptible group of the population who are immuno-compromised, and therefore have a much higher risk of both contracting the infection, and inevitably dying from it.

“Considering my position, I had to find the hard facts,” she says, “and I feel it is my role as an educator to speak the truth at the time and educate others”

Having not really ever been a news follower, and living in an area with no television reception, AJ had to start her fact-finding mission somewhere, and it just so happened that her husband's PC had the ABC News website as its homepage. “I had to ask him if he trusted ABC News as a source, because I know a lot of these mainstream media outlets are biased towards their own agenda. He said yes, which was good enough for me”

This has led to a daily scroll-and-refresh habit that was never part of her life prior to the virus hitting Australian shores. She says that her social media use has also seen a strong increase during this time.

There has, however, been a resistance to scrolling.

Cara (real name withheld) is a 34 year-old musician and disability support worker from Melbourne's North-East. She claims she has weened off social media due to the concerning responses she was having to the constant blast of coronavirus news.

“I'm hardly looking at my phone any more. I'd been trying to spend less time on it anyway, but I just found [that] reading a million people posting about this virus made me feel pretty shit”

This poses the next invisible casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is likely to be a spike in mental-ill health. The reactions that people are having to the news and the virus in general is usually quite full of anxiety and fear, if not for themselves, for their loved ones that may be susceptible to infection, and the fate of the world as a whole.

It may just be that a social media detox is exactly what the world needs right now, and there are certainly a number of people leading the way in that regard.

“I'm still keeping enough of an eye [on COVID-19 news] that I know what's happening, but not reaching for my phone all the time like I often do out of habit.”

AJ applauds this measure as she delves deeper into the misinformation being spread across these channels, “I'm specifically seeing a lot of negative responses from people on my friends list to a lot of either what I post or what is posted by news outlets,” she says “This forces me to go and investigate some of their previous posts, and anything else they may be contributing about coronavirus, and the non-truth that is being put out there is astonishing.”

“I think it's really bringing out everybody's true colours.”

Paul is a father of 3 in his 40's who up until recently was employed in customer service within the insurance sector. Whereas he left his job voluntarily before the pandemic had hit, he empathises with others who now find themselves in this situation.

“I have been scrolling and refreshing my mailbox at least 10 times daily,” he says in relation to job applications and newsletters which arrive through his email. It extends to social media use as well: “Once I would have been content checking these platforms maybe five times daily each, however now it is up to 15 times, in order to give me the sense of being updated”

It is my belief that the current crisis highlights how much we unfortunately rely on the wrong media to attain our information. Ever since the Cambridge Analytica saga, the spotlight has well and truly been on social media outlets to try and curb the amount of 'fake news' content and 'data skimming' of people's personal information, but COVID-19 has shot that in the foot in two ways:

1. The vast and ultimately unending articles being published with unsubstantiated claims, incorrect figures, concentrating on the wrong factors or even giving the population a premature sense of hope, and;

2. The keyboard warriors spinning whatever information they find interesting, without checking sources or facts against respected publications. Not to mention that Facebook’s algorithms (for one of the many social media platforms) have remained largely unchanged.

“I'm worried that it took so long for us to start taking note of community transmissions,” says AJ, “I want to draw people's attention to this as being the key number. Not the infection rate or the fatality rate, but community transmissions. This means that we don't know where the virus has spread from, and no idea where it goes”

All in all, whatever your reasons for scrolling more often, it is quite apparent that social media is going to have a heavy influence on our lives over the coming months, if we indeed choose that path. Maybe it is time we all took a leaf out of Cara's book and took a more conscious approach to where we get our information, and also to alleviate our minds from both panic and overload.

I've certainly been bickering and arguing with people over quite a few topics related to the virus, including the government's apparent lack of a plan (prior to the rolled out measures over the past few weeks), schools remaining open and people not adhering to physical distancing and isolation requirements in our major cities – particularly those who are still at work in the public. This may be useful to get off my chest, but it does nothing at the overall level but heighten my frustration and destabalise my current mental state, as well as 'poke the bear' for others to retaliate.

One of the silver linings in this whole episode may be that a good chunk of the population begins to re-think the way it uses and relies on social media, however on the downside we know that the spread of farce and misinformation will no doubt expand and deepen as we sink further into the COVID-19 crisis.

[theonyxpath]

More Q&A – because YOU requested it! Well, maybe not you personally, but we sure did get a great response to last week’s blog…So We’re Doin’ It Again!

“But seriously, why is International shipping so high on the KSs?”

What backers are seeing from us on the Kickstarter pages are the shipping numbers we have received from our fulfillment partners, and no, they aren’t inflating them and we aren’t inflating them – those are what we are hearing from shippers like Fedex and USPS and others.

The fact is: we are not Amazon. We aren’t C’Mon Games or other companies that send out a massive volume of packages. We’re in the same boat as a lot of TTRPG companies, many of whom are dropping international shipping entirely. Instead, we made the call to give our backers the up-front info so they can make intelligent decisions, while we continue to search for less costly shipping options.

“Why aren’t all Storypath Games the same?”

I’m assuming that this is in reference to the Storypath System, and not the settings for each game line that uses it. Because that’s the only way the question makes sense to me.

One of my goals with the Storypath System was that it be flexible enough to work as the basis for any game we care to create with it, and part of that design was that the basic system would then have additional rules attached to it depending on the game line’s needs.

Or, here is more from Eddy Webb, who has been overseeing the Storypath games, as well as doing design work on the system. He sez:

Each game takes the core system and tweaks it in a variety of ways to better emphasize what’s important in that game. A game about myths like Scion doesn’t need comprehensive weapon mechanics, but a game about salvaging equipment like Dystopia Rising does.

Basically, Storypath was never intended to be exactly the same with every line that uses it, like a generic system, but to allow a base level of familiarity so players just need to look into specific, game line intrinsic, additional rules.

“Why won’t you publish all the Clan/Tribe/Tradition/etc books again?”

OK, that’s a multi-part answer, so let me unpack a bit on this one.

First, and very specifically, we aren’t recreating the “Splat books” as we do new editions because those lil’ books aren’t cost-effective to create with our current publishing model. We do however, love to gather the “splats” into larger books like we’ve already done with Lore of the Clans, or Lore of the Bloodlines.

Which brings us to the second part of this, which is what I touched on in last week’s blog, which is that we don’t have carte-blanche to create just any WoD (or CofD or Exalted) books that we want to create. We have to have their pitches approved by our licensor, White Wolf/Paradox, before we can do any work at all on projects.

So what I’m saying is that we wouldn’t just recreate the old splat books, but we would do a differently formatted version, and that version still needs to be greenlit by our licensor. And right now, that has not happened.

Aeon Aexpansion art by Pat McEvoy

“Why are there approvals stages for Scion or Scarred Lands- don’t you own those?”

The business productivity answer is that we try and keep our processes the same in game book creation to make them go through the stages consistently.

The RichT answer is that I want to be able to review, tweak, and fine-tune the game lines my company owns. I mean, I do it with our licensed game lines, so by crackee, I’m doing with my own durn games!

“What stores carry your books?”

Y’know, I don’t actually know all of them at this point! What we hear from our sales partners at Studio2 and Indie Press Revolution, is that more and more stores are ordering as they become aware that we are putting select books into the distribution/retail channel.

So the notices I see are focused on which distributors have ordered what, although I do still get a chance to chat with retailers who pledge during our Kickstarters. Some of those folks have been with us since our first KSs, like our friends at Trollune in France, and more come on board with each KS.

Mighty Matt McElroy is a lot more hands-on with stores and retailers, and maybe we’re at the point where he’d be willing to pull together some sort of Retailer list we could post on this site. I will ask him very, very, nicely if such a thing could be added to his already massive workload.

But be sure that we truly appreciate each and every order from retailers that our sales partners receive. A Friendly Local Game Store is one of the best places to learn about all sort of games, new and old, and we’re glad we were able to figure out a way to once again get books into those shelves!

And if your FLGS doesn’t yet know that they can order books from their favorite distributor like Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition, or Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero, or Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau and others, with even more yet to come like V5 Chicago By Night and the Trinity Continuum books, then please, let them know, let us know, let the world know, that you want them to order our books for you!

Witch Queen art by Nate Pride

“What are YOU excited about that’s coming from Onyx Path?”

Scion: Demigod and Titanomancy to continue the core Scion mythological experience, and Dragon and Mythos to show how Scion has potential beyond that experience. Trinity Continuum: similarly, very excited to bring back Aeon and Aberrant as lines and especially to revisit Adventure! and deliver an exciting game that emulates all the Pulp Genre excitement that I’ve loved during countless hours reading Doc Savage and The Avenger, but in a way that’s compelling for a modern audience. Then, to finally expand from the three original game lines to other time periods and genres with new games that we’re working on but haven’t announced yet.

Legendlore is another game line I’m really looking forward to. In fact, I think the developed text should be coming my way later this week, or next week, and I can’t want to see what Steffie De Vaan and team have done to take this long-established world and bring it up-to-date and relevant like I mentioned about TC: Adventure!

White Wolf gamelines: For CofD, I’m champing at the bit to start sharing Deviant: The Renegades during its Kickstarter. I’ve loved the concept of the wronged seeking revenge for what was done to them since the project was conceptualized, and Dave and Eric and crew have really delivered on that premise, and more! It’s gut-wrenching, horrific, but also empowering!

For Exalted 3rd, I’m really glad we’re finally doing the Storyteller’s Guide, which combined with another book we’re waiting to hear back on from WW, will provide players and prospective Storytellers with a lot of answers and material that fill in some of the blanks in the core EX3 rulebook. Hopefully, these sections will allow even more players to “get” Exalted 3rd, and so they’ll all want to GET Exalted 3rd!

And, of course, I really can’t expand on much for WoD without the OK from WW/Paradox, but we’ve been so thrilled by the reaction to the V5 Chicago By Night Backer PDF that I’m really looking forward to the next WoD projects from Matthew Dawkins, as well as finally delivering our outstanding 20th Anniversary projects!

Distant Worlds art by Rutledge

They Came From…!: Speaking of Matthew, he is gravely hard at work digging into new sources of fun and inspiration for the follow-up They Came From game, and I’m such a fan of the whole genre/time period it covers that I can’t wait to read it!

Creature Collection 5e: for Scarred Lands looks to be gorgeous! I’m both jealous that Johnny Hodgson was able to pull together so many fantastic artists, and thrilled that our efforts with his Handiworks Games is producing such a fantastic book. Look for its KS soon!

These aren’t advertising blurbs here folks! I truly am excited to be able to bring all of these game lines to life, and to be part of bringing them to all of you – as well as those poor misguided souls who don’t yet read this scintillating blog, or know of our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

Keep an eye out in this space as well as on our social media for the Deviant: The Renegades Kickstarter that will be launching after August wraps up!

Onyx Path Media!

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features an interview with one of the unsung new talents of Onyx Path and one of the nicest people working in the TTRPG industry: Meredith Gerber! Go to https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/ or to your favorite podcast venue!

No Onyx Path News this week, with Matthew having been away at Tabletop Scotland! But here’s a nice photo of his group at that convention enjoying a session of They Came from Beneath the Sea!

Here’s our upcoming Twitch schedule, and as you can see, it’s getting very full of content! Between Travis Legge’s Myths & Matchmakers for Scarred Lands, Near Dark Studios‘ Chicago by Night, our very own Pugmire: Paws and Claws and Aberrant: Collateral Damage, and more, we think you’ll find something to entertain you! Even if you don’t, we’d very much appreciate a follow on www.twitch.tv/theonyxpath!

Outside our Twitch channel, the Botch Pit have started up a new chronicle for Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition! And if you’re not into actual plays, they also do breakdowns of lots of our other games: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQfcGvYILEV1vznP5__bOWg

Did you check out the www.gamerstable.com for their actual play of A Slippery Conspiracy? No? Well, now’s the time to catch up and give their actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea! a listen!

Devil’s Luck Gaming continues with Pirates of Bloodwater for Scarred Lands right here: https://www.twitch.tv/DevilsLuckGaming Also check them out for an excellent Shadowrun actual play they’ve started. We know it’s not our game, but we’re happy to promote such a fine cast of players.

If you’re a fan of Scion, check out https://ragnarokandroll.podbean.com/, a podcast that tracks all the way from first edition Scion: Hero to Scion: Ragnarok, but is now looking into the second edition of the game!

We’re going through Wraith: The Oblivion character creation over on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/jflNxrN3i6o And part two will be uploaded this week!

Drop Matthew a message via the contact button on matthewdawkins.com if you have actual plays, reviews, or game overviews you want us to profile on the blog!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

As always, you can find most of Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we’re offering our monthly Exalted 3rd Edition PDF for Hundred Devils Night Parade!

Conventions!

Save Against Fear: October 12th – 14th GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd PAX Unplugged: December 6th – 8th 2020: Midwinter: January 9th – 12th

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Redlines

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Development

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Manuscript Approval

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

W20 Art Book (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Post-Approval Development

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

V5 Chicago Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Scion LARP Rules (Scion)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Editing

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Post-Editing Development

Memento Mori (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e Companion)

DR:E Jumpstart (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Ex3 Lunars – Contracted.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Contracted. Sketches still coming in.

TCfBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties – Contracted.

Deviant (KS) – Contracted. LeBlanc’s art already in.

Trinity RMCs – Contracted.

Cults of the Blood God (KS) – Sending out art notes.

Chicago Folio – Art notes going out this week.

Mummy 2 (KS) – Got Matthew’s notes.

In Layout

CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel

Dark Eras 2 – Files with Aileen

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds

VtR Spilled Blood – With Josh.

DR:E Jumpstart

Aeon Aexpansion

Proofing

C20 Cup of Dreams

V5: Chicago – Inputting errata.

Geist 2e – XX’s and then Indexing.

Signs of Sorcery – Inputting errata.

M20 Book of the Fallen

DR: E – Inputting errata.

At Press

Dragon Blooded – Deluxe at Studio2, shipping wrapping up.

Dragon-Blooded Cloth Map – At Studio2, shipping wrapping up.

Dragon-Blooded Screen – Shipped to Studio2, shipping wrapping up.

Trinity Core Screen – At Studio2.

TC Aeon Screen – At Studio2.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs coming.

Trinity Core – Printing. PoD proofs ordered.

Trinity Aeon – Printing. PoD proofs ordered.

Shunned By the Moon – PoD proof coming.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

On this date in 1346 – Hundred Years’ War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armored knights is established at the Battle of Crécy. Thus spawning whole rafts of longbow lovin’ moments in gaming! (Also can be seen as a victory for the common man that will echo through history and turn out even more badly for the French nobility 400-some years later).

[uhlexsuhmuhchel-blog]

Abortion and the Ban in Ireland

My topic is abortion and the banning of it and I am doing an analysis because I’m passionate about women’s sexual health, rights and the process of which laws get put into place and are formed. In this analysis, I am going to explain the use of pathos, ethos and logos and The NY Times’ use of these rhetorical devices in this article. 

When it comes to the Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion, one of the main points of the article is that Belfast and Northern Ireland have banned abortions, similar to the laws being set up in Louisiana. Another important main point is that women are traveling outside of the country to have abortions for a variety of reasons because of the laws in place. These women are forced to carry the fetus full term, no matter the conception whether it be rape, incest or even if the fetus could not and would not survive outside of the womb. When it comes to getting caught trying to have an abortion, even if you are pregnant because of one of the previous reasons, women can face life in prison as there doesn’t seem to be an addendum to the law that states otherwise.

The purpose of this article is to inform people of the problems that are occurring in different countries with abortion bans and how this may affect those that are in a place where abortion bans are being put into effect around the country and in other countries. I believe the intended audience are those potentially affected by the abortion ban as well as those who may be in a position to help anyone affected. This also may just be an article that sheds light on the subject as a whole as well and can explain what the women are doing in response to this ban, bringing attention to the illegal abortions as well. Overall that feels like the main purpose of the story. 

Ethos is the use of credibility or trust to influence the reader and allows the source to give the reader confidence in the source they are reading and gives the reader faith in the journal as a whole and leaves little room for a reader to feel they need to question the information or the source. One piece of information in the article that could be pushed when it comes to ethos is the statement that says “activists worry that even if abortion is decriminalized, the anti-abortion movement will become more aggressive” which doesn’t expand on that statement and doesn’t give any back up for the statement, giving me the idea that the New York Times generalized the statement and spoke for a vast amount of women whether this was the truth or not because readers would trust the statement. 

Another statement that could rely on the use of ethos when it comes to the credibility that the New York Times has is the statement “Several women have been prosecuted after police officers have raided their homes or workplaces” which doesn’t give any support for this information. The lack of back up information causes me to question its validity and the source. 

The next thing I want to analyze for this paper is logos which is the use of logic, reasoning or proof, one of the examples being the same as one of the last ones I used, being the statement that claims that many upwards of 10 women have been arrested for seeking out a medically-induced abortion. This specific statement makes a large claim but doesn’t back it up with any form of arrest records, or names, maybe even if for confidentiality reasons, this statement should be backed up. There is no proof of these women being arrested for seeking out an abortion or for any reason and doesn’t give the reader any option to do their own research either. 

The next statement I want to include when it comes to analyzing logos is a statement that does include the use of reasoning is the statement that discusses the other choices for women who are looking to have an abortion, stating that there are fully funded abortion services in England, though not all women can make the trip, citing reasons such as disability, domestic abuse or a lack of childcare. This statement presents the solution to the problem these women face then immediately answers the question of “why is this not valid for everyone?” 

I want to analyze the use of pathos now which is the use of emotion and I have two statements in mind as I do so. The first one being the mention of the abuse women face and one woman in particular because she explained her want for an abortion to a counselor while her husband was present. She believed that this would be safe but once they got home, he beat her with a metal spatula and threatened worse but didn’t follow through as she was pregnant. This is an intense statement and a point of tension for a lot of people, men or women when explaining that someone has been subjected to this type of treatment. I believe that the New York Times uses this to tug at the readers’ heartstrings and to gain sympathy from the readers, even those who don’t agree with abortion.  

Another statement I want to analyze is the statement that includes the fact that women are banned from having abortions, even when it comes to death, rape or even incest. I believe that this statement alone shows that no matter the reasoning, there is a reason to be upset about the fact that a woman can not freely choose to abort no matter the reason, but even those in the most intense and dangerous of situations are stuck with carrying a baby to full term and only then can they take the situation into their own hands by choosing to put the child up for adoption or have to attempt to abort illegally. 

Overall, this piece used ethos, pathos and, logos to intrigue the reader as well as keep their attention on the main point of the article. I believe that overall this is a well written, informative piece by the New York Times, meant to bring attention to those who are unaware of the current struggles women in other countries, and soon our own country will be facing. 

                                               MWA 1 Reflection 

Some general concepts I learned during this sequence was how to write sentences effectively and in a way that makes them less bulky as well as getting to the point more effectively. I also learned how to analyze how sources use pathos, ethos, and logos to influence their readers as well as how to use pathos, ethos, and logos to make an effective argument. 

When it comes to the student learning objectives for this sequence we are meant to learn how to compose effective arguments with different sources of information and we’re meant to use writing o explain our personal beliefs, making effective arguments as we do so. It also taught us to provide relevant and important information only, getting rid of any unnecessary fluff that may not be helpful to the points we want to make as writers. 

When it comes to learning how to analyze arguments, I have learned how to see what rhetorical devices the author is using to either break down their argument or strengthen it effectively and I learned that there are certain aspects you need to have in an effective argument, such as effective and correct sources, correct information and a professional and unbiased tone. The use of images, audio and text can help strengthen an argument as long as they are valid and vital to the argument. They can hinder the argument if they don’t correlate well to the information trying to be pushed and spoken about. For example, if talking about climate change, adding graphs of the amount of CO2 being put in the atmosphere could help you make the claim that CO2 is hindering the health of the planet but if you added a comic style photo of a “sick planet” it may be relevant but not all that professional and can hinder the argument. 

My opinion on the argument that I made is still the same, SWA 2 and MWA 1 didn’t change my viewpoint but did make me feel as though I can talk about it more effectively and in a way that seems more educated than it would have been before these writing assignments. I still believe that women's sexual and reproductive health should not be hindered by the government and that no matter the situation, it should be a woman’s choice to make, not politicians. I did learn more about the topic than I did know though I was already well versed when it comes to the topic overall. 

Publishing my work publically didn’t change my perspective on my perspective because my feelings about the topic are ones I have discussed publicly and this is a view that I would keep myself from discussing as it can affect many people in ways that can be life-threatening and fatal. I know that not everyone is going to agree with my views and they are free to do so, which is just a part of having opinions and if someone disagrees with me after seeing the piece, I wouldn’t take offense to it. The only aspect that changed was that I did want what I said to be accurate when it comes to my writing and feelings as I wanted to give my opinion and thoughts in a well thought out way as well as an effective way. 

The technology didn’t change how I formatted this writing because I have previously used media to publish my writing, even if it isn’t something I’m comfortable with it is something I’m used to. 

I can apply using what I’ve learned in this sequence when I go on into the work field and need to form unbiased and professional opinions as well as professional and clear arguments in my career field. I also know that I can observe the ethos, pathos, and logos in many arguments as well as different pieces of writing now that I have learned how to do so and I can use those to form informed opinions based on what I am viewing whether it be the news, social media or even writing. I can use it to make sure that I am informed and know how the author of a certain piece is trying to inform the audience or even to tell if they may be trying to manipulate an audience in a certain way.

Yeginsu, Ceylan. “Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/world/europe/abortion-northern-ireland-roe.html?searchResultPosition=11.

[theibgirls]

CAS is an essential part of the IB programme, but coming up with ideas for it can be very challenging, especially if money is tight. Therefore, I present to you 99 Free (or at the very least, inexpensive) CAS ideas!

Please like/reblog if this helped you, and so that it can help others! ❤︎

Creativity

1. Learn a new language: Free apps or websites like Duolingo or Mondly can help you learn a variety of languages. Here is a post about the language availability on various apps. You can even practice by manually translating song lyrics, which really is just an excuse to listen to Bollywood hits, K-pop, or even Shakira- there’s no reason to not have a little fun with it! If you do just 10 minutes a day you’ll get over an hour of CAS done every week. If you do 20 minutes a day, you’ll get over 2 hours a week, and by spending a little more than 20 minutes on one or two days you can easily get 2 and a half hours of CAS a week. 10 weeks of this and you’ll have 50% of your creativity hours done, and all while having fun listening to songs, and not having to spend a penny!

2. Making gifs or edits: You’re already on tumblr, why not use it as an opportunity for CAS? Making original content takes time, and will quickly fill up those 50 hours! If you don’t want your CAS supervisor see which fandoms you’re a part of, make school related content, for example making subject moodboards (self spon), edits of your required reading (maybe typography for your favourite quotes?), or giffing your favourite historical figures. If you’re experienced you can mass produce content, and if you’re a beginner you can check that “new skills” box! GIMP is free, and Photoshop has a free trial. After that you can either pay for it, or perhaps scour the internet for alternative ways to keep it (though you didn’t hear it from me). If you fulfill requests then it counts as service as well.

3. Art: You can either create digital art using the programs listed in the previous suggestion, or you can do it the old fashioned. While art supplies tend to cost a lot, there is no shame in making sketches or comics using good ol’ ink and lead pencils that you already have in your pencil case, and doing it in a notebook. If you’re willing to splurge, there are tons of ways to go with your art!

4. Photography: While a good camera is expensive, you probably already have a camera in your phone. The quality won’t be ideal, but you can easily practice photographing different motifs in different styles. You can also retouch and enhance the photos with GIMP and Photoshop, as mentioned above.

5. Join or create a low maintenance club: Baking and music may be fun, but ingredients cost money, and so do instruments. A debate club or film club won’t cost anything, except maybe if you buy popcorn! Regular meetings will ensure regular CAS hours.

6. Write poetry: Writing a good poem can take many, many hours, which in the context of CAS is a good thing! Take a stroll in the forest or by the seaside and feel those creative juices flowing!

7. Write a book: You know that idea for a novel you’ve had for ages? Write it down. It may feel awkward to show to your writing to your supervisor, but think of it as a free editor or focus group. This is a great excuse to fulfill your dream of becoming an author. Who knows? Maybe the final product is good enough to send to a publisher, or to self-publish on amazon so you can make some money!

8. Make Redbubble designs: A spin-off of the digital art suggestion. Whether it’s simple text or intricate fanart, Redbubble is a great place to display your creativity, and can even make you some money if you’re lucky!

9. Join a choir: Privately owned choirs may cost to join, but your local church will probably let you in for free.

10. Play an instrument: If you don’t already own an instrument, this isn’t a great option on a budget. However, some of you will already own a keyboard or a guitar, and may even already be taking lessons. If you are, then there is no reason not to use it for CAS. And if you own an instrument but don’t go to classes, simply practice on our own or watch tutorials on YouTube.

11. Dungeons and Dragons: Shocking, I know, but it is actually quite easy to justify D&D as creativity. A friend of mine succeeded in doing this, stating that it involved team work, initiative, commitment and problem solving. It goes to show that most things can be justified as CAS if you word everything well enough.

12. Makeup, nail art, or body paint: I highly doubt that applying mascara in the morning counts, but there are certainly many ways to express yourself with makeup. SFX, intricate patterns and new techniques certainly require creativity.

13. Dance: Dance will be expanded on in the Action section, but dance is not only exercise, but a form of expression which requires passion and creativity.

14. Learn coding: Coding has become a valuable skill in the recent years. There’s an endless amount of sources online, many of them free. Not only is it an interesting skill, but it’s an impressive skill to see on a résumé.

15. Make a game or an app: Game development is certainly not easy, but that just means that there will be plenty of hours for you to log! It also has the potential to make you money, which of course is a plus!

16. Start a YouTube channel: Buying a microphone and camera is expensive, but unless you’re aiming to become a YouTube star there’s no reason to spend money on equipment. CAS doesn’t discriminate between a $500 camera and a built in webcam, or between Adobe Premiere and Windows Movie Maker, so utilize what you have.

17. Join the school newspaper: The school newspaper is a great way to ensure regular hours, and can even count as service. There are many different types of articles, so you can get some variety in it too.

18. Send in articles to a newspaper: If you think the school newspaper is aiming too low, you can always submit articles to local newspapers or online magazines such as Buzzfeed. Your submissions may not always be published, but it’s worth a try, and the hours will count anyway!

19. Make a PSA video: There are tonnes of important causes you can promote, and a PSA video is a great way to do it. Furthermore, the service aspect will count for service hours, and if you do it with a friend it can count as a CAS project.

20. Acting: There are plenty of auditions around, whether it be to a school play or primetime TV. You don’t even need to get a role, simply auditioning is enough as you’ve been a risk taker (your coordinator will appreciate you using the IB learner profile in your reflections), and been creative.

21. Making a short film: Combining he last two points, making a video and acting, take this chance to make a short film (or a full length one depending on your ambition) and Kenneth Branagh’ it as producer, director, writer and lead.

22. Learn animation: Self-explanatory, and a very impressive skill to have.

23. Free online courses: Whether it be public speaking or anthropology, there are many free courses online which can be justified as creativity. Some courses may even look good on your résumé.

24. Make a board game: Board games are a lot of fun, but harder to make than they seem. Your creation might not be the next Monopoly, but it may provide some entertainment when you’re meeting your friends, and wouldn’t playing games with your friend be a great way to get CAS hours?

25. Gardening: A beautiful garden is a challenge to create, but challenges are a part of CAS! From a terrarium to a full scale English garden, there are many options for gardening. Here are some cheap ideas.

26. Make a podcast: Podcasts have become quite popular in the last few years, so try it out for yourself! There are many different topics you could cover, some which could count as service. Discussing one of those topics with a friend could be a great idea for a CAS project.

27. Make a website: This one is quite self-explanatory. Like the podcast, you could easily add a service aspect into it, and working with a friend could make it a CAS project.

28. Translating transcripts of spoken word poem: this one comes from @kahvia, who says “I found the transcripts of the poems on the Internet (some are hard to get, so once I just messaged the author on Facebook) and translated into my native language. It's hard and time consuming, but can be done on the go, so you can do CAS when commuting.”

29. Calligraphy: I must confess that I don’t know a lot about calligraphy, but I assume that amazing tools can cost quite a bit. But remember, CAS isn’t about quality, it’s about quantity, so screw expensive tools and just go for it!

30. Create your own font: Like with most things in life, wikihow has got your back.

31. Make an interactive story: Cool and largely uncharted territory, and definitely a unique experience. This will help you out.

32. Learn origami: Origami is beautiful, and the possibilities are endless. Although origami paper is preferred, it is possible to use regular paper too, which will save you some bucks. Google and YouTube have a million tutorials, so they got you covered.

33.  Make a Studyblr: Do you have any idea how many hours I’m getting just by making this list?

Action

1. Go jogging: Perhaps the most obvious free exercise is jogging. All you need is a pair of sneakers and you’re good to go (jogging)!

2. Play Pokémon Go: If you are still one of the few people playing Pokémon Go, walk until your eggs hatch. You could simply walk, but games make it a bit more interesting. On your CAS worksheet you can simply say you plan on walking 2km a day, but in your head and your heart it’s an epic quest for Pikachu.

3. Yoga: Yoga has numerous health benefits and is a great choice for those who don’t like exercise. Power yoga is an option for those who prefer a challenge, but beginner’s yoga isn’t too strenuous and can easily be done at home. Although a yoga mat is preferable, a lot of the moves can be done on the bed or just the floor. YouTube and the app store have thousands of free options, so there’s plenty to choose from, from 10 minutes to an hour. Half an hour before bed each day will have you finishing up your activity hours in no time!

4. Swimming in a public pool, lake or ocean: There are some public pools, but many pools require an entrance fee. The ocean does not. It’s not as easy to swim laps as in a pool, but it will do in a pinch.

5. A 30 day exercise challenge: The internet is full of 30 day exercise plans. Although they’re usually not an ideal fitness plan it will challenge your commitment, and you can get a month worth of CAS.

6.  Biking: Assuming you already have a bike, biking is a very cheap method of exercise, but very efficient. Biking to and from school will count, and if takes about 20 minutes back and forth a day, you’ll get 100 minutes in a school week. It’s regular exercise, and therefore it’s regular CAS.

7. Free apps: There’s an almost unlimited amount of exercise apps in the app store, and many of them are free. Try them out! Even a 7 minute exercise app can be useful. 49 minutes every week can be rounded up to 50 minutes, which is a great place to start if you’re new to CAS.

8. Dog walking: If you have your own dog, good for you! Take the adorable little pupper out for a walk. And if not, ask a neighbour if you can steal their dog take their dog for walks. Another case of regular exercise resulting in regular CAS hours.

9. Dance: Not all dancing has to be taught in class. Online you will find numerous tutorials for various dance styles, from belly dancing to hip hop. And if you choose to learn a dance style from another culture, like India’s kathak or the Latin samba you get to learn about other cultures and therefore be a global citizen (as the IBO likes to tell us to be).

10. Dance apps or games: This activity isn’t as focused on independent learning as the previous dance suggestion, but it works nonetheless. Games like DDR or Just Dance are found in many households, so you might already have access to them at home. Just Dance includes an exercise mode, so give it a go! And if you don’t have them, there’s always the free Just Dance app, which should do the trick, memes aside.

11. PlayStation or Wii games: Certainly not a cheap option if you don’t already have the consoles or games, but if you have Wii Sports or PlayStation 3 Sports Champions you have a great way to exercise without leaving your living room.

12. Self-defense: When you can’t afford to go to a self-defense class, we have the internet. Learning proper self-defense is sadly very important, but since it’s important to learn, why not learn it for CAS? Practice with a friend until you’re a ninja, or until you have 15 hours of activity completed.

13. Celebrity workout tape: You know the ones. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Jane Fonda tape from the 80s which you recreate in a leotard, but then again, why not? You could use a random person’s workout tape, but I think Jane Fonda can be trusted (I mean she’s 80 and have you seen how good she looks?). Cheesy as celebrity workout tapes are, especially the ones from the 80s, there’s something special about them. Many of them can be found online, so give them a go, leotard or no!

14. Jump rope: Chances are you still have a jump rope lying around the house from when you were a kid. Rope jumping is actually very good exercise, so try to find your old toy again- it will come in handy!

15. Chair workouts: Fulfill your dream of becoming Britney Spears with some chair exercises. There’s no need to buy fancy equipment when you can just go to your kitchen instead.

16. Basketball: No need to join a team as long as you have a hoop at home. Many people still have a hoop over the garage door from when they were children, why not utilize them?

17. Join a school club: Of course, any club works, but most clubs will require an entry fee. School owned ones are unlikely to ask for one.

18. Hiking: Fresh air, breath-taking views, and all that crap.

19. Running competitions: 5k runs are frequently put on, why not join one?

20. Walk home: Is it cheating? Probably. But walking is activity, so why shouldn’t you take advantage of it? You don’t need to specify that you’re walking home, you can simply say a daily walk of x minutes.

21. Basic gymnastics or acrobatics: When I say basic, I mean basic. Somersaults, cartwheels, the works. It’s technically exercise, and you can say you’re doing acrobatics without going into further details.

22. Tree climbing: An alternative to rock climbing, only it’s free.

23. Use stockings as resistance bands: I honestly don’t know how well this works, but google said it works so it must be true.

24. Water gymnastics: Once again, doing things properly is overrated. Go to a pool and try to figure it out yourself, or with a friend. It may look ridiculous, but you’ll be trying. Another option is to do it some meters away from an ongoing class, because stealing exercise kinda works according to an episode of Will and Grace.

25. Badminton: When I say badminton, I don’t mean fancy professional badminton, I mean “get a gas station badminton racket and play in the park or your lawn”.

26. Foraging: Go look for mushrooms in a forest and keep track of how long you’ve been out and how long you’ve walked.

27. Orienteering: Although I personally despise orienteering with a violent passion, I have many friends who enjoy it, one who even does it for fun. Orienteering can be planned with friends, and can take place in a forest or a city.

28. Treasure hunt: Almost an extension of orienteering, you can plan a treasure hunt in a city or a forest. With the added element of the treasure hunt, there’s a case for creativity, and doing it in a group can work as a CAS project.

29. Frisbee: Frisbees are cheap and can be bought at a gas station, and work as a fun group activity.

30. Help the elderly: As you will see in the Service section, elderly neighbours might need some help cutting grass or shoveling snow. And as anyone who has ever shoveled snow knows, it’s a surprisingly efficient exercise.

31. Gym trial: Many gyms offer a free trial for a day or a week, or even a month, which is easy to take advantage of. Use the free days to their full extent, and if that isn’t enough, go to another gym chain and use their trial. Obviously this won’t be a long term thing, but if you work long, and not necessarily hard, 15 hours should be manageable.

32. Pilates: An alternative to yoga that works as well at home as at a gym.

33. PARKOUR: … don’t die.

 Service

1. Join Amnesty: Amnesty is an organization that raises awareness for a number of important issues, and often collect signatures for their causes. Be the one who hunts for signatures and watch the service hours roll in.

2. Join the Red Cross, or any other charitable organization: The Red Cross needs no introduction. It is perhaps the most famous charity in the world, and does a lot of good. However, there have been controversies surrounding it in the past, so if you want to support another charity instead, go for it! Find a charity that is important to you and the service hours will feel even sweeter.

3. Blood donation, or spreading awareness for it: Donating blood will often get you a small payment, and you can’t do it often, so it isn’t ideal for service. However, going to your local donation center and asking for pamphlets and sign up forms to bring to school or a stand at the mall is a great way to raise awareness and encourage other people to go donate blood. It’s one of those things people talk about doing but always put off, so be the person that changes their mind-set!

4. Helping out at school events: School discos, bake sales, or bazaars always need volunteers, and it’s a great way to get many hours done at once. Contact the PTA at your school or other schools in the area and see when upcoming events are taking place and you’ll easily get at least 15 hours of service done. If you really phrase things well you might even be able to get some creativity hours.

5. Dog walking: Expanding on the point in Action, you can walk other people’s dogs as service. Ask a neighbour if they need help, or post an ad at the grocery store. Service hours and spending time with dogs, what more could you want?

6. Volunteer at an animal shelter: Like the previous point, this really is just a great excuse to hang out with animals. Check the local shelter to see if they need any helpers!

7. Volunteering at a senior center: Senior centers are always in need of more hands. Whether it’s cleaning the resident’s rooms, walking with them or just making sure they have some company, there will always be something the center will need help with.

8. Volunteering at a hospital: Not all hospitals allow untrained volunteers, but some hospitals do. If you volunteer at a hospital you will not perform the duties of a nurse, but instead simply provide some company for the people staying there.

9. Homeless shelter: Homeless shelters always need more volunteers. There’s a variety of roles you can fill, from handing out food to collecting donations. No matter what it is you do, it will have a great impact on the people who rely on the shelters.

10. Make a PSA video: As mentioned in the Creativity section, making a PSA video is a great idea for a CAS project as it combines creativity and service, and results in lots of hours.

11. Bake sales: Baking yourself will obviously cost a bit, but most ingredients can probably already be found in your home. Set up a stand in the school corridor, and find a charity to donate the profits to.

12. Volunteer at a library: Most libraries have a variety of volunteer opportunities, from tutoring children to teaching seniors how to use technology. Go to your local library and see what volunteer programs they have!

13. Shoveling snow: Winter doesn’t treat people who live in cold places well. In case of snow you might have several neighbours struggling to clear the snow from their lot. Offer them a hand and feel the CAS hours piling up!

14. Cutting grass: Like shoveling snow, cutting grass is something people need to get done, but it’s backbreaking and time consuming. Go around the neighbourhood and see if anyone needs any help with it!

15. Assisting elderly neighbours: If you have any elderly neighbours, offer to do chores for them, like cleaning and cooking. They’ll be sure to appreciate it, and it can get you semi regular CAS hours.

16. Car washing: No, this does not have to include a red bikini, but it does give you two options: either offer to wash cars for free as service, or to set a price so you can give the profits to charity. All you need is a sponge and some water, so get scrubbing!

17. Scouts: Most scout groups require a member fee, so it’s not ideal to become a scout if you aren’t one. However, if you’re already a member, being a scout leader will get you many, many hours, so take advantage of it!

18. Student union: Student unions work hard, and can therefore get you many hours. There will be a wide range of activities to organize and participate in, so you’ll have some much needed variety.

19. Prom committee: If you’re not interested in joining the student union, there may be some committees that are separate from the union. Prom committees, graduation committees, etc., are all great options that can get you plenty of hours.

20. Babysitting: Give your neighbours a night off by offering to babysit for free. Remember, it doesn’t count as service if you get paid, so make sure the only money you get is to pay for dinner.

21. Tutoring: Some schools have study halls, or a homework club, aka after school homework help for the younger kids. And if your school doesn’t offer it already, ask if you can start it. It’ll be a chance for you to tutor younger kids, and if nobody shows up and wants your help, so what? You offered the service, and even if no one came, the hours count.

22. Start a club: Being a member of a club will get you creativity hours, starting one will get you both. Do it with a friend and you’ve got a CAS project.

23. Join a big brother/big sister organization: There are several of these organizations going around, and a popular one in the US is bbbs.org, which states that their mission is to “Provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.” A noble cause for sure, and one which your CAS coordinator will adore. It will tick most outcome boxes, and you will gain something from it too.

24. Volunteer in a political campaign: If there are any elections happening in your country soon, get involved for the good of your community, and your CAS hours!

25. Volunteer at a hotline: Many countries have crisis hotlines that often need more volunteers, why not help out?

26. Start Kiva team: kiva.org is a great website that revolves around microloans. It has the option to make or join teams of lenders. Make a team and try to gain members, spread awareness and get donations to lend money to people in need around the world. As they are loans, you get money back in kiva credit which you can then donate to someone new, thus creating a circle of good. Team meetings to decide which individuals, countries or field partners to donate to next will get you many CAS hours.

27. Plan an athletic event for charity: Whether it be a 5k, orienteering, a treasure hunt (all as mentioned in the activity section), or anything else you can think of, it’s a great way to involve a community, and any entrance fee can be donated to charity. By participating yourself, you can tick all three CAS boxes, and doing it with one or more people makes it a great CAS project.

28. Writing letters to soldiers: This may not be an option everywhere, but some countries have organizations where you can write letters to the soldiers overseas who don’t have anyone writing to them, which is sure to be a morale booster.

29. Host a free workshop: Workshops are a great way to learn new skills, or to teach your skills. Maybe you can teach something you learned from/for your creativity hours!

30. Neighbourhood watch: Neighbourhood watches are a great way to help ensure safety in your local area, so either join one or start one.

31. Volunteer to help immigrants and/or refugees: There are many organizations that work to help immigrants and refugees become integrated in society, whether it be activities for children or events to help newly arrived people learn the local language. Look up any local organizations and see if they’re looking for volunteers!

32. Park maintenance: Many parks need help with a lot of maintenance, from cleaning to repainting benches. Contact whoever is in charge and see if they need any volunteers.

33. Studyblr: Coming up with 99 free CAS ideas is surprisingly time consuming, and so is everything else about a studyblr, so give it a go and get those hours!

[your-dietician]

The Future of Alternative Pain Therapies

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/the-future-of-alternative-pain-therapies/

The Future of Alternative Pain Therapies

The need to find alternative therapies to opioids to treat both acute and chronic pain is critical for a number of reasons.

With the population aging and individuals living longer there will be a need to develop new therapeutics that are beneficial for the geriatric population.

In addition, our understanding on the opioid epidemic and the addictive nature of the treatments continues to expand.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Tobias Moeller-Bertram, MD, chief medical officer of Desert Clinic Pain Institute, explained why alternative therapies have been slow to take form, but how our growing understanding on both patients and treatments could lead to some positive changes in the near future.

Moeller-Bertram is the co-chair of the Evolving Approaches in Pain Management conference in San Diego on August 14, which will feature several experts discussing opioid use, alternative options for post-surgical pain, and how to best treat addiction.

HCPLive: Since pain is something that transcends different medical fields, how important is it to bring individuals with different expertise to come together and talk about some of these topics?

Moeller-Bertram: It’s of utmost importance. Pain is something that affects all aspects of human experience. It affects physical, mental and spiritual aspects.

If you look at the different varieties of specialties that enter the pain field and can be certified, to see experts really from anesthesia, focusing more on physiology and better blocking the pain with medicines to psychiatry, which is really more focused on the emotional experience of pain and emotion.

You start with the definition of pain that is a physical and emotional experience. And the whole concept of the biopsychosocial experience really shows that pain is the ultimate combination of whole person care.

So all specialties that are focusing on the physical, mental and spiritual aspect of pain are not only welcomed but necessary to really relieve pain from its origin, but also from the burden of pain and the suffering that comes with it.

A multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach is needed for meaningful treatments.

HCPLive: With the population aging in the way that it is, how important is it to come up with some pain alternatives that could help the older population?

Moeller-Bertram: This is a problem that’s going to affect a lot of us and not only is the population living longer, I think the hope of living a meaningful life is very high. People want to stay active. people want to stay engaged, and people want to contribute to society.

Finding a means of increasing mobility and quality of life and avoiding the risks of current medications, particularly opioids, I think is going to be very important.

There’s some exciting opportunities. We’re working closely with our surgical and orthopedic colleagues trying to address osteoarthritis. In general, when you look at the newer evolving therapies, I think there’s some hope that some new therapeutics going to be able to reduce osteoarthritis pain, and not have those side effect profiles of opioids.

HCPLive: For cannabis, do we have a firm grasp on what areas it should be used for and what maybe it is less effective for?

Moeller-Bertram: I wish I could give you the answer. I think in a few years, we will be able to do so. I think that we have a sound understanding of the usefulness, I think that the evidence so far, is convincing enough, that is shown it’s a good product for pain, in general.

I think that before we even can go to which specific pain areas will respond well to the cannabis derived and treatments, we have to probably get a little bit of understanding of which compounds to watch.

Cannabis has more than 100 cannabinoids and there is something known as the entourage effect, where the combination of different components works differently than each other components alone.

So I think we have to get a little better understanding of what in the plant material having which kind of effects.

And once we can explain that a little bit more, we can see for example, a certain combination is better for reducing inflammation in the body, one could expect that any inflammatory driven pain would respond well to that combination.

If it’s something that has a more muscle relaxing combination, one could imagine a therapeutic that consists of these components will be better when it comes to a musculoskeletal pain.

I think it’s going to be a combination of clinical data feedback that we get from patients that are taking these medications, indicating for which pain concerns and complaints, it was helpful.

And then us on the other hand scientifically understanding which compounds and combinations of compounds have one effect on the body, and therefore combining them to hopefully, be able to really come up with specific subsets of therapeutics for specific pain indications.

HCPLive: Did the pandemic shed light on any of the gaps that need to be closed in terms of pain management?

Moeller-Bertram: My immediate response would be I can tell you that a substantial portion of my patients in my clinics has realized that what’s the dependence on particularly opiate medications meant for them.

Going through the anxiety and making sure that they have access to their medication, which I think wasn’t necessarily in front of their mind prior to the pandemic.

A lot of those saw that as a negative rather than a positive because their motivation of not relying on a medication that they have to get on their feet to get because there are withdrawal syndromes and of course increased pain.

Particularly the withdrawal symptoms is something patients didn’t normally report prior to the pandemic. So I think that might be one aspect where people reflect more on do, I really want to expose myself to this living scenario were having access on a regular basis to these medications is not only important for me to treat my pain, but also important for me to avoid withdrawals.

To which degree that’s going to translate into the willingness to look at alternatives, or, to which degree is going to make it easier for us to have conversations around reduction and limiting opioids will be seen, but at least that is something that comes to mind initially.

HCPLive: You are also presenting during the meeting about opioid addiction therapy options, how has this field grown in recent years?

Moeller-Bertram: I think this is a field that is continuing to evolve. And we do have options on the medical side, then has been brought more to the forefront, particularly the probuphine type of therapeutics.

The fact that it’s easier for physicians to prescribe than at this point, I think has made a big impact.

There’s always room for improvement.

On the non-pharmacological side, I think access to trauma informed care, and really working with patients with addictions on those areas is something that I hope we want to improve on and increase that.

HCPLive: How challenging is it to balance the addictive nature of some of these substances with their medicinal value?

Moeller-Bertram: I think this is an ever-present issue when it comes to treatment. You want to have a beneficiary risk benefit profile; you don’t want to expose people to unnecessary risks. Also, the individual nature of how you respond to a pharmacologic compound plays a role here, too.

I think that we probably can learn more about predictive measures and predict the factors who’s responding how to certain drugs.

It’s not liked every person is responding the same way when it comes to addictive behavior to certain drugs. But I believe that in medicine, we often just think about the average patient, which is not in existence.

Some compounds absolutely have higher potential for addiction than others and we have a pretty good idea about that. But I think the predictive measures when it comes to the individual patients actually taking their medications, there’s something that we can learn more, and hopefully, you’re going to be able to improve that.

So I hope that we as physicians and healthcare providers will in the future have better towards to increase the benefits and reducing the risk when we are using therapeutics that have a benefit for the patients but also the known problems.

HCPLive: Are we close to achieving the balance needed in treating both chronic and acute pain?

Moeller-Bertram: I hope so. I think it’s driven by the understanding that the simple transition of one works for acute pain apply to chronic pain does not work. I think the realization around that is really driving the change in thought process and change in approach of treatment.

I continue to hope that this whole person care and the idea of really individualizing treatment is going to continue, which has to mean that we look more at the circumstances, which person has what disease, for what reasons.

I think the trend is continuing. It’s going to take a while, there’s a lot of factors involved.

It starts with the healthcare practitioners understanding, the patient’s acceptance of the shift in paradigm, and then the insurance apparatus and everything that’s behind the reimbursement models and those kind of things to really adapt to that.

It’s going to be a process. But I think that we are at the point that we know this, this path has to be walked we there’s really no turning away from it. So I hope that every stakeholder in both stays motivated and, you know, takes this path one step at a time. And maybe next year when you ask me, you’re going to have more tangible changes already.

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[cassh24sg]

Small Business Loan Options in Texas

Did you know that there are 2.8 million small businesses in Texas? Or that these small businesses employ 4.8 million people? Texas is a fantastic place to start or grow a business, whether you are in Austin, Dallas, Houston, or one of the hundreds of other cities in the Lone Star State … but not without a little help. Here is what you need to know about small business loans in Texas.

How A Loan Can Help Your Texas Small Business

When I say “help” I am referring to small business loans, which can be useful in many ways. They can help you buy what your business needs to run on a day-to-day basis and make sure you have enough cash flow to survive slow times in your business.

Taking out a business loan can also help you build and expand your business loan, as long as you pay your monthly installment on time each month.

Find the right financing for you

Don’t waste hours looking for and applying for loans you don’t stand a chance – get matched today based on your business and credit profile.

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Small business credit options in Texas

When it comes to corporate finance, you have several options. Some you may qualify for, especially if you have good credit, while others may offer you finance at higher rates.

COVID-19 pandemic loans

In addition to two federal loan programs, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, Texas has several COVID-19 grant and small business loan programs, including loans from PeopleFund and various city governments. Check the links for the latest information.

Bank loan

If your credit rating is excellent, you can qualify for a long term loan with loan interest rates from a bank or credit union.

SBA loan

The US Small Business Administration also offers low-interest loans like the 7 (a) loan or SBA 504 loan that can be used for things like business expenses, equipment, and commercial real estate. Learn more at SBA.gov.

Credit lines

When you need access to capital but don’t want to have it all (and don’t have to pay back everything at once), business lines of credit can fill the bill. Borrow from what you are approved for and only pay back that amount.

Equipment financing

If you are using equipment like computers, heavy machinery, or even company cars, there are certain equipment loans that you may want to explore. The devices you buy act as collateral that can bring interest rates down.

Credit cards

Having business credit cards to make purchases for your business can come in handy even when you run out of cash in the bank. Withdraw your balance in full to avoid interest fees and look for a card with rewards to earn on your purchases.

Short-term loan

But what if you don’t qualify for any of the above options, maybe because your business is new or you don’t have good credit? You can still qualify for short-term loans, but know that these tend to have higher interest rates.

How To Choose The Right Loan For Your Texas Business

Start with your fitness. Which financing options do you qualify for? Ideally, apply for the lowest interest rate loan to minimize the additional fees you pay.

Also, think about how you plan to use the funds. Some loans, particularly SBA loans, may have specific loan proceeds use requirements, and there are loans such as equipment finance that are designed for specific purchases.

How To Qualify For A Texas Business Loan

Financial institutions may have slightly different criteria for qualifying for a business loan, but in general you can expect them to look at how long you’ve been in business, your credit history, and your annual sales.

New businesses may struggle to qualify for bank or SBA loans as they typically approve applications from companies that have been in business for two or more years. A better option for a startup might be a business credit card or a short-term loan.

The higher your credit score, both personal and business, the better the deals you will qualify for. More on the subject of creditworthiness in the next section.

What is a Good Credit Score for Getting a Texas Business Loan?

Each lender has their own set of criteria for the credit scores required for small business finance. The SBA doesn’t have a published minimum credit requirement, however, but many lenders require a personal credit score of at least 640.

Some lenders may also check if you have business credit, which not all companies do. If you don’t have them, learn how to set up a business loan to expand your options.

And remember: even with bad credit, there are credit options for you, albeit at a higher cost.

Find out which financing options you qualify for

Get personalized credit and credit card reconciliations and access to your business credit report when you sign up for a free Nav account. The check won’t harm your creditworthiness.

Registration

How To Get A Small Business Loan In Texas

Lenders may differ in their application process but expect to be asked for details about your business, how long it has been in operation, your annual income, etc. And since you may be personally guaranteeing the loan, you may need to provide personal information such as your social security number specify.

After you are approved for a loan, review the loan terms, which details the loan amount, interest rate, and repayment schedule. Sign the agreement and the money should be deposited into your business account in less than a business day.

Ways To Use A Small Business Loan In Texas

The uses of corporate finance are as diverse as the small business owners applying for finance.

If you have slow phases in your business, you may just want to access working capital so your bank account never goes empty. If you want to expand, a loan can be used to purchase commercial real estate and renovate new retail space. You could use the funds to purchase larger inventory so you could save per unit.

An equipment loan could be used to purchase updated equipment that will help serve more customers or speed up your production line. You could use the funds to hire more help to relieve yourself a little.

A small loan for your Texas business can and should help take your business to a new level!

This article was originally written July 8, 2021.

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source https://www.cassh24sg.com/2021/07/10/small-business-loan-options-in-texas/

[dipulb3]

Bipartisan focus intensifies for crucial weeks ahead as path narrows on infrastructure

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/bipartisan-focus-intensifies-for-crucial-weeks-ahead-as-path-narrows-on-infrastructure/

Bipartisan focus intensifies for crucial weeks ahead as path narrows on infrastructure

“I’m meeting with my Republican friends up in the Congress to see number one, how much they’re willing to go for, what they think are the priorities and what compromises — I’m ready to compromise,” Biden said in Thursday remarks in Louisiana. “What I’m not ready to do is, I’m not ready to do nothing.”

The Democratic strategy is one that is equal parts sincere and necessity, aides and officials say. Biden has made clear in private conversations with Democrats he thinks there’s both a pathway to an agreement and overall value for the country to the effort, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.

He also understands the political reality, they said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has the barest of majorities and moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia have said they won’t support Democrats moving forward unilaterally without a substantive bipartisan effort first.

While Manchin has become the public face of that position, it’s one held privately by a handful of other Democratic senators as well, according to two Senate Democratic aides.

Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat up for reelection in 2022, has echoed the sentiment.

“We all recognize we have failing infrastructure,” Kelly said recently. “My preference is to do this in a bipartisan way. Work together and come up with a plan that can get both the support of Democrats and Republicans.”

Still in the early stages

The bipartisan push, to the extent it progresses, is one that is both still in its early stages and still drawing significant skepticism and caution from Republicans and Democrats, according to aides from both parties. Republicans still harbor resentment from the Democrat-only approach that led to Biden’s cornerstone legislative achievement to this point: the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package.

Democrats, cognizant of a rapidly closing pre-midterm election year window, are wary of going down a potentially fruitless path with Republicans given the scale of the agenda they’re planning to pursue. It’s a lesson from former President Barack Obama’s 2009 legislative efforts that is brought up repeatedly, particularly by progressives who are concerned that momentum and support for a Biden agenda that would largely reshape the US social safety net for families — one Democrats are keenly aware will garner no GOP support — could be sapped in the process.

Two separate comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell only served to exacerbate that dynamic this week. McConnell said changes to the 2017 Republican-passed tax law — the financing mechanism for Biden’s infrastructure proposal — are a non-starter for his conference.

He also made clear his primary focus was stopping a Biden agenda he views as far too progressive.

“One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration,” the GOP leader said this week in comments that quickly circulated through the White House and Democratic offices.

Both sides, at this point, say it’s up to the other to make concrete concessions on key issues in order to prove the talks can reach a conclusion. “That’s not exactly a recipe for progress,” one Senate GOP aide said when asked about the dynamic.

Biden, for his part, brushed off McConnell’s remarks, noting the Kentucky Republican had said similar things during Obama’s administration and the two still secured legislative deals. And McConnell said Thursday Republicans were “very interested” in talking about infrastructure along the lines of the proposal Capito has put on the table.

A necessary undertaking

In short, Biden doesn’t have the votes to pass any of his sweeping $4.1 trillion infrastructure and economic agenda without the effort to try and find a bipartisan path forward on the physical infrastructure piece of the plan in the coming days. It’s something White House officials and senior Democratic aides say they are keenly aware of as the coming weeks approach.

Still, the prospects for the current effort are, in the words of one official, “about as fluid as it gets,” with staff-level talks between the White House and Republicans described as positive, but also still in fairly early, if granular stages.

The primary focus has been on trading details on the spending side of the two proposals, saving the more complicated and politically volatile elements of how to pay for any deal until further along in the negotiations, one source familiar with the talks told Appradab.

Democratic leadership has also directed committee chairmen to work alongside their ranking members to try and find possible places of agreement on infrastructure, one Democratic aide told Appradab.

So far, members engaged in the conversations with the President remain upbeat about the progress, saying even if the plan were modest, it would still be a victory.

“I think the country wants us to work together,” Capito told Appradab last week. “I am not a cynic. I am going to believe that as long as this is moving positive, I am going to believe it can work. “

‘Roughly zero overlap’

Still, the scale of the task ahead is significant. There is some optimism that the top-line spending level for any such proposal could be reconciled, though neither side has signaled any bottom line intentions beyond their initial proposals, aides and officials said.

But even if that were the case — something that is far from guaranteed — how to finance that number is an area where, in the words of one administration official, “there is roughly zero overlap.”

Republicans proposed paying for their proposal through unspent funds from the Covid relief package and user fees, the latter of which has been explicitly rejected by the White House. Biden has proposed increasing the corporate tax rate to 28%, from 21%, among a handful of increases proposed on corporations to finance his proposal.

He’s also spent the better part of the last week using his public remarks to explicitly outline what he views as the merits of the tax increases, making clear he has no intention of dropping the idea any time soon.

Still, Biden has opened the door to paring that back, saying repeatedly he’s willing to compromise on it and, on Thursday, moving away from explicitly calling for 28% and instead swapping it for “between 25 and 28.” But with Republicans opposed to touching the 2017 tax law at all, it’s unclear whether that shift will garner any good will.

Aides on both sides acknowledge that anything that comes of the talks will be modest in comparison to the ambitious and sweeping plans Biden rolled out this spring.

So far, negotiations have centered on an infrastructure bill that tackles roads, bridges, broadband and water rather than the re-imagined definition of infrastructure included in Biden’s American Families Plan, which included an extension of the expanded child tax credit and paid leave for every American worker.

But congressional Democrats and White House officials working on the negotiations say there is nothing stopping them from picking up and passing those programs later using reconciliation.

That decision, while seen as likely, eventually, is for now being pushed back.

“I am keeping my powder dry on that only because I can see variables here. We should make every effort we can to make it bipartisan,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, a central player in the legislative effort ahead. “There is an appetite here to do some things through regular order and then maybe using reconciliation if we have to, but I don’t think we want to state that as our first option.”

Biden also hasn’t settled on a preferred specific legislative process or sequence, officials say, and is willing to see how the next several weeks play out. But he does have one bottom line — one that he never fails to mention every time he talks about searching for compromise.

“I’m not ready to have another period where America has another infrastructure month and doesn’t change a damn thing.”

[personalcoachingcenter]

Why Clarity and focus is Important in Business

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/why-clarity-and-focus-is-important-in-business/

Why Clarity and focus is Important in Business

Do you think you’re ready to become a full-time business owner? Few small businesses survive more than a couple of years, and everything that happens or doesn’t happen in and with your business is on you that’s.

A huge responsibility, but it can bring you huge satisfaction as well. For that to happen, though, you need to be clear on a few things from the outset. So let’s. Talk about those hello and welcome to the savvy corner, where we talk about managing your money, your business and your mind around it.

My journey to full-time entrepreneurship has been fairly uneventful, but looking back, there are some things I wish I knew at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, which would have made a transition easier.

That is what we will discuss in this post as part of the series ready for entrepreneurship, where I share practical tips and strategies for making the jump to entrepreneurship smoother. I’ve interviewed some amazing business owners on the things they wish they had known before making this transition, and I will share their wisdom and mine during the series today’s post will highlight why it’s important to have clarity in business.

What you need to focus on when starting out as an entrepreneur. I want to start by talking about expectations. Perhaps you’ve, been running your business as a psychic for a while or you’ve, read about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.

Maybe you’ve watched some videos about it on Youtube. I can pretty much guarantee that you will experience it differently than what you expect it to be. Let’s. Just get this out of the way it’s, not glamorous, not in the beginning.

Anyway, if you’re, imagining waking up at 4 00 a.m and then meditating for an hour going for a run. You jump in the shower, come out, prepare yourself a rainbow breakfast ball and you do an hour of journaling before starting your day.

At eight a.m, then, I’m, swear to disappoint, but it’s, not always like that. Sometimes I work until 10 p.m. In the evening, and by the time i go to bed, it’s already midnight, so waking up at 4, 00 am the next day to do it all over again is simply not an option.

I’d, rather get a couple more hours of sleep and not be a zombie all day. Also, you need to be prepared to do other things in addition to your specialty and the reason why you started the business and by other things I mean admin, work, business, development finances networking.

Let me take the example of a coaching business, so i can illustrate this better as an owner of a coaching business, you will not be spending all your time coaching unless you have a team behind you, you can expect to spend up to 50 or even more Of your time in the beginning, marketing the business talking to potential clients, putting together programs and proposals, and so on and finally, with regards to expectations being the best at what you do and being an expert in your field.

Doesn’t guarantee that your business will be successful. You need to develop your business development skills, which we will talk about in a moment, but before we do that, however, there is something else we need to touch upon, and that is clarity.

Clarity has become one of those cliché words that gets thrown around all the time. So if you’ve rolled your eyes when I mentioned it, I know exactly where you’re coming from, but people refer to it so often for a reason – and that is because, without clarity you will always be in a limbo state Of figuring it out figuring out what you want, who your clients are, what they want, how much to charge? What is your positioning on the market where your business is going, etc? I’ve already hinted to what i mean by clarity.

So let’s dissect this even further. First of all, you want to have clarity around your motivation for starting a business in the first place as Simon Sinek would say what’s your? Why, without a strong motivation or purpose, it will be difficult for you to create a vision and a mission for your business and to maintain a sustained effort as a business owner to progress your endeavor.

Secondly, you want to be very clear on what you do and who you do it for and be able to sum that up in a concise way. I created an entire post on how to determine your niche and ideal client, which i will link for you on the screen and in the description box.

Below clarity in this area will require some research with regards to your target market, the problem that they are facing and how to put together an offering that helps solve those problems. You might be surprised to hear this, but this research will also involve getting to know yourself better and your preferred way of getting involved in helping your clients find a solution with this kind of research comes another benefit which is getting clarity on your brand.

What does your business stand for? What are its values, what words or phrases describe it, the best, what colors match the vibe of your business and so on? Once you have clarity on your, why your niche and your brand, you will be able to strategically look at your business and decide where you want to take it and how you will achieve that.

Some of the business owners i talked to mentioned the continuity of their business and it being able to operate after they. Retired clarity is hugely important when it comes to maintaining your focus to reach whatever objectives you have for your business and not be tempted to fall into the trap of bright shiny object syndrome.

In the words of an entrepreneur. I interviewed being clear on your what and your why matters most way more than the what ifs another important element that the people I interviewed mentioned, was to focus on one thing at a time. This doesn’t just refer to your day-to-day tasks.

To what your business is about, you might want to do coaching and consulting teaching, training and development all at once.  You think they complement each other and you don’t want to limit yourself and your sources of income.

I agree you shouldn’t, but in the beginning you must focus on one thing: only otherwise you will overwhelm your audience and potential clients and possibly overwhelm yourself too one entrepreneur I interviewed sum this up nicely dream big, but execute small. Until you start getting known for one thing, your efforts should not be wasted on doing everything for everyone. This is why it’s so important to have a niche.

When I started, I was known for financial coaching for personal finances, and I did that for a while, before branching out into coaching people on their business finances, doing business, mentoring, teaching, consulting, and all the other things that I do in my business.

It was only after people got to know me for my financial coaching work that i got the opportunity to expand my business with the advantage of adding on offers that i knew were in demand, because people were asking for those services.

Specifically, if you’re enjoying the post so far, please give it a big thumbs up. This post was inspired by the tips and advice shared by these amazing entrepreneurs. I will leave their contact details below if you want to check out their work, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contribution.

I promised we would talk about business development, which is something a lot of the interviewees mentioned when it comes to this. The first thing I want you to know is that there is no magic formula that you can apply, which will get you your dream business in record time.

So if you receive any offers to purchase programs or services that will guarantee six figures in six weeks or whatever nonsense, please be extra vigilant. Business development takes time and consistency, and it requires clarity which we’ve already talked about.

There are a few principles you need to know, though. Firstly, people buy the benefits, not the features, so your marketing content and your sales conversations should all be around the results of working together, and how you can help people or organizations solve the particular problems that they are dealing with.

Speaking about marketing content, the sooner you start creating content the better and knowing the next principle i will mention, will help you. You need to be aware of the fact that people are willing to spend money on what they want, not necessarily on what they need.

So your content should reflect this.

Don’t talk about what you think they need talk about, what they want, which is usually a solution to a problem. At the same time, whatever the solution that you propose is make sure it doesn’t overwhelm your potential clients.

This happened to me in the beginning, when I was trying to offer my clients so much to make my services and products really valuable to them, that, for some it was too much. I had to learn that something simple easy to follow and concise is sometimes more valuable than a complex, offering packed full of information with fancy, graphs and tools.

Just because I, like that kind of stuff, doesn’t mean that my clients will who would have thought right. So far we’ve talked about expectations, clarity, focusing on one thing and business development.

There is one more thing i want to touch upon in this post, and that is opportunities. Sometimes there are opportunities coming your way opportunities and you will need to learn how to sift through them.

Although you might be tempted to say yes to everything, we will talk about filtering opportunities, ideas and people in a future post. But sometimes these opportunities won’t come your way and you will have to create them for yourself, which is why networking is so important and having a support system around you, which I talked about in the previous post in this series.

I will link it for you on the screen and in the description box, you cannot create opportunities without clarity, without focus and without working on your business, not just in it. I hope this post was helpful and if it was, you’d, be pleased to know that there are other black kids in the ready for entrepreneurship series. Source : Youtube

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How much is the gaming industry worth 2015

Gaming Grabs The Higher Score On Twitter

Twitter is where game publishers, the gaming media, common game streamers and entertainers, esports leagues, teams, players and commentators interact with their most engaged fans and with one particular an additional. So what's with the lack of inclusion in the gaming globe? In addition to the frequently hostile world of desktop and console games (see the GamerGate controversy as just one instance), there is nonetheless somewhat of an business perception that women simply do not play video games. Yet, that is far from correct - ladies are really gaming a lot more than ever prior to, especially on mobile.

Definitely glad that my weblog inspired you to start your personal. Yes it's tough work and it requires some time to develop, but if you do it correctly you can have a good on the internet brand. Beginning the weblog is only the starting, so make sure to read the rest of my articles in the Gaming Blog Series which will take you by way of all the steps. If you have any concerns don't hesitate to ask me, I am satisfied to aid where I can.

With the abundance of established gaming web sites present on the online, it is best to do some competitor analysis and research about the most well-known websites and the most recent trends in gaming to keep your web-site up to date. A couple of search queries on Google would help you see what are the most recent trending subjects gamers are hunting at. This will aid you see what most gaming web pages have to provide, and how they present their content material to their audience. You would also be in a position to obtain out how to stand out and know your audience better.

I got into action games late but when I did it totally changed how I viewed gaming forever. The game which brought me round was Viewtiful Joe. Right here was a game with a deep and open-ended combat method which seemed to be built as a indicates for the player to express creativity. This program is then pitted against opponents and obstacles which have been created from the ground up to interact meaningfully with the core method. The course was fixed, but the method for dealing with that course was completely down to the ingenuity, skill and inspiration of the player. You play like you have a big audience watching and the game continually entices you to increase the focus is not just on getting the player from A to B, the focus is on getting the player to play Viewtifully”.

Due to mobile game development outsourcing , the newest indie games made by smaller studios or individual programmers get lots of attention and positive feedback from each players and journalists. With the support of application outsourcing firms, every single person, with suitable understanding, can produce and promote gaming apps without the need of any obstacles.

Microsoft — with our practically 40 years of gaming practical experience beginning with Pc, as effectively as our breadth and depth of capabilities from computer software to hardware and deep encounter of becoming a platform corporation — is nicely equipped to address the complex challenge of cloud game-streaming. With datacenters in 54 Azure regions and services offered in 140 nations, Azure has the scale to deliver a good gaming expertise for players worldwide, regardless of their place.

The CONTEST That Gets Customers

The Atlantic Gaming Desk is a piece of steel furnishings that is in particular built for today's modern day gamer or even a home workplace owner. Its sturdy legs come completely integrated with cup holders and other attachments that are just ideal for organizing a selection of your personal computer accessories and peripherals. The Atlantic Gaming Desk also attributes a exceptional cable management system that organizes the various wires and cables that your devices possess. There is a charging station, a monitor stand, game storage rack, game controller hooks, gaming speaker trays, and a whole lot much more. Its padded feet will not also scratch your floor.

It's February! In 2017 that means that we get six much more weeks of winter AND your yearly dose of video game statistics and trends. We're taking a look at big events and shifts in the gaming sector and taking into consideration the current state of gaming. Take a peak, or remain for a week! All statistics are thoroughly researched. See sources at the bottom of the page for extra information.

Avantura has one particular of the finest building blocks we've seen for constructing a gaming website, it supports exceptional colour categories ( a should for any really serious gaming magazine), can be combined with popular widgets, can be colour customized per page, has quite a few options for the header and footer and it has an incredible good searching blog post design. Also, it has a pretty good about the author module and some nice next and previous article hooks. On top of it all, it supports a good mega menu with photos.

Gaming content material remains 1 of most effective approaches to attain young guys. Tubular Labs reports that amongst millennial males, gaming— particularly, gameplay— ranks in the prime three categories for each 18—24-year-olds (#1) and 25—34-year-olds (#2). But what about ladies? As it turns out, adult women have recently unseated teenage boys as the largest video game— playing demographic, according to the Entertainment Software program Association YouTube trends reflect this: Viewership among females has doubled year more than year, and women more than the age of 25 are the quickest-expanding demographic for gaming content.

Mobile games serve as a source of speedy, boredom-beating entertainment, a bit of anxiety relief and a distraction from genuine life worries, and simply as a restful moment (such as gaming in one's downtime). Additionally, 60% of ladies say that gaming makes them really feel superior, and given that mobile gaming is rapid and quick - the game is normally on their person - it is effortless to play although on the go. As Refinery29 says in their dive into girls and mobile gaming, females haven't been historically effectively-served by the sedentary nature of video games, but mobile gaming changes the story right here, considering the fact that they can play anywhere.

These numbers can absolutely vary per study, but it does appear like the quantity of female significant gamers are on a downward trend. The last time we checked in females were closer to 45%-48% of gamers. We can speculate as to why this is. Perhaps females are less fond of the emergence of the eSports trend. Possibly females are feeling significantly less included in gaming forums and on the net communities just after the harassment accusations of the final couple of years. Maybe they're just additional drawn to other entertainment industries, but this is definitely a trend to continue watching.

You'd be shocked at just how versatile the AmazonBasics Laptop and Tablet Bag is. Offered in 5 distinct sizes, with the largest totally capable of holding and guarding a significant 17.three inch ultra-high efficiency gaming laptop, this laptop bag comes with avariety of storage pockets for all of your https://malabis.online/ smaller peripherals like gaming mouse, 3D pens, digitizers, and even smartphones, MP3 players, pens, and numerous far more. Its smallest version which is developed for holding a 7 inch tablet or a ten inch netbook is equally valuable as it comes with the exact same accessory pockets complementing its main storage compartment.

Generally made use of to refer to games that are created by significant studios with a substantial spending budget, requiring a higher sales volume and substantial application expansions to sustain profitability. Like hollywood, these games tend to rely on relatively low-danger sequels over higher-danger artistic projects, so anticipate to see your operate all over billboards and Television advertisements. You are going to be focused primarily on Computer, Playstation and Xbox gaming for AAA titles.

We use our GeForce Experience servers to establish the very best high-quality settings primarily based on the user's CPU and GPU, and target higher frame prices than 'normal' optimal settings to assure the lowest latency gaming expertise. These settings are automatically applied when the game is launched so gamers do not have to be concerned about configuring these settings themselves.

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The Free Black Women’s Library Celebrates Black Authors and Readers

December 26, 2019 by We Need Diverse Books

The Free Black Women's Library Celebrates Black Authors and Readers We need Diverse Books - Ola Ronke Akinmowo

Bonding Over Bell Hooks, Beyoncé, and Black Womanhood — The Sisterhood of Traveling Books

THROUGH THE FREE BLACK WOMEN’S LIBRARY, OLA RONKE AKINMOWO HOPES TO NOT ONLY CELEBRATE BLACK WOMEN WRITERS BUT ALSO NURTURE A WELCOMING COMMUNITY SPACE By Asha Sridhar

Between finding a home for her expanding library, teaching yoga and bagging fellowships, Ola Ronke Akinmowo, the Brooklyn-based founder of the Free Black Women’s Library has been busy forging a positive narrative about black women. Her traveling library of 2000-odd books, all written by black women, tell stories of love, hope, trauma and most importantly, resilience.

In a freewheeling conversation over a cup of tea, she discusses the origins of her library, her childhood reading experiences and the importance of diversity in books.

“I wanted to do something that felt nourishing, healing, and interesting, something that different people could connect to and plug into, and I wanted black women and black girls to be the focus,” she says. More often than not, the conversation around the lives of black women, she feels, tends to have a tragic or pathological element to it, framing them as victims or a problem that needs to be fixed. “I wanted to do something that will shift that narrative and shift that idea to something more positive and encouraging.”

OUR STORY, OUR VOICE Be it in films, on television or the Internet, black women characters are often portrayed as struggling or being abused or criminalized, she points out. “And, all of these things are true, but I wanted to do something that shifted that idea. There is something very specific that happens when we are controlling the story and we get to frame the narrative and tell the story from our point of view in our own voice. That already puts us in a position of power.”

HOW IT ALL STARTED Her two passions—literature and celebrating black womanhood—culminated in her first installation in 2015. She laid out around 100 books on a brownstone stoop in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, eager and unsure of how people would react to it. She’s not looked back since.

Her initial set of books came from her personal collection as well as friends whom she e-mailed, telling them about her new project. “People just started sending me books, and people have been sending me books ever since,” she says. “That was almost five years ago and I get multiple books in the mail every week, from publishers, writers, teachers, strangers from all over the world who found out about the library on Instagram or Facebook, or an article.”

The pop-up library is set up once every month at a new venue. At first, the idea of her library seems deceptively simple—you can take a book from the library by trading it for another one written by a black woman. Talk to Akinmowo and she’ll tell you how it’s not as easy as it sounds. Even people who claim to be bibliophiles are often stumped when they have to bring in books written by black women.

SHIFTING YOUR VANTAGE POINT One day,  Akinmowo, opened the pages of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. As a black woman, black girl, she remembers identifying with it immediately. The very first page of the book spoke to her, quite unlike the works of authors she had read previously—Chaucer, Hemingway, Melville or even Sylvia Plath. “I feel like it just turns on a different part of your brain, and once that part of you is turned on, it can’t be turned off.”

What started as a personal discovery of books by incredible black women such as Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, and Bell Hooks among many others, is now a flourishing literary art project, spawning others of its kind around the country. “I want to amplify the voices of these writings so that more people know and understand that there’s all this intelligence out here, all this creativity out here.”

The library, she notes, gives people access to books and writers they may have never heard of. “It also helps people understand that it’s important to expand your worldview and one of the easiest ways to do that is to read books by different types of people. If you are only reading one thing, you are only going to get one perspective.”

People, she senses, are receptive to that idea. “I think people want more diversity. People want change. They want things to be mixed up. People don’t want to see status quo anymore. People are hungry for something different.”

TO MARKET, TO MARKET African-American women, she asserts, spend a lot of money on books. “Statistics show that we are a huge market when it comes to literature,” she says, adding that once publishing companies figure that out, it will be to their benefit. They are already playing a more active role in catering and marketing to them, she says, creating books and imprints specifically for them.

For black women, reading books written by them, for them and with them in mind, can also be an act of resistance. “There are different aspects of reading,” she explains. There’s the politics of reading: Making a conscious choice to read specific books by specific people. And, there’s the pleasure of reading. “I feel like black women as readers are coming from both those points. We are being politicized and we are also choosing books for political reasons. But, also there’s the pleasure of reading a book and seeing yourself in the story. And, because this is a capitalist economy, I think the publishing industry is just going to take advantage of that by giving us more.”

STARTING YOUNG Her visitors include not just women, but also young girls. Having hardly encountered diverse characters herself as a young reader, she observes how there are many more options now. “Right now, there are so many amazing books out there for children of color,” she notes. With a little research, she says, you should be able to find books written by black authors and authors of color for children of every age group. That, however, does not mean there is enough. “I also think you can have more. I don’t think we can ever have too much. But there’s definitely a lot out there.” Though she’s not counted, she estimates having between 500-600 children’s and young adult books in her library.

“It’s exciting for a little brown girl to see a book where there’s a little brown girl in it, maybe riding the subway or making lunch for her mom.” When the young girl realizes that the book has been written by someone like her, it’s really affirming, she points out. Other than fiction, creative non-fiction as a genre can be both engaging and empowering, she feels. Complete with illustrations, children learn about the lives of powerful historical figures such as Harriet Tubman or Sojourner Truth in a way that doesn’t feel like a lecture, she says.

“Not only do they get to see themselves as writers and creators, they [also] get to see that there’s a large diversity of interest. They learn about the fact that their blackness is not just about one thing. Blackness is not a monolith. There are different ways to be black, and there’s different ways to express your black culture and be proud of your black selves. You can do it through music, sport, fashion, activism, art, performance, science. They’re getting to see all those different layers, and they can plug into wherever their interest lies,” she explains.

It shatters the idea that black people don’t do this or that. Talking about how it opens up opportunities for black children and children of color, she says it shows children how someone did it in the past. “You can do it like that too or maybe you’ll come up with your own way.”

LOVE, LABOR, AND LEGACY As she works to secure a grant to set up a permanent location for her library, and maybe even get a bookmobile, her idea has now snowballed into a movement, with Free Black Women’s Libraries cropping up in cities such as Los Angeles and Detroit among other places.

She credits iconic African-American librarians such as Dorothy B. Porter and Mayme Agnew Clayton for inspiring her and says she is only continuing their legacy. “There’s a long list of black women librarians that I look up to, who have done what I’m doing right now. But, for them, it was even more significant because when they were doing it, there was no social media, no Internet. They were just digging through. Part of what I hope is that I’m making my ancestors proud by doing this work,” she says.

“When I think about the sweat and the labor of moving the books from one place to another, I think about them,” she says, “doing this at a time when blackness was seen as something that was ignorant and illiterate, and reading and writing was illegal or not allowed or considered wrong, just wrong. Black librarians are amazing.”

* * * * * *

Ola Ronke Akinmowo’s recommendations for young readers:

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

My Life as an Ice-Cream Sandwich by Ibi Zoboi

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

* * * * * *

Asha Sridhar is a freelance writer based out of Jersey City. She loves wandering through old historic buildings, bustling streets and anything that closely resembles a bookshop.

Source: https://diversebooks.org/the-free-black-womens-library-celebrates-black-authors-and-readers