#my biggest advice for you if you are interested in learning CS is to just remain calm

[professor-doc-emeritus]

I want money and I'm jealous of when you post about having it. What did you go to school for

Computer Science! I'm a web developer. I did a lot of schooling tho, i have 2 bachelors (one is in writing because im a masochist) and a masters from a very good state school, I was in college for 6 1/2 years. I really enjoy working with computers, and even though what im doing right this second isn't totally my cup of tea I still find a lot to enjoy about it. I'm currently making $80k a year, and if i can get this damnable certification ill start getting a nice bonus on top of that. Most of my work is remote, and when it's not I work in a nice air conditioned building with good internet and nobody breathing down my throat making me pretend to be productive, and i can leave whenever i want.

If you find comfort in the suffering of those doing better than you, know that I don't have health insurance because i work for a rinky-dink startup, and according to elon musk im due to be replaced by the ai any day now, so pretty soon ill be off the gravy train and on the streets. I'm also extremely privileged, i graduated my undergrad with very little debt thanks to my parents saving up and an inheritance from my grandparents (the masters degree got me pretty deep in the hole tho ngl), and i fit every possible category of privilege you can think of, so my accomplishments are really just totally meaningless participation trophies that you can feel free to dismiss whole cloth. If you were in my position you'd totally be doing way better than me, the only reason you're not is because of, like, the system maaaaaaaaaaaan

if you find comfort in the possibility of a better tomorrow, know that even in an economic downturn tech is still a very accessible field. There's no government-mandated gatekeeping like in medicine and law, and you don't have to do nearly as much schooling as i did if any at all to get a good paying job. Everybody in tech knows a guy who just did a 3 month bootcamp and then got hired for good money almost immediately. Granted, the full story is usually much more complicated than that, but it is possible. Even without a formal salary, there's still lots of demand for freelance programming. Pretty much everyone is going to need a decent website at some point, if you sit down, do a few wordpress tutorials, and put your name out into the ether, im sure you can make some good money on the side when your friends need a hand. If you want to get into the tech world "proper" so to speak, I personally think college is the easiest and best way to do it, but even if its not an option for you there's still lots of great ways to make money in this industry. Opportunity abounds my friend! You just need the energy and skills to harness it.

[tropicannafeels]

High school Doesn't have to suck

High school doesn’t have to suck

So I’ve realized recently how many younger people are on the internet. Like I guess I’ve always known, but only recently have I actively started reading comments, and judging them, only to realize that the people writing them are just younger than me with very different experiences! And that’s okay, in fact that great! But!!! I thought I would put this out there:

High school doesn’t have to suck.

It really truly doesn’t! So for those of you who are just starting high school next year, or maybe you’re already there and it does suck, well I just feel compelled to share that it really doesn’t have to!

Now I understand that my experiences aren’t everyone’s, and so I can’t say that it won’t suck. It might. But! If you go into high school with this idea in your head that you’re gonna hate it, and that you’re not popular and that only popular people enjoy high school, then you’re probably not gonna have a fun time.

So here are my tips for a successful high school career:

1. Join a team or club!!!

I know that joining a club or team isn’t always the cool thing to do, but it’s a great place to find the people who share your interests! One of the best things I did in high school was join the cheer team. 

So I live in Canada, and where I’m from, the cheer team is a competitive team that has its own competitions and performs and practices complicated routines with jumps, dance and stunts. We didn’t cheer on other sports teams or anything like that. We also weren't considered cool, or ran the school or what not. It was just another sports team like any other. 

I joined cheer on a whim, and I loved it. It was an incredible experience that I will treasure forever. My team mates weren’t my best friends, nor did I live and breathe the sport, but I did love it, and it helped me stay healthy and it taught me a sense of responsibility. It also opened my eyes to people I would never have other wise met. It taught me communication and allowed me to bring out a part of myself that might have not otherwise came out. 

2. Find a teacher-mentor 

Okay, so this might be harder than the first tip. One of the reasons why I got everything I possibly could out of high school, was because I had a teacher that would literally try and move mountains for me. 

She would support any and all ideas that I had, and helped me turn them into a reality. It was because of her that I was able to put on a student art show, that actually continued on even after I had graduated. 

Having a teacher on your side, is very valuable. It was because of my connection with her, that my friends and I had a space in the school to really call our home. The cafeteria is a great place to eat lunch and socialize, but if its an option, go look for a teacher that will let you eat lunch in their room. Make a bond, create a connection, not only will this help you during your high school career, but also later on when you need letters of recommendation for college applications. 

3. Take risks. 

So this one, is probably my most important tip. When I entered high school, I was actually entering a year later than everyone else. I was sitting in the office with my mom, choosing my courses. Now I had always been a B student at best, but I loved English. I loved writing and reading and dissecting. So, when I looked at the course options, I bravely chose to go into honours English. 

As it turned out, everyone else had had to write an exam in the previous year to get into that class, but for whatever reason, they’d just let me in. Thats the class where I found my best friends. Thats the class where I found my mentor teacher. Thats the class that taught me skills that I use every day. 

Its the class that changed my life, filled with people who changed my life. 

I almost didn't circle honours English. I saw my past grades in my head, the Bs and the Cs, and I thought, no way. I wouldn't make it. But then, my mom insisted I should try. So I did. I took the risk. I faced that fear, and it truly did change the course of my entire life. 

So take risks. Try new things. Believe in yourself. 

High school is a really cool time. Its not the most important time of your life, nor is it just something you have to get through. It builds you up, but it might also tare you down. Its a difficult time, but my biggest advice is to use that time wisely. Learn about yourself, meet new people, and take some risks! 

It doesn't have to suck. 

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Melissa Young

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Melissa Young. Melissa is a Software Engineer at WillowTree in Charlottesville! Her main focus is Android Development, though she has a background in Front-End Web Development as well as a Bachelor of Science in Game Design and Development. One of Melissa’s biggest passions around technology is to host workshops and provide mentorship when she can, to help get more kids interested in Computer Science since she wasn't exposed to it until she got to college.

How do you work with technology today? Now a days I work on mobile technologies for different clients that we have, working with my team to help create amazing digital products. On my current project, I'm working on our Android Platform using a language called Kotlin.

What drives your interest in technology? What drives my interest right now is how quickly technology is changing and how the people around me are so excited to be working to create all these different projects together. I find that many of the people I know in the technology field are always striving to apply their skills to try to make amazing things and I want to help do that.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? The big thing that I remember about my first coding experience was that we were using a click and drag coding language called Alice and no one really explained to me that click and drag wasn't really how most programming worked. So I was kind of thrown for a loop the first time my friends in college showed me python!

What was your pathway to working in technology? My pathway to working in technology was that after I went to college (originally for Chemical Engineering), I had a few friends who were in CS programs on my first year floor and I became interested because of what they showed me, switched my major, and the rest was history.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? It's extremely important to me that girls and women have an equal opportunity to learn about coding and find a passion with it if they want. The more diverse the mindsets within a field, the more benefit for that field because so many different ideas get introduced that way. People usually end up approaching problem solving with themselves in mind, so if you have a group of people that all have similar life experiences, you might end up leaving out potential solutions just because its not something that affects you on a daily basis.

What most excites you about the future of technology? I think what excites me most is that you never really know what could be made tomorrow by someone or the impact it might have. Being part of a crowd that's always striving to create new solutions to the worlds issues is an amazing feeling.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? The people that inspire me to pursue my passion the most is those that I have had the privilege to teach to. The more that I do and the more that I learn, the more that I can spread that knowledge and reach out to others with more subjects that could interest them. I want to be able to give back to the next generation in technology so that they can hopefully come up with even better ideas than we did based on the things we were able to teach them.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would tell my younger high school self to look into Python! Encourage them to try and find some workshops around being a developer, and really explore the option instead of not doing anything because no one else around you knows anything about it.

Yes We Tech! Want to learn more about Melissa and what it takes to make an app? Join us June 4, 2019 at the Yes We Tech Meetup hosted by WillowTree. The meetups are free and open to girls in middle school, but registration is required.

[imbackontherocks]

About Me

I got this from @whitecometofakagi! This took me a while to do. ESPECIALLY SINCE MY PHONE CRASHED TUMBLR THE FIRST TIME I DID IT FDHUYFHDUFBDIUGHFIUDH

Anyway…

What’s my name/nickname? Ahmed/Moe (Cis/Straight)

What’s my birth year? 1998 (20)

Where do I live? Michigan, USA

What’s my style? I never really had a style. I do occasionally have phases (for example: I once had a hipster look phase) but that’s about it. I am not the most fashionable person, I like wearing casual clothing. I would like try new looks and styles though.

What’s my personality like? My personality is interesting. I can be very serious and very silly depending on the situation. I have always been a selfless person. I tend to have a positive attitude and try my best to share that positivity with friends and family. Whenever someone is feeling down, I always go out of my way to lend an ear. I know how helpful it is to let people vent. Quite a few people have also told me that I’m generous, but I don’t see how I am to be honest.

3 Favorite fictional characters? Uncle Iroh, Makoto Nijima, Bunta Fujiwara (It was hard to choose only 3)

3 Favorite movies? Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Kimi no na wa, Aladdin

Favorite music? Ooooh, this is a tricky one. I don’t have any musical genre preference. I love all types of music! I’m also open to listening to new things.

3 Favorite tv-shows? Definitely Top Gear U.K. (With the original trio. I don’t have anything against Matt LeBlanc, but he’s just not as funny as them), Mr. Bean (I like a lot of British comedies, so this was a hard choice), and The Office. As for anime, Initial D, Your Lie in April, and Cowboy Bebop. I’ll also throw in Avatar: The Last Airbender because it was my CHILDHOOD and I still read the comics. One thing you should know about me. I am a massive, massive, MASSIVE car enthusiast. I have loved cars since I was little. I was that one kid at school who talked only about cars. Cars are a big part of my life and it’s who I am. I also love collecting retro games and consoles. I am open to trying new things, and I love learning about different cultures and religions.

One thing I hold dear. My amazing friends and family.

One thing I really love. Seeing people doing what they love. It actually motivates me to do the things that I love!

One thing I really dislike. Toxicity and narcissism.

Do I have any pet-peeves? Texting or messaging. I am not the greatest at it, and although all my friends in the group chat are going to call me an old man for this (*Cough* Amber and Justin *Cough*), I just was never a fan of it. The problem I have with texting/messaging is that you can’t really express emotion or feelings properly. It’s just not the same as talking to a person face to face.

What is my goal in life? To one day live a life without T1D. (There is no cure atm)

What is my passion? I have so many things that I am passionate about. I love learning Japanese, but I think I am going to take a break from learning it after this semester. Intensive mathematics, intensive code languages, and intensive Japanese is really hard to balance as you could imagine. I also love computer science! I love learning about people, cultures, religions, and ethnicities. Above all though, I love cars.

What is my biggest fear? Being alone. @whitecometofakagi has the same type of fear and I couldn’t agree more. There are two different ways of being alone that I fear. The first one is having no friends or family to support me. Their support really helps me follow my passions and goals in life. I can still manage without them as I am kind of independent, but it just simply wouldn’t be the same. My friends and family are my powerhouse. They’re the fuel I need that keeps me going forward. The second way of being alone that I fear is not finding a significant other.. ever. I try not to focus on it but I always feel like something is incomplete. Finding the right person isn’t easy. It’s complex, especially as a person who is demi. What makes it worse is that many people don’t understand it. Also, when I become friends with someone and I start to have feelings for them, I don’t always end up telling them. I feel like it would ruin what we already have if they don’t feel the same way. I guess you could say that’s another fear I also have. Okay, this is getting really depressing and dark, so I’m going to move on. I’m pretty sure you guys got the idea ^_^ If you want me to go more in depth, you guys can just message me.

What did I want to be when I was little? Many many things! I wanted to be an airplane pilot, police officer/SWAT, lawyer, social worker, mental health therapist, endocrinologist, video editor, forensic scientist (kind of still want to be one), game developer, writer, architectural engineer, car journalist, and actor (when I was 6). (Word of advice: Never tell your Middle Eastern parents that you want to be an actor. RIP).

What do I want to be now? I want to do something with computer science. The beauty of CS is that it is such a broad and flexible field. It’s fun (to me), you make good money, and I can even work at home if I want (not sure if I’d want to do that though lol). I just hope that it won’t get saturated by the time I graduate and get experience. That’s the main reason why I am considering taking up another major for my master’s degree.

This takes a while to answer, so I won’t specifically tag anyone, but if you want to play, consider yourself tagged and @ me when you answer!

[officialshoebox]

A Father’s Day Tribute to My Comedy Hero

by Tina Neidlein, Hallmark Humor Writer

Some dads teach you how to throw a baseball or change a tire. Or is it throw a tire and change a baseball? Not important.

If you’re lucky, you get a dad who teaches you how to be funny.

If you’re the luckiest, you get my dad. Ken Fowler of Loudonville, Ohio. Currently 80 years old, and the biggest comedic influence of my life.

I can’t remember exactly when I first figured out that I got a funny dad. It may have been when he told me how he and his college roommate used to light their farts. Whaaaaat. Was my dad…hilarious? It blew my mind.

Maybe it was the first time he asked me how you could tell a dogwood tree. (By its bark.) Maybe it was the thousandth time. (Still, the bark.)

From a very early age, I was my dad’s companion and right-hand girl. My sister and brother were older and not so interested in hanging out with me; my mom was busy juggling work and getting a college degree. So, lucky for me, I got to spend a lot of time with him. He’d take me to the hardware store in town, or to the school where he taught wood shop. He’d catch up on his work while I played “teacher” with a real gradebook. Excuse my language, but it was fricking awesome. Together, we’d hunt mushrooms in the woods behind our house, him regaling me with nature-related facts and riddles. Do you know why he doesn’t like snails? He prefers fast food. That kind of thing.

Quickly I learned from him how much better life could be if you just learned to laugh a little more. Even the serious lessons he tried to impart were funny. If I was upset, he’d trot out this head-scratching piece of advice: “Tina, sometimes, you get the bear…sometimes, the bear gets you.” Really, Dad? The possibility of a bear attack is supposed to calm me down? Nevertheless, his lessons almost always included a healthy dose of humor.

During summer breaks, Dad had his own painting business. Too young to be home alone, I’d go with him. Every morning I’d pack a bag full of the things I’d need to keep me busy while he and his crew worked. Mostly I’d pack joke books. Wanting to build my own arsenal of material, I had begun to collect them.

Once we arrived to whichever house or barn they happened to be painting, I’d lay a blanket out on the grass and start my act, reading riddle after riddle to Dad’s captive crew. My aardvark-themed joke book was especially a hit, or so I thought. Over and over, I’d recite my material, delighting in my captive audience. Until the day he started to pay one of his student workers extra to drive me to the pool.

By the way, what do you call an aardvark who loves hamburgers? Ronald (wait for it) McAardvark!!!!!!! Holy crap, maybe they were bad.

Dad and I watched hours upon hours of funny movies together. “Airplane” and “Airplane 2” played on repeat, as we marveled at the comic genius on display. To this day, it’s not uncommon for one of us to look at the other and mutter, “I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.” He began letting me watch Saturday Night Live with him when I was around 10 or so. Together, we laughed our way through Stuart Smalley, the Church Lady, Hans and Franz, Wayne’s World, and his favorite, the Pathological Liar.

Around the halls of the junior high where he taught, Dad was known to be quite the jokester. Every morning, the teachers would send an attendance slip to the office, which included any student who wasn’t present for homeroom. The office would then publish a list to be sent out school-wide later in the day. Dad spent hours brainstorming fictitious names to turn in. When you read the report and learned that “Jim Nasium,” “Mel Ted Snow,” or “Rose Bush” were absent, you knew that you had just been Ken Fowlered. (At a surprise party we held for his 70th birthday, we gave every guest a name tag with a fictitious name—brainstormed in part by my gracious Hallmark co-workers. I thought he was going to pass out from happiness.)

Now that I’m older, I realize just how much of an influence his love of all things funny has had on me. Learning how to laugh at life and appreciate the craft of humor has led me to a career that I love, but there are still so many more ways I hope to become more like my dad.

He’s sunshine in human form. He wakes up early with a smile on his face, never complains and is always up for anything. None of these things even remotely describe me. I am partly cloudy in human form.

He is unfailingly kind. He can’t say a bad word about anyone—and he doesn’t drink or cuss. Minus the time he dropped a carton of eggs on the floor and let the s-word slip. My brother laughed so hard he fell off his chair.

He is 80 years old, and has the energy level of a 30-year-old. He is a social butterfly who would befriend every last person on earth if he could.

I may not even be his, now that I’m really thinking about it.

The only bad thing about him? He once gave me a B in shop class, which messed up my straight As that semester. You’re why I didn’t go to Harvard, Dad. Well, you and the parade of Cs I got once I discovered boys.

Life hasn’t been easy for him recently, as he spent months taking care of my mom, who was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma in 2015 and passed away last summer.

And yet, after all that he’s been through, he loves nothing more than sharing a laugh. Now that he knows how to text, I get new humor inspiration from him constantly…often accompanied by an emoji that doesn’t really make sense. Usually something like this: “Hello there daughter! What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo? 🦄”

“A pouch potato! 🏆”

So Dad, this Father’s Day, I want to thank you for making humor such an important part of my life. You are an absolute joy and I am honored to be your daughter. I love you.

And yes, I know how to tell a dogwood tree. Enough already.

(All photos courtesy of Tina Neidlein)

[marshmallowgoop]

Being bad at stuff stinks, yeah, but what stinks way more is being bad at stuff you’re expected to be good at and what you’ve always wanted and tried so hard to be good at.

I mean. Basically as soon as I was literate, I got all this encouragement about my skills as a writer. A teacher in early elementary school liked my silly little writing assignment so much that it got published in the local newspaper, and come middle school, my 6th-grade English teacher couldn’t stop reading my essays and poems out loud to the class, time and time again. I was made out to be a “good writer,” and whenever I felt down about my abilities in this or that, I was told that one strength I had was my writing.

My family moved across the country when I was in 7th grade, but that didn’t change my growing big-headed attitude about my prose. I was made the first student of the month by my English teacher, and she showed off my writing to the honors classes that I’d take later---as well as my own class. She told us all that the honors students were very impressed with my work.

But then high school happened. They say you learn you’re not as smart as you thought you were in college? For me, it was 10th grade. Grades slipped, nobody considered me one of the “smart kids” anymore, and my writing---that one thing I’m supposed to be good at, right?!---stopped being used as the “good examples.” Easy As fell into Bs, Cs, Ds, and Fs.

I still remember my 10th-grade English teacher using my work in a handout of what not to do.

Somehow, I still got to college, though. My confidence in my abilities had been bruised and beaten, but I still had that big-headed cockiness to me. I told myself that I just didn’t try in high school, because there’s nothing shameful about doing poorly when you don’t try, right?

So when my creative writing professor considered my work “publishable” quality one summer, and when my theatre professor told me that I should submit my play to a contest, there was definitely the feeling of, Oh yeah, this is what I’m good at!

I started blogging and writing more on the web around that time, and I was over the moon when my favorite fanfiction author liked my submitted writing sample enough to ask me to beta a chapter of the story I had been anticipating for years. When she asked me to beta for an entire new story later, I was even more over the moon.

But the feeling didn’t last long. The author didn’t appreciate my advice and suggestions. 

I haven’t been a beta reader since.

(Sometimes, I think about a self-depreciating joke: “If you ever feel bad about your writing, just remember that one of my favorite authors fired me from helping her on her story!”)

Right after, another creative writing professor of mine sat me down in her office and told me that I have so many ideas, but they don’t come through in my writing at all! 

I tried and tried to fix my work, ultimately scraping by with a B in the class--a feat I considered basically the biggest disappointment, embarrassment, and failure. Writing didn’t seem to be working out for me after all. It’s not my consolation for not being particularly good at anything else, because I’m not especially good at writing, either---or I was just growing progressively worse, because I had taken the class before, with another focus, and I had gotten one of those easy As that I’d received in middle school back then. 

But I went the distance. I got the silly degree, and when it came in the mail, weeks after graduation, I stuffed it in a drawer in my bed, thinking of it as nothing more than my useless-ass creative writing degree.

Still, my first real-deal, I-got-a-degree job was--is---writing, and I figure that I’m living every creative writing major’s dream. Even if the writing I get paid too much for isn’t exactly creative, I’m still pounding out thousands of words per day on the job. I constantly consider clarity and flow and readability and something I always tell people is, “Doing this has helped my writing so much!”

But when a prominent blogger on here finally, finally took note of my work, right as I was getting into the swing of my new career, she wasn’t singing words of praise. She told me she didn’t like my wording and clapped as someone else said it better. My work spread all around not for the merits of my writing, but rather because I had written so poorly.

And I kind of just thought about my useless-ass creative writing degree and all the writing I’d dedicated my life to and got paid for and wondered what the heck it’d all amounted to if I couldn’t even blog properly.

At first, anyway.

Then I thought about how I always act like my 11 years of NaNoWriMo is a bragging point and always act like all this writing I’ve published on the web is a bragging point and I realized that I must sound pretty silly for thinking my 200,000+ words of fic for one series is a big deal when other folks got over a million words of fic published on the web---when they’re not even aiming to write professionally!

Because, yeah, sure, between all my plays and screenplays and novels and short stories and essays and poetry I’ve probably written a million words, but most of it remains in classrooms or hidden away in abandoned files.

So then there’s the thought, Why do I deserve to be good at something I haven’t actually put that much effort into?

And I realized that it’s not that I’m a bad writer exactly that gets me down. It’s not that my writing about my writing (or my writing about my writing about my writing) is more loved than my actual writing that feels so terrible. It’s not that a brand-new story writer can craft more interesting stories than me despite my years and years of story writing that makes me want to never want to write again.

It’s that I’m bad at something that I grew up being told I was good at and was expected to be good at and that I tried so hard to be good at... except, not really. I don’t even know what it is to try all that hard---what have I accomplished, after all?---but I still feel like the world owes me something, anyway.

It’s not being bad that hurts. It’s being bad when you’ve felt like you’ve dedicated so much to meet those expectations placed on you... and yet you don’t even know how to dedicate yourself seriously to your work and try hard at all.

It’s being bad with no idea on how to get better.

[hcalderon17]

A Pro Surfer-Filmmaker Casts His Camera on Hawaii’s GMO Debate

By Andrew Amelinckx on May 15, 2017

Indigenous scientist Cliff Kapono, the main character of Cyrus Sutton's new doc "Island Earth."

Island Earth

Pro surfer and Emmy-winning filmmaker Cyrus Sutton, 34, has spent a lot of time riding waves and making films about surfing and the outdoors. His latest documentary, "Island Earth," focuses on the land rather than the sea, exploring the many complicated facets of farming in the state of Hawaii—a state that's rich in fertile soil yet still imports the vast majority of its food.

The 63-minute documentary that took Sutton two and a half years to complete tells the story of Hawaii’s challenges involving GMOs, the food system, and the fight for who gets to determine how the land is used. The film is in part told through the eyes of indigenous scientist Cliff Kapono, who went into biotechnology with the hope of helping Hawaiians but whose beliefs were shaken up by what he saw happening in his home state.

Film stills from “Island Earth.”

More From Modern Farmer:

What You Need To Know About the New GMO Labeling Law

Caught in the Middle: Farmers Seek a New and Improved GMO Debate

A New Non-GMO Label Joins the Fray

Still Life with Mass Hysteria: Are GMOs Really That Bad?

The Hawaiian Islands are blessed with fertile lands, which has made them a prime location for the world’s biggest multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology companies, like Monsanto, Dow, and Pioneer, to test new GMO seed varieties using restricted-use pesticides. Accusations of drifting pesticides adversely affecting residents near the test fields resulted in protests beginning around 2012 that helped spur attempts to legislate GMO use on the various islands. A series of court battles between the ag companies and county governments followed ending in a federal Appeals Court decision this past November that struck down the local laws regulating GMOs.

While large swaths of land on the islands are used for testing seeds, Hawaii relies on imports for as much as 90 percent of its food, an imbalance that’s explored in “Island Earth.” The film also looks at the farmers who have been using regenerative farming techniques, including the practices of their indigenous ancestors, to try and reverse this reliance on outside food sources. Many people, including Sutton, believe these ancient growing practices may hold the key to an alternative, and ultimately better, way of feeding the world’s growing population.

From our partners at

VICE

Watch: Fungus: The Plastic of the Future

Modern Farmer caught up with Sutton by phone from his home in Washington State’s Columbia River Gorge, where he’s getting into growing his own food, including recently planting 60 fruit trees on his property. Sutton is touring with the film in the northwest and will be in New York City in June before its release on various view-on-demand sites (like iTunes) at the end of June. You can find out if the film will be coming to your city here or learn about hosting your own screening here.

To say GMOs are bad is akin to saying something like a cellphone is inherently bad because it gives off radiation. I don’t think we’re going to get very far in the conversation if we villainize a specific technology.

Modern Farmer: How and why did you get interested in telling this story?

Cyrus Sutton: I have friends in the surfing community who have been pretty vocal about the issue and that got it on my radar. I used to live in San Diego where the main character of the film, Cliff Kapono, is getting his PhD in chemistry and where he got his Masters degree in biotechnology. I was surfing with him and he was telling me about being groomed to work for these chemical companies. He’s got an insider perspective on it both as a native Hawaiian and active member of the Hawaiian community, and as somebody who was on track to work for these kinds of companies.

As a professional surfer, it’s kind of my job to show this romantic connection humans have with the ocean. It’s the icing on the cake of life and as a storyteller I don’t feel right making movies about the icing on the cake without acknowledging issues about why I’m able to have that freedom to surf. That’s why I focused on Hawaii and the indigenous knowledge that’s there and how it could inform how we grow food.

MF: Did you try to approach this story, which revolves around hot-button issues like GMOs, with an open mind?

CS: I have a friend who’s a really successful documentary editor and he gave me the advice that documentaries at their best are structured research and need to be approached with a spirit of curiosity and humility. I’m privileged because I’m able to buy food based on my values, which has led me to mostly eating organic and wanting to grow my own food. Making this movie, I tried to check my biases at the door. I’ve learned since making this film that to say GMOs are bad is akin to saying something like a computer or cellphone is inherently bad because it gives off radiation, or that nuclear power is bad. I don’t think we’re going to get very far in the conversation if we villainize a specific technology, but I am deeply concerned by our society’s deployment of those [GMO] technologies. These companies hold up niche applications of GMO technology, like golden rice or the GMO papaya, as potentially feeding the world, but the vast majority of its use is to create resistance to proprietary blends of chemicals, and this is all being tested in Hawaii. as a storyteller, I needed to cut through that greenwashing and let people know what’s actually going on.

MF: What did you learn while making the film?

CS: I had my mind blown those first few months by the complexity of the issue. The majority of the genetically-modified seeds in the United States have been produced on the islands of Hawaii over the past few decades. And that’s because they get three corn growing seasons a year. Those seeds are then exported to the midwest, where they’re planted and used to provide calories for livestock, biofuels, and industrial products we consume as Americans. This film taught me that there are a lot of people who are trying to make the world a better place: scientists, policy makers and other people who really want to understand the solutions. I’m simultaneously feeling dread of where we’re at and how our government has become coopted by private influence, while I’m also incredibly hopeful on a person-to-person level because of how many feel the same way I do and are looking for ways to improve literacy about the natural world and a desire for better stewardship. We just need to share it in a way that’s inclusive and inspiring.

Island Earth Trailer from www.KORDUROY.tv

[realtalk-princeton]

@Ziggy or any other cos majors... how did you choose COS as your major? What do you like and dislike about the department? Any advice for a frosh choosing between COS and another dept.

Response from Ziggy:

Tbh, I chose it on a whim. It sort of interested me, I found it challenging, and I thought it’d be nice to get out of my comfort zone. But, I stuck with it because of the opportunities it affords you after graduation – and I’m so so glad that I did. The tech industry is so exciting, and product management is genuinely my dream job. (If you don’t believe me, I’m starting work, like, 10 days after graduation because I

In terms of good things: I’ve really enjoyed all of my IW projects. (A huge benefit of AB COS, btw). They’ve helped me find my niche, and they’ve allowed me to practice some critical product management skills. (For all you COS majors complaining that our department is “too theoretical,” idk why you don’t just fix your own problem and do a thesis or another IW project…) I also really like the faculty. They literally give us so much attention in all of those crazy office hours, in our IW seminars, etc. And from talking to my friends in other departments, I feel like I’ve really lucked out with my advisor. There’s also a nice COS community. Even though it’s the biggest department at the school, you can find niche groups — PWiCS, ACM, the senior thesis thing — within it, and that’s nice. And finally, while this is a little obvious, it’s hard to beat the job prospects… how many other departments can you name that have those kinds of opportunities while not needing to care much about stressful stuff like GPAs or test scores?

In terms of less good things things: I don’t love that we’re forced to take 2 systems, 2 theory, 2 apps, etc. It’d be nice if we had a little more flexibility. I think it’d be great if the department also offered more introductory classes for people who want to learn more about computer science without necessarily becoming COS majors or committing to something like 126. (I.e., democratizing CS = a good thing) Mmm and I guess it’s a lot of work? :P

[petermorgan1]

How to Perfect Your Writing

Anonymous asked: How do I perfect my writing? I have this huge fear that my writing will not be good enough and boring and I’m afraid that people won’t love it as much as I do. I look at all these authors like Tolkien, Jk Rowling, CS Louis, etc and I feel like my writing is amateur and not on the same level. What are some tips on making my writing go from alright to outstanding?

There are several things you can do:

1) WRITE

. Writing, like all crafts, requires practice and lots of it. Write as often as you can, and whatever it is that you write–whether it’s poetry, short stories, fan-fiction, or original fiction–write one, finish it, and then start a new one.

2) READ

. You wouldn’t try to build a boat from scratch if you hadn’t spent a lot of time in one, and you shouldn’t try to write a novel (or a poem, short story, etc.) unless you’ve read a whole bunch of them. Reading is the best way to familiarize yourself with the thing that you’re trying to create, to learn about tropes and clichés, and to learn the many details of the craft from a wide variety of teachers.

3) READ ABOUT WRITING

. Follow writing blogs, read articles about writing, read the books authors write about writing, go to the library or book store and read books about plot and story structure, and about description, and about how to improve your writing.

4) BE REALISTIC

. Most new writers think that writing a novel is about coming up with an idea, perfecting the idea, and writing the story. Sure, there are the lucky few who, having never written so much as a fictional sentence before, sit down at a keyboard and bang out a best-seller, but that is not the way it works for 99.9% of writers. Your first novels aren’t going to be outstanding no matter how hard you work on them. For most people, outstanding takes years. JK Rowling didn’t publish any of her early attempts at writing, but if she had, you’d see they weren’t on the same level as Harry Potter. And, if she is still publishing novels in ten years, chances are they will be superior to what she’s writing now. If you expect outstanding on your first novel, second novel, or maybe even third novel, you may well be disappointed.

5) FINISH

. Learn as much as you can now and apply it to your writing, certainly, but more than anything else you should focus on finishing what you start. The biggest mistake I see from aspiring authors is that they start a novel, get halfway through it, get frustrated or lose interest and start another one. Before they know it, they have six or seven unfinished novels (or poems, short stories, fan-fictions, etc.) scattered around their desktop, but not a single finished novel. That’s like trying to train for a marathon by running halfway up the street and giving up because your time wasn’t good enough. You can’t become a faster runner without completing your circuit, and you can’t become a better writer without completing your stories. If your first novel doesn’t feel outstanding to you, put a lot of effort into rewriting it until it becomes something you feel better about. Or, just set it aside and start on the next one. You can always come back and take another stab at early ideas later when you’ve become a better writer.

6) LET GO OF YOUR FEAR

. Maybe the most important thing you can do is let go of your fear that your writing won’t be good enough, or that people won’t love your stories as much as you do. Your job is to tell the story you want to tell, the way you want to tell it, the best way that you possibly can. Then, when it is completed, if you decide to publish it, you polish it up as nice as you can, and then you send it off into the world and don’t worry about people who don’t like it, because no matter how outstanding your writing is, I guarantee there will be people who don’t like it. The most talented, successful writers in the world still have critics who think their writing is amateurish, boring, unpolished, or even lacking in talent. You can’t please everyone, so don’t worry about trying.

Good luck! I KNOW you can do this if you want to!

Source: http://writing-questions-answered.tumblr.com/post/72298668356/advice-how-to-perfect-your-writing