#Not that that sort of thing Never happens by any means but the contemporary discipline as a whole is not like that lol

[taraxippos]

Major pet peeve is people seeing an object being explained as having 'ritual purpose' and dunking on it on the level that they see the word 'ritual' and are thinking like 'complex solemn religious ceremony' when the anthropological term being used in these contexts just means sets of habitual behaviors performed on a cultural level. Like, a christmas tree bought at target by a secular culturally christian family for their kids to hang Bluey ornaments on has 'ritual purpose'.

The reason 'ritual purpose' is funny as a descriptor for a cup shaped like a frog or whatever is because it's so vague and just narrows its usage down to 'having culturally specific meaning/use in a habitual manner', not because Foolish Historians/Archeologists/Etc by and large see any object/art they don't immediately understand and imagine it must have been utilized by high priests in elaborate blood ceremonies to a frog god or something.

[infinitheismworld]

How Thoughts, Feelings and Actions are Connected

"It is easier to give you the discipline of an action; by consistently performing this action, eventually you achieve transformation of a feeling."

At the outset, bringing these two hands together and bowing down. If we don’t know the meaning behind it, it’s nothing but another physical action performed.

And when we understand the meaning behind it, it’s called a ritual.

One of the challenges in bringing timeless wisdom into contemporary practice is the need to understand the science behind why they asked us to do what they asked us to do.

To begin with, action-feeling is a cycle. It’s not linear. The way you act causes certain feelings in you and the way you feel propels certain actions in you. Action-feeling is a cycle. People say, “I don’t speak in public because I’m very nervous.”.

Actually, the contrary is also true. Because you don’t want to face public, you are nervous! The more you face public, you will overcome nervousness, which means in spite of nervousness, the moment you come and face the public, the action that you’re performing will bring about certain changes in your feelings.

And that is why you’ll see a lot of reluctant communicators, who reluctantly come to the mike and reluctantly start to speak. And once they start speaking willingly, they never end! They’ll keep on talking, because this action that you have performed, the moment it removes that nervousness within you… Now, this accident, this action propels confidence within you, and you’ll begin to see that confidence emulating through this very action! Religion is the highest form of psychology.

They studied human behaviour and realized, to bring about certain changes, certain transformations in you, especially in the feeling domain, the easiest way to achieve that is, give you the discipline of certain actions. And in performing those actions, you will be able to achieve the transformation of the feeling! For example, to teach somebody who has never concentrated in life concentration, by a mere speech, by a mere lecture it’s not going to happen. So they gave you the ritual of either running the rosary beads, or initiating you into a mantra and asking you to keep practicing that mantra. Or asking you to write, say, Sri Rama Jayam so many times, or asking you to physically perform certain actions.

Which involves coordination of body-mind, of just walking one step at a time, or doing the squats hundred and eight times, or practicing certain Pranayama in certain ratio. Actions performed, apart from the physical benefits you derive out of it, it achieves transformation of certain feelings.

So it’s much easier to give you the discipline of an action and by consistently performing this action, eventually you achieve transformation of a feeling.

Shake hands is an action!

Glad to meet you. You’re not yet glad, but by over a period of time performing the action, glad to meet you, glad to meet you, you enhance the chances of actually feeling glad!

It is one thing to feel that love and to act.

But how many of us have experienced? The more and more you hug a person, your affinity and attachment for the person actually grows. An action performed in order to achieve transformation of a feeling. A ritual basically means actions performed in order to achieve transformation of a feeling.

Those of you who have played competitive sport, I am sure you have gone through that.

You’re playing your table tennis match and you’re down six-nine. And somehow, a friend of yours whom you respect and value, screams from the crowd, “Hey, you can do it! Fight!” and somehow you do a body language.

And you don’t know what happened with that action that you performed, or somewhere you acknowledged to him that you will do it and something within you got pumped up.

And here you began to serve and it was ten-all! Something within the same player, some feeling within the same player has been transformed, through an action that was performed. Action feeling is a cycle.

Religion being the higher psychology, they understood the whole thing. That is why even now, to bring about certain transformations in your children in parenting, by inducing them into certain actions, you will be able to achieve the transformation of the feeling much, much more than continuously giving them a lecture on where you need that change!

So all rituals, whether it is about etiquette, whether it is about organizational discipline, whether it is about religion, all rituals are nothing but actions performed in order to achieve transformation of a feeling.

So whether they ask you to prostrate, or whether they ask you to go down on your knees in front of the altar of your God, or whether they are asking you to sit in certain mudras and certain postures, everything has a science behind it, which we may know, we may not know. But they are all actions performed in order to achieve transformation of a feeling.

Architects sitting here, before you begin any project, you decide what? Whether it is from a religious cue or you have been creative enough to come up with your own ritual, but perform a ritual and over a period of time, train your entire system to shift into a peak state.

Those of you who have ever been trained in public speaking, you will realize that whenever you lock your hands, whenever you throw your hands inside your pocket… People who have trained you in public speaking would have always told you, “Leave your hands free!” and there’s a reason behind it.

Again, research suggests, whenever you feel a little diffident, whenever you feel a little nervous, whenever you feel a little withdrawn, you do not leave your hands free. Your hands either lock up, or it picks up some object and holds. A confident speaker will not hold the mike and a nervous speaker cannot help but hold the mike. Now listen what happens to your system.

Because you are nervous, you hold the mike stand and speak. Now internally, this emotion of your nervousness and the body language of holding the mike has become a memory. In the future, every time you hold the mike stand, your system will start feeling nervous.

It cues in that nervousness into the entire system. So let us say, last time you felt diffident, very diffident and very nervous and you have thrown your hands inside the pocket and spoken. In the future, because an internal memory has been created linking this action with this feeling, first time you felt nervous and your body was in certain ways. In the future, when your body is in certain ways, you will start feeling like that.

So the moment, even as a confident speaker, you come in, you’re about to begin, and the moment your hands go into the pocket, somewhere you lock your entire hands and you’ll find the nervousness starts automatically, manifesting in whatever you deliver.

So it is so important, that positively and negatively to understand, there are certain bodily postures, there are certain bodily rituals, there are certain bodily grammar which over a period of time as you grow, is getting linked, like how you bite your nails when you feel nervous, when you are tensed, how you bite your nails? If you keep supporting a team which always loses.

Okay, then you don’t have nails left at all, because all the time, as if you’re only going to play and it becomes a habitual thing. Initially, when you were nervous when you could not handle the performance of what is going to happen to your team, you bit your nails and in the future, whenever you bite your nails, you’ll start feeling nervous.

So it’s so important to understand the link between action and feeling and the more and more you understand, then you realize, highest form of psychology was religion. They just realized what sort of actions can be induced into you, performing which you can achieve certain transformation of feelings.

Literally speaking, when you and me bring our hands together and bow down to each other, you know what is actually internally happening? The you in me is bowing down to the me in you. And experientially understand, we are way, way beyond all these labels by which we have identified ourselves and hence the ritual of bringing the hands together and bowing down to each other.

Now, what is important is, when this is performed as an action, you’ve done nothing but a bending exercise. When a reverence is brought to that action, when you understand the meaning behind it and for a moment, a conscious reminder happens that I in spirit and you in spirit are one and the same…

Over a period of time of performing this action, will achieve a transformation of a feeling and the sort of liberation that you have. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter in the midst of whom you are, you still feel all of us are connected to each other.

And it’s a tremendous liberation to experience.

[camillesfm]

。· . ˙ ⌈ alva bratt + cis female + she / her + the  intangible concept ⌋  yo ,  have  you  meet  that  KOOK  ,  camille 'cj' petersen ,  yet ?  — no ?  well ,  to  give  you  a  little  heads  up  before  you  do  ,  they’re  a  TWENTY   year  old ,  PRE-LAW STUDENT  ,  and  have  been  living  in  coston  for  TWENTY . since  i’ve  known  them  ,  they’ve  reminded  me  of PALE PINK POINTE SHOES , CHAINS MADE OF WHITE CLOVERS , A PURPLE SKY JUST BEFORE SUNRISE , STEADY WAVES CRASHING AT LOW TIDE , AND SHATTERED & SCATTERED GLASS . usually  they’re  quite  LEVELHEADED  &  THOUGHTFUL  but  just  make  sure  you  keep  an  eye  out  for  them  around  town  because  i  heard  can  be  quite  RETICENT  &  ALOOF  as  well  so  here’s  hoping  they  aren’t  the  ones  to  undo  this  whole  peace  pact  they  have  going  on  this  summer .  but  just  between  you  &  me ,  i  kinda  hope it  all  falls  apart .  the  rivalry  keeps  this  whole  boring  town  interesting . –– this is cj . . . let’s just . . . dive into this mess ! 

𝐁 𝐀 𝐂 𝐊 𝐆 𝐑 𝐎 𝐔 𝐍 𝐃 .

scarlett petersen is a name known statewide, as she’s the best corporate lawyer on the east coast, clever as the devil and twice as pretty with long blonde hair often pinned into a sleek ponytail. david petersen got his degree at vanderbilt university, moving on to get his phd at unc chapel hill where he could never quite shake that carolina blue. he’s been sitting chancellor for the past six years in tandem with a long term sports-medicine, neuroscience research project that studies the long term affects of brain damage in athletes in contact sports. they both hail from old money families, and long lines of success are continued in two people who hold appearance and accomplishment far above humility or even . . . . humanity lol. they’re good people, really . . . just not really the parenting type.

which is unfortunate! as.  well into their marriage, they had twins, caleb, first, and camille, ten minutes later. bright eyed and blonde haired, the perfect petersen babies were angels in their infancy, and it was easy to parent them . . . especially when they were paying someone else to do it.

caleb and camille grew up under the watchful eye of a rosy-cheeked nanny. think julie andrews as nanny in eloise. they were happy, but lonely, though you’d never guess it by their wide smiles in cuddled family portrait christmas cards. for all anyone else knew, scarlett and david were perfect parents, raising two beautiful children who they loved more than anything . . . but behind that iron gated entryway to a house on the coast was another story.

they liked their kids, sure, but whether or not they loved them was another question entirely. camille, growing up to be the spitting image of scarlett, was liked in the way a rare porcelain artifact was. she was a beautiful thing to behold; seen, not spoken to. shown off, not interacted with in anyway. held with delicate hands and passed around as a humble brag: look at this precious thing i’ve brought into the world. i bet mine’s better than yours. 

but as time passed, the novelty of having children seemed to wear off, and they were moving to the next big thing, the next big step in their careers. they weren’t around when camille began going by cj because it was easier for little voices to say. they weren’t around when blonde ringlets relaxed and grew darker. they weren’t around when she started to develop a personality of her own, interests of her own, talents of her own. christmas cards would go out, but rarely were they all together on christmas morning. thanksgivings were often spent with grandparents, as their parents worked through the holiday. they spent more and more time away from coston, leaving cj and caleb in nanny’s capable hands.

but life goes on, and sometimes it was easy to forget that it was abnormal not to have your parents around. as a youngin, cj was interested in everything. she took a liking to soccer and lacrosse, painting and drawing, piano and guitar . . . but somewhere in between a blue mat and pale pink pointe shoes, she found her thing.

it was obvious, from an early age, that cj was one hell of a dancer. disciplined and precise when she needed to be. creative and passionate when it called for it. gymnastics trained her strength, ballet trained her patience, contemporary pushed her limits with creativity, partner work taught her teamwork. dance was very clearly her best thing and her favorite thing.

her parents only ever attended recitals when it didn’t conflict with anything else on their schedules and when it was classical ballet. dance was a frivolous thing for them, but for cj it was everything. being a naturally shy kid, naturally timid in the shadow of her last name, she became a completely different person on stage who dominated a spotlight . . . without even needed a literal spotlight. ultimately, this is what she spent her life doing. monday through thursday evenings, dance. competitions and performances on the weekends. if neither were happening, you’d catch her teaching classes at coston’s local studio.

it’s what truly made her happy, but that wasn’t something her parents understood. caleb and nanny did, sure, but her parents? not one bit. someone would ask what she wanted to be when she grew up, and if dance was mentioned, she’d be cut off mid-sentence. they didn’t want to hear about it because it wasn’t logical. you can’t make a career out of it. it didn’t help much that her brother was the ideal child in that realm, charming and on a path to success in the medical field. they still had questionable motives, but they favored nonetheless.

sometimes it was a blessing; sometimes it was a curse. when she could slip under the radar, she was grateful, but it seemed that her parents had a keen eye for her screwups. any chance they had, they’d use to scold her or nudge her away from the pointe shoes.

so cj spent a lot of time being pristine in the way that was expected of her, never letting anyone know too much about her, only keeping a few friends close enough to really know her. she stayed out of trouble, kept up exceptional grades, smiled and nodded when necessary, and began catering to the idea that she’d go to law school, a fate pre-determined by her mother no doubt. 

nowadays, she attends brown university, pre-law. she’s a picturesque ivy league gal with a dark academia aesthetic when at school, but there’s a restlessness lingering under the surface. even she’s doing what her parents require of her, she never seems to live up to their unrealistic expectations. we rly do be . . . . waiting for her to have a complete breakdown . . . . aklsdfjha

𝐏 𝐄 𝐑 𝐒 𝐎 𝐍 𝐀 𝐋 𝐈 𝐓 𝐘 .

miss camille . . . better known around town as cj . . . is, above all else, the picture of serenity. she’s levelheaded and calm, and patient as all get out which is probably why she’s so damned accustomed to just going with what her parents thought of her. she’s really great to have in a crisis because very few things cause that steady nature of hers to crumble, and because she’s honestly. . . quietly very maternal. putting the needs of others before her own comes naturally.

she’s quiet and shy, yes, but just because she doesn’t speak doesn’t mean she doesn’t listen. she listens and sees and is . . . quite observant. there’s a way about her that notices the little things, which makes her quite thoughtful when it comes to the people she loves. if you’re lucky enough to be close to her, you can bet she quietly takes notes of little habits and favorites and carefully uses them to idk love ya better ya feel??

reticent comes from the fact that she doesn’t often let people get close to her. the way her parents treated her and caleb growing up has taken. .. . a toll for sure because honestly she’s terrified of disappointing people by shattering the mirror of perfection and revealing too much about herself that’s unexpected

aloof comes from the way she’s calm and quiet . . . and how that sometimes translates as apathy . . . on top of that she’s very daydreamy like she is That Bitch who is staring out of the window producing a whole move in her head which sometimes causes her to not hear when people are talking to her . . . cue the ‘hm? what?’ tuning back in

when i say cj is a different person when she’s dancing . . . . i mean it. like i REALLY mean it. she’s confident and expressive. her choreography tests the limits of tradition. she pushes boundaries when it comes to the physicality of performances. like u rly look at her being quiet and to herself in the corner at a country club event and then see her performing like she invented contemporary and ur like . .. . are u SURE that’s the same girl

people who know her most know her as warm. when she opens up, getting past the shy, she can be a little goofy, definitely has avery creative way about her, wants to know that you’re okay and if you’re not, how can she help ya know!! 

has a black cat named lucky because ya know . . . black cats are bad luck . . . ha ha ha ha . . . get it

the ‘j’ in cj is for her middle name . . . but no one really knows what her middle name is . . . except family and close, close friends 

absolutely hates the energy of the pogue/kook rivalry and thinks violence is most cERTAINLY not the way to go

often times found by the shoreline at night, just a little ways off from the petersen estate because she likes the way the waves sound as they roll in. it helps her think

is trying to make the best of law school by studying to become a defense attorney and she likes it! sort of! really, she just wants to dance for as long as she can and ultimately open up her own studio

definitely believes in wishing stars

bad case of insomnia

has a finsta dedicated to lucky

has a dance insta too . . . . but that’s lowkey bc her parents can’t know about it

please for the love of god watch this because charity and cj have the same energy

this also has cj energy

so does this . . . classical is fun when it’s telling a story and she loves a good pas de deaux but otherwise meh

my girl is physically . .. QUITE strong

says sorry WAY too often

incessant need to prove herself, prove her worth, since her parents never seem to find it

loves caleb sfm but will thump him in the forehead for mentioning he’s older

overachiever . . . . yikes

ABSOLUTELY burns the candle at both ends

idk if y’all watched high school musical the musical the series but gina . . . . . ..  minus the ‘mean girl’ plot they tried . . .. is v cj and bitch i hate to say it but neville longbottom??? also a cj mood LMAO

OK THAT’S IT THAT’S ALL THERE WE GO IT’S DONE I’M DONE GBYYYYYE BABIIIIE

[buzzdixonwriter]

Duty Now For The Future (part three)

(When last we left our intrepid scrivener, he was spitballing ideas on what he thought the post coronavirus pandemic world would look like…)

Creative Breakthroughs

A lot of people are going to be doing things that interest them during the lockdown, and we’ll see the benefits of that very soon.

Ideas will collide and new ideas will emerge from that.

The high ticket items that our capitalist system kept saying was what we wanted will be supplanted by smaller scale, more personal ideas.

In my phone right now is a free app that enables me to make movies of any length.

There’s a music making app as well.

People are going to create and they’re going to create with the resources they have on hand.

The big movie theaters are taking a hit.  There will not be enough audiences to sustain them.  They’ll be rapidly repurposed.

Once a vaccine is developed for the coronavirus, live venues will flourish.

Pop up theaters and clubs along the times cited above for stores and restaurants will also flourish.

Some of those big empty shopping centers will see crowds return since every week will have a new batch of stores and food stalls and live entertainment to offer.

There are going to be some remarkable media projects created by this, and that will be the artistic wave of the future, and out of necessity it’s not going to be the bloated big budget blockbuster.

If you can tell an interesting story shot in your house using family members as cast, you’ll be able to craft other small scale dramas.

(The only movie theaters likely to flourish will be drive-ins, and for pretty much the reasons they flourished in the past:  They’re cheaper than motels.)

Also, if you thought my incel prediction was scary, try this on for size:  iPhones + senior citizens X trapped at home X several weeks or months confinement = epic granny porn.  (Right now a bunch of you are rolling your eyes and saying “there goes Buzz, making up weird stuff again” and to that I say “you wish!”)

. . .

Print Takes A Hit

Disposable printing (i.e., cheap magazines, books, comics, and newspapers) may not be wiped out, but it’s gonna get rocked back on its heels.

There will always be a small and identifiable market for quality printed works (and here I’m talking about the physical package, not the contents), but the days of buying a magazine knowing full well you’ll throw it away in a few days or weeks will end.

Disposable printing will remain for specific local events (conventions programs, conference brochures, etc.) but mass market printing will go.  (And expect more and more conventions and conferences to make their programs and brochures available online only.)

That’s going to be quite a block to several overlapping industries and creative disciplines.  There are new venues springing up digitally and online, but the transition over will not be an easy one for older consumers.

. . .

Collecting & Crafting

Bad news for all you folks holding onto “collectables” that were cranked out by the shitte-tonne.  The only people who value them are folks like you, who bought ‘em hoping to sell ‘em to some other sucker.  Real 21st century collectibles will be precious because of their scarcity and their craftsmanship, in particular the fame and reputation of the crafter making it.

. . .

DIY Culture

This is going to overlap with a resurgence in home crafting, making items by hand that become desirable because they were made by hand.  Smart tailors and jewelers and other crafters will operate on margins too thin for large scale production but will do quite nicely since they’ll eliminate mid-level distribution by selling direction online.  Already Etsy and similar sites are making this possible.

Couple it with 3D printers becoming cheaper and more reliable, and a lot of small household items are going to actually be made in the house they’re intended for.

We should also see people creating automated looms, knitting machines, woodworking lathes, etc., that eliminate or at least drastically reduce the skill set required to turn out serviceable goods.  

Not everyone will own one (much less all) of these devices, but in neighborhoods and among family and friends we should find people we know and trust who can make things for us.

. . .

Pop Up Stores And Restaurants

The worst business to be in is the restaurant business.  

An estimated 20% of all new businesses fail in their first year, and 50% fail by their fifth year, but for restaurants it’s a staggering 60% in year one, 80% by year five.

Who would want to get in any new business?

No, what we’ll want to do is get our new business out.

What kills most new businesses is a tug of war between financing (never enough) and real estate / hardware (always unexpected costs there).

A restaurateur needs to find an affordable location, make sure it is outfitted with a suitable kitchen, assemble a staff, then open at set times in a fixed location and hope enough people come to make the venture profitable.

Why?

Look at food trucks.  They go everywhere and they do good business.  Of course, there’s no fine dining establishment, you just grab your grub and go, so it’s not the wort of thing that appeals to people who wish to socialize or do a business lunch.

But a pop-up restaurant could offer that.  Find an empty venue, either take over its kitchen if it has one or truck in your own if needed, open only during the hours you wish to be open, then cart everything off when finished.

There are night clubs and raves that do this sort of thing already on a much lower scale.  And it doesn’t have to be confined to entertainment style businesses.

A small shop could easily open up for a few weeks in a specific location, sell products, then close and move on / wait till the next opportunity.  (This already happens in the form of Halloween and Christmas shops that pop up for a few weeks then disappear around those holidays.)

Returns could be handled in a centralized location; the business need not generate what it sells but could be the storefront for a manufacturer.

It will mean a change in the way we shop and the way we market what we shop, but with most durable goods purchased online, and with smaller items either made at home or by a local crafter one knows, this might be a viable market for items and services that might otherwise fall through the cracks.

. . .

The Knowns, The Known Unknowns, And The Unknown Unknowns

The above are what I think is going to result from this current coronavirus outbreak.

Frankly, there are still so many wild cards in play that there’s no guarantee any of the above will come about. 

Consider: The tragic polio outbreaks of the 1920s / 30s / 50s were rightly or wrongly associated with public swimming pools.

A great many families, once they rose high enough into the middle class, bought a backyard pool -- either an inground or a temporary seasonal above ground model -- to keep their family safe.

It became a status symbol to show how well you looked after your kids.

Even when polio was finally defeated, it remained a status symbol.

There’s no reason for everybody to have a backyard pool, and in places like Southern California they’re actually counterproductive, contributing to climate change (you’re better off filling ‘em in and planting trees instead).

Nobody anticipated that in the 1950s when building pools became more and more common for middle class families around America.

You’ll notice I’ve avoid discussing contemporary politics.

That’s because this crisis is ultimately one of a political nature, both in the US and around the world, and it’s going to be solved (hopefully) through politics.

Or violence.

Which is why I’m rooting for politics.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be change in a big, big way.

It may not be good change.

We may not like it.

We may have to fight to change to something else.

But we’re never going back to where we once were.

. . .

Bottom Line: We’re going to get through this, but we’re not going to be the same on the other side.

 © Buzz Dixon

[ikesenhell]

Concrete and Glass

The Measurement of Time: Chapter 7. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTES: This whole story does not make much sense without the context from To Honor And Protect! Please go back and read that before you proceed with TMOT. Tagging @ikemenprincessnaga at request.

The tunnel stretched on and on. Sasuke wondered about how far they were walking. Practically speaking, they didn’t have enough supplies to go forever onward, given that they’d literally been snatched at a moment’s notice from the kitchen. To conserve their torch they doused the lamp. The dim light of the moon filtering through the water was enough. 

“When do you think this was built?” Uesugi mused, knocking her fist against the glass. Sasuke wondered if he would’ve chanced something that bold. Mercifully, the glass held up. 

“Well, glassworking in this region has always been remarkably advanced. The main glass wall of the palace was constructed approximately two hundred years ago. I’d place this as a contemporary.” 

She cast him an amused glance. “You’re a walking dictionary, huh?”

“I’ve heard that before. Apologies.”

“No, I didn’t mean that as a bad thing. I like it.”

Sasuke didn’t know what to say to that. He nudged his glasses up his nose and tried not to parse that too much. “Can you see the end yet? I wore my spares this morning. Clearly it isn’t working out.”

“That’s fine. It’s too murky to tell anyway.” With a sigh, she reached up and teased out her braid, twist after twist of ice blonde hair swinging free down to her waist. What else could he do but stare? She was beautiful regardless of the context, but something about her easy expression made his chest tighten. “I wonder if Uncle Kenshin knew anything about this place?”

That was right. How had he forgotten that? “Did you know him long?”

“I lived with him for almost five years.” She rapped her fingers on the hilt of her sword. “He granted me his own sword in his will. My father and mother had four children--myself, my elder sister, and my two brothers--and I was always more like Uncle Kenshin than anyone else. I idolized him anyway.” Absently she ran her thumb over the hand guard, eyes staring off. “When my great-aunt died, my father and mother knew he wasn’t going to... he didn’t handle loss well. He’d seen enough of it, what with the invasion and his first wife and all that. So they sent me to live with him when I was four. He was around eighty, and he didn’t have any kids of his own, so he doted on me like crazy.”

“Did he?” Sasuke chuckled. “I haven’t heard any stories of him like that.”

“Oh hell no. Most of them are about him doing things like surprise attacking the others in the Nine to keep them on their guard.” But she grinned and nodded. “Probably true, mind you. But anyway, he adored me and I would have died for him. He started training me in little things like ‘discipline’ and ‘stance’ when I was probably five. My father and him had a bunch of arguments about when I’d be allowed to have a knife. Uncle Kenshin’s idea of an ‘acceptable age’ differed wildly from my father’s.” 

A beat. She lowered her eyes, those pale lashes kissing her cheeks, and softly exhaled. Without thinking, Sasuke brushed back a lock of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. 

“Do you miss him?”

“All the time.” But she sighed and looked up again. “But I move on. I am the inheritor of the Uesugi name, and I’m proud to wear that. No one will take that from me.”

Sasuke didn’t usually smile. It was so foreign that he realized he was doing it immediately and Uesugi’s eyes widened in shock.

“You smile?”

“I--” He flushed. “I’ve considered the possibility that I have some kind of physical or psychological limitations on the range of my expressions--I can, I just--”

“Encyclopedia.” She snickered and checked his chin with the edge of her finger. “Don’t worry. I’m just giving you hell.”

Before he could stop himself, Sasuke teased back, “You make jokes?”

Surprise flickered on her before she leaned back her head and laughed. It echoed off the glass, sang through the hall, sank deep as the ocean into his stomach and settled there. A fan of being locked underground he was not--but seeing her finally undone was worth it in ways he didn’t know how to articulate. 

“Good one, Sasuke.” She fixed him with a rare smile. “We’ll make you one of us yet.”

“Thank you.” And he paused. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Do you prefer I call you Captain, or Uesugi, or...?”

Her lips pursed ever so slightly. “Since we’re technically off duty, you may call me by my name. Usually you would refer to me as Captain.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve never caught your first name.”

“No?” She tittered. “I guess not. Seiren. Seiren Uesugi.”

---

They reached the end of the hall, and there was a massive door before them. Or there was. It was ripped out of place, swinging back and forth on a single, lonely hinge. 

“That’s a great sign,” she muttered, drawing her weapon. “Would you?”

Sasuke lit the torch again and waved it in front of the opening. Nothing greeted them except another pitch black hallway. No more was there a glass skylight. Now they would be utterly alone in it. 

“Wonderful.” Squaring her shoulders, Seiren stepped into the gaping dark. “No way out but forward.”

This section of hallway was less polished than the others. Rough, hastily-constructed concrete framed the walls here. He could see handprints and footprints from days gone by memorialized in the cast. Once upon a time it was well used. The ground was smooth and worn under his foot. 

“This looks like it was a main causeway.”

“Then we were right in our theory.” Seiren tapped a fist against the wall. “It was probably the main way between the Trinity Islands and the City. What happened? Communication and travel would be easier with this. Why did they change it?”

No answers awaited them in the dark. They pressed onward. Eventually they reached a stair step leading upwards--and at the top, a faint light.

“Okay.” She squared her shoulders. “Time to face the music and find out.”

This was their chance. Cautiously she braced her shoulder under the trapdoor before them. Sasuke readied his weapon, just in case. Then--in one fluid motion she shoved it open, and they both drew their swords. 

“Fuck,” she gasped. “What the fuck.”

The scorched room around them was familiar. It was a full five seconds before either of them recovered themselves long enough to clamber from the hiding spot and take a cautious look around. Nothing had changed since their last visit. The shattered sarcophagus lay in fragments around the room. 

“Can--” Her voice staggered. “Can it fit through this passage?”

“I don’t--”

“Sasuke, this is very important. Could that thing, theoretically, fit through this passage?”

He ran the calculation in his mind. “Yes. Probably.”

“Fuck!” The expletive echoed, so she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Fuck. Fuck.”

“So it can reach the City.”

“Apparently. Apparently! And it isn’t in here. And it can’t fit that way--” Seiren motioned up the stairs toward the rest of the island. “So there’s only one way out. How did we miss it?”

“Was it behind that wall?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? I hope so. This is not good.”

Sasuke didn’t know what to say to that. She was right. To offer blind assurances was insulting to both her sense of alarm and his understanding of probability. It had attacked them. It had free roam underneath a city full of people. Someone had locked them in. It seemed to possess intelligence, ergo, it wasn’t a stretch to assume they were just prey in a maze and happened to escape. He couldn’t think about it now. The moonlight dipping into the room from the island was high, and they needed rest. 

“Come on,” he said. “We need to at least summon help, if not take a bit of a rest. We’ve been at it for hours. You can’t maintain vigilance if you’re exhausted.”

“I’m fine,’ she snapped. Only a moment later she mellowed. “I know.”

“Let’s go.”

They navigated their way up. The breeze washed cold over his cheeks. At least the rain had stopped. Seiren fiddled with her necklace until it pulsed a faint blue. 

“What’s that?”

“Aria’s grandmother made these. They’re signal flares of a sort. Theirs will flash in the City--probably--and they’ll be given an idea of where I am by sound. It’s a nifty little thing.”

“Oddly specific, too.”

“I think she made it for Mitsuhide Akechi. He was blind after the invasion, I think.”

Fair enough. Sasuke and she picked their way through the rubble of the Town Hall and into the village on the island. Some of the structures stood, though not many anymore. They broke their way into one that had a half decent living room and lit a fire in the grate, spreading their cloaks across the floor for makeshift futons. His legs hurt, his feet were sore, his shoulders were weary--and still he didn’t know how he would sleep.

“Seiren?”

A beat. He wondered if she was asleep before she responded. “Yes?”

Sasuke didn’t even know why he was saying her name. “Nevermind. I think I forgot what I was going to say.”

“Hah.” Her chuckle rumbled through the floorboards. “Is it strange if I say I’m very uneasy right now?”

“No. I think that’s fair.”

“Yeah.” Another beat. “If anything happens to the City while I’m gone, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.”

What could he say? “If anything happens while you are gone, it will be at least better than if we never discovered anything below the City at all. No doubt the others have an alarm going because we’ve been gone.”

“You’re right.” She hummed. “You’re right. They’re capable.”

Finally sleep crept up on him. Sasuke folded his glasses against his chest and shut his heavy eyes, willing it to take control. Just before he slipped into a dreamless sleep, he felt a soft head nest against his shoulder. 

“Seiren?” He mumbled through a fog. 

“I’m cold,” she muttered petulantly.

“Alright.”

[reviewsofdentalpro-blog]

Dental Pro 7 Ingredients

Do You Really Know How To Brush Your Teeth?

If you believe brushing alone with a normal kind of toothbrush is a must, you are wrong. To be able to achieve the results you prefer after that you need to recognize all the vital aspects of brushing and the appropriate product you should make use of. It is necessary that you think about these details so as to help you stop any teeth and mouth concerns too like foul-smelling breath, bleeding gums, receding gums as well as even bone tissue loss. Read on and also discover additional about the tooth brushing 101 that are going to assist you get the greatest cause no time at all.

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Just how to Choose the Right Kind of Toothbrush It is very essential that you opt for the correct sort of tooth brush that will function well on you. There are actually lots of brand names and type of tooth brushes in the market today appealing remarkable outcomes. The trick here is actually to opt for the right one. The primary thing you must do is to cover this issue to your dentist. It will help a great deal if you are going to inquire your dentist which company as well as kind of tooth brush will definitely do you any kind of great. A lot of the moment your dentist will definitely base the kind as well as label of toothbrush he are going to suggests depending on to the disorder of your teeth and also gums. If you possess sensitive gums or if you are actually currently suffering from bleeding gums or receding gums after that he will encourage to you to possess a gentle bristle type of toothbrush. Some might even suggest you to make use of an electric toothbrush to avoid it from getting worst. Another significant point you should take into consideration when deciding on the ideal toothbrush is actually that it must have ADA seal on the box. This seal will certainly make sure that the bristle of the toothbrush you will certainly obtain is not too hard. Utilizing too tough bristle toothbrush will definitely create some certain teeth and also gum problems. Just how to Brush your Teeth Right Way When you finally found and acquired the appropriate kind as well as company of tooth brush the upcoming step is to understand and also learn just how to clean your teeth appropriately. It is essential that you recognize how to clean your teeth straight so concerning avoid any sort of teeth as well as gum issues like hemorrhaging gums as well as receding gums. Thus here are actually a number of the basic recommendations you ought to look at when brushing your teeth. Make a round movement when brushing your teeth. After that clean the outer and also most especially the internal edge of your teeth as these are actually the favorite locations of microorganisms and meals remains. But don't go extremely challenging on those locations for dental flossing would certainly have taken all of them out. Certainly never over comb your teeth because you  would certainly desire to steer clear of hurting your gums. Rigorous combs and also overhasty design of brushing can result in gums to bleed. Therefore go delicately on those rounded movements. Do not brush for over 4 minutes, and wash your mouth thoroughly, preferably make use of a mouthwash after brushing. Comb your tongue at the same time the inside of your check to eliminate the micro-organisms accumulation that can create halitosis.

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Since you have discovered the simple features of brushing, all you need to do is to observe all of them. It is important that you review this concern to your dentist thus regarding totally know all the important and essential traits that will certainly aid make your teeth healthier. The ideas and assistance coming from your dentist are going to likewise assist guard your gums from obtaining any sort of infections and also health conditions that could possibly bring about extra serious complications like hemorrhaging gums, receding gums and other gums and teeth concerns. Consider that tooth brushing alone is actually inadequate to safeguard your teeth and also gums. You must have the support as well as guide coming from your dentist. Make it behavior to find your dentist every 6 months to have teeth cleansing and also examination. Take into consideration these truths as well as pointers as well as you are going to definitely acquire the best results ever.

Dealing With The Usual Oral Health Issues

All of us know that to have well-balanced teeth and also gums, one ought to comb and floss daily, consume healthy foods items, and also explore the dentist frequently. But occasionally these may not be good enough. Many people are actually worried about along with oral illness like cavities, foul-smelling breath, receding gums, mouth sores, and disintegration which basically take away their assurance to smile. These oral illness occur whenever our experts do not adequately look after our oral health. There are actually likewise lots of means to avoid this coming from occurring, as well as the most basic thing for right now is recognizing-- and also performing - the ideal safety nets versus these dental concerns. Your diet regimen as well as your oral hygiene are big consider your oral health. Routine visits to the dentist can create a significant distinction. However what happens if you were not able to prevent this coming from taking place? What if you are experiencing it straight at this exact moment? This will only mean something. You are actually seeking the best treatment approaches. Listed below are a few of the usual dental problems and exactly how to handle them, and also ideas on stopping these typical issues. Foul-smelling breath. Halitosis or even foul breath is addressed based upon what caused it. Brushing and flossing is vital since it guards your mouth from micro-organisms that result in the filthy smell. Even if your dentist guarantees you that you possess healthy teeth and gums, you ought to probe a little bit of much deeper as it could be a symptom of a different problem. Bronchitis, sinus problems, breathing infections, diabetic issues, concern with the liver or renals, as well as gastro digestive tract disturbance like GERD, are instances of illnesses that may be indicated through foul-smelling breath. Other possible culprits are way too much garlic as well as red onion, cigarette smoking, as well as certain sorts of drug. Dental cavity and also tooth disintegration. Brushing your teeth at least pair of times a time as well as making use of a floss once a day along with normal sees to the dentist may ward off dental cavity and also erosion. There are actually also defensive plastic sealers that lower one's danger of having cavities. Prevent building cavity enducing plaque and disintegration through minimizing your snacking and possessing a healthy and balanced diet regimen. Researches reveal that acid food items as well as drinks cause the polish to wear off so steer clear coming from soft drinks, sports drinks, citrus fruit products as well as juices, tomatoes and predicaments. Also, if you possess bulimia or experience acid refluxes, go view a physician for treatment considering that stomach acid is just one of the causes of teeth disintegration.

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Receding gums. Gum or gum troubles possess significant consequences. Gingivitis in its beginning creates the gums to swell and also redden and also a lot more prone to hemorrhaging. In extreme situations of periodontitis, the gums and bone tissues assisting the teeth are actually destroyed which eventually causes dropping one's choppers. It is highly recommended that you practice brushing and also dental flossing every day as well as go to the dentist on a regular basis. Dental experts advise utilizing a tooth brush along with soft rages as well as using an evening shields considering that gum recession may be dued to hard-bristled tooth brushes, squeezing, grinding, call of gums with grimy things, and malposition of teeth.

Read More: https://educatorpages.com/site/DentalPro7Reviews

Mouth Sores. The common sores that our team receive are canker sores as well as fever blisters. Canker sores are located inside the mouth while chilly ones are actually outdoors and typically appear on the edge of the lips. they are painful as well as undesirable however fortunately treatable with non-prescription medicines as well as antimicrobial mouth washes as well as contemporary anaesthetics to momentarily eliminate fever blisters. No matter what mouth troubles you are experiencing, there will definitely consistently be actually treatment procedures on call. All-time low line is that it can be avoided. All it takes is discipline to visit the dentists regularly, really good diet and also expertise about oral health.

[transhumanitynet]

I Believe...

The article below offers a worldview, starting with an abstract philosophical foundation, upon which increasingly pragmatic structures can be built. The framework presented here is deliberately compatible with the political philosophy known as Social Futurism, although it is not part of Social Futurism, per se.

1. IDEALISM, & A VISION FOR HUMANITY

I believe that there is an ultimate “Good”, just as Plato did1. I believe that this Ideal Good is approached – but can never be truly reached – via non-attachment and selfless love. These ideas are the closest I come to religious Faith in the modern sense2, and they are most definitely views that would have been familiar to the ancient Greeks.

It is important to note that just because I believe in an Ideal Good, that does not mean I believe people to be naturally or intrinsically good, or that good things can be achieved without hard work, disciplined adherence to principles, and simply doing what one must, no matter how hard or complicated it may be. Good is an ideal – The Ideal in Plato’s framework – and as such it can only be imperfectly realized by human beings.

Once you understand my commitment to this ideal, you can follow the way I begin to translate that into a specific vision in my Transhumanity.net article, “A Vision For Humanity“.

2. BALANCE, REALITY, & TRUTH

In the everyday world of pragmatic concerns, I believe in balance. I believe that imbalance is a sign of irrationality and sickness. We are all imbalanced in many ways, at many times in our lives, but the critical virtue is the desire to understand one’s own situation and work toward a higher balance of some sort. I am tolerant, to the extent that anyone at least attempts to attain balance, but utterly intolerant of all that lays beyond that minimal expectation. Those who betray the very basis of intelligent toleration cannot themselves be tolerated.

I also believe we must acknowledge that Truth and Reality exist, even if they are imperfectly accessible to humans. Wilful ignorance is the ultimate embrace of imbalance and the dysfunction it engenders. Distorting reality (and disregarding all principle) to suit one’s own desires is vandalism, parasitism, and anti-social behaviour of the worst sort. Commitment to an Ideal Good requires commitment to Truth. That said, we must be aware that even complete fictions can (and often do) have very real consequences. When they are used for good, that can arguably be a justified, acceptable, or even necessary thing. When they are not used for good, then they represent a threat to civilization itself.

3. SPECTACLE/DIALECTIC VS. RADICAL CENTRISM

I believe that our society is governed by Spectacle; which is to say the modern equivalent of “bread and circuses”, designed as an array of deliberately false choices between options that don’t matter, and which only really distract from important issues. Coke versus Pepsi. America versus Russia. Sports Team A versus Sports Team B. Conservative/Republican versus Labour/Liberal/Democrat. Left-wing versus Right-wing.

Within the realms of politics and economics, I refuse to align myself wholly with Left- or Right-wing “camps” in any all-encompassing manner that forces me to abandon my personal commitment to principle. Such tribal affiliation, chosen without regard to (and often in direct contradiction of) evidence on an issue-by-issue basis, is intrinsically unbalanced, and thus effectively a disease of the individual mind and of society. Instead, I believe in having consistent principles, respecting the importance of evidence, and remaining committed to helping others where possible. Where that may suggest a Right- or Left-wing view on my part, then so be it.

For example, I believe that where individuals, groups, or indeed entire nations desire self-determination and are not harming others, then we should respect that desire. I am committed to that idea, as a matter of principle. It just so happens that it can variously be considered a Left- or Right-wing idea depending not only on who is judging, but also on which self-determination-desiring people are being discussed at any given moment. Similarly, although I do not believe in Marxist concepts such as “Class Struggle”, I do believe very firmly in the importance of proper respect and remuneration for the working class, and am aware that any number of views might be taken of where this places me on the political spectrum. I am not concerned with such labels, but am wholly committed to principle, and thus consider myself a Radical Centrist.

4. WHO YOU ARE IS WHAT YOU DO

It is a strange irony of our time, that just as technology draws us together into an ever-smaller “Global Village“, we humans seem determined to separate ourselves from each other. As the failures of Liberal Democracy become more and more apparent, both the Left and Right increasingly focus on divisive notions of “Identity Politics“, which is to say political thinking organized around the idea that your politics must inevitably and irrevocably be decided by your background, whether that background be characterized in terms of sexuality, economic class, age, physiology, language, ethnicity, culture, or any other factor.

I am a Transhumanist. As such, I seek to transcend the limitations of all such characteristics, through technology. Taken in combination with my commitment to Idealism (specifically to the Idea of the Good, and to a transcendent human civilization), this logic draws toward an inevitable conclusion: That true peace and unity can only be achieved if we fix our vision on a uniting future goal-ideal, rather than on the increasingly irrelevant divisions of the past.

But what is this “future goal-ideal”? If we are to transcend contemporary Identity Politics, then we must work toward a category of existence which transcends all of the current categorizations. In other words, we must become a new class of being: One defined not by the circumstances or constraints of its past, but by the future-vision it is committed to. I envisage a future humanity which spans an entire continuum of Personhood, from leadership in the form of godlike Posthuman, post-biological beings, to a citizenry of genetically engineered biological Transhumans, and beyond to a wider realm of guaranteed wellbeing for sentient beings achieved via Abolitionist technologies.

The future I want is one which achieves both unity and diversity… one in which all citizens may optimize themselves to best fulfill their chosen societal roles, and in doing so help bring society together. The unity of a civilization is defined by its ability to act as a single, coordinated unit in its growth and development as a living thing. In contrast to the many “inherited” political identities we know today, I foresee a kind of uniting, aspirational identity I call the “Ajati” (an ancient Sanskrit term suggesting someone not-born, made-rather-than-born, or indeed self-made).

The essence of this idea is that people do not need to be defined by factors beyond their control, but can instead grow into a new identity based upon their commitment to helping the community. In other words, your actions determine your identity. Who You Are Is What You Do.

5. SERIOUS GAMES

Taking these points together, the logical conclusion is my strident advocacy of Social Futurism. When we combine that with the views expressed here and here, the natural next step is to establish a foundation for my own path, moving forward. I would encourage everyone who feels some affinity with Social Futurism to create their own personal network of like-minded allies, so that we may all work together efficiently to forge solutions for a better future.

For more information about my personal approach to these matters, see the ZS Array webpage.

1For my views on Western symbolism re: this ideal, with a particular focus on the “Black Sun” or “Black Star” symbol: https://sites.google.com/view/zero-state/glossary/b/black-sun

2Actually I am something of a Neo-Pagan, but I don’t tend to mention that in mixed company simply because people often leap to unwarranted conclusions and attack positions that I would never defend. For now, let’s just say that – as a matter of principle – I most emphatically do not believe anything that is contrary to reliable evidence (AKA Science). If you don’t know how I can be true to that stance and be a (Neo-)Pagan, then I’m afraid that you simply haven’t thought about it hard enough or done your homework, and are not ready for that conversation. I will not do your homework for you. On a similar note, I am interested in the Western esoteric traditions of alchemy and ritual magic, but approach such things in a rigorously rational, empirical, and scientific manner.

I Believe… was originally published on transhumanity.net

[laughawayeternity]

best options trading course review Louisiana There are many good swing trading systems available today.

Article Outline

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Options Trading System - 5 Steps To Better Options TradingWhat is an Options Trading System?Before sitting down to write this post, I thought I would search the Internet to see what information existed on options trading systems. I was shocked to find that there was barely anything posted on the subject. Seriously! There are hundreds of websites, brokerage firms, and trading services that want to sell you their system. The reality is that very few are able to describe what an options trading system actually is. At its core, an options trading system is a method of generating buy and sell signals through a tested method of stock analysis. The system can be based on any type of option strategy and includes both fundamental and technical analysis. Options trading systems might focus on changes in underlying stock price, volatility, time decay, unusual buy/sell activity, or a combination of these elements. Essentially, it is a checklist of criteria that must be met before trades are entered. When all conditions are met, a signal to buy or sell is generated. The criteria are different for each type of option trading strategy. Whether it is long calls, covered calls, bear spreads, or selling naked index options, each has its own trading system model.

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Finding Or Creating Your Own Options Trading System That WorksStock Options are wonderful! This clever derivative of the equities market has to be one of the most ingenious inventions of modern times. For the trader who can learn how to win at trading options there are many luxuries in life that can be experienced. Success in options trading requires a consistent approach for long-term success. This statement is not meant to be grandiose, idealistic comment made by some 'trading theorist', rather, it is a statement born out of the hard knocks and success experiences of the author and many other long-term, successful trader contemporaries. This "consistent approach" to options trading can also be called a "trading system", or an "options trading system" in this case. The term "trading system" is not necessarily confined to a series of computerized "black box" trading signals. A trading system could be something as simple as "buy an option on a stock in an uptrend that breaks the high of the previous bar after at least two days of pull back down movement that make lower lows. " A trading system is simply an organized approach that takes advantage of a repeated pattern or event that brings net profits. Since an Option is a "Derivative" of the stock you must derive your options trading system from a stock trading system. This means your trading system must be based around actual stock price movement. That said, your trading system doesn't need to work for all stocks it just has to work for certain types of stocks, certain volatility of stocks and certain price levels of stocks etc. So focus your trading system on certain stocks that have price behavior that is predictable to the net results you wish to abstract from a stock. You can develop a trading system, a trading approach, and a trading methodology by identifying a price movement pattern (or lack of price movement pattern) or some event that occurs on some sort of regular basis. This means you can trade price behavior patterns on price charts such as: traditional chart patterns, trends, swings, pivot points, boxes etc. or you can trade events that motivate stock price such as earnings runs, post earnings runs, stock splits, seasonal factors etc. Bottom line to make the maximum profit in options trading you want your stock to move in your favor fast and you want it to move far. Just a relatively small movement in the price of a stock can double your money in options!There are so many different strategies and combinations that you can trade with options. You can buy calls and puts for directional trades. You can employ call spreads and put spreads to trade directional movements with a buffered risk, and profit. You can sell or purchase spreads to receive the credit of the premium decay by options expiration. You can trade straddles and strangles if you expect a big move but are not sure in which direction. You can also get into ratio back spreads, condors, and butterflies. And if you're really feeling crazy you can sell 'naked' options (just better use a stop loss or you'll end up like one of my old trading buddies who ran an account to $20 million then gave it all back selling naked options. ) You can go to cboe. com for more information on options trading.

options auto trading service Louisiana And if you're really feeling crazy you can sell 'naked' options (just better use a stop loss or you'll end up like one of my old trading buddies who ran an account to $20 million then gave it all back selling naked options.

By creating and following a good system, you can hone your trading executions to be as emotionless and automatic as a computer.

how to do options trading Louisiana The next key in how to trade stock options successfully is having a stock option trading method that takes these key factors into consideration while giving clear entry signals, clear exit signals, a defined system of trade management, and a profit factor greater than your average loss over a series of trades.

com for more information on options trading. Directional options trading systems are the best. Keep it simple, buy calls for and upside trade or buy puts for a downside trade. But this means you need a directional stock trading system in order to trade directional options. Here are a couple of different approaches for directional systems:Develop an options trading systems that trades the swings in stock price movement. There are many good swing trading systems available today. We suggest you obtain one. Bottom line with swing trading is that you want to swing trade with the trend. Options brokers these days have advanced order technology that will allow you to enter swing trades based on the price movement of the stock so you don't have to watch this stock all day. That huge advancement to swing trading options. Swing trade the day bars.

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Bottom line with swing trading is that you want to swing trade with the trend. Options brokers these days have advanced order technology that will allow you to enter swing trades based on the price movement of the stock so you don't have to watch this stock all day. That huge advancement to swing trading options. Swing trade the day bars. Most swing trading systems are based on daily bars on the stock price chart. Swing trade the Intra Day Bars! Their other fantastic systems based on intraday charts that pin point swing trading entries. Develop an options trading system that trades three to six month trends. This is where the big money is. Trading the large trends is where many are able to place larger sums of money to develop their net worth. Develop an options trading system that trades pivot points. Pivot point trading is arguably the best way to trade options, because price action usually is explosive, and happens quickly in our direction when a trade works. This is good because you can use shorter-term options and leverage yourself a little better. And it's also nice you can make great gains in five days to four weeks on average so time decay issues become less of a worry. There are many different directional trading methods you could use to trade options. You need to pick one, work it, and never use more than 10% options position size per trade on small accounts 1% to 5 % max position size on larger accounts. This methodical way of money management trading options is the fastest way to potentially rapid account growth, helping you avoid needless set backs. Options Trading System - 5 Steps To Better Options TradingWhat is an Options Trading System?Before sitting down to write this post, I thought I would search the Internet to see what information existed on options trading systems. I was shocked to find that there was barely anything posted on the subject. Seriously! There are hundreds of websites, brokerage firms, and trading services that want to sell you their system. The reality is that very few are able to describe what an options trading system actually is. At its core, an options trading system is a method of generating buy and sell signals through a tested method of stock analysis. The system can be based on any type of option strategy and includes both fundamental and technical analysis. Options trading systems might focus on changes in underlying stock price, volatility, time decay, unusual buy/sell activity, or a combination of these elements. Essentially, it is a checklist of criteria that must be met before trades are entered. When all conditions are met, a signal to buy or sell is generated. The criteria are different for each type of option trading strategy.

Any Option Trader Can Develop an Options Trading SystemAs a trader, it is important build a system that utilizes different types of option strategies-iron condors, broken wing butterflies, calendar spreads, back ratios, straddles, strangles, and collars. It might sound like a foreign language right now, but work on the vocabulary one lesson at a time. Break it down piece by piece and make it your own. Each term has a specific application for yielding profits under certain market conditions. Learn them all at your own pace to enhance upon and build your options trading system. The more tools that are in your toolbox, the more prepared you will be for changing market conditions. If the market were to behave in the same way every day, then trading would be child's play. In order to get started in developing your options trading system, you have to create a trading plan or blueprint to guide you in the right direction. Begin with a basic system and tweak it to define your trading criteria and hone your system. It takes time and experience to build a successful option trading system that can return one hundred percent or more in consistently profitable trades. When you are satisfied with the parameters of your system, you can look into having your own software made for automated trading.

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[kidslovetoys]

What our children’s art can teach us

All children love to draw and paint, but why do they do it and what can their creations tell us about them? Dr Helen Jones explores the meaning behind the art and explains how to help your child’s creativity flourish:

Table of contents:

Art is personal

Realism vs expression

Modes of expression

The cross disciplinary nature of art: how it teaches us about other subjects

Final word

Art is personal

At the very earliest stages of evolution our forebears were making art. 

In 40,000 BC, creative symbolic artworks were being handcrafted from shell, stone, and primitive paint by homosapiens. But it begs the question: why?

Why has there been an enduring drive, spanning our entire existence, to leave marks, to make our trace in the world, to create?

It is one of the few things which distinguishes us from animals. We have this wonderful yet mysterious power to create distinctly personal and individual remnants of our existence and personality.

Art is a discipline that champions our individualism. It allows us to show and share our experiences of life, without hiding who we are.

‘As we have changed, our art has changed, and how we have defined our art has changed, but that fundamental instinct to play experiment, repurpose, test and reimagine has always been central. Just as play is a deliberate pushing of the boundaries, so art has refused to be solely defined by one idea or one set of people.’ (Michael Rosen.)

We’ve all heard ‘No one is you. That is your superpower.’ As an artist, and head of art, I’d argue that nowhere is this superpower more visible, than in our visual creations.

Art prizes the original. It prizes the unique.

It says if you don’t comply with a conventional norm, then good on you. I love telling children in my lessons, that in art there is no right answer or wrong answer.

Yet very often we can act, even subconsciously, as if there is. Forcing our children into a straightjacket of neat and realistic depictions of reality. 

Parents will ask me why one child can draw so much better than theirs, when perhaps they should be asking why we assume that child’s style of drawing is better.

There is a deeply-entrenched tendency to measure children's drawing by its ‘lifelike’ standards. But as John Matthews suggests in Drawing and Painting: children and visual representation: ‘The idea that the representation of objects is at the heart of drawing is completely wrong.’

Art is a cacophony of ideas, expression and imagination. What would the world be like if it were all logical, realistic drawing? Salvador Dali, Picasso, Pollock, Hirst, not to mention thousands of other artists, would never have dazzled us with their unique ways of seeing.

Perhaps we need to consider representation as ‘re-presentation’. Because as Matthews asserts: ‘what is ‘realistic’ to the child changes with age and context.’ Perhaps it is important to your child to draw you as a humongous, overly tall figure, because to them, you seem much bigger. Thus our adult definition of art doesn’t always align with our child’s way of seeing the world.

What’s more, there are many more forms of drawing than we often realise. Drawing through stitch, drawing in sand, drawing with a sparkler, drawing with wire and so on. Contemporary artists make drawings in all sorts of ways, in non traditional media, with unconventional tools. This allows them to express things they couldn’t have in any other way. 

Realism vs. expression

Simply forcing children to draw from life doesn’t aid artistic expression. We need our children to communicate what they are thinking, imagining and feeling in many languages, verbal, spatial, gestural, musical and visual. We want them to embark on a ‘representational adventure in which meanings are given sounds, actions and images.’ John Matthews

I tell my art students ‘a camera is for capturing a realistic copy of the world around you. Art is for capturing your interpretation of the world and for expressing your unique individuality’. Often this falls on deaf ears, so prevalent are beliefs about the hierarchy of representational depiction. But what is realistic? How do things look really? Unfortunately our fixed assumptions to these questions can, at best, hinder learning possibilities, or at worst, damage our children’s self-efficacy[LINK]. So often children have fallen prey to adults working from a deficit theory - looking for what’s ‘wrong’ or ‘missing’ from their artworks. This can really corrode a child’s confidence, but more than that, it’s not necessarily right.

We unconsciously place realism at the top of the ladder, and all the other steps below it are often relegated as scribbles or ‘nearly corrects’. As children climb this ladder, (often in standardised educational settings), they get less and less opportunity to draw freely. Spontaneous drawing which serves the intentions and interests of children is becoming increasingly hard to find in schools.  According to Matthews,  this is detrimental to children’s emotional and intellectual development, ‘The child's own spontaneous visual representation and expression has been devalued in favour of a fixed, acceptable, cultural standard’

So how can we avoid this?

Perhaps we should spend more time listening to what their drawings tell us. Just as we as adults use hand gestures, facial expressions, tone range and movements as we talk, children use these features in their artwork.  For instance, mark making can represent experiences of hide and seek, people leaving us and coming back into our lives, movement, such as going through tunnels, hiding underneath something, the feel and motion of swimming, and, importantly, it can reconcile traumatic encounters.  Art is a processing of these happenings, through thoughtful gesture and mark making, which is quite different than mere representation. Thus the ‘re-presenting’ might not look like what the child is responding to, but what is occurring is a significant translation of that event.

Modes of expression

Children capture different types of information, often following different intentions or modes of thinking in their work, some of which I have simplified for ease of understanding. 

Intellectual realism.

Sometimes children draw unrecognisable shapes and claim they are a certain person or object. While this may not be realism in the sense we know it, it could be ‘intellectual realism’ in that for the child it represents their internalised view of that object or person.  It shows what the child knows, rather than what the child sees.

Symbolism and representation.

The vast majority of learning is based on signs and symbols, such as language and maths for instance, and even social interaction. Drawing is an idealised way to grasp this nature of symbolism. Discovering that marks on paper can stand for things turns a cornerstone in one's mind - a huge developmental shift.

Emotional.

Art and feelings go hand in hand. Matthews says: ‘Children’s drawing actions are sensitive to fluctuations in mood, both their own and those of people around them. The child imbues drawing with emotion and representational possibilities.’ Perhaps this is why art therapy is so successful - emotions are made tangible as they are inflected on the surface of the paper and the surface of their minds.

Grouping.

Children might group together different types of marks such as dots or dashes or marks at the beginning or end of these lines - separating out their shape vocabulary and becoming adept at matching their actions to shapes. By grouping marks according to type, he is beginning a process of classification. This is the start of maths.

Art as play.

Art can be nothing short of imaginative play. Sometimes there is no intention, other than sheer joy and exploration. I often see children use three-dimensional objects and toys in a similar way to how they use drawing - reconstructing comparable scenes and dealing with related issues. This shows that mark making is tethered to all of our experiences, especially play which has creative overlaps.

The cross disciplinary nature of art: How it teaches us about other subjects

If we listen to our body closely enough we know what it needs. I also believe if we listen to our mind closely enough we know what it needs. And children are no exception, in that they subconsciously know what they need to learn. 

‘The child is constantly, actively, purposely, seeking out those particular experiences which will promote growth.’ John Matthews

Children are always in pursuit of learning, whether they realise it or not. For me, nowhere is this more visible than in their art. It makes their learning observable, and holds the power to teach a range of subjects and disciplines, and to make them fun.

Music and sound.

Listen to your child as they are drawing - what sounds do they make? I’ve seen children blend sounds and drawings together time and time again. My daughter's experiences with music - the tempo, beat, and patterns within the song - form a backdrop to the patterns and pulsating lines she produces.

Body awareness.

‘Proprioceptive’ information about the position of our joints and limbs, balance, posture and stance are heightened in art making. When making with our hands we learn how things move, how our body moves, and how shapes can be coordinated and controlled in a dynamic, swiftly changing format. Although I would argue that not only does art make us more aware of our physical selves, it helps us reveal our inner souls.

Mathematical.

The American professor of maths John De Pillis writes: ‘‘When learners have the opportunity to use their artistic skills and draw scenarios, they can more easily visualize and figure out math problems.’ Angles, geometric shapes, measuring, proportions, ratios of paint to water, scale and perspective are some of the mathematical gifts of art.

Linguistic learning.

Art is a visual language. A universal language, that anyone can speak. We all recognise certain shapes and symbols and know what they represent. Learning the language or art support language learning in all other areas. Being able to speak visually goes hand in hand with general communication.

Science.

Children can grasp some quite unfathomable scientific concepts in their art. For example, by attempting to represent invisible events like wind, music, suction, or showing clouds moving, rain coming down, spilling from a cup, or documenting movement trajectories. They learn how to organise space, time, patterns and sequences of movement which share characteristics with what they see in the outside world. They can translate experiences of crawling through tunnels, pouring liquid through tubes, looking through cardboard rolls, into their art. Children explore and rationalise all this through drawing.

Perspective.

In more sense than one. Children can gain mental perspective on the bigger picture in life, on personal issues and dealing with trauma, as well as exploring physical perspective. As you draw ideas occur, whether that’s how to deal with or respond to a certain situation, or logical constraints such as how things get bigger towards you, and smaller further away. This shouldn’t make sense in the minds of our little young ones, but through art it does.

Final word

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves what we believe is the major endpoint in drawing or painting. And not just to consider the destination but the journey. Realistic drawing is one way of approaching art in a multitude of possibilities.  So let’s stop looking for it as a ‘what’s missing’ from our children's art and encourage some freedom of expression for all.

When I consider my daughter's mark making, I can see that each image is saturated with communication, thinking and emotion. And that, for me, is far more valuable than a ‘picture perfect’ outcome.

from One Hundred Toys - The Blog https://ift.tt/3lXERpP

[katiewattsart]

03/12/19 : NOTHIN IS ORIGINAL (AND THAT’S OK)

RECAP 

who watches the watchmen?

Ever tried, ever failed

Teddy boys and haul girls

Utopia and dystopia

Nothing is original and thats okay

AIMS FOR TODAY

to begin to think about the concept of originality

to begin to think about the concepts of the cope and how this might impact your practice

To begin to think about the terms pastiche and appropriation 

THE OVERVIEW

1) INTRODUCE

2) THE OPENING ‘HOOK’

3) JUSTIFYING YOUR TOPIC

4) THEORY - WALTER BENJAMIN

5) CASE STUDY- ARTIST SHERRY LEVINE AND RICHARD RAUSCHENBERG

6) WE WILL FINISH WITH A HIGHLY ACCESSIBLE TED TALK BY AUSTIN KLEON ENTITLED

   ‘STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST’ TO PUT ALL OUR MINDS AT REST!

7) THE CONCLUSION WILL BE UP TO YOU!

The ‘HOOK’

PALIMPSEST 

The earliest definition of palimpsest dates from he 17th century, a literal description of a physical object: ‘paper, parchment, or other writing material designed to be reusable after any writing on it has been erased.’

By the 19th century, the definition had tightened to refer to ‘a manuscript in which later writing has been superimposed on earlier (effaced) writing.’

During the 1800s, the word also evolved into a metaphor, as in ‘a think likened to such a writing surface, esp. in having been reused or altered while still retaining traces of its earlier form; a multi-layered record.’ (Jeffery a Kroessler. The City as Palimpsest. John Jay College of Criminal Justice.) 

What is Originality?

How would you define originality?

Should we try and pursue originality?

Does originality exist?

If so, what does it look like?

The Artist as Conman

‘Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.’ C.S.Lewis

So why does this matter?

Where am I going?

Why should you listen?

Or

‘The Justification”

Angst. (Portrait of the Artist) (1971) Arnolf Rainer.  

A Quotation

Appropriation, pastiche, quotation - these methods can now be seen to extend to visually every aspect of our culture, from the most calculated products of the fashion entertainment industries to the most committed critical activities of artists.’ (Crimp, Douglas. Appropriating Appropriation, in Hertz, Richard (ed) Theories of Contemporary Art, Prentice Hall Inc. USA, 1985.

Greyson Perry. Red Carpet.

But to be clear…or ‘to quantify’

Appropriation Art VS Forgery

FORGERY MEANING : the action of forging a copy of imitations of a document, signature, banknote, or work of art.

forger copy in close detail the makings on the back of the canvases, and made the frames appear to be decades old.

The art dealers also issued fake ‘certificates of authenticity’ for the forgeries. (New York Times) (on Ely Sakhai)

Historical Context

APPRENTICSHIP

the practice of copying existing artworks was seen as a necessary formation of an apprentice artist.

To copy old masters has traditionally been a key part of the artists training 

HISTORICAL CONTEXT 2

The practice can be traced back to Cubist collage.

I.e. the construction of Picasso and Braque (1912)

PABLO PICASSO, NUDE IN AN ARMCHAIR, HORTA DE EBRO (PRESENT-DAY HORTA DE SANT JOAN), SUMMER 1909.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT 3

Surrealism

I.E. Salvador Dali Lobster Telephone

Jasper Johns

Robert Rauschenberg

Salvador Dalí Lobster Telephone 1936

HISTORICAL CONTEXT 4

Ready mades i.e. Marchel Duchamp

Fountain - men’s urinal signed, titles and presented on a pedestal

Marcel Duchamp. In Advance of the Brocken Arm. August 1964 (fourth version, after lost original of November 1915) 

TO CONTEXTUALISE: TO DEFINE

APPROPRIATION WITHIN ART PRACTICES 

The deliberate reproduction of (elements of) another artists work

Artists ‘copying’ artworks for their own artistic expression

It involves adopting intellectual property from elsewhere

It borrows images, styles, or forms from art history or popular culture

This ‘movement’ evolved in the 1960’s and peaked in the 80’s

APPROPRIATION : or making artworks using already existing artworks

a significant post modern theory 

Response to what Barthes called the Death of the Author - that nothin is original

It can feel shameless

Pastiche/Collage/deliberate reworking of other people’s works

Key historical art practice

Artist using an existing form/image/sound in new ways

It is the ‘selection and manipulation of found materials’

The end result: strangely familiar yet altogether new

Jeff Coons

The readymade

Pastiche

Rephotograph

Recombination 

Simulation

Parody

Scavenging

Replicating

Remixing

‘Stealing’

Bicycle Wheel. Marcel Duchamp. 1913

Them. Danny Treacy

Pastiche, Parody, and the Remake

Postmodernism has been characterized by a kind of fatigue with the new and the sense that everything has been done before.

Postmodernism asks: Can there ever be new ideas and images, things that have not been thought of or done before? Does it matter?

The world of images today consists of a huge variety of remakes, copies, parodies, replicas, reproductions, and remixes. In the arenas of art and architecture, as well as popular culture, the idea of an original image or form seems to have been thoroughly subverted.

One of the key terms used to describe this culture of imitation, remake, and parody is pastiche. Film theorist Richard Dyer has written that the primary way to understand pastiche is as an imitation that announces itself as such and that involves combining elements from other sources.

The term pastiche is derived from the Italian word pasticcio, which refers to a combination of elements that evokes, - according to Dyer, assemblage, collage, montage, capriccio (a style of composing that combines elements from different places), medley forms, and hip-hop forms of sampling, scratching, and riffing. Dyer thus points to the fact that pastiche has a long history in image making. Within the realm of imitation and quoting that constitutes pastiche, we can find different kinds of combinations and relationships to the original texts-from ironic quoting to parody to remakes to mashups. 

Pastiche has a very particular relationship to history. As a strategy it can often involve pilfering from history and combining historical elements in ways that have little historical meaning but are rather a kind of play.

John Stezaker

John Stezaker. The Trial 1978

Jeff Wall. A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai) 1993

Sherry Levine 

‘The world is filled to suffocating. Man has placed his token on every stone. Every word, every image, is leased and mortgaged. We know that a picture is but a space in which a variety of images, none of them original, blend and clash.’ 

‘WE CAN ONLY IMITATE A GESTURE THAT IS ALWAYS ANTERIOR, NEVER ORIGINAL.’ (Appropriation. Ed David Evans. 2009)

Artist Sherrie Levine made a series of works in the 1980s that are emblematic of this kind of postmodernism pilfering and borrowing that questions ownership and the original. Levine simply rephotographed famous images-in blatant violation of their copyright, the signifier of authorship and authenticity-and displayed them as her own. In After Edward Weston (#2), Levine rephotographed Weston's famous image of his son, Neil, enti- tled Torso of Neil {1925). Weston's image is situated in a long history of male nudes, which Levine's "theft" disrupts precisely because it is explicitly presented as copied, rather than concealing its status as a copy.

Robert Rauchenberg. The White Painting

ONE THEORETICAL POSITION

Walter…

1936 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 

Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the arts there is a physical component which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. For the last twenty years neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial. We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art.[5]

‘the action of mechanical reproduction effectively dimities the concepts of originality’

‘the mass, mechanised reproducibility of art has reduced its authenticity’

‘mass production removes what he calls the aura - a sort of unique authority - from the work’

‘ Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.’

‘The presence of the original is prerequisite to the. Concept of authenticity,’ and, thus, ‘the whole sphere of authenticity is outside of the technical…reproducibility.’

Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art…’

The Death of the Author 

Barthes extended this concept of ‘The Death of the Author’ to question the very possibility of originality and authenticity, he staged that any text (or image) rather than emitting a fixed meaning from a singular voice, was but a tissue of quotations that were themselves references to yet other texts, and so on.

PART THREE 

MY OWN PRACTICE 

PART FOUR

CONCLUSION

Recapping

Evaluate/ deciding 

Any more for later?

The finishing touches 

What do you make?

Is there an original?

Or do you make copies?

Does your work have acratic qualities?

What do you look for in your discipline?

Form? Content? Expression? Representation?

What gives you work originality?

TASK

"Based on today's lecture, find examples of relevant work in your discipline and apply this to your reflection; consider how you would explore some of these themes in your own work"

References:

https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1200,h_1200,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,f_auto,fl_lossy/artlogicstorage/victoriamiro/images/view/31c340c550c02bc143c73bb75ed329fbj.jpg 

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02532/nude-woman-picasso_2532876b.jpg

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T03/T03257_9.jpg 

http://www.moma.org/wp/moma_learning/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Duchamp.-In-advance-of-a-Broken-Arm-295x395.jpg 

https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/9780262550703.jpg 

http://malba.s3-website-sa-east-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/14181116/PH_Guyot-750x1124.jpg 

http://www.dannytreacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Them_1.jpg 

http://uploads3.wikiart.org/images/marcel-duchamp/bicycle-wheel-1913.jpg 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T12/T12342_10.jpg 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.collageplatform.com.prod/image_cache/472x472_fit/5761760584184e24248b4568/a1672f549c38afb4ae0413fd8ef7be76.jpeg 

http://imageobjecttext.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/wall-a-sudden-gust-of-wind-after-hokusai-1993.jpeg 

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sfmomamedia/media/research-projects/downloads/WHIT_98.308.jpg 

http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781453722480_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG 

[democracyisdead]

Authoritarianism is Real, We’ve Been Doing Mass Line Since Before Everyone Went Maoist, and The Education System is Garbage

The shortest is the last one so I’ll start with that:

I’m totally disillusioned, evaluation doesn’t measure learning, it measures answering. Assignments are moderately better than tests but for the most part you’re better off reading books and doing some drills if necessary, asking a tutor for help if you need. Self-guided learning is the most useful form of learning. The evaluation system is an artificial gatekeeper which mainly serves to encourage class stratification and provide some arbitrary metric to allow certification so employers know they’re getting someone with free job training. Why do you need a liberal arts degree to get an irrelevant office job? Because employers want to know you’re obedient and disciplined enough to make it in the workplace and that someone tried to teach you to write so they don’t have to.

Universities can be great, if they’re places to learn and to challenge knowledge. Doing an undergraduate degree has taught me that such a higher purpose only happens in universities outside the classroom, and the university setting only provides you the means to meet other people who also want more.

Mass line:

Really, looking back on it, the mass line has characterized contemporary left politics for years, and we were doing it even before we realized we were doing it. In a lot of ways it’s to blame for the toxicity felt in our communities, and it’s what reactionaries are reacting to. Is it right? Is it just? I’m not totally sure. I’ve had beliefs thrust upon me that I came to wholly and passionately believe in, I came to realize after picking apart my initial defensiveness, precisely how wrong I actually was, yet I’ve also been driven to anxiety attacks by denouncements over principled disagreements (and lord have mercy if denouncements are eventually accompanied by physical violence), and in some cases those people are still fucking wrong as shit, and offensively so.

This leads into the next section, but my view - and I think the radical democratic view - is not all that different from mass line politics. There is still material analysis framing our lashing out against oppression, but according to RD there is no privileged analyst. RD thrives on implicit consensus and cooperative non-consensus arrived at through conflict and discord. If everyone can really think about and carefully analyze their own conditions, then there is no reason for anyone’s ideas to be special. There is plenty of reason for us to challenge, debate, and shout at one another, while still negating the idea of ideological leadership. The implicit or innate rightness of any person, unconditional on the current situation. This includes historical figures, especially the ones whose writing we use as tools to frame our analysis. Debate, discord, and space for being wrong must exist if we are ever to be anything like right. Everyone must be able to learn how to frame, all framing must be able to be challenged without the implicit threat of violence. This is not to permit oppressive “challenges” (muh freeze peach), but to take the approach that there are multiple framings which are not oppressive which deserve consideration and application. 

Out-of-line thought/speech: very allowed, within the bounds of not trying to undermine the real conditions of the situation Economic policy: democratic, materialist, cooperative, and decisive Democracy: had directly or by temporary ad-hoc representation with respect with groups’ material relation to the matter at-hand, with stake weighting vote-share (how will they be affected? are their material needs being met? is the amount of individual and collective self-determination permitted sufficient?), with as much informational transparency as possible so that everyone is best-equipped to assess the situation

Authoritarianism:

My ramble about semanticity involves the fact that the meanings of concepts are implicit and intuitive before they’re explicitly defined in the mind, and that any explicit definition beyond “I know it when I see it” is only useful insofar as two individuals’ intuitions disagree. Authoritarianism is slippery because I can identify cases of authority being abused, but there’s no ideology of authoritarianism as such. It is at its most explicit a means to an end, and characterizes an number of different and sometimes ill-fitting ideas.

So how to define authoritarianism, in such a way that authoritarians might be convinced that there is in fact a difference between anarchy and totality? I actuallly have no hope of convincing someone who’s really convicted, to be honest, and responses (if there are any), will likely call me a nonsensical blabbeerer or quote at me books I haven’t read and won’t read because I am a busy woman who studies things other than political theory (primarily), insisting that I have to have read them because only some unlearned swine wouldn’t have.

(I’m exaggerating, but that represents my actual experience dealing with this debate. Frankly if you don’t understand something, ask for fucking clarification, [from someone who’s actually going to come back, not me] this is a conversational medium and I can’t be expected to be perfectly transparent. If you do and you disagree, be prepared to yourself clarify, which includes highlighting your arguments.)

If I were to hazard to start, I would focus on the privileging of particular perspectives, irrespective of the material circumstance in which those perspectives find themselves. For instance, a worker’s perspective on work can be privileged in a way that is anti-authoritarian, because the worker is in the unique position to know a thing or two about labour and be really personally affected by it. To contrast, any implicit correctness assigned to the words of a leader is effectively arbitrary. No matter the reason the leader was awarded their position, the position itself does not entail the correctness of the actions. 

True, class matters but a class is never embodied in particular individuals, and the disenfranchisement of particular members of that class on the basis that only some are sufficiently equipped to analyze their situation is to some extent arbitrary. Explicit hierarchy and disenfranchisement entails the arbitrary assignment of privilege.

I’d call that the basic nature of authority. That’s not in itself authoritarianism though (and it should be questioned to what extent we’re just playing word games by adding that ism, rather than discussing something which is apart from authority itself).

Let’s take one more step from the idea of privileged perspective itself and go on to uitility - if a perspective is arbitrarily privileged, what power does it have to act on its interpretations? Will it be alone if nobody is interested in acceding to it? If so, is it privileged at all? No, it should also have implicit access to violence of some sort (social or physical).

So there’s how I’d tentatively define authoritarianism: arbitrary privilege and/or disenfranchisement enforced by the threat of violence, all with the understanding that privilege is arbitrary when there’s no material reason why someone’s reference frame should be better to others’.

Why would I consider that bad? To put it tersely, it lends itself to co-optation. Trust in privileged people, no matter how good we believe them to be, is always misplaced unless they are definitely infallible, which nobody actually is. Power can always, eventually, be abused. If someone is especially good at using it, then maybe they won’t abuse it for a long time, but expecting a perfect eternity of benevolent authority is idealistic. Better not to privilege anyone and instead design systems of discourse where good ideas surface, but no individual is considered particularly special for having had them. We must always provide ourselves the means to overturn the world, lest we awake to find it turned over on us.

And I’ll admit that was all a bit rambling and obtuse because I am tired so if you have objections hope I come back tomorrow so I can answer them or ask someone who claims to understand this garble.

[fredenglish]

Michael Sheehan

What’s up, #FeatureFriday fans? Today, we talked to Michael Sheehan -- SUNY Fredonia’s newest professor -- about his career, his views on genre, and his hopes for the future of Fredonia!

1. Talk a little bit about your career leading up to SUNY Fredonia.

Well, my career began as a SUNY undergraduate, studying creative writing at Geneseo. As a freshman, I knew I wanted to be a writer but hadn't really been exposed to writing, had never taken (or heard of) a workshop course. I didn't really know creative writing was an option until college. Then after Geneseo, I got a Master's degree in the St. John's College Great Books Program in Santa Fe, New Mexico, both because I felt there were big gaps in my reading and knowledge, which I felt I would need to fill in to be a writer, and also because I wanted to live in the southwest. I stayed in the southwest for six years, in Santa Fe and then in Tucson, Arizona, for my MFA. After all that time in the heat, I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, for a fellowship and then to DC before heading back to the heat (and humidity) for a chance to teach creative writing in the BFA program at Stephen F. Austin. So, I've spent a lot of time in creative writing classrooms, but also a good bit of time working outside creative writing as a tutor, a technical writer, and as an editor. But ever since the first creative writing class I took as an undergraduate, I've known this is what I want to do and where I want to be. 

 2. What originally drew you to SUNY Fredonia as an institution?

I grew up in Western New York, so, for one thing, it feels like a sort of homecoming. Not one I'd expected when I left years ago for the desert, but one I'm very excited about. But beyond that, a lot about SUNY Fredonia as an institution feels familiar to me in the best sense: the place, the size, the students. My background is fiction but I have more recently been writing creative nonfiction and have taught poetry and multigenre classes, so I'm drawn to the program for its opportunities to teach across genres. I also have a lot of experience working with literary magazines like The Trident and with reading series and am really looking forward to contributing to both at Fredonia. I'm also excited about the opportunity to help the creative writing program grow and to consider its future.

 3. What are you hoping to achieve as an educator at SUNY Fredonia?

Lots of things, many of which I think I will discover as I go. But mainly I'm hoping to help expand the creative writing program and help make it a destination within the region and the larger SUNY system. Fredonia has such a great foundation already that I think there is a lot of potential to provide more for students interested in creative writing and draw in new students. I also want to find ways to connect creative writing to technology and professional skills but without losing the sense of it as an art. I think too often people see a disconnect between creative disciplines and career qualifications, and sometimes I think we view the art of writing as divorced from twenty-first-century media. But I think there is a lot of possibility to push the boundaries of the art by exploring how it fits into our contemporary modes of communication.  

 4. Do you have any advice for students who may be just entering into university?

It's hard to say what advice will serve all students entering the university, but I guess I'd just say: take your time. When you first get to college, there is a lot to learn about how the university works even before you really focus in your own discipline. You have to also give yourself time to discover what you're really interested in pursuing. To that end, it can be good to take classes early on that might expose you to something you'll want to study more. College should not be a direct career-training program, but should instead be an open intellectual endeavor. This includes self-discovery and opportunities to see the connections across disciplines rather than simply choosing one path and sticking with it. But, that said, it's also okay to enter with a plan and pursue it. Mostly I think just don't mistake the ends for the means: enjoy the experience of learning while it's happening and let it happen.

 5. What do you find most helpful, in your own experience, for effective creative writing?

Practice. I think the most important thing is just doing the work, making writing a part of your daily life. The more you read and write, the better you will become as a writer. Along with developing a writing routine, though, I think it's really important to let it be fun. As a writer, if you're writing what you'd want to read, it will be a better experience and probably better writing. There's a balance you have to strive for between doing the thing you love (which should be fun) and also really committing to the work it takes to achieve what you're aiming for (which can be hard and take time). The fun should hopefully include discovery, being open to the unknown. The essayist Naomi Kimbell says, "Write bravely," and I Iove that. Write a lot, take risks, allow the possibility of failure, welcome the possibility of unexpected success. 

 6. Do you have any specific genres that interest you as a writer? As an educator?

I've become much more interested in writing creative nonfiction, especially the lyric essay, in the past few years. This actually came out of a class I taught. I had been interested in teaching nonfiction and when I had the chance, one of the assignments was an experiential essay, for which students had to do research like attending an event, interviewing subjects, and reading relevant sources. I did this assignment, too, by going to the trial of a local environmental activist, and I basically fell in love with what the essay form could do. I started reading a lot more nonfiction and have taught more classes and written more essays. I've also been interested in writing and reading fiction that incorporates elements of science fiction. As an educator, I'm also really interested in fusions of creative writing and new media, including interactive essays and graphic memoirs, as well as the use of narrative craft for audio and video stories. So much of the information we take in on a daily basis connects text and image or connects one story or perspective to a wider vantage point. Some of the earliest storytellers wove narratives together into a larger whole, like Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Cervantes, or the 1,001 Nights and The Ocean of the Stream of Stories. I think Somadeva's title could serve as a metaphor for the internet as a great body made up of many intermixing streams of information. 

 7. You have an interest in newer, emergent mediums. What benefits do you think that non-prose mediums can give an audience?

First I should say that I love text--and print in particular--as a medium. No objections from me. But I also feel there are areas of exploration that relate to digital media, and ways we can enrich our stories and our stories can enrich our increasingly mediated lives. So, I think part of the interest is finding new ways for creative writing to tell us about us, to make sense of our Instagram-selfie selves, our social media friendships, our globally-connected community. And another part of it is opening up the elements of craft to more media than just the printed word. I don't want printed prose to go away; but digital media allow different types of interaction, different means of navigating narratives, new possibilities. 

 8. Finally: what do you believe is the most important lesson that writing can teach us?

There are a lot of things I think creative writing teaches, so it's hard to pick the most important. I think good writing teaches empathy and helps us understand even those who are not like us, who make choices that are totally opposite the choices we'd make. I think in that way, good writing can teach us that there are others who feel like us, that we are not alone. But I also think creative writing can maybe teach a different lesson. There are so many stories, poems, essays, books written across centuries of human civilization. But they haven't exhausted human experience; when we read something written in 2019, it can still feel new. This isn't because the subject has never been written about before, but instead, the way the subject is written can be newly revealing. And a poem or story or essay can resonate with my experience and show me something, even if it's a poem written six hundred years ago or one I've read many times before. I think there is something really powerful in recognizing universal themes as they exist in particular human moments. It helps us appreciate our shared context while also seeing how each individual is importantly distinct. 

[idonotknowhowtoo-blog]

How to Write a Resume

's easy to forget that it's

a recent invention.Of course, how recent of a creation it is depends on what you specify as a"resume". The word originates from the French résumé, meaning"summary". If we define a resume as a summary of job abilities and experience, then the very first resume dates from a letter that Leonardo da Vinci wrote to a prospective employer between 1481 and 1482. Resumes as we understand them today, nevertheless, didn't come into presence up until the mid-twentieth century. By the 1970s, they looked much the method they do today: professionally formatted summaries of skills and experience that were expected with any task application. Prior to this point, resumes did exist, however they were far more casual, typically doodled on scraps of paper. They likewise included information that would be, well, unsuitable on a contemporary resume such as height, weight, marital status, and religion.To read a complete, ahem, résumé of the resume's history, check out this timeline from Service Expert. So what function does a resume serve these days? Afterall, can't prospective employers simply look up your abilities and experience on your individual site or LinkedIn profile?They can, and in some cases job

applications will need you to apply with your LinkedIn profile. And it's constantly a great idea to include a link to your personal site as part of individual blog or website where you can showcase your work to any interested party.Above all, just take notice of the requirements for the specific task-- they'll indicate whether you require to send a resume, portfolio, or other materials.2. The length of time should my resume be? I understand, I understand

, you read College Info Geek. Which implies you probably have more badass accomplishments and experience than the typical individual. However that does not imply it's alright to create a 5-page resume

... and even a 2-page one.For a lot of people reading this

website, your resume should be one page, no longer. If you have more than five years expert experience, then it can be suitable to add an extra page, however I 'd avoid it in many cases.

Unless you're a senior-level executive, your resume ought to not go beyond one page.If that feels too short, then don't fret. We'll resolve how to make all the relevant experience fit in a bit.3. How"imaginative" should my resume formatting be? In an attempt to stand out from the crowd, some trainees will print their resume on fancy paper, add colors and graphics, or even provide their resume by means of provider pigeon (alright that last one may be a stretch, but you never ever know).

There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of these techniques per se,

however in basic I 'd suggest you avoid them. If you're a designer and know how to make a file that looks great and is simple to read, then by all ways get innovative with the design of your resume-- it can be a possibility to display your style skills.For most students, however, I suggest you stay with black Arial or Times New Roman on a white background. Particularly if you're submitting your resume digitally, this guarantees that the possible company will have no problem reading it.In some cases, obviously, the job application will ask you to consist of an unconventional resume such as a video or web page. If that holds true, then go all out!(even if it's" optional ").4. How need to I format my resume?I stated you ought to choose black Arial or Times New Roman on a white background, however that ignores all the other information of formatting the resume.

How should you structure it? What size font should you utilize? Do you put your contact info at the top or bottom?Instead of trying to provide one "best"response to these questions, I'll recommend that you utilize

among the thousands exceptional resume design templates that are already on the internet. Here are a few that will work for practically any task: One final formatting suggestion: unless the task application shows otherwise, submit your resume as a PDF. This will ensure that the recipient can view it with the format you planned no matter what os or

software application they utilize to open it.5. Can I recycle the same resume for different task applications?Well, yes and no. It's fine to utilize the exact same template and structure for various job applications in order to conserve time. You must always tailor your resume to

the specific job.In reality, not customizing your resume to the particular position is one of the most typical resume errors. Employing supervisors can identify a generic resume from a mile away, so put in the effort to consist of experience and skills appropriate to this job, not any task.6.

What should I consist of in my resume? I currently informed you your resume should be simply one page, so what do you include? Taking all of your experience and condensing it into one page can be overwhelming.

The key is to select the most relevant experience.For example, let's state you're obtaining an internship at a law company. Naturally, you won't have actually worked in a law practice in the past-- that's the whole factor you'regetting the internship.But you can consider your previous tasks and how experiences in them would connect to what you would do at a law company internship.A job working the front desk in your dorm, for example, has within all of it sort of potentially pertinent experiences. A job like that teaches you how to be expert, how to answer the phone, how to handle conflict, and how to keep a disciplined schedule. All of which could be pertinent to the law practice internship.7. What is a skill?Okay, so no one has ever straight up asked me this concern, but there's absolutely some confusion about what a"skill" is when it concerns resumes. So let's get something clear

: a" ability"is a particular technical capability you have.These are not abilities: Yes, they may be soft abilities, however your resume is not the place for soft abilities. Show off your soft abilities in the interview. These are abilities: If you're not sure if something is a skill, then leave it out.And please, please don't consist of an ability you do not have. Your employer will find out and it will be uncomfortable. Specifically if it's declaring you speak a specific foreign language at an "innovative"level when in reality you took one term of it as a freshman.8. What if I do not have any experience? When trainees state" I do not have any experience", that's hardly ever the case.

Unless you really did spend all of college sitting in your dormitory eating tacky puffs and playing Overwatch, you have something you can talk about. Sometimes you just need to think beyond the box.Here are experiences/positions that could all be relevant

to a resume:

Now, in many cases if you're finding that you simply do not have the right experience for a particular task's requirements, then it might be worth considering a various position.That being stated, I motivate you to apply to tasks you do not think you're received. The worst thing that will happen is the company will say no( or never return to you). If this occurs, you haven't lost your time-- far from it. You have actually gained important practice in obtaining jobs, and you've likewise acquired a concept of the skills/experience that would make you a better prospect in the future. As long as you learn from these experiences , they're beneficial. How to Develop an Exceptional Resume We've currently covered a lot about the art of developing a great resume, but I desire to conclude with a list of things that will make your resume stick out from the rest of the stack(in an excellent way).1. Proofread This ought to go without saying, however you need to proofread your resume. Spelling mistakes and typos make you look careless-- and no one wishes to hire somebody who's careless.Go through all of the following proofreading steps:2. Look For Specialist Help What if I told you that you could get a trained expert to read and critique your resume at no extra cost to you? Would not that appear too great to be true?Well, you remain in luck, because that's exactly the service you'll discover at your college's career center. Registration at your university entitles you to free, generally unlimited aid with making your resume the very best it can be. You're already spending for it, so you 'd be a fool not to benefit from these services.Not to mention that the profession center can likewise assist you discover jobs/internships, perform mock interviews, and typically offer you guidance on your post-college plans. Pro tip: Make certain that you get assist with your resume well before the application is due. That way the great career preparation folks will have a lot of time to help you.3.

Take advantage of Your

Network Naturally, the best individualto examine your resume would be somebody who currently operates in the company or market to which you're using. Discovering this sort of individual might seem impossible, however the secret is to look to the connections you already have.There are a few methods to discover market professionals to evaluate your resume:1. Asking household and pals You 'd be surprised at the people your loved ones members know. Just shoot a quick text to your parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, whoever would want to help.All you have to state is "Hello there, I'm getting a task at NAME OF BUSINESS in NAME OF MARKET. You wouldn't happen to know anybody who operates in a similar job?"If they do understand someone, then get them to introduce you and go from there.And do not think requesting help in this method is annoying.

As long as you're courteous and genuine, individuals constantly like to assist out college trainees and recent graduates.2. LinkedIn I only discovered this recently, however if I 'd understood about it when I was a trainee I totally would have

used it.First, log-in to LinkedIn. From there, click on"My Network". Click"See All "under"Your Links". Next, click on "Browse with filters". From there, you can filter your connections by all

kinds of criteria. I recommend starting with"Keywords"," Present Companies ", and "Industries" to discover people who would be able to give your resume an evaluation. As soon as you discover someone who appears like they could assist, you simply need to send them a message along the following lines: Hi NAME OF PERSON, I was simply checking out my connections and saw that you operate at NAME OF COMPANY/NAME OF MARKET. I'm currently obtaining

a job/internship/volunteer chance at NAME OF COMPANY/NAME OF INDUSTRY, and I was wondering if you 'd have the ability to review my resume. As a hopeful professional in NAME OF MARKET, I would be incredibly grateful to get feedback from somebody with your experience.And if your LinkedIn and network in basic seems a little scarce, here's how you can begin constructing your network today (even if you're an introvert).3.

Job Fairs Most institution of higher learnings have job or career fairs where representatives from business concern findprospective job candidates, perform interviews, and provide profession advice.You ought to absolutely go to these and bring

your resume along. If you're clever, you'll research study which business will be there in advance and create a resume customized to the particular companies that intrigue you. From there, you can get real industry experts (with hiring power )to provide you resume feedback.We have actually

covered a great deal of ground in this

article. I hope you now feel geared up to write a resume that will get you the task you dream of ... or at least that first entry-level task or internship that will put you on the career path of your choice.If you take absolutely nothing else away from this short article, bear in mind that you can and ought to ask for assist with your resume. You'll learn so much, and you may even make an important professional connection in the process.What are your biggest battles when composing a resume? Let us understand in the remarks below or begin a conversation in the College Info Geek Community.

[beyondforks]

Playing Catch Up! Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Playing Catch Up has really been helping me through my ever growing TBR list. I'd like to welcome all other blogs to participate too! If you do, be sure to post your links in the comments section. I'd love to see your Playing Catch Up Reviews, and I'm sure others would too!! *wink*

Want to know more about Playing Catch Up? I'll tell you all about it here!

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham Genre: Adult Fiction (Contemporary Romance) Date Published: April 30, 2013 Publisher: Ballantine Books

A charming and laugh-out-loud novel by Lauren Graham, beloved star of Parenthood and Gilmore Girls, about an aspiring actress trying to make it in mid-nineties New York City.

Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three-year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates - Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material - and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works. 

Meanwhile, she dreams of doing "important" work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It's hard to tell if she'll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won't call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet. 

Someday, Someday, Maybe is a funny and charming debut about finding yourself, finding love, and, most difficult of all, finding an acting job. 

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham is a book I've been wanting to read since it came out, and look! I finally read it! I'm a big fan of the Gilmore Girls, and I love Lauren Graham's humor. Maybe I still have Gilmore Girls heavy on the brain, but this book almost felt like I was reading what would have happened to Lorelai had she never gotten pregnant with Rory and instead moved to New York with dreams of being an actress. Franny's character was full of the fun and quirkiness that I love about Lorelai. Her whit along with her humorous ramblings when she's embarrassed or just feeling awkward will keep you giggling. I keep saying "read". I actually listened to the audio version of this book. It's read by Lauren Graham herself, and I highly recommend it, as only she could properly tell her story with all the right inflections. It adds all the more to the humor and feel of the story. This was such an enjoyable book. I hated to see it end. Speaking of which, what's up with that ending? I need to know more! What happens next? I know what I'm hoping happens, but I like to have something concrete. On the other hand, it is kind of fitting. Still, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for a sequel.

Chapter 1 “Begin whenever you’re ready,” comes the voice from the back of the house. Oh, I’m ready. After all, I’ve prepared for this day for years: The Day of the Most Important Audition of a Lifetime Day. Now that it’s finally here, I’m going to make a good impression, I’m sure of it. I might even book the job. The thought makes me smile, and I take a deep breath, head high, body alert, but relaxed. I’m ready, alright. I’m ready to speak my first line. After all, I’ve prepared for this day for years: The Day of the Most Important Audition of a Lifetime Day. Now that it’s finally here, I’m going to make a good impression, I’m sure of it. I might even book the job. The thought makes me smile, and I take a deep breath, head high, body alert, but relaxed. I’m ready, alright. I’m ready to speak my first line. “Eeessssaaheeehaaa.” The sound that comes out of me is thin and high, a shrill wheezing whine, like a slowly draining balloon or a drowning cat with asthma. Shake it off. Don’t get rattled. Try again. I clear my throat. “Haaaaaawwrrrblerp.” Now my tone is low and gravelly, the coarse horn of a barge coming into shore, with a weird burping sound at the end. “Hawrblerp?” That can’t be my line. I don’t think it’s even a word. Oh, God, I hope they don’t think I actually burped. It was really more of a gargle, I tell myself—although I don’t know which is worse. I can just picture the scene, post-audition: That actress? We brought her in and she positively belched all over the dialogue. Is she any good? Well, I suppose you could use her, if the part calls for lots of gargling. Sounds of cruel laughter, phones slamming into receivers, 8 × 10 glossies being folded into paper airplanes and aimed into waste paper baskets. Career over, the end. “Franny?” I can’t see who’s speaking because the spotlight is so bright, but they’re getting impatient, I can tell. My heart is pounding and my palms are starting to sweat. I’ve got to find my voice, or they’ll ask me to leave. Or worse—they’ll drag me off stage with one of those giant hooks you see in old movies. In Elizabethan times the audience would throw rotten eggs at the actors if they didn’t like a performance. They don’t still do that, do they? This is Broadway, or at least, I think it is. They wouldn’t just throw— The tomato bounces off my leg and onto the bare wood floor of the stage. Splat. “Franny? Franny?” I open my eyes halfway. I can see from the window above my bed that it’s another gray and drizzly January day. I can see that because I took the curtains down right after Christmas in order to achieve one of my New ­Year’s resolutions, of becoming an earlier riser. Successful actresses are disciplined people who wake up early to focus on their craft, I told ­myself—­even ones who still make their living as ­waitresses—­like me. I started leaving the alarm clock on the landing between ­Jane’s room and mine so I’d have to actually get out of bed in order to turn it off, instead of hitting snooze over and over like I normally do. I also resolved to quit smoking again, to stop losing purses, wallets, and umbrellas, and to not eat any more cheese puffs, not even on special occasions. But I already had two cigarettes yesterday, and although the sun is obscured by the cloudy sky, I’m fairly certain it is far from my new ­self-­appointed rising time of eight a.m. My ­three-­day abstinence from cheese puffs and the umbrella still downstairs by the front door are my only accomplishments of the year so far. “Franny?” Only ­half-­awake, I roll over and squint down at the pitted wood floor by my bed, where I notice one black leather Reebok ­high-­top lying on its side. ­That’s strange. It’s ­mine—­one of my waitressing ­shoes—­but I thought I’d left them outside ­the—­thwack!—­a second Reebok whizzes by, hitting the dust ruffle and disappearing underneath. “Franny? Sorry, you didn’t respond to my knocking?” Dan’s voice is muffled and anxious from behind my bedroom door. “I ­didn’t hit you with the shoe, did I?” Ahhh, it was my shoe that hit me on the leg, not a tomato. What a relief. “I dreamed it was a tomato!” I yell at the half-open door. “You want me to come back later?” Dan calls back anxiously. “Come in!” I should probably get out of bed and put Dan out of his misery, but it’s so cold. I just want one more minute in bed. “What? Sorry, Franny, I can’t quite hear you. You asked me to make sure you were up, remember?” I suppose I did, but I’m still too groggy to focus on the details. Normally I would’ve asked our other roommate, my best friend, Jane, but she’s been working nights as a P.A. on that new Russell Blakely movie. Since Dan moved into the bedroom downstairs a few months ago, I haven’t noticed much about him except how unnecessarily tall he is, how many hours he spends writing at the computer, and the intense fear he seems to have about coming upon either of us when we’re not decent. “Dan! Come in! “You’re decent?” In fact, I went to sleep in an outfit that far exceeds decent, even by Dan’s prudish standards: heavy sweatpants and a down vest I grabbed last night after the radiator in my room sputtered and spat hot water on the floor, then completely died with a pathetic hiss. But that’s what you get in Park Slope Brooklyn for $500 a month each. Jane and I had shared the top two floors of this crumbling brownstone with Bridget, our friend from college, until the day Bridget climbed on top of her desk at the investment banking firm where she worked and announced that she no longer cared about becoming a millionaire by the time she turned thirty. “Everyone here is dead inside!” she screamed. Then she fainted and they called an ambulance, and her mother flew in from Missoula to take her home. “New York City,” Bridget’s mother clucked as she packed up the last of her daughter’s things. “It’s no place for young girls.” Jane’s brother was friends with Dan at Princeton, and assured us that Dan was harmless: quiet and responsible and engaged to be married to his college girlfriend, Everett. “He was pre-med, but now he’s trying to be some sort of screenwriter,” Jane’s brother told us. And then, the ultimate roommate recommendation: “He comes from money.” Neither Jane nor I had ever had a male roommate. “I think it would be very modern of us,” I told her. “Modern?” she said, rolling her eyes. “Come one, it’s 1995. It’s retro of us. We’d be Three’s Company all over again. “But with two Janets,” I pointed out. Jane and I are different in many ways, but we worked hard in school together, we’re both brunettes, and we’ve both read The House of Mirth more than once, just for fun. “How true,” she sighed. “Franny?” Dan calls out, his voice still muffled. “You didn’t go back to sleep did you? You told me you’d try if I let you. I promised I’d make sure— I take a deep breath and I bellow, in my most diaphragmatically supported Shakespearean tone: “Daaaaaaan. Come iiiiiinnnnnnn.” Miraculously, the left side of Dan’s face appears through a crack in the door, but it’s not until he’s confirmed my fully covered status and stepped all the way into the room, leaning his oversized frame awkwardly against the corner bookshelf, that I suddenly remember: My hair. I have no romantic feelings ­toward Dan, but I do have very strong feelings about my unruly, impossibly curly hair, which I piled into a green velvet scrunchie on top of my head last night while it was still wet from the shower, a technique that experience tells me has probably transformed it from regular hair into more of a scary, frizzy ­hair-­tower while I slept. In an attempt to assess just how bad it is, I pretend to yawn while simultaneously stretching one hand over my head, in the hopes of appearing nonchalant while also adjusting the matted pile of damage. For some reason this combination of moves causes me to choke on absolutely nothing. “Is it . . . (cough, cough) . . . is it ­really late?” I sputter. “Well, I went to the deli, so I don’t know exactly how long your alarm’s been going off,” Dan says. “But Frank’s been up for at least two hours already.” Shit. I am late. Frank is the neighbor whose apartment we can see into from the windows in the back of our brownstone. Frank leads a mysterious, solitary life, but one you can set a clock by. He rises at eight, sits in front of a computer from nine to one, goes out and gets a sandwich, is back at the computer from two until six thirty, is gone from six thirty to eight, and then watches TV from eight until eleven p.m., after which he goes promptly to sleep. The schedule never changes. No one ever comes over. We worry about Frank in the way New Yorkers worry about strangers whose apartments they can see into. Which is to say, we made up a name for him and have theories about his life, and we’d call 911 if we saw something frightening happen while spying on him, but if I ran into him on the subway, I’d look the other way.

An American actress, producer, and debut novelist best known for playing Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood. Graham's debut novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe is a work based on a fictionalization of her experiences in the New York acting scene in the mid-1990s.In May 2013, the book entered the New York Times best seller list. Graham signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television and Ellen DeGeneres' production company A Very Good Production to adapt it into a TV series. The script will be written by her. To learn more about Lauren Graham and her books, visit her on Goodreads and Twitter.

[jacewilliams1]

On automation and airmanship

“I believe any good pilot has a certain skepticism. If he or she isn’t a skeptic, they are headed for trouble. This seems especially true with the computer—and when I say computer I include FMS, autopilot and all. Being skeptical means a pilot refers to raw data to be certain the FMS etc., is doing its thing correctly. This is not always easy because as the computer develops it makes raw data more difficult to see, find and use.” – Captain Robert Buck, TWA

I have been known, on occasion, to talk to the autopilot. “Why on earth are you closing the throttles now?” or “What? Who told you to fly at 210 knots?” It’s possible that this could be a little unnerving to an unsuspecting first officer, but there are occasions when it is necessary to question the autopilot’s intentions or even its situational awareness. Sometimes I have to intervene: ”No, no, let’s not do it that way… here, let’s try this mode…” And every so often, “Oh for goodness’ sake, stop making this harder than it is…” a comment usually associated with disconnecting the thing.

Some of that comes from the early days of my career, the first five thousand hours of which involved Convairs and Metroliners with no autopilots and no flight directors. We hand flew all day, er, night, every day and night. This was a pattern only gradually altered by flying the 727, whose autopilot was equipped with an input control that we commonly referred to as the “lurch lever” because the spring tensions were not well calibrated to the G tolerances of the typical passenger’s posterior. On legs under an hour, many of us never engaged the autopilot at all, nor did we activate the flight directors unless we were flying an instrument approach. We simply flew pitch and power like we always had.

It might sound crazy, but airline pilots once flew trips without ever engaging the autopilot.

But most of it comes from a strategy to manage two parallel and integrated situational awarenesses: the old, original one (where are we, where are we going and at what angle of attack), along with a new one (where does the autoflight system think we are, where does it think we want to go, how is it going to get us there and, perhaps of separate but equal importance, where are we within one or more flight envelopes that it is designed to protect us from departing?). Both situational awarenesses are vital to safety. But with the advent of the second awareness, the automation awareness, it has become common for the authorities, manufacturers and various other august bodies of expertise to start describing pilots as “systems operators” or “system managers.”

This is not really a new idea. In 1953, Guy Murchie, writing in his book Song of the Sky, rather presciently predicted “a maplike screen on which will be projected pips of light representing not only his own position but those of other craft, enabling him to monitor the traffic situation continuously and check navigation by eyesight in the densest cloud.” This is a curiously accurate description of an FMS-driven Navigation Display with TCAS superimposed. By 1959, General Pete Quesada, the first FAA Administrator, observed that, with respect to military pilots, “The day of the throttle jockey is past. He is becoming a true professional, a manager of complex weapons systems.”

But back in 1939, writing in his masterpiece, Wind Sand and Stars, the French airmail pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery anticipated how we might lose control of this evolution. He wrote that,

In the enthusiasm of our rapid mechanical conquests we have overlooked some things. We have perhaps driven men into the service of the machine, instead of building machinery for the service of man.

It is easy to intuit how the concept of a manager of systems veers toward a man in the service of the machine. With the acceleration of automation in the cockpit, and the mishaps and accidents that have resulted, it seems to me that we have never truly resolved Saint-Exupery’s point. On the one hand, the pilot in command remains the final authority as to the operation of the aircraft. On the other, the pilot is an operator of complex systems that he is no longer expected to understand.

A few years ago, David Blair and Nick Helms published a thoughtful paper entitled “The Swarm, the Cloud, and the Importance of Getting There First,” a treatise on remotely piloted aircraft operated by the US Air Force. They concisely and carefully captured Saint-Exupery’s dichotomy in more contemporary terms:

The first truth of special operations holds that humans are more important than hardware. In other words, technology exists to enable people to fulfill the mission. This is the capabilities view of technology: machines are amplifiers of human will, better enabling them to make something of their world. By exercising dominion through technology, people gain greater command over their environment. The alternative is that humans are important to operate the hardware—that people are subsystems within larger socio-mechanical constructs. This view, cybernetics, encloses people within closed control loops that regulate systemic variables within set parameters. Rather than human versus machine, the true discussion about the future of RPAs addresses capabilities versus cybernetics.

The original intent of contemporary cockpit automation arose from the capabilities view of technology, in particular the capability to optimize aerodynamic efficiency while also optimizing airspace utilization. This was, and still is, clearly a machine in the service of man. The intent of automation began to migrate toward the cybernetics view with the notion that we could automate human error out of the equation. In my experience, this migration happened about the same time we transitioned from experienced instructors hand-drawing schematics on whiteboards to well-meaning but very inexperienced people flipping Powerpoint slides salted with schematics from the maintenance manual.

Is this technology in service of man or vice versa?

Cockpit automation is today widely discussed and trained from the cybernetics view of technology. This has been powerfully reinforced by the extensive understanding of human factors as a deterministic, predictable discipline, indeed, by the fundamental understanding of behavior from the deterministic view of neuroscience.

In their 2014 report entitled “A Practical Guide for Improving Flight Path Monitoring”, the Flight Safety Foundation noted that,

Multiple studies have shown that many pilots poorly understand aspects of autoflight modes, in part because training emphasizes correct “button pushing” over developing accurate mental models. Simply stated, it is impossible to monitor a complex system if a pilot isn’t sure how to correctly operate that system or what type of aircraft performance can be expected from each autoflight mode. A pilot who has an accurate mental model of the autoflight system can then learn how to use each mode and will be able to accurately predict what the aircraft will do next in a given mode in each specific situation.

A short trip through Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine will place us in a new-hire flight engineer classroom. The instructor is a retired chief master sergeant, and he is diagramming by hand the disassembly, piece by piece, of an air conditioning pack. By the time he is done, the new pilots will thoroughly understand how a pack works, and therefore have a solid grasp of what they are looking at on the pack temp gauge… at least that was the plan in those days.

In order to get rid of the flight engineer, we had to get rid of the pack temperature gauge. The thinking was that by automating the systems and improving the system status annunciations, we could make the task of monitoring systems much simpler. As we automated, we also watered down the ground school; there was no longer any reason to truly understand the system at a component level, since the automation would tell you all you needed to know. This is precisely the trajectory that Murchie had in mind when, continuing his 1953 description of a future cockpit, he said that,

Elimination of everything unessential is a big load off the crew’s brains. When the flight engineer wants to check whether his battery generators are working he used to have to read a dial needle pointing to numbers of amperes of charge or discharge. In the future he will only see a green or red light indicating “yes” or “no.” With fifty such indicators shorn of their wool, the crew will be spared much of the dangerous excess of information from which they have long had to select, abstract, interpolate, extrapolate, derive, and ignore—sometimes literally to the point of death. The airplane will enter a new phase of progress.

But along the way, I believe a very subtle paradigm shift occurred. Back in the day, we had a vague idea of approximately where we were in space. Between the A-N ranges, ADF pointers and LORAN systems, we were generally sure of which hemisphere we were flying in, and with some skill we could place the airplane over a runway threshold safely and reliably, albeit with little surety of exactly where we had been in the process of getting there. Whilst sorting out the bearings, radials and tones, it was essential to keep all one hundred and twelve cylinders lubricated, firing properly and not consuming more gasoline than was absolutely necessary. Monitoring had a great deal to do with aircraft systems, and less to do with the flight path. The flight path was more a matter of technique as long as one avoided an unintended stall.

But at the same time we were automating away little dials pointing at numbers indicating amperes, we were increasing airspace occupancy exponentially. Frequency, frequency, frequency. More flights, more options, more consumer choice, more tailored load factors, more capacity and then more capacity management… all while still operating approximately the same number of outer markers as we have for over sixty years. Capacity is choked; this leads immediately to tightening the longitudinal and vertical spacing between aircraft, as well as such things as Performance Based Navigation (PBN), Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM), RNAV departures and arrivals, and the like. All of this is basically intended to obtain the maximum arrival rate possible for each runway at each terminal.

About the only way to fly an RNAV arrival to a busy airport is with lots of automation.

So the importance of flight path management has become supreme, and highly automated. In this manner, the airspace infrastructure has evolved into the kind of larger socio-mechanical construct that Blair and Helms described, in which people are subsystems. Along the way, the shift in paradigm, as well as a culture mesmerized with automation and digitization, slowly and unwittingly displaced procedural knowledge with declarative knowledge.

Simon Hall, of Cranfield University, has described declarative knowledge as, “the knowledge that the system works in a certain way,” and contrasted this with procedural knowledge, which he describes as, “ knowing how to use the system in context.” He explains that

The basic skills associated with “manually flying” an aircraft are predominantly based on procedural knowledge, i.e. how to achieve the task. However, the use of automation to control the flight path of an aircraft is taught as declarative knowledge. Pilots are required to manage systems based on a knowledge that the autoflight system works in a particular fashion. So, the pilot is faced with the same operational task of controlling the flight path but employs two different strategies of cognitive behaviour depending upon whether the task is manually or automatically executed.

It is important to stop for a minute and put this concept under a microscope. In the days of the flight engineer, declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge were more or less balanced, and they were integrated. Declarative knowledge supported procedural knowledge, and we were taught both. If you wanted to get the generator on line, you were going to have to synch the generator frequency to the bus frequency; you had to understand how this worked, and you had to be able to make it work, because it wasn’t going to do it by itself.

But right there, at that inflection point, is where the problems of automation gain a foothold, precisely because automated systems will do it by themselves. It is no longer a matter of procedurally operating a system; it is a matter of watching the system procedurally operate itself. When the Flight Safety Foundation describes an “accurate mental model which will enable the pilot to predict what the airplane will do next in a given mode for each specific situation,” they are referring entirely to declarative knowledge, a knowledge of how the system works, with the expectation that the pilot’s speed of cognition will exceed the system’s own procedural operation.

In the old days, the pilot’s speed of cognition controlled the procedural operation. Nothing would happen until you were ready for it to happen, because you had to make it happen. You could get behind the airplane moving in space, and you could get behind the situation in time, but it was pretty hard to get behind the systems. Today, you’d better be on your toes, because the automated system is going, with or without you. Indeed, the very phrase “predict what the airplane will do next,” as if this were a matter of conjecture, implies that the airplane has a mind of its own.

Yet the premise behind watered-down training is that the modern, sophisticated, fly-by-wire airplane is too complicated for the pilot to fully understand, and thus he or she has no need for extensive knowledge of the aircraft design and architecture. This is entirely in line with Murchie’s 1953 prediction that the crew “be spared much of the dangerous excess of information from which they have long had to select, abstract, interpolate, extrapolate, derive, and ignore.” Sixty years later, in the 2013 report Operational Use of Flight Management Systems, the Performance Based Operations Aviation Rulemaking Committee said that:

Pilot knowledge of the basic airplane systems is not as detailed as in the past. The WG recognizes that in the past, information was trained that was not needed or beneficial. The concern is that depth of systems knowledge may now be insufficient, and this may be operator dependent.

And so we arrive at the rather matter-of-fact condescension expressed in a pivotal statement following the 737 Max debacle:

A high-ranking Boeing official told the Wall Street Journal that “the company had decided against disclosing more details to cockpit crews due to concerns about inundating average pilots with too much information—and significantly more technical data—than they needed or could digest.”

Saint-Ex would have disagreed with some of Boeing’s philosophy.

St.-Exupery would have disagreed with this view. He wrote, also in Wind, Sand and Stars, that

The machine which at first blush seems a means of isolating man from the great problems of nature, actually plunges him more deeply into them. As for the peasant so for the pilot, dawn and twilight become events of consequence. His essential problems are set him by the mountain, the sea, the wind. Alone before the vast tribunal of the tempestuous sky, the pilot defends his mails and debates on terms of equality with those three elemental divinities.

In today’s terms, the cybernetic view of technology may, at first blush, seem a means of isolating the pilot from the essential problems of flight; it is easy to interpret envelope protection features this way. But at the same time, the capability view of technology amplifies human will, better enabling us to make something of our world. By exercising dominion through technology, we gain greater command over our environment… and thus we are plunged more deeply into those essential problems.

The deeper plunge into the essential problems of flight brings us, inevitably, to the problem of airmanship in an automated cockpit. When Staint-Exupery refers to the terms of equality on which we debate those three elemental divinities, he is referring specifically to the airmanship of his day. He began his approach to this question with an understanding of the mountains, the seas and the winds… the things which influence the sky, the great problems of nature into which the airman will shortly be plunged. He was interested in “all that happened in the sky,” things which signaled “the oncoming snow, the threat of fog, or the peace of a blessed night.”

We are still very interested in the threat of fog or oncoming snow. We are also very interested in windshear, convective available potential energy, lifted indexes, microbursts, outflow boundaries, ice crystal icing, collision coalescence freezing drizzle formation, and certainly turbulence, including mountain waves—pretty much anything that can ruin the peace of a blessed night.

To this we must add an understanding of the machine, an intuitive sense of its balance, its harmony, and its energy, a feel for how the machine leverages its precipitous position in the sky to resolve the problems of nature. To Saint-Exupery, the machine was the engine and flight controls all connected by stringers and spars and cables; today, we must include the complement of automation as part of the machine. For example, we must be constantly aware of pitch, power and vertical speed, while we also scrutinize Actual Navigation Performance (ANP) exactly as Saint-Exupery scrutinized the howl of the wind in the wires of his Breguet 14.

But in Saint-Exupery’s day, the idea of the pilot as a systems manager was unheard of, as was the contemporary suite of management school lexicon used to describe the systems manager. Terms such as discipline, professionalism, team skills, self-improvement, and skill acquisition were barely yet in anyone’s vocabulary. Nor were the now-classical superlatives, such as uncompromising, optimal, systematic and exceptional. Recent definitions of airmanship tend to include some or all of these terms; yet, in my opinion, all of them really beg the question. So what is airmanship really, and how does it work in an automated cockpit?

Let’s leave the management school semantics and centuries-old conceptual structures about discipline, obedience, and compliance behind for a while. All of these are tools we use to achieve the goal; they are not the goal. Rather, let’s begin by revisiting the words of FAR 91.1065(d):

For the purpose of this subpart, competent performance of a procedure or maneuver by a person to be used as a pilot requires that the pilot be the obvious master of the aircraft, with the successful outcome of the maneuver never in doubt.

Airmanship starts with the person in the left seat, no matter what the airplane.

The pilot, as the obvious master of the aircraft, forms the anchor of a definition of airmanship. This clearly refers to Saint-Exupery’s idea of the machine in the service of man. It also focuses responsibility and authority for the operation of the aircraft solely with the pilot, while placing distinct emphasis on knowledge and expertise. And yet, we have to be careful of the subsequent language, because the phrase “never in doubt” suggests the elimination of uncertainty, and that is a dangerous premise.

Looking back through early revisions and amendments to this regulatory language, it seems likely that the elimination of uncertainty was never really the intent; the language is always qualified with the words, “The applicant’s performance will be evaluated on the basis of judgment, knowledge, smoothness, and accuracy.” Indeed, the presence of the word judgment belies certainty; however, the problem is that an implicit expectation of certainty can create barriers to effective airmanship. For example, the successful outcome of a landing is always in doubt; this is the point of a no-fault go-around policy, which leverages the judgment and knowledge parts cited above.

Sadly, the expectation of certainty has a long history of coloring the understanding of mishaps. From the 1930s through the 1950s, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was so certain it understood what caused accidents that it published this axiom: “The capable and competent pilot will never allow an airplane to crack up.” Simple as that.

The paradox is that while we must have some degree of certainty that the flight will be successful—if it we didn’t, we would never fly—flight itself is inherently uncertain. While we cannot accept unmitigated specific risk (an unsafe condition with a probability of one), we have to be prepared to accept, and manage, the uncertainty associated with probabilistic risk (an unsafe condition based upon the averaged estimated probabilities of all unknown events). The interface between our own actions and the operating environment is the critical focal point. We can get into trouble if we assume that our own actions will assure the certainty of a successful maneuver.

The French philosopher Edgar Morin describes this paradox in what he calls the “ecology of action:”

As soon as a person begins any action whatsoever, the action starts to escape from his intentions. It enters into a sphere of interactions and is finally grasped by the environment in a way that may be contrary to the initial intention. So we have to follow the action and try to correct it if it is not too late, or sometimes shoot it down, like NASA exploding a rocket that has veered off course.

Ecology of action means taking into account the complexity it posits, meaning random incidents, chance, initiative, decision, the unexpected, the unforeseen, and awareness of deviations and transformations.

From this perspective, airmanship may be less about managing systems and quite a bit more about managing uncertainty. To some extent, this permeates our early flight training; we are warned by our mentors to “always have an out,” and we spent a lot of time looking for good fields to use in the event of a forced landing. As young pilots, we are impressionable and can easily envision a myriad of things going wrong, and as we strive to blend into the level of competence that we believe surrounds us, we prepare as thoroughly as we can. But as we develop an experience base, certainty seems more accessible. Indeed, one of the significant problems of modern aviation is that serious failures occur extremely rarely, and the uncertainty of our early flying days is replaced with an almost inevitable, and comfortable, complacence.

Morin goes on to discuss the use of strategy to manage uncertainty. He says that,

Strategy should prevail over program. A program sets up a sequence of actions to be executed without variation in a stable environment, but as soon as the outside conditions are modified, the program gets stuck. Whereas strategy elaborates a scenario of action based on an appraisal of the certainties and uncertainties, the probabilities and improbabilities of the situation. The scenario may and must be modified according to information gathered along the way and hazards, mishaps or good fortune encountered. We can use short term program sequences within our strategies. But for things done in an unstable, uncertain environment, strategy imposes.

A stabilized approach is not a program, it’s a strategy.

Probably the best definition of strategy that I have seen describes it as a “high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty,” a definition coined by Miryam Barad. This definition fits well with Morin’s concept. So what is an example of a strategy in the cockpit? The most compact example might be the stabilized approach concept. This can be achieved with or without automation, with or without a glass cockpit, and can be arrived at from a wide variety of descent profiles and lateral entries to the approach procedure. It can be achieved with or without a normal landing configuration, for example, in the case of a flap or slat failure. Nor does it necessarily lead to a smooth landing! Rather, it represents a high level plan to achieve a landing within the touchdown zone, on centerline and aligned with the runway, under conditions of some uncertainty, such as wind, braking action, pilot technique, even nominal fatigue.

A program, on the other hand, is manifested in profiles, litanies, callouts, checklists, and automated sequences. These have critical value as short term program sequences. But they themselves will not resolve instability or manage uncertainty.

Note that Morin is quite clear about the need to modify the scenario of action “according to information gathered.” The pilot must know exactly what he or she wants to do with the airplane, how the environment is likely to influence the plan, how the plan is evolving with the changing situation, and then how to utilize the all of the tools, including the short term program sequences inherent in the automation, to execute the plan.

With the strategy established, the application of Morin’s idea of the ecology of action is best considered through a short exploration of two concepts: prudence and mindfulness. These are common terms, and most of us assume that we know what they mean. In fact, both have very specific definitions, and in the case of prudence, a very long history.

In the fifth century, St. Augustine described prudence as “the knowledge of what to seek and what to avoid.” More specifically, in the seventh century, Isidore of Seville said that, “A prudent man is one who sees as it were from afar, for his sight is keen, and he foresees the event of uncertainties.”

But oddly enough, and at the risk of freewheeling completely off the rails of technical discussion, the best description of prudence that I have found was offered by St. Thomas Aquinas in his historically pivotal tome, the Summa Theologica, which he compiled during the thirteenth century. The word prudence derives from the Latin “providentia,” which means foresight. Thomas strengthened Isidore’s idea when he said that foresight “implies the notion of something distant, to which that which occurs in the present has to be directed.” He said that prudence is “right reason (what today we might call observed truth) applied to action.”

It turns out that St. Thomas’s ideas on prudence more or less make up the original foundation of what we consider as crew resource management. He describes three core elements:

Taking counsel, an act of inquiry, often seeking the opinion of others… first officers, flight attendants, dispatchers, mechanics, flight instructors, FSS briefers… lest something be overlooked. Thomas was quite clear on the assertion that a single person is often unable to capture all that matters to a given situation. Today, this speaks to the limits of human cognition within a dynamic environment.

Judging of what you have learned, an act of consideration, speculation, and for us, forming the opinions required by FAR Part 121, followed by an act of decision. Thomas splits this into two capacities: docility, the willingness to learn from others and decide accordingly, and shrewdness, the ability to draw accurate, “just-in-time” conclusions when there simply is no opportunity for extensive counsel or contemplation.

Executing command, the act of authority, in other words fulfilling the obligation bestowed on the pilot-in-command by FAR 91.3.

Thomas Aquinas, the first man to define CRM?

These three elements form the structure within which “that which occurs in the present” is directed toward “something distant.” If we listen carefully, we will hear these elements in the FAA’s explanation of FAR 91.1065, when they state that “The applicant’s performance will be evaluated on the basis of judgment, knowledge, smoothness, and accuracy (taking counsel, judging of what was learned, and executing command).” Remarkably, in the summer of 1901, Wilbur Wright reached back to these early discussions and penned what was probably the first description of prudence applied to air safety:

All who are practically concerned with aerial navigation agree that the safety of the operator is more important to successful experimentation than any other point. The history of past investigation demonstrates that greater prudence is needed rather than greater skill.

This brings us to an exploration of the more contemporary idea of mindfulness, “a rich awareness of discriminatory detail,” in the words of Karl Weick and Kathryn Sutcliffe. They elaborate on this by saying that being mindful means paying attention in a different way; it is to see more clearly, not to think harder and longer. You stop concentrating on those things that “confirm your hunches, are pleasant, feel certain, seem factual, are explicit, and that others agree on.” You start concentrating on things that “disconfirm, are unpleasant, feel uncertain, seem possible, are implicit, and are contested.” Mindfulness acknowledges the very same uncertainties which Isidore claimed a prudent man would foresee. This is the debate with Saint-Exupery’s elemental divinities.

Airmanship, in this context, can then be salted with more of Weick and Sutcliffe’s organizational ideas. First and foremost, the airman is preoccupied with failure, meaning what has already failed, what is failing at the moment, and what is likely to fail. The periodic twitch of a torquemeter, an unusual imbalance in generator load, a steady divergence between actual fuel burned and planned fuel burned, an unexpected collapse of the visibility, an unexpectedly long—or short—touchdown, an omitted checklist step, or certainly any number of unexpected automation behaviors… all of these things preoccupy the airman. What went wrong? Why did it go wrong? What does a particular failure mean? Is it a precursor?

Secondly, he or she is reluctant to simplify, despite seductive pressure to “eliminate everything unnecessary,” because simplification “obscures unwanted, unanticipated, unexplainable details and in doing so, increases the likelihood of unreliable performance.” This is certainly applicable to autoflight system function, but really to almost everything we do. There is no way to simplify the effects of airframe ice accretion, microbursts, or runway braking action, nor is there any simplification applicable to human behavior and error. Simplification invokes certainty, which flies straight into the face of the uncertainty which Isidore claimed prudence would anticipate. We cannot afford to obscure unwanted, unanticipated or unexplainable details.

Thirdly, the airman is sensitive to operations, a “watchfulness for moment-to-moment changes in conditions.” In this way, the airman “slows down the speed with which we call something ‘the same.’” The airman recognizes that today is not the same as yesterday, that the situation is ever changing, evolving, and uncertain. The same flight, in the same airplane, from the same gate is not the same today as it was yesterday. There are small differences which can have disproportional effects.

Lastly, the airman builds and maintains resilience, the quality of “recalibrating expectations, making sense of evolving uncertainties, and learning in real time.” To borrow from Weick’s writing on this, with some adaptation, a resilient cockpit works to keep errors small, improvises workarounds that preserve adherence to the strategy, and absorbs change while updating the strategy.

With the ideas of prudence and mindfulness front and center, let me turn to what I believe is the most important strategy implicit in good airmanship: the protection of the margins. Whether it be a forty five minute fuel reserve, 1.3 Vso, a 0.8% margin over net climb gradient, or a twenty mile berth around the downwind side of a thunderstorm, a core strategy of airmanship is the protection of the margins. The margins anticipate and buffer uncertainty. They provide space and time for any subordinate strategy to be modified. We cannot allow things of which we are already certain to erode the margins, lest the buffer against further uncertainty be lost.

Checklists and SOPs maintain safety margins and catch errors.

To that end, we land on the centerline for a reason: to preserve a seventy five foot margin of pavement on either side, to accommodate at least some of the threats that are “infinite in number, [and] cannot be grasped by reason,” like some combinations of hydroplaning and wind gusts, main gear trunnion fractures, airport snowplows wandering aimlessly around runways… in other words, the average estimated probabilities of all unknown events.

Further, we use standard operating procedures to track the centerline of the safe operating space, and to ensure that the procedural margins, and the error traps integrated within those margins, are available to function in the background. Standard operating procedures are themselves a strategy, a subset of the idea of protecting the margins; they are not a litany. They are intended to manage the ecology of action, and to track an action as it begins to deviate from our intention. This, too, is another way of looking at envelope protection, seen through the lens of the capability view; we gain greater control of our environment by using automation to ensure that critical aerodynamic margins are protected when hours and hours of sheer boredom lead to distraction or inattention, or are occasionally interrupted by brief moments of stark terror followed by a startle response.

These ideas largely inform both the old situational awareness, the aeronautical one, and the new situational awareness, the one aimed at automation. The thread that ties all of these ideas together is the acceptance of uncertainty. When Saint-Exupery uses terms like a debate with elemental divinities, or a tempestuous sky, he is describing uncertainty.

At this point, we can perhaps suggest a general definition of airmanship:

Airmanship is the application of both prudence and mindfulness so as to always remain the obvious master of the aircraft, and to construct, modify and execute the necessary strategies to ensure that the safe outcome of the flight is never manifestly in doubt, while always protecting the margins in anticipation of uncertainty.

If we see the operating environment only as a socio-mechanical construct, such as the National Airspace System, and thus teach only the cybernetic view of technology, we create a systems operator who is unprepared to debate on terms of equality with the mountain, the sea, and the wind, or, for that matter, with the central processing unit of the flight control computer. His terms have been dictated by the set parameters within a closed control loop, designed to trigger Morin’s “sequence of actions to be executed without variation in a stable environment.” The foresight is pre-programmed, trapped within the closed control loops, and limited to a narrow set of anticipated threats, or specific risks. This is antithetical to airmanship, because those parameters will eventually fall out of equality with the vast tribunal of a tempestuous sky.

The fundamental flaw in attempts to adapt the cybernetic view of technology to the problems of flight lies in the belief that we have expanded our knowledge to a point at which we have absolute, predictable, and repeatable control within a tempestuous sky. We don’t, and likely never will. An analog world will simply swat away a digital mindset.

If, on the other hand, we interpret automation through the capability view of technology, automation will always be subordinate to strategy, a machine in the service of man. Further, if we approach automation as capability, we are prepared for the degradation of that capability. Such degradation merely leads to modification of the strategy. Eventually, if need be, we will fly the approach by hand, using basic or even standby instruments, still remaining within the strategy of a stable approach.

Airmanship thus begins with strategy. Prudence facilitates an expectation that the action we have taken will begin to escape our intentions. A continuous loop of taking counsel, judging of what we have learned, and executing command, modifying the scenario “according to information gathered along the way and hazards, mishaps or good fortune encountered,” tracks the action and corrects its evolution, as it is grasped by the environment, so that the strategy is preserved, or, if necessary, modified, such as when we abandon the approach and go around. In this way, we remain the obvious master of the aircraft.

But human will cannot be amplified in ignorance. We need to recalibrate our automation training paradigm. We must begin with a discussion not of how the automation works, but of how we want to fly the airplane, what the essential problems of flight are, and then augment this broad discussion of strategy with the greater capabilities afforded through automation. Likewise, in all cases, we must emphasize how degraded automation impacts that capability within the original, overarching strategy. Finally, we must remain aware of uncertainty, and reference the training curriculum to the management of uncertainty. Memorizing “the litany” in isolation just won’t cut it, because the litany is a short term program, a closed control loop.

In the end, we can only preserve mastery of the aircraft if we understand airmanship as the management of uncertainty, not simply the management of systems. We must know how the airplane is constructed to achieve the design capabilities, and match this with a strategy for how we want the airplane to be flown to utilize those capabilities, and then insist that the autoflight systems fly our plan. When those systems don’t fly our plan, we need to step in and do some of that pilot stuff. The automation can never be allowed to become the master of the airplane, obvious or otherwise; in no case can it be allowed to place the successful outcome of any maneuver in any doubt whatsoever.

That is the essential nature of the conversation that I have with the autopilot.

The post On automation and airmanship appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/08/on-automation-and-airmanship/

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Welcome to “8 Questions with…..”

Have you ever watched the news,hear a crazy ass story and think to yourself “I’m so glad that wasn’t me” and then realize that it does concern you? For our next guest,Ottavio Taddei,he found himself right smack dab in a story that made national headlines and he wasn’t even there when it happened. Imagine coming back from a well deserved vacation only to see news vans and reporters swarming your house and you. As a working actor,normally you would welcome a chance to be interviewed,right? Sadly for Ottavio,this story was not one he wanted nor welcomed Ottavio handled himself with dignity and class during this most difficult of times. But Ottavio has overcome some bumps during his time in Hollywood, and he is still working very hard to reach his goals. He has a role on one of the biggest films of the year,”Ford v Ferrari” coming out and hopefully that will be a springboard for this young multi-talented artist to get noticed,this time for all the RIGHT reasons. Ottavio is one of the coolest,intelligent and sensitive artists I have chatted with and I hope he gets the break he deserves. I really hope it happens for him… But for now,let’s go and ask acto/dancer Ottavio Taddei his 8 Questions….

 Please introduce yourself and tell about your latest project.

Hi! My name is Ottavio Taddei I’m an Italian actor and dancer based in LA. I can’t complain for lack of excitement in my life thanks to the array of experiences that come my way.    I’m looking forward to the releasing of the new James Mangold movie “Ford V Ferrari” with Matt Damon and Christian Bale to mention a few , happening on November 15th, were I had the honor and pleasure to portray a supporting character with a quite interesting contribution to the story development of the movie.   Most recently I finished filming an independent feature  film called “His Only Son” that narrates the story of Abraham, struggling with the extreme sacrifice God has demanded, the sacrifice of his son Isaac. It Was a wonderful experience to be filming in nature accompanied by a loyal donkey ( Philberth)  and working around horses, goats etc. I’m thrilled to be filming in September a brilliant short film with the working title “Apollo Jump” written and directed by Matteo Saradini.      I just had a dance show with a very talented group of dancers at the bar Harvard and Stone in Hollywood  that was quite a new experiences.       I’m also often collaborating with LA OPERA and LA PHILHARMONIC as a dancer and actor, I performed the lead role in “Bolero” directed and choreographed by Kitty McNamee with the whole LA Phil orchestra to myself!     I’ll be soon involved in the new staging of the opera “Bohéme”, likely my favorite one.  Several other project on the way but always hungry for more!

 What was growing up in Italy like? Is it true that Italian food is the best ever created?

Italy is, and this is indisputable, the best country in the world!  In such a small piece of land we have the richest artistic heritage and an impressive variety of sceneries and biodiversity.  It is unfortunately challenging  to be a young ambitious individual in a society that still follow obsolete dynamics, such as rewarding seniority more than productivity and a limited social mobility with the tendency to professionally follow the footsteps of our parents. Of course I can’t avoid mentioning the burden of decades of bad politics and corruption with the consequential high debt that make the country vulnerable to financial crisis  and excessive fiscal pressure etc. 

   Now, talking about food, we do have pretty amazing food and the secret is simple: simplicity and produce quality. Internationally Italian cuisine offers a wide range of options but the truth is that you really need to be in the authentic place of origin of a certain dish to really have the “experience”.     I’m from Bologna for instance and the way you’ll eat a lasagna or tortellini there has no equals. You want to eat authentic risotto at its best? Then you’ll have to be in the Milano’s Area.      Pizza? We have different schools but yeah Naples and surroundings will provide a very special and unique experience and so on.     I can tell you from my personal experience that in Puglia I bought peppers from a farm  and I was in absolutely shock and awe to experience a “Pepper” for the first time, that was certainly not what I could find at the supermarket!  I love other cuisines too but, yeah, we can keep our head high! 

 Where did the love of dance come from?

I grew up with two older brothers and I just followed their example, I played tennis, basketball and soccer growing up,( skiing, running and other activities too)  that was the example I had, what I knew… I wish I had the chance to approach ballet earlier,  my body was already developed  and there’s only so much you can do when you live in an adult body but hard work and dedication definitely allow major improvements!     Around 16, I started practicing Kung fu and the different use of the body required by this discipline intrigued me, I developed a desire to expand the limits of my body, gain flexibility,  freedom and be more body aware, at that time one of my best female friends strongly insisted to get me involved in their end of the year dance show and I ended up accepting and started practicing etc. from there I never stopped dancing, it’s simply part of me, who I am and I hope it will always be.

  What three things about dance do you love the most? 

I’ve never been a super organized individual,  dancing can be compared to a religion, it requires a lot of discipline and focus and it gave me a great growth opportunity.    I love to stay connected  with my body, I think that if you experience that deeper connection you’ll never want to give it up. Latins were wise: mens sana in corpore sano.     Well I can’t avoid mentioning the gratification of pleasing an audience and the special bond that you develop with your dance partners.

   What is the biggest difference between a “street dancer” and a “classically trained dancer”?

Well, technique exist pretty much in anything, technique is simply a way to achieve a certain result in my opinion. Let’s say that street dancing allows a higher degree of freedom of expression, is more dynamic, open to contamination,   ballet has been coded for a long time and applied to the idea of a “perfect body” ( at least for that type of movement)  and therefore there is a more defined standard of what it “should be” more then What it “should look like” and so on. 

   In Italy among artists we use a saying: impara l’arte e mettila da parte. It means: learn the craft and then put it aside. You can apply this piece of wisdom in pretty much most art forms. 

  From visual artists like Picasso that from mastering classical technique evolved his art into something unique and personal, or opera trained singers incorporating that quality in other genres or Shakespearean actors mastering the language to an extent that allows them to deliver powerful speeches in contemporary theatre and film. 

What has been the worst injury you suffered as a dancer?

Fortunately nothing major, I had a chronic bursitis in my right ankle, therefore constant inflammation and pain for several years and not much to do to fix it, you can’t really take  long breaks since you gotta eat somehow…  When you dance as a career you must  learn to work in adverse conditions it’s inevitable, like most professional athletes. 

Dance taught at a young age can cause a lot of injuries so it’s really important to find very competent instructors that understand the different body types and didn’t learn technique only on books! 

What did you enjoy the most about college experience?

College was for me the real transition into manhood, I went to Bocconi university that holds a pretty impressive reputation worldwide and all my fellow students were very determined and studious reversing certain high school dynamics were the best students were often considered not so fun to be around. 

In university I experienced the opposite, if you weren’t serious about it you were substantially isolated. So I learned to use my brain and be more conscientious and I’m grateful for that! 

 What led you to try your hand at acting? Did anyone encourage you or had you always wanted to try it?

As an dancer I worked for operas, musicals, hybrid shows in contact with all sort of performers, I always loved acting but we can’t really handle everything at the same time can we? 

For some reason I was always encouraged by directors and choreographers to embrace more interpretation heavy roles and the desire to explore acting grew in me quickly. 

I believe in education and I wanted to study the “art of acting” before dealing with real challenges in that field  and so when I had to stop dancing for a couple of months due to some health issues I did take the chance and flew to NYC to audition for an acting school that was recommended to me by established and super talented documentarist and filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini , I got admitted at my first shot and went to graduating  from the Stella Adler studio of acting conservatory in NYC and I did a little bit of theatre in high school but really minimal. 

How long have you been in the United States? What were the three biggest culture shocks to you?

 I’ve been in the USA for 7 years already between school and career, I always lived in international cities like NYC and LA and I wouldn’t claim any major cultural shock, what is mostly scary is the amount of social rage this country is going through that associated with the free circulation of weapons has led to a terrifying amount of mass shooting. This is definitely the worst possible shock, to see how many people are not appreciative toward the gift of life. 

Another shock is to see how dynamic certain cities are, LA has changed so much in these past few years while Bologna, the city were I was born is pretty much identical to what it used to be many decades ago. 

It’s also shocking to see how many people here have given up on being part of the society, that in my view is  a lack of self love, in Los Angeles the homeless crisis is real and I’m sure some people might have incurred in personal tragedy that led to that condition but many others feel abandoned and they’d rather get that basic welfarism to survive than trying to stand back up. 

 What was your first acting role and how did you get it? 

My first acting role once I finished school was probably a supporting role in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Los Angeles. I really wanted a role with more responsibilities but I definitely learned by spending many days in the company of more mature actors. 

 What was it like working on “Ford v Ferrari”? What did you learn/take away from the experience? 

I was very excited for the opportunity and a little scared! I learned that the bigger the set, more people you have around, the more alone you are and that is scary though empowering!    They count on the fact that you are there because you know how to do your job, of course, you can still have some communication with the director, the camera operator, DP etc. But it’s less personal, at least for supporting roles.    For instance  we were on a time crunch filming with natural light and there was a bit of tension on set, while shooting with a steady cam I had to remain in the frame while moving to a designated position and you can’t really look at the camera position or you might end up accidentally looking into the lens, so you have to simply feel it on you somehow.

Where did you study acting at? What is your style of acting?

I received most of my training  at Stella Adler Studio Of Acting in NYC, since I was coming with a certain movement background I wasn’t necessarily too enthusiastic about following a generalized program but I did have the pleasure to study acting technique with some wonderful teachers.   I then took several workshops and classes in LA but of course after training in a “safe place” ( a place where you are meant to fail)  you learn the most once you start dealing with real jobs.    I do not follow a specific approach all the time, sometimes you just have to accomplish a task and to overthinking it is simple unreasonable to me.  Some other times you have to work on developing a back story, to define clear intentions and needs that your character wants to achieve.    I try to have several tools ready in my toolbox and pick the right one based on the situation and the character’s demands.

Self-tape auditions vs. live auditions – which do you perfer and why?

Self tapes allow you to send in an audition  that you believe to be representative of the quality of your work, you can watch it and reshoot it as many times as you want friends and fellow actors permitting.    On the other side a live audition is somehow fairer since everybody will work with the same reader, same light, same camera etc. Two different processes.. auditioning is often stressful but can also be satisfying.    I had good and not so good experiences with both types of auditions, sometimes you are good at working the room sometimes not so much. 

 What scares you?

To miss out an opportunity, I’ve been living in LA for several years now and I still have very limited access to the casting rooms that handle high quality productions.    I’m also scared to not see my life settle down after living here for so many years. I’m still on a visa and it does make me  feel vulnerable to have to request new visas over and over again and have work limitations and no voice to contribute to the growth and well being of the people of this great country. 

 What do you like to do for recreation and relaxation when you’re not working?

To be honest I have the privilege to do what I love, hence it’s difficult to draw a line between work and leisure… what I’ve been trying to do is to be more social and meet people, I do a ton of physical activity, I’ve started to practice boxing and I love to learn new disciplines and skills.

The cheetah and I flying in to watch you perform but we are a day early and now you are stuck playing tour guide,what are we doing?

Let’s say we are in Rome, in the “centro”, the old town, (because unfortunately the outskirt of the city is not as charming) I would honestly send you to a totally random walk and let the city surprise you.   That is how I visited for the first time and every few minutes I found myself in front of some magnificent piece of architecture, statue, fountain and monuments like nowhere else.    Then for sure I’d have to take you to Saint Peter Cathedral, the Vatican museum where you must see the Sistine Chapel, no matter how many pictures of it you might have seen to be there is just magical and to imagine the dedication and talent of the master Michelangelo painting horizontally the ceiling for years is indescribable. 

Of course some good typical restaurant can’t be avoided! So many other places would be worth mentioning but it’d take way too long!!

    I like to thank Ottavio for sitting down and doing this interview with us. We’ll be looking him this fall when “Ford v Ferrari” hits the big screens. You can follow Ottavio as he continues to perform both in front of live audiences as well as in front of the camera. He is an artist to keep an eye on….

You can follow Ottavio on his growing InstaGram page.

You can also follow Ottavio via his IMDb page.

If you feel you have a story wish to share,feel free to send me a email which you can find on my contact page.

Comments and feedback are always welcome.

8 Questions with…………actor/dancer Ottavio Taddei Its 2:15 pm Welcome to "8 Questions with....." Have you ever watched the news,hear a crazy ass story and think to yourself "I'm so glad that wasn't me" and then realize that it does concern you?