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mariacallous · 3 years ago

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I’ve been in academics for more than 20 years as a member of the physics faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. Here, the department is small enough that all of us get to share in the course load, which is quite nice—it gives me an opportunity to teach a wide range of courses, from physical science (for non-science majors) all the way up to quantum mechanics.

During the first years of the pandemic, everyone in education had to adapt, and most of our activities weren't conducted in the most ideal environment. At my school, we started off by moving all classes online using Google Meet. (That wasn’t too much fun.) This was supplemented with short lecture videos. (I actually enjoyed making those.) Next, we implemented a hybrid model where some students would be in class and some would be online. (This was terrible.)

While remote learning can have some advantages, as a teacher I noticed that we all picked up some bad habits over the past couple of years. Have you noticed that after a holiday, when you’ve sat around and watched too much football while eating more than you normally would, you might not be at your regular level of fitness? Well, the same thing can happen with learning.

With exercise, you know that after the holidays you have to hit the gym or get outside in order to get back in shape and feel ready to take on the world. With learning, I think it is more about figuring out how to constructively use the technologies that helped us go remote instead of relying on them as a crutch.

Smartphones

It can be shocking to realize how much power we carry around with us all the time. Not only is your phone a very powerful computer, it also has a decent camera and a host of other sensors.

And smart phones often belong in school: It's possible to use your phone to collect and analyze data. For an experiment, students can use the accelerometers in the phone to measure the distance an elevator travels. Or how about using a long-exposure photo to measure the speed of the International Space Station? You can even solve physics problems by creating Python code right on your phone, or use built-in lidar to create 3D maps of a room.

In larger lecture-style classes, as a first step in class discussions, I have the students use their phones to vote their answers to conceptual questions. (One of my favorites is about the acceleration of a tossed ball at its highest point. A common answer is that since the velocity is zero, the acceleration is also zero—but that’s not true. In fact, if the acceleration was zero at the highest point where the velocity is also zero, the ball would just magically appear to be stationary.)

However, there is one way the students use their phones in class that I think is not always such a good idea: They take pictures of everything. (Admittedly, this has been going on for a while, so it’s not purely pandemic-related.) Now, don't get me wrong—I also take a lot of pictures. Photos are not just a great way to capture memories of your favorite dog; they can also serve as a reminder of things we need to do, like taking a picture of the grocery list. So what's the problem with students taking a picture in class of a physics solution or the derivation of an equation?

Let me give a real life example. It's my introductory physics course, and I'm going over a practice problem. I find it to be useful to model effective problem-solving strategies so that students can see the entire process. Of course, students have an opportunity to ask questions as I demonstrate the solution, and I pause several times to let them attempt each part before progressing. Once we make it to the end, the problem is finished, and at least part of the solution is written on the board. (Sometimes stuff gets erased.) Before you know it, some phones come out. Snap!

Why is that bad? I think it encourages students to think of physics problems as being like the game Pokémon Go, where the object is to capture as many solutions as possible. But it’s not: The process is important, not the solution.

I don’t mind if the student is just taking a picture to help them remember the result, intending to go back and work through the whole thing on their own. That's not a bad idea. However, I'm just afraid that all too often a student feels that the solution is the goal. Having the answer is not the same as understanding.

Or take the example of students who start off working on a problem in pairs using presentation boards mounted around the room. After working for five minutes, each student will move to a new board with a new student to work for five more minutes. This goes for three or four rounds until most pairs have solutions. (I got this idea from a fellow physics educator; it's called whiteboard speed dating.)

Sometimes these speed dating problems are a little difficult. Students can find it challenging to even start. They are afraid to put something on the board that might be wrong, because no one wants to be wrong. Wouldn't it be better to just not write anything down and wait? I mean, surely Dr. Allain (that's me) will eventually go over the solution and then boom, phone picture!

When this happens, I tell the class the following very important idea: "It's better to do something wrong than to see something right."

Those mistakes are part of the learning process. You can't expect to always get everything right when you are learning. It would be like going to basketball practice but not taking any shots because you are afraid that you might miss. Yes, you are going to miss. Missing a goal is how you get better at taking shots. The same is true for physics or any type of learning.

In the end, I let my students take photos, because there’s a chance they might actually use the pictures in a practical way. Also, banning phones would mean that I couldn't have any phone-based classroom activities, and it might send the wrong message that I have all the answers and the students need to earn those answers through hard work. Instead, the answers are just the tip of the iceberg.

But if you’re a student heading back to school in January, and your teacher allows phones in class, my advice would be to take pictures if you need to save something off the board. But don’t stop there. Force yourself to go back and work through any problems or solutions from those pictures. Treat the photo as the beginning of the learning process, not the end.

Online Answers

There's another place where the students’ focus on answers—instead of the learning process—is clearly visible: websites that give solutions to physics problems. During the pandemic, students took advantage of these more often, because more assessment was moved to an online form, which makes it easier to cheat. And because these sites are becoming more popular, there are now more of them. This makes me sad. The problem is that students can just copy a solution without understanding it, and it's all too obvious that many times this is exactly what happens.

Consider the following very common projectile-motion problem that is covered in just about every physics textbook: A ball is launched horizontally off a table that is 1.2 meters above the floor, and it hits 1.7 meters from the starting point. What is the launch velocity of the ball?

The problem is normally solved by looking at the horizontal and vertical motions separately. (That's the cool part of projectile motion.) Just about every textbook calls the horizontal velocity vx and the vertical velocity vy. So, when a student submits a solution using u for the horizontal velocity and u' (called u-prime) for the vertical velocity, it just looks weird. Why would they pick those symbols for the variables? You know why: They found the answer online.

You might think that if instructors assigned unique physics problems, the students would actually create their own solutions. That doesn't work. I can make something weird (and honestly quite fun) for a physics question, but students post it online within hours. It would actually be funny if it weren't so bad for learning. And even worse, someone is making serious money from these online solutions, which often require a subscription to their services.

If you’re a student who is tempted to use online answers, I’d urge you to use them only to work through a part of a problem that you are stuck on or to double-check that you’ve understood the problem correctly.

Attending Class

There's one more thing that students have a problem with lately—going to class.

Online learning isn't all bad; in fact, for some learners, it offers opportunities that weren't there before. Videos can help students keep up with class—well, if they actually watch them—and they provide an opportunity to review material that was perhaps a bit confusing. Going remote gives students a certain amount of flexibility to compensate for things that happen in real life, like catching the flu or getting a flat tire. Life happens, and it would be a shame to miss out on school. And it can be a bonus in Louisiana: When we have to cancel class because of a hurricane (yes, that happens), we won’t lose much class time since we can just switch to an online mode.

But there's something about in-person classes that I've found difficult to replicate in an online environment. I like to think of a physics class as a community of learners. Students can play the role of educator and learner at the same time when they interact with their peers. (And don't forget the other learner in the course—the instructor. Even teaching an introductory physics course, I still find some new understanding every time I teach it, which is why I love it so much.)

If you’re a teacher, there’s so much more that can be done during class time than just lecturing. You can have students work on problems—or even better, have them find the error in a solution to a problem. You could have them create problems that other students could solve. Honestly, the possibilities are endless. If you are looking for more ideas (at least in physics), check out the American Association of Physics Teachers’ resource site: Compadre.org.

If you are a student, try to attend class as much as possible. Don't think of it as though you are in a movie theater watching a bunch of answers. Instead, use that time to engage in all the learning opportunities.

In the end, the goal is to practice, not to get everything right. When it comes time to work on your homework, let yourself get stuck. Work the problem to the point where you don’t know what to do anymore. Getting stuck is the first step to getting unstuck, right? After all, if you don't have any troubles with a physics problem, then you either already understood it or it wasn't that great of a problem to begin with.

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angelogistics · 4 years ago

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so you want to learn to code? ^w^ epic !! you can always take classes and whatnot, but you can also learn online >w<

if you’re interested in making a game, the first question is do you want to try and create it with a game maker, or with a programming language! game makers will be much easier for those who haven’t programmed, but doing it by yourself gives you much more control over every aspect of the game :}

if you’re looking at making a fairly typical game, or an rpg, or a text based game, and you don’t need many custom mechanics, it might be good to look into gamemakers ! but if you don’t have the money, or you’d like to step outside of the box, here’s where you can get started :D

big big huge biggest question :} what language would you like to learn! there are a ton of different languages, and they’re all useful for different things :D let me introduce you to a couple of common ones! (note: you can learn a language if you like, then move on to a game ide (which might help you understand the overall coding concepts more) or you can go straight to a game ide and learn whatever language it uses, which i think might be more difficult but if you’re only interested in making games, it should b fine!)

html+css+javascript: these are used in tandem for making responsive websites!

python: generally considered a good language for beginners, syntax is very different than java-like languages, tends to not be used for games but some like the sims 4 and doki doki literature club are made in it / use it!

java: the big guns... this can teach you the base for a lot of key programming concepts that are crucial in game making! i also find my knowledge of java to be very translatable to pretty much any coding problems i come across :D java was used to make minecraft, simcity, and more. although it’s certainly not the top choice for game devs, its very similar to the one that most people use ^_^

c++/c#: even though these are languages with different bases, i’m grouping them together because they’re both included in unity :3 these are the guys you want to get to know well if you’re learning games! the syntax is very very similar to java, and c++ is an object oriented language just like java ! the differences between the two come down to things like garbage collection and interpreters, which just means they’re going to feel the same to write in ^_^

Here are some resources for the different languages :}

html+css+js:

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/html-css

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/html-css-js

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html

python:

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python

https://www.learnpython.org/

java:

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-java

https://www.learnjavaonline.org/

c++/c#:

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-c-plus-plus

https://www.learncpp.com/

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-c-sharp

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/learn/csharp

(you’ll notice that most of the places have the same names, codeacademy is a rlly great place to learn all of these languages ^u^)

another incredible resource is youtube! im not going to link videos because i personally haven’t used too many for learning these languages (i read books p much) but finding a tutorial that you vibe with is a really nice way to start, and there’s a lot of great free materials on there!

resources for learning unity:

https://learn.unity.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/Brackeys

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPV2KyIb3jR5QFsefuO2RlAgWEz6EvVi6

i’m not linking a lot of these because i’m just linking the ones that were the absolute most helpful ones to me, but hopefully these should at least get you started!

i wish y’all luck if you’re learning coding and game making :} it’s hard but its very rewarding! feel free to msg me here if you have any questions or just want to talk abt game stuff ^_^

#coding #unity #gamedev #d.txt #im mainly makin this for absolute beginners bc there's a chunk of people in the AF server who want to learn game making but don't know #where to start :}#so hopefully this helps !! i wish i could put more links but rn i have to actually go design stuff for my game lole

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system76 · 4 years ago

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Massimo Pascale and his Lemur Pro Explore Dark Matter Substructure with the Sunburst Arc

Unleash Your Potential Program winner Massimo Pascale is a graduate student studying astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley. Using his Lemur Pro, he’s studying early galaxies and dark matter in the sunburst arc, a distant galaxy magnified through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Read the whole interview for more details on the project and his experience with the Lemur Pro!

Give readers a rundown on what your project entails.

A galaxy cluster is a conglomeration of many galaxies that ends up weighing 10^14 solar masses. It’s incomprehensibly massive. Mass is not only able to gravitationally attract objects, but it’s also able to deflect the path of light, and the more massive it is the more it can deflect that light. This is what’s called gravitational lensing. When you have a massive galaxy cluster, and somewhere behind that galaxy cluster is another galaxy, the light from that galaxy can get deflected due to the mass of that galaxy cluster. Gravity causes the light to get stretched, sheared, and even magnified because of the way that it retains surface brightness, so these objects end up being a lot brighter than they would ever be if we didn’t have this galaxy cluster in front of it.

We’re using an arc of light called the sunburst arc. If we take our telescope and look at that galaxy cluster, we actually see that background galaxy all stretched out, and it appears as if it’s in the foreground. So truly we’re using this galaxy cluster as a natural telescope in the sky. And there’s many, many scientific impacts that we get from that.

If you want to see some of the earliest galaxies in the universe—we can say the most distant galaxies are the earliest galaxies because it takes time for that light to travel to us—this might be a good opportunity because you have this natural telescope of this massive galaxy cluster.

When we look at these beautiful arcs of light, these beautiful stretched out background galaxies in the galaxy cluster, we can actually use that as evidence to reverse engineer the mass distribution of the galaxy cluster itself. You can think of it as looking at a footprint in the sand and reconstructing what the shape and weight of that foot must’ve been to make that footprint.

Something I’m personally very interested in is how we can probe dark matter in this galaxy cluster. Visible matter interacts with light, and that’s why we can see it. The light bounces off and goes to our eyes, and that tells our eyes, “okay, there’s an object there.” Dark matter doesn’t interact with light in that way. It still does gravitationally, still deflects that light. But we can’t see what that dark matter is, and that makes it one of the most mysterious things in the universe to us.

So I’m very interested in exploring that dark matter, and specifically the substructure of that dark matter. We’re using the evidence of the sunburst arc to try and discover not only what the mass distribution of the overall galaxy cluster is, but also to get a greater insight into the dark matter itself that makes up that galaxy cluster, and dark matter as a whole.

Where did the idea to do this come from?

I’ll have to admit that it’s not my original idea entirely. I work with an advisor here at UC Berkeley where I’m attending as a graduate student, Professor Liang Dai, who previously was looking at the effects of microlensing in this galaxy cluster. He’s an expert when it comes to doing a lot of these microlensing statistics. And I had previously had work on doing cluster scale modeling on a number of previous clusters as part of my undergraduate work. So it was a really nice pairing when we had found this common interest, and that we can both use our expertise to solve the problems in this cluster, specifically the sunburst arc.

What kind of information are you drawing from?

Very generally, in astronomy we are lucky to be funded usually through various governments as well as various philanthropists to build these great telescopes. If you have a cluster or any object in the sky that you’re very interested in, there’s usually some formal channel that you can write a proposal, and you will propose your project. Luckily for us, these objects had already been observed before by Hubble Space Telescope. The big benefit with Hubble is that it doesn’t have to worry about the atmosphere messing up the observations.

Because a lot of these telescopes are publicly funded, we want to make sure this information gets to the public. Usually when you observe you get a few months where that’s only your data—that way no one else can steal your project—but then after that it goes up into an archive. So all of this data that we’re using is publicly available, and we’re able to reference other astronomers that studied it in their previous works, and see what information we’re able to glean from the data and build off of that. What’s so great about astronomy is you’re always building off of the shoulders of others, and that’s how we come to such great discoveries.

That sounds very similar to our mission here.

Yeah exactly. I see a lot of parallels between System76 and the open source community as a whole, and how we operate here in astronomy and the rest of the sciences as well.

How do you determine the age of origin based on this information?

We can estimate the general age of the object based off the object’s light profile. We do something called spectroscopy and we look at the spectrum of the object through a slit. Have you ever taken a prism and held it outside, and seen the rainbow that’s shown on the ground through the light of the sun? We do that, but with this very distant object.

Based off of the light profile, we can figure out how far away it is, because the universe is ever-expanding and things that are further away from us are expanding away faster. The object effectively gets red-shifted by the Doppler effect, so the light gets made more red. By looking at how reddened it’s become, we can figure out the distance of the object. We usually refer to it by its red-shift. You can do this with any object, really.

Based off of the distance from the lensed object, which we find through spectroscopy, and the objects in the cluster, which we also find through spectroscopy, we can then figure out what the mass distribution of the cluster must be. Those are two important variables for us to know in order to do our science.

How do you divide the work between the Lemur Pro and the department’s supercomputer?

A lot of what I do is MCMC, or Markov-chain monte carlo work, so usually I’m trying to explore some sort of parameter space. The models that I make might have anywhere from six to two dozen parameters that I’m trying to fit for at once that all represent different parts of this galaxy cluster. The parameters can be something like the orientation of a specific galaxy, things like that. This can end up being a lot of parameters, so I do a lot of shorter runs first on the Lemur Pro, which Lemur Pro is a great workhorse for, and then I ssh into a supercomputer and I use what I got from those shorter runs to do one really long run to get an accurate estimate.

We’re basically throwing darts at a massive board that represents the different combinations of parameters, where every dart lands on a specific set of parameters, and we’re testing how those parameters work via a formula which determines what the likelihood of their accuracy is. It can be up to 10-plus runs just to test out a single idea or a single new constraint. so it’s easier to do short runs where I test out different ranges. After that, I move to the supercomputer. If I’ve done my job well, it’s just one really long run where I throw lots of darts, but in a very concentrated area. It doesn’t always end up that way since sometimes I have to go back to the drawing board and repeat them.

What software are you using for this project?

Almost all of what I do is in Python, and I am using an MCMC package called Emcee that’s written by another astronomer. It’s seen great success even outside of the field of astronomy, but it’s a really great program and it’s completely open source and available to the public. Most of the other stuff is code that I’ve written myself. Every once in a while I’ll dabble in using C if I need something to be faster, but for the most part I’m programming in Python, and I’m using packages made by other astronomers.

How has your experience been with the Lemur Pro overall?

It’s been really fantastic. I knew going in that it was going to be a decently powerful machine, but I’m surprised by how powerful it is. The ability to get the job done is the highest priority, and it knocked it out of the park with that.

Mobility is really important to me. It’s so light and so small, I can really take it wherever I need to go. It’s just really easy to put in my bag until I get to the department. And being a graduate student, I’m constantly working from home, or working from the office, or sometimes I like to go work at the coffee shop, and I might have to go to a conference. These are all things you can expect that the average astronomer will be doing, especially one that’s a graduate student like me.

I’ve had to travel on a plane twice since I’ve had it, and it was actually a delight to be able to do. Usually I hate working on planes because it’s so bulky, and you open the laptop and it starts to hit the seat in front of you, you don’t know if you can really put it on the tray table, maybe your elbows start pushing up against the person next to you because the computer’s so big, but this was the most comfortable experience I’ve had working on a plane.

What will findings on dark matter and early galaxies tell us about our universe?

First let’s think about the galaxy that’s getting magnified. This is a background galaxy behind the cluster, and the mass from the cluster is stretching out its light and magnifying it so that it appears as an arc to us. Through my MCMC I figure out what the mass distribution of the galaxy cluster is. And using that, I can reconstruct the arc into what it really looked like before it was stretched and sheared out, because I know now how it was stretched and sheared.

A lot of people are interested in looking at the first galaxies. How did the first galaxies form? What were the first galaxies like? Looking at these galaxies gives us insight into the early parts of the universe, because the more distant a galaxy is, the earlier in the universe it’s from. We’re seeing back in time, effectively.

Secondarily, we don’t know much about dark matter. By getting an idea of dark matter substructure by looking at these arcs, we can get insight and test different theories of dark matter. and what its makeup might be. If you learned that 80 percent of all mass in your universe was something that you couldn’t see, and you understood nothing about, I’m sure you would want to figure out something about it too, right? It’s one of the greatest mysteries not just of our generation, but of any generation. I think it will continue to be one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

The third prong of this project is that we can also figure out more about the galaxy cluster itself. The idea of how galaxy clusters form. We can get the mass distribution of this cluster, and by comparing it to things like the brightness of the galaxies in the cluster or their speed, we can get an idea for where the cluster is in its evolution. Clusters weren’t always clusters, it’s the mass that caused them to merge together in these violent collisions to become clusters. If you know the mass distribution which we get by this gravitational lensing, as well as a couple of other things about the galaxies, you can figure out how far along the cluster is in this process.

There’s a big impact morally on humanity by doing this sort of thing, because everybody can get behind it. When everybody looks up and they see that we came up with the first image of a black hole, I think that brings everybody together, and that’s something that everybody can be very interested and want to explore.

Stay tuned for further updates from Massimo Pascale’s exploration of dark matter and the sunburst arc, as well as cool projects from our other UYPP winners!

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likeshipsonthesea · 5 years ago

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I dare you to post their get together from chowder's perspective because you're an amazing and magical writer and I'd love to read it at any level of editing

well u did dare me :P inspired heavily by this post

the thing is, chowder really, really loves his new friends.

nursey is so cool and funny and nice and he knows all this poetry that sounds so cool and he always saves chowder a piece of pie when he isn’t there and bitty’s on a baking binge, and he helps chowder write Important Emails and doesn’t even complain when chowder asks him about the exclamation point in the third paragraph for the fourth time

and dex is really smart and has a dry sense of humor and he cares so much about people even when he pretends he doesn’t, he does his laundry when chowder does and lets chowder match all the socks while he folds both of their clothes with like retail level precision and he’s great to sit and work on coding with and never gets upset when chowder interrupts him to ask him why a certain part isn’t working right and he helps bitty make him soup and pastries when he gets sick right before finals week their frog fall semester

and they’re both swawesome at hockey, they do their very best to keep the dirty puck away from his net, and they are such swawesome people and literally the only thing he doesn’t like about his new friends is how adamant they are about not liking each other

he tries, at first, to correct their complaining when they come to him. “the guy refuses to listen to anyone who isn’t himself,” nursey groans, muffled, because his face is pressed against chowder’s pillow, and chowder very kindly explains that dex is a bit stubborn sometimes but he always listens to chowder, even when he has a differing opinion, and when dex wraps himself in chowder’s duvet like a burrito and grumbles out, “he acts like he’s chill all the fucking time just to fuck with me,” chowder says that nursey acts like he’s chill even when dex isn’t there and also, why do you think he’s acting?? i think he’s just that chill

but as time goes on he realizes that neither of them believe him because they haven’t seen it for themselves and, look, he could try and orchestrate some plot where they secretly see one another being good people and miraculously change their opinion about each other and they all become a happy trio of friendos with no animosity at all, but chowder is also an ncaa athlete, a stem major, and someone who likes to party a fair amount. he’s got no time for that kind of bullshit.

and so they go through spring term and things aren’t greeattt all the time and sometimes nursey and dex get into screaming matches on the quad and chowder just has to pretend like he doesn’t know them, but most of the time it’s good, it’s fine, and he really does love his friends.

then they lose the frozen four, something happens that neither of them will tell him about, and the fuckers go and gang up on him

it seems, after all the times chowder told them about how they’re both funny and good at hockey and passionate about school and all the other things they have in common, they decide instead to bond over their mutual love of chirping their very best friend in the whole wide world.

to be honest, he’s just glad they’re getting along.

and they still show up at his room all hours of the night and day to burrow into his bed and complain about each other, but at least now chowder lives in the haus and he can eat pie as he pretends to listen to them.

and maybe he starts noticing how some of the complaints aren’t necessarily the kind of thing you’d expect, like “how are his eyes so fucking green, it’s impossible to win an argument when he’s staring at you” or “have you seen how many freckles he has after summer break?? he’s like one giant freckle, it’s unfairly distracting” and despite not really paying attention, he starts to notice when the tone of complaining changes from i hate this guy to i hate how pretty this guy is

he never brings it up. once again, he does not have time to try and get his two best friends together on top of all his other responsibilities, but he notes it down anyway. for being-a-good-friend-purposes. like when ransom sets nursey up with a girl on the volleyball team, chowder spends the whole night watching monty python movies with dex on the couch, and kindly ignores the relief in dex’s shoulders when nursey shows up to breakfast the next day and relays that the date was a bust. and when they’re doing workouts at the gym, chowder very deftly navigates nursey away from the weights when dex is using them to spare him from turning into a mumbling mess at the sight of dex’s arms

and maybe he notices when they start becoming more self aware and the complaining-about-appearance becomes complaining-about-good-things, like nursey saying, in the middle of a rant, “you know he’s fixed betsy like fifteen times in the past two weeks? how the fuck can you fix an oven fifteen different ways? that’s insane” or when dex pauses his recount of nursey’s ridiculous chill behavior to mention, “he’s been editing ransom’s thesis because he knows how much ransom stresses over grammar and he’s like, really good at it”

and it’s probably at this point that chowder breaks the bro code and tells farmer all about his dumb friends and their dumb mutual infatuation, because lbr here the boy cannot handle all this pining on his own. “they’re in love with each other but they think it’s hate”

“i know, i know” farmer soothes, running her fingers through his hair

“why are boys so dumb” chowder laments

farmer, who is currently wearing her best bra and pantie set under her clothes, sighs deeply. “i don’t know,” she says, equally forlorn.

then, well, then the dib flip happens and nursey and dex are literally shoved together and either one or both of them -- chowder has an inkling that it’s dex, but he’s not sure -- seems to freak out and neither of them comes to his room to complain for the rest of the term.

and then chowder has the greatest summer of his life, his former captain wins the stanley cup, and bitty and jack get to kiss on center ice, and chowder gets to attend a training camp with the falcs and jack and he’s on the ice with twenty stanley cup champions and chowder doesn’t come down from this high until he shows up at the haus and finds out that something has gone horribly wrong.

despite the frequent texts, calls, and facetimes, dex and nursey didn’t seem to have as great summers as they’d made it appear. they don’t really tell him directly -- that’s another thing they have in common, never talking about their emotions plainly -- but from what chowder can glean from what they do tell him, is that dex’s family seemed to take jack and bitty’s coming out as evidence towards dex’s queerness and they were dealing with it... less than great, and nursey’s parents had a fight and had since been jettisoning around the world for “work” in an attempt to avoid one another and, as a result, nursey

the living together thing goes.. not swawesome. chowder is obviously disappointed that he no longer has his two best friends just a bathroom away, but after dex moves into the basement, both nursey and dex start coming back to his room for complain sessions again and it’s -- chowder wants to say it’s a good sign.

it starts out mostly complaint complaining, the familiar stuff from their frog year, but slowly but surely as the year goes on the old “his fucking hair” and “he literally helped a little old lady carry her groceries to her car” come back into play and chowder lets go of some stress he hadn’t realized he’d been holding

“they’re going to make me go gray before i’ve even hit 25,” chowder says, another night when he’s complaining to farmer, and farmer says, “you’d look sexy as a silver fox,” and, well. the rest of the night is spent very much not complaining

senior year, they’ve got an ncaa championship under their belt and dex is the captain. he stops coming to chowder’s dorm, probably out of some sense of loyalty to his team that chowder finds both ridiculous and sweet. nursey seems to have no qualms complaining about his captain, on the other hand, but soon even the thin veneer of complaining he’d covered all his pining with has washed away.

“he’s so good with the baby frogs,” and “never tell this to another living soul, but his cherry pie is even better than bitty’s,” and, one memorable night, “do you think i’m in love with dex?”

it’s after sunset, the world dark outside chowder’s window but he’s not exactly sure of the time, and nursey’s lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling and he looks -- chill. he doesn’t always look chill anymore -- looking back, chowder can admit that maybe the ever-present chill from their frog year had been more a show than anything else -- so this chill means something important, chowder thinks.

chowder thinks, smiling a little, that nursey is finally ready.

“of fucking course i think you’re in love with dex,” chowder bursts out with the frustration that’s a by-product of having patience for three and a half fucking years. “you’ve come into my room at all hours of the day since we were freshmen to complain about how pretty his freckles are, you’ve been in love with the dude for years, and i’ve had to sit here and deal with all of it.”

nursey’s staring at him with a slightly open mouthed, wide-eyed expression.

chowder gathers his poise and then says, very calmly, “yes.”

nursey nods, once or twice slowly and then picking up speed. “wow. okay.”

“i’ve been holding that in for a while.”

“i could tell.”

“hmm.”

a stupid, hopeful, optimistic part of chowder thought that would be the end of it. nursey realized he’s in love with dex, he’d tell dex, and they’d be all stupid and gross and finally chowder would get them back for years of fines.

but nothing seems to change. nursey still comes in and ostensibly complains while pining and dex still doesn’t, instead apparently baking away his frustration (and it’s not like chowder’s going to complain about that) and really, chowder should’ve known these two idiots would need more than a few sentences to get over their combined stupidity

it comes to a head a week before graduation. never let it be said that chowder’s friends are anything less than Dramatic Fuckers

he’s helping dex pack away everything he won’t need in the next few days so when he and nursey leave for new york after graduation there won’t be much to do. he finds a random green beanie in a drawer with dex’s workout clothes and says, “hey, where should i put this?” and dex gets the most ridiculous sappy look on his face.

he hasn’t technically been chowder’s captain since the season ended with a back to back ncaa championship a month ago, and it’s not like dex has any authority over him after how many times he bugged chowder about nursey’s nose, so it’s without hesitation and with purely dex’s best interests at heart that chowder says, “you know you’re in love with him, right?”

dex surprises him then by saying, “yeah.”

a vein in chowder’s neck nearly pops. “then why the fuck have i been listening to nursey pine about your eyelashes for months.”

dex’s eyes widen and, when he gets over the surprise elation whatever, he stumbles over some stupid explanation that captains shouldn’t date their players and it wasn’t the right time and all this other absolute crap, and so chowder does the most meddling he’s ever allowed himself to do and tells dex that he will finish the packing as long as he goes and finds nursey right this fucking second

when nursey and dex tell the story to him and farmer later -- dex blushing and nursey embellishing with his arm curled around dex’s shoulders, pulling him close -- chowder will laugh and tease them and play his part as their very best friend in the whole wide world.

but that night, when he’s gross and sweaty from packing up dex’s entire fucking room and he can’t even sleep in his own goddamned bed because his friends are being exceptionally loud just one bathroom away, he shows up on farmer’s doorstep and says, with all the sincerity in the world, “i hate my friends”

#nurseydex #dexnursey #check please #The Frogs #chowder #chris chow #dex #william poindexter #derek nurse #nursey #my writing #sort of fic #ficlet #ramble fic #i tried to balance it between being a nurseydex fic #and being from c's perspective #idk i'm not usually good at that lol #but i am adamant that they all love each other so much okay #bffs for life!!!

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

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Survey #467

“oh, mary, mary, ain’t this fun? / mary, mary, i’ve got a gun”

If the last person you kissed asked you to marry them, what would you do? Pray to god it wasn't in public and tell him it's waaaay too soon for that one. Does your favorite uncle have any children? Yeah, a son and daughter. Name all the members (first, middle and last names) from your favorite band. Ha, it's funny how once upon a time, I could do this. All I've got now is John Michael Osbourne. Have you ever heard a young child swear? Maybe? Have you ever seen someone get a piercing/tattoo?: Yes to both. Has a taste of something ever made you smile? Boy meet me at The Cheesecake Factory and see what my face does lmaooo As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a paleontologist sooo badly. I wanted to discover new dinosaurs, put a shitload of work into unearthing fossils and being so proud to see the final results... Even now as an adult, if I could handle the heat, traveling, and hardcore school, I'd still love to do that. Would you cuss the person you hate the most out to their face? No. My hatred for her is unjustified and I'd rather just not say anything to her. Have you ever spent more than two weeks in a wheelchair? No. Where do you see your closest friend in ten years? As one of the strongest people around. I imagine her with a job in medical coding, while also pursuing the hobbies of ball python breeding and writing. I'm sure she'll have loads of pets to love, too! Do you like Florence + The Machine? I've never listened to them. Did you watch the presidential debates? No. Do you ever watch Dr. Phil? No. Are you typically unattracted to people outside of your race? No; I can be attracted to any race. Have you ever ridden any animal other than a horse? No. Do you brush your hair when it’s wet? Yes. Do you eat the crusts of your bread? Yeah, I always have. Have you ever flown a kite? Yeah! At my childhood home, there was a tobacco field directly across the street, and when they weren't in season so the field was flat, Dad would help us with getting kites set up and in the air. Those are good memories. How are you for money? I don't make any money. Mom is struggling. Do you think you are more intelligent than the average person? Ha, no. Do you ever think about why we are here? Does it matter? We're here, so make the most of it. Do you like cherries? I fucking hate cherries. Name a celebrity that you admire that nobody would expect you to: Jeffree Star, probs. Can you use a yoyo? Not well, but yeah. Do you think Jenna Marbles’ videos are funny? I've actually never watched her. Do you like folk music? NOOOOOOOOO Ever had a crush on somebody of the same sex? Yes. Do you know any lesbians? Yep. Favourite member of your favourite band: I'm unfamiliar with all but Ozzy himself. And Ozzy is rad. Who’s your favourite female rapper? I don't have one. When you were younger, were you ever in a relationship with someone you now realize was way too old for you? No. Have you ever had a seizure? No. I sometimes have very, very quick spasms when I'm falling asleep that feel like what I assume a seizure would, but they barely last a second. They seriously jerk me awake, though, and are very startling. What’s the oldest man-made object you own? I dunno. Is there anything you feel like you need a break from? Not really, no. What do you hate to hear people joke about? I will actually and remorselessly deck you in the jaw if you make a joke about rape. There are other things that are absolutely forbidden joking matters for me, too. What’s the largest animal you’ve seen in the wild? Hmmm... Nothing that big, really. Maybe a whitetail deer buck? Do any of your friends or family members have strange occupations? Not to my knowledge. Have you ever been in weather so severe that you feared for your safety? Oh yeah. We've had some savage thunderstorms. What political issues are the most important to you personally? LGBTQ+ rights and just equality in general, the pro-choice movement, environmental conservation, gun control, the abolishment of poverty and homelessness... There is honestly a lot. I could keep going. Do you know anyone who doesn’t know how to cook even just simple recipes? ... Me. :x Especially now that I'm in a relationship, I really want to make a greater effort to learn. I want to prove to him I give a damn about the success of our relationship and that I'm capable of being an adult that can take part in general adult responsibilities. ^What’s stopping them from learning this basic life skill? Laziness. Forgetfulness. The fear of getting burned. What small thing makes you automatically distrust someone? I can pick up on sketchy body language from a mile away. I'm too paranoid not to. Of all the states/provinces in your country, which one is your favorite? At least from photographs I've seen, Utah appears BEAUTIFUL. That whole region of the U.S. in general. Are there any obscure foods you’ve eaten that most people have never tried? That's very unlikely. I'm far from explorative with food. When you travel to other countries, do you always try the local cuisine? I've never been outside the U.S. I would probably do that, though. I'd really want to experience the culture as thoroughly as I could. What did you do for your 19th birthday? Hell if I remember. What’s the kindest thing a total stranger has done for you? I remember as a young kid, my parents, two sisters, and I were getting food at McDonald's, and whoever was in front of us paid for our meals. Such a sweet gesture for a larger family. Have you ever used a meal kit delivery service? No, but there actually is one that I can't recall the name of that I'd like to try when I cook myself, especially getting started learning, but yeah, subscription fees. You see a lot of YouTubers get sponsored by them, if that rings a bell. Do you have any psychological issues rooted in events from your childhood? Possibly my fear of men, with my dad having been an alcoholic that had a 50/50 chance of being very angry when drunk. How organized are the files on your computer? Pretty organized, I'd say. I put stuff into folders. Would you date someone with braces? Yes? Do you ever rehearse conversations before you have them? Only always. Do you get angry at yourself or at others more often? Myself, for sure. When taking a cab, do you talk to the driver? I've never even taken a cab. Who or what greets you at the door every time you come home? Nobody, really. My cat is occasionally in the living room to see who's home, but not always because he's a lazy cat, ha ha. Do you ever chat about your favourite video games with your friends? Not really, no. I wish. Have you ever supported anyone’s Kickstarter? If so, what was it? No, bc I'm poor. Are you currently studying a language? If so, which one? No. Ever had a friend online for a long time without seeing a photo of them? Yeah. Do you carry pepper spray? No, but I want some 'cuz I'm paranoid as hell. Are you waiting on anything right now? No. Have you ever been described as shy? Is it true? Oh, always. It's absolutely true. Name something you’re a complete sucker for? Baby animals, to name one thing. Do you remember when you first went on the internet? Nope. What is one way someone could completely put you off on a first date? Arrogance/over-confidence. What about a way someone could make you like them more on a first date? Make me genuinely laugh a lot, to name one way. Are you in love right now? Not yet. I love him with our decade of history, but I need more experience as a couple before I've got the confidence to say that. Do you wanna get married anytime soon? It wouldn't be smart to. I want to be in a strong relationship for quite a few years before I want that. Have you ever kissed someone in a band? No. Has someone ever made you a Build-A-Bear? No but oh my fucking god I wish!!!!!! Did your mom or dad ever put soap in your mouth? No, but Mom would threaten to. What was the last fruit you ate? Well, I had strawberry yogurt earlier today. Who was the last person to make you laugh? Girt. He is very, very good at that. Have you ever dated someone with more piercings than you? No. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Hell yeah man. Is there one night of your life you wish had never happened? I wish it hadn't happened the way it did. Do you have a close relationship with your sibling(s)? No. What was the last thing that you shared? Some watermelon Sour Patch Kids with my mom. Do you think people talk behind your back? You couldn't get me to believe my mom doesn't at least sometimes to my sisters even if you tried your absolute damnedest. In real life do you laugh like ‘haha,’ 'hehe’ or something else? It depends on what I'm laughing at/at what intensity. Do you have any unusual skills? Nah. Who’s your favourite person? I don't have a sole favorite person. I love many people in different ways for varying reasons. Are there any chores you actually enjoy doing? No. When did you last have an "Oh, I get it now!" moment? Watching Attack on Titan yesterday w/ Girt. Have your parents ever suspected something untrue about you? My mom HAD to have suspected I was doing something FAR worse than innocent meerkat RP to have borderline fucking traumatized me invading my privacy and forcing shit out of me regarding what I was always doing on the computer so secretively. Like I get it, she was a concerned mother, but I was a fucking WRECK because I found it so embarrassing. It was insulting that she didn't trust her well-behaved daughter. What do you think about video games? They're great for both the creators and consumers. They're wonderful expressions of creativity, and so much fun to experience as a player, delving into a new world and getting engrossed in the story. I could go onnnn and onnnnn about what video games mean to me. I've gone my whole life as a loyal gamer. Are there any forms of Art you personally find pointless? I really, really don't get a lot of abstract art that's worth fucking thousands, BUT, I absolutely disagree that they are without purpose. The artist created what they did for SOME reason. As a distraction, a method of expressing emotion, to convey an idea... Are you tired right now? I have been SO ridiculously tired today. Like it's unreal. I've taken I wanna say three naps and I'm still sleepy. What’s something you do a lot? Drink something. I'm not talking about alcohol; just in general, I ALWAYS need some kind of drink by me, and I go through drinks pretty quickly. Are you currently on any other websites? Yeah, I'm watching YouTube. Are you good at using Photoshop? I'm decent, I guess. Have you ever been told you naturally tilt your head a certain way? Yes, actually, at least by my mom, and she's right. My head tends to tilt VERY slightly to the right, and I can tell by how easy it is to bend my head that way as opposed to left. I'll feel a biiiit more strain.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''run rabbit run'' by rob zombie

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years ago

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WORK ETHIC AND SHORTCOMINGS

Like Jane Austen, Lisp looks hard. It gets you Windows. They'd be rewarded later. The amount he put in was small compared to the last, even enlightened despotism can probably only get you part way toward being a great economic power. When we were working on our own startup, back in the place I'd just left. Since most powerful people operate on the manager's schedule, they're in a position where failure will be public and humiliating. The reason the expected value is so high is web services. He really doesn't know. But even if the founder's friends were all wrong and the company is still just an idea.

Certainly not the authors. This probably makes them less productive, because they rely heavily on first impressions. It may take a while, but as Microsoft shows, revenue is a lagging indicator in the technology business. A lot of the money in the hope of future work if the startup succeeds. Prices will fall even further once writers realize they don't need publishers. There's nothing like living abroad to teach you that. I was so ignorant that learning almost anything meant learning new things. So if a piece of software doesn't teach you anything, because the less smart people writing the actual applications wouldn't be doing low-level stuff like allocating memory. Raising VC scale investments is thus a huge time sink—more work, probably, than the men running our government, who for all their talk of patriotism remind me more of Richelieu or Mazarin than Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. A year after the founding of Apple, Steve Wozniak still hadn't quit HP. And one guy is more than just that some startup might have a problem firing someone they needed to.

But America has no monopoly on this. So if you ask, could you make something good you can generate ten times as much. But things don't always go smoothly in startups. Publishers of all types, from news to music, are unhappy that consumers won't pay for content? Teenagers. But as well as a cost of breaking up a project. Computers are responsible for most of the 1970s. In our country, college entrance exams determine 70 to 80 percent of a person's future. The Series A round. It's not because they're irresponsible that they work in long binges during which they blow off all other obligations, plunge straight into programming instead of writing specs first, and rewrite code that already works. In 1977 there was no reason you couldn't have done that in the era of physical media. Like angels, VCs prefer to invest in it, I'd give him the stock for $10, just to be exacting.

Some say Europeans are less energetic, but I don't believe it. Yes and no. Countries worried about their competitiveness are right to be concerned about the number of Indians in the current Silicon Valley are all too aware of the shortcomings of the INS, but there's nothing to distract you. Because seed firms are companies rather than individual people, reaching them is easier than reaching angels. When you manipulate a program in your head. Good ideas and valuable ideas are very close to good ideas, especially in technology. I doubt it would be misleading even to call them centers. You need to for your own sake.

A song on an LP is physically stamped into the plastic. There are millions of small businesses in America, but only a few decades speak a single language. A lot of the reason is the horribleness of cable clients, also known as TVs. Distractions are bad for many types of work, like designing software. But they're wrong. And so in starting a startup. Show any hacker a lock and his first thought is how to pick it. He completely rewrites the program several times; that wouldn't be justifiable for an official project, but this is an abuse that should be resisted. It is a truth universally acknowledged?

Even when you're actively working on a project written in Python. Since there's a fixed cost each time you start working on something hard. I'm an agent of the change than most other people. That worked as long as they still have to show up for work every day, because at night no one could interrupt me. Larry and Sergey apparently felt this way too at first. The other reason you need to impress are fairly tolerant. In the more common case, where founders and investors are equally represented and the deciding vote is cast by neutral outside directors, all the stock they get is newly issued and all the previous shareholders' percentage ownership is diluted by a sixth.

Thanks to Robert Morris, and Jessica Livingston for sparking my interest in this topic.

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playboyi · 4 years ago

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1.0 Of Sarcasm

2010

Pepper Potts stood outside of the ONE and only Playboy Tony Stark's Malibu Mansion on the phone.

"Hi, Mr. Cruise, is it ok if I come to pick up Thomas for a little bit?"

"Sure, need him to save the world or something?" He joked.

Pepper nervously laughed. "Something like that."

She could hear a faint voice in the background asking if that was Pepper on the other end. "I'm close to Stark's house if you want me to drop him off."

Pepper cleared her throat and started pacing. "Yeah, that sounds good"

"Alright, I'll see you there."

"Bye." Pepper hung up the phone putting it back in her pocket shaking off her nervousness.

This can't be too dangerous? He can't get hurt ooh if he got hurt I would kill Tony. She thought to herself as the Cruises pulled up in front of the billionaire's house.

"Hi, Thomas." She smiled at the thirteen-year-old who got out of the car with his backpack that he took everywhere.

"Mr. Cruise." she nodded at the older man in the driver's seat.

"Miss Potts, good to see you." He smiled kindly.

"You too." She smiled back.

"Well, kid..I'll see you later." He waved to his son.

Thomas fixed his backpack straps on his shoulders. "Bye."

Thomas turned to Pepper hugging her, she hugged back as her heart almost exploded her happiness to see the young boy.

He pulled away from the hug to look up at her. "What is it now? The suit? Jarvis? The arc reactor? The cars?" He ranted with worry all over his face.

"Whoa slow down, it's the company." She smiled at his cute rambling.

"Oh..ok." He blushed embarrassed by his rambling.

"We need to go to the office to hack Obadiah's computer to see what he's up to." She motioned him to follow her as they walked to one of Tony's many cars.

"I'm guessing I'm hacking?" He asked her with his blue eyes filled with happiness, he loved to hack it was his second favorite thing to do, the first is hanging out with Pepper of course.

Thomas got in the backseat as Pepper got in the driver's seat. Thomas quickly put on his seatbelt.

"Yep." Pepper answered putting the keys in the engine.

He started laughing then it was uncontrollable laughing then it was a mad man laughing.

"What is it?" Pepper asked amused looking in the rearview mirror.

"Pep said yep." He laughed out.

She started to laugh at his laughter and then the joke. "Oh my god your too pure."

–·–·–·–·–·–·–·–·–·–

They pulled up to the building Pepper getting out of the car. "Ok, come Tommy." Pepper rushed as the thirteen year-old barely even made it out of the car.

"I'm coming," He spoke tripping over his untied shoelace almost falling on his face.

Thomas ran in front of Pepper opening the door for her. "Thank you, Sir," Pepper told him with a smile.

Thomas wiped his nose with his sleeve. "I don't do what Tony does."

She looked at him confused. "What does Tony do?" She asked as they make their way up the stairs.

"He says he opens the door for a girl so he can look at her butt."

Pepper rolled her eyes at Tony's inappropriate doings and the fact he told a kid this. "Of course he does."

"He told him I should do it, but I told him it's not respectful and that he should stop doing it." He smiled at her.

"Good job." She ruffled his hair.

They entered Obadiah's office and Thomas sat in the chair and started doing what he does best.

"Python27>python. exe test1.pyResponse Code: 403 <html> <head><title>403 Forbidden</h1>< center><HR><center>nginx</center></body></html." He mummbled as he hacked the compter for the password.

Pepper just looked at him shocked at what just came out of his mouth.

Thomas clicked on a file named Confidential Sector_004. It was full of shipping tickets of the Jericho missile.

The next file was Top _ Secret Sector _ 016, And It was full of blueprints of an iron suit.

"Sector 16? What are you up to, Obadiah?" Pepper questioned leaning down to get a better look.

Thomas opened another file Ultra _ Secret Sector _ 0XX.

"You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark. As you can see, Obadiah Stane..." A man in a Video told the camera the other men had guns pointed at a man with a bag on his head.

"Oh, my God," Pepper whispered.

"...your deception and lies will cost you dearly. The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up." A man beside the man with a bag on his head removed the bag revealing it to be Tony Stark.

"Holy shit," Thomas mumbled, he quickly coped the files on to a drive.

Pepper glared at him and flicked the back of his head.

"So, what are we going to do about this? I know what you're going through, Pepper. Tony." Obadiah spoke standing by the door.

He walked over to a small table that had alcohol on it, he poured himself and Pepper a drink. Thomas moved a newspaper over the drive so he couldn't see it.

Thomas clicked the screen saver button as he made his way over to them.

Obadiah smelled the bottle of what it looks like whisky. "He always gets the good stuff, doesn't he?"

"I was so happy when he came home. It was like we got him back from the dead. Now I realize, well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself in that cave. Breaks my heart." He sat on the desk looking at Pepper. Thomas took a piece of taffy off the desk that was kept here for when he visited.

"Well, he's a complicated person." Pepper lightly smiled.

Obadiah took a drink from his glass as Pepper continues. "He's been through a lot. I think he'll be all right.

"You are a very rare woman. Tony doesn't know how lucky he is."

Thomas raised his eyebrows at what Obadiah said.

'What a freaking creep' Thomas thought to himself.

"Thank you. Thanks. I'd better get back there." Thomas got out of the chair as Pepper followed him.

Thomas grabbed the paper and the drive. "Um, next time I'll ask before going into your office I forgot my password on a game and I remembered that I had it on your computer. And I got a piece of candy," Thomas lied cooly.

"It's ok, tell your dad I said hi." Obadiah smiled, he grabbed a piece of candy throwing it over to Thomas who handed it to Pepper to put in his backpack along with the drive.

"Is that today's paper?" Obadiah asked Thomas who was still holding it.

"Yes, sir." Thomas gulped slightly before nodding at the older man.

"Do you mind?"

Thomas walked toward him. "Not at all, I probably shouldn't be reading it anyway."

"Probably not till you older, plus I like the puzzle." Obadiah smiled.

"Of course." Thomas handed him the paper and gave him a high five.

"Take care," Obadiah told Pepper.

They walked down the stairs at a fast pace almost to fast for poor Thomas.

"Ms. Potts? We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?" Mr. Coulson asked as they finished the last stair.

"Nope, right now. Come with me."

"Right now?" Coulson asked shocked due to there other times she turned him down.

Pepper had a grip on Thomas's backpack. "We're going to have it right now. Yeah, walk with us."

"Okay."

"I'm going to give you the meeting of your life. Your office." She said.

Coulson looked down at Thomas who looked like he was about to have a panic attack.

"You ok kid?" He asked.

"Yep, I'm fine, perfect, terrific, amazingly wonderful, just fine." He huffed out.

"Thomas, I'm so sorry ok when this is over I'll buy you ice cream." She told the young boy who was panicking.

"Ice cream, ok," Thomas mumbled himself trying to calm down.

"Thomas as in Thomas Cruise?" Coulson asked the trying not to panic herself, Pepper.

"Yes." She answered.

They reached the car and she pulled out her phone calling Tony multiple times but he didn't pick up. "Tommy I need you to call Rhodey and tell him what's going on. ok?"

"Ok." She handed the boy her phone as she drove there way into traffic explaining the situation to Coulson.

"What do you mean, he paid to have Tony killed? Tom, slow down. Why would Obadiah... Okay, where's Tony now?"

"I don't know. Pepper called him he's not answering his phone. She wants you to go over there and make sure everything's okay."

Rhodey sighed at all this information. "Ok pal."

"Rhodey, I-I'm kinda scared," Thomas confessed, he didn't really wanna say that to a freaking Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Air Force but he felt like he should.

"I know you are buddy just hang on there. ok?"

"Alright Thank you, Rhodey." He hiccupped.

"No problem bye."

He handed the phone back to Pepper who looked at him confused. "What did he say?"

"Uhh, he'll go check on him." He grabbed the candy out of his backpack that Obadiah tossed him.

They walked there from the large automatic doors to the metal door.

"Section 16. Section 16. There it is." Pepper pointed.

She swiped the card on the scanner then swiped it again."My key's not working. It's not opening the door."

Coulson put out his hand and one of his guys gave him a small device, he put it on the door.

"Oh, wow! What's that? It's, like, a little device. It's, like, a thing that's going to pick the lock?" Pepper questioned.

"You might want to take a few steps back," Coulson warned her.

They all stood in badass poses as Thomas and Pepper covered their ears. There was a loud bang the door bolts busted off.

"Wow, can I have one of those?" Thomas asked, both Coulson and Pepper shook there heads no.

They all walked down the stairs Coulson and his friends had their guns drawn Coulson turned around nodding to them, he opened the door raising his gun, Pepper slightly gulped as she grabbed Thomas's hand.

They walked on to the platform in the lab, next to the platform was an iron suit like Tony's.

"Looks like you were right. He was building a suit." Coulson spoke staring at the suit gun still drawn.

Thomas scoffed. "I thought it would be bigger.”

They all looked at him amused before looking back at the suit. Thomas heard something sparking, he turned around letting go of Pepper's hand.

He saw broken wires sparking he walked closer to them. Coulson and men jumped over the railing on the platform, Pepper just walked down the stairs.

#natasha romonova #spiderman #captain america #tony stark #iron man

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shilkaren · 4 years ago

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How Do I Start My Data Science Career?

I would say that my data science learning path was fairly traditional. I did my undergrad in economics and have master’s degrees in global commerce and computer science (concentration in machine learning and artificial intelligence). I learned my business acumen from my coursework during my commerce degree and picked up most of the technical elements from my master’s in CS. I had a data science internship, and I was on my way. Looking back, there was nothing wrong with my path, but knowing what I do now, what would I change about my learning journey? This question is particularly relevant for people that are new to the field. Many things have changed since I started. Positions are more competitive and there are far more learning options. I would hope that my experience could help others learn data science faster, more completely, and give them better job opportunities.

I will caveat this article by saying that learning is a little bit different for everyone. My word is not gospel, and there is a good chance that you will find something that works a little bit better for you. Still, I hope this is a good foundation from which to build off. I hope it instills in you the big picture priorities that are relevant when learning this field. This article focuses more on how to learn than on where to learn (courses, boot camps, degrees, etc.). I recommend these two articles for specific courses and online resources for learning the field.

If I had to start learning Data Science again, how would I do it? (Santiago Viquez Segura)

My Self-Created Artificial Intelligence Masters Degree (Daniel Bourke)

For Those Who Would Prefer The Video Version:

Lesson 1: Break it down

When I first started learning data science I was overwhelmed with the size of the field. I had to learn programming languages and concepts from statistics, linear algebra, calculus, etc. When I was confronted with this many options, I didn’t know where to start. Fortunately for me, I had coursework to guide my studies. The degrees that I did broke down many of the concepts into smaller chunks (classes) so they were digestible. While this worked for me, I find that schools have a one-size-fits-all approach to this. They also include many extraneous classes that you don’t actually need. If I could go back, I could definitely break my data science learning journey into chunks better suited for me. Before diving into data science, it makes sense to understand the components that are used in the field. Rather than breaking things into “courses”, you can make data science into even smaller and more digestible chunks. I generally break data science into programming and math. Programming — familiarity with Python and/or R

Variables

Loops

Functions

Objects

Packages (pandas, NumPy, matplotlib, sklearn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.)

Math Statistics

Probability theory

Regression (linear, multiple linear, ridge, lasso, random forest, SVM, etc.)

Classification (naive Bayes, knn, decision tree, random forest, SVM, etc.)

Clustering (k means, hierarchical)

Linear Algebra Calculus By breaking data science down into its components, you transform it from being an abstract concept into concrete steps.

Lesson 2: Start somewhere

When I was starting out, I was obsessed with learning things in the “correct” sequence. After entering the field, I found that many data scientists learned their skills in drastically different orders. I met Ph.D.’s that had studied math first, and only learned the programming concepts after taking a Bootcamp. I also met software engineers that were incredible programmers and learned math later through self-study and application.I now realize that it is most important to start somewhere, preferably with a topic you are interested in. I found that learning is additive. If you learn one thing, you are not forgoing learning another concept. If I had to go back, I would start with the concepts that were most interesting for me at the time. Once you learn a single concept, you can build on that knowledge to understand others. For example, if you learn a simple linear regression, multiple linear regression is a fairly easy step. Still, I probably wouldn’t jump right in and start with deep learning. It helps to start small and simple and build on that foundation.

Lesson 3: Build Minimum Viable Knowledge (MVK)

Over time, I’ve had a change of opinion about how much foundational knowledge you need. After experiencing many different types of learning myself, I believe that learning by doing real-world projects is the most effective way to grasp a field. I think that you should understand just enough of these concepts to be able to start exploring your own projects. This is where minimum viable knowledge comes into play. You should start by learning just enough to be able to learn through doing. This stage is fairly hard to identify. Generally, you will feel like you aren’t ready when you first get here. This is a good thing though, it means that you are pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. You can reach this stage fairly easily. I think you can get to this level of knowledge with every introductory online course, and I generally recommend the micro-courses at kaggle.com. To get to this step, all you really need to understand is the basics of python or R and have a familiarity with the packages used. You can start learning math later by applying some of the algorithms to real-world data.

Lesson 4: Get your hands dirty

With your basic knowledge, I recommend getting into projects as quickly as possible. Again, this sounds scary, but a project is all about how you define it. At the early stages, a project could be something as simple as experimenting with a for a loop. As you progress, you can graduate to projects using data on Kaggle, and eventually using data that you have collected. I am a HUGE believer that the best way to learn data science is to do data science. I think that the theory is VERY important, but no one says that you have to understand it all before you start applying it. The theory is something you can go back to after you have a functional understanding of the algorithms. For me, real-world examples were always what made things click. If you start with the real-world examples through projects, I think things have a far higher chance of things “clicking” when you start learning the theory. Projects also have the power to make data science smaller. One of the biggest challenges I see for new learners is that the field of data science can be overwhelming. Confining the things you are learning to the size of a small project allows you to break things down even further than you did in Lesson 1. Projects offer one additional benefit. They give you immediate feedback on where you need to improve. If you are working on a project and you run into a roadblock about what package, algorithm, or visual to use, you now know that you should probably study that area of the field further.

Lesson 5: Learn from other people’s code

While doing your own projects is great, sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. I highly recommend going through the code of more experienced data scientists to get ideas about what to learn next and to better understand logic or syntax. On Kaggle and GitHub there are thousands (maybe millions) of kernels where people have shared the code that they used to analyze datasets. Going through these is a great way to complement your projects. I recommend making a list of the packages, algorithms, and visuals that you see being used. You should go to the documentation for the packages and expand your knowledge there. They almost always have examples in the docs for how they should be used. Again, this list can be used to help you think of new project ideas and experiments.

Lesson 6: Build algorithms from scratch

This is a rite of passage for most data scientists. After you have applied an algorithm and understand how it works in practice, I recommend trying to code it from scratch. This helps you to better understand the underlying math and other mechanisms that make it work. When doing this, you will undoubtedly have to learn the theory behind it as well. I personally think that learning in this direction is far more intuitive than trying to master the theory and then apply it. This is the approach that fastai has taken with their free MOOC. I highly recommend it if you are interested in deep learning. For this, I generally recommend starting with linear regression. This will help you to better understand gradient descent, which is an extremely important concept to build on. As you advance your data science career further, I think theory becomes increasingly important. You bring value by matching the correct algorithm to the problem. The theory associated with the algorithm greatly facilitates this process.

Lesson 7: Never stop learning

The beauty of the data science journey is that it never ends. You will need to keep learning to stay on top of new packages and advancements in the field. I recommend doing this through (you guessed it) more projects. I also recommend continuing with the code review and reading new research that is published. This is more of a mindset recommendation than anything practical. If you think that there is a pinnacle, you are in for a surprise!

Insideaiml is one of the best platforms where you can learn Python, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & showcase your knowledge to the outside world.

#ai #artificial intelligence #datascience #data scientist

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danetobelieve · 5 years ago

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Out Of Ctrl || Shiloh and Winston

Winston hadn’t taught anyone about coding in several years. They loved teaching other people, explaining things to them and helping them understand what they could do with this newfound knowledge was fascinating to them. The prospects of what could come from something like that were beyond interesting and when they had agreed that they were going to teach Shiloh, they hadn’t really been joking. So when they had agreed to do this, Winston had immediately begun working on what they could show Shiloh. They had decided that they were going to teach them some basics within Python, it was a nice good language to start with and it would give their new friend the right sort of introduction that they would’ve wanted. They had asked Shiloh to meet them within the computer labs. It had all of the suites that they would need and it had all of the resources. When Shiloh arrived outside of the door, they ran over to it and pulled it open, pulling their glasses up their nose and grinning at them. For once they felt really confident, this was where they were really in their element. “Hey, Shiloh right?” they said, grinning widely.

Shiloh was interested in learning something new and coding had interested her at one point. However, she felt she didn’t have an opportunity to fully explore it so she never tried to. So when Winston suggested helping her, she was excited but wasn’t sure exactly if they had meant it. But once they made plans to do it, she was actually looking forward to it. It was gonna be nice, she knew it. Even if she struggled, she was going to enjoy spending time learning something at her own pace and not dealing with the rest of the confusing things she’d encountered some time ago. With a smile, she entered the building and headed to the computer labs; it had been a while since she came into the university building, but being on their alumni association, she still had her access. She gave a small wave through the door, entering when Winston opened it for her. “Yeah, that’s me. Winston? Hey.” She greeted him as she came inside. “I wasn’t really sure if I was supposed to bring anything but I brought a notebook.” Surely, she’d have to write some things down. Either way, she had it just in case it became necessary.

Nodding, Winston held the door open for them and followed them inside. It was not late in the day but the room would’ve seem dim if not for the fluorescent lights that flickered overhead. Not Winston’s favourite part of the room, sometimes they worked in the dark, but it seemed rude to do so on their first time meeting someone, not to say creepy if nothing else. “Nice to meet you,” they said with a bright smile and a quick nod, “you can definitely write notes if you think it will help you, you could even like type them up and then email them to yourself later,” they led them over to where they’d been sat before. “You can use one of these if you want, cause, it’s probably easier to just show you and get you going straight away rather then like … uh I guess like have you watch?” They shrugged. “Honestly, whatever works best we can do, but I learn better by getting involved so I thought you might too.” They didn’t have a stop button to their mouth sometimes and Winston honestly regretted it.

“Oh, good point.” Maybe typing them out would help Shiloh better than writing them down. She turned her attention back to the computers, opting for one of the ones close to her. “We can do both? You can show me and I can try and do it myself. I do learn better getting involved though, I know that much.” She chuckled as she set her notebook aside, pushing her chair aside so she could sit at an angle and half face Winston and her computer. It didn’t take that many years of school for her to figure out what was the best method for her to learn. Yet, it definitely wasn’t figured out soon enough where she didn’t know what it was like to struggle. “So where should we start first?”

“Honestly, whatever is going to help you to learn this stuff the best is what you should go with,” Winston replied with a shrug, “I am happy to help however, but we can get stuck in and see if we want to make any adjustments. Please feel free to stop me and ask me anything if you need to, I can also go slowly or go back over anything that is confusing but I’m sure you’ll get it very quickly.” Winston opened up the coding suite and looked at the blank black screen with a single flashing white dot on it. “So this is just your coding suite, coding is super easy, all you’ve got to remember is that the computer is clever but incredibly stubborn, it will only do what you tell it to do, so if it is not doing what you want then that’s usually because you’re not telling it to do what you want.” They paused before typing out a quick series of commands. “This is a very simple line of code, all we’re getting the computer to do is print a bunch of text.” They pressed a button on the keyboard and the line of text, “Hello, my name is Winston.” Appeared on the screen. “Now you try … all you have to do is put the print command in and then type out what you want to say…”

Shiloh watched as they opened the coding suite, watching what they did more than listening. Which wasn’t a good thing but it was a bad habit she’d never been able to break from school. However, it seemed simple enough. She knew she could do this. “Okay, so I do this,” She glanced over at Winston, making sure they had their eyes on her screen to make sure to point out something that she might be doing wrong. As she pressed a button, the line of text didn’t come out like theirs. “Oh, man,” she chuckled at her mistake. “I guess I missed something?” She looked over at Winston, hoping they had caught what she had messed up on. They did say that if it messed up it was that you hadn’t correctly told it what to do. Maybe she missed a bracket?

Smiling gently, Winston shrugged. “It’s cool, don’t worry too much about it, like anything else you can make mistakes and learn from them. This is just another one of those things.” They looked at their screen for a moment before showing them how to reset it. “Just check through your code compared to mine, see if you can spot anything that is different from what I’ve got.” They clicked back to their original code before they heard a scuffle. Raising an eyebrow, they turned in their chair, a hand reaching up and adjusting their glasses so that they sat more comfortably on their face. “Did you hear something?” they asked, a gentle shiver of nerves running down their spine.

Shiloh leaned over, trying to figure out what she had gotten wrong. It was a bit tedious, looking at everything and making sure it matched. Already she felt like she was going to have a tough time with this. Shiloh softly muttered to herself, trying to keep focused. However, she finally managed to see what she had gotten wrong. She moved to her screen to fix it when she heard something and picked her head up. “Yeah, I heard it.” What could it have been. “Might have been a rat or something.” Gross to think about there being rats in the university, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing. She returned to her screen, pressing a button and seeing that her line of text came out just like Winston’s. “Hey, look, I did it!” She exclaimed, leaning back into her seat.

Coding could often be tedious. Winston had spent far too much time writing out coding processes by hand to try and work out what the hell was going wrong and understand whether they were asking for the coding processes to be completed in the correct order. But in this moment Winston wasn’t particularly concerned with Shiloh’s coding. Looking around them once more, they were convinced by the lack of any further commotion that this really wasn’t something that they were going to have to deal with or should worry about. “That’s gross if it is rats…” Winston replied with a frown, “I’ll tell someone who looks after the cleaning and stuff and maybe they can look into it.” They grinned as Shiloh managed to complete her task. “Hey, second time lucky! Good job. You’ve officially written your first computer program and can now call yourself a computer programmer.”

Shiloh chuckled, not believing they were serious. “I don’t know if I’d call myself a computer programmer just yet.” She hardly knew what was going on and was just trying her hand at it to begin with. But it did give her a great confidence boost. “But thanks.” She was about to ask Winston where they’d move to next but then heard the same sound again. “The rats sound kind of heavy.” Big. Either it was a lot of them or a big one and for some reason she felt like it was neither of the two. She pushed back on her seat, trying to figure out where the noise came from and waiting to hear it again. She was quick to brush it off once but for some reason something was telling her not to do it again.

“But you literally just wrote a computer program, so by the definition of the activity you’re now one of us.” Winston replied with a grin. “You’re welcome, are you ready to try something new …” they trailed off as Shiloh mentioned the rats. “Yeah, seems kind of weird that they would let rats into this place at all and not exterminate them, it must be expensive if they chew through the wires. As Shiloh moved back in her seat, Winston took it a step further and stood. Looking around, wondering if this was some kind of prank that their friend Todd had come up with. “Hey, is someone … there?” they swallowed as they felt a chill run down their spine, hoping and praying that this was really just a prank and not something else.

Shiloh watched as Winston stood up. She didn’t believe that it was anything to be worried about. It probably was just rats. Really big ones but the fact that Winston called out as if it had the potential to be someone else in this computer lab… it made Shiloh stand up too. If someone were here they’d have to have been crouched down and for a while too since she didn’t hear anyone or see anyone when she came in and didn’t hear or see anyone else since. Just then another noise and a chair from a table on the other end of the room rolled back with some force behind it. “Okay…” Shiloh moved back. She wasn’t really wanting to be caught in some supernatural nonsense. “Maybe we should just get out of here?” Shiloh suggested and just then caught the sound of a shut door. She pursed her lips trying to think of a logical reason for all this. The wind? It’s possible. Right? Another scuffling sound reached Shiloh’s ears and she turned to where she heard it and wished she hadn’t. A thin, small but so very thin creature came out from under the table. “Oh man.” What the hell is that?

As a mottled set of fingers reached around the edge of the table, Winston couldn’t help but swallow apprehensively as the knuckles clicked gently against the table. Pulling itself out from underneath the table. At the end of its fingers were a set of long dirty finger nails, that looked almost claw like and in that moment Winston decided that this definitely was not something mundane. This was not a prank. This was just some more White Crest bullshit that they were now going to have to deal with. “I think you’re right,” Winston replied taking a step backwards and quickly grabbing their bag and laptop as they backed away from the … thing. “I don’t know what that is but I don’t want to find out.” They weren’t sure why, but they tried to keep themselves between Shiloh and whatever this was. “Do you think we should run?”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.” But to where? And did they really want to get chased by that? Shiloh had no clue how fast it was. No clue what it could do. All she knew was that she was defenseless in a small enclosed room. She tried to get a better look but Winston came in front of her. Could they do something she didn’t know of? “Where do we go?” She asked Winston, hoping they knew something she didn’t. They didn’t know what that was though which meant they didn’t know what it was capable of. And that was frightening enough for Shiloh. What did it want? Would they have to kill it?

“Yep,” Winston was not about to argue with what they saw as a good thing, “getting out of here sounds like a really good idea.” They took several small steps backwards, trying to calm themselves and focus on the inner peace that they had been told that they needed to access to access their magic. But their heart was pounding, their head filled with blood and they forced themselves to take some calming breaths. “I don’t know where we go,” Winston admitted as they pulled their rucksack slowly onto their back, creeping backwards towards the door hoping that they weren’t going to startle whatever the hell this was, “I just know that the sooner I get out of here the better.”

“Okay,” Shiloh agreed, slowly moving back. “On a count of three we both make a run for the door okay?” She waited for their confirmation, not wanting to jump to the countdown. She couldn’t really see it as they kept between her and the creature. It seemed like a bold move for someone that didn’t know what it was but they didn’t seem too surprised by it so they must be at the very least aware of the supernatural. “One,” she began to countdown, still slowly moving away from the monster, not wanting to make any sudden moves just yet. “Two.” Almost there. Shiloh could feel her heart begin to race now that they would soon be making a run for the door. “Three!” She spoke loud enough for Winston to hear and she started to bolt to the exit.

Winston honestly wished that they had said on a count to one, they felt like their legs might just moving at any moment. “Sure, on three.” Winston agreed as they tried to take a step back, they wanted Shiloh to be able to keep track of the monster too just in case it somehow made it past them. Honestly in that moment they weren’t sure why they were putting themselves in danger. They just wanted to make sure no one got hurt. Ironically they were at the top of the list of people they didn’t want to be hurt here. As Shiloh began her count down, Winston could feel their entire body itching as they prayed that they would get away safely. “Oh fuck,” they yelped as Shiloh hurtled towards the door just behind Shiloh, they were nearly there, they were maybe feet away when they felt a felt sharp claws rake their one of their ankles and they tumbled to the ground.

They were almost on their way to freedom when Shiloh heard Winston fall behind her. “Oh no,” Shiloh cried and turned around to try and help Winston up. “Are you okay?” She turned her attention to them, wondering what they tripped over. “What happened?” Either way she tried to help them up, knowing they needed to get out of there. She only hoped they didn’t twist their ankle or any other immobilizing injury. Not that she’d leave them behind but it was a lot harder to run from something when you couldn’t run.

For a moment, Winston was sure that as Shiloh helped them up that they would be able to just stand. They couldn’t feel the pain just yet, but their ankle was strangely wet and as they tried to stand they felt their ankle buckle and had to lean heavily on a desk. “I’m not okay,” they affirmed as they felt blood pour into their trouser, “I think whatever the fuck that was scratched me and it must’ve cut me because I can’t really put any weight on it.” They winced and looked for whatever it was that had done this, but they weren’t able to spot it. “We should try and get out,” they said, wincing as they took a squelching step forward, their shoe filling with blood.

Everything would be fine, Shiloh was sure of it and as she managed to get Winston back on their feet, her hope returned. Then it was gone again once Winston almost collapsed. “Whoa,” she muttered, trying to look down at his foot to see if she can see any damage and then she saw it - blood. Oh that’s not good. She looked back at Winston. “I can help you, just lean on me okay?” Shiloh hoped she was reassuring to them, putting their arm over her shoulder and gripping their side. It was a moment like this that she appreciated the time spent at the gym. “We can do this together,” she encouraged them, not feeling much of a weight on her, hoping that Winston wasn’t holding back.

They weren’t too proud to accept help, Winston wrapped an arm gratefully around Shiloh and wished that they had done more reading about healing magic. But despite all of that, Winston wasn’t about to focus on their regrets now. “Thanks, I don’t know what the hell that is but we should definitely get out of here,” they took a shuddering step forward, leaning fully on Shiloh as they heard scrabbling around them, “I need you to set the pace, I can force myself to keep up but if you let me choose how quick we go then we’lll never get out of here.” They fiddled with the strap of their bag over their shoulder and winced. “We definitely need to get out of here too.”

“Okay,” Shiloh understood their reasoning. It was a little awkward with the height difference but all Shiloh needed was to be given the okay. She picked up her step, keeping a firm grip on Winston’s side, not wanting to look back, she didn’t need it to distract her. She focused on getting out the door. She could pick up the sound of whatever it was behind them and with just that she could tell it was closing in on them. She didn’t waste any time, as soon as they cleared that doorway, she turned, placed one foot down and gave the door a kick with her heel, sending it back with a slam. She heard it make contact with something but ultimately shut. It wasn’t long before there was banging on the door. “Come on, let’s get out, I don’t want to wait to see if that door can hold it.” Or if it could open the door.

This wasn’t how Winston had imagined this going and this might be the last time that they offered to teach someone something. Why was it that whenever they tried to do a good thing for people they got shot down all but immediately by the universe choosing to throw some other form of supernatural bullshit their way. Sweat poured down their neck and soaked into the collar of their shirt. As soon as they were out of the door, Shiloh kicked it slamming shut behind them. There was a crunch as whatever it was slammed into it, and then continued colliding with it over and over again. “I agree,” they turned and looked at the lock, they could try and do some magic but right now they didn’t think they could do it without passing out, “thanks for this,” they stammered as their breath grew ragged, “sorry that your first time learning to code has been interrupted by what looks like some sort of rage monkey.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Shiloh gently responded as she remained focused on getting both of them out of there. Winston surprisingly wasn’t much of a weight to carry, it didn’t take long for Shiloh to get used to it and move at a quick pace. However, she could hear their breathing and while her breathing remained even, she knew theirs wasn’t because they couldn’t keep up. “Do you want me to take you to the hospital?” Shiloh asked, wondering just how much blood they were losing. She didn’t even want to look back and see. It was better to keep moving to the parking lot.

Doing their breath to catch their breath, Winston wiped the back of their palm across their forehead, a cascade of sweat sloughing away as they did so. “Uh, I think that it might be a good idea if you did take me to the hospital,” they said before they heard scuffling and spotted the little goblin thing again. It’s claws were dripping with blood. Winston’s blood. The thought alone made them want to be sick but they steeled themselves, “fuck, we should keep going,” they muttered as the thing scuttled after them, gaining ground in the corridors of the university, blood trailing from both Winston and their pursuer.

“Okay,” Shiloh responded, keeping calm. If they needed to go to the hospital she’d take them there. Her ears picked up the familiar sound and she glanced back, seeing it coming towards them. Shiloh quickly thought of something. “Sorry about this, Winston,” she tried to be as unoffensive as she could possibly be but this was turning into a life or death situation. She wasted no time to scoop Winston up and started running. Maybe it was the rush of the situation but Winston didn’t seem as heavy as she would have thought they’d be, carrying a grown person and all. Either way, she didn’t let that cloud her priorities. They needed to get out of there now. “Is it still behind us?” She asked as she finally made it outside, but not stopping to look as she remembered where she parked, coming closer to her car.

Being swept off of their feet like a damsel in distress was something that Winston could get used to. “What the-” they managed to exclaim before Shiloh had doubled the speed that they were going. Winston was left with no choice but to cling awkwardly to her neck and pray that she didn’t drop them. Yet despite all of that, her grip seemed firm and strong and Winston knew better then to question someone who was in the midst of saving them from a little gremlin that seemed intent on attacking them. “I --” Winston squinted through their glasses which had fallen somewhat lopsided on their face, “I can’t see them,” they replied as they arrived at the car park, “you’re really really fucking strong, thank you, I honestly don’t know if I’d have gotten away without you.” They leaned against a car, pulling their hoodie off and wrapping it around their leg in a poor attempt to stem the bleeding.

Shiloh finally let herself relax when Winston said the coast was clear. She sighed as she gently set them down, mindful of their leg. “It’s a good thing we were together then.” Shiloh wasn't sure how she would react if she came across something supernatural herself. She was grateful pretty much all her supernatural experiences were with someone else with her. She was thankful all her time at the gym had been worth it. Although she was positive some adrenaline had something to do with lifting Winston so easily. “My car’s just over there,” just a few cars away. She pulled her keys out and started to unlock it, the headlights blinking for a moment. She put her keys back in her pockets, ready for them to keep going. “Let’s go.” She took their arm over her shoulder again and walked to her car, opening it up and helping Winston in. She gently shut the door behind them and went into the front seat. The last thing on her mind was blood on her car seats, she was worried about Winston’s safety more. “Alright we’ll be there in a few minutes okay?” She glanced over at them before beginning to drive off.

#p: shiloh #para #wickedswriting #out of ctrl

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eolian-234 · 5 years ago

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The Supplejack

Previous Chapter Nine: Progress

Summary: Peter Parker has been alone his whole freshman year but finds hope when Stark Industries announces a science competition. The prize? An internship with Tony Stark.

Chapter Ten: Fast-forward

Beginning of February

“I think we might be able to start the full-scale model soon.”

Peter looked up from his phone, which he was reading his notes he doodled in class off of. Mr. Stark offered multiple times to get him a new phone but he preferred the simplicity of this. When he told Mr. Stark it was easier to use the man acted all offended under his smile. Teasing Peter about his inability to figure out a simple phone when they were working on building a full-scale code and model of tech for cars. It was also easier to understand his thoughts written down. While they didn’t look particularly neat on the page it made more sense to him. Mr. Stark seemed to understand that.

He snapped his jaw shut when he realized it was hanging wide open.

“Really?” He said, dropping his eyes back down ignoring the sinking feel in his chest.

Mr. Stark chuckled and went back to scanning the algorithms.

“We can get a full team in here to work on it. Whatever we need.”

A whole team? Someone to take over what they were doing? Peter flinched.

Their work had come so far. From car models went from mere imaginations, to metal models, and back to hologram full scale models. Their protocol were written in C++ after debating between the Python coding.

Peter found the time… soothing to his mind. Sometimes coming in late at night to work by himself even if Mr. Stark wasn’t there. Friday always let him in with a kind word.

He remembered the first couple of times they worked together Mr. Stark would get into a kind of trance, rock music blaring in the background. While Peter liked the music – he made his own playlist to all the songs they listened to – his head rang after an hour or so.

His expression must have revealed more than he wanted to because without comment the next time Peter arrived the music was quieter.

It was little things like that and the temperature which had Peter settling into their work focusing more on Mr. Stark and less on Tony Stark.

With summer coming up in less months than he thought Peter was sure their time would be cut short.

What he wanted to do was ask the man himself. To beg him to continue working through the summer and next year and the next even if it meant bringing in fifty other people to work on it. He wanted to finish their project, to see their models turn into something real. Something that could help people. The selfish part of his brain suggested that what he really wanted was to continue working with Mr. Stark even if it didn’t end up helping anyone.

Instead what Peter did was stay silent and hum slightly to the music nothing about his appearance gave his thoughts away besides the fists he made every so often looking at Mr. Stark working.

Would he even want to continue working with Peter?

End of February

Julia sat next time him while the subway rumbled forward. He kept his legs folded in front of him, fingers grasping backpack which rested on his knees in order to take up less space.

They already passed his stop but he stayed on like he always did riding with Julia.

“Do you really think the permission will go through?” She asked quietly. Julia had fidgeted today in the lab. Her eyes scanned the paperwork over and over making sure they filled out every form correctly. Their whole team practically had their proposal memorized with the amount of times they’d reworked it.

“I’m sure they will.” He said but continued when her expression didn’t change. “It was really good, Julia. You did a great job.”

Peter stared at the glass window on the other side of the subway. Their reflections looked back and he saw her head duck down.

The subway came to a stop and she stood to leave. She ran her hand through her hair and looked at him.

“Thanks for riding the rest of the way with me. Text me when you get home?” Her tone was quiet and it was Peter’s turn to drop his head. “You’re a great friend, Peter.”

He mumbled something and she smiled over her shoulder walking onto the platform. The doors closed behind her but he didn’t lift his head.

Peter switched trains but couldn’t stop the smile from coming over his face.

She thought they were friends.

Beginning of March

“Kid… Peter?”

He blinked. Mr. Stark’s hand landed on his shoulder. His muscles tensed under the sudden intrusion but Mr. Stark’s eyes never left his face. Slowly, he squeezed, calming Peter’s pulse, and stepped back.

Mr. Stark ran his hand through his hair.

“Time for food.” He said and waited for Peter to put all his notes away.

“I can just go home, Mr. Stark. It’s no problem.”

The man chuckled and Peter flushed knowing he said that every time.

“I already ordered your favorite from that Korean place down the street.”

Peter stopped walking before hurrying to catch up. They settled around the table piled with way more boxes of food they could ever finish. Sure enough a container of Bibimbap with all tofu, no eggs, and spicy sauce was waiting for him.

Mr. Stark began telling him some gossip he’d heard around the office.

“And how do you know about poor Mr. Singer?” He said, scrapping the crispy rice off of the bottom of the takeout box.

The man didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed when he spoke. “Oh, I just happened to be walking by when his wife came storming in.”

Peter snorted. “Friday told you. Didn’t you, Friday?” He asked over Mr. Stark’s copious denials.

“That is correct, Peter.” He smiled upward at Friday and failed to notice the soft look Mr. Stark was giving him.

“You caught me, kid.”

End of March

It would have been easier to accept if the letters were stamped permanently in red across the whole paper. It would have made since in a way – been final. Instead they received a formal reply. One with fancy wording and apologies that had the vague pretense of sounding sincere and apologetic.

This made the news so much worse.

Their proposal had been rejected or as the letter said: “at this time we are not allowing student groups access to our facilities.”

Julia’s face crumpled while Frank swore. Monica began typing frantically but through it all Peter just sat there.

What would they do now?

Beginning of April

“You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still a lot of good in the world."

They were watching The Outsiders while he waited. Peter had read it the year before in English but had missed the movie day because he had been sick.

The rain pelted down against the glass windows. Thunder and lightning battled in the sky only an arm’s length away from where they sat. He’d watched many storms pass through from his fire escape but here, this high up, Peter felt like he was inside it. Every clap of noise sent a pulse into his bloodstream pumping the blood through his veins. It didn’t key him up like it did in the apartment. The sounds were loud enough to sooth his racing thoughts enough so he could focus on the movie playing in the background and the soft sounds of response Mr. Stark was making to the movie. He felt safe there in the storm.

Of course, Peter had put up a mild protest. He’d been fine to go home, he told Mr. Stark. But the man took one look outside and suggested the movie. Food was involved, too.

It took Peter exactly thirty-two seconds to decide he could wait for the rain to pass.

An hour later, laden with stir-fry and popcorn Peter was boneless on the couch. He smiled as Mr. Stark leaned forward, his eyes focused on the screen. It was the man’s first time watching it as well and though Peter knew the ending, it didn’t stop his enjoyment.

He yawned and sank deeper into the cushions.

The day had seemed unending and filled with busywork assignments. Things that weren’t teaching him anything but would take all night to do. Ned was gone so he spent all lunch listening to Mike debate the pros of anarchy with everyone at the table. He stared at MJ until she caught him and he ran away to the library. It wasn’t until he got to the lab that he had a moment to breath.

Something touched his shoulder and then with more force he was pulled away from the couch.

The sound of the credits rolled. He didn’t realize his eyes had shut.

Peter could hear Mr. Stark’s voice whispering something and a feminine answer but his eyes stayed closed, blessedly on the brink of sleep.

His head was against a hard surface, a chest, and Peter was lulled deeper by the heartbeat within. A hand brushed back his hair after he was placed on something soft and he could swear the voice said something important but Peter was too asleep to make sense of it.

Ned leaned across the lunch table. His hands bordered their lunchboxes in a protective frame as Peter relayed the news from his meeting the previous week.

“I just feel so bad for those Frank and Monica. I mean they’re graduating and everything. This was their final hurrah.” He said, nibbling on a carrot.

“Dude, that sucks. What are you going to do?”

Peter nodded at the question. As it was they weren’t sure.

The prototype of the machine was necessary for them to see before they could come up with a model for themselves. He had thought about going to Mr. Stark and asking him for advice, but he decided not to in the end. It was an unfair advantage that the other teams couldn’t use. If no one else could go to the owner of Stark Industries for help, why should he?

Peter was also proud of the work they accomplished so far. Sometimes he forgot how young they all were, given the amount and quality of work they completed.

The whole experience had changed him more than that though and he was loathe to sit there and do nothing.

“I don’t know, Ned. We’ll figure something out though.”

He could only hope.

“Look, Peter. Mr. Stark will understand if you can’t make it today.” May spoke with an edge to her voice. “I forbid you from going.”

“May, I have to go. This is important.”

“Peter, you’re sick. It’s okay.”

He coughed into his elbow, sniffling and meagerly taking a tissue May was holding out to him with pouting lips.

Peter whispered something to her. Something he was too afraid to think but needed to say.

“What sweetheart?” She said and even though he was sick and had a fever May sat on the edge of his bed.

“It’s just,” he licked his chapped lips. “What if he finds someone else to help out?”

He thought of the team Mr. Stark mentioned before. Peter looked away from the piercing glance. His fingers fidgeted with the blanket wrapped around him.

“Peter, he would never do that. You know he wouldn’t.”

She said it with such conviction but his stomach sank. Did he know that?

May kept talking, running a reassuring thumb over his knuckles but Peter was too wrapped up in his thoughts. He went through cataloging every interaction and every word spoken between them.

Peter thought of the way Mr. Stark smiled when he came into the lab and how he would always check the temperature to make sure it was warm enough. The man practically bought the whole menu at a restaurant when Peter stayed for food and it was getting more common for him to stay after a work day. Sometimes they would watch a movie but most times he would just work on homework as Mr. Stark continued with business. But were those concrete signs? It certainly didn’t mean he would abstain from finding a replacement if the work needed to be done. Peter sighed into his hoodie, wincing at the way his stomach was cramping.

It was with the image of Frank helping Mr. Stark in the lab that Peter made his decision.

He realized May had left when she popped her head back into the room.

“Stay home, Peter. Okay? I’m sorry I have to go to work.”

His cough wracked his chest but he managed to tell her he loved her. She gave him one last searching look before she left for work.

After he heard the door shut with limbs groaning Peter got out of bed. He toggled back and forth as the blood ran to his head but with careful steps made it out of his room. His hand swept across the length of the highest cabinet and found the last packet of powdered vitamin C before mixing it in his water bottle.

There was sweat seeping into his sweatshirt and on his forehead by the time he made it to the subway platform and he shivered into it. His breath shuddered when he finally sank down into one of the empty seats, making sure to touch as little as possible. He kept his hoodie up and took small sips of the vitamin infused water, praying for an instant cure.

Friday greeted him when he got into the elevator but he didn’t lift his head up to the lights like he normally would. They burned his eyes.

“Hey, Friday.” He said rubbing his hand along his chest to stop a cough. Even to his own ears his voice sounded tired.

“Are you alright, Peter?” Friday said, softer than normal.

“I’m fine, just a cough.”

Friday said nothing but the elevators opened.

The room was void of people and Peter sat down with a heavy breath. He crossed his arms on the table in front of him. Thankfully Friday must have forgotten to put the lights on so it was dark in the room.

Every minute he sat there, Peter shrunk down until his head came to rest on his arms. Wet coughs racked his chest and he shivered again. It was cold in the room but he didn’t want to bother Friday. The curt tone he used earlier with Friday sent a guilty tendril tightening along his spine.

The doors swept open and bursting into the room with wide eyes was Mr. Stark. Peter tried to smile but from the furrow in the man’s mouth, it wasn’t as reassuring as he meant it to be.

“Kid, what’s wrong? You okay?”

Peter sat up trying to relax the ache in his muscles. He flinched back when rough hands touched his cheek before moving to rest against his forehead.

He felt silly to realize Mr. Stark had moved across the room and was now kneeling beside him. Peter concentrated on the small lines forming lightly in the corner of his eyes. For a moment he imaged being younger and being sick at home, but instead of Ben kneeling in front of him it was Mr. Stark making sure he was okay.

With a shake of Peter’s head Mr. Stark removed his hands and walked away. His voice rung out as he barked orders to Friday and then he was on the phone.

Peter gripped the edges of the counter, tears blurring in his eyes. How could he even think that? The betrayal of his thoughts sent a tear over the edge and down his hot cheek. Worse than that though was the longing he’d felt – still felt - when Mr. Stark looked at him with such concern.

It wasn’t right. It wasn’t his to want.

Mr. Stark came back and led Peter into the elevator. His tone was quiet, soothing, and Peter weakly followed him after brushing his tear away. Friday chimed in to give reports on his temperature. His brain felt fuzzy.

There was an arm, guiding him, warm across his back.

“Come on, Kid.”  

They arrived into a bedroom and dimly Peter realized this is where he fell asleep the previous month. He stopped short at the door.

“Peter?” The man spoke softly and the back of Peter’s throat itched.

“But… we have the meeting. We were going to work on …” His brain failed him at the end.

“Hey, kid. You’re in no position to be working. Hell, you’re burning up.”

He sent Peter to the bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

Peter sat at the very end of the mattress, his butt halfway off the edge. It wasn’t his bedroom, just one for guests. There was nothing in there that was his, but Peter noticed that the lamp was where he moved it before when he tried to get some reading in the morning when was there.

He moved closer to the headboard, eyes on the light in the bathroom, and switched it on.

Peter could still convince Mr. Stark they could work today. It would be fine. Mr. Stark wouldn’t have replaced him then as long as he remained useful.

“The work will still be there later.” Mr. Stark said emerging from the bathroom as if he read Peter’s thoughts. “Drink this while you take this.” He gestured to the water and Tylenol in his hand.

Peter’s protest died on his tongue and Mr. Stark spoke again.

“I’m not in any hurry to finish the project. As long as you get better.”

He blanched at the implication of the words.

There was no anger in the man’s face. Something uncurled in his chest when all he saw was concern. Ben used to wear that face well.

Peter’s eyes dragged on his cheek. Another cough stormed through his chest.

“I’ll go fill this up again. There’s sweatpants and t-shirts in the dresser.”

Peter stood up, feeling red on his cheeks. There were clothes there?

He browsed the drawers looking at the various t-shirts - all avengers themed. Quickly he got into sweatpants and sweatshirt glancing at the door back and forth.

With a speed he used when changing after gym class he shucked his shirt and pants off and into his chosen clothes, grey sweats and Stark Industries shirt. His hand brushed over the ironman one but he couldn’t quite make himself put it in.

He settled on the bed again just before there was a knock on the door. Dizziness wavered through him and Peter grasped the bedside table for support.

Mr. Stark came in carrying the glass. The covers were pushed back and Peter found himself lying down. The man hovered for a moment, his hand came up from his side reaching out before dropping back.

“Get some rest, Kid. Friday will be here if you need anything and I will just be in the living room outside.”

Peter’s eyes closed of their own accord and he nodded. Footsteps swept across the room but before the door could close Peter thanked Mr. Stark, wishing he had the right to say more.

“Of course, Peter.” Peter’s throat went tight. The door shut and Peter spun around. He didn’t want to look at the lights shining through the cracks in the door.

Of course, he said like he would look after Peter. As he would have if Peter’s mind conjured up sound for his imagination. Like he cared.

The knot loosened in his throat and Peter locked the guilt away for a moment, instead basking in the knowing someone was waiting up in case he needed them right outside this room that wasn’t technically his.

He reached up, adjusting the pillow under his head and closed his eyes.

Middle of April

Peter’s stomach protested as the smell of leftovers wafted from the lid he opened. The nausea from being sick still lingered and Peter found his appetite was suffering because of it.

The cafeteria, loud as ever, raged around him. He pushed the container of food away with a grimace.

Something nudged him from the side and he saw Ned’s profile looking straight ahead. He shrugged and went back to staring at his lunch. Ned’s elbow dug into his upper arm and Peter looked over while rubbing the spot of impact. Narrowly dodging another nudge, he got the hint and followed the boy’s gaze.

Peter blinked at the figure coming forward.

Flash waded through the crowds and tables. His gaze was fixed forward and now that they weren’t precisely enemies Peter let himself feel intrigued by how people just seemed to get out of Flash’s way.

He wondered why Ned was so interested in Flash until the boy in questions eyes moved and landed on Peter.

He was making his way in their direction.

Peter knew from the previous eight months how rare this was and his stomach cramped in response. His eyes flounced back to the Tupperware.

“I wonder where he’s off to,” Ned said.

Peter watched Ned in his observations not wanting to be caught blatantly staring at Flash himself. Despite the itching feeling crawling through his limbs Peter smiled at his friend and the way he moved forward so Flash’s view of Peter would be limited.

Under his lashes he looked up to see Flash continued the straight path to them. Peter held his breath and watched his legs, which seemed much safer than his face.

Flash continued forward until he was a table away. Peter finally looked up at a sound from Ned and met his eyes. The boy stared straight at him and Peter forced himself to maintain contact. Flash glanced toward the doors and back at Peter, his brow quirked when Peter’s face remained in ignorance. He did it again before veering off toward the exit.

The doors closed behind him blocking Peter’s curious gaze, food dilemma forgotten.

Should he follow?

Ned began talking about how weird Flash had been lately and Peter nodded along. His hands twisted in his lap, bouncing in time to the rise and fall of his foot against the ground.

Without breaking eye contact with the door, he stood up, murmuring something to Ned whose eyes flickered to the door. Ned nodded without missing a beat.

As Peter was passing toward the door he briefly reached out to touch Ned on the shoulder before hurrying away. Ned was such a good person…. A good friend.

Backpack slung over his shoulder Peter followed the path his eyes traced before and saw Flash leaning against the lockers down the hallway from the cafeteria.

“Flash. Hey.” He said trying to keep the weary tone out of his voice. They’d seen each other off and on at their time at the Tower but hadn’t seen much of each other at school. In fact, the last time they talked was when Peter had a meltdown in front of him, which was slightly awkward to realize how Peter yelled at him before. Not that he didn’t deserve it.

The boy’s arms were crossed in front of him. Peter could see his shoulder’s tensing and he held his body still. Peter forced his hands to stop fidgeting by shoving them in his pockets. A blush worked its way onto his cheeks when neither of them spoke. Was he wrong? Was he supposed to follow Flash?

“So, I hear you need a connection at Oscorp?” Flash said uncrossing his arms and casually raising his eyebrow at Peter.

His jaw dropped. This was not what he expected.

“Uh… How did you hear that?” He said trying to find a semblance of rational thought.

Flash had the decency to look embarrassed but he answered anyway, if a little cautiously. “That Mike kid is loud as shit. Anyway, do you?”

“Why?”

Flash sighed and crossed his arms again.

“Listen, I’m trying to be... decent. My dad has connections there and I could see if something could come of it.”

“Why?”

Was that all he could say?

“Is that all you can say?” Flash snapped.

Peter shut his mouth and thought about the options. He could lie. Say that they didn’t need this. Then he wouldn’t need to repay Flash for anything. But the image of Julia’s clenched hands and the hours they spent working came to mind. And he decided he didn’t care if he was put in Flash’s debt or that he didn’t know the motivations behind this act of supposed kindness.

Plus, Flash proved changed – sort of – mostly. If he wanted help, well, Peter wasn’t going to say no.

“Yeah, Flash. We do need help, if you’re willing to offer it.”

They nodded at one another before walking down the hallway too close to be considered friends but too far away for anyone to perceive them as enemies.

“Sorry, Monica couldn’t make it today but she said as long as we take notes it should be fine.”

Flash stood shuffling on the balls of his feet in the doorway. Julia and Frank were clearing off a spot for him to sit at the table while Peter motioned him forward.

Frank clapped Flash on the back in greeting and welcomed him.

“Thanks man. This is going to be a great help.”

When Flash sat down, moving his backpack to rest against the leg of the table, everyone stared at him. It was the first time after their sandwich fiasco that Peter had seen him look so embarrassed and out of place. He withheld a smile.

Flash got straight down to business, explain the security and how his father got them a tour and question time with the person in charge of the prototype. Julia’s hand flew over the paper trying to write every word he spoke. Without breaking his speech Flash slight a typed-out sheet of all the information. Her hand shook slightly and thought she thanked him, Peter noticed she didn’t look him in the eye.

The meeting passed quick and Peter was pleased with how much Flash got along with everyone. He and Frank spent a bunch of time talking about sports and the playoffs. After some cajoling he even got Julia to talk about their new kittens at home. In turn, Flash smiled as she told him how BOGO would steal all of Free’s food.

Flash smiled at the story. A real, teeth-baring smile.

Peter was used to things happening slowly in his life.

It took him almost half a school year to decide to participate in the S.T.A.R.K competition. Days avoiding the sign in sheet until finally he took the plunge. Months after dreading nearly everything he settled into a routine. He was opening up to the people around him.

He thought back to how scary it was considering Ned’s offer to sit with him at lunch. It was weeks until he was able to go more than once a week. He even went over to Ned’s house over break.

But all these things took time and much thinking on Peter’s part. He weighed the consequences of everything before stepping forward and rarely out of his comfort zone. That was safe. That was good.

Things happening quickly were never good in Peter’s opinion. Ben’s funeral came and went so fast. The whole thing sped up like someone was pressing fast-forward. Though he was careful and took his time letting Sam into his life; it took but a second for her to break his heart.

That’s why when Flash sat at their lunch table at the end of the week, Peter’s stomach turned sour. He knew to expect the worse. He foresaw the worst. But there was nothing he could do or say in the moment.

Ned, after a moment of scrutiny, looked between Flash and Peter, then stuck out his hand for the two of them to shake, forever reminding Peter how forgiving Ned was.

How many second chances had Ned given him?

Just like that Flash began to eat lunch with them sometimes. Not every day, but throughout the week he would stop by and join an argument between Mike and Midge before wandering off again. Somedays he would even find Peter in the library when the cafeteria was too much for him to get through.

Flash was quieter than Ned. He would hold himself still, aware of his space at any given time and there was still tension between them sometimes. But it was nice all the same.

Peter didn’t find it so strange that Flash and him became friends so quick this time.

End of April

Peter looked around the lab. Scattered on the tables were scraps of paper, all smudged with crunched writing, and metal shavings discarded from the models they had built. His backpack was folded over itself on the floor by the door on top of which his jacket was crumpled.

Mr. Stark stood beside him and if Peter turned his shoulders slightly to the left he could see the slight furrow in his brow. How his hand would come up and rest under his chin while his finger traced his goatee every five minutes or so.

It was his thinking face, Peter knew.

Months of working together and Peter’s steady heartbeat was proof he was relaxed. Content.

He didn’t think about the fact this would all be ending come summer. And he absolutely ignored the itch in the back of his throat thinking about the possibility of never seeing Mr. Stark again.

“I’m still thinking we are going to totally have to overhaul the thrust mechanisms on this side, Mr. Stark. It’s working now, but barely, and it could be so much better.” He said breaking the silence.

Mr. Stark’s eyebrows rose in response but he didn’t say anything. His eyes stayed trained on the new schematics displayed in front of him. He grumbled something under his breath and Peter cracked a smile knowing he was right.

The lab settled under the silence again. Peter moved around to Mr. Stark’s other side and grabbed a Stark pad off the table. Easily Mr. Stark stepped to the side to accommodate his reach and giving Peter enough room to work at the table.

Peter yawned as he opened the door to the apartment. He grabbed a box of Chex mix and sank into the couch. His phone vibrated again and shoving his hand into the box checked his messages. The group chat between everyone went off with a near consistency putting his flip phone into overdrive.

There had been time of the subway to look at it but he ended up falling asleep, waking only to find drool gathering on his sleeve where his head rested and to hear he missed one his stop.

Even though he was barely awake now, Peter considered the walk home beneficial. The moon hung in the middle of the sky decorated by a vague face and stars all around.

It let him think, at least.

His third handful came away as the rest, only the little breadsticks and the occasional rye chip. May must have eaten her way through the bag first. He set it aside feeling a cramping in his stomach. Maybe he was still sick.

He yawned again and sank further into the couch knowing he should go to bed, but his bones felt too brittle to get up.

Everything was coming to a head soon. Midterms, Mr. Stark and their work, and the tour were compounding at an exponential rate.

It was all amazing. Peter knew he was so lucky and at times thought he dreamed it all.

But it was sometimes too much.

He wasn’t used to having so many people in his life or having to check his phone throughout the day to see who was texting him.

Who would have thought at the beginning of the year Ned and Flash would send each other memes? Or that Julia would come out and lead one of their group meetings?

Peter smiled remembering how Monica’s jaw dropped when Julia, gently, corrected her on some of the analytics. Or how she gave everyone in their group, Flash included, a newer version of the pen that landed her in the internship program.

He felt so full of life, something he’d never thought possible for someone like him.

And right now, it hurt that all he wanted to do was curl up and sleep for the weekend. He wondered what would happen if he told them. If he just needed some time to disconnect for a bit.

He knew he couldn’t do that though. They would be fine without him, they would move on and continue texting minus his phone number, and Peter wasn’t ready to get rid of them so soon. They deserved someone who was normal, who could sit in the cafeteria for the whole week without feeling bone tired, or someone who could be fully present without worry about sneezing the wrong way.

Peter would get through it and soak everything up. Every laugh, and debate at lunch. Flash’s and his new acquaintanceship. And especially any time Mr. Stark was willing to work together. He could push through it for now.

It would be fine.

He groaned against the couch pillow thinking about everything he had to do and after looking at the calendar on the way he realized something.

It was only a week until they would tour Oscorp.

It's always one step forward and two steps back for our Peter isn't it?

a/n: Hi sweet friends. I hope you are all doing well and you and your loved ones are staying safe. This semester has been crazy, as things get in real life. My classes have been moved online so I can finally start writing again which makes me so happy. I also just wanted to say thank you for continuing to read this story. Every comment and kudos make my week so bright.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Taglist: @verdonafrost @demi-starzak @whatisthou

Next Chapter Eleven: Welcome to Oscorp

#Ironman fanfiction #MCU #pre-powers #spiderman fanfiction #Shy peter parker #the supplejack #my writing #ao3 fic #tony stark #ned leeds #Flash Thompson #marvel fanfiction #Peter parker #writing

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guruji · 5 years ago

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What is a web designer anyway?

As a web designer, I get all kinds of requests , for information other than web design, and as a web designer I'm not suppose to really to be able to do things outside of the web design area. I believe there are a few misconceptions about what exactly a web designer does. In this article I am going to nail down exactly what a web designer is and what they should be able to do. This article pertains to small business website designers and not to bigger businesses where they are looking for someone who specializes. First I'll touch of the differences between a web designer and a web developer. A web designer is someone who creates the visual design and layout of a web page. A web developer is someone who does the behind-the-scenes programming of a website. For example a web developer creates the code for database websites.

Web designer's definition:

They give business organizations a web presence by building them a website. Web designers are professionals who organize information, create page layouts, while communicating the business's information/opinions in a website. Web designer's create another medium for the business to expand into. Creating a website enables the business to attract new customers, showcase its services products, and to do business across countries (as opposed to one location).

What things do web designer's do?

That's a really good question. It is definitely hard to nail down what every designer must do in order to call themselves a web designer. A good web designer should be able to do both the design and the development, unfortunately for you the consumer it doesn't always work that way.

Your web designer must be able to perform the following:

::Understand and keep current will all new emerging technology

:: Layout web pages with HTML, XHTML, XML , and other programming languages

:: Program HTML (hand code), JavaScript and CSS

:: Translate your ideas, needs and expectations into a web page.

:: Design navigation elements (such as navigation bars)

::Create graphics in Photoshop or any other professional imaging software

:: Effectively participate in a web development team

:: Have an understanding on how to create Flash (authoring software used to create animation programs)

:: Understand and implement web standards

:: Have an understanding of Search Engine Optimization

:: Have a basic understanding of typography, graphics and color theory

:: Understand needs of users and of usability testing

:: Have ability to analyze a target market

:: Understanding of cross browser problems and how to fix them

A great web designer also has knowledge of coding languages such as:

:: C++

:: Python

:: Java

:: JavaScript

:: Cold fusion

:: SQL

:: PHP

Sometimes it might be difficult for a web designer to have all those different programming languages under their belt. It is like knowing English, French, Chinese and German. Quite complicated. The more languages they know the better. Well that should help you on your search for a good web designer!

Thanks and regards,

https://gurujisoftwares.com

#What is a web designer anyway?

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prosteticanimals · 5 years ago

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10 Things Most People Don't Know About fireinsidemusic

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In its place, the students Considerably prefer to master in the stories and experiences of Other individuals. These shared stories and activities assistance them to augment their particular encounter by Understanding in the accomplishment and mistakes of others. This helps them avoid creating a similar blunders as their influencers. As a result, they like to speculate more in their money and time on these applications which help them to establish various methods that they could include into their thoughts and final decision-creating method, therefore building a new skill established.

We are unable to disregard The reality that millennials also are a generation of uncertainties and fluctuations. These are the era who likes to help keep switching their gadgets. They grew up with know-how where by anything was at their fingertips. It will become disheartening for them not to get what they want once they want it. The majority of the items have already been handed to them with a silver spoon. This helps make them truly feel entitled to get what they want with out putting in A lot exertion.

However They can be the major workforce of the businesses currently, they do not believe in lifelong work. Lifelong commitment is a fairy tale for the millennials. They generally soar from on career to another since they are often searching for some thing new and much better. These higher expectations turn out to be their downfall and can make them fewer economically steady than their mom and dad.

Millennials are listed here to remain! They are really young, vibrant and energetic and they're the longer term. They are great belongings which the world will have to harness and use. These are the generation which is revolutionizing the planet. They are the budding leaders of tomorrow. They adopt technological innovation and stimulus in the identical breadth. This era can also be a collaborative and social technology that includes a focus on comprehending and setting up their expertise by means of different kinds of medium to find out the responses. It can be for your educator like us to provide an arena for engagement and discovery along with be considered a information specialist and mentor. It can be for learning platform companies like Nirmiti Academy to give an explorative and experiential expertise and produce out their true probable in everyday life and at work. It is this transformational journey that we at Nirmiti Academy look ahead to every single day to master, unlearn and relearn Using these youthful and magical era - the Millennials!

If the above mentioned title confuses you, you may well be missing out on a few of the very best possibilities the world wide web has to offer. Meanwhile, other people are expanding their Professions, getting ready For brand spanking new life as business owners, or are learning new techniques or increasing their knowledge base, normally at little if any Charge.

How are they executing this?

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These are accessing MOOCs, or Substantial Open Online Programs. Although platforms are actually offered from elite colleges like MIT and Stanford for virtually ten years, open-supply classes proceed to improve in amount and popularity. Now, even some local people colleges like Wake Specialized University,Situated outdoors Raleigh, NC, offers MOOCs to a global viewers. This growing availability suggests There's now an unbelievable variety of courses available to anybody using an internet connection, in spite of area.

Topics MOOCs cover can differ from contemporary robotics and astronomy to Roman architecture and the American Novel Due to the fact 1945. MIT, for example, has courses centered all-around Mathematics, Engineering, Power and Science, in addition to a stunning variety of lessons concentrating on the Humanities and Fantastic Arts. The University of Michigan gives programs ranging from "Storytelling for Social Modify" to Python, info analytics, and device Finding out. You can also just take Management classes from HEC Paris by way of MOOC, rated via the Economist as having the second strongest small business university alumni network on the planet.

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Some MOOCs are intended to be taken for awareness attained, but lots of programs also give you a certification of completion via internet sites like Coursera.org. Certificates of completion--that are unique from class credits--typically cost about $50. Money assist is available for many who qualify.

Factors to Consider a MOOC

There are lots of reasons why a MOOC course could be best for you outside of time management, Despite the fact that most MOOCs allow pupils to work at their own rate, meaning they effortlessly suit into most schedules, Regardless of how busy. Other pros incorporate:

An opportunity to try out A serious just before paying out for faculty classes. Everyone trying to decide over a job path, for The very first time or due to a midlife adjust of path, is aware the aggravation of thinking "Imagine if I'm Incorrect about my choice? The amount money am I going to invest prior to I understand this isn't for me?" MOOCs are a great way to 'dip your toes' in, so to talk, prior to the headache of coping with standard higher education courses and common university prices. You may try out as many courses while you have time for till some thing actually sparks your interest.

Just take classes not available domestically. There are actually pretty much A huge number of MOOC courses obtainable on the web. Even when you reside in Boston (wherever Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston Faculty and Boston College are all Found) or Various other comparable College-dense locale, you are able to possibly come across a category or two as a result of MOOC choices not available to you domestically.

Discover (or relearn) a language for free. Not only can you're taking a overseas language program without cost by way of MOOCs, but because of courses taught at foreign universities, You can even train your ear by listening to indigenous speakers. Have a class taught within the language you should find out and comply with alongside employing English subtitles. The 2nd method is a terrific way to effectively double your Discovering, but only works if you already have not less than an intermediate grasp in the language.

If Mastering One more language isn't really large with your to-do checklist, it's possible it ought to be: In 2017, New American Financial state noted employer need for bilingual staff members more than doubled given that 2010. This demand from customers proceeds to grow. Finest languages to check? Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic.

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Create up your resume with wanted competencies. Perhaps there is a far better job at work you know you can do, but your manager doesn't Feel you happen to be capable for it simply because you absence certain abilities. MOOCs are a great way to grow to be proficient in places like HTML coding, Search engine optimization analytics, or no matter what skill you have to come to be the ideal human being for that occupation.

Adhere to the backlinks in this article To find out more on a lot of MOOC classes. MOOCs can also be out there as a result of many different academic platforms, which include Coursera, Udemy, and edX. But MOOCs may be accessed directly via Each individual university, and can be found by making use of the following Google research restricting syntax entered into your google lookup bar:

internet site:edu MOOC subject

By way of example, if I enter web site:edu MOOC robotics, I get about 7,000 final results, like this Introduction to Robotics Specialization from Penn Engineering. By using this syntax, you are able to usually bypass the clearinghouses and find just what exactly You are looking for on university websites, even classes the clearinghouses might not supply.

Pleased MOOCing!

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tech-girls · 5 years ago

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Spotlight: Raeann Giannattasio

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Raeann Giannattasio. Raeann is a fourth year at the University of Virginia majoring in Aerospace Engineering. She spent the summer of 2019 combining her passions for STEM and public service through an internship at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. via UVA's Policy Internship Program (PIP). As part of the Mars Reconnaissance Team, she worked on projects that leveraged the integration of planetary science, engineering, and policy in order to investigate steps that can be taken to establish human presence on Mars. Raeann is an Elementary & Middle School Outreach Co-Chair for the UVA Society of Women Engineers (SWE). That work was recently highlighted on the Once Upon a Tech podcast and through a STEM session at the first virtual Girls’ Geek Day!

How do you work with technology today? In class, I use many different computer software. I use CAD inventor to build parts that can be 3D printed. I use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to run computer simulations on parts that will be surrounded by fluid. For example, I can simulate a plane moving in air at a certain speed. I can use other technology to verify those results with something such as a wind tunnel. I also use coding languages such as MATLAB to solve math problems in my orbital mechanics class that would take me days to do by hand.

The most interesting piece of technology I work with is the Flight Simulator in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering building. My Flight Vehicle Dynamics class has a lab component where I get to spend time flying a simulated plane. It can mimic the effects of thunderstorms, night sky, and any other situation that a pilot should know how to handle! It's a really great tool for pilots to practice being in the air, and I like being able to work with it firsthand!

What drives your interest in technology? The way technology is able to help others motivates me to use my ability as an engineer to improve lives for the better. On the other hand, the potential for misuse of technology instills a responsibility in me to use my knowledge of the field to make recommendations to try and ensure that technologies are not abused by anyone. This ethical line is one that engineers should always keep in mind when designing the latest technology. All of the good we do for people with tech is very important work that I am proud to have a hand in, no matter how small.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? My first coding experience was during my first year in college. UVA students take an intro programming class that uses python. I was very nervous to start coding because I heard it was very difficult, and I didn't know how I would like it. By the end of the course, I wound up designing a game that could be played for points! The professor was very encouraging, and now I like coding because it is an excellent tool for problem solving.

What was your pathway to working in/studying technology? In early elementary school, I was very fascinated by space. But I was led to believe that due to my compassionate nature I would be better suited for careers that suited these traits, as opposed to the dry lab work of a scientist. I was part of a Law and Public Service program in high school because of my desire to help others and make our world a better place. Throughout high school, I loved my math and science classes, and eventually realized that engineering is a way to use math and science to help others. Because of my childhood passion, I chose to study Aerospace Engineering, and I have not regretted it.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? Having diversity in technology is immensely important. The best solutions to any problems will surface more easily when a group made up of unique perspectives is on the case. Having a blend of genders, ages, races, and upbringings will generate more ideas than any one demographic can create alone. Diversity is essential to develop robust solutions, and women can, do, and will contribute meaningfully to the technology problems of the day.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? Professor Ryals is part of the applied math department here at UVA. I took my first college math class with her while struggling to adjust to college life. I was experiencing issues with college outside of academia, but Calculus II definitely added to the difficulty. Having Professor Ryals push me mathematically from the start of my college career allowed me to grow into this discipline. I went on to take 3 more math courses with her, and still tell people that I want to emulate her intelligence and grace when I "grow up." Once I sorted out the rest of my college experience, math class became far better than it was when I was a first year. I am very thankful to Professor Ryals for helping me realize that I have the ability to learn new material, and that is what makes me a good engineer.

What most excites you about the future of technology? Being in the space industry, I am excited to see what is in store for human exploration. From a technological perspective, we're mostly capable of sending humans into space. What we need is to fix the belief issue, and get everyone excited about deep space exploration. If the general public can see how going into space helps us as a species, then we will be that much closer to seeing it happen.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would tell my younger self that being an emotional person is not as much of an obstacle as she was made to believe. Having compassion and empathy do not contradict the work of a scientist. Emotions are a real asset to an engineer, not a hindrance. Being emotionally invested in your work and the people you're working with makes you a motivated and caring teammate. STEM work can compliment public service needs well, and you will not have to choose sides.

#spotlight #aerospace engineering #STEM #women in tech #women in science

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wolfliving · 6 years ago

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The Boris Johnson Government is hiring

*This is ranking about a 9.1 on the fubarometer.

https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos/

JANUARY 2, 2020

DOMINIC CUMMINGS

‘Two hands are a lot’ — we’re hiring data scientists, project managers, policy experts, assorted weirdos…

‘This is possibly the single largest design flaw contributing to the bad Nash equilibrium in which … many governments are stuck. Every individual high-functioning competent person knows they can’t make much difference by being one more face in that crowd.’ Eliezer Yudkowsky, AI expert, LessWrong etc.

‘[M]uch of our intellectual elite who think they have “the solutions” have actually cut themselves off from understanding the basis for much of the most important human progress.’ Michael Nielsen, physicist and one of the handful of most interesting people I’ve ever talked to.

‘People, ideas, machines — in that order.’ Colonel Boyd.

‘There isn’t one novel thought in all of how Berkshire [Hathaway] is run. It’s all about … exploiting unrecognized simplicities.’ Charlie Munger,Warren Buffett’s partner.

‘Two hands, it isn’t much considering how the world is infinite. Yet, all the same, two hands, they are a lot.’ Alexander Grothendieck, one of the great mathematicians.

There are many brilliant people in the civil service and politics. Over the past five months the No10 political team has been lucky to work with some fantastic officials. But there are also some profound problems at the core of how the British state makes decisions. This was seen by pundit-world as a very eccentric view in 2014. It is no longer seen as eccentric. Dealing with these deep problems is supported by many great officials, particularly younger ones, though of course there will naturally be many fears — some reasonable, most unreasonable.

Now there is a confluence of: a) Brexit requires many large changes in policy and in the structure of decision-making, b) some people in government are prepared to take risks to change things a lot, and c) a new government with a significant majority and little need to worry about short-term unpopularity while trying to make rapid progress with long-term problems.

There is a huge amount of low hanging fruit — trillion dollar bills lying on the street — in the intersection of:

the selection, education and training of people for high performance

the frontiers of the science of prediction

data science, AI and cognitive technologies (e.g Seeing Rooms, ‘authoring tools designed for arguing from evidence’, Tetlock/IARPA prediction tournaments that could easily be extended to consider ‘clusters’ of issues around themes like Brexit to improve policy and project management)

communication (e.g Cialdini)

decision-making institutions at the apex of government.

We want to hire an unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds to work in Downing Street with the best officials, some as spads and perhaps some as officials. If you are already an official and you read this blog and think you fit one of these categories, get in touch.

The categories are roughly:

Data scientists and software developers

Economists

Policy experts

Project managers

Communication experts

Junior researchers one of whom will also be my personal assistant

Weirdos and misfits with odd skills

We want to improve performance and make me much less important — and within a year largely redundant. At the moment I have to make decisions well outside what Charlie Munger calls my ‘circle of competence’ and we do not have the sort of expertise supporting the PM and ministers that is needed. This must change fast so we can properly serve the public.

A. Unusual mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, data scientists

You must have exceptional academic qualifications from one of the world’s best universities or have done something that demonstrates equivalent (or greater) talents and skills. You do not need a PhD — as Alan Kay said, we are also interested in graduate students as ‘world-class researchers who don’t have PhDs yet’.

You should have the following:

PhD or MSc in maths or physics.

Outstanding mathematical skills are essential.

Experience of using analytical languages: e.g. Python, SQL, R.

Familiarity with data tools and technologies such as Postgres, Scikit Learn, NEO4J.

A few examples of papers that you will be considering:

This Nature paper, Early warning signals for critical transitions in a thermoacoustic system, looking at early warning systems in physics that could be applied to other areas from finance to epidemics.

Statistical & ML forecasting methods: Concerns and ways forward, Spyros Makridakis, 2018. This compares statistical and ML methods in a forecasting tournament (won by a hybrid stats/ML approach).

Complex Contagions : A Decade in Review, 2017. This looks at a large number of studies on ‘what goes viral and why?’. A lot of studies in this field are dodgy (bad maths, don’t replicate etc), an important question is which ones are worth examining.

Model-Free Prediction of Large Spatiotemporally Chaotic Systems from Data: A Reservoir Computing Approach, 2018. This applies ML to predict chaotic systems.

Scale-free networks are rare, Nature 2019. This looks at the question of how widespread scale-free networks really are and how useful this approach is for making predictions in diverse fields.

On the frequency and severity of interstate wars, 2019. ‘How can it be possible that the frequency and severity of interstate wars are so consistent with a stationary model, despite the enormous changes and obviously non-stationary dynamics in human population, in the number of recognized states, in commerce, communication, public health, and technology, and even in the modes of war itself? The fact that the absolute number and sizes of wars are plausibly stable in the face of these changes is a profound mystery for which we have no explanation.’ Does this claim stack up?

The papers on computational rationality below.

The work of Judea Pearl, the leading scholar of causation who has transformed the field.

You should be able to explain to other mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists the ideas in such papers, discuss what could be useful for our projects, synthesise ideas for other data scientists, and apply them to practical problems. You won’t be expert on the maths used in all these papers but you should be confident that you could study it and understand it.

We will be using machine learning and associated tools so it is important you can program. You do not need software development levels of programming but it would be an advantage.

Those applying must watch Bret Victor’s talks and study Dynamic Land. If this excites you, then apply; if not, then don’t. I and others interviewing will discuss this with anybody who comes for an interview. If you want a sense of the sort of things you’d be working on, then read my previous blog on Seeing Rooms, cognitive technologies etc.

B. Unusual software developers

We are looking for great software developers who would love to work on these ideas, build tools and work with some great people. You should also look at some of Victor’s technical talks on programming languages and the history of computing.

You will be working with data scientists, designers and others.

C. Unusual economists

We are looking to hire some recent graduates in economics. You should a) have an outstanding record at a great university, b) understand conventional economic theories, c) be interested in arguments on the edge of the field — for example, work by physicists on ‘agent-based models’ or by the hedge fund Bridgewater on the failures/limitations of conventional macro theories/prediction, and d) have very strong maths and be interested in working with mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists.

The ideal candidate might, for example, have a degree in maths and economics, worked at the LHC in one summer, worked with a quant fund another summer, and written software for a YC startup in a third summer!

We’ve found one of these but want at least one more.

The sort of conversation you might have is discussing these two papers in Science (2015): Computational rationality: A converging paradigm for intelligence in brains, minds, and machines, Gershman et al and Economic reasoning and artificial intelligence, Parkes & Wellman.

You will see in these papers an intersection of:

von Neumann’s foundation of game theory and ‘expected utility’,

mainstream economic theories,

modern theories about auctions,

theoretical computer science (including problems like the complexity of probabilistic inference in Bayesian networks, which is in the NP–hard complexity class),

ideas on ‘computational rationality’ and meta-reasoning from AI, cognitive science and so on.

If these sort of things are interesting, then you will find this project interesting.

It’s a bonus if you can code but it isn’t necessary.

D. Great project managers.

If you think you are one of the a small group of people in the world who are truly GREAT at project management, then we want to talk to you. Victoria Woodcock ran Vote Leave — she was a truly awesome project manager and without her Cameron would certainly have won. We need people like this who have a 1 in 10,000 or higher level of skill and temperament.

The Oxford Handbook on Megaprojects points out that it is possible to quantify lessons from the failures of projects like high speed rail projects because almost all fail so there is a large enough sample to make statistical comparisons, whereas there can be no statistical analysis of successes because they are so rare.

It is extremely interesting that the lessons of Manhattan (1940s), ICBMs (1950s) and Apollo (1960s) remain absolutely cutting edge because it is so hard to apply them and almost nobody has managed to do it. The Pentagon systematically de-programmed itself from more effective approaches to less effective approaches from the mid-1960s, in the name of ‘efficiency’. Is this just another way of saying that people like General Groves and George Mueller are rarer than Fields Medallists?

Anyway — it is obvious that improving government requires vast improvements in project management. The first project will be improving the people and skills already here.

If you want an example of the sort of people we need to find in Britain, look at this on CC Myers — the legendary builders. SPEED. We urgently need people with these sort of skills and attitude. (If you think you are such a company and you could dual carriageway the A1 north of Newcastle in record time, then get in touch!)

E. Junior researchers

In many aspects of government, as in the tech world and investing, brains and temperament smash experience and seniority out of the park.

We want to hire some VERY clever young people either straight out of university or recently out with with extreme curiosity and capacity for hard work.

One of you will be a sort of personal assistant to me for a year — this will involve a mix of very interesting work and lots of uninteresting trivia that makes my life easier which you won’t enjoy. You will not have weekday date nights, you will sacrifice many weekends — frankly it will hard having a boy/girlfriend at all. It will be exhausting but interesting and if you cut it you will be involved in things at the age of ~21 that most people never see.

I don’t want confident public school bluffers. I want people who are much brighter than me who can work in an extreme environment. If you play office politics, you will be discovered and immediately binned.

F. Communications

In SW1 communication is generally treated as almost synonymous with ‘talking to the lobby’. This is partly why so much punditry is ‘narrative from noise’.

With no election for years and huge changes in the digital world, there is a chance and a need to do things very differently.

We’re particularly interested in deep experts on TV and digital. We also are interested in people who have worked in movies or on advertising campaigns. There are some very interesting possibilities in the intersection of technology and story telling — if you’ve done something weird, this may be the place for you.

I noticed in the recent campaign that the world of digital advertising has changed very fast since I was last involved in 2016. This is partly why so many journalists wrongly looked at things like Corbyn’s Facebook stats and thought Labour was doing better than us — the ecosystem evolves rapidly while political journalists are still behind the 2016 tech, hence why so many fell for Carole’s conspiracy theories. The digital people involved in the last campaign really knew what they are doing, which is incredibly rare in this world of charlatans and clients who don’t know what they should be buying. If you are interested in being right at the very edge of this field, join.

We have some extremely able people but we also must upgrade skills across the spad network.

G. Policy experts

One of the problems with the civil service is the way in which people are shuffled such that they either do not acquire expertise or they are moved out of areas they really know to do something else. One Friday, X is in charge of special needs education, the next week X is in charge of budgets.

There are, of course, general skills. Managing a large organisation involves some general skills. Whether it is Coca Cola or Apple, some things are very similar — how to deal with people, how to build great teams and so on. Experience is often over-rated. When Warren Buffett needed someone to turn around his insurance business he did not hire someone with experience in insurance: ‘When Ajit entered Berkshire’s office on a Saturday in 1986, he did not have a day’s experience in the insurance business’ (Buffett).

Shuffling some people who are expected to be general managers is a natural thing but it is clear Whitehall does this too much while also not training general management skills properly. There are not enough people with deep expertise in specific fields.

If you want to work in the policy unit or a department and you really know your subject so that you could confidently argue about it with world-class experts, get in touch.

It’s also the case that wherever you are most of the best people are inevitably somewhere else. This means that governments must be much better at tapping distributed expertise. Of the top 20 people in the world who best understand the science of climate change and could advise us what to do with COP 2020, how many now work as a civil servant/spad or will become one in the next 5 years?

G. Super-talented weirdos

People in SW1 talk a lot about ‘diversity’ but they rarely mean ‘true cognitive diversity’. They are usually babbling about ‘gender identity diversity blah blah’. What SW1 needs is not more drivel about ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ from Oxbridge humanities graduates but more genuine cognitive diversity.

We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole, weirdos from William Gibson novels like that girl hired by Bigend as a brand ‘diviner’ who feels sick at the sight of Tommy Hilfiger or that Chinese-Cuban free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB. If you want to figure out what characters around Putin might do, or how international criminal gangs might exploit holes in our border security, you don’t want more Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake news about fake news.

By definition I don’t really know what I’m looking for but I want people around No10 to be on the lookout for such people.

We need to figure out how to use such people better without asking them to conform to the horrors of ‘Human Resources’ (which also obviously need a bonfire).

Send a max 1 page letter plus CV to [email protected] and put in the subject line ‘job/’ and add after the / one of: data, developer, econ, comms, projects, research, policy, misfit.

I’ll have to spend time helping you so don’t apply unless you can commit to at least 2 years.

I’ll bin you within weeks if you don’t fit — don’t complain later because I made it clear now.

I will try to answer as many as possible but last time I publicly asked for job applications in 2015 I was swamped and could not, so I can’t promise an answer. If you think I’ve insanely ignored you, persist for a while.

I will use this blog to throw out ideas. It’s important when dealing with large organisations to dart around at different levels, not be stuck with formal hierarchies. It will seem chaotic and ‘not proper No10 process’ to some. But the point of this government is to do things differently and better and this always looks messy. We do not care about trying to ‘control the narrative’ and all that New Labour junk and this government will not be run by ‘comms grid’.

As Paul Graham and Peter Thiel say, most ideas that seem bad are bad but great ideas also seem at first like bad ideas — otherwise someone would have already done them. Incentives and culture push people in normal government systems away from encouraging ‘ideas that seem bad’. Part of the point of a small, odd No10 team is to find and exploit, without worrying about media noise, what Andy Grove called ‘very high leverage ideas’ and these will almost inevitably seem bad to most.

I will post some random things over the next few weeks and see what bounces back — it is all upside, there’s no downside if you don’t mind a bit of noise and it’s a fast cheap way to find good ideas…

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