#I need this peer reviewed. I went in more detail on Twitter

[answersfromzestual]

I want to talk about something today. Something very important for younger people and newer people coming out.

Research with legitimate sources, aka scholarly articles and medical journals/studies. Wiki is not a good source, people can change info at any point true or untrue.

We want to look for articles with medical and area professionals clearly placing their name in and on the article, or the most reliable sources are called scholarly articles and medical journals/studies, also some gender affirming clinics lay out a lot of information on their websites, most clinics dont mind answering your questions or concerns via email or phone (they may get back to you at a later date). When looking for information, you want peer reviewed medical information. Google has these features that can help narrow down your search for more accurate results. Using quotes around exact words or phrases is a trick to narrow down to more on topic search results.

Also, use Google Scholar (just type "Google scholar" into the search bar to find only actual medical articles and studies. Even lawsuits.

This is the google search bar for scholarly information below:

****READ THE ARTICLE FROM START TO FINISH OR AT LEAST THE PART(S) THAT PORTAIN TO YOUR RESEARCH!(some articles can include more than one study)****

Don't only use one source for your information, find as many as you can until you feel confident in the field of medicines and your concolusions about them. Information you use should be verified by several responsibly written articles, journals, and/or studies.

Call surgeons' offices, ask questions.

Research doctors in your area or a doctor you really like, again don't be afraid to call or email clinics!

When it comes to surgery and your body, if you have a bad feeling, any bad gut feelings before they put you under, about the surgeron or their methods, even team. You can back out until you are knocked out. You can say no as soon as you walk into the surgical suite. You worry about you.

Please, when going onto transgender groups (facebook and stuff), that not everyone is being genuine with you. People can be anything or anyone on the internet, behind that screen. I see trans people spreading anti-transtional propaganda (not on purpose), and they don't notice or know better. The negative people tend to pick out their victims early, cling onto someone newer in transitioning or even just joining the group. They probably try getting chummy really fast, getting into a lot of detail very early. They will start bringing up [negative] transitional things when they have nothing to do with the conversation you are having. It's a red flag when you can't talk about anything but "transitioning," and its a sign you need to block if all they say are negative, things. Life happens, but you don't need to drown yourself in negativity. Beware of people on the internet. Their intent is not always good, anyone can lie, anyone can find fake pictures for their profile, anyone can pretend to be someone they are not. Some of us should know that well as trans folk. Some people are even legitimate and are perhaps mad/ unhappy about their results and tend to use way overly dramatic words to describe their results, these people usually aren't telling you the whole truth. People also tend not to want to put any blame on themselves. If you aren't being honest yourself about your results and what and where things went wrong thats not okay. That,or telling someone not to do something that prevents transitioning or calming their dysphoria, that's considered transphobia.

It's important to also know that Facebook, Twitter, etc. are often looked at by employers, so many people will not use their own profiles to be a imaginary person.

Edit: Yes, transgender people can be transphobic as well. Look up Caitlin Jenner and what she's said and tried to do. Let me tell you now, she said transwomen should not be allowed to compete in sporting events, claiming "allowing transwomen to compete destroys women's sports" . So please, if you use that card, put it back in the deck. It's not true, and it's just a wrong blanket statement altogether. There are people who finish their transition and forget they had the rights they want taken away.

I want you to know and it's important to know many end results almost solely rely on the person and how they take care of themselves pre-op and post-op (yes taking care of your body before matters for optimum results). If you are heavier, your body has a harder time healing. This can cause complications and less favorable results because of those complications. I do have a post on being larger and surgical complications that are involved with that. (Here are some links about plus sized risks and general risks: plus size, general risks)

From Dad Shadow: Remember, don't tell anyone online personal information, even if you have been talking for years. Also, do not place yourself (ex. "Im gunna to go to the Starbucks on fifth around the corner from my house." this is especially bad if they may know your partial location) Someone can figure out your identity/location. Don't reveal anything you'd be asked to use as an account recovery question. When I was a younger adult, I saw someone post an image of a girl he met on 'Omegle', saying, "They accidentally got disconnected." Within two hours, everything about this girl was on this thread... from her name, where she was attending school, her personal address, her Facebook. All of it. It was more than one person looking and posting as well. People can be like this... I know you know, but the Dad in me wants to remind you. Browse safely!

I hope you read this and found it helpful everyone. I felt this is a need and it doesn't need post secondary education classes to teach you how to properly find sourced information for reports (same as your knowledge on the subject you are talking about).

P.s keeping your skin elasticity is very important, so mosturize your pecks, let it dry, then put on your binder.

Stay Golden Everyone ✌️ 💙 💜

[asexualjedi]

I think Rex’s semails (space emails) all have sent from my space iPhone at the end.

[undoundue]

i don’t know anything except how stories go

i don’t know anything except how stories go

the music isn't as good as i thought it would be

i'm not sure if i've taken enough drugs or too much

when i take too much, i get grandiose: big ideas. little follow-through.

when i take not enough, i also get grandiose, but i know it,

and i sound like a graveyard glass harmonica when

the wind passes through. when i take the right amount, i do not ask

whether i've taken enough drugs or too much.

instead i hallucinate that i'm a cicada, an elegant disgusting jewel

smithed by mommy nature to reproduce a tinny song,

and i'm grateful to my parents

and the 17 years i spent gestating

and this morbid cherry tree

because nobody buckles their tymbals like i. also, cicadas lack

the relevant receptors altogether,

so the dosing question doesn't apply.

(beat) say,

have you noticed that zoomers are really into columbo?

(you nod)

i've seen him on twitter twice lately, asking "just one more

question—which would you prefer as an afternoon snack?"

and there's a poll, cheez-its

or little debbie snack cakes.

the appeal, i think, is to a generational forgetfulness, to

a generation most in need of alarm clocks and aricept,

to the desire to see forgetfulness as a superpower, as an

equivalent to innocence, to be so impervious to

reality's demands. but haven't we been here

before? didn't milennials all die for the sin of inventing "retro

gaming"? and by the way,

did you hear the one about the guy who gave himself three-hundred

and ninety-one concussions, each time suffering retrograde amnesia

which knocked out his memory of his last pokemon red playthrough?

ah. ah yes. it is not a tale the jedi would tell you.

when i take too much, i get despondent. when i take not enough, i

get grandiose. but the line breaks are for the poet's benefit anyway.

besides, there are kids smoking brick weed in lebanon, we should be

thankful for what we have.

and hex maniac is pretty cute. her pupils spiral

counterclockwise,

going from out to in; in some of the fan art they go the other way but

you can tell those guys don't "get it"; the allure of a counterclockwise

spin on how you are perceived, to have your silhouette distorted

and your details properly misunderstood, to lose at games you've

never heard of it, to eat with chopsticks incorrectly,

to trip and fall and look at the sidewalk and say "thank you.

yes. i had grown complacent in my patterns, my

nucleus accumbens

was running on fumes; and i certainly wasn't expecting that!" and

mean it. i did this once. i was in a state of rare tranquility after

masturbating for sixteen consecutive hours (essentially a

performance enhancing drug for meditation—which is why,

in the tibetan olympics, strict no-fap is required for a week

before competition—and they take semen samples to be sure!)

so (you nod), when the buddha saw me

so grateful for life's misfortunes, he made a "look

at this fucking guy" gesture to ganesh and then said "look at this

fucking guy" as if the gesture wasn't enough. naturally,

i was offended, and besides i recalled the old koan "If you meet the

Buddha on the road, kill him," which i had read in a collection

of koans for children titled "If you meet the Buddha..." which

my Mom had purchased for me in the novelty gift section

of an urban outfitters in santa barbara ("Mom, why are you shopping

at urban outftters?" "son, yr mama just tryin' ta stay cool. say, you

heard of this MF DOOM cat?" "ugh! Mom!") and which had

such thought-provoking aphorisms as:

"If you meet the Buddha in an airport, buy him a cheeseburger."

"If you meet the Buddha at a dive bar, play him some new wave—the

Buddha is big into that shit." the idea being, you're prepared for any

circumstance, which is what buddhism is all about. so i did a

bunch of fast attacks; the buddha blocked; i said "shouldn't

it be all the same to you if i kill you?" the buddha said "it would,

except i want to get home and watch columbo, and i don't

want to wait to respawn." i said, "jesus. just—jesus." then the buddha

kicked me through a brick wall. everyone in the WeWork

screamed and fled, leaving their kombucha behind, and

for some reason the sprinklers went off. then, after the initial

impact, a lone brick fell (because of torque—force times the length of

the lever, remember) and hit me comically on the head, causing a

concussion. i said "guh."

yup, (you nod sympathetically),

i was feeling mighty grim. then it occurred to me: why don't i

play pokémon red? unfortunately, on my cellphone i only had

the romhack version, you know, where all the pokémon are allegories

for depression. so you got your depressionmander, depressioneleon,

depressionizard, and for pokémon where that doesn't work

they use it as a suffix, e.g. bulbadepression, ivydepression,

venudepression. also you can't leave the starting room and

your character moves really slowly. the indie gaming press

loves it. one of the features that reviewers single out is

that, instead of a lone Stand By Me reference, the TV in your room

goes line by line through Aguirre, the Wrath of God, except the

murders are replaced with pokémon battles and at the end

aguirre tries to command a horde of mankeys ("depressionkeys"),

which is a metaphor. dark stuff. it makes me think back on my youth:

lying on my child-king sized bed, masturbating to polyhedral

stellations, suffering from severe geometric dysmorphia as i

compared myself to the grandeur of those idealized forms—god, i

used to hate myself for those wasted hours. i mean, i still do, but i

used to, too. only after years of therapy have i developed a mantra

that eases the pain:

"i am mostly a cylinder.

i am mostly a cylinder." presto. you can get off to anything, even

loomis.

(you nod, hesitantly.) on saturday night,

i throw open the window and scream at the children: "you'll get old

too! an abstractome of brittle opinions even as your bumbling

homunculus drops the data you once used to back them up!"

the children reply "not necessarily, given the rate of advances in

biotech. also, no one cares, grandpa." they play soccer. my

mad pilgrim hair blows in the wind. i scream: "suffer! suffer! i am

omniscience!" they say: "oh yeah? how many fingers am i

holding up?" "four! five! four!" "it was five, you old fart." "the thumb

doesn't count as a finger! you should have a specified!" "OK, new

game: what sort of person am i?" "you are—you are—!" and so

i peer into their souls and know the answer, but i can't

find the words. the words do not come. i have forgotten them.

silently i draw away from the window. the children smirk, but only for

a moment. for they know i am right.

ah, to reveal the soul's heist, to be seen through by the omniscient

and powerless, what a delight! who among us would not cheerfully

kill the buddha when he's comin' through the rye? who among us

has not been blessed by the kind words of a stranger? and yet, we

shouldn't incentivize people to be strangers. society would collapse.

besides, we are no longer strangers to ourselves, you and i.

(you nod.) we will have much to discuss about that.

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Comic Review - Amongst Us Book 1

A masterful combination of comedy, subtle romance, and incredible sensuality

I make no attempts to hide my complete admiration and infatuation with Shilin Huang's Yuri webcomic Amongst Us. The slice of life AU featuring reimagined versions of the lead characters from fantasy series Carciphona as a lesbian couple has held a special place in my heart for a long time. I named the series one of the best Yuri works of the past one-hundred years, can frequently be found lurking in the author's Twitch streams, and even have a wall in my office dedicated to the artwork of the main couple (or I did before my office became a remote classroom). So, when a Kickstarter by Shilin and Hiveworks Comics launched promising a print version of the work, I was eager to support it financially and promote it with my humble platform. The Kickstarter took place in March, and books were initially estimated for release in May of 2020. However, as you have probably realized by the dates alone, the world went very South around this time. A combination of disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, a healthy amount of bad luck, and what I am inclined to believe, for various reasons, was some awful mismanagement by Hiveworks led to numerous delays. Indeed, by the time the book finally shipped, I had moved, so my copy arrived a little later as it had to be forwarded. But, at the end of this frustrating and anticipation-building event, I finally have the volume in my hands, and it was worth the wait. While I adore the webcomic, this gorgeous print volume completely enthralls me. The book is absolutely the preferred way to read this spectacular comic.

Before getting into the exquisite details of Amongst Us Book 1: Soulmates, I need to take a minute to praise how well this book is put together. The paperback binding is thick and features amazing spot glass that sparkles in the light. This feature only accentuates the fantastic and bright the cover illustration of main characters Veloce and Blackbird loving holding each other is. The back cover has a simpler but more imaginative illustration of the two flying through the sky, and the character's expressions tell you everything you need to know about this fantastic, odd couple. There are a few things you will notice upon opening the volume. The first is how well Amongst Us made the challenging transition from vertical webcomic to the page. The assembly and paneling are fantastic and clear, and chapters feature stylized illustrations and title cards. You will then see the inside cover, a powerful display that perfectly contrasts the front's glowing and tender love. Finally, there is Shilin's presents moving forward and dedication, where she lovingly dedicates the book to her partner, Kristen.

I assure you, as good as the book's presentation and assembly is, the contents within are even better. Amongst Us follows Veloce and Blackbird's bombastic relationship. The two women are eccentric and striking musicians in their early twenties, and I swear you will never forget them. The slice of life storylines are, per the genre's definition, mundane and include events like shopping at the mall, riding the train, and having lunch with a friend. The charming simplicity of the story serves well to the reactions of the characters. Shilin effortlessly transitions from adorable moments of affection to explosive and hilarious comedy and irresistible and delightful moments of sexual tension; Veloce's neck and jawline alone could topple a monarchy. Often, slice of life works can become dull or repetitive, but these stories and the frequent changes in tone help the reader stay engaged and excited.

Putting slice of life aside for a moment, it is also important to note that Amongst Us is also has an interesting place within the Yuri genre, or "Girl's Love/GL" as it is often called in webcomic circles (originally an analogous term of Boy's Love). Webcomics have often been a bit more adventurous with their storylines and styles than Japanese manga. While the genre rose to popularity in the space thanks to digital manhwa and manhua, some (not all) of the Yuri tropes did not carry over between the similar mediums. Many modern webcomics and webtoons take their inspiration more from manhwa and manhua GL, which has developed its own canon and tropes over the years. However, even for a webcomic, Shilin's work feels somewhat divorced from most other worlds of Yuri. This first volume exists mainly against the Yuri genre's expectations. However, the next book, which flashes back to the couple's origin, undoubtedly is more in line with convention, for better or worse. It feels like the author decided to screw the norms and write a work that she would enjoy, and I am so glad that she did. Veloce and Blackbird are young adults, out of school in an established relationship with no drama. This (sadly) unconventional setting is made all the more irregular because of just how distinctive, and unwonted Blackbird and Veloce are.

Blackbird and Veloce, originally from the fantasy world of Carciphona, take on a new life, literally, in this wonderful modern reimagining and homage. You do not need to be a fan of the original work to enjoy their bizarre and larger-than-life personalities. Indeed, when I read Amongst Us online for the first time, I had not ever even heard of Carciphona. Veloce is the quieter and more stoic of the two, although she is not afraid of showing a more relatable and human side as she reacts to Blackbirds wild antics. Veloce's (not)straight man approach is hilariously sobering. But, her best moments are in those when she lets loose a little bit, like when she is rendered drooling by the promise of her favorite smoothie or in her stoic yet alluring flirtations with Blackbird, only to get close enough to steal a healthy chomp of ice cream.

Blackbird, on her part, is completely insane. She continuously pulls of wild antics like jumping on Veloce to surprise her or singing an especially threatening song after a glorious battle over lunch. However, she is perfectly capable of showing her love and admiration for Veloce in her own cheeky way. However, true to form, each softer or more personal moment between the two is often immediately and perfectly juxtaposed with comedy, with the apparent exception of the book's touching and thoughtful finale. Veloce and Blackbird will both more than please readers individually, but you will fall in love with them as a couple. I must have read this at least a few dozen times between the webtoon and the book, and I am just as enchanted as ever by their loud and unapologetic love.

The ordinary misadventures of Blackbird and Veloce are accompanied by genuinely astounding artwork. No, that statement does not do Shilin's illustrations justice. Veloce and Blackbird lead from the page thanks to stunning, full-color illustrations that detail every moment of hilarity. Every movement from the slightest smirk to the over-the-top dramatizations of regular events thoughtfully and beautifully sprawl across the pages and invite you to stare for hours. Shilin is the only person possible who could make something as simple as someone softly singing Happy Birthday so epic and sultry. Speaking of which, my goddess of Yuri is this work titillating. No, there are no gratuitous scenes, but just the characters leaning over each other or touching the other's chin makes my hands shake. My only small complaint is that some early chapters show their age slightly with noticeably lower quality linework and flatter colors than the dazzling and dynamic work demonstrated towards the end. Still, even on its worst day, Amongst Us looks better than most of its peers and the entirety of its many inferiors.

Amongst Us is nearly the perfect work. It has a uniquely compelling and mirth-inducing way of displaying a young yet very unordinary couple's everyday life. Its characters, from design to personality, are instantly memorable and striking. Despite being ready to rip each other's heads off at the drop of a hat, or rather because of it, Blackbird and Veloce feel the perfect and natural couple we so rarely witness. Shilin's masterful combination of comedy, subtle romance, and incredible sensuality is astounding. This book is worth it for the outstanding and vibrant artwork alone, but its combination with excellent writing create a sonorous and majestic modern romance unlike any other. I believe that Shilin has created something genuinely special here, and I can confidently say that out of the hundreds of webcomics I have read, this one is the pinnacle of its kind and my absolute favorite.

You can purchase Amongst Us book 1: Soulmates exclusively on Shilin's online shop and read the webcomic now for free on Twitter, Webtoon and Tumblr​ @okolnir​.

Ratings: Story – 9 Characters – 10 Art – 10 LGBTQ – 8 Sexual Content – 5 Final – 10

[tinyshe]

Why I’m Removing All Articles Related to Vitamins D, C, Zinc and COVID-19

source

Over the past year, I’ve been researching and  writing as much as I can to help you take control of your health, as  fearmongering media and corrupt politicians have destroyed lives and  livelihoods to establish global control of the world’s population, using the  COVID-19 pandemic as their justification.

I’ve also kept you informed about billionaire-backed  front groups like the Center for Science  in the Public Interest (CSPI), a partner of  Bill Gates’ Alliance for Science, both of whom have led campaigns aimed at  destroying my reputation and censoring the information I share.

Other attackers include HealthGuard, which ranks  health sites based on a certain set of “credibility criteria.” It has sought to  discredit my website by ensuring warnings appear whenever you search for my   articles or enter my website in an internet browser.

Well-Organized  Attack Partnerships Have Formed

HealthGuard, a niche service of NewsGuard, is funded  by the pharma-funded public relations company Publicis  Groupe. Publicis,  in turn, is a partner of the World Economic Forum, which is leading the call  for a “Great Reset” of the global economy and a complete overhaul of our way of  life.

HealthGuard is also partnered with Gates’ Microsoft company, and drug advertising  websites like WebMD and Medscape, as well as the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — the  progressive cancel-culture leader with extensive ties to government and  global think tanks that recently labeled people questioning the COVID-19 vaccine  as a national security threat.

The CCDH has published a hit list naming me as one  of the top 12 individuals responsible for 65% of vaccine “disinformation” on social  media, and who therefore must be deplatformed and silenced for the public good.  In a March 24, 2021, letter1 to the CEO’s of Twitter and Facebook, 12 state  attorneys general called for the removal of our accounts from these platforms,  based on the CCDH’s report.

Two of those state attorneys  general also published an  April 8, 2021, op-ed2 in The Washington Post, calling on Facebook and Twitter to ban  the “anti-vaxxers” identified by the CCDH. The  lack of acceptance of novel gene therapy technology, they claim, is all because  a small group of individuals with a social media presence — myself included —  are successfully misleading the public with lies about nonexistent vaccine  risks.

“The solution is not complicated. It’s time  for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to turn off this  toxic tap and completely remove the small handful of individuals spreading this   fraudulent misinformation,” they wrote.3

Pharma-funded politicians and pharma-captured  health agencies have also relentlessly attacked me and pressured tech monopolies to censor and deplatform me,  removing my ability to express my opinions and speak freely over the past year.

The CCDH also somehow has been allowed to  publish4 in the journal Nature Medicine, calling for the “dismantling” of the “anti-vaccine”  industry. In the article, CCDH founder Imran Ahmed repeats the lie that he “attended and recorded a private, three-day   meeting of the world’s most prominent anti-vaxxers,” when, in fact, what he’s  referring to was a public online conference open to an international audience,  all of whom had access to the recordings as part of their attendance fee.  

The CCDH is also  partnered with another obscure group called Anti-Vax Watch. The picture below  is from an Anti-Vax Watch demonstration outside the halls of Congress.  Ironically, while the CCDH claims to be anti-extremism, you’d be hard-pressed  to find a clearer example of actual extremism than this bizarre duo.5

Gates-Funded  Doctor Demands Terrorist Experts to Attack Me

Most recently, Dr. Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin  Vaccine Institute,6 which  has received tens of millions of dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates  Foundation,7,8,9 — with funds from the foundation most recently being used to create a report  called “Meeting the Challenge of Vaccine Hesitancy,”10,11 — also cited the CCDH in a Nature article in which he calls for cyberwarfare  experts to be enlisted in the war against vaccine safety advocates and people  who are “vaccine hesitant.” He writes:12

“Accurate, targeted counter-messaging from the  global health community is important but insufficient, as is public pressure on   social-media companies. The United Nations and the highest levels of government  must take direct, even confrontational, approaches with Russia, and move to  dismantle anti-vaccine groups in the United States.

Efforts must expand into the realm of cyber  security, law enforcement, public education and international relations. A  high-level inter-agency task force reporting to the UN secretary-general could   assess the full impact of anti-vaccine aggression, and propose tough, balanced  measures.

The task force should include experts who have  tackled complex global threats such as terrorism, cyber attacks and nuclear  armament, because anti-science is now approaching similar levels of peril. It  is becoming increasingly clear that advancing immunization requires a   counteroffensive.”

Why is Hotez calling for the use of warfare  tactics on American citizens that have done nothing illegal? In my case, could  it be because I’ve written about the theory that SARS-CoV-2 is an engineered   virus, created through gain-of-function research, and that its release was anticipated  by global elites, as evidenced in Event 201?

It may be. At least those are some of my  alleged “sins,” detailed on page 10 of the CCDH report, “Disinformation Dozen:  The Sequel.”13 Coincidentally enough, the Nature journal has helped cover up gain-of-function  research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, publishing a shoddy zoonotic origins study relied upon my  mainstream media and others, which was riddled with problems.14,15

So, it’s not misinformation  they are afraid of. They’re afraid of the truth getting out. They’re all trying  to cover for the Chinese military and the dangerous mad scientists conducting  gain-of-function work.

You may have noticed our  website was recently unavailable; this was due to direct cyber-attacks launched  against us. We have several layers of protective mechanisms to secure the  website as we’ve anticipated such attacks from malevolent organizations.

What This Means for  You

Through these progressively increasing  stringent measures, I have refused to succumb to these governmental and pharmaceutical  thugs and their relentless attacks. I have been confident and willing to  defend myself in the court of law, as I’ve had everything reviewed by some of   the best attorneys in the country.

Unfortunately, threats have now become very  personal and have intensified to the point I can no longer preserve much of the   information and research I’ve provided to you thus far. These threats are not  legal in nature, and I have limited ability to defend myself against them. If  you can imagine what billionaires and their front groups are capable of, I can  assure you they have been creative in deploying their assets to have this  content removed.

Sadly, I must also  remove my peer reviewed published study16 on the “Evidence Regarding Vitamin D and Risk of COVID-19 and  Its Severity.” It will, however, remain in the highly-respected journal   Nutrients’ website, where you can still access it for free.

The MATH+ hospital treatment protocol for  COVID-19 and the iMASK+ prevention and early outpatient COVID-19 protocol —  both of which are based on the use of vitamins C, D, quercetin, zinc and  melatonin — are available on the Front  Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance’s website. I suggest you bookmark these resources for future reference.

It is with a  heavy heart that I purge my website of valuable information. As noted by Dr.  Peter McCullough during a recent Texas state Senate Health and Human Services  Committee hearing, data shows early treatment could have prevented up to 85% (425,000)  of COVID-19 deaths.17 Yet early treatments were all heavily censored and suppressed.

McCullough, in  addition to being a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Texas A&M  University Health Sciences Center, also has the distinction of having published  the most papers of any person in the history of his field, and being an editor  of two major medical journals. Despite that, his video, in which he went  through a paper he’d published detailing effective early treatments, was  summarily banned by YouTube in 2020.

“No wonder  we have had 45,000 deaths in Texas. The average person in Texas thinks there’s  no treatment!” McCullough told the senate panel.18 Indeed, people are in dire  need of more information detailing how they can protect their health, not less.  But there’s only so much I  can do to protect myself against current attack strategies.

They’ve moved past censorship. Just what do you  call people who advocate counteroffensive attacks by terrorism and cyberwarfare   experts? You’d think we could have a debate and be protected under free speech  but, no, we’re not allowed. These lunatics are dangerously unhinged.

The U.S. federal government is going along with  the global Great Reset plan (promoted as “building back better”), but this plan  won’t build anything but a technological prison. What we need is a massive   campaign to preserve civil rights, and vote out the pawns who are destroying  our freedom while concentrating wealth and power.

[jessica-harrison]

Skills

Cover photo: https://www.ipr.edu/blogs/audio-production/what-can-i-do-with-an-audio-production-degree/

As mentioned in the 'Industry Research' section of this blog, it isn't just the technical skills future employers will want to see. They want to see how your passion and art is fuelled also!! Sound design is more than just a series of sticking sounds together in a DAW. It's all about creating the other half of the story!

Core values & necessary skills

In my blog's branding section, I spoke about core values and those I deem to be top of my list. Core values make us who we are. It's what drives ambition and our creative thought process.

Accountability is high on my list of values/skills. Being accountable for the amount and quality of work we do is crucial. Often we dismiss our failures because we won't hold ourselves responsible. Though, at the other end of the spectrum, we more often than not, sing our praises. So holding yourself accountable as an individual or team unit, is just as crucial during the failures as it is during the success.

Whilst, teamwork is a very cliché term used with regards to employability, it remains a massive part of my core skill set. Being surrounded by team members is an excellent way to find a creative place in a project. I can then take those ideas and present for peer review. Having people to work with not only makes producing a big project easier. Still, it gives me a tremendous sense of satisfaction that like-minded creatives have come together to create something incredible.

Passion is a big part of what drives me. Music and composing is such a wonderful expression of artistry for me. Not just the music side of things, but I then took my love for music (and audio in general) regarding sound design. I began exploring the more intricate realms of audio. Each day my passions grow, but I NEVER wonder why I love what I do, not even on my worst days.

Respect is a skill I'm continually re-evaluating. I think it is undeniably essential to respect other people and their creative differences.

Continuous improvement is about always finding new and exciting ways to work. Technology changes exceptionally fast these days, and in audio production, the skillsets also have to change. Keeping up to date on industry techniques, skills, and methods will ensure I stay relevant to the expected work output. There are some general skills required to be a sound designer composer within the creative industries. However, some more specific skills are necessary if specialising in TV & film or games.

Basic skills: 

Creating, maintaining and backing of own original sound libraries.

Digital signal processing

Producing sound maps/ storyboards from scripts.

Mixing inside Digital Audio Workstations

Work along with side other members of the audio post-production team

Sector-specific skills

TV/Film and Game skills:

Compose and engineer music

improving sound quality

Spot, arrange and edit audio into video, or other mediums.

Use visual logic systems such as Max MSP.

Use of game implementation systems, i.e. Unity, Unreal, Fmod and Wwise.

Layering sounds to have a desired/or specific effect.

I have begun creating and collating my sound libraries last year. At first, I had incredibly long titles for samples and one-shots but started finding it hard to achieve all of the sounds (both RAW and edited). That was until I came across the word 'metadata'. Having a logical and easily navigable database of sounds is crucial to making my workflow more efficiently. I'm starting my journey into audio metadata with a free app called Soundly. Soundly offers a free-plan with up to 2500 local file storage and access to free cloud-based sound effects. To start, this will be ideal, but I would like to look at other plans that will include Cloud storage backup in the future. Currently I backup all of my libraries onto an 8TB desktop drive, another external HDD and my google drive. 

What is digital sound processing or DSP, you may ask? Digital sound processing is where audio converts from analogue to digital signal. A series of mathematical calculations are then applied before the signal returns to analogue before final output. As a producer/composer/sound designer, I use various plugins to manipulate the sounds inside my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Plugins come in many forms. VST is the most common form of an audio plugin and is Microsoft's Virtual Studio Technology. Avid uses its plugin file system called AAX (Avid Audio Extension), and Apple uses its own AU system (Audio Unit).

Below is a small list of plugins that I utilise during my time working on projects in the studio:

Fabfilter Pro-Q 3

Waves H delay

iZotope RX8 - Music Rebalance

Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation AAX plugin (Pro Tools)

I use Logic Pro X as my music production/composition DAW of choice. I believe this offers a great deal of flexibility to music composers alike. 

In contrast, I use Pro Tools as my post-production tool. Here, I produce final mixes of songs before proceeding onto the mastering process, which I also use Pro Tools. Pro Tools is also my DAW of choice for sound design work, purely because of its sheer power in dealing with raw audio.

During a mix-down phase of a musical composition, you should hear each instrument with clarity. Musical instruments all operate at different frequencies within the frequency spectrum. By respecting the base frequencies at which a particular instrument's audio outputs, I can make the final asset as audibly clear as possible, for maximum viewing pleasure. 

When working on sound design projects, I will often improve the sound of my source audio captured when out in the field inside iZotope RX8. Here I will remove clicks, hissing, background hum, de-verb, and even isolate parts of dialogue to ensure that audio is optimal for project usage.

I do love writing music and producing sound effects! I like to create work for TV & film, animations, interactive media, audiobooks and more. I import video assets into my DAW (Logic Pro X or Pro Tools depending on projects final output). 

This way, I have a visual in front of me from which to work. You can then lock the audio event in position with the video using SMTPE time code. This way, it keeps my music and sound effects in the exact place they need to be, without fear of being moved or adjusted in any way. Just don't forget to lock the positions!!

Max MSP is a powerful visual logic system for generating sound design and producing electronic music. I am new to this software and am learning new and exciting ways to integrate MAX MSP into my DAW workflow. I decided to explore the unique and intricate methods of composing music and designing sound for various media forms.

Examples of work

The best way to showcase both technical and artistic skill is quite obviously through social media platforms. Instagram has become a staple platform where businesses and creatives promote themselves and their craft. There are other platforms such as YouTube, SoundCloud, Twitter, Facebook (and don't forget LinkedIn!) to name but a few. With all of these beautiful places to promote me and work, I must consider the type of content I post to maintain maximum engagement with audiences and potential employers.

After many years of making and producing music at home, my interest in exploring the world of all thing's audio continued to grow. I purchased myself a simple, cheap portable recorder, some dirt-cheap microphones, and just went out and explored the world around me. At first, I made some novice mistakes in just aimlessly pointing and pressing the record button. Still, I soon learned that I merely heard things playback after recording. I never stopped to listen before I hit that big red button!

Slowly I got better (still, a long way to go), but most importantly I absolutely loved the process, and still am! I took great inspiration from reading the sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers (https://www.ricviers.com/sound-effects-bible) and Field Recording from Research To Wrap by Paul Virostek (https://www.creativefieldrecording.com/downloads/field-recording-from-research-to-wrap/). Both explain in great detail about how to get set up, get a recording and start collating my sound libraries.

With that said here's one of my first sound design projects. By this time, I had upgraded my audio recorder and had a few new microphone additions. Jez Riley French's D-Series Hydrophone, C – Series Contact mic, and his electromagnetic coil mic. Again, it was a learning curve starting with these new bits of kit, but I am genuinely pleased with how much this project turned out.

Without further ado, I present to you a lovely piece of animation by Polynoid, titled Mem. I create a gorgeous stereo cacophony of delicate sounds with Sci-Fi and electronic elements that lend itself well to the animation's energy.

ENJOY (with headphones is best!))

[halliewriteshockey]

Proofreading/editing services available!

Do you love to write but you’re not always sure of the right word to use? Romance is your jam but action is difficult for you? Need help with snappy dialogue and witty banter? English is your second language and you’re not sure if that phrase translates properly? No matter what you write, I’m here to help you make your work stand out!

I’m a published author with four books available for purchase and two more coming late 2019 and early 2020. My novel Broken Halo was nominated for Best Book of 2017 in the Indie/Digital Erotica category by RT Book Reviews. I have immersed myself in the writing world for over a decade and I’m ready to share that knowledge with you! Email: greymichaela@gmail.com. Twitter: @greymichaela. Tumblr: http://greymichaela.tumblr.com.

Proofreading ($3 per 1,000 words)

What I will fix:

Spelling

Capitalization

Punctuation

Formatting

Grammar

If the work needs to be rewritten so sentences make sense or flow better, or there are more serious issues that require fixing, you need more than just proofreading. That’s where copyediting comes in.

Copyediting ($5 per 1,000 words)

What I will fix: 

Everything included in proofreading, plus:

Word choice

Sentence structure

Continuity errors

Plot points

Fact checking

Things that just don’t make sense

Your work is dear to you and I know that! I’m not here to rip it to shreds—only to lovingly polish it and help it become the best version of itself. I believe people work best with encouragement and constructive advice, so nothing is ever offered in a meanspirited way but only in the interest of helping you and your work improve.

(More details and peer reviews below the cut.)

The nitty-gritty

I will read anything. Yes, anything. Got a Final Fantasy/Wario fanfic crossover you’re dying to unleash upon the world? I’m your girl. Polyam/OT3s/filthy smut/no smut at all—bring it on. Action, romance, genfic, meet-cute, in any fandom or your own original writing, I will give it all the same thorough care and consideration. (Note: for my own mental health reasons, I will not read more than 1K of Supernatural fandom per week and I cannot read anything regarding harm to a child, be it physical, mental, or sexual. This is subject to change as needed to keep myself safe and stable.)

I am not a sensitivity reader. If you have questions about how race or gender or disabilities are portrayed in your story, I can put you in touch with someone who can help, but I’m not the right person to make sure they’re done properly myself. The one exception here is if your writing has to do with asexuality or being on the spectrum—that I can help with.

Reviews:

I’ve been beta’d by Michaela for the better part of five years, and I couldn’t have asked for a better working and personal relationship. Not only is she herself insanely talented, but she uses those talents to make me a better writer than I ever could have been otherwise. I’m tighter, faster, and less clumsy an artist than I was five years ago, and there’s no one else I could possibly thank. She catches everything, from plot holes to poor word choice to that time you used the wrong homonym and she never lets you live it down, Michaela. Ahem. Working with her is an absolute dream – Michaela is honest, but never unkind in her feedback. You’re gonna get the big sister author talk you never knew you needed, and you’re going to love what it does to your finished product. - Aaliya

Michaela has really gone above and beyond to help me with my writing, and she’s had a really noticeable, positive impact on my work. She’s extremely skilled at the minutiae of typos, grammar errors, and spelling. More than that, she has a great grasp of tone, pacing, and characterization, and her suggestions are consistently ones that improve my writing and push it to a new and better level. Beyond that, she’s also extremely friendly and easy to communicate with! She works extremely hard and very quickly. I would recommend that anyone have a beta like her, but that would be impossible – she’s already the best there is. - Sebastian

"GreyMichaela is everything an author could ask for from a beta reader. Being a professional and published author, she can not only provide insightful, blow-by-blow pointers on story structure and pacing, but she has an incredibly helpful knowledge of the nitty-gritty technicals of writing. I thought I had a competent grasp of grammar and punctuation until the first time she took a look at my work, and (very kindly) showed me how to properly format speech tags. Most importantly, she is a wonderful beta reader because of how supportive, positive, and encouraging she is to all burgeoning and established writers. I cannot recommend her skills enough!" - Joe

Michaela is a phenomenal editor. She helped me with everything from big picture plot points to narrative flow to catching tiny overlooked typos. I highly recommend her to any writer, especially those working on novels. She will help your writing shine. - Ariel Bishop (author)

GreyMichaela offered her beta services to me when I was hopelessly stuck with my manuscript. She went over what I had written and provided me with a lot of feedback on the "small" things (such as phrasing, grammar, etc.) as well as the "bigger" things (plot, structure, pacing). She has been incredibly helpful, supportive and encouraging. I felt like she knew what story I wanted to tell, and helped me get there. She embraced my voice as a writer, and helped me make it clearer. She took care to understand both me and the story, as well as what I wanted help with, and based her feedback off of that. I'm really happy with how my manuscript turned out, and I will gladly recommend her to both new and experienced writers. - ljummen

I accept Paypal and Venmo. Message me today and let’s get started! (Reblogs appreciated also!)

[koganphrancis]

Ernie & Bert Are Planning A Wedding

OR: My thoughts on Episode 11

Everything just hurts.  Let me start with the “previously on” segment.  Yeah, we finally get an Ian/Mickey intro, but it’s just like so many of the other intros-random characters outside yelling at viewers.  Since there’s been little to none intimacy for this couple this season we couldn’t have caught them in bed?  Or in mid-kiss?  Nope.  Ian can be drinking yet another beer tho.  Pretty sure those meds we saw when Sandy grabbed Mickey’s dick all those episodes ago now was Mickey’s gerd medication.  Ian’s clearly not being written as taking medication at all (yet again).  

But as usual, I digress.  The show starts with a somewhat cute reminder of how the Gallavich house is within running distance of the (now torn down in real life, RIP) Milkovich house.  Unfortunately it’s Terry who reminds us.  Ian’s watching Terry screaming up at the house while Mickey’s...off doing something without Ian.  Seriously, whatever the opposite of “joined at the hip” is, that’s what these epic soulmates are this season :( 

Anyway, Mickey walks downstairs and Ian unhelpfully informs him, “Your dad’s here.”  Mickey says yeah and goes out to see Terry.  Ian gives one more peek thru the curtain but must decide that Mickey’s in no danger, since next we see him, Ian’s sitting in the kitchen casually chatting with Lip about something that’ll never happen (Lip moving to Wisconsin).

Outside, Mickey and Terry draw guns on each other while Terry’s just now (?) trying to figure out where Mickey went “wrong” and turned out gay.  Um, I know Terry’s been busy with prison and running his illegal enterprises (whatever they might be), but he’s just now trying to catch up on what he learned literally years ago when he walked in on Ian and Mickey having sex?  

(Gif credit: jackorowan)

The scene at least gives us an iconic Mickey line, “I definitely love one,” but is it too little too late?  It’s enough to send Terry on his way for now, after one last threat.  Mickey calmly goes back inside, says “mornin’” to Ian and Lip, and starts to make himself a bowl of cereal.  I list all that out to stress how non-stressed he seems.  Ian says, “So, how’s your dad?”, and just like the, “Hi, Mr. Milkovich” and “Was Mickey adopted?” conversation Ian had with Terry in S9, so far everything is being written to show how this is just normal family life when it comes to Terry.  But by the next scene the show will want us to buy that something entirely different is going on and I just don’t understand why they can’t find a narrative and stick to it.  In the days since the episode aired, I’ve read so many head canon posts about how understandable it was for Mickey to flip out after seeing Terry, and how that brought all Mickey’s past trauma to the surface and of course it turned him into a groomzilla, but I just can’t agree that that’s what the show either set out to do or accomplished.  Mickey’s been working for Terry, he’s been around him-it’s one of the few things about Mickey’s life the show has shown us since he’s been out of prison.  Everyone in Terry’s world that they’ve shown is perfectly comfortable talking about the fact that yes, some people are in fact gay.  Terry’s peers in prison, Terry’s own relatives-why suddenly in Episode 11 is this “a thing”?  

Anyway, the scene continues after Mickey quips that he doesn’t think Terry will be his best man.  Liam joins the scene and there’s very cute, well executed banter where Ian, Lip, and Mickey tell him they can each forge Frank’s signature.  It’s a tantalizing glimpse of what the season could’ve been if these guys were allowed to all be in scenes together.  

Mainly thanks to Myles’ AV Club review, I know that for whatever reason, the show decided to do a one month time jump between the engagement episode and this one.  WTF?  It doesn’t even make sense-it means somewhere that woman holding Frank captive was feeding him and clothing and bathing him?  That Liam hasn’t been to school in a month because Frank hasn’t been around to sign him in?  As if that wouldn’t have had CPS showing up at the Gallagher house (that has to be red flagged in the system by now)?  Debbie being toyed with by that mother and daughter has been going on for weeks at this point?  The only thing the time jump did that I care about was rob us of seeing Mickey and Ian telling people they were engaged.  We deserved a little scene of Ian and Lip talking about it at least-give Lip the opportunity to ask Ian what changed his mind about marriage and give the audience the opportunity to hear some sort of explanation.  “I heard some guy I know Mickey didn’t care about putting him down and I just knew then and there I had to marry him,” doesn’t quite cut it.  

But so much for what should have been.  In the next scene, Mickey slaps down a pile of wedding magazines and drops the news on Ian (as he hands him a beer) that they’re going to have a “wedding wedding”.  Mickey needs a headcount for the reception venue-clearly money is no problem, so working for Terry all those intervening weeks must’ve been lucrative.  

In a rare instance of the show actually cluing us in on someone’s thought process, Mickey says flat out that he now wants a “real” wedding because his fuckhead dad threatened to murder him-again-cuz he’s gay.  So, see?  AGAIN.  What’s different this time?  It’s like the show NEEDS there to be a reason, a mitigating circumstance, for two men to want to get married.  They can’t just let Mickey and Ian have the natural progression of their relationship leading to a lifetime together.  It’s so offensive.  And again, for viewers that have been invested in this relationship for so long, it just hurts.  Mickey’s doing this as a big FU to his father rather than as a big ILY to Ian.  That’s OOC for sure-Mickey’s always put loving Ian first in his life.  

In planning the wedding, Noel does get some great moments.  Talking about the “little shits that light the candles”, and his choice of wedding song, and confronting the homophobic old bitch at the florist.  And the literal scenery chewing he does at the wedding chairs rental place was, I’m sure, quite fun for Noel as an actor.  BUT-the only moment we get where Ian seems on board/with Mickey in any of it is at the florist before the bitch sets Mickey off.  Otherwise Ian’s like a casual bystander in all this-and that’s just not in character either.  Why can’t they both be into making these decisions?  Why, even if Ian truly couldn’t give a shit about seeing Mickey happy about these little details-why can’t they at least be affectionate with each other?  I don’t expect Schitt’s Creek level adoring looks, but I do expect Gallavich level.  Ian used to look at Mickey with awe even when Mickey was being his Mickey-est.  Why aren’t they allowed to show that anymore?  

I will say, I did love the stargazer lily thing-altho it’s all the more frustrating to realize this week’s writer must’ve watched at least the fan compilation video of Gallavich to know that detail was a very sweet throw back-why couldn’t they also write some kisses and hand holding in too?  But anyway, “Beyond Blue” and Mickey looking touched when Ian said he liked the blue ones-we needed a lot more moments like that this season.  Why everything’s getting crammed into these final, rushed episodes is beyond me.  

Now I have to bitch again about what was wrong with the florist scene.  Yes, I’m sure there are plenty of people like that woman in the world.  But there are also plenty who don’t oppose same sex marriage.  Why is it always such a big deal on Shameless?  Either everything’s gay or nothing is.  They’ve given us an entire squad of fire fighters who are gay.  Debbie clearly can’t walk five feet in any direction since the show decided she was gay without her finding a woman DTF her.  Ian had-what was the ridiculous number?-7 million Instagram followers when he was Gay Jesus.  So ONE homophobic old lady in a flower shop means disaster?  Ian knows how to look shit up on his phone, he proved that looking for wedding statistics.  You mean to tell me he doesn’t know how to check Yelp reviews to somehow find a gay-friendly florist in a city the size of Chicago?  

Mickey did get a couple of funny lines in that scene (killed me when he called her Grandma), but, again the show is throwing too much in the blender.  Is the scene supposed to be that funny?  If Mickey is dealing with past trauma, this is just adding to it.  And Ian, who is supposed to know Mickey better than anyone (including the viewer) isn’t acting worried about him, he’s acting like he’s being dragged all these places against his will.  So where’s the comedy in that?

Next there’s a scene of Mickey walking down the sidewalk and glorious natural light, looking like he’s glowing.  It immediately gets ruined by Ian stopping in front of a store window full of bride mannequins and looking at them and then after Mickey, with the visual implication strongly suggesting that Mickey’s the “woman” in their relationship which is so outdated in 2020 that the show and the network should have to pay a fine.  

Then we get the chairs meltdown, which gives us the truest line, “Why does everything always have to SUCK?”  You’re singing our song, Mickey.  Then the show proves that point for the millionth time by having Mickey call the chairs guy the R word-twice. 

In the next scene, Mickey’s called in the always reliable important character of Mand..um, Sandy because Ian’s of no use to him.  WTF?  Mickey is still talking up grandiose wedding plans and Ian’s still trying to figure it all out.  He tries to ask, “This is still about Terry, right?  You don’t give a shit about weddings...” Mickey interrupts him to ask where his ring is.  Ian has to stop and think and realizes he must’ve left it on the sink.  He runs off before Mickey can tear him a new one.  Mickey throws his pen down and says to Sandy, “I can’t even.”  Sandy replies, “I can see why you called,” but on Twitter fans have pointed out her lips appear to be saying, “Is he even into this at all?”  WHICH IS ANOTHER THING.  After all Ian’s marriage issues, why is Mickey bulldozing ahead and not noticing what Ian seems to be feeling AT ALL.  (Which appears to be that he’s once again regretting this whole marriage thing.)  Why does the show make the two of them so blind to each other’s feelings now?  WHY?  Now that Lip’s living in the RV, do they even share a room anymore?  They act like they never, ever talk now.  There is such a disconnect hanging over the short time they are shown together in every episode.  Not to mention they’ve been desexualized to the point of being a couple of Ken dolls.  John Wells must be so thrilled he doesn’t have to sit thru dailies of them physically touching anymore.  I’m willing to believe he hired someone to Jeff Giloolly Cam’s leg so he could have Mickey and Ian get engaged and married without any love scenes at this point.

In the last scene, Ian and Mickey are at The Alibi and Ian’s (having a beer) making one last attempt to simplify the wedding.  After another “it depends who’s the bride and who’s the groom” eye-rolling moment, Ian asks, “Can’t we just be Ian and Mickey?”  I guess not, when it comes to this show.  In the past Ian would’ve loved Mickey’s tension away for him-letting Mickey find his release in multiple orgasms, not in wedding planning.  Now all he can do is hire some guy with a guitar to show up at the bar and sing Mickey’s wedding song-and “sing” is a very generous term here.  Props to the show for not having an amazing singer just show up out of the blue, but, for the love of my bleeding ears, couldn’t they have found less of a screecher?  

Mickey is, at first, freaked out by this guitar playing weirdo coming near his booth, but when he recognizes the song he asks, “How the fuck did you know that?”  The guitarist replies, “Little bird told me” indicating Ian, and then unfortunately goes back to the song and soon finds himself way out of his range.  Mickey gives Ian a soft look, Ian gives Mickey one of the smiles he only ever has for Mickey, and Silver Tree becomes JW’s favorite director ever by not even letting us see them holding each other’s hands-that’s below the camera line.  For all we can prove, maybe Ian and Mickey were just reaching for the salt shaker at the same time.  Personally, I would’ve ended the episode with Ian and Mickey metaphorically and literally getting on the same page-they go back to the house, their double bed is covered in Mickey’s wedding magazines and color swatches and seating charts and whatever other wedding prep detritus.  Ian, seeing it all laid out like that says softly, “Are you really doing all this for Terry?” and Mickey says, “Course not, it’s all for us.  We deserve it.”  Then they flop down on the bed together and get to kissing, right on top of it all.  

But no, can’t have them intimate or even on the same side of a booth.  So, you’d think that happy-ish ending we did get means Mickey’s out of his Terry-induced panic, but scenes and stills for the season finale will disabuse you of that hope.  

My final thought is: I’m wondering how much, if any, of these wedding details we’ll see.  The show is too cheap now to spend money on a church wedding with those gorgeous stargazer lilies and the little shits that light the candles.  Plus why would you have Living On A Prayer sung again when you used it in this episode?  Will one of them-or both of them-walk down an aisle?  They’ve already got their rings and have been wearing them-I don’t see them wearing multiple rings each.  If the show had any guts at all, it’d have them exchange cock rings at the ceremony ;P  Will we even get to see the wedding part or will they go straight to some sort of brawl/reception?  And, sadly, I’ve felt from the first time I saw pictures of them driving off in the Mercedes that we’re not going to see them get to consummate the marriage.  I hope I’m wrong about all of it, but I won’t be surprised to be let down utterly-either by what they don’t or what they do show :(  See ya on the other side!

[brynwrites]

What I learned while self-publishing.

@milkyteefs asked:

I'm unsure about the entire self-publishing world! Do you have a basic outline of the process? Some key highlights/headings of how you started and what connections you needed to make? Thanks again! <3

I went through the process of self-publishing Our Bloody Pearl this summer. Even with all the guides in the world it turned out to be a very grueling experience. I’ll be doing it again with Quasi Stellar soon, but I also hope to traditionally publish The Warlord Contracts trilogy.

First, let’s get this out of the way: Self published books are often very bad.

But they don’t have to be.

Self publishing requires you, the writer, to either wear the hat of everyone else at a publishing house, or be your own investor and pay for professionals to do the jobs you can’t. If you’re willing to put in that effort and money then you can come out with a more professional book than you might have had you published traditionally. If you’re not, then self publishing might not be the right road for you.

Now then, how do you self publish in a way that produces a professional book?

Fifteen Basic Steps to Self-Publishing:

1. Write and edit the book.

This is, understandably, the step that a lot of people get stuck at. Writing a novel is hard. Don’t worry about how or when you’ll publish it until it’s finished.

Just write it.

During this time you should also be marketing yourself as a writer. Learn more about that via my marketing tips tag.

2. Beta readers and critique partners.

Getting feedback from handpicked peers is essential for any book no matter which publishing route you choose. If these terms are new to you, learn more about beta readers here and critique partners here.

During your first book (or two) I recommend starting with critique partners and then moving to beta readers afterward, because critique partners will shred your novel down to the bare bones, which you usually really need the first few books you write. Critique partners will also generally pick at your grammar and typos though, which can be very useful at the end of the editing stage so that your manuscript looks cleaner to an editor (or agent, if you traditionally publish.)

3. Write your blurbs and summary.

While your story is in the hands of your final group of readers, you should already be working on blurbs and summaries. By the end of the publishing process you will need:

A back of the book blurb.

A one-two sentence logline style blurb.

A one page summary of the story.

Don’t put these off! They won’t get any easier if you wait. You can find tips on writing blurbs in this article.

4. Determine that you’re done making changes to the manuscript.

A writer who’s growing and learning will forever feel as though there’s something they can change in their manuscript, but at some point you have to decide that what’s done is done. You will always have another awesome book which will be even better than this one.

If you have trouble determining when this point should be, check out this explanation!

5. Make a publishing timetable.

Give yourself more time on your timetable than you think you need! Traditional publishing takes about two years for a reason. A lot of the steps below this point seem relatively simple compared to writing and editing a book, but they require you to learn new skills and spend a lot of time waiting for other people with busy schedules.

Five and a half: Start book two.

You might have already done this during the beta reading stage, but if not, start another book! Writers should never stop writing and editing (outside of planned vacations, emergencies, and mental health breaks, of course), so pick that pen back up and start pounding out another book.

6. Find a content editor.

If you ran a beta reading stage with 10-20 critical and knowledgeable beta readers in your target audience then congratulations, they served the purpose of a content editor already!

6. Find a copy editor.

A copy editor is the person who checks your grammar, sentence structure, flow, and word usage. I found my editor though the editorial freelance association directory. The main things to look for when choosing an editor:

Experience. This should include testimonies, information about any publishing companies they worked with, and the works they edited in the past. If you can’t easily access and double check these things, then keep looking.

Sample edits. Any editor worth your time will offer you a free sample edit. (For copy editing this is generally 750-1k words of your novel. I’m not sure about other types of editing.) Take advantage of this! Send the same sample to the top four or five editors who fit your price range and see who returns feedback that you jive with and feel comfortable paying.

What if I can’t afford a copy editor?

In general, you can probably get away without hiring a professional copy editor if you (a) find 3-4 solid critique partners who are willing to do a very detailed line edit and proofread of your final draft (do not take advantage of your fellow writers!! Offer them the same in return!!), (b) get free sample edits from a handful of freelance authors to see if they catch any major formatting issues you do regularly, and (c) learn what a style guide is and make at least a simple one for yourself while you do another round of proofreading.

Remember though, traditionally publishing exists specifically so that you, the writer, can get a professional edit without having to pay for it. If you want a professional book without putting in the investment, then querying an agent might be the better option for you.

7. Prepare to offer ARCs to reviewers and friends.

Getting reviews for your book is the most important marketing activity you can do. The sooner you contact reviewers about this, the more reviews you’ll have when the release date comes. Note that the large majority of book reviewers you contact will never respond. If you email 20 reviewers, expect to get one or two reviews out of it, most likely in 4-6 months. (Which is why you should email all your friends and past beta readers too.)

How do we maximize the number reviewers who will read our books?

You know those neat little lists of book blogs who will review indie books? Don’t use them. Anything that with nicely compiled and easy to get reviewer lists is going to be overcrowded with blogs who have two year wait-lists and 97% of them will never even email you back.

Instead, try searching for reviewers you already follow on twitter and tumblr. Look for semi-popular goodreads reviewers who put positive reviews on books similar to your own and check if they have a link to a blog, or an email for review inquiries. Find less well known booktubers that youtube links to off your favorite popular booktubers.

8. Format the book.

You can pay someone to format your novel, but its rather expensive for something that’s relatively easy to learn to do yourself using guides off the internet. Paperback and ebook formatting must be done separately, and your first time I would set aside a full Saturday to tackle each of them, just to be safe. If you have a program like scrivener, with a little tweaking you should be able to get a nice looking ebook with none of the hassle of learning html. There are many other options though. Do a little research to find the one which works for you!

(Note: If you’re printing a paperback you cannot get a paperback cover until you’ve formatted the book and know final page count for your print size!)

9. Hire a cover artist.

The book cover is the most important part of your book, so far as sales and success are concerned.

There’s a huge trend in self published books to skip this stage and work with photoshop or cavna instead. I would not recommend this. Cover artists for professional books do what they do full time. They know the market. They know what sells. So do some writers, but the truth is, many of the writers who think they can design covers, turn out the sorts of designs that are easily pegged as self-published books.

If you want a professional looking book that pops in the amazon charts, hire a professional.

There are a multitude of ways you can go about this. Some large cover art sites like damonza offer bundles which can get pricey, but let you back out with no charge if you don’t like their first drafts and include unlimited changes if you commit. There are also many freelancers who specialize in book covers, for a wide range of prices.

What if I don’t have the money to hire a cover artist?

If there is anything you don’t want to go cheep on, it’s your cover art. But let’s say you absolutely have to get a cover for cheap or free. There are people who do cover designs for $5 on Fiverr, and I think some of them actually turn out half decent covers for very specific genres, but its a gamble. A couple writeblrs do cover design as part of their day job and might be willing to do something cheep or for a trade. You could also learn how to design covers yourself, but if you want to compete with books whose designers went to school just to do what they now do full time, you’ll either have to put in a lot of time or be lucky enough to have a very good, easily executed idea for your particular novel, and hopefully not one with requires any stock photos unless you want to purchase rights to them.

Now, there are some exceptions. Some writers have a natural design brain, and some writers are in fact designers themselves. Sometimes you write a book where the perfect cover design is very simple and easy to produce yourself. But that won’t be most people, with most books.

So far I have seen exactly two of the hundreds of self publisher made covers I’ve seen have actually made me want to buy the story. I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just the truth.

10. Offer ARCs to more reviewers.

Now you have a nicely formatted book and everything! Who can resist that?

11. Do a cover reveal, and during the cover reveal, offer everyone there an ARC.

Cover reveals come in many different forms. Some writers just post the cover on their blog, some do livestreams on facebook, some do question and answer sessions leading up to the reveal, some even go all out and have other writers come talk about their books on their site for a full day prior to the cover reveal.

Do whatever works best for your schedule. The goal is to attract attention for the book, so make sure you link to anything you’ve already set up from #12, so people can easily find your book when you release it!

And, as always, give out ARCs.

12. Get your book and author profile set up on everything.

Prior to your book’s release you should have a goodreads author page, an amazon author page, and a bookbub author page, all with your book attached. You should also have a website and a mailing list (linked to via your ebook), prepared release announcements for every social media site you work off of, and be ready with attractive and easily noticeable links to the book’s sale page off your tumblr blog and website.

Keep in mind that some of these things will take a decent chunk of time to set up, and a few of them require a live human being to confirm you are who you say you are. Start them as early as possible!

13. Release the book!

Time to actually put the book out there for all to buy. You can do a similar hype release as you do with a cover reveal, if you so desire. Make sure you remember to post all your announcements and put up all your links.

Try not to check on the book’s sales until the following day! It does not help their growth or your mental health to constantly be haunting your sales charts. When you do check them, keep in mind that a book which sells two thousand copies in its entire life time has done well, all things considered.

The fantastic thing about self publishing is that you never have to stop selling your book. If you sell fifty copies your first month and then twenty the second and then five the third, you can always dive back into marketing, run a discount, apply for a bookbub ad, focus on marketing yourself as an author and gaining followers. You chose whether your book is done selling.

To offer pre-orders or not?

This is a toss up. In my experience, pre-orders aren’t a good idea for your debut self-published novel, even if you think you have a large audience who will buy them, because they take away from the sales you could have your release week, and the boost those sale give you on the amazon charts. If you do wish to offer pre-orders though, try going through ingramspark instead of amazon advantage, to save yourself tears and heartache.  

To go amazon exclusive or not?

Many authors claim that you have to try both to know what’s right for any particular book. Do your own research and decide what you think is best for you.

Thirteen and a half: Start book three.

At this point you should already have finished at least the rough draft of second novel, so don’t forget to start your third book at some point!

14. Offer people read for review copies.

Especially if your debut novel is aimed toward broke teenagers and younger adults, there will be a lot of people who are interested in the book but aren’t motivated enough to actually buy it on faith alone. By offering free ebooks on a read for review basis, you...

Grow your reviews.

Create fans out of people who may have never read the book otherwise.

Have higher paperback sales, because readers who loved the ebook you gave them may decide to buy themselves a paperback.

15, unto infinity: Keep promoting your book into the sunset, while writing new books!

The time to stop promoting you book is whenever you feel you’ve had enough sales and reached enough readers. Until you reach a point where you’ve published so many books that you can’t handle marketing them all, you should still be trying to expand your readership!

And don’t forget to have a little bit of fun along the way. You worked hard for this. Celebrate it.

But what if I just want to get a book out there?

If your goal is not to publish a professional looking book with will expand your fanbase and set you on a path to full time authorship, but rather to have a piece of your writing available in a book format your friends and family can buy, then there’s no reason not to publish exactly how you wish to.

Are all these steps really necessarily?

I believe they are, at least for a debut novel. In fact, there are probably more steps which I missed entirely. But, if you can find multiple self-published authors who went through a less rigorous publishing process and still received hundreds or goodreads reviews, then by all mean, follow that process instead (and let me know about it!)

So which book did you self publish?

This one here! You can support me and my ability to keep giving writing advice by purchasing a copy today =D

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Hi I just wanted to say I love your blog and I love the way you display Tom's thoughts and mentality. I wanted to ask what do you think about this whole situation with Tom, is it hard to keep roleplaying him and to reenact his thoughts when he has been acting so unusual lately? Do you think he is happy? Keep up the great work! ^^

INTRO &DISCLAIMERNow what I am going to tell you is obviously just how I see the situationpersonally. This might not be the representation of reality whatsoever, eventhough I’d like to think I’m a good judge of character. I don’t know thesepeople. They are, by all means, strangers to me as I am to them. But I DIDhappen to grow up with them, observe them through years of footage, and seemany of their quirks in real life as well whenever I had a fortunateopportunity. Saying that, I feel like even though their stage personas (orwhatever you might call them) are “built strong” sometimes, you can still peekright through them if you have enough of a “people sense”.Look, most folks probably realize that Tom isn’t all that he gives out to be,but they don’t really think about it all TOO much. And honestly, I don’t either- it just comes naturally for me to psychologically evaluate people. And myevaluation of him is that he is full of unresolved issues.I don’t even mean that in a bad way, I really don’t. I just want all the bestfor him. But let’s just say that seeing how his life was up until now, thereare multiple factors that play out in his current “out of character” behavior. Toa certain extent, I can also relate to him in some regard. Similarly to him forexample, I too use a weird sort of humor to hide behind, almost as though it’smy shield, so none of what I’m saying is said in a judgmental manner. We all haveour own issues after all, and that doesn’t make us any lesser.BUT FIRST THING’S FIRSTTalking about humor, let’s just get straight into it, because we have to startsomewhere… Humor is a stress relief weapon by its poetic definition. In Tom’scase, it isn’t any different – only maybe he takes that a few steps further,still. More than just as a casual thing, his jokes are also being used to takethe edge away from what he considers to be serious and/or emotionally intangiblesituations. Why? Because Tom doesn’t appear to be someone who would like to“show his real self” to people in a situation he can’t properly evaluate,unless he knew for SURE they are to be trusted. In other words – he doesn’twant “the emotion that would be shown from him” to be used as a weapon againsthim later on, especially if he doesn’t know what kind of a reaction to expect from thecounterpart. “If you appear vulnerable, this same vulnerability is going to beused against you” is the mentality here – that’s a lesson of sorts that he’s probably learned how to incorporatein his daily life at a very young age already. So deflecting a lot of shit withhumor is basically an act of protecting himself. Same with his manly-manboasting, and all the confident penis commentary, which many people look at justsuperficially, saying that it’s trashy and/or annoying – even though what itreally turns out to be, in my opinion, is a (not all that uncommon) copingmechanism. So the next thing you’d ask would probably be “but what on earth is he copingwith then?” I guess it would be probably safer to ask what he isn’t coping withat this point, because we’re talking about a bunch of things here, all muddledtogether in one big ball of anxiety. Main things to highlight probably include a)fear of abandonment, b) some art of repressed self-consciousness, c) some weird(intrigue by and a fear having lack of?) dominance issue and etc. all the wayto the last letter of the alphabet.I’d say it all started in childhood with his father leaving and being, as faras we know, generally problematic (because honestly, that fucks us divorceekids all up, and it’s so internalized that we don’t even really realize ituntil it hits us in the face as adults, when we are suddenly facing multipledaddy issues all at once lol). Maybe even beforehand, depends on what sort of anupbringing the twins’ parents decided to give them. Then we have the general yearsof complete hell, also generally known as the school days, full of bullies and nasty youngadults with too much time on their hands. We all know the baseball bat stories –need I go into further detail? Then comes the growing up under the spotlight,of course – the unusual puberty they had to go through, as Gustav so nicely putit in the documentary – and being pushed into a harsh ass business at such ayoung age… just basically dealing with a bunch of stuff that kids usually haveno place dealing with, and maybe learning some lessons that normal people onlyget to really learn in their 20s or 30s. Namely how it is to be working with allthe wrong people, and probably having at least some sort of taste of a betrayalon a professional, working level etc.If there is one thing, one lesson that ties all of these separate life erastogether to make a nice whole, it’s one of how you have to be careful aroundpeople, and how forming trusting relationships isn’t a very simple task,whatsoever. Between parents leaving, peers bullying you, media shitting on youand the industry silently pulling their own strings behind your back – oh, andhave I mentioned stalkers and the literal walls they had to build around theirhouse in order to keep them at bay? which didn’t work anyway because their private space WAS invaded by gross people? – I guess you pretty damn quicklystart losing your naïveté. Or well, if not that, at least your trust in prettymuch anyone that hasn’t been with you since the very, very beginning.And then comes, obviously, the relationship he had with Ria.Now, again, everything I’m saying is based purely on my speculation from mereobservation. I don’t actually know any of the people they associate with either.But the vibe I got from his relationship with Ria was honestly… not that bad inthe beginning. I think that, at least at the start, she was really, really goodfor him. And that he got even more attached to her eventually, because she wasthere when he emotionally needed her most (read: the big move to the USA,stalker problems and lack of motivation to keep being in a band from all thepressure…). I also think that he kind of thought this relationship was really“it”, you know? As years went on though, just as any other relationship, theirsseemed to have become this sort of “routine” as well. And we all know that feeling, don’twe? If not from our own experience, then from some of our friends’ experiencesat least? The feeling when the stomach butterflies die down, and the initialeuphoria just settles into a still?My take on it is that he really, REALLY tried a LOT to make it work, even afterit sort of started “crumbing down” for whatever reason. I feel like he feltsuper comfortable with her BECAUSE they’ve been together for so long. Maybe itbecame a sort of a routine for him too, but it was one he definitely sought toupkeep. Tom didn’t want to let go of her. Because ruining what he had with herwould mean “having to find someone new”. And “having to find someone new” wouldmean “having to open up to someone again” – something that isn’t all that easyfor him to do, for the already before mentioned reasons.Pretty sure we all know about some infidelity speculations being rumored tohave been going down between them as well, especially from her side. Andhonestly, that would explain a thing or two about how his behavior has changedin the time ever since they’ve officially broken up. I obviously do not knowthe specifics, but I’ll be damned if I don’t realize it takes two in order toa) form a relationship, but also b) in order to not fix it if it goes south.Doubtlessly, none of the two was a complete saint. And doubtlessly they bothhave their own character flaws. But though dubious in its legitimacy, hersupposed infidelity really ties well with what’s happening right now, in thismoment. Just think about it… Yet another massive betrayal. Another one of themassive disappointments he experienced along his life’s journey. This onecoming from someone he perhaps even considered to be his (other) life partner.Only now that we got the mere basics down can I finally start bringing upShermine, and the point of this entire conversation anyway: his “change” asbrought up with his dynamic with Heidi. Because I really think that in order toproperly understand why I think this Klum relationship is toxic, you firstneeded my quick review of “the entire story”.BACK TO THE POINT AT HAND NOW I don’t think the Shermine relationship was honestly all that different fromthe one Tom has with Heidi now. I can’t claim to know the reasons why itprobably “didn’t all work out with Sher” (besides the obvious fact that thiswas never a relationship in its full meaning of the word, but rather just whatpeople usually call “an affair”), but it might have been them just beingseparated by where they lived and what not – or maybe also Shermine seeing howmuch of a “child” Tom really was in certain regards. It’s not like she was thisperfect example of maturity either, mind you, having to constantly post hintsabout how she’s together with him and what not, but at the end of the day, Isort of feel she got more tired of HIS bullshit than vice versa. And by “hisbullshit” (again, not meant to be judging) I mean this strange passivity that has been surrounding him recently (examples and explanations coming up). If someone on twitter now points out how “unlikeTom it is to let Heidi post on social media about him,” another person then instantlyyells out saying “why do you care, if he apparently doesn’t care anymoreeither!”And to me, it is exactly THAT that is the concerning factor anyway.People are, in a strange way, right when they shout “Tom doesn’t care aboutbeing public anymore!” but they don’t look deep enough into it to see theproblem behind it. Yes, it’s true – if Tom wouldn’t want to be posted on socialmedia, then his old enough, almost 29 year old ass could’ve just told Heidi to NOTfucking do it. So yeah, you know what? Most probably, he’s NOT stopping her.But him “not being bothered to go against it” doesn’t mean he’s automaticallyokay with it. Those two are not mutually exclusive. What I see in his behavior right now - that is also something that’s seemingly been there forever since he’s been hooking up with Shermine too - is mindlessness, carelessnessand a complete disregard for what he used to stand for in regards to his “morals”.May I note that I can also see he has this sort of complete disregard abouthimself floating around as well? He appears to be very passive, and seems asthough he really just isn’t putting any thought into… well, pretty muchanything he’s doing… like ANYTHING, whatsoever. And yes, I realize that “people can change,” and that Tom too could’ve just aseasily had a spiritual awakening, and was suddenly like “you know what, I’m NOTgonna stress about being on social media that much anymore, and I’m NOT goingto stress about being in the press…”. But the thing is – these sorts of thingsdon’t just happen overnight. Especially not with the life he’s been leading andhow much it’s been fucking him up along the way at times. You don’t go fromwanting complete privacy because of your own very legitimate paranoia, to goingto an Amfar Whatever Gala event in front of millions of press to out yourrelationship, just like he did. You don’t go from avoiding cameras as much ashumanly possible to vacantly stare at a paparazzi’s Canon in the distance inorder to see if it’s getting the right shot of you and your new so calledgirlfriend. This sort of mental change CAN obviously happen. But overtime, and usually– dare I suggest? – with therapy (which we are bringing back up later). By myinterpretation of how he is as a person though, I don’t think this “transition”was something that happened in an exactly healthy way. More than seeing Tom as “careless but happy,” (as people paint him out to be), Iright now see him as being “careless and confused”. Numb, even. Out of placeAnd “out of place” is a phrase to describe him best when it comes to how helooks like as soon as Heidi’s around.VAGUELY EXPLAINED CAMP EXPERIENCE INSERTI’ve been there on this Camp, and the way he reacted to literally everything –people, his surroundings, most everything you can imagine – changed bizarrelyas soon as he knew she was around. It’s almost like he was being nearbypetrified. I have no idea why either. One would think that if you’re datingHeidi Klum, you’d want to show her off or something. Or at least be ascomfortable with her as on (play pretend or not) all those paparazzi photos that keep popping up. Especiallywhen literally NONE of the campers really cared for her presence there, so it wasn’t like he was afraid for her wellbeing or whatever. So no, no psycho had the intention to attack her, literally no one cared, but Tom still just turned into this… anxious little mess?Mind you, when I saw her arrive, my mind was also still open. I was like, “ya knowwhat, all of their other family and friends are being so lovely – Georg’s gf who justjoined in on the activities, and Gustav’s wife too, just supporting her hubbyand speaking to the fans… maybe Heidi’s going to prove everyone wrong and bereally lovely”. But honestly, from the moment she entered the Camping grounds, you couldFEEL the atmosphere drop.Never mind the fact that she was having a stare-down with many fans (includingmyself) for no apparent reason, which I still do not understand… From where Iwas sitting, she was making it very damn obvious she wanted to just “geteveryone’s attention”. Her glares were basically daring us “to go spread theword that she arrived”, and when we wouldn’t care (because surprise surprise,we weren’t there for her, so obviously no one really cared?) she would stare atus even weirder. But as I said, that in itself isn’t all that important. What Ineed to convey is how insanely uncomfortable TOM appeared to be when she wasaround.(As a side note, I also feel like we all kinda expected a huge ass party to godown on the last day of Camp, seeing how on the previous few days, the guyswould kinda leave at latest 2 in the morning – which made sense, becauseeveryone knew they were gonna have responsibilities the next day. But literallynothing was planned for Monday morning, and I felt like everyone was superpumped about the guys finally having an opportunity to party with us reallylong and really proper. Only, you know, that never really happened. And I daresay it was mainly because of Klum.)I digress, at some point of the evening after the firework finale, the twins actually came tothe counter in order to hang out with people (after they’ve left to refresh first, leaving people confused as to if they were even returning), and I thought “Yay, maybe they’ve actually joined us again to party like everyone kinda expected, so that’s great!”. But no suchluck. It was there exactly - at the counter - where the difference of how Tomis without her around VS when she IS around became so prominent. Only a nightearlier, the guys would stay behind the counter for AGES, just interacting,taking pictures, drinking, having a good time… on Sunday, they weren’t therefor even 10 minutes, before leaving towards a backstage area of sorts. I sawher being at the counter for a while as well, with literally no one botheringher whatsoever, but she eventually disappeared, initially making me think “Oh, maybeshe’ll just mingle with people, go chat up Georg’s GF or something… maybe thisevening is actually gonna be bomb!”. But her leaving simply resulted in Tom REPEATEDLYpressing Bill into “going to the backstage area”.Tom looked NOTHING like the night before. He was TRYING to interact with somefans, but was mostly just looking really out of place. It happened on at least3 separate occasions in those short ten minutes, that he would poke Bill atevery opportunity he got, just to press him into going to the stage area. Hekept on elbowing Bill whenever the other would turn around to get somethingfrom the fridge, pointing to the stage, looking vaguely lost, not really payingproper attention to his surroundings. Bill was visibly giving hints that he “wantedto just stay for a while longer,” even going as far as showing Tom his drink asthough he were to say “lemme at least finish this first?” until Tom eventuallyprevailed and they actually decided to move to where she was – to the infamousbackstage area. Again, I thought that maybe they had plans on going on stage to the DJs again(seeing how they did that on the nights before), maybe give one last propergoodbye to people before mingling in the crowd some further. But that neverhappened. Honestly, thinking back on it, it was kind of bizarre to think theyjust huddled up in the little space behind the stage. They wouldn’t even pull acurtain to have some sort of privacy – if you went behind the stage, you couldliterally just see them interact there, being all secluded from the rest of thepeople. More secluded than on the previous day when it was raining cats anddogs but they STILL made the effort to just hang around with all of us! The situation lefta bitter taste in my mouth, because at that point I KNEW that if she wasn’tthere, the party would have been so insanely different, so insanely cool. Ifelt bad for Bill, who was just longingly looking onto the stage, taking videosof it – he gave off the vibe that we wanted to go party, but (for some bizarrereason) “couldn’t”. It felt as though hedecided he would rather stick to the out-of-place-looking Tom, which Ihonestly, at the end of the day, can’t really blame him for.Not even half an hour later, the golf carts arrived to pick them up, and that washonestly so strange to observe too. Not even once in the whole entire weekend did Ihave a feeling of them rushing anywhere. Whenever the boys would arrive orleave with the carts, whenever they’d change locations, they would always honkand scream around, letting everyone know what they were up to, shooting people with water pistols if in range even. But suddenly then, the golf cart had topark backwards towards the stage in order for them to “have a clear and quickstart”. There was no honking, no proper goodbyes we were used to from theearlier days. They just kinda… drove off. And I know for a damn FACT that itwouldn’t have been like that if it wouldn’t be for her. I wish this would just be me – that this would just be a plot of my own damnimagination. Because I WISH she wasn’t a cunt, for Tom’s sake obviously. But Ihave talked to a bunch of people, and they have all had their separateexperiences, most of which only furthermore confirmed how I see the situation. Factsare these: 1. Heidi was there for the obvious reason of getting our (thefans’), as well as the media’s attention. 2. She was acting all high andmighty, as well as really possessive (even jealous at some moments, which is sosuper bizarre to think about), and it wasn’t a good look. 3. And I don’t knowwhy EXACTLY, but as soon as she was around, Tom ALWAYS sort of froze on spot.Look, I don’t know, maybe he’s just intrigued by that sort of dynamic and getsoff on it, and just doesn’t want to publically admit that he “likes herdemanding demeanor”. But yo, even if that was the case – at the end of the day thatdoesn’t make the whole relationship any less toxic. OKAY, TO THE CORE NOWShe has subtle manipulation tactics down to the T. I can tell, because I knowhow to use those in my advantage as well. And you’ve probably had this happento you too, mostly without even realizing it. It comes to the surface in a waywhere some parents make their kids feel bad for “not cleaning up the dishes”for example. Instead of demanding “it gets done because otherwise they’ll beconsequences”, some choose the more toxic approach of emotional manipulation,saying things like “don’t worry, it’s fine, what’s another hour more to my nineto five working schedule anyway?” It’s in the way that one friend of yours says“oh okay” without a smiley face when you cancel on going out with them. It’swhen something comes out of people’s mouths, and the meaning is dubious.Something that is meant to make you walk the line between “but is it reallyokay?” and “I feel uncomfortable that you feel uncomfortable, so let me help”.  Her entire presence just screams that demeanor,and I don’t doubt I’m right in this. She probably even pulled something like that in that counter scenario I was talking about too, going like “oh you go hang out with fans, I’ll just be there… having my drink…” The question now remains if Tom is oblivious to these attitudes or not.Honestly, both yes and no seem like a legitimate answer to me in this case.Neither of the twins seem to really be capable of a good “evaluation” when itcomes to perception in regards to human character. They’re not short inadmitting that themselves either, and said it numerous times that this is whysongs like “Never let you down” happened to exist in the first place. But italso makes sense if we again tie it with the fact that they had a puberty muchunlike ours is. Meeting people was always sort of arranged in their world, so gettingto know someone spontaneously isn’t really an experience that’s been followingthem ever since they were socially capable of “making their own friends”. Can’tsay that that’s a concept that’s completely alien to them, having lived in theUSA for so long now and what not, but we also can’t say they have as many experiences withit as someone who had a “normal lifestyle” either.I’d say Tom is intelligent enough to realize what’s going on, but simply toonumb to do anything about it. What’s more, maybe he even enjoys this sort ofdynamic.“But why,” you might ask “would anyone enjoy this sort of manipulative dynamic?”Honestly, I feel what he likes about it is that someone’s taking away hisresponsibilities to himself. It basically feels as though you’re giving the reins to your insides into the possession of someone else - someone who you feel can makethe most out of them when you obviously couldn’t. And even if they couldn’t exactly “makethe best out of it” – Tom’s been steering himself for too long, only torepeatedly be faced with complete disappointment on the roads he’s taken. It’snot like he cares what happens anymore, as long as he gets to feel at leastsomewhat at peace. So why not let someone else “take his life into their ownhands”? Why not be the follower of someone who seems to not be bothered by literallyeverything he usually stands against? Someone who seemingly had more luck inlearning about how to cope with this reality that is “being famous and beingshat on”.My conclusion drawn from what I’ve experienced and heard is that she “keeps himon a short leash,” while simultaneously trying to boost her own importance andego as they go. From what I see, he is being very much so infatuated with her,but I wouldn’t dare calling that love by any means. Yet another heated affair,if anything. I think he really lost himself along the way of people fucking himup in his life (especially since the breakup he had with Ria), so he isn’treally thinking straight anymore at all. He’s just going with the flow, doingwhatever the fuck he wants to, fucking whoever the fuck he wants to, and hasthis little rebellious side of him tell him to “fuck the rest”.Which WOULD be a good thing – fuck the haters, imma do my thing and stuff… Onlyif he wouldn’t be doing it out of all the wrong reasons. Namely what seems tobe a desperate attempt and need to just “change himself for the better” because“he isn’t a weak ass motherfucker”.I feel like he has quite some problems with the concept of vulnerability. He has this sort of a persona built up which he strives to be, but really isn’t– basically a sort of an alpha male persona – and right now, he’s probably sofar off in his head, that he just wants to desperately fit this picture perfectimage of himself, no matter how many broken pieces are waiting for him to berepaired on the inside. He wants to prove that “he’s better and stronger” tohimself, as well as to everyone around him. He’s ignoring his issues, pushingthem aside, thinking that “ignoring” his problems is better than to face them,“because after all, facing them only ever brought him pain and anguish anyway”…But holdingthings inside like that, suppressing all the negatives by all means necessary…I think most people realize how bad this can get – a person turning into aliving ticking time bomb that can be triggered into an explosion at any time. Hemight be feeling happy now, in this moment of bliss he’s created for himself,just ignoring everything that’s been eating away at him from the inside, neverletting it surface. But you can only keep your demons at bay for so long,before they come haunting you again, with even more vigor.Prolonging the inevitable in this way is pretty much the most horrible idea onthe long run you can have. But Tom isn’t thinking on the long run. He’s thinking “peaceof mind, now, or I’m gonna lose it”.I don’t know what it is that triggered this “obsession to be okay”. Maybe hewants to be spiteful to Ria. Maybe he wants to prove to her “how much betteroff he can be without her” and “what a changed and open man he has become”.Maybe it’s not even Ria. Maybe he just can’t deal with being without SOME sortof a sexual partner, because it makes him feel like a failure. Maybe he cravesa sort of intimacy he used to have, but is now gone, so he fills his time withwhat he thinks is “second best”. Who knows. It could be a number of things, andmany more than I can probably never even think of.At the end of the line, my personal perception of what he’s doing is that it’s –and I’ve repeated myself in this wordall too many times now – toxic. No matter the reason why he’s doing it. I thinkhe would be better off alone for a while, and, if not getting therapy, at leastletting himself have some breathing space, and just give himself a second toheal from whatever is gnawling at him. Heal from whatever seems to be “pushinghim” from the inside to be this perfect ideal self he so desperately seems towant to be. AND BEFORE I FINISHLet us just quickly dive into this one last important element of this dynamic –namely where Bill comes in, and how it all comes together at the end of the day. If we assume I am at least vaguely correct in my interpretationof things, it’s obvious that there’s no way in hell that Bill would be blind to somethingnot being entirely as it “should be” with Tom. Clearly if even we as fans can perceiveTom as being out of character, how on earth would then his twin miss it?Doubtlessly, no matter the partnership any of the two had/have with anotherperson, it will always affect BOTH twins in one way or another.So how do we explain this undying enthusiasm Bill seems to be sprouting everytime Heidi posts yet another picture of Tom on her social media.Well, there’s a few rough possibilities I see here.1. First would of course be realizing that social media is meant to feed uscontent that isn’t always the exact representation of how the reality is. Whoknows if Bill’s endless heart emojis really are as heartfelt as we imagine themto be in the first place. But I digress. I sincerely think Bill’s not fakinghis enthusiasm. Most of all because his idolizing when it comes to Heidi reallyseems to know no bounds. Which leads me straight into the more possible optionnumber two.

2. Billsort of admiring and romanticizing the relationship Tom and Heidi have – to thepoint where he thinks Tom feeling out of place is just sort of his imagination…Because “how in the world could this picture perfect scenario ever be hidingsomething less than PERFECT”. Bill is like that – the romanticizing idealist.And I bet he has this one picture in his head of how Heidi is, and doesn’tstray from it, even if there’s weird signs that she might not be all heimagines, and no matter what other people might suggest in order to persuadehim. Stubborn. The twins are so. Damn. Stubborn.3. What I imagine most – or well, wish to imagine, hoping that Bill isn’t toolost in his ideals in regards to Heidi – is that Bill actually tried talking toTom about what’s wrong, but Tom refusing to tell him, continuously saying that“all is fine” as he probably does so many times with his manly-manpersona up. And then Bill letting it slide, just being as happy as possible forhim, even though he knows something’s up. Because what else is he to do anyway?STUBBORN, REMEMBER?

Whatever itmight be – at the end of the day it’s really sort of exhausting how the twinsjust give each other concession over and over again. Recently, an old interviewresurfaced where they talked about how “they don’t need therapy, because theyhave each other”. Well, with both of them so stubborn and both of them so damnproud, with both of them being unable to take a sincere word of advice as anythingbut a personal attack… Of course they prefer each other over someone else withperspective. Because a therapist would not massage their egos as they do to oneanother. A therapist wouldn’t let them drown in pity and join in on their spitelike it’s their own. Because that wouldn’t resolve anything.Relying solely on someone that is also really similarly fucked up might makeyou not feel alone, but it sure as hell won’t drag you out of shit. They’re eachother’s excuse, constantly, probably unknowingly only dragging each other downwhen it’s really bad. Instead of telling the other “no, you need to dosomething about yourself, you’ve been down in the gutter for too long”they probably just go “yes, that person did a horrible thing, and I’llcontinue hate them with you while we wallow in our joined self-pity”. Whatthey would need is to challenge each other more, and not just give one anothermore silent vigor to just stay miserable…OUTROBut, hey, this is where I stop babbling, even though I feel I didn’t evenremotely scrape the surface, or tell everything that’s been building up insideme lately.I’ve been debating with myself if I should really go into such excruciating detailregarding my thoughts on Tom – mostly because I don’t think traumas ofdescribed sort are something to discuss online in such a manner, no matter if true or not. In a way, Ifeel protective, because the mere potential of my thoughts being correct gives me a nasty feeling of this being a text of “exposure”. Butthen again, the internet is getting too loud with their weakly argumentedopinions, and people don’t seem to take in account that this human being hasbeen through shit a lot of us can’t even remotely imagine. So I settled foreducation. I wanted to maybe build perspective for someone who hasn’t beenthinking about this all too much.I mean at the end of the day, worst case scenario is that I’m right, but that I’vestill built some sort of perspective for people who think that “Tom’s just a fuckboi”.And best case scenario is that I’m simply overthinking everything anyway, andthat he IS actually just simply happy. In which case, ya know, I’m really,truly happy for him.At the end of the day, that’s exactly what I want, and this is exactly why Iover think it – because I want nothing but the best for all four of these idiots (as said lovingly, of course). So to finally answer your very prevailing question:Do I think Tom’s happy?Solely superficially. Really, properly happy? Alas, I doubt it.Do I want to be wrong?Abso-fucking-lutely.Thank youfor your time, if you by chance came back to find my ass finally thinking of a proper response. It really has been a long time coming.Love,Tina

[shirlleycoyle]

Eric Weinstein Says He Solved the Universe’s Mysteries. Scientists Disagree

The quest to come up with a successful “theory of everything” is one of the guiding lights of modern theoretical physics, reconciling general relativity and quantum mechanics. The inventor of such a theory would no doubt be hailed among the all-time intellectual giants of science, and Eric Weinstein really wants everyone to think it’s him. 

Weinstein is primarily an investor, but also a self-styled public intellectual. He graduated with a PhD in mathematics from Harvard, and is currently a managing director of Thiel Capital, which invests in technology and life sciences. He also belongs to and coined the name for the “Intellectual Dark Web,” largely a crew of reactionaries with public profiles that includes Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro. He is also the inventor of what he calls “Geometric Unity,” a theory of everything that he’s been flogging since 2013. 

At that time, Weinstein―by then long out of academia and working as a consultant for a New York City hedge fund―made waves after promoting his theory by giving a lecture at the University of Oxford and scoring a write-up in The Guardian, instead of writing a scientific paper. The Guardian article was titled: “Move Over Einstein, Meet Weinstein.” Typically, researchers produce a paper containing equations that is then pored over by the wider community of scientists; this element of peer review and discussing ideas and evidence in the open is generally accepted to be a critical part of the scientific process. Weinstein’s audacious approach earned as much criticism as the theory itself, and his latest move has ignited furor all over again. 

Earlier this month, Weinstein finally posted a paper describing Geometric Unity online, uploaded the Oxford lecture to YouTube, and went on Joe Rogan’s immensely popular podcast to discuss it. There’s even a website called pullthatupjamie.com full of videos and resources on Geometric Unity that was created to make it easy for Rogan’s tech guy, Jamie Vernon, to pull up videos on the podcast. 

The appearance on Rogan’s podcast, which has been previously used as an uncritical platform, has generated both new interest in Geometric Unity and intense criticism from scientists who remain unconvinced. 

On the podcast, Weinstein said that his theory is an attempt to go “beyond Einstein” and push theoretical physics forward that could unlock amazing possibilities or terrible power.

”I was somewhat holding this back because I’m afraid of what it unlocks,” Weinstein said, “and now that I know we're willing to elect Donald Trump, not store masks, play footsie with China, be Putin's bitch, all of this stuff… to Hell with this.”

When Rogan asked what the main fear is, Weinstein recalled that “the last time we gained some serious insight into how nuclei worked,” nuclear weapons were invented. But, if the theory is correct, it might also give us the needed insight to make humanity into a multi-planet species, Weinstein said.

“One of the great dangers is, great power…. I cant tell what the power would be if the theory is correct, it might give us the ability to escape,” he said.

Rogan, for what it's worth, didn’t seem overly impressed with Weinstein's theory. In an attempt to explain his complicated theory, Weinstein handed Rogan a water wiggle (one of those cheap toys that looks like a small balloon filled with water), and explained how it symbolizes the mathematical concept of a U(1)-bundle. Rogan looks down at the toy in his hand while Weinstein speaks and gets progressively, visibly confused and angry. 

"I don't know what the fuck you just said," Rogan finally says. "How about that?"

So, what is Geometric Unity? At the moment, modern physics has two frameworks that do not nicely unify: general relativity and quantum mechanics, which describe reality at two vastly different scales. Whereas other physicists might try to square this circle by attempting a quantum version of general relativity, Weinstein's proposal was to begin with general relativity and its geometric descriptions of reality to try and discover equations describing the universe in its mathematical reality instead of our observable one. 

At its core sits the idea of a 14-dimensional "observerse" which our four dimensions (the three spatial dimensions, and time) lie within. A Guardian article at the time described the interplay between these two dimensional spaces as "something like the relationship between the people in the stands and those on the pitch at a football stadium" in that we are observers who can see and are affected by the observerse, but cannot possibly notice or detect every detail. Weinstein's theory proposes that there is a set of equations in these 14 dimensions that encompass Einstein’s equations, as well as several other famous equation sets, that altogether account for all fundamental forces and particle types. 

Timothy Nguyen, a machine learning researcher at Google AI whose phD thesis intersects with Weinstein's work, co-authored a paper based on Weinstein’s Geometric Unity lecture evaluating the idea in February. The paper identified gaps in Weinstein’s theory “both mathematical and physical in origin” that “jeopardize Geometric Unity as a well-defined theory, much less one that is a candidate for a theory of everything.”

In a blog post accompanying the paper, Nguyen wrote that the theory does not actually bring in quantum theory, relies on a poorly-defined “Ship in a bottle” (Shiab) operator of Weinstein’s own invention, and contains anomalies as well as a dubious assumption about supersymmetry in 14 dimensions. After Weinstein published his paper, Nguyen wrote on Twitter that it “addresses none of the technical gaps presented in our response,” although he did describe it as a “testament to perseverance.”

“If you’re interested in technical gaps, the gap most glaring arises from the ‘Shiab' operator. It is one of several uniquely idiosyncratic operators of Geometric Unity (it does not exist anywhere else in mathematics), unlike supersymmetry which is already a well-established and well-defined notion,” Nguyen told Motherboard in an email. “Weinstein fails to define the Shiab operator properly and so his theory does not even make mathematical sense, a more egregious problem than having desirable physical properties.”

Nguyen said that Weinstein’s initial PR splash was confusing at best, and that the resulting paper didn’t clarify the most important points. 

“Much of Weinstein’s Geometric Unity involves using obscure notation for objects that nobody else has defined and which he disingenuously expected others to understand from watching an over 2 hour long YouTube video,” Nguyen added. “Now that he has released a paper, we find that even Weinstein does not know how to construct the Shiab operator (he makes many qualifications that he no longer has the details).”

Richard Easther, a cosmologist and professor at the University of Auckland, pointed out some eyebrow-raising aspects of the idea in a 2013 blog. For one, a Guardian op-ed by Marcus du Sautoy―Weinstein’s chief academic promoters―seemed to hint at a dynamic constant in the universe, while most physicists support the idea of a constant that is, well, constant. What Weinstein eventually published didn’t impress him, he told Motherboard.

“The theory itself has had no visible impact, and what Weinstein actually delivered looked massively undercooked after the buildup it got from du Sautoy,” Easther said in an email. “A throwaway comment at the time suggested that it might predict a time-varying cosmological constant, but I haven’t seen any meaningful developments about this.”

Weinstein did not respond to Motherboard’s request for comment. 

All of this matters because despite the criticisms, Weinstein only finally released a paper this year after years promoting the theory in public forums while questioning the legitimacy of peer review, lamenting the need to provide evidence, and otherwise dismissing critics or skeptics hesitant to accept his theory with open arms. In a May 2020 interview, he said skeptics that wanted him to publish a paper on his idea for verification were simply “irritated” and “pissed off” at “themselves.” 

On Rogan’s podcast, Weinstein painted the academic field of physics as being generally untrustworthy and stifling, which is why he didn’t share his theory in full until now.

“I don’t trust these people,” Weinstein said, referring to physicists at universities. “It’s an entire system that believes in peer review, it believes in forced citations, you have to be at a university, you have to get an endorsement to use a preprint server. It’s too few resources, too many sharp elbows.”

Nguyen said he was spurred to evaluate Weinstein’s idea after this attitude set off alarm bells. At first, “It was refreshing to see a former part of my life being discussed outside the cloistered walls of academia and in the wider context of the world," Nguyen said. But after multiple conversations with Weinstein and watching how he interacted with his fans, Nguyen says he realized none of it was "consistent with my image of how a good-faith scientist engages with his audience." 

Many scientists do in fact unveil their work before peer review on popular sites such as arXiv. However, they do it in paper form (“preprints”) and with the goal of submitting their ideas to the wider community for approval or rejection. Authors do have to have an endorsement from someone in academia to post on arXiv, specifically, but in theory that shouldn’t have been an insurmountable obstacle for Weinstein; du Sautoy has posted several papers to arXiv. Besides that, papers can be posted anywhere, even a dedicated website as Weinstein has now done.

“Even if the physics isn't interesting, this story does say interesting things about the science. Einstein wrote up his ideas [and] submitted them for peer review just like everyone else―but many self-described ‘outsiders’ portray the scientific community as a closed shop,” Easther told Motherboard. “There is undoubtedly ‘sociology’ at work in the community at times, but anyone making a serious attempt to sell a new idea knows they are asking for busy people to give them a slice of their time and attention―and one of the ways you do that is by making your work as accessible as possible to the people you want to understand it.”

Releasing a paper did not silence the critics. Nor did it vindicate Weinstein’s PR-focused approach to sharing his theory. And all of this may well end up being rather pointless, because the paper ends with disclaimer that Weinstein "is not a physicist and is no longer an active academician, but is an Entertainer and host of The Portal podcast." The paper, the disclaimer ends, is merely a “work of entertainment.”

Now that Weinstein has finally published a paper describing his theory, it’s entirely possible that further analysis and investigation may show it to be more interesting than its critics have so far found. As Weinstein said on Rogan’s podcast, “I’ll find out [if] I’m wrong.”

But for now, it seems the only relevant question is: Are we entertained? 

Eric Weinstein Says He Solved the Universe’s Mysteries. Scientists Disagree syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[scifigeneration]

We're climate researchers and our work was turned into fake news

by Michael Grubb

rawpixel.com / shutterstock

Science is slow. It rests on painstaking research with accumulating evidence. This makes for an inherently uneasy relationship with the modern media age, especially once issues are politicised. The interaction between politics and media can be toxic for science, and climate change is a prominent example.

Take the recent “deep freeze” along the US east coast. To scientists, it was one more piece of a larger jigsaw of climate change disrupting weather systems and circulation patterns. This includes dramatic changes seen in Arctic sea ice and the knock-on effect on temperatures elsewhere in northern latitudes – both warming and relative cooling. To President Donald Trump the cold snap was a chance to mock climate change, and some skeptics suddenly talked about an impending ice age.

Fiction. Breitbart

Colleagues and I experienced similar frustrations in late 2017, after we published a paper in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, in which we concluded that there was more headroom than many had assumed before we breach the goals of the Paris Agreement. We found ourselves not only on the front page of the main British newspapers, but globally, as far-right website Breitbart ran with a story that a small band of buccaneering scientists had finally admitted that the models were all wrong – a fiction rapidly picked up by the more rabid elements in the media.

The essence of good science is to continually update, challenge, improve and refine, using as much evidence as possible. Single events rarely make for good science. And if every painstaking evaluation, updating work from years ago, may be portrayed as demolishing everything that went before – particularly at the whim of non-scientific agendas – then we have a major dilemma. The edifice of science is built with small bricks and this research was no exception.

We emphatically did not show that climate change was “less bad” or “happening slower” than previously thought. Our work built on the many previous scientific studies that had looked at the risks of unchecked emissions and the prospects for limiting warming to 2℃ above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement went further, aiming to “pursue efforts” towards a more ambitious goal of just 1.5℃. Given we’re already at around 1℃ of warming, that’s a relatively short-term goal. Greater ambition therefore requires greater precision.

Ten more years of this? Or 20? kamilpetran / shutterstock

Our study took a microscope to that question. Where previous estimates were drawn from a range of mostly long-run models that looked at century-long changes, we instead focused on a precise definition and current starting point, and other factors which matter far less in the long term, but a lot if the goal is much closer.

Some of the earlier estimates seemed to imply a “headroom to 1.5℃” of less than a decade of current emissions – clearly unachievable given the long timespans and huge inertia. We estimated about 20 years – equivalent to global CO₂ emissions falling steadily from now until hitting zero in around 40 years – and made it plain that it still looks, to put it mildly, a formidable ambition. Other studies have since come to similar conclusions.

A (non-)story of revolution

The more detailed reporting by those correspondents who attended the scientific briefing was accurate enough (even if some of their headlines and lead-ins weren’t), but that was soon lost in the misrepresentations that followed. Doubtless we could have done more to explain how our conclusions arose from what were actually quite minor scientific developments. Some instead turned it into a story of revolution in climate science. Scientists are also human, and these sceptic reactions reinforced a natural initial inclination among other researchers to defend their previous numbers. Some took to Twitter to do so, but themselves seemed to confuse the media headlines with our actual conclusions.

Some challenges could yet be proved right. There could, for example, be more pent-up warming currently being masked by other pollutants or already lurking in the oceans. When the goal is close, other heat-trapping emissions (like methane) also matter a lot more. Our study – like earlier work – had its share of caveats and uncertainties.

There may be even more heat lurking in the oceans. Maksimilian/shutterstock

Unfortunately, while good science embraces uncertainty, politics abhors it and the media seems confounded by it. That in turn pressures researchers to simplify their message, and treat existing estimates – often, from a range – like a position to be defended. It is a risky trap for scientists, however eminent and well-intentioned, to wield overnight reactions to parry months of painstaking peer review and refinement that lie behind analyses published in leading journals.

Science against spin

So how should science respond? The climate policy implications are easy: nothing significant has changed. We have but one planet, and both the physical and economic processes that are driving climate change have enormous inertia. If a big ocean liner were steaming into dense fog in polar seas, only a fool would maintain full speed on the basis that the technicians were still discussing the distance to the first big iceberg.

One underlying challenge is indeed around the communication of uncertainty. This is a well-worn track, but it bears repeating. The job of science is not just to narrow uncertainties, but to educate about the risks that flow logically from it. Like a medical prognosis from smoking, the fact that things might turn out better or worse than the average is not a good reason to keep puffing. You won’t know until it is too late whether the damage has been slight, or terminal.

But science also needs to embrace and embed another obvious feature of medical practice: a doctor would never look at just your temperature to diagnose your condition. So part of the problem stems from using a single indicator for complex processes. Too much debate treats temperature (and especially the most recent global average) as the sole indicator, whereas many other factors are at play including sea levels, ocean acidity, ice sheets, ecosystem trends, and many more.

These other trends need to be reported in context, just as economics news reports not only GDP but debt, employment, inflation, productivity and a host of other indicators. And scientists themselves need to improve the art of communication in a world where research can be spun, within hours, into a story of past failure, rather than the reality of continuous improvement.

Michael Grubb is a Professor of Energy and Climate Change st UCL

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

[salmenzo]

Weekly Update - Monday, February 8, 2021

Commitment - Conviction - Consideration

“In a world where so many are throwing bricks on others, 

be the one who builds bridges with them.”

Emma Xu

Good Morning,

I hope that everyone enjoyed the Super Bowl.  I know it was very different due to the pandemic and snow.  I usually spend the day with my dad, but with the combination of the bad weather and the virus, we had to text and talk throughout the game.  Next year will be different and hopefully Tom Brady won’t be playing in the game.  Sorry, once a New York fan always a New York fan.

I do want to reiterate my plea for patience and kindness to one another as we continue to address the challenges of the pandemic.  None of this is easy for anyone.  With that said, I would like to remind people that oftentimes kindness is a key in solving problems.  If you have a challenge you are facing, please try to approach those who may be in a position to help you in a proactive and positive manner.  The way you handle such situations really does impact everyone.  Being potentially aggressive or disrespectful never serves any situation well.  Again, I know there is a lot of stress at this time for everyone.  Therefore, it is even more important that we all do our best to treat each other respectfully.

Budget Update

Wednesday evening, the Board of Education approved a 2.13% increase for the 2021-2022 school budget.  The following items were included in addition to sustaining our present levels of service.

The next step in the budget process is to submit the budget to the Mayor for his review.  He will then issue his budget proposal to the Town Council in April 1.

I will keep you informed as to next steps and the dates of the public meeting on the budget and Town Council. 

Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management 

The Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management 3 class at Lyman Hall High School has recently launched a Facebook page. They will use this media platform to share information about their program and connect to the Wallingford community. Their page will feature some of their most popular student-operated businesses such as The Cook’s Table, A Healthy Drive, and events such as their Signature Pop-up shops, and take home meal service Pure Fresh. 

Due to the pandemic they needed to adapt and change from their traditional learning format and had to find new and safe ways to apply their skills. With that in mind, they are proud to announce FIT4YOU!. This program will share helpful tips, information, and ideas on food, fitness, finance, and fun. As they move forward, you should look for some of their favorite recipes, health and wellness tips, financial insight, music, books and podcast recommendations. 

You can find them at the link below:

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/Lyman-Hall-Culinary-Arts-and-Hospitality-Management-104907028229218

WTNH Link to What's Right with Schools - https://www.facebook.com/48010180735/posts/10157789402220736/?d=n

This week, Mark T. Sheehan High School is being highlighted on WTNH’s - What’s Right with Schools.  The story focuses on the upcoming virtual production of 10 Ways to Survive Life in a Quarantine.  

The show is February 19 & 20, 2021 beginning at 7:00 PM. A streaming ticket for this event is $20.00 and will allow you to stream to your TV and have your family watch the show. Streaming tickets can be purchased from our website: http://bit.ly/SheehanDrama. Each ticket has its own unique streaming code.

Commitment - Conviction - Consideration

Here are this week’s faculty shot outs!

I just wanted to make you aware of the support my family received from Sheehan High School. While it was not direct instruction, the social-emotional support my son received from his teachers was integral in navigating the death of his father in October. Ms. Cerny worked behind the scenes to assist him in returning to school and in particular, Mrs. Zigmont went above and beyond to support him and make sure he was comfortable with the curriculum being presented, particularly when cancer was being discussed. Both the cross country and basketball teams stood close to my children during this difficult time. Coach Gaetano was integral in helping my older son manage our situation and Coach Mohr kept my younger son running when I found it difficult just to get out of bed.   Other past teachers that reached out to my son to include Mr.Lombardozzi, Mr. Wodatch and Ms. Miller. I’m sure there were more. Then to top it off, the entire Sheehan staff did a fundraiser for my family. 

I just want to reach out to you to express my sincere appreciation for all of the staff for Wallingford schools. I have a child at Lyman Hall and a child at Fritz. We unfortunately were diagnosed with covid over Christmas break so my younger daughter has not been back to school yet.

We also moved from Rock Hill to Fritz this year so a lot of change for my 5th grader. But it has been the most positive experience ever!!

Mr. Brumleve has gone above and beyond to make my daughter feel included in the classroom. He reached out to her when school first began so she would feel comfortable in a new school. He came to my house to drop off her book club book so she didn’t get behind while she was out with covid. Mr. Brumleve has been an absolute joy to work with and I feel so lucky to have him as my daughter's teacher! He has great parent communication and even though we can’t go to the classroom, I do not feel disconnected this year. I wish we could keep him through the rest of school years for my daughter! Thank you Mr. Brumleve!!!

Ms. Toman has been absolutely wonderful!  The class had to be quarantined for a bit and I had a chance to overhear snippets of the conversations she had with the children.  She is so warm, encouraging and patient!  I can’t imagine how tough it must have been for her to handle the class remotely, while also caring for her own small children.  I heard Ms. Toman have to ask the children repeatedly to mute/unmute/put the pet down/pay attention, etc.  Yet she was so patient!  My son showed me an e-mail she wrote to the class one morning.  It talked about a task the children had trouble with the previous day and she said that she couldn’t wait to explain to them how to do the task properly.  That’s the kind of communication children need and I’m so happy my son is with the teacher who speaks that way to her children. 

Also, my husband’s parents had COVID.  Ms. Toman had the whole class write letters to them.  They are both retired teachers and receiving the letters absolutely made their day!  Not only did it make them feel better, it also made him feel like he was doing something additional to help.  It was worrisome for him to know that grandpa was in the hospital.  Having those conversations in school really helps relieve children’s anxiety, gives them a sense of purpose and some control of this challenging environment.  I’m so glad Ms. Toman understands that and teachers from that place of compassion.

He enjoys being in Ms. Toman’s class.  He seems to be doing well academically, after just a couple of months in Ms. Toman’s class I noticed a significant improvement in his writing.  I’m so glad to have Ms. Toman as his teacher!

My granddaughter is having a wonderful year in second grade with Mrs. Balsamo at Stevens School.  She is happy to go to school and is learning so much. Her teacher has interesting material for the children, but more than that she encourages  the children to be kind to each other.  Her classroom is a happy place. I commend Mrs. Balsamo for her hard work, and I am grateful Leah is in her class.

I am the proud parent of an MYB 2nd grader. I wanted to take the time to let you know what an amazing teacher Ms. Rochefort is. I was sick with covid at the beginning of this month and as a result Kaylee had to stay home, quarantine, and distance learn. As you well know, distance learning is challenging, especially at the elementary level. Ms. Rochefort was truly remarkable and instrumental in making distance learning engaging and as straightforward as possible. My daughter was able to navigate her assignments independently with minimal assistance. I could not be prouder of both my daughter and Ms. Rochefort. Everyday, Ms. Rochefort would send her assignments with detailed instructions. She also set up several daily google meets for my daughter to learn along with her peers and be part of the class virtually. Numerous times Ms. Rochefort took the time from her day, whether before or after school, to bring her assignments to our house and drop them off at our mailbox. Ms. Rochefort’s love of teaching and dedication to helping her students learn is absolutely incredible. She is extremely committed and has gone above and beyond to help my daughter learn both virtually and in the classroom. MYB is very fortunate to have such an incredible and caring teacher and I could not be happier to have my daughter in her class. My daughter truly loves her teacher and looks up to her. I am grateful Ms. Rochefort has joined the MYB family and I hope my younger daughter will also have the opportunity to be in Ms. Rochefort’s class when the time comes.

Teachers deserve recognition for the work that they do everyday. Their work has a tremendous impact on the lives of our kids. Teachers work extremely hard to foster a love of learning in our children. I believe we as a society have taken a teacher’s work for granted until now. This pandemic put a spotlight on how hard teachers work and the importance of their efforts. Again, I would like to applaud all the hard work and effort Ms. Rochefort put in over the last few weeks. I am extremely grateful to her and and to MYB for finding such a talented and caring educator.

Make it a great week!

Sal

Dr. Salvatore F. Menzo

Superintendent

Email - smenzo@wallingfordschools.org

Twitter - @SalMenzo

Wallingford Public School District

 Wallingford Public School System Mission

To inspire through innovative and engaging experiences that lead all learners to pursue and discover their personal best.

 THE INFORMATION IN THIS TRANSMISSION IS PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL AND INTENDED ONLY FOR THE RECIPIENT LISTED ABOVE.  If you have received this transmission in error, please NOTIFY ME IMMEDIATELY BY E-MAIL AND DELETE THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE. Responses provided by this E-Mail are SIMILAR to ordinary telephone or face-to-face conversations.

[horyu-ji]

A nice reflection about Katie Bouman’s role now that this is old news, by Misty S. Boyer.

There's a lot of news going on about the "black hole girl" right now, and how she's being given too much credit for her role in the historic first image of a black hole.

Once Katie Bouman became the "face" of the black hole photo, and articles began to call her "the woman behind the black hole photo", an assortment of people decided to figure out just how much of a role she had in it. Why? You'd have to ask them. Something about her attractiveness, youthfulness, and femaleness disturbed them to the point where they had to go digging.

And after digging, they found Andrew Chael, who wrote an algorithm, and put his algorithm online. Andrew Chael worked on the black hole photo as well. And because people kept saying that Katie Bouman wrote "the algorithm", these people decided that "the algorithm" in question must be Chael's. So they looked at Chael's GitHub repository and checked the history. The history showed that Andrew Chael's commits totaled more than 850,000 lines, while Katie Bouman contributed only 2,400.

They dug a little deeper - but not much - and discovered that the algorithm that "ultimately" generated the world-famous photo was created a different man, named Mareki Honma. "She's taken the credit from two men!" they gasped. "Feminism and the PC media is destroying everything!" There were, of course, those who tried to be kind. "She's always said that this was a team effort," they said. "We don't blame her, we blame the media. She didn't ask to become the poster girl of a team project she barely contributed to."

Meanwhile, Andrew Chael - a gay man - tweeted in defense of her. He thanked people for congratulating him on the work he'd spent years on but clarified that if they were doing so as a part of a sexist attack on Katie Bouman, they should go away and reconsider their lives. He said that his work couldn't have happened without Katie. And it turns out that he was the one who took the viral photo of Bouman, specifically because he didn't want her contributions to be lost to history.

As a programmer, I'm well aware that the number of GitHub commits means nothing without context. And Chael himself clarified that the lines being counted in the commits were from automatic commits of large data files. The actual software was made up of 68,000 lines, and though he didn't count how many he did personally (having said he doesn't actually care how much of it he personally authored), someone else assessed that he wrote about 24,000 of those.

Whether 68,000 or 24,000-- it's more than 2,400 right? Why call it "her" algorithm, then? Because there's more than one algorithm being referenced here. These people just don't realize it. The photo that everyone is looking at, the world famous black hole photo? It's actually a composite photo. It was generated by an algorithm credited to Mareki Honma. Honma's algorithm, based on MRI technology, is used to "stitch together" photos and fill in the missing pixels by analyzing the surrounding pixels.

But where did the photos come from that are composited into this photo? The photos making up the composite were generated by 4 separate teams, led by Katie Bouman and Andrew Chael, Kazu Akiyama and Sara Issaoun, Shoko Koyama, Jose L. Gomez, and Michael Johnson. Each team was given a copy of the black hole data and isolated from each other. Between the four of them, they used two techniques - an older, traditional one called CLEAN, and a newer one called RML - to generate an image.

The purpose of this division and isolation of teams was deliberately done to test the accuracy of the black hole data they were all using. If four isolated teams using different algorithms all got similar results, that would indicate that the data itself was accurate. And lo, that's exactly what happened. The data wasn't just good, it's the most accurate of its kind. 5 petabytes (millions of billions of bytes) worth of accurate black hole data.

But where did the data come from? Eight radio telescopes around the world trained their attention on the night sky in the direction of this black hole. The black hole is some ungodly distance away, a relative speck amidst billions of celestial bodies. And what the telescopes caught was not only the data of the black hole but the data of everything else as well. Data that would need to be sorted. Clearly, it's not the sort of thing you can sort by hand.

To separate the wheat (one specific black hole's data) from the chaff (literally everything else around and between here and there) required an algorithm that could identify and single it out, calculations that were crunched across 800 CPUs on a 40Gbit/s network. And given that the resulting black hole-specific data was 5 petabytes (hundreds of pounds worth of hard drives!) you can imagine that the original data set was many times larger.

The algorithm that accomplished this feat was called CHIRP, short for "Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors". CHIRP was created by Katie Bouman. At the age of 23, she knew nothing about black holes. Her field is computer science and artificial intelligence, topics she'd been involved in since high school. She had a theory about the shadows of black holes, and her algorithm was designed to find those shadows. Katie Bouman used a variety of what MIT called "clever algebraic solutions" to overcome the obstacles involved in creating the CHIRP algorithm. And though she had a team working to help her, her name comes first on the peer-reviewed documentation. 

It's called the CHIRP algorithm because that's what she named it. It's the only reason these images could be created, and it's responsible for creating some of the images that were incorporated into the final image. It's the algorithm that made the effort of collecting all that data worth it.

Any data analyst can tell you that you can't analyze or visualize data until it's been prepared first. Cleaned up. Narrowed down to the important information. That's what Katie Bouman did, and after working as a data analyst for two years with a focus on this exact thing - data transformation - I can tell you it's not easy. Katie Bouman's 2,400 line contribution to Andrew Chael's work is on top of all of her other work. She spent five years developing and refining the CHIRP algorithm before leading four teams in testing the data created.

The data collection phase of this took 10 days in April 2017, when the eight telescopes simultaneously trained their gazes towards the black hole. This photo was ultimately created as a way to test Katie Bouman's algorithm for accuracy. MIT says that it's frequently more accurate than similar predecessors. And it is the algorithm that gave us our first direct image of a black hole.

Because Katie Bouman refuses to say that this was anything other than a team effort, even the most flattering comments about her still place her contributions to the photo at less-than-equal contribution to others.

While it's true that every one of the 200+ people involved played an important role, Katie Bouman deserves every ounce of superstardom she receives. If there must be a face to this project - and there usually is - then why shouldn't it be her, her fingers twined across her lips, her gleeful eyes luminous and wide with awe and joy?

A list of the various articles read to piece this together:

The twitter thread where Chael defends Katie. Another Twitter thread here.

Caltech colloquium, Friday, April, 12th — “Imaging a Black Hole [Shadow] with the Event Horizon Telescope”.

A 2016 MIT article announcing CHIRP.

This goes into detail about Katie Bouman's algorithm.

A 2016 TEDx talk from Bouman where she describes her work.

A paper based on Bouman's work, where she's listed as first author.

Andrew Chael's imaging library available on GitHub.

A paper describing Chael's work.

The official EHT telescope website.

This article speaks to some of the other people involved.

This is the article that describes CHIRP data sorting.

This article mentions Bouman coming up with a new algorithm.

This article explains Honma's significant role. Another article that goes into more detail about Honma and team.

The final link is the document by all 200+ participants. This document is important because it gives such a clear idea of the work that went into this, the fabric of which Bouman is an integral part. While I'm intentionally highlighting her contributions in defense of her, it should be understood that, like with most scientific breakthroughs, there were many unsung heroes.

[bettydgunter90]

072: Is it Heroic or Idiotic to “Burn the Ships”?

  People in the business world and particularly in the real estate space sometimes look down upon employees and people who choose to rely on a job while they start and grow their business.

There’s this idea that the only way to make it work is to take a reckless leap of faith and ‘burn the ships’ so you can’t turn back.

It makes for a compelling story… but is that really the right way to play this? We’re going to talk about that today.

Links and Resources

Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey

5 Real Estate Side Hustle Ideas (I Made $1,000 in One Day)

070: The 10X Rule vs. 80/20 Principle – What’s the Right Way to Run Your Business?

Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

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Episode 72 Transcription

Seth: Hey everybody, what’s up? This is Seth Williams and Jaren Barnes, and you’re listening to the REtipster podcast. Today is episode 72. By the way, you can find show notes for everything in this episode at retipster.com/72.

Today, Jaren and I are going to talk about something that we’ve sort of noticed and kind of bothered by for many years. It’s this idea of a job, the dreaded “J-O-B” being a curse, something that needs to be shunned and something that needs to be basically moved away from “at all costs” as soon as possible.

I think what makes this kind of tricky is because for somebody who is an entrepreneur and wants to be financially free and wants to do the whole self-employed thing and start their own business, undeniably there’s always going to be an element of that, where you do want to get away from your job, and you want to cut the cord and live life on your own terms.

But there’s this attitude among a lot of voices online and hardcore business owners where it’s like a job is downright evil, like it’s wrong. And anybody who has a job is somehow failing as a person and the only way to handle that situation is to do what they call “burning the ships” or “burning the boats” or “burning the bridge” or whatever you want to call it. Where you basically cut ties with that permanently so that you can’t go back. Basically, given yourself no other option, but to move forward towards the path of “success”, the place that you want to go.

We’re going to unpack that a little bit today and share our thoughts about that whole mindset and that philosophy. Where that is getting it right, where that is getting it wrong and kind of how we look at this situation.

Jaren: Yeah. I’m excited to dive into it, man. Because I know for me, especially when I first got started in real estate out in the Bay Area, there was like, I don’t know, like this elite-ism among aspiring entrepreneurs and existing established entrepreneurs. That just was like, “If you’re an employee you’re automatically a lower-class human being. If you work for somebody else, you don’t work for yourself, you’re just less, you just kind of suck”. And we would use language like “The Employee Mindset”.

I remember a lot of my peers that left good jobs. I left a really solid job to go pursue this real estate flipping business that was doomed to fail from the beginning. I just remember, we thought so highly of ourselves with almost $0 in our bank account, just scraping by doing the “starving entrepreneurial” lifestyle as opposed to the starving artist’s lifestyle of somebody who’s pursuing music as their full-time thing. Every single person that started is now working a full-time job, as an employee. Myself included.

Seth: So, it didn’t work out for them?

Jaren: Not at all. Not a single one of them. The only people that I’ve ever seen actually transition out of it into being able to sustain themselves long-term in a business that they own is very slow, very methodical, lots of contingency plans, lots of savings. And everyone I know – You, Brett, Tyler. Everybody that I know had a strategy to transition out.

I just kind of feel like we owe our audience something that I wish somebody gave me when I was first starting out and kind of pull the curtain back and say, “This is not sound good on a stage when you’re trying to hoorah the crowd”. But I think the stories of people “burning the boats” and going after their thing, their backs are against the wall, it’s very inspirational. It makes it a very good movie, but it’s very much an outlier. I think most people don’t cross the bridge into owning their own business full time and as their primary source of income without doing that slowly. I think most people have to do it slowly.

Seth: Yeah. I think the reason why this idea catches on so much and why people love to tell this idea is because it makes for a really compelling story. It’s sort of like this hero’s journey where they’re up against incredible odds and somehow, they overcome them. And it is a great story when it works out well.

Those are typically the stories you end up hearing about. Those are the types of people that do get interviewed on podcasts and all this stuff. But the people that don’t make it, a lot of times you’re not going to hear those stories because they’re not fun stories to hear about and it doesn’t sell books and it doesn’t work well, motivational stage and that kind of thing.

I remember I heard about this a long time ago, the band Blink-182, sort of this punk rock band and their drummer, Travis Barker. I remember seeing some interview at some point where he was talking about how… I don’t remember all the details, but what I remember was that when he was young and he wanted to be this drummer in a rock band and really make it in music, he went out and got these tattoos going all the way up to his neck. Like tattoos that couldn’t be hidden. And sort of this idea was like, “I’m going to make this happen so that I can’t go to a white-collar job. I’m going to have to make the Rockstar thing work”. And of course, it did work for him and that’s great for him. And that’s a great story.

But what if you got a bunch of neck or face tattoos and then, “Oh, well, the rock star thing, like 99.9% of other aspiring musicians doesn’t work out?” And now what? You’ve just ruined a lot of chances that even if these alternative routes weren’t going to be your final destination, they still would have been very helpful as a way to get you to where you want to go in the meantime.

When I think about this idea of “burning the ships”, essentially what it’s saying is that you’re making a permanent life-altering decision without all the facts, without all the foresight and implications of that decision. You don’t know where it’s going to go, or if it’s going to pan out the way you plan. There are a lot of things that just in my own life I can think about that I’ve really wanted at certain points that were not the right thing for me, that I was not the right fit for. And it took me some pain and discomfort to figure that out. But if I had “burned the ships” and give myself no other option, man, I’d be in a pretty rough spot.

Jaren: Yeah.

Seth: When I think of this idea of “burning the ships”, it seems like sound advice for somebody who is fighting an addiction or trying to move away from a situation or behavior that is indisputably undeniably 100% bad. Like there is no redeeming value in the place that they’re at and they have to move away. There’s never a situation where it’s going to be okay to leave that option open. So, like that, I understand. I can totally get why this “burning the boats” advice would make sense. But when we’re talking about starting a business, that honestly sounds like some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard.

Jaren: Tell me how you really feel.

Seth: Well, you’re cutting off all forms of security and you’re cutting off all of the fallback options. And in my opinion, that’s not a smart move. It makes for a great story when it works out well, but more often than not, I think it doesn’t work out well when somebody does that because it’s a foolish decision in the first place.

If somebody is considering “burning the ships” for one reason or another, it’s important to think about “WHY”. Why is it necessary to eliminate all your other options? What does this do for you? Is it because the feeling of commitment is exciting and feels good? Because if that’s the case, I think it’s important to also remember that committing to something is not the same as doing it or accomplishing it. It’s surprisingly easy to trick ourselves into believing that committing is the same as doing. I’m guilty of this. I’ve totally had this feeling before, but it’s like, “Hey, I am going to do this.” And in my mind, it’s like, “I’ve already done it”.

But man, I got to tell you, every business I’ve ever tried to do has always a hundred percent of the time ended up being a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Sometimes so hard that it’s like, “Well, I don’t want to do this anymore”. And other times it’s hard, but not something I couldn’t overcome. So, this idea of cutting off all your other options when there’s a lot of unknowns and frankly, there’s nothing inherently evil about having a job. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Jaren: I think for me, where it really falls apart is at least my personality, I can’t speak for other people because I know other people perform well under stress, but if my back is against the wall and I’m not okay financially, I make really dumb decisions because I am very emotional. I can’t get out of the side of my own head. I thrive in an environment where there is no stress. If I have like a fight with my wife or if I have other factors that day, it really plays a toll on my productivity. I do not perform well under stress, unfortunately. And that’s just a personality thing of mine.

When I have in the past taking this advice and really tried to like, “No matter what I’m going to make this happen”, I end up being all over the place and not being able to be wise in my decision making.

And I want to say too like, I get it. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. When we first started the conversation about employee mindset and stuff. There is an employee mindset, for sure, that is not a good mindset to have. The clock in clock out, just do the bare minimum to get by or to get your paycheck. That has never resonated with me. I remember the first real job that I got. I was working as a security guard at the hospital where my mom worked at. My mom was a labor delivery nurse until she retired.

I used to get so upset when my manager would say, “Jaren, you have to go take lunch now”. And I’m like, “Well, I’m doing my routes. I’m doing stuff. Why can’t I take lunch later?” And same thing with 15-minute breaks. I didn’t like that cog in the wheel stuff. But not every job is like that.

For example, the job that I have here at REtipster, autonomy is a really important aspect for me to perform well at my job. And Seth gives me a lot of autonomy. I know I’m really fortunate and I’m really blessed to be here, but there are other jobs too and other career paths that have autonomy or have other things that allow you to function more from an entrepreneurial, or I don’t even know if it’s entrepreneurial. It’s more like just being a contributing voice to the problems at hand, like being an active team member. I think any job you work at, you can just be somebody who just collects a paycheck or you can be a part of the core team that’s actually moving the mission of the business forward.

Even there’s a book by Dave Ramsey called “EntreLeadership”. That’s a really good book about how you can be entrepreneurial-minded and still work for another company. So, I don’t think that the issue is being an employee inherently. I think that the issue is how do you think as a person and what’s your mindset, what’s your approach to life?

Because there is higher-level thinking and there is a better mindset to approach stuff in the entrepreneurial world. But that doesn’t mean you have to be the owner of an LLC that solely provides for your income. While you’re building your dream, while you’re building your business I think it’s much smarter to go get another job or go work for somebody who is successful in the business that you want to be successful in and get paid to learn and then go and do it on the side until your side business replaces your income and you have some savings and then make the jump.

Seth: Yeah. And you were talking earlier about this idea of getting really emotional and making emotional decisions when it really matters. Like you’re depending on this thing to support you full time. I know we’ve talked about this before in our office hours, things we do for the land investing masterclass and that kind of thing. But this idea of going full time with your real estate business, it’s a massive decision.

When I think about like a lot of deals that I’ve done in the past, the reason I was able to hold out for the best possible deal was because of the fact that I wasn’t depending on them working out. I was a hundred percent fine walking away from anything that didn’t make good financial sense. And if it was a situation where like, “No, no. We have to do a deal somehow somewhere, or this whole thing falls apart”. Like if you put that kind of pressure on yourself, it’s a perfect environment to start making dumb decisions because it’s just human nature. Who wouldn’t feel that kind of pressure if they had no other option and they felt like they had to make this thing work? I think you can certainly get there, but it’s really important not to take that leap prematurely before you’re ready, before you can really weather a storm or a few months of uncertainty that is inevitably going to happen at some point.

Jaren: Yeah. I do think there is a place if you’re like, let’s say you’re 18 or 19 years old, or you just graduated high school and you’re still able to live with mom and dad and you don’t have the responsibilities of a wife and kids and all that stuff. I think in those circumstances, if your family is in a case of supporting you, pursuing a business instead of say going to college for a designated amount of time, I think that in those circumstances it could make sense to go “all in” and just say, “Hey, I’m going to be living in mama’s basement for the next couple of years and just put all my attention and effort and all my resources into building a business instead of going to get a job”. I think that that could make sense. But if you’re in a position where you have to contribute to make sure that your family eats every month, I think that it is noble and honorable to provide for your family and put your dream as a side hustle and lose sleep, like sacrifice to make it happen.

You can work during the day, spend time with your family in the evening. And then a few hours while everyone’s sleeping, instead of going to bed at 09:30 or 10:00 o’clock, go to bed at 12:30 and take those couple hours to build your business. I think that’s very feasible. And I know you, you even shared Seth, when you were building your business, you would take your lunch hours, you wouldn’t want to go out and hang out with the guys. You would sit there and work on your thing and you put those hours in. And I think that’s what it takes to make the transition successful if you’re in a situation where people would depend on you.

Seth: I think some people are just in different situations like you were saying, Jaren. Some people just have a lot more at stake. They have a lot more to lose than other people do. When I think of my situation when I was 23, it wasn’t really that hard to take a big leap and do something like this because my living expenses were low. I didn’t have kids. Like how far was there to fall when my career was just starting anyway? I had some expenses like some baseline had to be covered, but it’s not like I was in the most expensive stage in my life. Whereas when I look at where I’m at now, I’ve got two small children and just a lot more happening.

And if I was like cold Turkey going to just stop everything I’m doing now and start something totally different with no promise of that working out, that’s a heck of a gamble. I just don’t think it has to be that way.

I think if somebody is trying to cut the cord and make this big leap, I would think it would just be helpful to think about like, “Why do you think it’s necessary to force a particular destiny on yourself?” What makes you so sure about this thing working out? What evidence do you have to believe that you are going to succeed at it? Not just the person you’re following who happened to succeed at it, but the person that you heard about who did well of it, because the person that you heard about who did well at it, they may have a totally different set of attributes, a totally different situation than you.

Just because there is a proven case study of somebody who did well. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to match up with that. Is it possible that there is something about this particular path forward that’s actually not good for you and you just don’t have the experience to see that yet? I don’t know. There are just a lot of stuff to think about. And there are a lot of question marks with any new business venture and it might not be prudent to just “burn the ships” so to speak.

Jaren: Yeah, my biggest thing, man, I want the listeners today to really hear me out when it comes to shame, because I feel like the “Gary V’s” of the world and the “Grant Cardone’s” of the world and maybe not them directly, but a lot of the culture that goes around a lot of the business influencers, they really look down on you if you have a job. And I will speak firsthand that my land business has done way better since I’ve been working at REtipster and I had the consistent income of REtipster that helped me just like relax and like, calm down. And my business has grown because of it way more than it was growing when I was trying to pursue it full time.

I want to also say I understand if being your own business owner is your dream. We’re not trying to shun your dream. You can definitely make your dream happen, but we’re just trying to encourage you to be more realistic and making it happen. It’s kind of goes back to that whole conversation about “The 10X Rule” versus “The 80/20 Principle”.

I think that it would be better for you to have a very clear goal. Like, “I live off of my land business. I live off of my real estate business”. And then reverse engineer that and figure out the steps that need to happen for that transition to be a reality. Whereas if you just kind of approach it, as like, “Yeah, I’m going to do it”. Kind of like the 10X kind of approach of “I’m going to ‘burn the ships’ and no matter what this is going to happen, or I’m going to die trying”, you could really miss your dream. You can miss your destiny if that’s your destiny if you don’t go after it methodically and with wisdom. And there’s no shame in that. There’s absolutely no shame in working two jobs or three, driving Uber or doing some side hustles while you’re pursuing your main gig.

Seth: Yeah. I think what makes it hard because I totally agree with you Jaren, it’s important to dispel the shame idea behind this or just you’re living a less worthy life or you’re a less person because you haven’t taken this huge audacious risk to do something great. I think what’s hard to accept about that is that a lot of times going slow and being careful and waiting, it’s just monotonous. It’s a long, boring, slow, not exciting process to do that. I’m very familiar with that. It took me basically like almost a decade to get to where I wanted to go. And there were lots of times when I was like, “Man, is this ever going to work? Why is this taking so long? Look at this guy over here who got there faster. What am I doing wrong? How am I failing and why did he succeed? How was he smarter than me?”

There’s lots of self-doubts that can creep in. But C.S. Lewis has this quote where he said, “I don’t believe good work is ever done in a hurry”. He started talking about something different, but it’s kind of related in that for a lot of the best things in life to get there in one piece and the best possible shape, it just requires patience and just consistency and a long-term vision of where something is going. It’s not always the funniest way to get there, but it’s the safest way to do it in a way that has the highest likelihood of you doing it right without sacrificing a bunch of stuff like losing relationships that you don’t need to lose.

Jaren: Yeah. Now, man, I think we pretty much hit it right on the head. And I know this might be a bit of a short episode if we ended here, but I don’t know if I have much else to contribute to the topic.

Seth: Yeah. I know. And that’s pretty much it. It’s just the idea of we’re sort of acknowledging that it’s very easy to fall victim to this idea that the people who are really the heroes, they’re the ones that do this overnight or they’re the ones that just hit the nuclear button on their job and somehow make it work. But it’s like, in my mind, it’s almost sort of like very fortunate fools. That’s obviously generalizing. Some people might be really smart at it, but statistically, there’s way more people, way more people who fail when they do it that way. And it’s not because they’re any less capable, it’s because that’s just not necessarily the wisest way to proceed. Great things just take time and that’s okay. And it doesn’t make you a coward. It makes you a prudent person I think to take the time you need.

Jaren: No, a hundred percent. And something that I have been learning a lot about recently, I’ve been really getting into the whole Profit First model, if you guys haven’t heard of it. Profit First is a financial management system for small business owners and it is radically changing my life. And something that kind of helped rid me of shame and rid me of comparing myself to others is just because somebody has a really flashy business that makes a lot of revenue, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re thriving financially.

When you go to these business conferences or you go to these networking events, they’ll throw out their deal flow and then they’ll throw out their revenue. And that really doesn’t matter when you pull back and you look at how much money they’re taking home. They might be killing it and I don’t want to over-generalize, but there are a lot of people who behind closed doors are still living paycheck to paycheck. That’s just a big paycheck to paycheck.

Our goal with when it comes to business and real estate, it should be financial freedom. What I’m learning the slow and hard way is that financial freedom takes discipline. How much you make, like how much revenue you’re bringing in through your business it does play some factor, but you would be shocked at what you can do if you manage money well. And that’s what I’m really trying to transition in, especially in light of Covid-19 and everything that’s going on. I’m just realizing, man. Managed money is much more powerful than lots and lots of dollars coming in and out of your bank account.

Seth: Yeah. The whole Profit First model is a pretty big game-changer. It can rid a lot of stress out of your life that it doesn’t need to be there. Like if you just have a solid framework with which to manage the money that’s coming in, like yeah, that’s pretty smart. Definitely a good book for anybody to check out.

Jaren: I really, really am getting a lot out of it. It’s a process to set up for sure. I’m head deep in setting up like seven different business checking accounts and all this crazy stuff. I have to call these banks and be like, “Hey, I’m not doing anything weird. I promise. I’m just opening up a bunch of accounts”.

Seth: I will say the audiobook version of that is a pretty good book as well. The author Mike Michalowicz. I can never pronounce his last name. He does a lot of ad libs and adds a lot of commentary throughout the book. He doesn’t just read it word for word from the text, but he’ll insert comments as he goes through and it is pretty helpful stuff. So, it’s almost like extra bonus content if you listen to the audiobook.

Jaren: And you might need to check that out because I actually read it and take notes and stuff.

Seth: Well, I think that’s a wrap. Should we hit our little exit question here?

Jaren: Yeah, let’s do it.

Seth: Okay. So, wait. This is the question. And this might be kind of a weird one, but what punctuation mark would best describe your personality?

Jaren: The exclamation point (!).

Seth: Yeah. I could have guessed that. And why do you say that?

Jaren: Because I want to make an impact with my life man. Impact is my driver. When you are writing a sentence and you want to make a “Hey, pay attention”, like a dent on the sentence, that’s what you do.

Seth: Yeah. Cool, man, that makes sense to me.

Jaren: What about you, man?

Seth: I think for me, it’s probably either the question mark (?) or the dot-dot-dot (…), if that counts. I don’t know if it’s because I’m slower or something, but I think I’ve learned over time that there’s a lot of stuff in life I don’t know. And I spend a lot more time like asking questions than giving answers. A lot of times I feel hesitant to give anybody an answer about anything. I know there’s a lot of times whenever I take a stance on something or state a fact, I always feel the need to add these caveats and disclaimers. Like, “This might be the way to do this”, which really doesn’t help me honestly. I know people who read blogs and watch videos and stuff like they want solid a hundred percent certainty answers. Like they don’t want caveats and all these complexities. But I know, that’s kind of how I am. I think sometimes those question marks are well warranted. Like it’s worth asking those questions and sometimes it’s just me beating a dead horse kind of thing.

When I say the dot-dot-dot (…), what I mean by that is sometimes it takes me a while to fully form my thoughts. Like even just doing these kinds of conversations with you Jaren right now on this podcast. For me to have an opinion about this subject, about “burning the ships” or committing to a new business and that kind of thing. It took me like a long time just to write out my thoughts and understand what I even thought about this. I sort of vaguely had an idea, but for me to just like go lie without any preparation and have an opinion on that would be very, very difficult. I’d just be sitting here going “Ah” for a long time. So, that dot-dot-dot (…) means it takes me a while to really form my thoughts and opinions on stuff. Which again, I don’t think is very helpful because people want just straight answers really quick, rapid-fire. And it’s really hard for me to do that.

Jaren: Well to your defense though, I think when you do come to an answer, it’s a very, very, very good, well thought out answer.

Seth: Thanks. I appreciate that.

Jaren: I think one of the reasons why people resonate with our content at REtipster versus other places is because you’ve set that expectation that if you read an REtipster article written by Seth, it’s going to be like step one to step Z and it’s going to cover every aspect of it. And it might be the last thing you need to read on the subject. And that’s people who want to go out gun blazing, and they’re right about everything. Especially in my wife’s culture and kind of the post-Soviet Union, kind of Russian culture.  Like my sister in law works in that community quite a bit. She has her former boss and some other people, they’re amazing people, but you cannot tell them anything. They know everything. And it’s a cultural thing because if they are honest and like, “Hey, I don’t know. Tell me about direct mail marketing. Tell me about this. I don’t know anything about that” – That’s a sign of weakness and you don’t have it together. You’re not leading strong.

Seth: It seems like a huge liability to me, man.

Jaren: It is.

Seth: It’s begging for trouble in life if you have to speak with authority on something you don’t know. It’s crazy to me.

Jaren: I understand from a leadership standpoint, there’s this tension, right? Because you have to facilitate strength and all that. But I don’t know, it’s hard to figure out that balance between being vulnerable and authentic and not knowing what you don’t know and also conveying strength in your environment. But I prefer your style of teaching and your personality because I know that if I ask you a question, it’s going to be real. It’s going to be authentic and very well thought out.

Seth: Yeah, I appreciate that, man. Thanks. I do know, just from experience, when I think about any statement I’ve ever made or email I’ve sent or whatever, in a flippant way where I really didn’t think about it, I just did it. I kind of like to blame for the most damage I’ve ever done in terms of explaining something the wrong way or hurting somebody’s feelings or saying something that I would regret in the future. That always happens when I don’t take time to think it through. And I think as sort of like increasingly become more of a public person through REtipster. It almost underscores it again and again and again. Like, think very carefully about what you’re about to say because you could either really help somebody or you could do a lot of damage here. So, I’m just acutely aware of that. I don’t know. It’s a blessing and a curse, I guess.

Cool. Well, listeners out there, I hope you guys got something out of this. Again, not that we’re the ultimate authority in the right way, but I think there’s a lot of validity to what we just talked about and our thought process. So, what do you guys think about it? If you have different thoughts about this, feel free to head over to the show notes retipster.com/72 and you can leave a comment there. Let us know what you think.

And also, if you guys want to pull out your phones right now, if you’re listening on your phone, go ahead and text the word “FREE”. F-R-E-E to the number 33777 and you can join our email list if you want to and stay up to date with all this stuff we’re doing. You get access to a ton of free content stuff that isn’t only talked about on the podcast or the blog.

Thanks a lot for spending your time with us. I hope you’re doing well in business and life and we will talk to you again in the next episode.

Jaren: Later guys.

The post 072: Is it Heroic or Idiotic to “Burn the Ships”? appeared first on REtipster.

from Real Estate Tips https://retipster.com/072-burn-the-ships/

[jenniferfaye34]

#Giveaway + Excerpt ~ Sprinkles Of Suspicion (A Cupcake Catering Mystery) by Kim Davis... #books #CozyMystery #readers

Sprinkles of Suspicion (Cupcake Catering Mystery Series) by Kim Davis

About Sprinkles of Suspicion

Sprinkles of Suspicion (Cupcake Catering Mystery Series) Cozy Mystery 1st in Series Publisher: Cinnamon & Sugar Press (June 2, 2020) Print Length: 269 pages Digital ASIN: B086XKRCJH

One glass of cheap California chardonnay cost Emory Gosser Martinez her husband, her job, and her best friend. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of her troubles.

Distraught after discovering the betrayal by her husband and best friend, Tori, cupcake caterer Emory Martinez allows her temper to flare. Several people witness her very public altercation with her ex-friend. To make matters worse, Tori exacts her revenge by posting a fake photo of Emory in a compromising situation, which goes viral on social media. When Tori is found murdered, all signs point to Emory being the prime suspect.

With the police investigation focused on gathering evidence to convict her, Emory must prove her innocence while whipping up batches of cupcakes and buttercream. Delving into the past of her murdered ex-friend, she finds other people had reasons to want Tori dead, including Emory’s own husband. Can she find the killer, or will the clues sprinkled around the investigation point the police back to her?

Includes recipes!

EXCERPT: One glass of cheap California chardonnay cost me my husband, my job, and my best friend. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of my troubles. I slowly regained consciousness when a cold nose nuzzled my ear and then a warm, wet tongue licked my cheek. I squinted against the sunlight streaming through the small window as I tried to open my eyes, but they stopped at the halfway mark. My head pounded even more from the bright light. My face was pressed into my guest bathroom’s chilly white subway-tile flooring, and my entire body ached. I shivered when I realized I was still dressed in a sheer blouse and teeny-weeny leopard-print skirt. The ensemble had been an unwanted early birthday gift from my best friend, Tori. I groaned with the effort of trying to remember what had happened the night before but was rewarded only with brief, fleeting flashes of memory. Piper, my golden Labradoodle, nudged my face again and whined. I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten home and had no idea how I’d ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor. I hoped my husband, Philip, hadn’t come home from his graveyard shift yet. I raised my left arm and squinted at the blurry numbers on the watch sitting on my wrist. Seven thirty. Philip would have come home an hour ago, and I prayed he’d gone straight to bed and hadn’t seen me. Piper whined again and walked into the hallway, trying to tell me she wanted her breakfast and time outside. A moan escaped my lips when my head and stomach started feeling like they were on a Tilt-a-Whirl ride. I crawled to the sink, pulled myself up, and washed my face and mouth. Looking in the mirror, I decided my wild red hair needed a stiff brush to calm the frizzies. Piper nudged my foot with her nose and whined again, but I ignored her. Red, puffy eyes peered back at me, but what made me want to lunge for the commode was the purple, almond-shaped bruise on the side of my neck. A love bite? How in the heck did I get that? Uh-oh. I suddenly remembered sapphire-blue eyes that made me feel warm and fuzzy. Randall. Tori’s mysterious cousin who I hadn’t even known existed until last night. How would I explain Randall to my husband when I couldn’t explain him even to myself? It would be worse if he saw me in these party clothes. After I removed the sheer black blouse and hid it between the extra towels in the vanity cabinet, I yanked a fluffy pink bath towel off the bar and wrapped the towel around me. I hoped I could sneak into the laundry room and get dressed, preferably in something that went with a scarf wrapped around my neck, before Philip noticed me. Nope, that wouldn’t work. A scarf in August would make him even more suspicious.

About Kim Davis

Kim Davis lives in Southern California with her husband. When she's not spending time with her granddaughters she can be found either writing stories or working on her blog, Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder or in the kitchen baking up yummy treats. She has published the suspense novel, A GAME OF DECEIT, and has had several children’s articles published in Cricket, Nature Friend, Skipping Stones, and the Seed of Truth magazines. Kim Davis is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Author Links: Website: http://kimdavisauthor.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kim-Davis-Author-1532277473479031/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kookiesandbooks Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kimdavishb/

Purchase Links: Amazon

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