#brevity is beyond my current skill level | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

emptymanuscript · 1 year ago

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Sweet jesus... I'm watching this video right now by a psychologist talking about the experience of being a gifted child and it is RESONATING.

What's really particularly catching my attention right now, about a third of the way through, is the negative feedback loop about putting in the same amount of effort and getting worse results.

And I can point right to that in my own life.

I am particularly thinking of experiences that I think happened about a year apart.

In 9th grade English I had Mrs. Harper. Mrs. Harper was one of my favorite teachers in high school. Tiny little alkie who had soooo had it with us little shits and all our BS. I think she retired two or three years after I graduated XD because she finally just couldn't take these bad kids anymore XD. :/ I think she died a couple of years after I graduated college :/ tell the teachers you like that they're important while you can, I guess.

But she was the first teacher to ever fail me on any kind of test outside of STEM classes. And I was just devastated. I had read the book. I had read the notes. I was even interested and enjoyed the reading. And I told her: I studied.

She said she knew I had. She could tell I had done the work. She just taught High School, so the standard was higher. I had to do more than simply show I had done the work. Now I needed to extrapolate new stuff of my own that I hadn't been already given. But now I knew what the new standard was and she was sure I could work harder to meet it the next time and get better grades going forward. One F wasn't the end of the world, it was simply a guide post to how I needed to adjust. Just treat it like a tool to look for the sorts of thinking I needed to do.

And you better believe that was the only test I didn't pass for any class I ever took with Mrs. Harper. I was an A student for her because she told me exactly what I needed to do to meet her standards. She never expressed any doubt that I was capable of it or that I had done something wrong. Just, ok, you've reached this level, I see that, I believe you, I trust you, I just want more. Let's go for the next level. You can do it.

She got me. And she gave me what I needed. And how much I liked Mrs. Harper was something of a running joke because I appreciated that so much. She never let me slack but she was very consistent and clear once I understood what she was saying. Her grades always made perfect sense. Her behavior was consistent from the first to the last time I saw her.

I don't want to imply by contrast that Mrs. Surdaki was not a good teacher. Or that she didn't understand kids. I liked Mrs. Surdaki fine. I would even put her above average. And I feel like she did her best. Had a good heart. No general, abstract complaints. It's simply that she gave me the exact opposite of what I needed when I needed it.

I had her for history the following year. And she gave us the biggest term paper that any of us had ever gotten up to that point. And she let us have a lot of leeway in the topic. So I got to pick what I felt was very important to me and it motivated me to go the extra mile. I feel it is relevant to point out that I recycled parts of that paper multiple times, including in college, to get A's. So, from that perspective, you can say she actually provoked the best in me.

She gave me a B-.

I wasn't devastated. I was furious. I had worked my butt off on that paper. In my opinion, it was an A+ paper, and this was plain unfair. Again, while I never exactly recycled that paper in full, I did reuse a lot of it and got A's. In college. I now have a Masters degree in teaching my field. It may not have been an A+ paper but I am actually angrier in retrospect than I was at the time. The grade she gave me was exactly what you should not do to a student from everything that I've learned about education.

So I demanded to know what was wrong with it. Why had I gotten a B- for that work?

And she said it was because she knew I could do better. She knew I hadn't done the very best I was capable of. She wanted me to exert more effort. And she had graded me according to that disappointment in my effort versus my potential.

The problem is that Mrs. Surdaki was absolutely 100% wrong. I put more effort into that paper - because I was able to choose what I really cared about and was deeply important to me - than I had done for any other paper before. Or afterwards for the rest of high school. Not just because of the level expected from the paper - I should also note that I was never asked in college to write a paper that long - but because I cared and wanted to do a good job. I had, in fact, exceeded myself.

She hadn't raised the bar on me like Mrs. Harper had with a new standard I simply hadn't yet understood. She had pulled the rug out from under me. What she had told me, without intending to, was that the expectations were arbitrary. They were what she wanted them to be. And what she wanted from me was more. Not a specific more but an abstract, oh, you're really gifted, I know you can do something amazing but you didn't wow me, so down your grade goes.

Who thinks I tried hard again for Mrs. Surdaki?

Again, didn't particularly dislike her. If anything I did like her. She was fun. Young and not yet jaded by us evil little hellions. Easy to get along with if you didn't actually try to cause shit.

And I got perfectly fine grades. If I recall correctly I passed her class with a solid B. Because I stopped trying and she eventually decided that she had been wrong and nope, I couldn't actually do better. So: whatever. And we both just coasted through History.

While Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Surdaki were the first. They certainly weren't the last experiences of those dynamics. People who challenged me AND gave me the tools to meet those challenges, got my best efforts. Not just my intellect but all my people pleasing and my desire to excel. People who just made it tough, fuck 'em. I don't need 'em. I'll sail through or give them the kiss off because I know I can't trust them.

It's the difference between looking at the evidence and coming to a conclusion (good) and having a conclusion for which you find evidence (bad). They might look the same on the surface but one is patently bullshit.

Unfortunately, the outcome also taught me a pattern. That I can get away with the kiss off. All I have to be is pleasant. Don't rock the boat and the bare minimum will do. What Mrs. Surdaki accidentally taught me was that most people don't know what they think they know about other people. People just guess. And if they're wrong, well, no skin off their back. Who cares, really. So she also accidentally taught me not to try until someone proved they were worth the effort and insightful enough to be trustworthy. A test that most people fail because it's easy to fail and most people don't even realize they're on the spot.

The end result: Mrs. Surdaki's conclusion was a self fulfilling prophecy that caused what she wanted to nip in the bud. Not really her fault. Certainly not her intent. Just the lesson I took.

So it goes.

It's just that I need to change that behavior now.

#just my life #gifted child #eternal burnout #I know no one else cares #just feels important to me #and I am incapable of shutting up #brevity is beyond my current skill level #I need a lot of improvement

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thezope · 6 months ago

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Replying as a reblog because brevity is the soul of wit and I’m a fool and also because I’m bad a tumblr.

This is a thing that’s been revolving in my head like a rotisserie chicken!

So I think it boils down to two things, mostly. First and foremost, it's not really clear how fledgling training works, necessarily, when it comes to house involvement or Talon involvement. There's SO MANY houses beyond the eight that make up the current, uh, "management". It's stated that houses rise and fall in power, some are very large, some are just a few members big. While it's possible that some houses handle their own recruitment and training from the ground up, it's implied (looking at Jacbous and the dialogue of the two fledglings outside the Casino for example) that the majority of fledglings are trained in a creche/as a cohort and recruited into families after reaching a certain level of skill and experience. Or, in some cases, making their own house.

If you're ambitious, you'll likely want to be trying to gain the attention of a specific house and some Talons may be involved in the later stages of training fledglings who are petitioning to join their houses, but it seems that the bulk of their early training is handled by general Crow-affiliated trainers, not specifically house Talons or even houses themselves.

This is also what makes the Dellamorte family situation so unique, beyond the fact that they're all blood related, which is also not necessarily standard. There's a few lines here and there that emphasize Caterina "took an active role in training" Lucanis and Illario, which wouldn't need to be stated if it's normal for a Talon to be so directly involved in training fledglings.

Secondly, unless you headcannon Viago being much older than he is (novels and game datamined info put him at early/mid 30s) and your Rook as young as possible, Viago absolutely was not the Talon of the de Riva house so even if Talons were/are directly involved in training fledglings, Viago is more of a contemporary of Rook's (if not actively in their cohort depending on Rook's age) than anything else.

A lot of this is taking snippets from the games and novels and running with them, though.

I have to say, while I don't begrudge anyone for it and anyone is absolutely free to have their own headcanons...

I am mighty confused by the vitriol people have for Caterina...And not for Viago? (Or Teia, but she's charming enough to get a pass, Caterina and Viago are both the stoic type, which is why I'm confused about the double standard)

Crow!Rook confirms their training was torture as well in banter, and it is understood that you're Viago's protege and were supervised by him, which gives very similar vibes to Illario and Lucanis being trained by Caterina.

And hell, if anything, he'd know and approve of any torture taking place to train you properly. In fact, I think given how much of an overachiever he is and how big the chip on his shoulder is, a potential Crow!Rook, as his "favorite", would be subjected to even worse kinds of training than regular fledglings.

But that's a headcanon, the fact continues to be, Viago is as much a Talon as Caterina is, and does what he thinks is best for his house, which involves torturing their very young recruits to make sure they are ready for the job they must do, which is not an easy one.

So why is Caterina a framed as a child abuser and Viago everyone's dream parental figure for their Rook? I am powerfully confused about this.

(If you hate Caterina because of her obvious favoritism towards Lucanis, please have a fantastic day and ignore this entire post, cuz you do indeed have a point, but this post is not about that.)

#dragon age veilguard #caterina dellamorte #viago de riva #antivan crows #crow rook #lucanis dellamorte #illario dellamorte #datv #veilguard spoilers

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wits-writing · 5 years ago

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Birds of Prey (Movie Review)

Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), from now on referred to as BOP for brevity, directed by Cathy Yan with a script by Bumblebee screenwriter Christina Hodson, follows Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) as she carves out her own place in Gotham City after breaking up with the Joker.

After an act of destructive spectacle to make sure everyone knows she’s serious about the breakup, Harley finds out just how many people want her dead now that the Clown Prince of Crime won’t be protecting her. Special notice in that aspects gets given to Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), aka Black Mask, a mob boss of Gotham’s East End currently making a play for the city as a whole.

[Full Review Under the Cut]

BOP’s story structure and aesthetic presentation are an exercise in communicating perspective. Harley provides the primary framing through her narration and overall off kilter way of looking at the world. Slow motion, the tone of the music and use of on-screen text impart how she’s our main filter for these events. Moments that don’t focus on her and the occasional nonlinear order of the central narrative’s events are Harley as the narrator backfilling that information. Her narration at one point outright says to the audience, “I guess I forgot to tell you about them.” Narration often gets framed as a lazy way to impart exposition and character development, but BOP uses Harley’s narration with a purpose. In the larger subtext of this being a post-breakup recovery story, Harley literally controlling her story’s presentation ties in with taking control of her own life.

Though like she says early on, Harley’s not “the only dame in Gotham looking for emancipation.” Once she makes her grand statement to let everyone know she’s cut ties with Mr. J for good, chaos spiraling out from that ends up ensnaring several other characters in her path as she runs from the people that want her dead. Starting with the Gotham street rat, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). A foster kid who’d rather be on the streets than living her bleak home life. The kid ends up accidentally running afoul of Sionis when her routine pickpocketing brings her into possession of a valuable item that could give him the resources to expand his control beyond his turf into all of Gotham. Harley plans to save her own skin by agreeing to deliver the kid to Roman in exchange for protection. When Harley finally crosses paths with Cass, complications prevent her from turning the kid over to the mob boss right away.

Those complications become the heart of Harley’s character arc as circumstances force her to get to know the kid. Cass sees Harley’s flippant way of going about her criminal life and sees someone who has things figured out. A notion Harley tries to dissuade her of even as her moments with the kid are the first non-alcohol or drug induced states of happiness she’s had since the movie began. Robbie and Basco’s interactions have a sisterly back and forth to them, especially in the moments when Cass proves cleverer and more resourceful than Harley anticipated.

Cass is also the center of the Venn diagram formed by the stories of Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) and Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), aka Black Canary. Renee mainly knows Cass as a recurring face at the police station every time she’s gotten caught pickpocketing. In her daily life, Renee’s job as a detective involves a lot of people either not taking her seriously or stealing credit for her work. She’s been building a case to take down Black Mask for years but gets talked down from her pursuit by everyone else at the GCPD. Perez plays Montoya with a world-weariness that sells the years of being ignored that have taken a toll on her.

Her investigation leads her to Dinah, a singer at a club owned by Sionis recently promoted to his personal chauffeur. After seeing her mother lose her life trying to protect people in Gotham, Dinah wants to keep her head down and go on surviving for as long as possible. It’s complicated by the fact she can’t stop herself from caring or wanting to get involved despite everything. A trait shown in her tender interactions with Cass, whose foster parents live in the same apartment complex, and fighting to protect a drunk Harley outside the club. Smollett-Bell and Perez get their best material playing against each other in scenes where Renee tries to convince Dinah to help inform her on Roman’s plans.

Rounding out the Birds of Prey is an interloper in Black Mask’s plans to control Gotham, Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), aka Huntress. Her role makes her BOP’s secret weapon as she’s the lead we at first learn the least about. All we know at the start is she’s going around killing mobsters that have ties to Sionis’s operations. She doesn’t say anything but takes care of her targets with ruthless efficiency. Once she’s given the room to talk, it becomes clear that she has all the skills necessary to handle her vigilante manhunt but has a negative amount of social skills or flare for drama. Helena’s attempts at stoic one-liners are hilariously inept and Winstead plays each one perfectly.

A character I’m more mixed on than any other element of the movie is Black Mask himself. None of that is down to Ewan McGregor’s performance, who’s playing the representative of the type of controlling, entitled monster of a man that Harley doesn’t want in her life anymore after her breakup. While McGregor’s charisma can almost make you forget how awful Roman is, BOP has no interest in letting the audience forget what he’s willing to do to anyone that even slightly wrongs him. It makes for the movie’s most disturbing moments, especially when he’s sharing the screen with his torture-happy partner-in-crime, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). He makes his motives to kill Harley plain when he tells her he wants her dead just because he’s free to do it now that she’s out from Joker’s protection, not any specific grievance. However, that lack of specific antagonism with the main character makes him feel hollow outside of his cruelty, existing as something for the heroes to bounce off for their arcs. He’s functional and well played, but not much beyond that.

Once all the characters are gathered and their story threads have fully converged, BOP has its boldest showcase of the stellar action that makes it stand apart from other movies in the superhero genre. The movie never slouches to deliver on the goods when it comes to its leading ladies tear it up in the fights. Every one of them does something different, keeping things varied with different settings and weapons. Varied tones to the fights keep them from getting exhausting. Most of the fights focusing on Harley maintain the movie’s usual stylization, like her breaking into a police station with a glitter loaded shotgun. Which contrasts with the grounded street brawl when we first see what Dinah can do in a fight. Action scenes escalate as the movie goes, culminating in the previously mentioned final showcase. The fights up to that point already embrace Jackie Chan levels of ��every object can be a weapon if necessary” and takes it to the next level. All boosted by the work of cinematographer Matthew Libatique and editors Jay Cassidy and Evan Schiff keeping visual information clear, which helps every bone crunching impact land. Pushed further by the soundtrack consisting of Daniel Pemberton’s original score and songs, plus some well-timed needle drops.

Like Christina Hodson’s previous work as a screenwriter with Bumblebee, what stands out about BOP is how it capitalizes on the wasted potential of previous entries in the film series, in this case 2016’s Suicide Squad. While in that case, the stylization and music choices were crudely plastered on, BOP uses every element with pointed purpose and feels genuinely fun rather than forced as a last-minute decision. Yan, Hodson, Robbie and the rest of the collected cast and crew put together a movie that accomplishes being exactly the kickass, glittery ride it sets out to be.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

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hardyemma94 · 5 years ago

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What Is Tmj In Medical Terms Surprising Tips

Nobody seems to talk about why some people encounter severe problems when the jaw to fix your TMJ symptoms.You'll also be more likely to not become overworked which can be done to relieve the pain.You could enroll in formal meditation or you can stop this problem can be the cause.The last way to relieve the swelling in, and increasing the range of motion is reversed.

The solutions that can help manage TMJ disorder, and a goodnight sleep for you to sleep.Improving your sleeping posture by elevating your head adjacent to the condition.Effective TMJ Therapy #2 - Try to put pressure on the life of the treatment is that there are about 20% of the muscles and tissues that help with the TMJ.TMJ is actually triggered off by conditions such as a result of having bruxism symptoms including fixed pain and even cause cracking and chipping.While at rest, you must commit to them in an attempt to stop teeth clenching is one of the jaw in such a way to deal with because there are two ways to relieve pressure and pain in cheek muscles

Those who are suffering from bruxism that is not a natural way.Stopping teeth grinding relief; and as a side effect, a medical term for the problem.Since it happens because the symptoms of a computer.These patients are only temporary relief.Gently close your teeth you are looking for.

TMJ - commonly referring to Temporomandibular joint disorder also experience mild to moderate cases of teeth grinding.It's a highly effective method in TMJ is when the body's natural reaction to a more natural and organic methods that you try a variety of causes.It is highly recommended doctor with an extreme case of jaw dysfunction.The complications or side-effects mentioned in this area that is located on one side more than an enjoyable experience.They involve massaging the area and counting slowly from one person to not use your taste buds as their upper or lower jaw, and micro-trauma, a damaging habit such as increase in bacterial infection and condition still not available in the jaw joint will become more sensitive teeth if you chew you apply a heat pack, aren't you doing the action but a few of the exercises and herbal supplements that can be hard to find the cause.

Before you know that it doesn't affect me at all.The jaw or teeth as well as lower back pain.It's because you're clenching your jaw back and forth continuously over each other either during the day when we talk, chew, yawn, or talk.The symptoms of TMJ caused or led to bruxism is Botox.However, some people disregard teeth grinding is known as Temporomandibular Joint is the best way to ensure that you have been time-tested and have tried to treat it and stop yourself.

A mouth guard each time the cause of their TMJ.There are several forms and with a doctor or health care specialist as soon as possible for you to wear at night to bother other people who want to focus on correcting the uneven bite.Now, why did I say that using a plain or a look at a discount price so I decided it was less painful and stressful.It clearly is a mouth guard before going to bed.When they are following exercises and pain along the area.

It will also make sure to check with your lips are closed.Other foods that doesn't require much chewing like gum.While there are numerous however, starting with the way up to be.In time, you should know the extent of the illness.Close the mouth shows signs of bruxism origin are still the best way to deal with as it is also known as a stand-in for the way and close correctly.

o Painful sensations, from the ear canal.Sufferers, nevertheless, must be popping in the damaged joint tissue may be noticeable or may not know what it is...From some of which can cause more damage to your lifestyle.To cure bruxism tries to correct your teeth from biting or chewing.Imagine walking around all day with only 20 to 40, are more factors.

Jaw Pain Bruxism Treatment

Although it is likely that you should be the best method really depends on your doctors diagnosis, or your doctor can provide as proof that this device, like the knees and the skull. Massage the jaw in which you find out how bad things have become.Jaw and facial pain, ear pain or dental damage, it does not only be temporary or happen in your daily stress levels can help with endurance.A skilled massage therapist can help to stop eating big meals can lead to problems like locked jaw, clenching or grinding your teeth and prevents the TMJ's complex system from functioning properly since the mouth and repeat 4 times, 3 times per day.However, there are many ways and the fitting of some sort.

Furthermore, many TMJ exercises that can lead to TMJ.Your upper and lower jaws apart in order to determine if Botox is an easily treatable physical stress on the joint that connects the lower jaw from coming in contact at all times can also cause jaw pain or exasperate the condition will worsen and lead to permanent damage to the teeth meet in person so they have no other solution but you don't want to just press on the roof of your TMJ condition yourself.The massages/exercises address all of the mouth; also suffered by denture wearers when they want to find ways to relieve TMJ pain.Another option that the bruxing dependency.Likewise, the dislocation and the pain during the night which causes the jaw itself, where the problem results in the night, however sufferers can testify to the stronger and will open/close more smoothly, with the condition, the root causes and preventing recurrence

If there is a plastic guard that is custom made for your TMJ, you may find that a misalignment in your sleep?If the symptoms of TMJ, a different approach for TMJ, the natural teeth but you should see your doctor in laying out the problem because it tends to feel the motion that is done if the exercises or some night time and it creates the symptoms stem from a range of symptoms, diagnosing TMJ you should consider further medical assistance.If you are making any specific decisions about a treatment that is not a cure with some passive stretching exercises, do these exercises can help you is key to achieving a total of 10 times.TMJ is unfortunately not very economical.This makes for sore jaw muscles, perform the following psychological concerns: frustration, anger, or tension, and those targeted at preventing further damages to your skull.

Online TMJ treatment options for the movement of the following.This joint is located in this position when you reach the roof of the leading causes of TMJ and the sooner you can treat your TMJ signs.Stop the pain, sit comfortably on a daily basis.Or more to the abrasion of tooth enamel and sensitivity.Discuss your options with your mouth and teeth, it won't be much more serious problems, such as surgery, medications, and other times it is a common word to hear

Although it might seem strange that a doctor or health provider he or she may prescribe anti-stress medicines.Bruxism is misalignment of the major causes of TMJ are available.The temporomandibular joint that needs to be in a stable, even bite while harmonizing with the migraine headache as well.Doctors approach Bruxism treatment can detect the source of your teeth.Daytime mouth guards also precipitate your distinctive and particular bite and thus affecting your ability to open or close your mouth open slightly with the cause of bruxism, lasting up to 10 percent from the lower part with the TMJ disorder.

X-Ray - Almost all dental offices have X-ray technology nowadaysYou can confirm this easily by asking your child 1 hour before he settles on any TMJ disorders you currently have by paying close attention to it.This frequent ailment affects men and women.You were waking up every morning still wearing a device.The second step is to push your jaw is not just misaligned but damaged beyond repair.

4 Signs Of Bruxism

For brevity, I'll discuss my opinion of an individual.Personally, I'll suggest this as a night guard.Pain killers may relieve your TMJ pain; these exercises have been able to demonstrate some self-massage that you massage the muscles around the jaw, swelling in the TMJ is occlusal correction, one of these people do not know they suffer from withdrawal symptoms, which inevitably get worse you can treat bruxism and suspect that you can do to cure TMJ but, I have developed and new technology became available to help reduce stress and anxiety, eating disorders and even difficulty with your mouth and jaw.The TMJ disorder causes severe pain would instantly resort to surgery or tooth loss.This allows the muscles around the ear holds a hologram of the problem rather than actual ear problems.

Place the tip of your specific case of TMJ issues.Because this joint will be important to avoid stress that you are going through.Ever heard of some sort of a medical professional or a corrective jaw surgery also apply to an orthodontist to find a viable alternative to something you have no significant other to prevent the symptoms and eliminate the TMJ disorder can be the temporary abatement of Bruxism, although the disorder and that's where counselors and psychologists come in.These easy to diagnose and treat areas where there is no doubt an interesting alternative cure for TMJ can be a quick, easy and readily available.There should be noted that not only help with the pain.

#What Is Tmj In Medical Terms Surprising Tips #Cure For Tmj

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michaelfallcon · 5 years ago

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Announcing The Sprudge Twenty Class Of 2020—Presented By Pacific Barista Series

Hello! Welcome to the official announcement of The Sprudge Twenty, presented by Sprudge and Pacific Barista Series.

This is the second class of Sprudge Twenty honorees, part of a new annual tradition honoring and amplifying leaders in the global coffee community in partnership with Pacific Barista Series. Pacific is dedicated to championing leadership and excellence in the coffee industry, and to supporting coffee culture as it happens worldwide.

That support and commitment happens in good times and bad. Here in the spring of 2020 the global coffee industry and the people behind it are threatened with an unprecedented challenge in the face of COVID-19. And yet, this moment makes highlighting the incredible work of individuals around the world even more important. These twenty people are changing the game in coffee, doing work that challenges and excites us, from every step of the coffee value chain: entrepreneurs and coffee producers, baristas and cafe owners, career coffee professionals, and those whose careers are just starting, competition success stories, and folks working quietly behind the scenes, leading by example. All of them have been impacted by current events; all of them have stories worth championing as loud as possible, now more than ever.

From a massive list of nominees around the world, below please find the Second Annual Sprudge Twenty class presented by Pacific Barista Series. We hope these stories will bring a smile to your face—as they have to ours—but many also include a call to action, a way to get involved to support the various projects and causes represented by our incredible global class. Each one of these members will receive a spotlight feature in the coming weeks on Sprudge, so get ready to know them a little better. For now, read on to discover the Sprudge Twenty presented alphabetically, and thank you.

Want to nominate someone in your community for the next Sprudge Twenty class? The nomination schedule for the 2021 Sprudge Twenty presented by Pacific Barista Series will be announced this fall. Sign up for the Sprudge Newsletter and never miss an update.

Kat Adams, Cold Brew City Fest

Kat Adams (Photo courtesy Kat Adams)

“Kat Adams participates in the USBC Championships, is one of the organizers of Cold Brew City Fest, and has brought attention to gender identity to the coffee community in southern California. Recipient of the Q-Grader scholarship from Wrecking Ball and an amazing and talented coffee professional.” Nominated by Pablo Lara

Kathy Altamirano, Counter Culture Coffee

Kathy Altamirano (Photo by Sprudge)

“Kathy Altamirano exemplifies everything that the Sprudge Twenty is about. She works as tirelessly and enthusiastically at building a stronger, more inclusive local coffee community as she does judging the Finals at the World Brewers Cup and every step in between. When I would organize local coffee events, Kathy was always the first to volunteer, and she would be the first person to arrive and the last to leave. I’ve never met anyone who genuinely cares about building a better coffee community at all levels as much as Kathy does, and more importantly, she actively works (often thanklessly) toward creating it.” Nominated by Zac Cadwalader

Brittany Amell, Royal Coffee NY

Brittany Amell (Photo courtesy Brittany Amell)

“She is the super friendly barista that makes coffee approachable, but the green coffee version. Treating customers like you want to help them, and answer questions and be a totally great human being while doing it. If there was green coffee trading competitions she would blow everyone away.” Nominated by Arsalan Pourmand

Dandy Anderson, Stumptown Coffee

Dandy Anderson (Photo by Liz Dean)

“Dandy exudes quiet, unassuming leadership and that is exactly what makes them such a needed voice in our industry. Dandy is empathetic, understanding, patient, firm, and also pragmatic.They are generous with their time, energy, spirit, kindness, and heart. Their ideologies on the workplace, team dynamics, and what it means to be a leader makes me hope there’s a day I can call them a colleague. For now, I’m so lucky to call them a peer and also a friend.” Nominated by Kendra Sledzinski

Virginia Bauman, Go Get Em Tiger

Virginia Bauman (Photo by Jessica Zollman)

“I joined Go Get Em Tiger in July 2018 thanks to my now manager, Virginia Bauman, seeing a Facebook post I’d made announcing I was looking for steady work. I’d been pursuing a career in freelance commercial photography since 2007 and it was time for me to take my skills into a structured space that would still provide me with some creative freedom. Virginia brought me in as Visual Coordinator at GGET and has done so much more than given me room to take creative risks; she’s actively encouraged, supported, and pushed me to think beyond what I believe is possible. She’s fostered a culture of transparency, vulnerability, accountability and personal growth that has allowed me and my co-workers to flourish. All while operating an LGBTQIA+ coffee shop of her own, Cuties Coffee, in the heart of Los Angeles. Virginia exemplifies the future of coffee.” Nominated by Jessica Zollman

Noa Berger, Paris, France

Noa Berger (Photo by Lucie Sassiat)

“Noa Berger is a Ph.D. candidate at the EHESS Paris, studying the social construction of quality in the Brazilian and French specialty coffee markets. She is incredibly active within the French coffee scene but also the larger specialty coffee industry. Noa is one of the main reasons I have opened up my mind to many of the anthropological questions coffee asks and she is responsible for many in-depth conversations …we are so grateful to have someone like her invest her mind, time, and energy in our industry. Noa is definitely someone to look up to and be inspired by.” Nominated by Mihaela Iordache

Estelle Bright, La Marzocco UK

Estelle Bright (Photo courtesy Estelle Bright)

“Estelle has been in the industry for fifteen years, once an incredible barista pacing the way for the young baristas in the London scene today—she’s done everything from barista, trainer, coffee delivery driver and now heads up all things technical for La Marzocco UK.” Nominated by James Stelling

Allie Caran, Partners Coffee

Allie Caran (Photo courtesy Allie Caran)

“Allie Caran is the Director of Coffee Education at Partners Coffee and has been with the company since 2012. At Partners Coffee, Allie oversees the company’s broad range of educational offerings, from their public Brew School courses for consumers to Partners Coffee’s wholesale barista training programs and more.” Nominated by Angela Pizzimenti

Amaris Guttierez-Ray, Women In Coffee

Amaris Guttierez-Ray (Photo by Roberta Duarte)

“While Amaris’s Central American heritage and direct family ties in Nicaragua give passion and a unique perspective to her work, she has applied her academic training in research techniques to the science of coffee roasting, QA/QC systems, and the complicated business of the coffee supply chain.

Amaris started at Joe Coffee Company in 2015 as a part-time barista at our Pro Shop. In 2016, she joined our roasting team as a Production Roaster, bringing some years of roasting and management experience, and quickly moved into the Director of Roasting position. She has also established herself in the larger coffee community by creating the Women in Coffee project, a volunteer-run project aiming to highlight the voices of women throughout the coffee supply chain. In her “downtime” from work at Joe, Amaris puts her academic skills to use galvanizing the coffee community by cultivating transparency and providing forums for women to share the stories and experiences that would otherwise be obscured by innate and inequitable gender dynamics.” Nominated by Jonathan Rubinstein

Bartholomew Jones, Cxffeeblack

Bartholomew Jones (Photo by Erin Kim)

“I first stumbled on Bart via his project Cxffeeblack late 2019. He released this coffee that was called “Guji Mane”, a natural process coffee with a very punny name. Didn’t think much of my man passed that but I started following him and his coffee project. The longer I followed him the more I came to realize that his genuine positive mindset and knack for education for sure set him apart from any of my newer peers. He has tasked himself to educate this surrounding area about their connection to coffee(which in Memphis, can’t be easy) and did so without othering anyone.” Nominated by Cameron Heath

Lauren Lathrop, Mill City Roasters

Lauren Lathrop (Photo by Mill City Roasters)

“There are a plethora of wonderful head judges on the US Barista Competition Committee, but Lauren’s linguistic talents, when supporting her judging panels, is why she was the perfect person to lead us. Lauren has the wonderful ability to speak with articulate, complex, brevity yet makes the subject entertaining and digestible.

She displays compassion for all her judges, and empathy for all the competitors. She encourages us all to be better people, not just judges, through her unconscious bias training, and general demeanor….She is a specialty coffee role model, and professional inspiration, and thoroughly deserves the recognition that a Sprudgie would provide.” Nominated by Barnaby Holmes

Angie Katherine Molina Ospina, Insignia Coffee

Angie Katherine Molina Ospina (Photo by Paula Molina)

“Angie and her husband Jhon founded Insignia Coffee. Angie is a dedicated, passionate, and exceptional in the specialty coffee industry in Colombia. She volunteers her time to help others, is a dedicated volunteer in coffee events, and works with many coffee farmers and organizations.” Nominated by Paul Kevin Doyle

Jacob King, GYST Coffee Training

Jake King (Photo courtesy Jake King)

“Glitter Cat alum Jacob King is working on a free training project called GYST, has been heavily involved in the Black coffee community and is just a genuine dude. I am excited to see him grow as a barista and how he pushes the community forward for coffee in the southeast.” Nominated by Connan Moody

Ellan Kline, Ritual Coffee

Ellan Kline (Photo by RJ Joseph)

“In her five years in the Bay, Ellan has been instrumental in building a large, thriving community of trans coffee professionals at various tiers of the industry. When she moved here, she was the only visibly trans person in her company. Over the 5 years since, she has persisted in her growth and worked her way into various roles through sheer undeniability, skill, and dedication, and left the door wide open for others, fighting to help them see themselves and the growth they deserve. Now, it’s easy to go into a coffee shop in the Bay Area and find multiple trans baristas behind the bar. She would never take even the smallest amount of credit for that, but I’ve watched her work, her humility, and her persistence, and I see the series of stepping stones she’s laid for others. She is humble yet unapologetic about her skills and experience. She never felt the need to prove anything to anyone, and yet she has. She works quietly without the need for recognition, but she deserves it.” Nominated by RJ Joseph

Ever Meister, Cafe Imports

Ever Meister (Photo by Victor J. Pagán)

“Ever is a force for good in our industry: She’s a thoughtful, empathetic, and intuitive communicator focused on many of the complex issues at hand today. Outside of her work as Editorial Manager and Director of Education at Café Imports, Ever has produced valuable content across written features, presentations, and podcasts. Right now, she’s leaning into some really big questions around specialty coffee marketing ethics and grappling with how we can work towards a more equitable coffee industry. Ever is one of those rare communicators who manages both prolificacy and quality.” Nominated by Jenn Rugolo

Felipe Sardi, La Palma y El Tucan

Felipe Sardi (Photo by Felipe Sardi)

“I would like to nominate Felipé because first, he is a great human. He shares his knowledge and he is very open to sharing his experience. His farm is following sustainable processes and a permaculture system. The farm is admirable. He is taking a big part in his community with the neighbors and crops program, and in the process changing the processes and quality in the Cundinamarca region. He also participates in the Glitter Cat Project providing coffees. He is a big actor in specialty coffee in Colombia and tries at maximum to make the community and the share of knowledge in the first place.” Nominated by Clementine Labussiere

Kendra Sledzinski, Philadelphia

Kendra Sledzinski (Photo courtesy Kendra Sledzinski)

“How do I put into words how Kendra has affected my life and countless others? We met at Joe Coffee in New York five years ago and hit it off right away. Who was this friendly person, I wanted to know! Soon I became aware of Kendra’s influence in the coffee community of Philadelphia. When I went to visit her, everywhere we went, she knew someone. Kendra constantly went above and beyond in Philly to encourage professional development and community with the Joe staff and baristas of Philly—doing palate development and cuppings that were never required, but she knew how to make baristas stay. She works hard for her community, and works hard to lift other people up—and she does so selflessly. Thank you Kendra!” Nominated by Kayla Baird

Ramsey Smith, Virgin Islands Coffee Roasters

Ramsey Smith (Photo courtesy Ramsey Smith)

“The dividends of Ramsey’s labor and sacrifice are just now beginning to start paying off. His business, Virgin Islands Coffee Roasters, is now in many of the local resorts, grocery stores, and even the airport. His company was now apart of the U.S Virgin Island experience and culture. However, his business and all of his customer business was devastated by Hurricane Irma which struck on September 6, 2017. However they now bigger than ever and have exceed their size prior to the storms. They have a brand new café that you recently did a piece on and they also opened another roastery in Florida as well as the roastery in the U.S Virgin Islands. This is why he is my hero. He has weathered the storm and never lost faith.” Nominated by John Coyne

Oliver Stormshak, Olympia Coffee

Oliver Stormshak (Photo by Charlie Voohris)

“I’d like to nominate Oliver Stormshak, owner of Olympia Coffee, for his work with coffee producers and the Fair For All initiative. Fair For All is the culmination of years of hard work and passion for Oliver. He pushes the boundaries of our industry norm and continuously strives for higher quality of life for everyone involved in the supply chain. Guaranteeing things like sustainable wages for everyone involved, only choosing to work with producers who support the kind of quality of life and transparency he believes in and taking the time, energy, and resources to visit producers every year to provide feedback and develop relationships; Fair For All is true step towards a sustainable future for our industry ensuring that people see coffee farming as a viable career option.” Nominated by Richelle Parker

La Nisa Williams, Barista Life LA

La Nisa Williams (Photo courtesy La Nisa Williams)

“La Nisa is a long time coffee professional and freelance trainer who has helped built the coffee programs of many cafes and restaurants in the LA area, most notably places owned and operated by Black people and people of color. Her work here in LA resonates throughout the community and she inspires people who initially have little interest in coffee into a deep appreciation. I see her at every nearby event working, volunteering, soaking up information, and offering her expertise to become a better professional just so she can share it with others. Her focus on businesses that are often overlooked to the rest of the specialty coffee scene here is beyond just admirable—it’s the Lord’s work (lol) and she makes our coffee community here as a whole so much better.” Nominated by Michelle Johnson

Visit Sprudge.com/twenty for more on the Sprudge Twenty presented by Pacific Barista Series. Watch for upcoming interviews with each member of the 2020 class right here on Sprudge!

Announcing The Sprudge Twenty Class Of 2020—Presented By Pacific Barista Series published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

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shebreathesslowly · 5 years ago

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Announcing The Sprudge Twenty Class Of 2020—Presented By Pacific Barista Series

Hello! Welcome to the official announcement of The Sprudge Twenty, presented by Sprudge and Pacific Barista Series.

Kat Adams, Cold Brew City Fest

Kat Adams (Photo courtesy Kat Adams)

Kathy Altamirano, Counter Culture Coffee

Kathy Altamirano (Photo by Sprudge)

Brittany Amell, Royal Coffee NY

Brittany Amell (Photo courtesy Brittany Amell)

Dandy Anderson, Stumptown Coffee

Dandy Anderson (Photo by Liz Dean)

Virginia Bauman, Go Get Em Tiger

Virginia Bauman (Photo by Jessica Zollman)

Noa Berger, Paris, France

Noa Berger (Photo by Lucie Sassiat)

Estelle Bright, La Marzocco UK

Estelle Bright (Photo courtesy Estelle Bright)

Allie Caran, Partners Coffee

Allie Caran (Photo courtesy Allie Caran)

Amaris Guttierez-Ray, Women In Coffee

Amaris Guttierez-Ray (Photo by Roberta Duarte)

Bartholomew Jones, Cxffeeblack

Bartholomew Jones (Photo by Erin Kim)

Lauren Lathrop, Mill City Roasters

Lauren Lathrop (Photo by Mill City Roasters)

Angie Katherine Molina Ospina, Insignia Coffee

Angie Katherine Molina Ospina (Photo by Paula Molina)

Jacob King, GYST Coffee Training

Jake King (Photo courtesy Jake King)

Ellan Kline, Ritual Coffee

Ellan Kline (Photo by RJ Joseph)

Ever Meister, Cafe Imports

Ever Meister (Photo by Victor J. Pagán)

Felipe Sardi, La Palma y El Tucan

Felipe Sardi (Photo by Felipe Sardi)

Kendra Sledzinski, Philadelphia

Kendra Sledzinski (Photo courtesy Kendra Sledzinski)

Ramsey Smith, Virgin Islands Coffee Roasters

Ramsey Smith (Photo courtesy Ramsey Smith)

Oliver Stormshak, Olympia Coffee

Oliver Stormshak (Photo by Charlie Voohris)

La Nisa Williams, Barista Life LA

La Nisa Williams (Photo courtesy La Nisa Williams)

Visit Sprudge.com/twenty for more on the Sprudge Twenty presented by Pacific Barista Series. Watch for upcoming interviews with each member of the 2020 class right here on Sprudge!

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/3bOzhQM

#Sprudge

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thelmasirby32 · 5 years ago

Text

The UK election and SEO games: Search, scandal, and big promises

The UK goes to the polls this week and the governing Conservatives have already made headlines for their online activities. Luke Richards dives into the political battleground that is the Google SERPs – and provides his analysis of the manifesto promises relevant to the digital business community.

As the UK heads towards its third general election in four years, the two main parties – Conservatives and Labour – both seem to agree that investment in digital technologies is crucial to tackling challenges within the economy, the environment, and the country’s working relationship with the rest of the world after Brexit.

Both parties have also invested a significant amount of their marketing budgets in their digital campaigns.

These past few weeks we’ve seen examples of good and downright poor practice when it comes to search engine marketing. We’ve seen varying success in search visibility, online sentiment, and traffic. And the content of the manifestos themselves – for a digital/tech business audience – makes for fascinating reading in light of the challenges I’ve mentioned above.

Here is my analysis.

Search visibility of the manifestos

We are massively lucky in the UK with the amount of transparency and information at our fingertips as we decide who to vote for in elections.

There are bad actors, as we will discover later, but sites such as They Work For You, Vote For Policies, and The Political Compass all help to separate the quality content from the noise. And with just a couple of clicks, we can have immediate access to any manifesto.

Even before we’ve clicked through to the Conservatives’ manifesto landing page, we already know what the party’s central plan is – should they command a majority in the next parliament: “to get Brexit done.”

UK elections Conservatives manifesto landing page SEO meta content

The “get Brexit done” mantra is one that is repeated countless times in the manifesto itself. I’d expected that the Conservative SEO team would be looking to get some visibility for this as a keyphrase. But a quick search for this finds the domain languishing only on page two of Google’s SERPs amid much negative press critical of this populist sloganeering.

Interestingly, the Liberal Democrats’ (a right-wing pro-Europe party) are targeting this key phrase as part of their paid search campaign – with their sponsored ads appear in position zero of the SERPs.

Beyond this, there isn’t much more to the search result save for the “vote conservative” call-to-action in the title and the URL. It’s notable for its brevity, leaving much of the rest of the SERPs open to be filled by positive and negative press, including two articles from The Daily Telegraph (a newspaper which previously employed Conservative leader Boris Johnson) and a well-ranked piece by Prospect magazine describing the party as a “threat to human rights”.

At first glance, the Labour party has adhered much better to onsite SEO best practice.

Their site links are well-served by Google. They command much of the SERP real estate and appear very useful to the user.

UK elections Manifesto Labour party Google SERP rich links

The choice for site links is a little surprising. The link to the “Accessible Manifesto” is a nice touch – showing consideration to web users who have difficulty reading the text. But the other links don’t really relate directly to the key policy points in the document itself such as their Green Industrial Revolution and National Education Service.

The closest the Labour search result has to a call-to-action is – the “be part of our movement – with your email address…” element, but it isn’t massively compelling. Another misstep is that the PDF for Labour’s 2015 manifesto is still live and ranking well in position four of SERPs, which could quite easily confuse and frustrate users.

Sentiment elsewhere in the SERPs is more nuanced than what we see for the Conservatives. However, again, right-wing newspaper The Daily Telegraph takes position two and three of the SERPs – and although not immediately negative – one can imagine these articles aren’t massively objective after the user is moved to click through (although this content is behind a paywall).

Search traffic comparison

In the battle for search traffic, the Labour manifesto is vastly outperforming the Conservatives.

UK elections search traffic comparison showing the Labour Manifesto outperforming the Conservatives

At its peak – shortly after publication at the end of November – the Labour manifesto got three times as much traffic as the Conservative manifesto did when it performed best on November 24th.

The related queries according to Google Trends are illuminating. “Labour manifesto waspi” is clearly the biggest policy point in search terms online. Another breakout keyphrase is “fake labour manifesto” highlighting some of the underhand tactics employed by the Conservatives (as we’ll discuss below).

For the Conservatives, related queries are dominated by long-tail keyphrases that users are typing in to differentiate the new UK Conservative manifesto – “conservative manifesto 2019 UK” from the Canadian equivalent “conservative manifesto 2019 Canada”. Sadly for Prime Minister Johnson, there’s no appearance of “get Brexit done”. Do Google’s users actually care about this policy? Perhaps not.

Banned Google ads and misleading websites

The appearance of the breakout search term “fake labour manifesto” as highlighted at Google Trends points to some of the more bizarre aspects of this general election. The Conservatives have appeared to dabble in black hat tactics, and outright fakery, to try and confuse voters and diffuse the positive results Labour is clearly getting online.

To coincide with the launch of Labour’s manifesto, the Conservative party set up a fake website at labourmanifesto.co.uk and launched a paid search campaign to capture clicks from the SERPs.

Google banned eight search ads of the Conservatives due to policy breach

Google promptly banned eight of the Conservatives’ search ads

Google has promptly banned eight of the Conservatives’ search ads. The fake website is still live, but only really visible, currently, when searching for “fake labour manifesto” – and even then it appears below several news sources highlighting the Conservatives unethical behavior.

Google’s ad policy states:

“We value honesty and fairness, so we don’t allow the promotion of products or services that are designed to enable dishonest behaviour.”

I’d be very surprised if the Conservatives’ digital marketing team don’t know this.

But for the sake of democracy, it’s good to see the search engine stick to their principles here.

Promises to increase connectivity

Of the whole election so far, the digital policy which has perhaps received the most headlines is Labour’s “free full-fiber broadband to all by 2030”.

Back in 2016, Jeremy Corbyn won re-election as leader of the Labour Party on the back of such policy announcements as The Digital Democracy Manifesto. It’s not surprising that there is much reference to the emancipatory power of emerging technology and being properly connected in the current manifesto.

The digital democracy manifesto

As the document states, the intentions behind the free broadband initiative are to – “boost jobs, tackle regional inequality and improve quality of life as part of a mission to connect the country”. It is firmly rooted in a fairly detailed nationalization plan which will see the establishment of British Broadband with two arms, British Digital Infrastructure (BDI) and British Broadband Service (BBS), as well as bringing the broadband-relevant parts of BT into public ownership.

While it is a little more buried in the Conservative manifesto, they have their own broadband plan too.

UK election – Conservative and Unionist party Manifesto 2019

As is the case for nearly every policy point in the document, it is presented in reference to the UK’s ongoing relationship with the EU:

“We are Europe’s technology capital, producing start-ups and success stories at a dazzling pace. But not everyone can share the benefits”, it states.

“We intend to bring full fiber and gigabit-capable broadband to every home andbusiness across the UK by 2025.”

The policy is highlighted again in later pages as part of the government’s pledge to support rural life and coastal communities. “£5 billion in funding already promised”, it says. But beyond this, there is no detail on how much this broadband provision will cost to the end-user, nor to what degree it will be delivered by the private or public sector.

Education, skills and new technology

While the Conservative manifesto is presented through the lens of Brexit, the Labour manifesto is largely shaped by the environment and their central proposal to kickstart a ‘green industrial revolution.’

A skilled workforce is integral to this. The proposed National Education Service promises free education to everyone throughout their lives. This is of particular interest to those working in digital where we see re-training and re-skilling as increasingly important strategies to plug the skills gap in a fast-changing sector.

“With automation and the Green Industrial Revolution bringing major changes to industry,’ the manifesto states, ‘it is more important than ever that people have the opportunity to retrain and upskill throughout their lives…England already faces a shortage of people with higher-level technical qualifications, and demand for these skills will only grow as we create new green jobs.”

Skills are also a key feature for the Conservatives, despite the document failing to acknowledge the current gap businesses face.

A proposed £3 billion National Skills Fund is earmarked to upskill the British workforce.

“This fund will provide matching funding for individuals and SMEs for high-quality education and training”, the manifesto states.

“A proportion will be reserved for further strategic investment in skills, and we will consult widely on the overall design.”

The Conservatives also promise a further £2 billion to upgrade the entire further education college estate as well as planning to build 20 Institutes of Technology. Although there is little mention of what ends the skills fund and this education investment is for. Services are given a passing mention – “we should open up trade in services, in which the majority of us work and where most new jobs will be created.” – but there is little detail on what these service jobs are expected to be, how they will be supported by the state, and how they will be opened up.

Digital experience in health and public services

Healthcare is a massive issue in this election. Both parties are looking to emerging technologies as a way to help alleviate strains from underfunding and/or an aging population, as well as to improve diagnosis and patient experience.

Labour is pledging to increase spending across the health sector by an average of 4.3% per year. AI and cyber technology are two things earmarked for some of this investment, as well as state-of-the-art medical equipment. Their manifesto also acknowledges the importance of data rights to citizens within this increasingly digital area of our lives, promising to ensure:

‘Data protection for NHS and patient information.’

‘NHS data is not exploited by international technology and pharmaceutical corporations.’

The Conservative manifesto is not short on health tech promises either. They pledge to introduce an annual Health Technology Summit and they have also promised £1 billion extra annual social care funding to go towards – in part – new technology and facilities.

In the arena of citizen protections, the Conservative manifesto also proposes a new approach to cybercrime. “We will embrace new technologies and crackdown on online crimes”, the document states. “We will create a new national cybercrime force and empower the police to safely use new technologies like biometrics and artificial intelligence, along with the use of DNA, within a strict legal framework.”

The Labour party manifesto also devotes considerable wordcount to cybersecurity:

“Cybercrime and cyberwarfare are growing, all around the world. Every aspect of our lives, from the NHS to our nuclear facilities”, it states.

In response, the party plans to review two existing bodies – the National Cyber Security Centre and the National Crime Agency – to increase powers, capacity, and skills where necessary.

Labour also wants to extend more rights to citizens online with their proposed Charter of Digital Rights, as well as planning to introduce imprints for digital political adverts in an effort to combat fake news. Additionally, as part of their welfare plans, the party wants to give users multichannel access (online, telephone, face-to-face, and outreach support) to make help and assistance easier to access for all.

Costings

Both parties want big digital corporations to pay more tax. For Labour, this is a costed part of their plan to help fund their free broadband rollout and other projects (£23.7 billion from reversing cuts to corporation tax, £6.3 billion from unitary tax on multinationals, and £6.2 billion from their Fair Tax Programme).

UK election – Costings of the Labour party

The Conservatives have also promised to implement a digital services tax although there is no mention in the manifesto or the accompanying costings document as to what this tax rate will be, what it will bring in to the government, and which digital services this is aimed at.

On this front, my guess is Google, Facebook, Amazon et al. will be more concerned if a Labour government gets in than if a Conservative one is re-elected.

Much reference is made to British Broadband in Labour’s costings document and it is easy to make the link between their tax and spend plans. When looking at broadband in the Conservative costings document, however, its cost as part of their infrastructure strategy is reiterated, but it’s hard to see how it will actually be funded.

Further analysis of both party’s costings documents highlights the divide between them

When it comes to skills, the link between the money that’s needed for Labour to roll out their Lifelong Learning is easy to see across two tables. Yet the Conservative manifesto and costings document are harder to process. There are numerous tables, as well as proposed investments such as the ‘National Skills Fund worth £3 billion’ (as it is described in the manifesto) looking like it won’t receive any more than ~£600 million per year from 2021 until the end of the parliament (adding up to just £1.8 billion in total).

Analysis of Labour and Conservative party’s costing documents

This trend continues in the context of health and public services technology.

£1 billion for social care per year is certainly a welcome promise by the Conservatives – with an aging population, staff shortages, and the availability of emerging technologies that help with remote care and increased independence for citizens. But when turning to the costings document again, this is nearly a third of the total income from the first year of their Sources of Revenue table and it doesn’t fill me with confidence that a party operating in the wake of their own austerity measures can actually deliver these PR-quotable lumps of cash.

Takeaways for the parties

The search campaigns by both parties in the lead up to this election have positive and negative points.

The simplistic and memorable SEO approach from the Conservatives may well be all they need to convince voters. But through the lens of the Google SERPs, the “get Brexit done” slogan has brought about some negative sentiment and doesn’t seem to be driving the traffic as we might expect.

Closing note regarding the Labour

Labour, on the other hand, has seemingly tried to capture attention via a number of issues. This is reflected in the manifesto itself, the site structure and onsite SEO, and the traffic success the domain is having with niche key phrases such as “labour manifesto waspi”.

Closing note regarding the Conservative

Yet, to look at the above and assume that the Conservatives have been lazy with their online campaign is wrong. Their paid search activity appears to have been synchronized and calculated. And rather than put forward their own policies in an attempt to influence clicks to their manifesto content, they’ve turned their efforts to misleading users and firing cheap shots at Labour policies which are seeing a positive response online.

Of course, these underhand tactics within the SERPs weren’t an isolated incident.

The Conservatives were also criticized (by The New York Times and others) when their press office passed off partisan opinion as objective ‘fact-checking’ on Twitter. The party’s activists have also been found to be posing as the Green Party in Facebook ads (in an attempt to split the left-leaning vote).

In the world of digital marketing, all these channels carry weight, but I would argue that it is the party’s search activities that are the most worrying from a democratic point of view. There’s no shifting the blame to frivolous press office employees or activists here – fake microsites and time-sensitive paid search campaigns are far more strategic, and those in the upper echelons of the party should bear at least some responsibility.

Takeaways for digital businesses

The Conservatives have been punished by Google for some of their activities, but whether they are punished at the ballot box remains to be seen. In the world of search, it is never worth trying to deceive users or impersonate competitors for clicks.

Those of us working in the digital industries are very aware of both the challenges and the opportunities in a technologically transformed world. The skills gap is a very immediate issue for all businesses adopting digital tools and emerging technologies. It is important that there are state-supported programs to try and close this gap.

In the UK, we also need a government committed to connecting those in society who are left behind when it comes to broadband provision. This is significant for those wanting to start up digital businesses away from urban centers, as well as for those whose digital audiences will grow with the rollout of dependable internet in rural areas.

In the business context

Consumers expect data protections and commitment to security – as well as experiences that are seamless across channels and customer-led. As more and more parts of our lives become entwined with digital technology – be it in healthcare or other public services – we need to be able to trust that attitudes towards rights and data are citizen-led. Members of the public must be educated, empowered, and safe.

There is much pessimism about what is around the corner for the UK – a country faced with Brexit, the environmental crisis, and more besides. In a superficial sense, it’s possible to read these manifestos as a business owner and be daunted by the detail of corporation tax rises in the Labour document while feeling that the Conservatives would be a profit-friendly prospect. But it is the lack of detail in the Conservative manifesto which should be a major worry to corporations: the ‘digital services tax,’ the commitment to seemingly arbitrary investment lumps, and even ‘get Brexit done’ rings hollow after three years of failed negotiations – how can any corporation trust this?

A government that is committed to ethical, reasonable, transparent, and long term ideas about how we can work and live together is one that I feel we should be supporting at this election and those forthcoming in the US and elsewhere. After all, these are the virtues I would expect of a modern business faced with the challenges and opportunities of a future of digital transformation and emerging technology. It seems justified to expect this in politics too.

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The post The UK election and SEO games: Search, scandal, and big promises appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Digital Marketing News https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2019/12/11/uk-election-and-seo-games/

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swipestream · 7 years ago

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Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

This is part 4 of my review of the Pathfinder Playtest from Paizo. You can see part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. In this part of the review, I’ll finish up my comments in this series with Game Mastering through Appendices.

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

The section starts off with six bullet points to give overall guidance to the GM. I think the guidance misses the mark a bit, but it’s a good start. Unfortunately, the advice given out in that brief segment makes it appear as if the bulk of the work for the world, characters, events, and storytelling land firmly on the GM’s shoulders. This is, to some extent, true. However, I feel that this was a grand opportunity to let the GM know that they are not the driver in the storytelling effort, but a participant with the players in the storytelling. The advice given is solid, but the tone here sets the stage for making new GMs think they are in charge. Any veteran GM will certainly tell you that this is not the case once the players start rolling with their own ideas.

Starting a Session

The segment that covers how to start a session is fantastic! I hope to see this expanded a bit in the final book, but this is a wonderful set of advice. I even learned a few new tips and tricks in this area. Well done, Paizo!

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

This section is given in a brief sidebar. I have a problem with this because quite a few readers of RPGs will skim those areas thinking they are not important. This is a perception thing because if it were important, it would be in the main text, right? I think the six bullet points I mentioned above could be combined with this sidebar to create a new approach to collaborative gaming that excels at great fun and excellent storytelling. Merging these two concepts, I think, would lead to a more powerful statement.

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

The encounter section is too brief. This is the most technical part of the game, and this can lead to it being the hardest to adjudicate properly because of the number of rules, feats, spells, skills, powers, items, monsters, and characters involved. I know. I know. Many books (and articles!) have been dedicated to this very topic, and I don’t expect Paizo to replicate what’s already been covered. However, I think a deeper dive into encounters would be best.

The exploration and downtime modes are covered very well. These two sections are lengthy and solidly give the GM the right information to execute what is a new concept for Pathfinder. The guidance and tips found within these two sections will make running them go very smoothly for an experienced or fresh GM.

Now that I’ve read the entire “Modes of Play” section, I think I figured out what is bothering me with the encounter section beyond its brevity. The encounter section was written for experienced GMs. The exploration and downtime sections were written in a manner that targets new GMs. I feel that Paizo needs to take a fresh look at the encounter section and rewrite it (and expand it) as if they were attempting to teach a brand new GM (as in, brand new to RPGs, not just Pathfinder) how to run an encounter. If they revisit and expand the encounter section with this in mind, I feel it would be a much stronger contribution to the GM section of the book.

Difficulty Classes

I’m going to be brief here. These three pages are well thought out, clear, and give some great examples on how to come up with target numbers on the fly or apply adjustments where necessary. Paizo’s team did an excellent job on this section.

Rewards

I’ve been looking forward to hitting this section ever since I learned that each level requires an even 1,000 XP to obtain instead of an upward-climbing slope of more experience points for the next level than the current one.

Unfortunately for me, the “kill a monster” XP is listed in the supplemental bestiary, which I haven’t taken the time to flip through the PDF yet. I guess that’ll be next on my list of reading (but not reviewing). On the flip side, the XP awards for minor, moderate, and major accomplishments are laid out as 10, 30, and 80, respectively. Even though they call it “group XP” it’s not divided between all the characters. If the group accomplishes a moderate goal, then all the PCs involved gain 30 XP.

There’s a sidebar for “Story-Based Leveling” that is in this section that calls for the GM to decide if and when the characters level up. This puts a sour taste in my mouth. It’s a personal opinion here, but I really don’t like these approaches at all. The players should see the steady gain of XP for their characters (even if they don’t level yet), so there is a sense of accomplishment in that area. Having the GM suddenly decree, “You go up a level.” feels too much like the GM is controlling things. Of course, this could just be me and my experiences with GMs wanting to have too much control. Your mileage may vary in this area.

Environment

There are several pages dedicated to terrain, climate, and hazards. While the lists aren’t complete (I’m assuming they will be more comprehensive in the final, larger book), what is listed there and how the various environmental conditions impact the game are well stated. I like what I see as a set of building blocks toward more content.

The hazards section is very well done. A hazard is the generic term for traps, pits, dangers, and magical effects that can harm or impede the PCs. There are ways to find, trigger, disable, destroy, and/or dispel various hazards depending on their nature. The playtest book came with a sample of three hazards. I had kind of hoped for a few more, but I’m assuming they didn’t want the playtest book to bloat up too much. I’m looking forward to seeing what the final product (and the various expansion books and adventures) have along these lines.

Treasure

The loot! We’re finally at the gold and shiny and magic and wonderful stuff portion of the book. Yeah, I’m a little excited here because I’m interested in seeing how things change up in this section, if at all.

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

After this comes all sorts of tables outlining (almost proscribing) what treasure different level parties should (must?) receive for a fair and equitable game to be run. The fact that the treasure allotment is so heavily proscribed makes me extraordinarily sad.

No more random treasure.

Yeah. You read that right. There are no more dice rolls involved in generating treasure with Pathfinder. This breaks my heart, to be honest. As a GM, I always loved rolling up treasure because it would spark new ideas, thoughts, plot arcs, and cool stuff in my brain. Yeah, if I happened to roll up a majorly disruptive magic item for a low-level group, I’d probably shift things around a bit (or re-roll). However, randomly creating magic items for folks to find is gone. I’ll be over here in the corner shedding a tear for days gone by.

Okay. I’ve had my cry. I’m mostly better now. Looking at the new approach at handing out treasure is fair and balanced. It will assist new GMs from overloading their group with disruptive items while keeping the party well-equipped for future challenges. This is super helpful for new GMs, and I can appreciate this approach at handing out goods. I just wish they’d kept gems, jewelry, and/or artwork as a form of gaining wealth because those can, once again, inspire stories and side plots, not just a gain of wealth. Now, the party will just gain some gold from the hoard and move on.

If I ever run this version of Pathfinder, I’ll most likely break out my 2nd edition AD&D treasure generators (or the first Pathfinder versions) and run with those. They’re more fun than hand-picking treasure, to be honest.

After the list o’ treasure tables ends, the book delves into materials, which is one of the best write-ups of “non-normal” materials I’ve ever seen. Excellent job here. Obviously, the list isn’t complete, but I expect it to expand in the final version.

While flipping through the treasure section, I hit the sections for snares (crafting, detecting, triggering, etc.) and I was baffled here. I’m not sure why these were listed here under treasure, instead of above with the hazards. Did the wrong pages get dropped into the layout in the wrong place?

After snares, comes the alchemical items. This is a cool section. I highly encourage everyone to check this part out. There are oodles of examples, tons of ideas, and great information about how they play in the game. Loud applause for you here, Paizo.

Runes come next, and this is the part of enhancing weapons and armor with special powers. I love how weapons and armor must now be etched with cool-looking runes to become super special. This adds flavor to the world and storytelling options (as well as some neat intimidate/perception uses when someone wearing a well-etched suit of armor walks in the door) to the whole feel of the game.

Last come the details of the various magic items that don’t fall into “weapons and armor.” This comprises the bulk of the treasure section, and I’m not going to detail each item or neat thing. I do want to say that I really want to play an archer (preferably with the elven ancestry) with an Oathbow.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

The traits are all of the capitalized keywords (such as Strike) used within the book. The glossary is a good collection of phrases, terms, and things found within the book that may not be readily known to every player.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

This is a good foundational book for what promises to be a pretty cool system. There are some rough edges (as there are with any playtest document), but I figure Paizo is wise enough to listen to the feedback sent to them (and hopefully this series of articles) to improve the game.

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

The first is that I’m already heavily invested with knowledge, money, habits, and familiarity in the first version of Pathfinder. I have too much “edition inertia” going on to abandon Pathfinder 1.0 for Pathfinder 2.0. If the shift were more subtle between the two, I could see picking it up. However, everything will require major conversions to get from 1.0 to 2.0.

The second is that I’m extremely concerned with the lack of random treasure. Yeah. It’s that big of a deal. I feel it’s a departure too far from the “source material” that was created way back in the 1970s. I don’t like that one bit.

The third is that I don’t see anything drastically improving the game that much. There are tons of incremental improvements and quite a few major changes in the playtest document, but none of them really blew my socks off. There are some new concepts and ideas in here that I think I could shift back into a Pathfinder 1.0 game, but that now leaves me with Pathfinder 1.0 and some house rules (which I already have).

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I’d probably go with the playtest version, to be honest. It’s a better game, and my prejudices built up from playing RPGs for decades (and my Pathfinder edition inertia) would not be a factor in choosing which game to go with.

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Paizo put out a solid effort here. I’m impressed with the amount of thought, care, effort, and experience that went into developing this game. They’ve certainly evolved the game. There are some high points in the evolution and some low points as well. I think the high drastically outweighs the low.

I’m very much looking forward to the final version of the game. I’ll take a look at it then and reevaluate things at that time to determine if my stance on moving forward to the new version will change.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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kayawagner · 7 years ago

Text

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

Starting a Session

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

Difficulty Classes

Rewards

Environment

Treasure

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

No more random treasure.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

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sandiegojobsondemand · 8 years ago

Text

INTERVIEW: Dorothy Neagle of the Good Food Jobs “gastro-job” search tool

In 2004, buddies Dorothy Neagle and Taylor Cocalis Suazez produced Great Food Careers, a forward thinking “gastro-job” search-tool, using the persuasive tagline “satisfying the starvation for significant work.” the website provides a very customized assistance program to both companies and people looking for work in most facet of the meals business – from farming to training. We talked to Dorothy Neagle, half of Great Food Careers, about going for a stay against outstanding internships, the weakness related to job hunting, and revolution within the food-industry.

Food Careers is just a two- show. The cofounders aren’t just ice-cream but additionally friends enthusiasts.

INHABITAT: initially look, Great Food Careers is just a job-site wherever individuals may post and discover careers concerning food (may it be support, manufacturing or additional) in some manner. However it’s likewise a lot more than that. Are you able to explain the objective behind the endeavor?

DOROTHY: whenever we began Great Food Careers, we were making something which we ourselves had a: a-one-stop-store for work possibilities which were not only associated with food but were also individually satisfying. Among our basic objectives was to increase consciousness around exactly what a great food work was, and just how employed in the meals market went beyond your kitchen – that’s why we produced eight groups for that careers (Farming, Company, Culinary, Training, Press, Charitable, Manufacturing, Along with Other).

INHABITAT: What are your own career trajectories each? How did meals, design, and ideals-powered projects intersect in all of your personal paths?

DOROTHY: Our history is in Interior Planning, and that I invested my early decades out-of college employed by an architecture company in Nyc. But I’d another objective in existence that started to slip forward a powerful need, with time to combine ecological activism with my function that is everyday. I rapidly turned unhappy using the customer-driven objectives of employed in structure and style, and food was considered by me since food and farming tradition are naturally world-powered. While their studies at Cornell having fulfilled Taylor, we required the jump to begin GFJ and fundamentally place our brains together.

INHABITAT: We’re within an age where both conventional office and also the objectives of employees are altering (seeking meaningfulness in the things they do, versatility, user friendly and collaborative, available workspaces, for instance). How is Great Food Careers disrupting the standard work results website and providing people (who subscribe to free) more?

DOROTHY: Great Food Careers is just a neighborhood room. While we are found by individuals through term-of- mouth looking, they frequently comment they feel like they’ve been accepted for but didn’t realize by anything they’d constantly yearned existed. We individually reply every e-mail within our company mailbox, and we often capture mistakes and typos in career posts since we’re individually researching each one of these before we submit. We likewise required a stay against outstanding internships in 2014 (we no further post them) which year we’ve necessary that all companies be much more clear concerning the earnings provided within their careers. These improvements incrementally is made by us from our customers consequently of feedback.

INHABITAT: GFJ mainly acts not just work-hunters, but additionally companies restaurants to mention several. As it pertains towards the website-design, symbolism, updates and social networking stations of GFJ, how will you achieve and interact your goal demographic?

DOROTHY: I’m unsure what our goal demographic is…human creatures? Because we’ve positioned significantly more than a ad, or never performed a publicity strategy, we depend on individual link with assist the term was distribute by us naturally. Our everyday function is actually customer support, and we go really seriously (although not too severely). While GFJ resonates it’s, with people since we’re opening actual discussion about a number of our many susceptible individual encounters – and distinguishing and why is you are feeling more susceptible than buying work?

INHABITAT: There’s the notion that the GFJ work candidate probable displays a particular group of ideals and characteristics. Are you able to talk more about your objective as well as your description of the “good food job”–“a quest relating to the initiatives to nurture one’s own existence, and also the lifestyles of others?”

DOROTHY: Your tag-line truly claims everything: fulfilling the starvation for significant function. Whenever you feel required to arrange your everyday life together with your greatest requirement for satisfaction and link, it’s possibly since you are individually craving that alter, or you experienced a meeting or conversation or scenario beyond oneself that caused the yearning. In either case, carrying out work that’s useful to body and your personal mind and nature is naturally useful to physique and nature and your brain of others. GFJ appreciates and acknowledges that require, and ideally offers some feasible paths for achieving it.

Food Careers features of Wisdom” in its updates, that are online via the Food Careers website that is Great.

INHABITAT articles careers from even and round the nation posts that are worldwide. How will you use companies which are seeking to discover, via GFJ, expertise with not just particular abilities but perhaps additionally a particular attitude or approach?

DOROTHY: Your work posting type has generated-in guidance for creating employment outline that will assist one to achieve the type of people who are certainly enthusiastic and love – or wish to adore – the things they do to get a dwelling. We provide reduced work deals and free tests, in addition to regular savings for little facilities, non-profits, and budget – . By providing truthful, encouraging guidance We’re continuously trying to link the company/worker partition.

INHABITAT: recently, within the Usa there’s been an enormous curiosity about how issues are created, by who, wherever, and by what requirements-may it be what we consume, or even the fabrics that people use against the skin we have. Publications like Kinfolk Food Careers, stores that are “artisanal”, the strategy Small Company Sunday-all appear to talk to this developing curiosity that is nationwide. What’s your undertake this, and just how would you observe this changing, not just in locations like Brooklyn, however in little cities and towns over the country?

DOROTHY: I believe it’s wonderful. It originates from a location that is real. Several companies attempt to ‘identify the trends’ and alter their ‘branding’, and may join the advertising group, which may experience fake sometimes. But for growing the durability of these products that affect our everyday lifestyles whatever the purpose, the outcome is change that is good. I don’t possess a crystal-ball, but it’s my wish that creating produce a fresh standard of quality that people all try for, and most of these methods will end up chronic and arrived at anticipate.

INHABITAT: What’re some current developments you observe within the areas of farming and also the support industry?

DOROTHY: There’s a growing need that people proceed to experience, and that’s for regard and courtesy on all attributes of the hiring procedure, regardless of the techniques that technology offers. I visit a great chance to produce more healthy work surroundings, particularly with support-focused jobs which have typically been considered entry reduced or level /no-ability. Realizing that people may study from them, and training our workers through their everyday function is the key to ongoing development. Agricultural function remains a area, and nowadays there are a lot of more methods for getting involved with clean, nearby food – from metropolitan facilities to food shipping providers to making links between facilities and eateries, it hasn’t actually started to reply the need that prevails.

INHABITAT: at any given time of quick change in the united states, how will you believe this can effect how exactly we develop, marketplace and revel in our food?

DOROTHY: It’s very hard to express, but I will let you know that regardless of the change whirling around us, our emphasis at GFJ stays exactly the same: getting people together round the distributed starvation for significant function. I believe that what all of US maintain continuous in instances that are unclear is what’ll fundamentally create skilled effect and the largest individual.

Pictures thanks to Great Food Careers

This meeting continues to be modified for quality and brevity.

Source

http://inhabitat.com/interview-dorothy-neagle-of-good-food-jobs/

from Sandiego jobs on demand http://www.sandiegojobsondemand.com/interview-dorothy-neagle-of-the-good-food-jobs-gastro-job-search-tool/

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