#i did add img descriptions... i did my best

[northern-passage]

just found one of my favorite pieces of writing advice when it comes to interactive fiction, i think if you've read literally any of my work, it will be pretty obvious how much i use this in my own writing. i actually couldn't remember where i read this for the first time and on a whim i went through my twitter likes and found it in a thread. i'm going to transcribe it for ease of reading, but this is all coming from Alexander Freed (@/AlexanderMFreed on twitter)

he has a website here with other compiled writing advice about branching narratives and game design, though he never posted this there and hasn't really updated recently (but still check it out. there's some specific entries about writing romance, branching and linear & other game writing advice)

original twitter thread here

It's Tuesday night and I feel like teaching some of what I've learned in 15 years of branching narrative video game writing. Let's go in-depth about one incredibly specific subject: neutral / fallthrough / catchall response options!

Player ownership of the protagonist in choice-based branching narrative games (a la BioWare, Telltale, mobile narrative games, etc) is a vital aspect of the form.

The ability for the audience to shape a Player Character, to develop that character's inner life in their own mind, is unmatched in any other medium.

The Player determines the character's actions and THE MOTIVATIONS for those actions. The character's psychology can literally be as complex as the Player can imagine. However, this works best when there's enough space for the Player to develop those motivations. No game can offer enough options to support every interpretation imaginable; much of the character has to live in the Player's head, without necessarily appearing on the screen.

That's complicated. We're going to unpack it.

Generally, when presenting choices to a Player, we want those choices to be as interesting and compelling as possible.

But compelling, dramatic choices tend to be revealing of character. And no game can support hundreds of options at every choice point for every possible character motivation a Player might imagine.

This sort of narrative CANNOT maintain its integrity if the Player is forced to constantly "rewrite" their characterization of the Player Character on the fly. You want your Player to feel like they have more than enough viable options at any given moment.

At the simplest level of writing, this is where "fallthrough" responses come in.

In the examples above, each moment contains a response which furthers the story but doesn't imply a huge emotional choice for the Player. The Player is asked to choose A or B, agree or disagree, but can sidestep the issue altogether if desired.

These "neutral" responses are vital if both A and B don't appeal to the Player... or if, perhaps, the Player likes A but not the WAY A is being expressed. Milquetoast option C works for anyone; thus, the Player is never forced to break character because of a lack of options.

Questions work well for this sort of neutral option. Tacit agreement and dead silence also serve, in certain sorts of stories--as a Player, I know what's going on in my silent character's head and the game won't contradict it.

The important thing is that I'm never forced to take a path that's outright WRONG for my character. Even if other characters misinterpret the Player Character's motivation, my character's inner life remains internally consistent.

"Neutral" responses aren't the only ways to go, though. Some responses are appropriate for any character because they're tied to the base character concept.

Here, for example (from @/seankmckeever's X-Files), the Player is a marine on a mission. The Player can respond abrasively to her partner's fear or look into the issue (out of compassion or genuine belief), but our fallthrough is actually the TOP response.

There's no version of our marine who would absolutely break character by picking "Stay calm and on mission." It's not blandly neutral; rather, it reinforces aspects of the character we can be sure of and gives the Player an option if nothing else works.

Different sorts of narratives will use different sorts of fallthroughs. A comedy might treat the option to say something funny as a fallthrough, of sorts--it's entertaining and will never violate the characterization the Player has created.

In a quest-driven RPG, a fallthrough response can often boil down to "How do I move to the next step of this quest?"

That said, the strongest moments in a narrative will often have no "fallthrough" response at all. They'll work by creating multiple responses that, by overlapping, cover all reasonable Player Character actions while still leaving room for the Player to ascribe motivation.

[bemused-writer]

VNC Chapter 48 Analysis

The numbering system of the chapters continues to grow more confusing as it continues to be off by one (Web sites called the last one 48 on links but 47 on the chapter page), but we're just going to continue to call this chapter 48 instead of chapter 49 and hope for the best. Also, this chapter has been remarkably difficult to find for purchase. Why would YenPress hide it from me like this? D8

Anyway, none of that is the actual meta, so let's move on to that. As a general warning, the chapter itself dealt with some difficult subject matter, namely torture, so bear in mind that will be discussed in the meta.

We left off with Misha being left in Vanitas's care and this chapter begins with Vanitas taking that charge seriously, which was both surprising and completely predictable. As Noé once pointed out, Vanitas is made up of contradictions. We see that Vanitas is at least a little bit invested in Misha right away when he asks, "...You're sure it's okay if they cut it?"

He's referring to Misha's hair. Now, this is interesting for a few reasons. The first is that it demonstrates Vanitas wants to make sure Misha is as comfortable as he can be given the circumstances, but I also find it interesting because Vanitas himself has long hair. Only, he has kind of weird, chopped long hair.

Now, he has the same hairstyle in the flashbacks that he does in the present. At first I thought this was strange. How could he maintain such an elaborate hairstyle when he was imprisoned with Moreau? Did Mochizuki simply not want to come up with another hairstyle? But no, I don't think this is what happened. I think those scientists did try to cut Vanitas's hair when he was first brought to Moreau, he resisted, and the whole attempt resulted in his current 'do.

The fact that his hair is the same in the present means he's purposefully keeping it this way. Add this to the fact that he dresses like Vanitas of the Blue Moon, and I think Vanitas is manifesting all his traumas on his own person, possibly so he won't forget and so he won't give up on his revenge.

Moving on from that, it's unclear how long Vanitas had been with Moreau when Misha came along, but I think it's fair to say at least a few months? Maybe longer? Long enough that he knows how to behave around Moreau and can fill Misha in on how things are.

Vanitas explains to Misha he doesn't get to keep his old name, he's a number now. It's harsh, but it's another way of trying to prepare Misha for how awful things are going to be. An impossible task to be sure, but what else can he do?

We cut immediately to Misha being experimented on and tortured. He's in pain and also confused. He says, "Wasn't all the pain supposed to be over?" Roland's description of a happier place must seem like a massive lie right about now, but he had no way of knowing Misha would never get a chance at that fate.

The experiments themselves seem nonsensical. We see he's being injected with something in his arm, but we also see him strapped to a gurney with a metal object about his eyes. It looks like what they're doing is feeding the liquid from the vials through tubes into his eyes. I... don't see how this would be more effective than the previous syringes to be completely honest. My best guess is that since a vampire's power is centered in their eyes and Moreau is obsessed with vampires, he figured injecting this liquid directly into a human's eyes would have stronger results. Misha is also forced to drink something. Perhaps water, perhaps something else. Impossible to say.

The pain of it all reminds Misha of his mother beating him, which really just goes to show what a lousy mother she was. :/ He calls out for Vanitas to help him and we can see that Vanitas is bothered by what's happening. But what I did not expect was for Vanitas to turn around and offer to take Misha's place.

This is hands down the most selfless act we've ever seen from Vanitas. Willingly putting himself in danger? With the full knowledge he'll be tortured? That's incredible self-sacrifice. The only reason he did this is because he cares about Misha; he doesn't want to see someone suffer.

And yet, while I didn't expect this turn, it actually fits in perfectly from what we already know about Vanitas, even if he's gone to a lot of lengths to keep it obscured. Let's take a look at some previous panels:

This is one of our earliest examples. Vanitas was furious when Noé put himself in harm's way to protect him. He doesn't want others suffering because of him. But it's not just that.

That first scene is where Vanitas promises Jeanne he'll kill her if she ever loses control and hurts Luca. In other words, if she's no longer "Jeanne" he's taking responsibility for her failure to protect Luca. The next scene he promises to save Chloé, but what he actually says is that he'll accept all of Jeanne's ugly emotions for her.

In other words, Vanitas doesn't like it when other people suffer, especially if they're protecting him, but he readily takes on that very role himself. He goes out of his way to shield people even if he doesn't want them doing the same, and he readily accepts all the harsh, painful realities for someone so that they don't have to deal with it. In other words, what he's doing for Jeanne is similar to what he did for Misha, just on an emotional rather than physical level. But we also know he failed to keep some kind of promise to Misha and he remembered this when he promised to kill Jeanne. Perhaps he meant to keep Misha as "Misha," but he wasn't able to do so and he wasn't able to kill that which took his place.

All of this puts a slightly different spin on the Vanitas/Jeanne relationship. While there's definitely a selfish, immoral element there, this has also become Vanitas's attempt at doing something good, no matter how questionably he's going about it. Except, it was easier for him to do so when she didn't like him because not only does he not want people to risk themselves for him, he also doesn't want them to see him as worthy of doing so. Basically, as Roland said, he hates himself a lot more than we realized.

Now, what I want to know is whether Vanitas ever had siblings. Vanitas saw Misha suffering, but it was when he called out "Brother!" that he finally stepped in. Did it remind him of a sibling he actually had or was it just that he felt the weight of another person's life in the balance and he couldn't bear to do nothing?

This is the only cute scene of the chapter and we see that once again Vanitas doesn't push Misha away. He could have been angry with him for putting him in that predicament (not a rational feeling, but not one that would have been surprising given the circumstances), but instead he says nothing and let's him do as he wishes. This is also when No. 70 is brought up. I think the only thing we can safely say about No. 70 at this point is that he was a test subject involved in some other experiment (as Vanitas says) and that he is probably around Vanitas's age judging by what little we can make out of him.

Personally, I don't think this is a character we already know or, if it is, not well. Could be one of the chasseurs, but which one? This person was supposedly mute, but there haven't been any characters like that. So, a mystery for now. I am definitely curious, though. Vanitas and Misha were being turned into kin of the blue moon. Was No. 70 being turned into a proper vampire? That is Moreau's dream after all. But, for now, we simply don't have enough information to say anything at all.

And speaking of Moreau, he said he acquired the Books of Vanitas through "a certain channel." What does that mean? It sounds like it's probably a person, a contact, and one he's known for a while. Honestly, this one section raises so many questions. How would Vanitas lose her own books? It just seems absurd.

Anyway, Moreau goes on to explain the books are "analytical engines," which basically means they're machines, powered by a unique kind of astermite. Vanitas once told Noé he could manipulate the chasseurs' machines in the catacombs because they were also powered by astermite.

I think all of this is incredibly important. Just what is the world formula? Because whatever it is, it can be manipulated just the same way as astermite can, apparently. And who is connected to the world formula? Vampires. What can be tampered with by the books? Vampires' names. Where am I going with this? I'm not entirely sure. 8D But I've been thinking about this for a while. Astermite is some panacea stone that has removed pollution and done wonderful things. But that just sounds too good to be true. I really think there's something nefarious about astermite, and I think it's connected to vampires--and possibly the chasseurs--somehow.

I wrote a short fic once where astermite was made out of vampires' names. In other words, vampire souls. I'm still waiting to see what this stuff is actually made out of, but I just can't shake that theory, baseless though it is.

Still, only the blue moon's kin can open the Book of Vanitas and it uses a "different kind of astermite." Blue moon vampires are also different from red moon vampires. I wonder if the books have just a little bit of Vanitas of the Blue Moon's own essence. Hmmm...

Also, it turns out that Vanitas of the Blue Moon, and presumably all blue moon vampires, have blue blood. This means if you're a blue moon vampire, there really isn't a thing you can do to hide it, is there? 8D Your eyes are super blue, your blood is super blue. They probably smell differently, too. And it turns out Vanitas and Misha were injected with her blood to make them honorary kin.

Again, so many questions here. We're definitely dealing more with alchemy than straightforward science at this point, so I have to wonder: How changed are Vanitas and Misha's DNA? Do they even qualify as human? I mean, evidently their blood isn't blue, but Noé and Jeanne both agree that Vanitas smells good. How much of that is because of him as a person and how much is because of the blue moon blood running through his veins?

It seems most humans can't handle Vanitas of the Blue Moon's blood because they went mad instantly. But not these two.

Vanitas is understandably furious at what's been done to him. Having said that, this is also around the time period he hated vampires completely. I wonder how much of that anger is because he's been experimented on against his will and how much of it is because he was injected with a vampire's blood specifically.

Whichever it is, there's a certain level of irony that he's then saved by Vanitas herself. She comes in, blows up some stuff, and gets her books back.

Let's think about this for a moment. Somehow, Moreau not only had her books, he also had her blood. She does not look like a prisoner though, does she?

No, if anything, she definitely looks like the person in control of the room somehow, so I really have to wonder how they got these things from her. She evidently came to pick up her books, but that's not it.

I could be reading too much into it, but that, to me, doesn't sound like someone who's there to stop an evil experiment or save people. Or at least, that's not the only reason she's there. "That should be enough of a rampage to do the trick." What is she trying to accomplish? She already has the books!

Well, I suppose future chapters will give us an idea.

Misha convinces her to take them with her. Vanitas is shocked that the offer is extended to him as well. He was definitely prepared to simply stay, but then he thought of the chasseurs, the pain they inflicted on him, and I think he decided he'd rather take his chances with the vampire. He may hate vampires at this point, but humans haven't proven themselves to him either.

What I find interesting though is how similar this scene is to when Noé said "Not yet" in the catacombs.

They each offered him hope when he least expected it and showed him a path he never would have tried himself. It's also interesting that they also share some basic visual similarities. They both have darker skin and silver hair and they're vampires. Both of these scenarios happened in the catacombs as well. At a minimum, we can say they each led him to an important change in his life. Also, Vanitas of the Blue Moon had a definite "Noé" vibe in this one panel:

There's a certain awkwardness here that makes me think of him. The obvious difference being that Noé wouldn't let suffering children be an afterthought. Maybe this is more of a Teacher resemblance. Hard to say...

And so, Vanitas joined Vanitas of the Blue Moon! What a chapter. Dr. Moreau continues to be the worst, doesn't he? He's definitely lacking depth compared to the other villains wandering about. XD Very curious when Vanitas gets to kill him. And also whether Moreau's research will be successful. I think the series is going to get a lot darker if it is.

One thing I noticed is that Misha never lost his arm during these experiments, so that definitely happened later. My personal guess is that he's using the book a lot more than Vanitas and is being rewritten at a faster rate. If so, being rewritten could mean... disappearing from reality? Guess we'll find out. Ahh, I really want the next chapter... I'm looking forward to it!

[technicallyswagpizza]

RABBIT HOLE RECOLOURS AND RESCRIPTING TUTORIAL

Are you having difficulties getting the outrageously coloured rabbit holes to fit into your moody emo town? Or would you like to make your high street look like a Skittles factory had just exploded? Despair no more! Release your inner MacGyver and DIY!

Programs you need: S3oc S3pe Photoshop or Gimp (DDS plugins for Photoshop -> this and this, Gimp has this feature built in already)

// Disclaimer: This tutorial is picture and text heavy. I hate having to have bazillion different tutorials open because everyone always assumes you know what you are doing and I keep on closing tabs by accident, so this tutorial will run you through each and every step with (far too much) detail because I’m a simpleton and I need both pictures and text when learning new stuff! I have divided this into digestable parts, so you can skip ahead down the tutorial if you are familiar with some of the steps such as cloning. Pictures above are numbered and each step is explained below.

1. CLONING A RABBIT HOLE

1. Open S3oc, click Cloning and Normal objects.

2. Click Tools and Search, type in keywords such as bookspa or hospital. If you still can’t find what you are looking for, then the other option is to just scroll down the list of items and try locating the rabbit hole you need.

3. Once you have found your rabbit hole, click Clone or Fix.

4. Tick all the boxes I have ticked.

5. Edit the Catalog Name and Description, these are the things you see in game when you browse through the items and stuff. If you are not fussed, leave them as is.

6. Change the file name here (Some guides mention changing it, some skip it, but I have changed mine and nothing exploded so far!) and click Start. A window pops up asking where you want to save your package, I usually create separate folders for my projects on my desktop as I don’t want to accidentally mix my .DDS files with other rabbit hole files and stuff, but if chaos is your thing just save wherever.

2. RECOLOURING A RABBIT HOLE

7. Locate your newly created rabbit hole clone .package (You can create a backup copy of it somewhere if you think you will mess up somehow) and open it with S3pe. Look through the IMG tags and find a LOD image like this. Right click and Export to file. If you are organized like I am, you can save it in your project folder with your package file... Or place it wherever because of whatever method of madness you use when editing your files. I’m not your mother. Do whatevs.

8. Now depending on which program you use, open the .DDS file in Gimp or Photoshop, if you get a pop up window  just go with default size and no mipmaps. This is the step where you let your creative juices flow and take over. Want to change everything? Or only one colour? Depending on the rabbit hole you have chosen to edit it could be a really simple one click thing fix, or if you picked a more complicated one like I did, you are going to spend some time on this step. I added my before and after picture edits I did in Photoshop as an example.

// Photoshop Tip! I’m not familiar with Gimp, so I’m not sure how well this works in there, but I abuse the hell out of Hue/Saturation and the colour picker in Photoshop to get rid of and edit the colours. Press the little hand icon in the Hue/Saturation pop up box and click the colour you want to change in the image and it picks it for you, then just use the three sliders to change your colours, easy! Be careful though! Sometimes it changes too many areas in one go, so you might have to use marquee tool to isolate the bits you want to edit so rest of the image doesn’t change (While using marquee tool you can press either Shift or Alt at the same time which allows you to add into or remove from your current selection!). Or use masks. Up to you. Then once you have selected the areas, create a new layer and hit the Hue/Saturation button and it will only impact the areas you have selected. Play with layer settings if you end up adding separate colours on top, for example my red paint layer looked best with linear light and 80% opacity.

9. Once you are satisfied with your colours and you have merged your layers, this next step is different with Photoshop and Gimp. With Photoshop you can use Save As option while with Gimp you have to use Export As. Either way, save or export over/replace the image you originally opened using the .DDS settings shown (Please correct me if I’m wrong with Gimp settings as I don’t really use it!). If you have been saving as psd or changing the file’s name, make sure the name is now EXACTLY the same as when you exported it earlier. However, I’d urge you to do backup copies before overwriting the file, in case you have coloured something wrong or if you think you might want to change something after doing a test. Just you know, to save you some hassle if shit hits the fan.

10. Back to S3pe, you will now replace the image you previously exported with the edited one. Click Resources (or right click the IMG file on list you are replacing, both ways work), Import from file and pick the newly edited file, click ok on the prompt. Your old IMG file should be crossed out on the list and new IMG added (Once you save the crossed out one simply disappears). Depending on what kind of edits you did to the LOD IMG, you have to repeat exporting, editing and importing each and every IMG file corresponding to the changes you did with the first one. Be extra careful with matching the colours between the IMG files, otherwise you get some funky rabbit holes when zooming in and out! For example for my rather edit heavy LOD image I had to edit another 5 IMG files all in all in the end (Different wall bits, bit of carpet, window trims, roof!).

3. MAKING IT BASE GAME COMPATIBLE

11. Done with your IMG files? Still in S3pe, locate OBJD file on the list, either hit enter or right click for Details.

12. Change the group number from whatever to 0. Save your package.

You are done and your rabbit hole is ready to go in game! Drop it with your other .packages in your Mod folder and test it, in edit and live mode in game.  Are some parts of the building still showing old colours or are they changing drastically when you zoom in or out? It’s not the end of the world! You must have forgotten to edit one of the IMG files or the colours are not matching, double check that all the bits you edited in the first image match with rest of the IMG files. Even if you got the colours right there will be a slight chance due to how Sims 3 renders items, so don’t panic unless IT’S REALLY BAD! Just look at how other nonedited Sims 3 stuff renders and compare how yours behaves. // But wait! Maybe you want to make it a default replacement rather than a new individual rabbit hole like my tutorial does? For default replacements, follow this guide.

4. CHANGING THE RABBIT HOLE SCRIPT (OPTIONAL)

Like the look of your rabbit hole building, but don’t think it looks like a spa or a bookshop? Is it giving you a hospital and science lab vibe instead? Again, no need for anxiety! You can fix it! Sort of. It should work but be wary! If you use lets say the Annex script, you got to have University EP installed to make it work. Without the right expansion, you can’t have special careers. Just keep in mind that some scripts may not work with some buildings due to the specific animations and stuff, so test it before you release your masterpiece in the wild.

13. Open your .package in S3pe, locate OBJK file and right click Edit OBJK.

14. Replace the String bit with one of these scripts from the following list. Commit to changes and save your package. You are done!

Bookstore Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Bookstore

Business and journalism Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.BusinessAndJournalismRabbitHole

City hall Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.CityHall

Criminal building Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Hideout

Diner Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Diner

Grocers Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Grocery

Hospital Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Hospital

Mausoleum Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Mausoleum

Military Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.MilitaryBase

Movie studio Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.MovieSet

Police station Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.PoliceStation

School Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.SchoolRabbitHole

Science Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ScienceLab

Spa Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.DaySpa

Sports stadium Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Stadium

Theatre Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Theatre

Vault Of Antiquity Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.VaultOfAntiquity

Subway Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Subway

Fortune teller caravan Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.GypsyCaravan

Equestrian center Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.EquestrianCenter

Annex Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Annex

Hospital & science combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboHospitalScienceLab

School & stadium combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboSchoolStadium

Book & spa combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboBookstoreDaySpa

City hall, police & military combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboCityhallPoliceMilitary

Business & bistro combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboBusinessRestaurant

And I think that’s it. Let me know if you know a better way or I have made an error in this tutorial! Or if you want to fight me, I will meet you behind the mall by the bins for some asskicking.

[ao3commentoftheday]

Accessibility question. For a long time I've wanted to do art for my fics to use within the chapters at their respective points. For the most part it would just be another way to show the scene, but I also had the thought of leaving "hints" and things in them on occasion. Problem is, now that I know accessibility's a big concern, I don't know how best to handle this for things like screen readers (if at all). (1/2)

(Accessibility 2/2) I wouldn't want to draw attention to the hint with hover text and so on since that kind of defeats the purpose of it (seeing who catches on/what theories develop), but if it isn't in the text, then people who can't see the image would be completely excluded and that feels very unfair to me. Do folks have any thoughts for how I could make this sort of thing accessible for everyone or would it be best to leave the hints out of it?

-

I used to use a lot of images in my fics, and I didn’t think about screen readers or downloaders at all when I did it. I accessed the Archive through my laptop browser and I’m able to see images so it didn’t occur to me that other people would have different situations. Thankfully, I’ve since learned better. 

Unfortunately, I haven’t gone back and fixed all my old fics yet.

Mouseover text wouldn’t help someone with accessibility issues, and it also wouldn’t work for someone accessing on a mobile device. What you can do instead is write in a description of the image when you add the image to your fic. There’s a space for that provided when you’re using Rich Text mode:

or you can add in the alt attribute if you’re using the img tag in html. 

If your description is complete enough, you can hide the “hint” in there and people won’t pick up on it easily, just like you want. 

[misstomadame]

Bonjour et Bienvenue,

Wanna know one of the best parts about living in Europe? Well, I’m sure you already know this…

Being able to travel to other countries so easily and for the LOW!

This September I met up with some friends in Sicily, for the last hoorah of the summer.

I’m not sure if I would actually want to live in Italy but I do think out of all the countries I’ve visited so far… Italy is my favorite and that might simply be because of the food.

My experience in Rome 2 years ago was amazing,  but getting to experience a completely different side of Italy with some of the most amazing beaches I’ve ever seen was what really what did it for me.

If Sicily isn’t on your travel bucket list, I suggest you add it.

You’ll understand why… very soon!

Travel: 

I booked my round trip flight from Paris to Palermo through the Opodo app for a whopping 125 euros!

Paris to Palermo with Easy jet

Palermo to Paris with Ryan air

Where we stayed: 

Our Air Bnb Palermo was short a short drive away from Mondello Beach!

Sign up for Air bnb using my link and get $40 off your next stay! Sign up for Airbnb

and now for the good stuff…THE BEACHES! 

Where we went:

Mondello Beach

Why not throw in some shopping on the beach while we’re at it.

Scopello:

Scopello Village: 

Dinner at Bar Nettuno

Bar Nettuno Scopello

Bar Nettuno Scopello

Bar Nettuno Scopello

Bar Nettuno Scopello

Bar Nettuno Scopello

San Vito Lo Capo

San Vito Lo Capo

San Vito Lo Capo

San Vito Lo Capo

Favignana Island:

We took the boat from Marsala to Favignana Island for 25 euros each round trip with Liberty Lines.

Liberty Lines Marsala

Liberty Lines Marsala

Liberty Lines Marsala

  You’ll need some form of transportation while on the island. Lot’s of people are on bikes/electric bikes & scooters. You also have the option of renting a small car!

I rented an electric bike (I honestly can’t remember how much it was lol) but I want to say it was about 25 euros for the day!

We arrived on the island at about 10am and our boat back to Marsala was scheduled for 6pm. So we had a few hours to visit as many beaches as we could. We spent about an hour and a half (sometimes more) at each beach and we are able to visit 4 different ones, all beautiful in their own way!

Cala Rossa

Cala Rossa- Favignana

Cala Rossa- Favignana

Cala Azurra:

Cala Azurra- Favignana

Cala Azurra Favignana

Cala Azurra- Favignana

Bue Marino:

Bue Marino Favignana

Bue Marino Favignana

Bue Marino Favignana

Bue Marino Favignana

Bue Marino Favignana

Bue Marino Favignana

Bue Marino Favignana

Scalo Cavallo:

More Food….

Le Antiche Mura Palermo

This was actually our Air bnb Palermo host restaurant. It was just a short drive away from where we were staying and the food was amazing!

Le Antiche Mura Palermo

Le Antiche Mura Palermo

Le Antiche Mura Palermo

Le Antiche Mura Palermo

Le Antiche Mura Palermo

Le Antiche Mura Palermo

Poldo 2 Mondello

Mondello has a nice downtown area full of a bunch of restaurants and bars!

Poldo 2 Mondello

Poldo 2 Mondello

Poldo 2 Mondello

and what’s Italy without a Cannoli…or 2.

Sicily, you did not disappoint. 

Processed with VSCO with au1 preset

As always,

Thanks for reading!

xx Shalize

Sicilian Beaches & Favignana Island! Bonjour et Bienvenue, Wanna know one of the best parts about living in Europe? Well, I'm sure you already know this...

[wulfiesessentials]

DIY Crochet Handbag

Have you ever gone into a store or see something on TV/ Internet and say to yourself.. I can make that!!!  Well… Thats what happened to me one day when I went shopping at Target. I was looking for a Tote to carry the yarn I’m not packing up for our move. I glance over and see this crochet handbag… Natural instinct is to immediately check this out.. kinda like quality control.. was it machine made or handmade crochet, etc hahaha I pick it up, examine it.. Wow. it wasn’t machine made.. hmmm Then I look at the price tag and gasp. Nope.. was not going to give a Big named store that amount of money.. I can make this!!

I give you.. The DIY Crochet Handbag 🙂

The Handbag at the store was a neutral colored stiff but still on the soft side,cotton material. So off I went to find yarn similar to this handbag. I found several that were close but still not the exact texture. Then a light bulb went off in my head.. off to the hardware department I went..

Waalaa.. I found it. Cotton twine. This has the same texture and thickness of the “store” handbag and bonus .. it was 2.84 a ball. I grab a couple and off I went to create the look a like.

Half way through making this handbag, I was thinking about the texture and durability of this bag, then my mind started to wander and all of a sudden I said to myself.. Tye Dye!! Wouldn’t it be cool if you could custom dye your handbag.

After I completed the pattern I went to the craft store and picked up some t-shirt tye dye.

To be perfectly honest, I have never Tye Dyed anything before and after the initial excitement of getting the dye, I started to get a little nervous. I didn’t read the directions of the dye before I purchased and when it came time to make it.. eeekkk. This particular dye was for Large projects and required some math to calculate a smaller batch of dye. I recommend if you are going to dye your handbag to read the directions of several types of dye before you purchase.

The dye I used was 1 packet per Gallon of water.. I cut that down into 3rds and still had dye left over.

I also decided to make some swatches to test dye. So glad I did. The twine doesn’t soak up the dye as I thought it would have. It was almost like water repellent at first. I lightly sprayed water on the first area I was going to dye first… This worked out much better.

I noticed you can actually get some neat effects when spray water on the already dyed area.. it make the dye move and creep up the twine. I started with the darker dye first but you can try many different techniques with your swatches before applying to your handbag.

Cautions with the dye.. this is fabric dye and it will stain anything it gets on.. use gloves and it is best to dye outside where spills will not ruin anything. It was raining here when I went to dye so I did dye inside. I have a stainless steel sink so I used a cooling rack over my sink to dye. For drying I transferred the cooling rack to a old cookie sheet pan.

  For some extra fun.. I made 2 coaster size swatches and let my husband and daughter design their own. It also gave me other ideas on how I wanted my bag to look.

When dyeing don’t worry about areas that arent covered completely with dye..the dye will spread out while drying. Also, keep in mind the color will lighting a bit also. The picture above is when the swatches and bag where wet.

Drying… Again preferably allow them to dry outside. I was late getting this post out because I didn’t not think about dry time. They barely dried while in the house. It wasnt til a day later when I could put them outside for a few hours in the sun that they finally dried. I Do Not recommend putting them in the drier.. the dye will destroy your drier.

  These pictures are of the swatches and bag fully dried. As you can see the dye faded a bit and also the areas that did not have dye filled in with color.

I added some twine to the edges of the coasters the family made. Took a wire brush and combed out the twine and made little Rug coaster. Have some extra fun with this project. This little side project made me think back to crafts we did in school.. was a nice little break away from the everyday schedule 🙂

Crochet Handbag Pattern

This bag is done in the round. It has repetitive rows. It has 2 “special” need to know stitches.. Which are a Cluster and a DC2TOG. Below are a couple links for reference on how to do the “special” stitches.

Cluster.. Mama in a Stitch ….The Cluster for my pattern is only 3DC’s

DC2TOG… New Stitch a Day

Cluster2TOG..

What you will Need…

2 Balls of Cotton twine .. I went to Walmart Hardware Dept to get the kind I used

Handbag Handles.. You can use any you wish for your handbag.. I purchased my Bamboo handles from Joanns.  

Fabric Dye.. Remember to read instructions so you don’t have to make large batches of dye. Also to see if you need anything to add when making dye. I needed Salt.

Dye Bottles & Disposable Gloves

Cheap Aluminum Cookie Sheet.. If you do not have one you can use for drying handbag

5mm Hook

Scissors, Stitch Marker, Tapestry Needle

Abbreviations…

Ch. = Chain

SC = Single Crochet

DC = Double Crochet

HDC = Half Double Crochet

Sl St = Slip Stitch

SK = Skip Stitch

SM = Stitch Marker

Cluster = 3DC Cluster

DC2TOG = Double Crochet 2 Stitches together

* to * = Repeat stitch or stitches between *’s

Note.. Place SM in first stitch of every round so you can keep track of your rows

PATTERN

Ch.44 +1

Round 1.) 2nd Ch from hook SC, SC across – Turn work slightly and SC in between SC and Chain row,n Turn work slightly again ( now you will be working Chain row) SC across, turn slightly and put 2SC in between the 2 rows.

Round 2.) SC around

Round 3.) Sl St into SM SC, Ch.2, DC next stitch, DC around, DC into Ch.2

Round 4.) DC , DC, Cluster, *Ch.1 – SK – Cluster*, Repeat * to * 19 more times, DC,DC,DC,DC ( around corner), Cluster, * Ch.1 – Sk – Cluster, Repeat * to * 20 more times, DC the last 4 stitches.

Round 5.) Start with Cluster, * Ch.1 – Sk – Cluster*,  Repeat * to * 19 more times, DC2TOG, DC, DC, * Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk*, Repeat *to* 21 more times, DC2TOG, DC, DC

Round 6.) *Cluster – Ch.1 – SK* Repeat *to* 20 more times, Cluster in First DC, DC2TOG, * Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk*, Repeat *to* 22 more times, DC2TOG

Round 7.) *Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk*, Repeat *to* 20 more times, DC2TOG ( cluster & dc), *Ch.1 – Sk – Cluster*, repeat *to* 21 more times, DC2TOG ( cluster & last dc)

Round 8 – 9.) Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk  around

Round 10.) *Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk*  repeat *to* 21 more times, Cluster2TOG, *cluster – Ch.1- Sk* repeat *to* 19 more times, Cluster2TOG

Round 11.) *Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk* repeat *to* 19 more times, Cluster2TOG, * Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk* repeat *to* 19 more times, Cluster2TOG

Round 12 -16.) * Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk*, Repeat *to* around

Round 17.) *Cluster – Ch.1 – Sk*, repeat *to* around til you reach last Cluster, In last cluster place 2 HDC’s

Round 18.) 2HDC in each previous row cluster ( not in Ch.1 space)..

Round 19.) SC around, Sl St into first SC and Finnish off.

Attaching Handles…

Depending on the type of handle you use, there is several ways to attach your Handles. On my handbag I choice 2 different ways you could attach them.

  First photo is a single sewn, center hold. Second picture I placed additional wrapping on either side. Options are limitless on how you would like to attach yours.

Attach along the whole bottom half of handle, Partial attachment, etc.. Also… Keep in mind as to whether or not you want your handle “holder” to be dye’d or Natural. If you want it to match, make sure you dye some of your extra cord.

When attaching the handle you want to use a whole cluster.. So sew from bottom of cluster, up around handle and into top of same cluster and just keep going around and across the same row of clusters,  til your happy with the hold and look.

Get creative with your bag.. this is your creation and it needs your personal touch 🙂

I hope you have fun with this DIY Handbag and Please let me know if you have any questions. Those that would like to share your finished handbag I would love to see them… You can post them here in Comments or #wulfiesessentials on instagram 🙂

THIS PATTERN WAS MADE AND DESIGNED BY WULFIESESSENTIALS©. YOU MAY MAKE AND SELL THE ITEMS MADE FROM THIS PATTERN, BUT PLEASE LINK BACK TO MY SITE. YOU MAY NOT ALTER, REPRODUCE, SELL OR DISTRIBUTE THIS PATTERN. DO NOT USE THE PHOTOS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PATTERN WITHOUT PERMISSION.

WulfiesEssentials© is neither paid or affiliated with any persons &/or Business mentioned in this post. Any “review” is solely my opinion based on use of the Item mentioned in this post.

The DIY Crochet Handbag DIY Crochet Handbag Have you ever gone into a store or see something on TV/ Internet and say to yourself..

[haveclotheswilltravel]

This is a great time of year to head to New Orleans – the temps are nearly perfect for walking and exploring, and you won’t have the crowds from Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest. 4 days in New Orleans is plenty of time to get a good feel of the city at a relaxed pace. I’m sharing how we spent our 4 days here and a few tips for planning your New Orleans itinerary. Plus, I’ll share some suggestions if you have more or less time to spend in NOLA.

*Note: Regular readers, I was in New Orleans a few years back. I’m taking a look back at this trip because I never wrote an itinerary post and have been receiving some requests to do so.

How to Spend 4 Days in New Orleans – The Ultimate Itinerary

Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Day 1 – Arrive & Take a Walk Down Bourbon Street

We arrived in New Orleans our first day in the afternoon. We got checked into our hotel and then took a walk down Bourbon Street. Our hotel was right on Bourbon Street, so it was an easy walk! There is a lot to see down here. We stopped at a few bars and restaurants before making our way back to our hotel that night. Bourbon Street does look completely different at night – so, it was fun to see it in both the day time and night.

Day 2 – Food Tour + Shopping + Haunted History Tour

If you only come to NOLA to do one thing – it should be to eat! There are so many yummy foods down here. I highly recommend taking a food tour (like this one) and maybe even a cocktail tour.

The food tour will only take a few hours maximum, so we used the remainder of the day to shop in the French Quarter and do a little exploring. There are tons of fun shops in this area.

Another highlight of this trip was taking a walking haunted history tour (like this one). This is best done at night + you can bring alcoholic beverages along for your haunted walk through the city! (They even let you stop to refill your beverages halfway through, haha.)

Day 3 – Cemetery Tour + Garden District + Jazz Bars

AHS Coven Mansion!

For day 3 we didn’t have any tours planned ahead of time. My goal was to see the AHS: Coven Mansion in the Garden District – which I did. Then we walked over to Lafayette Cemetery No.1. We ended up doing a half hour walking tour here. As morbid as it may sound, you should visit at least one cemetery while in NOLA. They are beautiful, unique and full of history.

We then headed over to a fun jazz bar called “The Three Muses.” We wandered back to our hotel and hung out there to watch even more jazz performances!

Click here to for more information on this day, and click here for my complete list of bars and restaurants to visit while in NOLA.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

Day 4 – Tarot Card Reading – Depart

We woke up and went to a tarot card reading at Rev. Zombies Voodoo Shop this morning – it was a fun experience! I’m not really a believer in this stuff, however, I do have to say, the reading was eerily accurate. We also did a cheap reading on the street afterward – this was also fun, but also not as “accurate,” shall we say. Marie Laveau’s House Of Voodoo is probably the most popular place to get a reading, but it was completely booked for the 4 days we were here, so be sure to call and book ahead of time!

Our flight left late that afternoon.

Do You Only Have 3 Days in New Orleans? Here are Some Tips…

You could easily condense this into a 3-day itinerary as well. For example, you could do your food tour, cemetery tour and haunted history tour all in one day – no problem! They are short tours. And there would still be time when you arrive on your first day to do a little shopping and exploring, and maybe even do a tarot card reading if you’re interested. Plus, 3 days is a great amount of time to sample all the different cuisine and beverages in New Orleans!

Another Option…

Another interesting option, if you have more time, is to take a cruise to New Orleans. Little did I know, but there are actually a few cruises that leave from Florida and dock in New Orleans for a few days, before sailing to Mexico. If you find yourself on one of these cruises – you could definitely use this itinerary!

Where We Stayed

If you won’t be taking a cruise to New Orleans, there are still plenty of hotels to choose from for a wide range of budgets! Click here to see them all.

We had stayed at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. It was right on Bourbon Street and was a nice hotel. Pro tip: If you don’t want to wear earplugs at night, don’t request to stay on the Bourbon Street side of the hotel like we did! We thought it would be fun to see the action for our hotel at night – and it was fun! But we did have to sleep with earplugs in because the partying doesn’t stop until nearly 6 am in NOLA! Booking.com (function(d, sc, u) { var s = d.createElement(sc), p = d.getElementsByTagName(sc)[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = u + '?v=' + (+new Date()); p.parentNode.insertBefore(s,p); })(document, 'script', '//aff.bstatic.com/static/affiliate_base/js/flexiproduct.js');

*Thank you to Celebrity Cruises for sponsoring this post.

Have you ever been to New Orleans? If so, what are some things you would add to this itinerary? Let me know in the comments!

*Click here to see all of my New Orleans blog posts.

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*Disclosure: some of these links are affiliate links. Meaning, if you click a link and make a purchase, Have Clothes, Will Travel gets a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible! I am also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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How to Spend 4 Days in New Orleans - The Ultimate Itinerary This is a great time of year to head to New Orleans - the temps are nearly perfect for walking and exploring, and you won't have the crowds from Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest.

[ommadusk]

So, the @TSVoices (Transsexual Voices Matter) Twitter and Facebook came and went and is back again. There’s plenty I could say about the group’s initial statement. The claim to be diagnosed with ‘rare acute forms of gender dysphoria’ is just silly because whatever gender dysphoria is, the justification for treatment is that the condition supposedly is chronic, and anyway what we know about male transsexualism points again to this being a chronic condition. There’s a lot of whining about how the identity of ‘transsexual’ is being swept aside by ‘transgender’, which is a fair argument and one I’ve used myself, but as usual it’s what the statement manages NOT to say that gives the game away, and add to that the continual claim to ‘woman’ throughout the statement lets us all see exactly what this is:

It remains to be seen whether this group stand for anything different. They could have specifically identified and condemned the use of ‘TERF’ and the attack on female homosexuality; if they’re that concerned about respecting female culture, spaces and the lives of women, I’d look for an explicit distancing from the use of ‘lesbian’, ‘mother’ and ‘woman’. Unfortunately many of ‘the good trans’ still can’t bring themselves to this more evolved point.

Remember TSRainCrew? Tried to sell themselves as the ‘good trans’ and made similar arguments about cultural distinction. Yet in reality their spokespeople ended up being just as big dicks as the gendersists they criticised.

If they’re going to be different, they actually have to be different. Else this is just another attempt to claim a higher spot on the validity hierarchy.

– my comment earlier (16 August) on the resulting @TSVoices Mumsnet thread

Of course there are many other things their self-serving statement omitted, like how for example homosexual and gender non-conforming minors are being instrumentalised by transgender activists in order to validate their own claim to identity, but I digress. What is properly amazing is how quickly this group reverted to classic male transgender activist behaviour. NO SURPRISES THERE.

‘Choose your enemies’

‘Radfems verbal abuse of their allies too’

Unsolicited DMs

It’s pointless my analysing these further as, of course, we have all seen this sort of shit before: if they’re going to be different they actually have got to be different. And here they have shown so clearly how they really are no different at all, and the whole thing was an exercise in claiming validity: how can you credibly complain about your own erasure when you and other members of your group so freely steal women’s language, culture and lives? Idiots.

@AngryBird ‘identifies as a mother’

  The problem here of course is that the people who are speaking for this group simply do not listen to what women have to say, instead they brush off their concerns with a casual mansplain and lap up the validation cookies thrown them by all the women out there who really do want a world where they and transsexuals can stand together to face a common problem, or even just be able to get on with their own lives and battles in their own way, without interference from the Manosphere.

Finally, despite our opposition to those transgender activists which have started this ‘rewriting definitions and rules’ campaign and ‘twitter sex wars’ we remain strong allies of both reasonable women and reasonable and genuinely suffering transsexuals. We all are humans.

— Transsexual Voices Matter (@tsvoices) August 16, 2018

Yes, transsexual voices matter, but again we are in the situation where these voices are elevated over and above the voices of women. No change there, then. In case I’m not making myself absolutely crystal clear, what I am saying to @TSVoices is, hear this: in the words of Pink Floyd ‘you’re just the same as all the rest’. And yes, that feeling of discomfort you are having right now is déjà vu.

So, where do we go from here? Well, I get to say exactly the same damn thing I have been saying for years:

Disavow any claim to ‘woman’ and ‘female’, including all subsets, ‘lesbian’, ‘mother’, ‘sister’ etc., these are never yours to take;

Clearly and unambiguously denounce male violence against women without exception or qualification or any other way you lot keep trying to wriggle your way out of it;

Affirm that human beings are sexually dimorphic mammals and that what you presently call ‘trans women’ are biologically male;

Be honest about gender, this means recognising autogynephilia as a primary cause of male transsexualism and that the entire concept of ‘living as a woman’ when applied to trans males is just sexism;

Use your activism to support the rights of transsexuals, but not at the expense of women, and not as is so clear in this case to claim a higher step on the validation hierarchy;

Don’t ever use threatening language to women, and while your’re working on that, learn to apologise for being a dick when you’ve been a dick;

Don’t try to undermine women’s voices by using the term ‘radfem’ as a synonym for extreme, just like you actually did;

Fight against today’s fashion of coding sex role nonconformity in children as these children being ‘born in the wrong body’, this is dishonest and incredibly cruel and should be right at the top of your agenda;

Recognise that your own interests are best served by repositioning the trans movement, not the women’s movement; and

Listen to women.

The End.

Transsexual Voices Matter So, the @TSVoices (Transsexual Voices Matter) Twitter and Facebook came and went and is back again. There's plenty I could say about the group's initial statement.

[omgallthecoolgirls]

Looking for the latest trends and inspiration hairstyles for short hair? Look no further! We have rounded up some of the most popular styles for short hair. Whether you are going for a bob or a pixie cut, there is one here to suit your face shape and style.

  Which face shape are you?

Certain hairstyles look much better on certain face shapes. Your current hairstyle may not be the best one for your face shape. As a general rule, most faces that are oval can pull off almost any style (lucky you if you’re Oval!). Heart-shaped faces are best suited in longer lengths, shoulder length or chin-length (try a tapered style).

  Consider short or medium haircuts (with or without bangs) if you have an oblong or rectangular face shape. Try short haircuts if you have more of a triangular shaped face. If your face is square shaped, you need either short to slightly medium length haircuts.

Short Hairstyles for Round Faces

If you have a round face, you can style your bangs asymmetrically to one side, to frame your face, or choose a shorter cropped bang style. If you are one of the lucky girls who have naturally curly hair, you might be try a cute bob. You may enjoy browsing some of these awesome retro-inspired French Bob haircuts and choose your favorite!

  If you are self-conscious about your ears, avoid super short hairstyles that accentuate your large assets.

Pixie cuts have been all the rage for a while now, and while I agree with the easy, no fuss styling, they are personally not my favorite. Rare is the woman who can pull one off (Emma Watson certainly did). A general rule of thumb for most round faces, an ideal short haircut is designed to accentuate your face, add frame, and hide the ears. Go with short hair cuts that sweep away from your face.

Here are a few great short hairstyles we found for round face shapes

  Hairstyles for Short Hair, Trends 2018 Looking for the latest trends and inspiration hairstyles for short hair? Look no further! We have rounded up some of the most popular styles for short hair.

[destinyimage]

Prophetic Word: A Holy Revolution is Upon Us – Will You Join?

God is coming and He is separating us.

Even within the believers He is looking for those who are willing to lay down everything to walk in uncompromising holiness, love, and the fear of the Lord. He is looking for those like Abraham who will lay everything on the altar (including fear of man) to be more aware of His presence in our lives. He wants those who won’t allow the world to taint their identity because we are so aware of how good our God is and how much of our lives He deserves. It is the path most difficult to take. It’s narrow and it is very costly, but it leads to eternal life in Jesus Christ. So few find it. So few are willing to give God their everything so that they can gain everything.

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The world hands us manipulation, deceit, and division if we are not careful. The American dream in itself is to become a successful business man or woman who can give to those around them and do more than their parents did. The fruit looks so good on this tree. I have tasted it myself, and while the temporary joys of success and money were great, outside of my true nature in Christ it led to depression and void and lost passion. Many times it is quite deceiving if we don’t keep watering our hearts with the Spirit and feeding our hearts with the word. The tree of knowledge of good and evil is a common tree for even believers to continue to eat from. It is all many of us have known because it’s all that was handed to us from those we have grown up around or because of the things we let in our eye gates and ear gates in media, entertainment, etc.

I’m convinced that there is a tree that has been planted for eternity in the hearts of God’s people called the tree of life. Many of us have read about this tree in the book of Genesis. The enemy always shows up handsome, alluring, tempting, and as a great rhetorician. In a moment if we are not prepared, like Adam and Eve, we can give in to this temptation. When God created us, He said we were good. Everything He created He called good. Our inheritance in Jesus Christ is to live a life abundant in His goodness and all things good, to know He is good, we are good, and everything we do is good.

We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it! (Ephesians 2:10)

We have to stop pursuing dreams in our own strength and slapping His name to it like He is running alongside us. I know that sounds intense, but I have been on that road and it led to some self-inflicted and unnecessary pain. Yet He has a rhythm and timing of all things good on this earth that He longs to create alongside you and me. We cannot fulfill this good calling and these good works without the friendship and Lordship of our heavenly Father.

"We have to stop pursuing dreams in our own strength and slapping His name to it like He is running alongside us."  -- Jamie Lyn Wallnau

The Holy One

There is nothing like the presence of the Holy One. I have looked and I have searched, and in seasons when I was not rooted in relationship with Him and His word, I fell. Where I am today is a result of what Jesus has done to me—yes, to me and others. I am a victim of the blood of Jesus Christ, and because of it I am part of a holy revolution. He desires to ravish you with His loving kindness and friendship. His blood truly speaks a better word than our own strength and goals. All your dreams are nothing compared to the real dreams He has for you. You, my friend, were called to live a life so much more incredible than you could possibly ask for or imagine. He always out-dreams us. However, we must first lose this life to gain the one we are called to fulfill for all of eternity.

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On this journey I have had in pursuit of Jesus, I have seen measurable fruit. I am not who I was ten years ago, five years ago, a year ago, six months ago, etc. I am consistently becoming more pure and holy. I am consistently becoming more and more set apart for His glory and His goodness. The best part is, I am not trying to become any of these things. I just keep gazing into the heart and eyes of Jesus, and He is purifying me along the way. He has my whole heart. He can do with me and this life as He pleases. I get accused, I get laughed at, I get judged and criticized along the way. Jesus warns us about this in His word. It is worth it for me because I am laying it all down at His feet alongside my husband. The kingdom of heaven will be advanced and the very assignment and calling He has placed on our lives will be completely filled because we are in full pursuit of this man, Jesus.

Come to God through the narrow gate, because the wide gate and broad path is the way that leads to destruction—nearly everyone chooses that crowded road! The narrow gate and the difficult way leads to eternal life—so few even find it! (Matthew 7:13-14 TPT)

I have wept and wept and wept over this scripture. I cannot believe that we could be so caught up and distracted by the ways of this world that we would ever be caught on the broad path that leads to destruction. The crazy part is that I have been on this path and most of us have been, are, and if we are not careful can be. Jesus says that nearly everyone chooses that crowded road. It’s the narrow gate that is the difficult way, but it leads us to eternal life with Him. This is the core message in His word that I believe we carry on this earth, and I long to see us all take it together. There are painful and teachable moments of growth on this path and there are moments of others not understanding that come with it, but it is worth it because it is always with Jesus. The greatest part is that He knows what that feels like and how hard to make many decisions on this path are, because He came and walked this path, too. Still, He chooses to walk close with us the whole way again and again and again.

True Religion

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:27 NIV).

Oftentimes, those who keep themselves from being polluted by this world are judged and criticized deeply. I think of how God said in 1 Corinthians 1:27 that He uses the foolish things to confound the wise. There were so many times in the past when I was too wise to let the foolish and godly thing wreck me for the better. I judged and criticized others for looking ridiculous and making a scene, so I missed out on the better thing. I even see many Christians blame others for being “too religious” for not drinking alcohol, listening to certain music, or watching certain things on television. Do we not see a time when the things that represent true religion in the eyes of our Father are the things we must stop judging and start seeking understanding on?

Many who blame others for being religious are the ones wrapped and engulfed in the ways of this world themselves and have no idea. The discomfort of the real gospel can make those who feel comfortable very uncomfortable, and sometimes the only way to feel better about their comfort is to accuse or deny how someone else is choosing to live with God. Can anyone relate? I have been guilty of this myself. I am grateful we serve a God who is kind, and His kindness is what has led me time and time and time again to repentance. He longs for us to seek Him so that these things can be revealed to us along the way.

My life has changed drastically in so many ways, and ten years ago I would have told you the way I am living now is too extreme. Today, I can’t escape my desire to love Jesus, and part of that is not doing things that grieve His heart or things that I genuinely don’t think He would do with me. This all has come with conviction, and only the Spirit of God can bring this. Not the spirit of Jamie Lyn or the spirit of whatever else that might try whispering. If you feel a tug of change in your heart, don’t delay—respond to that kind and loving voice within and watch how that ripple effect ignites a new way of life for you.

The warriors who will be part of the Holy Revolution won’t justify their flesh to stay comfortable. This will be a generation that responds to the tiny tug in their gut called the Holy Spirit. This generation will say, “God, why are You tugging on me here? Tell me what to do and I will do it.” Even if it means laying down something we have loved, loved, loved because we trust that what He is course-directing our time and affection to is far greater. We cannot live this way without knowing the man Jesus.

We are in a time when thousands are choosing to take this path with God. That’s why He released me to share this with you now. It’s time for us to see Him so we can know who we are and so that we can advance the kingdom of heaven on this earth—for eternity, together. There is a broad path that many of us have been on. Think about it—when the shaking comes in life and we are on the broad path, we start getting jolted up against those who are getting shaken alongside us. It’s so crowded, and the discomfort of the crowding causes us to be at war with one another. Most people choose this path. When we choose the narrow path and the shaking comes, we are not bumping up against everyone. We are able to see that the foundation we are standing on is strong and eternal. We get to be the peacemakers on this road while everything around us is shaking. We are on the path that gets brighter and brighter for those walking in righteousness. We also get to invite others on this path with us. We get to disciple and pray in this massive harvest.

Prayer for Holiness

Jesus, thank You for a clean and pure heart. I invite You to come clean house in my own heart. As I read this book, will You reveal to me what You desire me to know? I invite You to come into every crevice of my being to reveal who You are and who You say I am. I desire to encounter You, Father. Help me, Holy Spirit, to be one whom our Father finds on this path. I want You, Father, and I need You. Amen.

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[acmconsulting]

Code Metrics?

Index

The 1st Question

The 2nd Question

The Background

The Metrics

The Tools

The Prices

The Conclusion

The 1st Question

"Q: How can we measure software development teams performance?" "A: Metrics!"

But, of course, then :

"Q: Which metrics?" "A: ...?!"

Not so easy.

Metric Good/Bad/Ugly? Lines Of Code Bad. We all know this. Too many lines = bloat, too few = complexity. Commits Ugly. Could be gamed, very simply. Unclear value. Velocity Ugly. Could be gamed. Is relative. Utilization Ugly. 100% isn't a good thing. Features Ugly. Lots of features being released isn't always what you want.

Etc etc. There are lots of bad ways to track software development performance.

Lucky for us, the hard-work (and hard research) has already been done by other people.

The 2nd Question

So we can, but...

"Q: Why are we measuring performance?" "A: ...?"

So teams can improve and so we have the tools to communicate the impact of changes and decisions on those teams.

Did the re-org last month help us?

How are we doing this month vs last?

Is code debt catching up to us?

Etc. Without metrics, it becomes a more subjective discussion. We love numbers.

Also the right metrics can give engineers as way to communicate harder to value root causes, technical debt, training, innovation, investments can be measured and valued - if we have the tools to do so.

The Background

A book called Accelerate, published in 2018, focuses on this question and answers it.

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and Devops: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations

It says good measures have 2 characteristics:

They focus on global - so teams are not misaligned, they instead push towards the same goal.

They focus on outcomes, not output - busy work isn't helpful.

The book has a LOT more than this, well worth reading if you haven't already.

The Metrics

Metric Description Cycle Time Time it takes a task from the start of development to it being live in production. Change Failure Rate (CFR) The percentage of deployments we have to rollback or apply a hotfix to. Mean Time To Recovery (MTTR) Hours elapsed from the start of a service failure to system recovery. Deployment Frequency How often we deploy to production.

The Accelerate book goes into a lot of detail about why these are good, how they correlate to high performing teams and benchmarks for team categorization. Thats outside the scope here - step 1 is track them.

Tracking and optimizing for these metrics can have a profound impact on product delivery. As well as being an excellent way to have those harder conversations with stake holders around things like technical debt, re-platforming or other larger non feature lead work.

The Tools

OK great. How do we track this? It will depend. Each metric may need its own solution.

Option Opinion Spreadsheet Can work, but it could be a lot of work. Ticketing system To the extent they support it, its good, but likely you won't get exactly what you need. Dedicated Solution Will give you the exact data, but you pay for it - is it worth it?

Spreadsheets

As a last resort only, instead look to automate things. Can be an OK place to start, or if tracking it any other way is even more time consuming. But generally, you want to avoid this.

Ticketing system

Can get quite close with the data it has. JIRA, for example, offers a range of reports (as would other tools). The closest in JIRA is the "Control Chart".

You get Cycle time, which is a lot of value and interesting (if a bit confusing) graphs. The other metrics require additional data (e.g. deployments, failures, etc) which this graph doesn't show and the tool itself may not have access to.

For some teams, the Control Chart + spreadsheet could be enough.

Dedicated Solutions

Accelerate metrics are popular, so people have built things to automate/improve/display the metrics.

There are quite a few companies which do this, most tie into your ticketing and source control systems, to extract the needed data. A quick survey of the market place gave me the following services:

Name URL Description LinearB https://linearb.io/ We correlate and reconstruct Git, project and release data so you get real-time project insights and team metrics with zero manual updates or developer interruptions. Haystack https://www.usehaystack.io/ Remove bottlenecks, optimize process, and work better together with insights from your Github data. Plural Sight - Flow https://www.pluralsight.com/product/flow Accelerate velocity and release products faster with visibility into your engineering workflow. Flow aggregates historical git data into easy-to-understand insights and reports to help make your engineer teams more successful. WayDev https://waydev.co/ Waydev analyzes your codebase, PRs and tickets to help you bring out the best in your engineers' work. CodeClimate https://codeclimate.com/ Velocity turns data from commits and pull requests into the insights you need to make lasting improvements to your team’s productivity.

Plenty of options, they provide very similar services (with their own take/pros/cons).

They all provide some or all of the accelerate metrics, but their ability to fit your team is something you will need to test for yourself.

Luckily, integration with these services seems to be VERY fast, you hook up your version control and optionally ticketing system and they provide instant value/data.

The Prices

Pricing isn't simple, each SaSS solution has different breaks and ways of pricing/scaling/segmenting - but all seem to price per dev.

For my needs, I'm thinking about total yearly cost, so I did some quick maths.

The following is based on a tier which includes being linked to a ticketing system to maximize the features/metrics available.

Google sheet of costs

I went with a Fibonacci increment, to cover most cases, you can copy the sheet if needed.

As you can see, there is quite a difference in price, with the cheapest options depending on team size.

The Conclusion

Performance of software teams can and should be measured

Accelerate Metrics https://amzn.to/3e9EPcK) are the industry standard

Tools can help, but won't cover ever case

Small teams can get services for free, with low adoption time

Larger teams should probably see if they get value, consider carefully TOC and start with a trial/cheapest option, before going all in on a large additional spend. It can add up FAST.

What did I do?

Currently testing LinearB with several teams, which so far have seen good value from the data.

[thebatgurrl]

The second hole in the ground was dug by the Cedar Mountain Coal Company in 1888. They had abandoned the first shaft and moved across the river.  (link to article on original mine entrance) An exact reason was not mentioned in the two old coal mining reports that reference the Cedar Mountain mines.

However, there is a ton of information about the fault that runs through this area’s coal field. I am going to go out on a limb to say that Shaft #1 at the intersection of 196th/Jones/Maple Valley Highway ran into this fault or at the least that made the coal not as commercially useful.  So, they decided to try in another place.

Bit more history before we go into what I discovered when I visited the sites. This first round of mining across the river lasted from 1888 to March 1892.  It resumed again in December 1895. Come 1897 it was abandoned and they moved to another location. It was all about the fault that crosses through this seam.

The photo above is one of the few of this mine. It is dated 1889 so it must be the second shaft across the river. It was in a 1961 Seattle Times Interview of Edith Cavanaugh. The photo has the following notations on when, who and what you are looking at:

Maps are as usual very important and help explain where and what is going on. The first one is a google map of what the area looks like today. You might be familiar with this from my prior article on Cedar Mountain. Today we are talking about the area I marked as 2nd Mine Shaft.

Over view map to give you the lay of the land of Cedar Mtn Town & Mines.

This next map is from 1926 and contains the best mapping of the old mine works that I can find.

K42_A map of West Coal aka Cedar Mountain Coal Mine. North is on the right & the two slopes run west/east.

A couple of things I want you to look at this K42_A map from the WA DNR Coal Mine Map Collection.

The fault is clearly noted on this map angling on a NW-SW axis by heavy dashed lines and Fault written in between those lines.  This fault carries up towards where the first shaft was. Look at the google map snip and you can draw the line in there for yourself.

This map was done when they broke through the fault in the early 1920s and after the mine had been closed from 1906. They did this with a new shaft and slope.  Look close and you can see the two slopes side by side.  The right side one which is longer is the new one.  The left feeds the old mine.

How about some coal mine hunting adventure? We are going to start with my first visit back on August 6th. I was doing some reconnaissance of several possible Cedar Mountain mine shafts. One of those places was Belmundo’s Reach.  This is a small King County Cedar River access point. It has a small parking lot and trails to a sandy beach.

This also happens to be where part of the town of Cedar Mountain used to be. Plus starting in the 1920s until the mine closed in the 1940s it had several homes, outbuildings and an access bridge to the mine. Next you can clearly see on the following  map the hoist. That is right, the hoist was across the river from the mine.

K42_F Mine Map July 1932, Hoist, Railroad, Roads, & Bridges

The hoist is in the center of the map. See the two river crossings? The top one supports the cables and machinery from the hoist to the mine entrance.  Do spend a moment to get orientated.

The hoist seemed like something that should be still around. Big blocks of concrete don’t just magically go away.  Like the Jones Slope I figured it would be buried in brush and brier but worth looking for.

First I found my way down to the river’s beach and could easily see coal on the other side.  Nothing like a few photos and a little video to give you the feeling of being there.

Cedar River embankment from Belmondo’s Reach – mine would be up in the woods on the right

That is coal across the river!!

Across the river to the right of the coal dump

Off to the right side I found when I zoomed in that an old rusty pipe is spewing water. Now what else but some mine working did that belong to?

Check out the bent old pipe coming out of the bank.

Got pretty excited and gained thirst for getting over to this area.  First I started to zoom in on the pipe.  This is when either my camera decided to act up or some supernatural force decided to distort the picture.

Distorted? What the heck?

Turned off my camera and tried again.  Here is a close up of that mine pipe.

A small sign there is a mine over there! Even on a summer day it is flowing water out of the area.

Next on the agenda was to figure out if I could find that Hoist Foundation. From the map it must have been behind me.  Off on the trails I went and right away I saw it. Eureka!!!

Hoist Foundation to West Coast Coal Mine – on the west side of Cedar River

Here are several more views of this relic.  It was last used in 1944 when the mine closed. It must be about 100 years old!!

You know I had to take a bit of video of the hoist!!

Onward with investigating the area. On the other side of the small preserve I found a house just east of the Jones Road Bridge. The parking lot area has an elevated little road that continues past it. This was the connection to the trestle that came off the original bridge.

Starting with the house. It is on the maps as the Foreman house. It was built in 1932 according to King County Parcel Viewer.  It is also in this 1936 aerial that King County has on iMap. Look just below the Jones Road Bridge in the upper left corner. See the trestle and the larger of the two buildings?  That is the house.

View of the mine and Belmondo’s Reach in 1936 from King County Maps

You can also see in this photo the hoist house, the roads and bridges to the mine.

Foreman House of the Coal Mine still exists today

That photo is taken from the built up area that connected to the trestle from the bridge.  Here is a better picture of what that looks like.

I am standing at about the highest point of this built up road between the house and the Jones Bridge

Looking back towards the bridge

I was so close to the bridge at this point I meandered down to the Cedar River Trails (which follows the old railroad bed).  It goes under the bridge between the Maple Valley Highway and the bridges supports.

There I found cement squares that must be the old supports.

Under Jones Road Bridge on the Cedar River

Looking across the river you can see the other side but no distinct old bridge clues or relics visible.

Under Jones Road Bridge on Cedar River

Next chapter will be about my quest to get over to the other side of the river.  Starting with a hike up into the quarry on the northeast side of the area, then pondering if I should ford the river and trekking along the Cedar River Trail for better views of the area.

If you want to read more about my search for Lost Coal Mines here is a link to my directory of articles.

Shoot me any questions or better yet any information you have to add. This is a never ending deep dig into 100 years of old coal mine history.

Remember Times are a changing.  Blink and all will be changed. Literally, a town can disappear!

Locating Lost Old Coal Mines of King County

  Cedar Mountain Coal Mine – The Big Mine Shaft The second hole in the ground was dug by the Cedar Mountain Coal Company in 1888. They had abandoned the first shaft and moved across the river. 

[haveclotheswilltravel]

Dress c/o* | Cardigan c/o* | Boots | Bag | Belt | Sunglasses (Similar)

There were many different things I wanted to be when I grew up and astronomer was among my list of dream professions at 6 years old. I loved looking at the stars and learning the constellations. Turns out, though, there’s a bit more to being an astronomer than that…and I’m terrible at science. So, being an astronomer never really worked out.

However, a dress with a galaxy print brings up fond memories of my first telescope and those funny dreams of one day making a living by gazing through it. I’ve been drooling over this dress for years. I finally ordered it after I tried it on at ModCloth’s FitShop when I was in Washington, D.C. a while back. It was SO cute in person, and I even had random strangers commenting on how cute it looked when I came out of the dressing room. Needless to say, that was all the motivation I need to click “add to cart.”

However, I swear when I tried this dress on in DC, it was more fitted. Or perhaps I’ve lost weight (highly unlikely as the rest of my clothing fits normally) or maybe I had tried on a small or maybe I just have a really bad memory? Whatever it may be, my normal size medium is just a little baggy on me. I felt the need to add a belt with it. I honestly think sizing up would’ve been too tight through the bust on me, though, as that fits comfortably.

Even when I tried it on in DC, though, I did notice the armholes have a bit of a gap to them. Which means I’ll have to get a little creative with the bra I wear once it’s too warm to wear this dress with a cardigan.

But all that aside – I love this dress. It’s fantastic quality, it HAS POCKETS and it’s a one of a kind piece. (Who doesn’t want to grow up and dress like Ms. Frizzle?!) I can’t wait to try styling it again. For this time around, I wanted to pair it with my sparkly cardigan and boots because I haven’t had a ton of chances to style this cardigan yet… and it’s a big slushy mess on the streets of Moscow, so I really need to wear my boots!

Reminder about these boots, they are amazing and everything I ever wanted in a black boot. However, you really should consider sizing up a half size. I can’t fit a thick sock in them because my normal size 8 is too tight of a fit otherwise.

The jewelry I chose is not necessarily space-related, although, I like to think my earrings have an other-worldly look to them. My husband had surprised me with this jewelry not long ago as a “just because” gift. He had seen me admiring this lady’s work when we were at the market a couple months ago. He went back and bought it for me. (She handmakes these little ballerina necklaces & the matching earrings and sells them at Izmailovsky Market!) I love it! Isn’t he the best?

This turned out to be the perfect outfit for a trip to the Museum of Cosmonautics here in Moscow! Full post on that will be coming on Monday! (Funny enough, that cute, blue, space mural I did these outfit photos by has nothing to do with this museum – it just happens to be behind one of my favorite coffee shops in the city. Haha.)

What did you want to be when you grew up? Would you buy a dress related to it? Or is that just me? Haha. Let me know in the comments!

Where to find it:

Dress: c/o* ModCloth Cardigan: c/o* ModCloth Boots: Nordstrom (Size up a half size!) Belt: Amazon Sunglasses: Old (Similar here) Jewlery: Gift from my husband Bag: ModCloth (This exact color is no longer available)

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*Disclosure: some of these links are affiliate links. Meaning, if you click a link and make a purchase, Have Clothes, Will Travel gets a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible! I am also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

*c/o = courtesy of, meaning the company gave me the product to be used on my blog, and I did not pay for it. All opinions are my own, and I am not being compensated for a positive review.

This @ModCloth dress is out of this world! Plus, it's available in sizes XXS - 4X! (How awesome is that?) Dress c/o* | Cardigan c/o* | Boots | Bag | Belt | Sunglasses (Similar) There were many different things I wanted to be when I grew up and astronomer was among my list of dream professions at 6 years old.