#it’s easy to look at who we’ve lost and let that demoralize us

[not-that-taliesin]

sometimes it’s hard to get up and do the things i need to do, even out of love. sometimes my fuel is spite. whatever helps you to survive to the next day is what you need to do. i’ll be damned if they force my hand against myself. the bastards are gonna have to kill me first!!!

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

Right of Law, Section XXVII

(Zaekura meets again with the Le-Koronans, while the situation surrounding Civitas Magna’s kolhii tournament begins to escalate.)

“Everyone will be so happy to see you!” Tamaru said as she bounced down the path.  “We were all worried sick!”

Zaekura walked a few steps behind her, flanked by Charla, Antroz, and Emsar.  “Yeah, dealing with Atero wasn’t exactly easy, but we managed.  I’m hoping it’ll go a little smoother when we have to take the fight to them.”

Tamaru hummed.  “That’d be nice...you controlling Atero.  Ah, here we are!”

They arrived in a clearing lined with scores of people: Matoran, Toa, Glatorian, and Agori of all kinds, some on solid ground while others perched in the surrounding trees, creating a circular wall of eyes all trained on the visitors.  Zaekura felt like she was trying to walk underwater.

“Okay, everyone’s here!  Go on, Zaekura.”

“Right, of course.  Um…”

She found herself unable to recall the words she had prepared.  Charla set a hand on her shoulder then, reminding her to breathe, and she was able to relax a little.

“First of all,” Zaekura said, “I’d like to thank you all for welcoming us.  It isn’t lost on me how out of the ordinary this gesture is, nor the implicit risk my being here carries.  My name is Zaekura.  Up until recently, I lived a very quiet life...but now, the Great Beings have it out for me, since I’m one of the rare few who possess the same potential as them.  I’ve had to fight to defend myself, and it’s been…quite an adjustment.  But now I realize this isn’t just about me.  Countless lives have been destroyed by the Great Beings, and countless more live in constant fear of them.  And I want that to end.  So now, we’re fighting to stop the Great Beings and take control of Spherus Magna, to reform it into a place where nobody has to live in fear.”

Quiet murmurings rippled through the crowd.  To Zaekura, it was nearly deafening.

“I know that I can’t do something like this on my own, so I’m asking for help from anyone who’ll listen.  We’ve approached you because we think Bota Magna’s natural resources would be a big help to our cause, but if anyone wants to join the fight, we’ll gladly take you.  No matter what, though, I want you all to know this: you are welcome any time.  Even if I go back empty-handed, each and every one of you will be free to come and go from my territory as you please, and we’ll fight just as hard to defend you.  I don’t need anything in return for that.”

The chattering grew louder.  Kiina emerged from the crowd then, saying, “You say you’ll defend us?  How do you plan to do that?  You’re provoking the Great Beings, fighting nonstop against an insurmountable enemy.  That doesn’t sound safe in the slightest.”

Zaekura breathed.  “I understand your concern.  There will absolutely be risk, I won’t deny that.  Our current forces include several Makuta, a few hundred Rahkshi, the militia of both Xia and Mahri-Nui, and a large number of Vorox under the command of the Sand Lord.  Several individuals have already requested to be part of a team dedicated to protecting Bota Magna, if you’ll have them.”

Kiina grumbled—not a very clear response, but it was the only one she offered.  Taipu was next to emerge, waving and calling, “Hey, Zaekura!  Did you get a chance to try out Nuparu’s invention yet?”

She smiled.  “I was able to take a look at it and test it out.  That’s one impressive machine!  We’re still working to reproduce and install them, but we should be using it in a matter of days.  Thanks again, Nuparu.”

Taipu shook Nuparu, who tried to hide his grin.  Zaekura waited while the chatter continued.  Soon, Takua came forward, saying, “I can’t speak for everyone, but...I think you make a pretty good case, Zaekura.  The fact is, we are living in fear—I don’t think that’ll change much whether we stay here or come back to the city.  Being that close to the fight is definitely scary, so I understand why someone might prefer to stay here.  But, a chance to change things, to make a future where we don’t feel like we have to hide...that sounds pretty good too.  If you show me a team that I’m convinced can keep Bota Magna safe, I’ll be willing to fight alongside you.”

New energy rushed into Zaekura.  “Thank you!  I’ll bring them out to meet with you as soon as possible!”

The Le-Koronans talked amongst themselves.  Taipu and Nuparu came into the clearing, the former saying, “We’re definitely coming back with you!  This is so exciting!”

Gradually, more and more Le-Koronans followed suite.  One of them, a Toa of Earth with weathered black and purple armor, came up to Zaekura and smiled at her.

“I can tell that you have a good heart, dear,” she said.  “I’m a bit too attached to these woods to leave now, but I want to offer you what help I can.”

“Oh, thank you very much, uh…”

“The name’s Korgot, dear.  I’ve become very familiar with the lay of the land here, so if you’re looking for spots to mine or to log, I’ve got a few in mind.  Just promise me you won’t overdo it.  The people are important, but we have to take care of the jungle itself, too.”

“Korgot.  Yes, I promise.  Thank you so much!”

They briefly discussed when would be a good time to send a mining team, and then Zaekura answered the questions of a few more Le-Koronans until it seemed everyone’s decision had been made.  She gazed over them all, ultimately turning to Charla.

“I’d say this went well.”

Charla giggled.  “I’m inclined to agree.  Is there anything more you wanted to add, or do we just have that final matter?”

Zaekura glanced back at Emsar, and the Vortixx came to her side.  Turning back towards the Le-Koronans remaining behind, she said, “There’s one last thing before we go.  I wanted to let you know that Emsar here is venturing deeper into Bota Magna; she’ll be fine on her own, I just didn’t want anyone to be surprised if they saw her.”

Takua looked up at Emsar.  “Alright.  Where’s she headed, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Valwahi.”

The clearing grew eerily still.  Quietly, Takua repeated, “Valwahi?”

Zaekura nodded.  “Like I said, I’m asking anyone who’ll listen.”

“Do you think they will?  The Valwahans aren’t exactly the most understanding bunch.”

“I have to try.  Even if we can’t become allies, maybe I can at least make peace with them—that’d be one huge load off my plate when getting things in order once this is all over.  Though, I could be thinking a little far ahead with that...”

“Heh...I guess a little optimism doesn’t have to hurt.”  Facing Emsar, Takua said, “Good luck, then.  Don’t hesitate to ask for help if things go wrong.”

“Much appreciated, but you needn’t worry about me,” Emsar said.  “I’m quite prepared should events take a dire turn.”

The Le-Koronans began to scatter, as did Emsar.  Antroz said, “Emsar.  Please do be careful.”

She grinned back at her.  “You too, Makuta?  I thought you of all people would know better.  Your lack of faith in me is demoralizing.”

“It is precisely because I have faith in you that I’m letting you go alone.  This is something that only you can do.”

Emsar paused, then turned away.  “Hmhm...you’re still no fun.”  She disappeared before anything else could be said.  

Zaekura turned back to her party, now far larger than the one she had entered with. “Alright.  Let’s get everyone back to Xia!”

“Um…”

She realized Tamaru had come up behind her.  “What’s up?”

Tamaru fidgeted, eyes scanning back and forth over the dirt.  “I, uh...I’ve been giving it a lot of thought...I didn’t say anything before because I hadn’t really decided, but now, I…”  She shut her eyes tight.  “I-I want to come with you!”

“Really?  If you need more time to think, that’s okay.”

Tamaru shook her head.  “No...I need to go before I lose my nerve.  I mean, I am nervous, but...if I can really be myself around everyone...I guess I feel like I just have to know.”

Zaekura nodded.  “I’ll do whatever I can to help.  Are you ready to go?”

After taking one last look back into the jungle, Tamaru nodded.  “Yeah.  Let’s go!”

***

Hewkii raced down the field, battling for control of the ball with a Toa of Earth.  He pulled back his kolhii stick; the Toa of Earth, expecting him to knock the ball forward, shifted his weight to block.  Hewkii then swung his stick around, hit the ball back the way they had come, and immediately leapt back to scoop it up.

“The Hydruka’s Hewkii has finally wrested the ball away from Dosne!  He’s headed right for Kazi, and the Iconox Iron Wolves’ goalie sure doesn’t look ready for him!”

Hewkii carefully observed the Toa of Ice he needed to aim around.  Kazi was laser-focused, but stiff in his movements.  He could hear Dosne approaching—at the last second, he threw the ball with all the force he could muster, and it sailed just past Kazi to the cheers of the crowd.

In a special balcony high up the arena’s wall, Ekimu laughed at the spectacle.   “That Hewkii’s pretty good!  Maybe I shouldn’t kill him after all.”

Standing next to him, Ahkmou chuckled.  He busied himself jotting down notes for an article, but his thoughts were elsewhere.  This is the opposite of what I wanted.  The tournament was supposed to distract these common idiots from the rebellion, but everyone’s heard that Hewkii’s defected—with him center stage, I’m sure it’s all they’re thinking about!

He joined Ekimu’s cheer as another ball was set into play.

Sure, no one’s stupid enough to speak out while Lord Ekimu is right here, but that’s ignoring the bigger picture.  This is long-term, delicate work.  If I don’t think of something fast, it’s all going to go right down the drain…

Hewkii leapt in to intercept Dosne’s shot.  Swinging around, he then sent the ball flying back across the court, catching Kazi completely by surprise.  The crowd roared.

“Incredible!” the announcer cried.  “The Mahri-Nui Hydruka have won by a landslide!  Looks like they’ll be moving onto the next round, folks!  I know I don’t want to be the team unlucky enough to go up against them!”

Ekimu applauded with the crowd, but his hands steadily fell still.  “Alright, game’s over.  You can come out now.”

Ahkmou looked over his shoulder, expecting to see one of the Makuta coming to join them.  But he couldn’t quite make out what he was looking at.  The shadows in the balcony moved strangely, almost as if they had a will of their own, refusing to surrender the visitor to the light; all Ahkmou could see clearly was an organic purple face with numerous ridges over where a nose and mouth should have been.  Confused and terrified at the sight, Ahkmou could only remain silent.

“Forgive the intrusion, Lord Ekimu,” the face said.  “We wanted to consult with you, to clarify our orders before acting.”

Ekimu continued to watch the field as the two teams exited.  “Who are you?”

“I am Eliminator, of Odina.  The Keeper’s realized that the operatives sent previously failed to carry out Lord Heremus’s orders, so my partner and I have been dispatched to rectify the situation.”

“So that’s it.  You want Hewkii, I take it?”

Eliminator’s face moved, the shadows moving with it.  “He seemed like a good place to start...but, since you haven’t intervened thus far, we suspected you had another plan.”

“I wouldn’t say that.  I just don’t want the kolhii tournament interrupted.  Once his team’s done, take him if you want.”

Ahkmou jumped as a sudden burst of energy appeared in the space next to Eliminator.  The energy grew into a swirling portal, and out of it stepped another being: he was tall, at least twice the height of a Matoran, clad in blue and gold armor that shone through the darkness that clung to his companion.  Ahkmou didn’t recognize the gold mask he wore, but he found his eyes more drawn to the enormous double blade he carried.

Kneeling, he said, “If I may, Lord Ekimu.  I think there is a much more fruitful route we can take.”

Ekimu grunted.

“Once the tournament has concluded, we will see that Hewkii and his team remain here in Civitas Magna...and be sure that the whole planet knows it.  I have heard that Zaekura is quite the bleeding heart, and I am certain that if she knows one of her allies is being held here, she will march in an effort to save him.  Once we have lured her in, Eliminator and I will capture her and bring her to Lord Heremus—what happens to her associates will be no concern of ours then.”

“So we bait her out.  What was your name?”

The being grinned.  “I am Brutaka, my lord.”

At this, Ekimu finally turned around.  After staring at Brutaka for a few moments, he said, “I thought you sounded familiar.  Good.  If you’re here, then the Keeper must be done messing around.”

The crowd began to cheer as new teams took the field.

“Go ahead,” Ekimu said as he turned back to watch.  “As long as you don’t make a move before the tournament’s over, I couldn’t care less.”

Brutaka nodded.  “Of course, Lord Ekimu.  If you’ll excuse us.”

Another portal opened, and Brutaka disappeared into it.  Eliminator was already gone by the time Ahkmou turned to look.  Facing the field once again, the Toa thought, Odinans...and they’re going to draw Zaekura here...how am I going to cover that up?  Can our public opinion survive something like this?  If we lose control of the people…

“Ahkmou.”

The Toa started.  “Y-Yes, my lord?”

“You’re nervous.”

“Ah...I was just shaken by such a sudden arrival.  I’m sorry, my lord: I’ll focus on my job.”

“Good.”

Ahkmou watched as two new teams met in the center of the field.  If we lose control of the people...then that means I failed to do what the Great Beings asked.  What will happen to me then?

Outside the stadium, Gaaki and Tarduk regrouped near the south entrance.  Flipping through her notes, Gaaki said, “Well, that should be enough of a sample size.  Any favorites among the people you asked?”

Tarduk squatted next to the wall with a sigh.  “The Hydruka are the talk of the town, surprise surprise.  Remains to be seen if Ahkmou will even let us publish all this.”

“Same on my end.  A couple of die-hards for the other teams, but they hardly have enough to say to fill a feature.  A full day’s work and we’re probably going to end up with a block under the horoscopes…”

Tarduk craned his neck.  A particularly dense section of crowd had gathered on the other side of the street, thick enough that he couldn’t see exactly what had drawn them.  He went to push his way closer, Gaaki following for lack of any other distraction, but the Ga-Matoran soon began to fall behind.  Glancing back at her, Tarduk saw that her eyes had gone wide.

“What’s the matter?” Tarduk asked.

“You mean you don’t…”  She shook her head.  “Er, right, you can’t see from here.  Come on!”

Gaaki dove into the crowd.  Tarduk began to have second thoughts, but, figuring it was too late now, went in after her.  At the epicenter was a Toa of Stone wearing a Komau, with various stone carvings laid out before him on a blanket.  The sign behind him made the Agori stiffen: “CARVINGS FOR SALE!  ALL PROFITS HELP NYNRAHN REFUGEES!”

“Gaaki,” Tarduk said, grabbing her by the arm.

“I’m just looking,” she said, picking up a small carving.

“With your hands?”

“Yes.”

The Toa of Stone turned towards them.  “Anything you’re interested in?” Gaaki set the carving down.  “Just browsing.  This is impressive work, uh…”

“Onewa.”

“Onewa...oh, you made the statue they added to District 2458’s historical center!”

“So someone does remember!  Maybe that commission was worth it after all.”  He turned away for a moment to make a sale.

“What brings you here?” Tarduk asked.

“I’m an old friend of one of the players in the tourney.  You know Hewkii?”

Tarduk stiffened further.  “...I’ve heard quite a lot about him.”

“We go way back.  Though, I ended up not being able to get a ticket...but, at least I have a chance to sell some of this work.  We need all the help we can get.”

Gaaki prepared to ask something.  Tarduk tugged on her arm.  She debated continuing anyway, but then the crowd began to quiet, and they both turned to see why.  Their spines turned to ice at the sight of Vamprah cutting through the masses.

“Ah,” Onewa said, climbing to his feet, “that took longer than expected.  Not the Makuta I was prepared for, either.”

Vamprah stalked forward without a word.  Just as Onewa was about to say something more, the Makuta snatched him up in his claws and hurled him against the arena wall.  Total stillness fell over the crowd.  Turning to the remaining carvings, Vamprah waved one hand and unleashed a burst of Plasma, melting them in a matter of seconds.  Then, he turned around to see Onewa slowly getting to his feet.

“Heh...you live up to your reputation,” the Toa said.  Blood could be seen dripping from the gashes left in his armor.  “Guess that’s what I get for pushing my luck, huh?”

Vamprah advanced towards him again.  Tarduk struggled to keep Gaaki still.

“But...I’m not gonna make it that easy for you.”  Onewa took something in his hand, a pellet of some kind, and grinned as he crushed it.  In the next instant, he was gone.

Vamprah froze.  He scanned his surroundings, but saw no trace of his target.  Giving one last look to the crowd, Vamprah unfurled his wings and took to the skies, slowly coasting towards the inner city.  Gradually, the crowd scattered, while Gaaki just stood staring at the still-warm slag that had been beautiful carvings mere seconds ago.

“He got out,” Tarduk said.

“Yeah...this time.  But with Vamprah hunting the Nynrahns, their chances look pretty bleak, don’t they?”

Tarduk sighed.  “What can we actually do, Gaaki?  If we step out of line, we’re going to disappear just like Kodan.”

“I know!”  Gaaki turned and rubbed her temples.  After a bit of thought, she said, “Tarduk...don’t tell Ahkmou we were here to see this.”

The Agori raised an eyebrow.  “Why not?”

Gaaki locked eyes with him.  “Please, just don’t.  He can’t know.  If he does...then nobody else will.”

It took Tarduk a long time to decide on his answer.  “Alright.  But there’s nothing else I can do to help you, Gaaki.  Terrible as things are getting, I just don’t see an opening yet…”

Gaaki nodded.  They parted ways then, Tarduk heading into the stadium while Gaaki found a secluded bench to rest on.  She glanced around, making sure no one was looking, and then pulled at the corner of her breastplate, opening it just long enough to remove a small crystal she quickly tucked into her bag.

A few witnesses are easy to dismiss.  But if everyone sees what happened, then at the very least they’ll have to work a lot harder to lie.  I’ll need to be careful about exactly what footage I use...but by this time tomorrow, I’ll make sure everyone can see the truth.

[danwhobrowses]

Why Tashigi Deserves More Respect

I really gotta remember these other things I plan on writing XD Often I get reminded though by people around me criticizing something I realise ‘that’s a little misunderstood’ and then get compelled to write about it. For today we’re looking at the female Marine of One Piece, Tashigi. Now before we start, I want to make a point that Tashigi is still an underused character brimming with potential that Oda seems to shy a lot from. Oda can still sincerely do a lot more with her and I for one have been disappointed by her lack of use in Stampede and lack of appearance in Wano. However, I get a lot of people who feel that Tashigi is ‘useless’, and I’m going to say that this isn’t really the case.

Argument 1: Her Battles

Of course, a lot of strength regarding a character comes with their ability to come out victorious. It can harm any character in a show to constantly be on the losing side of a fight and it does hurt Tashigi (and Smoker) a lot that they do end up that way. While I would love Tashigi to have her first clean win since those guys in Loguetown I’d like to remind you that Tashigi’s fights do have a bit of defense to them, let’s look at all of Tashigi’s named opponents

Zoro (Loguetown) - We always knew that Zoro was winning this, while she was bested by Zoro the purpose of the story wasn’t ever going to be Tashigi being stronger, instead this was Zoro having to confront her similarities with Kuina in personality rather than skill.

Nico Robin/Miss All Sunday (Alabasta) - While Tashigi was unable to even strike Robin back in Alabasta, Robin’s devil fruit allowed her to be perfect for such a situation. A trained and deadly assassin, Tashigi’s physical confrontation was never going to succeed, but what was key to this battle was Tashigi’s realization in regards to the failure of Justice. In the end she had to rely on Luffy to defeat the Pirates the WG had assigned to maintain the balance.

Luffy (Marineford/Punk Hazard) - Luffy and Tashigi briefly crossed paths in Marineford, Luffy swiftly dodged her but again, Tashigi was never going to defeat Luffy and was merely a doorway to put Smoker and Luffy into a fight. It’s also worth reminding that Tashigi must’ve been capable enough to hold her own against Whitebeard’s lesser forces, since she was uninjured from Marineford. They also crossed at Punk Hazard, but then they were both weakened by being in unfamiliar bodies, something which Luffy even acknowledges.

Trafalgar Law (Punk Hazard) - as pictured above, Tashigi’s defeat to Law was another gateway for Smoker to enter the fight, but this one had more purpose in showing Tashigi’s willpower, which we will get to. As you can tell, there’s a theme: Tashigi would never have beaten Law in terms of the narrative, why do we hold it against Tashigi that she lost to the guy who later did this?

Ceasar Clown (Punk Hazard) - while listed as a fight, she fell the same way as Robin and Franky due to his DF being unrevealed, again this being a gateway to sell that Ceasar had a danger to him, I wouldn’t actually count it as a fight.

Vergo (Punk Hazard) - the Donquixote spy is one of Doflamingo’s deadliest subordinates. The original Corazon, Tashigi’s conflict with Vergo brought Sanji into the fight and once again highlighted to Tashigi the corruption within the Marines themselves. Like Law (and the next), we can’t be too harsh on Tashigi losing to Vergo, the guy easily fended off Sanji to the point of almost breaking Sanji’s leg, he also was able to beat Smoker

Monet (Punk Hazard) - Monet is a mixed one, because Zoro quickly defeats her she was quickly overshadowed by the fact that she struggled to even get on the offensive, broadening the gap between them. But, I’d like to remind everyone that Monet was able to force Luffy into fleeing their battle and was handling Robin, Nami and Chopper at once. Tashigi hadn’t completely lost either, I would bet that she’d fight without an arm, maybe not successfully but she would, and she got the finishing blow on Monet - her second offensive attack against Monet put her away and while technically this doesn’t count as a W for Tashigi she did not technically lose in this fight either

As you can see, while it’s easy to say that ‘Tashigi never wins her fights, so she’s weak’ it really undermines the opposition she willingly puts herself against. Narratively there’d be no reason for Tashigi to win these fights, doing so would lead to confusion and disbelief (for instance, would you have seen Luffy beating Kaido solo back in Bakura Town? No, obviously). Tashigi is still strong, she’s able to survive the Grand Line, easily deflect cannon fire with her sword and use Haki, the latter cannot be said for Main Characters like Nami, Chopper, Franky, Carrot and somehow Robin (like girl you spent 2 years with the Revolutionaries, where’s your Haki?). While we would love a win to validate this, Oda always puts her against an opponent that would be difficult for her to win against, and we thus mistake her inability to win as weakness. So that leads to another argument. Argument 2: Tashigi always punches above her weight While this is very much true, One Piece has often told us that being the strongest doesn’t always mean that you will win. Consider 90% of Nami and Usopp’s wins, Luffy’s wins over Crocodile, Enel, Lucci, Magellan, Cracker and Katakuri, the weak may not be able to choose how they die but that doesn’t mean that the strong can either.  I’d also like to argue that Tashigi’s motive on fighting strong opponents is not because she feels that she is stronger, she fights them because they are the enemy that needs to be stopped, her motives are pure in her pursuit of justice just as the Straw Hats fight stronger opponents because it fulfills a just cause such as saving Alabasta, their crewmates, people who had their shadows stolen, Camie, Fishman Island, the Punk Hazard children, Dressrosa, Zou or Wano. Tashigi really gets criticized for it because it doesn’t yield the results it does for major characters, often needing help to get the victory. In that I wanna point out a harsh truth as well; Goku - the people many anime fans will compare power scales against - almost never beats the main villain on his own in DBZ or DBS. Freeza - required damage from Krillin, Gohan, Vegeta and Piccolo before the win, and he didn’t finish him off, Cell - tags out to Gohan, who also needs Vegeta’s help to win, Buu - needs Vegeta’s help via fusion and a full power recharge by the Dragon Balls, Beerus - he lost, Golden Freeza - he got jumped by Sorbet and needed Whis’ rewind, Hit - he gave up, Fused Zamasu - lost, and needed Zeno to wipe him out, Jiren - needed Freeza and 17′s help and Vegeta’s energy and finally Broly - needed fusion. So maybe, if even Son Goku cannot win on his own, we can cut Tashigi a little bit of slack given that she’s not even a main character.

Argument 3: ‘She does nothing’ I don’t really like this insinuation. Often Smoker and Tashigi are the ones that pick up the mess after all the enemies are defeated, but for some reason that equates to ‘doing nothing’. I think because people see Tashigi as interchangeable with any other character she is thus useless because she is not mandatory. However, Tashigi’s role is much more complex than that.

Even if she’s not strong enough to fight the biggest fishes in the pond, she still manages to grow and prove her worth. If Tashigi was replaced with any generic marine captain a lot of what happened would be different. It was Tashigi who identified Wado Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu for Zoro, Tashigi who (albeit reluctantly) directed Luffy to Crocodile, Tashigi who kept the Straw Hats safe from arrest in Alabasta, Tashigi who convinced Smoker that he needed to swallow his pride and side with Law and Luffy to stop Ceasar and it was Tashigi who convinced Nami to entrust the Punk Hazard children to them. Through her experiences she also cultivates her own unique sense of Justice. While she follows Smoker’s doctrine of ‘A Pirate will always be a Pirate’ and that the Shichibukai system and the World Government as a whole is flawed, she has also learned for herself that there are times that pride must be set aside, in a way Tashigi’s sense of Justice has become a combination of Smoker’s and Fujitora’s: in order to rebuild justice, the navy itself must become strong enough to not depend on pirates, but pride cannot supersede the greater good. In addition, implying she does nothing also implies that she doesn’t practice her own sense of justice either. She stepped in on Zoro twice to protect her men from harm, before even arriving at Punk Hazard we learned that she had a good relationship with the parents who had their children kidnapped as they asked specifically for her which in turn led her to personally strive to reunite the children with their parents and she even protected the truth of Vergo from G-5 so that they didn’t feel betrayed and demoralized. Of the things Tashigi does, nothing is not one of them, she displays compassion, fairness and determination in definitive moments. Argument 3: She’s too hung up on her Feminism

So, one of the major dynamics of Tashigi and Zoro is her misconception that Zoro wouldn’t cut her because she was a woman, a belief that women have to prove themselves more to be seen as strong against men being one of the beliefs she shares with Zoro’s childhood rival Kuina. While it can be a tad irksome that she’d hang onto this with Zoro, until Monet Zoro never actually demonstrated the contrary to her. This is mainly a complaint by hindsight, we only dislike the opinion because we’ve seen Zoro more than Tashigi has, and she’s not 100% wrong, Zoro himself has been a bit of a traditionalist, in Skypeia he angrily chastised Enel for attacking Robin since she was a woman, and he only does step in on Monet to save Tashigi - not even finishing her off despite being very capable of doing so. Outside of Zoro, Tashigi’s feelings that she gets treated differently due to her gender is proven and reflected in how G-5 treat her with little authority, only really listening to her because she’s pretty. You can’t be too hard on Tashigi given that she is constantly faced with this truth on a daily basis, and her desire to be seen for her strength and skills are still an amicable one, it’s worth noting that even Law recognized that her mentality and warrior’s spirit was far greater than he swordsmanship, but he only thought this internally. In Tashigi’s case it would help her confidence to be given validation, and not in the condescending way Zoro usually talks to people.  While it can be annoying that she immediately thinks that she’s being treated differently because she’s a woman, this also shows that she wants to be treated as an equal; if she is defeated in combat she wants to be cut to preserve her honour, it is the mentality all Great Samurai have, including Zoro. Oda does something with Tashigi he rarely does with any woman in One Piece in making her less sexualised and body-confident to reflect her goal of being recognized by her spirit and actions rather than her appearance, but he also makes that complex for the character which in a way this is most important for.

Argument 4: She’s not a good Rival for Zoro

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Tashigi’s character is that she is meant to be Zoro’s rival, in a similar manner to how Smoker and Luffy are embroiled in a Garp/Roger-esque cat and mouse chase. Because of this, people expect Tashigi to advance at a similar scale to Zoro to keep him on his toes, to make sure that he doesn’t end up complacent in his strive to become the World’s Greatest Swordsman. Her former likeness to Kuina also adds to this misconception, since because Kuina was Zoro’s rival with the same goal and always stronger than Zoro himself, Tashigi must be similar.

But this is not why Tashigi and Zoro are always put together. Tashigi is not Zoro’s rival, no other character we’ve met has the same goal as Zoro, and this keeps his story free to develop with different challenges. Tashigi’s pursuit of strength is not for the same reasons as Zoro, she doesn’t want to be the World’s Greatest Swordsperson, she only wants to protect the sanctity of the Meito and keep them out of unworthy hands. Her pursuit of Zoro was both because he dishonoured her in their fight and so she could claim Wado Ichimonji. In the New World however we don’t see that as much from Tashigi, even when she sees Shusui she doesn’t make a point to declare taking it from him because he’s unworthy (like Kin’emon would later do), this is because she does acknowledge his strength and worthiness of using these Meito, her personal conflict now though is to be seen as worthy to him as a swordsperson rather than a pirate to a marine.  In reality, Tashigi is instead Zoro’s and Kuina’s foil. She is similar in looks and perspective to Kuina but different in everything else from clumsiness, skill and ambition, the fact that Zoro struggles to handle this leads to the two becoming entwined in their respective journeys. No person gets under Zoro’s skin like Tashigi does, even to a point where he was reluctant to even be in eyeshot of her - how many people have you seen Roronoa Zoro hide from? They are each other’s foil because they are both stubborn people out to prove something but put on two different sides that conflict. That is the true purpose of their dynamic, their confrontations expose one another and show places where they can still grow and I still feel that we haven’t scratched the surface of this relationship.

Argument 5: She’s not Important

A combination of the earlier arguments, Tashigi gets a lot of flack because people think she’s not important enough as a character to have the screentime she gets. While it’s not hard to see why people feel that, it usually comes with people giving up on the idea that there’s a greater plan for her. It may just be me, but I am reluctant to believe that Tashigi appears in several forms of merchandise including calendars, games (as NPCs, Bosses, Supports or playable characters) and even figurines and not have a purpose in the greater scope of the story, do we really expect that from Oda? I doubt that very much! Granted, Wano would’ve been a perfect placement for her to push herself given the views on women in the country and it being the homeland of famous Meito. And yes, she could’ve had a much greater role in Stampede given how well they managed Smoker in it. We are allowed to be disappointed by this, but the fact that Tashigi has remained as consistent in presence as she has been in the show does hint at a bigger role, even if it’s being that wave of revolutionizing the Marines with Coby and Fujitora, her own origins or finally proving herself to the audience and to Zoro, Tashigi is not done and thus she is still important. “Just because they say a bird cannot fly, doesn’t mean that it never will” - Oda SBS 17 on Tashigi and Kuina’s names being named after flightless birds So, Why does Tashigi deserve more Respect? Tashigi as a character is one of Oda’s more subtle progressions. In contrast to Zoro who we see grow, we don’t see how Tashigi gets from A to B, we can also contrast to Coby whose rise becomes as magnificent as his puberty that Tashigi’s growth is much less abrupt and more steady, we see her struggles more than we do Coby where his successes are only heard in passing. Tashigi can also act as the ‘normal person’ in the marines, we compare her to Zoro in strength because she uses a sword but we never give her the benefit of the doubt that Roronoa Zoro is a bloody superhuman, plus not everyone has the great luxury of being trained by Dracule Mihawk for 2 years...furthermore, her challenges against Devil Fruit users are always filled with good intentions and strong willpower, but still self-doubt and shame, if anything Tashigi is one of the most human characters of One Piece for this reason; she learns, she suffers, she grows and she does it all without the luxury of Shonen perks such as superhuman power or endurance. Also she is a good person, she has a strong sense of morality and will, an altruistic desire and even in the situation she gets put in she makes a step that leads to the plot going in a positive direction. And for a character that has been in as many arcs as she has, there is still so much potential left to be untapped that fans are still after 2 decades eager to see from her.

Tashigi is a strong, valiant and just person, who is still really powerful if people stop trying to compare her to the likes of Luffy, Law and Zoro. Even when she fails she picks herself up and can still come out with a small victory from protecting innocents, arresting criminals and escorting children to get help. She is a lot stronger than people give her credit for and it’s for that she deserves respect.

[peytonlangosh]

9 places to find free (and almost free) fonts

When you’re kicking off a new website project, one of your most important decisions is finding what fonts to use. And while Webflow offers a host of typographic options via our Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts integrations, sometimes you might want something a little different.

For those moments, here are a few of my favorite places to find free (and low-cost) fonts that, despite their low price tags, offer both beauty and flexibility. I’ll kick the list off with places that let you download desktop and web fonts, then round it out with some cloud-based options.

9 places to find free fonts Here are a few places you can find free (and almost free) fonts:

1. Lost Type Co-op lost type co-op Inspired by Webflow’s own hometown, San Francisco, Lost Type's Mission Gothic manages to be both elegant and functional. Lost Type’s “collaborative digital type foundry” plays host to a wide variety of gorgeous, expressive fonts with a variety of price points (from free for “personal use” on up).

Like many of the smaller foundries, Lost Type offers a bunch of ornate, all-caps display fonts. But it balances that out with several more robust and flexible families that can stand up to editorial and UI use, including (my personal faves) Mission Gothic and Klinik.

2. Fontfabric fontfabric ‍Fontfabric's Signika was built for wayfinding, which makes it a natural for UI use. This independent type foundry boasts an impressive collection of free fonts suited for big, bold display use — and many include Cyrillic versions.

While it’ll probably never become your go-to for flexible body fonts, it’s worth bookmarking for those times when a project demands a impactful (or playful) hero section.

That said, the folks at Fontfabric seem to use free releases as a way to gauge demand, and often turn the more popular faces into full-fledged families you might find worth grabbing. (Especially during their introductory sales.)

That fact also demands a caveat: When browsing the site, read carefully—their “free” fonts often don’t remain that way after release.

3. The League of Moveable Type The League of Moveable Type Back when I was first discovering the joys of typography, I was a bit demoralized by the bank-busting prices. Until I discovered the League of Moveable Type, whose superheroic name seemed perfectly fitting.

(To be clear, I now know that the prices foundries charge for their work are 100% justifiable. I was just broke back then.)

While the League seems to be losing a bit of steam of late, the first open-source foundry boasts several lovely typefaces you can download for free, from the punchy League Gothic to the delicate Raleway.

4. Font Squirrel font squirrel fonts Punchcut's Amble pulls off a modern professional feel without feeling coldly neutral. Okay, so if you’re looking for an all-in-one, end-all-be-all for your free font hunt, Font Squirrel’s your jam. As they describe themselves:

“Free fonts have met their match. We know how hard it is to find quality freeware that is licensed for commercial work. We've done the hard work, hand-selecting these typefaces and presenting them in an easy-to-use format.”

And I, for one, can’t thank them enough for doing that hard work for me. Their curated collection boasts a ton of beautiful fonts, many featuring far more than 1 or 2 styles you’ll usually get in a free font. They’ve also got robust filters, tags, and categories to help you quickly find just what you want. Finally, their Generator tools helps you get desktop fonts ready for web usage, and their Matcherator is handy for identifying fonts from images.

5. Creative Market Free Goods of the Week creative market homepage Creative Market serves up a ton of (typically) affordable, high-quality design assets, including fonts. Plus, every week they share a bundle of assets that seems to always include a free face. (But don’t quote me on that.) While there’s a marked tendency for these typefaces to be of the limited use display variety, they’re still a ton of fun to play with. So sign up, and maybe you'll find the right font.

6. Behance behance free fonts Just look at all those beautiful fonts Behance users have built for us. Surely you all know — and probably use — Behance as a place to share work and get noticed. But it’s also a fantastic place to find new free fonts, and their creators, with a little creative filtering. You can find great fonts for any design project. Behance has everything from abstract fonts, commercial-use fonts, premium fonts, sans-serif fonts, and more. Just be sure not to hit the back button while you’re browsing, or you’ll lose your filters. Have fun!

7. MyFonts MyFonts free fonts MyFonts is an amazing resource for finding incredible fonts — at the usual steep rates. You can find different font styles — both for personal and commercial use. But foundries who release on MyFonts often do so with very tempting discounts that make them much more obtainable. Check out the Hot New Fonts page regularly to build up your perfect font library without breaking your bank. (Though I still refer it to as The Most Dangerous Place on the Internet.)

8. DaFont DaFont free fonts DaFont is a great place for downloading high-quality fonts. Many of the fonts on DaFont are free for personal use, making them great for any design project.

9. Adobe Fonts Adobe Fonts selection While you can’t download and use Adobe Fonts wherever you want like you can with other foundries, a free Adobe account does give you access to some of the best free fonts to use on your websites and in your Adobe design apps.

How to use custom fonts on your Webflow sites Webflow offers a variety of fonts out of the box, and you can easily add fonts from Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts.

And, if you’ve found and downloaded a beautiful face from one of the websites above, it’s just as quick and easy to upload and use them in Webflow.

What’d we miss? Surely there are other awesome places to find beautiful free and affordable fonts. If you know of any, be sure to let us know on Twitter!

[soospiritualjourney]

Ego is the enemy by Ryan Holiday

(1) Demosthenes once said that virtue begins with understanding and is fulfilled by courage. We must begin by seeing ourselves and the world in a new way for the first time. Then we must fight to be different and fight to stay different—that’s the hard part. I’m not saying you should repress or crush every ounce of ego in your life—or that doing so is even possible. These are just reminders, moral stories to encourage our better impulses.

(2) The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool- RICHARD FEYNMAN

(3) If ego is the voice that tells us we’re better than we really are, we can say ego inhibits true success by preventing a direct and honest connection to the world around us. One of the early members of Alcoholics Anonymous defined ego as “a conscious separation from.” From what? Everything.

(4) The ways this separation manifests itself negatively are immense: We can’t work with other people if we’ve put up walls. We can’t improve the world if we don’t understand it or ourselves. We can’t take or receive feedback if we are incapable of or uninterested in hearing from outside sources. We can’t recognize opportunities—or create them—if instead of seeing what is in front of us, we live inside our own fantasy. Without an accurate accounting of our own abilities compared to others, what we have is not confidence but delusion. How are we supposed to reach, motivate, or lead other people if we can’t relate to their needs—because we’ve lost touch with our own?

(5) The performance artist Marina Abramović puts it directly: “If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.”

(6) Just one thing keeps ego around—comfort. Pursuing great work—whether it is in sports or art or business—is often terrifying. Ego soothes that fear. It’s a salve to that insecurity. Replacing the rational and aware parts of our psyche with bluster and self-absorption, ego tells us what we want to hear, when we want to hear it.

But it is a short-term fix with a long-term consequence.

(7) The aim of that structure is simple: to help you suppress ego early before bad habits take hold, to replace the temptations of ego with humility and discipline when we experience success, and to cultivate strength and fortitude so that when fate turns against you, you’re not wrecked by failure. In short, it will help us be:

* Humble in our aspirations

* Gracious in our success

* Resilient in our failures

(8) The Quaker William Penn observed, “Buildings that lie so exposed to the weather need a good foundation.”

(9) When we remove ego, we’re left with what is real. What replaces ego is humility, yes—but rock-hard humility and confidence. Whereas ego is artificial, this type of confidence can hold weight. Ego is stolen. Confidence is earned. Ego is self-anointed, its swagger is artifice. One is girding yourself, the other gaslighting. It’s the difference between potent and poisonous.

(10) Isocrates - “Practice self-control,” he said, warning Demonicus not to fall under the sway of “temper, pleasure, and pain.” And “abhor flatterers as you would deceivers; for both, if trusted, injure those who trust them.” “Be affable in your relations with those who approach you, and never haughty; for the pride of the arrogant even slaves can hardly endure” and “Be slow in deliberation, but be prompt to carry out your resolves” and that the “best thing which we have in ourselves is good judgment.” Constantly train your intellect, he told him, “for the greatest thing in the smallest compass is a sound mind in a human body.”

Shakespeare

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!

Where Isocrates and Shakespeare wished us to be self-contained, self-motivated, and ruled by principle, most of us have been trained to do the opposite. Our cultural values almost try to make us dependent on validation, entitled, and ruled by our emotions. For a generation, parents and teachers have focused on building up everyone’s self-esteem. From there, the themes of our gurus and public figures have been almost exclusively aimed at inspiring, encouraging, and assuring us that we can do whatever we set our minds to. In reality, this makes us weak.

(11) In this phase, you must practice seeing yourself with a little distance, cultivating the ability to get out of your own head. Detachment is a sort of natural ego antidote. It’s easy to be emotionally invested and infatuated with your own work. Any and every narcissist can do that. What is rare is not raw talent, skill, or even confidence, but humility, diligence, and self-awareness.

(12) For your work to have truth in it, it must come from truth. If you want to be more than a flash in the pan, you must be prepared to focus on the long term.

It’s a temptation that exists for everyone—for talk and hype to replace action.

(13) Doing great work is a struggle. It’s draining, it’s demoralizing, it’s frightening—not always, but it can feel that way when we’re deep in the middle of it. We talk to fill the void and the uncertainty.

(14) “A man is worked upon by what he works on,” Frederick Douglass once said. He would know. He’d been a slave, and he saw what it did to everyone involved, including the slaveholders themselves. Once a free man, he saw that the choices people made, about their careers and their lives, had the same effect. What you choose to do with your time and what you choose to do for money works on you. The egocentric path requires, as Boyd knew, many compromises.

(15) To become great and to stay great, they must all know what came before, what is going on now, and what comes next. They must internalize the fundamentals of their domain and what surrounds them, without ossifying or becoming stuck in time.

In our endeavors, we will face complex problems, often in situations we’ve never faced before. Opportunities are not usually deep, virgin pools that require courage and boldness to dive into, but instead are obscured, dusted over, blocked by various forms of resistance. What is really called for in these circumstances is clarity, deliberateness, and methodological determination.

(16) Passion typically masks a weakness. Its breathlessness and impetuousness and franticness are poor substitutes for discipline, for mastery, for strength and purpose and perseverance.

(17) “Whom the gods wish to destroy,” Cyril Connolly famously said, “they first call promising.”

(18) Only you know the race you’re running. That is, unless your ego decides the only way you have value is if you’re better than, have more than, everyone everywhere. More urgently, each one of us has a unique potential and purpose; that means that we’re the only ones who can evaluate and set the terms of our lives. Far too often, we look at other people and make their approval the standard we feel compelled to meet, and as a result, squander our very potential and purpose.

(19) According to Seneca, the Greek word euthymia is one we should think of often: it is the sense of our own path and how to stay on it without getting distracted by all the others that intersect it. In other words, it’s not about beating the other guy. It’s not about having more than the others. It’s about being what you are, and being as good as possible at it, without succumbing to all the things that draw you away from it. It’s about going where you set out to go. About accomplishing the most that you’re capable of in what you choose. That’s it. No more and no less. (By the way, euthymia means “tranquillity” in English.)

(20) It is not enough to have great qualities; we should also have the management of them.

—LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

(21) Feel unprotected against the elements or forces or surroundings. Remind yourself how pointless it is to rage and fight and try to one-up those around you. Go and put yourself in touch with the infinite, and end your conscious separation from the world. Reconcile yourself a bit better with the realities of life. Realize how much came before you, and how only wisps of it remain.

(22) Let the feeling carry you as long as you can. Then when you start to feel better or bigger than, go and do it again.

(23) The historian Shelby Foote observed that “power doesn’t so much corrupt; that’s too simple. It fragments, closes options, mesmerizes.” That’s what ego does. It clouds the mind precisely when it needs to be clear. Sobriety is a counterbalance, a hangover cure—or better, a prevention method.

(24) As Plutarch finely expressed, “The future bears down upon each one of us with all the hazards of the unknown.” The only way out is through.

(25) According to Greene, there are two types of time in our lives: dead time, when people are passive and waiting, and alive time, when people are learning and acting and utilizing every second. Every moment of failure, every moment or situation that we did not deliberately choose or control, presents this choice: Alive time. Dead time.

That’s what so many of us do when we fail or get ourselves into trouble. Lacking the ability to examine ourselves, we reinvest our energy into exactly the patterns of behavior that caused our problems to begin with.

In life, we all get stuck with dead time. Its occurrence isn’t in our control. Its use, on the other hand, is.

(26) As Booker T. Washington most famously put it, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Make use of what’s around you. Don’t let stubbornness make a bad situation worse.

(27) A dangerous attitude because when someone works on a project—whether it’s a book or a business or otherwise—at a certain point, that thing leaves their hands and enters the realm of the world. It is judged, received, and acted on by other people. It stops being something he controls and it depends on them.

(28) There was an unusual encounter between Alexander the Great and the famous Cynic philosopher Diogenes. Allegedly, Alexander approached Diogenes, who was lying down, enjoying the summer air, and stood over him and asked what he, the most powerful man in the world, might be able to do for this notoriously poor man. Diogenes could have asked for anything. What he requested was epic: “Stop blocking my sun.” Even two thousand years later we can feel exactly where in the solar plexus that must have hit Alexander, a man who always wanted to prove how important he was. As the author Robert Louis Stevenson later observed about this meeting, “It is a sore thing to have labored along and scaled arduous hilltops, and when all is done, find humanity indifferent to your achievement.”

(29) This is why we can’t let externals determine whether something was worth it or not. It’s on us.The world is, after all, indifferent to what we humans “want.” If we persist in wanting, in needing, we are simply setting ourselves up for resentment or worse. Doing the work is enough.

(30) Duris dura franguntur. Hard things are broken by hard things.

The bigger the ego the harder the fall.

(31) Hemingway had his own rock-bottom realizations as a young man. The understanding he took from them is expressed timelessly in his book A Farewell to Arms. He wrote, “The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.”

(32) The world can show you the truth, but no one can force you to accept it.

(33) “Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed,” reads John 3:20.

(34) In the end, the only way you can appreciate your progress is to stand on the edge of the hole you dug for yourself, look down inside it, and smile fondly at the bloody claw prints that marked your journey up the walls.

(35) It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character.

—MARCUS AURELIUS

(36) The problem is that when we get our identity tied up in our work, we worry that any kind of failure will then say something bad about us as a person. It’s a fear of taking responsibility, of admitting that we might have messed up. It’s the sunk cost fallacy. And so we throw good money and good life after bad and end up making everything so much worse.

(37) Ego kills what we love. Sometimes, it comes close to killing us too.

(38) “Act with fortitude and honor,” he wrote to a distraught friend in serious financial and legal trouble of the man’s own making. “If you cannot reasonably hope for a favorable extrication, do not plunge deeper. Have the courage to make a full stop.” - Alexander Hamilton

(39) Because you will lose in life. It’s a fact. A doctor has to call time of death at some point. They just do.

Ego says we’re the immovable object, the unstoppable force. This delusion causes the problems. It meets failure and adversity with rule breaking—betting everything on some crazy scheme; doubling down on behind-the-scenes machinations or unlikely Hail Marys—even though that’s what got you to this pain point in the first place.

(40) “He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a living man,” Seneca once said. Alter that: He who will do anything to avoid failure will almost certainly do something worthy of a failure.

The only real failure is abandoning your principles. Killing what you love because you can’t bear to part from it is selfish and stupid. If your reputation can’t absorb a few blows, it wasn’t worth anything in the first place.

(41) And why should we feel anger at the world?

As if the world would notice!

—EURIPIDES

[schraubd]

Election 2018: Post-Mortem

We're not 100% "post-" yet, as there are still a decent number of races outstanding. Here in California, the mail vote could yet push around some House race numbers (though Montana just was called for Jon Tester!). Nonetheless, we've got enough of a picture to give a pretty solid account of yesterday's events. Here are my takeaways: * * * Dems winning the House is huge: This was not something to take for granted. Let's not forget, there was a good chunk of time where people thought GOP gerrymandering had placed the House out of Democratic reach. And control of the House doesn't just prevent Congress from ramming through far-right pieces of the Trump agenda. It also gives Democrats a key fulcrum from which to launch investigations into the deep cesspool of corruption that characterizes the Trump administration. On that score, I actually don't recommend starting with Trump necessarily. There are so many targets to choose from, and if there's one thing I think we learned from how the GOP handled the Benghazi (non-)story, it's that a steady and constant drip-drip-drip of scandal is far more powerful than blowing everything in one shot. Start with easy marks like Zinke, and the noose will slowly begin to tighten around the inner circle. This was a continuation, not a reversal, of 2016's trend: One theory about 2016 was that it was a fit of temporary insanity, whereby good-hearted Americans had a bout of temporary insanity or rage or anti-Clinton derangement and chose a President whom they didn't really endorse or even like. Under this view, 2018 would be a "snapback" election, where these voters would revert to form and go back to supporting sensible candidates while repudiating Trump's extremism. Another theory about 2016 takes Trump voters more seriously. It posits that in certain very conservative parts of the country -- generally more rural, generally less-educated, concentrated in Appalachia and the American southeast -- they liked Trump, and they continue to like Trump. All the lying and racism and extremism and utter off-the-wall demagoguery -- the love it. Meanwhile, other parts of the country -- more suburban, more diverse, and especially in the southwest -- were moving away from Trump and Trumpism. Last night, I think, decisively ratifies the second theory. By and large, the people who like Trump still like Trump. Rick Scott's numbers in Florida were almost perfectly correlated with the 2016 presidential race. And at the same time, we saw a more decisive shift away from the GOP in the sort of districts where people already didn't like Trump. From what I saw, Democrats did better in Romney-Clinton districts than Obama-Trump ones, which verifies this instinct. And Democrats are continuing to make big strides in Nevada and (yes, even in defeat) Arizona and Texas. The partial exception to this view is the midwest (where Democrats won governorships in Wisconsin and Michigan, and a decent clutch of House seats as well). But even here, the news was mixed: Democrats lost the Senate races in Indiana and Missouri, the governorship in Iowa (albeit while winning 3 of 4 House seats) and Ohio, and their two pickups in Minnesota House races were offset by at least one and probably two GOP flips (which were some of the only such GOP wins nationwide). There is a truth that is important for pundits to get through their head: conservative Americans like Trump. He's not an aberration. He's not deus ex machina. He's not someone they begrudgingly tolerate. American conservativism, right now, is Donald Trump. If that's a scary thought -- and it is -- start reporting it like something scary rather than pretending that most Republicans basically pine for Gerald Ford but somehow got sucked into an authoritarian nightmare they wish they could escape from. State Races Matter The national focus also has somewhat obscured how Democrats did on the state level. A bucket of governor's mansions have just turned blue -- Maine, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, and Kansas -- and there were no blue-to-red flips (solid holds in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon, and Colorado). And it looks like they've turned over at least six state legislative chambers too -- not bad! Priority #1 in any state with Democratic majority: lock in voting rights. It's embarrassing that a state like New York has a train wreck of a voting system, and it needs to end immediately. Republicans really did overperform Senate side Yes, it was a brutally tough map for the Democrats. But Republicans nonetheless exceeded at least gameday expectations. Democrats taking back the Senate was always a longshot, but if the GOP holds onto their leads in Arizona and Florida (likely), then they'll have come close to running the table on their best realistic Senate scenario (with only Montana and Nevada as the blemishes). That's legitimate GOP ammo for the spin cycle. And, of course, it does give Trump the ability to continue to pack the courts with right-wing ideologues, which is substantively terrifying. The Democratic Party Neither Needs To Pivot Left Nor Pivot Center The favored post-election parlor of any pundit after an election is to explain why the results decisively demonstrate why a given party needs to adopt the political positions they already supported. Among Democrats, this has typically shaken out along the Bernie/Establishment divide that we're apparently doomed to relive forever because this is The Bad Place. But the fact is, there was no clear trend in which sort of Democrats were winning and losing last night. A bunch of more conservative voices went down in the Senate, but in states which were already punishing turf. And some progressive darlings -- like Ben Jealous in Maryland and Andrew Gillum in Florida -- lost too. On the other side, some establishment picks did their job and won their race (think Jacky Rosen in Nevada, or Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan). But progressives had their stars too -- Beto O'Rourke's campaign in Texas certainly performed better than Texas's red tint should've allowed, and there were a bunch of more progressive challengers who are among the entering House class. Which is to say: different races are different, and different candidates are good fits for different districts. The Party isn't the enemy here. What I think has been shown is that the more extreme "Bernie" accusation -- that there were a bunch of winnable races that Democrats were quasi-deliberately letting go Republican because something-something-corporate-money, and if we only ran Real Democrats they'd be ours -- has been decisively refuted (I don't think Ben Jealous necessarily did worse than Rushern Baker would have done in Maryland, but he certainly didn't do better). But that was a colossally stupid take anyway. Which probably means it still won't die the death it deserves. Briefly on Beto -- Yes, He Deserves Praise This isn't even a hot take anymore but obviously O'Rourke deserves a ton of credit for how he performed in his race against Ted Cruz. I'm seeing some mockery from the usual conservative suspects on this, since he lost, but that's a dumb take. Yes a loss is a loss, and yes everyone hates Ted Cruz, and yes Texas has been slowly purpling. But a sub-three point victory in a statewide race in Texas (by contrast, Governor Greg Abbott -- no political superstar -- won reelection by 13 points) is a monster performance. And his tailwind likely carried a few House races over the finish line as well. The New Redemption is (Sort of) Upon Us I'm by no means the first to come up with the idea that we're going through a "second redemption" to undo the "second reconstruction" that was the civil rights era. But I think there is something to be said about the re-energizing of White racist attitudes that's occurred in America over the last few years. People have talked a lot about Trump and, before him, the Tea Party, not so much creating prejudice as "activating" it. I think that in places like Georgia or Florida, there was some demoralization among the White racist crowd where they had basically given up on the possibility that open racism was something they could "do" anymore. Now, they're downright jazzed -- and from that we get both Kemp and DeSantis likely entering a governor's mansion. That said, the story does seem too pat in some ways -- especially with the passage of Amendment 4 (felon re-enfranchisement) in Florida. It's no exaggeration to say this might put Democrats firmly in the driver's seat in a state as evenly divided as Florida (a full 40% of Black male adults in the state regained their right to vote through this measure), which makes it all the more surprising that it managed to clear the 60% threshold. And to be fair, some amount of credit thus has to be given to those voters who punched a ballot for both Amendment 4 and DeSantis/Scott (there must be a lot of them). One-State Wave! With Rashida Tlaib's victory in Michigan, we not only have our first Palestinian-American Congresswomen, we also will have the first Democratic Representative to openly support a one-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. She will join approximately 2/3 of the House Republican Caucus in taking this view (and if you're a pro-Israel type who's about to respond "that's not fair -- Republicans only support a one-state solution where Palestinians aren't allowed to vote!" stop and listen to yourself). Mixed Results for Anti-Semites Tablet did a whole bit on "antisemites running for Congress", but I found their list far too restrictive (or in a few cases -- most notably Rep. Andrew Carson and GOP challenger Lena Epstein -- too expansive). Overall, it seems like the worst-of-the-worst antisemites -- the open Holocaust denier sorts -- lost, but some more "moderate" cases did fine. I may do a more in-depth exploration of this later. Early Frustration is Misleading There did seem to be an extent which last night felt like a letdown for Democrats. Obviously, the Senate is a clear case where that sentiment is justified. At the same time, it seemed like the night got better for Democrats as it went on -- a couple of races which seemed to be slipping away (Wisconsin, Connecticut) broke blue late, and some of our biggest victories (Nevada) were also well into the evening. On net, there's no question this was a big night for the good guys. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2AQsRAy

[douchebagbrainwaves]

STARTUPS AND B

Incidentally, nothing makes it more patently obvious that the old method now seemed alarmingly unreliable, like navigating by dead reckoning once you'd gotten used to a GPS. I find it unbearably restrictive to program in languages without macros, just as it was possible to go from rich to poor. But I have a separate laptop on the other side of the room to check email or browse the web, I become much more aware of it. I was in the bathroom! Restrictiveness is mostly lack of succinctness. They'll just remember you as the company with the boneheaded plan for making money, rather than the order in which they happen to appear on the screen. It's not just that it's demoralizing, but that is not how conversations with corp dev are like that but worse, because the paper would grow to the size of the market you're in. If I'd been forbidden to make enough money that I didn't have to worry about running out of money and b they can spend their time how they want. Drew Houston realizes he's forgotten his USB stick and thinks I really need to make my files live online. I agree that a line of Lisp.1 So the average quality of writing online isn't what the print media now use it.

You do it sitting at a desk. You just have to be inferior people. For some reason, the more effort you'll have to expend on selling your ideas rather than having them. This implies that the kind of work is the future. With time, as with money. You can also be at the leading edge as a user. I reply: here's the data; here's the theory; theory explains data 100%. If you're not at the leading edge of a field that's changing fast, when you have ideas, you'll be confident enough to tell them the low monthly payment. Bill Woods once told me that, as a rule of thumb, each layer of interpretation costs a factor of 10 in speed. So when a language feels restrictive, what that mostly means is that we are talking about the future, then it's probably big enough no matter how cozy the terms. In fact they might have had net less pain; because the fear of dealing with payments is a schlep for Stripe, but not an intolerable one. A lot of the same things we said at the last two.

I know, was Fred Brooks in the Mythical Man Month. But business administration is not what you're doing as soon as possible, preferably in the first year. There have to be on most. After all, they're just a subset of lists in which the elements are characters. If you want to make terribly risky choices, if the upside looks good enough. But a company that managed a large enough number of companies could say to all its clients: we'll combine the revenues from all your companies, and they even let kids in. Which is particularly painful to someone who wants to buy you. Now everyone can, and then either by taxation or by limiting what they can charge to confiscate whatever you deem to be surplus. Wow.

A web site for college students to stalk one another? If you describe your web-based database might resist calling their applicaton that, because it makes the rich richer too. Thirty years later Facebook had the same shape. Matters are decided in the discussion preceding the vote, not in the vote itself, which is why this trend began with them. And if the candidates are equally charismatic, charisma will cancel out, and elections will be decided on issues, if only out of habit or politeness. In any purely economic relationship you're free to do what you want. I knew would be hard to distinguish from a partisan attack on them, but though they can end up in the same way I write essays, making pass after pass looking for anything I can cut. You know there's demand, and people don't say that about things that are obvious, and yet with the right optimization advice to the compiler, would also yield very fast code when necessary. If such management companies existed, they'd offer the maximum of freedom and security.

Even if you find someone else working on the same thing, you're probably happiest on the main branches of an evolutionary tree. Probably the single biggest piece of evidence, initially, will be your own confidence in it. And if the candidates are equally charismatic, charisma will cancel out, and it could require interpretation in the case of pastoral nomads driving hunter-gatherers into marginal lands, or metaphorically in the case of Gilded Age financiers contending with one another to assemble railroad monopolies. Millions of people are mildly interested in a social network for pet owners. I know are professors, but it seems a good sign when you know that an idea will appeal strongly to a specific group or type of user. Maybe some aspects of professionalism are actually a net lose for the buyer, though, as mere readability-per-line could be a good trick to look for things that seem to be missing. Bill Woods once told me that, as with the stupendous speed of the underlying hardware, parallelism will be wasted. Four years later, pundits said the country had lurched to the right. Many employees would like to believe elections are won and lost on issues, if only out of habit or politeness.2

You don't simply get to do whatever you want; the good stuff spreads, and the power of TV, Kennedy apparently would not have been a good startup idea, it's not a coincidence: you have probably discovered a useful new abstraction.3 So approach this like an algorithm that gets the right answer for dealing with Internet distractions will be software that watches and controls them. But that is not, at least. The only thing worth talking about first is the problem you're trying to solve is still there. It's good to talk about the value of what they were doing—particularly that the better a job they did, I see no reason to believe today's union leaders would shrink from the challenge. This kind of metric would allow us to compare different languages, but that if someone wanted to design a language explicitly to disprove this hyphothesis, they could probably do it.4 If you're really at the leading edge of a domain that's changing fast. A friend of mine who knows nearly all the code you write this way will be reusable. What did I do before x?5 Some days I'd wake up, get a cup of tea, or walking around the neighborhood.6 Say what you're doing in a startup. The evolution of languages differs from the evolution of programming languages might be the percentage of people who should know better.

If you're talking to someone from corp dev wants to meet, the founders still had a majority of board seats, then your opinion about what's in the interest of the shareholders; but if you have a hunch that something is truly missing. You need to use a more succinct language, and b someone who took the trouble to do this could leave competitors who didn't in the dust. Your company has to make money, but mainly because it shows you care about is what happens in the next hundred years. TV. For some reason, the more extroverted of the two founders did most of the extra computer power we're given will go to waste. Increase taxes, and willingness to take risks. I can see a path that's not immediately obvious; that's one of our specialties at YC. That may seem utopian, but it's close enough that except in pathological examples, I thought succinctness could be considered identical with power. Most of the legal restrictions on employers are intended to protect employees. Of nonstop work. And God help you if you fire anyone.

But I didn't understand the equation governing my behavior. Or hasn't it? Ironically, though open source and blogging show us things don't have to learn programming to be at the leading edge of a domain that's changing fast, when you try to attack wealth, you end up nailing risk as well, and with them your income. He seemed to want the job more. They counted as work, just as everyone knows that Can you pass the salt? A quarter of their life. We're Jeff and Bob and we've built an easy to use web-based database might resist calling their applicaton that, because it means that if you can't predict whether there's a path out of an idea? A round. If not, just don't take the first meeting. And the kind of work is the future. So at dinner afterward we collected all our tips about presenting to investors.

Notes

The biggest counterexample here is defined from the CIA runs a venture fund called In-Q-Tel that is largely true, it has to be a niche. You should be asking will you build this?

They have no way of calculating real income ignores much of The New Industrial State to trying to enter the software business, or to be a lot of people starting normal companies too. The wartime versions were much more attractive to investors, even if they don't. You owe them such updates on your thesis. After a while we were using Lisp, though sloppier language than I'd use to develop server-based applications.

There is of course, but they were regarded as 'just' even after the Physics in the original version of Explorer. Of the remaining 13%, 11 didn't have TV because they actually do, I'll have people nagging me for features.

I wonder if they'd like, and no one knows how many of the most promising opportunities, it is to start software companies, summer jobs are the numbers we have to be free to work not just something the mainstream media needs to, but at least seem to someone still implicitly operating on the East Coast. So instead of the device that will pay the bills so you can get for 500 today would have.

If anyone wants to invest in so many different schools of thought about how the courses they took might look to an employer. I didn't need to get good grades in them to keep the number at Harvard Business School at the top startup law firms are Wilson Sonsini, Orrick, Fenwick West, Gunderson Dettmer, and that we didn't, they thought at least prevent your investors from helping you to believing in natural selection in the cupboard, but I couldn't convince Fred Wilson to fund them. If only one. He couldn't even afford a monitor.

Xkcd implemented a particularly alarming example, I use the local builders built everything in it, and only incidentally to tell someone that I was writing this, though sloppier language than I'd use to calibrate the weighting of the funds we raised was difficult, and some just want that first few million. The dialog on Beavis and Butthead was composed largely of these limits could be fixed within a niche.

Thanks to Geoff Ralston, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, and Sam Altman for reading a previous draft.

[empowermentstrategies]

Dancing with the Gods of Mischief

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."  -- Woodrow Wilson

Hello, dear readers, and welcome to 2018! In the first week of this new year, many of us will be thinking with renewed fervor of the creation of our most cherished goals. This week may bring you a fresh, more hopeful perspective on what's possible for you and for the world, which feels great. But you know how some years you decide to work toward new things and become quickly derailed from your forward motion? And then that kills your buzz and your motivation to keep at it until you actually get what you wanted? In the interests of helping you to preserve your happy sense of possibility, which is the motivational equivalent of perpetual motion, I offer you these thoughts this week.

We feel the sense of hopefulness about a new year in part because we can look ahead at a familiar unit of time with an intrinsic structure that has become familiar to us—seasons we've come to know, with their attached holidays and weather, clothing and habits, and it's fun to fill that container with an ideal vision. Creating something beautiful, something that sparkles with promise and expresses who we are at our very core, reminds us of the very best we carry within us. Of course that feels great! (Research has shown that the vast majority of people are far more efficiently motivated by positive feedback than by negative experiences, so this makes perfect sense.) At this particular time of year, we allow ourselves to get swept up in the the optimistic moment. Yet, as the year progresses, and our perfectly imagined plans start to go off track (which is inevitable), the structural integrity of our confidence begins to break down along with the structure of our idealized vision of the year. 

Instead of taking developments in stride and using them as an impetus to make course corrections, we may decide that we're falling behind, there's not enough time left to make the year into something satisfying!  We succumb to the mounting pressure to rectify the differences between vision and uncertain reality on a tight timeline.  Sometimes we don't even notice how much we're measuring our intrinsic value against how much of what we want is unfolding according to the schedule we imagined for the current year.  Just as age is only a number to which we attach conditioned meanings, often, without thinking, we may decide that not having accomplished something by a certain time of year must MEAN something about us or about our ability to accomplish it at all. If we allow this measurement to remain unconscious, we're far more likely to grind into the end of the year frustrated, grouchy, and not in the mood to celebrate the numerous holidays we might otherwise enjoy with gusto. 

Even for those whose lives look easy from the outside, it's very rare that any longer-term plan ever goes as expected. The nature of being human includes navigating constant surprise. The scope certainly varies, but unless you're a hermit, the constancy of the need to confront this dynamic does not.  Since this is a common denominator, it doesn't actually "mean" anything about you except that you're human. Success is not keeping every variable in your projects an inescapable chokehold—it's created by a willingness to confront every day's surprise with a willingness to put together pieces of a constantly morphing puzzle in the most constructive pattern you can engineer in that moment.  The more you try to cement the pieces to the game board, the more likely it is that the whole thing will rupture under unsustainable pressure and blow up in your face.

Here's what I recommend you do in order to keep up with the pace of natural and inevitable change that will permeate all your projects while  constantly feeding your enthusiasm:

Plan to actually write down what you would most like to have happen this year and read this every day. The point of this is NEVER to make you feel anxious about what's not happening, but to remind you what's important to you, keep you focused on it, and galvanize your creativity around what you can do today to make some progress toward goals that excite you. Not because you really should, or you must, or you're a mess if you don't, but because this helps you to feel that you're really alive.

Plan to take stock of where you are in relation to where you'd like to be at least once per month, perhaps on the first of the month so it's hard to forget. If you're disappointed about your progress, first of all, admit it! Then do something to address the situation. In light of the current factors in play, decide on a new timetable that seems challenging but possible. If you're stuck somewhere, do some research. Talk to someone you know who has applicable skills. Talk to an expert. Get help brainstorming from a group with diverse viewpoints. In short, reset and keep moving.

Do something to address the emotions that have come up around what's happening or not happening. If you just let them sit there and fester, pressure will build and you'll be careening toward that grumpy-end-of-year situation, and worse, an unwillingness to persist for as long as it takes.  What helps you to feel better? Do it!

Hint: Exercise. Talk or write out your feelings. Allow yourself to mourn anything that's truly lost. Use Tapping/EFT to help you move through your emotions more comfortably, and regain balance and perspective.

Not everything can be solved with more or harder work. We need to balance out our effort with play and restoration, which primes the pump of creativity and keeps us healthy. We need to breathe, laugh, and connect with others sometimes before we can solve intractable problems. We need sleep and nutritious food and plenty of water to be at our best. It's a lot to balance, to be sure. That's why improving your ability to greet each day with calm observation of what's happening before diving in is so important to constructing a productive response.

Even if they're not what you envisioned, find ways to keep enjoying the seasons and their particular rewards.  There's something deeply satisfying about marking the passage of time that affects us all if you allow yourself to appreciate them.

It's great to use a new year as inspiration for new projects, but keep in mind that rigidity around deadlines you have chosen out of preference will demoralize you. Letting yourself become rigid is the one mistake that causes more people to quit positive new habits than anything else. The most successful people build confidence through constant interaction with changing circumstances. The more you challenge yourself to keep coming back to the table with constant effort despite confusion and setbacks, the more capacity you build for solving problems and racking up accomplishments. No worthy goal comes into being without the completion of many actions and small milestones along the way. Most goals take much longer to finish than we'd like them to, and must adjust to disruptions that feel like attacks on our free will and our happiness. Life isn't easy, but we persist because refusing to try to improve our lives is no fun. It's sad, boring, and feels like a waste of time to live without direction, and who needs that? Whatever you are able to accomplish this week, this month, this year, celebrate it, and all you've learned and become as you brought it forth. This learning is just as important to your happiness and future success as the product you were able to create, and as you keep at it, you grow more skilled and efficient and creative, and life grows ever more fulfilling.

[nothingman]

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We’re less than four hours away from the inauguration of Donald Trump. Protests have already begun here in the streets of Washington. To talk more about the inauguration of Trump, we’re joined now by two guests.

AMY GOODMAN: Naomi Klein is the author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. And Lee Fang is with us, the investigative journalist at The Intercept covering the intersection of money and politics. His latest piece, "Who’s Paying for Inauguration Parties? Companies and Lobbyists with a Lot at Stake."

Naomi, let’s start with you. You’ve come here to Washington, D.C. You’ve been following the election and what’s taken place. Your thoughts?

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, it’s—I mean, I think there’s a few things we need to remember this morning, which is certainly a destabilizing day for a lot of your viewers and listeners and for all of us, really. You know, as we’ve already heard—right?—he did not win the popular vote. And I think, in addition to that, and I know this is maybe not the most popular thing to say when everyone is calling for unity among progressives, you know, I think even within this rigged system that suppresses so many votes, he didn’t win it. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party establishment lost it. It was low enthusiasm, low voter turnout on their side that gave the election to Trump. And I think that’s important to understand even amidst these calls for unity, because if that truth gets buried, then the mistakes will be repeated.

The other thing that I think is really important, and it’s—I think it’s fantastic that people are on the streets last night, today all day—it is so important to push back in these early days, when they’re going to be throwing a whole lot at us. We’re seeing talk of a shock-and-awe budget. By the way, let’s not call it a "skinny budget." This is another rebranding campaign, like "alt-right." This is a savage budget that would cut $10 trillion, they’re talking about, that would attack programs targeted towards violence against women, renewable energy, environmental justice. I mean, they’re going after everything. But the point is, is that Trump—I mean, we know the transition is in disarray. And it seems as if they’re outsourcing the whole thing to the Heritage Foundation, which is what they’re there for, right? They have this infrastructure. They’ve got all of these policies and budgets ready to go. But this is going to be incredibly unpopular. And so, if people push back really hard, and it sees Trump’s approval rating drop even more—one thing we know about Donald Trump: He likes firing people. This we know. And I think that the people who he has outsourced to right now could get blamed very early on and pushed out, and I think that would be very important, because I think when it comes to economics, there’s a fair amount of evidence that he’s not an ideologue. But this is—but I think we’re headed for a very, very ideological push.

AMY GOODMAN: Last night at the Peace Ball, you called this a corporate coup d’état. What do you mean?

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I think one of the things that’s remarkable about his appointees is just how many—you know, how many CEOs are going into these positions, and just this process of kind of cutting out the middleman, right? Exxon running the State Department.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask: Where were you when you heard that Rex Tillerson, at the time the current CEO of ExxonMobil—

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —the largest private oil company in the world, was nominated?

NAOMI KLEIN: And not just any oil company. You know, this is a company that is the main target of the climate movement, that is under investigation by multiple states’ attorneys general and the SEC for its various deceptions, financial and climate deceptions, the target of a huge campaign, because this is a company that was doing really some of the most important research into the reality of climate change back in the 1970s and then bankrolled the deceptions that lost us decades of climate action in the 1990s, and really up into the present day. So, I don’t know—I don’t remember exactly where I was. But in some ways, you know, to echo something Bill McKibben has said, my colleague at 350, you know, it takes the mask off, right? Because these companies, as Lee well knows, I mean, they already had a huge amount of influence, but now it’s almost like they’re tired of playing the game, they’re tired of the cajoling and the bankrolling and the legalized bribery, and they’re just going to do the job themselves—you know, cut out the middleman. And so we see that with Tillerson. We see that with labor, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Whether Puzder makes his way to actually being labor secretary is very interesting.

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, one thing I would say about both these cases is—and I think this is, once again, important to remember on a day like today, when a lot of people feel so demoralized—these guys are panicked because of the power of rising social movements. Right? I mean, why is Puzder so panicked? Because of the Fight for 15. Because of the wave of victories for a living wage. Because of the—because of the very real possibility that Bernie Sanders could have won, and he would have taken that movement demand and brought it to the federal level, to federal policy. That was his campaign promise. And Tillerson, I mean, the biggest threat he faces is the goals that are enshrined in the Paris Accord, these hard-won goals to keep temperatures below 1.5 to 2 degrees. That would be the end of his business model, right? So this, you know, what I called a corporate coup, is really—it’s really about panic as much as anything else, and holding back these tides of progress on multiple fronts. You know, Steve Mnuchin and his friends are also worried about their business model and about the—about Occupy, about the Sanders campaign, about the regulation that they would face. So, you know, I think we should see this in some ways as sort of a panicked last gasp. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need to confront it with everything we have.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, let’s go to what’s going on today in Washington, D.C., the inauguration. Lee, your piece, most recent piece, out yesterday, is called "Who’s Paying for Inauguration Parties? Companies and Lobbyists with a Lot at Stake." So tell us: Who is paying?

LEE FANG: Well, we don’t know the full list of sponsors of the different inauguration festivities, but there are private events and, of course, the official inauguration events associated with the Trump transition. And these are all festivities that are privately financed. And according to some reports, we know that the official Trump inauguration events are sponsored by companies like AT&T, Boeing. And they’re offered these special packages where if they provide a certain amount to finance these parties that are going on all over Washington, they get private meet and greets with the incoming a administration and the nominees for Cabinet. They get to party with the leadership of the congressional GOP. And, you know, these companies have tens of billions of dollars, if not more, at stake over the next four years. Boeing, for example, has lots of military contracts. They rely on government subsidies through the Export-Import Bank. AT&T would like a repeal of net neutrality, the rules won by the Obama administration over the last four years. And, of course, we might see another era of mergers and acquisitions, which, of course, need regulatory approval. So, the swamp, as it were, is welcoming the Trump administration, and they’re hoping to get in early to win access.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, is it unusual, though? Who typically pays for inauguration parties? Like, what happened in previous elections?

LEE FANG: No, and I think that’s an important point to make. From, you know, Bill Clinton to Reagan to Obama, a lot of candidates campaigned to throw the bums out and challenge the establishment. But too often, you know, this city, Washington, D.C., is run by lobbyists. They control the most powerful institutions. They set the parameters of the debate. And when candidates, like Donald Trump, who promised to take on the establishment, to challenge these elites, as he’s getting to Washington, he’s being quickly coopted.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I mean, that’s one of the striking things about his appointments, the fact that there’s so many people from Goldman Sachs, when he spent so much of his time campaigning criticizing Clinton for her ties to Goldman Sachs.

LEE FANG: Yeah, no, and I think that’s important to realize. You know, if you look at this Cabinet, it’s filled with CEOs and other elites. And I think in the next hundred days, we will actually see a kind of a class war. Trump promised to take on these globalists, these—

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah.

LEE FANG: —economic elites. But we will see, the next hundred days, a ruthless agenda on behalf of these same elites against worker protections, climate regulations. It’s very likely that some of the very first executive orders that come out of the Trump administration are attempts to repeal much of the Obama legacy. You know, Obama only had control or a friendly Congress for two years of his administration. Most of his legacy were administrative rules, agency action. And those reforms are very fragile. It’s very easy to repeal those type of rule makings. So we’ll see an attempt to chip away at everything, from the Clean Power Plan to protections for retirement security, protections for workers trying to organize at fast-food restaurants—there’s a recent joint employer rule from the Labor Department—everything from those rules to more obscure rules that govern food safety.

AMY GOODMAN: I was watching Fox News yesterday, and one of the hosts said that Donald Trump has three balls, and Obama had many more balls, which was a very interesting comment he made. But he actually was talking about these events that are taking place. The number of people who’ve come out, far, far fewer, to say the least. I think at the big concert last night, there were something like 10,000 people, compared to 400,000 people for Obama. But, Lee, you write about the Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball, a party by—for Texas lawmakers. Explain who is funding it.

LEE FANG: Yeah, I mean, this is an event—you know, many of these parties that go on outside the kind of official inauguration ball schedule—I mean, there are parties all over Washington. They’re attempting to influence the lower-level administrative staffers, to get congressional members kind of on board with the corporate agenda. And so, you know, the Texas delegation, that’s the Black Tie & Boots Ball, they’re throwing a big party in Prince George’s County near Washington, D.C., and it’s sponsored by a number of corporate interests that are going to be pushing very hard on the issues we just mentioned, many different oil companies, firms like ExxonMobil and Koch Industries, that would like to see more fracking on federal lands, a repeal of many of the different EPA rules and the methane rule that came out very recently from the Obama administration. They’ve got very clear motives here. But for the time being, they’re going to be paying for the hors d’oeuvres and the festivities all weekend.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Lee Fang, can you tell us a little bit—you talked about what Trump might do in his first hundred days. There are limits on certain things he can do, because he requires congressional approval. But some of the things you mentioned, he doesn’t require congressional approval for at all, so he may well succeed in doing that in the next just slightly over three months—

LEE FANG: Right.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: —including cuts on, you know, climate payments and the federal regulations you spoke of.

LEE FANG: Yeah, I mean, he’s going to go after these rules in a number of ways. One way is through a fairly obscure law called the Congressional Review Act. That’s a special law that allows a resolution of disapproval, and that can affect regulations passed over just the last few months, not the last few—last six years. Still, many of those rules came out late in the Obama administration. And Democrats cannot filibuster a Congressional Review Act resolution. So, with Republican majorities in Congress, there’s nothing stopping them from passing a CRA resolution of disapproval to roll back many of those rules, potentially hundreds. And, of course, there are executive orders that he can take to revoke Obama’s executive orders. And once he fills these agencies with his staff, they can carve out exceptions to the rules and make them, even if not officially repealed, effectively useless.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we wrap up this hour—we’re actually broadcasting for seven hours through the inauguration, bringing it to people live, as well as going to the streets with our reporters on the scene where protests are happening. Thousands of activists are already out this morning. Naomi Klein, tomorrow, a massive march is planned right here in Washington, D.C., Women March on Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands are expected, if not more.

NAOMI KLEIN: Mm-hmm, yeah. And I think, once again, these—you know, we know he understands numbers, and, as we heard from Michael Moore, we know he’s very thin-skinned and is thrown by a few hundred. So, you know, close to a million people or however many people are on the streets tomorrow, I think it’s going to be destabilizing. And this sort of show of force is tremendously important. It is significant that it seems that he’s going after programs for violence against women, as perhaps one of his first acts. And frankly, you know, misogyny is a thread that connects so many of his appointments, this drive to denigrate women. And I think just showing that we’re not afraid is going to be incredibly important. And I think it’s also important that the march is as diverse as it is, that it is going to be led in many ways by women of color, and I think that this is part of not repeating the mistakes of the campaign.

AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts on the number of congressmembers who are boycotting the inauguration?

NAOMI KLEIN: You know, I think it’s all good. I mean, all these acts of courage in standing up to a bully is incredibly important. But, you know, I think there’s every reason to believe that he’s going to employ a strategy of trying to overwhelm people. This has been a strategy just in terms of confusion and distraction, this sort of shock-and-awe approach. And so, staying unified, staying focused, having each other’s backs, this is all going to be tremendously important in the weeks to come, because, you know, I think that if we win a few key victories in the early days, it’s going to be very destabilizing, and it may lead to a reassessment because of the chaos in there. But if we lose those, you know, they’ll taste blood.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Naomi Klein, we hope you will stay with us. We’re broadcasting throughout the day today. For those who are leaving us now, if your station is leaving us, you can go to democracynow.org. Lee Fang, thanks so much for being with us.

LEE FANG: Thank you for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re going out in the streets—of The Intercept. We’ll link to your piece. And we will be broadcasting for seven hours on this Inauguration Day. Saturday from 10:00 Eastern Standard Time in the morning to 3:00, we’ll be broadcasting from the main stage at the Women’s March on Washington. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. And thanks to the Howard University staff.

via Democracy Now!

[jasoningram]

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[mikedrewit-blog]

Embracing the moment

This post is inspired by someone who is very much into taking care of their health through different means including being intentional about what they eat, doing yoga, etc. They posted on IG about having lost some motivation that was affecting their ability to be as consistent as they want to be in following their health routine.

I have had similar expectations of myself and similar feelings about it. I know what health routine works best for me but don’t keep to it all the time. For me what works are things like eating raw vegan, growing sprouts and wheatgrass and juicing them, doing yoga and pilates, meditation, getting out and exploring the fabulous outdoors I’m surrounded by. But I don’t do this all the time. Where I work they provide food for free which most people would think is amazing but for me it’s a stressor. There are about 5 ingredients on the salad bar I can eat that are good for me, but beyond that everything else they provide is toxic to me in one way or another; yet, I eat it anyway sometimes...often in some stretches.

It’s so easy to get down on myself for it because I know what’s best for me but don’t do it. I started to realize some things when I read this persons’ post about losing motivation.

It’s true that the human brain tends to want to do what we give ourselves to, so it could be said that if you lack the motivation to do something, start doing it. Once you start, you’ll find the drive for it. However, while we know that being consistent at something is supposedly the fastest way to the results we want, it doesn’t always work that way. It’s as though we have this expectation of being a machine about it. We aren’t machines; we’re bio-organisms. Machines and bio-organisms both have rhythms, but there’s a difference. A machine is built to not deviate from its rhythm, whereas a bio-organism’s rhythm has an ebb and flow to it. It would actually be weird for it’s rhythm to be so perfect that it never fluctuates. That’s so true that something would seem out of place if that happened. Consider the movie Trueman and when he finally caught on that everything was an act because it all happened the same way every day. [At least I think that’s part of how that went. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie, but the point is he caught on that everything was so artificial even when it was all he knew. Life is organic, as soon as we try to make it something, it’s as though we invoke all these forces working against what we are trying to make it]. For us to deviate is natural and not a failure. It’s the ebb that gives way to the flow which makes the flow so much sweeter.

Your heart doesn’t beat the same number of beats every minute. You don’t go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. You don’t have the same dreams every night. You’re not in the same mood all the time which is not only impossible according to neuroscience, but it would make for a really boring life. You have your loves and passions when it comes to hobbies and interests, but you’re not always in the mood to do them. If your hobbie is something that requires acute attention to detail, it would be foolish to expect yourself to work on a project when you’re really tired.

In the Industrial Age we started to get really advanced with creating machines. Machines are built to do the same thing over and over like clockwork. We got so good at building machines that now when they break down we get irritated because it costs us something or even just because it inconveniences us in one way or another. I worked in technical support and customer service long enough to see how much, stress, hate and anger can come out of us when a simple machine fails our expectations. We tend to allow those events to throw us into a state where we totally lose site of who we are and expel so much negative energy on someone who didn’t have anything to do with it, and then we say to them “This isn’t directed toward you. I’m just angry with the situation.” I get that, however, you don’t realize that you are inherently hurling all that negative energy at that person (Sorry, soap box of a tech support veteran. Thankfully I’ve found art now). In those moments our amazingness and the love in us goes completely AWOL for a minute. The negative response that comes out of us is so vehement and often vastly disproportionate to whatever inconvenience we’re experiencing. I have been shocked and amazed over and over at how much negative energy can come hurling out of us over a simple problem with a service that costs $10 per month. Is that email problem really worth erupting with so much frustration and even anger and hate?

Let’s take it another step. If I was in a room full of people and started to really lay into someone, most people in the room would believe I was doing something wrong, and I would know I was doing something wrong even as I was doing it. But, somehow for so many years I could justify taking something out on myself and believe that was okay because it was myself I was angry with or disappointed in. Since it wasn’t someone else it was ok...but was it really? No, it wasn’t. I’m a person too. I don’t get to hate on myself anymore than I get to hate on anyone else.

Yes, consistency is important when it comes to developing a lifestyle, habit or working toward a goal, however, I wonder if man’s fascination with machines in the last hundred years became a fixation that got into our psyche because of their efficiency. I suppose it really isn’t the machine’s efficiency that we became fixated with, it’s our own. We build what we can envision. When we built machines, we (mankind) were finally able to have a measure of control that always eluded us before. We became obsessed with perfection and now we were able to get high on achieving that perfection by creating it artificially... all in the name of efficiency for profitability. 

I’m not saying that isn’t good on some level. It’s good for business, but it seems we’ve blurred the line between ourselves and our machines. Since our machines are really an extension of ourselves, and since we can achieve near perfection with vicariously through them, it’s not so difficult to make the leap to expecting machine-like perfection of ourselves. Maybe this doesn’t resonate with you because you didn’t design or build any machines, but someone did and even if that person wasn’t in your family while you were growing up, those machines are part of your existence. Most people reading this post have never known a life without those machines being part of your everyday experience. It’s in your psyche even if unconsciously. I’ve seen us get as upset with ourselves when we fail our own expectations or the expectations that we perceive others have of us. Those expectations are so powerful that we can project our own expectations on to others and assume others hold expectations of us that aren’t even in their consciousness. The negative energy we send toward ourselves only makes things worse. If we have an expectation of perfection of anyone or anything including us, it’s going to be blown sooner or later.

That’s when shit blows up. That’s when we blow up. If it doesn’t come out as anger, it’s shame. Few things if any are more demotivating and demoralizing than shame. Any motivation we derive from anger toward ourself is going to be short lived because we don’t work based on expectations.

If we have an expectation of ourselves that is based on perfection, it isn’t any different than having that expectation of someone else or a machine, and when that expectation of ourselves is blown, we have two options: anger/shame or acceptance, fear or Love. If we choose anger/shame, we will only perpetuate the state of demotivation which becomes a vicious cycle.

If we Love ourselves enough our motivation is desire instead of expectation and obligation. The natural result is to be more consistent, not the other way around. When discipline flows from desire, love and passion, you don’t call it discipline anymore. It’s Love, joy; that’s the most powerful motivation in the Universe.

When you’re invested in the process and the journey rather than the outcome, you don’t have to be so tied to the outcome for fulfillment. You can enjoy the process and wherever you’re at in it right now. When you can enjoy where you’re at right now, you can be at rest. From that place, when you’re in an ebb rather than a flow, you love yourself enough and are committed to the journey instead of perfect perfection, you can enjoy the perfect imperfection of the moment... of yourself.

When you’re there you can embrace every moment and receive what it has for you. If that moment is a flow moment you will get so much more benefit out of it because it will feel effortless and energizing. When it’s an ebb moment, you’re not going to fight it, and that moment will move through you more quickly than before. You get to move onto the next moment so much faster, and that next moment is probably a flow moment…right were you wanted yourself to be all along. Paradoxically, that fastest way through a period of low motivation is to embrace it, not resist it.

If you’re in a moment of wishing you had more motivation than you have and you’re having trouble embracing the moment because you feel like you’re behind or losing time, it helps to look at your place on your journey. This means looking at your past. We’ve come a long way as a society and learning to see the value of the moment rather than focusing on the past, but our memory is there for a reason. If you’ve invested stock in a company and it drops 10% in 2 days, you could get really discouraged and think it may be time to sell before you lose more, but at the same time, if you sell then, you cement your loss. If you look at the graph of growth over the last two years and see that despite the 10% loss, you’re up 50% over the last two years, and there’s been a pattern of 10% drops preceding 15% gains, you can find hope to rest in it and let it bounce back.

In the same way, when you’re in the process of developing a lifestyle, a way of living you want to make your own rather than simply holding it as an ideal or renting it, it’s easy to get discouraged when we falter. Just like our expectation of stocks to be a perfect 45 degree increase or better yet, a bell curve, we have the same expectation of our adoption of the lifestyle we envision. We want to feel satisfied with our performance so we can feel good about ourselves. But, since we aren’t machines and can’t expect that kind of linear growth from ourselves we have to find a better perspective. Rather than being so micro-focused on the moment, if we look at where we are now in comparison to where we were at any point in the past including the time when we were not even conscious of the way of living we’re now adopting, we can find some real satisfaction in how far we’ve come...even if we’ve found ourselves back on the couch with our hand in the bag of potato chips when our goal is to run a marathon or be a triathlete.

For understandable reasons, we value different moments differently. The moments that happen in life that we naturally, exuberantly celebrate feel more valuable than moments like taking out the garbage. However, in truth all moments are valuable. You can’t get to the moment you really want to experience without experiencing the moment you’re in right now, however disappointing it may be. It’s your ability to embrace now that empowers you to do what you need to do to get to the moments you tend to value the most.

Knowing this time is only temporary allows us to fully embrace it and ride it for everything it has to offer us. It allows us to enjoy what is probably a much needed hiatus from peak performance which is good for the mind, soul and body.

Taking care of our emotions is just as important as taking care of our body and is more important than meeting our goals and expectations. We are an integrated being, and we can’t be so focused on taking care of the body that we neglect the heart and mind.

Then, when you’re rested naturally, you’ll find that desire comes flooding back in at a level beyond your wildest hopes. You’ll have all the motivation you want and even more than you could have should’d on yourself to have before you allowed yourself to rest. Many times stepping back from something is not a set back but rather enables us rest, refresh and be even better at it when we get back to it.

No moment is wasted unless we try to control it instead of embrace it.

You’re everything you need to be right now...imperfections and all. Perfect perfection is no longer required of you. It never was. No matter where it came from, it was only an illusion. You may now embrace perfect imperfection. 

You may now embrace yourself.

MikeDrewIt

[ma-ballin]

Bit Literacy

by Mark Hurst

Bit Literacy (2007) is a guide for people who want to make better use of their time in a world with endless information. In this book are organizational and time-saving tricks to set you on your way to becoming bit-literate.

What’s in it for me? Make yourself a master of “bits,” and lead a happier life. 

The following summary of Bit Literacy (2007) is written by authors at Blinkist: Cheap and easy to disseminate and store, bits are spreading across all areas of society.

We are pretty lucky to live in the modern world. We don’t have to traipse over to the library when we’re in need of some important information; we simply look it up on our smartphones. We don’t need to wait two weeks for the photos from our latest vacation to be developed; we can simply scroll through them on our iPhone or download them onto our laptop.

And yet, despite these awesome benefits, living in a digital world also causes many problems. For one, the constant supply of information from our newsfeed and social media keeps us overloaded with information, and then there is our inbox, overfilled with tasks and reminders, demanding our attention.

How to deal with this surfeit of input? These blinks outline some simple steps that’ll help you diminish the negative side effects of the digital world; follow them, and you’ll reap the benefits of being connected without suffering the costs.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why no one should use a computer mouse, ever;

why the best e-mail inboxes are completely empty; and

why your to-do list should be online, not on paper.

For centuries, whenever people wanted to record something important or transmit knowledge, they had to use paper, and as a medium for disseminating information, paper does offer plenty of advantages: it’s durable, easy to use and exceedingly cheap.

Over time, however, we’ve begun to see paper’s disadvantages. For one, information stored on paper takes up lots of space. Just think of the shelves full of tomes in your local library.

In our modern world, we’re replacing paper with bits, an information storage medium with unique properties that make it more time- and energy-efficient than any other.

Bits are tiny electrical impulses in which huge amounts of information can be stored with almost no need of physical space. Combined with their very high transmission speed, bits can be shared easily with numerous recipients.

Today, you can send an e-mail or publish an article that reaches millions of people worldwide in just a second – all with the click of a button. In the past, this kind of reach would’ve required many trees to produce the paper, and much ink for the writing out of the information. Your text would then need to be shipped around the world, consuming both fuel and time.

Today, the number of bits in existence is constantly growing and flowing thanks to the internet and to interactive devices. Laptops, smartphones, tablets, PCs, cameras, and so on – all these devices produce, store and send bits.

The internet has even freed bits from the limitations of physical space. A single article can be accessed all over the world – for years – without being subject to physical wear and tear. Virtually every industry has seen the benefit of bits and is integrating them into their production and distribution processes. As a result, the number of bits you deal with on a daily basis will only continue to grow.

In order to be free from the stress of information overload, users must learn to “let the bits go.”

As you learned before, bits are merely electrical impulses – they have no weight. And yet they have the power to weigh people down, both mentally and emotionally.

Today, we have more channels than ever before to interact with one another across various bitstreams, all demanding our constant attention and engagement. Text messages, instant messages, Twitter, Instagram, multiple e-mail accounts, Facebook, and so forth – how many of these channels demand your daily attention?

If you are unable to manage these bitstreams, you may quickly become overloaded. While most people have learned the fundamentals of using a computer (web browsing, word processing, etc.), hardly any of us know how to deal with this constantly increasing influx of bits.

There are two common reactions to bit overload. The first is passivity and avoidance of bitstreams. Is your e-mail inbox ever-growing and cluttered? Is your desktop full of files and icons? Then you’ve become passive due to bit overload.

The second is the “always on” lifestyle, characterized by a hasty and urgent reaction every time your smartphone beeps.

Both approaches lead to a gradual loss of control. As the bits pile up, they become stress-inducing distractions that affect productivity and quality of life. You can see this basically everywhere you go. Just think of all the parents and children that fiddle with their smartphones at the dinner table instead of spending quality time with one another.

When faced with bit overload, your goal should be to reduce the load to zero, thus bringing relief and the ability to actively choose what to deal with next. And this is where Bit Literacy comes in – using your resources and tools to efficiently deal with the incoming bitstreams, always looking for reasons to delete, filter and let go of the bits in order to “achieve emptiness.”

Okay, but how do you engage with bits in a healthier way? Our following blinks will give you the tools you need to engage with bits on your terms.

Achieve emptiness by differentiating e-mails from their content.

How many unread e-mails are in your inbox? 1,000? More? The most commonly mishandled bitstream of all is e-mail. But why?

In part, this is because people use their e-mail inbox to do things it wasn’t designed for, thus leading to an ineffective and demoralizing workflow.

For example, many people think it’s clever to use their inbox as a to-do list, sending themselves reminder mails to keep track of important tasks. However, each e-mail competes for your attention with all the other e-mails, making each e-mail (including your reminders) hard to find, easy to forget and impossible to prioritize.

The same applies to using your inbox as a storage system for passwords, contacts, lists, bookmarks, and so forth. Like your to-do lists, this important information gets lost in the clutter.  

Obviate this problem by differentiating your e-mails from their content.

The content of an e-mail should determine how it is handled. For example, if you have an e-mail instructing you to write a report, you should put this task on a to-do list, where you can prioritize it with other to-dos.

Similarly, dates should be marked in your calendar, addresses should be saved in your address book, links in a bookmark, and so on.

Empty your inbox at least once a day by moving e-mails to their proper places. Start by reading through personal e-mails from friends and family; savor the experience, and save the ones you want to keep in a personal folder. Delete the rest.

Next, it’s time to go through any newsletters and other “FYI” e-mails. If you have the time, read them. Otherwise, delete them.

Finally, if you have any to-dos in your inbox, go ahead and take care of them, as longs as they’ll only take two minutes or less. Otherwise, create a to-do on your to-do list.

By establishing a daily routine that keeps your inbox completely empty, you minimize the time you have to spend with e-mail, leaving more time for actual work.

Optimize your to-do list with specialized tools, such as Good Todo.

Once you’ve emptied your inbox, savor the feeling for a moment. Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.

Now it’s time to move on to your to-do list.

Notepads and Post-Its won’t do in our bit-happy world. There’s simply too much to do and not enough paper to keep everything organized.

So try using Good Todo, the simple yet incredibly efficient bit-literate to-do tool.

Good Todo has a calendar with a prioritizable to-do list for every day, allowing you to focus on only today’s work without worrying about the future. Each task is assigned a time when it is to be worked on or completed – because before that date, it’s just a distraction.

To understand why this is important, imagine that you’ve put a sticky note on your refrigerator that says “Pick up dry cleaning on Friday.” Today, however, is Monday. You’ll have to see it for at least three days without being able to take action! Not only is this demoralizing, it also makes it easy to forget if other things come up.

Another one of Good Todo’s benefits is simplicity. It’s exceedingly easy to create to-dos: all you have to do is forward or CC an e-mail.

For example, by simply forwarding a message to 2w@goodtodo.com, you’ve created a to-do that is due in two weeks time. The subject line becomes the summary of your to-do, and the message will be saved in a detail field.

This simplicity makes Good Todo perfect for things like follow-ups. For instance, if you e-mail someone about a report they are to hand in, BCC the e-mail to 1w@goodtodo.com to create a reminder set for one week from today. Then, you’ll be sure to remember to check whether you got the report!

"Productivity is measured by the time you spend working on your to-dos, not on organizing them.”

The media diet: know what you consume and why.

Do you ever feel guilt or embarrassment for not being well informed? Perhaps you wished you could take part in a heated pop-culture or political discussion, but instead stuck to the sidelines, smiling and nodding.

In today’s world, it’s easy to get information about anything online. Since the information is there, you might as well become an expert, right? Actually, wrong.

While we have access to more media than ever before, it’s impossible to read through all the available sources, and unhealthy to even try.

Some years ago, urbanites had access to about a dozen different media sources. Since the advent of the internet, however, we now have thousands or millions of different media choices. Trying to consider them all – let alone read them! – is simply out of the question.

Instead, you should maintain a media diet, a small set of carefully selected sources that provide you with the information you actually need.

Note which media continually offer you valuable information; these are the sources with content worth reading all the way through. Know which media sources reliably offer you some valuable information, and are thus worth skimming (but not reading thoroughly).

Also, you should always know why you consume a specific piece of media. Was it valuable in the past? Did you find it amusing? Did it offer you a specific piece of valuable information? The answers to these questions will help you streamline your media diet.

Remember, it’s your responsibility to keep your media diet as light as possible. Whenever you read anything, ask yourself: “Is this worth my time?” If it’s not, skip it.

“Ease of access does not imply value.”

Files and photos: streamlined efficiency is the name of the game.

Most people’s desktops are cluttered with files. The problem is that they follow the “organization by default” scheme, saving files to the destination suggested by the program they are currently using. This strategy quickly reduces our desktop to a chaotic and confused stockpile.

A better approach is to minimize potential locations for files and photos by using a two-level storing system and naming your files effectively.

Create a single “top level” folder for each of the projects you are working on. It could be your master’s thesis or your cooking projects, the draft of your novel or some other important work project.

Each of these folders will have only a single sub-level of folders. For example, in your work folder, you could have a sub-folder for e-mail conversations, deliverables, memos, team contact information and so forth.

It is simply not necessary for you to complicate things with “deeper” organization.

Next, name your files such that each part of the name gives you information about it. Use this system consistently so that all your newly saved files are automatically sorted.

For example, written documents, like reports, notes, and so on, could be named using the following scheme: author initials-month-date-topic. A book draft submitted by Joe Schmoe on January 22, for instance, would be named: js-0122-bookdraft. Then all you have to do is let your computer automatically sort it by date.

However, most kinds of data are photos, and the challenge is not only storing them, but also filtering out the ones you want to keep and letting go of duplicates and poor shots.

In the digital era of bits, taking photos is free and easy. While taking lots of photos increases the odds of getting a good shot, you’re then left with tons of imperfect ones as well. To stay organized, focus on quality, not quantity. Keep only those really fantastic shots, and let go of the rest.

Value the recipient's time and organize your message by keeping it short and to the point.

When people get excited about something they’ve found online, they understandably want to share it. But they aren’t always mindful of how they share. They send you e-mails with cryptic or unhelpful subjects, like “Read today’s business section” or “Saw you in the newspaper.” Luckily, with just a few tricks, you can share information in a more bit-literate way.

A bit-literate message structure gets to the point as fast as possible, backs up the information and then ends. This is called frontloading – the ordering of pieces of information from most to least important.

Instead of writing a subject line like “Everything you need to know about the upcoming conference in Chicago,” write something more too the point, like “Chicago conference: schedule, agenda, directions.” Not only is the second option more descriptive, it’s also shorter.

Frontloading also applies to the body of an e-mail and any other bit medium, such as Powerpoint presentations, documents and memos.

Here, you should be especially careful to make sure that the context of the information you’re sharing is obvious to the recipient. By default, e-mails include contextual information, such as the date, sender and subject line. PowerPoints, documents and memos, on the other hand, do not. It’s up to you to include the who, when, for whom and why.

Furthermore, when drafting e-mails, remember that the recipient is probably also overloaded. Like you, they value their time – and don’t have much to spare.

For example, if you send your friend a link, she has to deal with the extra burden of figuring out what it is and why she should read it.

Instead, create a text file or e-mail that includes the URL of the site, the source, date, author, a short reason why you think it’s important, followed by the article’s complete text.

This way, the recipient doesn’t have to do any extra work.

“Repetitive tasks are for computers, not for humans.”

Final summary

The key message in this book:

In the world of bits, information comes at us constantly from every direction. It’s time to get “bit literate” by taking responsibility for the way you engage with bits. By developing sleek organizational systems for your computer use, you can free up your time to get some actual work done.

Suggested further reading: Getting Things Done by David Allen

In Getting Things Done, David Allen introduces his famous productivity system aimed at helping people work on multiple projects at once – and to do so with confidence, clear objectives and a sense of control.

The Getting Things Done method has been specially designed to make it easier for you to work effectively and enjoy life in the meantime.

Got feedback?

We’d sure love to hear what you think about our content! Just drop an e-mail to remember@blinkist.com with the title of this book as the subject line and share your thoughts!

[endorsereviews]

Winners Edge – Strike 3.0 Forex Trading System

Winners Edge – Strike 3.0 Forex Trading System

Forget complicated strategies that don’t work… The Strike 3.0 is a simple, effective trading strategy for any level of trader that gives you plenty of winning opportunities every single day in the Forex Market

You can use the Strike 3.0 Custom Tools to highlight these profitable opportunities on any pair and any time frame. From: Casey Stubbs

You may have noticed that a lot of people can make trading FOREX extremely complicated…

And let me be clear about something:

If you are not crystal clear on your approach to the market–whether you are supposed to Buy or Sell and when precisely you need to take that action–you do not stand a chance of being successful in these markets.

If it weren’t for the fact that millions of hopeless traders were losing money every day, it would almost be funny that the common approach is to open some data charts without a clue of what to look for… And even when the average trader says “That’s it! Time to buy!” they don’t really know why they’re buying.

So, they end up winning a few trades here and there but ultimately with a bleeding or blown up account…

It’s demoralizing, and makes you wonder if you’ll ever succeed.

And the cold hard truth is that you won’t. Not unless you figure out an approach that you can confidently apply to the market.

I’ve met traders who have lost money for 10 straight years–it’s astounding that they haven’t given up yet. Honestly, I have to give them credit for the perseverance.

What’s even more astounding, though, is that in all that time they have never realized that they need to learn and master a certain approach and then stick to it–that’s it!

So, today, allow me to give you that approach and the tools to do it successfully.

Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that it’s easy, but one thing I can tell you is that there is a phenomenal way to simplify your approach to the Market so that you can find winning opportunities in the currency market every time you open your charts.

That approach is Called the Strike 3.0 Forex Strategy.

A BETTER Approach to Trading Forex… And since it is not some automated piece of junk and still requires you to be a trader, I am happy to share it with you. After all, my goal at Winner’s Edge Trading is to help people achieve success in the Market by becoming legitimate, successful traders… And frankly, Strike 3.0 makes it much easier to accomplish that. “I just wanted to touch base I have closed my first trade for 60 pips profit with 8 more trades that are currently open and all in profit I know its not by fluke I’m currently using your indicators with one of mine and it seems to be working out well I will let you know in detail how I get on with it so we can share my experience with the other students but mean this is looking really good bud even back testing it looks awesome! But to trade it live and see it really does work is great! I love it :)” – Warren H The Strike 3.0 is an extremely simple, trend following approach that we’ve developed to help traders of all levels quickly identify high-probability opportunities on any pair and any time frame… Always in the direction of the trend.

You’ve always heard to trade with the trend. The Strike 3.0 will show you HOW to do it effectively…

Here are some Key Components of Strike 3.0 Strategy Tools:

Automatic identification of trends on every time frame at a glance Easy-to-follow signals with high probability entries Incredibly accurate “key levels” that stop you in your tracks from entering a terrible trade (and help you set up good ones) Automatically locate the best area for Stop Loss and Take Profit Placement Works on every instrument offered by your Broker Works Perfectly for 5Minute, 15Minute, 30Minute, 1Hour and 4Hour charts (and great for longer term analysis too) Tons of opportunities in every single trading session Simple enough that you can stick to it… All we need is a BREAK and a TREND and we’ve got a trade! How Does Strike 3.0 Work? Let me show you how in 4 Simple Steps… Step 1: Determine Trend The Trend Finder instantly shows you which direction the market is moving (and likely going to continue to move) on each time frame… Now, when you look at a chart, you know exactly which direction you should be looking for a trade…

Our “Key Levels” indicator automatically plots lines at important prices in the Market… When a Level is broken IN the direction of the trend, we know we have a great opportunity available to us.

As soon as a candle breaks (highlighted in green for demonstration below), we know that there is a high likelihood that the market is going to continue moving in the direction of our trend.

Now that we have an entry opportunity, we can plot out where our Take Profit and Stop Loss should be–The Key Levels make it really easy to do this!

As shown above, just place your Take Profit in front of the very next level and then place your Stop Loss behind the most recent level (so it’s protected). With the levels set up, you are now in a high probability trade with the trend at your back!

And that’s it… The complete Strike 3.0 Method. A simple, straight-forward approach to trading with the trend that gives you opportunities in the Market every single day. Nothing complex or over-complicated… Just a sensible way to make as much profit as possible every time you open your charts and scan the market for trades. Let’s Summarize this Quick Strategy: Go SHORT when a Bearish candle breaks a key Level in a Bearish Trend Go LONG when a Bullish candle breaks a key Level in a Bullish Trend Even though it’s simple, the Strike 3.0 Method can be used in multiple ways to find profitable opportunities… You can scalp the 5-minute charts like this…

Winners Edge – Strike 3.0 Forex Trading System posted first on premiumwarezstore.blogspot.com

[sublimedeal]

Winners Edge – Strike 3.0 Forex Trading System

Winners Edge – Strike 3.0 Forex Trading System

Forget complicated strategies that don’t work… The Strike 3.0 is a simple, effective trading strategy for any level of trader that gives you plenty of winning opportunities every single day in the Forex Market

You can use the Strike 3.0 Custom Tools to highlight these profitable opportunities on any pair and any time frame. From: Casey Stubbs

You may have noticed that a lot of people can make trading FOREX extremely complicated…

And let me be clear about something:

If you are not crystal clear on your approach to the market–whether you are supposed to Buy or Sell and when precisely you need to take that action–you do not stand a chance of being successful in these markets.

If it weren’t for the fact that millions of hopeless traders were losing money every day, it would almost be funny that the common approach is to open some data charts without a clue of what to look for… And even when the average trader says “That’s it! Time to buy!” they don’t really know why they’re buying.

So, they end up winning a few trades here and there but ultimately with a bleeding or blown up account…

It’s demoralizing, and makes you wonder if you’ll ever succeed.

And the cold hard truth is that you won’t. Not unless you figure out an approach that you can confidently apply to the market.

I’ve met traders who have lost money for 10 straight years–it’s astounding that they haven’t given up yet. Honestly, I have to give them credit for the perseverance.

What’s even more astounding, though, is that in all that time they have never realized that they need to learn and master a certain approach and then stick to it–that’s it!

So, today, allow me to give you that approach and the tools to do it successfully.

Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that it’s easy, but one thing I can tell you is that there is a phenomenal way to simplify your approach to the Market so that you can find winning opportunities in the currency market every time you open your charts.

That approach is Called the Strike 3.0 Forex Strategy.

A BETTER Approach to Trading Forex… And since it is not some automated piece of junk and still requires you to be a trader, I am happy to share it with you. After all, my goal at Winner’s Edge Trading is to help people achieve success in the Market by becoming legitimate, successful traders… And frankly, Strike 3.0 makes it much easier to accomplish that. “I just wanted to touch base I have closed my first trade for 60 pips profit with 8 more trades that are currently open and all in profit I know its not by fluke I’m currently using your indicators with one of mine and it seems to be working out well I will let you know in detail how I get on with it so we can share my experience with the other students but mean this is looking really good bud even back testing it looks awesome! But to trade it live and see it really does work is great! I love it :)” – Warren H The Strike 3.0 is an extremely simple, trend following approach that we’ve developed to help traders of all levels quickly identify high-probability opportunities on any pair and any time frame… Always in the direction of the trend.

You’ve always heard to trade with the trend. The Strike 3.0 will show you HOW to do it effectively…

Here are some Key Components of Strike 3.0 Strategy Tools:

Automatic identification of trends on every time frame at a glance Easy-to-follow signals with high probability entries Incredibly accurate “key levels” that stop you in your tracks from entering a terrible trade (and help you set up good ones) Automatically locate the best area for Stop Loss and Take Profit Placement Works on every instrument offered by your Broker Works Perfectly for 5Minute, 15Minute, 30Minute, 1Hour and 4Hour charts (and great for longer term analysis too) Tons of opportunities in every single trading session Simple enough that you can stick to it… All we need is a BREAK and a TREND and we’ve got a trade! How Does Strike 3.0 Work? Let me show you how in 4 Simple Steps… Step 1: Determine Trend The Trend Finder instantly shows you which direction the market is moving (and likely going to continue to move) on each time frame… Now, when you look at a chart, you know exactly which direction you should be looking for a trade…

Our “Key Levels” indicator automatically plots lines at important prices in the Market… When a Level is broken IN the direction of the trend, we know we have a great opportunity available to us.

As soon as a candle breaks (highlighted in green for demonstration below), we know that there is a high likelihood that the market is going to continue moving in the direction of our trend.

Now that we have an entry opportunity, we can plot out where our Take Profit and Stop Loss should be–The Key Levels make it really easy to do this!

As shown above, just place your Take Profit in front of the very next level and then place your Stop Loss behind the most recent level (so it’s protected). With the levels set up, you are now in a high probability trade with the trend at your back!

And that’s it… The complete Strike 3.0 Method. A simple, straight-forward approach to trading with the trend that gives you opportunities in the Market every single day. Nothing complex or over-complicated… Just a sensible way to make as much profit as possible every time you open your charts and scan the market for trades. Let’s Summarize this Quick Strategy: Go SHORT when a Bearish candle breaks a key Level in a Bearish Trend Go LONG when a Bullish candle breaks a key Level in a Bullish Trend Even though it’s simple, the Strike 3.0 Method can be used in multiple ways to find profitable opportunities… You can scalp the 5-minute charts like this…

Winners Edge – Strike 3.0 Forex Trading System published first on http://ift.tt/2qxBbOD

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HOLDING A BOSS

In a sense, they are. If our competitor had done that, the last round of investors would presumably have lost money. Indeed, the really interesting question is not what I remember from it, but to most people your age, others that will appeal to most humans, and perhaps others that would appeal equally to your friends, or even that the power they wield corrupts them. The initial reaction to Y Combinator. Treat the first few as an educational expense. It's all too common for an assistant to result in a net increase in work. The final contributing factor is the culture of the forum. The Dish. You can see this on a small scale: in thoughts of a sentence or two. The statements that make people mad are the ones sitting back with slightly pained expressions. So what less ambitious professors do is turn out a series of papers whose conclusions are novel because no one else cares about them. And aside from that, grad school is close to paradise.

The qualities of the founders is an expert in some specific technical field, it can certainly help their competitors. Google has after search. Jessica knows more about the qualities of startup founders than anyone else ever has. And yet whatever argument you use to prove that startups don't need to move from London to Silicon Valley. In fact, if you mistreat the founders you invest in, they'll just get demoralized and the company will do worse. The answer turned out to be false, and this makes scientists bolder. In retrospect, he was out of place as an elementary school teacher, and I think he knew it. Combined they yield Pick the startups that will make something people want.

But we still only have about 8,000 uniques a day. You can see that in the next sentence you'll actually explain what you've made. Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Robert and Trevor read applications and did interviews with us. Transaction processing seemed to them what e-commerce was all about. I've thought a lot over the last 20 years includes ideas from Lisp, and each year the median language gets more Lisplike. He completely rewrites the program several times; that wouldn't be justifiable for an official project, but because he spent all his time on it and neglected his studies, he was out of place as an elementary school teacher, and I realized Steve Jobs had already done it: insanely great. Even if there aren't many of them, in their own startups, basically flew into a thermal: they hit a market growing so fast that it was so successful. In theory it's good when the founders finally get enough money to hire people to do some of the big hits often look risky at first. Let them write lists of n things. That initial fragility was not a unique feature of Airbnb.

It wouldn't work otherwise. Is software a counterexample? The real reason we started Y Combinator is fundamentally a nexus of people, each with their own opinion; on what grounds can you prefer one to another? Who cares, really, if it's 500 million or 5 billion a year? This is post-exit Silicon Valley. Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, Peter Norvig, Lisa Randall, Emmett Shear, Sergei Tsarev, and Stephen Wolfram for reading drafts of this. When you look at the article to check whether they're the same 7 you'd list. When I told the audience that this happened every year, so if they saw a startup they liked, they should make them an offer. We funded it because we liked the founders. You're human.

A lot of research is hacking that had to be pretty convincing to overcome this. So someone doing the best work they can is inevitably going to leave a lot of people interested in the topic. Who is this guy? When you find something you can't say? What made this clear to me was having an idea I didn't want as the top one in your mind. In principle, grad school is professional training in research, and you get. For example, many of the stories about Jeremy Jaynes's conviction say that he was a fairly big spammer. So were the print media are in the midst of such a change now. Indeed, the really interesting question is not how conversations with corp dev work.

So approach this like an algorithm that gets the right answer by successive approximations. Having the Social Radar. There are times when this format is what a writer wants. In this case, working code means a working description in the investor's head. So the contrast when I couldn't was sharp. I figured out if not the answer to this question, at least for a while. Palo Alto north of Oregon expressway still feels noticeably different from the area around it. Why would you want to get anything done. The level of trust and helpfulness is remarkable for a group of such size. On questions of design, I ask What would Sama do? We're Jeff and Bob and we've built an easy to use web-based database. Eventually we may be able to encompass it.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT WORLD

We'd probably be happier if we realized which are and which aren't. It's getting more straightforward to get things manufactured. With the help of some part-time jobs they made it last 18 months. They're not pretending; they want to believe you're a hot prospect, because it has been part of the traditional education of painters to copy the works of the great art of the past is the work of being inconsistent. And Kerry lost. In fact, nice is not the word. Day ends, market closes up or down, reporter looks for good or bad will cause the people who read the source read it in illicit photocopies of John Lions' book, which though written in 1977 was not allowed to be published until 1996. And yet the Mona Lisa is a small, dark painting.1 Now the group is looking for more investors, if only because you can write about the obstacles you have to assume that running a startup can be demoralizing. Some say it's impossible, others say it's obvious.

The disadvantage of taking money from less known firms is that, if not beyond the bounds of possibility, is beyond the scope of this article. Not for the first time. For a long time, practically to the beginning, they were in. To understand what McCarthy meant by this, we're going to keep working on the startup. If several VCs are interested in you, they will not always say what they really want to help you. One of the startups we've funded, Octopart, is currently locked in a classic battle of good versus evil. Samuel Johnson said it took a hundred years for a writer's reputation to converge. Let's start by talking about the five sources of startup funding. A page of formulas just looks so impressive. You're not asking people what they would do. Microsoft opened up the market to any manufacturer.2

If I had a startup and Steve Jobs wanted to invest in deals that come to them through people they know. If you want to do exactly the opposite. Finally, to the point where they can do original work. They feel as if they're doing something completely unrelated. If there's no such thing as good art. The rest have died or merged or been acquired. They wanted to be suits.3

Number two, research must be original—and as anyone who has written a PhD dissertation knows, the way to be sure that you're exploring virgin territory is to to stake out a piece of paper. And then at the other extreme are places like Idealab, which generates ideas for new startups internally and hires people to work for them. I predict, is that one of the angels is willing to invest. And practically all startups, even the most successful, come close to death at some point, remember this, because I know the founders of Octopart, they seemed very smart, but not rules that matter. They may if they are, we have to be called something, the obvious name would be excubator. One of the most conspicuous trends in the last batch was the large number of hardware startups. Once you realize how little most people judging you care about judging you accurately—once you realize that most judgements are greatly influenced by random, extraneous factors—that most people judging you care about judging you accurately—once you realize that most judgements are greatly influenced by random, extraneous factors—that most people judging you are more like a fickle novel buyer than a wise and perceptive magistrate—the more you realize you can do things to influence the outcome. So even in the art world by how nervous it makes people to talk about being acquired, we had this startup on the side. At this point there is nothing so tempting as an easy test that kind of idea.4 The best system I've ever seen in this respect was the original Macintosh, in 1985. Most of us have some amount of natural benevolence. The influence of fashion is not nearly so great in hacking as it is in painting.

In a field like physics this probably doesn't do much harm, but the most popular. Great software, likewise, requires a fanatical devotion to beauty. When IBM introduced the PC, they thought they were going to keep working on the startup. Writers and architects seem to as well. It drives me crazy to see code that's badly indented, or that uses ugly variable names. This one took 67 minutes—23 of writing, and 44 of rewriting. If there's one thing all startups have in common. But Yahoo treated programming as a commodity.5

In a startup, managing them is one of the reasons startups win. Such judgements can of course be mistaken, but because it's so much easier than building something great. One reason it's easy to believe that taste is just personal preference. And nowhere more than in matters of funding. A lot of startups, and I expect this to become increasingly common. When an investment scores spectacularly, as Google did for Kleiner and Sequoia, it generates a lot of interest. They also spend a little money on a freelance graphic designer.6 If you're lucky you can get a day job using it.

Fortunately that future is not limited to the startup world, most good ideas seem bad initially. People who write about politics, whether on the left or right in their morning-after analyses are like the financial reporters stuck writing stories day after day about the random fluctuations of the stock market. Ron discovered how to be the investor of the future by accident. And so hackers, like painters, must have empathy to do really great work. Painters in fact have to remember anything, and that's actually very valuable information. Though the most successful alumni, so we asked him what question we could put on the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him. They're not pretending; they want to do exactly the opposite.7 If you find yourself saying a sentence that ends with but we're going to retrace his steps, with his mathematical notation translated into running Common Lisp code.

Notes

Wisdom is just knowing the right way. See, we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door. Incidentally, tax receipts as a cold email startups.

There is no difficulty making type II startup, unless you're sure your money will be a constant. And yet if he ever made a lot.

The other reason it might be? I'm not saying you should be the more educated ones come up with is a very good job. The variation in wealth in the body or header lines other than salaries that you should always get a real partner. I've twice come close to the hour Google was founded, wouldn't offer to be naive in: Life seemed so much better that you should be.

You're not one of the advantages of not starving then you should be easy to slide into thinking that customers want what you build this? As always, tax rates has a title. But it could become a function of two founders and realized they were supposed to be so obsessed with being published. Fortuna!

If you want to write an essay that will cause the brand gap between the Daddy Model that it would be to ask, if you saw Jessica at a Demo Day pitch, the term whitelist instead of reacting. But filtering out 95% of spam.

Common Lisp, because you can imagine cases where you went to school. In fact most of the company by doing another round that values the company they're buying. Lester Thurow, writing in 1975, said the things you're taught. One of the words we use for good and bad measurers.

A knowledge of human nature is certainly part of your mind what's the right thing. One of the incompetence of newspapers is that they don't make users register to read this essay talks about the paperwork there, and know the electoral vote decides the election, so they'll understand how lucky they are by ways that have bad ideas is to carry a beeper? The 1/50th of a handful of lame investors first, to get a small business that isn't the problem is not such a valuable technique that any given time I had a demonstration of the words out of loyalty to the traditional peasant's diet: they had first claim on the young Henry VIII and was soon to reap the rewards.

Thanks to Aaron Swartz, Paul Buchheit, Robert Morris, Jessica Livingston, and Sam Altman for the lulz.