#polymap

[drifter-carbon]

"Alien Worlds" - Minecraft Texture Pack Review

[catsareliquidgame]

Share Your Worlds

Look! It’s not just a boring list! There’s more to this! There’s content! There’s excitement! There’s talk about features! There’s exclamation points!

I though I’d talk about world sharing in the Cats are Liquid - A Better Place. Mainly because there’s been quite a lot of questions about it lately, and it would be neat to just share a link to this post if someone asks me about world sharing in the future.

So let’s get right to it!

IMPORTANT NOTE: when I say “file transfer“, that includes Bluetooth, WiFi, sending the file as a Discord / email message attachment, putting them on a file sharing / cloud storage service, using a USB cable, etc. The game doesn’t care how you transfer the necessary files.

World sharing?

In Cats are Liquid - A Better Place, you’ll be able to share worlds that you’ve created using the included room editor with other people.

Does this mean multiplayer?

No. Cats are Liquid - A Better Place will be a single-player only game. This includes custom worlds.

How can I share a world (at launch)?

This will depend a bit on where you got the game from. There will be a big share button of sorts that you can tap / click on and I’ll bring up the appropriate sharing UI for your platform.

Steam: you’ll be able to share worlds using the Steam Workshop, or by file transfer. If you choose file transfer, the game will show you a guide and the open folder in which the world files are stored.

itch.io: only file transfers are supported. Clicking the share button will show you a guide and the open folder in which the world files are stored.

Android and iOS: only file transfers are supported.

Once you have your world file, you can upload it to Discord, Google Drive, etc. Or just share it via Bluetooth or whatever method you prefer.

Here’s an example for mobile:

I select the world I want to share on a list, and tap share.

I select Discord on the list of apps that pop up.

I select the server, the channel, and click “post”.

Now anyone who sees that message can just tap on the attachment, and they can play the world I’ve shared (assuming that they have the game installed).

Why is this so limited? Why not have an in-game level sharing system like [enter game name here] has?

Because it turns out that creating an in-game user-generated content system that has all the necessary features to pass inspection by all the storefronts I want this game to be on and complies with all applicable laws and can sustain a moderate amount of people using it is actually kinda hard.

I know. I absolutely know. If I had the choice, there would be in-game cross-platform world sharing at launch and everything would be just fine.

I do have plans to implement that in-game cross-platform user-generated world sharing system later, and push it out as an update.

How can I open a world that has been sent to me / that I downloaded?

If you got the map from the Steam Workshop, it should just appear in the game automagically. Just click on it and you’ll be good to go.

If you are playing on mobile, you’ll be able to just tap on a map file (in your device’s file browser, on Discord, etc) and the game will handle the rest and load it into the game.

If neither of the scenarios above apply to you, you’ll need to move the game to a specific folder on your computer. There’s a button in the game that will open that folder so you won’t need to go looking for it.

What would be the best way to share worlds with the community?

There’s going to be a Discord channel in the Last Quarter Studios Discord server where you can share your worlds! So you know, you might wanna join that by clicking here.

Is there any way to share worlds via the internet (not using the Discord server)?

Yes! On mobile you can just use your device’s native sharing UI to upload the game wherever you want. Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. If you get the game from Steam, you can use Steam workshop to share your worlds, and you will of course also have the option putting the map file on a file sharing service like the ones mentioned above. If you get the game from itch.io, that last one is your only option (at least at launch).

How can I play a world someone else has shared?

Depends a bit on what platform you are on. On mobile, once you download a world file, you should be able to open it in the game. Just find the world file, tap it, and it should give you the option to open it in Cats are Liquid - A Better Place. Tap that, and the game will take care of the rest. If you get the game from Steam, Steam Workshop is your go-to place for maps. But if you get a map from somewhere else you can simply drop it to the maps folder, and it’ll show up in the game. If you get the game from itch.io, putting maps inside the map folder is the only way to go (at least at launch).

Can I transfer a world from mobile to PC / PC to mobile?

Absolutely yes. The PolyMap system couldn’t care less if you made your world on mobile or on PC, so you can share maps between those platforms using the method described in the “Is there any way to share worlds via the internet?“ section above. Or instead of putting them online, you could just connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable and do a manual file transfer. Or use Bluetooth. Pretty much anything works!

What if I want to share just one room?

Simple: make a world with just one room in it. You’re going to have to create a world for that anyways so there’s no extra work for you.

I think I’ve answered most of the questions that I’ve been asked. If you have any more, please let me know so that I can add them to the list.

As always: you should follow @lastquarterdev on Twitter, and join the Last Quarter Studios Discord server if you haven’t yet.

[wordpress-blaze-221734350]

My Recommendation

In this post-Afirmative Action world, sans quotas lives a fairy tale of stellar recommendations and grades making their mark… but what happens when a damnation replaces said recommendation?  How do you survive?

 

I used to like to think myself accomplished for my age. I was 27 and had recently finished a prestigious post-baccalaureate program at a prominent university in New York. The world was my oyster and I had put all of my eggs in one basket to pursue a career in medicine. Since the age of 3 it was all I could talk about. I practically repeated the same thing to anyone and everyone that I met. My aspirations to become a physician and what that would ultimately mean…. what my life would be. All that I could fathom was in one tiny inkling of possibility and I relished the prospect daily.

 

The transition from being an English major to the innate submersion of science was overwhelming to say the least.  The words that ebbed and flowed through my mind were constantly all at once washed away by a cacophony of mis-matched equations that led to nowhere, elements that suffered to erase themselves from my tongue as soon as they were spoken, and an uncanny ability to predict the slowing of time based on how complicated a physics equation may be.  I still remember with absolute wonder and horror how I believe that I must have had a vascular event status post an organic chemistry examination where I needed 5 to 10 minutes to really remember what city I was in, what direction that I was supposed to be walking to get to my train, and even where I lived.

 

It was in all of that time that I met an unlikely ally- at least, I thought so at first.  She was one of the most admired and feared professors in one of the most popular science departments in the country.  While she tended to dress like a vagrant mystic, she had mesmerizing large eyes that could laser focus on you in an auditorium of hundreds and put anyone on edge with the cold silence of her question.  As I was recounting a story of this woman’s effect on her class one day, my mother informed me that she believed that she knew of my professor in an unexpected way.  “Oh… that sounds like Sarah’s neighbor…I’m almost certain of it.”  She stated.  We continued our conversation throughout the day and my mother urged me to inform this professor of our social connection.

 

So, I did.  Given that I was determined to bend my mind to science, I religiously attended Professor W’s office hours.  It was in one of those classes where we were debating the amazing superiority of the human cell receptors, that I decided to mention it.  I explained that my mother and “Sarah” had gone to college together and that they had remained friends and kept in touch. “Oh” she exclaimed.  I watched as her round eyes seemed to soften and her smile widened.  It was in my naivety that I believed that with my hard work, my dedication, that I had shown her that I was entirely capable and that I might be able to reach my goal someday with her help.

 

Over the course of the semester, I was able to hone my newfound scientific intellect into a B for my final class grade.  Though I had accepted my perfectionist tendencies, I wasn’t particularly sad with this because I knew all of the hours of work that I had put into this class.  I welcomed continuing on to fight another day; it instilled a new strain of confidence in me that I thought I didn’t have before.  I was ready to go out and sell myself to medical schools.  I subsequently finished my post-baccalaureate program and circled back around to professor W. Since I knew that I hadn’t done half bad in her class and I thought that she had gotten to know me during my time in the program as I seemed to spend more time in her office than any other, I thought that she would be the perfect recommendation reference.

 

I remember walking into the dark paneled mahogany office and sitting down to catch up.  She was pleasant with slightly flat affect, eyes large as saucers that threatened to bulge out of her head with the sheer motion of a head tilt… I took it all in. I thought that I had timed it right.  I handed her a standard form for the university and asked if she would write my letter of recommendation for medical school.

 

  She slightly slowed what she was doing and repeated back to me what I had asked her.  I looked at her and hesitated. “Yes, I would be honored.” I replied.  She looked slowly down at her desk as if contemplating something and said “Well, if you would like me to write you a recommendation, so be it. I will write it.”  I was ecstatic and couldn’t help almost skipping home that day.  It was a beautiful thing to realize that a dream that I was working so hard for, may actually come to fruition…

 

In the next few months, I was a buzz studying for the MCAT, working, and compiling my medical school file.  In what seemed like no time, I had everything complete.  I remember walking to the office with the list of schools that I wanted to apply to and made sure that my post baccalaureate office sent out the letters to the schools of my choice.  It had truly been a labor of love for me.  Once my applications had been sent out to the schools, I spent my time mulling about and counting down the days for a letter for an interview.  What went from days to weeks quickly became months.  I was subsequently completely confused and dejected.

 

I used to go over the wording of my essay, questioning whether I may have made an offensive comment.   Maybe my grades simply weren’t good enough, or my scores?  I wasn’t certain what could possibly have been the problem.  To make it worse, the barrage of denial letters seemed to come at the very end of the period.  I dared not even ask why I wasn’t up for reconsideration and even decided to apply at the last minute to get my Master of Public Health at my undergraduate university.  And this is when time seemed to stop for me.

 

Somehow, I received vague feedback that there was an “discrepancy” with my application.  Something that the reviewers couldn’t comment about but that put my entire application in question and that they had no choice but to reject me.  I felt like I had been forced to the end of the conveyer belt and was now falling into the “FAIL” heap.   I shuddered to think where I would end up.  This was the beginning of many nights of sleeplessness, high blood pressure, and me slowly coming to the realization that medicine may not be for me, that I was simply not qualified.

 

There were other family friends who had seen my application and recommended me reaching out to other Admissions officers in other branches of the university.  However, when I spoke with those officers, they would feign surprise that I was calling them and referred me back to my own post-baccalaureate department without question, almost clucking that I was confused and overzealous. I was trapped.

 

I decided to take a weekend excursion with my parents down South to visit a family friend.  We had a great time, but our friend noticed my consistent anxious and dejected expression.  When she asked me about it, I explained the situation.  I let her know that medical professional administrators had indicated that there were inconsistencies with my application.  I wondered aloud if I needed experience in the medical field more or to take more classes to increase my GPA even more.  As I considered my options aloud, she remained stoic and then told me a story about her daughter’s friend. 

 

She stated that her daughter’s friend was an accomplished Ivy League graduate, like me, who had applied to graduate school and continued to be rejected for some time before she realized that a letter of recommendation had been her undoing. I sat perplexed and captivated as she told me that not all letters of recommendation were affirmative to the applicant for which they were intended.  She explained that there were some professors who put a knife in the backs of certain students to sink their careers. 

 

What is even more disconcerting is that there is really little to no way for anyone to know that this practice is happening to them.  As a student bleeds out their time, work, hopes, and fears other personnel are essentially bound to secrecy.  This is because a letter of recommendation only has merit when it is confidential.  And in having someone write a poison letter, a student all but gambles and seals their fate with a career ending secrecy pact. 

 

It took some time for me to compose myself.  I soon suspected that I may have a poison letter and was able to hire a wonderfully savvy education consultant who was able to help me re-navigate the admissions process.  He worked with me to polish my ideas, speak louder and more confidently. He also recommended that I visit the schools to which I applied and (of course) to hone my application with a different compilation of my letters.

 

I contacted my post baccalaureate admission office and didn’t hear anything back for weeks.  I called again with no response.  Finally, one day I called the office and was met with one of the staffers answering the phone.  When I said hello and who I was, I was told to call that staffer on their cell phone number.  This was in the early 2000’s so, people hardly ever said this.  I complied and waited about 15 minutes for them to leave the office.  Once we were able to touch base, I was told in no uncertain terms to ever call the post-baccalaureate office again and to only contact the staffer.  I was flabbergasted.  All I could do was hear my heart pound in my throat.  They explained that they would be sure to get my consultant the application that had been sent out previously. And both my consultant and I waited…

 

 A week or so after my conversation my consultant received the application and called me into his office and read me something that changed my life. He sat me down at a long table and had two piles- one taller than the other.  As I watched, he began to read me the letters of the numerous faculty members who supported me from the taller pile.  They all had wonderfully glowing things to say about my abilities and spoke of how I would very likely soar to great heights and accomplish my dreams.  I was extremely humbled. 

 

Then my consultant went to the short pile. Which consisted of one letter.  He held it up and asked if I was ready to hear it.  I took a deep breath and nodded yes. I listened as he, in the words of Professor W., started off with “Though Aisha believes herself to be intelligent, she is in fact one of the worst students that I have ever had.”  The letter was a barrage of insults calling me dim-witted, lazy, mentally deficient among numerous other characteristics.  She likened me to have the mentality of a second grader and stated that I would have no business in the university’s post-baccalaureate programs and certainly could never survive the rigors of medical school.

 

My consultant stopped at the end and the silence weighed on my chest.  I took deep breaths to keep it at bay.  He stated that he wanted me to hear how ridiculous this letter was.  How ugly it was.  He turned to me and questioned me on my own insecurities stating that my resume, my education, everything that I had done was leading up to medical school and that he was certain that this letter was the thing that was killing my medical opportunities.  He implored me to be adamant that I was beyond qualified and to believe it in everything that I did from there on.

 

I walked out of the office that day feeling the weight and the exhilaration of racial terror.  On one hand, it was devastating that I had allowed someone to write these lies about me to share with the world.  On the other hand, the words were so hateful, derogatory, and racist that it went without saying.   Say what you might, but I am still convinced that this professor firmly believed in eugenics and could have easily written a compelling case based on her “concern for my abilities” noted in my letter. 

 

I had gone to some of the best schools in the country, constantly challenged and tried (with a strong GPA) and this woman was saying that I was barely qualified to tie my shoes. It took me time to reflect, recollect, and regenerate into Aisha 2.0, a young woman who was not afraid to share the many facets of herself.  To be gracious in my knowledge, my instinct and the trajectory of my dreams.

 

In the weeks after me reading my “poison letter”, I was finally able to receive interviews in the second round of my medical school application process. With a swipe of my consultant’s hand, the letter was removed and my dreams were finally coming into formation.

 

I got accepted into medical school after my second application submission, went on to graduate with honors, completed residency, fellowship, and now continue to practice. But I continually shudder to think about how lucky I was. If I had not had a consultant and a hero in the admission’s office, I likely would never have been a doctor, even though my grades, my resume, my experience, and my background were all worthy of my going to medical school.

 

I am a unicorn, when I should really be a zebra. I comprise 6% of physicians, when there should really be more as more are needed and most importantly, more are capable. Out of the many legions of students of color who started the medical school process with me, only a few remained. One by one, they were lost to dissuasion, humiliation, and terror just like me. How many other physicians and medical professionals of color have been lost to this exclusionary process? Some may think that this is simply what medicine is, a weed out process. But, students should be selected on the basis of merit and not outright sabotage. The lack of acceptance of people of color in medicine serves as a perpetuation of the poison that continues and feeds our medical system today. If you were dying on a stretcher, you’d want the best physician for the job to save you, but continuation of this “tradition” most likely ensures you’ll have a mediocre physician instead as it works both ways. Who is qualified? What does qualified mean?

 

Where does this leave others in this new political landscape?  Is this where professors like W all but determine who gets to go to a “good school”? Is this where cronyism is rewarded?  And what does that do for the world?  Homogeneity dims the light of creativity and innovation.  If we all have the same thoughts and perspectives, how can one be challenged to be greater than they even knew that they could be?

 

It is in our diversity that we thrive.  It is in our varying perspectives that growth can be cultivated, once and for all.   The lesson of my recommendation is that we need a better way to do better now that the precedent is no more.  The more this country remains divided, the less time that people interact with one another and only increases the possibilities to develop more fears and misconceptions, opening the door for hatred to ensue.  Each possibility of an individual damnation letter is a knife in a student's back, that not only threatens the hopes and dreams of a young soul, but also the progress of a country.

 

 

Source: My Recommendation

[lootsnakegame]

Camera zones - (20/2018)

This is going to be a short one.

Shapes are now treated as additional components to items

All of this is happening behind the scenes so you won’t really see it (unless you go and dig through the map files). Some of the benefits of this change include less code to maintain and that there’s now only a single “polymap.data” file, instead of the separate “shapes.data” and “items.data” files.

Camera zones

Previously you had to manually tweak the camera lock position by typing in coordinates into the room configuration screen. Only problem was: there was no way to know which coordinate was where. You could also only lock the camera to a single position per room.

The new camera zones fix this. A camera zone is a PolyMap shape you can put on the map, just like any other shape. You can then hover your mouse over it and press E to edit that shape to set the camera mode inside that area. If the camera mode is set to “Lock on position“ a small icon appears. Just drag that to the position you want the camera to lock on to.

The orange lines won’t be visible when the map is played. Here I’ve enabled them just to show where the borders of the zones are.

Here’s some minor fixes / tweaks to pad out this blog post:

Fixed snake color flashing when hidden.

Fixed being able to apply the same powerup to multiple slots.

Small tweaks to the PolyMap system.

If you haven’t already, you should follow @lastquarterdev on Twitter. I’ll be posting (almost) daily updates on the progress of the game over there.

[dekwilde]

POLYMAPPING é um projeto sobre modularidade, interação e cenografia. No curso os alunos foram orientados a criarem a partir de módulos triangulares que se encaixam, uma escultura, um objeto cenográfico. Na sequência da oficina foi ministrado o mapeado desse objeto, ensinando como é o processo de mapeamento de vídeo e quais softwares existem para a realização dessa técnica. No final do curso, a obra foi exposta para o público presente. A oficina ocorreu nos dias 17, 18, 24 e 25 de Abril de 2019 no SESC Campinas no Espaço de tecnologias e Artes. #artinstallation #lightinstallation #immersiveart #videomapping #videoprojection #projectionmapping #videomapeamento #lightart #lightdesign #lightsculpture #vj #vjing #interactivemapping #interactivedesign #interactiveart #instalaçãointerativa #generativeart #newmediaart #projecaomapeada #arteinterativa #newmediaart #interactiveart #modularidade #polymapping (em Sesc Campinas) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxwBgnpHFNI/?igshid=8l042gr5rtn1

[squishysie-blog]

Alien Worlds Texture Pack -Polymaps 

[justinmoore25]

MobileHelp® Healthcare Expands Diabetes Management Platform with Polymap Wireless

BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — As American Diabetes Month kicks off this November to raise awareness for the disease that impacts more than 30 million Americans, MobileHelp … Powered by WPeMatico

The post MobileHelp® Healthcare Expands Diabetes Management Platform with Polymap Wireless appeared first on Dr. Kianor Shah - Professional Speaker, Dentist, Implant Surgeon, Fintech Expert, Entrepreneur.

from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mobilehelp-healthcare-expands-diabetes-management-001500800.html from https://dentalentrepreneur.tumblr.com/post/180191922477

[dentalentrepreneur]

MobileHelp® Healthcare Expands Diabetes Management Platform with Polymap Wireless

BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — As American Diabetes Month kicks off this November to raise awareness for the disease that impacts more than 30 million Americans, MobileHelp … Powered by WPeMatico

The post MobileHelp® Healthcare Expands Diabetes Management Platform with Polymap Wireless appeared first on Dr. Kianor Shah - Professional Speaker, Dentist, Implant Surgeon, Fintech Expert, Entrepreneur.

from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mobilehelp-healthcare-expands-diabetes-management-001500800.html

[catsareliquidgame]

UI That Isn’t Terrible - (1.1 Update Post)

This week nothing that amazing was completed. Apart from a new pack selection UI with an image and some metadata instead of just a name label, and a new door destination selection UI which doesn’t suck.

Let’s start with the new pack selection UI.

This shows up for both your own editor made packs, and any custom packs you’ve downloaded. The screenshot above shows it being used in the editor.

As you can probably tell, the image functionality is a bit of a work-in-progress, and currently just displays a (very slightly messed up) screenshot from the editor, taken automagically. The goal is to let you take your own screenshot in-game or make a custom graphic for it, and put that as the image. It’s stored with the pack so anywhere the pack goes, the image goes with.

There’s also some extra metadata. You can see the timestamp of the last time the pack was edited at the very bottom. Above it is the creator name and the room and world count. That and the timestamp are both made automatically.

And here’s the second actually interesting thing: a new door destination selection.

Well okay, it’s not that interesting. But it is a big improvement.

The current system is quite terrible. It requires you to manually enter the name of the room or world you want to connect it to. That’s already pretty annoying, and it would be even more annoying in 1.1 due to the new “renaming rooms, worlds, and packs” thing that’s going around. In 1.1, there’s just going to be a dropdown that allows you to choose from all the rooms and worlds in the current pack. That’s it. Renaming doesn’t affect it.

As for the smaller things I’ve managed to complete, I’ll just list some of the more interesting ones:

Improved item drag-on-top reliability.

The falling void can no longer be moved above the spawnpoint.

The PolyMap shapes now have lock on guides. (You can check that out on Twitter by clicking here.)

Added a guide page explaining how buttons work.

Buttons also explain what they’re doing in the editor a lot better.

Point snapping now takes camera size into account.

The rename icon is now a pen.

And that’s about it! You should follow @lastquarterdev on Twitter, and join the Last Quarter Studios Discord server if you haven’t yet.

[lootsnakegame]

Bug fixes for days (8/2018)

Hey look! It’s just like I promised last time. Tons of tiny improvements and fixes! (and a new enemy type, and some new environment art stuff)

Environment art stuff

Considering the environment, the style of it wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be. I tried taking it in a more cleaner, geometric / minimalist look, but that didn’t work out. I also tried to make the loot and enemies pop out more by making the floor darker, but that just didn’t work out either. Now I’m testing out a more gritty, dirtier look for the environment, and I think it’s working out a lot better. The goal is to make the loot look clean, modern and inviting, while making the everything else look uninviting, old and rundown.

Here’s a couple pictures of the style I was experimenting with:

The style I’m going to go with is going to be similar to the current one, but with more detailed floors and backgrounds. The goal is to make the environment look more like a drawing or a black and white watercolor painting.

Here’s the current progress:

It’s still in its early stages, so it doesn’t look that different yet, but it will improve during the following weeks.

New enemy

It’s a really simple little enemy that just charges at the player and can be destroyed with just one hit. It doesn’t offer as large of a challenge as the other enemy types, but can still hit the player if they aren’t paying attention.

Small changes

Here’s the change log of most of the smaller changes that were made during the last couple weeks:

PolyMap / Map editor:

Fixed PolyMap item loading and saving.

Fixed PolyMap ShapeManager Reset method.

Replaced the PolyMap 2-state active system, with a 3-state active system.

Fixed and refactored PolyMap shape and point moving and selecting.

Fixed item editor rotation loading to UI always going to 1 instead of the actual value.

Fixed all shapes becoming active when switching from item editing mode to shape editing mode in the map editor.

Fixed PolyMap points not updating location on startup.

Fixed the editor error and warning message popups.

New layout for the shape selectors.

Updated map editor shape icons.

New map editor icons for loot container, floor spike and all enemies.

Fixed map editor room loading buttons sometimes having buttons from the previous map.

Fixed map editor item editing panel not opening.

Fixed the map editor UI.

Other smaller PolyMap improvements.

Powerups:

Added the Ice Square powerup.

Added distortion effects and the ability to spawn gameobjects on hit to the Projectile class.

Added hit distortions to all powerups that should have it.

Added impact particles and slightly adjusted the look of the spit powerups.

Misc:

Fixed enemies lunging and shooting at the player when frozen of confused.

Added the ability for enemies to spawn loot on hit, and fixed the loot grouping up bug.

Fixed enemy AI stopping when the room the enemy is in gets unloaded.

Reorganized some scripts to correct folders.

New smoke particle material.

Fixed Spear hit sounds.

Added possibility of using a Rigidbody2D to the Spinner class.

Fixed powerup discard button not working.

Updated the look of the floor spikes.

Added a slight wiggle to the snake movement.

Improved the pause screen.

Whew.

As always, remember to follow @lastquarterdev on Twitter for all the latest news about the game.

[dekwilde]

Oficina Cenografia Interativa com Video Mapping - SESC Campinas 2019

Oficina Cenografia Interativa com Video Mapping – SESC Campinas 2019

POLYMAPPING é um projeto sobre modularidade, interação e cenografia. No curso os alunos foram orientados a criarem a partir de módulos triangulares que se encaixam, uma escultura, um objeto cenográfico. Na sequência da oficina foi ministrado o mapeado desse objeto, ensinando como é o processo de mapeamento de vídeo e quais…

[wordpress-blaze-221734350]

My Recommendation

In this post-Afirmative Action world, sans quotas lives a fairy tale of stellar recommendations and grades making their mark… but what happens when a damnation replaces said recommendation?  How do you survive?

 

I used to like to think myself accomplished for my age. I was 27 and had recently finished a prestigious post-baccalaureate program at a prominent university in New York. The world was my oyster and I had put all of my eggs in one basket to pursue a career in medicine. Since the age of 3 it was all I could talk about. I practically repeated the same thing to anyone and everyone that I met. My aspirations to become a physician and what that would ultimately mean…. what my life would be. All that I could fathom was in one tiny inkling of possibility and I relished the prospect daily.

 

The transition from being an English major to the innate submersion of science was overwhelming to say the least.  The words that ebbed and flowed through my mind were constantly all at once washed away by a cacophony of mis-matched equations that led to nowhere, elements that suffered to erase themselves from my tongue as soon as they were spoken, and an uncanny ability to predict the slowing of time based on how complicated a physics equation may be.  I still remember with absolute wonder and horror how I believe that I must have had a vascular event status post an organic chemistry examination where I needed 5 to 10 minutes to really remember what city I was in, what direction that I was supposed to be walking to get to my train, and even where I lived.

 

It was in all of that time that I met an unlikely ally- at least, I thought so at first.  She was one of the most admired and feared professors in one of the most popular science departments in the country.  While she tended to dress like a vagrant mystic, she had mesmerizing large eyes that could laser focus on you in an auditorium of hundreds and put anyone on edge with the cold silence of her question.  As I was recounting a story of this woman’s effect on her class one day, my mother informed me that she believed that she knew of my professor in an unexpected way.  “Oh… that sounds like Sarah’s neighbor…I’m almost certain of it.”  She stated.  We continued our conversation throughout the day and my mother urged me to inform this professor of our social connection.

 

So, I did.  Given that I was determined to bend my mind to science, I religiously attended Professor W’s office hours.  It was in one of those classes where we were debating the amazing superiority of the human cell receptors, that I decided to mention it.  I explained that my mother and “Sarah” had gone to college together and that they had remained friends and kept in touch. “Oh” she exclaimed.  I watched as her round eyes seemed to soften and her smile widened.  It was in my naivety that I believed that with my hard work, my dedication, that I had shown her that I was entirely capable and that I might be able to reach my goal someday with her help.

 

Over the course of the semester, I was able to hone my newfound scientific intellect into a B for my final class grade.  Though I had accepted my perfectionist tendencies, I wasn’t particularly sad with this because I knew all of the hours of work that I had put into this class.  I welcomed continuing on to fight another day; it instilled a new strain of confidence in me that I thought I didn’t have before.  I was ready to go out and sell myself to medical schools.  I subsequently finished my post-baccalaureate program and circled back around to professor W. Since I knew that I hadn’t done half bad in her class and I thought that she had gotten to know me during my time in the program as I seemed to spend more time in her office than any other, I thought that she would be the perfect recommendation reference.

 

I remember walking into the dark paneled mahogany office and sitting down to catch up.  She was pleasant with slightly flat affect, eyes large as saucers that threatened to bulge out of her head with the sheer motion of a head tilt… I took it all in. I thought that I had timed it right.  I handed her a standard form for the university and asked if she would write my letter of recommendation for medical school.

 

  She slightly slowed what she was doing and repeated back to me what I had asked her.  I looked at her and hesitated. “Yes, I would be honored.” I replied.  She looked slowly down at her desk as if contemplating something and said “Well, if you would like me to write you a recommendation, so be it. I will write it.”  I was ecstatic and couldn’t help almost skipping home that day.  It was a beautiful thing to realize that a dream that I was working so hard for, may actually come to fruition…

 

In the next few months, I was a buzz studying for the MCAT, working, and compiling my medical school file.  In what seemed like no time, I had everything complete.  I remember walking to the office with the list of schools that I wanted to apply to and made sure that my post baccalaureate office sent out the letters to the schools of my choice.  It had truly been a labor of love for me.  Once my applications had been sent out to the schools, I spent my time mulling about and counting down the days for a letter for an interview.  What went from days to weeks quickly became months.  I was subsequently completely confused and dejected.

 

I used to go over the wording of my essay, questioning whether I may have made an offensive comment.   Maybe my grades simply weren’t good enough, or my scores?  I wasn’t certain what could possibly have been the problem.  To make it worse, the barrage of denial letters seemed to come at the very end of the period.  I dared not even ask why I wasn’t up for reconsideration and even decided to apply at the last minute to get my Master of Public Health at my undergraduate university.  And this is when time seemed to stop for me.

 

Somehow, I received vague feedback that there was an “discrepancy” with my application.  Something that the reviewers couldn’t comment about but that put my entire application in question and that they had no choice but to reject me.  I felt like I had been forced to the end of the conveyer belt and was now falling into the “FAIL” heap.   I shuddered to think where I would end up.  This was the beginning of many nights of sleeplessness, high blood pressure, and me slowly coming to the realization that medicine may not be for me, that I was simply not qualified.

 

There were other family friends who had seen my application and recommended me reaching out to other Admissions officers in other branches of the university.  However, when I spoke with those officers, they would feign surprise that I was calling them and referred me back to my own post-baccalaureate department without question, almost clucking that I was confused and overzealous. I was trapped.

 

I decided to take a weekend excursion with my parents down South to visit a family friend.  We had a great time, but our friend noticed my consistent anxious and dejected expression.  When she asked me about it, I explained the situation.  I let her know that medical professional administrators had indicated that there were inconsistencies with my application.  I wondered aloud if I needed experience in the medical field more or to take more classes to increase my GPA even more.  As I considered my options aloud, she remained stoic and then told me a story about her daughter’s friend. 

 

She stated that her daughter’s friend was an accomplished Ivy League graduate, like me, who had applied to graduate school and continued to be rejected for some time before she realized that a letter of recommendation had been her undoing. I sat perplexed and captivated as she told me that not all letters of recommendation were affirmative to the applicant for which they were intended.  She explained that there were some professors who put a knife in the backs of certain students to sink their careers. 

 

What is even more disconcerting is that there is really little to no way for anyone to know that this practice is happening to them.  As a student bleeds out their time, work, hopes, and fears other personnel are essentially bound to secrecy.  This is because a letter of recommendation only has merit when it is confidential.  And in having someone write a poison letter, a student all but gambles and seals their fate with a career ending secrecy pact. 

 

It took some time for me to compose myself.  I soon suspected that I may have a poison letter and was able to hire a wonderfully savvy education consultant who was able to help me re-navigate the admissions process.  He worked with me to polish my ideas, speak louder and more confidently. He also recommended that I visit the schools to which I applied and (of course) to hone my application with a different compilation of my letters.

 

I contacted my post baccalaureate admission office and didn’t hear anything back for weeks.  I called again with no response.  Finally, one day I called the office and was met with one of the staffers answering the phone.  When I said hello and who I was, I was told to call that staffer on their cell phone number.  This was in the early 2000’s so, people hardly ever said this.  I complied and waited about 15 minutes for them to leave the office.  Once we were able to touch base, I was told in no uncertain terms to ever call the post-baccalaureate office again and to only contact the staffer.  I was flabbergasted.  All I could do was hear my heart pound in my throat.  They explained that they would be sure to get my consultant the application that had been sent out previously. And both my consultant and I waited…

 

 A week or so after my conversation my consultant received the application and called me into his office and read me something that changed my life. He sat me down at a long table and had two piles- one taller than the other.  As I watched, he began to read me the letters of the numerous faculty members who supported me from the taller pile.  They all had wonderfully glowing things to say about my abilities and spoke of how I would very likely soar to great heights and accomplish my dreams.  I was extremely humbled. 

 

Then my consultant went to the short pile. Which consisted of one letter.  He held it up and asked if I was ready to hear it.  I took a deep breath and nodded yes. I listened as he, in the words of Professor W., started off with “Though Aisha believes herself to be intelligent, she is in fact one of the worst students that I have ever had.”  The letter was a barrage of insults calling me dim-witted, lazy, mentally deficient among numerous other characteristics.  She likened me to have the mentality of a second grader and stated that I would have no business in the university’s post-baccalaureate programs and certainly could never survive the rigors of medical school.

 

My consultant stopped at the end and the silence weighed on my chest.  I took deep breaths to keep it at bay.  He stated that he wanted me to hear how ridiculous this letter was.  How ugly it was.  He turned to me and questioned me on my own insecurities stating that my resume, my education, everything that I had done was leading up to medical school and that he was certain that this letter was the thing that was killing my medical opportunities.  He implored me to be adamant that I was beyond qualified and to believe it in everything that I did from there on.

 

I walked out of the office that day feeling the weight and the exhilaration of racial terror.  On one hand, it was devastating that I had allowed someone to write these lies about me to share with the world.  On the other hand, the words were so hateful, derogatory, and racist that it went without saying.   Say what you might, but I am still convinced that this professor firmly believed in eugenics and could have easily written a compelling case based on her “concern for my abilities” noted in my letter. 

 

I had gone to some of the best schools in the country, constantly challenged and tried (with a strong GPA) and this woman was saying that I was barely qualified to tie my shoes. It took me time to reflect, recollect, and regenerate into Aisha 2.0, a young woman who was not afraid to share the many facets of herself.  To be gracious in my knowledge, my instinct and the trajectory of my dreams.

 

In the weeks after me reading my “poison letter”, I was finally able to receive interviews in the second round of my medical school application process. With a swipe of my consultant’s hand, the letter was removed and my dreams were finally coming into formation.

 

I got accepted into medical school after my second application submission, went on to graduate with honors, completed residency, fellowship, and now continue to practice. But I continually shudder to think about how lucky I was. If I had not had a consultant and a hero in the admission’s office, I likely would never have been a doctor, even though my grades, my resume, my experience, and my background were all worthy of my going to medical school.

 

I am a unicorn, when I should really be a zebra. I comprise 6% of physicians, when there should really be more as more are needed and most importantly, more are capable. Out of the many legions of students of color who started the medical school process with me, only a few remained. One by one, they were lost to dissuasion, humiliation, and terror just like me. How many other physicians and medical professionals of color have been lost to this exclusionary process? Some may think that this is simply what medicine is, a weed out process. But, students should be selected on the basis of merit and not outright sabotage. The lack of acceptance of people of color in medicine serves as a perpetuation of the poison that continues and feeds our medical system today. If you were dying on a stretcher, you’d want the best physician for the job to save you, but continuation of this “tradition” most likely ensures you’ll have a mediocre physician instead as it works both ways. Who is qualified? What does qualified mean?

 

Where does this leave others in this new political landscape?  Is this where professors like W all but determine who gets to go to a “good school”? Is this where cronyism is rewarded?  And what does that do for the world?  Homogeneity dims the light of creativity and innovation.  If we all have the same thoughts and perspectives, how can one be challenged to be greater than they even knew that they could be?

 

It is in our diversity that we thrive.  It is in our varying perspectives that growth can be cultivated, once and for all.   The lesson of my recommendation is that we need a better way to do better now that the precedent is no more.  The more this country remains divided, the less time that people interact with one another and only increases the possibilities to develop more fears and misconceptions, opening the door for hatred to ensue.  Each possibility of an individual damnation letter is a knife in a student's back, that not only threatens the hopes and dreams of a young soul, but also the progress of a country.

 

 

Source: My Recommendation

[minecraft-pl]

Nowy post na http://minecraft.pl/16616,wesolych-swiat-z-minecraft

Wesołych Świąt z Minecraft!

Ekipa portalu Minecraft.pl życzy Wam wszystkim ciepłych, wesołych i rodzinnych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia :) Z tej okazji również prezentujemy Wam dostępne atrakcje w grze. Czytajcie dalej.

Pisaliśmy już o grudniowych prezentach w Marketplace, które są dostępne od 21. grudnia i będą aż przez 12 dni. Każda atrakcja będzie dostępna bezpłatnie przez 24 godziny od momentu dodania jej do Marketplace. Pierwszego dnia mogliście znaleźć tam m.in. grę od ekipy Noxcrew (o czym też już pisaliśmy), a tym razem możecie zerknąć, jak ona wygląda, jeśli nie załapaliście się na bezpłatny dostęp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1_K4jkrZo8

Możecie spodziewać się także innych tytułów, np. Ultimate Pig Race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDE5_-M0doM

Czy też A Pirate’s Christmas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoB2F2JJHK8

Ciekawym tytułem może się okazać Santa’s Sleigh Ride autorstwa Polymaps, w którym zadaniem jest dostarczanie prezentów i uratowanie świąt:

A może bardziej spodoba Wam się Elf Town, czyli miasto elfów, gdzie będziecie mogli m.in. jeździć na reniferach, zwiedzać miasto i pomagać elfom?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEbs6C4wrk0

Zdajemy sobie sprawę, że pogoda za oknem nie sprzyja wojnom na śnieżki ani budowaniu bałwanów, ale macie alternatywę – Snowball Fight! 

W tej grze macie dostępnych 6 różnych kul śnieżnych, którymi możecie obrzucać się ze znajomymi.

Dużo więcej tytułów i szczegółów znajdziecie w oficjalnym artykule pod tym adresem. Przypominamy, że wszystkie te gry będą/są dostępne w Marketplace :)

Mojang wyróżnił także świąteczną mapę autorstwa Gemini Tay, bazującą na Vigo Country Courthouse w Indianie.

W mieście jest dużo bałwanów i świątecznych dekoracji. Gemini próbował zachować jednostajność w tworzeniu dekoracji, aby wszystko trzymało się jednej konwencji i nie odbiegało od siebie za bardzo, ale jednocześnie nie było zbyt nudne.

Całość możecie zobaczyć również na filmiku autorstwa Gemini:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iwgj5HewJk

Jeśli jesteście zainteresowani zbudowaniem czegoś swojego, to pomocny może być tutorial, również autorstwa Gemini. Pokazuje on proces tworzenia choinki:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ce27se1O90

[ponsans33]

【一部無料あり！】2017年11月13日追加スキンパック＆ワールド紹介！

【一部無料あり！】2017年11月13日追加スキンパック＆ワールド紹介！ | マインクラフト攻略大百科

2017年11月13日に追加されたスキンパックとワールドを紹介します。スキンパックには一部無料のスキンも収録されているのでこの機会に試してみてはいかがでしょうか？ スキンパック Mineplex Friends by Mineplex Mineplex Friendsに収録されている無料スキン     ワールド Truffletop Town by Imagiverse Enderman’s Forest by Polymaps   [small]参考ページ https://feedback.minecraft.net/knowledgebase/articles/1821316-minecraft-content-release-november-13-2017-bed[/small]

[kw-adrift-blog]

Using Map and location functionality

My idea would like to use location and map based design to build the experience. I began to research some websites articles on different maps design in websites which you can visit below.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/maps-in-modern-web-design/

https://webdesignledger.com/16-inspiring-examples-of-interactive-maps-in-web-design/

https://www.awwwards.com/20-inspirational-examples-of-interactive-maps-and-street-view-experiences-in-web-design.html

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/interactive-maps-web-design/

https://designmodo.com/maps-websites/

https://codemyviews.com/blog/10-ways-to-use-mapping-in-web-or-app-design

From these there are various other sites and alternative takes on mapping. Mapping function such as timeline, information visualisation. 

Currently looking at  services with inbuilt map capacity you can incorporate into your design. 

The first is google which you can use free so long as the cite is free https://developers.google.com/maps/web/

https://opensource.com/life/15/11/getting-started-web-mapping Herre there are some alternative mapping services such Leaflet, Polymap, Modest Map

[cbilluminati]

  The 1.1 Discovery Update, our first big update of the year, is HERE, launching today on Bedrock Engine platforms (Windows 10, mobile & VR).  It’s packed with tons of awesome features, including ~drumroll please~ the Minecraft Marketplace! We’re very happy that we can now give players access to a growing catalogue of fun community-made content safely and simply – all while giving Minecraft creators another way to make a living from the game. 

  To kick things off, we’re launching today with 14 amazing pieces of new content from our pioneer partners – six worlds, two survival spawns, two texture packs, and four skin packs – oh my! Here’s what’s releasing today, with much more coming in the future:

  Worlds – huge builds with their own storylines, objectives, custom texture packs and hours of gameplay

Adventurer’s Dream by Noxcrew – Discover a stunning world full of ancient dungeons, magnificent treasures, and hidden secrets on your quest to summon the mighty dragon. Become the hero and forge your own legacy!

ANNIE: The Rise of Londinium by Blockception – An adventure based in different periods of time in the great city of Londinium. Guided by the AI Annie, will you be able to recover the lost data lost from “The Event”?

Automaton Dreams by Blockworks – Survive the cyber plains, build and craft. Arm yourself and get ready to battle your way through the Automaton Dreamer and his army. Collect the artefacts of the Automatons to reveal the final clue.

DestructoBot 5000 by Noxcrew – The world is under attack by evil Robo-Aliens! It’s time to gear up and pilot the amazing DestructoBot 5000 mech suit! Hunt down the Robo-Alien bosses and save the world!

Relics of the Privateers by Imagiverse – Experience a vast tropical wilderness on a whirlwind hunt for treasure. Unearth hidden temples, explore hostile jungles, and battle the invading pirates.

Space Battle Simulator by QwertyuiopThePie – Team up and fight between two futuristic space ships: The Clarke, and the Asimov. Form a strategy, and try to destroy the opponent’s ship! (Requires 2 players minimum, recommended 4 players minimum).

Survival Spawns – builds that players can use as a base for their survival games

Dustville Survival Spawn by Noxcrew – Get off the train in the desert town of Dustville and begin life in the west. Wander in the shade of the canyons and the old mines. Settle a farm out in the mesa. Ride out and find your own fortune!

Fallen Keep Survival Spawn by Noxcrew – In forgotten hills lies the Fallen Keep, a vast fortress forsaken and abandoned to time. Reclaim the fortress from evil’s grasp! Renew the glory of old! Become the new ruler of the Fallen Keep!

Texture Packs – reskin everything in the world with a new look

PureBDcraft by BDcraft – Completely transform your Minecraft world into a comic! Blocks and items are revamped with this bright, bold high def pack (32x for mobile, 64x for PC). 128x and 256x coming soon!

Stone Age by Polymaps – Turn back time with this texture pack and relive Mankind’s earliest ventures! Fight off terrifying monsters and discover long-extinct species as you make your mark on the world.

Skin Packs – customize the player character

Everyday Heroes by Razzleberry Fox – For roleplaying or just to populate your worlds, this pack includes 16 career related skins. You can pick from a fireman to a scientist, a judge to an astronaut and more. Be who you want to be!

Pastel by Eneija – This skin pack is all about color – pastel colors, to be more precise. It’s an explosion of rainbow pastel happiness on a variety of characters to choose from in each color group.

Pirates and Fishfolk by Imagiverse – Ahoy Mateys! Raise the jolly roger and become a pirate! Be a colonial settler, or a jungle castaway. You can even shed your skin in favor of scales to become a mythical sea creature!

Team Up! By Razzleberry Fox – 4 roles, 4 teams and lots of possibilities! Team up with your friends and show your color. This skin pack will make playing mini games and streaming more entertaining with clearly visible teams.

  Aside from Marketplace, other features launching today with the 1.1 Discovery Update include:

Adventuring in Woodland Mansions: Trade with the new Cartographer villager to get treasure maps, follow the map, and journey to the woodland mansion. Battle Illagers – villagers gone bad –  to claim fantastic treasure.

Exploration: Beef up your storage with Shulker Boxes, encounter Llamas in the wild (and make Llama trains, which are the best ever), Dyeable Beds, Smelt ingots to reclaim materials from tools, and enchant your equipment with Frostwalking or Mending.

Creativity: build colorful structures with Glazed Terracotta or Concrete blocks.

Add-Ons: Movement will become data-driven, meaning you’ll be able to create remixed movement properties in your Add-Ons.

And we’re adding a third gameplay mode, Adventure Mode, for folks who like to make custom games and scenarios.

Plus full game localization in over a dozen new languages: Turkish, Polish, Indonesian, Ukranian, Greek, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Slovak and Czech.

  For the full announcement and details, head over to Minecraft.net!

  Stuff You May Find Helpful

  Assets: *NEW* art and screenshots for The Discovery Update can be found here! This includes the final UI, just in time for launch. We also released a sweet trailer for the launch of Minecraft Marketplace today~~~

Access to Marketplace & Store Content: All of the Marketplace content can be found in the in-game store, right alongside our own Team Minecraft first-party creations. We are no longer giving out tokens since with this update we are switching to Minecraft Coins. That said, if you want to access any of the content in the store for review (which we highly recommend!), we can enable Minecraft Coins on your account – just give us your gamertag!

  In Case You Missed It

    We first announced the Discovery Update back in March and the Minecraft Marketplace in April of this year. The latter entails a lot of details and information, so we hope you find this handy Q&A helpful!

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The 1.1 Discovery Update Has Arrived! The 1.1 Discovery Update, our first big update of the year, is HERE, launching…

[catsareliquidgame]

To-Do

It’s been a bit of a long time since I’ve posted Proper™ content here, hasn’t it?

Now, I’ve taken a look at the statistics and noticed that shorter, more bite-sized content seems to generally do a lot better. So what better way to get back to releasing Content™ than a really long blog post?

Jokes aside, I will break down stuff said in here to shorter, more manageable blog posts, that also go more in-depth to certain aspects. So if you’re not interested in reading this long one, don’t worry about it too much.

Enough chit-chat! Let’s go through this stuff one thing at a time.

What’s been happening during / after the development of 1.0.6? What’s going on with Loot Snake? Any news on new projects?

Okay, I see we’ve already failed. That’s three questions, not one.

While all the “1.0.5“ and “1.0.6“ stuff has been going on, I’ve also been working on some other projects, and I won’t be sharing that much info about those just yet.

Now, some of you may have some questions about Loot Snake, that project I was supposed to return to after finishing A Better Place. But like I said in a previous post, I honestly don’t feel like taking on another large scale project right now. I’m a bit burnt out from working on ABP. Thus, Loot Snake is still on hold active development wise.

I’ve come up with tons of ideas for it while developing A Better Place. There’s this gigantic list of stuff I want to change / adjust / add / remove. And it’s still something I actively think about.

Also: as some of you may already know, A Better Place actually got its editor / level system (PolyMap) from Loot Snake. It got developed a lot further while I was working on A Better Place, and the improvements made to PolyMap will be transferred over to Loot Snake.

So Loot Snake isn’t going away.

A Light in the Shadows 1.6.14

A Light in the Shadows is getting a small bug fix patch! The fixing part was surprisingly quick. Probably because I didn’t have to touch anything too important. The reason it’s not out yet is because the game is rather old (almost 5 years!) at this point, and certain Steam related things are causing issues on macOS (among some other things).

That Planned Plan Check Up

Remember that plan document I posted during the early days of development? This thing: https://catsareliquidgame.tumblr.com/post/174729518560/the-plan-for-the-next-cats-are-liquid

I think it would be about time to take a look back at the original plans, and see how closely they match the final product.

New Merch

There’s new merch designs coming! Something a bit more interesting than just cat faces. I’m thinking something like multiple cat faces. I’ll post more about this in the near future.

1.1 Update

There’s a 1.1 update coming to Cats are Liquid in a couple months. Details about it will be posted later. It’s going to have a bunch of improvements and such, mostly focusing on the editor. Possibly even new items! And all that editor refinement will eventually lead up to...

Online World Pack Sharing

Probably won’t be in 1.1. Still waiting for the backend for this to become a thing.

Basically: the plan is that you’ll be able to share your creations crossplatform with your friends and everyone else who plays the game. Sounds neat, right?

The amount of people interested in the editor is a lot lower than what I anticipated (and some who were interested were probably turned down by the lack of user-friendliness in the editor), but I think this will still be a good addition to the game, even if just a few people are going to use it.

And last but certainly not least...

Community Translations

Yes, I haven’t forgotten about them. There’s just been a bunch of things that have come in the way. They are still going to happen. When? Good question. I guess you’ll have to follow @lastquarterdev on Twitter and join the Last Quarter Studios Discord server to find out.

(I’ll also post about it here. So don’t worry if you’re not interested in using Twitter and Discord.)

I think that’s just about everything. See you next week!