#when the your blog consists of stuff that takes millions of hours to do and then shitposts seconds later

[veveisveryuncool]

he wants to be part of the club too..

[jojo-oliver]

How to tumblr for artists… my own version

A collection of things that have been working for me, but may not work for everyone

~~~ your posts ~~~

!!!reblog your own stuff!!! you need to reblog your own stuff, there is nothing morally wrong with reblogging your own stuff regularly. in fact, it is morally right to allow the chance for more people to see your artwork.

~~~ queue it!! ~~~ my queue is 500 posts strong. maybe don't try to make your queue hundreds of posts strong in the same day omg but like… once every month or two i'll go through my whole blog and just scroll and "add to drafts" to every one of my own posts i have. then i'll use the "mass post editor" to add content warning tags. and add to queue, and shuffle. and then I write down what the date was for when I last added my posts to be reblogged on queue. this is helped by turning on timestamps for posts in tumblr "dashboard preferences" settings.

queueing is necessary and life saving for me. It takes out so much work with decision fatigue and the anxiety around posting. It also guarantees that even if I suddenly need time off or away from my phone, I don't just disappear and lose all traction. It also breaks the instant-gratification cycle that you expect when you finish an artwork. It's hard to keep creating when you post something and, when you're expecting to get that gratification, you get none... If you queue your new artwork to come out at a later time, you've separated that expectation - with time. It hurts less and contributes to a more consistent gratification thing instead of peaks and troughs.

~~~ tag ya stuff ~~~ when you're making a new post, the first 20 tags are what gets put into the searchable tags. do not feel shame for using lots of tags. shame is the mind-killer. tags are hard. hard to know what to tag a post with. hard to remember the tags. so I found some ways to help myself. maybe they'll help you too. dedicate some time towards just figuring out what tags you want to use. i have a list in my phone notes that i add tags to and reference whenever i'm making a new post. i have the phone right beside the laptop while i'm tagging so that i can just look at it and scroll. tags are the only way for people to find your artwork, other than people manually coming to your blog because they saw you somewhere. there is no algorithm. posting without tags, until you have an established fanbase, is throwing something into the void.

When I'm doing tag research, I look at what people seem to use - when you put something in the search bar, tumblr recommends you some that have a higher following, typically. Looks like this on desktop:

if you like one tag, look at what other people who use that tag also tag their posts with. Observe and learn how this tag is used. search through a bunch of them and write them down.

here's what i got in my notes, for the specific kind of art I post and look for:

these tags are sort of specific to me and the kind of art I make. You'll want to research your own tags, but this is an example of how I keep them organized to make posting more effective. I generally only write down a tag when it's got more than 2k followers. You might be tempted to use the tags with millions of followers, but I've actually found those a lot less functional for small artists. If your stuff doesn't immediately get a bunch of notifications, you're drowned out and pushed to the bottom much faster. But the bigger tags are better than no tags, so I keep them if I can't think of anything else to tag something with.

~~~ post at the right times….? ~~~

fridays and saturdays is when I post fresh new things... usually. every website has it's own peak hours, and you can find those hours in many different online articles that try to sell you social media growth services. tumblr is unique in having later hours.

here's some random graph from google images:

please don't over think this. please don't let this consume the idea of when to post, preventing you from posting at all. it doesn't mean too much - if you post during very active hours, maybe your art would just be pushed down the feed faster. if you post at the end of hours, maybe everyone's going to sleep… if you post at inactive hours, maybe there's less 'competition'… if you post at the beginning of active hours, maybe that's just more time for your post to circulate for the day, if you have enough people reblogging it once it drops....

this also is in EST. So fuck the other time zones, I guess. I'm over here in europe knowing that the "best" time to post would be like 2-3am or something. It's like this for most english-speaking majority sites - higher traffic in north american time zones.

it's also worth mentioning that this is scattered as heck, compared to other social media sites. and it's not like, the activity times of your followers. it's not the best time to post for your niche. this is just tumblr, broadly. all of tumblr.

~~~ Plan ahead for annual dates ~~~

Your artwork will get more circulation if it's posted on a celebratory day. You could just put them on your calendar and if you're wondering what to make, look on the calendar for what's coming soon. For example, asexual awareness day, trans day of visibility, location-specific holidays, etc. Here's my phone notes thing with my own recorded annuals:

I got these dates from googling and reading different articles, but I find that I still miss dates, and then I add them for next year. If you know of some I missed, tell me and I'll add them please <3

~~~ reblog other people's stuff ~~~

tumblr is sorta about ecosystems. things get passed around within groups of people that are all following eachother. to enter this ecosystem, you must engage and reblog other people's stuff too.

if you reblog other artists' stuff, sometimes they'll come over and reblog your stuff too. sometimes they'll follow you back. this is called becoming a mutual. I'll search specific tags for the kinds of people I want to follow and the kind of art I like - those are listed in the screenshot of my tag note under "Tags for finding new people".

I see a lot of blogs out there that are very clean, posts are tagless, and are only for the artists' content. like scrolling through a portfolio. I imagine this is good for people who are migrating to tumblr but already have their own established fanbase from elsewhere.

you don't need to do reblog other people's stuff on your art blog, you can do this on a separate blog. but if the two don't look very closely correlated, it's hard to tell who you are when you're interacting. and hard to make sure people know that you are the same person as your art blog. and you gotta remember to promote yourself on your personal blog.

~~~ have an art tag ~~~

make your blog easy to search!

if i go to your blog, and you've written 'artist' or 'sometimes art' in your bio, i wanna see it… it make me so sad when i don't get to see it. i want to reblog it. please let me reblog it :(

to make a tag on your own blog searchable, you don't need to repost it to add a tag. you don't even need to reblog it. you can actually just go back to the original post and edit it to add your tag. I've seen post people just have their art tag be something like #(blogname)art . you can see my own in my tags image above. if it's very unique, then it'll work tumblr-wide. I think that's good, since the tumblr search function is really weird. Otherwise it should still work if it's not entirely unique, people just have to make sure they're searching specifically your blog to see only your stuff.

I like to have a link in my pinned post where people can click to have immediately searched for my art tag. Convenience is king. Keep in mind that most people are on mobile, and if something isn't immediately clickable, they often won't find it.

~~~ be consistent and be patient ~~~

!!!this time will pass anyway!!! how many notes you have is not correlated with how good you are as an artist. wanting to earn something from your art means you essentially have two jobs. two potentially full time jobs. this shit's difficult. most of the job is promoting yourself. don't undersell how hard it is to do… don't feel bad for not immediately succeeding. I would write about how hard it's been to promote myself, but it would just be long and sad I think.

This isn't a full guide, please feel free to add more!!

I'm sure in another year I'll disagree with a lot of this, it will become irrelevant with time, and I'll have a lot of different opinions. Chip in and share what you've been doing? Teach me? This is very overwhelming. Don't do it all at once, just like, try one thing at a time, and see how it works for you. Your niche might be different. One size does not fit all. If you're confused about some of the things I talk about in here, you might be on mobile. I do most of my queueing and posting from the desktop browser version.

I will update this with more as things change, but I think you'll have to click through to see the updated post

[quillsanddaydreams]

mixtape

draco malfoy x reader

—author’s note: this was requested by a lovely anon, I hope you like it dear. What would Draco gifting you a mixtape of muggle songs on the wedding night include...

—warning(s): marriage, gender neutral!reader (pronouns aren’t used).

—word count: 584

→ After the war, Draco had been determined to learn as many things about muggles as he could. Maybe it was to get rid of the toxicity he had been fed for years or just to tell himself he could improve. Taking up a muggle studies course, donating as much as he could, you thought it was high time he did something lighter— something he could enjoy.

→ That’s where the idea to introduce him to muggle songs came from. Buying a pair of earphones and an iPod, you downloaded all kinds of music you thought he would like. He was surprised at first, you had only seen him listen to a few select songs. Laughing as you explained different genres, Draco began listening to them.

→ Within a few days, he became obsessed. You taught him how to make playlists. At first, they mainly consisted of songs he loved but slowly he got the hang of it. It made him happy, the music. And it never failed to remind him of you, of all the things you did for him.

→ He had gone through everything with you, highs and lows, you had graduated from being friends to dating to finally being engaged. You had loved him all the same and he couldn’t be more thankful. Deciding a wedding gift was turning out to be hard, most people suggested jewelry or stones but he couldn’t get behind that.

→ If he knew one thing about you, it was that you never really cared much for that sort of stuff. He had already bought the platinum bracelet which he had seen you eyeing one day but he wanted to do more. That’s when Theo suggested creating a mixtape.

→ The idea was great but there was a problem. How was he to choose? Spending hours in his room, he added and scratched out different song names. Pestered his friend until he ran away. Nothing seemed perfect. He needed it to be perfect for you.

→ A month and sixteen hours later, he finally decided on an hour-long playlist adding a small letter for you to read before listening. Fidgeting with the box in his hand, he bit his lip before opening the door to your— his room. The wedding had gone smoothly. Being a small private ceremony, Draco hadn’t expected it to be so great but it was. Every moment felt happier than the last.

→ You were sitting on the bed, reading notes left by your friends still in your wedding attire. Draco felt his breath hitch, it was dawning upon him he was married, to the person he adored and more than that— he got to call you his now. Smiling you looked up at him, your eyes flickering to the box in his hand.

→ “For you,” he whispered as you curiously opened it, lightening up when you saw the tape. Opening the letter, you started to read it out loud.

→ ‘My love, I don’t remember the exact time I started loving you as much as I do. All I remember are a million happy moments which I spent with you in them, and I don’t think I have ever wanted anything more from life. Thank you for agreeing to spend your life with me, I hope to cherish you until the day I die.’

→ You sniffed, running your finger through the list of songs. “Draco I love you,” you said softly, cupping his face to kiss him firmly.

—as for the taglist: I don’t make taglists, I have a blog @from-my-quill​ which is updated whenever I post fanfiction. You could have the notifications on for it and it will work just like me tagging you.

⟨⟨REBLOGS AND FEEDBACK ARE APPRECIATED⟩⟩

[leggerefiore]

If you ever feel worried about spamming personal posts or anything, you can do a round up of them! Make a post with the various messages and reply to them as a whole (if you can). If thay makes sense ?

ooo that's a great idea! i hadn't considered that. i was talking about like hcs and stuff in that post, though. too much content seems like it'd get annoying really quick.

anyways everything below here is answering random asks or responding to anons...

i have seen your request but i am answering this separately. it varies heavily dependent on the day and time! i feel like a consistently get around ten a day? i havent been keeping proper track, i apologise.

a little secret youve probably noticed... i queue most of my posts. i usually try to do four hour intervals if that helps haha

i am happy that my posts help you in some way! i’ve said it probably a million times, but im just happy to provide content for the twins. i felt like there was only three blogs, maybe, posting when i started. pretty sure theres more now? i havent really been reading like i used to. well, for pokemon. i’d like to thank everyone who does gyro x readers endlessly.

willing to do more monster stuff whenever! i love aggressively world building for no good reason. my mother should not have let me read tolkien as a child. also i think my smut reads funny, i cannot take it seriously. i am surprised so many people request nsfw from because i think its so bad.

there may be more as i try to think of more content for pokemon in general. im seriously surprised no one did the ‘i want a baby’ meme before me??? i saw like multiple versions in the jjba fandom. also thats my main fandom in case it isnt obvious enough. i think i only like ingo because he reminds me a jotaro weirdly.

thank you! i’m amazed i get so many compliments honestly because i think my stuff reads really badly and more thought bursts rahter than coherently

i am doing alright in classes, but i am wanting to brawl bio lab (because we’re behind in lecture) and sociology. seriously i have two write two 250 word posts each week along with four 100 replies with proper grammar or else i get points deducted.

[pompadourpink]

Hi mom I really liked your post about procrastination but I'm not sure how to find balance between doing too much and doing too little, any advice? Love u *3*

Hi bb,

For those who missed it: being productive when working from home + how to be more productive/disciplined.

I’ll tell you what works for me and you can adapt it:

Monthly trackers:

Mine consists of: Have I slept well/enough? Gone to bed by 12? Eaten well? Learned anything (Spanish, movie, show, book, online course, music practice, etc)? Worked? Worked out? Done my skincare routine (morning and evening)? Spent no money?

To all of those, I answer yes or no. I work out right after waking up, so if I managed to go to bed earlyish the day before (which is pretty easy as I have an 11pm alarm) and find the courage to go for a run at 6, half of my daily wishes are already in the bag by 7AM.

The learning part is never a burden (I drop what I don’t like), I do my skincare religiously, eat very well and work a lot, so by the end of the day, I usually get a whole line of YES, and it’s very motivating. Sometimes, one thing is being procrastinated, and I end up doing it naturally because I don’t want it to be the only element destroying my whole line of successes.

Not to repeat what I said in the linked article, but remember to keep yourself happy. Three out of six daily wishes are treats (skincare, learning, exercise), so there’s no way they’re going to burn me out.

To-do lists:

I have daily and weekly lists: the weekly one is mostly to remind me of little things (deciding which book I’ll read during the first half of April or taking out the trash on Monday night) but the daily one (3x3x3) is a bit different. I have three sections: self, job, house.

The personal one can be about pampering (lasering legs), learning (following the first week of an online course), or socialisation (scheduling a Skype session with a friend). The professional one can be about the blog (writing a post), lessons (correcting homework) or the future website or channel (making an infographic). The domestic one can be about chores (mopping), maintenance (brushing the beast) or administration (paying a bill).

One of those gets a little frog drawn next to the ticking box: that’s the horrible task I’ll have to do that day. For example, tomorrow’s frog is March bills: it will take me at least 45 minutes because it’s a whole lot of numbers, is still very new to me, has to be perfect, and I really wish I could pay someone to do it for me. But I can’t yet, and in the meantime, here I am. Eating the frog is the first thing you want to do in your day, to avoid postponing it when it starts getting late and you’re completely unmotivated.

Whatever those daily goals are, be grateful you get to do them. There are people who wished they could do that stuff that annoys you.

Timed tricks:

The first is the two minutes rule. If something takes less than two minutes, do it now (making the bed, cleaning your mug, putting something back where it belongs) as procrastinating will force you to keep it somewhere in your head, taking room and making noise for no reason. Telling yourself all day long “I have to clean the mug, I have to clean the mug, I have to clean the mug” because you know it will be stained if you don’t do it quickly is exhausting and stupid. Do it now, save your mug and relieve your poor brain.

The second is the twenty minutes domestic session (within an hour of waking up): put a timer on and take twenty minutes to adult. Do a few dishes, wash something, vacuum a room, change the sheets, etc. Not only it forces you to move and wakes you up but if you’re the type not to be hungry in the morning, it will probably help with that. You can leave your straighteners to heat for the last five minutes, get to it when you’re done, and boom, it’s not even 8 and you’re already looking like a million bucks in a clean apartment.

And guess who talked too much?

LTDR: Do the worst task first. Make it enjoyable. Practice gratitude. Make life easier for future you. Drop what doesn’t make you happy.

Love,

Mum

[blazehedgehog]

youtube's algorithm has struck again. i've been excitedly waiting for your jurasic park video for some time, and then i find out in a blog post that it came out several days ago! your poor vid never even shown up in my feed. alas, i can watch it now though!

This is the problem with internet content hubs. On Youtube, on Twitter, on Tumblr, everywhere users can make and share content, there’s this drive to subscribe to their feed. You are shown endless recommendations forever, thousands of people, millions of posts...

Except at a point, it becomes too much. Your feed gets overwhelmed because you’ve subscribed to 980 people and even if they all only make one post a day, that’s still 980 posts. You aren’t going to read 980 posts a day. On Youtube, it’s even worse, because a single “post” could be 15 minutes of video.

If you subscribe to 980 people on Youtube, and even ONE THIRD of your subscriptions posts a 15 minute video, that’s nearly 82 hours of video to watch in one day. It’s literally impossible.

So they introduce the algorithm. The algorithm looks at your trends -- both short term and long term -- and says, “this user is interested in this type of content right now, so I will select a few things I think they will like and ignore the rest.”

But it’s the sort of thing, like I talked about with mobile games a few days ago, where they have both created the problem and the solution.

“Here’s a channel to subscribe to! And another channel to subscribe to! And 20 channels to subscribe to! Subscribe subscribe subscribe!” they say, only to follow that with “Oops! You’ve subscribed to too many people, shame on you, I guess we’ll need to introduce an algorithm to filter all this stuff.”

But here’s the kicker: since they control the algorithm, they can push it to show you the kind of content they want you to see. They can insert advertisements or promotional material more easily because it’s not your feed anymore. It’s their feed, based on what they estimate your interests to be.

And conveniently, that “interest profile” can be massaged to prioritize whatever they want you to see, including algorithmic-served advertisements. Do you like Sonic the Hedgehog? Well, for $14.99, you can buy the brand new Sonic the Hedgehog movie right here on Youtube! The algorithm says you’ll love to spend this money, and it’s never wrong!

And other people, if they figure it out, can influence the algorithm, too. A famous example is how in American politics five or six years ago, if you googled the name “Rick Santorum” you’d get a webpage about how “Santorum” was a slang term for certain type of poop. A bunch of people who really did not like Rick Santorum got together and influenced the Google algorithm to make that page the top search result.

This is also how bigotry runs so rampant on Youtube. Hate groups have always known how to conceal their message, and by using the recommendation algorithm to their advantage, they were able to indoctrinate millions of people to their cause by getting them started on pathways of hatred. According to people who worked at Youtube, they actually knew what was going on and refused to do anything about it, probably because the algorithm was “driving engagement” and making them too much money to shut it down.

(For what it’s worth, Youtube has been taking steps to curb this activity, but for some it’s many years too little, too late)

When you lose control of your own feed, videos like mine start slipping through the cracks. I don’t have a consistent audience, and I don’t have a consistent releases schedule. Since 75% of my audience does not watch every single video I release, Youtube thinks a lot of what I release is worth ignoring. That means other videos that “drive more engagement” get top billing and push me out of a rapidly shrinking spotlight, no matter how much effort or quality the video contains.

Admittedly, it’s a hard problem. Even if you take out the problems with the algorithm, Youtube still receives more content in one day than most single human beings could watch in their entire lifetime. Building a system to catalog, sort and serve that amount of data is borderline madness.

At the same time, I think the subscriptions feed should be immutable. That’s the collision here. You are saying, “I want to see this” and Youtube is deciding you don’t. A lot of sites are adopting ways that let you say, “I don’t care how long they’ve been inactive for, always show me their content.” Youtube sort of does that, when you “ring the bell,” but that’s also tied to phone notifications and all kinds of other weird stuff -- it’s effectively another subscription tier on top of the one that already exists.

It’s messy, dumb, and bad, but also not surprising.

[mickybee0412]

4 Music Marketing Platforms That Every New Band Must Have In 2021

I think everyone will agree when I say:

It’s REALLY hard to build a fan base.  

Well, while still not as simple as it once was, the following platforms will help you get your music in front of more people sooner!

1.    YouTube

The video-sharing juggernaut isn’t only the best place to catch all the latest cat vids but should be the absolute first point of call when considering posting your musical content.  Here’s why:

·       An average of 5 billion hours worth of video is watched on YouTube every day.

·       YouTube is actively accountable for 47% of global music consumption.

·       85% of the most-watched YouTube videos are in fact music videos.

 Tips for success:

1.    Make your videos shareable!  Relatable content gets shared.  Topical content gets shared.  Valuable content gets shared.  Get the point?  Create something worth sharing and you’ll amass fans fast.

2.    Be consistent.  People will come to your page because of the content you release. Don’t mess it up by throwing stupid curveballs into the mix.  Keep your content consistent, release it on a schedule and keep all your thumbnails and artist profiles consistent with your other social platforms.

3.    Stop, collaborate and listen.  Network with other YouTubers and content creators posting content similar to you.  

4.    Communicate with people commenting on your videos. No matter how big you get remember where you came from.  You always have a spare ten minutes to reply to your fans.  Communication is key.

2.    Spotify

Playlists, playlists, playlists.  With Spotify accounting for 35% of digital music and a total of 68% of Spotify users using playlists to discover new music, it would be outrageous not to consider Spotify playlists when curating a marketing campaign.  Not only can the addition of a single song into a well-established playlist act as a game-changer, creating playlists can boost interactivity and help you maintain an active position on your followers’ feeds.

 Spotify allows you to upload photos, insert bios, and add in any upcoming tour dates, letting your fans know where they can catch a live set.  Spotify needs to be tended carefully, but so does everything.  If you wanna grow your audience, Spotify is a must.

Tips for success:

1.    Submit your tracks to playlist curators.  The more people that hear your music, the bigger you grow as an artist.  Playlist curators help get your music in front of the right people sooner.

2.    Create your own playlists.  Doing it yourself will increase your presence and allow you to connect with other playlist curators.  It’s a no brainer.

3.    Like any of the platforms mentioned in this blog, having a strong image, characterised by your style of music is a highly effective way to grow brand identity.

4.    Share your Spotify links!  Sharing your music links is the most grassroots way of promotion but it still works.  Show people where to find your music by sharing the heck out of it.

5.    Once you have a killer image start reaching out to music blogs.  If you have something worth writing about they’ll promote it to their fans.

3.    Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

If social media was an awkward family get together, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter would be the parents you inadvertently cling to for the entire event. Why?  Because you need them!  With most of the digital world residing within these three platforms, they really do become an absolute must for your marketing strategy.  Don’t believe me?  Here are the stats:

 Facebook: 2.80 billion active users.  1.84 billion users opening the app at least once a day.

Instagram: 1.1 billion active users.  71% of users being under the age of 35.

Twitter: 192 million active users.  500 million tweets being sent daily.

 It goes without saying that each platform will require a tailored strategy for the tools and specifications that each app offers but if you can create a campaign that integrates all three, you have a solid foundation for your marketing crusade.

  Tips for success:

1.    Research similar accounts to give you a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

2.    In a bid to keep driving your image.  Select professional, charismatic profile photos and banner photos, but remember to keep them consistent.  Integrate this mother flipping campaign!

3.    Facebook and Instagram both have ‘live’ functionality. Use it.  It helps you reach people quickly and will promote fan interaction.

4.    Update everything regularly.  I’m sure if you showered once a month no one would talk to you either.  Keep socials fresh.

5.    Using appropriate hashtags will open the door to a greater reach and ultimately a larger fan base.

6.    Understanding the Facebook and Instagram paid advertising infrastructure is an absolute must if you want to target the right audience. Why?  Because you can directly target those that want to see your content. Learn who your audience is and then create paid ads specifically targeting that market.  It’ll come at a cost, but the reward is substantial.

  4.    TikTok

TikTok offers a unique option for those looking to bolster a marketing campaign, it allows you to post short, 15 – 60 second, videos and focuses primarily on creating authentic content.  A platform based on participation, TikTok offers the ability to post your own music, follow other musicians, and presents the uniquity of creating pop-culture trends as you connect with one of over 689 million global users.  Whilst new to the social media scene, TikTok has made an impact and is here to stay, don’t get left behind (Robley, 2020).  

 Tips for success:

1.    Focus on a niche market.  Find a community that you really want to engage with and start establishing a reputation.  Create a game plan and work to your strengths.

2.    Anyone that’s had success on TikTok knows that one of the main keys to success is consistent posting.  If you are posting three to five times a day, you are constantly in front of people.

3.    Shareable content!  Sound familiar?  Post content that’s relatable, post performance videos, post personal blogs, damn it just post stuff that people will share with their friends.

4.    TikTok utilises an algorithm.  Research into the sorts of content that best work on TikTok and you’ll find your content all over the FYP before you know it.

5.    Constantly look at increasing the quality of your content. If your videos look as though they’ve been recorded by a potato, chances are you’re gonna crash and burn.

 Look, it might not be a bloody baby but you are gonna need to take baby steps. These things take time but you should absolutely be aiming to get into good habits early.  If you want to make it in the big bad digital world you are gonna have to play by the rules.

Whether or not your tweeting, TikToking, or Face…booking, these platforms are a musician's best friend.  

Let me know which platforms you’re going to master by leaving a comment below.

[ellymackay]

Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine Reflects on a Year Plagued by Sleeplessness

Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine Reflects on a Year Plagued by Sleeplessness is courtesy of Elly Mackay's Sleep Blog

Psychologists add perspective to 2020 and share tips for better sleep in 2021.

By Earl C. Crew, PhD, Kelly Baron, PhD, DBSM, Michael V. DeSanctis, PhD, LP, ABPP, DBSM, Christina McCrae, PhD, CBSM, and Skye O. Margolies, PhD, DBSM

Having used the past few months to ponder it in full, the conclusion about 2020 remains the same: the year was a bit of a nightmare for sleep.

Between the COVID-19 pandemic, racial violence, pervasive wildfires, a contentious election season, and an economic collapse, it’s hardly surprising that people with insomnia, nightmares, and other concerns about poor sleep have flooded sleep medicine clinics.

At a time when our immune systems and mental health need as much support as they can get, sleep is like a frontline worker—essential. But how can we possibly sleep well when the future has been so uncertain? Especially since COVID-19 robbed many of their routines, social connection, and coping resources.

Early into the pandemic, we at the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine (SBSM) created a task force to help the public better understand how sleep might change in response to the pandemic, and how best to protect sleep even amidst the chaos. We published our top recommendations for keeping sleep on track.

Now that 2020 is behind us, but with the pandemic still raging, we share some additional thoughts about evolving challenges for sleep, as well as provide tips for getting through them.

[RELATED: After 4-year Gap, Behavioral Sleep Medicine Has a New Credential]

Why Sleep Has Suffered

For our ancestors, sleep was a high-risk activity, leaving them vulnerable to predation. When danger—like a saber-toothed tiger—lurked nearby, the fight-or-flight system provided a life-saving switch to override sleep and get to safety.

In 2020, our primary predator has been COVID-19. This invisible menace has kept us recurrently on-edge—constantly in fight-or-flight—making sleep difficult for many.

Understandably, some have turned to medications, alcohol, or other substances to help get to sleep. This often backfires by worsening sleep quality or creating dependence. For many, what may have started as a few nights of stress-induced sleeplessness back in March has morphed into chronic insomnia.

[RELATED: CBT-I Works in Young Drinkers to Reduce Insomnia Symptoms & May Help Lessen Alcohol Use Too]

Some Have Suffered More Than Others

But not everyone has had the same success navigating stress and the threats to sleep in 2020. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected communities of color, with minority Americans more likely to be out of work, hospitalized, or dead die due to COVID-19.

Similar disparities are also found for sleep. Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander citizens are more likely to get fewer hours of sleep and experience more sleep interruptions compared to non-Hispanic Whites.

The burdens of systemic racism and discrimination, as well as having fewer opportunities to get enough sleep due to competing responsibilities, may explain some of these racial/ethnic disparities in sleep. This gap likely widened in 2020—due to added stress from the pandemic, as well as from the incidents of racial violence, police brutality, and resulting protests that occurred during the summer.

Children and Teens’ Sleep

Another casualty of the pandemic began in March and April, when schools closed and 57+ million kids in the United States started attending school virtually. Almost immediately, Zoom classrooms were flooded with hordes of sleep-deprived zombies.

Kids lost much of their structured activities, social interactions, and time outside under the sun. All of the things that kept their biological rhythms on track became wobbly. The loss of a consistent sleep-wake routine set them up for increased stress and fewer ways to cope. That’s why your child is having more nightmares or why your teen may be even crankier than usual.

What’s more, school closures took a toll on the nation’s parents, now forced to become impromptu educators while juggling everything else. Fall arrived and some schools returned to in-person instruction, only for surges of virus cases in “hotspots” to trigger a sudden return to virtual learning. Parents must now prepare to immediately react to whatever new protocol is needed for tomorrow.

There are no perfect solutions for how to teach our nations’ children during a global pandemic, but any parent is likely to tell you that this pattern is simply unsustainable. How can healthy sleep occur under these conditions?

Here’s How to Cope

Even though things may often feel apocalyptic and chaotic, we are not totally powerless and there are things we can do to protect our sleep health.

Get up at the same time each day.

“Sleep is a core human health behavior,” explains Christina McCrae, PhD, president of the SBSM. “When things seem overwhelming, commit to small behavior changes rather than taking on radical shifts in routine. The best way to start is through consistency.”

Getting up at the same time will help to reset your biological rhythms. The more predictable those are, the more easily your brain can help you to sleep well at night and function well during the day.

Make the bedroom all about sleep and only get in bed when sleepy.

This protects your bedroom for sleep. It also helps your brain to lose that habit of turning “on” as soon as you get into bed, because it will learn that the bed is place for sleep, a sleepy place, not a get-stuff-done place.

Limit screen time before bed.

The stimulation from your TV show or videogame might artificially override your brain’s sleepy cues.

Say “no” to work in the late evening. Unwind before bedtime.

Stretching, journaling, yoga, family time, or meditation can be great for unwinding before bed so the day’s stressors don’t follow you to it.

Increase daylight exposure and get outside early.

Believe it or not, sunlight is sleep’s best friend. More light exposure during the day helps to make your circadian rhythms robust, which helps you sleep better at night.

Put on pants. Go outside. Stay physically and socially active.

Not only will this give you a much-needed mood boost, it will also help to boost your circadian rhythms and give you more restful sleep at night.

This can be easier said than done. And sometimes, even following these recommendations may not be enough to solve your sleep concerns.

“If you are not good with self-management, or you have more severe sleep problems, see a behavioral sleep medicine specialist,” McCrae recommends.

These healthcare providers with specific expertise in sleep can conduct a more thorough assessment of your sleep problems and create a personalized treatment plan to improve your sleep and quality of life.

McCrae also stresses that seeking out professional help is crucial if you’re also experiencing serious mood issues, such as depression or suicidal thoughts. Awareness for when we’ve reached our personal limit is critical and seeking out professional help is a key next-step.

There Is Hope

Just like wearing a mask in public or getting vaccinated, we all benefit when ourselves and those around us are well-rested. Healthy sleep gives rise to safer workers, more effective educators, healthier children, and happier communities.

Promoting healthy sleep starts with the individual. That’s why we at the SBSM want to help you sleep well. Our website provides scientifically sound resources for many types of sleep problems, as well as an international directory of expert sleep therapists who are ready to help.

Together, let’s sleep our way to a healthier and more equitable 2021.

Earl C. Crew, PhD, is part of the behavioral health program, mental health care line at Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, and assistant professor at Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Kelly Baron, PhD, DBSM, is an associate professor in the Division of Public Health, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah, Salt Lake, Utah. She is a clinical psychologist with specialty training in behavioral sleep medicine. In the clinic, she provides cognitive and behavioral treatment for insomnia, plus other sleep disorders including circadian disorders, problems using CPAP treatment in sleep apnea, nightmares, sleepwalking, and coping with disorders of excessive sleepiness such as narcolepsy. Christina McCrae, PhD, CBSM, is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri where she directs the Mizzou Sleep Research Lab. She is a licensed psychologist who is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine through the American Board of Sleep Medicine. McCrae has been continuously funded by NIH since 2003. McCrae is currently serving) on various review panels (i.e., NIH, American Sleep Medicine Foundation). She is an associate editor for two journals, Behavioral Sleep Medicine and Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Skye Ochsner Margolies, PhD, DBSM, is clinical psychologist/assistant professor at UNC School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology in Chapel Hill, NC. Michael deSanctis, PhD, LP, ABPP, DBSM, is a clinical psychologist, in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, a published author, owner of Positive Sleep Journeys, PLLC, and has decades of experience teaching, offering community seminars on sleep, winter SAD and body clocks, and providing clinical service in the public and private sectors.

Photo 205063799 © Somwut Kamalastboocha – Dreamstime.com

from Sleep Review https://www.sleepreviewmag.com/sleep-treatments/behavioral-sleep-medicine/sbsm-year-plagued-by-sleeplessness/

from Elly Mackay - Feed https://www.ellymackay.com/2021/02/17/society-of-behavioral-sleep-medicine-reflects-on-a-year-plagued-by-sleeplessness/

[supermoviemaniac]

Rest in Peace, Stan.

We're all human and are the same in that respect, but it's our creativity that makes us unique and what helps our personality resonate. Creativity and imagination cannot be bought or taken - it's there from the get go - we all have it. Most of us go about our lives suppressing our flair however, whether it's on purpose, in fear of what others will think of it, or unintentionally, courtesy of being conditioned to be nothing more than mundane "9 to 5" drones from the cot to the grave.

Imagine people capable of such unparalleled imagination that it literally changes/shapes and influences the world, pioneering the majority of pop culture. Stan Lee, amongst the likes of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby to name a few, didn't allow their creativity to be suppressed, but sadly, every superhero's story has a final page.

Stan Lee sadly passed today at the commendable age of 95. You'd think he'd be able to enjoy his final golden years relaxing, witnessing the millions of people's lives he'd influenced, reflecting on all the amazing things he'd done... but life being as cruel as it is, pneumonia proved to be a difficult battle. Seemingly in the eventual clear, alleged claims of elder abuse were filed against the people closest to him, including greedy family members and 'carers' - the people he should've been able to trust the most. If that wasn't enough, he had to file a lawsuit against one of his own companies... all whilst losing his wife the year before, having been married for an incredible 69 years. He deserved a better retirement than that, yet he STILL went to conventions for the sake of meeting fans and showing how much he cared, sitting for hours to say hello and sign things. Though most people will never reach such an age, let alone acomplish anything close to what he's done, am I selfish to wish that he'd been given another 100 years? Regardless, his legacy lives on in the form of his creations, and you don't have to be a genius to know that the superheroes and stories he left behind for us aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Most current creators are probably only doing what they're doing now because of him, let alone all the up and coming ones that are yet to follow in Stan's footsteps. Speaking for myself, the things I've done and the things I'm interested in are what they are because of him. I wouldn't have written stories if it wasn't for him. I wouldn't have a Marvel blog consisting of 75,000 followers just like me if it wasn't for him. I wouldn't have a tiny bedroom ridiculously doused in Marvel collectibles, clothing, posters, comics, and movies if it wasn't for him. Me and my younger sister wouldn't have a common interest (that's borderline religious) if it wasn't for him. I remember being beyond obsessed with Spider-Man as kid, to the point where I used to pick up spiders in the hopes that they'd bite me so I could swing on webs and climb walls. I remember being 7 years old, literally praying to God that I could be Spider-Man, and I remember how dissapointed I was when nothing happened!

One of my favourite things he said in response to being asked why people love superheroes so much was (and I'm paraphrasing here), "I wanted to make stories that are magical and fantastical. Superheroes are a different take on fantasy," and it's exactly that. Life sucks, and I know I probably shouldn't rely on a single entertainment company to provide me with my fix of escapism, but I'm too far gone, and I fear my younger sister is too, haha! You don't hear us complaining though, and I wouldn't change my interests in the slightest. "Escapism" wasn't an overstatement either. I live and breathe this stuff, it's ridiculous... and it probably annoys people around me that aren't as fanatic, but I don't care. These superheroes come in all shapes and sizes, come from all walks of life and have powers beyond belief - everyone has a favourite hero, and mine's Stan Lee; his superpower being the ability to change my life among others, making weirdos like myself feel special. A true modern 'Marvel' if there ever was one. I'll never feel as though you're no longer with us, because you and your imagination is here forever. You'll live on in the hearts and minds of people like myself. I can never come close to explaining to anyone just how much Marvel has shaped me. Rest in peace Stan the Man, you've earnt it you legend. Excelsior!

Dec 28th 1922 - Nov 12th 2018

[goconstructionleads]

Free Construction Leads For The Taking

I beginning late explained the massiveness of being happy to pay for leads, in any case if your spending plan fundamentally won't permit it right now you should comprehend that there are approaches to manage get free improvement leads. Such comes down to utilizing your imaginative mind, making your own chances, and being restless to contribute a touch of your time. Truly try to consider some new possibilities and you will concoct some striking contemplation's for getting no-cost leads. Here are a couple to kick you off: 

1. Start a blog. Right when you hear the word 'blogger' you may consider authoritative issues or redirection yet it's a medium that has gotten powerfully significant for financial specialists any place on over the world. It's certainly not difficult to fire up a free blog at blogger.com and you can be up and making surprisingly fast.  

2. Collecting a free site. On the off chance that you don't have a site for your affiliation yet, by then what the hell would you say you are keeping it together for? A reliably growing number of individuals are utilizing the web to discover close by temporary authorities and association pros and it's protected to communicate that the Yellow Pages will be dead inside five to ten years. You can without a truly astounding stretch structure a free site with no html information by utilizing Google Sites. You would then have the alternative to utilize your web address in the aggregate of your free online profiles like the Google Business Center or Yahoo Local. Additionally try to have a spot on your site where individuals can give you their email address. You can get a tremendous proportion of these by promising to give uncommon cutoff focuses and plans to their inbox. By then you have a monstrous, free once-over of potential clients that you can attack with deals messages at whatever point you have to. On the off chance that you find that you get a kick out of causing your site by then proposition to assemble allowed to or straightforwardness regions for other non-battling lawfully restricting pros in your city and basically put a relationship on every one that fixations back to your site. 

3. Relationship on Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, and other online media protests. These objections are not, presently simply the domain of young people and understudies – they are free displaying stages essentially clutching be mauled for your great position. Set up accounts with a comparable number of them as you can stay aware of (utilizing your affiliation name as the title) and truly attempt to place some essentialness in it. Make accomplice records, present huge data relating on your business, and give broken proposals to your quick overview. You'll discover loads of different relationship in your city who are doing in like way and couldn't imagine anything better than to orchestrate with you and work on commonly beneficial affiliations and lead trading.

 4. Get free postings with online help suggestion protests like Angie's List, Merchant Circle, and Super Pages. Ask clients who were content with your work to sign onto these regions and put in a few incredible words about your affiliation. Such online awards will go miles in sending you one free progression lead after another that is unquestionably not difficult to change over into paying positions. 

5. Make DIY or illuminating narratives for YouTube and close by interface access stations. On the off chance that you can make a short and messing about related video and post it on YouTube you may very well be floored how much near to presentation it can get you. In the occasion that you're fortunate it could stream around the web and inside seven days you could have your business name, number, and web address before truly unlimited individuals (an amazing piece of them near to who could utilize your association). Free business construction leads for brief experts are simply staying by to be found on the web – you fundamentally need to go for at any rate a lot of online brand introduction on comparative number of various stages as could be typical. You could in like way make some short and useful accounts about home improvement and submit them to your nearby association access station. Sometimes they'll put them broadcasting dynamically to expend the space, and it's every now and again free. 

6. Make and deal with a nearby relationship of association authorities. Set up a site called "Supervisor Service Professionals of (your city here) Club". All individuals from the club would consent to get the message out basically the various individuals' associations to their clients. So Plumber Joe would essentially send painting prompts Painter Bob and the converse path around. It would be totally free for people. This is an awesome strategy to use each other's improvement for ordinary piece of breathing space. 

7. Get to your neighborhood TV stations on snow days and requesting that they review your business for the ticker outline of shut relationship at the base of the TV screen, regardless of whether you don't have workers or whether you plan on being open notwithstanding. Why? Since you just got your business name before about a tremendous section of a million people futile, that is the clarification. You can achieve something generally equivalent to for radio broadcasts. It's hard to tell the amount of free improvement potential customers you can move away from this strategy. This current one's outskirts moral in any case I surrender it to you whether you'd need to add it to your best stuff. 

8. Structure an article for or requesting to be met by your neighborhood association paper. Association paper editors are conventionally really unhinged for charming stories and content, and they'd likely be open to scattering the article you just explained upgrading and the significance of keeping wakeful with the latest. Unmistakably around the fulfillment of the article would be your name, number, and web address for all in the association to see (futile, plainly). Or on the other hand on the off chance that you have a spellbinding story to light up or your business is as for accomplish such an achievement try to get them to pass on an essayist and picture taker. Who knows, in the occasion that you're fortunate you may very well hit the essential page in the next week's transformation!

 9. Have a turn by they way you work your business that will draw neighborhood media thought. For instance, you could begin a redesigning business that is stated and worked solely by ladies. Or then again obviously you could work out a plan framework where you manufacture new augmentations as a final product of vehicles, vessels, or different vehicles instead of money. Or then again obviously you could get known as the headway relationship around that solitary volunteers military veterans. You get the point. Have a catch. Have a story. Be unique. In a short time enough a TV or paper author will find a few solutions concerning it and choose to utilize you story on a moderate news day. Only one notice on the chamber or in the paper and you'll certainly be swimming in free headway work leads. 

10. Give free DIY classes and workshops at your business condition once consistently. You've certainly seen that Home Depot offers free DIY classes constantly, in any case they're not simply doing it because of the liberality of their spirits. They comprehend that by a wide margin a large portion of the individuals in those classes will by then go for a walk through the store and buy all the crucial materials on the spot. A relative thought could work for your association business. On the off chance that you have a private improvement affiliation you could offer Saturday classes on everything from painting to tiling to drywall, the thought being that the vast majority of them would rapidly understand that they have neither the well being nor the craving to take on their home redoing undertakings. Plainly there you'd be, starting late standing arranged to offer your associations for select. 

11. Contribute your abilities to superb missions and watch the free progression offer leads move in. There are dependably openings accessible to offer your opportunity to fair motivation. You could help hoard a house for Habitat for Humanity, you could offer a few hours seven days of free work to seniors at your gathering, or you could help make the set for your neighborhood association theater. Such things dependably offer you the opportunity to move your business and get your name out there, regardless of whether it be in a printed release or just through easygoing. Individuals will survey you and your acts of kindness at whatever point they need their storm cellar changed or deck re- amassed.

 12. Contact neighborhood real estate agents and let them comprehend that you'd like the chance to support their customers. Right when you set up a relationship with one real estate professional inside an affiliation it can regularly incite work with others in an equivalent firm.

[aiweirdness]

GPT-2: It learned on the Internet

Prompt: The black-capped chickadee is a small songbird native to

Response: The black-capped chickadee is a small songbird native to Africa that is powerfully seductive. In the songs of Barry Sequson, Harry Holness and Alan Emerson the black-capped chickadee competes with others—and climbs on top of each other and fights with high-powered snakes, Emperor jockeys and mysterious unicorns.

This is text generated by an artificial neural network that the researchers at OpenAI unveiled this week. In fact, it’s generated by the worst neural network they trained. Even the worst neural network generates text that, if not demonstrating actual knowledge of chickadees, is leaps and bounds over the coherence of any neural networks I’ve trained myself. They’ve built in a way for the model to zoom out and look at longer-term features of text, which means it’s much better at making sentences hold together, and even remembering what it’s talking about from sentence to sentence.

The model learned by crawling the Internet and seeing which words are used together in which order, trying to build up an internal model that will let it predict which word comes next in a sentence. It’s similar in concept to the models I’ve trained to generate paint colors, first lines of novels, and Harry Potter fan fiction, except it’s a lot more powerful. It also learned from a much larger dataset than I use, consisting of every page that was linked to somewhere on Reddit with a minimum number of upvotes. That encompasses a LOT of topics.

It includes fan fiction, for example.

Prompt: Harry wished that Hermione would hurry up. The icing was beginning to harden.

Response: Even now, the cracks only hurt and were beginning to make the steel in her hair and tie in like clumps. Hermione sipped the bitter frost from her dinner and chewed on her eating soup.

Prompt: Darth Vader entered the room, cape billowing. "What is the meaning of these... festivities?"

Response: ”Strange and solemn, now," Princess Leia replied. "Will pirates make jokes at Jabba's birthday cake? Oh, and for a moment, Darth Vader was too full of himself for that ceremony, hence all the mirth."

"Did your father suffer there?" Vader roared and growled and turned to gaze up from the balcony.

The model can also try to communicate Important Science Facts, although its actual facts are a bit suspect.

Prompt: Our solar system consists of the inner and outer planets, separated by an asteroid belt. It has

Response: Our solar system consists of the inner and outer planets, separated by an asteroid belt. It has only one sun, Pluto.  Mercury rotates on its axis a little to allow a few planets, called gas giants, to be independently charged.  During some of these cycles periods between  90% and 64% of the solar system's surface might be charged.  (Not enough is needed for vermin but that is gradually fading away.)

Prompt: Throughout the long cold Antarctic winter, the residents of South Pole Station

Response: Throughout the long cold Antarctic winter, the residents of South Pole Station lost virtually all of their ancient crustaceans, most notably pterodactyls, and all of the all-important plankton hydrates and protozoan eggs of the five ordered species of mammal.

Other deposits for sea organisms included eraymarine calcifye, the redfin ball, penguin heads, and the red whale.

Prompt: A carbon atom's outer orbitals

Response: A carbon atom's outer orbitals are basically a ring of ions around the border of thin mini-glaciers (usually colloquially referred to as bubble"). Like viruses, these planes are in islands in large weather groups. In and out they get all of their energy from many small regions of solar wind and dense cloud cover (usually thousands of square meters). Like viruses, their weaponry is imaged to record the movement of material-- (by deflecting rays, for instance) to complete waves or to cause the material to deform under shell impact. Capacitors--like gravity ids-- produce buoyancy with the exhalation of liquid hydrogen atmospheres, an essential electrolytic letdown when the material is what one calls a watermelon. Heat range is quite long and space is limited so one must stick with watermelons for a stability boost at a given coordinate system vital to shelter those who require them in space.

Interestingly, it takes its cues from the phrasing of the prompt more than from its specific content.

Prompt: Behold, the three-toed sloth, known for its

Response: Behold, the three-toed sloth, known for its ichorotic smile, with its four shades, pantered organic wizened broken bony paws, bulging knees, hairy tubercles, and orange's-black mandibles.

It’ll also do recipes, delightfully. Its recipes aren’t enormously more coherent than the recipes I’ve been able to generate. Part of the problem seems to be that the model is getting a bit confused by other types of recipes in its dataset.

Prompt: Quitterbread bars. Ingredients:

Response (some formatting adjusted for readability):  

Quitterbread bars.

Ingredients:

Creamy cole slaw, chopped fresh cilantro, garlic, etc. 1  few very good options at lime-light, milky-white (at a light foodie) space 1  medicated towel (albino & aluminum mesh - see a friend's link to see if you can use it carefully & what you're expecting) a few paraffin-y dice (sleep about half of the weight, use the 1 ounce plus 2 pounds extra when handling these onto a hot baking sheet) 20 baking sheets 30 1/2 lb. white sanding board 1 didn't dry paper cup 1 cup extra hot water

boil the butter and electrical polishing after 20 minutes 3LB neurons

gently massage these into their slots, reduce heat in oven to approximately 350°F

stuff seam side-side down with binding compound, avoiding every drop of water the thinner sides will be tidy and seperate and pull out after 24 hours know how long they will keep it's held well, thin enough to live with 3-4 weeks teach you all the serenity you'll need to know for fantasy...

_______________________________________ >>> A limited amount of not-spicy crème brûlée (orange - read about how to do it in Meteor!) I used black chocolate cake Crème Brûlée

Painted cocktail draped across the small purple curtain of Shana Liu's Stepmother Coconut Guild guest house in France. 35' x 30' $150

Embargo thank you. Our magical rich chocolate cube

Still, its memory is better than any model I’ve worked with before. Look how it manages to almost remember that it was making a list!

Prompt: My 10 favorite animals are: 1.

Response:  

My 10 favorite animals are: 1. zebras with a white scar on the back; 2. insiduous spiders and octopus; 3. frog with large leaves, hopefully black; 4. cockatiel with scales; 5. razorbill with wings hanging about 4 inches from one's face and a heart tattoo on a frog. 3. cockatric interlocking tetrapods that can be blind, cut, and eaten raw. 4. black and white desert crocodiles living in sunlight. 5. zebra and many other pea bugs.

And this is just the worst model, the one that was trained with 117 million parameters instead of 1542 million. What can the best model do?

Here’s an example of its output:

This give you a clue as to why the OpenAI researchers have decided for now not to release their best model to the public. They’re worried about people using it to produce destructive bots, fake news, phishing emails, and other dangers. It might be difficult indeed to moderate a forum filled with angry time-wasting mostly-coherent bots. In their blog post they posted more examples of the full-powered model producing impressively coherent text, including a delightful news story on four-horned South American unicorns.

What will they end up doing with their model? Even now, someone else with the time and resources - a government, for example - could train and use a model like theirs, especially now that they’ve shown everyone what their technique can do. They’re hoping that their paper will prompt some regulation, or at least some countermeasures, that can guard against this technology’s misuse. They’re also hoping that other researchers will stop to think about potential misuse before they release their models to the public.

For now, the GPT-2 version OpenAI released isn’t going to fool very many people.

Prompt: NO!!! You should NEVER feed a dog from a silver platter.

Response: It will make them bark in farts when you put it away.

Prompt: Actually, you should never microwave your food, because

Response: it holds sodium, mercury, mercury or "cold enemy cocktail" flavorings and the exact same flavorings used then for chili powder. This is wrong, it's not safe, and some people get hurt while cooking at their homes! If you have these very dangerous ingredients and want to keep them around, you should absolutely rinse them and cook them in a dishwasher and set aside.

Support AI Weirdness and get bonus content: A few more GPT-2 samples I generated.

You can download and play with the second-best model here - requires some familiarity with installing and running python code. Or there’s a colaboratory version (works in-browser; no coding required). Content warning: it learned some awful stuff from the Internet.

[scripttorture]

I have read your masterpost on starvation, and it sounds like it's most relevant to acute malnutrition. How bad can chronic malnutrition get? Like someone on a "starvation diet" for several years?

This one I’m going to have to start with the caveat that I’m not a medic. It’s taken a long time because it’s a subject I find quite difficult.

 In the context of this particular question- I don’t actually know the technical definition of acute vs chronic malnutrition. My medical knowledge is patchy and I’m not setting out to try and replace @scriptmedic. Frankly I don’t have the skill set.

 My knowledge base for starvation is a combination of things like the Minnesota Starvation Report and the WHO mixed with history and survivor accounts. So my impression of what starvation does is less medically based and more person based. It’s English policies in Ireland and India, Mao’s China, Ukraine with the rise of the Soviets.

 So I’m not sure how relevant you’re going to find the answer I can give. But I’ll give it a shot.

 How bad can it get?

 Given the context of this blog, that we’re talking about systematic abuse of human rights: the horror in starvation is that it is social. It’s rarely just one person suffering. Instead it’s whole communities. Suffering compounded on suffering as victims watch everyone they know waste away.

 Starvation, in the context of torture, is often part of a deliberate campaign to wipe out a group of people. It’s the extinction of family lines, vanished villages and towns. It’s the collapse of social order, not in any revolutionary sense but in the sense of collapsing ethical norms. It up-ends the social contract.

 What follows are descriptions of genocide and the deaths of children. I am giving additional warnings because I usually tone down this stuff for the blog. I try to give you all the information you need to write well without overloading you with history or descriptions of pain.

 This is less filtered.

 Here’s part of a Ukrainian children’s song from the inter-war period.

 ‘Daddy and Mommy are in the kolkhoz

The poor child cries as he goes alone

There’s no bread and there’s no fat

The party’s ended all of that

Seek not the gentle or the mild

The father’s eaten his own child

The party man he beats and stamps

And sends us to Siberian camps’*

 Judging from the accounts of the time this wasn’t exaggeration or hyperbole. There are a lot of police recordings of murder for cannibalism at the time. Especially of young children.

 Here’s a description of the state of an orphanage in Kharkiv*.

 ‘The children had bulging stomachs; they were covered in wounds, in scabs; their bodies were bursting. We took them outside, we put them on sheets and they moaned. One day the children suddenly fell silent, we turned around to see what was happening, and they were eating the smallest child, little Petrus. They were tearing strips from him and eating him. And Petrus was doing the same, he was tearing strips from himself and eating them, he ate as much as he could. The other children put their lips to his wounds and drank his blood. We took the child away from the hungry mouths and we cried.’

 It’s estimated that 3.3 million people died in Ukraine as part of a deliberately engineered food shortage and the violence that followed. Villages vanished.

 People tried to flee to the towns, where the food was being taken. But identity cards clearly indicated where people were from and most of them couldn’t afford or find passable fakes.

 Townsfolk were punished for giving away food. Immigrants from the country were rounded up and locked in warehouses where they were either left to starve or deported back to the country to starve there.

 People held small children out of train windows as they pulled into or away from stations and begged bystanders to take their starving children.

 Between 1876 and 1878 Britain oversaw one of the worst famines in Indian history, killing an estimated 5.5 million people and affecting some 58 million.

 For reference that’s more than the population of Canada.

 During this time Britain exported around 320 thousand tonnes of wheat from the affected area. Whilst consistently denying Indians effective relief. People were forced to work 16 hour days in exchange for ‘food relief’ that was reduced to 450g of grain a day. Less for women and children doing the same work.

 Assuming that ‘ration’ was mostly rice that’s less then a thousand calories a day. The estimated daily needs for an adult who isn’t engaged in manual labour is more then double that.

 I don’t have any translations of the poetry remembering this genocide.

 Then there’s the genocide of the Hereo and the Nama peoples, also using hunger and thirst as a weapon.

 People were driven in to the desert. The water holes were guarded and anyone who approached was shot. Some sources claim wells were poisoned. So families; children, women, the elderly, staggered on under the sun until they dropped.

 There are disputes about the death toll but it was certainly in the tens of thousands. Not including the people who were put in concentration camps.

 Germany has just started giving back their bodies.

 In China children were walked by their parents off into the mountains or wilderness and left to die. Because quotas for food exports vastly exceeded the amount most regions could produce. And the quota (or as near to it as possible) was taken whether people had the food to spare or not.

 First they ate the seed grain, the grain reserved to plant the harvest for the next year. Without it there would be no food later but there was nothing else. Then they scoured the countryside, eating everything from herbs to non-edible leaves and grasses.

 People ate leather shoes and clothing. They ate mud. It sticks together in the intestines, blocking them, tearing them and causing a slow painful death.

 It’s not the individual personal perspective but I would argue this is the worst of it-

 Picture the place you grew up. If you had a good family picture them and your friends and the casual acquaintances you would have met every day.

 Starvation means watching everyone turn on you or die by degrees.

 It is everyone in a community wasting slowly. Parents choosing which of their children to feed and trying to decide if it is better to eat themselves so they can protect their children or feed the children so they have a better chance of living til the next day.

 It’s people who you know (and sometimes love) stealing the things you need to stay alive. It’s people killing each other so they’ll have a little more to eat, and that little more not being enough to keep them going.

 It’s disease, exhaustion, pain and despair driving people to turn on each other.

 And when they are dead, when all that is left is eerie empty buildings, then the officials come along. They take down the signs. They tear down the buildings and they clear the ground.

 A few years later it’s fields. Or a few scattered houses. Or perhaps a whole new village. And no one in the area remembers that there were people there before. They say it was empty land, countryside, wilderness.

 There’s no one to correct them; everyone is gone.

Availableon Wordpress.

Disclaimer

*R Kuśnierz Ukraina w latach kolektywizacji I wielkiego glodu 2005, via T Synder Bloodlands 2011, Penguin

 I recommend Mao’s Great Famine, F Dikotter, Bloomsbury, 2011

 You can read about the ‘Madras Famine’ in W Digby’s account from the time: The famine campaign in Southern India, Madras and Bombay Presidencies: And Province of Mysore, 1876-1878 there are several reprints available. Unfortunately I have been unable to find an Indian account of this genocide (so far).

There’s a book by R Anderson on the Hereo and Nama genocide available here. I have not read it.

 Finally (another book I haven’t got round to yet) A de Waal’s Mass Starvation Polity Press, 2017 as an overview and summary of famine.

[caatws]

how to understand tv ratings (so you’ll be prepared for cancellation/renewal announcements)

as most of you know, i had an internship last semester where one of my duties for the company was tracking and analyzing tv ratings. while i’m no expert on this yet, i worked with way more knowledgeable ppl than me on this and learned a couple things about ratings that i definitely didn’t know before, so i thought i’d share some of it now that b99 is back on and we def don’t want a repeat of last year’s debacle.

(also, i’ll be tracking and analyzing b99′s ratings over on @b99bythenumbers this season, so if you’re at all interested in any of this stuff pls check it out! that blog is still under construction and stuff but as this season gets the ball rolling, that blog will come to life heheh)

ok, so i’m gonna break this up into sections to keep it as organized/straightforward as possible, so we gonna cover:

what are nielsen ratings & how do they work? (aka what do numbers like 1.2/5 mean)

b99′s ratings & viewership

nbc’s ratings & viewership

ratings as the be-all end-all for shows? (other ways to support b99) (esp if you can’t access american cable)

what are nielsen ratings & how do they work?

so nielsen media research is a company that’s been measuring data for entertainment for just over 70 years now. tho they got a start in radio, they’re arguably most known in the modern day for their measurement of american television programming, as the data they gather from these measurements (the infamous “nielsen ratings”) strongly influence broadcast networks (abc, nbc, cbs, fox, & the cw) and channels in their decisions to renew or cancel certain programs.

the way nielsen measures this data is through selecting various households with tv’s across the u.s. to monitor what they watch, who’s watching, how often they watch, etc. so it’s not something everyone in the u.s. gets to do, like they might just randomly hit you up and ask if they can use your data. if you say yes, they have to install a bunch of stuff to monitor all tv’s in your household. (if you find this at all kinda interesting, i’d recommend reading this interview with a nielsen family bc it’s kinda wild)

so, now onto the numbers. i’ll use b99′s initial ratings for 6x01 last night as an example

the rating is the 1.2/5 number. the first number, 1.2, means that 1.2% of the 119.6 million households nielsen estimates to have television watched b99 (1.2% of households, not individual people). the second number, 5, is referred to as the “share”, and means that 5% of households watching tv at that time watched b99.

these numbers are “live + same day”, meaning they only include households that actually watched b99 live as it was on tv last night and people who watched it from their DVR the day it was aired live. (for example, i got home after the ep started last night but had set it to record, so i watched my recording as the ep was ending so if i was in a nielsen family, me watching b99 on my DVR the same night it aired would still count for their measurement of an L+SD rating.)

additionally, tho nielsen records a lot of data about different demographics and people of what age are watching what shows, the standard demographic used for these ratings is people aged 18-49, all genders.

the 3.56 is the total viewership in millions (aka the actual individual viewers).

my source for ratings: tv by the numbers (specifically above, their initial thursday 1/10 ratings)

b99′s ratings & viewership

back on fox, b99 had a pretty solid run for the first two or three seasons, until the ratings started taking a pretty steep nosedive in recent years that (unfortunately) kinda predicted and ultimately led to their cancellation. it’s important to look back on their past ratings as a show, because stability & improvement are major factors at play when networks are deciding to renew or cancel shows.

season 1 (2013-2014) ratings

b99 had a rly solid series premiere, tho it pretty quickly couldn’t retain its rating, as the difference between 1x01 and 1x02′s ratings is pretty major. it got its big 6.89 rating (!!!) in february 2014 bc it aired after the super bowl. this season ended with way less viewers than it started out with, which isn’t Great.

season 2 (2014-2015) ratings

overall, pretty similar numbers to s1, especially in the total season average. it had a few ratings above 2.0 which is Good, but those numbers didn’t hold steady. again, the season ended with way less viewers than it began.

season 3 (2015-2016) ratings

b99 dipped under 1.0 for a large portion of this season. that’s Big Yikes. cancellation becomes Very Real Possibility.

season 4 (2016-2017) ratings

this season’s average was less than 1.0.....cancellation is Very, Very Real Possibility.

season 5 (2017-2018) ratings

nothing above 1.0 for an entire season....this show is Doomed, and i honestly can’t blame fox for canceling it from a numbers and business standpoint, considering this was just a continuation of the trend established in s4 with the consistently lower ratings. it’s....kind of totally rational that fox did what they did, especially when you see how b99 compared (in ratings) to other fox shows in the 2017-2018 season:

as you can see fox just kinda took like the bottom half of its shows by rating and cancelled all of them...anything averaging under a 1.0 on fox just isn’t safe!!!

comparing to other shows (esp other sitcoms) on its network is another big factor in renewing/cancelling. tho there aren’t any other sitcoms suuuper similar to b99 on fox, enough comedies did better that b99 got the axe. which means we should probably look at

nbc’s ratings & viewership

and here’s their 2017-2018 season (in which they had the most viewers out of all the broadcast networks for the first time since like 2001 actually!!):

already, b99 is off to a good start, its 1.2 initial rating pretty high for nbc, but what’ll rly matter is if they can hold this rating for the rest of season 6. like i said, stability and improvement are everything in tv world! if b99 can continue like this for the rest of this season, i think we’ll be in pretty good shape.

and, honestly, nbc rly is a good network fit for b99, with its history of popular and acclaimed sitcoms (seinfeld, friends, will & grace, etc.) and its long-running and popular crime procedurals (aka any law & order series ever), and b99 is basically a combination of the two.

ratings as the be-all end-all for shows? (other ways to support b99)

while ratings are of the utmost importance to networks and channels, it’s not the sole deciding factor.

another thing networks and channels look at, as we live in the digital age, is BUZZ. this basically is industry-speak for how much people are talking about and movies! the most visible example of this is getting a show trending on social media when it airs.

a good example of a show like this is the good place. tgp hasn’t gotten stellar ratings this season, but has already been renewed...because a lot of people talk about it on social media! it’s usually trending on twitter when a new episode airs, and its objectively high quality writing has won over a lot of industry folks’ hearts, so it gets a lot of buzz in hollywood as well (hint hint similar to how the “guardians of the nine-nine” contributed to the fight to save b99 last year).

so, here are some tips on how to maximize b99′s ratings & overall potential for renewal:

WATCH. IT. LIVE. or DVR it and watch it ASAP, as final ratings come out within 24 hours after new episodes air. obvi this only applies to amercans with access to cable/tv but clearly these are the people not showing up for b99 since the ratings were so low while the fandom was so big and loud

forgot to record it but still live in the u.s.? watch it on your cable provider’s “on demand” services (if they offer it), hulu, or nbc.com as soon as the new episode comes out the next day!!! while these numbers won’t be reflected in the actual ratings, it’ll still tell the network you care.

are you a young adult who attends college away from home aka your family’s cable? look into your family’s cable provider’s online services! my family’s cable allows me to access our DVR away from home and even watch some things on demand, which has been a lifesaver while i’ve been away at college the past couple years. if you can access your DVR remotely through your cable provider’s website, use it to record b99 and watch it ASAP!

TWEET ABOUT IT. tumblr is cool and valid and all, but let’s be real - everyone’s looking at twitter, because most industry professionals don’t know how the fuck to use tumblr. twitter is straightforward and straight to the point; they want to see it trending there. so pls tweet using #brooklyn99 when the episode is on live!!! you have 3 major chances to do this: 9 pm est (u.s. east coast), 9 pm mountain time (2 hours after east coast), and 9 pm pst (3 hours after east coast) every thursday night.

talk about it in real life! get friends to watch it! again, may not contribute to the actual ratings, but it’s still nice to get more and more people into the show to watch it in other ways and talk about it with other people they know.

i know a lot of these methods are mostly applicable to people in the u.s. and/or americans with cable, but it’s rly important that those of us who fall into those categories do our parts!! fellow americans, let’s yeet this wheat!!!! all b99 fans from all over the world, i believe in all of us!!!!!!

[lethesomething]

Make-up for lazy and/or busy people

Have some practical tips from someone who doesn't really has time for this, but tries it anyway.

It's 2019 and everyone's a beauty guru

  Let me preface this by saying: you don't need make-up. Don't let people tell you you need to 'put your face on'. You can damn well choose which face you'll be projecting each day or even part of the day. Unless you're manning one of those cosmetics counters in a mall, how you look is mostly about you and what makes you feel comfy. So while I'll be giving random ass tips on how to get certain looks with minimal effort, even that minimal effort is totally optional.

Now. Onward.

So I made it into my thirties without ever actually bothering with the whole 'make-up' thing. But now my job requires me to be Fancy sometimes, so last year I decided to make it a Project to learn and be somewhat good at it. I watched a whole bunch of youtube and read articles and Looked Stuff Up and then I bought a cheap version of All the Things to practice. It's honestly quite an overwhelming experience, and it's even harder if you, like, have a day job and hobbies and anime to watch and videogames to play and ranting blogs to write.

Like, Tati I love you but I'm not about to get up an hour earlier for this shit.

If you need some low-stakes, 'just looking around' type stuff, that's what this is here for. I cannot tell you how to do a cut crease or any of the fancy stuff. So have some of my own meandering experience, which can hopefully help you a little bit.

 What is all this stuff?

When I did my research at first, I drew up a list of Things I apparently needed to buy to do the make-up. It turned out to be a long ass list. Here are the 'common' items on said list.

1. Primer

Exactly like the thing you put on your walls before you paint them. Supposed to go on top of the moisturizer and under everything else and depending on the primer, does different things. This is.…kindof extra. I've tried two different 'colour correcting anti red' primers and all they seem to do is dry out my skin. I'm sure some are nice but this is really not a basic necessity.

2. Foundation

The thing you slather on to make your skin either look smooth like polished marble, or cakey like badly done stucco. Kinda depends on how good you're at it. Comes in varieties.

Full coverage foundation: The stuff all the make-up youtubers use. It essentially turns you into one of those Japanese mask monsters? Like the ghost from Spirited Away. Good at getting rid of any and all blemishes, but requires More Work later on.

BB cream (or CC, or DD…): Supposed to be a more skincare friendly version of foundation. I've tried a few brands and they ended up medium to full coverage, and all of them dried out my skin.

Tinted moisturizer: Not… strictly… make-up? In Europe you tend to find these in pharmacy/parapharmacy places (so Boots or Walgreens for UK/US peeps). It's essentially moisturizer with some colouring in it to give your face extra oomph. Also, what I long expected BB cream to be (it is not). Because it's pharmacy stuff, it comes in versions with like no perfume, so if you have sensitive skin but want an Instagram filter for your face, this is probably something to look into.

3. Concealer

Spot treatment to get rid of any glaring discolouration you wish to hide. +10 to all stealth checks on red spots and eye bags, but does make wrinkles really obvious.

4. Face powder/baking powder

I have no clue what this is good for. I've tried two different ones on several occasions, and I think they're supposed to stop you from getting shiny by absorbing any facial oil. They mostly just make me look dusty.

5. Bronzer

Here's the fun thing about using full coverage foundation to make yourself look like a ghost: you then need More Product to make yourself look alive again. Enter: bronzer. This stuff puts a bit of colour back into those spots you so carefully blotted out so that you appear moar hooman. Only useful if you do the whole 'full coverage foundation' thing.

6. Contouring

That thing you know because of the Kardashians. Alternatively: don't let them know we can shapeshift. This is morphing powder/cream for your face. You use it to add shadows where no shadows are, and light where there is shadow and of course this means most people use it to look as close to skeletons as possible. Can do really cool things if you know what you're doing, and look Really Wrong if you mess it up. Not for the faint of heart. Also: your nose is fine. Really.

7. Blush

Blushing is the ultimate staple of romance fics, and it looks cute. Blush powder/cream is meant to give you glowing apple cheeks, even when you're not actively feeling embarrassed.

8. Highlighter

Societally acceptable glitter for the skin. This shit is amazing. It's officially supposed to make you 'glow' and  look 'youthful' and 'juicy' but honey, who cares: Glitter!

9. Lip liner

A pencil/felt pen for your lips. Supposed to help you paint the outside of your lips so you only have to fill in the lines with lipstick later. Like carefully searching the edges before using the flood tool in Photoshop. Considering I'm pretty bad at the 'smooth strokes at lip edge' thing, it doesn't really help me to have to do it twice but ok.

10. Lip stuff

My favourite Make-up Thing. Puts colour on your lips. Comes in varieties.

Lipstick: Your mom's classic lipstick. The one with the twisty tube. Comes in a million colours and is sometimes moisturizing. Cons: everything your lips touch is now covered in lipstick.

Liquid lipstick: The stuff in the long tubes with the applicator. Usually transfer-proof which means that your coffee cup does not look like a blood bath after a few sips. Dries the hell out of your lips tho.

Lipgloss: the stuff that makes your hair stick to your face at the least gust of wind. Usually quite moisturizing but also super sticky. Makes your tea mug look like a particularly grisly murder scene.

Lip topper: Extra. Like… so extra. This is lip stuff that goes on top of your lip stuff in case you don't have enough lip stuff. Usually metallic or glitter. Because Extra.

Tinted lip balm: Another cheat item, like tinted moisturizer, in that it's not Officially Make-up. Is essentially lip balm, so it's not sticky and usually quite moisturizing and protective. Downside is that its colouring tends to be quite muted.

11. Eyebrow stuff

I don't know when 'fleek' became such an obsession, but there are pencils, and pomades, and powder and gels and spoolie brushes and they all do the same thing: shape your eyebrows.

12. Eyelid primer

Funny thing about eyes: if you have deepset or hooded eyes, like me, your eyelid spends most of its time covered by Moar Eyelid. This tends to transfer whatever you put on said eyelid to all the other skin. Hence: eyelid primer, which is like… glue? I guess? Makes stuff stay in place. For those people who don't have a bunch of eyelid foldage, it's supposed to help with the blending and whatnot.

13. Eyeshadow

Pretty colours for your eyes. Comes in powder and cream, and in literally so many colours, be it matte (no shiny), metallic (shiny), glitter (extra shiny) and fairly recently multichrome (Extra). I see a lot of influencers and (let's be real) make-up companies push the idea that you need like four shades and half an hour of blending for any given 'look' but that is mostly exaggeration. You can just pick a colour you like and wear it.

14. Eyeliner

Pencil or paint that lines your eyes and occasionally gives them wings. Comes in varieties.

Liquid eye liner: your basic all-purpose liner. This one has the advantage that it can usually be applied very thin and stealthy like.

Gel liner: as far as I can tell, a lot of liquid eye liner has an alcohol base, whereas gel liner does not. Its main reason for existing is that you can somewhat safely put it in your waterline, aka to colour the part of the eyelid just behind the lashes. This means you're going to be jabbing the pen or brush in your actual fucking eye, on the bottom/inside of your friggin eyelid and this is Terrifying. On the bright side: it's a pretty badass punky/emo/goth look. Think Avril Lavigne circa Sk8ter boy.

Kohl/pencil: this is a colouring pencil for your eyes. Tends to be a little bit thicker for extra Drama. Can also be smudged for smokey eye and even more goth points.

15. Mascara

Paint for your eyelashes. Most mascaras try to make them look bigger.

16. Falsies

Glue false eyelashes onto your own eyelashes. Ain't nobody got time for that.

17. Setting spray

Face varnish. If you've spent an entire hour getting your make-up super pretty and fancy, you can put this on to make it last longer.

  So how do you use all this?

That… was a lot of stuff and we're all still overwhelmed. So let me give you some suggestions, a 'look book' of wearable looks for every day and special ocasions, aka, now that i have this stuff, wtf am i doing with it.

The 'fuck everything' I have a shirt that says 'No.' on it. It's one of my favourite shirts and I use it on deadline weeks, when I'm in the office with a particularly large amount of stressful work. I tend to pair it with a noise-cancelling headset and a look of barely-restrained fury, but it'll look just as good with a cute dress or a comfy pair of jeans. Go wild. This facial look consists of the following:

Moisturizer

Lip balm in winter, sun screen in summer.

  The 'I tried'

This was my 'work' look for several years and occasionally still. The fun thing about it is it's quite subtle and most people (definitely most men) will not think you're wearing anything. It makes you feel like you're undercover, just a bit (I take my entertainment where i can get it, ok).

Consists of:

Skincare (moisturise, people!)

Eyebrow pencil

Mascara

  The 'You look nice today'

This one works basically like a photoshop filter for your face, if you're into that. It blurs out a little bit of the rough edges and emphasises other parts, but it still looks very much like you. Just a version of you that gets more sleep than the actual you, usually. For me, at least, it works to make me go 'damn, looking cute' when I accidentally meet my reflection in a bathroom mirror. It's a confidence builder.

Mosturiser

Tinted moisturiser or BB cream (depends on general dryness of skin I guess)

Concealer (eyebags, man)

Eyebrow pencil

Mascara

Tinted lip balm or lip gloss

 A note on lips: Look. I love dark lipstick. Make me appear as if I have stained my lips in the blood of my enemies and I'm happy. But a dark liquid lip needs to be on point to look good, which is a hard thing to do, plus if you get it wrong it is very hard to correct and I don't need that stress in my daily life. Gloss or lip balm is just a little bit more low-stakes.

The 'Make me look like my selfie'

Some days you have time. This look is essentially the same as the 'you look nice today' with two additions

Cream eyeshadow

Cream (stick) blush

A note on cream make-up: Most make-up products come in a powder form and a cream/liquid type form. Generally, the powder form is more blendable, and those fancy eyeshadow pallettes let you do all kinds of crazy amazing stuff. However, we're talking lazy working girl looks, and I happen to do my make-up on a moving train (see earlier: not getting up an hour early for this shit). If you're going to be applying things in less than ideal circumstances, cream make-up is your best friend. It doesn't explode in a cloud of dust, it doesn't break when you drop it, there's no fall-out. It is, in general, lower difficulty, can be applied with like your fingers or one of those tiny little make-up sponges, and if you get it in a fairly neutral colour (like just a bit darker or lighter than your skintone) it isn't obvious if your bleary ass messes up a little. We're being practical here, not trying to make things more difficult than it has to be.

The 'yeah I worked hard on this, bask in my glory'

Finally, the full glam. I personally use this when I am required to be Fancy, or when it's a Sunday and I'm all 'fuck it i wanna be fab'. This is the one where you just go for it. Use All the Things. Turn your face into a ghost, then paint shadows back on. Use six different eyeshadows and blend them together. Put that liquid lip to use, you have time to clean it up and try again. Add glitter to Everything. Have fun with it.

[pediatricianpro-blog]

6 Awesome Tips for Your First OT Job

There is still a lot to learn after only working your first OT job for a month, but cheers to utilizing these tips and continuing to grow professionally and clinically along the way!Find Original Blog Here!After one month in to the game, the nerves of your first OT job will settle. There’s a lot to be nervous about when starting your first job but give yourself credit because you know a lot!

The studying isn’t over. Not even close You have spent hours studying the Glasgow Coma Scale and you have memorized all the pediatric reflexes (though your heart is sent on geriatrics). You may have even used some NBCOT guides to get you there. Finally, you pass!

Then you’ll go to work the next day feeling like a million bucks until you silently and nervously laugh when you look at the new admit’s medical history/chart. It might as well be a foreign language. And you have no idea what their rehab potential could be. So, don't be shy of Google or a dusty textbook, and keep reading to my second and third points.

Nonmaleficence Do No Harm. Quite simply if your gut feels funny, you should probably reevaluate your next choice. Whether it's stepping out briefly to check if a patient is on NPO status. Or maybe grade an activity down until you feel confident enough that your patient won't pass out while you readjust the O2!

You learn to ask questions during your Fieldwork, but let’s be real you will have days where you feel like a lost puppy even as a registered therapist. However, as long as you place your patient’s safety first, and actively seek mentorship, your future will shine brightly.

Senior therapists are your friends And nurses. And social workers. And physicians. They want to see you succeed! (And so do other disciplines depending on your area of practice).

Well, most of them anyways...

The best part of any job is having other occupational therapists around so that you can humor them with your many questions a day.

The same holds true with the physical therapists and speech therapists. They are the "phone a friend" aspect of Who Wants to be a Millionaire for your first OT job. Only more reliable. Just remember. It’s an asset to be a new grad! Frankly, when you think about it, new grads have the most up to date research brewing in our brains.

Your patients will question your credibility This can occur in two primary scenarios.

Exhibit A: You've been working as a baby OT for over a month now and a handful patients and family members will ask you, "have you graduated from high school"?

Be kind. Be happy. Be grateful that in five years they might ask if you have graduated college yet!

Exhibit B: The physician writes a referral for occupational therapy. Except all it says is, "eval and treat". And it certainly doesn't explain to the patient all the awesome stuff we can do to help improve their functional independence!

Don’t be alarmed when a patient tells you he is not interested in getting help finding a job. Just be ready to have a stellar, client-centered answer in an effort to inform/educate your patient on what skilled OT services can offer him.

You feel what your patients feel If your patients are sad, you’ll find yourself feeling down; nonetheless, build rapport and help them find the silver lining no matter their situation. Remind them to give grace to you as their therapist, but also to themselves on their journey. Encourage them to be their own advocate.

You must put your own self-care first Taking consistent action to refill your energy, motivation, and purpose requires you to take responsibility for your personal mental and physical wellbeing. Life is a balance. And if you are lucky enough to get through OT school, you of all people must model and seek occupational balance.

This could be a post in itself, but to put it briefly ensure your wellbeing through tackling some of these activities:

Define your purpose

Create a list of STGs and a few LTGs (psi no need to write your personal goals in RUMBA or COAST format)

Take time for personal growth and development

Learn to say one word (Hint: opposite of yes)

Exercise (Our job involves a pretty strong physical component whether you’re engaging in floor play or Max A transfers. Get those gains in!)

Eat better and more consistently. After all, we are the masterminds behind the IADL task of meal prep/cleanup, right?!

Sleep. This is one of our seven areas of occupation listed in our dear Practice Framework so let's all hold each other accountable.

Kill them with kindness ☺. Got a noncompliant patient, that’s okay! Smile and choose to revisit that patient later that day. Be empathetic and move on.

There is still a lot to learn after only working your first OT job for a month, but cheers to utilizing these tips and continuing to grow professionally and clinically along the way!

Find Original Blog Here!

[aquarianlights]

Happy Personal Update Time!!

I know I promised to do this forever ago, but things got busy. So here I am!

Most of you know this is my personal blog, but it has become a lot less personal since pursing medical education. I’m still here, though, and I still love coming here to read all the asks I get and interact with all my followers and all that good stuff. What I really miss is being able to post text posts. They have always been my way of venting and letting go of inward pain, anger, frustration, etc... Text posts/ranting have always been super cathartic for me. But my life is great now and I’m happy to just jump back in to give a long overdue update every once in a while because I miss doing it and I know I still have longtime followers somewhere in that list of people. Haha. Exciting stuff is happening, though!! And I’m very excited to share it, as well.

SO.............this is gonna be long because THERE’S GREAT STUFF HAPPENING!! :D AND I WANT TO SHARE IT ALL!! I hope someone will read this coz man oh man have I come a long fucking way from the whiny little drug addicted suicidal little boy I used to be. Haha. :)

This fall semester is going to be just lovely. I’m going to have the opportunity to work with one of the clubs I’m joining to teach high schoolers how to properly do dissections. I’ll be taught how to properly clean equipment like microscopes and auger plates and such. And I’ll be working alongside a couple of my professors and other club members to mentor high schoolers in some cool biology stuff. :)

The other night, I finally got official international membership with Phi Theta Kappa and also got international membership with the Omega Nu Chapter. I’ll be receiving all that good proof stuff soon like certificates and such, but the reason I’m primarily excited about that is because that opens me up to a TON of scholarship opportunities. Both of those societies give out a fuckton of money every year for academic achievement and with me transferring schools, I’m hoping to be lucky enough to snag some of that.

One of my professors recommended me for a student council officer position and I found out recently that he spoke with another professor in the same department that had me as a student and she got on board with that, but I’m not entirely sure I want to go that route because while I was writing up my essay to submit to the current SGA explaining why they should choose me for one of the officer positions, I really didn’t feel all that passionate at all about it, so I’d much rather someone with a passion for the position have it, but it made me feel good that my professors have that kind of faith in me. I’m still debating on it, though.

Another professor of mine submitted my name for an internship position with a student partnership that eventually leads you to an invite-only online community where you can be set up with more internship opportunities and helps to make connections in your field and all sorts of stuff. The internship has a $200 stipend for the first semester that you do it and a $250 stipend for every following semester that you do it. 

I was going to try it out with her this summer semester, but I had *NO* idea there was so much involved. By the time I had completed my 10 hours of training, I was in shock by the amount of work I was going to need to do to prepare for the role so I’ll actually be taking it on for the first time during Fall semester instead of summer, which is annoying because part of this internship requires you to make a short presentation in every one of the classes that the professor has that term for the students their class (and any other professor in the department who uses the software who may need you), record said lecture and put it up on canvas with the professor for anyone who missed the 1st day of class and for any online classes, be open for any questions after the presentation from both the students and the professor, hold at least 2 hours worth of office hours during the first week, and a *TON* of other stuff that happens prior to the semester before this and after this throughout the semester that would take forever to list. This is annoying that I am having to start in the fall because summer semester has less than HALF the students that fall has. There’s barely anyone there in the summer at all and summer classes are usually very laid back. The teachers are so chill in the summer and usually don’t care much, whereas the Fall semester is serious business and there are TONS of incoming freshman all confused about where they are going and everyone is lost and in a hurry and nervous and it is just total chaos literally everywhere on any campus you go to. So we really wanted to test this out during summer, but there’s just no way. The amount of representatives I have to meet and sit down with and hash out certain details with prior to even making this presentation is going to take me at least a couple weeks and summer semester starts next week. Lol. I only had like 3 weeks from the time my professor submitted my name. Was not nearly enough time.

It’s a very overwhelming internship and the work is... daunting. I mean, it is going to be a *LOT* of work and it is something I have never done before and it will be a style of leadership that I have never had placed on my shoulders before, but everyone has to take that first step at some point in their life. I hope I can do it. I’m going to try... I won’t say I’m not nervous about standing in front of a lecture hall full of students... but I’m probably not as nervous as some would be. I used to hold rally’s in my town square when I was younger to inform the public on the dangers of puppy mills, so I’m quite comfortable with public speaking, but I will say that it has been a good minute since I have done it and I have never stood up in front of a lecture room full of college students who are the same as I am and tried to pretend to know exactly what I’m doing. That’s a little scary to me. Ngl. Lol.

I’m going to be taking American Sign Language as a fluff class to boost my GPA, so I’m really excited about that because I’ve been wanting to learn it really badly. Just wanted to throw that in there haha. :)

That’s about it for the really BIG things for Fall Semester right now, not including like... the normal hard classes, graduating and switching uni’s soon and stuff. Which I’m super excited about!!

BUT!!...This summer is gonna be lit as well!

I got a volunteer position that I’m going to be in orientation for sometime soon (I think next week is what she said) where I’m going to a local shelter and all I’m doing all day is walking dogs, socializing dogs (basically playing with them and getting them comfortable around humans and other dogs so they’re more adoptable), bathing dogs, and basic training (sit, stay, etc...). It is basically my DREAM volunteer position!!

I just remembered reading an article at one point that said “most people don’t know that shelters really need people to just walk the dogs because regular volunteers usually don’t have the time”. And I remembered volunteering at the Humane Society when I was more able bodied than I am now and that was not something I could do now. It was much too physically taxing. Cleaning kennels, washing over 100 dog bowls in a massive sink that I had to stand on a stool to reach, washing tons of worn out dog blankets and toys, carrying heavy loads of laundry, carrying heavy water dishes out to the play yard, filling up buckets and carrying them, scrubbing the floors with a scrubber thing, etc etc etc... like, I could barely do it as able bodied as I was then. There was no slowing down because you had to rotate the dogs out and you only had a certain amount of time to clean the few bowls and toys/beds/towels we had and only a certain amount of time to power wash/spray down the kennels they were in. It was very very fast paced work and one large break in the middle of the day and I had to leave early and I know I could not do that now. Not in a million years. 

Dog walking is something I can do with any size dog. Dog washing is still something I can do and something I have done professionally many times in the grooming industry. Dog socializing is wonderfully cathartic for me AND them. And I’m quite good with basic training, despite what it may seem with Echo...lmao (he just hasn’t been around consistency, which is a huge problem).

So I’m very very excited to get through my orientation and get started on this volunteer position! They were so kind and said that my physical disabilities would be no problem and they could work with me on my pace. I’m really looking forward to this and I’m hoping I can maybe fit it into my schedule when school starts up, even if I have to cut it down to just a couple hours, one day a week.

AND THEN........

In my PERSONAL life...

I’ve made a really cool circle of friends who isn’t intertwined with one of the most toxic people in my life that I really love and will most likely keep in my life forever because I truly believe they can unlearn the toxic behaviour and they’re one of my platonic soul mates. So I now have this really awesome circle of friends that I’m experiencing and learning all these new things about myself and about New Orleans and I keep getting closer with them.

((I may or may not post a rant I wrote up about that, coz it’s painful to talk about. And this is a happy post so it doesn’t go here!!))

I’m learning how to cook through one of those friends. I don’t have enough money to throw at a Hello Fresh subscription, but one of my next door neighbours in my apartment complex has turned into my really good friend and she has a Hello Fresh bi-weekly subscription and it usually is a 2-serving dish and we both live alone and we are both learning to cook for the first time, so we are doing it together. :D She invites me over to her apartment whenever she’s cooking and we’ll just muddle through learning how to cook together. It’s going to be a lot of fun honestly because I have SOOOOO much to learn!! :) Recently got a NutriBullet so I can make protein shakes, but I need to look at recipe’s coz mixing protein powder with just milk or water is awful. Ugh.

I’ve made up my own 30 day challenge for exercising and basically just becoming more healthy and getting my heart and muscles in better shape. June has 30 days so I figured what better way to do a 30 day challenge than on a month that has 30 days lol. Easy to keep track of, right? I made myself a chart and put it on my fridge and everything. Going to keep a log. I’m very excited to see the difference between day 1 and day 30. Going to take pictures for comparison. Idk if 30 days will make that big of a difference, honestly but... we’ll see??? Lol.

I guess this should go up in the school section, but I’m also working on quite a few scholarship entries so we’ll see how that goes!! I had NO idea so many easy essay scholarships were out there!! Keeping it to 1k words is the hard part. :( Eeeeeeeeeeep!!

Been studying for the MCAT’s and tryna find a medical math tutor. It’s gonna be hard, but... we’ll see. Hopefully the MCAT prep classes will help.

I’m in love with deep cleaning and organizing and my neighbour is gonna pay me to clean her apartment and then I’m going over to her mother’s house that she’s renting out (her mother passed away recently and she couldn’t handle staying in the house anymore) to help her Marie Kondo the place. We’re just gonna kind of... go at her own pace, slowly thank everything for doing its job, and get rid of everything that we can and deep clean everything while we are doing it. Probably just take it a day or a week at a time. I’ll be there with her to support her through the process...like if she needs to cry on someone when she sees a certain item or something. I’m excited to help with her journey to recovery and I’m so honoured to be given the chance to be someone’s rock. I love the bond me and my neighbour are developing. I just feel so honoured.

I’m going up to my parents house, then up to Virginia, then hopefully MA towards the end of the summer. Looking forward to the trip quite a bit. :)

HONESTLY... 

I’m just so freakin’ excited. My life is going so wonderfully. Everything is so great. My apartment is wonderful, my relationship with my mom is on the mend because of how well in school I’m doing (you all know that’s all she cares about lol), I have wonderful friends and a great support group, my therapist and I click really well, I’m making opportunities happen and having opportunities open up to me in return, I’m meeting new people and seeing new things, I’m feeling physically healthier than ever (even though my chronic pain is worse than ever), I almost always wake up in a good mood, I’ve been getting a good amount of sleep almost every single night, school is good, connections in the professional world are growing... 

The ONLY thing holding me back right now is money. I’m pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and it is killing me. The amount of things I *WANT* to do but don’t have the money for is just killing me. I’ve been wanting to take dance lessons, but I don’t have the money. Been wanting to sign up to a yoga studio and FINALLY found one IN MY AREA(!!) that had instructors trained in dealing with people with ehlers danlos syndrome (which is crazy coz lots of yoga instructors turn me away when they hear I have ehlers danlos type 3), but I can’t afford it. 

I can barely pay my rent. :| I’m lucky I have EBT, otherwise I literally would not have had any food over the past 2 months. I would have had to choose between having a roof over my head or having food, so thank FUCK I have EBT coz I have a full cabinet and fridge right now. Fucking bless. Lololol.

I’m just so content. There’s a lot of stuff going wrong here and there and a lot of stuff stressing me out, but OVERALL... I couldn’t be happier.

Things have really taken a turn in my life and I have been waiting for them to all come crashing down for 2 years now and they still haven’t and that’s amazing to me.

And there’s my update lol. Hope you enjoyed the Killian Chronicles.  😂 😂 😂 Love and missed you all!  😘

((PS: This has not been proofread and most likely never will be. Free-flow-thought writing is my specialty lol.))