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Biofuels and forests: Revisiting the debate

The complexities of a sustainable biofuel economy reveals the need for improved land and forest governance across diverse scales.
Jatropha is not a miracle crop as popularly believed, requiring high inputs of labor and agrochemicals, good rainfall, and high quality agricultural land to perform to expectations. ©Center For International Forestry Research/Jeff Walker

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This article was originally published in the September-October 2013 issue of Bioenergy Insight.

Much of the initial optimism about the contribution of biofuels to energy security, climate change mitigation and rural development has given way to skepticism about its economic viability and bad publicity about related land grabbing and environmental destruction.

Within a highly polarized discourse of “for” and “against”, the debate has shown little nuance and has been rife with poorly qualified assumptions. With the biofuel sector still in its infancy, do these assumptions really hold up to further scrutiny or are biofuels being prematurely dismissed?

Evidence to date seems to suggest that the interactions between the biofuel economy and forests, food production, and the rights of the rural poor are decidedly complex and should not be overgeneralized and oversimplified. Rather than dismissing biofuels outright, more attention should be placed on developing appropriate mechanisms for leveraging the sector’s developmental potential, while mitigating its potential costs.

In response to changing global conditions, several countries established consumption and production targets for biofuels as part of a wider shift toward greater incorporation of renewable energy sources into the energy mix and the promotion of a low-carbon economy. Large markets such as those in the European Union, United States, and Brazil currently mandate biofuel blends.

To ensure that blended biofuels meet environmental objectives in the European Union and the United States, they must meet strict sustainability criteria. However, critics contend that these measures are inadequate to protect against the full range of potentially adverse effects of such policies. For example, by stimulating demand for so-called flex-crops (e.g. crops that can be used for multiple purposes, including food), it is argued that this can divert food crops for energy consumption, threatening food self-sufficiency and price stability.

Additionally, many argue that when indirect land use changes (iLUC) are accounted for, many biofuels will not meet the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, which typically only consider direct land use changes. As a response to this criticism, the European Union in 2013 imposed new measures, including a limit on the amount of food-based biofuels that can be used and additional criteria pertaining to GHG emitted from iLUC.

Moreover, many countries are also starting to question the economic viability of biofuels, as low oil prices often require substantial subsidies to ensure that biofuel producers do not target more profitable food markets instead, amid a vigorous expansion of demand in the food markets.

These concerns, though, should be seen in perspective. Although total biofuel production grew more than tenfold between 2000 and 2010, only 9 percent of vegetable oils produced globally are used to make biofuels.

In many countries, ethanol is produced largely from leftover molasses and not from cane juice, which is usually reserved for sugar production. Therefore, the relationship between biofuels and undesirable types of land-use changes such as deforestation is often not direct and not in proportion to pressures from other end-markets. The latter are driven strongly by demand for their food uses and increasing meat consumption in emerging economies such as India and China.

Considering, therefore, the limited use of key crops for biofuel production, the debate about the impacts is largely in the realm of projection. Moreover, although important analytical efforts have been undertaken so far, estimating iLUC effects on forest conversion is difficult to establish in practice and still requires substantial methodological refinement. Additionally, research suggests that GHG emissions generated from land conversion for biofuel feedstocks may take decades or even centuries to reverse. To date, however, the precise environmental footprint of biofuels remains unclear.

The local socio-economic impact of biofuel feedstock cultivation is extremely variable and often depends on which feedstock and the magnitude and nature of displaced land uses. For example, large plantations generate new employment and income opportunities and offer smallholders the possibility to participate in global commodity markets through contract farming schemes.

On the other hand, many plantations tend to displace local systems of production in areas where property rights are not sufficiently secure, exacerbating local income and food insecurity and disrupting traditional social relations.  Ascribing these effects, like the environmental effects, to a specific end-market is difficult.

Although the European Union and the United States have adopted comparatively strict environmental sustainability requirements, social criteria are largely absent. The European Commission, for example, argued that “the inclusion of social criteria raises technical issues, administrative issues and issues connected with international law (and therefore) it is not recommended to include social criteria in the sustainability scheme”.

The underlying argument for exclusion rests on the assumption that social impacts cannot be easily attributed to a specific biofuel consignment and, therefore, any interference could constitute a breach of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. This highlights the political and legal complexities of introducing social guidelines in trade-related commodities.

As a result of the reluctance of regulating extra-territorial social issues, an imbalance threatens to be created where stringent environmental criteria will compel producers to seek out lands of lesser environmental significance, which are more likely to contain other socio-economically valuable land uses.

Under current conditions, there clearly remain unanswered questions about the sustainability of biofuels and difficult trade-offs between policy options. However, new pathways being explored could alleviate these uncertainties and dilemmas. Underfirst-generation (1G) technologies, emissions from land use change dominate pathway emissions, if such emissions take place, while the lowest emission pathways use wood and agricultural residues as feedstock.

The latter require, however, second-generation (2G) conversion technologies which remain too expensive. 2G biofuels are derived not from food crops like 1G, but from woody crops, agricultural residues, waste and crops such as switch grass. This could reduce food-versus-fuel competition and in many cases will not displace socio-economically significant land uses.

However, while 2G biofuels may contribute to reducing GHG emissions, they may still place some pressures on forests. Moreover, 2G biofuels are currently not cost-competitive due to the high costs of converting woody, non-edible products into fuel. While not offering simple solutions, with short-term technological advances, 2G biofuels may over time serve to ameliorate some of the environmental and social risks associated with 1G biofuel development.

The technical, political, and economic complexities of developing a viable and truly sustainable biofuel economy reveals the interconnectedness of global social and environmental issues, the instability of international commodity markets, and in particular the need for improved governance of land and forests across diverse scales.

One of the first needs in this regard is to connect in a more effective way public and corporate governance initiatives, and the second to link local realities to global processes, as a way to progress toward building more inclusive multi-stakeholder and multi-scale governance.

Despite the emphasis on policies in consumer societies like the EU and the US, some producer countries are starting to play an important role, as evidenced, for example, by the progress made in Brazil to improve land management laws and enhance policy incentives to reduce deforestation in the Amazon.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the national governance systems in producer countries are ill-equipped to deal effectively with the pressures from markets and influential investor groups, and to deal with issues that require adopting complex land use management reforms and expensive incentive structures. These deficiencies could potentially be compensated by good corporate governance, with some private actors self-regulating through voluntary certification systems.

Greater complementarities need to be explored to strengthen the synergies between the public and private sector, as well as to ensure that global processes support simultaneously sustainable and inclusive local development.

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Group Vows To Force Buhari Out Of Office If He Fails To Resign|FortNews

A youth group, the Nigerian Youth Advocate for Justice has given President Muhammadu Buhari an eight-week ultimatum to either resign or form an interim government following his absence from the country for more than 53 days.

The group warned that if the president fails to comply with the ultimatum, it would lead seven million youths in 22 states to force him out of office, Guardian reports.

The group’s chairman, Seriki Olorunwa, said the prevailing health condition of the president had made it impossible for him to govern the country.

“We urge the Senate, House of Representatives, state house of assemblies and parastatals to persuade Mr. President to resign and hand over to an interim president in the interest of Nigerians,” group said.

Though the youths pledged not to shed any blood, they however noted that they were prepared to fight than to live as slaves.

“We are speaking with one voice for the masses because we want the progress of the people.”

The group said the All Progressives Congress (APC) had subjected Nigerians to humiliation because of its self-serving activities.

The youths complained that killing, kidnapping and robbery have become the order of the day in the present-day Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the APC has said President Muhammadu Buhari is fast recovering from his illness contrary to allegations that he is on life support.

The national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, gave the assurance in Abuja on Friday, June 30, while speaking with newsmen at the end of a meeting between the party`s national working committee (NWC) and state governors elected on the party’s platform.

Oyegun, however noted that Buhari will only return to the country after his doctors abroad certify him fit to do so, The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

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Marc Jacobs ever make BRUSHED NICKEL ?

  1. Thanks to the ladies helping me on my other thread!!! Just wanted to pin point this question though! Were any older marcs (multi pocket) made with dull hardware? Thanks!
  2. you're fab mama! :smile:
    I'm not paying for it. And I see that the person she bought it from was a power seller. Fakey fakey fakey!
    You and bella rock! :smile:
  3. Glad to help. Hope you'll find an authentic one soon. Post your next purchase here before you buy if you have doubts.


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AnimeSuki Forums

Register Forum Rules FAQ Members List Social Groups Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   AnimeSuki Forum > Anime Related Topics > General Anime > Fansub Groups

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Old 2007-05-20, 14:46   Link #1
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2007
A Timming Issue

Don't you hate it when a line flashes by too quickly and you can't finish reading it? I've realized a lot of groups time the sub lines in accordance to the characters' voices. This is all good, yet sometimes a character speaks too quickly, or she/he says a short phrase which has a long translation, and then problems arise.

I personally prefer the lines to linger untill I can finish reading them comfortably, regardless of voice synchronization. So, I was wondering... What's the "correct" way to time? Is there any sort of convention among fansubbers? What does everyone think about this issue?
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Old 2007-05-20, 15:09   Link #2
False Dawn
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Age: 32
First things first: I don't think there's such a thing as a "convention" in fansubbing.

Resolving the issue is usually done one of two ways though: either extending lead-in, lead-out (depends on the situation) or getting the editor to try to reduce the number of words in the sentence. A third, half-fix, is to make use of /N to split one long line into two short ones on the screen because it's actually quicker to read the short lines than the long line, though that works in very few situations.

Which one you decide on depends on the circumstances usually, however. After you've been timing for a while, you pick up some kind of sense of what will work in what situation, though even then, it can be difficult - especially as Japanese can be a lot more concise with their words than we can in English.
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Old 2007-05-20, 15:10   Link #3
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If you let the line linger you get bitched at for letting it sit for so long.

If you flash the line it doesn't fit certain timer standards and you get bitched at by those timers.

Go for the middle ground and win!
"Brainpower without willpower is no power."
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Old 2007-05-20, 17:45   Link #4
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Age: 33
If there is a very quick exchange of words, with several short lines said in succession, perhaps do it the "professional" way (think DVD, TV broadcast) with two characters' lines in one subtitle. Like:
- Heard that?
- Yeah, something fell.
I realise this is not very common, but it might actually be easier to read.

Aegisub developer [ Forum | Manual | Feature requests | Bug reports | IRC ]
Don't ask for: More VSFilter changes (I won't), karaoke effects, help in PM's
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Old 2007-05-20, 19:41   Link #5
False Dawn
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Age: 32
I've only actually come across one fansubbing group that's ever done that, and it was for a live-action film

If it's quick, joining the lines so that one starts when the one before it finishes usually solves problems with flashing. Though it looks a bit weird if the lines are almost the same, but not quite like "That's him." and "That's him?" -- the punctuation changing but the words staying the same isn't an easy one for the eye to understand straightaway.
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Old 2007-05-20, 20:05   Link #6
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Join Date: May 2007
Thanks for the information, False Dawn. Those solutions you describe are really practical, which is why I'm surprised about not coming across them very often. I've seen a reasonable ammount of subs which disregard everything but voice-synch as timing criteria. So, I guess what I'm trying to do is increase awareness of this situation... And now that you mention that two-lines-in-one method, I'm wondering why it isn't used in fansubs. It would be fairly convenient (like in situations as the one described in the previous post ^).

Last edited by noreign; 2007-05-21 at 13:24.
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Old 2007-05-20, 20:23   Link #7
Join Date: Feb 2007
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When things in conversation get confusing like that, and leadout isn't an option due to conversation following shortly after, I feel consideration should be given to displaying the 2nd line whilst the 1st line's leadout is still going on, but giving it a secondary colour.
(yellow instead of white for example)

Of course, if such a situation happens more than once in one scene or more than 2-3 lines consecutively, you have to take care to let yellow always be the same person in that scene. Though said person doesn't always have to be yellow, only in the double-line instances.

Though jfs's example of using hyphen to denote different pieces of conversation would work as well.
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Old 2007-05-23, 02:11   Link #8
Away for good
Join Date: Mar 2006
Age: 29
Timers should learn how to properly use lead-in and lead-out. Or.. the edior(s) should make the lines shorther... so you can, (depending on how fast you can read the lines) read the lines and understaning what there saying in a way without losing to much info

(tho i bet all of you dont even undestand at all what there sayin, maybe some words here and there)

But make the lines smoother, and it should work.
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Old 10-27-2012, 08:27 AM   #18
Mr Wrex
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2012 WRX stage 2+
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Originally Posted by sc00ter View Post
Liars! Removing the TMIC took all of 2 minutes. However, re-installing it was a PITA. 20 minutes, two bloody hands, and about 5 "WTF!!" shouts later, I finally got the intercooler aligned perfectly with the turbo/intake manifold.

But it definitely was necessary, getting to that grommet and pulling the vac line through with the TMIC installed would have been a nightmare.

The wiring was pretty easy since I went the route of using "add-a-circuits" to add the wires into the appropriate fuse slots.

After manually calibrating the gauge for my elevation (5200ft) I took a drive to test it and it reads spot on to my Accessport.

Overall I'm very pleased. I can't believe I've gone this long without a dedicated boost gauge.

*Lights up green with the lights on and white with the lights off*
Lookin slick man Did you use hairspray when putting the TMIC back on? Any leaks?
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Accessing your Mac Share your experience about remotely accessing your Mac using Parallels Access Tue, 26 Sep 2017 03:43:01 +0000 Tue, 26 Sep 2017 03:43:01 +0000 Parallels Forums AZERTY keyboard layout not supported through Parallels Access online Wed, 20 Sep 2017 12:26:19 +0000 (LionelL) LionelL I'm right now on holiday with a Chromebook (AZERTY keyboard) and am trying to reach my OSX computer at office (AZERTY keyboard) through
Even if both client and host computers are AZERTY, the layout used through the online platform is QWERTY.
>> note that on my iOS device, the right keyboard layout is used when accessing the host <<
Does anyone have an idea on how I could do to get the right keyboard layout ?
Thanks in advance,

AZERTY keyboard layout not supported through Parallels Access online]]>
Able to connect, unable to use remote Macs Sun, 17 Sep 2017 07:26:48 +0000 (JohnR14) JohnR14 6 Accessing my Mac from iOS app: keyboard not working Fri, 15 Sep 2017 21:30:22 +0000 (AsgerL) AsgerL MacOS: 10.12.2
iOS: 10.2

I am first time user of Parallels Access.
Connect from iOS to Mac: OK,
But I cannot write with virtual keyboard on iOS - entry seems to be locked.
Please help
Parallels Access keeps logging itself out Wed, 16 Aug 2017 16:39:45 +0000 (Farhad1) Farhad1 2 Parallels access via LAN network? Sun, 28 May 2017 07:57:23 +0000 (Kirill1) Kirill1 1 Problem ID:614 Mon, 22 May 2017 16:26:44 +0000 (patchung18) patchung18
I'm newbie here, I got problem when I re-log in to my office's mac pro with parallel access after my 2 weeks vacation, it can't be login and shown error message "Unable to establish a secure connection to the Parallels Access server", with a problem ID 614. Anyone have experience about this and any advice?

My mac pro OSX 10.9.5, Parellels Access verison 3.1.6, both should be in latest version.

Patrick Chung.]]>
Unable to access mac on web client Mon, 15 May 2017 09:25:59 +0000 (MarioB5) MarioB5 12 Letterboxes iPad Pro accessing OS X Fri, 12 May 2017 10:01:20 +0000 (MarkusV1) MarkusV1
after comparing different Remote Desktop apps last year I decided to go with Parallels Access. Main reason was because of the full screen mode with iPad Pro resolution.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work anymore for some weeks now. In every screen mode you can see letterboxes. In this state it is not useful for me.

I have already deinstalled in reinstalled the app on my iPad as well as on the mac.

Is it a bug?

I have the 3.6.1 version.

Attached is a screenshot.

Hopefully, you can...

Letterboxes iPad Pro accessing OS X]]>
not able to select (click) anything Sat, 15 Apr 2017 10:16:17 +0000 (DavidC6) DavidC6 With the latest release I cannot click or select anything on my remote Mac/PC.
Anyone else seeing this?
I have the latest iOS version as well as the latest Mac version.
If needed I can record a short video and upload it.
How to switch between multiple displays on my Mac when connected from iPad Pro? Thu, 30 Mar 2017 15:14:47 +0000 (DarrenE1) DarrenE1 My MBP has 2 monitors attached, and all I can see via Access is my primary laptop display.
- Darren]]>
Log out shared Profile loop Sat, 25 Feb 2017 13:51:18 +0000 (JeremyA1) JeremyA1
Issues Connecting with Windows XP Pro and Home SP3 Machines Sat, 14 Jan 2017 07:49:41 +0000 (RalphE1) RalphE1
I found that if I used RealVNC to connect to either...

Issues Connecting with Windows XP Pro and Home SP3 Machines]]>
Web Browser Confirmation Mon, 02 Jan 2017 07:43:43 +0000 (AndreasG5) AndreasG5 1 Cannot get accesss to my Mac Wed, 28 Dec 2016 07:49:23 +0000 (ChristophH1) ChristophH1
Now I try to access my imac via webbrowser on another macbook
This does not work.

In the interface I can see the iMac.
Clicking it, leads to the next page, where I enter the password of my iMac - user - account in the first (browser) interface (a popup window), and it is accepted (as it is correct)
Now i get to the macOS login screen (and not already into my account, as it is to be seen in some videos).
Here I am requested to...

Cannot get accesss to my Mac]]>
Problem typing when remotely accessing Macbook Thu, 10 Nov 2016 03:35:46 +0000 (tanman405) tanman405 3 unauthorised access Fri, 04 Nov 2016 04:47:17 +0000 (ShannonM1) ShannonM1

Do I have to have Parallels for Mac on for Remote Access? Wed, 26 Oct 2016 20:22:29 +0000 (KelvinM) KelvinM
I am not a user of 'Access' yet. But I'm wondering if I have to have Parallels for Mac on before I can remote access... OR is Access a standalone application that can be on, without Parallels for Mac being on?

Similar to how Toolbox is separate from Parallels for Mac and I can run it all the time.

Hope this makes sense.]]>
Can't access Mac from web client Thu, 13 Oct 2016 22:30:48 +0000 (MattH4) MattH4
I can connect from my phone/iPad fine, and using the web client to access a Windows PC works fine.

The host is running macOS Sierra Beta 5, latest version of Parallels Access.]]>
MacBook Pro doesn't wake from sleep with "Power Nap" enabled Sun, 09 Oct 2016 18:46:49 +0000 (Neilism) Neilism
When I click on my Mac in Parallels Access on my iPad â€¦ just get a spinning wheel and never connects.

Don't want to keep my MacBook Pro from sleeping like I had to do with old 2009 MacBook Pro.

Anyone else having this problem and figured it out??]]>
Blank Screen on iPad Pro Thu, 29 Sep 2016 14:49:30 +0000 (FrankM8) FrankM8 1


text:
Hyacinths for the Soul

Many years ago, when I was in the hospital I read a copy of Guideposts magazine.  Bored out of my mind (this was when they used to keep you in the hospital until you were nearly well) I was willing to read anything.  I came upon a short poem that really struck me, and so I memorized it.

If of thy worldly goods thou art bereft . . .
and to thee alone two loaves are left,
sell one, and with the dole,
buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

This little poem has served to remind me over the years to keep things in balance.  The poet doesn’t suggest we preserve security by keeping both loaves.  Nor does he counsel us to throw all resources into pleasure.  But even when times are difficult, beauty is important.  Feeding the soul is important.

Yesterday I fed my soul by visiting a friend who has a litter of puppies.  It is simply not physically possible to frown when surrounded by six bouncing puppies.  You cannot be anything but happy when snuggling a soft, sleepy, warm little body in your lap.

What do you do to feed your soul?

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Winds of Change

Tonight’s conversations left me unperturbed. I foresee a change in relationships and values that are there. In a whiff of a few days, the entire perspective has changed. Div stopped me from saying anything to her and literally stopped me from saying anything. How can anyone cut me short of saying what I want to say. It seems that he is not comfortable with my presence in the relationship that he has with her. I wonder what it is but it is there, and an after-thought leaves me dry to utter anything except for longing for thoughts. My best friend as rumor has it, has shared his future life with the world except for me, and I long for companionship as per the norms of society.

In the midst of all this happening, I try to find myself and I know that I seek nothing but myself as that is the only thing that I control and relationships are not.

I foresee the happenings of my previous relationships with my college mates, something that never really came to fruition in the right sense, atleast with me. I seem to lose myself in relationships, the kind of upbringing my father taught me…to give yourself above the other person, because he or she is more important than you. That quality in me, left me dry longing for my own when everybody left me for nothing. I tell myself, that I will never leave myself dry for someone else, for someone else who I know I have no control over, but I tend to fall in the pit of despair and deep I go down the rabbit hole.

Its been 29 years of highs and lows and this is definitely a low point in the relationship. I have been quite unsuccessful in my relationships where other people have been involved. For some reason, they’re not what I thought they would turn out to be. My relationship with my work, my relationship with friends, theyre not at all how I envisioned they would turn out. Is it possible they arent turning out the way you thought they would because you havent’ turned out the way you envisioned yourself. By this time, I should’ve had a great bod, an contemporary style apartment in Mumbai and a dual career in the arts and sciences. Great going Vaibhav, it is you who hasn’t turned out the way you envisioned and relationships havent turned out the way you envisioned. It’s time to focus on you and your partner the most. These relationships are tumultuous !

Sense of Unpurpose

I feel a sense of unpurpose. All my friends and near and dear ones are working and grinding, but I’m not quite sure that is the way it should be. If they are working, but are they hustling. They’re doing the 9-5 hustle. And whether the 9-5 hustle is good enough for someone to sustain a living. Is that the correct way. Look at me, I haven’t a nickel to my name, I haven’t bought new shades in sometime, I haven’t bought a new phone in sometime, I haven’t the money to buy me a cheap tv or anything but I’m not doing the 9-5 hustle. Is the 9-5 hustle actually going to work for me. Im not so sure. I get involved in my work. I like that my work is an extension of who I am.What is that Im not quite sure yet. But I want to write and create. I can create through writing. So is writing a good option to create a living. I must give myself some goals on my writing. If I am to write and have a career change I must give myself a 5 year goal of doing so.

Obituary and Legacy thoughts

The spectrum of life comes to a halt because of an incomplete transaction that led to remorse and death from inside. Anti-establishment and pure minimalism streak, not much can be accomplished or built in this attitude as your thinking of a solitary reaper who’s bringing nothing but value upon himself and no one else. Selfish endeavors bring upon a change of action, a twist in faith. The past has been about building a structure that will surpass generations to come but now its about me-me-me. Whats it about all this that is to say about establishments, its a daft dream, an artifice.

End of the day, its about the Obituary statement – I, Vaibhav Nahar, pass away on the day of 2067 in peace. I am grateful for the people who have been with me through the ins and outs and especially my wife who has loved me for who I am, the best and the worst of me , and at all times. I am happy to pass away and take the steps to heaven forsaken knowing that I have accomplished my endeavor of writing my memoirs and my journals while being on this earth. I have been instrumental in giving birth to this great race and have passed away my time without raising a concern in the people who walk this earth that a subject of their creator is in their midst. My creator gave me the role of the writer and told me that I will lead the people through my words during my time. I have written glorious words when I have been alive and I hope that they stay alive for generations even after I am gone.

I have to understand how to save my words even after there is a complete wipe-out of this earth. Shall I transmit the words to space and some other planet so there is a seedling of remembrance even after we’re all gone. I’ll have to leave a trail behind so that one can trace them back again.

Legacy is more important than establishment. My legacy will survive even after I am dead for generations and generations.

Immaterial materialism

Materialistic means and possession of items means more than owning a life. Are we just going towards a lifestyle of possession of objects that would define our lifestyle and our stature in life? When my family and my near and dear ones come to me to tell about their recent purchases, with a feeling of stature and dominance, Im not so sure how to react to a conversation of the sorts. One thing that does pinch me in this whole scenario when  the act is on,  that I am not able to spend acquiring these items of splendour and vanity. Whether its a UHD television or whether its a new coffee machine or vacuum cleaner, I know that I have kept her devoid of such things, but knowing how she is and where she comes from, she pains from the inside and keeps it calm on the outside. I know that. It pinches me so much that I flinch.

I vowed to create and make my creations my worth. What can I create that could be worth so much that it pays for all the vanity in the world. Even tonight when I will meet my friends, I know it’ll be the same. It’ll be the same all over again, a system of acquisition and purchases that defines the person and his stature. I’m not quite sure that was taught to me by anyone, neither my dad or his dad before him, but they do practice this day-in and out and have learnt to accept that immaterial materialism.

I as a person am not able to deal with it. I cannot deal with a lifestyle driven by purchases and acquisition. The question that I ask myself is that once sometime in the future if I am in a position to make these purchases, will I too become one of these people?

I never have had the chance to become a materialistic person, infact the materialism is what never really kept intact the family that I always yearned for. All the money in the world and nothing to bind it together.

Is the answer to this education? If we had pursued education rather than opening new businesses ventures in the gleaming light of making mega bucks, would my problem of today have been ?

Another aspect would be that of travelling, would it broaden my horizons and solved my problems.

I am both, not too much but not too less either, then I am still plagued with the issue of immaterial materialism. The dilemma remains….

Naseeruddin Shah admiration

An excellent, tasteful and beautiful movie. Gone are the days when movies were storytelling and less instagram goals. Going back to those meaningful days with a classy and natural verve of acting by an actor had I known to be so good, I would’ve worshipped him, and maybe now I will. Natural, classy, tasteful and meaningful in every action and word that he says, Naseeruddin Shah is someone I hadn’t known to be an actor class unparelleled to what I have seen him, in this classy and Indian-esque movie. Playing an eccentric nomad with dope cooking skills, Naseeruddin outclasses everything in the movie, and he’s not someone stardom has struck well, he may just be the person for the art. A perfect mentor for me because that is what I want, to create something unparellel to something not seen before and become a personality that can carry off a beautiful accent and character in his art.

Reviewed positively all over the web, I knew this movie will take me to a happy place when I started watching, and the person who literally stole the screen has given me a new perspective to his personality. I am a Naseeruddin Shah fan no!!. The way he carried himself with his character, played it to what it would be naturally, said the words that needed saying and in the most perfect of facial expressions and tone that needed the words. A classy but yet acceptable Indo-American accent, could not have been carried off by someone who has done mass media and has stopped interacting with people and stopped living. It somehow makes me recall an image shared by my chacha’s friend that encapsulates the definition of success. A creative with two visuals, one of a person whos stuck in a horrendous traffic jam in his beautiful and luxurious Bentley and the other visual of a person in a clean and beautiful surrounding cycling away in the sun. Naseeruddin Shah is the second person for me now.


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Amazing Documentary - 'America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine'

"Set up in 1936, Life magazine believed that pictures could change the world."

America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine is a fantastic documentary from the BBC about the life of one of the most important magazines in American history. Narrated by acclaimed photographer Rankin, it follows the people who told the 'story of America' through its most dynamic decades - the 40s, 50s and 60s - and documented its growth into a world superpower.

Before the days of the 24-hour news cycle, you could hear about things that were going on by listening to the radio, but the only place you would be able to see it was in Life magazine - for the horror or the glory.

"Life was defined by its bravery. Photographers dangled from helicopters and crawled into caves. They dodged bullets and survived prisoner of war camps...What a role Life played. Sometimes guardian, sometimes magician and always a kind of teacher. Whatever Life was out to say, its language was always photography, and its lesson was to teach America how to be American."

Don't miss this documentary. At an hour, my only gripe was that I wanted it to be longer.

Via Reddit

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Sean Shimmel's picture

Ooooo.... no comments. As for me, immediately downloaded and saving for the perfect moment later this weekend to watch.

Need an algorithm for what (absurdly) gains attention (Adobe's move to Cloud) or not.

Keep it up, Chris

Chris Knight's picture

Thank you!

inspirational stuff, thankyou.

Bourke-White seems like the type of photographer I hate today - using sex and or sex appeal to get jobs that others didn't get.


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The “Social” Side of Hospital Rounds

This weekend, I just finished another 2 weeks on service – the first 2 weeks of 2011 in fact.  This time, I had also had a shadower, but one of a different kind.  As part of our Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School, we are making an effort to have collaborative learning opportunities for our medicine and health administration program students.   Achieving true interprofessional learning is challenging for schools like ours without a pharmacy or nursing school.

To jumpstart our collaboration, a team of us traveled to at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement conference.  It was there over dinner that Jeff Kunkel, one of the Social Work students, asked me if a lot of social work issues came up in hospital care rounds.  I laughed momentarily and reassured Jeff there would be lots of social issues and invited him firsthand to witness them on rounds.  Unlike the premeds that I sometimes take on the weekend, I wanted him to come during the week so that he could also attend the multidisciplinary rounds with our case managers and social workers that our attendings go to daily.

The opportunity presented itself that first Friday – our team was on call so it was a perfect day since we did not have many patients and were able to delve into their problems.   While there are social issues every day, dealing with them becomes exponentially harder over the weekend when you only have social workers on call.  This makes Friday an especially important day to advance care or facilitate any discharges.  While some believe that doctors don’t work on weekends, the truth is that they do.  The problem is that not everyone else works on the weekend making the hospital inefficient over the weekend and nothing gets done.

 I introduced Jeff to our housestaff team as a social work student who was especially interested in the social issues.  For each of the presentations, they started with a one liner to brief our student on the patient’s problem but also described the social issues.  In doing so, the social issues that sometimes plague our rounds (and our residents) all of a sudden became the highlight of rounds.  The patient that leaves AMA, the patient who was homeless, the patient who did not want to go to rehabilitation but was too weak to go home, the patient who was uninsured and could not afford his medications…  the list goes on.

Afterwards, we had an opportunity to debrief.  It was fascinating to hear what Jeff found interesting.   He noted that I sometimes have to ‘talk patients’ into leaving the hospital.  I told him that the sad truth is that patients often expect to stay in the hospital longer than they can and should.  Not only is staying in the hospital dangerous and costly due to hospital-acquired infections and other hazards, hospitalizations are increasingly scrutinized to ensure that each hospital day is ‘medically necessary’ by auditors who are incentivized to penalize.   Given this, managing patient expectations becomes very important and something that the attending often ends up participating in.

As we think about the increasing pressure to ensure that patients who don’t need hospital care go home, it is equally important to ensure a safe care transition to avoid a preventable readmission.  While optimizing these decisions requires clinical judgment, it cannot be done without thinking through and addressing the social issues.  This makes having a great social worker even more important for the future.  Unfortunately, like many other healthcare fields, there is an impending social work shortage as highlighted by a major capitol briefing held by the National Association of Social Workers.  While many of us tend to focus on the need to train competent physicians and nurses, we must not forget the that we need good social workers too.

–Vineet Arora MD

  1. Yes, social workers are critial to the team’s abiltiy to provide good care, AND social workers are the among first to be cut when budget pressure starts…………sad but true!
    Wonderful to see you making the effort to show medical students and residents how important these social workers are.

  2. Vinny —

    Your point about managing expectations of patients cannot be overemphasized. I often have to lay out not only the plan of care for my newly admitted patients, but also the specific criteria that, when met, will make discharge from the hospital safe and appropriate.

    However, for every patient that needs to be “talked into leaving,” it seems like there is another who needs to be convinced to stay. (I find this is often true with COPD exacerbation and CHF exacerbation patients.) Especially when the risk of relapse and/or readmission is high, patients may need to stay an additional day in the hospital to make sure all issues — including those along the social work axis — are as ready as possible for a safe discharge.

    1. Thanks for this insightful comment Brian. So true -the art of medicine is knowing when to keep someone and when to let someone else go -automatic criteria can help but not always. Vinny

  3. I applaud your institution for embracing a new vision of a health care team and training people together. It was wonderful to read about the exchange of what each team member hones in on as important aspects of care.

    When you mentioned that it would be nice if others worked the weekend as physicians do, it reminded me of my first hospital job when I was horrified to find out the pharmacists didn’t work at night (this was not that long ago). As a new nurse this was very stressful!

    We also explore how to recruit, train, and retain the optimal health care workforce at

  4. in our ward of Internal Medicine (Hospital Universitario, Valladolid,Spain) , most of discharges about chronic and elders patients are depending of an appropriate effort what are doing the social workers
    herrerillo, Twitter

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Following up on the job posting leak from last week, Epic Games‘ Tim Sweeney has confirmed the developer is working on an unannounced triple-A shooter. That’s in addition to the PC-online, survival title Fortnite and several smaller projects.

As far as the shooter is concerned, Sweeney wouldn’t say much, but we know from the leaked job posting that the title has some sort of online focus and . Our guess is that the shooter, like many Epic Games releases, has a deep multiplayer component.

As Sweeney tells Eurogamer, after shipping Gears of War 3 Epic Games has been able to focus on several projects. Some developers are working on Fortnite, others on this unannounced shooter, and a few on smaller projects.

For a developer that many assumed would pull out of games-making to focus on cultivating a platform for games with Unreal Engine 4, it sounds like Epic is still very much interested in putting out new titles. What those titles might be beyond FortniteUnreal Tournament? a new Gears of War? — is anyone’s guess.

That also isn’t to say that Unreal Engine won’t be an important showpiece for Epic Games going forward. In fact, in the same interview Sweeney hypothesizes that gamers will see photorealistic graphics within the next 10 years. Artificial Intelligence, more specifically good artificial intelligence, will take much longer to perfect, but Sweeney still thinks the industry will get there.

“Things are going to get really interesting. We’ll be able to render environments that are absolutely photo-realistic within the next 10 years, like indistinguishable from reality level of graphics.”

With next-gen consoles on the horizon, a future of gorgeous graphics and realistic AI certainly seems possible. We’ve already seen some of the experiences developers are preparing for the PS4 and Xbox One, and if that’s only the beginning who knows where we will end up in 5 years let alone 10 years.

As far as Epic is concerned, though, their focus is on developing games for the PC first and then porting down to any relevant platforms. Take Fortnite, for example – the Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead title is currently in development for the PC only but by the time Epic is done gamers might be able to play it on anything from a next-gen console all the way down to a tablet.

What are your hopes for Epic Games unannounced triple-A shooter? How much do you value realistic graphics versus realistic AI?

Source: Eurogamer


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Ask a Question forum: Fungus on blue cypress

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Jun 17, 2016 5:38 PM CST
Recently transferred dwarfed blue Cyprus from pot into newly conditioned, acidic beds. Have been diligently watering and this has appeared at the base of a few of the shrubs. I recognize certain fungus grow in soil rich with organic material and can even be of benefit in helping to break it down. Is this one such fungus or is this more nefarious? If the latter, how do I treat?
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The lowdown on RAD

What are they?

Rapid application development tools are programs that quickly assemble applications from components, database connections and generated code for deployment on a Web server or Web application server.

Why RAD and not just normal development tools?

RAD tools are oriented toward users without a great deal of software development training or experience. They are often used by people assembling applications from low-level components built by more skilled developers, or by Web designers plugging application components into their pages.

What do they cost?

Depending on the approach, from $500 per license to as much as $25,000 per seat for more automated application development tools.

Must-know info?

Depending on what you want to do with your Web applications, you'll need some sort of application server or Common Gateway Interface technology to access relational databases or other data storage technology. Some RAD tools are built to work with a specific application server or a small set of application servers; Microsoft's Visual Studio tools typically can deploy only applications to run on Microsoft Windows NT, Win 2000 or Win XP servers, for example. Java-based RAD tools require an application server such as IBM's WebSphere, BEA's WebLogic, or perhaps an open-source application server such as Apache Tomcat or JBoss. But many can use common technologies that work across almost all Web servers, such as PHP and Perl.

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Pennsylvania renews deal for Dell PC support

If you work for the state of Pennsylvania, chances are you use a computer from Dell Inc. For at least the next 12 months, the computer giant will continue to supply the Keystone State with computer hardware.

Dell signed a one-year contract with Pennsylvania worth up to $23 million to supply desktops, notebooks, monitors and related services. The contract is expected to save the state $8.2 million, the company said.

The state first contracted with Dell in 2004 to supply computer products and services, and has seen more than $38.2 million in annual savings in computer costs as compared to before 2004.

Dell offers volume pricing to Pennsylvania state agencies, state-affiliated organizations and other groups that spend public funds to purchase technology products and services. The company also provides services, including lifecycle management for technology assets.

Ethan Butterfield is a staff writer for Government Computer News' sister publication, Washington Technology.

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Daily Freebie: Zerif Lite One Page WordPress Theme

From today we will be posting daily freebies from Monday to Friday. We hope that you will like our daily freebies. Feel free to post your suggestions and feedbacks below.

Today’s freebie is a one page WordPress theme Zerif Lite. It’s a modern responsive WordPress theme and can be used for multi purpose projects i.e. corporate, product, blogging, etc.

Download Zerif Lite WordPress theme from this link.


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cover songs

With the super popularity of Glee – which to the casual observer is a bunch of caricatures singing cover songs, I wanna talk about cover songs. Now, rumor has it, according to the notes for Metallica’s “Garage Inc.” any band worth their salt has done cover songs. But sometimes, an artist comes along, and ruins the career of the artist their covering. I first saw this back in the 80s, I think it was the Queen’s birthday, and a bunch of popular UK artists of the time had a big concert.  George Micheal, evidently saw it was a big party, and during the performance shows up to sing a song. Well, the back up band wasn’t ready for George Micheal, so he says, “that’s OK, I’ll just perform John Waits ‘Everytime you go away’.” And everybody thought cool. George Micheal killed that song, stole it from John Waits, made it his own, and poor John Waits was never heard of again.

As a small child, I hearted the Guess Whos?  That guitar soloing on “American Woman” the lyrics, the energy… then Lenny Kravitz came along, and GW just seems quaint.

Johnny Cash, in his “American” recordings took control of some songs… like when he sang NIN’s “Hurt” I actually believed the song was true. I believe MrCash knows hurt, I don’t think Trent does…well, career-wise, now, maybe.  And MrCash took over Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage”.

I suspect it’s been this way since forever…like when Hendrix re-did “All Along the Watchtower” and it caused Bob Dylan to plug in.

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Out with the old

On Thursday, I checked into the hospital for a nipple-sparing double mastectomy. Most people don’t willingly sign up for amputation. I did and it felt strange. On a conscience level, I didn’t feel much fear. I mostly felt ready. Ready to be done with this. Ready to move on. I was ready for this game of tug of war I’ve been playing to be over, ready to put down this planet I’ve been carrying. Let’s be honest though, chopping off one’s breasts, especially breasts I loved, was a mortifying closure to an already traumatic cancer treatment.

Before nipple and skin-sparing techniques, mastectomy was pretty much a full removal of the entire breast leaving the signature – – scar across the chest. Reconstruction was done over months or even years and involved a series of serious surgeries and permanent, visible scarring. Women learned to wear those scars with pride because it meant they survived that which tried to kill them. But, I’ve stopped at nothing to retain my previous sense of physical self so scars weren’t something I was interested in celebrating.

Because of the small size (1cm x 1.5cm) and location of my tumor (no cancer anywhere near my nipple) I was a candidate for surgery that would leave the exterior of my breast as a pocket for implant reconstruction. This type of surgery was a major deciding factor in choosing mastectomy over a more simple lumpectomy with radiation.

Nipple-sparing mastectomy procedure has plenty of risks though, so my doctors made no promises. I went under anesthesia knowing I could wake up with nothing but sutures. My surgery went perfectly! I have very minimal bruising and swelling, low pain, nearly full range of motion, and (most surprisingly) a pretty sexy, albeit temporary, set of new jugs.

My surgery lasted a little over 4 hours and included both my breast surgeon and plastic surgeon working together, even simultaneously. I was marked  with permanent marker the day before by my plastic surgeon (PS) so my breast surgeon would know where the incisions should be made. Once my breast surgeon was finished with one breast, my PS began building the scaffolding made of Alloderm, a human tissue substitute that eventually becomes part of my own tissue, which will help hold up my new implant under my skin.

Then, a tissue expander was secured in place above the pectoral muscle and filled with 200cc of air. The air will be replaced with saline in about 2 weeks. Air is better at first because it allows the skin and Alloderm to heal without the weight of liquid. Occasionally I will have the tissue expander “topped off” with more saline until the desired size is achieved. Then, after that size has been allowed to stretch my healing skin safely, a final silicon implant will be swapped with the expander. The time between now and my final implant I hope will be around 3-4 months, though it could be longer depending on how well I heal.

I stayed overnight in the hospital. My boyfriend stayed with me and we wandered the hallways all night like it was a high school lock-in, except we didn’t have to hide to make out. It was nearly fun!

All of this sounds sort of complicated but from my standpoint, I made out like a bandit. I rid my body of cancer, kept what I know as my breasts, avoided any visible scarring, and will have nice, gravity AND cancer resistant boobs for the rest of my life. For me, it was the right choice.

My new “foobs” feel really weird but they look darn pretty, considering. I have 11cm scars in the folds under my breasts which are healing nicely. The expanders are super hard to the touch but they are good for a laugh and look excellent under clothes. I got a couple wireless, soft bras to accommodate them. It gives new meaning to the term “over the shoulder boulder holder.” While hard, they are round, feminine, and beautiful in my eyes.

I also have two drains that  prevent fluid build up in my new boobs while they heal. The drains will be removed on Monday. Drains are super lame. They dangle around me and have to be emptied a few times a day. Gross! Luckily, my mom is here to help though I’ve also learned how to empty them myself. They are probably the worst part.

Monday morning my surgeon called to tell me that the tumor was completely removed during surgery. Technically, I no longer have breast cancer. That one sentence made chemo, cold caps, surgery, and hard, weird boobs for a while completely, utterly worth it. We did it! Cancer has been officially fucked off.

Feel free to ask questions about my mastectomy surgery. I have lots of details I don’t mind sharing if you’re about to have the same surgery or if you’re just making decisions on your treatment. I hardly ever read anything about surgeries that didn’t involve limitless negative complications so happy to share my smooth-sailing experience.

3 thoughts on “Out with the old

  1. Your spirit is phenomenal Rachel. I’m glad your boyfriend has supported you through this…I hope he appreciates the fact that he has an amazing woman in his life and thanks the universe for that each and every day. I send you great good wishes for your no doubt sparkling future from Ireland and loom forward to having you visit sometime.

    All the best. Rachel,
    Xxx Elizabeth

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comic book movies

Don’t Worry WB, DC Films don’t need to be like Marvel (Discussion)

warner bros worried dc films marvel

It seems like with DC Films that as soon as you get something positive, you get something negative with it straight away. In this case it was the release of the (probably best) new Batman v Superman trailer, along with the news that the DCEU was in major trouble! So is DC Films in trouble, and what does it have to do with Marvel?

So recently Drew from Hitflix (quite reliable a lot of the time) came out saying that Warner Bros was very concerned with Batman v Superman. He went on to say that the whole DCEU was in trouble and that he would be surprised if Justice League actually happened. Drew stated that his sources who viewed the movie weren’t too impressed but did like Batfleck and Eisenberg as Luthor. This lead to Drew concluding that instead of Justice League, WB would push the Affleck solo Batman movie in its place.

Then came the freak out. Will Batman v Superman be bad??? Interestingly a number of other journalists/bloggers came out saying the opposite, that their sources have watched Batman v Superman and loved it. Really you can’t make much from this because all film is subjective, and what a bunch of suits think about a film doesn’t really reflect what the mainstream audience will think.

After all this we got a report which I’m more inclined to believe. From Batman On Film came the story that Warner Bros is worried about Batman v Superman, because they don’t know how the general audience will respond to it.

wb worried batman v superman

It’s clear that WB are concerned that the general audience are more responsive to superhero films that gear towards the Marvel tone, as it is what has been most prevalent and successful recently. Man of Steel didn’t do the numbers they wanted, and looking at Deadpool, a movie dripping in fun and humour, WB may be hesitant as Batman v Superman clearly does not share that same tone.

So should they worry? Is the general audience only capable of watching Marvel movies? Yeah sounds ridiculous. There’s no doubt that Marvel have captured a tone that is very mass-audience friendly, but WB need to stop freaking out and realise that human beings are capable of liking multiple things/tone.

Stepping away from film, looking at what the most popular TV shows are, they’re not exactly always bundles of fun and joy. Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad etc, they’re clearly much darker.

batman v superman dc films

Obviously film is a different experience. Many people go into blockbuster movies wanting some escapism and fun, however that doesn’t mean that people aren’t willing to explore darker or more serious themes.

At the end of the day it comes down to balance. I don’t want to walk out of Batman v Superman feeling burnt out from all the brooding and angst. There should be lighter moments that balance the darker moments out.

I’m hoping that the overall tone of Batman v Superman is closer to the final trailer, in that things are taken seriously yet there’s still a sense of excitement and fun.

However, it’s hard to know how the general audience will respond to the movie either way. It’s clearly going to be dissimilar from Marvel movies, so the question is whether the audience want something different, or want the same? I’m inclined to believe that people appreciate a little diversity. I mean I don’t think Batman v Superman will be radically different from what we’ve seen before but it’s clearly taking a different approach.

wb batman v superman marvel

The only thing I don’t want WB doing is looking at the success of Marvel movies and now looking at the success of Deadpool and changing what they’re doing to reflect what everyone else is doing. Right now WB need to stick to their guns and see how it goes.

I’m in a bubble that mostly involves already comic book fans or people who are already very much into the superhero genre, so it’s hard to completely grasp what the general consensus for Batman v Superman is so far by the general/mainstream audience. So far it seems good. Watching the trailer during Deadpool most people seemed responsive, and hearing little kids freak out when they saw Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman was pretty awesome (yeah there were little kids at my Deadpool screening).

WB don’t care if critics end up hating Batman v Superman, what it all comes down to is how the fans respond and how much money it ends up making. Now I just need this freaking movie to come out already so I can stop speculating whether it’s going to be good or bad, and finally know for sure!

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35 replies »

  1. I am very much looking forward to not just Bats v Supes but all of the DCEU movies (especially Wonder Woman) I am a DC fanatic though, but also believe that the cinema going audience are sophisticated enough to appreciate different tones of genre movies. Yes indeed the feel of DC movies is different to Marvel, but as you said – this is a good thing. They are to all intents and purpose very different comic book universes. There always seems to be a lot of negativity in the press and forums whenever DC announce anything outside of their (awesome) television series, in fact, I tend not to read most write ups or comments as they rather to annoy me with their intense negativity, I think maybe Warner Bros should wait and see what the film going public make of the movie before getting so agitated about it, I personally feel people will love the movie. Great post, have a fantastic day. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Completely agree! So many people are quick to judge DC harshly and aren’t willing to give them a fair go. I also think BvS will be awesome, and here’s hoping the general audience does as well, so that WB remain confident and move forward with their plans

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Marvel movies work because Marvel is not afraid of changing up things and experimenting a little bit. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t worried about a movie not working out, but they are ready to sat back and let it play out to a certain degree. The MCU could be a string of Iron Man clones, but it isn’t, it hits all the genres. In fact, Marvel has made it kind of an art to offer two entirely different movies each year. The more serious Winter Soldier is followed up by the extremely goofy GotG, after the big blockbuster Age of Ultron, we get Ant-man playing on a much smaller scale .

    To me this was always the problem of Warner Bros (and by extension DC). It doesn’t actually matter what they do, but once they have a formula which worked, they keep repeating it (hence their obsession with Batman). The problem with Man of Steel was not that it tried to be a more serious take on the source material, the problem was that it basically tried to be Batman Begins.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I definitely love that Marvel are a lot more riskier these days, because the fact that we’re getting a Civil War movie and a Doctor Strange movie in the same year is awesome! Two very different worlds.
      However there’s no denying that Marvel also have a successful formula that they stick to as well for the most part. That’s the nature of business, once you find one thing that’s successful, it’s hard to let that go.
      BvS feels so different to Dark Knight, yes they both have more serious tones, but it’s clear WB are doing something very different with BvS compared to Dark Knight. The question is whether it will work

    • Oh sure WB repeating the same formula from the dark knight trilogy. OK but don forget marvel also do repeating the same formula as well. Just look at how the age of ultron have the exactly comedic and lighter tones as the guardian of the galaxy. Even ant-man also have the same tone as guardian of the galaxy as well. Only winter soldier is the one that have a different tone than the rest so far.

      In 2016 alone we already have batman v superman and also suicide squad. Both of these movie have a clearly very different tones and distinct from each other. And besides compare to dark knight, BvS is much more comic booky and epic than the dark knight despite of having a similar tone.

      • I do see differences between those three movies. Age of Ultron tries to be a comic book movie as well as a discussion about evolution and the danger of fear based responses (it doesn’t really manage to hit the balance, sadly), Ant-Man is a heist movie as well as a very personal story about the relationship of two fathers to their daughters and Guardians of the Galaxy is a Space-Opera as well as a character study of five anti-heroes.
        BTW, it is not necessarily the darker tone which bothers me (thought I do think that they should have lightened it up a little bit for Superman). It’s that they literally lifted half of the plot and structure from Batman begins. The chaotic flashbacks to the childhood (which btw don’t work in this case because they tell us nothing about the character), the guilt over the death of a parental figure, the wandering the world nonsense, there is simply too much Batman in Man of Steel. My hope for Batman vs Superman is that they keep the Batman stuff with the character to belongs to and allow Superman to be Superman.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Maleficent had a great soundtrack. I HATE that movie. And I don’t use that world lightly. If there has ever been a movie I would wipe from existence, it is this one. The soundtrack though is pretty amazing.

  3. Look let’s face it: we’re gonna still get our share of haters/over-fanboys/people who refuse to watch this due to a dislike of Man of Steel. We just gotta learn to live with them

  4. If WB/DC understood that people can like different things in their superhero movies, they wouldn’t be trying to make everything another Dark Knight. I’ll give BvS a fair chance, or as fair as I can, but impressing me may be an uphill battle for it.

    • You do realize that BvS is very different than the dark knight right?? Come on BvS is obviously look even more epic and comic booky. I would say BvS is much more similar to watchmen rather than the dark knight

      • I don’t know about comparing it to Watchmen (could you elaborate?), but I actually detect a rather strong Dark Knight vibe, including “gritty, jarring, and dark.” Much like they did with Man of Steel, after the success of Dark Knight.

    • I think you mistaken being serious for being dark. Even man of steel is not that dark and gritty. The best example dark and gritty superhero I can think of are daredevil netflix series. BvS set to explore the realistic implications that superheroes will have on the society as well as philopshical and ideology behind them. Even Zack already stated in the interview that watchmen is an inspirations on how he will approach DC

      • Obviously, I disagree. Though, really, if you are going to argue that Watchmen, of all things, is not dark and gritty, I think we may be defining such terms differently.

        You are correct, Daredevil is dark and gritty, but, note, it’s not like all the other MCU stuff, which, as it happens, are all serious and “explore realistic implications (etc.)” without being dark and gritty.

        Man of Steel had Clark being moody, his parents telling him not to save people, his dad dying to keep his secret, a lot of people dying in the fight, the planet being literally shaken, cities being ruined, and Clark breaking Zod’s neck. You think all of that isn’t an attempt to be “dark and gritty and epic” like Dark Knight?

        As for BvS, let’s see…
        Trailer 1: Everything is dark and epic!
        Trailer 2: Everything is dark and epic! …except Lex Luthor, who seems more like an ankle-biter than one of Superman’s greatest nemeses.
        Trailer 3: Everything is dark and epic!

        Yeah, I think there’s a dark and epic feel here. What is that reminiscent of if NOT Dark Knight?

        For one small example: have you ever heard of Batman branding his enemies before?

        I elaborate a bit further on DC’s approach here (whoo, shameless plug for my blog! 😉 )

    • Ok for starter I don see what is the problem with the current approach of DC is doing. DC attempt to make their movie to be meaning of something. That’s at least already much more ambitious than trying to be just the popcorn flicks. And besides judging from BvS trailer 2 there is obviously going to be some humors moment. But just not going to be kind of marvel level of humor. It is obviously lex will be the one to provide some humor relief compare than both batman and superman because by the nature of their characters they are not funny characters at all. Also we have suicide squad which judging from the trailer will be much more fun and funnier than what BvS is providing. Nah you see there DC does already have some variety there alright. But before you saying DC heroes should be the one who need to have a fun tone that suicide squad have, think about this for a second. Suicide squad is basically about the a group of supervillian who are forced to do the job the government assigned them to do. These group pretty much revel in chaos and enjoying doing whatever they want to do. That;s is the reason why the fun tone is more suited for them compare than DC heroes who literally have a weight of the world on their shoulders.

      Look man from the beginning DC have made a choice to explore a gray morality behind the implications of the superheroes. When you want to do this kind of story you can’t afford putting in some light-hearted or comedic stuffs that are totally out of place of what the story that they have established. Your complaint of superman being too dark or whatever it is i can tell this your own matter of personal taste. Superheroes have every right to be an art form to explore more about our humanity and to tell the philological story behind it. I understand the need of balance between humor and serious but these thing need to be tread carefully. DC cannot afford to become way too campy which will be totally out of the place in their story. At the same time, I understand that DC cannot be too serious since in the end DC heroes are still the mainstreams heroes for the mainstreams audiences. Charles Roven already said in the interview that they still place the emphasize on humors so obviously there will a strike balance between humors and serious. But I don expect DC humors will be like what marvel did nor do i expect character like batman,superman, and wonder woman to be that character that will quipping some one liner jokes during some serious moment. Flash and Shazam I expect will be a lighthearted character.

      In the end, not every movie is designed to be pandering to our specific needs or taste. All of us have our own different preferences and enjoyment of what we want from the movie. i appreciate if you can just keep a open minded about it and at least appreciate of what DC is trying to do even though they don pandering to what you wants.

      To me it is a good thing on what DC is currently doing because they will give us a very different angle to the superhero story that we can enjoy rather than giving us exact same story like marvel did. This is how the way is superhero fatique can be avoided.

      Liked by 1 person

      • (takes a moment to just bask in the civility of this debate… ahhhh! 🙂 )
        Seriously, thanks for being so civil.

        Of course this is all just a matter of personal taste and opinion. I am no stranger to eating crow when I have been proven wrong, ya know. If I am wrong about BvS, I will certainly admit to such, publicly, on my blog, and I will be doing a happy dance while doing so! 🙂

        I don’t mean to say that it’s a bad thing for something to be dark and/or serious, and certainly it’s a good thing to explore the gray areas. I actually hope BvS surprises me, and the rest of us who are skeptical, and does extremely well at the box office as a result. I merely mean to say that Man of Steel strikes me as a Batman Begins/Dark Knight version of Superman (who does *not* need to be super-serious, fyi, especially as Dark Knight showed us even Batman can be both dark, serious, and fun) and BvS seems to be continuing that trend. Suicide Squad is automatically dark, and ironically looks more fun to me than BvS. Wonder Woman is being set during World War One so they can make her story darker and explain her anti-war stance. In every case, everything I can see tells me that DC is pushing for “dark and epic” on all counts, which, in turn, tells me they’re trying to copy-paste the formula for Dark Knight without really understanding what that formula is.

        Everyone else is experimenting, but not DC and Warner Bros. First they had every superhero movie be for kids, until Spider-Man and X-Men showed such movies could be made to appeal to a wider audience. So they gave Batman Begins a shot, and furthered that with Dark Knight, but they were still making kid-centric movies too, which didn’t do super well. No, it was the “dark and epic” movie that did really well. Then Avengers came out, and everyone’s been scrambling to copycat that formula and duplicate Marvel’s success. But while Marvel has been creating a varied cinematic universe (variety, by the way, is the real key to avoiding superhero fatigue), and Fox and Sony are experimenting (sometimes with success and sometimes not), I don’t see any indication of DC doing anything but making their superhero movies more like Dark Knight. Great movie, but the other superheroes deserve to have their stories be theirs and theirs alone, including every bit of variety to be found among them, not always “dark and gritty and EPIC!”

        Does that make sense?

      • First, I regard DC movie as a serious and epic film, not dark and gritty at all again. Second, what is the problem making them serious and epic? If anything making DC movie in the pedigree of epicness as lord of the ring and harry potter is something that superhero genre really needed.

        If you complaint all DC movie have the same epic and serious formula then i can say the same thing for marvel as well. Yes marvel movies all of them have a variety like captain america being political thriller, guardian being space opera and so on. But in the end, almost all marvel movies have a same comedic and lighter tones formula that make them very appealing to the family. Only winter soldier does truly be different than the rest of marvel movies so far.

        Talking about DC being serious and epic. I would say this kind of formula are much more suited for the character like batman, superman, and wonder woman because their nature of character are very suited for it. For example you complaint that superman being too dark or outcast. But superman is an outcast, an alien immigrant, an outsiders. He is very suited to be telling in the story direction of X Men mutants because of his character background. But man of steel do not intend to take superman too far into the direction of X Men mutants because in the end they still making superman as a inspiration figure to be lookup to instead of forever being a outcast. Just look at the BvS prequel comics. Realistically, this is how we society would react and treated superman if he were real. DC would have to inevitably place superman in that kind of situations if you really wanted to tell a story that are semi realistic and explore the grey morality angle. Again MoS superman is alot different than batman. Unlike batman, superman is still a optimisms character and not the type of character that will forever drown in cynicisms like batman. Yes superman may on occasions be reckless, angry and so on. But this is part of our human flaws. There is no guarantee you can still remain being optimist when you are having a bad day. But in the end , we know superman will always try his best to raise above his own cynicisms. This is already different character than batman who would still always remain being drown in cynicisms.

        For wonder woman, anti-war stance is very suited for her character because she is the character that represent peace. It will be very interesting to see how she want to maintain peace when war have always being a part of humanity. World war 1 setting would be very interesting because in that war, there is no right and wrong or straight up good guy vs bad guy as depicted in world war 2.

        In the end, what am i going to say is I don think marvel formula would be suitably be apply for DC trinity. They work better in that serious and epic tone based on their character nature and what they stands for. If you want lighthearted, then flash and shazam would be much more suited for that or perhaps even green lantern given that DC want to approach them as a sort of space buddy cop

  5. DC and Marvel are always trying to one up on each other, but lately it seems more like DC is just trying to pamper to the Marvel audience, and they shouldn’t. It’s said that generally the difference between Marvel and DC is that Marvel has characters you can relate to, DC has characters you can look up to. Sometimes this switches around. Man of Steel was a mixed bag for a lot, but I liked the direction it went with Superman. At least that movie had him actually fighting more instead of just having emo moments like in Returns. And just because Deadpool was successful as aneeded action comedy doesn’t mean EVERY comic book movie has to be Deadpool. There can be more R-rated comic book movies, like say a Dredd 2, but they don’t all have to be Deadpool, though that movie showed there is and always has been an audience for them. DC seems to give the impression that the only successful thing they have is Batman. Why else would they try to make a bunch of things like Batman? It was questionable at first to make a follow-up to a Superman movie have Batman in it, but in another way it’s really these 2 iconic heroes on screen together. Ppl love Batman, but there are other characters, and they deserve as much of a chance as Batman does.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yeah I mean WB know Batman is the safe choice, but at least they are trying with other characters now. But if BvS comes out and everyone hates everything but Batman, we’re going to go back to the days where the only DC character we saw on film was Batman, so hopefully the general audience responds well to the other characters

      • Everyone knew there would be high interest in this film since its announcement and that box office success would follow. That is the reason there have been people trying to sabotage the movie since day one.

        The best thing that has happened to this film besides chris terrio was the 10 month delay. It backed off the vocal sceptics because what’s the point of trashing a film that was gonna be over 2 years away. But once things picked back up they started to come back in full force again.

        Regardless of what anyone thinks of snyder, he deserves a chance to see his vision through. If the movie is trash wb will give him the boot. But i doubt that it will be.

      • Considering this movie has been completed and screened to WB months ago, I’m sure they’re happy with what Snyder did, the question is whether other people are willing to give him a fair chance.

      • Hmmm, look I’m going to have to say I disagree. Even if BvS bombs, I doubt that the entire DCEU will collapse – be set back a little, maybe, but certainly not just fall apart. Why? Suicide Squad is done, Wonder Woman is already halfway through filming, plus I think Justice League filming starts right after WW principal photography wraps, so that’s most likely already in pre-production, or about to be. With all that investment, I’m sure that WB won’t just let its prized DCEU shrivel away into just Batman.

        Liked by 1 person

      • From what i can tell, it seems like wonder woman, batman and lex luthor will be interesting and great characters in this film. Mean while, it appears that superman will be dull and a chore to watch.

        That seems about right to me, superman just isnt a great character. It’s time to admit that.

      • Wow have to completely disagree with you on that one! Superman may not be a character everyone loves but he hasn’t survived for 7 decades because he’s a dull character

      • Wow Ivan you really never read at all any superman comics do you?? How about you read some Batman V Superman prequel comics. They can be find online right now.

        If you still don like superman then fine I don care. I’m not gonna waste my time trying to change your opinions about superman but do me a favour stop insulting the character

    • I pretty much agree. I’m not sure DC’s problem is “trying to pamper” so much as “trying to copycat and not doing a very good job,” but the point still stands.

  6. DC tried to copy off Marvel and start a cinematic universe before when they made Green Lantern and it copied off Iron Man a lot. And what also happened the same year? Flashpoint and New 52, in which DC rebooted its comics line in order to relive the 90s and try to be more like Marvel, with almost every superhero be like the mutants in Marvel with them treated like outcasts met with fear, skepticism, and hate. And now DC is doing this “rebirth” thing in which they’ll reboot their stuff AGAIN to cater to the movie audience, when they SHOULDN’T, because sometimes those attempts don’t go well.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Cool post yo. It’s interesting how much is riding on Batman v Superman, while Man of Steel is the technically the first film in this new DC shard film universe, BsS is really first to crack the world wide open and establish this new playground for future heroes to play in as well and if it has the slightest hint of failure some Marvel fanatics or skeptics will have a field day with it. I was BvS to be good and I’m hyped to see this new interpretation of Batman, but all these rumours about the film need to stop. Let’s just have the film come out and let people judge for themselves. Not everything have to be like Marvel Studios, I mean there’s already been a difference between the Fox X-Men films and the recent Sony Spidey films too, so audiences are already used to variation within the different Marvel properties (even though a lot of them don’t know that Spidey, X-Men and the Avengers are owned by different studios).

    I think the tone of BvS will suit this film, but I do hope it’s not just dark all the time, and I also hope things aren’t dark and edgy in future films too because there are is plenty of room for humour and lighter tones with some of these other DC characters (much like The CW’s The Flash, currently my favourite DC material).

    • Agreed, everyone just needs to wait and see before judging. And yeah I don’t mind that the film is darker but it doesn’t need to be dark and gritty all the time, there should be moments that balance that as well. And really you can’t make all your films dark and gritty when the characters are so different, like Flash, Shazam etc. I think BvS will be great but people need to be open-minded to change

      Liked by 1 person

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Hey, narcissists and/or filmmakers! Instructables has a guide to making your own Snorricam, that chest-mounted camera holder that points the lens directly at your own face.

The final product looks like a term project for wood shop class, requiring mostly traditional materials as the Snorricam mount is primarily made of plywood. Not an incredibly difficult construction, for sure, but one that could be really useful for aspiring filmmakers without friends, or those who want to get that crazy angle used in so many movies (Requiem for a Dream comes to mind). [Instructables via MAKE]


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Journals Higher Education

Published: 15 January 2009

656 Pages | Figures & tables

ISBN: 9780199211913

Also Available As:

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Bookseller Code (06)

The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Well-Being

Edited by Susan Cartwright and Cary L. Cooper

Oxford Handbooks

  • Considers the links between business performance and the well being of employees
  • Covers such issues as absenteeism and presenteeism, health and safety, stress, work-life balance, emotion, risk and rewards, working hours, leadership, emotional labour, and job insecurity
  • Leading international contributors from the field
  • Includes work from psychologists, HRM scholars, and organizational theorists

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Welcome to Petra’s Euro Spa

We offer Spa Services, Permanent Make-up, Reiki Classes/Sessions, Biofeedback, Essential Oil Treatments, Life Coaching and Emotional Processing. Retreats and Workshops

As former Aethetics Director for Paul Mitchell, Petra is dedicated to educating her clients and students on the latest technology in Skin and Body Care.

Petra was educated in London and Munich and has over twenty-five years of experience as Permanent Make-up Artist, Medical Aesthetician, Spa Owner, Workshop/Seminar Leader, Biofeedback Specialist, Spiritual Life Coach and Reiki Master Teacher.

Jean Paul DeJoria “Paul Mitchell”

Lydia Sarfati “Repechage”

She is the Author of Quantum Transformation, “The Seven Insights” and “The Girl from Bavaria” and has worked with Lydia Sarfati of “Sarkli Repechage, N.J” and many others.Born and raised in Munich, Germany, Petra studied Light and Sound Meditation (Surat Shabd Yoga) for 11 years, some of that time in India with her Teacher and also in the United States.
In the mid 80′s, Petra helped establish a Sustainable Community/Retreat Center and owned a Healling Center/Vegetarian Restaurant “Kiva Center for the Healing Arts”.


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This is vegetarian chilli verde – a version of chilli con carne using green vegetables and black beans. I don’t claim that it is authentic – but it is as healthy and hearty as it is tasty. Serve alongside cumin-flecked sweetcorn and tomato rice. Serves 4 to 6.

2 green peppers
2 to 4 green chillies
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped
6 green or red tomatoes, peeled and quartered
225g/ 8 oz fresh spinach, stems removed and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons corn oil
2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
100g/ 4 oz chestnut mushrooms, sliced
400g/ 1 lb can black turtle beans, rinsed and drained
1 pint/ ½ litre vegetable stock
100g/ 4 oz broccoli florets, steamed for just 2 minutes
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red chilli powder (optional)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried oregano

To serve:
Chopped fresh coriander
Sour cream
Lime wedges
Diced avocadoes
Tortilla chips
Pickled sliced jalepeno peppers
Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

1.    Grill the green peppers and chillies until their skins are charred. Remove their skin. Halve the peppers and chillies, remove the seeds, and coarsely chop.
2.    Place the peppers and chillies in a food processor, along with spring onions, tomatoes, spinach and seasoning. Blend to a puree, with a couple of tablespoons of water if necessary.
3.    Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan, and fry the onions and garlic until soft but not brown.
4.    Add the mushrooms, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the beans, stock, and the green vegetable puree, and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
5.    Add the broccoli and dried spices and herbs, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste.
6.    Ladle into individual bowls, and serve with as many of the suggested accompaniments as desired.


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Introducing a New ISSS: WTF!? Dreams!?

Hello there. So I’ve barely been posting this month, and as usual, this has a direct proportional correlation to the amount of anime I’ve been watching, which has been next to none. Ever since I finished Avatar (the series), I’ve just been wanting more of that. I DO at some point have to write a review of the shitty shitty movie which me and oballer watched one unfortunate day, but who knows when that will come to fruition.

Therefore, since I have nothing better to talk about, I figured, how bout I introduce my other ISSS?

Do any of you remember Frankly Stupid? It was the blog I had, but it sadly only had one funny story. Eye Sedso was my ISSS, and Frankly Stupid was kind of just a piece of shit blog I had on the side to be a bigger idiot than usual. However, I got rid of that piece of shit, because it was a piece of shit, and re-tooled it, gave it a specific theme, and re-created it as an ISSS. It’s name?

WTF!? Dreams!?

It’s purpose?

Well you see, all of my dreams kick ass, so I figured I’d share them with the world (mainly myself, because no one is going to have any interest in reading any of my dreams…actually, I don’t even have interest in reading about any of my dreams). But shit, who cares? This site is mainly just for me. If you want to know more, look at the about page to:

WTF!? Dreams!?

4 thoughts on “Introducing a New ISSS: WTF!? Dreams!?

    • They should invent “Dream Pills” that put you to sleep and make you have awesome, very realistic dreams. Holy shit did I just create an idea that would make billions? Yes I did.

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Man Grooming

Simple Ways to Be more Confident

Confidence is a lot like sex. Everyone usually has it at some point in their lives or another, but it can be awfully inconsistent.

Some people seem to have more than their fair share, while others don’t have nearly as much as they should. And the barriers to gaining more confidence are complex and numerous – ranging from social to psychological.

Building true confidence in oneself can be a lifelong project, but here are a few simple ways to feel more confident as you step out the door on a regular basis.

1. Embrace New

Repeating the same pattern day in and out is a fast road to feeling like your life is a real snorefest. Embrace small new things that will change up your routine and add a little intrigue. Try a new outfit combination. Get a haircut. Set aside some time for a good shave. Small adjustments can give you an extra bit of pizazz to get you through the day.

2. Write Daily Affirmations

Of course, confidence all starts in your noggin. Visualizing what confidence looks like in your day-to-day becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Science says so. A great way to start is writing out three to four affirmations about yourself every day – the act of writing it will plant a seed of visualization in your head. Are you well-respected? Do you have the ability to read rooms well? Write it down!

3. Ask for it

Since you’re already sitting in the corner of humility, ask your friends and family to help you. Hit up your old co-worker for a recommendation on LinkedIn. Ask your parents what skills you demonstrated easily growing up.

Ask your friends what they like most about you. You might learn something about yourself, and you’ll feel pretty good after.

4. Stand by for Wonder Woman (the pose)

When all else fails, or you need a little more confidence just to get you through the next five minutes, try a power pose. Also backed by science, these easy poses quickly and effectively raise your testosterone – the hormone responsible for making you feel more confident and assertive.

Standing with your feet apart and your hands on your hips (Wonder Woman), or with your fists in the air (more reminiscent of Superman) for two minutes can give you that internal confidence jolt your system needs.

If these work for you – let us know in the comments! What else do you do to bring confidence into your everyday life?

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The Perfect Styptic Balm for Nicks & Cuts


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Monday, October 14, 2013

Exponential Monies

Sometimes you find yourself doing math like "I-have-233-gold-19-silver-and-25-copper and I just bought a horse that cost 19-silver-and-50-copper and then a dinner that cost 9-silver so how much money do I have left?" and that's fine, I guess.

But there is a certain school of thought that cries, "Heroes don't carry change!  I don't even carry change!" and so abstract wealth systems exist.

But I haven't found one that is based on true scientific principles, and so here's my contribution.

Think of it as a series of coins, each one worth twice as much as the last one.  Also, they're so big that you can only carry one at a time.  You just carry around a Wealth Rating in your moneybags, instead of 900 gold coins.  And things that you buy or steal also have Wealth Ratings.  Maybe Worth Rating is more accurate.

So, assume the system is calibrated thus:

5 gold = 1 Wealth
10 gold = 2 Wealth
20 gold = 3 Wealth
40 gold = 4 Wealth
80 gold = 5 Wealth
etc. . .

So, if I have 4 Wealth and want to buy something that costs 3 Wealth, I have exactly 3 Wealth remaining after I buy it.

If I have 4 Wealth and want to buy something that costs 2 wealth, that drops me halfway down to 3 Wealth, but since there is no halfway in this system, there is instead a 50% chance that it drops me down to 3 Wealth.

Therefore, if I have 4 Wealth and buy something that costs 1 wealth, I have a 25% chance to drop to 3 Wealth.

And so on.  All the probabilities are going to be exponents of 2, so just roll some coins.

Adding is equally simple.

10 Wealth + 10 Wealth = 11 Wealth

4 Wealth + 4 Wealth = 5 Wealth

4 Wealth + 3 Wealth = 50% chance of increase to 5 Wealth

4 Weath + 2 Wealth = 25% chance of increase to 5 Wealth

10 Wealth + 8 Wealth = 25% chance of increase to 11 Wealth.

You probably should cap it at "no more than 3 coins rolled at any one time".  And don't get too caught up in the math.  The whole point is to streamline the process.  If the PCs want to buy a bunch of shit at once, just eyeball it and say "about 10 Wealth, or 9 if you'll settle for donkeys instead of horses." And it works just fine whether you are dealing with Wealth 12 (about 10,000 gold) or Wealth -5 (about 8 silver).

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