#wow first md art post in like | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

peachpety · 3 years

Text

me, myself and i

AO3 Tag Game!

I was tagged by the supremely lovely, super-sweet @nv-md ...and YES pronouns in writing are the bane & if you write a BTVS crossover I will tattoo it on my body, istg. 💕

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Sixty-seven (67) and one in anon atm

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

103,724...which wow, that's a nice stat!

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Just the one. HP, babee.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Laundry Day Sun Stroke Color Me Enamored 10 Easy Steps It's Called Fashion, Potter

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do respond to comments! Look. I'm beyond delighted that folks want to read my stuff, let alone leave me a comment. I've some very lovely readers...and if they've taken the time, even if it's a singular emoji, to communicate with me a feeling my writing has engendered, or to quote their favorite lines...? I am humbled and so very thankful. So yes ma'am, I respond. Like, I'd send handwritten notes if I could. And yes, maybe it will be a month or two (ahem) before I do, but I will get there!

6. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don't write angst. That is not my thing. I am a gotdamn proud fluffy cupcake, with some sexy sprinkles. I have written one (1) angsty fic, the weed which strings the hangman's bag, which is really angst-lite and has a hopeful ending because...pshaw.

7. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've ever written?

I have not ventured into crossover writing. The idea is intriguing, though...and I'm in awe of those who do!

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I have not, but know many who have. And it makes me sad and I actually pity the hateful person...because imagine the energy and effort fueling that vitriol. Like, isn't it exhausting? And this I do know, afforded me through my time on this rock. The universe listens and remembers, my sweets. Karma is a bitch.

9. Do you write smut? And if so what kind?

I do and I have and I will! I write sweet and hot...and...fluffy, go figure. #fluff and smut I use frequently. I have not written mlm penetrative sex, and I'm not sure I will. Never say never, but...there it is.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope!

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did a fun "write in your language" with @dracothecupcake texas-style for @drarrymicrofic. Which I cannot find. <shakes fist at tumblr> EDIT!!! @iero0 is a ROCK STAR and found the post! thank you sweetness, gah! ily!! 💕

AND I collaborated with @hogwartsfirebolt for social media art on a fic I love dearly, in no small part because I got to spend the day with Estrella, Like You a Latte.

12. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Drarry I love and write. BUT I've got MADLOVE for rare pairs (Dron! Roarmac! Flintwood!)

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Just the one. HP, babee.

14. What's your favorite fic you've written?

Oh gosh! What a question! <I love them all> But I'd have to say (besides my anon fic which I'm super-excited about, y'all) Sun Stroke is my favorite, only because it's a fic that was pure joy to craft and a writing state of mind I often try to recapture (which I felt like I achieved with my anon fic. CAN'T WAIT TO SHARE.)

Tagging @mystickitten42, @iero0, @ladderofyears, @gnarf, @veelawings, @wheezykat, @vukovich

#peach writes 🍑#me myself and i #ao3 tag game #drarry #drarry fanfic #hp fanfic #harry x draco

28 notes · View notes

woozapooza · 3 years

Note

(fifi here!) oh ok nice! as for the names, oh boy, some of their surnames are just Iconic: Fifi Clampwell - Ishmael, Trixie Shedbanger - Starbuck, Manda Snorter - Queequeg, Lolita Meadworthy - Esta (Ahab's wife), Fanny Goldenshowzer IV - Stubb, Cora Klein - Pip, Isadora Slapsaddle - Flask, and their own headmistress, Dorothy Hyman - Ahab. def smth wrong abt queequeg, pip, etc. being played by white ppl even if it is set in a british school but ah well :/ anyway the girls have funky names

p.s. not musical related but!! would love to read your ishmael thoughts. love him sm as well <3 and also not md related at all LOL but as an avid fan i have to say that that princess artwork you reblogged recently is from the movie barbie as the princess and the pauper!!! a big fave of mine -fifi

Okay so first of all I have to tell you something that happened recently. I don't know how it took me so long, but after years of listening to the soundtrack on youtube, I discovered that it's actually available to purchase from Hereward Kaye's bandcamp site! So of course I bought it, and it turns out that when you buy something from bandcamp you have the option to send a little note to the artist. I didn't think he was really going to look at whatever I wrote, so I just wrote something simple, along the lines of "I love this ridiculous show with all my heart." But the next day, I received a thank-you email from him! So I wrote back, and actually I'm just gonna copy and paste what I wrote:

Oh wow, for some reason I didn't really think you would actually see my message! But since you responded, I just want to take a second to tell you that I've been a fan of Moby Dick the Musical ever since I discovered it by chance on YouTube when I was fourteen years old. I recently rediscovered an entry in my eighth-grade diary gushing about this very weird, very silly, very obscure, VERY entertaining musical I had just discovered; twelve years later, it's still one of my perennial favorite musicals. What's more, this year, I finally did what I had been wanting to do for these twelve years: I actually read Moby Dick (keeping an eye out for connections to the musical, naturally!) which is now one of my favorite novels ever. So thank you! I'm SO glad I finally realized I could buy the soundtrack!

He didn't respond, which didn't come as a surprise, but I'm just psyched that I got to tell one of the CREATORS of this musical how much I adore it!

Anyway. WOW those are some wacky names...except for Cora Klein, which just sounds like a normal name that a normal person might have, unless there's a joke I'm missing. Huh. So I take it that in the UK version, aside from the headmistress, the cast of the show-within-the-show is made up entirely of St. Godley's students? In the US version, there are also the security guards (one of whom plays Pip), the janitor, and some boys that one of the girls snuck in.

I have so many things I want to say about Ishmael but it's hard to put them into words without it just turning into "I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM" which is an accurate expression of my feelings but doesn't make for a very interesting tumblr post. But I'm definitely going to try to actually articulate at least some of my thoughts/feelings eventually, so stay tuned!

Thank you for providing the context for that beautiful fan art! I played with barbies as a kid but never saw any of the movies aside from part of the Nutcracker one. I doubt I would have enjoyed them. My barbie games were overflowing with ANGST and PERIL and I doubt the movies reached the same dramatic heights.

#x #Moby Dick #anon fifi #ask #I have mixed feelings about the Pip/Queequeg/etc dilemma but I'm not gonna go into that #I'll just say that it could be more or less offensive depending on how you do it...which I guess goes without saying #musicals

1 note · View note

kittymaverick · 4 years

Text

MCF: Black Crown commentary part 2 and overall review.

Spoilers! Though I’m going to post the spoiler free quick review up here.

Another great MCF game, I dare say, despite me constantly having to look away because of my fear of skulls. I’m a little sad that somethings weren’t explored a bit deeper, but overall the plot fits the MCF series, the art was of good quality, the puzzles were of the right difficulty. Not sure when and what the next game is, but I look forward to it if the quality keeps up!

1. [And then the walkthrough spent a full 5 minutes on a complex door puzzle] I was wondering when those would show up. MD: ...I’m more surprised no one sneaked up on me while I was going about this...

2. MD: Hm, maybe I should light this thing-- *Lights the entire passage way* Great, now they know we are here! MD: ...I was never meant to be stealthy, you know...

3. That’s... a somewhat floating ship, albeit on chains. MD: Seriously, they sailed that thing back from Louisiana?! What were they going to do instead, take a plane?

4. Girl: Hi there, also, look what I have. Doctor and Nurse: Help? MD: I KNEW IT. NOW WE HAVE A HOSTAGE CRISIS. Guess we aren’t deviating too far from classic MCF blunders after all.

5. Phineas: Let’s parley! MD: Sure! Give me the doctor and nurse, and I won’t burn your whole estate and ship down down. ...And the girl? MD: He can keep her. If there’s anything I’ve learnt, is leave no survivors to take revenge. Doctor and Nurse: Detective, no.

6. Phineas: Anyway, fix my ship until it’s seaworthy, and they go free, deal? MD: You’re gonna renegade anyway so is there even a point in me agreeing? Phineas: The other ghosts were right, you really are a spoilsport. MD: I’ll also like to point out you have at least 11 conscious subordinates to do your bidding still. Surely THEY can do SOMETHING.

7. A... tavern. MD: The fact that this is the first time I’ve seen a tavern surprises me. That’s a weird, sea monster, thingy, up there...

8. MD, please tell me you’re coming up with a plan to redrown this ghost, again. MD: Hm.... MD, please... MD: I mean, I’m thinking of a word that begins with m, can you guess what it is? Murder? MD: ...I was going more for mutiny, but sure, murder works too.

9. You know, one thing that’s nice about Phineas as a villain is he shuts up and let you do the work. MD: Ah, the sound of a tense peace and quiet... that is not at all pleasing. Time to blow some stuff up just so we can disturb it some. Wait WE’RE IN A CAVE--

10. [One controlled detonation and a ship released later...] MD: Okay, now hand over those hostages! Phineas: Bargain’s fulfilled. You can have them back. MD: ...What, really?! Phineas: I’m just missing some treasure though. Well, more like ONE PIECE (ahaha, ahem, sorry). My sword is missing. Can you get that for me? I’ll release the girl. MD: One, why would I even want that when she wants me dead? Two, I’m pretty sure that mutiny happened in the Americas. How on earth would the sword be here in England-- Phineas: I said A mutiny, not THE mutiny. MD: ...Oh. Still, do I have to rescue the girl? Doctor and nurse: Um, YES?! MD: Oh FINE, I’ll go play the hero... Phineas: I’ll be waiting in the captain’s quarters. MD: ...One, that sounded VAGUELY suggestive, two, you’re going to sink me with you, aren’t you?

11. MD: BTW, you two are taking this ghost pirate ship thing insanely well. Nurse: Um, we DO work at Manchester asylum, for one thing. Doctor: That and we’ve had to deal with you, once upon a time. MD: ...right, that, explains everything.

12. MD: Okay, that’s a lot of treasure on the boat. Maybe you can ask Her Majesty to loan us the army on account of rescuing some treasure? MD: She likes stories better. Awww.

13. Hm, a curse and a priestess... wonder who that priestess might be... MD: At this point, it could be any of the supernatural beings I’ve encountered.

14. Another skill the MD has: diving. MD: Can’t believe all those licensing lessons are paying off.

15. MD: Okay, got your sword! You can spring your trap now! [Ship sails away from the dock] MD: ...That’s one way to isolate your enemy, I guess. Maybe you should check for gunpowder before seeing the captain? MD: I really should do that, shouldn’t I?

16. [Inside captain’s quarters] Doctor and Nurse: Hi. MD: ...SERIOUSLY??? WHY DID YOU COME ON BOARD?! Phineas: Ahem, so the girl? MD: Yeah yeah, give her to the doctor, I don’t care. Phineas: Good! Off ye go, lass, and welcome aboard as my new crew hand, detective! MD: .............Haha, real funny-- Doctor: Remember that contract you signed? That was the service contract. Also, thanks to you, we’re immortal now. MD: ...I fucking knew that paper wasn’t just something random, AND ALSO OF THIS INEVITABLE BETRAYAL! *clench fist* Oh, as for immortality... I’ve got my feather, all good, no thanks.

16. Doctor: So long as the ship sails and we’re on board, we’ll have an eternity to enjoy them! MD: ...Okay, thanks for telling me how to stop you. Time to look for those powder kegs! Phineas: Damn minions, why can’t they keep their mouth shut.

17. Crew member... something: Find me some navigation charts! Another Crew member: I need a new target to throw at! MD: What am I, your servant?! Phineas: Well, judging by the contract, ya probably are. MD: ...You are going to love what I’m about to serve all of you. At least it wasn’t a prenuptial contract or the like, right?

18. Crew member I’ve-lost-count: Thanks for the extra hand! ...I guess they’re still a little insane after all... MD: Not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing... Crew another: I need to feed the bird, but the bird isn’t here... but I need to feed the bird, but-- MD: ...Let’s go with good for now.

19. [Fire a canon] Phineas: Which one of you did that?! MD: *whistles and goes downstairs*

20. MD: He... stored her remains in the FIGUREHEAD??? ...Wow, at least it wasn’t you, right? MD: Not at all helping!

21. MD: Got all the needles, now... HEY PHINEAS! Phineas: Wha? MD: I got a bunch of needles, and guess who’s gonna get stabbed? Phineas: Traitor! This is mutiny! MD: In seriousness, did you really expect me to serve you willingly? Phineas: No, but I didn’t expected you to be this stupid and try to rebel so early! MD: Oh you bloody... *Stabs doll like crazy*

22. Phineas: Wait until I’m free! I’ll rain all the wrath upon ya! MD: Nice try, now I’m going to take the crown, and also this other thing from you... now stay still while I go break the curse. Phineas: You will regret this! MD: I already don’t regret this! 8D I think for once, the MD might be having a bit too much fun tormenting their foe. 23. Phineas: NOOOOO MY SHIP!!!! MD: Off the sides, everyone! Take your leave before it’s too late-- AAAAHHHHH. You would think the voodoo priestess would be nicer and not drop you into the ocean like that. MD: I’m just thankful I’m alive, honestly. Girl: Also, thank you for saving me. MD: ... Dammit I didn’t exactly mean to do that... Oh well, just, please don’t come after me again. My life insurance is getting worse with each attempt. Phineas: *cackles from under water* MD: Oh shut up you ectoplasmic goop. I need another vacation-- Hey, a letter from Louisiana! Time for that American holiday, right MD? MD: *sighs*

[Extra content start here!]

24. So, guy’s got horucruxes. MD: What’s up with people putting pieces of their souls into stuff, huh? It mostly explains their state of mind, to be honest.

25. Only death can find you... creepy... MD: I mean, they’re not wrong. Death’s almost found me many times. And actually did find me that one time...

26. OOOOOHHHH that’s the shopkeeper’s body alright... MD: Welp, guess I’m on my own, plus that southern guy out there. Southern guy: Oh, she’s dead? Well, then I’m out. Keep the amulet to protect yourself! MD: Yes please, I no longer do search and rescues. At least not unless it’s paid well.

27. AAAHHHH TREE MONSTER THINGY! MD: AMULET PROTECT ME PUT THE JAW BACK PUT IT BACK *Thing collapses into dust* MD: ...Oh that was easy. Yeah, guess that’s over-- FLYING SKULL FLYING SKULL MAKE IT GO AWAY! (Kitty has nearly passed out from too much skull exposure at this point)

28. MD: Okay, into the crypt-- oh that’s a lot of skulls (Kitty once again passes out from too many skulls...)

29. Ghost: Heard you hate Phineas too, so we’re gonna help you get him. MD: Great! How do I-- Ghost: Just gotta find his skull among all the skulls here, good luck. MD: ... (Kitty is just gone) MD: Welp fuck me.

30. Ghost: Assemble the four great pirate elements! Wade: Teeth! Terrel: Tentacle! Joe: Eye! Wayne: Pistol! Ghosts: Together we are...! MD: ...A match-3 puzzle??? REALLY????????? Thank you for not making it skulls...

31. MD: FOUND YOU. GET OVER HERE AND BURN TO ASH! Phineas: Ehehe, you missed a tooth! MD: ...fuck.

#Mystery Case files #black crown #big fish games #eipex games #MCF

7 notes · View notes

medblrforlife · 5 years

Text

I was tagged by @medblr-of-a-sleepyhead on this post.

You can call me: Med, hey you, medblr, medblrforlife. I’d describe myself as: an aspiring future-MD who likes visual arts and theater, languages & cultures, and medical stuff. A mental health advocate. A Christian. An animal-lover who likes cats and dogs, but if I had to choose, I’d say I’m a dog person. Fictional character(s) that I identify with or am fond of: Hmmm, not big on this one. I admire Nike from それでも世界は美しい (Sore demo sekai ha utsukushii or The world is still beautiful). Three random facts about me: I speak four languages at or above the advanced level, though my French is rather rusty at this point. I became Christian towards the end of high school. When I started college I wanted to be a veterinarian but second year of college I decided to pursue human medicine instead (which is why I occasionally post vetblr things.) Something little about my appearance that I kind of like: My Toes. My big toes are longer than my second toes, like the first foot in this picture:

An outfit that makes me feel powerful: My knee-high rain-boots are pretty great because I can walk in all the puddles! An object that is special to me: My cross necklace. It was a gift from my parents and, to me, symbolized their acceptance of my faith. My mother was raised Presbyterian but I think she’s agnostic. My dad is somewhere between atheist and agnostic. A compliment (or two, or three) about me that made me feel warm inside: Last week I was tutoring a first-year grad student and she kept saying things like, “wow it’s so cool that I understand this now!” and “thank you so much, this makes sense now! You’re really good at this, thank you!” I was worried I would explain things in a way that made the material more confusing, so I’m glad my way of explaining clicked with her. Something I love about myself: I’m not afraid to ask questions during lecture Something I love about someone else: The ability to make a work schedule and stick to it - a couple of my friends were really diligent with getting their theses and secondaries done very early. Something I’d love to buy for someone else: maybe some art supplies for one of my friends. Stuff is on sale right now for Inktober :) Something I’d love to buy for myself: Some fine-liners to replace ones with dead nibs or a video game controller to make my computer gaming easier. Three things that make me happy right now: My cat, that I’m doing art again, that I can breath much better than I could a few days ago as I continue to get over my cold. Something I’m looking forward to: Visiting family over Thanksgiving break Something I enjoyed recently: A crafts/coloring event at my school yesterday that a committee I’m on organized as a wellness event. I just stayed there for about three hours and doodled in my sketchbook and on the disposable table cloth while chatting with people. Song(s) stuck in my head recently: That song from Fairly OddParents about Chip Skylark’s shiny teeth (”My Shiny Teeth and Me”). I drew a tooth at the event yesterday because I was talking with a dental student, then this song popped into my head. I watched this, maybe you’d like it too: ChubbyEmu does great case reports; yesterday I watched this one. I would also recommend any videos by Steve Mitchell on his YouTube channel, The Mind of Watercolor. Something adorable I came across recently: A toddler I was babysitting put his blanket over his 2-month-old sister and then put his favorite stuffed animals all around her. Very cute. If you wanted to know me better, you should check out these things: This blog? Something I can/will do to take care of myself or make things more positive for me in the coming days: Work on my thesis. Tag 5+ people who might like to fill this in. @bynineb @ifihadmypickofwishes @cranquis @the-adventures-of-dave @whisky--tango--foxtrot Obviously don’t respond unless you want to and have time :)

#ask #personal #medblr #tagged

7 notes · View notes

scullyeffect · 5 years

Note

how do you feel about younger people in fandom? like the youngest side that are probably on tumblr i.e 13/14ish?

i don’t know if you mean in the x-files fandom, or just younger people getting involved into fandom stuff online nowadays so i’m just going to go with a generalization.

i’m nobody’s mother and interests are healthy, and honestly i’m 23 so i don’t know anything about anything yet, but i will say that i live with a 15 y/o girl, a 13 y/o girl, and an 11 y/o girl, and i find myself very sad when all they want to do is go on a phone and watch youtube videos and be online instead of doing something more creative or intellectual.

we had a birthday party for 11 last night, and we had to take phones away from like six 10-11 year olds, which is ridiculous. i do understand that we live in a big city (paris, which isn’t exactly the safest) and lots of kids do things independently (walk to school, walk to friends’ houses, take the métro) so sometimes i worry about 11 (who doesn’t have a phone) if she needs to take the métro alone or walk somewhere alone, and i wish she did have some way to reach me if ever she got lost or something, but 11 is so young.

i think in a world that’s become so increasingly digitized and almost making it necessary to be connected in some way, kids are growing up faster, and some of the posts online and on tumblr talk about things they might not understand yet, and cause them to form opinions based on a text post some 18 y/o wrote. i’m even guilty of this. i’ll get too lazy to keep up with the real world and get my politics from tumblr sometimes, and that’s probably not good, even though mainstream news sources can do the same thing. my mom worked for the washington post, and that’s pretty much the only place i get my news from.

i probably got my first tumblr account when i was 15, and honestly i regret it. i was a pretty sheltered kid/teenager who really enjoyed reading, doing art, writing, and watching sad european dramas about dead sovereigns and suffering artists. i somehow discovered pro-ana blogs (blogs that share and encourage eating disorders to the point where healthy people can begin to actively attempt to follow insane tips in order to lose weight), and since i actually had been having trouble with my own eating habits but never really known that those behaviors were bizarre, i self-diagnosed and was part of that “community” for awhile.

i was interested/ in love with lots of actors and actresses, and as i made it out of kind of the pro-ana area which i realized which was unhealthy lol i found out about stan culture and just real obsession with movie stars/celebrities. when i was a younger teen i was “obsessed” with meryl streep, which at that time meant that i watched all her films repeatedly. i didn’t realize people cared about the actors/actresses’ personal lives until i got on tumblr, and at the time it was really exciting to discover things about my favorite celebrities (i mean, being a fan of someone obviously isn’t new, but it was to me). now that i’m 23 i find it very invasive and somewhat creepy that we’re so interested in someone’s life, sometimes even more than their body of work. we’ll probably never meet that person, and if we do they’re not going to think about you or remember you forever, because there are thousands of other people out there who feel the same way, and they just can’t keep track (at least the huge stars).

on the flip side, i think it’s good to have role models and people to look up to, but sometimes there’s a thin line there. i’m blonde, but i dyed my hair brown in my first year of high school because i was obsessed with marion cotillard and wanted to look like her. i kept the brown throughout high school because i liked it, and sort of forgot i ever did it because of her, but now i’m blonde again and it looks so much better haha. ALSO i got really interested in france/speaking french because of her (and juliette binoche), although i had a fantastic and enthusiastic french teacher in high school to help fuel my desire to speak french. and now i’m fluent in french and live in france. wow. so, if there are people you look up to in the public eye and they’re influencing you in positive ways, that’s great! i do get suspicious when very influential celebrities share their political views, though. i think we have a tendency to follow in people’s footsteps either subconsciously or in full awareness. that could be in any field. i like certain authors, and sometimes my own writing is heavily influenced by their work. it’s a natural thing that happens. but voting really should be an informed decision...just my opinion.

let’s talk about “just my opinion”. online bullying is real and can sometimes be rampant if there are dividing views on someone and their perceived private life. for example, in the x-files fandom we will, for the most part, absolutely convince you that mulder and scully are fucking like bunnies, when the show’s own creator won’t lol. but there are also people who think that gillian anderson and david duchovny (the leads) were/are/could be at some point in a romantic relationship with each other. they (anderson and duchovny) even cater to the fans a bit, but at the end of the day that’s their business and they don’t owe us an explanation, and a lot of people in fandom sort of act like they do. the point of this example was that because people in fandom are divided about this point of view, if you talk about one side or the other, there are some people who will come at you and say mean things for not agreeing with you, and try to convince you of a truth they have no real authority to speak about. this is obviously just an example, but online bullying is rampant and is often taken personally and can really affect the person being bullied, especially someone younger who may or may not be already facing that in real life at school lol.

i think tumblr is a good place for people who suffer from mental illness to come together in a healthy way to talk through their problems (god i hope i’m telling the truth), and there’s definitely tons of awareness and support that you’ll get on tumblr that you may not find in the real world. for example, i don’t know anyone irl who has epilepsy who i can talk to about mine. on tumblr i’ve talked with people who understand what i’m going through. i think that self diagnosis online, just as much on tumblr as it is when i cough and search “signs of throat cancer or tuberculosis’, read up on web md, and immediately fear my days might be numbered, is a problem. on tumblr i think we’re introduced to concepts and can sometimes treat mental illness lightly, when it shouldn’t. if you’re suffering from a mental illness, the online world isn’t going to be the place that can completely help you (says the girl who refuses to go to therapy and instead complains online about how she’s not getting any better).

being online immediately takes us out of life and into a different world. we become observers instead of experiencing the world. there’s good stuff about observation, but being online and attached to a website that is more or less just a vice for people will often make us choose to be on our phones instead of doing stuff in real life.

all of these points being said, i’m guilty of a lot of the “bad/unhealthy” facets of tumblr, but as i’ve “grown up” (unfortunately still staying on tumblr for a good portion of that time) i’ve grown out of a lot of these things and can see the good and the bad that the online world has to offer, and know which parts to stay away from. i can recognize that spending too much time on here does nothing for my desire to stay inside and not experience the real world. it also makes me think a lot more about tv shows/films/celebrities than i need to. but i’ve also made great friends from being on tumblr over the years, and gotten support i definitely wouldn’t have gotten in real life.

back to my real life. do i encourage the girls i live with to be interested in certain media? yes, especially stuff i feel has a good message. i basically sat the two older ones down and showed them the pilot of the x-files. do they experience the same high level obsession i do with tv shows/movies? no. and i’m glad for that. they like to lose themselves in certain tv shows, but when the tv is off they don’t really talk about it. do i introduce them to things i’m interested in media-wise? yes. do i introduce them to books and music i was/am interested in? yes. have i told them about tumblr? no. they don’t have any access to my online “presence” (they don’t know my instagram, twitter, etc), and i don’t talk about it. when my computer is out and they’re in the room doing homework, i’m usually writing. granted, that’s usually fanfiction, but at least i’m writing something.

one of the boys i tutor is writing a book (he’s 11) which is basically a self insert that takes place in the harry potter universe. he doesn’t know what fanfiction is, and i haven’t told him (although he’d never type it up and put it online lol he barely knows how to turn the computer on), but i’m so thrilled he’s even writing that i make him sit down and write for 10 minutes before we ever start watching a movie (in english).

ANYWAY. i’m nobody’s mother and at the end of the day i’m posting this online on my stupid blog where nothing i say matters or has any influence anywhere, but i think kids should be able to enjoy a non-internet related childhood as long as possible. some of us on tumblr are old enough to actually have children that age, and as much as we like having an account on this site, if asked this same question we might not as readily say ‘yeah it’s great! i want my teenagers to have the same experience as me!’

there’s my two centimes. hope i answered your question. JuST MY OPINION.

7 notes · View notes

frankkjonestx · 4 years

Text

A glowing zebrafish wins the 2020 Nikon Small World photography contest

While seeking answers to scientific questions, it’s worth sometimes taking a step back to appreciate the world’s exquisiteness.

For developmental biologists Daniel Castranova, Bakary Samasa and Brant Weinstein, some of that delicate beauty is inside a zebrafish. While working in Weinstein’s lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Castranova and Samasa snapped a stunning photograph of a young zebrafish, illuminating never-before-seen parts of its lymphatic system.

The photo comes from research that sought to determine whether zebrafish have lymphatic vessels inside their skulls. The lymphatic system helps clear toxins and waste from the body, and previously researchers thought only mammals had such structures close to the brain.

But zebrafish have those vessels too, Castranova and colleagues report in preliminary research posted in May at bioRxiv.org. The team used fish that had been genetically modified to have lymphatic vessels that fluoresce orange under certain conditions, with skeletons and scales that glow blue. Because fish are easier than mammals to raise and image in the lab, Castranova says, the finding could help scientists more easily study the role of the brain’s lymphatic system in neurological diseases like brain cancer or Alzheimer’s.

After taking the photo — a composite of 350 images taken with a confocal microscope — on a busy work day, “I never even looked at the picture for a couple of weeks,” Castranova says. “And then when I looked at it at some point post-data processing, I was like ‘Wow.’”

Even if it took Castranova a bit to appreciate what he had in hand, judges for the 2020 Nikon Small World photomicroscopy competition realized that it was a winner. The photo snagged first place in the 46th annual contest. The results were announced October 13.

Here are some our favorite photographs from this year’s competition.

Inside a clownfish egg

A developing clownfish (Amphiprion percula) embryo won second place in the contest. The series of photos documents the embryo’s growth (from left to right) on day one, morning and evening of day three, day five and day nine.Daniel Knop/Natur und Tier-Verlag NTV

Over nine days, German photographer Daniel Knop watched an embryo grow from a striking golden yolk sac into a baby clownfish (Amphiprion percula) to produce this second place–winning photo.

The composite image, created by stacking together multiple photos that had been taken while the embryo was in motion, documents stages of the embryo’s development from left to right. The first snapshot shows the newly growing fish hours after fertilization, with a cluster of extra sperm cells (white splotch) still on the outside of the first egg (clear bubble) on the left. The subsequent images depict the fish twice on the third day of development (morning and evening), as well as the fifth and ninth days, hours before the fish hatched.

Tongue of a snail

This colorful depiction of part of a snail’s tongue, at 40 times magnification, shows its structure in three dimensions. Sections colored blue are farthest from the viewer and those colored hot pink are closest. The image placed third in the competition.Igor Siwanowicz/HHMI

When neurobiologist Igor Siwanowicz’s lab mate’s aquarium was taken over by freshwater snails, Siwanowicz decided to snap a photo of part of one snail’s tongue, earning him third place in the competition.

The appendage, magnified 40 times, was photographed in layers with a laser to reconstruct the tongue in three dimensions. The pieces closest to the viewer are colored hot pink; the farthest bits are blue. The tongue’s comblike projections scrape algae off of surfaces for food.

“I chose this image to show that in nature, beauty can be found in the most unexpected places, like a snail’s mouth,” says Siwanowicz, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Va., and second-place winner in the 2019 contest (SN: 10/21/19).

Lab-grown hairs

Shown at 20 times magnification, this skin organoid (colored blue) sports human hair follicles (stubby projections) and nerves (red). The image earned an honorable mention.Karl Koehler and Jiyoon Lee/Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School

Neuroscientist Karl Koehler and biochemist Jiyoon Lee, both of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, captured this image of human hair follicles (stubby blue-colored projections) budding off of a cluster of lab-grown skin cells, broadly called an organoid, in a lab dish. Other types of organoids exist for various parts of the body, such as the gut and brain.

It takes about four to five months for a skin organoid to grow in the lab. The structures develop nerves (red) that connect specialized cells in hair follicles, much like the neural circuit system that allows us to feel touch, and could one day help develop better skin grafts. This lab-grown skin develops inside-out, Koehler says. So the surface that grows hair is inside the clump of cells, and viewers see the base of hair follicles. The team published their findings June 3 in Nature.

Majestic moss

Moss capsules, like the one pictured here at 10 times magnification and shown in false-color, release hundreds of thousands of spores that are carried by the wind to new parts of the forest to grow. The photo is an Image of Distinction in this year’s Nikon Small World photo contest.Miroslav Žít

Miroslav Žít, an amateur photographer from Prachatice in the Czech Republic, snapped this photo of a stunning moss capsule packed with spores almost ready to take flight. Capsules perch on top of stems that extend from blankets of moss.

The spores ride the wind once released, sometimes traveling long distances and staying dormant until conditions are right for growth.

Viral infection

This mouse paw has been infected with the Chikungunya virus (colored pink), a pathogen that causes painful inflammation of the joints. The rodent’s immune response to the virus, in the form of immune cells called microphages, is shown in blue and general tissue is colored orange. The image won an honorable mention.Jonard Corpuz Valdoz, Pam Van Ry and Richard Robison/Brigham Young Univ.

Researchers at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah combined more than 2,200 photos taken with a confocal microscope to create this vivid shot of a 1-centimeter-long mouse paw infected with the Chikungunya virus.

Chikungunya is a disease that can result in debilitating joint pain. Biochemists Jonard Corpuz Valdoz and Pam Van Ry teamed up with microbiologist Richard Robison to take a peek at how a mouse responds to the infection, in the hopes of shedding light on how the virus spreads in animals, including humans. Immune cells called macrophages (colored blue) rush to the paw to fight the virus (pink), amid a background of general tissue (orange).

Baby bat

This image of a Seba’s short-tailed fruit bat embryo (Carollia perspicillata) was artificially colored to show its skeleton in green and cartilage in orange; it placed 20th in the photo competition.Dorit Hockman/ Univ. of Cape Town, , Vanessa Chong-Morrison/UCL

While participating in an embryology course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., Vanessa Chong-Morrison, a developmental biologist then at the University of Oxford, prepared this image of a Seba’s short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) embryo for picture day.

Chong-Morrison, now at University College London, and Dorit Hockman of the University of Cape Town in South Africa took snapshots of the developing bat’s skeleton, capturing small areas at a time. Hockman is also a developmental biologist who studies how bat hands grow into “impressive wings.” The pair then stitched together the images to produce the final photo, which was edited to show the bat’s bones in green and cartilage in orange.

A work of amino acid art

When in a warm solution of ethanol and water, amino acids L-glutamine and beta-alanine form crystals, photographed here in a 13th place–winning photo at four times magnification.Justin Zoll/Justin Zoll Photography

No, this photo isn’t an abstract painting. It’s a portrait of the crystals that form after two amino acids — L-glutamine and beta-alanine — are heated in a solution made of ethanol and water. One of the compounds, L-glutamine, is a building block for proteins and ensures that the immune system can function. The other, beta-alanine, helps with muscle endurance.

Justin Zoll, a photographer based in Ithaca, N.Y., merged multiple images of crystals taken at four times their normal size into a panorama to show the crystals’ intricate details in a wider field of view. When the crystals interact with a multiple beams of polarized light, the arrangement of their molecules reflects stunning colors, he says.

from Tips By Frank https://www.sciencenews.org/article/2020-nikon-small-world-photo-contest-glowing-zebrafish-wins

0 notes

flowermandalas · 7 years

Text

How Art Makes You Stronger: Creativity and Madness

I’ve just returned from an incredible week at the Creativity and Madness conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I wanted to share a little about the conference itself and what I presented there.

The conference is the creation of psychiatrist Dr. Barry Panter and Mary Lou Panter and is currently run by Dr. Panter and his wife, Jacqueline Berz Panter. Barry began it 35 years ago as a way for health and mental health professionals to receive and to present ideas on how artistic creativity and mental health are connected. This conference and the companion conference Women of Resilience happen twice a year in the U.S. and twice a year in other parts of the world.

The conference has been held in Santa Fe, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Washington, Hawaii, all of the major cities in Europe, as well as in South America, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Bali, and China. MDs, PhDs, Social Workers, MFTs, and other therapists and medical professionals can obtain continuing education hours by attending Creativity and Madness.

You can find out more about it here: http://ift.tt/2uAnowg

I’ve given presentations and workshops there five times. This year, my focus was on the psychological benefits of creative projects.

I’ve been engaged with both long-term and short-term creative projects most of my adult life, but I didn’t think much about their psychological benefits until I had a near-death experience while a PhD student in English in the early 1990s. I struggled with the meaning of the NDE and was prompted by a professor to write about it.

By creating a narrator, a story I was telling, and an imagined audience, I was able to examine the experience – which was both shattering and transformative – differently than I did in my day-to-day coping, in therapy, or in a support group I belonged to that focused on healing from trauma.

The psychological changes I experienced and the reintegration that took place while I was writing felt connected with the healing process I was undergoing in therapy. Sometimes the two intersected and sometimes they ran in parallel, but inevitably they intersected again in important ways. The image of the double helix seemed to best describe that relationship.

One of the most profound outcomes of this double-helix exploration of the near-death experience and its aftermath was that I abandoned my English PhD and returned to grad school to become a psychotherapist. (It was during my therapist training program that I first heard about the Creativity & Madness conference.)

People often make deep and long-lasting life changes when they work on creative projects. For my presentation in Santa Fe, I interviewed several artists about these changes, and I wanted to share some of their observations with you.

Meditative. “There’s a meditative aspect to having a practice, in my case painting. It allows me to be in the moment. It’s complex, but in a way that energizes. If I’m painting, I’m sane. If I’m not painting, I’m insane.”

Touchstone. “I like the touchstone effect. It’s something to go back to, to keep involved with the creative process. Without that, it’s too easy to get involved with the demands and responsibilities of my day job and how exhausting that can be.”

Nourishing. “I find a long-term project a source of nourishment I can go back to and reinvigorate myself. To see that portion of the journey and think, “Oh, wow, that’s great! I really did that? That came out really well.” Or to go back to another part and think, “I really struggled with that.” There are parts of this story I’ve worked on for well over a year, and I’ve taken leaps and leaps and leaps. And I’ve come back to it and I say, I didn’t really have a clue how I was going to do that, and it worked out well, and now it fits in here. I get nourishment from what I’ve completed, not only to complete what I’m doing, but also to push me to the next one. So, I find the journey is important, I agree, but I find going back to it keeps on giving back.”

Calming. I don’t know if this would be called self-hypnosis or not, but for me, writing fiction has a great calming effect. I forget time and hunger and fatigue and enter another, rejuvenating world.

Evolving. “A longer-term project is a process of becoming. The artwork evolves, but you evolve, too.”

Spiritual. “When you start a long-term project, there’s a lot of planning, and the goal is far away. It can be a spiritual journey, going from point A to point B. Just whipping something out in a day doesn’t have the same feeling.”

Transformative. “I think that the nature of making art – good art – requires going deeply within and getting in touch with your deepest feelings. This can be difficult – you might revisit past trauma or unpleasant situations. But it can also connect you with exalting joy and even bring on an extreme or altered state of consciousness.”

Sustaining. “With a long-term project, you create a companion within your own space that sustains you. If you have a project you’re working on, you’re not alone and you don’t feel lonely. I think there’s great solace in that. It’s a very deep relationship – like the relationship some people have with God.”

For more on the benefits of creative projects, you can download a PDF of the slides from my presentation here: http://ift.tt/2uT3rMB

I’m interested in your own experiences with art and transformation and hope to hear from you in the comments of this post.

More anon, David

P.S. If you find what you read here helpful, please forward it to others who might, too. Or click one of the buttons below.

Books: Paths to Wholeness: Fifty-Two Flower Mandalas 52 (more) Flower Mandalas: An Adult Coloring Book for Inspiration and Stress Relief 52 Flower Mandalas: An Adult Coloring Book for Inspiration and Stress Relief Paths to Wholeness: Selections (free eBook)

from How Art Makes You Stronger: Creativity and Madness

#How Art Makes You Stronger: Creativity and Madness

0 notes

trigafy · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on

New Post has been published on http://hypnotherapyhypnotist.com/beginner-to-advanced-practitioner-training-course-self-development-in-psychotherapy-hypnotherapy-neuro-linguistic-programming-nlp-cognitive-behavioural-nlp-cbt-clinical-psychology/

Beginner to Advanced Practitioner Training Course & Self Development in Psychotherapy Hypnotherapy Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Cognitive Behavioural ... - NLP - CBT. Clinical Psychology)

Beginner to Advanced Practitioner Training Course & Self Development in Psychotherapy Hypnotherapy Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Cognitive Behavioural … – NLP – CBT. Clinical Psychology)

Product Description I am David Glenn, a Professional Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner and Trainer with over twenty year’s experience in this profession. I have written this book to pass on my knowledge for those:

1)Interested in the cognitive psychology of oneself as a self-development help guide in understanding and utilising the power of your own mind to overcome: anxiety, depression, low confidence, phobias, stress, bad habits, weight loss, stop smoking, drugs, alcohol and more, in order to get the best out of your life.

2)Wanting to have a successful career in Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Life Coaching and Psychotherapy as a whole. Developing or enhancing your therapy skills in dealing with all types of clients, to help them recover their cognitive health and wellbeing.

Everybody can study this course book as home study training. It is laid out in layman’s terms, so those with no previous knowledge of the subject, can still learn how to use the power of your own mind to enrich your life. Even if you do not want to be a Professional Therapist, you can still study this course to understand yourself more, for self-help and personal development. This will enable you to break negative habits, and have unlimited confidence with the techniques that you can learn and use in your life, or therapy practice to improve your psyche, or that of a client’s cognitive health (psychological health) and wellbeing. You will also learn how to hypnotise your clients, friends and family, and find the beneficial power of self-hypnosis. Enrich your knowledge and skills with what I am going to teach you, which can be used in general life, for yourself and others, or by those wishing a new profession in Hypnotherapy, CBT, NLP Practitioner or Psychotherapist. Keep an open mind to new possibilities. Once you have read and fully understood this book, for many people it is a life changing experience. My philosophy on therapy and psychology in general is – it is the art of understanding the psychology of people, our behaviour, the mind model, body language, communication and speech. You will be able to understand how your mind works, and how to utilise its power for positive change.

I have a very modern approach to therapy for today’s generation, as I am sure you will come to realise as we continue. Once you have absorbed all the knowledge I am about to teach you, you will know more than most therapists that have been in the profession for many years. This book contains valuable information on becoming a Professional Hypnotherapist, and Psychotherapist. I will, in the greatest of detail, educate you in all aspects of Psychotherapy, NLP, CBT, and Hypnotherapy, from beginner to an advanced level. Once you have studied this course book, you will be able to set up in business as a professional therapist: despite that I still advise all my students to practise on volunteers, for charities, family and friends, before their first paying client. Conducting psychotherapy is an extremely complex and skilful job. Therefore after reading this book, and gaining some practical skills, if you do not feel you have the ability to put in place the knowledge I have imparted in this book, then I will teach you the skills in a group or one on one setting. Through tailor-made training this will enable you to set up in business, with the greatest confidence in knowledge and skills to succeed in a successful psychotherapy career.

Prepare yourself for a truly amazing, life-changing experience. Enjoy as you learn, and I guarantee, at times you will be thinking: WOW! MIND BLOWING, INSPIRATIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM, ALL IN THIS BOOK!

Hypnosis Training: Learn Hypnosis Online — Lesson 2 — Powerful Clearing Technique For You

youtube

To discover more about how to heal, influence and persuade visit http://www.nlppower.com/yt/ and receive my free course: The Forbidden Secrets of Conversational Hypnosis (a $97 value)

http://www.realworldhypnosis/stealthloa2.com

A powerful multipurpose hypnotic negativity clearing technique. I’ve used this in medical hypnosis conditions, anger, trauma, and many other situations. Its extremely versatile and can be used as a staging technique or a primary hypnotic intervention.

Pay very close attention to the emphasis on somatic engagement. When you get the body involved the unconscious mind has no choice but to believe. For more information on the complete system of hypnosis we offer be sure to check out http://realworldhypnosis.com/2014rwh001/

People have always known that smoking brings in horrible and disgusting side effects, yet smoking addicts say they just don’t have the force to give up. Health reasons don’t matter, neither do vanity, and love life. Just the same, people expressed a sincere desire to correct, though they stand drained before a light.

After all these forethoughts have failed, take the persuasion to the next level. This time, imagine yourself in a greener world, where you can take a breather in the fresh crisp air and feel your lungs expand under your chest. Feel the warm hugs of your family and loved ones as you blissfully live your life, without a single cigarette to light. What are we trying to accomplish here? A successful graduation from the smoking addiction through hypnotherapy.

In 2007, the American College Of Chest Physicians presented a report about how hospitalised patients who smoke were more likely to stop smoking after going to hypnotherapy sessions than employing other smoke cessation methods.

The centric study, which was later reissued by the online news digest Science Daily, highlighted that smokers who saw hypnotherapy sessions were more likely to stop their love affair with smoking at six months, compared to those who solely bank on NRT or Nicotine Replacement Therapy, and those waiting to one day go cold turkey.

Dr. Faysal Hasan, MD, FCCP, North Shore Medical Centre, Salem MA, said that hypnotherapy seems to be quite efficient. He expressed confidence in hypnotherapy as good modality to take into a smoking cessation programme after a smoking patient has been discharged.

The positive effect of hypnotherapy as an approach path to smoking cessation was also maintained by Dr. Alvin Thomas, MD, FCCP, President of the American College of Chest Physicians. Thomas positively received the leads of the study, saying that this is a fundamental gain for physicians who are always finding ways to help patients in o smoking. Thomas is convinced that hypnotherapy will soon be accepted as one of the various approaches taken to quit smoking.

Learn how hypnotherapy can help you fight addiction and find a love life. Take Hypnosis Course only from qualified instructors offering Hypnotherapy Training today!

0 notes

dawnajaynes32 · 7 years

Text

The Business Behind an Award-Winning Promotional Gift

The following is an excerpt from the Fall 2016 Issue of HOW Magazine. Subscribe today so that you can go behind the scenes with all the winners of our design competitions.

Call for Entries! Will you be our next Best of Show winner? Enter by March 13, 2017 to save $ on your entry into the HOW Promotion & Marketing Design Awards!

When sisters Susan Turnock and Heather Arak-Kanofsky were growing up, their dinner table might as well have been a think tank. “As a family, we were always coming up with new products and creative problem-solving,” Turnock says.

“Grandparents, kids, parents, friends—whoever was at the table—were invited to be part of the brainstorm. It was high energy and lots of fun, not to mention productive. There was always lots of possibility.”

Turnock and Arak-Kanofsky have embraced that same collaborative, can-do spirit as a foundation for their Severna Park, MD–based branding and design firm, Gifts for the Good Life, by inviting staff, clients and some actual family members to pull up a seat to the proverbial—and sometimes actual—table. “Coming from an artistic, entrepreneurial family (Dad was an interior designer and Mom was a display artist) set us up to create a studio environment that feels like that table,” Turnock says. “We want everything—our staff meetings, touchpoints, client communication and collaborations—to embody that spirit.”

TITLE Mini Insta-Theater | FIRM Gifts for the Good Life, Severna Park, MD; www.giftsforthegoodlife.com | CREATIVE TEAM Heather Arak-Kanofsky, art director; Susan Turnock, art director, copywriter; Nathan Kanofsky, illustrator, photographer; Bethany Coyle, illustrator; Sherry Warner, copywriter; Frances Warnagaris, project manager | PRINTER Gifts for the Good Life

Why Don’t You Make It?

Photo: Jeremie Barlow Photography

Growing up, Turnock and Arak-Kanofsky’s father’s favorite response to any request was, “Why don’t you make it?” Little did he know he was instilling in his daughters the spark for a career that’s predicated upon that very question. After college, they both forged their own businesses: Arak-Kanofsky created Arak Kanofsky Studios with her husband, project engineer Nathan Kanofsky, focusing on handcrafted invitations and paper wardrobes, while Turnock created What Fun!, a collection of innovative bath products sold on QVC and in 3,000 stores worldwide. Although the sisters had been creating businesses together since they were about 4 and 7, they officially teamed up to found Gifts for the Good Life in 2007.

The business is known for its level of detail and moments of “surprise and delight,” the sisters say. They create “layered gift-giving experiences” at conferences, events and launches, and campaigns for luxury corporate, fashion, resort, sporting and entertainment brands. “We have the ability to not only come up with the solution, but actually produce the end product and deliver it creatively to the recipient,” Turnock says. “We’re generally curating and producing collections of products to create an experience, so it’s up to us to design packaging and the accompanying wording that paints an entire picture or a full experience.”

The 12-person team—give or take—is multigenerational and multidisciplinary, much like those who gathered around the family dinner table. “We love what boomers and millennials bring to our table,” Arak-Kanofsky says. “We are a tight group, and no matter what is happening, we have lunch together daily. It gives us time to genuinely connect.”

The gifting industry creates a broad variety of goods for corporate purposes: logo-emblazoned promotional products, gift baskets or products for companies that make engraved gifts and trophies.

But Turnock says Gifts for the Good Life has aimed to steer away from those projects, instead favoring those that tell more of a story. The team prides itself on bringing the elements of art and a hand-touched, personal quality to the gifting industry, which is largely rote and predictable, they say. “There is a patently negative response to an impersonal ‘giveaway,’” Arak-Kanofsky says. “We see what we do as ‘gratitude marketing,’ seeing our clients for what they are: ‘Lovemarks’ whose fans deserve something remarkable.”

“Gratitude marketing” is marketing that feels sincere and personalized, connecting the brand and the recipient. “The gift is an expression of gratitude for participation in the brand experience,” Arak-Kanofsky says. “Gifts can say much more than just ‘thanks’—but there should always be an undertone of appreciation and acknowledgement.”

No matter how busy, the team sits down together to eat and chat. Turnock says it’s great for brainstorming and dreaming as a group. Photo: Jeremie Barlow Photography

That’s where “Lovemarks” come in. A marketing term originated by Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts, Lovemarks are brands that become part of a loyal fan’s experience. “Susan and I became obsessed with the concept and started looking at our history of Lovemarks and where it stands today,” Arak-Kanofsky says. “We recognize that many of our clients, like NASCAR and Disney, are true Lovemarks and that it is an honor and responsibility to create for these brands and their fans.”

Clients Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce, co-producers of Engage! Luxury Wedding Business Summits, are also among those Lovemarks. They’ve collaborated with Gifts for the Good Life since 2011 on all of the branded gifting and event accessories for their series of luxury wedding business summits. They recently finished their 10th semiannual event partnership with Gifts for the Good Life, noting that the spirit of true collaboration and outside-the-box thinking is what keeps them coming back to work with Arak-Kanofsky and Turnock.

“The fact that Heather and Susan are sisters creates a really unique and personal relationship that we love,” Grinnals and Arce say. “They are the yin to each other’s yang, and in the end it creates results that continue to wow our very discerning audience of the world’s top creative event minds.” Since each Engage! event is held at a different location, they all are imbued with a unique color palette and vibe. “It gives us the chance to totally reinvent how a conference can look and feel each time,” Turnock says. “It’s challenging and really pushes us, in a great way.”

Projecting a Winner

Never content to stop imagining and inventing, Gifts for the Good Life took on a self-imposed challenge last year. They set out to showcase their paper engineering skills, attention to detail and storytelling by creating a self-promotion for their top clients that showed off the firm’s creativity while creating a personal bond with each recipient. “We intended to deepen connections to our clients by highlighting moments they shared through social media,” Turnock says.

They came up with the Mini Insta-Theater, an all-in-one gift containing a Projecteo mini projector that displayed images from each recipient’s personal Instagram feed on a built-in screen. The piece unfolds from a small block and becomes a theater setup with simple directives and, of course, snack storage to fully engage viewers in the mini movie theater experience. “When we found the Projecteo mini projector, we thought it was magical,” Arak-Kanofsky says. “Susan and I have always loved miniatures, so the mini theater solution was a no-brainer; the scale made the experience intimate and fun. The theater format gave us ample space to play with a full environment, packaging and cheeky wording, and accessorize with Jelly Belly candies (my favorite!).”

The colorful box design and clever copywriting integrated labels and instructions right into the packaging. “Our goal was to make sure that the packaging felt intentional and well thought-out,” Nathan Kanofsky says. Classically trained as a printmaker and papermaker, he’s responsible for project engineering and bringing the company’s creative ideas to life. “There were several templates as we worked out what would work best for the recipients. As we engineered it, we tested it constantly and readjusted.”

That fine-tuning paid off: The Mini Insta-Theater promo not only wowed recipients, but also impressed the judges of HOW’s annual Promotion and Marketing Design Awards, who awarded the project Best of Show. (Another big coup? NASCAR contracted Gifts for the Good Life to create a series of Insta-Theaters for its VIP Summit centered on brand storytelling. And the group has since created similar projects for several corporate clients.)

[Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out all the winners of the 2016 Promotion & Marketing Design Awards, and ENTER by MARCH 13 to get the early-bird SAVINGS for the 2017 Awards!]

While there was a lot of debate over choosing this year’s Best of Show, the Mini Insta-Theater won out in the end thanks to its originality, concept, construction and wow factor. “It was difficult to choose a Best of Show because of the variety of promotional categories, yet, as the package reads, this one was Insta-Love for me,” says judge Laurie Churchman of Designlore. “Ingenious concept and package design! The personalized photos guaranteed delight for the recipients as well as admiration for the firm. Most telling though, it garnered attention beyond the original audience, translating into new business for the firm.”

Judge Douglas Davis, principal of The Davis Group, author and HOW Design Live speaker, had high praise for the project, too: “I went into judging with Tibor Kalman’s M&Co. promotions as my gold standard. Those promotions were unique in their format. Their contents rewarded your attention, and as a result were effective. All those things made me fall in love with the Mini Insta-Theater. Any promotion should drive results; this promotion got them a date with NASCAR.”

The post The Business Behind an Award-Winning Promotional Gift appeared first on HOW Design.

The Business Behind an Award-Winning Promotional Gift syndicated post

0 notes

thenewsrabbit-blog · 7 years

Text

HealthTap Launches Dr. A.I.

Check out the latest post http://thenewsrabbit.com/healthtap-launches-dr-a-i/

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HealthTap, the world’s first Global Health Practice providing 24/7 immediate access to top doctors via video, text, and voice, today launched Doctor A.I., a personal Artificial Intelligence-powered “physician” that helps route users to doctor-recommended insights and care immediately.

Each year, more than a billion people search the Web for health information, with approximately 10 billion symptom-related health searches per year on Google alone. Unlike a doctor, the Web only provides access to content semantically-related to these symptoms. The Internet does not know how to ask follow-up questions, assess the severity of symptoms, or offer personalized recommendations of what to do next — an art and science known as “medical triage.” Doctors know that accurate and effective triage requires detailed knowledge of a patient’s personal health situation, making context critical to providing optimal care.

HealthTap’s new Dr. A.I. incorporates both context and clinical expertise of doctors who have helped triage hundreds of millions of patients worldwide to right levels of doctor-recommended care. Just like a sympathetic human physician, Dr. A.I. converses with the user to understand their current complaints or concerns and uses the user’s health profile to compute the probable causes of their symptoms. First, using HealthTap’s Health Operating System (HOPES™), Dr. A.I. analyzes the user’s current symptoms in the context of relevant data from the personal health record they created on HealthTap, including age, gender, prior medical conditions, medications etc. Next, based on the user’s symptoms, Dr. A.I. uses advanced deep learning algorithms and HealthTap’s vast repository of doctor knowledge and data, to apply doctor-sourced clinical expertise and guide patients to the right level of doctor-recommended care. Dr. A.I. can immediately route a patient towards a variety of solutions that doctors previously suggested to people like them in similar situations. These tailored potential pathways can range from suggesting the patient reads relevant doctor insights and content, to connecting the patient with a doctor for a live virtual consult, or from scheduling an in-person office visit with the right specialist, all the way to directing the patient to more urgent care, based on the patient’s symptoms and characteristics.

Dr. A.I. is based on the collective clinical knowledge developed over the course of six-years of applying doctor-expertise to real-world patient questions, from a network of more than 105,000 licensed doctors across 141 specialties. “Over the past six years, we’ve collected data from tens of thousands of the leading U.S. doctors who’ve collectively triaged millions of patients throughout their careers,” said Geoff Rutledge MD, PhD, HealthTap’s Chief Medical Officer and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. “We’ve used this data as a training set to prepare Dr. A.I. for helping triage patients at scale. With an average of twenty years of experience per doctor in the HealthTap Medical Expert Network, the knowledge in the network equates to hundreds of thousands of years of medical school training and more than a million years of collective medical practice experience. Applying Bayesian thinking and advanced techniques of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to the rich data we’ve collected from billions of transactions between tens of thousands of doctors and hundreds of millions of patients on HealthTap, we’ve built an expert system that can help triage people to the care they need when they need it most.”

Available via HealthTap’s mobile apps and website, Dr. A.I. is also trained in the art of digital empathy to converse with people using a patient, polite and compassionate bedside manner. Using an intuitive, conversational user interface, Dr. A.I. asks intelligible dynamically-generated questions, helping people of all ages and demographics easily and conveniently understand what they could do next.

“It’s quite remarkable to see how we’ve orchestrated doctors, technology, design and data to come together and enable instant, humane triaging exactly when people need it most,” said Ron Gutman, HealthTap Founder and CEO. “Years of diligent, collaborative work of some of the brightest doctors, engineers, and data scientists combined with groundbreaking work of some of the best user experience and visual designers on the planet, have brought to life a first of its kind, smart and compassionate Dr. A.I. Wow!”

Dr. A.I. is accessible for consumers starting today from any mobile device or personal computer through the HealthTap iOS or Android apps or the HealthTap website. More advanced premium services, powered by HealthTap’s Health Operating System (HOPES™), are available for enterprise customers (clinics, hospital systems, insurance companies, large self insured employers, and governments) via the HealthTap Cloud™.

For more information, visit https://www.healthtap.com/goto/drai_launch

To access our press kit, visit https://www.healthtap.com/goto/drai_presskit

About HealthTap

HealthTap, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, is the world’s first Global Health Practice delivering immediate, world-class healthcare 24/7 from query-to-cure. Through video, voice, and text chat on any mobile device or personal computer, HealthTap connect hundreds of millions of people in 174 countries with the most trusted and compassionate health advice from a network of more than 105,000 top doctors. HealthTap’s proprietary, robust, and secure Health Operating System (HOPES™) and proprietary triaging technology enable hospital systems, insurance companies, employers and governments to deliver the right care at the right time at the right price. HOPES is now powering the HealthTap Cloud™, a first of its kind virtual cloud dedicated to healthcare, created for interoperability and ease of integration (with EMRs, practice management systems, clouds, apps, and devices), and is built on robust, extensible APIs and a modular plugin architecture.

#Business #News #Science & Technology

0 notes

flowermandalas · 7 years

Text

How Art Makes You Stronger: Creativity and Madness

I’ve just returned from an incredible week at the Creativity and Madness conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I wanted to share a little about the conference itself and what I presented there.

You can find out more about it here: http://ift.tt/2uAnowg

I’ve given presentations and workshops there five times. This year, my focus was on the psychological benefits of creative projects.

Evolving. “A longer-term project is a process of becoming. The artwork evolves, but you evolve, too.”

For more on the benefits of creative projects, you can download a PDF of the slides from my presentation here: http://ift.tt/2uT3rMB

I’m interested in your own experiences with art and transformation and hope to hear from you in the comments of this post.

More anon, David

P.S. If you find what you read here helpful, please forward it to others who might, too. Or click one of the buttons below.

from How Art Makes You Stronger: Creativity and Madness

#How Art Makes You Stronger: Creativity and Madness

0 notes