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heartlandhq · 6 years

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❝ the good girl is always a ghost, the body is always a wound. ❞

INFORMATION,

full name ⋯ Mariella Caulfield age ⋯ 23 years old pronouns ⋯ She/Her/Hers origin ⋯ London, England affiliation ⋯ Charles B. Washington Library position ⋯ Medic

SURVIVABILITY,

advantages ⋯ resilient & charitable disadvantages ⋯ temperamental & naive preferred weapon ⋯ pocket knife

BIOGRAPHY,

trigger warning ⋯ none

BEFORE DECEMBER 25th, 2017,

Born to Louise Brodeur and Darby Caulfield in the midst of a very hot summer eve off the French Rivera, Mariella Caulfield was the product of a unconventional relationship. Despite their new addition, both refused to settle down into an indifferent, loveless marriage and instead agreed they would work to raise their daughter separately. Once she was able to walk she would spend time split equally between Paris and England. It was often that her parents fought on what values to instill into her, their core values and expectations never quite lining up.

Her father wanted her to be raised to live life as she pleased, whereas her mother would have preferred she was brought up in a more traditional sense. As a result, Mariella had very different relationships with her parents. To her dad, who she mirrored in more ways than one, she could do no wrong. Her mom on the other hand, she had grown to detest her daughter more and more with every visit. She reminded her too much of her father, a man she loved more than anything to hate.

The friction between she and her mother eventually came to a boiling point at age ten when child protective services were called to their townhouse by a neighbor. The elderly women next door often overheard screaming between the two of them and worried she might be abusing her child. The charges were investigated and eventually dropped, but the memory of being ripped from everything she knew and ( while briefly ) shoved into foster care has always stuck with her. While Louise was technically not guilty of anything, she did very little to prove otherwise once her parental rights were restored.

Even as a young child Mariella was the type who wanted to get out and explore, to meet as many people as possible and learn from them as she went. Her multicultural upbringing is what really set her love for learning into motion. Knowledge above all else was something her childhood was rooted in, and the fever to learn stuck with her well into her time at primary school. There was no one subject she enjoyed more than the other, but she had a particular penchant for STEM classes. She went through all the changes in potential career growing up; from wanting to be a ballerina, an astronaut, to even considering following in her parents footsteps and becoming a teacher; which is how they met.

On a particularly hot afternoon in the middle of summer, her father began complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. At first he assured her that it would go away, he would be fine. But as the night persisted and he wasn’t getting any better, she dialed 112 in the hopes that emergency response would make it on time. From the minute she arrived at the hospital she was captivated by the process and found herself asking questions to anyone who would speak to her. Mariella was thirteen then, and everything seemed to have fallen into place. Funny as it was, she found her calling through her father’s heart attack.

It wasn’t until she reached university that she really started experiencing the world for what it was, and she quickly felt like a fish out of water among the masses. As such it was rare you’d find her without at least two books tucked under her arm. Being a medical student took up the majority of her life, the courses work-heavy and requiring immense concentration, but she tried to be as social as she was dedicated to her education. The girl found herself mingling with people across the board rather sticking to one fixed set of friends. At her core she believed all people had something more to discover beyond what was shown at face value, thus she made connections wherever she was able.

Graduation from Med school arrived in a whirlwind of emotion, mostly exhaustion and relief. While as happy as she was to be finished with the bulk of her studies and onto the next stage of her impending career, Mariella knew this was one of the last times she’d have to well and truly enjoy being young before fully engulfing herself into the workforce. So, rather than planning visits with her parents for the holidays, she decided to celebrate on an impromptu trip to the States, setting off with nothing but a quickly packed suitcase and whatever money was left in her bank account.

AFTER DECEMBER 25th, 2017,

Monday, December 18th. Crowded among a group of strangers underneath an airport television, this is the first Mariella hears of the supposed virus. Their president addresses the nation and denies any claims surrounding a spreading epedemic, but even people from her side of the world found him to be repulsive and dishonest, so she wasn’t so sure he was telling the full story. But nothing around her seemed to be out of the ordinary, she pushed it from her mind as she boarded her connecting flight to Omaha, Nebraska.

Two days after her arrival a curfew is put into effect, but this doesn’t stop her from exploring the area in the days following. The reactions from everyone around her were varying, but most she spoke to seemed to believe they were going to be fine, that perhaps this was all some sort of sick practical joke. This ended badly when she found herself walking through town as the outbreak fully came into effect. Being small and quick on her feet played in her favour as she quickly got to somewhere safe.

Alone, unarmed, and terrified, she did the best she could for someone in her situation. They—whatever they were—began surrounding the hotel she holed herself up in, making any chance at escape very slim. Convinced she’d die there, whether by starvation or from being attacked when the reinforcements on her door gave way, Mariella began plotting an escape route. She knew very little about the outbreak as it stood, but was observant enough to notice that if they were distracted by a loud noise, she could make her way around without much trouble.

The next week or so is spent coming in and out of abandoned houses and scavenging whatever she can carry. Mostly everything she took was medical supplies, building herself quite the kit should she need to help someone in need. By that point her initial adjustment to the new world went by quite horribly. As time passed she quickly found that the more ‘savage’ way of living was not the one for her.

At first of the mind that the creatures were still people underneath the dirt and decay, Mary refused to kill them. To her, they could still be saved. There would be a cure. There had to be, right? Before she joins a group or finds a solid place to call home, a close encounter with a hoard is what changes her mind. Someone steps in to save her, and she’s felt indebted to them ever since. The near-death experience acted as a wake up call, and from that point on she stopped avoiding the inevitable; to survive, the undead had to be exterminated. The possibility of a cure ( or at the very least a vaccine to help the remaining humans ) still plays in the back of her mind.

The person that rescued her disappeared as quickly as they swooped in to aid her, but she got lucky shortly after and found a few people to travel with. Everyone within her group seemed to be handling the transition with relative ease — whereas she found herself keenly aware that she would not survive long if not for having capable people surrounding her. Though she may not be the greatest in combat or of much use when it comes to scavenging, she knows she’s a valuable asset in other ways, happily putting her medical knowledge to good use.

Monday, January 15th. Catching wind of a secluded library beginning a slow recruit if people, Mariella is among the first to offer her expertise. Thankfully she’s welcomed with open arms and feels she may have found herself somewhere much more permanent to call home. Trust doesn’t come so easily in their new world, though she’d certainly lay her life on the line if it came to down to protecting her people. Any people, actually, because prioritizing human life above all else is her number one goal. When she’s not tending to the ill or injured, the young woman proudly acts as a morale boost, doing whatever she can to keep everyone around her going. Where most people have seemingly given up hope on there ever being a way out, let alone a real chance of survival to the end, she remains fixed in her belief that there are better days ahead of them.

CENSUS,

faceclaim ⋯ Danielle Campbell played by ⋯ Faye

#danielle campbell #rp #rpg #town rp #new rp #{ a. }#{ f. }#{ 20. }#{ washington library. }#{ medic. }#{ faye. }#{ mariella caulfield. }

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raspberrytummytickles · 6 years

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My One True Omega

Wincest Writing Challenge: November 2017 @wincestytypeoflove vs @wincensfw Prompt: Strength (Tarot Cards) Rating: Teen | Wordcount: 3k+ | Round 14 Tags: Unrelated Wincest, Pinning Sam Winchester, Unrequited Love, A/B/O Dynamics, Moment of Destiel, Arranged Marriage, Love at First Sight, @wincestwritingchallenge Summary: Sam’s loved Dean ever since he first saw him. He just want’s his love reciprocated.

Dean woke with a groan, long warm arms around his waist and a needy nose poking his shoulder. He spared a glance at the pair of eyes gazing at him in adoration and sighed, shaking off the cuddly omega.

“Morning, Dean,” Sam said brightly, warm hands rubbing the crooks of Dean’s back. Dean grunted in greeting and pushed the omega more firmly away, getting up. He padded to the kitchen in only his boxers, Sam following behind him talking about something unimportant to Dean.

He fixed his morning coffee, per usual, as Sam puttered around the cooking space and started on breakfast. Dean rubbed his temples, a headache forming at the constant chatter. He remembered a point in time when he thought it was kinda cute but now? Dean could barely stand it.

“Here ya go!” Sam said cheerily, placing down a plate of eggs, toast, cheese, bacon, salami and a small bowl of fruit.

“Sam,” Dean growled. “I don’t eat fruit so stop giving it to me.”

“You need it so shut up and eat,” Sam snorted, popping a grape in his mouth. They had this argument every morning and while tiring, Sam secretly loved it. He could pretend that Dean actually loved him and that this was a sleepy lover’s quarrel. Of course, that wasn’t what it was in all honesty.

Dean didn’t love Sam, it was clear as day that the alpha wouldn’t have chosen Sam for a mate if he thought he had a better choice. Sam, however, was deeply in love with Dean, with his green eyes and adorable freckles. He felt safe around the alpha and would do anything for him. They hadn’t officially mated, Dean putting off actually knotting him but Sam relished in whatever closeness he could get with Dean.

And when he saw Dean had finished his food, including the fruit cup, he called it a win.

—- —- —-

Dean watched the older omega a few seats away with a sad sigh. Castiel Novak was the most gorgeous omega Dean had ever laid eyes on. His scent drove Dean crazy along with his cute little head tilt when he was confused and messy hair plus the brightest pair of blue eyes Dean had ever seen. He wanted Cas so bad but he was stuck with Sam. Dean glanced at the younger omega next to him and wrinkled his nose. Sam didn’t smell bad, he just wasn’t what Dean wanted or needed.

Sam easily hid the hurt he felt whenever Dean’s eyes strayed. He knew he wasn’t who Dean wanted but the alpha could try to at least be less obvious. The thing is, Dean’s father arranged a marriage between them, because the Campbell heir needed a mate. Both were reasonably upset at first, though the omega sometimes thinks Dean is still upset, but then Sam had fallen head over heels for Dean. The Alpha, however, never made an effort like Sam did. They’d been together for four years and Sam was honestly getting a little tired of the rejection and the hate.

Seeing his friends with their perfect mates and swollen with pups was hard when he was downright miserable trying to keep his alpha happy. The thoughts made Sam want to cry but he never dared in front of Dean in fear the alpha would tease him or berate him.

Sam pushed the depression away, focusing back on the paper he was supposedly reading and grimaced.

“This new Alpha leader is shitty at doing his job.”

Dean looked at him with barely concealed annoyance. Omega’s were supposed to be seen, not heard.

“He’s trying to make arranged marriages a law instead of just pack traditions,” Sam elaborated.

Dean snorted and rolled his eyes, “That’s just the way things are. Best to make it official before controversy breaks out.”

“I’d rather marry for love,” Sam said lightly, even though that’s what he did.

“Yeah, me too,” Dean said, turning back to stare at Cas.

Sam just pushed the tears back because he was fine. He always was.

— —- —–

While Sam and Dean weren’t close, sex between them was amazing. Dean was always rough with Sam, pounding into his hole until the omega was weeping both from his eyes and from his cock. Sam wasn’t one who normally enjoyed rough sex but with Dean, Sam felt like he could take anything.

Sam cried and whimpered, calling Dean’s name. He knows Dean doesn’t like it very much when he’s loud. Sam wasn’t supposed to speak. He wouldn’t call what they do making love but there was definitely that spark of connection between them.

Usually a bond between two mates was strong, you could feel it ripple beneath your skin since it is a part of you. But, Sam barely felt a twinge of their bond unless Dean was mad or during sex. So, Sam relished in what little he had with Dean. Call him clingy but he wanted Dean and Sam wished the feelings were reciprocated. When they finished, both reaching a release, Sam rolled so he was curled on Dean’s chest. The Alpha sighed but didn’t move or make any other attempt to touch Sam.

And it really, really fucking hurt.

—–

Sam was honestly tired of being unwanted, especially so openly. Gabriel, Castiel’s alpha brother who once tried courting Sam, hated how the pretty omega was being treated. He and Dean didn’t get along at all because of that. Gabriel hated how Sam was treated and hated how Dean made the omega feel so worthless. He couldn’t let the alpha near his little brother either if he could help it, but Cas made his own decisions if proven beneficial.

“You deserve better,” Gabe would say, golden eyes worried and sad.

Sam would smile and nod, “I know. But, I need him.”

And the subject would be dropped.

——

Jealousy pulled through Dean as he watched Balthazar openly flirt with Castiel. The omega took the compliments perfectly, head held high and a shy smile on his face along with a pink blush. It made Dean’s skin crawl. He wanted to be the one that brought Cas great joy.

Last time he spoke with the omega, he flirted consistently. Until, Castiel stopped him, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t you already have an omega?”

“We never mated but technically yes,” Dean sighed honestly. Castiel had hummed but no longer responded to Dean’s flirting like before.

Just another way Sam ruined his life.

It wasn’t Sam’s fault, Dean knew. He was just taking his anger out on the omega. Sam was an okay guy, super sweet and smart. But he wasn’t like any normal omega and that’s what Dean wanted. Sam was tall instead of small and lean. Sam formed his own opinions and spoke his mind about everything, even ice cream flavors. He ate burgers with Dean and drank beer instead of apple juice and fruits (though Sam did love forcing an occasional salad).

A hand intertwining with his own caught Dean’s attention. He glanced at Sam, ready to snap and ask why the hell they were suddenly holding hands when he saw what Sam was looking at. An alpha named Jody and her little beta mate, Donna. In her arms was an adorable blonde-haired baby that they had just had three months ago. Dean felt a slight pang for Sam who obviously ached for a family but was stuck with Dean. He let Sam hold his hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

Sam looked at Dean in surprise, looking like he was expecting a reprimand. Dean rolled his eyes and turned his gaze back to Cas who he found was staring at him curiously. Dean dropped Sam’s hand as if it were fire and smiled charmingly at Castiel. He didn’t notice Sam’s hurt, resigned expression like Cas did.

They had come home that evening, Dean in a sour mood per usual when his flirting with Castiel didn’t go as planned. Sam just looked tired, done.

“Dean,” Sam asked, getting his Alpha’s attention.

“What?”

“Are we ever gonna mate?”

“Excuse me?” Dean raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

“I see all these omegas or betas with their mates, happily mated and forming a family and I’m just wondering―”

“Sam, you do know that we are never gonna do that, right?” Dean asked carefully, ignoring Sam’s crestfallen look. “I’m never gonna knot you. Look, I get it, seeing everyone with kids and stuff and you not having any but seriously? Can you honestly see us together?”

“Yes,” Sam said softly.

“Well, I can’t.”

“Cause all you see is Castiel.”

Dean heard the bitterness in his voice and grimaced.

“I don’t love you, Sam,” Dean was getting frustrated. “So, I’m not gonna mate with you.” “That’s it then?” Sam snapped. “Just-Just pining after an omega who doesn’t want you when there is someone right here who would die for you to give them an ounce of the attention you bestow on Cas!”

“Shut the hell up!” Dean growled.

“I want to be your mate, Dean! We have a bond but you won’t let it grow because you want Castiel. Well, I want you Dean!”

“I don’t want you, Sam, and I never will.”

“What can I do?!”

“You can leave!” Dean shouted. “You can just get out of my fucking life! I never wanted to be married to you, I never wanted you as my bond mate and I never wanted to spend my life with you! Just get out and don’t come back!”

He was panting, the tension clearing up and Dean got a good look at the omega. Sam’s eyes were watering, a crushed resigned look on his face. He looked like someone ripped out his heart and trampled on it and that’s pretty much what happened.

Sam tuned and walked away from Dean, into their bedroom. Dean stayed where he was, guilt twisting his stomach. Sam returned with a black backpack and headed to the door, eyes blank, losing the life that was always filled in them.

“I hope you get who you want, Dean,” Sam said gently as he walked out the door, placing something in Dean’s hand.

Dean took a breath, turning and watching his husband of four years walk out the door. He looked down in his hand and felt his heart ache as he rolled around the wedding ring he gave Sam that night, four years ago. Dean took a breath and walked to their (now his) room and flopped on the bed, rubbing his eyes.

——–

The first few nights without Sam was torture. Absolute torture. He couldn’t sleep without imagining that warm body invading his personal space and flopping on him.

At first, Dean played it off as missing the sex because it honestly was amazing but it turned into more. Dean hated having that big bed all to himself. He laid there, eyes tracing the ceiling, mind on overdrive.

Where was Sam now? Was he okay? Did he find somewhere to stay for the night?

The questions wouldn’t leave him alone and Dean worried himself for three days straight before knowing he needed to make his move and get a distraction.

——–

“Castiel?” Dean got the omega’s attention. Those gorgeous blue eyes that had once caught Dean’s attention were no match for Sam’s ever-changing orbs, but Dean pushed that thought away. He’s never noticed them before, why should they matter now?

“Dean,” He greeted in his low voice. Dean found himself suddenly wishing for a slightly higher one with a mischievously defiant tone. “Can I help you?”

“I wish to court you, Cas. I have been wanting to since we first met. Will you except me and become my mate?”

Castiel looked at Dean unblinkingly for a second, eyes slightly narrowed. “What about Samuel?”

“He…He left,” Dean admitted. God, it wasn’t supposed to hurt. He should be happy the cheeky loveable omega was gone.

Castiel continued staring before giving a swift nod. “Then yes, courting me would be adequate.”

Dean beamed happily, kissing the back of Castiel’s hand. This is what he’d been waiting for since he first laid eyes on the older omega. And while he was happy, Dean couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.

——–

Courting Castiel was…not what Dean expected. The omega had a schedule to keep, always up at a certain time. The omega didn’t want to stay in bed and cuddle in the morning like Dean had grown used too. Dean found himself longing for a warm body to curl into, for cold toes to press against his thighs and soft whispers of comfort that always managed to awaken Dean, those soft pink petal lips brushing against his temple until Dean pushed him away. Castiel made Dean a breakfast of eggs, meats, breads, cheeses, and not a hint of fruit, just like Dean wanted. Castiel, however, had a little bowl of strawberries and blueberries, and never once tried stealing from Deans bowl like Sam was so fond of doing.

Dean found himself longing for a small bowl of grapes and kiwi.

Castiel also didn’t have any views, he just agreed to Dean’s stand points like a good little omega. Dean, though acting like he hated it, loved when Sam argued his beliefs with Dean, always keeping the alpha on his toes. Castiel, on the other hand, quietly agreed with Dean like how old tradition said. Omegas should be seen but not heard. Sam always made himself known and had pride in what he believed, something Dean once thought was a bad thing but now, couldn’t help missing since Sam was usually right anyway.

Dean found himself longing for the debate partner he lost.

Since nothing was like how Dean planned it would go, he at least hoped fucking Castiel would be good. It had been a fantasy of his for years to get his cock into that tight hole and have the omega squeal his name as he came.

Turned out, Castiel didn’t make any noise, something Dean would usually beg for. But, he wanted to hear Castiel’s whimpers, hear the cries and moans that Dean knew would escape him. Dean wanted to see Castiel’s face flushed and in sheer ecstasy. But, none of that happened. Cas was quiet, only small grunts from every thrust. He also wasn’t very adventurous in bed like Sam was. Sam would try out anything, getting just as or more excited about whatever they were doing, making sex fun and different every time. With Cas though, it was sorta…boring.

Dean pulled out of Castiel before his knot came spitting out, noticeably smaller than any other knot Dean had made compared to when he was screwing Sam. He star-fished on the bed, waiting for his post-sex cuddle but Cas stayed on his side of the bed respectfully.

The alpha was miserable, to be frank. This isn’t at all what he wanted or who he wanted. He pulled out the necklace he wore around his neck, the wedding ring Sam had given back to him hanging on the silver chain. The aching in his chest grew and Dean felt like a part of him had been ripped out and never returned. It didn’t take long for Dean to figure out what he was feeling.

Dean found himself longing for Sam.

———

“I’m sorry Cas….I just…I cant…anymore…I’m sorry…”

“I understand.”

“You….do?”

“Yes, it is plain as day that you and Sam Campbell are meant for each other.”

Dean flushed, realizing that he was probably the only person who didn’t know.

———

Now that Dean had this new revelation, he had to find his mate. Sam was his and the guilt that had been piling on Dean grew with every moment he thought about the fight they had. Sam had looked so heartbroken and crushed, like the love of his life rejected him.

Dean thought back to all the times Sam stuck with him. Sam comforted him when he was upset, took care of him when he was sick, fed him and always made sure Dean was okay. He didn’t have to do that. Sam could’ve thrown the towel in so much earlier than he did because Dean was a major dick. But Sam stayed because he loved Dean.

And Dean loved Sam.

He loved those adorable dimpled grins that looked like sunshine. He loved his narrow waist and firm stomach. His broad shoulders that always help Dean carry the weight of the burdens he thrusts upon them. Sam always looks on the bright, optimistic side, helping Dean see there are good things in life. Sam’s hugs were the best, especially from behind because he could lean into his omegas arms and soak in the love he always freely gave.

Dean was deeply, madly in love with Sam Campbell and he threw it all away for an omega who did things by the book.

Dean needed to find Sam and tell him he was sorry. Hopefully, the omega would listen and take him back.

He searched all the usual places he knew Sam would be, like the library, the bookstore, the fountain in the middle of a huge garden and even the park. Sam loved nature and animals; Dean remembered from their first year married and how Sam would drag Dean to all the nature reserves, pointing out different birds and flowers. At that point, Dean thought maybe they would have a chance at a happy marriage. But then he met Castiel and everything flew to shit.

Dean sighed, about to walk out of the park to find somewhere else to look when he saw something—or rather someone—laying down across one of the benches. Dean made his way to the bench, picking up his pace as he realized who it was.

“Sam?” He called, finally reaching the bench. He knelt by the omega, frown deep on his face as he saw the shivering form. “How long have you been here?”

Sam, having heard the noise, woke up blinking at Dean. He jerked up, startled, eyes wide as he stared at his ex-husband. “Dean?”

“Hey, Sammy,” Dean muttered softly.

Sam was surprised; Dean hadn’t called him Sammy since their first year of marriage. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Castiel?” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Dean winced. “Aw Sammy. I’m so sorry babe.”

Sam didn’t look at Dean and instead rummaged through his bag. He started in surprise as something dangled in front of him. It was the wedding ring on the necklace.

“You kept it?”

Dean smiled at the awe in Sam’s voice.

“I never would have been able to throw it away.”

Sam was shocked into silence, eyes still on the wedding ring. Dean gently used his pointer finger to swipe Sam’s bangs from his eyes and behind his ear, easily making the movement tilt Sam’s chin up so they were eye to eye.

“I’m a stupid alpha,” He said softly.

“I could’ve told you that,” Sam teased wetly, eyes watering a bit. Dean snorted in amusement.

“I never looked right in front of me, never saw the most beautiful, smart, loving omega just waiting for me to see them. I never saw you and I am so sorry.” Dean pressed his nose against Sam’s cheek, breathing in the cinnamon and cream smell with a sigh of relief. “I love you, Sammy.”

Sam gasped, looking into Dean’s eyes for confirmation, to see if he truly meant it. The bond Dean had been blocking suddenly overflowed with emotion. Love poured through both of them as their soul intertwined. Dean looked at Sam with warm eye, leaning forward and gently kissing the soft chapped lips. Sam happily gave himself to Dean, the alpha making him feel strong.

Dean slipped the ring onto Sam’s finger, kissing his hand. Sam hiccupped, smiling brighter than ever. Dean gave Sam one last kiss, mumbling,

“Let’s go home.”

~Fin~

#wincest writing challenge #Wincensfw #wincest #fanfic #challenge #done #sorta late #oops

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clarencenicholsonata · 4 years

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4 Powerful Ways to Use LinkedIn to Generate Leads

More than two new members join LinkedIn every second. To date, more than 660 million professionals worldwide have set up profiles on the network.

Simply put, if you want to generate leads, you need to be on LinkedIn.

That said, there’s a pretty big difference between adding a few job listings to a bare minimum profile and really taking full advantage of the features and functionalities the program provides.

To get the most out of LinkedIn’s professional network, you’ll need a strong profile, as well as a data-driven approach to finding great leads and connecting with them using an omnichannel approach.

Here’s what you need to know to get started:

1. How to Set Up Your LinkedIn Profile

The biggest mistake you can make on LinkedIn is to not take full advantage of all the different pieces of real estate provided in your profile. Keeping the following guidelines and best practices in mind, set up your profile fully before undertaking any kind of outreach on the network:

Choose a Good Profile Picture

By some estimates, profiles with pictures are 14X more likely to be viewed by others. But not any picture will do. Choose a professional shot that looks like you, reflects your personal or professional branding, and that takes up at least 60% of the LinkedIn profile frame.

AZ Moyer, Head of Sales at Proof, thinks a headshot is a chance to stand out. He chose a fun profile picture of himself rather than a traditional headshot, saying “I want to portray my fun-loving, optimistic attitude, and I feel it’s very important to show as much of your personality as possible on LinkedIn. Otherwise, it’s hard to stand out from everyone else reaching out to the same prospects.”

When updating your LinkedIn Page images, the recommended specifications are as follows:

Item: Profile/Logo Image

Minimum Image Size: 300 (w) x 300 (h) pixels

Recommended Image Size: 300 (w) x 300 (h) pixels

Item: Cover/Banner Image

Minimum Image Size: 1192 (w) x 220 (h) pixels

Recommended Image Size: 1536 (w) x 768 (h) pixels

Create an Eye-Catching LinkedIn Banner

Creating an eye-catching LinkedIn banner can be a game-changer to your LinkedIn presence. Your banner is the first thing people see when they click through to your profile and can be a great way to grab attention. A custom LinkedIn banner helps show people who you are and what you do, including what you can do for them.

Keep your banner design clean, use any brand elements you’ve developed for yourself.You could pick two or three of your skills to highlight in the banner (such as “Content”, “social”, “creative”), or a short summary of what you do (eg. “Growing Businesses Online”).

Austin Belcak, founder of Cultivated Culture, shares his LinkedIn banner - which features stylized imagery, his company’s logo, and social proof in the form of brand logos - in a post on his company’s website:

Write a Compelling Headline

Stand out from the majority of users who feature their job title and company in their headline with something more benefits-oriented.

Cody Dufrene recommends using the formula, “I help X accomplish Y through Z,” where “X” equals your target prospect, “Y” is what you do to help them, and “Z” represents how you fulfill your promise. “I help roofing businesses secure more contracts through effective lead generation systems,” is an example of this formula in practice.

Here’s what his actual headline reads now:

Invest in Your Summary

The summary section on your LinkedIn profile is the first thing someone who clicks onto your page is going to see. And since you only have a tiny window to make a strong enough first impression to hold their attention, you need to make sure it’s compelling to them - not to you.

No one wants to read a dry summary that rehashes the job listings found below it. Instead, think of it like sales copy, keeping the following tips in mind:

Forgo using jargon or unnecessarily technical words in your summary. Stick to clear, easily understood language instead.

Keep it short to avoid wasting your prospects' time. Although you have 2,000 characters at your disposal, only use the number needed to get your point across.

Make it visually appealing to read your summary. Keep your paragraphs short and scannable, use single lines where appropriate, and incorporate bulleted or numbered lists as needed.

Infuse your summary with your energy. Write conversationally, and use language that’s still professional, but that communicates your personality as well.

David Campbell, marketing strategist at Right Inbox recommends adding a call to action (CTA) into your summary. Ideally, the people visiting your profile should know exactly what you want them to do once they’re done reading.

Additionally, Adam Enfroy, blogger and affiliate marketer at AdamEnfroy.com recommends starting with statistics, qualifications, or social proof as he cites “Blogger with 150,000 monthly readers” near the top of his summary.

Here’s what Enfroy’s summary looks like, as a practical example:

Try LinkedIn Pulse

LinkedIn Pulse, the network’s blogging platform, has been around in various incarnations since 2010, but it’s still an underutilized tool among salespeople and marketers. That’s a big mistake, since one of Pulse’s best features is that it can be set to notify all of your connections automatically, every time you publish a new article.

Keep the following best practices in mind for LinkedIn Pulse publishing:

800-1,200 words is the “sweet spot for encouraging engagement,” according to Daniel Roth, Editor in Chief at LinkedIn. His free “Writing to Be Heard on LinkedIn” training is also a great resource for those looking to attract attention on the platform.

Include images, according to search marketer Paul Shapiro. In an article on Noah Kagan’s OkDork website, he writes, “Including 8 images when you publish on LinkedIn is associated with a greater number of LinkedIn shares, likes, comments, and views.”

Publish regularly. Aim for fully custom content, but if you do republish content from your website to save time, Agorapulse’s Rivka Hodgkinson suggests publishing to your site first, using the appropriate canonical links, and linking your LinkedIn post back to your site.

Test out the engagement you can achieve by posting on different days or times and on various topics. At best, each article can be a touchpoint with prospective clients. At the very least, they’ll make your profile stand out and appear more authoritative to those that are viewing it.

Expand Your Remaining Profile Sections

Finally, get the maximum value out of your remaining profile sections by:

Adding details to each job you’ve listed

Soliciting recommendations from existing contacts. Levi Olmstead, Director of Marketing at 2ndKitchen, recommends reaching out to current and former coworkers who have worked alongside you on large projects and can speak to your strengths and accomplishments.

Rating others in order to encourage them to return the favor

At the end of the day, having these and other trust signals in place will increase the odds that a prospect landing on your profile will be receptive to whatever pitch you’re making.

2. Finding Great Leads on LinkedIn

Once you’ve optimized your profile, you’re ready to reach out to new contacts. But how are you supposed to connect with the right people out of a field of 660+ million users?

I like to think about LinkedIn prospecting in two ways: working within the network using its search capabilities and searching externally before connecting with prospects on the platform.

Working with LinkedIn’s Search Features

LinkedIn offers a number of built-in search features - how much you’re willing to pay for them influences the complexity of the searches you’ll be able to conduct.

LinkedIn’s Free Search Functionality

Placing your cursor in LinkedIn’s search box allows you to search for people, jobs, content, companies, schools, or groups.

For example, you can use these options to find:

2nd-degree connections at specific companies

Potential thought leaders in industries you target, based on the type and amount of content they’ve published

Active groups in your vertical that could include your target customers (though be careful with this strategy, as it’s become pretty overused at this point)

Selecting “All” from the list of primary search functions makes the “All Filters” option appear, which will allow you to run more advanced queries on everything from connection status to current job title and more.

LinkedIn Premium Business

Although there aren’t any additional search features offered at this level, the greatest benefit of a LinkedIn Premium Business account - from a prospecting perspective - is the ability to get around the Commercial Use Limits LinkedIn puts in place on free accounts.

The opportunity to browse unlimited people throughout the month may be useful if you do especially high-volume prospecting.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Upgrading to a Sales Navigator account earns you access to additional sales-specific search tools, as well as lead and account notifications that could serve up great prospects automatically. You’ll pay for the privilege, though, as a single Sales Navigator account starts at $64.99 per month when paid annually ($79.99 per month when paid monthly).

To get a better feel for whether or not Sales Navigator is right for you, check out LinkedIn’s free video series, “Learn LinkedIn Sales Navigator” for a closer look at the platform. LinkedIn’s interviews with Sales Navigator users may also be helpful in this process. If you ultimately decide to sign up, be sure to enroll in LinkedIn’s free user-only training on how to get started.

Searching for Leads Outside of LinkedIn

If you’re struggling to find the right people on LinkedIn (or if you’ve hit the search limits imposed on free accounts), you also have the option of searching for leads outside of LinkedIn and then using Google boolean search operators to connect directly with their profiles. To view a full breakdown of the process, check out the video at the link.

It’s worth noting here that third-party tools like Dux-Soup exist that can help automate certain LinkedIn search functions. However, as these tools generally violate LinkedIn’s user agreement, I’m leaving them off this list. Investigate them and use them at your own risk.

Choosing between these search alternatives comes down to understanding who you’re trying to reach. Ideally, before any email outreach, you’ve constructed and defined your ideal buyer personas. If you have a list of names and their companies already, the Google process described above offers a free way to identify LinkedIn profiles quickly for outreach or data enrichment. If, on the other hand, you’re targeting a very small, select group of people, paying for something like Sales Navigator may provide the granularity you need to find great prospects.

Omnichannel Outreach on LinkedIn

Once your profile is set and you have a list of new prospects to reach out to, it’s time to plan your outreach approach. The worst thing you can do for yourself at this point is to start firing off messages at random.

Instead, you’ll want to operate according to a defined cadence that creates touchpoints across multiple channels. This ensures nothing falls through the cracks (and that you can iterate your sales process according to the steps you see producing the best results).

As you’re building your cadence, consider all of the following activities that can be used on LinkedIn to connect with prospects:

Visiting a prospect’s profile. This may cause your name to appear in the prospect’s “Who Viewed My Profile” list, depending on the account types being used (and assuming you have private browsing turned off).

Sending a connection request. There’s an art to doing this well - and it isn’t just sending a blank request. Check out the best practices and templates shared here.

Sending InMail. InMail allows you to send messages to LinkedIn users you aren’t connected to, allowing you to bypass the connection request step. However, you’ll only get access to InMail with a paid account, so make sure this step produces sufficient value to justify the investment.

Sending a voice message. Try Morgan Ingram’s 10-30-10 Approach if you haven’t used LinkedIn voice messages before.

Paid LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn’s self-service ads won’t be useful if you’re doing one-to-one prospect outreach. But tools like Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail and Text Ads can all be helpful in terms of supporting your broader lead generation activities. These campaigns tend to be popular among enterprise software companies, and they allow you to generate demand for campaigns and run experiments on your messaging so you can achieve a desirable customer acquisition cost.

As an example of how these interactions can look in practice, check out the template below for connecting with new contacts at former or existing clients’ companies:

Test different activities and customize your approach as needed, but don’t limit your engagement to LinkedIn. Blend these activities into an omnichannel outreach cadence that aims to connect with prospects on other social channels, email, phone calls, and even in-person visits for best results.

Are you using LinkedIn for lead generation? Share any other tips and tricks you’ve picked up by leaving us a comment below. About the Author

Sujan Patel is a partner at Ramp Ventures & co-founder Mailshake. He has over 15 years of marketing experience and has led the digital marketing strategy for companies like Salesforce, Mint, Intuit and many other Fortune 500 caliber companies.

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burning-up-ao3 · 5 years

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20 Penguins Thoughts: Mad about Erik Gudbranson? Blame the Flyers.February 26, 2019 8:06 AMBy Jason Mackey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

There are two ways of viewing the Penguins’ trade Monday for defenseman Erik Gudbranson.

On one hand, there’s a large group of fans who like the deal. They think the Penguins could use someone with Gudbranson’s toughness and presence in the dressing room and figured what the heck, Tanner Pearson wasn’t doing much anyway.

The second sect haaaaaates the deal. Like in a steal-kids’-Christmas-presents sort of way.

Here, though, are two things I think we can agree on:

It’s all the Flyers’ fault.

And this surely will be a fun experiment to see play out.

I figured we’d work through these two items and more from Monday in this week’s 20 Thoughts.

2. An important starting date here is Feb. 11. In a game at Wells Fargo Center, Olli Maatta separated his shoulder in an awkward collision with Flyers winger Phil Varone.

According to an industry source, Maatta is expected to miss at least a month while his shoulder heals, and the Penguins remain hopeful that Maatta can avoid surgery.

But given Maatta’s history of shoulder issues and the uncertainty surrounding the possibility of re-injury once he does get back, getting a depth defenseman remained a possibility for Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford.

Then Saturday happened.

3. That’s when Brian Dumoulin was concussed, the result of Wayne Simmonds’ hit along the boards — for which he was not disciplined. Kris Letang was injured by Shayne Gostisbehere in a wrestling match while sticking up for Dumoulin.

Watching from above, Rutherford clearly was not happy.

During the 2016-17 Stanley Cup run, Rutherford sounded off to Ken Campbell of the Hockey News on the mistreatment of his star players — saying the NHL had devolved into a “[expletive] show” — and backed up his words that summer by acquiring Ryan Reaves.

Since trading Jamie Oleksiak to make room for Justin Schultz, Rutherford had been missing an element of the game he really likes and feels the Penguins need, even though there’s many who disagree with that approach.

“In Erik’s case, he’s a real heart-and-soul guy,” Rutherford said Monday. “He’s a good dressing room guy. He’s got good character. He can protect our players, and puts us in a stronger position to push back when we get into more physical games.”

4. This, though, isn’t about so much about Gudbranson as it is about how we got here, and I think that much is fascinating.

A key question to ask is this: Does Rutherford do this deal if neither the Feb. 11 injury to Maatta nor the Stadium Series shenanigans happen?

I don’t think so.

Rutherford can talk about team toughness all he wants, and I do see the value in what Gudbranson could potentially bring (more on that shortly). But I’m sorry, I just don’t see how Rutherford would’ve done this with a full complement of defensemen, and that could be scary given Gudbranson’s contract ($4 million per season through 2021).

5. What happens when everyone gets healthy?

Let’s say, for instance, that Dumoulin and Letang return soon as Rutherford indicated Monday; he said the team wanted to avoid putting them on injured reserve and expressed optimism they could be back this weekend.

By March 11, the Penguins’ blue line could consist of Dumoulin, Letang, Maatta, Schultz, Jack Johnson, Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel, Juuso Riikola and Erik Gudbranson.

Two things there. One, that’s nine, a number that, before Schultz returned, was untenable. Either Rutherford doesn’t care because it’ll be mid-March, or two, they’re not nearly as optimistic on Maatta’s injury as they once were.

It’s also worth mentioning that everybody but Ruhwedel is either under contract or a restricted free agent whom the Penguins plan on re-signing (Riikola and Pettersson) for 2019-20.

6. Leave that for another day, though. What’s important this season is whether Gudbranson can add anything of value or whether things go the way they did in Vancouver, which is really bad.

Traditional or advanced, the numbers stink:

• League-worst minus-27.

• Last among defensemen who’ve played at least 600 minutes in five-on-five goals-for percentage (34.4) and scoring-chance percentage (38.6).

Try to make any sort of case that Gudbranson’s defense, at least on paper, represents an upgrade, and it’s tough sledding.

7. But games aren’t played on paper. We can predict a lot of outcomes, just not all of them. I’ll be curious to see how this plays out for that reason.

One, the Penguins deserve the benefit of the doubt based on what they’ve done with other defensemen who’ve struggled elsewhere: Ian Cole, Schultz, Oleksiak, etc.

The problem with Gudbranson, however, is that he’s played 448 NHL games. He is who he is at this point, and that’s a big body who hits and fights and doesn’t really skate all that well. Can he help their transition game? Maybe, but I certainly understand why people have questions.

8. The second part of this is the human element, the stuff people who’ve crushed the deal on social media don’t see.

Far too often this season, the Penguins dressing room has been quiet. There are no issues, as far as I can tell, and it’s full of some very good people. But you need a mix of personalities, the sort of thing the Penguins had while winning back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Earlier this season, I was watching a morning skate with a former Penguins player who couldn’t believe how stoic everyone was, stunned at the lack of chatter. “They need someone to stir the [expletive],” the player said.

Gudbranson should bring that.

9. I remember a couple years ago a game I covered in Vancouver. Believe it was the first time Derrick Pouliot played against his former team post-trade.

We were all waiting in the dressing room for Pouliot, and Gudbranson came bounding in the room, chiding a few of teammates. His personality and voice were unmistakable. They should really stand out at PPG Paints Arena or UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

Does this mean Gudbranson should stay in the lineup because he’s funny, even if he stinks? Of course not. And $4 million is a lot to pay for a character guy.

All I’m saying is the guy hasn’t played a game here yet. There are some elements the Penguins could use, if they can somehow figure out how to make the hockey part better — which, admittedly, is a steep hill to climb.

10. But one of the things that worries me about the deal involves the Flyers. Because of what the Penguins’ cross-state rival did, they made a trade out of need rather than want. That’s not always a great thing, although it has worked before.

Given the divide on this, it should be nothing short of fascinating to see it play out.

Especially given the heightened stakes, as Gudbranson was technically acquired for Carl Hagelin ... and has two more years left at a high cap hit for someone who does what he does.

11. Moving on …

Good on Rutherford keeping his first-round pick. If this trade turns out to be terrible, or if the Penguins can’t figure it out and ultimately either exit the playoffs early or miss them entirely, at least he has that.

It’s been far too long since Rutherford has stepped tp the podium on the first night of the NHL Draft … which ironically will take place in Vancouver this summer.

“This is a year that we’re on the bubble to get in. I did not want to risk that,” Rutherford said of potentially trading his first-round pick. “Also it’s a very good draft. It was important this year to keep that pick.”

12. It’s too bad for Pearson.

One, his wife is pregnant, and he’s on his third team — and second time criss-crossing coasts — since November. That can’t be easy.

Two, I got the sense he was beating himself up pretty good over how little he did here.

13. It started the summer after the second Cup with the Matt Hunwick and Antti Niemi signings, but at some point Rutherford needs to stop having to redo things.

I think it's one of his strengths as a general manager, his willingness to admit mistakes and correct them. Many in his position won't, whether it's because of ego or whatever.

But a couple years ago, the Penguins pushed this thing forward because Rutherford kept hitting on deals. They've been spinning their wheels lately, at least in part, because he has missed more often than he or anyone else would like.

14. Willing to bet Jean-Sebastien Dea is thrilled to be done with the Penguins.

They released Dea at the start of the season after deciding against using him in their bottom-six, then reclaimed him from the Devils and again stashed him in the minors.

On Monday, Dea went to Florida for another depth defenseman, Chris Wideman, who could potentially help the Penguins down the road.

Yes, the Penguins are Wideman’s fourth team this season, which isn't a great sign. But he's a decent puck-mover who isn't too far removed from being an NHL regular.

"In Wideman’s case, he gives us depth at defense," Rutherford said. "He’s a smaller guy, a puck-moving guy. He’s played some games in the league. He’s got some experience. He could see some time here at some point, too."

15. I think a lot of you were surprised that Ethan Prow didn't get a shot for Tuesday's game in Columbus with Gudbranson sorting out some immigration stuff.

My sense on Prow is that they'd rather see him push and win a job out of camp instead of the Penguins having to drop him into the lineup and pray that things went OK.

Zach Trotman is a much safer bet for something like that. Now, that being said, with the contract situation I outlined up top, I do wonder if there's going to be a spot available for Prow in 2019-20.

16. Some Stadium Series stuff ...

There's ample reason to dismiss outdoor hockey. Sightlines stink. Sometimes the weather, too. The NHL has had approximately 4,596 outdoor games since 2008, with 90 percent of them involving the Chicago Blackhawks. I get it.

But after walking through the parking lots Saturday, and seeing how that translated into a packed and raucous Lincoln Financial Field, I see why the league keeps pushing these.

They put butts in seats, and honestly, they're fun. That was a really good atmosphere Saturday.

17. And also, from what several players have said, the ice was actually pretty good.

It wasn't until the third period, when the rain really picked up, that things started to get ugly. All in all, I have yet to hear anyone say it was a huge issue.

18. Before the Stadium Series, I did a story about Jared McCann and the backyard rink his dad built him.

Something McCann mentioned made me laugh. He said his dad would even go so far as to put up protective netting. I was a little dumfounded when McCann said that.

"I missed the net a lot as a kid," McCann said. "At first we didn’t have the mesh, so I was losing a lot of pucks. The lawn cutters was getting [ticked] off at me because he kept running over the pucks. Put the mesh up. Started to hit the net a bit more."

Ironically, Gudbranson and McCann were actually traded for each other (plus draft picks on both sides) back in 2016.

19. I couldn't not share this. Might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen on social media:

After a lot of deep thought I think I finally figured out a lineup that the Pittsburgh Penguins Twitter and Facebook crowds would approve of #LetsGoPens

344 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

20. A couple quick thoughts on deadline day around the league ...

I kinda love what Columbus did. The same old thing wasn't working, clearly, so give Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen this: He's certainly taking a different approach. With Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky potentially/likely leaving, talk about loading up for a run.

I like Colorado as a fit for Derick Brassard, although I couldn’t believe the minimal return he netted; along with a conditional sixth-round pick in 2020, the Panthers sent Brassard to the Avalanche for a third-round draft choice in 2020.

But Brassard will get top-six minutes, as he should represent an upgrade over Carl Soderberg.

Here's a random one: Last year the Penguins acquired Tobias Lindberg in the Ryan Reaves deal, although he stayed with the Chicago Wolves because of an AHL agreement the teams worked out.

Lindberg re-signed with the Penguins this summer, but they traded him to Ottawa, the team that drafted him, on Dec. 5. On Monday, the Senators included Lindberg in the deal that sent Mark Stone to Vegas.

So, I guess, what, next year the Penguins get Lindberg back?

I liked what Nashville did a lot, maybe more than Columbus, bringing in Simmonds and Mikael Granlund.

Jason Mackey: [email protected] and Twitter @JMackeyPG.

First Published February 26, 2019 8:00 AM

#pittsburgh penguins #Jason Mackey #Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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afishtrap · 7 years

Link

In this article, I introduce the discrepancies between official and ethnographic views on conditions in the highlands of the province of Odisha, the western and tribal half of the province. For tactical reasons, the colonial government joined it with the Hindu coastal zone, even though Odisha's borders cut through several major tribal territories with millions of inhabitants. Amazingly, very little field research has been conducted in these highlands, and the major anthropological schools have almost entirely neglected them. For millennia, empires or petty kingdoms have tried in vain to subjugate the highlanders, but during the last decades major industrial ventures by national and international trusts have entered the hills. Numerous state efforts at "development" have amounted to the transformation of free cultivators with a local religion into Hindu untouchables in slums. However, most of the unique tribal social structures continue to exist, though "education," as the major state effort, tries to undo them.

Georg Pfeffer. "Ethnographies of States and Tribes in Highland Odisha." Asian Ethnology, Vol. 73, No. 1/2, Special Issue: The Bison and the Horn:Indigeneity, Performance, and the Sate of India (2014), pp. 259-279.

Niggemeyer also meets tribal Gond immigrants in the center of Kuttia Kond territory. Around the turn of the twentieth century their great-grandparents, hailing from the neighboring Kalahandi territory, had been given a single village in lieu of collecting millet and vegetables from Kond cultivators for the officer of a so-called Hill Raja, residing some 15 kilometers away on the lone mountain road. However, such an apparently unequivocal chain of command has a specific bent, since the immigrant Gond ask Kond ritual specialists to conduct the buffalo sacrifice on the very land they receive from their masters whenever it is their turn. The Gond outsiders do cultivate the fields and consume the harvested millet, but the Kond clan Goddess remains as the supreme owner to provide fertility only if appeased by the normative gifts that is, those sacrificed by the human affines of her clan. In the year 2000, 1 witnessed what Niggemeyer observed in the mid-1950s on the very same spot as part of the ongoing clan cycle. To this day the village land continues to nurture the Gond expatriates, though socioculturally the latter remain within their own Kalahandi territory, where they select spouses according to the intricate Gond phratry system that differs considerably from the Kond terms of agnation and affinity. Until 1949, these Gond hillmen collected from the local Kond whatever "revenue" they could get on behalf of a so-called hill state that had been instituted by the superior European power.

In contrast to Bailey and Niggemeyer, Charles McDougal (1963), the third important ethnographer of the 1950s, lived in a Juang village for more than a year to dance, work, and hunt with his hosts and to learn their language. The outcome is unique. These inhabitants of the northern Keonjhar district disclose their distinctive constitution, as articulated and confirmed by numerous rituals that order gender, time, territory, descent, affinity, and cropping. Sociologically the formal equation of alternating generations, most relevant in matters of authority and cult, dance and marriage, reminds anthropologists of pre-European Australia. Again, McDougal's dissertation is hardly ever read or cited.6

In later decades non-Indian ethnographers became less welcome in upper Odisha and yet Vitebski (1993) was able to live among the Sora like one of them, involving himself intimately in shamanic sessions, the central feature of Sora culture. Their spirit media establish contact with the dangerous sonum (spirit) of the recently deceased so that the latter can articulate their multiple complaints against their nearest kin among the living rather than attack them. Subsequently, extended and complex rituals involving the entire village in significant singing, sacrifice, and erecting megaliths will transform at least some of the dead into benevolent ancestors. In the period after Vitebski's field research of the 1970s, the Sora suffered from the inroads of North American evangelists or Hindu nationalists. The latter, probably having been mobilized by the former, are out to "regain" those who are said to have been "lost" to Hinduism in earlier epochs.

[...]

Dirks' contribution, which has been published repeatedly, requires some comments, since neither Dirks's sources nor other ethnographers have ever mentioned a "Meriah 'tribe'." In fact, the name does not refer to a social unit but to the human victim of the Kond sacrifice during the early nineteenth century, substituted by a buffalo in later decades. During the last thirty-five years, I (and others) have witnessed this ritual on several occasions. Moreover Frazer (1983), writing in 1890, did not obtain his information from Thurston (1975, 510), writing in 1907. Rather, the opposite was the case. Rather than a "primary footnote," the author of The Golden Bough had based his four-page passage (Frazer 1983, 571-75) explicitly on firsthand sources, that is, the works of S. C. Macpherson (1842) and John Campbell (1864) who at different times had been in command of the agency to suppress human sacrifice. As such they personally liberated numerous individuals who had earlier been raised and adored since they were to become the sacrificial victims of the Kond Earth Goddess.

[...]

Ironically, the reliability of reports on stateless social orders depends upon documents produced and published in a state. Guided by remorse after his bloody Kalinga (Odisha) campaign, Emperor Asoka of the third century bce proclaims famous message of tolerance towards all except the "forest tribes" who are threatened ("lest they be killed"). Perhaps their resistance was the cause of his unequivocal statement. While the maps of historians generously color most of India Asoka's empire, one may wonder how his troops, or those of innumerable later monarchs, were technically able to control the hill people in the vast forest tracts of the subcontinent. If his campaign in the coastal plains gave Asoka timeless publicity, how much greater an achievement would have been a victory in a mountain war? But nothing of this sort is ever reported in Asoka's inscriptions. The threat in the rock edict may, in fact, be understood as a move against "forest tribes" beyond the domain of his actual sovereignty.

Regular and sound historical sources on the subcontinent are initiated under Muslim rule. In several steps the Moghul Empire conquers Odisha from 1576 onwards, but this only applies to the coastal belt, the Moghulbandi. Perhaps the so-called Garhjat "states" in the hills are asked to pay tribute to the Subahdar (governor) in coastal Cuttack, though whether they ever oblige, or are able to oblige, cannot be discovered. After 1751 Maratha rule, at least according to all British sources, amounts to sporadic raids by the soldiery of the Nagpur Bhonsle Raja, an administrative style that is unlikely to have touched the forested hills. When the British East India Company enters coastal Odisha in 1803, the situation in the highlands remains fluid "up to the general uprising in 1857/8" (Skoda forthcoming, 5). As late as 1888 the status of some twenty-four hill states called "Tributary Mahals" is finally defined by the colonial power, though later, together with others from present-day Chattisgarh and Jharkhand provinces, the twenty-four "kings" also form an Eastern States Agency in 1935 (Skoda forthcoming, 5). Thus a kind of ruler with a kind of state did exist in the hills during this colonial epoch.

For centuries the "Lord of the Elephants," the supreme Gajapati Raja controlling the coastal region with interruptions since 1077, had been a major monarch of India (Kulke 1979). He was a godly king who, by impersonating Lord Jagannath, the "Lord of the Universe," on certain ritual occasions in the sacred city of Puri, came to be identified as "walking Vishnu." As overlord for all other nobles in the region, he monopolized this cult, disallowing any other construction of a Jagannath temple within his sphere of political influence (Kulke 1978). Only after 1817 did the colonial power terminate these claims, reducing this king to a religious functionary of the Puri temple (Hardenberg 2008). Thereafter the British approached the Malaria-ridden hills in a very gradual manner that for decades included a campaign against militant irregulars. For want of profitable returns, "indirect rule" was finally established. This measure substantialized the twenty-four "jungle kings" (see Schnepel in this volume, 233-57). By the end of the nineteenth century, these petty rajas, liberated from their former indigenous overlord or any other external danger, constructed numerous royal Jagannath temples and called in Brahmins (Pfeffer 1978) to initiate the royal rituals of this "Lord of the Universe" on a micro-scale. The puppet kings could imitate the lifestyle7 of their colonial masters and carry on without warfare, irrespective of the idea that the sword is the only calling of a true Kshatriya. Their construction work ceased in the 1930s, when Independence was inevitably approaching, and the upkeep of the palaces was discontinued, after Indira Gandhi abolished the privy purses in 1971.8 Today, some ruins remind onlookers of less than a century of colonially-sponsored traditional kingdoms in the hills.

#india #odisha #south asia #anthropology #indigenous cultures #research #jstor

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iriscasefiles · 7 years

Text

The Strange Case of Starship Iris: AUDITIONS pt 2: INFO & ROLES

All actors must be at least 18, as per Procyon Podcast Network guidelines. Beyond that, you are not required to be the exact same age as the characters, as long as you can credibly sound like you are.

You are more than welcome to record a couple of different takes, with different interpretations! You are more than welcome to try out for multiple roles!

Send an mp3 file of your audition(s?) to iriscasefiles at gmail.com, along with the following:

1. Your name (a pseudonym or online handle is fine) ETA: and the role(s?) you are trying out for

2. Are you potentially okay with being cast in a role besides the one you auditioned for?

3. Are you potentially okay with being cast as a morally ambiguous person, and/or villain?

Auditions go from January 23 to February 2. Callbacks are February 3 through 6. My goal is to have all the roles listed here cast by the end of February 6.

There will be another round of auditions for a few more roles in April.

For now, available roles are below!

MAIN CAST

Brian Jeeter

He/him pronouns. A trans man (seeking trans actors only, please!)

Note, because this is something I’ve been asked: I don’t have set headcanons about where Brian is with regards to transitioning; if you wanna try out and you’re not on testosterone, you should still totally try out!

Any race

Sounds to be in his mid-twenties to early thirties

A laidback, friendly affect, to the point of maybe coming off like a slacker. You’d probably need to talk to him a few times to realize that he is deeply loyal, and intensely passionate when it comes to his areas of expertise (xenolinguistics, making pizza bagels).

To audition, perform this section:

(Laughs) I dunno, though. Wasn’t all bad. I made some cool friends. That’s how I met Krejjh, actually. I’d been doing fieldwork out in Neuzo, and— (realizes the word and the place are both going to require explaining) Sorry, the Neutral Zone. It was a cluster of planets and stations, kinda out by Telemachus, founded by this very weird Libertarian billionaire. Technically outside any government, so it was one of the few places humans and Dwarnians could trade, talk, whatever.

Shady place. We’re talking arms dealing, gambling, drugs you’ve never heard of. Like, name a vice, you know? Crawling with spies, too. People used to say that’s why both sides kept it standing; they had, like, intelligence assets or something.

But it wasn’t violent. Not like you’d think. Not at first. There were these rival mafias, and they kept the peace? Kinda. I mean, everyone’s fortune was built on keeping Neuzo out of the war, keeping the war out of Neuzo, so there weren’t, like, laws, but nobody was allowed to kill anyone. At first.

Sana Tripathi

I wrote the character with she/her pronouns but I’m flexible on this if a nonbinary and/or genderqueer person wants to audition

Any actor trying out for this role should be of Indian ancestry (Indian-American or Indian-British, etc, is totally fine) ETA: Changing this more generally to “should be of South Asian ancestry.” (ETA2: Elsewhere in a different post, I mistakenly said “Southeast Asian” but I meant more generally South Asian: India, Nepal, Pakistan, etc. The moral of this story is I need to actually look at a map before I type words. I’m so sorry.)

Sounds to be mid-thirties

Warm, decisive, and extremely competent. Comfortable being in charge, but prefers to work via consensus when possible, if only for ideological reasons. A certain daredevil streak surfaces every now and then. The sweetest person you’ll ever meet, until push comes to shove and you see the core of steel that’s been there all along.

To audition, please perform this section:

You’re right, Brian, I’m not your mom. I’m your captain, and I’m your crewmate. And that means I am depending on you to take care of yourself so you can do your part to keep us safe.

(Weighty) Look, you know how tenuous it can get in the deep. You know how much more life is worth out here. That includes yours. We need a translator, Brian. We need a translator and we need a guy who has our back. We do not need a martyr. (A beat, and then, lighter) Also, I’m the boss, and you have to do what I say.

Krejjh

Seeking a genderqueer and/or nonbinary actor of any race

Note: the character is part of an extremely humanoid race of space aliens whose culture finds the whole notion of a gender binary confusing and goofy. Obviously, this is not a perfect analogue to being a nonbinary human; I mean, we are talking about a purple space alien. But the character definitely doesn’t identify as cisgender, and after a lot of discussion and soul-searching, this seemed like the most respectful option.

Sounds to be mid-twenties to early thirties

Concept: Dashing, silly, and generally in love with life. Fun at parties. Has more than a little classic fighter pilot swagger. A sucker for compliments. Adrenaline junkie.

Note: in a later episode, you are gonna have to speak in a made-up alien language, but I’ll try to write it out phonetically. No big deal.

To audition, please perform this section:

(making an announcement over the ship’s PA system) Folks, I wanna apologize for the turbulence. We are currently flying at—downright unsafe speeds through a debris field that is—taking some damn impressive stunts on my end. Gonna advise that you all make your way to the nearest secure spot and—WOO!!! Yeah! (triumphant laughter)

If conditions persist, you might wanna take a sec and pray. Deity of your choice; I figure, cover as much ground as we can. And if conditions get much worse, I’m gonna need Crewman Jeeter up here, pronto, for a little good luck kiss. Can’t hurt, right?

In the meantime, I advise you to remember that the closer we are to danger, the more clearly we can hear the elemental thrum of our own vitality! In this moment we are living!

…Kids, you are gonna want to hold onto something.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

Alvy

He/him pronouns

Any race

Sounds to be mid-twenties to early thirties

A chill and fun dude.

To audition for this part, please perform the following section:

Jeeter, my man, my pal! What is up? No doubt this message will be unexpected. Get in line! Surprise assignment. A short vacation from the lab. Safe to say I’m living large. Of course, the mission’s secret but: exotic locales? Limited work? Seems almost designed for me.

Eejjhgreb

Seeking a genderqueer and/or nonbinary actor of any race

Ideally, sounds to be about forty or older. I am willing to be a little flexible on this point, though.

Concept: A diplomat. Stately, commanding, traditional. Not unfeeling, but emotionally repressed like it’s a period piece.

To audition for this part, please perform the following section (that is not in the podcast because most of Eejjhgreb’s actual lines contain spoilers)

There’s not much more to be done about it. The agreements were reached, the papers were signed. Do I wish it had gone differently? Perhaps, but it’s a matter of obligation. It’s a matter of loyalty. I know you don’t think so right now, but it is possible you’ll understand someday. Assuming you don’t get yourself killed in the meantime.

Campbell

Any actor trying out for this role should be of African ancestry (African American, African British, etc, is totally fine)

I wrote this character with he/him pronouns but I’m flexible on this if a nonbinary and/or genderqueer person wants to audition

Sounds to be between late twenties and mid thirties

Concept: A brilliantly talented forger and counterfeiter. Easygoing, charming—that rare person who seems to be friends with everyone. Definitely friends with the crew. Good in a crisis. Hard to really shock.

To audition for this part, please perform the following section:

Tell you what, send me your info. I’ll work on it remotely and pass it over to my contact in Elion for printing and pickup. How many IDs do you need? Four? We can have them done in two hours.

Yeah, I know that’s probably longer than you want to wait, but uh. It’s getting scary out there. You don’t wanna cut corners on this.

Don’t worry about payment, we’ll handle it later. I’m guessing you’re too nervous right now to really try that hard at haggling anyway, takes all the fun out of it. Sending you my guy’s coordinates for when you land. Ask for Red Gregor.

Guard

Any race

Any gender

Any European, Australian, or distinctly regional American accent

Just trying to do their job out in space, far from home

To audition for this part, please perform the following section:

Attention! We’re conducting a sweep of all interstellar vessels. I’m going to need you to comply with the following instructions. (Pause) Attention, attention! Rumor, do you copy?

Ricky

I wrote this character with he/him pronouns but I’m flexible on that if a genderqueer and/or nonbinary person wants to audition

Any race

Sounds to be late twenties to mid-thirties

Persuasive, self-centered, one of those people who considers themselves to be extremely rational and reasonable.

To audition for this part, please perform the following section:

Listen, that’s the nature of the beast. You don’t always win. It’s not my fault if you drew a weaker hand. You’ve got the option of not blaming me for it, you know? Take it or not, but you’ve got that option.

Junior Agent

Seeking a genderqueer and/or nonbinary actor

Any race

Sounds to be early twenties

Unlike Agent Park, hasn’t yet reached burnout in the job. Might get there pretty soon, though.

To audition for this part, please perform the following section:

I’ve taken the liberty of trimming about an hour of audio from this portion of the transmission, all available in the archive in the, uh, in the honestly pretty unlikely event it is needed? Resuming in the cockpit, forty-four minutes after the Rumor touched down on Elion. On-ship time estimated to be seventeen hundred hours.

#tscosi

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celticmythpodshow · 5 years

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Another Writer's Journey

Please accept my apologies for writing about myself. I generally try and avoid this as I feel I am nowhere near as important as the stories I tell (and those that we tell as far as the Celtic Myth Podshow is concerned). That having been said, let's plunge on in!

When I moved from Primary School to Secondary school (after the now legendary 11+ examination), one of my favourite lessons was the English class. At 11 years old I was far too young to understand much about Grammar or story/poem analysis, but I loved the act of creation involved in summoning imagery and meaning from words. Plain and simple words that when strung together could create pictures in my mind and feelings in my chest.

One memory that sticks in my mind as significant because it told me, even at that tender age that I had an intense desire to write, was a class exercise that progressed over an entire term. We were each asked to write a single-page, short and concise story and then read it to the entire class. I was in heaven! I wrote an adventure story involving a dangerous trek in the jungle and eventual possible rescue. My story stretched the limits of our allotted time as I had filled well over a dozen pages of the small A5 exercise books that we used to be given at school. After I had finished - I don't remember exactly what the teacher said - my fellow class-mates were asked to give their feedback to the teacher and they all asked for more detail about my story and for the tale to be completed. The teacher, perhaps bowing to popular pressure, asked me to complete the story and for the next couple of weeks I wrote continuing episodes and read each out in turn to the class. The joy I felt in entertaining my peers with my my writing is a joy that has never left me. To give pleasure with mere words is something that can never be underestimated.

As my relationships with my school-mates developed, I played many games and don't remember writing much other that the allocated tasks that we were all set. Our play-ground games however were rapidly becoming increasingly complex. A small group of my intimate inmates decided to each take on the role of a particular leader/hero/ruler on a planet in some imaginary Science Fiction universe that we had decided upon. My own planet of bio-mechanical inhabitants acquired technical drawings of the transport system within its major cities, biological descriptions of the alien inhabitants (vaguely resembling cones on wheels as I recall!) and each city having its own history mapped out. Hours and hours of work. It never got used in our games of course, but for me the creation of back-story was as essential as the game itself.

Writing after Leaving School?

As my school-years were coming to an end, my close-knit circle of buddies discovered the very first 3 volume box-set of an imported game from America, ridiculously named "Dungeons & Dragons". The game was what later came to be known as a 'role-playing game' with one person acting as a story-teller come referee come guide and the other players taking on a role of a character within a Fantasy-based universe.

The big difference between this and other traditional methods of story-telling was that the actions that the players decided to take determined the future course of events within the story. The Fantasy universe moulded itself around us as we played. We were living in the story! I had come home! What an amazing discovery.

It wasn't long before I, myself, took on the part of the Dungeon Master (as the referee was called) and was creating my own interactive stories with a group of players. My own game had maps (based on hex-paper) that were filled in as the players explored the world I had created plastered all over one wall of my very small flat and the remaining space in my flat taken up with as many chairs as I could fill into the space. At one stage, our story had over ten people meeting weekly to continue their adventures and the whole story arc carried on for over a year.

That was something that required almost constant attention and a vast amount of time and energy to complete. Something that I would never advise anyone of even half-sane mind to contemplate doing!

Turning to Myths & Legends

Coming into my early 20's, my daily reading consumption increased and although I didn't put pen to parer at this time not only did my love of fiction grow and evolve but my love of mythological and religious stories also grew. My interests spread into a more academic and factual direction in order to find out where these stories came from and to seek answers as to why some versions of the same story were different and why there were similarities between stories from widely different cultures around the world. This was a long time before I discovered Joseph Campbell! My love of story, mythology and comparative religion eventually lead me to study ritual and magic - which, in my opinion, is yet another variety of living story. But that is really a different tale that I shall save for another day.

One of my greatest loves from my first days at Secondary schools was Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the whole Middle-Earth mythos. To be fair, it is a love that I carry with me to this day. Back in 1977, I found the Silmarillion to be hard reading at my first attempt, but I fast grew to love it. In particular, the Song of Creation found in the first part, Ainulindalë, tells of the creation of Eä, the "world that is" struck a deeply resonant chord within my soul.

What happened next is something that I look back on with great awe and wonder. Without realising it, my next actions were to act as a prelude to the type of story-telling that I was to take up again 30 years later! I recorded myself reading the Ainulindalë accompanied by music by Tangerine Dream (I think the album was Phaedra) and loved every minute.

It was only when I listened to the cassette recording that I was over-whelmed and the hairs on my arms stood up and my heart raced with some form of excitement that I had never felt before. Something magical had happened. When I was reading about the Horns of Ulmo, resounding in the Deep Waters, there were horn blasts in the music. So much synchronicity happened in this reading whose true significance I missed at the time. This was something unique and wonderful. But hey-ho! - I was 18 years old, and forgot all about it in the rush of rapidly expanding teenage hormones in the following months.

Time for a Quick Break

Let's take a small break in the narrative here, while I grab a glass of water, you get to wonder what on earth you are doing wasting your time reading the drivel that I have written and I skip forward in time. As we go, we can jump over several failed attempts at both fiction and non-fiction writing, and arrive at the point in my life where my long-suffering wife (the gorgeous Ruthie) and I decide to start a podcast about Celtic Mythology. The Celtic Myth Podshow was born at Imbolc, 2008 - it seemed to us a suitable birthing time. Reading the complex Irish myths out aloud seemed to us an excellent way of learning them, understanding them and perhaps help other people out with the same tasks. It was only natural that eventually we would want to cover all the stories of the Celts that we could find.

For two years, I scripted the ideas we came up with and along with friends and family we recorded and released shows every fortnight. There was no way in this or any other universe that we could maintain this pace and were it not for my becoming seriously ill and requiring major surgery due to Cancer at the end of 2009, I think I/we would have burned out and never carried on making any shows or telling any more stories.

Health is something that when you are healthy you can often take for granted. I certainly did. Without it, each physical movement initially and later any focus or concentration became something that rapidly drained my energy. I learned about Spoon Theory very quickly indeed. Google it - it's worth it.

Life events (family, career, housing, finances etc.) began to overtake us in 2015-2016, and the rate at which we could produce shows dwindled as more and more of our focus and attention had to be placed on far more immediate concerns. I think we only managed to get out one show in 2016 and another in 2017. Early in 2017, I discovered that I had Leukemia and we were again forced to focus on health and the need to rapidly find a new home.

Patience, Pacing and Priorities

It is strange that no matter how important your writing is to you, or how much you value your creative work and no matter how much pleasure you get from seeing or hearing the joy that other people have from hearing or reading your work, there is no way that the inspiration will flow when your life's basics are under threat. I thought that writing and creating would be a great distraction form the more serious problems in our lives. I was, however, totally wrong. It just wouldn't happen. It took time - a long time - for me to even begin to accept this. Starting a new podcast, Celtic Tomes, was my refusal to accept that I could do nothing creative during this time. Eventually this podcast too had to come to a halt as life's needs escalated. This was a frustrating time that I am glad we seem to have passed through. It is over and I hope I have learned some very important lessons about patience, pacing and the priorities in our lives.

At the height of the Summer heatwave in this year (2018), we moved and began to unpack and settle. I could feel the relaxation beginning to seep into my bones. Despite the mountains of boxes around me, the presence of inspiration began to make itself felt.

For me, inspiration works in a very strange and yet defined way. It seems I have to make space in my life and my head, start the process off by moving a little way towards an idea and then whatever it is that comes from outside of myself, from the wider universe, from the Realms of the Fae or the Gods or whatever (be it Awen or Imbas or just plain Inspiration), I begin to feel its breath rushing into me towards a new creation. They say the word 'inspiration' comes from from the Proto-Indo-European root *en "in" + spirare "to breathe". Breathing in the Spirit of creation from the cosmos perhaps? It is interesting that the word 'spirit' also has the same roots....

Flexing My Muscles (as if!)

I felt I needed to flex my writing muscles again. "If you don't use it, you lose it" is a common expression, but I am not sure it means you forget how to write, but I think it may mean you lose contact with that flow of "spirit" or whatever that brings a creation into life and full being. I had been listening to podcasts about the Craft of Writing for some time and as October was approaching, I began to hear more and more about NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo stands for the "National Novel Writing Month" and it always takes place during the 30 days of November. In this time you do your best to write 50,000 words to create a novel (novella perhaps?). Success or failure is not strictly the main goal. The main goal of #NaNoWriMo is to get you writing.

So I made a decision to write a novel. Research and preparation of that novel has been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding pastimes that I have encountered in the last few years and I am incredibly excited to start writing on November 1st. My novel is going to be a ghost story set in the middle of a disaster zone at a place I know well in Hastings - the town where I was born.

It's only 10 days away now and I find myself 'itchy' to start writing. As I can't start on my novel until November, I found my mind drifting to other projects. Perhaps I could start thinking about the next book for the Celtic Tomes? So, I totaled the votes cast for the next book and started some preparation. Fantastic!

And yet, still the Universe had not finished with me.

Unfinished Business

Last week, I woke up wondering where my work period that day could be directed, opened my laptop and found myself opening up the Script for the Branwen story! The Second Branch of the Mabinogion is the next story to be told in our main podcast, the Celtic Myth Podshow, and the script is about half-way completed and stands at about 22,000 words. I found myself re-reading and editing what I had already written, suddenly aware that I was mentally preparing myself to finish the script. I sent my prayers of thanks up to the Gods or whoever was helping me with the inspiration and went to bed a very happy Gary.

A few days later, the realities of the situation began to sink into my dense, Neanderthal brow and I realised that if I were to avoid the same burn-out problems that I had hit before then I would have to heed the lessons of Pacing that I had tried to learn previously. I would have to take things very slowly indeed. I would have to work in tune with Life and not separate from it.

November is, for me, fully booked with NaNoWriMo and Life events, but after that, in the New Year, I can turn my attention back to the Branwen story and do some editing of my novel, some recording for Celtic Tomes and any other project that leaps into my mind. The important thing I have to remember, and I really must drive this home into my thickest of heads, is that I can only focus fully on one major project at a time. To do otherwise would be to tread, stagger and eventually fall on the stony path to a barren plain where nothing gets written.

Thank you for listening to the story so far.

Check out this episode!

#celtic myth #podcast #mythology #celts

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davidcarterr · 6 years

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Austyn Gillette Interview

Austyn Gillette. Photo: Andrew Peters

We are one of the first European shops to take on FORMER, a clothing company with Austyn Gillette as one of the creative forces at it's core. Austyn recently visited Slam on a HUF tour but this was a flying visit and we didn't have a chance to get an interview put together. We waited to take in the first few pieces from FORMER and caught up with Austyn in this exclusive interview which talks about this new company and much more...

Hello Austyn where does this interview find you?

It finds me in Los Angeles hungry for breakfast.

You just returned from visiting us on a HUF tour. How was that?

It was very busy, we were able to get to Belgium and Switzerland which was new for all of us and then London was a re-visit. We didn't get to spend much time there which is kind of a shame. It was fun, it was fruitful and I had a good time.

Do you like spending time in London?

I honestly haven't spent enough time there. On this last trip we were staying somewhere central by a lot of the museums. It didn't have much of a feeling where we were staying. That's what everyone was saying, it wasn't where we would need to be. I have a bunch of friends there and I guess I would trust them as far as where I would need to be. I would like to spend more time there and I would like to skate more because I have always loved the way that it looks. What European city have you enjoyed the most on your travels?

I really liked Switzerland this time around after this last trip. I liked Zurich, it was pretty nice. Paris, Copenhagen is really nice. those are all pretty different cities too so that's a weird review to get. I usually go off to cities where I could imagine spending a bit more time, not living but staying for a while.

Austyn Backside Lipslides hallowed ground. Photo: Mark Jackson

We were stoked on your Radiant Cure part. Where does that sit in your body of work for you? is it your favourite part to date?

I hate using this word but it was the most… you know what I'm not going to use the word. Every single trick was planned to be that way. I've never done that before. I've usually had a photographer or a team manager kind of breathing down my back "you know you should probably get this or you need this". This was the first time where I had complete control over music, over spots and locations. I pretty much funded the whole entire thing just to produce something like that. I was pretty satisfied with the way it turned out. The response has been good. There was the pressure of wanting to direct people towards Former in a way where they could see it's a skateboard brand. I guess hopefully it kicked that off. As a part, it's hard to talk about that stuff when it's you. It was pretty stressful

But on your own terms...

Yeah of course which was nice. I mean the deadline wasn't an issue. I was able to talk to the guys over at Thrasher directly and they were able to push stuff. They were pretty flexible so they kind of helped with that as well, relieving the pressure, some of it, which doesn't make sense because that's not their angle.

vimeo

How vital do you feel properly crafted video parts are in this age of dwindling attention spans?

I don't know. We have another thing coming out with HUF in November. I wanted to try and film another part by November but I know that's not possible. Then they told me that I don't have to film video parts anymore. It was weird to think about it that way. Everything I like that's coming out right now isn't a full video. I don't know if it's necessary any more. I think putting stuff out straight away has definitely over saturated everything and a lot of people have snuck through the cracks. They get overnight fame. I feel bad for the people who have to maintain that presence because that's their product. Like "oh I deliver daily videos and I have a head-cam on and I'm a loser and I should probably just do something else". It's kind of soulless I could definitely say that. Some of it has feeling but a lot of it doesn't. I still appreciate full video parts but I understand the new formula and the numbers game, I get it but I personally try and veer from that.

Does your relationship with skateboarding change when you have to take care of business or is it filled with a childlike sense of joy?

Of course it changes, hopefully it changes because of the end product and what they are seeing. I would hope they know that it's hard and with that comes a lot of frustration and things that people would experience in a more traditional job. There are moments where I can separate the two and that's kind of what it is, moderating that to where you can have each side. I don't like the everything's fun every single day bullshit. I don't think that's authentic, that's not the case with anybody. If you learn to skateboard and get to the point where you're sponsored you had to get frustrated and you had to overcome a certain level to get there. I know that's not easy for anybody in any line of work. I think it's about managing it. You don't tell yourself to go out and have fun but it naturally occurs.

Ideal skate crew on a mission. Friends, filmer, photographer?

That's where things change. You start to realise that when you go out there's a filmer or two and a photographer every time you skate. Yesterday i was just skating these curbs and then this guy comes up and he has one of those kind of pogo stick iPhone things. He comes up and asks me to film something. You kind of feel a little bit obligated because they want it but it's still a piece of you. The ideal crew depends. If I'm trying to get footage I like to do it alone but if it's a regular day just some close friends. I think that's with everything. We had a dinner here last night and had some friends over, I don't want to have dinner by myself, it's tried and true.

Radiant Cure is a part for your clothing company FORMER. We are stoked to be one of just a few shops stocking your brand. How has the reception been to the latest seasons drop?

It's been good. We're all kind of adjusting our whole platform now we've finally got to the point where we can do retail and open up Europe and get shops like you guys to carry it. We are pretty excited about that response. We have been direct to consumer up till now so yet to see the response, I'll have a better answer for you in just a couple of months. I'm really excited that people are showing interest in skate shops, that's what I've wanted this whole time, for people to feel involved and it's not part of some hierarchy.

Am I right in thinking this was yours and Dylan's brain child and then you teamed up with Craig Anderson and Dane Reynolds?

We all did it together, our friend Campbell Milligan who started Monster Children kind of initiated that idea and we all did it at the same time. Dylan and I were doing something separate at that time, we wanted to start a company and Dane and Craig were going through some turmoil on their end with the company they were riding for. I wouldn't say it was mine and Dylan's brain child at all, it was a very cohesive project

What is your role within the company and who are the extended team and family?

My role is probably just to be the filter because we do have employees with jobs dedicated to things we need that some of the skaters and surfers don't need to be doing. I'm the filter, not the designer but finding inspiration and then kind of taking control of the skate side of things. I'd be the skate team manager in a sense and being the voice of that side of things

Was it a relief when this started from a personal point of view, that you didn't have to align yourself with an existing aesthetic?

That's what took so long, it took about two years to find that and develop that. As far as identity it's nice to have a fresh start with everything that's out currently. Anything new is refreshing and I've always gravitated towards that. Being successful within skating, I've seen all of the different sides to it and this is preferable, being able to create. Everything I do now I want to make the music for it and see everything through. i think that's for everybody even outside of skating.

What would you say will continue to set FORMER apart as a company?

It's the only legit surf/skate brand and I don't think that's ever really happened before. It's pretty unique. I think that's maybe been a difficult part for some people that surfing is attached to it. But I think the team we are developing, the aesthetic and the videos and the clothes alone separate it. Everything is technically designer because we're making our own patterns and I think that will shine through in time. We are patient with that it's just a matter of developing that image people can relate to and identify with.

Austyn wearing the Radiant Crux T-Shirt

Your style is an influential one, have you ever come face to face with any memorable carbon copies on the road?

(Laughs) A couple, it's weird. It's definitely not as popular as everything else that's going on but it's funny, you can definitely see it. If you're talking about skating you develop that style over years. I haven't seen any people trying to actually skate like me but they wear the clothes which is kind of what everybody is doing. They want to look or be like the people they are looking up to and I remember being like that with people I looked up to. There's things I wear outside of skateboarding that I've seen and liked, liked that look and identified with it. I don't wear anything that crazy, it's pretty standard issue for comfort. I know it and it's always worked.

Can you tell us any more about the new board company we have heard rumours about?

I actually can't! Not because I've signed an NDA or whatever but I don't have any answers. There's no name, there's no home for it, there's kind of a home for it. I'm sure the rumours are probably true and people would expect that. I'm really excited about it though, it's three or four of us. I'm not the nucleus of the brand or anything which is kind of nice because with Former I'm pretty busy and I don't know if I could take that on. I'm not really good from a brand standpoint creating something. Maybe it's just skateboards, because I've been a part of it for so long. With clothing there's a lot of flexibility but with skateboards i wouldn't even know where to start other than I know the shape I like and the people I like. In order for it to work I don't know what that takes nowadays.

It must be exciting, it's always good to see something new…

It will…I don't know anything! I'm where you're at as well. The good thing is I'm still friends with everybody I was with over at WKND. That's the most important thing

We listened to your new album Sensorisk and it's really good. How has the reception been to that? How long was the process of making it?

It took about six months and I was writing it for about a year and a half. It did surprisingly well this time around. We had a name for a band before and we decided to change it. This was a more mature project with actual musicians on the whole entire album. The material was very sensitive and close to home so it was time to change the name. I figured that if anybody was listening to anything previously or now it was maybe because my name was attached to it. I guess I'm singing so it just made sense and so I switched it to just my name, self titled artist kind of thing. It's developed, I'm not making any money off it but was able to sell enough records to fund most of the project. If it's enough to float and create, I see no reason why I would ever not do it. It exists

Is it just you and Danny Garcia playing on there?

Yeah. I basically wrote the whole album, all the parts and then I had him playing most of the stuff on the record since he's a studio musician. That relieved a lot of pressure, I was excited that he was open to doing everything. There were a few other musicians, my buddy Graham was playing drums and a few other instruments. it's weird going into a studio and working with something like a producer, this guy Chris. It was a very new experience and I definitely want to continue doing it but it's a fine line to walk on where you're trying to push or spam people with your hobby. But at least it's something where there is a somewhat tangible product at the end of it and it's music, it's not a bunch of garbage. It makes life more interesting and if it makes somebody else happy, then continue.

Have you been supporting the release with any live appearances?

No we did one release show and that's it, I've been travelling so much

How do you find playing live?

I love it actually. I prefer playing live over doing the monotonous stuff in the studio and trying to sound a certain way. Playing live it's only going to sound that way at that point. It's fun, it's cool to see something immediate from something that you have made. Even if it's one or two people nodding their heads, they get what you are feeling. We've only played one show. I wanted to do some more stuff in Europe but I haven't talked to anybody or had time to do anything there.

What inspires your song writing?

It's song by song for the most part. usually I start singing to some chords I'm writing and there isn't really any direct message I'm sending in the beginning and then it just develops. As far as music goes I don't know I just like to put on whatever it would be easiest for people to listen to that isn't chasing whatever else is going on. That's where the inspiration comes from.

Do you find it therapeutic?

On the right day yeah. On most of the days since I've been back from that trip to Europe I haven't even had time to really play or record but on those days where you can spend a full day and pass the time yes. That's been a long time, almost like a year which is weird to say that. But yeah, it is very meditative. I don't know where anything's going as soon as I start and it's pretty amazing to even have the time to do that and I have that flexibility in my schedule.

What musical influences would you reference who changed your world?

There's plenty of those but I don't want to say names because if I say names then I'm giving it up. But I will say that with those people I'm a pretty die hard fan of all of it and there's probably only ten artists but everything is on heavy rotation on playlists and i'm listening to the stuff constantly. For the last record that was definitely the case but after the new record I've opened up to a lot of music so we'll see how the next thing goes.

While we are talking about music what video part do you think is complimented perfectly by the track choice?

Fuck there's a lot. I feel like Jerry Hsu's Bag Of Suck part hit home for a lot of people, everyone understood that and it really translated well. That must have done something for Cass. Not that Sonic Youth needed any juice. Dill's always had really good music. Who else? That's a great question. I want to hit you with a curve ball. I was more of a nerd growing up then than I am now. I need to throw a hip hop part in there too...

Rob Welsh' Aesthetics part?

Yeah I'd go with Welsh on that one! Kalis' part in the DC video was great with the GangStarr track, that went really well. It seems like that would be hard to do. I think being more of apart of the editing process now and seeing how the first song you want most of the time will not fit. Even though you see it in your head you don't see how it works on the timeline with how fast or slow you're skating and what's complimenting the footage itself. We're doing that new video for HUF and we're asking some of the younger guys what they want and it's pretty interesting. They just have like one song and you have to tell them that that is not going to happen. Not only will it not work, you can't get the rights for it or anything like that. It's a difficult task. I really liked the music in the Quasi video because it wasn't predictable in any way and I think that was probably their intention. It was nice to see that.

You are a busy creative. Video parts, Clothing company responsibilities, making music, woodwork. How do all of these outlets slot together? Are you constantly busy? Do you immerse yourself totally in one project at a time or juggle the whole load?

I think I kind of juggle but when it comes to skating and knowing I need to be gone travelling that's obviously a priority. I do juggle, I'm kind of restless but when you're gone you get accustomed to it. You can make music when you're gone but I can't do any woodwork or too much with Former, the clothing thing. It's hard to micro manage all that stuff but they are the only things I know that make me happy.

Would you describe yourself as a perfectionist?

Yes, to my own standards and how I hold things. I'm usually not satisfied most of the time which is what probably gives me the most anxieties in life, that things need to be a certain way. I think it's part of getting older to realise it can't be that way and people don't think like you and your brain is not the world

You have mentioned an interest in wood work and framing, is this something you are currently busy with?

Not really. Every other month someone will ask me for something but it's weird. the more i do it, the more I see it. The more custom framing shops I see on the side of the street. You become interested in something and then you see it everywhere. I'm not too busy with it. I'd almost need funding to get the tools I need to do it like a business and have a space. You really need to spread out with any kind of woodwork. If you're doing glue and sanding those things need to be separate and it needs to be clean. I'm pretending to be an old soul with these crafts but I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Experimenting and talking about it and doing it.

What is the best and worst thing about skateboarding right now?

The best thing would be that there's endless creativity and recognition that you can get pretty much immediately so that gives a lot of people hope. There are a lot more eyes on skateboarding and I think that's good but that's also the worst part too. I don't know what it's doing the fact that kids see everything that's going on. Kids see what their contemporaries are doing and then they start skating and getting better and then you lose your job and get pay cuts and these people would never have even existed. I hope skateboarding becomes a little bit more popular so that these companies can grow and the smaller companies we really like can develop but with that, the internet's bad.

What knock on effect do you think skateboardings involvement in the olympics will be?

I feel like you hear this a lot and it's almost the same answer. I hope it does something positive for skateboarding. Nobody has ever really nailed it with that, with any movies or something that might take skateboarding to the next level. It's always been cheesy. it's not like the Olympics is going to be cool in any way. Somebody from some country will get kicked out for being high on something, I don't know how that will go over. I don't really care though, it doesn't affect anything. I don't know how it isn't a sport already, there's fencing which is based on style. Who cares, the world is going to move and that's how it's going to go and who gives a shit. Let's hope it will be good and not be so negative about it.

Looking in your crystal ball what trend predictions do you have that will echo through scenes worldwide?

You're already seeing it, the nineties thing coming back from the kids who didn't experience it the first time round. I was born in the nineties so I guess since I was born I kind of got to see it. It's interesting seeing a generation who weren't there bringing it back. I'm not old but seeing that happen is pretty interesting, things are moving quickly. Being in London, I'm not sure about the UK as a whole but it's very specific there and Japan is very specific. the nineties thing is back, baggy pants, bigger shoes. Maybe Daisy Dukes will come around. I wonder if it will ever make it as far back as the short shorts when skateboarding first started. High shorts on the beach, a Christian Hosoi kind of look. I wonder if that will ever land again. I don't predict it will happen but I'm curious. Some of the shit you see people wearing is fucking insane and you know there's an identity crisis there. But it's just clothes, who cares.

If you could borrow a trick and it's perfect execution from somebody for the day who and what would it be?

Who has got it? I'd borrow one of Danny Way's tricks on the mega ramp just to know what that feels like. Anything like that

Recommend our readers a book and a movie that will improve their lives…

I don't know if I have books that would improve your life. I just finished reading Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. I think I was at a pretty good time in my life to read that book being in my later twenties and battling with self identity and am I this? Am I that? I would go with that read and as a film what have I been watching? This is kind of cheesy but I've really enjoyed watching Vincent Gallo's films. I respect him for taking his career and having full control. I watched the Brown Bunny recently which is very difficult to find. Buffalo 66 is great, you can't beat it. If someone hasn't seen that it's a shame, you need to see that.

Any advice to a kid out there newly discovering a love for skateboarding and wanting to follow in your footsteps….

Don't read comments. Don't listen to people. Don't pay attention to anything else that would steer you from your path. Be passionate about it and be true to it and that's the only way you're going to be successful.

Thanks to Austyn for spending time with us on this. Interview by Jacob Sawyer. You can shop for FORMER HERE

Austyn Gillette Interview published first on https://medium.com/@LaderaSkateboar

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williamsefton · 6 years

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Which Podcasts Should Web Designers And Developers Be Listening To?

Ricky Onsman

2018-04-18T13:45:00+02:002018-04-18T11:56:08+00:00

We asked the Smashing community what podcasts they listened to, aiming to compile a shortlist of current podcasts for web designers and developers. We had what can only be called a very strong response — both in number and in passion.

First, we winnowed out the podcasts that were on a broader theme (e.g. creativity, mentoring, leadership), on a narrower theme (e.g. on one specific WordPress theme) or on a completely different theme (e.g. car maintenance — I’m sure it was well-intentioned).

When we filtered out those that had produced no new content in the last three months or more (although then we did have to make some exceptions, as you’ll see), and ordered the rest according to how many times they were nominated, we had a graded shortlist of 55.

Agreed, that’s not a very short shortlist.

So, we broke it down into five more reasonably sized shortlists:

Podcasts for web developers

Podcasts for web designers

Podcasts on the web, the Internet and technology

Business podcasts for web professionals

Podcasts that don’t have recent episodes (but do have great archives)

Obviously, it’s highly unlikely anyone could — or would want to — listen to every episode of every one of these podcasts. Still, we’re pretty sure that any web designer or developer will find a few podcasts in this lot that will suit their particular listening tastes.

Getting workflow just right ain't an easy task. So are proper estimates. Or alignment among different departments. That's why we've set up 'this-is-how-I-work'-sessions — with smart cookies sharing what works well for them. A part of the Smashing Membership, of course.

Explore features →

A couple of caveats before we begin:

We don’t claim to be comprehensive. These lists are drawn from suggestions from readers (not all of which were included) plus our own recommendations.

The descriptions are drawn from reader comments, summaries provided by the podcast provider and our own comments. Podcast running times and frequency are, by and large, approximate. The reality is podcasts tend to vary in length, and rarely stick to their stated schedule.

We’ve listed each podcast once only, even though several could qualify for more than one list.

We’ve excluded most videocasts. This is just for listening (videos probably deserve their own article).

Podcasts For Web Developers

Syntax

Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski dive deep into web development topics, explaining how they work and talking about their own experiences. They cover from JavaScript frameworks like React, to the latest advancements in CSS to simplifying web tooling. 30-70 minutes. Weekly.

Developer Tea

A podcast for developers designed to fit inside your tea break, a highly-concentrated, short, frequent podcast specifically for developers who like to learn on their tea (and coffee) break. The Spec Network also produces Design Details. 10-30 minutes. Every two days.

Web Platform Podcast

Covers the latest in browser features, standards, and the tools developers use to build for the web of today and beyond. Founded in 2014 by Erik Isaksen. Hosts Danny, Amal, Leon, and Justin are joined by a special guest to discuss the latest developments. 60 minutes. Weekly.

Devchat Podcasts

Fourteen podcasts with a range of hosts that each explore developments in a specific aspect of development or programming including Ruby, iOS, Angular, JavaScript, React, Rails, security, conference talks, and freelancing. 30-60 minutes. Weekly.

The Bike Shed

Hosts Derek Prior, Sean Griffin, Amanda Hill and guests discuss their development experience and challenges with Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, and whatever else is drawing their attention, admiration, or ire at any particular moment. 30-45 minutes. Weekly.

NodeUp

Hosted by Rod Vagg and a series of occasional co-hosts, this podcast features lengthy discussions with guests and panels about Node.js and Node-related topics. 30-90 minutes. Weekly / Monthly.

.NET Rocks

Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell host an internet audio talk show for anyone interested in programming on the Microsoft .NET platform, including basic information, tutorials, product developments, guests, tips and tricks. 60 minutes. Twice a week.

Three Devs and a Maybe

Join Michael Budd, Fraser Hart, Lewis Cains, and Edd Mann as they discuss software development, frequently joined by a guest on the show’s topic, ranging from daily developer life, PHP, frameworks, testing, good software design and programming languages. 45-60 minutes. Weekly.

Weekly Dev Tips

Hosted by experienced software architect, trainer, and entrepreneur Steve Smith, Weekly Dev Tips offers a variety of technical and career tips for software developers. Each tip is quick and to the point, describing a problem and one or more ways to solve that problem. 5-10 minutes. Weekly.

devMode.fm

Dedicated to the tools, techniques, and technologies used in modern web development. Each episode, Andrew Welch and Patrick Harrington lead a cadre of hosts discussing the latest hotness, pet peeves, and the frontend development technologies we use. 60-90 minutes. Twice a week.

CodeNewbie

Stories from people on their coding journey. New episodes published every Monday. The most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code. Founded by Saron Yitbarek. 30-60 minutes. Weekly.

Front End Happy Hour

A podcast featuring panels of engineers from @Netflix, @Evernote, @Atlassian and @LinkedIn talking over drinks about all things Front End development. 45-60 minutes. Every two weeks.

Under the Radar

From development and design to marketing and support, Under the Radar is all about independent app development. Hosted by David Smith and Marco Arment. 30 minutes. Weekly.

Hanselminutes

Scott Hanselman interviews movers and shakers in technology in this commute-time show. From Michio Kaku to Paul Lutus, Ward Cunningham to Kimberly Bryant, Hanselminutes is talk radio guaranteed not to waste your time. 30 minutes. Weekly.

Fixate on Code

Since October 2017, Larry Botha from South African design agency Fixate has been interviewing well known achievers in web design and development on how to help front end developers write better code. 30 minutes. Weekly.

Podcasts For Web Designers

99% Invisible

Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we’ve just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible is a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture, from award winning producer Roman Mars. 20-45 minutes. Weekly.

Design Details

A show about the people who design our favorite products, hosted by Bryn Jackson and Brian Lovin. The Spec Network also produces Developer Tea. 60-90 minutes. Weekly.

Presentable

Host Jeffrey Veen brings over two decades of experience as a designer, developer, entrepreneur, and investor as he chats with guests about how we design and build the products that are shaping our digital future and how design is changing the world. 45-60 minutes. Weekly.

Responsive Web Design

In each episode, Karen McGrane and Ethan Marcotte (who coined the term “responsive web design”) interview the people who make responsive redesigns happen. 15-30 minutes. Weekly. (STOP PRESS: Karen and Ethan issued their final episode of this podcast on 26 March 2018.)

RWD Podcast

Host Justin Avery explores new and emerging web technologies, chats with web industry leaders and digs into all aspects of responsive web design. 10-60 minutes. Weekly / Monthly.

UXPodcast

Business, technology and people in digital media. Moving the conversation beyond the traditional realm of User Experience. Hosted by Per Axbom and James Royal-Lawson from Sweden. 30-45 minutes. Every two weeks.

UXpod

A free-ranging set of discussions on matters of interest to people involved in user experience design, website design, and usability in general. Gerry Gaffney set this up to provide a platform for discussing topics of interest to UX practitioners. 30-45 minutes. Weekly / Monthly.

UX-radio

A podcast about IA, UX and Design that features collaborative discussions with industry experts to inspire, educate and share resources with the community. Created by Lara Fedoroff and co-hosted with Chris Chandler. 30-45 minutes. Weekly / Monthly.

User Defenders

Host Jason Ogle aims to highlight inspirational UX Designers leading the way in their craft, by diving deeper into who they are, and what makes them tick/successful, in order to inspire and equip those aspiring to do the same. 30-90 minutes. Weekly.

The Drunken UX Podcast

Our hosts Michael Fienen and Aaron Hill look at issues facing websites and developers that impact the way we all use the web. “In the process, we’ll drink drinks, share thoughts, and hopefully make you laugh a little.” 60 minutes. Twice a week.

UI Breakfast Podcast

Join Jane Portman for conversations about UI/UX design, products, marketing, and so much more, with awesome guests who are industry experts ready to share actionable knowledge. 30-60 minutes. Weekly.

Efficiently Effective

Saskia Videler keeps us up to date with what’s happening in the field of UX and content strategy, aiming to help content experts, UX professionals and others create better digital experiences. 25-40 minutes. Monthly.

The Honest Designers Show

Hosts Tom Ross, Ian Barnard, Dustin Lee and Lisa Glanz have each found success in their creative fields and are here to give struggling designers a completely honest, under the hood look at what it takes to flourish in the modern world. 30-60 minutes. Weekly.

Design Life

A podcast about design and side projects for motivated creators. Femke von Schoonhoven and Charli Prangley (serial side project addicts) saw a gap in the market for a conversational show hosted by two females about design and issues young creatives face. 30-45 minutes. Weekly.

Layout FM

A weekly podcast about design, technology, programming and everything else hosted by Kevin Clark and Rafael Conde. 60-90 minutes. Weekly.

Bread Time

Gabriel Valdivia and Charlie Deets host this micro-podcast about design and technology, the impact of each on the other, and the impact of them both on all of us. 10-30 minutes. Weekly.

The Deeply Graphic DesignCast

Every episode covers a new graphic design-related topic, and a few relevant tangents along the way. Wes McDowell and his co-hosts also answer listener-submitted questions in every episode. 60 minutes. Every two weeks.

Podcasts On The Web, The Internet, And Technology

The Big Web Show

Veteran web designer and industry standards champion Jeffrey Zeldman is joined by special guests to address topics like web publishing, art direction, content strategy, typography, web technology, and more. 60 minutes. Weekly.

ShopTalk

A podcast about front end web design, development and UX. Each week Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert are joined by a special guest to talk shop and answer listener submitted questions. 60 minutes. Weekly.

Boagworld

Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington are joined by a variety of guests to discuss a range of web design related topics. Fun, informative and quintessentially British, with content for designers, developers and website owners, something for everybody. 60 minutes. Weekly.

The Changelog

Conversations with the hackers, leaders, and innovators of open source. Hosts Adam Stacoviak and Jerod Santo do in-depth interviews with the best and brightest software engineers, hackers, leaders, and innovators. 60-90 minutes. Weekly.

Back to Front Show

Topics under discussion hosted by Keir Whitaker and Kieran Masterton include remote working, working in the web industry, productivity, hipster beards and much more. Released irregularly but always produced with passion. 30-60 minutes. Weekly / Monthly.

The Next Billion Seconds

The coming “next billion seconds” are the most important in human history, as technology transforms the way we live and work. Mark Pesce talks to some of the brightest minds shaping our world. 30-60 minutes. Every two weeks.

Toolsday

Hosted by Una Kravets and Chris Dhanaraj, Toolsday is about the latest in tech tools, tips, and tricks. 30 minutes. Weekly.

Reply All

A podcast about the internet, often delving deeper into modern life. Hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman from US narrative podcasting company Gimlet Media. 30-60 minutes. Weekly.

CTRL+CLICK CAST

Diverse voices from industry leaders and innovators, who tackle everything from design, code and CMS, to culture and business challenges. Focused, topical discussions hosted by Lea Alcantara and Emily Lewis. 60 minutes. Every two weeks.

Modern Web

Explores next generation frameworks, standards, and techniques. Hosted by Tracy Lee. Topics include EmberJS, ReactJS, AngularJS, ES2015, RxJS, functional reactive programming. 60 minutes. Weekly.

Relative Paths

A UK based podcast on “web development and stuff like that” for web industry types. Hosted by Mark Phoenix and Ben Hutchings. 60 minutes. Every two weeks.

Business Podcasts For Web Professionals

The Businessology Show

The Businessology Show is a podcast about the business of design and the design of business, hosted by CPA/coach Jason Blumer. 30 minutes. Monthly.

CodePen Radio

Chris Coyier, Alex Vazquez, and Tim Sabat, the co-founders of CodePen, talk about the ins and outs of running a small web software business. The good, the bad, and the ugly. 30 minutes. Weekly.

BizCraft

Podcast about the business side of web design, recorded live almost every two weeks. Your hosts are Carl Smith of nGen Works and Gene Crawford of UnmatchedStyle. 45-60 minutes. Every two weeks.

Podcasts That Don’t Have Recent Episodes (But Do Have Great Archives)

Design Review Podcast

No chit-chat, just focused in-depth discussions about design topics that matter. Jonathan Shariat and Chris Liu are your hosts and bring to the table passion and years of experience. 30-60 minutes. Every two weeks. Last episode 26 November 2017.

Style Guide Podcast

A small batch series of interviews (20 in total) on Style Guides, hosted by Anna Debenham and Brad Frost, with high profile designer guests. 45 minutes. Weekly. Last episode 19 November 2017.

True North

Looks to uncover the stories of everyday people creating and designing, and highlight the research and testing that drives innovation. Produced by Loop11. 15-60 minutes. Every two weeks. Last episode 18 October 2017

UIE.fm Master Feed

Get all episodes from every show on the UIE network in this master feed: UIE Book Corner (with Adam Churchill) and The UIE Podcast (with Jared Spool) plus some archived older shows. 15-60 minutes. Weekly. Last episode 4 October 2017.

Let’s Make Mistakes

A podcast about design with your hosts, Mike Monteiro, Liam Campbell, Steph Monette, and Seven Morris, plus a range of guests who discuss good design, business and ethics. 45-60 minutes. Weekly / Monthly. Last episode 3 August 2017.

Motion and Meaning

A podcast about motion for digital designers brought to you by Val Head and Cennydd Bowles, covering everything from the basic principles of animation through to advanced tools and techniques. 30 minutes. Monthly. Last episode 13 December 2016.

The Web Ahead

Conversations with world experts on changing technologies and future of the web. The Web Ahead is your shortcut to keeping up. Hosted by Jen Simmons. 60-100 minutes. Monthly. Last episode 30 June 2016.

Unfinished Business

UK designer Andy Clarke and guests have plenty to talk about, mostly on and around web design, creative work and modern life. 60-90 minutes. Monthly. Last episode 28 June 2016. (STOP PRESS: A new episode was issued on 20 March 2018. Looks like it’s back in action.)

Dollars to Donuts

A podcast where Steve Portigal talks with the people who lead user research in their organizations. 50-75 minutes. Irregular. Last episode 10 May 2016.

Any Other Good Ones Missing?

As we noted, there are probably many other good podcasts out there for web designers and developers. If we’ve missed your favorite, let us know about it in the comments, or in the original threads on Twitter or Facebook.

(vf, ra, il)

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vennomax · 6 years

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Cryptocurrency: Coinbase has insurance

New Post has been published on http://www.vennomax.com/economy/cryptocurrency-coinbase-has-insurance/

Cryptocurrency: Coinbase has insurance

If you just bought bitcoins or other digital currencies on Coinbase, the first thing you should know is that the exchange has insurance.

Cryptocurrencies don’t have government-backed deposit insurance, like bank accounts.

However, Coinbase is insured by Lloyd’s of London, Campbell Harvey, professor of finance at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business told Global News, speaking before news of the Coinbase outage broke.

“All digital currency that Coinbase holds online is fully insured,” reads the webpage where Coinbase details its insurance coverage.

The insurance would cover any customer funds lost as a result of a breach of the company’s online storage, according to the statement.

Coinbase also states that only two per cent of its customers’ funds is stored online, with the rest stored offline.

The risk of hacking attacks and technical glitches is very high right now

Bitcoin’s unprecedented bull run means many digital currency platforms are experiencing both record user demand and an increased number of hacking attacks.

Bitcoin’s ballooning price has more hackers are interested in stealing it, said Harvey.

At the same time, higher traffic on Bitcoin exchanges and marketplaces might also be forcing technical upgrades that could open vulnerabilities to cyber attacks, said Harvey.

That’s one of the theories currently circulating on social media about NiceHash, which announced software maintenance on Dec. 4, the day before the hack.

But cyber-attacks might also simply aim at market manipulation, some Bitcoin watchers believe.

Taking down digital currency exchange websites, for example, might stoke fears of theft and cause the market value of cryptocurrencies to drop. This is what likely happened when Bitcoin plunged over 15 per cent on Dec. 1, shortly after breaking through the US$10,000 mark, Anthony Diiorio, founder of Toronto-based cryptocurrency company Decentral previously told Global News.

You can keep your bitcoins secure, provided you follow a simple rule

Despite the enormous incentive nowadays for cyber-criminals to steal your virtual riches, it is actually easier to keep your bitcoins safe than it is to protect your financial information. That is, as long as you follow one simple rule.

“If you’re smart about the way that you keep your keys, Bitcoin is much more secure than traditional finance today,” Harvey said.

Bitcoin wallets hold a piece of data called a “private key,” which is used to sign transactions to and from it. A private key is a digital signature that makes a transaction traceable to a particular wallet and impossible to alter.

The best way to keep your bitcoins secure is to hold your private key rather than relying on an external entity’s digital wallet and to store the key on an offline device such as a USB, Harvey said.

If you don’t have a digital wallet, it’s important to verify that whatever online platform you’re using has insurance, said Harvey.

#Bitcoin #Coinbase #Cryptocurrencies #Cryptocurrency #Cyber-attacks #Insurance

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davidcarterr · 6 years

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Austyn Gillette Interview

Austyn Gillette. Photo: Andrew Peters

Hello Austyn where does this interview find you?

It finds me in Los Angeles hungry for breakfast.

You just returned from visiting us on a HUF tour. How was that?

Do you like spending time in London?

Austyn Backside Lipslides hallowed ground. Photo: Mark Jackson

We were stoked on your Radiant Cure part. Where does that sit in your body of work for you? is it your favourite part to date?

But on your own terms...

vimeo

How vital do you feel properly crafted video parts are in this age of dwindling attention spans?

I don't know. We have another thing coming out with HUF in November. I wanted to try and film another part by November but I know that's not possible. Then they told me that I don't have to film video parts anymore. It was weird to think about it that way. Everything I like that's coming out right now isn't a full video. I don't know if it's necessary any more. I think putting stuff out straight away has definitely over saturated everything and a lot of people shave snuck through the cracks. They get overnight fame. I feel bad for the people who have to maintain that presence because that's their product. Like "oh I deliver daily videos and I have a head-cam on and I'm a loser and I should probably just do something else". It's kind of soulless I could definitely say that. Some of it has feeling but a lot of it doesn't. I still appreciate full video parts but I understand the new formula and the numbers game, I get it but I personally try and veer from that.