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<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Dear, Future-Producers
19 June 2020 at 19:07
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>At 15, I learnt the meaning of the word 'Frustration', as I felt helpless as a girl in a decidedly male-dominated system. Whenever I felt like an outcast I used to pull strength from the portrayals of a particular type of protagonist known as "magical girl".
I wanted to be a magical girl. I even cut my hair like they do. Rather than feeling down for my divergences and for all the things I couldn't have in life, I used the image of the magical girl on my television to feel like I was powerful too. I cried on the street on my way back home.
I cut my hair to look similar to a magical girl’s character. I badly wished to be like a protagonist in animation. I really wanted to become a magical girl who could eventually succeed and become the centre of her world.  I wanted to become a class representative. I wanted to play soccer.
I wanted to do whatever I want to. However, in my life, everything that I wanted couldn’t be mine. Whenever I felt miserable, I sat in front of the television.
On that 13-inch television, ‘magical girls’ were ordinary girls in Japanese fantasy and manga, who would transform and gain the power of magic.[1]
They would become brave, aggressively powerful, and beautiful. Every night, I prayed. “Please, let me become like her”.
If everything had gone as I wished back then, I would have become a magical girl and lived happily ever after. But nothing magical ever happened to me.
I wasn't a magical girl. And now that I am an adult, I realise that my saviours from television were not as perfect as I used to think.
 I used to feel ashamed for not behaving like their almost angelic selves.
I used to feel nothing but admiration towards my gods of girlhood, whereas now, I find it strange how different the girls in those animations are from ‘real’ girls. I’ve grown to feel suspicious of the image of their perfect bodies.
Seemingly, the magical girl genre aims to teach girl-power to the younger generation. As Jeon Hee Jin writes in the journal "Comparative study of magical girl characters of Korean and Japanese TV animations",
society even appears to actively cheer on that well-animated ‘guide’ and encourage us to be more like the ideal women shown on our screens.[2]
With all the decorative frills, heart shapes and rainbow colours that made their way beyond animations, the magical girl story is so well integrated (especially) into the young generation that it almost appears inherent.
But what if the society utilises the magical presences to instill in us “through a stylised repetition of acts” to support the misogynic system as Judith Butler put it in her 1988 essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”[3]?
I would like to paint you a picture. One that depicts the magical girl genre as if it were a film set for an animation. There is a big podium in the centre of the space, lit up by bright stage lights and surrounded by an array of thrown around production equipment.
Among them we find a bunch of intimidatingly large film cameras, focused on the one girl standing on the stage, closely observing her from all angles. She is in the very middle, taken in by these cameras with almost predatory intent. Behind the camera sits a man. He is the director.
He has been the director for quite a while, too. Far from the stage, there are spectators with opera glasses, silently appreciating the girl, the magical girl performing the director’s act. She is observed by 3 perspectives,
among which the view of the girl as the director and his camera capture her; the view of her through the eyes of the characters within the stage; and the view of her through the eyes of the male spectators;
as Susanne D. Walters also writes in her book Material Girls (referring to Laura Mulvey’s "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema".) She is completely observed by the male gaze.[4]
On stage, twelve years old and fresh from elementary school, the girl pretends to fight her monstrous enemies. In order to overcome them and be truly powerful, she transforms into a magical girl.
The cameras love her. They adore her. The director nods, a stoic smile around his lips. Once again, he tightens the camera and takes a shot targeting a quite specific selection of her body parts. The spectators silently watch.
And just behind the curtain, eagerly waiting for their turn, are more girls. Trainees hoping to take the stage themselves soon. They grew up watching from behind that curtain, watching and admiring, preparing for the day they are good enough to take over.
It’s their dream to become a magical girl. And behind them are more girls, even younger ones. Every now and then, they know, a place will be made available. Not for all of them, not for most of them. For some, though. As long as the cameras are rolling on the magical girl, more magical girls will follow.
I would dare to unpack their too-good-to-be-true story with a more critical eye and allow ourselves to find the errors inside. And further, can we dare to challenge deconstructing the certainly existing dominant gaze structure in the genre to correct these errors?
In this thesis, I attempt to take on the roles of both the young girl who has ‘the magical girl’ as her idol (the trainee, if you will) as well as that of the ‘future director’ who quits the magical girl training system, and rather suggests another type of strong female protagonist’s story that young girls could look up to in popular media instead.
“I take the camera and I say, hey, audience, I’m not just showing you this thing, I want you to really feel with me”.[5] And you take on the role of a future producer who can offer me the chance to realise what place the ‘magical girl’ genre still holds in the future of female idols in popular media.
The way in which I wish to illustrate the issues surrounding the magical girl genre is as follows: I would like to undertake the fairly peculiar action of sending a series of emails to you, the potential ‘magical girl’ animation spectators (and perhaps even advocates or directors) of tomorrow.
By sending the mails, I call for an interaction between the makers, the subjects and the viewers of this genre, in order to establish an understanding that works in all ways between them. I say hello to you. Hopefully, you reply, and if you do, I send out another email.
Hopefully, you reply again. This attempt to have a conversation builds a bridge between you and me, and as such between the directors, the spectators, the castmates and the magical girl herself. A direct connection, a powerful engagement, one with an eye on the horizon.
And I believe this (future) interaction, though on a larger scale, can bring a change to the story of magical girls. Open your mailbox. You will see a new mail is delivered from me.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1. Helindasky. “The Magical Girl Paradox, with Case Study on Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura.” Helena Muzi-Cohen, 21 Feb. 2018, helindasky.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/the-magical-girl-paradox-with-case-study-on-sailor-moon-and-card-captor-sakura.
2. 전희진. “Comparative study of magical girl characters of Korean and Japanese TV animations.” 2017. 국내석사학위논문 한국외국어대학교 대학원, 학위논문(석사). pp.33-34.
3. Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, 1988, p. 519. Crossref, doi:10.2307/3207893. p.519.
4. Walters, Suzanna Danuta. Material Girls: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory. E-book, University of California Press, 1995. pp. 27-28.
5. TIFF Talks. “Jill Soloway on The Female Gaze | MASTER CLASS | TIFF 2016.” YouTube, uploaded by TIFF Talks, 11 Sept. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnBvppooD9I&t=1359s&ab_channel=TIFFTalks.
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<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Knock, Knock
8 July 2020 at 14:32
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Dear future production supporters,
Nice to meet you all. I’m very glad to be able to reach out to you, the future producers/funds/grants of this project. I’m Handi Kim who is a future director. There's a high possibility that I have never met you before in real life. Yes.
We probably don’t know each other. So it is fair if you were to think “Why me?” But still, I would like to share a very personal story with you. Maybe afterwards, it’ll be clear why.
A piece of my life will be revealed to you, an audience unbeknownst to me, and I would like to ask you to appreciate this story in more universal terms, so that it will be applicable to any of you. By sending this mail, I hope and
believe a direct bridge between you and me will be built, particularly if we don’t know one another. I dare you to engage with and dedicate a bit of your time and energy to the coming story. And then, maybe, I hope that our interaction
allows us, the recipients (and maybe even appreciators) of the magical girl genre, to take action and steer the magical girl towards a brighter future.
This is the first time that I attempt to suggest my scenario to the public, let me introduce myself properly. As already mentioned above, my name is Handi Kim, the future director. I am from South Korea, currently living in the
Netherlands. To be honest, I wouldn’t say anything is particularly special about me, except one thing, and it’s all to do with ‘magical girls’. You may have heard of them. I used to be a trainee to become a magical girl for almost 20
years. You can guess how much I was dedicated to it. Ultimately however, I dropped out, or rather, was kicked out.
For you, this all could sound a bit surreal. It may be quite bewildering as to why I, a person unbeknownst to you, sent this weirdly specific email out to people unbeknownst to me. Some of you may just simply move this mail to the bin.
Some of you may giggle and say, “A trainee for being a magical girl? What is this person talking about?”, and some of you might be very interested and already have some questions.
I would like to share some images with those of you who are still with me.
Look at these images. What do you see? What catches your eye? What do you think about the portrayal of the girls’ characters? How old do you think they are? In short, what impressions do they leave with you?
Magical girl is the sort of fantasy girl I wished I could have been like for 20 years and the ultimate goal for womanhood I was guided towards as a trainee. When you see these images of magical girls, do you feel maybe that there seems
to be something to be concerned about?
By sending this mail, I would like to throw a metaphorical pebble at your windows and unpack the rather ugly truths behind a very beautiful story. A story which is told again and again through popular entertainment and therewith got
ingrained in the minds of our youngest generations.
I would like to tell a story created and sustained by advocates of a patriarchal society, and which has a very specific goal set in place for the women of the future. A goal which may not have their own best interests at heart, and which
holds no consideration for who those women really are, but a goal which is nonetheless idealised and presented as an inherent conviction.
Hopefully, this mail makes you feel interested, and lets you decide to jump into more of the mails coming further. I really would love to share my concerns with you about these goals and the means put in place to have them be reached.
Please do tell me what you think.
I look forward to hearing from you all.
All the best,
Handi Kim
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<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Girls Are Everywhere
12 August 2020 at 08:56
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Hello all,
Thank you for your kind attention. I’m pleased that you guys are interested in my suggested discussion on the implications and significations of the ‘magical girl’ idolisation.  In a way, I should have of course expected that you would ask about what exactly a ‘magical girl’ is. I will attempt to give you that answer.
The concept of magical girls originated in Shojo culture(literally “little female” culture) in Japan.[1] Shojo originally referred to girls around the ages of 12 and 13.[2] The subculture has been widely imitated across various genres and media, among which manga(comics), drama, animation, film, and songs.[3] The stories of the magical girls primarily focus on girls’ adolescent struggles, friendship and love, and/or their growth in overcoming failure. They are meant to speak to teenage girls and help them realise they themselves could also be the centre of their worlds, and even be important in the world at large.[4]
In the 60s and 70s, when Japanese animation was first shown in mainstream media, it mainly targeted boys. Most of the content in the media, as such, was focused on the ‘country of boys’, as Saito Minako writes in her book Koitenron.[5]
It was quite obvious, therefore, that the arrival of Shojo culture, with its focus, for the first time, on girls and their perception of the world, was a huge success in the media market. It directly became a hit among girls who wished to build a place in the world that was, finally, about them. A little space for girls only, in that big country of men.
The very first magical girl anime appeared in 1996 with a show called Sally the Witch(魔法使いサリー). It follows Sally, princess of the magic world Astoria, and shows her episodic journey as she makes friends, uses magic, and tries to understand Earth.[6]From that animation on, the concept of the magical girl was explored further and further until it became its own established genre. “In the worlds of manga and anime, shojo(girls) are everywhere” states Tufts University professor Susan Napier in “Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke”[7].
The image of magic and power on screen then inevitably turned into an actual, real-life goal to be reached for the young girls who grew up watching shows like Sally the Witch. What these new special girl protagonists represented was an enrichment of female ambition and place in society. Girls could now not only dream of being little princesses waiting to be saved by some knight, but also to become powerful in and of themselves, by turning into a real-life magical girl.
My daily life was filled with patriarchy and, as anything in society, was governed by heteronormativity (the idea that being heterosexual is the default mode of sexual orientation, asserted through the ever ruling gender binary).[8]
I was born a girl, and my name is a girl’s name. Only girls have it.  I was dressed as a girl. The things I was expected to enjoy were girls’ things. I was made to do things in a girly manner. Growing up, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that I was, in fact, a girl.
l wondered why I was treated so differently from my younger brother, my next-door male friend and my classmates. I wondered why my grandmother called me ‘one’ of 9 girls while my brother, who was the only boy, was just called by his name. I wondered why I had to quit Taekwondo and play the piano. They told me it was because it was better for a girl to play a piano, not to open her legs wide for kicking. I wondered why I needed to be scolded that I walked like a man and eventually I learnt how to walk in a pretty way. I wondered why I was refused to be a class representative, and needed to support the boy who was chosen instead.
And, now you can imagine how much I was impressed by the girls who save the world with magic power. The saviours who came to tear the expectations in my girly life apart, my magical girls.[10] After seeing the overwhelming presence of the magical girls who dared to become the protagonists of their own story, I started dreaming of becoming such a protagonist of mine, right where I belonged.
Thank you for reading another one of my emails. I hope it helps you to be more interested in my project. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Looking forward to receiving your comments.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1. Wakeling, Emily Jane. “‘Girls Are Dancin’’: Shōjo Culture and Feminism in Contemporary Japanese Art.” New Voices, Dec. 2011, newvoices.org.au/volume-5/girls-are-dancin-shojo-culture-and-feminism-in-contemporary-japanese-art1-the-title-girls-are-dancin-is-taken-from-a-key-collection-of-young-female-photographe.
2. Napier, Susan. “Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation.” Choice Reviews Online, vol. 39, no. 03, 2001, pp. 39–1364. Crossref, doi:10.5860/choice.39-1364. p.118.
3. Saito, Kumiko. “Magic,Shōjo, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 73, no. 1, 2014, pp. 143–64. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s0021911813001708. p.144.
4. 전희진. “Comparative study of magical girl characters of Korean and Japanese TV animations.” 2017. 국내석사학위논문 한국외국어대학교 대학원, 학위논문(석사). pp.8-9.
5. Napier, Susan. p.117.
6. Chan, Nicole. “The Paradoxical “ Magical Girl “ Female Empowerment in Magical Girl Anime”, Academia.edu, Academia. https://www.academia.edu/35345207/The_Paradoxical_Magical_Girl_Female_Empowerment_in_Magical_Girl_Anime. Accessed on 19 Nov, 2020.
7. Napier, Susan. p.118.
8. Harris, John, and Vicky White. A Dictionary of Social Work and Social Care (Oxford Quick Reference). Pap/Psc, Oxford University Press, 2013. p. 335.
9. The Take, “The Girly Girl Trope, Explained”, YouTube, 6 Oct. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNiN4rg5obY&ab_channel=TheTake
10. “The daughter of a legendary thief, who sewed winter coats out of stolen purses. Herself a thief, pickpocket, swindler. The saviour who came to tear my life apart. My Tamako. My Sookee.” - The Handmaiden(Agassi), Park, Chan-wook. CJ entertainment, 2016. Netflix
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<EMAIL_ADDRESS>An Emerging Spectacle
7 September 2020 at 21:02
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Hello, all.
Some of you have expressed wonder about how the magical girl genre was initiated and how this affected girls to enter the training system in the first place. I want to share the answer to that question this time.
Media productions before the introduction of the magical girl genre were not particularly bothered with focusing on making money from female spectators. Dominantly, it was simply assumed that the main viewers were men.
Because of that, the majority of protagonists in mainstream media were male. “Even with a female hero, action movies are still male gaze. They are usually - if not always - either written, directed or produced by cis men, so we’re still talking about male projection and fantasy.”[1]
As such, popular entertainment used to be an exclusive party: the male production, the male consumer. But more profits could be made. The cis-male dominated entertainment industry soon figured out that they could profit from younger spectators in particular. Suzanna D. Walters refers to Elizabeth G. Traube’s text Dreaming Identities,
who writes: “Youngsters use media to gain insight into roles they will fill in later life. Youngsters model behavior they see in the media.”[2] Within the entertainment business, people realised they could educate (and manipulate) the youth into adopting certain viewpoints using the medium of animation.
As such, they started producing animations with female protagonists that had a very special storyline in which an ordinary (nothing-special) girl turns into a magical presence who can use a mysterious power to save the world.[3] That format, the now well-established ‘magical girl’ trope, was a goldmine for the entertainment industry from then on.
The number of female viewers increased immensely as a result of the emergence of this new genre.
In “The Paradoxical " Magical Girl " Female Empowerment in Magical Girl Anime”, Nicole Chan states that “Anime is a substantial form of mass media that can legitimately provide some insight into the expectations on women in Japanese society especially because of the increasing number of female readers and writers/artists.”[4]
Production companies made huge profits because of girls’ investment in the magical girl, and at the same time educated girls by moulding them, perhaps subconsciously, according to society's seemingly unchangeable rules. Anime’s so apparently empowered girl heroes underhandedly teach girls to pursue romance, fashion and consumption until they are married and meant to stay at home and be a good wife and mother.[5]
With the emergence of this passively independent and empowering female protagonist, many girls took the magical girls as their role models. This led to girls en masse deciding to enter the magical girl training system themselves, like I have.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1.TIFF Talks. “Jill Soloway on The Female Gaze | MASTER CLASS | TIFF 2016.” YouTube, uploaded by TIFF Talks, 11 Sept. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnBvppooD9I&t=1359s&ab_channel=TIFFTalks. 2.Traube, Elizabeth. Dreaming Identities: Class, Gender, And Generation In 1980s Hollywood Movies. Westview Press, 1992. p.11. 3.“The Influence of Magical Girls on Western Animation.” Epicstream, epicstream.com/features/The-Influence-of-Magical-Girls-on-Western-Animation. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020. 4.Chan, Nicole. “The Paradoxical “ Magical Girl “ Female Empowerment in Magical Girl Anime”, Academia.edu, Academia. https://www.academia.edu/35345207/The_Paradoxical_Magical_Girl_Female_Empowerment_in_Magical_Girl_Anime. Accessed 19 Nov. 2020. 5.Saito, Kumiko. “Magic,Shōjo, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 73, no. 1, 2014, pp. 143–64. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s0021911813001708. p.146.
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<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Cast A Spell on Your Broomstick.
18 October 2020 at 03:26
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Hello all,
Some of you have expressed curiosity about what the training system tries to teach the trainees. Let me answer that question. I would like to bring up my own story about when I got accepted to be a trainee first.
Everyday was a battlefield honestly. To become a magical girl, there were so many tests in which I needed to prove myself and convince the trainers and producers of my worth. At least it was not a kicking-out system (Well, Good luck to me!).
Rather, it went on-and-on-and-on. When I managed to pass a test, I would qualify, and thus be sent on towards the next round. When I did not, I just kept on doing the test again and again and again and again and again and again until I succeeded.
The trainees were put on a pyramid-shaped platform, and needed to play this endless game until they were selected. Until they were good enough.
I clearly remember what we learned in the training system on the very first day: simply to know where a magical girl should stand in society. I thought the answer would be clear. Isn’t inspiring the younger generation the ultimate reason why magical girls exist at all? Surely,
the magical girls were meant to protect young girls’ ambitions to become more and better. Inspired by those magical presences, young girls are assured that they, too, can be the centre of the world. But, Kumiko Saito, referring to Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase, points out that what a magical girl truly aims to protect is a young girl’s mental state to take leave of reality and to become something other than what they are.[1]
Seemingly, it sounds perfect for trainees to have ambition. But what I didn’t catch at that time was the hidden layer behind the magical story, and what it meant to me as a real person.
Have we ever thought about why only a group of young females got chances to become magical girls? We never saw an old magical woman as a protagonist. Is it simply because the younger generation would be the society of tomorrow? No. In order to have girls get used to walking that path, the patriarchal system utilises protagonism, even in the shape of magical girls,
as “propaganda that protects and perpetuates privilege as is”.[4] To give an example, there is a legendary magical girl whose name is Doremi, the main character in the animation Ojamajo Doremi(おジャ魔女どれみ). There was no team of super-women saving the world from evil, no monster-of-the-week formula, and no overarching theme of fighting for justice.[5]
Instead, Doremi’s main job was to take care of a baby who came from another world. She decided to become a ‘mother’ to her. At just 10 years old.
She learned how to take care of the baby, and at last became a master of babysitting. This was the most essential character growth for the elementary school girl in this popular children’s animation. She wasn’t truly larger-than-life at all, but was designed specifically to idealise motherhood to young girls.
Simply put, the idealised magical girl protagonist became a new way of packaging existing social norms. Young girls, as a result of what they were shown on their television screens, entirely came to remodel themselves to fit into its undermining mould. As Saito mentioned before, after all, “the seemingly empowered girl heroes in anime covertly teach girls to pursue fashion, romance, and consumption until marriage and, once married, to stay at home as a good wife and mother.”
[6] Girls following this newly presented yet long established norm put themselves in a position of autonomous vulnerability, and deliberately feel encouraged to perform their assigned gender role, as women completely controlled by patriarchal society, not unlike before.
At the end of the first day, my girl friends and I practiced the first spell that we learned. We imagined that we became mothers who used magic. We would wear cute dresses and hold broom sticks, and shouted “Pirika pirilala poporina peperufu!”, upon which the broomstick started sweeping the floor.
We practiced again and again and again, until the room became shiny pink.
Now I wonder what the real lesson was. Did this encourage me to learn magic in order to be powerful? No.  By continuously doing this, young girls’ true ambition to be the centre of their world is diluted to becoming merely the centre of domesticity.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1.Saito, Kumiko. “Magic,Shōjo, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 73, no. 1, 2014, pp. 143–64. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s0021911813001708. p.149.
2.Saito, Kumiko. p.150.
3.Excerpt from the 1974 Film “Womanhouse.” YouTube, uploaded by Hyperallergic, 17 Jan. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rnKllxfrF4&list=LL&index=14&ab_channel=Hyperallergic.
4.TIFF Talks. “Jill Soloway on The Female Gaze | MASTER CLASS | TIFF 2016.” YouTube, uploaded by TIFF Talks, 11 Sept. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnBvppooD9I&t=1359s&ab_channel=TIFFTalks.
2.Jimmygnome 9. “Ojamajo Doremi: The Forgotten Magical Girl Masterpiece”. Wave Motion Cannon , July 13, 2016, wavemotioncannon.com/2016/07/13/ojamajo-doremi-the-forgotten-magical-girl-masterpiece.
2.Saito, Kumiko. p.146.
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<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Your Role Model (to Be)
1 November 2020 at 15:16
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Hello all,
You may be curious about who among (and according to which criteria) the trainees would be selected as magical girls. Of course, any girl can enter the training system.
That doesn’t mean anybody can become a magical girl. Absolutely, there was the preferred agency of the magical girl. I would like to now share my own story of another lesson that the training system has been trying to teach me and my fellow trainees.
One day, to welcome new magical girl trainees, two legendary magical girls alumni visited the training system. I and other trainees stood looking at them with intense admiration. We whispered to each other, “Oh my god. They are my role models.”
  She definitely looked very young, quite short, and had elegantly long arms and legs. She was obviously cute.
The other girl seemed much more mature. Although she wore a school uniform, her facial expression made her seem highly seductive. She also had immensely large eyes, but her lips were sharp and red.
She wore a swim-suit-like dress so it was very obvious to show her large breasts and thin waist. Her mini skirt flattered her long and thin legs, and she wore a pair of high heels on. She was gorgeous.
To my surprise, they were both 14 years old.
Two seniors told us that the magical girls’ identity was liminal between child and adult.[1]
The young-looking alumnus told us that her first generation of magical girls’ purpose simply was to be cute. She said her generation made girls believe that “the magical girl’s true goal becomes the eternal deferral of growth, and their task, to be just cute and young”
(as Kumiko Saito also states in her “Magic, Shoji and Metamorphosis”).[2] The idealised image of this first generation was to never grow old or die, an ideal found everywhere in the world.
The more mature-looking alumnus told us that the girls in her second generation were dedicated to saving their worlds, to fight against enemies and to keep the peace in their world. However, unlike boy protagonists who are inherently powerful, girl protagonists needed to be dependent on an external influence of ‘mystical’ energy to become strong.
For example, magical girls would gain superpowers in their metamorphosis becoming sexualised woman figures. (As Kumiko Saito mentions in her writing, the brand of sexy battle heroes, which is the favoured image of the second generation, would be a sheer paradox of claiming power in powerlessness.[3])
When I was taught by those admirable girls, the first impression I got was neither excitement, nor astonishment. I felt melancholic. And then I felt perplexed. Eventually, what magical girls gave young girls in real life was only one idea of becoming a cute and/or sexy protagonist, often aided by, and dependent on, indescribable power.
But, then, are they really encouraged to dream of becoming an empowering presence, or is it something else that makers of the magical girl genre are after?
When I looked at those two idols again, they didn’t look different anymore. They were the same.
Exactly the same.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1.Napier, Susan. “Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation.” Choice Reviews Online, vol. 39, no. 03, 2001, pp. 39–1364. Crossref, doi:10.5860/choice.39-1364. p.154.
2.Saito, Kumiko. “Magic,Shōjo, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 73, no. 1, 2014, pp. 143–64. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s0021911813001708. p.154.
3.Saito, Kumiko. p.158.
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<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Spectacular Spectated Spectacle
11 December 2020 at 23:34
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Dear all,
This time, I would like to share what sort of jobs the magical girls who got selected among all the trainees actually perform. And I would like to depict the power relation between the magical girl production and magical girl herself through one story that I experienced.
One day, I visited the film set where all the productions of the magical girl happen, as a small field trip with other
trainees. The day was dedicated to a ‘transformation’ scene, obviously one of the most representative shots of the magical girl genre.
People were very busy. So many cameramen were setting up the equipment, and a director was sitting on his chair and was discussing with others. We were to stand behind the stage.
All the spotlights on the stage were turned on. In their midst stood a magical girl. Cameramen focused their cameras on her, centering her in the frame. It was difficult to see the producers’ faces. I could only recognise they were intensely capturing her.
Far from the stage, spectators sitting on comfortable chairs viewed her through a large screen in front of them, directly connected to the cameras. They shared their view of the girl with the cameramen creating it. It was hard making out their faces as well. Even though the male gaze-led spectatorship prevailed on set,
the magical girl was still retaining an aura of shining braveness.
“I’m here to save the world!”. The 14 years protagonist shouted in her very sharp but young voice. The cameras couldn’t avoid taking and capturing the young female’s
extraordinary assertiveness. It radiated from her, and shone at least as bright as those spotlights did. The spectators and cameramen watched her passively, not thinking much of it.
However, the girl’s active energy was forced to be cut by the next scene of ‘transformation’. For 30 seconds, “the camera caressingly sweeps over her behind twice, while her clothing dissolves, piece by piece, until she floats naked in the dark,
hugging her magic device to her chest in a cringeworthy close-up. As her body magically matures to adult form and becomes enveloped in a ‘barrier jacket’ her breasts are featured in two more close-ups.”[1]
Cutting the linear narrative, a “timeless void” was created. In this void, the assertive, active girl didn’t exist anymore. As Mulvey described, she became isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualised.[2] It was the spectators’ favourite part.
In contrast to the girl who was there before, the position of cameramen and spectators in the void changed completely. They were now an active presence and got the chance to control time and narrative. By displaying a magical girl as an eroticised and/or fetishised object specifically for a male gaze,
men would be defined as masterful puppeteers as well as passive and consuming viewers, as Jasmin Boehm also argued, referring to Anne Allision’s statement in her book Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mother, Comics, and Censorship in Japan.[3]
This void willingly cut away the young girl’s self-reliance, and gave an excuse to let girls be defeated by male gaze, and let male spectators and filmmakers unlimitedly project their desire onto the female form. This ‘transformation’ scene is the so-called ‘Service Scene’, defined as those “shots and scenes in manga and anime that are presented to please the viewer’s (often sexual) interest”.[4]
After that most uncomfortable transformation scene passed, the cute magical fighter, armoured in a swimsuit-like dress stood on the stage. She held a pretty, magic stick and shouted “I’m ready to fight!”. For all intents and purposes, she was not a helplessly pleasurable, erotic product any longer. She regained her assertive energy, hadn’t she? But what happened in the void tainted that energy. That indulgence lingered.
Behind the stage, us girls were dreaming and waiting for our turn to take to that stage with the powerful wish of endlessly transforming into beautiful, desirable objects.
When the filming was done, people were applauding the magical girl. She was still in the spotlights, cheered on by everybody on set. Her illuminated body almost gave the appearance of shining light of its own, but I saw the lamps. The crew had focused those on her, and that’s all it was now. The assertiveness, her agency, which had burned so brightly before had now burnt out in the light of those spotlights. I stopped clapping. At that moment I had figured out what it
truly was I sensed on that day I felt perplexed. It was all a disappointment. This was not the magical girl I longed to become.
All the lights turned off. I couldn’t see the girl anymore. The spotlight only lingered in the eyes that had watched her.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1.Boehm, Jasmin. “Musings II: Magical Girls, or, Empowerment VS Sexism.” Japan Powered, 24 May 2016, japanpowered.com/japan-culture/musings-ii-magical-girls-or-empowerment-vs-sexism.
2.Mulvey, L. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, 1975, pp. 6–18. Crossref, doi:10.1093/screen/16.3.6. p.64.
3. Boehm, Jasmin. “Musings II: Magical Girls, or, Empowerment VS Sexism.” Japan Powered, 24 May 2016, japanpowered.com/japan-culture/musings-ii-magical-girls-or-empowerment-vs-sexism.
4.Saito, Kumiko. “Magic,Shōjo, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 73, no. 1, 2014, pp. 143–64. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s0021911813001708. p. 152.
From:
Re:
Date:
To:
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Girl, Girl, Girl, And Girl
26 December 2020 at 12:25
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Dear all,
I would like to ask if you’ve ever seen any girl around you who does nothing but smile shyly and look up to admire you. Or a girl who struggles with anger, jealousness, sadness and frustration, but never shows it in front of you out of respect.
Or a girl who is so overly optimistic that she truly only ever thinks about the bright side of the world: a girl who does not acknowledge the existence of pain, sorrow or ugliness, and whose world doesn’t either. Have you ever seen a girl who cries for her enemy?
Or a girl whose nurturing of and friendship with a little broken-legged bird consumes her whole being? Or a girl who does nothing but visit to check if you feel better and cooks for you and cleans the room for you when you are ill? A girl who only ever cries out for peace? Have you?
Unfortunately, I haven’t got any chances to meet girls like that in real life. Girls in media, as Emily Jane Wakeling also discussed in her “Girls are Dancin’”, seem to be quite far detached from what we generally recognise as reality. Magical girls are willingly, purposefully, unashamedly, being objectified to catch the spectator’s eyes.[1]
And, as Kumiko Saito stated in her “Magic, Shoji and Metamorphosis”, they are produced and consumed within an imagined autonomous world of representations. That makes flat cuties in visual text produce a system of desire independent of the desire for women in three-dimensional reality. It is never responsive to the real world.[2]
In order to be a magical girl, I need to get rid of my diverse expression. I am not allowed to feel disgusted by orders. I am not allowed to feel jealous of others’ achievements.  I am not allowed to show my pain, it’s not professional! I am not allowed to express my discomfort. I need to cut my anger.
I need to smile and speak kindly and elegantly. I need to say “I don’t know” in a very cute voice. I’m not allowed to show my intelligence.
As such, a girl’s authentic body undergoes fragmentation.[3] Her body is scattered into pieces to be “perfected” until she totally loses her own agency.
And one day in the training camp, I asked myself: “am I going to willingly let my body be scattered and consumed by spectators? Am I going to be a perfect product?”[4] I answered myself.
I am not. That is not what I so desperately wanted to become for 20 years AT ALL.
Thank you for reading my mail once again. Before sending it out, I would like to show a message that Miyajaki Hayao, a Japanese animation director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli,[5] received from a girl.
“I am a big fan of yours. [...] But there is one thing I was wondering about. Your girl characters aren’t real at all and seem strange to me and my friends of the same age. I can’t believe that those kinds of girls really exist.”[6]
All the best,
Handi Kim
1.Wakeling, Emily Jane. “‘Girls Are Dancin’’: Shōjo Culture and Feminism in Contemporary Japanese Art.” New Voices, Dec. 2011, newvoices.org.au/volume-5/girls-are-dancin-shojo-culture-and-feminism-in-contemporary-japanese-art1-the-title-girls-are-dancin-is-taken-from-a-key-collection-of-young-female-photographe.
2.Saito, Kumiko. “Magic,Shōjo, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 73, no. 1, 2014, pp. 143–64. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s0021911813001708. p.146.
3.“…Bartky believes that women in patriarchal societies also undergo a kind of fragmentation “by being too closely identified with [their body]… [their] entire being is identified with the body, a thing which… has been regarded as less inherently human than the mind or personality” (Bartky 1990, 130)
- “Feminist Perspectives on Objectification (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-objectification. Accessed 20 Oct. 2020
4.Mulvey, L. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, 1975, pp. 6–18. Crossref, doi:10.1093/screen/16.3.6. p.65.
5.Ray, Michael. “Miyazaki Hayao | Biography, Movies, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Miyazaki-Hayao. Accessed 6 Dec. 2020.
6.Napier, Susan. “Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation.” Choice Reviews Online, vol. 39, no. 03, 2001, pp. 39–1364. Crossref, doi:10.5860/choice.39-1364. pp. 121-122.
 And so I will tell you what happened when I decided to quit my traineeship.
One day in July 2018, I saw a gorgeous red protest on the street, fighting against the objectification of women’s bodies. The protesters were wearing bright red clothing. Hand in hand, they were shouting. “My daily life is not your porn”.
Since 2015, a conservative wave has hit the South Korean society. About this political phenomenon, Heejung Sohn writes that the patriarchal societal rules oppress both genders more heavily than before. Referring to Gayle Rubin’s book Deviations [1], she writes that sex is a vector of oppression,
and points out that this norm even gave permission to citizens to sensor and attack others who dare to deviate from the assigned system.[2]
 One of most prominent was the Molka (Hidden cam, 몰카) crime, in which women were secretly recorded in public spaces like bathrooms and hotels. The videos that were taken of these women appeared in heaps online.
Through crimes like these, people finally acknowledged how carelessly the female body is objectified not only in the media, but also in reality. Tens of thousands of women finally went out to address this problem in the 2018 red protests. They were not silent. They didn’t obediently smile and brush off the upholsteries against them in the male dominant society.
They took to the streets to protest against these practices and demanded action.[3]
All the social norms which were imposed so heavily upon us were addressed and even broken where they stood. Their shouting became a song. They started singing together in nostalgic melodies. The red parade was moving forward. Wherever they decided to head became the path which they could and would follow. In their tracks I could see red sentences on the stone.
The streets echoed “My daily life is not owned by yours.” The protesters were wearing beautiful armour. They held magic sticks up high and moved forward to “save the world!”. The real Magical girls!
A little girl came to me from the crowd. She looked up at me shyly, smiled brightly and handed me a red picket. I grabbed it and held her little magical hand and we started walking. And we sang together. On that day, the media explained this march as “crossing the border of mockery.”[4]
As Duna also highlights in Girls: K-pop screen square (소녀들: K-pop 스크린 광장 ), it can bring up serious controversy in patriarchal society when the minority speaks out against the norm. It is regarded as unacceptable and untolerable.
Especially when it comes to the objectified speaking out against the existing system, the majority inflicts the most severe and cruel measures onto them. The protesters were portrayed as ‘monstrous’, even.[5] Ugly, uncontrollable, dirty, creepy and unwanted! And the, in my opinion truly magical, girls who fought against their misrepresentation, objectification and who dared to seek their true selves,
were totally vilified and seen as unsuitable to be ‘magical girls’ by mainstream media.
Somebody told me before I left the training camp that if I endure a little more, I might be able to become the person I longed to be my entire life.
Maybe, yes. Maybe if I endure a 30-second service scene, maybe if I wear lingerie-like clothing and act in front of a camera that bluntly captures my ‘female’ parts for the sake of convincing adult male viewers to watch me, maybe then I may finally become the magical girl I dreamed of becoming and who motivates a future generation of young, impressionable girls.
But what I so badly wished to become was not a perfectly reproduced statue of traditional, patriarchal values. I wished I could be subjective. I wished I could pioneer my life. I wished I could be autonomous. I wished I could be myself!
She points that women seek their identity strictly through themselves and what they do. And women prefer to plan their own lives rather than live from day to day, action to action, or person to person.[6]
And, yes. Magical girls, inspirations in so many ways for women-to-be, should be subjects, not objects.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1.Rubin, Gayle. Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader (a John Hope Franklin Center Book). Illustrated, Duke University Press Books, 2011. p. 326.
2.김은하 외. 소녀들: K-pop 스크린 광장. 여성문화이론연구소 (여이연), 2017. pp. 75-77.
3.Griffiths, Sophie Cnn Jeong And James. “South Korea Spycam: Hundreds of Motel Guests Secretly Filmed and Live-Streamed Online.” CNN, 21 Mar. 2019, edition.cnn.com/2019/03/20/asia/south-korea-hotel-spy-cam-intl/index.html.
4.“문재인 대통령 조롱… 선 넘은 혜화역 페미시위.” 한국일보, 8 July 2018, www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201807081719792607.
5.김은하 외.  Feminist Articles by Joreen, Joreen, www.jofreeman.com/joreen/bitch.htm. Accessed 4 Dec. 2020.
From:
Re:
Date:
To:
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Rearrangement and Magic
27 January 2021 at 04:29
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Dear all,
Thank you for your kind attention.
I was delighted to have you all hearing me out, sitting through my emails and supporting my words. So finally, this time, I would like to explain why I sent them to you at all, and to suggest you read my very own first piece of magic.
My dream of becoming a magical girl was destroyed when I was in the magical girl training system. Because it wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t what I think it should be. Through these emails I have attempted to show you what I truly longed for all those 20 years: to become a magical girl who still would be me!
I didn’t long to become a girl who allows you to objectify her in order to have agency at all. I didn’t long to become a girl who doesn’t govern her own story. Who is passive. Who doesn’t express confidently who she is.  Someone who gets to decide who and what they are for themselves. Who isn’t sculpted by others, but who does it herself. That is true magic.
I found the true magical girls neither in the training system, nor on the stage on the film set. I witnessed the authentic meaning of magic in the protest! There, I saw girls who paved the way for themselves. Who expressed who they are in their unignorable ensemble. Who invited others to join their beautiful march into the future. Their rearrangement of existing social norms let people see the ‘magic’ I wish to see within the magical girl genre as well.
I still believe the positive energy with which magical girls can affect society. I strongly believe that the younger generations (among which adults) can flourish as inspired by the magical girl. To realise the potential of the genuine magical girl, I would dare to take action from now on: Rearrange.
I am no longer a magical girl. I am no longer a trainee to become part of that beautifully presented but still ultimately unchanged, obedient species. I say goodbye to the camera that has been set in front of me for 25 years. I no longer take part in this game wherein I once believed.
I come down from the stage. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to get used to the dark. It is too strong and too bright to stand on stage. I think about my life... and my story… and about the magical girl I am or was supposed to be...
Now, I clearly see what’s around. I see the triangular set of positions: Magical girl, director, and viewer.[1]
I say hello to the camera that has been aimed at this stage for ages. I take up my place behind it. I become a future director.
A girl who will become part of the future of the magical girl genre comes in and stands in front of my camera. A future magical girl’s camera. She takes place in the solid rectangular frame. There is some distance between me and her. Is she nervous? Or is she happy to be on stage? I cannot see. It’s too far. I want to say hello to her. It’s too far. The future viewers sit far away from me to spectate the girl through the screen. It’s too far to see their faces.
Do we really need this distance from each other? How can we share our feelings when we cannot interact? I want us to look at each other and connect. Like how Jill Soloway brings up “the subjective camera” in her TIFF talk, through which she suggests destroying the triangle of divided, sectional gazes in favour of a circular room in which “we see and feel one another all at once.”[2]
Let’s try. I stand up. I start to dissemble the equipment. It takes quite a bit of time to take the structure down. But it has always required a bit of patience to challenge a system which has existed for such a long time. I take the tripod off, take the camera, and walk towards the stage. I come close to the young girl. I stand next to her. The camera is beside us. I see the girl. She also sees me. I ask the viewers to come close to us. “Come.  We gather. I now see you. You also see me. You see her. She sees you. We see them. They see us. When I hear voices of greetings to each other, the triangular system of the set starts to change. The pointy set starts losing its edges and mingles and transforms into a flexible shape.
Now we all see the true magical girls.
All the best,
Handi Kim
1.Walters, Suzanna Danuta. Material Girls: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory. E-book, University of California Press, 1995. pp. 27-28.
2.TIFF Talks. “Jill Soloway on The Female Gaze | MASTER CLASS | TIFF 2016.” YouTube, uploaded by TIFF Talks, 11 Sept. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnBvppooD9I&t=1359s&ab_channel=TIFFTalks.
From:
Re:
Date:
To:
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Invitation
1 Fabruary 2021 at 08:03
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Dear all,
Thank you for reading all my extensive mails. Thank you for allowing me to introduce you to the world of magical girls, for discussing them with me, and for thinking about the future. I hope my pebbles have reached your metaphorical window.
Maybe those windows are now open. I hope these little writings give you an incentive to unveil what lies beyond the spectacular story projected behind you and that you will see what is real.
When I was 15 years old, I felt frustrated for the first time. I remember adults telling me “No, you are a girl!”, although I can’t quite remember what I wasn’t supposed to be doing.
In this biased society with all its readily established rules and values, I could only take on the position of a girl who follows those rules well. If I had a script to my life, my part would be written as such: A good girl (to be).
I never wondered what made me sincerely want to become a magical girl in the first place. What made me want to follow the path which the former generations of magical girls and their -as it turns out- normative creators had laid out for me.
I modified myself to an instituted hologram: being a flat, cute, sexually innocent, and nostalgic representation of the ideal woman. I completely renounced the parts of me which constituted the essence of me and instead fragmented myself into pieces.
When I -without realising it- was completely lost, I saw that red flame in the streets. There were the magical girls who danced and shouted, demanding their freedom. The red flame grew bigger and bigger, and it became an ever-expanding fire.
When that little girl held my hand, I found all of my fragments. Those who ultimately saved me from the hierarchical drain turned out to be the magical girls after all, just not the ones I imagined.
I was a trainee to become a magical girl. I was standing behind the stage curtains and waited for my turn. What was I longing for my entire life? Autonomy! To be a girl who owns her own story! To grow up a woman who can control her own path and who motivates young girls to do the same.
After figuring out my true goal, I decided to rearrange the whole environment. I took off my transformative armour. I came down from the stage. And I turned off the camera, reserved for me, which had been rolling for almost 20 years. Instead of sitting in a director’s chair, I took the gears and reset the stage.
I put the director’s chair away. I put all the spectators’ chairs away. On this stage there is now room for people with all kinds of different gazes. I turned on the camera. And gave the cue sign.
I’m looking forward to seeing you standing next to me. Say hello to me in real life. I’ll say hello to you. Maybe we can hold hands. Then, true magic may happen here.
All the best,
Handi Kim.


Sorcerer Spells
Each spell costs a minimum amount of energy.
This base energy creates a spell with an intensity of 0, a range of 1 space, an area of 1 space, and a duration of 1 round.
The caster may add energy to the spell to increase any of the three, as described in the Spells chapter.
| Name | Description | Powers | Base Energy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gripping Fear | Causes fear so intense it does physical damage | Horrify Torment |
12 |
| Hell Trip | Traps the victim on an infinite plain persued by legions of horrors | Delude Horrify |
16 |
| Illusion | Traps the subject in a dream world | Delude | 10 |
| Message | Sends thoughts and images to the minds of others | Telepathy | 3 |
| Nightmare | The subject falls unconscious and has a terrible dream | Daze Horrify |
16 |
| Phantom Attacker | Makes the subject believe they are being pounded on | Delude Torment |
16 |
| Seizure | Gives the subject a seizure | Daze Torment |
16 |
| Sleep | Time for a nap | Daze | 10 |
| Terror Vision | Attacks the subject's sanity with its worst fears | Horrify | 6 |
| Torturous Phantasm | The subject experiences being subjected to a torture chamber | Delude Horrify Torment |
22 |
| Writhing Pain | The subject's mind attacks its own body | Torment | 6 |


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THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) A Film Review by Derek Miner Copyright 1998 Derek Miner
I suppose I'm asking for trouble when I have to take issue with a Coen Brothers film. Sure, there have always been those who don't like their work, but it hardly seems to matter what criticisms are launched when you "get it." Take, for instance, "The Hudsucker Proxy" which I found to be a highly enjoyable, inventively surreal, lovingly crafted parable. I was (and still am) awestruck at the critical trashing that film took. So here I am, a traitor to the ranks, I suppose, because I just didn't "get" "The Big Lebowski"
The film starts curiously enough, promising to be some sort of urban legend, paralleling the old west with early-90s Los Angeles. We meet "the Dude" (Jeff Bridges) -- Jeff Lebowski number one, slacker extraordinaire, whose prized living room rug is soiled by some punks who are actually after a _different_ Jeff Lebowski. That Lebowski (David Huddleston) appears to be a rich man who ends up using the Dude to help recover his kidnapped trophy-wife. The Dude is much more interested in bowling with his pals (John Goodman and Steve Buscemi), but trouble (in the form of Nihillists and assorted other wackos) just won't leave him alone.
"The Big Lebowski" begins with such promise. The bowling alley credit sequence is one of the most absurdly funny things I've ever seen. Our characters (for the most part) seem so honestly part of their reality, you feel like _something_ amazing will happen. But it never does. After an hour and a half, I was desperately waiting for the tangents of this film to converge in some sensible, if absurd or ironic, way. I forgave the lapses between humorous parts becuase I sensed it was all going somewhere, and at the end of the ride I would understand. By the time the end credits rolled, however, I felt cheated. I say "cheated" because it always seemed possible (and likely) that the non-existent payoff was around the bend from the next plot twist. By the time the film edged over the two hour mark, it seemed like the plot just twisted away into nothingness and they forgot to let us in on that fact.
At times in "The Big Lebowski," I marvelled at just how much guts the Coens had to pull off what I saw up on the screen. I laughed heartily several times. But even gutsy, original work needs some kind of anchor, something to bring home the humanity of the story. That's why a cheap, sloppy film like "Clerks" works so well whereas a slickly produced festival entry can fail because the characters and writing don't resonate. Even with quirkiness to spare, "The Big Lebowski" has all the character resonance of a whoopie cushion. The bowling alley talks (if you could call them that) shared between the Dude and bowling pals seem forced and unfunny. These friends seem to hate each other, and their conversations are so rude, you hope that someone (preferably our main character, The Dude) will realize this and just move on. But The Dude doesn't seem any the better at the end of his journey, and neither does anyone else, for that matter.
I've read several reviews of this film, and every one of them has been ready to praise "The Big Lebowski" despite it's flaws. So until someone lets me in on what I didn't "get," I'll just go back to enjoying "Fargo" and "The Hudsucker Proxy" at home, where it's safe.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
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Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews


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| SUMMARY: NESTED | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD | DETAIL: FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD |
java.lang.Object com.greenfabric.find.GnuNativeFind
This uses the GNU utilities bash, find and perl to perform the same function as the Java-only Find class. It is meant to be used only from within this package.
| Constructor Summary | |
(package private) |
GnuNativeFind(Find f)
Construct a new GnuNativeFind that gathers the information as specified by the given platform independent find. |
| Method Summary | |
(package private) static boolean |
canFunction()
Return true if this current environment seems to support everything I need to execute smoothly. |
(package private) void |
gnuFind(StdOutConsumer consumer)
Fill the given Vector with filenames, using the GNU utilities. |
| Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object |
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait |
| Constructor Detail |
GnuNativeFind(Find f) throws java.lang.IllegalStateException
java.lang.IllegalStateException
- if the current operating system is not
based on GNU or does not have bash, find
and perl installed. This is a runtime
exception, and so does not have to be
trapped by the application programmer.| Method Detail |
static boolean canFunction()
One idea would be to leave things in this method as they are, but to allow Find to use the Java-only implementation if this one has a problem executing.
void gnuFind(StdOutConsumer consumer) throws java.io.IOException
java.io.IOException
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Germany’s highest court curbs cuts to jobless benefits
BERLIN (AP) - Germany’s highest court has limited how drastically authorities can cut benefits to jobless people who refuse to cooperate in seeking a new job.
The Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling Tuesday stemmed from a case in which an unemployed man had his benefits cut because he rejected a job offer and refused to work on probation.
Under a system introduced in the mid-2000s, people receiving long-term jobless benefits can have payments reduced by 30% if they refuse a job, and by 60% or even lose the benefits altogether if they fall foul of authorities several times within a year.
The court found that the more drastic cuts violate the constitution and that only cuts of 30% are permissible.
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http://jasmine-backbone.herokuapp.com
Brenda Jin @cyberneticlove
describe
, it
, and expect
Suites and specs are written with strings in plain English that describe exactly what is going on to the human developer user
In your spec file
describe("Tests for a custom Backbone Model", function() {
var macys;
it("can have a custom method called calculateAge", function() {
macys = new StoreModel();
expect(macys.calculateAge).toBeDefined();
});
});
In your src file
var StoreModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
calculateAge: function() {
...
}
});
beforeEach
and afterEach
describe("Tests for a custom Backbone Model", function() {
var macys;
beforeEach(function() {
macys = new StoreModel({
yearFounded: 1858
});
});
it("can have a custom method called calculateAge", function() {
expect(macys.calculateAge).toBeDefined();
});
});
Define your variable in a scope that makes sense for your specs, then either instantiate per test or in a beforeEach()
block
describe("Tests for a custom Backbone Model", function() {
var macys;
beforeEach(function() {
macys = new StoreModel({
brandName: 'macys',
website: 'http://www.macys.com',
yearFounded: 1858,
isDepartmentStore: true
});
})
...
Make sure expected defaults exist
it("can have default properties such as brandName, website, yearFounded,
and isDepartmentStore", function() {
expect(macys.defaults).toBeDefined();
expect(macys.defaults.brandName).toBeDefined();
expect(macys.defaults.website).toBeDefined();
expect(macys.defaults.yearFounded).toBeDefined();
expect(macys.defaults.isDepartmentStore).toBeDefined();
});
Tip: when you are setting defaults, think about how the absence of a property will be rendered in a template.
Make sure they exist
it("can have a custom method called calculateAge", function() {
expect(macys.calculateAge).toBeDefined();
});
And make sure they do the right thing
it("will set the age after calculateAge is called", function() {
macys.calculateAge();
expect(macys.get('age')).toBeDefined();
expect(macys.get('age')).toEqual((new Date().getFullYear())
- macys.get('yearFounded'));
});
Use spies to make sure the right initialization steps are taken
it("can check to see if models are instantiated correctly", function() {
spyOn(macys, 'calculateAge');
macys.initialize();
expect(macys.calculateAge).toHaveBeenCalled();
});
Similar to initialization, you can use spies to test control flow
it("can make sure that fetchDepartments is called with the
when instantiated, but only if isDepartmentStore
is true", function() {
spyOn(macys, 'fetchDepartments');
// remember isDepartmentStore was set to true
macys.initialize();
expect(macys.fetchDepartments).toHaveBeenCalled();
macys.set('isDepartmentStore', false);
macys.initialize();
expect(macys.fetchDepartments.calls.count()).toEqual(1);
});
Make sure that custom or built-in events are triggered correctly using spies for event listeners in the spec
it("can test Model events using spies in the spec", function() {
var myObject = {
aFakeCallback: function() {
return true;
}
}
spyOn(myObject, 'aFakeCallback');
macys.on('customEvent', myObject.aFakeCallback);
macys.triggerCustomEvent();
expect(myObject.aFakeCallback).toHaveBeenCalled();
});
(In addition to similarities with models like custom methods, initialization, control flow, and custom events)
describe("Tests for a custom Backbone Model", function() {
var macys, macysView;
beforeEach(function() {
macys = new StoreModel({
brandName: 'macys',
website: 'http://www.macys.com',
yearFounded: 1858,
isDepartmentStore: true
});
macysView = new StoreView({
model: macys
});
});
...
Use object bracket notation to check events and their callbacks
it("can test for default events like a ul click", function() {
expect(macysView.events['click ul li']).toBeDefined();
expect(macysView.events['click ul li']).toEqual('clickCallback');
});
Then, test the functionality of each callback
You can test a View's reaction to data changes
// in beforeEach
spyOn(StoreView.prototype, 'render').and.callThrough();
// in your spec
it("can test for reactions to Model-level events", function() {
macys.set('isDepartmentStore', false);
expect(macysView.render).toHaveBeenCalled();
});
it("can test for functional DOM changes", function() {
var oldLength, newLength;
$('body').append(macysView.render().$el);
oldLength = macysView.$('li').length;
macysView.$('ul li').click();
newLength = macysView.$('li').length;
expect(newLength - oldLength).toEqual(1);
macysView.remove();
});


I conducted several user interviews to find out whether or not people are aware of and using the IMDb app, and if so, what’s motivating them. I quickly confirmed my hypothesis; all users responded with some variation of the fact that yes, they use IMDb, primarily when prompted by a specific need or question about a particular actor or movie. Additional IMDb offerings, such as photo galleries and movie showtimes, are going untouched.
Based on the user feedback, I focused the wireframes on cutting down on some of the excess noise sprinkled throughout the app, and streamlining navigation to allow users to more easily uncover the information they need. After a few rounds of sketches and ongoing user check-ins, I settled on the above version that takes into account the secondary user preferences I uncovered for filmography and trivia.
The pictured mockups for a revamped app homepage and several of the other priority screens reflect the cleaner, modern feel that will help IMDb hone in more directly on why users have come to the app, and what will keep them engaged throughout their experiences.
While this was a creative concept only, and I was as such unable to do any live testing of the new designs, I did get user validation confirming these styles and architectures would be well received. If possible, my next step would be to test the performance of the app based on specific user tasks and engagements, such as conducting usability testing and measuring clicks throughout user flows.
Keep testing. Find a way to the solution.


Neural networks have thousands, often millions of parameters. They take hundrets of features and predict thousands of classes. The features can often not be seen independantly, but have to be taken as a whole into consideration. Most parameters are not independant either. And still, we use only on the order of several ten-thousand to a million data points to optimize the millions of parameters in a network. We know that more labeled data leads to better results, but labeling is costly. Obtaining more data, however, is comparatively cheap. Hence we want to use the unlabeled data to learn good features. The complete process is semi-supervised and works as follows:
- Unsupervised training: Train a neural network with unlabeled data
- Network modification: Change something in the network. Often, the output layer is adjusted.
- Supervised training: Train the neural network with labeled data
In the following, I will introduce all unsupervised training methods I know.
Auto-Encoders
The idea of an auto-encoder is to restore the input. Hence it has to have an output layer which is capable of doing so. This means you have to choose your activation function carefully and probably normalize the range of values of the input. For example, if your inputs have negative values you cannot use the logistic function or ReLU. If it doesn't sum to one, you can't use softmax. If the range of values is outside of [-1, 1], you can't use most of the activation functions.
Also, you have to make sure the shape of the output is the same as the input.
After that, you have multiple options:
- Bottleneck features: You can force the auto-encoder to learn a feature reduction by introducing a bottleneck. After the training is finished, everything after the bottleneck could be removed.
- Restauration: The input of the network is changed in some way which has to be restored by the network. This could be white noise, Gaussian noise, or completely removing some parts of the image (as done in Context Encoders: Feature Learning by Inpainting). Look for "denoising auto-encoder".
Literature:
- Jonathan Masci, Ueli Meier, Dan Ciresan, and Jürgen Schmidhuber: Stacked Convolutional Auto-Encoders for Hierarchical Feature Extraction
Crop position prediction
If you have a CNN and images as input, crop it into 9 pieces which are loosely placed in a grid over the image (with some variable padding). Give the network the middle crop and randomly one of the 8 others. The network has to predict which crop it got. Hence the network has 8 output units.
Literature:
- Carl Doersch, Abhinav Gupta, Alexei A. Efros: Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning by Context Prediction
Order
I could imagine that you could do something similar to the crop position prediction with time series data. For example, if you have audio data you could give the network two samples and let it predict which one comes first.
Or if you have a video, you can predict the next frame. See Deep Predictive Coding Networks for Video Prediction and Unsupervised Learning.
Weakly Supervision
The more detailed / high quality labels are, the more expensive. For example, it is often simpler to classify one complete image than to assign a class label to each pixel of the image. But you can build models for semantic segmentation without having a single image which was semantically labeled.
This is what I call weak supervision.
Another example is counting: You have many images of street scenes. Each image has the number of cars in that image as a label. The idea is that a neural network should learn a car classifier from this information.
I think I have seen something similar before, but I don't remember where (NIPS 2016?)
More
I have seen Discriminative Unsupervised Feature Learning with Convolutional Neural Networks but I didn't understand what they are doing. They take a random patch of one image, apply random data augmentations to that image and assign it a (random) class. How is that supposed to help?


In the Syslog page, there is a lot of flexibility in terms of retrieving and filtering Syslog messages. The Syslog messages can be retrieved by either entering the Unit name (NB! Write ^YOUR-COMPLETE-UNITID$ to get quick results!), selecting Unit Type and/or selecting Profile. There is also the possibility of retrieving logs by selecting a severity level. The severity levels available are: Emergency, Alert, Critical, Error, Warning, Notice, Info and Debug. These severity levels are in accordance with the levels defined in the Syslog standard (RFC 3164). By default when you go to Syslog you are given a simple search form. You can extend this form by going into the advanced form.
In the advanced version of the Syslog, a lot more fields can be be added to the search criteria. In the severity list it is possible to select more than one item by holding down CTRL and clicking the desired severity code, and you use the same procedure for unchecking the codes. It is possible to search for all fields that the Syslog page displays in the results. One of these fields, UserId, is per example particularly interesting because you can search for all changes done by a specific operator (e.g. a login to Web).
The results from the query in the Syslog page will return: Time, Severity, Facility, EventId, Message, UserId, Hostname, IpAddress, UnitId, Profile and Unit Type. All of these will give you a complete picture of what has happened, and what person or system that has initiated the change. An explanation for some of them is required. Facility describes what kind of system has emitted the Syslog message. If you only need to see messages emitted by Web, you can do so by choosing it from the drop down menu.
Event Id is describing what type of content the Syslog message reports. If data has been written to a CPE or if it has been upgraded, these are event codes that can be searched for.
The operator must enter a from date to search in the Syslog. That is because the Syslog database is a huge collection and it would take forever to return all of them to the browser. Normally the operator will only need a small selection of the Syslog database, per example within the last 24 hours. When the operator goes to the Syslog page, the from date will automatically be set to yesterday, making it easier for him to find events that has occurred lately. To set a date, either use the calendar widget (by clicking the calendar icon, the keyboard arrows while the date field has focus) or type it in manually.
The format of the date fields is dd-MM-yyyy and it can easily be customized to fit the customers need.
Use the question-mark icons to see how to use control characters of the search.


About Me
I graduated from Georgetown University in 2014 with a BS in Healthcare Management and Policy. For the past three years, I worked at Triage Consulting Group as a Senior Associate leading teams of consultants providing payer strategy and revenue cycle consulting services to health systems throughout the country. The technical skills I gained manipulating and managing large sets of data fueled my interest in software engineering.
I am currently attending UC Berkeley's Coding School and am excited to explore software engineering-related opportunities in the healthcare industry in the upcoming weeks.


|
DMA Friends
2.0
|
Public Member Functions | |
| getData ($instance) | |
| includeCountry (Model $instance) | |
| includeState (Model $instance) | |
| getUserPoints (Model $instance) | |
| Public Member Functions inherited from DMA\Friends\Classes\API\BaseTransformer | |
| __construct ($useExtendedData=null, $excludeEmbededs=[]) | |
| transform ($instance) | |
| getData ($instance) | |
| getExtendedData ($instance) | |
| processIncludedResources (Scope $scope, $data) | |
Protected Attributes | |
| $defaultIncludes | |
| Protected Attributes inherited from DMA\Friends\Classes\API\BaseTransformer | |
| $useExtendedData = true | |
| $excludeEmbededs = [] | |
Additional Inherited Members | |
| Protected Member Functions inherited from DMA\Friends\Classes\API\BaseTransformer | |
| sanitize (array $data) | |
| DMA\Friends\API\Transformers\UserProfileTransformer::getData | ( | $instance | ) |
( definition="user.profile", description="User profile definition", required={"barcode_id", "is_activated", "phone", "address", "city", "zip", "points", "country", "state"}, ( property="barcode_id", type="string", ), ( property="is_activated", type="boolean", ), ( property="phone", type="string", ), ( property="address", type="string", ), ( property="city", type="string", ), ( property="zip", type="string", ), ( description="Classname and Namespace of the generic polymorphic relationship", property="object_type", type="string", ), ( property="timestamp", type="string", format="date-time" ), ( property="points", type="object", ref="#/definitions/user.points" ), ( property="country", type="object", ref="#/definitions/country" ), ( property="state", type="object", ref="#/definitions/state" ), )
| DMA\Friends\API\Transformers\UserProfileTransformer::getUserPoints | ( | Model | $instance | ) |
( definition="user.info.points", type="object", required={"id", "points"},
( property="id", type="integer", format="int32" ), ( property="points", type="object", ref="#/definitions/user.points" ) ) ( definition="user.points", type="object", required={"total", "this_week", "today"}, ( property="total", type="integer", format="int32" ), ( property="this_week", type="integer", format="int32" ), ( property="today", type="integer", format="int32" ) )
| DMA\Friends\API\Transformers\UserProfileTransformer::includeCountry | ( | Model | $instance | ) |
| DMA\Friends\API\Transformers\UserProfileTransformer::includeState | ( | Model | $instance | ) |
|
protected |


Elton John is coming to Tampa in 2020
by Teyonna EdwardsTAMPA, Fla.—Elton John just added a stop in Tampa to his three-year Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. He’ll perform at Amalie Arena on May 26 at 8 p.m.
Tampa isn't the only new stop; 23 other cities have been added to the previously sold out tour. These new dates will complete the second year of the North American leg of this world-wide tour. In addition to hearing top hits like “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer”, the audience will get a rare glimpse into Elton John’s life with never before seen photos and videos from his 50-year career.
Tickets go on sale for these new dates on November 22 at 10 a.m. American Express Card Members can purchase tickets in advance from November 14 at 10 a.m. to November 18 at 10 p.m. You can purchase tickets here.
VIP packages that include photo ops at Elton John’s piano, backstage tours and more will also be available for purchase. To learn more about Elton John and find other ways to get pre-sale tickets, sign up for The Rocket Club.


Hi, I'm
Most recently I am an aspiring front end and iOS developer. But in the past two years, I've been many things. A bartender, an English teacher, a studio musician, an audio engineer, a projectionist, and a wandering traveler to name a few.
The internet has been instrumental in jumpstarting every major chapter of my life and its dynamic ability to connect people in distant places has sparked my interest in learning about and working with coding.
I'm from Asheville, NC and if you haven't been there you should make plans to visit. Arguably the best craft beer culture in the USA, a vibrant music scene, and all set in the Great Smokey Mountains. Asheville xis known for it's strong dedication to craft and design, a quality that I bring to the table in spades.
I love to play the guitar. It seems like I never have enough time to play.
I have been trying to figure that out for years. I know that it will be one that allows for me to be location independent, creative, and is relavant to my interests in music and travel.
I've done some independent study over the last year. I completed the codeacademy section about Html and Css but I didn't use it much after I finished it so I'm seeking a better working knowledge of it as well as advice on how to find freelance work.
I have been listening to Tame Impala on repeat the last couple of days as well as Parov Stelar and other jazz-influenced dance music.


Hi! I'm Sean and this is my personal site that I made for the Galvanize pre-course project. Above is a .gif of a Terminator crushing the opposition, which is how I expect my journey towards becoming a web developer to go (with the help of Galvanize, of course!)
First, a little about myself:
I was originally born in the great state of Texas but only lived there for a little over a year before my parents drove me across the country to Clinton, MA.
After growing up in a great town and doing normal kid things I decided to go to school at Northeastern University in Boston. I majored in Music Industry (think "Music Business") with a minor in Business and afterwards joined a band and started touring the country!
After I got tired of being a rock star and paying obscene amounts of rent in Boston, I decided to move to a new city and see where life would take me. The Space Needle was calling and it didn't take much to convince me that Seattle would be a great place to call my home for the next stage.
So I got myself a full time job as an Audio-Visual technician, which was great at first because I didn't know anybody in Seattle and having a steady source of income was a pretty convenient thing to have. We were mainly responsible for rental gigs which required me to drive all around the Puget Sound area - even all the way out to Spokane and the Olympic Peninsula on a few occasions - so it was a very good way to become acquainted with the area. On the weekends my girlfriend and I would go hiking and further explore the amazing scenery around us.
But soon I realized that there was very little future in my job and I struggled to find a way to utilize my music/audio/technical skills that didn't involve inconsistent scheduling or consistent night and weekend work. My girlfriend and a good number of my friends were in the tech industry and I always somewhat regretted not learning how to code. We had a "Learn Python The Hard Way" text book lying around the apartment so I took it upon myself to start learning in my free time. I think the first line of code I ever wrote was probably similar to many other programmers:
print "Hello World!"
After about a year of non-committal but steadily progressing study I decided I was having so much fun that I should consider transitioning to a career in tech. I delved into Django, Python's well-regarded web framework and it wasn't long before I was looking at coding bootcamps to further my learning. I did a lot of research but Galvanize was clearly the best fit, so here I am!
The fixed link in the bottom right of the page links to my goals page. Click it to check out what I hope to achieve at Galvanize!


new_table¶
a table creation hint to environment/table
struct new_table;
const new_table create = new_table{};
sol::new_table
serves the purpose of letting you create tables using the constructor of sol::table and sol::environment. It also disambiguates the other kinds of constructors, so is necessary to be specified. Leaving it off will result in the wrong constructor to be called, for either sol::table
or sol::environment
.
There are two kinds of tables: the global table and non-global tables: however, both have the exact same interface and all sol::global_table
s are convertible to regular sol::table
s.
Tables are the core of Lua, and they are very much the core of Sol.
members¶
new_table(int sequence_hint = 0, int map_hint = 0);
The constructor’s sole purpose is to either let you default-constructor the type, in which case it uses the values of “0” for its two hints, or letting you specify either sequence_hint
or both the sequence_hint
and map_hint
. Each hint is a heuristic helper for Lua to allocate an appropriately sized and structured table for what you intend to do. In 99% of cases, you will most likely not care about it and thusly will just use the constant sol::create
as the second argument to object-creators like sol::table
’s constructor.


Techaholic was established in May 2021.
Our offices are based in Gauteng, Midrand, South Africa.
Techaholic is a IT solutions company.
We distribute ICT equipment, IT technical supports services
amongst a myriad of IT solutions.
We provide products and services to end users of all sizes,
including small- and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises,
educational institutions, government agencies, consumers, retailers
and resellers.
Meet the team
Lindsay Doe
CEO & Founder
Elliot Ross
Sales Manager
Kristy Doe
Consultant


|
Dear Bri,
I want to offer you my hearty congratulations on earning a degree from Ohio State! As a fellow alumnus, I know the great pride you feel when earning a degree and am honored to welcome you into the worldwide network of alumni Buckeyes that’s more than half a million strong.
There are a variety of ways to stay involved with your alma mater. Discover special programming for young alumni, keep connected with the Ohio State app, volunteer with fellow alumni or make a gift to support Ohio State students and become a sustaining member. Be sure to visit the alumni portal (log in using your name.# Ohio State username) to update your information, check your giving history and more. There are so many ways to stay connected!
We look forward to having you as part of the alumni family.
Sincerely, and Go Bucks! Andy Gurd Interim President / CEO Chief Operating Officer The Ohio State University Alumni Association
|


Next: Conses Dictionary, Previous: Conses, Up: Conses
A cons is a compound data object having two components called the car and the cdr.
| car | cons | rplacd |
| cdr | rplaca |
Figure 14–1: Some defined names relating to conses.
Depending on context, a group of connected conses can be viewed in a variety of different ways. A variety of operations is provided to support each of these various views.
| • Conses as Trees: | ||
| • Conses as Lists: |


The rank-heat plot summarizes results on all interventions and all outcomes, providing information regarding the ranking of interventions per outcome. We developed the rankheatplot R Shiny app to produce the rank-heat plot when the study-level data for each outcome are available, and by performing the network meta-analysis within the tool. The tool can be used for any type of data, and in any type of discipline and disease using a network meta-analysis of multiple interventions compared in studies obtained from any type of review (i.e., systematic review, rapid review, overview of reviews). The tool allows the fast identification of the most likely best and worst interventions, with respect to their effectiveness and/or safety, in a given outcome. It can also identify interventions that have not been studied for an included outcome. The tool can be used to facilitate interpretation and decision-making based on results from a network meta-analysis. The rankheatplot app currently performs analyses in a frequentist framework importing intervention outcome results from the netmeta R package (Gerta Rücker, Guido Schwarzer, Ulrike Krahn and Jochem König 2017, netmeta: Network Meta-Analysis using Frequentist Methods. R package version 0.9-8.)
Navigate to the "Upload data" tab above to submit your .xlsx file for processing. Before you start, please make sure that your data meet the formatting guidelines listed below.
The rank heat plot expects the uploaded data to be a spreadsheet in the .xlsx format. The data for each treatment outcome should be included in its own sheet, and the name of each sheet will be used to label that outcome in the plot. The required format of each sheet, including required column names and data types, will vary according to the type of data being uploaded and the type of analysis being requested. Below is a list of required columns and their corresponding data types.
study_id
: a unique identifier for the studyt
character: Treatment identifiern
: integer number of observations for individual
treatment arms, must be greater than zero
r
: integer number of events for individual
treatment arms, must be greater than or equal to zero
n
: integer number of observations for individual
treatment arms, must be greater than zero
sd
: number the standard deviation for individual
treatment arms, must be greater than zero
m
: number estimated means for individual treatment
arms
d
: integer number of events for individual
treatment arms, must be greater than or equal to zero
time
: number information on person time at risk
for individual treatment arms, must be greater than zero
TE
: number estimated treatment effects for individual
treatment arms
seTE
: number standard errors of estimated treatment
effect for individual treatment arms, must be greater than zero
treat1
: character Label/Number for first treatment
treat2
: character Label/Number for second treatment.
For bugs and feature requests, please open an issue on the Rank-Heat Plot GitHub page. For other enquiries, please send an email to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Veroniki AA, Straus SE, Fyraridis A, Tricco AC. The rank-heat plot is a novel way to present the results from a network meta-analysis including multiple outcomes. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 2016; pii: S0895-4356(16)00153-0 (PubMed)
Rank-Heat plot uses cookies and collects user data for site usage metrics only (Google Analytics). The site stores user-provided data (i.e., spreadsheets containing treatments and outcomes) in secure temporary directories that are periodically deleted.


0.85"> {{ result.className === "without-mask" ? "No Mask" : "Mask" }}
Please steady your face
This is an experiment on Machine Learning in browser with the help of Teachable Machines with Google.


Welcome To My Game!
Try to answer the following questions in the fastest time possible. Wrong answers will decrease the time. Reaching zero will end the game. The amount of time left is your score for the game.
Try to answer the following questions in the fastest time possible. Wrong answers will decrease the time. Reaching zero will end the game. The amount of time left is your score for the game.


I trimmed down some processes and stripped any excess so the classes included focus just on the tile scroller. In my previous post the movement was based upon the position of the sprite- here it’s based soley on keystrokes. It also utilizes some of my ImagesLoader classes.
The real meat is in the updateScroll method of the MapScrollLayer class. That handles all the update of bitmapdata to the gridded tiles, and redraw/scroll of the displayed bitmap.
One thing i found exciting was creating custom namespaces. If you take a peek at com.custard.as3.models.TileLayerMap, in the constructor it creates a 2d array based on the data type.
I had planned to make a fuller presentation with some tutorial-like explanations, but my time is pretty thin right now. If enough people are interested in that, i’d definitely get on top of it. A basic understanding of OOP may be needed to gather something from the code. i don’t really plan to go that much into it, but if you are a little rusty, unfamiliar with the concept, or want to learn more, Ben Stucki is going into that this month on his blog.
…also…
every time i go back home to my parents’, there’s some more boxes of ‘junk’ that have been sitting in the basement, stuck in some dark corner, since my room was turned into an office.
this past weekend i went through another said box, and pulled out this bounty!
had forgotten all about these guys…
i’m waiting for the box that had my old etch-a-sketch animator gadget. man, i loved that thing.


pyfor.filter module¶
-
pyfor.filter.
dhmax
(elev_array)¶ Calculates the maximum height difference for an elevation array.
Parameters: elev_array – Returns:
-
pyfor.filter.
dht
(elev_array, w_k, w_k_1, dh_0, dh_max, c)¶ ” Calculates dh_t.
Parameters: - elev_array – A 1D array of elevation values
- w_k – An integer representing the window size
- w_k_1 – An integer representing the previous window size
-
pyfor.filter.
slope
(elev_array, w_k, w_k_1)¶ Calculates the slope coefficient.
Returns the slope coefficient s for a given elev_aray and w_k
-
pyfor.filter.
window_size
(k)¶
-
pyfor.filter.
zhang
(array, number_of_windows, dh_max, dh_0, c, grid, interp_method='nearest')¶ Implements Zhang et. al (2003), a progressive morphological ground filter. This returns a matrix of Z values for each grid cell that have been determined to be actual ground cells.
Parameters: array – The array to interpolate on, usually an aggregate of the minimum Z value #TODO fix this to be max window size :param number_of_windows: :param dh_max: The maximum height threshold :param dh_0: The starting null height threshold :param c: The cell size used to construct the array :param grid: The grid object used to construct the array :return: An array corresponding to the filtered points, can be used to construct a DEM via the Raster class


Opposition won’t settle for anything less than PM’s resignation
by Our CorrespondentISLAMABAD.: Declaring that the opposition would not settle for anything less than the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Rahbar Committee on Saturday said they were considering other options, including en bloc resignation from parliament and a countrywide strike call in case the government did not meet their demand.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday, JUI-F leader Akram Durrani flanked by other members of the committee said they had signed an agreement with the Islamabad deputy commissioner for the march and they would stand by it.
“Besides resignations from parliament and strike, blocking highways, and locking down the whole country at district level and all other options necessary for any movement are also being considered,” said Durrani.
Durrani insisted that the principal demand of the opposition was the “resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan”.
He said there would be no talks with the government if their foremost demand was not met, adding that the tone of the prime minister and his negotiating team head was not good.
“We don’t refuse to engage in talks but the government’s attitude is not appropriate,” he said, adding that “any irresponsible action by non-democratic forces” would be against national interest. All opposition parties are unanimous on this point and oppose it.”
Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal said he was shocked to know that Prime Minister Imran had waived the mandatory requirement of passport for the visiting Sikh pilgrims from
India.
“We welcome the Sikh pilgrims, who are set to visit the country for Baba Guru
Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary next week, but how an Indian citizen could enter the Pakistani territory without the basic document … it means you are changing the status of that territory,” he added. “This government has turned Pakistan into a laughing stock with blunders such as this.”


Your captured image will appear here...
WebcamJS Test Page
Demonstrates simple 320x240 capture & display
Take Photo
teleNex
Random Entry


[§472-1] Definitions. [See Note at beginning of chapter.] As used in this chapter:
"Department" means the department of commerce and consumer affairs.
"Intubate" means to pass a tube into the trachea for purposes of anesthesia and airway maintenance.
"Monitor" means to evaluate patient health by tracking vital signs via physical examination and multi-parameter monitors in order to recognize abnormalities while an animal is under anesthesia.
"Practice of veterinary technology" includes but is not limited to the following procedures only under the direct supervision of a licensed veterinarian:
(1) Monitoring anesthesia;
(2) Intubating;
(3) Performing dental cleaning;
(4) Creating a relief hole in the skin to facilitate placement of an intravenous catheter; and
(5) Participating in laboratory management activities. [L 2016, c 147, pt of §2]


I love the beach, so hopefully someday I can own my own beach house. I would love to have a house in Rehoboth or Bethany Beach, or somewhere in North or South Carolina.


This is your personal workspace.
The "pd" folder represents your persistent drive:
- The files you save here will still be available when you come back after terminating your workspace session
- Any personal files outside of this folder will be lost
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Detailed Description
Constructor & Destructor Documentation
| __construct |
( |
\PDO $ |
db, |
|
|
$ |
options = null |
|
) |
| |
- Exceptions:
-
| \InvalidArgumentException | When "db_table" option is not provided |
Member Function Documentation
Closes a session.
- Returns:
- boolean true, if the session was closed, otherwise false
Destroys a session.
- Parameters:
-
- Returns:
- bool true, if the session was destroyed, otherwise an exception is thrown
- Exceptions:
-
| \RuntimeException | If the session cannot be destroyed |
Cleans up old sessions.
- Parameters:
-
| int | $lifetime | The lifetime of a session |
- Returns:
- bool true, if old sessions have been cleaned, otherwise an exception is thrown
- Exceptions:
-
| \RuntimeException | If any old sessions cannot be cleaned |
| sessionOpen |
( |
$ |
path = null , |
|
|
$ |
name = null |
|
) |
| |
Opens a session.
- Parameters:
-
| string | $path | (ignored) |
| string | $name | (ignored) |
- Returns:
- boolean true, if the session was opened, otherwise an exception is thrown
Reads a session.
- Parameters:
-
- Returns:
- string The session data if the session was read or created, otherwise an exception is thrown
- Exceptions:
-
| \RuntimeException | If the session cannot be read |
| sessionWrite |
( |
$ |
id, |
|
|
$ |
data |
|
) |
| |
Writes session data.
- Parameters:
-
| string | $id | A session ID |
| string | $data | A serialized chunk of session data |
- Returns:
- bool true, if the session was written, otherwise an exception is thrown
- Exceptions:
-
| \RuntimeException | If the session data cannot be written |
The documentation for this class was generated from the following file:
- vendor/symfony/lib/Symfony/Component/HttpFoundation/SessionStorage/PdoSessionStorage.php