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Programming Algorithms in Lisp: Writing Efficient Programs with Examples in ANSI Common Lisp

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 10:11:51

9781484264270 (1484264274), Apress, 2021

This book started after teaching an intensive course on algorithms to working programmers in Kyiv, in spring 2016. It took more than 3 years to complete, and, meanwhile, I also did three iterations of the course. Its aim is to systematically explain how to write efficient programs and, also, the approaches and tools for determining why the program isn’t efficient enough. In the process, it will teach you some Lisp and show in action the technics of algorithmic development. And, even if you won’t program in Lisp afterward, you’ll still be able to utilize the same approaches and tools or be inclined to ask why they aren’t available in your language of choice from its authors. :)

Practical Python Data Visualization: A Fast Track Approach To Learning Data Visualization With Python

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 10:11:20

9781484264546 (1484264541), Apress, 2020

I have been working with the Python programming language for more than 15 years now. I have used it for a variety of tasks like automation, graphics, Internet of Things (IoT), and data science. I have found that it is a very good tool for generating scientific and data-driven business visualizations. It takes fewer lines of code to generate visualizations with Python. Python is capable of fetching data from various type of sources. Combining this feature with various third-party visualization libraries makes Python the perfect tool for various types of visualization requirements.

This book covers the basics of Python, including setup and various modes, and many visualization libraries. I have also made a modest attempt to visualize real-life data related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

I encourage readers to read all of the material and not to skip anything, even if you are familiar with the particular topic. I have written this book in such a way that every topic and demonstration builds confidence in the reader for the next topic. This truly is a step-by-step guide for beginners and experts alike.

After reading this book, you will be empowered by the knowledge of data visualization with Python and will be able to apply this knowledge in real-life projects at your workplace. It will also instill confidence in you to explore more libraries for data visualization in Python, as most of the support the scientific Python ecosystem and NumPy library discussed in detail in this book.

I hope that readers of this book will enjoy reading it and following the demonstrations as much as I enjoyed writing it.

A Python Data Analyst’s Toolkit: Learn Python and Python-based Libraries with Applications in Data Analysis and Statistics

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 10:10:36

9781484263983 (1484263987), Apress, 2020

I had two main reasons for writing this book. When I first started learning data science, I could not find a centralized overview of all the important topics on this subject. A practitioner of data science needs to be proficient in at least one programming language, learn the various aspects of data preparation and visualization, and also be conversant with various aspects of statistics. The goal of this book is to provide a consolidated resource that ties these interconnected disciplines together and introduces these topics to the learner in a graded manner. Secondly, I wanted to provide material to help readers appreciate the practical aspects of the seemingly abstract concepts in data science, and also help them to be able to retain what they have learned. There is a section on case studies to demonstrate how data analysis skills can be applied to make informed decisions to solve real-world challenges. One of the highlights of this book is the inclusion of practice questions and multiple-choice questions to help readers practice and apply whatever they have learned. Most readers read a book and then forget what they have read or learned, and the addition of these exercises will help readers avoid this pitfall.

The book helps readers learn three important topics from scratch – the Python programming language, data analysis, and statistics. It is a self-contained introduction for anybody looking to start their journey with data analysis using Python, as it focuses not just on theory and concepts but on practical applications and retention of concepts. This book is meant for anybody interested in learning Python and Python-based libraries like Pandas, Numpy, Scipy, and Matplotlib for descriptive data analysis, visualization, and statistics. The broad categories of skills that readers learn from this book include programming skills, analytical skills, and problem-solving skills.

Hagiographer and the Avatar, The: The Life and Works of Narayan Kasturi (SUNY series in Religious Studies)

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:58:14

9781438482293 (1438482299), SUNY Press, 2021

This book explores the seminal roles played by a hagiographer in the making of a charismatic religious movement: the post-sectarian, cosmo- politan community of the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011), the center of which is the ashram of Prasanthi Nilayam in Puttaparthi, in the Anantapur district of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The case study’s protagonist is Narayan Kasturi (1897–1987), a distinguished litterateur and the holy man’s official biographer, who first met Sathya Sai Baba in 1948 and who lived at his hermitage more or less continuously from 1954 up until his death.

My contention is that in order to deepen our understanding of this pan-Indian hero and his movement, attention must especially be focused upon Kasturi’s background, worldview, deeds, and overall aims and expec- tations. This is all the more necessary given the almost complete lack of research on this figure. Despite the influence exercised by the four volumes of his hagiography titled Sathyam Sivam Sundaram—venerated as a sacred text by all devotees and covering Sathya Sai Baba’s life from his birth in 1926 up to 1979—little scholarly notice has been paid to this truly remarkable intellectual. My study is therefore intended as a biography of Narayan Kas- turi, sharing heretofore unknown or little-known information. There being no English-language academic studies on Kasturi and his significance in the construction of the Sathya Sai Baba organization, I hope that the wealth of data on him will be appreciated by both scholars and general readers

After Democracy: Imagining Our Political Future

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:57:25

9780300245967 (0300245963), Yale University Press, 2021

Democracy has long been considered an ideal state of governance. What if it’s not? Perhaps it is not the end goal but, rather, the transition stage to something better. We have lent our cheer and support and sacrificed lives for revolutions meant to place democracy where it does not exist. But change is gradual. Revolutions are long. They have to be long, so as to attain meaning. And revolutions, noble as they may be, often lead away from and not toward democracy. What if democracy is not an ideal state or an end goal? What if there is something better out there, and technology can help us uncover a long-hidden path to it?

We have been through many iterations of democracy. Through each one, we thought we had it right. When we privileged property owners with the right to vote, when we excluded women from the voting process, and when we kept people from voting because of the color of their skin, we naively claimed what we had was a democracy. We have made much progress in advancing equality in our governance systems, but we have not reached perfection and perhaps never will. Bear in mind that in our collective past, we have called many governments democratic that, in retrospect, were not. Democracy has always felt within reach and yet forever out of sight.

The Non-Timing Trading System

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:56:34

9781637420041 (1637420048), Business Expert Press, 2021

The Non-Timing Trading System is a conservative process for investing in the stock market. This book is perfect for the investors that are dissatisfied with low interest rates and want high returns on their investment without high risk. The book will teach you a low-risk strategy that will give you consistent average yearly returns between 20 percent and 30 percent and beat the S&P 500 year after year. The system is based on a mathematical model designed to protect your capital while giving you high returns.

You don’t have to time the market and pick the right stock. The market will tell you what it is doing. There are always corrections in the market, even severe ones. The book describes in detail how it handles downturns and how it gets you out of the market before corrections become severe.

The author doesn’t just show you a strategy and leave you hanging. There is a tutorial with five years of trading using the system which covers every possible scenario so that you are never left wondering what to do. Protection of your capital is its highest priority. The investor that is looking for high returns should not have to settle for high risk.

Mindfulness and Traditional Chinese Zen Arts: The Way of Calligraphy, Painting, Kung Fu, and Tea

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:55:55

9781916078901 (1916078907), Daoscape, 2020

In my early twenties, I discovered a book titled Zen in the Art of Archery . It was written by a German academic, called Eugen Herrigel, who had studied the Japanese art of ky?d? (ritualised Shint? archery) between the years 1924 and 1929.

This exotic Zen-flavoured feat had been accomplished as a result of the opportunities Herrigel had enjoyed whilst teaching philosophy at Tohoku Imperial University, in Sendai, Japan.

His interest in Zen mysticism had been kindled much earlier than that, however – during his time studying theology in Germany. And so, in order to pursue further insights into Zen culture, Herrigel had decided to live in Japan.

Upon arriving in Sendai, he had discussed his deeper intentions with a local acquaintance he had made there, and was subsequently advised to take up a traditional Japanese Zen art – in order to approach Zen in a more practical way.

Soon afterwards, Herrigel discovered an eccentric ky?d? teacher and mystic, called Awa Kenzo, and began studying under him as a disciple – at the age of forty-one years old.

Around nineteen years later, in 1948, Zen in the Art of Archery was published in Europe – as a formal account of the German professor’s experience when learning the ‘Zen’ of ky?d? for a few years in Japan.

The book became an instant classic in the West – especially as a gateway of sorts for lay readers to gain a glimpse of the Japanese Zen mindset.

Concepts, Applications, Experimentation and Analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks: Concepts, Applications, Experimentation and Analysis (Signals and Communication Technology)

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:53:55

9783030580148 (3030580148), Springer, 2020

Writing a book is tempting, many ideas and topics, idea after idea, topic upon topic, what to elaborate, which one to mention, the reader must find a satisfying answer, enough knowledge; and overlooking or going-by topics is a painful choice for the author, as space is limited, a hard decision is to be made without compromising what should be transferred to the audience. Writing a scientific book is like navigat- ing across the Nile, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, or the Indian Ocean in a boat or a glass submarine, looking and searching for known and unknown species, appreci- ating diversified colors and variety of sizes, and collecting knowledge for benefit in the near future. For a third time, I navigated, explored, day and night, when cold or hot, whether windy or breezing, without tolerating a least chance to know and learn.

Networking is a field of integration of hardware and software, protocols and standards, simulation and testbeds, wired and wireless, VLSI and communication, an orchestrated harmony that collaborates dependably, all for the good of a con- nected well-performing network. That is the charm of networking, of life in a civi- lization that recognizes differences and goes on.

In introductory computer networking books, chapter sequencing follows the bottom-up or top-down architecture of the seven layers protocol. This book starts a few steps after, both horizontally and vertically, the view and understanding are get- ting clearer, with chapter ordering based on topics significance to the elaboration of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) concepts and issues.

The Job Closer: Time-Saving Techniques for Acing Resumes, Interviews, Negotiations, and More

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:45:15

9781984856968 (1984856960), Ten Speed Press, 2021

Prepare to be taken aback.

My students and career center colleagues at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business know to expect this from me by now, but others may find my approaches…jarring.

I happen to think that there’s a best way to do everything in the job search. Not a general best way, but a specific best way—a recipe, in other words—that different people can follow to create similarly tasty results.

This is a surprisingly uncommon perspective in the job search world. For example, think back to the last job search article you read. Did it give you actual instructions to follow? Or did it suggest general tips that you’d have to convert into a plan of action yourself? I see way too much of the latter and basically none of the former. Tips are job search junk food— satisfying in the moment but lacking any real nutrition, repackaging conventional wisdom you’ve heard before into a slightly different format, making it seem new but adding no real value.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Instructions for your job search are possible and frankly should be the norm. Aren’t job search experts in a better position to curate all of their tips into a usable format than overwhelmed job seekers conducting their first, second, or even tenth search?

Raspberry Pi IoT Projects: Prototyping Experiments for Makers

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:43:29

9781484269107 (1484269101), Apress, 2021

The IoT is a name for the vast collection of “things” that are being networked together in the home and workplace (up to 20 billion by 2022 according to Gardner, a technology consulting firm). That is a very vast collection. And they may be underestimating it.

We all have large numbers of computers in a modern house. I just did a walk-through of my house, ignoring my office (which is filled with about another 100 computers). I found 65 different devices having embedded computers. I’m sure I missed some of them. Now of those computer-based devices, I counted 20 of them that have IP addresses, although I know that I am missing a few (such as the thermostat). So in a real sense, this house has 20 IoT devices. And it is only 2020 as of the writing of this book. With over 100 million households in the United States alone, 20 billion IoT devices somehow don’t seem so many.

Ontologies with Python: Programming OWL 2.0 Ontologies with Python and Owlready2

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:42:53

9781484265512 (1484265513), Apress, 2020

For the past ten years, formal ontologies have become widely used in computer science to structure data and knowledge. In parallel, the Python programming language has become more and more widespread in teaching, business, and research. However, until recently, there were very few tools and resources dedicated to the use of ontologies in Python. In fact, most books or tutorials on ontologies are quite theoretical and do not address programming, or they are limited to more complex languages like Java.

This problem is particularly important in the biomedical field, where ontologies and Python are widely used. Too often, in my daily life as a teacher and researcher in medical informatics at Sorbonne Paris Nord University, I have seen students and engineers build ontologies that have subsequently not been used. The files remained on a USB key, because it was not easy to integrate ontologies with existing software.

This book exists to fill this gap. It shows how to use Python to easily access ontologies and publish them as dynamic websites, to build new ontologies, perform automatic reasoning, link entities to medical terminologies, or do some research in DBpedia… using Owlready, a Python module I develop since 2013 for “ontology-oriented programming”. And, in this book, we will not be afraid to implement ontology-based programs: you will see more source codes than mathematical formulas!

International Finance: New Players and Global Markets

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:38:59

9783030692315 (3030692310), Palgrave Macmillan, 2021

International finance is a branch of financial economics that deals with the monetary interactions that occur between two or more countries. International Finance is concerned with topics that include foreign direct investment and currency exchange rates. International finance is different from domestic finance in many aspects and the first and the most significant of them is foreign currency exposure. International financial management involves a lot of currency derivatives whereas such derivatives are very less used in domestic financial management. So, the under- standing of international financial transactions is vital to any MNC. In the twenty-first century, business has become much more globalized. Large corporations have customers and production facilities all over the world now. That accentuates the need for mastery of international finance. There are numerous risks in transactions involving foreign currencies. Risk management requires that these risks be identified, quantified, and monitored. Some risks (such as exchange rate risk) affect all cross-border currency movements, while others are limited to investment decisions or financing decisions.

Black Firsts: 500 Years of Trailblazing Achievements and Ground-Breaking Events (The Multicultural History & Heroes Collection)

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:36:56

9781578596881 (1578596882), Visible Ink Press, 2021

T wenty-seven years ago when Black Firsts broke virgin ground, the pref- ace described the struggle encountered in documenting the lives of first black achievers. So often we speak of the rich and deep history of African Americans and note the anxiety that frequently comes with knowing that something important needs to be done with that information. Then the time comes when someone demonstrates that not only did it need to be done but that it was, in fact, successfully undertaken. This led to the inaugural edition of Black Firsts.

To accomplish our task, I remembered the story of fishermen at sea who wanted to bring in a big haul; to be successful, they cast their nets widely and brought in an enormous catch that included more than they anticipated or predicted. Such was the case with that first edition. Thus, the subtitle, “2,000 Years of Extraordinary Achievement,” seemed appropriate and was added. Some of the results demonstrated that many pioneers scarcely knew that they were successes, much less realized the importance of their work to black American history and culture, as well as to the entire world.

The research also revealed conscious fabrications of some events. Ref- erence sources led me to question what was reported because of the inaccu- racies and incompleteness of so-called scholarship that was all that I had to go on. For example, a missing date for a presumed first could not persuade me that the event or person was the first. Yet, when I could document that the event occurred previously on a specific date and in a different place, I felt comfortable enough to call that a first. As I recorded what some called a first, at times it was necessary to conclude that this was the first documented hap- pening, or the first in 100 years, but perhaps not the first technically. What- ever the results, I knew then, and remembered, that I reported the actual first, and concluded that the work of our people has been extraordinary. There are times when I repeat that clarification in the current edition of this book.

Naked Screenwriting

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:36:04

9781538137956 (153813795), Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021

LEW: What is a screenwriter? Somewhere between the pulsating pentameters of a poet and the humdrum hindsight of a historian, there lives a curious and wondrous creature known as a screenwriter. Working screenwriters can be found at Vegas, the racetrack, the tennis courts, their favorite bars; nonworking screenwriters, same or at the keyboard.

A writer would rather smoke, eat, drink, play golf, crochet, fix the toaster, or even make love to their mate than face what comes after fade in. A writer thinks he or she can act better than an actor, direct better than a director, produce better than a producer, but the butcher, the mailman, and the rotten kid next door each knows he or she can write better than the writer. A writer can write comedy when he or she is heartbroken and tragedy when he or she is happy. Some writers, like Stirling Silliphant and Calder Willingham, have elaborate names. Other writers are called Mel, Jane, Lew, or insert yours here.

Writers win Writers Guild Awards and Oscars and Emmys for their writing achievements, and yet, all a writer really does is rearrange the words in the dictionary. The most handsome star, the most beautiful lady, must wait in the wings while a scrawny or pudgy man or woman, with or without glasses, stares at a blank screen or piece of paper and slowly, laboriously dreams them into bed with each other.

Global Tabloid

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:34:44

9780367336264 (036733626), Routledge, 2021

At the risk of tempting fate or even history, we suggest that there is a spectre stalking the global mediasphere. This spectre is the tabloid. Like any good spectre, it is hard to pin down. Critical neglect has played a part in this. It is a tendency we aim to correct. For a time in the 1990s, discussions of the tabloid or the broader process of tabloidization were lively and used to centre on the changing formats of newspapers. They did not, however, generate enough substance on the possibility that the tabloid had evolved not as a format or even a style of journalism but more as a communicative flow, despite the fact that historical accounts of popular con- tent in print periodicals had illustrated as much. The tabloid even avant la lettre has been a spectre haunting journalism’s past as well as its present since before its obvious modern-day manifestations, and we can see trends associated with it such as sensationalism, trivialization, exaggeration, and sexualization established within popular print culture well before the emergence of the daily tabloid press proper in the early twentieth century. Still further back in time, some of the earliest printed publications in Europe combined many of the elements associated with the later tabloid newspaper. Indeed, historically, we might see the triumph of the daily, predominantly political, commercial, and respectable newspapers of the bourgeois public sphere as deviations from the long-term successful trajectory of the tabloid. This success can be contrasted with most assessments of the tabloid and its asso- ciated phenomena which are negative and read like a miasma of bourgeois anxi- eties concerning taste, gender, class, politics, and sex. Allan claims it can amount to a “stigmatised label” (Allan, 2010: xxxix). Yet the wide variety of substance and tone we see in these examples renders simplified categories of the ‘tabloid’ or ‘tabloidized’ content problematic. These raise multiple questions about definitions of these terms that need to first be resolved if we are to be able to disentangle the conflicting accounts of tabloids’ journalistic value, or the critique of the same.

Reaction Kinetics: An Introduction

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 09:33:27

9783030685737 (303068573), Springer, 2021

Learning (and teaching) the theoretical basis of chemical kinetics is not an easy task. Following the diversification of master’s programmes, shorter undergraduate programmes – typically three years in most European countries – do not provide sufficient knowledge in physical chemistry courses to allow students to gain a deeper insight of chemical kinetics. A textbook for beginners, which would contain enough detail but avoid outdated theories and methods, is not really available. Though there are several excellent textbooks on more advanced topics in reaction kinetics, they typically presuppose quite a good knowledge of theoretical basics, so that their understanding poses problems for the average graduate student.

A modern textbook should accommodate the needs of such students. In addition, at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century, developments in chemical kinetics, both experimental and theoretical, mean that it is no longer necessary to emphasize the customary approach based on the “order” of reaction, nor to oversimplify emerging systems of ordinary differential equations. Traditional, not fully justifiable simplification of the kinetic equations and associated “lineariza- tion” of functions are unnecessary, as there are plenty of numerical integrators and other nonlinear numerical methods that are readily available. Such traditional approaches are helpful for the students insofar as they help in understanding old research papers and results.

Ethics, Morality and Business: The Development of Modern Economic Systems, Volume I: Ancient Civilizations

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 09:32:29

9783030714925 (3030714926), Palgrave Macmillan, 2021

This book is interdisciplinary trying to combine ancient history and modern business ethics. Civilization begins, not with the invention of agriculture, but with the articulation almost 70,000 years ago, according to Puranas, the set of books of history from the beginning of the world, in Sanskrit, with a valid ethical code. Those societies, which lived in closest harmony with the evolutionary ethics, would be the most inventive and dynamic. This would enable them to group together into the largest societies, which were the foundations for civilization.

No civilization is possible without an ethical code. A civilized people may be defined as a group of persons tied together by a common ethical code who systematically control their collective ability and behavior. The essential difference between civilized and uncivilized people is that among the latter there is no systematic effort by its members to create anything for the benefit of them as a whole. It is this idea of plan and care for the future that separates the civilized people from the uncivilized. The idea for the future has close links with the ethical concerns.

Early Aryan religious customs spread along the Eurasian planes. From India, it went to the land of the Assyrians or Asurs, Hittites, Mitranis, along with the common religion to worship Mitra or the Sun. Subse- quently, it was carried forward to Russia via Armenia and Georgia. One group went toward Bulgaria and Greece. Another group stayed in Asia Minor. Other groups went toward Japan and became Ainu, the ancient people of Japan.

AWS Certified Security Study Guide: Specialty (SCS-C01) Exam

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 09:31:31

9781119658818 (1119658810), Sybex, 2021

As the pioneer and world leader of cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has positioned security as its highest priority. Throughout its history, the cloud provider has constantly added security-specific services to its offerings as well as security features to its ever-growing portfolio. Consequently, the AWS Certified Security–Specialty certification offers a great way for IT professionals to achieve industry recognition as cloud security experts and learn how to secure AWS environments both in concept and practice.

Comprehensive Management of Skull Base Tumors

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 09:28:22

9781626235328 (1626235325), Thieme Medical Publishers, 2021

Over a decade has passed since the publication of the successful first edition of Comprehensive Management of Skull Base Tumors, and much has happened in the intervening years. Major advances have been made in the surgical, radiotherapeutic, and chemotherapeutic management of skull base neoplasms. Coincident has been the rapidly advancing understanding of the biology and molecular underpinnings of such tumors. The latter has opened new doors to individualized therapeutics and holds tremendous promise for continued advances.

This revised and updated second edition is again intended as a comprehensive guide to navigate the complexity of contemporary multidisciplinary management of patients with tumors affecting the skull base. Tumor-specific chapters are expanded to emphasize the significant advances in molecular characterization of these tumors and discuss potential novel treatments based on this data.

We have organized this book into the following three sections: general principles, site-specific chapters, and tumor-specific chapters. Section one covers general topics pertinent to all patients with neoplasms of the skull base, regardless of specific location or tumor type. Of note is the expanded coverage of endonasal skull base anatomy and surgical principles. Radiotherapeutic principles and management are covered over two chapters in order to emphasize the significant advances in this area over the past decade, such as proton therapy and stereotactic radiation. Other topics covered include pathology, genetics, clinical evaluation, diagnostic imaging, anesthesia, surgical reconstruction, prosthetic rehabilitation, chemotherapy and targeted therapy, evaluation and rehabilitation of speech and swallowing, functional outcomes and quality of life issues, neurocognitive assessment, and cerebrovascular management.

Starship Therapise: Using Therapeutic Fanfiction to Rewrite Your Life

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 09:26:50

9781623175641 (162317564), North Atlantic Books, 2021

I write this foreword during a pandemic of epic proportion, one not only wrought by nature but also helped along by those entrusted with her care. It may very well be that we are actualizing the Terminator’s prophecy when he matter-of-factly proclaimed, as if simply reading from the pages of history, that “it is in your nature to destroy yourselves.” The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse seem to be galloping at full stride, driving humanity, or perhaps leading it into the abyss. Our nonfictional leaders, who have the power to grab the reins and pull us back from the precipice, have seemingly failed us. So perhaps there is comfort in the knowledge that the alternate universe of fictional characters we have created may very well be the ones to save us.

The average person on the street is not likely contemplating that moment when our sun collapses upon itself, when the animals we have exiled to the fragile margins finally exact their revenge, or when we finally annihilate ourselves. More likely, the average person, if there is such an entity, struggles to maintain a grasp on their sanity while managing the unrelenting demands of day-to-day survival. And it is to that latter group that this book is directed.

When I was asked by Larisa and Justine to write this foreword, they were already known to me from the wonderful blogs on Therapeutic Fanfiction they’ve written for Psychotherapy.net, where I am the editor, and the chapter they have contributed—“Beyond Cannon: Therapeutic Fan Fiction and the Queer Hero’s Journey”—to my book Using Superheroes and Villains in Counseling and Play Therapy. They had me at mythology and Star Trek, two defining elements of our popular culture that are close to my heart, skin (via tattoos), and writing, both professional and personal