The sound of the black gelding’s hooves was all but swallowed in the noise of Amador as Eamon Valda rode slowly through the crowded streets. Sweat oozed from his every pore, the more for his perfectly polished mail and breastplate, gleaming despite a layer of dust, and the snowy cloak spread over the gelding’s powerful rump, yet it might have been a fine spring day for all the notice he took. He did his best to ignore the dirty men and women, even children, with lost expressions and travelworn clothes. Even here. Even here.
For once in his life, the great stone walls of the Fortress of the Light, towered and bannered and impregnable, bastion of truth and right, did not lift his spirits. Dismounting in the main courtyard, he tossed his reins to a Child with grated instructions for caring for the animal; the man knew what to do, of course, but Valda wanted to snap at something. White-cloaked men scurried everywhere in a great show of energy despite the heat. He hoped there was something more than show behind it.
Young Dain Bornhald came trotting across the courtyard, pressing fist to mailed chest in an eager salute. “The Light illumine you, my Lord Captain. You had a good ride from Tar Valon, yes?” His eyes were bloodshot, and a smell of brandy wafted from him. There was no excuse for drinking during the day.
“Fast, at least,” Valda growled, jerking off his gauntlets and stuffing them behind his sword belt.
It was not the brandy, though he would make a mark against the man for it. The journey had been fast, for that distance. He intended to give the legion a night in the city by way of reward, once they finished making camp outside the city. A fast journey, but he disapproved of the orders that called him back just when a strong push might have toppled the crippled Tower and buried the witches under the rubble. A ride to be remarked, yet every day had brought worse news. Al’Thor in Caemlyn. It did not really matter whether the man was a false Dragon or the real one; he could channel, and any man who did that had to be a Darkfriend. Dragonsworn rabble in Altara. This so-called Prophet and his scum in Ghealdan, in Amadicia itself.
He had managed to kill some of that filth, at least, though it was hard fighting foes who melted away more often than they stood, who could blend into the accursed streams of refugees, and worse, of brainless wanderers who seemed to think al’Thor had turned all order on its head. He had found a solution, however, if not a completely satisfactory one. The roads behind his legion were littered now, and the ravens fed to bursting. If it was not possible to tell the Prophet’s trash from refugee trash, well then, kill whoever clogged the way. The innocent should have remained in their homes where they belonged; the Creator would shelter them anyway. As far as he was concerned, the wanderers were added plums on the cake.
“I heard in the city that Morgase is here,” he said. He did not believe it—every other word in Andor had been speculation over who killed Morgase—so he was startled when Dain nodded.
Surprise turned to disgust as the young man babbled about Morgase’s apartments and her hunting, how well she was treated, how she was sure to sign a treaty with the Children any day. Valda scowled openly. He should have expected no better from Niall. The man had been one of the best soldiers in his time, accounted a great captain, but he grew old and soft. Valda had known that as soon as his orders reached Tar Valon. Niall should have moved on Tear in strength with the first word of al’Thor. He would have gathered all the numbers he needed on the march; nations would have rallied to the Children against a false Dragon. They would have, then. Now al’Thor was in Caemlyn, and strong enough to frighten the fainthearted. But Morgase was here. If he had Morgase, she would sign that treaty the first day if somebody had to guide her hand to hold the pen. By the Light, he would teach her to leap when he said leap. If she balked at returning to Andor with the Children, he would lash her to a staff by her wrists. That would be a banner to lead the advance into Andor.
Dain ran down, waiting. No doubt hoping for an invitation to dinner this evening. As a junior, he could not issue one to an officer senior to him, but doubtless he hoped to talk with his old commander, about Tar Valon, perhaps even about his dead father. Valda had not thought much of Geofram Bornhald; the man had been soft. “I will see you at the camp for dinner at six. I will see you sober, Child Bornhald.”
Bornhald surely was in drink; he gaped and stammered before making his salute and going. Valda wondered what had happened. Dain had been a fine young officer. One who worried too much over niceties, such as proof of guilt when there was no way to obtain it, yet still fine for all that. Not as weak as his father. A shame to see him waste himself in brandy.
Muttering under his breath—officers drinking in the very Fortress of the Light was another sign that Niall was rotting at the core—Valda went in search of his rooms. He intended to sleep in the camp, but a hot bath would not be amiss.
A square-shouldered young Child approached in the plain stone corridor, the scarlet shepherd’s crook of the Hand of the Light behind the flaring golden sun on his chest. Without stopping or even looking at Valda, the Questioner murmured respectfully, “My Lord Captain might wish to visit the Dome of Truth.”
Valda frowned after the man—he did not like Questioners; they did good work in their way, yet he could never escape the feeling that they had donned the crook because that way they would never have to face an armed foe—started to raise his voice and dress the fellow down, then stopped. Questioners were sloppy in their discipline, but a simple Child would never speak idly to a Lord Captain. Perhaps the bath could wait.
The Dome of Truth was a wonder that finally did restore some of his essence. Pure white outside, inside gold leaf cast down the light of a thousand hanging lamps. Thick white columns ringed the chamber, plain and polished to glistening, but the dome itself stretched a hundred paces across unsupported and rose fifty at its peak, above the simple white marble dais, centered on the white marble floor, where the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light stood to address the assembled Children in their most solemn moments, their most serious ceremonies. He would stand there, one day. Niall would not live forever.
Dozens of Children wandered about the vast chamber—it was a sight worth seeing, though none but the Children ever did, of course—yet that message had not come so he could admire the Dome. He was sure of it. Behind the great columns ran rows of smaller ones, just as simple and polished just as highly, and tall alcoves where scenes of the Children’s triumphs made frescoes of a thousand years. Valda strolled, looking into each recess. Finally he saw a tall, graying man studying one of the paintings, Serenia Latar being raised on the scaffold, the only Amyrlin the Children had ever managed to hang. She had been dead already, of course, live witches being somewhat hard to hang, but that was beside the point. Six hundred and ninety-three years ago, justice had been done according to the law.
“Are you troubled, my son?” The voice was soft, almost mild.
Valda stiffened slightly. Rhadam Asunawa might be the High Inquisitor, but he was still a Questioner. And Valda was a Lord Captain, Anointed of the Light, not “my son.”
“Not that I have noticed,” he said flatly.
Asunawa sighed. His gaunt face was a picture of martyred suffering, so that his sweat might have been taken for tears, but his deep-set eyes seemed to burn with the heat that had boiled away all his spare flesh. His cloak bore only the crook, no flaring golden sun, as though he stood outside the Children. Or perhaps above. “The times are troubled. The Fortress of the Light harbors a witch.”
Valda suppressed a wry look before it formed. Cowards or not, Questioners could be dangerous even to a Lord Captain. The man might never be able to hang an Amyrlin, but he probably dreamed of being the first to hang a queen. Valda did not care whether Morgase died, provided it was not before all the use was wrung out of her. He said nothing, and Asunawa’s thick gray eyebrows drew down until he seemed to peer out of caverns.
“The times are troubled,” he said again, “and Niall must not be allowed to destroy the Children of the Light.”
For long minutes Valda examined the painting. Perhaps the artist had been good, perhaps not; he knew nothing of such things and cared even less. The fellow had gotten the weapons and armor right on the guards, though, and the rope and scaffold looked real. Those were things he knew. “I am prepared to listen,” he said finally.
“Then we will talk, my son. Later, where there are fewer eyes to see and ears to hear. The Light illumine you, my son.” Asunawa strode away without another word, white cloak billowing slightly and the sound of his boots echoing as if he was trying to drive every step into the stone. Some of the Children bowed deeply as he passed.
From a narrow window high above the courtyard Niall watched Valda dismount and speak to young Bornhald, then stalk away in a fury. Valda was always in a fury. Had there been some means to bring the Children home from Tar Valon and leave Valda there, Niall would have jumped at it. The man was a fair enough battle commander, but better suited to rousing mobs. His notion of tactics was the charge, and of strategy—the charge.
Shaking his head, Niall made his way to his audience chamber. He had more important things than Valda to concern him. Morgase was still resisting like an army on the heights with water and high morale. She refused to admit she held a valley floor with no way out, and it was her enemy who had the heights.
Balwer rose from his table as Niall entered the anteroom. “Omerna was here, my Lord. He left these for you.” Balwer touched a sheaf of papers tied with a red ribbon on the table. “And this.” Thin lips tightened as he drew a tiny bone tube from his pocket.
Niall took the tube with a mutter and stumped into the inner room. Omerna was becoming more useless every day, for some reason. Leaving his reports with Balwer was bad enough, nonsense as they were, but even Omerna knew better than to hand one of these tubes with three red stripes to anyone but Niall himself. He held the tube close to a lamp to examine the wax. Unbroken, before his thumbnail pierced it. He would have to light a fire under Omerna, put the fear of the Light into him. The fool was no good as a decoy unless he played the consummate spymaster as far as he was able.
The message was from Varadin again, Niall’s private cipher in that mad, spidery scrawl on a strip of thin paper. He almost burned it unread; then something at the end caught his eye. Beginning at the beginning, he consciously worked the cipher in his mind. He wanted to be absolutely sure. Just as before, it was gibberish about Aes Sedai on leashes and strange beasts, but right at the last . . . Varadin had helped Asidim Faisar find a hiding place in Tanchico; he would try to smuggle Faisar out, but the Forerunners kept such a guard that a whisper could not pass the walls without permission.
Niall rubbed his chin in thought. Faisar was one of those he had sent to Tarabon to see if anything could be salvaged. Faisar knew nothing of Varadin, and Varadin should know nothing of Faisar. The Forerunners kept a such a guard that not a whisper could pass the walls. A madman’s scrawl.
Stuffing the paper into his pocket, he returned to the anteroom. “Balwer, what is the latest from the west?” Between them, “the west” always meant the border with Tarabon.
“No change from before, my Lord. Patrols that penetrate very deeply into Tarabon do not return. The worst trouble near the border is refugees trying to cross.”
Patrols that penetrated too deeply. Tarabon was a pit writhing with poisonous vipers and rabid rats, but . . . “How quickly could you get a courier to Tanchico?”
Balwer did not even blink. The man would not show surprise if one day his horse spoke to him. “The problem will be fresh horses once he crosses the border, my Lord. Normally, I would say twenty days there and back, perhaps a few less with luck. Now, twice that, with luck. Maybe twice that just to reach Tanchico.”
There would be no need for a return, but Niall kept that to himself. “Let it be arranged, Balwer. I will have a letter ready in an hour. I will speak to the courier myself.” Balwer bowed his head in assent, but dry-washed his hands at the same time, insulted. Let him be. There was a small chance this could be done without exposing Varadin. Unnecessary precaution if he was insane, of course, but if not . . . revealing him would not make anything happen faster.
Back in the audience chamber, Niall studied Varadin’s message once more before holding the slip in a lamp flame, watching it catch. He crumpled the ash between his fingers.
He had four rules concerning action and information. Never make a plan without knowing as much as you can of the enemy. Never be afraid to change your plans when you receive new information. Never believe you know everything. And never wait to know everything.  Niall followed those rules. Only once in his life had he abandoned them to follow a hunch. At Jhamara, for no reason but a tickling at the back of his head, he had set a third of his army to watch mountains all said were impassable. While he maneuvered the rest of his forces to crush the Murandians and Altarans, an Illianer army that was supposed to be a hundred miles away came out of those “impassable” passes. The only reason he managed to withdraw without being crushed was a “feeling.” And now he felt that tickling again.
“I do not trust him,” Tallanvor said firmly. “He reminds me of a young sharp I saw at the fair once, a baby-faced fellow who could look you in the eye and grin while he was palming the pea from under its cup.”
For once Morgase had no difficulty holding her temper. Young Paitr had reported that his uncle had finally found a way to smuggle her out of the Fortress of the Light, her and the others. The others had been the rub; Torwyn Barshaw had claimed himself able to get her out alone long since, but she would not leave them behind to the mercies of the Whitecloaks. Not even Tallanvor.
“I will make a note of your feelings,” she said indulgently. “Just do not let them hinder you. Do you have a saying that fits, Lini? Something for young Tallanvor and his feelings?” Light, why did she take such a delight in taunting him? He came close to treason, but she was his Queen, not . . . the rest of the thought would not come.
Lini sat near the windows, rolling a ball of blue yarn from the skein Breane held stretched on her hands. “Paitr minds me of that young under-groom, just before you went to the White Tower. The one who got two maids with child and was caught trying to sneak away from the manor with a sackful of your mother’s plate.”
Morgase’s jaw hardened, but nothing could spoil her pleasure, not even the glance Breane gave her, as if she should be allowed to state her opinion as well. Paitr had been overjoyed at Morgase’s impending escape. Of course, part of that was because he apparently expected some sort of reward from his uncle for his part—at least, a few of his comments suggested it; something about making up for a failure back home—but the young man practically danced when she agreed to the plan that would have them all out of the Fortress today and out of Amador by sunrise tomorrow. Away from Amador and on the road to Ghealdan, where soldiers would not come with strings to tie to Andor. Two days ago Barshaw himself came to unfold the scheme, disguised as a shopkeeper delivering knitting needles and yarn, a squat big-nosed man with a choleric eye and a sneering mouth, though the words came out respectfully enough. It was hard to believe him Paitr’s uncle, they looked so different, much less a merchant. Still, his plan was a marvel of simplicity, if hardly dignified, needing only enough people outside the Fortress to make it work. Morgase was going to ride out of the Fortress of the Light buried in the bottom of a cartload of kitchen refuse.
“Now, you all know what to do,” she told them. So long as she herself was in her rooms, the rest could move about with considerable freedom. Everything depended on that. Well, not everything; but certainly every escape but her own. “Lini, you and Breane must be in the laundry yard when the bell sounds High.” Lini nodded complacently, but Breane gave her a purse-lipped look. They had been over this twenty times. Even so, Morgase was not going to allow a mistake to result in anyone being left behind. “Tallanvor, you will leave your sword behind and wait at an inn called The Oak and Thorn.” He opened his mouth, but she forestalled him firmly. “I have heard your arguments. You can find another sword. They’ll believe you mean to return if you leave it.” He grimaced, but finally nodded. “Lamgwin is to wait at The Golden Head, and Basel at—”
A hasty tap at the door, and it opened enough to admit Basel’s balding head. “My Queen, there’s a man . . . a Child . . . ” He glanced over his shoulder into the hall. “There’s a Questioner, my Queen.” Tallanvor’s hands went to his sword hilt, of course, and he would not take them away until she had gestured twice and grimaced at him beside.
“Admit him.” She managed a calm voice, but butterflies the size of foxes fluttered frantically in her belly. A Questioner? Was everything that suddenly had been going so well about to turn just as suddenly to disaster?
A tall hawk-nosed man pushed Basel out of the way and closed the door in his face. The white-and-gold tabard with the crimson crook on his shoulder gave his rank as Inquisitor. She had not met Einor Saren, but he had been pointed out to her. There was a set of unalterable certainty to his face. “You are summoned to the Lord Captain Commander,” he said coldly. “You will come now.”
Morgase’s thoughts raced faster than the butterflies. She was used to being summoned—Niall did not come to her, now he had her in the Fortress—called before the man for another lecture on her duty to Andor or for what was supposed to be a friendly chat to show her that Niall had her best interests, and Andor’s, at heart. Used to that, but not to this sort of messenger. If she was being given over to the Questioners, there would be no subterfuge. Asunawa would send enough men to drag her away, and everyone with her. Him, she had met briefly; he made her blood freeze. Why had an Inquisitor been sent? She voiced the question, and Saren replied in the same icy tones.
“I was with the Lord Captain Commander, and I was coming this way. I have finished my business, and now I will take you back.  That all sounded slightly bored, somewhat impatient, until the last, when a note of wry mockery entered. No warmth, though.
“Very well,” she said.
“Shall I accompany my Queen?” Tallanvor bowed formally; at least he made a display of deference when any outsider was around.
“No.” She would take Lamgwin instead. No, any of the men would make it seem she thought she needed bodyguards. Saren frightened her nearly as much as Asunawa did, and she would not let him catch even a hint of the fact. She put on a casual, tolerant smile. “Surely I need no protection here.”
Saren smiled too, or at least his mouth did. He seemed to be laughing at her.
Outside, with Basel and Lamgwin looking at her uncertainly, she almost changed her mind about attendants; she would have, had she not spoken inside. But two men could not protect her if this really was some elaborate trap, and changing her mind would be a show of weakness. Walking through the stone corridors beside Saren, she certainly felt weak, not like a queen at all. No. Maybe she would scream like anyone else if the Questioners had her in their dungeons—well, there was no maybe about it; she was not fool enough to believe royal flesh different from any other in that regard—but until then, she would be what she was. Deliberately, she set about flogging down those butterflies.
Saren led her into a small flagstone-paved courtyard where bare-chested men were hacking at wooden posts with swords. “Where are we going?” she demanded. “This is not the way I have gone to the Lord Captain Commander’s study before. Is he somewhere else?”
“I take the shortest way,” he replied curtly. “I have more important matters to see to than . . . ” He did not finish, and he did not slow, either.
She had no choice but to follow, down a corridor lined with long rooms full of narrow cots and men often bare-chested or in less. She kept her eyes fixed on Saren’s back, composing the blistering sentences she meant to deliver to Niall.
A long, high scaffold stood in the middle of the yard. Three women and over a dozen men filled every space, hands and feet bound, nooses snugged around their necks. Some wept piteously; most only looked terrified. The last two men on the far end were Torwyn Barshaw and Paitr, the boy in his shirtsleeves instead of the red-and-white coat she had had made for him. Paitr was not weeping, but his uncle was. Paitr appeared too horrified to think of tears.
“For the Light!” a Whitecloak officer called out, and another Whitecloak shoved a long lever at the end of the scaffold.
Trapdoors snapped opened with loud cracks, and the victims fell from sight. Some of the stretched ropes quivered as those at the end choked their lives away instead of dying quickly from a broken neck. Paitr’s was one of those. And her fine escape died with him. Perhaps she should have had as much concern for him, but it was the escape she thought of, her way out of the trap she had walked into. Herself trapped, and Andor with her.
Saren was looking at her, plainly expecting her to faint or sick up.
“So many at once?” she said, proud of the steadiness in her voice. Paitr’s rope had stopped jerking; it only swung slowly from side to side, now. No escape.
“We hang Darkfriends every day,” Saren answered dryly. “Perhaps in Andor you release them with a lecture. We do not.”
Morgase met his gaze. The shortest way? So this was Niall’s new tactic. It did not surprise her that no mention had been made of her planned escape. Niall was too subtle for that. She was an honored guest, and Paitr and his uncle had been hanged by chance, for some crime that had nothing to do with her. Who would be the next to mount the gallows? Lamgwin or Basel? Lini or Tallanvor? Strange, but the image of Tallanvor with a rope around his neck hurt more than the image of Lini. The mind played peculiar tricks. Over Saren’s shoulder she caught sight of Asunawa, at a window overlooking the scaffold. He was staring down at her. Maybe this was his doing, not Niall’s. It made no difference. She could not let her people die for nothing. She could not let Tallanvor die. Very peculiar tricks.
Arching an eyebrow mockingly, she said, “If this has unhinged your knees, I suppose we can wait until you find your strength again.” A light voice, not affected at all by what she saw. Light, let her not vomit.
Saren’s face darkened, and he turned on his heel and stalked away. She followed at a stately pace, not looking up at Asunawa’s window, trying not to think of the scaffold.
Perhaps it really was the shortest way, for in the next corridor Saren led her up steep flights of stairs, delivering her to Niall’s audience chamber more quickly than she remembered making the journey before. As usual Niall did not rise, and there was no chair for her to take, so she was forced to stand before him like a petitioner. He seemed distracted, sitting silent and staring at her, but not really seeing her.
He had won, and he did not even see her. That irritated her. Light, he had won. Perhaps she should return to her rooms. If she told Tallanvor and Lamgwin and Basel to carve a path for her, they would try. They would die, and so would she; she had never held a sword, but if she gave that command, she would take one up. She would die, and Elayne would ascend the Lion Throne. She would as soon as al’Thor could be pushed from it. The White Tower would see that Elayne got what was hers. The Tower. If the Tower secured the throne for Elayne . . . it seemed mad, yet she trusted the Tower even less than she did Niall. No, she had to save Andor herself. But the cost. The cost must be paid.
She had to force the words out. “I am ready to sign your treaty.”
Niall hardly appeared to hear at first. Then he blinked, and suddenly laughed wryly and shook his head. That irritated her, too. Pretending surprise. She had not tried to escape. She was a guest. She wished she could see him on a gallows.
He moved into action so quickly that he almost dispelled the memory of his earlier apathy. In moments he had his dried-up little secretary in with a long parchment, everything already written out, and even a copy of the Seal of Andor she could not tell from the original.
Choice or no choice, she made a show of reading the terms. They were no different than she had expected. Niall would lead the Whitecloaks to regain her throne, but there was a price, if not named as such. A thousand Whitecloaks quartered in Caemlyn, with their own courts of law, outside Andoran law, in perpetuity. Whitecloaks to stand equal with the Queen’s Guards throughout Andor, in perpetuity. It might take her lifetime to undo signing this, and Elayne’s as well, but the alternative was al’Thor with the Lion Throne as a trophy. If any woman ever sat on it again, it would be Elenia or Naean or one of that ilk, and as al’Thor’s puppet. That, or Elayne as the Tower’s puppet; she could not make herself trust the Tower.
She signed her name clearly, pressed the copied Seal into the red wax that Niall’s secretary dripped at the foot of the sheet. The Lion of Andor surrounded by the Rose Crown. There, she was the first queen ever to accept foreign soldiers on Andoran soil.
“How soon . . . ?” It was harder to say than she had imagined. “How soon will your legions ride?”
Niall hesitated, glancing down the table. There was nothing there except pen and ink, a sand bowl and a freshly burned down stub of sealing wax, as if he had very recently written a letter. He finished scrawling his signature on the treaty and impressed his own seal, a flaring sun in golden wax, then handed the parchment to his secretary. “Put this in the document room, Balwer. I fear I cannot move as quickly as I had hoped, Morgase. There are developments I must consider. Nothing that need concern you. Simply a matter of how best to move in areas unrelated to Andor. I insist you take this as simply more time for me to enjoy your company.”
Balwer bowed smoothly if somewhat prissily, yet she was almost certain his eyes nearly jerked toward Niall in surprise. She herself nearly gaped. He pressed her and pressed her, and now he had other matters to consider? Balwer scurried out as though afraid she might try to snatch back the treaty and tear it up, but that was the furthest thing from her mind. At least there would be no more hangings. The rest would be dealt with when it could be. One step at a time. Her dogged resistance had failed, but now she had time again, an unexpected gift not to be wasted. The pleasure of her company?
She put on a warm smile. “It seems as though a weight has lifted from my shoulders. Tell me, do you play stones?”
“I am accounted a fair player.” His answering smile was surprised at first, then amused.
Morgase flushed, but managed to keep her face from showing anger. Perhaps it was best that he thought her broken now. No one watched a broken opponent too closely, or regarded them too highly, and if she was careful, with time she could begin recovering what she had given away before his soldiers left Amadicia. She had had a very good teacher in the Game of Houses.
“I will try not to provide too poor a match, if you would like to play.” She was well beyond fair, herself, perhaps even beyond good, but she would have to lose, of course, though not so badly that he grew bored. She hated losing.
Frowning, Asunawa drummed his fingers on the gilded arm of his chair. Above his head, the shepherd’s crook was worked in brilliant lacquer on a pure white disc. “The witch was taken aback,” he murmured.
Saren answered as though it was an accusation. “Some people are affected that way by hanging. The Darkfriends were rounded up yesterday; I’m told they were chanting some catechism to the Shadow when Trom broke down the door. I checked, but no one thought to ask if they had any connection to her.” At least he did not shift his feet; he stood as straight as any Hand of the Light should.
Asunawa dismissed explanations with a slight wave of his hand. Of course there was no connection, aside from the fact that she was a witch and they Darkfriends. The witch was in the Fortress of the Light, after all. Still, he was troubled.
“Niall sent me to fetch her as if I were a dog,” Saren grated.  My hands wanted her throat.”
Asunawa did not bother to respond; he hardly heard. Of course Niall hated the Hand. Most men hated what they feared. No, his mind was on Morgase. She was not weak, by all accounts. She had certainly fended off Niall well enough; most people would have collapsed as soon as they were inside the Fortress. She would ruin some of his plans if she turned out to be weak after all. He had all the details in his mind, each day of her trial with ambassadors on hand from every land that could still produce one, until finally her dramatic confession, wrung from her so skillfully no one would ever find a mark, and then the ceremonies surrounding her execution. A special gallows just for her, to be preserved afterwards to mark the occasion.
“Let us hope she continues to resist Niall,” he said, with a smile that some would call mild and pious. Even Niall’s patience could not last forever; eventually he would have to hand her to justice.


My name is Stacy Murenzi i'm rwandese aged 21 years,i was born and raised in Rwanda.I have a sencodary school diploma and i'm currently studying in university in my second year,i had some special course about coding and programming and got certificate of a software developer.So this portofolio is about who i am and what i do and some projects i previously worked on .Ever since i was a little girl is used to love seeing people playing around with the keyboard and as i grew up i came up realizing that i'm passionate about coding and started my journey in coding.I have always loved reading books,watching tv shows and documentaries..actually it is what i do for fun.


FLIRT A film review by Joan Ellis Copyright 1996 Nebbadoon Syndicate
"The publicity release for "Flirt" sums it up: " 'Flirt' is the same story set in three different places and told in three different ways; an exploration of the universal themes of commitment, betrayal, indecision, catching a plane, losing a lover, and getting shot in the face." That's it. That's the movie, and that's Hal Hartley.
He has made an extremely funny and provocative statement about personal commitment as a global condition, and he has made it in bold, direct language and colors. The colors, even in the Tokyo night, are strong and clear, and the story is presented with stark clarity by American, German, and Japanese actors in Los Angeles, Berlin, and Tokyo. By keeping his script spare, Hartley shines the spotlight on his chosen themes with an economy of words, the better for us to ponder them.
The script is superbly superficial, a wonderfully comic statement that we humans usually reduce big themes to simple terms. When we're surprised, words fail us altogether. Mired in indecision, Hartley's characters beg others to make their decisions for them. They look at their dilemmas through a magnifying lens, making each decision far bigger than it need be, talking each one to death in the absence of ability to take action. Maybe the problem will go away, or at least solve itself.
Bill (Bill Sage) is comfortable in his lack of commitment to Emily (Parker Posey). Maybe there's something better out there, maybe he can have it all. In the 90 minutes she gives him to make his commitment to her as she leaves for Paris, Bill explores his options, gets shot in the face, and ends up in the hands of the most indecisive emergency room doctor this side of hell.
Desperate for help with his decision, Bill finds it in the men's room from a trio of toilet stall philosophers, who discuss his situation with hilarious self-absorption. And so it goes in Berlin, where a group of construction hard hats addresses Dwight's dilemma with utter gravity: "To flirt is to exist in ambiguity; we can't exist in ambiguity forever." And so it is in Tokyo with Miho, who is jailed for gun possession and receives wise and comic counsel from a marvelous trio of cellmates.
In a world where everyone tries to make decisions of the heart with reason, love and passion are lost in triviality. Someone always asks, "Is there a future for us?" Can a flirt ever stop wanting more time or more proof?
The movie is sharply suggests that we take ourselves far too seriously, that we reason the love right out of our lives. It hands us the comforting remedy of perspective by reminding us, three times over, that everything we have ever said, done, or thought of doing has been done a thousand times in our own and other languages.
Film Critic : JOAN ELLIS Word Count : 489 Studio : True Fiction Pictures Rating : NR Running Time: 1h25m
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THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY A film review by Sharon Connolly Copyright 1995 Sharon Connolly
Not having read the book, I cannot comment on its transfer to the big screen, but THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY is certainly a film worth seeing, if not just for Meryl Streep's mesmerizing performance alone. True, the film has its flaws like poor character development of Robert Kincaid but the essential theme is relative to most anyone especially those of us who have taken marital vows. Yes, it's possible to fall in love again, feel young again and experience that sexual huner and yearning no matter how old we are.
Someone mentioned having a problem believing this frumpy housewife could begin lusting after this world-traveled photographer. Well, I'm 51 years old and I'm sure I'm regarded as a frumpy housewife and yet, what I felt at 20 has not disappeared. Why do some people think only the young and beautiful have cornered this market on sex? We saw this happen to another ordinary English housewife in BRIEF ENCOUNTER. In fact, the more ordinary the woman, the more meaningful the story.
I will admit it's much more a woman's film. The emotional content is highly volatile and will perhaps provoke some sentimental and sad memories as well as some happy ones. How many of us go through life feeling we could have had more? There are always an infinite number of "if only's" in our lives.
Meryl Streep certainly became Francesca to her audience over the 135 minutes we watched her. Her accent was superb - as usual. (Remember OUT OF AFRICA?) Even her physical appearance seemed changed. Yes, Meryl carried the film. She was well directed by Clint but I agree with many others that he didn't fit the role. He could have more easily played the quiet and laid back husband. Don't we know Clint as a man of few words? I envisioned someone with a really sexy voice and it was ironic that someone mentioned Sam Elliot though I prefer the likes of Peter Coyote. Now there's a man you could think about bathing with by candlelight!!
Most men will probably find this film very dull, much too long and not too relevant. Women, however, love romanticism and never seem to get enough and never lose their yearning for it no matter how realized it is in their own lives. If you feel unfulfilled, you'll leave the theater feeling a little better in the way you related to Francesca or if you're like me and was fortunate in finding a "soulmate" in a husband, then you'll feel really blessed. (But I'm still going to dream and yearn)
From: Mrs. C.
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libs6dns
s6-dns
Software
skarnet.org
The following functions are declared in the s6-dns/s6dns-resolve.h header, and implemented in the libs6dns.a or libs6dns.so library.
s6dns_resolve provides functions and macros - mostly macros - to perform high level synchronous DNS resolution.
All the functions declared here make synchronous calls to the network, so they can block for a non-negligible amount of time. To avoid unbounded waiting times, they always take 2 arguments at the end, deadline and stamp. deadline is the read-only address of a tain_t containing an absolute time which is the deadline for the function, and stamp is the read-write address of a tain_t being an accurate enough representation of the current absolute time. If the function has not returned by *deadline, then it immediately returns with a failure code and errno set to ETIMEDOUT. In every case, *stamp is automatically updated so it always represents the absolute time accurately enough.
In a single-threaded program, the STAMP global variable can be used to store the current time. Macros ending with _g use this variable automatically so you don't have to provide the stamp argument everytime. Additionally, several resolution functions make implicit use of global variables such as:
Reentrant, non-global-using functions are also provided, with the _r suffix. In other words, if foobarfunc is a resolution function, the following prototypes are generally provided, from the simplest to the most complex:
For each set of four functions, only one is documented here. The other prototypes can be found in the s6-dns/s6dns-resolve.h file.
Some errno codes reported by these functions do not have exactly the system meaning given by strerror(). To get a user-friendly error message, use s6dns_constants_error_str(errno) instead. The s6dns_constants_error_str function is declared in the s6dns-constants.h header.
These functions are ordered from the lowest level to the highest level.
int s6dns_resolve_loop_r_g (s6dns_engine_t *dt, tain_t const *deadline)
Resolves the query stored in dt.
Returns 1 on success or 0 on failure.
int s6dns_resolve_core_g (s6dns_domain_t const *d, uint16_t qtype, tain_t const *deadline)
Resolves the query on domain *d (in packet form), of type qtype.
Returns 0 on failure, or 1 on success, in which case
s6dns_engine_here contains the answer.
int s6dns_resolve_parse_g (s6dns_domain_t const *d, uint16_t qtype, s6dns_message_rr_func_t *f, void *data, tain_t const *deadline)
Resolves the query on domain *d (in packet form), of type qtype,
then parses the answer with function f and stores the result into data.
Returns 1 if it succeeds, 0 if no data can be extracted from the answer, or -1 if an
error occurs. Sets errno in the last two cases.
Note that the function can return 1 without appending anything to data. This means that the servers confirmed that the domain exists, but f has not been able to find any data relevant to the query in the answer. This is very different from NXDOMAIN, which means that the servers deny the actual existence of the domain, and which is reported here as a return code of 0 with errno set to ENOENT.
int s6dns_resolvenoq_g (char const *name, size_t len, uint16_t qtype, s6dns_message_rr_func_t *f, void *data, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a query of type qtype on name name of length len,
without qualifying it. Parses the answer with function f and stores the
result into data. Returns 1 if it succeeds, 0 if no data can be extracted,
or -1 if an error occurs. Sets errno in the last two cases.
int s6dns_resolveq_g (char const *name, size_t len, uint16_t qtype, s6dns_message_rr_func_t *f, void *data, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a query of type qtype on name name of length len,
qualifying it first. Parses the answer with function f and stores the
result into data. Returns 1 if it succeeds, 0 if none of the FQDNs can
get a positive answer, or -1 if an error occurs. Sets errno in the last two cases.
int s6dns_resolve_g (char const *name, size_t len, uint16_t qtype, s6dns_message_rr_func_t *f, void *data, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a query of type qtype on name name of length len.
Qualifies name first if qualif is nonzero; else, does not
qualify it. Parses the answer with function f and stores the
result into data. Returns 1 if it succeeds, 0 if none of the FQDNs can
get a positive answer, or -1 if an error occurs. Sets errno in the last two cases.
int s6dns_resolve_a_g (stralloc *ips, char const *name, size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an A query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the IPs are
appended to the stralloc *ips, using 4 bytes per answer.
int s6dns_resolve_aaaa_g (stralloc *ips, char const *name, size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an AAAA query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the IPs are
appended to the stralloc *ips, using 16 bytes per answer.
int s6dns_resolve_aaaaa_g (genalloc *ips, char const *name, size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an AAAA query and an A query at the same time on name name
of length len, qualifying it first iff qualif is nonzero.
Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or a positive number if it succeeds: 1 if IPv4 addresses
were found, 2 if IPv6 addresses were found, and 3 if both were found.
The IPs are appended to the genalloc *ips, which contains an array of
ip46full_t, the skalibs structure used to store IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
indiscriminately.
int s6dns_resolve_ptr_g (genalloc *ds, char const *name, size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a PTR query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *ds, which contains an array of s6dns_domain_t.
int s6dns_resolve_name4_g (genalloc *ds, char const *ip, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a PTR query on the in-addr.arpa. name representing the IPv4
address ip (4 network-order bytes).
Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *ds, which contains an array of s6dns_domain_t.
int s6dns_resolve_name6_g (genalloc *ds, char const *ip, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a PTR query on the ip6.arpa. name representing the IPv6
address ip (16 network-order bytes).
Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *ds, which contains an array of s6dns_domain_t.
int s6dns_resolve_name46_g (genalloc *ds, ip46full_t const *ip, tain_t const *deadline)
Calls s6dns_resolve_name6_g() or s6dns_resolve_name4_g()
depending on which ip is an IPv6 or IPv4 address.
int s6dns_resolve_ns_g (genalloc *ds, char const *name, size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a NS query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *ds, which contains an array of s6dns_domain_t.
int s6dns_resolve_cname_g (genalloc *ds, char const *name, size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a CNAME query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *ds, which contains an array of s6dns_domain_t.
int s6dns_resolve_hinfo_g (genalloc *hinfos, char const *name,
size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an HINFO query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *hinfos, which contains an array of
s6dns_message_rr_hinfo_t.
int s6dns_resolve_mx_g (genalloc *mxs, char const *name,
size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an MX query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *mxs, which contains an array of
s6dns_message_rr_mx_t.
int s6dns_resolve_soa_g (genalloc *soas, char const *name,
size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an SOA query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *soas, which contains an array of
s6dns_message_rr_soa_t.
int s6dns_resolve_srv_g (genalloc *srvs, char const *name,
size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an SRV query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *srvs, which contains an array of
s6dns_message_rr_srv_t.
int s6dns_resolve_caa_g (genalloc *caas, char const *name,
size_t len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs a CAA query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case the domains are
appended to the genalloc *caas, which contains an array of
s6dns_message_rr_caa_t.
int s6dns_resolve_txt_g (stralloc *sa, genalloc *offsets, char const *name,
unsigned int len, int qualif, tain_t const *deadline)
Performs an TXT query on name name of length len, qualifying it
iff qualif is nonzero. Returns -1 if an error occurs, or 0 if no answer
can be obtained from servers, or 1 if it succeeds, in which case:
int s6dns_resolven_loop_g (s6dns_engine_t *dtl, unsigned int n,
unsigned int or, tain_t const *deadline)
Resolves the n queries stored in the array pointed to by dtl,
in parallel. If or is zero, it does not return before all answers
have arrived. If or is 1, it returns when an answer arrives, but does
not return if a query generates an error (unless all queries do so). If
or is 2, it returns when an answer arrives or an error occurs.
Other values of or are unspecified yet.
The return code is as follows:
If or is 1, a return code of -1 with errno set to ENOENT means that all the queries failed.
After the function returns, the status field of each s6dns_engine_t contains the error code relative to the query. A status of 0 means that an answer has properly arrived; EAGAIN means that the query is still pending (and the s6dns_engine_t has not been recycled); ECONNABORTED means that the query has not been properly initialized. Other codes report various network problems.
int s6dns_resolven_parse_g (s6dns_resolve_t const *list, unsigned int n,
tain_t const *deadline)
Performs n complete resolutions in parallel, parsing the results.
Returns 1 in case of success or 0 if a global error occurred.
list is a pointer to an array of n s6dns_resolve_t, which is a structure containing at least the following fields:
The s6dns_resolven_parse() function is a simple, convenient way to perform several resolutions in parallel to avoid the waiting time incurred by serial resolutions. However, it is still a synchronous function, and cannot replace a real asynchronous DNS library: for more complex parallel resolution needs, use the skadns library.


$total_price = isset($this->vars['total_price'])? $this->vars['total_price']:$model->total_price ?>
if($this->vars['formContext'] != 'preview'): ?> Add item


Prior to starting phase 0 at Dev Bootcamp, I took a quiz that assessed my thinking style according to the Gregorc Mind Styles model. Based on the results, my thinking style is Concrete Sequential, which means I learn best when information is presented sequentially with proof and examples.
In the context of Dev Bootcamp, this thinking style is evident by how I approach each week's material and challenges. I tend to work sequentially, while building on previous material and referencing examples in order to better understand concepts.
While I've benefited from a Concrete Sequential thinking style when learning the material, it doesn't immediately lend itself to solving problems that are more abstract or complex. When I approach writing code, I tend to address each requirement line by line, rather than breaking down a problem into parts and coding for each. As problems become more complex, a non-linear piecemeal approach will help me conceptualize solutions. I think of coding like solving a jigsaw puzzle, and it's hard to imagine someone solving a 500-piece puzzle in order. That is, of course, unless YOU do...which is totally fine.
While the quiz deemed that I have a Concrete Sequential thinking style, it's important to note that the Gregorc model does come with a caveat. No one is strictly one style. The model is just referencing your dominant style. Furthermore, if we think about Carol Dweck's theory on growth mindset, it's possible for people to change their thinking style based on how they exercise their minds given tasks. While working through this week's problems, I already feel myself thinking more abstractly about concepts when pseudocoding.
As I progress through Dev Bootcamp, I hope to expand on my Conrete Sequential thinking and become more abstract when tackling larger problems. It wasn't until writing this post that I considered how this change may already be taking place.


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Jigsawed 2010 Ephemeron Industries Contracted Development
An existing application which I was contracted to enhance. My most significant contributions have been a major refactor and rewrite of the puzzle view itself primarily to support zooming and panning, iPad support, and in-app purchase.
In addition to adding the ability to zoom in and out of the puzzle view at high resolution, I also re-designed the puzzle pieces so that they could be joined together and manipulated seamlessly as groups, without any shadow overlap artifacts. A great deal of work went into optimizing this code due to memory limitations on older devices.
The addition of iPad support was fairly straightforward. My model for its design was the Mail application, using a master-detail split view to present the main menu and image picker. In-app purchase was implemented using JSON to retrieve product information from a server. Once a purchase is made, the pack of puzzle images is retrieved as a Zip file. The user experience is designed to be familiar to users of the App Store, with preview images and progress bars for downloads.


Probabilisitc modeling follows a simple pipeline as shown in the figure below. We have some questions, so we build a model to answer them, and use the available data to infer the parameters of our model. We then use our model to make predictions, or explore data further, and hence evaluate our model. The bottleneck of this pipeline is inference. More often than not, inference of real-world models is computationally intractable, and require some form of approximation. One such approximation technique is variational inference.
Variational inference converts an inference problem to an optimization problem. The idea is to consider a variational distribution q(z | \lambda ) over all the hidden variables and bring it as close as possible to the actual posterior distribution p(z | \theta ). To do so, we minimize the KL divergence between the actual posterior and our variational approximation. Minimizing divergence can be shown to be the same as maximising the ELBOEvidence Lower BOund given by,
\begin{aligned}
\text{ELBO} = L( \lambda ) = \textbf{E}_{q}[\log{p(x, z)} - \log{q(z)}] \\
\end{aligned}
The recipe for VI is as follows -
\begin{aligned}
\text{Build model }\green{p(X, Z)} \rightarrow \text{Choose approx. } \green{q(z | \lambda)} \rightarrow \text{Compute \red{ELBO}} \rightarrow \text{Take derivatives and optimize}
\end{aligned}
This approach too has a bottleneck - the calculation of ELBO, which requires computing intractable expectations for most models. There are some model specific tricks (like Jaakola-Jordan’s logistic likelihood trick) to make the computation easier, in addition to assuming simpler structures (like mean-field VI) for the variational distribution. We could also find tractable
model-specific bounds for ELBO. However, these tricks don’t generalize well across other models. We can’t really go on deriving tricks for all models.
Moreover, referring to our pipeline, we
can’t let our inference techniques determine what models to choose. Liabilities in computation
of inference should in no way influence or restrict our choice of models. The paper addresses
this problem by proposing a model-agnostic trick to make VI computations easier, thereby
enabling us to freely explore complex models. The goal of the paper is to help users make
easy iterations in the probabilistic pipeline - continuously trying new innovative models and
improving upon them, instead of getting stuck in tedious inference calculations. The freedom
that the idea provides to users is what I like the most about this paper.
The core idea of BBVI is - What if we take derivatives first and then compute expectations? The Black-box VI recipe is as follows -
\begin{aligned}
\text{Build model }\green{p(X, Z)} \rightarrow \text{Choose approx. } \green{q(z | \lambda)} \rightarrow \text{Compute \green{derivatives} of ELBO} \rightarrow \text{Compute \green{expectations}}
\end{aligned}
Via some calculations, we can show that the gradient of ELBO with respect to variational parameters \lambda has the following form -
\begin{aligned}
\nabla_{\lambda}L &= \textbf{E}_{q}[\blue{\nabla_{\lambda}\log{q(z|\lambda)}}(\log{p(x, z)} - \log{q(z | \lambda)})] \\
& \downarrow \\
& \text{Monte-carlo approximation} \\
& \downarrow \\
\nabla_{\lambda}L
&\approx \frac{1}{S}\sum_{s=1}^S{\blue{\nabla_{\lambda}\log{q(z_s|\lambda)}}(\log{p(x, z_s)} - \log{q(z_s | \lambda)})} \quad z_s \sim q(z | \lambda)
\end{aligned}
There are no tedious assumptions on the model; It need not be continuous. It need not be differentiable. We just need to ensure that \log{p(x, z)} can be computed. Since q(z | \lambda) is in our hands, we could choose it to be such that we can sample from it and that it is differentiable. So this is not a problem too. One advantage is that we can actually re-use our variational distributions. Since the gradient computations do not involve any model-specific attributes (black box!), we could just collect some q_i(z | \lambda) distributions, compute gradients, sample from them, store in a library, and try it out on various models as and when needed.
Instead of computing expectations, we could use Monte carlo approximation and arrive at noisy unbiased gradients. Once we have all the gradients, we make gradient descent steps in the variational parameter space, ie, \lambda^{(t+1)} = \lambda^{(t)} + \rho^{(t)}\nabla_{\lambda}L^{(t)}
Since VI is based on minimizing KL divergence, it is bound to have variance-related issues. Specifically, VI underestimates variance of true posterior. To see this, say true post. p(z | \theta) is variadic, and shoots up in some region. Since KL(q || p) = \int q\log{(q / p)}, our optimization could do away with giving a small value to q, which also minimizes KL(q || p), therein underestimating the variance of p.
In BBVI, since we are using Monte-carlo sampling, we end up with very noisy gradients. The steps we take are not so optimal more often than not, and this leads to very high variance. The time taken for convergence is also long, since the step size is small owing to the noisy nature of gradients. To put simply, basic BBVI fails if variance is not controlled. The paper proposes two methods to control variance of gradients. They are explained below.
Rao-Blackwellization
Suppose we want to compute the expectation of a random variable. If we could collect information that we already know of the random variable and condition the expectation on this information, we could possibly reduce the variance in the expectation. Mathematically, say, T = \textbf{E}[J(X, Y)] and \hat{J}(X) = \textbf{E}[J(X, Y) | X). Then, using law of iterated expectations and law of total variance,
\begin{aligned}
\textbf{E}[\hat{J}(X)] &= \textbf{E}[\textbf{E}[J(X, Y) | X)] = \textbf{E}[J(X, Y)] = T\\
\text{var}(J(X, Y)) &= \textbf{E}[\text{var}(J(X, Y | X))] + \text{var}(\hat{J}(X)) \implies \text{var}(J(X, Y)) > \text{var}(\hat{J}(X))
\end{aligned}
Effectively, we have a proxy for computation of T. Instead of computing expectation of \red{J(X, Y)} , use expectation of \green{\hat{J}(X)}, which is of lower variance. This is the Rao-Blackwellization method.
In our case, using mean-field assumption, we can factorize and show that,
\begin{aligned}
\textbf{E}[J(X, Y | X)] = \textbf{E}_y[J(x, y)]
\end{aligned}
Essentially, we'd need to integrate out some variables to compute the conditional expectations, which would thereby reduce variance. So, in case we seek ELBO gradient with respect to \lambda_i, we could integrate out other factors by iteratively taking expectations, arriving at the final form -
\begin{aligned}
\nabla_{\lambda_i}L &= \textbf{E}_{q(i)}[\blue{\nabla_{\lambda_i}\log{q(z_i|\lambda_i)}}(\log{p_i(x, z_{(i)})} - \log{q(z_i | \lambda_i)})]
\end{aligned}
Here, z_{(i)} is the markov blanket of i^{th} factor, p_i includes terms from i^{th} factor. Importantly, this form is model-agnostic too. There are no model-specific conditional expectations! Experiments conducted by the authors showed great reduction in variance and time by incorporating Rao-Blackwellized gradients.
Control Variates
Again, the idea is to find a proxy for our computation, which gives the same expectation but with lesser variance. Control variates are a family of functions that satisfy the conditions for this proxy. Define
\begin{aligned}
\hat{f}(z) &= f(z) - a(h(z) - \textbf{E}[h(z)]) \implies \textbf{E}[\hat{f}] = \textbf{E}[f] \quad \text{and} \\
\text{var}(\hat{f}) &= \text{var}(f) + a^2(\text{var}(h)) - 2a\text{Cov}(f, h)
\end{aligned}
Here \hat{f} are the control variates. We can minimize the variance of \hat{f} by tweaking a. Note that its really important that we pick h that is correlated to f, thereby providing some additional information about f. Only then we can reduce variance of f.
For our ELBO gradient case, we could use h = \nabla_{\lambda}\log{q(z | \lambda)}. Note that its expectation is zero. Also, we are in accordance with the model-agnostic flavor as h doesn't have any model-specific terms. We compute the optimum a^* that minimizes variance of \hat{f} using this h, and applying Rao-Blackwellization too, we end up with
\begin{aligned}
\nabla_{\lambda_i}L
&= \frac{1}{S}\sum_{s=1}^S{\blue{\nabla_{\lambda_i}\log{q(z_s|\lambda_i)}}(\log{p_i(x, z_s)} - \log{q_i(z_s | \lambda_i)} - a_i^*)} \quad z_s \sim q_{(i)}(z | \lambda)
\end{aligned}
Using the above Monte Carlo gradients, authors improve upon basic BBVI to arrive at BBVI-II. The authors achieved very good results, trying various complex models on longitudinal healthcare data. As expected, BBVI-II outperforms other standard methods such as Gibbs Sampling, mean-field VI etc. Note that the authors have used AdaGrad method for setting learning rates instead of Robbins-Monro rates. AdaGrad rates ensure that when variance in gradient is high, the learning rate is low and vice-versa.


List of all members.
Public Member Functions |
| | DocumentPersistence (Document doc) |
| | Creates a new instance, prepared to load and save documents.
|
| abstract Document | Load (string f) |
| | Ignoring the stored document, if it exists, loads a new document.
|
| abstract void | Save (string f) |
| | Save the specified f.
|
Constructor & Destructor Documentation
| Bareplan.Core.DocumentPersistence.DocumentPersistence |
( |
Document |
doc | ) |
|
Creates a new instance, prepared to load and save documents.
- Parameters:
-
| doc | The document to save. Pass null if you are going to load a new one. |
Member Function Documentation
| abstract Document Bareplan.Core.DocumentPersistence.Load |
( |
string |
f | ) |
|
|
pure virtual |
| abstract void Bareplan.Core.DocumentPersistence.Save |
( |
string |
f | ) |
|
|
pure virtual |
Property Documentation
| Document Bareplan.Core.DocumentPersistence.Document |
|
getset |
The document saved or loaded.
The documentation for this class was generated from the following file:
- C:/Users/baltasarq/Dropbox/prys/bareplan/Core/DocumentPersistence.cs


pause
play
Enter your sudoku puzzle data following rules:
Start from the
top
row
Fill all numbers from
left
to
right
where
empty cells
should be a
0
Repeat rule
2
with every row
Cheat!
Resolving speed
Resolve now!


referenced
by None at 2022-04-14 14:09:46.merged
by None at 2022-04-14 14:09:46.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 14:09:47.head_ref_deleted
by None at 2022-04-14 14:09:47.closed by https://github.com/pulibrary/aspace_helpers/pull/195
unlabeled
by None at 2022-04-14 15:27:20.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 15:28:00.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 15:28:36.Alma doesn't allow for overlaying holdings or items, so this workflow needs to be separate from the aspace2alma workflow.
labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 15:29:08.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 15:30:42.deployed
by None at 2022-04-13 23:22:26.referenced
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-13 23:23:58.merged
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-13 23:23:58.closed
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-13 23:23:58.head_ref_deleted
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-13 23:23:59.referenced
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:41:27.merged
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:41:27.closed
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:41:27.head_ref_deleted
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:41:28.referenced
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:42:24.merged
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:42:24.closed
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:42:24.head_ref_deleted
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 00:42:24.@hackartisan Steve F. Just reported the Lapidus collection went down to only 336 items from over a thousand. It is the same issue I saw with Wills manuscripts collection. Something is up with reindex again. Can you have a look at what is failing?
According to figgy there should be 2542 complete open items in lapidus.
I ran Spotlight::ReindexJob.perform_later
on lapidus via console and it's starting to fill up more -- currently at 590 and climbing.
mentioned
by None at 2022-04-14 02:17:34.subscribed
by None at 2022-04-14 02:17:34.This ticket isn't really actionable. If catalogers do have a standardized way to treat this in metadata we could revisit.
labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 20:15:59.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:16:20.We ended up reingesting these items as just resources (not mvws)
closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:18:36.Pretty sure this was a resource that was in 2 different collections.
closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:19:19.This has been working recently. If it happens again, use the browser "inspect" tool and see if any errors show in the "console" tab. cut / paste those to this ticket (and reopen).
closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:21:25.This doesn't work still but we don't need it to anymore because we got the feature implemented in a preferred way (with date sorting).
closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:26:17.This was a duplicate of #1217
closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:37:06.These were reingested and it works now
closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:39:32.That exhibit isn't needed and we will delete.
labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 19:58:18.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 19:58:18.Usually the 856es have arks, which would often just link back to DPUL.
Close in favor of pulibrary/figgy#5076
unlabeled
by None at 2022-04-14 20:52:16.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 20:52:16.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 20:57:45.labeled
by Kim Leaman at 2022-04-15 00:48:45.@hackartisan This looks good. I'm not sure about other use cases. Does this feel safe to merge?
I dug into this a bit more and that flag is only used for make decisions about which characterization service to run. It was added in https://github.com/pulibrary/figgy/pull/1394/files in a way that looks to me like it's about distinguishing images resources from geo resources. The only thing that holds me back is I don't really know why we wouldn't want to run imagemagick on anything with the right mime type https://github.com/pulibrary/figgy/blob/93764af4ee1b70fe06cff7e6c9da73157e499049/config/config.yml#L222-L224 So I don't really have a grasp of why that flag is there to begin with.
I'm about 90% comfortable just merging it but it might be nice to see if @tpendragon would weigh in and it does seem like we have enough space on the timeline for that.
mentioned
by None at 2022-04-14 14:52:52.subscribed
by None at 2022-04-14 14:52:52.mentioned
by Trey Pendragon at 2022-04-14 15:55:56.subscribed
by Trey Pendragon at 2022-04-14 15:55:56.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 18:46:08.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 18:46:08.labeled
by Kim Leaman at 2022-04-14 18:08:49.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 19:04:54.labeled
by Kim Leaman at 2022-04-14 19:14:19.labeled
by Kim Leaman at 2022-04-14 19:14:19.mentioned
by Esmé Cowles at 2022-04-14 19:14:19.subscribed
by Esmé Cowles at 2022-04-14 19:14:19.renamed
by Esmé Cowles at 2022-04-14 19:17:07.deployed
by None at 2022-04-14 15:10:11.referenced
by Shaun Ellis at 2022-04-14 19:25:09.merged
by Shaun Ellis at 2022-04-14 19:25:09.closed
by Shaun Ellis at 2022-04-14 19:25:09.head_ref_deleted
by Shaun Ellis at 2022-04-14 19:25:10.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 19:25:44.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 19:25:44.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 19:26:03.labeled
by None at 2022-04-14 19:26:03.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 10:56:00.referenced
by None at 2022-04-14 10:56:00.merged
by None at 2022-04-14 10:56:00.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 10:56:01.head_ref_deleted
by None at 2022-04-14 10:56:02.head_ref_force_pushed
by None at 2022-04-14 10:56:49.head_ref_force_pushed
by None at 2022-04-14 10:57:54.deployed
by None at 2022-04-14 21:19:46.referenced
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-14 21:21:03.merged
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-14 21:21:03.closed
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-14 21:21:03.head_ref_deleted
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-14 21:21:03.This example seems to be a special case, since it has no holdings_1display.
Emailing this record, which has a holdings_1display, does include the location and call number.
referenced
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 01:10:54.merged
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 01:10:54.closed
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 01:10:55.head_ref_deleted
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 01:10:55.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 13:33:51.deployed
by None at 2022-04-14 13:22:29.referenced
by None at 2022-04-14 13:33:50.merged
by None at 2022-04-14 13:33:50.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 13:33:51.head_ref_deleted
by None at 2022-04-14 13:33:52.Coverage increased (+0.06%) to 94.492% when pulling 7a8f1430b9baf793730f81879adf310df5b6ad33 on update-temp-loc-item into 305791acee3326c62ba751b1e69b1074700d7bd9 on main.
review_requested
by Christina Chortaria at 2022-04-14 01:09:59.This issue seems to be specific to our checks within the holdings display section. When I create solr documents with empty fields and load them in as fixtures, Blacklight is smart enough not to display the fields. However, when it comes to arrays within the holdings_1display JSON, it looks like our custom check was not checking whether or not they were empty.
assigned
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-14 20:21:49.renamed
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-14 20:23:28.Coverage remained the same at 94.432% when pulling c0864a6450172221a905c226fad604d58329f25a on no-empty-supplements into 58e2516c4da67124c3f4ac4be6d93cfeb24f2a1b on main.
head_ref_force_pushed
by Jane Sandberg at 2022-04-14 20:37:24.assigned
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 15:17:13.referenced
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 18:05:05.merged
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 18:05:05.closed
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 18:05:05.head_ref_deleted
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 18:05:06.closed
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 18:12:52.referenced
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 18:35:31.merged
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 18:35:31.closed
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 18:35:31.head_ref_deleted
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 18:35:32.assigned
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 18:44:04.referenced
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:23:31.merged
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:23:31.closed
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:23:31.head_ref_deleted
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:23:32.referenced
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 19:19:11.merged
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 19:19:11.closed
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 19:19:11.head_ref_deleted
by Hector Correa at 2022-04-14 19:19:12.referenced
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:57:35.merged
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:57:35.closed
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:57:35.head_ref_deleted
by Bess Sadler at 2022-04-14 19:57:36.referenced
by Francis Kayiwa at 2022-04-14 12:52:38.merged
by Francis Kayiwa at 2022-04-14 12:52:38.closed
by Francis Kayiwa at 2022-04-14 12:52:38.head_ref_deleted
by Francis Kayiwa at 2022-04-14 12:52:38.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 14:29:17.referenced
by None at 2022-04-14 14:29:16.merged
by None at 2022-04-14 14:29:16.closed
by None at 2022-04-14 14:29:17.head_ref_deleted
by None at 2022-04-14 14:29:18.head_ref_force_pushed
by None at 2022-04-14 21:10:59.


Gujarat High Court Case Information System Print CR.A/10/3198 5/ 5 JUDGMENT IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 1031 of 1998 For Approval and Signature: HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE Z.K.SAIYED ========================================================= 1 Whether Reporters of Local Papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2 To be referred to the Reporter or not ? 3 Whether their Lordships wish to see the fair copy of the judgment ? 4 Whether this case involves a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the constitution of India, 1950 or any order made thereunder ? 5 Whether it is to be circulated to the civil judge ? ========================================================= PANKAJBHAI N VAIDYA - Appellant(s) Versus M/S DEMOSHA CHEMICAL LTD. & 6 - Opponent(s) ========================================================= Appearance : MR KP SHAH for Appellant(s) : 1, MR MB GANDHI for Opponent(s) : 1 - 6. MRS TRUSHA M GANDHI for Opponent(s) : 1 - 4. NOTICE SERVED for Opponent(s) : 2 - 4. Ms MITA PANCHAL, APP for Opponent(s) : 7 ======================================================== CORAM : HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE Z.K.SAIYED Date : 22/10/2008 ORAL JUDGMENT
The present acquittal Appeal has been filed by the appellant ? Assistant Law Officer under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, against the Judgment and order 13th January, 1998, rendered in Criminal Case No. 2238 of 1991, by the learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Valsad, whereby the learned Magistrate has acquitted all the accused from the offences charged against them.
It is the case of the appellant ? original complainant that as Assistant Law officer in Gujarat Pollution Control Board he was authorized to prosecute the persons who commit the breach of the provision of Section 4 of the Water (Prevention of Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (for short ?Sthe Water Act??). The respondent No.1 is a limited company and the respondents No.2 to 6 are the Directors of the said respondent No.1 ? Company. The respondent No.1 company was running the industry of Sodium Hydro, Zinc Hydrokside, Liquid Sulfur, etc. and for that purpose the company is using castic Soda, Sulfur, Soda Ash, etc. as raw-material and for that purpose they were using the water and discharging about 45,000 ltrs. water and the respondents were discharging the said polluted water out side in open place without purification. The respondents have obtained permission from the Gujarat Water Pollution Control Board (for short ?SGPCB??). However, the GPCB has vide order dated 25.5.1989 has rejected the application dated 5.4.1989 made by the respondent No.1 for getting the consult. The Officer of the Board has visited the company premises of respondent No.1 on 14.12.1990 and issued the notice getting sample. The sample was taken in presence of Supervisor of the company and the same was sent to the Analyst. After examining the Analyst found that the respondents are discharging the effluent/polluted water and thereby they have committed the offence punishable under the Water Act. Thereupon the complainant filed Complaint under Sections 24, 25 read with Sections 43, 44 and 47 of the Water Act.
The learned JMFC framed the charge Ex.82 against the accused. Thereafter the evidence was led and after hearing the parties the learned Magistrate came to the conclusion that the prosecution has failed to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt and acquitted all the accused from the charges levelled against them.
Being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the said Judgment and order dated 13.1.1998 rendered by the learned JMFC, Kadi, in Criminal Case No. 2238 of 1991, the appellant has preferred this Appeal, in the capacity of the complainant.
Heard learned APP Ms. Mita Panchal for the State and learned Senior Advocate Mr. M.B. Gandhi on behalf of the respondents ? original accused.
It is contended by learned APP that the Judgment and order of the trial Court is against the provision of law; the trial Court has not properly considered the evidence led by the prosecution and looking to the provisions of law itself it is established that the prosecution has proved the whole ingredients of the evidence against the present respondents. Learned APP has also read the oral as well as the documentary evidence.
On behalf of the respondents ? accused learned Senior Advocate Mr. Gandhi has contended that the matter is very old. He has also contended that from the evidence itself it appears that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and has failed to prove the allegation made against the present respondents. He has also contended that the prosecution has not produced any iota of evidence to connect present respondents in the said offence. He has also read the Report of the Expert and contended that the trial Court has considered all the relevant aspects of the matter as well as documentary and oral evidence and after considering all the aspects of the matter the trial Court has acquitted all the accused. Lastly, he contended that the learned Magistrate has assigned cogent reason and after fully appreciating the evidence the learned Magistrate has rightly acquitted the accused from the offences charged against them.
I have gone through the Judgment and order passed by the learned Magistrate. I have also perused the oral as well as documentary evidence led before the trial Court and also considered the submissions made by the learned Counsel for the respective parties. From the evidence itself it is established that the prosecution has not proved its prima facie case beyond reasonable doubt. When the prosecution has failed to establish its case against the accused then the accused are entitled to get the benefit of doubt and there is no reason to interfere with the reasons assigned by the learned Magistrate.
It is settled legal position that in acquittal Appeal the appellate Court is not required to re-write the Judgment or to give fresh reasonings when the reasons assigned by the trial Court acquitting the accused. The Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of STATE OF KARNATAKA v/s. HEMAREDDY, reported in AIR 1981 SC 1417, has observed that when the Appellate Court agrees with the reasons and the opinion given by the lower Court then the re-discussion of evidence is not necessary. In the instant case, this Court is in full agreement with the reasons given and findings recorded by the trial Court while acquitting the respondents ? accused and adopting the said reasons and for the reasons aforesaid, in my view, the impugned Judgment is just, legal and proper and requires no interference by this Court at this stage.
In view of above discussion, I see no reason to interfere with the findings arrived at by the trial Court. Hence, this Appeal requires to be dismissed.
In the result, the Appeal is hereby dismissed. The impugned Judgment and order dated 13.1.1998 passed by the learned J.M.F.C., Valsad, in Criminal Case No. 2238 of 1991 acquitting the respondents ? accused, is hereby confirmed. Bail bonds, if any, shall stands cancelled.
(Z.K.SAIYED, J.) sas Top


Before Change
if kwargs:
LOGGER.warn("Keyword argument(s) {0} are not used."
.format(", ".join([repr(key) for key in kwargs])))
try:
import urllib.parse
After Change
sequence = ("ASFPVEILPFLYLGCAKDSTNLDVLEEFGIKYILNVTPNLPNLFENAGEFKYKQIPI"
"SDHWSQNLSQFFPEAISFIDEARGKNCGVLVHSLAGISRSVTVTVAYLMQKLNLSMN"
"DAYDIVKMKKSNISPNFNFMGQLLDFERTL")
elif isinstance(sequence, Atomic):
sequence = sequence.select("calpha and chain %s" % chain).getSequence()
elif isinstance(sequence, Sequence):
sequence = str(sequence)
elif isinstance(sequence, str):
if len(sequence) == 4 or len(sequence) == 5:
ag = parsePDB(sequence)
sequence = ag.select("calpha and chain %s" % chain).getSequence()


The basic structure is like this:
Use the Prims syntax highlighter
Hit Ctrl+P or Shift+P to enter presenter mode.
Ctrl+P
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You should deal with the popup blocker.
Presenter mode display elements with class note
note


Hi, my name is Neha. A few months ago, I was trying to find an outfit for a wedding and failing miserably. Every website I came across either had dated styles or horror stories for reviews. After agonizing for a week, I finally bit the bullet and bought a lehenga, never to hear from the retailer again. That's when I knew something had to change. Laado is the Hindi word for "pampered", and I hope to make you feel the same.


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| DOSE: |
12 mg |
oral |
2C-E |
(powder / crystals) |
I知 a 23 year old male with a decent psychedelic background, but probably less than most people who write these reports ;)
I've had acid about 10 or so times, shrooms a few less, salvia twice, and I frequently smoke marijuana. I rarely take Legal drugs other than alcohol and caffeine (in tea) and I don't think I had even had tea that day, so the only thing I was 'on' was 2ce.
this was my first trip with 2ce or any RC.
My focus was getting a feel for this new chemical. hopefully I would have a fun time while also gain some insight or introspection. I知 not the type to take psychedelics purely for fun at a party or a rave, but I知 also not the type to look at tripping as completely mystical and spiritual, but I AM more of the latter. I like to experience empathy and although I was tripping alone, I wanted to connect with the 'oneness' that surrounds the talk of psychedelics.
So back in july I decided to go for it and ordered 250 mg of 2c-e. 3 months later (due to some complications) I received my product. I was greatly excited that it had finally arrived and I immediately went to my lab at school and measured out 12 mgs into a little dime bag (you know the ones). when I got home I dumped it into a tea cup, dissolved it in a little bit of warm water, and down the hatch in one gulp (around 5:00). had a slight taste, hard to describe (much of the experience is), but not bad. I had been cleaning my apartment when the mail came, so I continued to do so while I waited for the effects. I became quite sweaty from cleaning, so I decided to take a shower at about the 45 minute mark. I started to feel the effects in the shower...
It was a warm, fuzzy feeling in my stomach and limbs (kinda like I remember from acid [2ce is not acid though, each drug is it's own]) but at the same time the feeling of 'my body doesn't like this.' I got out, dried off, got dressed, and laid on my bed. I pretty much stayed here for the next several hours. I had my music on and I just listened and enjoyed. time was greatly distorted. it felt like every song was over too soon, but also that it had lasted forever. each song produced a unique CEV. with my eyes closed I was seeing spirals, colors, etc., it was like I was 'feeling' them. OEVs were present too, but not as intense. the walls pulsated, my skin crawled a little, the sky outside my window looked more beautiful than normal.
the whole time laying on my bed, I was thinking that I should be doing something more eventful - like go outside, play a videogame...something. but I was so content just laying there. I didn't experience any nausea really, or any unpleasant body load. the body buzz is a body load I guess, but it wasn't bad - it wasn't great either - I guess that's the neutrality of 2c-e. I was feeling guilty about not eating much of anything that day, so I grabbed an apple from the kitchen and brought it back to my bed. I gnawed on it for about 30 minutes.
After my apple, I called my girlfriend. she didn't pick up, but she called back shortly. 'what's up?' she said. 'oh, I知 just layin on my bed ... trippin.' so that set off a different type of conversation. she knew that I had it, not really happy about it, but she knew not to scold me or anything and ruin my trip. we had a very good conversation and after that I continued to lay on the bed, now in silence. I could barely bring myself to turn the music back on. I was just laying there, thinking of everything, but couldn't describe it, couldn't make sense of it. the biggest difference between LSD and 2c-e; acid makes me wanna get up and go, 2c-e glued me to the bed.
I noticed that my sense of smell was enhanced. my palms were sweating a bit (not completely out of the norm) and I was 'smelling myself.' the worst part of the trip was that I could smell dust. I had been vacuuming earlier, and I felt like I could smell the vacuum. it was very annoying.
The CEV's always related to the music were correlating with some very strange thoughts and feelings. at one point I 'felt like a cat.' doesn't really make any sense but that's what I thought at the time. I was coming to cliche conclusions. a voice in my head said 'I am the only one holding myself back!' like I control my own destiny. I had been half-wanting to go outside or do something, so I think it was referring to that, although it could have had a deeper meaning. around 9:00 maybe, I got on the computer and after awhile I decided I would venture outside.
 I went outside of my apartment complex and the village like atmosphere was pretty cool. (all the apartments are brick buildings that look the same.) it was cold enough to see my breath, but I wasn't too bothered by it. it felt good to inhale the cold air. it was about 10:00 at this point. I知 from the country/woods and now I live in a city, so I was a bit nervous about being out this late - especially in my altered state of mind.
I walked to a public park that's a block or two from where I live. I walked up the steps that go into it - which were pitch black. I stopped half way up and sat there looking back down at the road and the passing cars. I continued into the dark wooded area to see what I could see. The trees were mangled across the horizon, even though I could barely tell the difference between the two shades of black. I felt as if I was doing something wrong - like I shouldn't be there. maybe I shouldn't have - I think parks might close at dusk. I was worried to see another human, like if they saw me they would be wondering what I am doing? but what would they be doing? maybe we'd have something in common - or maybe they'd be out to harm me?
Anyways, I wasn't THAT worried about it, so I was still enjoying the scenery, and the music in my headphones. I sat on a bench in the dark for while. I seemed to like the dark or dim lit areas throughout this whole trip. but I did find myself in a very brightly lit area of the park. I felt like a spotlight was on me, and that it was so crazy to be SO lit up in the middle of the night. the view of the city lights was awesome, I was up on a high...I could see for quite a distance.
At some point on the walk home, I started to feel silly for taking this compound. As if it wasn't doing much for me - like in the long run? I dunno, it was definitely affecting me, but it was like I didn't need it - this was a part of my personality in a way. The views were astonishing, but they would have been without the drug too. I never would have went to the park at 10:00 at night, if I hadn't taken something though.
The smells were amazing as I walked though the park. I frequently took deep breaths through my nose to appreciate them. Might have something to do with the movie 'perfume.' well I got back home, had some toast somewhere in there, smelt 'the vacuum' again - ugh. laid around for awhile and eventually went to bed.
In summary:
It took about 50 mins to kick in, and lasted for around 7 or 8 hours, at which point I fell asleep pretty easily.

Writing this down really helped me to recall the trip and make something out of it.
Thanks for reading.
The title comes from a quote of mine on a later trip the same winter. 'looks like 2ce snow..' :) Most of my trials with 2ce were in the winter, in the evening seems to be a suitable setting
Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the individual authors who submit them.
Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid.