myheartsjourney

[myheartsjourney]

Who makes the porn bots. Where do they come from. What do they hope to achieve.

[myheartsjourney]

FYI : this website definitely DOES NOT have a million free TEXTBOOKS and in general books for you all to download 😌

No reason to reblog this 👀

[myheartsjourney]

die Bibliothek/die Bücherei  -  the library die öffentliche Bibliothek (ÖB) -  the public library die wissenschaftliche Bibliothek (WB)  -  the scientific library der Bücherbus  -  the bookmobile

der Bibliothekar  -  the librarian die Bibliothekarin  -  the female librarian der (Be)nutzer  -  the user/borrower die (Be)nutzerin  -  the female user

der Lesesaal  -  the reading room der Gruppenraum  -  the group room Öffnungszeiten  -  opening hours

der Buchbestand  -  the collection die Sammlung - the collection Medien  -  media (plural) das Bücherregal  -  the bookshelf die Signatur  -  the signature/shelfmark/book number katalogisierung  -  cataloging

die Buchempfehlung  -  the book recommendation die Neuerwerbung  -  the new acquisition die Fernleihe  -  the interlibrary loan die Leihfrist  -  the lending period die Rückgabe  -  the return die Verlängerung  -  the extension/renewal die Gebühr  -  the fee

verlängern  -  to extend/renew ausleihen  -  to borrow/loan vormerken  -  to reserve/place on hold vorlesen  -  to read aloud (to somebody)

das Buch (Bücher)  -  the book (books) die Zeitschrift  -  the magazine die Belletristik  -  fiction books der Roman  -  the novel der Krimi  -  the crime novel (also film/tv) die Erzählung  -  the story das Nachschlagewerk  -  the reference book das Sachbuch  -  the nonfiction book/fact book das Bilderbuch  -  the picture book das Hörbuch  -  the audiobook fremdsprachige Bücher  -  foreign language books Lehrmaterialen  -  teaching materials

[myheartsjourney]

Verstärkungswörter / Strengthening words

absolut - absolute/absolutely

total - total/totally

völlig - complete/completely

vollkommen - complete/completely

äußerst - extreme/extremely

überaus - extreme/extremely

brutal - brutally

irre - insane/crazy

entsetzlich - horrible/horribly

grässlich - awful/awfully

widerlich - disgusting

riesig - huge

furchtbar - frightful/frightfully

fürchterlich - dreadful/dreadfully

leidenschaftlich - passionately

großartig - awesome

unheimlich - uncanny

sehr, sehr - very, very

hoch- - high

ausgesprochen - decidedly

wahnsinnig - crazy

immer alles ganz - always the same

schrecklich - terribly

phantastisch - fantastic

ehrlich - honestly

bestimmt - great

sicher - certain/certaintly

sicherlich -certain/certaintly

echt - real

toll - great

prima - super

klasse - great

Spitze - top

bestimmt - certainly

wirklich - really

super - super

extrem - extreme/extremely

arg - very

verdammt - damn

ziemlich - somewhat

unverschämt - outrageous/outrageously

[myheartsjourney]

Burn Notice. [S1.E1: Pilot.]

[myheartsjourney]

an autistic’s foreign language study tips

preparation

choose a specific notebook for everything you learn. having one place to put everything down helps with organising your own brain. it doesn’t matter what your notebook looks like, but I would recommend finding a pretty or good quality one - it helps you see your language practice as more valuable and significant to your life

create a system to keep track of your progress, and DATE EVERYTHING. this is big in self-motivation and encouragement. if you have tangible evidence of how far you have come, it is easier to convince yourself, your self-doubt and anxiety, that you ARE doing good

put together or find a few playlists of songs sung in your chosen language to listen to, while you study or in your free time. this is called immersion. regardless of whether you understand the words or not, this gets you used to hearing your chosen language. the music itself can be catchy or chill, but most importantly, music in general trains your brain to focus (esp for us peeps who struggle with studying in silence). alternatively, podcasts or youtube videos are great resources!! listening to how native speakers pronounce the language will train your brain to pronounce the words the same as you study and practice - just like how when you were learning your first language, the pronunciations of the people around you molded the way you speak. side note: if your executive functioning is making it difficult to study, listening to your chosen language can keep your brain in the mode of learning without the stress of sitting down to study.

beginning

learn the personal pronouns first. words like I, you, we, me, they, she, he, etc. are immensely helpful when writing simple sentences. once you learn the most commonly used verbs, you can use both to begin expressing yourself and things around you.

find a list of the top most commonly used verbs. study these using whichever method fits your learning style the best. try to master 10 first, then move onto 20, gradually increasing the amount of words you study/memorize. make sure you adjust to your own capabilities; don’t overwhelm yourself, but don’t forget to challenge yourself a little.

HANDWRITE your chosen verbs. this will aid in muscle memory. you can copy the words down once or a hundred times, whichever works best for you, but writing it in your own handwriting imprints the image of the word into your mind. once you become familiar with the look of the word, it will be easier to read and recognise it.

learn how to conjugate your chosen verbs. conjugating is probably the most difficult, BUT once you figure out the basics, it’s smooth sailing (aside from the irregular verbs. they can sink into the abyss).

balance learning verbs with learning easy vocabulary. for me, learning words such as flower, tea, and forest are somehow much easier to remember than most verbs. that’s because these are things that you can SEE. you have an object to connect the word with - bam! automatic association technique.

begin writing your own sentences. it doesn’t matter if the sentences don’t make sense, it’s even better because the stark ridiculousness of your imagination will help you remember your vocab.

learn the lyrics to songs in your foreign language. this will help you practice the speaking skill of language learning. and we all know lyrics are much easier to memorise than lists of vocabulary. side note: singing along to songs is an effective way of learning if you don’t have time to sit down and dedicate an hour to studying. it’s also super fun!

IMPORTANT!!! continue to record your progress, whether it be in a notebook or a digital platform. i can’t seem to keep up with a bullet journal, but whatever system you create to keep track of your improvement, update it OFTEN (every day, every other day, or every week). you might even have fun recording your pronunciation (on video or audio) to look back on a few months down the road.

maintaining

study as often as you can, but DO NOT pressure yourself to do so every day. if you physically cannot study every single day, try the two day method. keep up the habit of studying your chosen language as much as you can, but if you need a break day, TAKE IT. but don’t allow yourself to go without studying a second day. this will be a challenge, but depending on how you schedule yourself, there is plenty of time for rest and recuperation. side note: there are challenges that you can do to externally motivate yourself to study often, such as the 30 days of studying or 100 days of productivity trends.

begin a journal in your chosen language. writing little things about your day, your thoughts, your life will advance your language learning process. you will become more familiar with everyday expressions, verbs, nouns, and you will practice conjugating in a low-stress, low-pressure environment. AND if you write often, even if it’s just a few sentences or words, you will train your brain to think in your chosen language in a way that is personal and memorable.

start a quote book. translate quotes from english to your foreign language, or find quotes already in your foreign language, and WRITE THEM DOWN. this will expose you to new vocabulary and motivate you to discover new sentence structures. this way you can meld language learning with your favourite interests and self-motivate

translate the lyrics to songs you love. whether it’s from your first language to your second or your second to your first, translate the words that make you happy. this mixes your passion with something that is a little more challenging and builds motivation and self-esteem.

IMPORTANT!!! continue to keep track of your progress. update that system you created in the beginning. maybe even once you’ve become comfortable enough speaking simple sentences, you can record yourself on video or audio. and if it’s not too anxiety inducing, maybe you could share your video/audio to ask for critique

note: this is by NO means, a complete “guide to language learning”. this is simply a list of things that have helped me learn better and encouraged me to study more often.

[myheartsjourney]

hi mr entj, how is it possible to land a FAANG job despite being at a low tier school? (for reference, my expected grad date is 2023.) more specifically, how does your resume get screened and pass screening if it doesn't belong to a target school? (for the interview, I'll be starting practicing leetcode/ctci/etc. along w/ your other advice.) I'm looking at freelancing, and I'm wondering if that'll do anything at all to increase my chances. is the strategy here just do other internships that build up to FAANG? thank you so much

*** If anyone else reading this wants a concrete example of why networking is important, I’m about to show you ***

Today’s your lucky day. I’m a senior mentor for the University Recruitment Program for the G in FAANG (Google), my brother is/was a software engineer hiring manager for the 2 As in FAANG (Apple and Amazon), and my sister-in-law is/was a software engineer hiring manager for the F and A in FAANG (Facebook and Apple). The only letter in FAANG our family doesn’t have is the N (Netflix) but they rarely hire new grad engineers anyway.

how is it possible to land a FAANG job despite being at a low tier school?  more specifically, how does your resume get screened and pass screening if it doesn't belong to a target school?

Get strong internship and programming experience displaying products you’ve led, coded, and launched (See my ‘internship’ tag for more)

Create a GitHub with examples of your code so hiring managers can review prior to an interview, this is mandatory, not optional

Create a crisp and clear resume outlining (in this order): education (show your GPA), technical skills in order of proficiency (programming languages), work experience (internships, research, etc.), and leadership activities (campus clubs, hackathons, sports, etc.) with a link to your GitHub at the top (See my ‘resume’ tag for more)

For education, emphasize data structure and algorithms if you’ve already taken these classes

For experience, this is the formula to use for your resume: “Accomplished [X] measured by [Y] by doing [Z].” Always quantify impact (user numbers, money, %, etc.) where possible

Apply by the application deadlines for new grad positions, if not, you’ll need to take another job elsewhere and try for FAANG after 1+ year of experience

Practice leetcode - this is mandatory, not optional 

For Google, go to google.com/students. Other FAANGs have their own student career pages-- use them 

For software engineering, your school tier matters less because engineering is a hard science major with interview processes that will screen your technical skills. You either can or can’t pass the technical exams which determine if you move to the final round. For that reason, there are software engineers in FAANG with no college degree at all but they have amazing coding talent.

At Google, all software engineering resumes are screened and reviewed by a human recruiter regardless whether they come from a target school or not. The resumes that move forward to a phone interview generally have strong programming experience (internships, projects, GitHub), strong academic performance (high GPA), and extensive leadership activities (campus involvement, clubs, hackathons). 

I'm looking at freelancing, and I'm wondering if that'll do anything at all to increase my chances. is the strategy here just do other internships that build up to FAANG?

Internships at peer companies > internships at small companies > freelancing. If it’s a choice between an internship or freelancing, do the internship. If it’s a choice between freelancing or nothing, do freelancing. The goal is to accumulate experience but also to show that you’ve passed other company hiring bars, use your judgment to accomplish that as effectively as possible. 

[myheartsjourney]

Hey! ☺️ I‘m absolutely impressed by your MM programming, and hope that you‘ll stay successful with it 😄 I was actually thinking of signing up for IT at university (since I finished highschool a few weeks ago, it‘s a little bit different here in Germany 😅) but sadly, I don‘t really know anything about programming ☹️ Do you have any recommendations as to where I could learn it from? (Books, videos...). Thanks in advance! 😇

Aw, thank you so much for the compliment! I really love programming and it’s fun to be able to make stuff like this ^^

I hope you don’t mind if I post this ask publicly, since I feel like there are others who could benefit from some of these resources too!

Getting started with Programming:

First off, if you’re programming for yourself, I’d recommend figuring out what you want to do with your programming skills. For a lot of people, including myself, making games is a really interesting topic, but you might be more interested in stuff like robotics, AI, or software programming. Here’s a neat infographic to give you some ideas on where to start:

(Full-sized version) (Image credit)

The best part about learning a programming language is that the more you learn, the easier it is to pick up other programming languages. For example, I’ve never actually studied Python, but I do know C++, both of which are something called an Object-Oriented language. So while much of the ‘syntax’ is different, the structure of classes and functions is quite similar for most basic tasks. So you don’t need to worry about any language being ‘useless’ as they’ll all help you improve your programming skills. 

*Note that C, Objective C, C#, and C++ are all separate languages (I know, it looks a bit confusing). There are several things that carry over between them, and sometimes you can run a C program in C++ for example, but it’s generally best to treat them as separate languages the way you would treat Python vs C++

**I do, however, recommend that once you’ve chosen your starter language, that you really learn it well. Think of it like learning a foreign language: if you spend a month on Spanish, Italian, and French, you’ll have a vague idea of how some of the basic verbs and sentences work in each language. But if you spend three months on just Italian, you’ll find that learning Spanish and French is much more intuitive and you can make more educated guesses on how certain grammar structures work in the other languages. 

Resources for learning how to code

There are many online sites that walk you through the basics of your language of choice. Not every website has all the programming languages you’ll find in the infographic, but they’re a good place to start:

Khan Academy

Codecademy

Free Code Camp

edX

MIT Open CourseWare

The above sites are free or mostly free (some require a premium subscription to access higher-level courses, but should get you through the basics). You’ll be able to find several more by Googling “learn Python online” or whatever your target language is. Especially if you’re just starting out, look for sites that have interactive coding segments that let you test out code right in the site, because with coding there’s really no better way to learn than trying things out yourself.

For specific programming questions, there’s really no better resource than Stack Overflow. It comes up automatically 90% of the time when you’re looking up questions anyway, but if you need to know something quick like “how to get last item of a list in Python”, they’ve got you covered.

I rarely if ever look up videos on coding just because it’s usually much easier to get your answers through other means, though I’m sure there are some good videos out there to help you learn – leave a comment if you know of any!

Similarly, there’s so much information accessible online that even my professors list all of our textbooks as ‘optional’ and I’ve never touched them. If you’re really having trouble with a specific function or don’t understand a programming concept, you can usually look up manuals online. That’s not to say all books are useless! Just that they aren’t necessary to learn a programming language if you don’t have the resources to buy them.

Other considerations

If you’d just like to get your feet wet and see if programming is right for you before diving in and learning a language, you might also want to consider looking into different game engines. Many are designed to make the coding as intuitive and easy-to-follow as possible, and while you won’t be able to add too much customization or stray too far from what the engine naturally allows for without some coding knowledge, it can be a good starting point to see if this kind of thing interests you.

Some common game engines include Unity, GameMaker: Studio, Ren’Py (what I’m using), Unreal, and RPG Maker. If this is the route you want to take, you can also look up tutorials on working with these game engines specifically, which can be motivating since you’ll be able to see many of the results right away in a game setting. However, if you’re looking to understand how to code more in-depth, it’s better to learn a language first and then come back to these engines and experiment.

[myheartsjourney]

How did you learn how to code?? If you’re self taught, then, what websites or books did you use that were helpful? I’m trying to teach myself how to program, but I’m having lots of difficulty and I really want to learn some more. Thanks!!

Thanks for the question!

First, I want to say there’s no shame in having difficulty learning computer science. When I took my first programming course, I understood nothing. It was at least a year before I thought I had any grasp over anything programming. My pal over at @delightedcrow told this story of his professor explaining just this: “When you start studying a new subject you’ve never been exposed to, it’s like jumping into a pool of new knowledge. When you first jump in after never setting foot into the pool, it’s going to be cold. Very cold. This is where people have trouble continuing because they were shocked by how cold it was and don’t want to jump back in. Instead, you need to take a small step and get comfortable with that before taking another.” With that said, when you learn a concept, try to code something outside of the examples you’re given using it to try to wrap your head around it. I don’t know who said it, but one motto I go by is “Code to learn, don’t learn to code.” I took an intro to Java course and learned a bit, but I got to where I am today because I wanted to see what I was able to do with the language and challenged myself to write larger and more complex programs.

There’s also nothing wrong with asking for help. I know some people think they should be embarrassed because they didn’t understand the material, so they don’t want to ask for help to avoid looking stupid. In reality, we’ve all been that person who struggled, and now that we’re in a better place, we want to help. If you ever have a program you’ve been struggling with and it doesn’t work no matter what you type or how many times you bang your head against your keyboard, ask for help. There are communities of programmers, like Stack Overflow and r/learnprogramming, that will be more than happy to help given that you’ve already scratched your head long enough.

I knew that I liked coding when I started studying computer science, but I didn’t know what I wanted to end up coding. It took me about three years of studying it to figure out what I even like. I don’t know if you’ve given this any thought, and it’s okay if you don’t know yet, but having an idea of what you want to do with coding helps. Here’s a few paths for you to consider:

Do you want to design websites? Learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Do you want to work with databases? Learn SQL (rather MySQL or NoSQL) and PHP

Do you like analyzing data and numbers? Learn Python and R

Do you enjoy statistics? Learn SAS and R

Do you enjoy mathematics? Learn Mathematica and MATLAB

Do you want to want to develop mobile apps? Learn Android (Java) and Swift.

Do you want to work on artificial intelligence? Learn Lisp or Prolog.

Do you want to make games? Learn Unity (C#) and C++

Do you want to make applications for the computer? Learn Java and C#

Do you like working with hardware? Learn Assembly and C.

Like I said, you don’t have to know what you want to do now, and you definitely don’t have to do all of them, but if you have an idea of what you want to do with coding, these are some languages to look into. There’s also no shame in trying one of these paths and figuring out that it’s not for you. While I currently only do two of these paths, I’ve dipped my foot into eight of them. One of my professors told me that most people spend their undergraduate degree in computer science figuring out what they don’t like so they can go to industry or grad school doing what they do like. If you know what you want to do, you can cater your studying more towards that and it would be more enjoyable.

Finally, study with the techniques that help you learn. I personally don’t like reading computer science books, but that’s not how I learn. When I learn something, I need to code an example of it to truly know how it works. Are you a visual learner? Watch a YouTube playlist on the language or topic you want to learn or take an online course on a site like edx. Do you want to follow an interactive tutorial where you learn step-by-step and do examples along the way? Try an online program like codecademy and sololearn. Do you like to test your knowledge on what you’ve learned? Take coding challenges on coderbyte and codechef. Do whatever you think will help you understand.

I hope this helps! Computer science is a hard field to get into, especially for those who are only interested in it for the prestige or money, but with the right amount of drive, passion, and determination, it is one of the most reward fields to get into.

[myheartsjourney]

Learning to like Physics

I actually cannot believe how much I used to hate Physics until last year, but then I actually took the time and effort to understand it and?? it’s so cool and fun and easy?? unreal.

It literally seemed impossible for me and I legit thought I wouldn’t be able to graduate because I was never gonna pass Physics (I’m a Math major so we actually have 4 required Physics courses). I don’t know what the point of this is but, don’t be afraid of Physics guys!! (or any other subject!!) yes it’s frustrating as hell and you feel dumb for not having a clue about what is happening or how to work out the problems but I swear once it clicks for you (and it will) it’s gonna be great.

So if anyone needs a step by step (for college/uni), here’s one:

Google is your best friend, the internet has plenty of videos/papers/worked out problems for you to check out. The most important thing to look for is drawings and videos that help you visualize what’s going on. In most of general physics, the key is to see what forces are acting, and from that follows everything else.

Know your core equations. Honestly it’s always the same ones in the end.

For mechanics: you absolutely gotta know Newton’s Laws, Work and its relation to Kinetic/Potential Energy. Momentum is also important.

For thermodynamics: First and Second Law of Thermodynamics; pV = nRT, Boyle/Gay Lussac etc (note that they’re all connected), Carnot’s Cycle.

For electromagnetism: Maxwell’s equations. This is as far as I’ve gotten in my studies.

Understand where the formulas come from, rather than learning them by heart. For me, this was necessary because my memory is absolutely shit so there was no way I could remember every variation. But most of the formulas actually do make sense, and once you’ve drawn out a diagram of what’s happening, you can work them out yourself.

For the previous point, I suggest you watch and rewatch your professor’s explanation until you get the gist. Don’t get discouraged if it’s not immediately crystal clear, seek out other explanations if you need to. Then try to do it yourself.

ASK. FOR. HELP. I cannot stress this enough, do not feel ashamed about asking questions in class or during office hours. There are no stupid questions, and you’re paying thousands every year for people to teach you. Also physics is hard, so you’re pretty much expected to not understand immediately. Moreover, I can guarantee there’s at least one other person in the room with the same question who’s too afraid to ask. I was that person, and I failed the class because of it. Don’t be me.

Practice until you’re able to do most variations of standard problems. Once you’re able to do a certain problem, try to change it and see what happens. You don’t have to crunch the numbers all over again, go with your intuition first. Then you can calculate everything and see if you were correct.

This is all I’ve got at the moment. It applies to General Physics because I’m still pretty shit at Mathematical Physics (Rational Mechanics?) lmao, which is why I don’t talk about Lagrangians and such here.

If anyone has any other tips (for Mathematical Physics as well!) , please feel free to add them. Note that I’m from Italy, and this is what it was like for me. Other countries might have different ways of testing or focus on some formulas that I haven’t included. Do what works for you, obviously.

Good luck STEM students, I know it’s hard, but hopefully worth it in the long run :)

[myheartsjourney]

How to study Math

It’s gonna be similar to my Learning to like Physics post, and I really hope this helps anyone who needs it. I’m not gonna ramble about my tragic backstory with math, just that I had a really bad math teacher in high school which made me completely lose interest in math/physics. Having to study it on my own however, I realized I actually liked it, and I am currently pursuing a Math degree.

This turned out longer than I thought so I added a cut.

I think these tips can apply to anyone who is studying math, be it high school/college students or anyone self studying. Alright, here goes:

It’s so much easier to understand something if you can visualize it. I can guarantee most math topics (except higher level/multidimensional math) have a visual representation or a diagram you can refer to. Wikipedia is good for pictures, but Khan Academy and 3blue1brown on youtube are even better because they explain the concepts with beautiful graphics, and they honestly saved my life.

Related to the previous point, you really should know how to graph the most common functions, because it comes in handy with pretty much anything tbh. You can even solve equations just by drawing out the two sides! Or at the very least it tells you how many solutions the equation has. If the functions are complicated by all means use a graphing calculator! My favorite online one is desmos.

Break it down. I get really discouraged when I see long sums and formulas because I already know I won’t be able to remember them. So I usually try to split them into parts and see where each comes from, or I try to figure out how someone would come up with this in the first place. Your profs might also have explanations or mnemonic devices to help you remember it. 

Seeking out applications in physics, or anywhere really is also very helpful. For example, I didn’t understand divergence and curl at all until I saw them in electromagnetic fields, and what they mean in terms of how the charge/particles flow.

Note taking: I learned the hard way that what your prof says but doesn’t write, is way more important than what they write on the board. Mostly because what they write down (theorem, proofs, calculations) can also be found in the textbook. On the other hand, more high level explanations (as in informal and more accessible) often aren’t. WRITE THOSE DOWN. It’ll be useless to have written down the theorem word by word, if you don’t take note of what it means an how to use it. In exams as well, they are mostly gonna test your understanding of it. Also, write down why you’re doing a certain passage, or why you’re allowed to do it. 

If you know your prof goes too fast and you can’t keep up, record your lectures. Not everyone might need this. Even though it is very time consuming to go through it again, you can always skip to the parts you need or listen on 1.5x. Better to spend time on listening to the lesson again, than to stare at your notes without understanding what you wrote and why. For me, something that I didn’t get at all in class might be very easy to understand if I hear it again while I don’t have to focus on writing it down.

Messy notes are okay, and encouraged. Prioritize understanding your notes rather than their neatness. I write faster in cursive, so now that’s all I use even though my notes look awful. But at least I get more stuff down. Moreover, my need for pretty and neat notes was just a symptom of my obsession with perfection, which I’m trying to let go of because it just adds extra stress.

Flash cards are the best. Super useful to memorize theorems and proofs. What I usually do is write the name of the theorem on one side and the statement on the other. You can also separate hypotheses and statement. I’ll mark the theorems for which I need to learn the proof, then go through them one by one and try to prove them. They also help to keep a list of all the theorems you need to know for a certain course all in one place.

Get a study buddy/study group. I’m pretty unsociable so I know it’s hard, but if even I could find a person to revise with before exams, then you can to. Don’t worry about being judged because you’re all there to learn and you all want the same thing. Talking about something out loud helps you understand it and memorize it better, and at least a fellow student can ask you questions about it as well. Unfortunately your wall can’t do that.

Office hours. One on one time with your prof is the best, trust me. Asking questions in front of 100 people is intimidating, and it often feels like your profs are rushing through lectures and don’t have time to properly answer you. During office hours, you can ask about anything and they can even show you how to work something out step by step. Bring a friend if you’re anxious about it (but you shouldn’t be! most of them are friendly, and going there shows you’re putting in effort for their class).

Try to do your calculations in your head, or with pen and paper. I know calculators are way faster, but it’s good exercise. If it’s too hard to get an exact answer, try ballparking it and then check to see if you were close enough. Ballparking comes in handy and it sharpens your intuition.

Practice tests and solved problems are the best, bonus if the solution explains what is happening and it’s not just calculations. You can try to do them then check the answers, then try again and see if you can get it on your own.

Theory and practice are two different things. Even knowing all the theorems and proofs you sometimes won’t be able to work out a problem that uses them. They’re both equally important so make sure you include both when preparing a test.

Keep reading

[myheartsjourney]

in Italy when we want to describe a caring, loving boy with a very good heart we use to say “è buono come il pane” which literally means “he’s as good as bread” and I think it’s beautiful.

[myheartsjourney]

Important Self Care Note: You Do Not Have To Do Everything To The Nines

A lot of times I don’t do the self care things that I need to do because they seem too daunting or time consuming or involved. But what I’ve learned is that I don’t need to do everything with my full effort to the best of my ability, I just need to do it. It’s much better to do a little self care than none 

You don’t have to wash your hair every time you take a shower. Or shave your legs. Or use that fancy exfoliating body wash. You can jump in and wash your face and your underarms and nether regions and hop out. You will feel so much better and be so much healthier than if you had sat in bed and not even approached the bathroom because the idea of conditioning your hair was too much

You don’t have to cook a full healthy meal. You can eat components that would go into a meal like cheese and left over rice. Or you can even eat just one thing like a slice of turkey or a piece of bread. Eating a simple thing is better than eating nothing, even if its a bag of chips

You don’t have to go to the gym and do a full workout. You can do a workout at home or go to the gym and just do one or two things. Your workout can consist of you doing ten sit ups on your living room floor

You don’t have to go for a walk. Open the blinds or even the window and let the sunlight in. A lack of sunlight can be detrimental for your mood and even health, so any little bit helps whether you are physically outside or not

You don’t have to do your hair up in a cool do or put product in it. You can just comb it and go on

If you are a person who shaves their face, you don’t have to use that fancy aftershave. You don’t even have to get every spot perfectly. You can half ass it and look more like yourself than you did, and that is pretty important to your mental health

You don’t have to brush your teeth for two minutes, floss, use mouthwash, and put in your retainer. You can do some or one of those things. Brushing your teeth for fifteen seconds will do more than for zero seconds, and using mouthwash alone will do more than doing nothing

Self care is hard sometimes and you get overwhelmed. We all do and that’s okay. The best way Ive found to get it done is to get it partially done. Doing things just “good enough” IS good enough when thats all you can do. Be kind to yourself and just do what you can. I love you

-a friend

[myheartsjourney]

a complete list of all of my bookish playlists

Since I have a fair few of these now, I figured I might as well make a master list of them all. I’ll try to post individual posts for these all eventually too! These playlists are regularly updated, so be sure to follow them if you want to keep up! I’m also open to any suggestions for playlists you may have. The more specific, the better! 

check out my spotify for all of my playlists

Harry Potter

Characters

f.w.  || fireworks, cinnamon, and night skies - fred weasley

hayloft - mother mother // pacifier - catfish and the bottlemen // i just don’t care that much - matt maeson // reptilia - the strokes // gives you hell - the all american rejects // and more

g.w. || bonfires, vanilla, and late nights - george weasley

high scores - dionysia // ghosting - mother mother // dirty imbecile - the happy fits // jenny - walk the moon // silver lining - mt. joy // and more

Keep reading

[myheartsjourney]

Academic Writing Resources

General:

The Five-Paragraph Essay

Using Punctuation Marks

Deadly Sins Checklist

Formatting Your Paper

Writing About Literature

Basic Essay

Revision Checklist

Planning and Organization

Editing and Proofreading

Latin Terms

Essay Structure

Tips on Introducing Quotes

Academic Writing Tips

Introductions:

Introductory Paragraphs

Introductions

Writing an Introduction

Preparing to Write an Introduction

Introduction Strategies

The Introductory Paragraph

Writing Effective Introductions

In The Beginning

Introductions and Conclusions

The Introductory Paragraph

Writing Introductory Paragraphs

How to Write an Intro

Body Paragraphs:

Paragraph Development and Topic Sentences

Transitions

Transitions

Transitions

Four Components of an Effective Body Paragraph

Writing Paragraphs

Paragraph Development

Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Strong Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Writing Body Paragraphs

How to Write Body Paragraphs

Writing the Body

Writing Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs that Defend a Thesis

How to Write Body Paragraphs

The Perfect Paragraph

Topic Sentences:

Topic Sentences

Writing Topic Sentences

Topic Sentences

Topic Sentences

The Topic Sentence

Paragraphs and Topic Sentences

The Topic Sentence

Topics, Main Ideas, and Topic Sentences

Writing a Good Topic Sentence

Good Topic Sentences

Conclusions:

Writing Effective Conclusions

Introductions and Conclusions

Conclusion Paragraphs

Conclusion Strategies

Conclusions

Tips for a Strong Conclusion

The Concluding Paragraph

Ending the Essay

Types of Conclusions

Writing a Strong Conclusion

How to Write a Conclusion

Writing Conclusions

Guide to Conclusions

Thesis Statements:

The Thesis Statement

Thesis Statements

Writing a Thesis Statement

Thesis Statement

Tips and Examples

Writing a Thesis

Writing the Thesis

How to Write Your Thesis

The Thesis

Thesis Statements

Guidelines for Writing a Thesis

Thesis Statements

Thesis

Thesis Statements

The Thesis

Create a Strong Thesis

How to Write a Thesis

Developing a Thesis

Guide to Writing Thesis Statements

Thesis Statements

Citing:

When to Cite

APA Documentation

MLA Documentation

Suggestions for Citing Sources

Research and Citation Resources

Citation Information

MLA Guidelines for Citing Poetry

MLA Style for Poetry

How to Format Your Paper

Argumentative Essays:

Argumentative Essays

Argument

Argumentative Essays

Persuasive or Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essay

Argument/Argumentative

Argumentative Essays

How to Write a Good Argument

How to Write an Argumentative Essay

Writing Conclusions to Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essay

Persuasive Essay Writing

Writing Concluding Paragraphs

Constructing the Argumentative Essay

Writing About Poetry:

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poetry Q & A

Poetry Explications

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poems

Explicating a Poem

Writing About Poetry

Writing a Thesis Paper About a Poem

How to Start a Poetry Introduction

Poetry Essay Structure

Poetry Explication

Expository Essays:

Structure of a General Expository Essay

Expository Essay Examples

Sample Expository Essay

Expository Writing

Expository Essay Model

Elements of Expository Essays

Expository Writing Information

Expository Essays

Writing Expository Essays

How to Write an Expository Essay

Tips on Writing an Expository Essay

Expository Essays

Essay Map

Writing Expository Essays

How to Create a Strong Expository Essay

Expository Essay Writing

The Expository Essay

Research Papers:

How to Write a Research Paper in Literature

Writing a Research Paper

The Research Paper

How to Write a Research Paper

Five Paragraph Research Paper

Sample Research Paper

Writing a Research Paper

Tips for a Research Paper

How to Write a Research Paper

Writing a Scientific Research Paper

Writing Research Papers

Research and Writing

Research Papers that Rock

How to Write an Effective Research Paper

College Application Essays:

Application Essay Tips

Application Essays

Tips

10 Tips

Application Essays

How to Write a College Application Essay

Tips for an Effective Essay

Do’s and Don’t’s

College Application Essay

How to Write a College Application Essay

Narrative Essays:

Narrative and Descriptive

Narrative Essay Writing

The Personal Essay

Narrative Essays

Narrative Essays

Writing Narrative Essays

Narrative/Descriptive

Narrative Essay

Writing a Narrative Essay

Tips on Writing a Narrative Essay

[myheartsjourney]

How to learn a language when you don’t know where to start:

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

Get your writing corrected

[myheartsjourney]

Productivity Printables

Hey everyone! The semester has kicked off for many of us already, myself included, and I just gotta say, it’s been pretty crazy. I wanted to share some tools that have helped me and hopefully can help you too in having at least some semblance of organization this semester.

A couple notes: The first preview will show both high and low contrast versions. Remaining previews will show high contrast only but there are low contrast versions available. I have no idea why but the reviews may look different on different browsers/screens. They should print out fine, though. Click images for better quality, or go straight to the download link.

Anyway, here are the printables!

Daily Printables

Daily View (High Contrast (left) | Low Contrast (right))

Attention Management (High Contrast | Low Contrast)

Energy Management (High Contrast | Low Contrast)

Weekly Printables

Weekly Overview - Monday Start

Blank (High Contrast | Low Contrast)

Task-based  (High Contrast | Low Contrast)  

Time-based  (High Contrast | Low Contrast)  

Weekly Overview - Sunday Start

Blank (High Contrast | Low Contrast)

Task-based (High Contrast | Low Contrast)  

Time-based (High Contrast | Low Contrast)

Monthly Printables

Undated Monthly Overview - Monday Start (High Contrast | Low Contrast)

Undated Monthly Overview - Sunday Start (High Contrast | Low Contrast)  

Misc

Einstein Matrix (High Contrast | Low Contrast)

Hope you enjoy them, and if you’re looking for any of my printables, they all can be found in my Study Drive. Have an awesome semester!