#12 exam time table 2019

[ivogfan]

Ivo's done an article for iNews!! It should be in tomorrow's print/digital editions!

"I learnt the names and constituencies of all 650 MPs. I’ll never do it again" - Ivo Graham (iNews)

"As a champion procrastinator addicted to trivia and games, I loved it."

Where were you on the night of the last general election, 12 December 2019? Whether you were appalled or somehow delighted by the scale of that night’s landslide, it probably came as more of a surprise than its widely-forecasted reversal this time around.

And I was processing that surprise in the same way I have spent far too much of my adult life: isolating myself from those around me and preparing a quiz.

The ploughing of this frankly baffling furrow had begun in 2017, when, after three cheery but repetitive solo stand-up shows about Mario Kart, Nokia 3210s and the other mainstays of my emotionally repressed boarding school adolescence, I’d decided to launch myself into current affairs with, by the very loosest of definitions, a “political show”.

Of course, 2016 had provided various jumping-off points for this, but while Brexit and Trump had prompted many of my peers to interrogate the big issues more passionately than ever, I, a filibustering coward with an audience still largely made up of family friends, had decided to turn the whole thing into an actual exam. I miss exams! I found them very stressful at the time but I find actual adulthood much more so!

And so I began “work” on Educated Guess (not a bad title TBF), a show where I used my guilt about not knowing enough about politics as a very mealy-mouthed segue to its central “stunt”, that I’d learned all 650 MPs of the UK.

Or, as a popular meme format might have it:

No one:

No one:

No one:

Ivo: OK, so I’ve learned all 650 MPs of the UK.

As a champion procrastinator addicted to trivia and games, I loved learning the 650 MPs of the UK. Finally, an actual project for the long, doomscrolling trains and coaches home from gigs: uploading the full House of Commons onto the Quizlet revision app, and testing myself in every spare moment I could, preparing for the thrilling/baffling denouement of the show in Edinburgh that August, where audiences would be invited to shout out their home constituency and I would bellow back their MP as fast as I could.

This whole exercise, a frenetic mind palace of word-association shortcuts like “James Cleverly – Braintree”, was accurately assessed by multiple reviewers as “not technically comedy”, but my own pathetic adrenaline levels have rarely spiked as high as during those quizzes, or in the bar after the show, where the geographical heckles continued to come thick and fast.

“Glasgow East?”

“Paul Sweeney!”

“No, that’s Glasgow North East!”

“OK, sorry, thanks for coming!”

The “class of 2017” had had to be hastily revised that summer after Theresa May’s majestic squandering of her majority in June, and many of my exhaustively-revised new intake would not see out a full term either, when two and a half years later, in December 2019, 43.6 per cent of British voters shuffled, shivering, to the polls, to give the fridge-dwelling party king a fat mandate for his oven-ready deal.

I witnessed those results from a TV studio in west London, where my unique history of comedy-adjacent data regurgitation had seen me generously, if optimistically, invited to be part of Channel 4’s election coverage. I was set the challenge of learning all the new MPs, as they came in, in time for a heavily caffeinated quiz at 5am.

Unfortunately, the exit polls proved so atmosphere-inhalingly depressing in both the Channel 4 studio and green room that most of the comedy comms, including my own, were abandoned, replaced by extended round-table analysis such as Stanley Johnson riffing about pilots in burqas and Amber Rudd threatening to deport Nish Kumar.

What possible light relief could an Old Etonian comedian, however apologetic, bring to this most gracious of victory parades? So needless to say I was quite colossally relieved not to have to bring my “let’s see if I’ve managed to remember all the new Red Wall Tories!” cul de sac to the table in the wee smalls.

That being said, DOA as it clearly was from the moment Huw Edwards revealed the scores, my bit wasn’t fully and finally confirmed to have been cancelled until 2am, so I was still there in the green room for hours, the loneliest character of the whole enterprise, not even attempting any gallows humour with the rest of the jilted jokers, because I was sat on my own updating my Quizlet Premium, just in case. It was the night I learned the name Jonathan Gullis. It was a truly miserable night.

Today’s election will, we can only hope, begin a political era less dismal than the last. There are going to be a lot of new MPs and they will have a hell of a job on their hands. I am going to take a keen interest in how they get on. But I am not going to learn all of their names.

Ivo will be performing his shows Grand Designs and Carousel at the Edinburgh Fringe from 31 July to 25 August ivograham.com

(Photo: Matthew Stronge)

[boondockerblog]

Day 34 (the problem) Ironwood Nat'l Monument

You had to have been wondering why the previous post was labeled (b4 the problem). Readers of this blog for several years are well acquainted with the 2019 marijuana toxicity (2019 Day 12) and the 2022 mouth burned and infected by eating cow dung (2022 Day 34, 35). Yes, we're talking about Maddie, not us. We're always wondering what she'll do next to cause a trip (long drive out of the desert) to the world where vets have offices. Well, tonight's the night - 8pm long after any vets anywhere are closed.

To make a long night short (for you) - came home from the hike, took the pictures, made dinner, Maddie ate like normal, we ate, we sat at the table talking, Maddie lay down and slept, then she came to the table to get petted (we should have been alerted right then as her habit in the motorhome after dinner is to lay down across from the table and sleep), then she crawled under the table to get petted (ok, now we're paying attention), we commented on the fact there was no thunder or wind but kept petting until, she moved out from under the table and we saw her swaying. Now she had our attention. We spent the next 20 minutes trying to get her to eat a treat, taking her outside, trying to get her excited. All these resulted in no interest in treat, went outside and stumbled out and in along with more swaying. And the minute we stopped trying something she slumped to the floor. This is exactly what the beginnings of the 2019 incident looked like. We called a vet we'd seen 30 minutes away - closed but gave 3 emergency vets' phone numbers in recording. Called the one that looked 45 minutes away and they said it was an 8 - 12 hr wait (shades of the 2022 problem). Called the one that was over an hour away and they felt they could see her right away. So off we went. She continued to be woozy and laying on the car seat strangely. When we got there she jumped out of the car and ran around the parking lot like regular Maddie. She got back in the car and acted strangely again. Not wanting to waste our time and the vet's we thought we'd try to get her to eat so drove to a Dutch Bros we'd seen minutes before they closed at 10pm. She didn't twirl around for her Puppacino like usual but she did eat it slowly. We hemmed and hawed and hemmed and hawed and finally decided to go back to the vet. We told them again what had been happening and they did an exam - run around, play ball, heart rate, temp, etc. The vet was super compassionate, listening to our whole story and what we thought it could be and she too had no explanation, just like we didn't. We all agreed at 11:45pm that it seemed safe to forego labs, etc and see what happened through the night.

Of course by the time we got back at 1am she was happy to eat a treat and even with the late hour she seemed fine.

So, did we make the wrong call? Still wondering not matter what she ate that she shouldn't have - what would cause the swaying, stumbling and in a few hours retun to normal. Maddie, Maddie, Maddie.

[sandesh24-blog]

CBSE Class 12th Science Stream Board Exam Date Sheet 2020, Timetable, Exam Date and Result

CBSE Class 12th Science Stream Board Exam Date Sheet 2020, Timetable, Exam Date and Result

CBSE Class 12th Science Stream Board Exam Date Sheet for 2020 have been announced with the Exam Date and Timetable. CBSE – Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi has announced CBSE Class 12th Science Stream Board Exam Date Sheet of 2020, which is for the Academic Year 2019-2020. The examination of CBSE 12th Science Stream Boardwill be held in the mid of February to March. The Official…

[uppssms]

CBSE Board Exam 2021 Dates: शिक्षा मंत्री ने की सीबीएसई 10वीं-12वीं बोर्ड परीक्षाओं की तारीखों की घोषणा, 4 मई से 10 जून तक चलेंगे एग्जाम

CBSE Board Exam 2021 Dates: शिक्षा मंत्री ने की सीबीएसई 10वीं-12वीं बोर्ड परीक्षाओं की तारीखों की घोषणा, 4 मई से 10 जून तक चलेंगे एग्जाम

CBSE Board Exams 2021 Dates: सीबीएसई 2021 की 10वीं और 12वीं की बोर्ड परीक्षा में शामिल होने वाले छात्रों का इंतजार खत्म हो गया है. CBSE 2021 Date Sheet: शिक्षा मंत्री ने बोर्ड परीक्षा की तारीखों की घोषणा कर दी है. CBSE Board Exams 2021 Dates: सीबीएसई 2021 की 10वीं और 12वीं की बोर्ड परीक्षा में शामिल होने वाले छात्रों का इंतजार खत्म हो गया है. शिक्षा मंत्री रमेश पोखरियाल निशंक (Education Minister…

[lgcsomin]

hello everyone!! let me introduce you to my bb moon somin. she’s a ‘02 line, a trainee since july 2019 and hails from the great city of busan, south kr. she mostly dance focused but has great dreams of being the triple threat of a group :)

LIKE THIS TO PLOT and i will get back to you asap :) will put more info and some thread/plot/relationship ideas under the cut. i will say fair warning, it’s rly long skjbhdbf

bg

so somin grew up in an ok family environment. they weren’t super well off but they had enough to eat every night and for her and her younger brother to go to school + hagwons

her parents weren’t the most supportive but they were around (usually)

she fell in love with dance pretty early on, always watching performances on television because her mom would leave it playing 

she would recreate the dances and put on concerts of her own to her handful of stuffed toys and her little brother

as she got older, around like 10-12 ish, her parents were tired of her wanting to dance and had her help out at the family restaurant/business where they served fresh fish at the market (near jagalchi)

she would work late hours and do her homework at a back table whenever she had it and would go home exhausted and not be able to dance

but on her days off, which she didn’t have many of, she would go to a free dance lesson that the community center had and it only hardened her resolve to dance

she didn’t have much time for it but in high school she joined the dance club and also the cooking club to placate her parents

she used the cooking club as an excuse to go to dance club since her parents didn’t really approve of her dancing and seeking a career in the entertainment industry

she managed to keep this up throughout high school but once she was about to graduate she knew that she had no choice but to either really make her way into the industry or she would be forced to go to university/take over the restaurant until her brother was old enough to do it

so she auditioned for legacy on a whim instead of doing her entrance exams

when she was accepted, she took a few days before manning up and getting the courage to tell her parents that she was becoming a trainee 

her parents threw a fit and they had a really bad argument where horrible things were said on both sides and it ended with her running out with a backpack of clothes and the money that she had saved up, taking the first train she could to seoul

she transferred to sopa for her last year and stayed in the trainee dorms and tries not to think about how much she misses busan

she’s worked at a few different places, mostly restaurants since she’s good at multitasking

she’s currently working at baskin robbins

she’s dance focused, with a goal of becoming the main dancer of a group, but also is practicing both rapping and singing which she thinks she equally good at so she’s not too concerned over what position she gets as long as she can dance

she’s been at legacy for two years now and she missed the lgc girls japan promos bc of an ankle injury </3

plots!!

general friend tingz <3

also anyone who knew her from busan bc she literally up and left without really telling anyone bc she wasn’t in the mood to talk after the fight with her parents

someone who sees her at baskin robbins and is like??? wait didn’t i see you at training earlier

[our-time-is-now]

May 18, 2019: I googled

(previous play)

(Joint project from @riddikulus und @shakshuka-grandpasweaters, translated from @girlwholovesagirl, @divingdeepintothewater, @m-ger and @julerocks. Here is the original blog @unsere-zeit-ist-jetzt. If you would also like to help translate, please contact one of us.)  

Saturday, 11:17 am:

Matteo: *wakes up the next morning and sees that David is still asleep* *gets up quietly* *slips into some sweatpants and a shirt and grabs his phone* *goes into the kitchen and realizes that the whole flatshare is either still asleep or not at home* *makes some coffee and then sits down on one of the stools* *opens Google on his phone and types “binder” in* *gets shown a lot of school binders and shakes his head* *type in “sleeping with a binder”* *reads that you shouldn’t wear one over night and in general if possible not longer than 8 hours* *bites his lips and thinks about how often David and him spend the night in the same bed and he didn’t take it off* *immediately has a bad conscience and plans to talk to David that he doesn’t has to to that for him* *then remembers that David didn't do that last night either, but was already more dismissive* *doesn’t know what to do and if talking about it is the right choice* *googles wide sleeping shirts and thinks about ordering some for David so they can keep them in the flatshare*

David: *wakes up the next morning and feels well-rested and relaxed* *stretches and only then realizes that Matteo is no longer lying next to him* *grabs his phone to look at the time and realizes that it’s almost 12 pm - time to get up* *sits up and is about to get up to check if Matteo might be in the kitchen when his eyes fall on his pile of clothes on the armchair* *only remembers in this moment that he took his binder off yesterday evening and grabs it* *briefly looks uncertainly at the door, but then hurries and quickly puts it on again and his shirt over it* *then leaves Matteo’s room and goes to the kitchen* *sees Matteo on a stool and smiles immediately when he spots him* *goes up to him and wraps his arms around him* *puts a kiss on his neck and mumbles* Morning... is there already some coffee?

Matteo: *sees David coming into the kitchen and immediately puts his phone away* *wraps his arms around Davids waist and grins* Morning… and yes should be finished by now… sit down *gets up to get two cups from the cupboard* *puts them on the table to get the coffee and milk, then sits down with him again* *pours them both some coffee and then asks* Did you sleep well?

David: *only lets go of Matteo very reluctantly as he goes to get the coffee and makes a grumbling sound* *but then sits down at the table and watches Matteo fetching the cups and coffee* *smiles amused* You don't have to serve me... *but still enjoys Matteo doing it* *accepts the cup...* Thank you... *...and blows into the cup to cool the coffee down before he carefully sips at it* *nods at Matteo's question and says honestly* Pretty good! *smiles and then asks* And you?

Matteo: *laughs* Okay, next time we can each get our own cup from the cupboard, I promise! *has wrapped his hands around his cup because the coffee is definitely still too hot to drink* Good. *nods as well* Yes, I also slept well… *looks at him again and still doesn’t know whether he should bring it up or not* You passed out really fast… I mean fell asleep..

David: *thinks that Matteo is looking at him kind of strange right now and finds his commentary kind of weird too* *but tries to cover up his sudden insecurity by grinning slightly and raising his eyebrows* Well, I was pretty tired... *puts down his cup and runs his hand through his hair* *then puts his arms on the table and adds* Besides, I don’t tolerate a lot of alcohol... I'm just not used to it... *look at him searchingly* *suddenly wonders if Matteo somehow realized he wasn't wearing his binder*

Matteo: *nods slowly and starts nipping at his coffee* True... *quickly bites his lower lip and then nods* Yeah... I'm not accusing you of anything... you don't have to justify yourself... *smiles at him* I'm glad you're sleeping well. *then tilts his head slightly and decides to just say it* I googled... and maybe it's all not true... I mean, it’s Google... but... well... I want you to be well, okay? I want you to feel good... *swallows and then realizes that he hasn't yet said what he wanted to say* I can keep my hands off you at night... if it makes you uncomfortable or something... I don't care, honestly… but I don’t want that you keep it on at night because of me or something. *has looked down on the tabletop in the middle of his bumpy speech and only now hesitantly lifts his gaze again* Okay?

David: *looks skeptically at Matteo when he suddenly changes the topic and tells him about googling stuff* *doesn't understand at first what this is all about and wants to tell Matteo that he doesn't have to google, but can just ask him if he wants to* *has to smile when Matteo says that he wants him to be well, but still doesn't know what it's all about* *interrupts him briefly and says* But I'm all right! *then listens to what he has to say and realizes what it's all about* *lowers his gaze and breathes out* *at first doesn’t know what to say and tries to concentrate* *then lifts his gaze and nods* Okay… *finds it somehow touching that Matteo has informed himself and that he is worried and wonders what he is so afraid of* *thinks that Matteo deserves more than a simple “Okay” and tries to keep eye contact when he adds* That has nothing to do with you, okay? I… probably should have addressed it earlier… but… well… I am not used to someone seeing me without it. *thinks he is just rambling incoherent stuff and reaches for his coffee cup for support as he continues to search for words* *doesn’t know what Google had told Matteo but nevertheless summarizes quite factly perhaps to gain a bit of confidence when he says* Well it is recommended not to wear it for more than eight hours in a row and preferably not at all during physical exercise. But sometimes it can’t be avoided to wear it longer and as long as it is not too long, it is okay for me. When we chilled at your place after our first kiss, it was okay for a longer time... because most of the time we were just lying there... I feel it stronger after a while, but it was okay... And yesterday... yesterday I had the sports exam and was active the whole afternoon and in the evening I danced a lot and moved a lot and drank alcohol and when we arrived here, it was suddenly not okay anymore and I felt like I couldn't breathe and wanted to... I don't know... just relax... but... *bites his lower lip and lowers his gaze again* *doesn’t know how he is supposed to continue talking without stammering* *tries anyway* It's just the body part that's most obviously not male when I'm not wearing the binder... *takes in a deep breath and admits with a trembling voice* … and sometimes I don’t like myself a lot when I am not wearing it… *feels how he blushes* *it's kind of hard to be this open* *adds quietly* How can I expect others to like me without it? *would like to add that he still longs for Matteo's closeness when he's not wearing the binder and that he actually doesn't want Matteo to leave him alone at night, but finds it quite selfish to think so and doesn't get the idea that Matteo couldn't really care less about it*

Matteo: *looks at him while he talks and nods every now and then* *feels his heart tightening* *thinks how unjust it is by mother nature that she didn't just give David the right body right away and he now has to deal with all that bullshit* *stands up after his last question and walks around the table just to hug him* Hey *he says softly* I always like to look at you... and if you're not wearing it, then... I mean, I can be mindful how to hug you, ok? *leaves his arms around David but moves back a little so he can look at him* But if physical contact is too much, you can just say so, okay? Sometimes I just don't get things right away... but then you have to tell me, okay?

David: *immediately wraps his arms around Matteo when he hugs him and buries his face on his shoulder* *suddenly has a lump in his throat because Matteo is just perfect and he doesn't know how to deal with all the acceptance* *lifts his gaze when he feels Matteo backing away and looks at him too* *smiles slightly at his words and swallows the stupid lump* *then says quietly* To me it seems like you get a lot more than you think... *then buries his face again on Matteo's shoulder and pulls him closer* *mumbles* Physical contact with you is never too much... I think I just need to learn to understand that you're okay with it... *somehow has the need to make up for last night's lack of physical contact and feels himself gradually relaxing in Matteo's arms*

Matteo: *laughs quietly* Seems to me like you're biased... *wraps his arms tighter around David and briefly kisses his head* *says softly* I'm okay with everything as long as you're here... *strokes David’s back with his right hand and just holds him tight*

(next play)

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

First Arctic Navigation in February (Bloomberg) A tanker sailed through Arctic sea ice in February for the first time, the latest sign of how quickly the pace of climate change is accelerating in the Earth’s northernmost regions. The Christophe de Margerie was accompanied by the nuclear-powered 50 Let Pobedy icebreaker as it sailed back to Russia this month after carrying liquified natural gas to China through the Northern Sea Route in January. Both trips broke navigation records. The experimental voyage happened after a year of extraordinarily warm conditions in the Arctic that have sent shockwaves across the world, from the snowstorm that blanketed Spain in January to the blast of cold air that swept through Canada in mid-February, moving deep into the South as far as Texas. The Arctic is warming more than twice as quickly as the rest of the world and the area covered by ice there has reached historic lows multiple times over the past 12 months. The melting in the region is already in line with the worst-case climate scenarios outlined by scientists.

Biden mourns 500,000 dead, balancing nation’s grief and hope (AP) With sunset remarks and a national moment of silence, President Joe Biden on Monday confronted head-on the country’s once-unimaginable loss—half a million Americans in the COVID-19 pandemic���as he tried to strike a balance between mourning and hope. “We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. There’s no such thing,” he said Monday evening. “There’s nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary.” The president, who lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car collision and later an adult son to brain cancer, leavened the grief with a message of hope. “This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again. And as we do, we’ll remember each person we’ve lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind.” He said, “We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or, on the news. We must do so to honor the dead. But, equally important, to care for the living.”

Texans Needed Food and Comfort After a Brutal Storm. As Usual, They Found It at H-E-B. (NYT) The past week had been a nightmare. A winter storm, one of the worst to hit Texas in a generation, robbed Lanita Generous of power, heat and water in her home. The food she had stored in her refrigerator and freezer had spoiled. She was down to her final five bottles of water. But on Sunday, as the sun shined and ice thawed in Austin, Ms. Generous did the same thing as many Texans in urgent need of food, water and a sense of normalcy: She went to H-E-B. “They’ve been great,” she said, adding with just a touch of hyperbole: “If it hadn’t been for the bread and peanut butter, I would have died in my apartment.” H-E-B is a grocery store chain. But it is also more than that. People buy T-shirts that say “H-E-B for President,” and they post videos to TikTok declaring their love, like the woman clutching a small bouquet of flowers handed to her by an employee: “I wish I had a boyfriend like H-E-B. Always there. Gives me flowers. Feeds me.” For many Texans, H-E-B reflected the ways the state’s maverick spirit can flourish: reliable for routine visits but particularly in a time of disaster, and a belief that the family-owned chain—with a vast majority of its more than 340 locations inside state lines—has made a conscious choice to stay rooted to the idea of being a good neighbor. “It’s like H-E-B is the moral center of Texas,” said Stephen Harrigan, a novelist and journalist who lives in Austin. “There seems to be in our state a lack of real leadership, a lack of real efficiency, on the political level. But on the business level, when it comes to a grocery store, all of those things are in place.”

Hunger in Central America skyrockets, U.N. agency says (Reuters) The number of people going hungry in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has nearly quadrupled in the last two years, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as Central America has been battered by an economic crisis. New data released by the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) showed nearly 8 million people across the four countries are experiencing hunger this year, up from 2.2 million in 2018. “The COVID-19-induced economic crisis had already put food on the market shelves out of reach for the most vulnerable people when the twin hurricanes Eta and Iota battered them further,” Miguel Barreto, WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement.

Prison riots in Ecuador leave 62 dead (AP) Sixty-two inmates have died in riots at prisons in three cities in Ecuador as a result of fights between rival gangs and an escape attempt, authorities said Tuesday. Prisons Director Edmundo Moncayo said in a news conference that 800 police offices have been helping to regain control of the facilities. Hundreds of officers from tactical units had been deployed since the clashes broke out late Monday. Moncayo said that two groups were trying to gain “criminal leadership within the detention centers” and that the clashes were precipitated by a search for weapons carried out Monday by police officers.

Mount Etna eruption lights up Sicily's night sky (BBC) Mount Etna is erupting again, and its hot lava fountains are illuminating the Sicilian sky. The eruption began earlier this week, and Etna has since been spewing massive orange plumes of smoke and thick clouds of ash. Etna is Europe's most active volcano, and it erupts relatively often. The last major eruption was in 1992. Its eruptions have rarely caused damage or injury in recent decades - and officials believe this eruption is no exception. Stefano Branco, the head of the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in the nearby city of Catania, told Italian news agency AGI earlier this week: "We've seen worse."

Cow science (Foreign Policy) A new national exam on cows developed by the Indian government-backed National Cow Commission has been shelved following controversy over its less-than-scientific contents. The curriculum for the test involved erroneous claims about the virtues of Indian cows that were widely ridiculed by the country’s scientific community. Among the “facts” on display: That Indian cows have a special “solar pulse” in their humps which can supposedly convert sun rays into vitamin D that is then passed on to milk, and an assertion that Indian cows are “strong” whereas foreign cows are “lazy.” The issue of cows, considered sacred by Hindus, and their treatment has become even more of a cultural wedge issue in India following the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, with sometimes deadly results. Attacks by vigilante “cow protection” groups killed 44 people between 2015 and 2018 according to Human Rights Watch, with Muslims among the majority of those targeted.

Japan creates Minister of Loneliness to fight COVID-19 suicides (New York Post) Japan just appointed a Minister of Loneliness—to try to combat its exploding suicide rate amid COVID-19. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga named Tetsushi Sakamoto, a cabinet member already trying to beef up the depressed country’s birthrate, to the post. Suga noted earlier this month that Japanese women, in particular, have been struggling with depression since the coronavirus pandemic began about a year ago—with nearly 880 female suicide victims in the country alone in October, a 70 percent increase over the year before, the BBC reported. Japanese suicide expert Michiko Ueda told the BBC that part of the problem involves an increasing number of single women in the country who don’t have stable employment. “A lot of women are not married anymore,” she said. “They have to support their own lives, and they don’t have permanent jobs.”

Facebook Strikes Deal to Restore News Sharing in Australia (NYT) Facebook said on Monday that it would restore the sharing and viewing of news links in Australia after gaining more time to negotiate over a proposed law that would require it to pay for news content that appears on its site. The social network had blocked news links in Australia last week as the new law neared passage. The legislation includes a code of conduct that would allow media companies to bargain individually or collectively with digital platforms over the value of their news content. Facebook had vigorously objected to the code, which would curb its power and drive up its spending for content, as well as setting a precedent for other governments to follow. The company had argued that news would not be worth the hassle in Australia if the bill became law. But on Monday, Facebook returned to the negotiating table after the Australian government granted a few minor concessions.

U.S.-Saudi ties (Foreign Policy) The families of the three U.S. service members killed and 13 others injured by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi airman who went on a shooting spree at Naval Air Station Pensacola in 2019, are suing Saudi Arabia’s government, alleging that the kingdom failed to screen him appropriately before sending him to the United States for training. The families are filing the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia based on a 2016 law that allows U.S. citizens to sue foreign governments over terrorist attacks—legislation that was initially passed in order to allow the families of 9/11 victims to bring a civil suit against Saudi Arabia.

Italian Ambassador Among Three Killed in Attack on U.N. Convoy in Congo (NYT) For Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, humanitarian work was at the core of his mission. The 43-year-old had moved with his wife to the capital, Kinshasa, in 2017, where their family grew to include three young daughters. He rose to the rank of ambassador in 2019, the pinnacle of his diplomatic career. On Monday, Mr. Attanasio was among three people killed in an attack on a humanitarian convoy near the city of Goma, the World Food Program and Italy’s Foreign Ministry said, the latest in a wave of violence in that part of the central African nation. The deaths of Mr. Attanasio; an Italian Embassy official, named by the Foreign Ministry as Vittorio Iacovacci; and Mustapha Milambo, a driver for the World Food Program, have rattled the international diplomatic community and drawn condemnation from across the globe.

Flood damage and insurance (NPR) Right now, over 4 million houses and small apartments in the contiguous United States are at substantial risk of expensive flood damage, and the cost of flood damage to homes will increase by 50 percent over the next 30 years according to the First Street Foundation. As the climate changes, places that were perfectly safe to live in will no longer be as sure of bets as they once were, and the costs are about to be a serious reality check. The National Flood Insurance Program is $36 billion in debt because of underestimated risks. Over the next several years, FEMA plans to raise rates up to 18 percent a year until prices are accurate, starting this October.

[elisabeth-carrion]

2020 was... a year. Tbh, 2019 was worse for me. Ive read my 2019 diary and i dont know how i managed, and in the end i was still optimistic. 2020 was supposed to be my year of spoiling myself and doing new things. Of course not everything went according to the plan.... but i managed to do a few things.

Lets see

This year i did two things i thought i would never, ever do. Like even last year, i didnt even consider it. 1. i got a tattoo. The idea came to me at the beginning of the year, the plan was to do it in spring, but then quarantine happened, then renovations, and in the end i had it done in september. Its a flower and i love it.

2. i left academia. last year i got accepted into phd program. It was a mess and in the end, i had enough. Ive stayed a few months longer for the scholarship money, and resigned. I am now academia free and enjoying my very frist study free christmas break. Im vibing

among other thing, there are: 3. i cut my hair. it was waist lenght and i cut it shoulder lenght. I dont know why it was such a huge deal for me, but it was. The hair grew back real fast and i had it cut again in november. I think im gonna keep it this way. Or shorter. I’ll see.

4. had my ears pierced. I had one set of earrings, now i have two. I bought a lot of earrings. I really like it. More jewerly is better jewelry.

5. discovered the band breaking benjamin, very nice

6. discovered the book captive prince. ive read it three times already. would recommend

7. made a candle out of what was left of other candles. easier than i thought, but putting dried flowers into it wasnt a good idea

8. made a hat. and then another hat. im kinda proud of them. didnt get to wear them outside yet tho

9. made a brooch. out of an old notebook cover and christmas decor. its kinda big. i dont mind

10. made a head band. this one needs some improvements tho

11. i thought online classes and im still alive. i prefer real life classes but i managed. i learned about teaching too, i hope i can improve my knowledge next year

12. renovated my kitchen! it was old and disgusting. now its nice and clean and pretty and i love it

13. started french, german and turkish on duolingo somewhere around march. im still doing it every day. kinda like it!

14. tried embroideiry. it was fine. i want to go to embroidery class after the plague is over

15. started taking my own outfit photos. i got a cheap tripod for it and it works! 

16. honesly i didnt count it, but i did some writing. I didnt finish anything, but i wrote significantly more than in the past. I want to finish something  next year

17. started using reusable pens again. sadly the ink doesnt really work on some of my cheap notebooks... it leaks. But i do when i can

18. expanded and cleared my wardrobe. I love every single dress i have. I cant believe i really do have a full wardrobe of pretty dresses! its a dream that came true

19. shaved my eyebrow. they grew back darker. now i have visible eyebrows for the first time in my life

20. got a resuable shaving blade. it looks baddas and i have so many razors they will last me a lifetime

21. met the google car! cant wait to see myself on google street view.

22. i learned kanji like crazy, im over 1700 now. Thats enough for the n2 exam, i will try to take it in december next year

23. renovated my room and rearranged the furniture. It is now the cute pink room i wanted for some time. I got a cute carpet and a vanity table. I feel like a princess and for the first time i feel that all my belongings are in order

24. started studying and doing tarot. i got cards for birthday and got really into it

25. assembled a diy tiny doll room. It was fun! its like puzzles but 3d. Its not perfect but i really enjoyed it

26. seen Laura Makabresku exhibition in Sosnowiec. It was nice.

27. Seen tour de pologne race. kinda randomly, i didnt plan to, but it was nice

28. went to a watercolor class. i really enjoyed it!

29. survived the plague so far 

30. started counting calories again. in the past i did it to control, to restrict, and to punish. Now i just want to know

Ive tried new things. I wrote down every single one of them, even the tiniest: 1. kurtosz in both sweet and sour verson

2. Kitkat in the following tastes: melon, peanut butter, salt caramel, gold caramel, strwaberry, salty lemon

3. okonomiyaki

4. carrot kissiel

5. smoking . yes im doings some back to the teenage years things. it tasted like ashes. i still have some left i dont know what i will do with them

6. spring rolls /sajgonki

7. chinese take out fried pasta

8. dandelion and burdock tea

9. mushroom bun - a polish street food with pieczarrki

10. pancakes with juice instead of milk. kind of accidently but it is a thing

11. boiled corn

12. lavender lemonade

13. vegan subway

14. salty licorice

15. vegan sandwich from żabka

16. oyakata soy ramen

17. halvah wafffles

18. gingerbread twix

19. shampoo in a bar... like soap but its shampoo. very nice

20. tofubar

21. bora bora black tea that tastes like roses

22. chocolate coated ginger

23. flavored coffe: five flavour mix, marzepan, raspberry meringue

24. Visited a few new coffe shops and restaurants [sowa, we coffee, mont blanc, zicherka, pod prosiakiem, kaffka, zielona krowa, proper coffee, suzette, starbucks, coffee faza, pigal] and places [zamek sielecki, this one park that has no name but has rainbow lights]. It may seem insignificat but for me its a big deal to visit a new place even if its just a coffee shop.... and its stressful. so yes im proud of that

i must say that i changed. im not the same person anymore. ive grown, ive learned my wants and needs, i started giving myself what i want and what i need, and maybe even more importantly, ive stopped punishing myself. No more of that. I deserve everything and im gonna get it :)

[wilstudies]

Get a grade 9 in a language GCSE!

Please note:

1. These tips are almost entirely applicable to any AQA language at GCSE. 2. Modern Foreign Languages at GCSE Level is anywhere from A2 to B1 (dependant on the tier and grade) on the CEFR scale, but, there is no official equivalent.

In November 2018, whilst in Year 10, my teacher saw that I was excelling in French, with my extensive knowledge of tenses and idioms. So, she proposed that I’d do the January mocks, alongside Year 11, despite not knowing more than half of the subject content. Then we’d see where I’d go from there.

I followed the AQA exam board, higher paper. Specification. You can find the Kerboodle textbook I used, here.  

Here’s what I did:

Throughout the year, I was also studying the Year 10 content (Theme 1 - Identity and culture) in class.

In my own time, each month I’d cover one or two units, completing the more challenging activities on each page of the textbook. Luckily, each unit was only 4 double-page spreads long.

In January I completed my mocks. This was the first time I had ever sat in an exam hall, so it was really daunting to be doing it with a bunch of kids who were older than me, even though I knew I had enough knowledge. Overall, I got a secure grade 8, in my mocks, despite not knowing half of the course content.

I also did “pre-exam mocks”, two weeks before each exam. These consisted of specimen papers which are notoriously harder, so my results looked almost exactly the same as past papers, which was upsetting as I couldn’t see that I’d actually improved. But practice is practice!

MY ACTUAL GCSE RESULT: 

With a lot of work. I managed to achieve a grade 9 (the top mark, higher than an A*), which was insane. I’m so, so proud of myself, and grateful for all of the teachers that supported me!!!

^Edit from 25/08/2019.

LISTENING

In my opinion, listening is based purely on practice and knowing the exam technique that works for you.

To practice: 

frenchpod101 intermediate listening comprehension

Going through every specimen track and listening activity I could find - pausing it after each sentence, saying it once in French, then translating it into English. I’d do this in the shower, on the way to school, wherever.

Know your vocab!

My exam technique:

In the 5 minutes reading time: underline keywords and themes in the questions. This time goes very quickly, but I’d also try to jot down a few synonyms in the French section too.

Multiple choice questions: the process of elimination; key vocab; negative and positive tonality and opinion words - watch out for negative structures!

Completing the sentences: note down words said in French or translate each sentence into English in your head, then remember it when it comes to writing it down.

French section: fill each sentence with key French words that you hear. Don’t worry about accents, unless it helps you determine the word.

Remember each track plays twice.

READING

The January Mock: I didn’t know much of the course content, so I struggled with the translation. I also circled and placed a question mark near any words I didn’t know, as it was a mock and my teacher would be able to note down any translations for me. I think what boosted my grade, to a 9 for this paper, was knowledge of grammar.

T/F/NM questions are usually a gamble. Just look for explicit information and know your negative formations.

Texts change their minds often: look out for counter-arguments and opposing exclamations

Use the method of elimination for multiple choice: rule out if there’s no mention. Be wary that a text can mention an option, but say it wasn’t that.

Texts often refer to things mentioned prior.

If you know a certain type of texts are your kryptonite (it was the classical stories with dialogue, for me), then download as many of that genre as you can. Understand the way speech and dialogue works, and the structure, before you tackle the vocab.

Many say skim read and don’t read the whole thing, but I found it easier to translate big chunks in my head as I went along and lightly annotate each text, which just comes with practice.

WRITING

Top tip: don’t go any more than 10% over word limits!!!!!!! Teachers say they have to mark all of it - no they don’t. If you do double the word limit, your last few bullet points could come after the cut-off point, cutting off access to half of the marks!!! 

90 WORD - 99 words maximum! About 20-25 words per bullet point.

150 WORD - 165 words maximum! About 75 words per bullet point.

Which brings me to mention, that you must cover every bullet point: those are your content marks, which cover about half the marks of each question.

90 WORD Question (16 marks)

Content - 10 marks: Making sure your writing covers each bullet point enough.

Quality of Language - 6 marks: Using interesting vocabulary, such as “malheureusement”.

Stick to about one page.

If you’re giving an opinion, great, just stop there. If you explain it too much, you risk going over your word limit.

150 WORD Question (32 marks)

Content - 15 marks: Every. Bullet. Point. Detailed.

Range of Language - 12 marks: get in those adjectives, idioms and grammatical structures!

Accuracy - 5 marks: correct basic tense conjugations (present, past, future simple/future proche)

In order to hit all of these I came up with a mnemonic checklist, and it scored me full marks in a specimen paper I did for my teacher! And I made it into a cute phone background, so I’d start to remember it, I still can now, hehe! You can find it here. If that doesn’t work, then download it here.

SPEAKING

Know your question words! (x)

For the roleplay and photocard, my teacher printed off me a load of practice cards in bulk and annotated two or three every day, using the planning techniques mentioned below.

Roleplay - 2 minutes; can be any theme. 

When planning, try to avoid writing out answers, but just keywords and gaps for you to fill in with pronouns or articles etc.

Keep it brief, one sentence per bullet point, but cover each part of each bullet point. 

Photo card - 3 minutes (aim to speak for at least 2). 

Plan with a small spider-diagram of nouns, opinions, anecdotes etc. for each known question. 

Use one or two prepped anecdotes for the prepared questions - e.g. where you went last year, who with, what you did. 

For the unknown questions, keep it short and sweet and fill up any time with opinions and reasoning.

General conversation - 5-7 minutes. 

Lie and make up stories! Be creative and use the words and structures you know.

I was a little extra and I prepared every theme as flashcards. You can’t get away with only revising your chosen theme! 

I made flashcards that could cover several types of questions: I had bullet points of topics and keywords on one side and a sample paragraph on the other. 

Pretty sure I made about 80 flashcards oops.

I also went through the mark scheme and see which areas I could secure marks in and which areas I needed to improve.

VOCAB

Learning vocab is SO important!

I started by making spreadsheets of jumbled word lists from the specification and doing a colour-coded match up. 

You can access a pdf of all of the vocab grids here. There might be the odd word missing due to copy-pasting errors, but if so, don’t stress, just look it up in a dictionary and note it down - sorry in advance!!!

Then with the vocab that I had to look up in a dictionary, I added to a Quizlet and wrestled it into my noggin. 

You can find the Quizlet here.

Remember that:

sauf - except

puisque - since

presque - almost

GRAMMAR

To me, learning tenses was like learning formulae for maths. So find a way to learn rules like that, if it’s easier for you.

e.g. Conditional Tense = subject + (future/conditional stem + imperfect ending)*

*note that future stems are the same as conditional stems.

Know your DRMRSPVANDERTRAMP verbs, and their past participles. These verbs go with ÊTRE and always agree with the subject.

Know your auxiliary and irregular verbs.

MUST KNOW: avoir, être, aller, faire, vouloir

HELPFUL: devoir, pouvoir, vivre, boire, voir, dire, savoir

OTHERS: mettre, prendre, venir, écrire, lire, recevoir

I learnt these by making flashcards, and then brain dumping them on paper over and over again until they stuck - my teacher thought I was insane, madly scribbling away.

Memorise some key structures that can be used in writing and speaking. 

If you want 7+ structures, find them here.

MISC TIPS

Always write notes about improvements and errors in practice papers and mocks.

Find a native french internet friend.

In my opinion, music, movies and TV shows aren’t great for revision. However, if you begin to understand them, they are a great confidence boost.

I highly recommend the Skam France series, which you can find with and without les sous-titres (subtitles) here.

And here’s my french music playlist on Spotify.

MORE ASSISTANCE

I’m happy to offer my assistance to anybody who needs it, pop me a dm or an ask if you think others will find it useful too. 

Here’s some ways I could help:

Finding some resources about a certain topic (videos, worksheets, mindmaps) - I have them all backed up hehe

Sending you some of my past answers

Sending you pdf of my general conversation/irregular verb table flashcards

Marking practice answers

Talking to you in french

Etc. etc.

Thank you for reading! Please reblog to help any others that might find this useful. If any of the links are faulty, please pop me a dm, and I’ll get them sorted asap!! 🥐

-Wil x

[shikamarubase]

ShikaTema Week 2019: Day 3 → Rematch

[Summary: Saying goodbye is never easy]

“N-no...”

Temari felt a chill ran down her spine. Her body tensed up in alert, yet her senses were failing her. Her vision dimmed and narrowed, her mouth felt dry, all noise was extinguished the moment she laid eyes on the man approaching her. Yet, he shouldn’t have been there at all. He was supposed to be on the other side of the battlefield, fighting enemies unknown to her.

A nightmare.

That was one of the two logical explanations. She forced herself not to think of the second and more realistic possibility. He couldn’t be gone; for all his talk about how troublesome living was, he would’ve never allowed himself to die during this dire period.

But the closer he got, the harder it was for her to deny the truth. When he stopped within a few meters from her, Temari shut her eyes in despair. Within a cloud of smoke stood the reanimated body of Nara Shikamaru.

He smiled apologetically at her. “I’m sorry, Tem. I went and got myself killed.”

“Is this a joke to you?” She snapped. With shaking hands, she drew her large fan and pointed it to his chest. “You know what I have to do right? I’ll have to kick your butt and...seal you away.” She nearly choked at her last words.

He shrugged, a hint of remorse etched into his face. “You do that, but I can’t promise I won’t fight back.” He flashed her a grudging smirk. “Not when my body’s being controlled by someone else.”

And, without warning, the noise was back.

“Isn’t that Nara Shikamaru, Proxy Commander of the 4th Division?” the other Wind Style users surrounding her bellowed in disbelief. “Shit, they got another one of us! What do we do, Temari-san?”

Temari raised her folded fan and striked it down the rocky field. “Stand back. You don’t need to do anything but wait.” Eyes not leaving his, she added, “Leave this to me.”

With a single flick of her wrist, she brandished her giant iron fan to reveal all three stars.

“Wind Style—Kamaitachi!”

A powerful gust of wind sliced through the air and made its way to Shikamaru. For a second he merely watched as the attack spiralled towards him, perhaps his mind alone attempted to rebel against the control, but the next second his shadows snaked around his torso and threw him in the opposite direction of the attack. Shikamaru landed back on the ground with an elegant thump, completely unscathed.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Tsk, guess he won’t make this easy for us after all.”

He found her a few meters away and already poised to attack. “Temari! Get ready!” His hands came together to form familiar hand seals, ones she knew too well.

“Shadow Paralysis Jutsu!”

A single shadow snaked across the ground towards her. However, before it could remotely get close, Temari rode her fan and glided out of range.

“Is that the best you can do?” She taunted over his head. “A 12-year old has better moves than that.”

Shikamaru didn’t get to ask whether she was making a small reference to their own Chunin Exams, because he was already forming another set of hand seals for his next attack.

“Look out! Shadow Sewing Technique!”

Several shadows sprung from the ground and chased after Temari, who gracefully avoided the assault with ease.

Once sure she was out of his range, Temari jumped down and aimed a stronger whirlwind in Shikamaru’s direction, one he could not easily dodge.

The force of the attack sent him twirling roughly in the air, before he plummeted to the surface. In spite of herself, Temari worriedly ran over and found him eagle-spread on the ground, a little beat up but still in one piece.

To her amazement, Shikamaru was waiting for her with a stupid grin on his face. “This whole fight is a drag, but I can’t help but feel nostalgic.”

“This really isn’t the time to reminisce.” She looked at him in exasperation, but her mind easily darted back to the past, to the time where her biggest worry was how to appease Gaara’s murderous tendencies and win against a gangly kid who was smarter than he looked.

“I kicked your ass like this in our Chunin match too.” She smirked at the memory of young Shikamaru, who was always quick to run away.

“Don’t be cocky now. Remember how I turned the tables on you?” That quickly wiped the grin off Temari’s face.

“Sh-shut up! I was caught offguard, that’s all,” she flushed at the unwanted reminder. Temari never quite got over losing to a kid three years younger than her, even if she was the official winner of the match.

Shikamaru laughed and wistfully stared at her, knowing this carefree moment was his last. “This kinda feels like a rematch, huh?”

She thought for a moment. “It’s not the rematch I imagined, but yea—“

“Tem.” The urgent tone in his voice stopped her. “I don’t have long left. He’ll take complete control over me soon.”

She was sure the pained expression on his face mirrored her own as reality unceremoniously came crashing down. She couldn’t believe that, for a moment, she thought this small banter between them was fun. Did she think Shikamaru was going to magically break out of the jutsu and come back to life? She wasn’t there to savor their last moments together, but to seal him away and make sure he rests in peace.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered when her eyes filled with tears. For reasons unknown other than the need to feel her skin on his, he grabbed her hand. “What a drag, that’s not like you.”

The heat of her skin clashed with his icy grip, cold and unmistakenly dead. “Shut up,” she shot back fiercely. “I’m not crying because of you. I’m angry at whoever killed you and made you like this!”

Shikamaru smiled. He’ll miss messing around with her like this. As troublesome as she may be sometimes, Temari was an undeniably precious friend and comrade. The only thing he’ll regret when he leaves her is never figuring out just how important she really is to him.

“Temari.” He squeezed her hand tightly as the control on his mind waned. “Sorry I won’t be able to stay for this rematch until the end. When I’m gone, give this body hell for me, okay?”

Not trusting herself to speak, Temari jerked her head.

With every bit of strength he had left, he said, “I’m glad my last memory was with...you.....”

As quick as it came, Shikamaru’s last smile vanished. She’ll never be able to forget the moment light left his eyes nor how his face molded into a mask void of expression. There was no trace of the man or even the crybaby she knew, he was now merely a puppet.

Her eyes lowered to their intertwined hands, heart dropping when his grip became lax, until only her own kept them interlocked. For a moment, she could not bear to let go. When the cold seeped into her skin until her fingers trembled, she grasped his hand even more firmly. When she felt his lifeless body stir, she hoped to find him smirking down at her, ready to explain how he had broken through the reanimation jutsu. No matter how slim the possibility, Temari would use any excuse to keep holding on to his hand.

But reality was not so nice as to give her what she wanted.

She stifled a gasp when his hallowed eyes bore into hers. That was the moment she realized the Shikamaru she knew was never coming back. She needed to put an end to this, for both their sakes. With one final squeeze, she released his hand and prepared to fight.

Temari leapt into the air and striked her giant iron fan across his back. Shikamaru’s body crumbled down but he was soon back on his feet, his hands poised to form more hand seals. Giving him no time to counterattack, Temari smashed her fan against him repeatedly—three strikes to his abdomen, one to the back of his head and two to his lower back.

Thrashing the shell of who Shikamari was felt like knives to her heart. Tears easily welled up behind her eyes, until the only thing she could make out were the blurred lines of his figure. Even then, Temari did not cease attacking. The sooner he fell, the less pain she’ll have to endure. By the time she was finished with him, he collapsed in a heap of limbs and no longer moved.

“Sealing Team, now!” Still heaving from the effort, she barked at the small group who immediately approached the two and binded Shikamaru’s body with cloth.

Before the seal was applied to the bindings, Temari stretched a hand to his pale face, the one part of his body she intentionally did not harm, and softly caressed his cold cheek. A single tear escaped as she looked straight into his lifeless brown eyes.

“Goodbye, Shikamaru.”

Once again, she had won the match but lost the battle.

The End.

————————

A/N: Before y’all start throwing pineapples at me, lemme explain. I was minding my own business, wondering how to make the ‘Rematch’ prompt more interesting when this cursed plot sprung to mind. I couldn’t convince myself not to write it gdi, I curse my imagination sometimes😩I need to stop talking. I hope y’all felt as emotional as I did while writing this and as always, thank you so much for reading! <3

[timelordthirteen]

Killing Time 2/?

Detective Weaver/Belle French, Mature

Summary: A Woven Beauty Law & Order-ish AU. Written for Writer’s Month 2019.

Chapter Summary:  A time jump to set the stage for what's to come.

Notes: Here there be plot. Oops. For prompt #2 of Writer's Month: hurt/comfort. This isn't exactly that, but there will be plenty of it. I promise I'll fill in both how we got here and where we're going. Sorry if this is all confusing. It makes soooo much more sense in my head. Now dedicated to the fantastic and wonderful and talented @thatravenclawbitch. This is officially her "birthday" fic. Guess she gets to celebrate all month. ;) Please note the tag additions which are relevant to this chapter and the rating change. There will be descriptions of injuries, blood, and references to the actions of a serial killer through the rest of this. I also promise not to be too graphic or gory on any of that if I can help it. Please let me know if you feel I need any additional tags or archive warnings.

Warnings: Blood, non-graphic violence, injuries

[AO3]  Previous: [1]

12 weeks later...

Weaver hated hospitals.

There was something about the smell, the stark white colors with scattered dashes of blue and beige, that made him unsettled and anxious. Being surrounded by the sick and injured didn’t help either. He’d spent a fair bit of time in them in the course of his career in law enforcement, but only twice as a patient. The first was when he was nine and a fall at the playground ended with his arm in a sling for six weeks. The second, when he was a few decades older, left him with a scar near his right shoulder, just below his collarbone, and a matching one on his back.

The doors slid open, sending a rush of cool air into the summer heat. Weaver charged through them, waving his badge at the receptionist on his way through the automatic doors that lead to the ER. Inside was a cacophony of activity. A pair of nurses criss-crossed the hall in front of him, making his steps halted and squeaking his boots against the tile floor. A second later a doctor leaned out of an exam room and barked orders to someone unknown. Shrill noises assaulted his ears and he made a face as he dodged the gauntlet of moving bodies.

“Excuse me, sir!” came a voice from behind him, and he spun around, holding up his badge with authority.

“Where is she?”

A tall woman with a wavy blonde ponytail swinging from the back of her head, frowned at him. “Who?”

Weaver huffed, and glanced down at her name tag. “You know who. The same person every other copper is here for, ADA French. Where is she?”

The woman, a nurse named Mallory, softened. “Oh, sorry, it’s been a night. There were so many people coming in and out we moved her over to Urgent Care.”

“And how do I get there?”

“Through those doors,” she said pointing, “but you need to check in at reception!”

Weaver was already off before she got out her instruction. Let them send security or whoever after him, he didn’t care. Belle wasn’t in the ER which meant her injuries couldn’t be that serious, but the tension and adrenaline keeping his exhausted body upright wouldn’t abate until he saw her with his own eyes.

The Urgent Care unit was less frenetic than the ER proper, but it still took him a few minutes to find a nurse, invoke his badge again, and scowl his way to Belle’s location.

“Belle,” he breathed, stopping just inside the doorway of exam room eleven. “Hey.”

Belle looked up from her phone, her brow knit in confusion. “Hey, Ian, what -”

He crossed the room in long strides and wrapped her in a tight hug, both arms around her shoulders and a hand cradling the back of her head. She let out a gasp and a grunt of pain that made him pull away.

“Shit, sorry!”

He stepped back and put up his hands, noticing for the first time the blood staining her blouse, the torn sleeve, and the cut on her forehead held closed with three small, blue stitches. She was missing her shoes and there was more red caked around her toes and the hand in her lap, making it look like she’d given herself the world’s worst mani-pedi.

She could have died, he thought. I could have lost her.

Rage made his face heat and his jaw tense. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

Weaver pivoted sharply and stalked towards the door, but Belle slid off the exam table and caught him by the arm. “Ian, no.” He hit the door frame with his fist, making a loud, solid thump, and turned around. “Stop.”

Her eyes were overbright and shining, and he swallowed hard. “I have to, Belle. He can’t get away with -”

“He won’t,” she insisted. “Please, let it go. The police -”

“I am the fucking police!” he snapped, bringing his face close to hers. He could smell the sickly metallic tang of blood mixed with the lighter scent of her shampoo, and his stomach rolled. “I should be out there. I should be the one to bring him in.”

“Oh, right,” she scoffed. “So you can hunt him down like a vigilante? Take out your pent up bullshit with me on him?”

His eyes went wide. “Belle, that’s not-”

“No, of course not. I suppose you’ll say you’re saving the city money by shooting him instead of bringing him to justice.”

“Fucking justice," he said, looking up at the ceiling and then back to his ex-wife. "How could I forget that you’d rather spend months on research and a trial, all so that psychotic wanker can live the rest of his life on three meals a day -”

Her nose flared and her eyes flashed with anger and she inched closer, shouting over him. "Killing someone is not justice!"

" - and fucking cable TV!"

Their commotion brought the nurse to the room. It was the same one who had confronted Weaver in the ER earlier, and she did seem surprised to find out that he was the cause of an argument that could be heard down the hall. “Is everything okay in here?”

Belle tugged in annoyance on Weaver’s arm, making him move out of the doorway. “Yes, sorry. Everything is fine.”

Mallory gave Weaver a suspicious glare, and then looked back at Belle. “Your CT was negative, ma'am, so you’re cleared to leave. The doctor will be in shortly to talk you, while I get your discharge papers ready.”

The nurse left and Weaver frowned. “CT?”

Belle sighed and moved back to stand by the exam table. “Yeah, the asshole caught me with an elbow,” she explained, pointing up at her forehead. “They thought I might have a concussion, hence the CT.” His hands curled into fists at his side, and she shook her head. “I’m fine, Ian.”

He let out a huff and rolled his eyes. “You’re covered in blood, you’re clearly not fine. You had -”

“It’s his blood.” Her eyebrows lifted when he stopped speaking, and she couldn’t help the little twitch of her lips as she held back a grin.

Weaver’s head tipped back a bit and he gave her a small, impressed smile. “Yeah?”

Belle shrugged, folded her arms, and leaned against the table. “Eight inch chef’s knife to the thigh.”

He laughed and shook his head as he stepped closer, imagining the shock on the sick fucker's face when petite Belle French stabbed him with a knife almost as long as her forearm. In spite of the fact that he probably would have shot the arsehole dead on sight, he wished he could have seen it. He'd always known Belle wasn't to be trifled with, and that her temper ran as hot as his own. “Well, that’s one wedding present that got put to good use.”

She grinned, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip. “He won’t get far, if he gets anywhere. Graham’s got everyone out searching, and Rogers promised to call me the minute they know anything.”

Weaver nodded, finally feeling the muscles in his neck and shoulders relax and the thumping in his chest subside. Belle was going to be okay, and she’d gotten a piece of the killer besides. “I’d still feel better if I was out there."

She reached for him and gave his arm a squeeze through his jacket. “I know, but -” Her mouth pursed for a moment as she took a breath. “I need your help.”

“Anything you need, Belle. You know that.” He raised a hand and brushed his fingers against her hair, right above the small gash caused by the struggle. It was matted at the crown with blood, and he had to force his anger down again.

“Well,” she started, looking to the side as his hand fell away. “I could use a place to stay for a bit. My apartment is...sort of a crime scene.”

He swallowed hard. Belle in his flat. Their flat. Well, what used to be their flat, before she moved out and the rest of their communication was through lawyers and paperwork. He was a little surprised she would ask, given how they had left things just a couple of days ago. Given what had happened between them in the last few weeks, he wasn’t sure that being in close proximity was a good idea for either of them, but he couldn’t say no to the woman he still loved, even if she didn’t feel the same, and he wasn’t about to trust the job of protecting her to anyone else.

“Of course,” he answered softly, just as the doctor came into the room with a tablet in his hand.

A few minutes later, Belle was discharged with some pain killers and an overly lengthy packet of instructions on how to tend her stitches, and when to come back so they could be taken out. Weaver walked with her through the parking lot, his hand hovering at her back, but not daring to touch. They were on uncertain ground with each other. There was a serial killer on the loose, the second in as many years, but he was shocked to realize that in this moment, outside Hyperion Memorial Hospital helping his injured ex-wife into his car, that he felt more hope than he had in a long time.

[itasan2]

Get To College Mod V3

Information The version 3.0.0 is now available! (February 8, 2019) The mod is compatible with the patch of February 5, 2019 (PC Version 1.49.65.1020).

Changes in Version 3.0.0 1. Enable to build/place a university lot in Del Sol Valley 2. Enable to build/place a university lot in Selvadorada 3. Integration/Compatibility with the latest Zerbu's GoToSchoolMod, VenueChangesMod and TurboCareersMod 4. Bug Fix Because of a patch, a sim couldn't get a career advantage (career-level-4-start) after the graduation but now it works properly.

Download The mod version 3.0.0 can be downloaded from here (my Dropbox site) or here (my web site).

1. Introduction I like GetToCollegeMod very much. I heard the original creator “simmythesim” semi-retired from modding but I didn’t want the mod outdated yet. So I updated the mod for December 2015’s patch at first. Since then, I've been updating the mod on my Tumblr site for GetToCollegeModV2.

My Patreon Site Needs Your Supports to Keep Updating GetToCollegeMod For GetToCollegeModV3, I can keep updating the mod thank to all patrons' supports on my Patreon site. If you become my patron, you can download an updated mod a week before it's released to the public. In addition, I'll add some new features such as an entrance exam, a new major/faculty, a renewal of the current three majors and so forth if many patrons supports the project.

2. Mod Description GetToCollegeMod introduces a college system to the Sims 4. After your sim becomes a young adult or older, the sim can go to the university using EA’s active career mechanism (requires Get To Work Expansion Pack) as well as Zerbu’s GoToSchoolMod which is for children and teens. The original description of simmythesim is on the MTS site.

2.1 Majors A student sim can chose a major from three majors - Music, Fine Arts and  Physical Education.

2.2 Weekly Schedule in the College Life Sunday … Holiday Monday … Activity Day Tuesday … Lecture Day Wednesday … Activity Day Thursday … Lecture Day Friday … Presentation Day Saturday … Holiday

The First Day … The student sims get to know their classmates.

Activity Days …  The student sims do things that train them for the real world - Working out for Physical Education, painting / woodworking for Fine Arts, and playing instruments for Music.

Lecture Days …  The student sims learn from their hopefully awesome professor. Goals for these day involve Watching the Lecture and Asking Questions. For Watching the Lecture, you should click on the Podium (a podium for your university), then select “Watch” interaction. For Asking Questions. you should click on another sim, then select “Ask Questions“ interaction in Friendly category.

Presentation Day … The student sims give their presentation to their class. If your sim doesn’t study for the presentation day, he or she will lose a lot of performance, likewise, if your sim studies before it, they’ll get a huge boost to their grade. For giving your presentation, you should click on the Podium (a podium for your university), then select “Give Presentation“ interaction.

Graduation Day … This is the last day, say your goodbyes to your friends and enemies on this day. This takes place on Day 20 (default), which can be change to Day 5, 10 or 15 by the mod option file in "SchoolDays_SelectOnlyOne" folder. You have to talk with a sim before saying your goodbye to the sim.

If you want to see how many days your student sim went to college so far, please use myShow/Search Sim Info Mod, which shows “active / all days worked” on the Career Info dialog. Technically, your student sim can graduate after all days worked is 19 (the length of school term minus one) or greater. So your student sim can go to the rabbit hole until all days worked is 19 but at least the sim have to go to the University LOT after that to graduate and get a hidden graduation trait.

Don't forget to quit the university career after the graduation. You have to quit the university career manually.  

After the graduation, your sim gets their qualifications to start at level 4 of their dream job - Entertainer Career and Business Career for Music major, Painter Career and Business Career for Fine Arts major, Athletic Career and Business Career for Physical Education major.

3. Tip From simmythesim One of the most important things to do in University is to study. To actually study, purchase the “University Supplies” from the Bookshelf or the Build Catalog and study to your heart’s content! Warning: Like real life, studying takes a loong time, and takes about - I think four hours, so your sim will have many sleepless nights in their quest for the highest grade! If they don’t study, even if they perform well in their tasks at the University, they’ll get worse and worse grades. So please, make your sims study!  

4. Installation, Update and Uninstallation 4.1 Install To install, unzip the downloaded file to your mods folder. The mod needs to be placed directly in /Mods or one level below that (see the screenshot).

You have to chose the length of school term from “SchoolDays_SelectOnlyOne“ folder - the unchosen option files must be removed.

If you don't use Zerbu's mods , delete "CompatibilityWithZerbuMods_IfNeeded" folder. If you use Zerbu's mods, please read the configuration in #5.

The mod requires The Sims 4 Get To Work Expansion Pack.

4.2 Update To update, delete the old mod files and 2 cache files (The Sims 4/localthumbcache.package and The Sims 4/cachestr/spotlight_xx-xx.package), then unzip the downloaded file to your mods folder.

4.3 Uninstall To uninstall, just delete the mod files and 2 cache files (The Sims 4/localthumbcache.package and The Sims 4/cachestr/spotlight_xx-xx.package). You can continue to play your sims after deleting the mod.

5. Integration/Compatibility with Zerbu's Mods 5.1 GoToSchoolMod Compatible. You can use both mods at the same time.

5.2 VenueChangesMod Needs the following configuration. Replace "Zerbu - Venues.package" with "Zerbu - Venues_WithGetToCollegeV3.0.0.package". And delete "Ita_GetToCollegeV3.0.0_VenueList.package".

After the configuration, you can use both mods. If you use both mods, you can build the university lot even on Windenburg's special lots (Von Haunt Estate, Ancient Ruins, The Bluffs) !

5.3 TurboCareersMod Needs the following configuration. Replace "Zerbu - Turbo Careers Mod Pack - Career Overrides.package" with "Zerbu - Turbo Careers Mod Pack - Career Overrides_WithGetToCollegeV3.0.0.package". And delete "Ita_GetToCollegeV3.0.0_CareerStartLevelModifiers.package".

After the configuration, you can use both mods.

6. University LOT Requirements You can build the university in any world. There are three university lot type - Music Building, Fine Arts Building and Physical Education Building. To select a custom lot type, build or download the university, quit the Build mode, re-enter Build mode and change the lot type. At least, you have to select a university lot type for your student sim’s major. You can also build plural same major buildings like two Music Buildings. In that case, you student sim will randomly select from those universities every day.

6.1 Requirements for all majors A “podium for your university.” (included in the mod) and a classroom. Bathroom for your sims bladders. A cafeteria.

6.2 Requirements for Music Building At least 11 instruments.

6.3 Requirements for Fine Arts Building At least 11 easels, preferably only one woodworking table. Art to view and critique.

6.4 Requirements for Physical Education Building At least 9 workout equipment and a swimming pool.

7. Sample University Lot If you want to use a sample LOT, please use my Newcrest University (NoCC). To use this LOT, replace the microphone in the church with the podium which is include in the mod.  

For Japanese speakers: 

お知らせ Version 3.0.0がリリースされました！(2019/2/8) 当MODは、2018/2/5配信パッチ（PC Version 1.49.65.1020 ）環境での正常動作確認済みです。

Version 3.0.0での変更点 1. Del Sol Valleyワールドに大学区画を建築・設置可能になりました 2. Selvadoradaワールドに大学区画を建築・設置可能になりました 3. ZerbuさんのGoToSchoolMod、VenueChangesMod、TurboCareersModの最新版との統合・互換性の改善 4. バグフィックス パッチにより、大学を卒業したシムが就職時に特典（レベル４で開始）を受けられなくなっていましたが、今は正常に機能しています。

ダウンロード 当MOD Version 3.0.0のダウンロードは、こちら(Dropbox) または こちら（自前サイト）からどうぞ^^/。

1. はじめに simmythesimさんが作成されたこのGetToCollegeModが大好きでよく利用してますが、お忙しいせいか、このMODの管理ができなくなったと聞きました。それならと言うことで、個人的に2015年12月配信パッチに対応させてアップデートしたのが、事の始まりで、それ以来マイシムズ・ブログの方でアップデート・配布（GetToCollegeModV2）をしています。  

GetToCollegeModのアップデートを継続するために、私のPatreonサイトで支援者を募っています。 GetToCollegeModV3では、Patreonサイトでのパトロン（支援者）の皆さんのご支援があって、当MODのアップデート・配布を継続できています。もし、あなたがパトロン（支援者）になってくれれば、一般の方にリリースされる１週間前から当MODをダウンロードできます。さらに、このプロジェクトが多くの支援者にサポートされれば、日本語化や入学試験や新しい専攻／学部や既存３専攻のリニューアルなど新たな機能も追加する予定です。

2. MODの概要 当MODは、大学プレイを可能にします。若者以上のシムは、子供＆ティーンを小学校・高校プレイ可能にするGoToSchoolMod（Zerbuさん作）同様、GetToWork拡張パックの仕組みを利用して、実際に大学に通えるようになります。原作者simmythesimさんによる（初期リリース当時の）解説はこちらのＭＴＳサイトで閲覧可能です。

2.1 専攻 大学生シムは次の３つから自分の専攻を選択できます - Music（音楽）, Fine Arts（美術） and Physical Education（体育）.

2.2 大学生活の週間スケジュール 日曜日 … 休日 月曜日 … アクティビティーの日 火曜日 … 講義の日 水曜日 … アクティビティーの日 木曜日 … 講義の日 金曜日 … プレゼンテーションの日 土曜日 … 休日

The First Day (初日) … 学生シムはクラスメイトたちと知り合います。

Activity Days (アクティビティーの日) …  学生シムはトレーニングします - Physical Education専攻なら運動を、Fine Arts専攻なら絵を描いたり木工を、Music専攻なら楽器演奏をします。

Lecture Days (講義の日) …  学生シムは優秀な教授から専攻してる学問を学びます。講義を聞いたり質問したりします。 講義を聞くには教壇（a podium for your university）をクリック後、「見る」というインターラクションを選択します。 質問をするには質問したいシムをクリック後、（フレンドリーカテゴリーにある）「Ask Question」というインターラクションを選択します。

Presentation Day (プレゼンテーションの日) … 学生シムはクラスでプレゼンテーションを行います。プレゼンテーション前にしっかり勉強してないと、成績が大きくダウンします。反対に、しっかり勉強していれば、いい成績が取れてグレードがアップする事もあるでしょう。プレゼンテーションを行うには、教壇（a podium for your university)をクリック後、「Give Presentation」というインターラクションを選択します。

Graduation Day (卒業の日) … キャンパスライフ最終日です。友人そしてライバルにもお別れをしましょう。なお、卒業までには２０日間の在学が必要ですが、当ＭＯＤのオプションファイル（"SchoolDays_SelectOnlyOne"フォルダ内）によって５、１０、１５日間に変更する事も可能です。あと、クラスメイトに別れを告げるには、一度彼らと話を始める必要があります。

学生シムが今何日間在学しているかを知りたいなら、私の Show/Search Sim Info Mod を利用するといいでしょう。キャリア情報ダイアログの「アクティブ／総勤務日数」で確認できます。厳密に言うと、総勤務日数が１９（設定した在学期間－１）以上になった際に学生シムは卒業可能となります。総勤務日数が１９になるまで毎日ラビットホールを選択する事も可能ですが、大学を卒業して卒業の隠し特質をゲットするには、それ以降に（卒業の日に）必ず大学へ赴く事が必要です。

Graduation Day終了後、大学キャリアを辞めさせるのを忘れずに。手動で大学キャリアを辞めさせる必要があります。

卒業後、就職する際、キャリアレベル４から開始できます - Music卒業ならエンターテイナーキャリアとビジネスキャリア、Fine Arts卒業ならペインターキャリアとビジネスキャリア、Physical Education卒業ならアスリートキャリアとビジネスキャリアでこの恩恵が得られます。

3. simmythesimさんからの助言 大学で行うことで最も重要な事は勉強です。勉強するには、「University Supplies(大学教材)」を本棚または建築モードから購入して真剣に学びましょう。注意：リアル同様、勉強にはとても時間がかかります（約４シム時間）。好成績を目指すには、睡眠不足になるかもしれません。もし、勉強を怠ると、たとえ大学内でうまく振る舞えたとしても成績はどんどん悪化するでしょう。ですから、学生シムにはきちんと勉強させましょう！

4. インストール、アップデート、アンインストール方法 4.1 インストール インストールするには、ダウンロードしたファイルをModsフォルダへ解凍します。当ModはModsフォルダ又はそれより１レベル下のサブフォルダに置く必要があります(スクリーンショット参照)。

"SchoolDays_SelectOnlyOne"フォルダ内のオプションファイルから大学在学期間を選択して下さい。選択しなかったオプションファイルは必ず削除して下さい。

ZerbuさんのModを利用しない場合は、"CompatibilityWithZerbuMods_IfNeeded"フォルダを削除して下さい。もし、ZerbuさんのModを同時利用する場合は、No.5の設定を行って下さい。

当MODはシムズ４ Get To Work拡張パックを必要とします。

4.2 アップデート アップデートするには、古いMODファイルと２つのキャッシュファイル(The Sims 4/localthumbcache.package と The Sims 4/cachestr/spotlight_xx-xx.package)を削除した後、ダウンロードしたファイルをModsフォルダへ解凍します。

4.3 アンインストール アンインストールするには、MODファイルと２つのキャッシュファイル(The Sims 4/localthumbcache.package と The Sims 4/cachestr/spotlight_xx-xx.package)を削除します。当ＭＯＤ削除後も普通に継続してプレイできます。

5. Zerbuさん作MODとの統合設定・互換性 5.1 GoToSchoolMod 互換性問題なし。両MODを同時に利用できます。

5.2 VenueChangesMod 次の統合設定を行って下さい。まず、"Zerbu - Venues.package"を"Zerbu - Venues_WithGetToCollegeV3.0.0.package"に差し替えて下さい。. 次に、"Ita_GetToCollegeV3.0.0_VenueList.package"を削除して下さい。

上記の設定を行う事で、両MODを同時に利用する事ができます。さらに、両MODを同時使用すると、Windenburgにある特別な区画(フォン・ホーント・エステート、エンシャント・ルイン、ブラフス)にも大学区画を建築・設置できるようになります！

5.3 TurboCareersMod 次の統合設定を行って下さい。まず、"Zerbu - Turbo Careers Mod Pack - Career Overrides.package"を"Zerbu - Turbo Careers Mod Pack - Career Overrides_WithGetToCollegeV3.0.0.package"に差し替えて下さい。次に、"Ita_GetToCollegeV3.0.0_CareerStartLevelModifiers.package"を削除して下さい。

上記の設定を行う事で、両MODを同時に利用する事ができます。

6. 大学区画の設置条件 どのワールド（休暇先ワールドも含む）にも大学を建築可能です。大学区間には専攻に対応した次の３つの区画タイプがあります － Music Building (音楽専攻キャンパス), Fine Arts Building （美術専攻キャンパス） and Physical Education Building （体育専攻キャンパス）。カスタム区画タイプを選択するには、大学を建築またはダウンロードして、建築モードを終わらせて、再び建築モードに入って各専攻に対応した区画タイプを選択します。少なくとも、あなたが操作する学生シムの専攻に対応した大学区画が１つ必要とします。同じ区画タイプの大学を複数設置する事も可能です（２つのMusic Buildingsなど）。その場合、学生シムは毎日ランダムでどちらかの大学に通学する事になります。

6.1 全大学区画タイプに必要なもの 教壇（a podium for your university）(当MODに含まれています)と講義室。 あなたの学生シムが困らないように、トイレ。 学生食堂。

6.2 Music Buildingに必要なもの 少なくとも１１個の楽器。

6.3 Arts Buildingに必要なもの 少なくとも１１個のイーゼル、可能ならさらに木工テーブルを１つ。 観察したり批評するための絵画。

6.4 Physical Education Buildingに必要なもの 少なくも９台の運動器具とプール。

7. 大学区画のサンプル もし、サンプルを使いたいなら、公式Galleryにある私の Newcrest University (NoCC)を使って下さい。なお、この区画を使うには、講義室（教会みたいな建物）内にあるスタンドマイクを教壇（a podium for your university）に置き換えてから使用して下さい。 

[kingmeiozei]

STREAM GAME!! Chapter 1

"So, when are we streaming tonight’s game?" said Cole, who seemingly glossed over his PC. "Not right now, too tired, school requirements.."

5 students ready to absolutely drop-out become streamers that live in the same house, what would happen in a dire situation of failing grades, no food<br /> and tuition?

///////

The year 2019, a year full of misinformation, a year full of disastrous surprises, but nothing is all that different for the 5 students that currently try to survive the semester, with a barely passing mark on their cards.

As a result, they started the idea of making a stream team, what would their future behold?

////////

“What does AIICT even stand for?”

“It stands for..uh..” A small girl piqued, looking up at an adult with a questioned look on her face.

“Well..?” the woman started to sound stern, an impatient look writing across her face.

“U-uh.. I’ll have two number nines .. I’ll have another nine but..large..and a number six with extra dip...can..you give me two number 45s, o-one with cheese...and a large..s-..sod..a..” She started stepping backwards, and eventually speeding out of the fast food chain.

Another girl popped up around the area, who recognized her face and approached her.

“Hey dude! You look, uhm, stressed.”

“Thanks I tried to meme in McDonalds but it didn’t work out too well.”

Leaning onto the wall, the latter lifted up their glasses and responded, “Mae. I really think you shouldn’t do that, especially in this place. Where there are students from AIICT..”.

Mae flustered, covering her face with her hands.  

“I know! I was just bein’ a little stupid is all..” Mae shrugged and sighed, hovering over her phone. “Lookie, Cole is gonna come any minute and I’m pretty sure if he saw me do that kind of shit, I’m gonna be made fun of, Raya!”.

“Speak of the devil.”

Cole overshadowed both Raya and Mae, slowly asserting dominance on them.

“I did see that, by the way” He laughed, and Mae’s face turned to a brighter red. “No you didn’t! I’m gonna erase it from your memory just you wait!”

The two laughed as another entered the scene. He put on his glasses and slumped his bag on the sidewalk, looking at the three. “Guys, I’m going to totally fail this exam today.” Jerry exclaimed.  

“God, I hope you don’t.”

“Only hoping.”

The four walked inside the students lounge, a place where the students can hang out after class hours. Now they’re using this space to study for their examinations, students holding their reviewers left and right, others were just playing on their phones, not caring a bit for the big test their going to take.

Raya takes a step forward, and smells the air.  “Ah yes, the fresh scent of students suffering under multiple requirements and deadlines. Hell week.” she smiles.

Mae and Cole put down their bags on the table, while Jerry slams his book lightly in front of them. “Okay guys, all of us are gonna be determined to pass this quiz.”

“Not really..”

“That wasn’t enthusiastic at all.” he frowns.

Mae wasn’t really sure if she was to be enthusiastic about the exams. She had failed this subject multiple times in her junior year, and now she was gonna take the exam that will determine if she were to fail or not.

On the other hand: Raya, Cole and Jerry are trying their best to study, not a single bit of information entering their brain.

“I can’t do this anymore, this is too hard!” Raya whined. She didn’t seem too sure about passing the exams either, but considering her grades in the quizzes and the performance tasks, the exams wouldn’t pull down her grade too bad.

Cole glossed over her book, and furrowed his eyebrows as he kept flipping more pages. “Why did you draw on your book?”

“The book is boring, I needed to spice it up with at least something in there.” Raya thought that was a good reason, but in reality she was just too lazy to bring out her sketchbook.  “You also highlighted these in..glitter pens?”

Raya shushed him, “We can be very extra, y’know?”.

While studying, something came to realization amongst them, but they all shrugged it off.

11:45 AM - DISMISSAL TIME

About to head out of the classroom, Mae noticed a small notepad open on her classmate’s computer.

Out loud, she read: “I don’t want to do this anymore!”. She giggled, knowing that a few people passed their exams, and fully knowing that she herself had not passed.

She saw a wistful expression on Jerry’s face as she went out of the classroom.

Mae slowly approached him, patting his shoulder. “Reviewing before the exams didn’t really help out, didn’t it?”

“I got mental blocked.”

“Same.” said Cole and Raya in unison, looking down on their phones for the exam grade.

That said, someone came bursting into the corridor.

“FUCK I’M LATE!”

“Justyn, it’s dismissal already, but there is a special exam in awhile if you weren’t able to take it.”

“Oh thank goodness...”

1:00 PM - SPECIAL EXAM DISMISSAL

“Hey guys!” Justyn walked out of the room, with a smile on his face, but Mae was quick to notice his smile.

“You failed too, didn’t you?”

“Hell yeah. I got a zero.”

“Oh my God.”

Justyn shrugged as he pulled out a yellow intermediate pad paper out of his bag. “I mean, look at this. Nonsense equations. I didn’t know how to answer any of them.” He frowned.

All of them decided that it was time to go home, but not until they overheard a conversation between two students.

“Hey, Under Development is gonna stream tonight! They’ve been gone for a bit of a while, haven’t they?”

“I mean they had to, they said were going to have a little hiatus due to their midterms.”

“It’s a little weird..” the student sighed, “they have the same dates for their exams just like ours?”

“Must be a coincidence then!”

All five of them smiled. Before the school year started, they were all streamers who played games every weekend of the night, just like how others would do.

When they had found out they all had streamed, they decided to form a group together, in hopes of getting famous, and they were getting there. People around them recognized the small group of streamers in their online personas, hiding behind a cartoon version of themselves on screen.

To forget that they were going to fail, they decided to do a stream that night,

And this is their time to shine.

////////////////

It’s 8:30pm, 10 minutes before the streams starts for the night. The members are setting up their stations, fixing their PCs, their mics, and everything else that they had to set up.

Mae and Raya were currently setting up their game, whilst Cole and Jerry are setting up the microphones for each PC. It didn’t seem like a hassle at all for them.

What was a hassle though, was choosing the game that they were going to play for the night. Luckily enough Justyn was quick to suggest one.

“Let’s play UNO™!”

“Are you sure about that?” Cole questioned if this was a good idea, but the others nodded.

Everyone nodded, but little did they know the consequences of playing UNO™ with customs.

It would take almost forever to finish, but that didn’t stop them.

The night seemed like it would go on forever, as it was hitting 12 midnight, things were starting to get... fun .

Fucking hell , Jerry thought as he tried to come up with a solution to counterattack Raya. She was the one who was winning, and the only person with one more uno card in their hand. If he pulled a seven, then they could switch hands.

Being on the side of his luck, he got the 7 draw, and smiled.

“I’m sorry Raya, but I’m going to have to pull this on you. He clicked on his 7, and the entire team was shocked.

“Holy fucking shit!” exclaimed Mae and Cole.

“He didn’t…” Justyn laughed into his mic.

“Fuck you!”

And there it set, Jerry clicked on the bright uno button, and another lucky thing happened. Right after that turn, Mae accidentally set down a reverse card, and the color of the card was red.

Which so happened to be Jerry’s last card.

You could hear the sound of an angry keyboard mash, right after that got played.

“I’M SO SORRY AZURA!”

“YOU TRAITOR!”

The chat box was going absolutely crazy, sending so many emoticons in a matter of minutes.

“Heeeey look at the chat! Everyone is saying ‘Noname did such a pogger move` !”

“It was well thought out though, and was very lucky.”

“He’s the winner for the night! Good evening and good night everyone!”

Everyone cheered, except for Raya.

“I literally was about to win.” At that point, Cole turned off the stream since they had already ended for the night. “

Yeah, but I pulled a good move. So good game well played?”

“Fine fine, but only for today. I’m going to get my revenge soon enough.”

Just when they were about to turn off their electronics for the night, a ping showed up on their PCs.

`New Announcement: Grades for the 1st Term`

When they saw the notification, a shiver went down their spines.

Mae turned into a state of panic. “I failed my those exams dudes…I’m totally ready to get the one inducing slap from my mom to get my shit together..”

“Same here”

“Well, I mean..” Cole looked at his grades, scrolling and clicking each and every one of them. “Look, I got a decent score on this one.”

“It’s a grade of mercy, that’s a passing score.”

“But that is what makes it decent. If anything below that, I’d be doomed!”

Jerry didn’t look up from his phone, his face clearly started to show sweat, and very high levels of fright.

“I should’ve studied the night before, and the whole week before exams..”

“I think all of us should’ve studied. I mean, look at this..” Raya lifted her phone up for Jerry to see. “What kind of bullshittery is this? 12 out of 60?”

“No one was ready for the questions, they were all too specific, and way too detailed.” Cole shivered, “But at least I passed my requirements.”

“Ha, peasants.”  Justyn whipped up his phone, and slid it to Mae. “Lookit.”

“Justyn..it’s all…under 80..”

“Exactly.”

“How were you able to achieve that?”

“By the power of being lazy!”

All of them laughed, somehow failing to realize that they are on the verge of a dropout.

But, they had a backup plan.

“We’re going to start the weekend like this, just lazing out and about?”

“I mean, it’s the only way to relax after a bunch of exams thrown at our faces.”

Everyone sighed, looking at the time.  “It’s time for all of us to sleep, say we continue the conversation tomorrow?”

“Definitely.”

Little did they know, a roller coaster of events were going to happen to them in the year.

[sashiesauce]

It's July 26, 2019 at 1pm.

I'm sitting in a fluorescent lit room crowded with 525 law school graduates. It feels similar to a hospital. It is sterile and unsettling. Everyone looks like they’ve just heard the worst news of their life. Each sigh sounds like the beep of a heart monitor. I'm sitting in a plastic fold out chair behind a plastic linoleum table that could just as easily be used as a child's lemonade stand. There is a line of these tables 8 in a row. 6 to each side.

 There is another human in a fold out chair behind a linoleum table next to me. He plays with his wedding ring as he looks down at the desk pensively.  Then he looks up at the ceiling and then back down at his desk. He bounces his leg while fiddling with the ring while exchanging glances between the desk as if mentally moderating a tense intervention between the two inanimate objects.

I look away from him and can feel the light penetrating my skin, Why is this light so bright and yellow? It feels tense. I need to run. Something bad is about to happen here. 

Suddenly the room falls absolutely silent. I can hear the sound of my heart pounding in my throat. I stretch my leg out in front of me to trick my brain into thinking it is relaxed. 

An older man with a monotone voice who reminds me of a turtle stands up to a podium as if he is about to give a eulogy. His tie is too short and too tightly wound around his neck. 

Behind a microphone, the turtle man says “Welcome to the AhRaZonuh state Bar exam.” Each word out his mouth has the same intonation as the next. “Please listen to the following instructions carefully.”

Two women next to him  stand by a clock with a button on top. The logical deduction is that this is not a clock at all but rather a timer. Once they press it the timing starts. It feels like both a game show and some sort of Grecian epic battle that they are merely window dressing for. (much like the sexy scantily clad women in a wrestling match... and far more comparable to the face you see when a woman is scanning your plane ticket as you board upon an overbooked plane.)  

I need to leave. This is going to be bad. 

 People all across the room get up out behind their linoleum tables and their plastic chairs with a look that can only be compared to the look I saw when my younger sister at age 12 ate a small fried octopus at a chinese food buffet on a dare by my dad when we were on an across the country road trip (she was promised $5 if she did so). They rush to the bathroom on the very far corners of the room.

I start pulling out the foamy, orange ear plugs I was given. I mush them into various forms to amuse myself while the turtle man is speaking. I play with it in my fingers and watch the foam get small, set it on my desk, and wait for it to return to its original size. I hear the turtle man continue talking. His voice suddenly shifts tone.

Sharply, "Begin."

The two women beside him press the strange countdown doomsday clocks. The numbers are in bright neon red against jet black. The numbers begin counting backwards. 

I have a paper in front of me filled with numbers 1-100. Next to each number are four circles. Each circle is marked “A” “B” “C” or “D.” 

I’m told I have to read the pamphlet next to me and decide which of the answers are correct. Then I’m to fill out the choice in the piece of paper with the letters and numbers.

The first question reads: “If jimmy committed murder and then rex broke his contract, is it unconstitutional for him to be hailed in to jurisdiction A?” The answer choices are “A. Yes under the double jeopardy clause B. no because he is a Sovreign citizen. C. The court has no jurisdiction D. he is not the first priority interest in the foreclosure sale.”

My pencil feels wet. I realize the pencil feels wet because my finger tips feel wet. I glance over at the clock and 5 minutes had passed trying to read the question. I read the question again.

This time it reads:

“if jimmy commits 2nd degree murder and rex was defending his property what standard of scrutiny should the court use to evaluate his claim?”

“A. strict B. he has no owed duty as a trespasser C. he is a sovreign citizen. D. his murder doesn’t touch and concern the land.”

I mark C and move on.

The next question looks the same.  I read it again. 

The room starts spinning. Why is the light so bright? Why is this paper so white? Why does the shirt around my neck feel so tight? Why are those numbers moving so fast? 

I rub my eyes. I pick C again.

The next question. “Are you okay?”

C. Move on again.

The light is filling each pore of my skin. I start having the same mental conversation between the desk and the ceiling as I saw the man next to me have before the test began.

I get up and go to the bathroom. I take one of the orange ear plugs with me. I let my fingers mush the orange foam ear plug into a size as small as I can make it. I squish it as tight. I set it at the sink next to me.

I look in the mirror. I splash water on my face. It’s cold and it starts making my eyeliner smear. I don’t care. It reminds me of washing my face at home when I get to relax after a long day. I make eye contact with myself in the mirror. 

“This is weird. And it’s okay. Just answer the questions.” Every ounce of me forces me to run out the double doors of this weird room with the weird light and the weird turtle man and the weird questions. I fight every urge in my body to do so.

The orange foam ear plug sits next to the sink and it has returned to its original size. 

I return to my desk. I set the ear plug next to me.

My desk mate sees how flustered I am and shoots me a look as if to ask “Are you Okay?” I nod.  

I start feeling the room spinning but place my hand firmly on the table palm faced down. It stops.

“If plaintiff sues for negligence what is the result?” I know the answer before I look at the weird choices. “No liability because he’s an unknown trespasser.”

I see that answer below the letter marked B. 

Rinse repeat for 2 straight hours. 

That’s how I passed the bar exam. 

[shikastemari]

— growth; nara family. ࿐ྂ。

written for Shikamaru Week 2019 | days 02 and 05

words | 913

rating | T

warning | spoilers from boruto 

a/n | just a little thing to celebrate these days cause shikadai and shikamaru <3 also not edited.

masterlist in bio

Shikamaru would never forget the first time he laid his eyes on that tiny baby.

He rested, sleepy, against the chest of his wife. His little mouth opened as he took deep breaths. Sometimes, his eyelashes would move and a part of Shikamaru would hope he was waking up.

For the second time of his life, he was actually excited to something he was aware it would be so damn troublesome. Marrying his wife, that the first time.

Worth it, every single second as he stared at the most two precious things. Temari looked tired, but she was still gently caressing their son cheek with her thumb. The baby seemed to like it.

Shikadai Nara, you tiny troublesome baby.

-

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at his son. Where did that come from?

Shikadai sat in front of him, playing with some fake dinosaurs in front of him. It didn’t take much until the boy raised his head to look at his father.

“I prayed so God would put a baby in mama’s belly.”

He looked at his four year old son, plainly. There wasn’t anything about your son asking for a brother/sister in those “How to Parent Your Child” books Temari handed him when Shikadai was born. Shikamaru gulped.

“Papa doesn’t think you should do it.”

“Too late. There’s no turning back anymore.”

Shikadai looked down to his dinosaurs again, making loud noises, leaving Shikamaru lost in his thoughts. Maybe another one wouldn’t be this bad, after all.

-

“I am hungry.”

Shikamaru put his newspaper down, at the table, frowning. Temari just shook her head slightly, peering down at the six year old kid pulling her kimono.

“But mama put a lot of things on your lunch today.”

Tiny Shikadai just shrugged. “I ate the grape, but I gave the rest to Chocho. She was hungry.”

Temari’s eyes widened and she smiled, as Shikamaru laughed filled the room, his heart feeling nothing but love. Like father, like daughter.

-

The first day Shikamaru got home and saw Shikadai playing shogi, he thought he would explode out of love.

“So you’re finally serious about learning it, huh?”

Shikadai used his most bored tone, although Shikamaru could see he was eager to learn more about the game. All his doubts were answered as soon as his son asked for him to teach more board tactics.

They talked about life over the game, while Shikamaru spilled some tips from a few moves his son could use. Shikadai heard all of them with a small smile on his face.

Somewhere behind him, he could hear his wife’s voice saying something, but he was too involved with the game and how Shikadai genuinely seemed interested about it.

He didn’t even care when his wife used her fan to slap both of them out of the house for not paying attention at her. He got to teach his son his favorite game.

It was worth it.

-

Shikamaru and his wife spotted their son leaning against a wall.

“There’s no reason for you to come here.” Shikadai lazily replied, to which Temari said something to scold him in return.

A grin appeared on Shikamaru’s face. He was about to fight the Hokage’s son during a Chunin Exam and he looked unannoyed as ever. That kid was completely his.

But Shikamaru couldn’t stop wondering how much of that was a part of an act.

“It’s a good thing you’re relaxed.” He stated, before giving his son a worried look. “You will only have one chance.”

“Yes.” He let his arms fall next to his body, his expression changing to determination. ”I know.”

Shikamaru let the words come out before he could ponder them “I don’t wanna pressure you, but don’t lose to Boruto.”

Temari shook her head, ready to fight him for pressure Shikadai, but Shikamaru just scratched the back of his neck and smile to his kid. He needed to go back to Naruto and honestly, he couldn’t wait to see how the whole fight would go.

No matter the outcome, he was proud already of the shinobi his son was.

-

The cigar Shikamaru needed was the only thing on his mind when he heard the phone ringing in Naruto’s office.

He babbled something about the Hokage not being there and promptly went to answer it, expecting everything.

But his son’s voice.

“Dad, don’t say anything. Just listen.”

That only sentence coming from the other line made Shikamaru’s spine shiver in response. He had been so worried about his son, that simply hearing his voice was a relief.

A relief that ended quickly by Shikadai’s explanation of what was happening.

“The knight that jumps far, falls prey to a pawn, right?”

The man throat closed at hearing those words. Mostly because he had already understood what Shikadai tried to tell him and his next words just confirmed it.

“But I came here of my own will. I have no intention of making a move where I’ll fall prey to a pawn.”

“Shikadai, oi.” Shikamaru yelled against the phone. “Shikadai.”

Worry filled his body and he could feel his heart beating faster. Shikamaru trusted his son, but he couldn’t fight how afraid he was for him.

But even though he was terrified, he wouldn’t take it back any teaching. His son, to his age, was already a best shinobi that Shikamaru himself was at age 12, and for that, he was just proud to watch his boy’s growth, no matter how troublesome could be.