#Clear Thinking Methods

[mindsterk]

Overcome Disorganized Thinking: Strategies for Focus

Do you often find your thoughts scattered? Disorganized thinking can block productivity and cause stress. But, effective strategies exist to improve your focus and tackle disorganized thinking. This article will cover strategies that aid in managing disorganized thinking. These aren’t about avoiding thoughts but redirecting them. This helps bring you back to the present. Grounding techniques like…

[clownowo]

Sisters :]

[sunlight-shunlight]

thinking about veilguard and bioware in general, i think we are reaching a point where people need to grapple with the inherent limits of what stories can be told in our Current Society and in AAA gaming companies.

on a labour level: mass layoffs, tons of developers leaving despite previously talking about how passionate and happy they were to be involved, not even paying severance, and crunching employees to the point of burnout. this is unfortunately pretty standard for AAA game companies.

on a cultural level: it is SO white and SO centrist-ly Canadian. i wrote up these asks outlining how. it is a repeated pattern of writing in which they go into tortured racial oppression allegories at best, while constantly peppering in a "but BOTH SIDES were wrong and made mistakes :( :( :(", in between their fictional atrocities that are clearly mirroring irl genocides and enslavement. or at worst, it's "the qunari are radical islamic borg" which has even less nuance. i personally thought, since dai came out in 2014, and a lot has changed since then about the world and in public awareness, that this would have filtered into the narrative and resulted in more satisfying and historically grounded writing. unfortunately not the case. it's shocking if you compare it to how sharp and aware and unflinching something like disco elysium is.

so what does this mean?

under these conditions, it is unavoidable that we get development by people who are rapidly cycled out of the company or demoralized into burnout. we get digestible, easy little soundbites of lore without much substance, because any complexity needs more time and coordination rather than the process of "quick, we have these assets, a lot of people involved in making them just got laid off, we need to make Something by next quarter to show the CEO". we get very little cohesion between games, despite the clear intent from dai to have so many plot points set up to follow through in a sequel, because the team and development are so chaotic that they can't hold onto a vision and complete it.

we also get this inherent caution and "conservatism" from the narrative, because on an ideological level, they're largely white people who want cops to be included in pride. so any major change to even a fictional society is Bad and Scary, and shouldn't be done without making sure that every character finger-wags appropriately at non-state violence. there is clearly not much ideological or even ethnic diversity within the leadership; or at least not enough that anyone there felt comfortable even speaking up on minor issues like the Incredibly Orientalist Isabela Outfit, let alone anything larger.

i don't personally think there's too much value in trying to analyze veilguard's plot or lore at this point. the final product is chaotically developed and does not seem to reflect the goals of the creators as set up in prior games, it's basically a ship of theseus in terms of the people and ideas involved in making it. this is sad for all of us, who were interested in the story, and attached to the characters, and were creatively fulfilled by engaging in the fandom. it's probably worse for the developers who have lost their jobs, burnt out, or feel unhappy with the game that they spent years of their life working on. it's certainly miserable as an indictment of The Industry, as well as the general societal climate of white Canadian centrism.

the solution is to create a society where people can develop games in peace and prosperity and stay on projects for longer, rather than constantly getting turfed out without severance pay. and to get some genuine leftists, poc, and indigenous people on staff who can weigh in and provide significant input, rather than a Council Of Liberal White Edmontonians every time.

in the meantime, at the very least, let's please stop preordering AAA games and supporting companies who notably abuse their employees.

[buttercupshands]

I forgot I drew this thing sometime back while feeling... not so good tbh

(to be extremely clear - that's a screenshot edit!)

[wisteriasymphony]

Ever talked about the "Adrien as Marinette's malewife/stay at home husband" headcanon? If no, what's your thoughts on it?

I had another plan for how I was gonna respond to this at first, but I realized that I had a convo with the lovely anna-scribbles some time ago that covers this already!

Suffice to say, I think playing it 'straight and shallow' often runs counter to what could be a satisfying conclusion to Adrien learning to exercise his own agency, so if the malewifery is something that he chooses, it's something that's also damaging him. Perhaps intentionally, as the screenshot above proposes, but it could also be unintentional.

That's not to say that I don't think Adrien would enjoy malewife activities or even doing stuff in service of his wife—Quite the opposite, actually. Adrien to me feels like a person who's heavily internalized this idea that he needs to be a resource/be useful in order to be loved, and so if he learned how to clean and cook properly he would try and monopolize all those chores in order to prove to himself that he isn't a waste of space.

[the---hermit]

My Study Method

I have quickly mentioned my study method in several posts through the years but I don't think I have ever written a proper post about it, so here it is.

I have to say that overall my study method is quite time consuming, but in years of experience it's what works best for the type of learner I am, the materials I have to study and the type of exams I have. I believe these three elements are the fundamental things you should figure out when creating your own study method. Let's go over these things quickly. Firstly I am an history student, tho not all my exams are history based (I have taken some language, philosophy, anthropology and litterature classes) so my method is proofed for most humanities. I am a learner with terrible memory, if you give me a list of things to learn by heart expect me to fail because my brain simply cannot do that. So I have to train myself to learn things when studying for an exam. As for the type of matherials I have to work with when studying for an exam, they are mostly full non fiction books, sometimes I have to work on articles as well, and depending on the class I have lectures to attend.

The fundamental element of my study method are the notes I write. That's why in my daily posts I am constatly mentioning them. The lectures I attend are turned into notes, the books and articles I have to read are turned into notes, everything you leave me with for too long will be turned into notes. The very act of writing is what truly helps me get into the topic, understand it, and memorize it. I might write an indepth post on how I write notes in the future, but for now what you must know is that the goal of my notes is to be the only material I actually study in the end. As I mentioned the very act of writing is itself a huge part of my study process. When I am listening to a lecture I try to write down notes as tidy as possible, and then try to fix them at home if needed. So there's not much to say there, as for the materials I have to read here's how I do it. When I get a book I have to study I usually read a chapter and underline all the important bits that I will be transferring to my notes as I am reading. When I am done with the chapter and have the topic still fresh in mind I write down by hand all my notes. The goal is to write everything I need to know, in a direct and easy way using my own words. By re-elaborating the original text I am making sure I am not blindly copying things, and actually understanding stuff. Once the entire book has gone through this process, the book goes back on the shelf and as I said I only work on my notes from then one.

Once I have all my notes ready a long time has probably passed, but in reading and writing I have already started to memorize things in general. I try to highlight my notes as I am writing, but in case I don't I go back once I am done writing, doing a quick reread and highlighting important stuff. I usually use two different colours: yellow for the important dates and another colour for the other informations. At this point there's two more steps left. Repeating and writing key words.

If writing notes can be counted as half of my studying, repeating outloud is the second half. Since I have oral exams I have to make sure I am comfortable with exaplaining things, showing I have understood things and I am not just midlessly reciting a list, and using the right terms. I am a very lucky person because my dad is both retired and quite interested in the topics that I study, which means that I get a lot of help from him in this phase of studying, because basically what I do is following him around the house for a few days exaplaining my notes to him. If you do not have someone to annoy with your study, talking to yourself works too but you have to speak outloud and honestly pretend you are giving a lecture. If you just go over your notes and read them it is not the same thing, it's way less effective. I usually do two rounds of repeating. The first one looks a lot more like reading and saying things outloud in my own words. By the second one I am usually much more comfortable with informations so I have my notes there only to guide me through topics making sure I don't miss anything. Having someone who actively listents to you is definitely a bonus because if they ask you questions they challenge you in the exact same way an oral exam does, and you make sure your exaplainations are as clear as possible.

The very last step is going through my notes one last time with the goal of writing a long list of key words. This is a tool I specifically use to review things quickly the day of the exam. Usually during my commute I reread the list of words in my head and I mentally make sure I remember about everything.

As mentioned this is a longer study method but it truly locks things in your brain, and paying that much attention to note writing also makes them a tool that lasts in time. If I am interested in the informations of any of the books I read during my degree I can pick the notebook in which I wrote those notes and find the information right away without even having to open the actual book. I usually dedicate a whole notebook to each book, in order to archive and find them easily. I will be writing a specific post on the way I write notes, maybe including a few pictures, but in the meantime I hope this was somewhat helpful.

[freakinator]

devotionduo so codependent that when they try to be less so they end up hurting each other what if i kms

[grymm-gardens]

I continually see posts about emmrich doing illicit substances, but only as a younger man, and i need to know why y'all are limiting this man. Let the old man have a fucking joint in the lighthouse, he deserves it.

[justworthlessreblogs]

more riochika swap au stuff because i can't stop brainrotting over it

pekorin lives with rio. he pretends she's a dog

genichirou: what've you got there, pikario? rio (who has just gotten back from his first fight as a precure), looking at the sweets pact he's got in one hand and the weird dog creature in his other, trying to figure out which one is easier to explain: uh. a dog. i found her on the side of the road can we keep her

you know, i'm not sure if the mountain attack ever happens. it was the fairies who did it in canon and i don't think ichika would be willing to go that far. maybe another general attacks it after waffle debuts instead

ichika is still a full member of the kirapati from the very beginning despite her villain status

also despite being a villain ichika is still the glue that holds the group together. before she joined their friend group the precures' dynamic was "two social anxious weirdos (rio and himari) and one slightly more normal person (aoi) who have started hanging out together but don't know each other very well yet" but she turns it into an actual, genuine friendship

since episode 18 doesn't have to be set aside for bibury's debut, it's instead where akiyuka debut. the kirapati is down 2 staff members after 17 (one [ichika] has run away to noir's hell dimension and probably won't come back and the other [rio] has refused to come out of his room for the past few days except for school) and aoihima have quickly realized it's very hard to run a business with 2 middle schoolers, a toddler, and a ghost. so they hold a hiring session. akiyuka are the lucky winners

i do like bibury's rumors thing that she does in 18, so it probably does still happen but idk where

yukari catches on pretty quickly that there's Something going on at her new place of employment. she ends up figuring out that her coworkers (aside from akira) are the precure pretty fast. akira is told later on because they get sick of having to hide pekorin and chourou from her

ichika is still the kirapati's manager. after she runs off yukari takes over, but gives it back to her after ichika becomes a precure and rejoins the group

post-redemption ichika's arc is about making amends with ciel & rio and also learning to be healthier about expressing her negative emotions

this is because her refusal to express her negative emotions is part of what made her a good target for noir, since she never seemed to be affected by kirarin not responding to her letters the other fairies never asked how she was feeling, and noir was able to use that as a point in his "here's why nobody else cares about you" list

ciel's arc is about making amends with ichika and learning to be more appreciative of the people in her life

aside from being the main star of mon tresor ciel has a youtube (curetube?) channel on the side where she does baking videos. this is how rio found out about her (she has a great video on tips for waffle-making)

i'm thinking cure pekorin might actually be able to work in this au since she's a lot more prominent in general. however it depends on if the elisio twist goes through or not

kirapika unfortunately do not hit it off the first time they meet. this is because ciel, who has not had her character development yet, insults the kirapati's sweets (she calls them basic and somewhat boring) in front of the trio. rio obviously doesn't take this well. the ichiciel friendly competition in canon is replaced by rio genuinely trying to outdo ciel. aoihima begin to realize that their plan to get rio out of the house might've worked too well, because he's back at the kirapati, sure, but now he's fueled by spite and that might be worse. the kirapika relationship gets better over time

[borealing]

important question

[stuft]

pretty grim when your country is trying to figure out how to most ethically kill its prisoners, while also more passively trying to kill the rest of us

[spellsparkler]

writing elias is fun for, i expect, the same reason a lot of people find the dark urge fun: I know more or less what's going on with her and she's got no fucking clue. she's a very information-driven person, and as soon as she realises that there is some largely indefinable difference between her and the rest of them she immediately starts trying to catalogue it and narrow it down. it's interesting to write someone who is so deliberately aware of themself and observing themself all the time

[stupidvillainousposts]

Stan Sometimes Talks in His Sleep

But it isn't normal random babbling, it's like he's having a whole conversation with Fidds, and it scares the shit out of his boyfriend

Stan: *Grunts and Starts Mumbling*

Fidds: *Stops Reading and Nervously Looks at Stan* Oh no...

Stan: *Growls Softly* Who are you? What are you... what are you doing here?!

Fidds: *Scoots Over Slightly* I-it's me, honey. Ya know me. I'm Fidds, ya 'member?

Stan: *Shakes His Head and Starts Kicking the Space Between Them* No! Imposter! He left... he left me! Just like my brother! Why are you here?! What did I do?!

Fidds, shaking fearfully: *As Calm as He Can Manage* Stanley, please. I'm Fidds. Honey Bunches; I didn't leave ya. I'd never even dream it.

Stan: *Snarls and Thrashes Around* NO! YOU'RE A MONSTER! GET AWAY FROM ME! *Lunges Forward*

Fidds: *Screams and Forces Stan's Collar On*

Stan: *Screeches as He's Shocked*

Fidds, instantly regretting his actions: *Frantically* Stanley?! Oh, good lord! Please don't be- I-I didn't mean t'! I just panicked! Please be alive!

Stan: *Groans and Slowly Opens His Eyes*

Fidds, on the verge of tears: STANLEY! *Wraps Stan in a Hug* Oh, my sweet darlin'! I thought I lost ya!

Stan, clearly dazed and confused: Uh... why?

Fidds, sneakily grabbing the collar's key: *Whilst Unlocking and Slipping the Collar Off* Ya were sleep talkin' again, hon.

Stan: Oh, shit! Did I hurt you! Please tell me I didn't-

Fidds, chuckling: No, ya didn't hurt me. Just wiggled 'round like a worm.

Stan, smirking: Alright, we got jokes, huh?

Fidds, sliding the collar under the covers: I've been said t' be quite funny when I want t'.

Stan, playfully: Yeah? Well I say ya should work on it a bit.

Fidds, hugging Stanley tighter: Mmm, I'll keep that in mind.

[vaguely-concerned]

first of all rye 'hello fellow kids' ingellvar there is nothing in this world or any other I wouldn't do for you. second of all, considering where this story ends... I'm going to die. this conversation -- and how much he genuinely believes what he's saying at this point -- held up against the fact that in a couple of months max he's going to get her killed (well. that's how he feels anyway) and then go against everything she believed in and stood for as a person in the end and have to live forever with knowing that's how he honoured her sacrifice. (and live with how easy it is to live with, the way he doesn't regret what he did at all. she'll haunt him from time to time, that's fine, he's a watcher he's loved many a ghost before and will again. but that won't.) 'no one is beyond help? oh lace I'm so so sorry, wherever you are now please forgive me for who I am, but after what he pulled and by the time I'm done with him on my watcher's oath he will be beyond help. I'll hold every hand in this world that reaches back but his'. and she'll still be gone.

'or none of this matters'. im so fucking sad I feel sick *through tears* this is great I love fiction I love this game (embarrassingly genuine as is my wont)

[hubbaslubba]

IDK 73 yards leaving so much unexplained - i think it was a help rather than a hindrance. folklore ceases to be folklore if we know step by step the action and reaction of everything that happens

within the framework of a folklore type story what is much more interesting is following the actions and emotions of a character and what the mysterious unexplained element might be a metaphor or stand in for in the narrative rather than nitpicking about: was that an alien and does their species have the power of teleportation? but idk why the dr vanished?

does any of that matter to the story that was trying to be told?

[tracybirds]

If you visit my desktop blog, you may see a little change in the sidebar :)

I'm trying to help myself by creating some navigation haha, so you'll be able to find stuff here if you like :)

not all my posts are tagged so it's a work in progress, but it's hopefully still fun to peruse!