#Learning resources

[callipraxia]

I was just asked to share a favorite writing tip, and as I wrote, it sort of organically expanded from the realm of writing tips I have received and into the realm of writing tips I’ve worked out for myself. I cut most of that from the original response because it wasn’t really what was being asked, but for anyone who might find it helpful - here are six notes on writing from someone who’s been doing it for twenty-something years and has no Agenda, financial or academic, to steer me much astray from confession of my actual practices:

Tip #1: my favorite writing tip I ever got from an outside source is (paraphrasing) “if you want to write like Tolkien, the key isn’t to stick a bunch of dwarves and elves in a low-medieval setting. The key is to write about subjects that you love as much as Professor Tolkien loved Northern European languages and mythology and the pre-Industrial English countryside and Catholic theology and etc.” It isn’t the details of what creatures you have in there that gives something that particular engaging quality that will carry it through and overrule a lot of its inevitable flaws - it is, instead, a subtle, difficult-to-define sort of energy the work will have that, as far as I can tell (and I’ve tried, many times, with concepts and projects that just didn’t work out), cannot be faked.

Tip #2: Based on my own experience as it applies to Tip #1, start trying to figure out what your interests are as early as possible and never stop looking even once you think you’ve found them. There’s a plethora of low-to-no-cost, low-to-no-commitment ways to pick up at least the basics of topics you know nothing about***, so give something a try every now and then, you might surprise yourself. For another personal anecdote, I grew up with the firm belief that physics was something I would a) find really boring and b) not be smart enough to get even the vaguest grasp on no matter how hard I worked, and that even trying was therefore probably a waste of time. I still can’t do the math and would probably flunk any real exams, but physics writing, obtained from the public library’s New Arrivals section, has ended up being one of the richest sources for my writing that I’ve ever encountered.

Tip #3: if you truly can’t find a subject in the world you find yourself especially interested in, that’s probably either the depression or the after effects of bad educational experiences talking. Or both - both is always an option. Start addressing that stuff and the world will most likely become a much more interesting place and you will most likely become a much more interesting writer.

Tip #4: if you find yourself with a sort of author crush, with someone (including other fan authors!) whose work you really, really admire, and you desperately want to be like them when you grow up - find out what they read and read it, too. This doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it is often a productive exercise; the reason I tend to include so many footnotes in my fics is because I’ve benefited so much from other people who left footnotes with reading recommendations or trivia explanations on their fics.

Tip #5, the Big One: Combine multiple things you are geeking out about into one story. The best writing I probably ever did began with how certain characters were represented in three different fanfics in two different fandoms. The presentation of Character A from Franchise 1 in two fics reminded me, in ways she normally wouldn’t, of the presentation of Character B from one fic from Franchise 2. I also just really liked Character C and thought it might be fun to introduce some elements of Character D to him and then see what happened, so I isolated some of the things I liked about those characterizations and combined a character trait or two from each in order to form two ‘new’ basic characters who would form the ‘center’ of the story. I then ran them both through additional filters: the first filter was some specific other interests (ornithology and tea culture) I happened to have, and then the second was the general impressions I’d gotten of family lives and dynamics from reading a couple of blogs for several years****. And then I topped this concoction off by dusting it lightly with references to and elements from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and an old Cage the Elephant song. Yeah. Other sources of musical inspiration have included, but are far, far from limited to, songs from Breaking Benjamin, Foster the People, Hozier, Lana del Rey, The Mountain Goats, The Offspring, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Even I kind of roll my eyes at that list, but hey, if it works, it works.

Tip #6: Don’t get the wrong idea from Tip #5 - I don’t recommend approaching stories or subjects with the aim of finding something to combine with something else in mind. The example I gave coalesced in my head over the course of several years before I ever put any of it into writing. The ideas will form in their own time, and I think the best thing to do is to just absorb as much enjoyable media and neat information as you can and then let your brain gradually do its own thing in its own time. It’s frustrating, but trying to think of things to jam together for a story or character idea on purpose doesn’t work nearly as well in my experience - maybe it can be pulled off for a one-off, preferably one that is a direct homage to or parody of the original, but when it comes to longer-term and more nuanced stuff, it’s rare for a deliberately sought out mash-up to ever quite get that Certain Something that I talked about back in Tip #1.

*** I can only really speak for the U.S. here, but with that caveat - I cannot overstate the utility of public library resources like inter-library loan and Friends of the Library bag sales, along with the contents of the library itself and particularly the New Arrivals sections if one is fortunate enough to be within reasonable driving distance of an even moderately well-stocked public library. If they’ve got a subscription to something like JSTOR or another academic database, so much the better, though you can find a surprising amount of information just through free articles and excerpts on JSTOR at least. The website and app Coursera also has a modest but useful collection of free courses, some of which are designed to be completed in as little as two days, and the similar website/app edX has quite a few classes where you can access the materials freely enough and just won’t get credit toward any professional certificates unless you pay them. I’ve done some studies also through Modern States, which is completely free as far as I remember and aimed at preparing people for exams that could, in theory, allow someone to test out of their freshman year of college or university. I have the very vague impression that Khan Academy sometimes gets mixed reviews, but I’ve found it a useful resource before. I’m sure this list also only just scratches the surface of what’s out there, too, since these are just resources I’ve personally used.

**** One of these was a LiveJournal, to give you some idea of how long ago this was…The other, in the category of “less obvious places to look,” was a collection of tea-tasting logs from a website called steepster; some users use/at least used to use their logs as a sort of journal/social media as well as a place to review teas, and some of those people are really good writers. Haven’t been to steepster in a while, though, should probably peek in sometime to see if it and/or any of my favorite loggers are still around….

[er-cryptid]

Note Cards (January 2024)

1/3 Down Femoral Shaft Diagram

1st Cuneiform Anatomical Siding

3-Phosphoglycerate Derivatives

3rd Class Lever Diagram

55 Cancri c

A. floridanum

Amplification of Enzymes Diagram

Archaeologist

Arginine

Bedsore

Cardiac Valve Sounds

Carnitine Acyltransferase Reaction

Cranial Nerve 8 Dysfunctions

D2700 Skull

Diagnosing Leishmaniasis

DNA Polymerase

Enzyme Catalysis

Features of Genus Homo

Guide RNA

Human Lifespan

Locations of Preganglionic Soma

Longissimus Regions

Methanogenesis

Middle Proteins

Morphology of Pelvis

Multiple Displacement Amplification

NADPH and Glucose 6-P

NH3 and Glycine Synthase Reaction

Occipital Belly of Occipitofrontalis OIA

Penicillinases

Peptide Bond Torsion Angles

Pulp Development Zones

Rectus Abdominis OIA

RM3 Tooth - Buccal View

Roles of Actin Filaments

Safkhet

Schwann Cells vs Oligodendrocytes

Siding Distal Tibia

SOS Response

Southern Sugar Maple

spino-

TH17 Cells

Tibial Groove for Flexor Hallucis Longus

Upper Midshaft of Humerus Diagram

Vena Jugularis

Y. faxoniana

Zygomaticus

.

Patreon

[polyglot-thought]

Language Study Resource Recommendation: Internet Archive’s Open Library website!

They offer thousands of books in many different languages. To find books in languages other than English; First click browse, and then click Subjects. Scroll all the way to the last subject and you’ll see a title that says “Books by Language,” and under this you will see choices for all kinds of languages, with a ‘see more’ tab for even more languages.

I don’t know much else about this website however because I just found out about it today.

[ranahan]

Free tactical medicine learning resources

If you want to learn first aid, emergency care or tactical medical care for real, you will need to practice these skills. A lot. Regularly. There’s no way to learn them just from books. But if you’re looking to supplement your training, can’t access hands on training, are a layperson doing research for your writing or otherwise just curious, here are some free resources (some may need a free account to access them).

TCCC

The current gold standard in the field is Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), developed by the US army but used by militaries around the world. There is also a civilian version of the system called Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC). Training materials, Standards of Care, instructional videos, etc. can be accessed at deployedmedicine.com. You’ll need a free account. This should be your first and possibly only stop.

There’s also an app and a podcast if those are more your thing, although I haven’t personally tried them.

More TCCC (video) resources

STOP THE BLEED® Interactive Course

TCCC-MP Guidelines and Curriculum presentations and training videos

EURMED’s Medical Beginner's Resource List has suggested list of video materials (disclaimer: I haven’t watched the playlists, but I have been trained by nearly all of the linked systems/organisations and can vouch for them)

Tactical Medical Solutions training resource page (requires registration; some of the courses are free)

North American Rescue video downloads

Emergency medicine

WHO-ICRC Basic Emergency Care: approach to the acutely ill and injured — an open-access course workbook for basic emergency care with limited resources

Global Health Emergency Medicine — open-access, evidence-based, peer-reviewed emergency medicine modules designed for teachers and learners in low-resource health setting

AFEM Resources — curricula, lecture bank, reviews, etc.

Global Emergency Medicine Academy Resources (links to more resources)

OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology textbook

Open-access anatomy and physiology learning resources

OpenStax Pharmacology for nurses textbook

Principles of Pharmacology – Study Guide

Multiple Casualty Incidents

Management of Multiple Casualty Incidents lecture

Bombings: Injury Patterns and Care blast injuries course (scroll down on the page)

Borden Institute has medical textbooks about biological, chemical and nuclear threats

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Prolonged field care

When the evac isn’t coming anytime soon.

Prolonged Field Care Basics lecture (requires registration)

Aerie 14th Edition Wilderness Medicine Manual (textbook)

Austere Emergency Medical Support (AEMS) Field Guide (textbook)

Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) Guidelines

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines

Austere Medicine Resources: Practice Guidelines — a great resource of WMS, PFC, TCCC, etc. clinical practice guidelines in one place

The Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal (you can read past issues without a membership)

Prolonged Field Care Collective: Resources

National Park Services Emergency Medical Services Resources

Guerilla Medicine: An Introduction to the Concepts of Austere Medicine in Asymmetric Conflicts (article)

Mental health & PTSD

National Center for PTSD

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Combat and Operational Behavioral Health (medical textbook)

Resources for doctors and medical students

Or you know, other curious people who aren’t afraid of medical jargon.

Borden Institute Military Medical Textbooks and Resources — suggestions: start with Fundamentals of Military Medicine; mechanism of injury of conventional weapons; these two volumes on medical aspects of operating in extreme environments; psychosocial aspects of military medicine; or Combat Anesthesia

Emergency War Surgery textbook and lectures

Disaster Health Core Curriculum — online course for health professionals

Médecins Sans Frontières Clinical guidelines

Pocket book of hospital care for children: Second edition — guidelines for the management of common childhood illnesses in low resource settings

Grey’s Quick Reference: Basic Protocols in Paediatrics and Internal Medicine For Resource Limited Settings

The Department of Defense Center of Excellence for Trauma: Trauma Care Resources (links to more resources)

[mousiecat]

Coding Study Plan!

I've enjoyed learning coding at a casual pace, but I'm ready to really buckle in and focus on moving forward to build my skills. SO, here is my plan:

Routine

Learn/practice coding at least 45 minutes per week day, alternating between FreeCodeCamp, web accessibility lessons, and personal projects. I aim to post about my progress at least once per week.

I plan to solidify my HTML/CSS, move onto JavaScript soon, and then decide where to go after that :)

Details and resources under the jump!

Coding Lessons

FreeCodeCamp: Great, project-based way to learn coding!

I'm almost done with the Responsive Web Design course, which covers HTML/CSS. I have enjoyed this way more than other tutorial methods I have tried before. Instead of providing a lesson with a separate activity afterwards, the project is the lesson, and you immediately use the coding and see the direct results. Learning by doing!

I'm excited to start on the JavaScript course soon!

Web Accessibility

Here are some free resources I'll use to study web accessibility:

Wix's Web Accessibility Course (thanks to @xiacodes for posting about this!)

Altogether, the videos for the lesson total about 1hr 15 mins.

This will prepare me to take the Accessibility Specialist Certification Exam which provides a fun certificate for passing~

Accessibility Resource List from @accessibleaesthetics

Includes accessibility info that is relevant for everyone, as well as more specific knowledge for programmers, bloggers, writers, artists, and roleplayers.

I'm always learning from @accessibleaesthetics's posts! please give them a follow to learn accessibility during your casual Tumblring :)

Web Accessibility Twitch Stream with Africa Kenyah, hosted by @kitkatcodes

1hr 30 mins, can't wait to watch!

Africa Kenyah is a software engineer, accessibility specialist, and yoga teacher. Visit her website here!

[isawthe-sign]

Learn ASL

These are some online resources, but ASL is a three dimensional language. The best way to learn is in person with a Deaf teacher. Check your local Deaf center for more resources and events. These resources provide a good place to start and build your vocabulary

Lessons, Quizzes, Dictionaries

ASLDeafined.com (Lessons in ASL, Deaf Culture/History, Interpreter information, and Dictionary) This one is $36/year. It's my favorite because it's structured well and asl includes lessons on Deaf culture and historical figures. When I took ASL classes from my local Center of the Deaf, they used this resource to structure the classes.

SigningSavvy.com (ASL Dictionary and beginner's info)

Lifeprint.com (Dictionary and beginner’s info)

aslpro.com (ASL dictionaries; and quizzes)

Videos, News, Vlogs, Podcasts

Watching native signers sign, even if it's above your current level, will help you learn much faster and more naturally

aslized.org (stories, jokes, poems and speeches in ASL)

Sign1News (News stories in ASL. They also have a YouTube channel and app)

The ASL Lab (YouTube channel; goes into depth about specific signs and grammatical structures)

What the Deaf?(podcast by two Deaf women explores different perspectives and challenges. Season 2 focuses on the film industry. You can listen in English and/or watch in ASL)

[pictures-and-things-321]

Just found some old pictures of the wands my mum and I made for a Fantastic Beasts event at the college LRC (library) where I used to work.

We made them out of newspaper, toilet roll, PVA glue, acrylic paint, beads and plastic gems, and a glue gun.

These were hidden around the LRC and students would hunt for them every day for about two weeks until they found them all. Those that found them got to take them home and we also had some other activities to promote some of our Harry Potter audiobooks, ebooks and physical books and movies.

Bonus points to whoever spots the atrocious spelling mistake I made on the promotional material. Had to remember where we hid them all so I could break out the tipex

Edit: I Would like to mention as an afterthought, I am in no way in support of She Who Must Not Be Named (aka JK Rowling's) personal opinions regarding trans people. In my opinion she has turned into a vial and loathsome individual who has thoroughly tarnished my love of the fictional world she created. Her actions are pointlessly decisive, and harmful to cis and trans women alike.

Though the fanfic + fanart and the diverse community which created it and enriched that world is still incredibly dear to me. Even though I was never an active member (beyond, reading, giving kudos where it was due and occasionally commenting) I still felt like I was part of a friendly welcoming community full of talented (& not so talented), inspiring individuals.

If you are trans then please know that I support you. What is going down at the moment is utter bull. It might not feel like it sometimes, but people are on your side.

[ceeroosa]

this is a website of resources created by intermediate southern michif language champions and knowledge keepers, including recordings made with a first speaker who has since passed on.

[beautiful-basque-country]

Hi! I'm learning euskera by myself, and I want to thank you for the amazing list of resources, but I would like to ask you, are there some youtube channels that you would recommend where euskera is the main language? I couldn't find any but maybe it is because I don't know enough to properly search. Thank you so much for your posts, it is amazing to follow this blog and see your posts here and there. As a catalan, it makes my heart smile :)

Kaixo!!

Wow, teaching yourself Euskara must be challenging, so thank YOU for your hard work and interest in our language!!!

I'm not much into YouTube, but I've found these channels. Hopefully some reader can give more suggestions.

Gaztea

Eitb Podkast

Berriatb

ZuZeu

Hamaikatb

GedarTb

Naiz

Nostalgikuak

Thanks a lot for your message and effort. That makes our heart smile ^_^. Hope these channels help!

[burgeoning-ambition]

What Kinds of Content Do People Want?

Since I'm trying to get back into posting more regularly, I thought I'd go directly to the people who'd be seeing my posts and ask: What sorts of things are you looking for?

I know having to pick a top choice is kinda difficult, so if people want to rank several of them or add further comments in the notes please do! I just want to see what people are looking for more of, I (and I'm sure others!) want to make posts that people feel like they aren't seeing enough of

Also, I'm not including challenges on the poll (I feel like even the number of options on it now is a little bit too many, haha) but I know those are always fun as well!

Tagging a few people I chatted with about this! (Aka tagging the people I couldn't find tracked tags for, lol)

@tokidokitokyo @chouhatsumimi @kanpeki-bekki @languagesandfrens

[crackaddict55]

I tried out SQL Murder Mystery !

Someone in my post about sql resources recommended it thank you so much!

It’s a short little web game that helps you get familiar with SQL. You have to search through the database for clues and investigate a murder basically.

I found it really fun ☜(˚▽˚)☞

Cute game. Would recommend.

[libraryben]

OER by Discipline Guide: University of Calgary

These are free textbooks and educational resources on a broad range of topics from languages to medicine, history, nursing, business, law, etc.

[er-cryptid]

Note Cards (February 2024)

2nd Law and Acceleration

3' Untranslated Region

3rd Cuneiform Facet Shape

4th Rib and Age

18-Aldocorticosterone

30S Initiation Factors

Actions of Adductor Magnus

Age and Cranial Sutures

Ancylostoma duodenale Pathogenesis

Anthropological Linguistics

Brachialis OIA

Breeding Isolates

Causes of Negative Nitrogen Balance

Chemokines

Components of Hill Plots

Derivatives of Oxaloacetate

Echinococcosis

Endocrinology

Femoral Popliteal Surface

Fibularis Brevis

Flexor Digiti Minimi Brevis OIA

H. erectus at Ceprano Site

IgE

Ilex verticillata Names

Intermediate Filament

LCL vs MCL

Malate Dehydrogenase 1

Nail Matrix

Neanderthal Metabolism

Obturator Nerve Muscles

Parts of Epiphyses

Peptide Bond Structure

Primary vs Secondary Metabolites

sanguino-

Selective Pressures

Siding Metacarpal 3

Skull of Arago 21

Steps of Whole-Genome Shotgun Sequencing

Strongyloides stercoralis

Structure of α-Helix

T. Dale Stewart

T. trichiuria Appearance

Talus - Plantar View

Taphonomy

Teres Minor

Transcriptional Fusion

Trichuris trichiuria Pathogenesis

Vena Cava Inferior

venulo-

Zygomatic - Lateral View

.

Patreon

[polyglot-thought]

Language Learning Resource! (Video)

I feel like this video is a PERFECT outline of what you should be actively doing to learn another language.

—

—

Here’s the main takeaways with some of my own ideas thrown in:

1. Don’t learn a language with the intent to enjoy fun things in your target language LATER after you gotten to whatever your target level of fluency is: Just go ahead and start now! Watch the TV show you want to watch even if you don’t understand any of it yet, you’ll get there eventually.

2. You do not need to be speaking all the time with others to get good at speaking. It helps, but it should not be solely relied on. OP gives a good example of what he did wrong in the video.

3. Speaking a language isn’t due to knowledge like learning math is, it’s more like a muscle that is always working for the sake of function.

4. You can’t just do 30 minutes days and expect to be fluent eventually. You need to be using your target language as much as possible (aka immerse yourself). Immersion takes much more than 30 specific minutes out of your day. I actually do this all the time, talk to yourself in your target language, read your target language (I follow a lot of social media accounts in my target language so I constantly see it), text others in your target language, watch videos/movies, voice shadowing etc etc. You may even be able to feel when your brain is in (insert language here) mode. Me personally I can tell, and I notice that if I’m in Japanese mode it’s hard to absorb things in Mandarin or other language

5. Mindset is everything. If you think constantly about how hard something is, you will always feel like the task is hard. If you are learning a notoriously hard language, and ruminate about this, it will only hurt you in the long run. When I started learning Mandarin as a kid no one ever told me it was hard before, and I picked it up fast, and I only slowed down when I got frustrated about how hard the language is but sped back up when I reminded myself that input and immersion will get me the results I’m looking for eventually no matter which language.

—

[bythefiraplace]

philosophy 101: a documentation of sorts

a week ago, I jumped into a little rabbithole called philosophy. alas, I had no idea it was going to continue for more than a week, but now that we're 4 days further than the originally intended 7 I've found it most sensible to make a side tumblr to document and chronicle my self-learning progress !!

Here are my sources of learning (to be updated as the texts are basically pulled directly from the recommendations and texts from the lecture):

Lecture

Introduction to Philosophy by Jack Sanders

Texts

Classics of Western Philosophy 8th Ed. by Steven M. Cahn (2012)

Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the Present 5th Ed. by William & Alan Ebenstein

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Course Hero: Study Guide

Jeff Speaks (nd.edu) Philosophy Courses

Works of St. Anselm, Translated by Sidney Norton Deane (2018)

In behalf of the fool by Gaunilo & Anselm's reply

Last Updated: 2023-03-13

[halvedmimi]

I know someone who just had a baby. She is a Dutch woman living in an English speaking country. All of her family are back in The Netherlands. She wants to speak Dutch to her son so he will grow up bilingual and be able to speak with her family but she feels rude speaking another language when English speakers are around. Even if it's just her partner (he's kind of a narcissist). My mum and I want to learn some Dutch so we can help teach the little one, and so she can be more comfortable. But Duolingo isn't exactly helping. The learning format is a bit too obscure.

If anyone has suggestions for text books or online resources, please send me your suggestions. Thank you.