#and also very good at being consistent with the type of ellipses i use

[little-peril-stories]

I . . . have no idea what quotes are hidden underneath these titles. Like, absolutely zero clue. (I'm definitely the person who set up these posts.) A+ job, Kate.

Titles:

A sad, quiet moment for our girl

Existing readers will know who's speaking!

A new scene referencing another new scene...

Old line, new implications...

When will my reflection show...? (I'll stop)

Reckless, impulsive, 🔥-tempered Will 😅

Catharsis?

Welcome to Closure Town, guys.

[sickonthedancefloor]

His Personal Nurse, After Hours

Prompt: “I know it’s 2am but I had a nightmare”... or something along those lines. I can’t find the original prompt. Anyway, here’s some soft Namseok. Sickie: Hoseok Caretakers: Namjoon Content: fevers, flu-like illnesses, emeto

The nice thing about having Hobi as a boyfriend, Namjoon thinks, is that Hobi has a consistent sleep schedule. Jung Hoseok, the ever-busy dance coach and instructor, worked consistently early shifts and slept like clockwork. His good night texts always told Namjoon what time it was—almost always, 11:15 at night—and served as a good reminder on when he needed to sleep himself before he spent his entire night grading papers again. Being a college music history lecturer was no cakewalk.

But that’s what alarms him about that morning, waking up at a quarter past two in the morning to a handful of texts.

‘Joonie bug,, I miss you.’

‘I’m going to blame th Tue dance squad, they were all gros’

‘I love you baby’

‘I know is late but I ad a nightmare and I miss you, cannn you just tell me yu love me? Just so I kno you’re okay??’

‘unless your’e sleeping, plees slee\[‘

So, so many typos… Hoseok wasn’t the type to be hypervigilant on his texting, but he was far better about typos than a lot of them. But to see so many… a nightmare? The grogginess from his eyes begins to fade over the message. In the corner, he sees a flashing ellipses appear and vanish quite a few times. Was Hoseok still typing? Namjoon sits upright and just sends his own simple response:

‘I love you, Hobi, my sunshine.’

And then:

‘Are you okay?’

The read marking pops up immediately, followed by a typing indicator, but the only thing he receives is a small emoji heart. Hoseok up after two in the morning meant nothing good… Namjoon doesn’t bother to change out of his pajamas. He unplugs his phone from the charger and moves to slide on his jacket, before heading to the front foyer to grab his wallet and keys. Slipping on his shoes, he locks up and hurries to his car.

What was he even doing? In the middle of the night, going off of vague messages from his boyfriend who hasn’t said anything else. A heart isn’t an answer, not in the least; Namjoon merely hurries down the roads, the streets as relatively deserted as usual on a weeknight, and he’s quick to slide into the guest parking and make a quick run to the 24-hour shop next door. Hoseok and Namjoon have already traded keys, so Namjoon merely lets himself in to find Hoseok’s shoes kicked off haphazardly in the doorway.

Peculiar…

“Hob-ah?” Namjoon calls out softly.

He gets a low groan in response, coming from the living room of his boyfriend’s apartment instead of his bedroom. Being 2:46 in the morning, Hoseok should have already been asleep, completely tuned out from the world until his alarm went off. But Namjoon could see an abandoned mug on the kitchen countertop (already something very un-Hobi-like, he always liked having a clean kitchen in the mornings) and the television’s lights still on, and moves in to investigate. There, Namjoon finds Hoseok, in all his rundown glory, curled up on a cushion on his plush couch, huddled with a blanket pulled over his head. Hoseok turns when he hears Namjoon walking, eyes a little startled.

“Hobi, sweetheart?”

Hoseok blinks owlishly, confused over his boyfriend’s arrival. “Joonie bug? It’s late, what are you doing?” His voice is raspy and almost a little nasally, mixed with sleep and… what sounded to the beginning stages of a cold. That doesn’t sound good.

As Namjoon approaches, he can see the dark bags under Hoseok’s eyes reflecting sickly from the television light. His eyes also don’t miss the mixing bowl and plastic bag on the center table, or the opened soda can. Hoseok really must not have been feeling well, but he definitely did try to prepare. When Hoseok catches Namjoon frowning at the bowl, he leans his head back on the couch.

“My tummy hurt earlier, that’s all…” he mumbled. “But Joonie bug…”

“You texted me. So I, uh.” With that, Namjoon just holds up the bag. “I wasn’t sure what you had but I brought soup. It’s, uh… it’s my best hangover soup, but I wasn’t sure what happened.”

But the sight of it makes Hoseok grin, toothy and full of heart. And then he sneezes, hard and loud, and it makes Namjoon jump. The skin under Hoseok’s nose reflects in the light, and he’s quick to grab a tissue, blowing his nose with it. So… sick and not drunk, well that’s good to know. Kneeling next to him on the floor, Namjoon strokes Hoseok’s hair away with his free hand to press a palm against his forehead, sighing when he feels a pressing heat against it. To be safe, he slides his hand down to the side of his neck to make sure, a small, pitying smile on his face.

“Oh Hob-ah, baby, you’re sick… You should have called me earlier.”

Hoseok lowers the tissue. “I felt okay earlier…”

“Did you, or are you just telling me you did?” Namjoon questions, moving his hand upward to pet his hair. His long fingers rake along his boyfriend’s scalp, featherlight touches brushing gently. Hoseok seems to melt under his touch, his eyes already fluttering closed.

“…I didn’t feel okay earlier…” his boyfriend mumbles. “That feels nice…”

Laughing softly, Namjoon nods despite knowing Hoseok can’t see it. But he knows he appreciates the comfort, and he wants to give it while he’s here. He can already see the sleepy drooping from the older one’s mouth, the relaxed nature taking over almost instantly from the gentle notions. He knows if he keeps going, Hoseok will fall asleep quickly, and it hurts him that he has to stop. He ruffles his hair instead, smiling when he sees Hoseok’s cute little nose scrunch up in displeasure.

“Nooo… keep petting me,” he whines, his small hands reaching up to hold Namjoon’s wrist in place.

Namjoon chuckles again. “Did you take any medicine? Or… eat anything?”

“Joonie… pet me…”

“Will you answer me if I pet you?” Namjoon’s fingers resume rubbing along Hoseok’s scalp, and he receives a satisfied hum in response. He decided not to push him too much; after all, his boyfriend was sick, and it was the middle of the night. But… he wasn’t going to sleep on the floor by the couch. He moves his hand away and goes to put the soup in the fridge, fetching a water bottle instead. He moves into Hoseok’s room and is still pleased to see it’s clean. Pulling the blanket back, he sets the water bottle on the side table and heads back out.

His attempts to move Hoseok receive just a whimper, but he somehow manages to get his boyfriend to his feet. Namjoon keeps his arm wrapped around his waist and helps him relocate into his room. He dragged the mixing bowl in with them, setting it on the floor by the side of the bed. Then, as Hoseok begins to whine about the bed being cold and lonely, Namjoon shucks off his hoodie and curls up next to him, pulling the ailing man into his arms. Hoseok is too warm in Namjoon’s grasp, but he merely uncovers his arms and closes his eyes, letting his boyfriend’s congested breaths fill the air.

 ~*~

 Namjoon is used to nights where he hasn’t fully slept, where he’s taken a thirty-minute power nap to get him from Day 1 to Day 2 with a mug of coffee and nothing but adrenaline and work to keep him going. But after his nap from earlier, and his nap again with Hoseok in his arms, he’s completely disoriented when he feels himself shoved to the side, the room immediately filled with the sound of retching. Namjoon blinks his eyes open as his hand stretches over to rub Hoseok’s back, trying to comfort his boyfriend as he mentally reminded himself of his location.

His sweetheart was sick, and apparently resting did not help. He sees Hoseok sitting up, the mixing bowl double-lined with plastic bags in his lap as he weakly attempts to throw up whatever was in his system. Hoseok looks pale and even in the weak light of sunrise attempting to peek from the windows, Namjoon can see his hands trembling. That’s enough recollection to have him sitting up, arm moving to wrap around his boyfriend’s shoulders, helping hold him up as he whispers encouraging words to him.

When Hoseok finally stops, Namjoon brings his hand up to wipe stray tears from his cheeks before he moves the bowl back, but not away just yet. Hoseok takes a deep breath, a pout on his lips as he scrunches his eyes closed.

“Want to rinse your mouth out, baby?”

“Gross…” Hoseok mumbles. Namjoon hands him a towel to wipe his lips, then the water bottle. With a sip, Hoseok swishes it around in his mouth and spits it out into the mixing bowl, then repeats the process when he feels like once wasn’t enough. All the while, Namjoon uses a corner of the towel to stroke at his face, and whether Namjoon’s wiping away sweat or tears, Hoseok can’t quite tell. Lazily, Hoseok’s hand holding the water bottle just moves to rest on his leg; he’s not sure if he’d make it trying to put it back on the table, but he really just wants to lie back down.

“Think you’re okay, for now?” Namjoon whispers. When he receives a nod, he returns the mixing bowl to the floor and moves the towel back to the bedside table. Gently gripping Hoseok’s hand, Namjoon brings the water bottle back to his lips and instructs him to sip. Hoseok takes a few weak sips before he lowers it back, pressing his face into Namjoon’s shoulder. Namjoon can feel the radiating heat from him, and he can tell for sure that his fever is just climbing.

“Don’t fall asleep on me, Hobi,” Namjoon laughs, “I need to yet some medicine in you first.”

Whining, Hoseok just shakes his head. He’s tired, Namjoon knows, but he’ll only get worse trying to wait it out.

“Let me make you some tea. I know you won’t eat anything big but let’s get something in you or your stomach will hurt more later.”

He gets a whine from it, but merely kisses Hoseok’s cheek and helps lower him back onto the pillows. “Rest, sweetheart, I’ll wake you in a few.”

“Cuddle with me,” Hoseok mumbles, bottom lip pouting out.

Namjoon just kisses his forehead. “I’ll never get up if I do that.” With a soft chuckle, he crawls over him and heads out, taking the bowl with him. Replacing the lining, he returns that before heading into the kitchen. Instant coffee for himself, but kettle-boiled yujacha for Hoseok. And a small bowl of rice and crackers, just in case he could get him to eat something. Carrying everything back into the room on a small tray, he sets it down before he tries to wake up Hoseok, just to make sure he doesn’t make a mess of everything.

“Hobi… baby, I have tea…”

Namjoon receives a whine, and Hoseok’s face crumbles, tears welling in his eyes the second he opens them. Namjoon spends a few minutes just stroking his hair, trying to calm him down before he works himself up. “Come on, sweetheart… don’t cry, nothing’s wrong. You’re okay. It’s just tea.”

“Tea?” Hoseok mumbles. He shakes his head, fist moving to swipe across his eyes, wiping away slowing tears. His voice cracks as he talks, but the younger man can see realization dawning on his face. “Don’t want tea…”

“It’ll help your tummy,” Namjoon coaxes, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek. Hoseok squints, trying to hide his face as his cheeks flush. With a soft chuckle, Namjoon moves his hand away to press another kiss to Hoseok’s warm face, then another. “Come on, baby, just a little bit.”

“Don’t kiss me, Joonie bug, you’ll get sick.”

“I’ll kiss you again if you don’t drink the tea.” Namjoon crawls back onto the bed, sliding under the covers, and Hoseok immediately curls up to his side. Laughing, Namjoon just pulls his arm. “I will, even if you cling to me.” He manages to get a grumbling Hoseok to finally sit up with his help, curled up against his chest with the tea cup in his hand. He sips cautiously, as if every sip is uncomfortable. Namjoon strokes his hair gently. “Want to try some rice?”

With a groan, Hoseok looks up at him, lips pursed in a pout. “I’m being tortured, Namjoonie.” Hoseok whines. “Rice is too much… you’re too much.” He takes another sip of his tea.

Laughing, Namjoon just shakes his head. The rice was a stretch… they can try again later. “Fine, fine. Finish your tea and—”

“And nothing?”

Nodding, Namjoon presses a kiss to Hoseok’s crown. “And nothing. Medicine and then we’ll go back to sleep.”

Thankfully, Hoseok cooperates. Namjoon helps him take two cold pills and tucks him back into the bed, pulling the blanket up to his chin. With a small smile, Hobi curls up next to him and falls asleep within a matter of seconds. Despite being warm to the touch, he curls up next to Namjoon in his sleep, an arm lazily draped over his waist. Namjoon wastes no time in messaging his TA, asking him to assign the next week’s assignment early on the boards. He writes a small notice announcing his calling out of work and the plan for the rest of the week, shoots a quick message to the teacher’s line calling out, and then just puts his phone on silent.

Right now, the only person that matters is his boyfriend, and it’s barely a quarter to six in the morning. He has more than enough time to catch up on sleep with his most important person.

[frogtanii]

It’s wind anon. I know I should react to the Kenma part, but I just went through the update, saw Meiko’s portion and I have feelings that I need to get out because I’m so far gone right now—

I swear, I can break down every single text what the flip is this BS. Meiko, dear, do you,,,have a concussion. Are you thinking. What,,, this is like the time you were underdressed at the restaurant and you ended up getting drunk as heck.

Okay, let’s do the breakdown.

Coming in hot, we see Meiko with “tooru!!!!!!” (Yes, I did count the number of exclamation marks) firstly, the usage of his first name after ‘exiled’ where she raged at him and used Oikawa instead... mood swing much because I cannot believe the audacity of this... and really. First name basis. Trying to be close and to get rid of animosity, but not offering up anything like “hey, I’d appreciate talking to you for a sec if you’re free?” Or an apology for blowing up at him because he did indeed have your back, it’s just that you were the one problem. But yes, the exclamation marks too. A bit childish, obvious excitement...mmmm, I’ll move on to the next section.

Oikawa’s “oh. hey meiko” shows that he really ain’t up for this. First is the obvious low energy. I don’t want to go into depth about that but the “oh” shows that he paused. He saw her message. He answered. And he didn’t expect her to talk to him. Especially with that sort of energy. Mixed feelings towards her. And his “hey meiko”. I would say he is one of the more energetic of the House. He probably would’ve done something like “meiko!!! <3” in response before or something like that. He’s a bit flashy in that regard. But no punctuation. Just a downtrodden “hey” in response.

“don’t sound so enthused” she says. I mean, at the very least it seems she understands and can grasp tone from messages? But I am like “it would be more surprising for him to be enthused? I’m in awe of how you were able to become so enthused after you got yourself crushed into pieces by YN...” Besides that, even if Meiko wasn’t physically hurt, a confrontation of this sort would not lead to anyone having a happy mood? Me glancing between Meiko and all the therapists that were mentioned before because I really hope that we can figure something out because she gives off so many different vibes I am like... “what even goes on inside her brain...”

“can you blame me? you yelled at me the last time i talked to you” and this is the truth. He shouldn’t be enthused. You yelled at him, you disregarded his concern and you showed that you didn’t care for him as a person. Even if there was a circumstance where she didn’t yell at Oikawa, he would reach out first and be concerned about her health. Meiko has no grounds to try and blame him for anything right now. Frankly, I don’t think Oikawa should have even bothered answering her because I don’t think he is in the best place emotionally to deal with her.

“im so sorry sweetheart!!!! i didn’t mean it :(” lemme just day, wind anon cannot believe the BS that this message is. First, she says she is sorry. But really? Really. I can’t even look at her. Look, I don’t know what it is but “I’m so sorry.” Has the weakest apology energy. “I’m sorry.” Fine, decent, the classic and simplest. “I’m really sorry.” Also good! Shows regret. “I’m so sorry.” Sounds like you when you just learn that a person’s family member has passed away. There is something about “I’m so sorry” that doesn’t sound sincere to me and it’s infuriating. Next, the “sweetheart” I might’ve gagged a bit internally. Does she,,, talk like that? Normally? Is that a thing? She’s younger than him...and I don’t know but sweetheart sounds so condescending I literally can’t even— and finally, the “I didn’t mean it” yeah, well, you don’t mean anything because everything you say is BS that’s what you mean. Stop excusing your behavior. There is no merit behind it.

���you know i was just beat up and i couldn’t control what i was saying”. Okay, let’s break this down too. First, trying to incur sympathy by the “I was just beat up.” I cannot believe this gal. And the “you know” for a reference to a person’s knowledge of the matter, it lets them be more susceptible to beliefs. But the “I couldn’t control what I was saying” is complete utter hogwash. I mean, Meiko can’t control any bit of her because she is just impulse. But she excused her inability to control herself by saying it was because she was just beat up.

I don’t know what to say for the next portion. Alone, it’s cute, but put into perspective it’s just manipulation and she doesn’t love him. I’ll just move on.

“what do you need that you can’t ask iwa-chan?” Okay, so he didn’t reciprocate with an “I love you too” so that just shows what type of mood and how effective her words were. It also shows that she always messaged Oikawa when she needed something, because he caught on super quick to that. The “Iwa-chan” is interesting though. I wanna know if Oikawa talks to Iwaizumi after this conversation with Meiko because she is clearly going behind his back right now.

“oh well hajime is being very rude rn. he won’t let me leave my room!!!!” Okay, he had best interests at heart and Meiko...I know every single one of your rooms has a bathroom too. They’re bringing you food. They are letting people go into your room. Meiko, you wouldn’t have lasted quarantine if you’re this petulant now. It’s literally going to be like, 3 days max if you work to get an actual solution. I don’t want to break this down, I feel this is self explanatory. She feels entitled still.

“i know, it’s for your own good” he replies, and that is true but I am also of the belief that it is (hopefully) better for the rest of the house to not be in contact with her so I guess that’s that. Anyway, this shows Oikawa placating her, next

Meiko...being...not pretty. “ugh!!! but i wanna go out!!!!!!” Yeah, she would not have been able to be safe throughout the pandemic. Please,,, you’ll have fresh air if you open up a window,,, I know for certain you don’t exercise,,, please Meiko, shut up already you are making yourself look like more of a pile of garbage than you depict yourself as please I cannot handle the idea that the guys fell for this act—

“you have a black eye babe” okay, the black eye is actually Tooru trying to refer to knowledge that she has. As in, she should be trying to rest and get better right now. (Just curious, who treated her? For the injuries? She raged at Iwaizumi and Oikawa so maybe Daichi?) the babe gives off the placating vibe to me, still low energy, not very affectionate, but it’s there so I’m like “hm”.

“so??? omg are you calling me ugly tooru???????” Well...he didn’t call you ugly. But I might? Because you have the ugliest personality of everyone here. But also, shifting blame onto him. Gosh, I give Oikawa some water. He’ll get a migraine from this.

“of course not. i would never”. Low energy, not elaborating, I think he sees that she is trying to manipulate him, or at the very least he isn’t going to play that particular game. But actually, he runs a fashion channel on YouTube. We know Bokuto runs a fitness one and his header message was something along the lines of everyone’s bodies are beautiful, so chances are Oikawa has the same sort of idea for his channel too. He may criticize fashion, but he would never criticize the people wearing it or the people who made it in a mean way. He would be respectful, and he lets people do what they wish because it’s their choice. I mean, there has to be a reason why Meiko’s fashion is how it is—he doesn’t intrude on matters that aren’t his to intrude upon.

Okay, Meiko. I’m gonna stop trying to format the messages exactly how they are, autocorrect is making my time with them a bit too much, but she says she wants him to take her with him. Okay, starting off, you are really under the belief that he will take you on to a trip he has planned when he didn’t invite you in the first place? Pushy... but yes, her petulance again... me flicking water at her, “you got super drunk because you were underdressed at a fancy restaurant and now you have a face that looks like roadkill, how much do you want to embarrass yourself before you get turned into a pariah?”

Oikawa not knowing how she knows that is clear concern. Someone knowing your schedule when it’s none of their business and not public knowledge is major red flag. The “uh” shows that he is clearly taken aback. The ellipses shows that he doesn’t know what to think.

Okay, Meiko—she is actually able to notice something??? Good golly gee, I am baffled by how she did that when everything else she does is on fire. But the consistency probably gave it in. She may have been looking for him at one point, noticed he was out, and saw the pattern then. But actually, wouldn’t she be good at noticing the patterns of the guys so that she always knows which one to go to and use? Thoughts.... but I’m curious about the fact she said the “same group of absolute losers”. I highly doubt they always go and meet up directly in eye view of the house? Chances are they meet up at a bar or something? This potentially could be a thing where Meiko was stalking them? It would be interesting if she saw them while she was out as well—and if yahaba and kyoutani noticed her around before too. Also, her saying “you ain’t slick” like,,, Meiko, have you looked into a mirror. Can you see.

Oikawa defending his friends, we stan. Let’s move on though: “they’re so much younger than you?? and yahaba is def not cute lmao” me, doing like the... monkey meme where they look away because I am just like??? Meiko, you’re younger than Oikawa. I bet Yahaba and Kyoutani are your age. And anyone younger than you is a loser huh? That’s why you look at Bokuto and YN like they are dirt beneath your feet. (And Yes, I do remember that you put Bokuto and YN as the babies of the house, this reoccurrence is very well done). And she went and insulted Yahaba directly like...you’re talking to his friend? What are you doing? Excuse me? I beg your pardon?

And the ellipses strike again— and Oikawa is fishing for information because we have seen him—he listens to logic. And Meiko... her emojis... wind anon be flicking more water at her, she is too much. Also. Kyoutani. She is calling Kyoutani cute. This was the message that made wind anon start this long analysis. Kyoutani, cute? Listen. Kyoutani would take one look at this parasite hanging off his arm with her swollen black eye that was slathered with makeup and her lacking clothing sense, before looking at Oikawa who would be so haggard by then, and then Kyoutani would force her off his arm before grabbing Oikawa and running off with Yahaba following them. There is no way at all Kyoutani would involve himself with Meiko. I refuse to believe he would go for her.

Okay, the two messages after about wingmanning—I don’t want to do a large scale analysis of it. Oikawa really is shown to have good sense for Meiko’s intentions. His intuition is good. And we know that he cares and respects his friends and he focuses on their capabilities. He knows them. Meiko is just...childish in the worst of ways.

“You don’t see the issue with this”. Oikawa really digging in his feet. First, he wished to be in a relationship with Meiko. And here she is, asking for him to wingman to get her together with one of his friends, who may not even like her—and I bet that if it doesn’t go well, she would blame Oikawa for it like really—but I give Oikawa more water for the migraines Meiko induces.

“What?? It’s not like we’re actually together lol”. The laugh out loud at the end really shows how much of a joke she sees this as. She sees him as a joke. And she just crushed all his efforts and actions to try and get into a relationship. And actually...will Meiko ever get into a relationship with another? She has no loyalty. She definitely wouldn’t have ever got into a dedicated relationship with one of the guys. And she would be the type to get upset if they slept around, wouldn’t she? A hypocrite.

“Ugh don’t be like that!!! I’m sure you sleep around too!!” Okay, she is trying to defend herself while also potentially blaming him if he does. It’s just manipulation...I’m gonna move on...

Oikawa’s just done and his “I don’t” holds a lot of emotion. But Meiko’s response back I don’t believe at all. “Oh well that’s your fault, I don’t really give a sh*t if you sleep around hehe!!!” First, blaming him for his choice of only choosing you??? And I highly doubt the second part because she is shown to throw blame and ditch people for negligible reasons—I have no trust towards her words. I do not believe her. I believe she would care. I believe she would blow up at the guy before leaving him.

“Of course you don’t” And there is the utter doneness. He has given up on Meiko in this message. He doesn’t care anymore. He was already not in the mood for her when she first messaged him, he doesn’t want to see her at all anymore. He’s given up.

“So you get it!! Perfect!!!!” Please, wind anon has written so much already, her eyes are sweating everytime she has to look at Meiko being like this hhhhh. “I’ll be ready at like 9pm? Come by my room!! Actually no I’ll come by yours” and her usage of emoji. Get her away from me and everyone in PF. She’s toxic. Send her off with hazardous waste. Also, she deliberately changed from her room to coming by his. She is cutting off him so he has to go with her, he can’t just sneak out and not wait at her room (though she did offer a time so he could just go out now and ditch her presence completely). But it would be amusing if he did something like lock his door, (either after he’d go out or if he wold leave through window) and she would just be there waiting all decked out in her clothes and makeup pounding on his door. He wouldn’t answer and the others would see her out of her room (a misdemeanor). And then she would have to make an excuse. But it would be hard...because Oikawa has text evidence of Meiko going against Iwaizumi to just play like this.

“And if I say no?” Says Oikawa, who is testing the waters—very smart. We approve. “You won’t.” She replies, because she is terrible and we hate her controlling, manipulative, abusive self and we would all fight her. And she ends it off with a “great!! see you then!” Because she has to have her way and the last say.

Okay, wind anon is done

Completely. Utterly done with the analysis and reaction for that. Might not get to Kenma and YN analysis because I went off in this one but just know I appreciate it and I’ll try to get to it—just,,,not today.

I hope Oikawa sends these screenshots to like, Iwaizumi at the very least but it would be even better if he just drops it in a group chat with Daichi and Osamu instead and asks them to keep an eye on her for “her own safety” and ask her to stay in her room. She’s too daring and if she blows up on him after, he will receive more evidence of her being terrible. And of course, he’s smart. He’ll definitely block her number when he doesn’t want to bother with her anymore. Okay, wind anon is ending here. The ask is too long. I think it’s the longest ask I’ve ever sent. I wish you well fr0ggy. I hope your sleep is pleasant and you wake up very rested and refreshed!

WOO LONG POST!!!! i cannot nearly respond to all this!!!! but!!!! i am in Awe??? text by text???? i love this????? ur so amazing i <3 u

[nottheripperjack]

Still rising towards the dark, don't care what's down below 'Cause no one can see me and no one has to know The atmosphere is lonely and beautiful I don't miss a thing I used to know, I used to know

TASK 001 FOUND BELOW CUT....

~~JACK’S STORY~~

MANNERISMS:

What words or phrases do they overuse? 

Jack fucking uses ellipses in texts like her life depends on it. She also swears a lot. Probably too much.

Are they more optimistic or pessimistic?

Jack is pessimistic by nature after her sister’s death. She’s striving to get better but that’s a bitter pill to swallow. 

What bad habits do they have?

What bad habits DON’T they have? She drinks a lot, or rather, she used to. She’s trying to overcome her alcohol addiction but that will... Take a lot of heavy lifting.

What makes them laugh out loud?

Honestly? It could be literally anything. Whatever it is, it has to be her type of humor. Which, let’s be real honest, is all over the place. Just like her. 

How do they display affection?

Jack is a very touchy-feely person. She calls people ‘babe’ no matter who they are. She’ll hold your hand or hug you. Hell, she’ll even snuggle her friends.

Do they make snap judgments or take time to consider?

Snap judgments only happen when its matters of herself or the lack of self-worth she believes she has. When it comes to anyone else? Hell no, you better sit down and think about all the pros and cons. 

How do they react to praise?

Cockily on the outside, not believing it on the inside. 

How do they react to criticism?

Taking it to heart and working on how to irradiate that behavior or thing that is being critiqued. 

What is their philosophy of life?

Life’s short, go fuck someone. (This has since changed).

When was the last time they cried?

When they realized their addiction had gotten the better of them. 

If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?

Ask her on a good day, Jack would say something about her addictive behaviors. Ask her on a bad day? Jack would say that she wishes she could have taken Vic’s place.

What is their obsession?

At the current moment? Animal Crossing.

What are their pet peeves?

Snoring, loud chewing, people butting into the conversation, the list could go on. She has a lot.

FRIENDS & FAMILY:

Is their family big or small? Who does it consist of?

Her family is that stereotypical American family. Consisting of her mom, dad, younger adopted brother, and herself. Extended family is all on the east coast so she doesn’t see them much. Her father is Adrian Novak, a well-known author for his mystery crime novels. Her mother is Katrina Novak, a high-school English teacher.

What is their perception of family?

She maintains constant communication with her parents and brother. Unfortunately, she doesn’t talk about her sister much at all. Jack sadly thinks her family blame her for her sister’s death but in reality, its just been her blaming herself for all these years. 

Do they have siblings? Older or younger? 

Her late sister, Victoria, was her best friend growing up until she died in a car accident when Jack was fifteen and Victoria was seventeen. She has a younger adopted brother named Bryan, who is just now entering the fifth grade. He has CP. 

Describe their best friend.

Jack has several best friends but the one she considers to be her closest confidante just so happens to be Tara Chapman. She’s her kindred spirit, her better half, and someone that she looks up to in all of the ways that she still wishes she could do with Victoria. She’s not a replacement for her late sister by any means but... She means a lot more to her than Tara probably fully realizes.

Do they have any pets?

No but they want to get a corgi and name it Bread Loaf. 

PAST & FUTURE:

What was your character like as a teen?

Before shit hit the fan? Jack was in sports. Volleyball and martial arts took up the majority of her time when she wasn’t trying to focus on school. And she really, really hated school. 

Did they grow up rich or poor?

Due to her father being on the New York Times Best Seller’s list... She grew up in a pretty good financially stable home. 

Did they grow up nurtured or neglected?

Jack definitely came from a nurturing and loving home. After Victoria she disconnected with her family more than she’d admit. She mentally distanced herself from them and shut down. 

What is their greatest achievement?

Becoming a paramedic.

What was their first kiss like?

Jack was kissed by a boy named Stephen in seventh grade. Let’s just say that the second his lips landed on hers, she slapped him so hard he fell into her parent’s swimming pool.

What is the worst thing they did to someone they loved?

Jack believes that it’s her being responsible for Victoria’s death since it was her volleyball game that she was driving towards. However, the worst thing they’ve probably done to someone they loved was let their own shit get in the way of their happiness. It happened with Ben when she didn’t believe her about the drunken kiss. And it almost happened with Riley when she chose to ignore her feelings and pretend like she didn’t care about her more than that for four years. 

What are their ambitions?

Be a mom one day. Own a corgi. Build her own home. 

What advice would they give their younger self?

Don’t go to that damned volleyball game.

What smells remind them of their childhood?

Campfire smoke, cinnamon, and Japanese Cherry Blossom perfume.

What was their childhood ambition?

They wanted to own a video game store. 

What does their five-year plan look like?

They don’t have one. Other than don’t be dead from a work-related incident.

LOVE:

Do they believe in love at first sight?

No. Jack’s far too cynical for that. She believes in lust at first sight. Or rather, she did. 

Are they in a relationship? Are they in love?

Yes, to both. Jack is in a committed relationship with Riley Sawyer, a highway patrol cop. They’d been friends for four years and finally decided to bite the bullet they’ve been dodging for that whole time.

How do they behave in a relationship?

Previously? Not well. She didn’t do relationships and the one that she had in high school wasn’t remotely healthy. Now, Jack is learning how to relationship. 

When did your character last have sex?

Last night.

Has your character ever been in love?

Twice. Once with Ben, her first love. Second time is now with Riley. 

Have they ever had their heart broken?

Three times. First was Victoria, second was Ben, and third was by herself.

Are they crushing on anyone now?

I mean. Hey boo @sonderbound​

WORK & LIFE:

What is their current job?

Paramedic at Los Angeles Fire Department

What do they think about their current job?

They love it. They are currently on suspension from March 27th to April 27th due to alcohol abuse. 

What are some of their past jobs?

Barista, pizza delivery girl, EMT. 

What are their hobbies?

Dungeons and Dragons, video games, playing guitar and singing, sketching out her future home.

Educational background?

Associates Degree. Jack tried college but it wasn’t for her.

Do they have a natural talent for something?

Helping others.

Do they play a sport? Are they any good?

Volleyball. Yeah they went to state four years in a row and won. 

MISC:

What is in their fridge?

Well, used to be alcohol. Now it’s full of food and coca cola. 

What is on their bedside table?

Alarm clock, watch, iPhone charger, change.

What kinda car do they drive, and is their car messy or clean?

Her name is Lyla and she’s a Kawasaki Ninja Crotch Rocket. So uh... She keeps that motorcycle very clean.

Do they carry a purse? What is in their purse or wallet?

They carry a wallet. It’s a tyvek Mighty Wallet that’s got a bisexual colored symbol of Wonder Woman on it.

What is in their pockets?

iPhone, gum, keys.

What is their most treasured possession?

Her sister’s silver snowflake necklace. 

~~Jack’s Jams~~ FOUND HERE

In A Nutshell

Work Out, Sweat It Out

Time to Feel Like Shit

Good Times Gonna Come

[forestwater87]

Cutting Myself on all this Edge

This post has no reason to exist, except that I keep bothering my friends with literally dozens of messages making fun of this and I need a place to keep it all.

What is “this”? Oh, just some people having some Fucking Strong Opinions about how Harry Potter is the Pied Piper (they use that comparison multiple times. It gets old fast) leading our children into the End Times with its pro-illuminati Satan-worshiping witchcraft lessons. You know, the usual.

And no, this isn’t a battle of Forest vs. the Crazy Christians; I’m like 94% sure I’m not working through any sort of religious trauma, partly because I never went deep into this kind of mentality but mostly because I’m just delighted by The Cutting Edge, a website for a very specific type of Christian (no, not you, Catholics. You’re specifically not invited to the Cutting Edge club because you worship demons) interested in the New World Order, the evils of public schools, and Satan’s favorite color.

No, really.

Satan’s favorite color is green. They don’t . . . really explain why.

This site still exists and is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Hours of fun for the whole family. I mean, look at their logo:

And look at their illustration that goes along with their particular Harry Potter series:

Are you not entertained?!

I cannot stop reading these amazing essays -- which delve surprisingly deep into Potter lore, considering they say that there is no sufficient reason for a Christian to ever read a single page of these books -- and I can’t keep harassing my friends with thousands of notifications, so here we are.

Starting small, let’s read the book review for Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s/Philosopher’s Stone. Or, as they prefer to call it:

This book chronicles Harry's first year at the Hogwart's School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.  Prepare to be shocked for the bold, blatant, and bodacious raw Satanism that underlines this story! Since "proper"Drug Use is essential in opening the centres of vision and achieving higher consciousness, we should not be surprised that First-Year students learn Drug Use, Drug creation, in a way that makes Drug use seem glorious! You will be shocked to see '666 ' in the story line, and symbols of Antichrist receiving a "fatal wound"!

That’s the entire subtitle. That’s just how they roll on

THE CUTTING EDGE

Part 1: The . . . Plot? I Guess?

This story introduces us to Harry Potter, an orphaned boy sent to live with his "horrible" Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their fat, obnoxious son, Dudley. 

I feel very comfortable with the fact that Cutting Edge has chosen to put scare quotes around the word “horrible,” like that’s up for debate. Combined with the very normal and sane opinions expressed elsewhere on the site, this really bodes well for their ideas about parenting and childcare in general.

all through this book, any non-witch folk -- like Vernon and Petunia -- are depicting in disgusting language.  

Typo is theirs, as is the apparent offense they take to the fictional depiction of people who are very much not real. While there hasn’t been any exciting formatting going on yet in this essay, I will replicate it as much as possible, and any changes made will be clearly indicated through square brackets and ellipses.

Non-witch people are known as Muggles , and they are depicting as being "dumber than a box of rocks", of being physically obscene, and of living the most boring, unimaginative lives possible.

I was going to argue that this isn’t true, but I suppose we don’t really meet any cool Muggles in the first book. I guess I have to give them this, but I don’t feel good about it.

Witches, on the other hand, are depicted as being very smart, very "with it", of being physically normal, and of living wonderfully exciting lives

It bears repeating:

a flashback scene to the time 10 years earlier when Harry's Mom and Dad were psychically murdered by evil Lord Voldemort

Okay. Now I’m no Potterologist, and so I’m hoping any true believers will correct me if I misinterpret the holy texts,* but I don’t think Harry’s parents were psychically murdered by anyone. I’m pretty sure they were quite literally, physically made dead. Just because it’s a beam of magic doesn’t mean it’s not physical anymore, does it? Voldy didn’t Professor-X Harry’s parents and they died of three D10 psychic damage or anything; he just fucking killed them with a wizard gun. Am I wrong here?

*By which I obviously mean Harry Potter. It teaches children how to become Satanists; we’re clearly dealing with a book of immense spiritual relevance.

Skipping a little bit of plot summary, which is a combination of, well, summary of the plot, although Cutting Edge is determined to get Hogwarts’ name wrong, and a little bit of baffling End-Times(?) nonsense thrown in for funsies --

Of course, a Christian would be immediately alerted to this turn of events [in which Harry defeats Voldemort and is scarred] because soon a supernaturally powerful global leader will demand everyone on earth take some sort of a mark in exactly this place on the body.

What? 

-- and there’s some weird formatting things going on that I think are supposed to imply something sinister but really just come off as goofy:

They have Harry on a boat headed for nowhere and they had every intention of keeping Harry from ever attending Hogwarts School.  However, Harry receives supernatural assistance.

(It’s not letting me do colors on desktop, which is stupid, but that “supernatural” is supposed to be both bold and red)

There’s a long description about the difference between the Real and Fantasy worlds, which apparently Satanists try to live in both of (and so does Harry, making him also a Satanist. This is actually one of the less-stupid arguments Cutting Edge has for Harry’s Satanism, so just go with it) that’s honestly more boring than funny so I’m skipping it. Then we get to a much more fun section: why Rowling’s descriptions of Muggles are . . . teaching children to hate Jesus?

Part 2: Rowling Hates Muggles

Rowling consistently depicts people who do not practice Witchcraft in most obnoxious terms.  They are depicted as being really, really dumb, boring, and living a life not worth living .  We share these examples, below, with you so you can appreciate the truth of this statement.  Uncle Vernon was also the only Muggle quoted in the book as being really opposed to Witchcraft; therefore, when readers see how stupid, ugly, and boring Vernon is, they get the idea that all people who are opposed to Witchcraft must be as stupid, ugly, and boring as Vernon is.

... Are all people opposed to Witchcraft cowardly bullies?

I mean, you are the one going after a children’s book for daring to entertain children, so if the shoe fits . . .

"Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang ... Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader." [p. 31] How do you know your own child does not think of you in these terms?  After all, you are a non-magical Muggle.

I actually can’t complain, because this is just accurate. I 100% hate my parents and think they’re stupid because they’re not literally witches/wizards. Our relationship has never fully recovered.

"Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on." [p. 47] Remember Adolf Hitler, the most famous Black Magick wizard in modern history? He depicted Jews as Rats in his Propaganda Machinery, convincing the Germans they should extermination the "vermin".

GODWIN’S LAW HAS LANDED! 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OR IN-BETWEEN, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY COMPARED HARRY POTTER TO HITLER!

We find it highly interesting that, later in the book, when the Evil Lord Voldemort is supposedly killing the unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, the color of the blood of the unicorn is silver! 

Okay, but like . . . why? I mean, it immediately follows a description of the Bloody Baron, who is depicted with silvery blood because he’s, like, a ghost, but I’m not sure what that has to do with unicorns or with Satan. Are unicorns associated with Satan? Is silver associated with Satan?

Is everything Satan? Am I Satan?

There’s a lot of rage at a gentleman named Chuck Colson throughout this section, who apparently made the grave error of telling parents it was okay for their children to read Harry Potter because it doesn’t involve contact with the supernatural. And I’ll admit, that seems like a pretty bad defense of the books, because if you define “supernatural” as ghosts, poltergeists, or whatever the hell Voldemort is, then there is absolutely a metric buttload of supernatural stuff in here.

Arguably, a better defense of why it’s okay for children to read these children’s books is that they are books made for children, but YMMV on that one. Probably depends on whether or not you think children are sitting in the giant metaphorical (or literal? Not sure Cutting Edge gets metaphors) lap of the Antichrist every time they pick up the books.

(A visual reminder.)

Part 3: Basically Part 2, But This Time There Are Colors

The next section is on colors, which are very important to Cutting Edge. As linked back in the very beginning of this post, there is an entire essay devoted to the demonic colors used in the Harry Potter books, but we get just a taste of it here:

Rowling makes use of vivid colors in her story line.  Some of these colors are consistent with the colors preferred by Satan and his followers in the Occult.  Rowling's use of such vivid colors also enables her to paint the Fantasy Reality of Witchcraft as THE most exciting place to live.  Wizard of Oz uses the same technique: when Dorothy is in her real world in Kansas, the color is black and white, but when she steps into her Fantasy Reality, the scene explodes in the most wonderful color.

Interesting interpretation. An alternative view is that Rowling needs to use more descriptors for things within the Wizarding World, because her readers won’t have the same frame of reference to draw from that they do with real-life objects and events in the Muggle World, and one can assume that these lovely descriptions are part of her being a, y’know, good and evocative writer, and the colors are just related to how she pictured the world she was creating.

But I mean, yours is good, too.

Actually, the citations provided by Cutting Edge don’t depict anything especially vivid; it’s not like she’s throwing massive amounts of purple prose at the descriptions of the Satanic green of Harry’s eyes. In fact, the only enhancer used is “emerald” at one point. For the most part, this essayist is just . . . noticing when the word “green” appears in the text and calling it a siren song to entice good Christian children out of the colorless world of reality and goodness and into the technicolor dreamland of magic and mayhem.

Also, please remember that Satan has a favorite color, and it’s green. For all birthdays and Christmases (or wait, whatever the Satanic version of Christmas is! Halloween?), please make sure all gifts are green or green-adjacent.

Even though Harry is nearly as powerful as a Black Magick practitioner, and could easily have decided to go over to that side, he declines to go over to the Dark Arts.  Dumbledore assures Harry that he is not evil as Lord Voldemort. However, as a symbol of the Black Arts he could perform, Rowling makes Harry's eyes green.

This observation -- and I use the term loosely -- implies that every single Slytherin and villain of the Harry Potter series would have green eyes, to demonstrate their capacity for evil. The fact that this is obviously not the case must just be a red herring.

Part . . . 4, I think?: Drugs, Magic, and Magic Drugs

Harry and his friends learn how to makedrugs, and the glory of taking them.

The fact that they don’t actually take any in this book is entirely irrelevant. (”Drugs” should also be red as well as bolded. It’s very serious business.)

The plant, wormwood, contains thujone, an hypnotic drug, banned by the FDA since 1915 [Christian News, "Latest Potter Book Meets Cautionary Response From Christians, July 17, 2000] ; further, wormwood is used to make Absinthe, a hallucinogenic liquor.  Therefore, the drug to which Rowling makes reference is very real, and is so dangerous the FDA has banned it -- to this day, it is banned!

While thujone was illegal at the time of this essay in the United States, it was actually never banned in the UK . . . you know, where these books take place and were written? I don’t think Rowling gives a solitary fuck about our FDA standards. Also, I don’t know if you could just straight-up buy wormwood on whatever the equivalent of Amazon was in 1998 (was it just Amazon?), but you sure can now. Can’t be all that scary.

You can hardly get a better description of drug use, and drug glorification than this!

I wonder why they keep using red to emphasize all these evil things . . . you’d think they’d go with Satan’s favorite color/the sign that Harry is the Antichrist to really jazz up all of the evil.

"The drug message in this book is clear. To reach your goals in life like Harry Potter, you need to know how to make drugs and take drugs in just the right way or else you are a 'dunderhead' and will never succeed." [http://www.fflibraries.org/Book_Reports/HarryPotter ; written by a physician and father who asked to remain anonymous].

The fact that this URL doesn’t lead me to that review is one of the saddest things I’ve faced all month.

The sections on spellcasting are far less interesting, reiterating a pretty simple refrain: all magic is bad, because the books say some magic is good then the books are bad, it’s all teaching children about Satanism. Rinse and repeat.

During final exams, teachers passed out special quills with which to write; these quills had been "bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell".  The reason none of the teachers felt they could trust the honor of the students to not cheat is obvious enough; in Witchcraft, no Absolute Good and Evil exists.  All objective, eternal standards of conduct and morality have been rejected.  Therefore, teachers knew full well that all the students would cheat on their final exams if they thought they could get away with it.  It is a sad commentary that teachers had to place an Anti-Cheating spell on the quills to prevent exams cheating.  Christian parent, is this the "morality" you want your students to learn?

Now, it might just be my obvious Satanist addiction to witchcraft talking, but doesn’t it seem more likely that there’s an anti-cheating spell because sometimes . . . children cheat? And no amount of Good Wholesome Christian Teaching is going to completely eradicate the desire to cheat on a test, because of course it isn’t. 

It’s not because the school has taught the students that cheating is okay and cool and sexy or whatever -- in fact, if you want evidence that there is an absolute moral standard against cheating, it would be that the teachers are actively taking steps to prevent it! If witchcraft really was all about how there’s no such thing as good and evil . . . well, for one thing they wouldn’t teach Defense against the motherfucking Dark Arts, but they also wouldn’t care if their students cheated enough to provide anti-cheating quills, because they wouldn’t consider cheating a bad thing, because they wouldn’t consider anything a bad thing! 

Also, I’m not sure what listing all of the spells in the book and what they do really says about Satanism, except that . . . spells exist, and are used? Which I feel like you should really expect from the book about magic and wizards; if that’s an alarming surprise, then you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere way earlier down the road.

Part whatever: Seriously, Rowling is just ALL ABOUT Satan

This entire section is basically about how JKR must be a Satanist, because she apparently depicts the world of magic and the occult with perfect accuracy, and how could she do that except through being an active practicing witch herself?

Mirrors are believed to be a portal to another dimension, including Time.  Occultists believe they can go forward or backward in Time with a mirror being one of the Dimensional Portals.  Harry encounters a mirror, "magnificent ... as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet ... Harry stepped in front of it. He had to clasp his hand to his mouth to stop himself from screaming ... for he had seen, not only himself in the mirror but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him ... 'Mom?', he whispered.  'Dad?' They just looked at him, smiling ... Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life." [p. 208-9] 

Intriguing theory, except of course for the fact that the mirror isn’t a portal to jack shit; unless you count the weird trick where he can get the stone (and only the stone) through wishes or whatever the fuck these idiots do, and all it does is show someone what they want. It’s not actually reaching into the past to find Harry’s parents or whatever, just like it’s not actually reaching into a parallel dimension future where Ron is the king of everything. It’s just . . . idk, reading their subconscious and throwing up a neat visual or something. With magic. It’s complex, but it’s definitely not what Cutting Edge says it is.

Not pictured: a portal to another physical, metaphysical or temporal dimension. It’s literally . . . just a mirror, but a mirror that reflects your insides instead of your outsides. It’s clever or something.

Do you realize Rowling has just made the creator of the Sorcerer's Stone 666 years old?  Do you realize what this means?  Since the number, '666', is a symbol of Antichrist and his Mark of the Beast [Revelation 13:18] and since Rowling ties this number to the Elixir of Life, Harry Potter is teaching children that the way to achieve eternal life [Elixir of Life] is to obey the Antichrist and take his Mark of the Beast!

Fucking. Yes. I don’t even have witty commentary for this, I’m just delighted by every word in that section. I’m smiling so much. 

This is a gift and we’re reading it for free!

Wonderful! We have the forbidden practice of drinking blood in this Potter book, forbidden in Scripture [Genesis 9:4-5] but practiced regularly in Satanism. I wonder if Chuck Colson, Focus On The Family, and Christianity Today ever told their Christian followers about this?  Have they even read this book, before they issued their acceptance of Potter?

Don’t you dare try to employ sarcasm. People who believe in the Illuminati and New World Order are not allowed to be sarcastic -- even if the thought of this faceless stranger typing that little clever “Wonderful!” and smirking to themselves about how witty they are is a very, very good mental image.

Also, what the fuck did unicorns do to deserve being associated with the Antichrist? I mean, I get the color green; it’s the color of nature and the outdoors, and that shit fucking sucks. (Fuck you, trees!) But unicorns?

Unicorns have never done anything to anyone, ever. Unicorns couldn’t be Satanists if they tried.

This means evil Lord Voldemort -- whose killing curse upon Harry, his Mom, and his Dad had rebounded against him when Harry did not die -- is near death, and is seeking to drink the Unicorn's blood to stay alive long enough to finally achieve eternal life through drinking the '666' Elixir of Life.

Yes, that is -- sort of -- the plot of this book.

This is the specific New Age doctrine being taught here: people will have to draw their temporary spiritual life from The Christ until the time comes when their individual consciousness will have been raised so much they will achieve their personal godhood, and live forever!

This concept is genuine New Age, is consistent with prophecy, and Rowling depicts it very well!

Christian parents, do you want your child to be taught this New Age doctrine?  Can you see Harry Potter playing the Pied Piper and leading your children straight to the Mark of the Beast?

Pied Piper count: 1 (that’s not a lot so far, but it’s used in like every essay. It’ll come back)

I don’t know how to tackle this, because I’m not sure Cutting Edge really understands that Voldemort is the bad guy in these books. Children aren’t going to read this book and then go, “Cool! I’m gonna go stab a unicorn and drink its essence because my favorite role model You-Know-Who told me to!”

The unicorn blood thing is unilaterally portrayed as a pretty bad move. Voldemort’s goals in general are pretty obviously not great ideas. I know Cutting Edge doesn’t have the benefit of hindsight here, but Voldemort’s quest for immortality and how bad and wrong and fucked-up that is, is kind of one of the major through-lines of the entire story. It could be argued that it’s not Voldy’s desire to live forever that’s wrong so much as his whole, like, genocide thing, which is legit . . . except that all the methods to attain immortality involve killing someone, or stealing something, or otherwise being Not a Good Dude.

Voldemort is Not a Good Dude, and I don’t know how to communicate that any clearer than the books written for third graders already did.

Part 6: I don’t really know, I just wanted a chance to break this endless essay up and this seemed like a good place to do it. So let’s talk about spells some more

Many spells require both the taking of drugs and demonic possession, so it is a matter of gravest importance that Harry is actually going to learn to cast spells.  When Chuck Colson dismisses the casting of spells as innocent and of no real importance, did he know this fact?

I seem to have missed the part where Harry goes off his ass on LSD and gets possessed by B’aal. Was that in the Silmarillion? 

whenever a witch changes the physical characteristics of something, he or she is practicing very high-level witchcraft, has a high level of demonic possession, and has had to carry out human sacrifice themselves or have someone else do it for them.

“It’s fiction” is often a bullshit excuse to justify bad framing, but I feel like it applies here, because maybe in the “real” world spellcasting requires you to trip balls and summon demons, but it’s extremely obvious that it doesn’t work like that in Harry Potter! You can’t just say that’s what the books are teaching when the books aren’t actually teaching anything even close to that! 

(I’m starting to feel like my emphasis italics are having a similar effect to Cutting Edge’s red bolded letters. Fuck if I’m gonna stop using them, though.)

If Harry and his pals were wearing goat heads and putting virgins into a giant blender or something I think you might have an argument here, but when the people reading your essay have eyes and can see that the things you’re describing aren’t anywhere in the books, you’re just lying. And it’s very obvious, and I still love you, Cutting Edge, but you’re being disingenuous and it’s starting to kill my joy-boner to constantly have to point out the ways you’re misunderstanding a children’s book, especially when I think you’re kinda doing it on purpose. So how about you chill just a little bit and we’ll all read some Harry Potter together.

Magical Drafts and Potions , by Arsenius Jigger.  Some of the potions are very real, very deadly.

Wait, did Rowling publish this one, too? How do you know what’s in the book? Does the book list some real potions and how to make them, or is this another thing that’s only available in the Cutting Edge’s copy of the books? 

Students were told they could also "bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad." [p. 67]  These three creatures are important to an occultists. Satanists have always revered the cat because of its reputed "nine lives", which is a symbol of reincarnation. Cats are also symbols of a witch's familiar spirit.

They have revered the frog because his prominent bulging eyes represent the All-seeing nature of Lucifer.  Frogs are also consistently used in many of the potions witches concoct.  They revere owls as a symbol of occult wisdom and omniscience -- again because of their eyes.

So fuck cats, I guess. They’re being pretty unfair to owls and frogs too -- especially insulting their poor eyes. They can’t help it! -- but I’m a crazy cat lady and I’m not feeling this slander.

Actually . . . my cat looks pretty high right now. Maybe she is channeling Satan.

Okay, never mind. Fuck all these animals. They’re all evil. This article is entirely right, and I renounce all of my previous statements.

McGonagall has obviously mastered her Craft because she was the tabby cat seen by Uncle Vernon reading a map, back in chapter one.  Remember that any time a witch or wizard practices transfiguration, they need expert spell-casting, and demonic possession.  I bet no one ever told you that little fact, did they?

No, they didn’t, because it’s not even remotely relevant to the fictional book written for children.

Like, I’m trying very hard to not question anyone’s religious beliefs, so if you believe in the occult and magic and all that then more power to you, and maybe it’s totally valid to think that real-life magic spells requires demonic possession. That doesn’t make it true in the books, though! Stop making shit up!

Potions Class -- taught in one of the dungeons [p. 136]  How disgusting must the atmosphere for this class, and others, taught in a dungeon, which was built to torture people to death?

If only the classroom, teacher, and overall environment for the Potions classes was meant to be as viscerally unpleasant as possible. Then putting them in the dungeons would be a really good idea, to reflect the Slytherins’ backwards beliefs and the misery of their intolerance.

Like, JKR isn’t this subtle. When you name one of your antagonists “Bad Dragon,” you’re not aiming for this subconscious-symbolism bullshit.

Part 7: Did you think this book had a good moral? Fuck you!

The fundamental occult/Communist philosophy

Well, I guess we’re talking about Communism now! Because if there’s anything Harry Potter is interested in above all else, it’s Communism.

My favorite things about these essays is how they will pull in other social ills -- abortion, public schools, communism -- and slap them into their argument regardless of if it makes any semblance of sense.

Anyway, Cutting Edge actually has a legitimate argument here, although they take it about 50 steps too far:

the "Ends Justify The Means" permeates this entire book.  To achieve a goal deemed good, Harry and his friends consistently break rules, steal, and use Witchcraft against others.

It is true that Harry and his friends break the rules, lie, and otherwise do “bad” things in the service of an ultimate good, and that they suffer relatively few consequences for it. This is a legitimate point, and actual people who know things agree.

I’ve been struck speechless by this article before, but this is the first time it’s because I think they might have an actual point.

Hermione was very mildly punished [for her lie to the professors about why they were fighting the troll], but her lie cemented a friendship with Ron and Harry, leading a child to conclude that her lie served an excellent purpose, and could not be considered 'wrong'.

I mean . . . yeah? I don’t think it’s entirely reasonable to assume that children will take that lesson away, but I read it as a child and I certainly didn’t think Hermione was wrong to lie -- nor do I now, which I suppose proves just how powerful the Satanic conditioning was.

Professor Quirrell told Harry, "There is no good or evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it ." [p. 291]  This is standard Witchcraft, and standard Illuminist doctrine.  This doctrine is the guiding light to those Illuminists who are driving the world into the Kingdom of Antichrist.  This doctrine is very seductive to those immature children trying to grow up in our current culture; since a child's inherent nature is evil, he will find such philosophy more appealing than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Christian parents, beware!

Oh thank God Satan, we’re back to the bullshit. I was getting seriously weirded out by the idea that they had good points buried in here somewhere, but now we’re just faced with the argument that the bad guy says . . . bad things . . . and is defeated because his bad ideas are obviously bad and wrong . . . and this proves that the book is teaching children to believe the bad things?

No one reads these books and wants to be the bad guys, Cutting Edge. Kids aren’t buying Harry Potter wands and robes to pretend that they’re Quirrell, trying to keep people from finding out they have a Dark Lord on the back of their head. (Though now that I’ve mentioned it, that sounds like a very fun game.) 

Depicting bad things in a way that makes it clear -- to children, I must reiterate -- that they’re bad isn’t the same thing as romanticizing or promoting those bad things. This is basic stuff, CE.

Revenge Motive : "Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges:  Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and Much, Much More , by Vindictus Viridian." [p. 80] Throughout these books, seeking revenge and attacking your enemies is high on the priority list of Harry, his friends, and other students.  Do you want your children to adopt this most Satanic attitude?  Notice the first name of the author of this revenge book, above, is named "Vindictus, i.e., Vindictive".

Students are taught to depend upon Witchcraft for every part of their lives .  All food is conjured up rather than prepared, all the dishes are conjured clean, and even the hospital depends upon Witchcraft to get students well [p. 156].  Neville Longbottom, one of the more clumsy students, received a crystal ball from his grandmother called a Remembrall .  The ball glows scarlet if you have forgotten something you should have done. [p. 145]

That’s . . . fuck, that’s actually kind of another good point. Stop kinda making sense, goddamn it!

A lot of the criticism is just that the things wizards do are cool, which will make kids want to become witches/wizards in order to do those cool things, too. And to be fair, the stuff Harry et. al. does are cool, and I did want to be a witch when I grew up. Fortunately, I was in third grade, and so my options for witchcraft were relatively limited; by the time I was old enough to pursue the endeavor properly, I was also old enough to know that it was actually nothing like Harry Potter. If magic actually was anything like those books make it seem, we’d have a lot more witches running around, zapping shit.

Possible reference to homosexuality .  When I was first researching Harry Potter, I examined several pro-Potter websites. The author of one of the articles said that one of the probable developments she felt would occur in the latter books was the advent of homosexuality in the story theme. She said such activity was only hinted at in the first books.  

Oh dear god, Cutting Edge found the shippers. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

(I wonder if this means they’ve also read the Draco Trilogy.)

I do have to take issue with one last point in this bit about morals, where they talk about how scarring it might be to a child to see Voldemort possessing the back of Quirrell’s head:

Rowling could not have created a better description of demonic possession by a dark and powerful demon!  Christian parent, is this the type of thing you want your child to bring into their minds?

Thing is, I’ve been in a lot of Christian circles for most of my life, and this sounds exactly like the kind of dark, traumatizing thing many religious parents would be happy to put into their children’s minds.

Part Almost Done: Definitely Intentional Satanic Symbols, Really

Hey, did you know the number 11 was occultist? I didn’t, and when I Googled it, 4 of the front-page results were Christian or conspiracy groups making this claim, 2 were unclear, and 3 actually seemed to indicate some level of belief in the power of the number 11. Though I might’ve stacked the deck with the word “occult”; when I changed my search term to “magic,” I found almost exclusively positive articles about the symbolic power of the number 11, so . . . Cutting Edge isn’t necessarily wrong. 

But boy, did you know how many times the number 11 shows up in Sorcerer's Stone? Not very much, but if we stretch our credibility a little bit, we might see something spooky!

Harry was eleven (11) when he was admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  The number eleven is considered sacred to the occultist, as it is the first primary number.  Occultists will also add up numbers to get an occult number that is sacred; thus, I was highly interested when the bank vault maintained for Harry by his Mom and Dad before their death was numbered '713' [p. 73].  When you add '7 + 1 + 3 = 11'.  Then, we learn that, in the money of the Fantasy Reality, "twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle".  When you add 2 + 9 = 11.

When Harry found the wand that was meant for him, it turned out to be 11 inches long! [p. 84]

The Hogwarts Express Train left at 11 o'clock from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. [p. 91]

Oh man, that’s some convincing evidence. Evidence of what, I have no idea, but it uses math and I’m sure it’s very alarming!

" Sorcerer's Stone " is also called the "Philosopher's Stone", and is very, very Satanic!  Rosicrucianism teaches that an Initiate will pass through five stages to become the highest Adept possible, to be most proficient in exercising the power of Satanism.  They call this process the "Five Stages In The Transmutation of the Soul".  The final stage is depicted by the Phoenix Bird; the Adept is then said to have achieved the "Sorcerer's Stone".  Thus, the fact that the term, "Sorcerer's Stone" is in the title of this book suggests that the ultimate goal of all students at Hogwarts is to achieve the Sorcerer's Stone.

Wow, that sure is an interesting interpretation of the rock that shows up in the book for like 6 pages and then is immediately destroyed! Alternate theory, if you’re open to it: It’s a rock, named the Philosopher’s Stone because the Philosopher’s Stone is historically the name of a rock, called the philosopher's stone, and it's literally just a rock and doesn't mean anything Satanist because it's a fucking ROCK.

(Pictured: A rock)

There’s a really odd part right after the long discussion about how alchemy and unicorns and whatnot are Satanic Illuminati symbols, where CE just takes a moment to explain the game of Quidditch. No commentary beyond a sassy little “[Even the Quidditch balls are 'enchanted'].” Just . . . sort of letting you know how the game is played.

To be fair, this is quite a valuable service, since I don’t think anyone actually understands how Quidditch works, but I’m not sure what it’s doing sandwiched between two declarations of Harry Potter’s obvious evil.

PART THE LAST THANK GOD: WHO THE FUCK NEEDS A SUBTITLE IT’S ALMOST OVER

The first few paragraphs are standard boilerplate conclusion stuff, reiterating the rest of the story, continued misunderstanding that bad things are done by the bad guys, no there really are drugs and Illuminati propaganda in here I promise, yadda yadda. Nothing noteworthy except for the fact that I found this sentence absolutely hilarious:

But, most horribly, we see depictions of Satanism that are truly End of the Age.  We see the symbol of Antichrist, the Unicorn.

And so I leave you with this one final thought, because it’s all I can fit into the saggy mush that was once my brain:

From Genesis through Revelation, God demands His people separate themselves from the evil around them! SEPARATE!  SEPARATE!  SEPARATE!

S E P A R A T E 

[sswwimagine]

Try A Little Longer || Fred Weasley

Original Post: on ssimagines

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Spanish!reader

Word Count: 2153 (without translations), 2274 (with translations)

Summary: You are at Hogwarts for the triwizard tournament. You have a hard time with understanding a lot of what’s going on. Fred Weasley takes an interest in you.

Warnings: a big bowl of sweet, poorly written french and spanish (a warning because it’s probably really bad)

Request: can i request a fred weasley imagine where the reader is from Spain, and transferred to hogwarts during the year of the triwizard tournament and fred tries to learn spanish to ask her to the yule ball and to impress her?

Very Long Note: My spanish knowledge consists of two years in junior high so the majority of it is google translate and probably written wrong sorry. I did my best and put a lot of time into it

Also through research I discovered that the majority of young witches and wizards from Spain attend Beauxbatons. Since you wanted it set during the triwizard tournament anyway, I just made the reader from Beauxbatons.  I hope you don’t mind. (Boys from Beauxbatons also visited Hogwarts during the Goblet of Fire)

Ellipses in talking when it is english are words that the reader isn’t able to understand whether they are spoke to fast or they haven’t learned them yet.

This is obviously already been posted, but since I started my smaller blogs, I wanted all my work for each fandom in one place. Instead of just reblogging everything I figured that I would repost it. 

Request/Taglist

Masterlist

For the first five years of your magical training so far, you have attended Beauxbatons. You weren’t from France, but rather Spain. There wasn’t a school in Spain, so your parents sent you to the closest one in France like many other residents of Spain. This caused you to be fluent in both Spanish and French, but you preferred to talk in your native tongue unless you had no other option. 

This year your school was participating in the Triwizard tournament being held at Hogwarts in Scotland. All summer you had talked with your parents about going. They were worried about because it was so far from home and you would know very little of the native language. You vowed to them that all summer you would work on your English if they were to allow you to go. Now you were with the rest of your school preparing to enter what you’d been told was the great hall. 

Your school had prepared an elaborate entrance that you had practiced your timing often for this day. You and two other girls had actually been the ones to plan it. You were excited for this moment. You were just waiting for your que now. 

Your best friend, Nora, who was also from Spain, stood beside you tapping her foot quickly. It sounded almost as if she was tapping it to the beat of her own heart. She turned to you spoke.

“¿Cuanto tiempo más?” she asked (translation: how much longer?). Her tone was clipped and sharp. The words that usually followed out of her mouth like butter seemed harsh like spikes. You took her in for a moment shocked that she was being so short.  You turned her mouth to reply when someone beat you to it. 

“Vous devez parler le français ou l`anglais ici non espangol,” it was Fleur (French translation: you must speak French or English not Spanish). She hated it whenever any of us spoke out native languages back at school. You thought it was because she didn’t like not being able to tell what others were talking about, but Nora always insisted that it was just what you were supposed to do. She was more patient than you 

You looked to Nora who just rolled her eyes. That was so not like her. You quickly turned to Madam Maxine.

“Puis- je aller à mon sac?” You asked (French translation: Can I go to my bag?). She looked you over before glancing to Nora. 

“Oui, rapidement,” she said nodding (French translation: Yes, quickly). You ran down the hall to your where you left your bag. Inside it held a small granola bar. You had put it there when Nora refused to eat during the carriage ride over. She was diabetic and needed to eat otherwise she got mean because of her low blood sugar. You ran back.

As you turned to corner you saw the doors were already open and your class mates were making their way inside. You ran as fast as you could to reach them before they had all entered, but you weren’t fast enough. You had to run to your stop through the large doors. As you leaned in for one of the dramatic sigh, you tossed Nora the granola bar hoping to go undetected by the rooms occupants. She caught it with ease not even breaking her form. 

You looked at the table to your left to see a red-haired boy staring at you holding back laughter. He nudged the boy next to him who looked just like him and whispered something in his ear. The second boy laughed looking at you as you moved forward. If what you had done got back to Fleur somehow, she would be so mad at you. There was a good chance she’d have you cleaning up after the flying horses for the next week. You said a silent prayer that the twin red heads wouldn’t say anything. 

When you made it to the front of the room, whose name fit it perfectly, you looked back at the boys. The one that first noticed your antics was still looking at you, but you couldn’t tell if the other one was. You turned to see that Nora was being blacked from view slightly. She was eating the granola bar. A small smile formed on your face as you turned back to watch the Drumstrang make their entrance. 

It had been over three months since you had arrived to the Scotland Castle. You quickly found that your summer English studies where nowhere near what you needed them to be. You had a hard time talking with the students of Hogwarts and even harder time talking two different versions of broken English with Drumstrang students. You had decided that you would no longer try and talk to the students unless Nora, who had been speaking English since she was nine, was around or they initiated the conversation.

The boy from the first night had tried on many occasions to talk to you, but you had no idea what he was saying most of time. The words were far too confusing for you. They sounded nothing like what you had worked on. Given you only worked on magical terms, foods, and simple conversations, almost everything was too complex for you. You hadn’t realized that you would need more than that until it came to using it. 

Nora had dragged you to the Library to practice your English and work on some of your studies. The two of you were sitting at a large bookshelf with several books in front of you. All of them you had apparently read before, but this time they were in English instead of Spanish and French. There was an arrangement of types of books. Some were textbooks while other were story books. You had been doing pretty well so far. 

“Pienso que el chico pelirrojo gustas,” Nora said softly so no one told her to speak another language (translation: I think the redheaded boy likes you). The past five years of conditioning you had done so you only spoke French when in common areas at school had been thrown away when you got here. If no one was going to understand you than why speak French instead of your native language. 

Nora pointed to the re headed boy. When you looked at him, he quickly scrambled to look busy with his text book. Nora had been trying to embarrass you with his crush on you. Every time the red-haired boy, who you had learned was named Fred, came up to you to with Nora around, she tried to play translator for the two of you. She even tried to include his tone in her words, but you pretty sure she was just seeing things that weren’t there between you two. 

Sure, you thought he was attractive, and it was true that many times you had fantasied about him taking you on a date and kissing you, but there was no way that could ever happen. You didn’t even speak the same language. You would need a translator just to hold a conversation. You doubted that he enjoyed everything he said being put through a filter. 

“Sus nombre son Fred,” you said matching your tone to hers (translation: his name is Fred). You had told her his name more times than you could count on one hand, but she never remembered.  She was really good with languages, but not names. 

“Cualquiera,” she said laughing. “El es guapo. Tal vez él te preguntará a el baile.”

(Translation: whatever. He is handsome. Maybe he’ll ask you to the ball.)

You rolled your eyes at your friends. You had to admit if he did choose to ask you to the Yule ball that was happening in just a month you would definitely not say no. There was this fear that you had that if he asked you, you wouldn’t be able to understand him and you would just say no without realizing it. 

Something similar had happened last week when a girl from Hogwarts had ask you if you wanted to walk to class with her, but you didn’t understand so you just said no. She looked so hurt and she wouldn’t talk to you until you had Nora go up and ask her what was wrong. She ended up thinking your confusion was pretty fun, but you were so embarrassed that you felt backed into a corner.

“Tengo que ir a buscar a alguien. Te veré en la cena,” Nora said as she stood up (translation: I have to go find someone. I will see you at dinner). She gathered a few books and placed them on a small cart not too far away. She returned to give you a small hug before turning to leave.

“Aprobado, adios,” you said as you watched her leave (translation: okay, bye). She gave you a small wave without looking at you. You continued to work on your English as you read over the books. 

Out of the corner of your eye you saw someone come up to where you were. You didn’t know if they were coming to talk to you so you didn’t turn to them right away. After a few seconds, you heard words pour out of their mouth. You looked to see it was Fred.

“Can I sit here?” he asked gesturing to the chair beside you. This was a phrase you knew well by now.

“Yes,” you said nodding with a large smile carved into your cheeks. Your accent was strong in the simple word. 

“I saw you … here and I … I would come over and say hi,” Fred started but you didn’t understand all the words. You tried to piece together what he was saying. 

“Hello to you Fred,” you said. You really hoped that that was the right response in this situation. Sometimes you couldn’t always read situations because you had learned had a different social culture. You were doing much better than you were three month ago, and you proud of that.

“Hi,” He said as he sat in the seat Nora had deserted not too long ago. He angled his body towards you. It seemed as he was planning to continue talking. You moved to face him as much as you could without moving the chair.

“What I can help with?” You asked. Your words were labored and slow, and your English was broken, but you were pretty sure you were able to get all the message across. 

“I was actually planning on asking you something.,” He said. Fred shifted in his seat. 

He looked a little uncomfortable as he searched his pockets for something. After about a minute of fumbling around, he pulled a small ripped and crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. You held back the small laugh that was budding in your throat. You didn’t think it was appropriate to laugh at him. 

He flattened out the paper the best he could. As you waited expectantly, He cleared his throat and sat up straight.

“¿Quieres ir conmigo a la bola de Navidad??” He spoke hesitantly and his pronunciation was terrible, but the effort warmed you (translation: Do you want to go with me to the Christmas ball? In this situation that ball means the round kind. It is incorrect on purpose.). His wording wasn’t perfect, but he was trying and you really appreciated that. You gave it second trying to decide what the best reponse was.

“¿Quieres decir ‘quieres ir a el baile de Navidad conmigo’?” you spoke (translation: Do you mean 'do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me'?). You weren’t usually one to correct people, but you couldn’t have him going around saying bola instead of baile. He would embarrass himself if someone he didn’t even know were to correct him. 

Your correction had sadly back fired and his face turned a red more vibrant than his hair. He just nodded very quickly and not meeting your gaze. You bite your lip. There was no way that you were going to say no to him. The only thing that really had been holding you back before could be solved if a little bit of effort which you now knew he was willing to put in. 

“Me encantaría ir contigo,” you said (translation: I would love to go with you). 

He looked at you with furrowed eyebrows. Apparently, he only looked into that one phrase. He probably didn’t think of finding out more just like you hadn’t when you came to Hogwarts. You cleared your throat and tried to come with all the words you were going to need.

“I would like that,” You said. Your accent made your English sound more elegant than it was. His eyes lit up and a smile grew to stretch from ear to ear. 

“Really, that’s great,” he spoke quickly and you couldn’t understand it all. “I have … tell George. Nora … be … I… did it. … Ron can… it.”

You listened to him as he stood up excitedly with his bag on his shoulder. He turned to walk out still talking. You were pretty sure that he was not talking to you anymore. He stopped suddenly right before he left your sight line and turned on his heels. 

“I forgot to say goodbye,” He said sheepishly. His neck was redder than usual and that let you to smile.

“Goodbye, Fred,” You said. “I see you later.” 

“Adios, Y/N,” he replied. “Hasta luego.”

(translation: goodbye Y/N. See you later.)

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Editing Advice Part 4: Copyediting

Now that you have checked your WIP for continuity, addressed every plot hole, and finished all rewrites, it's time to put on the final touches by copyediting!

Now, just to be clear, the term "copyediting" usually refers to when an editor, not the writer, reads the manuscript looking for errors, and it actually does include a lot of continuity editing and fact checking. But this series is for writers editing their own work before another soul reads it (regardless of if the work will then be self-published or sent out to agents and editors). It is my belief that, for a writer, continuity editing should come long before the final stage of the editing process. Thus, for our purposes, I'm going to use "copyediting" to refer to correcting errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other such things.

Obviously, this involves going through your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb, on the lookout for misspellings and typos. However, there are a few items to especially  watch for, roughly broken down into the categories of spelling; grammar, usage, and style; and punctuation, spacing, and everything else.

Spelling

Spelling of made-up or unusual words: If you write fantasy or sci-fi, odds are you're using at least a few words that don't exist in the regular lexicon. Make sure you use consistent spelling for these. This is especially true for different forms of said words. For example, I chose to spell "Lesse" in Lesse's Moor with and "e" at the end, which is easy to remember. Yet, when spelling the adjectival form of that word, I used either an "e" or "a": Lesserian and Lessarian. I had to choose one to use throughout. This goes for non-made-up words as well. "Empyreal" of the Empyreal Palace is a real word (it means celestial), but it's not like I've known how to spell it from my youth, so I still had to double check it every time I came across it to make sure it was spelled correctly.

British vs American spelling: If you spend a lot of time reading books from across the pond, you might have picked up some foreign spellings. As a child, I would always spell "gray" as "grey", because I liked it better, and to this day, that spelling sneaks into my writing from time to time. There are many such words in the English language that you should watch out for.

Hyphens: Make sure that you know which words are hyphenated, and that they are always hyphenated in your manuscript. Pay attention to height and ages: "six-foot tall",  "four-year-old" and so on. Keep consistent for made-up words as well. Will you use "mechano-magical" or "mechanomagical"? Whichever you choose, you have to use that spelling every time.

Homophones and similar words: You might think that this is dumb to mention, since you, of course, know the difference between all the homophones in the world, but that's irrelevant. I know the difference too, yet I mix them up all the time in my writing. Some people picture the spellings of words even as they speak, and I am not one of them. I know the difference between "their", "they're", and "there" like the back of my hand; I still write the wrong one about a third of the time. Why? Because when I write, I'm picturing how the words sound and, moreover, how the scene looks, not how the text will appear on the page. That's what copyediting is for. You can Google lists of commonly misspelled or mixed-up words, or write down your own list if you have certain words you personally get confused.

Grammar, Usage and Style

Subject-verb agreement: By the time you're at this stage of editing, your manuscript is likely a Frankenstein's monster of sewn-together old drafts, and that tends to lead to some weird grammar. Make sure your subjects and verbs agree. That means that if the subject is plural—they, policemen, the dragons, or whatever—the verb has to be one you use on plurals—were, know, have eaten. If the subject is singular—he, a policeman, the dragon—the verbs similarly have to match—was, knows, has eaten. If you're not too keen on grammar, read it out loud and see if it sounds right; even if you don't know all the proper grammatical phraseology, you know English and you'll be able to pick up on errors that you hear.

Writing out numbers or not: Generally speaking, for narrative prose, you should write out the numbers zero through one hundred. For larger numbers, 101 to infinity, you can use numerals, but some guides suggest that numbers ending in two or more zeros should also be written out: two hundred, five million, etc. But I think you can get away with writing out larger numbers as well, like three hundred seventy-three; it looks nicer to me. Whatever you choose to do with larger numbers, stay consistent. Special numbers like years and addresses, however, should be written in numerals: 221 B. Baker Street, 1984, etc.

Capitalization of titles of people: Obviously, if the the title comes right before the persons name, and is thus part of their name, it's capitalized: Queen Delilah, Doctor Mario, Professor Moriarty, President Coolidge. But what about when the title is by itself? Well, it depends on how you're using it. If the title is used to address the person, it's capitalized: "You saved his life, Doctor!" or "Well, Professor, it looks like your theory was wrong." Obviously special title have special addresses which are obviously capitalized: Your Majesty, Mr. President, etc. If, on the other hand, you are talking about the person, or the office in general, it's not (usually) capitalized: "The professor is getting on my nerves!", "That doctor is a quack", "The president has to be an American citizen". However, for certain fancier offices, if you are talking about a particular holder of that office, you do capitalize it. Now, I found a few competing sources on this, but from what I could figure, the only titles that work this way are Pope, King, Queen. Again, you have to be referring to a very specific person to do this: "The Queen has been slain!" "The Pope blessed the travelers". Some sources also said this could be done for the president's of countries, but other said not to, so... I guess pick which way you'll do it an stay consistent.

Punctuation, Spacing, and Everything Else

Extra spaces: Get rid of 'em. This included two spaces after a period (for us old people who learned that that was the correct way to type!) as well as space at the end of paragraphs, between two words, and so on.

Missing punctuation: Don't forget commas after opening phrases like "Well, you see..." or "Of course, I'd never say that," or when separating a name when being addressed: "Are you ok, Constance?". Double check that every paragraph has a period or closing quotation marks; somehow, these seem to disappear on me and I've never figured out why.

Smart quotes, … vs ..., and m-dashes: This is almost getting into formatting territory, but I'm going to include it here anyway. Depending on what word processor you use to write your WIP, there might be some differences in how certain characters are automatically formatted. For example, some programs will turn quotation marks ( " " ) into smart quotes, i.e., one that wrap toward the text and have different opening and closing characters ( “ ” ). Something similar happens to ellipses, which may be typed as three periods (...) but turned into a single character (…). Finally, there is the m-dash, that long dash used in a way similar to a colon. When you type it by itself, it typically looks like two dashes (--), but if you type a letter, then two dashes, then another letter with no spaces between, it turns into a single character (—). I'm in favor of all of these automatic changes, as they look nicer, but depending on where you typed what part of my WIP, they don't always happen. It's a good idea to go though your manuscript and add them in, or set your word processor to change them automatically.

Personal foibles: Finally, know thyself. Are there weird mistakes that you always tend to make? I myself tend not to use question marks (they are a silly punctuation mark and ought not exist!). I have to be careful to check that all of my questions are, in fact, marked as such. Maybe you tend to spell one particular word incorrectly, or are really bad at using commas. Know your weaknesses and make an effort to fix them while writing and catch them while editing.

Tips to Make Life a Little Easier

The greatest tip I can give you is to embrace your Find and Find/Change or Find/Replace functions of your word processor. You'll find these in your edit menu.

Find should be used to check homophones and commonly misspelled words. When editing, I'll Find the word "its" and go through my entire document to check each instance of this word to make sure it should not be "it's". then, I do the reverse, searching every instance of "it's" to make sure it should not be "its". I do this for each of the words that I, personally, confuse. Know thyself; if you never confuse "it's" with "its", don't bother checking it, but if you know that you often confuse "principal" and "principle", use the Find function. You can also use this to Find quotation marks and replace them with smart quotes if your word processor doesn't have the option to replace all quotation marks with smart ones at once.

And then there is my favorite, Find/Change. This should also be found in your edit menu, sometimes with the "Find..." feature and sometimes as a separate "Replace..." option. What Find/Change allows you to do is enter in some word, like, say, "Lessarian" and replace every instance of it with a new word, like "Lesserian". I use this to do a quick fix of made-up words and British to American spellings. I also use this if I have changed character and place names, so that I can replace every instance of, say, "Robert" with "Brother Roberto". It's also useful for catching double spaces, as you can Find "  " (two spaces) and Replace them with " " (one space). You can also replace two dashes with an m-dash or the three-character ellipsis with a single character ellipsis.

And with that, you'll have a sparkly new manuscript, ready for the eyes of agents, publishers, or—should you go the self-published route—your readers. Speaking of which, you self-pub peeps out there might need a bit of advice on formatting and proofreading. I just so happen to have some such advice! But it will take some doing (mostly in the form of screen shots), so that post will have to wait for a while. In the meantime, get to work polishing that manuscript! If you come across some weird editing issue and need particular advice, my email, Facebook messenger, and Tumblr asks and messenger are always open. Happy editing!

[brynwrites]

Writing Characters Who Stutter.

@indidoughnuts asked:

Any advice on writing a character who talks with a stutter?

We’re both in luck here, because one of the main characters in my spring novel, We Are, We Are Monsters, has a slight stutter, and they say there’s no better way to truly learn something then to teach it!

Fore note: Because I have no firsthand experience in stuttering, this article draws heavily from a number of reliable sources, which will be all cited throughout. 

What is a stutter? A speech disorder, also known as stammering or diffluent speech. It generally includes some variation of repeated words, sounds, or syllables, halted speech mid-sentence, and an uneven rate of speech. [1]

1. Choose specific rules for your character’s stutter and stick with them.

If you’re going to portray stutter that’s both realistic and readable, you’ll need to know how and on what sounds your character stutters, and then stick to them. Choose specific sounds to employ the stutter on (Gabrielle Massman recommends between three and seven [3]), and familiarize yourself with the three basic forms of stuttering [2]:

Repetitions of sounds or syllables; “Li-li-like this” or “Like-like-like this.”

Prolongations; “Llllllllike this.”

Blocks; “L—ike this.” 

You can hear recordings of each of these stutters here. [5]

Once you know which sounds your character stutters on and how that stuttering primarily comes out, you’ll want to decide on how you’ll portray the stutter through writing. You can find a few forms of this in the above examples. Other possibilities include using ellipses or commas:

“L...l...like this.”

“L, l, like this.”

“Like, like, like this.” 

“L... like this.”

I personally find that the en-dashes, em-dashes, and commas provide much a more fluid reading of a stutter then ellipses, but ellipses can create a drawn out effect, if that’s what you’re looking for. However you choose to write each type of stutter, the key is to be consistent with it. 

Let your readers grow used to seeing the same few stutters throughout the story, so they can read the stuttering for what it is, without being pulled out of the action. 

2. Don’t forget the other ways a stutter may effect someone.

Only 1% of the population of our world has a stutter. If your character is growing up in a similar stutter-less environment, they will go through a variety of techniques, subconscious actions, and emotions while trying to get their message across [1, 3, 5]:

Hesitation or pauses before speaking,

Adding extra filler words or sounds into a sentence. (Uh, um, er, etc.)

Stretching out a word in order to prevent a repetition or block. 

Rearrangement of words in a sentence or repeating the sentence in a new way, especially using synonyms in place of the meddlesome word.

Repetition of phrases or full sentences, especially in order to overcome a block.

Refusal to speak or finish a sentence or word.

Tension or frustration while speaking, often resulting in abnormal breathing or physical changes such as tics, tremors, and tightness of posture. 

A higher amount of stuttering when under stress.

Stuttering also effects the emotional and mental state of the person with the stutter: 

“Yet, people who stutter tend to blame themselves. They grow up continually hearing Calm down, Speak slower, and If you put your mind to it, you won’t stutter anymore... The feelings and attitudes you feel can be as much a part of the disorder as the stuttering.” [5]

Before you write your character who stutters, you’ll want to consider how the stutter effects them beyond the physical, and throughout various situations. 

How does your character feel about their stutter? 

How do they view themselves in relation to their stutter? Has this changed the way they view themselves as a person?

What do they feel when they stutter in front of people they want to impress? In front of strangers and passers-by? In front of people who’re accustomed to and accepting of their stutter?

Do they now, or have they ever had the option of speech therapy? If this is speculative fiction, does their world even have speech therapy, or perhaps in futuristic worlds, do they have technology to correct certain types of genetic stutters?

If this is speculative or historical fiction, also consider the way the general population they live in views people who stutter? Are they pitied? Outcast? Believed to have a connection to a particular deity? 

For further research, I would highly recommend reading the firsthand account of someone who stutters here [4], and more about the psychological effects of stuttering here. [5]

3. Know what not to do.

As there are things you should do when writing a character who stutters, there are also things you should avoid [3,4]:

Don’t use dialogue tags to describe stuttering (”they stuttered”) if you wrote the stuttering into the dialogue itself. 

Don’t write a stutter into the character’s thoughts! This is both unrealistic and highly insulting. 

Avoid writing a stutter multiple times in a single sentence unless the character is under high stress. People who stutter don’t stutter every single time they hit a sound that’s difficult for them.

Don’t use stuttering as a symptom of nervousness or shyness. Stuttering will grow worse during times of stress, but a person who stutters won’t lose their stutter when they stop being nervous or shy. 

Never have your character “overcome” their stutter as a result of their effort or character development! If you don’t understand why this is wrong, you absolutely need to research disability and the proper ways of portraying characters who have disabilities. 

Don’t let your character be merely a stutter. A person who stutters will be greatly effected by their stutter, but they will also be effected by a million other parts of their life, from upbringing, to personality, to desires, to genetics and beyond. Your character who stutters should be just as fleshed out and unique as every other character you write. 

4. Bonus: Learn why people stutter in the first place.

There are a handful of factors that determine whether or not a person will stutter, and research is still needed to clarify many of these further. A few things that influence stuttering include [1,6] :

Genetics. 60% of people who stutter have family members who also stutter.

Child Developmental. Children with developmental stuttering may grow out of it, especially with the aid of speech therapy.

Neurophysiology Abnormalities. (Abnormalities in the nerves.) Can be caused by brain injury.

High stress upbringing. Especially impacts children who already stutter. 

Psychological trauma. With increasing research, this is found to be a very rare cause of stuttering.

References for fact checking and further reading:

[1] Stuttering, by healthline. [2] Stuttering Center of Western Pennsylvania. (This website was running when I started researching, but last I checked was in the process of moving...) [3] How to Write Stuttering, by a writer who’s father stutters. [4] A Reply To ‘Writing Stuttering Character,’ by a person who stutters. [5] I Have A Voice. [6] The Stuttering Foundation.

Edit: This is a good tumblr post with a few additional situations.

[ssimagines]

Try a little longer || Fred Weasley

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Spanish!reader

Word Count: 2153 (without translations), 2274 (with translations)

Summary: You are at Hogwarts for the triwizard tournament. You have a hard time with understanding a lot of what’s going on. Fred Weasley takes an interest in you.

Warnings: a big bowl of sweet, poorly written french and spanish (a warning because it’s probably really bad)

Request: can i request a fred weasley imagine where the reader is from Spain, and transferred to hogwarts during the year of the triwizard tournament and fred tries to learn spanish to ask her to the yule ball and to impress her?

Very Long Note: My spanish knowledge consists of two years in junior high so the majority of it is google translate and probably written wrong sorry. I did my best and put a lot of time into it

Also through research I discovered that the majority of young witches and wizards from Spain attend Beauxbatons. Since you wanted it set during the triwizard tournament anyway, I just made the reader from Beauxbatons.  I hope you don’t mind. (Boys from Beauxbatons also visited Hogwarts during the Goblet of Fire)

Ellipses in talking when it is english are words that the reader isn’t able to understand whether they are spoke to fast or they haven’t learned them yet. 

Masterlist

For the first five years of your magical training so far, you have attended Beauxbatons. You weren’t from France, but rather Spain. There wasn’t a school in Spain, so your parents sent you to the closet one in France like many other residents of Spain. This caused you to be fluent in both Spanish and French, but you preferred to talk in your native tongue unless you had no other option.

This year your school was participating in the Triwizard tournament being held at Hogwarts in Scotland. All summer you had talked with your parents about going. They were worried about because it was so far from home and you would know very little of the native language. You vowed to them that all summer you would work on your English if they were to allow you to go. Now you were with the rest of your school preparing to enter what you’d been told was the great hall.

Your school had prepared an elaborate entrance that you had practiced your timing often for this day. You and two other girls had actually been the ones to plan it. You were excited for this moment. You were just waiting for your que now.

Your best friend, Nora, who was also from Spain, stood beside you tapping her foot quickly. It sounded almost as if she was tapping it to the beat of her own heart. She turned to you spoke.

“¿Cuanto tiempo más?” she asked (translation: how much longer?). Her tone was clipped and sharp. The words that usually followed out of her mouth like butter seemed harsh like spikes. You took her in for a moment shocked that she was being so short.  You turned her mouth to reply when someone beat you to it.

“Vous devez parler le français ou l`anglais ici non espangol,” it was Fleur (French translation: you must speak French or English not Spanish). She hated it whenever any of us spoke out native languages back at school. You thought it was because she didn’t like not being able to tell what others were talking about, but Nora always insisted that it was just what you were supposed to do. She was more patient than you

You looked to Nora who just rolled her eyes. That was so not like her. You quickly turned to Madam Maxine.

“Puis- je aller à mon sac?” You asked (French translation: Can I go to my bag?). She looked you over before glancing to Nora.

“Oui, rapidement,” she said nodding (French translation: Yes, quickly). You ran down the hall to your where you left your bag. Inside it held a small granola bar. You had put it there when Nora refused to eat during the carriage ride over. She was diabetic and needed to eat otherwise she got mean because of her low blood sugar. You ran back.

As you turned to corner you saw the doors were already open and your class mates were making their way inside. You ran as fast as you could to reach them before they had all entered, but you weren’t fast enough. You had to run to your stop through the large doors. As you leaned in for one of the dramatic sigh, you tossed Nora the granola bar hoping to go undetected by the rooms occupants. She caught it with ease not even breaking her form.

You looked at the table to your left to see a red-haired boy staring at you holding back laughter. He nudged the boy next to him who looked just like him and whispered something in his ear. The second boy laughed looking at you as you moved forward. If what you had done got back to Fleur somehow, she would be so mad at you. There was a good chance she’d have you cleaning up after the flying horses for the next week. You said a silent prayer that the twin red heads wouldn’t say anything.

When you made it to the front of the room, whose name fit it perfectly, you looked back at the boys. The one that first noticed your antics was still looking at you, but you couldn’t tell if the other one was. You turned to see that Nora was being blacked from view slightly. She was eating the granola bar. A small smile formed on your face as you turned back to watch the Durmstrang make their entrance.

It had been over three months since you had arrived to the Scotland Castle. You quickly found that your summer English studies where nowhere near what you needed them to be. You had a hard time talking with the students of Hogwarts and even harder time talking two different versions of broken English with Durmstrang students. You had decided that you would no longer try and talk to the students unless Nora, who had been speaking English since she was nine, was around or they initiated the conversation.

The boy from the first night had tried on many occasions to talk to you, but you had no idea what he was saying most of time. The words were far too confusing for you. They sounded nothing like what you had worked on. Given you only worked on magical terms, foods, and simple conversations, almost everything was too complex for you. You hadn’t realized that you would need more than that until it came to using it.

Nora had dragged you to the Library to practice your English and work on some of your studies. The two of you were sitting at a large bookshelf with several books in front of you. All of them you had apparently read before, but this time they were in English instead of Spanish and French. There was an arrangement of types of books. Some were textbooks while other were story books. You had been doing pretty well so far.

“Creo que al chico pelirrojo le gustas ,” Nora said softly so no one told her to speak another language (translation: I think the redheaded boy likes you). The past five years of conditioning you had done so you only spoke French when in common areas at school had been thrown away when you got here. If no one was going to understand you than why speak French instead of your native language.

Nora pointed to the re headed boy. When you looked at him, he quickly scrambled to look busy with his text book. Nora had been trying to embarrass you with his crush on you. Every time the red-haired boy, who you had learned was named Fred, came up to you to with Nora around, she tried to play translator for the two of you. She even tried to include his tone in her words, but you pretty sure she was just seeing things that weren’t there between you two.

Sure, you thought he was attractive, and it was true that many times you had fantasied about him taking you on a date and kissing you, but there was no way that could ever happen. You didn’t even speak the same language. You would need a translator just to hold a conversation. You doubted that he enjoyed everything he said being put through a filter.

“Su nombre es Fred,” you said matching your tone to hers (translation: his name is Fred). You had told her his name more times than you could count on one hand, but she never remembered.  She was really good with languages, but not names.

“ Como sea,” she said laughing, “tal vez él te invite al baile .”

(Translation: whatever. He is handsome. Maybe he’ll ask you to the ball.)

You rolled your eyes at your friends. You had to admit if he did choose to ask you to the Yule ball that was happening in just a month you would definitely not say no. There was this fear that you had that if he asked you, you wouldn’t be able to understand him and you would just say no without realizing it.

Something similar had happened last week when a girl from Hogwarts had ask you if you wanted to walk to class with her, but you didn’t understand so you just said no. She looked so hurt and she wouldn’t talk to you until you had Nora go up and ask her what was wrong. She ended up thinking your confusion was pretty fun, but you were so embarrassed that you felt backed into a corner.

“Tengo que ir a buscar a alguien. Te veré en la cena,” Nora said as she stood up (translation: I have to go find someone. I will see you at dinner). She gathered a few books and placed them on a small cart not too far away. She returned to give you a small hug before turning to leave.

“Aprobado, adios,” you said as you watched her leave (translation: okay, bye). She gave you a small wave without looking at you. You continued to work on your English as you read over the books.

Out of the corner of your eye you saw someone come up to where you were. You didn’t know if they were coming to talk to you so you didn’t turn to them right away. After a few seconds, you heard words pour out of their mouth. You looked to see it was Fred.

“Can I sit here?” he asked gesturing to the chair beside you. This was a phrase you knew well by now.

“Yes,” you said nodding with a large smile carved into your cheeks. Your accent was strong in the simple word.

“I saw you … here and I … I would come over and say hi,” Fred started but you didn’t understand all the words. You tried to piece together what he was saying.

“Hello to you Fred,” you said. You really hoped that that was the right response in this situation. Sometimes you couldn’t always read situations because you had learned had a different social culture. You were doing much better than you were three month ago, and you proud of that.

“Hi,” He said as he sat in the seat Nora had deserted not too long ago. He angled his body towards you. It seemed as he was planning to continue talking. You moved to face him as much as you could without moving the chair.

“What I can help with?” You asked. Your words were labored and slow, and your English was broken, but you were pretty sure you were able to get all the message across.

“I was actually planning on asking you something.,” He said. Fred shifted in his seat.

He looked a little uncomfortable as he searched his pockets for something. After about a minute of fumbling around, he pulled a small ripped and crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. You held back the small laugh that was budding in your throat. You didn’t think it was appropriate to laugh at him.

He flattened out the paper the best he could. As you waited expectantly, He cleared his throat and sat up straight.

“¿Quieres ir conmigo a la bola de Navidad??” He spoke hesitantly and his pronunciation was terrible, but the effort warmed you (translation: Do you want to go with me to the Christmas ball? In this situation that ball means the round kind. It is incorrect on purpose.). His wording wasn’t perfect, but he was trying and you really appreciated that. You gave it second trying to decide what the best reponse was.

“¿Quieres decir ‘quieres ir a el baile de Navidad conmigo’?” you spoke (translation: Do you mean 'do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me'?). You weren’t usually one to correct people, but you couldn’t have him going around saying bola instead of baile. He would embarrass himself if someone he didn’t even know were to correct him.

Your correction had sadly back fired and his face turned a red more vibrant than his hair. He just nodded very quickly and not meeting your gaze. You bite your lip. There was no way that you were going to say no to him. The only thing that really had been holding you back before could be solved if a little bit of effort which you now knew he was willing to put in.

“Me encantaría ir contigo,” you said (translation: I would love to go with you).

He looked at you with furrowed eyebrows. Apparently, he only looked into that one phrase. He probably didn’t think of finding out more just like you hadn’t when you came to Hogwarts. You cleared your throat and tried to come with all the words you were going to need.

“I would like that,” You said. Your accent made your English sound more elegant than it was. His eyes lit up and a smile grew to stretch from ear to ear.

“Really, that’s great,” he spoke quickly and you couldn’t understand it all. “I have … tell George. Nora … be … I… did it. … Ron can… it.”

You listened to him as he stood up excitedly with his bag on his shoulder. He turned to walk out still talking. You were pretty sure that he was not talking to you anymore. He stopped suddenly right before he left your sight line and turned on his heels.

“I forgot to say goodbye,” He said sheepishly. His neck was redder than usual and that let you to smile.

“Goodbye, Fred,” You said. “I see you later.”

“Adios, Y/N,” he replied. “Hasta luego.”

(translation: goodbye Y/N. See you later.)

Final Note: I am thinking about writing a second part to this one depending on how long it takes me to complete what I working on right now and the response I get from this. The next part would actually include the Yule ball date itself. I left it out of this one so that it didn’t become too long. Thank you for reading!

[ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is]

(Last anon) I wouldn't say that paragraph describes me. However, if that paragraph were solely about people and their behaviour rather than objects/physical descriptions of things in my environment, I would say it fits me. I'm very good at noticing, like I said, behavioural patterns. Things people have a tendency to do often. And I form opinions about them pretty quick based on those things. Is this possible for an ENFP? Also, I've considered ESFP for myself. But if I'm not very observant in...

Not sure if you didn't finish it or if the ask box ate it (as mentioned there is a glitch that likely is caused by ellipses, please try and use other things) but that was my point for the previous ask: being very people oriented but not otherwise observant could be ENFP mistaking Ne-inference of behaviors for true physical observance of the environment. It's also arguably more consistent with ESFJ. Without knowing what led you to type as an Fi-aux (assuming you're not the anon who asked a couple questions earlier today) I would consider ESFJ as well.

[sciencespies]

We just found the fastest star in the Milky Way, travelling at 8% the speed of light

https://sciencespies.com/space/we-just-found-the-fastest-star-in-the-milky-way-travelling-at-8-the-speed-of-light/

We just found the fastest star in the Milky Way, travelling at 8% the speed of light

We’ve found the fastest known star in the Milky Way. In the extreme environment at the centre of our galaxy, a newly discovered star called S4714 orbits the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*.

On its orbital journey, S4714 reaches a velocity of around 8 percent of the speed of light – an absolutely jaw-dropping 24,000 kilometres per second (15,000 miles per second). But that’s not even the most amazing thing.

S4714 is just one of a group of stars that have now been discovered skimming Sgr A* on closer orbits than any other stars discovered previously.

Not only does this discovery suggest there are even more stars on daredevil orbits around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole, it has given us the first candidates for a type of star originally proposed nearly 20 years ago – those that get so close to a black hole, they are ‘squeezed’ by its tidal forces. They’re also known as ‘squeezars’.

The region at the centre of the Milky Way may be quiet compared to more active galactic centres, but even the environment around a quiescent supermassive black hole can get pretty wild.

Astronomers studying the region have identified a number of stars on long, looping, sharply elliptical orbits around Sgr A* – think of an oval, with the black hole at one end. These are called S stars, and we can use them to probe the properties of the gargantuan invisible object they orbit.

(N. Vogt/NMSU)

For years, a star called S2 was regarded as the nearest star to the black hole. At its closest approach, or periapse, its 16-year orbit brought it within around 18 billion kilometres of Sgr A*, the gravitational kick from this close approach accelerating the star to 3 percent of the speed of light. It’s taken painstaking work to observe and characterise this orbit.

But last year, a team led by astrophysicist Florian Peissker of the University of Cologne in Germany found a much fainter, but also much closer star: S62.

On a 9.9-year orbit, it practically grazes Sgr A* at a periapse distance of 2.4 billion kilometres. That’s closer than the average distance between Uranus and the Sun. As it loops around, it reaches velocities of 20,000 kilometres per second (12,400 mps), or 6.7 percent of the speed of light.

But Peissker and his team weren’t done. After years of work, they’ve now discovered five new S stars even closer than S2 – S4711, S4712, S4713, S4714 and S4715.

“I am happy that I had the opportunity to work with and observe (with the Very Large Telescope) the Galactic center for the last 7 years,” Peissker told ScienceAlert.

“Since then, I have been working on the SINFONI (near-infrared) data. You need data-reduction skills, a good eye, some luck, and time. And of course a good knowledge of low- and high-pass filter.”

Of the new stars, S4711 and S4714 are the huge standouts.

S4711, a blue B-type star around 150 million years old, has an even shorter orbital period than S62; it goes around Sgr A* once every 7.6 years, with a periapse distance of 21.5 billion kilometres.

Although it doesn’t skim as close, its shorter orbital period means it has the shortest mean distance to the black hole throughout its entire orbit that we’ve yet discovered.

Meanwhile, S4714 has a longer orbital period than S4711 – 12 years – but its orbit is extremely eccentric, meaning the ellipse shape is elongated; about as elongated as a stable orbit can get, actually. Orbital eccentricity is described in values from 0 to 1, with 0 being a perfect circle, and 1 being escape orbit. S4714 has an orbital eccentricity of 0.985.

At periapse, it skims closer than S62, coming within about 1.9 billion kilometres (1.2 billion miles) of Sgr A*. During this close approach, the star speeds up to 24,000 kilometres per second, slowing down as it swings back out as far as 250 billion kilometres from the black hole.

These extreme stars, Peissker said, are the first real candidates for squeezars, first theorised back in 2003.

Astrophysicists Tal Alexander and Mark Morris proposed a class of stars on highly eccentric orbits around massive black holes. At each pass, the tidal forces convert a fraction of the star’s close orbital energy into heat. This, firstly, makes the star shine more brightly than it normally would; and, secondly, contributes to the star’s orbital decay. In other words, squeezars are dead stars orbiting.

“At least S4711 and S4714 are squeezar candidates,” Peissker said. “I would say, I am sure about S4711 since the orbital elements are consistent with the predictions of Tal Alexander in 2003. In this sense, S4711 is the very first squeezar ever detected.”

If confirmed, these stars could help us understand the interactions between black holes and the stars they (eventually) devour. But they offer up other opportunities, too.

S2, for example, has recently been used to test general relativity. Both the way the star’s light stretches when it approaches the black hole, and the way its orbit shifts around like a spirograph, confirmed Einstein’s theory in some of the most strenuous tests yet.

“We are actually one magnitude closer to Sgr A* and almost four times faster than S2 during its pericentre passage,” Peissker explained. “With that, we find actually stronger relativistic interactions with the stars S62, S4711, and S4714 as with S2.”

These tests are yet to be performed, and SINFONI has since been decommissioned, so obtaining observations may take a little while yet. But it’s certainly on the astrophysical radar.

So, too, is the search for more of these close stars. It’s possible that even more extreme velocities and orbits could be hiding in the region around Sgr A* – and with more powerful telescopes launching in the coming years, including the Extremely Large Telescope, we should be able to find them.

It’s all just a matter of time.

“I am constantly working on the galactic centre and I am pretty sure that this was not our last publication,” Peissker said, with a winky face emoji. “The high dynamical environment is for scientists like a candy-shop for children.”

The research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

#Space

[werepeach--archive-blog]

tbh i was inspired by a post kappy made to make this and if i still had that posti’d link it bc it’s wonderful but,

my muse’s typing styles? a guide?? ?

aster - doesn’t appear to but does indeed have a very deliberate typing style. usually quite eloquent and has a steady vocabulary but sometimes mssieppells words for humor’s sake, or randomly Capitalizes them. plenty of irish/british slang, mate. cannot physically lie so finds ways to stretch the truth as much as they possibly can without being technically dishonest

dmitry- no capitals. no exclamation points. no emotes. we die like emotionally repressed men. well, sometimes capitals, exclamation points, and emotes. (BUT ONLY WHEN WE’RE REALLY EXCITED OR TAKEN BACK! :D) uses “like”.... like, a stereotypical teenage girl would, like, you know? ends at least 25% of his sentences with “idk” so his apathetic mask keeps up. the sarcasm train.

thomas/emmanuel - typing style very similar to dmitry’s. but much more assured and absolute. never uses emotes (except to make fun), and exclamation points are a rarity. excellent grammar and syntax. 

alex- just.... kind of types like this. you know, dude. you know? calls everyone “dude, man, bro”. very relaxed, sometimes uses emotes but usually? nah. says “nah” instead of “no” btw and “ain’t”s and “y’all”s make appearances sometimes because of the american influence around him, especially mcbuffstrong. WHEN EXCITED SWITCHES TO ALL CAPS AND LOVES TO BOLD AND HIGHLIGHT EVERYTHING!!!!!

sophia - nvr left 2009 txt speak bhind. doesnt bother w any sort of formulaic typing style bc she just cant be bothered. doesnt end a lot of her words w the g they need (gettin/fighting/sayin). n if that aint all she uses “n” instead of “and”, n “b” instead of “be”

marcellus -  typing style isn’t very consistent, thanks to brain weird stuff. has a habit of repeating words and phrases as a habit, also thx to brain weird stuff. sometimes uses txt speak, but not usually. everyone is collectively a “y’all” and the word “because” doesn’t exist in any form, it’s bc/cuz/coz

jo - spspelling ? ? hahaha ... .. that’s for immaturee baby lose..s..rs..... lots of missppelled words because of shakaky hands that she cant’t be bothered to fixed, so jsut constantlyl cry typing. all her emotes looosk like this :+( on rare blue moons, you can catch her exercising her lexicon to it’s full potential, but for the majority of the time... thsi isn’ttthe case

evelyn - fairly posh. rarely capitalizes, but always uses correct punctuation. has a habit of beginning replies with “well” and “ah”. quite a fan of adverbs, and uses “lol.” and “lmao.” completely unironically. very fond of terms of endearment, darling.

teddy - gosh!! :D just always excited about everything!! tends to squish words together, with lotsa love! never a darn swear (except for maybe sometimes, ssshhh), you is “ya” and little is “lil”.

cheese - Proper grammar, capitalization, and punctuation are all musts. He has the most simple and predictable typing style. Refers to younger people that he’s affectionate towards as “kid, son, mijo,” ect. 

young cheese - no fucking grammar, no fucking capitalization, and no punctuation except to make it seem like he’s yelling or to put a break between sentences!!!! but even then run on sentences happen just way too fucking much yknow? would be prone to using spanish on his blog if i knew more of it

kaede - Wow! Another pretty easy typing style to keep up with. Barely touches emotes, but loves putting exclamation points at the end of things for that little bit of emphasis!

jean - a lot of exclamation points!!!! and emotes like this --> ^____^ also fond of repetition and ellipses.... for dramatic effect. not very well developed yet, needs time. U_U 

izzy - good punctuation and grammar, loves to ironically end sentences with “lol” or “lmao”! slings “haha”s in there, but he’s never really laughing. curses for fucking emphasis, and likes to use silly sounding words to lessen the effects of any rootin’ tootin’ points he’s making. haha!

[siliconwebx]

Straight to the Junk Folder: Spam Words to Avoid in Email Marketing

I have a terrible habit of checking my spam folder every day – I don’t trust my spam filter to weed out only the worst of the worst; I feel that there’s something worthwhile under the heaps of transfer money requests and strangers mentioning how they were happy to see me last night. I’m usually right, too – at least once a week I uncover a little bit of gold among the rubble.

Spam filters are pretty great at keeping the rubbish out of your main inbox, but they’re sometimes so good that they sweep away valuable emails, too. Don’t let your emails get confused with junk – most people don’t even bother with their spam folder, so your painstakingly crafted email or newsletter will go on undiscovered forever.

How Email Service Providers Work

Email service providers (ESP) have spam-detection tech in place to weed out unsafe or low-quality emails from the good stuff. ESPs score emails based on different variables, and that spam score determines whether or not an email actually makes it into your inbox. The higher the spam score, the more likely it is that the email is junk. All sorts of things trigger spam detection, with spammy words just being one component. Your job is to create emails that avoid as many spam triggers as possible.

Spam Words to Avoid in Email Marketing

We have 300 spam words that you don’t want anywhere near your email – you can download the full list using the form below. Below are 100 single spam words to avoid in email marketing (these are included in the list of 300, too).

Download the Files

.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_content { background-color: #20292f !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container .et_bloom_form_header { background-color: #dd4242 !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #ffffff !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_fields i { color: #ffffff !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_custom_field_radio i:before { background: #ffffff !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #ffffff !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container h2, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container h2 span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container h2 strong { font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, sans-serif; }.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container p, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container p span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container p strong, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container form input, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_2 .et_bloom_form_container form button span { font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, sans-serif; }

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For these lists, I removed any phrases that include individual spam words. For example, “Click Below” and “Click Here” are both spam words to avoid in email marketing, but so is “click” as a standalone, so I only include “click” in the list.

Acceptance

Access

Accordingly

Action

Amazed / Amazing

Avoid

Bargain

Billing

Bonus

Buy

Call

Cancel

Cash

Certified

Chance

Cheap

Check

Clearance

Click

Collect

Compare

Cost

Credit

Deal

Debt

Discount

Earn

Expire

Extra

Fantastic

Form

Free

Freedom

Friend

Get

Great

Guarantee / Guaranteed

Hello

Here

Hidden

Home

Income

Instant

Insurance

Investment

Junk

Leave

Legal

Life

Lifetime

Limited

Loans

Lose

Luxury

Marketing

Money

Name

Never

New

Now

Obligation

Offer

Only

Open

Opportunity

Performance

Phone

Please

Price

Prize

Problem

Promise

Purchase

Quote

Rates

Refund

Remove / Removal

Request

Reverses

Sale / Sales

Sample

Satisfaction

Save

Score

Serious

Shopper

Solution

Spam

Stop

Subscribe

Success

Supplies

Terms

Traffic

Trial

Unlimited

Unsubscribe

Urgent

Warranty

Weight

Instead of using any of the spam words to avoid in email marketing, find a different way to present your products or services:

What are the solutions that your product offers?

Why should the email recipient trust your brand or make a purchase?

How does your company fulfill your audience’s needs?

The deeper you can dig into these questions, the less surface-level the content will be, and you’ll notice that spam words start to disappear organically from your copy.

Cold Email Subject Lines

We have an article about writing subject lines for your audience, so I’m going to give you a few simple templates for cold emails:

If you’re contacting the person based on a referral, you can say, “[Name] said I should connect with you.”

To congratulate someone on a new job (and form a professional connection with them), you can’t say “congratulations” or “new.” Instead, say, “Your recent promotion to [job].” Don’t say “special promotion,” though – it’s another spammy phrase.

When reconnecting after meeting someone at an event, you can write, “Hi [first name], we met at [event].”

For a totally cold connection where you don’t know much of anything about the other person, write something like, “Hi [name], loved your article about [topic].”

P.S. It’s okay to use spam words.

Spam filters look at a lot more than just the words you use, so if you can’t figure out how to email about your marketing services without using the word “marketing,” don’t go crazy trying to figure it out. Just steer clear of all the other spam words to avoid in email marketing and keep the following best practices in mind.

13 More Tips for Keeping Your Emails Out of the Spam Folder

Your email subject line as well as its content has an impact on whether or not the ESP filters it as spam.

In this section, I’m going to give you 13 tips for creating spam-free emails.

1. Keep it short.

Long subject lines can cause your email to be sent to spam, or at the very least can have a negative impact on open rates. Subject lines should be 50 characters, tops, but even better is if you can get it down to 20. Don’t do the “one word” subject line thing, though. One word: spam.

When it comes to the body of your email, keep the characters under 500, if possible. Can’t get away with a super short email? Break the text up into short paragraphs.

2. Be selective about keywords.

Even if your keywords aren’t on the spam words to avoid in email marketing list, you shouldn’t overload your subject line with them. It’s difficult to craft a well-written subject line in 50 characters while squeezing in three of your keywords, and spam filters will pick up on the lack of quality.

3. Limit punctuation marks.

In the subject line, keep it to two max, and don’t use exclamation marks or question marks. Don’t use a single apostrophe, either (actually, don’t ever use it – there’s no need). Also, don’t use two punctuation marks of any kind in a row, either in the subject line or in the body of the email. That means you should never do this: !!! Avoid ellipses (…) just to be safe, too.

4. Stick to regular sentence casing.

Don’T Do tHIs, obviously, but don’t use ALL CAPS anywhere, either. If you need to highlight a word or make a sentence stand out in the body of the email, bold it, make the font larger, change the background color, place it toward the top of the email, or write a single, compelling sentence.

5. Choose font colors sparingly.

Multiple font colors can be a red flag for the spam trigger. To be safe, use just black. If you need to use multiple colors, limit them to three, and never use red.

6. Balance text and images.

The safest text to image ratio is 60:40. If you need more text or more images, A/B test your emails.

7. Don’t add attachments.

Attachments, especially large ones, are spam filter red flags. Instead, include a link where a file can be downloaded. (Don’t embed forms in your emails, either.)

8. Be smart about links.

If you’re adding links to the email copy, make sure they only go to reputable domains. Don’t use URL shortening services either, like Bitly – they’re considered risky and are often caught by spam filters.

9. Optimize the “from” field.

Even if you’re using your own, professional domain, you still have to optimize the “from” address. 072583@lindsaypietroluongo.com or even admin1@lindsaypietroluongo.com are more likely to be flagged as spam than lindsay@lindsaypietroluongo.com.

10. Re: and Fwd: don’t trick the spam filters.

Re: and Fwd: should be on your list for spam words to avoid in email marketing. Marketers think they’re cleverly tricking recipients into opening emails, but what they’re actually doing is making it easy for the spam filter to do its job. Even if you’re truly replying to an email or forwarding an email, get rid of these abbreviations – ESPs think they’re spam a lot of the time.

11. Don’t check “Of High Importance.”

Here’s a head-scratcher – in Microsoft Outlook, you can mark that your emails are “Of High Importance,” but ESPs auto-mark those emails as spam.

12. Never pull a bait-and-switch.

The subject line has to be consistent with what’s inside the email. It can be a little exaggerated, but it can’t be deceptive or misleading.

13. Spell check.

You should be doing this anyway because you’re a professional sending a professional email, but poor spelling is also a spam filter no-no.

Wrapping Up

One of the best ways to determine what spam filters pick up on is to regularly sift through your own spam folder. Take mental (or physical) notes of what the subject lines are and then avoid repeating those same mistakes in your own emails. Until you get the hang of which tactics and spam words to avoid in email marketing, create a checklist to run through before sending an important email.

You know how to keep spammy words out of email now, but what’s the verdict on emojis? I got you.

The post Straight to the Junk Folder: Spam Words to Avoid in Email Marketing appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐ElegantThemes

[jaygraphicarts]

‘Simple Folk’ - Flat Illustration Workshop

Artist Influence

Before getting into any practical work, I wanted to establish a list of key principles in which I could use for my own work. I did this in my Saul Bass case study and found it to be very effective in taking direct influence from something. To get these, I looked at the following artists which have a flat and sometimes minimalistic art style.

Lillie Carre

Oliver Jeffers

Luke Pearson

Eleni Kalorkoti

Mirroring the Saul Bass case study, I made a list of rules to follow in order to maintain a similar style with the outcomes of this workshop. These rules were:

No gradients, just use flat colour to build tonal value

For texture, only use a subtle grain

Leave plenty of negative space to draw focus to the main subjects.

Throughout all of the work, these were the aspects of visual language that caught my attention as they are consistently used effectively.

Materials and Tools

Pencil 

Paper

Scanner

Mac

Illustrator

Rectangle Tool

Ellipse Tool

Pentool

Direct selection tool

Pathfinder Window 

Shape Builder tool

Process

The first task was to sketch someone and try to simplify their face as much as possible. The person I chose as my subject was Bob Ross. As well as being arguably one of the most influential artists, his hair is an iconic feature which is largely associated with him, so I thought this would make it easier for me to illustrate something which could be recognised as Bob Ross. Whilst sketching I kept in mind that geometry was a large part of the artists’ work I looked at beforehand. So my method of simplifying was to just construct the facial structure from circles and lines, and I feel like this is what mainly gave them their ‘cartoony’ effect much like the artists I looked at. 

This is an important part of developing an idea because it allows for a quick way to generate lots of variations of one idea you may have in your head. So for this task I gave myself a very limited amount of time for each small sketch which made me make decisions I wouldn’t have thought of if I gave myself more time to sketch one idea. As an example, after a few times at sketching the beard, I found it quicker to use a shape which resembles a rounded rectangle for the top, which not only made it easier to repeat but in doing so I simplified my first idea further. 

At this point, I had a simplified version of my subject which follows the rules I set myself before. Now I could take this into Illustrator as a reference and start the process of making a digital illustration with various shape tools. 

I scanned the sketches in, and cropped the one I think worked best at showing the construction of shapes for the head, in this case the top left sketch. After this, beginning the digital process, I started with a rectangle by using the rectangle tool, which I then built up the different features on top. The hair was the next feature as this was the main feature which was going to decide how similar the illustration would look to Bob Ross. For this I just used a singular large circle using the Ellipse tool, but by holding “Shift” whilst dragging the tool I was able to keep a 1:1 ratio and therefore a perfect circle. Following this was repeating the use of these two tools, along with the direct selection tool to select individual points of paths to adjust the position of to create all of the other facial features (beard, mouth, nose and eyes). At this stage I had used an outline for all of the shapes so I could easily see where everything was placed, as with a fill certain shapes may get hidden under others. Once I had the general structure, I selected all of the shapes, and used the Shape Builder tool to combine shapes or get rid of unwanted areas, to create a combination of more complex shapes which would then take the shape of the final face. However I was still using outlines, and at this point I was satisfied with the shape and positioning of the face and features, so I added colour which then made it easier to see it was a person and separate the large areas of skin from the large areas of hair. 

At this point I was happy with how the face had developed, but I thought there was an element missing between what I had created and the examples I looked at in the beginning of the workshop. Because of this, I looked back at my rules and the examples of work to find shadow and highlights were something I had not included, which at this point I thought would transform it into something closer to the artists’ work. 

The next step was a personal extension to the workshop, as the workshop didn’t ask for anything more than singular flat colours. For the shadows and highlights, instead of using shapes to construct them, I used the pentool in an attempt to get more organic lines and create a juxtaposition between the geometry of the face and liquidity of the tone above it. With the highlights, instead of creating fill objects with the pentool, I created a single path which I added a stroke to in order to make it as accurate as possible. This was to not redirect the face from it’s original geometric aesthetic. 

Reaction

Overall, this workshop was a success for me. I learnt how to simplify someone into a character which could be used for a huge range of things. Because it is in vector format, it is perfect for print or large scale digital use. As well as this, from the start of the project I have wanted to explore illustration and how that could be used in my final outcomes. With this style of simple flat illustration I feel like I can apply these skills to work in the future without ignoring my initial artist research. The styles of my original artists show through this workshop so I am confident this has helped me develop skills I can use effectively to create something I will be happy with. 

Looking forward, I am planning on further exploring illustration in similar but varying styles. Maybe using more abstraction in terms of the visual language (colour, line etc.) to create something with more inhuman qualities. 

Linking to the Brief

Illustration has always been something I’ve wanted to explore, so it was good for me to do so whilst looking at a key style. The artists I’ve previously looked at I’ve found rarely use patterns, so finding a link between this workshop and the pattern workshop was quite difficult. As a primary aspect of their work, patterns would deter the audience from the work itself, which further solidifies my point of using excessive pattern will make something less effective in communication. Lillie Carre is the most noticeable use of pattern out of the examples I chose. Her pattern usage however is completely hand-made, making it more authentic than the digitally produced patterns. The hand-rendered quality is portrayed well and this is complemented by the roughness of the patterns, which still tessellate but not perfectly systematically. This is a perfect example of how they can be used subtly but powerfully.

Lillie Carre also makes work tailoring to a younger audience, which makes her work all the more relevant to the brief as I am also aiming to do so. Book illustration is a good example of how culturally, this type of work can influence a group of people. The illustrations featured in books is exactly what turns them from a book into a story; an experience for a young person. 

[meuebookansiepsico-blog]

7 Precious Advice For Your OAB Proof

It happens to be Sunday! As a final point enough time has arrive! The longer awaited evidence of the OAB which will be applied all the way through the nationwide territory. And it is exactly given that one particular must remember of several flaws that may suggest the lack of points or, worse, the candidate's disapproval right off the bat. And we don't want this to occur!

It's time for you to flip for the radars to generally be clever with regards to the bugs that could compromise capabilities on Sunday. It is mindless to review much with the minute of real truth to ruin every thing with foolish but hugely compromising faults. Shelling out focus into the smallest facts is fundamental at the time of your test just for the extensive probable of your respective banking account! For additional knowledge have a look at como passar na oab   It is one particular thing to get reproved for not figuring out, one more to get reproved for nonsense. Let's check, 1 by an individual, the problems that will not be produced at the time for the examination:   1. Don't scratch evidence   You certainly will acquire two notebooks: one, containing the area in which you will set the solutions, and a second, the draft, which will also have the doubts elaborated through the FGV. Just scratch the sketch. Just set the responses while in the take a look at notebook. It may seem to be a banal suggestion, but it is not!   2. Don't write your answers out of room   Countless candidates, in composing their responses, leave the room for creating, producing past the road demarcated. Tend not to flee from the spaces for your reply to. Continue to keep the creating in just the parameters imposed with the proof!   3. Really do not signal your test   In all Examination someone indications the evidence, sites a rubric or does a thing regarded as as identification because of the lender. It truly is a reproach, to not be missed! Now I emphasize a truly vital issue! First of all of all, go through the check instruction sheet. In it is actually contained just about everything you need to know to generate the petition correctly.

See alot more at como passar na oab   4. What if I miss the spelling?   It normally takes place with any applicant. With essentially 90% belonging to the candidates, otherwise far more. Sooner or later you're visiting dedicate some rasurinha, a bit of pencil, anything out of the square. How to proceed? It is actually simple, uncomplicated and without mysteries. Slightly little bit regarding the inappropriate term and nothing at all a great deal more. Not a thing a lot more! Whenever they do it in different ways, it could be a difficulty!   5. Look at the volume of sheets to jot down the practical-professional piece   Depend the quantity of sheets it's a must to publish and become persuaded that you'll not burst the site limit of your reaction reserve. Overkill? Lots of candidates spend all the sheets with the piece's get the job done and need make use of the again from the final sheet to accomplish the petition. You will unquestionably reduce a whole lot of factors, too as run the risk of currently being disapproved for supposed identification. Its a simple matter of notice. Delimiting well the area for producing is undoubtedly an absolutely necessary evaluate.   6. Give your assessments an honest presentation   What's an honest presentation for the examination? Skip strains, indent textual content and use areas. Really do not use legal "enrolles" in order to make your petitions. Will not fuss at language expertise: just use specialized language in the suitable way. Read position by stage the evidence. Your requests may have subject areas that conform for the difficulty introduced. Fully understand the situation, delimit the subject areas and address them in an goal, concise and individualized way. When dealing by having a subject, construction it inside of a basic way: A factual question, as offered and summarized / synthetic; Indication with the pertinent lawful solution, when using the needed and indispensable declination from the relevant authorized provisions on the speculation or precedents of applicable jurisprudence; A remedy which is acceptable in accordance while using the relevant authorized various, or necessitating the reform of a final choice, the conviction or perhaps the disconstitution of the contrary argument. Every single matter need to be produced within the way presented higher than, in an goal, straightforward way. Which is exactly just what the financial institution needs. Not a thing but! It is far from uncommon for various candidates, as a result of they are doing not realize the trouble, to flee from what on earth is simply being proposed and after that to vacation resort to it with no developing any basis. Exactly what the OAB and FGV want to know is that if you are able to be familiar with an issue problem and present an best suited alternative when using the applicable legal foundation. Thus, create with clarity of language and objectivity.   7. Don't invent details

We had a modification within an vital issue within the edict of Evaluation XIX for that edict of Examination XX. It was not permitted to mark "XXX" to point abstract info on the race. Even so, this rule has altered on this announcement. There 3.five.9. states: With the preparing of your texts of the professional piece plus the solutions on the discursive thoughts, the examiner will need to incorporate the essential knowledge, without any, but, delivering any identification or specifics other than these provided and authorized from the statements contained inside the examination report. Thus, the examiner should write the info name followed by ellipsis or "XXX" (case in point: "Municipality ...", "Date ...", "Lawyer ...", "OAB ...", "MunicipalityXXX", "DataXXX" AdvogadoXXX "," OABXXX ", and many others.). The omission of knowledge that happen to be lawfully mandated or necessary for that proper option in the proposed dilemma will result in discount rates while in the score attributed towards the examinee at this stage If it is necessary to put knowledge that is not in evidence, this sort of being a intended date or area, only to fulfill the official necessities in the section, the prospect or puts ellipsis or "XXX" to demonstrate that it acknowledges the necessities of that subject of his piece. And you simply will need to do so in strict accordance aided by the rule of item 3.5.9. Remembering that the ellipsis or "XXX" is to fill in aspects, and may not be put to use unrestrictedly. Also, an individual can not invent details not contained on the piece, under penalty for the candidate to lose note. The basic rule is: will not make up everything. In localities, dates or personalized data, these as id or CPF (in case the dilemma isn't going to existing this type of information and facts), the rule is to try to use ellipses or "XXX". Putting any abstract range provides you with hassle.

Now It can be Time and energy to Organize Your Mind for your Test Time

We know the way listed here wasn't painless: you devoted you, viewed the videotapes, read and reread supporting materials together with the interesting letter for the law, abdicated your time and effort of rest and leisure. Put simply, you worked hard. And you are to always be congratulated for it! Perseverance is 50 percent way once the topic is approval. Believe me: you will be effectively well prepared! Don't forget your exertion these last couple of months. Extra so, from his devotion while in college or university, considering that the time belonging to the entrance examination. As hints within the working day, we propose the subsequent: Rest, unwind the brain. At most, critique some factors you have already examined for the check - no try to study unknown subjects the day just before! It will only cause you to anxious. Everything you demand, immediately, is to build up self confidence and pay attention to your psychological well being, to always be at your 100% on the time of tests. Rest confident: you have got ready yourself with who seriously understands the topic. Now just present "who you are" on the examiners. In the event you weren't so prepared, I would wish you very good luck. But, in reality, I will would like you "good evidence," simply because I am certainly you certainly will not really need to rely a lot of on luck. Very good take a look at! Count on us consistently! For additional knowledge take a look at http://mulherafrodite.com/7-tips-for-the-proof-of-the-oab/

[3dscatterplot-blog]

3D Scatter Plot

How to Sell and Design Custom Sketches

Online money making choices typically require you to have some form of web site, and have some sort of skill in advertising and on-line enterprise to begin with. However, what if I instructed you that there was a technique to generate profits on-line utilizing your existing arts and crafts skills? For those who're involved, read on, as a result of we're going to check out Etsy, and how you can use your current arts and crafts abilities to realize money on-line. What Is Etsy? Etsy, and different websites like it, is a web-based portal that permits members of the positioning to list their original arts and crafts creations on the positioning, add a worth and shipping costs, and promote them to individuals around the globe. It is a little bit like eBay, besides that everything on it's handmade by the people who use the positioning. What Can You Promote On Etsy? Almost anything that's handmade. Individuals promote every little thing from full sized oil paintings handy beaded jewellery, hand knitted baby clothes and handmade candles. From leatherwork to portray, sculpting to sketching, if it's arts and crafts, you may promote it on the positioning. How Do You Make Cash? In contrast to some websites, Etsy does not take a fee off your sale. As a substitute, they permit customers to put up their arts and crafts on the site, in their own 'store' for a small fee per posting. You advertise your products, put a worth on them and embody transport prices, and you get publicity to the 1000's of people that use the site. It is like an internet craft market, with much more visitors! Is It a Good 3D Scatter Plot Concept? You probably have a pastime that you already do, and that you'd wish to become profitable on-line with, then Etsy is a great thought! It can provide you a lot more publicity to much more individuals, and will even lead to you being able to pursue your pastime full time, quite than solely on weekends and at night time! As you'll be able to see, in terms of getting cash online, and on-line business, it's not solely the technically gifted and the enterprise minded that can profit. Everybody, even people who prefer to work with their hands, can earn cash on-line, and either start or expand on an present money making concept. Sketches are nothing however free hand drawings that consists of many overlapping traces. Generally sketches are useful to record something for later use. Sketches will assist artist to increase his imagination power and give him a chance to develop one thing worthwhile within the subject of artwork. Attributable to advanced software, nowadays on-line sketches are also potential. This is very terrific that folks can specific their thoughts by creating sketches utilizing these software tools. Top-of-the-line digital packages for this type of art is Adobe Photoshop. In early days individuals have been utilizing MS paint software program, however it has very less options compared to Adobe Photoshop. You have to have laptop if you wish to create digital sketches. It's a very distinctive technique to create all the sketches amazingly using latest software and hardware on the pc. It also gives a better picture quality then you've ever anticipated. It makes very simple for the artists who needs to create pictures for commercial function like product posters, guide covers, video games and many more. Also the most effective characteristic of digital painting is that you may send it to anybody by way of electronic mail. Let me tell you one thing essential in regards to the adobe photoshop software. This software is the most advanced software program ever researched for portray, pictures and doodles. It offers high quality photographs and provides effective print quality. It is very straightforward to create sketches utilizing adobe photoshop. In case you are going through issue to create sketches utilizing mouse, then you will get digital pads or cordless pen to make it smoother. The cordless pen will act like a mouse and it transfers image on the computer drawn by the artist. From this software program even photographers can develop some special results in their images and may give them an attractive look. This is the superb revolution launched on the planet of painting and sketches. When you have just began attempting at hand on sketching, it's best to learn the valuable suggestions given right here. These will aid you in sketch making. It is best to first perceive that sketching cannot be learnt in a day. It's an artwork. To change into proficient in this field, it is advisable to work onerous and apply quite a bit. The more you follow, the simpler it is going to be to attract. Sketching is a free hand drawing made with pencil on paper. For making good sketches, you must have correct supplies like sketch pencils and paper. The standard of provides can affect the top results. Sketchers maintain pencils in different kinds like tripod grip, overhand grip and underhand grip. Nonetheless, there isn't a best model. You need to choose the type that you are most snug with. You should begin practising with simple figures like straight traces, curves, circles, ellipses, squares and triangles. Although, most individuals suppose that it is simple to draw such figures and they don't have to work exhausting, but it's not so. Many people cannot even draw easy figures with free hand. Mastering simple figures will enable you to to regulate your hand movement, which is step one to drawing a superb sketch. When you turn out to be proficient in drawing geometric figures, it's best to start drawing figures of landscapes, properties, and pets. Gradually transfer to the type of sketches that you just need to draw. For example, if you want to get into style designing, it is best to begin making free hand drawings of mannequins draped in numerous outfits. Equally, if you wish to grow to be a panorama artist, it's best to spend quality time in natural settings capturing its magnificence in your sketchbook. If you wish to become a cartoonist, it is best to draw caricatures of people and scenes. Proportion is a critical part of drawing good sketches. For instance, in case you are making a portrait, it's good to have a correct thought of distance between eyes, measurement of eyes and size of nostril. Even a mere change within the angle of face modifications these proportions. Due to this fact, a sketcher should be able to properly estimate the measurements. While making a sketch, it is best to first focus only on the outline. At all times work on detailing afterwards. Shading helps to offer a three-dimensional look to a drawing. It also helps a person to visualize whether the thing is shut or far away, whether or not it is stationary or moving, what is the texture of the thing, what time of day it is and so forth. Therefore, it is best to pay particular consideration to shading. Learn different styles of texturing. Put money into good quality comfortable pencils of different grades for shading your sketches. Throughout the initial learning course of, do not be too crucial of what you might have sketched. Study out of your mistakes and enhance with each drawing. Final however not the least, get training from an expert. You possibly can join a drawing class or study some expertise and tricks from a non-public tutor. You can too take the help of online drawing tutorials for studying easy methods to sketch. It's no secret that we're going by means of some significantly trying financial instances. Recession, melancholy, double dip recession, regardless of the consultants and analysts are calling it for the time being, instances are difficult and the unemployment price is one of the worst within the historical past of our nation. Whereas one of the things which I do is train folks how you can make cash with developing a website by affiliate internet marketing and advertising, admittedly it takes some time to develop a worthwhile web site which you'll be able to stay off of. Due to this fact at present we will talk about what to do once you're determined and canopy the way to make money on-line quickly. Extra importantly it will only discuss the right way to generate income quick online without cost particularly. Micro Job Sites Offering your companies is kind of possibly the quickest method to generate profits on-line quickly. Micro job websites like Fiverr.com are how a lot of people make a guaranteed fast buck by promoting their companies to interested purchasers. 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A number of years ago after I was simply starting in affiliate marketing and didn't know a lot to something about what labored and what did not work and was consequently nonetheless struggling to assist myself, I took to Craigslist and located a couple of jobs which stored me going in the quick term while I bought my footing. One job had me writing descriptions for a whole lot of economic products on an financial website stuffed with affiliate presents (which I did not even notice until later). I used to be paid $one thousand for only a few days of labor. Check out the "And so forth." part, half time section, or search "telecommuting" in your city or any variety of massive cities for gigs which you are able to do from your own dwelling. Just make certain to exercise your due diligence to just remember to're working with a good one that won't stiff you on fee. You must get a contract worked out to determine the parameters of your exchange with your contractual employer when it's a relatively massive sum of money like $1000. There are plenty of free contract sites on the market which you'll grab free documentation from and might easily edit on your functions. eBay eBay is an effective place to earn money online shortly by itemizing and promoting off your potential valuables to involved events for a fast payday. You can also check out what is promoting on eBay then pop in to your local thrift stores and pawn shops to search out these gadgets then resell them on eBay at a better charge for a pleasant profit. On-line Advertising and marketing Okay so I stated in opening that online/internet online affiliate marketing takes time to essentially take off. That doesn't imply that you would be able to't earn money on-line quickly by it, as properly. You will get a site registered for $7.49 with my GoDaddy Dot Com Low cost and hosting for $2.ninety nine a month via my GoDaddy Dot Com Discount, then you may get a website arrange in 10 minutes. Make that website into mini web site to advertise the perfect affiliate product in your area of interest by looking out OfferVault, ClickBank, Fee Junction, PayDotCom, LinkShare, ShareASale, and many others.. Then ship some traffic to that site and make some money in the brief time period whereas growing that mini site right into a content site within the background. You may also get a free weblog on WordPress.com but the issue with that is that it is not yours and also you're really benefiting and developing someone else's enterprise rather than your personal which isn't a good idea. Create Your Own Product Creating your personal product isn't as tough as you'd think. I'll have a complete useful resource devoted to educating methods to create your own online product and promoting it to make some huge cash. Affiliate marketing is one thing, but when you develop your individual product and monitor down your personal associates, that's when the actual money begins to return in and that is how the net entrepreneurs making 7 figures a yr make most of their money. At the very least you can make an info product inside a distinct segment which you may have experience and knowledge in. Individuals like digital merchandise as a result of it is an immediate obtain and informational products have traditionally all the time offered very effectively online, therefore the popularity of Clickbank. Get Artistic Go to your native mom and pop stores and ask them if they've a website for their enterprise and if not then offer to construct them a web site for a few hundred dollars. If the reply is no then start the haggling recreation. As I present in my movies on easy methods to set up a web site free of charge step-by-step once more and methods to use WordPress, you can set up a totally practical and attractive website in 10 minutes with no need any expertise. The point is to be inventive. There are lots of providers which you'll be able to supply which appear out of your reach however are easy to execute and there are lots of people who find themselves either lazy or daunted at something like the idea of establishing a web site. A creative thoughts plus advertising and marketing equals success in this case. When You're Determined Bear in mind When you're actually up towards the wall, be sure to contact agency like the Salvation Army, meals banks, or metropolis human service departments to ensure that you keep the lights on and meals on the table.