#and i had like 250 pages of reading for school

[thefluxqueen]

the devil won btw <- just binge read the foxhole court trilogy in 4 days (4th reread)

[gigantix]

So, two years ago...

I kept coming back to a thing I called The Goliath Serum. I was playing around with this a lot, and it started off as mini stories like this one, composited with some writing, and posted sometimes on a macro website of the time. I just would see a picture, and I'd know something about the story, and I'd try to put it there. These often were like mini magazine articles so I could make them one page.

Here's one of the first. I'll talk about this in the next post, as I know nobody reads after the fold. :)

This one was titled "Rick And Steve".

LEFT: Rick.  5’10.  250#.  

RIGHT: Steve.  10’2, #1400.

I interviewed Rick & Steve at what’s become known in Southern California as “Big Beach”.  This sandy coastal place has become very popular among those people who are compatible with, and opted to take, Goliath serum.  They come here with intimates, friends, family.

Rick and Steve, both 35, have been friends since high school, back in Nebraska.  Steve tested for and subsequently took his serum at the age of 30.  Rick isn’t compatible.

Rick: “Oh, we dated on and off after we moved out here back when we were 20.  Since Steve became a Goliath we’ve had our fun, but we both know he’s going to settle down with another giant some day.”

Steve: “Yeah, I’ve always had the hots for this guy, but couldn’t talk him into getting serious. Of course, now,” Steve briefly flexes his arm high over Rick’s head – Rick rolls his eyes, “the little guy is interested again.”

In talking with the men I find out that as with many men where one is Goliath compatible and the other isn’t, their relationship has changed since one of them took the serum.

Rick: “Oh, he’s still a goofball.”  Steve shrugs, smiles and and looks a little awkward.  “He used to be a goofball a little shorter than me.  Now, he’s this,” gestures up and down to Steve, “massive steer!”

Steve: “Yeah, but I’m YOUR goofball!” Steve takes both his hands & grabs Rick around the waist, lifts him up and kisses him on the mouth (which Rick heartily returns). 

Then, unexpectedly, Steve tosses Rick about sixty feet into the water.

Steve: “I am so going to pay for that tonight.”

He grins down at me.  “But it was worth it!”

[kairithemang0]

Yknow what, I might as well see what happens

Gonna do the notes game, just gonna see what happens I dunno (I have a lot of stuff I need to do and no motivation so I’ll use the internet to force me to)

25 notes - I’ll finish reading Good Omens

50 notes - I’ll finish pulp musicals (I started it and got distracted, came back an hour later so damn confused I HAD MY EARBUDS IN AND EVERYTHING)

100 notes - I’ll draw more (both traditionally and digitally, I want to improve)

150 notes - I’ll continue writing a coffee shop au I started last October and never finished (it was like 75 pages and I just stopped :()

200 notes - I’ll listen to Starry

250 notes - I’ll try to get at least a 70% in Spanish this quarter

300 notes - I’ll clean my room

350 notes - I’ll work on eating healthier

500 notes - I’ll spend more time with my friends outside of school

750 notes - I’ll finish listening to all the musicals on my musical watch list (there are so many of them…)

1000 notes - I’ll get back to doing taekwondo

1500 notes - I’ll take a walk every day

2000 notes - I’ll spend more time with my family

2500 notes - I’ll rewrite my really bad Xehaqus fic from 2 years ago and try my hardest not to just delete all of it (I’d be rewriting 183 pages, I dunno I wanna see how I’d write it now without changing the entire plot)

3000 notes - I’ll actually start to study for school and not just wing it

4000 notes - I’ll stop being such an asshole to my parents Jesus Christ how do they deal with me

5000 notes - I’ll come out to my mom as trans

Try and reach the goal before uhhhhh I dunno April 16th

I may add more later, depends on how fast yall go through the goals, I have a lot of things I need to do (mainly because I need to start caring about my health and how I treat other people). I dunno, let’s see how this goes

Edit kinda did the “come out to my mom” thing soooooo idk I’ll figure something out for 5000 (maybe)

[ryo-kaikura]

Yan! Male Teachers + Male Yandere x male reader

*this is based on a dream I had this morning*

(Reader is on his last year so he's 18 (he's not held back I just try to make it okay with an adult partner) (my dream is PG-13(the yandere is made up), I just like spice)

My life is normal I guess, the difference with normal people at my age is my current school. This is takes "school feels like a prison" seriously with how we sleep at school eat at school and etc.

For our class, it's literally right next to the teacher's room. And each grade has a different section. Because it's a prestigious school the student is a lot more than the teacher by 50% of the teachers population.

Anyway, you might be asking, do you always have class? The answer is no, cause our right door is a building for gym and gymnasium. The door in front of us is where usually all the supplies comes in.

Today there is a monthly test. it's usually for additional points and support for our future. Example: last year it was making a sentence that's in correlation with a word and we can't use that word. There lots more but every time we were paired.

Look at that I'm also paired up again weirdly enough it's the "prince of the school" the one that's said to be the best for our grade, though his grade is in the top two, guess who's grade is higher? That right me. Since we're better than everyone, we get hallway to ourselves

It's so fun being better at him, when he gets a 100% me too, when he gets a 99% Boohoo I got a 100%. His body is also quite fit, but it's obvious with my height and body that I'm still better than him, with his being shorter than me. It's quite fun toying with him, his expression of flustered and anger add a smidge of pink on his face, neck and tip of his ears.

We're getting carried away. This year's test is a box of puzzles? With a textured flooring? Whatever. We saw the first test, summarizing a foreign language book, and there's our names on it. It seems like something from our teacher Mr. David. Then he shows up, "hello Mr. David" "Hello, (m/n)~" He was always flirty with me "hi Mr. David" "Hello to you too, mark".then he told us about it in detail "As you can see it's summarizing a book and because I prefer (m/n) than you, mark, (m/n) gets a 50 page and you get a 250 page it's sounds quite fair don't you think (m/n)" "Sure 😀"

Anyway, we're done with that, the next are some simple mathematics and that's from our other teachers. Wow it looks like we have to build a Miniature real life-like humanoid chess pieces. Now it seems like we're done but there's no announcement, then I realized the flooring is a bit whacky so I try to pick one up. It works. I open one and inside it is extra pieces for the sculpture and that's from Mr. Sears, the science teacher that likes to use science to hide a lot of things

It's similar with how some sounds lie it has a lot but there is none and then one of then sounds like it doesn't have any but when we opened it there was a lot of extra sculpture pieces. Then I saw one of the boxes has a piece of paper. I was about to read it out loud then I feel a finger right next to my stomach, and I couldn't help but feel ticklish and jerk away from the finger. Turns out it the said teacher, Mr. Sears, and he kept tickling me every time I try to say it out loud. In the end he made me stand up and go to a corner and read it in my head. Most of it was clues until the last number on the price of paper that said 'I will be going to *city name* in a few days' "I don't care" "What!" " We're not that close teach~, Well not as close as me and Mr. David~."

Then he stormes off, don't know what happened but in the end me and Mark Finished first.

*A few days later*

It seems like Mr. Sears didn't go and one of our teacher was suddenly sent to the hospital

*A few month later*

I finally graduated, best of the year as well because of that I get a lot of money lie a billion I think. But right when I was going head home, I felt someone covering my head, then two people try to grab me and they're quite strong, but not strong enough. Suddenly I feel something injected to my neck. And I grew weak and dizzy not long after I passed out. While why kidnappers was smiling over me.

It's been a while since I woke up but I still don't know where I am. There a window that just over my head so I'm able to get hold of it and pulled my self up and saw... A beach?

Then after looking around and the sun almost overhead meaning it's currently 11.30 ish o'clock. Three people come in and guess who? It the weirdos. Mr. David feels shy, Mr. Sears a bit nervous and Mark quite happy.

And the brought their own dish a I must say the best is Mr. David, with the other two being barely palatable. In the end we slept right next to each other.

*A year later* (I'm lazy)

My self-made company worked well, but my "wives" seems quite jealous of everything I do even though we haven't gotten married yet and Mark and Sears are working as my two secretary and David being at home. I must say David's body got more chubby and soft, I like it. Mark kept trying to be better at me at everything and kept losing, example: who can cum the last, I won, who's stronger, I won, and much more. And Sears gotten smarter at where he's hiding my stuff, like my underwear, sweaty gym clothes, a pen I chewed.

I'm happy there entertaining because I just remembered I'm a side character in a book and they're male leads, all three of them, and who's the female lead you ask? The new rising employee in my own company, Janice.

[swampmanticore]

In two days I read the Wizard of Earthsea (the first book)

2004 edition, children's series. Large font, very strange black and white illustrations, an incomprehensible map. But the translation is excellent, the cover is beautiful, and the paper is of high quality.

-----🔮🐉-----

За два дня прочитала Волшебника Земноморья (первую книгу)

Издание 2004 года, детская серия. Крупный шрифт, очень странные черно-белые иллюстрации, непонятная карта. Но отличный перевод, красивая обложка, качественная бумага.

A lot of people, both in reviews and personally, have told that Wizard of Earthsea is a pretty specific book, and not everyone will get in. They say it was written 60 years ago, without looking at other fantasy, so it's just DIFFERENT.

I was expecting either a serious fantasy, like Tolkien's, or a fairy tale. But it turned out to be neither one nor the other, something in between and at the same time unlike anything else.

Moreover, as I read, I saw the influence of Le Guin on other authors. Rowling took the magic school. Paolini took the true names. But that doesn't affect you, on the contrary, you start looking at other aspects of the book.

Pluses: 1) A very developed world. You feel how much the author loves it, you feel how much there is, and you feel exactly the same as the main character - insignificant and small in the face of a huge Archipelago. 2) An unusual setting. Island lands, the main character is dark-skinned, an unusual magic system - in the 60s we experimented as much as we could, and Le Guin pleasantly surprised me. 3) Specifically, I have a good translation (by A. Stavisky). The only thing that got me wrong was that the word "persona" was mentioned once or twice to refer to a Shadow.

Minuses: 1) Quick narration. I'm sure if this story had been published in our time, then this tiny 250-page book in large print would have been stretched into at least five books. 2) In my case? I REALLY NEED A MAP. Given the sophistication of the world and Le Guin's graphomania, I really need a detailed map, with all the names, with all the islands. It's very difficult to navigate, especially considering that Ged has sailed half the world. There is a map in my edition, but you can wipe your shit with it - there are no names and nothing is visible.

I liked the book. All that remains for me is to find a normal edition with the rest of the books, which will not be a five-kilogram brick, not with an AI generated cover and with a good translation (or even the original).

-----🔮🐉-----

Очень многие, и в обзорах, и лично мне, говорили, что Волшебник Земноморья довольно специфичная книга, и не каждому зайдет. Мол, написано 60 лет назад, без оглядки на другие фэнтези, поэтому она просто ДРУГАЯ.

Я ожидала либо серьезное фэнтези, как у Толкина, либо сказку. А вышло ни то, ни другое, что-то среднее и одновременно ни на что не похожее.

Причем по мере чтения я видела влияние Ле Гуин на других авторов. Роулинг стащила волшебную школу. Паолини стащил истинные имена. Но это не мешает, даже наоборот, ты начинаешь смотреть на другие аспекты книги.

Плюсы: 1) Очень проработанный мир. Ты чувствуешь, как автор его любит, ты чувствуешь, как много там всего, и чувствуешь себя абсолютно также, как и гг - незначительным и маленьким перед лицом огромного Архипелага. 2) Н��обычный сеттинг. Островные земли, главный герой темнокожий, непривычная система магии - в 60х экспериментировали как могли, и Ле Гуин меня приятно удивила. 3) Конкретно у меня - хороший перевод (А. Ставиской). Единственное, где меня скривило - один или два раза упомянули слово "персона" для обозначения Тени.

Минусы: 1) Быстрое повествование. Уверена, если бы эта история выходила в наше время, то вот эту тонюсенькую книжечку на 250 страниц крупным шрифтом растянули бы на пять книг, не меньше. 2) В моем случае? ОЧЕНЬ НУЖНА КАРТА. С учетом проработанности мира и графомании Ле Гуин, очень нужна подробная карта, со всеми названиями, со всеми островами. Очень тяжело ориентироваться, особенно с учетом, что Гед пол мира обплавал. В моем издании карта есть, но ей можно подтереться - названий нет и ничего не видно.

Мне книга понравилась. Осталось найти нормальное издание с остальными книгами, которое будет не пятикилограммовым кирпичом, не с нейросетевой обложкой и с хорошим переводом (или даже оригиналом).

[babushka-blogging]

Listen, I know it's a classic for a reason, but I'm reading Jane Eyre for the frst time, I'm about 250 pages in, and it is SO FUCKING GOOD????

**Spoilers ahead**

Like I've heard “If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”

and obviously that's a banger, but in the context of the book?????? With the context of Jane's mere existence being rejected by her family??? With the context of her going to a school that would be considered hell by most children, being her one solace because it's the only place she's ever experienced love????

You don't understand how much this speaks to me. You don't understand how much I needed this book JUST NOW.

Also this is the first time I've highlighted a book before, and have a feeling it's going to be the start of a new era for me.

Here are a some quotes I've enjoyed so far (maybe I'll add more later)

"Wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin-dust."

"Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth."

Charlotte Brontë, I know it's been said uncountable times but you were a GENIUS.

[cannibal-wings]

So, I want to try something this year, I want to do little reviews of the various novels and novellas I read. This will be the first one. I'll put the review under a cut. Title: Summer Sons Author: Lee Mandelo Genre: Horror, Thriller, Southern Gothic Publisher: Tor Publishing Rating: 2/5

A quick summary to start: The book follows the Andrew, a young man chasing the truth about what happened to his close friend, Eddie, after he was found dead of an apparent suicide. Eddie and Andrew had always been close, they had done everything together. Except... go to grad school at the same time. Eddie had gone down to Nashville to start his master's program six months before Andrew, and he insisted on going alone. Eddie was deep into the study of the occult and was doing his thesis on the local family ghost stories. Andrew refuses to believe it was suicide and goes to Nashville to uncover what really happened to his friend. Oh, and Eddie's ghost is there to haunt him, every step of the way.

Review: Summer Sons is a book I started and stopped numerous times since I bought it on release. The major hangup I had was with the main character, Andrew. He's an asshole, no other way to put it. And he was thoroughly unappealing to me, which I think was on purpose. Grief does a lot to a person, and I get that. But sometimes the way he treated other characters who were trying to be nothing but nice to him baffled me. I was far more invested in Riley (the roommate) and Sam (Riley's cousin) as characters. The rest of the side cast felt underdeveloped, which made the street racing sequences and other "Pack" hangouts feel empty. It's clear that Andrew is self destructing, but it really just didn't work for me. There's only so much I could take of him snapping at people who were being nice to him before I got tired of it. The premise of this book is a "who done it", who killed Eddie? That kept me going through the first half, but I feel like all the wind left the sails when it became pretty clear who did it, but Andrew stayed oblivious. His obsession with ignoring the supernatural, despite the fact that Eddie was so thoroughly wrapped up in it was another hard pass for me. There is a quite literal ghost that physically affects him in chapter one, but he continues to ignore that as possible route to explore and focuses on people who, to me as the reader, clearly had nothing to do with it. He blows off the university too, making the parts where he does bother to show up feel pointless, as he already made up his mind that the academic part of Eddie's life could never have factored into his death. Despite you know, him studying the occult in a world where ghosts are real. He ignores one whole half of why Eddie was there in the first place to focus on the partygoers and racers. That frustrated me to no end. Characters are allowed to make stupid choices, obviously, there wouldn't be drama without it, but I feel like a lot of choices Andrew made were just... illogical to the point of stubbornness. It would have been better if he investigated all facets of Eddie's life equally, that way the suspects could have been spread out across the book. The book was promoted as a horror novel, but I didn't find it scary in the slightest, it was far more a mystery/thriller and coming of age story if anything. With the majority of the supernatural and horror elements being saved for the last fifty or so pages of the book. If you're looking for something to really scare you, this would be a hard pass from me. I will say that the back chunk of the book, everything past around the 250 page mark, was far more enjoyable than the first chunks. Even though I called who did it, the confirmation and resolution of the story did keep me going. The book is well written, the prose was easy to understand and it read well. There was only one supernatural section that I had to read twice to really visualize what was happening, and unfortunately it was during the climax, but overall, I had no complaints with the style the book was written in. I'll also say that I appreciate a character who is into adulthood and still learning things about himself. That part of Andrew's character I liked. This book does feature quite a few queer characters, and was heavily marketed as a queer horror story. So you can imagine my slight surprise when Andrew confesses that he and Eddie were never together. (It is not the fault of the author that the book was marketed as "young man goes to Nashville to uncover the truth about the murder of his boyfriend" when they were not dating.) However Andrew does sort through his sexuality through the course of the book and I appreciate that it was an older character (early 20's but hey I'll take it) vs like another teenage focused relationship story. It was an adult book, for adults, about adults. Which I liked.

Overall, I felt the base of the story was intriguing, but Andrew's insistence on being an asshole to everyone put me off. (He even mentions that he has to befriend these people to solve the murder, and I'm sitting here like, do you know what making a friend is?) I would have liked to have seen more of the side cast to make their group scenes feel less hollow. The racing bits didn't work for me, but they weren't awful. I feel the author kept the clues of who killed Eddie pretty sparse for the first half, then just... made it really, really, obvious all at once, which killed the suspense. The pacing for actually solving the mystery was not great, a very slow start then a sprint at the end. For a horror novel I would have appreciated more horror. I finished it for Riley and Sam, the MVP's of this story.

[koishua]

koishua's miscellaneous wip list!

say boo and pressure me into finishing these numbers <3

listed: 24/80 proper wips. had to sift through 250 drafts and veto most of them bc honestly we all know they weren't going to see the light of day!! have a suzu icon representing me rn <3 gonna be giving the other wips to the mooties who sent in for the ask game i created ages ago

№1 ) love till the sun sets | heeseung est. 15k

№2 ) from under the magnolia tree | beomgyu est. 10k — on february fourteenth, exactly five years ago, he’d gifted you a small magnolia tree he’d named after you. he’d said that he would love you for as long as the sapling you’d planted together would live. he’d even said that he would watch as it grew bigger and older with both of you taking care of it. he'd said that it would be the most beautiful thing in town. you'd believed him.

№3 ) we were beautiful | sunghoon est. 5k — you were fifteen when you’d first fallen in love with your childhood friend, seventeen when you’d called him your boyfriend, and eighteen when you lost him to life. broken apart by circumstances and necessity, everything you’d built up with him had fallen apart overnight. by the time the dawn of your nineteenth birthday had arrived, you’d no longer have the name park sunghoon present in your everyday life, only contained dearly in your memories and a journal, his name scribbled mindlessly on each and every corner of the aged pages.

№4 ) dear cupid | jake est. 15k — desperate to have his feelings of two years reciprocated, he finds a leather-bound book falling by his feet in the old campus library containing a guide on how to summon the very real and very quirky god of love and desire, cupid. in his next life, jake would come to write a book on why you should read holy contracts thoroughly before signing your name off in blood.

№5 ) man up | heeseung short fic

№6 ) ikigai | niki est 10k — lonely and trying to cope with the deeply settled rage at the world, reader stumbles upon a peculiar boy in the middle of a bridge and falls into a conversation with him where she utters eight damning words. the world consequently stops spinning and the univers halts as it is. time comes to a stand still and the only two ppl able to move happen to be her and the boy beside her. cue the next seven days of adventures in the dark streets, lit only by the streetlamps in the outskirts of tokyo.

№7 ) pocket locket | m. jaehyun short fic

№8 ) foreign exchange student!beomgyu drabble

№9 ) death is for those who stay | heeseung short fic

№10 ) the world and all her pearls | ??

№11 ) do yourself a flavour | ?? — ice cream parlour, r2l

№12 ) i blinked and suddenly i had a valentine | ??

№13 ) enha dates gone awry (in the best ways!)

№14 ) take you out | sunghoon assassin au short fic

№15 ) a conversation between the lost and unloved | yeonjun est 3k

№16 ) mothers and fathers | yeonjun est 5k — a conversation about hungry mothers and forgetful fathers with yeonjun, an unlikely friend from a country you've never been to.

№17 ) signs that enha are dating

№18 ) "why did you give me wings and want me to fall?" | ?? — hunger games-esque!au

№19 ) notes unread | sunghoon — letters you'd written for each other, unsent and unread.

№20 ) enha and your cute little secrets

№21 ) everything sucks, just kidding! | yeonjun short fic

№22 ) do not touch | jay est 5k — bnha!au, living with a quirk damning you to eternal loneliness, not being able to touch or be touched in fear of the other's demise, jay loves you from afar. he loves you without a single touch.

№23 ) i could drown myself in someone like you | gaon short fic

№24 ) dude, go to therapy | beomgyu text fic — your number neighbor just so happens to be choi beomgyu, your old nemesis from high school. it's too late when you find out about it, though, because you'd already dumped all of your emotional baggage on him. worst of all, he seemed to be concerned and not at all like the beomgyu of the past.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Media Literacy Checks

I figure books are a bit too high brow, but I thought I would write a review of roughly 5-6th grade media literacy 'cause I've found a lot of people have forgotten and that's sad (I'm not sure what these are in other countries). I tried roughly in order.

Check everything you find for a source before you believe it. Check opponents and yourself.

If a source is given, check that source. (Usually I check the most used sources and then choose a random other on a key supporting assertion).

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Source

Check your sources' reliability

Check left, center, right leaning bias

Check for Media Bias

Remember that Google's algorithm is f*ed.

If given a medical journal/article, read more than the Abstract, particularly read the methodology, bias, funding, and conclusions.

Check for your own biases in information.

If counter attacking, with a fact check, check your own sources.

Quick checks:

Is the population of the study 250+?

What is the confidence level/error rate of the study?

Who is in the population of the study/experiment?

Does the methodology make sense or is it filled with bias?

Check everything you find for a source before you believe it. Check opponents and yourself.

I see people plain believe it because it was posted to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, without earmarking it that it might not be true because it fits with your worldview, also not updating what you do or don't know.

You buy more because a guy said when you're hungry you buy more. Proves to be untrue and was updated since.

A simple fact check sometimes is really quick. Is this true?

If a source is given, check that source.

Trump posted a source, I checked that source. It turned out they looked at the graph without reading the text above the graph. What they stated what the graph meant was contradicted by the text. Two second check.

Trump made a wild statement about insurance. I fact checked the number given. He stated it was about ALL of the US, the original source, of which I could only find one, was about a particular state of which the number spanned a long period of time.

(BTW, this this the power of the quotation mark in Google and the minus before a word).

Someone stated that burnt carbs leads to cancer. I checked the source. The source said they made the material purposefully radioactive and applied it to skin. I pointed this out, so they linked me to other sources, like cancer.org. cancer.org had taken down the page apparently after reading the original study. The other sources lead to dead ends (i.e. 404s). I pointed out that this was true and they still did not answer me. (BTW, it was the org that did the OMG, we made something radioactive, and it was the material that made the person have cancer, not the radioactivity. We made an apple radioactive. Therefore the apple gives people cancer. WTF. You don't think it's the radioactivity that you ADDED to the apple or selection bias?)

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Source

But I heard it from my VP, who heard it from a Facebook page owner, who heard it from her neighbor, who might have heard it from another neighbor, who might have heard it from 3 more chains of people, but I'm not sure who they are.

So this is the grapevine problem and if you've been paying attention, oral storytelling often has exaggerations inherent in it to make it easier to remember. (Often with hand gestures too)

Primary sources, Secondary and Tertiary aren't always reliable. But when it's down 10 without primary sourcing, then yes.

Primary sources, if you were paying attention in school, can be unreliable because of the adrenaline messing with memory issues. But having a primary account can often help clear what they actually said (Say, finding out that Freytag is a pre-Nazi ideologue who centered emotion as the story driver instead of listening to the very wrong internet on what he thought the story driver was and giving you the real story, which I bothered to do.) So, for example, having the bill of sale of George Washington's slaves helps clear up date confusion.

Secondary Sources

At the same time, Primary sources won't clear up different PoVs on a large event. So answering, "What really happened during the civil war" you need a secondary source to do an overview. Secondary sources have the weakness of selection bias and confirmation bias. They can select the accounts that confirm their suspicions without investigating the primary source. This is why having multiple Secondary sources helps.

Tertiary is anything outside of the first or second hand account. Second hand can be still too close to do an overview. But this has the weakness that if the primary sources are missing, (See Samguk Yusa's weaknesses.) that the tertiary source cannot be checked.

I didn't check back with my source

This lady lost her cat, must be Haitian neighbors. News reporters check back with source. "Oh I found the cat months ago in my basement and apologized to my Haitian neighbors... why are you asking me again?"

If you don't check back with your source, you can also make up whatever you like about the source, not give credit and then say crap like OMG, Shakespeare created the five-act story structure, even if that's historically untrue as I well covered over and over and over again and the myth of the Black Friars candles still persists in Lit classes today to tell everyone this is how plays were done, not that it was invented much later in history and retconned into place mostly by AH genocidal Gustav Freytag.

Thus you get Kenneth Rowe plagiarizing 2 people. Lajos Egri hating on women repeatedly, mostly Dorothy Brande (not named, but sideways mentioned) and poor Gertrude Stein again (though by name) and failing to mention Freytag, etc.

Check your sources' reliability

Right posted this claim from this guy in a town hall meeting saying that "Cats went missing in the Park" and then conveniently cut out the part where he advocated for red lining, making him wholly racist. The beginning of the statement talked about how the residents were afraid of Black people moving into the town and how there should be a segregation between where Black people were going to live and the white residents. How reliable is the "But cats are missing" statement then? Not very. That's why that part of the speech was cut off.

Check left, center, right leaning bias

This is a pretty quick google source, but there are resources that do this for you.

Check for Media Bias

Covered by our sponsor, XO Bagel, which is why we rated them the top number one bagel on this list of bagels.

Sponsored by the EA game changers network. I got a free version of the game for reciprocity bias.

Remember that Google's algorithm (all Algorithms) is f*ed.

Google automatically has set your search results to go towards your political spectrum. You can turn this off. But remember that it's customized to you. So if you do 300 searches, say on how cats are a figment of everyone's imagination. And click through to those articles, then when you say search for Are dogs real compared to cats, the anti-cat articles are going to show up. Just because it shows up first on Google, does not mean it has rigor. They let go of that model in the 2010's.

This goes for Facebook, Twitter, blue sky, etc. The Algorithm will show more of the thing the more that you click and interact on. certain subject. It's the terf raging in the comments, OMG, why, why do I keep seeing trans "surgeries" that must be an uptick of the occurrence of the phonomena. Nope. It's you clicking and posting under those things that made it happen more frequently without checking the source's reliability before believing it.

If given a medical journal/article, read more than the Abstract, particularly read the methodology, bias, funding, and conclusions.

Do I have to cover the monkey pox thing again? Again, articles from science orgs are particularly paid for put shocking things in their abstract that do not pan out in the actual paper if you read it in order to get wider funding because the government pays them shit amount of money, so they try to state things that aren't true.

Burnt carbs cause cancer—what the article says, we made burnt carbs radioactive, put it on skin and then were "Shocked" when it mildly caused cancer, which then through rigorous testing without the radioactivity--other orgs were "shocked" that it didn't cause cancer, and then we were called out about it, and then linked to the orgs who had disconnected their websites because the rigorous testing had failed and oh fuck, now our funding is looking terrible.

Bacteria in mice causes AUTISM.—Never mind that autism isn't really defined for mice, but whatever. Let's roll with that title, though the experiment was only done once in only one country and we might have fudged the results of the final study to get funding and there was never a repeat of the experiment to say it was true, and the news media ran wild to try to say that mice==humans. And then people try to say from there that vaccines cause autism after the initial bad study where that doctor's license was revoked. Mice are not humans.

Women are not likely to have period pain and are faking it, declares article conducted with only men. lol

This is why you look at the methodology of the study. Does it pass the benchmarks? Or are they publishing early to only get funding because the governments of the world don't want to fund it and they are fudging it anyway? Looking at you Dunning Kruger effect.

Check for your own biases in information

Common ones include things like loving the fancy name of a study to memorize to look smart.

Chekovsky-Ledding Syndrome, sounds cool and plays into my confirmation bias, even though I didn't read the original study, so I'm going to abuse it even though I don't know an ounce of psychology because man, don't I look smart when I say if you go to a grocery store hungry you buy more even if this hasn't be rigorously tested?

BTW, this is a made up syndrome, and the actual study was debunked: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2019/01/16/do-people-actually-buy-more-groceries-when-they-shop-hungry/

Methodology is a video game? Oh c'mon. And the population is only 68 people. No.

I see all of you out there abusing Imposter syndrome, trying to look smart when what you really mean is inferiority complex, but you don't want to use inferiority complex because Oh man, that doesn't sound as cool.

I'm telling you, if you feel like 250 words written is imposter syndrome, your ego must be to the distance of Kuiper belt. Go back and read the original assertions and article instead of blindly parroting others. It says, something fantastic happens to you that you feel you do not deserve. And I'm sorry, if you think 250 word written is the equivalent of being from a minority group that has been historically marginalized and being told all of their life that they, from a poor broken down neighborhood with an unprecedented amount of gun violence, and trauma were never, ever going to make it was going to end up in an IVY League school as Cum Laude of their class, such that they have an out of body experience, that they feel they cheated and did not deserve it then seriously, seriously, unless you really did overcome like inspiration porn level odds, like losing both arms and legs, and losing all speech and then having to type only with your eyes to write those 250 words, then your ego is sure something. Your hubris at claiming imposter syndrome sure is high there. You can be angry at being called out, but it doesn't change the fact that you fell for a bias because you didn't want to call it what it was, inferiority complex. But dude, it doesn't sound as cool. Seriously, my fellow writers stop falling for but it sounds cool type of bias and actually know what it means before you use it.

Is this thesaurus syndrome? Did I just make that up? Yes. Does it sound like a good name of a syndrome and bias? Absolutely. Should I give it a more sciencey and false basis so you believe it.

In a study of 5 participants who were given fancier versions of words, done by the University of Halifax, in St Paul, New South Wales, 10 people were given fancy long words they did not understand, but 5 were found to be too smart for the study because they actually looked up the words they were assigned with search engines and dictionaries and thus thrown out.

The remaining five stayed in the study and failed to use a dictionary to actually look up the words and proceeded to use the words wrong in everyday speech for one month. We never gave them an actual thesaurus, but only gave them the category of meaning the word was in such as mood, object, subject and then watched them fail and recorded all of their speech flagging only the sentences they used with this speech.

We found that two of the people in the study were writers and they were the worst offenders.

We would like to know why one of the participants used "amalgamate" to mean to gather together in a large set of groupings, when Websters defines it as, "transitive verb : to unite in or as if in an amalgam; especially : to merge into a single body;" but didn't bother to ask them why this is and so we're making wild conjectures.

We are calling this thesaurus syndrome and are calling for more funding, but we're hoping you didn't read this far into the article and only read the abstract and were attracted to the stunning reality and great title given to this syndrome... because ya'll are suckers who don't read anything when you're over-saturated with information.

Other things are such as false attribution, because things like Author didn't say this about Rue being Black even though she said it over three times.

And the more famous, Tolkien would have hated Black elves, because clearly he loved the Nazis. (He didn't BTW). When what you're really stating is you didn't read shit from Tolkien past The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and don't want to bother with Silmarillion even though that's the source material for Rings of Power, and you're really disappointed that not all of the cast is white. And you can't figure out that 30 degrees north has all sorts of skin colors of humans on Earth where the Elves spawned because you never looked at a map. That's how deep-seated your racism is going that you need to attribute your racism to the author without evidence that your assertions are true without research. (Looking at the list of writing advice books, dudes, and dudettes and everyone in between, are we writers that made of weak sauce that we have to make out that our own opinions are all Shakespeare and Aristotle?)

If counter attacking, with a fact check, check your own sources

I admit I've fucked this one up royally a few times. *slinks off in corner*.

But yes, check your own sources, and if you can't wait some time before hitting send and give yourself time to check.

Especially if your surname is Trump. OMG, fact checking him is a minefield of I saw where you got that, but that's not what is said because you didn't even bother reading the full sentence.

And then repetition error. Where people copy-paste the orange one without checking his basis in fact. Because ya know, sounds good and shit.

Quick checks for paratext aren't a bad idea

Historicism, queer theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, critical feminist theory, critical queer theory, authorcism, cultural relativism, etc.

Death of the author, does not mean death of any context at all or over attribution to any of the former because you have an opinion supported by nothing but your opinion.

Problems with the source

Circular sourcing with a wrong argument

Particularly East and South Asian sources have issues with this, though the flavors of how and why are different.

So, I'll give one. Popular FICTION book states unnamed historical figure is Sriratna. New discovery about this character is found, so Korean source states popular book with this name is doing X and X. Indian sources, think because Korean sources state that her name is Sriratna, that's really her name. Korean sources think then that Indian sources confirmed for real that her name is Sriratna, but when you backtrack the sources and go back, it cites the Samguk Yusa. The Samguk Yusa says no such thing. The only name given is Heo Hwang Ok. Sri, BTW, is an honorific in this case (Mr. Mrs. ssi, etc), not supposed to be a part of the name. Furthermore, there are issues with the name Ratna, as it is a Hindi, but not Sanskrit name. But the circle jerk of confirmation bias in a vacuum of information makes it more likely that people will repeat a falsehood.

I had one where someone made a wrong statement based off of the Samguk Yusa. I picked up the book which referred to the Samguk Yusa, and it turned out that the Samguk Yusa said no such thing. The author noted it was interesting that... etc.

Another one that I've pointed out before is the whole sourcing on Ace. Where one particular author on ace, who is not ace himself, absolutely fucking insists (with his anti-trans ideology) to be inserted into every single paper about Aces and discounts primary sources as a valid way to source. And had a little fucking fit about it. !@#$ BTW, I hate him doing this and outright mocked him several times. And given there are only three major scholars on the subject and only one is actually ace and 2 out of the three are women, you probably can find who this one is. If everyone is (forced) to cite one source without any refutation, then yeah, that's circular sourcing. If he sources everyone that agrees with him, and shuns everyone who doesn't (even though that person is fucking ace. WTF dude you have no idea the rage I have, you ego that fragile when you aren't ace?), then they source him, that's not a great way to go.

Check for basic fallacies

Confirmation bias, Selection bias, and false equivalency are the most frequent ones I see. But I also often see Ethnocentricism trailing behind, but I think that's selection bias on my part being an anthropologist type. (Double here. I'm more likely to see it, and I'm more likely to post about it.)

Biased population

The famous one being, of course, studies about females using males as the primary test subjects. Look, these people who can't ever get pregnant nor give physical birth had no adverse side effects hormonally on this birth control pill and... look never got pregnant. Therefore the birth control works!

You have no idea how many studies are like this. Look, Black people don't have racial stress because we sampled only white people...

Always check the basis for the population. Age, etc.

Rats and Mice are not humans

Just that. Dogs can't eat chocolate. Humans can. Rats and mice are a far way off from humans. They are useful models, but it doesn't mean it 100% translates to humans.

An example of this, but a study of rats fed only mustard oil in really high concentrations caused them to have cancer. They then said it applied to humans. This would be equivalent of giving you nothing but mustard powder with scientifically concentrated to take out the mustard compounds and then being shocked, absolutely shocked that you got sick after the thirtieth day of feeding you nothing but this.

Biased opinion with Confirmation bias

"Vaccines cause autism" says anti-vaccine doctor funded by the Koch brothers...

I had a dicier one where there was a study done on mice where they found a gestational bacteria from the gut might cause autism-like symptoms in mice. But there were people who could not read scientific studies saying things like, "Oh, then vaccines cause autism." What~~? Because you can't understand the study, doesn't mean that it says what you want it to say. I had to point out that the title was sensational. That the paper specifically was asking for more funding, that it was a first experiment, and Mice are not humans?

Lacking one of the following: Logos, pathos, ethos

You need all three. Pathos makes no sense without logos. And if you don't have the correct ethos, then how are you really expecting that say, the experiment is true. If you skimmed on the experiment to make sure the results are true, how reliable are you?

Pathos is emotional appeal, which helps appeal to the emotions of the audience. Sometimes you do need empathy. But empathy and emotions can't be the sole argument.

Check the Experimental model for errors or overstatements

The amount of overstatements I've found in scientific studies is amazing.

We fed these rats nothing but this really specific compound found in soy at 400 times their body weight and intake for over three years and were shocked to discover they developed cancer. Several of the subjects died, and in the fifth year they were all dead. We do not think it's because the lifespan of rats is only five years long that they died, but because this compound found in soy is poisonous to humans.

Yeah, red flags. Where is the control? Are the amounts really terrible? Is the margin of upgrade negligible? a .05 increase with an error margin of + or - 5.0.

Was it even peer reviewed? Was it replicated?

Quick Statistics rules:

Margin of error is 2.5% on either side.

This is called outliers. Anything within the margin of error can be cooked numbers, statistical anomalies, etc. It's not confirmed. OMG, polls went up 1%. Within margin of error, so might be wrong, plus what's the population and bias of the researcher?

You want a confidence level of 95%. What is the confidence level of the stats before you?

Population error in most papers is a lot more common than you think.

Anything less than 250 does not count as a statistical certainty.

Anything that samples ONLY a certain group without examining why they are examining only that group, without it being part of the stated statistical model should be deeply questioned. For example, if they are asking, Why do women have period cramps? And the sample is examining ONLY cishet white men, you should be asking lots of questions about that.

Going back to the Monkeypox research article where people concluded that Gay men were more prone to Monkeypox without reading the paper. First off, it was in East London, which has a population bias towards the gay community. Second, East London is a poorer area. Thirdly, the paper stated the AIDS epidemic meant that gay people are more likely than straight people to report rashes, etc. Fourthly, and I don't know why I have to say this, any additional gay men they added to the paper and stated were "more likely to have it" were not reported evenly through their statistical analysis as the location of the clinics was not disclosed to vet out other population anomalies.

The old "But we researched on psychology students." "We collected on 45 Psychology students and found out that..." OMG, none of them are old and have a partial college education, but we're going to test them for Alzheimer's and found out that it doesn't exist.

We test 50 IVY League college PHD students in 2020 without financial aid and found that none of them suffer from poverty related illnesses. That's selection bias. A lot of the time science papers will come out with sensational titles to get people to read and then fail the selection biases or population biases. See, they need funding because they pooled 15 people to (excuse this because this is real) "find the cure for Autism." (Gag me.)

Most of the time human-based studies fail basic scientific/statistical rigor. 'cause sciences are underfunded, and they are doing more time marketing than they are doing actual rigorous experiments.

68 people is not enough. Then all being grad students is a terrible sample. Make sure the basis on what you are reading isn't coming from their ass. Make sure they checked for their own biases and gave their sources. If you flag them for not doing these things, and they react by being all indignant and failing to realize basic things like wheat is produced in the "Middle East" (as said in the video), so the first likely pasta is likely to come from there, rather than it coming back and that there is a huge amount of humans trying to retcon their own history because they didn't hire an anthropologist to check over their work, then yeah, I'd pretty much throw that work out and do your own research when you have time. Wild assertions to connect points is something a lot of docs do. Even some beloved documentarians I like very much do it to make the transitions look smoother.

The point is that a little doubt and be willing to pivot isn't a bad idea. Focus on getting the facts correct rather than your pride in being correct.

Oh and for those that love to overattribute to the greats without reading the people's paratext, please don't. If we had this schooling and people adhered to it all the way back to Aristotle, I wouldn't be banging the keyboard so much about wrong assumptions and miscalculations about story structure and finding out that people seem to have absolutely no idea about literature history at all.

Just saying, that you should at least understand 19th century lit, minimalism, modernism, post modernism, and structuralism before you make wild assertions about Elmore Leonard. And don't worry, I'm calling myself out here too, since I barely understood what advice I was cherry picking in the beginning either. But now that I understand the wider context, and where we are now, and how much our education system has failed us, I can make better assessments of if the advice is still useful. And YES, it does matter if the person is a raging misogynist on if their advice is good or not because they are discounting more than half of the population of writers and likely also LGBTQIA with it which means learning how to express yourself authentically with those voices and that point of view would be lacking in their discourse.

And then you sound really smart. But remember to check back with the sources... which is why I spend an inordinate amount of time citing page numbers and giving you screen caps of them. I mark assumptions too, and cite the larger book in a findable context. Because I am often wrong. And this might be a wrong assumption on my part, but I suspect every human on the planet has been wrong at one point or another during our paltry life cycles and terrible memories.

[orlissa]

Okay, friends, this is gonna be an unusual “Orlissa reads” post.

I just finished Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong, and my, it’s been a while since a book made me so mad.

Like, when some of the viewpoint characters were being shot at about halfway through the book, I was rooting for the shooter. This book made me that mad.

Like… Okay, first of all, it’s partially on me–I didn’t dig deep enough before picking it up, so I thought it was a standalone story, when it is, in fact, the sequel/spin-off of CG’s These Violent Delights/Our Violent Ends, which, although sounds intriguing, I’ve been told are bad. So, yeah, mea culpa, I should have made more informed reading decisions.

That being said…

Oh my. I literally cannot fathom how this book can have a 4-point-plus rating on Goodreads. On the one hand, CG chose a very specific and very real time and place for her story, and then basically didn’t give a fuck about the fact that, like, this created a cultural-historical-political context. The story is set in Shanghai in 1931, and is supposed to be a spy story with nationalist/communist/Japanese-imperialist players, only as far as the nationalists and communists go, they are virtually interchangeable, because no-one has any ideological basis, and none of the main characters has any actual personal stake in their party, they’re just there because it was convenient, basically–there are two pair of siblings where one is a nationalist and one is a communist, and it literally means nothing. (Also, let’s not talk about fact that despite the setting the book has a very Western, very 21st century approach to queerness that had me want to claw my face off–like, you can’t have your cake and eat it too! You chose this setting, now play by it!) On the other hand I’m pretty sure all of the bad guys were playing hooky from bad guy school, because their masterplan is so convoluted and ineffective that I just… I just can’t.

This is a bad, stupid, braindead book, fam.

(Why didn’t I DNF it? …Because the tracker site I use will only count your read pages for finished books, and I’m too OCD to lose 250-300 pages.)

And here comes where this post becomes unusual–instead of Foul Lady Fortune, I wanna rec you two other books that I read 10+ years ago, books that left a lasting mark on my soul and I think do a way better job at showcasing Chinese (diaspora) history and mentality from the twentieth century.

First, a non-fiction: Wild Swans by Jung Chang. A biography/autobiography, Jung Chang tells the story of her grandmother, mother and herself from the rise of the Communist Party, through the Cultural Revolution, up until the death of Mao Zedong and the author’s eventual move to the UK in the 70’s. It’s a heavy and often disturbing book, but honestly, if I had to compile a list of, say, ten books everyone should read once in their life, this would definitely be on that list.

The other one is fiction: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Telling the story of two sisters from Shanghai who are forced into arranged marriages and sent to live in San Francisco 1936. The book then chronicles the life of the Chinese diaspora for the next 20 years, with rise of Chinese cinema, the fear of the Japanese during WWII, the red scare… Also a masterful book. (There is a sequel titled Tears of Joy, where the sisters’–it’s complicated, you’ll see when you read the book–daughter sneaks back to China in 1956, but I haven’t read that one yet.)

[raisinchallah]

i have to say i do think people are full on lying when they talk about english classes on this website like i was a total bookworm and loved writing as a child but that was like systematically crushed essentially the second i started taking dedicated english classes lol i always had kinda checked out teachers who seemed to enjoy humiliating students or thought u should read like a 250 page book over the course of 3 months and make you literally take notes for every page they were often my most vindictive and cruel teachers of any subject (tho i think the most vindictive teachers i had were math teachers i had a lot more nice very good math teachers than english teachers) made kids feel horrible for poor reading skills or were simply incompetent and boring.. two of the english teachers i had in high school were honestly the main precipitating incident to dropping out because i was failing to make up all the insane busy work or they like docked 50% of my grade on a paper because i wasnt in class that day for rosh hashanah lol something i informed them of in advance and turned it in a day later themes and meaning were covered only in the most pathetic miserable fashion of like standardized test reading comprehension questions i mean i had one really great english teacher but he was like such an outlier where he was mostly working in administration and was using our class as guinea pigs for his new curriculum he was developing and turning into a textbook and like we were literally his only class so he actually had time and energy to give people personalized feedback let students revise their papers for a new grade as many times as they wanted to ran really interesting class discussions on material we read in class and tbh focused more on history stuff than reading novels we did a whole project on learning about the american eugenics movement which was probably one of the most important and illuminating things ive ever learned in school but again this was like such a niche specific case i certainly would not generalize this to the grand world of high school english classes lol

[keptalivebymagic]

Finally done The Will of the Many after a thousand years. I had to return the book to the library at one point and then wait to get it from a different library, and then it was just a slow read.

This is in no way a comprehensive review. It's just some spoilery notes for myself.

The bad

So little happened in the first half and SO MUCH happened in the second. Just name after name after name. Task after task. The pacing is just so bizarre and I remain unconvinced that a better storyteller couldn't have found a way around having the first 250-300 pages be, essentially, set up.

Very, very few questions were answered. I can't tell if this was a flaw or if I'm just feeling frustrated as intended. I wish we had a single goddamn answer, to any one of a myriad of questions.

The women were... Eh. I'm always wary of male authors for this reason. The book is a real sausage fest and I'm not convinced that it's a feature of this deeply flawed society. I get the sense that it's a flaw in the writing. It also feels like the handful of female characters were either "bad" in that they actively sought to hinder or hurt Vis (the protagonist) or "deeply flawed" in that they made mistakes that hurt or hindered, even if they were redeemed later on. The mistakes they made, and the violence they perpetrated, wasn't justified by any sympathetic motivation, either. I'm thinking about the head of the orphanage (who whipped Vis), Belli (who betrayed Callidus and then retaliated against Vis), and even Aequa when she believed Vis to be cheating and arranged a violent ruse to catch him. (Which reminds me, Aequa set it up for Vis to get beaten up by two strangers to prove that Vis was cheating, and their instructor was told in advance but went along with it. How the hell did Aequa warrant more blame in Vis' mind than their instructor??)

Meanwhile the male characters were more likely to be neutral or "good", even when they were in positions of great power and therefore a significant threat to the protagonist (I expected for more recognition of how much power Indol had, for example). The "bad" men were shown to have understandable motivations (Iro who had lost his sister; the two crappy instructors at school that had been negatively impacted by the principal; the principal himself brings so much harm to his students to allegedly stop another Cataclysm). Even Ulciscor, who is the biggest threat to Vis, has his sweet "dead brother" defense.

The romance was shoehorned in and not compelling. We know nothing about who Emissa is as a person.

The good

There were a lot of emotionally poignant moments (after the halfway mark). The trip to Suus was definitely fraught with tension and with payoffs for that tension. The final conversation with Ulciscor was so upsetting, as it was intended to be (I assume). Getting to know Eidhin was SO GOOD. I love that boy so much. Same with Callidus. The banter was so excellent.

The physical setting was compelling. The story moves across a lot of geographic space and I had a good idea of the physicality of the space, which I appreciated.

The end.

I'm going to bed now.

[nanowrimo]

Back to School: Interview with Chiho Nakagawa, Young Writers Program Educator

NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program helps over 85,000 kids, teens, teachers, and families set creative goals and tell stories they care about. We asked some of our amazing YWP educators to share how they take on the NaNoWriMo challenge in their classroom. Today’s advice comes from Chiho Nakagawa, who teaches English as a second language in Tokyo, Japan.

Q: What grade/ age level do you work with? What type of NaNoWriMo group is it (whole class, club, homeschool, elective, etc.)?

A: 10th grade, whole 2 classes of 80 students whom I teach three times a week, last year I did with them. Two years ago, I did it with all the students in the 11th grade (about 250 students)

Q: How long have you been doing NaNoWriMo with your students?

A: 6 years. During these 6 years, I skipped two years ago as my students had to focus only on preparation for their university entrance exams.

Q: How do you structure the entire project (for example, do you start prepping in October and write in November, do you have kids work on it all year, etc.)?

A: I start the NaNoWriMo project in April when our new school year starts. Once or twice a week, our students have time to read books in the morning homeroom. As our school has an online library, most of them read online. During their break in summer, they read more books and decide their best one. After the break, they have biblio-battles in class. They upload the picture of their favorite book to OneDrive to share their recommendation with all the other students. For the preparation of their creative writing, they think of a story in a group, looking at one picture. They write a sentence in turn to make a story. Sometimes, I give them the same starting sentence and they create the following sentences together in group. Though they start with the same sentence, each story expands in totally different ways, which shows them their varieties, diversities and uniqueness. When I have such activities, I usually let them write in groups using Google Jamboard. Then, just before they start writing, they start creating their main character online using the Avatar maker. After that, they create their own page using OneNote and upload their main character and plot in the roller coaster style format . After their writing in November, we usually create their collection of stories online and share it in class.

Q: What does a normal NaNoWriMo day look like for your students?

A: Full of creativity. They are obsessed with their stories. Many students talk about NaNoWriMo. Of course, there are some demotivated students who struggle with writing, and they say NaNoWriMo, YaRaNaiMo. YaRaNaiMo means “I won't do it” in Japanese. Even though they have difficulties and feel discouraged, they use the great rhyme. The rhythm in Japanese “yaranaimo” sounds not terrible but cute like kids in kindergarten. They are full of energy and joy that shows they are interested in writing even when they complain.

Q: How do you set and manage word-count goals?

A: I believe in my students' autonomy. Nobody writes low goals. Some are even too ambitious but as it is their choice, I respect them. I give them some sample numbers and they usually arrange according to their skills. Last year, they set their own goals and I put them into groups. They made bar charts to show their progress in groups and they competed between groups, which I think was motivating.

Q: How do you manage grading? Do you grade?

A: No. As long as they try and enjoy the activity, it would be great. If they did, I give them points. If they did not try, I did not give them any grades. I just celebrate their writing.

Q: How do you approach revision/ publishing (if at all)?

A: I never check their grammar mistakes. I usually publish as they write. I can see some parts which are difficult to understand, but it would be okay. They will see that not a lot of their classmates read their novels as they are difficult to understand. The following year, they will do it in the same way and they will read their previous year’s novel. Then, they will find how much they have improved. Some of them told me not to show their previous one in class as they find their mistakes.

Q: Any NaNoWriMo tips or tricks to share with other educators? Hard-won lessons? Ah-ha moments?

A: NaNoWriMo encourages my students to read. My students are not bookworms but they read as they would like to know how to start writing and how to make a story. Also, they are interested in other students' writing and try to understand them. Reading encourages them to think and understand others, which encourages them to respect others and their own identity. While they struggle writing, I would like to help them but it seems that nobody can help them. They solve their problems by themselves as their novels are just from their inside, not from their outside. Finally, they know how to control themselves and how to talk to themselves.

Q: Have you ever run into resistance from your administration about doing NaNoWriMo, and if so, how did you manage it? What do you say to people who don’t see the point of having students write novels?

A: Yes, some say that I should teach English for English exams. Getting Exam skill is the most important and creative experiences are not practical, they say. However, creative writing is effective in preparation for exams as students think more logically and critically to make their work better. They learn grammar and vocabulary to make their sentences clearer. My students' engagement gradually changes their mindset and finally, they understand what they have achieved as their novels are based on what they have learned in other subjects and their whole lives. As everything inside of themselves is combined to make their novels and shows that it is a integrated learning, they finally agreed to make it and now, they encourage me to do it.

Q: What are the most meaningful things you or your students take away from the project? What's your best NaNoWriMo memory?

A: They find their identity. They read their friends' writing and they find they are different. They find their own uniqueness and start enjoying the difference. After NaNoWriMo, they praise each other for their achievement and effort and it was the happiest moment.

Q: Anything else you'd like to add?

A: They learn not only about language but also about rights such as copyrights and personal information. Also, they learn creation is enjoyable after their struggle. This is an output activity with creativity, but at the same time they learn input is important to make their knowledge richer. I would like to encourage my students to read more, but how much I told them to do, they did not. Therefore, I thought of a different method, writing a novel, and it was totally successful. They read as they need to write. Their reading starts as if they check samples.

Chiho Nakagawa is an English as a second language teacher at a private school in Tokyo, Japan. Her motto for teaching is to raise independent learners. Her project-based learning classes improve her student’s creativity and autonomy. At the same time, her students find their own identity and respect others as they experience differences and uniqueness. She is also good at creating classes making full use of ICT as a Microsoft Innovative Education Expert and Adobe Education Leader.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

Just remembering when Oldest was a child in light of people condemning medicating children. Now we had no idea he was autistic but we were reasonably positive he had ADHD.

He could not learn to read. At 3 he could recognize the names of any dinosaur but even at 7, words like "the" stymied him.

Now my child is not stupid by any stretch. As a teen he studies history for fun. It was just not something he could process.

To make things worse, he was given a gifted younger brother who learned to read by himself by the age of 4. In school he passed the grade level books in his classroom, got sent to pick books from the next grade up, passed those, and got sent another grade up to borrow books -- unfortunately once to Oldest's classroom as his teacher didn't know.

My child was convinced he was stupid. It helped a bit when I said that as much of a reader as I am -- I can cover 1000 pages in a day and read probably 250 books a year -- I didn't really learn until I was 8. Not sure if I could have and just nothing interested me until Narnia or if my brain was just not ready. And showing him studies showing the normal age for learning to read is not 5 or 6, its anywhere from 4 to 8.

It was hard but we were keeping it from hurting too bad... until 2 months before the end of second grade. You see third grade marks a transition where kids need to be able to read better and write more, and he was a year and a half behind the benchmark. The principal, which had been my teacher and speech team coach when I'd been in high school called me in to explain she had to hold him back, for his own good. That it wasn't a step taken lightly because they knew the harm it does to a child's self image but that he failing continuously would do just as much. (Made worse because there was talk at the same time about his brother skipping a grade, which would have put them -- 2 years apart -- in the same grade.) Because of our history, she agreed not to make it official until the end of the year, but wanted me prepared, because as she put it m, there were only 8 weeks left and there was simply no way he'd catch up that much that fast.

He had a doctor's appointment for ADHD a couple days later because I'd been told they shouldn't be given meds until they turned 8. He was quickly diagnosed and given Ritalin.

The change could not be overstated, and at the end if the year, he was exactly at the benchmark, having caught up that full year and a half in 8 weeks, something that a brilliant and dedicated educator (because she was truly invested in the best for all her students, she was a good one) thought utterly impossible.

All for the low price of taking one pill every morning. Don't refuse children medications to make their lives better and easier.

[bereft-of-frogs]

friday! and a nice friday too, the sun is out and everything!

books:

(finished) This Wretched Valley - Jenny Kiefer: I maintain this would have been better/scarier if they had been good at their jobs lol, like I said last week. Like imagine how scarier if you're doing everything right and still can't escape and slowly realize there's some*thing* keeping you in the wilderness? Personal preference.

(finished) (phone book) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: You know, I didn't love this one as much as I did on the first pass a couple years ago. A weird opinion shift: I really don't like Cohmac haha. I remember liking him before and this time I'm like...no you can't have custody of Reath, I don't like you. Ok, that's...not the most mature book critique but still. I wish either Jora hadn't died or Dez or Orla had taken custody of Reath :( But it does make me consider giving Midnight Horizon a second chance, because my opinions shifted so much, maybe the opposite will happen with that one. Or maybe I'll just be able to further justify my Cohmac dislike.

(in-progress) (phone book) The Rising Storm - Cavan Scott: Bell is back! I missed Bell and Ember. Not too far in yet but at least I am back on track. I feel like this is where things start getting sadder which makes me happy (sorry Bell) :)

(in-progress) The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien: I'm like 30 pages from the end lol, I only read this while I have my morning coffee, just to explain why it's taken me like three weeks to read a 250 page children's book.

tv:

(finished) Anthracite (Netflix): What an insane amount of subplots for 6 EPISODES?? Either Netflix needed to greenlight like...4x as many episodes or once they got their budget the writers needed to cut like half the subplots and tighten up focus. I'm still honestly reeling. It did do a good job getting you to care about the main characters despite all the insane plot stuff. Also this was weird: like 90% of it was really well shot, and then randomly there would be a scene that looked like it was shot by someone in high school. I don't know if they had to go back in for reshoots or what but occasionally it was like oof that's not good.

(finished) Baby Reindeer (Netflix): Everyone was talking about this so I had to check it out. It's very intense. Is it bad I found the comedy shows were the hardest scenes to watch, despite everything else?

(in-progress) Under the Bridge (Hulu): Seems like sort of a standard mystery but I'm really just here for Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone and the moody vibes and so far am satisfied.

(in-progress) Constellation (AppleTV+): Nice little bit of unreality/space horror so far. I actually got got by a couple scenes, I'm so desensitized to horror that it's nice when I actually get creeped out by something (the ARM in the second episode!!). Looking forward to seeing where this is going, judging by the first two episodes, seems like my pet conspiracy theory (the Lost Cosmonaut theory) is getting a high budget AppleTV adaptation, never thought I'd see the day. Also I got kind of hyped about the Canadarm cameo in the first episode. The shot panned over the space station and I out loud shouted 'it's the Canadarm!', startling the cat

film:

The Apology (2022): Apparently this was the only movie I watched this week, it was ok, mostly just background noise for making lunch/writing. I wish it had leaned more comedic, which is not something I usually say but I think it would have fit if they'd committed to making a really dark horror-comedy rather than flipping between predictable melodrama and some pretty funny catharsis.

craft update: I am free of the tyranny of having to purl! I joined up the two sides of my sweater so I'm knitting in the round now yay! It turned out I didn't have a problem with needle size, the whole thing did fit on one circular needle so now we're cooking with gas.

to do:

finish the work day. ick. but depending on how long it takes me to get through actual work, I can probably get some writing done too

laundry, both clothes laundry on my lunch hour (now) and sheets/towels at my parents'

I'm through 8 out of 12 chapters of current wip! Unfortunately chapter 9 is SO action-focused. why did I do this to myself. I mean I know why because then chapter 10 gets to be angsty but damn I have to block out so many action scenes. why.

I ordered a filing cabinet. it arrived. most of the negative reviews were about how hard it was to put together. so I should put 'assemble filing cabinet' on this list but I think 'let filing cabinet percolate' is a more realistic entry

I might go to a local yarn store on my way up to my parents' tomorrow, because it's local yarn store day and I do not need any more stitch markers but BUT I want more stitch markers. don't @ me I know I have plenty of stitch markers.

pick a new book: I'm torn between giving Kill Show another shot, starting the other book I have checked out of the library (The Deep Sky) or a secret third thing

have a good weekend everyone!

[theartofdreaming1]

For the weird writing asks and sorry I'm on mobile on the train, can't copy the questions right now but:

4, 15, 16, 35 aaaand 40

Sorry <3

4. What's a word that makes you absolutely feral?

Hmh, I don't know if I really have a specific word like that (or at least can't remember on the spot), but I guess the most recent time I felt like I'd go feral over a word was while watching episode 2 of Pushing Daisies, when we see Ned getting dumped at boarding school and his father's saying good-bye and we get this absolutely cutting narration:

"I'll be back," he lied.

I think I've never felt this strongly over the use of such a simple word as 'to lie" before, but this simple phrase (and word) really felt like a punch to the gut, damn.

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

No, I can't bring myself to write in books; I once just wrote my name on the very first empty page of a book (I think in pencil, even?) and I have felt absolutely horrible about it ever since (it doesn't help that my handwriting is atrocious). If I want to mark some phrases/passages from a book I'm reading, I write them down on a blank index card (complete with page citation) and put that in the book or I use some tiny sticky-notes 😅

The only exception I've ever made without a guilty conscience was writing the inscription of the ring from LOTR into my edition of Heinrich von Kleist's "Die Verlobung in St. Domingo" ("The Betrothal in Santo Domingo"), which I had to read for school xD

Similarly, I can't even fathom dog-earing any book on purpose! I try to keep my books as pristine as possible, even doing my darndest not to open my unabridged edition of Les Miserablés too widely, lest the spine gets more cracks and becomes even uglier (a very futile endeavour, since it is one of those boring black penguin paperback editions and the book is over a 1000 pages thick and you're inevitably gonna get some cracks in the spine, but I just cannot help myself)

And since I don't like taking baths and don't have a tub in my apartment, I don't read in the bath (I also would be terrified of getting my poor book wet).

But at this point in my life I'm mature enough to take a live-and-let-live stance on these things, so I won't judge people who do this to their books too harshly ;) (I can definitely see the appeal of handwritten margins in books, although the concept of dog-earing a book still makes me wince just thinking of it- but as long as it's not my book, it's fine)

16. What's the weirdest thing you've ever used as a bookmark?

Boy, I'll use anything at hand as a bookmark (although now that I have gotten some of the bookmarks I designed myself printed, I usually have something at hand) and since I'm quite messy, an improvised bookmark can be anything - grocery receipts, return receipts from library books, other books, whole comic book issues, empty envelopes, you name it 😅

35. What's your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

Rules, what are rules? 😉🔨 Honestly, I don't think I consciously follow any rules when I sit down to write my little stories - I just bang my head against the keyboard until the words sound like the story that is lodged somewhere inside my brain;- I once had to take a "Writing" exam in which we had to write a strictly structured 250-300 word pro-contra-essay and it was absolute agony - I like my creative writing to be joyful and free (once it gets past my crippling perfectionism and debilitating procrastination, that is ;)

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

I'm always very fond of Emily Dickinson's "Hope":

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.