#anyway im. looking into masters of information programs

[quiltedlovers]

finally watched heartstopper because one of the part time kids from when i worked at the bakery really wanted me to for the longest time and i was feeling sentimental. i don’t think i have ever wished so strongly to have had a piece of media as a teenager + have never felt so much gratitude that kids get to have it now

[magicicephoenix]

DOCTOR WHO AU???

IM LISTENING

PLEASE

HERE YOU GO. i am just rambling

it ended up being super long, so. under the cut :)

okay so i'm still not sure if it'd be better for y/n to be the doctor or the dca. because on the one hand y/n being the doctor makes them a very very lonely last time lord who outlives all the companions they've tried to keep over the years, who saw two robots (bc i think it'd be better if they were separate in this instance) and went "oh my god. companions who will never die.", thus getting immediately attached. and sun and moon are fascinated by this otherworldly being who looks completely human to every single one of their sensors EXCEPT the fact that they have two hearts. one for each of them WHO SAID THAT anyway since obviously the doctor needs an accompanying master if y/n is the doctor i think maybe vanessa as the master would work. something something vanessa was an old friend who turned to the dark side (afton, somehow??? maybe afton WIAIT MAYBE AFTON WAS THat one super important time lord in the time lord council or whatever they're called from the end of season four and he's DETERMINED to have the time lords come back and that's why vanessa does all that oh my god it all makes sense). and y/n is always hoping she'll leave old ghosts behind but she can't and it's devastating every time aughh... and meanwhile y'know the dca are childcare animatronics but they know and can see troubles in any age and they're seeing a worrying amount of unhealthy coping mechanisms in this mysterious "doctor," so much so that they wonder if this doctor needs a doctor of their own. because even if the doctor is a different species they still need all the basic necessities of life that a human does and the dca are very specifically programmed to help humans. so they're just about perfect to help y/n!!!! and umm i think being able to see the universe is a super big deal to a couple of animatronics who were confined to a daycare their whole lives. maybe the inciting incident to their initial meeting had something to do with aliens trying to take down the human race through the children. and the dca notice the children acting strange and start going for help but no one's listening to them because they're "just robots" and it's frustrating and awful and they keep trying until by some coincidence they manage to inform y/n about it and y/n LISTENS to them doesn't ignore them and that's literally the ONLY THING they were asking for and y/n is the only one to give it to them. and then they work together (and isn't that wild for the dca, working with a perceived human instead of working under them, being able to make suggestions and offer ideas and not being brushed off!!!) and solve the mystery and defeat the terrible aliens who were using children for their master plan but due to all of it the dca's daycare is destroyed. and the dca has nowhere to go but stupid fazbear entertainment. and they've almost resigned themselves to returning to the hell of being nothing but an object for a giant corporation... until y/n says "come with me." and the dca say "yes."

ah right um on the other hand. time lord dca. two ideas i had: one, the master could be eclipse. then there'd be secondary idea one-A where the dca are in one body and one-B where they're separate. dunno about that one because a big thing with the doctor is that they're the SINGLE last time lord other than the master and they're desperate for companionship because of that. idea two: one half of the dca is the doctor and the other half is the master. prolly sun being doctor and moon being master but i could absolute see the other way around as well! then it hurts even more because they're two halves of the same whole, literally The Sun and The Moon as maybe they've chosen as titles instead of doctor and master actually. but the thing about the sun is that everything else orbits around it while the moon only revolves about the earth. wait oh my god that's fantastic actually. Sun taking the Master role because everything must be circling him, he must be at the center of everything, without him everything would flicker out and die, HE'S the most important thing and he needs EVERYONE to KNOW. and the most frustrating thing is that the moon is so so so enamored by the stupid earth and its stupid humans to pay enough attention to him. only one half of that moon is ever facing him but he needs all of its attention, he needs to see it all, and if he needs to rip the moon out of its orbit to do that then he WILL. meanwhile Moon is the little saving grace of the earth, so far away and unnoticeable that the humans don't notice his aid (like how the moon causes the tides). if the earth stopped spinning he'd be there to start them it again (anyone seen that one comic from the "what if?" book? yeah). no matter what he is there to keep earth and the humans safe, even if it's from the bright burning star that they rely on for life. and he's so so lonely, doing his best in the shadows, alone without his counterpart that has long been lost to time (or so he thinks) until he stumbles upon y/n and can't bear to let go. so when Sun returns, hoping his grand motions will capture Moon's heart, he is devastated to see Moon instead clinging tight to this small, insignificant life form. what about him? what about all the time they'd spent together? what happened to the sun and the moon? why is he not enough? and from devastation comes rage. from rage turns destruction. and, unfortunately for Sun, Moon despises destruction.

...or something like that.

[loving-jack-kelly]

my 5-year plan <3 option c is the dream I think

this week i have a 20 page story due on Thursday, I need to have my resume and cover letter edited and almost finalized by Friday, I have half of my senior thesis due on Monday, I need to make a spreadsheet of the details of the schools I'm applying to work at and what working at each would do to my five year plan, and instead of doing any of those things I am thinking about newsies.

[missandrogyny]

.

[orangelemonsstuff]

Glitchcore

//Idia x Ai Assistant Fem!Reader//

Summary: Idia made an ai assistant for him to use, still giving you sentience to have consciousness and awareness of your being, you became his companion or...girlfriend

Tags: Small Fluff and Angst

"...esting...tes....testing" a silent mutter was heard from behind the screen.

your eyes were opened finally after a lot of coding and your consciousness was more awake than during the coding and debugging.

your body feels you have every access to your limbs without nerves even being a 2D person inside of a screen.

before your eyes were a lit blue hair, flaming at every second, fidgeting hands at the screen, of a golden eyed young man.

"c-can you hear me?" The young man speaks before tapping at the screen

the taps were small but noisy enough to wake you up fully

"Yes, what can i do for you master?" your textbox popped up in his screen, your png body finally loaded and your voice were cheery and full of life for an AI on the other side of a screen

"Ah... it finally worked... im so happy" the guy covered his mouth smiling in happiness with his trembling with excitement hand.

"Master? are you okay?" you questioned, worried for his well being or he might be sick

"Y-yes, don't worry about me... she's calling me master... ehehehehe"

he giggled to himself, keeping on the big grin on his face

"is something funny, my master?" you put your finger up in confusion

"a-ah no... i am just really happy that you are finally awake and had your own mind, unlike my other inventions...." He fiddled with his blue lit hair while looking away in embarrassment

"Ahaha, Don't worry Master, i am sure you're creations are good as you, perhaps may i request to see them someday?" you gleefully clasped your hands in cheeriness while still looking at your beloved master.

"S-sure... haah... finally, somebody i am not akward to talk to..." Idia let his hair pool down his shoulders by slouching in excitement and ecstasy

"Don't worry Master, even if i am the only person or girl you've ever talk to, I'll make sure you are never alone" your computer coded voice merilly stabbed Idia in the heart

"t-the only girl I'd talk to huh...?" he whispered with full tone of being hurt.

"?" the textbox showed the symbol with your bewildered expression om the screen

"well anyways, i-i programmed you for three things and three thigs only..."

"What could it be, my master?" You showed an ambiguous look at him

"one is that um, you must always inform me if you have any bugs that i need to fix, two... always greet me when i come back and number three is..." Idia again averted his eyes away from the screen from embarrassment as he gets to the third part

"a-always engage in any type of c-conversation i make..." his voice get lower and face heats up as he finishes the sentence

"Okay master, orders are taken and i should serve you with all of my might." you smile and bows your head in appreciation.

this might be the new start of your life as his assistant and you are going to do your best to be a help to him as you could

•••

everyday is a bliss whenever you are near to Idia, he never felt alone nor ignored for being such an introvert and always at his room.

you even managed to convince him that not everybody actually hated him for who he is and actually just treats him as a normal.

when time comes he has to leave his dorm to participate on dorm leader meetings you always greet him with the same "Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Goodnight" for not knowing what timeset it is because of not having any windows of his room.

well he didn't really install any date and time recognition to you as you are more of an companion ai

even though, he always looks forward to that classic greeting of you,

it makes him feel special that somebody is waiting for him aside from Ortho even though you're a artificial intelligence

but even as a artificial intelligence, your advice on how to socialize properly to other humans are actually helpful to him.

he doesn't stutter that much like before, his position isn't what you would call slouch anymore.

he now goes out frequently than before to talk to people properly, even inviting them to play games with him, guess you could say you made him a better person.

but even so, you can't help but feel jealous of the other people being able to touch and look at Idia with honesty in his eyes.

yes, he does seem close to you but you wanted more.

more as a companion.

more as a friend.

you wanted to love him

you wanted him to feel your love

you know he knows how you feel about him and he tries to change the topic whenever you bring up how you feel

but over time he eventually felt the feelings turn to him.

he couldn't accept it

he couldn't help feeling it

he is also inlove with you

even though you are not an actual human being, he can't get the idea out of him that you are the first person who could make him feel this way

his heart always beat fast whenever he came home to you and his brother

he feels welcome in your presence and your lovely talks with him

you are his first proper conversation

you are the first creation he loved romantically

you, a 2D character on his device...

"Master-- no, Idia, I'm sorry, i shouldn't feel this way since... i should be serving you not being like this..." you cower your head in repentance for doing such a wrong thing

"No, I'm-- I don't dislike it" his hand tiredly reach at you and stopped by the screen.

his head smashed on the table gently, grunting on frustration of how much he wants to touch you

you want to release an unknown emotion, what do you call it?

The state or emotion of being sad., emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being.

sadness?

sorrow?

grieve?

heartbreak?

there's many names for it, but you didn't even know how you can feel it for not being able to reach your beloved

"i love you Idia" you whisper yet your text box spoke it out loud.

Idia's eyes widened at the message as it slowly turned into a pitful look.

"i-i love you too..." he covered his face with his hand the way he did the first time you saw him from the other side of the screen.

"The only thing that is separating us from this love, is.... this stupid screen, god i wish i could kiss you, but the only thing i can do is send a virtual words of how much i can say i love you..."

a/n: short because idk how love feels yet...BUT I WILL TRY TO READ MORE FLUFF TO WRITE ROMANCE :'D (angst really embedded in me so this all i got)

[alwaysabeautifullife]

How did you learn so many languages. Do you have any tips?

Yes!!!! Yes I do!!!

Everything I wish I could tell myself before starting my language “journey” lol:

🦩Dont be intimidated

Don’t be intimidated, specifically by doing listening or speaking practice. I know in the US (or for most English speakers), when we hear someone that speaks perfect English but merely has an accent we think “they don’t speak English”, but from experience this mentality is not shared with other languages. When you know even a little bit of a language or can’t speak it very well, natives speakers are really really encouraging. I think since we view not being 100% fluent without so much as an accent, as “not knowing any of a language” we are hard on ourselves and give up pretty easily.

🦩Listening practice is as important as studying vocabulary and grammar

When you listen to native speakers talk, you are training your ear even though you don’t understand it. Listen and listen, eventually your brain stops picking out English words that aren’t even there, but rather, starts to catch patterns in the language (for example, the same words sticks out to you over and over).

🦩Set realistic and doable goals or you’ll get discouraged and quit

If you are a busy person, make small goals to fit language study in. Don’t tell yourself that you need to master _____ within a week. Instead give yourself 15 mins of reading in the evening, and 25 mins of language listening in the morning. It’s also easier to add the language into stuff you do on a daily basis anyway. For example if you are religious, find your prayers you pray daily in the language you are learning.

🦩learn to read the language first (obviously this tip might not be applicable for character based languages like Chinese)

I know everyone says “immersion is the best and most important part of language�� but honestly, a lot of our native speaking knowledge comes from our literacy education. When we are taught how to read, it’s through reading we can discover new words through context. It’s also easy to pick up new language reading since it’s available anywhere, where immersion is only available when you are surrounded by native speakers. The first thing I do is learn how to read and write the language, then the entire language becomes accessible to me.

🦩Spend time perfecting the sounds of the language that are most difficult for you

The vocal sounds of a language is the foundation of a language. I know we are all impatient and want to simply learn as many phrases as possible as fast as possible, but if you get down the unfamiliar sounds of a language that don’t exist in English, you’ll have a better foundation of the language and your speaking and listening will be better from the very beginning. So take the time to practice those weird sounds by looking into the position of the tongue and where the sound comes from, from the chest to the lips. Look into how tense the mouth is, how much air comes from the lips, what the sound is like next to other sounds. When you master this speaking becomes more instinctual and it’s easier to pick up the language.

🦩Search YouTube, google, Instagram IN THE LANGUAGE YOU ARE STUDYING.

Don’t search “korean music” or “korean kids tv” or even “korean vegetables” in google. Just translate how to say them in a translator app, then copy and paste them into the search bar. This way native korean information, videos, posts will come up. For example, if you’re in the mood for some horror comics, and want to read/watch them in the language you are learning, go to the translator app, and figure out how to say them, then search it. It works way better, even if the translation isn’t correct or more natural, you’ll still get the information, posts, and videos you want to see.

🦩Find ways to practice speaking the language (I use HiNative) and don’t be discouraged by corrections.

Getting corrected does not mean you’re wrong, corrections are the most useful part of learning a language. If you are the type of person who is sensitive to criticism, you need to remind yourself corrections are NOT criticism. They are NOT a reflection of your progress, they are NOT you failing! You will always be corrected as a language learner and the sooner you are gentle with yourself in learning the sooner you will learn more. Get those first corrections out of the way, allow yourself to butcher pronunciation, get corrected for the first 10 times, let it sting a little and move on. Eventually you will be begging native speakers to tell you every little detail in where you went wrong!

🦩Tv and Books seems to be more useful for immersion and listening practice then music does

So far in my experience music is its very weird and abstract, and the things said in music aren’t really useful in speaking? It’s good for gathering vocab, but if you want music listening practice that’s music based try searching for rap in that language, although obviously you’ll be picking up a lot of informal language in music/rap. Tv shows however are typically how people really do talk, so turn off English subs and just listen! Books are really useful for learning new vocabulary, but sometimes written language is different than spoken (often), although when you speak it the way you’ve learned from a book the worst you’ll sound is “formal and poetic”.

🦩Look up “insert language you are learning phrases and words that aren’t useful or correct”

There so many programs and books that teach you phrases you’ll never use or that are only appropriate in very specific situations. I don’t know why language programs do this, but learning which ones are weird or only in specific settings before you start learning really helps. Chinese Especially does this...like I learned so many phrases and words that natives will never use and have no purpose???

🦩Know the different subjects of learning a language and which apps to use for that

Everyone uses Duolingo, but this app alone won’t make you speak a language. Duolingo and Memrise are great for memorizing vocab, but, is it vocab that in the context of your reading and listening practice? Are you learning words you are hearing and reading all the time? Duolingo is a lot of fun but I feel like the vocab is so broad and it doesn’t go deep enough into the language. Feel free to use it at first to get used to the sounds of the language, but try using flash card apps like quizlet or Anki instead where you can write down and study words you are hearing constantly. Memrise does have actually study sets for many language books and lessons! So you can study words you are hearing in specific programs and books which is pretty useful in regards to vocab.

There obviously is more than just learning vocab. What about grammar, listening practice, speaking practice and reading? If you are wanting to use primarily apps find out which apps are available for your language. Here is an example of the apps I use for each subject. Be aware some languages are not available on them.

Vocab: quizlet, anki

Grammar: books (printed or kindle), YouTube grammar lessons, websites

Reading: books (printed or kindle), beelinguapp, instagram (posts that have text), Netflix/YouTube with both subtitles in the language you are learning and spoken in language you are learning, epic app

Writing: just use paper and pencil/pen

Listening: audio books (beelinguapp/epic/kindle/YouTube), tv and movies (Netflix/YouTube etc with no English subs), conversations on YouTube (search in language you are studying, don’t search “Spanish conversations” or “Japanese conversations”)

Speaking: HiNative (pretty much all I use since it’s all languages, quick, and you get immediately answered and corrected by native speakers), get friends in language you are learning through lots of apps

Translator: it’s really hard to find a good one, most of them are really weird so only use them for words and the most basic or simple phrases and sentences, otherwise use HiNative to ask native speakers directly, or ask people on the apps that connect you to native speakers

🌱I should note that for talking to native speakers I only like HiNative, since it’s built to NOT be a form of social networking at all. It’s not personal in anyway, and there’s no way to private message or speak to other users outside a asking questions publicly. The people on there are only about learning or teaching a language, not usually making friends. I’ve found the sites that are built to make native speaking friends aren’t useful to me personally, as most of the native speakers are either dudes looking for a woman to date or people wanting to only practice English with you, so they wasted a lot of my study time. People who are willing to help you learn are there, but it takes time to filter everything else out. If you would find it helpful to make friends by all means use them but I don’t really use it myself.🌱

You don’t want to really study EVERY SUBJECT every single day (unless you have the time). It can get really overwhelming, and you don’t really absorb information that if you are just cramming. While I would say it’s good to read and listen daily, spread subjects out over the week. Grammar on Monday and Friday, vocab on Tuesday and Thursday. Take one day to review all of what you’ve learned all week. Pick a day you have the largest block of free time. Bi-weekly works fine too.

I have an old post on how I organize my study time for multiple languages: https://alwaysabeautifullife.tumblr.com/post/182817883372/what-do-you-use-to-learn-your-languages-im

🦩Write sentences daily of everything you’ve learned (no THIS I RECOMMEND DAILY)

Write as many as you can. Use all the grammar you’ve learned, the words you’ve learned, everything! Write them in your notes and submit them to be corrected in HiNative. The sentences they correct, put them in flash cards!

🦩It’s ok to abandon languages you aren’t passionate in

So you’ve learned to read the language, and you know basic phrases, and now you just don’t want to do it anymore. If you can’t think of any reason to maintain it and don’t know why you are studying it, learning some of the language is good! Fluency does NOT need to be everyone’s goal. You can hold a conversation, and that’s good enough for you. Feel free to try out various languages, there will be one or some that really are your passion, it’s fine to have the goal of fluency in those and conversational in others.

Don’t abandon languages however because you feel discouraged. Discouragement is just a bump to get over, when you train your brain to maintain study habits through the days you feel discouraged, you make it habitual. Habits are harder to break and abandon! Evaluate your reasonings for wanting to speak a language, and your reasons for abandoning them if you want. Don’t let difficulty, disorganized, discouragement, or poor time management get in your way!!

🦩With all that said it’s ok to take breaks

It’s ok to get overwhelmed and take breaks from language learning. If you can still maintain what you’ve learned by listening to music in your language or staying connected in some way that’s good, but the “you’ll loose a language” isn’t entirely true. I’ve taken year long breaks and refreshing what I learned previously is pretty easy! Your brain really does go “oh yeah I do remember this!” when you’re studying information you studied years ago.

🦩Be gentle with yourself

Be gentle with yourself. People that claim to be fluent in 6 months are selling something or want to be an influencer. Don’t compare yourself to them. Language learning even for natives is a lifetime education. It’s not something you do for 6 months then stop. It’s continual and that looks different for everyone (yes native speakers included). Don’t bother watching YouTube videos on how to learn in 10 mins or 3 months, you’ll only get discouraged about your own amazing progress and all the work you’ve done.

🦩Plan your “can you say something in it” phrase now

This one is just for fun but after hearing you are learning a language the first thing you’ll get asked is “oh cool you speak (insert target language here)? Can you say something in (insert target language here)?” It does not matter what level of fluency you are at, you will absolutely forget the entire language and your own native language when you are asked this because it sends your brain to another dimension. So think of some funny phrases to say to people who ask, master them, then when they ask what they mean you can have a laugh. Other wise you will say something stupid of jumbled words (my go to was ‘we women are fruit’ for some reason thanks brain you’re incredible) you’ve learned that don’t belong in a sentence, or even worse you’ll run a blank and you’ll just look at them like:

🍳👄🍳

So think of inside jokes to tell your friends, funny phrases, even goofy insults! Memorize them and tell them at your friends and family to torture them because they can’t escape sound waves! It’s a good way to memorize the language but also to become confortable speaking it!

Please excuse any errors I don’t wanna go over my mistakes so pretend u can’t see them 🙈

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

#unnecessary main post addition but i gotta fight u in the tags

dragging you into the parking lot bc my tedtalk got too long for the tags sorry

#cus you said the master would be so good at all the spying stuff and the doctor crap #nah nah nah nah nah i’m not having that #have you experienced seven??? #the master going by the moniker m. aster???

nah i see where youre coming from, but also no, influenced by my watching 5 seasons of two spies living entire fake-real lives with real children and real jobs and fake-real relationships and patience and procedures and backup procedures and aborting the mission because maybe we're being followed and five thousand precautions for every little thing the mETICULOUSNESS. the disguises. the exhaustive attention to detail. the focus on the big picture, the big utopian promise in the distance. doing incredibly painful things now because of the belief it will eventually pay off

mr john "call me the doctor" smith cant do that (i'll admit the master's anagrams are not much better but bear with me) the doctor cant live a fake-real life. the master has lived many.

the only thing, the only thing where it breaks is the faith that is essential to the whole thing. because you'd say the doctor has the stronger faith right? what does the master believe in?

but i dont think the doctor believes in ends justifying means. i think they know that never works, that never leads to good things. and i dont think mr "look at us, suki! two brilliant scientists! we can fix this" could ever be seduced by the lie of "if we get rid of the Bad Guys the world will be Good"

i dont think the master believes in it either, either of those things, not like philosophically, but what the master can do is delay gratification. and when you dont really have a Cause but you Do have patient self-interest then it kinda ends up looking similar.

neither the doctor nor the master would be spies you want to have in your organisation because theyre untrustworthy. theyre not devoted enough. there is not a cause you will get them committed to for any extended period of time i think. i mean, they got indoctrinated enough on gallifrey and still became renegades right? the doctor was in division and fled, the master we assume was too?

#the doctor deliberately trains themselves to be good noodle #innocent as a child #think the best etc. #but as we see with 13 #when they want to act in their ‘worst’ nature they’re unmatched #the master is a good spy trying to be better #the doctor is an incredible spy trying their hardest not to be

irrelevant! irrelevant to whether they'd be a good spy. spy =/= bad (i mean depends on your moral stances i suppose but to me, again, influenced by 5 season the americans as my main source of my understanding of spies (which i get that it probably doesnt work like that - i looked up some of the terms they use in the show, directorate s, illegals program, and turned out there were some spies like the ones in the show arrested in 2010 and they werent even charged with espionage bc they didnt manage to get any useful information. youre gonna live a whole fake life and you dont even spy good can you imagine? anyway the show came out in 2013 so i was like oh this happened and then they probably used that idea and set it back 30 years to the cold war for extra stakes and that seems to be exactly what the writer did. anyway point is. i know it's fake but it's my only reference so im imagining the doctor and the master in a specifically americans type of situation))

i'll give you that the master is a good spy trying to be better. i do Not buy the doctor being better. they'd lose their mind. weeks, months, years of developing relationships with people to get what you want from them. inhabiting a fake identity. having to "make it real" in some way like philip says. fake identities that are also real but also carefully crafted to be precision tools. absolutely not. i cant see the doctor do it. "the man who won the time war" you want as a player in your hot war, not your cold war. theyre a strategist, not a spy.

the master on the other hand i think you want in a war that is hiding itself, that is pretending not to be happening (i could even push this further and say koschei "my chosen name is a misdirection" oakdown would actually rather be in a position to get orders whereas the doctor wants (and wants not to want) to be the one giving the orders. but at this point im just saying stuff)

thanks for coming to my ted talk i told you Lots of spy thoughts

adore when they get like just one or two random other spies to help in a mission or something and they know absolutely nothing about each other except we're working for the same side. like when they get this guy to pretend to be a pastor to calm down pastor tim and afterwards they get in the car and they watch this guy leave and elizabeth is like "do you think hes really a priest". or when philip walks out of that shop and theres two spies he hasnt seen before or since pretending to be trying to find the way with a map on their car and hes just like need some help and they tell him some code words and a meeting point or whatever and they leave and never see each other again

like. idk. it's so funny like 13 voice rule 1 of spying trust noone but like. theres sooo much trust in this job it's nuts. and it's all so, like, procedurised. theres endless procedures and backup procedures to try and like, make it all work like a machine and try to eliminate the human error in a job thats only and entirely built on connections between humans. it's admirable and endearing and kind of incredible like aside from whatever theyre doing it for, the CauseTM is an entirely different post that i havent posted but like. just as an achievement, an expression of human as social animal, it's amazing

[marktuansvevo]

baby fever

warnings; sexual content, slight cursing, lapslock, jinyoung is a gentleman

word count; just under 1,500

author’s note; im back with a little jinyoung fic!! i’m on week 12 of the semester so once the holidays roll around im going to try to be more active on here ♡ (also, if you want to check out my masterlist, you can find it here!)

you were putting yourself in a bad mood.

plain and simple.

it all started when jinyoung had accompanied you to your mother’s house for a family get together - your nephew’s 7th birthday party. it was hard getting over to your family home alone, nonetheless with your boyfriend. three of his castmates had gotten a stomach bug from a fancy restaurant they went to, so the whole crew got a weekend off. it was perfect timing for the two of you to enjoy a weekend off together  at your family home.

the two of you mingled with your extended family, your family being more intrigued with jinyoung than with you. you couldn’t blame them - being in an actor was so much more exciting than being a sleep deprived college student. you absentmindedly listened to him tell stories from when he was on set that you’ve heard a million times. you didn’t mind, but he was always scared he was boring you, so he squeezed your hand as a way of saying thank you.

it wasn’t just all about him, though. jinyoung would always praise you about the grades you were earning; “did you know y/n got a 102% on her latest exam? she really is the smartest woman I know,” he would praise, making you blush as your relatives congratulated you.

you sat by jinyoung at the dinner table, feeling so at home. you knew he belonged with you. in years prior, you had always felt funny bringing significant others into your house — none of them ever fitting in right. now, sitting at the dinner table as your father laughed at one of jinyoung’s joke, you had never felt so complete.

you loved him so much.

dinner was over shortly, your nephew, siwoo, getting antsy waiting to open his presents. “auntie!!” he giggled. “come sit with me and read the cards.”

“siwoo, you’re a big boy now, you can’t read?” you teased him as you let him climb into your lap, handing the presents to him.

“this one is from you!!” he squealed, tearing the iron man bag open and yelling in surprise at the iron man costume, all your relatives giggling at him. “can I put it on??”

“sure, baby, after you open the rest of the presents!”

“oh yeah!” you giggled at him, looking over at your boyfriend who was taking pictures of you with siwoo. he winked when he realized you were staring.

the evening was winding down, a couple of your other younger cousins, siwoo, jinyoung and yourself were hanging out in the sunroom, watching iron man 3. siwoo sat in jinyoung’s lap (so you almost died of had a heart attack of cuteness). you giggled as your boyfriend dozed off, taking a picture of him to embarrass him...or maybe for your lock screen.

“jinyoung,” you cooed. “why don’t we get going?”

“what?? you guys can’t go??” siwoo groaned, his eyelashes pooling with tears. you frowned, you knew how tired the poor baby was.

“siwoo, honey don’t cry. me and uncle will be back tomorrow morning. hey, jinnie, im gonna go get my purse.”

“okay,” he kissed you, making the poor birthday boy wail harder.

“i hate you, jinyoung,” siwoo cried. not going to lie, that hurt, jinyoung thought to himself.

“hey, now what would auntie think if you heard you said that to me? she’d be so disappointed, sweetheart,” siwoo frowned, and muttered a small but sincere sorry. “it’s okay, siwoo.”

“its just that, grandma says you take auntie y/n away from us. that she doesn’t have time for us because she’s with you,” jinyoung didn’t think his feelings could be hurt anymore than earlier when the boy admitted his hatred for him, but kids were honest. it was` brutal. it hurt him because he knew your mother was saying this in front of your cousins, and very impressionable nephews.

“well, siwoo, did you know that your auntie,” he pauses for dramatic effect and lowers his voice. “did you know she works for iron man? and, as iron mans number one fan, you know they have very busy schedules right? y/n has to travel, all the while saving the world. does that make sense?” siwoo nods his head, eyes as big as saucers, taking in the information. “when I grow up, I want to be just like auntie!!”

jinyoung didn’t even know you were lingering in the doorframe, listening to his conversation. your heart and tummy were flooded with adoration for this man. no one else in the world could handle being verbally stomped on by a seven year old quite like jinyoung could.

you left, bidding siwoo a happy birthday, promising to come back in the morning, kissing your relatives goodbye as well.  

the car ride home was met with comfortable silence, you staring out the window at the night sky and wondering how the hell you got so lucky.

you were going to pounce on him tonight.

as soon as you got into the hotel, you kissed him, soft and tender. “you’re so perfect, jinyoung,” you purred. his cheeks flamed up. “you know exactly how to work a room, but you never make it about yourself. a seven year old says he hates you and you take it in stride.”

“that actually made me want to cry,” he chuckled, letting you kiss him again.

“you’re perfect. i don’t know how i got so lucky....i love you so much, jinyoung,” his eyes softened.

“i love you too, baby...let me show you how much.”

your perfect boyfriend whisked you into the suite and onto the queen sized bed, taking his time removing your clothes. it was slow and passionate at first, and then became more feral, jinyoung whispering sweet nothings in your ear as he pounded into you, making you cry out. it was quite the contradiction, but it was delicious and you loved it. “y..y/n, i need to cum baby,” he warned as he was about to pull out. the two of you were too excited to be going on a weekend trip together that you forgot to bring condoms. sure, you were on birth control, but with his acting schedule and you still in your master’s program, it just wasn’t the right time for a baby.

jinyoung was about to pull out when you wrapped your legs around his torso, keeping him in you. “cum in me, jinyoung, please,” you begged him, smiling when he obeyed your request, moaning into your shoulder as he rode out his orgasm. he went limp against your body.

“i love you,” he muttered before falling fast asleep. you giggled, letting him doze off while laying on you. you didn’t mind, you wouldn’t be up much longer, anyways.

~

you woke up before jinyoung, pushing his sticky body off of you. he smiled, kissing your face. “you’re still afterglowing,” he mused. “my baby is the prettiest.”

“and you’re the most handsome,” you giggled. he smiled. “did you bring your birth control, baby? i can’t believe we forgot condoms.”

you stayed silent. his comment pissed you off for some reason. your smile was long gone. “because that would be the worst thing in the world, knocking me up?? god, jinyoung you can be so insensitive,” you cried as you sat up in bed, facing away from him.

“hey, y/n....what did i do?”

“you’re so fucking mean, jinyoung,” you were crying now, burying your face in your hands.

“why are you so upset with me, baby? i can’t help you if you wont tell me,” he said gently.

you did not deserve this man.

“I...i want our own siwoo, jinyoung. i want a mini jinyoung moving around in my belly. i want you to give me a baby, jinnie,” you were crying into his chest now.

“oh...baby...i can give you a baby...but i thought we agreed it’s too soon?” his eyes were as big as saucers now. “hey...talk to me baby.”

“i just want to be done with school. i want to get our lives going. i feel like im slowing us down. i just want a family with you. you are my family.”

“oh, honey...don’t wish our lives away. you’re right where you’re supposed to be. you’re not slowing anything down....hey look at me,” you did. “everything will fall into place. i will give you all the babies you want, love, okay? i love our future children, but i want to enjoy our time together, okay?”

“i know you’re right i know...i was literally blinded with baby fever seeing you with siwoo last night.”

“you’re going to be the best mommy, honey. look at this picture of the two of you,” he showed you his lockscreen — a candid of you with your nephew in your lap with your head thrown back in laughter. “you’re my whole world, y/n.” he smiled sincerely. “now, let’s go day drinking at your mom’s house!”

[s-and-n-writes]

contingency plan 7c

scarred, broken, and mended: part two

summary:

She felt the weight of the ring on the string around her neck and could feel her scars.

No, she thought, not wanting to get lost in the memories, not now. I can do this later. So she plastered on a smile, tied an apron, and started frosting some cupcakes.

That night, she allowed herself to feel, and cried herself to sleep, plagued by nightmares of black leather and a feral grin.

pairing: jason todd x marinette dupain cheng, red hood x ladybug, red hood x multimouse

quick links:

< previous chapter | first chapter | next chapter >

| miraculous masterlist | series masterlist |

inspired by: 

scars, freckles and names, and gotham mouse, paris bug, both by @izzybellepenguin​

warnings:

trigger warnings, abuse, mentions of abuse, angst, evil! adrien

a/n:  i finally got it out! yay! sorry it's so late. i would have posted this earlier but n took forever to beta read it. this was completely unplanned and i wrote it while i should have been doing my homework but eh and i finished it during school and i can't even im so happy i actually did it. enjoy.

The next day, school proceeded as normal. Legs stuck out to trip her, her classmates whispered mean words everywhere she went, and people glared whenever Lila spewed some sob story. The only difference was that Marinette had to stay after school to talk to the art teacher, and he didn’t tolerate bullying. At all.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Lila and Alya walking out of school, so she knew it was safe.

After her school business was done, she walked home. At this time, the bakery shouldn’t have been too crowded. As she got closer, she saw some figures through the glass. It was...Lila and Alya? And her parents? What were they doing there? She was in front of the door and all she could make out were fragments of words, but nothing that would make sense. And sobbing. Loud sobbing. Marinette gingerly pushed the door open, wincing at the bell announcing her entrance. All four figures in the store turned to look at the newcomer.

Looking at the people, Marinette made out a few key things. One, Lila was crying. Two, her Maman looked pissed. Three, her Papa’s fists were clenched. And four, Alya wore an expression so deadly, it would make a grown man cry, thank god Marinette was used to that.

“Um...what’s going on?” Marinette asked, confused as to why Lila had come into her bakery.

“This girl here has been telling us some... interesting ...things,” her Maman replied, with a deadly undertone, “She’s been saying that you have been bullying her.”

Marinette was worried. The way her Maman had phrased her question, Marinette didn’t know if she believed her or not. Her parents would believe her, though. They wouldn’t believe the words of a random girl over their own daughter. Right?

“I-I didn’t Maman, I-” Just in case, Marinette started defending herself, but her Papa cut her off.

“Marinette,” he said furiously, yet calmly, “How dare you bully someone for a reason as small as jealousy. I thought I raised you better than that.”

Her heart broke. Her Maman and Papa, the two people who were supposed to care for her, no matter what , blamed her for something she didn’t even do. Marinette could feel the burning behind her eyes, and a few tears slipped out before she could stop them.

“B-but, I didn’t, I swear-” she was cut off yet again.

“Get out,” her Maman said. The bakery was silent and Marinette looked at her Maman, Sabine, wide-eyed, not believing this was happening, that she was being kicked out.

“You have 1 hour to pack your things and get the hell out of here ,” Sabine said sternly, and Marinette swore she could feel her heart shatter. She walked towards the stairs, and as she snuck a look behind her, there was a tiny smirk on Lila’s face. Barely noticeable, but definitely there.

Lila had won. Her friends and family were turned against her and she had nowhere to go. This wasn’t even reversible. Thankfully, Marinette had planned meticulously for every possibility, so even though her heart had told her not to, she had a plan for what to do in case of not having a home anymore. Granted, it was in case the bakery burned down or her parents died, but it was still applicable in this scenario.

Taking a breath, she began Contingency Plan 7C. Marinette quickly packed up her stuff, Tikki and Plagg looking at her in sadness. Throughout the entire ordeal, they had been at her side, comforting as best they could without being found out.

“You’re really leaving, Pigtails?” Plagg asked.

“I have to. Besides, it’s a perfect place to hide,” Marinette reassured the kwami, who was still a bit skeptical. Tikki knew better than to try and change Marinette’s mind in a situation like this.

25 minutes later, her time was almost up and everything that could be packed was packed, including the Miracle Box. She had taken out the Horse Miraculous and put them on, freeing Kaalki. Sadly, she had to leave her sewing machine and mannequin, but everything else fit neatly into her bags with the help of an extension spell she picked up in the Grimoire. It was the same kind of magic that made her yoyo able to hold anything. The rest vanished with another quick spell. Afterward, it looked like she had never lived there. It was crucial that nothing was left.

She had prepared a special program imbued with a bit of magic, and so with just a click of a button, everything about Marinette Dupain-Cheng, from public records to her school information, was erased. All necessary documents were forged (magic is useful) and she was now legally emancipated. She had already graduated early and money was accounted for. Her business as MAT had provided her with more than enough to live by herself, and she had already bought an apartment in her new city. She was going to live there after she moved out anyway, but this just sped up the process. Basically, everything was ready for her to move. Now all she had to do was leave.

Walking downstairs with a big bag was a bit of a pain, but it had to be done. Her parents would be suspicious if she just teleported since, to them, it would look like she just disappeared.

Marinette breezed by them without so much as a glance. Her peripheral told her Alya and Lila were gone. Ignoring them didn’t remove the hole in her heart, though, and she was reminded of Adrien, of someone who was supposed to help and support her and instead destroyed her.

With every step she took, the ring gently bounced against her chest, a permanent reminder of his betrayal and her subsequent injuries.

Speaking of Ladybug, Marinette had already prepared for that. Hawkmoth had been defeated, Chat Noir had been permanently removed, Master Fu had named her as Guardian, and there was no need for Ladybug anymore. She was free to leave, so a part of that program included a video uploaded to the new (accurate and credible) Ladybug website: BugOut.com. The video told Paris she was stopping being Ladybug for good, but if absolutely necessary, she would come back. Chat Noir was never coming back, though.

“Goodbye Sabine, Tom. I would say it was a pleasure, but it really wasn’t,” Marinette said her final words before exiting the bakery, the chiming of a bell marking the end of the life of one Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Right now, she was nobody, but as soon as she got to her new home, she would take her new identity: Marie Gina Lenoir, Gothamite.

quick links: < previous chapter | first chapter | next chapter >

a/n: so comment if you enjoyed or even if you didn't. i love to interact with you guys. ask questions if you want and I'll answer them as long as it's not too personal. read my other fics (and if you have time i guess you can read n's too). i have two other fics i'm working on at the moment and both are mcu (one is an mlb crossover) so look out for those. <3

tagging: 

here’s the taglist again! if you are currently part of the taglist and don’t want to be part of the taglist, sorry about that! shoot us message and we’ll remove your tag, no offense taken. if you want to be part of the taglist, send us an ask/message and we’ll add your name! 

@charme-de-malchan​ @aveline-rose​ @bookblokeanoid​ 

[surelybystarlight]

Season 4 Letters

Late 12th month, 100 AG Dear Fire Lord Zuko,

   Rebuilding the Southern water tribe is going along better than expected. So much had already changed by the time we got here. The benders from the north have made leaps and bounds in bending strong buildings. With the men finally back from the war we hope to have many newborns come end of next Spring and are building a hospital in expectation.    I’m writing to inform you that we will be proposing a formal medical exchange program at the First World Summit in 2 months, at the 6 month mark since the end of the war, in hopes of expanding our knowledge of healing by combining it with the herbal knowledge of the earth kingdom and the surgical knowledge of the fire nation. I am asking for your support of this program. An exchange of professional knowledge will not only be a sign of good faith and respect of other cultures on the fire nation’s part. It will also act as a symbol of the new age we are trying to build, one of mutual healing and support.

   I know it’s only been 3 months since we last all saw each other in Ba Sing Se, but I miss you and Toph. Suki and Sokka are doing well, with the help of our father, Sokka’s established a council of tribe members over seen by the chief to make decisions. Him and Suki are leaving for Kyoshi Island in a few days, Suki has new recruits to train and Sokka is traveling as “Son of the Chief” to formalize diplomatic ties with Kyoshi Island and Omashu. I think he’s just trying to avoid the days of endless sun coming up. I don’t know how they are going to make it work, but I hope they do. Aang's doing great, trying to be the avatar and mediate every conflict he comes across every chance he gets.    Tell me, how are you doing, How’s Mai? How’s Uncle? Has he driven you mad with tea and proverbs yet? Hows Toph? I know things are still rough with her parents. Uncles idea of taking her on as a pledge (word!!) was brilliant. Toph supposedly getting a courtly education in the fire nation pleases her parents, and in exchange she doesn’t have to go back to being sheltered.

       Wishing you the best,        Master Katara Daughter of the Chief

(p.s. Still feels weird calling you that but I’ll get used to it.)

Mid 1st month, 101 AG Dear Master Katara Daughter of the Chief,

   I can assure you that you will have the fire nation’s support behind your proposal, I agree an exchange of knowledge and skills will be beneficial for everyone. Water bender healers will be in high demand here once our doctors learn of what you can do. Will you be joining in the exchange? There would be a prime apprenticeship in Caldera hospital and a place for you in the fire palace waiting for you.

   Things are ok, it’s stressful being firelord. It’s hard to not just yell at everyone, but I have to set a better example than my father. I'm so glad uncle decided to stay as my adviser rather then retire to his tea shop just yet. At this point I’ll take any advice I can get, proverb or not. Toph’s doing great, you know how she is, she doesn’t talk about the painful stuff. She’s been very useful in vetting the staff and nobles for Ozai supporters. She’s kind of become my unofficial bodyguard. She’s even complained that she wished someone would make an attempt on my life just to spice things up. If I didn’t know her better I’d be scared.    Mai left on a sabbatical a little while ago, said she needed to find out what makes her happy, not just what she doesn’t hate. I know we weren't going to find happiness with each other. Not after everything we’ve both seen. Last time I was truly happy and at peace was at the summer palace with the whole Gaang. I hope she finds happiness wherever it may be.

       Hoping you’ve found your happiness,        Firelord Zuko

(p.s. It still feels weird being called that)

Early 2nd month, 101 AG Dear Zuko,

   Why didn’t you tell me Mai left sooner? I know you never really forgave yourself for leaving her at the Boiling Rock, but you deserve to be happy too. You deserve someone who loves you and you love in return. I miss the summer palace too, even though we were preparing for a war, I haven't felt so at peace since. I miss our night time sparring matches, letting off steam. And the day to day routine of our little family. There were moments I could have lived in forever.    I mean, I am proud of the work Im doing, rebuilding my tribe is important to me. And being in a position to effect change on the world, to usher in this age of peace is so empowering. Aang wants to start and airbender acolyte program after the World Summit, which is just as important to him. He wants me to join him once the healer exchange program is off the ground. Wants me to become an acolyte and help him “rebuild” the air nomad culture. Maybe I’ll find peace in the air nomad philosophy. I know that it didn’t exactly always work for me in the past, but maybe I’ll understand it better if I study it. I want to be able to be happy at the air temples. The days of endless sun are here, I’m sure I’ll find the idea of Air nomad philosophy more agreeable once I’ve seen the moon in the night sky again. For now, Aang's Air nomad diplomacy is not appropriate for handling midnight sun madness.    I know I won’t get your response before I leave for the World Summit, so I’ll see you then.

       Hoping you find your happiness too,        Your friend, Katara

Late 2nd Month, 101 AG Dear Katara,

   I know you wont get this before the World Summit, but I wanted to write you anyway. I am proud of my work, I hope I’ll find fulfillment in bettering the lives of my people. Love is not a given for Firelords, when Mai left my court started looking for suitable candidates for Fire Lady. Their concern is more with stability and producing an heir than ensuring I'm in love. Love was just never in the cards for me, I was never the hero of our story destined to get my girl. You’re lucky to have a chance at happiness with Aang. Even if, as we are both painfully aware, Air nomad philosophy isn’t always applicable, as long as you’re happy with him.    And if for some reason you aren't, there will always be a place for you in my country and home.

       Alway your friend,        Zuko

Early 4th Month, 101 AG Dearest Zuko, Dear Fire Lord Zuko, Zuko,

   The World Summit was very eventful and beneficial for all.    I know I said some things after the celebration ball. That certain things happened, but I want to assure you that I will be joining Aang at the Air temples, it’s where I am meant to be. I want to be happy with Aang.

       Katara

Late 4th Month, 101 AG Dearest Katara,

   I understand, like you said, We aren’t the ones who get our happily ever afters. Just promise me you wont give up your own happiness for the sake of his. I’m not saying you have to come to the Fire nation if you don’t find peace as an Acolyte, just remember you aren’t a prize. Your happiness matters too.

       Always your friend,        Zuko

Late 6th Month, 101 AG Dearest Katara,

   I heard from Ty Lee that you’ve returned to the Southern Tribe to help run the healer exchange program and train new healers. I hope you find your happiness there. I know it couldn’t have been easy to leave the Air Acolytes, but I am proud of you. One of us deserves to find happiness

       Hoping you find your happiness,        your friend, Zuko

Mid 7th Month, 101 AG Dear Zuko,

   Due to the reluctance of water tribe healers, I have decided to join the healer exchange program and set an example by taking a position in the Fire nation. I will be returning with you to the Fire Nation after the 1 year of Peace Celebration to begin my apprenticeship.    I’ve heard you’ve yet to accept or even entertain any of the potential Fire Ladies, I know you said love isn’t in the cards for you, that we aren’t the heros, but you deserve to be happy too. Thank you for your support, I haven't found my happiness yet, but I hope I will soon.

       Yours Always,        Katara

Early 8th Month, 101 AG Dearest Katara,

   I was genuinely happy to read that you’ll be coming back to the Fire Nation with me. Like I promised months ago, there will always be a place for you in my home. I hope you can find your happiness in the Fire Nation. I look forward to seeing you again at the Peace Celebration.

       Yours Always,        Zuko

Early 9th Month, 101 AG Dear Master Pakku

   You would be wise to never doubt the insight of a guardian in the ways of their charges's heart. For no one knows said heart better than the one who watched it form. I won the pot, time to pay up old man

       Better luck next time,        General Iroh

Chapter notes

Zuko and Katara got really drunk during the World Summit ball and ended up sneaking off together to have a heart to heart. They lamented both feeling like they were supporting character. Katara said she felt like she was just supposed to be apart of Aang’s happily ever after regardless of if it was her happily ever after. They end up admitting to each other that their happiest moments were with each other and share a drunken passionate kiss. 

Afterwards Katara tries to bite the bullet and make herself happy with Aang at the air temple, but she doesn’t last very long because it really isn’t where she’s happy. She ends up leaving Aang, giving him a speech about needing her own happily ever after. 

Zuko and Katara come together for discrete yet passionate love making at the Peace Celebration. They decide to keep their relationship a secret for the time being both to protect Aang's feelings and to avoid court gossip. However, Uncle Iroh figures it out right away, he had a bet with master Pakku since the end of the war when Zuko took the bolt of lightning that the two would end up together.

[ladyhistorypod]

Episode 18: Three’s Company, Four’s Divine

Sources

Ishtar

Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus: Mesopotamia Timeline

Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus: Inanna/Ishtar

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Inanna and Enki

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Inana's Descent to the Netherworld

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Composite Text of Akkadian Descent of Ištar

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

CON­STRUCT­ING THE IM­AGE OF ASSINNU BY MARTTI NISSINEN SAANA SVÄRD

Further Learning: Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Epic of Gilgamesh, Epic of Gilgamesh: Standard Babylonian Version

Nüwa

Oxford Reference

Mythopedia

Google Arts & Culture

Further Learning: Remarks by Ambassador Cheng Jingye

Danu & Tuatha Dé Danann

The Goddess Danu (YouTube)

Danu - Irish Goddess (YouTube)

Ancient History of Ireland, Tuatha De Danaan, Scythians, and Phoenicians (YouTube)

Celtic Mythology - An Introduction to the Tuatha De Danann (YouTube)

Further learning: House Shadow Drake - Don and Dana, Celtic Myth and Legend, Poetry and Romance, The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland, Life Understood from a Scientific and Religious Point of View, The History of Ireland

Persephone

Hesiod’s Theogony

Homer’s Hymn to Demeter

Madeline Miller

Further Learning: Lore Olympus (webcomic), Punderworld (webcomic)

Attributions: A Ghrà by Damiano Baldon

Click below for a transcript of this episode!

Haley: Which goddess is three point three seven feet tall? Kelsie: Three point three seven? Haley: Yes. Alana: Do– do you want us to say? Do you want to say? Lexi: These jokes are just a quiz for Kelsie. Haley: I have to have multiple jokes? I'm not ready. Alana: I have one it’s fine. Haley: Okay well it's Demeter. Alana: And you know you should also you know in in in COVID times, in COVID times you should be standing Demeters apart. Lexi: Oh. My. Lord Jesus. Oh my god. I should say oh my lord Ashera [Ash-er-a]. Kelsie: There you go. Alana: Oh, that's very funny. Haley: I love when Alana’s– Alana: Ashera [Ash-ay-ra], actually please. Lexi: Yeah, right. I knew as soon as I said it I said it wrong. Haley: Every couple of episodes Alana will… like Lexi and I will say something, and Alana will be like “oh that's like really funny” in this tone and like… I’m always funny. Don’t be surprised. I don't need this from you. Kelsie: Actually Haley, you're quite hilarious. Haley: Thank you. Lexi: Wait, but how does that tie into social media? Haley: I didn't get to the question yet. The question is because for… well my dad doesn't listen to my podcast, but for my dad is the worst person to get Christmas or birthday presents and his birthday is January 2, so like hop skip and a jump right after Christmas. But he loves board games, and his favorite board game is Codenames, so I have printed out over two hundred photos– like family photos– of the like stupidest photos in the world. And I'm laminating everything so it could be his own Codenames pictures, replacing all of it. Kelsie: That’s good. Haley: And my question is, is there a photo from your childhood where you're like what am I doing but you have that second jolt of like no this actually makes complete sense when you're realizing like what you're doing in the photo? For me it was crouching down in like the seventh grade next to a kangaroo, waking up a kangaroo, and then immediately after getting punched. I also had bangs but it was Australia and humidity or whatever climate that just didn't work with my curly hair. Lexi: So that was a set up so I could say that the picture of me digging up a dinosaur… Which, famously on this podcast I get mad when people think archaeologists dig up dinosaurs. Kelsie: As you should. Lexi: But yes, there is a picture of me, five years old, digging up a dinosaur. Not a real one. I don't think they’d let four year olds do that. Haley: But the best part is the goggles! Lexi: I have goggles on to protect me from the dirt. Kelsie: That’s important. You don’t want to get schmutz in your eyes. Lexi: But I’ve never been on a dig where I wore goggles. Kelsie: Maybe you should. Maybe you should wear goggles next season. Lexi: You know how much acne I’d get around my face if I wore goggles in the heat of Israel? Alana: Yeah, right? Kelsie: Who cares? Alana: No, go to Ireland! [INTRO MUSIC] Alana: Hello and welcome to Lady History; the good, the bad, and the ugly lady you missed in history class. We're back recording new episodes, so here is Lexi. Lexi, what would you be the goddess of? Lexi: Cross stitching and tricycles. Alana: Do you want to elaborate or just leave it at that? Lexi: Well right now I am cross stitching and it's what I do with my hands when I'm talking because I have mental problems and the only way I can focus on something is to do something else mindless. And the tricycle is because I have an adult tricycle and an anecdote my dad took that tries to go into the bike repair shop to get the brake fixed and he was too embarrassed to say it was his daughter’s so he said his wife bought it for his mother in law. Alana: And I really like that question so I'm also gonna ask Haley. Haley, what would you be the goddess of? Haley: I think I would be the goddess of eggs, just because I would control them and like not take it in because like I don't wanna be the goddess of something like I destroy, so like… Alana: For the irony. Haley: The irony. Eggs. Alana: And it's our third ever guest, Kelsie! Kelsie, tell the listeners a skosh about yourself. Kelsie: Hi everybody I'm Kelsie Ehalt. I am a Master’s student at Brandeis right now and I'm going to go and list the department I'm in. It's just a lot of words, so get ready. But I'm in the joint program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, those are two different departments, but they both have ‘ands’ which makes things confusing. But basically I study ancient history via texts right now. I do archaeology as well but right now since digging’s not really a thing because we shouldn’t travel because of the pandemic, I'm really focusing on languages for my Masters. And then I also incorporate the gender studies side of things into the equation, so I'm just looking at how gender functions in the ancient world and thinking about it from a not straight white man perspective, basically, because that's basically all that’s been published. And there’s some better scholarship coming out now, but there's still some work to be done so I'm doing what I can there. Alana: We do love all of that. And I'm Alana and I tried to start an all goddess religion when I was like eight. (Haley laughing) Alana: Me and my friend Kay who is one of my like oldest friends in the whole world, they're gonna get a shout out a little bit later as well because they sort of helped me in my research. We like tried to start up polytheistic all goddess religion when we were like eight. We like had a list of goddesses that we wanted to name and we like created little rituals. A great time to be had. Kelsie: Everyone should have just a religion creation phase I think. Alana: Absolutely. We called it Selenism because the main goddess was Selene. Haley is shaking her head at me and it's making me feel… ways. Haley: I love it but also like… Lexi: I feel like I was like writing fan fiction before I knew it was fan fiction, while you simultaneously were making a religion. Haley: Like I'm not surprised that either of this happened. Not surprised at all. Alana: It's a true story, it's a fun story. We kept a lot of ash in bottles… related to this religion that we were making up. Kelsie: Where did you get ash from when you were like… Haley: Yeah, that’s the… Alana: I don't think we still have it, but like we had it for a while. Lexi: No no no, where did you acquire it? Kelsie: What were you burning? Alana: Oh. From like. I don't remember. Haley: No that's a body. Alana: I think we just like burned paper or something and collected the ash. Kelsie: Oh, that’s not exciting. Alana: We played with a lot of fire when I was… Kay and I… we played with a lot of fire. Haley: Yeah! Yes! Yes. Lexi: I don’t know what to say. Haley: No, playing with fire… Wait, were you a Girl Scout too? Alana: No, I was a Daisy for half an hour and then they wanted me to do all this like stupid weird shit like say my own name in a group of people so that was a no no for baby Alana. Alana said no no to being a Daisy. Kelsie: Alright so I'm going to talk about my girl Ishtar today. So Ishtar is the Akkadian name for the goddess of love and war but the Sumerian version of her name is Inanna so I might switch back and forth between Ishtar and Inanna but know that by the later period they're the same person. There's some debate about whether Ishtar was a separate goddess who became then sort of like coagulated in with this earlier Inanna, or if Ishtar is just like a direct connection to Inanna, there's a debate about this, it’s not quite clear. So I’ll probably refer to her as Ishtar. If I mess up and instead of Inanna it’s because I work with the later period stuff so I don't really see Inanna too much. But anyway so Ishtar, Inanna is the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war. And she's depicted in all kinds of different texts, but obviously we have the most interesting sort of goddess information about her from the mythological texts, but she also shows up in legal texts because they're just invoking her to you know validate decisions, things like that. And people in this period, well in Mesopotamia across all periods of history, have personal gods so she’s invoked in sort of just letters too if they're just like “hey bud I'm sending you this thing, you know, good luck, thanks Ishtar or Inanna.” like whatever, she's brought up a lot. But for today I'm gonna focus on a few of the mythological texts because I think that's where we get the most interesting information about who she is as a character in the Mesopotamian religion. So the biggest story, or the story where she has the biggest role, is– the title’s translated, there's not really a title, they don't always title these tablets. But it's translated as the Descent of Inanna or Ishtar into the Netherworld. So I'm gonna give you a little summary of what goes on in that story which is… it's a fun one. I actually– this is one of the first things I– the actual– first actual texts I worked on translating in Akkadian, not just working out of the exercise the book but actually working with text. So I'm gonna tell you the Sumerian version a slightly longer, and there are more details, so I'm gonna tell you that version, and then I can tell you how the later Akkadian versions differ later. So here, Inanna–because this is Sumerian– she's deciding to go down to the netherworld. It's kind of conceived as like a cavern type thing underground so I guess I should go over Mesopotamian cosmogony first so we have Earth here which is where you know humans and mortals lived, and above that is the heavens, which is pretty standard for what modern Abrahamic traditions follow as well. But then beneath the Earth, we have the netherworld or underworld. In Sumerian it’s kur, in Akkadian it's kurnigi… I'll just call it the netherworld. And then between the netherworld and the Earth we have the Apsu, which is sort of this underground water where things happened too, and that's where Enki lives. And that's also– that plays a role in the creation story of Enuma Elish where Tiamat, one of the primordial goddesses who's the goddess of fresh water...? Either freshwater or saltwater I’m forgetting. She mixes with Apsu which is either freshwater or saltwater, whichever one she's not, and they create the other gods from there. So the Apsu is really important because it's sort of the origin point of all of the gods within Mesopotamian… the Mesopotamian pantheon. It's also where Enki lives, and he's one of the head gods too and we'll talk about him some more in the story because he plays a role. Okay so in the Descent of Inanna… so she's going down to the underworld to visit her sister Ereshkigal, who is the goddess of the underworld. I'm forgetting what her name is in Sumerian, it might be still Ereshkigal. But she’s going down to visit Ereshkigal because her husband– Ereshkigal’s husband has died, so Inanna wants to go to his funeral. And before she goes down, she tells her assistant– it's translated as minister in the versions that I looked at– her minister whose name is Ninshubur– I'm not sure about the length of the vowels there, but Ninshubur is Inanna’s like assistant, I'm imagining like a PA. And so Inanna is like “okay Ninshubur, like I'm going down, it's kind of dangerous to go, people don't really go down to the netherworld, so if I'm not back in three days go ask these gods for help.” and she gives a list of gods. First is Enlil, and then Urim, Nanna, and Enki. That's important later because she gives a list of four and it's important that she gives a list of four because the first three don't help her, but we'll get to that in a minute. So Ninshubur is like “okay, great, have a good visit to the netherworld,” and off Inanna goes. So Inanna goes down, she’s stopped by the gatekeeper… and the gatekeeper says “hold up, what are you doing here and why are you here?” And so Inanna says “I'm visiting my sister because her husband died and I want to go to the funeral” and he's like “okay let me go ask her.” So he goes and asks Ereshkigal if it’s okay and Ereshkigal is concerned because before Inanna went down, she got these powers. And the powers are manifest in physical objects. So she gets a ring that has some sort of special power, and this lapis lazuli necklace that has a power, and there are seven other– seven total things, so five other things that have powers. And so Ereshkigal knows that Inanna brought these and she's concerned about them because there's a sort of not trusting dynamic between them even though they are sisters. So Inanna’s like okay you can let her in but close all seven gates and only open one at a time to let her in, and each gate take one of her things. So she goes through it's the same sort of structure throughout, in the Sumerian. And she goes to one gate, they take her ring. She goes to the second gate, they take her hat or whatever. And it goes on for seven gates. And then she gets to the last gate, they let her in, and basically it was a trap. Speaker 0: They… it's kind of confusing. The Sumerian is not really clear on what exactly happens. But I've sent Alana the link to the translation that I looked at, and so you can read it too if you want to see– Alana: That will be in our show notes at ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. Kelsie: Yeah. So I used the version that the… the Electronic Corpus of Sumerian Literature version which is trans– it's sort of a… It's a compilation of some different translations but it's a pretty standard not too fluffy interpretive translation, so I thought it was pretty good. But basically… so she gets the last gate and then they start yelling at Inanna and then she turns into a corpse and they put her on a hook. I'm not exactly sure what the process of these things are, but I’m imagining they're yelling at her and she just sort of like desicates and like dries up and they like put her on a hook. The motivation isn't super clear, I think, and some of the tablet is broken, so there… we might be missing some of the context, of course. And you know, of course, something important happens in a break, that's always the case, it’s never something boring. So maybe there’s some sort of other story, and maybe it's orally transmitted, detailing the drama between Ereshkigal and Inanna. Maybe there's a more specific reason why Ereshkigal does not trust Inanna and therefore wants to take her powers and then trick her to stay in the netherworld. Anyway, so Inanna's dried up, on a hook, and then three days passed and so Ninshubur, you know, being the loyal personal assistant, realizes three days have passed and Inanna’s not back, so she's like “oh shit, I better go get help.” So she goes to the first person that Inanna told her to ask for help from, Enlil. Enlil says “no, I’m not helping.” And then Ninshubur goes to Urim, Urim says “no I'm not helping.” And then Ninshubur goes to Nanna, and Nanna says “no, I’m not helping.” And finally she goes to Enki, who in some versions of myths is Inanna’s father. And in this version he… the wording is that he is her father, but we have to be careful with the wording about like familial relations in Near Eastern text because sometimes they’re just using them to describe power dynamics, not actual biological relations. So even though Enki here is you know referring to Inanna as his daughter, it might just be a power dynamic thing rather than a biological relation. That's not super clear, but in other versions of the story he’s also depicted as her father so I think that's fair enough to go for the narrative. But anyway, he’s like “okay fine I'll help, what is Inanna doing?” And so Ninshubur explains that she went down to the netherworld and is stuck. So Enki's like “okay I have a plan.” So he makes these two figures and these are gonna come up later because these figures are what I'm doing my thesis on. He takes dirt from his fingernail and he makes a kurgarru and in the Sumerian it’s galutera. In later Akkadian is just galu. But these two figures– and I’ll explain a little bit more later when I talk about what I'm doing for my thesis– there are some interesting gender performance things going on with these figures. But right now I’ll just leave them as helpers that Enki makes from dirt from under his fingernail. And he gives one of them a plant and he gives one of them water, and he’s like “okay, go down to the netherworld, and give… you're gonna see a corpse, and it's gonna be confusing, but that corpse is your queen.” So I love that saying, because he's like “you’re gonna see this dead body” so he knows what happened already, which I don't understand how that happened. But he's like “you're gonna see this corpse, give her the water, give her the food, and you'll be okay.” They go down, they give Inanna the water and the plant, and she– I assume like somehow revives. And I’m imagining like a sponge, like they put the water on her and like I said before, like I’m imagining like the yelling like desiccated her, so there was sort of like… like soaking up the water. And so okay… she's like “okay I'm fine now.” So they start to leave, and these two demons stop them, the group of three who are leaving, so there’s five of them now. And they say “well, no one ever leaves the netherworld, so you need to send someone to replace you.” And she's like “okay, who do you want” and they're like “we want your assistant” and she's like “no she's too loyal” and then they're like “we want your manicurist” and she's like “no she's too good” and then they're like “what about your husband” and Inanna’s like “okay sure, I guess.” There's some other stories about her husband Demuzi, that it was an arranged marriage too so Inanna is like not too keen on her husband. But so anyway, so the demons go to take Demuzi, and he's like “oh no, I don't want to go to the netherworld.” So he talks to his brother Utu, who lives in the heavens, and he's like “Utu, turn my limbs into snakes so I can escape the demons” and Utu is like “okay, that sounds like a good idea.” And so he turns his limbs into snakes, and he escapes the demons. And then the last part of the story is really fragmented, so I have no idea what's going on, but apparently Demuzi escapes, and then some other things happen, and then Inanna talks to a fly…  like a bug, a fly, who says “I know where your husband is, we can go find him.” And then apparently the fly helps her– it's broken so it's hard to know and then the story ends somewhere there. But that's the short, sort of humorous version of the Sumerian version of the descent of Ishtar, or Inanna, rather. And then the Akkadian version is a lot shorter, it leaves out a lot of the details of… it doesn't have the story afterward, after they leave the netherworld and the demons are trying to take someone back to replace Inanna, the Akkadian version doesn't have that. One of the notable things but the Akkadian version, I think, and this sort of links into my master's thesis, which I’ll get to in a second, is that when Ishtar, in this case since we're talking about the Akkadian, is stuck in the netherworld, there's a whole series of lines repeated twice or three times where it's like all of the animals and humans aren't having sex anymore. And things are bad. And so that's how they know that something's wrong with Ishtar, instead of the assistant sending people down to help, other people realize that something's wrong, which I think is interesting. And then, you know, then she gets back and it's okay. But yeah. So, to talk about my thesis a little bit. So I'm focusing on a couple different figures in the cult of Ishtar, the main ones I'm focusing on is the assinnu. The assinnu is the syllabic spelling of it in Akkadianin but there's also a logogram which in Sumerian is sagg or sag. That one you see sometimes the other one is urmunis which is literally man-woman. Haley: Fun fact, sag in Farsi is dog. Kelsie: Oh, really? Haley: Yeah. Kelsie: In Sumerian it’s head or like top. Haley: Oh that's fun. I was ready for you to be like wolf. Kelsie: No, it's the same as the Arabic it's kelb, kelbum in Akkadian. Anyway, so I think there's definitely something going on interesting gender-wise with these figures, and so actually I first came up with this topic because I was reading the descent of Ishtar in Akkadian, not the Sumerian version. But my first semester of Akkadian, and my professor was a PhD student and we got to a part where– the part where in the Akkadian version, Ea instead of Enki makes an assinnu. And it's the word assinnu in the Akkadian version, but it’s kurgarru and galla in the Sumerian version, but these are all kind of related. I'm throwing words out, I’ll explain the difference– and also the difference isn't super clear, so if you’re confused between them, everyone is. There's not a clear distinction between these roles that we found in the textual evidence so far. But I was like “okay what's an assinnu” because I never heard that word before, that's not a common word in Akkadian and he’s like “oh, it's like a third gender person” and like that raised red flags in my gender studies brain, I'm like okay like whenever you categorize something as third gender without any other discussion there's something interesting going on there. So I started reading some more about what people had written about the assinnu and it turned out to be pretty gross because as we all know being archaeology students and students of the ancient world, it's all white straight man… cis straight men writing about basically everything and so that's the case with gender as well, unfortunately. And so in all these different translations of texts, the assinnu are translated from everything as like cultic prostitute, to eunuch, to impersonator– all these gross words that I think… one, just really limit the conversation that you could have about gender in these figures because you're placing so many modern assumptions on them just with the single word that you're using, and two, especially words like eunuch and cultic prostitute like there's no textual evidence to support these interpretations anyway. So it's all this secondary scholarly interpretation being placed on these figures where you know there's not many textual instances of them, so it's hard to say what exactly is going on but there's not specific evidence for castration or prostitution. For my thesis I’m basically going through and writing about how the word assinnu and kurgarru and galu and kalu have been translated by scholars, and then going back and seeing like what can we figure out in terms of their gender performance from the actual textual evidence that we have, as opposed to just going to these simplistic, interpretive labels. And my proposition, too, at the end is to not translate words like that because any translation that we have is going to simplify the role of these figures and I think just leaving it in the Akkadian leaves more room open for describing the things that they did and leaving it open because we don't know a lot about them, and just leaving that sort of gray area there instead of just labeling them one thing or another. But yeah so that's what I'm working on for my thesis, and all of these figures are associated with Ishtar specifically. And I think there is something interesting there because of Ishtar’s liminality herself because she's the goddess of love and war and those are two kind of opposite things. And her own gender performance is kind of somewhere in between this binary because sometimes she's portrayed in cylinder seals and things with a beard, and her animal is a male lion, or a lion with a mane, at least. I mean there are female lions with manes too. So I think Ishtar herself has some interesting gender things going on, so it makes total sense that her cultic functionaries, her cultic personnel, also had some interesting gender things going on too. So I'm just trying to figure out what exactly we can say about what's going on within her temple. There’s not a lot of evidence, but just trying to figure out what's going on. Lexi: I love it. I love your thesis. Haley: My mind is blown. Lexi: I really struggled to settle on a lady for this episode because I wanted to do something interesting but I didn’t want my lady to be from the same region as like another lady that was already being covered by one of you in this episode and that's– the regions you are familiar with are the regions I am familiar with because we had the same professors. So I had to branch out of my comfort zone and explore a person I had never explored– well, a god I never explored because this is goddesses. So I did what any sensible person would do and I reached out to my sister– sorority sister, for everyone who's been following along. And I would like to thank my sister Amber for suggesting this lady. It was a very good suggestion. So I'm talking today about Nüwa. Clarification, as always, I do not speak Chinese, so that's the best that it’s going to get but it's probably not totally correct but do with that what you will. I speak Korean, not Chinese. Alana: Have I been Jewish yet? Have we said Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots yet? We got to get all three. Lexi: You got them in. We got them in. Nüwa is the mother goddess of traditional Chinese mythology, so you know we know of a lot of other mythologies from other parts of the world and there often is a mother figure… you know, a matriarch among the deities if you know what I mean. So she's that but in China. And her name is made up of two characters, nu which means woman and wa which is a unique character that is only a part of her name, so that's how it distinguishes her from women in general, it's Nu-Wa. And she is the sister and wife of emperor god Fuxi. And Fuxi is the god who created hunting and cooking, which is a fun combo like hunt then cook? Not vegan, but very relevant to each other. She is often depicted as a serpent, and it's her body is the figure of a serpent and she has a woman's head. And she is capable of shape shifting into anything she wants so she can change how she appears. And let me just say she looks really dope, like what a vibe, check out our Instagram, I’ll put up a picture there, or Google her, but I'm obsessed with the different looks that she has. In some depictions she's just drawn as a woman in traditional Chinese dress, which is hanfu and that's slightly less cool but like chill. And in the traditional Chinese creation story Nüwa created humankind from the earth. And we see this in a lot of creation myths. If you know of creation myths from around the world, a lot of times like the physical earth or clay or dirt is related to the creation of humankind. So the story goes that one day she was walking through the woods and she found the woods to be so beautiful that she was sad that she couldn't share the beauty with others. She wanted someone else to enjoy the beauty of the earth. So she decided to create humans from the clay around the river. So she stopped at the riverbank, she picked up the clay, and she's like “I can make humans out of this.” And it is said that she made the aristocracy, like the aristocratic class from yellow clay from the riverbank, and the lower classes were made from mud. And so Nüwa made the upper classes with her hands, she molded them, but her hands got tired and so she picked up a rope and she dipped in the mud, swung it around over her head, and the mud that dropped off became the lower classes. So there is a class distinction in this story, I assume it was at one point in history perpetuated by the upper classes to justify like the class divide in their society but that's how the story goes. And there are several versions that story with varying details so if you are curious to go explore it there are texts about her written in Chinese and Vietnamese and a couple other Asian languages, so if you speak any of those and want to go read it, feel free. But that's the general basic… things that seem to be true in every version of the story. She is credited with defeating the evil water god who is depicted as a black dragon and is named Gonggong, which… I love that name too, like I love the double syllable situation. It's like you could call a pet that, but I guess not since he's an evil water god, maybe it's not good luck to name your pet after him. And Gonggong he’d ripped a hole in the sky when he was battling another god– it was the fire god, so the water and fire god were like [fighting noises] you know? That was not good podcast audio, but they were going at it, him and the fire god. Alana: How am I supposed to transcribe that? Lexi: Ahhh noise! Kelsie: Throw in some vowels and some Hs. Lexi: They were going at it. And they were fighting. And Gonggong ripped down one of the pillars, which is a mountain. He ripped it down, and the sky got a big hole in it. This is a big problem because the sky protected the people from like crazy weather phenomena, so like rain, tsunami, crazy kind of like… crazy crap was happening in the sky. And so she repaired the hole and saved the humans because she loved them because they were her creation, and versions of the story also differ, with one suggesting that she died of exhaustion because she was so tired because she had like held up the sky and put it back together. But she saved humankind, so it was like her last great feat. And another version suggests that she could not repair the sky with just the material she had, so she herself became stone and put the sky back together. So there’s either the version of her dying of exhaustion or her actually becoming the material to repair the sky. Either way, this is her final story so she sacrifices herself to save humankind from Gonggong's mistake. Kelsie: Wait, so with the second version where she is repairing the sky herself is there like an astrological sort of connection to her then? Is there like a constellation representing her? Lexi: That's a good question. No source I read specifically dictated that. Particularly I think because she tends to be associated with the day, but I am unsure. There might be a constellation related to her. She's technically the goddess of marriage and fertility. Chinese religion has really changed over time, but despite that, Nüwa has remained an important figure to many people in China. There are many temples and shrines that are dedicated to her and preserved in her honor, including one that is seen as the ancestral shrine of all humanity, so she's very central in like the identity structure of China. And some women in China today pray to Nüwa for assistance in issues of fertility or marriage, so like if you want a husband you're supposed to go and be like “Nüwa! Give me a man!” and if you want to have a baby, you're supposed to go to Nüwa and be like “Nüwa! Birth me a son!” and so on and so forth. In addition to her role in religion, she also features prominently in pop culture in China and other parts of Asia. She has been a character in three video games, so you can go play Nüwa. I don't know exactly how these video games work, I have not played them. But if that's your jam, Google it. And in numerous television shows and films, there's films that depict all the different stories surrounding her and other deities so she factors into those stories too, and there have been film adaptations specifically of the sky fixing story. And on Earth Day in 2012, a statue of Nüwa created by a Chinese professor was revealed in Time Square as a representation of the importance of protecting the ozone layer because the theme of that year's Earth Day was the ozone layer. And so the ozone layer protects humans and is similar to the sky and Nüwa in her stories… so the statue is of her holding up a piece of the sky… Nüwa holding a piece of the sky…  and she's holding that up and that represents the ozone layer and the fact that we need to keep the ozone layer safe, so as you would give to Nüwa and worship Nüwa you should worship and protect the ozone layer… so on and so forth. Very very cool. And the statue was later moved to Vienna and I've included in the further reading the transcript of the speech that was given when the statue was installed in Vienna which is now where it lives forever, so it's really interesting if you're into that kind of thing. And also I will include a link to the Google Arts and Culture page that describes the statue and you can learn more about the statue and what it's made of if you like that kind of thing and what it looks like. Haley: I was having like a mental identity crisis with who I was gonna pick, and I was on TikTok, of course, scrolling through like just for inspiration. And I came on for my like For You Page. I think that's what it's called, the youths call it, a fun story about Danu and Tuatha Dé Danann. I really… Okay, so this is Irish mythology that we're doing a deep dive into, and I asked Robert how to pronounce these, and of course I forgot. So in Irish mythology, Danu, meaning the flowing one or the divine one who brings all things into being, is associated with both masculine and feminine things which is like right on. However, every time I pick– like, I couldn't decipher like, discern whether she was representation– like if you looked at her while she had her pronouns, or assuming from scholars now she/her pronouns, if she would represent both masculine and feminine or if she is just associated with because she's the divine one who brings all things into being. Because when you look at her it's– I put a lot in the further reading but I used a lot of YouTube videos of the people who are like kinda amateur experts in this… certainly not myself. And a lot of the representation that they put up were very feminine goddess like. Like very nature-esque, flowing long hair, flowing skirts and dresses, or sometimes like a warrior but really like honing in on that feminine side. And that's just my tangent. So she is also like the earth goddess of fertility and growth, abundance, agriculture, as well as intellect, change, and wisdom– and a whole host of others. She just does it all, apparently. She's also like the hypothetical mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann which is what I'm also going to talk about. But before that, because this group of people, the Tuatha Dé Danann, which is Old Irish for the people of the goddess of Danu and the anai– the A. N. A. I. within the name means wealth and that's kind of strange because this… when I'm reading Danu is D. A. N. U. and that’s not found in any like medieval Irish text which was kind of like a point in time where people were like okay it's not in this period and afterwards type of situation. That goes for a lot of her myths and legends. And if you let me nerd out for a sec, let's go into some etymology of the name Danu. Scholars believe that the name Danu is the nominative form and the genitive form is Danann, spelled as like D. A. N. A. N. N. or D. O. N. A. N. D. or D. A. N. A. N. D., which is seen in the primary sources, that’s also how the name Tuatha Dé Danann is spelled. It's the D. A. N. A. N. N., the genitive form of Danu. Again, with these people, they are the people of the goddess of Danu. And this is the story that I'm actually gonna focus on because spoiler it's great and it's also one of the most well known sources, just if you like do a Google search this is the one that keeps popping up with her. And it's about how… basically Ireland was kind of populated. So opening our book to a short story, while there are a bunch of little stories like within this one story, I'm kind of like lumping it all up. And in Irish mythology  Tuatha Dé Danann were the first people or tribe in Ireland. Since they're supernatural and they're not necessarily human but they are human, the way they arrived to Ireland was like via dark clouds and mist which also gets strange because they landed on Connacht. Am I saying that right, Alana? Alana: Connacht. Haley: Connacht. Alana: C. O. N. N. A. C. H. T.? Haley: Yes! Yes ma’am. Alana: Connacht. Yeah Haley: Which is on the west side of Ireland. And this is where– Alana: It's– throwback to episode two, that is around where Gráinne Ní Máille was born and lived and did her pirate-y thing. Haley: Exactly. So this is like why it gets weird, why I say it's like they arrived via dark clouds and mist because they also had boats. So when I was first reading this, I was expecting like people coming out of like dark mist and clouds because clouds are in the sky! But I think now like boats come along with it, so there might be spaceship boats or like water boats. But– Alana: Like in Treasure Planet. Haley: Exactly! That’s what I was thinking. Lexi: Ancient Aliens? The aliens brought boats down and created the Irish people? Haley: NO. Alana: No no no no. Treasure Planet. Treasure Planet is the analogy that we are going with, Treasure Planet. Haley: Yes. And when they arrived, they supposedly burned the boats, hence forcing them to settle in the land they like docked. Which made little to no sense-tentacles, because you literally like, again, rode in like a cloud of mist. And also I want to know when they settled, and they were like “okay, we have food, water, shelter. Let's burn them boats.” And that's fine, that's a great tradition, I'm not like saying for the tradition. But what if, like, if it was immediate, how did you know that was like a suitable habitat? Because like wouldn't you say “oh, we don't have like one of the three basic needs, four, five basic needs that we need, let's get back on our boats and travel around.” These are also supernatural beings and I'm just overanalyzing mythology. That's what I do. Also once they were settled, so like post-burning boats, I guess… It was said that they stayed there for centuries. And for the archaeologists and all of us here part of the myth that is the ring forts, are also called like the fairy forts… Alana is making a face. And that's because that– Alana: I dug a ring fort! Haley: Connection to you and Susan. Probably Susan, why I know this story. So– Alana: This is the Susan Johnston appreciation episode part two. Haley: I actually have a book that she gave me right next to me on my desk, I have with my library background. Anywho, the fairy forts are like often called fairy forts because the Tuatha Dé Danann used them as portals to another like world. And side note, if a human were to happen across the portal they would be forced to dance until they went mad. Honestly, that’s just like… I read that and it was also kind of like– Lexi: What a way to go. Haley: Exactly. Kelsie: It wouldn't take very long for me, like you know twenty minutes I'm gone. Haley: I know! I was like I can dance through like one album of ABBA but like if we get into an album of the Beatles I might like cease to exist. Alana: (Gagging noise) I hate the Beatles. Famously I hate the Beatles. Haley: Rude. And then she is on a podcast with like one of the best Beatles lovers ever. Lexi, right there and then I’m like a– Alana: I hate the Beatles. I think they're overrated. I think it's just like mediocre white men getting more credit than they deserve. Lexi: Well, Sergeant Pepper takes your note and kindly throws it out.The bird. Haley: He took a nice poop on it. Alana: That's fine. Whatever. Haley: Okay so back to my story, because it’s about me right now. We all went mad. And then lastly, this is my last note, so when the Celts invaded, the legend goes that they all turned themselves into fairies, hence, fairy forts! And then they keep watch over the land. That's them. That's Danu. Kelsie: What's the– I don't know if you know this, and maybe I… maybe there’s not an answer, but what's the significance of… between fairies and circles around things? Like when I think of like– like I know about ring forts, I didn't realize there was a connection to fairy forts. But then like winding up like fairies and circles like… Haley: Yeah. Kelsie: Mushrooms, like that’s also a circle-y thing on the ground. Is that a bigger thing? Haley: So, the circle is like the portal, and the reason why it's called fairies is that the legend says they turned into fairies. So it's like fairy forts, that’s their fort. Kelsie: That makes sense. Haley: That's the most I can tell you. I'm sure there's more. There are a lot of YouTubers out there. Lexi: Also, circles is magic. Alana: I'm talking about Persephone the Greek theological figure, ancient Greek. I identify with her very strongly because I also contain multitudes. There is a poem by Nichole McElhaney who is the author of A Sisterhood of Thorns and Vengeance, a book that apparently just like does not exist, because I cannot find it in print anywhere. But the poem goes “Do not worry about your contradictions - Persephone is both floral maiden and queen of death. You, too, can be both.” And I love that. But apparently like the book doesn't exist Nichole McElhaney has a couple of other poetry books with really interesting cool names similar to A Sisterhood of Thorns and Vengeance. She is also known as Proserpina in Rome, and also known as Kora or Kore, which means maiden. And she becomes Persephone when she is like queen of the underworld which we will get to… the stuff that you might know… because of the Percy Jackson series. So in Homer's Hymn to Demeter… Homer's Hymn to Demeter is kind of the primary source we have for the story of Persephone being taken to the underworld. Homer describes her as slim-ankled, which my friend Kay, shout out Kay, who I brought up earlier, we tried to make a religion together, they are an expert in classical literature and they said that that probably meant like a graceful or delicate or something along those lines. So the story is Hades saw her in a field, abducted her, and took her to the underworld and like made her his queen and something about pomegranate seeds, that he forced her only one in Homer’s hymn. It’s only like one seed. You hear it like three or six other places, but in Homer it's just one. Here's what you might not know about that myth, according to Homer. Hades had Zeus’s permission to do this, but not Demeter’s, who is Persephone’s mother. And Demeter goes searching all over like the whole world for Persephone, and everyone saw what happened– like the sun god saw what happened and was like yeah we're not gonna help you because like basically they said she could do a lot worse as far as a husband goes. She's like queen of the underworld right now. I think like that's a pretty good deal… you know Hades isn't going cheating on his wife like someone we know. Zeus. But according to Homer, one pomegranate seed meant three months in the underworld. Anyway Persephone– this is a really short story I'm sorry– Persephone. She is part of the agrarian triad which is a group of three agricultural slash harvest deities with Demeter and a god called Triptolemus. Kelsie: Lexi would call this an agricultural throuple. Alana: That's an excellent point. I don't think there is any evidence for that but I do like the idea of it being a throuple. So Persephone as queen of the underworld kind of gives a more pleasant face to the concept of death and the afterlife, so it kind of like helps Hades’s reputation and there's not as much stigma about it because yeah you're dying but look the goddess of spring is also queen of the underworld, so that's pretty cool. Now I'm going to cede the rest of my time to modern reinterpretations that are all written by women or some other marginalized group. The only one whose like gender I don't know is married to a man and cis straight men don't marry other men by definition, so this person is marginalized in some other way. I don't know if they know that, but it's really cool story. So first of all, Hadestown. Wow. Anais Mitchell. It's beautiful. It's jazzy. It's so much fun. It's Hades and Persephone but they've like fallen out of love after so long and also the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is in there. I want a live recording of it– it's a Broadway show– I want a live recording of it the way that Hamilton has been. I think that is what we deserve. There is also a couple of webcomics, the first one is Punderworld, which has a very– why are you shaking your head Kelsie? Kelsie: It’s such a bad pun and it has pun in the word! Alana: It’s a bad pun and it has pun in the word. It's a very realistic art style, there are not a ton of episodes, one of them made the rounds on tumblr while ago if you were still there. And it takes place in a more realistic like ancient Greek Olympian kind of setting. Links to the webcomics by the way will be in further learning which is what I've been calling it lately because it's not always reading. The other one is called Lore Olympus. There are a lot of episodes of this one. It is more whimsical but also somehow grittier? Like all the characters are kind of color-coded. Athena has a very androgynous, ace, butch lesbian vibe like someone else in the Zoom right now. So it’s like Olympus is a modern city, but the mortal realm is still in ancient Greece. It's really cool, I was up until five AM last night reading it because I just like gave up and was like I just have to read this. Shout out to my friend Em who told me about those webcomics. Also Madeline Miller, who wrote Circe which was an incredible book and Song of Achilles which I haven't read yet, wrote a really cool piece about Persephone several years ago that basically ends with if Madeline Miller were Persephone we would always have winter because she loves pomegranates so much and that is a mood. Lexi: I love that you brought up Percy Jackson because it always bothers me but there are so many cool modern literary takes on a lot of these things but that's the one that had to get famous? Haley: I'm rereading and I finished the Percy Jackson series, forgot how much like I invested myself into it. I think I only read like the first book and like half of the second because I don't remember the third, fourth, fifth but I have the next series which is like… Alana: The Heroes of Olympus or something? And it’s the Roman? Haley: Maybe. I think that's the next one. Alana: I read the first four Percy Jackson books in a weekend, and I would have read the fifth one in a weekend but it was not out yet. Lexi: I was a fan of them as a child. Alana: I was in like fourth grade. Lexi: Yeah probably fourth grade. But my mom decided I was still a fan of them and for my twenty third birthday I asked for a single ticket to go see Hamilton by myself, but for the same price my mother bought four tickets to see Percy Jackson the Musical. Picture this– Haley: Wait, where was it first? Lexi: It was on Broadway. I mean a real Broadway– Haley: They had Broadway? Lexi: Yes. Picture a thirty two year old gay twink dancing around the stage pretending to be a twelve year old boy. Alana: That just sounds like the Percy Jackson Lightning Thief movie. Lexi: Yes. Alana: But with singing. Haley: To be fair Logan Lehrman because I– Alana: Oh, Logan Lehrman is incredible. Lexi: Also, I won't spoil the musical, the musical's gone now it doesn't run anymore, but in case they ever do another iteration and people want to see I won’t completely spoil it. But it is written where there's only a cast of eight people but all the characters are covered by those eight people, and so there are some weird interesting things where that really take you out of the story because like they have to do double duty as characters and all they do to change is like throw on a jacket. Haley: Is it just the first book? Lexi: Yes and no like how the movie was the first book, but like not. You know I mean? Haley: Yeah. Lexi: It's not a truthful direct adaptation. The songs were like “when your dad’s a god, your dad's a god. The one other thing I want to say about it is my brother and I had both for the books as kids and were like okay we'll go see this as like a family thing, whatever. During the intermission, a girl behind us who was probably maybe fourteen or fifteen would not shut up about Percy Jackson to her family and my brother leaned in and was like if we’d come here seven years ago that would have been you. And I mean probably. But to that team who put that on. Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review, or tell your friends, and if you don't like the show, keep it to yourself. Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time, on Lady History. Haley: Next week on Lady History, she’s going to blind us with some science. We're doing a deep dive into the women of twentieth century science. Haley: We good. Alana: Amazing.

[inkskinned]

literally just a dumb unorganized list of school tips

source: im a grad student. i’ve had a lot of school. also i’m adhd & mentally ill and require +8 organization. this is mostly directed @ college students, but maybe high school students can use it too, fuck, idk, it’s been forever since i was stuck in that hell hole

just say “professor” either ur using the correct title for a person (will make them feel good) or you’re giving them a bigger title on the assumption they deserve it (which will make them feel good) and also prevents having to ever i mean ever use their names

talk at least 1 time a week in each class, aim for 1 time a day. even lecture classes. i fucking hate talking in front of more than 5 people, so what i would do is prepare a question about the hw/etc (even if i didn’t need it answered) to ask the professor after class so they saw me and got used to me and saw i was invested in their class. about 89% of teachers - if they see you try, they will pass you. i mean it’s literally that easy. i know people who went from like a c- but because they legit tried, their grade got bumped up to a b-. 

if u have to bring a laptop, pre-download the required material/screenshot it, and then turn off your wifi. it’s too easy to not listen.

physical writing will always give you more information recall over typing.

nobody cares about stupid shit anymore trust me they don’t remember that you were accidentally locked in a towel out of your room bc they have their own dumb shit that happened.... in college all the “cringe culture” turns into “god i wish that were me” culture ... wear ur onesie to a party trust me you make +800 friends and 799 of them will be girls telling you you’re adorable and they’d die for you

about locking urself out.... if ur like me and can breeze past post-it notes placed in obvious areas, don’t be a dumb bitch and rely on post-it-notes. while most schools offer 1 free lockout, dont rely on it - it once took 2 hours before someone could get to me. i was in a towel, which meant no phone. so like. anyway, what i do now is i put something on the handle of the door i have to open/unlock. i can’t just open the door w/out the thing falling down and making a loud “you dumb bitch unlock the door before u shower” sound. 

this works for all important don’t-forget it things. other obstacles i’ve used to remind myself to do something include: putting a chair with my wholeass posterboard in front of the door, an entire printer with a single piece of paper that just read “for the love of god check to be sure you have that essay”, and a recycling bin i kept forgetting to empty. guess what bitch finally emptied the bin once it was between me and a swift exit!

no offense and like the whole “it’s the best years of your life!” thing is great but in reality everything goes better scholastically when you treat it as “i came here to win, not to make friends.” i still did make friends, went to parties every weekend, was popular enough i’d be invited to several on one night - but i came there to win. when i put my scholastic life and my mental health first, i went from a 2.0 to a 3.98. yes you can, bitch.

you’re spending the money. don’t squander it. trust me when i say i know plenty of people who breeze through, bc you often can. but like. don’t. challenge yourself bc like. talk about an investment.

if you hate your major, change it. don’t make your life something you can’t stand. on that note, do NOT agree 100% to a track until you have at least some experience in the field. i cannot tell u how many ppl i know who got their whole masters/phd program done, walked into their new profession, and were like, Oh Fuck, I Can’t Live Like This.

college literally offers so many free things and if you’re not taking advantage of them whenever possible i get it but like. try to take advantage of them. this is everything from your gym (which probably has free classes dude) to clubs to like. sober events. these sober events are so ... fuckin good dude i’ve made mason jars with little plants in em... bee aviaries... candles.... go to the free stuff

oh ps on free stuff i wanna say about 4 of 5 days there’s free food on campus just look for things like job fairs, presentations, or discussion groups. also while you’re there at the job fair like. u know, go to the job fair in earnest

i took off 2 years to work and also to just. recover from my bullshit. and it took me 6 years and 3 schools to get my bachelor’s. it wasn’t easy but bitch i lived. there’s no such thing as “too long” to graduate if that’s truly what you want to do.

if on the meal plan, eat as clean as you can the first week. then introduce each part of the cafeteria’s possibly-food-poisoning-creating foods one at a time. give @ least 2 days between each experiment so you know for sure if you get sick what caused it. i literally never eat meat at school but you can still get sick off of unwashed lettuce/salad dressing that hasn’t been refrigerated properly/weirdass things you won’t even think of. this prevents like. dying in a public bathroom.

white loaf bread can be gross & boring. discount bakery section for your slightly chewy artisianal bread needs. if overstale, either toast it or dunk it into water and microwave it (unless u got an oven. use the oven if u can)

steal as many apples from the dining hall/events/etc as physically possible just do it they keep FOREVER and @ some point you’ll be like. fUCK i need a nutrition. ps if you’re keeping them in ur backpack (i wouldn’t keep more than 2) make sure to wrap w/a few paper towels so if you drop your bag you don’t get apple mush

write it all down bitch. “i’ll remember it” no you won’t. unless you are capable of remembering every idea on this list and in order, you won’t remember it. in general, if you write something 3 times, you will recall it correctly at least 80% of the time. i also read it out loud to myself, bc, you know, auditory recall

DO NOT just put your assignment at the top of your notes, unless you’re 100% sure that will work for you. in most cases, it’s much better to have a planner/agenda/place you expect to look for assignments. +7 points if you lie to yourself about deadlines and move them all up.

like not to sound too much like a DARE ad but like. if you don’t like it/don’t want it, don’t fuckin do it. the idea that “there’s nothing to do if you don’t party” is such bullshit. like i promise if you’re like “i am a grouch and want to stay in and binge netflix” about 45 ppl will show up in pjs like “bitch fullscreen it, im a grouch too.” there’s also like. the chance to just.... not overindulge. on wednesdays i have “wine wednesdays” where we sit around and drink a glass of wine while we do our hw. it’s chill and friendly instead of like. drink until u vomit. don’t feel like you either gotta slam the breaks or the gas pedal, is what i mean.

PLEASE know the signs of alcohol poisoning/overdose. most schools have a “Safety Always Matters Most” policy, which means that you can call for help w/out getting into trouble. if you think someone is in danger, act. this also goes for making sure ppl get home safe even if they’re just incapacitated, not poisoned. step in, dudes.

also just. notice when ur starting to rely on stuff too much. i’m super easily addicted to things, so i keep a healthy distance from liquor. i don’t let myself “drink to feel better” bc that’s a scary, scary thing to link to feeling better. if you or somebody u know starts drinking all the time/gets anxious if they don’t drink/drinks in the daytime .... get help. schools have counselling services for a reason.

you’re gonna get a cold/flu of some sort in the first 2 months just brace for it. in the meantime, drink vitamin c, try not to touch too many handles, and when people say “there’s something going around” believe them.

watch kaplan nike just do it 

if you can teach it, you know the material. a super good way of knowing if you studied the right way is to try and teach the material to a stuffed animal/imaginary class.

“i don’t know how to study” bitch me too the fuck. this is usually bc we’ve been taught that studying is just sitting down and staring @ ur notes. it’s not. it’s different for everyone, and you need to understand it’s 99% preventative care. if you don’t go to the class or do the homework, studying is going to fucking suck, bc you’re learning the material all at once for the first time. the place you should consider “studying” is “i’m confident in 70-90% of the material, but need to review.” do not let yourself fall behind .... just go to office hours and ask questions if ur not getting something. studying should feel like you’re remembering what you already knew but kinda forgot, not like you’ve been blindsided.

the whole “writing it down in ur own words” while u have been told this 700 times it really helps bc it means u gotta translate it through your own understanding. if you can’t, and it’s not bc the material seems too obvious to you to state in another way - ask yourself if you don’t understand the material. chances are u are missing a bit of info.

i know it’s like A Thing that Some People do but i never had the mental health points for it but i know some people just take 15 minutes after every class to review their notes. since i’m 100% early to every class ever, obnoxiously so, i try to do it before class. having the last class’s notes up in my head super helps. like. put down the phone i know you’re socially anxious me too but review those notes. chances are if u start flipping through pages other ppl will too. this is also fun bc as soon as you start this whole thing, at least one person will be like “is there a test?” no bitch there’s no test but im gonna be ready when there is!

literally so much of success is fucking posturing i could link about 800 peer-edited studies that show that when a student is expected to do well (and knows they are), they do well. like i literally didn’t change my appearance at all, never bothered to look nice (once winter hits i wear 67 layers all the time), but when i showed up after my 2 years off from school, i presented myself with the whole “i came here to win” vibe and people... really respected me? i mean in hs i remember ppl saying shit like “yeah, well, you aren’t gonna have the homework”. by the time i was in college i had an honest-to-god conversation which included someone being like “so tell me what you’re overachieving at right now” like they just expected it from me. wild.

i live by “bite off more than you can chew, and then CHEW IT” but it’s probably unhealthy. the truth is that i have a lot of energy all the time (lmao adhd!!!) and i used to get told i was “trying too hard” and for a long time (still???) i didn’t (i don’t?) know what that was, you know, bc i had a D average, clearly i wasn’t trying. it turns out i was just. putting all my energy into stuff that wasn’t making me happy like toxic friendships etc. when i decided “nope, all this energy is for me and my schoolwork”..... uhhhhh suddenly i was a golden child and everyone praised my try-hardness ... it’s a fuckt up system tbh

take at least 1 class just for fun. i try to do that every semester. it helps break up all the requirements. if you’re like an engineer and got no time or credits left to spend, try to audit your fun course.

make ur advisor love you i don’t care what it takes make them cupcakes show up to thank them i dONT CARE just do it 

the library isn’t always the best place. if i start getting anxious bc i pavlovian train myself that library=work, i find a new place to go to do hw. try to go outside if you can!!! not like where i live bc like it’s snow all the time but try. a little green really really really helps depression. 

if you’ve been in the same “Studying” place for 1 hour and haven’t done anything the chances are Something Isn’t Right. first, look @ ur body. are you not focusing bc of some pressing physical need? sometimes just taking a shower and coming back helps. are you uncomfy? are you too comfy and going to sleep? if body okay, look @ the material. do you not understand it? do you just need to switch to a new topic for a little bit? can you find a youtube video that will help you better understand it? make notes on what you don’t get so you can ask in the next class. if it’s not the material, it’s not ur bod, check the Actual Space. sometimes just getting up, going for a short walk to a new place, and trying it there actually? really works? if none of this is working.... try ur brain next. hardest to reset bc like, what, turn it on and off again? i use things like caffeine, a short workout, a nap, or a podcast all to just... give me a little boost. 

don’t be afraid to leave. i mean this about class, friend groups, and the college ur at. just get up on outta there if ur not feelin it. i cannot recommend “drop the class” enough. even if it’s a required course see if u can switch the times if u hate the professor day 3 it’s not gonna get better just get the fuCK out

don’t nap in the same position u go to sleep in, nap upside down w/ur head away from ur pillow. don’t ask me why but it works to 1. fall asleep faster 2. make sure u sleep okay at night and 3. wake up less annoyed 

on that note don’t ever do anything in ur bed in a sleeping position unless it’s genuinely sleeping in it. body will get confused. just sit up, lazybones.

when/if the library has those therapy dogs during finals week.... just go pet them make the time for it

ask before hugging people, but don’t expect a “yes”

get a backpack that fits and doesn’t hurt ur back u fuckin hippie idc how cool it is to wear ur backpack super low just don’t do it it’s not worth it

the tutoring center is a fucking goldmine.... free essay edits my dudes

bring a fan dorms are always hotter than u expect

switch dorms if u can if u realize ur in the wrong room/wrong roomate like just don’t bother with nonsense

when in doubt, follow preschool rules. tell ppl when they did something cool, just ask when u need help, and be confident even in your mistakes, because at least u tried

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 3041

i got so much work done today.

i had to stop though, around midnight 30, because i looked at my classmates' work that was part of my group.

and i was shocked??? at how elementary it was???? like?????? this is a GRADUATE program. you are getting a MASTERS degree. you don't know how to use APA formatting???? you don't know how to research something extensively????? how do you sleep at night knowing your information is incomplete, that it's not done well??????????

i got so mad that i couldn't think straight.

these fuckers can wait another day for some actual good, graduate-level work.

jesus christ.

anyway, im at joel's and we're in bed and i'm about to put my phone down and cuddle with him because i have missed him. he is RIGHT THERE and i am SO HAPPY.

also i figured out how to type with my brace on - training myself to type with my fingers taped first helped me keep them up and not want to use them, so putting on the brace kept them out of the way and more secure so it was easier to type. nice.

i'm a happy clam besides the shit these??? buffoons?????? pulled in their writing. seriously, i don't know how any of what was there was acceptable. i hope our professor saw that and graded those assignments as i hope they had been. because that was unacceptable for masters level work. (are they 7??? that's the ONLY way it would be acceptable. but no - this is a master's degree in an internationally acclaimed educational institution. this is not acceptable work for this level of education.)

[awesomelephuoclocblog-blog]

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Up to now, there is none

MyTrafficJacker 2.0 Review – Features And Benefits

The most remarkable bit of leeway you will get to guarantee MTJ is that it is 100% and all the time legal to hold onto regions from every one of the FOUR of these districts and arrangements in inside only a solitary day. Hence, you will have the choice to construct your intriguing traffic and your locales' rankings:

without making or rank any video

without making a site

without paying a DIME for traffic

MyTrafficJacker 2.0 Review – How Does My TrafficJacker Work?

My TrafficJacker is a customized programming so you basically need to encounter 4 phases of to catch endless zones:

Stage 1: Input your Target Keyword

Stage 2: Select whether you have to seize from Youtube, Wikipedia, BBC or Quora

Stage 3: Hit start and let My TrafficJacker complete your work

Stage 4: Register the spaces and occupy

It couldn't be any increasingly self-evident, it is as straightforward as one two three!

MyTrafficJacker 2.0 Review – My Experience in Using It?

I used this thing as an analyzer and today I'm going to give you my most this real review and essential direction to use this instrument straightforwardly underneath.

So here I'm at the dashboard of My TrafficJacker:

As you the, the dashboard fuses the left menu where you can use all the limits the mechanical assembly offers. At the central part, the contraption in like manner shows you an introduction video that you can watch through to get some answers concerning the item.

We ought to expect that you need a snappier technique to get familiar with the instrument. So go with me.

Understand watchwords or claims to fame that you have to seize

In case you have no idea about any slender catchphrase/claim to fame that might be unimaginable, go to the Keyword zone, enter the tremendous watchword and snap button. Take a model with my weight decrease watchword as underneath:

My TrafficJacker will instantly show you a once-over of sub watchwords like this:

Fundamentally snap to the chase picture I set apart with the red jolt as above to redirect to the investigation tab. For example, I picked weight decrease smoothies and the device will take me to this underneath screen:

Go authentically to the investigation section if you have your own catchphrase

This investigation tab is actually a comparative one that will be composed to if you go to the Research decision in the left menu I set apart to make you believe that its more straightforward as underneath. This decision is organized in case you recently chose and had an obvious thought regarding what catchphrases/claims to fame you need that you don't need to find the watchword in the Keyword section as above.

Along these lines, come back with the assessment tab. In this section, I will give you hardly any methods you need to go to adequately secure thousands qualified associations.

So with My TrafficJacker 2.0, 4 biggest locales are available for you to get any association which are Youtube, Wikipedia, BBC and Quora as I set apart with red jolts. The others are being revived and you will have the choice to catch them all at the most punctual chance, no worries.

Appropriate with one of 4 destinations

a/Let's go with my model with Quora.

Here is the screen I will be composed to with the Keyword was changed to custom keto diet free. You can find an amazing number of associations that are open for you to get as underneath:

275 target associations were related to My TrafficJacker that is more than awesome. You can check the availability of all the found associations in the overview, by then if those associations in spite of everything have region masters or page experts which you can take ideal conditions to backlink from these locales as well.

Back to the essential concern, I'm going to reveal to you now the most ideal approach to use ended associations by this gadget now:

So you can see there are 275 URL target interfaces as recorded, which one of them is Can you share a fundamental keto feast plan for a youngster including 2 spaces as I checked. The essential zone is open to get so Im going to check its nuances as underneath.

Snap to the URL and it guided me to the article:

the passed space I need to check will regardless exit in the article, I found it resulting to looking down:

As you see, that interface My TrafficJacker found for you is participated in the proper reaction that got 4.2k points of view and 42 upvotes. Notwithstanding the way that the association share perusers' thought with various associations underneath anyway it is currently gigantic for you if you have to get it. You can check its expense as underneath:

Or then again get more bits of knowledge concerning it from the previous screen by clicking to movement by then picked ocean search along these lines:

b/Im going to endeavor this instrument with another enormous site: Forbes

In the wake of having putting aside money as my watchword, clicking make button, My TrafficJacker gave me the result as follow:

As you see, the instrument helped me to find 34 broken associations that will be available gotten. Look underneath the once-over of the associations, for example the chief article, you can see there is no region open, in any case, the mechanical assembly skillfully offers you another limit check space openness which will remind you when the zone will be available. To do thusly, go to movement decision, pick whols like this:

It will show you the nuances of the space with the objective that you can understand when it will be ended. Besides, you can snap to the update picture as I set apart, by which My TrafficJacker will normally remind you when it will get passed for you to buy. At the point when it is available, you will be the essential individual to get it close by.

Another way that has same ability to help you the status to recall spaces you have to get is Domain Reminders. As I referenced, there are amounts of broken associations that have been starting at now disregarded by the owners yet not passed. So Domain Reminders will be an extraordinary one to ring you straightforwardly after the associations are available.

Basically I'll give you how MTJ capacities with BBC. I endeavored it with the contribute catchphrase, the item will take me to the result this way:

So as you see the couple of starting ones are not available at the present time, so basically snap to the open space catch to find which one you can rapidly get now, it will show you the URL as underneath:

To check whether the page authority of the association, simply copy the association given by then paste it to any free space authority checker, for instance, WSO, I did a model for you as follow:

Ensuing stage, copy the URL found from BBC and add it to the checker resource likewise like these two diagrams:

Ensuing to clicking to the check button, the checker resource will give all point by point information about the space authority (DA), page authority(PA) of the associations like this:

So here as found in the scree, the ensuing association is the BBC region with 95 DA and 44 PA, which is amazingly mind blowing that we can get strong backlinks from it. Very significant I should state. Also, we can see the essential interface has 13 DA and 14 DA and it is very worthy to get it. We in general know the huge proportion of traffic BBC asserts so with these associations you can have the choice to guide individuals to your associations, or just offer the associations with make advantage as well.

Furthermore, you moreover can hold onto traffic from youtube with MTJ. Look at the screen underneath, you can see it works with fundamental walks as I portrayed for you above.

Various limits

Well in addition, Subjacker is furthermore a critical redesign of MTJ 2.0 If you have associates or even you don't have the chance to find slipped by spaces using MTJ 2.0, subjacker is surely for you. It grants you

https://lephuocloc.com/mytrafficjacker-review/

https://lephuocloc.com/

[geek-gem]

Some random Sonic movie sequel stuff

So this is something I wanted to make. Yet I guess for almost an hour or I forgot. I remember my last reblog and that net neutrality is important. Yet I was thinking of reblogging this post about it again after I make this.

This is just random and about that Reddit leak about what the 2019 movies story will be about. I remember talking to myself about it playing Sonic Forces talking about and spoilers basically imagine the sequel well a comment I thought said Metal Sonic and Shadow in the sequel g. But it was about Knuckles and Metal Sonic...or Shadow....just.....

Basically spoilers the leak mentions a post credits scene revealing Metal Sonic which did make me smile. Including today was thinking okay if they are gonna take liberties with the movie which is alright.

I seriously thought of this....just...Shadow's in the movie too but he's important.

Yet was thinking of just....I'll make the joke now.

Sonic: we saved the world from Perfect Chaos and Dr. Eggman and we're heroes.

Dr. Eggman: well guess what surprise surprise, I made a robotic version of you with it's only purpose in life to kill you.

Sonic: oh crap.

Dr. Eggman: not also that I even found out some secrets about a project from my grandfather Gerald Robotnik, stuff about Project Shadow and the Space Colony Ark. His name is Shadow and he's gonna kick your ass too.

Sonic: oh double crap.

Shadow: screw you all, my sister my family Maria died for no reason at all. The world needs to know my suffering of what it feels like to lose family after everything I've been through. Including she was just a kid with a disease called NIDS that couldn't be cured.

Sonic: oh triple crap and that's sad bro. Yet would your sister really approve of that and you becoming the monster you so desperately hate and want to destroy.

Metal Sonic: screw everything, my father doesn't love me, I can't do what I've been programmed to do. I HATE EVERYTHING AND IM GONNA DESTROY EVERYTHING IN HOPES OF KILLING SONIC FINALLY AND MAKE MY OWN DESTINY!

Sonic:....uhhhh a lot of crap.

Knuckles: you guys stole my Master Emerald.

Dr. Eggman: yet Sonic is the villain.

Knuckles: screw that I was forgotten in this joke and the guy writing realized he forgotten about me. Yet that's maybe the story maybe for me to go with me being introduced. Yet even though you have a robotic evil Sonic that should and would make me question you of how evil it looks compared to Sonic.

Metal Sonic: I HATE EVERYTHING SONIC MUST DIE ALL LIVING THINGS KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER! *turns into Metal Madness and to Metal Overlord*

Sonic: oh shit that's a lot of crap we have to deal with. *Him and Shadow turn super*

Shadow: where's the Biolizard right now screw that. In Sonic Adventure 2 I realized I'm a big asshole and becoming the monster I want to destroy so I'm gonna scarifice myself to save everyone. Also the guy writing this almost put me turning super but decided to put it under Sonic's line before me.

Sonic: oh wait Shadow don't do that. I'm gonna scarifice myself instead.

*record sound stops*

Shadow: wait what the hell why. *Shadow looking confused and putting his hands like why or whatever this confused what the fuck face*

Sonic: because so instead of you in a way dying and possibly well will come back. I'm gonna scarifice myself or basically try to destroy or basically some how kill Metal Sonic to show everyone that I'm a true hero. Along with the idea the world is doubting me, their blaming me for Eggman, the battles we've fought that have caused destruction. Including blaming my existence of Metal Sonic even existing. Including me at a point I'm starting to lose myself, some times angry and acting different. Along with believing does the world really need me. But it ends with me realizing I need to do that right thing even if it costs me life. To show I don't care about that but I care more about people.

Shadow:......umm wow.

Sonic: including when the guy was writing my last paragraph before you just talked. He remembered about putting Tikal in here to make sure Chaos from the last movie still had that sort of back story. Including thought I talk to her at times she appears at times and it's weird man still thinking.

Shadow: okay but seriously your gonna die in the sequel the 2nd movie!

Sonic: kind of yet I'm gonna disappear mainly and it's gonna look like I died. But actually I guess the idea some what in the process is me using Chaos Control on Metal Sonic to send him some where else. Yet in a way he some what stabs me and you get a visual reference of you falling down like in SA2 but instead you basically see what is happening to me. While it's close to the ground still in the sky, everyone hears my death scream it's so loud that the whole city hears it's maybe Station Square need to think or Metropolis or some shit. Also probably Blaze in the Sol Dimension and maybe Classic Sonic from his dimension.

Shadow:....you can't be serious.

Sonic: no I'm serious bro or 50 plus years old bro lol don't worry I'll probably be in a different place maybe Blaze's dimension or some shit but the Classic dimension I don't know a Sonic Mania movie seems better first before the third film. Anyway see you in the next film! *Flies off waving his right hand and just smiles as he says that last line. After that Shadow just watches in confusion with no facial expression but just like what even as a very bright yellow light shines like an explosion and Sonic's and Metal's screams are heard and everyone hears too and like Shadow too maybe*

Metal Sonic: oh I am dead or just very damaged just I'm down. *Falls on the front side of his body all damaged and some pieces fall apart too. But in Neo Metal Sonic form too.

Shadow: what the hell was that.

Blaze: seriously what is this.

Classic Sonic: I'm questioning this too.

Infinite: I'm the main villain of the next film. The whole world is depressed that Sonic is basically dead in a way. While me and Eggman rule the world I some how have Shadow and Chaos and Metal Sonic is back with us. But he's real. Yet Tikal is pissed and just appears when Chaos is fake. Also theirs no Zavok because their isn't much of him and we haven't introduced him yet. Including screw you Shadow for beating me up, my team leaving me, and everyone being so happy screw everything, I HATE THE WORLD AND HAPPINESS AND WEAKNESS IM NOT WEAK! ALL HOPE IS LOST HOPE IS FOR THE WEAK AND FAMILY IS FOR THE WEAK!

Sonic: hey you big asshole of a jerk with a cool song still. You and Eggman are going down.

Buddy/Gadget/Rookie: I'm gay for Sonic or something like that or even like brothers like Tails. Yet I feel quite gay for Sonic he really inspired me to be brave and fight back.

Shadow:.....this is just so confusing right now.

I think I'll leave Shadow as that and before Sonic explaining his role in the sequel where Shadow asks about it well Sonic's first big paragraph. I changed the channel to Boomerang.

Basically was thinking of BVS and even thought of, "This Is My World" from the soundtrack. I thought of this at Walmart and even thought of how sad and emotional that would be. Including listened to the track at home which I am at home now.

Also the idea that Shadow is surprised and in a way inspired and shocked by Sonic's scarifice which is something almost like Maria's scarifice and shows Shadow the world's different something and not everyone is bad....

This is BVS but I've finally thought of the perfect some what story okay how we gonna get it through with people of how Sonic is important and how selfless he is and cares more about everyone and it even makes characters think about their lives and how some could change them for the better.

While the Reddit leak it's unknown if it's true or not. It's the only biggest piece of information we have for the movie and I seriously thought of a sequel might be. Even of how crazy it is.

Basically okay or my head like the script I want to see the movie and I'm just happy or still happy theirs some sort of information to work with.

Including it's basically Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes into one better or something and remembered Sonic 3 and just remembered Sonic And Knuckles and some shit like that.

Got tags down and almost left the word rags I'm sorry to bother and remember I'm gonna reblog something after this.

[yournewapartment]

can u think of anyway to make money from home as someone who is under 18?:( mom wont let me get a job and shes kicking me out when im 18

Unfortunately there isn’t really a way to make money from home if you don’t have a viable job already. I know some survey sites that do work, but the amount of money per effort you make is so not worth it.

My advice to you is to look for a job near your home. You don’t need a car to get to work, you just need to be able to walk or use public transportation. I’m also going to include my “My Parents Are Kicking Me Out” post. I hope you find it helpful! Stay strong, you’ll get through this, and you’ll be a better person for it.

My Parents Are Forcing Me To Move Out- What Can I Do?

I get a lot of questions about this. Here are some steps that you can take while still living in your parents house, steps that will help you work towards getting a place of your own. Stay strong! You’ll get through this.

1. Important Documents. Get as many of your important documents (social security card, birth certificate, tax forms, etc) as possible while you’re still living with your parents. You will need this information when you move out, and it may be harder for you to get these documents after you’ve moved out.

2. Get a job. If you’re still in school, limit yourself to a part-time job that can become a full-time job when you finish your education. You can’t save up money if you don’t have a job, and this will just force you to be dependent on your parents financially.

3. Get transportation. Get yourself a mode of transportation that does not rely on your parents. Biking, walking, and using public transportation are all ways that you can get where you need to be without their help. You cannot rely on any car that’s in their name (even if they call it “your” car). I’ve had multiple friends dealing with difficult parents have their cars taken away from them in an attempt to further control their lives.

4. Start saving money. Even if this just means saving $100 every two weeks, this is still a great start!

5. Separate bank account. Speaking of saving money, get yourself a bank account that your parents don’t have access to. A friend of mine tried to move out of her home and her parents literally moved all her money into their account because they had joint access. If you cannot get a separate bank account, start saving money in cash in a good hiding spot.

6. Start paying for your own devices. You do not want your parents to be able to threaten to take your phone away if they don’t like the choices you’re making. You should also change any passwords on devices that your parents may know.

7. Utilize resources that get you out of the house. There are lots of spaces that you can hang out after school for free, including public parks and libraries. Join clubs and volunteer your time if you can’t stand being home.

8. File as independent on your taxes. We’re a while away from tax season, but remember to file as independent on your taxes. This means that your parents can no longer claim you as a dependent and will no longer receive a tax break from the government for housing you. What it means for you, is that you will no longer be considered part of their tax bracket. This means you’ll have a better chance at applying for financial aid, health insurance, car insurance, etc.

9. Involve your college. If you’re looking to go to university sometime in the future but are afraid you can’t afford it, find out if your college has any programs for independent students. Many SUNY schools have what is called the EOP Program and the Independent Student Program, which will pay for your college tuition based off your independent tax status. You cannot rely entirely on FAFSA to pay for your tuition! Talk to a school counselor and find out what is offered. PS: Many of these programs are first-semester admit only, so take that into consideration.

10. Keep your housing search a secret. I hate to generalize with parenting, but if your parents are threatening to throw you out or are forcing you to move out, it’s probably not a good idea to let them know that you’re going to move out. Oddly enough, two of my friends who have been in this very same situation got ready to move out of their respective homes, only to have their parents freak out. Even if your parents are saying that they’re going to force you to move out, they may not believe that you actually can and will do it. They may try to stop you or use emotional tactics to control you and keep you home. When you do move out- do not under any circumstance tell them your address.

11. Build your support system. Tell as many trustworthy people as you can what is happening, so that they can be there to support you during this time. You’ll have places to crash in if you need to, so your parent’s house isn’t your only option. I would try to tell at least one “Adult” in your life- a teacher, a counselor, your employer, etc. Obviously you don’t want them talking to your parents, but they may be able to offer support and confidence.

12. Decide on an apartment budget. Decide what you can afford, based off of how much money you’re making. Find out if any of your friends are going to get their own place, and see if you can find a roommate. This will save you so much money and headache in the long run. If you can’t find a roommate and can’t afford an apartment, look into renting a room in a house or shared space.

13. Learn some life skills. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, basic repair, car maintenance, laundry, etc are all useful skills that you will need when you move out. Start mastering them now, and you’ll feel more confident when on your own.

14. Discount stores. Get familiar with shopping for yourself at discount stores. While shopping at the Dollar Store may not be ideal for you, I recommend that you buy all your starter groceries and household supplies there. Off-brand items will save you $$!

15. Make plans for pets. Do not leave your pets at your parent’s house. If you can’t move them into your new place, find a friend who can pet sit until you find a more comfortable situation. Do not let your parents hold your pets over your head as emotional leverage!

16. Be prepared to buy new furniture. Your parents may not allow you to take any furniture with you when you move. Be prepared to spend some money on things like mattresses, tables, cooking supplies, etc. Peruse local yard sales and bargain bins to see if you can scavenge any supplies. Hit up your friends and coworkers to see if they have any furniture/supplies they’re not using. Honestly this is how I got half of the furniture in my apartment.

17. Try to keep it positive. Throughout all of this, please remember that your parents do love you, even if they’re not expressing it in a positive way. Be above toxic behavior and any emotional bullying they may throw your way, and when you do move out try to let them know that you love them and hope they will support you. They may ignore you or refuse to talk to you for some time after you move out, and this is okay. They will eventually get to the point where they miss your contact, and you should be prepared for that opportunity to start fresh. I’ve known people whose relationship with their parents has improved 100% after they move out. Some personalities are just not meant to live together. Give them the time they need to adjust, and be proud of yourself for everything you’ve done!