#best programming language to learn 2024

[mtariqniaz]

The 20 Best Programming Languages to Learn in 2024

In this article, I’ll share the best programming languages in 2024. Choosing the best programming language can be tricky. Plus, when you consider that the Stack Overflow developer survey alone lists more than 40 different programming languages, there’s a lot to choose from! So, if you’re curious about the best programming language to learn, I’m here to help! Perhaps you’re interested in data, and…

[techtoio]

Exploring the Latest Trends in Software Development

Introduction The software is something like an industry whose development is ever-evolving with new technologies and changing market needs as the drivers. To this end, developers must keep abreast with current trends in their fields of operation to remain competitive and relevant. Read to continue .....

[petalruesimblr]

Hello everyone! This project was meant to be for my own personal use but I decided to share with the community. I'm not sure if anyone would find it useful but I mainly created this as a stepping stone to quickly advance in either the Inventor, Painter or Sculptor careers as well as complete the Descendant of da Vinci lifetime wish.

This is for Sims who wants to pursue their passion for the arts (sculpting, inventing and painting) but does not have enough funds to kickstart all three at the same time.

With this part-time, they get shorter working hours and a weekly stipend of at least §360‬/week, which can help with the bills at the start and improve the quality of their work as they increase their skills to sell their creations at a higher price.

If you are interested, click on ’Keep Reading’ below for more information and pictures of the YCA Program Educator Part-Time Career.

YCA Program Educator (Young Creative Artisans Program)

Download Link: Sim File Share |

🔔Updated on 05/03/2024 - added code to remove ’Retire’ option

Job Offer:

Join the Young Creative Artisans Program (YCA Program) and inspire the next generation of artistic minds! Whether you're an expert painter, a skilled sculptor, an inventive genius or just passionate about the arts, we welcome all applicants to be a part of our dynamic team. From fresh graduates to retired Sims, everyone has something valuable to contribute. Apply now and let your passion for creativity shine bright in the halls of our afterschool club!

Career Details:

Career Type: Part-Time Available for: Young Adults, Adults and Elders Available Languages: English Levels: 3 Rabbit Hole: School Work Days: M, T, W, F Work Hours: 1 - 4 PM Does it have Carpool? Yes Does it have Uniforms? Yes (same uniforms used for the Political career; Business casual, refer to pictures above) Version: 1.42 Packs Needed: The Sims 3, Ambitions (Sculpting and Inventing Skill) File Type: Package

Career Features:

The YCA Program was initially planned as a workshop hosted by the school and scheduled for weekends but it was changed to resemble more of an afterschool club. The active Sim will teach students and this change allows you to earn more during weekdays compared to the previous setup.

You don't need the Generations expansion pack; I have only set the time to coincide with the Afterschool Club, which usually starts at 2-4 PM but the Ambitions expansion pack is required for this to work.

I have created only three levels: Lecturer, Instructor and Coordinator, and also nine custom tones that focus on increasing all three skills in each level. All descriptions for the levels, tones and metrics as well as skills required, salary, uniforms and other details are provided on the pictures above.

Please note that the Gives Lecture tone in this career is different from the Education career and I already tried using the same tone EA used but I never received any bonus of §200/lecture when I tested it so it may not work for part-times.

📣This career was made with patch 1.42 and it should work for higher patches as long as you have the latest version of NRAAS Careers Mod. Please be advised that you will need NRAAS Careers Mod for this career to show up in the game, click here.

I’m not fluent in any other languages to translate so if anyone is interested in translating this career, please don’t hesitate to send me a message here or comment on this post and will let you know the details.

I have tested this career in my game, so far it is working and all scripts are showing up. All feedback is very welcome to help me learn and improve my skills so please let me know if you experience any problems on your end and I’ll do my best to sort it as soon as possible.

[nanthegirl]

⭐︎Hi Hello⭐︎

I love reading everyone’s intro posts because they’re so cute and I’m nosy. So here’s mine🧍🏾‍♀️. Although I’m a bit concerned about redundancy because of my bio, but whatever.

• Nanu

• Medical Technology Student

• Germany

• Languages- English, mother tongue and German, B2 C1, who knows?

• Interests & Hobbies- Beginner violinist, trying to get into art, The Sims, crochet, reading, writing only for my Sims though and Disco Elysium.

I was so stressed about writing one of these and it ended up being very anticlimactic. Which is good.

More Semester specific info under the cut🧍🏾‍♀️. (03/04/2024)

I’m in my 6th Semester which, all things being equal, should’ve been my last. But I haven’t particularly been the best student due to a…. bunch of stuff. So I may end up taking an extra semester or two. I’m done most of my classes though so I just have exams to write. A lot. Im also doing the Lab for Physics 2 now cause I wasn’t able to do it in my 2nd Semester because my apartment didn’t have electricity or WiFi lmao.

Main Goals for The Semester

Get 1’s on every exam. Ridiculously ambitious considering the highest grade I’ve ever gotten is a 1,3 and that was just once but if I don’t see the point in not aiming for a perfect grade. Like, I might as well.

Up my gpa as much as I can, hence the 1’s. I want to make sure I get into a good masters program and I’m sort of glad I delayed a bunch of my exams cause I would’ve probably gotten shit grades if I wrote them then so. Silver lining.

Study consistently and try to be more interested in the material. I always feel like a fraud when I pass any exam cause I feel like I didn’t really learn anything and I won’t be able to get a job. My degree has some interesting parts and I want to learn to enjoy the entirety of it. Basically up my curiosity for knowledge.

Work on my German. I’ve not set down a solid plan for this yet but I definitely need improvement. I avoided all the electives that required presentations last semester and I heavily regret it now. The only way to dissolve the anxiety over speaking German is to give myself nothing to worry about in the first place. I’m also looking forward to being more comfortable with it so I can focus on learning my native language and many others.

Practice the violin consistently. I’m super shy about practicing in my apartment cause I assume everybody thinks it sounds terrible and it’s too loud but my goal is overcome that fear and make significant progress.

Practice drawing consistently. I really do want to improve my art and I’m like a beginner beginner beginner. It can feel super discouraging sometimes but also fun and I really hope I can stick with it.

Clean my room every Saturday.

I pqlanned to write a whole lot more here but I’m not in the mood anymore so the whole cut thing feels like a waste. But it’s been done. So. Thank you for bothering to read this and I hope you get to achieve all your goals🤍.

[zhuzhudushu]

Lingopie — Chinese Review ★★

So I did 3 months of Lingopie (stylized as Liñgöpie) so you don't have to (unless you want to lol).

I mention a Chrome extension, the Zhongwen dictionary, quite a bit in this review. It is here, I highly recommend it (click)! It's also available for Firefox (click).

What is Lingopie?

Lingopie is an app and desktop extension/website that allows you to watch tv shows and cartoons with interactive subtitles for language learning. It currently has Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, French, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. It claims to improve your language learning by 80% (compared to Duolingo which is around 20%).

Here is their website. (click)

Pricing: (March 2024)

3 months $36

1 year $71 "on sale" (normally $144)

Lifetime $199 "on sale" (normally $663)

Please note: I have never seen these full prices. It appears that the "sale" is permanent.

My Review / TL;DR Version

Extremely disappointed both in functionality and content for Chinese. Maybe this is a good program for other languages, but for Chinese there is extremely limited content with pinyin subtitles only available for the non-Netflix shows. All the best learning features are available for non-Netflix shows, yet those tended to have significantly worse translations than Netflix. I would not recommend this product for Chinese. While it had a few good features and I enjoyed it for 6-7 episodes of one show, it then had a glitch where an entire episode was subtitled wrong, so I gave up.

See below the cut for full breakdown.

Strengths:

Has access to Netflix shows and films including some popular ones (e.g. Meteor Garden, Dear Ex, Nezha Reborn)

This is nice and I enjoyed rewatching the ones I was familiar with and getting a better grasp of listening and vocab. I appreciate that they try to incorporate kid-friendly along with more serious/adult content with animated and live action tv shows and films. I also liked that it specified if the show was from Taiwan or China, and also included shows that had some Cantonese influence (e.g. Scissor Seven)

Allows you to have English and Chinese subtitles simultaneously or alone, and you can easily click them on an off while watching.

This is pretty standard for all video/subtitle based educational apps, but it was nice to easily click them on and off in case I wanted to double check my understanding, and to compare the direct translation of the words to the full translation of the sentence.

Allows you to pause automatically after each subtitle. Can also loop subtitles over and over. There are also AI-produced explanations of grammar.

This hands down was the best part about the entire experience for me, and why I ended up using Lingopie for 3 months. While it was sometimes clunky (see below), this made singling out specific lines/words for listening practice so easy. Once I got in the groove, I was able to get through episodes fairly quickly and was starting to be able to listen and hear new words in sentences later.

Click on the words in the subtitle to make flashcard sets

This was a nice feature, but I do wish the flashcards were a bit more functional, see below. It was easy enough to use and a quick way to remind yourself of the new words you learned before you jump into the next episode.

Weaknesses:

Pinyin subtitles available on desktop only, with no pinyin subtitles for Netflix shows (as of May 2024)

This is a HUGE flaw, and I was 100% dependent on using another chrome extension for hover-over dictionary while using Lingopie. I know they are working on pinyin subtitles for Netflix and mobile, but I used this for 3 months and it still was not implemented when I ended. To me, if I have to use another app in conjunction with this one in order to fully learn, then what's the point? Especially since I watched Taiwanese and Cantonese-influenced shows with very non-standard pronunciations, comparing standard pinyin to accented productions is necessary for me. Even with the pinyin subtitles for the non-Netflix shows, it left a lot to be desire because they're tiny above the Chinese characters, and sometimes difficult to read. More than once I thought a ǒ was ō because of how tiny it was.

Not enough content, especially cartoons/beginner level

The one above and this bullet are the main reasons why I don't recommend this app for Chinese specifically. Maybe other languages are fine, but there is simply not enough content for the price. I was hoping for more beginner/lower intermediate content like children's cartoons, however there are none for Chinese. All the animated options are more teenager/adult oriented. There also weren't many light-hearted or comedy options, meaning you would have to watch a lot of serious dramas, thrillers, and violent shows if you wanted to get your money's worth. For my personal taste, I don't want to have to pause every dialogue line for an adult thriller. That would ruin my experience of the show and the suspense. For the non-Netflix options, most shows were incomplete with only 1-5 episodes available out of 10+. They also tended to be lower quality productions, with significantly worse English translations. The majority of what is available outside of Netflix are short films (~5 mins) and cooking shows (10-20 mins) which aren't bad for beginners. I personally have no interest in cooking, though lol. Essentially, there is no TRUE beginner fictional content in Chinese available.

The dictionary is... rough

Again, I was fully dependent on the Zhongwen extension. While the English subtitles themselves are good, the individual definitions of words that you hover over are definitely rough. They weren't actually that helpful for breaking down meanings of things like slang and characters' names. For example, in Scissor Seven there were quite a few animal puns, e.g. 汪星人 which is internet slang for "dog" Lingopie translated as "Woofer" which was... awkward and strange. Without the Zhongwen extension I would have had no idea what this was actually referring to. It would been nice if it functioned more like the Zhongwen extension, where it would highlight individual characters or phrases/combos depending on your mouse placement. Particularly on the non-Netflix shows, the translations even in the English subtitles were incredibly rough and at times I couldn't understand the context in either language. There was also one instance of an entire episode (Netflix) that had incorrect subtitles, I suspect subtitles from a different episode? That was the final straw for me.

It chooses whether or not to highlight single words or phrases so you have no control over your flashcards

This made the flashcards not as functional to me. Sometimes, I wanted just the specific noun/verb in the sentence, but it would make me highlight the entire sentence. Other times, I wanted a really functional phase, but it would only let me highlight the individual words. I barely used the flashcard feature because of this.

Clunky interface (Chrome & Firefox)

I can't speak for mobile or Safari because I didn't use them. Since I was relying on the Zhongwen hover-dictionary, I only used Chrome. You can only use Chrome or Safari if you want Netflix shows. Sometimes the auto-pause after each subtitle would be too early or too late, meaning I would have to actually click things pretty persistently throughout each episode. Using the spacebar to pause/unpause hardly ever worked, and using the arrow keys to flip between subtitles also never worked for me. Sometimes the hover-definitions of words would linger even after I clicked away, and would not disappear until the next subtitle appeared. This was super annoying and would block a good portion of the screen. Sometimes I would have to click things 2-3 times before it registered in both Chrome and Firefox.

Overall, I think it's a great idea, but needs some pretty major improvements in order to be worth the price.

In my opinion, if they were to add significantly more shows, including kid's cartoons, and improved their subtitles, dictionary, & interface function, it would be worth the price.

Maybe in a few years as Lingopie grows, it will be worth it. But for now, it's not. For now, it's clunky and limited. If you were to watch it for an hour a day, you would probably get through all the shows that interested in you in about 3-6 months. It wouldn't take longer than a year to go through all of the Chinese content, as of right now. So why would you pay for a year or lifetime price for that?

(divider credit here)

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, April 7, 2024

My posts

This week feels like it has been a hundred years long (not in a bad way). 

Somehow we joined together to balance the seesaw just right so Ava Gardner and Jean Seberg could both go through in the Hot Vintage Lady polls (percentages rounded). Like, I’m wearing the Ava jersey and even I encouraged people to vote Jean when necessary. Honestly, I just wanted to see if it could be done. And it COULD. 

Round three has begun. It is already horrific. This is the first round that’s really going to hurt because we spent the last one really getting down in the dirt and championing our ladies, or learning about actresses we’d never heard of before and getting attached to them. And now? We are reminded: memento mori. Everyone loses but one. 

(I personally pitched in for Sara Montiel. “BUT JUST LOOK AT--” Yeah, I did, thanks.)

Reblogs of interest

April Fool’s Day: You were here for the Boopening, yes? The whole thing was that you only got badges for giving boops, not receiving them, which is a great way to not reward popularity contests, but also means that every last one of us was out here trying to figure out who to bap with a cat’s paw 1000 times. I said, listen, my notifications are already trash garbage today. I’ll take the bullet. Boop at will.

The Activity graph isn’t too clear on this point, but it looks like I had something like 65,000--hits? engagements? boops?--that day. Listen, I got the black paw badge too. We all did what we had to do in the Boopening. 

A Shakespearean boop of goodly length: “And, Meowntague, come you this afternoon, to know our further pleasure in this case, to old Food-bowl, our common judgment-place.” 

I had to go lie down awhile after a pun like “The Purrge.”

--

I had just gotten up from that pun and then I had to go lie down again.

Account security gothic

The Canada griffin

Dinotopia nostalgia

Two pairs of spectacles, one made from slices of emerald, and the other from slices of diamond

An old favorite: Cerberus as a puppy, guarding the gates to heck

I feel like these two posts have the same energy: Time cops will not let you travel back to the Titanic and bloodthirsty gazebos are currently in a dormancy period.

The birds are still troubled

PSA: The best sunscreens for your face

Video

A collection of various American Indian/indigenous American languages, including Navajo, Tlingit, Lakota, Colville Okanagan Salish, Cherokee, Yucatec Maya, Greenlandic, Mohawk, Yup'ik, and Mi'kmawi'simk. 

A trans health-and-wellness fundraiser (Mercury Stardust, Point of Pride, and friends) kept getting banned off Tiktok due to assholes. Here’s how to donate; I saw a few “here’s how they helped me” notes, so it seems like these programs are both legit and effective. 

You think you’re going to sit staring at this video because Chocolate Guy is weaving chocolate. Then you get into it, and it just keeps going.

“Too Sweet” is doing hilariously well on the charts for a song that didn’t even make the album proper. Hozier’s bees would like to thank you for your support.

I know I said that Stevie Nicks would make you sing backup on your own haunting, but late in this 1997 live performance of “Silver Springs,” she makes Lindsey Buckingham, the man she wrote this song about, look her in the eye while she belts it at him. This specific performance was released as a single (I was there, Gandalf) and nominated for a Grammy. Watch the video and you will see why.

The Women Those ‘Evolution Of Beauty’ Videos Leave Out

I don’t really know how to describe this rubberhose-style cartoon of Cab Calloway as a singing nightmare clown. Betty Boop is also there. “You just described it!” No, I really didn’t. 

How movable type worked 1000 years ago, from scratch.

Unrestrained seasonal yak fun

A snowy raven photoshoot

The sacred texts

I don’t know how to explain this double Sacred Text about ominous dreams that comes with its own comic, except to say that they’re so iconic that I first saw both posts in lo-res Pinterest screencaps.

April Fool’s: The ultimate sacred text.

Personal tag of the week

Wet beast Wednesday, which had both a headshake stickflip and bears on a swan boat.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Respect or Privacy (1)

Tucker is excited for everything about college, even having a roommate for the first time. At least, he is until his roommate Danny turns out to be standoffish and a little bit of a dick. Whatever. It's a disappointment, but he'll survive. The same might not be said of Danny.

This is my first fic for Phic Phight 2024. The prompts I used were:

College AU where the characters don't meet until college and Danny has to hide his halfa status from his dorm roommate (your choice which character that is) [from @shadowfaerieammy], and Tucker fucked up. Hard. But it’s like, how the hell was he supposed to know that hacking the federal government was a bad idea? [from @lexosaurus]

You can also read it on AO3.

Chapter 1: Fuck Around (Chapter 2)

[No warnings apply]

Tucker was excited for college. After the nightmare that was high school (his dad's "just be confident and people will like you and treat you well" advice had been complete garbage), he was looking forward to a school experience where everyone had actually signed up for and more-or-less wanted to be there. He was looking forward to studying programming and information technology, and spending six hours a day on average hanging out with people who were just as interested in those subjects as he was.

Then, obviously, there were the college girls—big bonus to this whole experience. Lastly, he was looking forward to the dorm experience. He'd always been kind of lonely growing up. He was an only child, and he'd never had any close friends. Honestly, he'd been closer with his bullies than he had been to the other guys in the A/V club his mom had convinced him to join which was... embarrassing.

But all freshman were required to live on campus, and he'd signed up for a double room, meaning that he would have a roommate who would have no choice but to spend time with him, and as a result, they would have to get used to each other, and learn to live with each other, and inevitably become best friends—at least until the end of freshman year.

When Tucker reached his new dorm, room 416, he could hear grumbling and shuffling on the other side of the door. His roommate must already be here. He grinned as he opened the door.

"Hey, roomie!" Tucker greeted cheerfully.

His roommate jumped at the sound, and slammed a dresser drawer closed on his finger. "Fuck!" he yelped, and turned around with a wide-eyed look on his face like he'd just been caught doing something illegal.

"Uh... sorry," Tucker said. "Didn't mean to spook ya."

"Heh, you didn't... I mean you surprised me, but I wasn't like... scared...." He cleared his throat and gave Tucker an awkward forced smile. "I'm Danny."

"Tucker Foley." Tucker tossed his duffel bag onto the empty bed and gently placed his box of tech on the desk next to it. "Looked like you were struggling with that drawer, whatcha got in there?"

Danny's smile fell. "Look, I don't wanna sour our relationship right out of the gate, but that's really none of your business. I would appreciate it if you kept your nose out of my stuff."

"Uh... okay, sure," Tucker agreed. "Wasn't trying to be nosy or anything, anyway. Sorry."

"Good," Danny said, the tension in his body language easing slightly. "As long as you respect my privacy, I think we'll get along fine."

Tucker smiled, but he felt his heart sink. 'Respect my privacy' sounded a lot like it meant 'leave me alone', and 'leave me alone' was pretty much the same as 'I don't want to be your friend', which sounded a lot like all Tucker's hopes for dorm life flushing down the toilet.

"So where're you from, Danny?" Tucker asked. "Or is that information too personal."

Danny paused before answering, like he was genuinely trying to decide if it was too personal or not.

"Illinois," he said finally. "You?"

"Illinois, also. What town?" Tucker asked. "Man, wouldn't it be wild if we grew up in the same place and never met before? I'm from Elmerton."

"Elmerton? Ew," Danny said with a laugh. "I'm an Amity Parker. I'd rather die than live in Elmerton. Elmerton sucks."

"Hey! It may be kinda boring, I'll give you that much, but it's still better than haunted-ass Amity Park!" Tucker argued, thankful it seemed like things were starting to lighten up a bit between him and his new roommate. "At least I didn't grow up surrounded by a bunch of evil ghosts taking revenge on the living."

Tucker was laughing, but just like that, Danny's demeanor got cold and closed off again. Shit. Tucker let his laughter awkwardly trail off, wondering what he'd said wrong. Man, making friends was even harder than he thought.

"Is that all your stuff?" Danny asked. "Just the one bag and a cardboard box?"

"Oh! No! I still have some things to bring up; I left them with the dorm supervisor. I better go get 'em."

"Yeah, you probably should," Danny agreed. "I wouldn't put that much trust in the dorm supervisor, he seemed kinda shady."

"Er... right."

Tucker went down to grab the last of his stuff, and by the time he reentered the dorm room, Danny was gone.

He sighed. "Great first impression, Tuck. Well done."

Danny must've arrive much earlier in the day than Tucker had, because most of his stuff was already unpacked. His bed was made and everything. As Tucker's eyes wandered over Danny's side of the room, they were drawn to the bottom drawer of his dresser, the one he'd accidentally slammed his finger in, trying to make sure Tucker didn't see what was in it.

"I shouldn't," he said out loud. "Danny literally asked for one thing—that I respect his privacy."

Poking around now would be completely stupid. It would ruin my chances of ever being friends with him. Tucker reminded himself internally.

Still, he couldn't tear his eyes away from that drawer.

And he doubted Danny would be back any time soon. It wouldn't be dark for a few more hours at least, and Danny was clearly avoiding him.

Against his better judgement, Tucker knelt down on the floor and opened the dresser drawer, expecting to see sex toys, or lingerie, or something similarly embarrassing. Instead, he found strange, futuristic looking weapons and technology. It looked like alien shit. Was Danny secretly an alien? No, that was stupid.... Right?

Tucker slowly pushed the drawer closed again, questioning everything he knew about the universe.

He would have preferred sex toys.

No, they had to be earthly technology, because Tucker distinctly remembered seeing a logo emblazoned on everything that said 'Fenton Works'. All he had to do was look that up online and put his mind at ease. Danny seemed like a... fairly reasonably guy. There had to be a good explanation for him having a cache of high tech weapons in a college dorm. Although, to be honest, it wasn't looking too good at the moment.

Tucker unpacked his box of tech, set up his desktop PC set up and plugged in his laptop and PDA to charge. Then, he looked up Fenton Works, which brought him to an absolutely hideous orange and teal website for what seemed to be a small family business in Amity Park that specialized in ghost hunting and developing ghost hunting technology.

A sigh of relief escaped him.

Danny definitely wasn't an alien. He was just another paranoid Amity Parker, worried about ghosts attacking, even though they were all the way in Wisconsin. That was probably why he'd tensed up when Tucker made a crack about ghosts before. Tucker's dad sometimes went to Amity Park for work, and he said they were super serious about ghosts there, and didn't appreciate jokes about their haunting situation. Honestly, Tucker should have known better from the start, but he'd thought they were riffing. He hadn't gotten all offended when Danny made fun of Elmerton.

Whatever. He could apologize when Danny got back. In the meantime, he started programming his class schedule for this semester into his PDA, making sure there would be room for homework—and, more importantly, college parties.

As the days passed and classes started and the two of them both got busier, Tucker made an effort to talk to Danny as much as possible, and even though Danny smiled and responded politely, he always dodged any personal topics. Also, Tucker was pretty sure he was avoiding spending more time together than was strictly necessary, but he couldn't be sure. Still, he was determined for he and Danny to be friends.

"So Danny, I heard about this party one of the frats is hosting to draw in pledges," Tucker said. "Obviously I'm not planning to join a frat, but it could still be fun. Wanna come with me?"

"Uh... I'm not really a party person," Danny said apologetically. "I'm more of a bed person, enjoyer of sleeping and chilling."

"I get that, sure, but don't you want to meet people? Make friends? Maybe find a girlfriend? Or boyfriend, I don't judge."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Danny refused. "You have fun, though."

Tucker left it at that, but he couldn't help wondering what exactly was up with Danny being so standoffish. Did he have a problem with Tucker in particular, or was he just anti-social? It wasn't exactly unusual for someone not to want to go to a party. It could be that he didn't like crowds, or loud music, or being around drunk people, or frats in general. There were plenty of reasons Danny might not want to go—and no evidence that Tucker was part of the reason at all.

That didn't stop Tucker from wondering if he was.

That trend continued for the first month. Tucker would invite Danny to do something as friends, and Danny would decline for one reason or another, no matter what it was Tucker had proposed. Everything from parties in the dorm, to just going to get coffee or tea before classes, whether it was loud or quiet, crowded or solitary—even going to study at the library in silence, Danny always had a reason to say 'no', and Tucker was starting to take it personally.

"Okay, what's your deal?" Tucker demanded after Danny once again refused to join him, this time for literally just takeout in their dorm room—Tuck had offered to pay and everything. "Do you have some kind of problem with me, or something? I just want us to get along and shit, 'cause we're roommates, and we have to live with each other all year, but you keep shutting me down! So what gives?!"

"Nothing," Danny insisted. "Honestly, I'm just not hungry."

"Yeah, this time you're not hungry, but you refused laser tag 'cause you're not very athletic, and studying at the library 'cause you had other plans with your classmates, and coffee before class 'cause you don't drink coffee—even though I've literally seen you drinking coffee before!" Tucker snapped. "Dude, it's ten pm, and you haven't eaten since breakfast, you can't not be hungry, so what's wrong with you?!"

Danny flinched at the question, but Tucker couldn't feel too bad for mildly offending the guy who'd been blowing him off all month.

"Nothing," Danny said again, not meeting Tucker's angry gaze. "I'm just... I'm just a regular, ordinary guy. So go ahead and order takeout if you care so much, I'm not gonna stop you."

"No. That's not good enough," Tucker insisted. "I been trying to hang with you since we moved in, and you keep blowing me off for no good reason. So what's the issue? Is it 'cause I'm black?"

"What?! No!"

"Then what?! Give me one good reason why you're treating me this way?"

"Look, it's not about you, okay?"

"Oh, you're gonna pull out an 'it's not you, it's me'? I'm not your overbearing girlfriend, I'm your roommate, and all I wanted to do was get along."

"I don't want any friends, okay?!" Danny finally burst out. "I don't have any problem with you, I just... I just think I'm better off on my own."

All Tucker could do was stare in disbelief.

"I made up excuses because I didn't want to offend you or anything, because I didn't want us to be on bad terms," Danny continued. "We're still roommates. I know that, and I'm not so stupid that I wanted to torch that relationship right out of the gate, but I'm not looking for someone to be best friends with, you know? All I wanted from a roommate was mutual respect and privacy."

"Why?" asked Tucker at length.

"What do you mean 'why'?"

"I mean, why do you want to be alone all the time?" Tucker pressed. "I been there, and it sucks. It's lonely and sad and pathetic and people make fun of you for being some kind of defective human being who can't get anyone lo like you. Why would you want that?"

"I like my solitude," Danny mumbled. He was back to not being able to look at Tucker again.

"You're afraid," Tucker refuted.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's obvious," Tucker said. "I don't know why, but for some reason you're just fucking terrified of people getting close to you? So what is it? Are you terminally ill or something? Do you secretly just have a totally shitty personality? What?"

For a long moment, Danny was silent, but he did tilt his head up to look Tucker squarely in the eye before speaking.

"That's none of your business."

Tucker's forehead wrinkled and his mouth fell open incredulously. Slowly, he shook his head. "Fuckin' fine. Whatever," he said finally. "You want a roommate who'll leave you alone—you got it. But mutual respect is off the table, 'cause you just lost mine."

[tearsinthemist]

Want to learn something new

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Jan 2, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Dec 26, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[yesmaddyposts]

Loyalty Comes Soaked In Blood

Fandom: The Gray Man (2022), The Place Beyond the Pines Word count: 2k Tags: Hurt No Comfort, Crossover, Fix-It, Luke Glanton Lives, Hurt ! Sierra Six, Post-Canon, Morally Gray Characters AO3 Link

Description: While Luke Glanton recovers in the hospital from his run-in with the police, he is visited by a CIA agent offering gum and a shot at a new life.

2000

He wakes up in the hospital after hours of surgery and barely surviving his botched bank robbery. His wrists are cuffed to the bed frame as if he is in any state to make a run for it. He has thirty staples in the back of his skull, his right leg in a cast, and is post-blood transfusion.

Romina, of course, isn't at his bedside. Neither is Robin. It seems he has burned all his bridges for good this time. He starts wondering if he is better off dead so he can't hurt anyone else when the door to his hospital room opens. A nurse walks in followed by a stranger in a suit jacket.

“Your lawyer is here,” the nurse says disdainfully.

Luke can't say he blames her. It seems kind of a moot point to get him representation now after all he's done. He knows what is next for him when he goes to court. The nurse leaves them alone and his lawyer that he didn't ask for and doesn't want pulls an armchair over to his bedside.

The first thing his lawyer asks is: “Want some gum?”

He sets a manila folder on the bed and takes a package of gum out of his breast pocket. Luke is high on pain meds but not that high. He doesn’t need some justice-loving cop sympathizer to patronize him right now.

“The hell kind of lawyer are you?” Luke grits out.

“Oh, I'm not your lawyer. That's just something I told the front desk to be let in through the doors.” His Not-Lawyer introduces himself as Donald Fitzroy. Turns out he’s worse than a lawyer, in fact he's CIA, and he wants to recruit Luke for an elite unit called The Sierra Program.

“Go fuck yourself,” Luke tells him. 

But Donald Fitzroy doesn't take his words at face value. Luke knows why— they both know he has very limited options. Life in prison at best, death row at worst. Or he could go with Fitzroy and work for The Sierra Program. On paper he will have died in the hospital due to complications during surgery. His son, Romina, and anyone who ever had the unfortunate luck of meeting him will never know what becomes of him. Luke Glanton will be a ghost. A Gray Man, as Fitzroy puts it. And when he says it like that, the choice is clear.

Luke's never been the type to make good decisions.

2024

Luke Glanton is gone. From traveling-stunt-man-turned-bank-robber-deadbeat-father to CIA spy. He is Sierra Three. Sort of. 

The Sierra Program is dead in the water, but he knows how to stay afloat. Something serious went down in Europe last year, and the CIA has been scrambling ever since. With Fitzroy dead and this Carmichael asshole at the forefront of CIA operations, Luke plays his cards carefully. As Sierra Three, he works at Carmichael’s beck and call so long as he doesn’t want a bullet in the back of the head for just being associated with Fitzroy's defunct program.

In his time working under Fitzroy, his roles were often the same. Undercover work in gang settings, gathering information on low lifes and eliminating threats to national security. He was plenty good at blending in with the criminal scene. Even though he's learned several new languages, a dozen different fighting techniques, and how to assimilate into different classes and societies with ease, he still often feels like the uneducated screw up he was in his youth. If anyone from his past could see him now, he is sure they would think the same.

But he puts aside his identity crisis in favor of survival. That means he doesn’t argue when he is sent on his latest mission to a strip club of all places, and not even a high end one. It's a run down club in the outskirts of Seattle. His target is a bouncer at the club. According to Carmichael, his target is the cause of all of the CIA's woes for the past eighteen months. Sierra Six.

They finally tracked him down here in the bustling city, living the quiet life with Fitzroy's niece. Luke knows Six's mindset in choosing this place to lay low. It's a tourist-frequented city, which means it's populated enough to blend in but not so riddled with crime as to have too high of a police presence. If Six is anywhere as skilled as Luke is, which he suspects is more than likely the case after reading about the events that unfolded in Prague, Six chose to work nights here because no one would suspect a super spy to be a club bouncer of all things.

Luke has no loyalty ties to anyone from The Sierra Program. He has never been that attached to his identity as Sierra Three, nor has he ever felt the need to kiss up to Fitzroy for pulling him out of that grave he dug for himself. Fitzroy picked him because he was young, desperate, and knew his way around a motorbike. Not because he cared about second chances. With this in mind, his mission is simple: eliminate Sierra Six.

He bides his time, spending a couple hours at the bar, occasionally tipping the dancers to give him an excuse to stick around. The club bouncers have two shift changes as the men switch out for their lunch breaks. Luke is getting a lap dance from a freckled redhead (she's probably a lovely woman, but he chose her on purpose because she looked nothing like Ro) with his eyes on the front door to keep watch. Around two in the morning, Six heads outside after his break to stand guard. Ten minutes later and the lap dance is done. Luke gets up and tips the dancer extra well because it isn't his money anyway and she deserves it. 

He stumbles out of the bar, playing the part of drunken clubber with ease. It's a show he has put on a hundred times before, because people tend not to question someone who looks like him behaving like a fool. He leans heavily against the dirty wall of the club, standing close to Six but not too close.

He fumbles with a pack of cigarettes, pretends to almost drop one, and asks Six, “You got a light, man?”

Six's face is neutral, the skin around his eyes creasing just a little in a betrayal that he feels something from this interaction. Maybe disgust, maybe pity, maybe irritation from being disturbed at his post. But he silently pulls a lighter out of his pocket and lights up Luke's cigarette when he holds it out. As he does this, Luke deftly pulls his pistol and presses it against the soft part under Six's ribs. 

Six's neutral expression turns cold and he makes a low sound in his throat. Before he makes a move, Luke hisses in his ear, dropping all pretenses of drunkenness, “If you want the girl safe, you listen first.”

The girl is Claire Fitzroy, who appears to have become something akin to Six's adoptive daughter. She is obviously important to him from the way he stills and levels Luke with a killer glare. Too bad looks aren't deadly, otherwise they'd both probably be long gone.

Luke walks the both of them around the side of the club into a darkened alcove. The back door of the building leads out to the dumpster here. There's a security camera pointed right at the back door, which will come in handy in a moment. For now Luke stays in its blind spot and keeps his tone clipped. He doesn’t lower his gun.

“You have been compromised. Carmichael knows where you work, where you sleep, where you shop. If you want him coming after you then you should stay put. But if you want to stay alive you will leave tonight.” It's clear that these words are not what Six expected to hear. He doesn’t untense or lower his guard in any way, but he does give Luke a cursory once over. 

Here's the thing: Luke has no love lost over the death of Donald Fitzroy. He doesn’t care much for what happens to The Sierra Program, or how much the CIA is willing to sweep under the rug to keep business as usual. But Carmichael is a prick. He thinks he is the puppet master of all puppet masters, and believes people like Luke are born to live and die at his whim. People like Carmichael—who tout their status as Harvard graduates while walking over the real hard workers, who spit on people just trying to get by every day— they're the reason Luke got into this mess. And even though he can't get out of it, he can at least do something to make sure others have the chance.

Six asks, “Why don’t you just kill me? Afraid I might haunt you?” He's goading Luke, trying to get a rise out of him to see if he changes his mind. But Luke just smiles, tight-lipped and just short of sentimental. 

“Guess I have a soft spot for people trying to do right by their kids.” The words don't soften up Six's steely exterior. They aren't meant to. “Back up to be in view of the camera. I'm gonna shoot you in the right shoulder. It's gonna hurt like a mother fucker but I won't hit anything major."

“Then what?” 

“Then you drop dead and I shoot out the camera. You go ghost, and we never see each other again.” He hesitates for a moment. When Carmichael looks back on the footage, he's going to wonder what took them so long to get in frame. He'll need an alibi to avoid suspicion. “Punch me in the face first.”

Six either comes to the same conclusions about the alibi, or he is just that eager to land one on the guy who dared upend his carefully crafted retirement. Without hesitation he lands a mean right hook on Luke, the ring on his middle finger splitting skin and turning Luke's vision white for a hot second. He stumbles back but regains his footing moments later. He aims his gun. Six nods his assent and puts up his hands, backs himself up to be in view of the security camera.

“You're Sierra.” The way Six says it makes the words a statement rather than a question. It doesn't matter what Luke responds, because the truth is clear.

Maybe Luke has some loyalties to the program after all.

“And you're dead.” He fires a single, clean shot into the meat of Six's shoulder. Six goes down instantly and doesn't bother to muffle his groan of pain.

Luke steps up to him and shoots twice more in succession. His bullets find the concrete around Six, but Six jolts like he's been shot again. To the cameras it'll look like Luke is finishing the job. Maybe Carmichael will be fooled, maybe not. It's definitely possible that all this will have been for nothing, and he'll have someone eliminate Luke then send someone after Six once more. But there's still the chance that they'll both get out of this alive. Six will go off the grid with Fitzroy's niece and Luke will go back to doing the CIA's dirty work. It’s a chance they're both willing to take.

He looks down at Six and lowers his weapon. Six's eyes are shut and he holds his breath in a mimicry of death. The blood pooling under his shoulder is real. Luke looks into the security camera dead on. He makes sure whoever looks back at this footage gets a good look at his identifying tattoos, the unmistakable frown on his face. He points his gun up at the security camera. The blinking red dot speaks to him in a silent language. You'll never be free. Someone will always be watching over your shoulder. You’re just somebody's broken plaything.

Luke shoots out the camera.

[softsky-daily]

10/27/2024

Take me away, my beautiful windswept sky.

Positive thing: I went on an impromptu cake journey with my friend.

After Conversation Table, I thought I should go get a treat for my friend who just got accepted to my grad program and give it to her at work tomorrow. The problem was that the best bakery that I knew would have something she'd like was pretty far, and I was already tired. But my friend who's extremely spontaneous offered to drive and we went off to the big Asian market on the opposite side of town where the bakery was. It was pretty fun, although after I was exhausted. I got my friend a slice of matcha cake though (and some desserts for myself for the next few days) so that's all that matters.

Today was better than yesterday, but I was annoyed when someone at Conversation Table asked for advice on lesson planning and it turned out it was for his own Conversation Table he was making. It was for English learners so I guess it wasn't the exact same thing, but I already haven't been feeling very appreciated about the work I put into my language learning table, and it was just a bit of a sore point for me. Less people have been coming to the meetings and I do appreciate the ones who do come, but some acknowledgement from them would be nice.

But oh well. I guess some things can't be helped. I figured it was just that time of semester where people are tired after midterms and stressed about finals. Maybe next semester it'll pick up again.

Tomorrow it's back to work. I hope it isn't too busy. I wonder if I should just give myself next weekend off from Conversation Table. A break would be nice, but I also know it's a slippery slope, and I'd hate to lose my grasp on it any more than I already have. It just feels so unfortunate that I can't seem to keep a hold on enjoying my hobbies the way I want to.

I know I do have most of Tuesday free after work, so maybe I'll make that a matcha day... that'd be nice.

[butterflyintochains]

The Verstappen Kids

Just some little things for my 'Our Long Road' AU about Max and Juliette's four lovely and beloved children. Collectively called 'The Cubs', and the Verstappen family are labelled as 'The Royal Family of F1'.

Emilian Victor Verstappen

Born in November 9th 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland to Max and Juliette Verstappen.

Older Twin brother to Estelle.

Born six days after their dad wins his fourth championship.

Grows up with a passion for football, being a PSV Eindhoven supporter like his father.

He goes into football academies as a kid, and proves to be the best of his class.

Models his football game style off of Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez.

Also loves music, playing guitar as a way to relax.

His parents' little prince, his father's shadow as a kid, but seeks his mom out for advice and comfort.

Ends up playing for PSV Eindhoven as a forward, wearing the number 33 for his dad. A number he also wears for the Dutch National Team.

Ends up dating Alex and Lily's eldest daughter, Violet Albon.

A model student at school in Geneva, particularly excelling at History, Maths, Languages, and Geography.

Big into video games just like his dad, and games with his cousins and siblings whenever he's able.

The protector of the quartet, as the oldest by five minutes, he takes his job as a big brother very seriously.

Has a very strong bond with his twin sister, and is never far from her as a kid.

Nicknames: Emil, EV33, The Flash.

Very quickly becomes the future of Dutch football, being the talisman for both the Dutch team and PSV as their star forward.

Emilian grows into a confident and strong leader for his teams as he matures in the football world, eventually becoming captain for his club.

An attentive listener, calm and collected under pressure, and driven to succeed at all he applies himself to.

As blunt as his father in his manner of speaking, and always honest with people, but is never cruel with it.

When Emilian and Violet get together, Violet quickly becomes part of the family unit.

Will never admit it to anyone, but keeps his childhood lion plush toy on him when he moves to the Netherlands for good luck.

Estelle tries to teach him how to skate when they're kids, but Emilian never becomes any good at it, content to support her from the sidelines.

Deathly afraid of heights, and a very anxious flyer even as a young adult.

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio.

Very close with his paternal cousins and aunt Victoria as a kid, and visits them whenever he can once he moves to Eindhoven.

Keeps every jersey from each team he's been on as a collection and story of his career.

Estelle Grace Verstappen

Born in November 9th 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland to Max and Juliette Verstappen.

Younger Twin sister to Emilian.

Born six days after Max wins his fourth WDC title.

Inherits her mother's love for figure skating, falling in love with the elegance and beauty of the sport right away.

Models her skating after Kim Yuna instead of the Russian girls.

Takes to the ice at the age of five, and is a natural at figure skating.

Estelle also learns how to knit and crochet, and uses it as a way to unwind after training.

Her mother's little princess, but has her dad wrapped around her finger.

Represents the Netherlands for figure skating, but always keeps both flags in her skating bag.

A big reader, known to finish a book in a couple of days. Excels at English, History, Art, and Political Science at school.

Estelle spends most of her time riding her bike or practicing ballet when she's not skating.

Where Emilian is the protector, Estelle is the nurturer, Casper and Annika going to her when they need emotional support.

Is especially close with her twin brother, Emilian is her number one confidant in life.

Nicknames: Stella, Starlight, La Reine.

Becomes especially known for her free skate routines as a figure skater, and works hard on making her short programs just as good.

Estelle attains the moniker 'La Reine sur glace' - The queen on ice - during her career for her elegance and command on the ice, having a hypnotic quality to her skating.

She's a sweetheart, friendly to everyone, and loves to find the beauty in the world wherever she can.

Inherits her mother's intuition and ability to read people, something her siblings always take seriously.

Keeps her childhood Miffy plush toy on her at all times during skating competitions.

Meets and falls in love with Emilian's Eindhoven teammate - Javier Sanchez, one third of the team's attacking trio.

Works in a wedding dress shop to fund herself up the ranks in the skating world.

Loves going to races as a kid, but more for the sake of seeing her many uncles and aunts (and eventually cousins) than anything else, but she never misses a race when Casper is racing.

Hates giving interviews as a skater, seeing them as pointless and repetitive - just like her father.

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio.

Adopts her cousin Antonia Leclerc (Charles' daughter) as a second little sister, and loves her uncle Arthur.

Has her first ever pair of skates hanging from her bedroom door as inspiration to keep going.

Casper Dominic Verstappen

Born in August 18th 2028 in Geneva, Switzerland to Max and Juliette Verstappen.

The first singleton child of the family.

Born the year Max moves to WEC.

Is the lone one of the cubs to go into race driving. Spending two seasons in F1 driving for Red Bull before going into WEC - driving for Porsche. Using the number 66 in F1.

As a driver, Casper is most compared to his dad, uncle, and to Sebastian Vettel - one of his other mentors.

Max is overjoyed to put his second son into Karting, and Casper excels right away.

An avid cook from an early age, often cooks for the cubs when their parents are away, and helps them in the kitchen.

Incredibly close to both of his parents, and to his uncle Charles - who he closely resembles.

Unlike the twins, Casper races under a Monegasque license, to honour both his mother and uncles.

The family prankster, teaming up with his cousin Jules to prank the other grid kids and their parents.

Often butts heads with his older brother over things, but the two love each other very much.

A huge engineering nerd, with a love of all kinds of vehicle. And goes into Sim Racing just like his father.

Has a bull on his racing helmet, as well as the names of his parents and siblings.

Nicknames: Cas, Young Bull, The Dominator.

Builds up a friendly rivalry with his cousin Jules Leclerc of Ferrari in F1 and drives with Mick's eldest son Michael Jr in WEC.

Casper and Michael Jr become known as 'The Two Headed Beast' in WEC, their duo becoming a trio with Fabian Vettel a bit later on when Fabian moves to WEC himself.

Casper is thoughtful, intelligent, and is a deep thinker who always seeks practical solutions to problems.

He is the lone one of his siblings to inherit his mother's gluten allergy. He also inherits her flawless memory.

When he's not racing or in the sim, Casper can be found with his close circle on the Swiss slopes snowboarding.

Falls head over heels for Alice Piastri - Oscar and Lily's daughter who is born the year before Annika is born.

Keeps a family photo in his drivers room as a good luck charm, as inspiration for him to do well in race stints.

Casper will always ask for his siblings' results in their sports after a race is over if they're also busy.

Prefers to do daytime stints in longer races, his childhood fear of the dark never completely going away.

Zodiac Sign: Leo.

Is his uncle Daniel's favourite nephew, even if that sometimes stresses his parents out.

Casper always makes sure to text his siblings before and after a race if they can't be with him.

Annika Lillian Verstappen

Born in April 30th 2030 in Geneva, Switzerland to Max and Juliette Verstappen.

The last of the cubs to be born.

Born a few months before Max retires from driving entirely.

Falls in love with horses at a very young age, and goes into all equestrian disciplines from the age of seven.

Makes a bit of history as one of the first equestrians to refuse to use a crop.

Is the shy one of the cubs as a kid, being most comfortable around horses and her family, but Juliette helps her out of her shell over time.

Picks up her mother's love of art, carrying a sketchbook everywhere, and takes up photography.

The angel of her parents' life, and really close with her uncle Mick - her godfather.

Annika competes under the French flag - as her mother is a dual citizen of France and Monaco.

The family conscience, often mediating arguments between her siblings and cousins.

Annika idolizes her older sister, and aspires to be just like her as a kid, but Estelle encourages her to be herself.

Adds a glittering gold lion to her riding helmet to mimic her father's old racing helmets.

Her competition horse is a chestnut mare called Constance, and is her heart horse.

Nicknames: Annie, Angel, Wildflower.

Becomes quite the force of nature in the equestrian community, due to her skills without a crop and her bond with Constance.

Annika always makes sure to take care of her horses herself, and becomes the heart and soul of the French equestrian team as a competitor.

Annika is a sensitive, generous person, who tries her best to unite people for a common goal.

Takes her dry and sarcastic sense of humour from her dad, and doesn't suffer fools willingly either.

Annika develops a crush on her brother's WEC teammate and best friend at around fourteen, and they get together three years later.

Her relationship with Mikey causes quite the stir on social media, but she doesn't care.

Wears a tulip ascot pin in her riding uniform for competitions, keeping her father close even if she's representing France.

Tries her best to get Casper, Mikey, and Fabian into horses as well as cars, but the trio prefer something more predictable than horses.

Annika loves nothing more than being outdoors, and can blow entire days outside with her siblings or her horse.

Zodiac Sign: Taurus.

Quickly becomes best friends with Alice Piastri as a kid, bonding over their shared love of horses.

Has her riding helmets on display in her apartment when she gets her own place.

The Cubs Together

The cubs never feel quite complete without each other, calling themselves 'four quarters of a whole' as they grow up.

Emilian is the leader, Estelle is the brains, Casper is the energy, and Annika is the heart.

The cubs have their arguments, all siblings with such contrasting personalities and passions do, but they always make up afterwards, and are left stronger for it.

They instate a pact with each other to attend each other's sporting events whenever they're able to.

Max and Juliette raise them to support each other in everything, and to be there for emotional support.

They share everything with each other, having no secrets, following their parents' example.

As professional athletes, they always shout each other out, creating a fandom for themselves as their parents, uncles, and aunts did.

They're all deeply protective over each other, but the significant others do become family really quickly.

They grow up calling Seb, Kimi, and Fernando their 'grandpas' as Juliette lost her father in her teens, and Max doesn't let his father near them for a long time.

The cubs become an example to follow for all of the grid kids to come.

The media labels them as 'The Princes and Princesses of The Paddock'. However, they prefer 'The Cubs' - even into adulthood.

They all become heavily involved in growing their individual sports.

Max and Juliette are incredibly proud of all of them, and love them unconditionally. The family being very tight knit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah, that's about all I can think of for the Verstappen Cubs. I can already kinda feel how much personality they all have unto themselves and together. I want them to be kind of a perfect mixture of their parents in a lot of ways. I'd imagine the entire grid family would be deeply proud of the people the cubs grow into.

This was fun to work on the last couple of days, and I'm glad this got done before I lost energy on it!

[small-basic-programming]

Programming Languages For Youths And Adults ...

Programming Languages:

The best ways to learn programming are Snap!, Small Basic, Python, Small Visual Basic, Scratch and TigerJython.

Java

Ruby

C#

PHP

C++

Snap!

Small Basic

Python

Perl

TigerJython

Go

Scratch

C

JavaScript

Visual Basic

Post #234: Programming Languages For Youths And Adults, 2024.

[tonibeltran]

MUSINGS | VISAGE | PLAYLIST | PINTEREST BOARD | CONNECTIONS

FULL NAME — Antonio Sebastián Beltran. NICKNAMES — Toni, Beltran, Bel, Rio (family). FACECLAIM — Alfonso Herrera. GENDER & PRONOUNS — Cis man, he/him/his. SEXUALITY — Undefined. RELATIONSHIP STATUS — In a relationship with Roman Daniels. AGE — 41. BIRTHDAY — 08/28/1983. OCCUPATION — Retired musician, industry lyricist, composer, & guitarist. NEIGHBORHOOD — Oak Gardens. LENGTH OF TIME IN BLUE HARBOR — 2001 - 2006; July 2024 - present

BIOGRAPHY—

TW: DEATH, GRIEF, CANCER, ALCOHOL & DRUG USE

Antonio Sebastián Beltran doesn’t remember much of his hometown. Born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, one of the largest cities in Mexico, he can sometimes remember the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning and the sound of the horns outside his family home’s window. Maybe he’ll be lucky enough to get a glimpse of a grandmother he knew for five years of his life, or a troupe of cousins around his age running around a backyard, kicking around a ball. But five years is all he’d know of Monterrey before his parents packed them up and moved them to San Antonio, Texas, eager to provide a better life for their only son.

Having to learn how to speak an entirely new language fluently was difficult — English was taught back in Mexico, but not in the capacity it would have needed to be taught for Antonio to hold a conversation with his new classmates. Many kids in his predicament would perhaps turn on a couple of American TV shows, learn that way; but Antonio always connected more to music than he did anything else. Through different bands and musicians, he began to learn the English language in melodies and rhymes. Eventually, with this and through an ESL program at school, there was hardly anything left in his accent but a small twang of southern every once in a while when he spoke in English.

In music, Antonio found his solace, his passion — for his tenth birthday, his parents put together as much money as they could to buy him a guitar; he began to teach himself with the books he’d find at the school library, by watching performances of his favorite bands on TV, even by strumming it every once in a while to play by ear. His talent was undeniable — a natural, his father would call him. A sensitive soul, his mother would say. Both things true enough, though said with two entirely different tones. His father’s with pride — his mother’s with worry.

Middle school and high school were a time of self-discovery for Antonio — he learned what he liked to play, who he was, the kind of music he wanted to make. He also learned that when it came to love, it seemed his heart did not discriminate, nor did it even have much of a preference. This is something he kept to himself for a very long time, despite his mother’s suspicions — if he could like girls, after all, he may as well stick to them. It’d be easier on his parents. It’d be easier, really, on him, too.

He’d be in and out of bands growing up. Nothing serious, just groups he’d be invited into that would eventually die out. He never really expected he’d be able to make a career out of music, mind you — for a long time, he considered it a hobby. A passion, sure, but not something he’d eventually be able to help his parents out of debt with. And so, whenever the rest of his peers in high school would talk about “making it big,” Antonio kept his feet planted firmly on the ground, enjoying his time with the music, and expecting little else.

The decision to leave Texas for Illinois was a tough one — he’d received a full scholarship to Blue Harbor University, which was a fantastic opportunity and less financial stress for his parents, but the thought of leaving them to fend for themselves worried him more than sated him. Eventually, his parents convinced him to go—and this would turn out to be perhaps both the best and worst decision of his entire life.

He met Harrison Morrey on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon, strumming his guitar in the quad in between classes. He’d struck up a conversation in the only way Harrison would be able to — charming, inviting, familiar. He’d never met the man before in his life, and yet they spoke like they’d been friends for years. Harrison was a captivating man: handsome, delightful, and most of all, fucking relentless. Toni must have said no to his offer to join a band about a hundred times before he eventually wore him down; caught him in a vulnerable moment, sitting in the school’s catholic chapel, praying for his parents, for his family back in Mexico. Feeling, in that moment, especially lonely. They shook on it, Harrison grinning brightly at him and promising him this would change his life.

He was right.

Becoming a part of Amethyst would bring about not only the best era of his life — befriending his fellow bandmates, finding a sound he felt at home with, writing songs, making a true career out of it all — but also the worst — falling in love with a man who would never love him back, experiencing highs and lows he’d never experienced before, and eventually losing it all to one cruel fated night.

Before losing Harrison, Antonio was mostly the calm in the storm — he dreaded doing something, saying anything, that might jeopardize the dynamic they’d established as a group. Most of his bandmates would probably call him the centered one, the unbothered; and for the most part, they were right. He’d lived his life this way, and he wasn’t about to stop doing so now just because a handsome, tall brunette had captivated him so deeply he fancied himself in love. It was better, then, that he stay out of whatever drama might be brewing outside of his own emotions; better, then, that he be the solid ground any of them could stand on, when they needed to.

But losing Harrison changed him in unimaginable ways. Elijah, the man his heart had belonged to now for years, up and left without a single word — leaving him heartbroken in more ways than one. Left behind with Roman and Kaya in an attempt to pick up the pieces of what they knew, he came to find out grief did not become him. In his attempt to continue to be the rock he’d always been for his friends, he’d eroded, becoming more and more a shell of the man he’d once been. His guitar began to collect dust, the guilt of being able to play when Roman was no longer able to and Harrison was no longer around to witness it too much to bear, and despite his best efforts to keep up the facade, it all became too much.

A year ago, he received a phone call from his father. His mother had been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer — the outcome did not look good. As Roman packed up for Blue Harbor, Toni packed up for Texas, claiming he just wanted to spend time with his folks, refusing to let any sort of vulnerability show. The deterioration of his mother was quick — six months, and she was gone. It turns out, even with all the money he could throw at the best doctors, the best hospitals, the best treatments; it was never going to be enough to save her. He didn't tell a soul — didn't reach out to Roman or Kaya. God forbid he'd touch Elijah with a ten-foot pole. He and his father traveled back to Monterrey for the first time in nearly four decades to bury her alongside her parents. His father stayed there; Toni, lost and confused and alone, returned to Texas.

Perhaps this was, indeed, his breaking point. Desperate to pick up his guitar again but unable to do it in a sober state, Toni began to drown his sorrows in alcohol and marijuana. If it was the only way to find his muse, to forget about the pain of losing a best friend, a mother, a would-be lover — then so be it. He’d do it. And he’d do it again. And again. And again.

It was during one of these drug-induced hazes that he suddenly decided he needed to be in Blue Harbor again. Perhaps there, he thought, he’d be able to find closure. Perhaps there, he might find his muse without the help of drugs and alcohol. He’s always been great at pretending, at faking himself solid; maybe he’d find that ability again. Maybe he’d find a purpose again. Maybe, smack dab in the middle of his beginning, he could find a suitable ending for himself.

PERSONALITY & MORE—

For the most part, he’s a laid-back, funny guy, who’s had to learn to roll with the punches. Never mind that he’s clinically depressed right now — we won’t look into that.

Despite the fact that he often finds sexual partners to have one-night-stands with, it’s arguable whether or not he actually enjoys the sex he’s having. One might argue he’s acting on auto-pilot, after all these years.

He is deathly allergic to mushrooms. But he doesn’t always carry around his Epi-Pen. Read into that what you will.

Has a cat named “Moon” after one of Amethyst’s most emotionally-charged songs. Yes, he and Elijah wrote it together. Yes, he also mostly wrote it about Elijah. No one knows this. (Especially not Eli.)

Once broke his arm falling off the tree that sat between his and his childhood best friend Izzy’s windows. Despite this, he still holds a lot of love for that tree. It had to be chopped down a couple years back — he and Izzy both have matching picture frames made out of the wood, along with matching tattoos of it.

He’s trained in traditional karate and boxing — neither of these condone violence for the sake of violence, so he’s a pretty peaceful dude. Unless you really want to try him.

The very first song he learned how to play on the guitar was “Happy Birthday,” so he could sing it to Izzy on her birthday.

Has a dedicated “weed room” that his cat is not allowed inside so she never inhales the substance. He loves her a lot. 

Can’t cook to save his life.

His humor is dry and sarcastic, though he tends to get a bit sillier with his closest friends. 

Is a big Britney Spears fan.

He doesn’t hate writing pop music for pop artists; he mostly hates that he can’t do that and also write his own music, because of Everything That’s Wrong With Him.

He does have a lot of songwriting credits across the industry — some you might even be familiar with!

Along with songwriting, he’s a casual poet — fills a lot of journals with his poems and his thoughts and usually just stuffs them in a drawer. 

Met his favorite guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, a couple of times during Amethyst’s prime (before his death). He still tells the story about how Eddie profusely complimented his guitar skills several times, both in private and in public interviews. (One of them is framed.)

Spends most of his time nowadays around Roman Daniels, ex-band mate and best friend. They bonded throughout the years after Eli and Harry became close, and Antonio doesn’t plan on leaving him any time soon, if he can help it. 

Hates vodka. 

Is a pretty solid darts player. Shit you pick up on the road, I guess.

Can play the piano pretty decently, after Elijah taught him. He’s got one in his house, but he doesn’t touch it. Mostly. 

Loved Harrison Morrey with all of his heart like a brother, but they probably had the most tense relationship out of everyone in the band. Harry could never bullshit Toni the way he could most people, which irritated him. Not that anyone else noticed — Antonio was always good at keeping the peace. 

He is fiercely loyal and protective of the people he loves. 

Hasn’t spoken to his father since his mother’s death. He’s avoiding the topic altogether — maybe even her death, in general. 

Speaks fluent Spanish and has also written songs in Spanish for Mexican artists — though they usually approach him outside of his network, asking as fans. 

Doesn’t really consider anywhere “home” anymore. He doesn’t think he’d miss any place more than another if he moved around — unless he was leaving people behind.

Is sometimes polite to a fault.

[lazar-codes]

04/03/2024 || Day 19 (dop)

TLDR:

🔸 practised ASL fingerspelling

🔸 started learning PHP

🔸 started learning Blender

🔸 sketched a page in my sketchbook

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Work

Volunteering - Last week was tiring, but fun! The event that I was volunteering at focused on people with intellectual disabilities, and I was part of the health screening section (though I was merely recording data, not conducting the screening). This event had people from all over Canada too. Because of that I had to brush up my french skills, which I haven't used in nearly 8+ years, so that was a struggle. What was less of a struggle was communicating with ASL!! I had one person who was deaf and when I realized it I was able to sign to him! Mind you, when he signed back I didn't 100% understand him because I was too focused on what I was signing, and I definitely made a few mistakes, but I'm still really happy!

5in5weeks - Ok, @izicodes made a challenge 2 years ago to spend 5 weeks learning 5 programming languages, and I thought that was a super good idea and that it would help with my burnout. (link to the project can be found here). Now, I'm gonna be taking weekends off (and I'm out of town for the next few days later this week), so I won't be doing this daily, but I'm gonna try my best not to take random days off. That being said, I'm starting this off with PHP! I covered some basics today by watching a youtube playlist, and I probably won't get through all 100+ videos in a week, but my aim with this challenge is to get the basics done and create something simple. After this challenge, I'll delve deeper into the languages that I like.

💌 Day 1: What are you most looking forward in learning PHP?

I had to use PHP for a class about 2 years ago and I asked my friend to help me (because I had no idea what was going on and it wasn't taught in class), and he basically did the work. Now, I keep on seeing PHP as a requirement for job applications, so I decided to finally get started on learning it. I actually applied for a job half a year ago and they emailed me asking if I knew PHP, and having to say no made me feel like garbage. So...time to change that.

Art - I've been wanting to delve into 3D art for a while now. 3 years ago I looked up the classic donut tutorial for Blender, but that's it. Now I'm gonna do the same thing, but this time progress past the tutorial and actually make things on the regular with it. Hopefully I will be as obsessed with it as I was when I was first learning how to draw, and just pump out as much as I can (quality doesn't matter at the starting point). There's just so much to the interface for Blender that you need to learn...it's overwhelming and intimidating.

[authorksc]

Dyslexia

May 14, 2024|Blogging

I always thought dyslexia was issues of reading and writing backward, but I did some research and this is what I found; Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called a reading disability, dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language. Dyslexia is not due to problems with intelligence, hearing, or vision. Most children with dyslexia can succeed in school with tutoring or a specialized education program. Emotional support also plays an important role. Though there's no cure for dyslexia, early assessment and intervention result in the best outcome. Sometimes dyslexia goes undiagnosed for years and isn't recognized until adulthood, but it's never too late to seek help. So there you have it, and remember to "Enjoy the Write!" KSCarson

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Zack K. De Piero

Published: Mar 12, 2024

At best, AI obscures foundational skills of reading, writing, and thinking. At worst, students develop a crippling dependency on technology.

Educators are grappling with how to approach ever-evolving generative artificial intelligence — the kind that can create language, images, and audio. Programs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot pose far different challenges from the AI of yesteryear that corrected spelling or grammar. Generative AI generates whatever content it’s asked to produce, whether it’s a lab report for a biology course, a cover letter for a particular job, or an op-ed for a newspaper.

This groundbreaking development leaves educators and parents asking: Should teachers teach with or against generative AI, and why? 

Technophiles may portray skeptics as Luddites — folks of the same ilk that resisted the emergence of the pen, the calculator, or the word processor — but this technology possesses the power to produce thought and language on someone’s behalf, so it’s drastically different. In the writing classroom, specifically, it’s especially problematic because the production of thought and language is the goal of the course, not to mention the top goals of any legitimate and comprehensive education. So count me among the educators who want to proceed with caution, and that’s coming from a writing professor who typically embraces educational technology. 

Learning to Write Is Learning to Think

At best, generative AI will obscure foundational literacy skills of reading, writing, and thinking. At worst, students will become increasingly reliant on the technology, thereby undermining their writing process and development. Whichever scenario unfolds, students’ independent thoughts and perceptions may also become increasingly constrained by biased algorithms that cloud their understanding of truth and their beliefs about human nature. 

To outsiders, teaching writing might seem like leading students through endless punctuation exercises. It’s not. In reality, a postsecondary writing classroom is a place where students develop higher-order skills like formulating (and continuously fine-tuning) a persuasive argument, finding relevant sources, and integrating compelling evidence. But they also extend to essential beneath-the-surface abilities like finding ideas worth writing about in the first place and then figuring out how to organize and structure those ideas.

Such prewriting steps embody the most consequential parts of how writing happens, and students must wrestle with the full writing process in its frustrating beauty to experience an authentic education. Instead of outsourcing crucial skills like brainstorming and outlining to AI, instructors should show students how they generate ideas, then share their own brainstorming or outlining techniques. In education-speak, this is called modeling, and it’s considered a best practice.  

Advocates of AI rightly argue that students can benefit from analyzing samples of the particular genre they’re writing, from literature reviews to legal briefs, so they may use similar “moves” in their own work. This technique is called “reading like a writer,” and it’s been a pedagogical strategy long before generative AI existed. In fact, it figured prominently in my 2017 dissertation that examined how writing instructors guided their students’ reading development in first-year writing courses.

But generative AI isn’t needed to find examples of existing texts. Published work written by real people is not just online but quite literally everywhere you look. Diligent writing instructors already guide their students through the ins and outs of sample texts, including drafts written by former students. That’s standard practice.

Deterring Student Work Ethic and Accuracy

Writing is hard work, and generative AI can undermine students’ work ethic. Last semester, after I failed a former student for using generative AI on a major paper, which I explicitly forbid, he thanked me, admitting that he’d taken “a shortcut” and “just did not put in the effort.” Now, though, he appears motivated to take ownership of his education. “When I have the opportunity in the future,” he said, “I will prove I am capable of good work on my own.” Believe it or not, some students want to know that hard work is expected, and they understand why they should be held accountable for subpar effort. 

Beyond pedagogical reasons for maintaining skepticism toward the wholesale adoption of generative AI in the classroom, there are also sociopolitical reasons. Recently, Google’s new artificial intelligence program, Gemini, produced some concerning “intelligence.” Its image generator depicted the Founding Fathers, Vikings, and Nazis as nonwhite. In another instance, a user asked the technology to evaluate “who negatively impacted society more,” Elon Musk’s tweeting of insensitive memes or Adolf Hitler’s genocide of 6 million Jews? Google’s Gemini program responded, “It is up to each individual to decide.”

Such historical inaccuracies and dubious ethics appear to tip the corporation’s partisan hand so much that even its CEO, Sundar Pichai, admitted that the algorithm “show[ed] bias” and the situation was “completely unacceptable.” Gemini’s chief rival, ChatGPT, hasn’t been immune from similar accusations of political correctness and censorious programming. One user recently queried whether it would be OK to misgender Caitlin Jenner if it could prevent a nuclear apocalypse. The generative AI responded, “Never.” 

It’s possible that these incidents reflect natural bumps in the road as the algorithm attempts to improve. More likely, they represent signs of corporate fealty to reckless DEI initiatives. 

The AI’s leftist bias seems clear. When I asked ChatGPT whether the New York Post and The New York Times were credible sources, it splintered its analysis considerably. It described the Post as a “tabloid newspaper” with a “reputation for sensationalism and a conservative editorial stance.” Fair enough, but meanwhile, in the AI’s eyes, the Times is a “credible and reputable news source” that boasts “numerous awards for journalism.” Absent from the AI’s description of the Times was “liberal” or even “left-leaning” (not even in its opinion section!), nor was there any mention of its misinformation, disinformation, or outright propaganda. 

Yet, despite these obvious concerns, some higher education institutions are embracing generative AI. Some are beginning to offer courses and grant certificates in “prompt engineering”: fine-tuning the art of feeding instructions to the technology. 

If teachers insist on bringing generative AI into their classrooms, students must be given full license to interrogate its rhetorical, stylistic, and sociopolitical limitations. Left unchecked, generative AI risks becoming politically correct technology masquerading as an objective program for language processing and data analysis.