#do i include this in the analysis that lives in my notes app

[mightybeaujester]

Idk how I never noticed them but

Tim’s background vocals in Frankenstein???

The voice itself but then also the sad little laugh on “dreamt”, the betrayal in it Turning “something’s” into “something is not right” and the emphasis on the confusion and trust it had in Frankenstein The deep, repeated “learning and growing” through the narrated part, showing how the AI is always working in the background

I will never be normal about this guy

[comment-day]

Some Resources To Help With Commenting

If you have ever gotten a comment full of pull-quotes, you know it is a joy to get as an author. You get to know exactly which parts of a fic stood out to someone! Which lines made them keysmash or delve into character or made it all click! Amazing!

If you've ever tried to write one yourself, you know that scrolling to the bottom of the screen to get to the comment box again and again is an exercise in frustration only matched by repeatedly closing your hand in a door while the fire alarm goes off. So. Here are some resources to help with that!

(Note: The high-tech versions below are for Ao3, but they replicate functionality Wattpad already has built in— you can comment line by line on that site! The low-tech resource linked below should work for any site that allows you to leave comments.)

The High Tech:

There is an amazing use script written by @ravenel which gives you a comment box that floats on your screen, which is detailed below.

It can be intimidating to install a use script, so @bourbon-ontherocks wrote a tutorial about it here:

For people who use Ao3 site skins, here's the code to make an Ao3 site skin and add a bookmarklet that turns having your comment box at the bottom of the screen on and off. Bonus: this will also work on mobile!

Here is an alternate Ao3 comment box that lets you open a box, type your commentary in the moment, and then send it down to the comment box at the bottom of the page, and then close it again! Includes an update by @aidaronan which was designed to work on mac and firefox!

The Low Tech:

Honestly I have been meaning to install one of these cool scripts, but I keep putting off installing them, so I just use my notes app. I open up a new note, and on my computer I put it behind my browser window so I can click to it, and on my phone I just keep it so that I can swipe across apps. So Then I copy-paste the quotes I want, dump them in the notes app, and put my commentary below! Simple, fast, and fantastic for when you are stuck on the bus for an hour.

So what do you comment?

What kind of commentary, you ask? I will be honest, a lot of the time the commentary is me going OH NO or keysmashing after lines. And that's also okay! I have been told so by authors before!

I know I have personally gotten comments where commenters did delicate character analysis after lines and those comments are in my treasured forever box, and I also have comments where someone went OH NO OH NO AOHNFDIOFNDISJFODISJIDJSIOFD YOU DIDN"T AUTHOR NO and I also hold them dear to my heart all the same. The author gets to know the reaction a work got from their reader! And that's fantastic!

The point of the pull quotes comment is showing the impact a work is having on you as you go through the work, section by section, and sometimes that's a digression about how this line made you think about the characters relationship and how he DESERVES THIS HAPPINESS, and sometimes it's responding to a heartbreaking line with twenty weeping emoji. The impact of opening up a comment email and seeing 10 lines of quotes of your own work will hit whether you have thoughtful commentary or you are rolling yourself into a little ball like an octopus and tumbling across the screen (ordinary standard unhinged comment I have left on the works of writers who make me feel Like That).

Go forth! Comment in detail! Let the authors know which lines made you go "oh no" out line in the kitchen as you made soup! Let them know about callbacks that you just realized and now you figured out the whole mystery! Let them know about how this one bit was so cute you had to step away from the computer for a sec! Let them know what you thought!

[kausatstolar]

11-20

former | latter

Alright. It's been a very long time since I've done this, largely because life got in my damn way. It's about 18 days until the first anniversary of sovstuck. Isn't that cool? Let's go back to visit our favorite jadeblood. I think I like the panel/text/analysis format, so I'm going to keep up with that.

RETRIS: Investigate poster.

You're not sure if you can consider your JOB a HOBBY, but you entertain the NARRATOR anyway. You are an ACTOR, of the TRADITIONAL LIVE-ACTION BATTLEGROUNDS ROLEPLAY variety. It is a controversial, culturally Carapacian pastime. Lights. Cameras. Action. Bloodshed. Real people died in the making of these productions. Some by your hands.

There's something delightfully unsettling about this. Retris's hand being the only troll hand, grasping the crown. The monsters strewn across the counter. The offhanded comment on the fact he's killed some of these people.. How well acquainted was he, with the hands in the poster. How old is this poster, on that note?

RETRIS: Stare at your hands.

You take a moment to contemplate the amount of times you've washed gore off your carapace. Some were people you've loved. You think it's fine. They'd all agreed in advance that that's how they wanted to go.   You try not to think about it too hard, but it gnaws at you sometimes when the moon is hung high. Some of them were so young. Just like you.

Guh. I really like the composition of this panel. It's so fucking dreadful. He looks so unhappy here. You think it's fine. They agreed in advance. You try not to think about it.

RETRIS: Get immediately distracted by the SHRINE behind you.

Oh fuck yes. Disregard all previous thoughts. It's EVANGELION time. You’ve been a hardcore fan of the series NEON GENESIS EVANGELION since you were a child. It was a formative piece of media to you. It has informed many aspects of your being. You have a particular fixation on the relationship between Evangelion's IKARI SHINJI and NAGISA KAWORU. This is your shrine dedicated to the pairing. KawoShin, it's called in fan spaces. Not that you've ever participated in those. Every Evangelion fan except for you and your BEST FRIEND is annoying. You'd like it if they got blown up with lasers. In fact, you feel quite the same way about-

Nothing better to wipe away the pain of all the people you've lost along the way than blorbos! He's so charming here. His artstyle is really charming. Look at that smiiiile. I'm sure that his love of NGE and KawoShin will not be exceedingly relevant, and has absolutely nothing to do with the way I format these. I feel the urge to blow everybody but you and your bestie up with lazers, though.

It's a sound page...!

Oh?

Fun first sound page! Wonder who's blowing up his DMs?

RETRIS: Investigate desk.

I understand him. That's all I can say here. ...Is that a KawoShin mousepad?

...What a wonderfully drawn hand. What on earth is making him hesitate like this?

Oh. That's all he was doing.

Wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up-

NERV, not KawoShin. Cool. What's all the hurry? Surely nobody's dying? ...Surely.

There we go! Ah, yes, good ol' VRISCORD. Everyone's using this handy little messaging app these days. Probably on account of it coming pre-downloaded on literally fucking everything. Your username on the platform is azimuthAnomaly -- don't tell the internet -- and English m4y not 6e your first l4ngu4ge, 6ut, you 4re trying your 6est. It seems a couple of your FRIENDS have been messaging you while you were out.

Oh. Yeah. I understand. Nice to get a view of who he talks to.

RETRIS: Commit favoritism.

You check on your best friend first, as it should be. She comes before everything else in the world. Including yourself.

[PRIVATE CHATLOG]

Have a strong feeling that "Including yourself." is going to come back and bite everybody. God, he and GG are SO fucking cute together. I love the camraderie they've got here. Ret-HIIssss.... The friendship they have reminds me a little of me and my bestie. Heehee.

[television-overload]

Get to know your fic writer (no pressure):

1, 4, 13, 16, 22, 25 (add link if you want), 40, 54, 56

Ooh yay! Thanks for the ask! I think I copied these all over correctly. I was bored so I went in-depth 😂 Here we go:

1. Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

I've been sitting here for like 5 minutes trying to figure out which I prefer 😂. I find myself coming up with multi-chapter ideas more often I think, really grand plots that I definitely don't have time to devote attention to. I also run into the problem of not knowing how to fill in between the parts that I do I have ideas for, so true multi-chapter fics are a rarity. I've had a few times where a one-shot turned into a multi chap, and THOSE tend to work better and are way more cohesive. One of my favorites is one I wrote for Star Wars (wrong blog, oops 😅) but both chapters were a lot stronger than my usual stuff, and it performed way better on AO3 which was really gratifying.

I've always wanted to write a true masterpiece where readers are anxiously awaiting the next chapter, like so many I've read, but I don't know if I've ever gotten there yet. Maybe a few when I used to write NCIS stuff on fanfiction.net.

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Songs, a lot of times. They hit me in the feels. Sometimes a line in a fic I'm reading will spark an idea, something I haven't thought about, a new interpretation of an existing scene from the source material. Gifsets, Tumblr meta analysis, movies I'm watching. So many places. I feel like half of them come to me when I'm at work, which is very inconvenient. The aforementioned Star Wars two-shot was half written on the bus ride home from work in the notes app on my phone. I've written several in the aftermath of particularly good or bad episodes/movies. Fix-it fanfic is always great, I feel like I need to write more of it.

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

I haven't done this for very long, but lately in my adulthood (as opposed to my teenage fics *shudders*) I've actually been pretty good about writing out an outline and going back to edit later. I used to just spew everything in a word doc and barely go through it before posting, but now I reread it to death, mostly to make sure it flows well. My outlines are, shall we say, extensive. The Star Wars fic I'm working on now had 20 chapters outlined and it totaled over 20,000 words. I've basically storyboarded the whole thing and then I go through and convert that to actual scenes. Important dialogue moments I want to hit are included, cause I know I'll forget them if I don't write them as they come to me. It helps me to be able to see the big picture, so that I don't give up on the project halfway through. But for spur of the moment fics or most one-shots, I still mostly write as I go. Occasionally if I have a thought that I want to make sure to include in a later scene, I'll just tack it on at the bottom of the doc and delete it once I get to that point and I put it in writing.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them.

They're scattered all over the place so that's a good question that God probably only knows the answer to. Some are barely even ideas but take up a line or two in my notes app on my phone. Some probably live only in my brain, forgotten until something triggers me to remember that I was thinking of writing it 😅.

I'd love to do something with @irish-trish 's prompt to fill in the scene from NCIS "She mentioned you at the funeral, I could see what she felt." It sounds right up my alley, but there's a Star Wars fic week coming up in September that I want to actually do on time this year, so I can't allow myself to shift focus to NCIS quite yet 😭

Other than that, I want to write a second chapter to my X-Files fic "Field of Dreams" where Mulder gets to play catch with his son. I really loved writing that fic.

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

Nothing spicy. I don't think I'd ever write in first person unless it was in the form of a letter. Other than that, I think I'd do pretty much whatever. It's just a matter of what I have the skills for I think 😂

Not a fan of AUs, except canon divergence, obviously. To me, the way the characters meet is so integral to who they are that it can't be changed much or it just doesn't feel like them. I've read maybe one fic that changed how characters met (Mulder and Scully) but that was the result of time travel and all sorts of things that warmed me up to the idea, plus the characters as we know them were still there. Alternate universe in the truest sense. I got distracted, what were we talking about?

25. What fic do you wish you got more of a response on?

The two fics I think of as my comfort fics, ones I found really peaceful and natural to write, would have been nice to see get more attention. I've been writing on and off for like a decade now (😳) and I've only ever really had one fic truly pop off in terms of kudos and comments. Which are literally my life blood 😂. But a lot of my older stuff I look back on and I'm like, yeah, that wasn't that great.

My Star Wars (Obi-Wan and Satine) one shot "this could be such a dream" I found really emotional and relaxing to write. I was kind of surprised it didn't go very far, but it was part of a weekly challenge thing so I suppose it makes sense in a way.

To get back to the TV shows I write for, though (since that's the focus or THIS blog), I really really loved my X-Files fic "Field of Dreams", in large part because I love that movie which inspired it, and I love a domestic, peaceful and content-if-not-happy happily ever after for Mulder and Scully. The movie itself makes me cry and feel so many feels, and I thought the connection to Fox Mulder was a really good one.

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

I would welcome anythinggggg, that is my dream!! I haven't really written anything I'm super proud of yet in the NCIS fandom that I feel would warrant art, but maybe someday! I'm working on a Star Wars "Sound of Music" type looooong fic rn and boy, the amount of work I've put in, I would die if someone were engaged enough to be inspired by it.

54. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Honestly, I get so excited to post it. I hope people will enjoy what I've written. I've read so much great fanfic, that I just want to contribute my 2 cents to the fandoms. Getting comments (as rare as it often is) literally makes my day and makes it all worthwhile to me. Any form of engagement, interaction here on Tumblr, that's what I strive for. But I also write for me. Exploring ideas I've never seen done before, filling in gaps in the fandom, I love it. Those comfort fics I was talking about, I love to just go back and read. It doesn't really matter, in the end, if they touched other people like they do me. I like them and that's what matters. The fics I'm not so proud of? I've been transferring them over from Tumblr and fanfiction.net anyway because some of them have received really lovely comments and people might enjoy them despite how I feel.

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I hope I'm improving on descriptive language. I want to bring out emotions in my writing, and I think there's been definite improvement since I started. I'm also thankful that I have a grasp on grammar and spelling and all the typical writing conventions. That can be a turn off to a lot of readers if it's a complete mess, so luckily I was always a pretty harsh editor throughout my schooling 😅

Get to know your fic writer

[conceptualmedicine]

Complete Guide to Conceptual Medicine: Everything Medicine Residents Need to Know

The learning process in medicine residency is subject to constant change and evolution. To this end, hopeful doctors, and indeed active residents in medicine need to get as much comprehensive insight into the continuum of their learning process. Let's dig deep into all that Conceptual Medicine has in store to help you at every level as you examine your interest in medicine and your career.

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[sodasober]

DONT APOLOGIZE I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE PSYCHOANALYZE ME!!! im a uquiz user…

responding to these individually jn my notes app

also wanna know something i think is funny? technically this is correct???? well i mean the firdt thing it asked was the castle but. yeah im a leo im an olive blood

Ok so. Olive blood means youre agreeable, but youre also not that fond of change of scenery. youre helpful, in fact, you try to be as helpful as possible no matter what it takes. if someone has hurt you, it usually doesnt stop you from enjoying yourself and your heart remains open, however, the people who hurt you will live to regret it. 

you .. probably also like animals quite a bit! — everybody who knows me knows how afraid of change i am and how terrible i am at it, but also how protective and passionate i am about my interests. so that is true. also. i do try to be helpful like a friends sad and i instantly go to comments like “you okay??? wanna 🌮 bout it????” but also the last part isnt as accurate i cannot deal with losing someone and it will usually take me forever to find the courage to stop being friends with sombody…also i LOVE animals!!!! but im a bit indifferent about dogs, and insects…

interesting thing is that being a derse dreamer is somewhat contradictory of parts of that. It involves being in a "constant state of dissatisfaction" and not resting until something is done with that dissatisfaction. it often involves pessimism and being introverted, and somewhat closed off. it involves looking to the future and past but rarely the present. — god damn it i hare how accurate this is. dude i dont even have anything to add onto this like?? you just told me everything???

the light aspect aligns with that last part, too! it involves wanting answers. seeking knowledge above anything else. it involves doing anything you can to get that knowledge, and being able to turn it into something useful when you do obtain it. 

Its also associated with telling long stories to people, and having a lot to say , having a lot on your mind usually. — this is a part of me i could totally agree with. ive talked about my inquiry / inquisitiveness to people before, and i think its quite obvious. whether its simple or complex, i want to comprehend it

i want to elaborate on these, cuz theres SOOO much more i could say but like. that might give away who i an and stuff AND ALSO. thats too much reflection for me i dont wanna think about myself right now!!!! that probably says a lot about me, um, oops.

also, what does this make me? like. the. title how to i find out my title…somethibg of light ig

i could also easily see myself being a heart player, though. not gonna lie

The title isnt rly something i can assign based off of the extended zodiac results ,, when i classpected myself i just picked what fit most imo lolol. from what i know about u (from the stuff u just told me in response to the analysis lol) i think light fits good , but at the same time idk- the thing is, if u wanna find out ur class AND aspect, then u gotta consider how those 2 interact! cause a seer of light and a thief of light are very different from each other. this is also putting more focus on the game mechanics of it all. light, in sburb/sgrub is about Knowledge, fortune, and actual light. fun thing about classes is that once u include those , things get way more complicated because theres for example bards and princes who "destroy" their aspect, which makes them act/seem like theyre the literal opposite of that aspect. if that makes any sense .. i recommend skimming through the fandom wiki page for classes, or maybe going to an analysis blog like this one (personally, i used to go on a blog called sburbanalysis but currently it seems like a WIP archiving blog so idk)

good luck . i think!

[inkintheinternet]

Science and Society in the New World

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

I'm tirelessly fascinated by science and the world we live in. I have been observing the changes happening. As I have noted in my previous article a New World has sprung around us, with swiftly progressing science and a changing society due to the influence of social media for better or worse (depends on your perspective.)

We have the positive aspect of this new evolving world and the negative one. I will focus first on the negatives in this article since they are concerning.

For example obesity has increased with 1 in 8 people in the world living with obesity in 2022 according to the World Health Organization 2024 study, with confirming reports about world wide increase in the International Journal of Obesity - 2024.

And cancer is striking young adults, mostly women and people in their 30s that has "doctors alarmed and baffled." - Wall Street Journal.

Studies found the increase to be of 14 types of cancer. "Many of which affect the digestive system." - CNN Health.

There could be a link between these two rising phenomena and a particular change in society that came about forcefully in 2020 ‐ that is the Covid19 lockdown, because of which not only did many people not get enough exercise, but had moved to eating conveniently from takeaways. A habit that maybe didn't go away after the lockdown.

In our present day, food delivery apps offer any food we could think of in less than an hour, delivered straight to our doorstep. This includes many sugary foods and drinks. If I was to make a magical comparison, think of our mobile phones like magic wands...wave it and the food you want magically appears within an hour, you don't have to cook or make a trip just wish for your meal.

How many young adults do you think would thoughtfully order their food based on health criteria rather than whatever looks the most delicious on the app advertisement. In addition to the ease with which any food is available, the fact that there is so much variety means you never get bored and so are likely to eat a large amount in every meal.

Food you haven't cooked means you don't know the ingredients, especially most takeaway foods unlike packaged foods don't have label of ingredients.

The question of ingredients is most concerning in any food.

The average person is rarely familiar with the side effects or potentially harmful ingredients, some people don't have any awareness at all about preservatives, food colouring, artificial flavours, or additives. At best they check the expiration date of canned goods.

For example the food colouring Titanium dioxide (E171 on labels) was banned in France in 2020 followed by the European Union in 2022. It is a mineral that naturally occurs and has many crystallised forms. It is used as a white pigment in foods and other non-edible products. Studies have linked it to genotoxicity and cytotoxicity.

Genotoxicity is where it can cause DNA damage which can cause cancer, and cytotoxicity means a substance that is harmful to cells. The intensive analysis of Titanium dioxide particularly came into focus when science progressed enough to study nanoparticles. Titanium dioxide produces nanoparticles that can enter the bloodstream.

To get a clear picture nanoparticles are 1 to 100 nanometers, a human hair is 80,000 nanometers in width.

Titanium dioxide though banned in Europe and Saudi Arabia, is still used in food products in America and Canada (2023 June report).

I did not find 2024 report regarding this issue.

The reason why different countries have different health regulations is that researchers have varying criteria of what makes a product toxic for human consumption, when it comes to substances that won't immediately kill you like straight out poisons.

How many consumers would have awareness about possible ingredients like these in their takeaway meal or dessert. The answer is probably a very small percentage, especially among adolescents and young adults.

Titanium dioxide could be in your white chocolate mocha coffee or velvet cake white chocolate icing, if it is not banned in your country.

When it comes to food the subject is very large, which is impossible to be summarised in one article. But I came upon some interesting facts and history about chocolate. I found it interesting as I get to explore the Mesoamerican civilization of the Aztecs (present day Mexico) and study if we can learn somethings from it.

Cocoa beans were said to be first used as food by the Olmecs, a tribe in the region of Mesoamerica, then by other pre-Columbian civilizations basically in the same region. The tribes include the Aztecs, Mayans, Inca (Peru) etc.

The Olmecs didn’t have written records but pots found in archealogical sites have traces of cocoa substance.

The Aztecs called cocoa Xocolatl and it was considered more valuable than gold, and even used as currency, throughout these civilizations chocolate was consumed as a bitter drink, and maybe spiced with chilli, which was a common crop in the region.

No one knows the exact origin of these tribes but possible they were nomadic hunter-gatherers who started to build settlements.

It ended very badly for the Aztecs when the Spanish conquistador Hernàn Cortès arrived in Mesoamerica and had trained about 400 soldiers and marched into Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec empire.

The leader Montezuma unaware of the intentions of the Spaniard greeted him and his men as honored guests (talk about a Trojan Horse) but was captured and many Aztecs slaughtered by the invaders. European diseases like small pox had also reached the Aztecs and due to no immunity they died in heaps. The report I read does not state whether small pox was intentionally used as a biological weapon. But over a course of some years the Aztecs had been conquered by the Spaniards. Though the Aztecs outnumbered the invaders, their weapons and perhaps their knowledge was much infurior, giving the invaders an edge over them.

Soon after the Inca (modern day Peru) were also conquered, and it was roads that they had made that helped facilitate the attack on them.

All of these pre-Columbian civilizations had human sacrifice rituals and chocolate drinks could have been part of the ceremony.

Dark chocolate has proven to prevent the start and progress of cancer. Flavanoids in cocoa beans have cancer fighting properties. It is not a substitute for professional medical treatment, but can be part of a healthy diet. Dark chocolate is defined as 60 to 70 percent cocoa.

Copyright ©️ Arjuwan Lakkdawala 2024

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

X/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: arjuwan.writer@gmail.com

Sources:

Oncology Nursing News, chocolate: to eat or not to eat? Karen Harris

History, Aztecs, history . com editors

History of chocolate, history . com editors

National post, approved for use in Canada, advocates are urging us to ban this common food additive, Sam riches

National Geogrphic, who were the msya? Decoding the ancient civilization's secrets, Erin blakemore

Britannica, titanium dioxide, chemical compound, debasmita patra, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Cnn health, Cancer diagnosis rates are gong up in younger adults, study finds, driven largely by rises in women and people in their 30s, Brenda goodman

Wall Street Journal, Cancer is striking more young people, and doctors are alarmed and baffled, brianna abbott

International Journal of Obesity, obesogens: a unifying theory for the global rise in obesity, jerryold j. Heindel, Robert h. lustig, Barbara e. Corkey

Regask, titanium dioxide banned as a food additive in Ksa, Yemen, and Qatar

U.s. right to know, titanium dioxide, banned in Europe, is one of the most common food additive in u.s., mikaela conley

[coder4u]

Top 6 Best Computer Programming Courses For Children In 2023

Children are prepared for success by learning computer science! Coding is only one element of computer programming. It involves physical networks and systems, data collecting, storage, and analysis, among other things. Therefore, we’ll discuss some of the top children’s computer science courses today.

Computer and information research scientists’ employment is expected to increase by 22% between 2020 and 2030, which is substantially faster than the average for all occupations. Children learn practical technical skills in computer science that will help them in their future occupations, but it also develops their creativity and critical thinking abilities.

The years 2020 and 2021 had their share of surprises, but they also brought about changes and tribulations that led to new opportunities. Not just in general, but also with the coding classes we shall discuss in a moment.

Even while school may have seemed like a chore to children and teenagers, it only meant that they needed to explore alternative ways to learn. And although they may have socially seen their friends less frequently than normal, this only required them to discover other methods to connect.

Consider the after-school enrichment programmes that kids once looked forward to that are no longer offered. They had to occupy their time by doing something else, and since they couldn’t go for the robotics club after class, many of those options began to be offered online.

Finally, as was already noted, children and teenagers just missed their friends or the chance to create new ones. Because so many people were keeping their distance, they had to use internet tools to communicate, chat, meet, and just have fun.

Why Online Programming Courses For teenagers Is So Important ?

If you’re reading this, you undoubtedly already see the need for and value of introducing coding to your young child. So, where and how they can do it are the questions. Who can they learn from, and how?

The short and sweet answer is that there are plenty of opportunities available, including one-on-one online coding lessons, Online Teen Academies, and more. Your child can learn to code if they are interested in doing so.

Several coding websites, apps, and other online resources are available to help children and teenagers learn how to code, I’d also like to mention. In my opinion, a “class” must have some sort of live instruction component, such as a live instructor instructing students in person or, at the very least, a recording of such instruction. I do discuss these briefly at the end of the piece.

In light of this, here are 10 online coding courses for children that are taught by live instructors and offer group or one-on-one training for students.

Here Is The best computer programming courses for children

1. JavaScript

Asking these introductory questions will help you determine whether or not your child is prepared for an online coding course. Do your kids like playing video games? If so, would using games to teach coding be the best strategy?

In the end, there are many ways to teach kids how to code, but some of the more effective initiatives incorporate the subject into activities that they are already familiar with (like video games, or even social media, or robotics). Kids may readily experience the positive reinforcement provided by “If I do this, then that happens,” etc. by allowing them to see what code has previously created and then how code can change those things.

As a result, this JavaScript course introduces students to the fundamentals of variables, math operators, and the p5 web editor before having them add collision detection, improve complex game features, add scoring, and more by the end of the week.

2. Python Coding

Students can learn to write using Python, one of the best programming languages for kids, by declaring, initializing, and using variables, as well as by dealing with strings, characters, and algorithms. However, they can also investigate the underlying workings of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Python teaching may be the ideal choice now that summer activities are coming to an end and school is starting.

3. Artificial intelligence course

Discover how Artificial Intelligence for kids relates to self-driving cars, face recognition, and other cutting-edge technology. Children may practise using cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning tools in this live online computer science course. They will gain an understanding of how AI operates, observe actual applications, comprehend what AI can and cannot accomplish and why, and even create their own AI system.

4. Java Tutoring

Are these words — arrays, loops, and if statements — frightening to you? They certainly can be. but not in a setting that is conducive to learning. The act of learning a new skill, such as coding, can be challenging enough without having to learn new coding vocabulary, especially for young children. But consider it this way: Any word can be reduced to its simplest form. For instance, isn’t an algorithm just a sequence of instructions?

Java programming can therefore be used to learn the fundamentals of programming, create apps and games, and develop a deeper understanding of algorithms. Java is the ideal language to open the world of computer science, to put it another way.

5. Web development class

Create your own web pages to learn more about how the Internet actually functions. In this Web Development Course, children and teenagers begin to learn JavaScript and create websites with dynamic content that can respond to user interactions. Students will learn how to design increasingly complicated web projects, such as animations and online games, as well as web apps utilizing JavaScript.

6. Mobile App Development

Make effective mobile games and apps with simple block code. The fundamentals of the Mobile App Development and how to create their own apps will be taught to students and teenagers. Additionally, they will investigate how to use text, hardware sensors, and even a camera to create games and projects that incorporate word games, riddles, and picture recognition.

What is a good coding class for kids ?

An excellent coding lesson for children is built around a curriculum created by subject-matter specialists and instructed by a qualified teacher. Additionally, good coding courses give students hands-on experience and explain how what they are learning is used in the real world. The finest coding courses also make sure that children comprehend the ideas and reasoning behind what they are doing. Read more on the top coding schools for kids.

What age should I start learning computer science ?

Computer science can be introduced to kids as early as five. By the age of six, a child’s brain has approximately twice as many synapses (connections that allow lightning-fast communication among neurons) as it would have when it is an adult. If not used, almost half of these synapses will disappear at the age of 20. Learning is crucial for your child throughout this time in their lives because of this.

Should kids learn computer science ?

Children should study computer science since it is an excellent approach to foster their creativity and analytical abilities. Students can test the limits of a virtual box by coming up with original solutions without having to deal with a messy environment or complicated setup. The 21st century’s most important skills for success at work and in the marketplace are critical and creative thinking.

CodeKaroYaaro

Many children do not find the perfect opportunity to learn to code but Suvidha Foundation brings a new hope to their life. An online coding school named CodeKaroYaaro is a great platform for children of all ages to learn coding. With a motto coding changes tomorrow Code Karo Yaaro brings online coding classes for kids at a very nominal course fees which is almost 1/3 rd of any other coding classes. Not just that CodeKaroYaaro offers a free trial class to everyone. Here You can find a variety of interesting coding courses.

CodeKaroYaaro has the following features that differs them from any other institute -

1. 1 -one- 1 Interactive sessions

2. Instant doubt solving

3. Learn how to brainstorm ideas

4. Affordable fees

5. Quality education

6. Mentor support for kids

For more details, Contact CodeKaroYaaro here -

CodeKaroYaaro — www.codekaroyaaro.com

Suvidha Foundation — http://suvidhafoundationedutech.org/

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/codekaroyaaro/?igshid=1nb6afsffwzd

Instagram — https://instagram.com/suvidha_mahila_mandal?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Linkedin — https://www.linkedin.com/company/67923520/admin/

YouTube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0GUyPIpdDVJQMugEtkH8Pw

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/codekaroyaaro

Twitter — https://twitter.com/CodeKaroYaaro

Email — http://parents.support@codekaroyaaro.com

Address — H NO. 1951, Near Water Tank Annamod, Khaparkheda, Nagpur, Maharashtra, 441102

[yamagucji]

some tips for writing blogs, especially those who are just starting out. these are some things that works for me and may or may not work for others.

how to add a read more link on mobile

type :readmore: on a free space, then hit the enter or return button

personally i think they’re very helpful because it lessens the space you take up in your dash, and might encourage more people to rb

+ you can also add this on a spot where it gives a sort of cliffhanger, essentially making people want to ‘read more’

headers, banners, and dividers

though not necessary, it’s good to have a title for your work. make sure it’s bold and doesn’t blend in with your notes (aka pairing, warnings, etc.). this also helps when someone wants to look up one of your works in your search bar

i don’t really make banners or covers for my works. but some good apps that i know of would be picsart and canva. if you’re looking for ideas, i definitely recommend going into canva

wondering how to make those really small, thin dividers? you can make them using picsart! to make a divider hit tools > free crop > brush > size (adjust it to your preference > then draw a line along the edge of your photo > save

using the divider you just saved, go back to picsart and edit it again > draw option > hit rainbow square at the bottom left corner > hit suction/droplet symbol right below the check mark > color in the white spots bc for some reason picsart glitches and makes dividers look white-ish

new blog? just opened an account?

this is gonna sound really frustrating. but... tumblr needs to check if you’re a bot or not. what does this mean? it’s likely that your first few posts won’t show up on the search bar. you may not even get to edit your header/pfp yet ://

this happened to me and there was no visibility on my account at ALL. what helped me get ‘verified’ is that i followed a LOT of accounts, liked a bunch of posts, made some posts here and there. now that lets tumblr know you’re not a bot

visibility

the tumblr tagging system usually only allows the first 5 tags in your post to show up. so, what can do you about this? only use FIVE or less tags in your post. wait about 15 minutes or more until you can add some more tags in your post, and they usually all show up like that

another important thing about using tags is not to generalize! especially if you’re using a popular tag. but also don’t specify it too much where barely anyone looks it up. for example, if you’re writing a gn piece about oikawa, i recommend you use the tags such as: oikawa x reader, haikyuu x reader, oikawa x gn!reader, haikyuu headcanons, etc

a good rule of thumb is to use character x reader tags first, then leave the full name or fandom tag last

FOR NSFW: tumblr doesn’t let any tags with nsfw show up. so, give your nsfw works another tag. maybe #namegetspicy idk, you figure it out

FOR WARNINGS: especially if you’re a dark content creator, i highly encourage you to add tw:xyz tags. if you already have a warning note at the top then that’s great. but even better for readers who prefer to actually block these tags that way they never get to see it

another important thing to note is that people have different timezones. it helps if you rb your work at a different time of the day, in case people missed it! (icymi) i’ve noticed that reblogging helps to make your post show up in the tags

interaction + feedback

first and foremost, you are not obligated to write for your followers, and neither are your followers obligated to interact with you. remember that everyone has their own individual lives, and they have their own things to do— so do you, too.

make friends! become mutuals with other writers, visit their ask box. i know it can be daunting having to initiate these things, but you might just turn out to have fun! you can’t expect people to interact with you if you’re not interacting (back). it’s... kind of a two way thing yk? no need to be afraid to interact with other writers. oh, and rb other writers works!

pspsps join tag games or do ask games. it’s fun and very interactive

it never hurts to ask for feedback. i usually do this in a more subtle way because i don’t really expect a full on analysis on my works. maybe a little, is this okay? or feedback appreciated. sometimes it takes a little bit of coaxing for the silent readers

formatting your posts and blog

i generally put in the title at the top in big, bold letters

then comes the header/divider. helps to make the post more... visually appealing ig?

it’s important to add warnings (if any) and the pairing. the audience is not all female, and it might be a little frustrating for male readers having to find out its an x fem reader piece like halfway through your fic

if you have multiple works posted, it’s really really helpful to have a navigation page!

you can organize the posts you make with tags! for example, if you’re shitposting, you can use a specific tag for that. if you have a nsfw related post (ESPECIALLY when your blog is open to the general audience) please make a tag for it

themes + colors

if you have a color in mind but don’t know which direction to go from there, i recommend looking up color + aesthetic

looking to use the same color? download a name color app that’ll give you a hex code for any color you want to use. then, you can type in that hex code for when you’re choosing a color for your tumblr bio

wondering how to make your header image small like mine? just choose a photo for your header and turn off the stretch image option

want to use a different text color that tumblr doesn’t offer? it’s not as complicated as you think. you’ll have to go on a desktop to do this and do some html (but trust me, it’s not very difficult). look up “HTML noob but trying my best - how to use colored text on desktop”

^^ i don’t have the link for the color text tutorial so you can try looking it up

how to make an aesthetic navi and masterlist

step 1: decide a theme! if you’re stuck, think about a character + color/season/mood or look up “[insert] aesthetic” to find some inspiration. or you can try looking at other blogs too

step 2: find a color scheme! it’s easier if you choose fewer colors. if you want to use the same color for both divider and text, download a color name app in order to get the hex code of that color.

step 3: add categories to your navi! most navigation pages include a link to masterlist, about/byi, and rules. your navi should have a title that indicates that it’s... a navigation page. you can add thin colored dividers with the same color to make it easier for followers to navigate

step 4: you can choose to create a ‘cover’ or a picture for your navigation and masterlist! again, i recommend you use the canva app as a starting point

extra: search up emoticon symbols to spice up your titles!

reminder for you as a writer

you’re not obligated to do any of these things. i’ve noticed that we tend to build pressure on ourselves when it comes to content and interaction. remember, this !! is !! for !! fun !! when you realize that it’s no longer fun, then know that it’s time to take a break. and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of self care.

^^ c/p from this post lol

at the end of the day, follower count and interaction doesn’t define you. again for the love of beings, you’re here on your own accord.

will be adding more if needed/asked.

[iwishiwereafrog]

So i spend A LOT of time on pinterest because i have nothing better to do with my life. I am also a big fan of Omori. So i see a lot of memes and stuff there and a lot of them are just constantly B L A S T I N G Aubrey and claiming that her issues are insignificant.

and i have a really b i g problem with this because i feel like a lot of people really don't want to see beyond the surface level when it comes to her character just because she became a bully. and i can't help but feel like her character development was a bit half-baked but none the less.

But anyways a wrote a rant/analysis thingy in the notes app and i dont have any friends that play Omori that i can send it to so i'm posting it here:

(oh and it started with me wistfull longing for more official Omori content...)

"i want a separate spin-off going through the lives of all of the main characters dealing with their own something's. so bad. and then a slice of life prequel with mari's death as the cliffhanger ending lol... oh and they have to all be separate games with roughly the same amount of content and play time.

and i think that it would also help the fan base sympathize with Audrey a lot more. like i know she has done some SHITTY shit but like. think about it for a minute. she loses her only positive female role model due to what she thinks is suicide in the midst of an abusive living situation right at the beginning of puberty and is then pretty much abandoned by all of her friends. you don't consider that so be really fucking traumatic??? like i see memes and stuff justifying the other characters trauma and then just bash on her as the punchline. yeah she became a bully. yeah that's shitty. but it's not like sunny's coping mechanism was any better. or basil's. hero wasn't doin very well for a while either. like as fucked as it is that she decided to take her frustration and pain out on other people, it doesn't make her problems any smaller. she doesn't get the chance to go in depth about what happened to her after Mari died. she got like one scene aching over being abandoned -because for a while she was- and by the time they came back she had already started closing herself off. it sucks that she didn't turn out kind and hopeful but in reality that's completely valid. not everyone responds to trauma the same way which is made clearly evident buy the entirety of the real world gameplay. she just happened to be the angry one. and her pain is as valid as all of the other characters despite her poor response to it. you'd probably think sunny was a shitty person if he wasn't the main character too."

well anyway, hope this changed literally anyone's mind on her a little bit. this doesn't even include all of my reasons i could probably write a whole 10 page essay if i really wanted to but yeah...

have a little fanart of mine

👍

[possessedartist]

*looking u in the eyes* 👁👁 tell me your ygo blorbos

*GRIPESKF YOU* COME HERE

okayd okay first on da list

honestly??? unsurprisingly it’s probably a tie between joey and chazz they’re so asnbdnfjfkfnfnfjfjg fucked up little guys!!!! jo’s got a place in my heart w his sad tboy gambler swag.,., and chazz has teen angst galore i could talk abt them all day *looks at the chazz essay in my notes app* i will rant abt this two sm i have so many thoughts. kaiba is probably my third fav but you didn’t hear that from me. but joey’s probably my fav fav believe it or not.

SCRUNGKLY.,., prolly yugi he is just shaped like a little guy.,,, OH AND BAKURA HE IS LIKE SCRUNGLED AND SOMETIMES EVIL AND FUCKED UP I LOVE HIM SO,,. he has the shape of neutral evil

UNDERRATED FAV IS CHAZZ FOR SUREEE IM SORRY img always feeling like i’m the only appreciator of him around here (but maybe that’s bc i kin) OH AND ATTICUS AS WELL i think they’re severely underrated both fanbase and show wise they’re just fuckrd up dramatic hilarious little guys it’s actually so funny *hides my atticus analysis essay behind my back*

OBSCURE FAV.,. hrm bg characters i lik,,., that’s pretty much like every dm minor antag tbh 😭 like especially espa roba and mako tsunami/ryota i think they’re fun in their own ways.,. non dm character would definitely be bastion though i wish ygo gx did him right he could’ve been the next tenya iida.,.,, HE HAD SOO MUCH GOING FOR HIM WHYD THEY TOSS HIM AWAY 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

OKAY THIS ONE actually kinda took a minute cuz i think most ygo characters are kinda at least mildly liked.. i suppose it’s probably edo/aster phoenix? i never see ppl talk about him so it’s just more on the unpopular side- including sartorious/saiou as well lmaoooo i think they’re interesting tho ig i understand why bc the major of their shit was resolved in the s2 finale but stilanfendjdjdjdj my scrimblos my umbrella guys,,,,,

genuinely trying to think but i don’t think i have a problematic or weird fav bwhaha like maybeeee yubel??? but i think most ppl like them at this point lmaoo

wait actually i do he’s not a fav bc i hate the ever living shit out him but adrian fucking gecko/amon. if i saw him i would fucking punt him idc if he can lift steel chairs and he has a six pack and ultra rich i will send this guy to super hell. however the manga version of him can stay and that’s why he technically fits this

honestly would torment the shit out of zane for fun i just think he’s silly tho i get why he’s like that. but like still who wouldn’t want to mess w him (thisjf is my inner atticus rhodes kin jumping out)

i’m sending gozaburo kaiba to a special kind of super hell he’s not coming back from.

anyways here enjoy the chazz

[aro-comics]

Fashion Analysis (Part 5: Aromanticism & Fashion?)

[Note: This post is a part of a series analyzing self-expression, fashion, aromanticism, and how they interact with other parts of identity. For full context please read the whole thing!]

Aromanticism and Fashion?

Now that we have gone through LGBTQ+ History with fashion, and the importance of self expression - I think we’re in a good place with all this context to discuss how aromanticism and fashion can intersect. (and again, as a disclaimer, all of this is purely speculative!). 

Personally, I think there may be a few philosophies on how Aromanticism and Fashion may interact. You can look at it a few different ways, either considering the influence amatonormativity may have on our methods of dress, but also the context in which Aromantic communities are forming (online). 

On the influence of Amatonormativity

Up until this point I’ve been side-stepping the consideration of amatonormativity – but it does impact self-expression, I think, and it’s worth discussing it’s relation to aromanticism.

I had a discussion with one of my aroace friends about the idea of wanting to avoid “attention” in the romantic and/or sexual sense growing up. There is an inherent tie-in with wanting to appear desirable (as shown in the beginning of the comic, and also reinforced through many pieces of popular media), with romantic outcomes. In both of our experiences, I believe it made the idea of being seen as conforming to beauty norms an uncomfortable activity. 

And looking back to lesbian fashion history too, we can see this subversion of heteronormative expectation is tied into a lot of their community’s means of dress. Which leads me to wonder - will we also see this with an emerging Aromantic sense of fashion? How could this impact clothing choice, and general expression as it relates to an amatonormative society? 

I want to note that personally, outside of professional contexts, I like to dress femininely in a subversive and “alternative” way. I LOVE the idea of being hyperfeminine as a performance, being a living, breathing, work of art, while simultaneously creating an aesthetic that would not consider “attractive” in an amatonormative context. And another aroace friend has confirmed feeling this way with me too! She mentioned she likes to dress in a way that will make women go “wow, we love this outfit” but at the same time cause *conservative straight old men* go “what are you wearing” (to paraphrase our conversation). 

I think some good examples of this from my personal experience would be the following:

1. I love aggressive, graphic liner - generally makeup is thought of as something that feminizes the face, something that softens. But I also like to use it to create the angles and shapes that adorn my face, something abstract for the sake of being beautiful. Like mentioned before, I don’t want to appear romantically attractive to anyone, and I think that for me, at least, this is a part of using femininity to subvert these expectations. 

2. I love ethereal-looking, avant-garde sheer dresses, not in the sense that they could be romanticized, but in the way they again make me feel detached from the idea of beauty for the sake of appealing to anyone else. Instead, for me it feels like beauty as a wild, untameable form of nature and being. 

But … maybe I should mention the unconventional tastes are partially tied to the fact I spend a lot of time in creative spaces because of my degree, and overall I am exposed to more diverse ranges of self-expression to begin with! Either way, though, I am curious what other aros have to say, so feel free to let me know your experiences with this. I’d love to provide an update with thoughts from other aros! 

Forming Community Online and its Possible Impacts

The online nature of the development of Aro Culture leads me to wonder if this medium of interaction will influence the development of our fashion, much like how it influences the development of fashion overall.  For example, with tiktok, the app is often credited for its major influence on modern fashion trends (and leading to the emergence of microtrends). 

Most visual designs are being affected by the way social media algorithms work too. The “allegria style” created by facebook, otherwise known as the “flat gangly limbed drawing style beloved by tech companies”, has exploded in popularity. Regardless of how one might feel about the widespread adoption of this style of illustration, it’s clear that it has significant advantages that have led to its popularity, one of which is its ability to be “consumed” or visually understood at high speed due to its graphic nature and simple design. Basically, when people look at things on their phones, and they’re scrolling quickly, they’re more likely to understand what they see and interact with what they see if it’s easy to visually “read”. And I truly believe that this is influencing most forms of design, including fashion (which subsequently, will influence aro fashion). If you’d like to learn more about this subject, sources 14, 15, and 16 provide more insight into how social media algorithms have influenced design and visual culture at large. 

I think another factor to consider here is the effect of seeing the whole world at once - having the influence of all different media, visuals, and pop culture at the same time has created a very unique environment for development. As one example, the wider aspec communities have developed with the existence of our flags (which are purple and green centered for ace and aro respectively). This would be knowledge that wouldn’t be so easily spread through the whole community in a pre-internet era, and I personally (THIS IS ONLY MY THEORY) feel this is part of the reason there is a far stronger connection to these colours within aspec culture. It’s something that unifies us and was one of our first introductions to the community (since most of us probably looked up the definition of aromantic, or asexual, online), and I think for this reason these colours hold special significance and are present in a lot of of our means of self expression and communication with other members of our community. 

Obviously, the formation of symbols and ways of self-identification will occur anyway (many symbols exist for other members of the LGBTQ+ community too), but I do think being online has a particular influence on the ways community symbols are communicated, and create a different context in where these cultural symbols take shape.

[Note from Author: For Part 6, click here!]

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

MY KHUXDRML TUMBLR TAGS MASTERLIST

Notes: Tumblr is a big dumdum when it comes to tags and formatting, so I’m sorry if this doesn’t work that well. Shoot me an ask if you’re having trouble looking for anything in particular and I’ll try to find it for you!

GENERAL TAGS

my posts - Almost every post I’ve made; encapsulates a majority of the posts found in tags below. Includes both khux and non-khux stuff. Will update if I ever create a specific khux posts tag.

my art - Like above, includes both khuxdrml (mostly khux) and non-khuxdrml stuff

my fics - Posts that include my fics + info and sporadic posts about them. Alternatively, you could go straight to AO3. I’m very proud of these, thanks in advance if you decide to read anything! And feel free to ask me questions and stuff!

kh fics - Other people’s fics. Great stuff in there~

kh aus - (from the entire series)

my headcanons - Lots of juicy stuff that live rent free inside my brain at all times

shitposts - Every meme, joke or just plain weird thing I’ve said. This is a fun one to look through!

key kids - Stuff that has people’s key kids (not my own) in them

Roadie the key kid - Stuff of my own key kid, Roadie

khux liveblogging - All the stuff I’ve said while playing khux! I dropped out at some point in Wreck-It Ralph’s climax before picking it up again just before the shut down, but you can see a lot of stuff all the way back from the app’s global release date in 2015!!

khux jp - Raw reactions to unofficially translated cutscenes

khdr liveblogging - same deal as khux except I gave up physically playing it once the hiatus hit lol (I watched the cutscenes)

khml liveblogging - where are you bestie 🥲

business in the back cover - My liveblog of Back Cover

SPECIFIC POSTS

my Ephemera character analysis essay

Overmorrow (spoilers!) - The masterpost for my magnum opus, an Ephy-centric khux and khml interquel ficverse! (Alternatively, you can go straight to my Dropbox folder to avoid getting spoiled :))

chi infodumps - Various posts where I just ramble on about something from the chi saga, mostly food for thought. [in the process of trying to add more older posts to this!]

Daybreak Town culture - A mix of canon lore, cool fan worldbuilding, and general vibes that make me think of DT

Scala culture - see above

kh tumblr - KH + Tumblr posts

ranking best to best - Ranking images/appearances of characters, from best to best

khux inspired asks - A list of asks you can ask your buddies inspired by khux things/characters

veterans discount chi saga edition

aisno - “astra inclinant, sed non obligant”, my series of brainplayer / plain comics

CHARACTER TAGS

Notes: Aside from Ephemera’s tag, all of these are kind of inconsistent, so apologies in advance.

timeless child - Ephemera

timeless nort - Ephemera but uhhh having a Bad Time

timeless familia - Ephemera’s canon family :D (sometimes non-canon/speculative stuff may be mixed in here)

the ophiuchus family - Ephemera’s family but the version where I make everything up and have lots of fun with it

the destiny weaver - Skuld

khx player - A very inconsistent tag that mostly includes my own drawings/interpretations of the character that is “the Player”

khml player - Player2’s tag. I’m trying to do better with them :)

sweet wind child - Ven

knight in gothic armour - Blaine / Brain

girl of paradise - Strelitzia

the pink pursuer - Lauriam

larxene 2 electric boogaloo - Elrena

chibi chi sibs - Lauriam and Strelitzia (and Elrena too when we thought she could’ve been the sibling)

dandy kids - Union Leaders as a group

fearsome fam - Foretellers and Luxu and MoM

sewer squad - The group of friendly npcs you venture around with for a while

they walk a lonely road - general Dark Road tag

family feud scala edition - general Missing Link tag

SHIP TAGS

Notes:

I enjoy multishipping. I don’t condone any kind of ship hate. You are not obligated to look through any of these if you do not want to.

Yes I know things can be interpreted as platonic (and some of these posts are indeed platonic but I just tag them all the same regardless of the specifics of the relationship), I’m just here for a good time.

I love the ship names I came up with. Does that mean they’re good ship names? Not necessarily 😅

This is not a comprehensive list of all the ships I ship. Please shoot an ask if you have any questions :)

skulmera - Skuld/Ephemera (aka epheskul)

ephelayer - Ephemera/Player

skulayer - Skuld/Player

skulmerayer - Skuld/Ephemera/Player my pride and joy ❤️

blauriam - Blaine/Lauriam

strelaine - Blaine/Strelitzia

plitzia - Strelitzia/Player

ephelauri - Ephemera/Lauriam

epheven - Ephemera/Ven

ephelaine - Ephemera/Blaine (aka braineph - Ephemera/Brain)

ephelaurain - Ephemera/Blaine/Lauriam

brainplayer - Brain/Player(2) (aka plain)

xehaqus - Xehanort/Eraqus

xehabaldr - Xehanort/Baldr

urdvala - Urd/Vala

hovidar - Hoder/Vidar

gulava - Gula/Ava

iraced - Ira/Aced

invira - Invi/Ira

avavi - Ava/Invi

friendly attitude - White-haired male npc/Green-haired male npc

skandra - Silver-haired female npc (Skati)/Curly-haired female npc (Leandra)

[aelaer]

The Blood in My Veins: Pt 4

Heyyyy I'm back. Now that one of my big fic projects is done/being rolled out I can concentrate on getting this finished (as well as other prompts). Here are the earlier parts if you can't remember what happened in this long-running prompt fic, since my last update was like, the summer.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Prompt (via @ironstrangeprompts that I can’t tag for whatever reason qq): Kidnapped to play doctor for a still unseen other prisoner; Stephen realizes there is only one person on the planet who would have palladium in their blood.

The Warnings: Okay guys, I want to cover all bases for this part and all parts henceforth. The bad guy I've written here really really sucks. He's a complete asshole. Part of his assholeness can include behaviors such as racism, sexism, homophobic remarks, religious bigotry, and overall just being a terrible human being. This terrible human being is not a typical representative of his nation/culture and is very thankfully fictional. There's plenty of Canon-Typical Violence around, too. All of the above are not be in this specific part but could be in future parts (I'm writing this as I go so I truly don't know, I just know he’s a dickwad). I didn't know this section was gonna happen until I finished Part 2, for instance, otherwise I'd have put a note at the beginning. I'd consider the fic a heavy teen fic, if you're looking for a rating, so it shouldn't get to graphical violence beyond what you'd see in high teen rated content. Also, there's going to be Medical Procedures in the future, though more clinical rather than graphic. Hopefully that covers everything, please ask me anything if you have a question.

I always put these longer writings on tumblr into "read more" cuts, but the mobile app does not always work correctly if you're looking at the original post from my tumblr, so I apologise for the length if you're on the app and viewing the original and said cut is not working. Still unbetaed, all errors are mine.

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Part Four: Seeing Red Again

Another three days passed with little change in Stephen’s schedule. He went for his sleep shift at 12:30 a.m. New York time, and was woken up by one of the others between 5:20 to 5:30 a.m. It wasn't enough time for even two full complete sleep cycles, but everyone there—perhaps with exception to Steffen Baar, who was a chemist—had gone through grueling schedules during medical school and residency. So they were, in some ways, used to it.

After waking up, he had fifteen minutes to shower, shave, and change into the clothing about his size, provided for by his captors. From there, he then got to work. His sleep shift ended about three hours before dinner came—about 8:30 a.m. New York time—and a small snack arrived at what he assumed was this place's midnight, but was 2 p.m. according to his watch. Breakfast came twelve hours after dinner, at 8:30 p.m. in New York, and he went to bed again half an hour after midnight. Apparently while he slept, another snack break came for those awake.

The one small blessing in all of this was that the people holding them realized the power of caffeine and provided black tea and coffee every time they brought them food. He didn't think there were any cameras in the showers or toilets, either, which was—hopefully true. There was nothing obvious and, truth be told, he didn't really want to look much further for evidence.

Throughout his waking day, Stephen largely helped prep samples for blood analysis. He tried to strategize with Summer about how to best utilize their resources, should a surgery be required, but they had little to go on. They had yet to receive better X-rays of their patient—of Tony Stark, which still baffled Stephen—so much of their planning was about logistics.

"Doctors in the United States are required to complete a surgical rotation in their third year of med school," Stephen said, "so Jada will know basic surgical procedures. Do you need to do the same in the UK?"

"Yes," Summer answered. "All doctors go through the two-year Foundation Programme which always includes training in general surgery. So Dr Mahajan will be able to assist us as well."

"They can serve as our nurses and techs," Stephen muttered. "But what about Dr Baar?"

Summer pursed her lips together. "No medical training—but I would rather have him on hand than not. If we said we can't use him…"

Stephen grimaced and nodded. "Point. He can certainly hold a retractor." He blew out a breath. "We'll need a heart-lung machine. Those aren't easy to come by."

"None of this machinery is," she pointed out, jutting her chin to the advanced machinery scattered around the room. "I don't think that will be an issue for us. Whoever these people are, they have resources."

He pursed his lips together. "We also need an anesthesiologist."

She paused at that and sighed. "Yes. Yes, we need one of those. Unfortunately, I think we're going to be working with someone on their team if the surgery happens."

Stephen made a face. "What makes you think that?"

"When they first showed me the X-rays, I told them I would need another surgeon for the spinal area—you—and an anesthesiologist. They only spoke about finding me a surgeon, so they must have their own medical team that includes one."

He sighed. "Of course they do. He better be competent."

Summer shrugged. "Not much we can do about it. And there's not much more we can plan on this hypothetical surgery until I have better X-rays."

And so that ended that discussion and, three days later, there were no changes on that end. No new X-rays had come in, so both he and the other surgeon were stuck helping prepare samples and input data. And Stephen hadn't been so bored in years.

One wouldn't think that being captive would be boring, especially if one was doing medical work during that time. But when said medical work was repetitive lab work he hadn't done since med school? And doing it for about fifteen hours a day for three days straight with no music, no reading, no nothing to help bring some distraction or variety to his work? It was absolutely mind-numbing. A small part of him wasn't entirely sure if he could survive like this for—how long did Jada said Stark had to live without a cure or intervention? Two months? He couldn't do this for two months. He was going out of his mind after three days.

It was about halfway through his shift on the fourth day that he regretted ever thinking that he was bored.

He was typing up results from various tests performed by Jada when the door to the room was suddenly slammed open. Startled, Stephen immediately turned towards the sound, only to see five men enter, all of them with guns pointed to the rest of the room. Beside him, Jada immediately threw her hands on top of her head, and he quickly followed suit.

"Come quietly! Do not fight!" said one of the men. Stephen couldn't even begin to guess his accent; maybe it was Eastern European? Russian? Former Soviet bloc in Asia? Somewhere in that rather wide region of the world, which wasn't particularly helpful information considering there were some twenty to thirty countries there.

Summer was the doctor currently asleep, though looking over his shoulder, Stephen saw that she had woken up to the sound and was pushing herself up. But he couldn't look at her or the other doctors long as he was grabbed by one of the men and forced to walk. The gun the man carried quickly negated any ideas of retaliation.

They were led down a hall; he could see Steffen, Meera, and Jada in front of him, all being led in the same rough manner he was going through. The walk itself wasn't very long, perhaps a minute, but to Stephen it felt like every second was dragging. Despite his best efforts, his heart was starting to race at this new development.

The man with Steffen finally stopped in front of a door and unlocked it, then shoved the chemist inside. Within seconds, Stephen was at the door and being pushed forward himself. He took a quick look around, as much as he could without moving much: a large room with concrete walls and no windows, just like where he and the other doctors were being kept. Cot in the corner. Table with a computer and covered in bits of wires and electronics that he couldn't begin to label. Two other men armed with enormous guns—some sort of automatic rifles—and then one man who was crossing his arms and staring at him and his fellow doctors with a look that immediately put Stephen on edge. This man, this man radiated the air of a person in charge.

And then there was him. The famous Tony Stark, or Iron Man as he was calling himself these days. He looked like a former shadow of himself, being several pounds thinner and bearing a sickly pallor that Stephen immediately noticed, even during these circumstances.

A look of surprise was upon Stark's hollow face, but even as Stephen focused more upon him, it was quickly replaced by the cool anger of a man biting his tongue.

All five doctors were maneuvered to face Stark in a line before being forced to their knees. Stephen bit his lip to hold back a grunt of pain from his knees hitting the concrete floor.

"You say you are 'calling my bluff' with your medical team," said the man. He pushed himself off the wall and passed out of Stephen's line of sight. "Here they are." He started at Stephen's right as he went through the doctors. "Steffen Baar, chemist." A step closer. "Jada Ferguson, hematologist." Another step, and he heard Doctor Mahajan inhale sharply. "Meera Mahajan, pathologist."

Another step, and the man was behind him. To Stephen's utter horror, he felt cold metal press against the back of his head. "Stephen Strange, neurosurgeon." The metal then left his head and he heard another step. "Summer Weston, cardiothoracic surgeon." Another step, and he could see the man in the corner of his eye again, this time on his left.

Tony Stark kept his lips pressed in a tight line as their captor went through the line. When he finished, the billionaire swallowed and looked at them all. "Good job keeping me alive this long, docs," he said.

"Not good enough, Stark," the man snapped. "Their solution is only a band aid. They give you but a few more weeks. They are called the best doctors in the world, and they cannot yet make a cure?"

Stephen forcefully held back his retort regarding the man's utter ignorance. It was an outright miracle they found any sort of solution as quickly as they did to delay the spread!

Stark, it seemed, agreed with him, and had no such reservations with holding back. "That's insane, Yusifov. It takes teams of doctors months, if not years to create what you're looking for."

He couldn't see it, but Stephen could almost feel the sneer from their captor, this Yusifov. "In that case, you don't need this many doctors, do you?" A couple steps and he was again behind Stephen, further to the right. "I'm no doctor, but as far as I can tell, these two both look at blood and try to fix the problem. Neither of them fixed it, not fully. So who do you want to keep, Stark? The black American or the Indian Brit? One less woman won't make a difference."

Stephen dared a glance to his right when he heard quick breathing. Doctor Mahajan was visibly shaking and starting to hyperventilate; to her right, Doctor Ferguson was quiet, but her lips trembled and tears pricked her eyes.

Stark stepped forward, and several guns rose at the action. He stopped but held his ground, raising his hands. "Don't do this."

"Why not?" the man retorted. "You refuse to work because you are dying. They have failed you and one will pay the price. Perhaps both; they are both from lesser races."

As Stephen processed the fact that he heard a comment like that in fucking 2010, Doctor Mahajan's breathing accelerated into full on hyperventilation. His medical mind noticed it immediately.

But another was quicker to the draw. "Breathe through your nose, Meera," Summer said lowly. "Try to inhale for one-one thousand, then exhale through pursed lips. You can—"

"Shut up!"

Doctor Weston was smacked on the back of her head hard enough to send her sprawling to the floor.

And Stephen snapped.

Now, if one were to ask Doctor Stephen Strange, he would by no means consider himself heroic or noble. His role as a doctor was one of service, but even within his relatively short time as a neurosurgeon, he had already gained a prestige that recognized his rising star and already people in the medical community were considering him in the top ranks of neurosurgeons. Soon, demand for his expertise would be large enough for him to have the option to turn away those who weren't worth his time, and he felt not a lick of guilt for that. His skills were valuable.

But to hear this brute of a man first throw slurs at two of the most brilliant women—no, the most brilliant doctors—in their fields followed by an outright assault on the other caused a protectiveness Stephen hadn't felt since his sister's death to completely overtake him. He saw red.

He leaped up at Yusifov in a fiery anger, no particular idea in mind except stop him from hurting anyone rushing through his head. At this point there was little thought, only adrenaline and a near primal fury running through his veins. It wasn't like him to be so hot-headed; he was a man who kept his cool under the most stressful of circumstances. But perhaps several days of poor sleep combined with the stress of the situation finally got to him. When he thought about it in the aftermath, even he would admit he had no idea what he was thinking.

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision he would come to regret.

In one moment he managed to knock the pistol out of Yusifov's hands and punched him in the face. He recognized screaming, shouting, fighting in the noises behind him, but he was focused on his own target.

Stephen hit him twice more before someone threw an arm around his neck and dragged him back and began to choke him. He clawed at the arm, which did nothing, but then he aimed his heel down right to the sensitive part of his attacker's instep. The man grunted in pain and the grip around his neck loosened. 

A shot shattered through the enclosed space, causing Stephen to freeze in surprise—and that proved to be his downfall. He saw Yusifov raising his pistol just before he was whipped across the face with the weapon. The hit threw him off balance and he fell to the floor and lay there for a second, stunned. He felt wetness on the side of his head.

As Stephen attempted to push himself up, a kick to his back sent him back to the floor. An involuntary grunt of pain escaped him. He closed his eyes, pausing for breath, but was given little time to recover as he was grabbed by both arms and dragged up to his knees. From his new position, he could see the rest of the room once more, and Stephen's heart skipped a beat at what was before him.

There were several alarming sights: Tony Stark on his knees just like him, nose bloodied. One of the gunmen near Stark with a screwdriver sticking in his neck and very much dead. Summer in the corner of the room, holding a shaking Meera against her chest.

And Doctor Steffen Baar on the ground, bleeding out from his stomach as Jada desperately tried to stem the blood flow with her sweater. The red dripped through the fabric and onto the concrete.

Stephen felt ill. He instinctively reached forward towards Steffen, to try and help, but the grip on his arms tightened and kept him in place.

Stark was the one to speak first. "Let them help him. I won't fight further. I'll do what you ask."

Yusifov came back into Stephen's line of sight as he stepped in front of him, though his gaze was on Stark. He said to the engineer, "You killed one of my men. A life for a life—that is fair, wouldn't you say?"

"He did nothing," Stark hissed, pulling against the hands that held him down. Stephen could see the men pull him back and tighten their grip in response. "And he's needed. You wouldn't have brought him here otherwise."

"He didn't do anything," Yusifov agreed, then turned to Stephen. "This one did." He then sent a sharp kick into Stephen's stomach, causing him to double over in pain as far as the men holding him  allowed. He almost missed the next statement. "And I should kill him for it. But the surgeon will be needed. The chemist, though? He failed to make a cure for your ailment with a month of time, and you don't have much longer to live, Stark. The chemist failed, and at this point, he's a waste of medical resources."

Then Yusifov nodded at one of his men, and he grabbed Jada by the arm and yanked her up to her feet.

"No—please, no, don't do this!" she shouted as she was dragged away from Steffen. Their captors ignored her and Yusifov walked up to the wounded man. He aimed his pistol at Steffen's head.

"Don't do this!" Stark shouted.

A shot rang through the room. A loud sob came from the corner before it was muffled. Stephen's ears rang, half deafened from the sound. His stomach churned; he felt like he was going to vomit. He hung his head and closed his eyes, trying to breathe slow breaths through his nose.

All he could smell was blood. He forcefully suppressed his gag reflex. 

Stephen missed whatever conversation came next, too busy trying to calm his breathing, trying not to throw up, and not having the energy to make out the words beyond the ringing in his ears. But then the world was moving as he was pulled to his feet and shoved out of the room, leaving behind Tony Stark and the body of Doctor Steffen Baar.

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I was stuck on what I wanted to do with this part with a handful of ideas and consulted my beta for ideas. She suggested death which I wasn't even thinking of because I'm very bad at killing off characters. I blame her fully :P

Tag list (just let me know if you want to be added/removed with a comment - still not on AO3!): @sobeautifullyobsessed, @tashacumberbitch, @babywarg, @nishtha3012, @ragingstillness, @walkin-in-the-cosmos (I think the reason I can’t tag you is because you’ve flagged your tumblr for sensitive media, possibly), @lafourmii20, @asexualchemist, @iveneverbeenmorestressedinmylife, @oo0-will-of-the-wisp-0oo, @animefanfreak45, @rulerofthefandomsnow, @killaspyglass, @renlybaratheon-tyrell, @symmetria42, @kay-lock-key-lock

[sevenfactorial]

Info about applying to PhD programs in pure math

This is... basically what it sounds like. I’m sure a lot of this is applicable to other PhD applications but I’m only very familiar with pure math. This is aimed at current seniors about to apply, but there is a section about prepping for applications in advance.

The highlights:

Recommendation letters are the most important thing. Most schools ask for 3ish. Try to get people who know you well, not just a student in the class. Someone you've conducted research with and one from a different institution are ideal if possible

Ask for rec letters at least a month before the due date is a good rule of thumb.

Research experience is probably the second most important.

Get the opinion of multiple professors who know you in order to build a list of potential schools. Then widdle it down to your will-actually-apply list (probably 8-14 ish). 

My opinion but please apply to at least 3-4 safety/match schools. Even when you're fully qualified, acceptance rates are simply low enough that a bit of bad luck means getting rejected or waitlisted from a few of them.

Most pure math due dates are in early-mid Dec but a few schools are in Nov and some are as late as mid-Jan. 

Schools will generally have their own graduate application portals. Some are better organized than others. Some require you to submit all your material before you can send a request for submitting rec letters so plan accordingly.

Acceptance letters will very slowly start going out in mid-Feb but the vast majority of programs won't send out anything until like, March and not be done until later than that. Accordingly, wait until at least mid-March to begin freaking out if you haven't been accepted anywhere.

You should 100% be expecting a tuition waiver and stipend from a program if you're applying for a PhD.

The rest of the posts is.... ridiculously long so I’m putting it under a cut. I mention things to do in advance to help you decide if grad school is right for you and things that make your application look good, give a full time line of the process, a list of things applications commonly ask for, and some miscellaneous notes. (The points above are repeated in more detail).

In addition, some links to other resources math students may appreciate:

an old post of mine about grad school apps (overlaps a lot and features some ranting from during the application process)

about REUs including my addition specifically about math ones

summer programs for undergrads that aren’t REUs by @counter-example and @jungleuniversity

Tips for prospective grad student visits 

Also about prospective grad student visits by @thisurlhasbeenleftasanexercise

Also for context, I went to a large state school in the US for undergrad. I started as a CS major and added on math as a secondary major after my first year and dropped CS during third year. I’m primarily interested in discrete and algebra, though I have a significant topology background from undergrad too. I got most of my advice from people around the department, as I became pretty involved during my third year. Now, I’m a first year grad student at another large state school in the US, generally considered pretty decent though not a “top math program” at all. Not that much else has happened so far.

Things in advance (aka things to help you decide if grad school is for you and things that look good on an application)

Take the standard classes. For pure math, this is at least one semester of linear alg, abstract alg, and analysis each. Linear and analysis are also good for applied math but I'm not sure what else if anything is considered standard.

Take some grad classes if you have the option. Most people are not ready for this until senior year, but some do manage as juniors. Talk to people who know you well and the prof teaching the class before you do this though.

Try to get involved with research whether this is through independent studies at your home institution, REUs, internships, or other stuff.

Be involved in your department. This helps with getting you more personalized advice for applying.

The rough suggested timeline (assuming junior yr is your second to last year and senior is your last of undergrad)

Junior April: Take the math subject GRE so you can take it again in Sep or Oct if desired (perhaps not applicable atm). The general can be taken kinda whenever; I suggest fall of senior year.

Junior April/May: Start talking to professors/post docs/mentors/etc. about programs you may be interested in. Write/type it down. Don't worry if it gets long, you will shorten again later.

Summer: Do some research if possible; an REU or research at your institution (if an REU, also get your mentor's opinion on potential schools towards the end as well)

Senior Sep: Start whittling down your list. 8-14 seems to be the "normal" range of schools to apply to but some people panic and do more. Remember that asking for waivers is completely acceptable but applying is still just generally expensive (I spent around $800 for 10 schools)

Senior Sep: Apply for the NSF GRFP. You can apply as an undergrad senior and once during your first or second year of grad school if you didn't already get it. The due date is in mid-late OC but ideally you'll have a draft of your essays and ask for rec letters by the end of Sep, if not earlier.

Senior early Nov: Ask for rec letters if you haven't already. The rule of thumb is a month before the due date. Provide them a list of schools you want to apply to including due date and where/how to submit as soon as possible (as well as anything else they request of course; many ask for a resume and a draft of your personal statement).

Senior Dec-Jan: Submit stuff! Pure math programs typically have deadlines in Dec or early Jan. I think the big days are Dec 10th, Dec 15th, and Jan 15th but some are earlier or later. (applied math masters tend to be earlier I think; in Nov). I suggest putting them all into a list or calendar. In addition, some schools won't let letter writers submit until all of your stuff is submitted so start applications early, even if you don't finish them immediately.

Senior Feb: Programs will slowly start sending out offers in early Feb and pick up in mid Feb, but don't fret until AT LEAST the beginning of March! Grad programs are just way too slow at getting out offers for it to be worth worrying until then (and even then, it's definitely not time to panic but mathematicians are frequently anxious people so I get it). Waitlists are slower to come out; usually starting in early March. Also note, there are many programs that don't actually send out replies to everyone unfortunately.

Senior late Feb-early April: prospective student days! They might be online in 2021 unfortunately but try to attend whatever form they're in if you can (only one of my visits during spring 2020 was online since the others happen to be very early and safely beat covid in the US). Be warned, it's very possible to get offers of admissions and to visit very last minute. I do not have advice for how to make that less stressful.

Senior April 15th: Common reply deadline. If you got your offer in the first round or two, this is probably your deadline to accept. In addition, this means more offers will likely come out shortly after once more people have declined. 

Senior summer: graduate. Send a completed, official transcript to your new institution. Check your new email account for stuff you're suppose to do. Some programs have some sort of program during the summer for in-coming students. Most places have graduate student training of some sort for a week or two before semester starts. 

Some common things to be asked for in applications

Not actually a thing asked for but many graduate schools have their own portal for which you will have to make an account to submit an application. A few use a common system that kinda sort shares a database of accounts? Some are fine and some massively suck.

Personal Statement/Statement of Purpose: Occasionally called something else and once in a while actually separate things; will usually have a prompt of wildly differing specificity. Sometimes, the prompts come from the department itself and sometimes from the university's graduate school. I suggest having one or two "base" essays then tweaking them for each school. Sometimes a word/page limit is specified but if it's not, around 2 pages/1000 words is pretty reasonable.

Transcript. Some accept unofficial but some require official but generally not an unsealed one. I ordered myself one official transcript and sent it to multiple schools instead of paying for them to be sent to each school during the application process.

Resume or CV: Most ask for either a CV or is fine with either, in which case I give them my CV. I sent more or less the same one everywhere.

Some other notes

Yes, ask for application waivers. Just be polite about it.

Your goals for your essays are primarily to show that you're interested in math and math research and are capable of like…. writing things that make sense

Do not start out an essay with either "I loved math since I was little" or "I actually didn't like math when I was young" or any variations of those. (I had one essay that started with a mildly humourous anecdote from undergrad combinatorics and another that talked about how my undergrad department has greatly affected me).

You should 100% expect to get a tuition waiver and living stipend as part of a TA fellowship (or more rarely, an research fellowship) as part of your offer of acceptance for a math PhD program (pure or applied). Health insurance is also frequently part of the package. This is not true of masters programs unfortunately.

How schools do waitlists depend wildly though most don't have super long ones like prestigious undergrads do. If you're still interested in a place you're waitlisted at, follow their instructions to confirm your placement on the waitlist then wait until April before following up again, expressing your continued interest and asking for an update. You might even want to wait until around the common deadline, April 15th. The number of people who declined before April is just really really low so nothing really happens until then.

[inspector-montoya-fox]

here’s why Thieves in Time is a bad game

before y’all try it, i just want to say that i’ll be as unapologetically petty and sarcastic as i want and fucking rip this game to shreds. yes, this is how i’ve spent my days since Thieves in Time came out. sitting alone in my room, staring at the wall, crying and complaining. because it has since been my life’s aim and dream to think about it every day, state the negative things about it, and become an evil essay witch on this half-dead website. *evil laugh*

Story:

References: i want to start with the smallest problem, but one that annoys me to this day. in the original trilogy, there weren’t a lot of references but the ones that were included were meticulously researched and well thought-out (i’m specifically referring to that Neil Diamond Carmelita vinyl gag, but can’t find the original post). the references in Thieves in Time however, were obviously just the creators’ interests. Turning Japanese, Clan of the Cave Bear and Bentley’s “hacksona” presented as Rambo just scream 1980s (which i’m assuming is the decade the creators grew up in), and Of Mice and Men is classic literature about the Great Depression, which subsequently started being taught in school in the US during the 1980s. it feels like the creators just went ‘let’s discuss what our lives had in common during our teen years and put that in’ instead of researching it first. and, here’s the thing: when you’re adding references, in order to make them funny or interesting, they have to fit in with the property or the character that’s connected to them in some way. Don Octavio was an opera aficionado so his episode’s title card pays homage to the Phantom of the Opera, young Muggshot was influenced by the movie “The Dogfather” because he’s a gangster, etc. these were funny because they were so spot-on with these characters. if every character in the Sly Cooper universe references the same type of stuff (from the 1980s) and shares the same interests, it’s just claustrophobic and uninteresting. i’m pretty sure i’m not the only one who had to look up these ultra-hetero, scrotum references when the game came out. that’s because they were specifically tailored to be funny to them, and not their target demographic which were kids in 2013.

Narrative: now that we got that out of the way, let’s look at the narrative. at the end of Sly 3, Bentley says he’s building a time machine. Sanzaru took that joke and decided to run with it as the premise for their game. ok, not the best idea, but i get it - you’re literally picking up where the last game left off. since all the storylines were wrapped up, they could’ve done something different like Sly’s kids or Bentley and Murray’s families, but this isn’t an essay about suggestions so...... time travel (i want to say that it’s, again, an 80s reference but whatever) was pretty ‘out there’ in 2013. i mean, even Plants vs Zombies 2, which was released that year, had to do with time travel (yes, i’m referencing an app). but Sanzaru had the advantage of applying this premise onto already established mythos and lore. the story had definite potential: someone is threatening Sly’s lineage so he has to travel back in time to save the day. the player would get to explore new locations and iconic eras in history, and, of course, the main selling point: playable ancestors. how could you screw that up? welp.... let’s think about the plot holes here for a sec. Bentley’s device would take the gang back in time when given an item from the specific era. stop. this right here is called ‘over-complicating’. how did they know the items would take them directly to the point where the specific ancestor was in danger? the Feudal Japan period lasted for 700 years: how did the machine know when and where to drop them off? and if the gang could return to the present at any time, why didn’t they do so when they were in trouble? oh right, the machine was broken. so how did they return the baddies to the present after they defeated them? i mean, why did they use the Grizz’s crown to travel to Medieval England if they went back to the present to drop him off to Interpol first? and on that note, how did they drop the baddies off to jail without getting caught and without Carmelita being around? i can already hear you thinking but these are total details that aren’t important, you jerk! well, yea, they truly are details and i truly am overthinking it. and yes, i truly am a jerk. but let me tell you something: when Sanzaru chose to make a new Sly game, did they not think ‘oh we’ll have to follow up Sly 2 and Sly 3′s stories’ which were well thought-out narratives with depth and various themes and didn’t have huge plot holes (as seen by my analysis through the episode project) ???? and did they also not think that their game would come out eight years after the last one, having expectations at an all-time high???? yea, that’s what i thought.

Characters: i’ll make a different section for Sucker Punch’s characters, so this is for Sanzaru’s original ones. name one iconic original character from Thieves in Time. i’ll wait... nope. not one. that’s because all of them were absolute shit. and here’s where i want to touch upon Sanzaru’s over-reliance on the trilogy. Ms Decibel (perhaps the most obvious copy) is a mix between Don Octavio, Miz Ruby, and the Contessa. El Jefe is Rajan if he went to the gym. Toothpick has Sir Raleigh’s temper and tendency to grow in size. and the Grizz is... whatever the fuck he is. (don’t worry i didn’t forget Le Paradox and Bob). there’s a difference between studying & creating similar characters and blatantly plagiarizing older characters because you lack the creativity. oh, boo-hoo this evil jerk’s telling it how it is. this set of villains is so lacklustre, i don’t even know where to begin. El Jefe is a tiger, even though we’ve already had two major tiger villains and one tiger flashlight guard. ok. Rajan could summon lightning because of the Clockwerk heart but El Jefe can do the same, how exactly? Toothpick is an armadillo (good) from Russia (better) with an obsession with the West (excellent) who can also grow huge (very bad). it’s never explained how or why. why?????? just tell me why. i want to know. i really want to know. Ms Decibel is an elephant who got into a tragic accident which left her with the power of hypnosis. music and hypnosis have already been done, but ok, i’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. so how do we use this character? spend the entirety of her screen time making jokes about... wait for it... her weight !!! this is top-notch comedy... really? like... really? the creators’ humor is a crime, at best. fart jokes and fat jokes all around. oh, and then there’s the Grizz. what the fuck where they thinking? just, what the fuck. i guess the guys at Sanzaru thought black people speak in rap? is that it? apart from it being extremely offensive, it’s also a blatant copy of Dimitri’s backstory. like, his introductory cutscene even has his paintings thrown at him and into the trash, like the intro cutscene for The Black Chateau. honestly, all of these villains caused me several types of pain, but not as much as...

Bob & Le Paradox: the absolute worst. i can just imagine the meeting going something like this: Sly’s ancestors are awesome! i wish we could fit them all in the game... here’s an amazing idea! what if we use one of the game’s few levels to introduce a brand new ancestor! yea! let’s make him dumb as fuck, strip him of any athletic prowess, and retcon the entire lineage by having him be the first Cooper ever! the kids will love a prehistoric level! ..... could you kindly point out where and when did ANYONE ask for this? i remember @ironicsnap​ saying something like the game is good until Bob. no, it was already bad - Bob just lowered the standard. like, a lot. people love Murray and his gameplay is neat, but no one ever thought ‘oh i wish we had a Cooper character with Murray’s game style’. why would they waste the opportunity to bring in Henriette, Thaddeus, Otto, literally any ancestor? why??? but they went ahead and created their own Cooper, and that wasn’t even the end of it. they had to make him dumb. they had to make him unbearable. they had to ruin the Cooper ancestry by adding this mess to the lineage. Sucker Punch made sure that all the ancestors were unique, but at the same time made all of them suave and funny and slick and you wish you could be them! well, fuck that. also, his name is Bob. Bob Cooper. it’s been 7 fucking years and i still can’t wrap my head around it.... so now, let’s talk about Le Paradox. i don’t have to mention the previous main villains, but i will. Clockwerk killed Sly’s ancestors and father, and was seemingly an eternal threat. Neyla was a psychopath who fooled everyone on her journey to becoming immortal by resurrecting Clockwerk. Dr M opened up the possibility for Sly’s dad to be a jerk instead of a hero, and died trying to unlock the Coopers’ legacy. how does Le Paradox compare? well, he’s a sleazebag skunk who was mad because of his dad’s downfall to the Coopers. that’s it. no twist, no depth, no clever dialogue. nothing. there’s nothing there. this is a new character, unfamiliar to everyone, who was hyped up for 5 levels and defeated in the conclusion. why was he a match for Sly? i don’t know. how did he fight for his life and ultimately tricked Sly into helping him? i don’t know. how the hell did he kidnap Carmelita? i don’t know. was it the power of persuasion? no, he’s revolting. so i literally don’t know. there’s no backstory, no fleshing-out the character, nothing. all we’re given to work with is a brief info-dump about his dad and how he escaped prison. i don’t know what else to say apart from how big a humiliation this was for Sanzaru and their team of writers. you had 8 years to work on something and this is what you came up with? anything would be better. anything would best this utter cliché of a villain, a distasteful misogynist, crybaby, idiot with an accent. literally anything.

Arcs & Themes: let’s take a look at the formulaic subplots for the gang’s members. apart from dealing with Le Paradox, everyone had a small arc. Sly had to deal with his break-up with Carmelita. Bentley had to deal with his break-up with Penelope. Murray had to deal with playing second fiddle to Bob. Carmelita was a damsel in distress and sex bait for the ancestors. the ancestors had their own mini storylines along with reacting to Sly’s presence. there you have it. i summarised it all for you, nice and neatly. are there any themes like in the previous games? nope. i promise you i’m not lying when i say that i tried hard to come up with something, even some speck of a detail i could use to over-analyse the story and come up with some ideas on themes. nothing. there are no themes. the subplots are character-driven and the player gives it 0 emotional investment. there is nothing to analyse, nothing to talk about. maybe even a theme for each level, like a spooky level or something? nope. the levels are dependent on eras and historical periods. the variation here is ok. Feudal Japan, Wild West, Prehistoric Australia, Medieval England and Ancient Arabia  - pretty good selection. i’ll give them credit for it. but that’s it. due to the absence of themes, the hubs feel empty. there’s no replayability factor. after you collect the bottles and masks and treasures, there’s nothing. i would spend hours revisiting the trilogy’s hubs, just roaming around. the hubs here are huge and empty. there’s nothing to reminisce about. nothing to recall. oh that’s where this mission went down. no, nothing like that. the aforementioned subplots are resolved during mission cutscenes and then they’re gone. you don’t have to explore spooky Prague alone as Bentley to have him overcome his fears, you don’t have to find out miners abducted Murray’s beloved Guru and search the Australian outback for him, you don’t have to hold back your tears when you’ve reached the end of the Cooper Vault and Sly asks his dad for help. nothing.

Gameplay:

Controls: as soon as i laid my hands on the controller the first time i played the game, that fateful afternoon, i knew something was up. Sly would respond 1 second late after you pushed something on the controller. it felt clunky, is what i’m trying to say or, as my sister put it, it felt heavy. and she was right. the controls were clunky and heavy and didn’t feel light, like playing as a thief should feel. i don’t know shit about game mechanics but this definitely didn’t feel right. the hubs are also chunky in design, the cliffs are huge and so cyclical or hexagonal, that when you parachute your way to them and are just an inch close, Sly will automatically just drop because he can’t grab onto them. running as Sly doesn’t feel fast, silently obliterating guards from behind feels slow, and swinging, grabbing, pickpocketting, and hanging aren’t fun anymore. presentation-wise, @designraccoon​ goes into detail here, in an absolute gem of a post. in short, the gameplay animations make Sly look less sneaky. Sanzaru didn’t even consider a thief’s movements.

Missions: why the fuck would you remove the player’s option to choose between which mission to do first? why would you do that? the game lays out what goes first, sometimes having only one mission available in the hub. and the missions aren’t even enjoyable. firstly, the loading screens take up to 5 minutes, maybe even 7-8. secondly, there’s hacking every 2 missions. the missions don’t have any dialogue to make them fun, lack in interesting puzzles, what more can i say? they’re overly easy and lack any challenge whatsoever. at least there’s variation in gameplay (hacking, RC car, fishing, costumes, ancestors, turret etc.) but because of the controls, even these get tiresome. the missions are solely there to progress the story and that’s why the operations are merely ‘storm the main baddie’. the trilogy had some pretty interesting missions which made sure to complete jobs required to take down the big bad. e.g. kidnap General Clawfoot to take down the security, hack Contessa’s computer to make sure Carmelita will be freed, steal voices to tempt Neyla, and then take down the Contessa. the missions in Thieves in Time lack substance and variety. and the hacking (all three styles) sucks.

Collectibles: here’s another fantastic idea: have players collect costumes in order to collect bottles in order to collect treasures in order to collect masks in order to unlock funky Sanzaru logo-themed merch! what was the reason for the collectibles? in previous games, collecting all bottles would unlock special abilities. that was it. it’s the same thing here too, but there’s less incentive? i mean when you have to collect 1000 things, what’s the point? the treasures are random and very few are references to the trilogy, so whatever. and the masks unlock... superhero costumes for what reason exactly? oh, and then there’s also the achievements for your Playstation account, like ‘open the map in every single location you visit’. what fun! if the reason for collecting the treasures is to play godawful hacking minigames in order to get masks, what’s the point? decorate your paraglider with the Sanzaru logo? or have Bentley dress up as discount Robocop? i mean including masks in the interior locations was cool, but the bottles were always supposed to be something you could do whenever your soul desired. sometimes i left them last before the operation, sometimes i collected them before the first mission. so i was pissed when i found out that, in some cases, you had to unlock the episode’s costume in order to get the all the bottles. so, fuck off.

Animation: i’ll keep this short. the animation was terrible. do you remember that tumblr blog from a while back, where she dedicated the posts to pointing out the mistakes in the animated cutscenes? yeah. point is, there were lots of them. the animation style was bad, the character design was ugly, the characters’ movements were unnatural. everything about it was shit. looking past the bad decision to drop the trilogy’s comicbook-style animated cutscenes, couldn’t they have hired someone better? someone with more experience? their concept art was awesome. couldn’t they hire that guy and have it be comicbook style if he wasn’t trained in animation?

Legacy:

The Players: let me ask a genuine question: who was this game made for? kids growing up in 2013? maybe so. because it feels like Sanzaru didn’t even consider the fans of the trilogy. actually, it felt like a huge fuck you. Sucker Punch made their trilogy for whoever. there were great stuff for kids, but adults would pick up and appreciate the references, the real-life setting (e.g. tobacco use, existence of nightclubs, spice instead of drugs, etc.). that’s why all three games are timeless classics. judging by Thieves in Time’s humor, the game wasn’t targeted for adults. so, it doesn’t make sense to use an already established property, beloved by its fans, to attract a new audience consisting of nine year-olds who’d laugh at Murray dressing up as a woman. if they really wanted to appeal to the fans of the original, why retcon everything? why change who the first Cooper was? when the gang’s stranded in Saudi Arabia, why have Sly say ‘i couldn't remember a time since we've teamed up that we felt so defeated’? the gang’s been in way deeper shit before. why the ‘Sly’s dad vs Le Paradox’s dad’ deus ex machina? Sly’s dad wasn’t famous because of stealing the world’s largest diamond, what the fuck are you even talking about? do the guys at Sanzaru have such big egos and bravado that they needed to change the original games’ lore? were they so preoccupied with leaving their signature on a property which was never their own? i don’t know who needs to read this, but i’m stating FACTS.

Characters: now let’s talk about Sanzaru’s treatment of the Cooper gang and the ancestors (female characters will get their own section). why would you change the characters like that? if it wasn’t for the voice acting, i’d say this is a completely different Cooper gang. there’s no wise-cracking band of best friends, going on heists and being proud of their brotherhood and bond. all that is replaced with the formulaic story arcs for each member. the trilogy’s cutscenes and dialogues made sure to establish how Sly, Bentley and Murray have lived together since they met at the orphanage, play videogames all day and order chinese food and pizza and whatever. through missions and their adventures, they face obstacles they have to overcome as a gang, and when Sly 3 came around, their friendship was put to the ultimate test when they almost disbanded. Thieves in Time was too lazy to add to this. Sanzaru thought ‘oh the trilogy showed how they’re best friends so we might as well have them focus on their own stories separately’ and if this is truly the case then i ask again: who was this game made for? because new fans would never know how tight the gang was just by playing Thieves in Time. there’s a lack of genuine friendship moments. like, what happened when Sly came back after faking his amnesia? that’s completely ignored. where’s the witty banter? the ‘wizard & sitting duck’ type of jokes? nothing of the sort. what we get is fart jokes and Murray wanting to dress up as a woman. on that note, what was that all about? ok, have him dress up as a geisha to get in. fine. have El Jefe slap his ass, have him perform in a painfully lengthy dance sequence, have him dress like that during the rest of the episode, and then have him be persistent about getting the belly-dancing gig? the hell? Murray was always kinda goofy but this just feels kinda homophobic? it feels dragged out and unfunny. and then there’s the ancestors. i said it once before and i’ll say it again, Sanzaru deprived me of a buff Arab daddy Salim Al Kupar and gave us that elderly shit instead. all jokes aside, the redesigns were uninteresting. why take away Tennessee Kid’s facial hair and give it to Galleth? i legitimately think all the ancestors were boring. i mean, their gameplay was cool, especially Tennessee Kid’s guns, but in terms of character, they were just some dudes. did they believe that Sly was their descendant from the future? maybe. did they care? nope. they all had the same storyline of dealing with Sly’s arrival, flirting with Carmelita and getting their canes stolen. that was it. the fans waited for so long to get even a glimpse of the ancestors in action, and Sanzaru downplayed all of them. they reduced them to useless idiots too occupied with women and food, incapable of getting their canes back from stupid Le Paradox. and they didn’t even stick to the lore. no ma’am. let’s make Rioichi the inventor of sushi !! because that makes total sense and would defo fit in with the character and the property! why. just, why. you were handed the lore !!! you were given all this rich backstory and you threw it all away to replace it with trash !!! complete trash.

Changes & Inconsistency: i want to briefly mention some changes that pissed me off. where’s the laser glide move? it was an important turning point at the end of Sly 3, so why did they get rid of it? Sly is a master thief who’s traveling back in time, so you’d think they’d actually make him a master thief. also, the changes in the binocucom and Bentley’s slideshows in order to modernise them. if Sucker Punch managed to place the mission starting points at locations where the binocucom would show the objective clearly, so could Sanzaru. instead, they chose to have it be a moving camera, floating around the hub. and Bentley’s slideshows were absolute classics, opportunities to include gags and have Bentley show off in his own way. you just had to change it into a tablet, didn’t you. omg you’re still looking at small details like these? yes sweetie, i consider the details because i think they shape the game more than anything. if i didn’t consider the details, then my opinion on the game would be incomplete. when i praise the trilogy i don’t only look at story and gameplay. because i’m unbiased like that. here, i’d also like the mention Dimitri. what a fucking waste. you either include him in the game or you don’t. but don’t give me some half-baked shit on how he’s working for the gang back in present day. Dimitri staying home, waiting on the gang to call him in order for him to give them details on the villains. how does that even slightly resemble anything about Dimitri’s character? they didn’t even include his voice, some greasy sweet Raccoonus Doodus dialogue.

Female Characters: you know it’s all been leading up to this. this is the crux of the Thieves in Time hate. i don’t want to say the game is misogynistic so i’ll call it anti-feminist. why? just answer me. why? why did you have to disrespect Carmelita like that? right off the bat, they swapped the pants for the skirt. in what world does an active inspector who’s always on the scene wear a skirt? Carmelita now wears a skirt because her only role in the game is to be the love interest. Carmelita now wears bright red lipstick and has a new hairstyle, which would be ok if only it wasn’t Carmelita. Carmelita now plays up her inner sassy Latina because she’s pigeonholed into the ‘angry ex girlfriend’ role. they compartmentalised her, tried to sexualise her because she couldn’t possibly be one of the boys. nope. let’s take a respected woman, high in rank and as physically able as Sly, and turn her into a cliché, an angry ex girlfriend for comedic relief, strip her of her abilities and have her be kidnapped twice, have every exchange with her be about how attractive she is, have almost every male character in the game flirt with her, have her boyfriend be jealous of his own ancestors because they’re flirting with her in order to create purposeless love triangles, and then, after all that, dress her up as a belly dancer and distract some guards while the rest of the gang do the heavy lifting. that last one was really the nail on the coffin. did Bentley have other ways to enter that door? absolutely. so, what the fuck? why did i come back for a good Sly game 8 years later and receive a game where you have to shake your controller to have Carmelita shake her ass? why did they have the guards’ eyes pop like that? why did no one stop them? and it isn’t just Carmelita. it’s Penelope too. god forbid we have a female character who doesn’t have a waist smaller than my finger, and a voluptuous physique. why was the redesign so drastic? the story stuff is also nonsensical. why did she leave? wasn’t she happy with Bentley? i watched her speech about turning on the gang about a thousand times and it still doesn’t make any sense. like, i literally don’t understand. what was her motive? and why reverse her story of overcoming the Black Baron persona and the connotations of a meek woman hiding behind a man’s disguise? why repeat it, shamelessly? do the guys at Sanzaru only know women who have recently broken up? why does Carmelita, Penelope and Ms Decibel all go through break-ups during the game? why does Penelope go against Bentley before they even break up? why waste the opportunity to introduce a new, well-written villain and use it to repeat something already done? why???? no woman is safe from Sanzaru because Ms Decibel... boy, did i feel bad for her. apart from continuously reminding us that she’s haha fat!! she’s also presented as a blind lovefool. love? what a silly concept only women believe in! Ms Decibel had a crush on Le Paradox (for some reason i can’t even fathom) and for that she must pay by being utterly humiliated. and what do ALL women do when a guy breaks up with them? they get so angry! yikes, stay clear guys! ....why does Sanzaru hate female characters? i’m genuinely curious. i mean, what forced them to depict women like this? i’m sorry, i can’t take much more of this.

Ending: and how do you end a disappointment that came 8 years late and didn’t even have a sequel guaranteed? yeap, you guessed it! a cliffhanger. but not just any cliffhanger - a total fuck you to anyone and everyone. with a single move Sanzaru instantly screwed over the franchise. the fans, the creators, the characters, anyone looking to continue the series. everyone. WHY would you trap the protagonist in the past? WHY? did you feel defensive about something that wasn’t even yours and went ‘well you can continue the series but the sequel will have to do with time travel’. why did you think it was a good idea? how does it even slightly resemble a good ending? someone fill me in please. because i don’t think i’m being unreasonable, i’m just telling it how it is.

Conclusion:

i did it. i fucking wrote it in all its motherfucking glory. the idiots at Sanzaru could’ve given us an amazing game but instead of working on how to make it better or including extra levels, they wasted their time on deciding what killable baby animal to include in each hub or what the backstory for each treasure should be. how fucking distasteful. and to think i’m an idiot myself for trying to force myself to like it because i was so in denial about how bad it was. i’ve just outlined everything wrong with that cursed game. i’m exhausted.