#effective team management

[qbert-curse]

"Let's talk about our success on Eos."

[tiktaaliker]

tbh im a big fan of the ohio worms. big big fan of Guys who Are Not Doing Well

oh MAN let me tell you about how much the ohio worms suck (i say this with so much love in my heart btw)

first of all, i actually managed to dig up the worm event history doc i had made back during blaseball beta that lists almost every single good or bad or cool thing that happened to the ohio worms spanning from season 13 (our first season in active play) up to season 23, along with relevant links to reblase! tbh i need to update it to include before sibr links and add stuff that happened after s23 lol. but here's a link to it if youre interested in that.

as a tldr, here's some of the really funny things that happened to the ohio worms contributed to my conviction that the sim hated us in particular:

we had a team mod that gave the team a small stat boost whenever we ended the season as last in our division. it was only proc'ed 3 times because we weren't good enough at being bad. it WOULD have activated a 4th time in season 19, except the turntables rule made every win negative so we were at the top instead of the bottom. so we got NOTHING

we had the lowest average percent chance of passed wills in elections out of every team. so the sim kept picking the things that very few worms fans actually voted for which often ended in REALLY unfortunate situations, like boosting a player that got traded away in the same election, or moving a player to a spot they were already at, or boosting defense. we kept infusing defense on pitchers (which is entirely useless since pitchers didnt even contribute to defense) it was a real problem. we also kept getting things in the elections that were either completely useless or actively detrimental

speaking of defense, one thing that the worms was REALLY good at was defense! we had one of the strongest defenses in the league, which in theory is great. except that defense wasn't actually all that useful in a meta where the best players just hit home runs all the time

one of our only good pitchers at the time, rivers rosa, got bit by sharks so many times that we had to pull her off the roster into the shadows. it was devastating.

because of the configuration we chose for our stadium, we didn't get an option to clean our stadium for a reallllyyyy long time. this was a problem because filth added to eDensity, something we already had problems with considering we had extra championship wins adding to our weight (none of which were actually won in normal gameplay btw, it's just that all of the breach teams started out with at least 3 championship titles because the conceit is that they were already ascended). we were extremely heavy which was part of why our players kept getting attacked by consumers so often. well it WAS going to work in our benefit after a while, because we eventually had enough items on our players to prevent attacks (shout out to xandra pancakes and her steel chairs) and scratch deleuze got the cluttered mod, making her UNSTOPPABLE while on our home field. but then we finally got the option to clean our stadium in the renovations and all of our filth........ GONE..........

we actually once sunk ourselves on semi-purpose. we had this whole campaign to get 4 gifts from the gift shop from other teams because people had started dumping coins into us receiving a chorby soul replica with a chorby's soul item, presumably as a joke initially because chorby's soul is a one way ticket to having your entire team eaten alive by sharks. but we thought that if we could use a different gift to give our players items to protect themselves then we could actually progress the plot a bit in the process (we had a mod that made items contribute more to our eDensity, so we were the only team who could actually use the chorby's soul item to break the gates to blaseball2 (long story)). the other two gifts were because our 3rd place option was for one of the dynamic duo, and we wanted to have BOTH liquid friend and uncle plasma replicas because we knew that Something Would Happen if a team had both on the team and we wanted to find out what it was. Well it turns out that having both of the dynamic duo meant that they would punch the shit out of any consumers so we were effectively immune while also FINALLY breaking the blaseball2 gate. and this would be the end of it except one of the players from the boston flowers stole our chorby's soul and THEY got eaten alive by sharks because they did not in fact get both liquid friend and uncle plasma replicas. whoops!

we fought tooth and claw to improve our team. it was a real struggle, but we very slowly and very surely managed to get our players and lineup good enough that we were FINALLY able to make it to the championship in season 23. we didn't win, but surely we'd be able to get it next time! except we didn't get to, because during the next season the sun collapsed into a black hole and ate the league. and when the main seasons started again at season 1 all the players were reset and reshuffled into the teams so the worms were back to sucking again

during one of the short circuts, the worms won a blessing in the election that transformed the team into THE OHIO PEANUTS. the fans (myself included) were EXTREMELY hype about this because we got honey roasted as a team mod, which was exciting! um. nothing came from this and we got kicked out of the postseason by the spies (as always).

speaking of that the houston spies were like... the ultimate enemy of the ohio worms in that i think they knocked us out of the post season over half of the times that we qualified

when blaseball started back again for real, the worms proceeded to suck real bad, do nothing significant, and won no blessings. in the final election, a different team won a blessing that incinerated one of our players, Johnnyboy Aster. on the official blaseball twitter, the commissioner did a standard "in memorium" tweet except that the commissioner referred to Johnnyboy using he/him pronouns. this is VERY significant because this is the first time a player has EVER been referred to using any pronouns other than they/them by anything official or official-adjacent. and then the next tweet was the announcement that blaseball is over forever lol. i like to think that both johnnyboy aster and the entire splort of blaseball was killed by a gender reveal party

[memeticsdivision]

revenge for @filurig !

[nohara-rin-dot-mp3]

was kakashi a good teacher? a CBE analysis that misses the fucking point

among the myriad discourses around the topic, i feel that most fans have avoided looking at the most fundamental aspect of kakashi's teaching: his teaching. today i am going to disregard every notion of child soliderism, pseudo-family dynamics, and emotional distance to discuss the really important question about kakashi's time as a teacher: did he effectively use a competency based education model to teach team 7?

what is CBE? competency based education replaces traditional grading with competencies- a simple yes/no binary. true CBE is time-variable, which means that students continue to work on competencies until they are competent. there are of course intervention points if the learning process takes longer than probable. it fixes a *lot* of problems inherent to traditional grading, and when implemented properly results in a significantly higher degree of competency in students. i don't really wanna give a whole rundown of it for. a fucking naruto meta post so i'll point you towards alfie kohn who has a blog with lots of free articles that explain a lot of the concepts around this in accessible terms. or just like. google CBE education. it's a whole thing.

before we get into kakashi, i'd like to look at the academy's teaching, as this will help us understand what he had to work with. education is a process, and poor education in student's formative years can negatively impact their ability to learn throughout their entire life. the academy overall has very poor teaching. although the final exam does seem to be competency-based, as students can pass it regardless of their prior grades, it is far from comprehensive. it needs a serious overhaul to ensure that graduating students have all the skills they need for their jounin-senseis to be able to continue their education without having to re-teach them the basics.

the academy also disregards the time-variable aspect of CBE. naruto is obviously missing fundamental information that prevents him from becoming competent in other areas, which suggests that he was pushed along the curriculum regardless of whether he displayed competency in a subject or not. this is a serious problem that makes kakashi's job a lot harder.

the academy also utilizes a public ranking system. this is very bad. traditional grades- especially when made public- create extrinsic motivation in students and limits their ability to use intrinsic motivation. systems like this hurt all students- both ones who seem to be succeeding, like sasuke and sakura, and students who seem to be failing, like naruto. they are not receiving accurate assessments of their abilities, which can lead to them internalizing harmful academic processes. the academy also lacks informational feedback and proper home integration.

to summarize: kakashi is receiving students who have been taught very poorly both in terms of information and educational habits. now let's get into the important question: is kakashi going to help or hurt them?

i'm going to break down three moments in the original naruto series where kakashi is acting as a teacher: the bell test, all of the d-ranks, and tree walking/water walking in wave. i will then give an overall analysis of his teaching.

the bell test: 0/10 kakashi what were you thinking

there are several problems with this assessment. the biggest and most obvious is that kakashi is not upfront about the nature of it. clear communication is very important in education. by not telling team 7 what the real goal of the test was, he handicapped their ability severely. he also takes several measures to make team 7 more anxious about the assessment, which is generally frowned upon. teachers should minimize student's apprehension about assessments- especially in CBE, where assessments should be repeated regularly to measure student progress. it's also not time-variable. one time assessments suck and don't make any sense. they punish failure and decrease intrinsic motivation.

however, it isn't a completely terrible exercise. for one, both the fake goal and the real goal are competencies, which is good. the open-ended nature of his instructions (when taken at face value) is also actually very good. they allow team 7 space to use critical thinking, allowing kakashi to not just understand their base skills and competencies, but their abilities to apply them. he also does a very good job of providing active feedback as the test goes on. still fucking sucks though "look underneath the underneath" my ass that's not how assessments fucking work

d-ranks: 4/10 mostly just busywork

the idea of d-ranks is to get genin used to the bureaucratic system konoha uses. busy work has a place. unfortunately, kakashi does not balance it out with other, more engaging activities, and fails to extrinsically reward team 7 when they complete d-ranks, both of which are critical pieces of effectively helping students with competencies that don't require actual learning.

tree walking/water walking: 10/10 kakashi effectively utilizes CBE. like to a scary degree. like better than some actual teachers i've had to work with. what the fuck

kakashi sets out clear expectations for competency: being able to tree walk. he gives a demonstration and then leaves team 7 to experiment and begin learning. he provides advice when asked, but does not take away their agency in their learning process. he allows them to fail in a safe environment where they can effectively learn from it. he also holds the lesson to CBE's time-variable element. when sakura figures tree walking out earlier than naruto and sasuke, he moves her on to a more advanced competency that builds on the previous skill.

i've seen some critiques of this, mostly saying that kakashi didn't actively teach them, but i disagree. an important part of education is knowing when to step back and let students struggle. although i think he could have been more active in offering encouragement (both naruto and sasuke could have benefited from positive language through the lesson), that's pretty much the only thing i can think of that would have improved this. awesome teaching moments. i guess.

all in all, i think that kakashi provided team 7 with a better education experience than the academy did. but the bar was really fucking low. i can't call him a good teacher, because he's really inconsistent. he does have the benefit of having a small class size, which theoretically should allow him to customize his curriculum for each student- which he does do when he's actually teaching. however, his classroom management skills suck and most of the time he isn't actually teaching.

i don't think he's a good teacher. i ...do think he's better than most teachers in naruto? so. take that how you will.

[state-of-beeing]

The Mentor

"Let me worry about the fine print." Elias folded his hands into his lap, "I have to carry my weight around here, after all." Feren scoffed, though the look she shot Elias along with it was nothing but fond. “Come on, Elias. You talk about ‘carrying your weight’ as if we wouldn’t be dead in the water without you.”

So much time has passed since then, but she knows that the words became truer than ever.

[corvid-language-library]

I met our new mall leader today and ngl I think I made a good impression :D

[vigilskept]

nothing like scrolling & nodding in agreement halfway down an essay on da4 only to reach the claim that the qunari were one of the “most nuanced civilizations” in dragon age prior to veilguard

[triptychofvoids]

Hi Medic! I was wondering, can the medigun do anything about illnesses? Like colds or flus, since they're not really injuries. Are they something you have to deal with a lot? Thank you have a good day!!

i have answered this here before! and the short answer is no, sickness and illness usually has to be dealt with the long way....

although i am grateful to report that it isnt something i have to deal with too often! but on the occasion it does happen it is always a hassle, and when one of us gets sick the rest of the team unfortunately tends to follow soon after.

[sleepyorchidmonster]

Twst Rwby Au, but it's just the twst characters in the plot of rwby.

Silver as Ruby because of the silver eyes, and the fact that they both look up to their parents. Malleus is Yang, but still as awkward as ever, dude can't socialize unless you talk about gargoyles or weapons to him. (Also Yang's name means sunny little dragon, so it's PERFECT)

As for the rest of the team, Leona is Blake because cat people (Farena is the leader of the White Fang but was killed by Adam, so there's this whole revenge quest in later volumes). He and Malleus are a couple just like the bees!

Kalim as Weiss! Both white haired heirs with too much on their shoulders, though he is much nicer than V1 Weiss.

Oz is Crowley because headmasters with ulterior motives and a big relevance to the plot. Yuu is Oscar, they're suffering SO MUCH. Grim is a grimm, but he just behaves like a cat and protects Yuu.

Riddle as Pyrrha. Both talented redheads with potential and a sense of duty that ended up kickstarting the plot (Riddle's overblot and the Fall of Beacon).

Still not sure about the rest of JNPR, since part of me wants to add Trey and Cater as Ren and Nora, while the other wants Jamil and Azul to be part of the team... maybe add Ruggie and just make it a second year team. Or forget renora and let it be just the octotrio annoying Riddle until his untimely demise.

Team STRQ is just all of Malleus and Silver's parents. Meleanor is Summer Rose, still haunting the narrative, Lillia is Qrow, training all the kids and being the fun uncle/parent, Levan is Raven, following the tradition to leave their loved ones for reasons. The Dawn Knight as Tai.

Whether they are all dating or it's just Meleanor/Lillia/Levan with Dawn knight tagging along as the calm uncle it's up for debate.

Rambling a bit here, but Ruggie or Azul for Jaune would be interesting... Ruggie doesn't have a semblance and forged his documents to attend Beacon Academy, but ends up as Riddle's partner, who, despite being mad at the rule breaking, notes that Ruggie is smart and skilled and the lack of semblance shouldn't be a problem, it will come sooner or later (Ruggie made a really good first impression during initiation, also Crowley didn't seem to care for the lie, so no problem).

As for Azul, well, he also forged his documents and is SO SELF-CONSCIOUS of lacking a semblance or not having the best stamina, but his team encourages him and he becomes a talented sniper. Then Riddle dies and it's depression time, especially if we keep the bit where Pyrrha locks Jaune away for his safety. He just thinks he is holding people back and blames himself.

I tried to add a few ships, but mostly went with the characters and themes that matched. It also helps that rwby and twst are based on fairytales, though only a few people actually match. Since we have Kalim as Weiss instead of Neige (the team wouldn't survive if it was three NRC characters with a RSA student).

[brunneraleo]

Another attack! For ROXXTHECALANGO of their character Selene This one took at least two attempts and I'm pretty happy with the result. Still got a few more to post before I get through the backlog, so plenty more to look forward to.

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than catchphrases

90% of all Yugioh card effects are either "move a card from one zone to another" or "negate an effect" so I made a bunch of combat keywords so that monsters can actually be interesting on the field.

[age-of-moonknight]

“Panic Room,” Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #23.

Writer: Jed MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Alessandro Cappuccio; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[trentskis]

even after the everton game, klopp was like “yeah idk we were very lucky konate didn’t get sent off” like other managers would never admit that but klopp mostly speaks sense, idk why he gets clowned by literally everyone when he speaks a lot of sense

i think he only generally gets clowned in a genuine way by rival fans who just don't like him bcus he manages liverpool, i've only seen other liverpoolies clown on him affectionately bcus he says the most random shit sometimes and we love him for it. but i do think he speaks a lot of sense too, but also every manager inevitably contradicts themselves at some point so idg why ppl are acting like they've caught arteta out when every manager has said or done something similar

[diamondnokouzai]

the average middle school behabior dean is not quite as useful as a full roll of paper towels. in terms of behavior management.

[marklikely]

whatever maybe im being too hard on him specifically maybe the other execs in that article are right that he's just an easy target because he's the one passing on changes from all of them. but even so what kind of insane defense is that. "no this one guy isnt bad at his job! the employees are just mad at him because hes the point of contact for the rest of us, who are all bad at *our* jobs!"