#if you want the pdf version just send a message :)

[datshitrandom]

Darren Criss | 2024 Calendar

please do not repost

[teeth--thief]

Google Drive full of book PDFs about Chernobyl

Link to the Google Drive if you don't want to click the title: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kscKFciW6almJA8p-0sUQPO3c0A4AQYe

Note: It will be updated regularly - for as long as I'll be able to find/get new things =) So far I've compiled 41 books in three languages.

Just to repeat what I said in the first post: I'm open to any requests or suggestions or even PDFs themselves, if someone wants to share theirs from their collection. Message me, send me an ask, throw a rock through my window - whatever you prefer, just please, do it yourself because I'm too scared to message anyone, thanks. No fiction - that's the only rule. Any language is welcome - if you want me to look for a certain book in the language of your choice, I'll do that. If you have a book in language other than English, I'd love to add it to the Drive! If you have a better version of whatever PDF I've already got, then I'd be more than happy to do a swap.

Now, some of my reasoning, if anyone's interested: first of all, I think it's important for everyone to be able to access stuff like this. Think of it as a library, minus the "give these back" part. Secondly, I get soooo mad when people are like haha, found this super rare, basically impossible to find, very expensive book! ...I shall now keep it exclusively to myself. Ma'am, you're ruining the vibe and stalling everyone's hobby research but I guess you do you...

List of all the books (under the cut):

In English:

Voices from Chernobyl - Alexievich S.

Chernobyl Reactor Accident - Source Term

Chernobyl - Insight from the Inside - Dr. Chernousenko V.M.

How It Was - Dyatlov A.S.

(ENG+RUS) Chernobyl Booklet

Chernobyl: The Devastation, Destruction and Consequences of the World’s Worst Radiation Accident - Fitzgerald I.

Final Warning. The Legacy of Chernobyl - Gale R.P.

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster - Higginbotham A.

INSAG-1

INSAG-7

Interesting Chernobyl - 100 Symbols

From Chernobyl To Fukushima - Karpan N.

Manual for Survival. A Chernobyl Guide to the Future - Kate Brown

Chernobyl. Confessions of a Reporter - Kostin I.

The Politics of Invisibility. Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects after Chernobyl - Kuchinskaya O.

Memories - Kupnyi A.

Chernobyl 01:23:40 - The Incredible True Story of the World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster - Leatherbarrow A.

Chernobyl Notebook - Medvedev G.

No Breathing Room - Medvedev G.

Chernobyl Record - The Definitive History of the Chernobyl Catastrophe - Mould R. F.

Wormwood Forest - A Natural History of Chernobyl - Mycio M.

Life Exposed: Biological Citizens After Chernobyl - Petryna A.

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy - Plokhy S.

Ablaze - Story of Chernobyl - Read P.P.

Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry - Schmid S. D.

Chernobyl: A Documentary Story - Shcherbak I.

The Vienna Report

Chernobyl - Crime Without Punishment - Yaroshinskaya A.A.

In Russian:

Chernobyl: Kak eto bylo. Preduprezhdeni - Kopchinsky, Steinberg

Chernobyl. Tak eto bylo. Vzglyad Iznutri - Voznyak Ya. Troitskiy N.

Лучевая болезнь человека (очерки) - Гуськова А.К., Байсоголов Г.Д.

Чернобыль. Как это было - Дятлов А.С.

Чернобыль: 30 лет спустя - Кравчук Н.В.

Живы - Купный А.

Чернобыль - Щербак Ю.

(ONLY Pages 367-383) Чернобыль, 10 лет спустя. Неизбежность или случайность?

KGB files - pre and post accident (includes additional information in Ukrainian)

In Polish: 

Jak to było - Diatłov A.S.

Czarnobyl - Plokhy S.

Czarnobyl - Sekuła P.

Katastrofa w Czarnobylu - Sekuła P.

Czarnobyl. Od katastrofy do procesu - Siwiński W.

[faggotisaacfloofs]

It takes (so much) time.

I made a zine recently. I posted the start of it on tumblr and I wanted to share the finished version! Here are some feelings I'm having about recovery.

image description below and in alt text (identical).

If you want the pdf to print or anything, feel free to shoot me a message. Free to use non-commercially.

ID: A small zine from 1 sheet of paper. It is written in two fonts, one all caps bold marker, and one lowercase thinner pen, both in handwriting rather than typeface. Each font's words tells a different story and tell a story combined. All drawings are very simplistic and in a colored pencil style. Front Cover. The title reads "It takes time" in all caps. In the center is a blank outline of a clock face, and inside has parentheses in lowercase, reading "so much", thereby changing the title to "IT TAKES (so much) TIME". by isaacfloof. there are stripes of rainbow lines separating the title from the author.

page 1 has a red stripe along the top border. it just reads "I" in all caps. in lowercase, it reads, "brick by brick", and at the bottom of the bage there is a rough drawing of a brick wall in progress of being built, and unfinished row on top. page 2 has an orange stripe at the top. it reads "AM" in all caps. in lowercase, it reads, "it all matters, in the end". The drawing on this page is of red, orange, and yellow circles of different sizes, falling from above and landing at the bottom of the page, slowly accumulating into a pile. page 3 has a yellow stripe across the top. it reads "TIRED" in all caps. in lowercase it says, "it's okay to / stop / and rest." There are 3 stick figure drawings - a person standing on grass, then on all fours, then laying down in exhaustion. page 4 has a green stripe across the top. in caps halfway down the page it says "OF". In lowercase it reads "the multiverse holds all our pain" but when read together down the page, it reads "the multiverse holds all OF our pain". there is a small simple drawing of a universe at the top and of a carbon atom at the bottom. page 5 has a blue stripe across the top. in caps it says "THIS" and in lowercase it says "we have time / no rush." Together it reads" we have time / THIS / no rush". there is a drawing of a seed germinating and sending out roots underground. then there is a drawing of a young tree with sparse yellow, orange, and red leaves on the branches, and some leaves on the ground, and visible large root system underground. below these is a drawing of the edge of a lake, and a stick figure sitting in a chair on the bank. page 6 has a purple stripe across the top. in caps it says "SHIT" with 3 exclamation points. in lowercase it reads, "we'll get there / life is many things". There is a drawing of a linear graph that is jagged going up and down, slowly the peaks getting higher and the troughs less deep. The all caps "shit" is at the bottom of the page below the graph, so the graph's low points visually represent dipping into the shitty times. back cover says in all caps "I want things to be better". there are 6 bold horizontal stripes across in rainbow order. at the botton it says in lowercase, "they will. / let's keep going".

it is written so that if you only read the all caps text, the zine reads "I am tired of this shit!!! I want things to be better." then by reading the last words on the back cover of "they will. let's keep going", one can utilize the cyclical nature of these one-page zines and literally keep going - turning the page and restarting the zine, reading the lowercase text as the next phase. End description.

[thegoodplacey]

OH MY GOD!!! I finally found a pdf version of the Clue the movie the novelization!!! This is my white whale of literature thank you thank you thank you to whoever finally uploaded this to the internet!!! I am in your debt!!! 😭😭😭

I found it on archive . org if you’re interested in downloading it for yourself. I would put the link but I think tumblr still doesn’t like that. Just send me a message if you want the direct link to it

[thevampireaesthetic]

Did y'all know I write paranormal urban fantasy books?

I will happily send PDF/Epub versions to people for free. I'd appreciate a review in exchange (preferably Goodreads or Amazon), but it's a completely non-conditional offer (so, even if you don't want to review the book, I'll still send it!)

People who enjoyed the Anita Blake, True Blood, and Blood Ties Series would probably like them—they've been likened to True Blood a few times by people.

So far, the first three in the series are out in the wild, but there are more on the way!

If you're interested in reading the Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series, just send me a message or ask and we can arrange it!

Want to know more? Here are some reviews:

P.s—if you reblog this, I'll give u a lil vampire kiss <3

(They are also all available to purchase as paperbacks or on Kindle and are also on Kindle unlimited)

[selfshipconfessionz]

((TW: mentions of csem, irl gore, suicide, self harm, & death threats))

every time i see someone go "don't steal antis' posts, its mean/they just have different opinions/etc etc :(((" i can't help but get really mad because like. no, they don't just have different opinions; the vast majority of these people genuinely want proshippers to harm/kill themselves. these are the same people sending death threats, images & videos of real-life gore, and actual, honest-to-god csem to people over making the wrong anime characters kiss. and the vast majority of antis see absolutely no problem with any of that because "muh drawn cp!! the heckin' pdf files on ao3 writing about illegal ships!!!"

so much of what they say sounds eerily like repackaged alex jones conspiracy theory ramblings and im sorry but i don't think that copy pasting a tumblr post (i.e., material that they don't make any profit from & that they are technically credited anonymously for via the "stolen from an anti" message most people put at the bottom of the stolen post) is doing anywhere near the same damage than telling 14 year olds to bite the curb or getting someone barely living off of minimum wage fired from their job over anime porn is.

and before someone comes at me going "both can be bad at the same time!!!1!1!", i want you to ask yourself whether you'd rather have your post copy-pasted with the exception of the extremely hateful & violent dni list at the end or have someone sending you footage of yourself being abused as a child in dms and telling you that they hope it happens to you again because you ship sans & frisk from undertale, because these two things are. not at all comparable. in the slightest. stop sympathizing with wannabe cops.

(also no i don't endorse harassing antis; i just think that it should be socially acceptable to post alternative versions of their content where the borderline hate speech at the bottom is removed)

.

[lovethatmakingcoffee]

K

Wiping Away Your Tears update.

So today is the day where I am allowed to edit my fic which I did and removed all the violations I did about my dad deporting thing and all of the links. I could only edit the story, footnotes, and stuff, so I can't answer comments or edit them so if I mentioned anything about gofundme or ko-fi accounts in the comments when I wasn't supposed to, I don't know what else I can do about that cause AO3 won't let me edit it.

If all I did is still not enough, then they will delete Wiping Away Your Tears but send me a downloaded version of it in pdf form, not that that it will matter because I already copied and pasted all chapters to a word document. But the comments will be lost, unfortunately 😔

Anyway, another update on my dad's situation. Unless the German government makes a move, we are planning on getting him out of there by the end of summer. I am doing writing commissions for people who don't just want to donate which if you are interested, you can send me a message on here. Or I will draw stuff too if you like my art. I'll basically make anything within reason.

But if you would like to help out and donate, yet again, here are the links to both accounts.

Here is the Ko-fi one :

And the gofundme one:

And I made sure since I can't post this stuff on AO3 any more cause of that snitch, I removed the patreon stuff and anything indicating about money or the such at all. Making me remove a lot of stuff (My lore 😫)

Anywho, if you can help out my dad at all, that would be appreciated, thank you very much. And thank you to all those who have helped me out so far. I am forever grateful.

Until then, I think we should have seven days from now to see if Wiping Away Your Tears is free from the AO3 gods' clutches and can be peacefully updated again.

I left that chapter where a bitched about my relative though. Hate that cunt and she should be talked badly about :/

[tazanimated]

Pre-production revealed!

Since the project is finally finished, I thought people might like to see the reference materials given to all of the participants!

Because TAZ is a podcast with no visuals and no canonical look for anything, people were allowed to do whatever they wanted with the characters with a few specific exceptions, otherwise we were worried it might become impossible for people to follow the finished video.

Participants were given both a rough animatic to dictate screen direction, and a PDF that had written descriptions of what details absolutely had to be visible in the characters (Taako is an elf and he has a tall wizard hat mentioned in episode, the boys don't have bracers but Brian and Killian do, etc.), descriptions of the settings as given in-episode, the video specs required to be able to put the whole thing together in the end, a heavily edited version of @tazscripts transcript of the episode, and a few other details deemed important at the time. Participants were also given the email addresses of the people whos claimed parts came before and after their own in hopes that people would collaborate to make sure their shots connected well.

The written descriptions in the PDF were decorated with lovely illustrations like these to hopefully simplify the information people had to take in

Animatic links:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8zt0iEBnaOiRGMzaTAxVk1SbFE/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-Ort-If3RjzskRnr2mifZfA

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8zt0iEBnaOiX2p6QjJ1Sk1lblU/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-IX8MSK8y9E9f275-r48EuQ PDF links:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13oWYkJKqV37-1vRBJTSbsxyM9Qly_WU0/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eUAWigJMy6-2qE5U6nrnGy3hl6LzXVEl/view?usp=sharing You'll notice there are two versions of each the animatic and PDF, as linked below. Originally, the episode was only going to cover the second half post-commercial until the call for animators was reshared by Clint on Twitter at the last minute and enough people signed up that it felt appropriate to do the first part as well, and we are forever grateful because the episode is so much better for it! The Disney Channel-parody for the commercial was also completely Andobiki's idea, it was so exciting that I went digging through later episodes for clean "Davenport" clips specially for that.

A few favorite selections from the PDFs are shared as screenshots under the cut, but aside from that!

While I don't know if the others have seen it (send a message if you find out!), Travis watched about half of the episode ON STREAM the day the video came out! For anyone curious about his reaction, it's about an hour and 20 minutes into this twitch vod https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1719528840

Thank you to everyone who watched and shared the finished video, thank you even more to everyone who followed along even when this project seemed like it might not make it, and thank you the most to all of the animators yet again for making the amazing work you did!

An example of how much was cut from the final episode: Black text is used, red is important actions cut from audio, grey is just cut completely

Merle's excessive detail notes because everything about him changes so much over the course of the show

What the partitions for each section of animation look like in text. (Funnily, I chose this at random, but this particular section was taken by a group and turned into a single part)

The beautiful animatic

Best part of the animatic "OOC (out of character), go nuts"

[finishwhatyoustarted-event]

Tools Tuesday - Tagging - Oct 8

Tools Tuesday is a weekly part of the Finish What You Started event where I share various resources I have found to help everyone complete their WIP. Have a resource you want to share? Send it in a message and I'll take a look!

This Tools Tuesday is all about tagging, for when you're ready to post your finished work on Archive of Our Own or any other site that uses tags! AO3, as the most popular fic posting site, will be the focus.

To begin: what are tags? And why do we use them?

Tags are keywords used to describe a fic or post. They can serve a variety of functions, but at their core they tell a viewer what to expect when they click in. On some sites (like Tumblr), they are at the bottom of the post. On AO3, they are the third thing seen, after title and author.

As seen in this handy infographic from SummerofSpock on tumblr, tags on A03 fall into 5 rough categories: Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme.

[full image ID in ALT text. Infographic titled "Tags are Tricky…a quick and dirty guide" with tag example lists in the categories of Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme. Each box is a different pink, in a gradient. End ID.]

source:

https://summerofspock.tumblr.com/post/698388759652319232/mostlyinthemorning-i-kind-of-suck-at-tagging-so

Not every fic might use every category, and there are certainly tags that overlap categories. There's also what I consider a 6th category, which is Author Commentary (no beta we die like xx, character needs a hug, why did i do that much research for a single paragraph, etc).

All of that aside, why should you use tags?

They help readers find and enjoy your fic! The two main uses of tags when searching is Seeking and Avoidance.

Seeking is when a reader really wants to read a particular thing, like they want fix-its only or just Modern AUs. Once they narrow it down to fandom, these are the tags they'll type into the search bar. If your work isn't properly tagged, it won't show up, even if it's the epitome of a Coffee Shop AU and that's the term they search. Generously tag so readers can find you!

Avoidance is excluding a fic from consideration due to a particular theme or topic. Maybe their pet just died, so any mention of Animal Death is out. Maybe they are really tired of a particular ship, or are narrowing down for a rarepair. On AO3, there's a section in the filter bar for excluding tags (see below, boxed in blue). Readers can eliminate what they don't want to see, which is wonderful! They can select exactly what they want; not every fic is for every reader. Generously tag, so readers can be selective!

[image ID, copied from ALT: the Archive of Our Own filter bar, with the Exclude section boxed in with blue lines. End ID.]

Still unsure how to tag your work? Or stuck on other aspects, like ratings and warnings? The Fanfic Author's Guide to Metatext (As Used on Ao3) by Eiiri is an incredible, in-depth explanation of everything contained within the metatext (tags+warnings) block on an AO3 fic. I — this event's mod — use this text as part of my determining for rating guidelines, and I have found it extremely helpful for tagging my own works. View in full on tumblr and AO3 at these links

full text in post:

https://eiirisworkshop.tumblr.com/

AO3 version, from which you can download as a pdf, epub, or other format:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30986561/chapters/76535018

Additionally, this event requires certain tags be honored and present as needed, primarily common warnings or hot topics. See the rules post for more information. These tags at least need to be present in any promo post, though tagging the fic itself is always good practice. After all, tags are like the ingredient label of a fic.

Still not sure what to tag and want more inspiration? This post from @/insanitysilver has great links to further help, as well as an example of a tagged fake fic!

https://www.tumblr.com/insanitysilver/723288666671300608/a03-tagging-inspiration

~

Have a question not answered above? Is there something important I missed? Want to see a post about tagging for Tumblr, Twitter, or another site specifically? Start a discussion in the replies and reblogs! Thanks for participating, and good luck with your wip!

[poisonapplezine]

✦ THE POISON APPLE AFTERSALE HAS BEGUN ✦

Greetings my esteemed friends of the macabre~

✦ REJOICE! ✦ For the bells have rung and our dark celebration begins once more!

Poison Apple Books, Tarot Decks, and Merch are all available for purchase. Click the photo above or follow this link to claim your book or tarot deck before they vanish. (Available while supplies last)

✦ This project features over 60 artists from around the world. This hardcover book GLOWS with green metallic foil and includes.

‣ 216 pages ‣ 41 illustrations ‣ 19 written works w/ spot illustrations ‣ 7 comics ‣ Appendix of featured villains, creatures & horrors

✦ The Poison Apple Tarot includes 35 cards, the 22 major arcana + 13 oracle cards. All beautifully illustrated and shining with details and symbolism.

‣ Green Foil Edges ‣ Physical Guide Book Included ‣ The Tarot Bundle also include a PDF version of the full zine.

🍏 🍏 🍏

Justice illus. by @eshpur The Empress illus. by nephelolivia The Magician illus. by blu_laura_blu The Vision illus. by @desansen The World illus. by @crowingoverthis Judgement illus. by @jagalart

SHOP DETAILS

DURATION: The shop will close on November 17th!

AVAILABILITY: Products will be available while supplies last, once they are sold out they are gone for good. There will not be a second printing of Poison Apple so don't wait to grab this limited edition book and tarot.

SHIPPING: International Buyers, to offset the price of international shipping, each non-USA order will receive a bonus mini set of merch. 1 Sticker Sheet (Random) 1 Postcard (Random) 1 Bookmark

QUESTIONS: If you have any questions concerning orders, details, or if you just want to say hello. Feel free to send me a message here or an email to poisonapplezine@gmail.com

Thank you for sharing! And welcome to our dark celebration~

SHOP LINK CARRD EMAIL

[datshitrandom]

2023 Darren Criss Calendar

[please do not repost]

[barlowstreet]

I am so fucking proud of you! May I ask how your group project ended up going?

Thank you!!!

Honestly yeah I have tea, let's spill.

Under a cut for long math drama because WOW that a whole thing

Alright, so for anyone who missed it, the group project assignment was fairly simple. It was literally just pick an article about mathematical modeling (he suggested using covid 19 as a topic), read it, present our findings to our class. Four people in my group, 10 minute long at most presentation, could have all probably be done in 30 minutes, right? We started this March 20th and it was due April 10th, today.

I picked the article, sent it to my group partners, they were like "yeah sure that works". I set up a word document through office 365 which we all have access to through our school that we could all just put our notes in and I put my part in March 20th. And then I took a whole bunch of cold medication because that was when I was sick.

Then no one did anything. I emailed them again reminding them, hey, we do gotta do this April 5th. The one girl did hers that day. The guy in my group did his April 7th. I also made a powerpoint at that point because I was like "I am not just talking to the camera here, I need a prop". (I get camera shy and do a lot better if I have props.)

The other girl in my group? The last email I got from her was never. She never replied to a single one of my emails. We talked in class once in a breakout room, where I said "I will email you all, I have no voice and am very sick and it's probably easier to just use email" and she was like, "Yeah, sounds good." So to be clear, she knew I was going to email her.

I get to class today and the guy in my group is not there. Okay, sure, fine, one of us can read his part. GirlA messages me in the zoom chat and is like "did GirlB ever send you anything?" and I have to be like, "No. I have a slide with just her name on it, do we want to just be petty and pause on it for a moment when we get there?" and she was like "Yeah tbh she didn't reply to any of our emails and do any work, what else do we do".

(Meanwhile we were talking about grades and GirlB asks the instructor why he never gave her a time slot to do one of our quizzes. It was a take home quiz. He said that SEVERAL times in class but I suspect she isn't actually there a decent amount, she just opens the zoom link and does other things. But our classes are recorded. Watch the recording at least?)

And then GirlB messages me. At 7:25pm. And says, "I sent you my notes."

My class, I will tell anyone who doesn't know, is 6:30pm to 9:30pm. We were in class. Other people were presenting, and I'm frantically adding things to the powerpoint presentation that I made. AND she somehow didn't actually change the online version of the powerpoint (because I enabled editing for that too) so she had to send it to me.

And she sent it as a PDF.

Anyways, me and GirlA sounded like we knew what we were talking about. I fake being good at speaking well and she made a good joke that made her seem a little more relaxed. I will say that the other girl did send me a couple of diagrams which made things look nice, but she really struggled with presenting it and sounded very awkward.

Oh and the guy showed up literally in the middle of our presentation, which, you know, I'll take since I didn't have to present his part.

We sorta could tell that GirlB handed in a bunch of assignments technically late and her grade was probably Not Good so honestly the fact that we all got 100% on the presentation probably did her a lot of good.

And I swear to god, most of it is because people are impressed by powerpoint. GirlA, when we were gossiping, she thanked me for doing "all that work" on the powerpoint when, like, it took me 10 minutes because I downloaded a vaguely math-y looking powerpoint theme XD So, life lesson, a good looking powerpoint presentation will take you a long way.

[replicarters]

the drops of moonlight zine ebooks are... messy!

I'm going back and forth with whether or not I want to make a proper post about this, like the last one - I'm thinking no, because at this point there's only more he said/she said and a moral debate about whether or not the mods' conduct was justified (LOL). It's just not relevant to the original issues (mods' conduct, no communication, et al).

But, the zine's ebook versions were finally released on July 13th. I'm amazed!

I'm also amazed that, despite my sending in a request to be removed from the zine on June 24th, 2023, this did not happen and my work is still there. It's a PDF and the only one that wasn't getting a physical book. They had a whole year to hit backspace a couple of times, but couldn't be bothered.

Additionally, my contributor bio contains an error: I'm listed as liking "Reinako" (Rei and Minako, romantically linked, for those not in the know) and I did not make mention of any romantic relationships of any kind when I wrote up my bio. I noticed on Reddit that another contributor stated that they had the same type of error with their own bio. It begs the question of what other mistakes are lurking within these zines, and it's incredible that apparently copy/pasting what other people wrote is too difficult, let alone proofreading it over the last year.

Finally, the way contributors are credited is extremely problematic. The way they have it laid out, only visual artists are highlighted in a sort of honeycomb credit image (pictured above). Contributors of written works just get their bio in the digital only ebook zine. So if you wrote a story or an essay, screw you, I guess. Imagine putting all that time in on Word only to not even be listed in the table of fucking contents. There's also tons of wasted paper on a survey and zine demographic analysis. Why this didn't go purely digital to make room for more printed works is, as usual, unknown.

The layout is more or less what I expected when I originally counted up the totals for work distribution: just pages and pages and pages given to single people. It's crazed for a zine with limited print space.

The mods/organizers had to be begged and pleaded with to release these ebooks - people have been talking about it since at least February. They've been pinged numerous times for updates over the past months and ignored all of it. One mod's Discord profile straight up says not to message them about the zine. Only when someone reached out to a mod on Tumblr did they get any kind of response. It's beyond comprehension.

Despite all that, these people still want you to pay them more to ship your physical zines and whatever other goodies that have been languishing in the ether for two years.

Absolutely no respect here, for anybody. I still find it unbelievable.

[historicalfightingguide]

“ Fiore dei Liberi’s patrons literally made up a story that they were descended from an African Muslim and a bisexual female knight - presumably just because they thought it sounded cool. According to chivalric legend the d’Este family of Ferrara was founded by the African knight Ruggiero (who converted to Christianity only shortly before his wedding); and Bradamante, a formidable knight who before her marriage enjoyed a passionate same-sex affair with the Spanish princess Fiordispina. Both prominently featured in the Orlando Furioso. Two of the Fiore manuscripts are dedicated to Niccolò III d'Este - from the wiki: "“Francesco Novati and D. Luigi Zanutto both assume that some time before 1409 he accepted an appointment as court fencing master to Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara, Modena, and Parma; presumably he would have made this change when Milan fell into disarray in 1402, though Zanutto went so far as to speculate that he trained Niccolò for his 1399 passage at arms. …The Ms. Ludwig XV 13 and the Pisani Dossi Ms. are both dedicated to Niccolò III d'Este and state that they were written at his request and according to his design.” “

For folks who want to learn more about Fiore you may want to check out the hyperlinks in the text above, as well as the  Scholars of Fiore dei Liberi facebook group, a free pdf of a translation of his works, a book version of the translation etc.

For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the following links:

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Some advice on how to start studying the sources generally can be found in these older posts

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Remember to check out  A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym as it may help with your own club/gym/dojo/school culture and approach.Check out their curriculum too.

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Fear is the Mind Killer: How to Build a Training Culture that Fosters Strength and Resilience by   Kajetan Sadowski   may be relevant as well.

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“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills”  by Rob Gray  as well as this post that goes over the basics of his constraints lead, ecological approach.

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Another useful book to check out is  The Theory and Practice of Historical European Martial Arts (while about HEMA, a lot of it is applicable to other historical martial arts clubs dealing with research and recreation of old fighting systems).

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Trauma informed coaching and why it matters

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Why having a systematic approach to training can be beneficial

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Why we may not want one attack 10 000 times, nor 10 000 attacks done once, but a third option.

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How consent and opting in function and why it matters.

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More on tactics in fencing

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Open vs closed skills

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The three primary factors to safety within historical fencing

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Worth checking out are this blogs tags on pedagogy and teaching for other related useful posts.

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And if you train any weapon based form of historical fencing check out the ‘HEMA game archive’ where you can find a plethora of different drills, focused sparring and game options to use for effective, useful and fun training.

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Check out the cool hemabookshelf facsimile project.

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For more on how to use youtube content for learning historical fencing I suggest checking out these older posts on the concept of video study of sparring and tournament footage.

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Consider getting some patches of this sort or these cool rashguards to show support for good causes or a t-shirt like to send a good message while at training.

[lorrainesletters]

The Battle of the Note-taking Apps - Who Will Come Out Victorious?

Review article by Mariz Lorraine | Edited 27 September 2023

Has the wave of digital notes have officially engulfed you and now you are stranded in the middle of a sea of note-taking apps? You convince yourself to do some research but take 2 scrolls on any social media app and you will then be recommended to choose either the free and Microsoft-based OneNote or the holy grail Goodnotes 5. As a loyal Goodnotes 5 user (buyer, let’s be frank) for 1 year now, I have some tea to spill about this blue app.

Key features

I, like many others, move to digital notes for a plethora of reasons, however nothing ever beats the feel of writing with pen and paper. Goodnotes 5 offers 4 types of pen styles that users can easily change with one tap of a button: Fountain pen, ball pen, brush pen, and highlighter.  Organizing notebooks and pages in Goodnotes 5 can also be done easily with folders and page outlines so that your math notes are easily distinguishable from your english notes. Notability, Goodnotes 5’s main competitor, on the other hand, has a revolutionary feature called “study tape” that allows you to cover certain key terms on your notes that can be opened with a tap so that you can easily revise them. Truthfully, you can do this in Goodnotes 5 with a highlighter and the eraser but it is not as convenient as Notability’s study tape. 

User-friendly

Just like most iOS apps, Goodnotes 5 is renowned for its user-friendliness. The easy-on-the-eye user interface combined with the easily tapped “New Notebook” or “Trash” buttons make the app superior to Microsoft OneNote’s hidden side tabs and dimmed pen options. Goodnotes 5 also offers tutorials and guides on how to maneuver the app when you just download it. 

Customizability

Despite being as plain as a sheet of paper when it comes to user interface, Goodnotes 5 is completely customizable when it comes to note-taking. A new notebook’s cover can be changed either by choosing between pre-made notebook covers or by uploading your own covers. For decoration aficionados, Goodnotes 5 allows you to import sticker packs and custom page templates. I utilize these stickers to avoid drawing benzene structures in chemistry and to add cute characters around my boring calculus notes. Yet Goodnotes 5’s customizability is still inferior to its younger sibling, Goodnotes 6. Goodnotes 6 offers full customizability of folder icons and colors on top of the customizability offerings of Goodnotes 5. However, if the default blue folder icon is fine for you, Goodnotes 5 is still the better option. 

Price

Unlimited access to Goodnotes 5 is priced at Rp.169,000 as a one-time cost for users. However, limited access to the app is free for all but users can only make up to 3 notebooks. Unlike Notability which is a subscription-based payment of Rp 89,000 monthly, Goodnotes 5’s one-time payment is better for users that want to test the waters first. 

Importing files

My personal favorite feature offered by Goodnotes 5 is the importing PDFs feature as it allows me to easily annotate my digital coursebooks and do past papers. Importing PDFs and annotating them in Goodnotes 5 is not just eco-friendly since you won’t have to print pages and pages of paper, but it is also much more convenient since you can easily erase, highlight, and move elements around. 

Exporting files

If you can share paper notes with your friends, you definitely can do so with digital notes as well. Users can easily share their notebooks to other Goodnotes 5 users to make it collaborative by sending them a short URL link or by sending an invitation to their email. But how about non-Goodnotes 5 users? Unfortunately you cannot have collaborative notebooks with non-Goodnotes 5 users but you can share PDF or JPEG versions through emails or messages. If you are like me and you are afraid of suddenly losing your files, Goodnotes 5 reassures us with the option to automatically backup your files to your preferred cloud between Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud. 

Technological advancements

Shifting to digital notes is a sign that the world is becoming more tech-reliant and softwares like Goodnotes 5 have to keep on advancing to follow the status quo. Optical Character Recognition (or more known as OCR) was added to Goodnotes 5 in 2019, allowing people’s messy handwriting to be identifiable by the app when you look for a certain term. As recent as January of this year, Goodnotes 5 added the voice recording feature so you can easily take notes as well as record your teacher’s voice to listen back to when revising. This feature is shared by both Notability and Goodnotes 5 however OCR is a Goodnotes 5 exclusive, so if you are looking for the app with the nerdiest feature out there, Goodnotes 5 is for you. 

Conclusion

If you are confused about which note-taking app to use and are just looking for something easy-to-use and simple, Goodnotes 5 is definitely the best option for you. Its many pen types, countless premade page templates, unlimited storage, and the ability to import and annotate PDFs are the key points for beginners in the digital note space. Its similarity to physical note-taking with the many pen types and page sizes also make the shift from pen-and-paper notes to screen-and-stylus notes a lot easier. 

[hecateandhoney]

Binding time!

Thank you so much to all the writers who participated and submitted fanfic for the first TWW Winter Anthology! It was so much fun to typeset this for you all, and if you missed out on submitting this time, I hope we can do it again in the future.

Below I will share a link to the googledrive where all the files are stored. The formatting should prevent anyone from uploading these to a binding website, but just as a final reminder, it is illegal to profit off fanfic in any way. Please do not use these files to sell commissions or commission others. These are for personal use only, whether binding copies for yourself or as gifts to friends/giveaways.

Now onto the binding! Based on the survey, I’ve created two versions of the document. One for US Letter paper and one for A4, both in folio style, which means you will be folding your paper in half to create booklets. 

Instructions: The anthology is posted in two ways. One as the whole file, which you can go ahead and print all at once if you want. These are the files with “aggregate book” in the title for both sizes. It is also separated into separate PDFs for each signature if you would prefer to print them one at a time or if issues arise and you need to more easily reprint any sections. Regardless of how you print, both versions are done in 6 page signatures (24 pages of the book). This means every 6 pieces of paper get folded together. If you are confused, send me a message, I’ll gladly further explain.

To print, in theory, these should all print as landscape and flip on short edge, if you have an automatic duplex printer. If not, you’ll have to do the flipping yourself based on the kind of printer you have. However, not all printers work the same, so I would recommend testing a few pages before you print the full document to make sure your print is being flipped the right direction.

In total, this should use 36 pieces of paper in both sizes. It’s a smaller book but still manageable.

I’ll be making a separate post later this week with resources for those looking for instructions on binding, as well as posting videos on my binding tiktok CreakySpineBindery in case anyone wants to bind along. You can bind these in any style you’d like, but I’ll be doing mine as a Square Back Bradel Bind, which I think is one of the easier methods for beginners.

And without further ado, the files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eXs334vc71Aqo_tPFN3-jT0wIjFldE25?usp=sharing