#it's one of the more interesting experiences I've had

[drdemonprince]

Thank you for your piece on how vanilla sex is coercive!! It really resonated with me. I had to stop having sex with "vanilla" inclined people entirely, not because my kinks made things completely incompatible, but because of the constant consent violations I experienced. So much stuff around anal and condoms. There was so often a sense of entitlement. I also learned that I had hide my kinks and experience in BDSM, as it lead people to drawn certain conclusions about what I liked and wanted (even though I DID tell them what I liked and wanted) and it culminated in really out of pocket shit like slapping me in the face during the middle of sex out of nowhere, asking me if I was a service sub because they needed someone to clean their house, and more. Tbh, I was sometimes treated like I was pretty much worthless and was only interested/good for rough sex, and I think that's pretty telling on how people vanilla people can view the sexually promiscuous. I'm happy to say that I've found solace in my connections with ppl in the kink community instead. Ironically, I've felt so much more humanized, and seen, and whole in play where I'm being treated like a dog or a toy or a sex slave, than I ever did in my relationships with vanilla people.

This is my experience with the "vanilla" dating world (particularly the straight one) as well. Lots of people actually are interested in sexual degradation, violence, etc, as a general rule, but if they havent ever had to articulate and negotiate their desires or explicitly navigate the power surrounding them, they dive in with entitlement and shame that gets spilled all over their partners. It is the out, explicitly kinky folks who get made into the receptacle for all their assumptions and frustrated desires.

[royalarchivist]

Jaiden: My question is– if I have a past with, either the Federation or Cucurucho, that I don't know about– then why am I on the Island? Was it like, "Oh, we need one of our own on the inside, let's put her here because you're a good worker"?

Foolish: Yeah... No, that could maybe make sense, like an experiment, like a controlled variable.

Jaiden: Yeah, but it also could be like, a punishment for like, "Oh, you were doin' some bad stuff, let's banish you to the Island with no memories. See how you like that."

Foolish: Ohhh. No memories makes it a little... yeah. Hmm... 🤔 Is there like a good-case scenario? Where it's like, "You did a great job! Here, let's wipe your memory, go on the Island."

Jaiden: [Laughs] "You earned a free vacation!" 🏝️

—

TRANSCRIPT

Jaiden: My question is like– if I have a past with, either the Federation or Cucurucho, that I don't know about– then why am I on the Island? Like, what happened?

Foolish: Hmmm... So like, why are you on the Island as in the state that you are in right now? Um...

Jaiden: Like, why would they put me here if I had like, a previous job, you know?

Foolish: Ok, previous job...

Jaiden: Either– was it like, they were like, "Oh, we need one of our own on the inside, let's put her here because you're a good worker, and we– [Stammers] You're so good." [Distracted] Oh, the fcking donkey is here–

Foolish: Yeah... No, that could maybe make sense, like an experiment, like a controlled variable.

Jaiden: Yeah, but it also could be like, a punishment for like, "Oh, you were- you were doin' some bad stuff, let's– let's banish you to the Island with- with no memories. See how you like that."

Foolish: Ohhh. No memories makes it a little... yeah. Hmm, I'm trying to think, would there be... Is there any like– is there like a good-case scenario? Where it's like, "You did a great job! Here, let's wipe your memory, go on the Island."

Jaiden: [Laughs] "You- you earned a free vacation!"

Foolish: [Also laughs] I don't know!

Jaiden: I don't' really know, but like... All I know is I've worked with Cucurucho in the past, and they trust me to like, train a new one.

Foolish: Yeah, that's what I find interesting.

Jaiden: –and I'm supposed to like, progress report on how well he's doing. And stuff.

So, is the current Cucurucho that's been out and about with us could be like, the second one? Because that's–

Jaiden: I'll be honest, I don't even know how many there are. I don't even doubt that there's more.

Foolish: Oh. Yeah, I guess if there's two, there certainly could be more.

Jaiden: Mhmm. They are... slightly different in personality, though.

Foolish: Oh, really?

Jaiden: I mean, the normal Cucurucho is just like, super serious–

Foolish: Right.

Jaiden: And then the other one is like... more silly, and goofy. I think that was the one who played like, Hide-and-Seek with us, and they did more fun games, and that's the other one.

Foolish: Oh, yeah!

Jaiden: And I– they said that he's not perfect, and I need to train him to be perfect.

Foolish: So you need to– wipe him of personality? [He speaks with a laugh]

Jaiden: Yeah. I– though– I mean, the thing I told him is just to hide it, you know? That's... the best way to do it.

Foolish: Conceal don't feel, don't let them know?

Jaiden: Yeah, exactly. Exactly, exactly. You know how it is.

—

Stream date: September 7, 2023

Timestamp: ~43m 30s

[petermorwood]

I'm surprised to see a How-To like this dated to the 1950s, when I'd have thought rotary dials weren't exactly new tech, but @dduane suggested It might have been because small US communities still relied on party lines and switchboards, where a number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000 for instance...

...was asked for rather than dialled personally, and actually using a dial phone might be an unfamiliar experience.

Oddly enough, this How-To doesn't actually explain how to USE the dial (on another page, probably) so here's how.

UK dial left, US dial right, operating principal the same.

Lift the earpiece or handset, put a fingertip into the appropriate numbered hole on the dial, drag it around to the finger-stop, remove the finger and let the dial rotate back to start position.

(Don't force it, auto-rotation is what sends the number as a series of electrical pulses so forcing it confuses things. Voice of long-ago experience.)

Repeat for the remaining numbers, then speak when the call is answered. End the call by putting the earpiece / handset back in place.

*****

Aspects of outdated but still-in-memory social history fascinate me, partly because they were part of my life though now they seem to be museum exhibits, and also because various details are useful bits of info for fictional world-building.

For instance, in a small town or village it was common knowledge that the switchboard operator - not a government tapper, just a person you or your family might meet every day - could be listening to any phonecall, so sensitive subjects were avoided or worded with care.

Read on.

*****

I grew up with rotaries and the first I ever used - standing tiptoes on a chair - was one just like this wall-mounted contraption, which had been in my Grandad's grocery shop since about 1930, when his phone line was first connected.

Grandad was an earlier adopter. I've got a shop receipt stamp showing the phone number back then, which had only three digits. Numbers in the same town are now eight digits...

The "candlestick" phone (far more common in historical movies and TV dramas) had most of the same working telephone parts, but needed a table or desk to rest on and its connection box with bells mounted on a wall, whereas the wall-mount has this box built-in behind the dial and mouthpiece.

Also, since typical style of use involved two hands...

...if only to brace it on the table (they were top-heavy and could overbalance)...

...it was a lot less convenient for making notes or taking down orders.

NB an interesting little detail in that first photo - a sandglass egg-timer attached to the phone for timing calls.

*****

Writer Side-Note 1: the hooks for the earpiece have a spring. Take the earpiece off and it snaps up to make the connection, put the earpiece back and it drops down under the weight, breaking the connection.

I sometimes wonder (and should probably find out) if early phonership being higher in the US than across the Pond influenced why US light switches work the same way as the phone hook, up for on, down for off. UK / Irish ones are the opposite.

Certainly those hooks are why "pick up" means answering a call and "hang up" means ending it, even if nowadays both are done by tapping an on-screen icon.

Indeed, we still "dial" a number even though actual dials are long gone - unless they've been put back as an app, see below... :->

"Ringing off the hook" suggests a phone so busy that bits of it are jumping off - but also, that it's so busy it won't shut up even when disconnected.

In fact it would shut up if that happened, and gave rise to another phrase which nowadays has a slightly different origin and meaning.

Lifting the earpiece off its hook and putting it to one side without making a call meant anyone phoning the number would get a busy signal. Thus "off the hook" meant "can't be contacted", often with an implication of "doesn't want to be contacted."

Nowadays the phrase owes more to fishing than phones, so "off the hook" means "avoided a threat / got away" - though perhaps there's still a telephonic echo in "isn't caught". YMMV.

*****

Writer Side-Note 2: older phones didn't have a dial. Instead, lifting the earpiece made a connection (indicated AFAIK by a light) at the local "switchboard exchange", indicating that someone wanted to make a call.

The "telephonist" (usual term for working with an office network) or "operator" (usual term for working with a public network) would reply, find out which person (office) or number (public) the caller wanted to reach, and make the connection by hand.

The usual conversation went something like this:

"Hello, caller, which number do you require?"

"Mr Brandybuck's office, please," or "HOBbiton 3-5-7-9, please," or "Bywater police station, quickly!"

"Thank you, caller. One moment, please. Connecting you now... You're through."

The operator could also listen in to any conversation and, at small local exchanges where they weren't too busy and knew one or maybe both callers, they often did.

In fact and fiction this habit made them a useful source of gossip, information and evidence, and callers' awareness of it also meant that any "interesting" phonecall would be framed in guarded or oblique language which might sound a lot more suspicious than it really was.

*****

Whenever a caller in "Downton Abbey", "Peaky Blinders" or whatever rattles the hook of a phone up and down, it's because they're trying to get the operator's attention that bit faster by making the switchboard signal light blink.

Anyone who's pressed the call button on a lift several times to make it hurry up, even when that button's lit to show it's on the way, will know exactly what I mean. However, an old-style phone linked to an old-style switchboard might actually have had an effect. With lifts, not so much.

*****

Rotary phones got a lot sleeker as time went by...

...though they still had spring-loaded switches - those two little black nubbins - to open and close a connection. These too could be jiggled to "speed things up", though by this stage the exchange was usually automated so it was no more effective than prodding lift buttons.

Despite that, "picking up" and "hanging up" remained a fairly accurate description, especially with wall-mounted phones.

This style of phone, or at least their hand-set design, still provides the basis for phone icons in many / most smartphones.

*****

Rotary phones went out of style in favour of push-button designs, including cordless ones...

This carried over to mobile phones, first big...

...then not so big...

...then small, then smart and getting big again...

Smartphones also started with push-buttons before going over to touch-screens, and now what goes around comes around, with apps for those touchscreens to simulate both push-button and rotary phones.

To complete the retro experience there are (or were, anyway) vintage-phone charging docks with working handsets.

Install a rotary-dialler app in this, and it's back to the future.

Especially if there are cradle switches to jiggle so the cell connects faster...

:->

“How to Use a Dial Telephone” 1951.

[zebra-rigel]

part 2 of demonic cultivation teachers Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan (warnings are in the tags: they're nothing big, but i just wanted them to be there as an option) (This doesn't include lbh yet, though my boy will be part of the shen's minor sect. I think I'm gonna progress the story linearly and we'll get to him in due time, once everything else is fleshed out ) After some thinking, I've realized that sj and sy wouldn't really have the resources to take care of a newborn, so they leave Ning Yingying in the care of the brothel jiejies and visit every month to give them money. Shen Jiu plans to let the child grow up there, but in a rare act of defiance A-Yuan demands that he buy a house and that they raise her together. Jiu refuses to consider it at all, stating that Shen Yuan's plans lack foresight and logic. At least, until the rumors of some cursed ruins reach his ears.

The interesting thing about cursed ruins, is that if treated with the right combination of rituals they become optimal places to cultivate demonic energy. Naturally, it's land like this that demonic sects build on. Shen Jiu decides to scout the location and its potential for such use.

The twins travel to the village, but as they get closer and closer Shen Jiu's chest starts to tighten, sights and places stirring long-buried memories- it's at the last stretch of the journey, talking to an old woman who sets the story straight for them, that he fully realises they are headed to the burnt husk that is the qiu estate. Shen Yuan shares a few of his memories because of that unfortunate sharing of life-force. He stares at Shen Jiu and quickly turns them around. "We're leaving, right now!" he declares.

Leaving .. can he, really? Shen Jiu remembers being afraid of this place as a slave- he remembers longing without end to leave it. Resenting it.

Weren't the Qius a cultivator family? Hadn't he- almost- ended their clan? If so, what was the next logical step of his revenge ?

Desecrating their property. "No, Yuan," he says finally. He turns to the old lady. "We are cultivators and wish to take a look at those grounds. Is there anyone we may ask?"

"There isn't," she croaks. "The ruins have been all but lost to the forest around it. No one will stop you. I for one, do not think those lands can be cleansed, but I won't stop you from trying."

Shen Yuan waits until they have walked a good distance away. He follows behind Shen Jiu and tugs at his sleeve. "What do you want? What do you intend to do?" "Wait and see," he responds curtly.

The estate is both less and more than he imagined it would be. He remembers the massacre- killing all the men after the women and children had been ordered away by Qiu Jianluo. Not a single witness had been left but Haitang, and he would be happy to demonstrate his experience in murder to her if she was still around. He approaches the supporting pillar of what used to be Jianluo's bedroom. A burst of qi dislodges it from it precarious postion and it falls into the debri around it. His resentment rises- manifests in his qi and mixes with the resentment of those who died there. It is a powerful loop, two streams of water flowing into each other eroding the sand around it. He breathes and slips into meditation. Focuses on the resentment. Slightly, but surely, he feels it strengthening his qi.

Shen Jiu opens his eyes and cuts off the flow. Turns back to A-Yuan. "Well?" he asks. "Isn't it suitable for cultivation?" Shen Yuan stares at him, mouth agape. "Yes, but- don't tell me you're seriuously considering it? This is a great cursed ground, true, but it's also- also!!"

Shen Jiu recognizes that words to express human suffering elude the elegant plant spirit. It marks the difference in experience between them- that no matter how much he is taught and learns, he will never understand shen jiu for what he truly is. A monster. "It's also the place I grew up imprisoned in, you mean? That's what makes it an optimal cultivation area. My resentment is mine to control." Shen Yuan still looks unconvinced. The next thing he says makes Shen Yuan drop his fan on the ground and stare at him with disbelieving shining eyes. He is so easily distracted, Shen Jiu thinks distantly. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[nicnevans]

Hey! GW2 fandom!

I'm semi-new here, though (since you guys seem friendly) a few of my screenshots and doodles have done the rounds so my characters might not be entirely unfamiliar to you. Anyway, I want more GW2 on my dash! with some caveats due to being New TM I'm looking for folks to follow who;

post a fair bit of GW2; other games and fandoms in the mix is fine, I myself am pretty multifandom over here (I don't have the braincells to separate everything out lmao)

have a spoiler-tagging system I can reference; I've just finished HoT and I'm absolutely not rushing through GW2's storyline (experience has taught me that the best way to enjoy an MMO is slowly) If you don't have a spoiler tagging system but still wanna chat, that's also great! hmu I wanna interact and meet the fandom! I just don't wanna hit a spoiler for content that, to most other people, is ancient lmao

I'm especially interested in seeing fanworks, whether you're a creator of them or a chronic reblogger. I miss the good old days of tumblr when my dash was 90% peoples' fanart and OCs and everyone hyping each other up 🥺

A bit about me (and my characters)

I'm not a single-fandom blog. My blog runs mostly on a queue, and in that queue goes basically everything I enjoy with anything cool that crosses my dash in between.

I'm a Millennial TM. I make Millennial TM jokes (puns) like my life depends on it. I'm sorry. I can't change.

I post art over on @ilmhist sometimes. Doodles and portraits and such. (That's also the blog I like/follow from.)

I have... a lot of OCs. A lot. My OC page is packed and in a constant state of "oh god I still need to write so-and-so's bio..."

idk how to play GW2 I'm just here for the blorbosis, I'm certifiably Bad At It and I die constantly. This has become a character trait for my comm, it's a running joke at this point that he never walks away from a fight under his own strength, he's always getting carried or dragged out when it's all said and done.

I'm... kind of obsessed with sylvari. I support everyone who has brainrot for the other races and I'd love to hear thoughts on them, I just have none, it's all plant people all time in my one singular braincell.

(pictured above, left to right: Duilliche (main comm), Callainn, Lusanaisig, Dreaghann)

These lil guys are my current pride and joy. Lus and Drea are twins, but all four of them awoke during different times of the same day, and (mostly) had connected Dreams. Cal is the odd one out in this, she never got a Wyld Hunt and her calling in life is much more mundane than the others, but she sort of gets swept along with them anyway. Her running gag is that, for one reason or another, she never seems to make it to the Big Climactic Fight at the end of any given journey. Dill is very much in the wrong genre and should have been a Disney prince. He even sings. He also has a godawful sense of direction and if left in charge of Leading The Group, he will blithely lead the group in circles for hours. As is evident, they're season-coded. Autumn, winter, spring, summer. I thought it was a fun idea for a group of sylvari sharing a plotline :>

This post is getting really long. Okay, so, intro done, like/reblog/comment/something if you post GW2 and I can avoid spoilers if I follow you, if I can't avoid spoilers if i follow you feel free to drop me a message or something if you want?

[ploppythespaceship]

Please Watch Star Trek: Prodigy

Prodigy has largely slipped under the radar, and that makes me mad, because in my eyes this is by far the best of the modern Trek series. The number of Trekkies I've talked who haven't even heard of this show, or immediately dismissed it because "it's just that weird kids thing" drives me wild. Even if you hate the other modern Treks like Discovery or Picard, I still think you should check this one out.

Do you want a Star Trek show focusing on a cast of brand new and interesting characters on a series of fresh adventures? Prodigy.

Do you wish returning legacy characters were kept to a minimum, but given fresh and meaningful arcs whenever they do appear, all without overshadowing the new cast? Prodigy.

Do you miss when Star Trek shows had 20 episodes a season, and actually had time to fully explore their own story lines? Prodigy.

Do you prefer shows that blend one-off episodes with serialization? Prodigy.

Do you like Star Trek with a lighter and more hopeful tone, without constant gore and swearing? Prodigy.

So what's it about? Prodigy follows a group of kids and teenagers from the prison colony Tars Lamora, where they're all enslaved by tyrant known as the Diviner. When they find the Federation starship Protostar buried beneath the planet's surface, they manage to get it started again and escape -- but the Diviner is hot on their trail, determined to take the Protostar for himself. This new crew must work together to manage their ship and make their way towards safety with the Federation and unravel its mysterious past, all under the tutelage of the ship's training hologram, Janeway.

Prodigy is a kids' show, but that doesn't mean it's just for little babies. It just means it's approachable by a younger audience. It actually addresses issues like slavery and tyranny in a fairly mature way. It's also meant to be a gateway into the Trek universe for newcomers, so we learn about the Federation as these kids do.

The cast is so good. Literally every single character is solid. Dal is the cocky kid masking a deep insecurity as he doesn't know who or even what he is. Gwyndala is the Diviner's daughter, finally free from under his thumb with a chance to see the stars. Rok-Tahk looks like a terrifying rock monster, but she's just a little girl who loves science. Jankom is a Tellarite engineer who loves arguing and wants to be the best at what he does. Zero is a non-corporeal being fascinated by the physical world but unable to truly experience it for themselves. Murf is an adorable purple blob of goo. And hologram!Janeway is the wise mentor steering this unlikely bunch towards success.

Unfortunately, Prodigy was yoinked from Paramount+, but it's currently available on Netflix in the US and UK. Season 1 does take a little bit of time to find its footing, but give it til episode 10 to win you over. There is some great stuff here, I promise you.

[marzipanandminutiae]

so help me god if I tanked the chance for a well-paid job with full medical benefits, sick leave, paid vacation time, etc. because I hardly ever do machine seam-finishing

I'm going to be. really really really upset

[crescentfool]

having the hc that minato is ace is incredibly funny sometimes when you think about how ryoji is oh so very bi because it's like. "ah. death stole my ability to be attracted to people," in the same way that ryoji stole minato's eye color and energy level. like wow, thanks ryoji, you just keep finding things to steal from minato!

[heathersdesk]

You raise a really interesting question about what we do as a people with the language of punishment and its attending suffering in scripture. To us, this is almost entirely metaphorical and is meant to describe a mental state, rather than a physical place where divine retribution is inflicted. The best example of this is in The Book of Mormon in Alma 36. He is invoking a lot of this language as a description of guilt that exists entirely in his own mind. It's typical of how Latter-day Saints see hell as a torment in conscience, rather than physical punishment.

12 But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.

13 Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.

14 Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.

15 Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.

16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.

17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

To provide some context, the person who is speaking here didn't actually kill anyone. He was a rebellious teenager who didn't want to go to Church and did shenanigans with his friends. He was a misguided knucklehead, not the worst human being to ever walk the earth. But I think that only reinforces hell as a prison of the mind where we put ourselves, not a physical place where God forces us to go as a punishment. No one does this to us, not even God, and the way out is to change the way we see God, ourselves, and the world. To us, that's what repentance is. It's not just a change in behavior to align with divine law. It's a change in outlook, which leads to changed behavior.

I hope that clarifies things a bit. In terms of traditional Christian hell being a place, the closest thing we have to that is the suffering we experience in life here on earth. What we think hell is, rather than a place, exists entirely in the human mind and is made up of things like guilt, shame, anger, and fear.

What need is there for a lake of fire and brimstone when the night time intrusive thoughts of every embarrassing thing I've ever done exist? Maybe this speaks to how much of a Dad we think God is, but he's not going to buy fancy punishment when we have the leftover mortification of being human at home.

seeing people discussing the concept of hell and how cruel the idea of eternal punishment is like, wow! i know this belief system you would love if not for your knee-jerk reaction against its name

[gingermintpepper]

Absolutely the funniest thing about my current corner of tumblr is that pretty much everyone I've recently followed for Apollo-Appreciating Purposes are either genuinely Hellenist or just rather very into Rick Riordan's Trials of Apollo series which is wild because I know a net zero about both of those things.

[majouartings]

PLAYABLE ZELDA PLAYABLE ZELDA PLAYABLE ZELDA PLAYABLE ZELDA PLAYABLE ZELDA PLAYABLE ZELDA PLAYABLE ZELDA *inhale* PLAYABLE ZELDA PLAYABLE Z

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Splendid! I am also a graduated homeschooled kid, so I'll be speaking from that perspective. I am also speaking from a place of some sort of "privilege," in a way, as my parents both have a healthy relationship with each other and with their kids, so I'm speaking from that context. I also do have some experience within the public school system, as I've been a program aide at an afterschool program for the past year or so.

Let me be clear in this, though: there are some parents who do not have a firm handle on their responsibility as parents, and there are some families where this model is not feasible. I am not saying that every family in the world should be homeschooling their kids. What my argument is is that an individualized education is better for every child.

An individualized education can take many forms, because, of course, every kid is different. There are some kids who learn better by sitting still and listening to someone teach. There are some kids who learn better by reading. Some kids learn best through experience. Some kids learn best by other methods, and some kids learn best by one of the above methods, but with aids like fidget toys and music, while some kids need absolute silence, and others need other kids around them to help them stay on task. Obviously, one wouldn't expect a teacher in a classroom setting to be able to identify and accomodate all these needs for all sixteen to forty-five kids in their class (but if they can, kudos!)

But one-to-two parents teaching their one-to-twelve kids absolutely can.

When kids are schooled at home, you can more easily meet their individual needs.

For literature courses, my mom would often assign reading based on some of our interests, alongside our standard literature curricula. Both my brothers took Portuguese for their language credit because they have camp friends from Brazil. For gym class, we could ride our bikes or play football in the backyard. These were things that kept us interested and engaged while still allowing us to gain our necessary education.

We also had the opportunity to learn how we needed to. We could go to our rooms and be by ourselves in the middle of schoolwork, if we needed to. We could listen to music in our earbuds if it helped. If we had a particularly distracting stim that helped us focus, we could work in a different space than our siblings. We could sit down and read on the couch, in a comfortable environment, and if we wanted to keep working ahead, we had the space and time to do that.

In eleventh grade, I had done enough of my school requirements that I would only have two classes in twelfth grade, english and history. My eleventh grade english and history courses finished quickly (one of them was a college level course that was only eight weeks) so I was able to cram in both credits for my twelfth grade year by adding an extra year's worth of both into my schedule. It was a lot of work, but I chose to do it, worked at it, and was able to finish school at sixteen (graduating at seventeen because the summer was busy.) I had the freedom to customize my education to fit me, and I succeeded in a way I might not have been able to if I were in a public school.

Another question that comes up with homeschool is that of having multiple grade levels learning in the same place. Haven't we moved past one room schoolhouses?

When I was in kindergarten, my brother was in third grade, and my sister was in fourth. Was anyone academically challenged because of our shared learning enviornment? Not at all! Most of our work was us quietly reading out of textbooks anyways, and if mom had to read something out loud and it distracted our siblings, we could just go to another room and focus. I would argue that working at the same kitchen table as my siblings made me smarter— I'd overhear concepts for three or four grade levels ahead of me, and I had a remarkable memory as a kid, so when I got these subjects years later, I'd already be preapred with the framework for these topics because I'd heard them from my siblings.

Another point I'd like to add, though it's not talked about a lot, is that homeschool can also be individualized to match the needs of every parent. My mom had us on a very strict schedule because that's the kind of person she is. Her friend, on the other hand, tells her kids, "you can get started with your school whenever, but if you have any questions, don't ask me until after 9 am." One model gets kids used to rigid schedules, another gets kids learning how to function on their own schedule, and neither one is wrong.

There are some parents who don't know much about every subject in school and use that to argue that they could never homeschool, but you really don't need to know everything. My mom almost never had to "teach" us anything once we'd learned how to read. We would read the lessons out of our textbooks, write down the answers to any questions or problems the material gave, and then mom would use the provided answer keys to check our work.

And yes, there were times we had questions, and there were times mom would need to look it up with us and learn with us to help explain it to us, and there were times we had to wait for dad to wake up (he worked the night shift) and explain math to us. But, by now, my mom has been doing this for almost two decades and has learned a lot of the secrets to it. There's video lesson courses for lots of subjects, where you can watch a teacher explain the material. My little brother is doing a video math series right now, and my mom watches along, so she's re-learning alongside him, and it helps her help him work it out. My older sister and I still live at home, so when something comes up that we understand but my mom and brother don't get but we do, we can help explain them in ways that make sense.

One might be tempted to say "well, if it takes two decades for parents to figure out what works, only the youngest kids in the family will be able to succeed," and this thought brings me to the other main point of my thesis: though it may seem ironic, homeschooling is about community.

When my siblings and I first started school, my mom got a lot of advice from my aunt about what worked with her kids. My mom passes along her old textbooks to one of her friends whose kid is a grade behind my brother. Whenever someone posts online that they want to start homeschooling and are looking for advice, there's almost a dozen mothers from my church who come in the clutch with support, advice, and encouragement. If a kid is struggling with learning from one specific textbook, their parent can ask around and get recommendations for dozens of curricula that might work better for them. Community spirit is critical to the homeschooling process. It takes a village!

Remember earlier when I said some kids learn better surrounded by other students? That's possible with homeschooling. When I was a kid, my church offered two different bi-weekly art classes for homeschoolers. Now, they've expanded to a full-on co-op, where students can meet for classes on creative writing, art, history, or whatever courses experienced parents in the co-op are willing to offer, and there's monthly field-trips to local businesses and museums! They also have an annual fair (in the past they've done science fairs, history fairs, art fairs, and culture fairs) where the kids research a topic and give a presentation about it, with a booth where they can show their research about a particular topic.

Community learning doesn't have to be so official, though. What's to say a parent can't team up with a friend who's also homeschooling their kids? Maybe they can meet together for classes on topics one parent doesn't understand as well. They could even alternate which house they meet at for school to get their kids out of the house and around other kids more. A few families' kids can meet for an organized sport in the biggest backyard, while the parents sit on the porch with their coffee and discuss how their week has been going. They can even come up with field trips and outings to go on together, or work on projects together as a group.

Now, are there struggles related to homeschooling? Of course. Is anyone going to do it perfectly? No way! Why do I care so much?

I work with kids. The kids I see at work go to school for eight hours every day. They then spend three or four hours at our afterschool program. They go home for dinner and a couple hours with their family, then go to be by eight so they can do the same thing again. Some of them have parents in separate houses they jump in between. A lot of them see their teacher more than they see their own mom or dad.

And it shows. It really does. Sure, it's not always the case, but I have noticed that many of the kids in our afterschool program have parents who don't know their own kids. We don't call home to parents often, but when we do, it's because their kid has had a consistent disruptive or harmful behavior that we haven't been able to handle. We tell parents when an issue arises and they seem surprised. We ask how they help their children manage behaviors and emotions, and they tell us simply that they don't. We let them know what their kid did, and they say "oh, he's just like that at home; we usually just let it happen."

Hoemschooling, to me, largely falls under the umbrella of the theory I call "raise your own kids." Obviously, there's some situations where this is impossible, where families are struggling to make ends meet, or parents are separated, or something prevents parents from staying home with their kids, and I get that. There are also some home enviornments that kids should be away from as much as possible, and, by all means, let's avoid that.

But also? There are some families where one parent's entire paycheck goes to daycare services. Read that again. One parent is working full-time to pay someone else to raise their kids. Why? Isn't it better for your kids for you to simply be at home with them?

But, I digress.

The point is, one teacher should not be expected to know everything about each and every one of their students. But, every good parent should be held accountable to know their kids' unique learning abilities and challenges, and to help discipline and raise them. Sure, this might look different for every family. But, doesn't a world where every kid has an education that's designed to work for them sound better?

As a footnote, I know a lot of people say homeschool gives kids poor social skills and gaps in education, so in case anyone's wondering, I'll answer both of those for me, personally.

I will say that my education, admittedly, did lack the social aspect. I do struggle sometimes with my people skills. I wouldn't say that's a fault within homeschooling, though, it's just the result of one child of one parent not doing it all properly, and may be the result of asd as well. By contrast, my older brother is great at socializing. It depends on the kid, really, and maybe there's some stuff that could have been better indiviualized toward me, like getting me involved in more groups of kids my own age when I was younger.

As far as learning gaps, I don't know about most state, but New York makes sure it's homeschooled kids are getting their necessary education. Every quarter, parents are required to write a report of everything their kids learned and how many credit hours they had. If they don't send these in, the school board sends them several emails about it until they're sent in, at threat of the kids being put in the school system. Parents need to submit a letter of intent to homeschool their kids. Every year or two, we were required to go to the school and take a big standardized test to make certain that we knew everything we were supposed to.

As far as how well I personally fared, academically? Well, on e time, my siblings and I were told we were doing our standardized testing over a course of three days, but there was a slip-up and the teacher gave us the whole three days' worth of tests in one day. I managed to finish well before my siblings and sat down reading magazines for at least an hour, and the teacher let me take them home because I enjoyed reading them so much. All three of us kids passed this big test with flying colors, and despite mom's warning that these tests were often written with questions above their grade level that I wouldn't know yet, fourth grade Kazzy still managed to land a perfect 100%.

Later in life, as mentioned above, I graduated high school a year early, and I made it through an associate's degree in college with a 4.0 [technically, it was a 3.997, but they rounded it up in the grade books, and the only class I had less than a 4.0 in was a class where the teacher had beef with me and I got a C on the final paper because I couldn't be present for the peer review session of class due to quarantine.] Sure, most of my courses were not Gen Ed courses, but the ones that were, I excelled in, and even helped some of the other students once or twice, and since I only had one paper that was below an A- in my whole college career, I'd say I had a pretty firm grasp on academia as a whole. My older siblings also graduated with high honors, too.

me: done properly, an individalized education for every child is better than public schooling.

someone: you know, that could lead to abuse and educational neglect!

me: i cannot stress enough that that is not doing it properly.

[pollen]

i've been diving a lot deeper into adhd symptoms and comorbidities and misdiagnoses and whenever i tell my boyfriend something i learned that sounds like me he responds with something like

[mariocki]

Honor Blackman guest stars as art expert Syd Lewis in Saber of London: Deep in the Heart of Chelsea (1.3, NBC, 1957)

[darkaac]

ac valhalla was not unlike eating dirt