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allthingslinguistic · 5 months ago

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Summer 2024 travel plans and Language Guinea Pig Diaries

In August and September, I'm doing a bunch of travel to various European countries. In order, they are:

Glasgow, Scotland for World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), where I'll be on a panel about Languages as World-Building and doing assorted meetups

Helsinki, Finland for the Societas Linguistica Europea annual meeting

Tartu, Estonia for a colloquium talk on Applying Linguistic Methods to Linguistic Communication at the University of Tartu and a two-part workshop on lingcomm for participants of Methodological Excellence in Data-Driven Approaches to Linguistics (MEDAL)

Nijmegen, Netherlands for some meetings with linguists

Florence, Italy to visit friends

Madrid, Spain for the publication of the Spanish translation of Because Internet by Pie de Página

I hope to run into lots of interesting people at these events! If you're already in one of these places and I know you, including from the interent, feel free to reach out and see if we can fit something in!

This whirlwind list of events and places has also gotten me thinking: this trip is going to be a fun chance to learn some more about some languages! I'm already fairly familiar with Spanish and Scottish English (I doubt people will speak much Broad Scots to me with my Canadian accent), and I'm confident on my ability to brush up on them by a bit of exposure and possibly watching a relevant movie on the way there, but the other four languages are going to take a bit more doing. Here's my initial situation, in order of familiarity:

Italian - I studied it for two years in undergrad and spent about a week in Italy shortly thereafter, and by the end of the week I was finally beginning to feel like it was starting to "click" but then I haven't really touched it since then. So I feel like it would come back with exposure but I wonder if there's something I could do in advance to help it come back sooner/faster rather than taking the whole week of being there again

Dutch - I went through the whole Duolingo tree on rapid-speed back when you could skip through lessons for new material only and not practice drills over about a year in 2019-ish just for fun and as an excuse to look up lots of Germanic roots (I studied German before I knew any linguistics so it was fun to triangulate there). Never actually been anywhere Dutch was being spoken but I did find I could get the gist of youtube videos about linguistics in Dutch so it probably needs "activation" similar to Italian

Finnish - No background except for a few linguistics factoids (case! vowel harmony!), and that it's a Uralic language (related to Hungarian but not to any of the Indo-European languages, so this is a fun chance to learn some things about a language family that's unfamiliar to me)

Estonian - Also no background, also Uralic, clearly the fun thing to do would be to learn enough bits of Estonian and Finnish that I could compare them with each other (also since I'm meeting with linguists in both countries, this would be a fun topic for small talk conversation)

At the same time, there are a lot of language learning strategies floating around out there, and I have two nearly matched pairs of languages on this list: Italian and Dutch, both of which I am pretty good at cognate languages for and have studied some a while back, so I could test two activation strategies, and Finnish and Estonian, both of which I have essentially zero familiarity with, so I could test two strategies for getting somewhere near a basic functional ability.

I have about a month until I start this cycle with a flight to Helsinki. One month, four languages. What could possibly go wrong?

Here's my tentative plan so far:

Activation, Italian and Dutch - I'm pretty sure what I need for these languages is largely as much audio imput as possible (given what's feasible around like, all the other things going on in my life). I've decided to aim to watch one or two youtube videos in Italian per day, focusing on relatively concrete, daily life topics (such as gelato making) and to listen to one episode of a podcast in Dutch per day, aiming to get through the back catalogue of Kletsheads, a podcast about multilingual children.

Why these strategies? Well, I'm meeting up with linguists in the Netherlands but not in Italy, so it makes sense to try to learn more linguistics vocab there. Also, I'm curious about the effect of medium between video and podcast: will being able to see people talking and what they're talking about have much of an effect on how much I can understand? Will I find it easier to integrate one or the other of watching videos vs listening to podcasts into my life at a practical level? Plus, will concentrating on a single, more academic topic vs watching a scattered, unsystematic list of videos have effects on my vocabulary?

Basic function, Finnish and Estonian - I'm probably looking for some phrases to say to people in shops and restaurants and the ability to pronounce things written on menus adequately and match heard words/placenames to written versions on signs. I started doing a very minimal one lesson a day on Duolingo for Finnish in January, when planning for this trip started, for the very simple reason that I was already familiar with Duolingo and it doesn't have Estonian, so I decided to just start by doing a thing I was familiar with until I got around to doing more research. I've been casting around trying to figure out a source of basic Estonian phrases online when a friend mentioned learning French on tiktok, so I searched for "learn estonian" and voila! I think I'll also aim for a video or two of Estonian phrases per day but I want to do more rewatching than with Italian or Dutch, since I'm aiming to remember specific common phrases. So maybe one rewatched video and one new video, per day? They're shorter on tiktok than on youtube.

Why these strategies? This is a comparison of Duolingo's more systematic approach with lots of repetition and gamification and word-by-word translation in a relatively sterile environment versus a more organic and free-styling approach with more grounding in real people and faces and full phrases where I'm not really trying to understand the individual words. There are lots of factors to compare and it's not a completely fair comparison since I started Duolingo in January and I only thought to start the TikTok idea this week, but hey, learning anything still counts as progress.

Summary: I have four languages, each focused on a different app: YouTube, my podcast app, Duolingo, and TikTok. Hopefully for the video apps, this will help their algorithms kick in and start recommending me further useful videos. The difference between the two video strategies is that for Italian, I'm watching monolingual videos that are aimed at people who already speak Italian and just want to learn something about the topic, whereas for Estonian, I'm watching bilingual videos aimed at English speakers who want to learn some words or phrases in Estonian.

Am I going to get these four languages mixed up? Probably! I'm hoping that choosing a different app/strategy for each is a little bit helpful on that front.

Do I think these strategies are optimal? Probably not! But I'm aiming to choose things that feel relatively clear to implement consistently, rather than getting bogged down in researching language learning methods instead of actually getting exposure to the languages. I'll probably do a basic "look up some key phrases and try to learn them" a day or two before entering each place too. And maybe shift other aspects depending on how things are going, stay tuned!

At any rate, I figured it would be more fun to blog about my attempts to use myself as a guinea pig for a few different language learning strategies here than to just do it in my own head (and hopefully help me with staying motivated). And maybe people will have tips of either language learning strategies that have worked for you in general or specific ideas for these particular languages, so this is the beginning of a series that I'm calling #Language Guinea Pig Diaries and future posts will also be posted under that tag!

#linguistics #languages #language learning #learning languages #foreign languages #language guinea pig diaries #italian #dutch #finnish #estonian

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spicebiter · 5 months ago

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Watch List- English Language Movies (Latest Update Nov. 6, 2024)

My extensive movies list. Not numbered because tumblr has a character limit in blocks of text that affect numbered lists apparently, but fyi before you open the read more there are 300+ entries in this list.

Because of the sheer number of things I want to watch I’m separating my watch list posts into four categories. I keep them separate primarily for organization so I can decide what to watch based different variables (mood, time, language, etc)

I’m pretty much constantly adding things to all of my lists- hence why I’m amending when this was last updated to the title itself- and will update this post anytime I update the wheel I use to randomize my next choice, which usually happens after I’ve added or subtracted a significant number of options.

3096 Days

48 Hrs.

8MM

A Bucket of Blood

A Fistful of Dollars

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

A Tale of Two Sisters

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

All About Evil

All Eyes

All of Us Strangers

All Hollows Eve

Alyce Kills (2011)

American Guinea Pig

American Mary

An American Crime

Antlers

Apostle (2018)

Area 51

Arrival

Artemis 81

Asylum of Satan

Audition

August Underground

Baby Driver

Bad Boy Bubby

Bad Influence (1990)

Basic Instinct

Bathory

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Being Human (US)

Below (2002)

Beyond the Black Rainbow

Bird Box

Black Sheep

Black Mountain Side

Black Narcissus (1947)

Blade series

Blade Runner

Bleed With Me

Blood Quantum

Blue Velvet

Bones and All

Brain Damage (1988)

Brand Upon the Brain

Buffalo ‘66

Bullet Train

Butchers (2020)

By Any Means

Byzantium

Cabin Fever

Campfire Tales (1997)

Cannibal

Cannibal Apocalypse

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter

Cargo

Chained (2012)

Chernobyl Diaries

Cherry Falls

Christopher Robin

Cobweb (2023)

Cohasset Snuff Film

Cold Skin

Constantine

Crank (2006)

Crash

Crowsnest

Cujo

Curfew (1989)

Cut (2000)

Dark Harvest

Dark Places

Day of the Dead

Daybreakers

Dead Birds

Dead Body (2017)

Dead Calm

Dead Ringers

Dead Silence

Dead Snow

Deadstream

Deathdream

Deathwatch

Dementia 13

Detective Pikachu

Devil's Advocate

Diabolique

Dig (2018)

Digging Up the Marrow

Don't Worry Darling

Dragonslayer

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Duel

Eden Lake

Electric Dreams

Eraserhead

Estranged

Even Lambs Have Teeth (2015)

Eve’s Bayou

Ex Machina

Extracurricular (2018)

Eyes in the Dark

Eyes Wide Shut

Feed

Feral (2017)

Fertile Ground

Flatliners

Flowers (2015)

Found (2012)

Fox Trap (2016)

Frankenstein

Frankenstein’s Army

From Black

Funny Games

Gaia (2021)

Ganja and Hess

Gentleman's Agreement

GetAWAY (2020)

Ghost Ship

Girl in the Bunker

Glass Onion

Godzilla series

Good Time

Goodnight Mommy

Gray Man

Grotesque

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio

Hacksaw Ridge

Hard Candy

Hatchet (2006)

Head Count

Headless (2015)

Hear No Evil

Hell House

Her Name Was Torment

High Tension

His House

Home for the Holidays (1972)

Honeydew

Honeymoon (2014)

Hotel Hell

Hotel Inferno

House of Flesh Mannequins

House on the Hill

House That Jack Built

Howl (2015)

Humanoids From the Deep

I Am Elizabeth Smart

I Saw the TV Glow

Identity (2003)

Imperium

Imprint (2006)

In Her Skin

In The Mouth of Madness

Inception

Infinity Pool

Inland Empire

Interview (1998)

It Comes at Night

It's Such A Beautiful Day

Jack the Bear

Jacob’s Ladder

Jaws

Jug Face

Juice (1992)

Just Before Dawn

Kill List

Kissed (1996)

Lake Nowhere

Last House on the Left (1972)

Last Shift

Leave

Legend (1985)

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

Leviathan

Life (2017)

Lisa Frankenstein

Little Deaths

Little Monsters

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Longlegs

Lord of the Rings

Love Exposure

Love Lies Bleeding

Lovely, Dark, and Deep

Lovely Molly

Mama

Mandrake

Maniac (2012)

Marionette (2020)

May (2002)

Mayhem (2017)

Megan is Missing

Melancholia

Memories of Murder

Mister Creep (2022)

Mockingbird Don’t Sing

Monkey Man (2024)

Mukavemet (2022)

Murder By Numbers

My Own Private Idaho

Need for Speed (2014)

Night of the Creeps

Nocturnal Demon

Nope

November (2017)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Only Lovers Left Alive

Orphan

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)

Pearl

Phantom of the Opera

Phantom of the Paradise

Phantom Thread

Phase IV

Pig (2010)

Poltergeist

Poor Things

Poughkeepsie Tapes

Predator

Premium Rush

Primer

Prisoners (2013)

Psycho Goreman

Rabid (1977)

Rawhide

Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarves

Requiem for a Dream

River’s Edge

Roadhouse

Robot Dreams

Rope (1948)

Rose Red

Safe (1995)

Satan's Servant (2020)

Scanners

Sea Fever

Seasoning House

Seed (2007)

Serial Mom

Session 9

Shark Side of the Moon

Shrew’s Nest

Silver Bullet

Small Soldiers

Smokin’ Aces

Snatch

Sole Survivor

Some Like It Hot

Sometimes they Come Back

Sonic the Hedgehog

Splice

Splinter

St. Maud

Star Time (1992)

Star Wars series

Still Breathing

Stoic (2009)

Straight Edge Kegger (2019)

Student Body (2022)

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat

Sunshine (2007)

Super Dark Times

Suspiria (1977)

Swallow (2019)

Swiss Army Man

Talon Falls (2017)

Tank Girl

Terrifier

Terror Vision

The Abyss

The Atticus Institute (2015)

The Awakening

The Babadook

The Beach House

The Beyond

The Block Island Sound

The Boston Strangler

The Breed

The Burrowers (2008)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cave (2005)

The Color Purple

The Dark

The Deeper You Dig

The Devil's Carnival

The Divide (2011)

The Dunwich Horror

The Dyatlov Pass Incident

The Endless

The Evil of Frankenstein

The Girl With All the Gifts

The Gracefield Incident

The Happening

The Haunting (1963)

The Invisible Man (2020)

The Killing Kind

The Lair of the White Worm

The Last Broadcast

The Last Exorcism

The Last Unicorn

The Lazarus Effect

The Lords of Salem

The Machinist

The Matrix series

The Menu

The Midnight Meat Train

The Night Flier

The Old Ways

The Omen

The Others

The Passenger

The People Under the Stairs

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

The Pit

The Plague Dogs

The Quarry

The Red Shoes (1948)

The Reflecting Skin

The Relic

The Resurrected

The Serpent and the Rainbow

The Slayer

The Sleep Experiment

The Tall Man

The Tank

The Thaw

The Thief and the Cobbler

The Tommyknockers

The Triangle

The Triplets of Belleville

The Usual Suspects

The Void (2016)

The Vourdalak

The Wickerman

The Wisher (2002)

The White Reindeer

Thelma and Louise

They Live

Tigers are Not Afraid

Tombstone

Total Recall

Tremors

Triangle

Trilogy of Terror

Tron

Turning Red

Tusk

Twins of Evils

Underwater

Unearthed

Unhinged

V for Vendetta

Vamp

Velvet Buzzsaw

Videodrome

Violation

Virus:32 (2022)

Vivarium (2019)

We Are Not Alone

We Are Still Here

We Need to Talk About Kevin

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Wendell and Wild

What Josiah Saw

White Snake

White Zombie

Willow Creek

Wolf Creek

X (2022)

X-Men

You'll Like My Mother

Zodiac

Zombie (1979)

Zombillenium

#spiced #watch list

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chayacat · 3 years ago

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Remember, My Love. (7)

Fandom: Resident Evil 8 Village

Lycan Karl Heisenberg x Female Reader

Rated M for Violence, language and Smut

***

He had finally managed to escape them. He had killed quite a few on the way, but the more he killed, the more there were. Chris had felt for a brief moment, that this was the end for him. But now he was safe at least for now. He knew where he was. The fortress. His place of destination on departure. Heisenberg had locked him there in a cage, like a wild animal. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, Aria wasn't there. She was with him. Chris was just hoping she was fine.

Chris checked the ammunition of his weapons. He still had it for quite some time. Now we had to leave this place and go back in search of Aria. He will take care of the Fortress later. He set out again not without remaining on his guard, in case a Lycan pointed the tip of his ... nose. The corridors were very large, and every intersection could be a sign of an ambush. Because despite their aggressive behaviour, lycans are quite lucid and intelligent.

After a while, at an intersection, Chris sees a door... very particular. Traces of claws were present throughout the door and some pieces of wood had disappeared altogether. How could she still stand? that is the question. When Chris opened the door, he discovered a room that was... practically in the same condition as the door. The walls were scratched, the few pieces of furniture were also there, and chains were deep pressed in the wall. The bed was completely destroyed, only the mattress remained on the floor.

“It is surely here that he must lock up his victims... Shit but what does he do to them?” said Chris before noticing a kind of book on a desk.

He approached the desk and delicately took the book in his hands. It was perhaps the only thing in this room that was in good condition. When he opened it, he could see that it was not a simple book, but a kind of diary. And it belonged to Heisenberg. Chris flipped through the pages until he came across a page... where a few drops of dried blood were.

*November 6, my world has just collapsed. The woman I loved, breathed her last in my arms. I tried to keep her alive, to keep her awake until Moreau and the others arrived to treat her. But unfortunately, she has not held so far. Why...WHY? Why am I being deprived of everything that could make me happy?! Everything was so wonderful! I was with the one I loved; we were going to be happy forever! she had accepted who I was! what I was! she had accepted everything else! the pack, Urias, the monsters that my sisters my brother and I are. And it took a stupid Human to destroy everything! I could never forget that day. Never. And the beast in me... Will unravel his anger. They will pay me. ALL the men in this village will pay me dearly. I needed guinea pigs at the factory... I just found them. One day we will be reunited my love, and we can finally be happy. But until then, not a day will pass without thinking about you... My Aria. *

“Aria?” said Chris before noticing an old photo exceed the diary.

When he took the picture delicately in his hands, Chris couldn't believe his eyes. Heisenberg was on it, he looked as old as he is now, surely a gift from Miranda, smiling and holding against him a young woman that Chris had no trouble recognizing: Aria. The same haircut and color, the same eyes, the same face, he felt like he was seeing a twin sister. But yet it was her, with around her neck, a necklace with an aquamarine.

“I don't believe it... How... What the f**k is going on here? I have to find Aria and quickly.” said Chris before leaving the room.

But no sooner had he had time to take a step, when a monster grabbed him by the neck and sent him waltzing away, passing him through a wall. Chris got up with difficulty swearing before feeling a shadow weighing over him. When he raised his head, he saw a creature.... very impressive. It could be said that he looked like Urias, except that he wore a helmet and some kind of Armor as clothes.

“What the...” he started before narrowly dodging a sledgehammer from the creature.

The creature screamed, alerting lycans who approached and stood above Chris. from a small dozen, we soon went to a hundred lycans, which were there as spectators. The room had become a real gladiator arena. And Chris was the show of the day. The creature, which will be named Urias Strajer, rushed on Chris who avoided the blow again, causing excitation in the lycans. He shot him, but the Armor prevented any bullets from penetrating the creature to injure it. He must find another way to reach it.

“Ok you want to fight? so come! I'm waiting for you!” Scream Chris, taking his knife and a grenade.

The Urias Strajer screamed and charged Chris again, but Chris waited until he was close enough to throw the grenade at him, which exploded, stunned the creature. When he came to his senses, the beast looked for Chris in every nook and cranny, without feeling that he was hanging on his back. He screamed in pain when he felt the knife stick in his flesh, then grabbing Chris and throwing him out, sending him against a wall. Chris groaned, but got up while taking his knife in hand. He will have to find his weak point if he wants to get rid of it, and given the size of the beast, this was not won. But at least he had hurt it.

“You have a weak point somewhere... bastard. I would eventually find it. And then I'll take care of your little friends.”

As the Urias Strajer moved again to attack Chris, Chris noticed a detail that would change everything: under the fur that went down from his face to the torso, there was no protection. It was completely uncovered. The heart.... that's where he has to strike. Unfortunately, firing the weapon will be useless, Urias Strajer will use his spiked club to defend himself. He's going to have to go with a knife. And therefore, to get closer to him to be able to reach him. But how do you reach a creature that will see you?

Unless you blind him long enough for that, it's impossible. Unfortunately, if Chris uses his flash grenade, the blinded creature will strike everywhere and given the fragility of the place... it is highly likely to be buried under the stone. It's too dangerous. he has to come up with another idea. He will have to do it the old way. By Tricking, and by fists. He rushed on the Urias Strajer and once again avoided a spiked club blow by sliding under the creature's legs. He got up but did not have time to cling to his back, the latter having turned around, taking his weapon easily with one hand. He must find a way to immobilize it.

“Come on! Show me what you’re worth, big pile of grease!”

The latter screamed again, causing a general rush among the lycans, who were all equally excited by the show. They hit the walls with their weapons, some in rhythm, others were offbeat but the atmosphere they gave was really reminiscent of an arena of gladiators. Chris suddenly noticed something that might help him: above them, an old candlestick that was on the verge of letting go. It just took one shot.... and the beast would be stuck. First, he has to position it just below. The fight followed one another and again, blows, dodges, screams from lycans even more excited than ever.

Then after a while, everything ended up exactly where Chris wanted it to be. He then took out his weapon, fired in the air and the iron candlestick fell on Urias Strajer who as expected found himself stuck, his torso exposed, having turned around to block the candlestick. Chris quickly took his knife, climbed on the creature and with a sharp and precise gesture, pierced the creature's heart. He began to scream in pain, tried to get out... then nothing. A silence of death was cast and even the lycans had become silent. Chris pulled out the knife, got up, and looked at the lycans around him.

“Who's turning now huh?? Come! approach I'm ready!” scream Chris, ready to kill the first who will dare to make a gesture.

But none of them reacted, and then after a few minutes, they fled, leaving Chris and the creature's corpse alone. The latter sighed; he was exhausted. Between Heisenberg's game and this fight... it was too much in a day. He suddenly heard a voice. An old woman's voice. He followed the path and came across "Baba yaga", as Aria called her. She was muttering the prayer like the first time while tracing the same symbol. Then when she raised her head, she smiled snugly at Chris.

“Well, boy, it looks like you've failed in your destiny... or that you were going to fail.” she said.

“I have faced death more than once old woman; I am ready for anything. I have to find Aria and destroy Miranda.” said Chris.

“Why find a person who is exactly where they should be? And destroy Miranda? Hahaha! Madness! She is much more powerful than you think!”

“It kills your entire village. She is lying to you. I saw the zombies at the Castle, and I'm sure the lycans are also ancient inhabitants of the village. And you continue to venerate her as a goddess?”

“But the men and women of this village are consenting to this sacrifice... We are ready for anything to obtain Mother Miranda's blessing.”

“... I have... I found a diary in there. Heisenberg's. And in it was this.” replied Chris before holding the photo to the old woman. “I want answers. Why is Aria in this old photo?”

“Simply because it is the truth. Aria and Lord Heisenberg were together, equally in love with each other. Inseparable despite what he was.”

“That's impossible. Have you seen the date? Aria would be much older if that were the case. And so does he. Yet she is still as young as ever. What the hell is this? is it a faked photo? What is Mother Miranda doing? Reply!” But the old woman turned her back on him and began to leave. “Wait!”

“I cannot give you all the answers to your questions. You will have to look for them by yourself. But if I can give you a piece of advice young man. Leave Aria where she is. Or you will suffer the consequences. You don't know what the 4 Lords are.” She said before leaving.

Chris found himself alone again. No answer to his questions. He knew what the 4 Lords were. Monsters. At least he knew that Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters were vampires, creatures that should not exist in this world. But which are very real here. He didn't imagine what others could be. He knew that Heisenberg controlled the magnetic fields, he had paid the price. But what about the other 2? And Mother Miranda? He needs answers. He MUST get these answers. Otherwise, he will never be able to move forward.

He must also find Aria. Contrary to what this old woman said, she is not where she should be. It's his fault that she's trapped. He must therefore repair his mistake. But he must admit that if the photo is indeed real, it is a real shock for him. How can she be as young in this photo as she is now? That's impossible! He felt deep down that Miranda was no stranger to this. She did something to her. At least she did something. But what? He went back on his way, determined to shed light on this story.

Meanwhile, in the heights of the mountains, the old woman observed Chris, a petty smile on his lips.

“So... you want to destroy me, Redfield. You don't realize what mess you've gotten yourself into. And in addition, you want to take away our little Aria.” She said before taking another appearance: Mother Miranda. “If you believe that I will let you destroy everything I have built with my hands, and take back my "daughter-in-law"... It's that you're even more stupid and crazy than I thought. You're playing a dangerous game, Chris Redfield... let's see how far you play. And it will be me who will end the game. By being victorious.”

And in a sinister laugh, she disappears. A swarm of crows flew away, a sign that wherever you are and no matter how many you are...

Mother Miranda is always above you.

***

(Well in the end everything went well! my 3rd dose gave me the same effects as the other 2; horrible pain in the right arm. What a relief! I still haven't started the E-book prologue of road 96, both because I'm quite busy with work but also because I'm afraid of finishing it too quickly! But I'll have to do it! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Have a great week everyone! See ya!)

#Chris Redfield #Re8 #karl x female reader #re8 village #re8 fanfiction #Karl Heisenberg #Lycan Karl Heisenberg

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coffee-lover-666 · 3 years ago

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About Me

I’ve never posted a full ‘About Me’ so I guess it’s time! I’ll try and make it organized. More may be added over time.

Name

Nat

Relationship Status

In a Relationship {Committed, so please do not try and get with me, I’ll block you if you do}

Sexuality

Bisexual

Gender Identity

Non-Binary

My pronouns range from he/him, she/her, they/them, and it/its. I understand the term “it” can be bothersome to some as usually “it” refers to objects and in this day and age people argue with others about calling themselves an “it” but that’s just who I am.

I don’t care what you use for me for pronouns, I fit in just about all and none so whatever you feel for me in that moment is fine, I promise. I won’t be offended if you say he/him and the others I’ve listed.

Neurodivergencies

Autistic

ADHD

OCD

Race/Nationality

Abenaki Native American

Languages

English

ASL (PSE) {PSE is like sign language only it’s in the same order as you’re reading this instead of kind of backwards, like Yoda. Sorry I forget the actual definition on it all.}

Pets

Kookie (Guinea Pig)

Legolas (Cat)

Special Interests (SpIns)

Entomolgy (this is my top SpIns)

Zoology (another top SpIns)

Different movies/shows (feel free to ask about which)

Photography

Encanto (Disney Movie)

My Voo ( @voothecrochetdoll)

Theories (mostly movies and the Titanic)

Paranormal Stuff

Favorite Movies

Encanto

Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Ga’hoole

Rise of the Guardians

Turning Red

Twilight Series

Sonic the Hedgehog

Joker

Strange Magic

Leap (aka Ballerina in some locations)

Moana

Lilo and Stitch (all movies)

Spirited Away

Brave

Balto

Chicken Little

Rio/Rio 2

A Bug’s Life

The Ant Bully

Epic

Interview with the Vampire

Favorite Shows

The Good Doctor

Game of Thrones

The Big Bang Theory

The Simpsons

The Vampire Diaries

Friends

Rick and Morty

Family Guy

Rugrats

The Big Comfy Couch

Arthur

CatDog

Courage the Cowardly Dog

Dragon Tales

Zoboomafoo

Bear In The Big Blue House

Between The Lions

Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat

Downton Abbey

Project Runway

Big Mouth

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Favorite Anime

Citrus

Sword Art Online

Vampire Knight

Blood Lad

Blood+

Tokyo Ghoul

Diabolik Lovers

Kotoura-San

Music

I listen to a variety of different music. I usually love Country, or anything slow but also like songs such as Cheerleader by OMI. I have an entire tag of songs that I like below listed under ‘My Tags’. I’m also open to song suggestions!

Religion

Leaning towards the Catholic religion, still calling myself a witch as I still practice witchcraft.

Fashion

I love dressing in the goth style, but I also dress in just grey or faded colors. Clothing must not have glitter, sequins, or beads. Chains and straps are fine, though.

Relationships/Friendships

I have a wonderful partner, who I give my all to. I don’t have many friends but that’s okay.

My Tags

#coffee-lover-666 #coffee-lover-666-playlist #coffee-lover-666-SpIns

{Feel free to ask me about anything on my list!}

#personal #about me #my life #my blog #life blog #blog #life #about #all about me #coffee-lover-666

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bitchfacecupid · 4 years ago

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Looking for friends (preferably semi close to Seattle /in the Pacific Northwest but not required). 21+ /LGBTQA only. I’m 25 if it matters.

I’m a (well passing, post op) trans man an hour north of Seattle in search of fellow neurodivergent and or LGBTQ* individuals with dark/twisted senses of humour whom enjoy not staying inside all the time.

Absolute favourite activities of mine are listed below, many of which are not for couch potatoes, though I definitely enjoy lazy days, binge watching tv, movie nights and so forth.

• Outdoor work/ landscaping on acres of property

• Swimming for hours

• Exploring new areas

• Lopping brambles

• Burning built up property foliage in fire pits

• Hiking

• Walking

• Pride parades

• Festivals

• Hempfest

• Picnics

• Going to the beach/lake/docks

• Camping

• Cookouts/BBQs

• Cutting and moving wood

• Raking leaves

• Weight lifting (YMCA)

• Lunch at the park

• Movie nights

• Sleepovers

• Fort making (indoor or outdoors)

• Duck watching

• Deer watching

• Duck feeding

• Cooking & baking

• Making scented bath salts

• Guinea pigs and their routines

I do not enjoy being sedentary for very long or staying indoors and being lazy for days on end. I get restless and irritated if I do. If you are someone that loves staying inside year round, we just won’t get along.

I have ADHD & Autism. I can (and do) hyperfocus on things. When I want to get something done, it will get done.

These are what I believe to be my best qualities:

• I don’t believe in lying. It’s exhausting.

• I do not, nor will I ever at any point, have any hidden agendas.

• Honesty is the best policy. I’m always upfront with where people stand in my point of view or how something seems/ed to me.

• I get things done quickly.

• I’m very punctual.

• I take pride in not making people have to read between the lines while communicating with me. What I say is what I mean and nothing more. It is exhausting for me to have to do that and I don’t want to put others through this hell.

• My emotions do not control me. Aka I’m not an emotional reactor.

• I love goofy dancing and badly singing to my favourite songs when I’m by myself.

• I love reptiles.

• Very sarcastic.

• Enjoy discussing taboo and gruesome topics.

• Want to try new, non American food.

• I aim to live a lifestyle which reduces my waste and carbon footprint.

• I do not use (and am repulsed by) text talk.

Some of my weaker points are:

• I’m quick to anger if you don’t get done what you said you would in a timely manner OR fail to notify me of your failing to complete whatever was needed to get done.

• I get extremely upset if any of my routines are altered or changed in any way and am very adamant that they not be changed even if it makes things inconvenient for me. That last part is less of an inconvenience for mess long as my routines stay the same.

• Others have said that I continue to ask them about the thing they didn’t complete by a certain date after I’ve made it clear that I needed it done a while ago. This is annoying (?) to them.

• I have no perception of my own body language, facial expressions or tone of voice unless I’m angry.

• I can’t read body language, facial expressions, “read between the lines” when communicating or pick up on subtle or obvious social cues/hints. These all fly right over my head higher than a Boeing plane in the sky.

• I am extremely blunt to the point that it sounds like I’m being rude and inconsiderate because I don’t make my words softer or find a way to phrase them in a gentler manner. I do not know nor understand how to do either of these or why I should conform to this social norm. Most Autistic people are like this (NOT ALL).

Some shows I like are:

•

• Supernatural

• Schitt’s Creek

• Zoo

• I Am Not Okay With This

• Lock And Key

• Tiger King (junk food escapism show)

• Murder and crime documentaries (not dramas)

• Merlin

• South Park

• Robot Chicken

• American Dad

• Family Guy

• Futurama

• Shin Chan

• The Young Ones

• The Vampire Diaries

• True Blood

• Mamma’s House

• Mrs Brown’s Boys

Please message me if you’re interested in talking further. It doesn’t matter when you see this post. I prefer communicating over Facebook Messenger or IMessage after we get to know each other better as I’m usually out on a 5 acre property with little to no actual WiFi signal.

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tallulahchanel · 6 years ago

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“The Rose of Wakanda” Chapter 1

Summary: Wavuka "Rose" Esihle has lived at the Wakandan Palace since she was eight years old when her father took a job as a servant. He fell ill ten years later, and she took over for him and has since served the royal family faithfully. After a month-long leave of absence, Rose is returning to the palace and tries to get back to her life. Unfortunately, that is proving harder than she expected. Will she handle it or crack under pressure?

Author’s Note: The Xhosa words may not be accurate due to using Google Translate. I do apologize if anyone is offended by this. Also, Xhosa translations are at the end of the chapters.

October 17, 2016

13:40

My sleeping chambers

Dear Diary,

I don’t know why I'm doing this, but since T'Challa insisted on me having this feature on my kimoyo bead, I guess there's no harm in trying it.

My name is Wavuka Esihle, but everyone refers to me as Rose. I've worked as a servant in the Wakandan Palace since I was eighteen, but I’ve lived here years prior. My father had taken a job as a servant where he served honorably until he fell terminally ill. I had to balance working at the palace and taking care of him until he died.

Today I returned to Wakanda from...let's just call it a "vacation" (for now at least). The journey in the aircraft felt like the longest ride of my life, probably due to the nerves of returning home. I sat in the passenger area behind the cockpit while Okoye navigated the machine, while Weza—a sixteen-year-old palace servant—tried futilely to make my naturally coily hair, which hadn't been combed since my departure from Wakanda, look presentable. Why she didn't just bring a scarf for me to wrap my hair in, I'll never know.

"Sister Rose," Okoye called out to me, "we are home."

Rising from the bench I was sitting, I moved to the cockpit and stood to the left of Okoye to see the majestic mountains and rainforests. I don't always get the pleasure of seeing the scenery from outside of the palace, so I took it in, mentally photographing its beauty. We eventually came to the forcefield that hid behind the illusion of a mountain range. T'Challa has always told me how great it is when the aircraft flies into the forcefield, revealing the loveliness and technological advances that was the true Wakanda.

Okoye flew the jet to the palace where King T'Challa, and his sister Shuri, were waiting with smiles on their faces. The ramp lowered and I departed the ship, Okoye and Weza following behind me. The first thing I noticed was T'Challa chuckling as if he saw something funny, and I was pretty sure it involved my hair. Granted, I hadn't been able to see it, but his demeanor told me that it wasn't the best looking.

"Welcome home, Rose," Shuri greeted me as she came over to give me a hug. "You're looking...healthy."

I chuckled and hugged her back. I missed her wit.

"I'm glad to be home. How has the palace been running without me?"

"Complete chaos, if you ask me."

"Especially with her and Weza trying to cook," T'Challa chimed in with a chuckle.

"At least I tried," Shuri told him with a pout. “It would've been perfect had you allowed me to use technology instead of hard labor.”

"There's nothing wrong with hard labor, little sister," I heard T'Challa say as they followed me through the palace doors.

"Well, I'm here now," I said to break up the brewing debate between the siblings. "So, I'll get started on supper once I have a long, hot bath and take a nap."

I stopped at a decorative mirror in the corridor and got a glimpse of my wild curls in fits of tangles, which was going to take hours to comb. Weza had tried getting rid of the tangles with her fingers, but it didn't do much good.

"Skip the nap, I need to do something about this hair." I took another look in the mirror. "Supper may be a little late."

"No need to worry about that, Rose," T'Challa said as he came behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "I will have someone...that is not these two," he added when he saw the two teens perk up, "cook supper. In the meantime, you are off-duty until further notice."

I giggled at Weza and Shuri’s frowns before smiling at T’Challa’s reflection. “Well, if you think I need the time off, I'll take it.”

“And maybe the time off will allow you to do other things,” Shuri said with a knowing smirk on her lips.

“She is not going to be a guinea pig for one of your experiments,” T’Challa told her, releasing my shoulders, while I chuckled.

“Trust me, I learned my lesson with the cloning fiasco.”

“Actually,” Shuri interjected, “I think I figured out a way to make it work. I just need-"

“Absolutely not!” T’Challa sternly interrupted her.

“Ku bulala,” Shuri mumbled under her breath, emitting giggles from Weza and I. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I'm going to check on the ingcuka.” She gave me one more hug, whispered that it was great to have me home again, and walked away.

“I guess that's my queue to do my chores for the day,” Weza said before giving me a hug and inching further into the corridor.

“Weza,” T’Challa’s voice pulled her back, and she turned on her heel. “Do your chores yourself.”

She gave him a thumbs up before disappearing, leaving me and T’Challa alone.

“What was that about?” I asked curiously as we began walking towards my chambers.

“Weza learned an excellent addition to her gifts that she has been using to get the other servants to do her chores for her.”

“Mind control?" I received a nod in response. "But that's dangerous."

“Only if used for malicious purposes. That is why I’m teaching her how to use it properly.”

“That’s good,” I told him with a proud look on my face.

Weza was born with the gifts of telepathy and telekinesis. When she came into her gifts at age six, her parents, who didn’t know where else to turn, asked King T’Chaka for help because she couldn’t control them. By his insistence, the parents gave Weza over to the royal family where she would be trained to control her gifts, and has lived at the palace since. Last year, Weza decided to show gratitude to the family by working as a servant under my guidance, even though they deemed it unnecessary because she was like family. I found it annoying at first, because Weza would follow me around like a lost puppy so she could learn from me, but she eventually grew on me and became the little sister I always wanted

We made it to my chambers. I turned the knob to the double doors, and before I could get the doors open, something raced out of my room and ducked between my legs. As it began to lift me, I instinctively clenched my legs around it to maintain my balance while it moved around the room fast and uncontrolled.

“WOAH! EASY!” I pleaded with it.

It came to a screeching halt, and the momentum forced my legs to lose their grip, causing me to fly towards my queen-sized bed and land with my back to the mattress—leaving my arms and legs sprawled, and my head hanging off the edge. Releasing a groan, I realized I was fine, but my relief was short-lived when a wet substance rubbed against my face.

“Ugh! LEO!” I mustered enough strength to push the licking tiger off me.

Leo backed off me before jumping on the bed. He tried to smother me with kisses again, but I was able to avoid it by rolling off the bed and onto the marble floor, brushing myself off once I got to my feet.

T’Challa’s laugh cut through the tension of the room, and I sent a glare towards him.

“I’m glad you find that funny.”

“I find it quite amusing,” he replied, receiving another glare from me. “Oh give him a break. He missed you.”

I rolled my eyes, but petted Leo’s head nonetheless.

Sixteen years ago, T’Challa and I found a mother tiger who had been killed by hunters. She had just given birth to a newborn cub that couldn’t fend for himself. With some convincing, T’Challa allowed me to take the poor thing back to the palace, where I took good care of him and raised him. I named him Leo, and he has grown into my furry best friend.

“I missed you too Leo," I told him while rubbing his ears. He leaned in to lick my face some more, but I kept him at bay while releasing a giggle. "Hey, now! That's enough of that."

“Rose,” T’Challa addressed me as he walked towards my nightstand. He opened the top drawer and pulled out my Kimoyo Beads.

My face lit up upon seeing them. I couldn’t take them with me—not until the world is accustomed to the idea of Wakandan technology—so I missed having them. Plus, I needed them to get in contact with my fiancé, Dakarai.

“Thank you,” I told T’Challa as he placed the beads on my wrist.

“There’s something I want to show you.” He tapped on the bracelet and summoned a feature I’ve never seen before.

“What is this?” I asked him curiously when I saw a blank document with a holographic keyboard.

“It’s a diary,” he answered simply with a chuckle. When he saw my brows furrow, he further explained. “I asked Shuri to include this feature so that you can write down your thoughts if you feel that you cannot express them.” He then proceeded to show me the other features: password encryption, unlimited storage, etc. “And if you want to go old school,” he typed in a code and the computerized document turned into a holographic, leather-bound notebook and pen, “it will still save in your database.”

“You really did this for me?" I asked, shocked by his generosity.

“Of course. Rose, you’re one of my best friends. I just want to make life as easy for you as possible. I know that sometimes it’s hard for you to talk about things, so I thought this way you could express yourself without having to talk about it.”

I fought back tears as I wrapped my arms around his neck and thanked him in our native language, “Enkosi.”

“Wamkelekile.”

We pulled away after a while and gave each other friendly smiles.

“Now,” T’Challa spoke up, “I have a meeting with the council in forty-five minutes. You, my dear, need to rest and relax. Don’t worry, I’ll get a couple of servants to do something about that hair.”

I shot him yet another glare, but he only chuckled in response while walking towards the door.

“T’Challa,” I called him back.

He turned on his sandal-clad heels. “Yes, Rose?”

“Can you show me how to change the password so that only I can have access to the diary?” I arched an eyebrow, and he knew I was referring to his knack for being nosey.

“Of course,” he replied while flashing that charming smile that made all the girls in the kingdom fawn all over him.

After showing me how to change the password, he left my chambers, leaving me with my thoughts.

Now, I’m here, trying this new feature. So far I have to say that I’m liking it, and just might get used to it.

~~~

Translations

ku bulala – killjoy

ingcuka – white wolf

Enkosi – Thank you

Wamkelekile – You’re Welcome

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alsjeblieft-zeg · 2 years ago

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319 of 2022

I was born in… 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 Later

I am… Under 5ft 5ft - 5ft 3 5ft 3 – 5ft 5 5ft 6 – 5ft 8 5ft 9 – 5 ft 11 Taller than 6ft

My body type is… Petite Slim/skinny Athletic Average Curvaceous Just Right Full Big & Beautiful

My eye color is… Blue Green Gray Hazel Brown

My hair is… Blonde Dark Blonde Strawberry Blonde Ginger/red Brown Dark brown Black Color not mentioned High-lighted Dyed Natural Wavy Curly Straight Short Medium length Long

I would consider myself… Shy Outgoing Sociable Anti-social Sensitive Insensitive Bitchy Kind Friendly Aloof Mean Intimidating Approachable Confident Quiet Loud Popular Different Alone Artistic Creative Smart Musical Loved Hyperactive Lethargic Rebellious Scary Silly Funny Fun Polite Rude Outspoken Honest Gullible Miserable Selfish Happy Depressed Desperate Lonely Ambitious Nonchalant Affectionate Romantic Loving Generous

In my spare time I like to… Use the internet Use myspace/facebook etc Talk on msn/aim Draw Paint Photoshop Be artistic in other ways Write poetry Write stories Write blogs/journals/diaries Hang out with friends/boyfriend/family Go out to eat Play sports Play an instrument Sing Church Read Walk Play with pets Walk pets Surveys Camera whore Dance Drink Smoke Hug/cuddle Ice skate Rollerblade (rollerskate) Shop Watch TV Watch movies at home Go to the cinema Go to the beach Sunbathe Go to the gym/exercise Photography Drive Sleep Relax

In school my favorite subjects were/are… English language English literature Languages Social Studies Business Studies Maths Biology Chemistry PE History Geography Religious Education Art Graphic Design Technology Cookery/Home Ec Music

I have these pets… Dog Cat // x2 Hamster Rat Mouse Chinchilla Fish Tortoise Rabbit Guinea Pig Snake Spider Other insect Bird/budgie

My favorite colors are… Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Pink Purple Orange Brown Maroon Beige Gray

I listen to this music… Pop Synthpop 80s R’n’B Rap Hip Hop Blues Reggae Jazz Emo Screamo Hardcore Punk Goth Metal Rock Rock’n’Roll Electronica Techno Dance House Garage Country

My style is… Original/unique Modern fashion Casual Sporty/Athletic Emo Scene Punk Goth/Gothic Slutty Gangsta Skater Hippie Smart Prep Chav Geeky Not listed here

I love to wear… Long dresses Short dresses Long skirts Short skirts Jeans Hoodies Cardigans Sweaters/jumpers Long-sleeved tops Short sleeved tops Sleeveless tops Vest tops Halter neck tops Colorful clothing Darker clothing Stripes Polka dots Velvet Corsets Bodices Jackets Coats Frills and lace Revealing clothing Cleavage enhancing tops See-through clothing Push up bras Balcony bras Normal bras Sports bras Padded bras Thongs French knickers Normal underwear Granny pants

I watch these kind of movies… (I don’t like movies, so no choice) Action Adventure Black & White Family/kid Disney Thriller Tragedy Horror Psychological Drama Historical Documentary Fantasy Science Fiction Comedy RomCom Musical Adult/Porn Animation Christmas Silent War Western Crime True life

My ideal guy/girl would be/have… (I don’t have a type, I just like guys, preferably those who have something special about them, so no choice here) Tall Medium Height Short Blonde Brunette Red-haired Blue eyes Brown eyes Green eyes Hazel eyes Good looking Average looking Facial hair Long hair Short hair Medium length hair Afro Dreadlocks Tanned Pale Thin Medium build Muscular Bigger build Athletic Alternative Emo Goth Prep Casual/own style Punk Gangster Scene Surfer Skater Popular Sociable Outgoing Not so outgoing Quiet Shy Loud Witty Intelligent Musical Artistic Sporty Polite Kind Friendly Affectionate Romantic Traditional/old-fashioned Cool Geeky Different Rebellious Masculine

I like to eat… Italian Chinese Indian Mexican Other Vegetarian diet Vegan diet Meat Fish // sometimes only Vegetables Fruit Cheese Yogurt Pasta Pizza Rice Tacos Curry Burger Chips/fries Crisps Biscuits/cookies Chocolate Sweets Ice cream Bread Cake Cereal Toast Sandwiches

I like to drink… Water Tea Coffee Hot chocolate Orange juice Apple juice Other juice Milk Iced tea Milkshake Coke Pepsi Sprite Diet Dr Pepper Alcohol

I am scared of… Heights Closed spaces Open spaces People Serial killers Rapists Rodents Spiders/other insects Illness/disease Death Losing loved ones Fire Water Some animals Getting lost Rejection Heartbreak Commitment Failure The future The past Sex Heaven/hell/afterlife Loneliness Violence Relationships Needles Being fired Doctors Surgery Dentists Fish Squids Sharks Blood Depression

This survey… Was great, I really enjoyed it Good Okay Passed the time Wasted my time Whatever

#survey #bolding survey #categorised survey #about me survey

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burnedparadisesimblr · 7 years ago

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Ask Tag

thanks for tagging me @cantseemtohide

Rules: Answer 20 questions and tag 20 people you wanna know better!

Name: Sarah

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Height: 4”11

Languages Spoken: english

Nationality: American

Favorite Fruit: grapes

Favorite Scent: rain

Favorite Color: purple or black

Favorite Animal: guinea pigs

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: hot chocolate

Favorite Fictional Character: Hermione Granger

Dream Trip: ?

When was your blog created: this one I don’t remember but the first Ari Diaries was November.

Last Movie you’ve seen: Batman v Superman

Song you’ve had on repeat: Alone in a Room by Asking Alexandra

Favorite Candy: British chocolate

Favorite Holiday: 🎃 👻 Halloween

I tag @nicesimmer11 @ratfantasy-sims @softvysims @voidboredom @starry-eyed-simss

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gayforstyle · 7 years ago

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do all of them coward

Babe goddammit.

📱 Show your phone lock screen and/or home screen

They’re both of my beautiful daughter, Piper. She is a guinea pig.

💕 Your two top fave fictional characters

All of yall are probably expecting me to say Kyle but believe it or not, no. My favorite is probably Yu Narukami/Persona 4 MC.

Second favorite is probably Kyle.

🕹 Video game you are currently playing

Persona 5. Shit just got very real. (I already know the story and how it ends and everything, I’ve seen a playthrough of the game. I just didn’t have the chance to play it myself until end of the summer and I’ve been too busy with school to get super into it.)

🌡 Fave season

Fall, probably.

🏫 Are you in school, what grade

I’m a junior in high school.

🎒 Are you in college, major area of study

Not in college yet. I plan to major in theater though.

🏢 Your job (You don’t have to be specific) or dream job if you don’t work

Don’t have a job yet, but my dream job would be an actor. Specifically a broadway actor but I’ll take what I can get.

📷 Post the 12th photo from your phone’s gallery

Uhhhhhh I could provide context but there really is none.

📅 Your birthday

August 18th

🎂 How old are you

16.

📏 How tall are you

5′4″

🔑 Key to your heart

Buy me coffee.

📖 Fave book

OOF I LOVE THIS QUESTION. Favorite book right now is “One of us is Lying” but favorite book of all time is probably either “The Lightning Thief” or “City of Bones.”

📝 Fave quote

Fuck I have no idea.

🌐 Languages you can speak and/or are learning. Which are you fluent in

I’m fluent in english and took three years of spanish.

💻 Desktop/Laptop/iPad/other

I don’t understand this question? Uhhh laptop?

📔 Do you keep a traditional diary

Sort of. I have a journal I write in when I get super anxious or feel like I need to get my emotions out.

☠ Something that angers you

When people refuse to listen.

🐷 Junk food you can never get enough of

Chicken nuggets. Dino shaped nuggets, specifically.

🌼 Fave flower

Lilacs.

📺 Fave anime

Noragami. Listen, it’s really good okay?

🎥 Fave film

I have no idea.

📻 Fave song currently

Currently it would have to be drugs by EDEN.

🎙 Can you sing

No.

🎁 Best gift you ever received and why

Uhhhhhhhhhhh

👾 Do you believe in aliens

I believe something is out there but I don’t entirely know what.

👻 Do you believe in ghosts

Personally no, but I suppose you never know.

⛪ What is your religion

I’m atheist actually uhhh

🌎 What country do you live in

United States, land of eagles and cheeto presidents.

📸 Post a selfie

No??

Fine, here.

Ah yes it is me, your local trash boy :)

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deutscheshausnyu · 6 years ago

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INTERVIEW WITH HANS WEISS

Hans Weiss was born in Hittisau, Vorarlberg, Austria in 1950. He studied Psychology, Philosophy, and Pedagogy at the University of Innsbruck where he did his Ph.D. in 1976. In 1978 he completed a postgraduate course in medical sociology at the Vienna Institute for Advanced Studies. He received a research grant from the British Council with stays at the Universities of Cambridge and London in 1978/79. In 1980, he worked as a pharmaceutical consultant, collecting material on the business practices of the pharmaceutical industry for journalistic reasons. Based on his research, he wrote two books “Gesunde Geschäfte” and “Bittere Pillen,” which caused a sensation at the time. “Bittere Pille” sold more than three million copies in the meantime and became one of the greatest German-language book successes. From 1994 - 1995 he trained at the International Center of Photography in New York and in 1997/1998 as well as in 2010/2011 at the School of Artistic Photography in Vienna.

On April 1, Deutsches Haus at NYU presented the opening of the exhibitoon “The Towers of Babel” by Hans Weiss. His exhibition will be on view until June 7.

Your current photography exhibition at Deutsches Haut at NYU captures the view from the 10th floor of NYU’s Bobst Library, from the same spot, between 2014 and 2018, at different times of the day and during different seasons. What made you choose this particular spot?  

Whenever I stay in New York - usually five or six weeks every year - I use the reading room on the 10th floor of Bobst Library as my work space. It is quiet, I am surrounded by students and books, and I have this great view in front of me: nature (Washington Square Park) and culture (Manhattan skyline with Empire State and Chrysler Building). There are huge windows from floor to the ceiling and even though it is always the same view, it is also always different: changing lights, changing colors, changing impressions.

The photos in the series “The Towers of Babel” were all taken with an iPhone. Why did you choose this medium over a traditional camera?

I started the project not knowing that it would become a longtime project. I use my iPhone regularly as a visual diary. So, the first pictures were shot for private memory. I only started thinking about turning this body of work into an exhibition in 2017. Until 2017 I used an iPhone 4 and after that an iPhone 8. Photographically there is a big difference between the two: I can enlarge iPhone 8-prints a lot bigger than iPhone 4-prints. I am surprised about the quality and the sharpness of the photos. I think it has to do with the fact that I did not take the pictures by holding the iPhone in my hand, but pressing it to the window - with the same stabilizing factor like using a tripod. Using a traditional camera would have meant carrying it with me all the time, which is bulky and heavy.

You have spent four years documenting New York City’s skyscrapers. When you first set out, did you think it would take four years to complete this project? How many pictures did you take during this time and how do you go about the editing process?  

When I started thinking of this as a serious project, I did not set myself a deadline. Although in my mind the project is finished, I still take pictures at Bobst Library. When you have run a long distance, it takes some time until your pulse is back to normal. After I showed some of my pictures to Juliane Camfield in 2018, I was invited to exhibit them at Deutsches Haus at NYU. I was happy but at the same time scared. How to select a small number of pictures out of about 3000? How can I bring them into an order which makes sense?

By chance I came across a famous picture from the Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder: “The Tower of Babel” (1563). It illustrates a story from ancient times. People started building a tower, to reach the clouds and the sky. It was the first skyscraper. God, who was an almighty figure at that time, felt offended and punished the builders. Everyone was given a different language and all of them were scattered all over the world. My series symbolizes the opposite of this story. People from all places on earth come to New York. They build skyscrapers, they speak 170 different, languages and they understand each other and feel united and at home.

To bring order to the infinite diversity of the world, artists, writers, and philosophers of Pieter Brueghel’s time used magic numbers like 7 or 4. For example, seven vices or four cardinal virtues. This was an important artistic tool in ancient and medieval times - and it helped me too.

In the exhibition you see 4 times of the day, 4 seasons, a group of 4 pictures with the universal topic “love,” and a group of 4 “virtues,” which I defined as curiosity, hard-working, ambition, and dream. Dream not in the meaning of Sigmund Freud’s teaching, but in the sense of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” - a very conscious effort of creating a better world. In addition to these four groups of four pictures there are 7 pictures representing “emotions”: fear, pride, sadness, courage, hope, anger, joy - scattered all over Deutsches Haus at NYU.

Are there any particularly memorable experiences from your time in the library that you would like to share with us?  

In the fall of 2015, when I was a regular at NYU’s Library, I exchanged a few friendly words with a staff member named Allan. A short time later we became friends. Allan’s Jewish father, who came from Freiburg in Germany, survived Hitler, because in the 1930s he had read Hitler’s infamous book “Mein Kampf.” He was shocked and thought: “Oh, that sounds life threatening for the Jewish people!” Allan is serious about what he writes. He called his family to immediately leave Germany, but they were hesitant. He was the only one who left for New York - and the only one who survived the Holocaust.

Allan’s mother came from Vienna. She was half Jewish. During the Nazi era, she was a member of an underground resistance group, which helped Polish Jews fleeing via Vienna to Hungary - which until March 1944 was allied with Germany, but still an independent state. Therefore, Jews were not deported and killed like in Poland or Austria. But the resistance group was betrayed and the German secret police “Gestapo” caught all members, including Allan’s mother. She was sent to the concentration camp “Ravensbrück” in Germany, but survived. After the war, she spent some time in Vienna, but because the eastern part of Austria was occupied by the Soviet Union, she saw no future by staying and emigrated to New York, where she met Allan’s father.

Allan himself now owns several houses in the Catskills, which he only rents out to very poor people. He does not make any money with that, but he sees this as a moral and spiritual commitment to his mother’s attitude: Helping other people to survive.

You divide your time between Vienna and New York. How do you perceive these two metropoles? How has living in these two places shaped you as a person and photographer?

Until the 1980s Vienna used to be at the edge of Europe. Kind of a dead city, living from and with the past. Gray, old fashioned, slow pulse. That has really changed. The overall quality of life in Vienna is certainly much better than in New York. Now it is more diverse than a decade ago. A very well-maintained city (public transport and other public services). The museum scene is almost as vibrant as in New York. If you are a lover of classical music or German speaking theatre or timeless sitting in a coffeehouse or “dolce far niente,” then Vienna is the right place to stay. I love New York, because it is so fast and dense and New York people are the friendliest and most open minded in the world in my opinion. Vienna is a great place to raise kids and live an easygoing life, but for me it is honestly a bit boring. Whereas New York is an exciting place for photographers - in this regard I feel at home here.

Your fiction and nonfiction books sold more than five million copies and are translated into 20 different languages. What are the main differences in your approaches to writing and to photography?  

For about three years now, I have become more interested in photography than in writing. Before that, I made my living mainly with non-fiction (books and reports for big German magazines). However, from time to time I also wrote literary pieces. Some non-fiction books were the result of huge undercover projects like working as a salesman for big pharma companies - to find out, how they bribe doctors and use patients as guinea pigs. These projects were very demanding and adventurous. You have to organize so many things at once, you have to be constantly aware of yourself playing a role, and you have to be on alert all the time as well as take enormous personal and legal risks. After all, you have to write, which is the most demanding effort. I know quite a few very successful writers. And with only one exception they all think, that writing is a terrible job. The thinking, the editing, the re-writing, the polishing of the words! Awful! But when you have finished something, it is great! Fiction writing is another thing altogether. Did I change the world with my writing? Well, maybe here and there, a little bit, I hope. But all in all, it is rather disappointing, I have to admit.

Photography is very different from anything I write. For me it is more emotional, more spontaneous. At the beginning of photo-projects, I do not think a lot about it. I am more instinct-driven, like an animal. I shoot and I instantly see the result. And only then, possibly, I start thinking. About light, shape, color, improvements, quality, meaning. After that there is the rather technical part of the job: Thinking in files, pixels, color grades, density, and so on. And transferring the images into images and prints, which are of interest for others. And all the organization, which is necessary for an exhibition.

What projects (either in writing or in photography) are you currently working on?  

Currently I am working on three photo-projects: First, on portraits for which I use an app in the wrong way. The pictures look like portraits the cubist painters produced in France at the turn of the last century: distorted, divided, and reassembled. Second, I am currently working on “Tourist” which is a longtime project I began in 1996. Third, I am working on “Smoke” which has nothing to do with cigarette smoking. And I also began writing my autobiography.

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allthingslinguistic · 5 months ago

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Language Guinea Pig Diaries #2: Highlights & Troubleshooting

I'm trying to improve my skills at four languages in preparation for summer travel: Italian, Dutch, Finnish, and Estonian.

Italian and Dutch I've studied a bit a while ago and I'm now trying to "activate" so I can hopefully have a conversation or two in them, while Finnish and Estonian I'm trying to pick up some rudimentary bits in. Here's the previous post in this series describing these goals and strategies in more detail.

Highlights

I've progressed from my menu of only gelato-making videos in Italian to other recipes in general, and in particular to lots of cooking videos from this popular Italian home cooking channel which was in the recommended videos after another one I watched. Maybe I'll branch out again at some point to other speakers, but for now it's nice to be able to stumble into more videos without having to think up new keywords to search. Also, I might need to make some of these recipes now...

The Dutch podcast listening is going well (though see weird issue below) and I especially like that the podcast I chose because it's the only podcast I knew in Dutch contains a mix of adult-to-adult and adult-and-child speech, which is a fun way to mix it up.

In Estonian, so far I have learned one (1) highly useful word, "tere", which this video tells me is an all-purpose neutral greeting (neutral with respect to both formality and time of day). Ooh, I've just realized while writing this post that it's probably cognate to Finnish "terve", a greeting I learned from Duolingo! (Yes, I just looked this up, seems like they both mean something to do with health.) So I've already learned one neat thing!

I'm also recognizing a few Estonian cognates from the Finnish Duolingo lessons, especially the verb "on" (which means "is"). I'm not recognizing many other words though, and I'm wondering how much of that is differing vocab and how much of that is not having learned many common words in Finnish yet (I've been especially chafing at how few verbs we've learned yet, it would be really useful to have a word like "I want" even if it's unanalyzed because the grammar is more complicated than they want to introduce early).

Youtube's algorithm has, after about a week, adjusted to the fact that I now want to watch videos entirely in Italian, and started recommending further Italian videos on my home feed (it was already doing so at the end of previous Italian videos). Tiktok's algorithm, so far, has not done this yet, and is still recommending me stuff in English, despite me aggressively liking basically all of the Estonian videos I watch and nothing else.

Troubleshooting

I've noticed that it's been easier to remember to do the podcast listening in Dutch and the youtube videos in Italian because I already have habits related to opening those apps, whereas I don't have habits around using tiktok so I kept forgetting to open it and look at some Estonian videos. But a couple days ago I moved the tiktok app on my phone to a more visible location, and now it's getting easier to remember.

Something else very weird that I noticed about listening is that when I play the tracks on my phone fairly loudly, it's relatively easy to focus on trying to listen to them, sometimes while playing a simple visual game on my phone for something to fiddle with (I've already noticed that unfamiliar languages need to be played louder than familiar ones). But when I beam the podcast over to my speaker at a distance, suddenly I very quickly start tuning out the unfamiliar language and opening up apps that involve reading and completely ignoring it. I have no problems listening to podcasts on speakers in English; in fact, it's my preferred method when I'm at home, but for some reason this causes my brain to reclassify Dutch as background noise to be ignored, even if it's the same loudness as it would be when it's played right near me. Super weird, has anyone else ever noticed anything like this?

Previously in Language Guinea Pig Diaries:

Summer 2024 travel plans and Language Guinea Pig Diaries

#language guinea pig diaries #languages #language learning #langblr #language study #learning languages

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medellia-of-the-vast-oceans · 7 years ago

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I was tagged by @nevermindthebenzos to do this so yay thank you! :)

5 things you’ll find in my bag:  - a dozen lipstick. Not kidding. - a bottle of water - Two brushes - Keys to my home, my mum’s place , my dad’s place, my former roomie’s place, my long lost bicycle, my workplace - Cigarettes 5 things you’ll find in my bedroom - my guitar - My diary - Beer - A mini fridge - Lipsticks everywhere 5 things I’ve always wanted to do: - move to another country - Learn how to play piano - Visit all continents - Learn a new language - Get back into politics again. Especially during a time like this. 5 things that make me happy:  - music - People who are genuinely nice and caring - traveling - When people thank me and tells me how much I’ve helped them get thru something difficult. - The sound of a guinea pig talking/squeaking. 5 things I’m currently into:  - pepsi - pancakes for lunch - naps - Rupaul’s Drag Race - Unresolved mysteries reddit 5 things on my to-do list: - getting a driver’s license - Adopt lots of abandoned guinea pigs when I’m old and retired. - Find some kind of peace within myself. - Learn how to do highlight, contouring and that kind of stuff. - Finish that goddamn book 1001 albums you must hear before you die.

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ao3feed-haikyuu · 5 years ago

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Anime Physics

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2wZTL9W

by lostnamu

Have you ever wondered about living in the world of anime? Don't lie. Of course you have. Tons of hotti- never mind. What happens if you place a normal human being in those universes? Would they go insane? Follow the journey of our unfortunate guinea pig, poor, poor Akio to the world of animated heaven.

Words: 522, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Multi

Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Todoroki Shouto, Bakugou Katsuki, Uraraka Ochako, Diavolo (JoJo), Higashikata Josuke (JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable), Eren Yeager, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Mikasa Ackerman, Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise, Yamada Ryuu, Miyamura Toranosuke, Nanase Haruka, Matsuoka Rin, Tachibana Makoto, Hazuki Nagisa, Ryuugazaki Rei, Yamazaki Sousuke, Hinata Shouyou, Kageyama Tobio, Sugawara Koushi, Sawamura Daichi, Tsukishima Kei, Nishinoya Yuu, Azumane Asahi, Victor Nikiforov, Houjou Satoko, Maebara Keiichi, Ryuuguu Rena, Sonozaki Mion, Sonozaki Shion, Furude Rika, Naegi Makoto, Enoshima Junko, Monokuma (Dangan Ronpa), Togami Byakuya, Kuremi Kyoko, Fukawa Touko, Akabane Karma, Shiota Nagisa, Ogino Chihiro, Saiki Kusuo, Kaidou Shun, Teruhashi Kokomi, Toritsuka Reita, Hairo Kineshi, Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs), Gasai Yuno, Amano Yukiteru, Yato (Noragami), Yukine (Noragami), Kim Namjoon | RM, Kim Seokjin | Jin, Min Yoongi | Suga, Jung Hoseok | J-Hope, Park Jimin (BTS), Kim Taehyung | V, Jeon Jungkook

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2wZTL9W

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #hq #ao3feed #fanfic #haikyu #ハイキュー!!

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ao3feed-yurionice · 5 years ago

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Anime Physics

by lostnamu

Words: 522, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Multi

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/23799400

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #yuri on ice

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ao3feed-danganronpa · 5 years ago

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Anime Physics

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2wZTL9W

by lostnamu

Words: 522, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Multi

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2wZTL9W

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #dangan ronpa #danganronpa #dr

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zolganif · 5 years ago

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I was born in… 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 Later

I am… Under 5ft 5ft - 5ft 3Full Big & Beautiful

My eye color is… Blue Green Gray Hazel Brown

My hair is… Blonde Dark Blonde Strawberry Blonde Ginger/red Brown Dark brown Black Color not mentioned High-lighted Dyed Natural Wavy Curly Straight Short Medium length Long

I have these pets… Dog Cat Hamster Rat Mouse Chinchilla Fish Tortoise Rabbit Guinea Pig Snake Spider Other insect Bird/budgie

My favorite colors are… Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Pink Purple Orange Brown Maroon Beige Gray

I listen to this music… Pop Synthpop 80s R’n’B Rap Hip Hop Blues Reggae Jazz Emo Screamo Hardcore Punk Goth Metal Rock Rock’n’Roll Electronica Techno Dance House Garage Country

My style is… Original/unique Modern fashion Casual Sporty/Athletic Emo Scene Punk Goth/Gothic Slutty Gangsta Skater Hippie Smart Prep Chav Geeky Not listed here

I watch these kind of movies… Action Adventure Black & White Family/kid Disney Thriller Tragedy Horror Psychological Drama Historical Documentary Fantasy Science Fiction Comedy RomCom Musical Adult/Porn Animation Christmas Silent War Western Crime True life

My ideal guy/girl would be/have… Tall Medium Height Short Blonde Brunette Red-haired Blue eyes Brown eyes Green eyes Hazel eyes Good looking Average looking Facial hair Long hair Short hair Medium length hair Afro Dreadlocks Tanned Pale Thin Medium build Muscular Bigger build Athletic Alternative Emo Goth Prep Casual/own style Punk Gangster Scene Surfer Skater Popular Sociable Outgoing Not so outgoing Quiet Shy Loud Witty Intelligent Musical Artistic Sporty Polite Kind Friendly Affectionate Romantic Traditional/old-fashioned Cool Geeky Different Rebellious Masculine

I like to eat… Italian Chinese Indian Mexican Other Vegetarian diet Vegan diet Meat Fish Vegetables Fruit Cheese Yogurt Pasta Pizza Rice Tacos Curry Burger Chips/fries Crisps Biscuits/cookies Chocolate Sweets Ice cream Bread Cake Cereal Toast Sandwiches

I like to drink… Water Tea Coffee Hot chocolate Orange juice Apple juice Other juice Milk Iced tea Milkshake Coke Pepsi Sprite Diet Dr Pepper Alcohol

This survey… Was great, I really enjoyed it Good Okay Passed the time Wasted my time Whatever

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