#legit have just been writing website copy

[parasiticstars]

Hey whumpblr I know you love and worship writing-prompt-s but they joined the bandwagon on mass reporting Palestinian accounts

Get 90s-ghost’s name out of your mouth; he’s human, he might make mistakes, but from what’s been shared on @ el-shab-hussein’s account, the vetting process is intense and leaves little room for deception.

I feel like most of y’all only care about Palestine when the people suffering are faceless, perfect victims, so poor and stupid and in need of a white savior they can’t possibly have their own thoughts and inner world and technology. All they should be to you is like those inspiration porn Starving Kids In Africa™.

As if them using a website they don’t know about in a language they have to machine translate and whole ass begging for donations isn’t bad enough.

Yes, there are scammers profiting off of a real time tragedy, but guess what? Guess fucking what? It’s pretty easy to check for yourself if a fundraiser is legit.

Anyways! A PSA!

You can easily check asks and fundraisers in your inbox by checking for their social media accs, which should definitely be older than their tumblr, searching their usernames on here and seeing if others have called them out, checking for their names on Strawberry Seed Collective, Operation Olive Branch, and this document, and going through their tumblr account and looking for stuff like frequent updates and news that’s not just a couple of super popular Palestinian news posts to pad out the blog length, reverse searching any pics they send, and copy pasting some of their story to see if other accounts have used their script.

Or you could also just ignore the asks either way since nobody’s can force you to donate anyways.

But don’t go out and accuse every single Palestinian on tumblr of being part of some massive fucking scam circle a lá “The Jews Are Controlling The Rich” conspiracy.

frankly, the biggest scammer is this one woman from Belgium (her first name is Laura) so I’d be wary of any based in Belgium unless you can find any other way to prove its validity.

[jellogram]

How I Landed Professional Writing Gigs (from scratch)

Okay so I am currently a full-time writer for a travel company but this was absolutely not my first writing endeavor so I thought it would be helpful to write out some things that I wish I had known.

I write non-fiction/marketing/journalism-oriented work, but there's some overlap with fiction publishing. However, you should understand that making a living solely from fiction is significantly harder than this.

So here is what I did:

1. Write as much as you can.

This seems obvious, because you need to practice, but it's more than that. You NEED to be creating work to fill out your portfolio. Write everything. Write essays about things you like, write short stories, write social media captions, interview whoever responds to your emails and write about that, just write write write as much as you can. With as much variety as you can. Writing ad copy in different styles is going to be a big one.

2. Compile all of this into a portfolio.

There are many ways to do this, but you need a) a digital folder that you can submit on forms and attach in emails and b) a website with all of your work that you can link with one URL. You can make a website with something like wordpress or you can just use substack or medium.

In your portfolio, include all of your best work. This will likely be pretty unimpressive at first, and mostly school papers and passion pieces, but it's a start. You just need to get something together, because when you start applying, you will often need a portfolio to even complete the submissions.

Now, this is crucial, do not publish all your creative pieces. If you have a poem or a short story that is particularly good, you can add it to your digital folder, but DO NOT PUBLISH IT on a publicly accessible site. You'll see why below.

3. Apply to literally everything.

Now you are ready to start looking for gigs. These will, almost certainly, be unpaid at first. Obviously this sucks, but it also doesn't have to ruin your life. If you're in a position to take a whole unpaid internship, that will definitely help, but there's other options.

Your new best friend is Submittable. This is how I got my first fiction piece published. Submit to e v e r y t h i n g. Paid, unpaid, whatever you can find. If you have a piece of creative writing that you truly think is publishable, you grind on Submittable for hours after work/school, sending it off to every publishing call that's even vaguely related.

This is why you can't publish your best work on your own site — nearly all of these listings require first publishing rights, meaning you keep ownership of your piece, but they don't want it if the public has been able to access it already. Once your piece is published on their site, you can add it to yours.

4. Keep track of where you've been published and put that list in your bio from now on.

You are nothing but the places where you have been published, which is why it's vital to gather as many credits as possible.

5. You can also get gigs on Upwork.

This is a great way to gain more experience working for a client and hopefully getting a few publishing credits. This is technically paid work, but you're not likely to make more than a few bucks. Send bids for the lowest paying, least popular gigs. Just chat with the client back and forth a bit to make sure they're legit.

This kind of work SUCKS, but it can help you beef up your portfolio and get more credits. It will also teach you, unequivocally, if writing is really want you want to do for a living. If you hate dealing with client requests and doing grunt work and being told what to write, you're probably going the wrong direction and you'll learn that quickly from Upwork.

6. Once you have an OK portfolio/list of credits, start looking for more consistent work.

Technically you can start doing this at any time, but you're unlikely to land anything consistent until you have a few credits and some solid experience.

This type of work is usually paid. By this point, if you've gathered up enough credits, you should be beyond unpaid internships. That doesn't mean it won't be difficult to find work. Getting a job always sucks and this is no different, you're just better primed for it now than you were before the previous steps.

I found all my consistent jobs on Indeed. There's basically two kinds of work at this stage: contracted and salaried. I've done both.

Contracted work basically means you have an agency. They work with companies who are hiring out copywriting agencies for whatever writing they need. This kind of work is nice because you have a lot more control and flexibility in your daily life. However, you are at the will of your agency. If they don't give you any jobs that month, you're out of luck. Unless your particular agency is very very consistent, this is most likely more supplemental income than primary income, especially if you live in a place that taxes the living hell out of contracted workers.

There's also independent contractors, but I strongly advise against trying to make that work unless you already have years of experience in the field.

Salaried work is a JOB job. You might still have some flexibility, but your daily hours and workload will be out of your control. I started with the contracted work and moved to a full time job, and while I definitely prefer the lifestyle of contracted work, I would not trade the comfort of regular paychecks. Up to you.

7. If you can't find a regular job, start branching out your skills.

If you have been hitting every job board and publishing outlet you can find, you have credits, your portfolio is excellent, and you STILL can't find a consistent job, you might want to start adding semi-related skills to your resume.

Fortunately, you can do this (for free) online. It's time consuming, which sucks if you're already doing all of this while maintaining another job. But it can make or break your chances.

I looked at what all the writing-related jobs on Indeed were requesting as skills, and started learning them. I used Hubspot, Google Analytics Academy, and Coursera, because they give you certificates upon course completion that you can add to your resume. Codecademy is also really quick and easy for coding.

All of these are available for free, but with Coursera you have to apply for a scholarship for each course if you'd like to take it without paying.

In this process, I learned:

SEO

HTML5

CSS

Social media and email marketing

WordPress

Google Analytics

Obviously this list will vary depending on what type of writing gig you're looking for, but if you're in the market for advertising or blog work, I think SEO, html, and Google Analytics are good places to start.

Graphic design is also a super useful skill that will go a long way towards setting you apart from other candidates. Specifically Adobe, but even a little Canva experience can help.

Once you've acquired these skills, try to make something with them. Build a small website or collect a graphic design portfolio. The more skills and experience you can show off, the better.

And that's it! I'm sure some of you will read this and scream "But OP, I did that and it didn't work!" and I'm sorry. This is what worked for me, so that's all I can really offer.

Good luck out there!

[nagisasstunningpersonality]

Please stop making AI Fanfics; it's art theft.

AI programs still from pre-existing fics to write the prompts you ask of them, A03 is currently fighting against AI programs but they can't do much if people keep feeding the machine.

Please don't feed the AI!

So I did look into this, mostly because the state of the internet has forced my natural response to anything to be "don't believe it without evidence".

Since you didn't cite anything, I just did my own digging. It appears that this specific claim originates from a reddit thread. The OP cites this article as their main source. Ironically, a good chunk of the post is straight up copy-pasted. The website is Communications Today, which is apparently an Indian telecoms magazine, but I could not find much information on it at all about them that wasn't produced by them.

According to their own LinkedIn:

"Communications Today provides a platform to build corporate image and influence purchase decisions through advertising. The magazine reaches decision makers who allocate budgets for procurement of equipment and services and identify and evaluate vendors for supplies. In-depth coverage and comprehensive research has made Communications Today an important referral for telecom, network equipment purchasers, and broadcasters."

Source

This publication appears to have some guest writers who have legit positions, however the specific AI article has no credited writer. This is questionable. Point is, I have doubts about the trustworthiness of this source to begin with, but there is clearly going to be some level of bias involved with its reporting. The article is pretty sensationalist anyway. This is how the media world works - outrage and fear sells.

This post also includes three examples. As someone who has written research based papers before, this is far from enough to prove anything.

To be clear, the AI I used was not sudowrite, which much of this discussion seems to centre around. The one I used (nor sudowrite itself apparently) don't use user input as training. This means that it responds to prompts and questions, but this doesn't actually teach it anything new permanently. Thus, me using it in this way has zero impact on its dataset and is certainly not feeding it. I also paid no money to use it. Your claim of me interacting with a chatbot somehow making AO3 action (can't find much in the way of evidence of this either by the way) harder also appears unfounded. If it did specifically scrape and train from AO3, then the damage is already done, so again my interaction with it would not mean anything to legal action.

GPT3 (which is what these bots use) have sourced data from the scope of all areas of the internet. It is not, as far as I can tell, any kind of specific targeting of AO3 as a training ground. The issue in this lies in the way this information is presented. "AI BOT SCANS AO3 TO STEAL YOUR FANFICS" stands out a little more than the alternative. AO3 even responded to the OP mirroring the fact that bots are everywhere, have been for a while, and they can't do much about it - not sure if this constitutes 'fighting AI programs' as you claim.

Look. I've been on tumblr a while. I've seen fear explode and spread like wildfire before (4chan incident, for example). I think it's a little misguided to mass panic (about something that has existed for years). The only evidence I could find was those three examples on reddit. I really don't think that equates to the chaos on this issue.

I'll also be clear that I'm not exactly an AI defender, and I dislike Elon Musk for many many reasons. I do think AI writing is a little more murky than AI generated images (certainly worthy of concern) because it's hard to prove much direct copying, especially in the case of Fanfiction which, by nature, involves existing IPs.

Does AI call into question a lot of potential societal problems? Yes. Is it straight up nefarious and evil? Nope, not in my opinion anyway.

That aside I also don't really care on a personal level. For me, writing is a hobby that I'm fortunate to be able to share with others. I also think there comes a point where the concept of artistic 'ownership' becomes asinine anyway, but that's a whole other debate.

My specific posts:

I have been using my OWN existing fanfic summaries as a basis. I don't think I can really be accused of stealing my own work. And as I said, I don't see enough evidence to prove in anyway that these bots are directly ripping things from AO3 in the copyright sense (as in, content in tact enough that it could be traced to an original author).

In other words, thank you and all, but I don't really like this kind of scare posting. Especially if you're not going to source or back up your claims, whatever your intent this comes across as spreading misinformation. I found my little experiment both interesting and amusing, and ultimately what I share on my blog in my relatively tiny corner of the internet is my decision.

TLDR: Don't believe everything you read on the internet - do research before forming solid opinions.

[cupidbedsy]

𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 ; 𝘭𝘩43 ୨୧

➪ summary: y/n breaks her foot and is left alone in the hospital with no one to come pick her up, until she remembers her boyfriend's mom

➪ warnings: broken foot, hospitals

➪ word count: 2.0k

➪ file type: new fic

➪ sunny's notes: i legit remember getting this request back in february and i cannot believe i finally wrote it. i hope whoever sent this request for my valentine's day event found their way back to my blog and can read this. i feel so bad but i'm so happy i was able to write it and i hope whoever you are will enjoy it

© cupidbedsy ; do not copy, repost, or translate my work and designs on any other website or here

lh43 masterlist || nhl masterlist || taglist || navigation

This is not how she envisioned her weekend to be like, cooped up in a hospital room with no one to talk to and nothing to do. She had no one to be with her as the doctor told her that her leg was broken, no one to help her home when she was finally able to be discharged, and no one to help take care of her. This truly had happened at the worst time. 

She fell down the stairs many times but never had this happened. She had never had a broken limb, let alone gone to the hospital for it. Usually, she just had a headache or a little soreness in the aftermath and once she woke up from a nap or took some pain medication she would be good as new.

Her parents were out of state at a conference for work and they couldn’t get a flight out until the weekend, though she didn’t even want to tell them this happened in the first place. Most of her friends were gone for spring break, probably with their own families. And Luke was still in Jersey playing hockey, which left her alone. She wasn’t even sure how she could get out of bed without the help of a nurse. 

She spent the past couple of days just watching whatever was on TV and scrolling through TikTok or Instagram, answering the occasional text from her parents asking about how she was doing. A nurse would come in every once in a while and ask the same question and three times a day she would be asked what she wanted to eat. If she was lucky, one of the nurses would bring her ice cream late at night. 

And today was the day the doctor came in and told her she was able to be discharged. After making sure everything was ready, she finally heard the dreaded question, “Who’s going to be taking you home?”

She stared at the doctor for a few minutes before shrugging, “Um, my parents are away for work and my friends are all home for spring break.”

The doctor nodded and then she spoke, “Boyfriend? Cousins? Aunts or Uncles?”

“Boyfriend is in Jersey for work, cousins all live in Texas along with all my aunts and uncles. So-” She hesitated, “I might have an idea.”

She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought about calling her before, it was a good idea. However, y/n was still nervous about doing it. She was nervous that she would be interrupting whatever the older woman might be doing or if she would even take the time to come up here to get her. She thought they were on good terms, and what was the worst that could happen? She had already been here for a few days, what’s the harm in two more until her parents could make it back?

She hit the contact on her phone and then held it up to her ear, listening to the ringing that came from the speakers. Finally, the woman on the other line answered, “Hello?”

“Mrs. Hughes! It’s y/n!”

“Oh hi sweetheart, how’s it going?”

“Well, it could be better if I’m honest.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Ellen sat on her couch, waiting for her son’s girlfriend to respond. 

“I’m sort of, maybe, kind of, most definitely in the hospital.”

“You’re what?”

“Okay, it doesn’t sound as bad as it seems. I just fell down the stairs.”

Ellen sighed, she felt as if she was dealing with one of her sons at that moment, “You fell down the stairs and did what?”

Y/n’s words came out mumbled, now feeling extremely embarrassed by what had happened. The woman frowned and asked her to repeat her words, “I broke my foot.”

“Oh my… when did this happen, y/n?”

“A few days ago.” She looked down and started to pick at the thin blanket that lay across her lap. 

“And have you told anyone about this?”

“Well I told my parents but they’re in California for a work thing so they can’t be home until this weekend. And all of my friends are gone for spring break and well, Luke’s in Jersey so…”

“You know he would drop everything to come to you, right?”

“Yeah, I just wanted him to focus on hockey. But that’s why I called you. I was wondering if you could help me get back to my dorm?”

“Yeah of course, Just give me an hour or two okay?”

“Thank you so much, Mrs. Hughes.”

And then y/n just sat there, waiting for Ellen to arrive so she could finally go home and be in the comfort of her dorm and bed. She talked to the doctor briefly, explaining that someone would be able to pick her up in the next couple of hours and that she’d be out of their hair. 

ﾟ+*:୨୧:*﹤

Y/n was finally asleep, curled up in the guest room at the Hughes’ house. After Ellen arrived to take her home, she argued with the girl to get her to stay at their house. It took a lot of convincing and one look from the woman until she agreed. She didn’t want her to feel obligated to take care of her, but Ellen was more than happy too. 

With some decent food and some medicine, she fell asleep quickly while watching one of Luke’s games she hadn’t been able to watch. She missed him, she wanted nothing more than for him to be by her side and take care of her but she knew he had a job to do so she didn’t want to distract him from it. 

Once she fell asleep, Ellen took this as her chance to call her son and tell him what happened, she knew y/n wouldn’t so she would. It took a few rings but Luke finally answered with sleep lacing his voice, “Hm? Mom?”

“Hey, Luke.”

“What’s up?” Luke turned over in his bed, wrapping his comforter around him as he did so. He kept his eyes closed and pushed his head deeper into his pillow.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Okay.”

“It’s about y/n.” He sat up quickly, immediately wincing at the sudden dizziness he felt. 

“What’s wrong?”

“She fell down the stairs again.”

He snorted, “Shocker.”

“And she broke her foot.”

“She what?” Now he was standing in the middle of his room, sweatpants hung low on his hips with no shirt on as he ran his free hand through his hair, “Is she okay? Where is she? Did she go to the hospital?”

“She’s fine, Luke. She’s here at the house, her parents wouldn’t be able to get here until the weekend and I didn’t want her staying in her dorm by herself. And yes she went to the hospital.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“She’s sleeping right now. I can probably say that this is the best sleep she’s gotten in the past few days so I don’t want to wake her. I also knew that she wouldn’t tell you which is why I called.”

Luke frowned before speaking, “I’ll be there soon.”

“Luke…”

“Nope, I’m not budging on this. I’ll be down there probably by late tonight or early tomorrow morning. I’ll text you when I land. Bye, mom.” 

With that, Ellen was left shocked standing in her kitchen. She had expected Luke to freak out, but she didn’t expect him to drop everything to come here. Well, maybe she had and that’s why she called him. She knew y/n needed him, especially when this had happened. 

A few hours later she could hear thuds from the guest room and immediately made her way up the stairs, hoping y/n hadn’t tried to get out of bed. When she walked in she was relieved to see her sitting on the bed, glaring at the floor. She quirked an eyebrow, “Everything okay?”

“I dropped the remote.”

Ellen chuckled at her, making her way over to where the remote sat. She picked it up and handed it to her before moving to walk towards the hallway again.

“Mrs. Hughes?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“Would- would you stay with me, please? I haven’t really talked to anyone-”

“I would be happy to.” Ellen took the space next to her, watching as y/n continued to scroll through Netflix to find something to watch. 

It wasn’t long before the girl fell asleep again, the woman chuckling softly before she carefully got off the bed and walked back downstairs. She looked at her phone, noticing a text from Luke that he was on his way from the airport. Ellen sighed before finishing doing last-minute things around the house, including making some dinner for both Luke and y/n. 

Luke showed up about an hour later, pulling into the driveway. He practically ran through the doors, looking around frantically for his girlfriend or his mom. His eyes finally landed on his mom who was in the kitchen making dinner, “Mom!”

She turned around, “Hi, Luke. She’s in the guest room, but be careful, she’s still sleeping.”

“Okay, thank you for taking her here.”

Her eyes softened, “Of course.” She watched as he ran up the stairs as quietly as he could and smiled.

Meanwhile, Luke knocked softly on the guest room door and after a few seconds, he walked in. His frown seemed to deepen when his eyes laid upon the cast that was on her foot. He sighed and walked over to the bed, kneeling so his face was in front of hers.

He brushed a strand of hair out of the way, tucking it behind her ear as he smiled. The movement startled her softly, causing her eyes to flutter open. She blinked at the person in front of her confusedly, not sure why there was a stranger in her room. Once her eyes adjusted, they went wide with surprise, “Luke?”

“Hi, sweet girl.”

“What- What’re you doing here?”

He brushed his thumb over her cheek before helping her sit up against the headboard. He took his spot on the side of her legs, sitting sideways on the bed. His hand rested on her calf, slowly moving it up and down to provide comfort, “Mom called me.”

“Oh, I told her not to.”

“She told me that too.”

Y/n threw her head back against the headboard, sighing, “Didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“Interrupt me? Baby, you were sitting in the hospital for two days with no one to call or take care of you. You don’t have to worry about interrupting me, especially with something like that.”

She nodded, biting her lip out of habit. He rolled his eyes and reached out to tug it away from her teeth, “You know I hate when you do that.”

“Yeah yeah.” 

Luke chuckled softly, his thumb lingering on her lips briefly before dropping his hand back to her leg. "I mean it," he said gently. "You never have to feel like you're bothering me."

Y/n sighed again, though there was a hint of relief in it this time. "I just didn't want to make a big deal. It’s not like I broke anything important."

"Not important?" Luke raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed with her attempt at brushing it off. "You broke your foot, y/n. That’s pretty important."

"Well, yeah, but it’s not like I can’t—"

"Stop," he interrupted, his voice firm yet still soft. "Stop pretending like you don’t matter." He squeezed her calf gently, drawing her attention back to him. "You matter to me. Everything about you matters to me. And if you’re hurt, I’m gonna be here. Every time. Got it?" 

Her eyes softened as she looked at him, feeling the weight of his words settle around her. “Got it,” she whispered, the edge of her lip quirking into a smile.

He smiled back, "Good." After a minute, he stood up. "Now, what do you need? Water? Food? Pain meds?"

"I’m okay," she replied, watching him carefully. "Just…stay?"

His face softened even more at her request. Without a word, he sat back down, this time pulling her carefully into his arms, mindful of her injured foot. Y/n rested her head on his chest, the steady rhythm of his heartbeat easing her lingering discomfort. Luke kissed the top of her head softly and let out a content sigh.

“Always,” he whispered into her hair.

𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗝𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗘𝗬 𝗗𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗦 𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧 ୨୧

@blakesbearsblog @toasttt11 @chiblackhawks @prettyjoseph @nicole01-23 @auriesphantom @pucks-goals-penalties @dancerbailey3 @quinnylouhughesx43 @petite-potato4 @thehuggybearslover @absolutelyhugh3s @kei943 @dyslecticdutchman @this-ass-is-eikonic @delilahhcky

© cupidbedsy ; do not copy, repost, or translate my work and designs on any other website or here

[bloggershojib]

ApexEngine Review: Unveiling the Truth – Scam or Legit?

Introduction

In today’s digital age, staying ahead of the curve means harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology. The product we’re about to explore in this comprehensive article offers an exciting opportunity to do just that. With features that cover a wide array of needs, it’s a game-changer that can revolutionize the way you do business. In this article, we will delve into every aspect of this innovative product, covering aspects such as its functionality, advantages, and how it can benefit various individuals and businesses. So let’s get started and explore the world of “ApexEngine.”

About the ApexEngine

ApexEngine is a 2-in-1 platform that caters to a multitude of needs, making it an ideal solution for a wide range of professionals and businesses. It excels in content creation, graphic design, code generation, language translation, and much more. This powerful tool is driven by Microsoft Azure and Google Bard, ensuring it operates at the highest levels of efficiency and productivity.

How does it work?

Step #1:

 Login: 

The process begins by logging into the ApexEngine dashboard. Here, you can provide specifications for your desired requirements, whether it’s content, graphics, marketing materials, code, and more.

Step #2: 

Create:

 The magic happens here. ApexEngine utilizes the potent Google Bard AI to generate the required materials according to your specifications.

Step #3: 

Profit: 

The final step is where you reap the rewards. Use the top-quality content and materials generated by ApexEngine to enhance your business, leading to increased conversions and sales. Alternatively, you can offer multitasking services to clients as a freelancer and keep 100% of the profits.

What are the features?

Effortless Content Creation: No more manual work. Let AI handle the heavy lifting.

Visually Appealing Content: Generate stunning graphics, images, and more using just keywords.

Marketing Material: Create sales copy, video scripts, email swipes, and more.

Diverse Content: Write articles, blogs, social media posts, and much more.

Dynamic Code: Craft functional, dynamic codes.

Multilingual Support: Translate content into over 100 languages.

Voice Command Technology: Enjoy Siri-like voice command capabilities.

Automation: Automate repetitive business tasks to save time and effort.

All-in-One Solution: Replace third-party tools and subscriptions with this all-in-one solution.

Who is this ApexEngine perfect for?

The ApexEngine caters to a wide audience:

Content creators and writers

Digital Marketers

Graphic Designers

Business owners and entrepreneurs

Freelancers and agencies

Programmers and developers

Educators and students

Small businesses and startups

Anyone seeking efficiency and creativity

Pros and cons

Pros

Powered by Microsoft Azure and Google Bard

Human-like assistant for clear answers

Effortless content creation

High-quality marketing material

SEO-friendly, plagiarism-free content

AI-driven graphics and design

Dynamic code generation

Language translation

Automation for routine tasks

Free commercial license

User-friendly interface

Iron-clad money-back guarantee

Cons

None have been identified so far.

How to Earn Money with This Product

One of the most exciting aspects of ApexEngine is its income-generating potential. Here’s how you can make money with this product:

Start your own content creation agency and charge clients, keeping 100% of the profits.

Design and sell AI graphics and images to clients.

Create digital products like eBooks and courses for additional profit.

Offer copywriting services to clients.

Provide coding, website, and funnel creation and maintenance services.

Language translation services.

Personal Experience

Many individuals and businesses have already experienced the transformative power of ApexEngine. This product has streamlined operations, increased productivity, and opened new doors to creativity. What one happy customer had to say was as follows:

“The extent to which ApexEngine has transformed my company is beyond words. From content creation to dynamic code generation, it’s a true all-in-one solution. The time and cost savings are incredible, and the quality is top-notch. I find it impossible to contemplate reverting to the previous method.” A Content Client

What bonus will you get?

Money-Back Guarantee

The developers of ApexEngine are so confident in the product’s capabilities that they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. This means you can try the product with no risk. If it doesn’t meet your expectations, you can simply request a refund.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is ApexEngine?

ApexEngine is a powerful 2-in-1 virtual machine that offers a comprehensive solution for various tasks, including content creation, graphic design, code generation, language translation, and more.

Q: How can I use ApexEngine?

ApexEngine can be utilized for a range of purposes, including creating high-quality content, generating marketing materials, crafting code, designing graphics, translating languages, and more, by simply providing keywords or using voice commands.

Q: Can ApexEngine help me with content creation?

A: Absolutely! ApexEngine can assist in creating diverse content, including blog posts, articles, eBooks, stories, essays, and marketing materials, ensuring they are plagiarism-free and of high quality.

Q: Is ApexEngine suitable for graphic design purposes?

A: Yes! ApexEngine provides AI-driven graphic design capabilities, enabling the generation of creative and visually appealing graphics and designs using just a few keywords.

Q: How does ApexEngine assist with code generation?

ApexEngine helps craft dynamic code, making it an ideal tool for both professional programmers and those seeking assistance in code creation and algorithm development.

Q: Can I use ApexEngine for language translation?

A: Absolutely! ApexEngine serves as a language translator, allowing you to translate content into your desired language quickly and accurately.

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[kulliare]

need enrichment in my enclosure so bad

[coochiequeens]

Trigger Warning - this article quotes loser men at their worst.

May 25, 2022

On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother before driving to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and began firing at students and staff. As of May 25, 19 children and two adults have been killed.[1]

Online neo-Nazis, white supremacist and incels (i.e., involuntary celibates) have discussed the shooter. Users on incel forums and other websites have praised the attack, celebrating the fact that young girls were killed and that the victims of the attack were predominantly Hispanic. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and incels have also spread misinformation about the attacker, falsely claiming that he is transgender and an illegal immigrant.

In some cases, neo-Nazis have claimed that the shooting was a false flag. Others have criticized the mainstream media for how they cover mass shootings, alleging that they falsely attribute mass shootings to white people and ignore the shootings carried out by minority groups.

This report covers reactions to the Ulvade shooting from neo-Nazis, white supremacists and incels on various social media platforms.

YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO THE MEMRI DOMESTIC TERRORISM THREAT MONITOR (DTTM) TO READ THE FULL REPORT. GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA CAN REQUEST A COPY BY WRITING TO DTTMSUBS@MEMRI.ORG WITH THE REPORT TITLE IN THE SUBJECT LINE.

Users On Incel Forums And Website Used By Neo-Nazis Praise Shooter

On incel forums and a site used by neo-Nazis users have praised the shooter and his attack. Incels have cheered that he killed young girls, while on 4chan users were happy that most of the victims were Hispanic.

On a thread titled "Mass shootings are ultimately done by foids. Toxic femininity is what's causing mass shootings," a user wrote on May 24: "Score so far: 14... May you reset in Valhalla and Jannah [paradise], avenger. Smart choice going after those 'kids,' maximizing pain on their scum parents and society. May more follow Inshallah." Another user added: "All heil saint Salvador."

On a thread titled "Victims of Robb Elementary School," a user posted on May 25 a photo of the teacher and children killed in the shooting.

In response, another user commented: "At least one future Stacy was put down before it could cause emotional damage to countless boys."

A user added: "Good riddance, all the future drug users and single mom sex havers have coom dumpster have been deleted from the face of the earth in Minecraft rtx."

Another wrote: "Based shooter. The only thing I lament is that he couldn't kill more."

On a thread titled "We have another elementary school shooting incident," a user posted on May 24 an image of Ramos, writing: "14 isn't bad, but I wish he went to a high school to sho0t some basketball players instead. Also it's good he managed to injure some pigs (in gta 5)." Another person commented: "Ngl I don't care, they would've grown up to be simps and whores anyway." Multiple users argued that Ramos is a copycat of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza. One user wrote: "Sandy Hook copycat. Kills his grandma before the shooting, ditches his car outside of the school, brings a rifle and a handgun..."

On a thread titled "New shooter just dropped," a user posted on May 24 an image of Ramos with the test: "New Bean ER [referring to 2014 Isla Vista incel terrorist Elliot Rodger] just dropped."

A user responded: "The streets must run red with the blood of the bourgeoisie." In a follow-up post, the same user added: "maybe it was a legit ER worshipper."

A user commented: "I think shooting kids is kinda crossing the line. I mean at least try to shoot people who deserve to die, like foids." In response to the original user another user wrote: "What's the difference? The little girl is going to grow up to be a Stacy who ignored you. Or simply a woman like any other one who make your incel life harder."

Another user commented: "He made a great bodies count. I hope more and more massacres happen (in GTA V)."

"Based. Heil this new saint" another user added.

One user commented: "There needs to be more incel shootings."

Another user wrote: "Good riddance he just deleted future sex havers from the face of the planet in micraft... foids are the reason shootouts happen."

On a thread titled "Happening: Spic Salvador Ramos Shoots At Border Patrol And Then Kills 14 Children," multiple anonymous users reacted on May 24 to the shooting. In response to a user asking, "Was he [the shooter] an illegal?" a U.S. user wrote: "All spic shubhumans are illegal." Another user wrote: "Maybe at least that teacher was Jewish." A third user added, "So it was spic on spic violence? Death to kikes."

A user with a Nazi flag icon wrote on May 24 on the a thread titled "Elementary School Shooter": "I SINCERELY HOPE HE KILLED MANY N**GERS. N**GERS ARE THE SCUM OF EARTH AND DESEERVE TO BE ELIMINATED. NO SYMPATHY TOWARDS N**GERS." Another user wrote: "Hang jews." A user from the U.S. wrote: "Spics don't belong in our society."

On the a thread titled "TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING 14 KIDS DEAD," a user from the U.S. wrote on May 24: "n**gers are shooting the wrong people. KILL THE ELITES NOT KIDS f**gots."

Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists And Incels Spread Misinformation About Shooter, Claim He Is Transgender And An Illegal Immigrant

Shortly after the attack extremists online began spreading misinformation regarding the shooting. Users online have falsely claimed that the shooter was transgender and an illegal immigrant. These claims were used to denigrate transgender and Hispanics and used to call for action against these groups.

On a thread titled "Latino tranny shoots up school in Uvalde, TX," an anonymous user posted a meme depicting a transgender person hanging by a noose and wrote: "Why are troons so violent? Ban all trannies." A user from the UK responded to the post, implying that the shooter was a trans woman: "Woman. Traditionally women were underrepresented in this area of excellence. Now thanks to new women they are finally making an impact."

[adultswim2021]

Perfect Hair Forever #2: “TiVo Your eBay” | November 28, 2005 – 12:30AM | S01E02

You know how sometimes you just remember some retard online saying something mildly stupid and it just sticks with you for the rest of your life? I have that for this episode, which is titled “TiVo Your eBay”, which obviously doesn't make any sense, so the stupid thing is this: a guy on my friend's message board reacting to that title, and sorta writing the episode off as being bad because of the title by saying something like “Recording Device Your Auction Website? Uhh... okay! (rolleyes)”

Again, it's endlessly weird to me how serialized this, 12 oz. Mouse, and a little bit Squidbillies is. It just seems like a bad idea to do; though to be honest I guess I'm not so sure what 12 oz. Mouse would be like if it weren't serialized. I guess it would just be weird crazy crap? Do you think that show would have any kind of fanbase or longevity if it were more like Aqua Teen Hunger Force? On the other hand, did that work out for this show?

The difference between this and 12 oz. Mouse is that the plot doesn't really matter the way it seems to in 12 oz. Mouse. 12 oz. Mouse's whole thing is THIS GOES DEEPER THAN YOU THINK. This does something different. This is insufferably anime-esque on purpose; the same way it takes Goku 40 episodes to fight a guy. 40 episodes that somehow take place in slower than real time. Like it has a plot you can follow, but you aren't really going to be rewarded for doing that, because it's mostly nonsense. Sorry! At any rate, this one ends exactly where the last one left off, following Gerald on his journey to find Tuna Mountain. We introduce a new guy, the king of all animals, who is kind of a stereotypical virtuous anime good guy. He gets to touch Brenda's butt. Again, I can not stress how disappointed I am that there doesn't seem to be ANY Brenda cosplay online whatsoever.

We also meet Rod, the anime god (though I think he briefly appeared/was teased in the first episode? And there's weird stuff with clowns. We see a bunch of them crucified in the forest, and there's a bit where a red moon encircles a white planet, and when it gets to a particular position it looks like a clown and a horn honks. WOULD COULD IT MEAN??? Could the clowning be REAL?

Anyway, this one was mildly amusing. I liked little bits here and there. The car crammed with animals is fun. The part where Uncle Grandfather tells the king of animals to fight Brenda “for a few minutes”. Little stuff like that you know? I also really like the opening sequence on this one featuring a song by Brendon Small. It's legit. Also the closing music on this one is great, too. I hope that's an original bit of music and not just a needledrop. Underrated aspect of this show is the music, which is often creative and funny and nice to listen to. Also word up to this show for beating Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil to the “we do different openings every episode, aren't we nice” punch. Fuck Lucy!

EPHEMERA CORNER:

The Animation Show (November 28, 2005 – 1:30AM)

I don't know if I've really made this point lately, but this era of Adult Swim pretty much lost me. I think I don't remember watching any of these shows, really. I think I may have been recording repeats of stuff I wanted to have better copies of, maybe, because my main memory of watching Adult Swim around this time is disparate little snippets of the very beginning or very end of episodes of new shows. A lot of the stuff I've been reviewing lately I caught up with later, or TiVo'd on an individual basis and let pile up and maybe didn't even really bother with at all. Really, the only thing that felt important to me was Tom Goes to the Mayor. Tim & Eric was the only thing anchoring me to the block in any significant sense.

So, The Animation Show sorta just passed me by. I don't think I even knew it aired until after the fact. I eventually got the DVDs from Netflix and made DVD-R copies of them, cuz a lot of it was stuff I'd seen and already liked or was roughly up my alley. Specifically what we got here was a couple of Don Hertzfeldt Shorts, a guy I used to not like because I watched Rejected somewhere and thought it was “rando” humor (I like him now!) and some Mike Judge shorts, a bunch of which I recognized from being used as extras on Beavis and Butt-head King Turd DVDs. It was stuff from the 2003 version of the show, but I don't think it's the entire thing. Honestly, I'm not that up on the Animation Show stuff despite owning a rip of it. I don't think I really watched through those DVDs. Sorry. This is a bad one. ANYWAY: They capped it off with a rare showing of “A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith”. Not really part of “The Animation Show” as far as I'm aware, but I think they thought it was on theme.

[shinyacademy]

Is it Legit: Part 2

Today we’re going to look at a shiny Oranguru that was traded to me via Wonder Trade in Pokémon Sun. I’ve since moved him to Pokémon Shield which is risky business for a Pokémon of uncertain origin but I was fairly certain that he was the real deal (or close enough but we’ll get to that later). Since I wasn’t banned or suspended from Pokémon Bank or Pokémon Home, I can assume with confidence that my assumptions were correct. But how did I know?

Quick Note About Pokerus

Pokerus is often an indicator, or at least an orange flag, that a Pokémon has been hacked. However, it’s important to note what type of Pokerus. Active Pokerus is much more of an orange flag than latent Pokerus, which is what my Oranguru has.

Here’s my Dragapult who has active Pokerus, which means she could spread it to other Pokémon in the party with her. This is what hackers typically add to Pokémon because it’s more valuable to be able to spread Pokerus to other Pokémon. A quick note for those who don’t know, Pokerus is a rare but beneficial virus that Pokémon can suddenly develop or catch from other infected Pokémon.

In this case I exposed my Oranguru to Pokerus so there’s no worries either way. Now we’re going to go through the same steps in my last post to confirm his legitimacy.

1. Is it met on an impossible date?

It seems that bringing him to Galar has lost the date that he was captured on but it was not impossible.

2. Did it meet the OT in an impossible place?

Again, we’re not given a lot of information here but that’s ok. A lot of hacked Pokémon will say that they were met in a “fateful encounter”. This is reserved for event Pokémon and some wild Mythical Pokémon. Event Pokémon will often also state that they were an online present but not always.

3. Is it inside a Ball Combination that could not exist for the game the Pokémon came from?

No, Luxury balls are accessible in Pokémon Sun and Moon.

4. Was the Pokémon met at an illegal level?

I haven’t changed my Oranguru’s level so we can assume it was met somewhere around the level it’s at. However, shiny Oranguru who are caught by SOS chaining can be level 17 in Lush Jungle, so this makes sense.

5. Does it have perfect IVs?

As you can see, Oranguru’s IVs are less than impressive. If someone was chaining in hopes of finding a competitive ready Pokémon they would see this and be disappointed, which might explain why his original trainer decided to part with him in the first place.

6. Does it have an illegal moveset?

Pokémon Home has a feature where it will remove any moves from a Pokémon that are not legal for the game that it’s porting into (this is for game balance mostly because some legit moves are not supported in the newer games but it would also alter a hacked Pokémon’s moveset potentially). Oranguru kept all of his moves that he had in Alola though so he’s fine.

7. Does the Pokémon have the name of a streaming website or words that would normally be censored?

Nope! He’s just Oranguru.

Analyzing the Information

All signs point to Oranguru having been shiny hunted, probably via SOS chain, and then discarded for whatever reason (my guess is stats). We can only guess at the OT’s motives but nothing stands out as being suspicious for Oranguru.

Does that mean he’s legit?

People in the Pokémon community use the word “legit” to describe a Pokémon who definitely entered the game through legitimate means. What a lot of people don’t realize is there are no definitive ways to identify whether a Pokémon is legit or not outside of the knowledge of your own Pokémon that you get from your own games. Every time you do a high value trade with another trainer you are trusting that the Pokémon is legitimate (unless of course they are forthcoming about it being otherwise).

But I thought you said Oranguru isn’t hacked?

I don’t think he is based on our criteria and the fact that I wasn’t banned from using Pokémon services after putting him there. But he still could be cloned. A clone is a complete and perfect copy of an original Pokémon. Some streamers will utilize them to do mass giveaways and some people will utilize them to make multiple high value trades (after all, there are some Pokémon like Marshadow that sell for actual money). The thing is, you can identify if a Pokémon is hacked but there’s no way to identify a clone because it would just look like a normal Pokémon!

Should I worry about clones?

This is more of a personal opinion. Some people really agonize over whether their Pokémon are legit or not and some people don’t care. The only reason I care personally is because hacked Pokémon can get you banned from Pokémon services. Would I use those Pokémon? Probably not because I appreciate the value of working hard to achieve a desired result and it seems cheap to go into competitive with a hacked shiny. As for clones, why worry about something you can’t control? Maybe the Articuno I won in a contest recently is a clone? I’ll never know! But he makes me happy so why stress?

So Oranguru and my Articuno both fall into a class of Pokémon that people call “legal”, which means that they are accepted by Pokémon services as being okay for competitive and other services. Could they be legitimate too? Yes but we can’t prove that, so if I were thinking of trading either one I would need to list them as “legal” if I were communicating directly with the person I was trading with and not “legitimate” because I didn’t catch them myself.

If you are worried about clones you essentially cannot trade online with confidence, which will greatly limit your experience with Pokémon in general. So in my opinion: don’t stress out, play the game and have fun!

As a follow up to this post, soon I’ll be writing, “How to Navigate a High Value Trade.” Look out for that post in the future! Until then, happy hunting! ✨

[resinatingbeauty]

A 'Witch Shop' Owner's Plea Before Casting That Love Spell

I don't personally offer many spell kits, mojo bags, etc. In my shop and avoid selling my 'Craft', as in, I don't advertise or list spell casting among my offerings, though I have had a couple of customers specifically ask if I could perform a spell I offered as a kit on their behalf for whatever reason. This is because I personally believe that the journey is just as important as the destination in witchcraft and many of the spell kits / spells I do offer are designed in such a way to soothe, relax, release, and heal throughout the process. Honestly, in addition, I really don't want the responsibility associated with performing magick on someone else's behalf for many reasons. The strength of my intent is not going to be as strong as yours, for example. Even if I effectively channel your energy, creating that personal connection between the beneficiary and the intent or purpose of the spell work is incredibly difficult at a distance. I'm always wary of other shops advertising this type of service- the sad truth of the matter is our little niche has been permeated by scammers, con artists, and frauds looking to take advantage of anyone looking for a solution to whatever it is that has them at this low point in life. I will tell you, more often than not it's love spells that the customer is after, and they are apt to find many options on Etsy, the platform I primarily do business on, and beyond.

I distinctly think of one potential customer who had contacted me one night obviously very upset. My heart went out to her immediately - I could just tell by what she was saying and how quickly she responded to me that she was in a state of panic and extreme emotional distress. She isn't the only one, but she stands out from the others as her desire to win back her ex lover was so strong it was evident that she would do anything and (potentially) pay anything for a chance to get things back to the way they were in her love life.

I am a human being. I have been given this amazing opportunity to pursue my passion to share my creations and spiritual / metaphysical knowledge with the world through my work. I understood a long time ago that this also meant I had a responsibility to do my best to help those in need and never knowingly harm, much like a doctor commuting to the Hippocratic oath. This may make me a flat out horrible business woman, but I would rather not sell someone on something I don't believe is going to help their situation. In fact, love spells usually make things worse. I'll get to that momentarily.

"Is there a spell to make her see what she has done wrong and to make her love and want me again?"

I allowed this customer to explain to me the situation and took the time to hear her out after telling her that I'm sure that she could find something like that elsewhere and someone else willing to sell her a spell kit or cast that spell, but I urged her to take a deep breath and talk to me before she did something that she would regret.

Thankfully, she spent the next hour or so explaining her situation and elaborating on everything that has happened in her relationship. It was one of those on again / off again things that so many of us get trapped in. Understandable, considering once you establish that strong bond of love, whether one sided or not, it's incredibly hard to cut that cord and move on especially if you're so emotionally invested (and maybe even financially invested) in this other individual who has had your heart for so long you can't imagine giving it to anyone else.

This PSA goes out to the broken hearted of all walks, as this is a universal experience for anyone who has been in love. There may not be someone to stop you from pursuing what you think will fix everything as I did for her, but I'm hoping if you read this, you'll think twice about acquiring and performing love spells or any magick in hopes that it will provide a quick fix to any situation.

•Beware the Opportunistic Con / Scam

Our field is flooded with scammers, con artists, and frauds that exclusively cater to those in this sweet girl's position and anyone who is vulnerable due to emotional distress or panic. Whether you need a love spell like she did to win back her ex or a quick fix to get more money in the bank or what have you, beware those that have used spiritual advisory and witchcraft as a means to peddle you their high priced garbaged. This is a tough one, as you may have a hard time deciphering what is 'legit' and what isn't, but there are some signs and facts you can look for when browsing these shops / websites.

-They promise / guarantee results within a specific or unrealistic time frame

Magick takes time to manifest and the true story is that nobody has a 100% satisfaction guaranteed spell book. More often than not, when spells come to fruition, it often isn't quite the way you would expect it to, either. Anyone promising a quick fix to anything is most likely just trying to take advantage of you when you are vulnerable and you better believe there will be no money back guarantee if said garbage doesn't work for you. OR, they like to do one of these:

-"Oh, your situation is worse than I thought. You're going to need this and this, with a huge $$$$ price tag."

This starts a never ending cycle of you pouring money into this scammer who will make you believe that it is necessary to do so. That maybe if you did throw them an extra $500 for their thingamajig that you will get what you want. This is only the beginning, as when THAT doesn't do it for you the way you would like, they will claim some other interference, maybe you're cursed or under psychic attack, and need something else even more expensive and elaborate to take care of that before you can even get to what you went to them for in the first place. Anytime someone proposes this type of thing, stop while you're ahead and don't provide them with a guaranteed cash flow that you aren't benefitting from at all. Also, be wary of ANY seller who makes outrageous claims- overnight changes, curing cancer, etc. Are unrealistic expectations.

•Understand What You Truly Need

Maybe it's time to consider an alternative path. The customer I spoke about DID ultimately purchase a tarot spread, which I was much more inclined to do for her than some love spell to win back this girl who has repeatedly broken her heart over the past few years and obviously got a kick out of it, the way she told it, as it was ALWAYS her doing the breaking up and blocking, starting all the drama. I told her I would much rather give her a spell to find her twin flame / soul mate than to win this person back who has perpetually been hurting her and taking advantage of her kindness.

Sometimes it's time to cut the cord before more damage is done. I understand it isn't easy to move on from someone you have loved and cultivated a relationship with over a long period of time, regardless of the negative energy that has invaded the relationship, we DO tend to focus on the positives, which leaves us a bit biased and blind to what we could have and deserve to have.

Take a moment if you are in a relationship situation like this, are beginning to question your current relationship, or are considering taking the next step in any relationship. Sit down with a pen and paper. On one side of the paper, write down all the things you love about that person. All the ways you think they have been the light in your life (be honest and give credit where credit is due!). Now on the other side, list the negatives or cons in your relationship. If one list is noticeably longer than the other, depending on which side it is, it may be time to consider breaking it off, giving things another shot, or taking things to the next level. Ask yourself;

-Do they support me in what I do, even if they don't understand or necessarily agree with it? (So long as it is something healthy -obviously if they're supportive of a bad habit or detrimental behavior, this is more like enabling and not a good thing)

-Do they have my best interests at heart more often than not?

-Do they show that they care? Even in the smallest of ways?

-Could I call them my "best friend?" Am I honest with them?

-Are they honest with me?

-Do they lift me up more than they put me down?

-Do you want the same things in life / have similar priorities?

-Is our relationship valuable to them the same way it is to me?

•LOVE SPELLS NEVER WORK THE WAY YOU WANT

This is the cold hard truth about love spells. Forget the warnings in movies and books, as it is hard to believe them or even take them as a legitimate warning when you haven't had the displeasure of experiencing what a love spell can do for yourself. I have, so you don't have to. This is MY story:

Of course love spells are very appealing when you're a young and naive teenager. I had a strong crush on this guy I had low key been stalking since middle school. I don't know why I liked him so much. Part of it I'm sure was the way he looked (hey, I'm being totally honest!) And how he came across to me. We had absolutely no interaction with each other outside of passing each other in the hallway. He had no idea who I was.

I had just borrowed a copy of Silver Ravenwolf's 'Teen Witch' (which is honestly a fantastic book for teens and young adults just starting to delve into Wiccan practices, which she follows exclusively) from a friend of mine and thought I would try the super simple love spell in the book figuring I had nothing to lose. All it consisted of was focusing on the subject, your intentions, writing their name on a piece of paper, folding it up and placing it under your pillow. I would sleep on that paper for months. I was in middle school just about to go into my freshman year of high school when I performed the spell and would forget about it up until the day it worked, a few months into my freshman year of highschool, when my crush was in the graduating class of that year- literally my last chance to make an impression.

I had gone to a local band's concert that was performing at the school's auditorium one day after classes and was just about to leave when my crush randomly approached me and started talking to me. It was like the whole world just stopped right there. I couldn't believe it. The thought of that spell crossed my mind briefly as we exchanged phone numbers.

Over time and getting to know him, he admittedly wasn't exactly my type. He was still someone whose friendship I valued, but not someone I could really put any effort into dating. About the time I realized this, his personality took a complete 180° turn for the worst. He was stalking me. Blowing up my cell phone (which was a prepaid piece of junk at that time I really couldn't talk on for more than a minute without paying a fortune), so much so one evening when I was at Jukido Jujitsu practice that I came home to something like 32 missed calls and 17 voicemails from him, each one showing gradual frustration and anger. This scared me. I knew I had to confront him about it and break this off before it got worse.

I caught him in a populated area of the school the next day before homeroom- more like he came up to me out of nowhere like he knew I would be passing through that part of the school that day- and I confronted him about the calls,attempting to gently explain to him that I wasn't interested in a relationship and I would like to continue being friends. He blew up at me and threw me against the brick wall of the school, trying to kiss and touch me in front of every single person that walked by. I wish I was making this up.

Thankfully a teacher came and pulled him off. Nothing much else was done. I did my best to avoid him and cut him out of my life entirely from that point on.

I don't know if it was the love spell or if this would have occurred anyways. All I knew was that what had been originally a very sweet, big hearted guy that was soft spoken with low self esteem became a monster in a matter of weeks. The take away from this and what I have personally seen with other's experiences with love spells is that they tend to bring out the worst characteristics of the person they are cast on and you have to be really careful what you are actually asking for when thinking about 'desire' and 'passion.' This intent can quickly lead to stalking, obsession, and not in a good way. Another customer of mine who originally came to me for my Forgiveness Spell Kit and had the desired results also, unbeknownst to me, had someone else perform a love and desire spell in addition to it. The guy that she was reverted into an obsessed jerk who decided to spread rumors about her on social media and beyond, blocked her on all platforms, and would get her friends involved in his quest to make her life miserable. Her story reflects and embodies so many I have heard over the years from others who have dabbled in such spells. When they work, it's just never quite what you had in mind.

So if you came to this blog post in search of a love spell for your personal situation or came across it when you have maybe considered one in the past or know someone who has, please take a deep breath, consider your options, and don't do anything that you may regret down the line. Remember that you are deserving of all the love, respect, support, and happiness one could give another. Do not settle on someone who offers you less and expects more, no matter how much you have invested in them, no matter how many years you have spent with them, as they do not appreciate you for the amazing person you are. I can promise you, however, given some time to heal, you WILL find someone who does.

-Samantha

(Owner /Chaos Witch/Designer)

Blursedbaubles.etsy.com

[tomistryinghisbest]

SIDETRACKED with TGT

Welcome to Sidetracked, the periodical internet show where instead of doing important things, I get sucked down an internet rabbit hole for heavens knows how long. Might as well document my findings/incomitance to focus on tasks.

In this episode: an odd phonetic connection between the popular internet game Among Us and a filmmaker of an anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda film from Nazi Germany, the bizarre articles that came from trying to cover the topic— and the journey to accidentally debunking the source of the connection.

First, please watch this. It’s the thing that started this whole escapade.

Apparently, Amon Gus was the pseudonym* (put a pin in that) of the German filmmaker Wolfgang Staudte, who wrote and directed the 1946 film The Murderers Are Among Us (that was obviously anti-Nazi, by the way) and was involved in the filming of the aforementioned propaganda film, Jud Süß, which is stylized in the theater poster as "Jud Süss."

The Murderers Are Among Us was a romance-thriller about a Nazi concentration camp survivor and an ex-soldier struggling with the traumas of WWII. Jud Süß, by contrast, is considered "one of the most notorious and successful pieces of anti-Semitic film propaganda produced in Nazi Germany." One could easily gather (as the Wikipedia article does) that Staudte was perhaps trying to right his wrongs by making a film that was against the ideology he felt guilty for perpetuating. Or perhaps that was a cover-up and he still was a Nazi. It's impossible to truly know.

As of yet, I have not found any conclusive that Staudte actually used Amon Gus as a pseudonym or if that was just fabricated for the joke. Any sources I find gloss over the connection between the two names.

This leads us to the articles that appear to be trying to document this connection, except they're doing it in a way that feels like they're aliens that are trying to disguise as journalists but have absolutely no idea what humans actually care about or even what facts are. One such article from the website ridzeal.com is titled Amon Gus Person Who is Amon Gus Person? Here is an excerpt from the article:

“As of now, the author retains all of his information confidential. We can Not offer much info about his era. He might be 50-60years old as of today. He is not there on any societal media website. No information about his family, wife, kids, parents could be viewed anywhere.”

For context, Wolfgang Staudte died in 1984 at the age of 77.

While reading this, the writing really reminded me of the famous Does Bruno Mars is Gay article, which was evidently written by artificial intelligence. Considering this, it is very likely that ridzeal.com is a site written exclusively by artificial intelligence. Looking at their main page shows many headlines with English ranging from slightly-off to broken, such as “How to Wear a Leather Kilt?“ and “Bestiken Com Reviews Is Bestiken com Legit or Scam?“ All of these are being put out at a fairly rapid pace (multiple a day it seems) and in multiple languages (with no sorting by language, mind you).

There’s nothing on ridzeal.com that shows it’s managed by AI. They have a submission section, so I decided to ask them “Are your articles made by artificial intelligence? Because they really seem like it.” I guess we’ll see if they respond.

Upon further inspection, there were even more articles similar to this, two that even seem to copy each other. Here’s the website that appears to be the original source and a celebrity birthday/height/weight website that copied that (incorrect) information. 

Here’s that picture they used:

Isn’t he handsome?

Yeah, that’s not Amon Gus. A quick reverse-image search shows that’s the German author Karl May, who died in March 1912 at 70, five and a half years after Wolfgang Staudte was born.

Here he is on the cover of his book Leben, Werk, Wirkung (which according to Google Translate means “Like, Work, Effect”):

So handsome...

So, is Amon Gus a real person? Maybe, but it’s unlikely. It could be a goof by an AI trying to find new material. Or a fabrication to make a meme. Who knows? I certainly don’t.

Murderer Is Amogus and Jew Sus is still funny though.

And thus concludes my endurance to go further down the rabbit hole as well as tonight’s episode of Sidetracked. I’ve been your host TGT, and remember kids: Check your sources.

[dickie-gayson]

Fun Young Justice Fact!!

I straight up c r i e d during the S1 episode Coldhearted but not for the reason yall think. I've seen MANY discussions and reactions but not ONCE have I seen any love or recognition given to my boi in Coldhearted

THIS IMPORTANT DOCTOR MAN RIGHT HERE. U SEE HIM?? Y'ALL REMEMBER HIM? UR GONNA GET A LESSON ABOUT THIS LOVELY, BEAUTIFUL, INTELLIGENT DOCTOR RIGHT N O W

This doctor (he's the good one, not the goon) isn't named during the show iirc BUT his name is in the credits.

Pieter Cross.

Pieter Cross.

P I E T E R C R O S S

Y'all, Pieter Cross is another dc superhero - one of my favs.

This lovely accented doctor, Pieter Anton Cross, is none other than Doctor Mid-Nite (the second). here's some pics (the first is w his bffl/platonic life partner Michael Holt aka Mister Terrific)

Pieter graduated from Harvard Medical at 19. He's essentially the Hero Community's go-to doctor for everything.

"Doctor Mid-Nite is the world's most prominent superhero doctor. He is often called upon when an autopsy is needed, or when a hero needs major surgery."

Ye, he's had to autopsy his dead friends :( he also does casual checkups. Powergirl goes to him for her check ups and to keep an eye on her powers. He's done a bunch of life-saving surgeries on not only the heroes but ALSO their loved ones! He performed surgery on Lois Lane after she got shot. When Hush removed Catwoman's heart from her body, Doctor Mid-nite and Mister Terrific were able to successfully put it back in and save her.

You not only want him in ur corner when ur hurt, u need him. There's none better! Imagine the sheer amount of crazy powerful allies he has bcus he saves all sorts of heroes and their loved ones! U don't attack the healer unless u wanna get fucked up by the rest of the squad, right? U also don't piss the healer off unless u wanna suffer, right? Same energy, fam. It helps that he can perform surgery flawlessly in the fuckin pitch dark.

He's disabled! In fact, Doctor Mid-Nite is credited as the first disabled superhero in comics! They're talking about Charles McNider, his predecessor, but Pieter Cross is also disabled. He's blind. I won't go into his whole origin but suffice to say he was unwillingly drugged and it caused him to go totally blind except for in the absolute dark.

He can only see in the dark and/or with his specialized lenses iirc. He carries smoke grenades that cause absolute blackness (think vanta black bombs) bcus he can see just fine in it and others can't. Any attack that involves having to see the attack (think Medusa's gaze) doesn't work on him cus he's conventionally blind. HOWEVER when he can see, it's fuckin crazy. Eagles got nothing on how sharp his eyes are in the right setting. Like we're talking super vision.

Those funky lenses on his cowl? They're to let him see in the light. It's kinda like infrared goggles and can let him see ultrasonic as well. Without his tools, he can't see. He got his sight back once and hated it bcus he could no longer work the way he used to.

OTHER FUN FACTS ABOUT THE GREAT DOCTOR

Doctor Mid-Nite has his own website where he provides free medical advice to registered users.

He's Norwegian-born. (That's his accent in that YJ ep)

Him and Mister Terrific are the bestest of friends (I felt the need to reiterate bcus they're Besties for Life. Read 1 comic with them in it and you'll see what I mean)

HE HAS A PET OWL NAMED CHARLIE!! He named him Charlie after the first Doctor Mid-Nite, Charles McNider!! He's trained to aid Pieter in combat! Attack owl!!! Batman has his Robins, Mid-Nite has owl sidekicks!

Highly Skilled Escapologist

He briefly dated Black Canary

His general medical license has been revoked, not that it stops him from practicing and helping ppl. He gives zero fucks. He's here to help, not politick around when ppl are dying.

He never stopped being a doctor, even after becoming a superhero. HE'S A LOVELY, KIND, COMPASSIONATE MAN WHO JUST WANTS TO HELP PPL

He's vegetarian AND he does yoga (imma cry yall, he's so fuckin great)

S1 of Young Justice appears to take place before he gets his powers and becomes Doctor Mid-nite cus he's not wearing any type of glasses. Wally interacted w (imo) one of the greatest heroes and doesn't know it!

Mid-nite is the one everyone says Tim Drake copied with his one Red Robin uniform (it's true too. I wouldn't be surprised if Tim was a Mid-nite fan, they seem like they'd get along)

T H I C C T H I G H S!!! I know everyone talks about Jason's thighs but Pieter's thighs are next level!! I ain't playing! Look at these hams!!

When his mom was pregnant with him, she got attacked. The OG Doctor Mid-nite saved her. Then, when she went into labor, he delivered lil bby Pieter. What are the odds lmaoo

BDE through the roof, fight me. Massive Meat Energy and I won't apologize for saying it

Survived 'seeing' Johnny Sorrow's face even tho it kills legit anyone who looks bcus he's blind. Used the recording his goggles took of JS' face and played it back to Johnny and beat him lmaoo

As someone summarized nicely: 'Prior to him getting blind, Dr. Pieter was a very caring man.. He would take a walk in the evening every day and helps out poor people who live in the streets, especially to those who are addicted to drugs.. He would help out missionaries in donation to help the poor and the hungry.. A Poor People Savior you might say."

"Doctor Cross uses his medical expertise as a hand-to-hand weapon. Once, when challenged to arm wrestle, he won by triggering the proper nerves in his opponent's arm." Savage Nerd Alert. Can, has, and will continue to use his Galaxy Brain (and BDE) to beat ppl, dirty technique or not.

Geoff Johns on Doctor Mid-Nite: "Doctor Mid-Nite is a visionary, figuratively and literally. Blinded by an accident, he’s able to see on all spectrums through the filters on his goggles."

Here's some of him being the Super Doctor:

Helped Alan Scott to determine if he was composed of the Green flame of Starheart

Helped Power Girl to check and test her powers

Saved Hourman's life by performing an emergency surgery

Saved Oracle by removing the Brainiac virus which possessed her body

Saved Lois Lane's Life by removing a sniper bullet after she was shot

Helped Raven to drive the demonic possession that attacked her by using Hologram Tech

I love him and would die for more content about him

Srsly I'll cry if even one(1) person acknowledges him in a YJ fic (or any fic tbh)

APPRECIATE DOCTOR PIETER ANTON 'MID-NITE' CROSS OR P E R I S H

Also if ur writing a YJ fic and have need for a doctor, pls add him. He didn't graduate med school to be ignored, yall. Or add him in just bcus he's rad af. At least do it for Charlie the owl!!

[lingthusiasm]

Transcript Episode 35: Putting sounds into syllables is like putting toppings on a burger

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 35: Putting sounds into syllables is like putting toppings on a burger. It’s been lightly edited for readability. Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 35 show notes page.

[Music]

Gretchen: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! I’m Gretchen McCulloch.

Lauren: And I’m Lauren Gawne. Today, we’re getting enthusiastic about syllables! But first, Gretchen’s book is out now. If you haven’t bought it yet, you should buy a copy!

Gretchen: Yes! It’s very exciting to finally have other people being able to read the book and talk to me about memes, and emoji, and punctuation, and all of the internet linguistics things that I’ve been thinking about for three years. We are doing a very special Q&A episode for the book. This episode goes up on August 15th. You have until August 15, so you have some number of hours until it is no longer August 15th in any time zone. You can check ahead to Hawaii and maybe gain a few hours that way to send in your questions about things to do with internet linguistics, the book-writing process – and then we’ll do a very special behind-the-scenes bonus episode about that.

Lauren: I’m looking forward to everyone else’s questions. I have a bunch of questions about how the book-writing process went. I’m looking forward to that Patreon bonus episode. Also on the Patreon we have a new $15+ tier. Several people have been asking for a way to support us even more than the $5 a month for bonus episodes. At our $15 Ling-phabet tier you will receive your very own symbol of the International Phonetic Alphabet, which you can get through either a super scientific quiz or just merely saying that you have a favourite.

Gretchen: Then, we will add your name and symbol of choice to our Lingthusiasm Supporter Wall of Fame on our website. We’re happy to put your name or any other name within reason. If you want to give this as a gift to somebody, that’s also a thing you can do. And if you join this new level before August 15th – this is the same time zone thing that you’re running into right now – you can also get a signed book plate, which is a custom Because Internet sticker that you can stick into your copy of Because Internet, which I will sign for you and I’ll put your name or whatever name you want. You can stick it inside your book and then you have a signed copy of Because Internet. If you join that very soon, you can get that as well.

Lauren: Of course, even if you don’t listen to this episode within the first 24 hours of it going up, you can still buy Gretchen’s book from all good and bad booksellers – preferably good ones. You can also support us on the Patreon.

Gretchen: Yes. There are some other ways to get an actual, physical copy of the book signed, but this is probably the easiest one. Hopefully, you have a chance to do that.

[Music]

Lauren: Gretchen, I am going to test you. Everyone can play along. I’m gonna give you some pairs of words and I want you to tell me whether they sound like English words.

Gretchen: Okay. Sounds good.

Lauren: They’re made up – some of them. The first one is “blick” and “bnick.”

Gretchen: “Blick” sounds like a pretty reasonable English word. I don’t know what it means yet, but it could mean something. “Bnick” – I’m not so sure.

Lauren: I actually even have trouble saying it. I feel like I’m saying “buh-nick” – “buh” ... “nick” all at once.

Gretchen: /bnɪk/ – B-N-I-C-K. Not something I’d expect English to turn into a word – no.

Lauren: No. The B and the N together don’t really work that well. What about the word “copter” versus the word “pter”?

Gretchen: Yeah, “copter,” I mean, is an existing English word – could continue to be an existing English word. Seems legit to me. “Pter” – yeah, the P-T thing, again, not really doing it for me.

Lauren: Because that’s the – like when you say “pterodactyl,” I know that it’s P-T, but I can never say that P.

Gretchen: Or like the Greek “Ptolemy” is just /taləmi/. It’s not /ptaləmi/ even though that’s how they said it back in the day.

Lauren: In fact, “helicopter” is from Greek “heliko-pter” – “spinning” and “flying” are the two roots there.

Gretchen: It really seems like it should be from “heli” and “copter,” but it’s “heliko-pter.”

Lauren: Which is not how my English brain can divide that word up.

Gretchen: No. No. It really isn’t. But the Greeks are really happy to have /pt/.

Lauren: Okay. Next two are “fneeze” and “sneeze.”

Gretchen: “Sneeze” seems like it’s doing fine. But with the F – “fneeze”?

Lauren: I’m really glad that you recognized “sneeze” as a word. We’re doing well. Good work.

Gretchen: My vocabulary is really good. I know the words “helicopter” and “sneeze.” Yeah, “fneeze” – also not so much.

Lauren: “Fneeze” was the original way that English speakers said “sneeze.”

Gretchen: That is amazing.

Lauren: Then, when they started printing it, that "F" looked like that long "S" that you get in ye olde printing times.

Gretchen: And people started pronouncing it much more sensibly as “sneeze.” We don’t have any words in English that begin with /fn/.

Lauren: Yeah. We literally had, like, three of them. And two of them are now gone, and people turned “fneeze” into “sneeze” because it felt more like the shape of an English word. Okay. Next one is “sing” versus “ngiss”.

Gretchen: “Sing” – again, an English word. I recognize it. Seems very English-word-like. But “ngiss” – I don’t think we have any English words that begin with /ŋ/.

Lauren: No. But we do in languages like – a lot of Australian languages and also Syuba, the language I work on, has that initial /ŋ/ sound. Even though I know this, I really struggle to pronounce it because it’s not where it goes in English. We have it at the end of a word. I know I can make this sound. But I really struggle to make it at the start of a word.

Gretchen: You have it in Vietnamese at the beginning of words. And Cantonese, I think, sometimes you see it in people’s last names – but not at the beginning of words in English.

Lauren: The final pair is “heat” and “tih.”

Gretchen: “Heat” – also an English word. Seems like it works. “Tih” – with the "H" at the end, I can make it, but it kind of reminds me of when I was studying Arabic and I had to learn how to make words that ended with an "H" sound because that’s not where we’re used to saying it in English. Even if you write an H – like “Ahh!” – you write it with an H, but you don’t say /ahh/ unless you speak Arabic, maybe.

Lauren: H goes at the start of a word for English, /ŋ/ goes at the end of a word, and when you try and put them in the other spot, it’s really hard to say and it’s really hard to hear as well.

Gretchen: That’s something that I find really interesting because when we think of the sounds of a language, it’s easy to be like, “Okay, here’s a list of the sounds in this language,” but it’s not just about which sounds you have, it’s also about how you can combine them with each other – which ones can go at the beginning of the word, which ones can go at the end of the word. Not all languages let you do all possible combinations.

Lauren: That’s because different languages have different structures for their syllables and what sounds can go together in a syllable, which is like a chunk of sounds together.

Gretchen: A word is made up of syllables and that kind of determines what one you can do. If you talk about words that are just one syllable long, that kinda gives you the maximal picture of what sounds can combine in that language.

Lauren: What sounds can combine and what spots they can go in within that structure. In fact, the word “syllable” comes from a Greek word that means “goes together” or “what goes together,” which is a really nice – I kind of like that, that “syllable” means what can hang out together.

Gretchen: That’s very nice. Also, just to clarify, we’re not talking about signed languages here because signed languages don’t have sound-based rules for how they go together because they don’t have sounds.

Lauren: They’re not stuck with this narrow-minded problem of linear time in the way that sounds are when they all have to follow a string.

Gretchen: Sounds only exist in one dimension. Signs exist in two dimensions. They’ve got their own constraints, and we’re just not gonna get into them in this episode. Yeah! Different languages have different shapes for their syllables – different ways they like their syllables to be constructed. I like to think of a syllable as kind of like a burger.

Lauren: Awesome.

Gretchen: It’s a very delicious metaphor. I’m sorry if anyone’s hungry right now. You have your pieces that go together like the patty and the bun, and the various toppings, and cheese and so on that you might add to your burger. There’s various different kinds of ways you can do that when you’re looking at the syllable-burger as a whole.

Lauren: Different languages allow you to put different things in the burger and in different orders.

Gretchen: Yeah, and some people – there was a lot of controversy about the burger emoji a while back because people were annoyed that some versions of it had the cheese below the meat instead of on top of the meat. The order is important when you put things in a burger.

Lauren: And what you include and how much you can include in a burger definitely varies from place to place.

Gretchen: It can be political sometimes. I don’t know what you guys put in burgers in Australia that is different.

Lauren: Well, a classic Australian burger has beetroot in it.

Gretchen: Oh, okay. See, I would definitely not think of beets as a thing you put in burgers.

Lauren: It’s delicious.

Gretchen: It probably is. I’ve never tried it. Languages are also often faced with syllables that they can’t necessarily handle through their own internal resources. They have a couple options. One of those is to say, “Okay, there’s so much here that I’m actually gonna split this across two burgers” and another of which is to say, “Look, there’s so much here. I’m just gonna take some stuff out and completely discard it.” One very salient example to English speakers sometimes is when Spanish borrows a word from English. In English, you can start a syllable with a sequence of sounds like /sp/ or /sk/ or /stɹ/. You can have an S and then a consonant or some consonants after it at the beginning of a syllable in a sequence like “Sprite” or “school” or “scheme” or “street” or in a name like “Stephanie.” But in Spanish, this combination of S and a consonant at the beginning doesn’t work. You can have just S at the beginning, but you can’t have S and then a consonant at the beginning of a syllable. It’s just not something they’re keen on. The way that that they deal with this is they say, “Okay, if you try to put S and then a consonant at the beginning of a syllable, you’re gonna add a vowel in before the S.” Now, the S belongs to the previous syllable and the consonant belongs to the next one. You’ve split them across too different sorts of burgers. You get things like “Stephanie” becomes “Estephanie.” Or “Sprite” becomes “Esprite.” Or “school,” which goes back to the Latin root “schola” becomes in Spanish “escuela” rather than “scuela” or “schola.” In all of these cases, you’re adding the E at the beginning to kind of rescue this S and allow it to stay because otherwise it’s not something that works for speakers of that language to pronounce.

Lauren: Nepali speakers do the same. But instead of E at the start for their burger, they use an /i/ burger. So, it’s “/iskul/” instead of “/ɛskul/.” They don’t like S and K in the same burger, so they move the S over to another little burger with an /i/.

Gretchen: I like to think of the vowel in the middle as the meat or the patty or the portabello mushroom in the middle of the burger. Then, you have your consonants on the other side, which are kind of like the buns. It’s like “No, we’ve got too much bun. This bun is too big. We need to give it its own patty – its own vowel – by adding an extra vowel." Another example of this is – so Hawaiian, which is really – the largest syllable that it will let you have is just a consonant and a vowel all by itself. When the expression “Merry Christmas” was borrowed in Hawaiian, it got converted into “Mele Kalikimaka.” “Merry” becomes “mele” because they don’t have an R in Hawaiian. That’s pretty straightforward. And then “Christmas” – so that has a /k/ /ɹ/, /kɹ/, but that’s too much in Hawaiian, so you get “kali” rather than /kɹ/ to break up that sequence as well.

Lauren: Hawaiian is like when you choose to eat lots of individual, tasty, smaller cheeseburgers rather than one big burger full of stuff.

Gretchen: Yeah. It’s kind of like the sliders of syllables. Everything’s just a bunch of small, open-faced sandwiches.

Lauren: I think the important thing here is everyone still gets to eat plenty of burgers.

Gretchen: It’s interesting because there’ve been some studies that show that some languages have syllables that are smaller – that just have maybe, maximum, a consonant and a vowel, or a consonant and a vowel and a consonant and no more. Those languages tend to pronounce their syllables faster because there’s less information in them. Whereas, a language like English, the most dense-syllabled word in English is the word “strengths,” which has got three at the beginning S-T-R, and at the end it’s got /ŋ/ /θ/ /s/. “Strengths” – three at the beginning, three at the end.

Lauren: That is a very large and full hamburger situation.

Gretchen: It’s a very large and dense – there’s a lot of toppings and stuff on this hamburger. So you say those a bit slower because they’ve got more information in them. When you count by syllables, it seems like some languages are faster, but it’s because they’ve got smaller syllables. If you count by bit of information, they actually end up averaging out to about the same.

Lauren: I learnt Polish, which also is a language that allows a lot of stuff in a single syllable burger. But it allows different stuff to English. It took a long time to get my head around that. I know we don’t normally try and apologise for how badly we speak languages on the show but, like, I really do feel it’s been a long time since I’ve worked out my Polish consonant cluster mouth. A word like “wstrząs” which means “shock,” has multiple consonants before that vowel that we don’t normally put together in English.

Gretchen: Yeah. I don’t even think I can produce it – /vəʃɑnt͡s/ – yeah. I’m definitely dropping some of them just to –

Lauren: Just to try and make it fit within the kind of burgers that you’re used to.

Gretchen: One thing I could do if I was trying to say that is /vʃɑnt͡s/ – I’m gonna drop one. Or I could say /və-ʃɑnt͡s/ and try to add a vowel in between to split it up.

Lauren: A bit like Hawaiian speakers do with “Kalikimaka” for “Christmas.”

Gretchen: Exactly – add a vowel there. English speakers, sometimes we drop stuff. Sometimes, we don’t. You can see this in words that we’ve borrowed from other languages. Like with “helicopter,” you don’t need to do that there because it’s in the middle of the word. But in a word like “pterodactyl,” you just drop the P. Or “psychology,” you just drop the P there. Or “xylophone,” which was originally /ksɑɪləfoʊn/ because that’s what sound an X makes.

Lauren: Oh, yeah. I never thought about that. Most of you just get used to saying words how you say them.

Gretchen: Yeah, exactly. In French, for example, they’ve also borrowed these words from Greek, but French is more okay about saying those consonants at the beginning. In French, you say, “la psychologie” and “xyloph” – I don’t know if you do it with “xylophone” – /ksiləføn/. You definitely say /psikələʒi/ in French. You don’t say /sikələʒi/. Sometimes, in English we drop it. And sometimes, in English we add another little vowel to kind of rescue all of the consonants. In words from Russian, some English speakers can say things like “Vlad” and “Ksenia,” but a lot of times you’ll get /vəlæd/ or /kəsɛnjə/ in order to try to keep both of the consonants there.

Lauren: A bit like Spanish speakers and Nepali speakers with /iskul/. We move that initial /v/ in “Vlad” to its own /vəlæd/ syllable.

Gretchen: To try to say the whole thing. Japanese does this as well. In an English loan word like “picnic,” because in Japanese they don’t like consonants at the end of a syllable unless it’s an N or an M, so “picnic” becomes something like “pikuniku” because you wanna rescue those Ks by giving them their own vowel.

Lauren: The start and the end of a syllable have their own characteristics. We’ve been talking around the kind of burger part and what can go before or after the burger. But that can differ. With Japanese, you can only have an M or an N after that central part.

Gretchen: Exactly. I think this is one of the reasons I like a burger metaphor in particular because a sandwich also has a central part with the filling and two pieces of bread, but what makes a burger distinct is that it’s asymmetrical. You’ve got a top of a bun that’s different in shape from the bottom of the bun. Languages often let you do different things with the start of the syllable than they let you do with the end of the syllable. In many cases, at the end of the syllable, you can’t put as many consonants there. Sometimes, you can only put a few, like M and N, or you can’t put any, like in Hawaiian. Or in English, you can put the /ŋ/ at the end of a syllable, but not at the beginning. Or you can put the H – the /h/ – at the beginning of the syllable but not the end.

Lauren: Yeah. We definitely can’t put it at the end as we discovered at the start of this episode.

Gretchen: /ŋah/, / ŋah/, what a great word! “Hang” – totally good word. /ŋah/ – not a word.

Lauren: /ŋah/ for English is the equivalent of serving a burger with the bun upside down. An English speaker would just be like, “What is happening?”

Gretchen: “What have you done?”

Lauren: “What have you done with my burger?”

Gretchen: It doesn’t even sit on the plate. The top is curved, so it doesn’t even sit there. It just kinda falls over.

Lauren: It could be a perfectly good burger in many other languages – a very confusing burger in English.

Gretchen: Right. What you think of as something that belongs on the top, or what you think of as something belongs on the bottom. I think there’s also so room for some individual variation. Do you put the ketchup on the top bun or the bottom bun? I don’t know. In general, languages do have this asymmetric relationship between what can go before and after the vowel.

Lauren: The vowel being that really central – it’s hard to – a burger without the patty in the middle is a salad roll.

Gretchen: Yeah, if you have – I was trying to think about this as well, because you need to stress test your metaphors before you commit to them. I was thinking, back in the day, when I was a student and not very organised, and I was a vegetarian and I was trying to get enough protein, sometimes I would just eat a veggie burger with some carrot sticks or something, or a salad or whatever, because I wouldn’t have the buns. That’s something you can do when you’ve still eaten, by some definition, something of a burger. I think if I just had the bun by itself, I have not eaten a burger.

Lauren: No, you’ve eaten a roll.

Gretchen: You’ve just eaten a roll. You’ve eaten a bun. By no definition is this a burger. Whereas, if you just eat the patty, you have kind of still eaten a burger even though it’s a very small burger.

Lauren: Overwhelmingly, when people talk about syllables, the vowel that’s in the middle is a really central anchor point for almost all languages.

Gretchen: You need this anchor point of something to make the syllable. It’s generally a vowel, but it’s not 100% a vowel because there are some words in English, for example, depending on how you pronounce a word, like “bottle,” you probably say /bat-l̩/ and it’s just really just an L – /l/. You could say /battəl/, which might give you vowel there. You could just say /baʔl̩/ or /baʔn̩/ and that might just be /n/ – the N itself – that’s the second syllable and there’s no vowel to speak of.

Lauren: That N is the portabello mushroom of burgers.

Gretchen: Yeah, exactly. It’s kind of the centre of it, but you don’t normally think of it as a prototypical burger.

Lauren: As a vegetarian, I am really sick of portabello mushrooms as burger. But as a language speaker, I love syllable nasals and syllable Ls.

Gretchen: Well, I also kind of think of – so you have can have in the middle one vowel, but you could also have several vowels. You could have something like “bike” has /ɑɪ/, which is a diphthong, which is kind of two vowels smooshed together. So, maybe that’s kind of like a deconstructed burger – something that’s got multiple pieces inside of it.

Lauren: You can order two patties in a burger if you want a really meaty burger – yeah.

Gretchen: The other reason I really like this burger metaphor is that if that you wanna serve a burger with only one bun, you probably take the top one off because that’s the one that’s the weirder shape, and you can still leave the bottom part of the bun and the patty part on your plate. There’s also kind of a different relationship that this vowel has with the consonant or consonants that come after it versus the ones that come before.

Lauren: It’s a very fancy restaurant that you’re eating in if you have to use cutlery to eat a topless burger.

Gretchen: You can have an open-faced sandwich. People don’t often have an open-foot sandwich. What’s the opposite of an open-faced sandwich, where you only have the top?

Lauren: An “open-bottom sandwich,” which is, I think, why they don’t say it. It sounds ridiculous and it looks ridiculous, and it’s even more ridiculous to eat.

Gretchen: It’s very messy.

Lauren: Although, it totally works fine for syllables. So, we found, finally, the first thing where the metaphor really doesn’t hold.

Gretchen: Yeah, the metaphor doesn’t hold in the sense that you can have a syllable like /ba/, which doesn’t have a bottom thing. But there is this closer relationship that the vowel has with anything that might come after it, because when we talk about what are different kinds of poetic devices you can do with languages or what are interesting kinds of ways you can play around with sounds – so you can have things that rhyme, which means that the vowel and any consonants that come after are the same. Or you can have alliteration, which means that just the initial consonants are the same. You don’t often get something where the first consonants and the vowel are the same, but the latter consonants are different.

Lauren: As a poetic device. Obviously, we can do this, but we’re not as into it.

Gretchen: You have “bad,” “mad,” “sad,” “glad” – these all rhyme. It’s great.

Lauren: Excellent.

Gretchen: Or you can have “bad,” “big,” “Ben,” “brigand,” “boxes” – and all these begin with B. You could make some sort of “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” sort of thing out of them. But “bad,” “bat,” “bag,” “back,” “ban” –

Lauren: They’re technically more alliterative because they all have B and A. But we don’t necessarily find them any more compelling than anything that was just a B at the start.

Gretchen: Yeah. The extra vowel doesn’t seem to gain us anything, as opposed to “bad,” “mad,” “sad,” “glad,” which is like, “Yeah! This is great! This is really doing something. Now we’re in a Dr. Seuss story.”

Lauren: So satisfying. We’re really into rhyming as a poetic device in contemporary English. But Old English was really into alliteration.

Gretchen: In Old English, it’s all about those initial consonant sounds, and they didn’t really care about the ends. This is a distinction that seems to be relevant in a lot of languages – the rhyming part of the syllable as compared to the onset part, which is just that initial set of consonant or consonants at the beginning.

Lauren: You need to understand how this rhyme part works, not overtly because obviously people can make rhymes without sitting there going, “Hmm, I must make sure that the vowel and the information following it is all the same in order to create a successful rhyme,” but you see even really young kids are great at understanding if something rhymes and also are really good at Pig Latin, which requires you to take the onset – so that top of the burger – off and then put it on the top of another, new syllable burger, which ends in A. I am terrible at Pig Latin.

Gretchen: Oh, I did it a lot as a kid. You have, like, “Pig Latin” becomes “Ig-pay Atin-lay.” That “ig” that’s left over is your rhyme. And then you’ve taken the onset – the P – and put it at the end. So, example, my name “Gretchen” and you put it into Pig Latin, it’s “Etchen-gray” because you’ve taken both the G and the R – because that’s the whole onset – and put it at the end.

Lauren: Having “Retchen-gay” would be very bad Pig – like, I would not be Pig Latin-ing correctly.

Gretchen: Yeah. That’s not how you Pig Latin. People are sensitive to this distinction even though most people don’t know the word “onset” or think about it in those terms. It’s something that is very intuitive from a language game. There’s also Latin games like “Ibbish” or "Obbish” where you put “ib” or “ob” in between the onset and the rhyme. In a word like – oh, I can’t do this one at all. In a word like “pig,” you would “pib-ig” or something like that – or “pob-ig.”

Lauren: This makes me so much happier to know that the kind of on-the-fly processing that you need to do for things like Pig Latin really are learnt behaviours because you can’t just immediately do it with another one.

Gretchen: I can do Pig Latin really fast, and the other ones I didn’t learn as a kid. You’ve gotta make sure that your kids acquire Pig Latin when they’re young enough because otherwise they’ll never get them.

Lauren: I missed the Pig Latin acquisition window, clearly.

Gretchen: I know. It’s terrible. I missed the Ibbish/Obbish acquisition window. This is something that people are really sensitive to. And yet, there’s not alternative version of Pig Latin where it’s like – I don’t even know how you would do it. You’d have to be like...

Lauren: P-A-/gə/.

Gretchen: Well, I’m trying to think – so what if you take the last consonant and you put it at the beginning – “gepi”? “Latin” would become “Naylati.” This is just not a thing that language games do.

Lauren: I never had much luck learning Pig Latin, but understanding how syllables work has made me much more aware of going learning other languages when it comes to – because we focus a lot on learning the sounds of a language, but it’s rare to be explicitly taught how to combine those sounds into syllables.

Gretchen: I think that was something that I noticed when I was learning Arabic that I had to learn how to make this H at the end of the word – when I was learning German – because they have not just /ʃtɹ/ but you can also do something like /ʃm/, which is less common in English except in a few loan words. Another interesting example of this is in Dutch where they have this combination of /s/, which is very straightforward, and /x/, like the German C-H sound – /x/ – but together it’s like /ʃx/ and I just can’t do it. I have tried a lot. There’s a city – and this is a very unique sound combination to Dutch – and there’s this city, which I’m gonna pronounce wrong, but it’s like “Scheveningen” – maybe. This was used as a shibboleth during the second World War to distinguish between whether somebody was Dutch or not. They would try to get them to pronounce this name because it’s really hard if you’re not Dutch.

Lauren: It’s a bit like when I was learning Syuba and other Tibetan languages that have that initial /ŋ/ sound. It was very frustrating to know I can make this sound. I’ve made it in English my whole language-speaking life. But putting it at the start of the word suddenly becomes a challenge for the shape of the mouth.

Gretchen: It’s the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The combination of sounds is an additional thing that can be really interesting about language even apart from the individual sounds that are there.

Lauren: Just like it’s fun to bring people to Australia and introduce them to burgers with beetroot in it, it’s really fun when you learn a new language to figure out what combinations of sounds it allows.

Gretchen: Yeah. Linguists have a lot of fun drawing diagrams to represent the information about – okay, what can go in the onset of this syllable? What can go in the rhyme? How can we divide the rhyme further between the nucleus, which is the vowel, and the coda, which is the consonants that come after? How can we represent this information in a way that makes it easier to talk about the differences and similarities between languages?

Lauren: Of course, diagrams are fun. But hamburgers are more fun.

Gretchen: Maybe linguists should draw their syllable diagrams as if they were actually hamburgers – new proposal.

[Music]

Lauren: For more Lingthusiasm, and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can follow @Lingthusiasm on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. You can get IPA scarves, IPA ties, and other Lingthusiasm merch at lingthusiasm.com/merch. I tweet and blog as Superlinguo.

Gretchen: I can be found as @GretchenAMcC on Twitter. My blog is AllThingsLingustic.com. My book about internet language is called Because Internet. To listen to bonus episodes and help keep the show ad-free, go to patreon.com/lingthusiasm or follow the links from our website. Recent bonus topics include animals, unique words that you use with your family, and direction words like “right” “left” “north” and “south” in different languages. You can also sign up to the Ling-phabet tier where we will assign you your very own symbol of the International Phonetic Alphabet, based on our super-scientific personality quiz, and add your name and symbol to our Lingthusiasm Supporter Wall of Fame on our website. Can’t afford to pledge? That’s okay, too. We also really appreciate if you can recommend Lingthusiasm to anyone who needs a little more linguistics in their life.

Lauren: Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, and our editorial manager is Emily Gref, our music is “Ancient Cities” by The Triangles.

Gretchen: Stay lingthusiastic!

[Music]

[beedaleebjd]

Psssst do you happen to have any tips or beginners links for newbies who are interested in getting in to the BJD hobby? 👀

*SOFT SCREECH* ALICE COME DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE WITH ME... /CLAMBERS FOR

This is a very slap-dash tips post, because a full fledged crash-course would take me much longer than a day to assemble. I think this could get someone started, but I can always answer specific questions if you have them in the future. ❤️

BJD 101: For a rundown of definitions, terminology, and origins of the hobby, I highly recommend checking out the Wikipedia article. (Warning for old vaguely spooky doll photos) I honestly wish I just read this when I got started, haha. It’s not everything, but it’s definitely a start.

Study! Read as much as you possibly can!! Especially terminology and maintenance. I highly recommend watching a bunch of unboxing and review videos- it might seem silly, but they're really helpful to get an idea of scale, how they function/pose, and how they look and feel when handled by a human. I also recommend trying to find owner photos of dolls you’re interested in, because sometimes the store photos are limited!

Join a community! Consider joining a forum like den of angels or a facebook bjd group like BJD Addicts! Exposure to the hobby is really helpful and you learn way faster. It’s fine if you’re shy, you don’t have to interact if you don’t want to- I like lurking DoA for the valuable tutorials and threads on doll brands I'm interested in. Tip: You can view some of DoA’s threads without an account by searching "[subject/doll of choice] den of angels" in google, but i got tired of that pretty fast. Signing up takes a few weeks to get approved but it's worth it for all the knowledge, even old archived stuff.

Window-shop until you drop!! I think the number one regret in the hobby is 'too many dolls, not enough time to love any of them'. So I HIGHLY recommend making wish-lists. These help a lot with avoiding impulse purchases and buyer’s remorse. There are a loooot of dolls out there, so if you've seen a huge majority of them, you'll be more picky.

For me, wishlists include both dream/grail dolls, tentative desires i’m not sure about but want to remember the name of, dolls I could never afford but feel validated writing down somewhere, and also cataloging info- measurements, wig/eye/shoe sizes, resin colors, price, current availability, dealer websites, etc. it becomes such a godsend when you shop for them. you’ll thank me later!!

I spent a lot of time browsing dealer websites like Alice's Collections, Legenddoll, Denver Doll, DOLK Station, etc- I linked some of those here. This is to see what my tastes are. Not EVERY doll company will go through all or any dealers, but it’s a good start!

If you’re the social type, going to conventions or local bjd meetups can help with getting an idea of your preferences! I accidentally walked by one at sakuracon last year and got to hold an MSD and an 11cm tiny, and that was REALLY helpful for me to realize I DID like those sizes. If other doll owners will let you hold theirs, I totally recommend it! (Always ask first, of course! Not everyone is comfortable with it!)

Go!! Slow!!! if you think you're taking it easy, go even slower. i'm so serious. it's so easy to get dazzled, over-eager, or totally overwhelmed by this hobby. especially if you have a habit of hyper focus/special interest tenancies like i do. 

Patience is a virtue anyway: If you’re not buying second-hand or in-stock dolls, you will be waiting a while for your doll. Anywhere from a few months to a year, depending on the company and how backlogged they may be at any given point. Dolls are usually pre-order and take time to be made.

Some people like to just buy sculpts and let a character ‘come to them’, which is absolutely valid so if you wanna just go on a feeling that’s great!! i totally can’t afford that route most of the time, so I spend a lot of time mood-boarding for my potential dolls using pinterest and my own art to see just how in love with an idea i am and highly recommend it. I’ll ramble about this in another post soon.

Budget! They are not very cheap like 10-20$ fashion dolls at wal-mart, so those new to the hobby may be shocked.This hobby is an investment and an indulgence/luxury, as with most Nice Things. But don’t be discouraged! There are affordable dolls out there, a lot of Dealer websites offer layaway plans, and the second-hand market is always circulating things!

Here is a DoA list of dolls that are under 300$. 

Note: Size of dolls often scale with price, so the bigger it is, the more expensive (and HEAVY) it will be. Some videos on BJD sizing here and here, but Flickr is crawling with height comparisons as well.

Craft or Not To Craft: Are you team 'i'm gonna sew/craft stuff/do wigs/eyes/faceups for my doll' or team 'i'm gonna buy clothes/props/faceups/wigs/etc from other artists!'? I know most people end up being a little bit of both, but these things both cost time or money (or both) so you wanna think about that in the overall price when you're considering a doll. It seems intimidating, but really, it’s the responsible thing to do. I’d rather plan for it than have a naked sad doll to feel bad about. Some personal recommendations below helped me get started:

Wigs: Monique Gold Collection wigs are affordable in the 20 dollar range, and have incredibly soft fiber! (You can find a lot of these available through ebay sellers as well)

Eyes: Lemonjellyshoppe and CandyKittenEmporium have some incredible eyes and also do custom orders!

Sewing Patterns: DGRequim on etsy and SproutyDoll have both been very nice to use and easy understand and modify to fit your doll!

When you’re savvy on the sizing of your dolls and if you’re comfy with secondhand sales, Facebook groups like BJD Addicts Sales & Commissions, BJD Lovers Sales, and BJD Adoption has a lot of people selling BJDs and accessories, oftentimes discounted for de-stashing or collection overhauls!

In addition to the other dealer sites I linked before, Dollmore (which also has an ebay shop) has a lot of options on everything! 

Rec@sts and the community- This is a veeery hot button topic, but you’ll probably see a lot of it the more you get into the hobby. I don’t want to talk about it a lot because of the negativity it attracts, but to sum it up: BJDs are essentially commissioned art pieces. They are hand sculpted by an artist or small group of artists, and then cast in resin and refined and strung by hand. There are people that will cast copies of them and sell them for a very cheap profit. To put it simply, it’s theft, and it effects the livelihood of people that make a living of their art. A lot of companies stop making dolls because they can’t compete anymore. Most official doll/art related conventions (LDoll, Resin Rose, etc) ban rec@sted dolls, as well as DoA and several of the facebook groups. Be sure to read all the rules of groups/forums you join them.

A lot of people come into this hobby unaware of this and buy a bootleg doll on sites like Ebay or Aliexpress, and then get turned away from the community without understanding why. There are understandable circumstances that cause someone to end up with a bootleg doll, but it’s also important to respect the artists and creators that share their art with the public.

On that note: Sometimes people will resell 2nd hand dolls as legit when they are not. Be careful about who you buy second-hand dolls from. Also, keeping certificates of authenticity (CoAs), receipts, and original packaging is must if you ever plan to resell your doll!

I... think that’s everything major I can think of... at least enough to get someone started? I know a lot of it is a bit vague, but if you wanted my opinion on a certain brand or size of doll or budgeting tips if money is tight, I’d be happy to give my personal preferences on that separately!! But otherwise, good luck and happy treasure hunting! ヾ(＾-＾)ノ

[mentalillnessmouse]

(p1) Hi, I'm writing because I feel there is no hope for me. I'm 30, I live at home where I get verbally mistreated (it was physical when I was younger.) I'm morbidly obese, agoraphobic, I literally didn't leave the house for a 2 year period and still rarely do. I have 0 friends and never had any except a few online ones who ditched me years ago. I was bullied constantly. I have self-harm marks all over my arms. I've NEVER had a job, or finished high school. I still almost never leave the house.

(p2) I’ve asked for help to learn to drive, but they tell me I can’t. I guess because they call me autistic and tell me I am not very smart and make jokes about me having ADHD. I took those comments seriously and they told me I was “looking for problems.” WHAT? I made the mistake of speaking with a few psychiatrists about it who shut me down because, in their words, I didn’t “look” like I had those issues. And that my parents had hard jobs so it made sense they would lash out at me. 

(p3) I deal with other issues too like menorrhagia. A doctor had me do an ultrasound (this was like my 3rd one since ‘06) and sent me to a specialist because they saw something. The specialist said she didn’t think anything was there and wasn’t going to actually examine me. I gave up. I’m afraid to speak up for myself, I genuinely don’t understand how to live, make friends, talk to people. I feel like I just have TOO MANY issues. And at my age I don’t see why anyone would bother with me anymore.

(p4) I have an appt with a psych at the same place as the others because I have my city’s free insurance and nowhere else to go. I don’t know if I can do it again after this? I just wanted somewhere to reach out at least one more time :( I’ve reached out to others (like extended family) who will talk to me for a bit then ignore? I can’t help but to feel damaged or like I’m doing something wrong I can’t figure out. I feel like a weak loser and I didn’t try good enough.I’m sorry this is so long

Hello Anon, 

I’m mod Bee and I’ll do my best to help you out, but I received help myself from the other mods to write you back. So this is a communal effort!

Thank you for reaching out, and I’m sorry you’re going though such a difficult and distressing situation. You sound strong and tenacious, and I’m proud of you for the way you keep trying to improve your life. 

We have some suggestions that we hope can be of help. They’ll concerne:

finding online communities/groups to hang out with

finding a professional that suits your needs 

looking for courses you can join 

thinking about possible job options 

Just an head up: this is going to be long, and it will contain tons of links. I’ll highlight one - that I think it’s most useful - for each section, but I suggest you to go through them all. 

1. finding online communities/groups to hang out with

Having friends is important for our mental health, but it can get difficult to make new ones, especially when we’ve been burned before.  

Online communities, forums, and groups, can be good places to start looking for friends again. You can approach them with as much caution as you need, and find those people you relate with the most.

If you like games, and rpgs in particular, there are online options that allow you to connect with other others all over the world. Activities like Dungeon&Dragons are based around players’ interactions, so you’d get to know people without putting the stress on forging new friendships. The article 10 Best Online Chat Rooms & Games suggests other equally fitting games. 

Forums and groups where you can share your experience and fears are another important tool you can use. I’ve looked into active ones and found Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia Forum, r/Agoraphobia/ (on reddit), bus (a self-harm support forum), Mental health support group and discussion community, Online Support Groups by Turn2Me, PsychForums (Psychology and Mental Health Forums), and the ReachOut app.

Trying with pen pals - a one on one exchange - could also be a good idea: InterPals and PenPalWorld are only two of the many websites dedicated to this purpose. Here’s some tips on how it works.

Finally, there are apps with the specific purpose of finding new friends, like Bumble BFF. Try to see if you there’s one of your liking in this list.

2. finding a professional that suits your needs

We usually recommend what it’s colloquially called “psychiatrist/therapist shopping”, the act of choosing a professional after inquiring what we need to know of their line of work, based on our own wishes, and asking this to more than one.

It’s difficult when insurance covers just a little portion of professionals, but not impossible. 

Can’t afford therapy? No insurance? Need low cost options? Here is a great list of ways to get help when money or insurance is an issue.

Therapy For Every Budget: How To Access It

9 Ways to Get Free or Cheap Therapy When You Don’t Have Health Insurance

Dial 211 for Essential Community Services: if you call 211, you can ask about free therapy options in your area, or how to work with you insurance to afford other professionals.

If none of these options work out, and you have to stick with the professional your insurance provides, there are measures you can take that might help making the sessions successful. Check out 21 Tips for getting the most out of each therapy session and How to Talk to Your Doctors When They Don’t Listen. 

If your new psychiatrist tries to dismiss you without hearing everything that you have to say, insist that they write on your record exactly what they did and why, and that you absolutely want a copy of it before you exit their room. It’s your right to have both your requests accomplished. I know it’s not easy to have them respected: you’ll probably have to stand your ground and that can be difficult, but I think it’s important for you and fundamental for what you can get out of this session. This is a post with links to various module you can complete to help you assert yourself, which I suggest you to start before going to your appointment, if you can. It can be useful to face your family, too.

Does your insurance cover a different specialist for the gynecological problem your doctor wanted you to check out? Is there any free or low-cost clinic near you, like Planned Parenthood or Free Clinic? You can inquire about their services through email.

3. looking for courses you can join

Online courses can be helpful for a number of things, like keeping busy, learning new stuff, feeling accomplished, and possibly getting some qualifications. 

There are some free options that end with a proper certificate, but not all are accredited, meaning that they’re not automatically accepted by employers (they can choose to consider them valid or not). Still, there are no downsides in joining such a course, seeing that it doesn’t cost anything but your time.

Not accredited certificates/no certificates:

Alison’s Diploma Courses and Certificate Courses 

FutureLearn doesn’t grant you certificates with their free courses, but it still provides learning access

edX’s Courses

Udemi, not free but it offers up to 90% discounts generally once a month

Learn how to code, a masterpost that lists different courses to learn coding

Free Online Language Courses, a masterpost that lists different courses to learn languages  

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free

Accredited certificates

coursera offers some free courses, and/or the possibility to apply for financial aid

Online Degree require no tuition, no applications, and no interviews, and has worked so participating Universities around the country will consider the courses for credit, potentially finishing up to an entire freshman year of college

edX’s Professional Certificate Programs are not free, but edX offers up to a 90% discount to those who prove they cannot pay a full price.

University Of The People is tuition-free, which means there is no charge for teaching or instruction, only initial fees (around 160$) for each course. You can also apply for scholarships.

on StudyPortal - Scholarships, you can find a huge number of scholarships available in your country, and here you can find the easiest scholarships to apply to. There are also scholarships for online courses.

There’s also the possibility of completing high school through virtual courses, and if they’re organized by your State’s public school system, they should be free. You can find more info on this here. 

4. thinking about possible job options

Working towards finding a job is important for our own self-worth and feeling like a valuable member of society, and of course it can also help with looking for better therapy. 

It can be tricky when mental and physical illnesses are at play, though. That’s why I’d like to give you some online options here, too, that don’t ask for any particular prerequisite, and would give you enough free time to focus to get better. Jobs like data entry or app testing are doable from home, and may not pay much, but they’d allow you to start building some savings. 

5 Online Jobs That Require Little or No Experience

No Experience? Start One of These Online Jobs

Best Data Entry Jobs From Home

10 (Legit) Data Entry Jobs from Home

Work At Home Data Entry on Indeed.com

FlexJobs

Glassdoor

Whatever you choose, creating a strong resume is always a good step. I’m giving you some resources on how to do that:

How to Create a Professional Resume

How To Make A Resume 101

Help Everyone Find A Job In Their Field

And between checking out all these options we gave you, please try to do some of this Workout For Daily Life, because focusing on a screen for too long can cause so many aches!

You’re not a loser, you’re strong and you keep fighting for yourself, which is admirable. I hope these resources can be of help, and please do send another ask if you need anything else.

Take care,

mod Bee

[rorodawnchorus]

Language learning (Korean)

I have been in Korea for 6 months. I was attending a Korean language institute under a scholarship programme and attempted the TOPIK exam for the very first time in January (68th TOPIK exam). In this post, I will list some books which I’ve found helpful and some methods that worked well for me throughout my time learning the Korean language. However, this post is really intended for recording the exam prep process before TOPIK. 

According to many Korean language teachers and other students who have done the TOPIK exam before, the January exam - which only takes place within South Korea - is the easiest exam. I have no idea how that works and I am not sure how true that is. I’ve done past year papers too and it didn’t feel significantly easier to me but I suppose that is just a personal thing. I lacked the self-confidence and was pretty sure I’d only score a level 3 or 4. 

To my surprise, I actually scored a level 6 albeit I only made past the mark by 3 points. I am not writing this so that I can brag about it because I do not think that I am at a native speaker level and mind you, the level 6 benchmark states that a level 6 fluency does not equate to native speaker level. I am writing this post simply to keep an actual record and share this (in case it is helpful to anyone studying the language - any language). 

Plenty of people say that I have an advantage for being fluent in both Mandarin and English. I must say that it helps because there are many loanwords in the Korean language which are basically English written in hangul. Simple example: 아이디어 = idea. The Korean language also has its foundations rooted in Hanja (or Hanzi) which is the Chinese character. I would not say it is exactly the same as modern Chinese language has changed drastically but it does help to know Hanja to some extent. I do not think it will severely impede your Korean language learning process even if you do not know Hanja well. 

 Due to some personal reasons, I could not fully focus on exam preparations until the final 1-2 weeks right before the exam. I’ve found several books to be extremely helpful, which I will list below (with its book cover). And I will also mention methods that worked for me. 

Before coming to Korea, I’ve never attended any classes or tutoring sessions. My entire experience of learning the language consisted of self-taught processes that included a lot of TV-watching and some consistent grammar workbook practices that helped lay down the groundwork. I must warn you that I struggled a lot with many fundamental grammatical mistakes that the teachers frowned upon because I made those mistakes unknowingly and no one was there to correct me before they solidified. 

1. QUICK FIX FOR COMMON GRAMMAR MISTAKES

As mentioned, fundamental grammatical mistakes can severely impact your exam as it might make an impression that your understanding of the Korean language is weak. At least that was the opinion. I had about 2 weeks to fix that and this book helped tremendously. Would have been better if I had actually attempted to find this book earlier before. It’s a copy worth keeping as it has very intricate explanations that helps distinguish the grammatical forms that you might find confusing. You do not necessarily have to work through the book in chronological order. I certainly did not have the luxury of time to do that. I would like to believe that I managed to fix some serious flaws I had made far too often. 

And I must admit that I did not even know certain differences between present and past tenses because they sound exactly the same to my ears. As I’ve mentioned briefly, I learned mostly by watching TV. (I’m really talking about those 은/는). It was a real mess, my basics. If you need an emergency quick fix for the same problem, you will need this. 

2. TOPIK WRITING (#53 AND #54)

TOPIK writing is perhaps one of the most daunting section in the entire exam. Needless to say, practice is essential to improving writing skills in any language. Most TOPIK books are slightly lacking in this sense, at least to my personal preference. They have lists of terms that are useful for vocabulary building that would be useful for the reading and listening section but it might not be sufficient for the writing section where commonly used phrases might be more useful. 

(*this is really a personal opinion because I did not like any of the word lists in several TOPIK books I’ve looked at. However, it doesn’t mean I’ve actually worked through several copies of TOPIK books before the exam. It might be just equally useful and what I did might have just been overkill.) 

This book, apparently, is designed to help non-Korean speakers improve their writing skills in university settings, i.e. writing reports or essays as a university student in a Korean university. Coincidentally, the chapters are neatly divided into several topics/formats that will be useful for TOPIK prep. E.g. describing a graph or a set of data, etc. This is mainly for question 53. As for question 54, the possible selection of subject for a 700-word essay is vast. It can range from very subjective questions like what a person (or people in general) thinks of happiness to how does regret impact a person, etc. The purpose of this essay is not to hear your personal opinion although it would still be your opinion. What you are expected is to map out a general essay in relation to the subject matter and you must do so logically. Rather than, “I personally think that I would...” it is more of an essay stating “The purpose of A is XYZ. However, it can also be 123.” You can probably discuss alternatives and several concepts but your very own opinion can only be reserved as a small portion of the essay. You may choose to include it by tucking it somewhere in the conclusion of your essay. Again, I take no credit for this tip. I’ve heard this from various sources although none is verified as proven. It did work for me, I suppose. 

3. WATCH TV WITH PURPOSE 

This method makes up the bulk of my Korean language learning process. However, I did not just watch TV without putting in a little effort at times. I do not have a pen and paper with me every single time I watch TV but I do it from time to time. I’ve begun doing this since approximately 5-7 years ago where I take out a notebook and jot down terms or phrases I hear while watching TV and then look them up in the dictionary. I did this while preparing for the exam too specifically by watching the news or talk shows on economic/social issues. Those that discuss policies and politics will help too. I haven’t necessarily seen the questions to be impossibly difficult to the point where you’re expected to know highly specific terms although I would say confidently that knowing those terms could score you some points. 

It sounds nerdy and might even sound like a chore to some but it definitely helps when learning words from textbooks or word lists are out of context and far more tedious. This method applies in watching almost all genres of dramas, variety shows and talk shows + news programmes. I wouldn’t say that I’d remember every word I’ve written down somewhere in my notebook but it’s a far more active method. 

This method is called “immersion” (click on this link for a more detailed explanation) and here, I’m specifically laying down a detailed method of how I made it work for me and how it has helped me. The same works for songs by looking at the lyrics (in Korean) and picking up terms, words or phrases. It is always best to look up in the dictionary because you do not want to make common mistakes or write down slangs in your exams. There are also certain common mistakes Koreans make and it may be common enough to be understandable by all Koreans however, you might still lose some marks for not learning the language in its proper form. One major downside to this method is most certainly the main aspect in Korean language where there can be major differences between the written (문어) and oral form (구어). Certain types of grammars are specifically used in oral forms and would be an indication of your lack of formal learning. Thus, here I must say, this method cannot be relied on entirely. It should be complimented with some process of formal learning through books and perhaps online lectures. Or even make a simple search of the grammar form in question. 

4. ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FROM VERY LEGIT SOURCES 

The National Institute for Korean Language has a very holistic website which students of Korean language education and Korean language teachers use very often. I took this tip from them. 

국립국어원 - where it has almost everything. This is the main site. 

And more specifically, 

한국어교수학습샘터 where you will have sections on grammar, common expressions, conjugation, etc. 

Although these are all in Korean, they are useful to a great extent and especially for higher level learners. There are also many instances where higher level learners become confused with basic level grammar. These are resources that will be valuable for fixing those problems too (as it was for me). For a rogue learner like me, you might face similar problems (or not) and these were all various methods I’ve found useful for learning and fixing repeated mistakes. 

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I hope this helps. I’m not sure if it’s significantly different from other language learners but these are things that worked for me. I’ve always wanted to make a written record of my learning methods and this is it. At the same time, I hope it will prove useful to someone who might be preparing for the exam.