#online classes for engineering maths

[dlxxv-vetted-donations]

Deadline Nov 28: Tawfik needs to pay his international student fees.

My other promos | Currently keeping up with here

Updated: Nov 21

Member(s): @dev-tawfik (current), @devtawfik (shadowbanned), @tawfikblog, @90-tawfik (shadowbanned)

Verification: @/90-ghost

Payment methods:

Gfm for education: PayPal, Venmo, Google Pay, credit/debit (donation match $10 USD)

Kofi for survival (mentioned here): PayPal, credit/debit. DO NOT DONATE HERE UNTIL AFTER NOV 28

Tawfik is a Palestinian currently taking online classes at an Egyptian university. His gfm campaign needs to reach $10,050 by Nov 28 so he can pay off his international student fees. Any additional funds in the gfm and Kofi will go towards the next semester's payments and family care respectively.

More info:

Nov 27: Tawfik has reached the Kofi goal to buy flu medication and a vaccine, so we are now focusing entirely on the gfm. He needs $10,050 by Nov 28 (hard deadline).

Update Nov 20: More details here. Tawfik has fallen ill with the flu and won't be online much. He needs USD $228 (fees included) for medications and a vaccine. This requires him to reach 71% of his goal on Kofi (which is specifically for non-education related needs). At the same time, he needs $10,050 in his gfm by Nov 28 to pay off his international student fees.

Update Nov 15: We reached the halfway goal for the international student fee of USD $9,050 by Nov 15. Now going for the full fee of $10,050 by Nov 28.

Update Nov 6:

Tawfik got an extension to Nov 30 to pay the international fee. New goals of USD $9,050 by Nov 15 and $10,050 by Nov 28 (to account for transfer time) were set. The final goal was reduced with some backup money. Grades will be withheld until payment is made.

Update Nov 5:

Currently, it seems impossible to raise the required funds ($10,050 - $10,150) by Nov 13. Tawfik has emailed his school to negotiate for more time.

Update Oct 29:

Now @dev-tawfik.

The next goal was $9,250 to pay off international student fees (due Nov 13, see math section below) that Tawfik just found out about.

The family urgently needed $1,000 for healthy food (Tawfik's father has health problems and needs vegetables).

Tawfik initially wanted to use the gfm money for education only as promised, but had to add the sum to the campaign goal (a total of $10,250) because the Kofi he made solely for his family wasn't receiving many donations early on.

There were some issues with the Kofi taking a few weeks to transfer funds, but that's been resolved. It is now for support of Tawfik's family and transfers money relatively quickly.

From Oct 17-27, we fundraised to $7,200 to buy some food for the family. This food money will last roughly 2 weeks.

We are focusing back on international student fees and set a short-term goal of $8,862 in the campaign by Nov 3. There will be another small goal set after this date.

We need roughly $10,050 (an estimate) in the campaign by Nov 13 (hard deadline). Again, this isn't a concrete number and involves some usage of Tawfik's backup money.

Campaign details:

Tawfik is a software engineering student in Palestine trying to continue his education by enrolling in online classes at an Egyptian university.

He already raised roughly USD $2,500 in late July through a now closed Paypal campaign and paid the school as an application and reservation fee. This is nonrefundable.

We fundraised $4,113 (5200 - 1087) and paid off his tuition for the year on Oct 7

The gfm is meant for education only. To support the family, donate to the Kofi. It no longer faces issues with long transfer times.

Tawfik has some extra leftover funds from paying off the tuition, but it isn't much and is to be used for emergencies.

Oct 17: Tawfik bought his textbooks ($800 incl fees → $6,000 in campaign) and got a small discount for being Palestinian. This money saved went into his emergency funds.

Math:

Please let me know if I screwed up the calculation somewhere.

The transfer fee is assumed to be ~$50 per $600 earned. My bad in earlier calculations where I set it after the bank fee rather than before.

Textbooks: base $600

Funds left after:

Gfm for 40 donations: 570.6

~$50 transfer fee: 520.13

12% Bank fee: 458.13

To cover the funds lost to fees, we need an extra $200 (assumed 15 donations). After fees on that, it's only $166 (enough to cover the short-term goal)

So we need 600 + 200 = $800 for the textbooks.

This is $6,000 in the campaign.

Slightly outdated: International student fees: base $2,423

900£ = USD $1,180.93

60k EGP = USD $1,241.29

Funds left after:

Gfm fees for 160 donations: 2304.74

Transfer fee, ~$200: 2,104.74

12% Bank fee: 1852.17

To cover the funds lost to fees, we need an extra $800 (assumed 55 donations). After fees on that, it's only $625 (enough to cover the short-term goal)

So we need 2423 + 800 = $3,223 for the international student fee.

This is $9,223 10,223 in the campaign, rounded up to $ 9,250 10,250

The rate of ~$100 daily is sufficient to get us to this goal before the deadline of Nov 13 (this accounts for the 2 days needed for transfers)

[call-me-casual]

(Also posted to the LK community)

Okay who’s interested in hearing about the school au I thought up in the shower

Keep in mind that all following information is based on my experience in British education, I have no clue how American schools run different

First we have the kids - James and Henri are both kids from the foster system, James has been adopted by Moses, whilst Henri is still technically a foster (ik ik not Franklin but maybe they’re neighbours). Henri is definitely the class clown whilst James is ambitious, but not too sure how to achieve his academic goals. Sarah is an exchange student from the UK living with Franklin, who is either a relative in this au or a family friend like in canon. She and James initially don’t get along but over time through the newspaper club and sharing most classes they grow closer. Sarah is an A+ student and she tutors James and Henri after school.

Most historical figures are teachers or general staff, except for named foot-soldiers like Joseph Plum Martin or other young historical figures like Sybil Ludington, who would be fellow students

Franklin - the kids’ (or at least James and Sarah’s) tutor (I think Americans call it home room?). He teaches science, and it’s his love of teaching that’s kept him from retiring (though he probably should have years ago). He runs the school newspaper (which James and Sarah are both a part of)

Moses - I can see him as a member of the site team or subject technician of some kind (basically helps to prepare stuff like experiments and maintain the school, but more responsibilities than a janitor). He’s also doing an online university course to get his teaching degree (he’d most likely go into either engineering/dt). The adopted Father for James and foster parent to Henri. Has known Franklin for years and the two are next door neighbours

Lafayette - French. Obviously. He’s a younger teacher popular with the students. His class is the only one Henri doesn’t goof around in, and the two are very close (spoilers: he may end up adopting him). Constantly asking the finance department to let him take a class trip to France. If anyone acts up enough to make him mad the class all turns on that one person (based on my mother’s experience (coincidentally she was also a languages teacher lol)). Often gossips and speaks with Hamilton in French.

Adams - idk if they teach law or politics in American high schools but if not then he’s probably an English teacher. His students live in terror or presenting essays or debates because no one can beat the man. You either love him or hate him, there’s no in between with his classes. Probably head of the department

Hamilton - probably either English or history (though maths is also a contender because he was treasury secretary). Also a younger teacher popular with the students. Has almost gotten into a fight with other teachers. And students. Definitely runs the debate club. Expects assignments in a week before the deadline. Is one of the leaders in staff room gossip.

Washington - I know most people make him the head teacher but I’m not a huge fan of that. He’ll probably end up as the head eventually for this au, but for most of it I imagine him is a department head. I can see him teaching either history, maths or geography (he was a surveyor after all, I could see him being a really good geography teacher). He’s that teacher that looks intimidating but is actually very nice. Believes way more in practical than theory and WILL drag his class outside in any and all weather to do a study. He also looks after any of the animals the school owns. Sometimes brings his dog to class. Is DEFINITELY involved in staff room gossip

Abigail Adams - I can see her as either the school nurse or some sort of creative arts teacher

Phillis Wheatley - definitely either an English teacher (damn we got a lot of those) and if not then some sort of creative arts teacher who also runs a poetry club. If anyone acts up in her class the other students ensure the body is never found.

Please suggest what subjects and the sort other historical figures would teach or any other ideas you have relating to this! ^^ Idk if I’ll draw anything based on this but it’s fun to brainstorm!

[donnerpartyofone]

I signed up for this online class co-taught by a woman I find maddeningly brilliant, where she lectures on her experience working with and studying people who are on the cutting edge of whatever their professional field is. She discovered this common thread where many of them claim that they don't come up with their innovations on their own--supposedly, ideas just enter their minds spontaneously, or even in a dream, and they follow these disciplined lifestyles (versions of monastic practices, generally) that they believe make them more receptive to those kinds of messages. A good clarifying example is that of a mathematician (Pattie Maes I think? I forgot to write it down) who claimed that as a young student, she would just-know the solutions to math problems without being able to explain the reasoning, so she was always in trouble with her teachers; eventually she got into analytical philosophy, which helped her reverse-engineer and understand the answers she mysteriously received. So anyway the class I'm taking allows you to offer up your own projects for feedback and advice about how you can invite a breakthrough to happen. There are some extremely interesting people in the group, including a couple of guys who are doing futuristic-sounding sustainable farming projects, someone who studies black holes, and just all stripes of scientists and artists. I'm hearing some pretty interesting things, but...

The class is co-taught by this woman who is also obviously brilliant, she has these insane credentials I barely understand involving venture capital and AI, she works with and for extremely high level companies and luminaries and her self-selected title is something like "singularity expert". And like, all of that is inherently interesting whether or not it sounds somewhat sinister to your ears, but I quickly realized that she's one of these people who is just fundamentally excited by the basic concept of Success, and she automatically thinks that any measure of fame and fortune, no matter what it's in aid of or where it came from, is evidence of genius. Which to me is like this incredibly dangerous trap, for what I think are really obvious reasons.

So one of us students brought up a manuscript she's been working on for decades that isn't going anywhere, and the singularity expert told her to just throw it out and do something else, basically. And in her justification for this, she started saying "I know a lot of you probably don't like Elon Musk, BUT" in this really bitter, cold tone of voice that let you know immediately that she's a huge fan and she thinks the resistance to him is just a bunch of ignorant liberal bullshit. And her example of his genius, which we should all imitate, is that when he wanted to make a big update to Tesla/Twitter/(some other shit he acquired from actual innovators), he found that the update was incompatible with all of foundational code, so he just threw out millions and millions of dollars' worth of code to force his new thing into place. And I mean, on one level I heard something useful and true: Don't sacrifice your future for the comforting stability of the past, beware of the sunk cost fallacy, etc. But the fact that Elon Musk did something that *appears* to represent that, depending on how you spin it, does not mean that he is a genius you should seek to imitate. First of all, I didn't leave knowing exactly what the consequences of his actions were, and second of all...millions of dollars doesn't mean anything to that guy. He's impossibly rich and he basically started out that way, and he's never going to wind up homeless or whatever even if he drives every single company he bought into the ground. He's just not a good example of someone with a high risk, high reward mindset that we should all emulate because he could lose hundreds of millions of dollars almost without noticing. The fact that he did this thing that in isolation looks heroic, that's only a tiny part of the picture with him.

(And that's without even getting into the impact that it has on the rest of the world, that he has so much power; like personally I think he's such a negative presence in the world that it's beyond just material effects, actually he's so corrosive that even talking about him is bad. Just contemplating the idea of him brings out the absolute worst in people, it's bad for people's moral fiber to even argue about him, but ANYWAY)

Unfortunately I find that a lot of people who have some kind of overlap with the self-help field will eventually come around to admitting that they're so blinded by the glamor of public, lucrative success that they don't really care where it comes from or who gets it or what people do with it. Damien Echols is someone I really enjoy, I just think it's undeniably interesting to hear from someone who spent almost 20 years on death row studying spirituality (to be glib about it) and pursuing all kinds of monastic disciplines; I mean that guy has things to say that you don't get from circulating in normal society. He practices something that has roots as far back as ancient Sumeria, he's not rich and he's not trying to get rich, but he often reminds people that poverty doesn't have an inherent moral quality and it's not inherently evil to pursue financial success. He'll say that if you have a phobic attitude toward money, if the very idea of it is tainted by guilt and fear in your mind, then it becomes a destructive force in your life--but if you think about money as energy, a resource you can channel into doing what's important to you, then it becomes something positive and supportive. And I can totally understand that. But then Echols will extrapolate that to the point that he's praising megachurch guys who are absolute crooks and scam artists and who definitely rob people through a form of psychological blackmail that tells them they're going to hell if they don't help buy Jim Bakker or whoever a private jet. And I'm like, man...ok so it's worth while to say that having a positive mindset about money can change your life for the better. But that doesn't mean that we have to then lionize every single person who ever got rich no matter how they got there and no matter what they did with their power, that's just fucking insane, right?

I could go on and on actually, about various people I've heard speak about how to break through your subconscious limitations and take a more authorial role in your own life, and how often even the most apparently well-meaning one of these speakers will come around to praising like the Monopoly guy, or some tepid pop star with an incredible marketing machine behind them, as ground-breaking geniuses who we all need to emulate. I mean a lot of people who are visibly successful get there by accident, or nepotism, or coattail riding, or plain ruthlessness. Many people in the big-success category turn out to be inarguably, unfathomably stupid (ironically I spotted the Elon Musk Pop Tart story the morning before I took this class), and some of them are only geniuses insofar as they have an abnormally well-developed predatory instinct that makes them able to think thoughts and perform actions that you really can't conceive of if you aren't, you know, a psychopath. Someone recently posted a bunch of advice on teaching from John Cale, and one of the things he said was "Suspect charisma", and I think THAT is a much more important piece of advice than like, "find someone who is rich and famous and do whatever that person appears to be doing without asking yourself how they got where they are, or just what is the real reason that you personally are so compelled by them." It seems like a lot of people respond to the aura of "success" so intensely that they just don't want to have to question it, and they'll bend over backwards crafting these speculative backstories and dialectic arguments to make their animal reaction to the spectacle of power sound like something intellectually sound. It smacks of stockholm syndrome, of people who fall in love with their own bullies. There's complicated reasons for that, some of which are what got Trump elected I think, but I don't wanna talk about that. I have to go to the doctor's now anyway, and stop thinking about this.

[tearsinthemist]

Want to learn something new

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Jan 2, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Dec 26, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[hijinxensues]

The Cloaking Brooch Dilemma - Part 1

RotTMNT Donatello x OC!AFAB

Synopsis: Donatello considered himself, nay, deemed himself the greatest mind of his generation. He was known for his skills as a scientist, inventor, engineer and was a technological genius. Dare he throw in that he was a damn good brother and held the title of being 1/4th ‘Protector of New York City’.

He could barely fathom that he didn’t piece together that the pretty barista he was falling for was simultaneously his gaming buddy (might I add, for the last eight years) and was working for Big Mama.

At this very moment, Donatello was sure of two things in his life. One of them being his life was a joke and the second being that he was fraternizing with the enemy.

All because he decided to run errands whilst donning his cloaking brooch.

Warnings: Aged-Up turtles, fluff, Half-Yokai OC, AFAB OC (does use she/her/they pronouns in writing), swearing 

NEXT

Ch 1 - Violet

You had known Othello for years- since you were sixteen, and you were in your mid-twenties now. He was a familiar online presence to you, and a welcome one at that. ‘Bootyyyshaker9000’ was his online name and the two of you had met through a tutoring forum for your high school IB math class, after getting acquainted with one another through the forum, your online chats quickly moved to Discord while the two of you played and chatted into the early mornings.

“Okay,” you exhale and glance at the time in the corner of the lit computer screen, “I think I’ve got to go, it’s super late and I’ve got to open tomorrow morning.” The mouse hovers over the exit button while you wait for him to respond.

“Ah, yes. It is quite late. Can I assume I will hear from you the same time tomorrow?”, there’s a pause, “I will make no guarantees that we won’t stay up as late, Letty.” He says with mirth and while you’ve never seen his face, you can almost imagine the crinkle by his eyes when he smiles- you try your best to pretend he doesn’t make your chest tighten.

“It’s almost like you enjoy hanging out with me?” closing the game in front of you and twirling the cord of your headset around your finger as you wait for a response. You liked the back and forth banter between the two of you, but it never went past light jabs and casual teasing- “flirting”, if you wanted to be generous.

“Hah! Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Letty. Othello Von Ryan holds no attachments to mere mortals.” Watching the volume symbol light up as he talks, you’re tempted to ask him about turning his cam on. He starts up again and the thought dies on your tongue, “I’m jesting, as you know. I’ll let you go for the night.”

“Chat tomorrow, Othello. Night!” you mute your Discord as you see ‘Bootyyyshaker9000’ fade, the telltale sign he’s logged out for the evening. With an exhale, you take your headset off and hang it on your computer screen. 3:00am, blowing a raspberry to the open air you get up to start your bedtime routine in the bathroom. The stark white hair that ended mid-back and the bunny ears that sprout and stick straight up where your human ears used to be aren’t cause for surprise any longer as you’ve been “part-mutant” since you were sixteen. Heck, the amber pupils don’t give you a fright either anymore. Looking down you’re met with white rabbit fur that started mid thigh and followed downwards to your dainty rabbit feet. ‘Part-yokai, maybe?’, you muse to yourself as you brush the tangled fur at the base of your ears. Even before the alien invasion, New York had been home to the strangest things, and while not everyone had been as welcoming as you hoped to a whole new species that lived underneath New York City, the general populace was on good terms with the Yokai.

The mystery on why you only happened to be part-rabbit was something you could not solve fully, but you did speculate that the “oozesquito” that had bit you all those years ago just wasn’t as full with “ooze” as the other ones that had bit and fully mutated others. While it was quite the shock that left you locking yourself in your apartment for days on end on the verge of a mental breakdown, you adjusted to the physical changes to your body relatively quickly. The poofy rabbit tail at the base of your back and rabbit ears were the easiest parts to come to terms with, and your legs which looked like permanent fuzzy thigh highs and the rabbit feet were the hardest adjustment to the ‘new you’ you had to make. You noted a change in the strength (and size) of your glutes and thighs as well, which you egotistically felt very good about as well. You let your ears relax against your head and exit the bathroom and get comfy in your bed.

After setting the alarm on your phone and plugging it in for the night, you drift off to sleep.

---

Fastening your cloaking brooch underneath your sweater was the finishing touch before heading out the door. Looking in the mirror, you looked as how you did before the mutation. Your hair at mid-back length but instead of the white you’d grown fond of over time, your locks now an ebony color and your pupils back to a dark brown that complimented your darker complexion. Pushing your glasses farther up on your nose you deem yourself ready to go. You felt the air around where your rabbit ears would be and while you could feel the plush fur, they didn’t show up in the mirror, the space now occupied by your human appendages. You always thought it was an odd sensation to feel your extra rabbit bits but never be able to see them with the cloaking broach on, your ears and tail never snagged on anything either. You chocked it up to the mystic magic of the broach itself, it was meant to conceal after all.

‘hey thanks for the new cloaking brooch. i owe u one!!’

You send off a text to your best friend in the city post-mutation. You get a response almost immediately.

‘ofc! dont lose this one lmao, theyre so expensive! run of the mill tonight? can u pick up?’.

You rush to catch your bus, make it on and take a seat before responding. You did have games planned with Othello tonight, but perhaps you could have Usagi over for around dinner time and have him out before 10pm to still make game night with Othello.

‘ya sure thing. Hawaiian 4 my fav rabbit? i have games w otto tonight tho, get out my place by 10 lmao’

You pocket your phone and hop off at your stop, the crisp air bit at your cheeks as the winter season made itself known. You shook off the cold as you entered your place of work, ‘Rendezvous’ a hole in the wall coffee spot on one of the quieter streets in New York. Your phone vibrates in rapid succession, and you know it’s Usagi giving you Hell about Othello, you take one last glance at your phone before starting your shift.

‘OMG picking a MAN you’ve never seen or met OVER ME! AGAIN’

‘u kno im joking’

‘yes to hawaiin’

‘Hawaiian*** please pick up extra ranch sauce. ill be over for around 5pm, love u vi’

You chuckle and smile then quickly respond, “ya ya whatever. will do for extra ranch, starting work now. love u too, gigi’. You pocket your phone and count the hours until your shift is over.

--

TBC

--

A/N : OMGGGG its been YEARSSS since ive written but i guess were back in the game??? This is the first fic I’ve written since i was a teen so i hope its half decent???? This will be a multi chapter fic and ill post it on ao3 as well omg im rlly nervous LOL

trust, we will run into donnie very quickly, but it IS a bit of a slow burn to kinda set everything up (im in process of writing chapter 4, so i hope to have a semi regular sched to upload). i didnt anticipate to do as much world building as ive had to actually do since i just wanted a cutesy fluffy donnie fic but here we are with something more than i bargained for LOL

Special thanks and dedication to @moonlightmarauder for work shopping the fanfic w me in the dead of night and @afreakingdork for being my inspiration to actually start writing again!! (Check out their fic “Crush Too Much”, its a Donnie x reader and itll be the best thing u ever read, i promise)

[hezuart]

Why did you switch from animation to reviews? Also, do you still plan on doing CGI like you mentioned multiple times?

oH BOY..... you may need to sit down for this one

So it all started back in 2012. I was around 14 years old and just saw Rise of the Guardians and Wreck it Ralph. The stories, the characters, the world-building, the animation... now I never really went to movie theaters as a kid, but as a teen I started going and I instantly fell in love.

I went to community college for a few years and made some amazing friends. Loved some of my teachers and we participated in fun events like the 24-hour challenge and Campus Movie Fest. I had gotten in the top picks for Campus Movie Fest at some point and was supposed to go to the Cannes Film Festival in France to showcase my short film, but then the pandemic hit and it got canceled indefinitely.

So get this, for community college, I got a certification in 3D Animation and Video Game development. It's basically an AA degree but without general ed. (Why do you need general ed to get a degree in something? Math and PE have nothing to do with Animation. College is ridiculous. People have to pay you more simply because you were forced to spend more money in college. Wild.) Out of the 20 classes I had taken to get this certification, only 3 of those courses were hands-on 3D animation. And only one of those courses was hands-on video game development and I dropped out of that class because it was PC only and I only had a Mac at the time. I applied to the class without realizing it was accommodating only to PCs. So even my certification is barely reaching the basics for the title of it, but I did take another online course or two for 3D animation which I have a different certification for.

Now even with my 3D animation, I was never taught the physics engine. I was never taught hair or cloth simulation, but I do have modeling, rigging, animating, and texturing experience. For gaming, I have very little experience. I've only modeled things and found my way around Unity, but otherwise, I suck at coding. I hate coding with a passion. Making a video game without coding isn't really possible.

Now, when the pandemic hit, a lot of things were shutting down. I had no idea where I wanted to go next. People kept asking me where I was going for my higher education, but I kept getting warned not to waste money on college if you're trying to become an artist, especially at University. It's a money pit, and competition is so high, you're not guaranteed a job, you're just gonna be in debt. Even colleges like Cal Arts, who charge over $1K per class, I've been told are a "Pay to get in" kind of place. Where the money is used to nab professionals from their work to teach students or talk about their company or programs, and through that, you get a bigger chance to get your foot in the door because you know someone. I've unfortunately been told that's the more realistic way to get into animation: networking. If you're a shy introvert who doesn't know any famous people, you need to be extremely talented and unique to stand out to get the chance of being noticed. I don't really want to suck up to people nor do I want to waste thousands of dollars and 5 more years on college that I may not even need (let alone be able to afford) especially if there are online classes that may be even more valuable.

Now after I got out of college and started applying a few places, I discovered a LOT of unfortunate information.

Most animation these days is done overseas. South Korea, India, Japan, and Canada are the big ones.

Invader Zim, Steven Universe, Miraculous Ladybug, The Simpsons, OK KO, Star vs the Forces of Evil, Kipo and the Age of the Wonder Beasts, Adventure Time, Twelve Forever, and the Powerpuff Girls Reboot were animated in South Korea. The Ghost and Molly Mcgee is animated in Canada.

(The first four seasons of the Simpsons were animated in America until it switched to South Korea and India.)

2D traditional animation is no longer viable. Puppetry is the industry standard because it's the cheapest. Luckily, Toon Boom Harmony has allowed us to push the boundaries of 2D puppetry. Puppetry these days, if done well, can look really great, like Tangled the Series, but if you don't have Toon Boom Harmony, you're probably not gonna be hired.

Not even all 3D is made in the USA. If it's Disney, Dreamworks, or Pixar, then it's usually USA. But streaming service movies, like Sea Beast, Kid Cosmic, The Willoughbys, and Klaus, while they claim to be a "Netflix Original" that "Netflix Animation" animated, that's a lie. Klaus was animated by Yowza! Animation in Canada. The Willoughbys: Bron Animation, Canada. Kid Cosmic: Mercury Filmworks, Canada. Sea Beast: Sony Pictures Image Works, Canada. (X)

Go Go Cory Carson is written and storyboarded in America, but the animation is shipped out to be done in France. Sonic Boom is also French Animated.

Even Sony Pictures? Open Season, Surf's Up, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, SMurfs, Hotel Transylvania, Over the Moon, The Angry Birds Movie, Sea Beast? Sony Pictures Imageworks is based in Canada. They're doing all the animation for them. It's not animated in America, it's merely funded by them.

I should also clarify: I only want to participate in stylized animated media. I don't want to do CGI for hyper-realistic films, which eliminates most of the animation jobs out there these days. It's just not my thing. The insane amount of details and uncanny valley are just so unappealing, I can't do it.

The closest animation studios are still far away. Most companies are located in LA. I'm over 7+ hours away from there. LA also has a high poverty rate, terrible air quality, is overcrowded, and is just generally not a good place to live, especially if you're low middle class. You're not gonna survive there.

Pixar is located in Emeryville, a few minutes north of San Fransisco city. Emeryville is the most crime-ridden city in that area. They tell you not to walk home alone at night. You're more likely to get robbed there than anywhere else according to the population ratio there. There are a lot of gangs that hide up there, and there's a lot of poverty there, even outside of San Fransisco. It's basically a trash pit. Not an ideal place to live, and commuting through 3-hour SF city traffic is also not gonna work. (X)

I have also been informed some people who work at Pixar are petty that the interns use their facility. Pixar has a heated pool, soccer field, gymnasium, and a few other nice things on their property. I was informed there was a person or two who got mad that an intern was using their basketball court.... when the intern was on break. As though they weren't part of Pixar, as though they had no right to touch the property. Apparently, they also used to make the interns push around little tea carts to serve refreshments as a way to "talk to the fellow animators" to probably get them interacting, but hearing that the interns were basically chored with butler duty to bother the animators hard at work seems like such a forced thing. That makes me uncomfortable. Of course, the person who told me these stories has been working with Pixar for over a decade or two now, so things could be very different as the years went on. Pixar itself on the inside of the animator building is gorgeous. They all decorate their office spaces in crazy ways, it looks like a movie set. But they have a bar and "whiskey club". They're apparently allowed to drink at work and have often had parties that got a little out of hand. There's also an old chain smoker room where the founders used to play poker and spy on people outside of their room with hidden cameras; I've even been inside. I don't think they use it anymore, though I'm not totally sure. Some of this info was fascinating, but the drinking made me uncomfortable. I kinda want to work with sober people here.

The sex ratio in the animation industry is also interesting and unfavorable. 70% of the animation and art school ratio is women, but only 34% of the actual animation workforce is women. 34% female to 66% male. More women study animation than men, but more men get hired and hold positions than women. Animation, ironically, has always been a male-dominated workplace. This unfortunately contributes to the "you have to know someone" or "be rich" to get-in situation. Men know a lot more men and not as many women. So the 30 to 40-year-old guys hire the other guys they know rather than a young poor girl with a passion. This makes it even more difficult for me to get in. (X)

20th Century, Netflix Animation, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Bento Box, Vanguard Animation, Universal Studios, Titmouse, 6 Point Harness, ShadowMachine- all LA / South California.

There are a few places I could apply to, but what they do, I just don't care for. Niantic(Pokemon Go), Lucasfilm(Effects), Whiteboard Animation(Marketing), Sharpeyeanimation (Marketing), EA games (Mass Effect, Battlefield, Dragon Age 2, all those hyper-realistic war, sports, or fantasy games.)

So whether it's outside of the USA or within the USA, I need to move. I don't have the money for that yet.

Just find a company that does remote work, right? It should be easy, especially in pandemic times! Wrong. Most animation companies don't permit remote work. It's probably a security issue. But I've done research on this. The only big animation company I've found (so far) that allows remote work (or is HIRING for remote work) is Mainframe Studios in Canada. They have a 3D animation job list, and I guess they focus on animating Barbie movies(???). (X) But that's about it. And even if you're a remote worker, there's a high likely hood you still need a Visa to be allowed to work for a company belonging to another country. So that's a whole other legal process to deal with.

Disney is becoming a huge corporate monopoly over American animation. They bought Blue Sky only to kill them off. (Disney also just recently laid off 7,000 people due to their stock price drop and failed movies they released the past year with deliberately bad marketing for political reasons. (X) Disney also bought Pixar and is pushing for sequels because weird or bad, sequels and terrible live actions make them a LOT of money. Did you know Disney's terrible Lion King CGI remake is amongst the top 10 highest-grossing movies ever made? It's criminal. (X)

Because Disney is such a big name in the USA, there's a huge association of animation = children's media, which is not true. Animation at the Oscars also has its own category, when it's not a genre, is a medium. Disney often wins at the Oscars too because no one sees the other animations. Granted, Disney has an insane marketing budget in comparison, but it's clear no one cares to seek out animation outside of heavy CGI live-action these days. No small-time studios, no limited releases, no anime. The fact that Disney also now OWNS the Oscars is SUS as hell. (The fact that Disney-owned ABC threatened the Oscars, forcing them to cut 8 categories or else there wouldn't be a show that year is wild. There isn't even an oscar for stuntmen. What the fuck, Hollywood?) (X)

Dreamworks nearly went bankrupt and sold itself to Comcast back in 2013. Comcast also owns Illumination. Dreamworks has been focusing on making bad tv show adaptions of their IPs. So yes people, Jack would sooner meet the Minions than meet Elsa. Disney is the biggest corporate monopoly, but it's definitely not the only one. The animation industry in America is snuffing out its competition by buying it out for itself. It's insane the kind of power they have.

Competition is HIGH. Because of this, the only ways to get in? If you're rich or you know someone. Pixar gets over 3,000 intern applications every summer. Less than 100 are seen by actual hiring managers. The most interns Pixar has ever taken in a single year were 12. The least they ever took in a single year was two. A 12 to 3,000 ratio is not favorable. That's a 3% chance to get into a big-shot animation company.

And again, because remote work isn't permissible to new hires, you need to live in the area to commute to the campuses. This is one of the reasons why LA is so crowded.

If you get into an animation company purely remote and maybe even for a different country? You are the luckiest person alive.

Programs are expensive. The animation industry is very strict on what programs they use. The industry standard for 2D puppetry is Toon Boom Harmony; the industry standard for 3D animation is Maya, and the industry standard for video game development isn't as clear but Unity is one of them.

Some of these programs are free, as long as you are a student. If you are attending college or a certain online program, you can use your school-issued email through them to apply to get the program for free for about a year. Otherwise, if you're using it to make your own animations solo?

Autodesk Maya: $225 a month or $1,785 a year (X)

and guess what? Maya removed its free render service. Arnold is now built in by default, however, if you want to BATCH render (Meaning render a full scene or several slides) it will slap it's ugly watermark over it.

Fun fact, this very rendered watermark can be seen accidentally in a single frame for the Kingdom Hearts Frozen cutscene

Well, you need to batch render if you're trying to animate so let's see what Arnold costs- $50 monthly to $380 annually.... are you kidding me?! The rendering PLUG-IN BUNDLED TO MAYA COSTS MORE TO USE THAN THE OWN PROGRAM?! (X)

Now, there are other rendering plug-ins you can probably use with Maya. But they all have their ups and downs and their own costs as well. (X) Pixar's Renderman is $595 per license. I can't seem to get info on Octane. V-ray solo is $39 monthly while premium is around $60 monthly.

Now there IS Blender, an alternative to Maya. It is free and I have it. That is ideal to work in for people like me. I tried it a while back, but I hated the interface windows. It was hard to work on it when you can't close them properly. It's possible they've fixed this in an update, but I haven't touched the program in over three years so I wouldn't know. It's different from Maya a little, so it has ups and downs in comparison too. But Blender is a savior to 3D artists everywhere.

Toon Boom Harmony isn't as bad but still high: Lowest price is $27 monthly / $220 annual and the highest is $124 monthly / $1,100 annual (X)

Unity has a basic version that is free, but Unity Plus is $399 yearly while Unity Pro is $2,040 (X)

So some programs are clearly more viable than others. But imagine you're trying to model, texture, rig, animate, simulate, and render a short film all by yourself in Maya. That's gonna take you over a year or two, and you'll have several thousand dollars out of your pocket by the time your free trial ends. And might I say, for an industry-standard program, Maya sucks. It's almost unusable without those plug-ins for not only rendering but also for the models to even be able to SELECT their BONE rigs.

Do you want to practice on your own when school is out of session? Fuck you! Fuck subscription services! Welcome to capitalist hell, baby!

Again, using Blender is more viable, but you're still going to be basically doing everything yourself. That's gonna take years. Do you have the patience for that? Do I?

Because of the pandemic, movies aren't even hitting theaters anymore. They're going straight to streaming services. Streaming services of which, gain sole rights to and can take media off their platforms at any time without warning. Thanks, Discovery+ ! Does everyone remember the HBO Max Animation & DC purge? It could happen to other streaming services too. Piracy will save the future of animation at this point. (X)

And again, Streaming services like Netflix will purchase films and claim they made them by slapping their logo over it; but no, they either bought the distribution rights or produced them through funding and maybe storyboarding. Often times from a Canadian film studio. (Link again X)

Even stop motion companies like LAIKA are losing money and may have to shut down or be bought out in the future, especially considering how much work and money they put into their films vs. how much money they actually make. (X)

All of this? Naturally made me fall into a depression. My god, the layers of hopelessness. My animation and modeling is pretty average too. I'm decent. I can maybe make a good shot. But I can't blow people away like James Baxter can. I mean, I shouldn't compare myself to people. If I worked really hard, maybe I could get into a good company. But again, I have to move! A part of me gave up. I don't really do 3D animation anymore, though part of me misses it.

I still 2D animate. I'm trying to make a short film and though my college friends who were working on it with me have given up, I have done my best to keep going. Even if it has been produced at a snail's pace for the past three years, I still intend to finish this animation. It's gonna be beautiful when it comes out, and it will be a wonderful portfolio piece regardless.

So with nothing else to do and no other kind of job experience really under my belt(plus my family is prone to covid so getting a job in the pandemic was just kind of out of the question) I decided to go to youtube. I heard some people can make a little money on there, but the truth is I had actually wanted to become a youtuber for a few years prior. I've always looked up to animators and reviewers on youtube, I've loved the stories they tell and their incredibly detailed analysis essays on movies, tv series, books, etc. I wanted to be one of them. I wasn't sure exactly what I'd do, so I just followed the Youtube Partnership program set up which took a few months, and then jumped in! I found I only had the time to upload once every month or two. I had a ton of audio issues and I'm not outputting at the proper 1920 x 1080 quality that I should be doing either. It's a huge learning process that I still haven't perfected, but I'm taking notes to try and get better.

Even though Youtube is fun, I only make $300 a month, and that isn't even consistent. With patreon, I make maybe another $80 or $100 on top of that, so overall $400 a month average. That's really nice and pretty cool! But it's not enough to survive.

Now I work part-time at a coffee shop. My mental health is a lot better and I love my coworkers. I make roughly $400 a week in comparison to the $400 a month. It's still not enough to live off of (the cheapest rent around is over $1,000 a month, not ) and it's still a temporary job in the long run. I intend to work here for maybe another two years to save up money.

But what do I do now?

Am I welcome in animation spaces anymore?

As a critic of popular media, it could be likely that they could fire me or deny my application because of my critique of their past films or tv series. They could see my youtube persona and assume I'm a raging untrustworthy nitpick instead of a passionate, kind person.

Vivziepop's Spindlehorse company? What Viv was doing was a dream. I was so inspired by her. She made her own company, made a super successful pilot, and was even creating more jobs for traditional, high-quality animation. However, for Hazbin Hotel, she required more funding, which is why she sold it off to A24, who now has corporate say in the show. A24 is known for letting creators be more lenient, but otherwise, Viv won't have full control over it anymore unless she managed to get them to sign something over to her; but with the rumors of her being kicked off season 1? I don't know anymore.

Her own company Spindlehorse; they rely on youtube revenue and/or merch sales to fund Helluva Boss. That's a tricky business practice, but it's kept them afloat so far.

However, Spindlehorse is hiring a lot of people as of late. This could be a bad sign; that people might be leaving the company due to potential mistreatment or unhappiness. With the way the show is going, I don't really want to be part of that company regardless, but maybe before season 2 of Helluva Boss, I would have considered applying. Had I made any critique videos prior, there's no way they'd accept me. "Aren't you that one YouTuber that said my writing is bad for season 2 episode 2?" And you expect me to hire you?" Like yeah, that application process would go down well. Not. By critiquing artists' work, some of them are very sensitive. I'd be kicked out for a lot of things, when really, we artists should be critiquing each other all the time, trying to improve. That's how the writer's room always is, ahaha... hours of fighting goes down in those meetings. It's intense, but fun.

But yeah, it's such a shame. Even small companies need to sell out to corporate to survive. Either that or be HEAVILY crowd-funded, which again, can be a slippery slope.

I see a ton of small projects on Twitter looking to hire people, or looking to become a big studio to release a pilot or game. I've joined a few of them, but most are unpaid because of COURSE they are, and then these projects?? Just don't go anywhere. Because it's unpaid. Because we can't afford to work on a project for free. IRL comes first. Some of these projects seem so great but they don't go anywhere, and it's hard to have faith in start-up studios anymore. (Game creators might have a chance, but tv series or films? Good luck, folks.)

At that point, should I just make my own company? I don't have the money or knowledge for such a thing! It's insanely expensive to start a business and get licensing. So much paperwork, so much everything! And the USA Government is so behind in understanding technology. If you want to create a remote business and/or copyright something, you're still required to put an advertisement in a local newspaper about it, even if your business isn't selling to locals. 💀 The number of fees and ridiculous legal hoops you need to jump through... it's a ridiculous waste of time and money. But you need to do it. The question is, am I willing to do it? Am I willing to tackle such an insane thing by myself?

I want to keep my internet persona and IRL persona separate, but can I? I value having a private, quieter life away from the screen. I worry about getting doxxed one day because of the nature of the internet. I worry about people finding my IRL resumes or profiles for work I want to do outside of youtube for security's sake. My art style is unique and very recognizable. I don't have a lot of private art that is worthy of being in a portfolio. But for absolute safety, I'd need to password-protect my websites or portfolios so the public doesn't have free access to them; only companies I'm applying to. But at that point, does password-protecting my resume and portfolio make it less likely I'd be hired due to the inconvenience? Due to the private, hard-to-find nature of my work? Being a YouTuber with great story skills and art skills with a fanbase could be a big plus to getting hired somewhere, but it could also be a horrible disadvantage that would get me fired. It's a double-edged sword that I cannot work around and I don't know what to do.

I've considered the video game industry, but even that isn't ideal. A lot of the indie ones I adore aren't made in the USA. Gris and Monster Camp were made in Spain. Ori and the Blind Forest: Austria. Hollow Knight: Australia. Little Nightmares and Raft: Sweden. LIMBO & INSIDE: Denmark. Outlast, Don't Starve, Spirit Farer, Bendy and the Ink Machine: Canada.

SuperGiant Games did Hades, Transistor and Bastion and is located in SF, but they're not hiring. Janimation, a multi-media company located in Texas isn't hiring. Frederator in New York isn't hiring.

I don't want to work for a studio that does nothing but first-person shooters or sports games. If I want to get into the gaming industry, I probably need to crowdfund and make a company to make a game myself.

If I make my own game, which I've wanted to do for a long time now and still want to... I can't code. I guess I could try to hire someone that could? But a game to the extent I want... I'd need to start small. I'd need to practice. It's several years of work. Will it even be worth it? I don't think I can do it alone. I'd need crowdfunding and workers; which again, here comes the "make my own studio" issue...

Do I even want to animate anymore? I prefer traditional animation in comparison to puppetry. I prefer 2D animation to 3D animation simply because it is more accessible. But even then, I'm finding myself drawn more and more to writing, storyboarding, and character design. If I were a 3D animator, this is mostly what I'd be working with all day: Naked models in an empty room. I'd do none of the physics simulation or texturing or lighting.

Animating naked & bald people all day... I don't know... 3D Animation kind of lost its appeal. You only work on such a small portion of a film, you almost never have the bigger picture. You won't see the final result until the film is done. As an animator, you're almost kept in the dark. Maybe that's how they want it anyway, since leaks are a huge issue they keep quiet under strict NDA.

But yeah, anyway... I'm an artistic digital generalist. I can do almost anything. 3D animation, storyboarding, writing, photo editing, illustration, rendering, modeling and so much more. It's hard to choose what you really want to be in this industry. I feel like Barry Benson dfklgjdflkjg

I don't know what I'm gonna do anymore. There's gotta be a solution to this but I just can't figure it out. I don't want to give up my youtube channel so I can be an animator. I don't want to give up a safer, quiet countryside house to be able to survive financially. Am I even willing or able to move countries? Is my career more important than friends and family?

I think I'm thinking too much about everything. I should start small. Move less than an hour away first and move in with roommates to get a feel for independence instead of jumping into it immediately. Get a job at a small time company, maybe not for what I want at first, but it'll get me some experience and maybe I'll learn some things along the way to understand where I can go next. Take it slow and don't panic too much over trying to be a young big shot. Take things one day at a time? That's my current goal, I suppose.

So you know... to answer your question... why did I switch to youtube for a current career? Because of a classic existential & career crisis in my 20s. Will I ever go back to 3D animation? Maybe. Maybe one day.

[straightlightyagami]

I have a question. Where did you learn most of the maths you know? Was it school? If it was any online resource, do you mind sharing? Somehow, looking at your posts makes me want to get back into maths, but I don't know where to start (?) 😭 Thank you!

Also, what's your favourite branch of maths?

Hi anon, thank you for the ask ^_^ I'm happy that my posts made someone interested in math! Sorry for taking so long to answer.

I am not sure what my favorite branch of math is, I don't feel like I know enough math to decide yet. I like most of them (some definitely more than others). Some math I learned from classes, but I learned a lot of it from reading on my own or online resources. I will share some that I think are helpful. Obviously coming from a pure math perspective.

it's harder to find things for more obscure or specialized topics, but for most stuff you are likely to study, if you want to know about a specific math topic or are having trouble understanding, enter it into a search engine and you immediately find at least a couple of articles and videos explaining it.

if you're stuck on a particular proof or problem, try seeing if anyone on math.stackexchange has answered it, maybe ask it yourself.

you can (legally) find free textbooks and resources on math libretexts.

you can find recommendations and links for specific topics on the r/math subreddit, for example.

for olympiad math, check out the aops message boards and contest collections. I personally wouldn't really recommend olympiad math as your first "reintroduction" to math, though. the problems can be fun but they're not really like high school or college or research math afaik, it's its own thing and some people like it and others don't. it might be a good introduction to proofs though.

actually the first thing you should do is understand the basics of how proofs work in math because it's all based on that.

general tip for reading textbooks: make sure you completely understand all proofs, maybe even try proving the theorems that appear in the book yourself before reading the proof given. if there are exercises, do most or all of them because it helps you really understand the topics (in higher level math books they're not repetitive like they are in secondary school, so you should do all of them).

review stuff you learned in high school because you need a good grasp of basic math to move on to other math.

basic discrete math, combinatorics, and graph theory are good for an introduction to how proofs work. also probably very different from stuff you learned before in a good way. I would say like, basic abstract algebra is good for this too. it might be a little intimidating to start with though, not sure.

If anyone has anything else, please add!

[its-a-hil]

okay so teaching like sucks. at least early in your career.

like you have to learn how to do teaching well instinctually while also doing lots of work to make lesson plans

in a few years i'll be a better teacher just generally and i'll *also* have a bank of lesson plans to use.

and teachers who have taught for more years get paid more (note: i don't think this is a bad thing, but it's just a critique of the incentives at play. i also recognize that this is the case across many different industries where new employees do more work for less pay, it's not specific to teaching in any way)

can someone just like. slip meth into my water bottle so i can be competent without having to know the reason and thus not being addicted in a way that prevents me from stopping

also fuck baltimore city for squishing math classes to be ~80 min every day for one semester. it's clearly bad for academic outcomes to have students forget how math works after the ~8 months they spend not learning it, but also it's so much fucking work for me to plan two 80 min classes every single day. stop it. give me a fucking odd/even day so i can fucking rest half the time like i did last year.

genuinely i feel more stressed getting to my apt at 15:30 this year than i did getting home at 20:30 multiple days per week last year. and i have *significantly fewer* total student-hours (this year.

literally the only guidance i have is to just. deal with it until next semester when ive already taught the curriculum. and like yeah. it is nice to have something to look forward to (and i know i have the job security for it even if i'm not great this semester)

but like this sucks!! an executively dysfunctional girlie should not have to fucking do this! seriously i could become an engineer right now and my life would become so much easier for a like 80% instant pay raise once i managed to make myself submit applications

also the assumption from essentially all involved parties that my students will have access to laptops is. fucking disturbing

"just go to this google form to request a laptop!" also we didn't let you into the school unless you gave us a phone so you actually have no means of filling out that form unless you: (a) take an extra fucking phone with you into school, which a bunch of my students do because **of course** they want access to online and their families (b) write down the fucking url and take it home (c) have someone else give you access to their computer (i love security!) (d) remember both that it's a thing you can do and that the link is on the google classroom that you *definitely* joined and fill it out at home. you of course have a computer at home, everyone has one of those. what do you mean a bunch of these kids are homeless. that doesn't matter. just transfer them to a worse school then, that'll solve the problem.

oh my god aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[theatozclasses]

The atoz classes Review — “Transforming Math Anxiety into Achievement: Our Online Classroom Success Stories”

For many children, math is more than just a challenging subject — it’s a source of stress and anxiety. The fear of numbers, the pressure to keep up with peers, and the frustration of not understanding can make math seem like an impossible mountain to climb. At The AtoZ Classes, we’ve seen these struggles firsthand, but we’ve also witnessed something truly beautiful: the moment when a student’s fear turns into understanding, and anxiety turns into achievement. I’d like to share the stories of a few students whose lives have been touched by our approach.

Riya’s Story: Finding Her Voice Through Math

Riya, a 6th grader from Delhi, had always been a quiet, thoughtful child. But when it came to math, her quietness turned into withdrawal. She’d sit at the back of the class, hoping she wouldn’t be called on, and her once-bright eyes would dim with every math lesson. Her parents, concerned and heartbroken, reached out to us at The AtoZ Classes, hoping we could help their daughter rediscover her love for learning.

Aarav’s Journey: Rebuilding Confidence, One Step at a Time

Aarav, a 10th grader from Bengaluru, was a student with big dreams. He wanted to pursue engineering, but math felt like a giant roadblock standing in his way. Despite his best efforts, the complex equations and new concepts left him feeling defeated. Aarav’s parents knew he was capable, but they also knew he needed more than just tutoring; he needed someone who believed in him.

When Aarav joined The AtoZ Classes, I knew that rebuilding his confidence was just as important as teaching him the material. We started with the basics, ensuring that he had a strong foundation to build on. But we also took the time to listen to his frustrations and fears. I remember many late-night sessions where we’d talk through problems, not just math problems, but the doubts and worries that were holding him back. Slowly, Aarav began to see math not as an obstacle, but as a challenge he could overcome. His grades improved, but more importantly, he started to believe in himself again. When Aarav aced his final exams, the smile on his face said it all — he knew he was back on track to achieving his dreams.

Ananya’s Transformation: Learning to Love Math

Ananya, a sweet 3rd grader from Mumbai, was struggling to keep up with her math lessons at school. The fast pace and the pressure to keep up left her feeling lost and frustrated. Her parents, worried that she might fall behind, reached out to The AtoZ Classes, hoping that a different approach might help.

From the moment I met Ananya, I knew she needed patience, encouragement, and a lot of positive reinforcement. We took our time, revisiting lessons as often as she needed, using fun, interactive methods to keep her engaged. I’ll never forget the day Ananya solved her first problem all by herself — she looked up at me with wide eyes, a mix of surprise and pride, and whispered, “I did it!” That moment was the turning point. From then on, Ananya approached math with a newfound curiosity and eagerness. Her parents couldn’t believe the transformation — they saw their little girl go from dreading math to eagerly looking forward to her lessons. Today, Ananya is excelling in math, and the joy on her face every time she solves a problem is a reminder of why we do what we do.

The Heart of The AtoZ Classes

These stories of Riya, Aarav, and Ananya are just a few examples of the countless students who’ve found not just success, but joy in learning math through The AtoZ Classes. What sets us apart is our belief that every child can succeed in math, given the right support and encouragement. We don’t just teach math; we build confidence, nurture curiosity, and celebrate every step of progress, no matter how small.

At The AtoZ Classes, we’re more than just educators — we’re mentors, cheerleaders, and sometimes, a shoulder to lean on. We know that math can be challenging, but we also know that with patience, understanding, and a personalized approach, every student can overcome those challenges. Watching our students transform from anxious learners to confident achievers is the most rewarding part of our journey.

If your child is struggling with math or needs a little extra support, we’re here to help. At The AtoZ Classes, we’re committed to turning math anxiety into achievement, one student at a time more info visit our website theatozclasses.com

[sublimepizzastarfish]

Pirate Software's "rearchitecture" for Stop Killing Games

There's been a lot of fascinating drama around Stop Killing Games. Go read the initiative here:

It is a good initiative, and anyone who is a consumer that can, should absolutely go support it.

Jason "Thor" Hall, CEO of Pirate Software, recently had a few, let's say, "takes" on the matter (I'm trying and failing to remain neutral), which began on a stream. The stream's VOD has since deleted on his YouTube channel.

Louis Rossmann, who you might know as the largest Right to Repair activist in the US, made a response to a section of the releevant stream here:

Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, made two videos to clarify his points:

There is an argument in the video at the 2:08 mark that I will reference later.

(I recommend watching all these videos on 2x speed. You will get the same info out of them all, because especially video 2 is a lot of repetition)

Now, as mentioned above, there is one particular technical argument that bugs me about what Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, is making. Here is the full quote:

How would you keep League of Legends in a functional, playable state? You'd have to rearchitect the entire game. The game is what is called "client-server". So, in client-server models, there's a server, there's a client, and all of the math, all of the game, everything happens on the server. The client just displays it. And the reason we want to do it that way is so that you can't teleport around and do a billion damage. You don't trust the client. You trust the server. The client just displays what it's told. Right? So, if we wanted to rearchitect this, we would have to take all of that server logic, push it back out into the client, and somehow make that playable in a multiplayer-only video game. That doesn't make sense to me. So this doesn't work for all games. Why is [the initiative] calling out all games?

So, first off, yes, most games do client-server architecture for multiplayer logic, because you do trust the servers. It is an important step to curbing an entire class of cheats. It doesn't necessarily mean the client isn't malicious (for example, there are cheats for League of Legends that show a growing circle when an enemy leaves the fog of war in the minimap). However, it does mean the client doesn't know 100% of the game at any time when information is selectively fed to each client based on something like the fog of war. That's awesome.

Some games, like PlanetSide (rest in peace) and Overwatch (2) use what's called client-side hit detection. Some games, like Halo 1, employ more selective hit detection models, where only certain weapons use client-side hit detection (see https://c20.reclaimers.net/h1/engine/netcode/). Client-side versus server-side hit detection can change the overall feel of a game, and it's one of the things game developers decide on in multiplayer-only games that require it. In the case of an massively multiplayer online first person shooter (MMOFPS) like PlanetSide (2), the server simply can't calculate thousands of people's math in a reasonable amount of time, because otherwise the hit detection would otherwise feel very crappy to play, and so the math is offloaded to the client and the client says "hit" when they hit.

However, there are a few counterexamples to the specific technical argument that keeping the game playable after end-of-lifing it requires rearchitecting:

Games with dedicated servers exist - Command & Conquer: Renegade, Starsiege: TRIBES

Games where one client also hosts the multiplayer server exist - Half Life 2, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine

Private server hosting exists - World of Warcraft

Some of these games, particularly the examples with dedicated servers that can be run on user hardware, can also run as the second example.

To say keeping a multiplayer-only online game requires rearchitecting a game like League of Legends means a lack of imagination. More relevantly, it means a lack of systems thinking.

To me, it is very strange for someone such as Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, who is self-described as being a 20 year veteran of the games industry to say. I won't say skill issue, because I think there is an ulterior motive at play.

Just to hammer the point home, I drew up some crappy diagrams in Inkscape because this extremely wrong technical argument bugged me so, so much.

Here is what a client-server model looks like:

Here, you have 10 clients, each being a player of the game. Then, you have the server, run by Riot, the developer and maintainer of League of Legends.

Here is the imagination of Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, had to say on the matter on the required way rearchitect it:

Those who know their network models would understand this looks very much like a mesh network, or a peer-to-peer model. And, to be fair, some games might attempt it.

However, this isn't *usually* how games described using a peer-to-peer (P2P) model work. Most peer-to-peer models, like the architecture used in Space Marines, are often used for matchmaking. Once you are in a game, one of the clients also serves as the host (selecting by some algorithm, like randomly or whoever has the best hardware).

P2P is nice, because the company doesn't have to run servers for matchmaking at all during their lifespan (and sometimes a matchmaking server might be spun up to serve as a relay to help with network issues or help other clients find clients quickly). As we'll get into later, a client machine will also serve as the host machine. It is a perfectly fair and valid, although it comes with it's frustrations (mainly in the realm of network address translation (NAT) traversal, because your computer behind a router is not usually exposed to the wider Internet, though sometimes routers have universal plug-and-play (UPnP) set up, which makes NAT traversal much easier here).

If you've ever seen a message in the game "migrating host" because the host left, they likely use P2P matchmaking, but still use a client-server model. They can just migrate the game data to a new host using the data on the other clients as a seed for the data.

This is likely their setup for actual gameplay:

One of the clients now has a server on the same machine. Sometimes, this could be the game itself that would serve in singleplayer. However, most often, this is just a server that's lightweight enough for the client to connect to and they play that way (it's also really nice to develop and QA this way, because many server bugs will also be seen by the client).

Now, one of the disadvantages here is: Can all remote clients connect to the host that the server (and one of the clients) is running on? Again, NAT traversal issues usually play a role here. In the first few days of any game that uses this, and only this, there will likely be a lot of issues with connectivity.

Another disadvantage: The host won't have latency issues. This is why in the case of, for example, Among Us, the client host can see certain things happening (like someone is dead the moment they hit a button or reported a body), but remote player hosts might not.

Okay, so, maybe it's not possible to rearchitect something like League of Legends like this. It could reasonably be a lot of work. Here is another solution:

Looks very similar to the first architecture, doesn't it? It is! The difference is that the text "Riot" was changed to "not Riot".

This is how World of Warcraft and Pokemon Go private servers work.

The vast majority of games that would not run without private servers simply do not require rearchitecting to keep in a reasonably playable state when the servers shut down.

[magicmindless]

Headcanons for Iggy?

Yes!

A HC list but it’s just Iggy

I think he needs more attention. He’s adorable :3

- Diligent, polite, and kind of shy but can talk a lot if he’s comfortable around certain people. Tends to be passive-aggressive whenever he’s upset

- I’m in for the hcs that he’s asexual and nonbinary (he/they). He found out he was asexual when he was in the seventh grade and found out he was nonbinary in the eighth grade

- He’s 15 years old, a high school freshman (ik some people see him as being younger (like middle or elementary school even) but he’s still a minor)

- He’s passive aggressive in the way that he expresses his anger silently. He’ll refuse to talk to anyone but he’ll do things like slam doors or throw things where they need to be or hit things. When he’s like this it’s best to leave him alone until he calms down (Or get Professor Fitz to talk to him)

- Also tends to cry easily if he’s upset, but he also keeps it silent to the point where it hurts his throat

- Based from Aronora’s Fitz family AU: Petrona is his mother. Neither of them are as close as they wish to be due to Petrona’s work and any time they do spend time together is sparse. Usually just movie nights and that’s about it (if you’re wondering about the father read this)

- Looks younger than he actually is which sometimes annoys him. People have assumed he was an elementary schooler

- He likes bunnies and would like one as a pet some day, but he has to wait to move out if he wants a pet since Petrona doesn’t really like pets (not that she hates animals she just doesn’t wanna live with one)

- Has an artistic side to him. He can make his own costume pieces like his glasses for his Comet Con costume and the alien mask for his Halloween costume. He’s even made prop pieces like his own model space ray inspired from Meteor Blaster X

- His mini lab which Fitz built for him has things like a model of the solar system, a clear dome roof, a telescope, and a tv to entertain himself with. His favorite thing is a giant-ass book about the solar system and space which sits on a book stand for him to read through whenever he feels like it

- More of a comic person than a book person. He just likes pictures

- I’m not saying that he’s a STEM kid but he is totally a STEM kid (Science, technology, engineering, and math)

- He believes that aliens exists. It does sound strange but knowing that space is infinite why wouldn’t there be other life out there? It makes sense to him

- He has fidget toys like pop-its and wooden puzzles because he gets bored kind of easily. He even has a Rubik’s cube which he can’t solve without a YouTube tutorial (can’t be good at everything now)

- Sleep with a stuffed astronaut penguin named Marshall every night

- He has a few close friends in school he likes to geek out about fandoms with. He was one of the introverts who were adopted by the extroverted kids but he likes them a lot

- Is online friends with Treble. They met online when Iggy was 12 and Treble was 14. The arranged a time and place to meet each other during Cluckeria’s Comet Con. Fitz and Petrona were wary about Iggy meeting Treble because of stranger danger and stuff like that but they ended up liking Treble since they were pretty much harmless (they didn’t trust Treble to drive Iggy around though)

- His favorite school subject is science of course, though his least favorite is gym class. He’s not very good at sports. Once was playing volleyball for class and he was so terrible at it he cried (based on a true story)

- He has a swear jar, though it’s not exactly for him, it’s for Petrona and Fitz. Iggy doesn’t swear but if Petrona or Fitz do they have to give him a quarter

- During Mocharia he sometimes came along with Petrona or came by himself to visit her. Petrona never talked about herself to almost anyone on set so some didn’t even know she had a son. There were very few people who were told Iggy was her son, a few people picked it up on their own, but some didn’t pay attention enough to notice at all

[jonathan-samuel-smith]

Hello everyone, I come offering the outtakes from chapter 3 of my wip jondami arranged marriage au. I wrote them texting and i was talking with my mom and i realized "I could literally have written only a handful of texts and then alluded to them texting later in dialogue." But a lot of people like chatfics so here's what I got, most of it i'll be cutting.

Damian: Flight training Wed.? We could go for boba after.

Jon: Okay! I can’t sleep over tho.

Damian: That is fine.

Jon: Okay! Hey thanks for helping me with the piano and stuff. 

Damian: No thanks are necessary. I enjoy spending time with you.

Jon: 🙂 Goodnight!

Damian: Goodnight.

Damian went to bed and woke up at 4am as usual, did his morning training, ran with the dogs, and checked his phone.

Jon: Good morning! How did you sleep?

Damian: Uninterrupted for 6 hours, as I prefer it.

Jon: U only sleep 6 hours a night?

Damian: Yes. I microsleep during the day to keep well rested.

Jon: Oh. Is that some sort of assassin training thing?

Damian: Yes.

Jon: I’m hungry

Damian: Would you like me to order you some food?

Jon: U don’t have to do that! I will just get a banana

Damian: If you are sure. You should eat more than that.

Jon: I’ll get some yogurt too.

Damian: Good.

Damian thought it was odd that Jon kept texting him for non-urgent reasons, but he wasn’t displeased.

Jon: What are you gonna have for breakfast?

Damian: Khadi soup.

Jon: Ooo what’s that?

Damian: Yogurt as well. I assume you are not asking for the entire recipe. It is a tangy, spicy soup.

Jon: Interesting! I’d try it. Sounds good.

Damian: It is good. Many Americans think it is weird.

Jon: I don’t think it’s weird! [Jon is typing…]

Jon: What is your plan for today?

Damian: I have online classes for veterinary school. After that I will be volunteering at the animal shelter. 

Jon: How do online classes work with vet school? 

Damian: I have a few in-person classes and exams, and I have to have volunteer hours logged.

Jon: Cool! Sounds like a lot of work.

Damian: It is something I enjoy doing.

Jon: Then I am glad you are able to do it!

Damian stopped checking his phone so he could focus on his classes, and Jon did the same. 

Jon: Just got out of math. Math is so hard! Why did I think being a scientist was a good idea? T~T

Damian: You are being dramatic.

Jon: Yes. Do you not approve?

Damian: It does not bother me.

Jon: Cafeteria food is so bland :( 

Jon: GTG class again!

Damian: I have not tried it.

Jon: That class was so interesting! We are learning about thermodynamics. Damian: I’ve built my own internal combustion engine.

Jon: Oh, wow, cool! Can I see it?

Damian: I suppose. I will get you a picture when I get home from volunteering.

Jon: Okay! Have fun with the animals!

Damian: [Picture Sent]

Damian: Here it is. It powers the version of the batmobile that I built.

Jon: So. Cool. Can I show this to my teacher?

Damian: You cannot. 

Jon: Aw, OK. No problem!

Damian: [Picture Sent] Jon: OMG is that you at the animal shelter?

Damian: Yes. I am bottle feeding these kittens currently because the mother cannot breastfeed them.

Jon: Soooo cute! 😍

Damian: Yes, they are.

Jon: You, too!

Damian: Oh.

Damian: Thank you.

Jon: You look so happy!

Damian: I’m heading home now.

Jon: I’m already at home! Studying. Stu-DYING.

Damian: Needlessly dramatic, again.

Jon: Yep!

Jon: [Picture Sent]

Jon: Me with Krypto! And Kon. Kon says hi.

Damian: Tell him I said hello as well.

Jon: Done! Don’t you think we look cute too?

Damian: Yes, you and the dog. No comment on Kon.

Jon: 😂

Damian: I’m going on patrol now, Goodnight.

Jon: Goodnight!

[big-parma]

The Absolute State of Maths Education rn

Yo so the bigwigs at VCAA (the guys who write the curriculum for all education in Victoria, Australia) have been coming out with new study designs for almost all VCE classes that’ll be implemented at different points over the next 3 years. The VCE is considered relatively prestigious-ish in the sense there’s a fair few people in other countries who send their kids to Victoria to do it (Australia’s biggest export is education after all) so it’s a big deal when major changes happen to how important courses run. Context = understood.

So I’m a maths (…and science) teacher now and the major changes to the three maths streams since I graduated in 2012 can be summed up like this:

Spesh (the highest tier of maths, scales up the most out of any course except stuff like Latin) - Kinematics are less of a thing but they added in Proofs and hypothesis tests(?!) instead

Methods (still high scaling, but more like uni engineering maths instead of theoretical crazy hard stuff) - Stats removed, some more “calculus but if you can’t do calculus to that particular thing” included instead

Further Maths (General maths, scales down(?!) and is the “ya got a mortgage here’s a maths problem” class that a commerce degree at uni usually means by saying you need at least one maths background to get in) - the stats from methods is here now and they call it General Maths to stop the confusion with it and methods

and there’s also now a fourth tier of maths called foundation

I’m assuming foundation is the barebones “pay your bills with x income And do your taxes” class your relatives keep saying they should’ve been taught how to do in school

So that’s all the changes across a decade of education. When they announced “big changes are coming to the way things will work across VCE maths” I think I’m safe to say most of us took it as the usual reordering and in/out for content as described above. Since I’m a good boy (read “I wanted to put on a good front to make sure I got my contract extension” - I’m permanent now dw) I attended the online seminars (lmao webex) that they presented as information sessions on the changes.

First one was Spesh. No biggie, exactly what you’d expect, some stuff’s swapped again, hang on Pseudocode is in..? But that’s just any code that could do any maths?! And they’re mentioning that it’s in methods too??? The chat at this point’s asking a lot of questions, mostly “how can we know what’s examinable so we can actually teach this??” But thankfully they have an example that should satisfy you:

This is not even a half step above “hello world” and it’s in the hardest maths course? How hard does this get? What do they consider legit? Is there an example exam question that they have as a reference? How will they be able to write textbooks on this if that’s all they have?

No answer. Oh well methods is the next day maybe that will elaborate on it.

Methods opens with the same spiel on things, negligible changes imo on actual content… and he acknowledges some confusion from yesterday on Pseudocode! Has he got an answer? What’s the example this time…

Oh. And it’s definitely examinable and we might elaborate on that later but for now that’s all we got.

That was all 2022. Recently (2023) they did the same thing for “revisions” which was for FurtherGeneral Maths’ course (all of these are being phased in kinda since changing a year 12 course when year 11s are running on the old one makes no sense). Guess what showed up in the General Maths study design!

It’s ya boi 21st century life skills!

I’ll be honest, I was a little suss on this from the Meth/Spesh presentations but I think this confirms what I was thinking: this is some boomers pulling the “kids need to learn how to computer” card isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, kids do need to learn to computer, but lol as if they’ve got this as their only example to show off across all three variety of maths!

But wait, there’s more!

They’ve got a page about it now! Yay! There’s some more examples - harder ones now - but there’s still no actual information on how this topic can be presented on the actual end of year exams. What do i teach them? What constitutes legit Pseudocode vs nonsense pretend code? Is this basic computer science 101 or are the kids going to be presented with a max level spesh question through the lenses of a guy saying “yeah but make it code”

eh I’ll just teach them excel :)

[sophiyablogs]

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[studywgabi]

Crush

His initials are J.K. How fitting, right?

Isn't it the perfect storm? Math class and a crush? Put me out of my misery. I'd like to request to be executed by way of arsenic-laced blueberry muffin.

That (fucking) class by itself already makes my body think it's facing down a saber tooth tiger who was asked to take anger management classes by his pride's H.R. department. Math is my worst subject, and that's saying something. I joined it late this quarter and there's been some tomfoolery with disability services at my school so I don't have accommodations for it.

With online classes, this is my first genuine crush since 10th grade. Last year (11th) I both surprised and impressed myself by not having one single crush all year, though eventually it got so boring that I made some up just to get through the school day. This one isn't made up though. I didn't know how good I had it last year.

I've been putting off writing about him because that's an admission of guilt. I had a panic attack when he passed out worksheets. Some beautiful people just mind their own business and don't bother others. Why couldn't he do that? Jazz songs tell me the world looks brighter, sunnier, but that's not it for me.

He's brilliant. And he's brave, he raises his hand in class all the time, and when he's called on without raising his hand, he admits he doesn't know the answer, or is courageous enough to guess and okay with getting it wrong. He's friends with everyone and always helps someone understand when they don't get something. He has this terrible, beautiful smile. I don't know if he's in the early college program like me, or if he's 19 or 20.

I really don't want to be an accountant. Or an engineer.