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makabunni · 4 years ago

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Korean Fast Track 1

This is meant to be challenging. I’ll be posting more resources over time while I do this myself, keep that in mind.The goal is to be around B1, kind of in the sweet spot between A2-B1 or approaching B1 by the end of this. But don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t by the end!

NOTE: The quizzes currently have a response limit because of the site used but I am currently working on replacing them with different links & printouts <3 If you run into an issue and need me to send you the quiz questions, just let me know.

Make sure you read all the additional text here carefully as there’s a whole lot of resources coming!

Things you’ll need:

A language learning app that includes Korean. I don’t care what app you use but it needs to have grammar and vocabulary. Like duolingo, lingodeer etc! You choose. You’ll be doing the light workload on this app.

Flashcard app! Anki and quizlet are the top two.

Basic supplies for taking notes & learning like a notebook and a pen. If you want to do these digitally, go for it.

Hinative or Hellotalk! These are apps/sites to speak with native speakers, ask questions, and get help with pronunciation.

If you do not know how to read the Korean alphabet, learn that before you start this fast track. It can be done in less than three hours.

Talk to me in korean (TTMIK) account

How to study korean (HTSK)

Daily tasks:

One small lesson on your language app, best done in the morning right after you’ve woken up and started your day.

Listen to a short audio in Korean 1-5 times per day. This can be a song or you can watch a whole ass k-drama episode. I don’t care what it is lol!

Vocab vocab vocab! Go through your vocabulary flashcards ONCE OR TWICE every day! use the “learn” option on quizlet for easier learning. (You should be reviewing the vocabulary for that day twice per day, not ALL of your collective vocab.)

Week One Assignments:

Do this in whatever order you’d like, but leave the quiz & end of week assignment for the end. ABBREVIATIONS: HN/HT = hinative/hellotalk

TTMIK Level 1 : All 26 Lessons ! I personally don’t listen to them, I just read the lesson. This is up to you, I recommend taking light notes

HTSK Unit 1 Lessons 1-8 Vocabulary; Put all of the given vocabulary words into your flashcard app / make flashcards and run through them. Use this site to help explain things that you might not completely understand from TTMIK as HTSK is more in depth.

6 pronunciation posts on HN/HT for critique, provide a dialogue typed out so they’re aware of what you’re trying to say.

Watch Test your Korean Listening Level 1 and evaluate.

End of week assignment: Review all of your vocabulary once and take the Week One Quiz !

Week Two Assignments:

Refer back to week one’s assignments if you have issues figuring out how you’re supposed to use certain sites. For this week we are going to be doing the same thing we did last week with TTMIK and HTSK!

TTMIK Level 2 : All 30 Lessons ! Vocab & Notes

HTSK Unit 1 Lesson 9; Vocabulary & Refresh

3 pronunciation posts on HN/HT for critique; provide dialogue.

2 text posts on HN/HTto be corrected by natives; must be at least 4 sentences.

Reply to 5 native Korean’ speakers on HN/HT

Watch Test your Korean Listening Level 1 and evaluate again.

Listen to your favorite Disney song in Korean

Watch 12 Grammar Points In One Sentence and take a few notes.

Read This Post ; Take notes & Create a flashcard set (learn them)

End of week assignment: Review all of your vocabulary, refresh on any grammar you’re uncomfy with Week Two Quiz! (this one is tiny)

Week Three Assignments:

Get ready to cram some phrases and such in this week. This week is all about progress with speaking. You’ll be focusing on learning how to create sentences that make sense & gathering the necessary vocabulary and grammar to do that is a train wreck. Buckle up.

TTMIK Level 3 : All 30 Lessons! Vocab & Notes

HTSK : Only used to clarify what you don’t understand with TTMIK

Korean Slang Post : Make flashcards and learn

Korean Ordering Post : Make flashcards and learn

Write down everything you do one day (e.g. watch tv, go to the bathroom, cook) you need at LEAST 10 things. Now write it in Korean. Learn these phrases and words.

Post 5 pronunciation posts to HN/HT for critique

Reply to 15 natives in Korean on HN/HT

Post 7 text posts on HN/HT that must be 4 sentences or more. Try to use the vocabulary you’ve learned this week. If you don’t know how to say it/write it, look it up and add it to your notes and flashcards

Make a flashcard deck for the food you commonly eat.

Watch Test Your Korean Listening Level 2 and evaluate

Watch 30 Fun and Useful Korean Phrases and learn what you can.

End of week assignment: Review all of your vocabulary, refresh on your grammar. No quiz yet! It’s on the way!

Week Four Assignments:

Home stretch for this damned thing. It might be a little intense but it’s necessary for progression. Be prepared to do a LOT of practice. We’re once again heading towards sentence building.

TTMIK Level 4 : All 30 lessons. Vocabulary & Notes.

TTMIK Level 5: Lessons 1-5. Notes.

HTSK is used for clarification on stuff you don’t understand & vocab if you need it.

Post at least one text post to HN/HT per day in Korean with at least 3 sentences. Adding a picture gives it extra flavor keke

Reply to at least 3 people per DAY on HN/HT in Korean.

One pronunciation post per DAY on HN/HT with dialogue for critique

Watch an episode of something or a korean youtuber in korean without subtitles, you don’t need to pay attention but it needs to be in the background. Do this once per day.

Review vocabulary and brush up on any grammar you’re having trouble with.

Watch 30 Advanced Korean Words and learn them.

Try to “test unlock” levels on duolingo/lingodeer/whatever app you use to see how far you’ve advanced.

No quiz yet! It’s on the way!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

They’re not super aesthetically pleasing, sorry! I don’t have time to spend an hour per worksheet right now OTL. I’ll make more and keep updating this post! <3

Week One Korean “Write in the blank” Worksheet

Week One Korean Vocabulary Worksheet (KEY)

Week One Korean Worksheet 2

Week Two Anagram Game! (Scroll down! The other two have some glitches because of the Korean uwu)

I also recommend This Study App ! I'll be uploading all of the notes, PDFs, etc here :D This way even if you can't print it out you CAN annotate the PDF, have my flashcards, notes, summaries etc!

Here’s the Study Group Link to the App mentioned above! All notes, flashcards, etc will be there as resources for everyone. I recommend making your own flashcards on quizlet/anki/here too but if you don’t have time to make all of them, I will be making resources available

QUIZLET FLASHCARD SETS (in progress, will update over time)

I found THIS PDF of TTMIK levels 1-9 :D If you can't study online daily, download this so you don't have to download ALL of them individually

If this is too difficult don’t push yourself too hard. Don’t be afraid to search tumblr for fun stuff too! This is supposed to be a fun challenge !!!

Make sure you come back to my blog for all the post updates for more material like games, worksheets, flashcards, etc !

#korean language #korean #koreanlangua #langblr #languages #langlearning.challenge #juvisthings #juvistuff #korean vocabulary #korean grammar #language challenge #studyblr #polygl #studying #studytip #KORFASTTRACK #Korean fast track

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kisekinodrabbles · 4 years ago

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helloo! i'd like to request something for the prompt game please :D kasamatsu + band!au + strangers to lovers + dialogue number 14 if that's okay? thanks, sam! and welcome back~

ofc!!! i tried to keep it shorter but im a bit rusty w my kasamatsu hehe hope u enjoy! wc: 2.3k

Kasamatsu admits that balancing his band and college work isn’t exactly an easy task. Between late evenings spent at gigs and all nights at the library, he is on the brink of his sanity, standing right at the tipping point. He yawns as he enters his nine am mandatory calculus class, another mistake made in his overconfidence that he would somehow be able to get his shit together.

You, on the other hand, are a closeted fan of his band, sitting three rows behind him in class. Every Tuesday and Thursday, you watch him drag his feet in and his hand lifting to his mouth in a yawn. Quickly, you duck behind your book as if Kasamatsu would ever give you the time of day. The brunette is well-known on campus with his successful group and good looks, not to mention he also dabbles a little in basketball while also maintaining a decent grade point average across all his classes. Triple threat, they call him.

When you first came into class and saw him there, shocked is an understatement. You’ve been following his band his high school from across the country. To see him in the flesh, so real and so human with his tired eyes, it almost feels like a dream. One you hope nobody would ever pinch you awake from. Thus, you made it your goal to be there before him every morning, which is a feat in itself. Kasamatsu may be grinding through the night and falling asleep in lectures, but he’ll be damned if he shows up late to class.

Throughout several weeks, you’ve seen girls come up to him left and right, shot down almost immediately by his intention to focus on the professor’s words. He lets them down easy and makes it clear that he pays thousands of dollars to study, not play IRL Tinder. This man gets sexier everyday.

You take your time packing your things when class is over, mainly because you’re too distracted watching Kasamatsu do the same. He is blind, or chooses to ignore, the whispers and shy glances thrown his way. Perhaps this is why you haven’t approached him yourself. You’re just one of his many admirers, a stroke in the massive painting of his life. Sighing, you pick up your pitiful self and make your way to the dining hall where you’re supposed to meet your friend for breakfast.

When the two of you settle on a table, you begin your weekly rambling about how beautiful Kasamatsu looks in the morning. Moriyama, being the good friend that he is, nods and listens intently.

Moriyama is an intriguing character. The two of you met because he had tried a line on you. In your perpetual state of flustered embarrassment, you had stupidly confessed to him: “Sorry, my heart belongs to Kasamatsu Yukio.”

In another twist of fate, he revealed that he had actually gone to high school with the guy and knew him pretty well.

“You know I can introduce you to him, right? No need for all this pining and drooling from three feet away.”

“It’s not the same,” you argue, “he’s practically a living legend on campus. I’m too intimidated to even breathe in the same air as him.” Your obsession has perhaps taken you too far, but if you expect to continue being his fan, the last thing you want is to scare him away.

“You’re so overdramatic,” Moriyama rolls his eyes. Coming from him, this sentence means a lot.

“What? It’s not my fault Kasamatsu’s so hot. He could bang me so hard backstage then pretend I don’t exist and I would still pay to watch his next show,” you groan, spooning yogurt into your mouth.

In that moment, several things happen. Moriyama’s eyes widen and fly behind you. Footsteps sounding at that same spot suddenly cease completely. You, realizing what possibly just happened, feel the heat flare up your cheeks.

Kasamatsu, in his sleep deprived state and probably completely delirious, had stopped in his tracks. His head whipped around to the source of the comment, finding Moriyama sitting with someone who looks distinctly familiar, but he can’t quite put his finger on it.

“Kasamatsu—”

Before Moriyama can even finish his sentence, Kasamatsu is already blurting out. “Okay, maybe I’m crazy but did I just hear you say that out loud?”

You want to crawl into your hole six feet underground and never see the light of day again. Ducking your head, you don’t even want to chance a glance up. The utter mortification is chewing away at your bones and you wish you could just evaporate into thin air.

Moriyama quickly interjects with a quick laugh, “Hear what? Also how have you been, man? I haven’t seen you in forever. Come join us for breakfast.”

Kasamatsu’s brows pucker. Maybe he really is going insane. And horny. Which is a very bad combination. Nevertheless, he slides into the empty seat next to Moriyama. He stares at you for a few seconds, squinting, before snapping his fingers. “Oh, I remember now. You’re in my calculus class.”

He knows you? “How do you know me?” you squeak, cursing your fangirl self for losing your voice. You never speak up in class, always choosing to come up to your professor for questions at the end of lecture. You’re quiet and tucked away behind him, so you never expected him to recognize you.

The smile he sends you is blinding. Even with shadows under his eyes, he still looks gorgeous. “You’re always first to arrive and last to leave. Figured you’re a hard worker in class and probably acing it.”

Your mouth dries. Kasamatsu noticed you. He actually noticed you. “Oh, um, I’m okay. I’m okay in class, I mean.”

“The question you should be asking is her name, Kasamatsu,” Moriyama scolds, smacking his back.

Kasamatsu pinks sheepishly. “Sorry, yeah. I’m Kasamatsu Yukio, by the way.”

Idiotically, you blurt out “I know” before your name. When you finally introduce yourself, you also clarify, “I’m a huge fan of Blue Devils. I mean, I’ve been following you guys since like high school. Absolutely love your music.”

The man actually reddens even further, but still he beams proudly. “Thank you! That’s crazy. Have you been to our shows?”

Almost all of them. “A couple, yeah.”

“We have one tonight in an actual venue. Are you coming?”

“Ah, it was sold out before I could get a ticket, actually.”

Kasamatsu blinks, “Oh, you’re more than welcome to come. I can get you a pass. Both of you—if Moriyama’s interested.”

“That would be amazing!” You grin, “Is there anything I can get you in return? I don’t want to just accept a gift from you for free.”

“Well, if you are good at calc, I wouldn’t mind some extra tutoring,” he suggests with a teasing grin.

Moriyama rolls his eyes, “Just ask her out instead of using tutoring as an excuse.” The two of you sputter, face colored a dark shade of red. You’ll kick his ass when you get the chance.

��

That one mistake turned out to be the greatest opportunity of your life. In addition to attending his show that night and meeting all of his bandmates, each one more good looking up close than then other, you manage to have weekly study sessions (you’re holding off on calling it dates) with Kasamatsu. The two of you take turns booking rooms at the library to cram, which mainly consists of you reexplaining concepts to the man. Although he isn’t a bad student, he’s also still struggling a bit to keep up.

“Hey” is what you hear before you feel a warm surface press against your cheek. You look up to find Kasamatsu with a steaming cup in hand. Gratefully accepting it, you catch a whiff of freshly brewed tea. You take a sip and smile. Black tea, no sugar. “Just the way I like it.”

“Noticed you never add anything to your tea,” Kasamatsu says almost proudly.

You raise the cup to him in thanks. Both of you go through your usual routine—you focusing on reviewing material for next week while Kasamatsu pores over his notes from this week, occasionally poking you to ask questions.

Honestly, a big part of you still wonders if this is all a dream. This guy you’ve been crushing on for years is sitting in the flesh right across from you. You peek at him from time to time, watching the way he frowns at his book. His blue, almost grey, eyes shine underneath the flickering lights. Even the way his lips curl unhappily is cute.

When he catches you staring, you quickly drop your gaze back to your laptop, missing the way he smiles quietly.

“Will you come to our show this weekend?” He asks as the two of you pack up.

“Ah, I have a shift at my part-time job.”

He looks surprised, “That late?”

You shrug, “Food never sleeps, I guess. It’s at the burger diner by campus.”

“Oh, are you guys open late?”

“Close at one.”

He nods, “Maybe I’ll see you there after then. The guys usually get really hungry after a gig so we can drive some business your way. I’ll make sure they tip well too.”

Your heart warms at the thought. It’s a thoughtful gesture but you’re even more thrilled at the prospect of seeing him. “Sounds good.”

True to his word, Kasamatsu brings the guys to your workplace at midnight after their show ended. They order quite a spread, practically everything on the menu. Kasamatsu goes as far as to help you carry orders to their table. You shoot him an appreciative smile.

Over the time your friendship has bloomed, Kasamatsu has been nothing but a gentleman. He walks you home to your dorm if you’re studying late into the night. He meets you in class with a muffin or a cookie from his early Starbucks runs. Surprisingly, he begins placing himself next to you each session. “This is better anyway,” he mutters. “Two birds, one stone.”

His vague words had you tilting your head in question.

“I don’t have random people coming up to me to sit with me and, well, I get to enjoy your company.” It’s a nice thought—him enjoying your company, that is. He had blushed a little when he realized what you said, but chose to direct his attention to the slides pulled up before him, missing the way you hide your smile behind your sleeve.

Now, you hear the rowdy boys chattering on as they devour their meal as if it’s their last. They speak through mouthfuls of burgers and fries, but you find the sight endearing, mainly because you’ve never seen Kasamatsu so relaxed. It’s quite refreshing really. Your attention is piqued when you hear one of them ask: “So doing it tonight huh?”

Kasamatsu retorts with a “shut the fuck up” and flings a fry his way. The way the other guy wiggles his brows suggestively has you freezing. What if he was meeting up with someone tonight? What if he was going to do the deed?

Somewhere in the distance, you hear the faint cracking of your heart. Of course, Kasamatsu is popular. It’s no surprise he’s got his nights covered as well. You sigh dejectedly, feeling the hope inside you crumble into dust. The rest of your shift goes by rather uneventfully, but you try to avoid going to their table too much, lest you hear more details about Kasamatsu’s planned tryst. The man himself steals glances your way, wondering if you’ll be checking on them anytime soon.

“Your check,” you smile as you set the bill on the table, “I got the owner to give you a discount since you guys ordered a good amount.”

All of their eyes seem to sparkle as they thank you in unison, their synchrony almost puzzling. As you move to pick up the bill and change, Kasamatsu catches your hand before you move away. “What time does your shift end?”

“Half an hour. Why?”

The other guys are already packing up their things and giving you little waves as they exit the restaurant, leaving the two of you alone. “I’ll walk you home, it’s late,” he murmurs, fingers still wrapped around your wrist.

“Oh, you don’t have to! I usually take the bus back anyway so it’s no big deal.” You want to confirm whether he had plans that night anyway. You’d hate to be in the way of that.

He shakes his head, “I insist. Also, um, are you doing anything tomorrow?”

“Catching up on studying most likely.”

“Oh,” he pauses, “if you have time tomorrow night, do you want to catch a movie with me? Maybe dinner after?”

You blink at him in surprise. Now that you’re looking at him properly, you notice that his cheeks are several shades darker than the red neon glow of the diner sign. He’s shifting on his feet and his other hand finds purchase on the strap of his bag, fidgeting with the material. “Um, like a date?”

“Y-yeah,” he stutters slightly, his throat moving as he swallows. “Sorry, I probably should’ve made that clear,” he coughs, “b-but if you don’t want it to be the we can also go as friends.” Perhaps you’ve tortured the boy long enough but you can’t help but relish in his awkward chuckle as his hand lifts to rub the back of his neck nervously.

Biting back a huge grin, you nod. “It’s a date.”

Kasamatsu’s eyes light up and a pleased grin spread across his face. “It’s a date.”

The hollering outside the building has the two of you whipping to face the window where his bandmates have their faces pressed up against the surface, laughing and smiling to congratulate and embarrass their friend. Kasamatsu flushes, “I’ll see you later to pick you up.”

You nod but he’s already out the door, leaping to kick his friends away. “You stupid idiots!”

Laughing, you watch as the group makes kissy faces at Kasamatsu all the while the man fruitlessly attempts to shut them up. He really is cute.

#kuroko no basket #knb #kuroko no basuke #kasamatsu yukio #kasamatsu #knb drabbles #miffythoughts

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radbutsafe · 4 years ago

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ALL FUCKIN 35 OF THEM SKLNWESDJFPXO

I SHOULDVE EXPECTED THIS FROM YOU

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing? (No downplaying yourself!)

A three! I think I’m mid range cause I ain’t terrible but there is still shit I gotta improve and grow in my writing

2. Why do you write fanfiction?

to manifest what canon won’t give me and to write more! (though yes it is mainly about the smooching and the— I’ll stop there LOL)

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

Hm! My weird research details? I’m that “fun fact, did you know...” in my fics sometimes LOL! I plan on giving a penthouse for erina in a fic and I went through penthouse listings in Japan for floor layouts and locations💀 my research gives me inspo and depth to stuff I think I lack in comparison to others sometimes.

4. Are there any writers that inspire you?

In terms of fellow fic writers, one of them I can’t name here but she’s an inspiration with her exceptional gift for prose period and her lovely skill at comedy! I want to be as funny as her when I write, I love her ironic situational humor. Other fic writers are @takoyakitenchou, @royaldragonsevgisi15 who I always love sharing ideas with and motivate me to create more! For non-fic writers it would be V.E. Schwab, Leigh Bardugo, Oda, and Horikoshi! The last two may be mangaka, however they are writers as well to create their stories! The depth these creators have given their worlds and interesting characters theyve given life to are all what I aspire to be like!

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of?

so far uh?? hm everything I’m currently writing are wips lol!! im proud of my wip that has been nicknamed ‘soma panics’ that is a multi-chapter fic that spans like probs 20 plus chapters maybe

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily?

dialogue! it’s so much fun! and character thoughts. I’ve said to people I may be better suited for script writing

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most?

I think it’s description, of like setting and showing action. also an expansion of my vocabulary LOL

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write?

erina! I think it’s because canon has shown us many of her different faces and range of emotion.

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write?

SOMA!! chill ass mofo whos more carefree compared to the common shonen protagonist! for other shokugeki characters I’m not sure just yet because I haven’t flexed my fingers enough for the rest of them.

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for?

I guess I should say romance cause that’s what I mostly write LOL!

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most?

sorina and I try to get them to smooch eventually KEK and yeah it’s..usually romantic fluff lmao

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about.

HONESTLY ALL OF THEM but “soma panics” is my brain child

13. First fandom you ever wrote for?

pretty sure it’s digimon....

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for?

currently shokugeki no soma!!!!

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for?

uhhhh I guess SNS? LMAO fandoms...all have their quirks to them.

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)?

characters cuddling!!!! or getting the urge to smooch!!!!

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for.

unrequited love GOOD FUCKIN BYEEEEEE

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written?

I have plot ideas thst can be wild potentially but so far nothing fits this criteria so far that I actually have written.

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between?

depends on the fandom, but if written well, all of it!

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff?

shippy 100% like I said I like smoochin

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!)

romantic is...*drumroll* SORINA! platonic, soutaku and erina and alice!

22. Do you listen to anything while you write?

Sometimes! There are times songs will be on loop and times I just shuffle a playlist. and if I’m writing in random bursts it’ll be with no music but it really does depend lmao I think music is when I’m forcing myself to write?

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

completely independent ideas, I’ve realized in the past prompts shoot me in the foot often unless I luckily figure something out. but I’m often driven by my own sporadic self interest with shitty ping ponging attention

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works?

multi-chap I guess cause I can post without being finished LOLLL but tbh can I really answer? I haven’t finished anything.....

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them!

I can’t answer this question imo because I haven’t finished a fic yet so technically stuff could all fit in the one fic?

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try?

MYSTERY AND CRIME! I love the genre and I have plot ideas once a blue moon but I can’t dive in because I want to make details that work and reduce plot holes where suspension of disbelief isn’t as needed. I need to study it more (I need to study all the details for any of my fics imo to be confident sometimes LOL)

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received?

I don’t think I can say one comment was the nicest because I’ve gotten comments that have given me quite the smiles to my face many times! I know this is a cop out but it’s true!

IS WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY UNTIL REINA SENT ME THE FOLLOWING ON DISCORD LIKE TWENTY MINS AGO:

and also rad. i am never this vocal about my emotions like EVER but this needs to be said your fics are obviously far from perfect, as are mine and everyone else's. but the thing about your works is that they're so well-sanded that it's impossible to find any rough edges or faults in them in terms of cohesion to a plot. your cast is never OOC and the amount of effort you devote to developing your takes on the characters as accurately as possible is unimaginably awe-inspiring.

BITCH I WANNA CRY 😭

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing?

I’d like to believe I take it often well to try and improve because that’s always my goal. if someone is rude lol that’s not constructive snd is unhelpful. If I disagree with criticism I’ll explain why !

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out?

Not yet, but I have some plot ideas I think will let me test this.

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst?

F L U F F.

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them!

elliott fuji, a japanese-american award winning photographer who is erina’s boyfriend in ‘soma panics’ which..causes soma’s panic LOL he’s 30 with slightly wavy black hair. I still haven’t pinpointed his personality just yet...he kind of humble brags for sure an artsy fucker and flirts maybe I’ll make him a lil shy though. he teaches sometimes, and becomes an adjunct photography professor in Tokyo so he can be with erina.

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less.

a cook is unfashionably late in realizing his feelings.

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process?

I am a slow. so slow. motivation who is she? I also write out of order, unfortunately a bit too often.

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of.

this should be for the fic ‘soma panics’ it’s either megumi or satoshi talkin to him rn, I’m leaning towards satoshi

“You thought she would always wait for you, didn’t you Soma-kun? To always welcome you home.”

Soma drags his palms down his face and groans. He doesn’t like this at all. He doesn’t shy from confrontation but this is a whole different ballgame. Soma doesn’t play any ball.

“I guess..?” Is his reply, because he thinks he isn’t sure how to answer that.

“You guess?”

Just being questioned again is enough to crack Soma’s pathetic facade as if it was dropped chinaware and he lets out the longest sigh.

“No.”

Coming home means coming home to Nakiri Erina too.

Nakiri Erina is his forever.

this is @takoyakitenchou’s excerpt she’s most proud of that I’ve written, which is also from you guessed it, the long fic soma panics

SOMA: I am, I mean I will be, I swear I will always come home to you, not spend as much time abroad, once I’m done with work I’ll come right back. I’ll make sure to message you. Nakiri, I’m in love you with you. Maybe for a really long time. You know how I say I dedicate my food to you? My dad—my dad said that the key to become a good chef is to find someone to dedicate your cooking to. A special someone. For my dad it was my mom, you know? For me it’s...

(this is a good piece of dialogue tbh so I am also proud of this)

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

I’ve mentioned it throughout this but the WIP I’ve nicknamed ‘soma panics’ is something I’m super excited to write, but it’s going on slowly...and almost completely out of order. out of all of my writing it showed off that particular habit of mine, along with “what is this, a shoujo manga?!” though the latter is currently being written chronologically now that I’ve posted chapter one and is pretty solid in direction. it was originally supposed to be a one shot but I got impatient and wanted to post at least something for the sorina / soueri fandom.

however, because ‘soma panics’ (I won’t call it that LOL) is my baby I want to keep true to my rule of refusing to post it until I have a draft of the entire fic finished and I’m satisfied with the main points pretty much. due to my writing out of order, I’m worried I’ll change my mind about scenes or want to reflect things in earlier chapters for later ones etc etc

I joined the SnS fandom extremely late, as season five was airing. I was a fan of the manga five years ago and dropped it because I forgot to check for updates when I caught up 😔 I really want to bang out the different fics and aus for sorina that I have before the fandom fizzles out entirely but tbh I’m writing for myself, I’m manifesting what I want to see and I’ll just share it with all my friends to read if no one else will. cause I’m slow broski I dunno what writing fast even is like LMAO I do really want to write faster though, so I can contribute more and let the words free from the discord dms....

#ask meme #ask rad shit #writing #writing by rad #fanfic #reina girl u put me thru it I swear lol #thank u for sending!!#ur amazing!!!!

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tetrakys · 5 years ago

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Forbidden - Act 1 and 2

So you guys might have seen one of my previous posts where I said I was going to play this game this weekend, and I did. I have been waiting for it for a while because I love @saku-chann‘s art and I’d seen a few posts on the official tumblr page @forbiddenvn so I was super excited and, I have to say, it didn’t disappoint. The game is not perfect, there are a few problems here and there, but I think this is essentially a demo so the authors can easily make improvements, and there are also lots of very good things. But let’s talk about everything in order, starting with the main plot.

The plot

Forbidden is a romance mystery visual novel, the premise is simple: MC’s parents are rich, very rich, but too caught up in their own problems to deal with their rebelling daughter, so they send her to what is essentially a reformatory disguised as a fancy all-girls college. There we meet three charming teachers, the geek nephew of the director and a few classmates secondary characters. MC is also in contact with her childhood friend who didn’t show up yet but he should be another LI, I am curious about how the story is going to evolve to include him as he is a guy and he is back home (MC is Irish but I think the setting is England). The first two acts serve as an introduction to setting and characters, it’s very much dialogue heavy with little plot except for the last scene in act 2 which was a real shock and sets the tone of the whole game.

Cons

Now, you know I’m always very balanced with my reviews, giving pros and cons. This time I’m going to talk first about what I think doesn’t work because I have lots of trust in this project and I don’t want to focus too much on the negatives. I think the main problems are essentially three:

1. First of all, the game needs a beta, more than one actually, and they have to be english mother tongue. There are typos and grammar mistakes in almost every line and it’s a real shame because it takes away from fully diving into the story. I know that the two authors are french (I think) so it’s really amazing that they made a game in english and I congratulate them for that, they just need help, a few pairs of fresh eyes. I know very well that when you read and look at something a thousand times at some point you stop seeing any mistakes. And not only in the writing, there are some issues and small bugs here and there, like some scenes being cut abruptly at the beginning, some characters called with the wrong name, the wrong answers to some dialogues etc (if the authors want to contact me in private I can point to whatever I remember, it’s not the goal of this review to make a list.)

2. The second point, and this is probably very personal, is that I don’t like much the secondary characters because I find them very stereotyped. Basically the chubby girl only talks about food, drinks and lazying around

and also there is the usual clique of mean girls. I hate games that put women against each other, especially when there is no particular reason. In this case more than ever, these girls had basically said nothing yet and MC reacted in a pretty spiteful way.

(I don’t trust women? Seriously??)

Granted, I do like that we have a strong-minded MC that doesn’t let anyone mistreat her, but she acted as the mean girl first. The one character I liked was Claire

hehe funny... but well...

I hope the game will give these characters more depth as the story moves forward and we won’t have too many cat-fights.

3. The final point, and probably the main one, is that I don’t buy the premise. MC is sent to this jail/school to complete her thesis, she is 23 and has to go along with whatever her parents want because she financially depends on them. I have to say, this doesn’t work with a 23 years old MC. I understand that she grew up rich and is not used to provide for herself, but the MC has to also represent the player a bit, this is too far fetched to believe. Also, everything in the setting looks like a high school, from the fact that MC has to study different subjects that have nothing to do with her thesis, the students having to wear a uniform, the all-girls boarding school environment... also the duration of the studies doesn’t make sense, in UK university lasts 3 years, then students can do a one year master. By the time they are 23 they are done unless they have lost one or more years, which I don’t think it’s MC’s case. My impression is that the game was aiming for a rich boarding high school atmosphere but that, since the romance part of the game involves teachers, the authors decided to make it the less controversial they could and upped MC’s age as much as possible. I understand that having a minor MC romancing a teacher could have been problematic for them, but to make the story work it would be enough to say that this is MC’s last year of college, she is 20-21, it would also explain her having to get some credits in other subjects and it’s enough to believe her acting out like a rebellious teenager.

So, these are my cons, as you can see they are all very easy to solve if they wish so, I think it would be great if they did because they would make the game perfect as the pros really really good.

Pros

1. Let’s start with the easiest: the art. This is in fact the reason I was interested in the game in the first place. I love the art style and how expressive all the characters are, how everything is very detailed and the backgrounds are soooo beautiful too.

And the CGs! I’m only going to post a couple without context just to illustrate how beautiful they are

2. The setting. I said that I don’t believe in the premise in relation to MC’s age and if this has to pass as a university, but other than that the setting is really intriguing, I’m a sucker for boarding-school based stories, especially when there is more than meets the eyes

Also the school has a sort of house-system, I didn’t fully understand how it works but I think that it is based on the year of study, MC is a stag which is the last one.

3. I really liked that we could chose the subject of our thesis among history, literature and math. Usually in these games the MC always studies art because this is what the creators know and it’s smart to stick to your guns, but I really appreciated so much that math was a choice and I didn’t have to suffer through the usual stereotype of “math is hard, I hate math, it’s just numbers blah blah blah”, this is personal but it made me very happy.

(Honestly a good chunk of my excitement is now working on our thesis 🤭)

4. The romance. So... I came into this game completely blind, I knew nothing about the plot except for one thing: we are going to romance sexy teachers 👀 I had seen the guys’ sprites and, while all three are good-looking

there was only one guy who had immediately got my attention, the one in the middle. How lucky it is that it turns out he is Mr Alexander Holmes the math teacher?? And how lucky it is that it turns out he is the cold asshole of the group? (i.e. my type?)

Do I hear wedding bells already?

(talking to the class)

Be still my beating heart! 😻

(and you know babe I would take you more seriously if it weren’t for the fact that the math you wrote on the blackboard is complete nonsense, thankfully you’re pretty and brooding)

The other guys are nice and apparently sweet but they haven’t seduced me yet. Only the geek a bit because I have a weakness for geeks

(look at that background! saku you have so much talent!)

5. I find the writing style quite intriguing. MC describes everything first person present tense, but then at some point there are some philosophical monologues from MC from the future narrating in the past tense. While this could be unnerving, I think it adds to the mysterious and intriguing atmosphere of the game. (My only suggestion is to use a different font when these come up to make the reading easier.)

6. The mystery. This is probably the most important factor, this isn’t just a romantic visual novel, it’s a murder mystery! And they hint at something supernatural going on because a girl was killed a while ago and they say her spirit is still around. But this isn’t the only crime, apparently there is someone going around killing people and I’m all in for this, love me a good murder mystery.

So, this is it from me, let me know if you end up playing, you’ll find the link to download the game on the official tumblr @forbiddenvn (it’s itch.io so it’s free and you can pay only if you want, whatever you want). I really hope there’s going to be more soon, but I can see it may take some time, it’s clear that a humongous amount of work went into this demo for just two people, but I’m looking forward to see what comes next!

#forbiddenvn #forbidden #forbidden game

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feminetflix · 5 years ago

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De atracos y ab*rtos - Of heists and ab*rtions or How women are being robbed.

⚠️ this contains major spoilers for LA CASA DE PAPEL / MONEY HEIST season 1, specifically episode 3!

Personally, I have experienced the series la casa de papel (original title) or money heist as progressive, realistic and not afraid to deal with certain topics like domestic violence which I will be commenting on in posts yet to be published, female trans representation and occasionally peppered with numerous feminist parentheses (see characters like Nairobi and dialogues around/involving her opinion).

However, there are certain aspects I did not enjoy to watch / do not support. That is normal and every show has its flaws, those resulting all the more dangerous however, as money heist is not just any show. The series is thanks to its popularity by now a relevant aspect of people’s opinion-forming and plays into the perception of many people all around the world, coming from different cultures and having experienced all kinds of upbringing. The target audience is not specified, yet crime drama (the genre) is estimated to target both females and males aged 15-40 years old. Means, also targeting minors and adolescents. Again, all cultures / religions / races / classes etc etc included.

I am fully aware that this kind of range was not expected and therefore not taken into account by producers, talking about the first two seasons that were solely meant for a Spanish audience, not an international one. (The series was initially intended as a limited series to be told in two parts. It had its original run of 15 episodes on Spanish network Antena 3 from 2 May 2017 through 23 November 2017. Netflix acquired global streaming rights in late 2017). The analysed / discussed scene is indeed part of this maybe not so carefully crafted content. Cough.

Let’s get right into it.

Characters interacting: Mónica Gaztambide (Esther Acebo), one of the hostages who was also Arturo Román's secretary and introduced as his mistress and “Denver” (Jaime Lorente), one of the robbers participating in the heist [Denver is an alias, all robbers being referred to with city names]

Context: Mónica has an affair with Arturo Román (Enrique Arce) -hostage and former Director of the Royal Mint of Spain- which leads to an unwanted pregnancy. Numerous factors influence her (for now) final decision: she doesn’t want the child. Shortly after, the robbery unfolds and she’s taken hostage among other people. She then requests an ab*rtion pill, which at some point arrives in the mint alongside other medical supplies. The scene analysed: one of the robbers (Denver) is supposed to hand her mentioned ab*rtion pill. Before that he holds an emotional speech on the subject, morally risen forefinger, accusations and tears included.

Here the dialogue without comments:

————Now my opinion / the actual post:

“You need money, right?” One might think that the amount of money seen in this frame (20.000,-€ approx. $21.701,50 according to Denver) is an exaggerated, way too generous gesture. Let me tell you, it is not.

According to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average cost of raising a child from birth [to] age 17 is $233,610. If that made your heart skip a beat, take a deep breath before you read on. Incorporating inflation costs, it will be more like $284,570. Since that’s based on 2015 numbers, we can expect the cost will be even higher, babies born since then.

[…] This average includes everything from housing, food and transportation to healthcare, education and childcare to clothing, personal care items and entertainment.

Let me now remind you that Mónica is a secretary, so she likely earns (barely) enough money to be financially independent herself (taking into account that she lives near or maybe even in Madrid, her workplace, the Royal Mint situated there, so housing alone is hella expensive) and can’t really expect reliable support coming from the potential child’s father, Arturo Román, either, who initially denied support himself, their relationship a secret to the family and wife he already has. Phew.

Btw: A University of California at San Francisco study found that women who were turned away from ab*rtion clinics […] were three times more likely to be below the poverty level two years later than women who were able to obtain ab*rtions. 76% of the "turnaways" ended up on unemployment benefits, compared with 44% of the women who had ab*rtions.

“Enough to get the kid diapers until he graduates.” The problem or let’s say points raised above are now also being ridiculed or not taken seriously to say the least.

She takes the money, sticking to her decision however. “So, what’s the problem?” Or “Then, what is it?” A million additional things, Denver, believe it or not a potential child is a big deal. That and none of your business.

Also, see the reaction? How he stares at her in disbelief (and possibly even disgust, see the risen corner of his lips?). How he looks at her as if she were heartless, selfish, a monster – the picture often painted in this debate when it comes to women who decide to terminate a pregnancy. How he doesn’t respect her “no, thanks” and continues. Continues influencing her, later on even starts to mansplain his way into her stone cold heart. Okay, then let me continue as well.

“That he’ll f*ck up your life? […] Your son. Better to have your life f*cked up by your son than any of these sons of b*tches. Or me.” Call it ‘f*ck up’ or not – that is entirely her perception, her decision and I’d dare to say…she knows best.

First, because regardless of the fact that she is a woman and you are not – well it is indeed her life and, uhm, excuse me Denver, you’re no sibling, no friend, no acquaintance, quite the contrary, you have known her for what? Three minutes and already jump to conclusions?

Take the privilege of explaining her how a child would f*ck or not f*ck up her life?!!

Secondly, what makes him assume the gender of this cluster of cells, this potential future life, this basis for a potential life that may later on develop into a life (it is not a walking talking baby boy already, my friend!).

Personhood begins after a fetus becomes “viable” (able to survive outside the womb) or after birth, not at conception.

Does it provide a smooth transition for that awfully funny and figurative “son” – “sons of b*tches” (org. Hijo – hijos de p*ta) line or is it literal propaganda?

Why does he say “your son”, although he cannot possibly know? I’ll tell you. In order to distract the audience from the fact that he is referring to a pea-sized basis for a potential life by painting the picture of an already existing male human being. Mónica, do you really want to murder your son? Mónica, does that cute little doe eyed baby boy really f*ck up your life? Yeah, propaganda at its best.

Also, another example for ridiculing the point “a child would destroy my life” by comparing an unwanted pregnancy to a literal robbery at gun point. Great one.

“This f*cks your life up. A kid doesn’t.” Do you see that raised gun, that is quite literally an extension of a raised index finger? Wow, the drama. On a different note, did you notice the symbolism? A weapon stands for death, murder and guess what is also often equated with murder.

“How do you know what f*cks up my life? What do you know?” Finally. Exactly. He doesn’t know her, like at all. He doesn’t know her situation and no, he’s also not the pregnant one or anyone who would have to worry about that.

What do you answer to that, hmm? Let’s make this whole dispute even more emotional and dramatic. That ‘a cute little son isn’t as bad as a robbery’ didn’t convince her?

Let’s try with an extraordinary f*cked up and tragic life story, nobody asked for. Its goal? Showing the oblivious, naive, little secretary what real ‘f*ck up’ means, despite the evident lack of any sort of knowledge when it comes to her life (story). Again, conclusion-jumping and wallowing in prejudice at its best.

Have a look at his expression while ‘lecturing’ her. How disrespectful, how belittling. ‘Oh please, what do you know about life?’. On a wider scale: ‘How could we possibly trust women to rationally and with a clear conscience decide such things for themselves – concerning life and death, if they have not the slightest idea, living in their bubble of security and stability and no real problems’ etc. This is everything but taking women and their reasoning abilities, their judgement seriously.

“My mother was going to ab*rt me.” Now the audience doesn’t only have the mental image of a potential cute little son, it is furthermore provided with the image of a living, breathing human being standing right in front of them. Just look at him and his pleading puppy dog eyes. No actual child actor could have done it better.

Thank god she did not go through with the ab*rtion, right? Oh thank god she was not allowed to.

Taking advantage of this frame to remind you of the fact that we are still talking about a POTENTIAL future life, not an existing one that is nevertheless put above the mother’s already existing life in this impudent, low and unfair debate.

“But first…she inhaled the heroin she had to sell to be able to pay for the ab*rtion. Then she was caught by the police. Between jail, drugs and the police, I was born. What do you know?”

1)Adding even more emotions, subtle accusations and drama to that oh so rational dispute? Check. Making his situation seem two thousand times worse than hers (which he, again, has no clue about)? Check. Subconsciously painting the picture of reckless, irresponsible drug addicts/ “lowlifes” or generally female members of “society’s margins” usually being the ones to abort and make it seem like the state’s or whoever’s responsibility to prevent them from deciding for themselves? Check.

2) Then he even tears her valid ‘what do you know (about my life)’ out of the initial context of being confronted with endless assumptions and prejudice and blows it way out of proportion in order to demonstrate the insignificance of … everything concerning her? Her background, her life, her reasons. Everything.

And FINALLY *drum rolls* the wild theories and hypotheses and presumptions she was dying to hear because since he, I repeat for the twelfth time, has no actual clue about her life, let’s make up one.

“Because it seems that you don’t have a very exciting job. And maybe outside of work your life is not that great either. Or what is it that you do? ‘Kilates’? And Friday night drinks, right? What a f*cking drag. Another plan ruined by the kid[…]” That and the entire following paragraph. Wow. All accusations thrown at women who decide to abort in one.

Because OF COURSE a middle aged, down to earth, intelligent, responsible woman like Mónica Gaztambide has no other reason for terminating a pregnancy than not being able to drink alcoholic beverages or party anymore. Because OF COURSE it is valid to assume a woman or any person for that matter one has known for half an hour and interacted with for literal five minutes has a boring enough life that would not be affected in any way by a pregnancy, birth and ultimately being forced to raise an unwanted child. Because OF COURSE Denver would know how much a pregnancy can affect somebody, especially one that is forced upon a person. Quite frankly he has no idea and no right. The audacity.

“Do [your friends who are also mothers] seem f*cked up? / Do their lives look f*cked up? No, right?” Because you know best. Not only regarding her life but on top of that also that of her friends. Because those pregnancies or motherhood in general did under no circumstances end a career or prevent them from pursuing one in the first place or cause the end of a relationship or force them to stay in a toxic or even abusive relationship or change their financial situation completely or rob them of their fragile financial independence and/or free time altogether or cause any (mental) health complications or … you get the point. Oh, and because their situations are completely identical to Mónica’s situation, that is additionally not half as dramatic as your life story. Of course, Denver.

Seeing the ‘rational’ argument doesn’t really work, let’s add yet another dramatic, emotional rhetorical question. As a precaution.

“Do you know how much a child can love you?”

How could she, being the heartless, cruel, selfish, irresponsible, ridiculous and impulsive murderess you’re ‘exposing’ her as?

⚠️ Another spoiler warning for seasons 3 and 4 and still 1.

Would Cincinnati - that’s her sons actual name, not alias – really love her like he does now?

Friendly reminder: his biological father (Arturo Román) let her know - right from the start - that he wouldn’t take on any responsibility whatsoever, regardless of his later statements about doing so. Why those statements don’t matter? Despite his awareness of her state, despite knowing she was pregnant he shortly after urges her on to steal the cellphone she is caught with right after the analysed scene, ready to risk her life and the potential life of his unborn child. Literally, because as soon as she is caught with it, Berlín orders Denver to execute her.

So to those of you who will now say “but- but Cincinnati is okay and has an amazing life and does love her” etc etc, first think certain things through. If Denver wouldn’t have spared her, if she didn’t just happen to get together with him and if the heist didn’t just happen to work out like that, what then?

Cincinnati would have a different name. What else? Well for one, he wouldn’t have a father (that is now Denver) like at all, resulting in possible daddy issues / issues in general. How I know Arturo, the biological father, wouldn’t be there for them, wouldn’t fulfill all his empty promises?

Did he canonically care about his son? Was he devastated that he was not given the possibility to see him or did he instead focus on that random book of his and his speeches about heroism and honour and so on? If he wouldn’t have called his wife by his mistress’s name and through that expose himself, if his family wouldn’t have left him all alone, don’t you think he would stick to them? Just to paint a picture of who the father is and how he behaves and what we can assume from that behaviour. So the probability was high she would’ve been left alone with I quote “all the love” and of course all the responsibility. It’s a thing, Denver.

Secondly, if she didn’t just happen to turn into a millionaire thanks to the heist working out, would she really be able to provide a life for Cincinnati? Would she really be able to remain financially independent? Would her life at her son’s side really be all peace and harmony if she wouldn’t just so happen to be able to live from heist money?

So many coincidences, so many risks and no security. Can we really blame her? Do we have the right?

With these questions I will end this seemingly endless post and leave you to think about it, reflect certain things and – if you want to – share your opinion(s) with me. Please don’t hesitate to do so, as long as those contain rational arguments and most importantly respect. Thank you for reading!

(Also: sorry for the extensive censoring, I had to, otherwise it wouldn’t appear in the tags.)

#la casa de papel #lcdp #money heist #choice feminism #why we need feminism

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commander-rahrah · 5 years ago

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RESIDENCY (AN OPEN HEART FIC): PART TWENTY - THE FINALE

Masterlist: Click Here

Chapter Rating: M (Swearing, and just to be safe honestly!)

Word Count: 4200+

Description: Jordynne’s Ethics Hearing is finally here. But what does this mean for all of them? (Majority in Bryce’s POV!)

Disclaimer: Characters, storyline, and parts of the dialogue are taken from Pixelberry’s Choices. They fully own the characters, dialogue, backgrounds, etc. MC Jordynne’s background is my own creation, based loosely off of MC in-game’s personality and provided with more details.

Author’s Note: Welp at least I did my goal of releasing the final chapter before OH Book 2! This fic did take me a lot longer then I thought it would -- but I did it!! YAY! This is the first time I have ever actually completed a fic! I most definitely will be continuing the story of Jordynne, Bryce and Ethan for Residency 2.0 (is that what I’ll call it?). Thank you so so so much for everyone who has read the series along the way, and for all the comments, likes and reblogs! It means so much! I hope everyone enjoys and is excited for OH2 to come out on Saturday!!!!!

Taglist: @drakewalkerfantasy @owleyes374 @lahelable @mayar-mahdy @paisleylovergirl @nicquix @emilymay100 @octobereighth @llamasgrl @timmagicktoad @lilyofchoices @msjpuddleduck @mfackenthal @paulfwesley @ccolz88-blog @mindlessdreaminxo @jooous @lapisreviewsstuff @choicesarehard @themingdynasty @omgjasminesimone @hopelessly-shipper @binny1985 @perriewinklenerdie @jens-diamondchoices @indiacater @chasingrobbie @writingsbymissy @dimitriwife @tacohead13 @amy-choices @violinet

Previous Updates: Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine Part Ten Part Eleven Part Twelve Part Thirteen Part Fourteen Part Fifteen Part Sixteen Part Seventeen Part Eighteen Part Nineteen

Previous Update

PART TWENTY

Bryce jiggled his knee nervously — it was hidden under the table, out of anyone’s eyesight. He was picking at the food in front of him — his fork lazily spinning around the take out Chinese food.

The roommates had ordered it — and invited him over. He had accepted, as he really had started to feel like he was becoming one of them — but with everything going on he just couldn’t enjoy himself.

He still hadn’t heard from Jordynne — the last he had seen of her was her whirling around the library like a tornado. And even then it was all medicine and science.

“So, has any heard from Jordynne? Is Doctor Banerji okay?” He asked, trying to sound casual.

“No, not yet. Maybe she won’t come home again.” Jackie shrugged as she chewed lazily.

“What you mean?” His eyebrows furrowed, setting his fork down.

Sienna flashed Jackie a look.

She kept chewing, before opening her mouth again, “I mean she didn’t come home last night either. Maybe she won’t tonight.” She shrugged.

“Oh.”

Bryce felt his heart go up into his throat — he did his best to keep it down. She hadn’t come home last night — the night she went to see Ethan.

He didn’t want to jump to conclusions. And he didn’t have any right to. He had been through this. Over and over and over and over. Hell, he had told the guy to stop fucking it up with her already. To do something about it.

So why did he still feel this way?

A couple hours later he was wedged onto the sectional — his coffee-colored eyes glazed over as they huddled around the television. Elijah was talking animatedly about Battlestar Galactica but only Sienna was really showing an interest.

The rattle of keys in the front door caused his ears to perk up, and he watched as Jordynne slid in through the front door. He was like a dog waiting for his owner to come home — Bryce practically jumped up off of the couch.

She gave them a tired smile and a quiet “hey” as she pulled her messenger bag over her head. Using her toes, she kicked off her shoes.

“Hey,” The group called back in unison. Sienna grabbed the remote from Elijah’s lap and paused the show.

“How’s Dr. Banerji?!” Elijah asked — his brown eyes wide.

Right — Dr. Banerji. God, how selfish was he being? A man was on his death bed and he was consumed in his own thoughts of him and Jordynne and her with Ethan.

“It’s hard to tell. Ethan did the phage therapy. Now we just wait.” She shrugged — she looked exhausted.

“You didn’t stay?” Jackie asked — the question seemed double-edged.

Jordynne bit down on her bottom lip, “They needed some time. And I still haven’t prepared for the hearing.”

Her blue eyes found Bryce’s dark ones — he hesitated as she stared at him. They studied each other for a moment, before he coughed, “Well, I can help you prep for it.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I’m sure you have better things to do.”

Bryce shook his head, “Then make sure you get to stay at Edenbrook? No way.”

She smiled — but it looked forced. The edges of it faltered before she turned towards the kitchen. “Chinese food? Yum! Can I have some?” Her voice sounded a little higher than usual.

“Yeah, help yourself, Jordy.” Elijah waved, craning his neck to look back at her. He and Sienna shared a look — they were just as concerned as he was.

“Well, I’m dipping out. No more Number Six for me guys. Do you need help with the prep Holland?” Jackie asked, her arms crossed over her torso.

Jordynne finished swallowing a mouthful of noodles, “No that’s okay. Those old cases you sent me are more than enough. Thanks.”

“Cool. See you tomorrow.” She turned on her heel and headed to her bedroom. Bryce watched Jordynne’s face fall again before she dipped her face to continue to eat.

“We can watch the rest of the show in E’s room — so you can study out here.” Sienna reached for the remote — but Jordynne cut her off.

“Oh my gosh, no, please. I’ve ruined enough evenings for you guys as is. I will study in my room.” She placed her bowl in the sink, padding towards her room. “Seriously, I love you guys.” She smiled back at them before slipping into her bedroom.

She left the door ajar.

“Thanks for the Chinese food guys. I’ll transfer you money tomorrow.” Bryce said, still standing in the middle of the living room.

“Sure man, no worries.” Elijah nodded — a kind but sad smile on his face.

Taking a breath, Bryce headed over to her bedroom — knocking on the open door.

“Hey,” Jordynne turned around from her dresser — a binder in her hands. “Thanks for offering to help — you don’t have to you know.”

“I know.” He said, carefully stepping into the room. “I want to.”

She shuffled through a large stack of papers — they were highlighted and flagged in organized chaos. “So I’ve reviewed all these previous ethics hearing and I thought maybe you could listen to what I have prepared and —,”

“Jordy?” He tried to get her attention but she kept mumbling on.

“And then maybe you can just help me sound more confident? You’re good at that so if —“

“Jordynne.” He stepped forward, putting his hands on either shoulder. “Breathe.”

She let out a breathy laugh, “Right, yeah.”

The pair sat on the edge of her bed — the mattress sinking at the weight.

“How are you?”

“Well, Naveen is stable so that’s better and as long as I—“

But he interrupted, “No, Jordynne. How are you?”

“I’m alright.” She sighed, “Tired. And nervous. You?”

“I’m okay,” He whispered, putting on a smile. “How’s Ethan?” Her face twisted with surprise at the mention of his name. “I’m sure this has been just as hard for him. Especially with Dr. Banerji.”

“Right — yeah, he’s come to terms with a lot of things. But he’s okay.”

“I saw him — a couple nights ago,” He admitted. “He was a mess, honestly. I’m glad it sounds like he’s doing better.”

“Me too.” She agreed, but her voice was quiet.

They sat in silence for a moment — side by side, legs just barely touching.

“Are you sure you want me here?” Bryce asked — his brown eyes big as he looked over to her.

She met his eyes — searching them, “Yeah. Yeah — I do.”

“Then this is where I’ll be.” He settled into the mattress, folding his hands onto his stomach, “Let's hear this speech, Jordy.”

She nodded with a small smile, “Okay.” She grabbed onto one of the pieces of paper and settled in next to him. _______________________________________________________________________

Bryce sat in the tight auditorium chair — his green scrubs riding up uncomfortably. Most of the hospital staff had packed themselves into the space — nobody had wanted to miss this.

Jordynne was standing up front — her face and demeanor calm as she listened to the panelists. She looked amazing — wearing a crisp, white suit that accentuated her long legs and tan skin. Her hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail.

They had just returned from the recess — after Mrs. Martinez’s son showed up and surprised everyone by thanking Jordynne for what she had done.

“Dr. Holland, you stand accused of not just breaking Edenbrook’s policies, but the Hippocratic Oath.”

“First, ‘do no harm’. You broke your vow as a doctor.” Dr. Cyrus chimed in.

“I don’t believe I did,” Jordynne stated.

“I see. Might I ask, what you think it means to be a doctor then?” Bryce’s surgical attending asked.

“What it means to be a doctor? It means fighting the inevitable,” Her green eyes searched the crowd as she said it. Bryce couldn’t see who -- but he didn’t need to see in order to know who she was looking for. “They say that as doctors, we’re just buying time. We all die eventually. But time isn’t always what we need. Mrs. Martinez would’ve rather spent 10 days doing what she loved than 10 years cooped up here. Since we all lose that fight eventually... I’m gonna fight to make sure my patients fight on their own terms.”

The crowd burst into applause. That was the speech that they had practiced all night. And that was the best version yet.

“I have one last question, Dr. Holland? Do you regret what you have done?”

“I regret the pain I’ve caused.” She turned to Mr. Martinez, sitting next to Ethan Ramsey — apparently, that was his doing. “I regret all the pain I caused Mrs. Martinez’s family. I regret causing problems for my colleagues and mentors.” She looked over to their group, meeting their eyes. “But I do not regret what I was able to do for Mrs. Martinez. To me, it’s worth everything. Maybe even my career.” She shrugged, pursing her lips into a serious line.

“And there we have it! Dr. Holland knowingly broke the rules and would do it again! I move that we stop wasting time and call a vote!” Dr. Cyrus slammed his hand onto the table.

“Seconded. The seven panelists will now vote whether to revoke Dr. Holland’s privileges at Edenbrook.” Chief emery said.

“Here we go...” Kyra whispered into Bryce’s ear, holding onto his forearm tightly.

“You weren’t going to start without me, were you?”

Shock buzzed throughout the room as Dr. Banerji walked slowly into the room — aided by both a cane and Landry. Gasps and whispers filled the room.

“Dr— Dr. Banerji?!” Jordynne looked as confused as the rest of them, and she rushed over to him walking down the stairs.

“Sorry for the wait! Once he woke up, I got him here as fast as I could.” Landry’s curls were disheveled and his scrubs wrinkly.

Bryce craned his neck to find Ethan — Naveen had paused beside him — shaking his hand vigorously. Ethan‘s mouth was spread into a tight-lipped smile.

“Naveen, what are you doing here?” Chief Emery stood you from her spot in confusion, “You said you were retiring.”

The old man barked a laugh as he took the stairs one at a time, “What I should have said was expiring. Until yesterday, I was on the verge of death. Sepsis of unknown origin. Unknown, that is, until Dr. Holland gave up her last day to prepare for this hearing by solving my case.” Letting out a loud breath, he smiled as he reached the panelists. “Now then, I believe that seat still has my name on it.”

“Cyrus! Stop this!” Declan spat, his eyes ablaze.

“That’s uh, fantastic news, Dr. Banerji, but I’m afraid it’s too late for you to vote. Procedure and all…” The man didn’t sound very sure of himself.

“You were never a good liar, Cyrus.” Naveen patted him on the back before taking his seat. Letting out a happy sigh, he spoke again, “Now then. Given the circumstances of my resurrection, I think we all know what I’m about to say. That’s going to be a ‘nay’ from me.” He said, winking up at Jordynne.

Three more panelists continued to vote ‘nay’ — including Bryce’s surgical attending. It made his heart leap with pride at his department.

The voting paused on Chief Emery — who looked around the room trying to find someone. Then she focused back on Jordynne. “Dr. Holland, you’ve proven you’re someone who focuses as much on what a patient wants as what their body needs…But we’re not here to save bodies. We are here to save lives. I vote nay.”

Jordynne’s mouth opens in surprise, her green eyes wide as she stared back at the panel. “Oh my god. I get to stay?!”

As the crowd began to buzz with excitement, the other panelists voted ‘nay’ — following those before them no matter what they have originally felt.

“Hell yeah! Unanimous MVP!” Bryce cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting in the auditorium. His shout broke the crowd and everyone broke into applause. A smile broke out across Jordynne’s face as she watched everyone celebrate. He watched as her eyes searched the room — he knew who she was trying to find. It didn’t matter — she did it. That’s all that mattered.

Everyone around them began to stand up — chatting excitedly with each other about the outcome. The crowd became suddenly thick — and Bryce and his friends had to try and fight their way throughout it in order to get to Jordynne.

But he stopped when he saw her — smiling up at Ethan, who was holding onto her elbow gently. Probably the most they could get away with considering their setting. Bryce gulped, grabbing onto the back of Elijah’s chair, “Come on. We’ll meet her outside guys.” _______________________________________________________________________

Bryce sat on the metal bench outside of the sandwich shop next to Donahue’s — his skin blushing red from the cold wind. He had just needed a break.

He loved a celebration as much as the next guy. Hell, probably way more than the next guy. All of them had needed this — needed a win.

But it was all becoming too intoxicating — and he wasn’t talking about the liquor. Dancing with Jordynne and laughing with her and singing with her. All he had wanted to do was to reach down and kiss her — but he wasn’t supposed to do that. Was he? They had never said.

Lost in his own thoughts, Bryce blinked himself back to reality at the sound of a car door closing. He froze all over as he watched Ethan step over the curb. He watched as the well-dressed man locked his car over his shoulder without even looking.

Please don’t see me. Please don’t see me.

He let out a breath as the ex-Attending glided by the bench without a second glance. Ramsey was fiddling with the strap of his watch as he walked by — he seemed nervous.

Craning his head to continue watching, Bryce’s eyebrows furrowed as the man stopped in his tracks.

“Dr. Olsen.” He had stopped to greet Landry as he exited the bar. Bryce had noticed him slinking around the bar, chancing glances around the room trying to get their attention. He must’ve finally given up.

“I — uh, Dr. Ramsey. Sir, good evening.” God, he was such a kiss ass.

“Save it, Snake.”

Bryce’s ears perked up as Ethan’s voice turned into a growl.

“Wh—what?” Landry asked in confusion until suddenly there was a scuffle of movement. Ethan had grabbed Landry by his collar — shuffling him into the little alley next to the bar.

Ethan pressed him up against the brick wall, his voice low and rough, “I’ll start things off pleasantly. You were apart of saving Dr. Banerji — I can’t deny that. But that is the only reason you don’t have a broken nose right now.”

Landry’s blue eyes were wide, his face completely pale, “I don’t underst—“

“You think I don’t know? The role you played in all of this? The lives you put at risk you petty shit.” He spat his words like venom.

“I — I did what I had to! For the competition! To be the best doctor I could be. To be like —to be like you.”

“That is not the kind of Doctor that I am.” Ethan snarled. “You wanted me to know your name, Olsen? Oh, I know it now kid. It’s blacklisted now.”

“I’m— I’m,” He stammered, “I’m transferring to Mass Kenmore. I won’t be—“

“I know you are. Who do you think got you in? You think Dr. Simmons would take you if I hadn’t have called her?”

Bryce could still see Landry gulp — even from his bench.

“If I see you anywhere near Dr. Holland again, you will be answering to me. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.” Landry nodded profusely.

Ethan finally let go of his collar — stepping away and wiping his hand on his trousers. Like he didn’t want any essence of Dr. Olsen lingering on him.

“You’ll never be a doctor like her, Olsen.” Ethan’s jaw set in a hard line before he shoved his hands in his pockets and marched into Donahue’s without a backward glance.

Bryce watched as Landry attempted to collect himself in the alley. A part of him wished it was him instead of Ethan telling him exactly what he deserved to hear — but he was just glad it happened regardless.

He waited a moment — not wanting to follow either of those two men. Before he could move though a figure walked towards him.

Jackie slid into the spot next to him — still clutching her drink. Bryce’s mouth turned into a frown as she pulled out a cigarette from the pocket of her leather jacket.

She rolled her eyes, “What? I do it like once a year, okay?”

“Some doctor...” He coughed, shaking his head.

“Look I know I shouldn’t I just —“

He put his hands up, “Do whatever you want. But when I see you in 5 years on the OR table because your lungs have tumors don’t complain.”

“Like I’d let you put me under the knife Lahela.” She scoffed with a smile.

“Gimme some of that,” He pointed at her drink. She put it out for him to grab.

Just as he took a swig he watched as a pair stumbled out of the bar — the music from inside getting louder as the sound poured out of the building. He swallowed the liquid down hard — the straight vodka burning down his throat.

“Dr. Holland and I are just dropping by the hospital for some paperwork, that’s all.” He heard the familiar voice — the one he has just heard threatening Landry in the alley. But it was softer now.

Then he heard her laugh — Jordynne’s laugh. It was music to his ears — but it twisted his stomach that it wasn’t because of him. “You are so bad at being subtle.” She squeezed Ethan’s arm, as they walked away from the bar.

“What are you talking about? I played that extremely well.” He smirked at her, grabbing her hand from his shoulder and holding it with his— pulling her further down the sidewalk and away from the bar. Bryce and Jackie sat in silence — watching the scene unfold.

Ethan stepped out off the curb, waving down a cab for the pair of them. With mixed feelings, Bryce watched as he opened the yellow door for her — his hand on her waist as he helped her inside.

Bryce took a large gulp of the drink as Jordynne reached up from sitting in the cab — straining her neck as she kissed the well-dressed, scruffy Attending. Averting his eyes, he looked down into the glass and into the clear liquid.

Once he heard the cab pull away he looked up. Jackie was watching him carefully — studying him as she took the final drags of her cigarette.

“Well looks like Holland’s off for a good time.”

He let out a quiet sigh, “I guess so.”

“Sorry, Lahela.”

He gulped, “Why?”

“‘Cause — ‘cause I know how you feel.”

He waited for her to speak again.

“How you feel watching Jordynne and Dr. Ramsey... That’s how I feel when I watch her with you. And Dr. Terminator now too.” She put her cigarette out on the metal bench — playing with it in her fingers.

“I — I had no idea.”

“Yeah, well — it’s hard to not wanna be with her. She’s —“

“Something else.” He finished for her.

Jackie nodded in agreement— her eyes falling down to the sidewalk. “ I fucked it up. I felt jealous and intimidated and then the competition...”

“That was hard for both of you. I know — I know Jordynne had a hard time with all of that,” He remembered the many venting sessions they had at the coffee machine, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not telling you this for sympathy. I’m telling you this because — Just don’t give up on it. Not yet.”

“I wasn’t—“

“It’s you, Lahela. It’s always been you. Since day one.” She finally looked up and met his eyes, “Just don’t give up.”

“Okay.” He nodded, “Okay.”

_______________________________________________________________________

“Thank you all for coming. I just have a few short announcements.”

Jordynne quickened her pace as she stepped into the atrium, not wanting to miss the first announcement. But her steps faltered as she passed Ethan.

“Dr. Holland,” He nodded — avoiding her eyes.

“Dr. Ramsey,” She replied politely — waiting for him to move first. She watched as he moved to the side of the crowd — staying near the back and out of the way.

Weaving her way through the crowd, Jordynne looked for her friends. She sidled up next to them, bumping her hip into Bryce’s as a greeting. He looked down at her and gave her his classic megawatt smile.

"Are you seriously late on your first day again?” Jackie asked, rolling her eyes.

“Sorry, had to resuscitate a guy in the waiting room.” She smirked, shrugging her shoulders.

“You get to have all the fun.” Bryce winked at her. Jordynne gulped at the action.

Harper waited for the crowd to settle down before speaking up once more, “I’d like to thank you for all your support and service during my year as hospital chief… But after much deliberation, I have decided to step down, to return to my previous post as head of neurosurgery.”

The crowd of hospital staff immediately began whispering to each other in shock.

“Are you kidding me?! I get to do surgeries with Harper Emery all the time now. I am blessed. ˆ” Bryce whispered into Jordynne’s ear — the sensation made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Was he wearing new cologne too? He smelled different.

“Thank you all, “ Harper continued, “I’m eager to get back in my scrubs, and I couldn’t do it without someone very qualified to hand the reins to. Please welcome to our new chief of medicine, Naveen Banerji.”

The crowd cheered and applauded as the old man approached stood beside Emery. His cane was still clutched in his hand. Jordynne craned her neck to look behind her — searching for Ethan. Did he know about this? Gauging from the stunned look on her face, she would say no.

Naveen smiled out at the crowd, “As many of you now know, my health has taken a recent turn. It has required me to step away from the busy caseload of my diagnostics team. But I am leaving it in the very capable hands of Dr. Ramsey.”

The crowd redirected their attention to Dr. Ramsey, hiding at the back of the crowd. His arms uncrossed from his body, his shoulder raising up, “Wait, what? What the hell is happening?”

“Have a good day everybody!” Naveen said cheerfully, dismissing the crowd before he could say anything else.

Ethan marched towards the pair, causing Jordynne to pause. She watched him for a moment, hearing his words echo throughout the atrium. “Administration. Naveen? Really? You hate administrators.”

“Hey, I’ll be right back okay?” Jordynne whispered, heading over to the trio — leaving her friends who were walking towards the elevators. “I’ll meet you upstairs,” She said reassuringly at Bryce who had hesitated.

Naveen barked out a laugh, “No, my friend. You do. But now that I am one, I’m sure you and I can strike a balance.”

“Ha! Good luck with that one, Naveen.” Harper remarked, turning on her heel and strutting away.

The new chief turned to go with her, before pausing and looking over his shoulder, “Oh, and Ethan! This will leave an open spot on the team after all. And I think I know who I want to take it.” Naveen raised his eyebrow for a moment, before gesturing to Jordynne who was standing close by.

Jordynne moved closer, pointing at herself, “Me? Wow, it’s such an honor.”

Naveen’s smile grew as he looked at her, holding out his hand as he patted her on the shoulder, “It’s not an honor, Dr. Holland. It’s an opportunity. One I think you’ll shine in.”

She looked at Ethan next to her — his mouth was hanging open in surprise.

“Holland? But… she… I…” He stammered, unable to get any words out.

“You don’t think she’s proven herself worthy to train on the team?” He raised his eyebrows in question.

“Of course she has. But we —“

Naveen interrupted him, “Excellent. It's settled then. Dr. Holland will spend her second year as the junior fellow on the diagnostics team… with you as her direct supervisor.” His eyes moved from Ethan’s shellshocked face to the newly promoted intern, “Congratulations, Jordynne. You earned it.”

Jordynne swallowed, offering a smile to Naveen before turning to face Ethan. He was standing with his arms dangling at his sides. She could almost hear the gears turning in his head. This is what a lot more complicated than anything they could have imagined.

“So, um… how do we deal with this?” Jordynne pulled on her ponytail nervously.

His blue eyes studied her face, stopping momentarily on her lips, “We make it work. What matters is the patients. Right?”

“Right.” She nodded. It sounded like they were trying to convince themselves more than anything.

Ethan stared at her for a moment longer, before scratching his head. “Well then. Get to work, Rookie.” His voice returning to the cold, Attending she had met on her first day.

“Yes, Doctor.” She nodded, adjusting her ponytail one more time before turning on her heel. She licked her lips as she headed towards the elevator, trying to contain the thousands of thoughts whirling through her head.

But she was brought back to reality as she heard her name called. Looking up she saw Bryce standing in front of the elevators, his smile still plastered on his face. “You good, Jordy?”

He had waited for her. Of course, he had.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” She lied, stepping onto the elevator with him. “It’s all good.” She gulped, holding onto the railing.

Residency: Second Chances

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schoolblogroxanne · 4 years ago

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How can I create a non-pathological culture, while embracing deviancy and tradition at the same time?

In order to make a non-pathological culture you need to know what a non-pathological culture is a Non-pathological culture does not focus on the leader's personal interests and resources. The information is not processed in a way to further or advance particular parties within the organization but to benefit the organization as a whole; this culture may seem abnormal but can be a beneficial way for the community. In order for it to work you need to know how to act in the deviance in the society; to balance the scale in the society, the wants and needs of the society and if these things are essential, for example, if the law of the government that is in power does not coincide with the needs and wants of the society, the society will feel alienated from nation it serves, it will break the balance and cause chaos, just like what happened to the Philippines when it was occupied by other nations, a revolution occurred because the balance was lost when other nations applied there laws and tradition to the society, therefore a non-pathological culture can be doable due to its components and ways, not only the government or the people that are on power will benefit the but all of the people who are under this nation or society. Non-pathological culture is not power oriented and is a positive type culture.

Deviancy is classified in two types, Over conformity and Under conformity, Over conformity is based on accepting and conforming to norms without question where the actions, traits and ideas of athletes and coaches involves such an extreme conformity that they perform “supranormal” actions and potentially endanger themselves and others for example models, Some models suffer anorexia due to their obsession of having a thin body: Anorexia is form of eating disorder which the person having this psychological disorder fears to gain weight. Another example of deviant Over conformity is that an athlete makes sacrifices for "the game", an athlete strives for distinction, an athlete accepts risks and plays through pain, and an athlete accepts no limits in the pursuit of possibilities. Because of the presence of this moral code of athleticism, athletes who over-conform to theses norms and commit deviant acts aren't necessarily viewed as deviant. The four main norms of the sports ethic states that an athlete must make sacrifices for the game and accept risks, which can in turn, glorify the decisions that an athlete makes to behave in a deviant way. If an athlete decides they need to better their physical health in order to succeed in their sport, and decides to take performance enhancing drugs or along the way, develops an eating disorder in pursuit of becoming a larger asset to their team, according to the sports ethic, they are only fulfilling their duties as an athlete, some athletes also do Over training or staleness occurs when an athlete ignores the signs of overreaching and continues to train. Many athletes believe that weakness or poor performance signals the need for even harder training. So, they continue to push themselves. This only breaks down the body further pushing the body to its limit. This act of deviance Overconformity is mostly acceptable in the athlete society because other athletes will understand what that person feels and the reason why he did those deviant acts, even though there is bad side on this type of practices some of the characteristics of this deviancy has a positive effect because of their goal to be the best or the be known they motivate their body in order to reach those goals.

The other form of deviancy is Under conformity, under conformity is based on ignoring or rejecting norms, this often happen to people who has low esteem, those people who take their talent for granted and people who are under too much pressure. This type of deviance is a negative form of deviance, the complete opposite of deviance over conformity, this type of deviance can result to generalizations or stereotypes, people will consider you taboo, someone who is not acceptable to the society, because people are more used with the uniform ways, doing under conformity makes you different, strange , or much worse a bad influence to other people, some culture reject this kind of thinking because it may affect there laws and tradition, an example of under conformity is obesity, obesity is a complex disease involving excessive of body fat, a gateway disease that may cause other diseases and health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and some other certain cancer. Another example to this is an unmotivated student, a student that avoids academic challenges; the student shows boredom and lack of attention in class, in order to tend to this unmotivated student you need to do two things he first is to change his thinking so he comes to believe that, if he puts forth effort, he can be successful with academic tasks. The second is to figure out what does motivate them to identify the settings, situations, and conditions that he responds to and that can be used to foster his interest, so here we it the two types of deviance, deviance has its good side and its bad side, If we use deviance in a good way we could gain from it but we need to put balance on the decisions we make, because too much of anything is bad, other traits of having a deviant under conformity is that the person having this have sub normal ideas, traits, actions that indicate rejection or ignorance of their existence. This type of attitude could link into anarchy and lawlessness, this type of mindset can be dangerous to the people around him/her because he/she could harm them in order to get their wants and needs, and also this type of deviancy can cause the person to lose confidence to self and due to being unmotivated it can affect the people around them and in academic studies.

Tradition can also be preserved even though there is deviance, it can be preserved by Sharing your culture's art and technology. Each culture has its own clothing, music, visual art, storytelling traditions, and many more unique characteristics. Other members of your culture will be overjoyed to teach or talk about their hobbies, their jobs, their crafts, and what they do for fun. This includes traditional artwork you would find in a museum, but material culture goes far beyond that. Even a kitchen spoon or a piece of software is a cultural artifact. People with less sophisticated technology are often considered ignorant or less intelligent. This is completely wrong. Culture passes on tools adapted to a particular environment, and every tool has generations of thinking behind it. Shaping a stone tool is one of the oldest cultural practices there is, and it still takes great skill and knowledge. Cook family recipes. It's never too late to whip up some recipes from your grandmother's cookbook. Smell and taste have powerful connections to memory. As you knead dough or try to guess the right amount of spices, you might remember meals from you childhood or holidays. Just reading a recipe can teach you how much ingredients and kitchen tools have changed. And even if some of them are unfamiliar, others have most likely become your comfort food or a source of family pride, even though these are simple things it is very effective in preserving the traditions you grew up to have another way to preserve tradition is to Accept change. The dialogue around passing on culture often sounds defeatist. Cultures are "endangered" or need "preserving" before they die out. Real challenges and threats do exist, but don't assume that all change is bad. Culture helps people adapt to the world around them. The world has always been changing, cultures have always been adapting, and it's up to you to choose a direction you can be proud of. Almost everyone participates in more than one culture. Be proud of your blend of ideas and behaviors, Talk about it and share it with other people. People are often fascinated by the different ways that people do similar things. Start a conversation and help bring others into the fold, sharing your culture is a good way to connect with other people, therefore the society can still embrace deviance and traditions. Some individuals use technology as a means of deviating from more traditional cultural norms. For example, in the United States, employees in offices are encouraged to remain productive and efficient, letting their minds wander off-task as little as possible. In the past decade, most companies have installed high-speed internet access as a means of improving efficiency. However, employees often appropriate the internet access to avoid work by using social networking sites. Such procrastination and corporate inefficiency stemming from internet access is called “cyber loafing”, but even though employees cyber loaf it the installation of high speed internet connection has motivated the employees to work faster.

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sparkcreative17 · 4 years ago

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several Tough Questions to Ask an advertising Agency Before You Hire These

There are a lot of great agencies on the market. And there are a lot of bad kinds too.

So how do you know what you happen to be really getting when you signal a new agency?

Whether you are huge enterprise or a small business, you do have a set budget, with a fixed number of resources and a placed amount of time to get it accomplished. Many times you need to rely on any team of partners which can help assure you have effectively expended your budget and are getting the many from it. Research, instinct, along with experience aside, since the money stops with you, it is important to ensure you have the right team by you. Advertising Agency

So , what I thought can be helpful is to share a number of my learning's related to selecting the most appropriate partner marketing agency that will help you through those times when you will have questions or need to use outside agencies for your entire project to an company.

Tough Question #1: Which will really be working on my bank account?

Well, that depends. Several agencies have a hierarchical method structure that requires a single level of contact between the clientele and the agency itself. It creates life easier on the agency's end. From the client point of view, you would ideally have immediate access (phone, email etc . ) to all individuals working on your personal account. This includes everybody from your Production Artist up to the man or woman ultimately responsible for your business (usually an Account Executive or organization principal). Ultimately though, that will overhead can cost you time and money, that will make smaller projects more costly.

My very own preference is to work with firms that have a more senior man connected to my account. The one that knows the in's in addition to outs of getting things performed or is even doing it project themselves. Its similar to when I go to a restaurant as well as order my food. I need a waitress that will listen closely, identify costs for ala cart items that may or may not be necessary, and know that special requests take longer or will cost a lot more. The same works for an firm. What has generally proved helpful for me is to either make use of a smaller agency where you gain access to more senior staff, or perhaps make sure you have an experienced profile executive that understands your own processes, your business, and their very own firm's cost structure (no ala cart, surprise invoices).

Tough question #2: How can the agency measure promoting success?

That's an easy query to answer, but only if anyone asks it. There are many ways to the path results via software and also systems... quality of advertising campaign responses, number of new customers, mass media coverage, internet conversions, online traffic, email clicks, etc . However the first question you need to ask will be, what is most important to me because the client, and is that the most important thing to my "boss"?

Just before moving forward on a project, consider, what is most important to determine, and then what results could well be adequate to justify enough time and cost involved. Regarding though, and look to your advertising and marketing agency to be a partner, not just a vendor. For example , you may have the aim of generating 100 qualified options, but have only a limited price range, a small market, or have no the sales resources to adhere to up on leads generated. This is why an experienced Account Exec and marketing team is vital. They help you set goals so that you can meet them together. Once you have set your goals along with objectives, you can then build a want to address the cause and-effect romantic relationship between your marketing program and your effects. Lastly, I cannot stress adequate that you communicate them usually to your sales team, executives, in addition to marketing partners as each and every will play a role in their accomplishment.

Tough Question #3: Can i market to sell or industry to educate?

Let me answer this kind of question with a question. Do you want sales pressure? I may. If you are looking to build a long term partnership with a customer, then unquestionably, the better method to use is Education-Based Marketing. People are tired of offering and sales pressure. Rely on needs to be built. You do that through demonstrating that you are a pacesetter in your field and have resolved the problem for others who are just like themselves. Prospective customers want details and advice, which is the inspiration of Education-Based Marketing. And also until business owners realize just what customers want - and present it to them - businesses will continue to get a inadequate response to their marketing.

Check out multiple techniques to get your communication across. Training videos on YouTube may well work for some clients, just where white papers on the same matter, delivered via email could work better for others. Today, frequent educational techniques include websites, white papers, case scientific studies, articles and videos... and a lot can be produced at a pretty low cost. Just make sure you are offering people what they want inside the medium they want it with.

In looking for marketing help, look for people who specialize in education and learning as well as selling. It will help your current reputation, your relationship along with your SEO results.

Tough Query #4: How am I those billed for services: by using an hourly rate, project pace or retainer?

A project will take 10 minutes or 10 days. That being the case, easily were to charge clients per hour, I'd have to know exactly how very long the project will take and this there would be no surprises. A great hourly rate means you will end up billed exactly on the moment it takes me to do the work.

In the end, some agencies must charge for additional time, thus must recoup it within other areas. I am not as huge a proponent of an by the hour quote because

#1, diverse skill sets have different costs (ie a Production Musician will not be billed at the same charge as the Creative Director), #2, I have to track hours associated with specific projects. An admin hassle.

Now of course, for much larger agencies, clients may have a plus in that clients can selectively bypass the higher-tiered staff for ones with a lower charging rate but you don't would like to ask a Production Artisan about overall marketing strategy.

Regarding small projects, ask to get billed in increments which can be smaller than 1 hour. For more substantial projects, many smaller consumers like to be quoted over a project basis. Together we all develop the plan, I supply a quote, and the project can then be completed and paid inside stages. It is a good equilibrium when you want to test an agency regarding performance and build a longer expression working relationship between customer and agency. It does, still mean the agency is much less likely to negotiate terms of your agreement since the long term connection may be uncertain.

As an business owner, I personally prefer a retainer-like. Why? Because it allows me to designate costs and hours correctly. And for the client, he/she can easily count on me for Back button number of hours allocated to these. This allows for some negotiating area with both parties. For example , when you use a retainer, my dialogue with the client would be i would usually charge X in this amount of work but in the attention of developing a long-term romance, I'll charge X without Y%. Furthermore, in the soul of fairness, I would not quibble if the amount of perform in a given month travelled a little over (and I actually wouldn't expect that the consumer would complain if a calendar month was a little light. In the long run, it works out even.

One particular alternative in how I offer you projects versus other businesses, is that I bundle our services into larger assignments with a set price construction. This allows the client to get the good thing about a retainer model (a cost reduced set of built-in deliverables) with a set estimate for completion of the job.

Inner Spark Creative is a full service advertising and marketing agency serving clients across the southeastern United States. Services include SEO, pay per click, website design, location marketing, marketing automation, and more.

References SEO

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bpdvictorious · 5 years ago

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The $64 Million Dollar BPD Question: Who Am I?

If you have BPD chances are you wrestle with this question a lot. Figuring out who you are can be a major hurdle for many people whether they have BPD or not. But for those of us with BPD, this is something that literally quite often stops us right in our tracks. I say all this while knowing full well that a true BPD recovery depends on knowing who you are. In my opinion, people who do not have a good handle on who they are become people pleasers and drift along aimlessly through life. When I used to think about who I was and try to figure it out I always used to get tripped up by this, would get lost in a circle of existential thinking about such things as “What is my purpose in life?” “Where am I going?” and “What is the role of God play in this mess?”

Because humans are highly social creatures, we tend to care an awful lot about the people around us and what they think about us. Many of us allow these thoughts to completely dictate our actions and feelings. Figuring out who we are is difficult at best.We don’t want to offend anyone or cause them to not like us so it is easier to live in the shadows and not assert ourselves.

Why is it so difficult to see the bigger picture?

The human brain is programmed to see things in certain ways so as to make sense of the world in which we live. This is why people have both physical and emotional blind spots. If you are seeing something and you’re looking at your blind spot, your brain is programmed to fill in the blanks and put order into that blank space. This happens outside our field of cognition. It happens automatically without us even being aware it is going on. In the same way, the human brain is programmed to perceive patterns even where they do not exist. This causes people to infer certain meanings with regard to completely random events.So, we see patterns in such things as sports statistics even though a football player’s ability to kick a field goal though based on skill is not based in probability. What does this mean? It means, for the in general, most people are incapable seeing the truths about themselves without bias and without making things up about themselves. This kind of thinking is evident when you think about the way people are influenced to purchase certain products over another.Most people are totally ill-prepared to make rational judgements and choose their best behaviour.

When people engage in the activity of trying to figure themselves out, they experience something called the “measurement effect”. In one study, subjects who were asked whether or not they were likely to donate blood in the coming year turned out to be much likelier to donate blood than people who were not asked the same question. This leads one to suspect that the mere suggestion is enough to influence future behaviour. Researchers concluded that people who are embarking on a journey of self-discovery were more likely to experience feelings based on the kinds of questions they asked themselves: Am I a generous person? they might be more apt to donate more money to charity during the course of a year after asking themselves that kind of self-reaching question.

Ergo, just the act of trying to discover who you are will lead you to a deeper understanding of just who you are.

Your own selfness may be too complex for your mind to perceive

Is it possible that humans, like reality, are too complicated to be truly understood by simple human brains? It is simple to make certain declarations about oneself such as “I know I like to eat Tex-Mex food” or “I am afraid of spiders.” But when it comes to the deeper, more fundamental questions about who we are, that’s when things get really dicey and complicated.

Some tips on how to finally start to answer this question

For me, it started with me taking an inventory of some very basic things: I am a Chinese woman. Answer number one. I am a Catholic. Answer number two. I believe in x, y and z: answers number three, four and five. I have x number of children. I was born in this place. I love to x and y. Eventually, the picture of who I was began to take shape. The harder answers were much more difficult to come by, though. Why am I here?

It took me a long time to be able to figure that one out. The answer was that I am here because this is where I am. Why am I here, really though? I guess that for me a person’s purpose in life is what they choose to make it. I don’t believe that any one individual has been imbued with any great cosmic purpose. We all exist in order to bring happiness and joy to others through the sharing of experiences and the sharing of laughter.

And the answer to my $64,000 BPD question is….

I am a 55 year old Catholic Chinese woman who was born in Hong Kong. I love to ski and throw pots on a pottery wheel. I have three children. I believe in everyone’s right to choose their own destiny and shape it as they see fit. I am against capital punishment. I am a vegetarian because I believe killing animals is cruel and unnecessary in order to survive. I believe in global warming and actively work to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible given the confines of my life circumstances. I am apolitical and do not support any political party but believe very strongly in democracy. I enjoy reading and am committed to expanding my education through books. I dislike drinking beer and do not like to go to bars. I prefer to think as creatively as possible and strive to find solutions whenever possible. I am a strong communicator and believe that every problem can be solved with dialogue. I have created a life space for myself that is chaos free and as stress-free as possible and I relish it and am grateful for it every single day.

#bpd #bpdidentity #bpdchat #mentalhealth #mentalhealthwarrior

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rahullkohli · 5 years ago

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about the weight watchers app for kids...i’m thinking it may be for overweight/obese kids? i can see it being mentally taxing for those who are at a normal weight for their size. can you explain more about how it’s child abuse?

hello. thank you so much for actually being chill and open for a dialogue, unlike how aggressive people have been about the post.

anyway, i have been thinking about how to tackle this one the entire day, and i am afraid it’s gonna be a long one, so i’ll put it under a cut. i’m just gonna start out with a little background about myself, to explain how i am forming my opinions on the subject, and where my knowledge comes from.

i have been overweight more or less my entire life, even though i have gone through anorexia and bulimia, and have been eating below my necessary calorie intake literally my entire life (i grew up very poor, so we just simply didn’t have enough, or satisfyingly nourishing, food in the house). to this day i struggle with disordered eating patterns and body dysmorphia. i have been lifting weights on/off for 12 years, and i have been seeing a licensed nutritionist for a year and a half now, which has helped me lose 22 kg. i am still working on it. i have worked with a long line of fitness trainers (my mom is a licensed fitness trainer, for one), and about three different nutritionists. so while i don’t have any education in either of those fields, i have worked with professionals that have taught me a lot. i have also studied psychology in college for a year, and specifically child psychology for another year - i also spent a year working with kids ages 2-6.

my two youngest sisters did a weightwatchers program when they were around 8 and 10, so i have also seen upclose how that works. that was many years ago - and not in america - so i do know that the way things worked then/works in america compared to where i live, may not be the exact same. but the guidelines for the company, and their strategies should be the same, since it is afterall the same company. now, both of my sisters lost weight. they also gained it back. and more, and more, and both of them are extremely overweight today. in the way that i am the “thin” sister, compared. and they are eating disordered. they have no grasp of how to deal with food. they are intelligent women, and they know the basics of “if you eat too much pizza and ice cream, you will gain weight” but they don’t know, and don’t have the energy, to apply it to how they live. they are not only compulsive overeaters, they also don’t have a healthy eating pattern that could help stabilize their metabolism.

okay, so with that out of the way, let’s get to the actual app - and weightwatchers.

the app offers a diet, even though it is a fact that diets do not work. they literally do not. people who go on a diet will gain the weight right back on, and more. because diets are short-term solutions, and they are designed to make someone lose X amount of weight in X amount of time. it is not sustainable - just as with the oh-so-popular juice cleanses. for someone to lose weight, and keep it off, a complete lifestyle change is needed, but that is just not as simple as some companies, magazines, blogs, etc. will make it sound. because every single person is unique and what their body needs to maintain a healthy weight is unique to them specifically. in order to lose weight your daily calorie intake needs to be in a caloric deficit, but this depends on your height, your current weight, how your body is built, and more. those are things the app simply don’t take into account. now, i haven’t actually downloaded the app myself (i refuse to give them the clicks), but a licensed trainer i follow on instagram posted screencaps on her story. as far as i could see they take height and weight, and that’s that. but the human body is much more complex than just height and weight - especially when it comes to children and teenagers, who are growing, and going through tremendous hormonal changes. but i will get to that later.

what should also be taken into account are things like hormonal imbalances, and the fact that people breaks down macronutrients (carbhohydrates, proteins and fats) differently. fx, my sisters have poly cystic ovary syndrome (pcos), which means that their bodies can’t handle carbohydrates very well, whereas i need most carbs, medium protein, small amounts of fats. but apps like these don’t take that into account, because it is impossible for an app to do a check for what every single individual needs. i for example recently found out that my body doesn’t break down dairy very well. i have been using plant based milk, yogurt, ice cream and butter, instead of animal based for years, and only very small amounts of animal based cheese, so when my nutritionist had me switch to animal based yogurt i started gaining weight. i went back to plant based and the weight went off.

nutrition and a healthy lifestyle cannot be taught simplistic, because it is about the individual, and it takes a trial, error and do-over period to find what works for your specific body. and what works for your body now, might not have worked ten years ago, or ten years from now, because hormones changes how our bodies processes macronutrients. but this app is a “one size fits all”-system.

and this system. the system it is using is based on shaming children; making them feel inadequate, making them scared, and ashamed of their bodies. the “before and after” photos i have seen, have all been kids who weren’t even that big to begin with. and the fact that the “goals” to choose from when signing up includes choices such as “make my parents proud” is manipulative and destructive for a child/teenager. no kid should ever even have the thought that they need to be a certain weight/size, or their parents won’t be proud of them. the entire set-up is sowing the seed that their weight is the deciding factor for their worth as people, which is the beginning to eating disorders.

now, kids’ bodies really start changing around the age of eight (the age of which you can sign up for this monster); these years are called pre-teens for a reason. hormones really start flowing, and body fat is really needed to help the hormones and toxins take care of the body. but if a child is forced to lose excessive amounts of body fats, this can’t happen. this is one of the reasons that professional child ballerinas, gymnasts, ice skaters, etc. don’t develop until very late. some don’t even get their period until their twenties, because their development has been stunted by excessive dieting and exercising.

their psyche of children and teens are also really delicate, and they are in the process of developing what kind of people they are going to be. not only that, also what their relationships with their bodies are gonna be like. if they are constantly told by their parents/siblings/apps that they need to lose weight, that they have to track and count every calorie they consider eating, and every step they take, does that seem like a healthy foundation for how they view their body, nutrition and exercise in the future?

the way the app works is with the so-called stoplight system, where if when you put in a food it will either give you a green light (good), yellow light (medium) or red light (bad) - but the thing is that, again, that is not how simple nutrition is. you would think that the red foods would be soda, ice cream, chips etc., and the green foods would be stuff like fruits and vegetables. but again, the trainer i followed said that she put in her food for the day: a protein bar, two eggs with bread, and a piece of fruit. the protein bar came up red, the eggs and bread yellow and the fruit green. now, all of these foods are things that are written down in my carefully calculated meal plan from my nutritionist. in my plan i also have lots of vegetables, pasta, rice, chicken, even chocolate and chips. but the thing is that it’s all about how much of it i eat. and that is another thing the app doesn’t seem to take into consideration. if i was to put in nothing but vegetables it would give me green light the whole way, but it would not be nourishing for a whole day.

this app is forming their minds to spend all their energy worrying about what they eat, when they eat, how they eat. think of an eight year old with this app going to a birthday party - do you think they would be able to enjoy regular kiddie birthday party food, with the red light in the back of their heads? even if it is just one day? this app is gonna rob them of their childhood, and being able to enjoy life.

so, what i am trying to say is that the app is bad because the system doesn’t work. it is not teaching healthy habits, it is not giving advice on how to obtain a sustainable weightloss, and it doesn’t care about whether the children are actually overweight or not. it is created by a company whose sole purpose is to make money.

i don’t think that all of the parents who are buying into this are doing it because they are evil; i do believe that they think they are doing what is best for their children, but their views on body images and nutrition have also been skewed by the media and the diet culture we are living in. parents may look at their daughter’s chubby cheeks and think she’s unhealthy when she is literally just a kid with puppy fat that she will grow out of once adolescence hits. sure, there are kids who are truly in an unhealthy state with their bodies, but then the parents should have the help from a licensed professional, starting out with seeing a doctor who can tell them whether their child truly is overweight to a degree that it is dangerous, and from there on be referred to professionals that knows what they are doing. kids shouldn’t feel guilty when eating, but they will with this app.

i do realize that overweight is a problem, for both children and adults - not just in america, but most of the western world. (fun fact: the other day i saw a program that said that china is, as of 2017, the “fattest” country in the world, so it’s not just the western world, i just don’t have enough information about other places to say anything about that.) but a “one size fits all”-app is not the way to handle this issue. there are way too many layers to the problem to fix that.

not only is it important to remember that overweight does not equal unhealthy, regardless of age, gender, race, or anything else, but unhealthy overweight is especially tied to low-income persons, as nourishing food is much more expensive and accessible to people with middle-class and above incomes.

there is also the fact that education about proper nourishment is non-existent. what people know about dietary information is what they get from the media, where they will tell you garbage like goat milk is bad one day, and literally the next the same publication will tell you it’s the fountain of youth. it’s unreliable, and has no roots in actual science. even statistics can’t be trusted, because those often stem from surveys and projects paid for by big cooperations who are paying for an outcome in their favor.

so, to sum it all up; this app is based on a system that uses bodyshaming and guilt to throw kids and adults alike into a vicious cycle of yo-yo weight patterns, eating disorders and hateful relationships with themselves, their bodies and their sense of selfworth. i don’t think parents who buys into this app are overall evil, but it is an obvious tool for abusive parents who uses guilt, shame, punishment and scare tactics to manipulate their children into the above mentioned unhealthy patterns, because the parents themselves are victims of the fatphobic diet culture we are living in. not to mention that the parents don’t have access to proper information themselves.

aside from that, you can also see in the notes of the original post, that there are incredibly many people, who will tell stories about how forced diet in their childhood/teen years has been a kickstart to a lifelong series of mental and physical health issues.

this app is preying on scared parents to capitalize of a beauty obsessed ideal that is completely unrealistic.

i have also written a post about nutrition here that may be of interest to anyone reading this.

i am open to any questions, and constructive criticism. other than that i just hope i have been able to explain why i believe this app is harmful, and that it has been an informative read. thank you so much for reading to the end.

xxx

#anonymoose #ask #wwasks #nutrition #mental health #food tw #eating disorders tw #body image tw

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cottagethings · 5 years ago

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self-quarantine activities

1. Complete a puzzle: The more pieces the better! Feeling extra saucy? Take on a Rubik's Cube. More of a word person? Crossword puzzle!

2. Start a journal or blog. Sure, it can be about the coronavirus, but it could also be about a specific interest from chess to cheese.

3. If it won't bother your neighbors: Dust off that old instrument and practice.

4. Text all your exes just in case you have one more thing you wanted to get off your chest.

5. Write poetry. Perhaps you can craft a haiku for Mother's Day, or something without a specific structure. Just try it!

6. Watch all the really long movies you’ve avoided until now.

7. Download Duolingo, or a similar app, and teach yourself a foreign language.

8. Finally read “Infinite Jest,” “Les Miserables” or even “The Stand.” Go all in and read “Ulysses.” You got this.

9. Meditate. Try lying down with your eyes closed, palms up and while focusing on your breath. Or spend 20 minutes sitting crosslegged and repeat a soothing word to yourself in your head. (The latter is more like transcendental meditation.)

10. Face masks, moisturizer, oh my! Treat yourself to a 10-step skin care routine you don’t have time for during a normal work week.

11. Look at pictures of puppies.

12. Put together the most attractive charcuterie board possible, but you can only use foods you already have in your fridge and cupboard.

13. Take note from "Tangled" star Rapunzel, who has an entire song about how she's spent her days alone in a castle. Activities included in her ditty: Ventriloquy, candle-making, papier-mâché and adding a new painting to her gallery.

14. Write actual letters to family and friends. After that? Write thank-you notes to service people who you remember went out of their way for you.

15. Learn calligraphy. YouTube can help.

16. Finally read the rules to those long and intense board games you've never played with the family. Encourage the family to play.

17. Put on a soap opera. Mute the sound. Create your own dialogue.

18. Have a space in your home where all of the tupperware goes? Organize it and actually match lids to containers.

19. Try on all your clothes and determine whether they “spark joy” á la Marie Kondo.

20. Better yet, go through this process with your junk drawer and supply shelves.

21. Have a roommate meeting about how to be more considerate of one other, especially while you will likely be spending more time together. Bring baked goods.

22. Bake those goods.

23. Watch the films that won Oscars for best picture.

24. Watch films that won Independent Spirit Awards for best picture.

25. Watch films that critics say should have won those aforementioned awards.

26. Read all the New Yorker issues piled on your desk.

27. Will Tom Hanks into recovery from coronavirus by watching every Tom Hanks movie chronologically.

28. Knit or crochet.

29. Use Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts or Marco Polo to video chat with your long-distance friends.

30. Try out at-home aerobics or yoga videos. Consider downloading a fitness app with curated workout playlists.

31. Look at yourself in the mirror. Attempt a self portrait with pencil and paper.

32. Take a bubble bath (bonus: Add a glass of wine).

33. Make a classic cocktail, from negronis to Manhattans and aperol spritzes. Don't forget the garnish.

34. Coloring books: They’re not just for kids.

35. Take time to reflect: What have you accomplished in the last year? What goals are you setting for yourself in the next year?

36. Write a short story or get started on that novel.

37. Actually try to reproduce something you see on Pinterest. Probably fail. Try again.

38. Clear out the family room and camp indoors with all blankets, popcorn and scary movies.

39. Finally get around to fixing that broken door knob and loose tile or cleaning scuffed up walls.

40. Acquire a foam roller and treat yourself to some physical therapy.

41. Pretend you're 13 years old and fold a square piece of paper into a fortune teller you put your thumbs and pointer fingers into. Proceed to tell fortunes.

42. Learn how to braid (fishtail, French, etc.) via YouTube tutorial..

43. Throw out all your too-old makeup and products. (Tip: most liquid products have a small symbol on them noting expirations, usually six months to a year. This includes sunscreen!)

44. Interview your grandparents (over the phone, of course) and save the audio. Can you create an audio story or book with that file?

45. Go through your camera roll, pick your favorite pics from the past year and make a photo book or order framed versions online.

46. Go on a health kick and learn how to cook new recipes with ingredients you may not be using already, from miso to tahini.

47. Create a Google document of shows or movies you’re watching and share it among family and friends.

48. Make a list of things for which you are grateful.

49. Have your own wine tasting of whatever bottles you have at home. Make up stories about the journey of the grapes to your mouth.

50. Work on your financial planning, such as exploring whether to refinance your loan or ways to save more money.

51. Perfect grandma’s bolognese recipe.

52. Make coffee, but this time study how many beans you use, which types, how hot the water is, how long it brews and whether any of that makes a difference.

53. Buy gift cards from your favorite local businesses to help keep them in business while we quarantine.

54. Watch “Frozen 2,’ which went up early on Disney Plus. Another new movie on the streaming service: "Stargirl."

55. Write a book with your family. Pick a character and each member writes a chapter about their adventures. Read aloud to each other.

56. No March Madness? Have a Scrabble tournament. Or Bananagrams. Pictionary, anyone?

57. Get into baking with "The Great British Baking Show," but your technical challenge is baking something with the ingredients you have on hand (that you didn't already use in the charcuterie board).

58. Indoor scavenger hunt.

59. Alternate reading the Harry Potter series with your kids and cap each one off with the movie.

60. Dye your hair a new color. No one else needs to see it if you don't like it.

61. Read Robert Jordan’s 14-book “Wheel of Time” series before it streams on Amazon starring Rosamund Pike.

62. Write a play starring your loved ones. Perform it via a video call app.

63. Go viral in the good way by making a quarantine-themed TikTok.

64. Rearrange your sock drawer. Really.

65. Stop procrastinating and do your income taxes.

66. Make lists of all the museums, sporting events and concerts you want to visit when they finally reopen.

67. Get into comics with digital subscriptions on your tablet, like Marvel Unlimited.

68. Rearrange your furniture to make it seem like your home is a totally different space.

69. Practice shuffling playing cards like a Poker dealer. Be ready for employment opportunities once all casinos open back up.

70. Organize your spice rack alphabetically or get crazy and do it by cuisine.

71. Teach your dog to shake. Hand sanitizer optional.

72. Memorize the periodic table. You never know when that will come in handy.

73. Order and put together some IKEA furniture. Time yourself.

74. Get a free trial of a streaming service and binge-watch as much as you can before it expires.

75. Apply for a new job. You have remote work experience now.

76. Learn a new style of dance via YouTube, from bellydancing to breaking.

77. Update or write your will and organize your affairs. Yes, it sounds melodramatic and morbid but let’s face it: This is a task many of us avoid because we never have the time. Now we do.

78.The parades have been canceled but you can still make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day.

79. Bring out the Legos. Build your house inside of your house.

80. Watch the "Star Wars" movies in this and only this order: Rogue One-IV-V-II-III-Solo-VI-VII-VIII-IX.

81. Two words: Coronavirus beard! Grow it, moisturize it, comb it, love it.

82. Learn the words to "Tung Twista." Get them so ingrained in your brain that you can rap them as fast as Twista can. Impress everyone.

83. Been meaning to get some new glasses? Try on new frames virtually on sites like GlassesUSA.com.

84. Attempt things with your non-dominant hand, from writing to brushing your teeth. Prepare to be frustrated.

85. How many words per minute can you type? See if you can get speedier by taking a typing course.

86. Prepare to verbally duel a bully who wants to discuss the evolution of the market economy in the Southern colonies, by memorizing Matt Damon's "Good Will Hunting" speech.

87. Learn origami. Make cranes for your loved ones.

88. Stretch. Work on your flexibility. It's possible to get the splits back, right?

89. Try to speak in pig Latin. Or, "ig-pay, atin-Lay."

90. Talk to your plants. How are they doing? Make sure they are getting the amount of sunlight they should be. Check their soil. Water if necessary.

91. Deep condition your hair and put paraffin wax on your hands. Enjoy your soft hair and nails.

92. Consider donating money to food banks to help families struggling to get meals.

93. Write a song. If you want to make it about your time inside and put it to the tune of "My Sharona" and replace "Sharona" with "Corona," do what you have to do.

94. Study the art of beatboxing.

95. Try moving in super-slow motion. It's OK to laugh at regular speed.

96. You know how there are dozens of ways to wear a scarf, but you only wear it the one way? Learn the other ways.

97. Learn Old English words. Pepper them into your conversation. Wherefore not?

98. Try on a new shade of lipstick. See how long it takes your partner to notice it.

99. Take deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

100. Sleep. Get lots of it.

#corona #coronavirus #quarantine #self care #activity #freetime #dosomethingforyourself

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catrectorauthor · 6 years ago

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The Immersion Tactic: Because we can’t stop telling people how to write

The writing process. You know, that thing that people want to tell you how to do properly. I’ve got some opinions.

First and foremost, I'm no gatekeeper. I'm not here to tell you what is or isn't allowed, or what disqualifies you from the title of "serious author". I don't believe in cookie-cutter methods or elitism. I do believe in offering up information to others to do as they please with it, in order to help other writers find their way out of the dark woods that can be the writing process.

So. Let’s begin. As indicated by the title, my process has been immersion. Now wait, I'm not talking moving to France to bury yourself in croissants and macaroons. I'm talking diving in so deep that you're living your work during the majority of your free time. I'm talking about absorbing ideas and information while you're not actively working on your project, whether by watching a movie to study dialogue or by listening to a deeply moving love song to get in touch with your MC’s feelings. Writing is exhausting. Sometimes you need a break. But you can also choose to use your downtime in ways that benefit the work.

If this seems an interesting theory, read on. It's worked for me, but it won't work for everyone. Maybe you'll steal a single item and leave the rest where it lies. I'm not here to judge; I'm here to build you up. Let me know if anything works for you. Here we go:

Sit in windows, on balconies, in gardens, at cafes, and on buses, and just stare into the abyss: You know when you lie down to sleep and then an amazing idea comes to you, and it's such inconvenient timing? It's not coincidence. You've finally stopped moving and thinking long enough to let ideas flow. Actively make time for this type of creativity by being idle. Leverage the still moments in your day to daydream about your story, even if you've completely zoned out at lunch and your whole table thinks you’re dead.

Make a playlist: I have two playlists. I have one without English lyrics, so that I can tune out the world and focus on my task, and one with English lyrics. The second is a tool I use to immerse myself in my scenes and characters. I listen to it in the shower, on the bus, and while I'm doing the dishes. It forces me to remember the scene or character it references, and usually drives my motivation to write. Use this to keep your characters sitting on your shoulders at all times.

Play video games: Yeah you heard me. While working on this project, I played God of War 4, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Northgard, Jotun, and a handful of other Norse/Viking themed games. They’ll never provide you with pure fact, but I learned to ask questions about the information they provided, to look up things they presented me with, and to study the contents for details I could use, like mood or setting. I didn't even know about Valravn until I play Hellblade, so I have no regrets. But don't be stupid. Horror games are perfect for brainstorming horror stories, dystopian games for distopian worlds, etc. But I'm not dumb eh. You have no excuses to play Call of Duty if you're writing an Italian romance.

Watch TV: This depends on your subject matter. For me, I only watched Vikings. The takeaway is the same as playing games. Watch the thing, ask questions, look for facts. Study the content while you’re unwinding with ice cream and a bag of chips. Learn to identify tropes, try to guess where plots will twist and how, and then use those lessons to avoid being predictable. TV and movies are also the kings of dialogue, so pay attention. I learned a lot from watching Buffy on repeat, and recommend it to anyone.

Research with books: If you're not reading as research, you’ve missed a critical part of the reading books things. However, research isn't limited to looking up which era the T-Rex lived in. Read to study style, nuance, and flow. I started rereading the Kingkiller Chronicles because I wanted to learn from Rothfuss' writing style. No don’t argue with me. That man is a God.

Make a Pinterest Board (or 20): How do you research ancient clothing, jewelry, and building types when your budget won't let you fly to Iceland for a month? Fucking Pinterest. Members of pagan communities who craft and wear period clothing have saved my life. Photo references of people, places, and things are key to any piece of research. Pin the shit out of things and then reference them for the rest of your days. Go to a museum: Writing a book that takes place in ancient Egypt? Go get face to face with some mummies. Learn what you can while getting some air for once, and use the opportunity to talk out some of your ideas with your museum buddy. This applies to anything. Scout out cafes for scenes you're writing, go to fantasy festivals to drink mead and make offerings to Gods, check out a botanical garden and take notes, whatever floats your literary boat. Your body will thank you for leaving the house, and you won’t forget the experience.

Go to writing meetings and don't actually write: Commiserating about the process might have been the only thing that kept me from crawling under a rock. Can't fix that plot hole? That's okay, these people know how you feel. Stuck on a section? They have some suggestions for you. Looking for research books? Somehow they have the perfect title for you. Sometimes you need a stiff drink and a chat to get back to work. (But for christ sake, don't be that guy who talks through work time. If everyone is feeling like chatting, fine. That's a group decision. Don’t be the asshat that distracts everyone else.)

Scribble down side stories: Sometimes something doesn’t fit the plot, but fits the world. It doesn't mean you shouldn't write it. It may help flesh out your current story. Keep a side folder for these and have fun writing them when you can't stand your story anymore. Cook and eat the food from your world: Good in the kitchen? Try making that exquisite meal you wrote into chapter 12. Remind yourself what sushi tastes like before you have to describe what it tastes like. Really want to go the extra mile? Learn to fish, make a fire and cook it yourself. IMMERSION. Sketch: If you have a talent for art, draw your characters. Draw their outfits, their jewelry, their pets. I did this a bit, but it turns out I'm out of practice and was more apt to throw the pencil through the window. Either way, it will help you visualize outfits, hairstyles, and will let you watch a fucking movie while you do it. Actually write the damn book: Naturally this is the most important part. You can’t get around it. You have to put in the time. I've done all of the above, but I've also stuck in hundreds and hundreds of hours of writing for this one story. And it can be hard to do the writing, I know that. But that’s what you’re here for, so when you’re done with the creative outlet, channel it into the writing.

Now I hear the skeptics. These are all just distractions, you could just be writing! Listen, no one is saying don’t write. And you may be the type who can just sit and write, but not everyone is, and certainly not 24/7. All brains work differently. The conversation also conveniently ignores minds that function in other ways. Perhaps someone on the autism spectrum has another process than someone with synesthesia, or someone who’s neurotypical.

Follow the path that takes you to the story. That path has more twists for some people than others. Put in the work, and do it how you need to do it. If you're worried about procrastinating because of all these side quests, give yourself guidelines and boundaries. Set yourself achievable goals that will bring you back to the work.

I’ve tried to have fun with my creative process, because that suits who I am, but it doesn’t make me less serious about the work I’m doing. Ask the people who haven’t seen me in a year if I’m committed to the work. The story will be written. It will be published come Hel or high water. I’m just doing it my way.

TLDR; Don't let other people tell you how to be fucking creative.

#Writerblr #Writing #write #writer problems #writer advice

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holstdiaz0-blog · 6 years ago

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pomrania · 6 years ago

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Mandarin journal, week 3b

(week 3) (week 3c)

I’m putting this stuff here so I won’t have to write it after next class, mostly.

One thing I’ve been forgetting to mention, but that I really like about our prof, is that she keeps bringing it back to how she’d learned things. Now, that isn’t directly helpful with spoken Mandarin -- learning your L1 as a child is way different than learning an L2 as an adult, as all our previous SLA (subsequent-language acquisition) lectures have been very clear on -- but when it comes to WRITTEN language, that’s something she had to explicitly be taught, just like us.

We haven’t done much with the Chinese characters yet, although she has stated that learning them is frustrating for Chinese (as in, born and raised in China) students too. She had to struggle through it, as does everyone who’s learning written Chinese. Being a native speaker will NOT help you there; you’d only reap the benefits of the increased exposure to Chinese characters (by living in China).

Mostly though, I’m thinking of the pinyin spelling rules. She mentioned that when she was in grade school, and her teacher was talking about how U-umlaut loses the umlaut when it comes behind J, X, and Q, the teacher described it as those three letters being three bad brothers, who remove the eyes (the dots of the umlaut) from a fish. For context: U-umlaut, when spoken with a particular tone (that I can’t remember offhand, and I also don’t know how to do tone markings on this keyboard), means “fish”. Now like, if something’s phrased in such a way that little kids can understand it, tired university students are likely to also understand and remember it.

Speaking of “tired”, this morning I figured out the problem. I’m naturally waking up at like 7 in the morning. My sleep schedule has shifted, so I wake up earlier and get tired earlier. It’s rather weird, because it’s never just happened in that direction for me before. I don’t know what to do about this, I have no experience with shifting my schedule so I go to bed later than when I want to.

I just now registered for the next Mandarin course next semester. Monday afternoon-evening is going to be a busy time for me; I’ll have to make certain I pack enough food to get me through all of it. At least I won’t have to worry about buying another textbook for that class (unless the prof lied and we totally do need to get something new).

Speaking of “textbooks”. Only yesterday (because I procrastinate, this is a known issue with my behaviour) I looked up what all stuff there is listed online that we have to do, and apparently there’s homework due Monday at the beginning of class. The thing online lists a bunch of stuff from the workbooks. I do not currently own either of the workbooks, because I hadn’t had the cash on me to afford them, and I’d thought I could get away without buying them for a bit. Apparently, such is not the case. I’ll have to go to the bank today, get out some money, and buy the damn workbooks. I should also have it written down, what all I’ll need to do in them for the homework, so I won’t have to go back online before doing homework (again, a known issue with me).

There’s another “assignment” due Monday. It’s some type of spoken exercise in front of the class. Intended to be with a partner, but a bunch of people (including me) signed up by themselves. I’ve looked over what it’s supposed to be about, and it doesn’t seem too difficult; that is, so long as I put in the time to study and truly understand what I’m saying. It’s easier to remember “meaning” than “sounds”, after all.

A few days ago, I found a site with a bunch of anime dubbed into Mandarin. It was... interesting going over what all shows they had on there, since I cannot actually READ the language. However, arabic numerals are generally an online constant, as are the arrows for going forwards or backwards in page; and each show was given with an image, whatever the equivalent of “cover page” is for things, I can’t remember the word offhand. I found some that I recognized, and I watched a few episodes. I know from prior experience with other languages that this is an enjoyable method of “studying” for me. I don’t learn as much as I would with ACTUALLY studying, but I’m more likely to do it.

In that semi-naturalistic setting, of listening to dubbed anime, I was able to recognize maybe five words (other than the characters’ names, which don’t count as Mandarin words). It was a combination of feeling victorious and frustrated; because on the one hand, I recognized some words, and on the other hand, it was only five words. I think that’s a common sensation when you’re learning something: the high of victory, then the drop of that your “victory” isn’t actually that much. The trick is to realize that “not much” is still better than “nothing”, which is what you had before, and to let yourself celebrate the small victories. Because every large achievement is made up of lots of small achievements, after all.

Before our linguistics seminar two days ago (read: once everyone was more or less in the room, but before the prof told me to stop talking and let the other people do their presentation), I shared that method I’ve found, of watching cartoons dubbed in your target language. I made sure to share that it’s best if you’ve already seen those cartoons previously, in a language you can understand; that way you know what’s going on, so there’s way less of a cognitive load. You only need to worry about what words are being said, and not the plotline.

Someone added that Disney movies would work too. I think that in respects, that might actually work BETTER. For one, those things are bloody popular, and have been dubbed into most languages that exist; you’re way more likely to find Snow White in your target language than an episode of The Clone Wars. For another thing, if it was your favourite Disney movie as a kid, then you can probably recite half the movie in English given minimal prompting. Now there’s not always a direct correspondence in dialogue when something’s translated, but it happens often enough that you can generally make a reliable guess.

There’s another type of videos I’ve discovered. They’re some that are actually intended for people learning Mandarin. The tab I have currently open, it’s a playlist about pinyin (which dammit I need to work on some more because this kind of thing is easy if I just put a bit of time into it), by a channel called Yoyo Chinese. (Not giving the link here, because I am lazy.) I know that this will really help me, if I actually watch and pay attention to it. Not necessarily that the videos are of exceptional quality -- they might be, I can’t rightly judge that -- but because it’s another “direction” of looking at things.

I can’t remember when this was or where I found it, but I read a piece of advice somewhere, about learning a language. It said to not stick to one language-learning book. Read a bunch of different ones, with different methods and goals, starting at different places. I think that type of advice works with learning pretty much anything. The goal is to “understand”, after all; and so long as nobody got hurt, it doesn’t matter how you got there. If there’s something in one method or book or video or class that doesn’t work for you, there’s likely another one that can make up for it. Don’t waste time hunting for the “perfect” source or order, it likely doesn’t exist. Use everything useful that you can get your paws onto, and don’t feel guilty about it.

Well, unless the goal isn’t to “understand”, but rather to test the effectiveness of a certain method of instruction. In which case you should feel guilty, because you screwed up the parameters of the experiment, which you knew going in. But in most cases, yeah.

#no fandom #not a reblog #personal #linguistics

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