#trigonometry was NOT fun

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson, Catching Up

The Musgrave Ritual part 1 and 2: The fun bits

- Sometime in the decade between Study in Scarlet (1880-1881) and the frame story for The Musgrave Ritual, Holmes’ household habits have changed. During Study, he’s trying very hard to be the ideal roommate, now he keeps his correspondence stabbed to the mantel and has shot some new decorations into their wall. Based on the fact that The Sign of The Four, which we may or may not skip, was published in 1890, Watson and Holmes are (probably) not living together full time at the time of this story’s publication. Most likely Watson wrote this story several years before it’s publication in The Strand (probable: this was the eighteenth Holmes short story published, and The Strand had only started publishing them in 1891). - On the other hand, a change in Holmes’ household habits and Watson moving in briefly to help could correlate with a rough time for Holmes in his canonical battles with depression and drugs. I’ll likely have more conclusions about this possible event as we analyze all the other cases published during this period. 

- The framing device for Gloria Scott and the framing device for Musgrave are both Holmes and Watson kicking around the (disastrous) living room on a winter evening. Possibly the two tales were related to Watson within a very short period, one where Watson needed some ready fodder for his monthly submission to The Strand.  - Holmes lived near the British Museum when he was first trying to start a career. No conclusions here, I just think it’s a good idea if you’re going to impulsively study anything that seems relevant.  - Musgrave is yet another classmate with a limited social circle. Not as lonely as Victor Trevor, but seen as a bit stuck up (or shy: Holmes is seeing the best in his old classmates) during their school days. He’s doing all right socially (and economically via the family’s fortune) right now but he still approaches Holmes when things start to look a little scandalous within his household. - Musgrave’s first reaction to seeing somebody wandering the house at night, as an insomniac in a house with about twelve other people living in it, is to think “It must be a burglar!” and grab an antique axe. You really have to wonder what he would have done if it was one of the maids making a cup of tea or a footman borrowing a book instead of his butler snooping in a locked cabinet of family documents.  - Snooping through your employer’s documents in the middle of the night isn’t great but employment for servants during this period was pretty precarious. Because of letters of recommendation and servants at a country house generally being local people with very few other grand country houses nearby to apply for jobs at, you could definitely have your livelihood destroyed over a minor mistake or misunderstanding with your employer. Even if, like Musgrave and Brunton, you’ve watched your current employer grow up.

- On the other hand, Victorian nobility appears to have understood that human beings get sick and should generally recover instead of going to work during that time. I can’t quite tell if Rachel Howells is supposed to have been ill for the whole month after Brunton jilted her, and “brain fever” covers a lot of potential diagnoses (depression? Anxiety? Unrelated illness that happens to coincide and isn’t immediately obvious as something else?) - Generally speaking I’m not going to get into the internal racism / classism notes on people coming from formerly independent countries within the United Kingdom, especially when compared with an English Lord. I don’t have the expertise or the time. Just note that Rachel Howells having an “excitable Welsh Temperament” is supposed to be a clue. - The Musgrave Ritual scavenger Hunt Guide. I have always loved this scavenger hunt guide and I used to attempt to make similar ones and try to force my neighbors to solve them. It did not go well, overall, and I might have been bad at it.   - Victorians, lacking chemical analysis for their historical papers, (at least, chemical analysis that wouldn’t destroy the whole thing) dated them by spelling trends. - Hurlstone Manor does not appear to be a real place. (West Sussex, however, is.) The oldest homes in West Sussex that I can google appear to date to the Elizabethan era (1558-1603), some time before the reign of King Charles from 1625 to 1649. Obviously if “Musgrave’s” name was altered to prevent embarrassment, the name of his family’s seat would be as well.  - This story tricked me, at age twelve, into thinking that trigonometry would be fun.

[teachyouhowtodothesponge]

And now, some good ol' Wally content before the update! So excited!

[lorebird]

In which Ford struggles so badly to relate to other people that he wonders if he’s really human at all. The more isolated he becomes, the harder it is to reconcile with his own humanity.

[pafyna]

a small conversation going somewhat wrong but it's fiine 😆 characters from @ageless-soul-au ! Legend is ✨️ FANCY ✨️

[tekitothemagpie]

HAD TO DO THIS!!

[ouijabard]

Math-related school projects are always so out-of-pocket istg 😭

Lore dump for anybody who’s interested because I love these guys:

This is Swift, local pathetic crackhead burglar. He has approximately 37 mental illnesses and is banned from most public spaces. 👍

His name is actually “Soot,” but he goes by “Swift” for the same reasons Eugene goes by “Flynn Rider.”He’s meant to be a literal play on the phrase "cat burglar," but, much like Kathleen Kennedy, he thoroughly sucks at his job. Yes, all of his gadgets are cat-toy themed and magically manifest from behind his back. I believe his personality is best summed up by “sass with a side of class." The lamp he's carrying does have lore significance ("Local Unemployed Crackhead Releases A Bubbly Ancient Genie That For Some Reason Talks Like A Victorian Child" (her name is Foxtail btw)), but I'm not too sure where I want to take it as of yet. :]

Also, the giraffe is Gerald. He’s just some guy don’t worry about him.

As a bonus, here’s the first drawing I ever did of Swift. It’s definitely not the best, but still fun to look back on:

[hrokkall]

The universe heard you had coursework and decided that everything cool and exciting needed to happen right now (mood)

- 🥊

HEAD IN MY HANDS

[cc-underscore]

my school has this thing where they would hire people who speaks English and isint from our country to teach us, so far they have math, and science, i was studying for math and reading through the power point they sent us and god damn howd i miss this gem of a slide

[hungwy]

one of those nights where i wish i had the foundations to learn about difficult math things but i never even got past fully learning dealing with fractions and percents

[shadowsandstarlight]

Nobody warned me that this high school physics course involved fucking nuclear and quantum physics

[kirafanxx69420]

why did i take humanities as my strand, literally 5 different social science/political classes when my favorite subject is Math

genmath my beloved oh my god i love math

[fallow-grove]

Hello fallow do you like traimgles

yes i do, they are the Danger Shape!!!!

[woahajimes]

i think tumblr was the first to show me i was not made for HL Lang&Lit

[crescentmp3]

nevermind. physics is my friend actually

[supercantaloupe]

also i think it would be a lot easier for me to care about my french hw if it was like. analyze this chapter of some book or whatever. instead of. pretend you're applying to a job

[stormy-nights-are-best]

There is a point at which school becomes just completely useless. There are skills you learn later on that (there's a big chance) you'll never need for your future job.

In maths, I consider it important to learn about converting numbers into percentages and working with scales. Everyone should know what a 20% discount on your 50$ shirt means‚ and how to look at a map with a scale and understand how far you gotta walk up to your destination. But trigonometry (the study of angles)? analytic geometry? fvcking prime numbers?? A kid should be able to opt out of that.

I'm personally too much of a sciences fan to tell you anything that wouldn't come around as useful later in your life‚ but mandatory physics is kind of an overkill. Why do schools force you to learn how to calculate which bus is gonna get the most damage from a boulder falling from heaven considering it's windy in Hawaii?

In my birth country‚ PE wasn't mandatory if you proved you were enrolled in sports outside of school. Not trying to flex here, but you could focus on karate‚ swimming‚ hockey‚ whatever - instead of being forced to be good at every single sport.

Mandatory English classes (not as a foreign language) are also just stupid after you learn basic grammar and the different media types. The ability to classify words and where they should go in a sentence, to know where to put a comma - that's useful. Classifying clauses is a waste of time.

Sure we should know about our countries' classic literature pieces. I can't find two kids who enjoy being forced to read those old books though. Recently, in the country I moved to, kids have been given 10 minutes out of English class to quietly read a book they brought to school themselves (and it can't be in a foreign language). They're encouraged to ask questions about unknown words and such. That's interesting. That's gotta be way better than reading and interpreting a news article the don't give a fudge about.

I'm sorry for the long text, but school system is so disgustingly flawed. I didn't even talk about speeches and presentations, that are the number one fear of many children regarding school.