Tag: for future reference

infinitywhale:

Does Classpect confuse you? The endless series of titles and ranks, charting some unfathomable system that is wondrously complex, terribly complex, but overall just seems way too important to the story for something Hussie doesn’t seem willing to explain? Well good news! Under the tutelage of my friend and mentor bladekindEyewear, I have the learned the basics, and through spending way too much time thinking and writing about the classes and aspects, I have come up with working definitions and ideas behind them! So read on, and look at a few very well defended and defined ideas and theories behind them all.

This system was primarily developed by Homestuck, so reading the comic would be a great asset in understanding it, but by no means should a study be limited to fans of the comic. It would be very interesting to see a non-Homestuck get into the system.

It’s all under the cut. Questions, additions, theories, criticisms, compliments, and gifts are all well appreciated. Especially the gifts. But be warned: there are approximately 9,000 words here, and you are getting yourself into something big.

Afficher davantage

nerds-are-cool:

if you’re struggling for AU ideas take a look-see at this list i wrote for my friend who dubbed it “better than the 10 commandments" 

1)     Coffee shop AU

i)      
Barista and person who has a ridiculous coffee
order

ii)     
I’m worried about your coffee dependency

iii)    
you accidentally poured boiling hot coffee over
me so you’re responsible for taking me to A&E

iv)    
you give me a different fake name every time you
come into starbucks and I just want to know your real name bc ur cute but here
I am scrawling “batman” onto your stupid cappuccino

2)     
Flower shop AU

i)      
You buy a weird amount of flowers and I’m
concerned as to why

ii)     
I’m allergic to flowers but I work in a flower
shop – you’re a customer who’s very confused as to why I’d do that

iii)    
(this is also a good way to incorporate flower
meanings eg, buying certain colours/types for person to represent feelings etc.)

3)     
Library AU

i)      
You’re overdue on this book and I want it so I’m
tracking u the fuck down

ii)     
I work in the library and I’m a little concerned
for your health bc you never stop studying

iii)    
The library’s pretty empty save for you and me
and OH that couple making out loudly in the shelves somewhere

4)     
Awful first time meeting

i)      
I accidentally punched you in the face when I
was too overexcited about something

ii)     
I thought you were my friend who’s just done
something awful to me (read: cut my hair while I slept, dyed all of my clothes
pink, etc. etc.) because you look similar from behind so I stormed up to you
and shoved you from behind while calling you an asshole

iii)    
You get the gist to this one

iv)    
Oooh when you told me your name I thought you
were joking because it’s fucking awful and I made a joke about it and things
got awkward real fucking fast (perfect for a Hannibal au just saying)

5)     
Weird places to meet/awkward meetings in general

i)      
We live in the same block of flats but haven’t
ever talked and Sunday morning we were both doing the walk of shame and had to
stand in the lift together

ii)     
“okay I know that being in the woods at 2am is a
weird thing to be doing but my friend called me and- wait, why are you in the woods at 2am, fuck I’m going
to die aren’t I?”

iii)    
A personal favourite of mine – first day at a
new job and oh fuck my boss is the person I drunkenly hooked up with last
weekend/night

iv)    
We keep accidentally running into each other I’m
not a stalker I swear

v)     
You live across from me in our apartments and we
smile when we see each other but we don’t really know each other and oh you’re
the stripper at my friend’s stag do/hen night fuck this is really uncomfortable

vi)    
“My shower’s broken but I’ve got a date tonight
could I possibly use your shower please?” “Oh sure (neighbour that I’ve been crushing on for the past six months) of course you can use my shower to get ready for your date (fuck fuck fuck)”

6)     
Friends to romance – pining and all that
wonderful shit

i)      
You’ve got a date tonight and you asked for
advice on what to wear but I’m so in love with you and damn you look good in the outfit I picked out for you

ii)     
I really like you but you’re my best friend’s ex

iii)    
You’ve liked me for ages and were really obvious
about it and I didn’t like all the attention but now you’re over me I really
miss it and fuck I think I like you too?

iv)    
Somewhere along the way of getting into bar
fights together, staying up all night with movie marathons, other friendship
things, I’ve fallen in love with you but oh my god this could ruin EVERYTHING

v)     
Friends with benefits oh wait I like you

7)     
FAKE DATING HOLY SHIT I LIVE FOR THIS

i)      
It’s my highschool reunion and I need a hot date
so I can rub it in the faces of the people who hated me

ii)     
My homophobic parents are coming to visit will
you pretend to date me as an extra “fuck you”?

iii)    
There’s a person who won’t stop bugging me will
you pretend to be my partner so that they’ll fuck off?

iv)    
I told my sister I have a boyfriend so she’d
stop trying to set me up with people but now she’s coming to visit and I’m in
too deep I need a fake boyf ASAP

8)     
Soulmate aus

i)      
The first words your true love(s) will say to
you are tattooed on you and why the fuck are their first words something really
ridiculous like ‘I’ll pay you a tenner to punch me in the face’ or ‘quick
what’s your favourite animal’ or ‘fucking shit hell holy fuck wow oh my god
jesus h Christ fuck me’ etc. or even worse a really ridiculous song lyric like  the opening lines of uptown funk or a high
school musical song or smthing did you have to serenade me the first time you
saw me asshole?

ii)     
You get an ‘impression’ of your soulmate when
you turn 18 or something but all I got was a strong smell of bananas or an
overwhelming feeling that Thatcher was a good prime minister or an image in my
mind of a fucking unicorn

iii)    
The more ridiculous the better actually

iv)    
Something like whenever your soulmate sings a
duet you can’t help but join in and my fucking soulmate is in a goddamn band
but I can’t sing for shit

v)     
Or maybe something like soulmates always sneeze
at the same time and I cant be sure but me and this kid in my French class just
sneezed at the same time are we soulmates or was it a coincidence (proceed w
character trying to make themselves sneeze around said person to see what’s
what)

9)     
Alternate universes for real

i)      
Mermaids

ii)     
Siren and asexual pirate who doesn’t understand
why all his crew are losing their shit that person has a nice voice sure but
what the fuck is happening

iii)    
Hogwarts

iv)    
We live in a world where the greek gods are real
and you went and got yourself cursed and now I have to go on a fucking quest to
sort this shit out why do I love you again?

v)     
Pacific rim au (either they’re drift compatible
or one of them is a ranger and the other stresses constantly bc what if they
die yes I have read a fic like this no I didn’t come up with this one but it’s
fucking good) (also if you haven’t seen that film go watch it now)

vi)    
Literally any movie or book universe you like
tbh just go for it

10)  
Other aus that I like

i)      
I wanted to go on the ferris wheel but there has
to be two people to a cart come on random person let’s go oh wait are we stuck
at the top? Fuck

ii)     
We work in the same office and you have a
goddamn squeaky chair and you wONT FUCKING STOP SQUEAKING IT BECAUSE YOU KNOW
IT ANNOYS ME

iii)    
Our mutual friend set us up on a blind date and
I thought I’d hate it but you’re actually… kind of funny? But because I expected to hate it in no way am I going to let you change my mind just because you’re gorgeous and funny and intelligent oh no my friend is not winning this

iv)    
It started to snow and I’m the only one of our
friends who would go outside with you – I soon found out why none of the others
would go out in the snow with you (this works best if they’re new friends who
don’t know each other all that well) when you shoved a handful of snow down my
back and declared snow war

v)     
It’s nowhere near Christmas it’s literally still
November would you calm down about Christmas wait no why are you getting the
tree out no stop please stop (if you do this pre-relationship you can have the
grouchy one secretly finding the other’s excitement endearing and falling in
love with them actually that works for established relationship too)

vi)    
Current partner got a new job in America (or
other country far away) and we’re getting by on skype calls and emails but it’s
not easy and then I met someone new (can be poly or can be finding the OTP person)

vii)  
You want us both to get in shape and I hate
working out/running but your ass looks really good in shorts oh the things I do
for my friends and their nice asses

viii)  Carrying
on from 10.vii. you’ve caught me checking you out in what I thought was a
subtle way too many times and now you’re calling me out on it what do I do???

ix)    
You’re an actor/other famous person that I
really admire and I just saw you in the street and as I was debating whether or
not to say hi you came up to me and
started flirting what do I do??

x)     
You were waving at your friend behind me but I
got confused and waved back at you and now I’m dying of embarrassment but you
think it’s cute

xi)    
I sat down in the wrong class and I’m panicking
but don’t want to get up and leave because the class has started and you think
it’s hilarious and shut up you dumb fuck you don’t know me aahhh

xii)  
I’m a waiter at this wedding and you’re a drunk
guest who will not stop hitting on me please I’m trying to work no I can’t
dance with you omg let me find you some water

xiii)  Our
best friends are that awful ‘cute’ couple that make-out in public and call each
other “sweetie” and “sugar” and “babe” and god they’re awful let’s talk about
how awful they are – develops into “shit we’re the awful couple now”

xiv)  You
pissed me off in class so I threw a book at your head and now I’m in detention
and jesus fuck I hate you so much and the teacher made me apologise and wait
you’re cuter up close and the way you talk is kind of nice actually oh fuck no

Okay I could go on forever but this is over 1,500 words of
auing already I have too many ideas christ

send me some to @theskyis-forever

santasteverogers:

hey so you know that vicious cycle of mental health making you unproductive which makes your mental health worse? don’t worry friend I am here with something that can help

just get one thing done. break the cycle. it doesn’t have to be some big task. in fact it’s better if it isn’t. decide on something that takes five minutes or less. keep it tiny and manageable – the key is to feel like you’ve accomplished something, so when your brain is all, you can’t even do a single thing all day except lay in bed being useless, you can be like, oh but I did do something, brain, suck on that. it might not seem like much at the time but it helps a lot to have something tangible you can point to

do you have dirty dishes in your bedroom? get rid of ‘em. you don’t have to wash them, just put them in the sink with soapy water. done. easy.

do you have a pile of empty water bottles sitting there? good for you staying hydrated. but you don’t need a mountain of plastic reminders. throw a few in the trash or in recycling. don’t worry about chasing down every single one, just pick a number. get rid of 5 or 10. easy, manageable even if you feel terrible. done.

do you need to do something early tomorrow? get something ready now. just one thing. lay out an outfit. fill the coffee maker so you can just press a button tomorrow. pack your backpack or purse. bonus benefit, future you will have an extra few minutes to breathe in the morning.

do you have a pet? spend 5 minutes with your pet. cuddle them. play tug of war. make baby noises at them. your pet loves you. I bet they miss you when you’re sad. you’ll both feel better.

has it been 3 weeks since you did laundry? pick your clothes up off the floor and put them in a laundry basket. don’t actually wash them or even take the basket anywhere. just collect the clothes for later so they aren’t spread all over. it’ll make actually doing them that much easier when you have more energy

did you manage to wash your clothes but not put them away? fold something. fold another thing. and one more. put them away. three things. you got this one.

did you do your one thing? good. I’m proud of you. even if it didn’t make you feel better, guess what? you did a thing. you got something done, you can be done now. you can go back to bed if you want.

10 Things that Red-Flag a Newbie Novelist

writeworld:

Beginning novelists are like Tolstoy’s happy families. They tend to be remarkably alike. Certain mistakes are common to almost all beginners. These things aren’t necessarily wrong, but they are difficult to do well—and get in the way of smooth storytelling

They also make it easy for professionals—and a lot of readers—to spot the unseasoned newbie.

When I worked as an editor, I ran into the same problems in nearly every new novelist’s work—the very things I did when I was starting out.

I think some of the patterns come from imitating the classics. In the days of Dickens and Tolstoy, novels were written to be savored on long winter nights or languid summer days when there was a lot of time to be filled. Detailed descriptions took readers out of their mundane lives and off to exotic lands or into the homes of the very rich and very poor where they wouldn’t be invited otherwise.

Books were expensive, so people wanted them to last as long as possible. They didn’t mind flipping back and forth to find out if Razumihin, Dmitri Prokofitch, and Vrazumihin were in fact, all the same person. They were okay with immersing themselves in long descriptions and philosophical digressions before they found out what happened to Little Nell. The alternative was probably staring at the fire or listening to Aunt Lavinia snore.

But in the electronic age…not so much. Your readers have the world’s libraries at their fingertips, and if you bore them or confuse them for even a minute, they’re already clicking away to buy the next shiny 99c book.

Whether you’re querying agents and editors or you’re planning to self-publish, you need to write for the contemporary reader. And that means “leaving out the parts that readers skip” as Elmore Leonard said.

Agents and readers aren’t going to want to wade through a practice novel. They want polished work. All beginners make mistakes. Falling down and making a mess is part of any learning process. But you don’t have to display the mess to the world. Unfortunately easy electronic self-publishing tempts us to do just that.

But don’t. As I said two weeks ago, it takes the same amount of time to learn to write as it did before the electronic age.

Here are some tell-tale signs that a writer is still in the learning phase of a career.

I’m not saying these things are “wrong”. They’re just overdone or tough for a beginner to do well.

Read More →

10 Things that Red-Flag a Newbie Novelist

willow-wanderings:

thehorsethief:

jumpingjacktrash:

adigitalmagician:

the-rain-monster:

grimdarkthroes:

equalityformost:

grimdarkthroes:

as ur friendly Neighborhood Nursing Student™ i feel somewhat compelled to remind everyone with the hot weather:

  1. every liquid except sea water and alcohol hydrates you. It’s not CHUG WATER OR DIE. in fact, gatorade and the like are designed to hydrate you efficiently.
  2. yeah, this includes coffee and tea and soda. the diuretic is not enough to cancel out the liquid. juices and milk have solids in them, sure, but they’re also mostly liquid! it counts. 
  3. your body can only absorb so much water at a time, so chugging 64 oz of water at noon and calling it good will do a wonderful job of flushing your kidneys, but not so much of hydrating your tissues. it’s more important that you’re getting consistent fluid throughout the day. 
  4. there’s a lot of fancy ways to determine How Much Water (Liquid) I Should Drink but honestly? 8 oz (1 cup) every other hour on cool days and 8 oz every hour on hot days should be fine (assuming you sleep for a normal amount of time per day…. i’m assuming ur awake 16 hours a day.)
  5. figure out how many oz each of ur favorite cups is. it’ll help your guesstimation. 
  6. if ur urine is darker than light yellow, you’re dehydrated. 
  7. if u pinch the skin on the back of ur hand for a couple seconds and it takes more than a second or two go to back to normal then ur dehydrated. 

In regards to #1, don’t take this as an excuse to drink the sugar water that they call sports drinks. They aren’t bad for you per se, but please choose water.

actually this entire post was written in the spirit of ppl using it as an excuse to drink sports drinks and soda etc

ppl have been commenting abt sodium levels in soda and sugar levels in sports drinks and thats all well and good but what i’ve noticed is that people who internalize “well, ONLY WATER hydrates me” but who HATE WATER remain horrifically dehydrated cause they dont drink anything. 

so like. if ur a person who haaaaates tap water, this is absolutely me giving you permission to drink whatever fluid you can stomach. please take this as a direct excuse to drink nothing but gatorade if that’s what it takes to get enough fluid into ur body.

it’s not the healthiest for you, sure, but you’re a smart enough person to know that. please drink fluids anyways. 

if u like water thats gr8. if you can stomach water that’s gr8. if you can’t, that’s okay too, and you need to stay hydrated just as much as anyone else, so please drink. 

I used to hate tap water, and in some places (looking at you, Iowa) it is legit disgusting, but one thing I do which helped a ton and was long term cheaper than buying soda or juice was to get a bottle of Angostura bitters. It’s a cocktail additive with a strong distinctive flavor, so although a tiny bottle is like $6 it will last you for ages. Put a small drop or dash in your glass then fill with water. It has a pleasant sort of herbal metal taste (I understand that those words don’t seem like they should go together but it’s hard to describe) which masks tap water. It also helps me smooth an upset tummy but your mileage may vary. It’s not something that will get you drunk, just a flavoring like vanilla extract.

If that all sounds like too much bother, dropping a lemon wedge into water also helps.

I am learning that lemon wedges are magical in almost everything I like to drink.

here is the magic that made me stop being chronically dehydrated:

because yeah, i can’t STAND plain water – it tastes like the inside of my mouth. it tastes like spit. imagine drinking a glass of ice cold spit. ugh. but add a squirt of this stuff to your glass of tapwater, and now it tastes like apple, cherry, lemonade, whatever.

i also got a bunch of these

and pre-prep them with flavored water, iced tea, iced coffee, whatever (or ask my helper to do it), and then when i’m thirsty but distracted and want to just grab some kind of liquid without thinking about finding a clean glass etc., i can just grab one of these.

because yeah, hating water is a thing, and dehydration SUCKS. so drink SOMETHING, don’t be a water purist. better to chug iced coffee than go without.

I love the idea of prepping water; I’m lucky that I both like the taste of water* (*my tap water, cold but no ice ever)
but if I ever have un-tasty tap water I’m definetely going to get a ton of cute water bottles.

ALSO: if you like bubbly stuff, sodastream machines cost less than $100 and the machines last forever. The CO2 lasts a good while too, and while I don’t like any of the sodastream flavors (I don’t like any soda besides root beer and cream tbh) there’s nothing stopping you from drinking seltzer plain or adding flavor drops or lemonade powder or anything

As someone who lives in a dry desert climate, I feel the need to point out that 8oz is honestly not that much (it’s about the size of a coffee mug). A standard shot glass is about an ounce; if you live in a desert 8 shots of liquid in an hour is not enough.

Every year in the summer I watch people who are new here go up for a lazy morning hike on one of our little mountains, carrying a half liter bottle of water with them… and every year I watch those people get taken off the mountain by a medical evac helicopter and straight to the ER for critical dehydration and heatstroke. Sometimes those people die. I was hospitalized myself for dehydration once when I first started living here (it is the exact opposite of pleasant) and I thought I was doing ok on my liquid intake at the time.

If you live in a dry desert (like Arizona) the air literally sucks water out of your body. If you think you’re not sweating, that’s just because the climate is drying it up as fast as your body can squeeze it out of your skin. If it’s summer in the desert and you’re outside and you’re “not sweating” something is wrong and that something is probably dehydration.

If you don’t like water, fine. Drink tea, drink koolaid, drink juice, add lemon juice and a little sugar to water for quick lemonade. Whatever you’re drinking, if you live in a desert and it’s summer, you need more than 8oz per hour. Even if you’re inside and it’s air conditioned, the air is still dry because you’re living in a desert and it will dry you out faster than other climates will.

Something the doctor at the hospital told me: by the time you really feel thirsty, you’re already under your quota for liquid intake. The “oh my god I am so thirsty rn” feeling is your body hitting the fire alarm to try to get your attention.

Don’t let it get to that point if you live in a desert. Personally, I keep a glass of liquid within reach all the time and just take a sip from it whenever I notice it sitting there (which is usually every minute or so). It means I can finish off half a gallon of tea in the space of an hour but it keeps me out of the hospital.

Again, this is specifically for people who live in a desert that is dry and hot. Monsoon season? Don’t need as much liquid. Winter? Same. But if it’s summer and you live in a desert, even if you are inside an air conditioned building, drink more than 8oz of liquid an hour; whether it’s water or tea or lemonade or whatever, just keep something nearby and sip it often.

Things you can say in response to literally anything, when you have nothing else to say:

owen-dearing:

the-cinnamon-peelers-wife:

nickandmorty:

arcaneloquence:

  • As the prophecy foretold.
  • But at what cost?
  • So let it be written; so let it be done.
  • So…it has come to this.
  • That’s just what he/she/they would’ve said.
  • Is this why fate brought us together?
  • And thus, I die.
  • …just like in my dream…
  • Be that as it may, still may it be as it may be.
  • There is no escape from destiny.
  • Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen.
  • In this economy?
  • …and then the wolves came.

@formidableopponents oh good, new catchphrases

You think catchphrases, I think awkward first date conversations…

These would probably work pretty well in any customer service situation where you would like the customer to stop trying to talk to you about something too…

klezmerische:

notes regarding Jewish textual tradition:

-our sacred texts include more than just the 5 books of the “old testament” 

-we don’t call it the old testament and please don’t call it that unless you’re referring to the christian use of it, when talking about the jewish torah use the term “hebrew scriptures” 

-torah = the 5 first books (genesis exodus leviticus deuteronomy numbers)  + the prophets and the writings (song of songs, psalms, etc)

-there is also Talmud (mishnah and gemara) which is where conversations by rabbis about how Jewish law should work were recorded (mishna) and further commented / debated on (gemara), and the law codes that later simplified and revised the talmud for better practical use (the shulchan aruch and mishne torah), sages’ commentaries on these law texts, and centuries of responsa to them. these texts are where you will find a lot of the rituals, observances, and rules that Jews follow (so for example the kosher laws, when we say what blessings, how we celebrate holidays, etc). so no, we do not participate in “old” testament ritual sacrifice and looking directly in there for how Jews live is a rather fruitless attempt. 

-sometimes the word “torah” can refer to talmud as well, it can refer to any study of holy texts. 

-responses and interpretations of Jewish law and scriptures goes on to this day

-Midrash is another type of important jewish texts which are basically poetic or interperative writings about the things in the torah/talmud/etc, comparable to parables, written by various jewish scholars to think through Jewish thought, history, religion, etc. not seen as binding legal texts but rather ways of thinking through torah/judaism. there are ancient published midrashim as well as modern ones. 

-Basically understand that Jewish textual tradition goes far beyond what you know of the Hebrew scriptures and “Jewish practice is just Christianity without the New Testament” is terribly inaccurate.

-The idea that “Jews just do ancient barbaric Old Testament rituals” is ages old antisemitic slander. 

non Jewish people are ok to reblog this because it is so often misunderstood

SELF CARE CHEAT SHEET!!

jwstudying:

other cheat sheets

caveat-monstrum:

panicatthedeathclaw:

blue-author:

whathasbeenlost:

HEY WRITERS OF ALL KINDS AND AGES AND MAYBE EVEN DNDERS OR TABLETOP GAMERS ARE YOU READY FOR SOMETHING SUPER RAD? I HOPE SO ‘CAUSE 

RANDOM

MAP

GENERATOR

WITH

EDITING FEATURES AVAILABLE

IT DOESN’T REALLY DO LAND MASSES OR ANYTHING BUT IT SURE AS HELL WILL MAP THAT CITY/VILLAGE/SHIP/DUNGEON/WHATEVER THAT YOU’VE BEEN MEANING TO MAP OUT FOR YOU

SO FUCKING GO WILD

Holy moly, this changes everything.

@tremendiouslytori

@drewdrawsstuff and @decertatio
Looooooooook