no2ticonderoga

[no2ticonderoga]

Screaming into the void tonight because it was a shit-tastic day at work.

I'm just... so tired. I actually came here to write a huge long rant, but as I'm sitting here I realized I just don't have the fucking energy to explain it all.

But some days I just don't know what I'm doing anymore. I am in a job that, by all rights I should love. But it seems like every year that job I thought I was doing gets further and further from what I'm actually doing. And I don't know if that...platonic ideal, I suppose would be a good phase...even exists anymore.

It is just so frustrating...and I sometimes worry that I don't have what it takes to do this for the next two decades, and if I don't, I don't know what the hell else I'm qualified to do with my life.

Maybe I just need a decent night's sleep....

#teaching is hard yo

[no2ticonderoga]

I did. You were on your phone.

Why didn't my teacher tell me about...

(this disputed queer history?)

(this incident that was suppressed by the CIA until a few years ago?)

(that this wildly held American myth was fake?)

Because they are the products of the same broken education system you are. You know, the one you keep trying to use as an excuse of your own ignorance.

The one that 85% of the time did talk about various historical and cultural pieces of information that my fellow Americans claim no one ever mentioned to them.

Like that one post about how Americans don't learn there are other countries. Like that isn't part of Kindergarten.

#teacher problems #put your fucking phone away and pay attention #tik tok is the tool of Satan

[no2ticonderoga]

picked up persuasion recently and couldn’t help thinking of in the service of the king the entire time! guess im gonna have to reread!! 🤭

I wish you a good journey my friend! Fair winds and clear skies! 😀

#ask #skyknightawol

[no2ticonderoga]

#i feel so seen #and called out

[no2ticonderoga]

Them: why are you competing in our cooking show today?

Me: the government banned gladiator matches yet I yearn for glory in the arena

#inspiration #secrets #writing

[no2ticonderoga]

Hi do you plan or already know if/when the next Senior Year cliches chapter(work) comes.

Hi!

I'm currently working on it. Life outside of the computer screen has been pretty hectic lately, so I haven't had as much writing time as I'd like. But it's there, and it's coming along slowly. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks? Depends. But I haven't given up...it'll be out eventually...

#asks #fic #pjo #senior year cliches #frostbite70-1

[no2ticonderoga]

This is all genuinely frightening to me, who grew up with DOS prompts and built his own machines and dabbled briefly with Linux...

So this was originally a response to this post:

****

****

Which is about people wanting an AO3 app, but then it became large and way off topic, so here you go.

Nobody under the age of 20 knows how to use a computer or the internet. At all. They only know how to use apps. Their whole lives are in their phones or *maybe* a tablet/iPad if they're an artist. This is becoming a huge concern.

I'm a private tutor for middle- and high-school students, and since 2020 my business has been 100% virtual. Either the student's on a tablet, which comes with its own series of problems for screen-sharing and file access, or they're on mom's or dad's computer, and they have zero understanding of it.

They also don't know what the internet is, or even the absolute basics of how it works. You might not think that's an important thing to know, but stick with me.

Last week I accepted a new student. The first session is always about the tech -- I tell them this in advance, that they'll have to set up a few things, but once we're set up, we'll be good to go. They all say the same thing -- it won't be a problem because they're so "online" that they get technology easily.

I never laugh in their faces, but it's always a close thing. Because they are expecting an app. They are not expecting to be shown how little they actually know about tech.

I must say up front: this story is not an outlier. This is *every* student during their first session with me. Every single one. I go through this with each of them because most of them learn more, and more solidly, via discussion and discovery rather than direct instruction.

Once she logged in, I asked her to click on the icon for screen-sharing. I described the icon, then started with "Okay, move your mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen." She did the thing that those of us who are old enough to remember the beginnings of widespread home computers remember - picked up the mouse and moved it and then put it down. I explained she had to pull the mouse along the surface, and then click on the icon. She found this cumbersome. I asked if she was on a laptop or desktop computer. She didn't know what I meant. I asked if the computer screen was connected to the keyboard as one piece of machinery that you can open and close, or if there was a monitor - like a TV - and the keyboard was connected to another machine either by cord or by Bluetooth. Once we figured it out was a laptop, I asked her if she could use the touchpad, because it's similar (though not equivalent) to a phone screen in terms of touching clicking and dragging.

Once we got her using the touchpad, we tried screen-sharing again. We got it working, to an extent, but she was having trouble with... lots of things. I asked if she could email me a download or a photo of her homework instead, and we could both have a copy, and talk through it rather than put it on the screen, and we'd worry about learning more tech another day. She said she tried, but her email blocked her from sending anything to me.

This is because the only email address she has is for school, and she never uses email for any other purpose. I asked if her mom or dad could email it to me. They weren't home.

(Re: school email that blocks any emails not whitelisted by the school: that's great for kids as are all parental controls for young ones, but 16-year-olds really should be getting used to using an email that belongs to them, not an institution.)

I asked if the homework was on a paper handout, or in a book, or on the computer. She said it was on the computer. Great! I asked her where it was saved. She didn't know. I asked her to search for the name of the file. She said she already did that and now it was on her screen. Then, she said to me: "You can just search for it yourself - it's Chapter 5, page 11."

This is because homework is on the school's website, in her math class's homework section, which is where she searched. For her, that was "searching the internet."

Her concepts of "on my computer" "on the internet" or "on my school's website" are all the same thing. If something is displayed on the monitor, it's "on the internet" and "on my phone/tablet/computer" and "on the school's website."

She doesn't understand "upload" or "download," because she does her homework on the school's website and hits a "submit" button when she's done. I asked her how she shares photos and stuff with friends; she said she posts to Snapchat or TikTok, or she AirDrops. (She said she sometimes uses Insta, though she said Insta is more "for old people"). So in her world, there's a button for "post" or "share," and that's how you put things on "the internet".

She doesn't know how it works. None of it. And she doesn't know how to use it, either.

Also, none of them can type. Not a one. They don't want to learn how, because "everything is on my phone."

And you know, maybe that's where we're headed. Maybe one day, everything will be on "my phone" and computers as we know them will be a thing of the past. But for the time being, they're not. Students need to learn how to use computers. They need to learn how to type. No one is telling them this, because people think teenagers are "digital natives." And to an extent, they are, but the definition of that has changed radically in the last 20-30 years. Today it means "everything is on my phone."

[no2ticonderoga]

@darkmagyk and @phykios I slammed reblog on this so fast....

Wind Knots

Knots have long been thought to have magical properties, including the power to control the wind. So called wind knots were tied into a piece of rope or a rag and sold by so called wichtes to superstitious sailors, especially captains, who would untie the three knots they contained to release the wind. The 17th century Norwegian Poet Petter Dass explained what happend next:

" Untie but the one for a gentle, good breeze, The sails will be filled, you make progress with ease; But if you the second will loosen, You pull in the canvas to barely half mast. The third will send wind that will race you so fast that pumps you will have to resort it."

So be very careful with your wind knots and use them wisely.

#inspiration #in the service of the king #napoleonic au

[no2ticonderoga]

#for fiction by genre #for nonfiction by time period

[no2ticonderoga]

LYNDA CARTER?!?

Sokka's girlfriend looked great today.

#atla #lynda carter #coming in with the steel chair!

[no2ticonderoga]

Hi! I’ve just finished my mumblemumbleth reread of ItSotK (done on two train journeys this weekend) - it’s one of my favourite fics to reread on long train journeys, I have it downloaded so I can still read it when the signal’s not great. I’m wondering what would have happened/been different if Dr Chase had come down with Annabeth for the Trafalgar ball when she asked him to - I assume they would have got engaged then, but not had time to get married, so not much of Percy’s story would have changed re the circumnavigation cruise with Naiad, but would Annabeth have met him at Rio (with appropriate chaperoning, of course) when he returned? Would she have been on Naiad for the return to Britain with the Robinsons?

Oh! Oh! Much love and happiness to you on this day. I'm so glad you asked this.

So...just quick off the top of my head! If Frederick had come down, certainly Percy would have asked for her hand, and Frederick would have agreed immediately. But you are correct, there was unlikely to be time for them to get married before Percy set off for South America.

However, Percy is in Rio for several months before the War of 1812 breaks out, so it's possible that Fred and Family might have travelled to Rio for a wedding in Early 1812, and that would have meant that Annabeth might have been along for the ride on the Great Cruise that made them rich. And certainly she would have been there to meet Arthur, and the Robinsons as well!

This was such a wonderful ask, thank you! Both @darkmagyk and I loved it!

#asks #8lottie8 #napoleonic au #pjo #writing #in the service of the king

[no2ticonderoga]

I mean, look, this happened in the same week...you can't tell me this isn't related....

#pjo

[no2ticonderoga]

Wait, so you’re telling me today’s the 4th? What’s next, the 5th? The minor fall? The major lift?

#if i have to have an earworm #so do you

[no2ticonderoga]

#i am so guilty of this

[no2ticonderoga]

Oh, 💯% this is me.

petition to bring back saying "huzzah!" when something goes your way and "alas." when it doesn't

[no2ticonderoga]

i didnt realise ao3 was started in response to lj deleting account relating to p//edophi|ia and they explicitly support the posting of such works yikes

#long but VERY important post about fandom history and censorship and why online fan spaces as we know them today exist as they do #i was there #not a crone though #graybeard? #is that the male equivalent?

[no2ticonderoga]