#Adventures of a Mathematician

[denimbex1986]

If you have not watched Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus yet, there is still time to see it in theaters. A 100-day cinema run is a rarity these days, and the fact Nolan was able to secure it attests to his clout in Hollywood. But brilliant as it is, the film is not without faults, although most will go unnoticed by regular viewing audiences and only miff the worst of nitpickers. But Poles are particularly peeved whenever our contribution to great historical events is erased from the narrative for the sake of pacing.

To set the record straight right from the get-go, this is not intended as a criticism of Nolan’s film. But it is vexing to see the Polish contribution treated like something most easily disposed of when the story needs to be simplified. Even in the old days, when films such as 1969's “The Battle of Britain” and 1977's “A Bridge Too Far” were made, Poles got slightly more respect than Rodney Dangerfield.

Nowadays, we see films such as the 2014 film “The Imitation Game,” which tells the story of Alan Turing and his Bletchley Park team of codebreakers working on cracking the Enigma code. As Dr. Grażyna Żebrowska, an adviser at the Polish embassy in D.C., said of the film, “there was an audible sigh in Polish cinemas when [its] contribution was reduced to just one line.”

But Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski, who broke the code back in 1932 and whose work later allowed Turing to crack successive, more sophisticated versions of the Enigma, were absent from the film, and, after all, it is a film about Turing, not about them. Perhaps they deserve their own film?

Similarly, “Oppenheimer” is a story about none other than Robert Oppenheimer. But with so many characters, many of whom the audience will probably struggle to even remember the names of (those strange foreign names, like Teller, Szilard, Fermi, Bethe, Bohr, Lomanitz, Alvarez, Rabi, and a certain inconspicuous old man named Einstein), it just seems almost deliberate that not once is Stanisław Ulam even mentioned.

There is no point in wallowing in self-pity. If Nolan did not think Ulam was an interesting enough character to include in his picture, let him have his way. In the meantime, here is the story of Stanisław Ulam, who, like Rejewski, Różycki, and Zygalski, probably deserves his own film.

Stanisław Ulam was born on April 13, 1909, in Lviv, modern-day Ukraine, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and known by the Polish name Lwów, or Lemberg in German.

He was the son of Józef and Anna. His father was a lawyer, and the well-off Ulams were assimilated into Polish culture, which is attested to by the fact that Stanisław received a typically Polish name associated with two Polish Roman Catholic saints.

The outbreak of World War I forced the family to leave the city, which fell to the Russians before being retaken by the Central Powers later in the war. His father being a staff officer of the reserve mobilized for the war effort, the family moved around the Habsburg empire during wartime, initially to Vienna and then to Moravská Ostrava in what is now the Czech Republic. It was during that time that Stanisław learned German. But young Ulam did not only have a knack for languages. His mind was definitely mathematically oriented.

Even at a young age, he displayed a genius for numbers and would independently come up with solutions to mathematical problems he encountered before learning about how to solve them later in school. His father initially wanted Stanisław to study law and take over the family business but recognized that his son’s talents lay elsewhere, and ultimately Stanisław Ulam went on to study engineering at the Lviv Polytechnic in 1927.

But it seems that engineering was a bit too practical for him. He would spend more time attending courses in math taught by such great minds as Stefan Banach than engineering classes. Ultimately, he decided to pose himself a challenge: should he successfully solve a yet unsolved mathematical problem, he would abandon engineering in favor of studying mathematics.

After all that we have learned about him, will it be a surprise to anyone that Stanisław Ulam ultimately received his doctorate’s degree in mathematics at just 24?

Lviv was a major hub of what is now called the Polish School of Mathematics, which achieved many breakthroughs in the field during the interwar period. It was a great place for forward-thinking mathematicians, but Ulam thought it unlikely that he would be able to attain a professorship in his home country. Mathematics being a universal language, he therefore went on to lecture abroad, initially in Western Europe and then in the U.S.

Ulam lectured at Princeton and then at Harvard. In the summer of 1939, he briefly returned to Poland to collect his younger brother, Adam, who got into Brown University and went on to become a prominent scholar (philosopher, historian, political scientist, Sovietologist, and Harvard professor) in his own right.

While on their way across the Atlantic, the brothers learned of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact via the wireless and of the German invasion once they arrived in the U.S. Stanisław and Adam would be the only members of their immediate family to survive the war, while the rest perished in the Holocaust.

In 1940, Stanisław Ulam got the post of professor at the University of Wisconsin, where he also met his wife, Françoise Aron, a French student of English literature. Next year, he was also granted U.S. citizenship. With his country of birth under brutal occupation and with the U.S. bracing itself for the inevitability of joining the conflict, Ulam felt a need to contribute to the war effort, but he was turned back by the military on account of his poor eyesight (this was also the case with his brother). But he continued to seek an opportunity to work for the army, and in 1943 he was recommended for the Manhattan Project.

The recommendation came for Hans Bethe, whom you could see in Nolan’s film portrayed by Gustaf Skarsgård (yes, of the Skarsgårds).

To put it in brief, Ulam’s job at Los Alamos entailed him doing the thing he was best at, which was coming up with novel and innovative solutions on how to calculate things that were not even theorized about before. The physicists came up with the theory, and when they stumbled upon a problem, they tasked Ulam with doing the calculations.

As the project was nearing completion, some of the scientists at Los Alamos, including Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller, and Stanisław Ulam, were delegated to a branching out “Super” bomb project, which would eventually evolve into the hydrogen bomb. In essence, a hydrogen bomb uses a nuclear bomb (which operates on the principle of splitting atoms, known as nuclear fission) as a charge to launch the process of nuclear fusion, during which atoms of hydrogen are rammed together with enough power to fuse into atoms of heavier elements. To realize how powerful a reaction that is, you have to do nothing more than look up at the Sun.

In 1945, Ulam was struck by a bout of acute encephalitis but managed to recover following emergency surgery, although he did briefly lose the ability to speak, and he feared that the illness could have adversely influenced his mental faculties. Reportedly, after waking up from the post-surgery coma, he was unable to answer the doctor’s question as to what is the product of adding 13 and 8, but upon being asked what is the root of 20, he answered that it was about 4.4. Ulam’s illness had also caused a brief panic at Los Alamos, one reason being the fear that in his fragile state he might spill some secrets and the other being the supposition that his condition may have been caused by radiation, although this turned out not to be the case.

In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear bomb. Its development was facilitated by several scientists working for the Manhattan Project who were either spies motivated by communist ideas or were morally apprehensive about the imbalance of power caused by only one country being in possession of such a powerful weapon.

Yes, because what could possibly be wrong with the proposition that a balance must be maintained between democracies and genocidal dictatorships by giving the latter access to weapons of mass destruction?

This galvanized the U.S. effort to develop an even more powerful “super” bomb, the hydrogen (or thermonuclear) bomb mentioned earlier. Edward Teller headed the project, but the work appeared to be going nowhere as there was no immediately apparent method to exert enough force on hydrogen atoms to start the fusion reaction. Ever the innovator, Ulam suggested some tweaks to the design, which inspired Teller to change it even further and eventually come up with what eventually became the Teller-Ulam design (or configuration), which the two presented in a classified paper in early 1951. The first thermonuclear bomb was successfully tested the next year.

It is odd that anyone would want to compete for the dubious honor of inventing a weapon with a destructive force thousands of times stronger than the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the only one who appeared to want the honor purely for himself appeared to be Teller, who went so far as to say that Ulam himself never believed in the design and merely signed the paper upon Teller’s request, thinking that otherwise no one would believe in its feasibility.

It is impossible to know the definite truth, as the documentation remains classified even seven decades later, but other people involved in developing the H-bomb credited both Teller and Ulam to a greater or lesser extent equally, and perhaps Hans Bethe put it in the wittiest manner:

“After the H-bomb was made, reporters started to call Teller the father of the H-bomb. For the sake of history, I think it is more precise to say that Ulam is the father, because he provided the seed, and Teller is the mother because he remained with the child. As for me, I guess I am the midwife.”

As for Ulam himself, he claimed in his autobiography titled “Adventures of a Mathematician”, that he believed the development of a weapon so powerful would make the war an impossibility, except if someone made a mistake.

As we know with the power of hindsight, Ulam was a brilliant mathematician but not much of a prophet. Fortunately, thermonuclear weapons have never yet been used in conflict.

And this is the story of Stanisław Ulam up to the point of the development of the hydrogen bomb. Afterward, he returned to academia and lectured at various U.S. universities. In the aftermath of World War II, Poland became part of the Soviet-dominated communist bloc, whereas his city of birth found itself annexed by the Soviet Union and incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. All of his family, except for several cousins, were murdered by the Germans during the Holocaust.

In 1976, the London-based Polish government-in-exile, which, although largely unrecognized internationally, lingered on until communism in Poland finally collapsed and it dissolved itself in recognition of the now-democratically elected authorities in Warsaw, awarded Ulam the Commanders’ Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland’s highest state awards.

Stanisław Ulam died of a heart attack in Santa Fe on May 13, 1984, exactly one month after his 75th birthday. His widow, Françoise Aron Ulam, buried him in her own country, at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, and was laid to rest by his side when she died in 2011.

Their only daughter, Claire Ulam Weiner (1944–2020), served as a consultant when her father’s 1976 autobiography “Adventures of a Mathematician” was adapted on screen by German film director Thorsten Klein with an international cast and crew. The German, Polish, and British co-production was released in early 2020, and Claire could still see the story of her father on screen before she passed away in December of that year.

Yes, that is correct. Stanisław Ulam does actually have a film telling his story. Based on a book he himself penned and filmed with the contribution of his family.

So if you believe that it is possible to make an interesting film about a person such as a physicist or a mathematician (apart from “Oppenheimer” and “The Imitation Game”, there is, after all, “A Beautiful Mind”, the acclaimed film about John Nash starring Russell Crowe), perhaps you might want to give “Adventures of a Mathematician” a go.'

#Oppenheimer #The Imitation Game #A Beautiful Mind #Alan Turing #John Nash #Adventures of a Mathematician #The Manhattan Project #Hans Bethe #Edward Teller #Enrico Fermi #Niels Bohr #Isidor Issac Rabi #Stanislaw Ulam #Princeton #Albert Einstein #Christopher Nolan #Gustaf Skarsgård

[unnonexistence]

still learning R and like... i know piped commands make for nicer & more readable code i knowww... but why take away the brackets!!! i want the brackets back!!!!

#personal #LIKE WHY CANT WE JUST HAVE STUFF ON MULTIPLE LINES LIKE YOU'D DO WITH A FOR LOOP IN C OR WHATEVER #GIVE ME BACK MY BRACKETS #im a mathematician!! i need those!! essential nutrient!!!! #adventures in programming #watch ill find out this is just a personal preference of the guy whose tutorials im watching

[sassmill]

Every time I do an online check in for the doctors office and they make me read educational content about obesity because I am over 209 pounds… I want to enact violence

#a) the concept and application of bmi is incredibly fucked up and was not developed by an actual health professional #it was designed by a mathematician in the 19th century and many physicians have explained why it’s not at all an indicator of health #to say nothing of quality of life #b) I’m like 6 feet tall. my weight is normal for my height. but they don’t factor that in even though they also have that information #they just immediately redirect you to ‘educational content’ the second you click your weight range #this is why I have panic attacks every time I have to go to the doctor #willfully misunderstanding and dismissing my lived experience in this body #some dumb automatic computer shit #if this ortho tells me there’s nothing wrong with my shoulder or tells me to lose weight I’m gonna lose my shit I can tell you that right no #medical adventures

[cappurrccino]

i've identified the biggest hurdle with this one presentation i'm working on, which is that partway into the project i lost interest bc i thought of something that would've been... better? sillier? led to a more interesting output for my presentation?

which like. doesn't necessarily help me get this presentation finished, but. y'know.

#//juri speaks #juri's grad school adventures #it's. coming together. very slowly #still not sold on the title but. i think perhaps i just need to accept that my research aesthetic is #titling things like some old timey mathematician who makes the title an essay in itself

[mirrormazeworld]

Ace's Character Concept Deep Analysis Based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

⚠️WARNING ⚠️ CONTAINS ADVANCED MATH

When "Ace is Traitor" theory suddenly becomes popular because of his birthday card where there is something like the oysters from Alice in Wonderland (that we know is deceived by the Walrus) I suddenly remembered one riddle from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll that I believe is related to Ace (if Yana really did base him on Alice in Wonderland)

For those who have been following me and read my theories so far, you all know that when I do analysis "based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll" there will be high level math so buckle up if you are interested because it'll be a very long post or stay back if you can't stand it.

I'm not a mathematician and is stupid so I'm sorry if my understanding and calculation of math is wrong. If you are an expert at this field you are very welcome to correct and teach me.

Alright everyone, today let's learn Math to find the hidden character concept behind Ace Trappola

The Knave of Heart's Trial

To do a character analysis for Ace we should go back to Heartslabyul chapters because he played an important part in that book : As the "Knave of Hearts" who stole Queen of Heart's tart in "Alice in Wonderland" .

In the original Alice in Wonderland book by Lewis Carroll, Alice's dream of Wonderland ends when the trial of Knave of Hearts suddenly and dramatically collapses like a house of cards. Why? The answer to that is number "42"

And it's interesting how in Twisted Wonderland Yana chose to illustrate this in Heartslabyul book where the dream ends after the cards collapsed which is based on Lewis Carroll's version of Alice in Wonderland rather than the Disney one which Alice was woken up from her dream because of Queen of Hearts and her card soldiers are chasing her to the Wonderland Hall.

You can say that Lewis Carroll's wonderland is the wonderland that's created with base number 42. It begins on the title page with “Forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel.” After descending into Wonderland, Alice encounters an angry Pigeon who protects her nest “night and day” and hasn’t “had a wink of sleep these three weeks.” This gives her egg a hatching period of 21 days +21 nights = 42, or a unit value of(3 × 7 × 2) = 42. There's also the suppression of two guinea pigs in the trial scene. A guinea in English currency has a value of 21 shillings; consequently, the two guinea pigs (or piggy banks) would have a total value of 42 shillings. In the Queen’s rose garden, Alice encounters three gardeners who are animated numbered playing cards. If we add up the card numbers(2 + 5 + 7 = 14), then multiply that by the number of cards(14 × 3), once again we get 42.

And especially at the Knave of Heart's Trial, there are normally fifty-two cards in a deck. However, Carroll has been careful to leave the gardeners (the ten numbered spade cards) out of the procession, with the result that there are exactly 52 – 10 = 42 cards. The King of Hearts also said rule 42 as the oldest rule in the book, since it relates to the mathematical structure of wonderland which creates the Wonderland itself.(Riddle I'm looking forward for you to say rule 42 in the game)

Now let's move on to why number 42 is so important in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Wonderland Multiplication Table

“I’m sure I’m not Ada,” she said, “for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine doesn’t go in ringlets at all; and I’m sure I can’t be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, she’s she, and I’m I, and—oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I’ll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn’t signify: let’s try Geography.

-Alice in Wonderland Chapter 2 : Pool of Tears-

Alice's adventure begins and ends with number 42 as Carroll actually already gave a hint where in Wonderland's great hall at the very beginning of her adventure in wonderland, she recites the multiplication table, but as we see from what she said, it's a system that's suddenly foreign to her. And then she said "The Multiplication table doesn't signify." This is actually a math problem based on scales of notation.

For a normal people, when Alice said "4 x 5 = 12 , 4 x 6 = 13" it might seems like Alice forgets how to do the multiplication because what we know is "4 x 5 = 20, 4 x 6 = 24" but actually it's not that she forgets how to do it. It's because the multiplication table we used to learn in elementary school and is what we usually use in our everyday life is the multiplication table with the base of 10 while she did it with the base of 39

In daily life we usually work with a base of 10 (multiples of 10) such that 1111 becomes ‘one thousand one hundred and eleven’. But in other things like in Computer Science for example, there are other numbering systems that are used besides base of 10, some examples are Binary (Base 2) and Hexadecimal (Base 16)

In binary system , where base is 2 (multiples of 2), (1111)₂ = 15 (8×1+4×1+2×1+1×1). Now I'll explain why it can be this way.

In binary, there are only two possible digits because this binary system only has two characters: 0 and 1. Therefore each digit in a binary number represents a power of 2, starting from the right and increasing by one for each position to the left.

Let's break down the binary number (1111)₂ step by step:

The rightmost digit is 1, and it represents 2^0, which is 1.

The next digit to the left is also 1, and it represents 2^1, which is 2.

The next digit to the left is again 1, representing 2^2, which is 4.

Finally, the leftmost digit is 1, representing 2^3, which is 8.

Now, to find the decimal (base 10) equivalent of this binary number, you add up these values:

1 + 2 + 4 + 8 = 15

So, (1111)₂ in binary is equivalent to 15 in decimal. The expression "(8×1+4×1+2×1+1×1)" represents exactly this process of adding up the powers of 2 to calculate the decimal value of the binary number.

Now I'll give another example in the Hexadecimal numbering system where the base is 16(multiples of 16). I'll explain why (14)₁₆ =20 which makes 4×5=(14)₁₆ (20 represents the value in decimal calculated by adding the powers of the base of the Hexadecimal number system while (14)₁₆ represents the number in Hexadecimal number system itself)

In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, there are 16 possible digits, which include the usual 0-9 digits and the additional A, B, C, D, E, and F, representing the values 10 to 15.

Now to convert the hexadecimal number (14)₁₆ to decimal (base 10) :

The rightmost digit '4' represents 4 in decimal, just like in our regular base 10 system.

The leftmost digit '1' represents 1 in decimal.

Now, to find the decimal equivalent of (14)₁₆, we simply multiply each digit by the corresponding power of 16 and add them together:

(4 * 16^0) + (1 * 16^1) = 4 + 16 = 20

So, (14)₁₆ is equivalent to 20 in decimal. The expression "(4 * 16^0) + (1 * 16^1)" represents this process of converting the hexadecimal number to decimal by calculating the values of each digit and summing them up.

Note : In any number system, including our familiar decimal system and other base systems like binary, hexadecimal, or any base you might encounter, any number raised to the power of 0 is always equal to 1. This is a fundamental mathematical rule that applies universally.

Therefore Mathematically, for any number 'a' in any number system with any base :

a^0 = 1

Now back to Alice in Wonderland, we have to find a base such that 4×5=12 as said by Alice in her multiplication table which is 18 (12)₁₈=20(18×1+1×2).

Alice’s multiplication table goes as :

4×5=(12)₁₈

4×6=(13)₂₁

4×7=(14)₂₄

4×8=(15)₂₇

As we can see the base is increasing by 3. So

4×12=(19)₃₉

And therefore, Alice is reciting the multiplication table with the base of 39.

Now Alice said that she will never reach 20. The value of (20)₄₂=42×2+0×1=84 but 4 times 13 is 52 which implies

4×13≠(20)₄₂

Therefore Alice will never get to twenty.

Once we progress to the 13 times level, to maintain the rule of this system, we must employ base 42. This proves to be fatal and the entire system thereafter collapses.

It's a pun!' the King added in an offended tone, and everybody laughed, 'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

Because of number 42 (as a base number in the Wonderland multiplication system), Alice is right to declare that she will “never get to twenty at that rate.” And neither will the King of Hearts: “ ‘Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.” But like Alice, the King never gets to twenty either. For here we find the fatal number 42 looms up once more, and brings all in Wonderland to a cataclysmic end.

At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his note-book, cackled out “Silence!” and read out from his book, “Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.”

Everybody looked at Alice.

“I’m not a mile high,” said Alice.

“You are,” said the King.

“Nearly two miles high,” added the Queen.

“Well, I shan’t go, at any rate,” said Alice: “besides, that’s not a regular rule: you invented it just now.”

“It’s the oldest rule in the book,” said the King.

“Then it ought to be Number One,” said Alice.

The King turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily. “Consider your verdict,” he said to the jury, in a low, trembling voice.

It is by the authority of Rule Forty-two that the King attempts to expel Alice from the court. Alice disputes this, however, objecting that if Rule Forty-two is the “oldest rule in the book” as the King claims, “then it ought to be Number One.” And with this peculiar logic, she suddenly finds herself capable of overruling the King and Queen of Hearts.

How is this possible? And why, besides the King and Queen, is Alice the only one not ordered executed? Once again, Carroll is playing a word game, this time the word-within-the-word game.

In one example, he suggests that although one may find ink in a drink, it is not possible to find a drink in ink. In another, he explains that one may find love in a glove, but none outside of it.

Consequently, Alice is ultimately able to overrule the King and Queen of Hearts when she discovers her true rank in this game: hidden within the word Alice there is an Ace

When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said severely “Who is this?” She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply.

“Idiot!” said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently; and, turning to Alice, she went on, “What’s your name, child?”

“My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,” said Alice very politely; but she added, to herself, “Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them!”

“And who are these?” said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners who were lying round the rose-tree; for, you see, as they were lying on their faces, and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the pack, she could not tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or three of her own children.

“How should I know?” said Alice, surprised at her own courage. “It’s no business of mine.”

The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed “Off with her head! Off—”

“Nonsense!” said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent.

The King laid his hand upon her arm, and timidly said “Consider, my dear: she is only a child!”

According to the rules of Carroll’s card game Court Circular, in which hearts are trumps, “the Ace may be reckoned either with King, Queen, or with Two, Three.” We are told the numbered heart cards in Wonderland are “the royal children,” which would seem to explain why the King of Hearts initially informs the Queen that Alice “is only a child”—in fact, the youngest child.

However, as an ace, she can choose to switch from the lowest-ranking heart to the highest. When she claims her power as the highest-ranked card in the deck—the Ace of Hearts—her role in Wonderland suddenly shifts from the virtually powerless to the most powerful.

Alice has finally discovered Wonderland’s “rule of processions.” In the ranking of Wonderland’s forty-two-card deck, Alice has become the highest-ranked heart. She has become the fatal number 42 that in the Wonderland multiplication table wrecks the mathematical structure upon which Wonderland is constructed. She overrules the rulers, and claims the power to end her dream. In waking, Alice brings the whole of Wonderland down like a house of cards.

So for those people who suspect "Ace Trappola" might have "Alice" in him, based on this analysis of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, you are correct! 🎉

Conclusions (and Speculations)

Up till now we still don't know Ace's unique magic. I don't know if "Ace is Traitor" theory will turn out to be true but if Yana really created Ace based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, after I did a deep analysis on him I don't think he will betray Yuu. It's more like "he will be the one that makes Yuu realize Twisted Wonderland is just a dream just like how any other Wonderland that we know is". But since Wonderland is "deceptive" itself by its nature, just like any other Wonderland that we know, Yuu might think of Ace as a traitor but in fact he is just telling the truth.

Based on the analysis of Carroll's riddle and Heartslabyul book, my prediction is his unique magic at least capable of doing this :

1. From the weakest become the strongest.

2. Break and collapse a dream/dream world. This can be a dream world made by Malleus or Twisted Wonderland itself, in which he might play an important role in the Diasomnia chapter or NRC/Ramshackle chapter. In my past theory of a way for Yuu to go back home , I put Silver as one of the key characters for Yuu to go back home since he relates more to the quaternion and had ever met Mickey, but I also always think Ace might also play an important role for Yuu to go back home.

Well, what do you think? I look forward to the continuation and revelation of the main story.

Thank you for reading this far and Happy Birthday, Ace! 🎂🎉

#twisted wonderland #twst theory #twst thoughts #twst ace #ace trappola #alice in wonderland #heartslabyul

[strawberry-circus]

I think the fundamental core of what makes BBC’s Ghosts work character-wise is that a lot of the tragedy comes from the fact that nearly every character met their fate before their story could truly begin

Because in most fiction—the part where they died would’ve been the miraculous turning point to some great adventure. The titular unlikely hero would’ve uncovered the big murder plot, or got the girl, or went to the ball, or chased after their love in the pouring rain for one final goodbye (or perhaps a new beginning)

But no.

Kitty’s sister was always cruel to the bitter end. She never found a way to go to parties, never found any kind of true love, and never made a true friend.

Thomas played right into Francis’s trap and was left to die alone. Never knowing about his requited love or getting recognized for his art.

Fanny never became a mathematician or saved the family. She didn’t stay inquisitive and imaginative but instead fell into the mask society made for her. By the end of her life, she was about as alive as the portrait on the wall.

Pat never learned about the affair, never got to see his son grow up, he never strayed from routine or saw his hair go grey. He missed out on so much that is so human. One trick arrow took him out of the world when all he truly wanted was a full and peaceful life.

Humphrey spent his adult life cold and trapped in some unloving marriage. The bone plot happened beneath his nose and before he truly can start a friendship with his wife, or even live his own life, he dies and it’s not even a hero’s death.

The Captain never runs out to Havers, never has the quiet conversation about everything that needed to be said. He watches him go and buries their project beneath the earth like everything else in his life, and he walks away. He never even came out—even to himself. And beyond that, he never found a way to be a person outside of the war.

Julian never has some big epiphany about all the wrongdoings of his life. Never puts any care into his wife or child. Never even recognizes that he has hurt others. Instead, he lived as he died.

Mary was just some pawn in a system she wasn’t allowed to understand. Her skills and talents all went to wish-wash for one reason or another, because the townspeople decided that she was different enough to suffer.

And Robin has been here so long there’s no telling why he isn’t allowed to move on. What was unsaid or untold to hold him here? All he has is endless time to hold onto.

Because that’s what this story is about. This isn’t about the heroes who saved the day or escaped by the skin of their teeth from some huge tragedy. This story is about the side characters who are nothing more than a footnote in history. Their deaths aren’t some big climax in a film or the answer to some big question. Because for most, death is random and unforgiving, it doesn’t wait for the right moment or hit the right people at the right time. It comes for everyone when it wants to, and it leaves a hole that will be paved around their absence.

A lot of what keeps the ghosts here is a million things that were left unsaid. Countless years of untapped potential, the would’ve’s, could’ve’s, and shouldn’t have.

But here’s the thing,

All of them keep moving forward. They all found each other one way or another, and now are finding support systems that just weren’t available to them in life. Now it’s not the most stable support system by any means, (see the murder plots and general set propriety of never talking about feelings ever) but they’re improving slowly! They’re stuck as flies on the wall to the living world but they make the best of it.

And with Alison and Mike added into the mix, their worlds are just growing brighter. And sure, they wouldn’t dare to talk to each other about their true feelings. That would be ridiculous. But they’ll be damned if you want to fuck over any of their weird found family. In a lot of ways, the ghosts seem to help Alison avoid the same mistakes they made. (even if they don’t always have her best interests at heart.)

They’ll try and call the police about a robbery, get Mike’s attention through frankly inventive ways, and thoroughly investigate any new people that come into the house like dogs barking at strangers.

And the soft way they all help each other in such obtuse manners. While they snipe and laugh at one another, there’s this underlying caring attitude they have about it all. From interrupting or distracting Kitty when she’s about to uncover something about her past, to spending all day looking for Fanny’s stuffed dog, to Robin’s moon rituals, or Pats clubs, or even the way they simply allow Captain the space to work out his feelings from time to time.

They were never the heroes of their stories in their lifetimes, but it doesn’t mean that they never had value. They’re just as sweet, wonderful, and annoying as any other human on this planet. And I think it’s that combination of heart and tragedy that truly highlights the comedy in Ghosts.

#bbc ghosts #thomas bbc ghosts #pat bbc ghosts #kitty bbc ghosts #julian bbc ghosts #captain bbc ghosts #fanny bbc ghosts #mary bbc ghosts #robin bbc ghosts #humphrey bbc ghosts

[borzoilover69]

hi borzoi what do u think of a fight club dirkjake au if uve seen the movie. pls it would fit them so well PLEASE

i went and watched fight club again with @marioyuri specifically because of this art (btw dirkjakers i am always down for movie nights) and i had a think about it and while the idea of dirk or jake being the tyler durden of the other, or Dirk with Hal being tyler durden, i think it works best with Harley and English.

Obviously Marla would be Dirk in this situation. Nothing like a suicidal beau for this story. But Harley as Tyler Durden makes me feel so insane. Like Grandpa Harley is the BEEEST version of Jake. Multimillionaire, Adventurer, Mathematician, etc etc. All that damn achievement why WOULDNT jake want to be him soo bad. So great. So awesome. Especially with jakes pension for very REAL brainghosts.

Harley and Jake. Could work so well AAAUGH.

#jake english #asks #borzoi talks #dirk strider

[thevalleyisjolly]

Some Eärendil and Elwing headcanons because I love them:

It took a long time for Eärendil to start singing again after Gondolin, and it was mostly sea shanties and Mortal tunes.  Only in private and only with Elwing (and later, his sons) would he sing in Quenya the songs of his childhood in Gondolin.

When Elwing was 12, she decided that she wanted to be a great seafaring explorer and sail all the way around Middle-earth.  Her hopes were rather harshly dashed when she stepped foot on a ship to pay Círdan a short visit on Balar and discovered that she suffered from terrible motion sickness.  Eärendil gallantly vowed to go on the adventures instead and come back to tell her all about them.

Elwing is just a little bit taller than Eärendil.  He quite likes it, even though it’s not a very great difference.

Eärendil is fantastic at sewing, and has a good eye for embroidery as well.  When he has downtime on Vingilot, he creates beautiful patterns and designs on tunics, handkerchiefs, shawls.  The crew of Vingilot was the most well-outfitted crew to ever sail the Sundering Seas, and he’d always make sure to bring back little embroidered patches with scenes from his voyages, which first Elwing and then the twins would add onto an ever-growing quilt.

Elwing learned how to make lembas from Idril, but for Eärendil’s journeys, she bakes him hardtack in the Mortal fashion.  He likes to make “pudding” out of it with sugar and water.

Elwing loves math, and is very good at it.  By the time she was ten, she could do complex calculations in her head in a matter of seconds that Elven scholars thousands of years her senior would need several minutes and a writing surface to do.  She didn’t have the time or resources to seriously study it while she was in Middle-earth, but in Aman, she does a correspondence course with one of the universities in Alqualondë and promptly has to deal with a whole hoard of mathematicians coming from all over the Blessed Realm to her tower wanting to learn from her.

In their own home, they speak a mixture of Quenya, Sindarin, and Taliska with each other.  They also have a secret written code that they came up with as children, which they leave little love notes for each other in.

Neither of them have ever learned to ride a horse.  Eärendil has fuzzy memories of being put on his grandfather’s saddle for a gentle trot when he was young and the Gondolindrim assure him that he once briefly had a pony, but there were very few steads or mounts at Sirion. Frankly, both of them find horses a little bewildering.

The twins were a surprise because they’d been aiming for triplets.  Mostly just to see if that was even possible, and also because neither of them had ever been pregnant before and didn’t truly understand what it would be like to carry and birth triplets.

Despite the harps of gold they brought to him, Eärendil does not actually play the harp very well.  He’s not fond of wearing white either because he thinks it’s too hard to keep clean.  Elwing looks very good in white, but it’s a mourning colour and she generally prefers warmer yellows and oranges.

Eärendil’s favourite colour is the soft silver of Elwing’s hair, and Elwing’s favourite colour is the warm gold of Eärendil’s hair.  Their favourite wedding present was a tapestry woven by some of Idril’s ladies depicting the intermingled light of Telperion and Laurelin in those exact shades.

Elwing is a vegetarian.  Eärendil isn’t, mostly for practical reasons onboard a ship with limited supplies, but is happy to eat vegetarian when he’s at home.  The real challenge at mealtimes came from Elros being a picky eater and Elrond having a seafood allergy.

There is an outdoor bathhouse at Elwing’s tower because Silmaril glitter is absolutely impossible to get rid of once it’s in the house.  The grout in the tiling there has become permanently shiny, despite their combined best efforts at scrubbing.

#lotr #silmarillion #elwing #earendil #starwing #long post

[sam-glade]

Writeblr Intro

Hi! My name is Sam (they/them), and I write SFF.

About me:

I'm queer, in my late 20s, and I live in Europe.

Pets? Two cats + 1 orange braincell

Favourite food? Please don't make me choose.

What I write? Hard fantasy with excessive worldbuilding

Favourite books? The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. The Traitor by Seth Dickinson. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Uprooted by Naomi Novik.

Fiction I probably won't enjoy? Romance. Middle grade. Most High School YA. It's just not my cup of tea.

Outside of writing? I'm a mathematician-turned-programmer who wishes they've gone into a more creative career

Silmarillion blog: @ward-of-irmo

Personal blog: @careening-mind

Read all the snippets I've posted under this tag.

DMs/Asks/Tag games? Yes, please

This blog is a mix of things related to my writing, from snippets, through info dumps, to historical trivia and inspirations for the setting. Also, cats.

I'm happy to do beta swaps.

About my writing:

Expect themes of found family, battling inner demons, finding one's identity and strength. But also, superpowered sword fights and epic locations. Don't expect romance front and centre, and don't expect characters who are minors. Most of my characters are openly queer; I enjoy seeing people I can identify with partake in fantasy adventures, without their identities being a burden.

I write multi-POV stories, 3rd person only. I'm not that keen on seemingly unrelated POVs coming together, but I love seeing group interactions through the eyes of a different person each time.

I like turning 'what if' questions into stories - what if the Chosen One was chosen by the villain? What if a Bronze Age civilisation experienced a first contact with an alien race? What would crime-scene investigation look like in a setting where people turn to dust upon death? I also love learning, and I learn by researching random areas that are tangentially related to my writing projects.

Are my fantasy settings too realistic? Maybe. Am I having fun writing it? Definitely.

About my WIPS:

The Sunblessed Realm

Hard fantasy, queernorm setting inspired by Slavic folklore and the history of Central-Eastern Europe. The age of heroes has passed. The heroes remain alive.

A list of all stories and longer snippets in this setting that I've posted.

Days of Dusk trilogy [Tag]

Swords used to be the protectors of the world, channelling the power of the Elements to fight against the Primeval Darkness. Now that the threat is contained, they are perceived as a danger themselves. Their powers are feared, while any advantages they can give are made up for with developments in science.

Info dump posts: Map || Magic system || Fashion || Architecture || Cast

⚔️Gifts of Fate ⚔️

Intro post || [Tag]

The Witcher x Fullmetal Alchemist

Genre: NA hard fantasy

Pitch: The hero was chosen by the villain to become might incarnate. With all due respect, he'd like to decline.

Expect gratuitous superpowered HEMA fight scenes mixed with fridge horror.

Progress: First Draft done at 107k, beta readers' feedback received

⚔️The Prince's Shadow⚔️

Intro post || [Tag]

NA military fantasy.

The hero of the first instalment was deemed to dangerous to live or be killed. The Army's spymaster and the Chief Strategist set him up to die a hero's death.

Note: This was the first story I've written in this setting, with the pitch being 'the hero has just saved the world and needs to figure out what to do with his life'. It has evolved a fair bit since then.

Progress: Needs rewriting, now that the prequel is written.

⚔️Prodigal Children⚔️

[Tag]

Political fantasy.

The last - the only - war fought by Swords took place two millennia ago, and the memory of its horrors kept the princes motivated to stop it from happening ever again. When an uprising in one of the princedoms spills over the borders, it again becomes a real threat.

Now with more intrigue and sapphic romance.

Progress: First Draft done at 128k

To do: I've got feedback to incorporate

The Truth Teller [Tag]

Intro post

Urban fantasy version of the Eastern Bloc.

Three thousand years later, the heroes of the previous stories have passed into legends. There are no more Swords to protect, Crystals to heal, or Elemental Dancers to mend and build. There are only Knacked, shunned by the society.

Progress: Outline done, writing started.

Other

The Fulcrum

First Contact Sci-Fi from the point of view of the alien species. While their civilisation is comparable to early Iron Age ones on Earth, don't worry, they have nukes.

Progress: First Draft - 24k/100k

To do: more research

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writing #writers of tumblr #writeblr community

[stevebattle]

Playskool Adventurer by Gene Oldfield (1979), Robot Repair, Sacramento, CA. This mobile, programmable, personal robot includes a sonar sensory system, and is adapted from a 6 wheel battery operated ride-on toy, the Playskool Adventurer (second image), with a rugged body shell made of fiberglass. “Gene Oldfield, mathematician, phycisist and teacher at a Sacramento area university is a happy home-robot tinkerer. His fascination with robotics goes back to the late 1950s. “It was intriguing to see mechanical rats like the ones in the Living Brain running around. That inspired me,” Oldfield said.” – Robot hobbyist: inspired since late 50s, InfoWorld, November 8, 1982.

The computer controlling the robot is most likely the 1978 Netronics ELF II featuring the 8 bit RCA 1802 microprocessor.

#cybernetics #robot #RobotRepair #1979

[rlyehtaxidermist]

so apparently Sonic Adventure 2 Battle has what I assume is an editorial error, referring to the Ark as a "Bernoulli sphere".

presumably this is meant to be Bernal sphere, an actual proposed style of space habitat (albeit an early and rather impractical one), but I am choosing to believe that in the Sonic timeline, 18th century mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli (or maybe one of his relatives the Bernoullis got around) dabbled in spacecraft

[zafirosreverie]

You’re just messing with me (Ian x Reader)

for @thedirtfarmerswife hope you like it

_______________________

“Three” you whispered, making the man beside you laugh.

You met Ian in college. You had been trying to be a mathematician for a couple of semesters until you discovered your true calling as an environmentalist and changed careers.

Still, you kept your friendship with the man and it was always a constant competition between you, from who could exempt the most subjects to who could get a doctorate first. It was fun and in the long run, it helped you keep to your goals.

Over time, people learned to think of the two of you as a kind of package deal: you asked for one, you got the other, and even your mutual friends stopped inviting you both, assuming one would invite the other anyway (which was true, but that was another story).

That was the reason you were here: in Jurassic Park. From the moment you'd picked up the phone and heard Ian's voice, you knew there was a promise of adventure, and by the time he finished explaining his purpose on the island, you'd already started packing.

It was a pleasant trip, despite Dr. Grant's obvious dislike for Ian and his sense of humor (although you suspected it was more about his blonde companion than your brunette one).

Ellie was adorable and you quickly struck up a conversation with her, discussing plants and endangered species, you felt like she was someone you could go for a cup of coffee with after a day at the office.

“Four” he said, taking you out of your thoughts

You rolled your eyes in loving exasperation and subtly looked around. Ever since Hammond had started his tour, you started making a mental list of all the things you didn't agree with that could have a negative impact on the planet.

So far, you had counted three, and you had barely been walking for five minutes. You looked some more but didn't find anything that could merit another mark, so you frowned at your friend. He just smiled at you.

"You're just messing with me" you accused

"Isn't that my job?" he said

You playfully slapped his arm and the two of you chuckled softly before walking off with the rest of the group. If anyone noticed the way you clung to his arm, they had the decency not to meddle in other people's business.

_____________________________________

"I hate this island, I hate those overgrown lizards, I hate Hammond and I hate you!" you yelled as you frantically searched for a bottle of alcohol or gauzes.

"I understand the other three, but why me?"

"You brought me here!"

"No, I invited you and you accepted, you could have said no!"

"And then what would you have done? You would be food in the stomach of a T-rex" you said

"No, I'd have both my legs working, because I wouldn't have had to save you" Ian growled "or did you already forget how you ran to that car?"

"I HAD TO HELP THE CHILDREN!" you shouted

"ALAN SAID TO STAY STILL AND NOTHING WOULD HAPPEN!"

"Oh, now we're listening to Alan?!" you said sarcastically "You don't even like him"

"I'll listen to whoever helps me get you out of here alive!"

You stopped dead in your tracks and froze in place at that. You heard Ian sigh behind you and from the way the metal clanged, you knew he had lain back fully before you even turned to him.

For a moment, you didn't say anything, you just watched him. His features were the same ones you knew by heart, the ones you sometimes dreamed of in the middle of the night and that would make you wake up flushed and unable to even call him. But there was something about him that was different.

Maybe it was the obvious tiredness on his face, the defeat in his posture, the fear in his voice...or maybe it was the way the sparkle in his eyes had changed, the way he saw you now as if you were the only thing that mattered.

"I'm really sorry I brought you" he said after a while "I'm so sorry"

"No, I...I'm sorry" you said, sitting carefully on the edge of the table, taking care not to hurt him more "I shouldn't have yelled at you, I shouldn't have taken out my frustration on you, I'm sorry"

"You're scared" Ian said as if that explained and redeemed everything.

"Of course I am" you said "we all are. There are damn dinosaurs out there"

"Yeah, I know that" he rolled his eyes "...but it's not the lizards that scare me" he whispered, more to himself than to you

"Excuse me?" you frowned "Are you worried about being allergic to the flowers on the island?" you said sarcastically

"Well, one of your marks was that there were invasive species here, wasn’t it?" he raised his eyebrow, smiling a little when you snorted and rolled your eyes.

However, he turned serious again when he carefully took your hand. You tried not to flinch too much at the warmth of his palm against yours, but from his slight smile, you knew he had felt it anyway.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to get you out of here" he admitted quietly "that the helicopter won't arrive on time"

"It will arrive" you interrupted "soon you will be on a stretcher and we will get you out of here. We will both leave"

"I don't care if I leave or not" Ian admitted.

"what are you talking about?"

"If something happens to me, at least I'll go knowing that you lived"

"Don't get cheesy now Malcolm" you said, trying to lighten the mood and swallow the lump in your throat "it doesn't fit you"

"Liar, you know everything fits me" he smiled "...but I'm serious. The most important thing for me is knowing that you got out of here safe and sound"

"Why?" you whispered "are you afraid of losing the only person who can kick your ass?"

"I am afraid of losing the only one who makes my life worth living"

You gasped a little and looked into his eyes, searching for any trace of mockery or lies, but found none. Human is like that, sometimes it is necessary that the risk of losing everything is present so that the heart can be heard. And yours was definitely listening to his.

"You're just messing with me" you whispered

"Isn't that my job?" he said

You smiled and rested your forehead on his. You weren't good with words, but they weren't necessary at the time. There were two hearts talking while you and Ian were just witnesses.

#reader insert #x reader #ian malcolm #ian malcolm x reader #ian malcolm imagine #ian malcolm preference #jurassic park imagine #jurassic park x reader #jurassic park #request

[lemonysnicket]

adventures in bookbinding: making the negret colophon playing card book!

it's diy girl summer and i am Bored. time to attempt a completely new craft with zero research except for like. 3 youtube videos!

so, to start off, i suppose i will ramble a wee bit about my plans/goals/reasoning. truth be told, i just really really like my blorbo who book binds and i think it would be very fun to become Just like him for real. therefore we will be embarking on a journey!! to become my blorbo and also find something crafty to do today. quick psa that this is not a real tutorial because i have absolutely zero experience, but more of a general guide and/or craft with me! let's do this in sectionssss!!

1 - the plan!!

so for my first bookbinding project we are going to do something small, starting out by being silly and taking a page (lol) out of negret colophon's book (lol....) when he makes a tiny book and uses two playing cards as the covers. this will give me a little tiny trial run so i can learn the basic skills and use easily available materials around my house!! afterwards i think i'll sketch out a more ambitious journal idea - i have lots of fabric lying around that would work perfectly to cover a cardboard cover. wow, that's wordy! so! without further ado let's begin :) negret's little bookbinding project is described in the first chapter of raconteurs in this little excerpt here.

seems simple enough!! also the absolute perfect beginner project. it is tiny and the materials consist of Literally Anything. let's get groovy!!

2. materials!!

here's what we're working with:

playing cards! i found a deck lying around in a random drawer somewhere and chances are you have one laying around too. i chose the ace of spades and diamonds, because the text specifies a pair of aces but i couldn't find a matching pair, lol. i was also very tempted to choose one of the king cards as an homage to maisie's story later on (and because the king cards are absolutely gorgeous and detailed) but we're sticking to canon right now. we'll use the other cards for a future project.

needles!! a lot of the tutorials i see use very big or thick needles but i don't have those and this is also a very small project, not a huge journal, so any can work.

thread!! use whatever color you would like! at this point i was very indecisive because i have a lot of options and they're all quite pretty colors, but i settled on red later.

an assortment of papers!! use literally whatever you have lying around. for me, i managed to dig up the one scrap of newspaper in my house, since that's specifically listed, but most of my pages were from a book i sacrificed for an old art project, magazines and flyers, a lot of which were college mail because we're at that point in my life, lol. this is a recycling sort of project. choose anything! the more variety the better :)

i didn't display these in the photo, but if you have an awl, use an awl! i do not have one so i improvised, which i'll elaborate upon later. also, scissors! to cut the pages to scale. a ruler also came in handy :)

alright, now that we have all our tools in order, it's time to get into it :)

3. creating the pages!!

our first step is to measure our playing cards! you might not have to do this step because i'm fairly certain most cards are uniform in size/make, but check just in case, lol.

my cards measured to be 2.5" wide and 3.5" tall. i am no mathematician but using my singular brain cell i deduced that the papers should be twice the width of our cover, since those will fold to be the same size. so, using my Expert calculations, i made a little template cut from an index card measuring 3.5" x 5".

now we get to cutting!! using your various materials, cut out a bunch of papers to the size of your template. i just cut around it because i could not be bothered enough to waste time tracing, lol. i didn't go in with a plan, but i cut 16 papers to this size, which ended up being perfect. here are all my pages !! look at all the colors and textures!! the fun thing about the project being so small is that you can specifically cut the pages as the most interesting photos or sections, or you can even do it at angles too. as long as it ends up the right size, anything is fair game

now, we're going to make the papers into signatures! i just learned this word today lol. essentially, we will be grouping our papers and then folding those in half to become little mini books/pages. since i had 16 papers, i made 4 signatures with 4 pages each.

at this point i was tempted to go cut up more and make a fifth signature, but i decided against it since i didn't want the book to become too thick, and 4 sets with 4 papers each ended up being just about right. one of the tutorials i watched suggested that you group your signatures with paperclips or bobby pins, and at the time i waved off the suggestion but i totally agree now. i didn't have any clips to work with and i managed fine without them, but it definitely would have been easier if i had. so if you have them, use them! it'll make your life better lol. at this point you can stack your signatures together and itll look like a book!

oh yeah now we're cooking!!

4. preparing for binding!!

it was at this point in the process where i ventured out from knowing what i was doing to completely balling, but everything turned out okay and i'll walk you through it! our next step is to create the holes with which we will sew our signatures together. we're going to mark those off. once again i have zero clue how to do math but i managed to use my giant incredible smooth brain one more time to mark my template with a few equidistant points with which we can mark our signatures.

in case it's not clear, i kind of just counted the lines and then had to look up how much that was, but you can also just eyeball it if you're good enough. side note, i added two more holes after this, with one just below the very top and one just below the very bottom.

pardon my very unsightly nails, lol - here's how i used my template to mark the very center of each of my signature. you'll want to mark the point on the center line where you folded it while keeping the pages of each signature together. HOPEFULLY WITH A PAPERCLIP. and without further ado it's time for the stabbing!

now...here's where i got a little bit sacrilegious. you'll recall that earlier i mentioned how i don't have an awl in my possession yet? well, i managed to improvise a solution...

yes that is a sewing pin. IN MY DEFENSE it's all i had, and functionally it's basically the same as an awl! just on a much smaller scale. it worked out though - i imagine that if i'd been using thicker paper it would have posed a bit of a problem but for this project specifically, it was fine. do not kill me book binders. now it's time to get serious...

5. the binding

everyone stay calm! stay calm! it will be okay. i was lowkey intimidated by this part as this was Truly out of my depth of expertise, but i promise it's not that complicated. you're going to get your needle and thread now - i settled upon this gorgeous red color because it contrasted nicely with the playing cards, and there really wasn't much red in the papers i chose.

gorgeous!! tbh i always knew i'd go with the red because i've always envisioned the book with red thread anyways. like come on look at my very first drawing of negret WITH it. literally the exact same materials. i simply had to.

okay. now to the binding part. i don't have any real photos or insights or instructions for this whole stage because 1. i was deep in focus mode and 2. entirely relied on a tutorial for this part. here's the tutorial i used - massive shoutout to this lovely lady ! my spine didn't turn out nearly as neat as hers because i did not properly follow directions for the first bunch of knots (and i had to kind of improvise with the cover) but here's how it turned out!

not too bad for my first book, lol. try not to stress out about it being perfect because this book is not supposed to be perfect! the imperfections give it character. worst case scenario, if you really mess up, your eclectic book is just a little more eclectic than intended. and that's never a crime :)

now the one problem i had to figure out on my own was how to attach the covers, since most tutorials explain how to attach actual big separate covers and not - essentially paper. i ended up just... attaching them as if they were another page or signature to the front and back. my holes on the covers were a few millimeters away from the edge, though, since there's no crease or fold to align them with. what i did was essentially do the first knots/stitching on the signature like the tutorial said, but for each hole i sewed through in the first/last signature, i also made an additional loop through the adjacent hole on the cover. you can kind of see how i passed my needle through like instructed and then took a little extra detour to stitch the card as well. in some places i ended up making new holes in the signature too that were closer to where the cards' holes lined up?? try not to do that but it worked and it looks fine so really whatever makes it attach and hold is perfect.

6. bask in your glory!!!

aaaand that's it!! you did it!! this was a ton of fun to work on and i absolutely loved making this little adventure into a new craft with something so near and dear to my heart. if you make one please be sure to tag me!! i would love love LOVE to see :) here's an additional picture of my little monster (+ next to the legend himself. art credit to me lol. look the books are twinning!!)

#the raconteurs commonplace book #raconteurs commonplace book #green glass house #nagspeake #roaming world #uhhhh #bookbinding #book binding #genuinely i dont know if those are separate words or not. either way LDJKGLHSDJG #crafts #crafting #arts and crafts #yippee this was actually so much fun #to quote alex of vfdiscord fame “the self blorbofication of quill” #it's too late i'm in too deep i'm literally him now #quill crafts

[irenewsky]

Anime I watched in 2023 (Part 2)

If you came here from the part 1, I thank you and I appreciate you. Now, this part of the list will include some shows I wanted highlight and some extras. Okay, that's it. Let's go!

Some of my older lists:

My favourite animes (Old. Tells of my tastes back in, like, 2018-2020 or something. Updated list coming once I get around to it)

Feel good anime Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Blue Lock

Yoichi Isagi is a member of his high school’s soccer team and during one of their important games, he makes a decision that costs their team a chance of going to the nationals. Bitter and disappointed, Isagi returns home only to find a letter from the Japan Football Union waiting for him. He has been chosen to be a candidate for a new projects called ”Blue Lock”. The competition is tough and ruthless. Who will make it through to the end?

24 episodes - sports

Everyone and their mother watched this one for sure. I might hate irl soccer due to finding it extremely boring (sorry irl soccer fans), but this one I really liked due to it making the sport actually interesting for me. I gotta also say that I found their eyes kinda unsettling when they entered their ”monster modes” (I can not say that with a straight face lol) but other than that, the animation was quite good.

Moriarty the Patriot

In the late 19th century Britain, William James Moriarty and his accomplices with nobles’ blood on their hands work together on a grand plan to bring down the system that favours aristocracy. A mathematician by day and a crime consultant by night, William James Moriarty is about to meet his match - one gentleman called Sherlock Holmes.

24 episodes and 2 OVAs - drama, thriller, mystery

Love me some more victorian era Sherlock Holmes shenanigans. I was so late to this one but it was still so worth the watch (and the read. The manga is just *chef’s kiss*)

*Mastermind by Taylor Swift playing in the distance* Honestly, imagine meeting you soulmate (platonic or otherwise) and them being on the completely other side of law from you. The drama of it all. (Yes, I’m very normal about these two)

Dr. Stone (Season 3 + Nanami Ryuusui Extra)

Over 3700 years ago, a mysterious beam of light enveloped every human into a layer of stone. To stay conscious, Ishigami Senku started to count seconds from the moment he was petrified. When he manages to break free from the stone in the spring of the year 5738, the human civilisation as he knew it had already disappeared. What will happen from now on? What will happen to rest of the petrified people? Are there others who have depetrified?

3 seasons + Nanami Ryuusui extra - action, adventure, comedy, drama, sci-fi, shonen

You will find this anime/manga on my updated favourites list, I’m warning you in advance.

I love, love, love this anime so much. It follows the manga so well and yes, I do recommend the manga for anyone interested. It’s really, really good and didn’t let me down unlike some others have. Also, it’s so refreshing to have a main character who is actively very much uninterested in sex and romance. How aro and ace of him (personal headcanon, no need to fight me for it)

BRB gonna go make myself a Gen Asagiri cosplay. My favourite scheming gremlin.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl!

Tomo is a high school girl with a crush on her long time bestfriend, a boy named Junichiro. She tries to confess to him but unfortunately she has been placed into the friendzone from where it seems almost impossible to escape from. With Tomo being very tomboyish and physically strong, it’s just hard for Junichiro to see her as a girl. Will she get out of the friendzone? Maybe she should get some help from her other friends…

13 episodes - romance, comedy

I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did. ’Childhood bestfriends to lovers’ trope with a healthy sprinkling of pining, chaos and ridiculousness. Delicious.

Romantic Killer

Anzu, a high school girl obsessed with video games, cats and chocolate and fully uninterested in romance, gets assigned a wizard that is going to do everything in their power to create the perfect love life for her. Anzu, however, is having none of it. Game on, you stupid wizard!

12 episodes - comedy, romace, supernatural

I kind of have a lot to say about this one, so buckle up. As an aroace person (who also, coincidentally, loves cats, chocolate and video games) I found the premise a bit annoying at first. I do love, well, love, but it pissed me off that romance was treated as an ”end all, be all” kind of thing and everything else as irrelevant rubbish. Trying to force someone into a relationship via magical means felt wrong. You could say I’m reading too much into this and yes, maybe I am, seeing as the premise was a ”to counteract the low birth rates” gag, but I’m also entitled to my own opinion and critiquing hetero- and amatonormativity.

Regardless, I ended up actually quite liking the anime as it progressed. The backstories for the characters were interesting and I found myself really loving Anzu’s headstrong personality. She doesn’t let the wizard push her around and stands her ground quite often. I really appreciated that. Also the humour in the show did make me laugh quite often, which is always a plus. That being said, I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to whack the wizard around the ears. Annoying little thing, that one is.

Sasaki and Miyano

Yoshikazu Miyano, the schools resident BL loving student, meets his senpai named Shuumei Sasaki after he saves Miyano’s classmate from being bullied. This chance encounter and Miyano accidentally revealing his interest towards BL bring the two together and from that day onwards Sasaki is stuck to him like glue.

13 episodes and an OVA - Romance (BL), drama

My VPN worked its ass off when I read this manga on some shady ass website lmao. I just had to know what happens after the point where the anime ends.

Very sweet. Do recommend.

The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting

Kirishima Toru works for the Sakuragi family. One day the head of the yakuza crime family summons him and tasks him with the duty of taking care of his daughter, Yaeka. How will this ”demon of Sakuragi” handle his new responsibility of watching over her?

12 episodes - comedy

This filled the hole in my heart that Spy x Family ending left at the time. Really heartwarming and I loved the bonds the characters in this show had.

The Salaryman’s Club

Shiratori Mikoto is really good at badminton. That is until an incident in the Interhigh leaves him unable to play how he wants to. Things start to change when he gets a job at Sunlight Beverages and joins their weak and amateurish badminton team.

12 episodes - sports

I saw no one talk about this??? Anyway, I liked this one. A lot. There might a little bias on my side since I actually practiced badminton when I was younger, but I think I would have liked this regardless! The characters had nice dynamics and liked the aspect of ’salarymen by day, badminton players by night’. Have you even lived if you haven’t experienced the highs and lows of corporate world badminton?

And finally, we have a few honorable mentions without descriptions, only vibes and opinions:

Latest season of Tokyo Revengers (Chifuyu truly is the bestest of boys, the homiest of homies. I also read the manga in its entirety. That one I have… a lot of opinions about, not all of them good)

Our Dating Story: the Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me (this one was just okay for me. I actually don’t know if I ever finished it… Well, I’m gonna have to accept the fact that I’m just not someone who enjoys the ’established relationship’ trope…)

Trigun Stampede (I’m not usually scifi kind of person but this one I really enjoyed!)

Komi Can’t Communicate (Not much to say about this one. It was very nice and I particularly liked the way Tadano almost seemed like he was able to read minds hahaha)

The latest season of Demon Slayer (Honestly, a little disappointed. It felt simultaniously very slow and very fast. Also, kinda boring compared to the last arcs. Still decent tho)

Spy x Family (Ah, Spy Family, my beloved. I liked this one a lot)

Chainsaw Man (Gotta admit, I was a little traumatized by the episode 7. I have never wanted to crawl out of my own skin more while watching anime, than I did while watching that episode. The skipping and pausing I had to do with that one… Damn. Other than that one episode, I liked this one enough to finish it)

My Dress-Up Darling (mixed feelings about this one. I just wanted a nice anime about cosplay and sewing and ended up getting fanservice and sexualization of minors. I’m in my mid to late 20s, I don’t need that shit. Just feels weird and wrong. I did finish it, albeit I did skip all the fanservicey scenes)

#yes I say ’soccer’. I was taught british english in school so deal with it #blue lock #moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #dr. stone #tomo chan is a girl! #romantic killer #sasaki to miyano #yakuza’s guide to babysitting #kumichou musume to sewagakari #the salaryman’s club #iida’s anime recommendations #iida’s 2023 anime recap #iida watches anime #anime recommendation #thanks to those who have made these gifs!

[clickerflight]

The Adventurers are hard to capture, but there are a few times they have spent long periods of time in captivity.

Don't let her fool you. Anisha may be small and blind, but her shrinking form is only an act. She will put you flat on your back before you can get through with your threats.

Kira is only slightly handicapped by her missing prosthetic, making do with whatever she has at her disposal. Still, she'll leave any fighting to her teammates while she plans their escape.

A genius and mathematician outside of danger, king of the yard inside any prison. Most people don't dare mess with Laurance when they catch a glimpse of his scars, though.

Matsu is mouthy and bitey, his only saving grace being his skills as a surgeon. Still, he tends to get into the most trouble of the group, relying on his quick healing to keep him on his feet.

Honestly, this was mostly an excuse to draw these for with longer shaggier hair and in rags.

#whump art #prison whump #the adventurers #scars #I had so much fun with this #I should draw and write about adventurer whump more often #I adore them

[zodiactalks]

These Zodiac Signs are BAD at MATH

Yes, we know that math is not many people's cup of tea. There are some who simply have other interests to pursue, and others who don't want to waste time doing calculations in their head.

But beyond those, there is another category. There are certain Zodiac Signs that no matter how hard they try, they can't be good at math! It doesn't matter if it's when giving an exam or simply when going to buy gum at the supermarket.

Afraid you're on the list? Then read on and find out for yourself.

#1. Pisces

Pisces could be considered the sworn enemies of Math. These signs are very perceptive to other dimensions and intuitive premonitions. Now, if you ask them to explain something logical or rational, you've lost them! It's hard for them to sit down and reason out those math problems shown on the board, but not only that! Even doing a simple math problem like estimating the time to go from home to work is a nightmare for these fanciful signs.

#2. Sagittarius

Sagittarians loathe wasting time studying, especially Math. Why stay cooped up in a room counting numbers when you can be out searching for new adventures? Perhaps they could become good at math, but if they can't sit still for more than 5 minutes, what's the point? In the meantime, they will continue to flunk and push this course away from their exciting lives.

#3. Aries

Aries also prefers to go outside, enjoy the sun, and practice sports rather than studying math. They tend to get the best grades in gymnastics and constantly fail in this area. Later on, they avoid studying topics such as accounting or engineering, no matter how much their parents ask them to! They know they don't have the desire or the patience to sustain that career for so long.

#4. Cancer

Cancer is not a lover of logic. They like literature, music, and art and their interests lie in these subjects. When it comes to solving financial matters in their business, they always call someone else who knows how to do the math better. If they were to try it, they would be very insecure about their mental calculations, no matter how many times they go over it. So, they skip that step and directly contact an expert to take care of it.

#5. Taurus

The thing about Taurus is that they don't like to strain their minds too much. They take a long time to solve math problems, for until they are sure that everything is correctly done, they do not dare to give a result.

This ends up greatly demotivating them and they neglect this field before developing a good understanding of it. Maybe if they make an effort, they will become good mathematicians, but for now, they prefer to dedicate their time to cooking or drinking.

#6. Leo

Leo prefers to use their wit and charisma in artistic and social pursuits. Math does not involve wearing a nice outfit, sharing with friends, or going out dancing. So they never practice it and, for lack of habit, end up being very weak at it. They also feel they don't need it since the calculator on their cell phone will be more than enough when required.

#Zodiac #Zodiac Signs #Zodiacs #zodiac facts #zodiacsign #astrology #astrology signs #Aries #Aquarius #Cancer #Capricorn #leo #libra #Gemini #virgo #Pisces #Sagittarius #taurus #scorpio