#but for this 100 level course there is no build up there's no in class support or anything

[thegaythespian]

I'm only halfway done with my essay but I'm so done with it already I hate it this is hell but it needs to be good so I can boost my grade a bit hopefully and maintain a high gpa on the off chance that I decide to go to a graduate program and it also wouldn't be that much of a hit if my classes from last year counted but they don't because I transferred and schools are stupid and don't use classes from other institutions for gpa so now I want to tear down the entire US higher education system because I can't fucking write this essay

#also why should ONE essay be 28% of my final grade????? #I didn't do well enough on the last one (the midterm which was also 28% of my final grade) for my liking #and now I need to worry about my gpa because of one stupid 100 level course??? #at least in other classes there's a build up like my final essay being 25% of my grade makes sense #because weve been working on it for over a month and the class itself becomes how to do this project #but for this 100 level course there is no build up there's no in class support or anything #he's telling us to do stuff but the class hasn't been how to do stuff!! it's been sitting in class and doing readings and writing about tha #i just hate this so much it's the last thing i need to do im getting over a cold i couldnt work on it over the weekend bc i was sick #and now it's due tomorrow night and I need to double the word count while also somehow making it good. augh #it's fine ill do it ill get over it i just hate this so mcuh #thespian ramblings

[level2janitor]

Introduction to the OSR

what's an OSR? it's a game that's kinda like old-school D&D. or is old-school D&D. or is compatible with old-school D&D. an OSR game generally has some or all of the following principles:

low character power with highly lethal combat. in old-school D&D a 1st-level fighter has d8 hit points and a longsword does d8 damage, and you die at 0HP. this is not to ensure characters die all the time but to emphasize the next bullet point:

emphasis on creative problem solving. most situations cannot be solved by straightforward use of your abilities (such as charging into every situation with swords drawn, if a fighter), so the game tests lateral, outside-the-box thinking.

emphasis on diegetic progression. spells are found, not obtained automatically on level-up. you get XP by finding gold more than killing monsters. most of your cool abilities come from magic items. making alliances & hiring followers is encouraged.

focus on managing inventory, resources, risk, and time. the players are constantly faced with meaningful decisions; this is the heart of the game.

very sandbox-oriented. the focus on creative problem solving means the game must be accommodating to players taking a course of action the GM didn't plan for. use lots of random tables to generate emergent story. some elements of new simulationism.

high tactical transparency, i.e., the optimal course of action is rarely system-specific, and ideally very possible for a new player to intuit.

usually semi-compatible with old D&D, but not always. usually rules-lite, but not always.

what does the OSR mostly NOT do?

focus on character builds. these change the focus too much to be on the rules than the fiction, can create situations where stuff everyone should be able to do is an ability locked to one class, and impede tactical transparency.

resolve everything with a die roll. combat uses dice to be scary, unpredictable and most importantly not your default course of action. everything else should bring up dice rarely - dice are your plan B when your plan A fails. the best plans need no dice.

use linear storytelling or put players into a writer/GM role. linear storytelling gets in the way of the decision-making so core to the playstyle; letting players write details into the setting is mutually exclusive with them discovering it.

rules for everything. 400 pages of crunch is worse at simulating a believable world than the GM and players' shared understanding. OSR games rely constantly on GM ruling.

mostly still applies to all the above. making your system a "pure" OSR game comes second to doing what's best for your game.

System recommendations

old D&D or a retroclone

old-school D&D - or old school essentials or basic fantasy or swords & wizardry, which are old D&D's mechanics repackaged with quality-of-life tweaks (and the upside of not giving WOTC your money) - are usually the go-to when recommending someone's first OSR game. they're actually not my first pick, though!

PROS:

very complete, with more robust rules than a lot of the lighter games on this list.

100% compatibility: most OSR adventures are statted for old school essentials. converting them to other OSR systems is usually simple, but not 1-for-1.

easier to find games for. anyone interested in the OSR space knows what old school essentials is.

CONS:

jank. these games largely still have weird saves, level limits for non-humans, some still have descending AC, etc etc. it's not that bad but it is there

i hate thief skills. lots of essential dungeoneering actions are locked to the thief class as abilities, with abysmally low success chances. this is stuff i prefer being handled without a roll. thieves in this system suck and make everyone else worse at dungeon crawling by existing.

there's just lots of really cool shit in other systems i'm about to go into that you just don't get here

Knave 1e and its various hacks

this is a 7-page super-lightweight system that boils everything down to just the essentials.

rolling a character takes like 5 minutes. roll stats, roll gear, roll traits, go. done. it's great.

characters are defined entirely by stats and gear, no classes. wanna be a fighter, have high strength and carry a big sword and armor. wanna be a wizard, have high intelligence and fill your inventory with spells. item slots are elegant and pretty limited.

initiative is instant: roll d6. 1-3, monsters go first. 4-6, PCs go first. swingy, but god it is so smooth and shaves like the most boring 5 minutes off of every combat

monsters are so very elegant. old D&D gives monsters a "hit dice" rating to determine their HP, e.g. a 3HD monster rolls 3d8 for hit points. knave takes this number (HD) and uses it for attack rolls and saves (aside from exceptionally bad/good saves), so a knave statblock looks something like this.

spells are all one or two sentences long & extremely easy to remember.

7 pages is so light. i have the system basically memorized.

DOWNSIDES: there's no dungeon crawling rules (standard for meatier OSR games & something i consider essential) and no real bestiary, though the second point isn't a huge deal cause they're so easy to make. it also kinda assumes you already know how to run OSR games, so there's very little real advice or guidance.

KNAVE HACKS

knave 1e is in creative commons & comes with an editable word doc for you to publish with modifications, so there's a ton of variants (there was a spreadsheet of them somewhere, but i can't find it).

Grave is a favorite - i'm two years into a grave campaign and it's fantastic. it's a dark-souls-y version of knave with some really elegant innovations.

you have a set number of deaths before you for-reals die, as every character plays an undead as is dark souls tradition. makes it good for OSR beginners! being able to tell when you're close to your final death is really good - it lets you emotionally prepare for losing your character & raises the stakes more the more you die. (though honestly you should probably cut the number of extra deaths in half, it's super generous)

XP and gold are combined into one resource, souls. legendary creatures drop big souls you can make into magic items. this has ended up being the coolest thing in my current campaign. my players love finding powerful souls to make into magic items it's so fun

uses preset packages of stats/gear instead of knave's rolled ones, filling the role of more traditional character classes. has the wonderful side effect of not making you get stuck with low stats cause you rolled bad one time.

you have stamina equal to your empty item slots. you spend stamina on spells if you're a caster, or free maneuvers (on top of your attack at no action cost) if you're not. it's super elegant.

there's 3 classes of spells: wizardry for intelligence, holy magic for wisdom, and witch stuff for charisma. nice and intuitive.

there's a page of 50 magic items each a couple sentences long. this PDF is worth it just for the magic items.

DOWNSIDE: see the downsides for knave 1e. all still apply.

i enjoyed grave so much i made a variant of it with the dark souls bits removed (and some dungeon crawl rules added!) to use for my standard fantasy campaigns.

Knave 2e

sadly knave 2e is not purchasable yet (i backed it on kickstarter so i have access, though). but when it comes out i highly recommend it.

much larger and denser than knave 1e. it finally has dungeon crawling rules, it has GM and player guidance, everything is refined and the layout is so so nice and readable.

combat is a bit more interesting than 1e. you can break your weapon against an enemy to deal max damage. you get a free maneuver on high attack rolls.

there's rules for stuff like alchemy, warfare, building a base. it all kicks ass.

there are so many goddamn tables. i rifle through it anytime i need inspiration.

DOWNSIDES: i personally can't think of any! it's a very complete good functional system.

Mausritter

you play tiny little mice! in a world full of big dangerous things that want to eat mice. cat = dragon. you get it. what more could you want

the mouse thing is just super intuitive. you get the dynamic between you and the big scary lethal world. fantastic OSR game to introduce kids

nice and robust ruleset; nothing feels missing

tons of super nice GM stuff! faction rules, tools for rolling up hexcrawls and dungeons, plenty of tables

super clean readable layout. font isn't too small to avoid being intimidating. guidance is really nice and clear.

combat is autohit. super fast & lethal.

100% free

look mausritter is just. good. i wanna run it so bad someday

Worlds Without Number

sort of a middle ground between OSR stuff and 5e.

lots of classes, at least in the paid version. the free version comes with just the warrior, expert and mage. there's feats and more of a focus on builds than most OSR games. if you like more mechanical build variety than a typical OSR game, this is a great game for you!

extremely good multiclassing. y'know how in most games if you just mash together two classes you think are cool you'll end up with a total mess? not here! every combo is viable and works fine! easily the best multiclassing of any game i've touched

an absurd amount of GM stuff and tables. easily more than any of the other stuff i've praised for also having them. but personally i haven't dug into them as much, so i can't really comment on them

skills the way modern D&D has them. you roll dice and try to beat a target number. i don't tend to like rolled skills, but most people do, so if that's your thing WWN has them

DOWNSIDES

the layout is terrible. everything is a huge wall of text with very little use of bold text or bullet points to draw attention to the important bits. the table of contents has like 15 things in it for a 400-page book! i couldn't find any of the paid-version-exclusive classes for like a month after i bought it! looking up rules is a nightmare.

the way the default setting handles "evil races" is like an exaggerated parody of all the problematic aspects of how D&D handles it. like, it wants so bad for you to have an excuse to genocide sentient free-willed people. but at least the default setting is easy to chuck in the trash

Dungeon Crawl Classics

the goal of this system is to take all of the crazy gonzo moments people remember playing old-school D&D in their childhood and turn all of that up to 11 while cutting the stuff that doesn't add to that. i think a lot of its innovations have ended up kind of standard in newer OSR stuff (like fighters getting maneuvers with their attacks), but it still has more to offer.

the funnel: you start the game with four randomly rolled dipshit peasants that you then throw into a meatgrinder to get horribly killed. you pick one of the survivors to be your 1st-level character.

maneuvers: fighters roll an extra die with each attack that gets bigger as you level. if it's a 3 or higher, you get to do a cool thing on top of your attack. pretty standard for OSR games, but this game popularized it!

crit tables: fighters also get more crits and nastier crits as they level. every crit, you roll on the crit table. maybe you chop off a dude's arm. maybe you just knock them over. maybe you shatter their shield. it's very cool

spell tables: i don't really like roll-to-cast mechanics, generally. but DCC goes so all-in on roll-to-cast that it still looks fun as hell to watch. you cast a fireball and maybe it goes how you want. or maybe you explode, or you nuke everything in a half-mile radius, or from now on you permanently ignite flammable materials you touch, or whatever. casters just have to put up with turning into a weird mutated mess across a campaign

there's no dungeon crawl rules, no encumbrance - this game is all about the big over-the-top wacky shit, and is not really interested in the more down-to-earth number crunching. it's more in the you-die-hilariously-all-the-time area of OSR than the you-avoid-death-through-clever-play area. not really my thing but the system knows exactly what it wants to be and i respect it

iron halberd

this one is mine! as the author i'm not qualified to tell you what isn't good about my system, so just assume it's worse than i make it sound, but here's a bunch of the selling points

semi-random character creation where you flip back and forth between rolling dice and getting your own input. roll stats, pick ancestry. pick starting gear kit, roll different dice based on which kit you picked. etc etc. stats are random but all equally viable (no rolling incredibly low or high stats). every time i run this game the character creation is a hit. seriously go roll up a character it'll sell you on the whole thing

you start out a lot stronger than a standard OSR character but grow way more slowly. i don't like 4th-level characters being 4 times as strong as 1st-level ones; HP never gets that high. emphasis is more on diegetic progression instead.

way too many subsystems for alchemy, crafting, strongholds, warfare, renown, rituals, likes 9 pages of magic items, a whole subsystem for becoming a cleric mid-campaign. i couldn't help myself i love this shit

in my current campaign we had a player permanently sacrifice some max HP to become a necromancer after deliberating on whether that's a good idea for like thirty seconds, which instantly made me think my necromancy system is a success

also free

Adventure recommendations

(in rough order of size)

Moonhill Garden (by Emiel Boven): look at this. look at it! this is like the best template for a little dungeon in an OSR game. all of the little factions are tied together. this would be a great oneshot to introduce people to an OSR system with.

A gathering of blades (by Ben Milton): a system-neutral, one-page sandbox. i ran this for an iron halberd game and it went super well. lasted like 7 sessions. highly recommend.

The Waking of Willowby Hall (by Ben Milton): a single dungeon with a million things going on. it's super chaotic with half a dozen different factions crashing into each other and a big angry goose. highly recommend, especially for kids

The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford (by Chance Dudinack): small sandbox with a fun fairytale vibe and a very fleshed-out little town. and a big nasty dragon.

Evils of Illmire (by Zack Wolf): this is a very dense, entire campaign's worth of hexcrawl in a very compact package for like $5. it doesn't do anything particularly new, but the value-for-money is absurd and it's a really good template for how to do a sandbox if you're used to 5e adventures

Ask me anything!

if anything here is unclear or intrigues you, send me asks! i love helping people get into OSR games. i'll link frequently asked questions here if i get any.

#osr #nsr #ttrpg #d&d #iron halberd #knave #worlds without number #dungeon crawl classics #mausritter #l2j archive

[rigelmejo]

Really basic study tips. As in, you have no idea where to start, or you've been floundering for X period of time not making progress.

Total beginner?

Go to a search engine site. Whatever one you want Google.com, duckduckgo.com, or a searx.space site will work (I like search.hbubli.cc a lot). I think a non-google search engine will give you less ads and more specific results though so keep that in mind.

As a total beginner, search for some articles and advice to help you start planning HOW you are going to study a language. Search things like "how to learn X" where X is the language, "how i learned X," "guide to learn X." Ignore the product endorsement pages as best you can, you're looking for personal blogs and posts on learner forums like chinese-forums.com and forum.language-learners.org. After reading a few of these, come up with a list of general things you need to learn. This list will generally be: to read, to listen, to write, to speak. The articles/advice you find will likely mention Specific Study Activities people did to learn each of those skills - write them down! You might not do all those study activities yourself. But its good to know what possible study activities will help build each of the 4 skills.

Now get more specific. Think about your long term goals for this language. Be as SPECIFIC as possible. Things like "I want to pass the B2 exam in French" (and knowing what CEFR levels are), or "I want to watch History 3 Trapped in chinese with chinese subtitles" or "I want to read Mo Dao Zu Shi in chinese" or "I want to play Final Fantasy 16 in japanese" or "I want to make friends with spanish speakers and be able to talk about my hobbies in depth, and understand their comments on that subject and be able to ask what they mean if I get confused." Truly be as specific as possible. Ideally make more than one long term goal like this. And then specify EVEN MORE. So you want to "pass the B2 exam in French" - why? What real world application will you use those skills for. A possible answer: to work in a French office job in engineering. Great! Now you know very specifically what to look up for what you Need to actually study: you need to look up business appropriate writing examples, grammar for emails, engineering technical vocabulary, IN addition to everything required on the B2 exam. Your goal is to read mdzs in chinese? Lets get more specific: how many unique words are in mdzs (maybe you want to study ALL of them), how much do you wish to understand? 100% or is just understanding the main idea, or main idea and some details, good enough? Do you want to learn by Doing (reading and looking up things you don't know) or by studying ahead of time first (like studying vocabulary lists). Im getting into the weeds.

My point is: once you have a Very Specific Long Term Goal you can look up how to study to accomplish that very specific goal. If you want to get a B2 certificate there's courses and textbooks and classes and free materials that match 100% the material on the B2 test, so you can prioritize studying those materials. If your goal is to READ novels, you'll likely be looking for "how to read X" advice articles and then studying based on that advice (which is often "learn a few thousand frequent words, study a grammar resource, use graded reader material at your reading level, extensively and intensively read, look up unknown words either constantly or occasionally as desired when reading new material, and continue picking more difficult material with new unknown words"). Whatever your specific goal, you will go to a search engine and look up how people have accomplished THAT specific goal. Those study activities they did will be things you can do that you know worked for someone. If you get lucky, someone might suggest ALL the resources and study activities you need to accomplish your specific goal. Or they will know of a textbook/course/site that provides everything you need so you can just go do it. I'll use a reading goal example because its a specific goal i've had. I'd have the goal "read X book in chinese" so I'd look up "how to read chinese" "how to learn to read chinese novels" "how i read chinese webnovels" and similar search terms. I found suggestions like these on articles I found written by people who managed to learn to read chinese webnovels: Ben Whatley's strategy had been learn 2000 common words on memrise (he made a deck and shared it), read a characters guide (he linked the article he read), use graded readers (he linked Mandarin Companion), use Pleco app and read inside it (he linked Pleco) and in 6 months he was reading novels using Pleco for unknown words. I copied most of what he did, and did some of my own other study activities for theother 3 listening speaking writing skills. And in 6 months I was also reading webnovels in Pleco. Another article was by Readibu app creator, who read webnovels in chinese just looking up TONS of words till they learned (real brute force method). But it worked! They learned. So copying them by using Readibu app ans brute force reading MANY novels would work. Another good article is on HeavenlyPath.notion.site, they have articles on specifically what materials to study to learn to read - their article suggestions are similar to the process I went through in studying and Im confident if you follow their advice you'll be reading chinese in 1 year or less. (I saw one person who was reading webnovels within 3 months of following the Heavenly Path's guide plan). LOOK UP your specific long term goal, and write down specific activities people did to learn how to do that long term goal. Ideally: you will have some

SHORT TERM GOALS: you will not accomplish your long term language goal for 1 year or more. Probably not for many years. So make some short and medium term goals to guide you through studying and keep you on track. These can be any goals you want, that are stepping stones to the specific long term goals you set. So for the "read mdzs in chinese" long term goal, short and medium term goals might be the following: short term: learn 10 common words a week (through SRS like anki or a vocabulary list), study 100 common hanzi this month (using a book reference or SRS or a site), read 1 chapter of a grammar guide a week (a site or textbook or reference book), medium term: read a graded reader with 100 unique words once I have studied 300 words (like Mandarin Companion books or Pleco graded readers for sale), read a 500 unique word graded reader once I have studied 600 words, read 秃秃大王 and look up words I don't know once I have studied 1500 words (read in Pleco or Readibu or using any click-translator tool or translator/dictionary app), read another chinese novel with 1500 unique words, read a 30,000 word chinese 2 hours a day until I finish it, read another 30,000 word novel and see if I can finish it in less time, read a 60,000 word novel, read a 120,000 word novel, read a novel extensively without looking any words up and practice reading skills of relying on context clues (pick a novel with lower unique word count), read a novel a little above your reading level (a 2000 unique word count if say you only know 1700 words), go to a reading difficulty list and pick some novels easier than mdzs to read but harder than novels you've already read (Readibu ranks novels by HSK level, Heavenly Path ranks novel difficulty, if you search online you'll find other reading difficulty lists and sites). Those shorter term goals will give you things to work for this week, this month, this year. An example of study goals and activities might be: study all vocabulary, hanzi, grammar in 1 textbook chapter a week (lets say 20 new words/10-20 new hanzi,1-5 new grammar points - or alternatively you have 3 SRS anki decks for vocab, hanzi, grammar) along with read and look up unknown key words for 30 minutes a day (at first you may read graded readers then move onto novels). Those are short term goals you can ensure you meet weekly, and they also contribute to being able to read better gradually each month until you hit long term goals.

If you are very bad at making your own schedule and study plans: look for a good premade study material and just follow it. A good study material will: teach reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, all the way to intermediate level. You may need to find multiple premade resources, such as 1 resource for writing/reading (many textbooks that teach 2000+ words and basic grammar will suffice) and 1 for speaking/listening (perhaps a good podcast, glossika, a tutor). Ideally formal classes will teach all 4 skills to intermediate level if you take 4 semesters of classes as an adult (beginner 1, beginner 2, intermediate 1, intermediate 2). Especially if the classes teach in accordance with trying to match you to expected defined language level skills (so formal classes that have syllabus goals that align with HSK, CEFR, or national standards of X level of fluency). So formal classes are an option. The same tips as above apply: make short term goals do do X a week, like study 30 minutes to 2 hours a day, to learn 10 new words a week, to get through X chapters a month, to practice speaking/reading/writing/reading oriented activities to some degree.

My short advice for picking a premade resource if totally lost: pick a starting material that covers 2000 words, basic grammar, and has dialogues if you don't know where to start. That will be enough to cover roughly beginner level language skills. I suggest you study by: studying the vocabulary and grammar of each chapter, listen to the dialogue with and without translation repeatedly until you understand it (listening skills), read the dialogue with and without translation (reading skills), write out example sentences using the new vocabulary and grammar (writing skills, the textbook exercises usually ask you to do this), speak your example sentences out loud (speaking practice), record yourself saying the dialogue and compare it to the dialogue audio - repeat this exercise until you sound similar in pronunciation to dialogue (speaking exercise - shadowing). Most decent textbooks will allow you to come up with similar activities to those listed above, to study some writing reading speaking listening. I like the Teach Yourself books as an example of the most basic version of what you need. Many languages have much better specific textbooks of that language. But if you're totally lost, get a Teach Yourself book and audio free from a library or for 10 dollars (or ANY equivalent book that teaches at least 2000 words and grammar) and go through it. If you buy a language specific textbook: keep working through the series until you've learned 2000 words and covered all basic grammar. For example Genk 1 and 2 cover 1700 words so you would want to work all the way through Genki 2 and ger near 2000 words before branching off to a textbook for intermediate students, or into native speaker materials. (Another example is I found a chinese textbook once that only taught 200 words... as a beginner you would not find that book as useful as one with more vocabulary)

Another adequate premade resource option: if you lile SRS tools like anki, look up premade decks that teach what you need to learn as a beginner. For Japanese you might look up "common words japanese anki deck" (Japanese core deck with 2k or more words is likely an option you'll see), "japanese grammar anki deck" (Tae Kin grammar deck is an option that covers common grammar), "JLPT kanji deck" or "kanji anki deck" or "kanji with mnemonics anki deck" (to study kanji). Ideally you study vocabulary, vocabulary, kanji, and ideally some of these anki decks will have audio and sentence examples for reading practice. Like with a textbook, you would attempt to do exercises which cover reading writing speaking listening. For reading and writing you may read sentences on anki cards, and write or type example sentences in a journal with new words you study and new grammar points. For listening you will play the sentence audio of a card with eyes closed until you hear the words clearly and recognize them, and for speaking you'll speak out the sentences and compare what you say to the audio on the card.

Keep in mind your specific long term goals! If your goal is speak to friend about hobby, you may follow a textbook and still need to ALSO make yourself practice talking weekly (on a language exchange app, with a tutor, with yourself, shadowing dialogues, looking up specific words you wish to discuss). If your goal is to read novels, you will likely need to seek out graded readers OUTSIDE your textbook and practice reading gradually harder material weekly. If your goal is listening to audio dramas, you will want an outside podcast resource likely starting with a Learner Podcast (chinese101, slow chinese, comprehensible chinese youtube channel) then move into graded reader audiobooks, then listen to audio dramas with transcripts, then just listen and look words up.

Once you hit lower intermediate: I'm defining that here as roughly you have studied 2000+ words, are familiar with basic grammar and comfortable looking up more specialized grammar information, and if you used a premade material then you have finished the beginner level material. If you desire to stay on a premade route then pick new resources made for intermediate learners. Do not dwell in the beginner material forever once you've studied it, continue to challenge yourself and learn new things regularly. (No matter what, continue to learn new things regularly, if you do that then every few hundred hours of study you WILL make significant progress toward your goals). Once you have hit intermediate it is also time to start adding activities that work toward your Very Specific Long Term goals now if you didn't already start. If you want to watch shows one day, this is when you start TRYING and get an idea of how much you understand versus how much you need to learn and WHAT you need to learn to do your goal well. If you want to read novels then start graded readers NOW if you havent already and progress to more difficult reading eventually into reading novels for native speakers. If you want to talk to people, start chatting regularly. If you want to take a B2 test, start studying language test specific study materials, practice doing the tasks you must be able to do to pass the test (so you can see what you need to learn and gauge progress over time), take practice tests. Intermediate level is when SOME stuff for native speakers will be at least understandable enough you can follow the main idea. Or at least, if you look up some key words you'll be able to grasp the main idea. Start engaging with stuff in the language now. For several reasons. 1. You need to practice Understanding all the basics you studied. Just because you studied it doesnt mean you can understand it immediately yet, you have to practice being in situations that require you to understand what you studied. 2. You also need to gauge where you are versus where you want to be, in order to set new short term goals. Once you do things in the language, you will see what specifically you need to study more. 3. By doing the activity you wish to do, you will get better at doing it. This is also a good time to mention that: if you wish to get better at speaking or writing now is the time to practice more. Just like listening and reading, you'll have to Do it more to improve.

The leap from using materials for beginners to materials for intermediate learners is harsh. It just is. The first 3 to 6 months you may feel drained, like you didn't learn much after all, annoyed its so much harder than the beginner material catered usually specifically to a learner's language level. Push through. I suggest goals like "listen to french 30 minutes a day" or "read 1 japanese news article a day" or "chat with someone for 1 hour total a week" or "watch 20 minutes of a show a day" or "write 1 page a day" and look up words you dont know but need to understand something or communicate to someone. Do X for X time period or X length of a chapter/episode type goals may be easiest to stick to during this period. Gradually, the time spent doing activities will add up and it will suddenly feel EASIER. Usually around the time you start understanding quicker and recalling quicker what you studied as a beginner. Then it keeps improving, as you gradually learn more and more. At first, picking the easiest content for your study activity will make the transition to intermediate stuff slightly less drastic. Easier content includes: conversations on daily life that only gradually add more specific topics (so you can lean on the beginner daily life function vocabulary), podcasts for learners entirely in target language and podcasts with transcripts, novels with low unique word counts (ideally 2000 unique words or less until your vocabulary gets bigger), shows you've watched before in a language you know (so you can guess more unknown words and follow the plot even when you don't understand the target language words), video game lets plays (ideally with captions) of video games you've played before, playing video games you already have played before and know the story for, reading summaries before starting new shows or books so you know what the general story is, reading books that have translations to a language you know (so you can read the translation then original or vice versa for additional context). Using any tools available (dictionary apps, translation apps like Pleco and Google Translate and click-translate web browser tools, Edge Read Aloud tool, reader apps like Kindle and Readibu, apps like Netflix dual subitles stuff).

Last mention: check in with your goals every so often. You might check in every 3 months, and say you notice you never manage to study daily (if that was your short term goal). That could be a sign it might be better to change your study schedule to study a couple hours on the days your life schedule is less busy, and skip study on busy days. Or it may be a sign the study activity you're trying to do daily is Very Hard for you to stick to, and maybe you should switch to a different study activity. (Example would be: I can't do SRS flashcards consistently, so when I got tired of SRS anki after a few months as a beginner, I switched to reading graded readers daily to learn new vocabulary then reading novels and looking up words. Another example: I love Listening Reading Method but could never do it as it was designed, so after a month of only doing 15 hours of it instead of the 100 hours the method intended at minimum in that time, I decided to modify that study activity into something I could get myself to do daily and enjoy more).

And, of course, its okay if what works for one person doesn't work for you. Everyone's different. As long as you are regularly studying some new things, and practicing understanding things you've studied before, you will make progress as the study hours add up. It may take hundreds of hours to see significant progress, but you Will see some progress every few hundreds of hours of study. I made the quick start suggestions for beginners above, because I have seen some people (including me) get lost at the start with no idea what a good resource looks like and no idea what to study, or how to determine goals and progress on those goals.

#rant #reference #resources #study plan #langblr #i could also make a side post lol on just HOW many language learning apps/tools are distractions for beginners #because they barely teach like 300 words! but readers spend YEARS on them! #u can cover 2000 words in 1 year. even high school classes cover that in 2 years. but many an app have u spending 4 years on 2000 words #then u get beginners mad they never Learned to do stuff in the language despite All Tgat Study #not realizing the apps problem was it simply ONLY covered beginner material. so it was only gonna be useful for 6 months to 2 years tops.

[viowlettcodes]

hi. i had a very similar experince to trying to look through the code camp scams and everything online and not living near anything useful. if you can find an online real college thats what i did, granted its a community college and an associates but. other than that, don't sleep on utilizing chatgpt to teach you. thats how i learn all of my material. you can ask it questions or say "can you teach me about x", and if you dont like its response you can say things like "make that more simple" or "make that interactive". but helpful tip, all programming languages basically do the same things and work in very, very similar ways. if you just learn the fundamentals of programming you can just translate that to any language. in my opinion, the basics to learn are: the structures of programming (sequential, conditional, iterative), variables, datatypes (integer, string, float, etc)(in python those are it), conditional statements(these are those if-else things you see), iterative aka loops(do..while, for x in list, do until, etc), functions(keep em one purpose), passing data. i would say these are the fundamentals. every language does it (besides html bc thats not a programming language but just a mark up language), so once you know about the conditonal structure for example, just find out "how do i use this in x language". if you are learning python now, its a great language to learn about programming and you've probably realized by now that people most often use it in an object oriented way, but you don't have to and don't have to learn about classes or objects if you don't have the fundamentals down yet. i hope this helps and if you have any questions feel free to ask me

Oh I 100% agree with this advice. After looking for a long, long time, I realised the most legitimate courses were from 'real' colleges and education suppliers that offered 'brick n mortar' schooling as well as e-learning.

I'm definitely going to utilise the free resources online and then work towards building a profile and generally seeing what the jobs online look for and work towards that alongside the usual path of learning :)

Also, I love how supportive folk generally are in this area of learning. I knew it would be competitive, especially when it comes to getting a job in a year or so...but seeing folk lift each other up instead of put each other down is heart-warming on so many levels. It makes me think I've found my correct career path :)

#codeblr #supportive #thank you #advice #solid advice #good advice #lovely ask #thank you friend! #I love codeblr #programming #learning to code #learning programming #python #web development #coding

[ruhua-langblr]

Hi, you seem to have a decent grasp on Language Learning Resources™, so maybe you could help me.

I currently have a 2600+ day streak for Duolingo Spanish, which I initially picked up because I took classes in school and wanted to see if I remembered any. I'm well aware of the limitations on the app, and at this point it's just because I like to see the number go up. I've only ever been a casual student but I would like to progress eventually. The problem is I have trouble finding a method between gamified app, and full-blown, academic, novel -and- textbook self study. Do you know of good ways to move past Duolingo lessons without biting off more than you can chew?

Thanks for any input you have

Hi!

I feel like that "number goes up" connection is the main reason a lot of people don't want to move on from Duo and similar apps! I hope to do a post that goes into all of this more in depth, so consider this a shortened version~

My personal philosophy is that you shouldn't have to chose between just gamified apps and academic study—ideally you need it to be engaging enough to keep up for when you have less motivation, but with an academic rigor! I'm gonna drop some general resources/resource types and try to give them all a shot! Don't think of replacing Duo with a singular app or activity, but a collection of resources that you can switch between.

Anki: SSR vocab learning. Lots of customization and habit tracking features available so consider this a good "number goes up" replacement (and if you really love looking at data it's much more thorough!). With Spanish as your TL (target language), you'll have plenty of pre-made decks available. You can have specific decks, sentence mine, or have a huge 5,000 most frequent words deck. Anki isn't my favorite method personally, but people get SUPER into it and it works for them—also you'll hear this everywhere anyway.

Language Transfer: I wish my TL was one of the ones they have! If you're coming from Duo then you've probably been lacking a good method to really train your listening skills. 100% free, and I've heard great things about their Spanish course as well. All the files are available to be downloaded to listen to offline. Great to put on when you're getting ready in the morning, for bed, or during a commute.

LingQ/Youtube/Podcast Comprehensible Input: "[TL] Comprehensible Input" in the Youtube search will get you pretty far. There are podcasts like this as well, but it's nice to have a visual stimuli as well! This is pretty much the epitome of a ~natural language acquisition~ style. Immersion and immersion at an appropriate level is what works best. If you've even dipped your toes into the language acquisition sphere, you'll know Steve Kaufmann. LingQ is his app that's based on these principles.

Textbooks: Duo assumes that you can just pick up grammar from pattern recognition and that can work, but upper-level nuanced grammar or grammar patterns that are vastly different from your native language are hard to intuit. Find a good, dedicated grammar textbook and use that as what you will learn the details of grammar from. All that audio stuff will teach you what sounds right, this will teach you why/how it's right. (Buy a used textbook, visit your library, or check out my pinned post...)

+More: There's so MANY ways to learn a language. I'm focusing on specific methods that would fit in naturally with your existing habits (solo, digital, habit-forming), but there's tons more out there that you can do: journaling, discord servers, italki, chatting apps, graded readers, etc.

To start pick one that you feel the most drawn to and then a second that compliments where it might be lacking. Make a goal that you feel is reachable, and build from there.

Best of luck!

#langblr #resource #language learning

[pogostikk]

Do you have full background information on how Connie was able to join the Crystal Gems? Given her parents are very strict, I don’t really see that as possible in a way? 😭

Also, why was she able to join the crystal gems? Because Steven was the one who influenced Connie into becoming a crystal gem sorta.

Sorry this is a kinda a lot HFFGDGFV 😓

(Separation/ Clown AU !! )

HA it makes sense eventually I promise 😭

Okay let me try to explain this to you.

To start, while Connie didn’t have Steven, she did have Amethyst (they met around the same time Steeb and Connie met in canon). And that gem kinda took Connie’s early rebellion and naturally sneaky kid-ness and cranked it up to 100.

She was the one who pretty much introduced Connie to gems and all that, and as Connie became more and more enthralled in that world, the more she wanted to become apart of it too.

So she went through the good ol’ go-behind-my-parents-back-and-learn-how-to-use-a-sword, because she did get close to the other two gems too after awhile. And of course she met Lion and they became besties.

Becoming a Crystal Gem really did build up her confidence (tho she’s still a bit of a loner sometimes), but along with the training and school and all the classes Connie’s parents made her take, she began to get exhausted.

And then remember the incident where Connie punched Jeff? Yeah, that happened, and Connie’s parents finally got super suspicious.

Eventually, one way or another, they figured out what Connie had been doing.

And for awhile she was totally grounded, Amethyst managed to get in touch with her but it was a bump in her training.

But yeah, she finally lost her mind (not literally) and ended up opening up (snapping and blowing up at her first) to her mom. After some much needed long communication, Mom-maheswaran agreed to hear out the gems. And the gems were more than happy to come and back Connie up and overall vouch for their favorite human crystal gem.

Long story short, the Maheswaran parents ended up deciding to let Connie continue her training and pursuit of being a crystal gem, so long as it didn’t drastically effect her studies and the Crystal Gems took good care of her when she was away.

(They didn’t realize exactly what the level of danger was until their daughter went missing)

Jeez this is a lot, I know I just dumped a shit ton of information on one singular ask, but was this helpful? Thanks for the questions!!

#steven universe #su au #human steven #pink steven #connie maheswaran #connverse #asks #there are definitely typos in this post I’m not gonna waste time searching for #good luck understanding what I’m saying lol

[foster-the-world]

Maddening

We are super lucky to live in NYC where special ed services are much more robust then most of the country. And yet its still a maddening process.

We got back his CPSE report. It felt pretty brutal to read. Some of it feels so off baseline from what we see. The fine motor skills/sensory issues are accurate - he has trouble controlling his body 100%. They claimed he can't name body parts, can't build with blocks, can't speak with more than one word. All things he's been doing for ages. Last week his teacher told me he built a big castle with magnatiles. Put him in 1 percentile scores for various things. On some things said he is 78% delayed. On another said he as at the level of a 11 month old. An 11 month old can't even walk!

Talked with a special ed consultant this morning. She said I need to accept his baseline is the report and not how he acts in his safe place around us. Which I don't really understand. Or maybe I would if he only did those things for us but he does these things with various people. At the park he interacts/talk with kids all of the time. He learned his letter, letter sounds, colors, shapes, etc, etc at daycare with other people. He's friendly with strangers regularly after an initial period of shyness. He met his father for the first time since he was a baby this weekend. I warned his father he will be shy for the first ten minutes - if you give him space he'll then open up. He did exactly that including talking in full sentences after the first ten minutes. The psych met with him for 45 minutes. The speech evaluator for 20 minutes and the OT for 20 minutes. The report from his school was positive. It said he is a quiet, happy child who interacts regularly with his peers and makes eye contact. Although that was also from a social worker who came in to evaluate him for only thirty minutes because his main teacher is on emergency leave. So I don't have a lead teacher I can ask.

The special ed consultant said we should go for the special ed school. She recommended I call around to see if any have any spots. A few places said they have wait list so those are out. A few places refused to tell me if they had wait list or not until after our IEP meeting. Why would that be secret information? IEP meeting is Nov 1. Of course, none of the schools would give us a tour. The consultant said we need to stay open to the idea that special ed is the best for him. How can I do that when they won't even let me take a tour??? I could tour/visit every gen ed public school in the freaking city before deciding But no tour of a special ed school? How does that make any sense?? The special ed consultant said we can always put him in and then the special ed school will tell us if he does not need to be there. Of course, its not that easy. He's gen ed school has a wait list of 80. They will fill his spot the second he leaves.

The other option is getting a special ed masters degree (SEIT) teacher to sit with him for two hours a day in his current school. It will also include three times thirty minutes of OT, PT and speech per week. So he will have individual/specialized care for 14.5 hours a week. The class naps for five hours a week. He's in school for 30 hours per week. So 19 hours out of 30 he'd have individualized care or be asleep. Which feels like a big jump from the two thirty minutes OT sessions PER MONTH I had to BEG for up to this point. I'll keep him in the private pay OT two times per week until I feel comfortable that what he's getting at school is adequate.

His current class has three teachers for 15 kids so a better ratio then the special ed class. The special ed class would most likely have 12 kids for two teachers. Assumingely, they would be kids with higher needs. There are classes with eight kids and two teachers we could ask for but those kids would have more severe needs so it doesn't feel helpful. One of the teachers would have special ed degree - which obviously would be nice. From pictures online the building/spaces at these school did look nicer but hard to tell without a tour? I'm fine with our current school's facilities but they aren't fancy. We do have a really nice playground area. Some of these special ed places did look fancy. Apparently there are a few places with inclusive classrooms for 3K but they are impossible to get a spot in for this year. Maybe if I start fighting now for next year??

Of course, finding the SEIT teacher who's not already booked could also be difficult. I've started calling around. You are supposed to wait for the IEP meeting but I want to know if finding one is even a possibility. Sitting around waiting is not doing him any favors. I don't trust the CPSE team to find him someone within any reasonable time frame. At this point I doubt he'll start services until December 1st and that's with me pushing every step of the process.

Anyway, I've mostly decided I need to go with my gut and try to get the SEIT. I think the consultant and the CPSE people will think I'm a person who doesn't want my kid to have a diagnosis and/or a mom in denial. I'm going to have to be okay with that. I know myself well enough to know that I'm not going to deny my kid services because I don't want him to have some label. I'm fine with labels. In fact, I love labels that will get him services he needs. I'm cheap. I don't want to pay for OT. If he gets a SEIT we will get an expert who can see him interact with his peers and give us their honest advice. We can always put him in a special ed school for 4K. It will be easier to find a spot then, anyway. If we start getting negative reports from school we can reevaluate.

I keep remembering my friends advice to wait it out. As he ages will see more of what issues are three year old based and what sticks around. He's happy and he's making friends. That's what matters to us.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #313: Percival

today on Grailfinders we’re finally getting back into the swing of things with one of the guys who actually found the grail, Percival de Galles. He’s an Oath of the Crown Paladin because of course he is, but he’s also a Hexblade Warlock to get a little bit eviler thanks to his holy spear. I don’t trust those pointy bastards after singularity six I don’t care how many good deeds this one’s done.

his build breakdown’s below the cut, his character sheet’s over here.

next up: Tamamo’s not

Race and Background

Percy’s background gets a little funky in the lostbelt, but for our purposes we’re summoning the og Percival, who’s just a normal man. Just an innocent Human. that gives him +1 in two stats like Wisdom and Charisma, as well as a boost to Animal Handling and the feat Heavy Armor Master, reducing all incoming physical damage by 3 points per hit while wearing heavy armor. look at that man’s tits, I 100% believe they could stop arrows.

Other Percival is of course a Knight of the Order, giving him proficiency with Persuasion and Religion. man literally watched a guy get raptured, I’d take his word over a priests’ at this point.

Ability Scores

Percival’s highest score should be in Charisma. look at him. look at that beautiful boy. do you really think he could do you wrong? and that’s how he gets ya. after that is Constitution. shielding others with your body is all fine and dandy, but I’m sure you’d like to survive doing so, right? third is Strength- it’s weird we’re saving your main attacking stat for third, but you’re fighting to protect others more than doing big damage. don’t worry, the damage will come. fourth is Wisdom, you need to be a little discerning to live in a faerie world, after all. that means your Intelligence isn’t too great- he’s got a head for strategy for sure, but I don’t think schools were fantastic in faerie Britain or sixth century england. finally, dump Dexterity. you mostly wear heavy armor anyway, and we had to give you some kind of weakness. that’s also why the lance of longinus is an actual lance in this build. a spear would be easier, but we’re already making a paladin/warlock build, let’s not push things too far or the DMs might get antsy.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: if we’re gonna have that heavy armor, we’ve gotta start off in the heavy armor class. as a paladin, you get proficiency in Wisdom, Charisma, Athletics, Insight, and not a billion things at once! yaaayy!

you also get a Divine Sense, letting you know the location of nearby celestials, fiends, and undead a couple of times per day. that’s probably why obebe doesn’t stick around too long in Londinium, huh? you can also lay on hands as an action, healing peeps and curing dizeeps. or poisons. you get 5x your level hp per day, and you can spend 5 points to heal a poison or disease.

2. paladin 2: at level two you get your Dueling Fighting Style for an extra two points of damage with a one-handed weapon. unlike most weapons, the lance doesn’t get weaker when you wield it one-handed. that being said I guess you can pick the Great Weapon Fighting style if you expect to be off your horse more often than not but why would you ever do that? that’s why we’re giving you the horse in the first place! in the future.

you can also cast Spells now, using your charisma to prepare and power them. I like Protection from Evil and Good on account of it protecting you from fae, very important stuff, but since you can swap out your spells every day, it’s not a huge issue. it’ll give your extraplanar enemies disadvantage on attacks and give you immunity to their charms, frightens, and possessions. you also get command and compelled duel for free! the latter’s kind of redundant, but you can only challenge stuff once a short rest, so it’s cool.

if you’d rather go on the offensive, you can use your spell slots to power a Divine Smite instead, dealing radiant damage alongside your usual stabbing. get it now before wotc rolls out their “we’re ruining everything” patch!

3. Paladin 3: at level three you can finally swear your life to your king, becoming a paladin of the Crown. as a crownadin, you can channel divinity in two ways, either issuing a Champion Challenge to everyone nearby, keeping them from moving too far away from you if they fail a wisdom save until you are knocked out, dead, or more than 30’ away from them. you can also Turn the Tide as a bonus action, giving every bloodied creature within 30’ of you whom you choose a little bit of extra hp.

speaking of health, your Divine Health makes you immune to disease, so have fun never having to worry about covid. god I wish that was me. you can also Harness Divine Power once per day, spending your channel divinity to regain a spell slot. your CD recharges on short rests, so having that extra spell or smite can be really useful!

4. paladin 4: at level four you get an ability score improvement, so bomp up that strength to really huck that spear around. right now its just a regular lil dinky lance, but don’t worry. ï̵̳͍̺͛t̵̡̪͎̹͊̏̚'̴̤͍̞̿s̷̫̥̀̔ ̸̥͔̟̘̺̾̌̐͋̋c̵̨͎͚̬̏̋̈́́̄ͅo̵̺̞̾̆m̵̬̹̮̓̾ͅì̸̧͈͚̬̾̅n̵̨͕̰̅̂͋͗̿͜g̶̮̹̪͋́͊͊

5. paladin 5: fifth level paladins can make an extra attack each action for two attacks at a time! you can also shield an ally with warding bond to take half their damage for them, or you can fairy out the truth with zone of truth. you can also find steed now, so bam. horse. mission complete. you can also turn your lance into a magic weapon if u really wanna, but we’ll get something more permanent later.

6. paladin 6: sixth level paladins can make an aura of protection around them, adding their charisma modifier to all saves you and your buddies make as long as you’re conscious. it’s kinda like charisma, in a way. I mean it’s literally your charisma, but we’re referring to the FGO skill here.

7. Paladin 7: a seventh level crown paladin can use their Divine Allegiance as a reaction to take all the damage a nearby ally would instead. if you use this with warding bond, this will actually delete half the damage an effect was supposed to do, though you can’t reduce any damage you take from this with your heavy armor.

8. Paladin 8: at eighth level you can bump up your Charisma for stronger challenges, auras, and other spells. trust me, this’ll be worth it.

9. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins don’t get anything too special innately, but your third level spells are pretty cool. Aura of Vitality lets you use your bonus action to heal a creature each turn, while Spirit Guardians lets you summon an angel to protect you. That’s not necessarily in-character, but it’s cool enough you can probably twist “protection of the grail” to justify it. you can also remove curses, create food, or even revive fallen party members with third level spells. all in all, a super useful level!

10. Paladin 10: at tenth level, you make an Aura of Courage that blocks allies from being frightened near you. though some may fake it just to shelter against you.

11. Paladin 11: our final level in paladin, level eleven gives you an Improved Divine Smite, letting you deal extra radiant damage with each attack for free. now it’s starting to look like a real sacred spear! speaking of…

12. Warlock 1: since you’re wielding a semi-sentient spear that gives you extra power, that makes you a Hexblade warlock! with this, you become a Hex Warrior, which doesn’t do too much to help you, but it does let you pick one weapon a day to use your charisma to attack instead of your strength or dexterity. obviously we intend for you to use this on your lance, but it can apply to any non-two-handed weapon. lances have the special property, not two-handed, so we’re all good!

if you really want a wolf dead, you have to hit it with a Hexblade’s Curse. with this, you can spend a bonus action to curse someone for a minute, during which you can add your proficiency bonus to attack rolls, have a doubled chance to crit, and killing the target heals you.

you also get another set of spell slots which use your charisma, but these recharge on short rests! I’d pick up Blade Ward to give yourself resistance to physical damage for a turn. it takes an action to cast, but when you’re soaking up hits for an ally, it’ll help a lot. Friends is also a great cantrip to grab, Percy just seems like a really personable guy. faeable? whatever.

for your leveled spells, Shield is always useful. an extra five AC for a whole round, plus immunity from magic missile. you can also make a Wrathful Smite as a bonus action, dealing psychic damage instead of the usual radiant and making a creature frightened of you for up to a minute if it fails a wisdom save. shield is, unfortunately, somatic, so we can’t use it too easily just yet, but we’ll get it ready in time.

13. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, allowing you to customize your eternal servitude to a talking stick. we’re saving one for next level as per usual, but Beast Speech will let you talk to Kuntry pretty easy. I’m like 90% sure you can talk to her in the lostbelt because she’s a faerie, but whatever!

also if your DM lets you ride your horse like you’re using your own movement, pick up Expeditious Retreat to make your ride truly magical, letting you spend a bonus action to dash instead of your main one. or even with your main one, if you truly feel the need for speed.

14. Warlock 3: at level three you take on the Pact of the Blade¸ the only pact hexblades ever seem to take for some reason. you can also take the Improved Pact Weapon invocation now, so we’ll explain the whole shebang at once. you are now able to summon a magical weapon of just about any kind to your hand as an action. it counts as a +1 weapon, though you can attune another more powerful magical spear to your pact if you want- the ritual for that takes an hour. you can also cast your spells through the weapon as though it were a focus.

you can also cast Shatter now to blow stuff up. your noble phantasm is anti-fortress, so it would feel weird not having the option to break walls.

15. Warlock 4: at level four you get another ASI so max out your Charisma for the strongest… I mean, everything really.

you also get a spell and a cantrip this level but tbh they’re not super important to the build, go with your heart.

16. Warlock 5: at level five warlocks can cast third level spells, like Tongues. speaking to everyone was a pretty jesusy sort of thing to do, and you’ve got his blood all over your spear, right? good enough reasoning tbh.

you can also Eldritch Smite now as a bonus action, adding a little force damage and knockback to your next attack by spending a warlock spell slot. now you can perform the legendary triple smite! set up a spell smite on your previous turn, then eldritch smite and regular smite on your next turn! 100% satisfaction guaranteed.

17. Warlock 6: at level six a hexblade warlock can create an Accursed Specter by killing a humanoid, turning it into a specter that follows your commands until the end of your next long rest. this ability is the sole reason we don’t go higher in hexblade that often, but everyone in LB6 is either a fae or a construct, so he might be able to do this, I guess?

yeah this is entirely because we need other stuff down the line, please ignore this level. aside from getting Intellect Fortress that’s pretty cool. it gives you resistance to psychic damage and advantage on mental saves for up to an hour. Percy’s got good magic resistance; this is a known fact.

18. Warlock 7: at seventh level you get fourth level spells, plus a new invocation. Fiendish Vigor isn’t anything too fancy, just lets you add some temporary HP to yourself for free. the real winner this level is Staggering Smite, which adds psychic damage to your lance and forces a wisdom save. on a failed save, the target has disadvantage on all attacks and checks for a turn, and it also can’t make reactions that round. perfect for getting another ally out of harm’s way.

19. Warlock 8: for your last ASI, grab the Tough feat for an extra 38 HP now, plus another two at level 20. the one real downside of this build is we couldn’t focus on constitution as much as I’d like in a tank, but this will help a lot.

your spear can also emit a Sickening Radiance, which deals radiant and exhaustion damage in a 30’ radius around a point you pick, while also preventing creatures in the area from being invisible. just don’t get too close to the spear while you’re doing this, and- oh, you have to hold the thing to use it? that’s rough.

20. Warlock 9: ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, and if Rhongominiad can make a Wall of Light so can Longinus. we also finally get your invincibility skill thanks to Tomb of Levistus. Once a short rest as a reaction to taking damage you can seal yourself in ice, giving yourself 90 temporary HP to block the hit. Until your next turn you have a vulnerability to fire damage, can’t move, and are incapacitated, so this will drop your challenge. Still, living to fight another day usually trumps keeping an enemy who almost killed you around. all these effects end when the ice melts at the end of your next turn.

sure it’s not literal invincibility, but that’s almost a whole wizard’s worth of body armor you can pull out at will!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

having a maxed out charisma stat plus a champion’s challenge makes you great at locking enemies in place, forcing them to focus on you instead of your squishier party members. you’ve also got tons of ways to reduce the inevitable damage from doing so, with heavy armor master dulling any physical hits and your huge save bonuses keeping you from getting too hurt by magic.

when it’s time to attack, you can hit hard, with three smites in a single attack and a doubled chance to crit from your hexblade’s curse giving you some serious firepower against the big boss. if you can manage to get advantage, that gives your attack whopping 1 in 5 chances at critting.

Normally paladins only really have physical and radiant damage to work with, rendering them pretty useless against anything that resists the latter. thanks to your little dip into eternal servitude, your damage variety is a lot more well-rounded, making it easier to hit whatever you’re fighting.

Cons:

lances are bad. if your DM’s fine with the multiclassing here just stick to a spear- having disadvantage on anything within 5’ of you sucks.

Tomb of Levistus is a powerful survival tool, but it eats up one of your turns and breaks a lot of your spells and effects. if you were already having trouble surviving against something you challenged, I doubt your party will be thrill that you let it loose while you chill for a bit.

you have a slim margin for error. you don’t have a ton of spell slots to use, and your best features only work once per short rest, so if you play sub-optimally you can seriously waste a lot of your potential. no pressure, I’m sure you’ll do great against the infinite Morgan army.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Paladin #Warlock

[fragmentofmemories]

what's your opinion on subclassing in eo? i know you like to experiment with party composition and strategies so i'd like to know if you have any favorite unconventional class/subclass combos

Thanks for the ask! and honestly I don't really have an opinion that much different from other people.

It's a great mechanic that lets you essentially fill any hole you might have in your party, or minmax a character's best features.

Lack a healer or tank? Turn your character into one. Want to squeeze an extra bit of damage, dodge rate or whatever? Subclass into something with the one self-buff or passive you need.

But sadly, many people tend to focus only on the minmaxing part, to the point I often see tips like "subclass into gladiator/bushi, everything else is worthless."

And I feel that is really reductive of what subclassing can be capable of. Let's take EO3 as an example.

A fun thing I like to do is doing a Monk/Zodiac build.

"Because monks have high TEC right?"

No, because Fire Mastery, Singularity and Ethereal Charge affect Breakfire Fist.

Combine STR accessory stacking alongside any other buff/debuff, and you'll have your monk potentially deal tens of thousands of damage per hit with the right setup.

I see people often focusing only on a monk's supportive aspect, that with subclassing them into sovereigns and such.

But just like any other healer in EO (except herbalists who do not exist), leaving them to only healing duty is genuinely a waste of their true potential — as weird as that sounds.

And before you ask, you don't need the weapon exploit to make monks good. In fact, if you know how Fist Mastery works, you'll soon realize the exploit actually makes them worse (At high STR and Lv10 FM, their ATK stat is lowered if they equip a weapon).

Monks in EO3 are in the same place as EO1 Alchemists and EOX pugilists, as one of the most misunderstood classes. In the sense that people don't really know how to use them.

Other fun builds I'd like to make are Ninja/Buccaneer. Combine skills like Lady Luck (extra Crit chance), Swashbuckling (Multihit chance with normal attacks) and Kubikiri (Instakill chance with normal attacks). It only takes around level 50 or so to get all these skills maxed, and when you do it's pretty fun.

Knives also happen to have a high amount of forge slots, so you can further customize your character by either increasing their ATK, stats like HP, or even adding an extra effect on top. Combine that with accessory stacking and/or cloning, and you can actually deal plenty of damage even if the instant kill doesn't trigger.

After all, it wasn't until eou that they nerfed normal attacks (of course).

Lastly, though it has nothing to do with combat, I ocassionally like subclassing everyone into farmers. In doing so, I can give them the Waste Not skill for up to a 25% drop rate increase.

The reason for this is to more easily farm stat books from the enemies that drop it. It's a slow process, but being able to more easily get stat boosters — especially early on — is really helpful.

Formaldehydes and Lucky Hammer exist, of course, but those aren't easily available until the late/postgame. And the ones you do get early on are usually reserved for stratum bosses.

Moving onto other games, EO4 I admittedly kinda rushed over it gameplay-wise, and I've long since lost my 100% save. So I can't for certain give any build ideas.

I do believe dancers' normal attack and dodge skills are generally useful on anyone, as is landsknechts' Vanguard on medics. Not for healing, but for Star Drop and other attack skills (of course).

Nexus I did replay recently, so in quick succession (since this post is getting too long):

Survivalist/Ninja. Using it to further increase the former's Dodgetank abilities (meaning extra Hazy Arrows, and general survivality).

Pugilist/Shogun for Peerless Demon (More damage the more hits per turn) and Bloody Lance (More damage per enemy killed.) Conveniently enough, a pugilist's best weapon has an AOE skill, and it can actually be acquired near the start of the game if you farm enough. So...

Medic/Protector entirely for yuri reasons /j (actually because of anti- skills, and Shield Flare. Calling back the whole "subclassing to fix holes" thing.)

Technically EMD2 also has subclassing, and the idea of a protector with AOE skills is very enticing. But it's Japan-only (of course).

Funnily enough, I don't think I experimented much with subclassing myself. Once I get to 3 HD I am thinking of maybe doing something like, idk, Farmer/Gladiator for a meme Stun Attack build (lol).

#funny story i first thought you *had* to subclass to shogun to do the monk weapon exploit. #so i solo'd most of the game with my monk. thinking ''man she's already doing thousands of damage unarmed. i can't wait to do the exploit.' #only to then realize i could've done the exploit from the start. yet i didn't need to for my monk had already solo half the game on her own #take that as you will. #eo3 #eo4 #eox #ask post

[eyes-above--the-waves]

Toronto Maple Leafs: Every Single Mitch Marner Trade Idea Is Horrible

By: James Tanner

The idea that the Toronto Maple Leafs should trade Mitch Marner is really, really dumb.

Why would the Toronto Maple Leafs trade the second-best player to play for the franchise in the last 50 years?  

Why is this even a conversation that keeps coming up?

Are we all just really bored?

The Toronto Maple Leafs Are Not Trading Mitch Marner

Marner has four seasons in a row in which he’s flirted with 100 points (or a hundred point pace, as the case may be) and he’s also become one of the most well-rounded two-way players in the world.

He is an elite defender and penalty killer who is nominated for the Selke Award this year.

He is also only 26 years old, and just coming into his prime.

Why would the team trade him just because they failed to win with him in the playoffs so far? Other than Crosby and Kane, almost every elite player in the league had the same or less success than Mitch Marner did in his first seven years.

McDavid, Draisaitl, Ovechkin, Stamkos, O’Reilly, Bergeron – it all took them between eight and twelve years to become winners.

In professional sports, the main factor in winning is patience. This is because at the pro level, everyone is good, and this makes things like officiating, injuries, goalies and other types of luck into major factors in what happens.

The BEST team rarely wins (notice how Boston did this spring).  The winner tends to be the healthiest among a group of best teams.

As frustrating as it is that the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won anything with Marner and Matthews, their best chance for winning eventually is to stick with the two elite superstars.

Leafs fans know how rare it is to get players like this  outside Pittsburgh and Edmonton.

Sure, when you’ve lost seven in a row, it makes sense to fantasize about change, but that’s the wrong thing to do. In the NHL, no team has ever traded a player like Mitch Marner in the prime of his career and won the trade.

It has literally never happened, and there is no reason to think the Toronto Maple Leafs will be the first ones to pull it off.

Unless the Leafs were to get Connor Bedard, Connor McDavid or Cale Makar in exchange for Mitch Marner, trading him would be an automatic loss.

I see a lot of half-assed Marner for an OK player and cap space that make me want to scream. Or puke. Or scream and puke.

Marner is an awesome player and a pleasure to watch.  He is absolutely, 100%, untouchable.  Trading him would be foolish, short-sighted and a major overreaction to running into a hot goalie.

The correct course of action is to continue to build around Matthews and Marner and hope that it works out.  If it doesn’t it doesn’t.  Winning isn’t guaranteed and is very random.  Enjoy the journey, and don’t obsess unhealthily over the destination.

Winning would be nice, but at least it’s fun to watch and cheer for a class guy like Marner who is among the best whose ever lived, rather than two average guys who each make half his salary.

-From EditorinLeaf

#i like this guy - can the leafs hire him? #mitch marner #toronto maple leafs #hockey

[haneulislearning]

2024년 한국어 목표; Korean Language Goals

With my study abroad date coming closer and closer (only 19 days away ㅇ.ㅇ), I figured it was time to share some of my language/Korean specific goals for the year!

These aren't all of the things I want to "accomplish" for the year, and some are long-term while others are short-term goals, but it felt better to have something physical to look at to remind me of what I am aiming to do this year and have my thoughts organized.

The hardest thing about this is reminding myself (Hi, if you don't know me, I fear academic failure and set high expectations for myself), that it will be okay if I do these things only partially or if something didn't quite meet my expectations that it is okay.

There are some things that I want to aim for as a personal milestone that I didn't list here in an attempt to NOT overwhelm myself to get it done.

(Like trying to read Harry Potter in Korean, because 1. I am NOT at that level yet, and that will take quite the time to go through and 2. I want to buy the book second hand because JK Rowling is a bitch and I don't know yet where I could thrift the book while in Korea. Mostly want to read it because it is a book that I read over and over again as a child so the concepts/ideas/plot is familiar, just not the nuanced vocabulary and grammar)

So I am viewing this less so as a list of things to do before the year ends, and more as a set of remiders, affirmations, and sources for me to review throughout the year as I am abroad and expanding my use and knowledge of Korean.

There is so much to say about my goals and views of langauge learning, but I don't want to make this my longest post ever, so maybe some other day I will share some of my more abstract goals in another post.

Anyways, enough rambling, here's what is listed in my journal:

Listen to Korean podcasts

Become comfrotable reading short stories + news articles

Journal more often in Korean

Annotate + break down THREE songs in Korean (*not in my journal, but the goal is to understand, memorize, and practice reading speed and listening with this)

Read + annotate one book in Korean

Try learning AT LEAST 10 new words a week (*I see this one either not lasting long or turning more into 10 words every OTHER week lol)

Review each month what you've learned (*just trying to go back and refresh myself on things that I learned recently but may not have had the chance to put into practical use often)

Other notes:

Use your resoruces! I have so many Korean books and websites/apps saved, and I will use them for about a week before I forget they exist, so this is my reminder to look at them a little more often!

If you know how to say it, say it! Don't hesitate! The amount of times my friends and I have decided to speak in Korean to each other only to say something in English and then quickly realize we 100% know how to say that in AT LEAST broken Korean :/. Or when my professor would ask us to share what we did this weekend in Korean and think that my sentence or phrase is wrong, only for someone else to say something similar and realize I actually knew how to say it. Better to try and maybe be wrong and get corrected than to not try at all and learn nothing.

Keep it simple, but try to build your sentences! Actually a reminder from my Korean professor lol! If you don't know how to say it, look it up of course, but you can't pull out your phone in every conversation you have! Sometimes it is easier to keep it simple and short and others it's great to build on and connect where you can. The whole point of my last class was to work on using connectors and conjuctions for our sentences to lengthen them, but it's not always possible. Some days it is just easier to say 네 or 아 그래요 and move on if you know what I mean.

Any progress is good! There have been multiple times this year where I have literally gone to Korean tutoring and forgotten every Korean word I know and beat myself up over the fact that I feel like I "failed". Simply put, I burn out too quickly sometimes and take the minor victories for granted. Celebrate anytime you can when it comes to remembering a small vocab word or how to order food in Korean!

Consistency is Key! Seems obvious, but one summer in between semesters I didn't study Korean for at least a month and wanted to cry when I tried to self study again before the new semester because that sense of failure was kicking in and I couldn't remember a lot of what I had been practicing. Even if it is just reviewing vocab, watching a youtube video in Korean, or even a K-drama, consistency is key when it comes to learning. It doesn't have to be a lot, just something.

Explore ways to learn, make it fun for you! I have only been learning Korean for almost 2 years now, and now that I am going abroad I'm realizing that I will be in much more different situations in terms of school and socializing, so how I experience Korean is going to be different for a little while. This is just a reminder to take advantage of fun opportunities and see where and when you can learn Korean.

You're probably doing better than you think you are. Don't stress. I feel like nothing needs to be said here, but if you look at where you started versus where you are now I am sure the distance is actually farther than it seems.

#korean langblr #studyblr #study korean #langauge goals #journaling #journal entry #i don't journal often please don't judge my notebook lol #i got new pens they're great my hand tremor just says fuck you #korean #langblr #language learning

[blankd]

Brought to you by YouTube recommending me some tracks: I'm intensely nostalgic for Ragnarok Online despite how jank it is/was (also apparently it's still running!)

read more for unstructured ramblings

Full disclosure, I did not play RO on any official server (didn't have a credit card), it was on private servers, typically free and with the rates cranked up to the 100s, but it was fun for what it was and one of the safer ways to interact with others online.

I kind of miss those kinds of "simple" MMO experiences where you hop in with friends to get torn apart by monsters since the accelerated level ups meant you didn't get intended progression, and of course the natural hubris that comes with a lack of patience from "I just want to get that class with the silly outfit".

There's also the evergreen punchline of an MVP spawning on the map with their murder parade exploding everyone.

As for classes I usually played and what I recall of them:

Professor Scholar; with the stats as they were on private servers I could build a magic machine gun character. There was also a hat or a card that let me use a low level heal which was good for effectively having infinite SP.

Biochemist; usually tossing potions, but mostly so I could have a pet minion, I would reroll my homunculus for a Lif or Vanilmirth

And maybe some dabbles in Assassin Cross or Sniper, I don't recall.

As of this post I've also learned they now have 3rd and 4th level classes and probably new additional maps and monsters. I'm curious enough to take a peek with a private server* and will maybe even go on a nostalgia visit/binge in Feb, who knows.

*While official servers exist, they require outdated amounts of grinding and have assumed the new/current predatory methods of online services

If anyone just so happens to know of and want to recommend a private server to me, please share it. Alternatively, share your own RO experience if you have any 8)

#blankd's blabbies

[kreideprinz69]

I don't think they were going for anything angsty. The writers were probably just catering to the fan perception of Nagito, and being incredibly ableist by having him received "justified" scorn from his classmates. But of course it kind of backfired in that made the rest of Class 77-B come across as uncaring at best, and unsympathetic and meanspirited at worst. To the point that I'm actually wondering if the 2.5 OVA was written by someone else. Because that genuinely is the best part of the anime, in that it's one of the few things that adds extra layers and depth to Nagito. Still...the part of me that has a hunger for angsty fanfic can see some potential. Like I actually could imagine a scene where the others are trying to put him at ease with the idea that he deserves a second chance just like they do. Only for that to backfire and royally piss him off. "...Are you kidding me? None of you gave a damn about me before we were Ultimate Despair. Hell, you didn't even give a damn about me when you were all just as filthy and despair-ridden as I was. And now you're pretending that I'm part of the family? No. The only thing you people want from me is validation. If I decide that I'm too far gone to deserve a second chance, well that would mean the rest of you are irredeemable now wouldn't it? And you can't stand for that. All that you want from me is to hear me say that you're shining symbols of hope once more. After that? I could keel over the next day and none of you would bat an eyelash."

honestly, i wish i knew what was going through the heads of those working on that show. though i don’t really think they ever made his classmate’s treatment towards him look “justified” in any way, it always felt like they treated it as a grey area or an attempt to make people feel bad for nagito. which, i guess worked, because i’m here. but that was such lazy writing, and it did the whole class so dirty. It didn’t come off right at all (assuming there is a right way for it to come off) and just felt… so weird. that’s really the best way i can describe it. weird, out of place, did not make sense. the reason i don’t think they were trying to make his classmates look justified and nagito look bad, is because of how ineffective it was. the treatment started off before he even did anything wrong, and he was noticeably much more polite/normal(?) but that’s just how i interpreted it, i 100% get what you’re saying. whatever they were going for, it was not accomplished. with how redundant it was, it’s entirely possible they weren’t even going for anything specific. man.

the 2.5 OVA was much better. i did some brief digging and from what i could find, its the exact same people working it as the rest of the show. which again, really makes me wonder what exactly is going through their heads. i thought the OVA was a great expansion on nagito’s character and his worldview. not only that, but it was very refreshing to see him get along with the rest of the class. they could still recognize his abnormal behavior, but they treated it like they treated the other oddballs in the class. it felt much more in character to me.

i definitely get that angst craving too. i imagine that after they woke up, there would have been a discussion about his treatment in the class. they’re all working together to build a future, where everyone has a second chance. i’m sure nagito would need a lot of encouragement to take that second chance, and he’d probably be quite upset at the class having a sudden change of heart and attitude. i think he’d have a lot of confusing emotions to sort through though. first, he’s starting to see the class as actual people, since they’re no longer symbols of hope (and the whole hope thing comes with its own giant baggage.) second, there’s the difference in treatment he’s getting from them, which is probably confusing. especially because of what happened in the game as well. but i think on some level, he must care for them. i cant quite say whether it’s personal, or lingering feelings of admiration for his idols. i say that because im thinking back to the hug he gave fuyuhiko and kazuichi after waking up lol. so maybe he did learn to just strive for the future.

but i think i’m starting to get a little off topic, so, yeah! theres definitely a lot of angst potential there and it would for sure make for some interesting fics!! theres a lot that can be done with that whole idea.

i really hope this was coherent and made sense, i am fighting insomnia demons at the moment and i’m not even going to acknowledge the time right now!

#nagito komaeda #sdr2 #danganronpa 3 was such a mess man #ive seen a lot of interesting takes on it though #but i think the one agreed opinion is that nobody really knows wtf was happening there #sigh

[thehomelybrewster]

My proposed changes to the Warlock

This is a rudimentary post, nothing exact, but it's inspired by my many problems I have with the warlock in D&D right now. I love the aesthetic, I love Eldritch Invocations, but the class to me is the victim of powercreep and no longer relevant design philosophies.

So this is, generally, what I'd do, and why:

Warlocks should be Intelligence casters. This is both to strengthen the relevance of Intelligence as an ability score, to strengthen the fantasy of a warlock discovering a pact through effort, and to make multiclassing with Charisma casters harder.

Warlocks should use half-caster spellslot progression like a paladin or ranger (now the discussion on whether rangers should automatically be magical is a different one for a different post, but still). Why? That way warlocks fall more in line with the way short rests are normally run at the table without having to touch short rests as a mechanic. Generally I'd like to minimize the importance of short rests/make it something that most parties will only do once per day, and this is part of that (I'd consider adding a renamed version of the wizard's Arcane Recovery feature to the warlock, for the sake of appeasing old Warlock fans). Mystic Arcanum remains unchanged. Eldritch Master would need a complete replacement, of course.

Eldritch Blast becomes a class feature. This means it will scale only with warlock levels, thus no longer making warlock dips to get autoscaling Eldritch Blasts possible. The upside is that Eldritch Blast, being no longer a spell, cannot be counterspelled anymore. Granted, it probably isn't being counterspelled anyway, but that's one benefit. It also means that Sorlocks won't be able to use metamagic on it anymore, which is a bit of a shame, but that, for the sake of simplicity, is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. The Eldritch Invocations that affect Eldritch Blast remain unchanged.

Patron spells are added to spells known. Very simple change, and the sole change the 5e Revision is actually implementing. It's a simple quality of life change that will lead to more diversity in terms of spell options, and will make "mid"/situational spells offered by your patron actually something you have access to. But I wouldn't allow for free castings of them.

I'd 100 percent incoporate the Contact Patron feature introduced in the 5e Revision playtest into the class. I adore it, wouldn't change a thing.

Hexblade needs to go. The Pact of the Blade boon would incorporate some elements of that subclass, but probably just using Intelligence to hit with your weapons (using the original ability score for the damage calculations), and then an automatic Extra Attack at 11th level (because that's when fighter's get their Extra Attack #2). This is also to prevent wizards (and artificers) to basically become Bladesingers all the time, because I really dislike the classic optimized paladin with a hexblade dip build, both in terms of flavor and in terms of its impact on play.

These are all big changes, and there'd probably be a bunch more small ones, but I hope you understand my reasoning.

Maybe I'll eventually work on an actual warlock revision, or list out similar changes I'd make to the ranger, bard, and monk, which are the two classes I'd also change pretty drastically if it were up to me (do any of y'all remember the ki-less monk I made a while back?).

#thehomelybrewster #dnd 5e homebrew #5e homebrew #dnd homebrew #dnd warlock #5e rant #rant tag #dnd 5e #dungeons and dragons

[thebougieway]

Why I've chosen to NOT date for a while...

Not dating/being celibate makes you truly see men for who they are. I started this journey on December 4th of 2022, and now as of May 3rd, 2023, it's been 5 months for me. Almost anyways. Within these 5 months, I've better understood myself and decided on the kind of relationship I want with men. I'm going to go over some things that I've been doing with my time in the course of my dating hiatus.

Focusing on my studies

I'm currently enrolled in Interior Design classes so that I can further my career and become the successful woman I aspire to be. I decided to take my education a step further and enroll in some architectural & project management classes as well. I realized I wanted to do this when I turned in some of my interior design projects and noticed that the more I apply myself, the limit does not end here. Regarding education, you can enroll in as many classes, get as many degrees, & pick up as many skills as your heart desires. I want to be done with my studies by a certain time frame in 2023. I want to make a certain salary amount by a certain age time in my life. While on this hiatus, my career is my first priority. No argument.

2. Building my financials

I have 4 credit cards I knew that I wanted to pay off this year, staying focused and keeping my eye on the prize got me down to 2. Did you hear me? 2 out of my 4 credit cards are PAID OFF. These last 2 will be a breeze. I know I want to have a certain amount in my savings by the end of the year... month by month I have a goal of what to save that month, with this mindset I'll be to my end-of-the-year savings goal in no time.

It's cool and all having a man to be there financially and for help, but as a woman, having your own is so much more powerful. It makes the dating scene easier to pluck out the men that aren't on your level. Being a girls' girl and a strong advocate for my ladies, always make sure you are your first security blanket. A man that can equate or makes more than you, is just a plus.

3. Re-branding ME

I've rebranded myself this year probably about 3 times... and we're only in the 5th month, but that's ok! Start over as much as you need to girl, to get to where you want in life start over 100 times if needed. I know the kind of woman I want to be, I know my "Dream Girl". She's sexy, she's a boss, she's powerful, she's assertive, she's charming, she's smart, she's rich, & she is THAT BITCH.

4. Working out/eating healthy

Although this step is something you should be doing while you are dating or not, it's easy to fall off. It's easy to get lazy. In my opinion, anger gives people ammo to work out and go harder in the gym. That isn't my case, but it's true. When a girl/guy just breaks up with each other, they're going hard in the gym for the next victim. For me, it's more on a personal level, while it is flattering to look good for the male gaze, you have to want to look good for yourself first girl. That will build so much confidence and not have you just out here dating anybody, more so those who are insecure.

5. Realizing my standards

Finding yourself while staying away from men for a while will tell you exactly the kind of man you need to be dating anyway. You didn't do all this work building yourself from the ground up to go out and date a bum right? It all starts within. I advise everyone to have standards. Those people (man or woman) who say they don't have a "type" scare me. What do you mean? Everyone should have a type. Whenever I hear that statement, the voice in my head just tells me "This person will probably sleep with anything with a vagina or penis". It's disgusting.

I feel as if as women, we're required to have a type. By default. Having a vagina is powerful in its' own way. On my hiatus, I know the type of men I'm willing to date/ sleep with once I resume and the ones I will rather kayak across the ocean to stay away from.

6. You see men for who they really are

Let's be real. Men are visual creatures. Once they see you look good, they're automatically telling their penis that they would sleep with you. You can look good all day, be the sexiest thing out of this world but looks can go so far. We've all seen someone attractive af and told our friends "Oh, I'd !@#$ him". It's human. But once you get to really talking to a guy and they tell you when their last STD test was, you'd snap to reality quickly. They just make it so easy.

The more conversations you have with a man, the more information you get out of them because they tell on themselves. I've raised my eyebrows during so many conversations because it's just a shocker at how they think.

While I hope this was a valuable and informational lesson for you ladies, please understand that it's okay to keep the cat to yourself sometime. You may really need to.

xoxo 💋

[taliafilm]

Artist Statement

Hi my name is Talia and Im a Photographer who recently completed their first photography class. Within this course I got to experiment and test my creative abilities like I haven't before. Learning more about camera settings and manual shooting rather than the automatic shooting I regularly use. Practicing settings to fit the perfect tone and ideal image I want to make. I also got the chance to shoot with film for the very first time which was very exciting. Many of my friends know that I shoot on digital solely and edit my photos to mimic that of film photos. Hardening the highlights, softening the sharpness, and add grain was always my go to edit of my crystal clear digital photos. Shooting with film was a fairly easy process. I shot with a 35mm canon camera that was easy to focus and adjust levels. The only issue being that the film would not automatically rewind itself. I was left panicked and desperately trying to withhold myself from yanking the film from the camera manually. Instead I rushed back to the class and was instructed to yank it out in a dark room and hope for the best during processing. I was already pretty over it at that point but I wanted to continue never the less even if I was pessimistic I was going to have anything to reveal. There was a high chance the film could have been exposed and ruined already and there could have been nothing done to save it. Never the less I wanted to learn how to process and develop film so I could have the knowledge for future reference. So I went and developed the roll of possibly ruined photos and camera out with an almost perfect set of photos. Some blurry and others not positioned the best but at least visible! I went on to shoot more with film and shared it with some special people in my life. Aside from the film mishaps and victories, I learned a bit more about lightning. Experimenting with my friends, I used various lights and gel filters to see how I could express tone with the usage of lights and colored lights. The first time I attempted to experiment was in the basement of the fine arts building at UMKC. I grabbed some friends and rushed them down in the hot basement and realized we wouldn't have actual lights to use. Instead, I grabbed my laptop and searched "red screen" and turned it to full brightness and shined it at my friends. It was quite Trashy but I'll just refer to it as "DIY" and innovative. Some of the struggles I dealt with this semester within the course was motivation. For myself, photography is like binging and purging. It's something I will devote myself to for months on end and then refuse to pick up a camera for the equal amount of time. Im creatively driven and if I don't feel a spark I was to ignite I stay away from it entirely. This course had multiple assignments which required 100s of photos and quite a few hours to complete. I found myself struggling to keep up and to enjoy my work. I didn't want to do the assignment "just to do it" but I also didn't have time for my ideas or in general just ideas. So I found myself paralyzed between wanting to make the best work that expresses me the most, and just wanting to get the assignments done just to get the assignments done. Moral of the story, I should have just gotten the assignments done. There is art in everything and I have to continue to tell myself not everything I produce has to be perfect. For the images I produced, I was quite happy with them. I photographed a variety of my friends which is meaningful as well as my two cats cookie and waffles. I used some new editing techniques and found myself inspired for an upcoming film Im going to be producing and directing. These past few months had its struggles but I find that I got a lot out of this course and more experience within one of my passions. Photography is cool!