#Specific Methods/Tools:

[languageslinguistics]

Finding good articles for language learning: 

When I teach English I try to find articles that match the student’s level and that help facilitate interesting conversations. When you’re studying a language by yourself it can be more challenging to find content that will help you along your journey. When searching, especially if you’re just starting out use Google translate - the extension is super helpful to understand what you’re searching for! 

National News Articles - One safe bet is to look at the National News outlets. Whatever the NPR is for your target language, there will be content that is relevant to what is going on today in the world. I also recommend checking cultural resources within these outlets. If there is a cultural section it can provide more relevant information than some boring stuff relating to politics. 

Hobbies & Blogs - A quick google search about say, knitting in your target language might bring up some information that is more relevant to you. Medium.com, although heavily English focused sometimes has articles that might be more specific to what you are looking for. I can also recommend Tumblr there are blogs, they are personal and you can see modern up-to-date versions of the language. 

Youtube Personalities - Stepping out of the box of “Standard” language grammar, and phrases we have youtube/tik tok personalities. I think they’re awesome since you can see real-ish interactions between people. Having the best grammar and vocabulary will only go so far if you sound like a News Anchor. Spaces online such as Youtube offer a glimpse at what the native speaker sounds like when they’re in their own world. Grammar rules out of the window all you get is the actual speaker. Many Youtubers have blogs as well which allows you to read for your ever growing vocab list. 

AI as a Tool- Gemini, ChatGPT, DeepSea any of these Live Language Models offer the chance to have a conversation with a computer in the hope of finding relevant articles and resources that match your language needs. I think this could be good to help specify your level and find resources that match that level. If you enjoy reading AI generated content, you can prompt AI to make articles for you. I have done this before by stating - “I would like to have an article that is 300 words about Whales in Antarctica, I want this to be in French for a B1 speaker, please include challenge words for this level put them in bold and provide a translation into English at the bottom of the article.” It is amazing because the Live Language Model is able to create something that you can learn from! It might not be the most authentic article, but it is something! 

I think that learning through articles is a really good way to improve on your language skillsets. I know that I included youtube, but that can be a pathway to finding blogs or other written content that can benefit your language learning journey. I recommend that if you use articles to always write down new and unfamiliar words. This way you can continue to improve and grow your vocabulary.

[pikkissis]

I've been playing Minecraft!

My sister @dillybea ... led me astray, and... started me off on a HORROR MOD. I was playing as Collin and I... did not want to witness Collin get folded man... annnyway,

I've thought up an AU because of all this gameplay, and!! Io and Collin end up separated! So, their main objective is to survive until they're reunited together!

I imagine they're on two separate planets... so, that's why Io is stargazing looking for her lucky star...

God Bless!

[fatedroses]

Zenos viator Galvus and him trying to deal with actually feeling things for once (Even if he doesn't really understand how to handle the comfort he receives from others for it)

I am also giving this man a dad that actually cares, because this brainworm have gotten me and there is no saving me from them.

[palettepainter]

Just as a general heads up uh, don't expect a whole lotta accuracy when it comes to the technical stuff concerning electricity in Hired Sparky. I'm doing my best to research bits and bobs to make the story seem more real, but man is understanding this stuff hard

[lord-squiggletits]

Between TF and my other fandoms like BG3 and TES, I keep finding myself making OCs that have some element of "battle hardened hero who is actually good and righteous, but so traumatized by the toll of war that even after the war ends they feel empty/wrecked and can't enjoy the fruits of victory" and I'm not sure if it's bc I gravitate to a certain type of media where such OCs fit in best, or bc I have a specific character archetype I like and gravitate towards media that contains those things.

[bizarrebazaar13]

the question of how strong Dexter is is actually kind of hard to answer. he’s a very physically active person, both for his job and because he enjoys it, when he’s healthy. but he’s also frequently ill. not always to the point where he has to stay in bed for multiple days, but being sick does obviously limit your strength and endurance even if you aren’t bedridden.

and then there’s the question of what being healthy actually means. being a little bit sick all the time is kind of his baseline. being not sick at all is amazing but very rare. so measuring himself against those days is neither fair nor accurate. on an average day, I’d still say he’s pretty strong! but I think that question of “how much better could I be if I wasn’t constantly sick?” does linger in his mind.

[nonbinarynightcrawler]

if you peel back exactly one layer of the excuse "the tools don't make it easy for 3d artists to make black/curly/textured hairstyles" underneath you will see "this is an industry-wide problem that I do not want to address because it would force me to admit that the tools have not been developed because that specific need is not seen as a priority"

[rigelmejo]

I honestly think a lot of success stories people have with Dreaming Spanish is more about the fact:

1. Dreaming Spanish told them "study 1500 hours and hit X progress milestones at these Y hours along the way" with it's roadmap (it gets them to commit to studying a decent amount of time regularly, for a long amount of time)

2. Dreaming Spanish provided learners with 1500 hours of lessons of progressively increasing difficulty of various levels - making sure any learner who simply keeps moving through the lessons, up the levels, will learn new stuff regularly and practice understanding stuff they've learned (both are needed to make good consistent progress)

Than about any particular quality of DS over other learning methods.

These qualities are what a study plan needs to succeed: you need to study regularly and for many hours, you need to study new stuff regularly, and practice understanding what you've learned regularly.

Any study plan with these qualities WILL succeed, provided the study activities are related to your goals.

(For example Dreaming Spanish being focused on listening, tends to get people to the goal of "understanding spoken Spanish" since it teaches what is needed, and provides ample listening practice. But if they want to read books they usually also have to go read books on their own (practice reading), or if they want to converse they also have to go speak with others (practice speaking). Any study plan may be biased towards certain skills - following the Heavenly Path Comprehensive Reading Guide will make you great at reading Chinese novels, since you'll be studying the language by reading, and practicing reading regularly, but you'll still need to go practice listening and practicing speaking and writing to develop those skills. So basically - once you pick a study activity/activities to learn the language, make sure to Eventually Practice All Skills you wish to develop for your particular goals).

[iraprince]

gonna show u guys a little opalescent highlight hack i threw together today

rainbow gradient above your main figure (i usually have all my main figure folders/layers in one big folder, so i can clip gradient maps + adjustments to it!). liquify tool to push the colors around a bit. STAY WITH ME I KNOW IT LOOKS STUPID RN I'M GOING SOMEWHERE WITH THIS

THEN: set it to add/glow (or the equivalent in ur drawing program), lower the opacity a bit, and apply a layer mask. then u can edit the mask with whatever tools you like to create rainbow highlights!!

in this case i'm mostly using the lasso fill tool to chip out little facets, but i've also done some soft airbrushing to bring in larger rainbow swirls in some areas. it's pretty subtle here, but you can see it better when i remove the gradient map that's above everything, since below i'm working in greyscale:

more granular rambling beneath the cut!

u could also just do this with a brush that has color jitter, but what i like about using layer masks for highlight/shading layers is how simple and reversible it makes everything. i can use whatever brushes i want, and erasing/redoing things is super low stakes, which is great when i often approach this stuff with a super trial-and-error approach.

example: have u ever thrown a gradient w multiple colors over an entire piece, set it to multiply etc, and then tried to erase it away to carve out shadows/highlights? it's super frustrating, bc it looks really good, but if u erase something and then change ur mind later, u basically would have to like. recreate the gradient in the area u want to cover up again. that's how i used to do things before figuring out layer masks!! but masking basically creates a version of this with INFINITE undo bc u can erase/re-place the base layer whenever u want.

anyway, back to rambling about this specific method:

i actually have TWO of these layers on this piece (one with the liquified swirls shown above, and another that's just a normal concentric circle gradient with much broader stripes) so i can vary the highlights easily as needed.

since i've basically hidden the rainbow pattern from myself, the colors in each brushstroke i make will kind of be a surprise, which isn't always great -- but easily fixable! for example, if i carve out a highlight and it turns out the rainbow pattern in that area is way too stripey, i can just switch from editing the mask to editing the main layer and blur that spot a bit.

also, this isn't a full explanation of the overall transparency effect in these screencaps! there's other layer stuff happening below the rainbow highlights, but the short version is i have all this character's body parts in different folders, each with their own lineart and background fill, and then the fill opacity is lowered and there's multiply layers clipped to that -- blah blah it's a whole thing. maybe i'll have a whole rundown on this on patreon later. uhhh i think that's it tho! i hope u get something useful out of this extremely specific thing i did lmao

[ooooo-mcyt]

I'd actually say the use of the soulmate trope in Double Life makes a great case for all the worst parts of the soulmate trope, being used to enforce a social structure around shame, heavy restriction, punishment, and isolation.

Look Scar, Grian, BigB, and Ren. At the start of the season Scar was treated like an idiot for not looking for his soulmate, like it was a personal failing that he would take more interest in animals and call them his soulmates rather than look for the person he was bound to. Meanwhile a lot of the tension between BigB and Ren came from this idea that Ren's connection with Martyn- which had existed for seasons prior- was bad because Ren was supposed to, by dictate of the universe, be with BigB.

And then Grian and BigB form a connection outside their soulmates (which, for the record, they wanted to be together in episode one from before they even found out who their soulmates were, but felt like they weren't 'allowed' to be because they weren't soulmate) and are regarded as 'cheaters' with their soulmates being pitied for it.

Scott and Cleo were also scrutinized heavily within the server, regarded with pity, confusion, or even judgment by a number of people Multiple people acted awkward around them, or tried to 'console' them with the assumption that they were miserable, or in a very extreme case you had Jimmy calling their relationship "fake" multiple times and, during an argument, taunting them with "You ain't even real soulmates- when you go to bed at night, and you fall asleep, just remember, the last thought in your heads is 'oh, we're not really soulmates'."

And honestly I heavily suspect a large part of the reason Pearl was so isolated during Double Life is because of the isolation of soulmate pairs. Because soulmates were seen as this special connection superseding and outweighing any other, forming real connections outside of the soulmate pair was heavily discouraged. This meant that while plenty of people pitied Pearl (which also reinforced the idea that she should be miserable), she was always treated as part of an out-group by soulmate pairs, making it impossible for her to find real friends after being rejected by her soulmate.

There were many times as well where, generally, soulmate pairs who weren't happy together or who were having massive issues were pressured into trying to force things to work because they felt like they had to be with their soulmate and knew there was nowhere else for them to really go outside of that one connection, even if they weren't happy with it.

Not to mention the way the soulbound itself was, in multiple cases, abused and made into a tool of punishment in of itself. This is seen most apparently in the divorce quartet in which they all hurt themselves to "punish" the other. Scott came up with the idea of axe crits to "scare" their soulmates which Cleo was happy to join in with, and Pearl used methods such as powdered snow to "torture" Scott as well as specifically growing fond of holding the idea that she could kill them both over Scott's head. But even beyond it's use in the divorce quartet, Scar also very notably participated in this. In fact, he was the one who came up with the idea to use powdered snow to "torture" your soulmate because Scar wanted a way to punish Grian for asking him to help with chores.

Like I genuinely just cannot stress enough how much Double Life was a proof of concept for the soulmate trope being a complete nightmare. Literal horror trope.

[lotuzies]

𝜗𝜚 humanizing your dr — and why you don't necessarily need it.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖⌗﹒ there are countless posts that will help you "humanize your dr", in other words, make it seem a bit more "realistic". now, although i am not against it, i mean sure, it's great for visualization, i'm not entirely for it, because it's following the premise that shifting requires a detailed process, requires specific steps in order to do it, and that's just not true.

i have seen many shifting content creators (specially on shifttok (get out of there) (seriously)) claiming that the reason why you haven't shifted yet is because you put your dr on a pedestal, then they proceed to "humanize it", listing a bunch of struggles you might encounter when you shift.

now, let me make clear the bottom line of this post: the way you perceive your desired reality does NOT influence whether you shift or not.

when someone claims that the way you perceive your dr is wrong, or that is something that needs to be changed/improved, they are reinforcing the idea that in order to shift you NEED something, you need to do certain things. (and thats WRONGGGGGHSJSHQGGAG)

shifting is simply putting your perception of this reality to another. that's it. that is the definition of shifting, that is the only thing you actually need to do.

as long as you keep endlessly looking for ways to try and stop putting your dr on a pedestal, the more you will keep persisting on the idea that something NEEDS to be changed, that shifting is this whole difficult process. and if you're familiar with the law of assumption, you already know where this is going, persisting = manifesting it into reality. and just like that, you end up in this loop of searching for something that doesn't exist in the first place.

also, this goes hand in hand with the fact that you don't necessarily need visualization. i do believe it's a great tool to shift, at least for me, but not a must due to the same reason i already listed above. so if you're not great with it, stop stressing about it.

so, it genuinely doesn't matter if you put your dr on a pedestal or if you don't even care for it as much — you are already there, the only thing you'll do is perceive it.

"alright izzy, nice! but how do i change my perception to there, then?"

ehhh, it's not really changing, it's more about recognizing it, because, like i said, you are already there. once again, nothing NEEDS to be CHANGED, stop chasing that "something", stop living in that illusion.

as to how you actually recognize it, i can't really tell you something concrete because it's different for everyone, and i'm sure you've seen thousands of methods, some may work better for you then others. what you can do is implement this new info into your attempts. (still, i can make a post explaining what works for me and why it does)

in other words: put your dr on a pedestal all you want, it's okay. WHY would that even stop you lmao?

also, lil side note: but i HATEEE when people say "humanizing your dr" (as in telling you that's what's stopping you from shifting) and then list a bunch of stuff like "oh you'll stub your toe!" "you'll get sick" "you'll break your nail!" mf if i shift to a reality where that doesn't happen simply because i am a god, then what. THEN WHAT. not everything needs to be realistic or logical. gosh. (it's fine if u do it just for visualizing tho)

that is all, byebye & go shift

[neverstophyo]

shifting is self discovery.

excuse the yap but i think it’s very important that people realize how fundamental you are in your shifting journey and that you are literally the only thing you need to shift.

you do NOT need:

a method

subliminals

(guided) meditation

to look for advice hour after hour online

symptoms

the void state

lucid dreaming

to visualize

to use your 5 senses

a script

you DO need:

yourself

you can say fuck you to the universe, doubt as much as you want, and still shift. i say that because i’ve done it before even with doubts! so you can too!

“how do i shift?”

every time someone asks this i lose 5 years off my life span. i can’t determine that for you, nobody can. i can tell you what has personally worked for me and so can others, but there’s no guarantee it’ll work for you.

“so what do i do?”

sounds a bit harsh but you figure it out. and that’s what i mean by self-discovery.

of course, you can & should see what other people are doing to create a base line of what you think could work for you. for example try getting into the void state, see what happens from there. doesn’t work or you don’t like it? (because that obviously won’t do the same thing for everyone) try something else!

play around. add new things into the mix. affirmations. intention. you can visualize or use your 5 senses. keyword can. you don’t have to. because what do i think works the best? minding your business and shifting your own way.

remember that you can literally just say “fuck you i want to shift” and shift. you can shift accidentally. so who’s to say what you’re doing doesn’t work? (if it really doesn’t then you can adjust it slightly. look back on your behavior and think about what you want to change.)

seriously!

you can shift:

tired

awake

asleep

in the hypnagogic state (the state of the transition from wakefulness to sleep)

in the hypnopompic state (the state of consciousness leading out of sleep)

while dancing

sitting

standing

laying down

on the floor

accidentally

through a lucid dream

with doubts

and so much more i didn’t mention. seriously no need to overcomplicate it.

just remember that other peoples’ shifting journeys are not yours and that you’re the most important part of your own.

you are what makes you shift.

it’s not your subliminals or your method or whatever, it’s you. YOUUUU. subliminals? “methods”? those things? just helpful tools. they can HELP you shift, but there’s no guarantee.

for example, i personally have been getting more effective results after listening to specific subliminals regularly (psst.. i make sure they’re safe! to check if they are safe, look at the comments around the page and if you’re still not sure and you feel uneasy then do not use the subliminal. if it makes you feel unsafe or weird then do not use it. always read the benefits or what you can find in the description.) it works for me. it got me results (along with other stuff) but it might not give them to you and that’s okay. you don’t have to use subs.

just a reminder that you don’t need anything but yourself to shift <3

it’s self discovery because you’re learning from it and actively finding out (discovering) what works for you.

your shifting journey is yours so don’t make it rely on what someone else does.

THERE’S NO KEY TO SHIFTING EXCEPT YOURSELF.

[astra-ravana]

Using Demonic Sigils

Demonic sigils are specific types of symbols or seals that are used in various magickal traditions to represent, summon, or communicate with demonic entities. These symbols are believed to hold the essence or the power of thr demon they represent, acting as a focal point for rituals involving these entities. The use of demonic sigils dates back to ancient times and has been incorporated into numerous magickal practices and grimoires throughout history.

Historical Origins

The practice of using symbols or seals to represent demons is ancient, with roots in cultures around the world. However, the formal use of demonic sigils is most notably documented in medieval and Renaissance grimoires. These texts, such as 'The Lesser Key Of Solomon' (also known as Ars Goetia or Lemegeton), provide a catalog of demons, each accompanied by a unique sigil.

A sigil can have immense power because it's a gateway to a certain energy. It's like having a direct line to a powerful person, except that the person is a spiritual force, not constrained by the time/space continuum. The ancients knew all too well that our world is not only physical, that there are entities among us that we can't perceive with our ordinary senses, yet they can be communicated with through symbols which activate our higher intuitive faculties and open a door for their arrival.

Purpose And Use

Demonic sigils serve several purposes in magickal practices, including:

• Summoning- Sigils are used in rituals to summon demons, providing a method for the practitioner to focus their intention and call forth the entity.

• Communication- Sigils facilitate communication with demonic entities, acting as a bridge between the practitioner and the spirit realm.

• Command- In some traditions, possessing a demon's sigil gives the practitioner a degree of control, over the entity, compelling it to perform or grant requests of the summoner. Most entities will resist this type of magick and some may turn hostile. Use sigils with respect and consideration.

A sigil of a summoned demon can be utilized in various ways after the ritual. For example, by carrying it with you, placing it in a prominent place in your home, an altar dedicated to the demon, or in some cases of baneful magick, placing it near the target, burying it, burning it, etc.

Creation And Activation

Demonic sigils found in grimoires are traditionally received through mystical revelation or compiled from older texts. Modern practitioners may use these historical sigils or create new ones through various methods of sigilization, such as the rearrangement of letters from the demon's name into a symbolic design.

Activating or charging a demonic sigil typically involves ritualistic practices. These can include specific invocations, the use of ceremonial magick tools, and the creation of a ritual space. The goal is to energize the sigil and open a channel of communication with the entity it represents.

There are also techniques that can be used to create a unique sigil that connects a person with a specific demon for the purpose of attunement. Such a sigil being charged and activated to serve a single connection rather than everyone who chances upon it, can be a more powerful conduit. It is comparable to a dedicated VS a shared network.

Authoritative Texts With Demonic Sigils

Some grimoires contain extensive lists of demonic entities, their attributes, and corresponding sigils. Here are some notable texts that include information and drawings of demonic sigils:

• The Lesser Key Of Solomon (Ars Goetia, Lemegeton, Clavicula Solomonis)- Particularly the first section, known as the Ars Goetia, which details 72 demons along with their sigils and methods of summoning them.

• The Grimoire of Honorius- Attributed to Pope Honorius III, this grimoire includes sigils and instructions for summoning spirits, including demons, and is known for blending Christian and pagan elements.

• The Book Of Abramelin- Written by Abraham von Worms, this book describes an elaborate ritual known as the Abramelin Operation, designed to obtain the knowledge and conversation of one's guardian angel but also includes information on the summoning of demons as part of its broader magickal practice.

• The Pseudomonarchia Daemonum- An appendix of Johann Weyer's 'De Praestigiis Daemonum', this text lists 69 demons along with brief descriptions and is notable for its critical perspective on the practice of demonology.

• Grimorium Verum- (Latin for True Grimoire) is an 18th century grimoire attributed to one 'Alibeck the Egyptian' of Memphis, who purportedly wrote itnin 1517. Like many grimoires, it claims a tradition originating with King Solomon.

• The Munich Manuel of Demonic Magic (Codex Latinus Monacensis 849)- A 15th century grimoire, this manuscript focuses on necromancy and demonology, including sigils for summoning demons.

• The Grand Grimoire (The Red Dragon)- Known for its powerful rituals and the summoning of demonic forces, this book also contains sigils and instructions for making pacts with demonic entities.

• The Black Pullet (La poule noire)- While primarily known gor its talismans, this grimoire also includes methods for creating sigils and rings that are used to grant the user various powers, including influence over demons.

• The Sixth And Seventh Books Of Moses- These books are a collection of magickal texts that purport to describe the magick practiced by Moses, including the use of seals and sigils associated with both angels and demons.

The sigils found in these texts are often used in their original form even today. There have also been modifications and new sigils are constantly being created, especially by chaos magicians.

[rigelmejo]

I hope the posts I make about comprehensible input are useful and help people understand things.

I see soany people confused on language learning forums about comprehensible input. Asking about what it is, if they have to use it to learn a language, if it's "better," if it's 70% or 98% or if it's about reading or lessons.

It's just a term. A term that people confuse for more than it is, since it's used in many contexts.

Comprehensible input is input (so listening, reading, watching) that you understand the meaning of. That's all.

In reading, many classes refer to 95-98% comprehensible input (aka reading material with only 2-5 unknown words out of 100) as ideal extensive reading material. Extensive reading material is reading material where you read and can easily guess new words from context - it's a big activity we did to learn to read in our native languages. Ideal intensive reading material in classes is usually 90-95% comprehensible (as in you don't know 5-10 words out of 100 on the page), and usually in classes and learning material the unknown words will be provided in a glossary or vocabulary list so you can comprehend 98-100% with the help of using the glossary/vocabulary list/looking up the meaning of unknown words. That is how comprehensible input as a term is used in literature classes, in foreign language teaching discussions about intensive and extensive reading. It's about specifically how many words you comprehend (understand) in the reading material, and then if that makes it better as extensive reading material where you can simply guess the unknown words from context, or if you need to read it intensively (look up words) in order to make it more comprehensible (understandable).

In learner forums, comprehensible input often vaguely means "anything you can comprehend the main idea of with or without tools". So a graded reader for your language level would be comprehensible input as it is (as you'd kmow enough words to understand the main idea with no tools), a textbook dialogue with a vocabulary list would be comprehensible input (where the tool of the vocavulary list helps make the dialogue comprehensible), a show where you look up every unknown word until you undersrand the main idea would be comprehensible input (by intensively looking up unknown words with a translation tool). Comprehensible Input lessons for learners are (usually) a video or classroom where teachers use visuals like gestures, objects, pictures, and expressions to make the main idea of what they're communicating very comprehensible even if you don't know any words they're saying. Comprehensible input lessons made for intermediate students tend to use more of words they expect learners to know, and less visuals, more like graded readers and learner podcasts.

Learners refer to ALL of those things as comprehensible input. Even though they're different! Even though some would require tools to comprehend! If you comprehemd the main idea, it's comprehensible to you. If you can't comprehend the main ideas, you can use tools to Make a material comprehensible by looking up enough unknown items to understand the main idea.

If you comprehend input enough to understand the main idea of something, then you can guess some more details from context - and gradually learn more stuff from the material just from context. So if you make it so you comprehend input, then you can further learn more words and details and grammar from the context of the portions you understand. So if you use a Comprehensible Input Lesson for beginners, and understand the main idea using visual images, the idea is you'll learn some words you're hearing by guessing/understanding based on the context of the images (which you understand). If you use a graded reader and there's 1 unknown word in 100 words you don't know, the idea is you can guess or infer the meaning of that 1 unknown word in context. If you read a news article and look up enough key words to understand the main idea of the article, chances are you'll be able to guess a few additional words in that article from context (without having to look all the words up). If you watch Peppa Pig in a target language, and can follow the main idea using the visuals of the objects on screen, chances are you can guess a rough meaning of some of the words they're saying (maybe they're holding an apple and keep saying a word so you eventually guess that means apple).

Some people say they comprehend as low as 50% of something, and where those kind of guesses come from is probably visual media more. Maybe they comprehend 50% of the actual words in Peppa Pig, but they understand most of the main ideas that are going on in the story thanks to the visuals. People might say they comprehend as little as 20% of a Super Beginner Dreaming Spanish video if say they learned few words, but thanks to the visuals explaining everything visually they understand 90% of the actual main ideas.

My way of deciding if a material is comprehensible enough to start learning some things from context, is if I can follow the main idea. Whether that's a learner podcast and I just happen to know most of the words so I can follow the main idea, or a novel and I look up enough keywords while I read (use a tool) to understand the main idea, or I watch a cartoon where I know few words but visually can understand the main idea going on.

It is comprehensible input, if you comprehend the main idea. That's all. Use tools if you need to, or don't if you understand the main idea without tools.

Learning material designed specifically to be comprehensible to learners tends to be labelled "comprehensible input." I think confusion here comes when someone is studying using ALG or Dreaming Spanish method, and then tells someone else "comprehensible input" is the name of the METHOD they're learning through and it involves no textbooks or classes. The method they're studying with is a specific method. The Dreaming Spanish method, or the ALG method. The method involves using a specific kind of comprehensible input - lessons made for learners, then materials designed for learners to use extensively (as in understandable without tools), then materials for native speakers. But ALL language learning methods utilize various types of comprehensible input. These study methods (ALG, Dreaming Spanish) just specifically use "comprehensible input learner materials" and recommend not using study materials which require tools (by which I mean lookups, translations, explanations in another language, any intensive kinds of study where you look up explanations and translations).

On the other end of the spectrum, some learners call all immersion comprehensible input. And by that they tend to mean, they ARE using tools (anki decks, translation apps, grammar guides) to look up enough words in material to comprehend the main idea. So they are using tools to understand some materials, and perhaps also using comprehensible input made for learners (such as comprehensible input lessons and learner podcasts), and eventually material made for native speakers Is comprehensible enough to them without tools to follow the main idea. This would be Refold method, and some other learners who use the term "comprehensible input" to mean immersion, learner podcasts, CI lessons, broadly.

Textbooks are comprehensible input, designed to have the tools BUILT in to make it comprehensible (vocabulary glossaries with translations, grammar explanations). Language/Target Language sentence audio like Pimsleur and Glossika are comprehensible input - they make it comprehensible by giving you the translation so you understand the input.

All immersion you understand the main idea of, is comprehensible input. Which all learners will do EVENTUALLY when they one day read, listen, watch, speak with someone, write back and forth with someone in the language. All learners get comprehensible input in some form, usually multiple forms. Sometimes comprehensible input you just understand the main idea from context alone. Sometimes you make something into comprehensible input by using tools to understand the main idea. As long as you understand the main idea (however you can), then you can learn additional bits of language from the context of the parts you do understand.

I hope that makes sense.

[grison-in-space]

Sure, but I still want to know their priors and sampling techniques. Failing that, using the most easily accessible methods to gather data can still yield potentially interesting information about overall dynamics even if we apply mathematical analyses that assume oversampling of queer users to "correct" the effects of snowball sampling. It's worth noting that sampling information about human sexuality is pretty much uniformly nightmarish in any case; this is actually not that much worse than published peer reviewed sampling efforts, horribly enough.

I am taking everyone who made a poll to gauge the True Percentage of Queers on Tumblr and putting them through a statistics course

[justladders]

To everyone in the art community, please:

Tracing is effective. But only as a learning tool. Telling people "never trace" can be robbing them of methods that could have been effective to their learning process if they'd known about them.

The "art of using tracing" is a bit looked over, so I have five points:

(it's a long one)

1: AS A RULE OF THUMB, DO NOT POST/SHARE TRACED AND STOLEN ARTWORK. This is not only lying to anyone you show it to, if you're trying to come off as, "I'm so good, look at what I did," but most importantly, it's lying to yourself. You'll trick yourself into not needing to get any better, and you will stagnate if you start to rely on tracing as a form of stealing. If you come to realize that you are, you should stop using any tracing methods altogether to keep yourself from abusing it. It's a slippery slope for beginners, and a big reason why you’ll hear almost everyone echo that you just shouldn’t trace at all. The issue is that this ignores the ways that tracing can actually be good.

2: Tracing sets the stage for motor skills/hand-eye coordination. I've seen so many early-stage beginner artists get upset that the art that they make of their favorite character/oc is messy, or maybe they just don't even know what they want to draw and can’t "make themselves mindlessly doodle.” These early arists then become completely disheartened and upset, especially if they start to look at other people for comparison. Tracing over work or even over photos is a way to train your hand to hold and wield a pencil/stylus properly without you being worried about the finished product. Think of it like a way to dip your toe into learning the process of what making art feels like, without having to get overwhelmed with searching up pointers and people telling you, "10 quick tips to become a master artist!!!!!!!" (<- please ignore those) If you’re just beginning, your hand-eye coordination needs to be trained, and you shouldn't bog yourself down so much thinking about end products just yet, so if tracing is the way to get you started, go for it. If you're a bit more experienced, tracing and drawing over reference can also help you warm up without being committal or stressing your art brain too much.

3: Practice "mindful tracing." While I said the previous point was targeted more at beginners, this point is actually about something that experts in their field use. Doing "mindful tracing" over art means that you aren't worried about getting the lines "correct," you're studying why those lines are there. You're taking note of where the shadows meet the highlights based on the light source, how it shows off the forms, and how sharp or soft the lighting is; you're going over the lines of action in the piece to see how your eye is guided by the artist's intention and planning; you're seeing how characters may be stylized into shapes and the feeling that those shapes can give; you're noting how the artist uses line weight or weird blocks of color or stark breaks to split up the art or separate ideas within it; you're experiencing the flow of the poses within the artwork to grasp how that kind of thing feels; you're breaking down the overall composition like in a thumbnail sketch; and the list goes on.

"Mindful tracing" ends up looking like you've marked up an English essay: it should be messy, because the intent with it is not to copy or replicate, it's to notate. It's like how literally writing notes on things helps you remember better than if you only read it. You're acknowledging instead of just looking. And you can always learn, even from styles that you don't intend on actually using. As you get to be more experienced, you may come to realize that you can do "mindful tracing" analyses on artwork without having to literally write over top of the piece, which is great: that means you're improving your creative brain, and prepping it to be able to break down your own works in this way as you make them.

4: Trace for specific character or style studying. For this point, I want to especially stress that this is what makes everyone say, "don't trace," because this is what tracing is most commonly associated with: art theft. There's really no excusable reason to repost someone's art in this way.

I feel like you have to be a bit more experienced to properly use tracing specifically for style studies. The benefits that come with tracing a certain style is that it can quite literally teach your hand/brain to recognize the patterns that are present. You get a feel for how far apart a specific characters eyes are, how big their hands are, how the shapes of the body make up their form, how the exaggeration in the expressions feel, and when traced you know you have all of these proportions correct. This makes it so much easier to start drawing the specific character on your own if you know that you have a correct baseline (and of course you should still use reference from then on). When you study many different characters of the same style, you can start to grasp what actually makes up this style that you're studying, where -similar to point #3- you train your art brain to recognize the original artists' intentions and ideas. I would even argue that doing this is MORE IMPORTANT than using reference at the very beginning of a style study, because it makes you worry less about if you're pulling from the reference correctly and instead lets you focus on the original art by thinking through it during the process; this kind of thing is done by professionals. Although tracing can net you these benefits for studies, it is not a way to get around the rest of the learning process, which is the pitfall that normally ends up making tracing ineffective.

5: Lastly, I actually kind of lied about tracing "only being good as a learning tool." The other case where tracing gets used is within the process of making hand drawn animation, and I do mean the professional stuff. Model guides are constantly used in classic animation as reference to keep by the animator's side so that characters stay on model, but sometimes there are unnoticeable parts of a character that just get straight-up traced from either the model sheet or a different scene that's already animated. When used smartly and sparingly, this keeps the character on model, is unidentifiable to the audience, and takes up less time for the animators to work (and by "used smartly" I don't mean moments where characters blatantly have 5 seconds of reused animation). I can basically guarantee that this practice was done throughout the making of any 2D project you can think of.

In digital hand drawn art, key frames between points in an animation may get the "shift and trace" treatment, where the tween frame is just a smudged-around-version of the key frames until it looks about right, and then it get traced over. Backgrounds get traced all the time by artists in the professional field through modelling a 3D render of the space, going over it so they have the layout, and then painting on top of it. When drawing characters, people will take photos of themselves and trace the pose, then keep it to the side as reference. And this is all without even mentioning rotoscoping.

When people say, "don't trace," what they actually mean is, "don't trace as a substitute for experience."

The issue is that people blanketly state, "x thing is bad," because then people that aren't learned in the field go, "oh, okay, x thing is bad, it will always be bad, I shouldn't look into it or consider it any more, and I should correct/disgrace anyone that thinks otherwise or does x thing."

So please. Trace. Tell other people to trace. But remember: trace mindfully. :)