#i do like python for a lot of things though don't get me wrong
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slunch · 1 year ago
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re: generative art post
i always really struggled with processing and p5js, but i found Drawbot to be easy and pretty powerful (and i think python is fun)! It’s free and open source, only down side is i think they only have a mac client atm :/
oh thanks for the rec, it looks pretty easy to pick up but i think i'm gonna go the sicko route and try out nannou tonight since I've been trying to pick up Rust this year. we will see
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anonymityisfunwriter · 1 year ago
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Every Part of You
Pairing - Grumpy!Bucky Barnes x Sunshine!Reader A.N. - Alright, I've been asked to write about Bucky and Sunshine's first time many, many times. And the thing is, like sure, I could write that, but also I want us to take a moment to consider trying to build up to that. There's so many firsts buried in there that I think need to be navigated through before they even get there. This is one of those firsts. Like the first time you see Bucky's shoulder.
Bucky Barnes Masterlist | Grumpy Sunshine Series
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"You're just- " You stop speaking, searching for his lips again. Though you're breathless, you can't bring yourself to pull away from him, "You're so pretty."
You shudder as you feel his hand slip under your sweater. The occasional graze of the cool metal on your skin enough to send shivers down your spine.
His lips trail down, nipping at your jaw, "I'm not pretty."
Your hands, winded in the hair at the nape of his neck, glide down his neck, to clutch the fabric of his henley. The moment he feels your fingers toy with the collar of his shirt, his heart hammers against his ribcage. Not in the sort of way that he usually feels in these moments with you. He feels a sense of dread, of panic. It wraps around his spine like a python. It feels like he can't breathe.
"You're so -"
He wrenches away from you, his chest heaving, "Stop, stop, stop."
You freeze, immediately dropping your hands. Panic starts creeping up your throat, coating your words. "Did I - did I do something wrong?"
He gulps, silently shaking his head. It takes him a moment to regain his composure, to regain the ability to speak clearly, "No, no, you're - you're perfect."
Guilt starts to eat at him. He can see you doing your very best to keep your own feelings off your face. He can see the sting of his rejection in the way your lips press together in a tight line. The embarrassment in the pallor of your once flushed cheeks.
You two have worked so hard to overcome your own personal issues and traumas, to build trust in each other, moments like these hadn't come easy. And he so callously pushed you away, it makes him feel worse. And what makes his heart ache even more, he sees nothing but concern for him shining in your eyes. You just look so worried for him.
Your hands rest in your lap. You twist and untwist your fingers. "If you don't want to, we don't - we don't have to do anything. I'm really sorry -"
"No, no, please don't be sorry." He reaches for you, gently squeezing your hand. It soothes him as much as it does you. "I want to. You don't know how much I want to."
"But?"
His eyes squeeze shut. He can't bring himself to meet your eyes. "You haven't seen it before - my arm, my shoulder."
"Oh."
He drops your hand. That feeling takes over him again. It feels like there's not enough air in the room. He slides away from you, closer to the edge of the tiny couch in your apartment. "It's - I am not pretty."
It breaks your heart, watching him pull away from you. You can only imagine how many people have turned away from him before. "James..."
He fervently shakes his head, refusing to open his eyes, "No, no, I know what you're gonna say, but it's bad. A lot worse than you're thinking."
"How do you know what I'm thinking?"
"It's bad," he insists. "I see it every day and I can barely - it's just bad, okay?"
You take his hand, squeezing it tightly. "It's okay if you don't want me to see it. I understand."
He finally opens his eyes again as his eyebrows pull together. He still doesn't meet your eye. "No, no, I want to - I trust you with this, I do. I just - I want you to be prepared."
In that moment, you realize that it's not really about preparing you. Not at all.
He thinks you're going to react badly. He thinks that this will make you turn away from him for the first time ever. He's worried that the love and adoration in your eyes will turn to disgust and repulsion.
It's less about preparing you for the scarred flesh, and more about warning you that he couldn't take a bad reaction. He's not sure he could take it if you turned away from him too.
"I love you," you promise him. "There's nothing that you could show me that would change that. I hope you know that."
There is no response to that. And you know that he won't believe it until he sees it. It takes him a moment. His hand toys with the hem of his shirt. His hand grips the hem, only to let it go.
"I love you," you remind him.
He takes a large gulp of air, pulling off his shirt with one quick movement.
You weren't really sure what you were expecting. You knew the story. You knew how Bucky lost his arm. He even confided the bits and pieces he remembered from getting his vibranium arm.
Your eyes trail over his skin. The shoulder is scarred, scars jut in every direction. Each scar is etched into his skin. It's clear it was a painful, violent experience for him. The metal plate protrudes from the scar tissue in a way that you're sure was painful when first placed. You look on with curiosity, you're not really sure how this, a sign of survival, a badge of resilience, could ever make anyone turn away from him.
He's as breathtaking as you could ever imagine.
Your eyes flicker up at him. He looks at the blank wall of your apartment, scared to watch your facial expressions as you take it in. "Can I?"
He nods, barely able to look you in the eyes. He sucks in a breath when your fingers make contact with the scar tissue surrounding the metal plate.
You immediately pull your fingers back, worried you've accidentally hurt him. "Does it hurt?"
"No," he answers reflexively.
You know he's lying. "I've seen you holding your shoulder before - holding it like it hurts."
"Sometimes," he amends. "The doctor said there's a lot of nerve damage. Things they can't fix."
"Does it hurt now?"
"No."
You run your hand over the plate, over his scars, down to his shoulder blade.
"Still think I'm pretty?" he sarcastically remarks.
You press a gentle kiss to his bare shoulder. "I'll always think you're pretty. Every part of you."
Bucky Barnes Masterlist AnonymityIsFun Masterlist
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ms-demeanor · 2 years ago
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(remaking the post because you can't edit polls and i gave the wrong options)
Alright I'm registering for classes and someone needs to talk me out of doing stupid shit but I'm unsure of what shit is stupidest.
Winter term:
I just finished an 8-week photo class that ended up being a huge investment in time just to go and shoot. However that was introductory photography and there is a 6-week intermediate photography class over winter term. I am signed up for photography. (Elective option for AA in Visual Arts)
There is also a 6-week introductory python course over winter term that I am signed up for and will be taking. I'm solid on that one, as long as I pass my C# class this term I'm going to be taking Python for 6 weeks at the beginning of the year.
Spring term:
College Chemistry Saturday class. 7am to 12pm for sixteen weeks. Lab and lecture; this school doesn't offer any chem classes that are after standard 9-5 hours during the regular week or that can be taken even partially online. Pretty sure I'm going to be stuck with this one and am configuring the rest of my schedule around being *less* miserable because of this class.
Survey of Western Art - Online, seems like a gimme. Does have a textbook but not one that I'm going to pay for. (Required for AA in Visual Arts)
2-Dimensional Design - Online, seems fun and like a gimme, Free/No textbook. (Required for AA in Visual Arts)
Object-Oriented Programming - Online, seems difficult, expensive textbook. Will probably be very necessary if I end up going down a more CS/tech path. Probably going to force myself to take this class.
Java Programming - Online, seems not unapproachable, expensive textbook. I don't particularly wanna but my school offers really limited options for computer science and I want to get what I can out of it before I go somewhere else.
Rationale for these weird combinations:
I'm applying as a nursing student at three schools and a biochem student at one of those schools (nutrition programs are apparently only for first-time students; 2nd Bachelor's applications are a lot more limited. I could apply to major in Francophone Studies at one of the schools though). Supposing I get accepted, these classes certainly won't hurt my status at any school that accepts me and the chemistry class is going to be really really necessary. This is the "i give a fuck about nutrition science and also directly helping people" path and if I go this way I'm interested in NP programs down the line. LOTS more school of the serious "I can't work and do this kind of school at the same time" variety.
If I *don't* get accepted to the programs I'm applying to, I'm going to go to a different community college and start working on a couple of AS degrees in computer junk (network admin and security management, computer and networking technology) and get some computer junk certs. I don't think I want/need a BS in compute science, this is the "practical" route of "I could finish this stuff pretty easily and continue working in a field where I have a lot of connections and familiarity with the industry but I am indifferent about a lot of it (pretty passionate about security and accessibility tho). Also allows me to keep working while I just churn school in the background, and all of the computer classes are transferable between the two schools.
Art classes: I think having multiple degrees is funney. I am currently 5 classes away from an AA in visual arts, at the end of this term I will be 4 classes away; if I take all the classes here and can take an elective over the summer I'll have a degree in visual arts. (There is a reasonable possibility that I'll continue taking bullshit classes behind the scenes to get silly degrees regardless of what happens otherwise)
Pretty sure the sensible thing is to drop *at least* photography and survey of western art and also possibly Java and 2D design. I'm somewhat concerned that if my spring term is just Saturday chem and object oriented programming I will start biting things.
So:
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twoidiotwriters1 · 1 year ago
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The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)
A/N: This is another chapter I was looking forward to post! -Danny Words: 2,549 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'Eight' -by Sleeping At Last
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XXXI: I Would Fight Myself if I Could
Percy is on the steps to Cabin Ten waiting for me. Lily and Nico share a look and mumble something about the Big House before turning away. My brother stares at me, and a small smile shows up on his face.
"Purple's definitely your color."
I grin. "You really know how to cheer an Aphrodite up." I pause and reform my sentence. "Former Aphrodite."
He doesn't get up from the steps. "You know when we went to the sea of monsters? When Hermes gave me those gifts?"
"Yeah?"
"I tried to give 'em back at first because he wanted me to help Luke. I told him Luke was a lost cause, he hated the Olympians."
"Did he get angry?"
"He told me no one can quit their family, no matter if you hate each other."
"Bet you didn't believe that."
"He said I would someday. I thought he was trying to sound wise... but he was right."
Percy's looking so defeated even though he just won the war, that I feel like a terrible person. I'm the reason why my brother can't enjoy his victory.
"Do you hate me, brother?" I ask quietly.
He gets up. "I'm trying to say I'll always care for you even if you hate me."
"I don't hate you," I frown. "I've said mean things, but I don't hold them against you, I know you're scared. I'm scared for you too, that's why I did this."
He nods slowly, deep in thought. "I was willing to die for all of you, I can't lie and say I don't understand where you're coming from..."
"We're good," I state. "You know, sometimes I feel like we've been siblings our whole lives, maybe our souls are old friends," I walk past him. "But we're on different paths. Don't make me quit my free will and my family on the same day."
His face gets really serious. "Never. I'm here for you, Birdy."
I smile. "Would you help me, then? I can't stay in Cabin Ten now that I'm the Strategus."
He pauses. "But isn't it against the rules..."
I stare at him with a deadpan expression. "We're siblings, Percy."
"Right," he makes a face. "I need a nap."
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After Frank explains that he's been hearing the Roman and Greek versions of his dad shouting inside his head, it makes sense that he was interested to hear more about the voices in her head.
"Maybe we can fix your problem and save Hazel while doing so," Ara's mind races through several ideas. "If you offer a deal to your mentally unstable father, maybe he'll get us a python for Trip's chariot. Ask them if they'd like that."
Frank looks at her begrudgingly, but he closes his eyes anyway. He grumbles and groans for a few seconds, then fixes his posture, still not opening his eyes. "Horatius... Fine. If that's what it takes, I'll prove I'm as good as Horatius. Uh... what did he do?" 
After a second, Frank's eyes open and he looks at her. 
"I hope you're in the mood for a Phorcy's 2.0"
Ara grins. "Always am."
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"Get on one knee so I can crown you the Canadian lone ranger."
Ara ties a large shirt over Frank's nose and mouth to protect him from the cow-dogs's poison. She won't even try to call those monsters by their name, she knows she'll get it wrong.
"All set," Ara covers her nose and mouth as well. "Ready?"
"You look weirdly happy," Frank points out while pulling up tiles and searching for roots.
"That's because I'm absurd. It took Jason, Piper, and Leo a week to figure it out," Ara cuts pieces of the roots and stuffs her pockets with them. She's wearing safety gloves to protect her skin. "Sorry you have to put up with me."
"Percy's a lot like you, Greeks are generally crazier," he comments while Ara ties pieces of roots to the belt loops of his pants. "I'll survive."
"That's the first time someone says Percy's like me and not the other way around," she says bemusedly.
Frank chuckles, then shrugs. "So why are you happy?"
"Because we have a plan. I like it when solutions are found quickly, and even more when it's something I can do without help. Well, partially—I sort of need you."
"Thank you," he replies without much excitement. "Now let's hunt some smelly cows."
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The monsters might look heavy, but these creatures can run. Ara turns Almighty into a spear and Frank turns into a lion, she climbs his back and holds onto his mane, stabbing the cow-dogs that dare to inch closer.
They run through narrow streets, taunting the creatures with the nasty smell of their roots. Her spear isn't killing them fast enough so she switches to something different: a BB gun. Ara has better aim with a gun than she ever had with a bow, but Michael never let her use guns in camp because he considered that too risky.
She wonders what he'd think, watching her ride a lion through Venice while shooting at an army of cow-dogs. He'd be torn between awe and horror no doubt. Ara thinks about what her younger self would think, and that image comes effortlessly: Little Ara would be whooping and screaming at her to aim between the eyes.
Frank stops near a canal and turns into a human. Ara jumps off his back and keeps shooting. "You want our poison roots?" He screams, slashing through the herd with Hazel's sword. "Come and get them!"
He grabs Ara by the waist and jumps to the canal, turning into a dolphin. The girl holds onto him, but even though she'd been expecting this part, the smelly water is warm and repulsive, and she squirms in disgust.
"This sucks!" She shoots at the monsters angrily. "Nico's in debt for life!"
It feels like an eternity of running and killing, Ara keeps changing Almighty into different weapons to test out its efficiency, and she keeps glowing different colors as well: White, silver, green, and teal (she grew tired after that one, pulled half a dozen cow-dogs to the canal). 
"There!" Frank points at an old wooden bridge.
"Looks weak!" Ara nods approvingly. "Let's go!"
Frank turns into an eagle to make sure all the monsters are still following them, and Ara focuses on shooting, slashing, stabbing, and exploding the monsters with the bombs she had in her Octopi. Frank joins her in human form, pulling her to the middle of the bridge.
He grabs the roots from her pockets and tosses them behind them along with his roots, then he draws out Hazel's spatha. "Come on! You want to know what Frank Zhang is worth? Come on!"
Ara's never used all of her blessings in a row, and it takes a lot from her. Her anger is keeping her standing, she's tired of having to guess whether they'll be wounded or helped—most of all, she's tired of pitying herself. 
Ara likes a good fight, and she enjoys killing monsters, but lately, all she thinks is that she's sending threats to Percy and Annabeth, thinning their chances of survival and getting in their way like she's always done. 
Her actions have consequences, in this world and the next, and the ones around her. All she can do is minimize the damage by not going apeshit. She focuses on achieving their goal even if it costs her a limb, she can't go back to the ship with Nico as a plant and no Hazel, so she'll do whatever Frank tells her to, twist herself into knots if she has to.
The girl calculates all of her moves and keeps an eye on Frank, who attacks the monsters in all the forms he can imagine, animal and human. He's a little frantic too, their strength and patience are running out. 
Eventually, a red light envelops them. There are no monsters left except for one, and Ara yanks Frank backward before he slays it. "You said we needed one!"
"Mars!" Frank yells, eyes wild and angry. "I've proven myself. Now I need a snake!"
The cow-dog jumps at them, and Frank moves Ara out of the way to cut it in half. The monster vanishes in a flash, and in its place, a python lands at their feet.
"Well done," says a voice.
Ara drops her sword. This is Mars, not Ares, she knows the difference because this version looks less stupid. She kneels before him, grateful. Percy would not approve of this, but the girl doesn't care. Ares has always kept her alive, like Clarisse did when they were little.
"On your feet, Strategus," he commands her. "A good leader knows when to hand over the reigns, and when to take control. You've earned my blessing."
Ara feels a lump in her throat but says nothing, she steps back so Frank can talk to his dad. "Father," the boy speaks hoarsely.
"It's natural to feel fear." Ara only heard him speak this warmly when Clarisse killed the drakon. "All great warriors are afraid. Only the stupid and the delusional are not. But you faced your fear, my son. You did what you had to do, like Horatius. This was your bridge, and you defended it."
"I—" Frank gulps. "I... I just needed a snake."
The god smirks. "Yes. And now you have one. Your bravery has united my forms, Greek and Roman, if only for a moment. Go. Save your friends. But hear me, Frank. Your greatest test is yet to come. When you face the armies of Gaea at Epirus, your leadership—" the god bends over, his form glitching from the Roman to the Greek. "Agony!" He moans. "Go! Hurry!"
"Get on my back," Frank tells her. 
Ara does and then he turns into an eagle, grabs the python with his claws, and flies away. 
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"You found one!" Triptolemus says delightedly.
"Heal them," Frank drags the python into the room and then moves over to Hazel. "Now."
"How do I know the snake will work?"
Ara yanks the python closer to the chariot, tilts it sideways, and wraps the creature around the broken wheel. The chariot comes to life and starts circling the room.
"Fixed." Ara crosses her arms. "That'll be two healthy children of the Underworld, please."
Triptolemus tilts his head, toying with their worry. "Well, thank you for the snake, but I'm not sure I like your attitudes, demigods. Perhaps I'll turn you into—"
Frank jumps to his feet and pushes the god against a wall. It's only then that Ara notices his physical change. She glances down, her body looks different too.
"Think about your next words," Frank growls. "Or instead of beating my sword into a plowshare, I will beat it into your head."
"You know..." The god's eyes dart between him and Ara, who's glaring at him too. "I think I'll heal your friends." 
"Swear it on the River Styx," Frank presses.
"I swear it on the River Styx."
The boy steps back and Triptolemus stumbles away from him. "Just—just gathering herbs!"
Frank stands next to Ara, taller than before. Before they left Trip's house, Nico the potted plant was the same height as her, now it barely reaches her chin. Both demigods look at each other and Ara whistles.
"You look scary."
"You're small... but a different small," Frank frowns. "Like a bodybuilder that's just getting started. There's a child of Venus in New Rome—"
Hazel coughs and sits up. Triptolemus is next to her, his fingers full of crumbs and greenish matter.  "What—?"
Frank approaches and wraps his arms around her, he could suffocate the fourteen-year-old without even trying. "You're going to be fine. Everything is fine."
"But..." Hazel moves away and eyes him. "Frank, what happened to you?"
"To me?" He looks at himself. "I don't... Uh... I don't... Maybe I can fix it."
Hazel laughs. "Why? You look amazing!"
"I—I do?"
"I mean, you were handsome before! But you look older, and taller, and so distinguished—"
"Mars's blessing," Ara explains. "We both got it, I think."
"You think?" Triptolemus snorts. "Now, if we're done here..."
"We're not done," Frank points at the corn plant. "Heal Nico."
Nico turns back into a human and Ara steadies him before he falls on his face. "I—I had the weirdest nightmare about popcorn." He scowls at Ara, now as tall as him. "Why are we eye-to-eye?"
"You've been a corn plant for two years—"
"Knock it off, Birdy," Frank interrupts her. "Everything's fine. Triptolemus was about to tell us how to survive the House of Hades. Weren't you, Trip?"
"Fine," Trip makes a face. "When you arrive at Epirus, you will be offered a chalice to drink from."
"Offered by whom?" Nico questions.
"Doesn't matter. Just know that it is filled with deadly poison."
"So you're saying that we shouldn't drink it," Hazel says hesitantly.
"No! You must drink it, or you'll never be able to make it through the temple. The poison connects you to the world of the dead, lets you pass into the lower levels. The secret to surviving is... barley."
"Barley." Frank repeats.
"In the front room, take some of my special barley. Make it into little cakes. Eat these before you step into the House of Hades. The barley will absorb the worst of the poison, so it will affect you, but not kill you."
"That's it?" Nico frowns. "Hecate sent us halfway across Italy so you could tell us to eat barley?"
"Good luck!" Triptolemus gets on his chariot. "And, Frank Zhang, I forgive you for threatening me! You've got spunk. And you're brighter than you look, daughter of Olympus! I'd love to see you two get a degree in farming!"
"Not a chance, Trip!" Ara waves him off.
"Yeah," Frank makes a face. "Thanks."
"He's right, you know," Nico tells her. "You don't look smart. Ouch! You're stronger?!" He asks in outrage.
"Be quiet or I'll send you to camp in pieces," Ara warns him.
"Oh, to be mobile again!" Triptolemus exclaims as the garage doors open. "So many ignorant lands in need of my knowledge. I will teach them the glories of tilling, irrigation, fertilizing! Away, my serpents! Away!"
"I kind of regret fixing his ride," Ara mumbles. "We've released a nuance into the world."
"Can't be any worse than what's already out there," Frank sighs.
"That," Hazel says, "was very strange."
"The glories of fertilizing." Nico moves away from Ara and brushes off the corn hairs of his jacket. "Can we get out of here now?"
"Are you two okay, really?" Hazel places a hand on Frank's shoulder. "You bartered for our lives. What did Triptolemus make you do?"
Frank looks at his feet and takes a shaky breath. "Those cow monsters... the katoblepones that poisoned you... we had to destroy them."
"That was brave," Nico points out. "There must have been, what, six or seven left in that herd."
"No." Frank corrects him. "All of them. We killed all of them in the city."
Ara holds Frank's hand to absorb some of his torment. "I told Triptolemus I could fix his chariot, and Frank just did his best to help me."
"You put your life on the line just so we could heal Hazel," Frank squeezes her hand once and then lets go. "We helped each other. I know it's your job, but..."
"My job is to keep you from danger, not to put you in its way," Ara makes a face. "It won't happen again, I apologize."
"Look at that," Nico raises a brow. "That's the second time I hear a sincere apology from you. Maybe those blessings make you grow in more ways than one." 
She thinks about what Hercules said, her ambition feeding on her youth. "How fun..."
"Well," Nico moves toward the exit. "Does anyone know what barley looks like?"
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thesuetyouforgot · 1 year ago
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What do you think of the German comedian Loriot? And about the TV show 'Sketch History'? I absolutely love both, and 'Sketch History' reminds me of Monty Python soo much (the team must have been majorly inspired by them). They really nailed the humour and came up with their own recurring characters and creative sketches. I wish I could translate all the sketches into English and show them to an international audience 😅
Omg I LOVE Loriot! Especially the TV series/the sketches. I could write entire essays about it. Did you know that he actually stole from Monty Python quite a bit? (I will put a paragraph on that below the cut bc I've wanted to talk about that for years now lol but feel free to just ignore that part)
Sadly I'm not the right person to talk about Sketch History with. I dislike that show so much for no apparent reason. I just really don't enjoy it and never found it that funny tbh, it's so far off my humour... I'm sorry. But after hearing your praise I will definitely give a few of their sketches another chance now and find out if they maybe remind me of Monty Python as well. Do you have any recommendations for which sketches are the best/most like Python?
And thank you for your ask! :)
Now, what did Loriot "steal"?
Most famous example is the Wrong Interview Partner sketch in which the wrong person (with an ordinary job) accidentally ends up in a TV studio, getting asked the questions which were intended for someone with an extreme job. (In one version it's a deep sea diver and in the other one it's an astronaut, can't remember which one is by whom.) Why is this one 'famous'? Because John Cleese himself spoke about it, pointing out that it really is copied in an obvious way.
A really obviously stolen sketch is the 'Superscope' sketch introducing a revolutionary new invention of an extremely wide screen on which you can watch entire races without a single cut or camera move. Since it's just a tiny strip of white across your TV screen you can't even hide that it's stolen. (In one case it's a horse race, I believe, and the other one a 500m sprint?)
Another one which is less obvious but I still believe was inspired a lot by Monty Python is the beloved "Das Bild hängt schief" in which a salesman is to wait in a room until someone has time for him and in the meantime -due to butterfly effect really- accidentally demolishes the whole interior piece by piece. Monty Python has a sketch where we have someone waiting for someone in a room, too, but in this case he ends up accidentally killing everyone of the staff who enters that room. (That would probably have been too extreme for German TV, while the need to correct a wonky hanging painting is way more realistic. But I wouldn't be surprised if Loriot did get inspired by MP.)
The last one is something that could also be wrong because I might have mixed it up in my memory but MP has the Hide and Seek Olympics. And in a little Loriot intersection we see a reporter (unsuccessfully) looking for the Hide and Seek finalist, too, if I remember correctly.
On the other hand I think it's not a bad thing. It was a normal thing to do: You see something you like in another country and try to bring it to your own people, too. It's been done with songs, game shows, anything... Its just interesting because at that time Monty Python's Flying Circus wasn't even that famous and loved in Britain itself. So knowing of its existence and deciding to use some of their material is quite fascinating to me. (The wrong interview sketch by Loriot was aired one day prior to the airing of Monty Pythons Fliegender Zirkus in 1972. The other sketches weren't aired until 1976 though.)
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saucy-mesothelioma · 1 year ago
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Is there any piece of British media you enjoy a lot? I want to learn the British accent (for my career, ofc) and it's the best way to get myself into it
Ooh, that's a really intriguing question, and I'd love to hear about your career if you don't mind sharing because it sounds interesting! I like to do voiceovers for a hobby so I definitely get the importance of having media to compare and go off of. Of course, I have no clue about specific accents so you might have to do additional research if you need a very specific region, but I'll try my best to give a few pieces of media that might be able to help.
•The Magnus Archives/The Magnus Protocol: It's a horror podcast about an institute that takes in statements on the paranormal, and has a wide array of characters to use for reference. And since it's an audio performance, it might be easier to pick up inflections and things like that. Not to mention it's incredibly entertaining.
•The Outlaws: I never got around to finishing this show, but it's pretty good. It's about a group of people doing community service that end up getting involved in a drug gang ring. It's pretty funny even though quite a bit of the comedy comes from second-hand embarrassment, but it's definitely not bad.
•End of the F***ing World: That's another show I haven't finished primarily because I was watching it with my brother. From what I can remember, it's about two kids (one a moody teen girl and the other a teen boy who thinks he's a psychopath) who run off to find the girl's estranged father. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about it, but from what I do know it was entertaining.
•Extras: It's sort've like The Office (in fact it was written and stars two of the guys who wrote the UK Office) but it follows a guy who's trying to become a prominent actor and fails miserably. It's got a lot of guest appearances and it's a relatively short series as well. I personally hate shows like The Office, but this was one I liked.
•Haunting of Bly Manor: Not as good as Haunting of Hill House in my opinion, but it's still an incredibly good although short horror series. It's about a woman who goes to care for two kids for their uncle after they were orphaned. It'll definitely be entertaining to watch and it's worth a try.
•Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show/TV Series: You already know what Hitchhiker's Guide is so I won't explain it, but if I had to choose one or the other to suggest I would go with the radio show. The TV series is amazing, don't get me wrong, but for your purposes I find that audio-only pieces of media would work best. This is the version I prefer to listen to.
•Anything Monty Python: I can't guarantee that this would be the best source because it genuinely might be too entertaining. I fuckin love Monty Python with everything I have and there's not much I can say about it because it's just something you have to experience.
Of course, you can also look towards prominent British actors like Tim Curry, Angela Lansbury, and John Oliver, which is something I would suggest doing as well. Personally another thing that I've found to be helpful is also practicing a transatlantic accent, which is basically halfway between an American accent and a British accent. The only two people I can think of off the top of my head that have a very good transatlantic accent are Vincent Price and David Ogden Stiers (specifically as his role as Charles Winchester in M*A*S*H), so that might be some good warm-up. Hopefully this was of some help!
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living-d3ad-gh0ul · 2 years ago
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Tuesday 17th October 2023, 02:45am
I really should be asleep right now. But I can't seem to get comfortable and when I do, my brain just won't shut up. So here I am, writing to you. I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I don't know why. I think I've been missing you a bit. Is it strange to miss you? I don't know. I'm sorry if it is.
I really hope your blood tests came back okay and everything is all well with your health. Do you know when you'll have surgery yet? I was thinking about that the other day and hoping I hadn't missed it, so I could wish you good luck for it. I'm really glad to hear that you've found a job you can do that will turn into a career too and that you can get the training for it. Has that happened yet? Or are you still waiting?
I knew you were thinking of leaving the band, and that's okay. If it's ran it's course for you, then I'm sure your bandmates will be understanding, especially if they're your friends. I really hope the last two shows went well and that you enjoyed playing them at least and I hope the last show you do next month is good too. Will it be near your birthday? Because I know that's coming up really soon too. It's the week after I get back from another comic con, I go away on 17th November and come home on the 19th, so I'm just gone for the weekend. This time it's in Wales, I've only been there once when I was a kid.
Aw no poor Chonky :( I really really hope she's okay now. It sucks when our pets get sick, because they don't have a voice to tell you exactly what's wrong, so it can be pretty worrying. It's a good job that owners can usually tell though when something's wrong and what it could be, because they know their pet well. But it sounds like you did the right thing for her and I hope she's feeling much better now. I'm sure she loved having you look after her and care for her and make sure she was all okay.
Don't worry about streaming and stuff, you can come back to it whenever you feel like it, whenever you have the time. I look forward to the next time you do, I've missed chilling in your chat and just.. hanging out. I liked it before. I actually was playing some of the Cyberpunk DLC myself the other week, it was quite fun haha. But I definitely think I need to start upgrading my PC soon. Definitely a new fan and CPU and maybe a secondary SSD. I would upgrade my GPU but those are so expensive and my 1080 still serves me well at the moment.
I'm sorry it's been a little bit since I last wrote, I've just been busy with work mostly. I haven't had much going on or much exciting happening. Apart from going over to Belfast to surprise my best friend, that was quite cool. We went to another convention, I just booked a flight and a hotel and turned up. She had no clue I was coming and was really surprised when I got there haha. I literally just went over for like.. 24 hours. I'd felt bad cause I had to cancel a trip to go see her at the end of this month just due to work and not being able to get the holidays and stuff. So I was pretty upset and just wanted to do something kinda.. fun and spontaneous? Idk
Ian Somerhalder walked by me too and didn't even notice it, it wasn't until my best friend pointed him out and I was like "oh shit" hahaha. But I was more excited about Peter Facinelli and Jackson Rathbone from Twilight, I used to love that when I was like.. 14. I would have met Ian and Paul too, but it was far too expensive for me. Maybe some day I will. I recently started watching The Vampire Diaries again, since it's spooky season and all and I haven't watched it for years. So I've went right back to the start, I'm at the end of season 1 right now where Isobel is in it (I hate Isobel. And I fucking hate John Gilbert too)
It was also my dad's birthday on 8th October. That was a pretty hard day. I was quite sad and upset all day, but I watched a lot of my dad's favourite programs and stuff and tried to distract myself. Red Dwarf, Monty Python, The Mighty Boosh (which me and my dad actually started watching together) and some Billy Connolly. I also listened to some of his favourite music too. And I got a clootie dumpling from a local bakery (it's like a Christmas pudding kind of but not as rich), coincidentally it was the same bakery me and my dad and grandma and grandpa would go to, it was just down the street from my grandma's house. My grandma used to make him one for his birthday every year when he was a kid, instead of a birthday cake because it was cheaper. And he loved it. It was one of his favourite things. He'd always ask me to bring him some down when I'd go down and visit him in Nottingham, because you can't really get it anywhere in England and to make a proper one yourself, it's a bit of a pain and really easy to mess up if you don't do certain things right lol. When he was in the nursing home, I remember one day the chef had came to talk to him and asked him about food he liked and stuff. He was telling me that they'd asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted and my dad immediately asked if he could have a dumpling. The chef agreed and said they absolutely could do that and I remember my dad being so so happy. His face was just.. completely lit up, big wide smiles, all excited. I think that's what made me extra sad, because he had been so excited for his birthday and his dumpling. He really liked the simple things in life, honestly.
So even though he wasn't here, he got his dumpling. I went out early on the Saturday morning and picked it up, had a chat with the guy who owns the bakery (who actually weirdly recognised me and asked me who my family were, so I told him and he immediately remembered me from when I was a kid, telling me about how he remembered I'd come in with my grandma to get the rolls and the papers, how I'd come in with my dad for a yum yum or a strawberry tart lol. I unfortunately had to break the news of my dad's passing to him, he didn't know. And he was quite sympathetic. He was a nice guy, just as friendly as I remembered when I was a kid. I'll attach a picture of the dumpling to this so you can see. I stuck a candle in it and everything for him. Sang him happy birthday and cried while doing so. But I knew he'd be nearby. I knew he'd be standing right behind me hugging me while I did. God just writing this is making me tear up a little bit.
I've started some grief counselling too. I think they are really helping me. I'm getting it through the hospice who helped with dad's end of life care, even though the were only involved for.. well a few days.. they've given me more support that some family have (my mother included. I'm still at odds with her. She's done more horrible and nasty shit since we last spoke and.. honestly I'm just seeing her for her true colours now, realising that I've been gaslit, emotionally neglected and manipulated by her for a very long time). My boss has been more than happy to allow me to attend these sessions, because they know in the long run it's going to help me and isn't going to affect my performance at work or anything. I'm actually doing really well at work at the moment, even considering that it is incredibly stressful and emotionally/mentally taxing at times, but I've had nothing but good reports in my weekly catch ups with my manager so far. So I think it's safe to say they can see that I am more than capable of doing the job. I just wanna try get through my probation and then move to a different department. Something that doesn't involve talking to customers lol.
Gran also got out of hospital, which is a good thing. She's back home and still resting and stuff, trying to get her strength back. She was in there for like.. just over a month. Unfortunately we don't think shes gonna be able to get any more chemo though, which sucks. But we're hoping her oncologist will still be able to do surgery for her, we just have to keep trying to get her strength up and make sure she's eating well and we're getting her walking and stuff. Even if it's just to the kitchen and back or around the garden. Small steps. It hopefully will make a big difference. I've been making sure to go see her at least once a week, even just for a couple hours at the very least.
I don't have much else going on right now. It's just work and looking forward to next month when I go to Wales. I don't think I have anything incredibly exciting planned for Halloween, which sucks, but I'll be working this year unfortunately. Maybe I can just relax and watch some spooky movies after work, eat some terrible sweets and enjoy myself a little. Oh and I'm on some new medication too actually, I'm not sure if it's working yet, I don't feel anything different. This is for a physical thing, not a mental thing. But it's nothing too serious, just something I need to like.. manage symptoms of.
I really hope you're doing well, E. I hope everything's going good and that your health is good and Chonky is good and work is starting and surgery is getting scheduled and all the good things. I know it must be getting warmer there too, because it's definitely getting fucking colder here haha. I've been absolutely frozen in the mornings for a couple days now, until I turn the heat on again and warm up. I think it's gonna be a reaaaaally cold winter this year which is unfortunate.
I really hope to hear from you soon. And I hope I've got more exciting things to tell you next time.
N x
"I saw you in a dream then it came to an end, I wonder if you'll come visit me again"
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(the selfie was me at the con in Northern Ireland. It was SO fucking hot, I was boiling all day. But I still looked cute I think.. maybe haha)
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dollsonmain · 8 months ago
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First thing I did after getting through the whole OOB setup wankery was uninstall a bunch of shit, then install a bunch of other shit (Algodoo and Synthesia both work, thank goodness, they're old programs so I was a little worried, and I did have to buy a new unlock key for Synthesia but it was on sale today so like $30 instead of $40), and install shit for the shit (uBlock etc. for Firefox).
Son was afraid to use it at first and tried to get me to get him a slower laptop with a smaller HD that was cheaper but I decided to get the one with 16GB RAM and 1TB because the price wasn't that different, really. Still happy the sticker said it was about $700 and it was actually closer to $500.
That Guy was pissed off that I gave Son time to decide he was ready to use the new laptop on his own instead of forcing it on him.
We picked out and ordered a silicone keyboard cover together.
I'm tempted to scratch the case on purpose so Son doesn't have to worry about it (he opted not to get a case for it since it won't be moving around), but I'll wait until the 30-day return period has passed at least, and maybe by then Son will be less worried about breaking it. He's broken two school laptops this year and one the year before, but he's not broken the laptop that stays here in all this time so I'm not worried he's going to break this one. All the other breakings happened because he was tantruming after being bothered by a specific kid at school or frustrated with a teacher, and that kid isn't here.
That Guy was complaining because "Win11 is spyware" and I was like "Yeah, I know. Not many other options on new Windows-based systems, though." I wouldn't mind getting Son set up with Linux but it's not like I've ever used Linux or know how to get the two whole programs Son likes to use to run on it.
I'm not too worried about the garbage parts of Win11 since all Son does do is watch YouTube and play with Algodoo and Synthesia. That's literally it. No other websites (I can't even get him to look stuff up for himself, he's too worried he'll do something wrong despite me installing script and ad blockers), no other programs, just those three things.
I did install OpenShot and InkScape so he has the opportunity to play around with those, and told him that he can install the modules to let him learn how to code in Python on that laptop, which might be something to look into this summer, especially if he doesn't have his license yet and can't get a summer job. He's 17, now, but I don't think he's quite ready to take his driving test, and that's ok.
I didn't install Libre Office, he doesn't do that kind of thing on his personal laptop but he does use some of the Microsoft suite on his school laptop. I can install it any time if he decides he needs it.
Anyway, what he wants to do for a living is be a stocker at a grocery store, which won't work out in the long run because that doesn't pay enough to live off of, even at full time. It might be enough once he's been there a while and maybe he can get promoted to management. Maybe he can find roommates or maybe he can just stay here. I'd rather not stay here myself, but I can't earn enough to live off of, either.
I think the guys that come in to the gas station and stock stuff for specific vendors get paid more and suggested Son look into being an assistant in that job so he doesn't have to worry about driving the big truck (I saw a bunch of job postings for vendor assistants while I've been looking for work) but can get an idea of what that kind of work is like if he doesn't end up finding a similar job at a store in town. It's not a job that would sustain him, but would be a good job to start out with, though it might be easier for him to stock just one brand in multiple places versus stocking a whole store. It could also lead to him learning a lot about the brand's products and moving to selling/ordering. Each vendor has a sales rep that comes in once a week, rearranges things (they kind of fight over prime space....), orders whatever is low for the shop, and talks to the shop manager about new products or products that are being discontinued, etc.
It's an option, either way.
He could work on learning coding in his off time if he wants to.
I won't push it on him, though. I think he'd be really good at coding once he got the hang of it because of the way he can work with numbers and how sharp his memory is and the same for vending/selling, but that doesn't mean he has to do that.
I hate setting up new computers omg. I forgot they require an email and login now for windows. Kids a kid he doesn’t have one. Required a second email too so now mines on there and I wanted the new laptop to not be tied to me at all ever. Goddammit.
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xpc-web-dev · 2 years ago
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100 days of code : day 4
(29/03/2023)
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Hello, how are you everyone?
Yesterday I started the 4th I studied about the random module but I had an anxiety attack and I didn't finish. (I'm better)
Today I finished the random and we started the array. But there's still a little bit left to finish. And during the afternoon I had several ideas of things I want to learn and I had a slight outbreak because there are so many things and how to organize myself.
But something I want to share is that I don't feel like I learn from Professor Angela, her teaching is not bad and she gives a lot of exercises.
BUT my head feels that something is missing and I know that I don't really think with it, precisely because the answers are easily accessible, which makes it easier to procrastinate or, in a slight error, look for the answer (no, I don't want moralistic advice on how this is wrong, I have a conscience, I'm just sharing my logic)
And why doesn't it seem to me that I'm learning algorithms and data structure, even though today, for example, I've seen array.
So, accessing the free university on github (I'll make a post, but I'll leave a link here too) I found the Brazilian version and saw a course on Introduction to Computer Science with Python and I loved it, because then I feel like I'm going to algorithms and data structure, and it's taught by the best college in my country (my dream included)
And then for me to stop feeling like a fraud and REALLY try hard.
I decided to make my own roadmap (not the official version yet) It will basically be:
Introduction to computer science part 1 and 2
Exercises from the algorithm course in python (I did it last year, but I really want to do it and make an effort this year)
Graphs
Data structure
Object orientation
programming paradigms
Git and GitHub
Clean Code
Design system
Solid
And only after that go back to 100 days (but now managing to do algorithm exercises for example) So then it would be:
100 days of code
django
Apis
Database
Practice projects.
Another thing I wanted to share (but I'll probably talk more about it in another post) is how the pressure/hurry of wanting to get a job is screwing up my studies.
I WILL NOT be able to learn things effectively on the run.
So I talked to myself and decided that this year I'm going to focus on learning as best I can, but without rushing to get a job (I have the privilege of living with my mother and she supports me) and then next year I'll go back to the call center to pay my bills and then look for a job in the area
I want to feel confident in my code, I want to REALLY know what to do and do it well.
But it won't be in a hurry, so I prefer peace to be able to learn in the best way and everything I want than to freak out and not leave the place.
Anyway, if you've read this essay so far I thank you and I wish you well UHEUHEUHEUHUEH
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krakenartificer · 4 years ago
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When I got my ADHD diagnosis, I looked at the questions on the screening form and thought, "If this result comes back positive, then I'm definitely not the only person in my family who has it." Questions like
"Have difficulty finishing one activity before starting another one" and
"I finish others' sentences before they can finish it themselves" and
"have trouble staying on one topic when talking"
...I thought were just weird quirks of my family, but no. When I got my results, I contacted my cousin, and she contacted her sisters and mother, and .. .. yeah. Basically everyone in my dad's side of the family is ADHD.
Now there are some problems with that, obviously, (getting family reunions to stick to a schedule is lol no) but there are some really fantastic perks. For one thing, no one in that family minds if I interrupt them while they're talking ... everyone's happy to keep 3 conversations going at the same time .... and no one minds if you fidget constantly.
But the best perk -- at least that I've found so far -- is that all of our parents have coping mechanisms, and passed them on to us. When I found myself unable to handle tasks with more than one step, my father didn't say "WTF are you talking about? It's easy! Just do the thing! Stop being lazy!" No, he could relate completely, and he sat down and taught me how to handle that.
So today, I'm going to pass on to you the coping mechanism my dad taught me for handling the "cannot put tasks in order / cannot get started / forget what I'm doing" problem. You'll need to adjust it for your own needs and your own struggles, but hopefully it'll be helpful in setting up your own process.
I'm going to walk through it with a big project I'm doing at work, just to have a concrete example. That will make some of the discussion specific to computer programming and technical writing, but I do the same thing for all my projects, so hopefully it'll be generalizable.
So to set the stage:
I was supposed to modify this piece of code -- we'll call it "Rosetta" -- to make it handle call data as well as what it was already doing. I did that.... but we now need the code to be able to handle calls (if that's wanted) but also to be able to handle NOT having calls (if THAT'S wanted).
Which is just .... ugh. So much. SOOOOOOOO much.
So. Break it down.
Step one is to get some recording mechanism - pen and paper, whiteboard, blank computer document, whatever
(Technically, this is a different coping strategy, so we'll just take a quick detour: WRITE THINGS DOWN. Your brain is shit at remembering things, and anyway you've already got limits on your working memory; why would you choose to tie up some of that limited resource in something that could be accomplished with literal stone-age technology? Don't even try to remember things. WRITE THEM DOWN.)
I like sticky notes: they're readily available in all offices, they're pretty cheap, and (most importantly) they can be rearranged if it turns out that I forgot a step or put the steps in the wrong order (which, like, let's be honest, I am definitely going to do). But they kill trees and create unnecessary methane emissions, so I've recently switched over to using virtual sticky notes. That's the format I'm going to use for this example, but you can use anything that meets your purposes.
So, you've got something to write with, you're ready to start.
The first question is: what are you trying to accomplish here? What would "done" look like? What is our goal?
I need to end up with a version of Rosetta that will make the correct results if you don't want calls, and will also make the correct results if you do.
The goal here is that you end up with a statement that you can definitively say (a) Yes this is what I wanted or (b)No this is not right because _______
In this case, in order to do that, I'll need to define "correct results" for both call- and non-call versions. But if I have that nailed down, then this statement meets that criterion: I'll be able to say "Yes, this is what I wanted: see, it makes the correct result for calls, and it makes the correct result for not-calls". Or else I'll be able to say, "No, this is wrong: see, it makes the correct result for calls, but on not-calls it does X and we wanted Y."
I have a clear, definitive standard about what I need to do and whether or not I've done it.
But there was a prerequisite there: I need to define "correct results".
So that goes on a sticky note: Create test that will compare my results to existing call!Rosetta-results and to existing not-call!Rosetta-results.
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[ID: Two blue boxes, one on top of the other. The top one says in white text "Create test to compare my results to call!results" The bottom one says "Create test to compare my results to not-call!results"] OK. So now we know what we want. The second question is: what do we need to do in order to get that? Here's where the sticky-note recording system really shines, because you don't have to answer this question sequentially. You just start writing down every single thing that is not the way you want it to end up.
I need it to remove commas in the python script, not the bash script
I need to delete the first part of the get_runs() function, which doesn't do anything
I need to delete the rest of the parameters passed to build_query_script() function, because runs encompasses all the others
while we're on that subject, runs doesn't even need the group_variable, so let's pull that out of the parameter document
we also have a dmf defined, which the bash script demands but doesn't use; let's change that demand
since we're changing the structure of the parameter document, we don't need to pull new metrics for each run, so let's move that outside of the runs() loop and only run once
right now the parameter document is ALMOST but not quite "one row per template". Make it so it's actually one row per template.
among other things, that's going to require making it possible for a template to be followed by nothing at all, since it's the assumption that a template will have a metrics block after it that makes it not quite one row per template. So make it possible to publish a template with a null block
the other thing that's weirdly hard-coded is the definition of what a block looks like. Would it make more sense to separate that out into an input file, like the parameters document? On the one hand, that would make it much more flexible; on the other hand, that's another piece that can break. Don't know. Put a question mark on it.
etc
Here's what it looks like at the end of this step:
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[ID: A black and white background showing many boxes in two different shades of blue, all with white text. Some of the boxes are overlapping each other.]
As you can see, at this phase you don't need to worry about any of the following:
ordering the tasks. Just stick 'em right on top of each other for now
how you're going to do any of this. Right now we just need to know what, not how
sticking to only one project. As I was working on this, it occurred to me that this whole process would have been a heck of a lot easier if someone had just made a user manual for this, and since I have to go through all the code line-by-line anyway, I might as well write up the documentation while I'm at it. (To help out future-me, if nothing else.) So I put those tasks on another color of sticky note.
making notes that make any ***ing sense to anyone else. This process is for you, and only you need to understand what you're talking about it. Phrase it in ways that make sense to your brain, and to hell with anyone else.
on that topic, also don't worry about making steps that are "too small" or "too dumb" to write down. This is for you. If "save document" feels like a step to you, then write it down.
You also don't need to get every single step involved in the project right now. Get as many as you can, to be sure, but the process is designed on the assumption that you ARE going to forget important steps, and is designed to handle that.
When you can't think of any more steps, then the third question is: what order does it make sense to do these in? Are there any steps that would be easier if you did another step first? Are there any that literally cannot be done unless another step is complete?
This is also a good place to group steps if they fit together nicely. When I used physical sticky notes, I used two different sizes; digitally I can of course make them whatever size I want.
So I have several documentation steps that (a) do need to be written to make sense to other people and (b) I really need to know what's going on before I can do that. I could write them now, but if I did, I'd just end up re-writing them based on things that change as I'm coding. So we'll move those to the end:
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[ID: Three dark blue boxes with white text. They read "Create step-by-step instructions for creating your own metric agg", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a metric", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a query."]
These parts, though -- if I had all the variable structures written down, I could look at them while I'm coding. Then I won't have to keep scrolling back and forth in the code, trying to remember if it's an array or a dictionary while also trying to remember what part of the code I was working on. Brilliant. Move that to the front.
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[ID: Seven dark blue boxes with white text, three large, four small. The first one is large and says "Write up explanation of how Rosetta works." The second one is large and says "Document structure of all variables." Attached to that one are four smaller boxes that say "All_blocks", "Runs", "metric", "New_block". The third large one says "Document what qb_parameters.csv contains"]
Also, while I'm at it, I should get the list of variables I need to document -- then I won't have to keep scrolling to find them. Make those sub-steps.
I definitely keep needing to look up what's in the parameters document, so I should write that down, too. For the user manual I also should write down what's in the metric document, but I don't need that for myself, so I can send that to the end.
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[ID: The same three dark blue boxes from two screenshots ago (create step-by-step instructions for metric agg, modifying a metric, and modifying a query), now with another dark blue box in front of them with white text that says "Document what granular_metrics.tsv contains."]
These five are all small steps, and are all related in that they don't actually (hopefully) change the functionality of the code; they're just stuff left over from prior versions of this code. So we can lump them all together.
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[ID: Five light blue boxes with white text that say "Delete first part of get_runs()", "Have build_query_script only receive the "run" parameter" "Delete dmf" "Move metrics=get_metrics() outside build_all_blocks (all the way up to the top level?" "Delete group_variable from qp_parameters"]
My brain likes this better, so that I can keep track of fewer "main steps", but that's just a peculiarity of me -- you should lump and split however you prefer to make this process easier for you.
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[ID: The same five boxes from the prior screenshot, now all made smaller and attached to a larger box that says "Remove Legacy Code"]
Keep going, step by step, sticky by sticky, until you've got them in order. If -- while you're doing this -- you remember another thing you need to do, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile; you don't have to stop what you're doing to deal with it, because it's written down and it's on the pile and it will get processed; you can just keep working on the thing you're on right now.
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[ID: All the same boxes from the first screenshot, now in a neat row. Some of the original boxes have been grouped together. The ones that were said to be at the beginning of the process are on the left and the ones that were said to be at the end are on the right.]
Step four: for the love of all that's holy, SAVE THIS LIST.
Write it on your cubicle whiteboard where it won't be erased
write it on a piece of paper and tape it to the office wall
send an email to yourself
take a picture with your phone
I don't care but save it.
When I used physical sticky notes, I kept them all on the hood of my cubicle's shelf. Now, as you can see, I use Powerpoint, which is irritating af but does allow me to keep everything in a single document, which I can write down the path of.
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[ID: White text on a black background says "open ~/Documents/Rosetta\ Modifications\ and \Documentation.pptx" The next line says "Notes in Rocketbook pg 10-12, 16" The next line says "Turn that into documentation that can be used for making modifications."]
And now (finally) you can answer the question "How would I even get started on that?" You look at the first thing on the list, and you treat it as its own project. You can hyperfocus on this step and completely forget about everything else this project requires, because everything you need to remember for the rest of it is written down.
If, as you're working a step, you think of something else you need to do for the big project, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile. Don't even worry about trying to order it or identify sub-steps; as long as it's not blocking the thing you need to work on right now, you don't have to care. Just stick that bugger anywhere at all on the list, and go back to what you were doing. When you un-hyperfocus and come back to look at your list, there'll be a big sticky note stuck sideways across all the rest of the steps, and you'll remember to file and order it then.
Other benefits of this system
1) The first question really helps with unclear directions from your boss. You can take whatever they told you to do, and translate it into a requirement that is clearly either met or not-met, and then run it back by the boss.
If they say, "No, no, we want ______" then phew! You just saved a huge miscommunication and weeks of wasted work! What a good employee you are! What an excellent team player with strong communication skills!
If they say "Yes, that's what I want," then you know -- for sure -- what it is you're trying to accomplish. Your anxiety is reduced, and your boss thinks you're super-conscientious.
(And if your boss is a jerk who likes to move the goalposts and blame it on their subordinates, then have this conversation over email, so you can show it to their boss or to HR should it become necessary.)
2) Having this project map means that when you spend an hour staring at the requirements and trying to figure out how to get started (which, let's be honest, you were definitely going to do anyway) ... When your boss/coworker comes by and says, "How's it going?" Instead of having to say "I haven't even started 😞" You can say, "Pretty well! I've got all the steps mapped out and am getting ready to start on implementation!" and show them your list, and they think you're very organized and meticulous. 3) Sometimes, especially in corporate jobs, you and your coworkers will run into a problem that's too big for even Neurotypicals to hold all in their heads. At that point, the NTs will be completely lost -- they've never had to develop a way to handle projects they can't just look at and know how to get started. So then you pipe up in the meeting and say, "OK, well, what exactly are we trying to accomplish?" and everybody at the conference table looks at you like you're a goddamned genius and you don't have to tell them that you use this exact same process to remember how to make a sandwich 😅
4) Having this project map makes it so much easier to stop work and then start it up again later, but this post is already really really really long, so I'm going to address that in a separate (really really long) post.
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caffeineaddicted-noonie · 4 years ago
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Hi, could I get a matchup please? I am INFJ Virgo female, I use she/they pronouns. I am 5'8 but I like to wear platforms to be extra tall. I spend most of my time at home in my pajamas but on weekends I go all out with dresses, skirts, chains, jewelry, and colorful makeup.
I love doing makeup and playing around with all the colors. I also love skateboarding, though I'm not very good at it. In my free time i like to crochet, usually I make stuffed toys but I also like to make hats. Sometimes I paint and scrapbook as well. I'm not too far from the great lakes so I like to walk the beach occasionally looking for shells and cool rocks. I plan on working as a tattoo artist so I've been practicing my art a lot. I also sometimes read and play video games.
When it comes to a relationship I'm looking for someone who can be my best friend while also being my partner. It's important to not take things so seriously and just live free having fun. I've been through a lot, so it takes some time for me to open up. I deal with some anxiety/depression because of this which makes it hard to do normal activities. It's important for my partner to be able to understand me in this aspect.
On a lighter note, I love animals. I've got tons of cats and a ball python who loves cuddles.
Thank you for your time
~anon
Yoink! Thank you for sending in the ask anon!! The information you gave was very helpful ^^ Thank you once again! Alright here goes~ 🌘🖤may you be well~🖤🌒
I MATCH YOU UP WITH
HOMICIDAL LIU / LIU WOODS! 🖤🔪💚
what will this be, perhaps... log 1 - friends 🌹
+ he finds you to be very interesting and mysterious. But, he was too busy with his own things to bother. + he sees you during missions sometimes. Crossing paths or from afar. + Why did he find you interesting in the first place? Well, your sense of style. When he first saw you, you were wearing casual clothes. T-shirt or sweater with shorts or leggings. Or maybe pajama pants with a T-shirt. You know, casual. + But when he saw you go out for missions in such a different style? Kinda took him by surprise because most people just go out with what they're wearing or add some other clothes. + Also, to him it shows that you have a sense of order. You're mature, that's how he sees you. Why are you mysterious? Your smile hides something. He doesn't know why, but he wants to know what. + His curiosity aside, he loves your talents. He has heard about them from Jane, EJ, and the others. Crochet making? Sully wondered how it works. So he went to ask you, + Coincidently you were about to do some ofter playing a game. He knocks on your door. "Come in" "Uh hey, I was wondering, can you teach me somethings about uh crochet-ing?" "Sure, to be honest, I was about to do some.." "Ouh, great." Of course, you were a bit weirded out. + First of all, you didn't know who he was. Secondly, he randomly wants you to teach him crocheting. + You were curious about him. You got more curious when you realize that he has an alter ego. + You guys hang out often. Either to crochet or to walk around answering each other's curiosity. He then found out that you could skateboard, paint, scrapbook, make dolls and hats. *There are so many things I don't know about her...maybe there's more.* + He knew there're so much more to you. Sully wanted to know more...oh no. + No one knows why, but, one day you stopped hanging out with him. Why? Because anxiety got the best of you. You've been through a lot and you were afraid the same feelings from those experiences would get hold of you again. + Liu was confused, worried, and lost.
the wilting flowers grew a new... log 2 - a pair ❤
+ Since you two were "apart", Liu has been questioning himself. + After a few sleepless nights, he can't help himself but ask you the same question he has been asking himself, "What did I do wrong," + And he did. At first, you denied answering his question, but he didn't stop there. He would stop you and ask "What did I do wrong?" or "Did I do something to hurt you?", maybe even "Your feelings, did I just them?" and you would have excuses to avoid answering him. + But one day, you answered him. You explained why. With every inch of detail, not leaving a single fraction of it. + He understood and comforted you. Telling you that there's nothing to be anxious about. "In fact, I should be anxious..." "Why?" "Isn't it normal to be anxious when you like someone?" .BAM. + And with that, a beautiful relationship bloomed✨🌹✨ + Knowing you wanted to be a tattoo artist, he offered to be your first "customer" You two have matching tattoos! + He would give you ideas for your art. Helping you in any way he can. + When the time came, you told him everything about you. What you have been through. He was speechless. *You've been through a lot to the point you were depressed? And maybe you still are...* he told himself. + He apologized for not being there for you. He really does care for you, that left you speechless. He comforted you after. "If anything is wrong...tell me...I want to help you," + He then told you more about Sully. + If you guys were to live together, pets are a must. He's a dog person. Doggos are a must of course. + Overall, you two are a couple where no one gets left behind. Communication is important. Understanding is a must. Luckily, you two got that ticked! Also, you guys crochet each other a scarf! Oh and the matching tattoos? I think these would look cool and cute.
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Hello Anon! Sorry, this took long😬😅 If you don't mind, please send me an Ask as a review. It would really help! Alright, hope you have a great day ahead and take care~
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flamagenitus · 2 years ago
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I'm terribly sorry, Kess, but you appear to have activated my trap card.
I honestly don't think it's googleable info! The project involved making small utility programs for gathering info about a big graph. The teacher knew what he was doing when he assigned it to us, and there's no easy way to just... look up the answer. The only way to do it properly is to actually know how to use python and to understand graph theory, and combine the two yourself to fulfill the assignment.
However. The people on this course are all biologists. Nobody knew programming before, like, 4 months ago, and there haven't really been enough classes teaching people python since then. Nobody knows how to program in python this year, and they kinda didn't know how to program in python last year. It's a problem inherent to the way the degree is taught, I think (and I do have many thoughts on the matter). When I took this module last year, I straight-up just didn't do the project bc I had no idea how to go about it. I'm actually pretty shocked I was able to get my programs working how I wanted them to this year! And I'm fairly sure the teacher will look at them and tear them to pieces bc they give the right results sometimes but don't actually work, like he has on non-evaluated work earlier in the semester lmao. So even though I'm "helping", it's kind of the blind leading the blind.
The actual reason my classmate is using ChatGPT, I'm pretty sure, is bc everyone in my class but me is using it routinely for assignments and practical classes. The teachers know this is happening, they just don't have a coherent policy about it yet other than, like, don't use it in exam settings pls. They want to incorporate its use into the curriculum, but they don't know how to yet. We had a teacher last year tell us to use ChatGPT to generate code (syntacticly perfect, logically terrible) then adapt it so that it worked, to show us the limitations of language model-generated code. It is a workable way of programming, but it requires that you know enough about programming the be able to fix the errors, and so it doesn't actually address the problems my class has: none of us know what the hell we're doing.
I'm not sure how my classmates are actually faring using ChatGPT, because while they are all smart people who have been given exactly the same information as me, and probably put in a lot more work and thought to the problem than me, there's no reasonable way to be like "hey person I don't really know, can I look at your work for the assignment? No no I'm not stealing it, promise, i just want to see if your methods actually work. What do u mean that's insulting". I myself am not using ChatGPT bc I am addicted to doing things the hard way, which involves reading loads and loads of very dry program documentation pages and spending hours banging my head against walls bc I didn't understand the difference between a matrix and a data frame. I'm the kind of freak who likes breaking things into their constituent parts and then rebuilding them, probably wrong, to figure out how they work, even if it takes a billion hours. Sometimes this works, but often it's just me repeatedly throwing myself against the walls of my own ignorance, desperately wishing there was an easier way to accomplish what I want. It sucks, but I won't learn how to use ChatGPT bc I simply don't trust it to do what I want to do, and also because I would rather do things myself because knowing that I did it is infinitely more satisfying. Like I said, I am addicted to doing things the hard way. (My classmates are biologists. I am a biochemist. There is a difference and the difference is that nobody has ever made them try to read an NMR spectrum.)(there's probably a reason I'm retaking my year c:)
Also: all the documentation available is in English and I am the only native English-speaker in the class. At least ChatGPT also exists in French and doesn't speak like a technical manual or a genie providing you with exactly the information you need and not a spare morsel more.
Anyway, I don't blame her for asking for help. We all need help, and since none of us are getting it from teachers we may as well band into little coalitions to share our confusions. I'm just used to working with my friend from last year, who only uses ChatGPT when she's desperate. Adding a new person who uses ChatGPT as a matter of course just made the gears in my brain grind bc I was trying to shift gears too fast! Hence the original post, basically. Also, I was at my grandma's house and my mum was treating me like a teenager, and I was generally kind of irritated bc family at Christmas
Trying to help one of my classmates with a programming project we all have due in 2 days and it's hard bc she keeps asking ChatGPT for code. Like. Girl. The language model isn't capable of logic and it cannot write a coherent python script for you
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ask-an-aussie · 4 years ago
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Aussie Wildlife FAQ
So here's questions I'm frequently asked as both a wildlife rescuer and carer and keeper at a wildlife sanctuary. Heads up, this is a long post, I've made the questions stick out so you can easily skip through. I've tried to make it as easy to read as possible, and to find what you're after, whilst also providing lots of info.
Poison Vs Venom, what's the difference?
Well, mostly, poison just never stops killing. Like if you poison an insect, then a bird or small mammal eats that insect and they slowly get poisoned by all the poisoned insects they eat, then something eats them, like an owl, and that gets poisoned, then as it rots the poison goes into the environment, etc. Poison never dies. Venom has to be injected, so yes you can be envenomated by a dead animal, if you are stupid. Poison can be inhaled, eaten/drunk or even through touch. So if a cow is poisoned you have to dispose of the body safely, if a cow is bitten by a venomous snake, technically you can still have steak for dinner.
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Are all Australian animals out to kill you?
Maybe.
They could want to kill us, I mean as a species we aren't that great. Their ability to kill us however is limited. So are all Aussie animals able to kill you? No. So we have lots of cute small mammals, like antechinus, dunnarts, pygmy possums and the like, that can bite and scratch but are very tiny bois. We even have lots of non-venomous snakes, pythons and blind snakes. Most lizards outside of Goannas can't cause too much damage. Echidna's are completely defensive, have no attack whatsoever. Lots of birds have no interest in you, unless you get near their nest. Freshwater Turtles, Little Penguins and Tawny Frogmouths all main defense is shitting really stinky shit at you. Even our venomous snakes, as long as you seek medical attention you should be fine. Considering we have the top 10 most venomous snakes in the world but average only 1 death a year that's pretty good.
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But you still have lots of dangerous animals right?
Yes.
Maybe I should elaborate. Any animal is dangerous, including you, if given the right circumstances. I'm a lovely person but hurt my dog and you better run. Most animals don't want a bar of you. However, if you are a threat to them, or their babies, they will defend themselves. A lot of animals get tagged with the word 'aggressive' which I don't like, aggression is a human emotion that I've never seen in wild animals, or even pets and things. Mostly it's defensive behaviours that people read wrong. For example, the most venomous snake in the world is the Inland Taipan (found in Aust.), however the most dangerous snake in Australia is the Eastern Brown snake, less venomous but also less shy and lives in suburbia. Still, it only ever strikes at people when it feels cornered and needs to get you to back the hell off. And lets be real here, what else can they do? They can't yell and scream, they can't punch or kick. Legit their only option is to bite, and even then mostly it's a closed mouth strike to freak you out into stepping back, and most people bitten by snakes are given a 'dry bite' where no venom is injected, as they want to use it on their food not waste it on us. And 90% of snake bites that happen in Australia are people either trying to catch or kill a snake.
It's fairly simple. Don't threaten animals, don't give them a reason to be dangerous and you are fine. Crocodiles in the water? Don't swim there. Sharks around? Avoid swimming at twilight. Snake? Leave it alone. Nest with baby birds? walk away. You don't randomly show up in some strangers home and expect them not to react, so why do we expect different from animals?
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What animals are on the most 'dangerous list' then? Which animals should I really avoid pissing off?
Start with the obvious. Crocodiles, venomous snakes, sharks, some jellyfish, venomous spiders, stone fish, blue ringed octopus, birds of prey (our Wedge Tailed Eagle WILL attack drones, hang-gliders and helicopters if they come into their territory) Then you've got the less obvious. Ants - like meat ants, they will swarm over you then all bite down at once. 1 bite isn't so bad, a whole colony biting you, deadly. Then there's other ants in the Myrmecia family (bull ants and the like) that are just HUGE, and have massive mandables for biting and also can sting you, and are one of the most toxic insects in the world.
Wombats - Can run at 40km/hr, skull so hard it's the only thing a Tassie Devil can't eat, able to bite your calf muscle clean off your leg, oh and they have killer booty. A hard cartilage plate in their lower back that they use to block their burrows, and if threatened can lay down and as the animal tries to get past jam their legs straight and crush the skull of a fox against the roof of their burrow, easily break a dingoes jaw or even destroy your hand.
Kangaroos - yes they box, hahaha wouldn't it be funny to box with a kangaroo. NO. Kangroos box for fun but also to defend themselves and their mob. The Alpha male is the big buff one that looks like he's on steroids. He looks like that for a reason, to defend and protect his mob. DO NOT MESS WITH ANY KANGAROOs, but really don't mess with Big Daddy (for being the alpha he gets all the ladies) Kangaroos are made for this. A punch from a Kangaroo can easily break you ribs. They can lean back on their tail and bring both legs up to kick you, easily tearing you open, which they can do with the claws on their toes, and so basically dissecting you from sternum down. Oh and if they gran you round the neck for a 'Cuddle' DUCK AND RUN. They will hold you in a kind of choke hold and then bring their legs up to kick you and basically snap you in half. Don't even mess with Wallabies man, they may be smaller but can still do damage.
Tassie Devils - are extremely shy and slower than you, like you can actually run away from them. BUT. They have the strongest bite strength compared to size of any animal. The have a PSI of 1200 and males weigh around 8 kg. For perspective, Hyenas have a PSI of 1100 and males weigh around 50kg
Brushtail Possums - They may be cuter than the American Opossums but trust me, they don't want you around. They are solitary so most people have heard them fighting of a night, screeching, shrieking, hissing, growling and making darth vadar noises. Heads up from someone who has had to rescue them from awkward places (fire-places, BBQs, closets) They are stronger than you and they will f*** you up. Even without them meaning to I've gotten injuries from my joey Brushies, they get so keen on their milk when you put it in that they climb your arm and their claws are sharper than cats. Also the sheer strength of them. I'm stronger than I look but if they are clinging on to a tree you are gonna need all your strength to get them off. The can also bite your finger clean off. And I've seen injuries from people who feed wild ones and for some reason have been late to put out the food or something and they've climbed their leg or even jumped on them - stitches were required in a few of those cases (human skin is not thick like tree bark)
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What's with Magpies and swooping?
Simple, they have nests/babies and are protecting them. Australia Magpies are very smart and can recognise faces. If they think you are a threat they will try and scare you off. Just like if you're walking along with your toddler and there's a weirdo doing something strange you hold the kid tighter and closer to you and move through faster. But these guys can't just move their nests or their babies. The spot is chosen based on food availability and shelter from sun and rain, but also not being too cold. It's their spot. I've never been swooped by Magpies, other birds yes, but not Magpies. My local birds know me as the lady that cleans and fills the bird bath. Legit the Magpies sing a specific song when it needs filling to call me out to do it. So don't be a threat. If they are swooping in that area, try to avoid it or go through quickly. We used to have Plovers at my school, in the bush at the end of the oval. Never a problem. One day some kids go into the bush and stomp on their nest and eggs. After that they would swoop anyone who came close to there. So the school blocked off that end of the oval. Fair call. Wasn't the birds fault.
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Why is everything named so basic?
Oh you mean the snake that's black with a red belly being balled a Red Belly Black Snake, and the tree with all the doodles on it being called a Scribbly Gum? 80% of plants and animals found in Australia are found NO WHERE ELSE. So the early Europeans had a lot of things to name and when they tried naming it themselves they would get it wrong. 2 good examples are: The Death Adder (only considered highly venomous, not deadly, and not an Adder). Also you're only likely to get bitten if you stand on it or try to pick it up. The Australian Magpie, they saw a black and white bird so it must be a magpie. Nope. Actually not in the corvidae family but in the butcherbird family - Artamidae. So their solution was to either take the Aboriginal word, for example, Quoll, Kookaburra, Koala, Quokka, Taipan. Or name it after what it looks like/sounds like/ is found Boobook Owl - makes a sound like booooo-book Squirrel Glider Eastern Water Dragon Grey Headed Flying Fox Flaky Bark Tea Tree Old man Banksia This can cause confusion though as not every brown coloured snake is a brown snake, and not all Eastern brown snakes are brown. Squirrel Gliders aren't related to squirrels. Flying foxes are bats not actual foxes that fly.
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What do I do if I find injured wildlife?
Well, depends on the wildlife and where it is. If it's in a dangerous position, like the middle of a highway, don't try anything. First thing, call a wildlife rescue group, there are plenty around and they have trained people who know what to do. A quick google search should show you all you need to know, also the IFAW's Wildlife Rescue App will identify the closest group to you.
If it's a snake, adult wombat or kangaroo, or any other animal that can cause you serious injury, leave it be. The wildlife rescuers you call can give you basic info on how to help but mostly calling them is the main thing.
If it's something smaller, like a young animal or glider or baby bird and you are able to put it into a cardboard box that will be perfect. The 3 main things injured/ill wildlife need are warmth, dark and quiet. You don't need to worry about food or water. The rescuers will organise that. If you give food or water to an animal in shock you can cause more damage.
THE BEST THING IS TO DO NOTHING. I know this sounds stupid. But so many problems can occur from people who don't know what they are doing helping out. You know what they say about good intentions. For example, picking up a Koala like you would pick up a human child (under the armpits, around the chest) you could actually break their ribs. Also so many Koalas end up needing vet care during heat waves because people pour water into their mouths - they can get pneumonia as the water goes in too fast, it is not a natural way for them to drink. You can also get yourself injured or make the animals injuries worse. I have seen Kangaroos with broken legs get up and try to hop away from people. I have seen severe scratches on other people because they tried to pick up an animal.
What diseases can wildlife give me?
Well. I only know about Australian wildlife, and it's very different to other parts of the world. If you get a bad bite or scratch from wildlife you should see your doctor ASAP, get the wound cleaned properly and make sure your tetanus is up to date (same as if a pet gives you a bad bite or scratch).
There aren't that many Zoonosis that are around in Australia that are easy to catch. Mostly you have to be dealing directly with sick wildlife to get them.
The main thing is Australian Bat Lyssavirus. ABL for short. Now our bats can carry it. About 1 in 1000 bats may have it and you HAVE to be bitten or scratched for it to be transmitted to you. If you are bitten or scratched by a bat your chance is 0.1% of getting ABL but it is related to Rabies, so head straight to hospital for treatment. If you don't touch a bat you won't get bitten or scratched and so your chance of getting it is 0. Hendra is the other virus our bats carry, however it has to go through a horse before it mutates enough for humans to get it.
Basically it's only when you get involved with wildlife that your risk of getting a disease from them is higher than VERY unlikely. If you happen to help some wildlife, and you maybe wrap them in a towel or jumper, even if they urinate on it. You can just chuck it in the wash (I usually add a little extra disinfectant) and it will be fine. Treat it the same as if a pet had used it or urinated on it.
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What's some Good Wildlife Apps to have?
Well, there's so many out there now hey? Here's some that I've found handy or know people that use. WomSAT EchidnaCSI PlatypusSPOT are all for recording sightings of these animals (wombats/echidnas/platypus) this helps researches track where they are and how they are going which means we can help them more as well. OzAtlas - record a sighting of anything Australian, animal, plant, fungus, insect. FrogID - need to identify a frog? This is the app for you. Use photos or sound recordings, Field Guide to *insert state/territory* Fauna - Have a field guide on you wherever you are without having to carry a book. Seek by inaturalist - Helps you identify any animals, plants, insect, fungus. IFAW Wildlife Rescue - wildlife rescue app (currently for NSW only but soon expanding) will give you advice on what to do and put you into contact with the local wildlife rescue groups.
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Besides Cats and Foxes, what other invasive species have you got that cause problems?
First up, any invasive species causes a problem. In Tasmania they have issues with Sugar Gliders, because they are not naturally found there and use up tree hollows that other animals need. Invasive species cause competition for food, water and shelter. They can also bring in diseases that didn't exist in Australia before and that our natives have no defence against (like cats and Toxoplasmosis) Here's a quick list of invasive animal species in Australia. Cats, dogs, foxes, pigs, water buffalo, ferrets rabbits, horses/brumbies, goats, camels, Cane Toad, European Honey Bee, Common Myna bird, deer, donkey, common starling, common pigeon, black rat, brown rat.
There's more, there's reptiles, and weeds and fish but those guys ^ are the main ones that cause problems.
I am an animal lover but unless we get rid of these animals you loose more in the long run. I'm 100% against use of poisons, I prefer having people hunt them to be honest. If you know what you are doing and have the right equipment you can give them a quick, painless death. To give you an idea how bad invasives are:
The introduction of the rabbit is the main cause the Lesser Bilby became extinct.
The introduction of cats and toxoplasmosis is believed to be the main reason Eastern Quolls became extinct on mainland Australia
Rats led directly to the extinction of 5 of Lord Howe Island's bird species
30% of our land snakes and Goannas are at risk as Cane Toads are rapidly spreading and eat their eggs.
The Common Myna Bird is the 2nd greatest threat to Australian native birds (habitat loss being the 1st)
The fox population has been estimated at 72 million and consume around 190 million birds a year
There's an estimated 23 million wild pigs/boars and an estimated 2.6 million goats - all eating whatever they come across.
How can I help Australian Wildlife?
There's the stuff we already know, like reduce/reuse/recycle and don't litter. But there's other things you may not know about.
Turn off lights at night - any lights that you don't need, don't have them on, especially if they are outside. Lots of animals require insects in their diets, particularly moths, which can be distracted by lights. Zoos Victoria have launched educational stuff for this https://youtu.be/ZAcL4FKPtHw
Learn about them - It's not hard, there's multiple ways you can do it. There's books, tv shows, pod casts, you can follow sanctuaries and other people who work with wildlife on social media. Planting flora that's native to your area is great as different plants can attract different animals and it's much lower maintenance, being made for that environment. You can even find cool life-hacks like Lemon Scented Tea-Tree doesn't just smell amazing and feed lots of wildlife, it keeps the mozzies away! There's different kinds of nesting boxes out there specific to different species that you can put up to help 'foster' that species. You can even become friends with your local Magpies! Mine know me as the lady who cleans and fills the bird bath and all I had to do was whistle to them when I was done and now they are really chill around me and I get to watch their antics. Debunk Myths! - In learning about wildlife you can debunk lots of myths like: a mother bird won't take it's chick back if you've touched it (fake news!) or that snakes dislocate their jaw to swallow their prey (that would be soooo painful!)
Put out water - have a bird bath and keep it clean and full. Or if you don't have one or want to get one just put water out on hot days. Summer's getting hotter and hotter and our animals really suffer. So put out a nice pot or container of water. Don't forget to put a rock or a stick in it if it's a slippery surface (like plastic or metal) so that little animals and bugs don't fall in and drown, and keep it out of the sun if it's likely to heat up.
Check roadkill - it's not pleasant but needs to be done. Don't do it if it's a motorway or somewhere dangerous, but if you can PLEASE do. Roadkill sometimes looks dead but isn't and you don't want them laying there suffering. They may have pouch young if they are a marsupial or young nearby that will need care without their parent. And where possible get it off the road. Species like Tasmanian Devils, Goannas and Wedge Tailed Eagles feed on roadkill and can then end up as roadkill themselves. Even if you have to drag it, it's dead and not gonna feel any more pain. 100% of people I have attended a rescue for who have called because they stopped and found a joey or young in a pouch or hiding nearby have not regretted their decision at all. Even if they were late for work, they saved a life and it was worth it.
Avoid using poisons - insecticides, pesticides, snail bait and straight up rat poison. Like mentioned in POISON VS VENOM, it just keeps killing. There are so many other options out there and they aren't hard to find. There's stuff on the internet but also at Bunnings I've found more environmentally sound options that use Tea Tree oils and Eucalyptus instead and work just as well.
Don't feed them! - Most Aussie animals are gluten and lactose intolerant. BREAD IS REALLY BAD! and if not eaten it gets mouldy and causes disease. Putting out bird seed is the number 1 problem when we talk 'feeding wildlife'. WHY?
The 'wild birdseed' that you buy in shops isn't actually for wild birds. JUST LOOK AT IT, you don't see those seeds growing out in the wild. The main seed wild birds eat are Bottle-brush, She-oaks, Banksias, Wattle and Eucalypts. None of those are found in these bags of seed.
Even for seed eaters that seed you buy is too fatty and unbalanced
For those that don't usually eat seed, like Lorikeets, eating the seed destroys the specialised bristles on their tongues that they need to eat their natural food - nectar and pollen.
If you don't keep it clean you will spread diseases, especially psittacosis (beak and feather) for which there is no cure just a slow, drawn out death. You can also catch it and end up in hospital.
You cause an imbalance. Animals breed based on food availability, if you make food available they will breed but there might not be enough space or trees available and you create more competition and also they end up relying on you and if you go on holiday or anything they can die without that food.
You can cause health issues in other animals. Possums love bird seed but it makes them fat, making it harder for them to escape predators.
You will be feeding non-natives. For example, the Common Myna bird cannot survive on wild plants, but if there is a food source around they can. Got rid of Common Mynas in my neighbourhood by convincing my neighbours to stop putting out bird seed.
RATS LOVE BIRD SEED. Specially feral rats. Mice also love bird seed.
You make a predator hot-spot. It won't take long for predators to realised animals they prey on visit your feeding station and they will come. The most common predator I find around bird seed? Snakes. Snakes love rats and mice, rats and mice love bird seed. You do the maths.
If you want to feed them just do some research and plant trees that are food for them.
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How many species are endangered?
Sadly, it's almost quicker to list what's NOT endangered in Australia.
That's hard to say as there is different ways they can be endangered. In one area they may be common, but in another they could be disappearing. You can have Endangered lists at different levels; local, state, national and international.
But the most used list is the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species. AKA the IUNC Red List
Here's a bit of a breakdown: EXTINCT 26 mammals 7 birds 4 amphibians CRITICALLY ENDANGERED 7 mammals 8 birds 15 amphibians 13 reptiles ENDANGERED 18 mammals 29 birds 18 amphibians 21 Reptiles VULNERABLE 51 mammals 40 birds 23 amphibians 35 reptiles NEAR THREATENED 43 mammals 37 birds 9 amphibians 21 reptiles
Then there's the "data deficient" category where they really just don't have the info. 10 mammals 11 amphibians 42 reptiles
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I will continue to update this post as I think of other things. Feel free to send me any questions you have
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creepy-crawley-crowley · 6 years ago
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The Glasses ~ Crowley X Reader
Sah dude. Hi. Hello. Greetings and Salutations, I am your local Crowley dealer, and this is your first delivery. Reblogs are greatly appreciated, as are requests. Send some in, please. Anyway.
I tried to keep this gender neutral too!
Warnings: Angst, kinda, and out of character characters lmao
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Crowley liked to think that he was a tough guy, a heartless demon with a soft spot for two people. One, an Angel, and the other, a human with a soft spot for snakes. It just so happened that Crowley was very snakelike.
Said human actually had a snake, too, a White Lipped Python. (Crowley would never admit it, but he was jealous) The snake was, in fact, called Slither. Slither! Who called a snake Slither!
But that's besides the point.
Crowley was heading to Y/N's house, to reveal what he really was. He drove in his black Bentley, 'Somebody To Love' by Queen blasting as loudly as it could, and he pulled up outside, and wasn't surprised to find Y/N tending to the garden that resided outside their house.
Upon hearing the Bentley, Y/N turned around, hair slightly messier than usual, and smiled.
"Crowley! I wasn't expecting to see you here, what are you up too?" Y/N asked happily, wandering to the car. Crowley smiled slightly, adjusting his glasses.
"Come on, get in. I'm taking you on a trip." Crowley watched as Y/N got in, slightly confused. They sat next to him, and raised an eyebrow, shutting the door.
Crowley hit the pedal, and off they went.
They stopped near a small cottage, in the countryside, where Crowley and Aziraphale had decided to retreat to after the whole Armageddidn't situation. Not that Y/N knew about that. Crowley got out, and Y/N followed, and they both walked up to a field, and Y/N smiled slightly upon seeing a picnic set up.
"Crow, what are you up too?" Y/N asked, chuckling. Crowley looked at the ground, and smiled softly, a rare thing from him.
"It's a picnic." He stated, sitting down, and patting the spot next to him. Y/N sat, and picked up an apple. Crowley chuckled. Ironic. "I need to tell you something." He mumbled, mood suddenly switching. Y/N sensed the mood change instantly.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing serious, don't worry. I just...need to tell you something." Crowley looked at Y/N from behind his glasses. "I'm gonna...I'm gonna take my glasses off. Promise me you won't run." He sounded weak...desperate...human.
"I promise." Y/N held out a pinky, and Crowley blankly stared at it. Y/N smiled faintly. "It's a pinky promise...never mind. But, I promise."
Crowley nodded, and his hands came up, ready to take off the darned shades, ready to let Y/N know who, and what he truly was, ready for Y/N to scream, and run to Aziraphale. Nobody could ever be scared of him, after all.
But he couldn't. His hands shook wildly, like his plants, as they grasped his glasses. Y/N watched patiently, their eyes observant. Taking in detail. And still, Crowley struggled on.
"Crowley...can I?" Y/N asked quietly, gesturing to his glasses. Crowley froze, surprised, and then blinked slowly. He then nodded, and up came Y/N's hands, they gently rose, and their fingers rested on the frame for a moment, and Crowley's breathing became quick and heavy.
He almost felt...scared.
Before he could stop it, a strangled noise came from his throat and he flinched backwards, eyes shut tightly even though his glasses hadn't come off. Y/N frowned.
"You don't have to, Crowley, it's okay." Y/N said gently, but Crowley shook his head, keep going, please, keep going. Y/N understood what he meant, and sighed, attempting to remove the glasses again, moving slowly, cautiously, and gradually, little by little, off came the glasses.
But the eyes stayed shut. And that was okay, Y/N wasn't angry, how could they be? If Crowley needed a moment then he would get that moment.
Crowley's eyes opened, and Y/N gasped softly, but didn't scream. Didn't run. Didn't cry. Y/N did the opposite.
"Crowley. Look at me, please." Y/N said ever so softly. "Crowley, please don't be scared." Gentle hands cupped his cheeks, and Crowley unintentionally leant into the soft touch. "What are you, Crowley?" Crowley almost whimpered at the question. He'd never felt so vulnerable.
"I'm a Demon." Crowley whispered, and Y/N nodded. "No, seriously, I'm a Demon. I-I have wings, and I can do things." Crowley added, and Y/N merely nodded.
"Okay. That's okay."
Crowley frowned, bringing his wings out. "I'm serious." He repeated, and Y/N tilted their head to one side.
"Okay. Can...can I touch them?" Y/N asked, and much to their surprise, Crowley nodded.
Now, Crowley had never been fond of physical contact. One could even say he'd never been touched, which was not true, he'd been touched a few times. But maybe that person meant something else, who knows?
So when careful fingers touched the top of Crowley's wings, he flinched away. Y/N was patient, and waited for Crowley to relax again, before gently running a careful finger over sleek feathers.
Crowley decided that felt nice. He'd certainly get Y/N to do that more.
Y/N settled for some gentle petting, and Crowley smiled softly. Y/N's fingers were a lot more skilled that he'd imagined (not that he'd admit to that) and Crowley found himself leaning back, and heard Y/M's soft laugh as their hands moved to the feathers closer to his back.
That's when Crowley made a fool of himself, and made a noise that could only be described as a moan. He froze, and Y/N froze too, and for a few moments they were still, before Y/N smirked.
Crowley, for the second time today, felt scared.
But this was a different type of scared.
"Okay, I can explain." Crowley started, but Y/N held a hand up, smirk still present, and Crowley gulped, his gold serpentine eyes unblinking as he watched Y/N.
"I'm never ever going to let that go...ever...and I will use it to my advantage." Y/N chuckled, and Crowley groaned.
"Whatever, just...do it again."
"Why?"
"Because it felt nice, do you realise how inaccessible that area of my wings is? They rarely get touched anyway, so, as ironic as it sounds, that felt heavenly. Now do it again." Crowley explained quickly.
Y/N sighed, and began running their fingers through the soft feathers again, and Crowley, once again, leant back, trying to get more.
It was then that Y/N realised that Crowley literally craved affection. And so, they hugged him.
Crowley's initial reaction was to jump away and spin around, startled, but he soon realised what was happening, and sat back down, facing Y/N, and he returned the hug.
Crowley wasn't as tough as he said he was, obviously.
Slender arms snaked around Y/N's body, and Crowley nuzzled into Y/N's neck, and even wrapped his wings around them. Y/N gently played with Crowley's hair as they hugged.
From then on, Crowley seemed a little nicer.
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overlyobsessedgaygal · 6 years ago
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Fading Away
This is based on a prompt by @sidespromptblog. I strayed a little bit from the prompt and made this pure angst.
TW: sympathetic Deceit, sympathetic Remus, death, innuendos,
Anger cried out. Deceit glanced at Remus, hoping the creative side could come up with a plan or an idea or something to say. Anything. Lust, Greed and Sadness were huddled together in the doorway, all three of their faces morphed with terror.
"Dad!" Anger called out and reached his hand out. His hand fell right through Deceit's own. "It hurts," Anger whimpers. "So bad. I don't wanna go. Please help. Dad, Remus, Lust, Saddie, Greed. Please!"
 "You're okay," Deceit lied. "The pain is going away soon, it's going away." It wasn't a lie, the pain was going away but they all knew Anger wasn't going to be okay. The youngest sides eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.
 "I'm so sorry," Anger whispered, "I didn't want to hurt Thomas."
 "Remus," Deceit begged the creative side. "Tell us a story." Deceit shot a look at Remus and the chaotic side sank to his knees beside the dying trait.
  Sadness, Lust and Greed shuffled forward to be by their brother's side while he slowly left them.
  "Once," Remus began, his voice filled with the same dramatic and slightly crazed tone he normally used. "At the end of class, little Joan's teacher asked the class to go home and think of a story with a moral. The following day the teacher asks for the first volunteer to tell their story."
   Little Talyn raises their hand. 'My dad owns a farm and every Sunday we load the chicken eggs on the truck and drive into town to sell them at the market. Well, one Sunday we hit a big bump and all the eggs flew out of the basket and onto the road.'"
  When the teacher asked for the moral of the story, Talyn replied, 'Don't keep all your eggs in one basket.'"
 Little Adri went next. 'My dad owns a farm too. Every weekend we take the chicken eggs and put them in the incubator. Last weekend only eight of the 12 eggs hatched.'"
 Again, the teacher asked for the moral of the story," Remus didn't pause the story when Angers face seemed to flicker out of existence even though Sadness was sobbing and tears were falling silently from Deceit's face.
"So Adri replied, 'Don't count your chickens before they hatch.'" Anger flickered one final time and then his legs disappeared and didn't come back. Remus' first instinct was to grab for him, protect him. But he knew he couldn't, so he kept talking.
 "Next up was little Joan. 'My uncle Ted fought in the Vietnam war, and his plane was shot down over enemy territory. He jumped out before it crashed but could only take a case of beer, a machine gun and a machete. On the way down, he drank the case of beer. Then he landed right in the middle of one hundred Vietnamese soldiers. He shot seventy with his machine gun, but then he ran out of bullets! So he pulled out his machete and killed twenty more. Then the blade on his machete broke, so he killed the last ten with his bare hands.'
  The teacher looked a little shocked. After clearing her throat, she asked what possible moral there could be to this story.
  'Well,' Joan replied, "Don't fuck with Uncle Ted when he's been drinking.'" Remus finished the joke with energetic jazz hands. Each of the sides produced giggles, trying so desperately to ignore the empty space in front of them where Deceit's head was resting on the carpet instead of Anger's chest.
  "You're so not smart, Remus. So awful at jokes and not creative in the slightest," Deceit said. Remus grinned at the compliment.
   "He's gone," Sadness said softly, then he broke into loud sobs and collapsed into Dee's arms. "Dad, he's dead!"
    "If Thomas is getting rid of us then who is next?" Lust asked. Fear was evident in the room even as Deceit lied.
    "None of us are next. We're all going to be okay."
   It was a week, only a week, a mere seven days. It was one week before Greed woke up screaming in pain. Sadness and Lust ran out of their rooms. Everything was the same as it was when Anger faded and hopelessness layered the air of the dark sides common room.
  Remus set Greed onto the carpet. Deceit and Remus shared a look before the snake side kissed Greed's forehead. Greed looked at him and gave a pained smile. "Bye, dad."
  Dee held in his broken sob as he rose up and pulled the other two little sides along with him. They didn't need to see this again.
   As he left he heard Remus tell a  joke. "So, this whole time you've been acting like Thanos when you're really Spider-Man."
 They got to Dee's room and Dee quickly got Delilah out of her enclosure. The green and yellow five foot snake instantly curled around her owner. She had been the sweetest since the day Remus made her and Dee knew that Roman most likely provided her. Remus' creations were never this pleasant.
   "Del!" Sadness sniffled out while holding out his arms. Dee barely had time to move closer before the snake was launching itself at the crying side. Lust was sitting on the edge of Dee's bed, Delilah's tail resting on his lap.
   There was silence as Sadness sobbed into Delilah's smooth scales. Neither Lust or Deceit could find the words to say. They heard cries of pain every so often but it was drowned out by Remus growing louder with his song or story.
   "Which of us is next?" Sadness asked. He raised his eyes and looked between Deceit and Lust, worry painted across his features.
    No one had an answer.
  The nightmares came easily to all the dark sides. The vision of their companions slowly disappearing from their arms. Remus went to Thomas, to try and sway him. To break Morality's hold but it was no use. Remus got beat up by Logic and came back defeated.
   It was useless. Deceit was going to lose all his family.
  Lust went next. Much less screaming involved. He came to breakfast one morning, looked his dad right in the eye, and said he was dying. Sadness cried, Deceit served Lust some pink dyed pancakes cut into the shape of hearts, and Remus did what Remus did best. Grossed them all out and told horrible jokes.
   Lust flickered for a lot longer than the other two. He wasn't ready to die yet and Deceit could see the determination in his eyes. If Morality wasn't his opponent Lust might have actually won.
    The four remaining sides cuddled on the couch. Sadness tried to rest his head on Lust but fell right through and landed on Remus instead. "No!" Lust cried out. "I don't want to go! I don't want to die! Dad, please, do something, I-I-I-" The words faded out as Lust did.
  Remus stood, anger clear on his face. "We can't keep sitting here and letting this happen. We have to stop this!" Sadness and Deceit looked at him, watching his outburst. Sadness sniffled back his tears, and looked at Remus with hope.
    "Is there anything we can do?" Sadness asked softly. Remus looked to Deceit and the father figure could see it in his eyes. There was no plan, no way out, it was out of their control.
    "Yes," Deceit lied tenderly, running his scaled hand through the hair of the only young side remaining. "Yes, there's a way."
   The pained gasps of the side in Remus' arms had Deceit stumbling back. Even Remus struggled to joke, struggled to think of a way to help. These sides looked at Deceit as a father and he had to watch them all die because Morality couldn't get a hold of himself. Morality… It was all Morality.
 Dee clenched his fists and grinned, a villainous smile making its way into his face.  Morality did this and he would fix this. He had too.
 Remus and Deceit stood quietly in the empty common room, the quiet was a stark contrast to the very nature of the dark sides.
   "I should say goodbye to Roman," Remus said. He met Deceit's eyes. It was the first time Dee had ever seen anything but a crazed look in his eyes and he hated it. Dee wanted the Remus who couldn't be phased to come back. But that Remus was fading.
   Deceit swallowed hard. "I think we should talk to Patton. Make him stop."
    "We won't though," Remus commented. "We're scared of him, for good reason it seems."
   Roman gasped and clutched a hand to his chest. Logan cut off from his lecture so everyone could look at the pained prince. "Roman, you okay buddy?" Thomas asked.
   Roman didn't answer, just put a hand to his head. "Are you sick?" Virgil asked, concern blurring with worry in his voice. Patton and Logan both stepped towards Roman, both intending to examine him.
    "No!" Roman cried and threw up a hand to stop the others. "Not me. Remus, something's wrong."
 "We could summon him to us and find the stressing factor," Logan offered. Thomas and Virgil both recoiled, Virgil hissing. Patton seemed torn. "If Roman is in pain it is even more likely that Remus is experiencing similar symptoms, if not to a worse extent."
   "He's right, Kiddo," Patton said to Thomas and Virgil. "If Remus is hurting then we should help." Thomas and Virgil met each other's gaze, taking in Patton's words.
    Thomas nodded. "Yeah, let's do it."
 Dee clung to Remus in a python grip. "Don't leave me here, not here alone. Remus, stay, please stay. Fight it, stay."
  "Can't. Morality wants us gone, so it will be. The only thing that can undo thousands of years of survival instincts: morals." Remus winced as another shooting pain shot through his body, starting in his chest and hitting every nerve down to his toes.
   "I don't want to be alone," Dee mumbled. Remus smiled at him with all the vigor he could muster, which didn't compare to his usual flair, and opened his mouth to start a sentence before his eyes widened and he popped out. Deceit screamed.
    "No, no, no, not like this."
 When Remus appeared in Thomas' living room beside his brother he attempted a smile but only managed a pained grimace. "Good evening, how may-may I assist you?" His voice was pitched lower than normal and a gasp forced its way into the sentence.
  Roman reached out to grab his brother but his hand went right through him. Virgil growled and sunk into his hoodie. Everyone watched in stunned silence as Remus reached out to grab onto Roman, a desperate and pleading motion.
  "Everybody dies," Remus sang in a pathetic mockery of his own song.
   "What?" Patton asked, horrified. "You can't die, you're a part of Thomas!"
     "He's fading," Logan and Virgil both said at once, one voice calculated and the other terrified. The two glanced at each other, Logan quickly noticing Virgil's distress immediately began to explain and solve the issue. "Fading is when Thomas decides he no longer needs a side and the side is... erased in a way."
   "Thomas is a good person now, or he will be after Deceit gives in too. I guess not everybody sins," Remus shrugged dramatically. He waved goodbye and then he began to become transparent. Roman yelled at the others to do something.
    Patton had saddened tears dripping down his face and Thomas watched in fear. Virgil had buried himself in his hoodie. Logan watched Roman and Virgil with a careful eye, being sure the dark side fading didn't affect them other than emotionally.
    "Perhaps," Logan started, "Perhaps we should speak to Deceit."
    Deceit popped up beside Logan in Thomas' home. He looked unnaturally pale and sickly, his scales were flaky and his eyes dull.
    "What a pleasure it is to be here," Deceit drawled, sarcasm heavy in his voice. "What? Morality wanted to gloat? He's got his way? They're all dead now."
     Patton gasped in shock. "Why would Patton be bragging about the fading of the other sides?" Logan asked. Roman and Patton were both crying while Thomas just looked confused. Virgil is the one who answered Logan's question and the words brought them all to a stop a sense of dread sinking in all of their chests.
   "Pat's the one who killed them."
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sniffnoy · 3 years ago
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OK, I have to point out that this talk includes a lot of incorrect information, and I feel obligated to correct at least some of it. I would in general not recommend this talk if you want to learn about the history and quirks of text encoding and Unicode, when there are so many other better sources on the matter.
(I did learn two new things about text encoding from this video -- I wasn't aware of KOI-8 and how it was designed to still be understandable on systems that weren't 8-bit clean! And I didn't know the reasoning between the newline sequence distinction.)
(Btw, Greece does the license plate thing as well, with their alphabet, it's worth noting!)
Anyway, on to what's wrong here. I'll point out one small thing and one big thing.
The small thing is that the K in NFKC and NFKD stands not for "canonical" but rather "compatibility", and IINM the use of these is discouraged. They are for compatibility (not sure with what), not ordinary use.
The big thing is that Beattie seems to be very confused about UTF-8, and -- I suspect, although this is less clear -- also about UTF-16 and Unicode and the whole "UTF" idea as a whole. Like, he doesn't mention the whole fiasco surrounding UTF-16 (which you'd think would be a perfect topic for a section of his talk!), and normally I wouldn't ding someone for just omitting information but here it's pretty crucial to understand the overall situation, and this part of what makes me suspect he doesn't.
So, let's start with UTF-8. In UTF-8, a 1-byte sequence gets you 7 bits, a 2-byte sequence gets you 11 bits, and each additional byte past that gets you 5 additional bits. So 3 bytes is 16 bits and 4 bytes is 21 bits. If you went up to 6 bytes you could notionally do 31 bits, and if you went all the way up to 8 bytes (beyond which the scheme no longer works) you could get all of 41 bits. But UTF-8 only goes up to 4 bytes. Why?
Beattie claims that "once you get 5, 6, 7, 8-byte encoding sequences, you can't translate those into anything else. 4-byte encoding can go into UTF-32, which is like UTF-16 but it's twice as inefficient, but there is no UTF-64 or UTF-128." This is plainly wrong. A 6-byte sequence only gets you 31 bits, no more. In fact, while modern UTF-8 only goes up to 4-bytes, sequences up to 6 bytes were part of the original design. 7 bytes or 8 bytes, though, while notionally decodeable to a scalar value, are and always have been right out.
So if that were in fact the reason, then modern UTF-8 also ought to go up to 6-byte sequences (or really 7-byte sequences, to get all 32 bits in). It doesn't. Why not?
Well, Beattie has kind of fundamentally misdescribed how Unicode and the UTFs work. Rather than try to point out his errors here, it'd be easier to explain it from scratch.
Unicode code points are all given numbers ("scalar values") from 0 to 17*2^16-1. (Why that number? We'll get back to that.) So, a code point can be represented with a little more than 20 bits; or, rounding up to a whole number of bits we can actually use, we need 21 bits to represent a code point's scalar value. The UTFs are then schemes for representing these scalar values as sequences of octets (bytes).
UTF-32 simply represents each scalar value as a 32-bit number. (Not 24-bit, because people don't want to deal with unaligned accesses.) It has big-endian and little-endian variants, but I'm just going to ignore questions of endianness for simplicity. It's only really used by Python because as Beattie notes it's really ineffecient.
UTF-8 is described by Beattie in the talk, so I won't recap it here. But the reason it only goes up to 4 bytes because you only need 21 bits to represent any Unicode code point. Again, if it were about fitting into 32 bits, it'd go up to to 6-byte or 7-byte sequences; it doesn't because you only need 21 bits, not 32. (Why did it originally go up to 6 bytes? I'll get back to that.)
And then there's UTF-16. UTF-16, as you can guess from the name if you know about UTF-8 and UTF-32, uses pairs of bytes as its fundamental unit. (So, yes, endianness questions, but i'm ignoring those.) Some code points -- specifically, the first 2^16 scalar values, the "basic multilingual plane" -- are represented with a single pair of bytes. The remaining 2^20 scalar values are represented with two pairs of bytes -- a "high surrogate" followed by a "low surrogate"; there are 1024 of each.
Now, given that each surrogate is represented by a sequence of 16 bits, that means they fall into the basic multilingual plane. And yet, they are not code points! They are scalar values, yes, but code points, no. (So the total number of potential code points in Unicode is not 20^20+2^16, but rather 2^20+2^16-2^11.) If this sounds hacky and messed-up, and that's because it absolutely is!
The key thing to understand here is that originally, Unicode wasn't supposed to be 21-bit, it was supposed to be 16-bit. The intent was that we'd all be moving over from the 8-bit world to the new 16-bit world. You didn't need UTF-16 to "represent" Unicode in 16 bits, because Unicode simply *was* 16 bits. And people started building things -- such as Java, Javascript, and Windows NT -- on this assumption. From now on, 16 bits would equal one code point.
See, before Unicode, 8-bit code pages were one thing people used, but people also used variable-length encodings, and those were a pain! Since typically the character datatype represented 8 bits, meaning that with a variable-length encoding, the character datatype could represent only *part* of a character! That's really annoying! But Unicode was going to be constant-width, 16 bits, no more issues like that. (Yes, OK, Unicode also introduced combining characters, but I'm going to ignore that and just look at things at the code-point level...)
Except that's not what happened. Because it turns out that 16 bits just wasn't enough, and so Unicode had to expand to 21 bits (or rather, 20-and-a-little). Now, instead of just using "Unicode", you had to use a specific UTF to encode Unicode -- previously the idea of "encoding Unicode" didn't make a lot of sense, Unicode *was* the encoding! Now you had to choose an encoding for it.
So UTF-32 was invented as the straightforward encoding. And UTF-8 already handled this stuff naturally. But what about all those systems that had already been built around the assumption that everything was going to be 16-bit now...?
Well, uh, UTF-16 had to be invented, and 2048 code points scalar values set aside as surrogates, in order to accomodate all the existing systems that had foolishly trusted Unicode's promise of 16-bit forever. Thereby destroying what was supposed to be one of the big advantages of this new 16-bit world, that all code points would be constant-width. Oops.
I haven't answered the question of why it was specifically that number of scalar values that was set aside as surrogates, and, uh, I don't actually know the answer to that. I assume it was some sort of reasonable compromise. Regardless, that's the number we got. And that's where that 17*2^16 comes from -- it's the most you can get out of the hack that is UTF-16. The size of Unicode has been dictated by what this hack can accommodate.
So that's why there is (as Beattie says) no UTF-64, and why UTF-8 only goes up to 4 bytes. But wait! Why was it designed to go up to 6?
Well, this is getting into stuff I don't know very well, but, there was at one point something of a competitor to Unicode, called UCS; it's since been merged in, and the two are now synonyms, but at one time they were separate efforts. And UCS was going to be 31-bit (with the intent that you'd encode it as 32-bit, the high bit always being zero). UTF-8 originally went up to 6 bytes because it was originally designed for UCS rather than Unicode. So yeah!
(Actually, UCS made the scalar-value-vs-code-point distinction well before Unicode was forced to, because it barred a number of scalar values from being used as code points, not so they could be used as surrogates obviously, but rather for its own compatibility reasons. But that's an area I don't really know well, and I'm not going to go into that.)
Anyway hopefully that clarifies the relation between Unicode and the various UTFs, and why UTF-8 stops where it does.
youtube
Delightful talk on the mess that is "plain text". Watchable at 2x.
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