#'is there a lot of math involved in that?'

[octuscle]

Cursed Ken, part 3: Elijah, the up-and-coming soccer hopeful

Elliott was a typical controller and accountant. He was the first to get involved when something was free. In fact, Elliott was the last person to take an interest in soccer. Elliott had been a typical jock. Football QB, Navy (but only as a supply officer). And now in his mid-30s, he was still a looker. He had a well-toned body and still wore the flattop from his Navy days without a single gray hair. His constant gum chewing had given him angular, always clean-shaven features. His suits always fit perfectly and emphasized his tight ass. Okay, now the Ken doll stuck in his breast pocket was making an unsightly bulge. But the doll looked cool, his niece was an avid soccer player and she would be happy about this gift. And to Elliott's delight, the gift was free.

After the meeting had been derailed and then officially ended, Elliott actually wanted to go back to his office. The quarterly report still has to be completed. And the figures looked good. That made it a lot more fun to work on the report. But today? The weather was good. It was almost 5 p.m. already. For once, he was able to finish work early. It was a short walk through the park to the station. A pleasure in the sunshine.

A few youngsters were playing soccer on a meadow. Not bad. But with potential upside. One of the boys missed the ball, which flew in Elliott's direction. Elliott skillfully stopped it with his chest, dribbled a little and then shot the ball in a powerful cross directly into the goal provisionally marked with rucksacks. The pubescent boys were astonished. Elliott was about to move on when one of the boys called out to him, asking if he wanted to show them a few tricks. He didn't have to be persuaded for long. Elliott took off his jacket and shirt. His office sneakers weren't ideal for playing. And his suit trousers didn't really give him much freedom of movement. But he was certainly better than the junior players.

It was getting dark when the boys decided to stop playing. Elliott's hair was sticking to his forehead, soaked with sweat. His bare chest glistened with sweat. And his soccer shorts were green with grass stains. Just like his knees. Actually, he should take a shower before he went to bed. But showering sucked.

The first lesson was math. Elijah wasn't so good with numbers. Let's be honest, he wasn't good at any school subject except sports. But he was one of the great soccer hopes at his school. And competition was fierce at the sports high school. Before he went to class, Elijah's teacher took a deep breath. He knew exactly what to expect. His pubescent young stars were not so good at personal hygiene. Elijah smelled the way a boys' changing room smells. Since puberty had hit, his face had grown a fluffy fuzz. He even had a few first hairs on his chest. But he had no idea about Pytagoras' theorem. Grinning stupidly, he ran his fingers through his long, greasy hair, which was still sweaty from his morning workout. "It's okay, Elijah," said his teacher. "Can someone else answer the question?"

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! So, I want to write a story in a mild fantasy setting(mild bc there are other sentient races but magic is not that common) and I want to write my main character as a person with intellectual disability. But I wonder if, by having ID, they wouldn't be able to be a good fighter (this is a core trait). I also don't know if stress and trauma can lead someone with ID to end up losing their abilities to function (the MC has PTSD). How can I make this work?

Hi!

A person with ID could be a good fighter - with some caveats!

Most important here would be: what is the severity of their disability? That's how ID is categorized; mild, moderate, severe, and profound. If theirs is severe and especially profound, I would probably lean towards "no". But for mild and moderate it should be fine.

Other thing: what is the cause of their intellectual disability? ID can exist on its own, but it often has some kind of syndrome attached to it. The less different issues they have, the easier it would be for them to fight. If you look at intellectually disabled professional athletes, almost all of them will be in the "mild ID with no other disabilities" bucket. For someone with e.g. Rett Syndrome, fighting would probably be off the table due to all the other symptoms.

Last thing would be the type of fighting. Most would work fine, but some kinds of combat wouldn't be the best choice - for example, making them a sniper wouldn't make much sense; there's too much math and very quick decision-making involved with it I think.

Stress and trauma would work the same for someone with ID as for someone without it when it comes to PTSD. So if it's severe, it could cause significant problems like completely losing the ability to function. The only major difference is that an intellectually disabled person would probably get stressed much more easily when it comes to triggers, maybe also worse emotional control and such. But it depends on the person a lot.

You mentioned that magic isn't too common in their world, but if they happen to use it, I think it would be great to show them struggling to learn magic, or being behind on what someone their age should be able to do, etc.!

I hope this helps!!

mod Sasza

[kimquatz]

do you have any seadweller headcanons? : ]

I do!! SO many, in fact.

I'll say, one of my fave headcanons is that I LOVE the idea that, since it seems kind of implied seadwellers are not on the surface that often, all the violetbloods essentially live in their own underwater city and they just have a COMPLETELY different world goin' on down there. They're so divorced from surface world shenanigans, they essentially have this whole different culture, interpersonal dynamics, etc. goin' on it's just so far removed from what any of the surface trolls are dealing with LMFAO.

Funny enough, i think a majority of it would just be "first-world problems" kinda stuff.... if you've ever watched "Selling Sunset" I feel like it'd be just like that ASLKDJSA

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

For better and for worse, [Sondheim's] is the most systematic and unsentimental mind that has ever addressed itself to the American musical—the sort of mind one might more easily imagine designing particle accelerators, or computer viruses too wily to destroy. “The first music teacher I had at Williams College was a man named Robert Barrow,” he says. “And everybody hated him because he was very dry, and I thought he was wonderful because he was very dry. And Barrow made me realize that all my romantic views of art were nonsense. I had always thought an angel came down and sat on your shoulder and whispered in your ear ‘dah-dah-dah-dum.’ Never occurred to me that art was something worked out. And suddenly it was the skies opening up. As soon as you find out what a leading tone is, you think, Oh my God. What a diatonic scale is—Oh my God! The logic of it. And, of course, what that meant to me was: Well, I can do that. Because you just don’t know. You think it’s a talent, you think you’re born with this thing. What I’ve found and what I believe is that everybody is talented. It’s just that some people get it developed and some don’t.”

(x) on the one hand, it's unbelievably funny that sondheim is like, "everyone would be thrilled to learn about leading tones and diatonic scales. the fact that i felt this way about them has nothing to do with me having any kind of talent. this is just the normal way for people to respond." but on the other hand i truly love so much knowing that one of the great creative luminaries of his century agreed with me that Teaching People Stuff Is Good Actually.

[astrxealis]

hi guys please wish me luck for my college entrance exam tomorrow for one of my dream schools xoxo

[oreo-cookies-fan]

The exhibits helping Nick with his history homework, only that everyone remembers the event differently and no one agrees with what a textbook says

[inklingofadream]

came across sth and steamed again abt how i think stem stuff should be more closely tied to the shop-and-home-ec bits of jr high and hs classes

literally the ONE place i've used a WHOLE BUNCH of math stuff that otherwise feels completely inapplicable to real life (as presented in story problems about insane fencing set ups etc) is sewing. like SO MUCH of the geometry stuff, even in fairly basic sewing. holding a little bag you made in your hand is a final product that feels more accomplished than a good score on a math test, and I'm willing to bet a lot of people who couldn't mesh well with the default presentation would fare much better with that sort of personal experience integration. and there's TONS of stuff like that

it just. aaaahhhhhh

[transannabeth]

trying to explain something about how bbc sherlock faked sherlock’s death and i forgot how goofy and also nonsensical the explanation anderson is given. if it’s even real. if it even HAPPENED this show hated us all so goddamn bad and the edit with the clown music as people run around was right

[trvbblemaker]

say what you will about gimmick blogs (personally i think they’re great) but they introduce me to posts i never would have seen otherwise and sometimes they’re gold

[yansurnummu]

For Drals : 12 and 42.

Tell us everything <3

What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

I had to think about this one, because he's someone who puts on a really stoic face and often has a hard time finding joy in things. however, EVERYONE has something that will make them laugh.

anything that makes Kem (his cringefail watchling buddy) squirm. this includes daedric gore, herbal smells, steam or smoke - if Kem is grossed out, it will make Drals chuckle.

he's a pretty Learned dude, but every now and then Azandar will use a word he's never heard before and it will baffle him to the point of having to laugh about it.

the word "stringent". he just thinks it's so... spongy.

If invited to a TED Talk, what topic would they present on? What would the title of their presentation be?

OK SO in my fic I did make a reference to a dissertation he wrote when he was a Telvanni master, on "temporal resurfacing". As for what that actually is; it's sort of technobabble for what I imagine would be the mathematics behind a lot of the more complex magics relating to time & fate. To "resurface" would be to sand down a process to its bare essentials, therefore simplifying the math needed when adding multiple processes on top of the groundwork. Before his fall into Apocrypha, it was absolutely something he gave lectures on. (they were likely pretty boring and had poor attendance, however)

I think if he were to revisit the topic now he'd call it something more fun like "Temporal Resurfacing: How We Can Learn Mathematics from Mycelium"

[fieryphrazes]

I like that last one but idrk about it because every time I talk about knitting someone says “you count every stitch?!?” And you absolutely do not. You only count sometimes! Ideally a lot of it is muscle memory and just doing what you did last time

[pandorias-box]

hehe 🔍

If I was not in the interdimensional cultural sector of the URS, I probably would have been a member of the astronomy sector. But, so much of the data collection involves mathematics and I am not the best at complicated equations and there are…quite a lot of them involved there.

I am still very much happy with the work I pursue and would not change it otherwise.

[lyxthen]

Lackadaisy came back to remind me about the good ol' days... Indeed, I myself had a project involving guns and substance trade taking place in a very similar setting and time period, that I had to drop because I got overwhelmed. But ever since reading Lackadaisy my passion for "characters with guns in retro outfits" has come back full force. This is Andy, one of those characters, as an anthropomorphic cat. If she existed in the Lackadaisy universe, I think that she'd get along with the Savoy siblings.

[gcsly]

this is Pierre being the technical king

franz tost galaxy brain

[ilikedetectives]

.

[cat-dragoness]

What kind of job do you have where you get to do math?!!!!!!!

I'm an engineer :D My degree is in mechanical engineering, but I'm mostly working in the aerospace field right now, which means lots of analytical stuff.