#Computer Science Camps For Kids

[deposedefenddeny]

A former co-worker of Luigi Mangione at the Stanford pre-collegiate studies program and a former student remembered Mangione as caring and outgoing when they met him, then a head counselor of the program, in 2019. A University spokesperson previously confirmed to The Daily that Mangione was employed as a head counselor for Stanford’s Pre-Collegiate Studies Program between May and September of 2019. The Daily also reviewed a Stanford Pre-College Studies spreadsheet that listed Mangione as living in the Kappa Alpha (KA) house that year. The program offers academic courses to high school students from around the world, both on Stanford’s campus and online. Mangione’s LinkedIn profile states that he “designed lesson plans and taught artificial intelligence to gifted high school students” and “led a 7-member residential staff” as an employee. A former student of the program who lived in KA with Mangione told The Daily they had a positive relationship. “[Mangione] was just a very good summer camp counselor,” he said. “He was very easygoing. Everyone, as far as I could tell, got along with him. He was funny, a very chill guy.” The former student, who requested anonymity due to concerns about online harassment, estimated that around 50 people lived in KA that summer, including students and staff. The former student said that during a hike for the program, he had a two hour conversation with him about computer science and early career advice. “He took the time to do that, to really talk to me as I was starting to think about what I wanted to study in college,” the former student said. “The way that I felt was, this is a guy who just inherently cares about others.” Summarizing his relationship with Mangione, the former student said he was “our cool counselor who was in a frat that we would have conversations with.” A former program staff member who worked in the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (EBF) house that summer shared a similar impression of Mangione with The Daily. “He was very friendly, very outgoing. The other staff members liked him. The high school kids liked him.” The former staff member requested anonymity because of concerns about online harassment. After rereading old staff group chats from 2019, the former staff member observed that Mangione was “always the one organizing staff volleyball games.” He added that Mangione organized a trip to Big Sur among the counselors and was “one of the community builders within the group.” For both the former staff member and student, the announcement that Mangione was a person of interest in the shooting came as a shock. “Of all the people I’ve known in my life, he would not have been in my top 10,000 guesses,” the former staff member said. “It feels like a fever dream,” the former student said.

Stanford Daily on Jan 7, 4:02 a.m. ET

[remember-digimon]

Prodigious!

Izzy is the reason all these kids are still alive btw just wanted to make sure we all know that

So Izzy is smart. He brings a laptop and cellphone to summer camp and uses big words. But thankfully he does not fall into the trap of 'smart kids' of western media; overly nerdy, completely socially inept, you get the idea. No, Izzy is more than that. His intelligence has a basis in something besides a trope; namely, computer science and engineering.

(Don't even get me started on Matt being the one to go into engineering when IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IZZY)

From the moment the kids land in the Digital World, Izzy is curious about it. His crest is knowledge but I really think it should've been curiosity. He gets Tentomon to evolve by hacking his code. He comes up with some aliens conspiracy to explain why they're there and why there's things like phone booths on the beach.

Izzy is the problem solver of the group. In fact, without him, the other kids are just... Kinda lost. Izzy has the answers, and if he doesn't he'll at least know how to find them.

Even though he's younger than the others, being 10 when they're 11, they treat him as an equal. This is opposed to the other kid that's 10, Mimi, who is kind of coddled, and the two youngest, TK and Kari, who are literally the hope and light of the group.

Izzy is basically Tai's second-in-command, deferring to Tai's leadership while Tai takes his input very seriously. However, Izzy isn't much of a leader on his own.

He gets distracted by details. When Mimi finds him in the temple, he's so busy on his laptop that she gets upset and runs off into a maze. I would attribute this to him being younger, and as he gets older he does get better at applying his intelligence to a leadership role.

Most of the kids have an interesting family dynamic and Izzy is no different. It's revealed that he's adopted, that his birth parents died shortly after he was born and his adoptive parents were friends that took him in.

What I like about this reveal is that, of course, Izzy found this out on his own due to his curiosity. He overheard his parents discussing whether or not they should tell him, deciding not to because he's too young.

During the Odaiba raid, when the kids have a moment, Izzy gets to finally have the conversation. They admit that he's adopted and tell him what happened, and he says he already knows. He didn't want to bring it up himself because he thought he could just pretend like things were normal, like before he knew. But obviously it couldn't. This shows the price he pays for his curiosity, that sometimes knowing things isn't all fun times and computer jargon. It isn't helpful for Izzy to pretend to not know, to ignore what he knows. Instead it's better for him to apply what he knows to react appropriately, instead of hiding behind the easier mode of willful ignorance.

This also comes into play, though in a different way, during Izzy's confrontation with Vademon. Izzy gives away his curiosity (under extreme duress but still) and is basically empty of all character after that. He does a weird alphabet yoga meditation and willingly gives up his crest and tag, when earlier in the episode his curiosity was at a boiling point over it.

This causes Tentomon to de-digivolve to the baby stage; the only other partner Digimon to go back to this stage is Patamon. With the loss of his curiosity, Izzy has lost the core of his being and is no longer able to maintain Tentomon's existence.

Of course, he gets it back and everything is fine afterwords. This episode is very interesting when looking at how things work for the kids and their Digimon, why the crests are important, etc. But that's a post for another time.

Izzy is incredibly important to the team. Without him, I highly doubt they would've made it very far at all. He's able to look up Digimon on his laptop, kind of like a Digimon version of a Pokedex, when none of the currently present Digimon can give an explanation about who they're up against. But aside from his usefulness as the Smart Kid, it's noteworthy that he uses his intelligence to be helpful instead of lording it over everyone. And he is still a kid, albeit with an impressive vocabulary, so sometimes his curiosity gets him into trouble.

[callofdudes]

141 + Rodolfo & Laswell general headcanons

Before he was Ghost (and still sometimes after) he was the guy you'd go to if you had a rip in something or wanted something stitched/embroidered.

His brother was the type to bully him like he did, but if anyone outside the home tried to hurt Simon Tommy would beat them.

Had a schedule where he was to be home straight after school but would sometimes get to go dirt bike riding with Tommy.

Was a prime bullies target because he was very small before his growth spurts. And after said growth spurt has a lot of stretch marks around most of his muscle area.

Is the favorite child of Laswell.

Loves squishmellows, has many.

Will eat Thrills gum just to spite everyone even though it tastes like dish soap and he hates it.

Brings all Gossip to Gaz first.

Because of trauma and stress Simon gets constant migraines and everyone knows to avoid him because he gets insanely cranky.

Knows spanish from how long he was kept in mexico.

Used to play those computer games where you had to input the command of what you wanted the simulation to do.

Doesn't like VR. It's cool but he gets motion sick inside.

Huge mama's boy.

Had braces when he was younger but it didn't stop him from showing off his amazing smile.

Used to bug his older sisters with nerd guns.

I like the idea of Johnny being the youngest chaos gremlin but being the middle child also works for him. (Of two or three sisters)

His parents let him be in football because he was a very smart kid. Topping his science and math classes and becoming valedictorian of his class.

He thinks he's the favorite child of Laswell.

Gets scared when Simon tells him about pixel command prompt games.

While his sisters were watching Frozen he was dealing with the weird crush he had on the king.

Steals pick up lines from Kyle.

Doesn't voice his achievements a whole lot because he wasn't enough for his dad when he was younger no matter what he did. Which has led to his snarky form of confidence and Rizz.

Even older people with take credit for his work and he will fight.

Was 100% a theatre kid.

And an only child.

Is scared to come out even to people close to him after what happened when his platoon mates first found out and wouldn't let it go.

Also thinks he's the favorite child.

Almost got his eyebrow pierced once.

Started to learn what a good father should be because of Price.

Brings all gossip to Ghost first.

Massive people watcher. People credit Ghost for his people watching but it just gives Kyle more opportunity to also people watch.

Has a mentor/big brother little brother relationship with Ghost and they're actually very close.

Used to be a menace when he was younger, and to be fair he still is.

Can't have kids because his balls don't work very well 😅

He was in history in school and was also very good at math.

The Duolingo bird hates him for some reason so he's taken to learning languages from interrogations, now knows 7 languages.

Is Nikolai's permanent backup plan if some shit goes down in Russia and has gotten used to waking up with the man asleep on his couch.

Attracts girls looking for older rich men and it pains him to tell them he is not old, nor is he rich.

Had a strict Military dad who currently still works for the military as a higher rank than him and they do not have a good relationship.

Spends most of her leave time up in the mountains camping. She loves being out in nature.

Has older brothers who are really into rock climbing so she'll accompany them and their friends for rock climbing and camping when she can.

Simon is the favorite child.

Everyone thinks she's married to Price but she'd actually scold him like a child half the day and encourage his antics like a good friend for the rest.

Was in the history and chest club.

Keeps gifting Simon his squishmellows.

Mother to all her 141 children.

Brings her wife to base and Johnny had taken to calling them the "moms".

Will bully people for 141.

Have you ever seen the crazy taser girl?? Yeah, that's him. He has many tasers and he loves them all.

He's actually crazy.

Very capable of yelling and defending himself but Alejandro has bestie senses and usually beats him to whoever did it.

Rudy is quiet but don't bark at him because he barks back.

Alejandro and Rudy used to skip school and go hang out on the cliffs they now trek for military.

His father made a joke once that he was going to get milk and Rudy never recovered mentally.

(and then he left for real-)

He was in photography and sports team manager in school.

After checking out each other's turf, Simon and Rudy are now chronically insane besties.

(had this in my drafts for a while, decided to post because I'm bored.)

[eldritch-bf]

Danbert in The Thing (1982) expanded thoughts:

The two of them spend the winter down at outpost 31 during their final year of medical school for a work for credits situation under the guidance of Dr’s Blair and Copper.

Herbert, watching MacReady lose to the computer in chess from across the room. “I could take him.” Dan, looking up from his book. “In chess, right?”

Herbert gets up and does challenge MacReady to a game of chess however they get interrupted by the commotion of the Norwegian helicopter.

Dan primarily studies under Dr Copper (the physician who insists on going to the Norwegian camp to help them despite the weather risk) and brings Dan along with him to investigate the camp with MacReady.

Herbert primarily studies under Dr Blair (biologist who performs the autopsy on what they bring back from the Norwegian camp)

Herbert is initially disinterested in the other camp and advises against Dan going because he assumed they had all just experienced psychotic breaks and they might be dangerous. Dan and Dr Copper ignore him.

Dan and Herbert are however immediately aware that something is NOT right with the Thing Dog because unlike every other animal including the other sled dogs, this “animal” shows Herbert indifference. Though they have no idea why.

Herbert assists with the autopsy of the burnt humanoid brought back from the Norwegian camp and can barely contain his curiosity and excitement. Later Herbert wakes Dan up in the middle of the night and drags him to the autopsy room and makes him study the cells and the interactions with the reagent. Dan is very tired and wants to sleep.

The Dog Thing absorbing the other dogs scene takes place and Herbert again helps with that autopsy and MacReady notices how much of a little weirdo he is, and afterwards confronts Dan about it, asking him if he thinks Herbert is dangerous or can even be trusted. Dan hesitated and poorly explains away Herbert’s behavior. MacReady doesn’t trust either of them.

More late night science, though now MacReady is Suspicious.

Herbert really really wants to see if the reagent can reanimate the dead Things but Dan scienceblocks to the best of his ability

MacReady notices them in the lab and witnesses a tender moment between them and concludes more or less correctly that that’s the origin of their strange behavior (though it’s also because Herbert is still keeping the reagent a secret).

Blair runs the computer simulation, to which Herbert is a witness to, and finally becomes concerned about the Thing, primarily because he doesn’t want to die down there. Subplot is that Herbert is frustrated no one listens to him because he’s just a kid compared to the rest of them. (MacReady particularly loves calling both of them “kid”) And so he highly doubts these dumb ass men can keep them safe.

Herbert tests a few Thing cells under a microscope with the reagent and it does indeed work just as normal. Dan points out that this doesn’t actually help them in any meaningful way except for satisfying Herbert’s curiosity to which Herbert basically says “that’s the whole point” and Dan gets so frustrated he storms out, leaving Herbert alone, which makes Herbert, still slightly paranoid that at least one member of the crew is the thing, to follow along with Dan, apologize, and insist on staying together every moment possible.

Blair has his breakdown, destroying the vehicles and radio equipment to prevent escape, Herbert is nearly killed as a result, similar to Palmer, before running and alerting everyone. The station crew then lock Blair in the shed.

Dr Copper is killed while trying to save “Norris” from his heart attack, leaving Dan and Herbert the best physicians and biologists available to them. Herbert agrees with MacReady’s idea to use the hot needle on the blood. No one really trusts Herbert or MacReady at this point which makes Childs even more convinced the test is horseshit and that Herbert and or MacReady are clearly the thing and Dan defends Herbert by saying “no he’s always like this trust me”

They all pass except Palmer who famously fails the test, infects Windows, and MacReady incinerates them while Herbert drags Dan out of the room and decides they need to get out before this thing kills every last one of them.

Dan and Herbert stay behind with Childs, packing up and arming themselves just in case, while the others go to test Blair.

Dan questions how they’ll escape since Blair destroyed the equipment and after some discussion away from Childs, the two of them correctly anticipate that the Thing will likely sabotage the power on the station in order to hinder the team from finding it (they don’t know about the spaceship it’s constructed yet)

Dan and Herbert head off to the power generator and wait for the Blair-Thing which quickly shows up and they manage to kill it without destroying the station, leaving Cain, West, MacReady, Childs, Nauls, and Garry alive.

Herbert and MacReady finally have their game of chess though it ends in a stalemate to which Herbert poorly hides his irritation and MacReady reveals he knew all about him and Dan yet at the same time he does compliment Herbert for helping save them. The six of them wait out the rest of winter until rescue comes.

[shes-an-oddbird]

Do you have any headcannons for Nanteo? I love your fics btw

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoy them! I really should post more frequently, I have a folder of half finished works that I really want to finish before the show ends!

As for headcannons I could literally go on for days! This is me trying to keep the reply a reasonable length!

So first, I think they became close when Nancy and TK were working at Paragon and Mateo was with the 129. I truly believe Nancy hated working there and had to convince herself to go by carpooling with TK. She’d pick him up at the Strand House and frequently ate breakfast with Mateo while TK was finishing getting ready. It got to the point where Mateo would have a plate ready for her and even bought a box of the sugary cereal she likes. (Owen totally threw it out and tried to replace it with something healthier and Mateo had to go buy another box). For like a week she arrived a little earlier every day so they could spend more time together and TK called her out for it and then for a week after she arrived with just a few seconds to spare and Mateo was late for work because he was dragging his feet, hoping to see her before he had to leave. They talked a lot about how much they missed the 126. Nancy was amazed that he could stay positive and make the best of working with the 129. Mateo was obsessed with Nancy’s stories of her, TK and Tommy manipulating the system to help their patients without benefiting Paragon and called them vigilante paramedics.

The show basically confirmed my headcanon that they read together with Mateo listening to the audio book version of whatever book she’s reading.

They both get sucked into a good story, so movies and TV shows are also a big thing for them. Nancy is exceptionally good at hunting down old TV shows and they’ve watched a lot of old superhero shows together.

Mateo is the best at planning date night activities. He’s always finding fun things for them to do that she would have never come up with (I love this poll and want to turn it into a fic). Nancy is better at picking restaurants and trying new foods. Chasing down obscure food trucks is a skill they’ve mastered together.

They take up camping because neither of them went camping as kids. Mateo is into hiking and kayaking and rock climbing and Nancy is a science nerd who loves plant life and astronomy so they actually love it. They end up going at least one weekend a month. Nancy sometimes picks flowers on their trips to press into her books. Mateo likes how they look after they've been pressed and is thinking about getting a tattoo inspired by them.

Nancy greatly admires that Mateo loves the things he loves without being embarrassed about it. The idea that you have to grow out of the things you enjoy doesn’t really compute with him. I think Nancy enjoyed playing pokemon games and watching the show when she was a kid but eventually was told she was too old for it. She loves catching up on what she’s missed with Mateo. They even buy the opposite games when new ones are released to they can complete them together (ex. Mateo has pokemon scarlet and Nancy has pokemon violet).

Mateo’s family adores Nancy. She met a lot of them at Marvin’s funeral and they ask about her every time he talks to them. She’s of course has not met his parents in person but they’ve video chatted a few times. They mostly speak Spanish so Mateo translates for her a lot. She doesn’t tell him that she and TK are learning Spanish from Tommy because she wants to surprise him and because she knows there are a few things he’s been too embarrassed to translate. (His mom is very excited at the idea of having tall grandchildren). Mateo was terrified to meet Nancy’s dad but it turns out he’s just a really tall nerd like his daughter; her sister is actually more intimidating but warms up to him quickly.

I could seriously keep going but I've already taken forever to answer! Hopefully these were worth the wait😊

[ndconceptarchive]

Interview with Creators of the original Secrets Can Kill game

It's honestly a very interesting interview about the early days of HI and it includes some foreshadowing to Alibi in Ashes, Tomb of the Lost Queen, and Labyrinth of Lies. (There was also a mention of possibly remastering Message in a Haunted Mansion! Although that likely wasn't in development.)

The following is a transcript from a video titled, Interview with Creators of the original Secrets Can Kill game | Nancy Drew Games | HeR Interactive. Published Aug 20, 2010. It was created in promotion for Secrets Can Kill Remastered, as seen in the video description:

"We interview Megan, Kris, Robert, and Tim about their experiences making the original version of Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill from 12 years ago! They share funny stories and give a few little known clues about the game. It's a look back at how far Her Interactive has come and where it's going with the upcoming release of Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill REMASTERED (PC/Mac, available on August 24)."

Interviewer: Hello, so we are here today, with four of the original people who worked on the very first Secrets Can Kill game: 

Megan, our CEO, what were you back when we made Secrets Can Kill?

Megan: I was the Creative Director when I got hired in 1997, and then Robert was…

Robert: The Program Manager. I had been recruited from the accounting department in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Kris: I’m Kris, I was hired as a 2D artist and I came in to work with Tim…

Tim: who was also a contract artist and then, I kind of took over the 3D part at the very tail end of the project. 

Interviewer: Did you know anything about creating games when you first started on Secrets Kill? 

Robert: I did a little. I made games when I was a kid. When I got my first computer, all I did was make games for it, especially adventure-type of text-based games, so I knew just a little, but definitely not enough. I was really surprised and overwhelmed by the amount of work that it took to make a computer game.

Kris: I used to do computer day camps with my father who taught us to to program to program games in BASIC. But beyond, that no. 

Tim: Oh I played a lot of computer games, but mainly board games was my big thing. I had a little board gaming group that would just play tons of a lot of German board games. And I think that helped because a lot of those mechanics and bargains translate over into, you know, mini games and puzzles and stuff. So that was fun, but I had no design experience or [anything] at that point. 

Interviewer: So what is the biggest challenge that you guys had to face when you were making Secrets Can Kill?

Megan: Well, first, we were a new team and half the team was in Albuquerque. Then it shifted and I guess everyone moved to Bellevue by the end of the game, really, we were all learning how to work as a team and to kind of create this game around Nancy Drew. So communication I think was probably the hardest. 

Robert: yeah, because there there was a lot of assets, but not a lot of documentation to go with.

Megan: No documentation. 

Robert: Yeah, I remember you, you brought down your, the art director at that time, Laura Henion, to Albuquerque so we could all meet. 

Tim: I think the hardest part was just finishing it. It went really long, much longer than we have [now]. I mean, we got it down to a science now. 

I remember [that] I would take my work home. [I would] then get up at like 3:00 in the morning and start another render on the computer, then go back to bed and get up another half hour and check it and make some tweaks and keep running. I was doing that almost every night it seems for a while there just to get it done. 

Kris: That's really true. There were three of us in the art department at that time- counting Laura the art director. So it was a big push at the end to get work finished. That was a challenge. 

Megan: I think you know, communication was the biggest challenge, but the good part was that everybody was so excited and enthusiastic and passionate. It didn't seem to matter what obstacle came up, because we just figured out a way to overcome it. So there's a lot of trial and error in the first game. 

Interviewer: What is something funny or memorable that you remember from the process when you made that first game? 

Robert: So remember we just had a recorder, a voice recorder. So we thought, let's make silly, silly voicemail messages when you would call different places like Maxines or Aunt Eloise. So we all gathered around the microphone and and just add libbed and it was really funny. 

Tim: When I was just basically just kind of an art assitant and helping Laura, the art director, and I just came in and sat down and started doing some work and I heard some rough rustling going on. What's going on? And I looked behind me and Glenn, who was our contract 3D artist at the time (three years at the time) came out of a sleeping bag from underneath his desk.

Interviewer: Kris, do you have any memories? 

Kris: I remember the marketing at the end. When we finished the game, Megan gave me a huge stack of cell sheets to take with me to spread around town. And I remember I was going to visit my family back east, so I was supposed to take them across the country and spread them around. 

And so there was really some guerrilla marketing that went on at that point.

Interviewer: Come a long way for sure. Say, what do you think of the original Secrets Can Kill now that's been 12 years since you've made it?

Robert: It's always, it was, it's very, it was very surprising to replay it when we're when we're looking at it to remaster Master. I mean, it's just it's so much more different. It was shorter. The storyline wasn’t as as intricate as our current ones. The puzzles were pretty primitive and I think there was only like. I don't know, like 7 inventory objects. Now we have at least 30. 

Tim: We also kind of approach it little differently. It was I think the only game where we hid these hidden messages all throughout the game that had really. That we're really outside of Nancy's world and universe. It was just like like the designer hitting hiding messages in there maybe about the game. 

But it was, you know, if you look at different book spine titles in the library, you could actually, spell out a sentence or something that that might say something, mysterious.

Megan: Meaningful? Tim: But it was like, if you were actually a player in the world, you’d be like, “where did that come from?” So we kind of changed our design tactic on that later on, but that was the one game where we did kind of funny things like that.

Kris: A player wouldn’t notice, but a lot of the articles were written by our family members. Or you know, some of the photos in the game, like for example, in the student dome where Hal Tanaka sits, there's the bulletin board for student of the Month.

Tim: That's where Connie was at. 

Kris: Oh, it’s where Connie is. And so that's, you know, pictures of ourselves and our friends and family. 

Interviewer: What kind of other things did you put in there that you don't think our fans would necessarily have picked up on playing through the games that you guys hid in there?

Robert: Ohh, I remember in the opening cinematic Darrell does that, [pulls his ear] which is an old Carol Burnett move to say “hi Mom!”.

Tim: My son Sam is in the teacher's lounge, he’s in a photo, and he was like a year or two years old and now he's like a grown man, you know, it feels like (he's like 13 now). 

Megan: So I can't remember if that's the one my nieces were in, but when I told them [that they were in a game] they said, “do we talk when you press on us?” And I said “no, maybe in the next game.” 

So what was really neat was when we got together with girls to have them play games at that time to see what they thought about Nancy Drew and games in general. 

And girls didn't really play games back then. And so their feedback actually helped us to improve on existing gameplay rather than just perpetuate stereotypes. 

They would say, when they're playing a shooter, “you know, we don't mind shooting, however, we prefer a reason before we shoot. Like if they were beating up my little sister, I'd be all over them.” So they really helped us with their input in terms of making the games, that that they wanted. 

Interviewer: What are some of the changes that you think have made the biggest impact in the newer games versus the original one? 

Tim: I think the design, the tighter design, kind of the overarching puzzle that is woven into the game is very compelling and interesting to follow for this new game. I think. 

The old game was much more open and just kind of, I mean, you could explore, but. There was a little bit more wandering and trying to piece together what was going on. This one, it's just more cleverly put together. Also the graphics. I think make a big difference with the new lighting and just a little bit updated the 3D characters definitely is a huge difference. 

Robert: Something the players won’t notice is that we now use Lua rather than our proprietary scripting language. It was horrendous. Very 20th century, so even though that doesn't affect the players, it really affected us and made it much more easy to put the the games together.

Kris: I feel really nostalgic playing this game going back but as far as the fun factor is concerned, I really liked that the arcade-style mini-games are now included

Interviewer: Barnacle Blast!

Kris: Yeah. 

Megan: I remember when we were on our first or second game people would say so what are you gonna do after that i mean nobody's gonna play a third Nancy Drew game.

Interviewer: Did you imagine that you guys would be still making these games 23 games later? 

Everyone: No [visibly shaking heads]

Tim: It’s pretty incredible just to think about. Every once in a while I’ll just pull up the codes and stuff because I can’t keep track of which games are in what order anymore. I’ll just look through this list and think “I’ve been here for all of these.” It’s crazy. I mean, it’s something I’m really prud of, that we’ve been able to last that long and create just this wonderful collection.

Megan: I think there’s just the team that you know, that we had all these years. Everyone is so talented and creative. There’s this creative collaboration from the beginning where everybody feels comfortable to add their ideas to the mix. 

Robert: The sky’s the limit for Nancy Drew. There’s so many stories you can tell, so many places you can go, so many people you can meet. It’s fun reinventing Nancy Drew for other platforms as well.

Tim: We get feedback all the time from players who are like “I really wanna see Nancy go to Egypt or to Greece” and we 

Megan: We’re all storytellers. We all come from very different backgrounds. Math, architecture, film, art, but we all love to tell a story. And in these Nancy Drew games, there’s a weave of fact and fiction. And it’s a lot of meaningful content. Historical references and characters, cultural discovery, you learn about the folklore. You learn, but you’re having so much fun you don’t even realize. 

Interviewer: What mystery would you like to see Nancy Drew solve in the future now that we’re talking about how the sky’s the limit? Robert: I actually liked going back to Secrets Can Kill. And I kind of wanna do some retro stuff. So I wouldn't mind going back to like Haunted Mansion and maybe something was left unfound. 

Kris: I might like to see Nancy go to Thailand so we could showcase the architecture of Thailand.

Tim: So many great characters.  some of these secondary characters that you never see like Krolmeister and Sonny Joon and all these people that have kind of built up this universe. It's it's great to be able to go back and and draw from some of that and create more content from that. 

Megan: Traveling just to different countries. I think that's so interesting. Egypt would be fascinating. 

Robert: I think it'd be also fun to take her back home. You know, we we haven't explored River Heights and there's just so much there too and this just wide geography of River Heights. It would be fun to look at. 

Interviewer: Do you guys have anything else that you'd like our fans to know about the new version of Secrets Can Kill Remastered? 

Robert: There's clues everywhere so…

[laughter from everyone] 

Megan: What made you give that away! 

Interviewer: We hope to see a lot more games from you guys.  Megan & the others: thank you, Thank you! We hope you enjoyed this.

[klarioncall]

Headbone Interactive History and Lost Media Search

While perhaps currently most recognized for Bungie the Frog, from its Gigglebone Gang edutainment games. Headbone Interactive was a video game company with an interesting history and output. Headbone Interactive now has a legacy of company pivots, half remembered nostalgia, and Lost Media. Before going bankrupt in 2001, it was once critically acclaimed and positioned as a possible competitor with much better remembered Edutainment companies Humongous Entertainment (Freddie Fish, Pajama Sam, Spy Fox) and The Learning Company, (Reader Rabbit, Carmen Sandiago, Cluefinders)

Founded in the early 90s and releasing their first games in 1995 on PC and Mac, including Elroy Goes Bugzerk, intended for ages 8 to 108, and The Gigglebone Gang: Pantsylvania, for ages 4-8, both the first of Headbones two game series. These games established a distinctive visual style in their use of composited black and white photographs as backgrounds for its cartoonish characters and props.

The games were Edutainment titles, with the Gigglebong Gang series being largely creative and exploratory due to its young intended audience, now somewhat notorious for the way its host looked and spoke directly to camera, sometimes from very close, as well as clearing the screen of unwanted creations by eating them. Meanwhile, Elroy series, sometimes called What the Heck will Elroy Do Next?, was a point and click adventure with animated cutscenes, that, meeting children where they were at with a story about a bored kid’s quest to find a cool enough bug to defeat his 10 year old nemesis, taught facts about real insects along Elroy and his Dog Blue’s journey to find the elusive Technoloptera.

Both games sold and reviewed well enough to get sequels, Gigglebone Gang the same year with Alphabonk Farm, and Elroy in 1996 with Elroy Hits The Pavement, that introduced Elroy’s friend Sid and leaned further into spies and conspiracies, teaching more diverse problem solving and elementary science.

Also in 1996, Headbone released another Gigglebone Gang title, Infinity City) and an interactive dress up game about Elroy and Sid putting on short plays, Elroy’s Costume Closet. As well as a game intended as the first of a new series, Iz and Auggie: Escape From Dimension Q, marked for ages 10 to 110, and featured more complex puzzle solving as well as incomplete failure states.

In 1997 the final Gigglebone Gang Game (World Tour), released, and after that, the story gets a little interesting.

Headbone Entertainment had established a Company website as early as 1996, and kept it updated with the ability to receive a demo disk of their offerings, mail order their games, and even download additional content for Elroy’s Costume Closet, with new outfits released periodically and often themed to holidays.

An archive of the website’s Coming Soon page from January of 1997 lists two titles as Upcoming, Velma’s Costume Closet, another interactive dress up game, this time for the Gigglebone Gang, and Elroy: King of the Jungle, both slated for a Summer 1997 release.

Neither of these games, can be proven to have released, in 1997 or otherwise, though there is an unsubstantiated claim on the Headbone Interactive Wikipedia page that Elroy: King of the Jungle, received a “Limited Release” in 1999.

Around 1998, the company restructured, and attempted to diversify. Headbone.com pivoted from the landing page for a game company to The Headbone Zone, a child friendly corner of the internet including, a moderated on-site forum, online based email service, and several in browser games. Including quiz based games Riddleopolis and Scienceopolis, Management sim Rags to Riches, and Elroy’s Netscapade, later renamed the Headbone Derby, a series of educational challenges designed for school computer classes, intended to teach students how find information online in order to help Elroy, and later Iz and Auggie, solve mysteries.

Camp Champ, an interactive collectible trading card game on Headbone Zone, was sponsored by GoGurt and interfaced with codes on the packaging to unlock additional cards.

At its peak, Headbone Zone supposedly had over 350,000 registered users.

In 1999, Headbone Interactive also attempted to break into animation with their distinctive vector art style. This included thirteen 3-minute episodes of a cartoon called Fidgetmore Academy for ABC Family, the pilot for an Elroy cartoon, Elroy & Blue: The 11th Caller, and a series of ten 1 minute interstitials created for the Discovery Channel, Hugo Takes a D-Tour, only three of which are preserved on former Headbone Employee Chuck Gamble’s YouTube page.

Chuck Gamble’s online Portfolio includes both direct mention of and concept art for the mysterious Elroy: King of the Jungle in the form of character designs for Ooga and Doc. Both seen and named as “Professor von Hefflemelon (the pre-eminent Jungleologist) and Ooga (the Big Jungle Guy)” in the blurb provided in the 1997 coming soon page. Though they are now currently listed under the header for Headbone TV as part of the unrealized Continuing Adventures Disasters of Ooga & Doc.

The Elroy Games section of his portfolio also stated that “We ultimately did 4 discs involving Elroy and his dog Blue.” Which, in addition to Bugzerk, Hits the Pavement, and Costume Closet includes either Elroy: King of the Jungle, or the Headbone Interactive Take Us For a Spin sampler Demo Disk.

[howtosex1]

SPACE KIDS NIGHTMARE CREATION 1/??

oooo o oooo new camp camp au 🥳 (if u saw this on tik tok it was mine😇)

( TW: GORE AND DISTURBING TOPICS!! )

Au where sp's fan fiction/story comes to life and max gets trapped into that alternative reality and has to find a way to escape and survive.

Information about the characters because information dumping ;

Max — he got attacked by Niki as soon as he spiraled into the au. He got away as soon as he could and scurried into the forest.

Nikki— she got cursed when trying to save Neil from being cured yet it happened anyways. She turned into a savage beast basically and would attack anything human.

David— no idea. Bro also got cursed by nerris😭😭

Gwen— got brutally killed by being hit over the head so Neil did his science and then got transformed into a zombie.

Neil— got cursed into a robot basically. His real soul stuck in his computer.

Preston— got kidnapped and basically got experimented on. (By Neil and Nikki. They're basically a evil duo.) So he's now a vampire.

Harrison— got his guts ripped out by nerris basically because he was trying to check on her but they got infected by Daniel's curse.

Nerris— Daniel infected them with a curse to poison them before killing and cursing Harrison themselves he shoved a dice into their eye—

Ered— she fell off Campbell's skate ramp in that one ep. She got infected and went crazy cause she thought she wasn't cool enough and desperately will kill or harm anyone she thinks she isn't cool.

Nurf— you remember the nurf episode where he gets cloned ? Yeah Neil does that and then takes the actual nurf and kills the clones and basically experiments on nurf stitching his clones skin to him after skinning him basically making him like Frankenstein.

Thank you :3

[hypokeimena]

i know i could google it but i love to question american mutus, what's it really like in a frat ?

well like it's extremely variable. one of the primary things that makes frats scary and nonfunctional is the fact that at MOST schools, the frat is technically "off campus" housing which means that the university - while dependent on greek life to provide housing to students - has no or extremely limited legal control over behavior which happens in frat houses bc... it is "off campus". which is what leads to the kind of bad shit you hear about bc there's very little like... accountability. HOWEVER greek life at my school was 1. housed in dorms 2. at a school with a more liberal milieu, and also not an enormous part of campus culture - it was there if you wanted it but it wasn't the ONLY place to socialize, or the only kind of group housing etc, the way it is in some other more rural schools where that's sort of the only thing there is to do yk. also 3. it was a group that very much self-selected for people who cared about Living In Community who wanted a space that was not as traditionally "fratty".

i tend to feel it has much more in common with the way i've seen people describe coop housing than with other frat houses; we were a greek letter org with a national - but we are co-ed and legally distinct, though we still share songs and a history with the all-male org.

so for me "what was being in a frat like" well it was like living with a bunch of people who all agreed that we wanted to live together, drink responsibly together, and learn all the same drinking songs. together. which i think is not typically the experience for many people!

checked in with a college friend to see if this description held true to her perception also and she said "well housing coops don't ritualistically blindfold members" which i feel like is a big thing for her to claim. they might. i don't know that. anyway it was good and fun and we did not do Hazing except in to a degree that was entirely opt-in.

have these descriptions also: "[frat was] like kind of a traditional frat, kind of a religious community a little bit (in the way that frats are that) and kind of like coop housing for people who like movie nights. also kind of like attending city council meetings. a homeowners association for self destructive people. socialization daycare for computer science students. sleepaway summer camp but the kids and chaperones are the same age. and also the same people. [frat] is like the post-musical rager for high school students who played in the orchestra pit" (h/t @oddliestcatch)

[laxmiree]

[CN] MLQC Lucien's Through Thousands of Mirrors event translation (Day 1 -Thursday)

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️

This post contains a HEAVY SPOILER for the event that has not been released in EN yet! Feel free to notify me if there are any mistakes in the translation~

Through Thousands of Mirrors Event | Day 1 (You're here!) | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | HS/Uni SSR Story: Monochrome Scenery

-

[Tidbits: I don't wanna break the flow so I'll put some information here first 😂. Dr. Lawson is Lucien's post-grad professor. Before, he also appears in UR MQ Distant Similarity. During his post-grad he has three seniors Colt, Elliot, and Caroline.]

-

[Math]

Seeing the particularly puzzled expression on the classmate next to him, Lucien starts to consider whether he should offer some assistance within his capabilities.

For instance, he thinks about telling the classmate that the topic currently being discussed on the blackboard is not from the same chapter as the one in the textbook he's currently reading.

-

[MATH/BIOCHEMISTRY]

After the vending machine devours Lucien's one dollar and twenty-five cents for the third time, and with only three minutes left to get to his next class, he begins to seriously contemplate whether he should try some mysterious repair method—like giving it a good smack or a swift kick.

-

[BIOCHEMISTRY]

Lucien coincidentally runs into Colt by the sports field, just as Colt is about to attend a cricket practice session.

Upon realizing that his senior from the lab is not only managing coursework and a significant project workload but also juggling a 20-hour weekly part-time job and daily school cricket team training, Lucien begins to contemplate whether there is any room for further optimization in his own schedule.

-

[PREVIEW/COMPUTER SCIENCE]

During the brief half-hour period, Lucien typically uses the time to prepare for the upcoming class or visit the library to research and gather information.

In any case, that time should not be spent on arguing and explaining to people, like the enthusiastic campus volunteer in front of him.

"No, thank you. I'm not a high school student attending a summer camp. This is my student ID, and I'm indeed a student here, a graduate student. Yes, I'm not lost, and I need to get to my class. Can you please let me go?"

-

[COMPUTER SCIENCE]

Lucien presses the enter key, intending to ask the teacher if he can leave early once his coursework is done. However, the error message on the screen deters him from that thought. So, he sits back down and begins to examine it again.

But that's okay, he does understand the commonality between computer science and experimental research: it's often hard to know right away if the thing at hand will work, why it's not working, or even why it's even working.

-

[LAB]

Come on, come on, come on. After moving this box, there's another.

And after moving that box, there are three more to go.

The prospects for the future and the shine in one's eyes are often taken away by the God of research in such necessary yet mechanical repetitive work.

-

[LAB]

Lucien goes out to get some water and returns to find a school burger on his desk.

Colt, with dark circles under his eyes, waves at Lucien and saying, "No need to thank me, newcomer. Have some food, we might be staying here today."

Lucien quietly eats the burger, hesitant to tell Colt that he has spent more time in the laboratory than in the dorm.

-

[LAB]

When Dr. Lawson enters the laboratory, what he sees is a scene where his graduate and doctoral students are sleeping and sprawled all over the place.

On the laboratory whiteboard, several words were written in large letters: "Publish immediately! Guaranteed to be published in Nature!!"

Dr. Lawson retrieves small blankets from the cabinet, covering each of these research madmen.

He proceeds to organize the data and take over the finishing work on the project. Of course, when it comes to authorship in the paper, not a single one of these kids' names can be left out.

[lgenvs3000w23]

UNIT 1: Launching into Nature Interpretation

I have had a slightly unorthodox journey to becoming interested in nature, as the concept of studying nature in university has only recently occurred to me. For context, I grew up in the Waterloo Region which is quite a developed urban area; so there was not much opportunity for exploring vast forests or serene lakes. The concept of studying nature in school or even going for a hike wasn't even a thought in my head for the first 19 years of my life. I began university in Biomedical Sciences at a different institution (which was a very intense human-centric program with no biodiversity or environmental biology exposure), but transferred to the University of Guelph during my first year. At UoG, I had to take a required class, BIOL*1070 Discovering Biodiveristy… and boy did I discover biovideristy!

In BIOL*1070, I was lumped in a group with a bunch of biomed kids who HATED the class and just wanted to learn “useful biology,” that’s when I realized I didn't hate the class at all, it was actually my favourite first-year course I had taken! It was the other student’s closed-mindedness that made me realize how important the class was and appreciate the content so much more. I also realized that solely doing biology courses about anatomy, molecular biology, genetics and physiology made me absolutely miserable, and I had this untapped passion for ecology, evolution, environmental biology, and geography. I switched my major to Biological Sciences so I could experience the best of both worlds and have more flexibility to explore this side of biology that I had no exposure to in high school or my first year of university. Unfortunately, I think it is a common experience for students to be pigeonholed toward the medical field and human biology. I am very happy that I was forced to take BIOL*1070, I would never have done it as an elective and I wouldn't be here in ENVS*3000 or have taken half the classes on my transcript.

Additionally, BIOL*1070 also opened doors to new hobbies as I became a frequent hiker and trail runner. In BIOL*1070, we had to go on 5 nature walks for an assignment, which at the time I thought was super annoying and inconvenient but I ended up falling in love with the fresh air and sunshine. Shortly after, I started working full-time in an office and going on daily hikes and runs which absolutely saved my mental and physical health. I am so grateful I discovered this hobby before my work-term because I don't know what I would have done without it! Sitting at a computer in a windowless cubical for 8 hours a day would have driven me insane if I didn't have nature as an outlet. It is hard to believe that just 3 months before my trail obsession I had zero interest in nature. This newfound appreciation for nature has even impacted the vacations I have taken with camping trips and road trips to remote trails. I love exploring Northern Ontario, I am specifically obsessed with Lake Superior.

I thank my professors in BIOL*1070, Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs and Dr. Alex Smith, who made a lasting impression and sparked the nature bug that completely redefined my university experience. These amazing profs opened my eyes to fields of study I have since fallen in love with. I would not have the love of nature I have today with their enthusiasm and delivery of BIOL*1070.

Thanks for reading!! Take care:)

[ep2nd]

I REMEMBERED

And had time-

Comment/Reblog who I should do next<3

MCYT PJ AU

Aphrodite and Hephaestus Cabins

Doc- Defines Mad scientist. Was responsible for the Accident of 1999. We don't talk about it. Half his body got destroyed, pulling an iron man and barely living. Actually was granted one of his dad's Workshops. Creates world destroying machines, and that's why Hephaestus keeps a close eye on him. The only who can get into contact with him is Ren and Mumbo. Given immortality at some point. Old.

Eret- Old leader of Aphrodite cabin. In college. Gives amazing fashion advice. Bisexual ICON. Better at wearing sunglasses than Apollo, but don't tell him that. #Traitor. Like Silena Beuragaurd, but wasn't forced to... just did it.

Fwhip- What is the sun?? Man hasn't seen it for long time that's for sure. Gem reminds him to eat and you know- live. Loves to teach Zedaph engineering and science stuff. He and Wilbur started a Salmon cult. Loves messing with Jimmy. Not strong for a Hephaestus kid.

Iskall- Lost an eye. His father gifted him a new one for his birthday- great parenting guys. Leans more to computer and software engineering. Lives with Stress.

Joey- Aphrodite Cabin head counselor. A love Aura like every second of the day. FLIRTS. In love with Xornoth, they don't reciprocate. Older brother of Scar. Horrible at fighting and please don't trust him with fire. Man has been spotted countless times without a shirt. Clung to Pete like a leach- only person he listens to probably. Bromance with Sausage. His dad hates him.

Keralis- Best fliter. Has a charming sense of aura. Best Aphrodite kid at telling others emotions. Empathy levels are high. No one understands his relationship with XB, not even each other do. Became an interior designer. Comes to camp to help with any building projects.

Mumbo- Really smart. Man can build and fix anything he touches. Humble little thing. Covered in soot 100% of the time. Came to camp with Grian and Scar. No Grians not letting go he's kinda stuck now. Went out on a quest and almost died- saved by Doc. Doc took one glance and said- "wet cat" and officially takes care of him as his guardian. Brings him to their father forgers during winter months.

Sam- New leader of the Hephaestus cabin. Helped design a prison, requested by the gods. Only Hephaestus kid who weilds a Trident, designed by him. He really likes Poseidon, kinda wished he was his dad. Hangs with Punk.

Zee- Great inventor. Understands any machine. Thinker and tinker. Always planning a new build, seeing the possibilities. Disappeared one day, still missing.

Scar- Oblivious beautiful boy. Joey's younger brother, loves his brother very much. Has very powerful Charmspeak. Got away with so many crimes. Step-mom and Dad separated, his Step-mom took him away. That's why Joey and him didn't go to camp together. And they tend to keep that a secret, their dad and step-mom wouldn't allow them to be with each other. Joey teaches him things he shouldn't be taught. SCAR PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON.

Skeppy- Great skin. Wears Jewlry 24/7. Walking diamond. Man is great with people. Bads personal emotional support friend. Love his mom. They talk a lot. Loves shipping his fellow campers. Literally the Fandom in person.

Netty- Great at fashion. Married Martyn. Finishing college. Loves dresses and skirts. Sassy when she wants to be. Always has the gossip and news, even when she wasn't there.

TFC- Another Hephaestus kid granted immortality. An incident made him lose a leg. Spends his days mining ore for his father's forges. The only person to be able to freely move throughout Labyrinth. Met Deadelus personally. On okay terms. Loves to help out other Demigods.

[quinnslogan]

My Quogan post movie headcanon:

-honeymoon in a European city full of art and history

-for their first anniversary Logan surprised Quinn with a trip to Paris 🥰

-they always spend Thankgiving and Christmas with the Penskys, while Easter and July 4 are with the Reeses (beach house vibes in the hot weather😁)

-as time passed by Lyric become one of Quinn's best confidents

-they waited one year before the "baby talk", they always wanted kids, but they are two pratical and busy planning people so they were unsure about the timing. First kid was a surprise baby 😅, Quinn was nervous but Logan was for sure super soft and over protective. It was a girl named Ada Marie (after computer genious Ada Lovelace). They always wanted two kids, so after 2/3 years they had a baby boy named after their dads, James Malcolm.

-They were the perfect parents, always talking to their kids about their passion: camping trip in the nature, surfing, cars, books, experiments.

I LOVE ALL OF THESE especially the babies one😭❤️ I would like to add my personal head canons while we’re on the topics and it’s that their kids are ridiculously smart too and Logan’s just there overwhelmed by having small kids running around doing science experiments.

Also, personal headcannon is not only that they had surprise kids but they had surprise twins (a girl and a boy) idk why I just think Quinn’s reaction to not only being pregnant but WITH twins is overwhelmed while Logan is just ridiculously happy/proud of himself (basically Ben and Leslie from parks and rec switched).

Also, say what you will but Logan/Lyric/the entire Reese family would spoil those kids so bad and then there’s Quinn trying to give to be like Logan you need to say no once in a while and he just never listen. Because let’s be honest in no world would Logan Reese not abide his kids every wish.

[theverumproject]

Luce Balton

Era: The Awakening (2045)

Basic profile:

Birthday: 05.03.2024

Age: 21

Nationality: Australian

Hometown: Redville (fictional town), Australia

Sex: Female

Gender: Woman

Pronouns: She/her, doesn't mind being called they/them

Sexual orientation: ??? and ???

Appearance:

Head:

Shape: Somewhere between heart and diamond

Eyes: Green, slightly upturned and deep set

Nose: Thin, on the longer side and pointy

Mouth: Naturally red lips, down turned

Hair: Brown, straight, waist length

Body:

Skin: On the paler side

Build: Skinny, hourglass-y, long legs

Height: 183 cm (6”0)

Clothes:

Top: Likes hoodies and long armed shirts. Prefers dark colors like black and brown

Bottom: Likes jeans that are either black or dark blue. Rarely wears dresses and skirts, only on special occasions

Shoes: Likes sneakers and sometimes boots in black or brown

Accessoires: Doesn't wear much except small earrings and maybe a necklace sometimes

Childhood: 

Family: She grew up in a loving home with a mom, a dad and a brother. Most of her time as a child was spent with one of her family members.  

She often accompanied her father to his secret workplace (that nobody knew about) and learned all the secrets of his actual work(place). From a young age, he taught her about computer science, programming and AI. Luce had always been a nerd about many topics. But what her father had to tell, was her favorite one of all. 

Her brother Adam was obsessed with quantum physics. She also spent quite some time with him. Either playing or listening to what he had to say. Sadly, it all had to end when he began his studies and had barely any time for her (much to his regret, he loved his little sister).

Her mother was an astrophysicist. Similar to the other family members, Dorothy taught her many things too. She was the one who took care of her the most. They would spend many nights outside in the garden. They would set up a camp and a very good telescope to watch the stars and planets very closely.

When nobody was home, especially when she was younger, her uncle and aunt took care of her often. A love for science seemed to run in their family. Then they were a neuroscientist and an anthropologist. You can guess how they entertained Luce.

School: Luce was homeschooled. It does not come as a surprise that Luce would have been underwhelmed if she stayed at a normal school. She didn't solve complicated math equations at five years old, but she definitely already understood how to multiply numbers up to 100. Teachers also often got frustrated with her. She would always ask them the kind of questions she would ask at home, and always wanted to learn something that was not age appropriate.

Her parents could afford it and even knew a teacher personally, who would become Luce's teacher for quite a few years. He too helped raise her of sorts.

Friends: Being homeschooled, Luce didn't make too many friends in her life. She did go to the park occasionally to play with other children, but didn't really make any long lasting connections. Additionally, she would also be rejected sometimes. After all, she was a kid who they knew didn't fit into their school, meaning she was not seen as one of them. An outsider. 

As she got older she knew that she really lacked something during her childhood.

Conclusion: Luce had a wonderful homelife, but wasn't good at making deeper friendships, therefore having weaker social skills.

Relationships:

Bluctro: Boyfriend

Dethra: New friend

Michael: Father

Dorothy: Mother

Adam: Brother

Jacob: Uncle

Sophie: Aunt

Martin: Uncle, but haven't interacted with each other much.

Personality:

Type: INTJ/Architect (possibly)

Definition: The INTJ personality type is Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, and Judging, which means they are energized by time alone, focused on big picture ideas and concepts, led by logic and reason, and organized. This combination of personality preferences produces people who are analytical, innovative, and strategic. 

Interview: The Luce from this interview will be from the year 2093, so her personality might be a little different. Though I might make one for 2045. I will link it in here too.

Origins:

Protoversions:

1: I think it began when I was about seven years old. Like most little girls, I thought stuff like fairies and superpowers were super cool! So I imagined a hero who was something like that. She could fly, had fairy wings (sometimes) and was a robot. Fun fact: The robot part was inspired by Lego NInjago's Zane. I remember there was that one scene, where he opened his chest and revealed the mechanical parts inside. Protoversion 1 liked to do the same. Now, this little world I had was purely fantasy, no science fiction yet. (I didn't see being a robot as Sci fi as a kid). Protoversion 1 was an absolute Mary Sue. She had all the powers in the world! You see, there were a bunch of hearts inside her torso, every single one of them holding a different power: Fire, water, lighting, poison and maaaany more! Silly seven year old me…

2: When I was about ten or eleven years old, I absolutely fell in love with astronomy. I was obsessed! All I wanted was space, the universe and the cosmos. Logically, this is where my new fantasy world began to take place. Protoversion 2 didn't have wings anymore and wasn't a robot anymore either. But they were the queen of a star system. I think I must have had something with elements and stuff like that, because the system had a bunch of planets that were all themed after different elements and other stuff like that. They even had names! I drew a picture of it all these years ago:

With Protoversion 2, Sci fi elements began to take place, though it still was a world that was mostly fantasy. (Verum was meant to start 2000 years in the future, where they live in space)

3: Protoversion 2 didn't exist long, then she soon was replaced by 3. I think I was about 11 or 12 years old. And oh god was I weird and edgy! Ewgghhhh! (I mean, I'm probably still slightly edgy, but I was serious about that shit during that time!!!) I had the wonderful idea to create a secret organization! They were called the Spreatures, which is a mix between spirit and nature. At the time, I believed in subliminals and that humans had powers buried deep inside of them. And the Spreatures used these powers to help save the world! Their leader was called XVerum and later just Verum. Verum is the Latin word for truth. Today's Verum doesn't actually associate with that meaning though.

4/Verum: I suddenly changed all my views when I was about 13 years old and the actual Verum came to be! My nerdy ass couldn't leave science alone and changed up the whole world again. This time: Space, robots, aliens and the attempt to be scientifically accurate. When I was 14, I think, I began writing the first three parts of Verum as a final school project.  The first part was called How to be Immortal and it was what I call a Bridge today. This bridge played 2000 years in the future though.  The second part was Birth of a Digital Mind, which is actually the third part in Verum I: The Awakening. Discovery of the Undead and Interdimensional Beings was the third and last part. How one might notice, this part obviously had fantasy elements. Verum was at the very beginning supposed to be Sci fi fantasy, but I scrapped that idea. This is the first drawing of Verum:

Luce Balton: Verum obviously needed an actual name, especially if I wanted to write about her before she became Verum. I attempted to write the beginning of the book 2000 years in the future. But it didn't work. So what do you do, when you don't know how to begin a story? You jump two millennium into the past to tell the whole fucking story from the beginning! Fucking hell… This is the first drawing of Luce:

If you have any questions about Luce, ask away in the comments or in a reblog! I will put your question and my answer in this post.

Masterpost

[sagiow]

15 questions

tagged by @tough-n-dumb, thanks friend!

Were you named after anyone?

Not “after”, per se, but my dad “discovered” my name after making a new friend in the glorious Montreal Red Light Disco District... who turned out to be an Italian exotic male dancer (he never told my mom that’s where he got the inspiration from until 30-some years later)

My middle name is my mom’s because my frazzled, mid-20s, overwhelmed first-time parents hadn’t thought of one before he went to register my birth so he kinda blanked and went with hers and she was pissed off because she doesn’t  like her name.

0/2, Papa.

When was the last time you cried?

Some time in the last month.

Do you have kids?

Two, elementary school age, although the eldest is solidly in his tweens and giving me a fantastic preview of the fun years ahead.

Do you use sarcasm?

Just did, didn’t I?

Actually, much less than I used to when I was younger. Mostly for joking around  or ranting about our incompetent colleagues with my work wife.

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Not to sound like a hippie on Main, but I’d say their energy? Their vibe? Some people come off as very warm, and others colder (and some, downright antipathic). Some have this bubbling, crackling energy to them, others are super chill and calm. Some have this spark of intelligence or quick wit about them, and others make you wonder if there’s anybody home. So a bit of all of that.

A smile, greeting and eye contact (can all be super quick, just acknowledge you see the other person) go a long way in giving off good vibes, so we’ll definitely start on the wrong foot if the other person doesn’t do any of those. Be polite.

What’s your eye color?

Brown

Scary movies or happy endings?

I don’t like scary / horror movies with gore and torture. I do enjoy a good ghost story (the Gothicker, the better) and some psychological horror.

Love happy endings although unhappy ones definitely inspire a lot more fanfic.

Any special talents?

I never look at the picture when doing jigsaw puzzles and WILL complete it before you do.

Where were you born?

Province of Québec, Canada

What are your hobbies?

Phew... there’s a few, and they tend to be seasonal. Summer is reading, hiking, baseball, gardening, camping. Other seasons have baking, crochet, watching TV, playing old-school computer games, and getting ready for whatever holiday or birthday is upcoming. Puzzles and writing year-round (if inspiration striked and fellow fans are around!)

Have any pets?

2 cats (and often at least another because we are a foster family to our local rescue), 2 rabbits and 4 3 chicken (found one dead yesterday after that major storm / tornado passed. Her ancient 3 year old heart couldn’t handle it. RIP Matante.)

What sports do/have you played?

Phew... there’s a few there too. I’m always down to play pretty much anything with a ball (beach volleyball! street ball hockey!), but on the other hand, will probably get my Canadian citizenship revoked at some point because I do no winter sport except for snowshoeing and some shitty skating.

I played provincial-level softball and badminton in school. I did recreational synchronized swimming, various styles of dance, varsity basketball. Now, I play softball, tennis (although my dad is aggressively trying to draft me into pickleball), try to get in a game of golf or two per summer (every addition to this sentence makes me feel 10 years older). In non-summer, I practice aikido, and love hiking, especially in the fall.

How tall are you?

5′7″, or 170cm

Favorite subject at school?

History and Drama in High School, Anthropology and some of my Forensics classes in University (”no applied science”, you ask? meh, not really. Science was me playing Life on Safe Mode).

Dream Job?

I would’ve loved to study Anthropology further and become an archeologist (although I did take one Biological / Genetic Anthro class that was absolutely fascinating and made me reconsider Things) but I’d had enough Academia back then. I wanted to get a job, stop being beyond broke, and travel.

Nowadays I get this massive urge to dump everything corporate and move someplace with shorter, kinder winters, ideally not too far from the sea, and get a bunch of goats and chicken, fruit trees and grapevines, grow a shitload of tomatoes and eggplant, bake bread daily, and write in the evenings. Just need to win the lottery first but then I’m makin’ it happen.

tagging (apologies for the double tags if you got them, I lost track) @jomiddlemarch, @tortoisesshells, @fericita-s, @combat-librarian, @divinecomedienne, @luarenah

[hiphopdanceclassesdubai]

Dubai offers summer camps and entertaining dance courses for all ages

Dance increases your heart rate and makes you more powerful, adaptable, and durable.

greater mental health via new habits, including reduced stress, greater memory, and better thinking. Dancing lessons Dubai improve communication, confidence, and relationships. Dancing helps people understand and respect various cultures.

Dubai's Popular Dance Styles Children and those seeking elegance and self-control benefit from ballet. Hip-hop and urban dance appeal to teens and young adults because they feel street-like. Latin and salsa dancing: For large groups. Anyone interested in local culture can learn Arabic and traditional dances. Couples and formal event attendees like Latin and ballroom dance.

Dubai Dance Lesson Locations Famous choices include: Dubai Dance Academy: All skill levels, many styles. Modern and street dance classes in DIFC. The Ballet Centre Dubai offers classical ballet training. How to Start Start dancing in Dubai: 1. Pick a dancing style you like. 2. Find well-known local studios with qualified trainers. 3. Many studios offer free or reduced trials. 4. Set fitness, social, and performance goals. 5. Dance requires frequent practice. Dubai Summer Camps: Fun, Development, and Personal Growth Why send your kid to Dubai Summer Camp?

Some camps teach youngsters about various cultures by teaching them local customs and doing international activities. Maintains health through indoor and outdoor activities.

Popular Dubai Summer Camps Tech-lovers can attend technological and science camps to learn robotics and computer programming. Camps for Arabic, English, or a different language and culture. Outdoor camps offer interesting activities including camping, hiking, and sports that are adventurous. Best Dubai summer camps Dubai Sports World offers sports-focused summer programs. Global and private schools offer summer camp dubai for various ages and interests. Select a Summer Camp Location and Time: Choose the ideal summer dates and locations. Resources and Activities: Find places with lots of activities and equipment.

Prepare Your Child for Summer Camp Talk about the regulations and what you should do at camp. Pack vital clothes, materials, and papers. Help people keep their minds broad and love new things. For support and news, get in touch with the individuals who operate the camp. Conclusion

In Dubai, you can take dance lessons or go to summer camps to have fun and better yourself. There is a lot to do in Dubai that individuals of every stage of life will enjoy. Parents might discover a fun summer pastime for their kids, and adults may discover a new dance style. This allows them to create friends while developing talents that will serve them for a lifetime. You may do a lot of different things in Dubai so that you can make the most of your summer vacation and make your own life and the lives of your family better. Take advantage of the chances Dubai has to offer and begin new adventures right away.