#I tested out of the math course with an 86%

[icecream-and-gadreel]

Keep practicing the thing. When you begin something new, hearing “practice makes perfect!” can be so annoying. Trust me, I understand! But keep doing it.

Time will pass no matter what you do. Do you wanna feel sad about the thing you abandoned practicing years ago, or do you wanna look back at your progress and go “Oh shit I’m much better at the thing now!!” Do it. Do the thing.

Keep drawing. Keep writing. Keep acting. You don’t have to be the next Samuel Jackson or Picasso. But you WILL get better.

[burnt-wat3r]

TEAM STAN X READER WHO FAILED AN EXAM

(Platonic or romantic, either fit!)

Word Count: 935 

TW: None

STAN MARSH

➛ Stan is really good at procrastinating studying, but he always manages to scrape by in class

➛ Passing the course or not, Stans failed a few tests himself and knows how shitty it feels

➛ If you’re absolutely heartbroken, he'll offer to hang out with you after school to keep your mind off it!

➛ He's not exactly the best at comforting you, he tries his best but has no idea what to do

"Oh, you failed? I'm, uh, really sorry about that."

"I can't believe I failed it, I studied so much!" (╥_╥)

"Sorry about that... do you wanna see some pictures I took of Sparky yesterday?"

➛Dog pictures always make people feel better, so you'd be cheered up in no time!

➛ Wants to help you out with assignments, but isn’t the best at it, so he often directs you to Kyle instead

➛ But he'll send you homework answers (if he does it) whenever you need them!

KENNY MCCORMICK

➛ Kennys really smart, he just doesn't study, which results in him not doing the best in class

➛ He doesn’t like school that much in general anyway, and tries to pass through the courses by doing the bare minimum so he can get a job in the future

➛ He's there to assure you that it's just a test and not the end of the world

➛If you are really upset about the exam results, he offers to help get your mind off the mark ;)

➛ By skipping school and hanging out around the town of course! 

➛ The two of you would have fun running around the city, you'd completely forget about the test results!

➛Until you go back to school the next day and get in trouble for skipping

"You two are in trouble, mkay! No more skipping, skipping is bad, mkay!"

"Mmph mmmph mphh mhp!"

"That is no excuse Kenny, mkay! You two have detention after school, mkay!"

➛If you mention wanting to pay attention more in class, he'll tap your shoulder and get you back on track whenever you get distracted

➛ Also tries to help you with any homework or studying, but never does any of his own 

KYLE BROFLOVSKI

➛Has never failed a test in his life, he's constantly studying or working on an upcoming assignment

➛ He’s a very academic person and cares a lot about his marks

➛ Always curious about others, and wants to know what people got in comparison to him

"What mark did you get?"

"Well uhm, I didn’t do so well..."

He looks over your shoulder, "You got 37%? That’s not bad! I only got a 86%, not my best."

➛ Tells you that even though you failed this one test, your grade should hopefully average out!

➛ Whispers answers to you whenever the teacher would call on you

➛ Reminds you throughout the day of schoolwork and assignments that need to be finished

➛ Would often offer to help tutor you in the class, because it helps him to review as well!

➛ He’s really good at teaching, so you’d learn from your mistakes in no time!

ERIC CARTMAN

➛ Will laugh in your face when you get the exam back

➛ Then looks at his own and realizes he failed himself (ಠ_ಠ)

➛ He'll keep in mind not to copy off you in the future after this, and curses you out for making him fail

➛ Will immediately go over to the teacher to complain about the results

➛ Complains that the test was too hard because the two of you failed

➛ Eric ends up trying to get (his) the two of your tests rounded up

➛ Doesn’t even bother attempting to study, instead pointing out the kids in class that are the best to copy off of

"You see, Tolkien, he's good at math because his family's rich, so it's best to copy-"

"I'm not cheating Eric!"

"Alright, fine! Just use his answers as inspiration for the next test!"

➛ If you both have another upcoming test, he'll create a full-on heist to sneak into the teacher’s class and get the answers

➛ He would either get caught and blame it on you for pressuring him to cheat, or show up at your doorstep with the answer sheet so you could both memorize the answers

LEOPOLD (BUTTERS) STOTCH

➛ He tries his best to get good marks or else he'll get grounded

➛ Butters gets distracted pretty easily, so he would be paying attention in class for one minute, and end up doodling over his homework the next

➛Such a sweetheart about comforting you once you get the results back

"There there," he pats your back, "don't worry about it Lil buddy, there’s always next time! You tried your hardest, that’s what counts" :)

➛ Offers you a comfort hug if you’d like! He really cares about you and wants you to be happy

➛ He stays by your side the whole school day to try and cheer you up

➛ Will take you to go get ice cream after school if you're really bummed out about it (if he's not grounded)

➛ Won’t let you copy off his homework, but offers to help you out with it!

➛ He ends up being moral support while you text Kyle for the answers

➛ The two of you would have ‘study sessions’ together, where you would be studying, and he would be filling in his Hello Kitty Colouring Book

➛ It helps him get out of the house, and for you to stay focused!

A/N: may or may not have written this for comfort cuz I failed my last math exam, I got a redo tomorrow that I haven’t studied for because I wrote this (-.-) imma genius (⌐▨_▨)

ALSO, I’M TERRIFIED SOMEONE WROTE SOMETHING SIMILAR BEFORE ME

[immortaldarkpassion]

Hello madam owo Please answer: 7, 21, 30, 76, 86, 100

Hi sweetheart! You asked some good questions too~

7. what’s something you love about yourself?

I love how imaginative I can be. When I’m reading or drawing or just daydreaming, I can picture whatever I wish and watch it play out. I’m my own movie theater lol

21. what is/was your favourite subject in school?

Hmm lunch? Jk, I actually liked most of the subjects in school (math can fuck off), but if I had to choose I’d go with either english or art :)

30. what song is currently stuck in your head?

Run by OneRepublic

76. warm, cool or neon colours?

Give me those cool vibes! Blues (ofc lol), purples, silvers, even teals are so pretty :)

86. what are your thoughts on your name?

When I was younger I wasn’t really a fan, considering I’ve never been religious much and I was named after the wife of the pastor that officiated my parents marriage (tho her name started with Ch, mine’s K); so I used to wish it was actually Krystal. But now I love my name- regardless of where it came from, its who I am :)

100. what is the meaning of life?

Had to give me a hard one, huh ;)

I think its creativity. There is so much of it within everyones lives. Theres art of course, writing and painting and sculpting; but just look at architecture and gardening and how people science things. History and math can be too, considering the symbols and mythology on earth’s origins. How humans come up with names for their babies or just- everything! Everything has a name and meanings that humans have made up! Thats all so creative!! Dogs when playing with their toys, cats testing where they can nap, wild animals when encountering something new, creativity is not just within humans, its in every life! Even the creativity which is bestowed on others is important to note, considering how that is kindness, sharing something of yourself to better another’s life. It’s honestly so amazing.

[cat-brodsky]

richard pipen is the worst pre-med student ever: death caps in the secret history

"Judy, what would you do if you had a hundred and three degrees of fever?” “I would go to the fucking doctor,” she said without looking away from the TV.

must i say anything else

This post may contain errors, and anyone is welcome to point them out.

@sadbabywltch gets a thanks for the inspiration

some context

"You studied medicine for a while, didn't you?” [Henry] said.

I knew this to be a prelude to some health-related inquiry. My one year of pre-med had provided scanty knowledge at best...

I’m going to cite some parts of The Secret History, but I cannot copy the entire text of the scene in question. If you haven’t read it, this scene won’t make as much sense.

This post contains extensive discussion of mushroom poisoning as a murder method, so consider yourself warned. This post also contains math and biology, so people allergic to either should turn back.

Richard Pipen knows absolutely nothing about medicine. And I intend to prove that.

on amanita phalloides

Aka, death cap. The most poisonous out of all known mushrooms - half a mushroom (30 grams) is enough to kill a grown human. If Henry had really done extensive research, he should know that - and he said that he has.

“You have no idea how much thought I've put into this. Even to the strain of poison. It's said to make the throat swell, do you know that? Victims are said to be struck dumb, unable to name their poisoner.”

He should also know that the throat swelling is a myth. A.phalloides cause gradual organ failure. Symptoms of poisoning occur twelve hours later, too late to seek treatment, and death generally occurs six to sixteen days after the poisoning.

He should also know that there are less toxic species of Amanita. For instance, Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) is a hallucinogen, and symptoms take only thirty to ninety minutes to appear. Considering that the entire friend group has already been taking drugs regularly, Henry could offer Bunny a lethal dose, ingest a small one, and seek treatment.

There is also Coprinopsis atramentaria - the common ink cap, or tippler’s bane. This mushroom is poisonous, even lethally so, if combined with alcohol. I don’t need to spell the murder method out.

But, of course, Henry is high Intelligence low Wisdom and obsessed with ancient history; if Claudius allegedly died via death caps getting mixed with Caesar’s mushrooms, then it must clearly be the best way to poison someone.

on advanced calculus

“Let's say we know, for instance, that x amount of the drug in question is enough to affect a seventy pound animal and another, slightly larger amount is sufficient to kill it. I've figured out a rough formula, but still we are talking about a very fine distinction. So, knowing this much, how do I go about calculating the rest?”

Quick reminder that Henry killed one dog and poisoned another.

I’m not going to do calculations on A.muscaria or any other method of murder - A.phalloides is what the characters were poring over. I’m going to explain the calculations as simply as I can, and then provide some references for those of you who are interested in biology.

The characters don’t have the internet available, but they have the whole college library, a virtually unlimited amount of money, and a town where everyone takes illegal substances at their disposal. What they need is a pharmacology textbook (to look up the necessary equations), a reference on poisonous mushrooms (to look up death caps), and perhaps a handbook on toxins. 

LD50 is what Henry is after - that is, “the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration.” (I hope that the readers can already see that two dogs are not a large enough sample size.) LD50 is conveniently measured in mg/kg. We have the characters’ exact weights: Bunny is 86 kg, Henry is 97.5 kg.

Amatoxins are a group of toxins contained in A.phalloides, and the one that causes symptoms of death cap poisoning. LD50 of amatoxins in humans is estimated to be 0.1 mg/kg. Thus, Bunny would need to ingest 0.1*86 = 8.6 mg amatoxins, perhaps less, preferrably more, to be stone dead. Here I make an assumption that 0.05 mg/kg is not lethal; with Henry’s poor health, it might be. Henry would need to ingest under 0.05*97.5 = 4.87 mg to not be dead.

Oral LD50 for amatoxins in dogs is 0.5 mg/kg. Finding out the amatoxin content should be an easy calculation: X grams divided by 31 kg contains 0.5 mg. We know that X grams minus one gram failed to kill the other dog, so we can assume this is not low-balling the dose.

For the sake of ease, let’s say X = 31 -> 0.5 mg amatoxins in one gram of locally harvested, organic death cap. This looks close to reality. Per Yilmaz et al (2015) a death cap ingested by a patient contained 0.426 mg amatoxins per gram, and you can calculate that yourself.

And now a simple proportion:

0.5 mg (per gram) / N mg (lethal dose) = 1 gram / X grams (of mushroom)

Bunny: 8.6/0.5 = 17.2 grams (ingest more than that)

Henry: 4.87/0.5 = 9.74 grams (ingest less than that)

partway disclaimer

Of course, I wouldn’t stake my life, or anyone’s, on those calculations.

The toxin content of the A.phalloides can vary drastically depending on geographical location, season, maturity, etc. This could be remedied, I guess, by gathering a large amount of them, mixing them and chopping them into paste, then testing some of the mixture to determine LD50 and the amatoxin content.

From the data at hand, the exact content of amatoxins cannot be precisely determined. But, hey, Henry only needs to poison more dogs to find out!

and now for some more science

A.phalloides contains two main groups of toxins: amatoxins and phallotoxins, and also phallolysin. Phallolysin is not toxic if taken orally, so that’s out. Phallotoxins were found to have little contribution to death cap toxicity, perhaps because they are not absorbed through the gut. (Though it’s not certain whether the characters would have this information in 1982.) This leaves us with amatoxins.

Yilmaz et al (2015) describe a patient who recovered after ingesting approximately 0.32 mg/kg amatoxins (but after developing liver failure). This is why I’m assuming 0.05 mg/kg is non-lethal.

LD50 for amatoxins in dogs has been calculated for α-amanitin and methyl-γ-amanitin.

Garcia et al (2015) gives the amount of a-amanitin in different tissues of A.phalloides as follows (mg/gram dry weight): 0.67 to 0.78 in caps, 0.30 to 0.32 in stipes and 0.07 to 0.10 in volvas.

why richard is an idiot sandwich

Look, perhaps I’m misunderstanding what Donna Tartt has written, but Richard comes across as right for the wrong reasons. He’s right in that trying to non-lethally poison yourself with something so deadly as A.phalloides is a monumentally stupid affair. He’s wrong about everything else.

Faced with a simple calculation like the above, how does Richard go about it?

Equations about chemical concentration were never my strong point in chemistry, and they are difficult enough when you are trying to figure a fixed concentration in a suspension of distilled water; but this, dealing as it did with varying concentrations in irregularly shaped objects, was virtually impossible. He had probably used all the elementary algebra he knew in figuring this, and as far as I could follow him he hadn't done a bad job; but this wasn't a problem that could be worked with algebra, if it could be worked at all. Someone with three or four years of college calculus might have been able to come up with something that at least looked more convincing; by tinkering, I was able to narrow his ratio slightly but I had forgotten most of the little calculus I knew and the answer I wound up with, though probably closer than his own, was far from correct.

I didn’t know proportions required three or four years of college calculus. If the mushrooms are irregularly shaped, why not weigh them?

“It's a good try, but just by looking at it I can tell that it's insolvable without chemical tables and a good working knowledge of calculus and chemistry proper. There's no way to figure it otherwise. I mean, chemical concentrations aren't even measured in terms of grams and milligrams but in something called moles.”

There are different kinds of chemical concentration, and molar concentration is just one of them. “Something called moles”? A mole is, simply, an amount of substance that contains 6.02214076×1023 molecules (Avogadro number). This is sixth-grade chemistry. It’s also completely irrelevant here.

It’s a miracle Richard ever got into pre-med.

Henry, paraphrased: Oh, well, if I overdose - which I can totally figure out despite the fact that the symptoms take twelve hours to show when the damage is already done - I can just have some atropine. Atropine will totally counteract amatoxins.

...Never mind, Henry is also an idiot - though, at least, that is highlighted in-story. What does he plan on doing, drinking a whole bunch of atropine without knowing the precise dose he ingested?

“They are exactly opposite in effect. Atropine speeds the nervous system, rapid heartbeat and so forth. Amatoxins slow it down.”

No, they are not. To put it in plain English, amatoxins cause cell death - nothing about nervous system. Atropine basically counters the parasympathetic system, kicks your organism into fight or flight mode.

Do you know what atropine is an antidote to? Muscarine. It’s a compound found in certain mushrooms - such as A.muscaria, though only in trace amounts. Atropine and muscarine both bind to muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. Muscarine is not found in A.phalloides. Confusing amatoxins with muscarine is... I imagine it’s excusable if ancient Persian texts are your most recent source.

Oh, and one more thing while I’m at it.

“The Persians? I didn't know you read Arabic.”

In Persia (modern Iran), they speak Farsi, not Arabic. Oh, Richard. I imagine Henry took pity on him and didn’t correct the poor fool.

conclusion

There are two ways to engage with canon - from an in-story perspective (Watsonian) or an outside perspective (Doylist). I’ll leave you to discover what the third (Forsythian) perspective is.

From an in-story perspective, I am drawing the conclusion that both Richard and Henry are utterly inept at math, biology, medicine, and common sense; heaven only knows what “algebraic equations” they spent a good half hour going over.

From an outside perspective... well, if Tartt wrote all those errors purposefully, then it’s a nice bonus for any reader who knows basic medicine. If she didn’t, then I can fault her for not doing enough research. A middle ground is more likely: I’m certain that the 103F episode was intentional, but the Arabic in Persia wasn’t, since Henry of all people would lambast Richard for this error mercilessly.

half-assed references

Garcia, J et al. Determination of amatoxins and phallotoxins in Amanita phalloides mushrooms from northeastern Portugal by HPLC-DAD-MS. Mycologia, 107(4): 679-687. 2015.

Hooser, S.; Khan, S. Common Toxicologic Issues in Small Animals: An Update, An Issue of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice: Ebook. Elsevier Health Sciences. 2018.

Tu, A.; ed. Handbook of Natural Toxins: Food Poisoning (1st edition). CRC Press.1992.

Wieland, T. Peptides of poisonous Amanita mushrooms. Springer-Verlag.1986.

Yilmaz, I et al. A Case Study: What Doses of Amanita phalloides and Amatoxins Are Lethal to Humans? Wilderness Environ Med. 26(4): 491–496. 2015.

[lovemesomesurveys]

1. Had sex? Nope.

2. Bought condoms? Nope. 3. Gotten pregnant? Well, no. 4. Failed a class? Once. I failed a math course in community college. I retook it with a different teacher and did well, so.

5. Kissed a boy? Yeah.

6. Kissed a girl? No.

7. Used a little paper bag for lunch? Aw, yeah. Also, my cousin and I used to love playing school and we’d make our little lunches and put them in brown bags haha.  8. Had a job? Nope. 9. Slipped on ice? Nope. 10. Missed the school bus? I didn’t take the school bus, but I missed the public bus a couple times.  11. Left the house without my wallet? I don’t have your wallet, but I’ve left without mine. 12. Bullied someone on the internet? Noooo. 13. Sexted? Yeah. 14. Had sex in public? No. 15. Played on a sports team? Nope. Sports was never my thing. 16. Smoked weed? Yeah. 17. Smoked cigarettes? No. 18. Smoked a cigar? No. 19. Drank alcohol? Yes. 20. Watched “The Breakfast Club”? Yeah, several times. 21. Been overweight? No. 22. Been underweight? Yes. I’m currently underweight. 23. Had an eating disorder? Not an eating disorder per se, but I have other issues that affect my eating and appetite. 24. Been to a wedding? Yeah, just a few. 25. Made fun of someone for being fat? Absolutely not. 26. Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? Yep. 27. Watched tv for 5 hours straight? Yep. 28. Been late for work? I’ve never had a job. 29. Been late for school? It was very rare, but yes. 30. Kissed in the rain? Yes. 31. Showered with someone else? No.

32. failed my drivers test? I failed my permit test the first time I took it. I’ve never taken the driver’s test. 33. Ran a mile in less than 10 minutes? No. 34. Been outside my home country? Okay I won’t be a sarcastic ass anymore. Yes, I’ve been out of the country once. 35. Been on a road trip longer than 5 hours? Yes. 36. Had lice? When I was a kid. NOT fun. 37. Gotten my heart broken? lol the wording annoys me in this survey I’m sorry, but yes I’ve had my heart broken. 38. Had a credit card? I have a few. 39. Been to a professional sports game? Yes. 40. Broken a bone? Yes. 41. Been unhappy about my weight? I’ve been unhappy about my weight the past few years.

42. Won a trophy? Nope. 43. Cut myself? Yes. 44. Had an STD? No. 45. Got engaged? No. 46. Been on a diet? I’ve been on protein and high caloric diets. I’m supposed to be doing that now, too. 47. Tried out to be on a tv show? No. 48. Rode in a taxi? Yes. 49. Been to prom? Yes. 50. Played a drinking game? Yep. 51. Stayed up for 24 hours or more? Yeah. I think the longest was 36 hours. 52. Been to a concert? I’ve been to several. It’s been over 10 years since my last one, though. D: 53. Had a three-some? No. 54. Had a crush on someone of the same sex? No. 55. Been in a car accident? No, thankfully. 56. Had braces? Yes, but not for my teeth. 57. Learned another language? I took Spanish all 4 years of high school and one semester in college.  58. Killed an animal? No!

59. Been at a yard sale? Yeah, a family friend used to have them often when I was a kid and we’d help out. 60. Been to a Japanese steakhouse? No. 61. Wore make up? Yeah. It’s been almost 3 years since I’ve worn any, though. :O 62. Talked to someone via webcam? Yes. 63. List my virginity before I was 16? I’ve made it quite clear that I’m still a virgin. 64. Had my wisdom teeth taken out? Yes. 65. Kissed someone a different race than myself? No. Not because I wouldn’t, but I’ve only kissed 3 people and it just so happens they were white and/or Mexican and so am I. Ty is Asian, but we never got that far. Unfortunately. :/ 66. Snuck out of the house? Nope. 67. Bought porn? No. 68. Had a virus on my computer? Yeah, back in the day. I made the stupid mistakes of falling for the ol’ “your computer has a virus, buy this virus remover quick!!” scam. And probably from downloading music illegally. :X  69. Had oral sex? Nope. 70. Dyed my hair? Yeah, numerous times. 71. Gone skinny dipping? Noooo. 72. Graduated from college? Yes. 73. Wore someone else’s clothes? When I was younger I’m sure my cousin and I wore each other’s clothes sometimes. 74. Voted in a presidential election? Yes, all of them since 2008. 75. Rode in an ambulance? Yes. 76. Rode in a helicopter? Yes. I was flown to another hospital after my accident happened. 77. Caught the stove on fire? No. 78. Got in a verbal fight? Yeah. 79. Met someone famous? Yes. 80. Been on vacation? Yes, many. 82. Been on a boat? Yes. 81. Been on an airplane? Yes. 83. Broken something expensive? Yes, like electronics.  84. Had surgery? A few. 85. Kissed someone before I was 14? No. 86. Beat a video game? Yeah, a few. 87. Found something valuable on the ground Money. 88. Made a survey? I made one several years ago. I wish I could find it. I’m not sure if I’d recognize it as mine, though.  89. Stalked someone on a social network? Not in a creepy way, but I’ve looked up certain people on Facebook. 90. Prank called someone? In middle school my friends and I did that sometimes. So stupid lol. 92. Spent over $100 shopping in one day? Yeah. 91. Been to a library outside of school? Yep. 93. Cut my hair and hated it? Yes. 94. Peed outside? No. 95. Went fishing? Once.  96. Helped with charity? Yes. 97. Taken a pregnancy test? It was required before my surgical procedures.  98. Been rejected by a crush? Yep. 99. been suspended from school? No. 100.broken a mirror? “I’m so ugly, but it’s okay cause so are you. We broke our mirrors.”

[vinodpriya]

Chapter 1: About Social Science

Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash

Ah! Social science! The subject I hated the most. I don’t know why, but I felt I was born to hate the subject. It was my destiny to hate it. Or something like that. But the teachers, oh Holmes, they were always so good that I always felt that, at least, I should study it for them. I believe that I always got the best of teachers available for Social Science. There are many interesting incidents related to the subject, especially during the 10th standard, when I was studying it for the last time.

To begin with, the most “ancient” incident which I can remember is during 7th standard. Well, we did not have only 1 S.Sc teachers that year. At first, the honour of teaching S.Sc to 7th D went to Dr. NSA (neither National Security Advisor nor National Security Agency). She had a PhD in Geography. I mean, how can a person be so tolerant, so as to complete a PhD in Geography. Come on, it’s not a joke, doing PhD and stuff like that.Well, after our Principal changed (Yes, our Principal also changed that same year. We’ll talk about her in later posts), she went through the qualifications of all the teachers. After going through the qualifications of Dr NSA, and she thought, “thodi padhi likhi hai, chalo isko 11th aur 12th class padhane ko de do.”   (She is a little bit educated, let her teach 11th and 12th standard).

Yes, thodi (a little). These were the exact words used by Dr. NSA when I asked her about this thing three years later, in 10th standard, when she had come to our class for an arrangement period.

Well, returning back to 7th class. After our summer vacations, our time-table was changed, as were many of our teachers.

Our new social science teacher was Ms R. Whatever she taught for the next two months is a mystery. Yes, it remained a mystery until I studied the chapters myself. Well, the thing was that she was pregnant, and was to deliver her baby in September, and hence she had to complete our syllabus in the next two months only. Now she didn’t teach us the chapters from the book, but made us write ‘Questions & Answers’ in our notebooks (after all, these Q-As were going to come in the exam), and explained the chapters in a comprehensive manner.

Here I would like to mention a small anecdote of class seventh Summative Assessment 1. Just before the social science exam, I fell ill. I literally cried a lot the night before the exam. It’s was not that I had not studied at all, but I had not been able to complete my syllabus, especially geography. Also, I couldn’t read my SSc book, which is a crucial thing to do before an SSc exam. The next day, in the examination hall, when we all were studying, I told some of my friends about my “grievances”. They comforted me about the exam and I told them, quite honestly, that I was not expecting to score above 80 out of 90 marks.

The exam paper came. Questions were quite ridiculous. Yes, they are always ridiculous for someone who does not know the answers. I specially remember one particular question. Perhaps the circumstances presented by the question will not be amiss here.

Q. What do you think about Delhi as the capital of India?

Thinking: Here is a gentle question of an irritating type. Clearly, a tough question then. It has just come from the tropics, for it is written in dark ink, and that is not the natural tint of its text, for majority of the paper is white. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard kind of questioning says clearly. His right hand has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner: bent like (?). Where in the tropics could a Social Science question written in English have seen much hardship and got its arm wounded? Clearly in India. The whole train of thought did not occupy a second. I then remarked I did not know the answer to the question.

(for those who haven’t read Sherlock Holmes, it is an excerpt from “A Study in Scarlet”).

I then proceeded to answer as follows:

Ans.

    The genuine part:

Delhi is the capital of India. It was named capital of India 1911 by King George of England.

It’s  area is about 4000 km2.

(I knew this because I had sometime checked it. Actually there was an article in the newspaper about good sci-fi movies and one movie involved a spaceship which had a diameter of 500 Km. I wanted to check whether this ship was bigger than Delhi or not)

Now the funny part:

It is a union territory.

But since it has a large population, it should now be made a state.

It has many tourist spots.

These are the points I could make out from my memory. Now, when I went to my bus, I took out ‘The Book of SSc’ and checked in the chapter ‘The State Government’ for the answer. It was there, a full-fledged, five marker answer; legitimate, elaborate, and complete. I repented about not reading the book, but alas, nothing could be done to stop the nature, or rather the answer sheet, from taking it course. I decided to let it go.

When the answer sheets were being distributed for reviewing by the students, I got really disheartened about how much I would have scored. Surprisingly I had scored 86 out of 90 marks. I couldn’t believe my eyes. When I set out to see how the hell that happened, for the first time in my life, I came across the true face of examination-checking in India. You can yourself calculate. I had a completely wrong answer to the above question, so I lost five marks, plus numerous small mistakes. Overall the totalling came out to be around 82 marks or so. I told our teacher about it. She took the paper and kept in the bundle, and said she would look to it. But I never got to know what happened to that. Oh! I forgot to introduce the new S.S. teacher that had come by then. She was Ms P. She was a 2008 pass-out from our school only, and had come to teach us now.

Ms R was a brilliant teacher. By brilliant, I mean literally a brilliant teacher. She had a unique way of teaching. Also, since she was not much older than us, she gave mouth thrashing answer to the misbehaviour of the mischievous children of our class. No, she did not use abusive language, but her subtle words were embarrassing enough.

Our eighth standard teacher was equally brilliant, Ms JS (not NodeJs or AngularJs). But she was quite serious, rather too serious, specially for a funny class like ours.

Ah! Finally the good tales begin. So here it goes. I was promoted to 9th-A, a Sanskrit section. Our S.Sc teacher was Mrs. LL. The funny thing was that she was actually known by this name, LL. At first some of my seniors told me that she is really a good teacher. But believe me, she wasn’t. She specialized in History, and consequently did not know how to teach other subjects. Trust me, she was really awful at Geography. She never completed her sentences, sought to teach only through presentations on smart board, made us write questions, but never clearly told us what the answers were. Here is a sample:

Well, you know, a piece from Indo-Australian plate came and stuck with our land, you know. (Making a collision kind of gesture through her hands). And then, you know….

Alas, we never knew. Now after completing three chapters in Geography and one in Economics, many children thought that they had had enough of her. They started a campaign. They wrote a letter addressing our in-charge to change our S.S. teacher because the current one was not good. Believe me, out of 48 students in the class, 33 signed. Of course, I didn’t, because I didn’t like to take part in such anti-teacher proceedings, because you never know what turn it might take on in future. The letter was sent twice. When Mrs LL came to know about this, she used to sarcastically remark on children yawning or talking in her class that

“Class mein sunna nahin hai, aur phir jab samajh nahin aata to pohunch jaate teacher change karvaane.”

(Don’t listen in the class, and when you don’t understand, you just go on trying to change the teacher.)

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

Well, our SSc teacher changed after summer vacations. It was Ms SL (not S.L. Loney, you dumb math enthusiasts).

She was a great teacher. Believe me. (Of course, you don’t have any other choice).

There is a particularly interesting incident related to Ms SL, which shows….. , well, nothing. As it happened, she was the mother of VM. I had known him for some time. But the major angle in this story is that he was a friend of some other students in our class.(No, he wasn’t my friend. I don’t make such friends). Going on, there was this chapter on ‘Peasants and Farmers’ in History. The marking for question and answers was going to start from the next day. But this VM told HT and PG that his mother was going to Goa the next day. As was expected from a friend, they believed him, and they did not bring their History books with them.

IN THE CLASS

Culprits: Ma’am, VM told us that you had gone to Goa. So we didn’t bring our books.

Executioner: Just think, if I had gone to Goa, wouldn’t I have taken VM with me?

I suppose silence will be good enough for the rest of the scene. Nothing happened. They were allowed to sit in the class, and as I had to go out of the class for some reason, I gave them my book.

Overall class 9th was the best class with reference to the horrid subject of Social Science.

And at last, here comes the best class of all.

Behold...

The Class 10th .

Now this year our teacher was the veteran teacher, the most senior one in the school at that time, Mrs SS1. She was quite good towards me in the starting of the year. But then I started taking some days off the school. I used to ask a lot of questions in her class. So did others. When the first Unit Test (UT) was held, she gave quite a scolding to our class, and told the class (and I felt she was staring towards me) not to disturb her while she was teaching  and ask the doubts later in the corridor. She felt her syllabus got behind the schedule because of this (which of course was not true). She said all this because we had performed  poorly in the UT.

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

Now there are numerous small insignificant incidents involving me and her, but let us just shift towards the best ones for the sake of your interest in keeping reading this chapter.

She had grown quite hostile towards me (I mean she used to be quite irritated by me). We used to have 2 UTs in each ‘Term’ (we used to have 2 ‘Terms’ in a year) out of which the better one would be considered for the final result. As a consequence, I had studied only for the first UT in the second term and had scored quite well in that exam. This exam used to be of 30 marks. During the second UT I did not study at all. Probably I just gave a small reading to the chapter. It was “Nationalist Movement in Indo-China”. It is one of the worst chapters in 10th class History textbook (THE WORST ONE was “Print Culture and the Modern World”).

I scored 23 out 30. I was actually quite shocked to see that I had score this much. But SS1 ma’am was not happy at all. I got quite a something we Indian students call as lecture. Then of course there was TM. He was just like me. He left no chance of pulling the leg of other students. At that time he was acting as what we call as “ghee in havan”.

He says, “Ma’am, he did not study because he had scored very well in the previous one and he knows only the better one will considered.” I looked at him like this.

And there you go. A little more lines of taunt, and finally I was released.

Now we also had a revision test. It went terribly bad. Again I had not studied for it as it was not going to be considered for the final result. The day I gave this test, RB1 (another student in my class) had some work with SS1 ma’am. It was probably mid-day. M1 sir (a fine-arts teacher) was present in the class. He asked me to take him to ma’am. I was walking casually. I tried not to look at RB1 as I disliked him very much. I went straight into the staff room. SS1 ma’am was sitting there checking papers! Well I did not quite observe it at first. But there was the bundle on her table on one side and there was a paper turned upside down in front of her with her signatures in the end. It meant that that paper had been checked quite recently. I raised my neck to see whose paper was it. Holy Holmes! It was my paper. How could I have such an ill-luck.

Well, SS1 ma’am started talking to RB1, and I said to myself, “bhag le beta yahan se” (run off from this place, you scum).

I crept out quite stealthily, but alas, as I was just going to open the door, I heard a sound saying “_____” in a stretched manner. I turned. No doubt I was being called for my execution. And then I was given quite a lecture again on me not studying Social Science. But there was Ms MM1 sitting there alongside SS1 ma’am. She asked me what was I planning to take in 11th, and when I told I was going to take science, she patted me and said to SS1 ma’am while laughing “chhod de na yaar ise” (leave him dear). Well I promised her that I will study for the finals sincerely.

(Note: Ms MM1 taught chemistry to 11th and 12th class, and  I didn’t know back then she would be my Chemistry teacher in 12th class. It’s not good to talk of her here, she deserves one whole chapter herself.)

Our school used to organise a “havan” for 10th leaving students before the finals. After the havan, our teachers used to shower us with flower petals as a form of blessing. When SS1 ma’am came, she threw the flowers forcefully at me while yelling “sabse ganda paper kiya hai tune _______” (you have performed the worst in the paper). Of course that wasn’t true. I was bad, but I was not that bad. Everyone started laughing, but, BG ma’am  (our class teacher back then) heard that. And the glare she gave me! I would never forget those eyes. Well I assured her that I would perform well in the finals.

There were some more incidents which took prior to the above mentioned one, though they were less humorous. Once SS1 ma’am was teaching the chapter “Print Culture And Media”. There was a section about scribes who used to copy the books in “beautiful handwriting”. Well, I asked ma’am from where the scribes got their copies from. And there you go. Again I was terribly mocked by her. Whenever I was absent (yes, never when I was present in the class), she used to say in the class “Chalo achcha hua aaj _____ nahin aaya. Itne faaltu saval poochhta hai ki ma’am suraj east se kyun nikalta hai, ya fir hum breakfast subah hi kyun karte hain”, (it’s good that _____ is not present today. He asks such stupid questions like why does the sun rise from the east, or why do we have breakfast in the morning only), though I certainly never asked such questions.

Once SS1 ma’am asked our class who would like to explain the chapter “Transportation” to the class. NB1 (one of my best and oldest friend) raised his hand. He came in front of the class and started explaining the chapter. I and my friends left no chance of pulling each other’s legs.  I repeatedly asked NB1 questions which were quite irritating. Well, he answered them. Then ma’am stopped him and asked someone else to continue where NB1 had left. I went there. I started explaining the chapter now. Now, it was NB1’s chance. He stared putting questions to me. After answering some questions, I felt quite irritated (add to that not knowing the answers), I yelled at him to sit down, and asked him to come to me after the class to take his doubts, and told him harshly that I had to complete my syllabus. (The funny thing here is that SS1 ma’am used to say the same lines whenever she got irritated by the questions, but the difference is that she used to know the answers). Everyone enjoyed this thing, including SS1 ma’am. She said to me “very good beta. Jaa baith jaa” (very good child, now go and sit down).

I did not have Social Sciences as my subject in higher classes (thank God!). Although I used to meet all the teachers now and then. SS1 ma’am retired from her job after that academic year, though she kept visiting the school because of her Rotoract-club duties. Once our class was in the basement for our Computer Science practical, and there she was! I don’t know why, but nostalgia overpowers me whenever I see someone I haven’t seen in a long time. So there we (I and RM1) to go and greet her. Our CS teacher NA1 also came out of her lab and they hugged (apparently they were friends!). SS1 ma’am says to NA1, “Sabse achchhe bachche the meri class ke. Bade pyaare bachche hain!” (they were the best students of my class. They are just lovely kids). And I thought “Oh really???? Oh reallyyyyy??? Why didn’t you never said this in class?”

And as promised, here’s Today’s Music Momento (yeah! I am not calling it memento! not in this life...)

[shikastudies]

Things I Wish I Knew Before My Junior Year

Now that I am a senior, I feel overly qualified to tell you tips and little advice that you should know before you stumble into your junior year of high school. Disclaimer: These will not apply to everybody because we all work in weird ways, so if these don’t apply/work for you. Do not fret, trust your gut instincts and your mother.

1.) Plan Ahead: Standardized Tests, as much as I abhor these tests, please do study for them. I, for some reason that I am not able to explain, took my first and last SAT in June and then a week later took my second ACT. On top of all that, I just started my summer physics course, not a smart idea. Know when you are ready to take the tests and plan them apart with your schedule!

2.) Here lie your true friends: After all the stress and exhaustion junior year places on your inner circle of friends, you really find who your friends are because of how your friendships went over the year. If you didn’t reach out or didn’t reply back after I reached out, you were canceled. I found out the people I can trust to have my back when I’m in a dizzy space and those that are there for other reasons than friendship.

3.) Know when you’re at the brink of exhaustion: I had so many mental break downs because I was giving 70% to a sport, and 50% to academics and then 3-% to ACT prep, I stretched myself out thin and then tried to keep myself together. So know when you’re struggling and reach out or just calm yourself. College and the future won’t be there if you’re not taking care of yourself now, your future self is counting on you.

4.) Focus on me: Stop comparing yourself to others, just because someone got a 97% on their math test, doesn’t mean that your 86% is a failing. If you are giving 100% of yourself to something, then that’s all I want from you. That stress and anxiety will not help you in the long run and definitely is not worth the time. Remember that progress looks different to everyone, so do what you can do and stop focusing on others.

5.) Time Management: I literally hated waking up early in the mornings to do some little bit of homework that I left the last night because I didn’t feel like doing. Know your priority and prioritize, because junior year begins in full swing and ends with a 180-degree drop from your school to the underworld. Know what you have to do and stop procrastinating.

So everyone will experience a different junior year, but be nice to everyone and have a good time! My junior year was hectic but I made it one of the best years of my life with my friends and family. So don’t stress but don’t slack off either! Just take every day as it goes and enjoy your high school years!

[howtosurviveaphysicsdegree]

The beginnings of uni

Today I was quite sickly in the heat so I came home from work early as it felt as if I was having an out of body experience whenever I stood up and felt like I was going to faint so I had a nap and then woke up and checked my uni account. i had a 90 minute maths test to do before I go to uni to “evaluate my weak spots and guide my mathematics module choice” aka if I did badly, they probably wouldn’t let me into the School of Maths courses.

It actually went really well - I got 86% and from what I’ve gathered from other people, most are around the 60-70% mark so I’m feeling a lot more positive about turning up to uni with lower maths grades than other people because I cocked up my A levels, but still a little concerned about whether the School of Maths will let me in as I need to do their 1st year modules to be able to do the applied maths and physics modules in subsequent years. Not bad for a sick day.

I’m actually starting to feel ready for uni :)

[fullglass-advice-blog]

So math has never been my strongest subject, but I always end up in honors math courses somehow. My current grade in Algebra is an 86 and progress reports go out Monday. Whenever I try to explain to mom that I’m bad at math and no matter how hard I try I just don’t get it, she just says I’m not trying hard enough. I always do well in every other course, but I don’t want to disappoint her. What should I do?

9/20/19

Hi love!

Well, man, first off, I really feel yah :( I know personally that my parents have been tough on me at times and I’ve had problems trying to tell them my side of the issue (though, they don’t listen, BUT we always come to some sort of conclusion, even if it includes shouting).

Sometimes parents just don’t get you even though they’ve probably gone through a similar experience in the past. I think your mom just really wants you to do your best and she’s pushing you, a BIT too much. My best bet is try not letting her get to you. I know she’s your mom but at times like this, do your own thing :) Maybe listen to your favorite type of music or try new foods, I know that has always helped me. Give yourself some time to clear your head of other people minding your business.

Besides finding time to reflect on your own wellbeing, if you really want to “boost” your test grades, I say self-study with like Khan Academy, notecards, and worksheets. (Just a practice a BUNCH of math questions). If you aren’t into self-studying or get distracted by tumblr (like me), study with your friends :) Or talk to the teacher about how to get your grades up (yes, that’s a bit scary and nerve-wracking at first but hey, they’re human too and most of them just want you to do well in their class). Just make sure to NEVER EVER overwork yourself! Your own health is always first! 

I will end it here for now, so I hope this advice has been helpful! If you want something more specific or have another question, please message me or ask! If you wanted a list of tumblrs and study guide websites, I can also do that too :) Until next time~

Love, The Glass

P.S. I’ll be here, always 💜

[myriadimagines]

Hi! Can you please do 86 and 21 with Avengers x Platonic!Reader. I have really dark brown hair and light brown eyes. I love to travel and have adventures. The Avengers are like my family and they take care of her. I adore everyone in the team! Thank you!

Part 2: This is the previous ask! But I love to dance and sing. The night is my favourite time of the day. I ship you with Killmonger. Seriously, I really think you both look cute together.

Characters: Reader x Tony StarkWarnings: nonePrompts: 21: “Are you being sarcastic?” “Me? Sarcastic? Never.” 86: “I’m scared.”Word Count: 491A/N: Thank you for the ship with Erik alsdjasdasjakshd I love him and I hope you like your drabble!

NOT TAKING ANYMORE REQUESTS!

You had been an apprentice for Tony for years now. You had caught his attention at a high school science fair, which Tony usually wouldn’t bother being interested in, but as he passed by one day he noticed you had somehow managed to invent a robot capable of solving complex math problems. If anyone else had invented it, Tony wouldn’t have been impressed, but after seeing how young you were, Tony knew he had to take you under his wing. 

During your time working with Tony, you came to know all the Avengers. They were all so lovely to you, but you obviously spent the most time with Tony and occasionally Bruce. You’d help Tony create new suits, helping him upgrade old ones or coming up with new ideas. Tony liked how innovative and creative you were, but he could sense you wanted something more.

You never thought of yourself as a hero, or someone who was particularly brave. But since you spent so much time with people who saved the world, you couldn’t help but wonder if you could be doing more than working in a lab, actually getting out and fighting alongside the Avengers. Of course, working alongside Tony Stark was enough of a privilege, so you didn’t want to push it by telling Tony how badly you wanted to fight alongside the team.

However, you didn’t need to.

You walked into the lab, frowning when you noticed a blue, metallic suit. The blue tint was already enough to raise suspicions, since it deviated from Tony’s signature red suits, but then you noticed that it was smaller, more suitable for someone of your size than Tony’s. Not wanting to get your hopes up, you walked over to where Tony was typing something on the computer before asking, “Who’s the suit for?”

“Oh, that?” Tony spun around, vaguely waving an arm. “That’s for you.”

Your jaw almost dropped to the floor as you looked at Tony before staring at the suit, then back to Tony. “Are you being sarcastic?” 

“Me? Sarcastic? Never.” Tony smirked at you, leaning against the desk. “It’s about time you had a suit of your own, kid. Let’s go test it out.”

“Wait, now?” you blurted, suddenly overcome with nerves. You gripped your hands into fists, trying to fight off your sudden anxiousness – this was what you had dreamed about, why were you suddenly freezing up?

“Problem?” Tony asked, quirking an eyebrow, and you bit your lip.

“I’m scared.” you admitted after a pause, and Tony shot you a comforting smile as he clapped his hand on your shoulder.

“The suit is completely safe.” Tony reassured you. “And it’s easy enough to use, especially with a brilliant mind like yours. Trust me, you’ll be kicking ass in it in no time.”

Nodding, you teasingly asked, “Does this make me an Avenger now?”

Tony smiled. “Kid, you’ve been an Avenger ever since you stepped into this lab.” 

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam Austin episode 1 reaction

I wasn’t planning on writing long-winded reactions to Skam Austin, I thought I might just have fun with the clips as they happened. Because there’s such a different context with this remake as opposed to the French/German/Italian ones, that it’s hard to take in! Julie Andem’s direct involvement, the Facebook factor, that it’s American rather than European. I’m processing this one very differently. I’m not even sure how to gather all my thoughts about it.

But then a few things got my attention so here’s episode 1 a week late. I don’t think I say anything that hasn’t already been said, lmao, unless you want to hear about my high school English unit on The Scarlet Letter.

Clip 1 - Frozen is #relatable

Let’s point out all the signs we see during Poonam’s opening monologue:

“Be a winner, be you”

“Work hard, finish strong”

“Always victorious”

“Shoot for the moon”

a board full of college acceptances

IDK guys, I think there might be a theme about the pressure to succeed here.

Poonam’s monologue and the overall themes about pressure and success may seem generic or #relatable depending on your POV. For me, I found it worked, mostly because it’s funny in how mundane and teenage-y it is and the bit about Elsa from Frozen is so weirdly specific, and I knew a million kids like Poonam in high school. But I do get how Julie could have done something more topical considering the world of shit that is going on in the US politically and culturally, including in our schools. (I don’t know exactly how much of the show was filmed before or after the Parkland shooting and I don’t know if/when/how it will be mentioned, but I certainly hope they address it. That’s the kind of issue that Skam is made to cover: things that are directly relevant to the youth of the culture.)

Poonam is talking super loud and were she not serving up our thesis statement, the teacher would tell her to shut up.

I tried to listen to what more of what the teacher actually says, and it’s hard to make out, but of course she concludes with “draw a connection to something happening in present day” … hmmmm….

I was really confused because the test Megan looks at in class appears to be a state-mandated standardized test, not a regular exam you’d take in class. You can clearly see on her paper that it says 68th percentile, which means she scored as well as or better than 68% of students tested. But Marlon seems to be grabbing a similar-looking paper and he says he got a 99, like … is he in the 99th percentile? And Shay’s in the 100th percentile somehow (which cannot be a thing because you can’t go higher than the 99th, lol)? Is there an actual score out of 100 on these tests? Are they talking about a different test?

I’m not from Texas so I don’t know the format of this specific test, but I took a similar standardized test for my state and this is not how I remember it. Also we didn’t go around sharing our scores on those tests the way we would a regular math test or even the SATs or something. And no one studied for those things. 

Meg swaps the numbers around (68 to 86) and he says, “That’s not bad” in a somewhat patronizing way so you know she feels great about it.

The music for the Kittens’ slow-motion walk is very apropos lyrically.

I like Shay, she’s charming. There’s a lot of American “bro” talk and shit like that in the dialogue and it gets cringeworthy, but I think she and Tyler seem pretty natural and I buy them as friends.

Clip 2 - Survival kit

As people have pointed out, The Scarlet Letter is incredibly thematically relevant to Meg’s past. In fact it’s so on the nose that I’d almost say it’s overkill, however that book is so widely taught in American classrooms that yeah, I buy it, it works for me. At least they’re keeping it fairly subtle so far - we notice it because we know the S1 story, a new viewer wouldn’t necessarily realize the connection. And I have seen so many versions of the classroom scene where the inspirational teacher openly talks about the themes of the novel/impact of the historical event/educational topic that just so happens to coincide with whatever’s going on in the protagonist’s life, that yes, this is actually relatively subtle.

Pointless personal anecdote #1: In high school I had one of those stereotypically artsy English teachers and every year she had her students do a mock trial based on The Scarlet Letter, where the goal was to determine which of the main characters was the least guilty. It was a huuuuge project and worth a ton of our grade, and the year we did it, there was tons of drama and crying and name-calling outside of the classroom due to everyone taking this trial 200% too seriously. I drew the team representing Dimmesdale (the minister who fathers a child with Hester Prynne) and miraculously everyone else on the team was smart but chill; we were the only team that didn’t blow up into drama, and we won the trial. I had a great time doing the project, but as time went by I started to think about the point of the trial and whether it was a good assignment, and how our biases crept into the result. Because I remember when kids drew the Hester team, they groaned, because they knew they wouldn’t win. One of the male characters was going to win. Chillingworth might win even though he’s an evil piece of shit and some readers think he straight-up poisoned a dude, but he wasn’t Hester. Hester was definitely guilty because she had sex outside of marriage and had a baby. And if we want to tie this back to Skam, it gets me thinking about how Eva/Meg is the one who loses everything and Jonas/Marlon’s life seems to be more or less intact. The girls lose their friends and in Meg’s case, her hobby/passion, while the boys are OK. Then the same thing happens later with Eva where P-Chris is just a fuckboy but Eva is a slut. Because the girls are the guilty ones. 

Megan’s homework mentions the “life-changing event happens to Hester when she is in the forest away from her community. What do you think this says about the role of community in the outcome of her life?” hMMMMMM. The next question is also about the story centering around a “strong female character.”

Shay talking to Meg while stretched out on her back sure is quite flirty.

Meg’s parents are arguing and contributing to making her feel like a loser, building up some of that pressure (theeeeeme). She has a survival kit which implies that this is a regular thing and she feels the need to escape a lot. 

I do think Julie is getting in some nice shots of the city and making these teens look all picturesque.

Clip 3 - Sad sad eating alone time

I wish Poonam had a Frozen lunchbox.

I'm wondering what Meg’s and Poonam’s relationship is supposed to be. Are they old friends? Are their parents friends? Are they acquaintances who share a class? Does Poonam just want a sounding board to vent about her busy life? I knew people like that in high school. 

Poonam is self-centered in a rather teenage way, not just in talking about herself and being insensitive, talking about how quitting extra-curriculars makes you a loser, assuming Megan doesn’t care, etc. but also how she ditches Megan to go sit with her choir friends instead of like … inviting Meg to sit with her and the choir kids.

There's the THEME!!! of community again as Poonam encourages Meg to be more social, because people who engage in community have happier, healthier, more successful lives. The clip starts with both Meg and Abby alone, but ends with Meg alone and Abby not, because Abby is part of a community and Meg is not.

Also Meg has to be super checked out not to notice the giant Talent Night posters everywhere, including right next to her. It’s too bad they probably won’t go into this but I feel like she’s depressed on a level that Eva wasn’t, which is likely due to losing not just her friends but also purpose of being on the dance team.

“Talent night is the one night of the year where the entire school comes together to celebrate the foundation of our social hierarchy - sports.” Lol, no it’s not. I guarantee you it’s not, no matter what your school is, but especially not this school where sports appear to be a big deal. Try Homecoming.

Marlon is the worst. The woooorst. It really feels as if he, Shay, and Tyler are a group that Meg is just not in, in a way that I didn’t feel with Eva. Because while Eva was often excluded and was the third wheel to Jonas and Isak, Isak was also in some situations the third wheel to her and Jonas. Megan feels like she’s completely on the outskirts of this group. She’s friendly with Shay but I wouldn’t say that they’re friends, while Eva and Isak had some history and were decently close on their own. Some of the other remakes emphasize this too - in particular Italian Eva and Isak (Martino) feel like great friends in their own right. Plus if Marlon does opt to hang with Megan over his friends, Shay and Tyler still have each other.

But for fuck’s sake, Marlon, why didn’t you ask your girlfriend to get some damn food with you? Unless you didn’t really go for food...

Clip 4 - Conservative

How many times has Meg had to listen to Marlon’s music? Yet when she asks him to go do something with her, he doesn’t want to do it. Dump him.

In terms of Marlon’s comments about sports culture … OK, on the one hand I would say there are bigger issues in sports culture, particularly in high school - for example, how sports gets more funding than any other high school program, just to name one issue. His thing about sports culture being about winners working hard, losers are lazy, is maybe not the most relevant, it’s kind of trite. However, I can see a so-called “woke” teen saying something like that, much like I can see a teenager rhapsodizing about Elsa from Frozen. And I get it, it fits in thematically.

Megan used to be on a sports team (and dance teams often do all kinds of competitions so I’d consider it a sport) and clearly misses it so maybe he should chill. And don’t ask your girlfriend to go with someone else when you know she doesn’t have any friends.

Dump him.

Clip 5 - Talent Night

Besides the dance memorabilia, in her room Meg has a poster for a costume party around Halloween, which is possibly when she hooked up with Jo.

Marlon is the worst!!! Worse than other Jonases!!! At least they canceled ahead of time, Marlon just bails last second to go do something fun he likes. Rude and inconsiderate! He doesn’t even invite her along to the concert (and gives an excuse in the next episode, but dude, if you’re going to CANCEL YOUR ESTABLISHED PLANS AT THE LAST SECOND you should at least ASK).

Plus she really needs an escape from her house at that moment due to her parents’ fighting. Great job, dude. 

The B-roll is nice. Again, good shots of the city.

Discussion was happening on @softnorwegians’ Tumblr about the plausibility of Talent Night in terms of location, setup, importance, etc. and I agree with a lot of the criticisms. I absolutely do not buy an official school-sponsored event taking place at what looks like a bar with no chaperones or adults around. Talent Night would probably be held at the school, in the auditorium or gymnasium. Maybe a community center. Maaaybe at a local coffee shop or restaurant, something like that, but that’s pushing it IMO - there would be so many people there that you need a large venue. This doesn’t seem like a small school. My high school did talent shows and there were always tons of adults present, teachers, parents filming their kids.

Also, Talent Night is typically not to fund sports teams! Talent Night is something put on by student government maybe, or if any school group is going to fundraise from it, it would definitely be the arts programs. Or it would be to raise money for charity. Sports teams already have a bunch of fundraisers, also a lot of them are for the individual teams, like swim team will have one, football will have one, etc. I guess it’s not impossible, but it feels a bit contrived. But there are probably some schools that do Talent Night for the sports teams, IDK. (Also, if it’s for the sports teams ... it seems weird to me that the athletes like Jordan don’t seem involved, either on stage or working at the venue? All fundraising I did for the school clubs/activities I was in, I had to do some actual work for the event - sell tickets, serve food, clean up, etc. Lol, here it seems like the sports teams are just hanging out and reaping the profits while random kids earn some money for them.)

Some of the graffiti in the bathroom: 

Sk8ers gonna Sk8 (I’m blanking on where this came from originally, I think it was on an IG post or text?)

Alt er love

Daniel + Grace

That last one, believe it or not, is what made me interested in reacting to this show. Because Grace is our Noora, there are hints of our William being called Daniel … and yet, what’s the context of that graffiti? It makes no sense when you think about it. New girl Grace surely doesn’t know Daniel. Is that supposed to be a hint to future Noorhelm, or is it a shoutout to something that won’t happen - like is Julie teasing us?

I mean, Grace and Daniel are very very common names, but the choice of graffiti was deliberate as we can tell from the other Skam references.

Lol @ me thinking Julie won’t do Noorhelm again but let me have this for now.

The Facebook/fandom reaction to Grace is an example of one of the worst parts of doing a close remake. If this were a completely new show and no one knew the plot, the reaction would have been, “Oh yay, Megan met someone nice :) Maybe they can be friends :) ”

But because she is supposed to be The Noora, a bunch of people had expectations for how she was supposed to act and (especially) look, and when she didn’t fit their expectations, complained. First of all, Grace was quite pretty to me so I didn’t even understand the backlash on a superficial level. Second, get the actual fuck out if you think any of these girls aren’t attractive enough to be a part of the squad. This show has never been about depicting the hottest, most physically perfect people. In fact that’s a reason people like Skam, that there are a variety of body types, their teeth, skin, and hair aren’t perfect. 

Pointless personal anecdote #2: “Let’s give it up for Natalie on nunchucks” is how I want everyone to greet me when I walk into a room, I’m going to have to start practicing.

Jo is great! So good. “I want to see your dumbass routine.” “Ballet shit?!” That whole bit was awesome. What a true friend.

This was so awkward. Painfully awkward.

General Comments:

The IGs are nice work, I’m sure FB pulled some strings to get the pictures backdated. There are some good clues in them - Meg appearing in the old Kittens pics and the Mannequin challenge, Abby has pictures set in Megan’s bedroom where she has clearly cropped out Megan. Abby and Marlon have pictures of a beach from the same day.

Poonam’s super paranoid text about posting things on IG made me laugh a lot. 

I didn’t talk about the acting. It’s ... not great in a lot of places, and sometimes it takes me out of the scene (especially in the Talent Night clip) but it’s not something I want to focus on a whole lot. The cast appears to be teenagers, many of whom have no acting experience, and I’m not totally comfortable being negative about them (NOT saying that no one can criticize their acting, just that for me personally I feel bad doing it). Besides, the fact of it being a direct remake is the more pressing problem for me. As for positives about the acting, I think Shay and Jo are great and have some natural comedic timing.

I am not rooting for Meg/Marlon at all. At all. No version of Eva/Jonas has induced this much annoyance in me. There’s a lack of chemistry, Marlon is more inconsiderate than the other Jonases, and they don’t seem to have much in common.

Unpopular (?) opinion but I have no problem with naming the Jonas character Marlon, or calling him marlonf9000 on IG. It’s an affectionate homage, sure. I guess my only problem with it is that Marlon the character sucks so far and Marlon the actor deserves better.

Man, I don’t even know what to feel about this show at this point. It feels so surreal. I don’t hate it? I’m not angry at it? I’m disappointed that we have to get yet another S1 more than anything. I actually want this show to succeed, believe it or not - even if I don’t care for it personally, I would rather have a lot of other people love it than not. 

I also feel stupid for making any type of speculation on what could happen! Because we’re going to come up with these elaborate theories about how Julie could adapt the story and take it in a different direction, and it’s likely to be all for nothing and we’ll just watch an awkward redo of a scene we’ve already seen.

I do want to say good job for increasing the cast diversity. That was a main fear, that Skam Austin would be lily-white, and we’ve already got 5 prominent WOC in the cast (including Zoya) which is terrific. 

I don’t take the millions of views on the first clip/first episode super seriously since FB was promoting it pretty hard and I heard something about a three-second rule? I’m more interested in seeing how the viewership on the episodes/clips manifests week by week.

It’s also clear that a lot of viewers were confused by the format and don’t get the concept of real-time clips vs. the compiled weekly episodes, which I can hardly blame them for since it’s not typical. 

[reminder-to-breathe]

6/18/18 10:32 pm

I needed to write this for myself and nobody else.

I read an article about how to get over an ex and it said you need to remember all the things their new partner gets to deal with now instead of you. So here’s a list of things that I’m never going to miss about you when I was your girlfriend.

1. The way you never wanted to give up drugs or alcohol for me.

2. The way you made me feel so special but yet still told me you had a habit of attracting the “crazies”

3. The way you made me pay for dates because you weren’t working

4. The way I wasn’t ever allowed at your house.

5. The way I was so scared of your mom disapproving of me, and when she met me - she hated me.

6. When your mom yelled at me in the parking lot and you didn’t defend me.

7. You accusing me of cheating on you when I told you I was pregnant

8. When you told me that you’d never forgive me if I had an abortion and you’d tell everyone what I had done.

9. The fact that I had to pay for raves/concerts and vacations and you never paid me back or even offered to.

10. When you told me you bought me a birthday present and it just “never came in the mail”

11. I took a college class for you so you’d make an “A” and you had the nerve to tell me that you didn’t even ask me to do that for you.

12. I had to threaten that our child would have my last name if you didn’t get a job - and you didn’t until the week she was born.

13. You didn’t tell me where you ever went... and one night you went out and totaled your truck and almost killed yourself and your friend.

14. I always had to ask what you were doing and who you were with - you NEVER volunteered information.

15. If I asked you to talk out a problem with me - you “didn’t want to argue” or “we’ll discuss this later” but there would never be a later.

16. You felt threatened by my family and didn’t even try to get close to them.

17. You insulted my mom and told her that her losing her vision was “karma” for her being rude to you.

18. You pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot yourself in front of me

19. You threw my phone against the wall and shattered it because you had suspicions I was talking to an ex-boyfriend.

20. You dropped me on the side of the road with no phone and all of my luggage.

21. You NEVER said sorry or felt guilty for all of it.

22. You were never going to come back to me and you said I was “stalking” you when I tried so hard to see you on the first day of class.

23. You told me if you hadn’t gotten me pregnant - we’d “probably” still be friends.... but not a couple.

24. The night you were drunk at a friends wedding and we listened to a baby cry (I was pregnant) and you were mad at me and you told me that you hoped I could do this on my own.

25. The way we couldn’t ever go out to eat without you getting sick from eating gluten.

26. You’d always eat gluten anyways and be sick and make us both suffer and not enjoy anything.

27. You never wanted to have sex.

28. You never made me feel beautiful - I felt like I had to force myself on you for any physical affection.

29. You’d never sext me back, you would just say I looked so sexy or that you missed my body - never go further than that.

30. You stopped going to my pregnancy check ups after my mom became involved.

31. You sued me for a paternity test the day after Christmas and didn’t even tell me you had done it.

32. You never helped me with our child past 6 months.

33. You made me come home from work early because you couldn’t take care of her the one night I asked you to babysit.

34. You never pay child support on time and you always complain when you have to do it.

35. You lied to my face and told me that you only recently started dating her but when you posted it on Facebook - you have been together since October.

36. You push me off you if I try to hug you for longer than 5 seconds because I just want to feel close to you again.

37. You stopped wanting to sleepover. When I asked you to sleepover it was always “next time.”

38. You told your whole family I was keeping our daughter from you when I wasn’t.

39. Always wanting me to meet your friends and hang around people I didn’t know

40. You always got mad at me for not introducing you to people.

41. You never wanted to open up to me and talk about anything personal

42. You always were so self conscious and didn’t let me look at you.

43. You cut your hair.......

44. You took out your snakebites and tried to look like more of an adult after our child was born but you didn’t try to actually change yourself and grow up.

45. I bought your sisters kid’s Easter presents and we ended up having a fight so they were never given.

46. We were only happy when we were high together

47. You never really liked my friends

48. You’re allergic to cats

49. You have no motivation to go to college and get an actual career.

50. After we broke up, you ignored message after message of me trying to get you to see your daughter.

51. My first Mother’s Day all you sent me was a “gif” saying happy Mother’s Day, you couldn’t even be bothered to type it out or have a conversation with me?

52. You missed our daughters first birthday party to work. Even though I begged you to take off and be there for it.

53. Anytime I tried to invite your family to things - you told me no even though you admitted later that you had just never asked them.

54. You showed your best friend my nudes.

55. As soon as we broke up, you smoked meth again.

56. Your dad was an alcoholic and you always wanted to follow his footsteps.

57. You never thought you’d live past 30 so you felt like life was pointless.

58. You hung out and prioritized friends more than you did me.

59. You don’t go to any baby appointments anymore or even pretend like you care how she’s doing.

60. You made an excuse and said the reason you couldn’t see our daughter was because of my feelings for you.

61. You made me feel like a horrible person for being in love with you.

62. You got me a pair of socks for Christmas and nothing else.

63. You brag about being “sober for a year” constantly but I know you haven’t been.

64. As soon as you get off probation - you’re going back to doing drugs.

65. Always saying you hate your job but never leaving it and bragging that you work the hardest.

66. We worked in the same building and you never came and saw me, not even once.

67. If I texted you something silly, you just called me weird.

68. I couldn’t tell you about all the things I felt.

69. I wanted you to propose some day and you never even mentioned it or thought about it.

70. You told me you’d follow me to the ends of the earth but you left as soon as things got hard.

71. You couldn’t look me in the eyes in the court room because you knew you had betrayed me.

72. We never wanted to watch the same shows or movies

73. You never wanted to take photos together.

74. You wrote me off as “crazy” rather than trying to fix anything.

75. You never pushed me or motivated me to do anything that was important to me.

76. You texted my parents and demanded to see our child when I was in Galveston because you didn’t want to talk to me (my parents didn’t birth her, I did!)

77. You always complained that 25 minutes was a long drive to come see me.

78. You didn’t like to drive at night so if I really needed you - you weren’t there.

79. You were never there.

80. You stopped telling me I was beautiful.

81. You always said “good morning sunshine” until the day you didn’t love me anymore.

82. You told me you weren’t ever going to date again - but you just meant you weren’t ever going to date me again.

83. You don’t give people second chances

84. You say you cut people out of your life but you still talk to them and still hang out with them (??? Seriously???)

85. You overdosed and blamed it on me stressing you out.

86. Everything always became a fight or an argument that we couldn’t solve

87. Your hard headedness

88. You think I sold our dog to “spite” you but it was really because I couldn’t handle him.

89. You totaled two trucks within a year apart of eachother

90. You’re on probation until August because of a DWI offense.

91. You never wanted to see a doctor to try to get better with your gluten allergy.

92. You always relayed information wrong to your family and made them upset with something I didn’t even say.

93. You dropped out of college because you didn’t feel like taking a remedial math course

94. You were homeschooled and never got to learn how to socialize with people.

95. You’re 26 1/2 and still living with your mom.

[nadjastersurveys]

90. First off, what is your name? Nadja 89. Are you sarcastic? I can be. 88. Do you have a best friend that you can talk to 24/7? I have more than one good friend. But yes I feel like I can turn to them at any time. 87. Do you have any siblings? I have four. 86. How many years apart are your mom and dad? My dad is about 1½ years older than my mom. 85. Do you like someone? Yep. 84. What does your last text message say? “Is she going in the washing machine?” From my mom because I sent her a picture of our cat sleeping in our laundry basket. 83. Who sits beside you in math? I’m not in school now. 82. Where is your dad right now? He’s either working or coming home work form his workplace. 81. Where is your mom right now? She’s in the kitchen last time I checked. 80. Do you have any problems in your life? Nothing huge.

79. Who is the 5th person you got a missed call from? My dad, he’s the one I miss the most calls from lmao I’M SORRY but he always calls me when I can’t answer. 78. Closest purple object? A leave-in conditioner bottle for my hair. 77. Closest silver object? My earrings. 75. Do you sing in the shower? I don’t, I’m too embarrassed for that. 74. What is bugging you right now? Nothing right now actually. 73. How does your hair look right now? It’s in a high ponytail with a blue scrunchie. 72. Do you know all the words to the Star Spangled Banner? I have no idea what that is. 71. When is the last time you said the pledge of allegiance? I’ve never said that. 70. If you could kill someone, who would it be? Umm no one? What’s with surveys obsession with killing people haha. 69. Do you have any fears? Of course. 68. What do you hear right now? Chris Brown's voice. 67. Do you like kangaroos? Sure. 66. Can you roll your tongue? I can. Sorry for flexing but I can also make a clover with my tongue. 65. What are you wearing? Nude hoodie and black tights. 62. Screamo or Country? I listen to neither. But at least country music doesn’t hurt my ears so that.  60. Polka or Disco? Let’s say polka haha. 59. Flying or Driving? I’ve never driven anything but I’ll still say driving. Flying doesn’t appeal to me. 58. Who last called you? My mom. 57. Was your Valentine’s day nice? It was an ordinary day. I don’t remember exactly what I did. 56. What are you doing now? I’m taking a survey. 54. Would you die for someone? I don’t know, I’ve answered this already earlier in another survey as well. 53. Would you date anyone from your work? I don’t have a job. 52. Do long distance relationships work? Apparently for many people it does. I wouldn’t want to do it though. 51. Do you smile a lot? Yeah. 50. Do you have to pee right now? No, I went to the toilet about an hour ago. 49. When did you last talk to one of your siblings? I talked to my younger sister before I went to the toilet, so an hour ago. 48. What are you doing tomorrow? Nothing productive. 47. Do you worry about getting older? I don’t, not yet anyway. 45. Do you pick your scabs? Ew but yes. One of my bad habits, it leaves nasty scars. 44. Would you ever pierce your tongue? No. Definitely not by myself? If I ever decided to get a tongue piercing I would go to a professional. 42. Do you bite your nails? No, I never do it. 41. Do you eat meat? Yes. 40. Do you or have you ever had AOL? Nope. 39. Do you check Perez Hilton for celebrity gossip? I don’t know who that person(?) is but I don’t care for celebrity gossip but sometimes I secretly watch Clevver News’ videos haha. 38. Do you have a jar for loose change? No, i use my wallet for that. 37. Do you own a pogo stick? Nooo. 35. Do you own ripped jeans? I have one couple of black ripped jeans. 33. What would you do if you found out that you were adopted? I am adopted. I always knew that because my parents were always open about it + I look nothing like them, so. 32. Are you a jealous person? Nah, I don’t get jealous easily. 31. Do you use a calendar or day planner to schedule everything on? I try my best to do that but I always forget to fill my planner. 30. Do you have OCD? No. 29. Do you have ADD? I’ve been tested for ADD/ADHD when I was a bit younger but never got the diagnosis. 28. Do you have low self esteem? Most of the time. 27. Who can make you laugh during the hardest time? My friends or my older brother. 26. What was the last thing you watched on TV? I watched Moonraker like 4 months ago so not very recently. It was the only James Bond-movie I haven’t seen so I feel complete now lol. 22. Who do you love? My parents, siblings and my friends. 21. What is playing on your MP3 player right now? I don’t own an mp3 player. I’m listening to Control by Zoe Wees right now on Spotify though. 19. What’s your favorite drink? Cold water, iced tea, different sodas, coffee, energy drinks, green tea. Can’t pick just one. 18. Do you own any big sunglasses? I don’t own any sunglasses now, I broke my old ones and they weren’t big. 17. Bed sheet color? I don’t know what color they are? Beige? Light pink? Or the mix between those two. 15. Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally? I don’t think so. 14. Have you ever bungee jumped? Noooo, and I never will. 12. What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? How they dress and I always check people’s eye color first. Also applies to the same sex. 11. Is it hard to express your feelings to someone? Yeah, I’m really bad at telling people how I feel. I can’t really talk about serious stuff with anyone. 9. Are you sad? No. 8. Are you happy? I could be happier, but I’m content now. 6. Have you ever licked someones cheek? Nopes. 5. Watched all Spiderman movies? I think so. 4. What are you looking forward to? Nothing, I have nothing planned. 3. Favorite Lucky Charms Marshmallow? Haven’t had those. 2. Have you ever ridden in a limo? No. 1. Do you want to get married? Not now lol.

[emmanonstop]

Best Graphing Calculator: What To Search For, Exactly What Things To Buy

Many colleges today require the calculator for calculus. This website isn't the place to get a discussion of those issues that this can induce, or of this"philosophy" on which these policies are often predicated.

Calculators, scientific, Company, and so on

If you are searching for that the calculator for calculus. It is possible to find calculator that are inexpensive at office-supply merchants, discount department stores, and electronics stores.

Controls: Instruments

If you should have a"Texas Instruments graphing utility", then you'd probably need one of those math calculator out of their lineup of ti84 designs. Even the TI-84 is an upgrade of these TI 83 which comprises additional capacities but which will be backward compatible with all the TI-83. That's to say, the TI-84 permits you to accomplish more, whilst staying mainly keystroke harmonious with the TI 83 your instructor is already using. You might wish to take a look at spending to get the ti84, In the event that you should get yourself a TI-83.

The TI-84 seems to assume you have reliable access into your computer that is more modern . A lot of the manual can be found only calculator-to-computer connectivity is based on ports, and also you also may possibly want to download and install oft program to get the personal from this calculator. Since the ti84 generally seems to need Internet Explorer you may will need to improve your internet browser. So I would suggest that the ti 84 for the updated capabilities, but only in the event that you have ready accessibility to a good Internet link and also a upgraded computer.

Do NOT get a TI-92, nor its own update, the Voyage 200, unless of course you've verified your faculty allows themlots of schools are banning them. For some reason, though the ti89 has a number of the capabilities that are currently getting the TI-92 or even Voyage 200 the ti89 is permitted. However, it would be considered a superior concept to test. Be aware that instructors, especially at the high-school degree, don't find out the way touse this TI-86, -89, or even -92, or even also the Voyage 200, when it comes to learning how touse them which means you will be all on your own. Along with also their owners tend to be the magnitude of textbooks.

In case the only specification is that you are to get"a graphing utility", then a decision is up for youpersonally. Many businesses produce calculators that are nice, but teachers and textbooks usually push -84 or even the Texas Instruments TI 83. If you are eager and able to read the handbook to yourself, then get everything calculus calculator you like. Adhere together using Texas Instruments.

This control will transform the value that is last if possible. It's a very handy command. When you've got exactly the"customized" menu choice, then you might want to install the"convert to fraction" command in your custom menu, for comfort sake.

Graphing Controls: Closing thoughts...

If you are thinking about finding a Hewlett Packard (HP) calculator, see whether you're able to locate a buddy or even a fellow student that may let you borrow one. In my experience, individuals either love HPs or they really, hate them, and it'd have been a pity to spend a few hundred bucks simply to understand that you're one. They slice, they dice, they whistle"Dixie", however they may not be your cup of java. Take a excellent look first.

[xtruss]

This Physicist is Trying to Make Sense of the Brain’s Tangled Networks

— By Kelly Servick, Staff Writer at Science | April 11, 2019 | Sciencemag.Org

Danielle Bassett with a representation of the brain's structural connections, created in her lab from MRI data.

At age 16, Danielle Bassett spent most of her day at the piano, trying to train her fingers and ignoring a throbbing pain in her forearms. She hoped to pursue a career in music and had been assigning herself relentless practice sessions. But the more she rehearsed Johannes Brahms's feverish Rhapsody in B Minor on her family's Steinway, the clearer it became that something was wrong. Finally, a surgeon confirmed it: Stress fractures would force her to give up the instrument for a year.

"What was left in my life was rather bleak," Bassett says. Her home-schooled upbringing in rural central Pennsylvania had instilled a love of math, science, and the arts. But by 17, discouraged by her parents from attending college and disheartened at her loss of skill while away from the keys, she expected that responsibilities as a housewife and mother would soon eclipse any hopes of a career. "I wasn't happy with that plan," she says.

Instead, Bassett catapulted herself into a life of research in a largely uncharted scientific field now known as network neuroscience. A Ph.D. physicist and a MacArthur fellow by age 32, she has pioneered the use of concepts from physics and math to describe the dynamic connections in the human brain. "She's now the doyenne of network science," says theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston of University College London. "She came from a formal physics background but was … confronted with some of the deepest questions in neuroscience."

Now 37, Bassett runs a lab at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) that tackles a whiplash-inducing variety of questions. A sampling from one morning's worth of meetings: Do our brains navigate words in written text the way they navigate physical space? Does the structure of college students' brains interact with the structure of their social networks to influence their ability to abstain from alcohol? Does the network of connections in the mouse brain predict how a disease-causing protein will spread?

Other projects focus on a theme that has captivated her since her childhood passion for books and the piano: learning and mastery. Bassett wants to find ways to optimize learning by using networks to represent both the brain and the material it learns.

"If you came to most thinking scientists, who try to be conservative and skeptical and cautious, and you spelled out to them what Dani's research program was going to be, they'd question anybody's sanity who was going to bite off that big of a chunk of science," says Steven Schiff, a neurosurgeon at Pennsylvania State University in State College and an admirer of Bassett's work.

But Bassett routinely disregards disciplinary boundaries and follows her curiosity with abandon. "What I think is beautiful about network science," she says, "is that you can use it to derive very simple intuitions about really complex systems that … just look like a big hairball."

That bid to simplify one of nature's gnarliest hairballs—our 86-billion-neuron organ of thought—into a set of mathematical equations has been hard for some neuroscientists to get behind. Network science is "a new way of looking at the brain," says Martha Shenton, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "This is an advance in science—I do believe that—but it remains to be seen how much information it's going to give us." And whether Bassett's toolbox of equations can make reliable predictions that inform treatments, such as targeted stimulation for brain disorders, is still unknown.

But neuroscience is hungry for theory, says cognitive neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga of the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara. "There's an uneasiness that I think is widespread that we're not quite capturing the framework … to understand how neurons generate behavior, mind, and all this," he says.

Bassett is part of a generation of physicists and mathematicians who are betting on new theories to capture the brain's higher-order organization. "They [have] the math to back them up … and that just brings tremendous power to the biological scene," Gazzaniga says. "The great advances in science come from trespassing," he adds, paraphrasing pioneering psychologist Wolfgang Köhler. "And Dani is a trespasser."

An Uncommon Education

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Bassett—a slight figure with short hair that persistently sneaks in front of her right eye—stands before her class with a large, gilded-edged volume of Claudius Ptolemy. The course teaches undergraduate and graduate students to represent the brain as a network—a set of "nodes" joined by pairwise connections, or "edges." Depending on the study, researchers might define nodes as individual neurons or larger brain regions. And they might draw edges between nodes that are physically connected by neural fibers or that tend to be active at the same time. The approach formalizes a basic premise of neuroscience: that our thoughts, sensations, and experiences emerge as the brain's connected components interact.

But first, Ptolemy. Bassett, in a characteristically composed and formal tone, reads aloud from the second century Greek astronomer's famous treatise, The Almagest: "It is proper to try and fit as far as possible the simpler hypothesis to the movements of the heavens; and if this does not succeed, then any hypothesis possible." He was addressing apparent contradictions in his geocentric explanation of planetary motion. His theory, we now know, was destined to fall apart. But his message was a good one, Bassett tells the class: Strive for the simplest hypothesis.

Bassett's penchant for quoting the ancients reflects her unusual education. Her mother, Holly Perry, who home-schooled her 11 children, says her goal was "to teach them how to teach themselves anything they wanted to learn." Bassett was a natural autodidact. "When she decided that something interested her, she kind of couldn't stop until she knew everything there was about it," Perry says.

Danielle Bassett at 12, wearing garb dictated by her family's religion.

Bassett's twin brother, Perry Zurn, a philosopher at American University in Washington, D.C., describes their home schooling as research. They would choose a topic and build a constellation of projects around it, with little regard for where those projects fell among traditional school subjects.

Perry's insistence that her children prioritize primary texts stuck with Bassett. Reading antiquated, alien-sounding prose jolts the mind into "a much bigger space," she says. The twins now describe their education as "really wonderful" and "really fantastic." But their parents' conservative Christianity shaped what they could aspire to. "Because we both grew up being understood as female … we were actively discouraged from going to college," says Zurn, who is transgender.

After Bassett's hiatus from the piano, her father allowed her to attend nursing school. "He had finally given me a little bit of room, and I figured I should take it," she says. (Her father, John Perry, contends that he never discouraged his children from college or careers, though he says he "felt that being a good wife and mother was a high calling.")

An isolated childhood made the move to traditional school jarring for Bassett. "It took a long time to feel like I could laugh at the right times when somebody told a joke," she says. And nursing school was a bad fit. Confrontations with sickness and dying left her drained.

After a year and a half, she definitively broke with her family's expectations. She dropped out of nursing school and applied to Penn State to study physics. "I just wanted to do something that is clean and formal," she says, "and also, just with books."

Thinking in Graphs

An hour into Bassett's Tuesday class, the students whip out their laptops and become subjects in one of her latest studies about learning. Their screens display a cloud of about 50 concepts she has selected from the course, such as prediction, network, behavior, and neurological disease. They draw lines to connect related words and phrases, stretching the lines to put distance between dissimilar concepts. Bassett will compare the structure of the maps at different points in the course, gauge the influence of class readings and lectures, and look for correlations between network structure and test scores.

The work seems miles away from Bassett's physics degree. But underlying that study—and nearly every other project in her lab—is a branch of math called graph theory. The approach, with roots in the 18th century, describes the structure of networks of discrete, interacting parts, be they friends linked on social media or grains in a sand pile.

Researchers first calculate the relationships between all nodes in a network: in the simplest case, either a zero (not connected) or a one (connected). Then, they ask questions about the features of the network: Is it a sparse web or a dense jungle of connections? Do certain nodes have an unusually large number of connections? Do nodes tend to organize themselves into tight-knit modules that mostly talk among themselves?

In the 1990s, a few researchers started to create such graphs to describe the layout of animal nervous systems. A graph for the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans could include all the connections among the 302 neurons that determine how the tiny worm wiggles through life. The brains of mammals were far too large and complex to map neuron by neuron, so researchers analyzed the connections between dozens of broad areas in the monkey and cat cortex according to the flow of tracer molecules along neurons.

"We worked in complete obscurity," neuroscientist Olaf Sporns says of the field that would become network neuroscience. Sporns, now at Indiana University in Bloomington, was among the first to use graph theory to analyze connections in the human brain. Few data sets were available, he says. But he and his collaborators hoped the approach could help explain how the brain's structure gives rise to thought and awareness.

By the mid-2000s, applications of graph theory were getting more ambitious. Neuropsychiatrist Edward Bullmore's group at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom used it to analyze human brain activity recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technique that can indicate which regions are active in unison.

"It was a very exciting period, when [we] began to … explore these previously unmeasured properties of human brain networks," Bullmore says. "It was around that time when Dani started in the lab." Bullmore was one of Bassett's four advisers in a Ph.D. program sponsored by Cambridge and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. She took off running with graph theory, Bullmore recalls, stretching its uses to new types of brain data.

In one study, Bassett analyzed MRI data from people with and without schizophrenia. The condition seems to arise from broadly disorganized brain activity, not a defect in any one region. Bassett and colleagues showed that graph theory offered a new way to describe that disorganization. Brains with schizophrenia showed more random patterns of connectivity than healthy ones, and their hubs—the most highly connected regions—were less likely to be in the frontal cortex, the area that exerts executive control over the brain. That finding aligned with some of the symptoms of schizophrenia: deficits in executive functions such as planning, decision-making, and regulating behavior. But it didn't explain them.

And some neuroscientists were unimpressed by early results from network science. Graphs of brain networks were "obviously a radical simplification of the nervous system," Bullmore says. "The main criticism has always been, ‘Isn't this too simple to be meaningful, given the complexity of the system we're trying to understand?’"

Bassett saw a different limitation to graph theory. "It's great for characterizing the structure of something," she says, "but not necessarily what the thing does." A graph is static, but an active brain flows between connectivity patterns. So, as Bassett moved to her postdoc at UC Santa Barbara, she added another type of analysis to her study of networks: dynamical systems theory, a way of modeling how network structure changes. "Dani has excelled at bringing time into the game," Sporns says.

In a key experiment, Bassett studied people as they learned to tap their fingers quickly in a specific order by reading sequences of notes on a staff. The sequences weren't exactly Brahms rhapsodies; each was just 12 notes long. But participants took time to master them. During three training sessions, they lay in an fMRI scanner and practiced their finger work.

Bassett's group captured changes over time in the sets of brain areas that preferentially conversed with each other while participants learned. The researchers created a mathematical measure of overall "flexibility"—how likely regions were to change their "module allegiance" and sync up with a different set of partners. A brain's flexibility during a practice session, the researchers found, predicted how much faster the person would be able to play the note sequences in the next session.

The research, published in 2011, hinted that measurable, predictable features of the brain's configuration can prime it for learning. That "started to get a lot of people's attention," Bassett says, including representatives of the MacArthur Fellows Program, who pointed to the work in selecting Bassett for the 2014 award. Bassett, who was just getting her lab at UPenn off the ground, found herself in the academic spotlight. Her parents, who had separated when she was 18, cheered her on.

Healthy Ambition

Bassett is now a hub in a lively network—a role that doesn't always suit her. On an endless circuit of invited talks, she seeks solitude in her hotel room. She shies away from group interactions, preferring one-on-one communication with trainees and collaborators.

But some of those pairwise connections have had far-reaching effects. In 2013, on a bench overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, she and mechanical engineer Fabio Pasqualetti, then a fellow postdoc, realized they shared an ambition. They wondered whether network science could go beyond describing the brain to offering ways to change it. Pasqualetti studies control theory, a branch of engineering that uses sensors and feedback to guide the behavior of a system, whether that's an electrical grid or a fighter jet. Was it possible, he and Bassett wondered, to apply principles of control theory to brain networks?

In their initial study, published in 2015, Bassett and Pasqualetti modeled brain structure with data from an MRI-based technique that traces the diffusion of water through the brain to identify regions connected by bundles of neuronal fibers. By feeding that information into an equation from control theory, they identified areas of the brain that, when active, might help it shift into various other states. "It was a big jump, honestly, to make the assumption that this thing could work," says Pasqualetti, now at UC Riverside.

"It's a very important contribution," computational neuroscientist Marco Zorzi of the University of Padua in Italy says of the paper. Scientists are already experimenting with zapping the brain to improve various conditions, including severe depression and disability after stroke. But the approach, which often relies on magnetic stimulation of the scalp, involves trial and error. Control theory could help researchers decide where in the brain to stimulate, and at which intensities, to reliably steer it into a healthier state.

Still, Zorzi says, "It's not ready yet." To develop stimulation protocols based on control theory, "we just need much more theoretical work," he says. That work should include studying how many points of stimulation are necessary to induce a desired brain state, he adds.

Bassett and her team are now refining their control theory approach and using it to predict the spreading patterns of activity in epileptic seizures. The results, they hope, will show how doctors could place seizure-stifling electrical implants more precisely or slice out less brain tissue during surgery.

Before any clinical trials, Bassett and colleagues will also have to defend the work against a familiar charge: that it oversimplifies the brain. Signals don't pass predictably along every connection between neurons. Some get amplified; others run into gating mechanisms that inhibit them, and equations from control theory don't fully capture those details. "That makes the control problem enormously difficult," says Schiff, a former epilepsy surgeon who studies control theory. "That's an enormous frontier that we're just starting to crack into."

In response, Bassett channels Ptolemy. "Physicists … start with relatively simple models, and then they expand those models as it becomes necessary," she says. "If there's more than a few parameters, it's very difficult to understand why something happens."

Degrees of Freedom

On the drive home from class, Bassett's 4-year-old son, Simeon, recounts his day care exploits from the back seat of the car and dictates the playlist.

When Bassett entered college, she swore she would never be a wife or mother. On campus, she found that the homemaker role her family had insisted on was, at times, discouraged. But she met Lee Bassett, a fellow physics student whom she married in 2006. Both now teach at UPenn, and the first of their two children was born in 2011.

That evening, after bedtime reading (The Berenstain Bears for Simeon and the children's fantasy novel Mossflower for Silas), Bassett pops open a can of cherry-flavored sour beer and brings out one of her own favorites: British philosopher Joseph Glanvill's 17th century volume The Vanity of Dogmatizing. In it, Glanvill marvels at humanity's ignorance of the natural world and condemns blind faith in both science and religion. Bassett has peppered its margins with notes.

Down the hall in the living room sits a Steinway grand piano, testimony to her continuing love of music. It's the only purchase Bassett has made so far with her $625,000 MacArthur award; for now, her lab is not hurting for funding. But the unspent money means freedom. If an idea sparks her imagination and funders won't get behind her, she plans to chase it anyway.

[everlastingfable]

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people. I was tagged by @kingofthewilderwest

LAST:

1. Drink: water... this post reminded me that I did not drink anything for the past 10 hours

2. Phone call: with my mom like 3 days ago

3. Text message: from my dad. idk how to cook....

4. Song you listen to: I guess when I was playing Heart of Courage on the piano. For an actual song, the last song on my spotify is Centuries from fob but I fell asleep like 3 songs before that so idk

5. Time you cried: can’t remember

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: yes although I wasn’t aware the first one was a date until after 

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: I’ve never kissed anyone so no

8. Been cheated on: no

9. Lost someone special: I don’t think so..... 

10. Been depressed: yeah

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: I’m not old enough to drink either.... no

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS: 

12. red

13. gold

14. black

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: yes

16. Fallen out of love: no

17. Laughed until you cried: yes. thank you lance and kaltenecker that was a delight

18. Found out someone was talking about you: no

20. Found out who your friends are: uh no?

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: no 

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: I did the math 94%

23. Do you have any pets: no :( I miss my bunny

24. Do you want to change your name: sometimes, but idk what to change it to

25. What did you do for your last birthday: uhh pack to move out of my dorm the next day, reorganize my comics, had an unpleasant/pleasant surprise of cookies from my family

26. What time do you wake up: I’ve been waking up at 6 the last few days but usually around 8

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: sleeping

28. Name something you can’t wait for: httyd3, vld season 5, thanksgiving break, winter break, when I finally have some time to read this book I bought

29. When was the last time you saw your mom: 8 days ago?

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: I guess like the motivation to be in school? Like idk I’m so tired I just wanna graduate and get this over with I’m just not interested in college. tbh I didn’t really want to go I just did because it’s expected of me and if I want the chance to have a non-retail job I kinda have to get a degree

31. What are you listening to right now: the keyboard clacking sound

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: I don’t think so

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: the voltron fandom always gets on my nerves. Personally, probably just my current need to like figure out who I am? Like this is so annoying what’s my sexual orientation? That’s something I’m constantly thinking about and it just bothers me because I keep switching around between completely and totally ace to possibly hetero, maybe bi??? girls seem cool idk I can’t ignore it and there’s also the fact that I read this one fic of child!keith being autistic and that’s thrown me into a loop because I relate to those events so much but I’m not... or I don’t think I am. Even then obviously it’s not something that causes an issues for me but I just want answers

34. Most visited website: tumblr, facebook, youtube, a03

35. Mole/s: uh there’s one on my thigh. google isn’t answering my question if moles can just be a dot like you don’t feel it it’s just a dif color on my skin

36. Mark/s: there’s a very faded scar on my left leg from when I slipped on algae and fell into a river, and another faded scar on my right foot when I stepped on glass

37. Childhood dream: I wanted to be a writer at one point, also a chef, and a graphic designer

38. Hair color: dark brown

39. Long or short hair: long. I kinda want to try short hair but that’s something I’ve never done before and I’m scared I’d hate it. I don’t want to wait for it to grow out if I do

40. Do you have a crush on someone: irl, maybe?? fictional characters tend to be more of squishes: keith, matt, hunk, shiro when he’s not unknowingly sabotaging the team

41. What do you like about yourself: haha

42. Piercings: no

43. Blood type: O+

44. Nicknames: I think frosty is the only one that’s ever stuck. There’s been a few that people have tried to give me but they didn’t work

45. Relationship status: single

46. Zodiac: taurus and I hate how everything about it is food

47. Pronouns: she/her

48. Favorite TV Show: voltron 

50. Right or left hand: right

51. Surgery: do wisdom teeth count?

52. Hair dyed in different color: I want to but I’m afraid I’ll hate it

53. Sport: no

55. Vacation: so many places tbh. I want to go to the northwest of the US (Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, I only know popular cities...) I also really want to visit Europe SO BADLY especially the Norwegian area, also South America I want to see the Amazon rain forest and the Galapagos Islands

56. Pair of trainers: yes. idk how to answer this

MORE GENERAL: 

57. Eating: what is this asking? am I eating right now? no. what do I want to eat? I have a uncrustables pbj sandwich sitting in front of me I’m waiting for it to defrost. I also have taiwanese sausages I’m waiting to defrost and cook. what’s my favorite food? like any variations of sushi, particularly poke bowls

58. Drinking: yoooo the only good part about the holidays is egg nog. I’m probably gonna finish the half-gallon I bought two days ago today

59. I’m about to: keep answering these. I should also study for a test tomorrow

62. Want: money? to not be tired? to have some free time where I’m not stressed about what I’ll have to do later? 

63. Get married: no but I do want to organize a wedding. seems fun

64. Career: idk man. right now I’m just going with my dream from high school which was to work at dreamworks but idk how

65. Hugs or kisses: hugs, but I feel like a lot of hugs I’ve gotten just don’t feel nice

66. Lips or eyes: eyes

67. Shorter or taller: majority if not all of my friends are shorter than me and I’ve gotten used to that to the point where I cannot deal with people taller than me

68. Older or younger: same thing. I’m usually the youngest so just being older than people is ???? also I think being the youngest prevents me from comparing myself to others? because they’re older so of course they would be “ahead” of me in life. so less stress

70. Nice arms or nice stomach: I’m weak for arms

71. Sensitive or loud: ??

72. Hook up or relationship: no

73. Troublemaker or hesitant: is this in terms of relationships I’m so confused. I guess just platonically, both? I’d like to be friends with someone who’s willing to do crazy things because that’s usually exciting, but at the same time someone who knows when to restrain themselves

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: no

75. Drank hard liquor: no

76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: yes

77. Turned someone down: I think

78. Sex on the first date: no

79. Broken someone’s heart: maybe?? it’s more likely I just upset them

80. Had your heart broken: no

81. Been arrested: no

82. Cried when someone died: no

83. Fallen for a friend: idk

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84: Yourself: no

85. Miracles: mmmm

86. Love at first sight: not really. It just doesn’t seem plausible to me

87. Santa Claus: sure

88. Kiss on the first date: for me personally, no

OTHER: 

90. Current best friend name: I can’t just have one best friend.... peach & percy

91. Eye color: they’ve been described as black holes before

92. Favorite movie: httyd obvs

I tag: @peachdoxie, @lastronaut, @zhe-lazy-fox, @tanyasm10, @stratoc, @palions, @emkayohh, @frxstguardian, @howdomaddie, anyone else who sees this and wants to do it.