#and its not even a super difficult language its R but my brain is not built for coding

[yellowistheraddest]

people who know how to code, please, use your telepathic powers to send me your wisdom so i don't completely fail my bioinformatics class because of this stupid assignment

[satsuki2406]

Dear Aomi Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

"I've seen you in a dream before, you are the warm and bright presence that embraced me on Cape Kamui a long time ago on a June afternoon."

Shinohara (Y/N) is a normal girl who had everything she could ask for, a loving family, a beautiful home, friends, and a fluffy cat. For a long time, she gave her life and happiness for granted, never imagining that she'll face one of the worst and crueler facades of society so closely, destroying what once was a happy, harmonious and normal family. One day, in hopes to recover what they lost, the Shinohara family took one of the more difficult decisions of their lives; leave behind their home back in Hokkaido and travel hundreds of miles south until Musutafu, the place that could grant them a solution and help close the yet fresh wound and scare away the ghosts of the past. Hardheaded, passionate, and ambitious (Y/N) is forced to confront the incarnated face of the superhuman society that she hated the most; Bakugou Katsuki.

PAIRING: (Bakugou Katsuki x Reader)

GENRE/WARNINGS: Romance, Fluff, Angst, Dark Themes, My poor attempt of humor, Strong language (Courtesy of Lord Explosion Murder 💥), Manga Spoilers, LONG ass chapter.

STATUS: On going

Chapter 1: School is a Great Place to Make Enemies

Chapter 2: My Stupid Classmate, the Angry Dandelion

3-In Conclusion, This Day Was...

The light night air caressed (Y/N)’s face and swayed her hair as she calmly strolled on the street. The ride from the konbini was short, after a couple of minutes, (Y/N) reached her home’s front gate. She pushed the creaky short gate pushing her bike along her with the shopping bags and closed it behind her. She put the bike on its little corner next to the driveway and locked it. She took the two shopping bags, along with her bag and walked to the front door. Before (Y/N) could even align the key with the keyhole, the door was harshly swung open revealing a much preoccupied and almost hyperventilating woman, (E/C) eyes met an equal pair of concerned (E/C) ones.

“Oh, (Y/N)! you’re finally home!” Immediately (Y/N) was engulfed in the hugest mama bear hug imaginable. Her mother, Akari consumed by aggravation and worry squeezed the lights out of her ‘little baby’ alleviated to have her between her arms, safe and sound.

“Mom...! I can’t- I can’t breathe…!” (Y/N) choked out.

“Oh, I’m so sorry baby! You know how I get when I’m worried, and excited, and when I see a good deal at the supermarket but enough of me! Tell me, are you alright? Are you hurt?” Lovingly, Akari cupped (Y/N) soft cheeks and proceeded to quickly exanimate her closer, looking for any scratch or cut. “Your temperature is normal, does any part of your body hurt?”

“Well, other than my legs, my butt, and the growing migraine I’ve been feeling since I left the konbini, I’m awesome, thank you.”

“I knew it! I knew that something was wrong! You must have been trapped in that horrible incident in the commercial district! What if the migraine is because you hit your head and will develop some brain damage if we don’t treat you immediately or your legs are injured?! What if they have to amputate them!? Should I call 911?! Or take you myself to the hospital?! No! We have no time to lose! Quick! Get in the car! I’ll go and get the keys and my purse-I have to call your dad!! Oh but he’s way too far right now! What if!-”

“Alright Mom! enough!” (Y/N) snapped. “Look at me, now, inhale and exhale, sloooowly, take your time and calm down. Once you are relaxed, I’ll explain myself, so stop jumping to conclusions please. Look at me in the eyes-that’s right, deep breaths, deep breaths…” You said softly while you also breathed deeply to show your mom how she had to do it while she dramatically imitated you, putting a hand over her chest to help herself.

“Al-Alright, I-I’m feeling better now”

“Perfect, so the reason I’m late is, indeed related to the villain attack, BUT! No how you are thinking! You know that in the center of the city there’s a bikeway, right?”

“Y-Yes I do”

“So, you also must remember that the Commercial District is part of that same bikeway’s route, right?”

“I-I recall so, yes”

“Perfect! Now that we have that important but kinda trivial piece of information clear, I’ll proceed to tell you what happened. Sooo… During my way back I decided to ‘take my time’ and you know, explore the city. But, but, but! When I was about to go back home, I heard a really big explosion coming from there, there was a lot of smoke as well. Right there I ran into an elderly lady and her daughter and they explain me the situation, they also advise me to get home as soon as I could. But the fastest and safest route home with the bike implies going right into the crime scene which was a super no-no, so I saw myself forced to take the long route around the Dagobah Park, a.k.a the city’s biggest illegal trash dump all the way down the coast line which took me around an hour which is also the reason my legs and butt hurt, oh! And also, the stop on the konbini that ended in an unfortunate incident related with a defective Ramune bottle and a rabid macaque-”

“W-Wait a minute! R-Rabid macaque?!” Your mother exclaimed panicked.

“That’s irrelevant right now mother, my point is I’m ok, and I’m not feeling like getting into the ER right now, also I have perishable products in this bags that need refrigeration and I reek like death and destruction, so can we enter to the house pretty please?”

“O-Oh, right, that was a bit confusing but I think I got it.”

“Great! By the way I bought the missing ingredients to make dinner.”

“Fantas!- Oh no! I was so preoccupied about you that I forgot to make dinner! I haven’t even made rice! Why don’t you take a bath while I put up something together to eat? You can also tell me about your first day of school over dinner!”

“Ok!”

 🐈🛀💢

Contently, (Y/N) hopped up the stairs and made a beeline to her bedroom. Although she has only been living in there for 2 weeks and a half, she found herself loving the place, the new house in general was really homey and cozy, it was roomy and stylish, somewhat similar to the house she lived before with her family back in Sapporo. One detail that she found extremely beautiful was that this new house possessed an ample number of skylights, in almost every room of the house, including hers, it gave her an amazing view of the sky while she was lying on her bed during night, or the rain clipping and clapping over the crystal. The house also possessed a pretty old and pretty picturesque cherry blossom tree in the backyard that had gifted them that very same spring with lots of delicate pink petals that she usually saw dancing in the wind.

But her room was something special. (Y/N) was not sure if it was the way the light illuminated it, or the color the room was painted at that moment but it was something similar like love at first sight. Since that very first moment she and her parents visited the place along with the realtor that winter day last year, she knew that this would be her special corner.

Moving itself is a long and tedious process, but in their case the distance made it trickier. Musutafu and Sapporo were 880 miles away from each other, which mean they had to go there by plane, otherwise, (Y/N) would’ve to be stuck in her parents’ car for over 18 hours.

The moving truck was sent in advance so their stuff would be there the day they arrived. The flight only took 1 hour and 35 minutes, it was really short but once (Y/N) got out of the plane it was like she entered into another dimension. Musutafu was way bigger than Sapporo, also busier and hectic, there were more heroes around the city which made sense because of its size, the crime rate must be higher here as well.

After all the unpacking and mess that moving in implied, the Shinohara family was successfully settled down, it felt like it was so long ago. Time really flies by when you are occupied, huh?

(Y/N) closed her room after she entered, going directly to her bed, plopping herself in the fluffy comforter. Suddenly with the corner of her eye she caught a sudden movement next to her, focusing more she recognized a familiar ball of white fluff that napped away comfortably over the mound of pillows and cushions situated on the upper part of the bed.

“Mashumaro!~”

“Mrrrow~”

Mashumaro, a 5-year-old white British Shorthair, stretched deliciously and stud up from his pillowy paradise to receive one of his (several) daily coddle sessions. (Y/N) opened her arms to the affectionate feline, enveloping him in a warming hug.

“Oh Mashu! You can’t imagine the day I had! Everything could have gone perfectly fine if it wasn’t for that stupid angry blowfish! And when I thought I got rid of him for the day, he ‘blessed’ me showing up in the konbini! That idiot! How dare he to live nearby!? I hope he doesn’t live close at all, see his ugly puckered face at school every day is bad enough! I’m utterly exhausted, and this was just the first day.”

“Mrrrow”

“Yes! Can you imagine?! How the rest of the year would be?!”

“Mrrrow”

“I know, I know, thankfully this is the last year of middle school, after next spring, boom! No more Bakushit!”

“Mrrrow”

“Oh Mashu! ~ You are the only one who understands me, thank you for listen to me, I feel better now~”

“Mrrrow...?”

“Talking about feel better, I have a date with that ofuro at the end of the corridor, so if you excuse me…”

In a fluid move (Y/N) wiggled out of her bed, leaving her furry companion to keep enjoying his catnap and get the most comfortable pjs she could find in her wardrobe. With the selected garments in her bed, she left her room and headed to the bathroom. Once inside the wet room, she proceeded to fill the tub, setting the water temperature to her liking. Meanwhile, (Y/N) slipped off her uniform and folded it aside into the hamper to wash later. Once ready, she stepped under the shower and turned on the head, soaking herself completely in the relaxing liquid. (Y/N) eagerly washed away all the stress and sweat that formed during this crazy day.

‘I wonder if Midoriya made it home safely’ (Y/N) absentmindedly took her shampoo bottle and squeezed some of its contents over her hand and applied it over her head.

She hummed blissfully while her fingers massaged her scalp. The bipping of the controlling pad interrupted her relaxation moment to inform her that the tub was filled and ready. She rinsed her hair and body drenched in shampoo and body wash foam and applied her conditioner to the final touch. Once she was ready, she turned off the shower head and wrapped her wet hair in a towel, she tested the water with her toe, which she approved with a soft sigh and submerged completely and hummed contently.

“Ahhh~ This is life!” (Y/N) closed her eyes and let herself being wrapped in relaxation and tranquility.

‘I’ll ask Midoriya tomorrow how it went, I hope he didn’t have to go near the villain attack. For what they say it was a big deal, I hope the hostage is ok’

(Y/N) came to a halt with the soft knock on the door. “(Y/N) sweetie, dinner will be ready in 10 minutes, don’t take too long so you can eat it while it still hot.”

“Ok mom! I will, thanks!”

‘I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow! I wonder if I can change classes or something, but that means Midoriya would be left alone at the mercy of that brute again.’

‘Alone…’

“No! Midoriya has had to deal with this by his own, if I can do something about it, I will”

‘He deserves to feel that someone appreciates him, supports him and believes in him, just like anybody else’

(Y/N) stud up from the tub and covered herself with a towel and exited the bathroom. Once in her room, she closed the door and sited on her bed to check her phone.

“Oh, I got a message…”

From: Haru ✨

 3:42 pm

Hey gurl! How was everything? 😁 Sorry I didn’t text you during lunch, I forgot my phone in the classroom, 😓 silly me I guess, 😅 like always, haha! 🤣🤣 Anyway! Tell me! How are schools down there? Did you meet some cute guys?~ 👀🤩 I’ll call you tonight!~ 😘💋

“What do you mean ‘how are schools down there’ you moron, like in the rest of Japan.” You snickered.

To: Haru ✨

6:41pm

It is complicated to tell how my day was, ‘incredible’ maybe? 🙄 Just to give you a preview it got me so tired that I want to sleep for the next 25 years and this was just the first day. 😫😫 Anyway, I’ll go get dinner, call you later. 

(Y/N) dried her body, put on the clothes she chose and went down stairs were she saw her mom setting the table filling it with several steaming yummy looking plates and bowls.

“Wow! this looks really good!~”

“I’m glad you think so, come on, sit now before it gets cold”

“Ok!~”

There on the table laid a full arrange of delicious comfort food; hearty veggie miso soup, grilled salmon, green salad and potato salad, pickled veggies and last but certainly not least katsu white curry, one of (Y/N) favorites.

“Its been a long time since we ate white curry!”

“And don’t forget the cheese stuffed tonkatsu~”

“Yay! ~”

“Itadakimasu!”

(Y/N) took a spoonful of rice and curry and hummed happily at the savory and spicy flavors dancing in her tongue, the golden-brown tonkatsu was crispy and juicy, crowned by the gooey cheese on the inside.

‘Mom’s food is the best~’

“By the way, your father called when you were in the shower, he said he’ll be back in Musutafu on Thursday afternoon”

“Really?! That’s awesome!”

“Things went way smoothly than he thought, we will bring the remaining suitcases we left, the ones with summer clothes”

“Oh, those will come handier here since is warmer”

“You are right, now tell me how was your first day of school? Did you make some new friends?”

(Y/N) almost chocked on her soup as all her misadventures of the day came to her mind at the same time, trying to think about a good response she cleared her throat and compose a bit.

“Mmm, I’m not actually sure if I can call him a friend but there was this really timid guy in my class-”

“Oh! A boy?! Good thing your father is not here otherwise he would be seething, and crying at the same time because his baby is growing up so fast!” Your mom said with an amused expression on her face at the mental image of your father in such state, the tips of her fingers were covering her lips in a vain attempt to conceal her giggles.

“M-Mom! I-It’s no like that! A-And I just met him today! Good God! Don’t go saying things like that so blatantly!” (Y/N) said suddenly rising from her seat, her face completely aflame with shame for her mother’s words.

“Oh honey, I’m kidding! No need to get so riled up!”

“Hmp!” (Y/N) grunted with puff up checks and an expression that more than angry, looked cute. And of course, her mom made sure to emphasize it.

“That face makes me want to squish it to death just like when you were still my little cutie baby boo! ~”

“M-Mom! Stop it!!!”

“Haha! Honey calm down! Don’t take it too seriously!”

“Hmm…”

 📱📱📱

“Woah, woah, woah! So, you are telling me that this guy actually called you a bitch and threaten you and another classmate in front of the whole class and the teacher didn’t do or say anything?! No even detention or something?!” (Y/N) best friend, Haruka exclaimed as she suddenly paused applying her moisturizing cream, a part of her ‘night beauty routine’.

“You got it, I guess that he’s scared of him, everyone actually, so he must be used get away with everything and you know that people usually looks away when a quirkless person is discriminated, like it wasn’t serious or it was something to laugh about.”

“Yeah crude but true, unfortunately that’s not new, the ‘bully with a decent quirk’ kind of story is really common, but to that extent? Is kind of terrifying. You also said he wanted to be a hero? What the heck?! I’ll definitely will not support a hero like that! If you actually could be able to call him a ‘hero’ after all, I hope that U.A reject him on the spot! A meanie who bullies my bestie does not deserve such title!”

“I’m pretty sure that the U.A staff would have your concerns into consideration”

“I’m serious (Y/N)!”

“Me too”

You were now laying lazily in the comforting warmness of your bed. As you promised you called Haruka after dinner, filling her into all the details of your crazy first day, and a certain insufferable spiky blond.

“How about you? How was everything there?”

“Cold as hell! It started snowing when I was walking back home. You know, typical Hokkaido.”

“You know that the hell is hot, rig-?”

“Don’t smartmouth me bitch, you get my point.”

“Yeah, yeah, today the weather was really nice here, is getting warmer everyday and the sakura are on full bloom. I think is the first time I haven’t freeze to death on my first day of school. It was a nice experience for a change.”

“Oh, I’ll wish to be there! I can’t believe we are in firkin’ April but it feels like January!”

“Like you said, Typical Hokkaido. Hey Haru, my eyelids are closing; I’ll go to sleep now ok? I’ll message you tomorrow and please for God’s sake don’t leave your phone in the classroom, you moron.

“Ok! Ok Mom! Geez! Suzue told me there was this new hottie in class 3-C and I had to check if he was Jefree Star Approved!”

“Doesn’t Jefree Star review make-?? Oh! Shut up and go to sleep!”

After hanging up to a pouty Haruka, (Y/N) put her phone to charge and submerged herself under the softness of her comforter, turning off the bedside lamp she sighed prying to whatever God out there listening that tomorrow could be a better day.

“Just a good day, that’s all I’m asking for…”

With little flashbacks of all those days spent with Haruka and all her friends, her family, her old home, of Hokkaido.

 Embraced in sweet memories, she was lulled to sleep.

Raise your hand if your mom also freaks out about everything ✋

*Mashumaro: Marshmallow in Japanese ヾ(•ω•`)o

[alwaysbewoke]

Those who are physically mute may have problems with the parts of the human body required for human speech (the throat, vocal cords, lungs, mouth, or tongue, etc.). Being mute is often associated with deafness as people who have been unable to hear from birth may not be able to articulate words correctly (see deaf-mute), but muteness describes people who can hear but cannot talk. Other causes include intellectual disability and autism. A person can be born mute, or become mute later in life due to injury or disease. The prevalence of mutism from all causes is on the order of 0.8 persons per 1000.

Trauma or injury to the Broca's area of the brain can cause muteness.

ALSO

I am not a specialist, but I have worked with speech pathology before. A couple things can cause muteness. People who are deaf and hard of hearing can have deaf related muteness because they never communicated verbally. Disability of the tongue, vocal chords, lungs, or the mouth in general can cause muteness. Sometimes autism can play a role in causing muteness, or selective muteness due to social anxiety. Injury to the frontal lobe of the brain, that controls motor and sensory function in your body, can cause muteness due to the inability to move your mouth over time. You even have a special area in your brain called the broca's area that allows you to mentally process language and communication: stringing words together and the ability to assign sound to meaning and what-not. Injury or disorder to this area would greatly affect your ability to verbally communicate, and thus could cause muteness.

tl;dr: It's difficult to pin-point what causes muteness, as it's more a product to injury, disorder, or potentially anxiety..

ALSO

My son has a genetic disorder called Emanuel Syndrome www.emanuelsyndrome.org - he has the mental capacity of a 16 month old and he's 4.5yrs with mobility and cognitive issues. He can buttscoot faster than you or I can, but has some issues bearing weight through his legs (although I have totally seen him walk with a gait trainer after a plastic fan like a trackstar ;) He can crawl but will stop after a short time since its phsyically exhausting for him due to his hypotonia.

He will probably never speak as of the 267 current cases of ES only 3 we know of speak like you and I do, in coherent sentences. He does know some sign language and by some I mean 4 words that he uses repetitively (more, all done, milk and eat). Cognitively I think he understands a solid 50 words vocally if I or his teacher are speaking to him. He does have some hearing issues but they are very moderate, as long as we speak up and not whistle he can hear. His newest trick is drinking from a straw, which is very impressive! We use communication devices like Ipads, a Dynovox Maestro and a Tobii Eye Gaze.

Many of our ES kiddos are grossly underestimated in regards to their level of inteligence. Will he be able to write, probably not due to dexterity issues but I wouldn't be surpised if he, well surprises us all! Like how most children learn to read using site words, most ES kids have the capacity an ability to learn them as well, it just takes them more time and they may need to be tested differently than the neurotypical kiddos. He gets pretty great Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy (which is considered communication therapy in his case).

I'm realistic in the notion that my kid may just be a 16month old forever with communication issues that are going to suck and the inability to ever truly walk, but since he's blown our minds with all of the things that the Dr's told us he couldn't do, and does with a level of proficiency that was at one time absolutely unimaginable for me, hell who knows, he may just write the next Great American Novel. I'm just happy knowing that every day he has fun and hopefully that will be the rest of his life too.

all super super interesting. all the best to the deaf-mute and mute communities. 

[seokjins]

I’m not the original anon but I loved reading that so much, please do their strengths! It’s really interesting to hear about this stuff from people who know what they’re talking about

I’m a different anon but I’d be interested in reading what you think their strengths are if you feel like sharing. 

AAAAA wow thank you so much !!! i will try to do my best, but it’s very hard to talk about this kind of stuff because, as i mentioned in my first post, i’m not there for the rehearsal process. 

this affects my ability to talk about their strengths bc im not able to see them build a piece from the ground up. one of the things i admire the most + dancers hold to high regard is the ability to pick up choreography, how fast they can adapt to the style, and how quickly they reach a performance-ready image. additionally there’s rehearsal attitudes, how focused one can be, and how willing a dancer is to accept corrections + self correct + work w the choreographer 

this said .. !

jin

his work ethic. it’s no secret that even from AHL and pre-debut days, jin has always been one of the hardest workers in terms of his dancing ability compared to the other members. to come from a NON DANCING background for the majority of his life (it gets harder to start picking things up the older you get due to habits and posture that ur body becomes used to) and to be able to pull off any single one of bts’ dances WITHOUT standing out and looking like a true professional is something that i greatly admire. with all my dance experience, albeit in ballet, i can’t dance the way he did in NMD even now. many many many idols and dancers will never reach his level of proficiency/energy/attitude in that piece as well. 

currently i would say his greatest strength is probably his upper body movement. the only other member that rivals his loose flow is hoseok (re: mic drop dance break w the body rolls), as well as his incredible ballon. he has this ability to seem suspended when he’s doing certain dances … !!! 

he also has incredible stamina. he is stable when he sings and dances, and often isn’t pitchy or sounding super out of breath. compared to 99% of the population, this is a talent and skill that many don’t have LOL this can only come from his natural altheticism and his work ethic due to hours and hours of practice ! he also always appears at ease when he dances (unless the song is an “edgy” or “angry” song), which is difficult to accomplish TT 

yoongi

his strength as an overall dancer! he’s not just a one-trick pony. he doesn’t have any tricks (except for the recent double endehans that we saw in tokyo “so what”??????omg) but he excels in every single bts dance . there is always a point/move that he does better than his members. for a non dancer, he has such innate ability to move and feel the music, something that is rare for people just breaking into the dancing scene like he was pre-debut.

his footwork in dope is unparalleled. his stylistic choices in fake love r so fitting and unique and fjalsdhgalkhg i can’t praise him enough for opening himself up mentally (because dance is also greatly taxing on ur BRAIN) and getting to a place where it seems judgement has decreased on his OG dance abilities. this allows him more freedom in molding to new pieces and making sure he excels in them !!!!! 

namjoon

wowowowowow namjoon also has unbelievable work ethic. i cannot imagine have a stiff, non-dancer’s body (pre-debut) shape itself into the Dancing Machine it is now. there are people who are born to dance, have movement sewn into their bones, but namjoon wasn’t given all of that and yet he continued to work until he found his own rhythm. 

YES he is tall, and YES that means he has to move his body faster than everyone else in order to stay on the music, and YES that means when the group cleans a piece he has to bend lower than the others just to be on their same level – a task that can build exhaustion when it’s done over and over the course of a song – but YES he manages to pull it off EVERY TIME. 

i cannot believe the amount of growth i’ve seen from him in all different styles. i could never imagine the hard hitting NMD dancer being able to do spring day or, an even better example, FAKE LOVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is light in the chorus section (so less resistance compared to JM or JK) but then he contrasts that immediately after w bound-flow, showing innate understanding that dance cannot all be one energy level; you need to have contrast in order to give impact to important parts & keep the audience engaged. otherwise if U attack a piece w the same energy the whole time, it will actually end up looking flat and boring, like all the movements are the same since they will read the same way to the crowd 

hoseok

i cannot cannot cannot talk about hoseok enough. for me his greatest strength is his performance quality. ignoring everything else he does so well, i’m gonna cut straight to the chase and say he’s the best dance performer in bts. when he dances – between rehearsal and the stage – there is a clear difference; he’s engaged in both, but there’s a level of freedom that he allows himself which demonstrates his connection to the audience. 

he’s very focused on what he looks like in the mirror during practice, but like all great performers, he throws the mindset of “fix technique fix technique fix technique” away once there is an audience and actively invites them to join in on his joy. he has pure passion in his heart for his craft, and it’s never been more clear. the love he has for his art is breathtaking. his fearlessness in switching styles; he’s an absolute chameleon. from spring day to NMD to seo taiji, i’ve never seen him falter before, and all topped off w the most electric connection to the crowd 

like WOW is that breathtaking. being confident in choreography is one thing, but going above and beyond by pushing himself to be in performance mode (a whole beast and a half on its own) as much as possible requires more space within himself that i’m lacking from the other members. YES he is an idol, and he is very aware of this business of tricks, but he never forgets that dance speaks it own language, that it has its own rules, that it possesses his body and governs his movements the minute he sets foot on that stage. i can’t even explain the sheer talent thats in him when it comes to this aspect 

jimin

oh jimin TT his greatest strength is style. i know i talk a lot about how he doesn’t let go enough of it to really excel in all sorts of genres, but what he’s built from a background in classical-esque styles is incredibly admirable. i’m not sure i would be able to do what he did, coming off of 14 yrs of ballet and not much else. to establish himself pre-debut/debut as a member of dance line in a COMPLETELY different style is so unbelievable to me. he knows his body and he knows how to push his body to get the results he wants

i mean . obviously bts are overworking themselves but to have the mental strength to push thru and continuously crank out all these different pieces w a touch that’s uniquely Jimin™ is smth you can’t deny !!! homeboy knows what lines look good on him, and he adapts the choreography to best suit his body 

he also is a great camera fiend. this is more of an industry dancer situation (since great dancers ≠ industry dancers) where his idol status comes into play, but there is a good reason why his fancams get so many views on music shows ! he knows what the camera wants ! he knows how to be sexy ! he knows how to change his image ! he knows how to work with what he’s given and make a whole new meal out of that and its just ! wow ! fuckn yum ! 

taehyung

ok so let’s talk tae’s upper body. let’s talk . tae’s upper body .

he has such control and awareness over his movements, especially his body rolls. he knows how to make his torso fluid, which is something a lot of the members actively struggle with today. he has such ?? nuanced articulation thru his chest that is typically absent from male dancers , so it’s always a treat to watch him perform 

additionally he has great confidence and performance aura. as u can tell from singularity or stigma stages, he also (like jimin) knows how to work a camera well. but this also translates to his dancing. while he can’t catch all the footwork that others may, he understands that facials and his upper body will make up for the deficit. 

i’ve said this before but if you want to see how good of a technician a dancer is, you look at their legs and feet. if you want to see how good of a performer they are, you look at their upper body (arms too) . he knows how to make an impact w the way he moves & it’s so clear in the division of his energy thru his body (more towards his chest since) so ! 

jungkook

for me JK’s strength is how solid he is as a dancer. while he doesn’t excel at a particular style or have a Thing™ which sets him apart from the group, he does exactly what he’s given and he does it well. he works hard. he’s undeniably clean. there’s never a moment where his limbs are flopping around for no reason, and his energy is always portioned exactly where it needs to be. this innate cleanness and confidence in his ability is what allows him to move quickly and look like it’s not costing him much energy 

he also has incredible stamina TT i can’t even begin to explain ???begin????him singing it live???WITH THAT FOOTWORK?????? god 

his footwork is so strong. i would argue the strongest in bts ... the speed and the sharpness of what i’ve seen him do . while singing. is unbelievable. he is able to keep his wits about himself when the choreography is fast shows just how relaxed he is when he dances. he doesn’t feel the need to rush because he knows he’s just . gonna do everything right LOL (at least that’s the impression i’m getting)

again it’s just so hard to say what his tru strength it without seeing him in rehearsal. this is becoz the level of dancing ability in bts is so high already TT so the basis of my comments are a little redundant since i’m comparing members to members instead of members to regular people lmaoo

[rigelmejo]

i found the little prince on the same site i found xiao mao stories on, so that’s great. i can now look up words by clicking them. so of course i did what i tend to do - and i reread chapters 1-3 actually looking up all the unknown words. It can’t hurt as review I suppose? And I comprehend things a lot more clearly the second time reading through. 

...although I know I am... defeating the point of extensive reading if I’m... intensive reading lol. Although... eventually the two things merge when you don’t have to look many words up? ;-; maybe?

anyway in a few days I’m gonna do my goals met post or whatever and. All I know is WHATEVER my study plan was? It ended up becoming lots of extensive reading (chinese), audio (chinese, french), flashcards (japanese). Also some miscellaneous writing (chinese), and writing/grammar reading (japanese)... but to be fair it was not very much.

 I also got so much done I’m really proud of myself tbh. Like. For japanese I got 318 grammar flashcards done, 430 vocabulary flaschards done. To me that is a big deal because once I passed 300 grammar cards, 100 vocabulary cards, I officially had reviewed all of the japanese I had studied years ago and moved onto completely new material for me. That just blows my mind. I reviewed roughly what I used to know in like 2 months maybe? And now I’m learning genuinely mostly new material which is so cool to me. Also I know that years ago I started reading manga and playing video games Before I covered this much studying, so at this point I am more prepared than I was last time I did it. For whenever I choose to do it again. 

The main thing that I think was not a success was listening reading method. I want to do it so bad, I like it in concept, I need listening comprehension improvements, and I like reading! But genuinely the fact I have to stay on the task for long durations of time is just so freaking hard for me. I have been able to do it in 20 minute bursts, but I still overall NEED like 1 hour a day along with the ‘breaks in between’ if I want to finish at a decent stopping point I can start from again later. It is really hard to do if I have anything else significant planned for the day. Maybe I will try it one weekend day or one day off. I realize now why the person who initially explained the idea tended to do listening reading for 8-10 hours a day for a week to a month. It is MUCH easier to do if you can do it for long periods of time - if for no other reason than KEEPING PLACE in text is so much easier if you DONT have to leave the text regularly. And then also, so much of its learning method involves repetition of common word usage of the book, so lots of consistent regular input of the words (like doing it a week to month straight) will provide more regular review of words than doing it one hour every week. 

I want to try this method so badly, and I think it would help my chinese a lot at any level (since I still have a long way to go before I have a “natural listening” ability of material of that complexity), or my french (because I know a lot reading wise I just need to turn that into listening comprehension). I have had some success doing step 2 of the listening reading method - and I know its simply because when text matches the audio it is so much EASIER to stop doing it, return later, and easily find your place to continue from. However, the issue with step 2 is - while it allows me to improve listening comprehension of words I know, it does not allow me to pick up new words as easily. And genuinely I DO think step 3 helps more with listening comprehension - because you have to rely so much on listening comprehension ALONE to follow where you are in the text (its also why that step feels so intense and is so hard to keep your place in). 

So anyway. Step 2 has been quite easy, and I have actually managed to do it a bit this month. But step 3 is just. So difficult for me to get myself to do. For Francais Par Le Methode Nature, now that audio exists I’m basically listening to that and then also reading along with the text when I miss a word (which is more just comprehensible input with a transcript?). With MoDu, I listening to the audio while reading the chinese and glancing at the english for some key definitions (I don’t feel it challenged me to practice listening very much though). With the little prince, I played chinese audio and followed along to the text (mostly to match sound to new words I picked up when I read beforehand). With the xiao mao smiling cat story, I also played audio after I read it, to match audio up with new words I’d picked up - that time by listening then glancing at the text when I didn’t recognize a word when listening. So yeah like, I have been doing variations on step 2 sort of, so I suppose I’ll see if it produces any significant benefits for reading or listening. I also listened to tianyake audiodrama yesterday without looking at the subs and that was cool because it was a test of my actual listening comprehension a little (except easier to follow since I know the story).

I also think doing L R with a parallel text is much easier - again, because you can easily keep track of where you are in the audio so for people like me who NEED 10 minute breaks constantly it makes the activity much easier. I am using a parallel text for MoDu now and I think that’s why I was able to do about an hour and 30 minutes this week. I was doing sort of step 2 (so it was easier), and I had a parallel text so I didn’t get confused.

other notes?

In a way I’m glad I studied primarily simplified chinese, because it kind of helps me keep japanese more firmly ‘separate’ in my head. Some japanese kanji look like the simplified, many look like the traditional hanzi, and some I think may be simplified in a different manner. Japanese kanji do not mean exactly the same thing usually, and their multiple pronunciations can get confusing for me. So when the kanji looks different from the hanzi - i recognize traditional hanzi somewhat, so I can usually still recognize them and their meaning, but I don’t immediately think of them when I’m writing/typing/reading chinese unless I’m on a traditional text website/novel/show. So when I see the more traditional looking kanji, I can usually recognize them if its a familiar character, but my brain doesn’t so automatically jump to its chinese pronunciation. Which kind of helps me to keep my japanese pronunciations Separated from my chinese ones. Right now some of the hardest words for me to remember the pronunciation of are when the kanji are the same as a chinese simplified word (全然， 全部，方向). They’re easy to remember the definition of, but the pronunciations that come to my mind are pretty much automatically chinese.  

Also the Nukemarine LLJ decks are really helping, there’s a reason I like using them ToT. All the vocabulary is presented individually, then in sentence examples, all with audio. And lots of audio and reading practice so I can practice both. The grammar decks, which go along with Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide, are more challenging but understandable even without referencing tae kim’s grammar guide (which is great cause i’m too lazy right now to read a grammar guide). Mostly though, I just love the improvement I see from it? It’s structured well, so you get a lot of grammar foundation, kanji foundation, vocab foundation, and the different courses reinforce each other. 

I recently opened clozemaster to try the japanese fast track again - every so often my mind wonders if I could learn a significant amount from Clozemaster alone lol and I want to test it. I do genuinely think if you used Clozemaster it would work as well as that old 10k chinese or japanese sentence srs flashcards methods (which did work for people they just sound awful if you hate flashcards like me). Sometimes I use clozemaster as a ‘graded reader substitute’ to bridge the gap in my reading skills so I can push into reading native material easier. I did that for french and it helped a lot then I stopped using it once I could read novels. I did that with chinese and it helped a little. But I read in chinese so much I ultimately study more stuff when I just read so now my actual vocab is ahead of where I am in clozemaster when I try it for chinese lol. So like... usually I read it as an upper-beginner aid to break into reading target language materials that aren’t for learners. 

Well, I love contemplating if I could just learn a language FROM clozemaster sentences primarily as the study method though lol. Well, once I tried testing that with japanese years ago! It was brutal! I was a mid-beginner who’d studied for 1-2 years, and it was brutal! So many unknown kanji, unknown grammar, it was a mess lol! Just barely doable, would not recommend trying as a complete beginner. Well this week I tried to use Clozemaster japanese again - and it went super easy. One unknown word a sentence, or no unknown words and I marked the sentences mastered. The ideal difficulty for using clozemaster to improve, and I did not find the sentence grammar or kanji too intense to figure out. So the Nukemarine LLJ studying is helping a lot. I must have a bigger base of understanding than I did last time I tried clozemaster japanese, just because the activity is so much easier.

and an observation about me? I am super motivated by challenges apparently. Specifically when I hear something’s been done, worked, and then want to test it myself to see if it does. It’s why I was able to study 2k chinese words last year - someone else did those specific words, then started reading, and I wanted to know if I could copy that (it did help, though in retrospect there’s slightly easier ways lol!). 

This month? I read some stuff about how graded readers help with reading speed - now bam I am devouring easier reading materials (I read 53 chapters so far this month, counting shorter graded readers as 1 for ever two chapter chunks). I realize the reading material is much easier for half of this, so its closer to 30 chapters read in terms of length - but that’s still a good amount of reading in a month! And I finished reading 3 books this month! Also I read recently that extensive reading helps with vocabulary, and making future reading easier. So SINCE extensive reading is so much easier with these books more to my level, I’m testing that by reading a LOT lol. And that tip also motivated me to find an ease rating for what I’m reading/plan to read, which I’m sure will help me pick reading material in the future more based on actual needs. Like if I want to intensive read I can pick a ‘harder’ text, if I want to extensive read I can pick an easier rated text closer to my current ‘ease’ level (or a little harder), or if I want to extensive read something hard I can know its hard and read a translation beforehand. Basically just... the info I found about extensive reading really MOTIVATED me into doing it. 

There’s finally audio of Francais Par Le Method Nature, and even that motivated me to listen to multiple chapters to just test if the book works! I know the book works, I’ve read like 200 pages of it before and its basically a huge factor in what helped me move into novels from graded readers in french... its dated but I love the book so much and wish the same technique style textbooks were in more languages. I read the preface yesterday, which is so much easier for me to read now versus when I first read it lol which just shows it helped once. And it covers 3000 words chosen from frequency indexes, introduces everything in french in a manner to help students comprehend the meaning from its context, includes a pronunciation line guide below text (though now that audio exists its so nice to use!). This book’s designed to get a learner able to move onto target language materials for native speakers afterwards, and it SHOWS. I never even completed the book and only read it and it helped so much. I’m finally listening to it now, and in awe of how comprehensible the audio on its own is. Anyway this book’s concept always felt like something I wanted to test and proved if it worked so, if I have time...

Nukemarine’s LLJ i’m pretty good at sticking to, because its structured and has a claim about what I’ll be able to do when I’m toward the end of it - read japanese. The courses used to be called Standard Guide to Japanese Literacy SGJL. They were originally made to help japanese learners push into reading - and a lot of the related immersion tips/activity that go along with the guide also contribute. I imagine it got renamed something more general - Lets Learn Japanese LLJ - either because it wasn’t quite enough for novel reading, or it made more sense to call it something broader. 

I would love to have the motivation to test Listening Reading Method and prove if it works or not and how much ToT. It frustrates me so much I can’t remain focused long enough to do it multiple hours a day (whereas shows and books I can, since I can take breaks easily between moments). I already tested several hours doing it (specifically step 3), and I can confirm it at least improves listening comprehension of what you already partly-know. The little L R i have been able to do, boosted my listening comprehension of shows/audiobooks/audio dramas NOTICEABLY within a few hours of doing it, and with every few more hours I do it. So as a upper-beginner/low-intermediate learner (?) L R step 3 helps a lot with dragging listening skill up to match reading skill. And it doesn’t take much to see benefits. But I haven’t done L R enough to test how much totally new material you can learn from doing it - I’ve done enough to pick up a few words and phrases, but most of the benefit was half-learned words becoming more fully learned and instantly recognized in listening instead of requiring me to pause and think and get lost. 

[medium-difficulty-blog]

Why Ludwig Wittgenstein would love Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 is the first game I ever played, so I suppose it is a fitting subject for my first post.  Despite having a visual aesthetic which has aged like store-bought strawberries, it remains one of my favorite games of all time because to this day, there is still much we can learn from it, and many games continue to do so.  I have a lot to say about this game, but I think what I’d like to talk most about is how and why it was so successful in making the shift to 3D and how it made its intricate control scheme so approachable.

Whenever a new technology goes mainstream in the game industry, there is a honeymoon period in which developers experiment with a wide variety of new ideas, learning what works and what doesn’t.  We saw it with touch screens, we saw it with motion controls and now we are seeing it with VR.  In the case of Super Mario 64, as a launch title for the Nintendo 64, it carried the monumental task of introducing a generation of gamers to polygonal 3D and analog controls.  If you are curious about how successful it was, you need only look at the controls and camera of every game with a third-person camera that has come out ever since because the pedigree of Mario 64′s formula is still going strong.  So how was Nintendo able to completely overhaul the design of their most popular franchise to date and completely nail it the first time?

Why 3D?

Let’s start by delving into the challenges of 3D game design compared to those of 2D game design.  One of the primary benefits of 2D game design is that the player’s options are much more limited, meaning player behavior is much more predictable.  I won’t bore you with yet another thorough Mario 1-1 deconstruction, but the opening to the original Super Mario Bros. is a quintessential example of using a player’s limited range of options to teach them the game’s mechanics.  The player can’t progress without learning to jump over the goomba.  With such a limited set of abilities and options, it is easy for the designer to know what the player knows at any given time, opening the game up to be more focused and more physically challenging.  This is why so many early games got away with being so hard.

As for 3D game design, the foremost benefit is that humans intuitively think in 3D because we live in it. Even 2D games make some concessions to fit a 3D mindset, such as implicitly being able to jump on top of a platform that is drawn behind the player’s sprite.  In 3D, you don’t have to teach a player that they will land on an object that’s directly below their character or that they won’t land on something that’s in the distance.  That’s just how our world works, so why wouldn’t we expect the same for this fake one?  The challenge with 3D, or at least Mario 64’s idea of it, is less one of the player’s intuition than one of the player’s information.  Once you give the player control over their field of view, you lose the ability to know what they are seeing and where they are going at any given time.  In 3D game design, teaching the player where to go becomes harder than teaching them how to get there.  That doesn’t even cover the new complexities that arise for the controls and spatial recognition.  How does the player control the camera and movement at the same time?  How can one judge distance without depth perception? And when all is said and done, this doesn’t even address the most important problem, which is the problem of engagement.  Why is this fun?  Why bother making a game in 3D if it has nothing to add beyond complications for the player and designer?    

To understand Nintendo’s answer to this question, simply compare the opening of Super Mario Bros. to the opening Super Mario 64.  The former is a funnel of challenges while the latter is a playground of options.  Off the bat, Mario 64 has no enemies, no bottomless pits, no time limits.  Just a big, wide open space.  Once the controls are handed to the player, this is the first screen they see:

In the opening, the player is instructed to head for the castle, which is visible directly in front of the player.  So right away the player has an idea of what their objective is.  But wait- the castle is obscured by the hill, yet the path seems to open up to the left.  Perhaps I should go that way?  Can I climb that tree?  What happens if I jump in that waterfall?

Rather than trying to solve or work around the challenges of 3D game design, Mario 64 embraces them as the foundation of its formula.  Rather than trying to make it work as a test of reflexes like its predecessors, Nintendo was not afraid to abandon all but the most fundamental characteristics of Mario in order to construct an experience where the player can learn about and engage with the world at their own pace.

Language Games and the Language of Games

In an interview, Shigeru Miyamoto explained that about halfway through the development of Mario 64, the game started to become boring.  Moving around lost that thrill it had in the game’s initial stages.  The cause was a subtle change in Mario’s turning speed, yet it made all the difference in the world to Miyamoto.  This is a phenomenon that is often referred to now as “game feel”, the visceral, qualitative enjoyment that comes from how the game responds, almost as if it were an extension of your own body.

Much of Super Mario 64’s development was focused on this “game feel.” The objective was to make simply moving Mario around the world enjoyable- all else was secondary or contributing to that end.  As an avatar for the player, Mario 64 had a substantially more nuanced catalog of actions than any other game he had appeared in previously.  Compared to his previous signature actions of running and jumping, Mario 64 added backflipping, wall jumping, long jumping, punching, diving, somersaulting and even crawling.

Many of these moves are superfluous, some are useless, but taking away even one makes Mario substantially less interesting to play as.  The brilliance of Mario 64’s control scheme is how holistic it is- how each command further ingrains the rest of the moves.  I’m going to explain this, but first I need to take a very hard ninety-degree turn here, so bear with me.

In discussing semantics, early 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein believed that many fundamental problems with communication arose because people used words in such a way that escape a single definition, becoming dependent on the context they are used to be properly understood.  For instance, it is difficult to find a useful, working definition of “game” which covers both Chess and Duck Duck Goose.  But if the speaker says “the children are playing games in the backyard”, it can be inferred that they are using a definition which encapsulates the latter.

In response, he proposed a theory of semantics where language is constructed as a game which he called, appropriately enough, “language-games.”  In the same way that playing cards take on different meanings when you are playing Poker or Hearts, Wittgenstein argues that words take their meaning from the common set of rules that participants in a conversation are operating on.  When two or more sets of rules are being used, that is when confusion starts to happen.

I believe that the reason Super Mario 64’s control scheme is so easy to internalize is because it treats the underlying mechanics much in the same way Wittgenstein defines a language.  It doesn’t ask the player to see the control scheme as a big predefined dictionary of moves, but rather it allows the moves (i.e. “meaning”) to emerge from how the input associates to the current context.  In other words, while each button has a variety of effects that depend on Mario’s situation, the utility is almost always the same.  There are many different ways to jump in the game, but all of them use the A button.  There are many ways to directly interact with objects and enemies, and all of them use the B button.  Not only does this reinforce the expected outcome of each action, but this means the player does not have to hesitate to press a button. Since they know the limited range of actions associated with it.  For instance, the C buttons and R button are reserved for camera controls, so the player does not have to worry about causing Mario to move if they want to adjust the camera.  On top of that, this mental model creates an intuitive chemistry that new, predictable actions can emerge from.  For instance, since Z makes Mario crouch to the ground and the control stick makes him move, using them together to make Mario crawl is a completely logical outcome. While crawling is rarely useful (and tedious even when it is), the existence of the move adds more meaning to both the Z and the control stick and reinforces their respective purposes in controlling Mario.

The Control Chemistry of Metal Gear Solid

As a contrasting example, let’s look at how this describes a game with a bad control scheme: Metal Gear Solid.  Both games were made in the same time period, yet only one of them can I go back to and immediately pick up and play as if I only just played it yesterday, and I’ll give you a hint: it’s not the one I just spent a dozen paragraphs talking about why it holds up so well.

In all fairness, Metal Gear Solid is a much more complicated game than Super Mario 64, with tactical thinking and inventory management, so the controls are attuned to work in a wider variety of contexts, such as navigating item menus and aiming weapons.  Having multiple interfaces can be useful for crafting a particular experience, but Metal Gear Solid struggles to make them work together intuitively.

For instance, holding the L1 and R1 buttons allows the player to scroll through their weapons and inventory respectively.  Unless they are in first person mode, in which case they let the player lean to the left or to the right.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t find First Person + Check Inventory = Step to the Right to slips into my brain quite as easily as Slide + Jump = Long Jump.  If I forget this little exception, Snake responds in a way that I don’t expect. When it comes to judging games on “game feel”, the character not responding to my input is bad enough, but doing something completely different from my immediate expectations is major points off.

That’s a small example, but even the general behavior of the game when switching between these control modes is very unsatisfying and undercuts the flow of play.  The game pauses when the player scrolls through their inventory.  Additionally, the third person camera is at a fixed angle while the first-person view is not, so switching between them can be very disorienting, as the player may forget which direction Snake is looking in.

I think most of these control issues stem from the fact that Metal Gear Solid’s creators weren’t so bold to do what Mario 64 did which was rework the design of its predecessor from the ground up to accommodate a new dimension.  The camera angle, menu design, movement controls and core mechanics come straight from the original Metal Gear games, but new features which benefit from the 3D environment such as the first-person mode appear to be design afterthoughts.  I would propose a better control scheme to illustrate how it could have been better, but I think Metal Gear Solid V already offers a much more actualized interpretation of Metal Gear Solid 1’s design.  By favoring experimentation and exploration over challenge, it is better adapted to the advantages and disadvantages of 3D game design.   Allowing the player to sort their favorite weapons and gadgets on a quick access wheel solves the flow-breaking menus.  Keeping the camera facing the same direction when entering the first person-view makes examining one’s surroundings much cleaner.  And above all, even despite the vast array of options, the interplay of the game’s mechanics has a much more meaningful chemistry.  For instance, Metal Gear Solid V adds the ability to stand up, move freely and even dive in your cardboard box.  It’s about as useful as Mario’s crawl in the grand scheme of things, but it adds greatly to the experience.  It makes the controls seem more responsive since they can be extrapolated into a larger set of contexts, and it makes the cardboard box more interesting because it gives the player an opportunity to experiment with more choices and actions. In other words, it extends the language of the game.

Conclusion

I think one of the measures of a great game is how fun it is to play when you aren’t actually trying to achieve anything.  While more recent games have improved on Super Mario 64’s design and controls, the fact that anyone can pick up and learn how to navigate the game world even if they haven’t played a game in their life makes it a timeless experience.

You could argue that there are some exceptions where unintuitive controls can benefit a game, like when the underlying challenge of the game is master them, like Octodad or QWOP, but in general, it helps to look at your game’s controls like a language for interfacing with it.  When presented with a large space of options, humans tend to think more abstractly than concretely, so the best interfaces are ones that are modular enough to work in an expected way in any feasible situation.  “Jump” or “Shoot” doesn’t always mean the exact same thing inside the game, but in the player’s head that makes little difference.  Ideally, a controller should feel like an organic extension of the body, creating as little friction as possible between the player and what they want to do in the game world.