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little-peril-stories · 2 years ago

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Hi, Kate! I have a TQOL/TPOT back-to-school ask for you today! We know Will was far from the best student, but we also know there are many different types of intelligence (visual, spatial, logical, interpersonal, etc.) So which one would be Will's? And going off that, what would be Breanna/Bree's? How do they complement each other? (Bonus question: Is there anything Will actually enjoyed about school? Other than leaving? 😅)

You are so sweet it hurts. 💕 How'd you manage to time this ask to arrive in my inbox on my first full day of classes with all my students?! Thank you so much for sending this!!

Also, what a lovely question! I will be talking about multiple intelligences with my one class probably next week. 😂 I'm using Howard Gardner's theory to answer. :) tl;dr above the read more, rambling below.

Will - bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal

*Bree/Breanna - linguistic-verbal, intrapersonal, *bodily-kinesthetic

Where do Will's strengths lie? Probably largely in the bodily-kinesthetic area. I suspect he, especially as a kid, was maybe a bit clumsy, but that probably had more to do with being reckless rather than actual clumsiness. I think he would also score high in naturalistic intelligence. He's a pretty outdoorsy guy and it kills him to be locked up inside all the time. 😭 I would also (bear with me, it sounds crazy because he can be such a pain in the ass) that he is actually relatively high in interpersonal intelligence, but he just doesn't use it the right way. He's great at reading people, but instead of using it to, idk, help them like a counsellor or teacher would, he (sometimes….often….) uses it to piss them off.

And Bree/Breanna! She scores well in linguistic-verbal intelligence, although she clearly prefers the written word (I'm thinking of Bree's letter, Breanna's interest in joining the literary society) to the spoken one (WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO TALK TO THIS GUY AFTER A YEAR FUCK THAT I'M RUNNING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION). I'm giving her some points for intrapersonal intelligence, since Bree is usually pretty in touch with her feelings - whether she acknowledges or acts upon them, though, is another story. And, for Bree C. particularly, I think we can argue that there's some bodily-kinesthetic intelligence there (I'm thinking of her becoming so proficient at pickpocketing, etc. in such a short time), although perhaps not to the extent of Will's. I also think she would score okay in interpersonal intelligence, if not extremely high.

How do they complement one another? Other than a lifetime of her teaching him words he doesn't understand? 😅 Okay, I'm kidding...sort of. I really do love the idea of (...when life has calmed down and they can just live and be and enjoy being together) the two of them constantly learning from each other. (gross I'm such a teacher lol.) She teaches him a word; he knows all the best spots to go for a walk to hear the birds and feel the breeze. He can teach her all the IA tricks he's got up his sleeve, and over time, at least with her, he becomes better at recognizing his emotions, too.

I absolutely have this very silly moment living in my brain with him and Breanna H., where they're just outside somewhere and he shows her how to get a bird to eat out of her hand or something, a thing she's never done before, and it's just so goofy and cute and pointless and it so doesn't fit anywhere but it lives in my noggin regardless. 💕

In school, Will enjoyed: the walk there and back, lunch and recess, and finding creative ways to piss off the schoolmaster/schoolmarm. I actually love the idea of Little Will having a teacher he legitimately liked at some point in his life who was so determined to get him to do well and to actually try and care about his learning... Whether or not they succeeded, well, idk, you decide.

Oh! One of the resources I read about 1800s schooling mentioned the pupils doing jobs in the schoolhouse. Will hates chores, cleaning, etc., but one of the job was bringing in firewood. He probably didn't mind that one. 😅 It gets you outside for a bit and bonus if you can find a bug to sneak onto someone's desk...

#clairelsonao3 #lps the prince of thieves #lps the queen of lies #just because asks #you're the best <3 #I totally didn't skim a scholarly article trying to find specifics about nineteenth century school days just to answer this ask

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notsve2 · 1 year ago

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The Secret Garden - December 2nd 2023

The Secret Garden is a musical based on the book of the same name published in 1911, although with some creative liberties. It follows Mary Lennox, who moves in with her Uncle Archibald Craven due to her parent's death from a Cholera outbreak in India. Archibald has built a garden for Lily, Mary’s Maternal Aunt, before she died in childbirth. Mary is determined to enter the “secret garden” with Colin, Lily’s ill child, Dickon, and Martha. I found the show a little hard to follow, with unclear objectives for the characters and conflicts left unresolved. However, I loved the costume and lighting design, they gave a good visual cue on what would come up later in the show and some insight into the characters in the opening scene(s). Overall it was an enjoyable experience but one that left me very unsatisfied and with lots of questions.

I usually refrain from discussing the writing of a show too much because I am not as educated on that aspect as much as others like acting and design choices, but it was a pretty evident hindrance to this show.. I do not believe the writing of this show is bad, but I think it had an opportunity to expand on the relationships and goals of characters that it did not take. For example, the song “Lily’s Eyes” reveals to us that not just Archibald, but his brother Neville Craven was also in love with Lily. But this conflict, even though it is presented with such extravagance, is never brought up again. However, I understand that often times musicals are limited in dialogue. I wish I had the time and resources to better understand these decisions, but these are the observations I made as an audience member. Opposite to writing, one thing I almost always touch upon are the technical and design aspects of the show. I really loved a point in act 2, when Archibald is reading Mary’s letter. Although dilogue states that he is in paris, the stage was bare. It then leads into “How could I ever know” a duet between Archibald and Lily’s ghost. On top of being an emotional scene, I really loved how Archibald’s grounded costume and Lily’s ghostly one looked in this ‘void’ of blacks and blues. It really helped communicate that while we are seeing her ghost, she isn’t truly there and that this is Archibald coming to terms with the fact that lily’s death was not his fault. Many of the scenes regarding the spirits made for some beautiful scenes. The spirits were dressed in whites, creams, and light blues, while those alive were dressed in more neutral colors that blended in better with the world. Therefore when they were in scenes together, it effectivly showed that they weren’t just flashbacks, but memories these characters were currently experiencing. Little details like these made for the most memrical moments in the whole production, and really deepend the relationships between characters, especially the Cravens.

The spatial relationships of the actors throughout the show were utilized very well. Even when all actors were on stage, all of them could be seen and were utilized. They also used shape, sometimes the spirits would circle another actor in a stressful scene, or clump together. I couldn’t help but notice the ghosts acted in their own ensemble inside the larger one, and I found that really neat. I have mentioned the spirits a lot but they truly made some fantastic creative decisions with them.

This blog is pretty bad.. honestly, I was trying my hardest to find things to talk about. In the end, this show was simply mediocre. The production itself was beautiful but any story it might’ve had is rushed and forgettable.

#the secret garden #the secret garden musical #musicals #musical theatre #secret garden #this is so bad

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laylaglobalproject · 1 year ago

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Week 7

W/C Monday 22nd April

This week we continued with the checklist and getting things done, so that they can be uploaded to the Figma and on to the final presentation. I noticed on the figma that one of the students had replied with a few visuals. Some we had seen previously, like the outfit ideas for the avatars, but more recently about the logo of the 'school'. They had made these logo designs in response to my post with the potential names for the school and logo suggestion. She had also responded to the suggested names that I came up with and said she liked the play on word name 'Birmyiv'. We hadn't yet had much feedback on the name, however, it was a small task that we had on the checklist and so we decided on the name 'Birmyiv'. It's always nice when we get creative responses from the other students. It is not only helpful but reassuring to know that we are really collaborating. We also had a few more visuals sent via the telegram. One of the students had created rough drafts of animated cut scenes between the game. We chose to have the avatars taken into the game via a 'train', as Birmingham is renowned for it's "New Street Station", and Kyiv's metro system is one of the 'oldest in Europe'. We sent more visuals, as Eileen (one of the students we were collaborating with) was keen to see the kinds of art styles we had used so far. We sent across some of our visuals for inspiration and for her to use.

This week we were also introduced to spatial. This was an online platform that we were told we could upload our work. It appeared like an online gallery with different portals in which each group would upload their own work. We were first show it by Katerina on the big screen. She uploaded the link to the figma and so we all joined in the communal space as randomised avatars. We could then each make an account so that we could each upload work and use the platform properly. This allowed us then to create our portals and assess the look of our individual portal. The spaces inside were all quite large with allocated places for the work to be uploaded. After we had the introduction we all checked that it was working on our devices, and set up our portal. Me and Niamh began to discuss the kind of things we thought would be important to include, we considered the following:

Profiles of us (get to know the group)

Inspiration images

Concept art

Final designs

Video of the game world

Link to the finished game

This week we also had the last essay session with Fred. In this session I brought the rough draft that I had so far so that he could read and assess it as well as prompt me for any questions that I had for him. Upon reflection I discovered that one of my paragraphs had combined the sections quite frequently. I thought that to keep them separate made more sense as then I could be more thorough about the individual topics. It was often the audience and the socio geographic challenges that I confused. Though the challenges obviously impact the audience so it is relevant, we agreed it'd be better to first discuss the audience and then the challenges. By combining the two sections I realised I had left out key information about the audience. I had forgotten to address their wants and needs from the project. This was key and something that I had previously not mentioned and so it was important that I really made sure it was included. It also helped with a lot of my referencing. Over the past two in this course I have really discovered the need understand your audience and consider them when designing. It really resonated with me when discovering "Mathieu Lehanneur: Tomorrow is Another Day" this completely compassionate piece shows such a respectful and sympathetic approach to design. I really liked this notion of compassionate design, and I feel as though this mindset is that of someone who design to make a difference. Even if that difference is simply making a persons day a little bit better. This then reminded me of Rawsthorn's words when she quotes Nagy and 'his belief in design's power to build a better world.'. I think it is this kind of concept that I have really faced and learned over the past two years.

I continued to re read and go over some of the Rawsthorn texts that we had read throughout the project. I thought that this kind of concept would be most appropriate to reference in this particular, and a sympathetic gaze was needed from the beginning of this project due to the current affairs in Ukraine. I then started to annotate the texts just pulling out some of the quotes that I particularly relate to, and ones that I think compliment what I have to say in the essay. I compiled a list of a few references so that when continuing with the essay I already had a few references that I could just naturally filter in throughout.

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sturrpz-hme-weekly · 2 years ago

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Mid Semester Break

I went back to my home country to visit my family, so I didn’t get much done.

I worked on 2 Pharos projects and managed to read a bit.

Also I decided that it would be best to stop working on music, because it’s too time-consuming and I need to work on other stuff too.

Reconnecting with darkness: gloomy landscapes, lightless places – Tim Edensor

My summary of the article:

The paper challenges the prevailing negative perception of darkness and highlights the potential for positive valuing of darkness through historical and cultural perspectives.

It emphasizes the importance of alternative modes of visual perception and the emergence of non-visual apprehensions in gloomy spaces.

The study of gloomy landscapes and dark environments reveals the potential for darkness to foster progressive forms of conviviality, communication, and imagination.

The paper highlights how the sensing of space is culturally shaped by the prioritizing of specific modes of apprehension and the values associated with specific sensations.

It raises awareness about the impact of illumination on space and the need to critically examine the values and assumptions underlying the spread of illumination.

Overall, the paper concludes that darkness can have positive effects and affects, challenging the negative perception of darkness and highlighting its potential for alternative modes of perception and spatial experiences. It calls for a reevaluation of our relationship with darkness and a reconsideration of the cultural shaping of space and sensory experiences.

My thoughts

Throughout human history, fear of the unknown has always been present. It is understandable why darkness is often referred to as something evil or negative. In fact, this reminds me of when I was in middle school, I would run to my room as fast as possible after I turned off the lights because I was afraid something would be lurking in the dark, chasing me as soon as the lights went out. I never figured out where my fear of darkness stemmed from. I just knew that ever since I gained consciousness, there had always been a sense of wary against the dark, and that fear only got fuelled by the stories told on TV or adults. “Don’t go out after dark”, or something like that.

Despite that, darkness brings a sense of value, richness, calmness and tranquillity that light could never provide. To me, the best time of the day is midnight, when everything goes quiet and I have time to focus on myself, listening to music and appreciating the glimmers of light of the city or the stars on the sky.

I just visited an exhibition called Acmi, located opposite Flinders Station. Despite the exhibition being mostly engulfed in darkness, the room that stood out the most for me was the darkest one, with little lights spread across it. When I put my hand under the light, a short movie played. I’m not sure why it stuck out to me so much, but that experience helped me realise how much darkness supports light. Without darkness, no one would appreciate the light. Without darkness, the light feels hollow.

When you get blindfolded, you rely on the senses of your ears and nose to process what is going on around you. When our eyes are swallowed by the dark, not only our senses become more sensitive and perceptive, but also our mind. Darkness gives us the opportunity to connect with things around us in a more elevated and personal manner, and in embracing darkness, we discover more light in our darkness than we ever thought possible.

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saswathacademyworld · 2 years ago

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Are Chess GMs smart people?

Do Grandmasters really have 220 IQ? Or are they normal people like you and me, who just got better through practice? Scientists have been doing research on this for years, and on the internet you’ll find articles telling you how chess makes you smart. This article though, will be different.

Here, I’ll share some unheard stories of famous chess personalities. And along with that, share how playing chess sharpens your mind. In my opinion, the 7th point on the list is perhaps why chess players are a little more smarter than the average person.

Hint – It’s not because they have better memory or better focus. It’s something that you wouldn’t expect from a chess player.

What’s that? Keep reading and you’ll find out!

1. Better memory

Recently, I was watching a stream where Garry Kasparov was invited to show his best game. He showed some truly fascinating lines, like one would expect of him.

But what surprised me was his ability to remember novelties he prepared during his prime and the incident behind them!

In one such story, he explained how he had prepared a strong idea against Karpov, but had to play it against Vassily Ivanchuk. And when he showed the position, he was able to recollect where the pieces go, how the attack continues even after 20+ years!

Also have you heard about Magnus Carlsen’s famous story? Legend has it that he could name the capital of every country by the time he was 6 years old! And this is just one of his small feats!

Most chess players have a good memory. They remember things which are important to them! Maybe not as well as Kasparov or Magnus, but better than your average person next door.

2. Better spatial ability

Research done on Samuel Reshvesky, one of the top chess prodigies in the 1940s revealed Reshvesky’s remarkable spatial ability. You might wonder what it is in the first place? It’s simply the ability to understand space between two objects. For chess players, a well developed spatial recognition ability helps them visualize better. You can ‘see’ the pieces in your mind well without moving them.

And since most coaches ask their students to solve chess puzzles, this skill gets strengthened more and more!

Note: If you’re looking for an experienced chess coach who’ll ask you to solve tactics, get in touch with us.

3. The Tale of 3 World Champions who were great at maths

There are 3 world champions who were also mathematicians. They were – Mikhail Botvinnik, Max Euwe and Emmanuel Lasker. Now this doesn’t mean that because of chess, they were better mathematicians or vice-versa. But definitely, there has to be some correlation.

See, chess players spend so much time calculating the lines – “Like this piece goes here, that goes there, and if I take 2 of his men, he takes 1 one mine, what am I left at in the end?” Asking such questions over and over during the game is going to improve the mathematical ability of players. Maybe not in the most effective fashion, but it certainly does the trick.

4. Improved focus

Yeah, this one has to be there on the list. It’s no secret that chess requires concentration. When you see Grandmasters play, you’ll see how quiet and focussed they are.

This same skill helps them in their studies. It makes them more focussed and helps them stay on track! I wouldn’t convince you on this one because this is probably the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of chess.

At Saswath Academy and Mind mentorz,

“It is about offering ample opportunities for the kids to explore, grow and perfect the art of playing chess”, says Praveen Sagar. “For the budding chess players, it is important to strengthen the skills and have the right perception about the broader canvas of chess before plunging into competitions. We help them approach the game from different angles and challenge their skills at various levels through competitions.”

Praveen Sagar, Coach, Mentor at Mind mentorz and Saswath Academy

5. Chess players are curious

Chess is a game of unlimited possibilities. Even after it’s existence for so many centuries, no one has solved the game. There are endless possibilities that still need to be explored. All of this makes one very curious.

When you apply the same mindset to academics, it makes you thirsty for more knowledge in the subject of your liking.

Many strong players follow other sports and have other interests. One such example that comes to mind is Vishwanathan Anand. He has an interest in astronomy, poker which are outside the realm of chess.

6. Chess players can sometimes read minds

Our coaches often teach the concept of prophylaxis — where you understand what your opponent wants to do, and make a move to anticipate that. And in chess, the skill to read your opponent’s mind is gold.

So, I know when you clicked on this article, you probably wanted to hear something apart from chess improves IQ, makes you a strategic thinker and all the vague terms which just add fluff. How did I do it?

Because I was using prophylaxis!

Moving on, as I promised, the 7th point is in my opinion the secret sauce which makes chess players smart.

7. Gritty Grandmasters

Most people will be surprised by this. But Grandmasters show a lot of grit and fight during difficult moments. Today, chess has become a sport. So a chess player requires all the mental skills that a track and field athlete possesses. When you fight in chess, people don’t see it. That’s because you get neither bruises nor sweat. You could look as cool as a cucumber even after resisting pressure for 6 hours!

Think Karpov, or Sergey Karjakin.

But to put that kind of a resistance, you need to have the mindset of a hardened warrior!

And this is what helps chess players tremendously in their academies.

If they don’t find a solution to a problem, they won’t give up. They’ll ask for help and they will find a way!

If they know they have to complete their homework after finishing a tiring tournament, they’ll do it.

They know how to fight peacefully, they know what mental perseverance looks like. So they know how to stick around when things get tough.

It’s this grit which makes the most difference.

Conclusion

Learning to play chess at an early age can definitely be one the best investments you can make in your child’s future. If they play well, they get to meet new people, travel the world and do everything that most people could only dream of!

If not, it’ll always benefit them tremendously in their studies and life, years down the line. It’s a win-win!

Fill out the form here and book your first demo class, and let’s kick off your child’s chess journey!

#chessclasses #chess #chessclassesforkids #onlinelearning #chessgame #chessboard #chess club #onlinechess #onlineeducation #chessonline

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twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years ago

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11x02: Acheron, Part 2 - Analysis

Okay, let’s talk 11x02. And 11x01. Because it’s a two-part episode, it’s important to consider them together. I have a LOT to say about what’s going on in these two episodes, so I’ll have plenty to post all week. Let’s dive in!

***As always, spoilers abound below for TWD 11x02. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Maggie

The first thing we see is a point of view from under the train car. The instant I saw that, I knew how things would go. I never thought Maggie would die (if nothing else, there are scenes with her in the trailer we haven’t seen yet) but I was curious as to how she would survive. When I saw this POV, I knew she’d end up crawling under the train. Just as Glenn crawled under the dumpster. Massive parallels to Glenn. Which by extension, massive parallels to Beth. Major resurrection theme.

It's also important that when she reappears, she comes from underneath the car. Obviously, that’s logical given that she crawled underneath the car, but they make a point of asking if the pounding is coming from the roof. Gabriel says no and then they open the bottom hatch for her. Her coming up from the ground like that is a visual representation of a resurrection.

So we see Gabriel, Negan and the others enter the train car. The spatial details here are important, and I had to watch the episode twice to get them all straight. It’s a little confusing the first time. So, the group jumps down into the train car through a hatch in the roof because they couldn’t get the door open in the last episode. The thing is, if you watch closely, you come to realize they’re not in the train car on the end. They must have walked along the roof for two or three cars before finding a hatch that let them in.

So, when Gauge shows up, he comes behind them, and that confused me because I was thinking they came from that direction. And they did, but they entered through the roof, not the door. Anyway, they can’t get the door open. So honestly, even if they’d tried harder, I’m not sure they could have saved him.

This scene accomplished a lot of things, character-wise, that we need to touch on. It’s important to note that Gauge’s death happened due to his own choices. Does that mean he “deserved” to die or that they shouldn’t have tried to save him if they could have? Of course not. No on both counts. But that doesn’t change the fact that his choices sealed his fate.

It's especially interesting that he called Maggie a Liar. Not only is that a throwback to the Governor, but it’s a particular type of mentality they’re showing here. Even the fact that he didn’t shut the door behind him is really interesting. My first thought was to be annoyed with him. Why WOULDN’T you shut the door. You live in this world. You know better. But it’s all ego. He can’t imagine something bad will happen. He just assumes if it does, someone will save him.

But the most telling thing was how angry he got before saying Liar. It just shows very much how he approaches life. When he messes up, he doesn’t feel bad, and accept that it was his fault, and try to learn from it. No, instead he gets pissed and blames everyone but himself and his own actions.

If this had been Daryl or Gabriel or Alden or any of our other heroes, they would have recognized that opening the door would have gotten their friends and family killed and would have sacrificed themselves. Especially if they realized they’d screwed up. But Gauge became angry and defiant, even killing himself.

Anyway, I’m rambling. This really has nothing to do with Beth or TD other than perhaps being a future template for something. But I thought it was a really fascinating character sketch.

The thing is, this isn’t really a matter of Gauge being wrong and everyone else being right.

Maggie is…not doing so well either. As I told my fellow theorists, Paola Lazaro said in TTD last week that Maggie was kind of off the rails. I think she said that a little prematurely, because we really didn’t understand Maggie’s state of mind just by watching 10x17 and 11x01.

It's not until she tells that messed up story about the house she found and the people in it that we understand that her state of mind really isn’t at its healthiest. Even saying she wanted to kill Negan before is…understandable given their past. But it makes more sense now why Negan is so nervous. He’s sensing her state of mind that her moral conscience isn’t as strong as it once was, so of course he’s fearful for his life.

I don’t know where they’re going with this Maggie story line, but I have a feeling this attitude of hers will cause conflict down the road. Several of my fellow theorists believe it will cause a rift between her and Daryl. And we can see that somewhat through Alden. At first, he was very much defending Maggie, especially against Negan. He has a lot of loyalty to her. But he didn’t like her abandoning Gauge, and you can see his loyalties starting to waver.

At the very least, what she said about not feeling anything about it is the opposite of what Beth always stood for. Daryl was trying hard not to feel things during Still, in the wake of the prison going down. She made him feel things because that’s the only way a person is truly living, rather than just surviving. Now Maggie is in that state of mind.

And I’m gonna argue that makes it a prime time for Beth to return to help her. But of course I’m completely objective over here. ;D

Maggie’s Story:

Maggie’s story was definitely dark and horrible, but interesting to analyze. I’m assuming there was cannibalism going on there. That’s why the missing limbs. The men in the house were eating the female prisoners. No only a callback to Terminus, but remember that Bob’s leg was taken for food, so I’m sure that’s what we’re supposed to infer here.

She talked about no eyes, no tongue, no limbs, vocal cords ripped out. So definitely the see no evil, speak no evil themes. With the limbs, it’s also a matter of not being able to escape or save themselves.

In terms of the plot, I do have one question about this that I think may be significant. Maggie first talks about three deformed people (she says, “I wouldn’t call them men”) coming toward her. She kills them, and only after that hears the noise from the attic.

My question is, why were they deformed? If they’re “men,” then they must be at least Maggie’s age, if not older, which means they’ve been around since before the apocalypse began. Even eating human flesh doesn’t cause one to become deformed, so why the deformities? I have no idea, but I wondered if there is a radiation theme going on here. Something they’re hinting at, but not saying. Just thought that was intriguing.

After that, things go sideways and everyone almost dies until Daryl arrives to save the day. So, let’s skip to his story.

Daryl:

We first see him bust through a wall with Dog. So, dog took off in the last episode, but the first time we see Daryl, he’s already found Dog again. At least, the first time. This is where he sees the murals on the wall, the walker with the handcuff and the suitcase of money, etc. I already talked about most of that in great detail HERE, so I won’t rehash it, though it’s very important.

One thing I will say about the mural is that thematically, it’s a match to Still. So, in the golf club, we had lots of rich people who clearly hid there when the world first went bad. And I don’t remember this particularly, but several of my fellow theorists have told me they remember the TTD after Still and that the writers talked about how the golf club was a statement about the class system. You have these very rich people, but their wealth couldn’t save them. Death, walkers, the apocalypse…none of these things discriminate based on wealth or position.

On the wall, we see people with crowns standing at the top, but below, they are homeless, and one of them is being attacked and torn apart. Meanwhile, Daryl sees a line of text that says, “it comes for us all,” probably meaning death.

Well, guess what? Angela Kang, in talking about the murals, said that this, too, was a statement about the class system. So thematically, this is meant to be a parallel to Still.

It’s just interesting to contemplate because if you think about it, most of our heros—Rick, Daryl, the Greene family, etc—weren’t at all wealthy. Rick was humble and well-grounded. Hershel worked hard his whole life and never had any glory or fanfare. And then there’s Daryl, who was “nothing. No one.” They all survived.

So of course it’s a socioeconomic statement, but it’s also one about mindset. It takes not only grit to survive this world, but a certain amount of humility. Ego always gets you killed eventually, as it did with Gauge.

I’ll also mention that I thought the guy with the crown who was being torn apart was being set upon by walkers, but AK says they’re specifically not walkers. They’re people.

So, it’s not a coincidence that we see this juxtaposed with the Gauge situation. His ego gets him killed and we literally see him being torn apart because of it.

Moving on.

Daryl finds a bag with a $100 bill with a letter written on it. This is a massive TD clue from start to finish. 100 is an important number. The hundred dollar bill features Benjamin Franklin on the front and Independence Hall on the back. Look either of those up and you’ll find lots of fun parallels we could point to. I won’t go into all that today except to say it’s definitely part of the Revolution theme.

This is what’s written on the bill Daryl finds:

“Dear Dad, you always said if you don’t come back in a week to move on. Mom didn’t listen and went looking. It’s been three weeks, so we’re going next. I’ll watch Jesse and turn on the radio every day at 10. See you both soon. Love Tom and Jesse.”

He also finds a picture of two kids. So, the “three weeks” jumps out because of Rick’s line in 5x10, “it’s been three weeks since Atlanta.” It’s also about missing family members, going searching for them, etc. Possibly important that the mom is also missing. I can’t help but think of the song from Still. “Our mother has been absent, every since we founded Rome…”

There is a 10 in there, which is an important number. The turning the radio on every day is both the radio/airwaves theme (also a line from the song) but a callback to Rick and Morgan and their walkie talkies. So, really interesting symbols here.

The two kids immediately reminded me of Noah’s twin brothers. I don’t think these two are supposed to be twins. I’m assuming the brother is older. But still obviously siblings. And it hearkens back to the last episode Beth was technically in. Which also had a lot of the CRM/Revolution theme in it. (X, X).

AK says this family probably didn’t make it, so I’m not expecting these kids to show up in the narrative. But it’s also important to note that the little girl is carrying the toy rabbit Maggie found earlier. So the rabbit also ties into all this symbolism. (P.S. I didn’t get to my rabbit post last week. I planned on it, but time got away from me. I should get it posted later this week.)

So, this is massive in terms of TD symbolism. I’ll talk about it fits into the bigger narrative in a minute.

Then Daryl kills the sleeping bag walker. I wasn’t sure the significance of this at first, but I think it ties to the tents and sleeping bags we saw in Atlanta in 5x06, Consumed. Daryl and Carol passed them while looking for Beth. So, this just shows us that this is tied to her storyline and Daryl searching for her.

You could also argue that the walker was “hidden” at first, and it’s significant that Dog found it/realized it was there before Daryl did.

The other thing is that as he’s looking at the sleeping bag walker, there’s a random shoe on the ground next to it. Missing Shoe/Foot theory, which is also indicative of Beth.

They hear another roaring sound and Dog takes off, running into the dark tunnel.

Here’s the thing. I think most people will assume the roar he heard was just more air being forced through the tunnels by the storm, as Alden explained it in ep 1. But I always watch with the subtitles on and I noticed at this part, the subtitles said, “Man Roaring.” So they actually did hear someone screaming. And that’s probably why Dog ran toward it.

After watching it again, I realized it’s probably supposed to be Roy. He’s the white-haired guy, played by C. Thomas Howell, who Daryl finds wounded after he emerges from the Tunnel. I think whatever happened to him when he went topside but then got attacked by walkers is what Dog heard and went running toward.

Maybe not terribly significant in the plot, but it’s important symbolically. Because once again we have something Daryl hears from a distance but doesn’t see. Dog (a proxy for Beth) runs toward it, and Daryl follows. When he does, he find someone who had previously separated from the group. They’re hurt, but alive. See the parallels?

I will say the Roy situation confuses me just a little. He’s clearly hurt, and when Daryl tries to bandage him, he refuses, saying, “just tell my kids I didn’t die a coward.” But then later he’s with the group, all bandaged up, and seems to be okay. (He dies when they reach the Reapers by taking an arrow to the head, so he still dies overall.) But it’s just weird that it seemed he would die, then seemed he was fine again.

It may well be something that foreshadows a future situation, and that’s why it’s not making tons of sense right now. Only time will tell.

Anyway, I kind of glossed over Daryl crawling through the dark tunnel. I don’t have much else to say about it except that it’s a SUPER potent symbol for Beth’s arc and very important that he emerges on the other side and finds this person. Annnd then goes to save TF. (Dark Tunnel Symbolism).

So, he hears the gunshots and finds the train they’re on. He comes up behind the walkers attacking them from the front, kills them, moves the bench blocking the door, and lets everyone through. Then he uses a grenade to blow up all the walkers. (Ew.)

After that they all get out of the tunnels and go topside. The next scene is also super important. We see the stars above. That’s partly to show that the storm has passed now, but also constellations = Sirius.

Maggie asks what he has and he tells her about it. There is one weird moment in this scene. When she tells them about the supply depot she wants to stop at, she says Georgie (from S8) set it up for emergencies, for people on the outside to use. When it says this, the camera focuses on Daryl for a LONG moment, and he looks almost sad. I’m not sure what they’re trying to tell us there.

Anyway, they all head out. Unfortunately, when they reach the right neighborhood, the Reapers are there to meet/kill them. And Roy is the first to go.

So, a couple of things here. I’ll probably do a details post because I’m leaving out MOST of the background details throughout the episode, and there are a lot of them. Lots of details to be gleaned in this scene.

But the second time I watched it, I was struck by the people hanging upside down. Obviously a grim sight, but it occurred to me that these people hanging this way look a LOT like the deer diagrams from Scars. Let me show you some pictures:

Top pick is 11x02. Middle and bottom one are from Scars.

See what I mean? So, chances are something about Scars foreshadowed the Reapers, which is interesting. They clearly see human beings in a certain way (as animals to be strung up and…perhaps eaten?) And that makes me think that what Maggie found in that house may tie into the Reapers as well. Just kind of interesting foreshadows of coming plots.

Eugene:

Let’s talk Eugene and then I’ll shut up for today. Eugene’s stuff was very intriguing. First thing you need to know. And understand, I didn’t know this. @wdway pointed it out. Some months ago, the actress cast as “Stephanie” was announced. This is her:

And that’s clearly not the woman who steps into the train car at the end. Which means this isn’t really Stephanie. She’s a decoy. In fact, the actress from this episode is billed on IMDb as “woman 2,” not as “Stephanie.”

Knowing that, if you go back and re-watch the parts with Eugene’s group, they mean something very different.

On the surface, it seems that Zeke, Yumiko and Princess are taken away in a sinister fashion. Then Eugene melts down and tells his story. (Note: while he focuses on his feelings for Stephanie and I think most of that is true, he still says he lied both to her and to his friends about being from a large settlement. So, he’s still keeping large chunks of the truth from them.)

Again, on the surface it seems that they accept his explanation and just decide to allow them all in. All the stuff with the other three is just a misunderstanding.

But if “Stephanie” is a decoy, that can’t possibly be the case. I think Zeke and the others told Eugene the truth as they know it, but they’re all still being manipulated.

After Princess left to pee, the guy told Eugene no one was in the room and acted like he had no idea who Princess was. They were definitely using psychological torture on him, trying to break him.

I think they know very well that Eugene's group is still lying about their settlement, and they're using a decoy "Stephanie" to find out the truth.

My point is that it goes back to the hallucination, making-someone-think-they're-crazy theme. It will be really interesting to see how this unfolds, because there's all kinds of psychological shenanigans going on here.

@galadrieljones made a really interesting connection some time ago. She noticed that back in 10x18, at Leah’s cabin, there is a metal, heart-shaped chair. The same chairs show up in the Commonwealth’s sales video from the trailer. So there’s some kind of link between Leah, Daryl’s memory of her, and the Commonwealth. We don’t know what it is yet, but all of this gives credence to the idea that she is either an outright hallucination, or Daryl is just remembering things wrong.

It also might mean that the Reapers are connected to the Commonwealth in some way. We don’t really know yet, but I’m having tons of fun trying to figure it out.

I want to touch briefly on the train car theme. Once again, there’s a parallel in both story lines (Terminus, and this one at the Commonwealth). Daryl’s group is in train cars this episode. And while Eugene’s group has been at a different compound, they started in the train yard and end in it here. But what I noticed is that Eugene enters the train car at the end, which is furnished inside, and finds his friends there. They all have a happy reunion.

It made me think of the fact that when Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl enter the train cars at Terminus, there is also a family reunion. What happened beyond that was not good or easy. Clearly, Terminus was not a good place. Many of them almost died at the trough and they had to fight their way out through a walker blood bath.

I’m just saying that, while it obviously won’t play out exactly the same way, something similar is probably waiting for Eugene’s group outside that train car. Not good.

Acheron Overall:

Okay, let’s get to the big cheese, here. The overall narrative. The template.

These two episodes are called Acheron part 1 and part 2. So here’s the skinny:

Acheron = Underworld. Daryl’s group going into the subway tunnels (dark, underground) is what constitutes Acheron and why the episodes are called that. That’s why, at the end of this episode, they emerge from the tunnels onto the surface (i.e. the living world).

Given all the death, cemetery, and dark tunnel symbolism around Beth, given that she ventured into the land of the dead by being shot, maybe clinically dying for a time, and being thought dead for so long, what this tells me is that everything that happens in these tunnels is a foreshadow and template for what will happen this season.

I maintain that Dog = Beth and we will soon see something where Daryl hears something (not necessarily her; it was a man screaming so I still think it will be Rick he hears word of) and goes chasing after it. While searching for it, he stumbles across Beth. Then the two of them (both Dog and Daryl returned to the train car) go back in time to save TF from something.

This is most likely why the Roy thing is weird. In a super understated way, he represents Rick in the template. Daryl will find him, but only after he finds Beth. Even consider what Roy says. He says, “tell my kids I didn’t die a coward.” And that’s all well and good, but did we even know Roy had kids? No. Have we met them? No. But who has kids that Daryl IS concerned with? That would be Rick.

So I’m thinking that maybe when Daryl finds Rick, Rick will think he’s dying for some reason, and that’s why the dialogue here. But he won’t, which is why we see Roy with the group later.

And no, I’m not thinking that Roy dying via the Reapers will extend to Rick. It’s more like what they’ve done with countless characters that have been Beth proxies. Eventually, they kill them off. He’s a minor character they were using as a proxy, and when they are done with him in the narrative, he becomes walker chow. Or, in this case, Reaper fodder.

Anyway, I think everything will end up being a foreshadow for something. Maggie and Negan. The Gauge situation. All of it. I’ll try to keep coming back to this as the story progresses to show what everything foreshadows. I’ll stop there for today.

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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inscapeblog · 4 years ago

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Subculture in Design: Through Kpop Subculture-Deylin Patel

Introduction

The main topic hat will discussed in this essay is Subculture in design. When people think about subculture they think about what that subculture have to do with design, what impact does it have on the design world. The only way to understand why subculture in design is really needed is to see if it has been applied to a certain subculture and how it has influenced design or not. This essay with argue if Kpop subculture in design is important and the influence it has on graphic design. The essay will show his by defining what subculture is and what Kpop subculture is. The characteristics of Kpop subculture, as well as the characteristics of Kpop subculture’s style in graphic design. To support my argument the essay will cover how Kpop has influenced the graphic design in the styles of designing. The examples that will be discussed with make decide weather Kpop subculture has either helped design or not.

2. Defining Subculture in Design

To understand what Subculture in Design is we need to understand the definitions of what subculture is and design. The meaning of subculture is when ideas, art, the way of life that a group of people within society are different to other people of society.(Definition of subculture, 2021) this basically means that people are different in the way they are because of the ideals of the subculture. The meaning of design is is to have a particular purpose or intention in view of an individual or group. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2021). Understanding what subculture and design is we can know put them together we then understand that we can say that subculture can be connected through values, in the way of design we can then decide what works with the style of the subculture, thus making that different subcultures might have the same sign for something but they mean something else. This is when a designer needs to understand the context of what happens. (Design & Subculture, 2021).

To focus on the subculture of design I will be looking at Kpop as the subculture to argue if it impacts design or not. The meaning of the Kpop subculture is an international music genre that has different music styles that began in South Korea. (Spatichia & Otolorin, n.d.) Kpop has become a huge part of the music world. The thing that makes Kpop different from the normal kind of music is that they have a particular design style that they use for what they want to do.

The Characteristics of Kpop subculture

Before one goes into Subculture in Design, we must understand the characteristics of what Kpop. These characteristics include large groups which means that the music group is from four people to about 23 members, this is mainly because they want fans to have different people to look and support. They have a hybrid sound which makes use of he traditional Korean music elements with the influence of jazz, soul, hiphop and funk, this is what makes their style of music so interesting. They have a Unique style which relates to fashion design this helps in that the style of clothing that they go for will influence design in many different ways.(MasterClass, 2021)

Now knowing what the definitions are and what the characteristics are it makes it clear that Kpop can very much be an influence on graphic design in that they have different views on how they do things and they have a connection to design to make them different from other subcultures. This is shown with how they produce their music videos, it is shown that they have themes and stories that are about unrequited love and coming to age and the other things that happen in life. (Lee, 2019)

This helps me as a designer in that I can argue that Kpop subculture is something that subculture in design can help with graphic design and make a difference in the way we think about subcultures and the design style they bring.

3. The significance of Subculture in design in identifying and solving a design problem

The significance of Kpop subculture in terms of it being used in graphic design. This is made significant in that Kpop’s art is influenced by Pop Art in terms of the art and illustration. Kpop uses the idea of sleeky minimal deign work, this is shown by the work of different artists playing with photography, typography, colour, illustration. When wanting to understand the style that makes graphics important is that it has a very different take on the use of different elements to make the design stand out.

Some unique characteristics of Kpop design is the ability to tel a story, this is mainly shown in the music videos of Kpop, the idea of making something a story of something is important in that as designers we need to think about how will the subcultures influence the way the work is done and influence the way design thinking goes with everything that has been done. Kpop’s idea of making the subject matter light they have a unique way of making it look amazing in tat the viewer can be part of that journey.

Kpop also keeps in mind who the audience is and who they are advertising to and how they market themselves. This helps with social media in that when graphic designers need to look for ideas on how to promote new ideas they need to make sure that they follow the tight ideas of who will people see and what they think of them.

Kpop design is also very particular in the way they use colour. They make sure that they have captured the right amount of attention. This achieved in that they make somethings stand out in some cases but in others they make it over colourful that they make it look like a dream party filled of colour. They also make use of black and which which can also mean a lot depending on what they want to achieve.

The most important trait that stands out of Kpop and graphic design is the use of the design principles. This is because they make use of good balance, positioning, symmetrically and visual balance and unity as well as using the idea of persecutive in their work. (White, 2016)

With all this the idea of Pop art comes in, in that Kpop artists and designers think about how to make the audience feel as if they are the best and they are the ones that everyone needs to see.

This brings us back to the idea that subculture in design is important in for graphic design. Thus saying that the ideas that Kpop subculture is a strong example to show that they think in creative and unique ways that they are not just a subculture that dresses a certain way or creates music in its own style but it rather creates a place that makes them think in a designer way to make design more easy on the eye for everyone.

4. Examples of successful application of Subculture in Design through Kpop in spatial design

When looking at examples of how the techniques of subculture came into existence in the albums of Kpop albums is that they used colour, typography and photography .

Figure 1 - Poster (Lee, 2019)

When looking at this poster one gets the feeling of balance and good use of colour and harmony. This is because the use of how the idea of the subculture is still evident in the work. The application of the use of typography makes one look at the image and makes them interested in away.

Figure 2 - Flashmo Instagram (Lee, 2019)

When looking at this image we can see the idea of pop art being used. In terms of the Kpop subculture it shows that they also took inspiration form the west and took the idea of using typography and a pop art take on creating this new type of design. Which is something graphic designer would do and see how to make it fit with the idea of how things work and get made.

Figure 3- CD cover (Lee,2019)

In this CD cover we can see different elements with use of colour and photography and very little typography. The way that design is used to show the subculture for what it is and what it stands for. The colours and photography makes one want to see what is happening and what will happen next.

The application of all the examples help to create a feel that graphic design has a part to play in designing covers and ideas to make the message that Kpop artist want to show off. The whole idea that being Subculture in Design is important and it is also very important to make ideas and traits in to design.

5. Conclusion

As a whole for my argument I can agree that Subculture in design is important. Thus saying that subculture can bring about new ideas and influences in the way we work and do things as designers. The exploration of subcultures and design is that subcultures have an influence in the way we think and look at design. With going into depth of graphic design in Kpop culture shows that design is used in different ways but it can always be connected when one looks and analysis’s the fine detail in what they do. The final argument is that subcultures need to be taught on how things are and how designers can apply the thoughts and ideas of subcultures in their design work. Subculture in design is important and it makes the world of showing things in different ways can open doors for people. Graphic design might not be the core components of Kpop but it can start becoming one of the factors.

Reference List

Definition of subculture. (2021, March 10). Collinsdictionary.com; HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/subculture

Design & Subculture. (2021, March 10). Blogspot.com. http://globaldesignstudies.blogspot.com/2009/10/design-subculture.html

Lee, G. (2019, May). How to design for K-pop: the design queen for BTS on branding idol chart-killers. Digital Arts. https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/graphic-design/how-to-design-k-pop-bts/

‌MasterClass. (2021, January 14). All About K-Pop: Inside K-Pop’s History and Signature Sound. MasterClass; MasterClass. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-kpop#what-are-the-characteristics-of-kpop

‌Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2021). Merriam-Webster.com. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/design

‌Spatichia, D., & Otolorin, M. (n.d.). K-pop Subculture International Impact K-pop Subculture International Impact. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://scholarshare.temple.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12613/472/p15037coll12_2705.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

‌White, J. Z. (2016, June 28). What k-pop can teach us about design. FreeCodeCamp.org; freeCodeCamp.org. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-k-pop-can-teach-us-about-design-6253a85f469c/

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meta-squash · 4 years ago

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Brick Club 2.1.2 “Hougomont”

Usually I support the translation choices made by FMA but sometimes they’re so odd. The first sentence translates bûcheron as “forester” rather than “woodcutter” or “lumberjack” which makes the sentence connotatively the exact opposite, so that’s weird. Also apparently FMA spells it wrong? According to google it’s “Hougoumont” but FMA says “Hougomont,” no second U.

Immediately we come to another door. This one is a sixteenth-century door. I think the door in the last chapter was an introduction to the location: we have now transitioned to the field of Waterloo. This door is old. This door is an introduction to history: we are not talking about present-day 1861, or even “present-day” within the time frame of the story (1823-ish), we’re talking about the past now. We have transitioned to the history of the field of Waterloo.

“A monumental aspect is often produced by ruin.” Man, I love this line. Things become strangely, hauntingly grand once they start to fall apart. They feel old and wise, when it’s buildings. People start reminiscing about the good old days, when it’s empires or societies. It starts to feel bigger than it is, greater than the sum of its parts as people start layering the past upon it. But also, I love that he says this line about things becoming monumental, and then describes the most ordinary of farm scenes, with shovels and dung heaps and horses and chickens and all that. This place is “monumental” not because of its layers of history but because of one huge event; otherwise it would have been mundane. And this mundane area could have been a global victory, had Napoleon won here.

“The hens are scattering the dirt with their beaks. There is a growling: It is a large dog, who bares his teeth, taking the place of the English.” How long have the English been personified as doglike? Where did that even come from? And is Hugo being subtly symbolic here, with the inclusion of the hens? I know that the rooster was a symbol of the Revolution, but I don’t know about hens. It feels like this is a France-versus-England moment of symbolism, but I’m not sure.

Hugo describes the layout of the battlefield so vividly and yet I still have such a hard time visualizing it. In my readthrough last February I doodled my guess for the layout at the top of my notes and just now I googled it and was almost right, so that’s reassuring. Still, this is the section I have the hardest time following and visualizing because military tactics are just not something my brain understands. Spatial imagination needed to pack things well into a certain space? I’ve got that. Spacial imagination needed to visualize how troops move across space in certain formations? Nope.

“...this heroic section of wall.” The first “hero” mentioned in all of this, in the entire battle of Waterloo, is not a human, but a wall. Throughout this section Hugo talks so much about various people continuing on, getting back on horses despite being injured and moving forward despite being basically unarmed, refusing to admit defeat and charging anyway, continuing alone without the help of other soldiers, etc etc. This wall is the epitome of all of that: unarmed, battered, but unmoving.

Oooh, a cart-door. Two of Hugo’s favorite symbols. Society and transition.

“You still feel the storm of combat in this court: Its horror is visible; the upheaval of conflict is petrified there; it lives, it dies; it was only yesterday. The walls are still in death throes; the stones fall, the breaches cry out; the holes are wounds; the trees bend and shudder, as if making an effort to escape.” I don’t have much to say about this paragraph in terms of symbolism because it’s pretty obvious but man, this is one of those paragraphs where you can tell Hugo was a poet first and foremost. It’s just so pretty.

“The stairway has two landings; the English, besieged in this place, and crowded onto the upper steps, had cut away the lower ones.” I know technically this is just a popular tactic in battle, but I can’t help but remember that this is also a tactic employed at the barricade later on, at the very end when everyone retreats to the upstairs of the Corinthe. I feel as though there are a lot of parallels between Waterloo and the barricade, and I wish I knew more about Waterloo so I could make better analyses aside from just “huh this seems like a parallel I don’t know what else to say about it.”

“A dozen steps still cling to the wall: On the first is cut the image of a trident. These inaccessible steps are firm in their sockets; all the rest looks like a toothless jawbone. Two old trees are there; one is dead, the other is wounded at the foot and does not leaf out until April. Since 1815 it had begun to grow across the staircase.” This feels like one massive metaphor but again, I don’t know enough about Waterloo or French history to pull out its meaning.

“You ask, Why is there no bucket and no pulley to this one? Because no water is drawn from it now. Why is no more water drawn from it? Because it is full of skeletons.” No joke, this is one of my favorite lines in this book. It’s done so matter-of-fact and yet horrific in a way that kind of gives you chills.

“This well, where so many of the dead drank, was also to die.” Something about this line reminds me of Hugo’s description that will come up a little later of the hollow Ohain road. Which is something I’m really excited to come to.

“Typhus comes with triumph.” I really feel like this could be connected back (or forward, I suppose) to the sewer-history digression and the cholera epidemic? But I’m not sure how.

Oh, and a brief description of another door. Only, the Hanoverian Lieutenant didn’t get to open it, and neither do we. That severed hand means we’re just going to look at the house, we’re not going into it yet. Instead we turn and look to the yard.

“The orchard is awful.” I love that this gets its own paragraph. This sentence is so intense and yet so vague. The sense of foreboding and strangeness here reminds me a little of the strangeness of Valjean’s dream, only we’re about to get context for this, and we never get context for the dream’s awfulness or imagery.

I’m sure the description of the six First Light Infantrymen taking 45 minutes to die in battle against 600 Hanoverian companies has a purposeful later parallel in the barricade. Again I wish I knew more of the Actual History details and things so I could pull more symbolism out, but mostly for this one it’s all just impressions because military history is complicated and confuses me.

The nature described here is surely symbolism as well. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that Hugo deliberately points out that the tree near the stairs in the Hougoumont manor doesn’t leaf out until April, and that the trees and plants in the orchard are “as responsive as any other to the month of May.”

And then Hugo sweeps all of this beautiful description away, all this grandeur away, with the dialogue of one single peasant reducing the battle down to a story to be sold for three francs.

I love this chapter because it’s so weirdly detailed and yet weirdly vague. It’s this extremely speedy summary of the massacre that occurred, but the lengthy descriptions are reserved not for the actual skirmishes but the remnants and scars and and small scenery details and things.

#les miserables #les miserables meta #lm 2.1.2 #brickclub #les mis #les mis meta #okay so i had more to say than i thought i would #surprise surprise

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beyondthetemples-ooc · 4 years ago

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Anyone know where I can find info on Personal Experiences with dyslexia?

For the past hour or two I’ve been Thinkin’ Hard about Kary. And one of the things I’m considering is that she’s dyslexic. But I don’t have anything written down about that except the barest mentions that she struggled in school.

I know I’ve seen Tumblr blogs like “scriptautistic” and “scripttrauma” that have really in-depth details about writing autism and trauma with accuracy, realism, and sensitivity. Is there a blog like that for dyslexia?

All the general internet gives me are basically stub articles that focus exclusively on children struggling in school for like five paragraphs or less. (Even that’s useless to me because Kary drops out. For unrelated reasons, but school’s not super relevant to her story.)

I’m relying on the internet because I have Really Strong reading comprehension skills, I always have, so I don’t personally know what it’s like to not be able to read/write well.

But I do have dyscalculia, and I’ve recently learned that it’s not just Being Bad At Math. It also affects my ability to comprehend Anything involving math, it affects my understanding of numbers in general (which makes me struggle to understand dates and time), I suck at remembering sequential orders, it affects my Spatial Reasoning (which means I struggle with maps, charts, and estimating volumes), it even affects my ability to understand the visual information conveyed by comics, movies, and random internet videos.

So, what kind of little day-to-day things does dyslexia impact? I already know Kary struggles with reading and writing in school, that’s how I realized dyslexia fits really well for her. But is it just Visually Looking At Words that it impacts? Or does it also impact auditory words? Would she struggle with names, remembering words for things, remembering song lyrics, expressing herself verbally? Would she mix up instructions someone told her aloud, or maybe her brain would swap words around in a recipe?

It’s the little things that I’m interested in, because these are the things that would impact the little characterization details I really like putting in my writings, and if you ask me, they’re much more interesting to explore than her issues in school. (Besides, she struggles with reading/writing, so she hates doing it, and thus avoids it entirely, that’s just her personality. So there’s not much reason to write about her reading/writing in these stories at all. 8F)

Any help or direction is welcome!

#dyslexia #disableism #neurodivergent #writing #writing disabled characters

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dclevinson · 5 years ago

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8/12/20: cognitive therapy

If Physical Therapies deal (basically) with one major problem, cognitive therapy deals with a nest of interlacing issues. Certainly short term memory, working memory, more complex processing. Likely some spatial perception/orientation issues too. Not to mention believing our house is actually our house --- an issue that can arise when we come back to it from outside. I know that I can’t fully trust my memory now; if I’ve told a story or described something that happened a long time ago in one way more than once, it’s hazy enough anyway that what happened and what I tell people happened is no longer very clearly distinguished in my mind. So I can only very, very vaguely imagine what making sense of the world and her life seems like to Cindy.

When I say complex processing, a task doesn’t have to be too intricate to cause problems --- say trying to add three single digit numbers instead of two. And, as her neuropsych mentor reminds me, she doesn’t have the mental scaffolding most of us use to problem solve. Switch some little thing to understand or do and it might be a whole new ballgame for her without the internal networking to adjust easily.

If you are just interacting socially with her, this may seem hard to believe. Her social intelligence is still nicely calibrated, and all those who know something about brain injury and rehab are routinely astonished at how sophisticated and quick her verbal intelligence still is. (Yesterday: hearing 60′s song Incense and Peppermint on XM in the car, she sang along with: Incest and Pestilence...) A long, slow recovery with standard therapies + some home tinkering has brought us now to a relatively stable six month period. She shows a range of behavior and mental processing (perception, memory, reasoning + motivation, will and emotion) that can swing wildly, but now seems to have a top and bottom “normal” range. I wish she operated near the top of that range longer and more frequently. But I’m grateful that bottoms are more often parts than full days.

One cog therapy example. She has been working on a very concrete memory task: seeing if on demand she can produce the names of all three of our synagogue’s rabbis. Something she knew as well as her own name once. The newest one keeps slipping her mind. The rehab technique is for me to remind her of the names often for several days before asking her to produce them. She’s always better with cues than a big blank canvas. Recently, after asking her to name them, I asked how many were women. She couldn’t, without lots of reframing help, do it.

Her reading of her own writing can be off, and though she’s writing on a straighter line these days and with not such teeny-tiny cramped lettering, she still adds extra letters when writing and doesn’t always accurately see what she’s written. When reading the newspaper, she might repeat headlines (yes, Cindy, I’ve heard that one three times) or just fuse several stories together without realizing it. Just to let you know how remarkable her easy social discourse and lively wit really are!

If these were normal times, her cog therapist would like to have set up a perceptual/visual screening. I know from experience now that she has trouble picking up the forest through the trees, separating foreground from background, etc. She can focus on one detail and not see a whole, etc. It can take a while, especially outdoors, to direct her to pick up something I’m pointing out to her in a little distance. Luckily, the red tailed hawk just outside our backyard a couple weeks ago liked his perch enough to stay long enough for me to find a view that let her pick it out. Wow. What all this must feel like day in and day out. Maybe it’s lucky if she doesn’t remember it very cohesively. Over time, it’s led her to be less determined, more willing to just see something as too hard to capture. No wonder.

Cog therapy work usually is very specific. Another recent example, working with 3 items from a recipe. Say tuna salad. What do you want to put in it? Can you write those ingredients down. Read what you’ve written. Remember what you’ve written and why. How’s the spelling? Spacing? (my questions to assist in remote work). I showed her that list a week later: she had no idea what it was.

The next week something much harder she actually handled better (it’s the day, not the task that’s key I tell her therapist). A house for sale on our block. 1500 square feet. $700,000. Brick. How accurate not an issue. She has no sense of market value now anyway. Then a bunch of questions, but built into a natural conversation about this house. Also, tricky, this week some statements that might or might not be accurate. Çould she tell the difference? Yes.

How Cindy describe her attention and focus: “It slithers.”

Danielle (Morgan, our SLP/cognitive therapist) asked us both not too long ago if we thought Cindy’s personality had changed since her bleed. Cindy didn’t know. I said, surprisingly, luckily, maybe remarkably: not much.

Danielle reminds me that research and experience tells rehab specialists that progress comes from concrete, specific goal focus.I note, from my untutored but long term close observation, that mental stimulation is good for her in many ways, stagnation is bad. A rising tide lifts all ships.

One recent evening it was getting on toward her bedtime, and we were in the kitchen watching one PBS thing or another to get to 8 pm. C is reaching out towards the table --- for water? --- having pushed herself away. She could use her chair’s wheel rims to get closer quickly, but she reaches. Even after I’ve reminded her. Maybe the gesture has less to do with reaching the water than something I don’t understand and she can’t communicate.

I joke: You look like you’re wishing and hoping and … what’s the rest of that song line? Dusty Springfield, right? Of course Cindy knows.

She: planning?

I look it up. Ah. Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying. Planning and dreaming… so planning is in there somewhere. Yep, I say, that’s what it looks like you’re doing when reaching for the table. Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying. Planning and dreaming…

8/12/20: our 47th wedding anniversary.

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words-writ-in-starlight · 5 years ago

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For your anon re: intelligence: take it from a social psychologist and professor- there are many different ways to be intelligent. Traditional school, IQ and standardized tests only measure a very narrow version of it. Look up Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences to start off with. And also the advice to see a counselor is excellent. It's so hard to unlearn the negativity put on you by the people who are supposed to lift you up, but it's so worth the work!

(intelligence anon)

Yes! For those of you who have not taken a bunch of psych courses, the theory of multiple intelligences states that there are many different ways to be intelligent, not just “are you good at standardized tests, yes or no.” (Honestly even that question is pretty loaded--I’m great at standardized tests! For about three hours. Past that, I might as well just leave, my score would probably be better.)

Gardner’s proposed types of intelligence are:

Verbal-linguistic, or having a gift for language, spoken, written, whatever; these people are usually well-spoken and well-written and sound “smart”

Logical-mathematical, or, let’s be honest, what everyone thinks “being smart” entails, a sense of how to assemble a good argument or how to grasp a mathematical concept

Bodily-kinesthetic, or having an understanding of how to make your body and your environment play well together, so that you get the result you want; “natural” athletes are naturally good at this, I had to work really, really hard at it out of sheer self-preservation against my natural clumsiness

Musical-harmonic, or having a good sense of how the pieces of music fit together into the complete thing--this is not necessarily the same as being able to read sheet music, fun fact, which I personally am horrifically incompetent at and falls more under one of the first two

Visual-spatial, or having an idea of how the visual world works, both in terms of art and practical things like pouring water from one glass into another; my mom is one of the smartest people I know, and also she has never correctly estimated the volume of any single object in her entire life

Intrapersonal, or the ability to evaluate your own mental health and emotional state, introspectiveness; if you feel like you don’t have this one dead to rights, perhaps some therapy! I recommend some therapy!

Interpersonal, or social skills; I had the cosmic forethought to date someone very very good at this, which helps buffer the fact that I just do not have a natural gift for socializing, I also recommend that

Naturalistic, or the ability to understand how the natural world works, having a ‘green thumb’ or a natural talent with animals; one of my partners can make anything grow with a shrug and “I don’t know, felt like it should get watered”, whereas my mother can, has, and doubtless will again murder a cactus out of sheer failure to grasp how cacti work, despite extensive googling

Now, someone might be phenomenally gifted in one or several of these areas, and then be desperately lacking in others. With some of them, a natural talent is worth far less than in others--anyone can learn to evaluate their own emotional state, but straight up some people have good aim from the start and the rest of us fools just have to deal with being a hazard. You may be good at one thing within a specific type of intelligence and not another, like someone who’s incredibly articulate on the page but struggles to be clear aloud. You may have the capacity to be good at one of these, but not always the energy--I can put on my best neurotypical social skills, but it’s exhausting, and I need a hard time limit or I start getting a little mean.

The point is, there are a lot of ways to be smart, a lot of things to be smart about, and a lot of people who showcase those different types of intelligence. Some types of intelligence are valued at a higher place in our society, but that doesn’t make them innately more valuable in a person.

And before you call me out on that, yeah, listen, I’m a medical professional. I have a natural inclination to believe my profession, and therefore the intelligence that facilitates it, is The Most Important, because all medical professionals are like that and we’re all insufferable for it. BUT.

The entire human race owes its existence in its current form to some bright spark who looked at a plant and said “You know, I bet I could grow that,” so don’t get uppity about math or whatever. We’re all only here because of six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains and some folks who had the naturalistic intelligence to take advantage.

#advice from starlight #intelligence is as intelligence does my friends #i absolutely should have just left this here to be googled or included a link to the wikipedia or something #but i'm channeling my anxiety into weird optimistic nihilist comments about agriculture please let me live #at least i'm good enough at intrapersonal stuff to say with authority that i'm doing this because i'm Handling Stuff #at what point do i admit that i'm not getting anything done today and just curl up in bed and watch some more untamed #i WANT to get stuff done #i'm not but i WANT to #a queue we will keep and our honor someday avenge #Anonymous #asked and answered

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alohamathph · 4 years ago

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ALOHA’S CURRICULUM PRODUCES CHAMPIONS!

Mathematics, for many, is a scary subject. It often presents itself with complicated and overwhelming numerical equations that people always try to avoid because they find it too hard to solve and unravel. For some, the thought of Math alone would send them running out the room immediately.

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Maybe this is the reason why our parents are having a hard time teaching us Algebra. Who knows?

This long-standing problem has planted roots throughout the years in our society and it’s gotten to the point where people use this as a measure of intelligence.

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Flashcards

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In ALOHA, through oral operations, children have to memorize the numbers and at the same time calculate. Having a better memory can help them remember names, find locations, and recall important information more quickly and accurately.

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Article by: Kirstin Joelle Pada

Image by: Maja Desuasido and Steward Onod

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myhouseidea · 5 years ago

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Mansion Liu is a project designed by Bob Chen Design Office in 2019, covers an area of 500m2 and is located in Hangzhou, China. Photography by Wen Office.

“What we chose in life tells about us.” If we break all the walls, a “home” typically displays items that embody the owner’s memory. Visiting one’s home is like going through one’s past and walking into their emotions. To simplify the space is to let the articles organize their own language, and also because we believe that “this person” is the best style interpretation. In addition to function as a “social place,” a modern “home” should also be a “return” type of place for reflection, retreat and a degree of introspection. These two different requirements are interwoven in the spatial presentation of “House Liu”. The owner Liu, a professional advertiser, is telling us about the story of his house from 0 to 0.5.

To immerse myself in design is like a vacation. Sometimes, when a group of old men discuss where to go on holiday, Bob always looks like as if he doesn’t listen and spits out such words. Everyone else was speechless. Though when we finally set out, he always shows up, ends up having fun like a child. Bob and I have known each other for almost fifteen or perhaps more years and have been working our way through our own career in Hangzhou together. We are good friends and at the same time we learn from each other. He’s the husband of my wife’s best friend, and father of my son’s playmate.

I’ve always said that some people are “born to be a designer”. I assume that Bob is one of those talented people. My own company is also involved in design industry. I’ve met too many designers, but I haven’t seen much talented people so far. Bob’s father is a carpenter. He has been observing lines since he was a little boy. He is extremely sensitive when it comes to corners and lines. I thought that if such person failed to go to university, there would be a skilled “Carpenter Chen” in the seaside fishing village.

When I need a designer for my own house, the first name that came up to my mind is Bob. No one enjoys to do design more than he does. Besides, he may think more about design than the owner of the house. “Bob, please tell me a price that allows me to push you the deadline with”. He’s probably the most suitable person to trust with for a lazy person like me!

About ten years ago, my obsession with used articles began, and started to buy a lot of them, and gradually developed my “guilty pleasure”. My office and my friends’ warehouses are filled with weird things that I have collected. And as a result, I started to realize what I really like, and more or less I found some value and the so-called “sense”.

Buying a big house to store these things was the first idea. I believe in my own taste of interior that is why I have designed more than 100 times in my mind already.

At first, according to my professional habits, I built a file folder on the desktop of my PC and threw in my favorite pictures, including structure, function, technology, decoration and details. In fact, due to my non professional background, the more I look at it, the more doubt I have about my own ideas, and I began to understand that a perfect home cannot be sewn up by fragmentary points and surfaces, and space design is not like a jigsaw puzzle, so I went for Bob and said, “come on and help out.”

Bob has made remarkable achievements in graphic design. After moving up to work on space design, he has become famous today. I know the ups and downs of his exploration process as a close friend for many years. I have worked with him on two small projects of my own before. I know very well that in space design, design talent is a plus, not a decisive effect. Experience and knowledge could not be gained in one day. The process requires patience and Bob is a patient enough.

One day we were drinking tea. I said to him that what we prefer actually shares the same style. “It’s all about durability and timeless beauty, isn’t it?” he smirked.

As for scale, that’s the first thing Bob will consider, and it is after that he will move on to the next step to think about details. To consider the fluency and accessibility of the whole space, and reasonable circulation is as important as considering design details. As for scale, Bob has his own feelings and intuitions, and it only took us 15 minutes to make the final decision after the plan of our home came out.

On site construction Mr. Dai looked at my plan and kept muttering, “we need to build the foundation well, do a good job in the foundation”. He understands that good results come from stable and firm structure. Dai has been helping me with construction for ten years since my first office. He is stout and considerate. Born in rural areas, yet always with great enthusiasm for space, which is really rare nowadays, and now his construction team has become exclusive of many famous designers in Hangzhou.

Thanks to Bob’s graphic design background, each line and point makes sense in space. The more I talk with him, the more I realize that as long as we ensure the completion of structural lines, the visual effect will not deviate. We were delighted to see that the floor of basement came out well, it is horizontal and vertical, clean and neat. I think this is the so-called “effort” that cannot be seen but can be felt.

Project Schedule: 2019.7 Project Area: 500m2 Project Address: Hangzhou, China Project Client: Guang LIU Design Unit: Bob Chen Design Office Chief Designer: Bob CHEN Design Management: Bing HU, Yunluan SHEN Interior Design: Chao WANG Furniture Design: Chao WANG, Yan RU Landscape Design: Shenshan Landscape Design Construction Team: Team Xinzhe DAI Author of Article: Guang LIU, Danni XUE Photography: Wen Office Furniture Brand: TOUCH FEELING, Ligne Roset, U+, SoLIFE, Philippe Starck, Louis Poulsen, GALLERY SOHE, Line Park, Huah Lightings

Mansion Liu by Bob Chen Design Office Mansion Liu is a project designed by Bob Chen Design Office in 2019, covers an area of 500m2 and is located in Hangzhou, China.

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