#did a group project and one of my group members wrote up a paragraph for it and there were just. no sentence breaks. for like a solid 6-7

[pallases]

being a humanities girlie in stem is constantly facing the horror of how bad your classmates are at writing

[cotncandyboifics]

1989 [High School AU]: Chapter 2

AO3 Link

Masterpost

Chapter 1 ~ Chapter 3 ~ Chapter 4 ~ Chapter 5 ~ Chapter 6 ~ Chapter 7 ~ Chapter 8 ~ Chapter 9 ~

Pairings: slight Logince, eventual Prinxiety & Logicality

Word count: 1,974

Story summary: Roman Prince is your stereotypical Jock, with everyone swooning after him. Every day a crowd of people follow him around, only to disperse at his personal whim. In reality, he's lucky to have such good acting skills that help him cover up the disdain he has for his life. He only wishes he could use his skills properly.

Patton Whitelock's always there to lend a helping hand, no matter who you are. If you need a favor or just need someone to talk to, go to him. In reality, he's been taught from a young age that kindness should be held above all else. No one suspects that he took it the wrong way.

Logan Montgomery is the smartest boy in the Senior class. He's stern, and most people are too intimidated to speak to him. In reality, he despises most all of his fellow students. He sticks to his studies and doesn't stray, for fear of being stuck in his father's shadow his whole life.

Virgil Black is the most emo kid in school, let alone 12th grade; everyone knows to leave him be. In reality, he's very fortunate. He has two parents who love him dearly. But everything beyond his life, everything within his mind, is utter chaos and turmoil.

what will happen when they're assigned a biology project together?

General CW: food, swearing, implied s-lf h-rm, non-graphic descriptions of s-lf h-rm scars, graphic and non-graphic descriptions of anxiety attacks and panic attacks, drug abuse, minor character intoxicated on heroin, non-graphic drug overdose description, sickness/description of sickness, blood, non-graphic descriptions of needles, (will be added to as I write more)

Chapter CW: <none> (let me know if i missed anything please!)

Author notes: there's an excessively detailed description of the biology project in this chapter. I haven't read it since i first wrote and edited this chapter two years ago. :)

...

Logan walked into his 4th Period class, biology, with a glint in his eye. He enjoyed the class quite a lot, and the teacher was passionate about the material, making the learning process all that much better.

"Good morning students!" He said cheerily from the whiteboard. "As you can see, I've rearranged the desks into groups of 4, and if you look up here at the board, you'll see the seating chart. These will be your groups for this semester's project." Logan scanned the projected seating chart and found his name. Near the center of the room, and his desk at an angle which he could still see the teacher. He glanced at the other names. he recognized two of them; Roman Prince, the school jock, and Virgil Black, notoriously introverted and depressing. The third name he didn't recognize; Patton Whitelock. He took a seat at his assigned desk, and awaited the arrival of his group mates.

Patton and Virgil arrived together. Logan recognized Virgil with his purple hair and sulking form, and as they walked closer, assumed the perky boy walking with him was Patton. Upon seeing him he realized this was someone he actually had several classes with, but had never bothered to pair a name with his face. He seemed to radiate an infectious joyful aura, and Logan felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he approached. Virgil just gave Logan a small nod, while Patton smiled wide and stuck his hand out across the desks to shake Logan's pale steady hand.

"Hi there!! My name's Patton! You're Logan, right?" Patton's voice went perfectly with his demeanor. Logan allowed a smile to cross his face - just out of politeness, of course -  as he shook Patton's hand.

"Hello Patton. Yes, Logan Montgomery. And you must be Virgil, correct?" He said, looking over at the dark boy sitting across from him, who was now slumped over on his desk with earbuds in. Virgil just glanced at him and gave a small nod.

Then, in a burst of flamboyance, Roman arrived at the table with his signature smirk displayed proudly on his face. He glanced around at his teammates. His smirk faltered at the sight of ta certain purple-haired emo, but he continued to scan as he sat smoothly, sliding his backpack under the desk. He greeted Patton with a handshake - the two were relatively friendly, as Patton often helped organize football events - and upon seeing the tall pale boy seated next to him, changed tone.

"Why hello there," Roman said in a deep voice, leaning over to Logan, who tensed up momentarily. But he regained himself quickly, and turned to face Roman.

"Salutations. Logan Montgomery. You are Roman Prince, I presume," Logan said cordially, holding his hand out to the jock. Roman only smirked and took Logan's hand, kissing his knuckles gently. In that moment Logan cursed his off-white skin, as he felt his face heat up and was sure the blush was plain as day. It only made Roman smirk more to see the effect of his actions.

"But of course. I suppose I should be thankful for the honor of being grouped with such a handsome-" In the midst of his courting, Roman was interrupted by the teacher clearing his throat and giving further instructions on the project.

"These will be your groups. No buts, this is final. Unless there is a serious conflict, I will absolutely not be changing your groups. Now that that's out of the way, I'll explain the project." He clicked a button on his computer, and the projection changed to a presentation about their project. "You are to write a detailed, extensive report on Lepidium Sativum, or Garden Cress, and its attributes in various environments. there will be three rounds in this project." He clicked a button again, and the slide changed. "in the first round, you will have two plants being given the same amount of water and light, but two different types of fertilizer. after two weeks, the fertilizer that has been the most effective in helping the plant thrive will be used for all future rounds." Next slide. "in the second round, you will have two entirely different garden cress plants, that are to have the exact same amount of sunlight and both be planted in the better fertilizer from the previous round. you are to take the recommended amount of water you should give the plants per day, and give one plant less than said amount and the other more. repeat this process for two weeks, and note which plant thrived more. This plant's dosage of water will be used in the next round as well." Next slide. "For the final round, two new plants will be given the optimal fertilizer and amount of water, but different amounts of sunlight. One is to be in the sun constantly, the other is to be kept out of the light. Whichever one is the most successful after two weeks time, will be presented in class at the end of said time period. these plants will be 10% of your grade for this project." Next slide. "Your report will include the following 11 paragraphs; 1, prior knowledge. any and all things you collectively know about Garden Cress. If you know nothing, then I'd devote some time to researching the plant. 2, the procedure for the first round. step-by-step description of what you did in the two weeks. 3, hypothesis or predictions for the outcome of the first round. 4, the results of the first round. 5, 6, and 7 repeat 2, 3, and 4 but for the second round, and 8, 9, and 10 for the third round. the 11th paragraph will be the conclusion; comparing all the results and analyzing them, whether you think your experiment was accurate, etcetera. I expect before and after pictures of both plants for all three rounds in your report as well." He then turned off the projector and walked over to a table, which had 16 plants on it. "Today is the beginning of the experiment, one group member will be chosen for the entirety of this lab to be conducted at their house, and said group member will come up and take two plants from here at the end of the period. We have... 10 minutes left. discuss among yourselves."

With that, they were off. Logan had been furiously scribbling notes in somehow impeccable handwriting. He looked up once the teacher had stopped talking and cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses. "I will take the plants to my house. We should meet there every week at least, preferably on a consecutive weekday," he said.

But Roman had other plans, that he thought were absolutely brilliant in terms of his suddenly enticing pursuit of Logan. "Au contraire, my bespectacled friend," He began, "I believe that the best household for our project to be conducted in would be chez-moi," Roman finished with a dramatic hand-to-the-chest pose. Virgil couldn't keep in a scoff and a smirk, murmuring something under his break about how Roman didn't speak french. The others ignored him, but Patton looked at him curiously.

"And what could have possibly led you to that conclusion? I strongly believe that of the four of us," Logan said, looking around at his partners, "I am the most responsible. So, I'm curious to hear your reasoning," Logan finished, adjusting his glasses again and facing Roman more prominently.

"Well, Microsoft Nerd," Roman said, at which Virgil smirked again, "My house is only a few blocks away from school. Its very accessible, and I for one know that at least two of us would prefer to be near school," Roman said, looking over at Virgil.

Virgil considered protesting, but decided against it. "...I mean, he's not wrong," He said quietly.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the assist, JD-lightful. Patton, what do you think?" Roman said, turning his attention to Patton, who was staring at his desk with a hint of a blush on his face.

He looked up upon being addressed, and responded. "Oh, um, I'm alright with either honestly." He said, slightly less perky than usual, glancing at Logan before looking back down.

Logan simply sighed and adjusted his glasses again. "Well, I'm not going to argue with you over something so trivial, so fine. We can go to your house."

Roman clapped loudly and put his hands down on the desk. "Wonderful! How's about tonight? And every Monday hereafter?" He said, looking between all of them. Logan nodded once, Patton nodded vigorously (only after Logan had given his nod), and Virgil just slowly bobbed his head up and down as if he was exhausted, leaning into his arm that was propped up on his desk. "Okay, it's a plan! Meet you all at the front of the school when 8th period is over." And with that, the teacher got the students' attention again.

"Alright students, it's time. Send up whomever will be taking the plants to their house." Roman stood up proudly and strut over to the table, where he picked out two of the nicest-looking plants on the table. There was a minute or two before they were dismissed, so the four of them took the opportunity to exchange phone numbers. Then the bell rang, and the students immediately filed out the classroom door and dispersed.

...

When Roman walked up to the bench at the front of the school at the end of the day - followed by a few of his fan girls, of course - only Logan was there. As Logan noticed people walking his way, he put away his phone hastily, as if embarrassed, and quickly began pulling different notebooks out of his backpack, trying to look busy. As Roman approached, he dismissed his pursuers and sat on the opposite side of the bench, while Logan attempted to start his Calculus homework.

"Well, if it isn't the Microsoft Turd," Roman said, looking over at Logan.

Logan didn't look up, merely scoffed. "You already made that joke."

"Well, it was a variation, and I can think of a Microsoft Third!" Roman shot back, smirking once again.

Mr. No-nonsense Logan responded, "have you heard from the others? it's been approximately... 12.4 minutes since 8th period ended," he said, checking his watch.

"No, not particularly. However, I did see Virgil sulking in the hallway on my off-block. Ugh, the nerve of him; he's constantly ruining the mood for everyone, in every situation! Are you listening to me?" Roman said, watching as Logan did his same scribble in a graph paper notebook, breezing through his work.

"No."

Roman put on an extremely offended face, and would've retorted, had Patton and Virgil not walked up at that exact moment. Roman opened his mouth to say something to Logan but his eyes caught Virgil's radiant hair, and he was momentarily distracted.

"Hey Logan!!" Patton said cheerily, waving to him while keeping his thumbs behind his backpack straps. "Are you ready for some science!?" He said the last word with zeal, and Logan looked up at him, smiling softly.

"Yes, I am rather looking forward to the actual project," Logan said, then glancing over at Roman, "though I expect there will be plenty of distractions on Roman's account."

"Only distractions you'll enjoy," Roman said, wiggling his eyebrows "flirtatiously". Virgil scoffed yet again from behind Patton, trying to hide his smile.

"Well, then let's get going!! I-I mean, if you're ready, Logan." Patton said, referring to Logan having surrounded himself with textbooks and notes.

"Oh, right." Logan pushes his glasses up the bride of his nose, and made quick work of putting his things away. Roman made an attempt in vain to carry Logan's pack; Logan said he wouldn't trust Roman with his backpack if it was "consisting of objects of an inconsequential nature, which it is not."

And they four made their way down the sidewalk, talking and teasing each other, unaware of the growing bonds between them.

[hope-grace-serenity]

The Missing Women of Far Cry-PART TWO

Previously, I wrote a post that was intended to talk a bit about Selena and Lana, and the  history of the Faith position as a whole. Because the notes that discuss these women (“Grieving Note,” “Dirty Crumpled Letter,” A Confession”) tend to be overlooked, the purpose of this new post is to analyze the content of the notes and develop a greater understanding of the experiences and perspectives of the Faiths, as well as how they are viewed and treated. This is just my personal analysis, and of course you are more than welcome to disagree with any ideas expressed here. Unlike my previous post, this one will not bring in real-world connections, but will instead stick firmly within the context of what is presented in FC5. That being said, I’m going to keep the same TW’s as last time in the tags, because I realize that this topic overall can be really uncomfortable to think about. If anyone is particularly sensitive to discussing the Seeds brothers’ involvement in the disappearances (particularly Joseph, since he’s the one mentioned in all the notes), I recommend skipping this post.  

So with that out of the way, let’s look at what these notes reveal to us...

First, the notes show us how these different women were hooked into becoming Faith and giving up their identities in the first place: by being convinced by Joseph that each one of them is special, despite him actually viewing them as interchangeable. This is told to us by Faith in-game during her first cutscene when she talks about how special the Father made her feel, but we also see the same story play out in the previous Faiths. The writer of the “Grieving Note” says Joseph told Lana she was special, and the author of “A Confession” expresses that all she wanted was to be special, and she finally got a chance to feel that way with Joseph. The writer of the “Dirty Crumpled Letter” brings attention to how despite what Joseph says, he *doesn’t* actually view Selena (or any of these women) as special, saying that there is a pattern of him “using up and throwing away” women. 

Although they are told that they are unique, their individuality is significantly downplayed, which no doubt psychologically plays a role in the ease in which these women are disposed of  and replaced. We see this in the callous way Joseph treats Lana’s body after her death, tossing it in to “disintegrate into the boiling muck” with the corpses of the mindless angels, despite her literally giving up her identity in order to become a part of the “family.” Also, the simple fact that he can “swap them out like they don’t have a brain of their own” (according to the writer of the “Dirty Crumpled Letter”) is quite telling of how he views them. He’s interested in how they fit this need for what a “Faith” should be, but not necessarily who they are as actual human beings. This focus on the idealized image of “Faith” is also something that’s corroborated in-game where his whole eulogy for Faith focuses on how devoted she was to him and how he changed her from being “lost and broken” to being ”angelic” and “perfect”--two words that suggest inhumanity and an unattainable ideal. This acts as a stark contrast to the more personal, humanized stories of John and Jacob.  To bridge off that idea, the level of disinterest in the actual person behind the name shows that the Seeds do not view or treat the Faiths like sisters or daughters or any kind of actual family member, despite the title. John disappoints Joseph in-game, but John does not have to worry about mysteriously vanishing and having a random guy show up the next day who Joseph calls “Brother John.” Faith does not have the same luxury.

These notes also give us more insight into how Eden’s Gate operated before the arrest. The fact that there was a specific spot set aside to “disintegrate” bodies--plus the fate of the Faiths as a whole--shows us that violence was most definitely happening before the reaping began, even if it was something that was happening behind the scenes. This should be apparent based on other things we see within the game (the cause of the arrest warrant, the video of Joseph removing the man’s eyes, the fact that the Cook was allowed to be a cult member in the first place, existence of angels and judges, etc.), but I know there are a couple NPCs that make it seem like Eden’s Gate were just kooky, peaceful neighbors before the arrest. While that might have been the image they presented to the public, it’s clear that the reality is that there was a dark undercurrent even before the reaping--Eden’s Gate was just able to hide it well.  

These notes also bring up some interesting questions regarding the attitudes of the Faiths. Finding the identity of the author of “A Confession” was something I was really curious about, since that could either provide us with a new dimension for Rachel, or give us valuable insight into the characterization of one of the previous Faiths, allowing one to have her own words and story expressed instead of just being relegated to the role of a “victim.” Based on the limited information presented in-game, I believe that the most likely writer of “A Confession” is Selena. The “Dirty Crumpled Letter,” where the writer tells Selena  about the history of the Faith position, could easily have been what triggers her doubts, especially since that letter indicates that Selena is very new to the role and hasn’t fully “lost herself” to the Faith position yet. The fact that the letter is “crumpled” implies that Selena was either upset or angry when reading it, which further connects to the idea that she’s experiencing emotional strife which may trigger her doubts. In the “Dirty Crumpled Letter,” the writer says, “God knows who you are, and so do you,” suggesting that Selena is religious. In “A Confession,” the writer is clearly religious as well, as the note is written out to God. 

The author of “A Confession” expresses genuine fear of Joseph due to having personal doubts about the project when she says, “What do I do? I know you will forgive me, dear Lord. I don’t know if Joseph will.” This is also supported by Faith’s eulogy, in which he mentions the previous Faiths weren’t as devoted as she was. This implies to me that the reason at least some of the Faiths may have been killed was because they weren’t faithful enough to him and/or the Project. The fear expressed by the writer of “A Confession,” as well as how the individual women acting in the Faith role are viewed as disposable and replaceable in general, personally makes me fully believe Faith in-game when she expresses fear of Joseph and says she was threatened in the past.  Given how her predecessors were treated, why wouldn’t she have some level of fear? 

Still, the role itself is obviously very important to Joseph, hence why he keeps filling the slot with different women. So, why is that? What’s he hoping to achieve? Why is it so important that there’s a Faith? This paragraph is going to veer a bit into speculative territory (and like I mentioned earlier, this is all just my opinion), but I think the answer for that ties into the previous few points: he’s looking for someone who embodies the concept of faith. And as for why that's so important to him, all we need to do is think about his conversation with us in Jacob’s region. Joseph had a really shitty and painful life, but there was one bright spot after he and his brothers were split up: his wife and daughter. As far as we’re aware, the mysterious Mrs. Seed was the first female presence in his life to genuinely love and care for him. What personal characteristic does he keep emphasizing about his wife? Her faith. When he experienced personal doubts, her faith was there to ground him. She provided him with a feminine, stable, unconditional devotion that he never experienced before, one I feel he tries to replicate in creating these Faiths, and this becomes their main source of value to him. She provides that accepting essence to both him and the Project as a whole. This is why he constantly emphasizes the importance of Faith, both the concept and the person. And yes, this is an incredibly unhealthy viewpoint to have. 

I spent a lot of time talking about Joseph because he’s the one mentioned in these notes, but there are some implications here for John and Jacob as well.Given their personal connection to Joseph and high rank in the group, they are most certainly aware of what’s going on, which makes them complicit to some degree  in what is happening to the Faiths. If they have any personal qualms, we don’t know about it. While there is NPC dialogue that indicates Jacob is upset when John dies, and that Faith is upset when John dies, we have no indication that either of the brothers is personally upset about Faith. One of the NPCs says, “Jacob would happily sacrifice everyone and everything in Hope County to feed Joseph's Collapse. He doesn't care about Faith.” The only time John mentions her is when he says he treats his followers better than she treats her angels. While I wish there was someone that Faith could genuinely have a close, honest friendship with, that unfortunately does not seem to be the case here.

And...I think that’s it! Wow, that was a lot longer than I thought it would be. Faith’s perspective is so interesting and unique, and really fascinating to analyze. I realize this post doesn’t exactly paint the Seeds or Eden’s Gate in the most flattering light, but it’s fully possible to love all these characters while acknowledging the bad things they did. Believe it or not, Joseph’s my second or third favorite character, lol. 

[synthmusic91]

thoughts? kjfhlkjdfh asking bc i rb'd the original post from u a bit ago because i agreed w/ original poster but i just saw this rb of it and wanted to know what u thought. ciaran(.)tumblr(.)com /post/652413157345820673/there-is-a-genre-of-posts-thats-obsessed-with-the

well first of all i hope this isn't a bait ask. this reply really doesn't deserve the time and effort i put into refuting it, but there was a point in time when i was emotionally confused by these..."arguments", so whoever u are, anon, i hope this is helpful. i also recommend some distance - literally, "go outside and touch grass", which is a lot more difficult than it sounds, but it needs to be done. anyway, here's my "analysis":

for context, here's what the post in question said:

and the tags:

at a high level, we can see that what ciaran is saying doesn't really respond to what OP was talking about. for this reason, i'm not going to bring in much of what OP said, because it's uncontested in this context, and look at ciaran's reply. i'll try to break this up...

EDIT: i had a long-ass response here, but then i realized it was dumb because the source material is dumb. i cut out most of it, but here are the highlights.

"there is a genre of posts that’s obsessed with the notion that fandom is something much larger, more prevalent, and more able to affect the way media is processed and consumed, than it actually is in reality."

so, as we can all see on tiktok and, indeed, on the electronic lore olympus billboard that takes up a side of a literal skyscraper, fandom is no longer the niche thing that "fandom olds" make it out to be. also, we can't ignore how many (white) fandom players go on and work in the industry (cassandra clare, whoever wrote 50 shades, man idk much of anything so there's probably many more). so this comment is sort of myopic. and since this is what characterizes the rest of the reply, well...it's not great.

also don't look up lore olympus; it's basically a dd/////lg fanfic that happens to be one of the most popular series on the line webtoon app, which is rated for teens...and for $1 to the creator's patreon, you can view not sfw p*dophilic art, so. also obviously i didnt do that; there was a video essay about this. i can't find it though

"ironically but understandably, these posts are made by people who are so terminally fandom-poisoned that they ascribe phenomenal power to it, and think of it as some great evil that must be defeated (by making posts on tumblr, which is obviously a very influential thing to do)"

"fandom-poisoned" is such a nebulous term, especially since it appears to mean "has had some really significant, (in this context) bad experiences with fandom." this is, first of all, a huge assumption to make about a stranger, and second, not the own they think it is. i'm just going to link this post, and hopefully you can see how it relates.

anyway, the "making posts on tumblr is meaningless" is um...interesting, seeing as off the top of my head i can think of two very influential tumblr blogs that talk about really important issues, Gradient Lair and Red Light Politics. I don't know as much about Red Light Politics, but Gradient Lair is frequently cited by academics (not getting into academia nonsense now but... -_-). also, they sound more pissed that the original post did gain traction, but whatever. this paragraph doesn't really make sense, but nothing here does, because i wasn't given much to work with.

"...and then because these people have basically no imagination and unfailingly pick on others for their own faults, they project their own experiences on everyone they perceive as being more ‘in fandom’ than them,"

jesus christ. i'm going not say anything about the tone of this because i put too much effort into this for some rando to call me a cyberbully.

i think what they're thinking about is how there appear to be some "fandom critical" people who try to, holistically, "ruin everyone's good time" by "stirring up drama" about popular fandom artists/writers/whoever else idk. oftentimes these people will also make jokes about fandom whatever, seemingly picking on random people's interests.

however, if you look at the long history of fandom racism, fandom's normalization of p*dophilia, and even general fandom harassment, and then you look at fandom's visceral, unwarranted reaction to criticism regarding these things, you can quickly see that disillusionment towards fandom is entirely reasonable. as for the joking, well...this an oversimplification but not everyone needs to like what you like. it sounds like they just need to get over themself.

and go “You, a 27 year old queer blogger who is into [tv show/anime/movie] an embarrassing amount, are now going to be the face of Capitalism” with no self-reflection or critical thought given to how fucking cringe it is-"

so, i'm regretting putting so much effort into this because this is so fucking long and i have to analyze this nonsense...it feels like i'm back in my feminist thought class. nightmarish. but anyway, this seems to deal with- [CUT FOR LENGTH. nothing important was missed].

EDIT 2: actually here's a summary of what I had. it deserves better than to be a response to this nonsense, but first it detailed how this took 1. the op's post and 2. a comment that we don't even know if op agreed with and misinterpreted that, and threw quite a fit about this- and i hate to say this because this term is misused so often by redditors, but- strawman.

I then went on to discuss how, for example, PoC can uphold systems of white supremacy. while obviously no person of color is going to be the "face" of white supremacy, the discussion still needs to be had, especially within that group. similarly, while fandom constituents may not be the face of capitalism, there needs to be a discussion, within fandom, on how they support and are defined by capitalist (and other) systems.

it was really too good of a point to be making for this trash reply. I could go say more, but I'm still trying to stay on topic, unlike ciaran.

"to act like random people on the internet, end users with no influence over corporate decisions, are the ones personally responsible for the fact that late-stage capitalism has destroyed popular art and culture in an increasingly sordid attempt to make money."

we've been over the "no influence" bit - because in fact fans do have influence, especially since media creators are literally fans, etc etc. i'm tired of people acting like they have no power and using that as an excuse to support and perpetuate harmful, easily avoidable behavior.

also, to act like the nebulous system of late-stage capitalism is the only cause of bad media is ludicrous. first of all, someone has to make these so-called "corporate decisions", and the people making artistic decisions are, again, overwhelmingly members of "fandom." this comment is really trying to keep marvel trash and lore olympus-esque nonsense in the same atomic, indivisible category lest someone catches a whiff of nuance.

"the above post is a great example of this phenomenon because op admits freely that they only think fandom is destroying media because they have been spending more time in fandom and thus have an over-inflated sense of its importance in greater culture. posting your own Ls indeed."

i'm so tired. this person literally has 120 works on ao3 like...who is spending more time in fandom.

and the tags:

#i assure you that fandom has no bearing on my actual real life #and if it does on yours. then that is your problem #it's also a very funny problem to

now this is just egregiously tone deaf. you do not need to do more than a cursory google search to find a bottomless well of examples of fandom harassment, threats, doxxing, and violence, much of which is racially motivated. you can see why it would be bad to make fun of this. 

also the way that “fandom has no bearing on their actual real life“...120 fanfics on ao3. 120.

conclusion:

the reply clearly misinterprets of op's point, and as such, does not refute it. they responded to another issue altogether, which is that of the sanctity of their ~coping mechanism~ or whatever it is. their argument in this respect was, in my opinion, delusional and pathetic, especially given that they wrote it on someone else's unrelated post.

FINAL NOTE: i cut out lots of this because the reply went in so many different directions, so some stuff might not make sense. let me know if you have any questions.

[jmsharrow1023]

Communication is Key

My Team Oral Health experience has been filled with presentations and written deliverables. I was so excited to find out in our first meeting that we would be working together to create a policy proposal for dental-professionals to be able to administer the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, influenza (flu) vaccine, the potential COVID-19 vaccine, and any future pandemic vaccinations. As a future pharmacist, I was ecstatic to see the connection between the work we would conduct during the semester and the potential downstream effect we would have in vaccination rates. 

We started off the semester researching how oral health was important to our overall health. We each were assigned an associated disease to research the correlation between poor oral health and the given disease state. I explored the recent literature about the association between poor oral health and Alzheimer's disease. We each presented our findings in an oral PowerPoint presentation the following week. 

It was difficult but also fun to come at this presentation from a public health angle rather than from a sharp chemistry based approach. I was used to focusing on the steps of pathways from a chemical and biological perspective from my undergraduate experience. I took the time to revamp my presentation to be targeted to my group members and preceptors in a way to briefly convey my findings. All of our group members came up with the need for prevention of periodontal disease progression and promotion of oral healthcare services as our ending points. 

Our next oral presentation was on our research into the dental-professional administered vaccination policies of Oregon, Illinois, and Minnesota. I talked about the different language used in each policy and the difference in clarity and room for interpretation. I also discussed who was involved in the writing of the bill as well as who signed and sponsored the bill. Minnesota left much room for interpretation in their policy. Oregon did a really nice job in framing their policy for extreme clarity. Oregon is the only state to have a policy in place that allows dentists to administer both the HPV and flu vaccination. Illinois and Minnesota only allow dentists to administer the flu vaccine and only to adults. This oral presentation was more discussion based since we all individually researched and reported on the same topic. The audience in this case was our preceptors, Dr. Brian, Kelsey, and Brady and our goal in our communication was to prove our understanding of the other states’ policies. 

We next individually researched and reported on the dental and dental-hygienists practice acts for North Carolina and became familiar with the North Carolina legislative site. My reporting on these was that they did a great job of explaining the duties, requirements, and consequences for both dentists and hygienists. I did add that within the hygienists practice act they used the pronouns she and her when referring to the hygienist and how we should avoid stereotypes in our policy writing. Our preceptors explained that these acts have been in place for a long time and that there is a need to go through and correct these gender biases. 

One of our group’s deliverables was a blog post for the NCOHC website. We worked with Brady to address the NCOHC community audience in an appropriate way. We wanted a catchy headline to draw people in to read the post. He also told us to keep paragraphs short so people actually read the whole post and keep sentences less than 20 words. We also took note to avoid jargon and overly complicated explanations. 

It was interesting working with a team to create a single blog post since we all have very different styles of writing. We each took different sections of the post and wrote those individually. We then met and tried to match the style and voice throughout the whole piece. After we met with our preceptors to review the piece we had created they gave us some suggestions and edits, which I then changed and sent back to them. We received an email from Brady when the blog post was up on the NCOHC website and I was so excited to be able to share it with my family and friends. 

Our final group project brought everything we’ve done throughout the semester together. We created a policy draft for dental-professional administered vaccinations. We had to shift to a more sophisticated voice in our writing of this piece. We again split up the sections to each complete a part individually. Astha and Amanda worked on the purpose and background, while Alexis and I worked on framing the policy provisions. 

In our final meeting, we met with NCOHC’s lobbyist, Ben Popkin, for a legislative bill drafting session. This meeting was hilarious because the four of us prepared a written proposal and thought we were just going through it with Ben. However, the meeting was actually intended to be a mock presentation to legislators. Surprise! This definitely challenged us to think on our feet and adapt to an unexpected situation. 

I am really going to miss working with this group. I think we have been a really good team. It is refreshing to be a part of a group where everyone contributes and pulls their weight. 

Competency F19: “Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation”

[prisma-does-things]

My Interpretation of Daganronpa V3′s ending (plus extra goodies)

Hey everyone! Long time no see, but I think I may finally have time to do things regularly now. I’m gonna try and split this blog across Writblr/Fic, Danganronpa, and Edits so we’ll see how this goes, lol. I’ll have a new intro out sooooon!

Anyways onto what you clicked for:

This is a compilation theory of my interpretation of DRV3’s ending. I can justify why I think anything I say here if you want me to, but if I wrote down evidence for everything here it’d literally be 100 pages long so if you wanna discuss just ask me! Some of these things are just straight up indulgent but that’s the fun of interpretations!

1 | The Beginning of Team Danganronpa

After the events of DR3, and I mean LONG after the events of DR3--like at least a century--Hope’s Peak Academy has been diluted into a small and insignificant government program, totally out of the way of society. Talent isn’t as much of a big deal anymore and everyone’s chill now. The concepts of hope and despair, Junko and company are reduced to stories and paragraphs in history text-books.

Eventually, and slowly, the stories of the killing games entered into the world of fiction. The idea of the ultimate clash between Hope and Despair was quite enticing, and so Team Danganronpa was created to make these ideas come to life on the screen.. Reenactments, roleplays, museums, you name it and Team Danganronpa had a part in it. The hardships of the past lead to inspiration for the people of the present. Hope and despair became little aesthetics and concepts for people to attach themselves too, like coping mechanisms. 

However, as society grew to appreciate this, it grew more and more perverse. The reenactments became more and more realistic, and the people consuming it cared less and less about the specifics. All they cared for was the mindless and constant clash between Hope and Despair. Good or bad. It wasn’t even despair that society was experiencing, more like a perverted sense of sentimentality. If it sounds like I copied that I did, that quote was from Undertale.

2 | The New Killing Game

Anyways, at the rate things were going, it was inevitable that Team Danganronpa would eventually start recreating killing games using actual students, probably a combination of scouted out individuals and volunteers with actual murders. Remember that this is a society that bounced back from a near-end of the world decision, they’re all recovering, even the kids that were raised by the survivors. 

And please note that when I’m talking about the society in the Danganronpa world I don’t think that it applies to the fandom AT AL. In fact I think the society in DR is the exact opposite of the fandom, but let’s keep going.

3 | Rantaro’s Plan

We really don’t know the amount of ‘Seasons’ there’s been, but we’ll just call this one ‘Season 52’. Season 52 stares a whole new story continuing from the ‘fictional’ stories of Hope’s Peak. The only two members of this group that we know are Rantaro Amami...and Kaede Akamatsu, the two that chose to sacrifice themselves at the end of the 52nd killing game. Rantaro and Kaede both get survivor perks for their troubles, and the other two survivors are allowed to have their memories replaced so they can return to society with their sanity. Rantaro and Kaede can leave to the real world too, but they will be brought back for the next season, which is planned to be a sequel featuring them as the fan favorites.

Luckily for Rantaro, this is the perfect situation for his plan to destroy Team Danganronpa for good. Everyone else in the world is generally repulsed by Team DR’s actions, but their reliance on them is too great for them to break away or do much of anything.

He starts out by getting in contact with Kaede’s twin sister, we’ll just call her Haru as a temporary name. Rantaro needs to pitch a good plot for the next season, since it’s a sequel he’ll have the advantage in knowing where everything is, including the one weakness of the seasons mastermind. Because Kaede, being positive and bright, and Maru, being cynical and rude, are polar opposites, a twin vs. twin plot seems like the perfect thing to pitch to Team Danganronpa. 

In addition Rantaro also adds Shuichi Saihara and Tsumugi Shirogane to his little squad. Shuichi’s mind is analytical, but he lacks confidence. Rantaro knows Team DR enough to predict what they’ll do with him, so he becomes Rantaro’s backup. He adds Tsumugi only because she and Kaede were dating-A and he thinks she’ll make a good first victim, letting Rantaro get a bit more time to find the mastermind and convince the world to fight against Team DR.

 4 | Scouting of the other members

Before any of this, back when he was recording his Survivor Perk, he made sure to structure it in a way that would motivate a Rantaro in a killing game to get out and survive another game so he could try again. He really wanted to cover all of his bases, he was dealing with a huge corporation by now after all.

In another sect, Kaito Momota and Maki Harukawa, who are both dating, join in with Rantaro’s idea. And, somewhere entirely different, a prince by the name of Kokichi Oma, and his personal maid, Kirumi Tojo, are both scouted and kidnapped by Team Danganronpa for the next killing game. A shy but sweet mechanic whose father is friends with the Queen of the kingdom, Miu Iruma, decides to volunteer.

After much planning from Rantaro’s group, they strategically get everyone in the 53rd killing game, lying on their audition tapes...well-everyone except for Maru. Team DR accepts the whole twin vs. twin plot, and they start modification of the sets, making them seem dilapidated and old to show a passage of time. Right on the cusp of the plans success, Kaede succumbs to her guilt. After seeing the horrors of the killing game her spirit is broken, and soon before the game’s beginning, she commits suicide. The final note she leaves to her sister asks her to end the killing games, despite their differences. 

Without a twin to complete the plot, Team DR is forced to improvise. They bring out a beta for a project they were planning, a robot named K1-B0, or Keebo. Keebo’s purpose was to be the audience's eyes, something suggested by Miu to give her friends an advantage in ending the game. 

5 | The Start of Season 53

Finally, the killing game starts. 

The 16 students are brought to Team DR one way or another. Maru is especially shocked, as she’s never participated in a killing game before, but is treated like she did. Everyone’s memory is replaced, save for Rantaro who’s allowed to keep a set few memories that would’ve worked well for the sequel plan. Everyone wakes up in the lockers, with Maru waking up next to Shuichi, now forced to take the identity of Kaede. She tries to get the hang of her sister’s personality, as we see in pregame, but eventually her entire identity is replaced with a Flashback light when she receives her talent. You could also describe it as an Ultimate Revival if you wanted to. Maru becomes Kaede Akamatsu, now able to fulfill the role that her sister is now unable to.

After the events of the prologue (Which is called Ultimate Revival by the way, I don’t want you to miss that wordplay) Tsumugi wakes up in a locker, right next to Keebo. Something not even Rantaro accounted for happened, Tsumugi was chosen to be the mastermind. Not Kokichi or even himself like he was expecting. However, Team DR saw Tsumugi as a perfect candidate for a mastermind, as her obsession with fiction was seen as relatable. She was a perfect reflection of what society had become.

Tsumugi’s mind was barely touched by the Flashback lights, but all of her relationships with her friends and girlfriend were replaced. Upon waking up and seeing Keebo, he explains to her that they’re currently in a spaceship that was supposed to take off ages ago and the outside world is inhospitable. Panicking, she sets K1-B0 into it’s ‘friendly’ mode and lets him go off and talk with the others, entirely forgetting about his set role as a future traitor, as well as the Flashback Light machine. 

However, K1-B0 was set to teach the mastermind how to do their job, and now without that information in their memory, Tsumugi doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. All she knows right now is that she has some involvement with the mastermind. As a result, the Monokubs, another set of helpers, also have no idea what they’re doing and have to rely on Monokuma, an AI the mastermind can’t control, for instruction.

6 | Tsumugi as the Mastermind

Tsumugi ends up wandering around, stopping and staring at an odd dragon statue. That’s when Shuichi and Kaede find her in-game. Tsumugi can’t explain why, but Kaede touching her cheeks made her feel all fluttery inside. After their ‘first’ interaction together, Tsumugi takes note of the big round ball in the dragon’s hand. 

The first motive, The First Blood Perk, comes around, along with the time limit soon after. The pressure of this definitely scares Tsumugi, but she wants to see Kaede get out okay, especially since she feels inspired by her.

At some point Tsumugi goes to the bathroom and discovers the hidden room entirely by accident. Once into the room with Motherkuma, she asks about the whereabouts of Kaede, and Motherkuma gives her details about her and Shuichi’s plan. Wanting to help out, but not wanting to seem suspicious, she gets about the bathroom a.s.a.p and goes back to blending in. She’s planning to get Kaede out as soon as she can, but she doesn’t know if she can do it.

Time goes on, and eventually that really loud music starts playing. Tsumugi knows Kaede’s gonna make a move, so she rushes to the hidden room in the library again and starts her own little plan. After stealing a shot put ball from the warehouse, something she did out of inspiration from the dragon, Tsumugi opens up the hidden door in the library to see Rantaro lying crumpled on the floor by the bookshelf.

Without thinking, she smashed the ball into Rantaro’s head and finished him off. She initially thought him to be the mastermind, but after checking his survivor perk she realizes that there’s a lot more to Rantaro, and this game, than she realizes. Desperate for more time to solve the mystery, she rushed back with everyone else to get on with the investigation.

7 | The First Trial

As the investigation rolled around, she started panicking. She formed a quick alibi in the form of her cospox, but planned to explain herself more in the class trial. She wasn’t quite ready to face reality yet. She knew Monokuma was supposed to punish her, so she let herself act like she was innocent until the time came. 

Once the class trial DID come around, she realized what Kaede was doing. Once Monokuma declared the voting right, she was confused, but took it as an opportunity to defeat the Mastermind. Her death made her distraught, but she bit her tongue and promised to solve it for Kaede’s sake.

The night of the Class Trial, she went back into her secret room when she was greeted by a Flashback Light. This one, on top of the one everyone else received, was built to make her be a more efficient mastermind. 

8 | The Trials After…

Trials 2-4 were largely the same. Just after each Class Trial, Tsumugi was given a different special Flashback Light to get her to question everything around her more, specifically targeting the idea that everything Danganronpa, including Hope’s Peak, isn’t actually real. Monokuma had been no help, fully content holding the truth over her and making her dance around to find it. I don’t have any idea what those Flashback Lights could’ve been, but I DO know that one of the ones meant for Tsumugi was nabbed by Angie in chapter 3. Tsumugi planned for her to find it, but didn’t expect her to destroy it.

By Chapter 4, Tsumugi asked Monokuma to show the “outside world” for the first time, confirming what Keebo said. During this time, she fully believed the scene outside to be real, mostly because she had no other evidence to disprove it. After this, Tsumugi decided to start a plan of her own that she’d enact by herself.

9 | Tsumugi’s Plan

Before getting a look at the Neo World Program in Chapter 4, Tsumugi used a Flashback light on herself to replace the memory of her seeing the outside world with her doing something else. This was because she needed a fresh reaction to seeing the outside world, but also because she needed to avoid Kokichi, who was definitely the closest to being able to figure her out and expose her.The other one she needed to keep an eye on was Shuichi, who could also figure her out if he ever caught his suspicions. In her desperation she never noticed the secret of the Flashback Lights, which lead to her replacing memories instead of erasing them like she was excepting. 

The next step of her plan involved her overhearing Kokichi and Miu’s plan to create the Electro hammers. She knew they’d be used to escape the ship at some point, and with a fresh reaction everything would be in place for the next step, which was getting Oma killed to give herself time to figure everything else out so she could finally come clean. Of course, since she really believed the world outside was destroyed, she really just wanted to trick everyone into not committing any murders. That just happened to mean getting rid of Kokichi. 

With all of this in mind, she wrote down her plan and used the Flashback light on herself. After having her memories erased, she went through the game as normal until trial 4 passed. Luckily for her, it gave her just the motivation she needed to want to kill Kokichi. She wasn’t quite able to see through Kokichi’s mask, she was blinded by a mix of power, confusion, and rage by then. 

Immediately after trial 4, she was hit with her usual mastermind Flashback Light, however this one made her remember something extra important, the script of season 53.  

Tsumugi actually wrote herself a fake set of plans as part of her plans. That was the whole ‘script’ thing she was talking about in chapter 6. She set the plans up so that way she truly believed she was the mastermind. She was taking the risk of Kokichi finding her, but she figured the confusion would throw off any secretive actions she could’ve done. The reason why she did this was to give herself confidence. If she made herself think that everything in her plan was already set to happen, she’d believe in herself enough to make it so. 

Going into Chapter 5 now, after seeing the outside world for the ‘first time’ she blended in with everyone else, but she did know that Kokichi wasn’t actually the Mastermind as she read the script she made for herself. Tsumugi didn’t plan for this, but it did help her out because it got everyone to go again Kokichi. 

After trial 5, and his sacrifice, Tsumugi was hit with her final flashback light. This one made her ‘remember’ her time as a part of Team Danganronpa. This didn’t mess with her plan too much, as she already knew that something would happen to her head before she made herself forget the secret of the outside world. However, after all of those lights..her head couldn’t take much more. There was too much stuff going on in her head, too many confusing contradictions for her to process. She ignored this originally because she thought that the Flashback Lights erased and created memories instead of replacing them, but it was too late. Keebo started destroying the academy, something she DEFINITELY didn’t plan for.

10 | The Final Trial

Without any way of solving the mystery of Team DR, she scrambled around and put together a class trial of her own, leaving the shot-put ball Kaede used in the trash for Shuichi to find later. All of her attempts came crashing down, but she was able to convince Monokuma to shamble together something to make season 53 end with a ‘good climax’. 

Trial 6 starts, and after Tsumugi’s found out as the mastermind, she uses a series of Nanokumas to help her cosplay. By now she believes that the stories of Hope’s Peak are fiction, so she’s able to cosplay them...and only them...all she wants. She doesn’t know anything about Team DR’s history, so she makes it all up, including the titles of the seasons, which she shambles together from her favorite fandoms. Monokuma plays along, and even adds in a huge audience set to make it look like everyone’s watching. In fact he’s so wrapped up in how good everything’s doing that he doesn’t realize Tsumugi’s baiting Shuichi into helping her.

During trial 6, she even brings up the motive that no one had a chance to see in chapter 5, the Pre-Game tapes they did when they were together ages ago. 

By presenting herself as an ultimate evil, Tsumugi took Shuichi’s will to find the truth and twisted it so that he’d end up finding what she wanted him to. She wanted Shuichi to discover the truth, that fiction can change the world. 

At the end of it all, Tsumugi allowed herself to be killed, succumbing to the after effects of the Flashback Lights and letting herself be consumed by the lies. Believing herself now to be some kind of replacement to Junko Enoshima, and thus a ‘cosplay-cat killer’, she allows herself to be killed and finally rest. She wanted to admit what she did more carefully, to say a final goodbye or at least hint to the fact that she meant to help them, but she couldn’t. 

Shuchi, Maki, and Himiko all survive, finally able to leave Danganronpa together. Team DR allows it, as it feels satisfying, but they do look forwards to seeing the 3 of them try to truly end Danganronpa for good. Tsumugi doesn’t know what’s on the other side of the End-Wall, but she trusts in her friends to face that truth.

11 | Conclusion 

And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this read/arrangement of evidence for what I think happened behind the scenes of Danganronpa V3! This took sooo much thinking it’s not even funny. Seriously I spent at least 4 full school periods doing nothing but thinking and taking notes. A lot of this is indulgent, specifically the parts with Kokichi being a prince and the whole Kaede + Kaede Twin Sister switch, I just thought those were neat. 

I didn’t say it there but I think that The Ultimate Talent Development Plan was actually two things. The first was a board game released alongside Season 53 featuring all the characters, and the second was actually a real program, sorta like the Izuru project. I don’t really wanna consider the implications of what this could do to my interpretation though, lol. 

But yeah, V3’s ending is really important to me. It upsets me wayy more than it should when people consider it to be stupid or lazy or insulting to the audience of the games. I think what they were trying to do with the ending was both stupid ambitious and super cool. Killing Harmony is like...my 2nd favorite piece of media ever. It’s so important to me, and as a storyteller I totally respect them for what they did with the ending. The idea of using the enjoyment of the franchise against the player was so brutal and effective for me. Danganronpa helped me grow as a person, and being undermined and told the emotional connection I had with everyone was all just bullshit hurt. Buuuut then Tsumugi and Shuichi helped me realize that even if it is just a bunch of silly bullshit, the emotional response that it gave me...and all the happiness I got from it, that’s all real. Ain’t no black and white bear taking that from me.

So yeah, thanks for reading.

Thanks for everything, Danganronpa.

[mcleemlis]

Writing/Posting Update: Sharing my writings from contests, scholarships, and more...

So I've been thinking about papers I've written for contests and scholarships in the last few years and how much time I've committed to such projects only to have a limited number of people read the finished product. While some of these essays are nothing to write home about (pun definitely intended!), I've been particularly proud of some of them, so I've decided that these essays should get another chance to see the light of day (or the internet) and be read by others. I'll be starting with an essay I wrote for the 2018-19 E.J. Josey Scholarship, which is organized by BCALA and held annually. While the scholarship committee typically only list 1-2 winners per a year, sometimes they give out additional scholarships if they have extra funding. I was a recipient of one of these additional scholarships, and I'll be sharing the essay I wrote for the scholarship in my next post. Hopefully I will continue to share essays from contests or scholarships I've applied for (whether I win or lose), as others might enjoy reading my perspectives on different topics or seeing example essays.

Another post(s) I am planning for the near future is related to the NISO Plus 2022 Conference. A couple of years ago I applied for a scholarship to attend the NISO Conference in 2021 and become part of their NISO Plus Scholars group for 2021. I had practically no idea what NISO did a couple of years ago, but I applied because at the time I was a staff member in an academic library and we didn't get much money for professional development, so I applied to many scholarships to attend a variety of professional development opportunities in an effort to expand my skills. While I haven't gained too many new skills through the NISO Scholars program, I have made some great connections across libraries, the publishing industry, and information technology industry that have helped me learn about topics that were barely on my radar previously, but definitely interest me. Okay, but what does this have to do with the post(s) I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph? Well the NISO Plus 2022 Conference is this week (Feb. 15 - 17), and I'll be attending it and presenting at it (I'm part of a panel session with other scholarship winners), and I thought it would be a good time to try writing about a conference I'm attending. So hopefully I'll have at least 1 post about the conference, but more if possible. Look out for these upcoming posts and wish me luck at keeping up with my blog and not setting unrealistic expectations for myself!

And here's some pretty moths for a change of pace:

-Michelle

[sbeach20]

Live Project report

Due to Covid we have not been able to go on placement therefore we have had three options all of which are a 1500 word report which are shown below. I decided to choose the third one which is the 1500 Evaluative Case Study as I haven't hd any experience in the industry yet. I have decided to do the live project report on Karen Fuchs as she is an architecture photographer and one of my favourite photographs I have come across!

I have now conducted the interview with Karen and it was a great experience. I learnt a lot about her and how she got to where she is today. The interview was done over WhatsApp and I recorded are telephone call as she was in Texas at the time. I decided to add a few more questions in the interview and changed some of the questions slightly compared to when I first wrote them out in the previous blog post. Here are the questions that I asked... 

Karen answered all the questions in great detail and thought they were really strong questions to ask. I think the most interesting answer Karen gave was to question 1 about her greatest achievement as a photographer. She was actually the first female photographer assistant in London ever! I thought that was a pretty big deal and the story that went along with how that came about was really interesting and unique. I also learnt in great detail about how she got to where she is today and the challenges she has faced in her career and how she has overcome them which I thought were really inspiring. 

Below are the answers Karen gave to my questions... 

Due to Covid its been really annoying that I haven't been able to physically assist and work with Karen because I would love to. Luckily she said that once she's back in the UK she will call me up and I can assist and work with her which I am really excited about, however I still thought this interview was a great experience and great insight into her life as a photographer that is extremely valuable and I learnt a great deal.

Now that I have the questions and answers I decided to write it up into a report after having a 1 to 1 with Ellen she said that it can't just be a list of questions and answers and actually needs to look like a report that's been written up where questions and answers are combined into a paragraph. This was what I came up with...

After writing this up I showed it to Ellen my lecturer and she began to read through it and instantly new I was dyslexic so we both agreed that I needed to go to a study support session which Im used to going to for my other essay’s this year and in first year and I know how helpful they are. Ellen said I needed to cut down the word count especially for the main bit were you discuss the questions and answers plus I needed it to read a lot better and not just look like oh here's one thing, then we moved on to this... and then we spoke about... it just means that it is a very rigid approach to writing and quite boring. I also needed to add self reflection at the end saying how I can use the information given to me for my final year at uni and beyond into the world of photography. 

So I had a session with study support which was extremely useful and we both went through my report and this is how it is looking now

This session was extremely useful. We began by looking at the introduction which before was about 250 words and this report is meant to be 1500 words max so the intro really needs to be around 150 so we decided to cut it down significantly and just cut out the unnecessary details. 

Then we moved onto the analysis of the questions and basically made them look a lot less blocky so that it flowed a lot better and didn't feel so rigid. So we got rid of ‘then we moved on to...’ ‘after this we then spoke about...’ which significantly cut down the words and we also grouped different paragraphs together which followed the same themes for example we combined the 1st and 4th paragraph together because they both talked about similar things with Andrew and Chalk Farm studios in London. This significantly cut down the word count dramatically. Other paragraphs were also combined. We also split the analysis of questions into two main sections technical and personal. Then the final paragraph before we went into the self reflection brings these two points together. 

Now because we had cut out so many words from the analysis and intro it allowed me to write up the self reflection which was broken up into three main sections. The first looks at the technical importance the second is more personal focusing more on assisting and then the final is more about being a nice person and not giving up. The main emphasis on the self reflection is to show HOW I will use this knowledge that she has given me into my work for now, third year and beyond. I think we made good progress in the self reflection however I feel I need to add more into the self reflection talking about HOW I'm actually going to implement what Karen told me so I will do this in the next session with study support. 

Final study support session (Below)

RED - INTRO 

BLUE - ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONS

ORANGE - SELF REFLECTION 

For the intro I decided to remove ‘I choose to interview Karen Fuchs who is a’ as it is not necessary and I can just jump straight into the introduction but apart from that I made very little change to the intro and now it is just over 160 words which I think Is perfectly acceptable for my intro I think it's clear and sets out the scene nicely. 

Then for the Analysis of questions we basically just went through and just cut out some words so it just became clearer and easier to read with no repetition but nothing crazy and re worded some sentences so they make more sense and aren't as clunky so they flow better...

Finally we went back over the self reflection which is where we made the most changes and added into how I am going to change my approach to photography because of this conversation / interview. We left the first paragraph mainly unchanged because we both thought it was strong and did exactly what you're meant to do in the self reflection. In the second paragraph I decided to add in some more HOW because we both agreed that it didn't have enough... so we included ‘In preparation for any internships I will ensure both my physical and digital portfolios are up to date.’ I also included at the end of the paragraph ‘if I get the opportunity to assist... researching the company or the photographer I will be working with, their locations and the role that's being asked of me.’ Then In the final paragraph I added about how ‘I will keep on top of new techniques by continuing the be a member of the AOP and attending talks and engaging in discussion forums.’ I also changed tenacity matters more than talent to tenacity matters just as much as talent as I don't want to piss anyone off, especially not my lectures!

[bluewatsons]

Richard M. Hays, The Rise and Fall of Authoritarianism in the Teaching of Medicine, 29 Einstein J Biol Med 49 (2013)

The spring of 1903 arrived in Baltimore on schedule, and the trees and flowers on the campus of the Johns College of Medicine were already in bloom. But the medical students scurrying to the amphitheater hardly noticed. Sir William Osler was waiting with a patient, and heaven forbid they should be late.

Sir William was a remarkable figure in the history of American medical education (Geyman, 1983). Born and educated in Canada, he did his graduate work in England, Scotland, Germany, and Australia. Following his arrival at Johns Hopkins, he reorganized the curriculum, combining the English system and the German internship and residency systems. There were two years of clinical clerkships, with small-group teaching at the bedside. Central to his teaching was his textbook: The Principles and Practice of Medicine (Osler, 1892). That day, he planned to discuss a section on cardiac dilatation. He had already mastered the lecture; he had written virtually every word of the book.

The students had spent the night memorizing the section, which focused on history and physical manifestations, since little was known at the time about disease mechanisms, laboratory findings, or treatment. Osler may have taken this avoidance of therapy to the extreme; indeed, Hogan (1999) wondered whether Osler had “paranoia antitherapeuticum baltimorensis.” Still, Osler remains among the immortals.

Osler eventually turned over the updating of his textbook to Henry Christian, who continued the practice of writing the entire text himself. Christian argued that “there is an advantage in presentation by a single author, who has studied the reports of others in the light of his personal knowledge and experience, and presents the various subjects with a unity of critical thought as is not possible in multiple authorship.” Authoritarianism indeed! Edition after edition appeared, with no outside contributors. Principles and Practice lost value, and finally ran aground.

Fortunately for American medical education, a new, multiauthored book under the editorship of Russell Cecil, Textbook of Medicine, appeared in 1927. Experts in their fields wrote each chapter, and disease mechanisms and therapy were in abundance. With Cecil’s work as a model, Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (Harrison, 1950) was published. Harrison’s book and similar texts are now used throughout the world.

Students and Residents

With the advance of the materials of medical education, we might ask about the students themselves. Here, a paradox appears: students at many schools continued to be subject to professorial authority, receiving rigorous and sometimes ruthless questioning and contributing few of their insights during the rituals of teaching. Dr. Sam Ziegler, Einstein Class of 2002, showed me the memoirs of his grandfather, Dr. Samuel R. Ziegler, who entered Case Western Reserve Medical School in 1936, and recalled the following experience (Ziegler & Ziegler, 1999):

I had another of those real hair-raising experiences to start off my sophomore year. One of the subjects we took was Pathology. Dr. Harold Karsner was the instructor. Dr. Karsner had the reputation of being very hard on students. I was again afraid that I was going to be the first to be called on with my name beginning with a “Z”. I prayed he would start with the “As” when we walked into the amphitheater for our first class. But what did he do? He started with the “Zs”. He called out “Ziegler!” And asked me a question that had something to do with syphilis and serology.

I finally replied, “Dr. Karsner, I don’t know.” I then stammered out some half-assed answer after a short pause during which Dr. Karsner continued to look in my direction. Dr. Karsner took another long drag on his cigarette, inhaled deeply and said “Ziegler, I don’t see how you can be so goddamn dumb.” You could have heard a pin drop in the amphitheater.

This state of affairs went on in our schools—perhaps not so colorfully—for a surprisingly long time. I, like many of my contemporaries, recall professors who were brilliant but seemed to delight in demolishing students. Students were not the only victims; interns and residents were driven to exhaustion by long hours of service and relatively little supervision. Indeed, it could be argued that when reform came, it started with the plight of the members of the house staff.

In 1957, interns and residents in New York City’s public hospitals took leave of their roles as underpaid and over- worked apprentices in what has been termed one of the “last great sweatshops in America” (Duncan, 1996), and founded the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR). In 1969 they were joined by house staffers in the private sec- tor. In 1999 the CIR won a National Labor Relations Board decision guaranteeing residents in private teaching hospi- tals the right to form unions. The CIR went on to negotiate contractual limits for on-call schedules, benefit plans, and higher pay.

Figure 1. The learning studio at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. This is a building designed to accommodate students gathered around conference tables, and conferring with each other on the answers to questions projected on the screens above. Permission to reprint granted by Norman Shafer (University of Virginia Magazine, spring 2011, pp. 36–37).

The movement gained strength following a tragic event in 1984, in which Libby Zion, an 18-year-old girl with a complex history of drug use, was admitted to a New York hospital with fever and agitation. The admitting intern was beset with other patient problems, and Libby died of cardiac arrest. Her father, Sidney Zion, a journalist, took up her cause and “set in motion a series of reforms, notably work hour limitations instituted by the ACGME that have revolutionized modern medical education” (Lerner, 2006). Dr. Bertrand Bell of Albert Einstein College of Medicine headed a panel of experts that recommended that residents could not work more than 80 hours a week or more than 24 consecutive hours.

The Medical Curriculum

There has been a profound and heartening change in the approach to teaching medical students, brought about by a deeper understanding of the teaching process and a greater respect for the ability of the students to teach themselves and each other. After all, they are college graduates, and have already gone through a meaningful pro- cess of achievement and reflection. One need only survey the home pages of our medical schools to appreciate the variety and imagination that have gone into their curricular design. A list of some of the newer programs would include the following:

Earlier encounters during the preclinical years with patients, who share their stories with students.

Problem-based learning, in which students work in small groups to deal with scenarios designed to simulate real-life cases.

Evidence-based medicine, in which students learn to evaluate new drugs and new findings in the search for effective therapies.

Students-as-teachers programs, in which third- and fourth-year students take on the role of teachers for small groups of first- and second-year students. This program has been in use at Einstein, and has been favorably reviewed by both teachers and students.

The opportunity for students in their clinical training periods to return to basic science in the form of class- room teaching during their work on the wards. Also, at Einstein, under the guidance of Dr. Jeffrey Avner, students taking pediatrics are asked to include a “basic science paragraph” in their admission writeups. This serves not only as a reminder of their preclinical studies, but as a means of giving their preceptors and attending physicians an update on the latest in the basic science of the disease at hand: the student as professor, if you will.

The opportunity for students to take an extra year or two to obtain advanced degrees in areas such as public health and business administration.

Team training, moving the student “toward being an effective and competent team player and not an individual achiever” (Morrison, Goldfarb, & Lanken, 2010), in preparation for the growing need for cooperative approaches to healthcare management (Figure 1).

Finally, the Internet. Many of our current students may have come from colleges where the Internet has played a major role in their education. At least two articles in the New York Times have surveyed the role of the Internet in today’s college education (Parry, 2012; Lewin, 2012). At the extreme, the Internet has supplied much of the information that students receive, has influenced their choice of courses, and has even identified appropriate partners for them in the learning process. Inevitably, the Internet is now having an impact on medical education. For example, the syllabus, a printed document so carefully assembled each year as the central source of information for each course, is on the Internet in many schools, and is only part of a flood of sources of information. And, as already noted, it plays an important role in the clinical years.

Some of the programs listed above should, in theory, increase the collegiality among students and the attending physicians and house staffers responsible for their education. But it appears that this is not entirely the case. A recent nationwide poll conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges (2012) showed that a substantial percentage of students still encountered what they regarded as mistreatment, including public humiliation and gender-based discrimination. More work must be done in this area, which may extend beyond the limits of medical education.

Conclusion

This brief commentary has taken us from the early days of medical education, when a few authorities dominated the source of medical knowledge, to the computer age, when students and teachers share the information provided by the Internet. But rest assured: teachers still have much to contribute in terms of experience, perspective, and examples of kindness toward patients seeking their help. Sir William Osler would be grateful to know this.

References

Association of American Medical Colleges. (2012). Medical school graduation questionnaire. Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/data/gq

Bell, B. M. (2003). Reconsideration of the New York State laws rationalizing the supervision and the working conditions of residents. Einstein Journal of Biology and Medicine, 20(1), 36–40.

Cecil, R. L. (1927). A text-book of medicine, by American authors. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders.

Christian, H. A. (1942). Principles and practice of medicine, originally written by Sir William Osler, designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine (14th ed.). New York, NY: Appleton-Century.

Duncan, D. E. (1996). Residents: The perils and promise of educating young doctors. New York, NY: Scribner.

Geyman, J. P. (1983). The Oslerian tradition and changing medical education: A reappraisal. Western Journal of Medicine, 138(6), 884–888.

Harrison, T. R. (1950). Principles of internal medicine (1st ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Hays, R. M. (2004). Students as teachers: An idea whose time has come. MedEd @AECOM, 7(1), 1–3.

Hogan, D. B. (1999). Did Osler suffer from “paranoia antitherapeuticum baltimorensis”?: A comparative content analysis of The Principles and Practice of Medicine and Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 11th edition. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 161(7), 842–845.

Lerner, B.H. (2006). A case that shook medicine. Washington Post. November 28: Special Section.

Lewin, T. (2012). Universities reshaping education on the Web. New York Times, July 17, A12.

Morrison, G., Goldfarb, S., & Lanken, P. N. (2010). Team training of medical students in the 21st century: Would Flexner approve? Academic Medicine, 85(2), 254–259.

Parry, M. (2012). Please be eAdvised. New York Times Education Life, July 22, 24–27.

Osler, W. (1892). The principles and practice of medicine, designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine (1st ed.). New York, NY: D. Appleton.

Ziegler, S. R., & Ziegler, I. H. (1999). For the soul is dead that slumbers—A memoir: The adventures of a surgeon and his family in northern New Mexico (1946– 1996). Shreveport, LA: K’s KopyIt.

[betweenpaperpages]

Hear Me Still - Chapter Four

A new store-front is set to open on main street in Storybrooke and with it brings new resident Mr. Gold to the center of attention. While he looks forward to this new step in business, it is yet unknown if his deafness will set him back once again.

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[Chapter One] [Chapter Two] [Chapter Three]

Chapter Four: Home To Us

A week had passed since the antique shop opened, and while online sales were the same as always, Marcus had been pleasantly surprised at the attention it received. Since the town was so small he originally thought that first day or two would be busy but it seemed to hold their interest longer than a passing fancy. Though that could change at any time.

Jefferson and Grace had come back the next day to also help out, although, come Monday Grace had school and Jefferson had a deadline to meet with his next design project.

Marcus was on his own.

There were one or two instances that stood out to him. The first was with a older man named Marco. He was very pleasant company, clearly a staple member of the community as he owned one of the few restaurants around town. Marcus had to keep his eyes on the man’s lips the entire conversation. His speaking speed was good, but his faded Italian accent tripped him up from time to time, having to piece together what words he missed to gain the context of what was being said.

The second instance had been when Doctor Archie Hopper visited later in the week. Doctor Hopper was very polite as he browsed the shop, spending most of his focus on the selection of books. He chose three of them, however, when it had come time to pay, Marcus found the Doctor exceedingly soft spoken. Even with his hearing aids set at their highest sensitivity, it was still a whisper to him.

With the week now over, Marcus was glad to enjoy a Sunday off with his family to simply relax and enjoy themselves. The two of them had been intent in taking him around Storybrooke to better introduce him to the town he now called home.

xxxxx

Grace giggled, squirming on her dad’s back as she tried to escape her uncle’s tickling fingers on the back of her knees. “No!” she protested, releasing another giggle as Jeff hoisted her higher and more securely on his back.

“Not fair unless I can enact my revenge!”

“Is that so?” Marcus questioned, his eyebrow raised in doubt.

Jefferson nodded in agreement. “I’m afraid she is right.”

“No, no, I’m afraid she’s not,” he pointed out. “I recall in section a, paragraph twelve that there is a clear clause that states an exceptions for uncles. As seeing that I am your only uncle, I claim and reserve my right to that exception.”

“No fair!” “Yes fair,” Marcus replied, grinning at his adoptive niece.

Jefferson released his daughter, letting her slide off his back to land on her feet. “Now children,” he scolded in amusement, his smirk expression fondness.

“She started it.” “Did not!” Grace crossed her arms over her chest in a mock-pout, but there was clearly no animosity behind it.  

Marcus smiled brightly, wondering for a moment if this is the life he would have had, had he not chosen the path he did. A wife, a child of their own, living in some quiet town to make sure their little one had the best chance in life…

It was a pretty dream and one he could have had achieved if his life wasn’t such a mess, but he had chosen what was right for him at the time. If he hadn’t, there was no telling where he would have ended up, however; he was pretty sure he was where he was meant to be.

The three of them took a sharp turn as they headed into the town’s bed and breakfast known as “Granny’s” for lunch, Marcus surprised that not only was Granny a real person, yet that she insisted that everyone call such.

They sat at a table at the front of the diner, Marcus’ eyes focused out the bay window it faced to take in the pedestrians walking past. The idea of living in a town where everyone knew everyone was a new concept to him compared to where he had lived previously in Boston. There you were lucky if you knew your next door neighbor or the local barista at the coffee shop, where he lived before that was quite the same, such was big city life.

Soon enough a plump older woman greeted them with a notepad in hand, her glasses sitting low on the bridge of her nose as she studied them.

“What can I get for you today?”

“Ooh! Granny, can I have cola and a grilled cheese please?” Grace asked, leaning her head backwards over the chair to look at her.

“Of course,” she answered, poking Grace’s nose before the girl sat up properly. “Jeff?” she asked, taking on his order as well. “And yourself?”

Marcus’ eyes were focused on the menu in front of him, scanning over each item with consideration, startling when a hand grabbed his elbow. He jerked back in surprise only to catch that it was Jefferson touching him.

“Did you decide?” Jeff questioned gently, releasing his hold.

“Um…just... the same as yours.”

Granny nodded decisively. “Two ice teas, one cola, two burgers and one grilled cheese.” She wrote a strike on the pad before heading off to the kitchens.

“You alright?” Jefferson questioned.

Marcus nodded, more so to reassure Jefferson than himself. It was just yet another slip up of his condition; it wasn’t the first time it had happened and certainly not the last.

The food was actually quite good. Grace only stole two of his pickle spears when she thought he was distracted, claiming innocent when he attempted to find them. The mock-investigation had sent both her and Jefferson into a fit of laughter.

As their meal came to an end he found himself losing more and more words. He thought he simply didn’t catch what Granny had said when she came for the dishes and left the bill, as she was turned away from him. However, when Jefferson started to speak it was harder to understand him. Marcus caught the general idea of what he was saying, though his eyes focused more and more on reading his lips. Static built up in both of his ears before nearly everything around him silent.

“Uncle Gold?” Grace questioned, pulling on his sleeve when he didn’t offer her eye contact.

His attention snapped to her. Grace gestured to her Father, spotting a confused looking Jefferson.

He pointed to Marcus before his own ear, placing his hands in front of himself, his right hand palm up while the left was palm down, rotating them so they flipped their positions before pointing back to Marcus.

Marcus nodded, slumping back in the booth with a heavy sigh. He didn’t have any spare batteries with him or at the shop, so he would have to wait until they got home to address it.

“Papa, can we go get ice cream?” Grace asked, hopeful eyes turning on Jefferson.

He chuckled, reaching over to ruffle his daughter’s hair. “Only if I can have a double scoop pistachio, and a bite of yours.”

Jefferson looked back to a subdued looking Marcus, quickly signing to ask about ice cream before heading to the park. While he knew he wasn’t fluent, he could still hold his own in a conversation, even when he had to finger spell longer words he didn't have a sign for. Even so the idea of ice cream didn’t seem to grab his friend’s interest, merely getting a nod in response.  

“Looks like its a go!” he announced.

Grace smiled as the three of them headed out of the diner, off to Any Given Sundae, stopping to walk backwards in front of her two guardians. She was still learning sign language from Marcus, having short lessons each week, but she was getting along quite well.

With a small girl walking backwards and attempting to sign at the same time it was easy for the three of them to gain others attention. Marcus felt his cheeks flush as a group of three young women walked past with their eyes on them. Catching a glance across the street only gave way to more audience.

Typically he was more than happy to help Grace or correct her when she struggled, but with what felt like too many eyes on them, he wasn’t interested in becoming a show. He only stopped for a moment to kneel down to allow his niece to climb onto his back to make the rest of the trip as quickly and as unnoticed as possible.

Chapter Notes:

Jefferson’s first sign asks if Marcus’ hearing aid batteries are dead.

The gesturing to the ear denotes the subject matter (the hearing aids), the hands rolling for the sign “dead” (think of ‘rolling over in one’s grave’), and pointing back to Marcus establishes the noun.

In ASL, nouns are often stated twice, especially when asking a question. If you do not interpret this into English, the ASL breaks down to: “Your hearing aid dead you?”

Author Note:

I personally find that ASL grammar is similar to Yoda’s speech pattern. Straightforward, easy to identify nouns and subjects, and without a great deal of filler words. (100% my opinion, not meant to be demeaning to those who use ASL or the deaf community.))

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[harvey17124018]

Project essay

Harvey

Westwood

28 November 2017

Harvey Westwood.

Graphic communication

Beginning of the project will put into groups where we chose individual poems to analyse and pick apart under the categories of summary context meaning syntax Synaptics and structure this small project I chose the poem meeting at midnight by Robert Browning this poem shortly describes a man’s journey to get to his love through secrecy. In this short analysis I learnt how not just the poem can influence My design stuff for context where the poem was written in June 2016 at the same time that same-sex marriage was starting to be legalised in America this puts a twist on how we may receive this poem has not been a poem between a male and female but maybe of two men or two women. Learning different ways to approach a brief allows me to come up with different ideas and find inspiration.

After this I’ll began the first of my two briefs which was international poetry day I was to design an aid to interactive poster advertising a selected Poet learning what I have from the previous poetry task I set out to look for a poem to deconstructive and was I came up with the poem Valentine by carol ann Duffy this poem is about how one person presents and onion as a valentines present to there other half and the poems context is of our how they describe the onion to be this beautiful and romantic item. To start this project I wanted to look at the onion in a lot more detail I started by doing some simple sketches of an onion and start describing and thinking of ways to be using this item in the form of design. What are gathered from the poem was that the onion was converted to romantic items such as a rose and the moon I wanted toIncorporate this into my design I initially thought of editing a flower to look like it was blossoming and onion or two rearrange the night sky so that the moon was an onion on further thought looking at this I didn’t want to make too much of an artistic approach to the way that I was designing this work knowing that my skill set my photo shop was intermediate are not experts I do not wish to bite off more than I can sa incorporate this into my design I initially thought of editing a flower to look like it was blossoming and onion or two rearrange the night sky so that the moon was an onion on further thought looking at this I didn’t want to make too much of an artistic approach to the way that I was designing this work knowing that my skill set my photo shop was intermediate are not experts I do not wish to start editing or making something that wouldn’t look professional. Otherwise I looked at researching was experimenting with wordlists where I described the onion in which I found the word layers this point was very important to me because I found that I could use this word in particularly to revolve around how I wanted to design. Shortly after this we did a small project where we used the risograph printer, within this project we use the scrap piece of paper and material to make a quick and simple collage design which we would then scan in to the risograph Printer to get a feel for how it works and what are the facts and designs they can create. What I gathered from this technique was that the printer allows you to merge different layers of design and colours where you have stuck down the photo and some text may look like they don’t belong together but through the riser graph they have merged in a duotone print. This immediately made me want to incorporate what I’ve looking into with the National poetry Day poster. When designing to use the riser Graaf what I forgot to consider was how the dark colours within the photo get turned to complete black when transferred through the printer my designs came over the contrast and therefore lacked context as to what the images were. After this I proceeded to look at different ways to approach this brief fixated on this duotone style breaking image down to two tones.

As the middle to the development stage of the project I made scamps using a simple read technique where I arranged three assets of type and one of image the type would consist of the poem name the poets name and the word onion then I would also include a photo of an onion edited with a euro to own filter After creating these initial designs and they’re just like in text I thought there was something missing and that the design felt a bit shallow and empty large spaces of colour and shape came with no context of a reason. Looking back at research I came across F you K yo after creating these initial designs and they’re just like in text I thought there was something missing and that the design felt a bit shallow and empty large spaces of colour and shape came with no contacts or reason. Looking back research I came across Fuku’s work from this I saw that text within a column arrangement worked well when being next to large shapes I then moved on to scampi out where I would arrange this text I found that if I wrote out the poem in paragraphs I could then columnise this within the poster. This led to my final design which worked of three tones yellow blue and white the palate was designed to keep very simplistic. I was happy with how the final piece going out, in the future I would of liked to of proceeded with this duotone design and maybe looked at different colour pallets to see how that would’ve worked.

Another project that run alongside this national poetry day project was an editorial piece where we designed A cover page and two double page spread for a magazine called architect. Working in class we deconstructed double bass friends that had been made by other companies such as Vogue and others. From this I learned that in editorial design I had to use the grid method as my backbone. When looking at other peoples work I clearly saw that the grid method of 3 x 3 was where most of the text and image sat on. After this I went out on a shoot around Birmingham photographing buildings and other key bits of architecture and construction I loved for clear lines within the photos of maybe the angle of a rooftop need to align other bits of design to these lines within the photo this way the photo with seamlessly work with the huge blocks of time I found to be difficult as the viewer couldn’t really tell that the text was lining up with the lines with in the photo after this I went for a different approach I worked with: structures where I would edit my photos to work with them and then the text would line up after that into columns of the own. With this I focused on experimenting and learning how to use drop caps avoiding mistakes by leaving out a widower at the end of the paragraph and also working with point Size and type hierarchy. This project I feel enlightened me to a completely new world of design I now have a new found respect for editorial design. If I had more time I would reshoot taking more photos and work on using lines with in photos that lineup with my arrangement of type within double page spreads.

Other tasks that I had throughout this five week period were the type Anatomy is more task took up 2 to 3 hours where I looked at key terms describing the anatomy of type such as counter serif leg spine and more. This knowledge will benefit me more when I come to designing my own typefaces in the future. After that we then received letterpress blocks where we had to measure out the individual letters and redraw them as accurately as we could. This allowed me to look at how angles and curvature is strongly influence the way the typeface is read. We also did another project where we focus our attention on storytelling through drawings and scams and how they can be useful when designing already knew the stamps were very important through the design process but this project was based on finding different ways to scamp, we sketched out single drawing that showed story. This was to show how mood boards and scans could be used to plan out ideas and also teachers want to include when stamping and making mood boards.

In the future I wish to learn more about different printing methods. I also wish to explore more photographic designs and do more club different briefs with other members of his garden such as illustrators and photographers. I have seen is introduction to visual communication as a brief insight to different parts of design.

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IDEATION AND CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

During my time in Ideation I studied the ways in which you can stimulate your mind into thinking more creatively. The ability to think creatively is “not a talent. It is a way of operating” according to John Cleese. I found that we can do different activities and we can go through different processes in order to train your mind into thinking more creatively.

Collaboration  

 In the Collaboration session we examined the way in which working together in groups and pairs can influence our mind into thinking more creatively. In class we worked together to construct towers made from toothpicks and marshmallows. We were challenged to see how high we could make the construction. Before we created it, we discussed our opinions and as a collective we formed an approach we wished to take when we started to make it. We had to take into consideration the weight aspect of the marshmallows as well as the time we had to complete the task. A quote from Twyla Tharp states that “people who are practiced in collaboration will do better than those who insist on their individuality”, this quote supports the idea of collaboration and suggests that those who are keen to work alone and are autocratic miss out on the heights you can reach working together.

   One way we can inspire creativity is by working in collaboration with other people as it allows us to open our mind up to other ideas, ideas that we may not be able to think of if we worked independently. When working collaboratively it is integral to the steps of ideation to listen to other opinions and to take them on board rather than neglect them. It is from this we are able to take ideas and improve on them. The ways in which we are able to improve on these ideas in a group is by brainstorming thoughts. We then draw the positives from all of the suggestions and can devise a way of which we can tackle the problem.

I believe collaboration is a very effective method of ideation as it allows you to optimise efficiency as well as creativity. The underlying theory of collaboration suggests that everything you do alone can be done better as a collective. Helen Keller says, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Working with peers allows you to also be more time efficient, the spare time gained from teamwork means you have more time to plan ideas. For example, when we attempted to make a toothpick and marshmallow phenomenon in class, we were able to compartmentalize jobs between the group. This meant that we were each able to focus on our own individual tasks allowing us to put more thought and care into what we were doing, resulting in better results.

Everyone has different life experiences. Working in a group is a hugely beneficial method of ideation as you are able to gain knowledge or ideas from peers. This can be reciprocated as collaboration involves giving ideas as well. We may have an idea which needs a lot of adjustment or maybe just a little refining, idea’s may also be incomplete. Those who collaborate effectively will be able to use the cumulative knowledge to their advantage. By working with others, you are able to get a better idea of what you are doing. Moreover, by working collaboratively you immediately have a larger skillset at your disposal and from working together weaknesses may become strengths.

A study shows that working with others benefits our motivation and we may get greater enjoyment from the task. This leads to higher levels of performance within the group. Getting feedback on idea’s may motivate an individual further as they can feel more confident and thus more creative with their work. Scientist, Gregory Walton said that “Simply feeling like you’re part of a team of people working on a task makes people more motivated as they take on challenges”. Problems can be solved.

The skills I have learnt from this class can be easily transferred to any type of collaborative work. For example, working in a group to construct a story will ask for the same skills such as communication, teamwork and decision making. I thoroughly enjoy collaborating with friends and peers on projects as I believe creativity flows at its best when you are able to give and receive feedback. It is from the constructive criticism we receive from peers that we are able to improve on ideas. I could possibly collaborate with someone in the future if I am unable to use a certain software. So, by finding someone to collaborate with who can use a particular software I would be extending the lengths that imagination and creativity could go.

                                                                                              Improvisation

 Another effective way of inspiring creativity is by improvising. In this class we went through a number of different exercises one of them being, “Fake it ‘till you make it”. The basis of this game is that you have to stand in front of the group and attempt to talk like an expert in whatever topic you are given. We also played a game called Statements and Questions. The game involves two teams and every round one player is selected to go face to face with a member of the opposing team. They are then given one of two possibilities, statements or questions. For example, if questions are selected for that round the players take it in turns to say a question each without hesitation or repeating anything said. We continued to improvise in the Wednesday lesson, one task we were given was to design an experience of connection for the group using the materials in the room. My group decided to make a vehicle using the chairs and we led the group around the classroom in the makeshift car. Another exercise we took part in involved describing your life story with a partner using facts, shapes, colours and personal preferences. The exercise started off with us standing up telling our partner facts about our life, then sitting back to back discussing our interests and hobbies and lastly, the task involved lying down describing our life story with our partner using only shapes and colours.

Being put in a situation where you may not feel entirely comfortable forces creativity out of you, from adapting and working spontaneously we obtain irrational thoughts and ideas. This method of ideation allows you to generate random ideas that may be quite small at first, but you are then able to build on them. I found that improvising helps you to warm up your mind and gives you a creative flow. Ideas are generated faster and are of better quality when ideating using improvisation.

Improvisation teaches us to say yes to doing things, no matter how bizarre it may be. It puts us in the habit of accepting challenges and giving things a go. From this we are able to face bigger challenges without hesitation. It teaches us to fully participate in the activities we take part in without the fear of being wrong. This allows our mind to think outside the box and acting purely on impulse we create a scenario etc. “Fake it ‘till you make it” was one exercise we used improvisation in, and it required us to fake being an expert at something. This sort of activity could be replicated with different criteria to inspire creative thoughts. For example, using this exercise for a comedic purpose could work.

Being out of your comfort zone means you have to adapt to the situation, using only instinct. Improvisation requires intuition. You are able to train your improvisation skills and they can be used to help creatively imagine ways of which you can overcome a particular problem. Improvisation teaches us to act on impulse and as we better our improvisational skills we may find it easier to tackle new issues at hand as our intuition does the work for us.

A study that supports the effectiveness of ideating using improvisation was conducted by Dr. Charles Limb, he used an fMRI scan to check the brain activity of a Jazz musician while they played a memorised piece and also an improvised one. The studies show that when the musician’s played the improvised piece, self-expression rose. Limb found that an area of the brain associated with the fear of failure was shut down, meaning the musicians were more creative.

I enjoy writing fictional stories, so I believe improvisation is important when trying to start the story or maybe getting the initial idea. A quote by Harvey Keitel states that, “To create characters, one must build background and one of the tools we use is improvisation.” Thinking of characters and plots are not straightforward and those ideas do not come instantly. Through improvisation we can create situations we’d find our characters in and I believe that from this you are able to identify important factors such as personality traits and motives. It is from improvisation you are able to truly understand who it is your writing about. Life is not black and white and often in everyday life you come up against a problem that you aren’t used to, the skill of being able to adapt is a prime aspect in improvisation and can easily be applied to a project or just life in general.

Creativity and the Unconscious

 The relationship between the unconscious mind and creativity is another theory we looked into and is another method of ideating. In this class we did an exercise that started off with us each choosing our own letter from the alphabet and writing it down, we then wrote down a word beginning with that letter. From this we listed words associated with the word we wrote down, followed by writing a paragraph connected to a story in our lives using two words from the list. We then continued the story using elements of what we had learnt about life from other subjects and different fields. This was added to with another paragraph of our own wisdom and thoughts. After this exercise we were tasked with writing a poem using standard poetic techniques such as similes and rhyme etc. The last activity we did involved us listening to a partner’s dream and writing down a few of the most prominent features and then designing a game that could incorporate the features.

The theory is all about allowing our subconscious and unconscious mind to find the solution to what we are looking for. It involves using intuition, which hides behind our consciousness, Robert Moore said “You cannot control creativity, you can only dance with it.” This supports the idea that the ability to be creative cannot actually be controlled by the subconscious, but it is in fact more spontaneous and random. The initial exercise which involved us writing random words associating with a certain letter and later developing on it with other specific criteria. We then used the ideas generated in the previous task to create a poem and I believe this initial exercise allowed me to write a poem with ease. The initial idea for the poem was thought of quite fast and from then on, the vocabulary I was looking for in each line just came to me. This form of ideating is effective as it essentially warms up your brain before you move onto the actual task.

The unconscious mind is also a place where we are able to think creatively with a lot of freedom. Paul McCartney wrote “Yesterday” of which he credits the song to the creative process we have when we sleep. When we are in the unconscious, we may experience something we know as REM sleep. During REM sleep our brains are more active and this can result in intense dreams. In these dreams our unconscious mind pieces together bits of information and events that have occurred in our life. The university of Berkeley conducted a study of REM sleep and found that the brains problem solving capacity was 15-35% more effective than its ability to solve the same issues while awake. Another task we completed in task involved us using ideas and thoughts from our dreams and incorporating them into a video game poster. So instead of trying to consciously think of a new game idea we allowed our unconscious mind to do the work for us.

In a video for Big Think Dr Barry Kaufman states that “Great creativity doesn’t come when we’re just solely rationally consciously focused on solving a creative problem.” Kaufman says that we rarely find the answer we are looking for when we try and consciously attempt to figure it out, but when we distract our minds with something else, we often find solutions. When you remove yourself from the situation your subconscious tries to solve the problem at hand. All of the ideas formed by the subconscious mind stay in the subconscious until they are close to the point of finding an answer. The idea then springs into the conscious mind when the idea is finally solved.

I believe I would apply this theory to future tasks and problems as it teaches you to not just rely on conscious thoughts but to also appreciate the idea’s we generate from our unconscious mind. A study shows that 95% of our brain’s activities are performed in a non-conscious manner. We are often not able to recall dreams, but you are able to train your mind into remembering them. One way of doing this is by having a dream diary. If we are able to train our minds into remembering dreams, we can maximise creativity and fully utilise the creativeness that exists within our unconscious mind.

                                                                                    LEGO Serious Play

In this class we recalled the games we used to play as children, and we looked at the features these games included. We were instructed to build a duck using seven LEGO pieces, followed by removing three pieces and explaining how it could still be perceived as a duck. We then had to build a creature of any kind and then later would change the creature to show how it could represent yourself on a Monday morning. After this we were told to create anything we wanted to, followed by making something which was a metaphor for your relationship with coding and then we worked in pairs to create a metaphor for a successful student at university.

The theory of Serious Play is that from playing with toys such as LEGO we can improve on our creativity. Lego Serious Play challenges you to think more imaginatively as you have to use limited resources to try and convey different messages and meanings. The guidelines of LEGO serious play can be similar to the ones we have when starting a project. You are confined to work with what you have in front of you, so you are forced into thinking imaginatively.

“If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” This quote by John Cleese supports the idea of LEGO Serious Play. It suggests that without actually being able to play around with things it is hard to be creative. It requires a physical, hands on approach. Being able to have the creative space to work will allow for better productivity and more

By starting off by building a basic idea such as the duck then moving onto creating a creature it aids the brain into generating more creative ideas. This could be linked with the study of the unconscious mind and ideation. The tasks then move onto more complex proposals such as creating something which may be a metaphor for success. Gradually increasing the difficulty of what you are trying to portray whether it be a scenario, or an object it will allow your mind to think more creatively for the harder tasks.

The steps for LEGO Serious Play involve having a question and building on it, then presenting it and telling the story behind it. This is then followed by questions and reflections. The steps found in this theory can be compared to the thought process of any idea a problem or when trying to solve a problem. Seymour Papert believed that when people are assigned to create something, they would in learn more effectively.

LEGO Serious Play teaches us to have fun and to work with what we have. What I learnt from this theory I could apply to different situations I may be faced with. For example, if I was trying to complete a project where I’m using software I am unfamiliar with. Instead of going straight into it I would play around with a smaller idea. From this I could learn more about the software and it might have inspired an idea for the bigger project. I believe LEGO Serious play could also be applied very effectively when story building, as you can visualise scenery and characters. The ideas aligned with LEGO Serious Play could be applied when working on product design as it goes through stages of prototyping designs and then explaining what you have made.

                                                                                                                                            References

Cleese, J. (2019) TOP 25 QUOTES BY JOHN CLEESE (of 191) | A-Z Quotes, A-Z Quotes. Available at: https://www.azquotes.com/author/2973-John_Cleese (Accessed: 16 May 2019).

Tharp, T. (2019) Collaborations, ROBERT DIAZ DIAZ. Available at: https://robertdiazdiaz.com/collaborations-2/ (Accessed: 16 May 2019).

M. Walton, D. (2019) Just Feeling Like Part of a Team Increases Motivation on Challenging Tasks, Association for Psychological Science. Available at: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/just-feeling-like-part-of-a-team-increases-motivation-on-challenging-tasks.html (Accessed: 17 May 2019).

Mumaw, S. (2019) Comedy Improv Training: Ideation Central, HOW Design. Available at: https://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/comedy-improv-training/ (Accessed: 17 May 2019).

Keitel, H. (2019) Improvisation Quotes - BrainyQuote, BrainyQuote. Available at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/improvisation (Accessed: 17 May 2019).

Barry Kaufman, D. (2019) Creativity is the subconscious mind combined with intuition and rationality, Big Think. Available at: https://bigthink.com/videos/scott-barry-kaufman-on-intuition-and-rationality (Accessed: 17 May 2019).

Kearney, D. (2019) Dreams, Creativity and how they are Connected, Fluid UI - Unlocking the world's creativity. Available at: https://blog.fluidui.com/dreams-creativity-and-how-they-are-connected/ (Accessed: 18 May 2019).

Rymenant, M. (2019) 95 percent of brain activity is beyond our conscious awareness, Neurosciences UX. Available at: http://www.simplifyinginterfaces.com/2008/08/01/95-percent-of-brain-activity-is-beyond-our-conscious-awareness/ (Accessed: 18 May 2019).

Cleese, J. (2019) John Cleese Quotes, BrainyQuote. Available at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_cleese_133998 (Accessed: 18 May 2019).

[bakagamieru]

Rolling Stone Breakdown

I read part of the article earlier today before work and I could already tell BS was simmering even before I got home and found out about all the over the top het stuff.  Knowing this ahead of time, I’m going to go ahead and take notes / rant back at the article as I read it.

BS 101: Intro to BS

paragraph 1: wow this person really wanted to be a bad fanfic writer, but they got stuck at Rolling Stone instead

I’m being petty with this, but just use “One Direction” fully if you’re going to go to the trouble of typing out “One D” instead of “1D”

“he became a canvas onto which many of fans pitched their hopes and dreams” because all fans of boybands (i.e. girls) dream about is romance and that’s the only reason they’re fans, ALSO media like Rolling Stone had nothing to do with Harry being a blank canvas for people to project their image of him onto (*sarcasm)

every mention of After, even a vague one, is -5000 points, every time it’s mentioned normally and not as the dangerous misrepresentation of abuse it is, is -5,000,000 points, every time someone crosses the line by a light-year and talks about it directly to Harry is -5,000,000,000 points, I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them

“a song cycle about women and relationships”, *cough*womanizer BS*cough, ALSO the first single Sign of the Times is clear social commentary with no real (read: not forced to fit that interpretation) hint of romance in sight, so...?

“more of a rock sound”, still pretending that 1D’s last 3 albums never existed

Harry wants his music to be “honest”, now where have we heard that before?  Niall, Louis, Zayn with Liam probably soon to follow.  It’s almost like they’ve been held forcibly quiet under a gag order...

I’m trying to figure out how I’m supposed to take the comment that Harry “runs every yellow light” and apply it to his persona, I’m stumped (also, you can’t run a yellow btw)

“the album no one has heard is burning a hole in his iPhone”, chill the fuck out with the italics, I know everyone else has talked about that, but you haven’t even mentioned the secrecy around his album in your article so you have no reason to randomly italicize things

Hiatus

“there was another One D member to vector questions into a charmingly evasive display of band camaraderie”, fuck you and your ever so sly implications that the boys’ closeness was manufactured and that the boys never answering anything interesting had to do with the band rather than interviewers incessantly asking the same vapid questions

“It was in a London studio in late 2014 that Styles first brought up the idea of One Direction taking a break”, as @paynoisbatman already pointed out, this timeline of the hiatus makes no sense with the timing of Zayn “quitting”, also it’s inconsistent with the way the boys denied the first round of hiatus articles in June 2015

just to be clear, they probably DID know about the hiatus ahead of time and they WERE lying when they denied the upcoming hiatus in June, and that also means that there’s no reason Zayn should have jumped the gun so close to the finish line (yay mixed metaphors!), I’m just pointing out the story is inconsistent, so all of these things can’t be true

“If you’re shortsighted, you can think, 'Let’s just keep touring,’ but we all thought too much of the group than to let that happen. You realize you’re exhausted and you don’t want to drain people’s belief in you.” <- This is pure 100% lovely, insightful, well spoken Harry

I’d also like to point out that them first discussing it in 2014 means that Harry’s comment about “we all thought too much of the group” applies to all 5

“I love the band, and would never rule out anything in the future. The band changed my life, gave me everything.” I’d like to point out that they always phrase these quotes to sound like past tense, like the band is broken up as of now, when in reality he’s saying that not only will they come back after the hiatus but that he’s in this band for life

“and not just have it be ‘Here’s a demo I wrote.’”  you have that chance Harry!  Release the finished version of Don’t Let Me Go Harry!

“Every decision I’ve made since I was 16 was made in a democracy.” I feel like someone misspelled “was a rebellion under Simon Cowell and Co’s dictatorship”

Pretentious Character Work or Work on Building Pretentious Character? Ah, got it: Pretentious Work on Building Pretentious Character

“As one of the most well-known 23-year-olds in the world, Styles himself is still largely unknown” not if you’ve actually paid attention over the last 6 years?  I mean yes, always to some extent, but it’s not like this insightful, loving dork is a dark mystery

“He looks at my digital recorder like a barely invited guest.” learn to choose useful metaphors and stop being pretentious

dude, I know you did this on purpose, but you said that “Behind the effervescent stage persona, there is more lore than fact. He likes it that way.” and then put the quote about Prince’s artist draw being his mystery right after, making it seem like he that was his reason for wanting to be mysterious, then you quoted “It’s not about trying to make my career longer, like I’m trying to be this 'mysterious character,’ because I’m not.” which directly contradicts the connection you drew with your words, AKA you knew it was BS and made it seem connected anyway

“The pool cleaner looks perplexed, not quite sharing Styles’ existential joy.” there’s nothing existential about it, it’s just a smile, he’s just being nice to people he passes like a good human being, I’m sorry if you don’t know what that looks like

“It’s obvious that the band has a well-worn frat-house dynamic”, do you actually know what you’re talking about or are you going off of stereotypes? if you’re calling it a “frat” and were in a fraternity, your frat was probably stereotypical anyway

“Styles is, to all, ‘H.’” It’s a fricking nickname that his fricking boybandmates also use, not a commentary on his position as the benign and worshipped leader of the Jamaican band cult frat you apparently think formed

“Pomegranate-scented candles flicker around the room.” this I definitely believe, but did you recognize the pomegranate smell right away or specifically look at a candle to find out what it was?

“It was Styles’ first full immersion into the land of musos” I need that staring into the camera Office gif

Music Ideology

“Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals,” Styles says. “Equal rights. For everyone, all races, sexes, everything. …” this is a very interesting thing to randomly bring into a conversation without asking, unlike the rest of the article, this bit aligns with Harry’s rainbows in the pics, at SNL, and out and about with fans

“The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication.” No, uh-uh, I like the idea personally , but Harry has said ever since MITAM and maybe before that he likes people to be able to have their own interpretation, he said it in interviews about SOTT recently too, I’m not at all convinced Harry wanted to actually share the official story of what the song means, it flies in the face of his philosophy about song interpretation

“The lyrics are full of details and references – secrets whispered between friends, doomed declarations of love, empty swimming pools – sure to set fans scrambling for the facts behind the mystery.” the fact that you put this right after Ever Since New York is laughable, that is a solid contender for the vaguest lyrics that couldn’t possibly be accurately paired up with details of Harry’s life, but you want people to think it’s about Haylor, don’t you

“I’m happy I found this band and these musicians, where you can be vulnerable enough to put yourself out there.” this one is hard because I can see Harry being grateful for a good group of people to write with, but I also don’t believe the implications that he’s never been vulnerable in his writing before or that he couldn’t be vulnerable with his boyband, both are BS, I’m going to say it’s probably a real quote but with suggestive framing

“The album is a distinct departure from the dance pop that permeates the airwaves.” can people please stop pretending that music hasn’t sounded vaguely 70′s and 80′s-ish for the last 4-5 years?

“It’s different from what you’d expect,” Bhasker says. “It made me realize the Harry [in One D] was kind of the digitized Harry. Almost like a character. I don’t think people know a lot of the sides of him that are on this album.” such. utter. BS.  Fans know Harry.  the general public only doesn’t know him because MEDIA LIKE ROLLING STONE created that “digitized Harry” that’s “like a character”

“Asked if he spends pressure-filled evenings worried about proving credibility to an older crowd, Styles grows animated.” of course he does, sweet child of man that he is, he jumps at the chance to educate heathens like you about the wonderful world of being a decent human being rather than a sexist prick

1D and Zayn

“He’s not a heavy drinker, he says, maybe some tequila on ice or wine with friends after a show, but by the band’s last tour there wasn’t much time even for that.” Oh, ok, we’re still pretending that TMH wasn’t the craziest scheduled tour

“Styles and his phone have a bittersweet, mature relationship – they spend a lot of time apart. He doesn’t Google himself, and checks Twitter infrequently.” ah, but you forgot his lurking on Tumblr

“I mention a few of the verbal Molotov cocktails Zayn Malik has tossed at the band in recent interviews.” print interviews, all print interviews, because you put words in his mouth just like you're doing with Harry

“threading the needle of diplomacy” yeahhhh.... this is all BS, it’s made to sound neutral to make it seem like Harry is only being polite, whether Harry said these words or not, they’re not HIS words

More Pretentiousness

“Styles, born two months before Cobain exited Earth, doesn’t feel tied to any particular genre or era” funny since his 70′s image is being amped up to 11 for his solo debut

“In the car, he’ll just as easily crank up the country music of Keith Whitley as the esoteric blues-and-soul of Shuggie Otis” and now I know where the country bits of MITAM came from, I was wondering

“It’s like – that’s not how it works. I don’t even remember what the question was.” having “It’s quite small” flashbacks

“ ‘Could I get a selfie?’ Styles obliges, and leans over the counter. Click. We exit into the Laurel Canyon evening.” I’m sorry, I can’t stop laughing, but was the onomatopoeia really that necessary?

“River Phoenix,” the man announces, a little sadly. “You ever heard of him? If he hadn’t have passed, I would have said that was you. Talented guy.”  sadness, River Phoenix really was such a talented young man, a very worthwhile person based on the roots of his problems too

The Obligatory Origin Story

They share a silent moment, before Styles walks to his car. He hands me the bag filled with English snacks. “This is for you,” he says. “This was my youth …” “Harry Edward Styles was born in Worcestershire, England” great transition dude, I’m sure that was completely organic

“But in fact, all was not perfection, scored to a cool, retro soundtrack.” but I thought it was!

“His eyes moisten a little, but unlike the young man who wept over an early bout with Internet criticism, a powerful moment in the early One Direction documentary A Year in the Making, Styles tonight knocks back the sentiment.” “look, he’s repressing his emotions, this is progress!”  I wouldn’t make fun of this if he had phrased it as Harry being stronger or no longer caring about what other people think, but saying he “knock[ed] back the sentiment”?

“I’d gone because my mum told me I was good from singing in the car …  but your mum tells you things to make you feel good, so you take it with a pinch of salt.” um... first of all, X-Factor flashbacks, second of all, Harry said that he’d always wanted to audition but had always been too young, so...

“and united the members of One D in a musical shotgun marriage” I’m keeping this imagery, it’s mine, no one can take it away from me now, no takebacksies

Ben Winston Earns His Tag On My Blog

“ ‘Family,’ answers Ben Winston.” who is not Harry’s family

look, I actually think Harry and Niall and maybe the others actually have a friendship with Ben, I can’t understand why, though, when he always participates in BS like this, I will never forgive him for the Livestream of Doom/FOUR Hangout

“There is more chance of me going to Mars next week than there is of Harry having some sort of addiction.” Why are we so focused on Harry not being a drug addict?  He’s not, there aren’t even rumors he is, ok, don’t need to talk about it, moving on.

Styles had just moved out of his family home in Cheshire, an inconvenient three hours north of London. He found a home he liked near the Winstons in Hampstead Heath. wtf? revisionist history much?  forgetting all 5 boys lived in the same complex right after moving to London much?

“ He became a friendly mentor to Styles, though the friendship was soon tested... Styles asked if he could briefly move in with Winston and his wife, Meredith. She agreed,” Winston says, “but only for two weeks.”... For the next 20 months, one of the most desired stars on the planet slept on a small mattress in an attic.” this is not Harry, Harry would not move in for 20 months after asking for 2 weeks, if he did he would make sure it was ok, if he made sure it was ok, you shouldn’t be talking about it and essentially badmouthing him to the press

also, can we talk about “one of the world’s most desired stars” because as we’ve all talked about before, Harry was 17/18 and being hypersexualized in the press and this is not ok

Winston continues the tales from the attic. “So we had this joke. Meri and I would like to see the girls that you would come back with to the house. That was always what we enjoyed, because we’d be in bed like an old couple. We’d have our spot cream on our faces and we’d be in our pajamas and the door would go off. The stairwell was right outside our door, so we’d wait to see if Harry was coming home alone or with people... He wasn’t always alone,” corrects Winston, “but it was exciting seeing the array of A-listers that would come up and sleep in the attic. het BS *yawn* *snore*

The subject today is relationships. While Styles says he still feels like a newcomer to all that, a handful of love affairs have deeply affected him. The images and stolen moments tumble extravagantly through the new songs: And promises are broken like a stitch is … I got splinters in my knuckles crawling 'cross the floor/Couldn’t take you home to mother in a skirt that short/But I think that’s what I like about it … I see you gave him my old T-shirt, more of what was once mine … That black notebook, you sense, is filled with this stuff. het BS *yawn* *snore*, I’m really going to need to hear these songs for myself, they better not have fucked with his material, the consolation about Zayn’s album was that at least the music and lyrics were unquestionably his

More Specific Het!Harry BS

The relationship is a subject he’s famously avoided discussing. “I gotta pee first. This might be a long one,” he says. He rises to head to the bathroom, then adds, “Actually, you can say, 'He went for a pee and never came back.' ”  you think he was being funny, but he really really wasn’t, are you sure he came back?  I don’t think he did, I think everything after the bathroom was utter BS

“When I see photos from that day,” he says, “I think: Relationships are hard, at any age. And adding in that you don’t really understand exactly how it works when you’re 18, trying to navigate all that stuff didn’t make it easier. I mean, you’re a little bit awkward to begin with. You’re on a date with someone you really like. It should be that simple, right? It was a learning experience for sure. But at the heart of it – I just wanted it to be a normal date.” ok, maybe not such BS since he’s as vague and general as you can get in the vast majority of this quote, so he’s saying that when he looks at pictures of himself with Taylor, he thinks how he wanted it to be a normal date with Louis, got it 

yada yada yada, Harry being way nicer than he should have to be about his name being used by someone who abused his reputation for her own gain, par for the course

I like tipping a hat to the time together. You’re celebrating the fact it was powerful and made you feel something, rather than 'this didn’t work out, and that’s bad.’ huh, this seems like subtle shade to me since one of my biggest complaints is how nearly all her songs are negative, put the blame on the guy, and don’t have her taking any responsibility (even if they are fake relationships)

He notes a more recent relationship, possibly over now, but significant for the past few years. (Styles has often been spotted with Kendall Jenner, but he won’t confirm that’s who he’s talking about.) it was made abundantly clear that even if you believe the narrative, Harry and Kendall are not currently together, yeesh!

“She’s a huge part of the album,” says Styles. “Sometimes you want to tip the hat, and sometimes you just want to give them the whole cap …  and hope they know it’s just for them.” mm, nope, still BS, alternatively a quote taken out of context and not about Kendall or even romance at all

Actual Solo Stuff

“Some of the stuff they’re doing in this movie is insane. And it was hard, man, physically really tough, but I love acting. I love playing someone else. I’d sleep really well at night, then get up and continue drowning.” ok, that was clever, good on you Harry

It was the perfect rite of passage for a musician looking to explode the past and launch a future. I thought we agreed that Harry has no issue with his past in a boyband?  can you please remember what you already wrote in your own article

He didn’t feel stifled in One D, he says, as much as interrupted. you bet your ass he did, him and Zayn and Niall, interrupting clueless and/or asshole interviewers all day long (I’m sure Louis and Liam have/will do too, just haven’t had the chance yet)

There are songs from that period he loves, he says, like “Olivia” and “Stockholm Syndrome,” along with the earlier song “Happily.” #confirmed

“But I think it was tough to really delve in and find out who you are as a writer when you’re just kind of dipping your toe each time. We didn’t get the six months to see what kind of shit you can work with. To have time to live with a song, see what you love as a fan, chip at it, hone it and go for that” funny that, sounds like someone forced them into a breakneck schedule and then later made big noises about how their hiatus was because they were so overworked and acted like he had nothing to do with that

Ending

To wind down in Jamaica, Styles and Rowland, the guitarist, began a daily Netflix obsession with sugary romantic comedies. Houseworkers would sometimes leave at night and return the next morning to see Styles blearily removing himself from a long string of rom-coms. He declares himself an expert on Nicholas Sparks, whom he now calls “Nicky Spee.” sounds about right for the guy whose favorite movie is Love Actually

Like the time Styles ended up drunk and wet from the ocean, toasting everybody, wearing a dress he’d traded with someone’s girlfriend. yep, sounds about right

oops, fanfic writer made a full return for this paragraph all in present tense, written by someone else as if Harry’s a fictional character

“I think, as a parent, especially with the band stuff, it was such a roller coaster,” he says. “I feel like they were always thinking, 'OK, this ride could stop at any point and we’re going to have to be there when it does.’ this is the second time he’s brought up roller coasters in his solo interviews, it’s a good description for the thing he’s talking about, but I can’t help but think of Zayn’s old Twitter bio and Anne tweeting that bio not long after March 25th

He grabs his black notebook and turns back for a moment before disappearing down the hallway, into the future. I need the Office gif again

“How am I going to be mysterious,” he asks, only half-joking, “when I’ve been this honest with you?” *sarcasm

[rachelcarsoncenter]

By Martín Fonck, Saskia Brill & Noemi Quagliati

“Stuff happens off camera, the pen only moves so fast, you can only sit in one chair, not all the chairs in all the room. This is good, honest objectivity because it has good, honest limits. The instruments for observation are here, not over there, and definitely not everywhere all at once. What you read has a partial perspective” (Watts, 2018:6)

In February 2020, we, the members of the doctoral program from the RCC, invited Laura Watts from the University of Edinburgh as our guest speaker for the Lunchtime Colloquium. We were curious to hear about Laura’s work not only because of her interesting research on energy landscapes, but also for her experience in creative and speculative writing. Laura is an ‘Ethnographer of Futures’ as well as a writer, artist, and poet. Her research, based on the Orkney Islands, explores ‘landscapes on the edge,’ where she asks how futures are imagined and made.

Landscapes and temporalities play a huge role in many of our own projects and in our writing processes. We therefore asked Laura to present her ethnographic experience and perspective on speculative futures at the RCC lunchtime colloquium. We also wanted to organize a writing workshop in which we could learn from her experiences in a more informal setting, and explore creative, speculative, and experimental ways of writing with landscape. She agreed, and so we invited doctoral students from our program and fellows of the RCC to apply to the workshop with an image of the landscape they are working with. Even though we didn’t have a concrete idea of what exactly would happen in the workshop, we expected that these images of landscapes would help to provoke writing in new ways. And since we did not only want to talk about writing, but to have space for our own creations, we decided to base the workshop on practical exercises.

We started the workshop on a Friday morning at 9am. The desks in the conference room were prepared with the images of our landscapes as well as pens and blank paper for everybody. As the participants entered the room, they roamed around, going through the images as you would in an exhibition before finally stopping at a familiar picture. When we started, we were sitting in front of our selected landscapes, ready to explore possibilities of writing about and with them.

Landscapes laid out on the tables the beginning of the workshop

To start the day with a bit of inspiration, Laura gave us a presentation about the craft of writing and her vision of scientific narratives. She reminded us that when we write, we produce knowledge and worlds. With that comes the responsibility to reflect thoroughly. Going back to the beginning of science in the 17th century, she illustrated how the production of scientific knowledge began with the requirement of evidence (Daston, 1991), alongside a specific use of language. This language was characterized by the separation of the author from the setting.  The passive voice was also used to create a sense of objectivity. This style has been central for the creation of authority, which has then generally been attributed to white men. Scientific language thus strongly incorporates gender and power into the process of knowledge production and is therefore entangled with an epistemological and emotional position.

Laura Watts giving her talk “Speculative Worlds – A Writing Craft”

She then remarked that, although technologies and experimental setups have fundamentally changed over time, the language used in science has not. By stating this, she also invited us to find new, contemporary uses of language for our respective scientific setups and communities. Exploring creative ways of writing allows us to put ourselves into different perspectives and spaces from which we can then imagine futures. Laura showed us the effects that the setting, voice, punctuation, rhythm, repetition, sentences shape, etc. can have on the message conveyed. She invited us to give space for the exploration of creative ways of writing with our landscapes and to not be afraid of making mistakes. Recognizing the presence of landscape in our research and the emotions it provokes is an empirical and honest exercise.

After this really inspiring input, we moved to the first practical exercise of today:

Choose an entity of your landscape and make it speak!

We had 15 minutes to come up with a sentence or a short paragraph which we were to present afterwards. Selecting the entity, we wanted to let speak dragged us deep into the composition of the landscape—thinking about what the entity would say from a previously unconsidered point of view revealed its many dimensions. We wrote a few words, crossed them out again and tried anew. We soon realized that a landscape in itself portrays a limit. Concrete spaces and specific perspectives have to be chosen. The limited amount of time forced us to think fast, to not overthink and to go with the flow. The following presentations of the individual works revealed the many different ways in which this task could be approached. We heard underground water, moonlight, reindeers, trucks, rocks, and molecules speak—to mention just a few. They expressed concerns about changes within the landscapes, reflections on their own state of being, thoughts on their role in the world, or their fear of death. And even though we only had a few minutes to come up with these different forms of expression, every single contribution had a beautiful sense of depth, creativity, consciousness, and/or humor in them that deeply impressed the rest of the group.

In the following discussion, we did not only discuss the opportunities this change of perspective can offer. Concerns about ethics, the limits of thinking through non-human experiences, and the rationale behind the exercise were also raised. Speaking for an entity is challenging. Some of the participants felt blocked during the first minutes. However, it was interesting to see the different ways in which the pieces of writing addressed this problem. What to do when you feel that blockage? First, try to leave your ego behind and start exploring. Maybe it is not necessary to name the limits of the landscape with words. The structure, the rhythm, or the voice can also help us to give a shape to these limits. The ending is also a crucial aspect of our stories. It is, in fact, what ultimately gives a plot its meaning. The very last sentence can even change the plot all together. It sets a limit to the story that is being told and the temporalities we think with. It is thus not just about how we write, but how we conclude. With this in mind we went on to the second task for today:

Chose that same entity and make it speculate about its future!

We had again 15 minutes to come up with a sentence or a short paragraph. This exercise made us think in temporal dimensions very different from our own as humans, be they those of an insect that has no more than a day to live, or chemicals that will exist for eternity. What would an insect fear? What the hopes of a sward? What does a truck work towards? And what would a rock be waiting for? It certainly felt weird, maybe even unsettling, to think that way. But as soon as we put ourselves into the “shoes” of “others,” the landscape changed its appearance. The focus shifted. The future changed.

In the presentations that followed, the contributions were extremely diverse and used language in a beautifully figurative way—even though (or perhaps because) many of us don’t speak English as our first language. For us as scientists it felt scary yet refreshing to speculate about what could be to come, not knowing exactly what is or will be, daring to make assumptions about a distant future based on the present. And it felt equally scary yet refreshing to use a language beyond academic structures. Laura’s invitation was to not feel limited by the different audiences we have in mind while writing. If you want to explore new ways, start writing for yourself. How does the text speak to you? Which emotions does the text provoke for you? Only start thinking about the audience when you come to edit the already written text.

Writing, discussing and thinking about writing with landscape

We as organizers are deeply grateful. We are grateful for Laura’s time and the knowledge about the craft of writing she shared. We are grateful for the curiosity of our fellow students and fellows in taking part in this little adventure. We are grateful for everybody’s courage in presenting “first drafts.” We are grateful for the collective and creative space that emerged that morning in the 4th floor conference room. We are grateful for the critical questioning of methods and approaches. And we are grateful for the delicious food we had in the breaks alongside inspiring, cheerful, and deep chats. For us, this felt like a good way to do academia otherwise. To hold space for experimentation and exploration. To dare to speculate. And most importantly to do that collectively with our landscapes.

At the very end, Laura gave us one last task:

Write your experiences or thoughts about this workshop today as if you were tweeting about it!

Here are some of the results:

Thinking in place, space, time, across scapes and shapes, finding words for wolds, imagining consequences. Strudel in my head #writingwithlandscape @LauraWatts @RCC

#writingworkshop with @LauraWatts: Writing from an environmental point of view can change your perspective. #writing #otherwise

“Writing with Landscape” workshop at @carsoncenter: “As the time goes by, the blank space on my sheet gets smaller – covered by the black ink of my pen. Thinking through, with and about writing means to do our job properly. Thank you @laurawatts.” #AcademicTwitter

The Entanglements across times & dimensions

of conversations never had

shifting identities – desires memories longings

and a possibility of convergences. Of hopes.

The assumption of Authority, Modesty, and One

Truth. These are our symptoms. Dear Doctor, how do we write in less

fossilized forms?

Today was about breakdown, building from the ruins & the importance of creativity.

The craft of words. We bring our landscape. We explore writing. First, giving a voice to an entity and then speculating about futures. However, impossibilities emerge. In fact, in landscape there is always a distance. But writing is always a way of giving a shape, a rhythm to destruction.

Writing with Landscape—A Workshop with Laura Watts By Martín Fonck, Saskia Brill & Noemi Quagliati “Stuff happens off camera, the pen only moves so fast, you can only sit in one chair, not all the chairs in all the room.

[smartoptionsio]

CryptoMedics Review – The Elite Medication

+++Power Signals, Education, and A Cornupia of Extras+++

( Added to THE BEST CRYPTO SIGNALS and THE BEST BITMEX SIGNALS in 04/2018 – Updated 03/2019) ~ Trading Signals for BitMEX, Binance and Bittrex | Education Portal | Magazine | Portfolio Analysis | Bots & Tools | Bitcoin Analysis ~

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Average Accuracy Rate

 Measured Accuracy Rate on Average since September '18

This review is not easy at all for me, as the complete offering is a Cynthia Rothrock Style Roundhouse Kick and difficult to handle in a single post. I am observing this group now almost a year, so almost since its inception and it is beautiful to see how they evolve, always progressing, never stagnating. They shared their internal roadmap with me and they tackle it point by point. So where to begin? I will split this review into three parts: Their Altcoin and BitMEX Signals Plan, their Elite Plan, as well as their one-of-a-kind education portal. Their Service is listed in both our Best Of Shortlists – for a reason. Yeah, you get great Crypto/BitMEX Signals with CryptoMedics, but frankly – the group is so much more… Let’s dive into the world of CryptoMedics. Nurse, please!

Back in the days, one of our valued readers recommended us to check a channel, and we did that (real reader suggestions are always welcome) – it was CryptoMedics. For SmartOptions, we are always searching for the services that go the extra mile to provide something outstanding. We liked the content-rich character of the channel, so we got in contact with them and had been added to the closed beta of their premium channel, and yeah – it was different right from the beginning. While being there, we established an excellent partnership and let them release some of their valuable content on SmartOptions to give you a feeling. CryptoMedics have been actively investing in the crypto markets for a long time and observed it from different perspectives.  Their paid channels (which have been launched the 1st of May ’18) features quite some unique features and offers more than just crypto trading signals.

The channel is not just boring crypto signals with entries and targets but is also filled with useful content. You get short but helpful lessons here and there and the important news.

The Offering

Basically there are two plans:

The BitMEX & Binance Bundle

Signals for BitMEX (leveraged) and Binance (unleveraged Altcoin Signals)

Twitch Live Streams

24/7 Personal Guidance and Support

The Elite Plan

Gem List

Extensive Portfolio Consultation and Optimization

The BitMEX & Binance Bundle

Coin Listing Bot

Arbitrage Bot

Fundamental Analysis

Technical Analysis on Demand in the Member Chat

Their complete Trading Course Portal (value: $999) is included if one takes the 1-year Elite membership.

CryptoMedics Altcoin Signals Review

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Average Accuracy Rate

 Measured Accuracy Rate on Average since September '18

The Binance signals are served per the Telegram Cryptomedics Bot, which manages your membership. Signals are called CTA (Call to Action) at Cryptomedics. Incoming signals look like this and are automatically updated by the bot, which is very convenient, as you have always up-to-date information. It looks like this:

BTT Signal by CryptoMedics

The 5-10 crypto trading signals per week don’t look much, but it is the overall package you get here.  It is critical that traders usually tend to overtrade and CryptoMedics want to avoid this mistake for their users. The calls are very selected to only valuable ones with high reliability. The given altcoin signals (which are mostly based on a mix of technical analysis and fundamentals). Head Trader for the Altcoin department is Jakov, a seasoned crypto trader who knows his stuff very well (he published the Weekly Open Strategy on SmartOptions a while ago) – 100% accuracy months are not rare with his trades, but also his companion Alexander comes with nice altcoin trades. Two traders at your fingertips here, but there are even more for BitMEX signals.

However, the thing you are interested the most is the accuracy right? And it is very good for both kind of signals. CryptoMedics has been three times in a row provider of the month, back in the days when we calculated the profit into the results. This means they mostly trade the broader ranges and profits, but still they adopt to the markets. If they trade in tight ranges in general, they also go for scalps and take whatever the market gives them.

Often you get signals which you prolly would never have paid attention to. I have personally seen these 300% profit trades with CryptoMedics. Great picks. The fundamental trades are also rock-solid. Their particular pick from their newsletter magazine (HKN) achieved 60% in profits, for example. Technical analysis is not provided for all trades; this could be improved. We get a Bitcoin analysis with every impact move and boy, these are great! They have one trader who is analyzing the BTC moves alone to update you about the market situation, and he called the drop from 19,5k to the recently touched 3k area (pay attention to the long-term analysis by their trader XHB for that!)

They had a time where they refrained from Altcoin trades but came back with double force. Right now we look at 100% accuracy months – the team did a great job. With an overall accuracy of 80.84% since September ’18, they do way more than just a rock-solid job for the Binance signals.

CryptoMedics BitMEX Signals Review

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Average Accuracy Rate

 Measured Accuracy Rate on Average since September '18

Cryptomedics is a well-known channel for special information nobody else has, as well as for great technical analysts. These guys definitely know what they are doing and have quite a big team to deliver some seriously good stuff. Their Elite channel was the only chance to get into their margin channel until now, but recently they opened it, along with their altcoin signals in a bundle for lower budgets. So besides the BitMEX signals, you also get their valuable altcoin signals as well, which we reviewed in the paragraph above.  For their customers they have prepared documents and webinars ready to make sure no one does stuff on BitMEX, they do not understand. Very good level of education, which is an important spot for Cryptomedics (SmartOptions wrote with CryptoMedics the BitMEX Guide in collaboration). The channel also comes often with general Bitcoin strategy updates – how to react to the recent ongoing things, how to be prepared for eventualities. 

The trader team for leveraged trading has Jonas, Alexander, and Jakov in charge and these guys truly rock it with their signals. Also the head of education, Hendo, offer signals from time to time. Personally, I fancy the cold, rational trades by Jonas as my favorite. They offer pretty great margin calls with exact instructions of what to do and where to buy in. The entries come in a staggered manner but the ranges are often happily reasonable. They also trade alts on BitMEX, but honestly, it doesn’t matter, they just kill it there, no matter what they touch! They have a  nice set of great traders in their stack, which will give you much more than just simply buy and sell signals. They offer the traders also very good education, taught along with the signals. Their trader XHB called the short when Bitcoin hit an all-time high, he even called it to go down to the 3k area where it is right now – and got banned from several groups for publicizing his opinion. He is your guy for long-term recommendations. Their trader Jonas is a fantastic day trader, a math guy that really knows his shit and is in the trading game for a very long time – way before Crypto was a thing for the masses. Jakov and Alexander are their newest addition to the team and they post very elaborate signals with a heavy emphasis on the education factor. Jakov is also in charge of live streams and live trades with the clients, hosts webinars and Twitch sessions. The signals are often updated while running as the traders seem to have stopped sleeping, giving you the best possible returns. GREAT stuff that makes me really rave about them!

The signals come with technical analysis and most often with an explained reasoning right after, also the trading style (like day trade or swing trade) is mentioned. Basically, they offer three kinds of signals: 

Scalps

Swing Trades

Planned Swing Trades

The third one of the three is all about pre-planned scenarios to play longer and bigger swings on BitMEX. You just allocate the funds, set the trades and forget about them – and one morning when you wake up and check your account – pling – trades are active and running nicely (my experience so far).

Furthermore, they developed a really good sheet on Google Docs which lets you calculate the sizing for each position to stay in line with perfect risk management. This, in conjunction, with being “SIGNAL PROVIDER OF THE MONTH” for the third time in a row makes Cryptomedics a solid choice.

The CryptoMedics Elite Plan

The Elite Plan is the heart piece of the Cryptomedics universe and aims for the investors beneath the crypto audience. Here is everything about long-term investments. The Elite membership itself is a long-term investment. The big Cryptomedics team covers several Fundamental Analysts which dissect crypto projects on a level like managed funds would do it before they invest into something for their clients. They provide very detailed fundamental analysis’ for the projects they add to their long-term list. The Elite plan contains a very well-researched Gem list, that contains the stuff you want to buy and hold. Yeah, everyone is a gem hunter and shills dirt to the masses, but who can look back on several MASSIVE successful picks like for example ZIL and HOT (two of their gems they shared with us for publication, LONG before they had hype).  Elite Members can always request a technical analysis for the gem list to get good entry points. 

The Gem list is one thing, but when you start your elite plan, you will likely come with an active portfolio already. For Elite Members they have a Portfolio Analysis service which will go through your portfolio on a very deep level, they tell you what to kick out at which price, where to rebalance with other coins, how to buy in the gem list and help you to build a polished portfolio step by step. 

The Elite Plan also contains several bots, like a very advanced coin detector for exchanges. This listing bot pops up and tells you when a new coin is going to be listed at a specific exchange. Elite members knew it pretty early when Coinbase listed XRP for example.  The other bot is an Arbitrage bot which scans several exchanges for price differences which one could try to exploit. 

So the Elite Package is more for investors than for (day) traders, but often people catch fire once the success rolls in. OK, the Altcoin and Margin Trading plan is already included so they have the signals and could use them, but furthermore, the damn good trading course by Hendo is included in the 1-year memberships of Elite and that’s a great deal – but more on that later.

Signal Examples & The Results

Binance Signal Example

Altcoin Example (without leverage)

CryptoMedics Binance Signal / Stop Loss was a mistake first, has been corrected right after.

And the outcome of the signal above:

XLMBTC Altcoin Signal by CryptoMedics

BitMEX Signal Example

XRP BitMEX Trade by CryptoMedics

XRP BitMEX Trade on the Chart

The Results

The results by CryptoMedics are doubtless good and if go carefully through their trades, you will find evidence that real pros are issuing the calls. In 95% of the cases you will find a great risk:reward like in the example above. You will also find that each of the trader team has its own signature moves, the trades have a DNA. They respect the BTC dependance mostly and if you look the March results, for example, you will notice they go for smaller gains on their Binance trades when their analyst team smells a big destructive move, which could hurt Altcoin trades. Better safe than sorry, that could be a motto of CryptoMedics, a channel that values capital protection more than like the most. Slower but safer growth, steady growth with a great hit rate – these are the results to expect from their Altcoin & BitMEX bundle. For the ELITE package, well early members have bought HOT, ZIL, BNB to name just three at dirt cheap prices…

The Trading Course (Education Add-On)

The trading course by they Community Manager / Trader / Head of Education HENDO is very well done and covers all the important topics when it comes to trading and especially the didactics of the learning process. Here is an informational bit about the course designer:

Retired in 2017 and while being a part time trader for years Hendo decided to fully focus on trading at the end of 2017, both for the competitive aspect in trading and because of interest dating back as far as 15 years.  Armed with private mentoring from professionals he met in corporate and a clear roadmap of what educational material he wanted to take Hendo dived fully into the markets. He became profitable 2 years prior to going full time, but really started opening positions daily after initial retirement. After a year of trading he decided to “give back” through creating an educational trading course. Mostly out of willingness to help other people since he accomplished his own goals at that point. Taken from the Course Website

Here is the complete syllabus of the course:

01 Trading Mindset – 6 Videos 02 Trading Style and Risk Management – 4 Videos 03 Journaling and Improvements – 3 Videos 04 Support and Resistance – 5 Videos 05 Candlesticks – 2 Videos 06 Price Action – 11 Videos 07 Trends and Channels – 3 Videos 08 Chart Patterns – 1 Videos 09 Indicators – 6 Videos 10 Fibonacci – 2 Videos 11 Getting Started – 2 Videos 12 Putting It All Together – 5 Videos 13 CryptoMedics Webinars – 11 Videos !free! 14 Random Bits and Pieces – 5 Videos !free! 15 The Free Bits of Profitable Trading Knowledge – 9 Videos 16 Daily (and past) Market reviews and Trades – 1 Video 17 Investing

Cryptomedics Trading Course

The videos all come in decent quality. The sound is ok, not top-notch but you understand everything without crackles and stuff. The course is put together with many powerpoint like sheets but also with live trading examples. Hendo explains much stuff directly on the charts, and this will create quite some AHA effects, teaching you what happens right in front of you.

There are several highlights within this course and also several very practical excerise which could make the money of the course back pretty fast if you apply them right. My favorite lessons of this course have been:

S2P4 Advanced Risk Management

Why don’t you use Price Action (Full strategy)

S12P4 Trading gains

Chart patterns VS Price action

A Beginners friendly way of entering a trade

All in all a really complete course that teaches the much more than just the basics of support and resistance. It is indeed a very good base to learn trading. But, as with every course, you have to keep in mind that you are not just a opened brain, where you can pour knowledge in. You have to view the videos, put some time into the understanding and especially the transferring. The success with this course lies in the transfer – you MUST take action and try the things you saw on your own. Support has you covered, so just use it and ask them lots of questions!

If you are interested in a well-structured trading course, register here and see if you like the freebie sessions. But carefully, don’t purchase the course right away, if you plan a yearly ELITE membership, as it is included.

The Support

Well, the support was one of the best we’ve seen in Telegram Crypto Land. Their chat rooms are pretty busy and their big and motivated team contributes to a great support service.

One of the team is always around and they are always willing to help. They are always laid back and relaxed and will give you their best advice for sure. 

What makes this Channel unique?

CryptoMedics is a unique channel, hence it is listed in both of our shortlists. They are quite different from the most you can find on Telegram as they take their job very seriously. It is an incorporated company and they do act like one. The signals are very good, no question. But the inside knowledge, the very in-depth research on projects (for their Elite channel) is one of a kind. Before they add a project to their gem list before they recommend an ICO – they often visit the projects in real life – I found that in no other channel.

Besides this great package they offer, they have one point which is very unique: their access to information, only a minority has. We can’t go deeper on this one here, but they are VERY WELL CONNECTED and can deliver news very early. One example, they posted some news about Ripple way before I was able to find it anywhere else, so one would be well-positioned to catch some great profits with the recent run-up. Another unique feature is the technical analysis on demand: you have a team of traders you can tag in their telegram channel to analyze the charts for you on an asset you define.  All in all I am really happy to be member of the ELITE club as the service pack provided is impeccable: Winning Bitmex signals, a few very selected Altcoin signals, Education all around on a very high level of quality, long-term Bitcoin updates that give you an edge for your crypto investment, technical analysis on demand, Webinars, Live Trading sessions – this is a fantastic complete package.

The Critique

While the trades by CryptoMedics are really safe shots, the targets are often set quite low. This used to be different in the past. Sure, there are trades aiming for nice profits, but the majority is in the 10-30% range. As said in the post, this happens to derisk the trades in a risky environment. As soon as the markets turn to more stable and broader ranges, this surely will change again. It is difficult to list this a negative point as you really cannot compare Cryptomedics to the other channels as they adapt to the market very much. Three month ago, when the markets have been more active, you got updates on the trades on a very special level, tweaking your profits to the max while educating you about the trades.

Customer Insights Review

The user Samo is a long-term member of the CryptoMedics Elite plan and surely saw their work long enough to have an elaborate opinion. We secretly asked him, how satisfied he is with CryptMedics and if he wants to contribute his own small review. So here it is:

I have been a member of CryptoMedics almost from the beginning when there were around 200 of us crypto warriors. I am still their member for a reason. Awesome ROI, TAs, FAs, and gems are one thing but the education level and depth are incomparable to what I had a chance to see in supposedly similar groups. One of the main problems of crypto traders is no or bad risk management. This is where CryptoMedics CTAs shine because their calls minimize the risk of an investment to as low as possible. Slow and steady gaining is their philosophy. Here you’ll not just find experienced traders and analysts but, what matters the most to me, also get the 24/7 support, insights and directives from them. If you join CryptoMedics Elite there are no stupid questions, the only stupid thing is to have none!

You can contact the reviewer on telegram with the handle: @samurai007

THE JUDGEMENT

CryptoMedics is one of my all-time favorites. You might have figured that from writing. It is like this for a reason: I like if someone dares to do things in a different way and I value it if someone takes things seriously and therefore goes the extra mile, BEFORE recommending stuff to the public. Cryptomedics hired professional traders, that give very reasonable trade suggestions with great Risk:Reward and guidance on the way through the targets. I can#t say what fascinates me the most about Cryptomedics. I guess it is the professional way, the constant progress of the channel which makes it a completely different experience than the most you will find on Telegram. Great Calls, Great Education, A-Grade Support and Community Management, or the research that takes things deeply seriously – this is the mix I really like and value.

Their Bitmex, as well as their Binance Signals, are ultra successful, so they use it as a vehicle to grow your BTC stack over there, garnered with a few selected Gem buys here and there, which are mostly winners in the long run. If you want to signup for altcoin signals alone, I would consider a channel from the above. If you want to use the bear market for building a GREAT portfolio along with their fantastic and often updated gem list, the Elite membership is for you – these guys will get you prepared with the right altcoin portfolio for the next bull run.

For both, the BitMEX and the Altcoin channel, you will have months with smaller growth and – once the markets allow it again – months with very impressive growth. And this is a good thing, as it tells us that CryptoMedics cares about capital protection in the first place.

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Fact Sheet for CRYPTOMEDICS

15% DISCOUNT CODE: CRYPTONURSE

Or contact Damian to enroll.

Website: Cryptomedics.io

Telegram Contact: https://t.me/CMpartyzant

Discount Code: CRYPTONURSE (15% on all plans)

Pricing & Features:

Cryptomedics Pricing - Use "CRYPTONURSE" for 15%

Auto Trader: Starting in March '19

Accolations: 3x Provider of the Month with the best results

Special Features: Specialized on gems, Information the broad mass does not have, Technical Analysis on demand, Portfolio design

Exchanges: Markets on Bittrex / Binance /KuCoin / Huobi and many more (as they are specialized on gems, often also smaller exchanges)

Results Tracking: Sheet on Google Docs

Signals with technical analysis: Yes, Tradingview charts are attached. Elite members can request technical analysis on demand.

Bitmex Signals:  Yes, in a separate channel (read the review here)

ICO Reviews: Yes, the strength of the team. Some of their team are even on advisory boards.

Example Premium Content: HOT (HOLO)| Vibe Hub| Ziliqa (Guest posts for Smartoptions)

Trading Timezones: The crypto trading signals have been spread well over the day, there was no special time to be determined when they arrive.

Further Information: Interview with Cryptomedics

Free Signals Channel:  https://t.me/cryptomedics (no cross promotions)

How the paid signal channel looks like:

15% DISCOUNT CODE: CRYPTONURSE

Or contact @CMpartyzant to enroll.

TRUSTED SIGNAL PROVIDER

CryptoMedics is allowed to use the TRUSTED PROVIDER seal

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