#i have to annotate a book that i can't write in and I never...learned how to do that.

[bloodchapell]

hiii if its not too much work could I request what’s it like to be high school sweethearts with stanley?

Also side note I LOVE your writing sm especially since there is barely any one that writes for dr stone now these days 😔

highschool lover — stanley s. SIDE A

what to expect: suggestive, so cuteee

your sword's note: thankyu for the request dear anon! i actually have two posts for this request, i will link it here so check it out too (SIDE B). more on my mistresslist

i have two ideas, either you are a goody two shoes or sheer evil, but for this one lets go with the angel on earth, i will do the menace on the side B

you have english together, he hates the teacher but always sees you participating and it kinda pisses him off but he lets it slide because you are so beautiful that he can't even skip the class because he needs to see you there

the teacher asks you to tutor him, so after school you go to your house and you sit in the dining table with the book assigned for class. you sit reading out loud the first part, then you stop and talk with him about it, initially he doesn't get the symbolism or the metaphors, and he is ready to feel embarrassed and stupid, but you help him right away. he feels his heart skip a beat at the tenderness of your voice, he has never been treated so softly

every day after school, you hang out. you tell him that you love books. he can't talk about books with you, so he asks what your favorite is and at your house you lend it to him

once he is home, he opens it. there is a pressed flower in between, and the paper smells like you, page after page he sees annotations on the text with your beautiful script. he reads the book in one sitting.

"i finished the book dolly, let's talk about it." he asks. he loved the book, it changed his whole perception of things. in recess, you sit together and you discuss the book

his grades in english class improve so much that he doesn't need you to tutor him anymore. you catch him purposefully messing up the response of his homework just so he has an excuse to spend time with you. "stan you know the right answers." you tilt your head and so he erases the wrongdoings and writes the correct ones

he is constantly telling xeno about you. he asks stanley if he likes you and he can't even lie. "no, i don't like her, i am in love with her."

one afternoon while you both read in your house, he asks hesitantly. "dolly, this might be odd, but i would like to take you on a date." you agree so fast that it actually makes him laugh

he takes you on a picnic and then to a drive-through movie theater. initially he doesn't know how to act but you remain kind and understanding as always that he simply acts like usual

by the end of the date, when he drives you back to your house, he opens the door for you and walks you to your doorstep, and you give him a kiss on the lips

the next day, he comes by your house. when you hear the doorbell you open the door and find him with a bouquet of flowers and chocolates. you hug him and let him in. despite his meh handwriting, he gives you a letter. since i met you, my life has become like a dream, my poor vocabulary can't even express it, so i will read all the books i have to until i can tell you. xeno helped him redact that. he is not easily vulnerable, but given the type of person he fell in love with, he feels it is only just. if he has to learn, no problem, he can do it.

"be my girlfriend dolly." he asks playing with your hair, you nod immediately and hug him

he is late to all his classes because he insists on carrying your bag for you and dropping you off to every class

you introduce him to your parents on your first month together, and even years later, having been in the military and in special missions that are real danger, he has never been as scared

he has kissed before, but not like he kisses you. of course later on you two star experimenting and kissing gets heated, but on the regular your kisses are tender and full of love, and he is addicted to them

he heard a girl call you a nerd once in the hallway, but since he couldn't beat her up, he put a rat in her locker

stanley introduces you to xeno and he approves of you👍🏻

he thinks you are an innocent sweet pea but while looking through the collection of books in your room he finds the most down bad novellas, he is shocked

people are always saying "no wayyy" to him when he says that you are his girlfriend, what cliche is going on here!?

all the teachers keep joking that you are going to finally fix him. "there is nothing to fix, he is perfect like this, be more respectful." you say. he doesn't know if to laugh at them or cry at your sweet words

he takes you to alongside him to his hangout with xeno at the paintball arena. he teaches you how to shoot the gun and you seem clueless at first but end up winning. it seems feasible defeating xeno, but even before training stanley was already good at guns

he would never attend school dances, but after he started dating you he does, not only because you thought it might be cute but because he wants to show you off and laugh in the faces of his enemies (whatever that means)

he is oddly shy to get handsy at first, even knowing what you would be reading, but after a particularly heated make out session you pull his hands towards your body and he can't help but give in

"are you sure in the car is fine dolly? wouldn't you want something more romantic?" he pants holding your waist in the backseat of his car. "who ever said that?" you play with the hem of his shirt. nonetheless it was on. clothes removed and bruises on his neck, he had imagined that your first time together would be different, but it is just fine to have you ride him in his car. looks like one can learn a lot from reading —stanley's thoughts—

you are king and queen of prom hell yeah !

better believe you guys are lasting forevah

when stanley goes to training it hits you very hard. you send him so many letters that everyone is jealous

in the class reunion, god knows how many years after, people are gossiping about the highschool days. when they see you walking together they sigh, "of fucking course"

[erinwantstowrite]

might seem a bit out of nowhere

but i wanted to ask how you get started in writing. and i mean like how do you get into the ✨️flow✨️ of it after sitting down. 'cause i just tend to stare at my laptop

i struggle with getting into the flow a lot. which sounds crazy with how much i write, but it's true. usually when this happens, it's because i have a lot of inspiration, but no energy to complete anything. i have to make sure i start writing when i'm feeling good, after taking a break from my writing space. sometimes it's because im so exhausted from outside sources, which is more annoying than if i just needed a break from writing

but sometimes that writer's block hits HARD. sometimes i'm also staring at my document and not writing for hours on end. and when i do write, im in a constant state of "i don't like this" where i rewrite a chapter or just a singular scene over and over and over again. THIS is where i'd say i struggle the most with getting myself into the flow, and i can share what i do to guide myself out of it (here's a post i made a while back with other tips)

IMPORTANT: notice how i said GUIDE. you can not FORCE yourself into a flow. I repeat, you can not. it's impossible to force a flow, and if you try, you'll only make yourself hate writing. however. you can help yourself to get into a flow

-i take the time to go outside and/or get some exercise. i also mentioned that in the linked post but it's important so i talk about it a lot. i've recently decided to take up photography and birdwatching, and I got myself a hammock. as someone who's struggled with finding ways to enjoy being outside (I live in Louisiana and it's like i'm being slow cooked to death during the spring and summer), that's what gets me out there. i also make sure i hydrate and eat well because our bodies need fuel in order to create

-i read something new or i go back to something i haven't read in a while, and that (usually) helps TONS. i recently read some Sherlock adventures and I had a blast. right now I'm picking apart a "psychology" book (this author should be glad we will never meet, my annotations have not been kind), and i'm reading a book about fashion history. and my friends and I are going to start reading Dracula in our book club soon, which is exciting!! i have a lot of books on my to-read shelf and i annotate all of them. the annotations aren't necessary for this if you want to try but it's fun for me

(^ that being said, i'm gonna add on: sometimes i go reread fanfics that i like, and that's all well and good. there are very talented writers who only write fanfic!! but it's important to also read published works as well. if anyone wants a random recommendation for a book to try, hit me up. i'll give you a book that i have on my shelf or that i've been wanting to read for a while)

-i make a playlist or listen to a playlist to get in the mood before i try writing. specifically, i need something that i can imagine some scenarios to. i can't listen to music while i'm writing cause i'll get distracted, but doing so before helps me figure out the vibe im going for

-drawing. oftentimes i need a visual of what i'm trying to write. whether it's something like a character interaction or something like "i have no idea where everything/everyone is in this scene," it helps to have some paper nearby

-journaling!! i've talked about this a lot on here but i journal more than Ford in Gravity Falls. I'm not joking. I have a bookshelf dedicated to literal decades of writing and learning about writing. i have two notebooks for LoF, one for my DnD campaign, one for my personal records, etc. I have a new notebook ready for writing essays about the books i recently bought and am reading. my LoF notebooks are dedicated to messily writing up brainstorms or writing through scene ideas, i've written partial chapters in them by hand, etc etc. this helps me when im not in a writing mood to at least be doing SOMETHING. i rewrite my outline a LOT. also it helps me keep track of my timeline (i still fuck it up sometimes)

-actually forcing myself to sit down in front of the computer.

this sounds like the most obvious thing, but i'm talking i close out all my other tabs that i don't need for writing, i put my phone away across the room or in a different one entirely, i put on headphones and listen to only brown noise OR i get on a call with my friends to make myself not want to open Youtube or anything else. i'd rather sit there and stare at my computer than sit there and scroll on my phone or get distracted with something else and then be upset that i didn't write. even just staring at the document and working it out without writing a single word is better than that, because it means i was still working

in all honesty, you don't know you're in a flow until it Clicks. you could go do all of these and gain experience and knowledge for months on end and not write anything that whole time, and then one day you sit down and you knock out an entire chapter like nobody's business. it's just important to take care of yourself in the meantime and keeping your mind fresh

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

I recently got the Oxford "Annotated Book of Mormon" from the Library, and I love it

Reading "Come, Follow Me" this week, I found an interesting polarity "Faith-Skepticism"

In Alma 30, we read about Korihor, in 31, the Zoramites. And, in the original chapters, 30 & 31 were in the same chapter, indicating a connection between them

Korihor represents Extreme Skepticism (yes, I know, he never disbelieved, but that was his philosophy), while the Zoramites exhibit Blind Faith

This may be controversial, but Skepticism isn't a bad thing. God created us as rational beings, to think about things. He didn't create rationality so we could ignore it. Science is rooted in skepticism (I'm not sure if this is right, so I'll test it vigorously)

Skepticism is only negative when it prevents one from actually applying Faith. The Lectures on Faith make it very clear that Faith is an Action, not merely a belief. Next Week, we read one of the most important sermons in the Book of Mormon (Alma's Parable of the Seed). He makes it clear that we can only see the affects of the seed if we nurture it, and let it grow

Many Scientists were also Men of Faith (such as Heisenberg, or Newton). Even those who weren't religious didn't outright deny the possibility. For example, Darwin was active in his Church while writing "On the Origin of Species," said until his death he didn't know if God was real or not, but wasn't going to assume he's not there (and he once told a group of atheists that it was folly to say God didn't exist, because you can't know)

The idea of Science being anti-god is only so popular nowadays because of people such as Dawkins, who (like all too many people, religious & atheistic) don't understand what Faith actually is

On the other hand, there is Blind Faith. The Zoramites had faith, that is for sure. The Zoramite Prayer only consists of Thanks, and no requests. But what did that Faith lead them to? It led them to Pride (we're unconditionally saved, you're unconditionally damned). It led them to neglect & even condemn the poor (similar to the "Seed Faith" we see, especially with Televangelists). It eventually led them to War, because of their blind hatred for an "other" they had created (which is sadly too common in the Modern Church, be it with the LGBT Community, Liberals, or even Beards (yes, there is a story behind that. And yes, I do have a glorious beard))

So, what did Mormon want us to learn? We have 1% of the records he had, and even then, they're abridged. Everything in the Book of Mormon has a reason to be there.

I think he wanted us to acknowledge that humans have Polarity inherent in us. We have to learn how to balance that polarity if we are going to be healthy & happy. We can't let either Skepticism or Faith lead us. We need to test the "Seed of Faith," and see if it is good. We can't let Faith overrule us (and inadvertently let Wicked Seeds infest us), and we can't let Skepticism overrule us (refusing to test any seeds)

If we see a beggar on the street, Skepticism can lead us to help him ("what's God going to do for him"). If we are that beggar, Faith can allow us to accept the charity they need ("God sent that person to help, so I'll accept their help"). These are two opposing forces, but they both lead to God's Will being done (charity being given). We need to learn how to balance, and when to express each attribute

[pretend-i-do-not-exist]

Under Spell, Right From The Start

Synopsis: He insists you're nothing special... but if that's the case, why do you cross his mind so often?

Pairing: Lucifer, Mammon, Satan, Belphegor × MC (separate)

CW: Gender Neutral MC, You/Yours, Fluff, Crushes, Spoilers for lesson 16 (OG) in Belphie's part, A smidge of angst in Belphie and a drop of it in Satan's too bc I couldn't resist

A/N: HEY HI!! So this is my first post, for this fandom specifically, and I'm still trying to grasp my writing style, so I apologise if it's a bit everywhere and not the best. However, if you do enjoy this trainwreck that I call writing, feel free to leave me a request. I'd really love to see some :]]] Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and HAPPY VALENTINES DAY ♡

Lucifer:

How could this be? The Avatar of Pride falling for a mere human? Impossible. He would never.

...Is what he said initially.

Over time, he found himself craving your presence

There was something about you that had him absolutely enthralled

Maybe it was the way you convinced him to take breaks

Or maybe it was the comfortable silence you settled in

You were doing your own things, but... doing them together? Even better.

Perhaps it was the way you learned to manage his brothers

#singlemomgetsabreak

That's a lie. He never gets a break.

#justiceforsinglemom

Now, you could manage his brothers

That doesn't mean you were always going to do it

He insists you're giving him grey hairs

But he enjoys having you around

And he cared for you, more than he wanted to admit to himself.

You're part of the family, after all :)

Mammon:

Pf- please. He's modelled for the biggest brands and has been on the covers of magazines.

He's got a line of demons waiting for him, and you think he'd get hung up on you? Yeah, right.

And he's definitely not trying to grab your attention when you join him for his photoshoots

And he'd never get pouty when you can't hang out with him because you've already made plans

Why should he care?

Oh, but he'd give anything for your attention

MC, he quite literally will run across the Devildom for you if you call

He's your first!

If he isn't by your side, and you aren't by his, then what's he gonna do??

He's greedy. That's what he is.

He's the Avatar of Greed, and you're his most valuable treasure.

Satan:

He has his books, he has his knowledge, and he's very content with it all

The last thing he needs is anyone disturbing that peace for him.

But... you.

He strangely likes his peace even more when you're there?

You could both be doing your own things in mutual silence or you could be talking about a new book the two of you are reading (that is if you like reading)

You make him feel even more at peace than if he was on his own

Then it hits him, he doesn't enjoy your presence, he enjoys you.

He's thinking about you when he's reading a new novel

Imagining you both as the protagonists because he's shaking the thought out of his head

Because you wouldn't want that, would you?

He's taking his time doing more and more little things for you

Annotating books

Letting you borrow books from him

Recommending books to you

It's all worth it to see that smile on your face

He just didn't realise it then

Belphegor:

He hates humans and you're no exception.

He just needs to get out of this stupid attic

Then he'll show them all

He's said it before and will continue to say it: this exchange program is a bad idea

... Because he's met you.

You're ruining this for him, I mean why do you have to be so beautiful?

Why do you have to be so nice?

Why are you so eager to help him?

You don't know how he's...

It. Doesn't. Matter.

You're human.

That's not gonna change.

Even after the murder, he finds his thoughts recircling

You- you're forgiving him? After everything? How??

More importantly, why does his heart swell with hope?

Hope that things can work out between you two

It's a crazy dream of his, that's for sure

Speaking of dreams, you're frequenting them more and more

He thought that it would be the opposite but boy was he wrong

His dreams are simultaneously becoming his worst nightmares because as sweet as they are while he's asleep...

Nothing quite dispels that feeling of disappointment when he wakes up again and you're not there.

[cripplecharacters]

I'm a writing a character based on my own experience as an autistic person with bipolar 1. He has episodes of psychosis similar to mine, and part of his "plot" is being mistaken for a dangerous student (which has happened to me too). Although the character is based a lot on my own life and the ableism I've dealt with, my readers won't necessarily know that about me, and I'm lowkey afraid of getting some kind of backlash for that. Have you dealt with this before and how do you handle it?

Hello,

Put it in the "about the author" page of the book, or write it in the acknowledgement page (you know, the page where authors say stuff like "This book is dedicated to this person I really like.") Maybe put it in the blurb on the back of the book, if the author is the one who writes that. If you're writing this online, put it in your pinned or have a little author's note somewhere. You can also put it on your social media that's connected to your pen name (which could be either an alias or your actual name.)

Dealing with backlash is something you need to learn no matter what you write. Just remember that you wrote what was true to you and that no one else gets to say what you do or don't, did or didn't, experience. The people dedicated to misunderstanding everything you say can't be convinced, remember that and don't waste your energy arguing with them, they don't listen. When I got backlash, I remembered all of the people who my stories have helped. Your book will be someone's comfort book, the book they read on a rainy day. Someone will read your book again and again. Someone will bookmark it and annotate it, or someone will take care of it and keep it museum-quality because they love it. There will always be haters no matter what you do. Try to focus instead on the people who love your book. I know it's never that easy, but that's how you get through it.

That and not reading the reviews on Goodreads. I know it's tempting, but don't do it.

Mod Aaron

[valsbooknook]

Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss II

So, I finished the book.

Overall, it was pretty damn awesome. I especially liked the end sequence where everything was going well for Kvothe: he had money, friends and just had fun. I was heartwarming to read ❤️.

It almost felt like the end. I *would have* accepted it as the end, only if he had solved the Chandrian and Amyr mystery. So, I googled to see what the next book was like, only to see IT HASN'T BEEN RELEASED YET. I read some reddit posts and IT WOULD PROBABLY NEVER RELEASE. Gods, how it frustrated me.

I *love* books. I love long series with 1500+ pages. I was on the euphoria train of the Kingkiller Chronicles and *really* wanted to read the next part. The knowledge that it would probably never come, left me a bit bothered–not to say empty. Like an itch you can't scratch or a thing you–for the life of it–can't remember.

I would have really wanted to learn about the Chandrian or Amyr. There was such a threatening and mysterious vibe around them... *sigh* Well, I just got to get over it. That's life. *shrug*

But I will be VERY happy when the third book releases.

Overall, the Kingkiller Chronicles was an awesome series and I really recommend it, despite the third book situation (damn you, Rothfuss!) and the ickier parts I mentioned in my last post. But if those things don't bother you, GO FOR IT! The adventures of Kvothe are waiting for you!

It made me laugh a lot, made me gasp in shock and so on. I have a whole stack of sticky notes what I annotated the book with. (It was a library book, couldn't write inside lol)

Okay, really, I will end this post here. Just read whatever you want. The important thing is that you read and enjoy yourself ❤️.

[mirastudiesphysics]

Obsidian.md Workflow

Introduction

Obsidian.md is a note taking app that is slowly starting to gain popularity (though notion is what I usually see in the studyblr community). There's plenty of resources online and this isn't really an introduction and assumes basic knowledge; rather, I wanted to write up my current academic workflow for using it because I almost never see obsidian workflows used for STEM related work (so if you see any others please please send them my way because I'm just making this up as I go).

Let's assume now we have a new topic/project that I want to start studying/working on.

Make a new page

Create a new page with whatever the topic is. Maybe this is for a class, a project, or some other topic that has caught your interest. I will give this page a descriptive title and add "- Main" at the end, as a way to indicate that this is more of a landing page than for note taking. For example, I could have something like "Galactic motion project - Main" or "Book Notes - Main".

I will also tag my main pages as #Main (creative, I know), just so I can quickly index my projects. An index page that links to all other main pages could also be helpful! I'm sure there could be a way to automatically index all main pages with the Dataview plugin, though I have not done this myself.

General outline

Outline your main page with things you might find immediately helpful when working on this topic. I like to have the following sections: to-dos, resources, general thoughts, questions, and current issues. I also have a "completed to-do list" at the bottom of the page so I can look back and see what I have accomplished.

Start writing!

Take notes of things that work or that you've learned. I like to write down how I troubleshoot code so that if I come across a similar issue I know how to fix it from last time. If there's a section of your main page that you find yourself referencing more than others, it might be time to make a new page for that section so you can easily link it to other pages.

If I'm studying from a book, I like to make a main page and link additional pages for each chapter.

Weekly Notes

Obsidian comes with Daily notes, but I personally prefer a weekly note. I like to write my weekly to-dos at the top for research, classes, and more general tasks. I then make a header for each day and list out my goals for each day. As the week goes on, I write up what I actually accomplished that day, even if I didn't list a task originally. Some people like to put all of their notes into their daily or weekly notes and organize later, but I just do that in a paper notebook and transfer later.

Literature

I actually don't have a setup that I'm happy with in regards to reading papers within Obsidian and I write most of my thoughts in Zotero annotations. However, I wanted to write it here regardless because it's still a part of my workflow. Zotero has a really nice feature where if you have the arxiv link to a paper, you can enter that link and Zotero will 1) read in the bibliographic information and 2) download the pdf of the paper into your library. I make a note in Zotero for each paper and note down the relevance for why I have this paper in my library. I then read through the paper in Zotero and hightlight important bits, and annotate those highlights with my own thoughts. The nice thing about Zotero is that there are several highlight colors, which I have another note on my own color code (e.g. purple for definitions or red for things I have questions on).

Plugins

Here's the list of plugins I have currently and how I use them.

Dataview: very useful for automatically organizing pages as you create them. I honestly have not used it much but I plan to as my vault grows in size.

Latex Suite: nicely formatted Latex within your notes. I enjoy using it, though my current gripes are that I can't find a way to default pairing $, so you have to manually enter a second $ and then go back inside the pair to see a preview. I also turned off the snippets, because it automatically overriding a lot of things I was writing with snippets that I did not want.

Periodic notes: The plugin I use to get Weekly notes.

Tasks: adds more features for writing to-do lists in Obsidian. You can query to-dos across your vault to list them within a single page, and organize based on due date and priority level.

Zotero Integration: Another plugin that I have honestly not used much, but I hope it will be useful as I read more literature.

Current vault view

Generally the local graph view is more useful while writing (to see immediate connections to your current page), but the vault-wide graph view is just fun to look at.

[toomanyfanficsbruh]

Firstly, when you get this, you have to answer with 5 things you like about yourself, publicly. Then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool)!!!

Hey! Thankyou! A great way to start the New Year <3 Positivity IS cool !!

Also thanks to @thedaselcor for tagging me in their version xx

Im quick to learn. I love that I can pick up an activity or task, be taught it, do it and never lose the ability to do the activity/task. (I knitted for a year, dropped it for two, and then I picked it up again and could just make a scarf.) I think that's pretty cool. I love how I can just nap/fall asleep anywhere. On the couch, on the floor, on a chair. I once fell asleep with a tiny baby on me, on the ground. It takes less than 5 minutes and I'm out. I love it. -

This is a tad bit odd, but I like that I don't feel bad about writing in my books. I highlight, annotate, dog-ear and draw little patterns all over the pages. I don't feel bad. I know some people do, but I like that I'm living through the words. -

I like my eyes and eyelashes. I have dark eyes, almost black and my eyelashes are thick and long. They, other than my eyebrows and lips, are the most expressive part of my face. I like how they're a mix of both my parents in terms of shape and size. I like that it's inherently me but also of the people I love. -

I like my laugh. Over the years I've been made fun of and yelled at because my laugh is loud and quite outrageous. I wheeze and giggle and my eyes squint and its so loud. I love it. I've tried to change it many many times, but I love it so much now and I'm so glad I do. It's just the most wonderful sound I've ever heard because I'm happy and I think that matters most. -

I like how much I feel. Every little emotion in a song, in a movie, in a piece of writing - I feel it all. And I love it. My mother often looks at me, tears dried on my face after a movie, and Questions why I'm crying, since it's just fiction. But I think that, if I felt all of those emotions, maybe I'm in touch with them a tad bit more. I love that. I love that I can listen to a song and cry. I can read a book and feel wistful and nostalgic.

I love these gratitude and appreciation things because sometimes you have to appreciate yourself and once you start, you can't stop. <3<3

Thankyou xx

[tombstuck-writes]

I read a ton of books as a kid and now I can't read to save my life.

Today I learned that reading is an important part of keeping your writing skills up to par.

Before this, I had been wondering why it felt like my writing skills were going to shit. Everything I wrote came out in a way I didn’t like, and then when I went to edit it, I didn’t know how.

The History:

I’ve been writing since I was 8 years old, and I never stopped for very long. But what I did stop doing was reading. I was a voracious reader in school, and when I became about 15 years old, I stopped reading anything besides Homestuck because I was obsessed. But after I finished Homestuck, I never went back to books. I occasionally read a fanfic but other than that did not read much of anything at all. As an adult, I got into non-fiction, productivity type books. But once that interest faded out, I stopped reading altogether.

My motivation:

Yes, I have a 2 year old kid, and it would be easy to use him as an excuse for why I don’t read, but honestly I think reading is even more important now. My son loves books, and I’m so proud of that, but I don’t think he has ever seen me sit down with a book for fun in his whole life. I think it’s important for him to see me reading, so I want to get back to it.

The plan:

I saw some advice that said to start with an old favorite, so I might try that. I'm going to make a list of all the books and fanfics that have been my favorites over the years and re-read them. Might even try some books I liked in middle school!

Another thing I read was that annotating as you read can help with remembering and understanding what you're reading, so I'm gonna give that a go, too!

I'll make another post soon that covers what happened after I tried, so stay tuned everyone lol. In the meantime I'm going to keep trying to write.

[cbuck215]

Readerly Exploration 7

Readerly Exploration 7 - Week 15 - 12/4/23

Hanford (2018), “Hard Words: Why Aren’t Kids Being Taught to Read?”

Wills Lloyd (2021), “Smoke signals in reading education: What is with the spate of articles about changes in reading instruction?

Big Takeaway

The big takeaway I think the authors wanted was that both phonetic and decoding, as well as reading comprehension and word identification need to be taught, more phonetic than word identification, as students learn to decode reading better and make more comprehension within the area of reading.

Nugget

I learned that there is a lot more unnecessary debate in schools than there needs to be. If research is saying something is effective, we should be doing what is effective. I also learned that we are not wired to read, which I think was a really cool element to learn. I had never thought of it that way, but after reading about it in comparison to oral language, it made complete sense, its a lot more of explicit learning.

Narration

I first set up my question boxes, as annotating in the sidelines would not be effective since there is not a lot of room. I made sure to quote the part I had read that made a question pop into my head, and then I added my question and comment with it. This allowed for me to engage in the reading a little more by allowing me to ask and process the questions and feelings I had as I read, as both of these articles raised some alarming questions and made me feel some type of way about how education is being handled right now. I was definitely rather shocked at some of the things I was reading, especially challenged by the parts that talked about teachers ignoring or getting annoyed with the research that was clearly telling them an effective way to teach so that students don’t fall behind. It kills me inside to think of all the students who are just left to inherently try to read by simply being provided materials and left to try and squeeze out meaning from words they can't even decode let alone define. This was a very very interesting read to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to engage in it, especially with some of the things I see going on in my field placement that aligns with some of the topics in these articles.

Engage in the reading process to increase the likelihood of text comprehension (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, applying)/As you read, annotate any questions that arise for you in the margins.

Reading 1 - Smoke Signals

“... is about whether early or beginning reading instruction should promote fundamental skills (letters and sounds; “phonics”) or higher-order skills (enjoying reading; getting the author’s ideas)” - Why is the second question even an option? While it is good to focus on the author's purpose and ultimately easier for teachers to focus on, how in the world are students going to even get to the author's purpose without understanding the author's writing and word structure?

“...that simply engaging children in “reading” (book tubs, readers’ workshop, etc.) would allow them to develop reading skills independently.” - While this is important I wonder why teachers think this notion is actually the main way they should go? Why do they think that this is the main path of reading instruction? What about those who can't read? Motivation only goes so far, before students who can't read quickly lose interest and never develop decoding skills.

“The advocates for whole language approaches argued that teaching decoding was preventing traditionally under-performing students (viz, African American students) from the “good” instruction that privileged children were getting” - Under what conditions do we classify this as “good” instruction? Is it simply because kids from better socioeconomic backgrounds are perceived as typically better readers and so the teaching is perceived to be better? Is it ignoring the issue of privileged children having home lifes that potentially help with teaching reading at earlier ages and stages, differing from less privileged children’s homes? Probably.

Not a question but more a comment, I think this author is funny, very clearly echoing my thoughts on this issue as well. 

Reading 2 - Hard Words

“Research shows that children who don't learn to read by the end of third grade are likely to remain poor readers for the rest of their lives, and they're likely to fall behind in other academic areas, too. People who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of high school, to end up in the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty.” - What in the world are we doing? I do see this in school, especially in Urban settings, so why are we not raising so much heck that this is getting fixed? I’m curious about how no child left behind factors into this as well, seeing as clearly there are still many children left behind.

“This was not just poverty. In fact, by some estimates, one-third of America's struggling readers are from college-educated families.” - It makes me wonder, is it home life? With how busy the world is nowadays, could it be the lack of parental home reading involvement? Both parents often work, so could it be an issue of that if it is not just poverty?

“The human brain isn't wired to read.” - Interesting. Why? I understand the learning process factor, but something so important to basic societal survival, why are we not more hardwired to read?

“He referred to letters of the alphabet as "bloodless, ghastly apparitions"” - While I can understand, especially for the english language, how letters can make reading confusing with all of their different rules and sounds, how is working on only vocabulary identification (word identification) going to be any better? Wouldn't kids get confused about why words are the way they are and have no explanation? Or even more so, when encountering new words they don't intrinsically know, wouldn’t it be the same process of if they were able to sound it out? Either way the student is going to have to research the word to define it, why is the extra step of phonetic awareness considered a bad thing? If its unfamiliar either way, would it not be better to at least be able to read the word before trying to comprehend?

"Is this your science or my science?" - While I understand different teaching philosophies, how do teachers not see researched facts as effective and factual?

Here are my questions in their actual format, though they are also typed out above.

[sqeedledob]

Books I am Currently Reading

I read multiple books at a time! So long as they are under different genres and topics it's easy to keep up, and I make a lot of annotations and summarize every 5 or so chapters so I know where I left off and how the book had me feeling when I left off!

Current reads and future reads are below the cut, feel free to talk to me about anything and recommend me anything!

Also my future reads are just up to random chance sometimes! I have a game I play to find books I normally wouldn't pick up. I explain that here!

Going forward book reviews will be tagged with #squeedle reviews

Wheel of Time, Book 7: A Crown of Swords

PLEASE NO SPOILERS FOR THIS SERIES!!!

I love fantasy and after reading Lord of the Rings last year I wanted another more modern take on classic fantasy

Cryptum: Book One of the Forerunner Saga

Do not mind spoilers for this series :)

I love video games and grew up on Halo but never paid attention to the lore! How can I call myself a Master Chief Simp if I don't know everything about his franchise! (/j) I'm reading/playing the entirety of Halo in chronological order AND I LOVE TO BRAIN ROT FOR THIS but I am shy about it too

The Naked Ape

Not a book I would usually pick up but was recommended to me by a few people! Can't say I agree with many of the author's takes, but it is an interesting interpretation of the Human Experience.

Hawaiian Mythology

Research purposes for my story! I'm Native Hawaiian and wanted to connect my culture and my writing!

New American Bible

I consider myself eclectic religious but also not really religious at all! Is God out there? Maybe. Do I have a bunch of crystals in my house? Maybe. This is also for research though to enhance my writing and see how religion is written!

And then there's another bit of fitness, learning languages (Latin, Japanese, and German) and other educational books that don't really apply hehehe

Currently on the Reading List

The Legend of Gulfstream Wings of Fire Series Feist (? My boyfriend wants to read this series together, I really don't know what its about yet) The Quran (Research purposes) Legends of Maui (Research Purposes) Fragments of Hawaiian History (Research Purposes)

A Darker Shade of Magic

[grantairezee]

why is every single tutorial a video now I'm going to scream

[wordsarelife]

if you’re thinking of writing anything w regulus black x reader 💓💞 like hc’s about what he would be like in a relationship (would he open doors for u, tie ur shoelace etc etc, restaurant dates) or where reader is all like enemies to lovers with him ?? thank u bby

—dating regulus black

pairing: regulus black x reader

summary: headcanons of being in a relationship with regulus black

warnings: none

authors note: did it a bit different than you asked, let me know if I should do a prequel or anything!!

reading your favourite book to him on the astronomy tower, while his head rests in your lap and you're combing through his hair

he's more of a listener, so when you're having dinner in the great hall, you engage in loud conversation, while he just sits and listen, holding your hand under the table

picnic dates where you swap previously read and annotated books and lay on a blanket all day reading them

brought you a record player from hogsmead, that he keeps in his dorm, so you can listen to your favourite songs while you're spending time with each other

he sometimes dances with you in the dark of the astronomy tower, the first time he had said that all the lessons he took had to be good for something at least

swapping love letters or just short little poems you read and wrote down that remind you of each other

regulus is a really thoughtful person, you sit next to him in class and he often brings you quills and paper, because you often forget them. he has always an extra set for you

you're always wearing one of his rings, at the same time he never takes of the little friendship bracelet you had made for him even before you started dating

you're the only one who's allowed to call him 'reggie'

on those evenings you can't sleep, or everything just gets too much, he stays awake with you and reads your favourite chapter of your favourite book, waiting until you eventually fall asleep in his arms

he often buries his head into your hair, because he loves the smell of it. you never stopped buying the same shampoo after you had noticed that

as stated before, he doesn't talk much around other people and he's not really a big fan of pda (he's more of an behind closed doors kinda boy and generally a very private person)

but what he does is say little phrases of encouragement, during school or just sometimes when he deems fitting. for example: "keep going, baby" or "you can do it, sweetheart"

he's used to you so much, that sometimes he just knows when you need time to cool off, so he keeps quiet and combs through your hair

he thinks its funny when you get mad about something someone else did, you're a big ranter. he just watches you, smiling, as you run around the room and utter different sentences in disbelief

occasionally when you do that, you will turn to him and ask him things like: "do you believe they've done that?" and he will answer: "that's really shitty of them, baby"

honestly, he doesn't even care about the others (obviously he does when anyone hurts you etc) but he could listen to you rant for hours

you go to every single one of his quidditch games, enjoying just watching him play

after the games, you often find yourself in the slytherin common room at the piano (just imagine they had one there) while he teaches you note for note how to play it right

every time regulus shows you how to do something (like dancing or playing the piano) he's very patient with you, never rushing or raising his voice when it takes you longer to figure something out

overall you have a super healthy relationship, because you’re honest with each other and talk a lot about your feelings. that wasn’t easy for regulus at first, but you grew up in a pretty loving and open household where you regularly discussed you’re feelings so you helped him learn how to do that. at least that way you could teach him something too.

[i-arch-my-backula]

Slasher and stranger things characters with a book worm s/o

So I've been recently getting into reading a bit more and I'm building quite a collection of books. But if I ever learn how to bind books I'm making so many books out of fan fictions that I love. Anyway 2023 is my reading era and I wanted to write something for any other book worms here. I threw in a few Stranger Things Characters because I haven't written for them in such a long time and I've been meaning to do it. Sorry for the long little blurb.

Warnings: Typical mentions of slasher stuff like murder, violence, etc, reader being lovingly teased

Includes: Vincent Sinclair, Brahms Heelshire, Bubba Sawyer, Jason Voorhees, Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Johnathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler

Vincent Sinclair

Vincent has never been much of a book guy. He's much preferred working with his hands and writing than reading books and things like that. But that doesn't mean he won't be supportive of your hobby.

He's going to indulge you as much as he can. Getting you every book and magazine in the town for you to read. If you ask he'll tell Bo to buy you some books whenever he goes into a real town.

Will ask you to read to him or ask you about whatever book you're currently reading. He loves to work on something while you're reading a story to him.

Doesn't matter what type of book it is, he wants to read about it if you're interested in reading it.

Vincent likes drama books. The more dramatic and gothic the better.

Brahms Heelshire

The Heelshire mansion is full of books to read so you'll never have to worry about running out of things to read. Most of them are classic books or old rich people books but I'm sure that there's still great things to read.

Insists that you read to him while you're reading whatever you are. If you're the type of person who likes to annotate their books in whatever way he's going to want you to read them to him too.

Will ditch the kid books at bed time and insist you read him a chapter of the book you're currently reading.

Also takes the time that you read to him as a way to cuddle with you. Despite being 6'3 he's gonna wanna sit on your lap while you read to him. Or have you sit on his. Whatever the case you two have to be cuddling while you're reading.

Brahms likes children's books the best.

Bubba Sawyer

I'm not saying Bubba is dumb, but he probably can't read very well because he's never really had a proper education. If you're into books he's going to want you to teach him how to read better.

Now the Sawyers don't have much books at home but if Bubba finds any on victims he'll give them to you. He'll also ask Drayton to go into town and buy you some.

He'd love to cuddle with you while you read to him. He loves physical affection and including something that you really enjoy just sweetens the deal.

I know that before the internet you had to go to a woman you know, cosmetology school, find a magazine or get a book on makeup looks to learn how to do makeup and I feel like Bubba has a ton of magazines on how to do makeup that you can read.

Bubba would really like romance books, putting himself in both the womans and the mans positon.

Jason Voorhees

Like Bubba Jason can't read very well, but that won't stop him from trying to improve his skills. He'll get you as many books he can find around camp and on victims. He'll probably ask you to give him lessons too.

I think that Jason has a collection of books that his mother gave him as a child or books she read herself and a good 6/7 months into the relationship he'll give you those books to read.

Will build you a bookshelf from scratch. I was talking about this with @chronic-boogara but Jason would 100% build you a book case from scratch. Like go and chop the wood himself and everything. But you might have to go buy him some more supplies.

Would adore if you read your books to him. Will drop anything he's doing to cuddle up with you and read the book with you. Especially if it's after a long day of work at the camp.

I think he'd like more fun adventure fiction books.

Eddie Munson

Will tease you for being a nerd when he is also just as big of a nerd as you. He means it as a joke and if anyone else makes fun of you for being a book worm then he's going to fight them.

He doesn't have the money to spend on buying you books but he'll constantly take you to the library whenever you ask. He'll also save up and buy you like five books for special occasions.

If he's working on a new campaign and lacking ideas he'll ask you about what's happening in your book, especially if it's a fantasy book and draw inspiration from there.

I've said this before but Eddie is touch starved and very handsy because he's never had a partner before you. So he'll always have you read to him while you're on his lap or cuddling in some kind of way.

His favorite books are horror or fantasy books.

Steve Harrington

Will also call you a nerd, but in a loving, joking manor. If anyone but him or a close friend makes fun of you for literally anything he's going to get aggressive. Well verbally at least.

English was never his strongest subject. He doesn't get why you're willingly reading books not for school but he doesn't really care, as long as you're enjoying yourself he's happy.

Steve does have money and he will spoil you with books and whatever else you want. If there's a movie adaption of a book you like coming out he's taking you to go see it and will listen as you explain the differences between the book and the movie.

If you try reading to him he's just gonna fall asleep. It's not because you're boring him, it's because your voice while you read is so calming. It makes him even more sleeping if you're cuddling together.

His favorite thing to read is probably sports magazines.

Johnathan Byers

He's not an avid reader but he likes to read from time to time. He quickly picks up on your hobby and will take note of it too. He listens to every word you say about whatever book your reading and will remember it.

He memorizes your favorite genre, tropes. authors, etc so when he has the money he can go to a book store and buy you something he hopes that you like.

Would love it if you read to him. He doesn't care what the book is about he just wants to hear you talk. Also loves it if you do voices for different characters. He might tease you a little about it but it's all in good fun.

I feel like if he ever has the chance to get you a signed copy of a book you love he'll do it. He'll either get it signed first then give it to you or drive you to whatever book signing is going on and help you get it signed there.

His favorite book genre is fantasy books.

Nancy Wheeler

She's a book lover too. I feel like she's the type of person who tried to write a book in the 3rd grade and forgot about it after three chapters.

She'll happily trade books with you or read the same one at the same time so you can have a little mini book club.

Will read to you if you ask her to and will let you read to her. She finds it calming and fun to read together. Maybe not with much physical contact but still reading to each other.

If she has spare money she will take you book shopping. I think that a cute date idea she has is buying you a book and you buying her one then highlighting any lines that make you think of each other.

Her favorite book genre is romance.

[haniwrites]

♡ love language - attack on titan

characters : eren, levi, hange, armin, mikasa, erwin, jean, connie, sasha

genre : fluff / comfort and established relationship !

spoilers : none

notes : first writeup ever ? ehehe my math midterm is tmrw and i needed some comfort to release my stress, so here u go ! lmk if you want a part two with other characters :p

✧ EREN :

moral support and words of affirmation

him being all passionate about his own opinions and beliefs tatakae, he is bound to listen to you rant about your day, your thoughts and ideas. i feel like he would sit with you on the rooftop, just listening to you vent and talk. he would mirror your excitement, sadness, happiness and other emotions perfectly and always provide you with moral support whenever you need it. he would ask you about your day and your worries, often making you a cup of coffee or tea to soothe your nerves, precious boy <3

✧ LEVI :

words of affirmation

levi is really not good with expressing his emotions verbally so he resorts to notes and letters. every morning when he leaves early to train, he makes sure he writes you a little note saying either 'i love you' or ' you look pretty today '. it always brings a smile to your face knowing that he would be by your side forever. he goes out of his way to comfort you when you are feeling disappointed. his words motivate you and make you feel loved. he knows its the little things that you care about the most, touch starved man :(

✧ HANGE :

definitely physical touch

feeling anxious about your next mission ? no worries, hange will always be there either holding your hand or giving you a soft rub at the back of your neck. you literally m e l t against their touch, forgetting your tension. they aren't shy and would kiss your cheek in public openly. it makes you blush but relieves your stress. when they go alone to certain missions, hange makes sure that they give you double hugs and kisses before leaving. a peck on the forehead here and there out of the blue makes you feel so appreciated and loved, gay gay gay :>

✧ ARMIN :

spending quality time together

armin is a man of culture and knows your likes and dislikes. if you are feeling down, he would suggest the idea of going on a library date or cooking dinner together. his soft spoken demeanour and intelligence immediately attracted you and he always made sure that he spent time with you everyday. in your freetime, you both always spend time in the kitchen learning new recipes and cooking. he is shy and he often stutters or falters around you, so he devised a new plan to express his love and that is making cookies together !! it calmed you down and in between he would give u light kisses on your cheek, such a sweet baby :((

✧ MIKASA :

acts of service

mikasa absolutely loves helping you out with every chore you have. she would be by your side 25/8. she would go out of her way to carry out your tasks and relieve your stress. while you are writing down reports, she would sit by your side, feeding you tiny bits of food in between and patting your back. she would sometimes write down the reports for you without levi knowing about it, sneaky girl. however, she makes sure it does not make you feel like you are useless and can't handle your tasks well. it is just her way of showing you that she would never leave your side, she loves it when you pinch her cheek and express your gratitude for how much she helped you, give this woman validation ^_^

✧ ERWIN :

poetry and book recommendations

erwin is an avid reader and i feel like he would send you short love poems to express how lucky he is to have you by his side. he would send you novels from the local library with post-it notes annotating the paragraphs he loved the most and you would resonate with. it excites him that he finally has someone he can share his guilty pleasure with. you would go through the novels, reading in between the lines that remind you of him. you would annotate few pages in a different post-it colour and send it back to him. this was the way you both communicated, husband material asf !

✧ JEAN :

teasing and flirting

such a cocky bastard ?! would openly flirt with you and touch you in public. his hands are always on you, be it around your waist or intertwining your fingers together, he would tease you to see you blush. calls you cringey nicknames to annoy you smh. it is his way of displaying affection and supporting you. this man will go out of his way to playfully bicker with you over the simplest of things. he will place bets with you and if he wins, well, you would have to do something that he tells you to do and it is usually one of your pet peeves. however, at the end of the day, he is serious and quite invested in the relationship, he stands up for you always and vows to marry you someday, comfort as a human being fr >//<

✧ CONNIE :

spending quality time together

both of you are the crackhead duo, he loves doing illegal shit with you like sneaking out at night and pranking the squad members. having fun together and talking loudly to annoy the others is something you both enjoy doing. he is a menace to the society but at the same time a caring partner. he makes sure you never feel neglected or not good enough for him. he is the perfect human to cuddle with at night when you are feeling lonely and he makes sure to make you laugh by telling you a lame joke along the lines of 'how do you make holy water ? you boil the hell out of it !!' this man laughs at his own jokes and you shake your head as a small smile automatically adorns your face as well, cherish this man forever <3

✧ SASHA :

giving gifts / food dates

she would love making handmade gifts for you and you adore her way too much. she also gets so excited when you cook her lunch or dinner. you both love hanging out in the kitchen, trying out new recipes while making each other your favourite dishes. sasha never fails to surprise you and would leave small trinkets behind for you to keep. this would remind you of her always, even when she is not around or in a mission without you. you both love going on food dates and talking about each other's life. she would tell you stories while munching on the food you made. it was perfect, pretty lady :)

[6okuto-moved]

The way they write Mc in LL makes me die a little inside because I am so similar to Felix and if I were actually there I would be GEEKIN out about the freaking taxidermied animals and the bugs and cool shit in jars and cheesy romance novels and like dressing.. in a way. Idk. I wanted to know what ur thoughts are about how Felix would react if mc was super excited and supportive of his “weird” stuff and actively wanted to participate, or maybe.. you know. Pulled out some bones and a jar of dead bugs from their bag. Not that this is related to my real life items.. aha. Idk I wear mostly black and have bone and big jewelry and have shelves dedicated to creepy stuff so I feel like I would get along well with Felix

— felix with an mc similar to him

THATS SOOO . [HEART EMOJIS] ANON. [handshake My Man meme] if i had bones i'd carry them around in my bag smh. that's so cool you're really out here!!

this guy has never appreciated somebody more than right now.

the first time he sees you in what you'd usually wear he's like 🤨? someone like me? 🤨

he asks about your jewelry and thinks it's so cool. the first taste of the bonding that was going to happen

the scene where you first go into his room :(

you're looking around and staring and he starts panicking but then !! you're like "felix this place is so cool what the hell?" and he glitches because that definitely wasn't what he expected

he's kinda,, iffy at first because you could be pulling a terrible prank. "you don't have to lie to make me feel better. i know all of this is...odd."

but you ask about his taxidermied animals and he says "i, uh, did them myself, actually," and he can see how excited you get so now you're both excited

the things he truly enjoys? that he's been scared/insecure about sharing with people for who knows how long? being appreciated and related with? he never thought he'd be able to experience this

he takes the time to talk about anything you point out and he's so happy!! he's always wanted to infodump about all of his preserved bugs and books and taxidermy and everything else

he's the friend you can go to for very niche information. like when you email a researcher about their work because there's a paywall

imagine if like, there was species of bugs and stuff that weren't in their world and he brings up being curious about researching things from ours. oh man time to shine

"oh really? say no more" "what are you—is that what i think it is" "if you were thinking a jar of bugs, then yes." "What else do you just Have on you??"

you spend the next few hours going through and talking about it all

he'd love to hear about where you got everything, why you have specific items, what people think, etc.

"if i ever find myself in your world somehow, promise to show me your own things?" "i thought that would be obvious but of course"

i just know felix would love to know about the circles of people who would adore everything he has going on. you need to introduce him to that thought immediately

if you ever wanted to watch or help him with some taxidermy he's actually a very good teacher! unlike magic which he has a natural talent for, taxidermy was definitely a learning process so he can give instructions/tips

if you work on one together it's immediately his favourite. you should name it i think

ohh reading books together :[ the bonding that comes with reading at the same time and getting together to gush/complain/cry. he has very strong opinions on everything so be prepared

would definitely be up for reading each other's favourite novels or exchanging annotated ones if you do that

you end up making so many inside jokes that people can't even,, guess what you're talking about. you always make eye contact when something related comes up. i love telepathy

anytime one of you finds something you can add to one of your collections you both get excited. even if it's small

"look at this beetle i found outside" "hell yeah. where are you going to put it?"

the normalcy felix gets to feel with you around is so...freeing. he gets to be all giddy and excited about things without worrying about being judged and it's so !!!!!!!!!!!!

gifts go crazy. if you gave him anything he'd be grateful but then you go and get him a specific novel that he's been looking for? a piece of jewelry that matches something you have? this man feels genuinely honoured that you remembered and put that effort in

he has specific spots for anything from you on a shelf and his desk

he always tries his best to make sure you feel as comfortable around him as he does with you, and to give you gifts that are just as thoughtful

sage and anisa just watch both of you ramble without a single idea of what's going on. they didn't really expect it, but they're very appreciative that at least one person relates to their friend the way you do