#it's a required project in an intro class

[bookwyrminspiration]

if I asked very nicely would you all be willing to take a one minute anonymous survey for my linguistics class. if the answer is yes, please click here. thanks :)

(sharing for a better response size would also be very appreciated)

[cjgladback]

For the last several months I've been resisting the siren call of machining while enjoying the new-to-me channel Pask Makes, with its woodworking and tool production.

But yesterday I watched two videos from Adam Savage in a row, with all their semi-chaotic plotting, layout work, and winging it. I now desperately need access to a machine shop and I'm being so brave about it.

That said, I have just downloaded FreeCAD to get as close as I can digitally to that thought process without the metal shavings, blue stained fingertips, and sulfuric lubricant smell. Or at least as close as I can for free.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I an asshole because I told someone to shut the hell up about his autism?

Now, please read this before making your vote.

I (21 F) started going back to school recently, I signed up for classes late because it took so long for the paperwork and processes to be finalized. I was taking a speech class in the morning and we had to do a group project in class. Now, I spoke with the professor and told her I did not do well in group projects because I either get treated like literal crap or I do all the work. She said she didn't care, either I join a group or get a 0. Someone (20 M) was watching, we'll call him Ed for clarity. I asked if I could join Ed's group and he said yes. I tried being really nice to Ed and waited for our group members to meet with us after class. He showed me which music he liked and I said it was nice. So, during the entire time period of this project I would meet a lot with my group mates and we'd do the project. It was very difficult because professor wanted over 10 resources and a certain length for the report, then to top it off a PowerPoint we'd be presenting too. Ed did a lot of things to make me feel very uncomfortable, but my group mates ignored it and didn't say anything. He'd talk about how he visited the dark web and looked into hitmen. Then he showed us an intro to a porno. I felt very uncomfortable and mentioned it to the other girl in our group, she said she would talk with the other boys in our group about it (they all had been friends since highschool except Ed) , she said the assignment did require us to find an intro that was terrible, but maybe a porno intro was too much. The assignment in question was basically a research project about why introductions are very important. They ended up choosing some 90's tv show intro, I don't remember which one it was, just that the show got 2 seasons and the intro was too stereotypical for the time. During the time Ed would send me random "hi"s and he added/followed me on all my social media. He would comment on everything and would try to make conversations on them when I wouldn't text back. I kept the texts as bland as possible. Ed just gave me a bad vibe and kept doing shit to make me uncomfortable. Now here's where the autism part comes in. I was talking to a guy I had a crush on instagram and I guess Ed noticed. So Ed basically calls me and asks if I'm not attracted to him because he has autism. I said what the hell and hung up. It made me feel so uncomfortable then he started bringing up his autism on all my photos, posts, tweets, you name it. I didn't know what to do anymore. Ed kept blowing up my phone too. He'd message me every 5 mins and would get mad when I wouldn't answer right away. So back to my crush, Ed messaged him I wasn't interested in dating him! Like dude! So my crush says he doesn't have time for immaturity and blocks me despite me trying to defuse and apologize hundreds of times for that. So I asked for some advice and basically I got that his autism was making him act like that. I don't want to sound ableist, I'm sorry if I give off that impression, but enough was enough. I told him to fuck off or else I'd get the authorities and school involved since what he was doing was harassment. He said he can't harass since he has autism so I told him to shut the hell up about his autism since it wasn't a "get out of jail" card so i finally blocked him everywhere. I don't know if I'm being an asshole or maybe I'm just not patient or equip to handle Ed? Even then, I am in no shape or form attracted to Ed nor was I ever. Now I just never want him bothering me again.

[azatas]

drop the modlist 👀 /lh

what the hell, sure

here's my Mass Effect Legendary Edition modlist

so i'm pretty picky about mods! i don't like anything too immersion breaking, or anything that looks like it's from a totally different game, but it's still a pretty sizable list. i added a little ★ to the mods that are must-haves for me

Mass Effect 1

QoL

★ LE1 Community Patch — bug fixes! ★ MELLO — restores the lighting from the Original Trilogy ★ LE1 Alternative Bodies — makes the female human/asari body proportions look a little better Keepers Finders — marks the keepers on the map! Mission Timings — delays the Council's message about Virmire until Therum, Feros and Noveria have been completed Remove Screen Shake A Little Help From My Friends — your friends on the Normandy help you complete your collection assignments so you don't have to spend time driving around on empty planets Galaxy Map Trackers — adds UNC assignments to the galaxy map Charted Worlds — marks mineral deposits on world maps Replenish Grenades — lets you restock your grenades on the Normandy Remove Intro Window Reflection — i just think it looks bad lol XP Rescale — increases the amount of XP you get so you can actually reach max level in a single playthrough

Immersion

★ LE1 Diversification Project — huge overhaul of the NPC population, adds way more NPCs to hub areas, more female aliens, tons of cut/bugged lines restored. little warning that it adds a puzzle to activating the generator on Ilos which is annoying, but i think it's worth it for everything else it adds ★ Saren Stages — gives Saren different looks for the different stages of his transformation Streamlined Weapon Loadouts — characters now only have the weapons they're proficient in equipped Morlan's Iconic Armor Store — adds the characters' iconic starting armours to Morlan's shop, scaled to the player's level Combat Communication — restores a bunch of combat voicelines ★ New Casuals for Femshep — casual outfits for Femshep (note: i use an older version of the mod that doesn't use the Appearance Modification Menu because i don't wanna deal with all that) Pistols Remade — makes the pistols a little smaller ★ Saren Boss Encounters — optional changes to Saren's boss fights, i use the enhanced version that reduces the amount of geth and restores some cut dialogue Dr. Heart Experiments — changes Saleon's test subjects from Thorian Creepers to their own unique model ★ Mako Squadmate Banter — plays the elevator banter while you're driving around in the Mako

Cheating

Skip Minigames No Skill Check Required — removes the decryption/electronics requirements on loot Infinite Sprint ★ No Armor Skill Required — equip whatever armour you want, no skill required. useful if you're like me and you love the look of the heavy Onyx armour but you don't play a class that can wear it Easier Feros Persuasion Check — the persuasion check with Ethan Jeong is too high to beat early on, this mod lowers it

Mass Effect 2

QoL

★ Unofficial LE2 Patch — bug fixes! ★ LE2 Alternative Bodies — makes Femshep's body proportions look a little better, buffer arms and less bulky feet ★ Optional Flirting — moves romance-initiating dialogue to the left of the dialogue wheel! gives you platonic dialogue options regardless of gender! Femshep no longer sounds like she's in heat when talking to Jacob! F.I.S.H — Kelly will offer to feed your fish after you buy some, so you don't have to flirt with her just to keep them alive Remove Storm Screen Shake Kasumi Restored — restores some of Kasumi's dialogue that was cut from the Legendary Edition Genesis Begone — restores the prologue's original dialogue ★ Remove Low Health Effect — removes the distracting veins that appear on the screen when you're low health

Immersion

★ Immersive Citizens — adds a whole bunch of NPCs to hub areas! makes the world feel livelier Weapons in Cutscenes — Shepard and squadmates will use the weapons they have equipped in cutscenes instead of the default weapons Jack Power Tweak — swaps Jack's Pull ability with Singularity Pistols Remade — makes pistols smaller Wrex Armour Consistency — gives Wrex his usual armour back Kelly and Kenson Restoration — gives them back the OT version of their hair, because i think the LE version of it is ugly Cerberus Ladies Wear Cerberus — gives female Cerberus crew members the correct uniforms. has an option to restore Kelly's hair as well, but i prefer to use the other mod for that because it also fixes the lighting when talking to her ★ Oriana looks like Miranda's Twin — what it says on the tin. i prefer to use the version with the vanilla hair Platonic Post-Horizon Emails — a platonic version of the email Ashley/Kaidan send to a romanced Shepard after Horizon Legion Femshep N7 Shoulder Guard — gives Legion Femshep's shoulder piece, also a LE3 version

Customization

★ Tank Top Casuals — tank top outfits for Shepard, also a version for LE3 Undamaged Armor for Garrus — replaces Garrus' DLC armour. i use the option that makes it look like an undamaged version of his loyalty armour ★ Samara's New Armor — i usually don't like to replace the companion's iconic armour, no matter how impractical it is, but Samara is an exception because i think her vanilla look is really ugly 💀 and this mod makes her look like a space paladin and it's great Garrus with No Visor — like i said i don't like to change much, so all i do is remove the visor for his casual/romance look and keep everything else vanilla No Headgear for Squadmates — removes the headgear from the DLC armours ★ ME2 Miranda Hair to LE — i never liked how Miranda's hair looked in ME3. this mod gives her a higher quality version of her original ME2 hair in LE2 & 3

Cheating

★ Skip Minigames Trigger Buttons — timed missions only trigger when you press a button next to your terminal. i like this one because it lets me delay the Arrival dlc until after the suicide mission Infinite Fuel M-44 Battle Tank — tired of the Hammerhead getting ripped apart like wet tissue paper? me too ★ One Probe All Resources — collect all resources from a planet with one probe Instant Shadow Broker Rewards

Mass Effect 3

QoL

★ LE3 Community Patch — bug fixes! ★ LE3 Alternative Bodies — edits Femshep's casual outfits to give her better proportions. i use the vanilla style version ★ LE3 Alternative Armor Bodies — edits Femshep's armours to give her buffer arms and reduce the boobplate ★ LE3 Alternative Squadmate Bodies — gives Ashley, Liara and EDI better proportioned bodies Admiral Daro'Xen Restored — restores Xen's war asset that was (mistakenly?) removed from LE3 ★ Optional Flirting — adds extra options on the dialogue wheel so you can be friendly without being flirty Kirrahe Makes Good — adds a war asset after talking to Kirrahe on Sur'Kesh F.I.S.H — Kelly will show up and give you your fish back as long as she survived the suicide mission, no flirting required Audio Dynamic Range — restores a missing option Super Extra Party Time — allows you to experience both the rowdy and the relaxed versions of the party in the Citadel DLC ★ Journal Enhanced — makes the journal easier to read

Immersion

★ Immersive Emails — sends the messages from the old datapad app to your email! (note: some of them send too early, but it's nbd) ★ Oriana looks like Miranda's Twin ★ Anderson Conversation Restored — restores cut content to Anderson's final scene Dreams Remade — changes Shepard's dream sequences. ymmv with this one, it's not totally seamless and personally i think it can be a little overwrought, but i like the emphasis on Shepard's choices instead of on the child ★ Immersive Thessia — overhauls the mission Priority: Thessia ★ Take Earth Back — overhauls Priority: Earth Liara Mourns the Dead — restores a conversation with Liara after the Citadel Coup that previously only triggered if the Virmire Survivor was killed Expanded Galaxy Mod — this mod adds a lot and i personally only use the Core + Normandy version of it, everything else makes the game feel bloated imo. i like to use it to set the DLCs to trigger at specific times, for example you get the most out of the Citadel DLC if you do it after Priority: Horizon

Customization

★ Iconic Femshep Hair Fix Garrus with No Visor — again, i just use the option that removes his visor from his casual/romance outfit ★ Samara's New Armour T-shirt and Leggings Miranda's Alternate Outfits — i use the option that changes her dress in the Citadel DLC Remastered Kelly — the version that fixes her hair in LE3 Ashley Consistency Project — this mod conflicts with the Alternative Squadmate Bodies mod, which i prefer, so i don't actually use it, but it's great! de-glams Ashley

Cheating

All Bonus Powers — makes all bonus powers available in the medbay for free ★ No Weapon Weight Improved Scanning — scan an entire system in one go. no more jumping out of your skin when you alert the reapers! ★ No Movement Penalty During Rannoch Weapon Class Upgrade

Textures

★ A Lot Of Textures — graphical overhaul Improved Eye Normal Map — improved eye textures ★ Turian Faces and Eyes: LE1 LE2 LE3 — high res textures for turians. optional cat-eye pupil texture, which i use because it matches the female turians and i like it better! PS4 Controller Icons — i like to play with my ps4 controller, this mod just replaces the xbox icons so it's easier on my brain Disavowed — the option that removes the hexagons from Miranda's white outfit Miranda Black and White — changes Miranda's loyalty armour from black and orange to black and white EDI Cerberus No Longer — removes EDI's Cerberus logo in LE3 Reduced Interaction HUD ★ Brunette Jack is Back — for some reason Jack is blonde in LE3

[moronkyne]

Roleswap AU; episode one

Kody and Freelancer

Kody, a magic born water elemental who aspires to master his water elemental magics and one day becomes a specialist for the academy and their advanced water elemental classes.

Kody has only attended this academy…what? Two? Three years? He was so close to getting what he wanted, so close to full certification in only a matter of time, a fraction of time compared to what he initially expected out of himself.

Freelancer, a human born freelancer who is ‘new’ to magic and the academy. Due to their vibrant style and alluring vibe, many people around them. They are treasured in their community.

Freelancer finds the concept of bridging to spike their curiosity, yet they knew asking someone they barely knew and barely trusted out of the blue was a horrific idea.

Story;

Kody and Freelancer meet in an intro to elemental magic class, being that Kody was just shy of passing it the last semester. They were assigned to come up with a project, one that required them to use elemental abilities that they had learned in that class to display a gorgeous show.

Being partners for this project, they were required to share more time together. They became close, eventually labeling themselves as friends. Kody knew how he had felt to the freelancer was one sided, until they started to show interest in him back.

Kody began to teach them water magic as he was determined to win them over with his skills. Freelancer played along, showing curious behavior to him and his tricks.

Eventually, Freelancer was gifted an idea, one that they knew how to execute perfectly. They knew Kody would do anything to impress them, to make them happy…so they brought up the idea of bridging.

Kody knew where to draw the line, feeling guilty yet extremely used. He knew that this wasn’t right, not for them. What situationship would just bridge with no further meaning?

Unfortunately, Freelancer didn’t take the response well. They started to tell all of Kodys classmates—telling anyone they knew that Kody wanted to bridge with them, and that he did. They played an innocent role, pretending as if they had no clue how wrong non-consensual bridging was, and how their made up situation was a prime example of it.

Due to the allegations, Kodys entire schedule was changed. He wouldn’t have been able to graduate in due time, had nobody beside him, and was seen as a degenerate everyone.

**Sidenote: This is not a headcanon, do not attack me. This is an AU, an alternate universe. Not what I see fit for prime.

[mentalknot]

What I thought my trajectory as a math major would look like during the fall of my freshman year:

Semester 1

Take linear algebra + multivariable calculus… maybe intro combinatorics if I’m feeling “wild,” but taking it easy to learn the ropes

Semester 2

Take number theory, maybe some CS classes to work on the double-major side plot… pretty chill semester again, to adjust to college ofc

Semester 3

Take abstract algebra and a few more CS classes, maybe an extra little elective? Time to be adventurous!

Semester 4

Take real analysis + finally start finishing my distribution requirements… lol

Semester 5+

Topology and purely unknown vibes, maybe research at some point? Who knows!

Reality, three semesters later lmao

Semester 1

Took linear algebra and combinatorics + a last-minute remote internship + intro CS, and discovered research seminars for the first time

Semester 2

Took abstract algebra, number theory, and multivariable calc + data structures + started my first math research project, …and had an eight-day medical emergency side plot (oops)

Summer

Finished first math research paper, attended six conferences + more seminars than I can count, worked part-time at a pizza place, and my friend, imposter syndrome, said hello

Semester 3

Taking advanced linear algebra and real analysis, working two interdisciplinary research jobs because I was ready to “take a break from retail,” experienced my first “philosophical bender” after severe anxiety that spawned a “potentially novel” family of graphs, attempted to prove some goofy old conjectures and convinced myself that I was going crazy in the process… and enjoyed combinatorics seminars with my friends!

I’m never letting my autistic brain have free will to decide my schedule again… 😭

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

Find the word

Thanks to @mysticstarlightduck here and @finchwrites here for the tag!

My words: lovely, sheer, tiresome, manic, rain, mellow, deny, quietly

Your words: black, attract, pause, raise

Tagging @the-stray-storyteller @writernopal @songsofsomnia @stesierra @unrepentantcheeseaddict

@talesofsorrowandofruin @sarahlizziewrites @sleepyowlwrites @revenantlore @melpomene-grey

+ anyone else who'd like to join in!

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites @nebula--nix

Keep reading for:

Tyler and Carla book talk

Lexi and Ash in the Gateway

Couldn't find this in current WIPs so enjoy this bit from my creative writing midterm!

Ash listens to Lexi plan

I've shared the singular use of rain before so here's a short story I wrote for class in high school based on an idea for SOTL

Lexi in an Alii forest

Gang found the Gateway

Lexi is alright (:

Lovely - from The Secret Portal Part Two (Akash POV)

“I got around to reading The Crossover.” “Oh?” Tyler was instantly up, crossing to the couch closer to us to lean against the back. “How was it?” “Amazing. I had to look up a little bit about basketball to follow the concept. The poetry was so lovely. I almost cried at the end, but I cry at everything.” “That’s fair,” said Tyler. “It was a required reading in my sixth grade English class back on Ceteri. Made a lot of people learn to love reading.” He turned to me. “You read it?”

Sheer - from The Secret Portal Part One (Lexi POV)

“Maybe we’re dreaming?” “Isn’t that cliche?” “Then we’re hallucinating!” “More cliche!” “Well, you think of something!” We were both silent. I chewed on a chunk of my hair, trying to hold back the anxiety building inside me. My mind raced. The stale air against my skin, the tickle of the grass, and the sheer uncertainty I felt gave the whole situation a verisimilitude appearance.

Tiresome - from "Final Project Short Story"

The smacking was getting tiresome. Once she reached a red light, Mariah tore her eyes to her consultant in the passenger’s seat. “Can you eat that somewhere else?” Ben stopped chewing for a second and glanced up at Mariah innocently. “It’s lunchtime.” “Sounds like you have a problem.” Mariah turned her gaze back to the light. Ben muttered something about Mariah having a “stingy” problem.

Manic Crazy - from The Secret Portal Part One (Lexi POV)

“Not that this isn’t fun,” said Ash, “but why exactly am I here?” I looked up from my planner. “I just need someone to talk to while I plan this out.” Ash cupped her cheek in her hand, having her hair move slightly over her face. Her hair was noticeably past her chin, around her mid-neck, which was still very weird to me. Despite saying three weeks ago she’d cut it soon, she hadn’t gotten around to it. I wanted to ask about it, but that was the day Rose disappeared. Maybe it was her way of coping. “Alright,” said Ash, looking tired. “Shoot.” I turned back to the planner. “Okay, so this week is a little crazy. Thursday is Robbie’s play, and we’ve all decided to go to that.” “We did?” “Yes,” I said, barely glancing up.

Rain - from "Romance Short Story" aka SOTL (Úrsula POV) (SOTL was in first person??)

The rain poured down on the school later that evening. Lightning crashed, thunder rumbled. I made my way across the courtyard, keeping my head down, trying to get to my dorm. “Hey! Úrsula!” I cringed inwardly as I turned around to face Kitty, strutting toward me at rapid speed. “What do you want?” Kitty’s eyes were blazing with an uncharacteristic rage. She shoved me once she was close enough. “How dare you do that to my sister!” She pushed me again. “How dare you! We’re nothing but kind to you!” She shoved me again. “And what do you do?” She shoved me harder, and I slipped on the wet stone, crashing to the ground. “You can’t treat Billie like that! How dare you!”

I have changed Úrsula's character so much since so if I have an equivalent scene in SOTL it'll play out much differently

Mellow Soft - from The Secret Portal Part One (Lexi POV)

A piney scent hit my nose, but it was interlaced with some fruity smell. I now surveyed my surroundings and realized I now lay in the middle of a forest—a pleasant juxtaposition to being in the middle of nowhere. Well, maybe I was still “nowhere,” though the variety of plants was nice. Woah, a big variety. There were ferns of all sorts of colors with a wide variety of leaf shapes. I lay in a cluster of magenta flora I didn’t know the name of. I noticed the humidity was back, but the air was cool enough to where I didn’t remove my hoodie. A soft rustling of leaves above my head with interesting bird sounds gave the whole place a magical feel. It was… venerating. That was a good word.

Deny - from The Secret Portal Part One (Maddie POV)

Kelsey stepped back. “You’re saying we follow?” “Why not?” I asked. I stuck my hand out to the wall, watching it disappear. A tingling sensation ran up my arm. “It’s weird, but it doesn’t seem harmful.” I pulled out my hand to find it intact. I smiled. This was cool! “It could be harmful on the other side,” Kelsey said, twitching. “Rose may not be okay.” “We need to find Lexi and Ash,” Noelle pointed out. “I know I said she just didn’t answer her phone, but that was before—” She gestured to the wall. “It doesn’t make any sense, but I can’t deny what I saw.”

Quietly - from The Secret Portal Part Two (Gwen POV)

Lexi smiled. “You’re probably right.” She took another big sigh, then picked up her phone. “Sweet, Main Event has been scheduled.” I exhaled quietly through my nose. I decided not to comment on Lexi trying too hard to meet her obligations. Maybe this was a good thing. I did tell Ash earlier that Lexi needed to be around more people when she was stressed. Maybe more fun with Ceter friends would do her some good.

[jewish-microwave-laser]

hi if this is too invasive just ignore this ask but what do you use to learn hebrew? i want to learn the older version to try to read non-translated texts and am not really sure what online source is the strongest/most reliable. if you use a non-online source like classes or stuff like that just disregard this lol

not invasive at all!!! so lately i've been working out of this textbook (x) bc it was required for an intro to hebrew class which i took. warning: if you want to buy this textbook, you will have to put it in the genizah, bc it includes the shem hashem. i really wish it didn't bc it is a pretty good textbook, tho i definitely do have my criticisms

i'm also currently attending a class on binyanim (hebrew verb structures) taught by svara!!! if you haven't heard of svara before, you gotta check it out it's great. they're the ones that did tefilas trans and the trans halakha project. classes by svara are pay what you can!!!

finally, anybody trying to learn a language definitely needs to have this absolutely amazing database in their back pockets x. it has a shit ton of textbooks and example texts and all sorts of things for every language you can think of, including hebrew!!!

i also have so much love and appreciation for the people in my life who answer my hebrew questions <333 ily

[whentherewerebicycles]

I can’t stop thinking about that class I visited a couple days ago and about the basic classroom management issues that the prof leading the class seemed wholly unable to address. the class is a cohort program that has met together for three quarters and in the intro game they played it was clear that they have a moderately positive rapport with each other (they don’t seem super close but they got along and were willing to get into the game). but the second we went back to the tables it was like… the girls all sat together in the front of the room and were super focused/engaged in the activity, and then the boys (plus one girl) clustered in the back of the classroom, immediately got out their laptops even though I asked them to keep them shut, and started just talking through the entire presentation. like at one point I was standing right next to their desks, clearly listening in, and they just ignored me completely and kept loudly discussing a project they were working on for some other class during our class time lol. and the whole time the prof just sat in the back, clearly seeing this happen but seemingly totally unable or unwilling to intervene, which of course just signals to kids that they can do whatever because no one cares.

I’m not like mad about it or anything, more like I’m fascinated by it as a teaching challenge!! I think if this were my program, I would:

use a learning communities model where I put them in mixed-gender learning groups from the outset and keep those groups stable for 3-4 weeks before switching to new groups

build lots of small rapport-building exercises into group activities… like just little things where they’re actively naming and praising each other’s contributions, or exercises that teach them how to actively take responsibility for their fellow group members’ participation (inviting each other in, asking follow-up questions, deliberately connecting back new ideas to something someone brought up in the previous discussion, etc etc). like really commit the time to helping them build relationships with each other! and put the boys in situations where they feel less peer pressure to disengage to look cool and can instead participate fully because their participation is expected and recognized/valued by their group members.

no tech in the classroom period

more meta work where the groups are reflecting aloud on like, what makes class fun and engaging for me? what makes the time fly? what makes it seriously drag? and then developing like… not codes of conduct exactly but more like collective group norms for how they want to be and act

the prof kept downplaying the amount of work required for the homework and emphasizing how easy/low-stakes it was going to be to complete I was like ooh man that is BAD signaling. it presumably means that kids often don’t do the work and you’re trying to talk them into it by lowering standards or emphasizing how easy it is. but all kids hear is, this assignment is totally pointless, my prof doesn’t care about it, why on earth would I invest my limited time and energy in something that’s basically just busy work. you gotta have real, substantive assignments kids have to work reasonably hard to complete (and that they’ll find reasonably rewarding to complete bc the assignment is well-constructed and they can feel they’re doing something worthwhile!). and you have to be CONSISTENTLY clear and direct about why the assignment matters to their learning in the class and to you.

perhaps MOST importantly though… I don’t think this program involves 1:1 mentoring with the prof outside of the class. like they meet with the prof maybe once a quarter outside of class. it’s just not enough time to build relationships!!!! I’ve visited this class twice now and both times the prof sat apart from the students and didn’t really interact with them much. and I feel like her not intervening with the behavioral issues was probably because she’s tried/failed in the past or because she’s afraid she would fail and lose face in front of them and the guest instructor. I just feel like kids will generally (not always! but generally!) give you back the amount of respect and emotional investment you offer to them. and if you don’t really bother to spend the time getting to know them and their personalities you can’t really expect to have any influence over them in classroom management type situations. like when I sat down with the off-task group it was obvious within five minutes who was the popular charismatic kid who maybe felt like the activity was a little too easy for him, who was the kid who seemed to feel a little out of his depth and was acting out/goofing off to cover that up, who was the kid who kinda wanted to be on task but was trying to fit in by following his peers, who was the loner kid who had just attached to this group because he didn’t want to sit with the all-girl table, etc etc. and maybe my assessments were wrong but if I were their teacher I would use that initial info to guide relationship-building and to try to build trust with the kid! like maybe the kid who felt out of his depth needed some 1:1 time with an adult who affirmed his ideas and drew them out a little further so he could make more connections, and eventually as you built trust you could start working with him on some of the underlying feelings causing him to disengage in group settings, and then when you were facilitating in group settings you could make sure to name his good contributions or ask questions that set him up to look thoughtful/smart in front of his peers. or with the charismatic popular kid I feel like you can do SO much with those kids over time to get them to really feel like leaders in the class and to feel a sense of positive responsibility towards the kids who are having a harder time getting engaged. plus if a kid feels like the work is too easy you can really work with them to find ways to make it more challenging and rewarding, which in turn makes them feel like you respect their intelligence/abilities and really care about them getting something meaningful out of the class. instead of it becoming a popularity contest of teacher vs. visibly disengaged popular kid/ringleader you can work to make it more of a team thing, like we’re working together to make this experience a good one for everyone and I trust you to be a partner in that because you have influence over the group and others look to you as a model. idk but you just can’t do any of that work if you are afraid of the kids or are telegraphing to them that you don’t feel up to the challenge of dealing with them or if you just seem checked out!!!!! and this is not to blame the teacher I have no idea what’s going on in this situation or in her own life, but also just like I think often teachers become overwhelmed and think the class or some group of students have turned against them and can’t be brought back, or they feel like they have to ‘manage’ the class but aren’t confident they can do so and so withdraw from the task and try to ignore disruptive behavior, but like… it’s almost never a lost cause!!! but you have to do the relationship building work and you have to be there among the students talking and laughing with them and cajoling when necessary and pressing a little to get more out of them and communicating to them that you are invested instead of doing the isolated sage-on-the-stage thing or hiding out in the back of the room on your laptop. idk!!!

[across-violet-skies]

more Linked University AU!!! I might be trying to post more regularly... potential Tuesday updating schedule for this AU!!

preview under the cut <3

Malon groaned, clutching her stomach with one hand. The final for her intro class had gone… interestingly, to say the least. She didn’t like to fail students, but she could make an exception in this case.

One of them had given her food poisoning. She knew exactly who it was, too. Malon didn’t hold any ill will toward them for it, but poisoning your professor is a pretty damn good reason to get a failing grade on your final.

All the food safety rules, the safe handling of ingredients, the required baking times… it wasn’t that difficult to follow! Especially for a final grade!

Malon sighed, closing her eyes. Her stomach gurgled uncomfortably, twisting in her gut. It lurched suddenly, sending her over the side of the couch to vomit in the bucket placed beside her.

“You look terrible, honey,” Time murmured, carrying a tray into the room. Malon glared at him, tossing him the middle finger as she coughed over the bucket. Time just chuckled fondly, setting the tray on the coffee table before taking a seat on the couch by Malon’s legs. “How’re you feeling?”

“How do you think?” She replied, huffing. Her expression softened, a sigh escaping her lips. “Sorry. I feel awful.”

Time hummed, nodding. “I can tell.” He grabbed a small pad from off the tray, gently placing it over her stomach. “Hopefully this helps. Want some water to rinse?”

“Please.” Malon gratefully accepted the cup of water, swishing before spitting it into the bucket. “Thanks, hun.”

Time leaned over, pressing a peck to her flushed cheek. “You’re going to fail Liam, right?”

She sighed. “I think I have to. I’ve never had to put it on the syllabus, but I think giving your professor food poisoning is an automatic fail.”

Time snorted. “Not everyone can pass your class, you know. It’s okay to fail students every once in a while.”

“Most of them do good work, darling. I won’t fail someone who’s making an effort.” Malon paused, grimacing. “But I will fail Liam. Food poisoning is pretty bad.”

“And here I thought you had gone soft from illness!” Time joked, smirking playfully.

Malon stuck out her tongue, scrunching her nose. “Says you. You’re more of a softie than I am,” she shot back, eyes twinkling.

“Oh, now you’ve done it,” Time teased. A knock on the door stopped him in his tracks, two heads turning in the direction of the front door.

“Who could that be? I thought you canceled all plans for the day,” Malon recalled, frowning.

Time, wearing a twin frown of confusion, shrugged. “I’ll go check.” He stood, heading to the nearby door. He opened it a crack, revealing none other than… Sky?

-> read the rest on ao3!

[marvelous-goose]

so, my friend lorenzo and i did a joint independent study this semester. we are both theater students & directors. his independent study was for directing--basically he read a bunch of theories on directing & used them to direct a short performance, which was last night. mine was for dramaturgy, to replace the new intro to dramaturgy class that the department is SAYING they're requiring us to take for graduation now, but they aren't OFFERING it this semester...and this is my last semester...anyway, the professor running my independent study was like "you get along with lorenzo, right? what if you were the production dramaturg for his thing?" (she had to ask if we got along because just a year or so ago we lowkey hated each other. how times change!)

anyway we ended up choosing this play called bodas de sangre (blood wedding), by federico garcia lorca. it's phenomenal. it's wonderful. it's got this scene in act 3 where the moon and the lady of death get into an argument. lorenzo loves weird shit, so he sent me the script and i was like "oh hell yeah man, this is IT"

we work on the project. we end up deciding to to that scene in the original spanish, and then a second time using langson hughes's english translation. lorenzo casts the show, prioritizing native spanish speakers. this is a PWI so it's not easy but he does it. (he casts his colombian girlfriend as the moon and she slays.) then, people start dropping. he and i both end up having to read for minor characters. it's fine. i don't speak spanish but my ex-partner is venezuelan and i've lived in florida my whole life, i can sound very good when i say things in spanish. he is a white boy from jersey... he does not. it's fine.

he decided that he wanted to perform on what is essentially the quad. it actually has a name but i don't want to doxx myself so i'll just call it the lawn. it's an expanse of grass in the middle of campus with outdoor chairs strewn about for people to hang out. sometimes there's a volleyball net. sometimes there's activities. this is the lawn.

on monday, we had our first full rehearsal. we were shouting on the lawn about "la sangre!" there are yik yaks about us, asking why there's a weird cult yelling in spanish about blood. on tuesday, this poor girl was on the phone with someone while we were rehearsing, and as she walked away, i heard her apologize and say "this cult..."

anyway, last night was the performance, and somehow there was NO ONE hanging around except the people who came on purpose. i posted a very miffed yik yak about how "no one came to our final cult meeting :(" and explained that it was actually a theater project, not a cult, i swear to god. and i have bug bites on my ankles now because i made the mistake of wearing ankle socks.

[nomu716]

I have a group project for one of my classes that require the use of my school's TV studio next week.

Since one of my groupmates floated around the idea of a title sequence, I am itching to make a simple intro to a live-action version of OMORI that should be as faithful to the game as possible.

[bbsourchef]

intro!!!

hihi! :D i am chef mio (it/itself or she! but mostly it!!)!! of class 3-2!! it is!! so very nice to meet you all!! on this little screen. it must be oh so cramped in there :(

but hi! hihi!! uh. what can i say about myself?? hum. well! i like pincurchin! they are!! friend shaped!! my partner pushpin is the one i am closest to. :) but they are not the only ones i like! it is!! good!! to have varying taste in pokemon. it improves team percentage, or something?? but i want to have the highest percentage in pokemon friendship :D

it requires being smart though!! so i'm a part of a few different clubs!! the biome club is where i usually am though! i am overseeing a project now! it's very cool! but i'm also a member of the cooking club!! because i want to improve!! my cooking skills for people and pokemon!! even if i mostly just want to make all of the world's best sour foods :D

hum. i think that is enough for now! but i want to make lots of friends!! with people too!! so i hope to be able to talk to lots of them! i'm good with food and biome research! but i will try to answer anything asked of me! :) byebye for now!

((ooc info below the cut!!))

Another character in the Sable's Pokemon IRL Cinematic universe, apparently people really liked her, so! I have made a blog for Mio! Basically, she was supposed to just be an NPC for Ren's Orthworm project and my hand proceeded to slip and make a whole ass design. Whoops.

Anyway, Mio is a minor! For the love of god no NSFW or I will block you on sight.

Pelipper Mail/Malice are on, Musharna Mail/Malice are off. The Pelipper one may change, but the Musharna will not.

If you want your character to have history with Mio, please, feel free. Her blog is probably gonna be updated the least out of my four (yes i have a fourth in progress don't you DARE at me), but she is a background NPC for the people okay.

To basically sum her up: she's a girl who worked at the Sinnoh Battle Factory and learned a lot about utilizing Pokemon from a young age, serving as one of it's trainers up until she started attending Blueberry Academy. She basically got there on a scholarship, lmao.

Mio is a very silly lil chef who's basically to sour food as Crispin is to spicy, but she's genuinely a good cook! Like with Pokemon battles, a meal must be well balanced.

She's also a member of the Biome Club! I will probably have to google-fu any answers to advanced questions but Mio knows a hell of a lot about Pokemon adaptation and environmental effects of invasive species and the like. She's just below the Club's leader in terms of intelligence, pretty much.

Mio. Absolutely comes off as a dumbass with a weird typing style, but she basically makes up for it in competence in what she does best, and the work ethic of a god. This is a girl who multitasks her way into straight B+s and nobody knows how.

Feel free to throw some silly shit this way, this blog is very unlikely to dip into the high stakes waters at any point. This is a firm Silly Only zone. (maybe with some minor drama/angst but we're mostly gonna be silly here)

Any long absences are going to be explained by her phone breaking. She's a walking techbane but literally only for phones.

[void-galaxy-shenanigans]

What degree are you studying? :D

We’re taking intro classes to decide, but the gist is social science & DTC¹. If we’re right that we like all 3, we may do a general social science degree (allows 2 to 3 majors, but you get to pick upper division classes rather than having to do every single one for every single degree) & a DTC minor (or even go for a major, it depends on how close we are).

More specifically those three are Psychology (how brains generally work & how disorders affect that), Sociology (how large groups of people affect how the brain functions), & Human Development (how personal relationships² & the aging process affect how your brain works). Basically, we wanna know how people work & why they work that way, both to improve our social relationships & to hopefully create a low-cost social space (as in, low-cost to be there & have fun).

DTC helps us understand how tech works, & also is the umbrella where you can take animation/animated film & game design classes, which we’ll probably take. And if we do make games &/or films, we’ll then be able to apply our understanding of social relationships & how brains work to those projects. We’d love to make games/films with more (and more accurate) representation—we know a lot about D.I.D. and dissociation, & we know how our experiences of autism/ADHD affect us, we know how being queer affects our experiences, & we know how being physically disabled affects us, so we can apply those lenses & experiences to characters that feel more accurate, real, & in depth.

We’d like to have opportunities to work with BIPOC/BBIMP and other communities we don’t belong to so we can include their stories & struggles & experiences, but we don’t have the experience ourselves to do those people and stories justice.

But ¡yeah! It ties into our biggest special interest category (understanding how people work, & effective communication), & DTC includes another special interest category (storytelling/art). Using categories because there’s quite a bit underneath those (communication/how people work includes foreign languages (desire to be multilingual) as well as social sciences & anthropology; storytelling includes poetry, creative writing, films, art; etc.), but they generally fit together.

We’re taking sociology and human development 101 classes this semester, & we already took the 101 classes for psychology & DTC the last time we went. We’ll likely know by December (end of semester) whether we’re moving forward with all 4 or picking 2-3 🤷‍♂️.

(¹ Digital Technology & Culture - it’s a techy major, but it’s cross majored (don’t know the specific term for it) & requires 3 upper-division classes from a different field/major; social sciences would fulfill that requirement)

(² personal relationships as in Parent-Child Relationships & Family Roles (specific classes I saw), friendships, & other close personal relationships)

~Nico (Spirit co)

[temperedgods]

Tempered Gods Chapter 1 Part 1

This is a project I have had in the back of my brain for quite a while and everytime I have written it I ended hating it. This one I like so I will share a chapter every week or so.

Mornings were always ushered in by Riley waking up Morgan and Jordan as he jumped on the bed ready for his morning walk. It was also the time they would put together the errands before Morgan had to go to campus in North Harzenburg. They lived in the south of the trading hub of Talmin but recent expansions in transit made it less of an upheaval for Morgan to get to his mid afternoon Arcana 1205 class. 

Jordan was the more talkative for this morning's walk, Morgan had listened intently while making sure Riley wouldn’t run too far chasing pigeons. Jordan had noticed he hadn’t said much when he finally said something.

“Professor Allegro is going to ask me to be on the staff after I graduate.” 

“Are you going to take the position?” Jordan quickly responded, holding back their excitement.

“I’m not sure. He’d probably have me running the summoning courses.” He replied coarsely. Morgan despised the classes, yet he always excelled in each of the ones required to take before he could take his oath.

“You could make them more enjoyable for everyone else.” Jordan suggested. 

“I could but I’m not sure how to.” The conversation paused for a moment, then Morgan clicked his tongue to rouse Riley to come back from harassing pigeons. He would walk beside the two until he found something else to chase down.

“Could always talk about how you have used a summon to help out, like with Riverton.” Jordan suggested.

Morgan considered the instance.

“That may get my students hopes up that they could summon an ether dragon after taking just one class.” Jordan snickered

“I doubt they would expect that after a semester of intro summoning, especially if you tell them you passed out shortly after the summon. Might put expert summoning into the big picture.”

“Hmm, I’ll think about it.” Morgan gave a big smile and looked forward to their halfway point at the morning bazaar.

They’d grab a few fruits and browse, and then head home. Many of the vendors knew Riley and knew the faces of Morgan and Jordan.

“Hello there big guy!” Said the old woman who ran the fabrics stall, and then rubbed between Riley’s ears.

Riley was an Anthu, a magical creature resembling a fox if it stood on their hind legs and was 1.5 meters tall. But they would always stick out in a crowd even if being shorter than most of the crowd from their upbeat nature and love of companionship. 

Riley had been with Morgan for 6 years now since choosing him in combat after a pilgrimage to their ancestral lands on the ridge between the Druid Coast and the Talmin kingdom, a hotly contested area even 6 years ago. Riley had also taken a liking to Jordan when first meeting her, making him obedient to the couple. Jordan wouldn’t give Riley commands often, but would do so in a heartbeat.

Morgan asked the old woman running the fabrics about a special order of sheep’s wool sourced from any farm in the Thousand Lakes.

“The water they drink there gives their wool this slightly softer feeling than ones from the Copper Forest or the farms outside Cherryville. Y’know what I mean?” “Oh yes! The wool there is very popular these days! If you fill out the form I can get it to you in about a week. If you put your number there I can give you a call when it’s ready too!”

She ripped a form off a pack of special orders. Morgan diligently filled out his information and handed it back to her.

“Thank you!” He said while handing it back “Thank you as well! Bye bye Riley!” She waved to the spry Anthu.

The trio continued their trek through the bazaar, grabbing a few fruits for their breakfast back home. Riley had kept himself close to Morgan and Jordan most of the way back, having spent most of his energy startling the pigeons the way there.

Those pigeons watched idly by on various rooftops and power lines as they entered into their little rowhouse.

Enjoying their meal, they were interrupted by the phone ringing. It sat right behind Jordan so they answered.

“Hello? Oh hi Dr Allegro! I can take a message for Morgan, he’s in the shower right now.” 

Jordan grinned as they looked at Morgan’s relieved face, being saved from talking to the college professor.

“Okay, I’ll make sure to send him on his way when he gets out. Thank you Henry! Bye bye!”

Hanging up the phone Jordan relayed the message.

“You have a quiz to proctor in Mana Holding before your Arcana class today.”

“Wonderful.” Morgan scoffed. “I assume he wants me to grade them in between as well?”

Jordan shrugged.

“He never said when he wanted them done.”

Morgan sighed.

“That means he’ll want them done before Arcana then. When do you need to leave?” “20 minutes after you do. Need to make sure that the incantation is up so Riley won’t knock anything over.”

“Actually, I can get that for you.”

Morgan stretched behind him and grabbed a pouch off the counter behind him. He took a small piece of quartz and a rubber band out. Stretching the band over his right thumb and pointer finger he tightened and loosened the band and with his left hand he dropped the quartz through as he whispered a few words, Jordan hearing the faint sounds of incantations followed by various household objects.

“That should do it for a while. I wasn’t sure when you’d be back so I did a bit of guesswork on when it should go down. Worst case is we can’t read some books until like 9.”

Jordan gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before getting up to get ready and Morgan doing the same.

He placed his notes into a satchel and donned a ruby and iron pendant along with a scarf over his light sweatshirt. He had put on one of his slightly longer pairs of khakis and was careful to pull the bottom of the pants out of his shoes before walking to the door. 

Riley was first to say goodbye, getting a pat between his ears. Jordan walked over and they shared a quick kiss before he was out the door and on the way to the tram.

The tram ride was pretty quick to take Morgan to the Northern part of town. If he couldn’t use the tram then either some sort of magic like flying or even planes walking would be the fattest route unless the two wanted to shell out  10,000 silver marks for a vehicle that served no other use than to take him to school.

The tram was also very quiet at this time of the morning so Morgan could either catch some more sleep or go over some student papers or work on his own. He looked over some of his own final project today. It was a tome bound by demonhide but covered over with cow leather so as to be more inconspicuous. Inside the tome were a variety of spells a paladin would find useful during battle or during triage of any wounded before a cleric or combat medic would arrive. Many of these Morgan had tested himself and left notes on how and why certain spells should be used to stop anyone to succumb to their injuries or in the other direction, to make sure an enemy succumbs to fate.

The tram rang for his stop, the main campus of Altonia School of Magic, and he hopped up to depart.

“Excuse me sir, is this yours?” The man sitting beside Morgan said as he was about to step out.  “I think it fell out of your pocket.”

Morgan turned around and saw the man in a simple cloth overall, some oil stains showing he worked with automobiles. The man was holding an envelope in front of Morgan’s sternum as he turned.

“I- I’m not sure.” Morgan said quizzically.

“I think you better take it, looks important.”

Morgan hesitated but realized he’d be late if he didn’t leave now. He snatched the note and awkwardly stepped off the tram and across the street from campus.

The school’s main campus was in the former castle grounds of the former Duke of Harzenberg. The Duke “donated” the campus to the university in exchange for clemency during a crisis of the crown a few centuries back. However there is no more Duke of Harzenburg anymore, just a mayor and council.

Being a royal’s former house it is located in one of the more scenic areas of towns, settled by the Harzenburg river that flows right into the Cobalt Sea. Rows and rows of roses surround the original castle walls, heavy in vines and thorns that was meant to be a beautiful and effective way to slow down invaders. This castle had not seen a single pikeman run towards its walls in almost a thousand years, the only ones now simply walking around the campus as guards, though pikeman is a grandfathered term as they now either use pistols, magic, or both to act as defense.

Morgan nodded to a pikeman as he walked in through the front gate, the original 5 meter tall door bolted shut and two sets of double doors act as the entrance and exit on this side of the campus. 

Many extensions had been made to the school as a castle and its walls simply could not hold a large body of students for every single class. Most of the castle had staff offices and the main library of the college, which Morgan passed through as a shortcut to Professor Allegro’s class Mana Holding 104. 

“Good morning Henry.” Morgan announced as he entered through the back door of the lecture hall.

“Ah just in time Morgan! Someone came in looking for you today asking about your thesis. I’m not sure if it was a drinking friend or someone else but it was no one I recognized from any of the classes or around campus.”

Morgan looked puzzled.

“I don’t really go out to drink, sir.” 

“Oh, okay then. He said he would come back later when you were in anyways so maybe then you can figure out who it is then. But for now we need to set up the quizzes!”

Morgan nodded and went to the front to grab a half stack of today’s quizzes. They were simple if you had been following along in class or at the very least skimming the book. Being near the start of the semester Allegro wanted to run a check to see if his students were following along and taking mana holding seriously. 

It took maybe 3-4 seconds of Morgan looking at the paper to know the exact answers Henry was looking for on the quiz. 

But Morgan was more interested in who had asked for him earlier, it may have been the same person who managed to get a note to him on the tram. He wasn’t sure what to make of it but the students began filing in before he could think of what to do, other than to read the note. He filed to the back of the lecture hall and opened the note while glancing over at the slow stream of freshman magicians and their faces of displeasure of the surprise quiz.

It was uncouth for spellcasters to keep a weapon other than a staff, wand, or other means to cast a spell that doesn’t also act as a head buster. So instead Morgan opted to cast a bound letter opener, a quaint spell that a mail carrier had developed a few decades before. Morgan tore the letter open and read what it said inside:

meet at the midtown pier stop at 6:30, come alone -l

The midtown pier stop had been shuttered for a year now due to structural concerns and an above ground stop was built to replace it. 

“This is a trap.” He muttered to himself.

Henry started to give the morning pleasantries to his students and Morgan snapped back to the moment and the impending quiz. Not much else phased him, he absorbed the lecture he had heard many times in the past for Mana Holding, graded the quizzes shortly after, and blazed through his Arcane class.

Morgan had a small office adjoined by Allegro’s office but spent little time there. He slipped in for a moment and dropped his satchel filled with his notes and final project.

It was uncouth for spellcasters to keep a weapon other than a staff, wand, or other means to cast a spell that doesn’t also act as a head buster. But that didn’t stop Morgan. Inside one of the drawers of his office desk was the hilt of a sword, the grip was a soft sheepskin. You could begin to see the outline of Morgan’s grip in the wear and tear. The guard was a blued steel with vines engraved wrapping the entire circumference. The pommel was a spring loaded copper bauble, if you tapped the bottom the enchanted blade would emerge out of the guard. He was given this as a thank you for his aid in the Riverton Portal Invasions some 2 years ago. 

Morgan preferred casting for a mace he had enclosed in a storage plane along with many other supplies he would need in combat. But he feared that magic may need to go to save himself from a trap. He slipped the hilt under his sweatshirt and the waistband of his pants and left for the tram.

It was a tense ride for him. It was around the time children were let off from grade school so a few were with their parents returning home, full of energy and running up and down the cabin. Morgan paid no mind to it and waited for the midtown pier stop.

Most cities you would come across, midtown would possibly be north or west of town. That was true for Midtown Harzenburg as it was more southeast of town but it split the city into two with Cannon’s Run River that cut the city in half on its two banks. The river led right out to the ocean and were the original piers set up by the Northwin trading company 200 years ago when it first began in the crown’s conquests of Atrocostas. If a package needed to be sent out of the town you had two options: pay Northwin’s fee or try your luck with pirates.

Morgan quickly slipped out of the tram and snaked his way through the crowd moving towards the pier, longshoreman, sailors, and bureaucrats ready for the evening shift. 

The entrance for the underground station was cordoned off by keep out and falling hazard signs situated on top of tall traffic cones. No one was looking so Morgan easily slipped inside the dingy train stop.

The half burnt out lights were on at the stop. If someone did want to jump Morgan they forfeited that advantage. He walked between the back wall and a partially cracked support column when he heard a squelch and liquid dripping onto concrete. Then a single footstep behind him and he drew his sword and swung behind, rotating his entire body to gain momentum. The figure that had snuck up behind him grabbed the sword without any problem and a voice called out.

“William! Don’t scare him like that!”

It was a familiar voice to Morgan, one he had heard a lot but not for a few years.

“Lawrence?” He called out while pulling the sword out of the figure’s grasp. That figure was another old friend, William, one of the few people he would expect to catch a sword slashing right at him.

There was a gurgled cry followed by more liquid spilling out on concrete, Morgan looked past Will and saw Lawrence digging a knife deep into a man’s throat who was fruitlessly waving a dagger at Lawrence’s chest.

“Who the fuck is that?” Morgan yelled to Lawrence.

“This spy was gonna do the same to you what I’m doing to him right now.”

Lawrence pulled the knife out of the man’s throat as his body went lifeless and limp. He let go of the corpse’s shirt and cleaned off his knife on the poor soul’s pants and slipped the knife back under his coat.

Most would assume Lawrence's as the epitome of a spy, if it weren’t for the armory of weapons he hid under his heavy coat and the scar that went up his left cheek halfway through his nose. William looked like an average socialite, possibly even a young professor Morgan would proctor for. However the half crescents that glittered in his eyes showed he wouldn’t be teaching a lesson on a chalkboard but one taught by combat. 

“Why didn’t you guys call or something?” Morgan asked, still reeling from the scare William had given him.

“Well, these geniuses have your house under surveillance. If they knew I was calling it would be too late to do anything to save you 3. They’ve been keeping an eye on us too but doing a bad job at it.”

“No kidding, who are these guys?”

“Not sure, I have some ideas but I’m not ready to point a finger and run off half cocked. We’ll need to get Jordan and Riley to safety first. Where are they?”

“Riley is still at home and Jordan is going to be heading home soon, on foot.” “Then they’ll try to jump her that way. Will would you-”

William had already scrambled down the platform and through the train lines.“Will’s on his way. We can go make sure Riley is safe so let’s go.” “Right. Riley is gonna be very excited to see both of you y'know. It’s been what? Two years since the crisis?”

[dreammelter]

Speedrun Workshop Postmortem

I wanted to make a more detailed postmortem as I cleaned the project files up but I'll keep it simple today… If I take any longer, I'm sure to give up on it. (The year is ending so there's a lot of prep/wrap-up going on in other areas I'm responsible for. 🙃)

What I'll cover:

What was the project about? It's goals? It's products?

How did I approach it?

How did things change and why?

What did I like most of what I completed?

What did I wish I could complete?

What did I learn? (A LOT. But maybe make a more definitive list.)

What would be my tips/advice for next time?

(Project deliverables are up on GitHub.)

The One Day Workshop

I only vaguely remember what spurred the project and apparently don't have any journal entries for it either… so here's the gist of it!

My sister worked with City of Las Vegas/Strong Future to help teach some Office 365 basics. In July, she decided to start a small tech biz (now defunct) that offered more technical training. If I remember correctly, she asked if there was anything I'd like to offer, so I figured I could cover programming, 3D art, and game development. (I really just wanted an excuse to play with the things I liked lol.) The team at Strong Future took an interest in hosting the game development class, but they only had a small budget for it at the time. So we decided to host a workshop for middle and high school students on Nevada Day.

The idea was to introduce students to the process of game development as well as some careers and resources. Since the workshop would only last 5 hours, the students would follow along with the recreation of an arcade-like game. I originally wanted to require students have some experience with code since we'd be jumping right into a project. We decided to leave it open to those without it, though. I figured I could do a quick intro to scripting and wouldn't sweat it too much since students could either type-along or drag-and-drop the files.

The workshop had an additional constraint: the computers in the lab wouldn't be able to install any additional software, so I'd have to use a portable or web-based game engine. I've long held onto a list of game engines and dev resources, so finding one wasn't an issue. What was interesting, though, was seeing how some of them have changed over the years… Godot Engine was the first one that came to mind and the one I was sure I was going to go with, but I took a look at my old list anyway. Cocos2D was my second choice since I'd be able to use JavaScript and I was considering it for a future web project, but it required more setup and research than I was interested in bothering with. (The modern Cocos editor requires an install.) Defold, like Godot, doesn't require an install but I didn't want to write in Lua. (Read: I didn't want to relearn how to write Lua. I only have three months.) Game Maker, Construct, GameSalad, and GDevelop were some others I considered for their web versions and/or visual programming features, but I didn't want to force the students to sign up for anything.

So Godot it was. 😎 Long Live Open-Source.

We also named the workshop "Speedrun" some weeks later.

Expectation

The workshop needed three things: a prototype to remake, some slides, and a collection of resources the students could use and refer to later. I was also advised to create a printed handout students could follow along with.

There would also be 20 students at most.

I wanted to break down the five hours as such:

1 hour talking about the industry, careers, and development concepts

3 hours walking through the prototype

1 hour letting the students tinker and build their own levels

(I wrote a couple of different outlines with timestamps closer to the end of the project, too.)

I wanted to teach the students game dev was all about problem solving (and IID.) I'd pose a question or scenario, then walk them through the implementation. Once we built the base game, the students could use the extra resources to add to it however they pleased.

I also split up the 3 months of development time of this project:

1 month to get up to speed with Godot 4 and create a game prototype

1 month to polish the prototype and write up the written materials

1 month to polish the materials, practice the presentation, and prepare for the workshop day

Reality

So I ended taking two months trying to prototype. I briefly talked about it in the "mini postmortem" I included in the class handbook… In short: I tried out different game ideas to see what I could actually implement by the end of the first month. The second month rolled around so I started moving the desired game mechanics to a clean file… just for them to start falling apart. That's when I settled on just making a simple platformer. I used all of September and half of October putting the platformer prototype together, leaving two weeks to put the remaining documents together. Ended up skipping the handout, since I couldn't decide what to put on it… I had a couple different versions of the to-do lists I used to track progress of the game that I could use, but I wasn't sure just how much detail should be included for each task to actually be useful. I didn't complete the handbook in time for class either, so I spent an extra two-three days writing that up…

Dragging and dropping the scripts and resource files from the prototype came in super handy. Because, contrary to my expectation, 4 hours was not enough time to even get past the setup of the player character and tile map. I did not account for students who might not have had any experience with editors of any sort (and forgot to give them an actual tour of the engine. OTL) It wasn't the perfect presentation of "game dev as problem-solving" I hoped for… it was a scramble of remembering what to click and do next. I think the problem-solving sentiment still floats around in the docs and presentation… somewhat. But if there's anything I regret, it's that failure to effectively lead the students through the recreation of the prototype game. We were all pretty exhausted by the end. They said they learned a lot but I hope it didn't crush their interests in building games. 😭

I did spend about an hour and a half covering the industry and such (to my surprise. I wasn't sure I was going to have enough to say, but alas… we did. And it was just a debrief of the topics themselves.) I was also lucky that the students who came in later showed up at opportune times, when it was easy to get them up to speed.

I didn't complete the prototype, but we didn't get very far with the game in-class, either. Guess there's a bit of grace there… I was so worried I end up with a class full of students who were already so comfortable building games in the virtual worlds they hang out in. (But I only had one student who was actually enrolled in a game development program and he was just starting out. All of the students were.)

Reflections

All of that said… I think seeing the reality of how this went down was enlightening. When I get ideas they tend to be overly idyllic and lofty, so it was good to see the gritty, incomplete, and even a little ugly side of this. It was a nice reminder of how much effort goes into creating something that's really good. I mean… the burnout I got after rushing to get this together was 0/10… but the respect I gained for the craft went up 1000%. And seeing how much is available online: from support groups to free tools, the future of game dev will always be bright and exciting.

Part of my screw-up with the approach to teach the development part could have been alleviated if I knew we'd only tackle such a small scope in that time… I obviously couldn't have known how much we'd get through, but a back-up plan beyond "use the premade resources to speed things up" might have been useful in this case. Maybe I could have an alternate "lesson route" where I scaled back most of our goal.

Then again… I probably would've known this ahead of time if I actually practiced the full presentation with someone, rather than the dry run I did alone. 🤔 (One of those expectation vs. reality things.)

Favorite Things

I remember making my first digital game in Flash (though I have this sneaking suspicion there was something I used before it?) Godot's scene-structure was very reminiscent of it. I also liked that it meant you could structure you game basically as the way you see it, making it easy for students to conceptualize.

I also love that you can make tools for the engine using the same language you do to write gameplay code. The coin tool is probably my favorite thing, even though it's incomplete.

Wishes

I'd actually like to figure out what's going on with the double jump animation (which was working at first.) The player can double jump, the conditional block holding the animation just doesn't fire. (I think. I'd have to check the code again.)

It'd also be cool to get the coin tool to work properly in-editor.

Lessons Learned

You won't be able to fit absolutely everything into a project and you probably shouldn't try. 😆 Don't let your brain lie and say you can. Dipping into the longer list of "Nice to Haves" after finishing the "Must Haves" feels nicer than having a long list of "These things were supposed to be in the game--"

Conclusion

I'm gonna be 100% honest, I'm not sure I'd try to build a platformer on my own again. Maybe something closer to a visual novel, sure, but anything more than that? I'd probably enlist the help of some friends. (Especially a gameplay programmer. I'll stick to tools…🫠)

It's a stark position from the one I held as a teen building (fragments of) games… maybe it was the rush to get something together and the burnout that followed. Maybe it was the fact I was building something outside of my initial intention, so I didn't have the same "emotional attachment" I would for something more personal. I do primarily think it was the time constraint and the pressure to make something that I thought would be satisfactory for the students to start with. Sure, I can perform under pressure, but I can't say I do better work under it. And frankly, the pressure is only more bearable with a team, which I didn't have lol.

However, the most important thing is that I completed enough of what was required for this endeavor that I could see it as a success. It's not a smashing or career-changing one, but it's just big enough to be a meaningful experience. (For me and for the handful of students who made it.)