#lecture tips

[ryllen]

jade who got heartstruck by someone who listens, and trey who generally takes interest on really listening to what people have to say, about things he doesn't know yet

[httpiastri]

i suddenly forgot how to breathe

[professorsparklepants]

Was anyone gonna tell me Wyll's voice actor is unspeakably handsome or was I just supposed to find that out through YouTube shorts of him playing D&D.

Mr. Solomon can I get your number????

[salty-dracon]

POV: You're a tired college student sitting in the lecture hall before Reca's class in 2.6

(written entirely based on the 2.6 trailer)

(update: I have never written anything so inaccurate in my life I wanna curl up into a ball orz )

You're attending Penacony's Paperfold University College. It's the middle of the night (it's Golden Hour, Penacony, it's always the middle of the night, good luck waking up on time for your classes LMAO) with a professor your film major buddies have only described as "passionate" and one outwardly finds super weird. You looked him up on the universe's equivalent of RateMyProfessor and he's sitting at 3.5 out of 5 stars because no one can live up to his exacting standards and also he's apparently a little crazy? Like you've had sadistic professors who loved failing their students, but you'd think they would mention that in the reviews. So who knows what that means. Hopefully nothing bad.

Anyway this is just a one-time seminar for fun so you're thankful, but the art building sucks. You're sitting in the coldest, draftiest lecture hall you've ever seen. You can hear the radiator hissing. The desks are so scratched and cut-up they look like they might give you splinters. For how many years have these desks existed? How many generations of animators and film people have been taking notes on this thing? Is this what all film majors have to suffer through? Hell, is this what all art majors have to suffer through? Thank goodness you're... not that.

And there's a chalkboard. If there's one thing you don't need when you're this exhausted, it's the sound of chalk squeaking on a chalkboard.

And while you're watching the seconds tick by, in walks a trio of people your age. and you're looking at them and you're like, none of them have ever been to a college before. (Probably offworlders.)

Like there's this guy with black hair who's just super quiet (way too quiet, and way too serious) but when's the last time you saw a college student carrying around a fresh case bound notebook that doesn't look like it was bought at the mall? Those things get destroyed if you carry them around in your bookbag for too long- you figured that out your first week. He looks way too ready to take notes amidst the background noise. He's writing the planet name, system date, and "Seminar with the film director Mr. Reca" at the top of that expensive looking notebook's second page. And the ink isn't feathering or bleeding through the page. Your animation friend would probably be obsessed with that paper, she keeps going on about how important good paper is, but you can't afford the stuff. Maybe you should ask him the brand later.

And he's being talked at by a pair of chatterboxes. One of them is, once again, way too well-dressed to be a habitual college student. She did her clothes up in blue, pink, and white to match her hair and eyes. It's pretty cute, all things considered- you wish you still had the energy to dress up like that at 6am. Maybe you should ask her for fashion advice. The pitch of her voice rises above the din of the room. "Ooooooh, I can't wait! This is going to be so cool! A seminar by a real film director! It's a shame Mr. Yang couldn't attend. He'd love this kind of stuff!".

The second chatterbox is this snarky looking person you can't really get a read on. They didn't even bring a notebook. They outright state they've never been to a college before. And now they're going on and on, trying to compare this lecture hall to buildings on planets you've never really heard of. "A museum on the cold, frosty planet Jarilo-IV"- your mind wanders for a moment as you consider what that would be like. Still, something about them seems to signal that they're a singularity of experience. They've probably seen more in a system year than you have in your entire lifetime. That might be why they keep speaking in words you don't understand. What's a 'surprised Pikachu face'? Must be one of those jokes that only makes sense if you were there to witness it.

Yeah, this strange-looking friend group is probably from off world. And they're probably adventurers at that. They probably don't want to be bothered with the ramblings of a tired college student.

The door opens. You hear leather boots on a wood floor, and the room quiets with the weight of a man's presence. He's finally here.

You sure hope everything goes smoothly. Getting stuck in the Oak Family's dream ruined your weekend that one time, but that was a long time ago. Seriously, what's the worst that could happen? The professor traps the room in some kind of film reel dimension and a horde of monkeys attacks the campus? ... Nah, that would never happen.

[valorrie]

Late-night Notes 🍵

[lvnarsapphic]

It really is so funny when I get blood work done for my doctor from an outside clinic or testing facility, they put huge flags on my results that are "holy shit please don't freak out but you seem to have too low testosterone and too high estrogen, here are a couple things that could cause this, here are some tips to help restore balance, but ultimately please do not freak out PLEASE" since my file hasn't been updated to "female". but yeah man, I sure hope that's how my levels would be trending after many months. I imagine once I do I'll get the opposite flags while I'm still taking the pills, if they would change the "sex" on file that is

[mayhaps-a-blog]

Me today: Alright, I have practiced and am prepared for my lecture this afternoon! Class is going great and I am settling in to teaching, this is going fine and I'm not stressed at all.

Also me: Stands up and realizes I am physically shaking.

<sigh>

[ineloquent-tumbling]

I am having one of those moments where I realize that, yes, I am actually much quicker at learning new skills and much better at extrapolating procedural information from finished examples than average.

[wilder-precautions]

What does wild infection do to humans?

For all that wild infection has been an issue for all of human history, very little is definitively known about it. This is obviously due to the highly transmissible nature of the infection rendering it beyond practical study, but in addition, wild-planar fissures defy all conventional understanding of science, adding a further level of befuddlement to their study. However, there are a few things which can be reasonably assumed about the operation of wild infection.

First and foremost to consider is the difference between the presenting symptoms in plants, fungi, and animals (bacteria and archaea are assumed to be similarly vulnerable to the infection, though for obvious reasons this is currently impossible to confirm, and viruses are hotly contested in a way which frankly ought to be its own blog post). Contrary to human taxonomies, all life seems to be split by wild magic into only two categories, which I will refer to as “locomotive” and “stationary.” All plants and fungi, as well as many primitive animals, are considered to be in the stationary group. All remaining animals are considered locomotive. In its most basic description, what wild infection does is trade the ambulatory capabilities of locomotive and stationary species. This inverted mobility is what led to the colloquial name for victims of wild infection: “standing monsters.” For the sake of brevity, I will be focusing on the effects of infection on humans and animals, and delegating other life forms to a later post.

Studies on this topic are next to impossible to perform safely and ethically, though thankfully, people who witness an infectious takeover tend to be deeply traumatized by the event and love to talk about it on online forums. General consensus is that total infection usually takes somewhere in the realm of thirty seconds to five minutes. From the moment of exposure to the infectious agent, a victim will begin to act confused, trying to turn around from the direction in which they were traveling or sit down to “rest.” They initially are incongruously calm, though if they are alerted to their condition, they will deny the diagnosis and become paranoid of their surroundings. In cases where physical symptoms are present from the outset, victims often become violent, lashing out at their surroundings and potentially spreading the infection. If physical symptoms are not present from the outset, they will begin to manifest when the victim comes into a second point of contact with fully infected specimens. The most common symptoms are skin and muscle loss, growth of extra appendages in both typical and atypical places, and a slouching, melting, or drooping appearance. Once a full transformation is complete, the victim will stop speaking, except for wordless whispers and moans. Witnesses emphasize a deep sense of dread, and that the state of the world has been perverted, though I cannot vouch for if this is an independent symptom or just an expected consequence of watching somebody grow an extra head and teeth on their arms.

There is technically a milder form of the infection, known as wild delirium. If a victim is rapidly removed from the source of infection while the presenting symptoms are only psychological, they will not develop the physical symptoms of the disease. This is incredibly risky, as anything short of a perfect extraction will catalyze the completion of the infection and therefore put the extracting party at inexpressible risk by being in contact with a fully mutated standing monster. Wild delirium will fade over time, usually within a week, though repeat infections will make a person more susceptible to full infection. Recovered victims of wild delirium most commonly report a sensation which has been described (surprisingly consistently) as if their eardrums were turning inside out and their lungs are traveling up their throat and into their brain. A friend of mine who had a brief case of wild delirium said “it feels like I’m wearing my body upside down.” I have to trust that these descriptions make more sense to the people saying them. There seem to be no long-term physical side effects of wild delirium.

It is colloquially said that standing monsters are hollow, both in a metaphysical and spiritual sense, as well as a literal sense. I know a colleague of mine, Dr. Emily Gregory, has been working to pull together a proper investigation into this question, though she is having difficulty putting together a team willing to do field research in such a dangerous area. Until she is able to produce evidence one way or the other, I err on the side of believing they are hollow. The nature of the physical deformities accumulated over the existence of a standing monster implies that the interior anatomy of an infected being is preserved in some way. However, the nature of wild infection as the most acute form of wild-planar fissure leads me to believe that all unobserved and non-visible parts of a wild infected being—including interior surfaces—are pulled directly into the wild plane, rather than being destroyed. This of course raises some extreme safety concerns if this interior is exposed, though I can comfort myself in the fact that if in the course of her study Gregory does set off some form of cataclysmic event through the wild plane, she will be the first to experience the consequences.

-D

[ahb-writes]

The Best Line I Wrote Today:

"All humans choose what appeals to them, but not everyone survives the consequences."

[nogenrealldrama]

Hi! Love the excerpts of your work that you've shared here. Do you have any advice for someone just starting to dip their toes into writing? Fanfic, or just generally? Thanks! :)

First of all thank you for reading and I'm so, so happy you liked my snippets :D

Second of all: Ummm giant disclaimer that I have almost nothing actually published to my name, so altogether I also consider myself a new writer. But I love to rant about writing anyway so here goes:

Don't listen too much to writing advice. When I first tried writing, I would spend way too much time on writing advice blogs. Many of them aren't that good, to be quite honest. And even for the good ones, there is such a thing as right advice given at the wrong time, or at the wrong place in your writing journey. If you're an overthinker, reading too much advice can make you start worrying about small things, and/or not have the confidence to try something wild but important on your own. Frankly, all it really comes down to is: 1) Having a vision, 2) Writing the vision down, 3) Noticing the ways your writing falls short of the vision, and 4) Tweaking things until they reach the level of imperfection you can personally live with. For me, writing advice is best searched for to apply to the specific issues I have in Steps 3 and 4. I apply any advice only in so far as it helps me get closer to the vision in my head. putting the rest under a cut because it got long - sorry!

2. Be uncompromising about writing things that bring you joy.

Kind of similar to #1, but it's doubly important when you're really just starting out. Or when you've been writing a while but always find it hard to begin. Double that importance again when what you're writing is fanfiction, because then you really have no genre definitions or deadlines or publishers or any other actual reason to compromise your vision. You already have some amazing ideas, and for each idea there is probably a feeling or a vibe or a message that you want to capture. Give yourself time to get lost in that feeling, to really indulge in it. And then write it down in its full glory, even the parts that might make you cringe a little from how dramatic or vulnerable they are. If there is a way to make your story more indulgent, do it. Because it will keep you writing. And if you really think it's too much, you can always edit stuff out before publication. You know, after you've actually written the story down. The thing that made me start writing in the first place was a giant longfic/possibly trilogy Canon Divergence rarepair plot idea that is still not finished, and on paper that's pretty much the last thing one should start their writing journey with. But if I stopped myself from writing that in favour of forcing out some oneshots, I never would've written anything at all. Give yourself permission to write exactly and only the ideas that make you excited to write.

3. Bonus advice that might or might not be useful to you, but it was ground-breaking in helping me write the way I want to write - in this excellent post, @little-hermit-crab56 makes a point that dialogue is a dance. I'd take it further/in a slightly different direction and say that storytelling as a whole is a dance. Juts like a dance, dialogue feels most dynamic when you allow it to go back and forth a little, to have short breaks and pauses here and there. I think the same can apply to an action sequence, or a bit of internal monologue, or an emotional trajectory of a whole scene. Just like a dance, it's less about the exact movements (e.g. describing precisely what happens in an action scene) and more about the rhythm of the back and forth (e.g. describing just enough to let the reader know that the protagonist is winning, but then - oh no! - the villain has the upper hand, but then the protagonist gets lucky and they're winning again). I swear that with enough skill to set up the right back-and-forth, even a character tying their shoelaces for a page and a half will feel dynamic. You can alter that rhythm, make it faster or slower, more dominated by "ups" or "downs", but even a little contrast can elevate a plot beat or an emotion more than I had initially thought possible. Of course, there is no need to simplify the "ups" to being good and "downs" to being bad - the back and the forth can both be morally grey or both similarly convenient/inconvenient to the protagonist. They just need to be meaningfully different. You can zoom this out even more and apply the back-and-forth to character arcs, or dynamics between characters, or entire plots. (The three act plot structure is, IMO, simply a choreography for a satisfying back-and-forth). In a longer work, you can have many "dancers" doing their own back-and-forth simultaneously, at multiple levels of the story structure. In a oneshot, you can have one or several backs-and-forths distilled to the most dramatic steps of the dance. In my experience, the whole thing gets quite addictive once you start seeing it.

[002700]

someone can steal this: inflatable dildo that’s shaped like a big needle so the needle end is the part that can inflate and obviously u use the needle plunger to manually inflate it

[jakeperalta]

not to bring up the taylor discourse again but I think it's an extremely shitty take for non-fans to respond to fans saying "yeah I'm disappointed and do not condone this and it sucks" by being like "well ACTUALLY she's always been a horrible bitch and her fans are all just too ignorant to see it and it's their own faults for being a fan of someone so awful" like ok congratulations! good for you for never having enjoyed a single problematic thing in your life! but you're annoying and I hate you

[kitkatpancakestack]

Listen I know, I KNOW you're not supposed to stick q tips in your ears. but why did god put a clit there if I'm not supposed to tickle it.

[rlmartian]

[katiajewelbox]

On May 9th, 2024, I hosted my first live and in-person public science communication event as “Katia Plant Scientist” at the @gardenmuseum London! Here are some highlights from the event, photographed by @slothskitchen.cuisine .

Branch Out: The World of Seeds with Katia Plant Scientist featured a presentation paired with an interactive “make and take” workshop on the theme of seeds and their biology.

The guests were enchanted with an informative talk on the evolution and anatomy seeds. We touched upon other plant science topics such as how seeds find new habitats and how seeds know when to germinate.

The guests then explored a fascinating exhibit of exotic seeds from the Garden Museum’s extensive collection, including the Coco de Mer aka the world’s biggest seed.

The second part of my talk was practical advice for amateur gardeners on how to select, store, and reliably germinate seeds.

Guests applied their new knowledge in the hands-on portion of the workshop by planting herb and vegetable seeds in pots and setting up Petri dishes for in vitro seed germination. The guests left with at least four pots of plants for their own gardening projects.

With support from Samia Qureshi (plant science educator at the Garden Museum) this exciting event finally became a reality after two months of diligent planning.

This workshop was part of the Garden Museum’s Branch Out series. I am grateful to Ms. Qureshi and the Garden Museum staff for their time and energy spent setting up the room, providing workshop supplies, and assisting with IT for the event. The Garden Museum team could not have been more accommodating and welcoming, and I eagerly look forward to future collaborations with them.

I would like to thank Arts Council England for funding my workshop, as well as the other events in the Branch Out series. Please check the comments section for links to other Garden Museum events!

I hope to see you and other plant lovers at future events! Please let me know in the comments what kinds of events YOU would like to attend.