#what the constitution means to me

[ellerywithablog]

hello has anyone here seen the most fanstatic, beautiful, incredible play What The Constitution Means To Me and do we think it is appropriate to read with seventh and eighth grade classes

pros:

i am teaching history, theater, and english - this text crosses all three subjects

i can return to it throughout the year as i discuss role of audience, constitutional amendments

it directly speaks to my essential question of the year in history class which is: what is the role of the US government in both perpetuating and addressing social inequalities

good use of theatrical elements like props, costume, pauses, lights, asides, 4th wall

ending message is about how strong, brave, smart, powerful young people are today and how vital it is to be involved in the health and future of our democracy whether that involvement is radical (abolish and rewrite constitution) or faithful (faith in the constitution and the self-corrective measures within, amendment making)

cons (as in cons of why may not work in classroom not cons of the play itself which has no cons bc it’s amazing)

discussion and stories on domestic violence

discussion and stories of abortion

gets bleak about the state of our country which isn’t great vibes for young people ( BUT it ends very hopeful of the future)

1 slur (f*****)

if i taught high school i wouldn’t even hesitate on using it but with middle school do we think it’s pushing it ?

[uncanny-tranny]

You know, I feel like other trans people might get this, but it's honestly kind of refreshing when a cis person has, like, undeniable tboy/tgirl/whatever swag. It's like when you come across somebody who speaks the same language as you and you only find out when they start speaking it, too.

[edsbacktattoo]

I have Gathered some Data

@skysofrey and I recently got into a discussion about names in OFMD. Specifically, how many times does Ed actually call Stede by his name in the show? We could only think of a few examples each and that didn't seem right. And because I'm insane, I decided to rewatch and note down every time a name was used, who used it, and who was being spoken to. Here are my findings!

Before you proceed, please know that this is strictly for fun and because I was curious. There are likely errors in the data (I'm sure I missed some things, I'm just one person.) but! I still think that what's been gathered is very interesting.

Here are some other fun/important/miserable things that I found in my travels:

There is one more time where Stede calls Ed “Edward,” and the only time it isn’t said to him directly. This is when Stede is addressing the petrified orange.

Of the five times that Stede is called “The Gentleman Pirate,” two of them are from Ed.

Ed calls Stede by his name only twelve times in the series. Only two of these instances are spoken to someone else. There are two others when Ed is looking for him at the pier, and therefore spoken to no one.

There are only ten instances of other characters calling Ed something other than his name or “Blackbeard.” Two of these are from Izzy, during the scene in Spanish Jackie’s bar, where he’s informing Stede that Ed would like to meet with him. During this scene, he only uses “my captain” and “my boss.” This is one of the very few times he doesn’t refer to Ed to other people as “Blackbeard” and it’s at the time that is arguably the most important. (He’s an idiot.)

Out of the twenty times that Ed refers to himself, fourteen of those are as “Blackbeard/The Kraken.” He refers to himself with names other than “Ed/Edward” 70% of the time. 50% of the times he refers to himself by his name are during the beach scene in episode nine, and there is only one instance where he uses his name that is not in Stede’s company. ("Actually, I do want to be called 'Ed' from now on.")

Izzy only refers to Ed as "Edward" to other people four times in the show. Two of those times are when he's marooning Stede's crew, and each time he uses his name in that scene, he takes on a mocking tone. Meaning that 50% of every instance he's referred to Ed as "Edward" to other people, he's been mocking his name.

Ed calls Stede "mate" as often as he calls him by his name, but he only calls him "mate" directly.

Stede calls Ed by his name only once more than Izzy does.

80% of the times Ed refers to himself by name happen in episode nine.

[fragmentedblade]

The "Dan Heng is Dan Feng" dogmatics annoy me a lot. It entirely brushes off one of the most interesting and prevalent questions posed by the game, incarnated by several characters and stories that give the question different hues with different potential answers, and a constant also in HI3, like a thread waving the two games together

[showstopper35]

can we talk about TFP Magnus? I know a lot of people dislike him…(@plutoids-thoughts I’m looking at you). And as a young kid who was and still is obsessed with the cons, I initially disliked him too. But he’s been growing on me for a couple years now. (is it the voice? Do I just love thicc men? is it the kilt part?)

anyway, I think he did more for wheeljack’s growth than anyone except maybe Miko did. Magnus’s strict character brings out everyone else. We saw Jackie’s reluctance to return to his roots and together he and Magnus ended up managing to re-create the wreckers, but this time with a team (and Miko). his little interactions Optimus highlight how good of leader Op is and how he’s still kind of nerdy to this day (again, the kilt part) and Op’s care for us humans. When Magnus lost an hand we see how Ratchet really does care for his patients even though he’s a grumpy ass most of the time.

Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I say that Magnus brings out the best in people. He is a constant, unwavering presence that people grow around, even though he wasn’t in the show very much. Plus, he’s sexy. Appreciate him.

[zrpants]

i wish there was a website or database of "common knowledge." one place that tells you "here's a list of what most people would know about world geography, history, pop culture, natural science, tech literacy, etc etc etc." it doesn't even need to explain everything -- it's just that i don't even know what it is that i don't know.

[kindnessoverperfection]

I've found that, when interacting with others (or myself), it's useful to consider the lessons I'd want to teach a growing child.

If a child makes a mistake, I wouldn't want them to feel shame. I wouldn't yell at them, humiliate them, or in any way indicate to them that their mistake is a reflection of their worth or of who they are as a person.

Instead, I'd want them to associate the process with love and joy. If they say something that hurts someone's feelings, or otherwise ostracizes someone in some way, I'd compassionately explain to them. Ideally, they'd walk away knowing why they said / did it in the first place, how to handle similar situations in the future, and would accept the consequences (e.g. if a friend no longer wanted to hang out with them).

While the consequences may sometimes be painful, I'd do my best to instill in them that mistakes are human and natural, and that the process of learning from these mistakes is an opportunity to improve connections with others and express love.

I have a tendency towards excessive guilt. Memories in which I've said / done something ignorant or hurtful are infused with this guilt and shame- but ideally, I'd feel a sense of love and peace, and perhaps happiness, when looking back on them. Because they were moments of growth, moments I learned how to be more compassionate (even if the actual learning came years later).

So I'll put this out into the void:

When you make a mistake, that is not a reflection of you as a person. It is a moment in time, a moment which was informed by your past experiences. Humans are not static labels, or monsters in an RPG game. We are social creatures who live and learn and react and grow and experience and love. Be gentle with yourself and move forward knowing you're doing so in accordance with your values.

[blujayonthewing]

friend who is constantly bugging me to come to karaoke with her on wednesdays, including this past wednesday, has covid, again

[wishuponastarion]

i'm being mean on twt again

[whatudottu]

Hmmmm if Annie fell and how would the Andromeda 5 react :))

Like what, she tripped? Fell out of bed? Jumped off a cliff?

Annie while being an adopted daughter to 5 aliens that don't know humanity inherently, she's a 16 year old who's first introduction to the 5 was through P'andor which I will state (if you're a long time follower, this is a reminder, if you're new, this is some context) she was immediately trying to mug him with a knife. He also probably looked like his human ID at the time which is... well, the picture of a large Slavic man who takes no shit.

But I'll indulge, I'll indulge, but prepare to be underwhelmed.

So if Annie fell (in the tripped context, maybe she fumbles a dance or just falls ass over teakettle on something), P'andor already has the impression she can take tougher shit than the ground. Might bark a short laugh especially if she gets right up and brushes the dirt off herself, depending on the dramatics of the fall he might jokingly award points for style, but not unless she got genuinely hurt P'andor does the quick 'You good' and move on when Annie starts walking as usual. Bivalvan would disapprove of P'andor's dismissiveness but less out of instinctual parental response and more from the fact he's grown up as a species with an exoskeleton, and Annie being human she has an endoskeleton which the soft fleshy bits on the outside. He takes a glance at whatever skin deep lesions Annie gets and puts in a bit too much stock than necessary into them, but his big main problem with that would be that Annie damaged the parts of her that would have been well protected under armour that humans don't have, and trying to associate the damage to scrapes in shell is building up his ability to cope that Annie would know what hurts or not.

You might expect that Galapagus would immediately baby Annie, but I don't think that would be the case. Aside from having the same instinct as Bivalvan (squishy shell-less human got skin damage), as a species with an unconventional method of flying, that being literal air propulsion, well there's a little bit of his cultural mentality that views children as baby birds or what have you. You could piff a geochelone aerio child (not in the least because they can be held in one human hand like Earth turtles and tortoises) and while still being an asshole, not an irredeemable bastard, the shell doing a lot of lip service (it's built in naturally to compensate for a fall, especially with all the weight of the shell itself contributing to the intensity of said fall) thanks to the inherent learning curve of 'oh yeah you're going to have to fly' children are gonna fall over anyway and heck, an adult too who would be much heavier is going to inevitably drop out of the sky like a rock. Not to say Galapagus wouldn't at least still hover over Annie for a hot sec or too, but if anything given that geochelone aerios have at least some areas of endoskeleton, so long as Annie isn't actively bleeding or straight up broken a bone he's not going to get too worked up about it.

The person that will really get worked up about it would be, of course, Ra'ad. Having absolutely no bones to actually break (his gladius doesn't count and his beak is hard to break at all) you might think he's the most prepared in dealing with skin lesions, but this is the man that grew up in an ocean and lived on land floating around like no one's business, people just don't get hurt by gravity! Not to mention, injuries in the sea are bound to attract predators, or injuries in stagnant water are bound to attract infection, or injuries are (in his culture) the first sign that you will be the next to die and dying isn't a thing his people are concerned with WHY AREN'T THEY CONCERNED WITH DEATH! It's only really his mind reading that tells him to stop right before he panics over Annie ensuing she dies... from embarrassment. If she fell and she's fine if slightly humiliated, Ra'ad will suppress his anxieties and kind of explicitly change the subject to hopefully make it clear he isn't thinking about her falling anymore (if it works it works, if it doesn't well...). And if she's legitmately hurt, Ra'ad would be actually the first to clock it since Annie like to be tough and infallible even if only for herself instead of being someone's stone, so if mentally she's wincing and grumbling etc Ra'ad will be the one to ask 'Are you actually okay?' and attempt (keyword: attempt) to be as low key about it as Annie is.

And finally I think out of all the Andromeda 5 I think Andreas is the only one who has experience with children, both in raising them and with the [alien] to human comparison to what a child is. I've mentioned my piece a whole bunch about making talpaedans ant inspired, and part of that is because Andreas would be the 'male' of an ant colony or the tradie of a talpaedan, which would mean Andreas grew up learning to parent the children of the colony's Queen and other architect/tradie pairings, expecting to in adult do the same in the colony Andreas had been married to if Aggregor didn't cause a divorce instead. So unlike Bivalvan who would claim with 100% certainty he was a father but only because he's a broadcast spawning species, Ra'ad who would claim complete opposite else he'd be actually dead to a herd of zooplankton young, Galapagus who would really be in human translation in his early 20s only remembering being a child, and P'andor that doesn't even know what sex is because prypiatosian-bs literally don't have sexual reproduction, Andreas would have nearly a life's worth of knowledge of childhood development (which is still only the equivalent of being 25ish years old, it's just Andreas being essentially a male ant) and have the most experience with a child falling over.

Which - because Andreas has experience - Annie falling over is not a big deal and if in arms reach, Andreas would lift her back up and brush her shoulders a little bit before letting her run off again and move on from the whole thing. The worst thing any parent can do is coddle their teen like a toddler and damn, Annie falling over is not as bad as what happens to talpaedan youth, it's a breath of fresh air.

This is hardly a 'P'andor exposes Annie to radiation' moment, but I did use this as an excuse to shoot forward some brief biology and culture headcanons about the Andromeda 5.

[the-eldritch-it-gay]

oh smth fun is that I use a mod for that makes the Pale Oak quarterstaff a legendary item and one optional effect was the wielders strength score becomes 18, so while they have that they are one of the strongest people in the party, on par with Karlach (18) and just under Lae’zel (20). Which I actually like, because I imagine Majexatli is larger and probably more close to how I imagine Halsin in body type (broad, plenty of muscle and fat)

[olivieblake]

hi olivie! first off, i love you, thanks for changing my life. second, how do you write the concepts of space and time so convincingly? In awyite, you wrote about bees, hexagons that sort of thing and it got me thinking. Was it something you studied? A topic you explored?

hi! lol actually if you go through my backlog of not writing videos you'll find the one where I started rambling about the bees. I have no background in any of this, I'm just a curious person who reads a lot. isn't all the bee stuff so interesting???

[knownbyanothername]

don't hang out with people who like. mandate you become a non-entity to hang out with them

[teaandinanity]

Truly one of the most deeply obnoxious things about my body is that its response to basically every kind of pain over a certain severity threshold is 'throw up.' There are literally no situations where this is helpful.

[homosexual-fanfiction]

okay theoretically .. if you were to look at the word count for a chapter.. how many words do you think would make you say "this is too fucking long"

[mandizo]

the latest spoke video possessed me for a bit . i also had a rough day today resulting in me writing this unreadable ramble about him on my textbook . talking about ls is literally my coping mechanism......... you might die reading this you have been warned. all the "spoke" in this refer to c!spoke btw

i have s ome very brief and short and concisely worded opinions on the new spoke video ! i want this to be some kinda character study but im not mentally capable enough to do that rn. my favourite part of spoke is his like. personality in general especially how he thinks and how he works to achieve his goals if i dont get it out of my system RIGHT NOW i will explode .

is spoke evil? well in my humble opinion his actions do come from what he thinks are correct / the right thing to do. most notably "to bring peace to lifesteal" at the end of season three. i genuinely dont think this is a lie or a smokescreen to hide his evil intentions etc. but like how bringing peace to lifesteal literally meant to kill everyone permanently, it does seem that he takes quite the radical route to do stuff every time, which caused real harm and destruction. i dont think that gets discussed enough

wiping out the entire server for peace ? whatever ill let that slide. sure . exploiting and taking advantage of the last bit of sympathy and kindness in lifesteal players by staging a fake spawn trap as bait to trick apo members wanting to rescue terry into talking? uhhhhh whatever sure. ok yea. "you can kill him if you want . you can start killing them if you want (o^^o)" blatantly saying that with a smile? "in parrots eyes this is a friendship reunited [...] however this is only one step of my true master plan."??????okay you need to be put in a padded cell immediately. actually that might be to humane you should be put on a remote island as far as possible from land . but you also did nothing wrong innocent lil dude whos just a bit silly. i think you should be put in human society and be allowed to do whatever you want

in conclusion i despise you spoke from spokeishere and i love you . i want to hug you then scream in your ears at the top of my lungs when you least expect. your awful you're evil and you're innocent and you're awesome. you treat trust from others like its nothing. you exploit other people s kindness . you always do things for the greater good. and you're spokeishere (i think thats what his name is i dont watch him that much)

in conclusion of the conclusion. did he really have to all that do achieve his goals that apparently are actually very good and good for the sever? are his goals really that honourable anymore when achieving them comes with such a hefty price tag and death toll? what if in a future event his goals aren't the morally correct thing to do in the first place, then with a passion for working towards his ideals as strong as his, wouldn't mean that he is the ultimate bad person? is he a bad guy anyway ??????my answer to that will be a resounding: "uh idk"

spoke never did anything wrong btw. aldo does anyone else think spoke sounds like hes 7 years old sometimes. not his sentences his voice, he

(the gibberish ends there)