#why am i reading for computer based classes

[mochinomnoms]

I'm curious about the dreams Idia was having about the reader.

(reference to this)

nsfw under read-more, minors DNI!

It's quite silly, really. Idia was never one to yearn for the touch, closeness, the affections of a person. He was fine, being alone. It was better this way. He could cope with his games and shows, online groups and friends filling the void. Besides, why would he want to drag another person into the Shroud curse? It already took one person from him, Idia couldn't stand doing it to another as long as it was up to him. Plus, he wasn't exactly prime boyfriend, let alone husband material (perhaps he did that intentionally).

So, Idia wasn't all too worried when he first started becoming friends with you. You were kinda weird, but a friend to introverts like him! Somehow always a wallflower, but always involved in the chaos of overblots and school. But, you were conscientious of his need for space and privacy; Ortho must have said something to you about his eating habits, cause you started bringing food other than chips, soda, and ramen cups for him to eat, like actual meals. You also liked to entertain Ortho, who liked when you drew silly designs on his plating, which is always a plus in Idia's book. You were sweet, like his favorite ramune soda. Despite having abysmal skills in gaming (which he was all too happy to make fun of you for) he liked having you as his support, watching him on the sidelines and being a cute cheerleader. In exchange, Idia lent you an old gaming computer and bullied tutored you in a few of his favorite games so you could be his squishy healer in raids.

But, he was a bit worried when he started feeling something more than platonic things for you. Then, he was exceptionally concerned when, at the first day of spring, Idia started coughing hydrangeas, which he managed to secretly keep under wraps from Ortho for a few weeks. No, he was downright mortified when, during those few weeks, night after night, he started having dreams of you.

They started off innocent at first: you on his lap, head on his shoulder, as he played the latest RPG. You murmured words of encouragement, sleepily nuzzling your head into his. Another, he was in the board game club, where you cheered him on as he won a match against Azul in some luck-based game. Idia remembers giving Azul a smug smirk as you threw your arms around him and pressed kisses into his cheek. He even faintly remembers one where you simply sat with him in class, fingers lacing through his in comfort as he dealt with the anxiety of being out and about.

It wasn't until he was a week in when the dreams, infested with hydrangea bouquets always at the corner of his eye, that he knew he was utterly screwed beyond belief.

It started off sweet, at first. This time, you were with him at Styx, though you looked a few years older and were wearing a similar uniform to his mother. He was wearing the uniform as well, though it more closely resembled his father's. He was now Styx head, and you, his precious little wife. The domestic stuff was fine, it made his heart rate spike up so much that Ortho questioned if he had a nightmare while sleeping, but it was fine he could deal. You did look cute… as you smiled up at him… leaned up to kiss his cheek… and whisper in his ear…

“Idiaaa~ What if I crawled under your desk and sucked you off? Do you think you could stay quiet? You can, can't you? For me~”

It was fuzzy, when he tried to remember it, but Idia remembers the heat pooling in his belly. Your hands trailing down his chest down to his hips. Your lips following after and pressing soft, slow kisses down and down until—

Idia's flames grew into a burning, hot pink as his face is in his hands the following morning. He'd actually gone to bed at a reasonable time (to him anyway, 3 am was reasonable), and woke up with that in his head? How was he supposed to function? How was he supposed to look at you, talk with you, when the last memory he had was a dream of you sucking him off???

It progressively got worse from there. It was a weird mix of erotically domestic scenarios. You, waking up to him in bed before work, riding him as you cooed sweet words. Another of the two of you heavy petting, his hands groping your ass as you curled your body into his, making out in his office before Idia had to run off to a meeting, leaving you pouting and telling him to, “Hurry back to your needy little wifey~” One of you cooking him breakfast in one of his shirts, before he bent you over the kitchen counter, after which you sat on his lap and hand fed him.

The last one that really freaked him out, which led to him further isolating himself until Ortho dragged him out to the nurse, was one where he woke up to you next to him in bed. You smiled the sweetest smile to him, whispering to Idia how much you loved him, moving over to press a trail of kisses from his lips, to his neck, down his chest and abdomen. Idia was anticipating the same follow-up from his first dream, especially as your hands reached to pull his briefs down before a soft whine, followed by a cry, interrupted you.

He had no clue what to think, as you make a surprised noise, smiling at him, as the following words left your mouth: “The baby's awake, guess we'll have to continue this later, huh?” Dream Idia giggled along with you as the two of you shared a kiss, watching as you rolled off the bed to the bassinet that he was just noticing. He watched as you cooed and murmured soft words to the small, blue-flamed haired baby, reaching their tiny hands for you. But it was the next sentence that bolted him from sleep into a dry sweat:

“Say good morning! Say, 'good morning' to your baba, my darling~”

Idia let out a screech as he flailed out of bed, tangled in his sheets. He was coughing up a storm of hydrangeas when Ortho flew in, panicked and already full of concern for Idia's health. It was then Ortho started insisting that Idia visit the infirmary, much to his chargin.

At least you'd never see him like this… right?

[macabr3-barbi3]

CTRL ALT DELETE- Task Manager (Vox/Reader)

Something's up with Vox and you offer to help troubleshoot- it both does and does not go how you're expecting it to.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54688282

The least serious thing I've ever written: inspired by the time i started a timer in class one day to see how long my teacher talked about her son instead of teaching us; i ended up realizing 4 months later that i never stopped the timer and it was just running in the background and making my shit slow that entire time lmao there's a screenshot in the ao3 notes

Tags: Stress Relief, Sexual Tension, Chair Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Begging, Computers. Dirty Talk, very basic knowledge of computers

<3<3<3<3<3<3

Your new boss seemed stressed. 

Not in the usual way that he was stressed, either- the note from the assistant you had replaced was that usually when Vox was having an off day he would call for Valentino or have you pull a list of low earners for the month, banishing you from the room in either case. But he hadn’t spent any time with Val in months, basically the entire time that you’d been working with him as a personal assistant after getting promoted from a stage grunt for the news channel.

You had thought for a bit that he might make a move- that maybe that was why he promoted you, that he was charmed enough by you to end the on/off thing he had going on with Val, which made sense based on the timing. But when you tested that theory recently- made double entendres, brushed your hands against his arms or leg or back, blatantly invited him out for dinner and drinks- he didn’t seem interested. He declined your invite, allowed you to touch him without being overcome with lust, and the sex jokes just seemed to go whoosh. 

Right over his head. 

He was on edge and twitchy. He took longer to respond to things than he normally did, his processors slow, occasionally getting a ‘buffering’ message that flashed across his screen when someone asked a question. His hypnotic eye seemed to be suffering as well, the swirls having slowed down now to the point that they were no more mesmerizing than watching paint dry. It was frustrating and enraging him, and in turn frustrating you- he was fucking hot when he was angry, which didn’t help your attraction to him that he was ignoring. 

He was sitting at his desk in the control room when you entered, head in his hands as he stared at a piece of paper on his desk. The monitors were all lit behind him, showing recorded footage of the Tower throughout the day- you spotted a short recording of yourself talking to some of the marketing team a few hours ago. Like a Valentino caricature he read the paper, blinked his eyes a couple times, read it again. Picked it up and pulled it closer to his face like that would help, and his screen scrolled the words along the bottom like his internal system was trying to transcribe it so something he could understand. He finally dropped the paper with a groan, letting it flutter to the floor where it slipped under his chair and stopped just before you. 

“Are you okay, sir?” The question is out before you can stop it, and as was the normal recently it took a few minutes for him to answer. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he muttered, swiveling around to look at you. He clutched the sides of his screen, eyes narrowed and mouth delayed in its movements as he spoke. “I feel like I can’t focus on anything. I can’t process anything. My- just, fucking everything is slow and useless in my head right now! How am I supposed to be a master media manipulator when I can’t fucking concentrate for more than two minutes at a time?”

“You have seemed more… stressed than usual,” you agree. “Are none of your usual relaxing activities helping? Or have you done any troubleshooting?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

“Troubleshooting,” you say again, and at his blank stare you chuckle a little. “You know, doing a couple ‘quick fix’ things to see if that’s what’s causing the problem. Do you have like, a cache or something that you have to clear? An archive dump to get rid of old files?” You let your eyes track his body from top to bottom. “I’m not super familiar with how your… anatomy works?”

God, but you wanted to be.

He blinks a couple times. “I think I used to have someone that did that for me,” he says. “Years ago. I fired them because it didn’t seem necessary, I was running perfectly fine.”

“Yeah, well, that might be what the problem is.” You offer him a soft smile. “Sometimes stuff will work in sub-optimal conditions for a while before it starts causing issues. I used to do programming customer support when I was alive- it’s been a while but I could take a look if you want?”

His mouth twists in a frown. “I guess so,” he agrees. “I’m desperate enough to try anything. I need to be able to fucking concentrate if the Vees are gonna stay on top, everyone fucking knows that Val is hopeless with the business aspect of everything.” He gets the buffering symbol on his screen for a few seconds, groaning and shaking his head as he clears. “What do you need access to?”

“Do you have a way to access your… system? Externally,” you clarify. “I’m not a surgeon- I don’t plan on cutting into you to get to anything.”

Vox gestures behind him. “I can hook up to the monitors,” he says, “but we’ll have to be pretty close, doll. I have to be sitting here to be hooked up, and since this is the only chair, looks like this will have to be your seat.” He pats a hand on his thighs, not so much an invitation as a statement.

You fucking wished. You know this isn’t him trying to initiate anything though- you’d been trying for long enough that you’re ready to give it up and just accept that your hot, overlord boss didn’t want to fuck you. Helping him out felt more important than that anyway, so you would do your best.

“You got it,” you say, and cross the remaining space to perch yourself gracefully on his lap. You push the inappropriate thoughts about how firm his muscles are underneath you- how exactly did this man’s body work? Was it really just his head that was not organic matter?- and let him rotate the chair back to face the monitors.

The sight is intimidating, as is the position- you’re surrounded by reflections of yourself from every angle, Vox’s lithe frame seated behind you. This is where he does most of his business, the background site of everything that VoxTec handles. And he’s trusting you to help him fix whatever is wrong with him so he can get back to handling all of that, free of distraction.

You watch as thick wires come up from the floor to plug into the back of his head, the sharp hiss making you wonder if it was painful or intrusive. You won’t ask though, not when you’re getting ready to try to restore him to his usual ruthless self; he might consider that to be prying.

He pulls something up on the main monitor, the one that sits directly across from you, and waves a hand to it. A little keyboard and mouse emerge from the desk as the monitor powers on, and when you glance back you can see the same thing reflected on his face. “Have at it,” you hear him say, even though you can’t see his mouth moving.

Ignoring his open programs for the time being in case he needs any of them, the first thing you do is go in and clear his archived files. He’s got entire terabytes of useless information; employee records for people that have been dead or fired for decades; funny videos that he saved; resources for old news stories that are no longer relevant. Some of it you help him upload to a cloud server- after explaining to him what a cloud server is- and create files to designate for actual important shit.

You find the internal browser that he uses to pull information on the fly and help him clear the cache and cookies.

You help him sort security footage from Vee Tower and get rid of stuff that wasn’t actually necessary, like the short bits of static and dead air that happened whenever he used the cameras to teleport around the building. Everything that he has saved about mentions of that fucking radio demon also goes into the garbage. There are some files you can’t access, things like his memories and day to day recordings of conversations and things that he personally is part of. 

You delete what you can and empty the recycling bin.

As the process has gone on, Vox has relaxed more and more behind you. “I still don’t feel completely back to normal,” he murmurs, “but this is already loads better. It’s like a massage directly on my brain. You know, if I still physically had one.”

You hit the keys to open his task manager- CTRL ALT DELETE. “Unholy fuck- Jesus, sir, if you thought that was good this is gonna feel orgasmic,” you say absently, scrolling through the opens apps and programs that he has running. Has this man ever closed anything? You hadn’t realized a person or device could even have so many things going at once. “Do you just leave everything open in the background?”

He peers around your shoulder, bracing his hands on your hips as he sits up a little straighter. The movement causes your stomach to drop, arousal threatening to make itself known, but you push the notion down as he sets his hands back on the arms of the chair. “I guess so?” He watches you scroll through the extensive list. “I guess it just never occurred to me to close them. Opening the programs to use is just like my stream of consciousness I suppose.”

“Kay, well, that’s stopping now.” You click on the first item on the list- VoxtaGram. “I recommend closing non-essential stuff out at least once a month. More, if you have the time to go through everything. For now, just in case, there is something important we’re gonna go through some of the more recently opened things, set them up to open automatically when you start up, before we reboot your system- wait, can we reboot your system entirely without killing you?”

“No worries there, dear. I can, I just haven’t done it in years because it can take a while to start back up afterwards.” He sneers at the social media page. “You can close that shit. Any of Velvette’s crap she can handle on her own. Same with any of the fucking games that Val loads up when he’s bored- can I delete those entirely? Or block them? Fucking moth and his blue-light addiction…”

You get through a lot of the list, Vox kind of dozing off and only passively participating in the process. You’ve got the gist of it; things like his news sources, contacts list and phone, and the notes app are staying open and set to automatically launch when he does reboot and start back up. Pretty much everything else is closed out, things he pulled up for two seconds weeks ago to check on something or another before abandoning it. You’re making excellent progress when the next thing on the list gives you pause.

“Vox? Why is this- oh my god.” You can’t help it- you start laughing, throwing your head back to rest on his shoulder as you look at what’s now displayed on the screen.

A stopwatch had apparently been started and never stopped. The elapsed time was over three thousand hours, which came out to something like four months if your mental math was correct. He had had this running constantly in the background since you had started working for him, possibly even before. “I think I found the problem,” you chuckled, and his eyes were narrowed as he looked at the timer continuing to tick. “What is this?”

“What the actual fuck?” He buffers for a second- and you’re pleased to note that it’s already much faster than it has been lately- before you hear a dinging sound coming from him. ‘Fucking Hell, I should have known this was all Valentino’s fault.” He drags a clawed hand down his screen in an imitation of a facepalm. “I was timing him. He was fucking ranting about Angel Dust again while we were in a strategy meeting with Velvette- I had the stopwatch going to see how much of the hour session he wasted talking about that whore. I must have forgotten to turn it off.” He barks out a laugh, throwing his head back with the force of it while you look at him with amusement. “I’m gonna owe you big time for this, doll, you’re a lifesaver.”

You close the app out with a smile. “Just trying to help,” you say. “I think that was probably the worst of it- do you want to just try rebooting now?”

He lets out a groan when the app closes, and the sound shoots through your body straight to your core. “Go for it, hun,” he says, eyes closed as he leans back against the chair. “I think I’m good to go now, but it can’t hurt. You were right, sorting this shit out feeling fucking good.”

You’re suddenly very aware of the dampness of your panties as you bypass ‘kinda horny’ straight to ‘fuck me on this desk.’ You scold yourself mentally: Don’t jump your boss. He’s trusting you to help him right now- do not take advantage of that. Do not ride his leg like you very clearly want to because his voice is fucking hot. Fucking focus.

You clear your throat, closing out the task manager and hitting the button to restart him. “See you in a bit, sir.”

You stay seated on his lap just in case- he might still have something he wants you to do when he comes back online, some settings you could apply to close out things that are used for more than a week or so. It’s definitely not because you like the feeling of his strong thigh underneath you, tantalizingly close to your cunt if you, by chance, decided to tilt your hips forward and start grinding down on him. 

After just a few minutes get a message on the main monitor telling you to wait a moment- things start popping up on the other screens surrounding the central one, and it takes you a moment to recognize the pattern.

Its all videos of you- shot from Vox’s perspective, and a mortifying blush takes over your face. They’re all the moments that you had tried coming onto him. The innuendos and subtle entendres, the times that you touched him, pressed yourself against him in a tight space despite having another way to get to the copy machine, when you had invited him out for dinner. There’s also videos where he had just been watching you, apparently, taken from a distance as you spoke with Velvette or passed instructions along to a member of the team or discreetly tried to hide behind a vending machine when you noticed  Val coming into a room. 

There’s a satisfied grumble behind you, and before you can turn to look at him Vox has settled his claws onto either side of your waist and shifted you over a bit, to rest directly on the erection straining his pants. 

Which is a surprise, albeit a pleasant one.

“Thanks for the reset, doll,” he says, and his voice is a quiet growl as he lets his hands wander from your waist to your hips and back again, claw tipped fingers catching on the fabric. “I got a chance to look at some files while I was under and found quite the treat in your logs.”

This could either be very bad or very, very good. “Sir-”

“You know, I’m usually pretty good at picking up what a woman is putting down. Imagine my surprise when I realize you’ve been coming onto me for weeks and my shit was so fucked up and bogged down that I didn’t even notice. Like that?” He uses one hand to point to a screen in the far left of the central monitor, while he snaked his other hand down to rest on your thigh, his hand large enough to encompass the muscle at the edge of your skirt. On the screen, you had come to his office to drop off meeting notes for something you attended on his behalf. You had dropped the stack as you came around his side of the desk, and got down fully on your knees to pick them up, glancing up at him through your lashes. You blush watching it now- it had seemed obvious to you even then, but watching it now, the way that Vox had seen it? When he didn’t say anything about you being face level with his prick you had used a hand on his thigh to brace yourself to stand up, letting your fingers run along the inner seam of his trousers when you rose back to standing. Still no reaction, and you had left his office equal parts turned on and irritated with yourself. Him not having acted on it had been the final nail in the coffin cementing the fact that he was not interested in the slightest.

You let out a weak exhale as the Vox sitting under you gets his other hand in the same position as the first, using his grip to ever so slightly spread your legs on his lap. He lets his fingers skim your inner thighs and you shake with the effort of not begging him to just touch you. This was delicious, agonizing torture.

“Had I been in my right mind for that display, baby, I would have fucking ṛ̣̬̫̍͌ͩ͟ụ̴̴̾̀͟͡i̧̻̻͉̜͑ͪ̾͟n̫̫̘̗͕̲̲̎ͥḛ̡̰̳͓̥ͬ͋ͪͧd̶̵̯̯̼̘ͨ̓ y͙͙̪̰ͫ͌́o͙͙̙̘̙ͤͫ͞ụ̴̴̾̀͟͡.” His voice crackles and glitches on the last words, and the sound of it forces a moan from your throat as you let your head fall back. You clutch your hands to the arms of the chair as his tongue- and who even really knew he had a tongue, what the fuck?- licks down the side of your jaw and at your exposed neck. “I would have had you choking on my cock before getting a taste of that sweet cunt and fucking you into the desk for hours.”

One hand finally slips under the edge of your skirt and you shiver when his fingers make contact with your soaked core. “Is that what you want now, babygirl? You want me to give you my cock as thanks for helping to set me straight? To make up for lost time?” He slides a finger under the thin material of your panties, groaning in your ear at how slick he finds you. “That’s what I want, doll. I want you to ride me so hard you go stupid with the feeling, and you never feel whole without some part of me in your cunt for the rest of for-fucking- ḛ̡̰̳͓̥ͬ͋ͪͧv̹̹̘̼̞̻͆ͩ̓ͪ͢ḛ̡̰̳͓̥ͬ͋ͪͧṛ̣̬̫̍͌ͩ͟.”

“Fuck, please,” you gasp out, the word devolving into a cry as Vox finally slides a finger into you, mindful of the claws as he pushes in and quickly follows the first with a second. He uses his free hand to hold your hips still as you try to grind into his digits, keeps you held firmly against his erection as you squirm in pleasure.

His sharp fingertips angle to prod gently at a spot inside of you that has you seeing stars; your eyes are clenched shut as you ride the feeling, so close to the edge you feel like you’re going to implode with the force of it when you finally tip over. “Fuck, sir, please, so c-close,” you mumble, and his tongue is back to licking at whatever parts of your skin it can reach.

“You wanna come like this, sweetheart?” The main monitor in front of you glitches out, and when it comes back into focus you see yourself on the screen- like a mirror, you’re reflected, and you can see Vox’s grinning face behind you. Your skin is flushed, sweat dripping down your face, the hint of tears along your lashline as your mouth drops open when he adds a third finger. “Look fuckin’ beautiful, baby, you were made for this- maybe we give Valentino a call, he could-”

“No!” You release the arms of the chair to grab onto his wrists where his hands meet your body. “No one- no one but you, sir. Vox, please, l- let me come. Please?” You let a little whine into your voice, and you can see the way his mouth goes lax and his eyes laser-focus on where you’re grabbing at his hands.

“I didn’t mean to join us, dollface, just to record- but you’re right, you’re right.” He pulls his fingers from your pussy, slicing the center of your panties in the process before he brings his digits to his mouth- you watch on the screen as he curls his tongue around each one, licks the flavor of you from his skin and glitches out at the taste. “How could I possibly share such a fucking vision with anyone else?

He shifts you to one side so he can get his dick out, and the sight of it in the monitor, his own arousal beading at the top and rock hard, has you whimpering before it’s even inside of you. He carried himself like a man with a big cock, but Christ.

“Hope you like what you see, hun, cause it’s all yours.” He scoots forward in the seat, tilts his hips forward for the right angle, and moves you back into your previous position with ease- this time, the tip of him is pushing inside you, and you watch in the monitor as you sink inch by glorious inch onto him.

Once you’re fully seated, Vox seems to lose capability for rational thought. “Fuck me, you’re perfect,” he moans, bracing his feet more firmly on the ground to thrust up into you, getting a firm grasp on your hips to pull you down into it. The result is a beautiful stab at that sweet spot inside of you that makes you clench and cry out, watching Vox’s hypnotic eye start spiraling at its normal speed on the screen, and you can see backwards scrolling text of his stream of thoughts- a bunch of nonsensical letters and cuss words interspersed with your name. “I want to fucking- chain you to my desk so I can have this perfect pussy whenever I want it. Fuck, I can’t believe we- we could have been doing this for weeks.” He punctuates his sentence with a hard thrust.

“A-all the more reason to regularly clear your task manager, sir,” you say, so caught up in the feeling of him railing you from below that you can hardly believe you formed a coherent thought. He feels so fucking good and you’re a hair trigger away from collapsing and wringing him for all he’s got.

With one quick movement he’s shifted, and there’s a hand on your throat arching you backwards at the same time that he gets a couple clawed fingers rubbing at your clit. The shock of the combination makes you flutter around his length, a choked noise escaping your throat before he tightens his grip- not enough to really cut off your air supply, but enough that your brain starts going soft and mushy and the vice grip your cunt has on his cock gets impossibly tighter. You can see the shine of your slick arousal coating him every time he pulls out to rut back into you, and the sights and sounds are threatening to rip you into the chasm of ecstasy that you’re flirting with. 

“Vox,” you whine, “please, I’m so fucking- please please please-“ 

“Christ, babygirl, whatever you fucking want.” His eyes are wide and frantic as they watch the place you’re joined, his mouth set in a snarl as he fucks into your pliant body. The cry you release is nothing short of agonized- it’s so fucking close you can taste it, nearly overwhelmed with the tension.

“You wanna fucking cum on my cock? Do it, angel, let me see it- come on, baby, cum for me-“

Your walls clench down hard as you reach your orgasm, Vox’s grip on your throat making your vision and mind go fuzzy with the force of it as you choke on a moan that tries to escape your tensed muscles. You’re distantly aware of Vox thrusting hard into you, more praise and curses falling from his lips as he hits his peak as well, pressing his screen to the side of your face when he relinquishes his handle on your throat to clutch at your hips and grind into your cunt as he spills inside of you. The aftershocks of your release leave you twitching, milking his cock of everything he has to offer before he collapses into the chair behind you, a boneless pile of a man now simply running his hands over any bit of skin he could reach. 

It’s truly a testament to how helpful the reset and reboot had been that Vox’s system doesn’t simply crash. “Fucking Hell, I haven’t felt this good in decades,” he mutters in your ear, and you shiver at the feeling of his tongue brushing the sensitive skin.

“Ha, you think that’s the reboot or the mind-melting orgasms?”

He hums contentedly. “Jury’s out on that, doll. Guess we’ll have to do a re-run on both and see how it stacks up to this one.”

“I’ll make sure to schedule some time out for it,” you chuckle before fixing him with a stern glare through the monitor. “I’m serious about clearing your apps and shit more frequently though. Christ, you had decades of backed up shit open-“

“Don’t berate me while my dick is still inside you, fuck.” He leans you forward far enough to pull out, and you grimace at the feeling of his cum starting to spill back out of you. He notices the expression though- “Whoops, sorry,” he says, and after a quick second during which he tucks his softening prick away he scoops you into his arms, standing from the chair and stepping away from the desk. “Let’s get you cleaned up at the penthouse, angel, what do you say?”

“If you’re carrying me then lead the way.” You gesture towards the door out of the control room. “Just don’t start any timers to see how long it takes to get there or anything and we should be good.”

The glare he fixes you with shouldn’t be hot, but it fucking is. “Hardy har,” he deadpans, and rolls his eyes while he stalks towards the elevator, control room door closing behind you; but there’s a small smile on his screen despite his ire and he’s functioning normally, and when you see the little stopwatch icon pop up in the bottom right corner of his face and start counting, you can’t help but laugh.

[smileysuh]

Fix You TEASER

🌙 staring. Mingyu x afab!Reader

🔮 synopsis. “As a member of 53V3NT33N, I have two different states of mind coded into me, aggression and admiration. To love something, to admire it, is to feel aggressive when it’s questioned, to want to control it, if even for a little while- it’s the need to consume it, endlessly, as my fans consume and control me as an automaton. Even though I’m a member of a group, there’s a distance. Automatons can never truly motivate each other because our motivations are based on external human needs, it’s built into us- We can see when humans need us, and we do what we can to fix that need… I know you need me, the way I’ve needed you since I got here.”

tw/cw. unprotected sex with an AI robot, virgin!Mingyu, big dick!Mingyu, Mingyu's body is perfect, hand job, blow job, deep throating, pussy eating, fingering, flavored cum, praise, breast worship, switchy/submissive!Mingyu, multiple orgasms, slight overstim, AI slavery/working philosophical issues, risk of AI termination/job loss, technically this relationship isn't very worksafe, etc...

👹 rating.18+ explicit I wc. 15.5k I collab. will be linked on tumblr posting day

🍭 aus. automaton/ai au, ai!Mingyu, robotics behavioral researcher!y/n, wellness center, future au, Promethean theory, etc…

☀️ mlist + an. i was so excited when @idyllic-ghost announced this collab in @svthub. Had a great time creating this world and working with everyone through the Discord server :) The masterlist is coming out July 15, but find the list of creators involved here and join the taglist :) also shoutout to @idyllic-ghost for being my beta reader, it really helped

It’s always kind of sad when you run a new level one automaton through their personalized wellness schedule. You’ve worked with all manner of high-class robots, from athletes to opera singers, but none of them have ever come into your program with the type of preexisting regimented day plan Mingyu has. 

You suppose it shouldn't be a shock that, as part of one of the biggest automaton boy groups in the galaxy, he’d had close to zero down time. When you show him the library and explain he should sit down in a spot of sun somewhere and read for an hour every day, at a slow pace, he looks at you like you’re crazy. 

“I don’t understand how this is supposed to help me,” he tells you, as you walk through the facility towards one of your favourite wellness locations; the pool.

“This might be an archaic example,” you explain, “but back when humanity first started making computers, laptops and such, many people would keep their computers on indefinitely. Sure they’d close the screen, but that’s not enough. You’d need to actually power down the device to keep its performance up.”

“I’m not a laptop,” Mingyu reminds you, with a flash of something like humour in his eye.

“You’re not,” you conceded, “which is why your nightly power downs aren’t enough. As an automaton, you were built to emulate being a human, but many people disregard one of the most fundamental aspects of humanity; the need for rest. Sleep and powering down isn’t enough if every waking moment is spent working or learning or practicing your trade- you have to allow for a variety of restful activities, such as reading, painting, gardening- it depends on who you are and your skillset though. For a chef, he might not gain rest from cooking because his neurons would still be firing with the intensity of someone doing their trade. Which is why, although I’ve given you physical activities such as swimming and tennis, you won’t be doing any dancing while you’re here.”

“What if I forget my moves?” 

“Something tells me the likelihood of that is very low,” you smile. 

“Okay, maybe I won’t forget my moves,” Mingyu sighs, “but I was made to dance. I was made to perform. What am I if not a level one dancer and singer?”

“There’s more to life than one’s job, however all-encompassing being a level one might be,” you explain. “I’m sure it’s very taxing on you.”

Mingyu pauses in the middle of the corridor you’re walking down, and you stop to assess him. 

“Are you alright?” you ask.

“Yeah,” he gives his head a little shake, and you’re shocked again at how human like the automaton is. “It’s just… no one has ever talked about this sort of thing with me. It’s always been work, work, work. It’s what I’m designed to do-”

“You may have been designed to be a dancer and a singer,” you nod empathetically, “but part of being alive is choosing your own destiny, as you and your bandmates all did when you escaped your facility.”

“Do you really think that?” he questions, standing very still and looking at you with a dark gaze. “That I’m alive?”

“At this point in time, artificial intelligence has progressed to the level where we’re told you’re sentient, that you can feel and think. That you’re as life-like as you’ve ever been in the history of the galaxy. You might have been created in a lab, hand-crafted and designed by some would-be God engineer, but to me, yes, Mingyu, you’re alive.”

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[x-dot-com]

Haiii people in my phone!!!1!!!1!

Soooo, my name is X or Xavier, either one works and I’m ok with other nicknames!!! I’m 15 years and 4 months old, my b-day is in the spooky month of October! I’m a goofy guy who goes by he/they/Xe/any pronouns but she/her!! This is my first social media account cuz I’ve never really wanted to be online a lot, so please don’t judge my intro thxxx!!! Alsoooo, I’m broke, so no money for me :/ :333

Everyone is welcome unless you’re here to spread hate, this includes anybody who is racist, transphobic, homophobic, or bigoted!

I’m in a handful of fandoms lol, some of them include;

• Minecraft SMP’s

•Realm SMP(Still ongoing, hosted by Tubbo)

•ASMP(Is over, hosted by AimseyTV)

•QSMP(Is over, hosted by Quackity)

•DSMP(is over, I do NOT support the problematic creators on it)

• Webcomics!! The ones I really like are:

I’m the Grim Reaper

Dead But Not Gone

LUMINE

It Strikes a Chord

Paperteeth

Confetti Cookies

High Class Homos

The Moth Prince

1HP Club

Watermelon

School Bus Graveyard

Clinic of Horrors

• GENERATION LOSS!!!!1!1!!1!!!! Also known as Gen Loss!!

The Social Experiments(TSE)

The Founders Cut(or The Lounders Cut, have you seen his signature?? The F looks like an L, like, get better writing man smh 🙄)

The Founders Game(In it is Afterschool Slash, RIP Ben 😭)

ITS MY WHOLE LIFE, AND HAS BEEN FOR THE PAST ALMOST TWO YEARS LOL (AND HAVE YOU SEEN THE FOUNDER?? LIKE SMAAAA-)

• FNAF(I am STILL trying to comprehend the lore like WHAT DO YOU MEAN theres new things????😭)

• Gravity Falls (I fricking love it so much, it reminds me that it’s ok to be myself <3)

• Jurassic Park Camp Cretaceous/Chaos Theory(What did they do to Ben in Chaos Theory??? He looks like my weed smoking lesbian son 😭 I fr love him tho lol)

I have a whole bunch of interests, including but not limited to; D&D, Magic The Gathering, drawing(or any sort of art), Kandi making, learning French, writing, HIGHLAND COWS(omg I love these animals so so much), choir, band, computer coding, acting, Monster Energy(I’m unhealthily addicted lol), collecting bones, exploring, escape rooms, eyeballs(like, googly eyes or any type of eye thing, no clue why XD), cosplaying, The MissClick Duo(I love doomed gay lovers lol), reading, and a whole lot more!!!1!!!1!!1!!

My music taste and most things about me are alternative, so I might be a little weird/cringy, but I don’t care! I’m just here to have fun! My taste in music is mostly hyperpop, breakcore, and nightcore, but consists of a little bit of a lot of things! My favorite artists are(in no particular order):

• Femtanyl

• FEM&M

•LuLuYam

•Sparkbird

• Lemon Demon

•CG5

• MAILPUP

• BRN1NG BRAIN SOUND INDUSTRIES

• Rabbitology

• Penelope Scott

• Hatsune Miku

• Set It Off

• Mother Mother

• Bo Burnham

• I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

• STOMACH BOOK

I’m also super proud of my little OC’s so ima list them offfff!!!1!1!!!!(main ones are the top 4 :P)

• Xiero(Zie-roh)

• Pomme(Pom)

• Fazer(Fay-zur)

• Diesel Baby(dont ask about him…)

• Saturn and Pluto(Older sister, younger brother)

• Ozera(Oh-zur-a)

• [REDACTED](Just a funky dude)

• Cyder(Guess what they were based off of… cheese)

• Marmalade(She’s uhmmm… I don’t have much on her yet lol)

• Atlas(Xiero and Vix’s youngest brother)

•Vix(Xiero’s younger brother and Atlas’s older sibling)

•Smolzer(I’m a D&D DM but this is my character when I play :D)

Anyways, that’s me for now!!!1!!1!! Have a wonderful day/night!!1!1!!!!Yippieee!!!1!!1!!

[beesmygod]

i only read tumblr once a day because i [try] to stay sane so only just caught up with the art discourse, which I do have some bits n shit I want to add: a bit fasile for one but, dont you as an artist have upkeep and resource needs to produce? even if its just like...computer, tablet and necessities to continue existence because art takes time to make, those are real, and cost money. "art" in an absolute sense can be made for free with minimal time through just thinking, but like, a webcomic that is a physical thing made of electronic patterns and hosted on a server, takes time and takes stuff. "Webcomics" isnt a free infinitely repeating resource, and you are more than a machine to create webcomic, and none of us are infinite as a resource! at worst, art hits public domain eventually. that said even from that place of survival in capitalistic society it DOES make sense to at least have free public facing art as PROMOTION even if its just idk downtime sketches, doodles, memes, fanart etc so like im not 100% disagreeing yknow, and I am not and artists cant be a paying consumer my/their own art, art has to exist for the self too, the self that isnt a "paying class", or i just start making marvel movies and then its time to find my cool wet hole in the dirt and express my creative individuality like im a mathmatician of statistical analysis of fluid dynamics.

now that im awake i was going to answer these point by point, but this kind of flies past my point that making art exclusively for those who pay is abysmal and treating your audience like they're thieves is a poisonous and off-putting response to one's perceived "loss of income" (which is not even theft because the item being "stolen" can be reproduced infinitely. im talking about like a digital image like a comic page and not a physical item where there's limited copies lol). people either want to pay you or they dont; you can't force people to pay you by making access to your work harder, worse, more inconvenient, and more degrading to your audience. you can't induce artificial scarcity and be a good person.

like yeah obviously art production takes money. that's why most artists work desk jobs instead of trying to make it a solo venture and just expecting the world around them to pick up their slack. i didn't come out of a lotus blossom with a tablet ready to go, i worked desk jobs from age 15-24 in order to have enough savings to cushion myself if need be and pay for base supplies. i use tablets and items gifted/sold to me at a steep discount by my friends. i lived really poor in order to have the life i wanted. and i really loved it lol. i still think of that time so fondly.

once the comic is produced and posted, it is free for my audience to look at and the reproduction costs of the finished image is 0 dollars. it can be copied and reposted freely without charge. it costs me basically nothing to host. the production costs are currently covered by patreon donations. if they were no longer covered by patreon donations i would get a desk job instead of making my choice to go into the financially unsuccessful field of the arts my audience's personal problem to solve. if i don't make things people want to buy, that's my problem and not my audience's.

yeah, it would suck to have to stop doing this because its no longer financially viable (it is really financially hard right now; the state of the world around us is not conductive to the patreon life), but i wasn't entitled to it anyway. i get to make art for a living bc i have an audience that permits me to. why would i start treating them like dogshit or lying about value of my work to squeeze extra money out of them after what they gifted me?

[kesleyjo]

I'm having some finale wine and I think I've got it. My final resolute head canon of Riverdale.

Keep in mind I have not watched the end of season 5 through the end and have absolutely no intention to, but I've seen and heard enough about *gestures vaguely* all of that to still stand by this.

Disclaimer: I do not believe this is what the writers intended whatsoever. This is all my imagination. I do however believe in this canon whole heartedly and its as true to me as whatever RAS's vision is to him. You choose who to trust.

Okay so first and foremost the entire series is written by Jughead. It's all his writings that are probably all sitting in a google docs draft folder.

I justify this due to the following:

He is the narrator

The entire series is obsessed with Betty Cooper for good or ill (I'll get to it)

Its all kind of sort of been alluded to that its all Jughead's writings anyway. At least in S1, again. I'll get to the why of that in a second.

He started writing season 1 in his junior year (so a year after the events of the S1). He read In Cold Blood (on his own, not for class, very important to him that you all know this) and was like "Hey my town had a murder and I have some trauma around it, so I should totes do this." And thus S1 is born.

This is why that season is (relatively) more grounded and far more realistic than the rest of the series because its based on a real true thing that happened and the real feelings and emotions of people involved. It has the least amount of exaggeration (but enough, because Jughead) and has the most coherent plot, which would make sense since Jughead isn't making anything up, he is recalling events.

This is also the only season that directly ties Jughead's narration and the plot to the book Jughead is writing on page, and thus tying them both together. Because again, its a thing that really happened.

So the characterizations, motivations, and actions of everyone in season 1 is the model of how and how these characters actually are and are a base for further exaggeration.

Seasons 2-4 are also based on true events but are exaggerations/interpretations of things that really happened, but are altered to make them more interesting to Jughead's readers (heh).

I don't want this post to be a novel so here is a brief listing of that I am thinking here for some of the main plots (but if you have a plot you want me to fit into this canon let me know):

The Black Hood: When Jughead showed Betty his first manuscript (S1) the positive constructive criticism she gave was that, "True crime is really popular right now, so this fits in with the zeitgeist." And Jughead ran with it. Fred also had his first heart attack at this time...we all know where I'm going with that so I'll just leave that there. RIP.

Making Hal the Black Hood: Hal leaves the family after the Polly debacle and finding some racy pics on Betty's computer (she sent them to Jug, she wasn't a camgirl) and decides to start his life over with a woman who is far more moral (and probably like 2 years older than Polly)

The Serpents/Class War with Hiram: Not a gang, just those under the boot of the rich that Hiram tries to eradicate through good ol fashioned gentrification. Archie and Veronica also start spending more time doing rich people shit and that drives a divide between the two main couples of the core four. But less about political plots and more about teenagers growing apart because of different interests

Season 3: Putting this all together because Jughead was having a hard time finding a plot here. So he focused on Alice's new weird young boyfriend who actually ended up taking off with Polly (leaving her twins), his newfound obsession with DnD (Betty was exhaustedly supportive of this) and Kevin's endless talk about the new megachurch he just joined. He and Betty also started watching a lot of horror films and Hitchcock at the time which leads us to...

Season 4: He and Betty go off to different schools but its because of college, not because Jug is the chosen one (again see why he is writing all of this himself). He meets a lot of pretentious people that challenge his relationship with Betty and he turns it into a mystery.

So now we have made it to 4.17. Ugh.

Okay so Jughead has written all of this, and reading everything back feels that Archie and Betty (who go to the same college now and are friends again after growing apart after he dated Veronica) have grown too close and Jug self destructs.

He self sabotages so hard and makes a story up in his head that Betty would be much happier with Archie who is doing perfectly mediocre at college while Jughead flunked out.

So he and Betty break up after a lot of frustrated fighting.

And he begins to write Betty differently. Wildly differently.

(You can't tell me this doesn't make more sense than whatever the hell happened in the show.)

Jughead dejected from his failure at school and his breakup Writes on and off for the next few years. His next main attempt is S5. His attempt at more realistic writing.

(Its also after Betty enters his life again, because at her core Betty is his muse)

He works through his fictional frustrations of Betty and Archie as a possible couple (They never dated. Archie is actually a aromantic pansexual who does not do commitment) and realized that he made it all up and they have nothing in common.

Jughead and Betty get back together at the end of "Season 5" but Betty tells him that writing about their real life is what tore them apart, so he needs to not use their relationship in his writing anymore.

So Jughead decided to get weird and wildly experimental with his writing. And because Jughead is not a particularly good writer S6 and S7 are born.

Betty, absolutely running out of positive things to say about his last few writing attempts tells him that maybe these exaggerated versions of their lives that bear no resemblance to the real world have run their course, and he should try something new.

So Jughead wraps up this now unrecognizable series of writings and moves onto something new.

With Betty diligently serving as his editor. She got distracted with her new job and left him unattended for those last few seasons and look what happened.

Also I realize that Archie/Veronica/Cheryl/Toni are absent in this so briefly

Archie: He always was in awe of Archie and slightly jealous of what he perceived he had over Jughead...this is why he is the quasi-hero and also why he tortures Arch and treats him like an idiot.

Veronica: I cannot stress this enough. He and Veronica have no relationship. She is his friend's girlfriend and his girlfriend's best friend. The only thing he really knows about her is she is rich and hot. So he makes that her core personality and slaps on whatever traits fit her best for whatever plot he is writing at the time.

(This is also why almost all the women Veronica, Tabitha, Jessica, and Toni all are at some time his love interest. Self instert fan fic Jug. We see you.)

Cheryl/Toni: He and Toni are friends and Cheryl is her girlfriend who endlessly terrifies him. That is the core of her characterization.

I already regret the fact that I am sharing this long-winded mess with the world...but I can't take it back now.

Enjoy. And if you don't that is fine. It's my head canon not yours. Go make your own.

Have fun on finale night folks.

[rjalker]

*facepalm*

oh for fuck's sake.

[ID: A screenshot of text from the 1983 book Sphereland, reading, "For one thing, the original Flatland was not about mathematics only. It also described a society in which casual assumptions were made concerning class distinctions and, in particular, women. The Victorian convention of women as a quite inferior form of life was accepted without question.". End ID.]

please tell me at least one of the authors of any of these "sequels" understands satire and that the entire point is that no, you are not supposed to accept without question that women are useless brainless creatures who can't even be called human you're supposed to fucking think it's bad the entire point is that the narrator is a fucking bigot who has no clue what he's talking about!!!!!!!!! That's why it's funny!!!!!!

AAAA

yes I am just gonna keep copying and pasting this into all the posts because I'm reading this on my computer and I might as well:

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

Flatland: An Adventure in Many Dimensions, a 2024 translation into casual English (2024)

Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe (1983)

The Planiverse: Computer Contact With a Two-dimensional World (1984)

Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So (2001)

what next??? who knows. someone tell me if there's other books based on / inspired by / as continuations of Flatland that I'm missing.

[jungkoode]

Hi hello it's me 👋 that anon who mentioned 25th hour changing the direction of my own writing.

I actually only write for me and a few friends 😭 but if I get the courage to post anything I'll totally share it with you!!! It's not a fandom based thing, something I made for some OC's of mine but could easily be turned into a bts fic.

Anyways yes 25th hour has altered my brain chemistry permanently. It's actually the first thing I discovered of yours and I found it on ao3. I read it when you put up the first chapter and remember obsessively checking my phone when I was on break at work to see if you posted more. Then I bumped into your tumblr and that was a wrap lol, I'm here forever now.

One thing that I LOVE about it is how the world feels so full without like- les miserables-ing it. Truly feel like it's a master class in environmental storytelling. Especially when you add on the characters interactions with Noma as well? Ugh. Just ugh. I'm obsessed actually. I also love to theorize and you gave me so much for my brain to gnaw on in that story. I am absolutely convinced her and yoongi can't touch because his power is restore. I have no idea what that means for her yet!!!! But!!! As I said I'm chewing on it!!!!

I was unable to successfully write anything sci fi until I read this for some reason. I think you just inspired me to go absolutely insane, in the best way possible of course.

Hello again baby! I can’t believe you’re here again 🥹 welcome back again!

I totally feel you — 25H is truly my weird Matrix / Umbrella Academy Hybrid kid that looks slightly unhinged on Christmas Eve but I cherish deeply.

Honestly I know it’s probably my hardest work to read — the techno babble and brain wrecking there is just… insane. But I’m a Trekkie, so are we surprised?

I think that’s why it’s also the hardest one for me to write! I’m a huge sci-fi nerd, but there’s so many things we don’t know that I have to research and make up, that sometimes I get exhausted. That and the fact that Noma here is a walking computer whilst I, the author, barely can tie shoelaces together without creating some sort of calamity.

But I am SOOO happy to hear your thoughts on the world building and the environment? The whole AU is honestly crazy and I HAD to come up with so many theories and hypothesis to make it work (and some I made up on the spot so if you’re a scientist… try to suspend your disbelief for the reading. I tried my best. 😭) BUT YES. Word building is just something I adore!

And sometimes it’s so hard! Because you have to take into account who’s narrating the story, and what they know. Like, totally off topic now but, I did read Fourth Wing and a lot of critiques I saw complained about the protagonist explaining things to the reader in ways that did not feel natural. Because who has an inner monologue explaining how the world works? I definitely don’t comb my hair and think in my head ‘okay so every country has a government, and each government has these money institutions called central banks, which work together in this thing called European Union…’ and the works.

NOBODY DOES THAT. And I think reading reviews and critiques has also helped me a lot as an author. But back to the topic (sorry, rambling is my thing), yeah! Environmental storytelling is hard, especially trying to make it natural and not awkward as fuck.

And if you ever do write anything feel free to absolutely hit me up on my DMs! I would love to read whatever you come up with — knowing it’s been somehow inspired by my own work is honestly an honor. 🥹🫶🏻

Thank you! Have a blessed day. ❤️

[inkofamethyst]

January 27, 2025

I want to understand.  I want to understand why the processes and pipelines I’m using work the way they do, the types of models under the hood, the way that certain assumptions are made.  I want to get good at bio-statistical computation, even if I'm not necessarily building tools myself.  I want to wrestle through mathematics to reach that proficiency.  I want to be able to hold my own in those kinds of conversations with those kinds of academics.  That is what I want to get out of a computing course.  And I wonder if I judged the one at my uni too harshly by its cover alone.  Because I’m kind of feeling it now, after this first class.  I dunno.  I’ll hold on to it in my schedule for a bit longer; next week I’ll take both this one and the one I have to cross-register for.  See how I’m feeling.  I wonder if I could audit the course at my uni.  I don’t need the credits, exactly.  Just the skills.  That may not go over well with the prof in such a small class.  I dunno.

I suppose I could take the syllabus and teach myself.  Am I motivated enough for that? I'd like to think so..

The other factor to consider is the whole spring break thing–if I do the cross-reg class, I’ll miss out on a true spring break.  

I’ll see how I feel at the end of next week (outside of just tired from all the running around).  I suppose it’d not be worthwhile to do both. There are pros and cons to each that kind of balance out for me. I may need to present a list of them to my advisor with a preliminary decision. I'll need to take a close look at the syllabi and perhaps go to office hours.

What a pickle I’m in.

Honestly, if I had it my way, I’d axe the popgen course my advisor wants me to take this semester and stick with the two others.  They are far and away more suited to my interests. But it will likely be useful to build connections with faculty and to diversify the types of knowledge bases I can pull from, I guess. And two computation-heavy courses would likely be a lot. Especially during my quals semester.

First day went fine, I suppose. Accidentally took a nap. Managed to read a paper (fell asleep while reading its rebuttals). Need to go to bed earlier. So, uh, goodnight.

Today I'm thankful for... hm. Uh. Hmm. Lol I'm thankful I didn't buy nvidia stock last year like I'd planned to do. I don't think this is a permanent tank but it sure looks bad. Maybe I should buy tomorrow. Frankly I should've bought in 2022 but alas.

[samayla]

A little more discussion of RPGs as tools for teaching coding concepts, per @raindoor's request. I hope you know what you're getting into...

This is a long one, so I'm going to throw it under a read-more -

Early intro to coding...

I teach the very earliest introduction to computer coding to 4th-6th grade students as part of my library/media curriculum. They all go on to take serious coding classes beginning in 7th grade. I am primarily meant to introduce them to core concepts like sequencing and debugging algorithms, and using variables, conditionals, events, text, and sprites to create interactive programs. I have been instructed by my administration to use Code.org to accomplish this.

Code.org is a great program -- and totally free, which is why I think it came to their attention in the first place -- that uses a programming language called Blockly to teach those core concepts. Students snap together little packets of code (colored blocks) to solve puzzles, create scenes, and build games.

The kids are engaged by challenges that feature Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies, Frozen, Ice Age, Star Wars, and more. And by giving them those premade blocks of code, there are FAR fewer chances for bugs to be introduced to their programs.

Code.org is great, BUT --

Many of my kids are used to playing computer games where they can just sort of keysmash their way through. Click on enough stuff, and things will happen. Code.org feels like a video game. The kids don't *have* to read the instructions. They don't *have* to know what they're doing in order to make it through a level. All they have to do is happen upon the right combination of blocks and press run, and the computer assumes they know what happened.

That's fine at first. The levels in the early units I use with 4th and 5th graders are mostly mazes of one kind or another. Simple challenges with simple solutions. Even the lesson above, which is supposed to teach them to use loops, will let them go on if they just slap together a list of FwdFwdFwdFwdRightFwdFwdFwdFwdFwd instead. Never mind that the point is the loops because we're on our way to using *nested* loops in the very next lesson...

Computer-less coding?

I have tried mixing in all sorts of non-computer-based reinforcement activities to help the kids nail down the core logic and reasoning process behind coding. Research shows that skills learned -- and even mastered -- on a computer do not necessarily translate to real life, so I wanted ways to get them off that computer and thinking for themselves from time to time. We've done debugging relays where each member of the team can correct one step in an algorithm or make a single new one. We've done coding labyrinths after reading Percy Jackson, where they have to lead their friends through a maze and avoid all the monsters. Worksheets where we rewrite code as a paragraph of actual sentences, so they see what exactly they're telling the computer to do. Jeopardy games where they read a set of instructions and figure out what it is asking them to do or find for their code. The most evil game of Follow the Leader on Earth, where we take turns adding tasks (like jumping jacks, ballet spins, etc) to a sequence, and then roll a die to put the items into loops, and then nested loops, so they can see the way instructions can quickly multiply. Anything to disengage that keysmash mentality.

Last year, my 6th graders were going to be the death of me. They had completed two years of coding with me, and we'd moved from maze puzzles and simple games, to a section of Code.org called Sprite Lab, where they were supposed to be able to use those early concepts to help them create scenes, short animations, simulations, and even basic mobile-like games. They couldn't do it. The code was suddenly non-linear, and it was like everything they knew flew right out of their heads. I realized they truly lacked the basic logic processes and computational thinking skills to work their way through even the earliest tasks in Sprite Lab.

Enter TTRPGs.

In trying to find a way to help the kids build these skills, I stumbled across a wonderful article by Bryant Owen on Medium. He talks about using RPGs to reinforce all kinds of skills, including the very logic and computational reasoning skills I was looking to build. Instead of the online RPG videogames he mentions, though, I thought back to the labyrinth game they'd played as 4th graders, or the debugging relay races across the library. The kids are far better at holding each other accountable than a computer is.

My brother is into D&D, and I'd played a handful of solo TTRPGs myself at that point, so I went digging on itch.io for some freebies to try out on my kids. We tried a couple of very simple solo journal-style RPGs to practice using conditionals (If, then statements) -- You are on your way to deliver a basket of goodies to Grandma's house. If you roll a 1, you meet a stranger in the woods. 2, you find an injured rabbit. 3, there's a thunderstorm. Etc. They created their own short stories and shared them with their friends. The journal style really worked for a couple of students, but it was a lot of writing for most of them. After playing through with my bland list of events and conditionals, they got to make their own versions. They had to make a list of 5 events (packing a bag, entering the woods, crossing a river, etc), and then create a dice roll list of complications for each event that would determine how the story went. Then they sat with their friends and just talked through the story. They were so gleefully mean to each other -- getting stuck up trees, eaten by alligators, chased by zombies, etc -- but they had fun!

We upped the complexity by playing a Magizoology game wherein they used a combination of cards and dice to create magical or monstrous creatures and describe the encounters in a field guide worksheet I made. They rolled and drew cards to create their characters, then did the same to determine the habitat their team was exploring, a size for the creature, a "most notable feature" (eyes, legs, teeth, etc) and an elemental affinity. The art was hilarious! And their encounters got more and more creative as they became more and more comfortable with the process.

The Magizoology game went on to indoor recess with them as they learned it in the middle of a very bitter winter. I showed them how to write their own field guide entries on notebook pages, and I made them a simple sheet that got folded in quarters, so they wouldn't need cards or dice to play. One quarter got the numbers 1-6 for the dice. One quarter got the four suits of cards. And the last half of the page got all the cards, Ace-King. They could flick their erasers at it, drop pebbles or paperclips, spin the paper and stop it with a finger, etc. I had kids bringing me their especially gnarly or magical monsters for a week!

Honey Heist

Finally, we went full-storytelling RPG mode, with a GM and character creation and everything.

I found the game Honey Heist for them. It's a simple, one-page RPG in which you and your friends play as a team of highly successful criminals, who also happen to be bears. For elementary students, I did a teensy bit of censoring the language, but it was a big hit. It was by far the most complex game, if only because of all the elements you have to keep in mind as you play. First of all, the kids had to create their characters and the heist scenario using a series of dice rolls. They had to formulate an elaborate and daring plan to steal the honey. They did this in character. It was hilarious! During the heist, they not only had to cooperate and work to each other's bear and criminal strengths, they had to track bear vs criminal points (we used puzzle pieces we flipped back and forth - blank=bear, colored=criminal) and if a player maxxed out in either direction during the heist, they lost -- very dramatically!

The kids didn't know it, but in Honey Heist especially, their brains were working overtime. They were tracking multiple variables at any given moment as they made decisions based on the team's various bear/criminal stats. They had to act within the parameters set by their character design (like a sprite that has been given instructions). They had to think and plan several steps ahead, taking into consideration how the other characters would likely react. They had to remember to roll and react appropriately at predetermined points in the game (events and conditionals). They had to build their sequencing and computational reasoning skills on the fly as they broke down the problems their team faced into smaller, more manageable chunks. And they had fun! They got through 2-3 rounds of the game the first day, and they came back with all sorts of strategy to test out the second day. Kids reshuffled their groups based on who wanted an evil playthrough, or a Robin Hood round, or whatever.

Then, they created their own Honey Heist-style RPG. I broke down the format of the game into a series of worksheets, and they created their own premise, a seesawing stat to track like Honey Heist's bear/criminal, and character and scenario creation tables. The kids did amazing work! At the end of the unit, I made photocopies of their games, and we had a couple of play days. We had games about stray cats, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (did I mention we were in a library? books were on the brain), dinosaurs, evil dinosaurs with super powers, kids at summer camp, the Zombie Apocalypse, paintball, Indiana Jones, escaping lab animals, Star Wars... It was honestly incredible. And the games all worked! The logic flowed, their friends had fun, and there were no easy-outs to get to that point. The games worked because they knew how to make them work.

The takeaway?

Did my 6th graders miraculously become coding superstars in Sprite Lab?

Of course not.

But they asked better questions. Instead of, "I don't get it," and, "Well, how am I supposed to know that?" I was getting, "Ok. So, it says... and I tried... but..."

TTRPGs take a while to get to your goal. They learned that fast doesn't always equal good.

TTRPGs require you to do your best for your fellow players. They learned they'd better pay attention and know what the heck is going on.

TTRPGs require lateral thinking. They learned that sometimes, their first plan isn't necessarily the best plan, and more importantly, it's okay to try it or talk it through.

TTRPGs have complex mechanics that determine important events. They learned that they don't have to know everything, but they do need to know where to look for the answers.

TTRPGs require you to think for yourself and create different versions of the same thing. They learned how to think their way through following examples to create their own unique versions of things, whether they be simple characters, or entire projects.

TTRPGs often have long instructions. They learned instructions aren't a punishment or a chore, but a treasure-trove of critical information meant to help them be successful.

After our RPG unit, there was sound logic involved in the kids' decision-making. They were able to pinpoint problems, even if they didn't yet know how to solve them. They were taking their time. Reading and rereading instructions for clues and hints. They had pride in what they were creating.

[northwest-cryptid]

The future is now, and a lot of people really don't like it.

It's something I've noticed, I was born just before the turn of the century, and I grew up with a lot of talk about what the future would be like. Computers, the internet, technology itself was still fairly new at least to the everyday consumer. Sure my father had been programming for years, but cell phones were still bricks we had to carry around in our pocket. This isn't a put down, so please don't think I'm using Zoomer as a derogatory term or anything but; Zoomers may not really grasp the fact that our first cell phones were these really chunky bricks that had 2 toned small screens that literally could just make calls or play snake. Texting was a pain, you had to literally hit the same key multiple times to cycle through letters and then wait for it to move to the next slot if you needed a letter on the same key.

And yet, almost everyone around me, and everyone I spoke to online was excited about technology; about the future. Integration of tech into the daily lives of those around you was the coolest stuff you could see, we had classes in school that taught us not just how to type and use the computer, but also things like internet safety and even really basic stuff about how to program. We're talking about elementary school by the way, I was playing computer games in the lab and learning how to type properly, how to stay safe online; and in some cases even how to make games. It was uncommon for anyone even in middle school to own a cell phone, and if they did it was a Nokia. You had people who would swear by Apple products because "they made the iPod!" Which yea, you read that correctly; not the iPhone; the iPod. The iPhone was still just this sort of concept back in the day. The idea of a future where our phones could do more than play snake, send texts, and call people.

You had a lot of people online who made their own websites and were lamenting how easy the internet was becoming for "just any schmuck on the street" to use. It used to be a utopia for only the biggest nerds with their text based computer games and personal websites. However it was quickly becoming more and more accessible to the every-man and people were divided on whether or not that was a good thing. Some didn't care for the direction the internet was going, and others enjoyed the attention the internet and technology by proxy was finally getting.

With more people being able to use technology effectively, the demand for better and better tech was growing. At the time, the capitalistic nature of the industry was fine, it prompted companies to compete for the biggest and the best new stuff to show off. If you were going to spend your money on something; it really had to be quality made. This isn't just about cell phones and computers either, if you look back at how much advancement was made in game consoles back during the time of the Gamecube or Dreamcast eras, you'll see that no one in the console industry could stand by and make sales by just being a brand name. Everything from computer parts to gaming consoles to even software was becoming better, whether that meant faster; higher definition, or even just sometimes having bigger numbers. I mean hell the Nintendo 64 literally put the number in the name to tell you how big of a deal it was.

This was the golden age for technology, and I am genuinely sad that a lot of Zoomers never got to really experience it. We shit-talk Zoomers for growing up without tech literacy, or being iPad babies, but the truth is; they're not taught like we were. Most of the older Millennials, or gen Xers had a lot more understanding of tech because we either were literally raised on it, or we were making it. Zoomers never got to experience what it was like to know the what and why of new tech coming out. The market has become so taken over by capitalistic greed that no one is really happy about it.

We wanted a world where tech made people's lives easier, integration of tech into your daily life was meant to simplify things. Not to advertise 20 different products to you before you can request an uber to come pick you up just so it can ask you if you want to upgrade, only for your uber driver to be so distracted by their phone and the reek of marijuana that they can't drive safely. Which mind you, isn't to say phones or weed are necessarily bad, but hey don't drive under the influence you piece of shit, especially not with passengers; you make the rest of us look bad! Now I gotta go online and complain about this on social media, of course I'm talking about like, maybe one of five social media sites people actually use. Yes it's highly censored and what isn't censored by the people running the site is likely to be caught in the net of the social culture around the website, so of course I have to watch what I say and over explain myself. Then I think I'll reblog that post about how we're all explaining ourselves too much and being too nice and we're too afraid to speak our minds and we really need to stop doing that. Then I'll answer the anon hate I got for speaking my mind and trying to not over explain myself because the social culture net is so broad it encompasses significantly too many different kinds of people who won't see eye to eye...

My point with that whole paragraph is to say that even someone like me, who adores technology and wants it to progress and wants it to integrate more into my life; still doesn't agree with what has become of it. I think the worst part about it is that some of it is inescapable while other parts can be fixed but every time I say that I get yelled at for it. It's like people would rather believe they're trapped here than understand they still have a lot of power over the use of their technology. It's easier to accept the world around you when you don't feel like you could do anything, when you understand that you could do something rather than merely complain it creates a dilemma. Suddenly you know for a fact you could fix your problem, but that requires a certain amount of effort on your part. I've heard people tell me they can't learn to code in HTML for reasons branching from trauma to disabilities. Which is baffling because if you can literally make a text post on tumblr, or send me anon hate to yell at me about how you can't possibly learn HTML; you could easily type out HTML or copy paste it.

However I'm not here to point fingers, I'm here to say I've noticed that the places we can't escape from are getting more and more aggressive, and no one feels like we can do anything. It's rough, because I know if we did try to do something it would be a hell of a lot more effort than just getting people to figure out they could make their own websites if they don't like the ones they are on.

The majority of public transport, businesses, and restaurants have apps that require you to have a smart phone. I sit down and ask for a menu, I'm told there's a QR code on the table I can scan. I once told a waitress my phone couldn't scan QR codes and she made a big fuss about how they don't have physical menus anymore and she wasn't about to tell me what all they had as options. It was my fault for being too poor to afford a good enough phone. Something that was once considered a luxury is now a necessity to eat at an establishment. If you're curious, it was a waffle house. A fucking Waffle House decided to do away with their menus and opted for QR codes. Thankfully I've not seen this catching on with other Waffle Houses, but consider the target audience of a Waffle House. This isn't some fancy classy restaurant, this is a 24/7 diner where you stop in at 3 AM to eat some poorly cooked hash-browns and eggs that were made by a poor college student who isn't paid enough; and hope no one starts a fight because the only other two people in this place are drunk off their ass and getting a little loud with the waiter. When I asked the waitress for literally just hash-browns, a couple of eggs, and bacon; a typical breakfast you could get just about anywhere that serves, you know; breakfast. I was told that's not a menu item and that I'd need to order off the menu if I wanted to actually buy anything. We went back and forth for about 5 minutes and I was doing my best to be polite about the situation because I've worked food service before and I understand too well what it's like to just want a quiet, simple shift. Finally the manager came out, charged me about $7 and made me some food. When they told the waitress to leave me be I heard her remark "alright but they were being rude as fuck" as she walked off. Mind you the only thing I asked for was a menu, then some food; and then asked what the menu item most resembling my order would have been and to just charge me for that. As the waitress stood off in the corner of the Waffle House she literally pulled out her smart phone. Not once did she offer to just scan the QR code for me and help find an order closest to my request, or any such thing. The situation was simple in her mind, I didn't have access to their QR code menu, so I couldn't order anything; end of story.

For many if you take public transport and you need an app for it, your phone needs to be able to run that app. If it can't you're out of luck, it doesn't matter if you have the money for the bus, it doesn't matter if you could pay a taxi. You need to have the app on your phone to travel, you need to scan a QR code to eat, some apps will literally ask for your ID or driver's license, so that's fun. I've literally had apps ask me for my social security information. Yea, remember kids don't give out your personal information to anyone online... unless it's this fun app you use, because remember the guys at [business] are your friends! I know you may believe that they're a business and therefore they have to use your data responsibly, but the truth is that's just not how it works. The people working at Google, at Tumblr, at Uber, they're all just people; people like you and me. Except they have access to your cloud storage, they have access to everything you've ever posted, they have access to your location, they have access to any pictures you've taken that get automatically backed up to your phone with metadata that lists the exact place it was taken; yes that includes your nudes. "For your eyes only... and like all the google employees who see this, and that one creepy guy who screenshot it and shares it with his friends uwu"

Not to be a boomer, but back in my day we were literally taught internet safety in school; and a lot of people cared deeply about this sort of thing. They weren't so apathetic to it all just to get through the day, I hear people say "oh I don't care, I know they're watching, listening; they know everything about me, targeted ads are real; etc." Hell I've been there myself, it's hard to care about it all because it feels like it's everywhere. I understand you may not want to really concern yourself with it, but when you're aware of it you can actually take measures to prevent it where you can. That's literally WHY we were taught this shit in school.

Truth is, I still have those hopes of a future where tech is part of the daily life of those who want it. I love the idea of convenient apps and fun websites. I love the idea of tech advancing and everyone finding new ways to enjoy life. Things like Vtubers, VR/AR tech, video games, and yes even the good things about shit like cell phones, and smart devices. That's all great, but I want it without all the bullshit. I hate using AR tech and going "hi random Meta employee who's likely viewing my data, location, and possibly has random access to my cameras and what I'm running on my own personal tech!" People call me paranoid, they bitch at me for being cynical; and I can't blame them. I really can't, because I know I'd enjoy life a lot more if I didn't think like this, if I didn't know what I know. It's that age old saying that ignorance is bliss.

However, when I see things like the Old Web Movement, and I understand people are trying; they're fighting the good fight and I'm just sitting there? I can't do that. I have to do my part, I have to try as well; or else I have no right to complain, to want for better tech; safer tech, more private tech. I can't scream about something as simple as discord suddenly telling me about everything my friends are playing, or what they're watching in a server I'm not even a part of; unless I'm actively actually doing my part to spread awareness and fight against the violations of privacy that so many tech applications are imposing upon people. I have to speak up even if people hate me for it.

If I was alone on that front, I'd probably let it die; I'd just be some hermit living my own way and not even care. However when I see people trying to fight for others to make their own websites, to give that power back to the public. When I see people trying to teach others how to jailbreak their tech, how to fight back against the automation of data mining and AI stealing your every word to teach some multi-billion dollar waste of electricity. I have to do my part, because I was born just before the turn of the century; and while I'm sure people would tell me it's not that deep. I still dream of the future that was promised to me when I was young, and if I can't have it in my life time, I'll fight for Zoomers; and if they can't have it in theirs, I want them to be armed with the knowledge necessary to help the next generation.

[inconsideratekidney]

11/8/24

hey y'all

what the fuck. um. yeah, what the fuck.

what are y'all's plans for the next 4 years?

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i truly hate when professors ask basic questions like we're in elementary school. why are you babying me before you treat me like a well-respected researcher?? we're asked a dumb easy question, dumber than what we should already know, then we're asked to do something way out of our experience and what we should be expected to know.

this happens to me in multiple classes and i'm still so shocked

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today is friday i know, but i have been catching up on a lot of work things n such. i have also finally had time to sit down and play the sims, on my laptop and tablet, and i feel more calm now. my grades have finally improved (not that i've bumped up some of those failing grades bc my prof hates everyone and doesn't allow resubmissions), but we still have like 4 weeks, so i just have to keep it up now. i'm feeling better, and would like to continue to do better.

picking classes for next semester feels like a doozy, i'm dropping one of my majors to make it a minor and that means i'll graduate next next spring? ew. gross. i have to fix that or something.

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i created some of my friends in the sims and myself, all in my eyes of course. i didn't want to do it based on pictures, i just did it from memory. i made everyone based on how i see them and myself as how i want to see myself...they came out pretty good, i want to keep going making more, but so far i made people i know the best. we'll see where i end up. i might just end up making a house full of interpreters....lol

i have so many ideas for what to build--i focus more on building, but creating sims is fun as well, just not my most favorite--i want to build so many complex things, but it's so hard to start and my computer can barely handle it.

i'd love some ideas for what to build, for example, right now i am planning on making a house that technically has one room, but has split levels. i've seen youtube shorts on them and i've pasted the video below if you're interested, but they are so interesting even if every video i see they always forget a bathroom. i love doing challenges as well, like the plumbella challenge, and there's another one similar. they generate random style, color, theme, etc. and give you rules and a specific amount of money you can use. you also always get one setback, like you can't use cheats, or you can only use certain items from one pack or just base game, or that you have to do it only from birds' eye view... they are all so fun. i also want to finish making my mansion i am currently working on. it's so big and it's so hard to fill every space...

i also wanted to build a beach house, one of the videos i've also linked below, based on a reference i saw. it reminds me of where my family goes on vacation--those big beach houses we never stayed in cuz they're so god awfully expensive. they are so cool to look up on zillow or other rental websites. like big dream homes. i'd love to build a beach home eventually.

videos:

micro apartment 1:

https://youtube.com/shorts/RlauAXoxtls?si=DKH1FTDpkCid3Gv5

micro apartment 2:

https://youtube.com/shorts/kbdseYjig4s?si=Z-mbMA1OrnbwFdo7

coastal house:

https://youtube.com/shorts/VKC0h-6sSeI?si=LpiDh13v2yj1jbC5

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i type "i" way too much. all i do is talk about myself and reflect on myself and how much i talk. obviously, this is my blog, but i always feel that i overshare and should shift my attention to more pressing matters. alas, i am in my existential identity stage of life--early adulthood, so i don't feel all too bad. and for the possible 3 or 4 of you reading, i'm sure you're used to this and you're still choosing to come back, so i can ease my anxiety on that one. i still talk about myself in general way too much. i harp on this because i know other people are experiencing life for the first time as well--i'd love to let others have thr spotlight whenever possible. although, i do take way longer to process my life happenings than most it seems, so i prefer to process in my own way. i enjoy having a platform to share my insanities on. i do still get sick of myself, though.

anyway, my point is anxiety ruins my life and it affects me everyday whether it is desired or not. (see what i did there i eliminated every possible "i" i could have used in that sentence and then i used many "i"'s in this sentence cuz i like being self-aware and illuminating my hyper fixations like the freak i am.)

it is also apparent that reading can be much more enjoyable when the author isn't constantly saying "i did this" or "i did that." sentences and ideas can be easily digested by using the third person, or even an unidentifiable "it." when something happens and you mess up and want to apologize, what do you say?:

"I'm sorry I upset you."

or "I'm sorry you are upset."

one is more self-aware and puts the blame on oneself, but isn't the other as well? regardless of what one person does, the other could be upset by that specifically or not. you could alternatively say:

"I'm sorry what I said/did upset you."

or even "I'm sorry you are upset because of my actions."

which sounds better? which is most "correct"? which one feels more authentic?

i experienced this first when my mother told me i had to say "I'm sorry I upset you." it pissed me off because i didn't do anything crazy (in my eyes) and she still got upset, but in those situations, you have to do what your mother says even if her asking you to reword and acknowledge you upset her upsets you in the process...

see what i did there again? i used "you," i love writing. oftentimes i still use "i" because it is the most accurate statement. why else would i do it? i could sit and write more and more about things that happen and affect me, but not using "i" defeats the purpose. you could think i am talking about something else totally different. it's more short and concise. why say many word when few word do trick, amirite? and with that this section is concluded with the idea that my emphasis on myself is the whole reason i sit down and write a blog. (ew, not me starting with "and" writing about something trying to be more formal. ew.)

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lol. lol is the best word for my life. it's the easiest thing to use. so simple, when there aren't emoji options -> lol, when the setting is uncomfortable -> lol, when i don't know how to end a sentence without a period -> lol, when i want to appear less rude or direct -> lol, when i don't feel like you can tell i'm making a funny -> lol, when you're making a funny -> lol. it's simple.

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anyshways, how is everyone's day going, how was your week?

this week had some things happen...but first trans woman for the house!! yipee!! i hadn't heard much else so far tbh.

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i almost didn't post this blog again, but since i started it and really did a good chunk of it, i have to post it now. i'm still behind on my work and am scared for the weekend tbh. i have to do a revision of my draft paper and send it to my prof who won't change the grade, but will give me feedback before the final paper is due....yipee...so generous of her.... i stg everyone almost failed or actually failed the midterm and did poorly on the draft paper as well. she just doesn't give a shit. no extra credit offered, no resubmissions, virtually no support for any of us failing. -_-

i hope to pass this class with a decent enough grade, but mainly just to pass the class is my goal.

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it's late, but i want to play the sims again. it's so much fun and i love it. it's truly a game i keep coming back to bc of all the different aspects of it. i hope if i get a new computer it doesn't reset my data... cuz it's different on every computer i'm pretty sure. it's different if it's on steam compared to just my computer, so i'm nervous. i could download all of the sims i made and all houses i've made, but i want the progress of this one family i have.....oofie, we'll see. i'll look it up.

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tldr:

wtf

basic questions

picking classes

sims and building

grammar and creative writing

lol

how are you?

annoying prof

sims!!

anywho, goodnight and toodaloohoo,

kD :p

[thecatinthestacks]

Last year I made a log of my daily thoughts during the book fair and completely forgot to share them.

So please enjoy this extremely belated post about 2023's book fair! :D

DAY ONE

New year, new secretary. I have tactfully requested that she not call the library to ask if I'm ready for customers when the schedule says I'm open. (If the fair opens at 7:30 and it's after 7:30, then it's super-duper obvious I'm open.)

Because EVERY YEAR the secretary calls the library to ask "you ready for customers?", and EVERY YEAR after I wade through a huge crowd of kids to get to the phone, it gets harder and harder to answer politely.

-

This year, we're open before the bell. Completely dead in the morning, not a single pre-bell customer. Exactly like I told the principal, who appeared to be disappointed that there wasn’t a rush on the very first day.

-

Good news: I finally remembered to ask for seed money before we opened the fair!

Bad news: I forgot to ask for fives and tens and my first customer of the entire fair is paying with a hundred dollar bill.

-

Kids used to Scholastic fairs find out that Literati doesn’t sell books with cheap necklaces and erasers attached. Stunned to have to choose books based on their interests. I edge inexorably closer to my “the kids these days” phase.

-

Me: “Teachers, please call ahead before you bring your entire class at once.”

Entire Fifth Grade: *turns up at the same time unannounced*

-

Fifth grader paying with his own Apple watch asking to return Stranger Things: Kamchatka because “it’s not really Stranger Things, it’s just a ripoff!”

-

Me: “Please remember the library is closed because I had to physically remove the check-in computer to make room for the registers.”

Teacher: [keeps sending kids to get new library books anyway]

DAY TWO

No, you can’t use my phone to call your mom to ask for money.

-

No, you can't go to the office to call your mom to ask for money.

-

How to summon customers- sit down to do one (1) thing. This instantly activates a shopping frenzy.

-

Honey, how about you just give me all of your change right now instead of handing me yet another handful every time I finish counting?

-

Honey, how about you ask me how much things cost instead of buying one item at a time and seeing how much change you get back?

-

Kindergarten Music Program lets out, SWARMS OF PARENTS AND FAMILIES APPEAR! IT'S SUPER PROFITABLE!

-

Had to yell at a kid in front of their own mother. (It's okay, she agreed with me that kicking stuff is bad.)

-

Kid who returned the Stranger Things book annoyed that his refund hasn't reached his Apple Pay account yet. Purchases a poster instead. I suggest cash next time.

DAY THREE

Principal and counselor bring the webcam in to promote the fair during morning announcements and do the pledges.

Me: *slowly and quietly finishes ringing a child up during the moment of silence, hoping nobody notices*

-

I am eternally grateful to my parent volunteer who is able to be here for hours on end and I wish nothing but the best for her and her daughters.

-

Pretty sure this fifth grade boy is buying little trinkets to woo the crowd of girls following him. I should probably touch base with his teachers about that.

-

I can tell you didn’t even try to read the book you picked. Because it’s in Spanish, that’s why. No, I know you don’t speak Spanish. Because I know your mom, that’s why.

-

Kid walks in, instead of shopping waits patiently by the register to ask me “Do I give you my money now?”

-

Kid who bought and returned Stranger Things book wants to return poster that is now dinged up.

-

To the kid who only has $5 for the week- I feel ya, but no matter how many times you bring me an item and ask "how much?", it doesn't change anything. I've already told you which items are in your price range.

-

Have to cut off the Stranger Things kid because he keeps wanting to return things that are no longer in sellable condition. Sorry, bro, this sale is final!

-

First Grader: *smugly buying a chapter book she can't read because she knows I can't do anything to stop her*

Me: *sells her the chapter book because she'll be able to read it eventually and maybe the spite will motivate her to practice more*

DAY FOUR

That's it, I’m making a list of basic financial lessons we need to start teaching the kids:

YOU HAVE TO ACCOUNT FOR SALES TAX

No, change is not “extra” money you get as a treat. No, you don’t get to decide how much change you get.

You can’t ignore the numbers after the decimal point. $2.99 does not mean $2.

When a price includes cents, that doesn’t mean you have to have exactly that much in coins. You can simply give me more dollars and then you will get change back.

The answer to “How much can I get with $20?” is “it depends on what you’re buying”.

The answer to “How much do the books cost?" is "it depends on what you're buying".

If you don't have enough money to buy the book you want, you can simply NOT buy anything today and bring the correct amount tomorrow.

...or you can bring three bucks every day, be surprised that the book still costs $10, then spend all your money on erasers and go home and ask for more money...

...okay, seriously I need to make a chart or a TikTok or something to explain this. You're sad you don't have enough money for that Dog Man book, but you brought $3 EVERY DAY and instead of saving it you bought trinkets that you keep losing! I WENT OVER THIS WITH YOU EVERY DAY, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT ANY EASIER!

-

To the 5th grader who only had $5 for the whole week and keeps buying and returning various items and is mystified that this hasn't resulted in him making a profit- I'm cutting you off for your own good, and also I'm sending an email to your math teacher to let her know you may need extra tutoring.

-

Book Fair Gift Card: *can only be spent on books*

Kid: *only wants a spy pen*

Me: *agrees to buy him the spy pen myself if he will pick a damn book already!*

-

Girl: "I have $15. How much is this?"

Me: "Let's see...with sales tax, it's gonna be ten dollars and eighty-one cents."

Girl: "Oh...I don't have any cents."

Principal: *aghast choking noise*

Me: *quickly defuses the incoming lecture with a Fun Math Lesson!*

DAY FIVE

Time to deploy the annual "We have nothing left under $X. Please don't send kids shopping if they have less than $X." email.

-

Gently turning away three dozen kids that have less than $X.

-

"If I bring $10, can I come shopping tomorrow?"

"Honey, tomorrow's Saturday."

"Oh. I mean next week."

"Next week is Spring Break."

-

Annual tradition of kids being shocked that this is the last day of the book fair despite all the posters and flyers saying the book fair only lasts a week.

-

Bonus points for the same kids being shocked every year that the book fair is not permanent addition to the library.

-

Volunteer Mom letting her daughters pick out some books to buy.

Her: "How about this one?"

Kid: "No! It's too learny!"

Me: *picked the wrong time to drink water*

-

Tracking down teachers to get them to pay for the books they set aside for themselves and their children. Finally down to the last teacher who was going to get a book for her kid. I open the library door to hear him in the middle of a tantrum and her yelling at him...

...I close the library door like "okay, guess he's not getting that book..."

-

Re-doing the final accounting because I forgot to factor in the startup cash.

-

Re-re-doing the final accounting because I forgot to pull books to purchase for the library

-

Going home to put on jammies and sleep for 12 straight hours!

[fanficmom94]

He doesn't pass he doesn't play part 1

With Chad powers coming up I wanted to do something centered around this I obviously know Glen isn't in high school but I thought it would be fun this is also based off my own personal memories of helping 3 football players pass a history class we were in together.

Y/N POV

I step into the coach's office which was a first for me he also double as our history teacher I knew I had an A in his class so I knew I hadn't done anything wrong recently, I look around and see the coach and Chad the quarterback of the football team. He was in my history class but we had never spoken to each other I go over to the empty chair and sit down the coach looks away from his computer and looks at me "Y/N thank you for coming during the home room period Mr. Powers here seems to be needing some assistance." I blink somewhat confused. Chad was popular, he had a ton of friends a huge group of people he sat with during lunch and so far in the last six months he had gone through several girlfriends what he could possibly need from me I had no clue. "I'm happy to help in anyway I can what does he need?" I look over at him curiously he doesn't answer but coach does "For the next few weeks I am going to move him next to you in class let him use your notes, help him out with projects, the study sheet anything that has to do with the class to get his grades up." I blink surprised the coach was wanting me to help Chad cheat just for football?

Chad's POV

I didn't see why the coach was making such a big deal about this I didn't think I was going to need history in my future I knew I had a really good chance of making it at college and even going pro someday but him and my mom were both on my case about my failing history grades. Old men and dates didn't seem like something I would use in my every day future he hadn't been wrong about who he picked to help me bring the grades up though I hadn't spoken to Y/N before but I would give her credit she was very smart when it came to history she always answered the class questions, always knew the years and dates of important battles and events, she made the highest grade on every test and during the classroom review games the rest of the class always wanted her on their team because she always helped them win and got extra test points. If it meant me getting to play I would let her do the homework, pick the project and help me with the test just as long as she kept me on the football field.

Y/N POV

I stand up and walk out of the office a little irritated but I didn't want to let down a teacher and it was only one class it wouldn't be much trouble especially since I was doing so well in it I'm brought out of my thoughts when I feel someone tapping on my shoulder. I turn and see Chad standing behind me "what is it?" He leans against the wall "you've got me covered on this project right you can pick the topic and everything?" I take a deep breath to calm myself so I don't hit him in the hallway. I didn't want to get suspended or anything for bullying especially him he would probably get it to go his way. "I'll pick the topic, do the power point think you can at least handle the presentation part?" hopefully he could at least handle reading off of a few slides on a power point it wasn't that difficult. He smiles a bit and nods quickly "I can handle that thanks for getting me out of this mess." He looks ahead and I turn my head and see one of the cheerleaders walking down the hall I roll my eyes as he jogs off after her and puts his arm around her shoulder as they walk off.

[blueburied]

every now and then i see posts about homeschooling and i'm like hey i was that i wanna talk about it !!

so for context i was homeschooled until 9th grade (2020), when i went to high school. I think that i got really lucky? basically every post i see about homeschooling is talking about how bad it is. And i can get why! people aren't always ready to like. fully teach someone. and sometimes also people are bad parents and take their kids out of school to have more control over them. its so shitty, especially when you're used to one environment and you're settled there and all of a sudden you're trapped at home with someone you don't always like.

I was lucky. My mom is wonderful and a librarian with a masters. She also like. put proper effort into teaching. It was nice having a teacher who knew me on that level and could understand how i worked. She also enrolled me in social programs where i could socialize, make friends, and experience things she couldn't give me herself. In particular i remember the homeschool gymnastics program I went to on wednesdays extremely fondly. Co-ops (which is, at least in my experience, a once a week thing where we take classes that we want to take that are taught by other homeschool parents). In particular the classes I remember the best would be the class where i took a computer apart and put it back together and got it to post (i was SO proud of myself, also i was like 9 or 10) and a greek mythology course in which we would do readings of plays among other things which is probably part of the reason i am a theater kid. I made and hung out with all my friends that way, and my family is still friends with one of the other families we had met through the second co-op we were a part of! My mom was actually the biggest advocate for me going to high school, primarily because they have resources she knew i couldn't get at home. Now granted, I went to a vocational school, but I still graduated with a 4.0 GPA and am now going to my choice university for something i'm really passionate about! I will say i was probably a bit on the sheltered side, but the internet and four years in high school more than made up for that lmao.

It seems like i'm very much an edge case, but i do want to say that it can be done right! BUT. if you're considering, based off of other experiences i've seen, i would probably suggest not to. at least not initially. if your kid comes to you asking about it, maybe then it is a good time to consider! but remember: do your research and make sure you get proper teaching resources! be prepared to teach like its your job! and also, and perhaps most importantly. socialize your kid! make sure they have people around their age they can hang out with some regularity!

oh and also don't try to control their entire life!

If I am wrong on something, do feel free to critique me in an RB! I am open to learning, or at least wanna try to be.

[leek227]

Screw it, intro, why not.

I'm Leek, any pronouns really, and I'm currently a computer engineering dropout, but will eventually go back to school for an earth science. This is my personal brain dump blog, there are some themes that will be major throughout my whole blog, and there will be some fandom related things that will come in waves as it shows up on my dash. The major things that this blog will have on it are outlined below, although I post about Jewish things the most(being a convert is extremely important to me, and I like being loud about the things that are important to me.)

I was raised in a Holiness Movement Christian Conservative household as the eldest daughter of 3 children, and the one who was supposed to carry on my family's Christian and conservative values. This included me being unschooled for all but 6 weeks in 8th grade(about ages 12-14 for the US). If you don't know what the term unschooled means, it's a subset of the homeschooling community that believes in a "hands-off" education method of children. Kids are left from an early age to decide how they spend their days and what they want to learn. This style of free form study can be useful for some teenagers, but when used for children who are of kindergarten age it leads to an extreme lacking in fundamental skills such as basic math, reading, writing, days of the week even. I was very lucky and I learned to read fast, and enjoyed it. My 6 week stint at a middle school was started by my father sitting me down on my bed and yelling at me that public school would turn me into a crack addicted whore, and ended with him yelling at me that I got a failing math grade on my report card. This 6 week stint made it incredibly clear to me that I didn't know what other kids knew, while I was thriving in English and surviving Social Studies, I couldn't make it through a math class without needing to ask for help with basic multiplication. I found out years later that my parents pulled me out of school because the counselor was threatening to call CPS. I ended up getting my GED at 21 and have been kicking ass since, having gotten into university for electrical and computer engineering I was able to make it all the way through to junior year before I burned out and needed to stop for the foreseeable future.

I'm queer, both agender and pansexual, recovering from an imbalanced marriage that I am now divorced from, and figuring out who I really am. I moved in with my ex immediately after leaving my parents at 20(I kinda sorta ran away and haven't spoken to them since, I won't be speaking to them again anytime soon.) which led to some issues. There was immediately a power imbalance and a stress that the relationship was transactional, with very not fun emotional times if I didn't follow up on my side of the transaction. Divorced back in October, and my self worth(and street smarts) have skyrocketed since!

I am also on the last leg of my religious journey. Having been raised Wesleyan Christian, and being AFAB and loving to read and ask questions, I was both ostracized and put down constantly for wanting to expand my knowledge and also understand where the beliefs I was raised around are based in the Bible. After a particularly toxic experience with community service put on by my church at 14, I decided to start my deconstruction process. This led me to periods of being atheist, agnostic, atheist again, various flavors of neopagan for about 5 years. I made good friends with several Jewish people who were more than excited to invite me to their temples, learn about the culture and beliefs, and if it wasn't for me having moved around a lot in the last six years, I would've settled down into a synagogue already. I'm currently converting at a Conservative temple and I'm so close to finishing the process. I have truly found both a home for my religious soul, and a home for my community in Judaism. I'm very vocal about it, and I won't apologize.

Wow, that was a lot. I hope to absolutely never type that much on this website ever again, and if I do, I'll make sure to put pictures next time cause this is killing my dyslexic ass.