Author: hotpresscopper

ptsdconfessions:

  • Clean your room – or at least your desk/bed/floor. It will help your head to feel clear too.
  • Open your curtains & windows – fresh air and natural light can do wonders in my experience. Plus, it helps regulate your sleep, appetite, and mood.
  • Take a shower or have a bath – especially important if you haven’t had one in a while. This will help you feel refreshed.
  • Put on clean clothes – and put the clothes you were wearing in the wash.
  • If you tend to spend all your time in your room, get out of it for a bit – do something in the kitchen or lounge, or go for a walk (even if it’s just around the block)
  • Stretch – there are plenty of stretching and yoga videos on you tube. Look some up and give them a go.
  • Drink a glass of water – and keep one near you too. I’m sure you already know this, but staying hydrated is important.
  • Get the hard/important tasks out of the way while you have the energy – when we have mental illness, running out of energy early in the day is very normal. Try to get all the most important things done first.
  • Have some comfort food, but make sure you eat healthy too – it’s alright to eat something you like, but have some fruit and vegetables too. If you don’t like plain fruit, consider making a smoothie instead.
  • Set some goals – it doesn’t matter how small or big they are (eg. have 3 meals today, go for a walk in the afternoon), whether they are daily or weekly, but achieving goals can make you feel as though you have accomplished something.
  • And finally, remember that it is okay to have bad days – bad days don’t mean you’ve lost all progress in your recovery, and they don’t make you worthless or a bad person. Don’t give up just because you’ve had a bad day/week/etc. It’s okay to have days that don’t go so great. Stay strong xx

somestudy:

¡hola! this post is dedicated to the anon who asked me for a spanish masterpost all those moons ago (sorry it took so long OTL). this is a mixture of things i use for spanish class and things i’ve found on the internet, and hopefully they’re all of some help!!

basics

dictionaries & conjugations

vocabulary building

reading practice

listening practice

please add more links & tips if you’d like!! + here’s another masterpost by @alcyonien if you’re looking for more resources! ¡¡buena suerte!!

octoswan:

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

I’ve heard a good advice that says ‘Take the book you love and read it like writer.’ I have this book now and I wanted to ask just how exactly do I take it apart? I want to have some kind of plan to tackle it and understand why exactly I loved it and why I still remember it as something great. I want to learn but I’m not sure how.

nimblesnotebook:

How to Read Like a Writer:

1) Pick a scene. Any scene. If you’re writing an action-packed story, you might pick an action scene. Or maybe you just pick a scene that stuck out to you.

While you are reading the scene, highlight words and phrases that stick out to you. We’ll come back to this later.

Now answer the following question:

  • What happens in this scene? Why does this happen?

For example, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, there is a scene in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione get caught in some vine things as a security measure. Hermione is the first to fall through. Why? Because she knew what to do and remained calm so that the vines would not grab her like they did her friends.

2) Reread the scene and answer the following question:

  • Why does the author make this happen?

What purpose did this scene have? Did it show character traits? Did it expand world building? Did it further the plot? Did it increase the action? Decrease the action? Start the action? Was it used as a threshold from one (metaphorical) world to the next?

3) Reread the scene and make a list of any new information that is given to the reader and everything that happens.

  • Why was it presented in this order?

If you switch around the order of a few things, does the scene cease to make sense? Is an info-dump created? Does the presentation affect pacing and mood? Note the relationship between the release of new information and the events of the scene. What happens when?

4) Go back to your highlighted words and phrases.

  • Why did you highlight these words and phrases?

What thoughts and feelings did they evoke? Were you reminded of anything? Was the language vivid? Can you spot any literary devices? Is there a rhythm to it (read it aloud)? Have you learned new ways to say things?

Once you’ve answered that, replace those words and rewrite those phrases with synonyms. How does the scene change?

Now change them again, but with the intention of making the scene grittier, or faster, or lighter in tone, or alliterative. How does it change the scene?

Switch around the original words and phrases. How does a change in juxtaposition and diction change the scene? Why is it better that a certain phrase is phrased a certain way?

5) Take general notes on all your favorite books

  • What is the POV? What is the tense? Does the POV change? Are most of your favorite books in this POV and/or tense?
  • On average, how long are sentences or paragraphs?
  • Are there a lot of main characters? Very few main characters? Lots of minor characters and only a few main characters?
  • What characters do you connect with most? What do they have in common (e.g., they tend to think about the world in a similar way)?

What’s the most interesting thing about tumblr for you linguistically?

kingofthewilderwest:

It’s totally the tags.

Those tags where people write essays. I’m obsessed with those. They’re downright amazing linguistically!

I even proposed to do a research experiment on phrases, the juncture of syntax and semantics, and tumblr tags for my Computational Corpus Linguistics course. The teacher approved the project, but I ended up discarding it for a later time because of how difficult and involved the task would have been. There were too many problems to work out in the experiment and I realized I didn’t have enough time to do what I want.

The tags are intriguing for multiple reasons. They frankly make me run around like a chicken with his head cut off – except happier.

  • Syntax and Cognitive Science The tags show some very interesting things about phrasal structure. People divide up long sentences in tags during pauses. It’s unique “punctuation” and it says a lot for how people chunk thoughts, process them, and organize longer statements. It’s interesting where you see punctuation added or deleted; it helps you see cognitively how people are processing phrases.
  • Semantics The tags are full of very interesting expression techniques. One of the problems of written language has been that it lacks body language, which constitutes over half of our expression in conversation. It means that written language can be very easily misinterpreted for intent (think of how many texts get misinterpreted). But tumblrites and other social media savvy people have compensated and made written language HUGELY expressive. You see it in the tags. You see people use unique punctuation effects like deleting spaces, intentionally misspelling words, adding capitalization, and much more. There are emoticons, keyboard smashes, explosions of exclamation marks, and so many beautiful ways of expressing emotion. And people use lots of words in fascinating ways to get their thoughts across. It’s endless.
  • Diachronic Linguistics Historical linguistics is really cool. It’s about language change. Internet speech in tumblr has the latest, newest words and word units out there. You see so much beautiful language change happening. It’s how “Rickrolled” became a verb and “smol” grew its own set of recognized connotations. Word meanings change, take on new meanings, are filled with so much amazing sociolinguistic context. Abbreviations are made for fandom content. Abbreviations eventually become treated like real words, and then they take on new suffixes and become verbs and adjectives and nouns (”I lol’ed”). There are certain phonotactic paradigms English speakers subconsciously follow for creating new shipping names; I’ve even seen a linguistics paper on that topic. People are able to understand new terms they’ve never seen before; I’ve never heard of “Ruffheat,” but if someone said that to me, I’d know right away they’re talking about a Ruffnut x Heather ship. If someone told me “Hiccaang,” somehow I’d be able to figure out they’re talking about some Aang x Hiccup crack ship. We can just do that automatically because we’ve built our own compounding systems! And not only do we do that, but language changes SO FREAKISHLY RAPIDLY on tumblr it’s constant excitement.
  • Sociolinguistics Language varies based upon different groups we are a part of, and tumblr is full of many communities. Fandom communities, the science side of tumblr, the social justice community, and more are all out there. Each group has its own diction, vocabulary, and more. It’s also amazing how this collides with the fact that tumblr is global; the conversations arising aren’t just from native English speakers, but individuals whose first language might be Malay, Khmer, German, Korean, Japanese, or Finnish.

So yeah. And where you see all this amazingness the most is in the tags.

Believe me, I tag browse a lot because the content there is GOLD. Pure GOLD.

Someday I do hope to take my tumblr experiences and conduct a legitimate linguistics research study. It can teach us a lot about contemporary English, internet English, and how it’s used around the globe.inguistic

Have you ever read the Starbridge novel series by A. C. Crispin? It’s one of my favorites, and I see very few people who seem aware of it.

flamingoslim:

rikmach:

vaspider:

nehirose:

vaspider:

flamingoslim:

seananmcguire:

vaspider:

rikmach:

vaspider:

seananmcguire:

vaspider:

I haven’t! Tell me why I should read it. 😀

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OMIGOSH.

Okay, so first of all, this series was so far ahead of its time.  Like, we say now that we want more diversity in science fiction.  Well, Starbridge had people of all different kinds–gender, race, physical ability, mental ability, and yes, species, because it’s a series about aliens that uses those aliens to say things about humanity, but not at the expense of pretending that all humans (or all aliens) must thus be One Generic Type Or We Lose The Metaphor.

There is a planet of birds whose voices are so powerful that only the Deaf can safely work with them, because otherwise they can kill you, and the books about them are explicitly anti-ableism and anti-colonialist.

There is a planet of lemurs (sort of) where they are all born a neutral gender and transform when they enter adulthood, where gender identity is treated as personal and social, while tied to biology in a very unique way.

There is a cat-person planet that will break your heart.

From an extra-universal standpoint, A.C. Crispin used the series as a way to boost a lot of other authors who might not have been as well-known, sharing a byline and thus sharing the credit, and bringing their ideas to a wide and eager audience.

So good.  So good.

….omg.

I’m gonna have to put this on my to-read list right after this book I’m trying to finish. :p I promised someone I’d finish it asap.

Heh, looks like someone else beat me to gushing about how awesome this series is.  But yes, they’re amazingly progressive, especially for when they’re written.  Female protagonists all over the place, People of Color, people of different faiths, people with disabilities, and so on.  The humans are diverse as the aliens. Heck, it was Book Three before there was a male protagonist.  

I hope you enjoy!  Strap in for a wild ride, my friend.  Jeez, imagine, someone knowing who the hell I’m talking about when I reference Dr. Blanket or Tesa.

Haha. It will likely be a while before I get to them, but I will let you know once I do!

DR. BLANKET FOREVER.

seananmcguire, thank you so much for your kind words about the StarBridge books. I was A.C. (Ann) Crispin’s co-author on two of them, Silent Dances and Silent Songs, the ones about the Deaf Interrelator. I remember Ann coming up with the Dr. Blanket character and how much fun it was to work Dr. Blanket into some of the other books. Ann was one of my dearest friends, and working on those books with her was a joy. Fortunately, they’re available as ebooks and as audiobooks again after years of being out of print. Thanks for telling others about them and sharing your joy.

How cool is this? I love the Internet sometimes.

it’s been bugging me every time i see this post go around – i couldn’t remember why, but i finally did.  a.c crispin was desperately familiar – all i could remember is that i knew the name, and knew i had loved their books, but my memory is so slapshot-crapshoot it’s a wonder that remains, some days.  anyway.  i couldn’t remember what books or why i had such positive associations with the name, but it finally came to me.

while i haven’t read any of her original works (terrible, i know) she wrote some of the books that shaped my eager, greedy-for-more little sci-fi nerd childhood.

gryphon’s eyrie and songsmith, which i found when i was nine or ten, after i’d exhausted all of my new school’s andre norton books and went looking for more.

yesterday’s son and time for yesterday, written the year before i was born and the year i turned four, which i found in the shelves of our dining room bookcase when i was nine, maybe ten.  they were some of the first star trek books i ever read, some of the first sci-fi i discovered on my own (even though they were my parents’, i think my dad’s specifically).  sarek, when i was ten, because it was a new star trek book about one of my favorite characters and being written by one of my favorite star trek authors.

the han solo trilogy, when i was twelve or thirteen, for similar reasons.

(i’m pretty sure the witch world books were borrows from the library down the street, unsure if the star wars were purchased or borrowed, but the three star treks were not only owned, but re-read so many times that i should probably buy digital copies the next time i re-read them just for the sake of keeping them intact.)

Eee! Neat!

Oh my god, Kathleen O’Malley responded to a Tumblr thread I helped start!  

EEEEEEEE!  My life is complete!

But yes, Ms. Crispin wrote a lot of excellent books in other settings before her original series, and I strongly recommend reading them.

I just love her original works, and recommend reading them more.

God, I so wish there was a Starbridge fandom.  That would be so awesome.

Dear rikmach, I am startled (in a good way) that you would have any idea who I am. Thank you so much for your kind words. Somewhere during the creation of the StarBridge series, I got swallowed by fandom and let my pro writing slide, something that exasperated Ann (A.C. Crispin) to no end (though she was always supportive). Yes, all of A.C. Crispin’s books are terrific and I am forever grateful that I had the opportunity to know her and have even a small part in their development. Ann and I became close friends when she wrote Yesterday’s Son and asked me to edit it. (There’s an acknowledgement to me in the book that refers to me as “the Red Queen.”) The experience cemented our relationship. Ann’s husband and I frequently discuss ways to promote Ann’s books to a wider audience. We, too, wish there was a StarBridge fandom. I’m open to suggestions! (Again, thank you so much for your comments. It made my day.)

cheesethesecond:

I stared at @zhaana‘s CA:CW art for like five hours and then I wrote a thing. We all have to get our Civil War “what if” drabbles out before May, right?

*

The first time Bucky sets eyes on Steve after DC—after he
remembers, really remembers—he thinks
he’s been shot.

To his credit, there’s been gunfire popping off in the distance
for the past hour or so, the ricocheting of bullets and staccato machine gun rat-a-tat inching closer and closer, trailing inevitable echoes: panicked shouts, blaring car horns, crying children, heavy, ominous silences. The sounds of battle never frightened the Winter
Soldier, but they set Bucky on edge—these days, he has something to stay alive
for. Something to lose.

That something kicks down the door and startles Bucky out of
his defensive crouch in the corner. He springs to his feet, knife in hand,
teeth bared, and Steve Rogers blinks at him from the hallway, covered in dust
and blood, hair sweaty and standing every-which-way, and Bucky looks from Steve’s
face to the door Steve busted off its hinges to the trusty shield strapped to Steve’s
back and clutches at his chest.

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