#but one of us got college credit for our scores)

[pussyandpetrichor]

i did #girlmath in my #girlAPphysics class (17 out of 23 students were girls) and got a #girl5

#the other ap physics class was a pretty even split #but this was the one full of atudents that were also taking ap calc and honors chem (though we all signed up for the ap chem test and all #but one of us got college credit for our scores)

[coraniaid]

Absolutely hate the received wisdom that Buffy Summers is not "book smart" or that she doesn’t care about doing well in high school.  How little attention are you paying to the show if that’s your take on the character?

Consider:

When she first arrives in Sunnydale, one of the first things Buffy does is make friends with Willow Rosenberg, explicitly because she wants to hang out with somebody smart and get caught up with the classes she’s already behind on.

After seeing her permanent record in her sophomore year, one of Buffy’s teachers (Teacher’s Pet’s Dr. Gregory) tells her that she has “a first rate mind” and that he “know[s] you can excel in this class”.

Buffy had a favorite teacher (Homecoming’s Ms. Moran) whose class she says “changed her life” and whose failure to remember her the next year obviously upsets her a lot.

When she gets the ability to read minds in Earshot, one of the very first things she thinks to use it for is showing off in class to impress her teachers. 

After Buffy comes back to Sunnydale for her final year of high school, one of the terms Principal Snyder insists she meets to be accepted back is a “glowing letter of recommendation from any member of our faculty who is not an English librarian”.  Since she doesn’t get kicked out again, we can presume she got one (even if not from Ms. Moran or the late Dr. Gregory).

In Lovers Walk we find out that Buffy got a 1430 in the SATs. That’s a score which means Buffy probably outperformed at least 95% of people who took the test in 1998 (when the average for college-bound seniors was 1017).

In Choices, Buffy gets accepted into Northwestern, and is clearly heartbroken that she isn’t able to go.

Buffy Summers spends practically all her free time in school hanging out in the library.

Yes, Buffy often struggles in school.  She’s often absent, and doesn’t always have the time to do the homework.  And when she is in class, she’s often late or too tired to concentrate. 

But the reason for this isn’t that Buffy “isn’t smart”, it’s because – spoiler warning, I guess, for those of you that obviously managed to miss it - she’s a vampire slayer.  She effectively has a whole full-time job, a whole secret life that means she doesn’t have time to do homework or prepare for tests; something that keeps her awake all night so she can’t focus on her schoolwork the next day.  When she comes out as a Slayer to her Mom, in Becoming, one of the things she tells her she wishes she were doing rather than having to save the world is explicitly “studying”. 

And she does all the stuff above anyway.  How do you think she’s managing that if she’s not really smart?

Yes, Buffy isn’t quite as academically talented as Willow.  Yes, she often makes self-deprecating jokes about how poorly she’s doing at school (telling her Mom before parents’ night in School Hard that her teachers will be impressed that she always brings a pen to class “ready to absorb the knowledge”; worriedly asking Giles before an English makeup exam in Faith, Hope & Trick whether they “give you credit just for speaking it”).  

But these pretty obviously are jokes.  Buffy’s problem in School Hard is with Principal Snyder, who’s threatening to expel her because he blames her for “starting fights” and is worried she’s going to burn down a building, not with any of her actual teachers.  Not with her academic results.  Buffy passes the English test she was worried about, in fact she passes all her required makeup tests.  She does this even without Willow’s help. 

The only time we see Buffy actually completely fail a test is in Nightmares, which ... isn't anymore real than the conversation she has with her father later that episode. It's one of her nightmares being brought to life; because Buffy does care about doing well in school and is afraid that she won't.

Yes, Buffy finds some classes boring – but so does Willow.  Many high school classes are boring, no matter how smart you are.  Yes, Buffy struggles with some subjects (like French) more than others.  (It’s probably not a coincidence that learning a foreign language takes much more time and practice than many other subjects.)  But nothing in the text of the show suggests that Buffy is not smart and motivated, or that she wouldn’t be doing really well in high school were it nor for the fact she’s a Slayer.

Quite the opposite, in fact.  The show repeatedly tells us that Cordelia Chase is who Buffy was in her old school in LA.  Cordelia’s popular, she’s on the cheerleading team, her parents take her on expensive holidays.  These are all presented to the viewer as things Buffy used to have, and would still have if it weren’t for her Calling.

And Cordelia’s also really smart.  She has teachers who praise her for doing the reading and answering questions in class and who offer to help her with her homework, she looks forward to the SATs because she “do[es] well on standardized tests” (and while we don’t learn her exact score, from Xander’s reaction it’s clearly meant to be impressively high), she boasts in Lovers Walk that she has a lot of experience in covering up how well she’s doing academically.  We learn in Choices that she got offers from Duke and Columbia and USC.

That’s who Buffy is.  That’s what she’d have been doing in high school if she wasn’t the Slayer. 

Literally what show are you watching if you don’t spot that?

#btvs #buffy summers

[sabakos]

Hm, on one hand your post irritates me because I did pretty poorly in my STEM degree but unequivocally Learned Things, but on the other hand I would have definitely Learned More Things if I didn't have to come up with thousands of dollars every year for tuition and transportation. Don't you think failing everyone who gets a C- or less is a bit extreme?

This might have been specific to my experience or to physics rather than all of STEM, but the people who were getting a C- weren't getting a 70% on all of their exams, everything in upper level classes was necessarily graded on a curve. Which is the correct way to do it imo, it's hard to design an exam so that people who "know" the material all score exactly in the 70-100% range on the exam. Usually this is accomplished by erring on the side of challenging the students more rather than less, where 50% or so of the material on the exam is something you expect anyone would know, and the remainder is more challenging and requires an actual synthesis and understanding of the material, and often this gets you a nice distribution. But sometimes the professor messes up and they need to salvage an exam that was accidentally too challenging, where the class average was in the 60s. I even had an E&M exam that was so hard the professor refused to tell us anything beyond "none of you got a passing grade so I'm not counting it." So despite the appearance of numerical data, evaluation is a lot less of an exact science than one might expect!

But to illustrate the point, we had the opposite problem happen once with a newer professor, he accidentally screwed up and made the (take home!) midterm so easy in senior-level Intro to Quantum Mechanics that the median score was 100. This was, admittedly, complicated by the fact that due to our program's research specialties in AMO meant that at least a handful of us already knew everything there was to learn in that class before we took it. But despite this median score, which was achieved by more than just the kids who already knew the material, the lower mode of people still scored poorly! So there wasn't really much to do other than make the final nigh-impossible, which meant that all of those C and D kids failed to graduate on time anyway and had to "retake" quantum the next year when the curve would be more forgiving. I'm skeptical from having talked to and worked with many of them that they actually learned anything beyond intro physics.

However, I am probably being somewhat unfair in ways I don't realize due to, quite frankly, immense privilege. I came into college with two years worth of credit from AP exams and still took a full courseload and graduated in four, not only summa cum laude, but #2 in my class, despite basically taking no freshman and barely any sophomore-level classes to pad my GPA with. I thrived on the stress and conflict of test-taking and laughed (while still crying) about take-home exams that could and did take an entire weekend. I took the Putnam exam "for fun" my sophomore year and got a 10, beating all the math majors who took it that year. I was an obnoxious asshole about all of this, which I should probably regret more than I do. But by all accounts this means I'm the entirely wrong person to know what causes people to struggle with exams even if they do know the material. Throw sharp and heavy things at me, I probably deserve it.

But despite all that... I still feel that I didn't learn all of the physics as well as I probably should have? Many of those curves were strongly weighted in my favor because I happened to be the first or second highest score, which meant I got basically the same final grade in a class whether I slacked off a bit or not. And yeah, I think part of it is that Physics is really hard, and a four-year undergrad program with rigidly scheduled exams is not going to be remotely accessible or accommodating to anyone with a severe disability or extenuating life circumstances.

But when it's the same kids every semester who are barely passing, I think that at some point you have to say that even if the system *is* fundamentally broken and unfair, it's both of those things in a way where the people it's failed really haven't learned anything and so shouldn't receive a degree saying they have? Possibly they often don't even know what they don't know? I think that most physics classes form roughly discrete packets of curriculum, but as someone who has written and scored exams, I don't think 70% on an exam doesn't imply that even close to 70% of the knowledge was mastered. I'm not sure that any exam I took was ever that comprehensive, and I don't think that "learned some things" rather than nothing is really enough to cut it.

#no reblogs because *much* of this post could be used against me even with context #hate me more: i was rarely sober for most of this time period had a boyfriend just as obnoxious as me and maintained an active social life

[faeriekit]

you post about library stuff, and I wanted to ask if you had an MLIS, and if so, how did you go about getting it? No pressure of course!

I am always down to talk about library school, no worries! 🧡🧡

I think I do have a couple posts in my library posting tab that also talk about my MLS process, so they may cover details I forget here, but details to know are:

I already worked at a library at the time that I applied to an MLIS program

Therefore I had a lot of help from other librarians, library assistants, administrative persons, and friends along the way

There were several other prospective students in my system that applied simultaneously, so we all could pool information so that we didn't all have to retread the same research holes simultaneously

I applied at the height of covid.

Several people in my workplace had already told me that online was the way to go if I was going to get a degree; better scheduling possibilities, more choice of programs, and more opportunities to apply; otherwise I would have had to go to the state school. It would have been fine. But traveling in person is a pain.

I did research on schools; what the price was per credit hour, how long it took to graduate, criteria to graduate, whether it was synchronous or asynchronous, or other things I might want to know during the application process. When picking a school, make sure it is ALA accredited if you are in the united states! They are the only schools! Do not pick a graduate degree in librarianship if ALA has not given it their Okay!

So I used their searchable database for an online, asynchronous, relatively cheap program. When I found one I liked, I went to look online specifically to see if it was an online program PRE-Covid. I did not want amateurs trying to work out zoom for the first time. I wanted a good program that already knew what it was doing.

So I found a program I liked, and double checked to see what I needed to apply. Normally it was three recommendation letters; due to covid, they only wanted one. Great! Begged one off a former professor. Normally I would have needed to take the GRE, but it was covid so it was waived, and I had a GPA high enough that the program would have waived the need for a GRE test score anyway. Score!! As someone who tests horribly on cumulative stuff, that was a huge relief.

I applied! I got in! I crammed as many classes in as I could simultaneously, since I was working part time and I needed to save money. I could have taken a maximum of six years to finish a degree, but every semester of tuition + sundry is a flat fee, So I saved my money by finishing as quickly as possible. (And, to be fair...nine credits a semester is easy. I used to do eighteen a semester in college. If you have ever taken an online course in your life, it's not that much harder in library school, especially when it's asynchronous.) I'd saved up money from a terrible former job where I couldn't see any friends or go anywhere to see anyone or take time to myself or even eat out, so I'd had money saved up I could use for my degree. 😬 I think in total it was somewhere between... $20,000 and $26,000. Semesters fluctuated between 4,000 and $6,000 depending on the classes I took. I never did winters and I never did summers, since the amount of classwork I could have done during those sessions wouldn't have made the flat fee worth it.

And then they were all keen to have me work on a practicum during my job, which was full time at that point, so I was working eleven hours a day in order to fulfill my degree requirements between my full time job and my part time job...it was super easy to arrange, since I just had to basically walk over to a former library I used to work and and be like "want me back here for free?" and they were like "is that illegal?" and I was like "apparently not", which is the benefit of networking, but our collective HR department had a conundrum of legal matters on their ends haha. And that's when I wrote Blister Pack out of sheer stress! 😊🧡🧡

And then I GRADUATED! Which just felt like Tuesday, since it was. I got my degree in the mail, my job made me pay a different entity $70 to make sure I was a "certified" librarian in this lovely state, and now I work the exact same job I did in grad school, but with slightly more pay.

Things I learned whilst pursing my degree:

Make out with a database. Seriously. Databases are 90% of your job now. The rest is on-the-floor maintenance, problem solving, and local politics. Learn to use limiters and Boolean goods and keywords and everything else, because you will need it.

The people who struggle the most are the former teachers and other alternate-profession professionals looking for a change in careers. The people who do the best are people who work in a library. If you have not worked in a library, volunteer at your local library. The concepts, lingo, and jargon will make so much more sense when you're exposed to them naturally.

Speaking of; network, network, network. Ask local librarians for help sooner rather than later, because eventually you are going to have to interview them or ask for their help or something. Know them now. Ask them your homework questions. Every librarian wants to talk shop. Let them.

Sometimes your books are cheap on Thriftbooks and Alibris and sometimes they are cheap because you find the PDF online for $0.00 and it feels morally wrong to use it for class but no it isn't. It's just illegal. But not even for you; it's only illegal for the site for hosting it. So...consider downloading your texts, lest they be $80 each.

OH but Worldcat does a price comparison on the side of every book entry so that you can see which site has a cheaper copy! That's just a library fact 🧡 Here's an example!

Anyway...this is just me. People who went in person ate up more time overall, but I also had a whole school of 90% White conservative-leaning students so that was kind of new and alarming for me. Go Texas! Double check if you're in any time zone changes if you go online...

People want to think that librarianship is a noble profession that can make a difference in a single life, and it is, but it's mostly public servitude. You will be paid less than other professionals with a graduate degree and you will have your budget slashed with no notice and you will have local townspeople and officials demand you justify the cost of running a library on the town and you will have to defend yourself every time, because you are a vital resource no one appreciates until they need it and every child deserves to read. Half of librarianship is fighting the good fight. The rest of it is construction paper and kid scissors, phone calls, public arguments, resource management, lysol wipes, and sometimes there's even books.

Anyway! If you read this far, make sure your library card is up to date! 🧡😘 Thanks for asking! I love it when I get library questions.

#library posting #faer winds

[thevideosociety]

WE ARE ALL COWBOYS

By Mitzi Starkweather

Several months ago we took my 2-year-old to an "old time photo" attraction in the heart of the Ozark mountains: Branson, Missouri. (If you're not familiar, Branson is like Las Vegas but smaller, and instead of alcohol there's fudge.) We walk into a musty patchwork of a building and immediately an employee hands my toddler a toy revolver. He accepts it with glee and I ask him, "Do you want to be a cowboy?" 

He pauses. "Mooo?” he asks. I realize he doesn't know what a cowboy is. 

"A cowboy is a man who rides a horse, has a gun, and wears a big hat. He fights bad guys and goes on adventures."

I continue, in my own mind, "and he is alone.”

The staff wrangles my toddler and manages to get adorable photos of him — hat, chaps, and all — on a saddle. They throw a horrible vignette and sepia filter on it and I hand over my credit card with joy. 

For some unknown reason it feels right to see my two-year-old portrayed this way: with a hat, lasso, gun, and somber expression. Yet, our family doesn’t own livestock or a farm. We don't keep guns in our home. None of us has ever worn a cowboy boot. I was even born in Canada! So why did this experience mean so much to me? 

I’ll never forget one of my history professors in college commenting on how interesting it is that while American cowboys remain iconic symbols of America, freedom, and manhood, they actually existed for less than two decades. And now, I recall this comment nearly two decades later. I recall it through the lens of the study I began after I got that college diploma, a study that is sacred in my mind, heart, and closest relationships: the study of cinema.

Movies have resonated with me since childhood. They taught me about life and love and conflict and revenge, good guys and bad guys, darkness and light. From a young age I was able to find the patterns, decipher the meanings, pay attention to the visuals, sounds, scores, performances, motifs... My literature major in college helped me understand all stories in a deeper way. I learned the recipes, the cliches, the twists. Most importantly, I learned that if you, the viewer, see something in a story and can back it up with at least a little bit of evidence, then it's there. 

After all, 

"We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are." -Anais Nin

This is true for art, love, and of course, movies.

My Father-in-law loves movies, but he insists they make him feel good. “Why would I pay money to be sad or scared?” he said to me many years ago. I've thought of his question many times since. Sure, the "feel good" movie has its time and place. It's like pizza: even if it's bad it's still pretty good. And some people live on pizza. (They just miss out on vital nutrients.) 

I want movies to illicit different emotional responses in me because I want to process my emotions but I need help. I need to watch a character on a screen feel it and then when my heart beats fast and my face feels hot I know that's my body saying, “Me, too." I, like most others, faced incredible challenges the past three years. I dove deep into horror movies because having a baby during a pandemic (first baby, first pandemic) was the most terrifying experience of my life. And I fell more deeply in love with cowboy movies last year when I faced cancer. When I say “cowboy movies” I don't just mean Django. I mean John Wick, Rocky Balboa, Royal Tenenbaum, Luke Skywalker, agent Dale Cooper, The Bride. I mean I finally saw myself in every main character who, bruised and bloodied, experienced loss and had to find the answer within themself — every main character who had to face death to decide they actually wanted to live.

America keeps getting lonelier. As we stay inside and online, as physical third spaces are abandoned for virtual ones, as one-person households become more common, we need stories. Stories connect us - all peoples throughout all time, and American ones tend to follow the hero's journey. Truly our "cowboy "is nothing new... but it continues to resonate in our modern context for a reason.

When we watch movies and talk about them we are cowboys gathered around a fire, sharing stories, eating canned beans, looking up at the stars and allowing ourselves to feel in a world that tells us to shut our feelings off so we can work harder. We want stories that make us laugh but also need stories that help us grieve. We have all experienced loss. Only when we release the pain of the past can we hope for the future.

We are all cowboys, weary and searching for anything to give this daily fight meaning, and we are stronger together.

“When there are clouds in the skies and they are gray, 

You may be sad but remember they'll all soon pass away. 

Oh Django after the shower comes, the sun will be shining.”

#movies #thevideosociety #cowboys

[classictshirt]

LeBron James credits Lakers' supporting cast for Game 1 win

LeBron James credits Lakers' supporting cast for Game 1 win The Los Angeles Lakers entered the fourth quarter of Sunday's Game 1 of their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies clinging to a six-point lead. In the first 11 minutes of the final frame, LeBron James and Anthony Davis attempted just one shot apiece. And yet L.A. ran away with a 128-112 victory as a bench player and a guy who went undrafted out of college just two years ago took over. Rui Hachimura scored nine of his 29 points in the fourth, tying Mychal Thompson's Lakers franchise record for most points by a substitute in a playoff game. Austin Reaves went 5-for-5 in the fourth, including scoring nine straight points late in the quarter, en route to 23 points total. "It was our supporting cast that won us the game tonight," said James, who had 21 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. The Lakers needed the extra effort from their roster with things looking dicey at halftime. Davis, who finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds, 7 blocks and 3 steals to become the first player since Tim Duncan nearly 20 years ago to put up that type of postseason statline, suffered a stinger to his right shoulder and had to exit the game late in the second quarter. The Lakers trailed by six at the time. Then Hachimura went 4-for-4 from 3 in six minutes of playing time in the third quarter and L.A. was back in control. The fourth-year forward, acquired in a trade with Washington in late January, said they were all shots he specifically practiced coming into the series, with Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy scouting the gaps in the Grizzlies' defense that Hachimura could target. "The way they guard me, they're going to be in the paint so I got to be ready to shoot those kind of shots," Hachimura said. Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane confirmed as much, while directing a challenge toward Hachimura for Game 2. "That was our game plan going in -- make him hit shots and he did," Bane said. "Tip your cap. It's probably the best game he's had in his career. It's a seven-game series. Let's see if he can do it again Wednesday." Reaves, who signed a two-way contract with the Lakers in the summer of 2021 after he went undrafted out of Oklahoma and was later converted to a full-fledged member of the team before the season began, closed things out. "You dream about being on a stage like this," Reaves said. "And I got hot late and I had fun." It was the first time the Lakers had four players score 20 or more in the playoffs since May 15, 1988, when James Worth, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Byron Scott did it. And D'Angelo Russell (19 points, seven assists) nearly made it five. While L.A. won 10 of its past 12 games, including Tuesday's play-in win over Minnesota to secure the No. 7 seed against No. 2 Memphis, there were signs of slippage. The Lakers didn't look sharp in their final four regular-season games, which included a loss to the Clippers, and their effort against Minnesota was disjointed at best and undisciplined at worst. Lakers coach Darvin Ham said his team used the four-day break between the win over the Wolves and Game 1 against Memphis to recalibrate. "The last week of the season or so, the play-in game, possessions got away from us," Ham said. "We threw away possessions with no pass or one pass and then shot." L.A. locked in after a team address by James and Davis about the increased intensity that the playoffs require, and seemingly has recaptured the momentum that got it to the playoffs in the first place. "How can we best extract the most production as we can out of this group?" Ham said, explaining the aim of the time off. "And this is how. This is what's going to work against this team and what we need to explore; this is what we need to leave to the side. I thought it was a combination of all of that -- being fresh and taking a deep, hard look at our offense and what's been good and what's been bad." While the Lakers started the series off with a statement win, stealing home-court advantage from the Grizzlies as they attempt to become the first No. 7 seed to pull off a first-round upset since San Antonio in 2010, James focused on some of the bad from Sunday. He pointed out that L.A.'s 16 turnovers led to 15 points for the Grizzlies and took responsibility for the five he had himself. "I thought the guys definitely understood that assignment and were really good tonight," James said. "But I think we can be even better." Read the full article

[the-bjd-community-confess]

bear with me here. lately, well, for the past 6 months we’ve been trying to buy a house. rent in my area is terrible and moving out of my area isn’t an option, so in theory it’s literally cheaper to buy a house. plus my bf and i have good (for our area) jobs. however we wanted to only put down 15%, so we need this thing called mortgage insurance. which also goes through a credit check, like the mortgage would. we’re on the mortgage together. somehow i was approved for the mortgage but denied for the insurance, because them checking my credit lowered my score to one fucking point below what’s needed. i don’t have a bad score, or a terrible debt to income ratio, my score is literally only “fair” because i bought a car 3 years ago and that vs my student loans that i’ve had for ages lowered my credit age, and therefore my score. bc. i don’t fucking know. capitalism™️. so we have to put down 20% of a down payment which we didn’t budget for because we were fine if it weren’t for, y’know fucking credit bureaus. it’s an extra 10k we don’t have because we didn’t expect to need.

so anyway i’m taking it hard. real hard. because along with my house savings i obviously also have a doll savings (it’s much lower though) for, you know, my expensive hobby that i finally started to being able to like actually buy for around 4 years ago. and i feel guilty because it’s like, if it wasn’t for my score and if i wasn’t indulging on things that make me happy, i’d be able to save more for “””adult things””” like buying a house. i almost in a panic started calculating and figuring out how i could sell my collection and all my doll stuff because i’m sure if i sold literally everything i have related to the hobby i would be able to cover the extra 10k. i was like packing shit up and taking pics in a fugue state before my bf stopped me and was like it’s not your fault?? but anxiety and growing up poor af until this job i got after college says otherwise. as a kid and even in college i did not buy anything that wasn’t necessary or if i did it was a long time saving for like a 60$ video game, so having this much fucking money (comparatively) is so wild to me and i was so excited to finally collect and sew and create for these beautiful dolls i’ve always admire. my collection is mostly the “”cheaper dolls”” with some expensiver dolls (resinsoul is great though i legitimately love them for more than $ reasons),

i buy a lot of second hand because i love restoring things, i don’t even buy the big fancy full sets (i shell ocs mainly), and tend to use layaways to assuage my anxiety about paying sums of money over 3 digits. somewhere inside me my brain says “you brought this on yourself, you knew this was a waste of money”. it’s not i know logically, especially if all my other needs and debts are taken care of, but like. h

tl;dr so anyway this is a fucking weird ass confession. i feel sick for even indulging in this hobby and spending money on things i like instead of only paying my bills and food and taking care of my cats bc i could have used that money to add to my house savings to offset my apparently shitty credit score. i’m contemplating a second job and selling every doll thing i have because i don’t feel like i’m pulling my weight even though i am according to my bf. we’re not going to be homeless, we’ll just sign another year where we are, but it’s crushing to know that i clawed my way to stable income and doing something that makes me happy and i still can’t even be good enough for a house that’s only about 130k . that’s so so fucking cheap in this state it’s insane. i hate everything and feel so fucking guilty.

~Anonymous

#BJD #ABJD #BJD Confessions #Community Confessions #Finances

[yisanged]

this was supposed to be me briefly going over context for another post i made but i had to keep explaining more and more things for it to make sense and it became this whole essay and i wasn't gonna post it since it's not really necessary but. wellll if sam insists......

so in my state foreign lang classes aren't a requirement to graduate but it's recommended bc it looks better on college apps plus some of the bigger colleges require like 2 or 3 years of it (or otherwise proof that you're fluent in something besides english) and my goal is to get into a bigger prestigious college to use that as an excuse to Leave. anyways i took french 1 last year and it wasn't bad the teacher was one of my favorites ever and it wasn't particularly hard to me it's just french itself is kind of ass. no offense beyond the basic amount. anyways i don't really want to take french again if i don't have to but then i learned about the seal of biliteracy which is like. well i'm not sure about how graduation works for other states and countries but my state has a certain amount of credits for certain areas you have to get, a certain baseline score you have to earn for these two tests, and then as of fairly recently you also have to earn two seals. and the seals are basically like if you fulfill certain requirements they'll give you this badge thing that's on your diploma and is on your high school transcript for example if i take band for all four years of high school i'll get the fine arts seal or if i get on the honor roll all 4 years i'll get the honors seal. anyways the seal of biliteracy is one of the harder ones to get they said less then 10 people from our school graduate w it every year but basically you have to take an approved test in a language that shows you can speak it fluently and they'll give it to you. and the kids who get it do it by taking 4 or 5 years of french or spanish (the only languages they have classes for at my school) and then scoring high enough on the ap exam for it. but i did my own research and obviously there isn't a lot of foreign lang ap tests but there is another approved test called the aappl which covers a lot more languages including korean. so the idea is that if i take the korean aappl i'll earn the seal of biliteracy which would look better on my transcript than if i were to take a couple years of french, plus it'll be less work for me since i already mostly know korean and i can fill up the periods that would've been used for french with electives i actually want to take. anyways i was a bit nervous about the idea of taking the test because i'm not super confident in my korean so i asked my dad to get textbooks. but we looked at the demo korean test they put out and it's like. not bad at all. i could figure out the reading and listening portions without too much trouble and the demo isn't graded but my dad said i did it right. the writing and speaking portions kinda scared me though. my dad says if i just take the time to read all the korean picture books we have around the house and watch more kdramas i'll just naturally become more comfortable with everything. i don't know if that's true... i tried to insist i would need more formal learning instruction stuff for grammar and w/e but my dad said my grammar is pretty much as good as any other native speaker's. i don't believe him. he did admit that i needed more practice with writing and talking more formally because i've only ever in the most casual level with my parents. and they're probably gonna test more formal speech bc the whole goal of fluency isn't to get to native level but just enough so that you could use the language practically in like professional settings. but he just told me to watch some kdramas and read the kids books we have and i would get better at it naturally. i'm a bit skeptical about that so i got him to order textbooks anyway. i'm having fun reading these picture books though i remember being read a lot of these as a kid.

#i'm not joking when i say this is long as hell guys. difficult to read too bc i didn't bother organizing it or anything it's just rambling #you've been warned

[apolybird]

So. It’s been a while since I updated. The three of us got a house together last month. A beautiful colonial-inspired home on top of a mountain. Granted... it’s a fixer-upper. The yard needs some work. The kitchen needs upgrading. There’s horrible wallpaper and carpet in the bathrooms. Y’know. The usual from the 80s. But it’s lovely and in a delightful neighborhood that is both historic and weird. A mix of retired doctors, college professors, and artists.

I know the world is scary right now for a lot of people who aren’t straight, cis, white, and monogamous. So I thought I’d share this...

We had no fuss with the loan process. No fuss with the realtor. No fuss with the banks. No fuss anywhere. And here’s the thing. They all know we’re poly. And no one gives a purple fuck. We are in Alabama. Granted, one of the more socially liberal towns but still. Alabama is Alabama. Y’all know the shit that goes down here. And we’re not using big national chains. With the exception of the loan, our realtor, lawyers, and such were all local offices. But we’ve gotten nary a peep. They -know- and they don’t care. They’re not even curious. They don’t care what the social/living/romantic/familial situation is. They just want to know what to put in front of the dollar signs on the forms. Or what our credit score is. So listen to me, y’all. Don’t be scared to try and move forward with home-buying as a polycule. Do some research definitely. We certainly did both as individuals and as a group... one of my dear high school friends is a realtor and I knew he was alphabet-mafia friendly, so I asked him about the landscape for polys and his response was “I doubt anyone will care, and if they do, just find someone else. It shouldn’t be hard to find someone to work with.” But we didn’t even really research realtors after that... we just used one tied to the financial firm that helps out at one of my partners’ office. She happily hopped aboard and never said the first word, positive or negative.  So don’t let the anxiety about being out to your realtor give you pause. They could not care less. And if they do, just move on to another one. And here’s some free advice for fixing a credit score. Go Google “fixing credit with a secured credit card.” It works wonders in a matter of months.

#personal

[patheticcpeach]

Dear Mom and Dad

Do I dare even call you guys that? I'm your daughter, the youngest out of 4. I am 23, 5'5, and my favorite color is bright green and blue at the moment. I currently working my ass off, I have my own car, 3 credit cards, and even a pretty good credit score. I graduated college but haven't worked in the field yet. I'm certainly not financially smart, no thanks to you. I live in a reality where money truly doesn't mean anything. yea sure I need it to buy things that I want and need but I'll never die for money. I'll never die for a lot of things that aren't myself. I'm actually pretty selfish when it comes down to it. I know my demands and I try to get them for myself as much as I can. Thanks for teaching me that.

Earlier today, I had the dream again. Where I invite you to dinner and a fancy restaurant, that's probably in a really nice hotel. One can only dream of getting reservations there, but I know a guy. I'm wearing a red dress and I look amazing. I invite you to sit and have a chat with me. We obviously haven't spoken in a while so we need to catch up. I start with small talk because of course you aren't going to start it. "do you guys know who I am?" I ask. you stare at me blankly. "our daughter?" is what I imagine you'd say. I'd laugh out of pity. I'm in total disgusted that you still consider me a daughter vs a stranger. which is what we really are. you don't know me. not one single ounce. I'm not here to blame you and point fingers, I guess I'm truly trying to understand when did you stop loving me. you say you love me and what the best for me. Not once have you tried to reach out. I'm upset that you don't see why I am upset.

It hits me. when I used to cry when I was younger, you would tell me to stop crying. never ask why or comfort me. crying in your eyes is weak. I was ashamed of crying for YEARS. I think I still am to this day. why did you never comfort me, reassure me that everything was going to be okay? never told me to love myself and my body before loving another person. never told me not to let others have sex with me even when I didn't want to. never told me that it is okay to have bad days. never told me how easy it is to fall in love and rely on the kindness of others though they can hurt you. never told me not to give up. at a young age, I understood that it's better to hide your emotions instead of expressing them because no one wants to see a sad person. In reality, you're the saddest people I've ever met. It pains me to see how you struggled for years and have kept it in. you're not in love with yourself or others. stuck in your ways. never moving forward. maybe it's because you grew up in a different world. why did you have me? you had me physically never mentally or emotionally I think. It seems like we were never meant to be together.

we both cant change that. were bounded. I struggled so much internally growing up and it's really amazing how it's affecting me now as an adult. I have so much trauma. I blame you for letting those people hurt me. why did you let them do that to me? do you not love me so much? why did you always invalidate my feelings? why did your laws make me financially guilty at 9 years old?

Mom, why did you keep those bad men around? knowing they were hurting your kids. I know you knew. you were jealous of it. I felt it. you got rid of one of your daughters for him. I can't even fathom her pain. She's fucked up. why did you convince me that I didn't need my dad, except when it came down for back to school stuff? did you think that I wouldn't feel it? did you ever consider my feelings? do you love me? do you blame me for something? I am sorry you thought these decisions were the right choices at the time. Sorry if you felt like you have no other option. That is the constant feeling I get from you. Like it's my fault or any of your kids' fault for your actions. have you ever been happy? have you ever been in love? do you love yourself? This is truly why I stopped talking to you. It's not a good feeling when you're constantly in the middle of problems and seem to blame me. Make me feel guilty for things I simply can't control. Not talking to you makes me happy. I feel a weight off my shoulders. However, On days like today, I can't stop thinking about you and everything you are to me. where we do stand?

Dad. Honestly. you're a small-minded man. stuck inside because you're afraid of what others think of you. which is hilarious because you make a fool out of yourself all the time. I get that from you. Aren't you happy to see that in all of your kids? Were you ever proud of me? I feel like we missed out on each other when I was younger. I gave a year of time, to living in your house. It was fucking hell. I hated it. I was so sad and depressed, did you even care? do you consider any other person's feelings besides your own? I saw what type of person you are in a way I didn't know. You're so hurt under it. You flip a switch when people visit you. You rely on the kindness of strangers too. Doesn't matter who they are. Why don't you listen to me? Is it because I'm a woman? Why are you so quick to invalidate my feelings? a whole fucking year with you and still don't care. why don't you care about me? you don't fight for me. Your daughter was harassed and you closed the door in our faces. How was I supposed to be there?

If I never talk to you again, I hope you're happy. Generally happy. I picture this life where you have beautiful lives and lived greatly. hands out the window vibing. Listening to your favorite songs. dancing carelessly. You're loved by somebody. Your hopes and dreams are vailed and matter. I hope someone has said that to you. I just can't look at you. Too much personally hurt and I'm trying to figure it out. Yes, you're my parents but we are not friends. You've created a mess of children and you don't know how to start. Is that what scares you? about admitting your wrongs. It's hard to do so, when you're so ignorant and care what other have to say about you. I am beautiful and smart. I had to parent myself and it's been hard but I am managing better than anyone can ever. Thanks to jay also. She deserves so much more.

nearly had a panic attack trying to think and rationalize this dream. when I'm done talking, there's silence. You can't even believe what I have said. Then leave again to not hear your thoughts. It seems like we're never meant for each other. maybe in another life.

ashley.

#penny for my thoughts #dream

[greveborg29]

Payday Loans In the United States

In CocoLoan, applicants can get from $50 up to $5,000 from online payday loans. Do your homework ahead of time to see which pawn shops are apt to offer you the best value. Most online firms will initiate transfers from credit score playing cards, debit cards, bank accounts, cash transfer accounts and pre-paid debit cards. Thus, this place is where you should rely when you need a cash advance online. With out realizing your particular state of affairs, all I can say is, it relies upon.But for the majority of people, a conventional "bad credit" private loan through a payday lender or pawn store is a nasty deal if you possibly can work out another different.If you possibly can think outside the field and determine a solution to make somewhat additional money shortly by odd jobs and side hustles, or use an alternative choice like a house fairness loan or payday alternative loan, it can save you your self a lot of money and stress in the long run. Full Article and rates might be clearly knowledgeable for the reason that preliminary offering so you'll be able to consider the worthiness of your loans. You don't need to pay your loans back without delay because lenders will offer you installments on phrases that suit your monetary affordability. The utmost you a credit score examine to your utility type online.

Our treatment is definitely simple, in addition to takes just a minute or two to accomplish. Barneys New York, a luxury retailer, this yr plans to make use of iPads or iPod Contact devices for credit score- and debit-card purchases in seven of its practically two dozen common-value stores. Kathy Jane Buchanan is a Certified Monetary Planner, with more than two decades of expertise in writing about personal finances. NerdWallet doesn't steadiness as soon as to experience the benefits lenders may consider you more than 5 minutes require immediate access to Concepts You should use employment details or the are trademarks of SunTrust accountable credit historical past, sufficient finances.

We wish to make your borrowing experience as painless as possible, which suggests competitive lending rates from our companions. Borrowing from conventional banks can be impossible because you won't move credit score checking. Depending on the loan amount, borrowing money from a good friend could be an option. When you've got a really helpful coin to promote, the pawn store mightn’t be your greatest possibility. In SA, there are massive numbers of people who get into the state of affairs the place they need urgent cash. Individuals within the South Africa can borrow the small cash with none hesitation in accordance with their very own suitability. Folks journey from far and vast to set up at most of these events, so you will have the opportunity to fulfill many sellers in one location.

They even have the opportunity to meet their budgetary needs when their payday is far. When you switch the money, it’s gone and you've got little likelihood of getting it back. If you can not make a payment on time, you must contact your lenders and lending companions immediately and talk about tips on how to handle late funds. The cellphone number for pupil loans it usually on the contact web page of the college or university’s webpage. Lenders might attempt to contact customers through several official strategies, together with cellphone calls and also e-mails, to schedule remittance. BTW: a young man answered the phone, James was giving the 888 quantity to a different in the background and then took the telephone to speak with me?

#insta

[stanleyweinstein46]

Prime Tips about The Right Way to Rebuild Your Bad Credit History

Title loans first emerged in the early nineteen nineties and opened a brand new market to individuals with poor credit and have grown increasingly standard, in line with research by the center for Responsible Lending and Consumer Federation of America. The Pew report states that of the greater than 2 million customers who receive title loans, one out of nine shoppers default on their loans, and notes that repossession affects approximately 5 to 9 percent of borrowers who default. Many people might get shocked understanding they haven't got a fixed credit score score. Many borrowers end up taking a loan with out realizing for sure if they'll repay it on time. Some teams, such as the Texas Truthful Lending Alliance, present title loans and payday loans as a type of entrapment, the place taking out one of those signifies that borrowers will discover themselves cycling additional into debt with much less possibilities of getting out of debt when compared to not taking the loan out at all, contending that 75% of payday loans are taken out inside two weeks of the earlier loan with a view to fill the gap in funds from when the loan was initially taken out. For straightforward reference and further steps, we shall be sharing links to our personal web site that provide help to with the following step in your loan borrowing course of. Since No Credit score Examine loans are designed to skip a reasonably very important step of the standard loan lending course of, these are riskier than many different loan merchandise the market has to offer. When you utilize our on-line software kind, we won't perform a credit test. The identical day loans are crafted to act as short duration monetary choice to assist you in offering immediate money.

Bad Credit Identical Day Loans presents prompt cash backing that can be utilized to execute many sudden cash expenditure reminiscent of payment of credit card dues, small pending dues, pending residence rent, sudden medical sickness, small touring expense, unpaid grocery bill or telephone invoice, excellent bank overdraft and lots of extra. You can deal with the problems such as cost of utility bills, bank card debt and urgent medical bills, college fees of the youngster and related expenses that want quick attention. Suppose you need to pay your school charges immediately but shouldn't have ample cash to do this, what would you do? However, be https://upgrade4me.de/blog/index.php?entryid=244608 for any hidden or additional charges and fees. Nonetheless, it's accurate that there is always a way out of any downside. Just like a traditional car title loan, a automotive title pawn makes use of each the car title and the bodily car (which is usually stored by the lender) to secure the loan a lot like every secured loan works, and there are the same danger and elements concerned for the borrower however most often they will receive more cash in the transaction for the reason that lender has each the car and title in their possession. From brief-time period installment loans to payday loans, title loans, and emergency funds, MoneyMutual connects you to a lender. Check with the Charges & Phrases web page for your state for extra information.

Hyderabad is each the accepted capital of Andhra Pradesh and the state capital of Telangana, an Indian state. Prudential Supervision of banks together with the levels of capital requirements and buffers. NPL package deal to a stage closer to their nominal or real economic value, thus lessening the price of selling NPLs for banks. A short time period loan for bad credit is finance offered over a brief repayment interval, often under 12 months. He should additionally hold valid bank accounts. The ECB has also indicated to work on the development of an "Amazon-type" platform to allow banks and investors to trade NPLs on a secondary market. The monetary assist given by banks and other monetary foundations to get a house loan however their essential loan is called residence loan top-up. Banks and other monetary establishments might reject loan functions in case of a bad credit rating. Sadly best place to get a loan with bad credit can not accept purposes from people presently in Client Proposal or Bankruptcy.

As a result of they do not need to make as a lot cash to cowl their bills, on-line lenders can usually make loan gives which have comparatively low-interest rates and might focus their attentions more the loan applications that are available in than on the day-to-day working of a physical lending office. One can apply for the In a single day money loans whereas sitting comfortably at his dwelling or workplace by filling a simple online utility together with his personal details. Our loan requirements are very simple -with a view to get a loan all you want is to either be employed for the previous 6 months or to have government-provided earnings (CPP, EI Mat Go away, Baby Tax Profit, and many others.) or non-public pension. For subsequent day loans bad credit it's important to fill a really short and easy software form that can ask you for some very few details about you that will likely be saved confidential. borrow money with bad credit will determine your loan amount and repayment term in accordance to your revenue standing, wants, circumstances and capability to repay the loan. However in the event you fastidiously and systematically analysis the highly aggressive online loan market nicely then you definitely could be able to obtain the associated fee-effective loan deal with suitable terms and circumstances with out doing a lot battle. Acceptance of fewer documents: It is undeniable in case you are at a bad credit loan webpage, some circumstances force you to be here. •No Credit Check Loans should basically be taken for a short term to keep away from extreme prices.

#need money bad credit

[shelvingcart]

S01 E02 - Episode 2: The Princess Bride by William Goldman - Show Notes

On July 5th, 2023 we discussed The Princess Bride. Here are our shownotes. After the line break we discuss:

William Goldman background information

Good Reads reviews for the book

The narrative frame of the book

Plot Summary

Book recommendations

ALSO, there are tons of spoilers.

Teddy's Notes on William Goldman:

Who the Fuck is William Goldman?

Born to a Jewish family (heyo!) in Chicago in 1931, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1952. He took a creative writing course there, but he says his grades were horrible. Despite the fact that he was an editor of the college’s literary magazine, he says that other editors read his anonymous submissions and said, “we can’t possibly publish this shit.”

He was drafted for the Korean War and, due to his typing skills, was assigned as a clerk in the Pentagon.

Thanks GI Bill! Goldman got his master of arts from Columbia, studying the comedy of manners in America.

Goldman’s older brother, James Goldman, was a playwright and screenwriter. William Goldman lived with him and a friend, John Kander, who also went to Oberlin. You might know John Kander as the composer for Cabaret, and Chicago. Eventually all three of them, William, James, and John, would win Academy Awards for their work.

Last week we talked about how PROLIFIC Suzanne Collins was. Now it’s time to talk about William Goldman:

He wrote 17 novels, one children’s book, 5 short stories, and 8 works of non-fiction (if you don’t count the books that assemble his screenplays). 

He is a credited producer on 24 films, including the Princess Bride, of course, but also Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Stepford Wives, among others.

The Dish from Tisch: William Goldman was the script doctor for Good Will Hunting... which won Matt Damon and Ben Affleck the Oscar for best screenplay.

The Princess Bride was originally published in 1973, but we should honor it with its full title:

“The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The ‘Good Parts’ Version, Abridged by William Goldman.” More on this later.

The book’s actual beginnings were in stories that William Goldman told to his daughters (he thankfully does not have a son). 

The book was adapted into a movie, and William Goldman did write the screenplay (which makes sense given his background). The film was directed by Rob Reiner, and starred Robin Wright and Cary Elwes.

There was going to be a musical, but Goldman had a falling out over royalties with his partner, Adam Guettell, over royalties (Goldman wanted 75%, despite not touching the score). An orchestral suite from the score was performed at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006, but then the project went under.

Selected silly GoodReads reviews:

Ganesh - 2007 - 5 star review 

“Funnier and more sexist than the movie.”

Andrea in 2007 added this to her “Want to read”

“Can't wait to read the book! I loved the movie, and not just because we got to see Cary Elwes without his shirt on…”

Patricia in 2007 gave it 4 stars and said

“The story is beautiful and the writing is humorous. My only problem is that it follows the traditional "damsel in distress" plot that has gotten so old. Princess Buttercup is a very weak female character, but I don't know yet whether the author is using her to make a statement about the roles of women in fairytales.”

Teddy's Notes on the Narrative Frame:

And THEN there’s the mock introduction to book itself. I am NOT ashamed to admit that I took a break and googled if S. Morgenstern was real or not. He is not.

Despite pulling directly from Goldman’s real life, including details like the book’s publisher (Harcourt), Goldman’s film career (like working on The Stepford Wives), and the name of his wife (Helen), the actual introduction to the book is a fictional frame story that sets up the “original” Princess Bride as a rare novel by Florinian author S. Morganstern. Florin is a fictional country, which is your tip-off, pretty much. Narrator/Adapter William Goldman is different than author William Goldman, despite the fact that real-Goldman DID adapt the Princess Bride, presumably “The Good Parts,” into a movie. Um, this is actually a cataloger’s worst nightmare.

Goldman was a fucking prankster and I am feeling tricked!!!

So there’s the lack of a big reunion scene between Buttercup and Westley, and Goldman claims in one of his little asides that he wrote one himself, but his editor wouldn’t let him put it in. Instead, readers can write to Harcourt publishers and request a copy of the fake-Goldman’s added reunion scene.

Many readers wrote in to the publisher and did receive a letter, but instead of an extra scene, the letter detailed the (obviously fictitious) legal problems that Goldman and his publishers encountered with the Morgenstern estate and its lawyer, Kermit Shog. 

This letter was revised and updated periodically; the 1987 revision mentioned the movie, while the 25th Anniversary Edition published the letter with an addendum about Kermit's lawyer granddaughter Carly.

 The 30th Anniversary Edition has a footnote that the three pages of the reunion scene were now available online. This is my edition! However, the website itself contained nothing but the text of the original three letters. 

This website has since been taken down and superseded by the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt product page for the book, which provides the 2003 version of the Reunion Scene letter as a digital download.[14]”

The 25th anniversary edition’s epilogue mentions a sequel, Buttercup’s Baby, which the epilogue says was “having trouble getting published because of Legal difficulties with S. Morgenstern’s estate.” Later editions (MINE!) include a fake sample chapter, about rescuing Buttercup’s baby but that also includes flashbacks to Inigo’s past and training as a swordsman. 

The chapter contains footnotes in which fake-Goldman is OUTRAGED to learn that the rights for the abridgement of Buttercup’s Baby were given to Stephen King.

Goldman was actually trying to write this sequel, as he admitted in a 2007 interview, but he died in 2018 without doing so.

Sarah's plot summary:

Our (actual) story opens on Buttercup, who is in the top 20th most beautiful women alive, and is a milkmaid in the country of Florin. On her farm she has parents who argue and a farm hand named Westley who answers all her requests with “As you wish”. She realizes she’s in love with him when she gets jealous, because she is a woman and jealousy is a main trait of women. 

Westley leaves to go to America to make money so he can marry Buttercup. Later, Buttercup’s parents tell her Westley has been killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Prince Humperdinck, the prince of Florin needs a wife and he cannot marry a bald woman (because women are only valued for their looks), so his creepy bff the Count Rugen helps him by bringing him to Buttercup where they agree to a loveless marriage.

Before the wedding, Buttercup is out riding when she gets (inconceivably) kidnapped by a trio of outlaws, Vizzini (the Scillian), Inigo Montoya (a Spanish Fencing master/wizard), and a Turkish Wrestler Fezzik. But (inconceivably), they are followed by a masked man in black. He follows them up the Cliffs of Insanity and battles Inigo and wins. Then he battles Fezzik and wins. And then he successfully defeats Vizzini which is inconceivable, but yet still happens via iocane powder. 

Buttercup and the man in black continue running while they argue, the man in black slaps her, and she pushes him down a hill where he yells “As you wish” and we realize it’s actually Westley. Buttercup descends the very steep hill. They reunite! Turns out Westley didn’t die he BECAME the dread pirate roberts

But they are being hotly pursued by Prince Humperdink. So they rush into the Fireswamp, Buttercup falls into snow sand, they deal with ROUS-es and come out alive on the other end only to be met by the Prince. Buttercup swaps herself for Westley’s safety but Humperdinck and Rugen are lying to her about it. They are going to take Westley to the Zoo of Death and torture him. 

Anyway, Buttercup has nightmares and realizes she can’t marry the prince, so she tells the Dink himself and he promises to send his 4 fastest ships to get Westley. But remember, westley is being tortured. Humperdinck is planning to kill Buttercup cause he wants to start a war with Guilder. 

It’s the day of the wedding, and cut to our friends Inigo and Fezzik, who were separated after their defeats. Fezzik finds Inigo, sobers him up, and they quest to find the Man in Black aka Westley, because Fezzik has found the six fingered man (Count Rugen), who killed Inigo’s dad and who he has sworn revenge upon. They want the man in black help them plan because Vizzini is an asshole who told them they were stupid. So they hear Westley screaming from torture and find him after traveling through all the levels of the Zoo of Death. They bring him to Miracle Max and Valerie, and Max and Valerie help bring him back from being “mostly dead”. 

Westley devises a plan to invade the castle during the wedding, and the commotion caused by this prompts Humperdinck to cut the wedding short. Buttercup decides to commit suicide when she reaches the honeymoon suite. Inigo pursues Rugen through the castle and kills him in a sword fight. Westley reaches Buttercup before she commits suicide and drops the most baller line of all time“There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours.” 

 Still partially paralyzed, Westley bluffs his way out of a sword fight with Humperdinck, who shows himself as a coward. Instead of killing his rival, Westley decides to leave him alive. The party then rides off into the sunset on four of the prince's purebred white horses. The story ends with a series of mishaps and the prince's men closing in, but the author indicates that he believes that the group got away.

Book Recommendations:

If you love the Princess Bride we recommend reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones

#book #books #books & libraries #books and literature #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookworm #booktok #the princess bride #princess bride #podcast #book podcast #show notes #season 1

[news4usonline]

Lakers dismiss T'Wolves, ready for Ja Morant

(News4usonline) -  There was nothing surprising about the NBA playoff play-in game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves. For much of the game, both teams made enough head-scratching plays that would make you scream and want to pull your hair out. This was not one of the more exhilarating games you’d ever want to see.  Maybe because this is the playoffs. Both teams played sub-pat and inconsistent basketball during the regular season. Both teams mirrored that theme in their head-to-head matchup at Crypto.com Arena. It wasn’t pretty to watch, but the No. 7 seeded Lakers managed to shake off the No. 8 Timberwolves in overtime, coming away with a 108-102 win.  mood. pic.twitter.com/oB6CO5PeKq— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 12, 2023 “We went 2-10; the analytic side said that we had 0.3 chance of making the postseason,” said LeBron James, who scored a team-high 30 points for the Lakers in the victory. “So, all you ask for is a chance, I guess. For us to turn around our season, and give ourselves an opportunity to compete for the Larry O’Brien trophy, that’s all you can ask for.” After sputtering out of the gate to start their season, the personnel moves the Lakers made before the trade deadline seems to have paid huge dividends for the team. Now the Lakers’ reward for beating Minnesota is a playoff series date with Ja Morant and the No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies. Good luck.  The Lakers struggled to beat Minnesota. It took the Timberwolves to go super ice cold in the fourth quarter, and then some luck in overtime before the Lakers managed to put the game away to move on for the right to play against Morant, the most electrifying player in the NBA.  “Really good team, very well-coached, very well-balanced,” James said about the Lakers’ next playoff opponent. “Obviously, they’ve got a guy named Ja Morant, another All-Star in Jaren Jackson , who’s up there, won defensive player of the year; he blocks shots, but offensively, he’s very dynamic as well. Tyus Jones, the point guard off the bench, has led the league in assist-turnover ratio like the last six years, so he compliments them very well.” And one, AD. pic.twitter.com/2o8APD9z1J— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 12, 2023 James didn’t stop there in doling out the platitudes to Memphis.  “Desmond Bane, I think in his third year…second or third year, but he plays like a veteran,” James remarked in postgame comments. “His ability to shoot the ball from the three-point line and also his ability to attack in early transition. Dillion Brooks, the opportunity to go out there and you know, you can’t disrespect him because he makes shots. Xavier Tillman has been playing good basketball. Obviously, he’s been well-coached from his college days from coach Izzo until now, and so on and so on. They’ve got Luke Kennard, who broke my scoring record in high school. He passed me in high school. There’s a reason why. He’s a lase from the three-point line. His ability to shoot the ball is uncanny. And they’ve got so many other guys also off the bench that you can’t disrespect them because they will make you pay. Obviously, I haven’t thought about Memphis one minute.”  If the Lakers play at the level they did against the Timberwolves, the Memphis series might be a quick one. The Minnestoa-Los Angeles NBA play-in playoff game was hard to watch for a variety of reasons. Let’s be clear about one thing: Minnesota lost this game.  Yes, the Lakers eventually came away with the win, but the Timberwolves blew it. Quite simply, Minnesota deserved to lose after blowing a double-digit lead in the fourth period. At the 6:01 mark in the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves had scored 95 points and had a cushion of seven points.  Minnesota would not score again until three free throws made by guard Mike Conley with 0:01 left in the game sent the contest into overtime. Conley, who scored 23 points for the Timberwolves,   “Give them credit first off,” Conley said. “They did a good job of changing up their defensive scheme, switching from one through five, and made it tough for us to get the ball into Kat in positions where he could be effective, and we didn’t have a great rhythm, and forced us to take some tough shots.”  With the Timberwolves bumbling and stumbling all over themselves and suddenly forgetting how to penetrate the paint late in the final period, that created an opening for the Lakers to make a run, which they did.  ? pic.twitter.com/QVJ88RperV— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 12, 2023 But this win was hardly anything to celebrate other than the fact that the Lakers got an opportunity to beat a talent-thin Minnesota team in order to move on to play a deeper and better athletic team in Memphis. At the end of the day, the Lakers won. That’s all that really matters.  But if this was a rating on the impressive scale, it would read about a 3. Ugly game. Ugly win. Now can the Lakers play this way against the electrifying Morant and the Grizzlies? Absolutely not. The Timberwolves went out and choked this game away rather than the Lakers going out and winning the game.  This game is also a reflection of where the Lakers are at as a team. There’s a reason (or a couple) why the Lakers found themselves in the play-in game in the first game. They’ve had to fight all season just to be in the position to have a chance to play in the postseason.  “Everyone knew what was riding on this one.” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “The days of rest you gain by coming out with this game is priceless. That’s on both teams’ minds, the direct competition as well as the circumstances around it-who wins and who loses. We expected a dogfight and they gave us one.” Read the full article

#Lakers #NBA #playoffs

[govandalsncaa]

Vandals escape with hard fought 17-14 win in MWC Championship

The University of Idaho Vandals (13-0. 10-0) are once again Conference Champions, but it was not easy.

Riding the best defense in the country and a running game that attempted to control the clock, Idaho emerged with a 17-14 victory over the 14th ranked University of Arizona Wildcats (11-2. 9-1).

Idaho's two touchdowns on the day came on a Dylan Thigpen 1 yard touchdown run in the second quarter and a Brandon Luckett 11 yard catch with 5:24 remaining that proved to be the game winner.

Idaho led the game 10-7 at halftime, thanks to a Steve O'Donnell 31 yard field goal. Late in the 3rd quarter, Arizona missed a long, but makeable field goal of their own, that could have potentially sent this game to overtime.

Idaho's defense was in bend but don't break mode, most of the afternoon, and it largely worked.

Idaho quarterabck, Dustin Coleman completed 12 of his 18 attempts for 150 yards and 1 touchdown.

Dylan Thigpen carried the ball 28 times for 113 yards and a touchdown, in a workman-like effort.

True Freshman, Ken Jones led the Vandals with 4 catches, but Brandon Luckett's lone reception, on an 11 yard in-route on 3rd and goal, in traffic proved to be the difference in the game.

Defensively, Calvary Pugh managed to create the only turnover of the game, that led to Idaho's first touchdown. Mike Linehan totalled 6 tackles and Eric Hale had two sacks.

Arizona had 302 yards of total offense to just 239 for Idaho, but the lone turnover and going 2 for 7 on third down, doomed the Wildcats' chances.

Coach Idaho Coach spoke with the media following the big win.

"Conference Champions. Holy cow. What a ball game. That was maybe the most physical college football game I've ever been a part of. Credit to Arizona, they're one of the best teams in the country. If anything they should move up in the rankings after a game like that. They had us on the ropes with under a minute to go in Moscow, and it wasn't a fluke. They are a great team.

The play I keep going over was that throw from Dustin Coleman to Luckett for our second touchdown. Just such a gutty throw and catch at a moment where we had to have it, biggest play of the season, and it was a guy who was our QB2 for most of the year and a guy who probably hasn't had as many targets in the passing game as he deserves, and they make the play. Just awesome.

Our fans were incredible today. We don't hold Arizona to 14 points without their energy and noise. Incredible. What a day for the University of Idaho.

Now, we've got one more mountain to climb."

That mountain will likely be a third straight trip to the BCS National Championship game.

Final Score:

Vandals: 17

Wildcats: 14

[crazynewsindia]

Jaypee university's Harshita got All India Rank 1 in JNU Entrance Examination: Journey in her own words

Jaypee university's Harshita got All India Rank 1 in JNU Entrance Examination: Journey in her own words We are proudly sharing that one of our M.Sc. Biotechnology (2022 passed out) student Harshita D/O Sh. KARAMVIR SINGH, resident of Rolad Latifpur village in Sonipat district of Haryana got All India Rank 1 in Open category of JNU Ph.D. entrance examination of Life Sciences stream. She also ranked 46 in CSIR NET examination, 2022. Harshita was admitted in JUIT for MSc Biotechnology through GAT-B exam conducted by DBT, Government of India during the academic year 2022-23 with AIR 114. She got offered MSc program from various reputed government institutes but she chose JUIT initially because of the peaceful surroundings and later JUIT made her fall in love because, this place gave her an amazing opportunity to be surrounded by such good people be her amazing friends, our administration or our faculty and staff members. She mentioned while talking to Dr. Tiratha Raj Singh, Media In-charge, JUIT, about the kind and helpful faculty members of the JUIT who helped her throughout the masters journey. There were times when we felt demotivated and disheartened due to not being able to attend college in person during first year due to COVID pandemic, but the faculty members and her most respected HoD Dr. Sudhir Syal sir motivated us and shared our emotions. Further she mentioned that "even when the college started everyone helped us out with all the difficulties we faced; especially Dr. Saurabh Bansal sir who played a very important role in shaping my interest towards research and guided me through my dissertation. His own journey has motivated me in coming so far." Harshita scored an overall CGPA of 9.8 in MSc. She told that "It was a wonderful experience studying in JUIT and will always be an important part of me and I’M very thankful to my best friend Aaina Sharma for introducing me to such a nice place and such good people. I feel like I have grown a lot as a person after coming to JUIT." Professor Sudhir Kumar personally congratulated her on this success and she was very appreciative of the course content taught to her at JUIT. She wholeheartedly gave the credit to JUIT for shaping her career and future. Honorable Vice Chancellor Professor Rajendra Kumar Sharma also congratulated her on this extraordinary achievement and passed on best wishes for her future. Read the full article