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#assigned reading
graciousdragon · 9 months
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The time I wrote gay fanfiction for an English project and got an A
I saw a video earlier today that reminded me of something that happened to me a few years ago, and I figured now was as good a time as any to share it. I know this is the fake story website but please trust me when I say that this is an entirely true story. This title is also 100% accurate, surprisingly, so let me elaborate
This happened when I was in 8th grade, which for context was about 4 years ago when I’m writing this. One of the books we were assigned to read in my English class that year was The Call of the Wild by Jack London. For a brief summary if you weren’t forced to read it (or you were and you forgot what it was about, which is understandable), the book is about this Saint Bernard named Buck who lives a cushy life with his wealthy owner until he is kidnapped and sold off to be a sled dog during the gold rush, where he learns to obey the humans and follow his primal instincts, eventually becoming the leader of the sled dog pack and then becoming fully wild. From what I remember, our class was assigned three projects pertaining to the book; one somewhere in the middle of the book where we had to design a poster for the fight between Buck and Spitz, one at the very end that was just your standard essay about the theme of the book or something like that, and one in-between those that I will be talking about here.
The Call of the Wild is a relatively short book at only 7 chapters. Leading up to this project, we read through every chapter except for the last one. Instead of reading the last chapter right away, we were given a project where we all had to individually write our own conclusion to the book without reading the actual last chapter. I was mildly peeved, because I just wanted to finish the book, but I figured it might be fun. If i remember correctly, there weren’t really any restrictions for what we could or couldn’t do, aside from it obviously needing to be a continuation of the book using the same characters. In the document we were given that explained the project there were some suggestions for things we could include in our chapter, one of which was bringing back previous characters who had died. My favorite character in the book was Sol-leks, a husky on Buck’s sled team with only one eye, and he got killed at the end of chapter 5 when his new incompetent owners lead him over frozen water that breaks under them and causes them to drown. I decided to bring back Sol-leks for my chapter.
Now is where that title comes in. I truly wish I could go back to my 8th grade self and figure out what the hell caused me to take this route with my chapter, because on reflection I cannot figure it out. For whatever reason, likely just for shits and giggles, I decided it would be fun to imply romantic feelings between Buck and Sol-leks. That’s right everyone, in 8th grade I wrote a gay romance subplot between two of the dogs in The Call of the Wild for a graded English assignment. It wasn’t a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it thing either, I had an entire paragraph in there dedicated to how the two spent a lot of time together and got to know each other well and had a special bond that I flat-out said was more than friendship. And I submitted it like that. Where I live, its kind of a roulette of guessing whether someone is homophobic or not, so I wasn’t sure if I might get in trouble for my gay dog story, but I knew if any teacher or faculty member tried to give me shit for it then I would 100% be going to bat for my little Buck x Sol-leks fanfic. Fortunately, I never got in any trouble, and my teacher gave me an A. (if i remember correctly it was a 96 or 97% out of 100) I believe the teacher may have also left comments on it when she graded it, but I don’t remember what they were if there were any. Which leads me to the sad part of this story.
I can’t find the original writing.
I don’t have it saved anywhere, and my school email account I wrote it with is long gone now. Even when I still had access to it, for some reason I was unable to find it in my Google Drive. I couldn’t even find the instruction document or the grading rubric. Not having access to this writing piece is truly one of the worst regrets of my life. I would give almost anything to have it back. I’m genuinely sad I don’t have it anymore. Fortunately, I still remember how it went, so I’ll give you all an abridged version of it here.
For context, in the chapter before this, Buck’s new owner John Thornton had made a bet with a man named Matthewson in a bar that Buck could pull a 1,000 pound sled for 100 yards. Buck succeeded and Thornton won the bet, but Matthewson offered a large sum to buy Buck that Thornton refused.
My chapter began with Buck, Thornton, and Thornton’s other dogs traveling through a wooded area when Buck heard a familiar whimpering. Buck followed the sound to find Sol-leks, cold and alone in the forest. My explanation for how he survived was that he was able to get out of the water and got lost in the woods. Thornton took Sol-leks in to nurse him back to health like he had with Buck, noticing that Sol-leks was one of the other dogs on Buck’s team when Thornton first found him. Over this time when Sol-leks was recovering he and Buck became very close, which is where that previously mentioned paragraph insinuating that they were falling in love comes in. When Sol-leks was healthy again, he joined Thornton’s sled dog team and they continued traveling. However, one night while they were camped outside, Matthewson tracked them down and, still bitter about losing the bet and not being able to buy Buck, planned to steal Buck instead. Buck was captured by Matthewson, but before he could get away, Sol-leks realized he was there trying to steal Buck and attacked him. Buck got free and watched for a moment, thankful that Sol-leks cared so much for him that he would put himself in harm’s way to save him, before Buck joined in on the fight. I don’t remember if they killed Matthewson or just drove him away, but they were able to continue their journey together.
And that’s how it ended. For the most part this story really only exists in my memories, but there are fortunately two things to prove this thing was real and not just a weird fever dream I had that got confused with reality. First is the memories from my friends who also went to middle school with me and remember doing the project themselves. The other one is this page in my sketchbook from 8th grade, in which I drew my own designs of Buck and Sol-leks. The drawing on the bottom was directly based on a scene in my story.
(For some reason its not letting me put the picture in this post, I’m going to post this as-is and reblog it with the picture)
Will I ever revisit this idea again? Maybe. If I have the time someday and the urge strikes me I won’t rule out the potential of me doing something with it. Do I think Buck x Sol-leks is a good ship? I don’t know. I haven’t read the original book in years, so maybe if I went back and read it with fresh eyes I would think differently. Sorry if there are any die-hard The Call of the Wild fans out there who were just scarred by my potentially horrid misinterpretations of these characters.
Also, the song I associated with the ship was The Sharpest Lives by My Chemical Romance.
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When alien archaeologists exhume the rubble of human civilization, they may conclude that our raison d'être was building roads.
Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb
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trees-to-meet-you · 1 year
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Nathan Price is a pussy-ass bitch and I hope he dies
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rocket-angel · 1 year
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k so ive covered like . the 2021 dmaorg update, some of thge dema propaganda, shy away, and the livestream website. im not sure whether to just go directly into the events of the livestream and then beyond or if theres anything im missing
heres the link to the doc btw
I am posting as a bookmark for myself to look at and follow up.
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paymechildsupport · 9 hours
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I really, really hope I wasn't the only one who saw this man on screen and immediately started paying attention in English class. Ong To Kill a Mockingbird was carried by this man.
I love Atticus Finch with my whole heart and, -- m' just gonn' say it,-- when his fine ass came on screen, I did too :3
My ass physically could NOT be up there on that podium with fucking Atticus Finch being my prosecutor. Yessir I did commit those heinous acts against the homeless man behind the CVS dumpsters, - lock me up and punish me now please <3
(anyone want some, erm, "dedicated" oneshots for him I'd be more than happy to share the stuff I did in freshman year *wink wink*)
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sterekical · 18 days
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Sterek - The Tool Box Series Pt. 2 Assigned Reading
Beginning to re-post my old fanfic from Ao3 now that I'm back.
Assigned Reading was originally posted in November 2012. It was the second part of a 6 part series of shorts that turned into a more substantial story. Someone had prompted me 'pretending to be married ' and this is what I wrote.
Show: Teen Wolf
Who: Sterek
Tumblr: sterekical /// Ao3: quelling
Rated for Teen audiences because of language. Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.
Summary: Stiles gets his hands on an old Hale book, but it's Derek educating him.
Assigned Reading
Sometimes Stiles wasn’t sure how they’d pulled it off, their little rag tag pack of maladjusted teenage werewolves, but they’d won the territory. Derek was still Alpha of the Beacon Hill area, and a Hale remained in control of the region as it had for decades. From what Stiles could gather from research in the local library, it was more like a century, but he couldn’t corroborate it with any other sources. He was basing it on how long Hales had lived in the area. And it wasn’t as if he could ask Derek. While less likely to shove him into the nearest wall, the Alpha was still very much a poster child for broody werewolves everywhere.
Some good had come from the pack’s recent turf battle. For one, Scott had agreed to be in the pack, and of course, Stiles came along too. Two for one, that was Scott and Stiles, but sometimes he wondered if Derek was less than pleased that he’d ended up with two humans in his pack. Two since Jackson had brought in Lydia with him.
The greatest benefit had been the insta-bonding that had been pretty much necessary. Nothing like stress, tension and battling together to forge connections. Still, they’d only outright won a few fights. More than once they’d had to retreat to lick their wounds. Most of the time it was a draw.
Lydia and Stiles had been tasked with logistics, and when alone, they admitted betwixt themselves that they were very likely outmatched. And then suddenly, the alpha pack had left entirely, abandoning the rivalry without looking back.
At the last pack meeting, Boyd had asked what finally turned the tide in their favor. Derek stared at every pack member in the room, but his eyes lingered on Stiles last. It was enough to make Stiles squirm in his spot on the sofa, mushed between Isaac and Lydia. Everyone else looked at him then too, and he simply made a face at all of them. What the hell did I do?!
“I will explain in depth later.” That was all Derek had to say, and with that, the alpha had moved on to other topics, and Stiles had gratefully sank deeper into the cushions. It was a new sofa. Comfy. He’d wanted to disappear into the cushions for the rest of the night.
That was two days before. Stiles was now on that same sofa, a rather old book on his lap. The aged paper smelled delicious to a nose that loved sniffing out knowledge. The betas were currently all outside training; Derek and Scott had rigged up obstacle type courses all over the property. It was practically Camp Werewolf.
Stiles vaguely wondered when Lydia was going to show up. Part of him wanted to share the thick book, part of him wanted to hoard it.
The front door opening made him smile; he would be sharing it apparently. ”Lydia? Check out this book Peter gave me!” he called out. He wasn’t a fan of Peter Hale, and never would be. But this book was wealth of information on actual werewolf lore, personalized by Hales, and it was a treasure.
“Not Lydia,” Derek answered from the doorway.
Oh, well, fuck me. Stiles frowned at him. ”Are you about to take this away from me? Shit, I knew I should have started snapping photos with my phone,” he groused.
“I told Peter to give it to you.” Derek was a lot closer now. Looming over him.
“Stop looming. Your Alpha shit doesn’t really work on me,” Stiles shook his head at him.
Derek snorted at that. Literally snorted with a werewolf snort of doom. And was that amusement on Derek’s face? He reached to take the book and Stiles gave it up, but his look was nothing short of longing as the tome left his hands.
Derek took a seat then, right next to him, and Stiles briefly wondered if he could get away with scooting. He needed to put space between them because the closeness was making him inexplicably blush. Fortunately, big bad werewolf wasn’t paying him any attention, instead flipping pages, so Stiles stayed put. Stopping, Derek skimmed the current page with a nod, and presented it back to Stiles.
Stiles wanted to ask questions, but he tamped down the temptation to dutifully look at his newly assigned reading. He was only halfway down the page when his jaw dropped and his eyes flashed to Derek. ”You’re married?! You got married to keep the territory?! Who? When?!” And why did it bother him so damn much?
“I only had to announce to them I’d claimed a mate,” Derek stated. ”They could scent the truth of it. They didn’t need the piece of paper, though I told them we were actually married.” And it must have been accepted as truth because they’d have been able to smell a lie on Derek.
And the mated thing bothered Stiles even more than a marriage because he’d already read about mates and that shit was serious business. His stomach twisted inside him. ”So who? Erica?”
“Are you even listening?” Derek tapped the side of Stiles’ head, hard enough to be uncomfortable but not nearly hard enough to hurt. ”I told them we were married.”
Stiles tried to swallow, but he choked himself. Or actually, Derek choked him. Derek had just put figurative fingers around his throat and choked him with that pronouncement.
Derek calmly patted his back until he was finished.
“You told the alpha pack — you pretended — we were married?!” Stiles accused. And by now, he’d jumped as far across the couch as his body would let him.
“They could smell the truth of it. My wolf had already chosen you as a mate,” Derek shrugged. ”I was just trying to make an honest man out of you.”
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Reading for school: takes 1 week to read 7 pages
Reading for fun: reads 7000 pages in 1 week
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tenderbittersweet · 7 months
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I’m listening to an assigned reading on ×1.3 speed to finish it before class starts in an hour, and I have no idea how people can remotely stand ×1.5 or ×2 speed. I can hardly stand it at ×1.3. It’s awful. It feels like someone is shoving the book directly into my ears and then into my brain. I couldn’t even tell you what the book is about outside of general concepts. But I just need to know enough to get through class, and I’ll try to make up for it later. 🫠
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milk-lover · 4 months
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Sobbing uncontrollably reading through a dissertation about the college experience of students with ADHD. It is like reading a report about my life that just says over and over "My experiences are real. My hardships are real. I am not lazy, I am not dumb. My struggles were not my fault, and they were not a moral failing. The failure was with the system, not with me."
Here's a line that got me in particular:
"Hotez et al.(2022) compared the health, academic, and non-academic capacities of a nationally representative sample of U.S. first-year college students with ADHD and without ADHD. Students with ADHD self-reported lower academic aspirations and more feelings of depression and overwhelm, ranking themselves lower in their general emotional health. The fact that students with ADHD scored in the highest 10th percentile for many non-academic traits, such as artistic ability, computer skills, creativity, public speaking, social confidence, self-understanding and understanding of others, compassion, and risk-tasking, suggests that this population has strengths that are frequently underappreciated in academia."
(the paper is a thesis called "Understanding the Collegiate Experience for Students With ADHD" by Gia Long, 2022)
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"1984" by George Orwell decided to emotionaly fuck me up right after "The Plague" from Albert Camus and I am not okay.
LIKE, IT'S SO GREAT. It's this type of book that actually had me think about life, reflect on our society and how it may progress further down the line. The eternal war reminded me of a certain orange man a bit too much (sorry americans XD) and the explanation made me put the book down for a minute. This book is so damn logical by having no sense, it's fascinating. Also, the third part of the book reminded me of a certain inmate from "A world apart" by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński a tad too much.
Yes, I'm a walking red flag because of it, but this book might be my new favourite assigned reading. And yes, war literature is very fascinating to me, but that's because of "Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania" with it's pretencious Mickiewicz's recipe for bigos and mushroom picking.
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reachingfortheday · 2 years
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vico ortiz i am obsessed with you
(source)
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elodieunderglass · 6 months
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The Power of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
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dogsharks · 1 year
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I love how in bnha fic there’s a handful of headcanons that everyone adores. I love how that makes it possible to read so many interpretations of this specific situation.
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he’s matching with eri if you even care
bonus comic: (the next morning)
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a few minutes later bkg decides to own it and become a rarity stan
edit: now comes with a rec list!
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sanctus-ingenium · 1 year
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heads-up display visor
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strialternatives · 6 months
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bonus:
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somehow their different cross-media designs give off different vibes/ship dynamics to me, i just thought it'd be fun to draw it out lol
(also i love their mobile designs they're so pretty ;v;)
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