#masterpieces of the dot matrix printer | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fromkenari · 10 months

Text

Screaming y'all. I co-wrote villain fan fiction in 3rd grade in 1993, and there was no spell check, only clip art and a dot matrix printer we got into trouble for using. I wrote my first story in 1st grade but don't have that one. I don't have The Destroyer either because my parents threw it away. Thankfully, Veronika saved her copy. That's her dead name next to mine on the cover page. A trans femme child and a non-binary child, both not knowing why their lives were so wrong while being raised as AMAB and AFAB, respectively, came together for this masterpiece, and their parents were promptly called.

#trans #fan fiction #villain fic #what is spellcheck #they were so dark #lololol #out of credits

1 note · View note

changery · 5 years

Text

Odyssey of the Mind

Creativity and science have always been important to me. We push creativity with our kids. When they wake up, they make things. LEGO creations, paper costumes, drawings. All of our kids want to be creative people of some sort. They watch a little TV for inspiration, they briefly play video games for inspiration, they read a lot for inspiration, we constantly play music in the house, but active creation is so important to us.

^My kids at the time of this post (2019) creating origami, drawings, and LEGOs.

When I think back to my childhood, one of the most influential events that fused creativity with science for me was Odessey of the Mind. I was annoyed that I wasn’t in the gifted program when we moved from Ithaca, NY to Huntingdon, PA in the summer of 1990. My parents had just finished earning graduate degrees from Cornell University and my Dad was teaching business courses at Juniata College. I bugged my parents to get me tested for the gifted program at my school. When I got in, I was surprised how much focus there was on creativity. We completed projects on global warming, greenhouse gasses, the hole in the ozone layer, and CFCs. We made slide shows and printed banners on dot matrix printers. My mind was blown.

^Leaving the beauty that is Ithaca, NY was traumatic for me when I was a kid. Those gorges made me a naturalist. This picture is from a pilgrimage back to Ithaca with our kids in 2016.

My “fame” in the gifted program came from our Odessey of the Mind project. I made structures out of balsa wood that could support weights being added to them and could withstand a billiard ball hit from the side. I would spend hours and hours on my structures, only to have them destroyed when we tested them. I got frustrated. I would fail. I would make improvements and move on. I’m pretty good with roadblocks these days. Maybe it stems from those initial failures.

^My Dad and I at the same spot in our dining room where I would create my engineering masterpieces. I look nothing like my dad...

I got to create and I got to work as part of a team. We made it to the state level in competition. That left a big impact on me. Maybe it is why I became a scientist. I couldn’t have done any of that without the support of my parents. They set such a good example for me. I just hope we are doing the right things for these boys of ours. I just hope I’m doing the right things for my students.

^My undergraduate researcher, Tyler, showing off the graphs he created.

#driftless #wisconsin #nature #changery #newyork #ithaca #juniata #cornell #science #creativity #biology #ecology #herpetology #platteville #drjohnpeterson #odesseyofthemind #lego #gorges #research

0 notes