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dvrcos · 2 months

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Ive been bothering everyone I possibly can by dropping asks abt Aaron in their inbox soo it's ur turn now

Any Aaron hcs? Your opinion on skater boy Aaron?

And because I love Kevin too, any Kevin hcs? I feel like people tend to forget that Kevin likes photography too canonically besides exy and history

OMG I JUST SAW THIS THANK YOU FOR ASKING HEHEHEHE

Skater boy Aaron is real and true and canon (to me at least)

He is the poster boy for the early 2000s skater aesthetic

Part of the reason he continues skating in college is because he enjoys the heart attack it gives Kevin

Kevin doesn’t want him getting hurt and jeopardizing the team and his wellbeing

So Aaron makes sure he finds time to skate everyday

Aaron is a lover of pop culture and is just a fucking nerd dude

He loves Lord of the Rings and read Harry Potter as it came out (and also very actively hates JKR in the modern day)

Aaron Minyard is a chronic migraine girly

He’s a med student and athlete who gets very little sleep so his head constantly hurts

And yaknow what he’s a little bitch about it too

He is constantly complaining to Katelyn and using it as an excuse to be an asshole

(I love him so dearly)

I also think he is constantly cold and has terrible blood circulation

His hands and feet are always freezing

Years of drug use and constantly needing to take Advil for his headaches has just shot his cardiovascular system

So he’s constantly cold and doesn’t run a lot because his stamina is shit

He has a raging addiction to caffeine and his vice is RedBulls

His sleep schedule is absolutely wrecked from both Exy and school so he’s rarely ever without a RedBull in hand

I don’t think he cares a lot about his diet but he does try to keep it pretty nutrient packed bc he knows the benefits of it

But he also has a sweet tooth (not as strong as Andrew’s but still strong) and he favors baked goods like cake and banana bread and pastries

His vision is bad and it just keeps getting worse over the years but he doesn’t wear his glasses often

He usually resorts to contacts but has to switch to his glasses late at night or when his head is hurting extra bad

OKAY KEVIN FUCKING DAY

He loves tea

Like has an extensive tea collection and will spend the money to buy teas from around the world

He also has a mug collection (the Foxes start gifting him mugs every holiday when they find out about it)

His favorite mugs are his vintage Trojans mug, a “history is not boring” mug the Foxes gave him when he graduated, and a Hogwarts mug Aaron gave him

(they read the series together :P)

Kevin’s favorite areas of history to study are Ancient Rome and the history of Ireland

He’s fascinated by the Roman Empire and studying Ireland makes him feel more connected to his mother

I think he continues school on the side and eventually gets a doctorate degree and teaches a bit after he retires from Exy

He always tries to sign with teams in or near the cities the other OG Foxes are in because he doesn’t really know how to function without the familiarity of his people

Kevin works a lot on undoing his Raven dietary habits and since he’s surrounded by people who can’t cook he grows a love for frozen food as well as caffeine

I think he takes a few art classes and really enjoys it even though he doesn’t think he’s that great at it

He’s actually not bad at all and makes a lot of really cool pieces

Kevin exclusively wears 5 inch inseam shorts

Anything longer is blasphemous

He has basically zero sense of style and just kind of mimics what the others are wearing

Until Allison forces him to go to the mall with her and they spend hours building him a real wardrobe that is him

Most of his closest still consists of PSU and USC merch though

And truly would this even be me if I didn’t put kevaaron headcanons? No

Kevin is basically a human radiator, especially after practice

And that is a blessing directly from God in Aaron’s eyes

Kevin comes back from night practice and Aaron just clings to him, absorbing all of his heat as they fall asleep

Aaron is a chronic clothes stealer like he just has sticky fingers when it comes to Kevin’s wardrobe

They spend a lot of time together in the library

They’re both in quite intensive and workload heavy majors so they study together a lot

It happened more as an accident tbh like Aaron was heading to the library to study for a midterm

And basically all of PSU’s student body had the same idea so there was no open tables

But low and behold there was Kevin, alone at a table tucked in the back corner, typing away at his laptop

Aaron joins him without asking and it kinda just becomes their thing

Kevin joins Aaron at the library between regular and night practices

They spend most of their weekends there and bring each other caffeinated drinks and snacks

Eventually they’re not even studying half the time, they’re just talking and spending time with each other outside of Exy and the other Foxes curious glances and prying comments

Aaron takes a history class with Kevin but Kevin refuses to take any science class outside of his required credits

He’s not a science person so Aaron doesn’t take it personally

Kevin can never properly wrap his head around how strong Aaron actually is

It just doesn’t compute for him, like how can so much strength be packed into such a small body

But he is most definitely not complaining, especially not when that strength is so clearly but on display or used against him

Kevin is practically drooling anytime he watches Aaron body check a striker twice his size and send them sprawling onto the floor

They become each others partners/marks during practices and it is simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever happen

They’re just excessively flirting while tripping each other and fighting with their racquets

The other Foxes comment on their “weird and disturbing foreplay” every chance they get

#thank you anon for giving me the chance to rant #I love these little idiots #so I hope you enjoyed #the kevaaron demons are loud and I cannot control them #aftg #all for the game #aaron minyard #kevin day #aftg headcanon

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dannyfoley · 7 months

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(For)

Some ecologists are calling for predators such as wolves and lynx to be returned to Ireland

They say this would help control Ireland's expanding deer population and so protect forests and crops

Sheep farmers in particular say they fear attacks on their animals and the threat to rural communities

The animals were hunted to extinction in Ireland in the late 18th Century, but there are increasing calls from ecologists to bring them back, potentially alongside another large predator, the lynx.

The benefits, they argue, range from controlling deer numbers and so protecting forests, to reducing road accidents.

However, the idea of reintroducing large predators is, not surprisingly, unpopular with Ireland's farmers.

Sheep farmers in particular fear attacks on their flocks and the impact on rural communities.

If there's one key reason for the calls to bring back the predators it's the ever expanded deer population in Ireland.

Overgrazing by them has led to damage to forests as well as crops.

Earlier this year, the chair of the Wicklow Deer Management Partnership said there could be more than 100,000 of the animals in that county alone.

Last year, 55,000 deer were culled in Ireland.

Ecologist Padraic Fogarty says that Ireland had pressing targets to meet for climate and biodiversity.

"Among those is restoring elements of our natural ecosystem particularly forests, peatlands and so on," he says.

"You just can’t have natural ecosystems that work without big predators.

"So if we want to re-establish big areas of forest that’s not going to be possible if we’re going to have deer numbers that are totally out of control or we don’t have the balance in those forests so that they can re-generate and perpetuate themselves over the long-term."

Mr McLoughlin adds that culling deer is not working.

"The first year that they culled deer in Ireland they killed 5,000 deer, last year they killed 50,000," he says.

"Every year, it’s cull, cull, cull and the numbers are still increasing."

He says by chasing their prey, wolves ensure they catch "the sick, the diseased, the old and the frail" and create a healthy deer population.

"The diseased ones that they’re taking out of the population are diseases that we really fear, like Lyme disease that affects thousands of people in Ireland," he says.

"They will also take out TB, which farmers dread.

"Crop framers have their crops destroyed by overpopulation of deer – the wolves will actually help the crop farmers, the tillage farmers."

Mr McLoughlin also cites a US study that suggested a 23% in reduction in road accidents involving deer in places with a wolf population.

"Wolves create a landscape of fear that keeps deer moving, it keeps deer away from the roads, it keeps deer up in the highlands where we want them, not down in our fields or in our gardens," he says.

"Despite intensive farming and urban sprawl, all it took for these animals to recover in mainland Europe was for people to stop killing them."

He says the public would have nothing to fear from the prospect of lynx reintroductions.

"There is not a single record of a human attack, let alone mortality from a wild Eurasian lynx anywhere in the world," he says.

(Against)

John Joe Fitzgerald is a sheep farmer from County Kerry and member of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association.

"We have the domestic dogs in this country, they’re killing anything between 300 and 500, maybe 600 animals a year," he says.

"We can’t control the domestic dogs we have, how are we going to control a wild animal?

"I can’t see any way that they could reintroduce these animals, it wouldn’t be fair on the rural communities, it wouldn’t be fair on farmers and even small towns."

Mr Fitzgerald says across Europe where wolves have returned, thousands of sheep are being killed by them every year.

"Are we going to live in fear now that our animals are going to be slaughtered?" he says.

"The vast tracts of land are not in this country to reintroduce wolves, even if they’re going to be controlled.

"The only known predator to the wolf in Ireland is a gun.

"It’s not nice to reintroduce wolves and then we as farmers or rural communities have to start shooting them – it makes no sense."

(Meeting both halfway)

Padraic Fogarty said an important part of any reintroduction projects would be to pay farmers and local communities.

"We’re not talking about compensation, because that kind of implies damage, but if we start talking about the rewards communities could get from having large predators in their areas then I think the attitude might be different and we might have a different conversation that wouldn't be so vexed," he says.

Josh Twining agrees with this approach.

"Mitigation programmes in countries where people share their landscapes with large carnivores vary substantially, but increasing in popularity is the use of conservation performance payments," he says.

"I think for lynx reintroduction to ever gain any real traction, it needs to be led in collaboration with those who would be most affected, the sheep farmers, the game keepers, the custodians of the land."

Killian McLaughlin says that there is a "need to start educating people first of all and educating them that they [wolves] don’t kill people and they actually benefit us as well".

He adds: "There’s lots of ways of protecting livestock and our neighbours on the continent have gotten very good at protecting them."

Padraic Fogarty says that technically, these reintroductions would be feasible and that the species themselves could survive and adapt - "but it’s living alongside humans that is the problem".

Mr McLoughlin says it wouldn't take many wolves to balance the ecosystem.

"Top predators never overpopulate because if they do their food source disappears and they disappear," he says.

"We could initially start off with one pack and study them, but we would need a bit of genetic diversity, so you would probably need several pairs."

He adds: "It would really be about giving them the basics that they need to survive and then just leaving them well enough alone and letting nature take its course, because nature survived without us for millions and millions of years."

#biodiversity #art and ecology #ecosystem #reintroduction #conservation #cohabitation #wolves #lynx #forest #wildlife #Irish wildlife #farming #ecology

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enbycrip · 7 months

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I’m reading a lot of stuff about the massacres in Ireland before and during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and, honestly, the parallels between that situation and the one in Palestine rn are pretty impossible to ignore.

In which, btw, Scotland played a role of more than supporting England - a bunch of Scottish Covenanters had engaged in plantation in Ireland, and, despite both parties being white Europeans - it’s still pretty clearly colonialism. Land theft, with the explicit intention of “civilising” the native Irish and making them change from a pastoral way of life to crop agriculture and to Protestantism.

I feel it is a necessary part of Scotland’s necessary movement towards independence that we as a country recognise our part in colonialism and genocide and that we still benefit from that resource theft today. And that comes despite the fact that we have also been victims of colonialism from England too. It’s possible to be both, and the ongoing legacy of both those facts is something we need to acknowledge and atone for.

In early modern Ireland, when there were attacks on, and atrocities towards, English and Scottish settlers, by a small number of native Irish folk, these were massively ramped up and exaggerated in the burgeoning popular press and used as excuses for mass military invasion and reprisals on the mass civilian Irish population. At least one Scottish army was sent there for “reprisals” against the civilian population by the Scottish Covenanter government.

This was in the period before Cromwell’s atrocities in Ireland, and thus is often forgotten, but they did happen. I don’t think I need to point out the parallels too minutely here.

Honestly, much as I adore the study of history, and think it is utterly necessary to understand the world we live in - few things get more horrifying and depressing than seeing such similar actions repeated again and again.

Btw, I will be *pissed off* if I see antisemitism and antisemitic dogwhistles in responses to this. The state of Israel is not synonymous with Judaism or Jewish people, and the Jewish diaspora do not deserve hatred because of the actions of Israel’s horrendous right-wing government. Both the governments of UK and the USA are considerably more responsible for them; direct your anger there rather than at people of an ethnic group who have more than enough shit thrown at them.

Both antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks have increased across the world since this, and that is absolutely horrific. No random civilians in other parts of the world are responsible for these atrocities.

#palestine #ireland #wars of the three kingdoms #colonialism #genocide #land theft #history #early modern history #modern history #antisemitism #islamophobia #scottish independence #scottish independence means taking full responsibility for our part in colonialism #and paying reparations

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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Bernie Sanders thinks you should work fewer days.

The progressive from Vermont chimed in on the four-day work week debate on Twitter, writing: "With exploding technology and increased worker productivity, it's time to move toward a four-day work week with no loss of pay. Workers must benefit from technology, not just corporate CEOs."

Sanders was referencing the latest findings out of the UK on the four-day work week. A large-scale pilot program, spanning over 3,000 workers, found that workers slept better, firms made more money, and employees were less likely to say they did not have enough time to care for loved ones.

As the Washington Post reports, most of the companies involved in the pilot plan on continuing to use a four-day work week.

The concept of a four-day work week has increasingly caught on over the last few years, with firms and researchers alike taking the plunge to cut back hours without reducing pay.

As Insider reported in December, 4 Day Week Global — a New Zealand-based nonprofit — conducted a study involving 33 participating companies that employed 969 people based in the US, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, who adopted a four-day work week in a pilot program over a six-month period, and it found it was a "resounding success on virtually every dimension."

"Companies are extremely pleased with their performance, productivity and overall experience, with almost all of them already committing or planning to continue with the 4 day week schedule," the report said.

"Revenue has risen over the course of the trial. Sick days and absenteeism are down," it continued. "Companies are hiring. Resignations fell slightly, a striking finding during the 'Great Resignation.' Employees are similarly enthusiastic. And climate impacts, while less well-measured, are also encouraging."

Some US companies have started testing out the idea, as well. A Chick-fil-A owner in Florida launched a three-day work week in November, and he received 400 applications for just one job opening due to the popularity of a shortened workweek.

This isn't the first time a four-day work week has caught the attention of lawmakers — the Congressional Progressive Caucus previously endorsed the "32-Hour Workweek Act," with Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal saying in a statement at the time that it's "past time that we put people and communities over corporations and their profits — finally prioritizing the health, wellbeing, and basic human dignity of the working class rather than their employers' bottom line."

Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California, proposed that legislation. He previously told Insider that a 32-hour work week — which would become the new standard under his proposal — would help Americans craft the new normal of work that they've been demanding.

"I think there was a Great Realization among a lot of Americans — how hard they're working and that they wanted to move on from the jobs that they were working at," Takano said. "So a four-day work week is something that connects a lot of Americans."

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 2 months

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By: Szu Ping Chan

Published: Mar 31, 2024

Britain has a boy problem. If you are born male today, you are increasingly likely to struggle in school, in the workplace and at home.

The gender attainment gap is not new – girls have been outperforming boys at GCSE level for over three decades now, while the number of women completing degrees has exceeded the number of men since the 1990s.

But solving the problem of underachievement among boys has never been more crucial. Economic growth is stalling, productivity is flatlining and public finances are creaking under the strain of growing benefits bills.

At a time when businesses are struggling to hire, more and more men are dropping out of the workforce. Everyone in society must achieve their fullest potential if we are to fix our economic problems.

There is a political dimension too – William Hague earlier this month raised the alarm about the growing numbers of disaffected young men who, with little offered or promised to them in life, were turning to far-Right politics.

There is nothing innate about boys’ underachievement. There is no fundamental reason why outcomes should be getting worse.

Yet without a concerted effort to close the attainment gap, it seems destined to widen. Ever more men and boys will find themselves unwittingly consigned to life’s scrapheap.

The problem is clear – where are the solutions?

Deepening development gap

Before children even step a foot inside the classroom, boys are already behind.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) notes that “a significant gender gap in both cognitive and socio-emotional development” emerges by the age of three.

By the time children start primary school, two-thirds of girls have reached a “good level of development”, suggesting they are able to write a simple sentence or count beyond 20.

Just under two-thirds of boys have hit that same milestone. For children eligible for free school meals, the disparity is even larger.

This gap that opens up at three never completely closes, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) analysis of Department for Education data.

“There’s a silent crisis brewing among boys and men in our classrooms, workplaces and communities,” says Richard Reeves, academic and author of Of Boys and Men, which explores the male malaise from cradle to career.

“Boys now lag behind girls and men lag behind women at almost every level of education. That’s true in nearly every rich economy.”

Reeves, a former adviser to Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister, says biology is behind some of this gap.

All the academic evidence suggests that the prefrontal cortex – or in Reeves’s words “the part of the brain that helps you get your act together” – develops around a year or two faster in girls than boys.

Girls are not smarter, they just mature faster, Reeves says. “Anyone who spends any time with teenagers knows exactly what I’m talking about.”

His conclusion is that there are simply some “natural advantages of women and girls in the education system”.

Rather than recognise and compensate for this, the system has in fact evolved in ways that favour girls. A switch to more coursework at GCSE level benefitted girls more than boys, according to the IFS, which noted that the gap in performance first emerged in the 1980s when exam-based O levels were replaced by GCSEs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“The shake-up brought a move towards more continuous assessment, which seems to have benefitted girls,” the IFS said in a recent paper.

This idea is “quite hard to get this across because many people say: well if girls and women always had this natural advantage, why didn’t we see it 40 years ago?” Reeves says. “The answer is sexism.

“There is no doubt my mum would have gone to university if she was born 50 years later, but it wasn’t considered to be a thing. But now having taken the lid off, that potential for women in education just keeps going. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that along the way a lot more men have fallen behind.”

Woes of the white working class

Of course, it would be wrong to suggest women were doing better than men in the working world. A median gender pay gap of 7.7pc still shows women are being shortchanged.

After graduation, men are more likely to get a “highly skilled” job than women and average earnings for a male graduate are around 9pc higher than a female a year after they leave university, according to the IFS.

That gap rises to 31pc a decade later.

However, what is worrying academics, politicians and teachers is that attainment among men and boys seems to be declining while for women it improves.

Average pay adjusted for inflation has fallen by 6.9pc for men since 2008, according to ONS data. Among women, it has climbed 2.2pc. In fact, men’s wages are no higher in real terms today than they were in 2002.

Men have been behind the fall in average hours worked since the pandemic, while women are working more.

Louise Murphy at the Resolution Foundation says the worsening prospects for boys and men reflect structural factors.

“The industrial structure of the UK has changed. Some of these manufacturing jobs that existed don’t exist in the same way now.”

Reeves says: “It used to be true that men with relatively modest levels of education do OK in the labour market. And that is not always the case anymore.”

The experience of boys in schools has led them to “underperform in the labour market” more broadly, he adds.

Achievement has become a particular issue among one subset of boys in particular: the white working class.

“Too many people in society just see these boys as the people on mopeds with a balaclava on their head,” says Andy Eadie, assistant headteacher at Cardinal Langley school in Rochdale. “Actually, that’s only a tiny minority.”

Eadie has taught at the mixed comprehensive school of 1,200 pupils since 2016. A fifth of his pupils are eligible for free school meals.

Many have already been “written off” by teachers as soon as they enter the classroom, Eadie says, particularly if they are white working class boys.

“There is a perception that some boys are already signed off and have no hope,” he says.

“The danger is that people aren’t bothered about these gaps. They’re just bothered about keeping them quiet so they can get on with other things.”

Just 14.6pc of white working class boys went into higher education in 2021. This was the lowest figure of any ethnic or socio-economic group and a third of the overall average, according to research published by the House of Commons Library.

Eadie says: “A lot of young people in the white working class background actually have really low self-esteem.

“And so you’ve got a lot of young people who potentially all underachieve and not feel very good about themselves.”

There are signs that this malaise is adding to Britain’s worklessness crisis. One in three 18 to 24-year-old boys were classed as economically inactive – meaning they’re not in work or looking for a job – in the three months to January, a record high.

The figure is up by more than five percentage points since the end of 2019, before the pandemic. Inactivity among 50 to 64-year-old men has climbed five times slower over the same period.

The inactivity rate among young men has roughly doubled since the early 90s, with almost two million now out of the labour force.

Some are choosing to stay on in education but the share of men not in employment, education or training (NEET) is climbing back towards financial crisis rates at 15.3pc. For women, it has remained on a bumpy but downward path.

“I think it goes back to the idea that we just don’t expect our boys to do well. So they don’t do well,” says Conservative MP Nick Fletcher, who leads the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for men and boys.

Caroline Barlow, headteacher at Heathfield Community College, has submitted evidence to the APPG suggesting there was a culture of low expectations for male students.

“In the early days, there was a tendency to almost just be grateful if boys were there and they were doing some work,” she said.

By shifting teachers’ expectations of their pupils, results improved and Heathfield was also able to close the gender gap.

Fletcher says: “We expect our boys to behave badly, so they behave badly. We are letting our boys down and unless we actually recognise we have a problem, then we won’t really start searching for the solution.”

Where does the problem start? Some think it is in the home.

Family circumstances have changed dramatically over the past few decades, with a sharp rise in lone parent households as divorce becomes more common or people don’t even get married in the first place. The vast majority of children in these circumstances grow up with their mothers.

In part, this reflects the economic empowerment of women: they can afford to be a single parent.

However, it raises the question of where male role models are coming from. Research conducted jointly by the Fatherhood Institute found that fathers who read to their children every day are contributing to their development and can help to address early attainment gaps.

The Conservative peer Lord Willetts writes in his book, The Pinch: “A welfare system that was originally designed to compensate men for loss of earnings is slowly and messily redesigned to compensate women for the loss of men.”

This too can leave men rudderless in mid-life.

As Reeves puts it in his book: “Economically independent women can now flourish whether they are wives or not. Wifeless men, by contrast, are often a mess. Compared to married men, their health is worse, their employment rates are lower, and their social networks are weaker.”

‘Crisis in masculinity’

The underachievement of men and boys was once seen as almost taboo.

“There have been people who have sniggered when I stood up and asked for a minister for men and a men’s health strategy,” says Fletcher.

“I genuinely believe some of the problems we face are down to the lack of interest in young boys and men, who we’ve always assumed are going to be fine.”

However, politicians have now started to notice.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has announced that Labour is looking at introducing a men’s health strategy to address what he describes as a “crisis in masculinity” that is costing lives.

It is understood that Labour’s forthcoming review into mental health by Luciana Berger will include a chapter that focuses on male suicide. It remains the biggest killer of British men aged under 35.

William Hague, the former Tory leader, believes the issue is reshaping politics. He recently highlighted that a majority of men now believe they are being discriminated against, which is fuelling support among young men for extreme parties.

Fletcher is calling for a dedicated minister for men to match the minister for women, Kemi Badenoch, who is also part of the Cabinet as Business Secretary.

Despite overwhelming evidence that boys are falling behind, some colleagues still treat the idea of a dedicated minister with ridicule.

Fletcher says: “I think one of the problems that we’ve had as a society is there’s a lot of reluctance to speak up for men. We’ve noticed it in parliament over the years.”

Reeves wants to challenge the longstanding assumption that gender gaps only run one way.

He takes particular issue with the World Economic Forum (WEF), which looks at progress on gender equality across the world.

Countries are scored on a scale from zero to one, with the former representing no equality and the latter signalling full equality. The problem, says Reeves, is that the index itself assumes that only women have any catching up to do.

For example, it “assigns the same score to a country that has reached parity between women and men and one where women have surpassed men”.

This is a deliberate choice. However, as a result the UK’s educational attainment score stands at 0.999 despite the fact that girls have clearly outperformed boys for decades.

Reeves believes continuing to publish the index in this way is damaging and leads “to a lack of policy attention to the problems of boys and men”. In short, he says: “It makes no sense to treat gender inequality as a one-way street.”

The Government insists it is making progress, with a Department for Education spokesman saying the gender gap “across most headline measures is narrowing across all key phases.

“Education standards have risen sharply across the country, with 90pc of schools now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, up from just 68pc in 2010.”

Reeves offers some radical solutions to closing the attainment gap in his book, including starting boys a year later in school. Many teachers and academics believe this is not practical and Reeves himself says the idea was designed to spark a debate.

Reeves says the evidence also suggests children should take more frequent breaks at school because boys find it harder than girls to sit still. He himself was put in a special class for English because his teachers felt he lacked focus.

At Balcarras secondary school in Cheltenham, headteacher Dominic Burke felt the only way to tackle what used to be a 15pc gender gap in the GCSE results was to level with his students.

“We got the boys together en masse and said to them: ‘You’re going to underachieve. The girls are going to beat you hands down’. And then we showed them the evidence. Their ability profiles were the same. But we said the reality is girls are going to get better results than you and we challenge you to be the first year group to stop that. We called it the ‘effort challenge’.”

It worked. Competition and the offer of cold, hard cash was enough to encourage many to put the effort in. Boys who were judged to have done so received £20 at the end of term. The school managed to close the gender gap and a few years ago, the boys beat the girls for the first time.

“Competition does work I think, and it’s a good tactic for teaching because it becomes a rewarding experience to meet the challenge,” says Burke. “If you make something more engaging and enjoyable, people are more likely to do it.”

Healing

No survey of the state of boys and men in Britain today can ignore the changing ideas of masculinity.

Whereas men were once seen as breadwinners, American sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas point out that many women in poor US neighbourhoods have come to see them “as just another mouth to feed”. This is disorientating.

Yet perhaps the way to survive as a man in the job market of the future is to junk ideas of traditional masculinity altogether. Many of the jobs of the future will be in things like caring and education.

Reeves wants governments to spearhead a drive to get more men into health, education, administration, and literacy jobs – which he brands HEAL – just as they have ploughed efforts into getting more women into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – or STEM roles.

Increasing the number of male teachers would also raise the number of role models for boys in class. Three-quarters of state school teachers are women, according to data published by the Department for Education.

The share of men working in state-funded nurseries is even lower, at just 14pc. Around 30pc of primary schools have no male teachers at all.

“I did actually get some funny looks when I first started,” says one male nursery worker who does not wish to be identified.

“Even now I tend to leave the cuddles to my female colleagues as I think there’s still a stereotype that any man who wants to work with young kids has to be some kind of pervert.”

Encouraging more men into these types of jobs would be no small undertaking. Perceptions that men are not suited to caring or creative professions are deep-seated.

Florence Nightingale, who in the 19th century established the principles of modern nursing, insisted that men’s “hard and horny” hands were “not fitted to touch, bathe and dress wounded limbs, however gentle their hearts may be”. The Royal College of Nursing did not even admit men as members until 1960.

Edward Davies, policy director at the Centre for Social Justice think tank, cautions: “It’s absolutely right to remove cultural, perceived and real barriers that keep men from certain careers, especially caring and teaching professions. But we also need to be careful not to pretend men and women are exactly the same.

“At a blunt population level women seem more interested in people and men in things. You would expect to see that reality play out in the jobs they do too. Imposing quotas or expectations that all professions should be evenly split between men and women will probably drive some people into careers they are not suited to.”

Fixing Britain’s boy problem may be harder than even experts think.

[ Via: https://archive.today/AFaiR ]

The people who talk endlessly about "equality" and "equal rights" are strangely silent when it comes to areas where boys and men fall behind: education, health and lifespan, and life satisfaction.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205349

[ The Basic Index of Gender Inequality (BIGI, x-axis) as a function of the Human Development Index (HDI, y-axis).

BIGI is the average of 3 components: Ratio in healthy life span, ratio in overall life satisfaction, and ratio in educational opportunities during childhood (see Materials and Methods for details). Deviation from zero implies the extent of gender inequality. The plot shows the largest contributor to the overall score for each nation: Purple dots indicate healthy life span is the most important component, green dots indicate educational opportunities, and red dots indicate overall life satisfaction. The Ns indicate for each level of HDI how many nations have a BIGI score greater than 0, and how many less than 0. ]

Almost like it isn't "just about equality."

#Szu Ping Chan #education #education crisis #boy crisis #equality #religion is a mental illness

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berniesrevolution · 1 year

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IN THESE TIMES

The future of the four-day work week is looking brighter after the results of a major new study were released last month.

Nearly 3,000 workers at over 60 organizations took part in the latest trial of reduced working time — and the findings surpassed most expectations. A large majority of workers reported significant improvements in their quality of life. And it wasn’t just employees who preferred the shorter working week: more than 90% of employers who participated opted to continue the arrangement.

The U.K.-based experiment introduced a four-day week or equivalent cut in hours, with no loss of pay, from June to December 2022. Research teams at Boston College, Cambridge University and the London think tank Autonomy studied the effects. Overall, workers reported lower levels of stress and burn out, higher job satisfaction and less conflict between work and family demands. They also said they felt more capable at work and better able to manage their time.

Almost all (96%) said they preferred working four days and most put a high value on their new free time. Asked how much money would persuade them to return to a five-day week, 29% said they would want a 26-50% pay increase, while 8% wanted more than 50% and another 15% said no amount of money would lure them back.

Employers benefited as well. Compared with the pre-trial period, there were fewer staff resignations and days off for illness. Revenues saw a slight increase. Asked to score their experience on a scale from 0 (negative) to 10 (positive), the average among employers was 7.5 for productivity and 8.3 overall.

One likely reason for the trial’s success is that it recognized there was no one-size-fits-all formula. Each organization could choose its own approach to work time reduction so long as it offered significant reductions without loss of pay. The trial was also meticulously prepared, with two months of workshops, coaching, mentoring and peer support, drawing on experience from earlier pilots in more than 100 companies in the United States, U.K., Australia, Canada and Ireland. This approach was geared to help participants improve well-being and economic prosperity at the same time — by designing new working practices and changing company culture.

The trial took place during a pitched moment in history, as evolving digital communications combined with a global pandemic to wreak havoc on the concept of “normal” employment. More employees than ever could work anytime and anywhere with a suitable device and internet signal. And most everyone who took part had fresh memories of when workplaces closed down, human proximity seemed lift-threatening and online meetings redefined personal interaction.

In some ways, the Covid pandemic gave the four-day week a boost by forcing companies to adapt to new ways of thinking and working. One manager of a manufacturing company in the UK trial observed, “I think we have come out of the pandemic with a new outlook on life… There’s a greater expectation around flexible working, hybrid working — people are taking that opportunity to think ‘I want to do something completely different.’”

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #in these times #economics #labor rights #workers rights #progressive #progressive movement #democratic socialism

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apersonwholikeslotus · 4 months

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my Viking trio hc for what they were up to during the Viking age goes

Sweden

tbh was just living his best life

great trade routes

adopted one (1) Slavic child

got a Greek boyfriend

stable job??? With benefits?? In the 900s ad?? (Varangian Guard)

Norway

arguably did the most

ton of exploring

got all the way to Canada

got married (technically)

had 11 kids

while you studied the blade he ran a fishing business & a little farm in Ireland for a century

Denmark

uhhhh

not sure

was high and/or drunk the whole time

thinks he might've been in England and maybe France at some point???

did find out exactly how much henbane you have to ingest to induce hallucinations. so. there's that.

#hws denmark #hws sweden #hws norway #hetalia #tw: hallucinations #tw: drugs #just incase #viking trio

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phantomss-pain · 7 months

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What's some head cannons you have about Mrs. Afton?

Mrs Afton time let’s gooo. This will less headcanon and more so details on her as I haven’t posted stuff about her.

First of her name is Clair. She was one of Henry’s only friends (the other being Hannah who would end up being Henry’s future wife)

She’s bisexual with a male preference

She grew up in Ireland before her parents moved to America and into Hurricane where she would meet Hannah and Henry

Clair and Henry dated for a bit when they were teenagers before Clair broke up with him as she realised that Henry and Hannah were both crushing on each other massively and didn’t want to break them apart.

While Henry went off to England to study for robotics Clair and Hannah had a friends with benefits deal together.

When she first met William before Henry and Hannah’s wedding the two had a rivalry which eventually led to them marrying each other.

Clair worked at Hurricane’s middle school and was a dance teacher on the side with occasionally working at Fredbear’s as a chief if they needed extra staff.

When Hannah and Henry announced that they were having twins Clair had such a massive baby fever and asked about having their own kids.

This would result one night in the two getting drunk and that was how Michael was conceived. William obviously didn’t want Michael as he wanted his kids to be perfect like Henry and Hannah’s unborn twins would be (showing his signs of ego) but Clair pushed back and that’s how Michael was born.

Unlike William who didn’t like Michael due to him being born from a drunken mistake Clair absolutely adored her son and made sure that her son knew that she loved him.

Years later Elizabeth and then Evan was born with William being a lot happier with them than Michael. Due to William’s slight appreciation towards Elizabeth more Clair tried to give as much attention towards Evan and Michael as she could but due to her being so busy that turned more towards Evan later on as he was so much younger.

Out of everyone she could sense that Michael and Charlie were destined to be together and was the og shipper of the two.

A bit before Charlie’s murder Clair had become more aware of her husband’s little downward spiral as he became so cruel to Michael. She didn’t know what to do as she was so busy.

After hearing that Charlie spoke to Henry about some concerns she had towards Michael Clair came clean about Michael’s neglect by William which would end up in Charlie’s death.

After Charlie’s death everything began spiralling down. Henry had become a shell of his former self, Hannah and Henry were fighting so much that the two got divorced later on which resulted in Hannah moving away.

Due to everything Clair was the only source of good in Sammy’s, Michael’s and Elizabeth’s life after Evan’s death. Because of Clair’s actions during this time Elizabeth would be inspired to keep her family together.

After Elizabeth’s death and Michael and Sammy turning 18 Clair couldn’t handle the stress of Hurricane anymore and left. She did keep in contact with Michael and Sammy and was over the moon when Michael told her that he was dating Marla.

Unfortunately Clair was never able to see any grandkids as she would pass away from cancer in 1995. Her final hours were spent with William as she wanted to be with the love of her life.

When she passed away she woke up in Ballora and began piecing everything together with Elizabeth’s death and the mci kids. She was off course enraged by this and together with Elizabeth and many other kids souls began thinking of revenge against William.

After Michael got scooped she was the first one to realise that they didn’t get William instead they got Michael with most of it coming from Marla.

Clair was put in charge of Michael’s body whenever he was at home with Marla to make sure that nothing was up.

Unsurprisingly she was the only one that was kind to Michael during the time Ennard was in his body.

She was the first Afton to properly move on into the afterlife after Ennard was thrown up. She was able to speak to Michael one last time and apologised for everything with her parting words being you won’t die.

In the afterlife she would be finally reunited with Evan, Elizabeth, Henry and Hannah and the four were happy with that. Though they were all confused at how Michael and Charlie weren’t with them as well.

#fnaf #mrs afton #michael afton #charlie emily #henry emily #mrs emily #phantom ask box #I like mrs afton people should do more with her

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myglobaluni · 1 year

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Perks of Studying in Limerick, Ireland - If you decide to study in Limerick, Ireland will give you countless opportunities and benefits of living and studying there. This blog is going to be about Limerick and the advantages and facilities that it provides when studying in Ireland.

#benefits of studying in Ireland #Courses in Ireland #Griffith College #Ireland Student Visa #Ireland Study abroad Program #living cost of Ireland #Part Time Jobs In Ireland #study abroad in Ireland #Study Abroad Ireland in 2023 #Technological University of Shannon #The University of Limerick #Top Universities In Ireland #Universities of Ireland

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horacemann2024 · 25 days

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17 Direct Benefits to Study in Ireland for Indian Students

Do you know why a 1-year study in Ireland for Indian students is sought after heavily these days?

Many courses, MS in Computer Science, IT, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Management, and Business Analytics rank among the top 10 worldwide.

Most Indian students opt for a Master’s program for the benefits we have enlisted below. Graduating with these above MS degrees in Ireland guarantees high chances of employment in Ireland.

Also, universities in Ireland boast high research outputs, the hallmark of an excellent postgraduate study destination.

Award-winning journalist, John Kennedy, calls Ireland the AI island, highlighting the nation’s advancements in technological research.

Study in Ireland for Indian students: 17 Benefits

Ireland is the best destination for Indian students due to its top universities, affordable 1-year master’s programmes, and 2-year post-study work visas. These are just a few reasons out of many that Ireland has to offer you.

Below are the benefits why an MS in Ireland or MBA in Ireland is lucrative and will be life-altering. Notably, as an Indian student, you get several advantages.

Some benefits grace you even before you start your journey!

1. You don’t require a GRE score…

You can still study at Irish universities such as Trinity and UCD. Irish universities, which are in the same league as the US universities, which accept Indian students even without a GRE score.

Isn’t this appealing enough to apply to study in Ireland as an Indian student?

Hence, to get into an Irish university, Indian students require an excellent academic record and scores on one of these tests – IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, and Duolingo.

GRE & GMAT is not required by almost all Irish universities (UCD & TCD may ask for GMAT scores for their MBA degrees).

2. English Language Proficiency Training

All English-speaking countries expect their international students to be well-versed in English, as does Ireland.

But aren’t your English proficiency test scores suitable enough to secure admission?

Not to worry. Irish universities offer Pre-sessional English language programs. These short-term courses are designed to help you gain the skills needed to prepare for exams like IELTS, TOEFL, DET, and PTE.

3. How much study gap is acceptable in Ireland?

The answer is…

Study gaps don’t matter for Irish universities!

As long as you can explain the gap between your last academic year and the time of application, you are as good as any other person without a study gap.

Various reasons, such as employment, vacation, health issues, and business ventures, can be used to explain your study gap. You can provide these reasons in your Statement of Purpose.

Sarem Education will help Indian students with their Statements Of Purpose to study in Ireland.

4. Cost of studying in Ireland is lower for Indian students

Compared to studying in the USA, UK, and Australia, an MS degree in Ireland costs less.

Cost of study in Ireland for Indian students:

Place of study EUROS INR

Universities 12,000 to 36,000 9,97,000 to 28,89,000

Institute of Technology 12,000 to 17,000 9,97,000 to 13,63,000

Colleges 13,000 to 15,000 10,80,000 to 12,00,000

Tuition fee is the most significant cost component, while other expenses like accommodation, student visa, medical insurance, and the like typically cost between €7,000 (5 to 9 lakhs) to €12,000 per year.

There are also independent colleges in Ireland where Indian students can study for lesser fees.

Provided you have the necessary work experience, colleges such as Dublin Business School, Griffith College Dublin, and National College of Ireland should be a sweet deal!

Consultancies do love adhering to “get rich overnight schemes” by giving Indian students the aforementioned options to study in Ireland. However, we do not do that here.

Here is some honest information. Freshers would find it daunting to land a job after graduation from these places. So, apply here at your own risk.

However, experienced candidates should be able to land a job thanks to their experience.

With a part-time job or a paid internship, you can further reduce your expenses to study at an Irish university. We advise that you search for the right one where you can balance your studies with your part-time work.

Just ensure you don’t do anything you will regret on your academic side.

5. Study in Ireland for Indian students: Scholarships

Here is a list of scholarships available for students looking to study in Ireland.

Government of Ireland International Education Scholarships Programme, sponsored by the Higher Education Authority (HEA)

The Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme

Scholarships by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

About 60 students get this scholarship which pays them 10,000 euros per year. These Ireland scholarships make life extremely easy for Indian students.

6. The 3 benefits of studying 1-year masters in Ireland

Undoubtedly, Indian students are constantly under pressure to settle down quickly. Studying a 1-year Master’s program at an Irish university can help you alleviate this.

You can fast-forward your dreams of graduating with an MS degree and happily settle abroad sooner than your counterparts in other countries!

Let us enlist and explain the benefits below:

Return to the workforce with world-class skills sooner: Sometimes, students take a 1-year leave to finish their degree and resume work with their previous employer. This is possible if you do a Masters in Ireland. Moreover, a 1-year break for education will also be less harsh on your resume. You can also join the workforce sooner and ease off your loans.

Costs Less: Compared to a 2-year course, studying for a 1-year Masters in Ireland is cheaper. A shorter duration means you pay lesser rent, living expenses, etc.

Resume: In any Master’s course in Ireland, you must complete 90 credits within a year. Inevitably, you will be putting in tons of hard work throughout the year. Consequently, this can bode well for your resume.

7. 100% visa approval

Ireland and India faced the brunt and after-effects of British imperialism and colonization in the 1900s.

Now, both countries share cordial relations owing to which there is less than a 5% chance for your visa to get rejected for Indian students to study in Ireland.

Not impressed?

DAVID FLOOD, Director, India, and South Asia, Enterprise Ireland, shares an impressive stat. The Irish visa approval rate for Indian students has grown by over 95% in the last 5 years.

So what happens to Indian students after they come to study in Ireland?

8. Globally Ranking Universities

Did you know securing admission to Irish universities would allow you to study at one of the top-ranked universities globally? Five universities in Ireland rank within the top 500 globally, and three are within the top 1000.

Trinity College, University College Dublin, University College Cork, University of Galway, University of Limerick, Dublin City University, Maynooth University, and Technological University Dublin are the universities on the list.

9. Highly quality education

The International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate) found that students pursuing an MS degree in Ireland reported high student satisfaction with their academic experience.

Of course! Why wouldn’t they?

All MS degrees in Ireland are one year in duration. You will be prepared to enter the workforce within one year.

Irish universities and institutions are globally renowned for their programs in Science, Technology, Maths, Teaching, Medicine, Business, and Finance, accredited and recognized worldwide.

Most importantly, the tuition fee is way cheaper to study in Ireland for Indian students than in other top destinations.

Also, Irish universities are ranked among the best in the world regarding gender equality and climate action as per Times Higher Education’s (THE) university impact rankings.

10. Part-time opportunities in Ireland while studying

During their study in Ireland, Indian students can work for up to 20 hours a week.

According to labour statistics, Ireland has more than 400,000 people employed part-time. As regional investment grows and new businesses pop up, part-time jobs shall also grow steadily.

Irish universities also offer teaching assistant positions where students can assist professors with their academic commitments and get paid for them.

Indian students studying in Ireland will be allowed to work 40 hours per week only from June to September & from 15th December to 15th January inclusive. At all other times, students will be allowed to work 20 hours per week while they study.

11. Hub for global corporations

Ireland’s technological ambience is nothing to be scoffed at.

Ireland houses more than 1000 multinational companies, mainly because of Ireland‘s liberal FDI policies and ease of doing business. This opens doors for talent across the world.

Many of these MNCs seek MS degree holders from Irish universities in areas like Artificial Intelligence, ICT, telecom and life sciences.

Several companies – like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Roche, Abbott, and others – have their European headquarters in Ireland. There are several hundreds of internships for fresher Indian students studying in Ireland.

Down the road, this ups their chances of securing full-time employment.

12. Safe, friendly, party and quality of lifestyle

Consumed by excitement while applying for a Masters, one would leave caution to the wind and fail to read about the destination’s attitude towards international students.

And while Ireland’s windy climate

is often chided for being unfriendly, the locals are super sweet. Indian students in Ireland feel very safe and peaceful, and their study period is a heavenly experience.

Still, undecided to study in Ireland as an Indian student? Contact us so that we can help you connect with alumni.

13. Rich Culture and Heritage

You can earn a 360-degree, fulfilling experience from your education abroad only if you read and imbibe academic papers and the culture around you.

If you are a bookworm, a history buff, or a culture enthusiast, don’t look further into the West than Ireland.

The best part about studying in a European country is that every country is different from the others; in terms of architecture, history, race, music, etc.

Ireland is not just well known for its education but also for reasons like these as well.

Dublin, the capital of the Emerald Isle, is a popular tourist destination filled with parks, museums, and statues paying homage to literary laureates such as Oscar Wilde, Joyce Meyer, etc. Pubs that are about a 1000-year-old grace the ever-alive city centre.

Festivals such as Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day originated in Ireland.

Studying in Ireland for Indian students will be thrilling for those who like to travel to various places and capture the green garlands of nature with their photography skills.

Also, are you familiar with these famous movies- Harry Potter, Star Wars, P.S. I Love You, and Game of Thrones?

All of these films had scenes filmed in Ireland. Ireland’s landscapes breathe life into the dormant desi travel bug in you.

Ireland’s West Coast throngs with breathtaking sceneries, docks, rocky coastlines, and castles. Be sure to check out these places while pursuing your M.S. degree in Ireland.

14. A growing, dynamic Indian community in Ireland

In 2011, The Irish Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, aimed at attracting the 100,000 Indian students moving abroad for their higher studies every year into Ireland’s workforce.

Consequently, between 2013-2017, Ireland saw a 45% increase in international students entering Ireland.

As of 2015, about 26,000 Indians reside in Ireland, of whom about 9,000 are second-generation Indians. They occupy roles in healthcare (doctors and nurses), IT, engineering, and senior management positions.

According to DBEI (Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation), the majority of work permits were obtained by Indian students than any other nationality in various fields such as IT, ICT, Finance, Medical, and Business in 2022.

You can see several local businesses in Dublin with Indian owners and managers, which may get you part-time jobs if you can get their patronage. “Muqqabla” and “Urvashi” are some music tracks that rock the corridors of these local businesses. So there is no need to forget the rice, dal, and curry after you leave India.

15. Employment rates are at an all-time high!

It is undoubtedly heartening for us to announce (with proof) that employment rates are at an all-time high. Employment figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) confidently state that Ireland is fully employed.

Lifeline for graduates in Pharmaceuticals, Finance & IT, Pharma and biotech industry in Ireland picked up after companies took advantage of the government lowering tax rates for corporates.

19 of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies are in Ireland. They constantly attract graduates with MS degrees from Irish universities. Indian students considering where to go after a UG degree in biotech, pharma, biomedical, and instrumentation can seek Ireland for higher studies.

Accountancy and Finance are lucrative for Indian students who study in Ireland. Due to the demand level and a squeeze in supply, companies are increasing compensation packages for both attraction and retention purposes. [Source: Morgan Mckinley]

Several tech-centred Irish institutions offer MS degrees in information technology, data analytics, cloud computing, and business analytics.

The courses are tailored to tackle real-time challenges in the tech-savvy industries in the IT hub of Europe. This is one supporting point for young and ambitious Indian students to study in Ireland for their Master’s.

16. Ireland’s post-study work visa benefits make you go WOW!

So here is the answer to the much-awaited question, “How to work in Ireland post-graduation”.

The Irish government offers a 2-year post-study work visa for Indian students in Ireland to seek employment after their graduation.

Ireland has two types of work visas – General Work Permit and Critical Skills Employment Permit.

The Critical Skills Employment Permit is acquired by people in the sectors included on the Critical Skills Occupations List, such as ICT professionals, professional engineers, and technologists. This visa targets highly skilled people, encouraging them to reside permanently in Ireland.

In 2022, 63% of the 10,171 critical skill visas issued were grabbed by Indian students studying in Ireland.

A General Employment Permit allows the holder to work in various occupations. Unlike the Critical Skills visa, this permit recognizes that all professions are eligible unless excluded from the Ineligible List of Occupations for Employment Permits.

17. Easy Pathway to PR

Did you know Ireland has one of the most effortless PR processes globally?

A list of countries with the smoothest PR processes would include Ireland in the top five.

A Critical skill visa allows you to apply for a PR in two years, and a General work permit will enable you to apply for a PR in five years.

Conclusion:

A 1-year study in Ireland for Indian students is flawlessly beneficial.

It is undoubtedly your gateway to finding a job in Ireland and getting a PR soon in Ireland using the 2 years of critical skills work permit.

We can connect you with Indian students in Ireland to enquire about your course and confirm all of the benefits we have mentioned above to studying in Ireland for Indian students.

#abroad education #study #study abroad #study in ireland #ireland education #ireland universities #education

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emmalostinwonderland · 11 months

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WIP update

Hey, friends. I know literally no one is asking for this, but I started going through my google drive folders recently to see if I really do have as many WIP fics stacking up as I think I do... and apparently I have MORE than I thought.

I'm gonna go through all of them here mostly for my own peace of mind. However, if you read this and think one of the concepts sounds great and you want to shoot me some encouragement, my DMs and asks are open. Vague threats are also accepted, just to mix things up.

Anyway, synopses below the cut. Fandoms are tagged.

MCU

Steve/Bucky/Tony - Medieval Knights AU - est <20k words

Tony is the ruler of a small kingdom, and Steve is the lead knight. He and Bucky are together, and they open their hearts to Tony as time goes on. This is actually my fill for Fandom Trumps Hate 2023, so it's my top priority right now. I've got a full synopsis, most of the chapter outline, and literally none of the draft itself done.

Steve/Tony (with some Steve/Bucky in the beginning) - Conversion Camp AU - est >50k words

Steve meets Tony at a Pray-The-Gay-Away camp in 1995, they lose contact when Steve ages out of the program, canon events (super soldier serum and Iron Man) come into play, and they are reunited due to mutual connections with SHIELD or the US Military. So far with this, I have a very detailed synopsis, a full timeline for both Steve and Tony, a spotify playlist, character analyses, thorough research, and only like 800 words of a draft. This one WILL be finished, even if it takes me literal years.

Steve/Tony - Ireland AU - est <10k words

Tony meets Steve on the ferry from Liverpool to Belfast, and they have a whirlwind summer romance in Ireland. It's literally just a romcom. I wanted an excuse to fuck with their accents, so in this idea, Steve moved back to Ireland with his mom when he was super young, and Tony went to live with the Jarvis' (his godparents) in London after his parents died in his mid to late teens. I've got about 800 words in the draft, some loose research, and half a chapter outline. Maybe it'll get written, maybe not. Who's to say.

Steve/Tony - High School AU - est ~1k words

Steve and Tony are established high school sweethearts. They have Tony's parents house to themselves for the weekend. I wrote about 700ish words of this in January as a challenge to myself to write a whole oneshot in one night, but I chickened out when I got to the smut part, so it just sits in my google drive haunting me.

Steve/Tony - High Fantasy Soulmates AU - est ?? words

Steve is on a quest with a small party of his closest friends to take out the evil king in a neighboring kingdom. He meets his soulmate, Tony, in dreams every night. We all know what the plot twist is on this, so I'm not gonna bother spelling it out. I have about 4 sentences worth of an outline, but that's it.

Steve/Bucky - Friends with Benefits AU - est >20k words

Steve's wife, Peggy, finds that their relationship is getting stale and suggests inviting a third person to join them in bed from time to time. When Peggy ultimately leaves Steve anyway, he and Bucky discover something new just between the two of them. This is my latest collab with LouiKazooie! We have 2 others up on Ao3, and this one will likely be done before the end of the year.

Steve/Bucky - 1940's Canon Divergence - est ?? words

Dr Erskine sees Steve and Bucky's farewell moment before Steve attempts to enlist again, but he selects Bucky for the program instead in order to give him a higher likelihood of making it back home to Steve in one piece. I've got a synopsis, and I've got a one-liner for Howard written. That's it. Keep your expectations low.

Red, White, and Royal Blue

FirstPrince - Missionary AU - est <20k words

Alex moves to London for a study abroad program for international law, and Henry attempts to evangelize to him in a coffeeshop. Alex takes pity on him, and strikes up a tentative friendship with him. As they grow closer, Henry starts to realize that maybe he doesn't believe or connect with his religion the way he used to. I've got a detailed synopsis, and some of the scenes are clear as day in my head, but if I'm honest, there's no substantial outline or draft written down for this one yet.

FirstPrince - Din/Luke Oneshot Series - est ?? words

Alex and Henry roleplay as the Mandalorian and Luke Skywalker sometimes and the level of involvement gets more high stakes with every oneshot (like including cosplays or speaking Mando'a). This might be the dumbest idea I've ever had, but it's in my google drive so I had to include it here.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Percabeth - Revolutionary War AU - est ~10k words

Percy is a spy for the militia. Annabeth is a plantation owner's daughter. She joins the cause, providing secrets, maps, and the occasional distraction all while unlearning things she's believed her whole life. This was an idea I had on a flight somewhere, and I wrote a scene in the notes app of my phone until I could get to wifi again. Apparently I have 1500 words of the draft done? I've also got a character breakdown and a vague idea of the flow of the story. I'm excited about this one.

Idk I think 10 WIP fics is enough for now. This was painful to look at. Thanks for the support, guys.

#stucky #stony #stevebucky #stevetony #captain america #mcu #rwrb #red white and royal blue #firstprince #dinluke #pjo fandom #percy jackson #percabeth

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bagelbongos · 1 year

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here’s a scene of a kelley character study i will never write. based on the game today.

“Hey.”

Kelley was anticipating meeting Trinity at some point during the road-trip, an accident or their own doing somehow, so it’s not surprising to see her now, as the buzz around the stadium is dying down, fans slowly finding their way out while the remaining players finish up, jogging to catch Kelley as she walks towards the parking lot.

Trinity looks—older, shoulders heavier than the last time they saw each other, in April for the friendlies against Ireland, when the reality of the situation likely hadn’t hit her yet; even more different than the last time they had a real conversation, in October when the world still felt tangible, when Kelley was barely able to put any weight on her hip without crying.

For two full years, Kelley took pride in taking care of Trinity the way she should have been looked out for during her entire life, and during that time she was many things: a shoulder to cry on, someone who understood every expectation Trinity was carrying, a fun friend with a safe home, someone who put a way a once in a lifetime chance Trinity created, who led them to unlikely glory; she likes to imagine she’s molded Trinity, even a little bit, that the fire Kelley watches her exude through the screen of her TV was fueled by Kelley’s words and actions and support. These days, she doesn’t trust any of those things to be true.

Even now, she can’t stop fixating on how alike they’ve never stopped being; never giving up on a play, heads down after an unsatisfying result, immediately turning the switch when it’s time to celebrate someone they love. Trinity stops in front of her with a set jaw and guarded eyes, and Kelley gets it; she wouldn’t be happy with a silent treatment either.

“You okay?” Kelley asks; she thinks she’ll never stop caring about Trinity like this.

Trinity shrugs, long nails worrying the plastic of her water bottle. “We tied,” she says.

Kelley nods, blowing a chuckle through her nose at the typical answer; she supposes if Trinity is able to think about everything that’s happened in the past 6 months as something that impacts whether her team gets three points or not, then she’s better than Kelley will ever be, shaking off the dwelling monster and embracing reality as it is.

One way or another, it has to take a toll on her, Kelley knows, even if they haven’t talked about it in exactly as many words; Kelley’s not supposed to know her weaknesses anymore, would maybe be able to get an honest answer out of most of the other girls on the team, but not Trinity, not when Trinity has her blood and sweat in the history of this franchise now, when every impossible move was somehow made to her benefit, when her having a bad time is the difference between the Spirit making the playoffs or finishing up at the bottom of the table.

It’d be comic, how absolutely fucked Trinity is, how the pressure put on her shoulders is more than anyone could take, let alone a girl freshly in her 20s, how there’s no way for her to win this gamble and how unfair it was to ask her to even try it—it’d be comic, if it wasn’t the most tragic thing Kelley’s ever witnessed.

Trinity nods to her feet, the walking boot securing Kelley’s ankle together, and asks, “What’s up with that?”

It’s Kelley’s turn to shrug. “The usual.”

What else, but the slow, public crumbling of her body. What else, but all her hopes and desires becoming somatic bruises. Kelley’s played 15 years of top-level soccer and was fully healthy for one of them, probably the most important of them, the one they got to share.

Kelley can feel her head start to throb, eyes growing heavier and burning, and she’s about to make up an excuse to disappear swiftly to her car before Trinity speaks.

“Listen, uh” she starts, eyes fully fixated on the ground between them. “Sam rented a boat for Memorial Day. On the Potomac. We’re all heading down there to chill a little bit. Just the girls, no—no coaches or anything.”

When she finally looks up, Kelley realizes this is an invitation, and her heartbeat simultaneously drops and speeds up. She doesn’t want to go back to an empty house, doesn’t want to fly back to New York either, but she can’t—can’t be in the same place as the entire Spirit team ever again, won’t be if she can avoid it; Kelley can’t imagine looking at the faces of players she’s won with while she’s supposed to accept they’ll never play together again, can’t meet the team’s new players when she knows she was supposed to know more than just their first names.

Above it all, she can’t be between them and pretend everything is fine, inside her mind. Can’t fake it for anyone, the fact that she’s been seconds away from imploding for the past 6 months, since August, nearly a year ago.

Trinity must sense her hesitation, because she shifts on her feet, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her jersey.

“It was Ash’s 50th today, so,” Trinity says. “It’d mean a lot for—uh, for her, if you could come. If you want to.”

There’s many things Kelley wants, and none of them involves going to this boat party.

She wants to go back to a time where she didn’t know what it was like to have a team that felt like a family, wants to travel back to 2019 and tell her younger self to not suit up for that first victory tour game; Kelley wants to call Emily and have her say it’s okay to never get over what happened, that nobody’s expecting them to do it anyway, wants to tell Trinity the reason they’re not speaking is on Kelley alone, that she’s done nothing and Kelley’s the fucked up one, that she can’t stand being reminded of how loved she is.

Kelley wants her sister, and her mom, and she wants to stop being everyone else’s mom, wants to resist the urge to take every anxious generational talent under her wing lest they all end up like this.

Luckily, she’s saved by the bell.

“Oi, Kel.”

Sam walks towards her with an easy grin and a jet-lagged disposition, buried inside her coat. She pulls Kelley into a genuine hug, and Kelley lets herself be surrounded by the familiar feeling.

Trinity is staring at them when they break apart, and Kelley is watching Trinity’s face right back, trying to read her. Sam is hanging off her shoulder, and Trinity looks like she just had the realization she isn’t the only one Kelley treated like her own flesh and blood, that Sam came first and Kelley set her up to highest fights, that she’s not that special after all.

(Kelley wants to drop everything and take Trinity home, nurse her until she’s okay again, until nothing of this has been anything but a bad dream; she can’t, here, somewhere Trinity is supposed to be the strongest amongst them all.)

“Hey, Trinity, good game, dude,” Sam says, thick accent always making her sound more cheerful than she is. “Great runs you got.”

Trinity finally shifts her eyes to Sam’s face, morphing her own into something more professional, losing the childish insecurity Kelley sometimes gets to see, and even cherishes it, proof Trinity hasn’t lost her ways.

“Uh, thanks,” Trinity says, twisting her bottle cap. “Congrats on winning the—the league.”

“Ah, thank you,” Sam says, and then she turns to Kelley. “Let’s go eat dinner? I’m fucking starving.”

The edges of her vision are getting blurry, but Kelley’s holding on, for the two of them more than herself.

“What about Kristie?” she murmurs.

“We’ll meet her at the hotel, it’s okay,” Sam answers, waving a hand. “Let’s just hang out me and you, like the old times, why not.”

Trinity’s eyes have dropped the façade; Kelley can see they’re posing an impossible question to her, their heart’s deepest request, that Kelley chooses to hang out with them instead, chooses Trinity, makes sure their connection is not severed and they’re still okay. Kelley sympathizes with it, has been on the other end of begging her mentor to make the right choice, nurturing a good relationship instead of taking the easy way out.

Tonight, she just doesn’t have it in herself to answer the call.

Kelley shakes her head slowly, imperceptible to anyone else but to Trinity, and Trinity nods, lowering her face to hide her reaction, not quick enough that Kelley doesn’t catch her eyes watering.

To Sam, Kelley says: “Italian okay?”

“Hell yeah,” Sam celebrates, pulling Kelley closer. Trinity has started to back down, walking backwards towards her dressing room; Kelley can’t look at her, but Sam, oblivious, says, “Hey, can’t wait to see you in Australia, yeah?”

Kelley feels like throwing up.

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thepastisalreadywritten · 1 year

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SAINT OF THE DAY (June 9)

On June 9, the Catholic Church commemorates the sixth-century Irish monk and missionary Saint Columba of Iona, also known as St. Columcille.

One of Ireland's three patron saints, together with Saint Patrick and Saint Brigid, he is also sometimes called the “Apostle of the Picts” for his evangelization of Scotland.

He should not be confused with St. Columbanus (or Columban), a different Irish monk and missionary who lived slightly later and ended up in Italy.

Columba was born during 521, descended from royalty through his father. He was taught and mentored by the priest who baptized him and later attended a monastic school founded by Saint Finnian of Moville.

His own life as a monk began at the school, where he was also ordained a deacon.

The deacon went on to spend time in a different monastery and school run by another Finnian, Saint Finnian of Clonard.

Columba became a priest during this period, and along with eleven others from this same institution, he would become known as one of the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland.”

Columba also studied with Saint Mobhi of Glasnevin, before a disease epidemic forced him to return to his ancestral homeland of Ulster during 544.

He spent the next 15 years traveling, preaching, and founding monasteries.

It is not clear why, in 563, Columba left Ireland. By some accounts, he was simply going to preach the word of God.

Others claim that he had become involved in a battle between warring tribes, before repenting and taking on foreign missionary work as a penance.

On the island of Iona, located on Scotland’s northwest coast, Columba and his group of companions built simple monastic quarters and a church for themselves.

The priest-monk’s first missionary work was in the region of Dalriada, whose Celtic Christian inhabitants were lacking solid religious instruction.

His next effort was to convert the Picts of northern Scotland, a task that would take up most of the rest of his life.

He began by gaining entrance to the castle of King Brude, where the locked gates are said to have miraculously opened when the sign of the Cross was made.

The king welcomed the missionaries, believed the Gospel, and was baptized.

Columba’s evangelization of northern Scotland continued over the next three decades.

He and his companions met with some resistance from the native pagan Druids, but on the whole, they found remarkable success in spreading the Catholic faith and building up a network of churches and monasteries.

The island monastery at Iona remained his home base. It drew pilgrims looking to benefit from the priest-monk’s wisdom and his prayers.

He remained in touch with the Irish Church, making many trips back until he became too weak to travel.

Even in old age, Columba maintained an intense routine of prayer, fasting, and study.

After giving a final blessing to his monastery on 8 June 597, he died sometime in the early hours of the following day.

#Saint of the Day #Saint Columba of Iona #St. Columcille #Apostle of the Picts #Twelve Apostles of Ireland

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frenchlessonsblog · 8 months

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French Language Course In Ghaziabad

French Learning Course

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Examination Pattern of DELF/DALF 2023

Generally in order to obtain the Diploma students must pass the four sections of the exam, as listed below: Reading Listening Writing Speaking

DELF and DALF are the unique diplomas for learning French as a foreign language, given by the French Ministry of Education. They stay valid forever and are accepted all over the world.

Different levels of certification:

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DALF Diplôme approfondi de Langue Française (all age groups) – DALF is designed for Levels C1 and C2. Completing DALF exams equips candidates to proficiently use French for academic and advanced-level purposes, achieving near-native fluency.

#french lessons #french language #online courses

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