middle school: "memorize the pythagorean theorem and your pythagorean triples, they're very important"

high school: "remember to put the pythagorean theorem as a function in your calculator when you start an exam"

college: "I put the pythagorean theorem on your exam just in case."

Full-time job: "here's a lookup table for the pythagorean theorem, just in case you ever have to use it."

 Triangle Calculator: Determine the Area of a Triangle and explain what is a  3-4-5 ratio of a triangle

The Area in a Triangle is the space or area covered by a triangle in a two-dimensional plane.

Calculating the  Area of the Triangle is simple, and it is the same for Isosceles, scalene, and equilateral triangles. The AllCalculator.net triangle Calculator makes calculating the various factors of a triangle quite easy by dissolving the errors caused by manual calculation.

A=1/2×b×h 

The base and height are perpendicular in each triangle.

Define the Area of a Triangle 

The area of a triangle is the area included in the enclosed sides of a triangle.  

The area for every triangle is not the same because the length, height, and internal angles vary for every triangle. You can use the Triangle Calculator to compute any triangle's area.

A triangle consists of three sides, angles, and vertices. Now there are different types of triangles classified as 

Equilateral Triangle 

Right Angled Triangle 

Isosceles Triangle 

How to determine the Area of a Triangle?

There are two methods to calculate/ compute the area of a triangle. The easiest way is to use the Triangle Calculator. Or the most widely used Formula being the Herons Formula. The important length of all the sides of a triangle is known before using Heron's Formula.

Area of a Triangle can be calculated with this  Formula 

A=1/2×b×h

What is a 3-4-5 triangle?

The 3-4-5 triangles are right-angled. One of the angles measures 90°.

These Triangles can be classified further depending on the angles or side lengths. They are either identified as 30-60-90 or 45-45-90.

Both are right-angled triangles having unique characteristics of side length and angle. You can use the Right angled triangle to calculate the sides and angles to determine if the ratio is 3-4-5.

What is The 3:4:5 Triangle Rule?

The 3:4:5 triangle Rule implies that the ratio of a triangle's sides or lengths is 3:4:5.

Now the same ratio can be used for triangles with similar angle measurements. Also, the Pythagorean theorem states that the total of the square of the two sides is equal to the total/sum of the square of the longest side/height.

Now the theorem is the easiest way to understand the 3-4-5 is a right-angled triangle. Or you can use the Right Angled Triangle Calculator to calculate the sides and angles.

Let's understand it with the following example.

So let's take the values as 3, 4 and 5 

So the Formula used in the Pythagorean Theorem is 

a^2+b^2=c^2

3^2+4^2=5^2 

9+16=25 

25=25 

The Process to lay out a Right Angled Triangle or 3-4-5 triangle and the angles included in it.

Now the layout process starts by drawing or calculating the side length 3. Now if you are drawing, the other side is the adjacent side, also known as 4. Now the last side that connects 3 and 4 is 5. 

Now to get a decent picture and understand if it's a right-angled triangle. You can use the Right Angled Triangle Calculator to measure/calculate the sides and angles of the triangle.

Again if the triangle has a 3-4-5 as the constant ratio for its lengths, it is a right-angled triangle. The Pythagorean Theorem also justifies it, as it uses the side lengths of a triangle to calculate and prove it is a right-angled triangle.

The angles in the 3-4-5 ratio are usually the same. It is a right-angled triangle with an angle that measures 90°. 

Conclusion 

The Allcalculator.net's  Triangle Calculator makes it quite easy to calculate the length, area,  perimeter, or any factor of a triangle. It is quite easy and simple compared to tedious formulas because the manual calculations may still need to be corrected.

Week 14 Reflection

Given what you understand about how AI can be used for learning diagnostics and decision making in educational spaces, how do you think educators and administrative staff should employ it and why?

What are potential practical pitfalls with relying on AI for these tasks?

What are potential ethical challenges with relying on AI for these tasks?

AI can be used for learning diagnostics and decision making in educational spaces quite effectively by educators and decision making. I think that educators should employ it to see where students are at on their learning paths and meet them at that point. For example, giving students more problems of the same material if the student doesn’t yet understand it or advancing them to new materials if they are ready for it. AI shouldn’t just be used to help students who are struggling to meet the expectations, but it should also be used to help advanced students learn at the pace they would like to. Personally, one of the most impactful teachers I had from elementary school was my fifth grade math teacher who would let one of my friends and I move onto new topics and use a computer to learn things that we were interested in once we finished our assignments. It was her enabling us to take ownership of our education and further it at our own pace that really encouraged my love of learning, but if I would have had to stay at the pace of my peers my boredom in school would have likely resulted in me losing the passion for learning. AI could accomplish the same task by recommending more topics to students who have already mastered a topic. My friend and I learned some random topics as fifth graders since we were just researching random math topics that we had only heard about (I.e. Pythagorean theorem and factorials). An AI system, however, could have suggested we learn topics that made sense sequentially at that point in our educations (such as multiplying/ dividing fractions, pre-algebra), that way we could have progressed further into another math class at a quicker rate instead of just knowing random topics that wouldn’t be introduced to us for years in classes. Relying on AI to help a student who is struggling can be difficult because AI can’t necessarily hit the root cause of why the student doesn’t understand like a teacher can through conversations with a student or by analyzing their hand written work and the steps that they follow. Thus, the AI may be continually offering more practice problems to a student who will never be able to understand it in the way that it is being presented, thus having a teacher to regulate that and analyze and assist the student is important so that the student can truly progress. If a student is stuck in an infinite loop of getting the problem wrong, they are likely to grow discouraged and start to resent the subject or learning. When I used to tutor middle school students, I had one girl who hated math at the beginning because she always struggled to understand the topics. Her teachers and parents had tried having her use online platforms such as khan academy to help her, but she just couldn’t grasp the subjects. When I came in, I learned to meet her where she was at. If she couldn’t understand a topic the way her teacher or khan academy would teach it, then I would explain it in a  different way to help her understand. As she gained more confidence in her ability to learn and complete the problems without my assistance, she would get more excited to learn and her grades started to improve. She was so proud to tell me when she would get an A on tests or how her peers would ask her for help on practice problems. Where AI failed, human interaction and teaching was able to truly help a student in a sustainable way that she grew more confidence in her education and didn’t need my assistance anymore. Thus, the ethical dilemma of relying on AI for these tasks could be that it isn’t effective and can result in a student growing discouraged from learning overall. 

I don't get why schools force you to learn certain terminologies.

Like, if you can correctly use a^2 + b^2 = c^2, then what need is there for you to know it's called the Pythagorean theorem? It could be called the pink lilac enigma registry and its application would be no different.

Now, I do understand that knowing what it's called can help some people actually remember its relevant implications, but for the type of people that can place a towel on their desk and that serves as an adequate reminder that their history essay is due tomorrow, you don't need a hyper-specific word to be able to apply its relevant information.

Yes, I understand that these things need names and that these names should be brought up when learning about them. I will say that when teaching, terminology can be quite resourceful. The thing that I don't get is why you're tested to see if you know the relevant term. Knowing what the thing is called says nothing about your ability to use it. And this doesn't just go for math. Tons of subjects enforce knowing hyper-specific terminology as pressingly as the actually relevant information. Yes, terminology helps when teaching. Yes, terminology helps when collaborating. But what about everyone else? About the only relevant application I can see terminology having there is just... having an easier time googling it. How exactly is that relevant to the curriculum?

Obviously, literature is the exception here. In this case, terminology is the relevant information. There are other exceptions where terminology is the important part, such as the names of constellations in astrology and things of similar nature. Math is the big whoop here, but even in mechanical topics, 'the big spinny thing,' while a terrible term to describe to another person, might be all that oneself needs to perform a relevant task.

Getting back to my point: In circumstances where terminology is not the primary information at hand, terminology should not be quizzed on. People can learn it and should be encouraged to learn it, but shouldn't be punished for not knowing a term behind a task they know how to perform.

This is basically just a really long way to say that people learn in different ways, and shouldn't be punished for it.

And yes, I know there are a lot of relevant applications of terminology in careers and this and that and yadayadayada. However, I don't have much reason to believe that this information needs to be at the top of one's head, but rather stored in a relevant file. Therefore, I still stand by my point that terminology should not be tested for, as testing only shows relevant information currently in the head.

HOW TO FIX YOUR CC DOORS AND WINDOWS by Xineas

**NOTE: This is a tutorial written by my wonderful husband who got tired of hearing me complain about the broken CC windows and figured out how to fix them. Feel free to share this around. I am hoping for a batch fix but in the meanwhile, if you can calculate, you can fix the windows yourself. If you have questions, feel free to send me an ask and we will get back to you.**

The issue:

EA added a "ModelResourceCutout" item for every object that needs to cut out a piece of wall to show up correctly. The actual object is actually there, you can see the door handles in the example picture above. (beautiful doors by @peacemaker-ic​ )

The Sims4Studio developer is working hard to get a batch fix working so the creators don't have to manually add the correct values for each item, but it's unsure when this'll be ready and if it will fix all windows and doors. Some are quite eccentric from a shape perspective, meaning ROUND, CURVED or otherwise not a rectangle.

All that is needed is a bit of math and a bunch of trial and error. Oh, and patience is useful. I'm warning you, doing this 40 times over is tedious, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy. You just need to do a bit of basic math and to be able to think in 2 dimensional space.

The math

There are three height variants when it comes to walls. Short = 3 units high Medium = 4 units high Tall = 5 units high

Regular walls are 1 unit wide, diagonal walls are Sqrt(2) wide (Pythagorean theorem), which is 1,414. When making these cutouts, 1 decimal place accuracy is generally plenty. The frames of the doors and windows give you a little wiggle room. When you are making more interesting shapes, use 2 or 3 decimal places to give yourself a bit more accuracy.

Let's apply this magic to a real world example. EA wants you to add an item called "ModelCutoutResource" item to your object, which consists of any given number of lines in a 2D plane. Remember, this is a 2 dimensional cutout, depth is nonexistent, it just cuts out the whole wall, wherever we tell it to by connecting the dots. 

Each line consists of two points, a start and an end. I could tell you how to do it all day long, but doing it and getting it are more important. On to the example. This door with it's entire frame is 2 units wide and about 2.4 units high. You want your cutout to be IN THE FRAME, however. If you put your cutout at the outside edge, you will have an ugly gap on the sides of the frame an nobody wants that. So guesstimate (or extract from Blender, but I have no 3D modeling knowledge so will not go into that) the correct values, place your objects in game on a blank wall, look at them from the side and put a ruler to your screen if that makes your life easier. 

With our door here we need to make a rectangular cutout. This is easy, just 4 points to define. The points do in fact have a third value (x,y,z) but the z-value is always 0. Perhaps EA has wild plans with this in the future, but for now every single z-value is 0.

Using our gathered knowledge, we can now define 4 clear edges for our door. I always start bottom left, it's a habit, it doesn't matter, as long as you make a loop with your lines.

Your lines will now be as follows:

A to B, B to C, C to D and D to A. Let's put this into Sims 4 Studio.

Editing the package:

Open your package in Sims 4 Studio.

Select the Warehouse tab.

Select the Model item (don't do anything with it, just click it, this way S4S knows the "Instance" value and you don't have to copy-paste it)

>>> projects which have a separate model for diagonal walls will have TWO model items, you will have to make a cutout resource for both, which their respective instance values.

Click the ADD button bottom left.

Select the type ModelCutoutResource, check that the Instance is the same as your Model and smash the OK button. You will now have a new Resource called "ModelCutoutResource", all the way at the bottom. So scroll down and click it. ;) You will see "Edges", which we'll be adding soon. But first, very important, your cutout will not work if this is not set correctly..... Set "Version" from 00000000 to 00000001.

Now click the "Edit items..." button so we can add the edges with our previously done math.

For objects that are rectangle, just click the add button 4 times, then we can fill them in.

Each "Edge" has a PointA and PointB, which I've shown in the image below for A, B, C and D.

We can now fill in the values.

Make sure to destinguish commas and periods. Very important. Periods are used for decimal values, commas are used to separate values. Click Save. Then click Save again.

If you have multiple doors/windows that are the exact same shape, LUCKY YOU, click the export button to export your "ModelCutoutResource" resource and save it as a binary. This way you don't have to keep entering tedious coordinates into PointA and PointB. On your next door/window you can then select Model, add the ModelCutoutResource, select it and then click the import button to import your previously exported binary. This way you can skip all the other steps and make your life easy.

CHECK AGAIN: - "Instance" value is the same for Model and ModelCutoutResource - "Version" of your ModelCutoutResource is set to 00000001 and NOT 00000000

Test it in-game:

Did you do it correctly? Check it in game. When I fix a set for my wife's simblr, I usually first place all items in my game, then scribble some calculations on a piece of paper, then edit the packages and then check in game at the end. Then you can do some minor adjustments if necessary and fix those before doing a final inspection.

Once you get the hang of it, it is easy. You get a feeling quite quickly for which numbers make sense and which don't. Plus, if you do it wrong, it will just show you a weird cutout in the game and you learn from it.

Now on to the more interesting objects, curves and circles:

Windows, doors and arches which have curves are no different, they just have more points and thus more lines/edges you need to connect to make a loop. You can even make two loops if your window or door needs two cutouts.

For these more 'advanced' cutouts, it does help if you have at least some knowledge of Trigonometry. It certainly makes your life easier if you're going to attempt this. I studied in Uni to become a Maths teacher, so that's clearly an advantage. You at least need to understand how to find out points on a circle to make arches.

Alternatively, you can export the coordinates from Blender, but that's not my cup of tea.

I'll make a separate tutorial on round or arched cutouts.

**So again, all thanks to my husband for this tutorial... please pass it forward. You don’t need meshing knowledge, math will get you through it... oh and also, @peacemaker-ic​ if the batch fix doesn’t work out, let us know.**

@maxismatchccworld​ 

im sorry but this is a bit related to your studies.. have you ever feel like quitting it? or maybe having second thoughts about your course? if so how do you fight that urge/mindset? because recently ive been having those kinds of thoughts like "why did i pick this course? i could have just pick something like culinary or pastry or anything hands on"

oh boy have i ever 😭😭 you are not alone in feeling this way at all! the amount of pressure that is put on people our age to know wtf we want to do with the rest of our lives is insane. i remember that during my freshman orientation in high school, some lady popped up and started talking to us about figuring out our college choices/what we wanted to major in. like ma'am i can't even legally drive a car yet please calm down.

something important to note is that our frontal lobes (the area that, among other things, is associated with organization and planning, especially in the long-term), doesn't even finish developing until we're about 25. you will continue to improve in decision making/planning as you age and gain more experience. so even if you feel overwhelmed now, there is definite hope for the future. that's not to say the second the clock hits midnight on your 25th birthday your third eye will open and you'll automatically know what trajectory to set your life on, but i think this is important to take into consideration. your brain is still downloading! 

okay okay. neuroscience part over. this is part is all my personal conjecture.

first and foremost: what you’re experiencing is perfectly normal. in my case, i went from wanting to be apart of the journalism field, to having my heart set on script writing, then shifting that over to general creative writing, then shifting AGAIN to psychology, then once more to criminal psychology. where i am for the moment . even now i’m like what do i do ?? correctional counseling in prison systems? counseling specifically for traumatized women? working at human trafficking safehouses or sticking to volunteering ????? idk. life is confusing. 

i wouldn’t shoo those thoughts away or try to burry them, instead, i’d try maybe reframing it? like, if you try this class out and decide that it isn’t for you, that’s okay, there is still value to be gleaned from the experience. that’s how i would challenge myself to look at it at least. for example, i was tilted when i learned i needed to take math classes in college when my goal is to help people . not use the pythagorean theorem or w/e. then my academic advisor pointed out that statistics is important for psychology, since in academic papers/journals, numerical data is often present. you gotta be able to make sense of that stuff. when i looked at it from that point of view, i was slightly less tilted. at least enough to stop huffing about it. 

tl;dr: don’t beat yourself up for feeling confused over if the path you’re set on is right/wrong. there’s value to be found in every learning experience. besides, it’s not so much a “path” that you’re carving out for yourself than a stepping stone that can change direction. you’re not softlocked into any single, designated role. i’ve had friends change majors 3-4 years down the line.  

i hope this mess of a response was able to serve as some encouragement to you HJEKTGMR i’m very passionate about this problem since i myself have suffered from it and i know many people who have too . i’m wishing you the best of luck! 

Pythagoras of Samos is credited with several of the world’s most important mathematical theories. The Pythagorean theorem, the Theory of Proportions, and the sphericity of the Earth are only a few examples of Pythagora’s bright mind. At least, that’s what we believed. As our grasp of history grows, a few gaps in these attributions become apparent.

The most recent one reveals the employment of “Pythagorean triples” a thousand years before Pythagoras was ever born, and in more pure mathematics-like ways.

An Australian mathematician has discovered the origins of applied geometry on a 3700-year-old clay tablet that has been concealed in plain sight in an Istanbul museum for over a century. The tablet, Si.427, was discovered in late 1800s in what is now central Iraq. According to the UNSW scientist’s study, its significance was unknown until now.

“Si.427 dates from the Old Babylonian (OB) period – 1900 to 1600 BCE,” says lead researcher Dr. Daniel Mansfield from UNSW Science’s School of Mathematics and Statistics. “It’s the only known example of a cadastral document from the OB period, which is a plan used by surveyors to define land boundaries. In this case, it tells us legal and geometric details about a field that’s split after some of it was sold off.”

Si.427 is a hand tablet produced between 1900 and 1600 BC by an Old Babylonian surveyor. It’s made of clay, and the surveyor wrote on it with a stylus. On the front is a diagram of a field. The field is being subdivided, and some of it is being sold. The lines serve to demarcate the individual fields’ borders. The borders are quite accurate, maybe more so than you’d anticipate at the moment.

By using Pythagorean triples, the surveyor was able to reach such accuracy. It enabled him to draw perfectly perpendicular border lines. In its most basic form, a Pythagorean triple has sides of 3, 4, and 5 – creating a perfect right angle.

“This deep and highly numerical understanding of the practical use of rectangles earns the name ‘proto-trigonometry’ but it is completely different to our modern trigonometry involving sin, cos, and tan.”

The tablet’s discovery and study have far-reaching consequences for the history of mathematics.

With the Si.427, Mansfield still has a riddle to unravel. The tablet shows two numerals in large type, inscribed as 25:29, underneath the inscription. He has indicated that he is happy to speak with anyone who can assist him with this.

Plimpton 322: A Study of Rectangles, Daniel F. Mansfield

Published: August 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-021-09806-0

1. take notes every time you’re in lecture, and on applicable readings. so many people say that they’re bad at taking notes...when they NEVER take notes. taking notes is like any skill; the only way you get better is with time and practice. once you take notes consistently, you will develop a style of notetaking that works for you. 

2. rewriting your notes is valid. i see a lot of studyblrs and studygrams talk about how they never rewrite notes and that rewritten notes are a waste of time. i don’t agree. i think rewriting your notes can be an effective study method, provided you do it as soon as possible after the material is covered in class. not only does rewriting your notes make them neater, which can be nice if you have hard to read handwriting, but rewriting your notes lets you actively review material to solidify gaps in your understanding, rather than passively reading over the notes. of course, don’t do it just for the aesthetic, but i rewrite most of my notes and i’m okay with it.

3. handwriting your notes > typing your notes, in most cases. some people genuinely need to type notes and that is okay too. but most studies show that typing notes in lecture means they’re less effective at helping you remember the information covered. this is because when you type your notes, you’re more likely to copy down the information verbatim because most people type faster than they can write. when you handwrite your notes, you have to pick and choose what to write down because you can’t go quite as fast, and you are more likely to convey the information in your own words. if you like the convenience of digital notes but want to handwrite for better retention, consider taking your notes on a tablet with a program like goodnotes, which lets you handwrite with a stylus. but good old fashioned pen and paper works just as well if not better! i’m a pen and paper stan myself. 

4. functionality is more important than aesthetic. you don’t need to own any specific type of stationery to take good notes. maybe you don’t live near a muji store, maybe you like ballpoint pens better than gel pens, or maybe you just can’t be bothered to buy “aesthetic” stationery when what you can find at dollar tree works fine. that’s okay! purchasing specific stationery items won’t necessarily get you better grades. it’s really all about how you’re taking the notes. similarly, you really shouldn’t feel the need to worry about drawing elaborate diagrams, putting calligraphy titles on every lecture, or having the best handwriting when you take your notes. if these things help you learn or motivate you to study, that’s great, but you shouldn’t feel pressured to have “fancy” notes if it doesn’t suit your learning style.

5. for humanities classes, focus on concepts. for stem classes focus on examples. you kind of have to shift gears when you’re taking notes for different types of classes. in stem classes, understanding how to apply the concept is paradoxically much more important than having a super great understanding of the definition of the concept. so if your lecturer is working through a really long example, that’s not an excuse to zone out because you’ve already written down what the definition of the concept is. memorizing the pythagorean theorem is useless if you have no idea how to apply it. for your humanities classes, define as many key terms in your notes as you can if you don’t know what to take notes on. i’m grossly oversimplifying here, but you can kind of think of these classes as vocabulary courses where you’re looking to really understand what the words mean. you can later go back in and add examples. 

6. for faster notetaking, use a highlighter, a quick drying pen, and correction tape. fancy gel pens might feel nice, but when you are taking notes in a fast paced lecture, waiting for them to dry so your notes don’t smudge can be a real hassle. i would honestly recommend using a ballpoint, felt tip pen, or quick-drying gel pen as an alternative, even though these maybe aren’t as “aesthetic.” if you make a mistake, go for correction tape over correction fluid, because you don’t have to wait for it to dry and you can write immediately on top of it. if you like to add color to titles or key words, use a highlighter instead of a colored pen, as this is a lot faster than switching between pens.

7. don’t make your color-coding too complicated. i don’t use a strict color code for my notes because it’s not really practical for me, but i do like to add color to their notes, especially when it comes to memorizing specific types of information. if this is a tactic you’re considering trying out, i would recommend that you keep it very simple. try to limit it to three colors max. too much more than that and you’re liable to mess it up and get confused. you want the colors in your notes to simplify them, not make the information more difficult to digest.

8. focus on what the lecturer is saying, not what’s written on the slides or handouts. you’re not going to lecture to read powerpoint slides; you’re going to learn what the lecturer has to say, so if the lecture is going really fast, focus on the things that they’re saying rather than the presentation. this may feel counterintuitive, but most lecturers provide slides/other supplementary materials prior to lecture or after the lecture, and if they don’t, you can always send an email and ask. if you find yourself mindlessly writing down the info from the presentation or handouts and then zoning out, consider printing out the slides prior to class and annotating them with the lecturer’s comments. if they’re good at lecturing, most of the information probably won’t be on the slides anyway. remember, a lecture is a one time thing. you can always get the slides later obviously, this has changed a little in the time of rona because a lot of lectures are recorded for you to watch later, but i still think this is relevant because i don’t think anyone wants to go back and rewatch a zoom lecture because they weren’t paying attention!

9. organize your notes in a way that makes sense to you. you want your notes in a central location when it comes time for that final! maybe you want to have separate notebooks for every class, or maybe one binder or notebook with multiple sections. maybe you want to date your notes or title them so you can remember specifically at a glance what is covered in each section. maybe you want to mark up your notes with page flags so you can easily flip to the most important sections. how you organize your notes is up to you, but it’s important to have some kind of system so you can study them with ease. 

10. for notes on readings, summarize, summarize, summarize! if you have readings you want to take notes on, it’s not necessary that you copy down every single fact or key term. this will take forever, and more often than not, you will burn yourself out. instead, try to summarize what you’re reading in your head. try to write every paragraph as one or two sentences. this will force you to put the reading into your own words-active learning again-rather than painstakingly writing down extraneous information. 

Here’s an image from the Baum des Lebens (Tree of Life, 1682) of the physician and chymist Friedrich Geissler, in which he writes about the Philosopher’s Stone and Elixir. Geissler is particularly interested in the work of John Dee and Heinrich Khunrath (whose names appear on this page) and these three versions of the Pythagorean Tetraktys are important to the occult philosophy or theosophy of both men.

The banner says ‘The Ladder or Cabalistic Revolution of the Denary.’ By Denary is meant the descneding sequence of the 10 dots that signify, for instance, the 4 elements (Fire, Air, Water, Earth), the emanantion of the divine into the cosmos, the progression from point to line to surface to solid, etc. 

On the left Geissler provides a Physico-Chemical version with the standard 10 dots, in the middle an Arithmetical version in which 1+2+3+4 = 10 (the number of perfection), and on the right a Divinely Magical version in which the most powerful Hebrew name of God, YHVH, is superimposed on the dots. The cumulative numerical value of all the Hebrew letters adds up to the highly cabbalistic number LXXII (72), alluding to the Shem HaMephorash, the ‘explicit name’, the 72-letter name of God. This is what is meant by the phrase below, ‘The Cabalistic Expansion of the Denary’ (a phrase, incidentally from Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica, Theorem VIII).

The Tetraktys turns up quite frequently in esoteric works.

Best Books Help you Change Way to think

1. Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain

The New York Times bestselling Freakonomics changed the way we see the world, exposing the hidden side of just about everything. Then came SuperFreakonomics, a documentary film, an award-winning podcast, and more.

Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, they take us inside their thought process and teach us all to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally—to think, that is, like a Freak.

Levitt and Dubner offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. As always, no topic is off-limits. They range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria.

Some of the steps toward thinking like a Freak:

First, put away your moral compass—because it’s hard to see a problem clearly if you’ve already decided what to do about it.

Learn to say “I don’t know”—for until you can admit what you don’t yet know, it’s virtually impossible to learn what you need to.

Think like a child—because you’ll come up with better ideas and ask better questions.

Take a master class in incentives—because for better or worse, incentives rule our world.

Learn to persuade people who don’t want to be persuaded—because being right is rarely enough to carry the day.

Learn to appreciate the upside of quitting—because you can’t solve tomorrow’s problem if you aren’t willing to abandon today’s dud.

Levitt and Dubner plainly see the world like no one else. Now you can too. Never before have such iconoclastic thinkers been so revealing—and so much fun to read

2. The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest To Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind

Recording memories, mind reading, videotaping our dreams, mind control, avatars, and telekinesis - no longer are these feats of the mind solely the province of overheated science fiction. As Michio Kaku reveals, not only are they possible, but with the latest advances in brain science and recent astonishing breakthroughs in technology, they already exist. In The Future of the Mind, the New York Times-bestselling author takes us on a stunning, provocative and exhilarating tour of the top laboratories around the world to meet the scientists who are already revolutionising the way we think about the brain - and ourselves.

3. A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

Whether you are a student struggling to fulfill a math or science requirement, or you are embarking on a career change that requires a new skill set, A Mind for Numbersoffers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating material. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation. When she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options—both to rise in the military and to explore other careers—she returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life. In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to learning effectively—secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there’s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions—you just need the creativity to see them. For example, there are more than three hundred different known proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. In short, studying a problem in a laser-focused way until you reach a solution is not an effective way to learn. Rather, it involves taking the time to step away from a problem and allow the more relaxed and creative part of the brain to take over. The learning strategies in this book apply not only to math and science, but to any subject in which we struggle. We all have what it takes to excel in areas that don't seem to come naturally to us at first, and learning them does not have to be as painful as we might think.

4. Train Your Brain

Would you like to sharpen your memory? Would you like to keep your brain agile and focused? Would you like to age-proof your brain so that it stays young, healthy and fit? Then this is the book for you! Train Your Brain is a book of puzzles, exercises, riddles, and brain games that will help boost your brain power and jump start your brain! Whether you are a teenager, young adult, or a senior citizen, this book provides a vigorous mental workout to help increase your memory, sharpen your deductive and mathematical skills, improve your observation, increase your problem-solving skills, and improve the overall health of your brain. • More than 100 fun, brain-enhancing exercises, puzzles, and riddles. • 50 neurobic exercises that you can practice anytime, anywhere. • 66 popular games that will help you polish your cognitive skills.

6. Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long

In Your Brain at Work, David Rock takes readers inside the heads—literally—of a modern two-career couple as they mentally process their workday to reveal how we can better organize, prioritize, remember, and process our daily lives. Rock, the author of Quiet Leadership and Personal Best, shows how it’s possible for this couple, and thus the reader, not only to survive in today’s overwhelming work environment but succeed in it—and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.

7. Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More, and Be More Productive

With over 300,000 copies sold, Unlimited Memory is a Wall Street Journal Best Seller and has been the #1 memory book on Amazon for more than two years. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages including French, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian.

Most people never tap into 10% of their potential for memory.

In this book, you're about to learn:

How the World's Top Memory Experts Concentrate and Remember Any Information at Will, and How You Can Too

Do you ever feel like you're too busy, too stressed or just too distracted to concentrate and get work done?

In Unlimited Memory, you'll learn how the world's best memory masters get themselves to concentrate at will, anytime they want. When you can easily focus and concentrate on the task at hand, and store and recall useful information, you can easily double your productivity and eliminate wasted time, stress and mistakes at work.

In this book, you'll find all the tools, strategies and techniques you need to improve your memory.

Here’s just a taste of the memory methods you'll learn in this book:

The 3 bad habits that keep you from easily remembering important information

How a simple pattern of thinking can stop you from imprinting and remembering key facts, figures and ideas, and how to break this old pattern so you’ll never again be known as someone with a “bad memory”

How to master your attention so you can focus and concentrate longer, even during challenging or stressful situations

How to use your car to remember anything you want (like long lists or information you need to remember for your studies or personal life) without writing anything down

Simple methods that allow you to nail down tough information or complex concepts quickly and easily

How to combine your long-term memory (things you already know and will never forget) and short-term memory (information you want to remember right now) to create instant recall for tests, presentations and important projects

The simple, invisible mental technique for remembering names without social awkwardness or anxiety

How using your imagination to bring boring information to life can help you dramatically improve your attention span and recall

An incredible strategy for remembering numbers (the same system Kevin used to remember Pi to 10,000 digits and beat the world memory record by 14 minutes)

How to use a mental map to lock in and connect hundreds or even thousands of ideas in your long-term memory (this method will allow you to become a leading expert in your field faster than you ever dreamed possible)

8. Calm Your Mind: Break the Cycle of Anxiety, Stress, Unhappiness, Exhaustions, and Find Peace in a Rushed World

Overwhelmed by the demands of a fast-paced world? Want to reduce your stress and anxiety?

Endless worrying is mostly the byproduct of unconscious living.

What makes you anxious: your lifestyle, your prospects for the future, or the shadows of the past?

If you’re desperate to slow down and find inner peace, mindfulness is the solution you’re looking for.

In Calm Your Mind, bestselling author Steven Schuster will help you to find back your way to the present moment following a few simple yet powerful principles. They don’t require more than a few minutes of practice daily. Their impact, however, is monumental with long-term benefits.

Improve your focus and productivity.

The book will not only show you the best practices to find peace of mind but will also help you transform these practices into daily, automatic habits. The wholeness you’re so keen to find is already within you. Practicing mindfulness is the key to channel those parts of your brain.

Learn to exclude the junk from your thoughts.

•Improve your focus and attention during your everyday activities •How to bring awareness to your life and practice conscious living •Become more decisive, disciplined, and calm

Become aware of the person you truly are.

•Learn how can you "calm your mind" •The best tips to manage your energy •The scientifically proven benefits of practicing mindfulness •How to overcome your discouraging and negative thoughts

Stop being the victim of your circumstances. Be aware and thus prepared to overcome them.

Mindfulness helps you experience a deep feeling of happiness and peace. It seeps into everything you do. You can meet the worst that life throws at you with courage, discipline, and determination. Life will make sense because you’ll be in greater control of it.

On today’s episode of Things I’m Realizing As An Adult That Were Not Okay About My Childhood... One of the toxic mentalities in the education system (and the world really) was the mantra of “no excuses.” Don’t write this off as a whiny special snowflake rant quite yet, bear with me. Now, as a kid with ADHD that went undiagnosed until my 3rd year of college, you can imagine that I often found myself offering an explanation excuse for my behavior. An excuse for why I forgot the big project was due today. An excuse for being late to e v e r y thing. An excuse for spacing out and missing important instructions. And excuse for why I just HAD to blurt that out. I didn’t understand what was going on with me, and neither did any of the adults at that time. But with every time I was cut off by a teacher when I attempted to explain myself and was told “ah-I don’t want to hear it! No excuses, everyone else can do it so there’s no reason you couldn’t,” something inside me as a child withered. From my childhood perspective, I was shut down even when I had a legitimate reason for something I did ‘wrong’, so really what their mantra taught me is that it doesn’t matter what’s going on in my life. It’s not their job to care. My job is to shut up and do what I’m told. So I think somewhere in that process as I grew up, I became a robotic perfectionist, pushing through whatever was going on to be a perfect student. I didn’t take care of myself. It didn’t matter what traumatic awful thing was going on in my life. It didn’t matter that I was falling asleep in class because I had spend my night curled up on the ground outside. Or that I’d just experienced my first earth shattering teenage heartbreak and couldn’t focus on the Pythagorean theorem. I think, looking back, there were moments when someone should have stepped in and intervened in my life. I should have reached out to my professors, teachers, school counselors, SOMEone, for help, but I’d been taught to compartmentalize school from the rest of my life and to lock away whatever I was going through. I thought I have to work myself to an unhealthy extreme to achieve what’s asked of me. And when I couldn’t, I was often too scared to ask for help, even when it would have been as simple as asking for an extension. I believed I would be shunned for even making such a preposterous request. This happened in the workplace too. There were no excuses, and work was to be prioritized above all other needs. You were hospitalized? Tough luck buddy, you should have called every coworker to find someone to cover your shift! No, I don’t think the world needs to coddle children and young adults. But I do think there is a fine line between teaching work ethic and sending the message that your needs, struggles, and circumstances as a human being don’t matter and you should push them aside to run the rat race you’ve been placed in. Kids shouldn’t compartmentalize their humanity in service to the system.

REFLECTION PAPER IN THEORIES AND PRINCEPLES IN THE  USE AND DESIGN TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN LESSON

TPACK REFLECTION

For me, I believe that TPACK is important to know before entering a classroom. Knowing how to incorporate TPACK will help students learn in new ways and also have choices for teachers to deliver their lesson also, I think that will have an advantage because I learned TPACK as a pre-service teacher instead of a current teacher trying to change their ways and incorporate something they have never experienced in a classroom before. For example. I will know how to use an online polling system that students can access and answer question instead of raising their hands. For current teachers trying to implement TPACK, it is harder because they aren’t used to the technologies that can help a classroom and not slow it down

 SAMR MODEL REFLECTION

As educators and curators of educational technology we know that technology is a tool that complements instruction. As such, the strength of the tool is predicated on its use by a skillful educator. There are certainly some exciting and revolutionary innovations and technology as a tool can be quite powerful if it encourages creative discovery or reinforces foundational knowledge. We crawl before we walk, just like we memorize sight words before we write prose. What follows are four ways that technology transcends analog tools in education, including those that demonstrate simple recall while providing valuable feedback to fuel learning to the true innovators in our classrooms: teachers.

The SAMR model was created to help teachers reflect on how they’re using technology today while paving the way towards impacting their students’ future. The four levels move from simple substitution, to augmentation, modification and finally redefinition, where each successive level increases the tool’s impact on the classroom. Research shows that each level has had an effect on learning, here we dive deeper into some of the tools teachers are already using that are making significant impacts on classrooms worldwide.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY REFLECTION

The referenced article cites Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy, a scale of increasingly complex levels of thinking that students demonstrate as they learn—moving from rote recall to higher order skills like creation and evaluation. This taxonomy provides verbs that describe the cognitive processes students use during learning. For example, a student in the application category is able to implement or execute existing knowledge in novel tasks. This is an important skill that students demonstrate whether they’re applying Pythagorean’s theorem when presented with a novel problem or writing alternative endings to a favorite fairy tale. In the article, author Jared Silver uses Bloom’s taxonomy to suggest technology can more optimally engage learners. And while this may be true, it is the teacher who is the guide on the side scaffolding learning across these increasingly complex categories.

Bloom’s taxonomy is essential for teachers to identify student’s levels of thinking, whereas Puentedura’s taxonomy is essential for teachers to identify the tools that can be used to innovate on instruction. The two are not synonymous and point to two potential views of technology and education: one where the technology guides instruction, and the other where skillful teachers guide instruction supported by technological tools. As a student of cognitive science, I hold strong to the work of Lev Vygotsky, which suggests the latter and posits technology as a cultural tool. In the SAMR model, technology in the hands of a knowledgeable educator can transcend traditional teaching and learning in four distinct but impactful ways.

DALE’S CONE OF EXPERIENCE REFLECTION                                                 

The cone of experience is a visual models, a pictorial device that presents band of experience arrange according to degree of abstraction and not degree of difficulty.  The farther you go from the bottom of the cone, the more abstract of experience becomes.

The learner learning experiences can be strengthen when they are involved in learning process.  On the basis of these objectives, the teacher select the appropriate teaching method to be used and, in turn, base on the teaching method selected, chooses also the appropriate learning experiences, and  appropriate materials, equipment and facilities.  The effective use of learning resources is dependent on the expertise of the teacher as motivator, the motivation level or responsiveness, and the involment of the learners in the learning process.

The system is theoritically simple but it need more practice, the teacher should formulate a lesson objective that fit to the need of the learner, the teacher should select the subject in consideration with the learning resources.

The Dale Cone of Experience illustrate the phase or elements are connected to one another.  If one element of instruction fails, the outcome which is learning is considered affected.  The attainment of the learning objective is dependent upon the elements and all actors involved in the process.

ASSURE MODEL REFLECTION

In education, it is important to introduce the children to different types of learning styles, so that they can explore new methods and use the one that helps them the most. By implementing this strategy, this will enable the children to learn at their own pace and find their comfort style of learning. The ASSURE lesson plan is a nutritional lesson plan that was created to teach children how to input data onto a digital spreadsheet by using Microsoft Excel. For this lesson, the children are to gather data from the nutritional labels on cereal boxes for fat, sugar, and salt. By using the nutritional labels, they are to input their data onto their digital spreadsheet, create a chart, and to explain the chart. This lesson is a good example on introducing children to the different types of learning styles because this lesson is incorporating technology such as using computers for learning that may benefit those children who are visual learners and enjoy hands on activities.

Among the NETS*T standards, NETS*T standard 2C applies to this assignment because it relates to designing and developing digital age learning experiences for children. For instance, standard 2C includes customizing and personalizing learning activities to attend to student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. The implementation of this standard to the lesson plan was to customize the diverse learning styles of the children. For example, most of the students are visual learners and require visuals of steps to learn the lesson. The usage of the projector and screen is best when doing the lesson because it allows all children to see the steps on a full screen and can help them understand it better; especially for those with various disabilities such as dyslexia.

If a few revisions were to be made onto the “Require Learner Participation,” it would be more challenging for students if they were to work individually instead of pairs. This method would allow the students to learn on their own without any assistance from another. Although individual learning is a good way for student’s to do assignments on their own, it lacks the area of group learning. Group learning or teamwork allows children to practice working in teams to help one another to finish an assignment such as sharing opinions and ideas on how to do an assignment.  In other words, students are able to practice their social and interaction skills. For the lesson plan to be more in detail, perhaps stating how the pairs are distributed among the students is needed for the lesson plan, just in case a substitute teacher were to sub the class.

In the designated classroom, there is one male student with the learning disability of dyslexia. Students with dyslexia are those who are have trouble processing words and numbers. In other words, dyslexic children may need extra help to help them comprehend and process the information given to them. Since the male student with dyslexia, have trouble learning new material, revisions and accommodations are needed to address this issue. The first accommodation would be the usage of various technologies such as computers because it can help dyslexic students to learn from auditory and visual lessons but also at their own pace. Other accommodations consist of encouraging practicing key boarding skills, and directions are needed to be repeated more than once so that they won’t be behind. Most importantly, Supervision and assistance of the teacher is a must, in each step or procedure in the lesson to monitor their students’ progress.

The best thing about this assignment was determining the general characteristics of the analyze learners. This category is very important because in order to teach a class, teachers need to be familiar with their student’s profile such as their age, ethnic group, disabilities, learning style, and so much more. These factors may reflect how you teach because of the modifications and accommodations needed to assist their learning abilities. The least thing of this assignment was using only cereal nutritional facts labels. Instead of using cereal, students could compare and contrast other food products such as canned goods, sweets (candy) and healthy snacks, etc. Overall, the idea of having the students learn how to input data onto a digital spreadsheet is a wonderful way for students to be familiarized with the technology aspect of using technology as a learning tool.

I Don’t Care if that makes me Gay (Mikey Way x Reader)

I walked down the corridor of my horrible school, thinking 'wow! I sure do love this place!'. I love waking up at 5:30 a.m. to see high school students doing drugs and making out in front of my locker. "School is a place that combines education and fun!" say the teachers. Yeah, I bet. More like "A place of mental, and possibly physical, abuse!" For me, the second statement was correct. I got good grades and all, but school was still very hard. Not to mention the bullying, either.

So, there I was walking down the corridor when one of my favorite people decided to join me. "Hey, dude. How's my favorite man doing today?" he snarled. Of course. My favorite bully. Kolbee.

He and his gang always tormented me on how I 'dressed like a guy' and 'how they all knew what was really between my legs'. Whether it was offensive name calling, or me being used as a literal punching bag, it always took its toll. When people heard that I was apparently transgender, all of my friends stopped talking to me, and no one would talk to me in general. Even teachers turned a cold shoulder to the prejudice happening.

Was I actually transgender? Yes.

Was I going to tell anyone? No.

I pushed past Kolbee and his laughing group of boys and girls to my locker. At least today they didn't decide to use me as a way to practice for boxing. Or so I thought.

The day was a drag so far, it was only third period and it felt like I had been here for hours. "So, when using the Pythagorean theorem, you..."

Blah, blah, blah. Math was so boring. I raised my hand. "Yes, Y/n." The teacher asked.

"Bathroom?" I requested. The teacher simply nodded. He seemed fed up at the fact that I had interrupted his extremely important lesson for my bodily needs, but my body needed to get out of that class.

I got up and took a slow walk to the bathroom. Little did I know someone, or should I say a group of someones, were following me. I went into the bathroom, and went to shut one of the stall doors when none other than Kolbee yanked it back and said, "not so fast."

"Get out!" I yelled, standing up. "This is a women's bathroom."

"Well, you're in here and you're not a woman." he snickered. The group of the three other boys he brought with him laughed along, too. "Speaking of, I think it's finally time to see what is really between those fat thighs of yours."

My eyes widened in fear as I realized what they were planning to do to me. I tried to scream, but one of his buddies clamped their hand over my mouth. Two of the other ones held me right where I was, making my struggling futile. Then, none other than Kolbee himself began to unzip my pants.

I was flailing like a fish out of water. My feet were banging loudly up against the stall doors, which then made loud echoes. "Hold her better," Kolbee said through gritted teeth.

I was praying that I wouldn't cry. I had a horrible urge to do so at the moment, but that was the last thing I needed right now. I continued to thrash around until one of my elbows collided with something that felt like a soft solid. Then, one of the boys screeched, falling to the ground and clutching his area in pure pain.

They weren't going to see what was between my legs without a little pain to theirs.

With my new found freedom, I pushed myself away from the other boy holding me down easily and went running out of the bathroom. "RAPE!" I began to yell as loudly as I could. "RAPE!"

I saw four other boys rush down the hallway. 'I'm so done for.' I thought. But, just as they reached me, they all charged into the bathroom and began to pummel the ones who were attacking me. A teacher came in quickly after that, sending the boys who were attacking me to the office, and made sure I was okay while the other four mystery boys waited out in the hallway.

By this point, the tears were flowing, no matter how hard I was trying to stop them. The teacher approached me. "Did they touch you?" she questioned.

I shook my head.

"Did they hurt you in any way?"

"I mean," I laughed nervously through the tears. "Probably emotionally, but the few bruises will heal in a week."

She took a deep breath, impatiently. "They will call you down to the office to ask you what happened." Then she got up and left. She just left. If those boys hadn't saved me, I would have been in only God knows what state, and she just left.

I sighed, then went out into the hallway, where the four boys rushed over. They seemed to care more than the teacher. One, with thick, curly brown hair was hugging me, while the other three asked if I was okay.

"Are you sure you're alright?" asked a lanky boy with awkward knees quietly.

I nodded. It was just as I had told the rude teacher; I was more emotionally hurt by the exchange than physically. I had always had a hard time coming to terms with how I actually felt about my gender, so coming to school every day and being bullied about it was hard for me. Especially for the fact I was also 'still in the closet', and wanted to tell someone what I was feeling badly.

I took in a large breath then exhaled, letting my back slide down the wall until I was sitting on the floor. Everyone was still in their classes at this point, so it was just the five of us in the hallway.

"I'm Gerard," said an average height boy with thick black hair. "And Frank, Ray, and my brother, Mikey." he finished, introducing the rest of the group. They all waved, except for Mikey who blushed when I looked at him. I smiled, nevertheless, and began to talk to the boys.

They were really nice, and I realized quite early on that they had good intentions and would never hurt me. They continued to comfort me and talk until I was called to the office to recount my side of the story.

~Frank sized time skip until after the office~

I noticed the boys waiting for me by the office doors. They rushed over.

"What happened? Are they getting expelled? If they're not I'll go in and give that principal a piece of my mind..." Frank asked frantically, cracking his knuckles.

"Yeah," I said, kind of dryly. "They are getting expelled."

They all sighed in relief. "Thank God," said Ray. We all continued to walk down the hallway. By this time, it was about ten minuted before the final bell would ring, so there was no use going to class. We decided to wait it out in the library.

"You know," Gerard said, breaking the silence as we walked through the library doors. "You could always hang out with us... we always noticed you were kind of- well, usually... alone."

"Thanks," I said. "And thanks for before. You don't even really know me and you still helped me."

Frank, Gerard, and Ray laughed. " And trust me, I think Mikey knows you," Ray said, through fits of laughter.

I furrowed my brow in confusion. "Why? Did we do a group project together..." I trailed off, thinking.

They continued to laugh. I looked over to Mikey to see he was reddening quickly. Mikey punched Frank in the shoulder, saying a muffled "shut up", only making everyone laugh harder.

"Go on," Ray said. "Tell her."

I looked Mikey who's eyes were wide, and his face red. "Well, I... well I kind of... a-a while ago b-but... but still, do k-kind of, maybe, have a... cru-crush on you?" he shut his eyes tightly.

As for me, my eyes went wide. Then I realized it was time.

Did I like Mikey? Yes.

Did he know I was transgender? No.

Would it be fair to be in a relationship with him when I fully know that I am transgender, and not tell him? No.

"Mikey," I started, biting my lip. "I am transgender. The rumors are true. I've never told anyone, but I believe that it would be unfair if I knew I was transgender and I didn't tell you. It would just feel like I was lying to myself, and to you. I understand that you won't want me anymore." I flinched.

Why did I do that, why did I do that, why did I do that, why did I do that, why-

"Why would I not like you?" Mikey asked, looking genuinely confused. I opened my eyes, beginning to tear up. "Becuase, if I think I'm a man, Mikey, that makes... it makes you g-gay."

I looked down at the ground, a single tear falling from my damp eyes. I could feel the eyes of all four boys burning into me. Just as I was about to turn and leave, I felt a hand under my chin. It tilted my face up and went around to the back of my neck.

In a raspy whisper, I heard his voice in my ear. "I don't care if it makes me gay."

Then, he kissed me.

name: ryn april wilbury

age: 17

gender: female

appearance: very symmetrical face. big(ish) lips.long, blonde, curly hair. three piercings on each of her ears. always wearing jewelry & nice clothes. relatively thin. (she’s not nearly as complex as tobias, huh?)

background: ryn wilbury has always been one to strive to be her very very best. some teenagers try in school, and then there’s ryn wilbury, who pushes herself until she’s gone mental. she has never made much time for friends, but she managed to take ahold of a girl named courtland, who understands her obsessiveness with school. although, she’s not the same way. ryn’s school drive comes from a few different aspects: the pressure from her parents, the influence from her school, and the fact that she’s worked to hard to quit now. ryn has everything pretty well off, at least that how it seems on the outside. it seems that way to ryn for a while, too, until tobias points out some life-altering revelations and ryn’s world changes forever.

relationships: courtland (her best friend), elowen (her little sister), tobias (her eventual partner), her parents

sexuality: straight

positive personality traits: organized, sophisticated, hard-working, dedicated, scholarly, welcoming to people she respects. CAN BE, very compassionate and sentimental.

negative personality traits: comes off as aggressive/passive-aggressive, just straight up bitchy sometimes, 

notable characteristics: has beautiful cursive handwriting (taught by her grandma), does community service as much as she can, loves animals (she wants to major in animal science at cornell), only listens to classical music (this is important believe it or not).

excerpt 1: 

Three months. 91 days. 2,184 hours. 131,040 minutes. 7,862,400 seconds of excessive and rigorous training. Ryn Wilbury had devoted every second of her summer to her studies. She didn’t count herself as a nerdy,  goodie-two-shoes, that was too cliche. She counted herself as a young woman dedicated to her academics. She believed didn’t have time to engage in the entire ‘high school experience.’ Her parents believed the same. School was about academics, not parties or alcohol or boyfriends or breaking rules.

Pride was just about everything that Ryn accounted herself for. If things didn’t stack up in a pleasing manner, there was no point in doing it at all. So, every second of her ‘summer vacation’ was put towards strenuous learning and digesting of her mind. No, she did not have a stick up her ass, she had the entire equation of pi, Newton’s Law, Pythagoreans Theorem, quantum physics, and then some.

As the trees and hills panned out beside the asphalt highway, as the blue sky enveloped the white tufts of clouds, and as the road disappeared beneath her tires, all Ryn could think about were the accomplishments she’d made during her diminishing summer vacation. She had completed the wildlife internship she dreamt of.

For 31 days, she was living on her own, in a small college dorm, tucked between the chaos of a large city. Although the city was constantly bustling, Ryn kept herself on campus. Getting distracted from her studies was never on the agenda, and she didn’t let it squeeze it’s way on there either. Some would call that uptight and some would tell her to explore the city, ‘live a little’ (Ryn’s least favorite quote). But Ryn was dedicated. So dedicated, she wouldn’t let anything ruin her plans. However, there was one thing that Ryn would put before her studies, Elowen. Although studies are important, family comes first, and she wouldn’t let her sister slip through her fingers.

excerpt 2:

“Hey, Ms. Wilbury, could I talk to you in my office,” Principal Shaw asked, before quickly following up with, “I’ll give you a note for your class.”

Ryn smiled, that million dollar smile of perfectly straight and whitened teeth, before following principal Shaw into his office.

Ryn had been in his office a few times, but for all the right reasons. Most of the time it was to receive a reward or talk about a presentation she’d be giving. Ryn had given three presentations about community service since enrolling in Silver Oak, she figured this would be about the fourth and final one she’d give..

Once inside the office, Ryn sat down on one of the chairs placed in front of Mr. Shaw’s desk.

“So,” Mr. Shaw folded his hands on his desk, leaning forward on his elbows, “Tobias Williams.”

Ryn’s spine went rigid and she felt her nose beginning to scrunch, she rubbed it in a means of subduing the expression, “Yes, Mr. Williams. I was out all night looking for some extra studying materials, and I bought some of my favorite fountain pens-”

“Well, I see you’re prepared for this, as usual.” Mr. Shaw said this with a grin and met Ryn’s gaze.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tutor Tobias, she loved tutoring and watching those she mentored grow in their intellectual abilities. It was fulfilling, a satisfaction which was hard to find other places. She was far more hesitant about the Tobias part, she was not looking forward to that.

Ryn forced a smile on her lips and tucked the loose strands of blonde hair behind her ears, “Well you can never have too many service hours.”

Mr. Shaw laughed lightly and leaned back into his chair. Ryn subconsciously began to grind her teeth, tapping a manicured nail against her leg and smiling along with him.

“I suspect you’ll get a good five hours per week, and if you continue throughout the year, you’ll have plenty for college impressions.”

He was right, she just had to keep her eyes on the prize. Cornell University, that was the prize, and a good one at that. Ryn could push through tutoring a delinquent if it meant a better chance at being noticed by Cornell.

(tobi westport, misaligned stars 2019)

tag list: @tenacious-scripturient @fantasy-studiies @novicewriterstuff @ren-c-leyn @writernour @vviciously

leave a comment if you want to be added to the tag list!

From Kitchen to Couple

Pairing: Anthony Ramos x Female Reader

Warnings: like maybe two swears, nothing bad just the S word, yikes im sorry for that Preview: The reader meets Anthony again. This time it’s in a new place, at a new time. 

Y/S/N is your sisters name, but if u dont have one just IMAGINE Masterlist | Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Three weeks later, Monday, 7:02am

Waking up at the sound of your alarm was going to take some getting used to, as you had gotten so accustomed to lazily sliding out of bed around 9am to go see a new country on your recent school holiday. 

Getting up and grabbing a pair of light wash skinny jeans and a pale yellow sweater, you went into the bathroom for a quick shower and then dried your hair and changed into today’s outfit. 

After much of a struggle to get your bag packed for classes today, you left all your books and pencil cases shoved under your bed before the trip. Finally prepared you walked back into the small bathroom and looked in the mirror and brushed your hair and teeth before spraying on perfume. 

Grabbing your phone and seeing a new text and some notifications. You open the text first. 

Y/S/N hey, hope you landed safe. mom didn’t want you to worry, but she said that you left something here before you left? like a journal of some sort? i wasn’t sure.

Quickly grabbing your bag and shuffling through it, then checking your carry on you realized what exactly you had forgotten. Shit and it’s not a journal, well it is. You use that book as a journal and a planner, and it’s super important to you especially on a day that your already thrown for a loop. To not have your journal would cause mass destruction!

Not exactly mass destruction, 10:00am

Walking into your first class of the day; advanced level two music history. 

Trust me, it’s more exciting than you might think. Learning why things were the way they were had always excited you, from being little when they main question is always “Why?” to learning to derive the Pythagorean theorem in ninth grade algebra. You always liked knowing why.

A cause your mother would say. “There’s a cause for everything, everyone you meet, every way you react and every person you meet, there’s a reason.”

Those words deeply resonated with you. You figured because your mother had said them so much over the years. Now at your bright age of twenty-one, you still wanted to know the cause of things. She said that’s probably why you’re going for a doctorate in music, to be able to know why everything about music is how it is. 

Y/N can she send it to the dorm or something? i really need it 

You messaged your sister about your journal after remembering you had rushed out earlier today to get to class. Now that class was over you could head to the cafe for some lunch or work on some work from music history. You did have a paper to write and figured on walking to the cafe to eat something while starting it. 

Out of class, 1:00pm

“A large hot mocha, with no whip please. Hm, also can I get a grilled cheese?” 

“Sure, your total is $6.47. Oh, debit or credit?” 

“Debit please, thank you.” 

“It’ll be out shortly. Thank you for coming.” The girl behind the counter had said. 

“Wait, I know you from somewhere don’t I?” She said, as you began to walk away. This caused you to turn around. 

“Um I don’t know. You do look familiar.” 

“The kitchen!” 

“Pardon?” You said, truly not knowing what had caused her to yell at you.

“Oh, sorry. It’s just, that’s where we met, the community kitchen. I’m Jasmine, you met me and Anthony that night.”

It all suddenly clicked in your head, you had met her when you met Anthony, but hadn’t seen them since before break.

“Hey Anthony, come out here.” 

“Jas, you know my post is in the kitchen, not the counter.” You heard a familiar voice say, before seeing his hair up in a hairnet and piled on his head inside said net. 

“Oh, hey Y/N! Wait hang on.” You smiled and waved, quite awkwardly you thought, as he turned and walked back into the kitchen. “I believe this is yours,” he said as he came out with a plate and a coffee in hand. 

“Yeah that’s me, thank you both. I have a paper for music theory to write.”

“Music theory? What’s your major?” Jasmine asks, 

“Music, I worked on a few small Broadway productions.” 

“Wait, how old are you?” Anthony asked, now jumping in the conversation.

“I’m twenty-one, and I’m here to get a doctorate degree in music. The goal is big Broadway productions for me.”

“That’s rad! I love Broadway and I was in a show called 21 Chump Street last year!” Anthony replies.

“You were in Chump? No way! I love that show, I look up to Lin so much.” 

“I’m trying out for Hamilton, I hope I get it. Well Jasmine is trying out too so we’ll see how that goes!” 

“Good luck to you both, but I’m gonna sit down now so you can take her order.”

Jasmine hands you a slip of paper, “our numbers so we can hang out sometime!” “Oh cool, thank you, bye guys!”

You said your farewells and looked at the clock, 2:24pm.

So much for getting to work on that paper with another class at 3:00.

Bullet Collisions (#1)

One of the most important problems to tackle in almost any game is determining when and how elements of the game interact.

Luckily, in a scrolling shoot-em-up, there’s not a lot of things that can affect an element’s behaviour. Mostly, it’s limited to the enemy targeting the player, and the player being unable to leave the screen.

Luckily, unlike in a lot of other cases, it doesn’t matter from which direction the collision takes place, or how fast, or really anything. All that matters is that the collision occurs. We don’t have to move the player out of the bullet like you’d want to move a player out of a wall if they clip into it. It’s very simple. We merely need to know if a collision has occurred.

One of the most straightforward methods of collision checking is using a bounding box. It’s pretty quick, but unfortunately, it’s a box, and my bullets are generally round, which means it shouldn’t matter from which direction the player approaches the bullet.

So with bounding boxes ruled out, I need to start looking at other methods. The most important thing to consider here, is what shape my collisions should be. And the answer to that is “generally round”. We’ll get to “generally” later. For now let’s stick with “round”.

The only variable a circle has is its radius. If two circles overlap, that can be rephrased as saying that the distance between the circles’ centres is less than that of their combined radius. Thus, a simple collision check between two circles will be no more complicated than this:

bool collides = (sqrt(pow(c1.x - c2.x, 2) + pow(c1.y - c2.y, 2)) <= c1.r + c2.r);

Using the Pythagorean theorem is perhaps somewhat slow, but it’s the only thing we have to do. There may be a few ways to make it faster (if we know that abs(c1.x - c2.x) > c1.r + c2.r || abs(c1.y - c2.y) > c1.r + c2.r we can be confident there’s no collision without using the Pythagorean theorem, letting us skip a more expensive computation) but this should do the trick.

You may have noticed, that this is a collision check between two circles, not a circle and a rectangle. A character’s collisions are often handled by a bounding box, so it makes sense to assume I’ll be using one. However, this is unnecessary. Many bullet hell games use “magic pixel” collisions for their player, which means that the area of collision tends to be far smaller than the player’s sprite, usually only a couple of pixels in size. Using a circular collision area makes perfect sense for a game like this, so I will be using a “magic pixel” to simplify collision checks.

With “round” out of the way, let’s get to “generally”. Not all bullets will have the same shape. Most will be roundish, so a circular collision area will suffice, but there will be elongated bullets as well, and perhaps on rare occasions even bullets with more complex shapes. For these sorts of objects I can use a set of circles, but this might not be ideal. Another option is to use ellipses.

Ellipses complicate the simple collision checking function outlined above quite a bit, but they could still be preferable over using a bunch of circles. I haven’t yet tested this, but I will definitely be going into more depth on how to check collisions between ellipses and circles in another post when I get there.