As Part Of Her Social Media Detox This Girl On YouTube Made Herself Do One Hour Of Understimulating Tasks

S.686 - RESTRICT Act

Do you think Shadow is a reader, and if so, what kind of books do you think he finds interesting?

Y'know, I bet he's the opposite of Sonic. I bet he's not a reader at all. Sonic's able to take the time to lounge and get cozy and stuff, which is perfect for book-reading, but Shadow? You think that guy's gonna settle down for a moment to read trivial nonsense written by people he doesn't personally care about? He'd maybe attempt, get impatient, and then just skip to the end to find out what happens (and then scoff when he gets no satisfaction from that).

This guy didn't even do his homework in space school!

He's got better things to do. Like gazing angrily into the distance.

or watching tv.

Do you have any Fun Facts today? Maybe something literary?

You know what? I think I can manage that. Everyone knows about the friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. But there's another guy who gets skipped out on, and was super-influential on Lewis.

Today You Learned about Roger Lancelyn Green!

Our boy Robert here was an undergraduate at Oxford when he met Jack Lewis, who was his teacher. After graduating and becoming an Oxford scholar in his own right, he remained very good friends with Lewis and a member of the Inklings. He actually traveled with Lewis and his wife, Joy, on vacation to Greece, shortly before Joy's death in 1960.

If you read histories of the Inklings, you may notice that Tolkien didn't seem to like drafts of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that much. Well, Lewis's friend Lancelyn Green did, and encouraged him to keep working and eventually publish it.

[Wikipedia also says he came up with the title 'Chronicles of Narnia', but there's no citation on that sentence, so take it with a grain of salt.]

Roger has his own literary career, too. He wrote several books for children, retelling myths and folklore, from Greek myths, to Norse myths, to Arthurian stories. And these books are all still widely available! He's also the author of several literary biographies of people like Andrew Lang (compiler of fairy tale books), Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland), J.M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan), and of course, C.S. Lewis himself.

It's actually pretty cool that we have a biography of C.S. Lewis by a guy who was close friends with him, I think!

Also, he was the father of literature scholar Richard Lancelyn Green, but that guy, I think, deserves his own Fun Fact for another time.

Let’s not forget Hans Rosling

Not that I think we will. But it’s something I feel the need to say out loud to ensure myself of it.

Woke up this morning to finding out that Swedish statistician, public speaker, doctor and academic Hans Rosling had died. It hit me harder than I thought it would, the more I thought about it.

Of course, my thoughts go out to his family and friends first and foremost. But I just had to take a few moments to think of how many things he made me think differently of and how I still refer to him to this day.

You might not recognize the name, but perhaps you’ve seen his videos?

Hans Rosling was a professor of international health. He took his knowledge and created incredible computer programs and graphics because what he wanted was to educate, and he realized that one of the best ways of educating was through visual entertainment. He was incredibly pedagogic. He knew how to teach. 

This was a man who spoke about global health, global warming, economy, development, immigration and world population and he constantly kept his positive outlook on the world and truly believed that we could become better.

(He was also involved in starting the Swedish branch of MSF.)

Somehow, it feels like an extra huge tragedy to lose someone who was so dedicated to fact-based science and the importance of educating right now of all times. No, people never die at the right time. But for me, it felt like his death highlighted why we have to keep speaking up, why we have to keep being more vigilant than ever when it comes to our sources and to guard science and statistics so that they don’t become twisted by political agendas. 

As he said himself, when talking about Sweden’s own populist right-wing party: “We must not let the Swedish Democrats get monopoly on the truth, it is very dangerous to do so.” And I think that rings true for a lot of people today.

He was an amazing man. He made numbers and statistics fun for many, you know? With his somewhat broken english and colorful dots he made people enjoy it. And even though he was talking about world hunger or poverty he truly made people believe that we are on our way to a better world. 

So if you haven’t, I’d really recommend to check some of his stuff out. We need to ensure what he dedicated so much of his life to lives on, because it is so important right now. 

TED Talks: The best Hans Rosling talks you’ve ever seen - In memory of a great man and the numbers he loved.

Population growth and climate change explained by Hans Rosling in under four minutes

In Honor of Hans Rosling, Watch Some of his Best Videos (with article)

Or just about any video with him you can find on youtube.

Thanks for reading.

The Silver Swan, built by John Joseph Merlin and James Cox, 1773.

Source: Mechanical Marvels, Clockwork Dreams (BBC)

I do have a question. It’s something a struggle with and wanted to know how you keep it from happening.

I know you have made this comic. But I am curious. How do you keep motivated to just, keep writing for it? And when you are writing do you plan several pages ahead, like what you already want to go down and how it should happen? (Sorry if that’s confusing I am trying to explain it the best I can)

Typically, and ideally, when writing a script, getting it fully written first before tackling the art is the way to go. I didn't do that. Since I went about it a nonsensical way, I'm loosely following along a bunch of key story beats but otherwise totally rewriting my story for a comic format. I've written as much of it as I could, throwing down those train tracks as the train continues rolling forward, though at this point I've bought enough time to write in a much less panicked frenzy. So, basically, to answer your second question, I've written full chapters ahead of where we are in the comic right now. I hope this answer can be understood by anyone besides me, the alien goo monster attempting to pass along thought to human written speech.

Now, as for the first question;

Motivation is a tough thing to wrangle. When I feel motivated, it's normally because I've gotten to an exciting part of my story and I can't wait to share it with my early readers. That feeling within me was the demon that had me bang on my keyboard until I ended up with three full chapters (3-5) written. It's a demon that may help you (though there's no guarantee). As someone who probably has undiagnosed ADHD, lemme make that suggestion for you. Try finding an early reader who you feel would enjoy your work. Even if that early reader is, like, your mom or something. I dunno. I share Infested with my mom.

or maybe don't share your script with your mom i dunno.

But! Uh! Yeah! I hope you can take anything positive away from this answer!

Update on the situation today

Thu, 16 Jan

After the ceasefire was announced here in Gaza as we saw in all the news agencies, joy and hope filled our souls again 🫂🙏

But unfortunately it was a tough night for us due to the intensification of the raids on our area.

We had started sleeping at 10:30 pm, but we woke up to the sound of the violent fire belt that shook the area, the house and the walls.

When I heard the sound, I don't know how I controlled myself and my nerves to protect my son Tim from the severity of the blow, as the huge windows of the house collapsed on us, and I don't know how I was able to pull Tim from under the large windows, but unfortunately his eye was injured and he started crying and screaming 😭😭

Imagine with me how a five-year-old child wakes up to this panic while he was sleeping and he was sharing the atmosphere of joy with us at the completion of the deal and he was saying to me: Mom, I want you to dress me in Eid clothes, it's over because the war is over 🥲🧸

This is the treacherous Tatar army that surprised us.

I've had enough of this nonsense and my heart no longer has the patience to see me and my family's tragedy, panic and fear of who I will lose!!

I will not get tired and I will not get bored of asking you for help. It's true that I was shy, but it's my right and the right of my child and my family to live in peace.

I don't want all of this to accompany me for life and I don't want these memories to be the only ones in my son's mind!! I won't put myself in anyone's shoes, but if I could help someone or a family, I would do what I can 🙏

Here we are on the verge of opening the crossing in the coming days and I haven't even reached the minimum donations that would allow me to travel to survive Each one of us needs about $5000 to get us to safety, we are now staying at a friends house and when the war is over they will go back to their house and we will go back to the street again, unless you help us with donations to get out of here

Remember well, I have no housing or anything left!!

My only chance for me, my child, and my family consisting of my son, husband, mother, father, and brothers is to travel because all our belongings were completely destroyed.

And your prayers for my child's recovery 🙏🧸 And please support my campaign and share it with your friends.

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Taim's Family to evacuate from Gaza $1 make a differenc, organized by Reema Samara

This is Reema's family, currently residing in northern Gaza. … Reema Samara needs your support for Help Taim's Family to evacuate from Gaza

Meet Melon's pack! As the story of Melon's Adventure progresses, we will eventually see some, if not all, of these yoshi buddies, so what better way to introduce them than to show off their looks? :)

In order of appearance (in the full lineup image), we have:

Bread (brown yoshi): A very sweet yoshi with a love for bread. Interestingly, yoshis don't really cook... or bake. So where exactly does he get his baked goodness?

Butter (yellow yoshi): Bread's twin sister. She's feisty and fast, and has an odd love for butter. She's willing to eat it by itself, much to her brother's chagrin.

Coconut (blue yoshi): An inquisitive yoshi with a love for coconuts! He spends most of his time exploring the beaches of the island, sniffing for his favorite treat and for any treasures he can take home.

Chili (red yoshi): A large yoshi with a hot temper, and even hotter tastes; they love spicy foods, but especially chili peppers! They're quick to frustrate and is sometimes overly strict, but is fiercely loyal and protective of their packmates. They take their role as protector very seriously, and is often the one to join Fig on her patrols.

Potato (purple yoshi): A large, chomky yoshi with a love for potatoes! She love to eat and is always hungry, but is also very generous; when they forage for food she makes it a point to try and find every tasty morsel she can for her packmates. No one goes hungry on her watch!

Pitaya (pink yoshi): The smallest yoshi in the pack, Pitaya is a little lazy and prefers taking naps under the warm sun over any of the chores his packmates task themselves with. Still, he has the strongest nose in the pack, making him their best tracker. His favorite snack is Dragon Fruit!

Melon (green yoshi): The main character of the story and the leader of the pack! Melon is adventurous, kind, and curious; he isn't afraid to venture into the more dangerous parts of the island if it means mapping out safe paths for his pack. In fact, that was what he was doing when Mario landed on his head. His favorite snack is watermelons!

Fig (black yoshi): The largest, strongest yoshi of the pack, Fig is Melon's trusted second-in-command. Her scars are a testament to the fights she's fought for the safety of the others, and she always came out on top, even if it came with a price. She has a permanent limp and is also the oldest of the pack; in fact she was the leader before she passed the status to Melon. Her favorite snack are figs!

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These little rascals are all gonna be available as stickers and a stickersheet in my store's launch: Debuting TOMORROW! ;w;

Stay tuned! ^.^