A Big Bang Of “how To” Stuff

Corpse Bride (2005)

Magick of the Moon Phases

New Moon

A time for:

New ventures

New beginnings

Love and romance

Health

Job hunting

Fresh starts

New projects

Personal Growth

Waxing Moon

A time for:

Constructive Magick

Love

Wealth

Success

Courage

Friendship

Luck

Health/Healing

Growth

Protection

Prosperity

Attraction

Any type of positive magick

Financial Growth

Full Moon

A time for:

All magick (Enhances all types of magick)

Love

Knowledge

Legal undertakings

Money

Dreams

Protection

Fixing any situations that need it

Divination

Cleansing and charging crystals and tools

Psychic awarness

Family and Friends

Waning Moon

A time for:

Banishing magick

Bindings

Removing addictions

Clearing negativity from your life

Getting rid of illnesses and sicknesses 

Harvests

Exorcism

Cleansing

Getting rid of bad habits

Dark Moon - Black Moon

Some practitioners believe this is a time to take a break from casting, others believe this is a powerful time to cast spells. 

A time for:

Removal of bad habits

Binding spells

Bringing things to justice 

Banishing

Dreaming/Prophecies

Crescent Moon

A time for:

Intention

Hopes 

Wishes

First Quarter

A time for:

Challenges

Decisions

Taking action

Gibbous Moon

A time for:

Adjustments

Refinements

May the Moon Light your path!

Moonlight Academy

the inherent cultism of wealthy new england towns in autumn

language learning tip: an interpreter’s guide to learning vocabulary

If I had a penny for every time someone told me they had trouble memorizing words, I’d probably had hundreds of pennies, which is not very helpful in terms of paying rent but hey, could just possibly lure a tiny dragon under my couch, so.

Anyway, if you’re one of those people and feel like you don’t have a good head for words, here are a few tips.

1) Sounds silly, but stop focusing on how bad you are at this. Vocabulary is most of what you need in any language - if you’re serious about speaking that language, you’ll need to find a learning technique that works for you, and if you keep convincing your brain you just can’t do it, you’ll end up believing it. Not helpful.

2) Learning anything gets much harder with age, and also when you’re stressed. Be patient with yourself, and manage your mental health. if you’re learning for school or for some important test, give yourself time to get there and plan ahead, because vocabulary learning is not the kind of studying you can get done by pulling an all-nighter. And if you’re an older learner, just remember what you’re doing is extremely healthy for your brain, so however long it takes you to achieve some results, you’re doing something really good for yourself: kudos!

3) Whether you’re writing your own material or studying with online apps, keep vocabulary lists short. You’re not going to learn 100 words in one go. It’s much better to work with groups of 20, or even 10, so if you’ve been given a list from a teacher, or are compiling one from your textbook, remember to chop it down in smaller units.

4) The sad thing is: many people learn better by writing things down, especially by hand*. Personally, there are still words I write down fifty times, but thanks to the current magic of technology I mostly go on websites like Memrise or Quizlet and use the ‘write’ function. As a warning: it’s going to be difficult and irritating, especially at first, because obviously these programs won’t forgive you spelling mistakes, but in the long run, I find writing things forges a direct path to your brain that’s not easily undone.

(*This is also why you shouldn’t use a computer when taking notes in class.)

5) Another good way of learning is creating context. You can simply associate a word to another (for instance, noun + adjective, which also helps you memorizing gender if gender is a thing in your target language), or you can write lists centered around specific themes (animals, family, the nuclear winter we’re all headed towards). One thing I find helpful are lists based on clusters of similar words - think stuff like sun, sunrise, sunny, sunglass and so on.

6) Speak as often as you can - not necessarily with people. A conversation with a potted plant can be just as helpful, and placing a new word you’re learning in the context of a sentence is a very good way to give life to it.

7) If you have access to an etymological dictionary, use it. Remembering words is much easier if you understand how a specific word was born, and the logic behind it. 

8) Use post-its or change your computer’s wallpaper to difficult words. Seeing stuff all the time is an excellent way of making it seep into your subconscious. I used to write on my arms, which is Quirky and Interesting, but also not very kind to your skin, so maybe stick to the bathroom mirror.

9) Remember there’s a difference between active and passive knowledge, and that both are normal and good. Active knowledge are those words you’d use in conversation; passive knowledge are words you recognize and understand, but wouldn’t use yourself. Depending on your level, education, linguistic curiosity and reading habits, the number of words in each category and the ratio between them will vary, but your passive knowledge is always going to be much deeper than your active one. Don’t be stressed about that.

10) Finally, some good news: you need fewer words than you think. Many native speakers around the world function on as little as 500 words of active knowledge; 2000 words is considered a good base for reading most texts. If you find it helps you, keep track of how many words you’re learning, but don’t let it obsess you. Human brains are built to fill in blanks with reasonable solutions, and the more familiar you become with grammar and basic words, the more you’ll find that you’re able to guess the meaning of new words simply by their context or what they look like.   

Oh, and since this is tumblr -

11) Don’t learn an excessive number of ‘weird’ or ‘cute’ words, especially if you’re a beginner. Writing lists of elf-related words can be fun, and a way to keep yourself motivated, but ultimately what you need are normal words - stuff you can use in conversation, in a restaurant, and to read the news. I met people who stubbornly fill their notebooks with absurd lists, and it’s all very nice and instagrammable, but what tends to happen is that sooner or later, they feel they’re not making any progress and get discouraged. So please remember - whatever language you’re learning, it’s most probably a human language human people use to speak to each other, which means you’ll need all sort of boring words to understand them and make yourself understood. Embrace the boring, the average and the mundane - they’re never as boring, average and mundane as you fear.

How to prepare for a new semester/year:

So as you all know I’ve been back to uni for about two weeks now and I was NOT feeling it (to say the very least). So here is what I did to get out of that crappy omg I can’t believe school’s back mood:

Clean your room: Back to school shopping is a huge deal for me but personally I like to start by cleaning my room, that includes closet, desk .. etc. Not only does this give you kind of a fresh start but also you end up figuring out exactly what you have and don’t have so you buy way less stuff (and save more money)

And while you’re at it stop hoarding: I’ve had books just sitting there for nearly four years that I haven’t touched (hello histology), same goes for clothes. Get rid of the things you know you don’t use. If you haven’t used them in a year chances are you won’t magically change your mind and start using them. You can sell them or give them away.

Don’t throw away half used notebooks: This annoys me soooo much. Cut out the pages you’ve written in and RECYCLE them. Less is more people. You don’t have to use them for school, I use those for writing down workouts or tracking what I eat, making shopping lists, goals or whatever I feel like writing (so people won’t see you with the same notebook from last year, they probably won’t notice anyway but if that’s your excuse here you go) ALSO: For clothes that you like but are too long, too big or whatever get them tailored! Don’t throw those away too.

Now that we’ve decluttered, make a list of what you need: Tailor this to your schedule as much as possible. If you have long days at uni with a significant amount of walking maybe invest in comfy shoes, if you feel like a certain notebook would work really well for a certain class get it, if you know you’ll be carrying a lot of stuff around and don’t have a proper backpack get one. Write down everything you need before you go to the store.

Figure out what you’ll do regarding your meals: Do you have enough good quality tupperware? Do you have all the groceries? Watch a few videos on meal prepping and have a set list of quick and healthy meals that suit you and your schedule and your diet.

Optimize your study space: I’m not saying make it all white and aesthetically pleasing (unless that’s your thing), just make sure it’s a good environment for you to be productive. Figure out if you need to make any changes to it before school starts.

If you can rearrange the furniture in your room: You’d be surprised at how much this affects your mood, you don’t have to buy new stuff to feel renovated for back to school.

Take a look at all of your classes and try to work out a daily (& study) routine: SUPER IMPORTANT, before school starts try to plan out what your weeks will look like, what you’ll do for certain gaps (for example do you have enough time to go study off campus or get a workout in), which resources you’ll use for every class, how are you going to commute, what kind of notes you’ll take for every class ..etc. Distribute your workload evenly throughout the week (so days when you go home early, allocate more study time and vice versa)

Lurk at studyblrs and studygrams: or even start one, this community is super motivating (pretty sure you already know that)

One last pampering session: This is very very optional and not for everyone but I personally get a hair treatment done before uni so that I don’t spend as much time doing my hair in the morning. Same goes for body hair removal, face masks …etc. It just makes me feel like a new woman 💁🏼‍♀️

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.

J.k. Rowling

Tasseography

•Tea leaf reading•

You might be wondering where this unusual form of divination came from, so here’s a short history on tasseography. Shortly after tea was introduced to Europe, tea leaf reading, as it’s now recognized, was born. Similar divination tools had been used with an assortment of other materials. The art of tea leaf reading spread through Europe, and is now practiced throughout the world.

Doing a tea leaf reading involves you indulging in a delicious cup of tea and putting your sharp intuitive skills to work. After you enjoy your warm cup of loose leaf tea, you’ll leave the loose tea leaves at the bottom, where some of these leaves will form symbols, each having their own meaning. That’s where your keen intuitive abilities come in! Anyone can see a triangle at the bottom of a teacup, but your job is to intuit what it means for you or the person you’re reading for.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR A TEA LEAF READING

Tea cup with a wide brim that’s light enough to easily see your tea leaves.

Saucer

Loose leaf green or black tea, preferably organic.

Napkins

Pen and paper

Water

HOW TO PERFORM A TEA LEAF READING

1. BREW YOUR TEA

Gather all of your materials. Boil your water. Place about a teaspoon of loose tea in your cup. Pour your water in and steep tea to your preference.

For the next 3 steps, if you’re doing a reading for someone else, have them do the following steps.

2. SIP & SWIRL

Before you take your first sip, gently swirl tea counter clockwise three times. Sip and enjoy your tea, but don’t drink it all! When there’s about 1 tablespoon of tea left in your cup, swirl it again 3 times counter clockwise and think about or speak your query aloud.

3. CREATE YOUR TEA READING CANVAS

Turn your cup upside down onto your saucer to remove the remaining water, allow it a minute or so to drain, then turn it back up right.

4. LOOK FOR SYMBOLS

Look over your loose leaf tea pieces and see if any symbols or shapes jump out to you immediately. Don’t fret if you don’t see anything immediately, similar to scrying with a crystal ball, it can take some time for imagery to form for you. Try looking at the inside of the cup from different directions to see shapes. Keep in mind the images formed are formed from tea leaves, so you will really need to use your imagination.

5. RECORD & DECIPHER YOUR FINDINGS

If you do start to see some shapes, begin writing them down on your piece of paper so you can decipher them later, note where in the cup they are too. Now you’re ready to decipher your findings! Here’s a guide for the most common symbols found during tea leaf readings:

6. UNDERSTAND THE TIMELINE

Where your tea leaves are situated in your cup relate to when they will happen. This is why some of the tea leaf reading cups you find have circles inside of them. Timing is broken into thirds as follows:

Bottom third: farthest away from happening, think 3-5 years out.

Top third: will be happening in the near future, think within the next few weeks.

Middle third: will happen in about a year from now.

7. FORM YOUR READING

Like most divination tools, a honed intuition is key for success, so be sure to lean on any gut instincts as you form the story for your reading. Once you understand the meaning behind the symbols it’s time to put all of the information into a story that makes sense for you or the person you’re doing a reading for.

🌙

Instagram: kitsuneki_

How to put “wrote fan-fiction” on your résumé:

Leveraged an inventory of established fictional character and setting elements to generate a disruptive custom-curated narrative entertainment asset.

American Homeschool Gothic

A/N: The last time I was homeschooled was fourth grade, so someone hit me if this is all garbage. It gets weirder the further you read. Requested by @amerraka.

Everyone worries that you will have trouble socializing in the “real world”. This is true. You can only talk to your parents.

You got a new textbook today, recommended by a education magazine. You look at the copywrite page. It was published in 1876.

You’ve been doing the same math problem for what seems like days. You look up from your work for the first time and realize that it is now winter. You started in the spring.

You put in earbuds to listen to music while you work. You notice that the longer you listen, the better the sound quality becomes. It is now lunchtime. You try to take them out. You can’t. They have grown into your brain.

You have done school in your pajamas every day. You no longer know how to wear real clothes.

The word “homeschool” has become toxic. You speak the word in public, and everyone turns to stare. The government has programmed them that education without their interference is a crime. You will now hang for treason.

You take a history test. You come upon a question asking for an example of Renaissance art. The answer is communism. The answer to every question is communism.

You are told there is a girl/boy that is exactly like you at a public school. They are friends with all of your friends. You long to meet this parallel universe doppelganger. 

You are driving past a public school at the end of the school day. Students leave in droves with dull eyes, slack jaws, and withering minds. You wonder if you too will become a zombie when you go to college.

You have been reading for hours and haven’t moved an inch. You don’t remember when it got so dark or who turned on the overhead light.

Your family left one day to go get groceries. There is a sticky note from your mother on the fridge telling you your lessons. It’s the same yellow note every day, but with different lessons. You haven’t seen your family since 2009, and the sticky note is starting to fray and crumble.

You have begun to suspect that your homeschool group is not actually a homeschool group, but a cult. Whenever you bring it up, people’s eyes glaze over with a blank stare. “What homeschool group? There’s no homeschool group here.”

Your textbooks are centuries old. You can hear them scream as you crack their spines opening them every day.

College stands on the horizon. Public school kids say it’s a brilliant light, a beacon of hope. You see it for what it truly is. Bloody arms stretching, broken nails clawing at any student it can, devouring and demanding souls.