Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

the irony of this year's met gala theme being based on a short story about cloistered, decadently-dressed aristocracy desperately pillaging the natural resources at their disposal to hold the advancing tide of the restless underclass at bay is honestly baffling

quite literally

https://x.com/probablyreadit/status/1787608198641234138?s=46&t=kNkxEGlbDjt69LgNEB9ZBw

AO3 IS IN TROUBLE IF CALIFORNIAN AGE VERIFICATION LAW PASSES

An upcoming Age verification bill centered in California will be voted on Monday-- And as always,instead of actually protecting kids, it will lead to more online censorship and privacy risks, as it will force websites hosting to verify their users age by sending their ID, your browser history would be linked to it. if you live California, call your reps and tell them to oppose the bill AB3080 as it highly unconstitutional.

They also deem LGBT content harmful to minors, as well as mentions of weapons and tobacco, putting them on the same level as NSFW content.

Since AO3 headquarters reside in California, much like Reddit, Twitter,Discord and Youtube (and others) who knows how bad the effects would be. Instead of just effecting Californians (even then its concerning.) the effects would be US or even worldwide. VPNs wont help.

Please take actions here (a script is included to help you) https://www.defendonlineprivacy.com/ca/action.php

Find your rep here https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

You can also send faxes using this https://faxzero.com/

If you don't live in California, please talk about this,tag your friends and urge others to take actions, make posts and tweets using the hashtags AB3080 and NoOnAB3080

More info HERE

Also reminder that the arguments of your message don't matter. You're not going to convince your legislator by the quality of your words, so don't worry about just sending in the default message. What their office does is record the quantity of messages sent in.

roommate showed me his gargoyles (not a euphemism) only they weren't gargoyles they were grotesques, because they don't serve any functional architectural purpose (ie: as waterspouts), so i had to restrain myself from a category 5 pedantic fun ruiner moment

The “oh I could definitely write this fanfic in under 5000 words and it really wouldn’t take me that long” voice in your head is actually the devil speaking

sharing some gofundmes of Palestinians that haven't reached their goals yet

Help Rani Escape Gaza

Help majd's family evacuate from death in Gaza

Help me to evacuate my family from Gaza

Support the Future of AbdalRahman from Gaza

Help Nael to survive and complete his studies.

Help Baraa and her injured family out of Gaza

Help Sana’a and her family evacuate from Gaza

Help Sara get treatment leave Gaza with her family

Reda in Gaza to survive the war

Help me and my brothers flee Gaza

URGENT

KOSA is now being discussed to go into the FAA Reauthorization Bill so I BEG you guys to MAKE A LOT OF NOISE ABOUT KOSA TO SHOW THAT WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT HOW BAD THESE BILLS ARE. the chances may be low BUT ITS NOT 0 SO BE LOUD

@txtstotheworld

RESOURCES:

BAD INTERNET BILLS

STOP INTERNET CENSORSHIP DISCORD

FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE (SENATE) (HOUSE)

CALL SCRIPTS:

If we do not cry out we cannot make a change. I urge you to call and email and fax your representatives as soon as possible.

Note that they're trying to pass this bill by the 10th of May, so keep calling your reps and senators (stopkosa.com has a good call-in tool for this) until then!

in honor of my mom inexplicably calling peppermint patty “the first nonbinary character”

op ur mom is a genius

Internet Safety

Being hyper-secretive online is probably the only good kneejerk reaction boomers have put into our heads twenty years ago and now both them and the next generation look at you like you're a freak if you don't list your social security number in your carrd.

Okay but the Batkids using Dad with Bruce when they know hes been having a rough day-

Bruce comes back from a JL meeting upset, not because something went wrong but because they aren't acting like a team, and Dick jumps into his arms and crawls over his shoulders and drapes himself across his back and is like “dad! You're home!” and suddenly bruce feels better

Or Bruce excuses himself from a Gala, pissed off because someone whispered his kids are just charity cases he uses to get publicity and Cass slips into the room through a vent and hugs hims from behind murmuring, “its okay daddy. We know the truth.”

~alternatively~

The batkids calling bruce dad when they've had a bad day because they have to make conscious effort to call him bruce and when they are just exhausted and done its too much effort to not call him dad-

Jason storms into the manor, pissed off after finding a woman who took drugs and killed herself and left her daughter alone, and slumps onto the couch. Bruce notices and comes over with a cup of tea and one of jasons favorite books, presses a kiss to his forehead and covers him with a blanket and jason murmurs a quiet “thanks dad” before relaxing with his book

Or Tim has spent four consecutive days in the Cave, only surviving off of coffee and spite and Bruce finally snaps, grabbing him in a blanket and burritoing him and carrying him to his room and spoon feeding him alfred food and Tim is so exhausted he just mutters “thanks dad.” before falling asleep

Or Steph is out on patrol and she slips and her foot lands poorly and she screams in pain, hitting the ground, but in just a few seconds Batman is at her side, wrapping it for her and helping her to stand and as she sags against him she lets out a slightly pained, “thanks dad.” as he helps her to the batmobile.

Found my 53yo very-much-not-online father in the kitchen today meticulously arranging cutlery on the countertop and i was like 'what are you doing' and he looked up at me with the world's most shit-eating grin and said "Your mother told me this is how you rick-roll the Youth" and i looked over and it was fucking. Loss.jpg.

If you're feeling helpless, boost/share these links. Donate if you can

[ID: A drawing of a red kite with white, black and green bows on its tail. The caption says "No amount of propaganda should convince you that some children don't deserve to grow up. End ID]

SVSSS AU where Shen Yuan custom orders a legitimate sword that looks just like Xin Mo, only that replica Xin Mo also transmigrated and is, in fact, the original Xin Mo. Xin Mo has very fond memories of its Favorite Person™️ who asked for it to be created and then held it in clumsy hands and said it was “literally the coolest!” Xin Mo is very irritated that it’s being used by some loser half demon to the point where it influences Luo Binghe’s mind towards bloodshed and sex.

And then SQQ and LBH meet again after the Abyss thing and Xin Mo is like “!!! Favorite Person™️!!! Favorite Person™️ is the person Loser Half Demon has so many lustful thoughts towards? But Favorite Person™️ is obviously afraid of Loser Half Demon! Jail for Loser Half Demon! Jail for a Thousand Years!!!”

And the plot abruptly goes way off the rails when Xin Mo does a 180 and starts influencing LBH to be a Pacifist Celibate. Eventually a majority of the canon plot points just kind of fizzle out. SQQ and LBH don’t really trust each other, but they both end up back on Qing Jing peak and they settle into a lukewarm but steadily improving slow burn relationship.

And by slow burn I mean centuries, because that’s how long it will take both SQQ to settle his sexual identity crisis and realize that “hey, maybe I’m in love with LBH after all.” And LBH has his own sexual identity crisis, because he was fantasizing about his Shizun romantically and sexually for so long and now he kind of just wants a platonic relationship? Why is he suddenly aroace? Is it just because he’s no longer a Horny Teenager?

This is the situation that TLJ emerges into. This is the situation Luo Bing-Ge emerges into, which is really weird for him because Xin Mo was all over killing the first Shizun, but now all Xin Mo is doing is lusting over New Shizun’s hands. At the end of this, Bing-Ge gets kicked back to the OG timeline without Xin Mo, and Celibate Bingqiu have two of them, they guess.