Magdalena49 @magdalena49 - Tumblr Blog

People of Tumblr, can you help me out?

I’m in the beginning of chapter 2 in a story I’m writing which will hopefully end up being a novel. The main character is a junior in high school. School isn’t the main aspect of the plot, but I want it to be realistic and I want potential reader to see the protagonist’s life as being relatively normal. (Until I bring in the cyborg and the mad scientist) I myself was homeschooled from preschool through the end of high school, so my familiarity with the public school environment is a little sketchy. (More so when it comes to academics and the schedule than when it comes to social life) Can I get some insider info from those of you who attend a public high school, or who have graduated from a public high school relatively recently? In particular, I’d like to know...

1) What does a typical day’s schedule look like? Is it fairly standard for the school day to consist of seven 50-minute periods besides lunch? Or does that vary from school to school? Am I correct in my understanding that a fairly typical start time would be around 8AMish?

2) Are high school classes like college classes in that most only meet 2 or 3 days a week? If so, how many courses will a student take at a time? And will students take different classes every semester, or are spring semester classes continuations of fall semester classes?

3) What does a typical public high school’s course offerings look like? For example, how many different foreign languages might they offer, and what kinds of music/performing arts/fine arts classes might they have? Are students expected to take basic subjects like math, science, and English/literature every term, or do you only need something like 2 years or 3 years of some subjects? How many electives will a student take at any given time?

4) How does the whole AP thing work? I know it stands for Advanced Placement, but can someone explain to me how an AP student’s schedule and coursework will differ from a student who doesn’t take AP classes?

5) I realize that this varies from school to school, but what kind of grades are considered average, good, or great? My protagonist is intelligent and has a perfectionist mindset, so she definitely gets above-average grades, but not so great that she or her parents really think of her as a stellar student. Google tells me that a B average/ 3.0 GPA is average, so would an A- average/ 3.6 or 3.7 GPA fit into that good-but-not-stellar standard?

I’d appreciate if at least a few of you could give me some answers by replying, reblogging with your response, or messaging me. Thanks, y’all!

#help me with my novel #high school #public school #school

Solving the English-speaking world’s communication problems

(Sorry Australians and Canadians, I have no idea what you call any of your food)

bogleech

You know, with all the language throughout Star Wars about “giving in” to the Dark Side, how the Dark Side makes you more powerful, how the Dark Side makes you age strangely and destroys you, it sure doesn’t sound like an “opposite side of the coin” so much as the “deeper end of the pool,” like it’s actually the true form of the force and being a Jedi is about keeping it tamed so it doesn’t eat you the way it actually wants.

sinbadism

the force is entropy

asgardreid-deactivated20180407

Eldritch Jedi pls

daxxglax

This is one of the reasons i love the second Knights of the Old Republic game, wherein one of the major characters (who defines herself neither as Jedi nor Sith) actually views the Force this way, saying “I hate the Force. I hate that it seems to have a will, that it would control us to achieve some measure of balance, when countless lives are lost.”

It’s also the game that gave us the two most entropic, eldritch characters in the franchise: Darth Nihilus, whose dark-side-borne ability to feed on the Force and consume life itself has twisted him into a half-living “wound in the Force”, more presence than flesh

and Darth Sion, whose entire body is a ruin, his flesh nothing but ragged scar tissue, every bone and muscle broken and torn, kept animated by will alone as he forces himself, second by agonizing second, to exist

I wish there were more horrifying perspectives on the force like that

jollysunflora

#the force is a horrorterror

screamfort

This is one of the reasons the term “Light Side” never felt right to me, even before it was used in any official media; The Force always struck me more like an ocean than a binary concept: the deeper you go, the darker and more crushing it gets — at a certain point becoming an effectually consistent darkness — and while light filters down and fades for some distance, if there is a truly light “side” it’d be the surface.

Which isn’t to say “the Force is evil unless you flounder about near the top” — just that it’s a natural force, and as such is something you need to respect and be adequately prepared for. (Take electricity, for example: super awesome and pretty dang useful, but OH HOLY SMOKES don’t try and harness it unless you REALLY know what you’re doing!)

In this sense, being tempted by the Dark Side is less a case of “Hey, I wonder what’s on the other side of this coin it looks pretty cool haha oh whoops I’m Space Walter White now,” and more one of “The deeper into this thing you go, the harder you’ll need to fight to resist the ever-increasing pressure, to remain whole, even to just see whatever the heck you’re actually doing.”

(which is why Jedi training is so important: those padawans gotta build themselves a mental Deepsea Challenger!)

jasjuliet-deactivated20240828

THIS META BLESSED ME

magdalena49

Not used to thinking about it like that, but it makes sense.

I should start actually using tumblr again.

me, if i talk: i'm being so annoying and everybody hates me and thinks i'm weird

me, if i don't talk: i'm being so weird and distant and everybody hates me and thinks i'm weird

#story of my life

rowsdower-saves-us

(I may be adopting another cat immediately after I said two is plenty)

magdalena49

I was in that exact situation last week, but then my brother/roommate adopted her, so now I have three cats in my tiny apartment, but I still technically only have two cats.

screenshotsofdespair

magdalena49

Story of my life

stunningpicture

Perfectly timed wedding photo

busket

so she’s marrying a shark in disguise right

aisandetsarepeopletoo-deactivat

when will my reflection show

who i am

inside

quillery

honestly Leia should’ve been the one to confront Kylo on that bridge. we know he has daddy issues (“he would’ve disappointed you” he says to Rey) but until proven otherwise I’m gonna assume he’s a total mama’s boy. just imagine. imagine Leia strutting out to him on the bridge. “BEN CHEWBACCA ORGANA-SOLO YOU GET YOUR ASS BACK HOME RIGHT NOW, YOU ARE GOING TO BE GROUNDED FOR LIFE, YOUNG MAN” and he just takes off the helmet and sniffles “okay mom” and awkwardly shuffles over to follow her out

witchelny

his middle name is chewbacca im dead

quillery

anyone who doesn’t agree that his middle name is chewbacca can unfollow me right now

magdalena49

Life Plans

Summer 2014: Get straight As this semester. Become rich enough to get my own apartment. Move into said apartment. Find time to start writing children’s fiction. Find future husband.

Fall/early winter 2014: Get straight As again. Earn MLIS degree. Start publishing children’s fiction. Become rich and successful enough to quit uncool job. Continue cool job.

First few months of 2015: Continue working at cool job while writing and publishing children’s fiction on the side and living in my own apartment and being best friends with future husband.

Middle of 2015: Marry future husband.

Rest of life: Live happily ever after.

magdalena49

I failed big time, y’all.