~Messages~

I'm a 31 year old mama bear to one little monster. I have a 3 year old beagle mix too! Still working on finding myself really and I know it's a late start but I've had some roadblocks. I will talk to anyone if they need to be heard.

[chaoticum]

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites. 

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

[shareaquote]

“When two people become distant, it creates space and when people are away from each other, we remember the good times and tend to forgive more of the bad.. because we see it wasn’t worth losing them.”

artyprose

[wnq-anonymous]

It’s never too late to change the direction that your life is going in.

Dr. Wayne Dyer (via wordsnquotes)

[wnq-anonymous]

It’s weird when you realize the person you once told everything to now has no idea what’s going on in your life

anonymous | @wnq-anonymous (via wordsnquotes)

[slushyseals]

So there’s this seal rehabilitation center I like to watch the livestream of from time to time. This morning was pool cleaning day, the day they weigh the rescue seals and photograph them to keep track of their rehabilitation progress as a sudden change in weight is a serious health indicator among other things. The box helps keep them on the scale as, otherwise, you cannot weigh bouncy boys.

This seal was having NONE OF IT. One of the workers was attempting to get the seal to turn so they could get a photo of its side. (They are not hitting the seal, at most she is giving him a little shove in the direction it needs to turn.) HE DID NOT LIKE BEING TOUCHED WITH THE SQUEEGEE.

He did NOT like his photo being taken!

As soon as they took the box to weigh one of the other seals HE STOLE THE FRIGGIN’ SQUEEGEE!!! 

[notthebirdyouarelookingfor]

The stress is going to kill me…

I have no idea how I am going to handle this life, I love these kids, but some days I just can’t do this… the constant yelling, fighting and general misbehavior is just ridiculous…  I want his help but I know I can’t ask that of him when he hasn’t slept and needs a nap…I just don’t how I can go back to school with all this chaos around me all the time… I need quiet, I need rest, and I need tea…

[notthebirdyouarelookingfor]

It’s been a long time since I posted here.... this post was relevant I survived though and I am still surviving. These kids are crazy, but I love their crazy to pieces. We have since moved across country to a better home and environment for everyone; I still miss home but it’s getting easier.

I still need rest from time to time, but I’m getting better, I am seeing doctors for new medical conditions I didn’t know I had (Hashimoto’s is my new label). I still need tea sometimes, but mostly I need hugs and comfort, and I get plenty.

Maybe I’ll revisit this world of tumblr, but I write more now so I am not sure if I can do this and that at the same time or not. I still don’t know if I am being stalked, and I have no idea what they could possibly want to know at this point, but I stopped caring and that reduce a lot of stress as well.

Hopefully soon I can get back to me and start watching my shows again... I am almost a full 2 years behind on Doctor Who... that makes me sad. I miss tumblr for what it is and the inspiration it has given me through time. I still browse but I haven’t posted in forever. No one will read my rants still but I don’t care as long as it is out of me and else where.

[notthebirdyouarelookingfor]

Click here to support Get Us Hitched for a New Start by Cassandra Allison

Hi and thank for taking the time to stop by here. My name is Cassy and I would like to tell you a bit about Brad (that's the goofy guy in the photo with me) and my life, both before we met and what life has been like for the nearly 6 years we have already been together. When I was 6, my mom went...

So this is my sister and soon to be brother in law.... these are some awesome folks that deserve to get married more then anyone else. Even if you can’t donate, please just share this far and wide... it’s super important to me and them. They have both been through so much; go read their story.

[writeon-dude]

The thing about Redlands

This isn’t exactly a knee-jerk reaction to today’s events, though they certainly prompted me to actually put these thoughts into writing. But there’s something about Redlands that I’ve been thinking about recently, and that feeling is especially noticeable with the holidays coming up–when we’re all going home. The thing about Redlands, you see, is that we all felt the same way about it then, and we all feel the same way about it now.

The “we” I refer to are my peers. My siblings, my childhood friends, and my classmates–not to mention the friends and classmates of my siblings or cousins. I mean, if you were a Mariposa kid who knew one of the Harrisons, one of Christina’s cool older friends, or one of Andrew’s funny little kid friends, you are part of that “we.” “We” are the people I went to RHS with, who may have also gone to Cope, or maybe even Kimberly. “We” are the classmates who I am Facebook friends with, but probably haven’t talked to since high school. I mean, did we even talk that much in high school? Maybe we did. It’s kind of hard to remember, but you don’t seem so distant when I see your face on my newsfeed so regularly. We all got really hot since high school, by the way.

See, we all felt the same way about Redlands when we were kids. “Deadlands” is what we called it, because if you were lucky enough to have a sloped driveway after the Disney Channel Original Movie Brink came out, you were the coolest. You didn’t have brakes on the back of your roller blades either?! Whoa. Yes. Watch me circle to a stop on these bad boys. Who needs brakes? We were pretty easily impressed back then, but still found a way to be bored out of our minds in our hometown. 

The Redlands mall was always a dump, but at least we could hang out at the Hot Dog on a Stick while our moms shopped at Harris’. The Brickyard was a cool thing for a while too, but you really only skated there if your friend’s big brother worked at Banned. That, and Leroy’s on State Street were the only cool places to shop. Remember when the Kirkorian finally opened and we didn’t have to drive to San Bernardino to see a movie anymore?! Or, when we had to brave the Inland Center Mall or make the trek all the way to the Galleria in Riverside to go shopping. Sometimes, if you were cool enough or had friends who were cool enough, you could go paintballing in the canyon. That is, until they found Kelly Bullwinkle’s body there, and everything kind of got ruined. 

Even though Redlands is generally considered a small town, it felt even smaller when we were kids. I remember the first day of sixth grade, when the bus (232!) came to pick me and Lexi Minder up on the corner of Oak and Campbell. We were the last stop on the way to Cope, and I think the stop for the Mariposa kids was right before us. I distinctly remember Blaine Shira looking wide-eyed out the window and exclaiming, “where are we?!” as if my neighborhood maybe, seriously, could have been Mars. Um, we are a quarter mile from your house, Blaine. Half mile, tops.

The Smudge Pot was a thing we all felt really passionately about–almost as passionately as we felt we shouldn’t be expected to go to class after a rally. “You really expect me to walk from the gym to North Campus? My fourth period is all the way in Mentone.” And also, back in our day, we didn’t have some prissy little on-campus football field! Instead, we had the distinct privilege of going to the U of R to watch our football games. One night, after a game, we hid in the backseat of Mindy Marino’s blue Honda, clutching bottles of Malibu as the cops drove by. And oh, what sweet, sweet salvation it was when the Chipotle on Orange Street opened up and we didn’t have to hang out at the Jack in the Box or Del Taco on Redlands Blvd after school anymore. And we’ve all noticed by now that our actual mascot was a bulldog, not a terrier, right? Oh what? Oh seven! 

And finally, when it came time to leave Redlands, most of us felt the same way: get me the hell out of here. The world is big, and the I.E. is so small. I went all the way to Orange County (!!!) and my cousin Kristen went to San Diego, until she gave in and came back to Redlands (wuss). But some of us even went and relocated permanently to the East Coast (whaaaat?!). Sometimes, I see pictures of you in the snow on social media, and I think how unnatural that face I know from sunny Redlands looks in real snow. If it’s not in Big Bear and it’s not fake, I don’t trust it. 

And now that we are grown ups, some of us only come back to Redlands sparingly, but we’ve had enough time away from it to look at it from a different perspective. Some of us actually stayed all along, and helped to create a new, kind of hip and desirable Redlands (State Street has really come a long way, you guys, and we are up to two craft breweries now). But here’s the thing about Redlands I’ve seen echoed among all of us lately–from those of us who left and didn’t come back, to those who only really see it during long weekends or the holidays, or those who never left:

I love Redlands. I am so lucky to have grown up there.

Where the purple snow capped mountains reach the clear blue sky…

[notthebirdyouarelookingfor]

I grew up there...

[notthebirdyouarelookingfor]

Been so long since I have been on Tumblr, that I actually forgot about it. Randomly thought about it today...

Been spending all my time on reddit lately. I might make an update later but I have no idea if I am still being stalked or not...

[itsokaytobesmart]

[itsokaytobesmart]

Many of you may have heard the news this week that one newly-discovered Costa Rican glass frog species bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain fuzzy amphibian named Kermit.

This got me thinking. Did Jim Henson draw some heretofore secret inspiration for The Muppets from the fauna of Central America? I did some digging, and… well, I’ll let you be the judge:

While not as ill-tempered as their “razorback” cousins, the collared peccary, whose range extends across most of the Americas, has been known to occasionally attack humans, presumably because they didn’t compliment its fashionably understated grey coat.

The spectacled bear, the only living bear that still walk-a walk-a walk-as among the mountains of South America, is clearly a big joker. Just look at that tongue! D’aww…

The resemblance between Gonzo and Baird’s tapir, another native of Central America, is as obvious as the nose on your face. 

The golden toad once called a highland forest of Costa Rica its home, but was sadly declared extinct years ago. But maybe that declaration was premature? Scooter’s orange hue is just too close to be a coincidence.

If you ever catch yourself eye to eye with a Central American harpy eagle, tell it that the “messy” feather thing is a good look. Then back away slowly… they’ve got some killer talons.

Pepé’s biography claims he hails from Madrid, Spain, but his Latin American freshwater prawn cousin is definitely speakin’ the same language if you know what I’m sayin’…

The three-toed sloth’s algae-covered coat makes it more of a (slowly) walking, self-contained plant-moth-sloth ecosystem than just a simple forest mammal. Who knows what else lives in Oscar’s can, but I’m betting he’s got some flying insect roommates of his own.

My investigation continues…

[ultrafacts]

“The Fireman” was a somewhat shorter story. He re-titled it after the publishers asked him to write a longer version for publication as a novel. He came up with an idea about the new title, but initially he couldn’t find answers about the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns, so he finally decided to call the fire department. The person who answered left the phone for a moment, then came back with “451 degrees Fahrenheit.”  Bradbury decided then that reversing the word order sounded better, and thus the title was found.  [x]

(Fact Source) For more facts, follow Ultrafacts

[mentalalchemy]

Hey all! My good friend Bill Manspeaker recently got fucked over by the court system and his ex-wife… He was basically forced to come up with 5,000-7,000 dollars in a month or never see his daughter again. He’s a great man, one of the nicest I’ve ever met. He’s done so much for his fans and...

[loupvenimeux-deactivated2020010]

REBLOG IF YOU THINK ITS PERFECTLY OKAY FOR A BOY TO DO BALLET

I’m trying to prove a point to my parents and my grandma

[shrekfanspacejam98-deactivated2]

she was a punk, he did ballet

what more can I say

[wildflowerpunk]

My brothers been doing ballet since third grade. Goddamn he has some solid fucking legs

[chambro78]

My twin brother did ballet for a year. He totally rocked it.

[notthebirdyouarelookingfor]

ummm this guy:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-tW0CkvdDI  

Sergei Polunin:  amazing and beautiful!

[wordsnquotes]

To me, a man is someone who is brave enough to love, and let himself be loved.

Louis Sachar, Small Steps (via wordsnquotes)

[madness-and-gods]

Ravens mate for life and besides grooming each other will give each other gifts including flowers and hold “hands”.

[washingtonpost]

Leonard Nimoy’s last tweet.

[klingoff]

[notthebirdyouarelookingfor]

I am the soft stars that shine at night.