[spystuff184]

Hi long time no see but am I the only one who thinks of dropping out like 3 times a week 

[athenastudying-deactivated20220]

destroy the idea that intermediate goals aren’t important. maybe you can’t play the entire piano piece yet, but you can play the right hand and that’s good. maybe you haven’t figured out your major yet, but your minor or your field and that’s progress. maybe you can’t hold a full conversation in your target language yet, but you can ask for directions and that’s fine. setting high goals is good, but don’t diminish the small goals you achieve on your way there. they are just as important.

[michaelbjorkwrites]

10 Lessons from a Decade of Writing

Over the last decade, I graduated from high school, got a bachelor’s in writing, earned an MFA in fiction, and started working as a copywriter.

In that time, I grew a lot as a writer — so I thought I’d share the lessons that helped me most along the way!

How does one from each year sound?

2010: Don’t let high expectations be a barrier to good writing

As a teenager, I had unhealthy expectations for my writing. This not only made writing painful, but also held back the quality of my work. Thankfully, in my last year of high school, I had to crank out a short story for a class, with no time to revise as I went. The result? I had fun, and ended up writing a story that was better than anything I’d written before it. That’s when I realized how toxic lofty expectations could become, if left unchecked.

2011: Good stories often depict, or inspire, change

In my first college writing workshop, our professor (of “It’s never about the bread” fame) told us that a good story often does one of two things: it either depicts a change in a character, or inspires a change in the reader. While a bit simplistic, that guidance was invaluable to me at the time. The first option gave me a clear target to aim for in workshop, while option two exposed me to the full, baffling mystery of what makes a story worth telling. 

2012: Clear, specific language brings scenes to life

As a sophomore, I fell in love with Raymond Carver’s minimalism and was particularly struck by the following description from “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”:

Mel handed me the saucer of limes. I took a section, squeezed it over my drink, and stirred the ice cubes with my finger.

The description struck me as remarkably vivid, yet lean — making me realize how a small description could breathe life into a scene when written with clear, specific language.

2013: Personal experiences fuel good writing

After years of avoiding the genre, I took my first poetry workshop as a junior, and SURPRISE. I loved it. It was the first time I’d ever really tried writing about my own experiences, and it brought an invigorating sense of reality to both my poetry and my fiction. It also inspired me to become more observant, which fed back into my writing and made me better appreciate life’s little moments.

2014: Never mow the same grass twice

Throughout college, I had a trumpet instructor who’d often say, “Michael, I hate to mow the same grass twice!” You can find a full explanation here, but long story short, he encouraged me to fix flaws in my performance immediately upon discovering them, because if you repeat mistakes, they become habits. Bad habits that only get harder to break over time.

I didn’t take his advice to heart in my music, but I did apply it to my fiction. In the coming years, it would be instrumental (ha) in honing my craft.

2015: How to tie plot to character growth

In high school, my stories were all plot. In college, my stories were all character. During the first year of my MFA, I learned how to merge the two, by writing narrators with:

Emotions that drive actions,

Actions that trigger consequences, and

Consequences that compel growth.

This structure is simple, but effective, particularly when your character is motivated by a clear emotional struggle. More about this structure here.

2016: Write the stories that excite you

Throughout college, I almost exclusively wrote non-genre stories, because I wanted to pursue particular goals in that space. I learned a lot in the process, but it wasn’t until the second year of my MFA that I realized my stories themselves had lost a certain spark. So I switched back to writing the genre stories I loved. Like an old friend, the spark came back — and the writing got a lot more fun.

2017: Accept that you’ll never catch up to your expectations

The great irony of being a writer is that the more you hone your craft, the further away “perfection” seems. Why? Because as we improve, we not only overcome weaknesses, but also discover the flaws we never knew existed. So we fix those flaws. Discover new ones. Fix them. And so on. It’s a frustrating, never-ending cycle, and it wasn’t until my final year of the MFA that I was able to fully accept it — finding comfort in the fact that my dissatisfaction was a sign of growth.

2018: Be willing to let stories go

In my first year as a copywriter, the fast pace of agency life quickly taught me the importance of knowing when to “let go” of my writing. At work, it was because I had deadlines. But in fiction, I realized I couldn’t keep revising the same stories forever, when others were waiting to be written. “Art is never finished, only abandoned,” said Leonardo da Vinci, and it’s true. Our stories will never be perfect, so it’s our responsibility to decide when it’s time to cut the cord.

2019: If you want to write meaningful stories, start with what’s important to you

After my fiction professor gave that brief explanation (back in 2011) of what made a good, meaningful story, I became obsessed with finding a clearer answer. Something to grasp onto to guide my writing.

But this past year, I realized it was a bit of a fool’s errand. The things that make a story worth telling are incredibly subjective and different for everyone — naturally arising from their backgrounds, desires, fears, and more.

You can’t predict it. Or at least, you can’t predict it well.

So you just need to look inward. To find what you think is important.

And then write.

2020: TBD

Cheers to a new decade, everybody! May we keep honing our craft and fill the years to come with incredible stories.

— — —

Your stories are worth telling. For more helpful tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.

[thewriterswitch]

Writers: He had an unreadable look on his face

Me: But what does the look mean? And what is the look? Surely you know, dear writer. I desperately want to know what this unreadable look means, and yet it is unreadable, so I do not get to know.

[catchymemes]

[wordsnstuff]

Don’t get it right, just get it written.

James Thurber (via wordsnstuff)

[bookishdiplodocus]

Reblog the writers’ fortune cookie for luck!

[redeadepression]

Guys I reblogged this and then wrote an 8000 word story I didn’t even have a solid plan for. Reblog this shit.

[epicfangirl01]

Please, great fortune cookie of writing. I beg of you.

[thenaiads]

PLEASE I NEED IT DX !!!!

[ghostflowerdreams]

Useful Websites for Students

I put together a post containing Awesome Sites and Links for Writers, which is also pretty useful for school work too. Some of these sites I’ve discovered on my own in pursuit of knowledge and other times by friends. Many of them I wish that I knew about back when I was school. Most of the websites listed below are geared towards college students, but a few are aimed at high school students and primary students. So there is a bit of everything for everyone.

Homework Help & Studying

Cheatography – A site that collects cheat sheets that condense information on all kinds of topics, which can be helpful for building study guides.

Study Hacks Blog – Is a college blog that contains a lot of study advice and studying strategies that actually work.

Quizlet – Provides free tools for students, teachers, and learners of all ages to make flashcards to help them study any subject. For many topics, someone has already created a list of flashcards that you can flip through. Generally they might not be exactly what you need, but they will be close enough. You can even print them off.

StudyBlue – Is an online studying platform for high school and college students. The website allows users to upload class study materials, create electronic flashcards to study and share with others, and practice quizzes. StudyBlue allows students to store their notes in the cloud and connect with other students studying the same subjects.

Koofers – This all-in-one website not only helps college students study by providing access to flash cards and practice exams. It also gives you information on professor ratings, helps you generate the ideal class schedule, and posts job/internship openings.

Shmoop – Connects 13 million students and teachers with study guides, practice tests, an essay lab, informational videos, and career advice.

Mathway – Is a free math problem solver from basic algebra to complex calculus with step-by-step explanations.

S.O.S. Mathematics – Is a free resource for math review material from Algebra to Differential Equations. Get help with your homework, refresh your memory, prepare for a test, and so on.

Math.com – Contains explanations on almost all topics in mathematics from basic math to algebra, geometry and beyond. If you need review, more practice or deeper understanding of specific topics, this is the place to look. There are many useful tools such as calculators, study tips, etc. Even games that require some logical thinking.

Symbolab – Performs operations, solves equations, computes derivatives and integrals and more. It even come with a symbolic interface.

Number Empire – Is a collection of math calculators that can help you solve equations, compute derivatives and integrals, matrix arithmetic, statistics, and more.

MathPapa – Helps you learn algebra step-by-step. You can also plug non-algebraic equations into Mathpapa and use it as a calculator. It will show you the final answer and step-by-step instructions how the calculations work. There’s also a mobile app of it for Android and iOS devices.

Citation Machine – Helps students and professional researchers to properly credit the information that they use.

CK-12 Foundation – Is a California-based non-profit organization whose stated mission is to reduce the cost of, and increase access to, K-12 education in the United States and worldwide. They provide a library of free online textbooks, videos, exercises, flashcards, and real world applications for over 5000 concepts from arithmetic to science to history and so on.

Course Hero – Is a crowd-sourced online learning platform for students to access study resources like course materials, flashcards, educational videos and tutors. Its educator portal is a micro publishing platform for educators to distribute their educational resources. Course Hero collects and organizes study materials like practice exams, problem sets, syllabus, flashcards, class notes and study guides from users who upload. Users either buy a subscription or upload documents in order to receive membership and access website material.

HippoCampus – Is a free, core academic web site that delivers rich multimedia content: videos, animations, and simulations on general education subjects to middle-school and high-school students to help with their homework and studies.

Slader.com – Offers millions of step-by-step solutions to all the questions in the most popular textbooks in middle school, high school, and college. Math homework answers, Science homework answers, Spanish, History, Economics, and more.

Free Online Courses

University of Reddit – Is a community project that aims to focus on the teaching, learning, and sharing of knowledge and experience among its users. There are over 100 courses available: Art, Computer Science, Fun and Games, General Studies, Language, Mathematics and Statistics, Music, Philosophy, Science, Social Sciences, and Technology. Within each category are many, many sub-categories, that focus on particular areas of the genre.

edX – Is a massive open online course (MOOC) provider. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform. Unlike other MOOC, edX is a nonprofit organization and runs on the Open edX open-source software.

Khan Academy – Is a non-profit educational organization with a goal of creating an accessible place for people to be educated. The organization produces short lectures in the form of YouTube videos. Its website also includes supplementary practice exercises and tools for educators.

MIT OpenCourseWare – Is a web-based publication that contains thousands of Massachusetts Institute of Technology course content. It is a free and ranges from the introductory to the most advanced graduate level. Each OCW course includes a syllabus, some instructional material (such as lecture notes or a reading list), and some learning activities (such as assignments or exams). Many courses also have complete video lectures, free online textbooks, and faculty teaching insights. While some OCW content is custom-created for online use, most of it comes straight from the MIT classroom.

Udacity – Is a for-profit educational organization that offers massive open online courses (MOOCs) for free and Nanodegree programs.

Saylor Academy – Is a nonprofit initiative working since 2008 to offer free and open online courses to all who want to learn. They offer nearly 100 full-length courses at the college and professional levels, each of which is available to access at your pace and on your schedule.

Alison – Is a website founded with a noble goal: to enable anyone to receive free education of high quality. All you need is a will to learn new things and they will provide you with all necessary tools.  

Lynda – Is an online education company offering thousands of video courses in software, technology, creative, and business skills. The ones in blue are available to watch for free, so you don’t need a membership for them. However, others in grey require a lynda.com library subscription for access. But there is a way to get it for free and that’s by checking if the courses are available online through your local library’s website. There is a growing number of libraries that are providing their members free access to Lynda.com courses.

Udemy – Is an online learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults who want to add new skills to their resumes, or explore their passions. Unlike academic MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a platform for experts of any kind to create courses which can be offered to the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee.

Codecademy – Is an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages including Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript (jQuery, AngularJS, React.js), Ruby, SQL, and Sass, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS

Math Planet – Offers courses in high school math such as Pre-algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry for free. They also have practice tests for the SAT and ACT.

AcademicEarth – Has a collection of free online college courses from the world’s top universities. They also make sure that there is something for everyone: whether you want to explore a new topic or advance in your current field, they bring it to you for free.

Harvard University - Harvard Open Learning Initiative – Offers a series of free or low-cost courses. In addition, you can also browse Harvard University’s Digital Learning Portal, which features online learning content from across the University, both free and fee-based options.

Open Culture – Has 1,200 free online courses from the world’s leading universities: Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Oxford and more. You can download these audio & video courses (often from iTunes, YouTube, or university web sites) straight to your computer or mp3 player.

Open2Study – Is an initiative of Open Universities Australia that brings you the best in online education with their four-week, introductory subjects. Open2Study provides free, specialized short courses, entirely online, across the world, in a range of subject areas. When you successfully complete your course you’ll get a free Certificate of Achievement, which you can use to demonstrate your interest in learning about a certain area.

Information & Research

Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine – Introduces a fundamentally new way to get knowledge and answers; not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods. In a way it’s basically a little bit of everything; a search engine, an encyclopedia, and a calculator that can answer nearly any questions you have.

Virtual Learning Resources Center (VLRC) – Is an online index hosting thousands of scholarly websites, all of which are selected by teachers and librarians from around the globe. The site provides students and teachers with current, valid information for school and university academic projects using an index gathered from research portals, universities and library internet subject guides recommended by teachers and librarians.

Stack Exchange – Is a network of question-and-answer website on topics in varied fields, each branch of the site covers a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process.

Microsoft Academic – Operated by the company that brings you Word, PowerPoint and Excel, it is a reliable, comprehensive research tool. The search engine pulls content from over 120 million publications, including scientific papers, conferences and journals. You can search directly by topic, or you can search by an extensive list of fields of study. For example, if you’re interested in computer science, you can filter through topics such as artificial intelligence, computer security, data science, programming languages and more.

Refseek – Is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches more than one billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers. It also has an option to search documents directly; providing easy access to PDFs of academic papers. 

WorldWideScience – Is operated by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, a branch of the Office of Science within the U.S. Department of Energy. The site utilizes databases from over 70 countries. When users type a query, it hits databases from all over the world and will display both English and translated results from related journals and academic resources.

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) – Is a great tool for academic research with more than 1.3 million bibliographic records of articles and online materials. ERIC provides access to an extensive body of education-related literature including journal articles, books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers and more.

iSEEK – Is a targeted search engine that compiles hundreds of thousands of authoritative resources from university, government, and established noncommercial providers. It provides time-saving intelligent search and a personal Web-based library to help you locate the most relevant results immediately and find them quickly later.

ResearchGate – Is a unique social networking site built by scientists, for scientists. Over 11 million researchers submit their work, which totals more than 100 million publications, on the site for anyone to access. You can search by publication, data and author, or you can even ask the researchers questions. Though it’s not a search engine that pulls from external sources, ResearchGate’s own collection of publications provides a hearty selection for any inquisitive scholar.

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) – Prides itself as being “one of the world’s most voluminous search engines especially for academic web resources.” Utilizing 4,000 sources, the site contains results from over 100 million documents. The advanced search option allows users to narrow their research, so whether you’re looking for a book, review, lecture, video or thesis, BASE can provide the specific format you need.

Infotopia – Describes itself as a “Google-alternative safe search engine”. The academic search engine pulls from results that have been curated by librarians, teachers and other educational workers. The search feature allows users to select a category, which ranges from art to health to science and technology, and then see a list of internal and external resources pertaining to the topic. So if you don’t find what you’re looking for within the pages of Infotopia, you will probably find it in one of its many suggested sites.

PubMed Central – Is operated by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The database contains more than 3 million full-text journal articles. It’s similar to PubMed Health, which is specifically for health-related research and studies, and includes citations and abstracts to more than 26 million articles.

Lexis Web – Is your go-to for any law-related inquiries you may have. The results are drawn from legal sites, which can be filtered by criteria such as news, blog, government and commercial. Users can also filter results by jurisdiction, practice area, source and file format. 

CollegeMajors101 – Wondering what you can do with a degree in biology or dance? College Majors 101 offers lots of information about what you can do with dozens of majors, as well as what you can expect academically if you pursue these majors.

College Insight – Is the brainchild of the Institute for College Access and Success. It gathers detailed information on thousands of colleges. You can find statistics for any school on such topics as college affordability, graduation rates, and college diversity, including the racial and ethnic breakdown of students and professors. 

Fastweb – Is an online resource in finding scholarships to help you pay for school. All you have to do is make a profile and you’ll have access to their database of more than 1.5 million scholarships.

Books & Shopping (Student Discounts & Deals)

Online Research Library: Questia – Is an online commercial digital library of books and articles that has an academic orientation, with a particular emphasis on books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences. Questia’s library has over 5,000 public domain, classic and rare books that you can read online absolutely free.

The Book Pond – Is an independent online selling service for UK university students and graduates. They allow you to sell your old academic textbooks or buy the ones you need from other students who don’t need them anymore.

Chegg – Is an American online textbook rental company that specializes in online textbook rentals (both in physical and digital formats), homework help, online tutoring, scholarships and internship matching.

Open Book Project – Was made specifically for the academic community. Students and teachers can find free textbooks and other open-source education materials.

Bookboon – Is a source for free textbooks in PDF form that focus primarily on accounting, economics, engineering, IT, marketing, and management. The books are modest in size, most run from 50 to 100 pages.

Boundless – Offers openly licensed, high-quality, customizable digital courseware at a fraction of the cost of traditional textbooks.

Project Gutenberg – Offers more than 43,000 e-books, completely free. Comparative literature students taking only Jane Austen at Binghamton University, for example, can find every book on their syllabus via Project Gutenberg. Titles available on the site span categories such as archaeology, horticulture, microbiology and World War I. Copyrights are expired on all of the titles available for download via Project Gutenberg, so students studying history or classic literature may have more luck than those taking courses in other subjects.

Open Textbook Library – Contains textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions; or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.

Internet Sacred Text Archive – Is a freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language.

StudentRate – A site that allows college students to take full advantage of their school ID to get student deals and discounts on clothes, travel, textbooks, electronics, and lots of other things.

UNiDAYS – Is totally free to join, and used by over 4.3 million students every day. Signing up provides discounts on fashion, technology, music, stationary, food and more. It’s super useful when online shopping, and useful offline too.

Save the Student – Calls itself the number one student money website in the UK. It gives budgeting advice on how to make money and how to save money. Gives you checklists when looking for a student house, how to pay bills, what to take to university.

Student Hut – Is an online resource that helps prospective students find highly rated university courses, student offers & freebies, jobs and guides.

Student Beans – Is a popular UK hub where students could find useful stuff like offers and discounts on everything from travel, to fashion, to health and beauty and gadgets. And what students can get for free, from Uber vouchers to free drinks and trips to America. It has a dedicated jobs section, advertising part time jobs, internships and grad schemes.

Groupon – In college, every dollar counts so it helps to have Groupon when you can’t find any Student discounts and deals going on. When you and your friends are looking to try out a new restaurant, or if you’re looking for some alternative Friday night plans, make sure you check this first. It offers deals on everything from dining out to shopping products based on your location.

Amazon Student – With a student email (an valid .edu e-mail address), you get six months of Amazon Prime for free! Which means free two-day shipping, cheap textbook rentals, and discounts on anything from electronics to clothing. You’ll also earn $5 for each friend you refer, and they’ll get $5 credit as well. When the free trial ends, students will have to pay a fee of $49 per year, which is 50% off the cost of Prime membership. The student fee includes extra perks such as unlimited instant streaming of movies, TV shows and music. If you don’t want that, just make sure to cancel before your free trial ends.

CollegeBudget – Is like Groupon for college students. There’s all sorts of discounts on clothing, electronics, activities, and more. 

Apps & Tools

Sleepyti.me – Uses the sciences of REM cycles to calculate the optimal time you should go to bed in order to feel well-rested, especially when you have to be up at a certain hour.

Alarmy – This app ensures that you get up in the morning for work or school by being very annoying. You set it up by registering a photo of an area or room in your house. Then once the alarm is set, the ONLY way to make it stop ringing is to get out of bed and go take a photo of the registered area. There are other options as well, such as doing a math problem in order to turn the alarm off or shaking it for a certain amount. It’s available on Android and iOS.

Ginger Software – Contains a free online spelling and grammar checker that will correct any mistakes you make. They also creates apps and products that help people communicate more productively and efficiently on their mobile devices and desktop computers.

Plagtracker – Is a plagiarism checker that scans content to determine if any part of your essay has been plagiarized. Teachers aren’t the only ones that use this, students, website owners, and anyone else interested in protecting their writing do.

Hemingway Editor – Is a proofreading tool that helps you to see and fix potential problem areas in your writing. It color codes each potential error type, so you can address them one at a time. It’s a standalone program that costs $20 US, and you can download it to a PC or a Mac computer. But there is also a free online version of it that you can try.

Student Loan Calculator – Was made by the College Board to make it easier for college students to stay on top for their student loan payments.

Desmos – Is a free online grapher and scientific calculator. 

Mint – Is a free money manager and financial tracker app from the makers of TurboTax that does it all. It’s available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch as well as on Android.

My Study Life – Is a free app that lets you coordinate your calendar and to-do list. It is designed especially for schools, a planner that can be customized for rotating schedules and long-term assignments. You can even set up reminders about your homework due dates. The app is available on iPhone, Android, Windows 8, Windows Phone and the web. 

Habitica – Is a free self-improvement web application with game mechanics overlaid to help the player keep track of and remain motivated to achieve their goals. They do so by turning all your tasks (habits, dailies, study time and to-dos) into little monsters you have to conquer. The better you are at this, the more you progress in the game. If you slip up in life, your character starts backsliding in the game. It’s also available on Android and iOS operating systems.

Todoist – Is a free app that keeps track of all your tasks, projects, and goals in one place. Its clean look keeps you focused, and the app allows you to organize tasks into categories like household chores, reading lists, and long-term projects. You can access Todoist from any device, so you’ll always have it with you.

Dropbox – Is a file hosting service that you can access your work from any computer or device. You can also share documents with friends or group members which their edits will show up instantly for convenient group work. Basic account is free with 2 GB of space, but you can earn more space on your Basic account by referrals and enabling camera upload on mobile. Each referral that signs up for Dropbox will give you an extra 500 MB, and switching on automatic photo upload expands storage by three GB. The maximum free Dropbox storage can amount to 16 GB, so 28 referrals on top of your starting storage will get you there. Also, Dropbox is compatible with more platforms than Google Drive which is good if you need your cloud storage to across a range of devices.

Google Drive – However, Google Drive provides you with 15 GB of free online storage from the start, so you can keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos and whatever else in one place as well. Google Drive’s web client has more features, greater file type support and a better search tool than Dropbox. Unfortunately, Google Drive isn’t available for Linux and there isn’t an updated version of it for Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari browsers.

Mircosoft OneDrive – Is another cloud storage service that you can access your files and photos from anywhere and on any device. As well as share and work together with anyone in your life. They use to offer 15 GB of free storage, but they’ve recently changed it to 5 GB. They also cut the previous bonus 15 GB of storage when you activate your camera roll backup.

Miscellaneous

UCampus – Makes it easier for you to find the information and resources you need as a college student. It also provides you with opportunities on your campus and in your city that you may otherwise miss.

Talktyper – Provides Speech Recognition for free. It makes voice dictation freely available to anyone with a computer.

My Money Steps – Is a free online debt advice service from National Debtline. They will tell you what options you can choose from to deal with your debts and give you a personal action plan to help you manage your money.

StudentRecipes – This site offers over 5000 quick and easy recipes for students by students. As a student you often don’t have the time or money, but with this site you can find plenty of recipes that are quick and easy to cook but more importantly cheap.

theSkimm – Is a free daily email newsletter that focuses on delivering a summarize version of all the top news stories for you with a bit of sassy humor. They also have an app called SkimmAhead that will sync important events, like the return of your favorite Netflix show or a presidential speech, with your iPhone calendar (and soon Androids as well).

UnplugtheTV – Is a website meant to replace mind-numbing television. Instead of wasting your life watching TV, you’ll be watching something much more mind-opening and educational. The site has hundreds of educational videos to help you learn or gain a new perspective. If you’re expecting to see cats being cute and double rainbows you’re going to be disappointed.

HackCollege – Is a lifehacking website on a mission to teach students to work more effectively. In addition to offering practical advice and tips, the site also provides information on quality open source software.

Hollar - Is not a dollar store in the sense that everything costs a $1; instead, almost everything is priced between $2 and $5. Free standard shipping is included for orders of at least $25. A lot of the items they have you’ll be saving 50-90% here than elsewhere on the web. So can find a little bit of everything from toys, apparel, electronics, beauty, accessories, party supplies, home essentials, and so much more. There’s also an app version for Androids and iOS.

PrintWhatYouLike – Lets you print the good parts of any web page while skipping ads and other junk, which is a great way to make sure that your ink last longer.

[hermiones-studyblrr]

if you’re reading this i hope in 2020 you get...

the grades you’re wishing for.

the motivation you require to work/study.

the people you need to help you get through the journey.

the materials you want to study with.

the happiness you all deserve.

[artemisiasea]

I want to acknowledge all those who are making decisions to explore the unknown this year. Whether that be trying a new craft, going to therapy, attending school, traveling somewhere new, changing your look, practicing new behaviors and ways of being, reading a new author, applying for a job, starting a creative project, beginning a healing regime - or really doing anything that feels like a step into new territory. It’s important to recognize how much courage it takes to leave an established comfort zone in order to grow. Even if you’re taking baby steps you are still moving forward. You are brave. Keep going. 

[cwote]

be patient, good things are coming your way :)

[kertik]

If you are outside India, I am practically begging you to reblog this

Last week India passed a blatantly anti-Muslim law that seeks to naturalise millions of immigrants, except if they are Muslims.

In August of this year, India revoked the autonomous status of the Kashmir region, putting a communication blackout on the state. Kashmir has entered the fifth month of no internet and heaviest militarisation of any region in the world.

India is a secular, socialist republic. This bill is anti-constitutional and against the principles on which the country was founded

Naturally, there have been protests across the country. At the forefront of the protests are students from India's public universities.

Police opened fire on peaceful protestors in Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi, and Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh.

Ever since then, the ruling fascist Hindu nationalist political party, the BJP, has been doctoring videos and sending fake news all over the internet, discrediting protestors and labelling them as terrorists

India has already seen too much religious violence, please please signal boost this, call your representatives, make them aware, get them to make statements. The only thing India and its dictator Modi care about is its image abroad

[herstudylife]

Day 14: examination tmr🍂 | @herstudylife

✔️ spent 2 hours finishing up on the readings and 3 hours on compling notes for the reflective questions I would be encountering tomorrow

✔️I felt very productive the past few days🧡happy

[a-messes-blog-of-ocs-and-whump]

Adhd is: forgetting about your current wips

[13faeinapenguinsuit]

Hey. You. Yes, you! Open that writing project you’re working on. The one you’re struggling with. Write one sentence. Just one. Only one. That’s it it. Right now. When you’re done, read below the break!

Keep reading

[spystuff184]

Howdy. 

[podcastwizard]

hearing the john mulaney “do my friends hate me or do i just need to go to sleep” bit is the best thing to have happened for my mental health because every time i’m afraid my friends hate me it’s around the time i should be going the fuck to sleep

[bladesandstars]

I read somewhere “if you feel like everyone hates you you need to sleep and if you feel like you hate everyone else you need to eat” and it was honestly world-shattering and I wish I’d heard it years ago!