Aspire

Rowan, 20, HSPS at Cambridge University

[my-random-fandoms]

[thetrekkiehasthephonebox]

Verified: Microsoft 365 gets massive 45% price hike — and it's all to do with AI tools (Tom's Guide - January 17, 2025)

[mothwizard]

oopsie i tripped and spilled my link to archive dot org's downloadable copy of Microsoft office suite for 2007, which features no AI tools and is a powerful word processor that still holds up just fine on windows 10!

[kosmogrl]

[threeeyedharemp3]

you came back wrong and i am racked with guilt because i cannot bear to see you like this and i should have let you rest. i loved you so much that i defied death itself but i do not think either of us are happy

[vetchtibbles]

this is what microwaving leftover pizza feels like

[threeeyedharemp3]

stop it i was trying to be gothic

[typewriter-worries]

Missed Time, Ha Jin [transcript in ALT ]

[typewriter-worries]

- Anthony Bourdain

[imeverywoman420]

Things people who only like weird bad modern art say. This is about thomas kinkade btw. Modern art consoomer types HATE him with vitriol

These are his paintings. Absolutely beautiful and stunning. These people think its Low Brow.

Just bc u have a degree does not mean u know art… if all art school taught u was that a rothko is somehow more artistically valid than any of these beautiful paintings….. you would easily join scientology.

[earlgraytay]

okay so I had a whole longpost written out about this and I'm not going to rewrite it but uh tldr: you're missing context

Thomas Kinkade was basically the lovechild of a Marvel CEO and Tumblr's version of Anish Kapoor. he trademarked his own goddamn name and the phrase "painter of light", made prints in assembly line fashion, and hard-sold his art in mall storefronts and on tv shopping channels. he exploited his workers and his franchisees, and used Christianity to do it. for gods' sakes, the man did a line of licensed disney paintings.

just about any working artist today has more to say than thomas kinkade, because they're making art to say something, not just to make money. your random furry mutual-in-law is a better artist than thomas kinkade, because your random furry mutual-in-law has something they want to express. even if it's just "i really heckin' love dog people"- that's still more personal and from the heart than this shit.

thomas kinkade's the poster child for everything that's wrong with how american culture treats art, and whether or not his work is beautiful or technically skilled is beside the point.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

So you’re saying he’s the MCU of painters?

[madenthusiasms]

Kinkade’s images are pleasant, and nobody can determine what is or is not “Art.” Sometimes what Art says is “I have a commission and bills to pay.”

That said, two things piss me off mightily about Kinkade:

1) He treated his art like nfts before nfts were a thing. He’d run off a gazillion prints, have some wage serf put a single dot of paint in a different place (or a different color) on each, and hike the price because each one was now Unique Collectable Investment Art instead of print 4000 of 10,000.

2) The Painter of Light bullshit was a direct and calculated insult to Maxfield Parrish. I have seen Parrish’s art with my own eyes and it glows. It’s lit from within.

Look

At

This

Kincade got jealous, added a bunch of lit windows, and bullshit himself into trademarking a title that had belonged to an earlier painter.

[angesirene]

— Mary Oliver, Summer Morning

[levitann]

[jamesreads]

[leucrottafurialis]

[langsandlit]

 What is Occitan?

Occitan is a Romance minority language closely related to Catalan spoken across four sovereign states: Southern France, Spain, Italy and Monaco. Although it has never been legally recognised as a political entity, this area is historically known as Occitania. 

Occitan is called both occitan and lenga d’òc by its native speakers, and it is currently split into six main varieties (or dialects):

Gascon, which includes Bearnese and Aranese, spoken in France and Spain respectively

Languedocien (spoken in France)

Limousin (France)

Auvergnat (France)

Provençal, which includes Nissart, spoken in Nice, France

Vivaro-Alpine (Occitan Valleys and Guardia Piemontese, Calabria, Italy)

It should be noted that, because Catalan has a high degree of mutual intelligibility with Occitan, it was considered a dialect of Occitan until the 19th century. At any rate, the two languages are sometimes grouped together in the Occitano-Romance subgroup of Romance languages.

Occitan resources

Occitan

Standard Occitan grammar (in Occitan)

Occitan orthography (in Occitan)

Descriptive Occitan grammar (in English)

Occitan sense peine (in French)

Brief Occitan grammar (in French)

Occitan for beginners (in Italian)

Introduction to Occitan grammar (in Catalan)

Introduction to Occitan literature (in Catalan)

Online Occitan course (Vivaro-Alpine variety) (in Occitan and Italian)

Occitan literature from the Occitan Valleys (in Occitan and Italian)

Occitan-Catalan dictionary

Provençal

Modern Provençal: Part 1 (in English)

Modern Provençal: Part 2

Modern Provençal: Part 3

Modern Provençal: Part 4

Basic grammar & common phrases (in French)

Nissart classes by Doc Tiblon (Youtube channel in French and Nissart subs)

Aranese (Gascon subdialect, official in Catalonia)

Standard basic Aranese grammar (in Aranese)

Basic dictionary (in Aranese)

Phonetic dictionary (in Aranese)

Orthographic dictionary (in Aranese)

Aranese verbs (in Aranese)

Famous literary works translated into Aranese

Aranese and General Occitan - Four studies (in Occitan)

Online official Aranese course (in Aranese)

Conselh Generau d’Aran

Online dictates of different levels

Institut d’estudis aranesi

Aranese TV

Aranese-Catalan / Aranese-Spanish dictionary

[estienne-en-haut]

Parlem en Occitan- Los salutacions (prumiere setmana: 5/1/2022)

Salut tot lo monde! Qu’es l’òra d’aprendre de l’occitan!

Cette semaine, on va garder les choses simples avec les salutations en occitan! Si vous avez de l'expérience avec le français (donc oui si vous pouvez lire ça), c’est pas très différent. On y va!

(This week, we’re gonna keep it simple with greetings in Occitan! If you have some experience with French, it’s not too different! Let’s get started!)

VA= Vivares | LD= Lengadocian | FR= Francais | EN= English

______________________________________________________________

Per commancar una conversacion | To start a conversation

(VA / LD) Bonjourn - Bòn ser!/Bòn vespre [bunʤur] - [b’un s’e]/[b’un v’ɛspɾe]

(FR) Bonjour - Bonsoir | (EN) Hello / Good morning/evening

(VA / LD) Salut [sal’yt]

(FR) Salut | (EN) Hey

C’est simple, oui? Continuons.

(It’s easy, right? Let’s keep going.)

______________________________________________________________

Per demandar la condicion de quauqu’un | To ask someone’s condition

(VA) Coma vas? [k’umo va] | (LD) Cossí  va? [kus’i va]

(FR) Comment vas-tu? | (EN) How are you?

(VA) Coma anètz? [k’umo anɛ] | Cossí anatz [kus’i ana]

(FR) Comment allez-vous? | (EN) How are you?

En occitan, a l’instar de français, il y a une différence de conjugaison du deuxième personne, soit tutoyer soit vouvoyer. Mais c’est pas obligatoire d’utiliser les pronoms, que les bonnes conjugaisons. Le verbe qu’on utilise ici est ANAR, un mot apparenté du verbe ALLER.

(In Occitan, like in French, there is a difference in conjugation of the second person, either informal singular [friends, family, casual social equals] or formal singular [strangers, professional colleagues, formal social equals]/ plural. But it is not necessary to use pronouns in occitan, just the right conjugations. The verb we’re using here is ANAR, which means “to go”)

______________________________________________________________

Deuxième partie du leçon sortira la semaine prochaine!

(Second part of the lesson will be posted next week!)

Josca mai!

~Estienne

[optomstudies]

I start my 2nd semester of college in 5 days and I'm in a program wirh a heavy workload of 6 classes (19/20 of the allotted credits). i got an infection that is so bad I was hospitalised for a day and now i have daily trips back for IV antibiotics that are expected to last >3ish days and then oral antibiotics after that. I have never been this sick. I'm anxious about school starting and I can't prepare for the new semester. I'm worried I might miss the 1st days. Do you have any tips or ideas?

Hey there! I’ve actually been asked similar questions before, so check out my posts here, because being hit with a bad sickness, you basically have to do a lot of effective and efficient studying during the few times in which you are well enough to do work:

Studying in the Worst Case Scenarios

Cramming Tips That Actually Work

Catching Up with Your Studies

Dealing with Bad Results

Being Realistic about your Results

Finishing an Assignment While Sick

Thinking Differently to Prevent Stress 1 and 2

Dealing with Guiltiness when You Haven’t Studied

Dealing with Mental Health at University

Studying With Depression

Studying With Anxiety

Studying When You’re Sick

Additionally, you may find these guides about studying content-heavy courses useful even after you recover:

Studying Content-Heavy Subjects

Content Heavy Courses Study Guide

Self Studying Advice - when you have to study a lot by yourself

Staying Productive No Matter How Much Time You Have

The Blank Paper Method - for rote learning lots of information

Part 11 Adapting to Uni Study - university basically mandates studying a large amount of info in a short period, so you’ll find this post useful for balancing 6 heavy courses!

Hope that helps! Get better soon!! ^_^

[greeksblog]

I love you

With all my bruised heart.

[medstudentblues]

tuesday mood

[cant-we-blame-niall-or-something]

Autumn Night, Cambridge University, Cambridge England

[derangedrhythms]

Hi quotes on ocean / sea / drowning?

I combined this with your previous ask about sea / sirens x

'Siren Song' & 'This Is a Photograph of Me' by Margaret Atwood

"The sea is incommensurable."

— Nick Lantz, We Don’t Know We Don’t Know; from ‘What We Know of Death by Drowning’

"One day I would drown, radiant with joy."

— Roberto Bolaño, from ‘2666’, tr. Natasha Wimmer

"I thought of the sirens in their bloody meadow surrounded by the clean white bones of the men they had seduced and devoured–the heaps of shinbones, the pelvises like bows, the femurs like arrows."

— Erica Jong, from 'Sappho's Leap'

"Like a deep woman, it hid a good deal; it had many faces, many delicate, terrible veils. It spoke of miracles and distances; if it could court, it could also kill."

— Sylvia Plath, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams; from ‘Ocean 1212-W’

"I held my drowning / in my palm like a giant pearl."

— Nick Lantz, We Don’t Know We Don’t Know; from ‘What We Know of Death by Drowning’

"The sea, silver — dreadful, like death."

— Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova: Uncollected Poems and Fragments 1957-1966, tr. Judith Hemschemeyer

"This August I began to dream of drowning."

—Anne Sexton, Live or Die; from ‘Imitations of Drowning’

"How to explain the irresistible compulsion to join the sea, to be part of it, to sink into the solace of its company?"

— Brian Masters, from ‘Killing for Company: The Case of Dennis Nilsen’

"Now the Sirens have a still more terrible weapon than their song, namely their silence. Though it has never happened, it is perhaps conceivable that someone might have escaped from their singing, but from their silence certainly not."

"But they – lovelier than ever – craned and twisted, let their gruesome hair float free in the wind, stretched their claws wide on the rocks; they wanted to allure no more, all they wanted was to catch for as long as possible the reflected radiance from the great eyes of Odysseus."

— Franz Kafka, The Great Wall of China and Other Short Works; from 'The Silence of the Sirens', tr. Malcolm Pasley

"I'll adore you, as a drowned person does the sea."

"Come, I'll draw you the bitter water, / To love your death there in the sea's night"

— Renée Vivien, The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry; from 'Ransom', tr. Mary Ann Caws

"Each wave-tip glitters like a knife."

— Sylvia Plath, The Colossus & Other Poems; from ‘A Winter Ship’

"His drowning never seemed to have affected him as much as I thought it should, he couldn’t even remember it. If it had happened to me I would have felt there was something special about me, to be raised from the dead like that; I would have returned with secrets, I would have known things most people didn’t."

— Margaret Atwood, from ‘Surfacing’

"I am happiest / near the ocean, / where the changing light / reminds me of my death"

— Erica Jong, from At the Edge of the Body; from 'I Live in New York'

"You ask the sea, what can you promise me / and it speaks the truth; it says erasure."

— Louise Glück, A Village Life; from ‘March’

"The sea has undone me."

— Anne Sexton, from ‘A Self-Portrait in Letters’: Alfred Sexton, 7th September 1963

"The waves pulse and pulse like hearts."

— Sylvia Plath, Collected Poems; from 'Whitsun'

"The sea gets into your head [...] once you let it in, it doesn’t leave you alone."

— Hannah Kent, from 'Burial Rites'

[my-sweet-self]

ℭ𝔞𝔪𝔟𝔯𝔦𝔡𝔤𝔢