Kirsten Muller

Everyone: Aww that’s cute, he deserves that after everything he’s been through.

Badass female character: falls in love, gets married, has kids

Column Shaft, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Cloisters

~ “Pontic” Oinochoe.

Date: ca. 520 B.C.

Place of origin: Italy

I’ve been asked a couple of times now what is my approach to self-study, and this is my messy attempt to answer that question. All of this is true for me, and might not work for someone else; still, I hope it may help somebody!

1. Getting acquainted with the language

When you’re learning a language with a different writing system than your own, that’s the first thing you have to tackle, of course; but I usually try to get some background information even when the alphabet used by my target language is the good old Latin one. One thing I pay extra careful attention to is phonology: you want to get the sounds right from the very beginning, before you develop any bad habits (also, learning IPA changed my life). Having an accent as close to a native’s as possible is not necessarily the goal (I do like to work on that, but to each their own), but being understood is! And incorrect pronunciation can sometimes hinder comprehension, in some languages more so than in others. So don’t obsess over it, but don’t overlook it completely either. Getting to know the sounds of a language right away can also help you understand what people are saying a little quicker, and figuring out how new words might have to be read. Wikipedia is usually not bad when it comes to phonology, and Omniglot is a good resource as well.

2. Finding a good textbook

I’m a free spirit so I often find myself not looking for a textbook right away, and just chaotically absorbing information from different sources (see immersion below). When I do set my mind to choosing, though, I try to stick to one well-made textbook that I like, which should possibly contain clear grammar explanations as well as exercises. The temptation to hoard resources is strong – and I’ve succumbed to it myself more than once haha –, but I usually try to steer clear from using more than one textbook at the same time (although I do have separate, more thorough grammars on the side more often than not). I’d rather use a physical book if I have the chance, but if that’s not your thing or you don’t have money to spend on that, that’s okay: you can find loads of perfectly good books or websites online!

3. Compulsive translation

Anyone who’s been following my blog for a while probably knows that I love translating virtually anything: from songs to poems to short stories. It’s something that has always been a part of my life, and I thoroughly enjoy doing. It’s also an awesome language learning technique, which will help you enrich your lexicon and teach you tons of new turns of phrase in your target language. It works both if you translate from your native into your target language and vice versa: find a good bilingual dictionary (I prefer paper dictionaries because they provide more examples of usage, but again, you do you) and look for equivalent expressions, don’t just translate word for word! It might work sometimes but not always. When it comes to translation, Reverso Context is a great resource for some languages, because it provides translation in context, taken from a massive corpus heavy on subtitles – which you shouldn’t trust all the time, but will help you as long as you put some critical thinking in.

4. Immersion (you don’t say)

What a surprise, right? I usually start listening to music / watching video content right away; I wasn’t that big on YouTube before but language learning has made me change my mind. You don’t have to get everything: even if you understand 3 words out of 20, this will help you grasp the rhythms and intonations of the language. This depends on how many similarities my new target language shares with the ones I already know, but as a general rule I use Italian (or English) subtitles in the very beginning, then move on to subtitles in the target language and finally get rid of them entirely. Some people will argue against subtitles of any shape or form, but I can only speak for myself and they’ve helped me quite a lot in the past. The way I see it, reading is also essential: if I don’t have time to leaf through novels, I usually check out at least an article a day in my target language and write down the words I don’t know, plus their Italian translation.

5. Routine – the good kind

Here are a few pointers to start you off.

Wear layers. The more layers the better. Pockets of air get trapped between each layer and act like insulation for you so your stay much warmer than with a single heavier layer.

If you’re sweating remove some layers. Sweat can kill you. The last thing you want is your body producing liquid that can then freeze on your skin.

Get candles. As many as you can. If the worst case happens and you lose power a candle in a small space can keep you warm and alive for far longer than you would expect.

If you’re really concerned about losing power and don’t have anywhere to go for shelter, build your own. If you’ve got snow make a quinzee. It’s like a ghetto version of an igloo. You can find some instructions here. If you’ve got a way to pile snow quickly that’s even better. Believe me, a quinzee with a candle will keep you warmer than being in your house. Especially if you build a wind break wall. DO NOT forget to make sure there is adequate ventilation.

If you don’t have power sleep naked. At the most you can wear a pair of socks and a toque (knitted cap), anything more can cause you to sweat. Keep the clothes you are planning to change into in the sleeping bag/blankets with you so they’re already warm from your body heat when you go to put them on.

Do as little as humanly possible. Avoid being outdoors if you can and if you can’t protect yourself from the wind. Cover every inch of skin you can manage to cover.

If you have hypothermia warm yourself slowly!! Do not jump into a tub of hot water or you’ll likely burn yourself. You can’t tell how hot something is at that point. Same if you have frost bite.

If someone you love has hypothermia DO NOT share your body heat with them unless you can easily get warm again. I know it’s sexy in fanfics but in real life it can lead to you both becoming hypothermic and dying. You can use your body heat to warm some blankets and exchange them for the cooling ones they’re using until they can produce enough heat on their own to make their own pocket of warm air but be very careful that you don’t let your own temperature drop too much. Shivering is bad but not shivering anymore when it’s still cold is much worse.

If your hands are cold the best place to warm them against your body is under your armpits or, even better, your groin.

Snow makes an excellent insulator. If your car breaks down somewhere and you don’t know when you’ll be able to get help then cover your car in as much snow as you can manage (make sure you also make it obvious someone in the area needs help.) Even burying yourself in the snow is better than staying exposed to the air.

If your water shuts off don’t just melt snow to drink, boil it first. Snow, in general, is pretty safe but there is still a chance it can make you sick and you can’t risk that in a survival situation.

DO NOT START A FIRE IN YOUR HOME. Unless you have a fireplace with proper ventilation just don’t do it.

Some of them (*cough* Bruce Wayne) come from money, but they still have to manage that money and any assets that come with it.

Clark Kent and Diana choose middle-class jobs that keep them near potential action, which is why we don’t see them worrying about money (and it’s not like they have medical expenses).

Steve Rogers is military funded before freezing, and later SHIELD/Avengers-funded (we’ll get to that in a minute).

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t read enough Black Widow or Hawkeye to know much about their jobs. I’m assuming Nat has money saved up from her assassin days?

Bruce Banner is a scientist who presumably has funding from various research grants, and later SHIELD/Avengers.

Peter Parker is a teenager who doesn’t come from money and can’t get a middle class job. He takes photos for the newspaper. It doesn’t pay much, and he’s also balancing school and crime-fighting, so he can only work part-time.

Tony Stark comes from money AND is a genius inventor, so he has enough for himself, his projects, AND to basically fund the Avengers. So when Peter is welcomed into the Avengers team, he’s really finally getting financial security for the first time in his life.

Egyptian Ornament in The Coloured Ornament of All Historical Styles 

Today we are featuring Egyptian decorative plates from The Coloured Ornament of All Historical Styles, Part I: Antiquity by Alexander Speltz, published in Leipzig, Germany in 1915 by Baumgärtner. The multi volume portfolio was produced with three color and four color printing based on Speltz’s original watercolor paintings.

In a preface to the Part I, Spetz wrote:

“In accomplishing this work special attention has been paid to the possibility of easily finding the text belonging to each figure, and to a classification according to the chronology of art history and archeology, for this work is not merely intended to be a standard for the polychromatic ornament, but also a resource for the study of history of art and archaeology.

If this work, whose first part herewith published and whose further parts Medieval Period, Renaissance, and Rococo Style, Classicism will follow as soon as possible, contributes to revive that sense of colours lost in this our prosaic time and helps to restore to our generation that delightful rejoicing in beautiful forms and colours, the writer’s end has been achieved.”  

View more posts about decorative arts and pattern books.

THIS SHIT WORKS OKAY, I AM DEAD SERIOUS.

The last time I saw this on my dash, I didn’t think it would happen, so jokingly I wished I could go to a fun. concert.

AND GUESS WHAT, I WENT TO A FUCKING FUN. CONCERT.

I SAW THIS ON MY DASH THE OTHER DAY AND THOUGHT “ITS WORTH A TRY” SO I WISHED I COULD GET A 3DS

LITERALLY LIKE 4 DAYS LATER MY DAD SENT ME A PICTURE OF THE 3DS XL HE BOUGHT FOR ME WHILE I WAS AT SCHOOL

GUYS.

HE FUCKING CALLED ME 20 MINUTES LATER

20 FUCKNG. MINUTES. LATER.