night-likes

This sick bleach shirt I made. Something to showcase my undying love for prehistoric cave art.

I don't want a printing subscription, or a typing subscription. Hell, I'll go find an old typewriter before I buy into that sell. I'll even learn to make ink and paper.

I don't want to "subscribe and save" to something. I don't want everything to automatically renew. I most certainly do not want to give an AI assistant access to ANYTHING of mine (including my thoughts, questions, or ideas), but especially not to my bank account.

I don't want glasses that tell me what things are, I'd rather ask someone who knows. I don't want a robot to summarize the key points of my group chat, I want to talk to my friends and family for myself.

I want picnics in the park, phones put away in bags and not thought about unless they're actually needed. I want water fights in summer, not water shortages to feed the machine. I want a colorful house, not a smart one. I want care, not convenience.

If one day Microsoft locks me out of my laptop because I refuse to pay for a subscription, I'll go to the library and check out a few books to figure out how to reprogram it. I'll learn fucking Linux, if I have to. Hell, I'm considering learning it now, with the way the world's going.

The world may be in crisis, but the fireflies came out at dusk yesterday. And they will come out again tonight, and tomorrow, too.

The world may be in crisis. But today a breeze stirred my hair and cooled my face, and it eased the heat of the summer sun and I took a deep breath and I breathed.

The world may be in crisis, but a stranger smiled at me, and a dog found a good home, and a toddler told his baby sister he loved her.

The world may be in crisis, but the world still holds people who are working to heal it.

The world may be in crisis, but there is still a world. And the world contains us, the world contains love, the world contains beauty. And the mulberries are ripe.

drew over something i wrote for a class and liked :] sorry the cars are lowkey ugly, its because I fucking hate cars and cant be bothered to learn what they look like beyond ominous hunks of metal

edit: transcript of the poem by itself under the cut

I dont know if this is your specialization or not but the deadline is approaching. I dont want you to do it for me obviously but how do I go about this? Im mad stressed and Im stuck. How do you write a good methodology? Is there a system everyone else knows but me?

Well, first of all, your professor is a shit teacher, so jot that down.

Second of all, I'm so sorry you're so stressed. Even through this ask I can FEEL your mental state trying to dissolve. But, I promise you can do this, Anon. You won't enjoy it; but, that's not the same thing. You can do it.

Third of all, there's no universal system; BUT, good news! There's an Elanor System. And I'm about to teach it to you. Take my hand. We've got this.

Step 1 - the Research Questions

Start here!

Your research questions should be formatted as literal questions, and this is what your study wants to answer. "How many fruit pastilles does it take to choke a kestrel?" "Do dragons breathe hotter fire in the day than the night?" "Are oak trees more effective than beeches at stabilising Welsh soils?"

(One, no, and yes)

Have at least one question, and an absolute maximum of three. Crucially, these questions need to be specific. For example:

"What's the link between coastal development and sand lizard conservation?" - too broad. How are we defining "conservation"? How can you measure it?

"Are sand lizard populations higher in undeveloped areas than developed areas?" - much better. Directly actionable (you just count them), easily defined (has the coastal site been built on or not)

For the sake of this tutorial, I shall use that last one.

Step 2 - Anticipate the Data

So, put simply, what data/results would answer this question?

I'm not talking the actual data yet, obviously - you need to carry out the research to get that! But, in broad terms, what sort of thing is needed for you to consider that question answered?

Take a look at our example - Are sand lizard populations higher in undeveloped areas than developed areas?

To answer this, I need:

Some developed (i.e. built up) sites

Some undeveloped (i.e. semi-natural) sites

A head count of the sand lizards in each

Then, sketch out for yourself what this data might look like in a table, graph, map, etc. Whatever format is needed to display the data. Here's our lizards:

The numbers are totally made up, of course. It's not about them. They aren't part of this experience. The TYPE of data, on the other hand, is; because this now leads perfectly into the next step:

Step 3 - the Protocol

This is no longer a broad, vague and terrifying spectre. This is now specific and targeted. Your protocol now is not about testing for "sand lizard conservation". It's about getting the actual numbers to plug into that graph above.

So, I now know I need to do a census of sand lizards in a selection of developed/undeveloped sites. This is the central plank of my methodology.

Firstly: how many sites? Maybe five of each type? How am I defining "developed" and "undeveloped"? What other variables might affect this, e.g. sand dune height/stability, visitation numbers, predator numbers, etc. A little bit of research will let me decide these points, and then I just need to select the sites locally. Do they have public access? Maybe logistics mean this comes down to three of each type.

Secondly, what are the best census techniques for sand lizards? Again, a bit of research will tell me this. Nothing wrong with finding a published paper that's already looked at this, and copying their methodology - it's peer-reviewed, and replicability is important in science.

Thirdly, consider the following:

Is your protocol written out clearly in an easy-to-follow way? Think of baking recipes. Could a third party replicate your work based on your description?

Variables. I've mentioned some already, but what else? An obvious answer here is weather - will that affect sand lizard numbers between sites? What about time of day/year?

Replicability: if you or anyone else wanted to do the same study in five years' time, or on a different selection of sites, etc, could they? They should be able to.

Practicality: are you physically capable of the tasks? Do you have the necessary equipment? Etc

But, fundamentally, your protocol should be able to get you the data you identified in step 2. If instead my plan here was just to count lizards on a single beach, that would be a fail - there's no site comparison. If instead I decided to survey the dune vegetation in both, that might well provide good habitat insights, but it's not getting me the abundance data I need to make that graph.

Step 4 - Timing

We have a protocol! So now: the logistics

Can your plans be done in the time you have available?

Maybe I only have three weeks to count my lizards. If so, depending on the weather, that may well be too little time for a full ten sites. Especially if each site requires more than one visit. If so, I need to amend my plans.

My recommendation for this step:

Work out how much time you have available

List the individual jobs needed (e.g. walk 100m transect 5 times)

Estimate how long each job will take, using whatever unit is appropriate (e.g. days)

Evaluate - is there enough time?

Gantt charts are great for this, and you can find free online Gantt chart makers. They also look good in the research proposal

******

And that, in a nutshell, is it! There's obviously more depth you can add in various ways, but that's your basic protocol construction. The value of a protocol is how well it can answer its research questions - I imagine this is where you're going wrong atm, and currently you're being too broad. So, start with the questions, decide on the needed data, work out the steps needed to get that data, assess logistics.

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.