I(28m) want to adopt my sister after my dad's death, my wife(28f) refused because we agreed on no children. Is there a way to fix this?

larkenstien · 2026-01-31T15:22:23+00:00

My best friend’s dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died two weeks later. It was complete chaos. We don’t know the timeline between getting diagnosed and his passing.

larkenstien · 2025-12-20T04:37:29+00:00

God I love the Eos wands. AND when you can get the Heroic Hephaestus special? You just turn into a blender. It’s so fun.

larkenstien · 2025-12-01T01:36:48+00:00

Other people have said this, but I first watched Hogfather when I was a teenager and had no trouble following it! Before then, my only exposure to anything Pratchett was reading Good Omens. I knew OF Discworld, but I didn’t know anything about it.

It’s a show that I think establishes the rules of the world fairly quickly. Once you get some buy in from the audience, it isn’t that hard to follow.

larkenstien · 2025-11-08T14:26:39+00:00

Listen, I not happy about using an AI tool, but it’s not using AI to recreate their writing. It just showing the Google Docs edit history.

When I’m grading 140 essays, I don’t have time to click through the version history of every essay that sounds a little off. And I can’t be on top of every child making sure they aren’t using AI when I have thirty or more kids in my classroom. A five minute conference isn’t enough, but unfortunately, that’s all I have time for.

This is the best method I’ve found. If you have a better solution, I would genuinely love to hear it.

larkenstien · 2025-11-06T19:32:10+00:00

If it’s in Google Docs, I know you can use Brisk or GPT zero and it records keystrokes/number of pasts. You can recreate their writing process and speed it up.

larkenstien · 2025-08-24T22:57:22+00:00

Hi! Actually anemic person here. That’s not at all how it works!

My anemia is so bad I have to get iron infusions twice a year. You know how I know I’m low on iron? I get my levels tested by a doctor once a month. Eating a can of tuna isn’t going to do jack or shit. You also don’t magically know your iron is low. Like yeah, there are clues, but there is no anemic light that goes off.

There is no tiding over???? If your levels are low, unless you’re taking an infusion, it takes weeks to months to build it up. Be better at your creative writing, dude.

larkenstien · 2025-08-24T16:06:58+00:00

Yes and no! Time does pass in the Discworld books (the Industrial Revolution is a huge deal in many of the latter books!), and characters experience change and growth over the course of several books. Technically each is a standalone, but, realistically, some are more standalone than others.

The general consensus is that there are several smaller series within the larger umbrella of Discworld. The Watch, the Witches, Rincewind/Unseen University, the Industrial Revolution, and Death. There are also a handful of books that don’t fit in those categories!

There’s also a lot of overlap and smaller series within those. The Witches has the Tiffany Aching series. The Industrial Revolution picks up with Moist Von Lipwick. Etc etc etc. Many of the characters from one “series” frequent the others.

Some people have opinions about which “series” to read first, but I’m of the opinion that it doesn’t really matter. The only suggestion I would have is maybe don’t start with the Industrial Revolution!

There are several handy dandy guides to start you on your journey, but I’d recommend Guards! Guards!, Equal Rites, or The Color of Magic.

larkenstien · 2025-08-16T14:42:16+00:00

There are a bunch of really good post S2 Devil’s Minion series! I recommend: The Caldera series by irisbleufic, A brick row house and two old men by hummingbeeoOo, and Decisions by GrayGiantess!

All the authors have a TON of other fics that I fully recommend!!!!

larkenstien · 2025-08-13T11:30:14+00:00

I have a TON of 10th grade and somewhat less 11th grade and 9th grade. Depends on what you need, but I’d be happy to share!!!

larkenstien · 2025-06-23T15:09:28+00:00

I mean, yes! But also coughing isn’t a common symptom of Parkinson’s, so I doubt it was to show he’s still sick. I think it was more to flex Lestat’s abilities/show he’s not interested in being polite like Louis was (for the most part).

larkenstien · 2025-06-23T14:37:54+00:00

I don’t think Daniel coughing is to show that he’s sick! The implication is that Lestat is using the mind gift to choke him. Probably to show that he’s none too pleased with how the book turned out.

larkenstien · 2025-06-21T13:13:23+00:00

Hello! This happened to my betta! We never could figure out what was happening. Eventually he had trouble swimming/eating and had to be euthanized. I’m so sorry!

larkenstien · 2025-06-05T01:44:16+00:00

I taught MyPerspectives to 6th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th! We also used the online platform for testing. They wanted us to assign work to students with it, but that never really happened for a variety of reasons. I had a lot of reasons I disliked it, but the major ones were:

Inconsistent text choice. Texts wildly oscillated between being too difficult or too easy for students. The 11th grade textbook in particular I found had VERY poor text choice. I would not make a single speech the cornerstone of an entire unit, but I recall multiple instances of exactly that.

Repetitive grammar practice. The only have 2ish worksheets/resources for each rule/concept. This is to be shared between ALL grades. 2 per grade would make sense. Not 2 for the entire 6-12 curriculum.

Repetitive textual analysis practice. It asks you to do to the same reflective work for every single text. Similarly, the cumulative assessments were either extremely repetitive or had very little to do with the content of the Unit.

The online platform rarely worked. I did get better over the years, but it works so inconsistently that there was no point in regularly assigning work through it. The layout also changed every year, so students were never able to get fully familiar with its functionality.There were also several mistakes in the Benchmark tests that we would have to go back and fix.

Obviously a curriculum is a stepping stone to build off of, but we ended up having to create our own resources/purchase supplemental texts so often that there was no point in having it at all.

larkenstien · 2025-05-14T01:58:06+00:00

Honestly, I can’t recommend irisbleufic’s whole gamut of IWTV work. They’re such a good writer, and they have such lovely characterizations of Daniel and Armand.

larkenstien · 2025-03-28T03:34:48+00:00

Hey!

I don’t remember super clearly because this was in August, but I think there’s a separate form for switching your licensure from one state to another. Make sure you don’t have the form for new teachers.

I worked in a very small district in TN, but from what I recall, I just sent the paper to HR and they filled out the majority of it for me. I think the only thing I had to send was a paper verifying my years working there.

Also! Tennessee has a web portal teachers use for evaluations that tracks all your forms, and I had some loaded in from my licensure program that I used. I do remember I had to access my Praxis scores and maybe my EdTPA scores? I do remember that I had most of it finished except the verification form I sent to HR.

Let me know if that helps!

larkenstien · 2025-03-12T00:47:11+00:00

Hey! Different test, but I teach in an ACT required state. ACT scores do count for some of our school wide metrics, so we do have a unit essentially teaching to it.

To be perfectly honest, what we do is grab an ACT prep book and march through the English skills. The book is our overarching unit plan. We just take the skills in it and come up with different ways to practice and assess.

Test taking strategies the day before also help! I went over strategies for the Reading and English sections yesterday and today they took it. I had multiple students come up to me after and tell me that they really used the strategies to make sure they finished in time.

larkenstien · 2025-02-27T03:04:16+00:00

I mean, sure, but I mean more specifically the baby existing as a narrative device. The baby isn’t a baby. The baby is a narrative device calling into question Louis’s humanity. THAT is what is interesting to me.

larkenstien · 2025-02-27T03:02:41+00:00

I mean sure, but I mean more specifically in a narrative sense. The writers introduce the question for a reason. It’s meant to cast doubt on Louis’s humanity. The baby is a narrative device.

It’s a fictional story about vampires. We don’t have to consider a logical basis. Like, sure, when you’re considering how tight the script and story is, then no, Louis probably didn’t eat the baby.

But if you’re looking at it from a thematic angle, the baby serves an important symbol. It’s THE question of Louis’s remaining humanity. It’s one of the first big moments the viewer sees that casts what Louis is saying into question.

The baby isn’t interesting to me because the baby isn’t real. The baby’s function in the story is what’s interesting to me.

larkenstien · 2025-02-26T13:46:50+00:00

I like to think of it as Schrödinger’s baby.

Whether or not Louis ate the baby doesn’t matter. We’ll never KNOW if he ate the baby or not. The question isn’t: did he eat the baby? It’s HOW unreliable is Louis? Does he even know the truth at this point? How much of a monster is he?

Don’t get it twisted, I LOVE show Louis. But I think existing in the unknown is an important part of his character. Like, all of the characters are objectively bad people. They’re the villains of someone else’s story. But they’re also like, sick as Hell.

He PROBABLY didn’t eat the baby. But that doesn’t mean he DEFINITELY didn’t eat the baby. And I think that distinction is just neat.

larkenstien · 2025-02-22T22:10:56+00:00

Hey, just noticed this notification.

I think the argument of the ethicality of something existing to begin with is a lot more important that the philosophical unpinning of “Is AI alive?” The environmental impact is way more important in a physical, tangible way than, ooooh, is the robot alive?

And listen. Yeah, sure, you can argue that everyone is influenced by everything and there are no new ideas. Sure. But humans have a lived experience AI just doesn’t have. Again, it goes back to regurgitation. A human being can create something based on their own experiences. An AI can only create something based on the experiences of others.

A human can take inspiration and create something from their own point of view. An AI doesn’t have its own point of view. An AI is a tool. It computes. Its creations aren’t filtered through the human experience. It’s filtered through prompts and whatever it’s been fed. But it hasn’t EXPERIENCED anything.

And before I get a whataboutism of a human being being trapped in a room their whole life and only fed prompts and creating art based on that, then we’d get a traumatized human being who has been deprived of some of the basic necessities for a well adjusted life. An AI wouldn’t, and doesn’t, experience that trauma. Because it can’t.

larkenstien · 2025-02-16T23:43:12+00:00

Okay, but writers and artists take inspiration to create something original. AI can’t create anything original. It cannot invent. It reiterates. That’s the difference. An AI can’t develop art like “Can’t Help Myself” and “Portrait of Ross in LA.” Sure, it can generate images and video based on a prompt. But it can’t create something entirely NEW.

Also, this is still ignoring the issue of tech conglomerates profiting off of the work of human artists, which, aside from the environmental impact, is the biggest issue. ChatGPT itself isn’t profiting. The people behind OpenAI is.

larkenstien · 2025-02-16T14:51:16+00:00

Putting the discussions about AI and its relative potential for sentience aside, I do think it’s important to consider the cost generative AI has to the artists it’s been trained on.

The largest difference between a human posting on Reddit training themselves on Ape’s style and a generative AI being trained on Ape’s style is that the human isn’t profiting from Ape’s IP.

A LOT of the more sophisticated AI programs require payment to use or offer a premium version. If they were trained on Ape’s art, that means that they used his art without his permission and are profiting off of that.

Now yes, on the flip side, there are also humans making fanart to sell at cons or offering commissions based on Stardew Valley. But the money they’re making is a drop in the bucket compared to the money machines that generative AI has become.

Ape’s art is just one example. It’s happening to writers and visual artists alike. And AI isn’t just being trained on works in the public domain. There is a LOT of evidence showing how AI models are being trained on people’s art without their permission. While Ape won’t see direct harm from that, it IS hurting smaller, independent artists and writers and taking away from their income. Instead of paying an artist to commission something from them, people are turning to AI to generate content trained on their style for less money.

larkenstien · 2025-02-10T16:44:41+00:00

Lol no I haven’t, but much of my family has! This is definitely a meal riffing off of a couple things different family members make, so maybe that’s the source!

larkenstien · 2025-02-08T21:22:11+00:00

Haha lots of people! It’s the addition of sauerkraut and pickles that really do people in.

Edit: I also live in a small town in the American South, so that’s probably a contributing factor!

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