Lrs35 - Crying About Fictional Characters

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

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Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

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Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!

folklore botanical stamps 💐 [zoom for hq]

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hiii rae!!! so i wanted to ask you this since it sound like ur well versed on this topic and you seem really smart and all, but do u have any recs on what to read for topics like transmisogyny or bioessentialism? i’ve been meaning to read more abt it but I have no idea where to begin

hi!! i am definitely always learning more myself but i would be happy 2 share some recs!!

starting off with bioessentialism:

performative acts and gender constitution, by judith butler, is like. one of the most foundational texts re: gender as a social construct. it can be a bit dense to tackle if you're just diving into this stuff so i recommend taking it slow and really trying to parse through what they're saying--a lot of people sort of skim through this and just take away "gender is a performance!" which at best is a pretty broad simplification and at worst ends up being like a direct contradiction to what butler is saying lol

the logic of gender is another article that is, again, very dense but a very in-depth historical materialist analysis specifically looking at the development of gender as a social construct tied to capitalist economic structures

trans liberation: beyond pink or blue by leslie feinberg is definitely an easier read and another good place to start if you're looking for a text that challenges sex + gender categories

regarding transmisogyny more specifically:

whose feminism is it anyway? by emi koyama is an essay breaking down the logical incoherency of trans exclusionary feminism

fighting fascism in feminism by chanelle gallant is another, more recent article also discussing how trans exclusion is antithetical to feminism

whipping girl by julia serano is where the term "transmisogyny" was first coined

on liking women by andrea long chu is an essay that i personally love bc of the way it shifted my own thinking regarding sex, gender, and desire. chu's writing tends to ruffle feathers but i really like it; i'd also recommend her book females if u dig on liking women

+ if anyone has any recs they wanna add please do!!

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Agyness Dean in “Spooky” by Tim Walker for LOVE Magazine (Spring/Summer 2015)

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Fanfiction Trope MASH-UP

Rules: Send me two (2) tropes from this list + a ship and I’ll describe how I’d combine them in the same story. 

Historical AU 

Royal AU 

Modern AU 

Coffee Shop AU 

Bar/Restaurant AU 

Bookshop AU 

Florist AU  

Hospital AU 

Dance AU 

Airport/Travel AU 

Neighbour AU 

Roommate AU 

Detective AU 

Bodyguard AU 

Criminal AU 

Prison AU 

War AU 

Circus AU 

Summer Camp AU 

Teacher AU 

Dystopian AU 

Space AU 

Performer AU 

Soulmate AU 

Fairy Tale AU 

Massage Fic  

Sick/Injured Fic 

Proposal Fic  

Wedding Fic  

Holiday Fic  

Birthday Fic 

Pregnancy Fic  

Baby Fic 

Vacation Fic  

Bathtub Fic 

Text/Letter Fic 

Coming Out Fic   

Grief Fic  

Survival/Wilderness Fic  

Almost Kiss 

First Kiss 

The Big Damn Kiss 

Dance of Romance  

Flowers of Romance 

Chocolate of Romance  

Blind Date  

Not a Date  

Fake Dating 

Fake Married 

Arranged Marriage  

Accidentally Married 

Marriage of Convenience 

Mutual Pining 

Secret Relationship  

Established Relationship 

Awful First Meeting 

Forgotten First Meeting  

Accidental Eavesdropping  

Interrupted Declaration of Love 

Poorly Timed Confession 

Love Confession 

Love Confessor (Character A confessing their love for Character B to Character C)  

Everybody Knows/Mistaken for Couple 

Star Crossed Lovers  

It’s Not You, It’s Me 

It’s Not You, It’s My Enemies  

Character in Peril 

Heroic Sacrifice 

Flirting Under Fire 

Locked in a Room 

Twenty-Four Hours to Live  

Stranded on A Desert Island 

Stranded Due to Inclement Weather 

Huddling for Warmth 

Bed Sharing  

Did They or Didn’t They? 

In Vino Veritas  

Above the Influence  

Anger Born of Worry  

Green-Eyed Epiphany  

The Missus and the Ex 

Second Love  

Intimate Artistry  

Married to the Job  

Innocent Physical Contact 

I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On 

Aroused By Her Voice  

Erotic Dreams 

First Time 

Unexpected Virgin 

PWP 

Kink 

Makeovers 

Hair Brushing/Braiding 

Sleep Intimacy 

Scars  

Time Travel  

Curses 

Magical Accidents 

Accidentally Saving the Day   

Resources For Worldbuilding

Culture & Society

Creating Fictional Holidays

Music For Your Fantasy World

Creating Religions & Belief Systems

How to Design Your Diabolical Cult

Historically Accurate Sexism in Fantasy: Let’s Unpack That

Debate with the Squirrels: Sexism in Fantasy

Feudalism

Using Politics In Fantasy Fiction

Mythic Justice – Crime and Punishment in Your Fantasy World

Government Worldbuilding

Realistic Political Strife

A Politics Of Worldbuilding

Language

Creating a Language

The Language Construction Kit

The International Phonetic Alphabet – Audio Illustrations

Fantasy Name Generator

Geographic Names

Medieval Names Archive 

Squid Name Generator 

Model Languages

Xenolinguistics 

History

Prehistory

Mythos

History

Today

Myths, Creatures, and Folklore

Encyclopedia Mythica

The Ancient History Encyclopedia

Using History as Inspiration for Fantasy

Victorian Era Family Day Life in England

Peasant Life in the Middle Ages

Everyday Life in the Middle Ages

English Monarchs

Feudal Japan

The Story and Structure of the Iroquois Confederacy

Science + Geography

Dimensions

Solar Bodies

Climatology

Planetary Geography

Water Geography

Cartography, Maps, Star Charts, and Writing

Fundamentals of Physical Geography

Dating of Middle-earth events, using Precession of the Equinoxes and Tidal Friction

Orbital Operations in Science Fiction

Planet Designer

Artificial gravity calculator

Natural gravity calculator

Selden’s Catalogs of Objects for Celestia

Medieval Technology

Defining the Source, Effects, and Cost of Magic

How to Create a Rational Magic System

Miscellaneous

/r/worldbuilding

Fantasy World Generator

SciFi World Generator

Focused Ambiguity: Using Metaphor in Fantasy Writing

Space Engine

Terragen

The Five foundations of Worldbuilding

Setting the Fantastic in the Everyday World

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advocate for weird and pathetic girls

farmers market soup haul

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

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it really pisses me off how easy it is to get sad and then how long and hard it is to get happy again like what the fuck man thats not fair