I read HPMOR. That got me interested in Lesswrong. The most I can say for pre-rationalist!me was that I was curious and a bit creative.
Michelle_Z
Karma: 753
I was accepted into graduate school at a nice university for bioinformatics.
Me too.
A 6ft crocodile is necessary at such events. I’m really not sure how you all managed without Mr. Scaly. :)
Clearly, this event needed many more owls.
I wish my high school teachers had done this.
A+
The crocodiles and owls are our best residents. Especially the 6 ft (2 meter) long crocodile named Mr. Scaly. He is Great and Proud and Frolicsome.
I cannot be truly killed by any power known to me.
Prophecy, much? The power he knows not? I mean, that’s a gimme but...
Yes. But two minutes before that he was thinking of taking Cedric, and then we get a cut scene to him sneaking about in the hallway with Lesath. That implies that Cedric might still be in play, otherwise we probably would’ve gotten a short sentence or two on why he chose Lesath over Cedric.
Cedric, who may or may not have a time turner, could quite possibly show up.
As a freelance artist, I’ve illustrated a published book by age 21, and have been hired again to illustrate the sequel.
I’m working on chapter 17 of my ongoing web serial after a fairly long intermission. Currently, I’ve written 872 words out of an estimated 4000 for that chapter, and plan to release it by the end of February.
I’m graduating college in May with a B.S. in biological sciences, and for my senior thesis project I’ve been identifying orphan peptides on the genomes of arthrobacter bacteriophages. I’m hoping my work with genomics and proteomics will help me get a job doing something with life extension research.
“Harry had refreshed the Transfigurations he was maintaining, both the tiny jewel in the ring on his hand and the other one.”
Hermione, probably.
The play on words with the title of the chapter (Riddles and Answers) and the final reveal was neat. Harry might be a copy of Quirrell!mort who’s had his memory erased (rememberall,) and good ol’ Quirrell!mort needs Harry to get the stone because...?
I’m still really curious how the Deathly Hallows are going to tie into this.
Also, where the hell is Cedric Diggory? Will it be another situation like what happened with the troll? The spare gets killed, or Harry is the spare, and is found defective?
Oh dear. Bets on how badly this will end?
I saw that and laughed irl.
There’s probably no significance to a dead girl getting a grade for a class she did not complete. Probably.
This does read like a textbook case of narcissistic parents. I speak from both experience and research.
*edits advice! Oops!
Your parents did you a great disservice, though that doesn’t mean you can’t self-improve. I’ve faced similar struggles, though arguably not as severe. My parents were also a large driving force in my life and had me make decisions I did not want to make. For depression, I’d say to make it a habit to find a couple things every day to be appreciative of. For cash, I’d try tutoring people online english. A lot of parents of high school students concerned about their children’s grades and getting into college, and will spend money to have them tutored, even if it’s online. There are also agencies to go through for that.
For that matter, there are a lot of ordinary tasks people will pay money for you to do. You can be someone’s online PA (again through agencies) or a copywriter. Point is, there are a lot of ways to earn money on the side, so you can get your head above water financially.
I don’t know enough about the writing career to give any advice on that, nor do I know much about the state of Colombia. But from what you say, it sounds pretty difficult to make it there. This might sound a bit extreme, but have you considered moving to another country?
You’re fluent in english, which means you probably could learn another language if you wanted. Duolingo has a number of languages on there that you could learn, so if you do consider moving to another country, you wouldn’t be limited to countries that speak spanish or english.
Also check out holiday/work visas. I don’t know if Colombia is one of the listed acceptable countries. You can work/holiday in australia, saving something like $18k-20k+ USD. Check out this post. As a potential plan, you can save up the money you need to get the visa using secondary income via tutoring languages, and then spend a year in Australia. There’s no reason you couldn’t keep taking online courses while doing that, and you’d end the year with a fair amount of money in your bank, which might allow you to study full-time for a bit, depending on the cost of living in Colombia or wherever you choose to go.
How confident am I that this can work? Well, I’m basically giving you my plan, except my side job is as an illustrator.
http://mjzart.paperplane.io/ Freelance art. I was doing it a few years ago, but stopped when college became more time consuming. I’m planning on going to Australia on a work/holiday visa this upcoming May, and I need some money to do that. So it was a plan born more out of necessity more than anything.
I started a freelance business and have a client already.
Thank you!
I read HPMOR and thought “if this stuff (meaning rationality) actually works, it’s powerful in a way that I haven’t seen before.” I remember thinking something like that at the time, but memory is fairly unreliable. I’ll have to dig through old journals to see if I mentioned it anywhere.
The sequences also had the advantage of being written in an entertaining way. Beyond that, I’m not sure what makes me any different. I’d like to think I’m special or have some trait that makes me more prone to rationality, but that’s purely self-serving. More likely it’s luck—reading it at the right time when I was in a headspace to absorb that kind of knowledge.