Follow the instructions, basically, to get an S. I can talk about your grade with you in private if you want.
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ok, thanks
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This code is the working version, sorry! 
TV Show Recommendations From A Netflix Addict For Teens
Ｔａｂｌｅ ｏｆ Ｃｏｎｔｅｎｔｓ
~~~~~
Lucifer is an American urban fantasy television series developed by Tom Kapinos that premiered on Fox on January 25, 2016.[3][4] It is based on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg taken from the comic book series The Sandman , who later became the protagonist of a spin-off comic book series, both published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. The series is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
The series revolves around Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), the Devil, who abandons Hell for Los Angeles where he runs his own nightclub and becomes a consultant to the LAPD. The ensemble and supporting cast include Lauren German as Detective Chloe Decker, Kevin Alejandro as Detective Daniel “Dan” Espinoza, D. B. Woodside as Amenadiel, Lesley-Ann Brandt as Mazikeen, and Rachael Harris as Dr. Linda Martin. Filming took place primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia before production was relocated entirely to Los Angeles, California beginning with the third season.
The first season received mixed reviews from critics, though subsequent seasons were better rated; many critics particularly praised Ellis’ performance. Despite initially high viewership for its debut, ratings remained consistently low throughout the series’ run on Fox. The fourth season also received high ratings and critical acclaim. Fox initially cancelled Lucifer after three seasons; a month later, Netflix picked up the series. Netflix has renewed the series for a fifth season of 16 episodes, the first half being released August 21, 2020. Although the fifth season was initially reported to be the last, in June 2020 the series was renewed for a sixth and final season.
Riverdale is an American teen drama television series based on the characters of Archie Comics. The series was adapted for The CW by Archie Comics’ chief creative officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and is produced by Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, in association with Berlanti Productions and Archie Comics. Originally conceived as a feature film adaptation for Warner Bros. Pictures, the idea was re-imagined as a television series for Fox. In 2015, development on the project moved to The CW, where the series was ordered for a pilot. Filming takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The series features an ensemble cast based on the characters of Archie Comics, with KJ Apa in the role of Archie Andrews, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge, and Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, the series’ narrator. The cast also features Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom, Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy, Casey Cott as Kevin Keller, Charles Melton as Reggie Mantle, and Vanessa Morgan as Toni Topaz. Other characters in the series include the parents of the main characters: Luke Perry as Fred Andrews, Mädchen Amick as Alice Cooper, Marisol Nichols and Mark Consuelos as Hermione and Hiram Lodge, and Skeet Ulrich as FP Jones.
The series debuted on January 26, 2017, to positive reviews. The fourth season premiered on October 9, 2019. In January 2020, The CW renewed the series for a fifth season, set to premiere in January 2021.
Supernatural is an American dark fantasy television series created by Eric Kripke. It was first broadcast on September 13, 2005, on The WB, and subsequently became part of successor The CW’s lineup. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the two brothers as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural beings. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television, in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision. Along with Kripke, executive producers have been McG, Robert Singer, Phil Sgriccia, Sera Gamble, Jeremy Carver, John Shiban, Ben Edlund and Adam Glass. Former executive producer and director Kim Manners died of lung cancer during production of the fourth season.[1]
The series is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, and surrounding areas and was in development for nearly ten years, as creator Kripke spent several years unsuccessfully pitching it. The pilot was viewed by an estimated 5.69 million viewers,[2] and the ratings of the first four episodes prompted The WB to pick up the series for a full season. Originally, Kripke planned the series for three seasons but later expanded it to five. The fifth season concluded the series’ main storyline,[3] and Kripke departed the series as showrunner.[4] The series has continued on for several more seasons with new showrunners, including Sera Gamble, Jeremy Carver, Robert Singer and Andrew Dabb.[5] With its eleventh season, Supernatural became the longest-running American live-action fantasy TV series.[6] The series was renewed for a fifteenth and final season to consist of 20 episodes,[7][8] which premiered on October 10, 2019.[9]
Teen Wolf is an American supernatural teen drama television series developed by Jeff Davis for MTV, loosely based on the 1985 film of the same name. Tyler Posey portrays the title character, a young werewolf who defends his California town from supernatural creatures and other threats.
The series premiered on June 5, 2011, and aired for six seasons, concluding on September 24, 2017. It received generally positive reviews from critics and won three Saturn Awards for Best Youth-Oriented Television Series. The series also received 13 Teen Choice Awards, nine for the performances of Posey, Dylan O’Brien, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, and Shelley Hennig and four for Choice Summer TV Series.
The Haunting of Hill House is an American anthology supernatural horror drama web television series created and directed by Mike Flanagan, and produced by Amblin Television and Paramount Television, for Netflix. The first season is loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson. The plot alternates between two timelines, following five adult siblings whose paranormal experiences at Hill House continue to haunt them in the present day, and flashbacks depicting events leading up to the eventful night in 1992 when the family fled from the mansion. The ensemble cast features Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, and Victoria Pedretti as the adult counterparts of the siblings, with Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas as parents Olivia and Hugh Crain, and Timothy Hutton appearing as an older version of Hugh.
The series premiered on Netflix on October 12, 2018. The Haunting of Hill House received critical acclaim, particularly for its acting, directing and production values, with many calling it an “effective ghost story.” A second season with a different story and characters, titled The Haunting of Bly Manor and based on the 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, is set to be released in 2020.
The Originals is an American fantasy supernatural drama television series that began airing on The CW on October 3, 2013. It is a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries and the first television series expansion of the franchise based on its parent series. The series follows vampire-werewolf hybrid Klaus Mikaelson as he and his family become embroiled in the supernatural politics of the French Quarter of New Orleans.[1]
On May 10, 2017, The CW renewed the series for a fifth season.[2] On July 20, 2017, it was announced by series creator Julie Plec ahead of Comic Con that the series’ fifth season would be its last. The final season began airing on April 18, 2018, and finished on August 1, 2018.[3][4][5]
The Witcher is a Polish-American fantasy drama web television series produced by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. It is based on the book series of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski.
Set on a fictional, medieval-inspired landmass known as “the Continent”, The Witcher explores the legend of Geralt of Rivia and princess Ciri, who are linked to each other by destiny.[8] It stars Henry Cavill, Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra. The show initially follows the three main protagonists at different points of time, exploring formative events that shaped their characters, before eventually merging into a single timeline.
The first season consisted of eight episodes and was released on Netflix in its entirety on December 20, 2019. It is based on The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny , which are collections of short stories that precede the main Witcher saga. Before the first season had been released, Netflix announced a second eight-episode season, to be released in 2021.[9]
This was the error that kept on popping up. 
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Desserts to try when you’re bored
Apple pie
An apple pie is a pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apple. It is often served with whipped cream, ice cream (“apple pie à la mode”), or cheddar cheese.[3] It is generally double-crusted, with pastry both above and below the filling; the upper crust may be solid or latticed (woven of crosswise strips). The bottom crust may be baked separately (“blind”) to prevent it from getting soggy.[4] Deep-dish apple pie often has a top crust only and tarte Tatin is baked with the crust on top, but served with it on the bottom.
Apple pie is an unofficial symbol of the United States and one of its signature comfort foods.[5]
Cake
Cake is a form of sweet food made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, that is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, and that share features with other desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.
The most commonly used cake ingredients include flour, sugar, eggs, butter or oil or margarine, a liquid, and leavening agents, such as baking soda or baking powder. Common additional ingredients and flavourings include dried, candied, or fresh fruit, nuts, cocoa, and extracts such as vanilla, with numerous substitutions for the primary ingredients. Cakes can also be filled with fruit preserves, nuts or dessert sauces (like pastry cream), iced with buttercream or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders, or candied fruit.[1]
Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, such as weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. There are countless cake recipes; some are bread-like, some are rich and elaborate, and many are centuries old. Cake making is no longer a complicated procedure; while at one time considerable labor went into cake making (particularly the whisking of egg foams), baking equipment and directions have been simplified so that even the most amateur of cooks may bake a cake.
S'mores
A s’more is a campfire treat popular in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, consisting of one or more toasted marshmallows and a layer of chocolate placed between two pieces of graham cracker or cookie.
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Pathophysiology Facts
Atrophy - decrease in cell size. If atrophy affects a sufficient number of cells, the affected organ shrinks in size and is considered to be atrophic.
Hypertrophy - is a compensatory increase in the size of cells, occurring in response to mechanical load or stress, and results in increased size of the affected organ.
Hyperplasia - is an increase in the number of cells, resulting from an increased rate of cellular division. As a response to injury, hyperplasia occurs when the damage is severe or prolonged or when it results in cell death.
Dysplasia - or deranged cellular growth, is not considered a true cellular adaption but rather atypical hyperplasia. Dysplasia refers to abnormal changes in the size, shape, and organization of mature cells.
Metaplasia - reversible replacement of one mature cell type by another, less mature cell type or change in cell phenotype. Found in association with tissue damage, repair, and regeneration. It is thought to develop as an adaptive response wherein the new cell type may be better suited to withstand an adverse environment. Usually, however, the change is not beneficial.
Blunt Force Injuries -
Mechanical injury to body resulting in tearing, shearing, or crushing; most common type of injury seen in healthcare settings; caused by blows to impacts; motor vehicle accidents and falls most common cause.
- Contusion (bruise): bleeding into skin or underlying tissue.
- Hematoma: collection of blood in soft tissue.
- Laceration: tear or rip resulting when senile strength of skin or tissue is exceeded; is ragged and irregular with abraded edges.
- Fracture: blunt force blows or impacts can cause bone to break or shatter.
Sharp-Force Injuries -
Cutting and piercing injuries accounted for 2734 deaths in 2007; men have a higher rate compared to women.
- Incised wound: a wound that is longer than it is deep, wound can be straight or jagged with sharp, distinct edges without abrasion; usually produces significant external bleeding with little internal hemorrhaging.
- Stab wound: A penetrating sharp force injury that is deeper than it is long; if a sharp instrument is used, depths of wound are clean and distinct but can be abraded if object is inserted deeply and wider portion impacts skin; depending on size and location of wound, external bleeding may be surprisingly small.
- Puncture wound: instrument or objects with sharp points but without sharp edges produce puncture wounds; classic example is wound of foot after stepping on a nail; wounds are prone to infect, have abrasion of edges, and can be very deep.
GAS involves three successive stages: the alarm, the resistance or adaption, and the exhaustion stages.
- Alarm Stage - is the emergency reaction that prepare the body to fight or flee from threat (fight or flight). This stage involves the secretion of hormones and catecholamines to support metabolic/physiologic activity and boost the immune system to thwart infection and disease.
- Resistance or Adaption Stage - requires continued mobilization of the body’s resources to cope and overcome a sustained challenge.
- Exhaustion Stage - occurs when the body’s physiologic and immune systems no longer effectively cope with the stressor and marks the onset of diseases (diseases of adaption).
- rawr
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Your link works.
That is not an error. That is a check to make sure you’re not a robot.
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I know, but it still kept on popping up no matter how many times I tried out the captcha, which is why I called it an error. In the end, I had to switch off my WiFi for it to work. 
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Huh, that’s odd. If it happens again in the future, you can PM me a screenshot of your code.
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Will do! 
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TAblE of cOnTenTs
Hello
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Is It Me
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.You're
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Looking For?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.pastebin:
was this supposed to be copying and pasting the code for the headings?
like all the
a href=“#heading–4”>Looking For? </a
and
h1 id=“heading–4”>Looking For?</h2
um, maybe me freaking out
also, using html and bbcode together was…so annoying. Like, I didn’t know how the code was being read. everytime I used bbcode, the html assumed I was done with that block of code or something–
and how do you make a table? like
with the pretty padding and stuff?? I can’t find the code anywhere on google 
also, most of the css/html code I tried to use to make a table didn’t work–
neither did trying to insert images-- every time there was a new anchor, the image sorta didn’t work?? idk what I’m talking about, either, because…Idk.
i’m sorryyyyyy
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My first attempt at coding and I receive an E! 
Thank you so much, Lumi! 
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Can you clarify what you mean about the headings?
What kind of table? We will be covering padding in a later lesson.
Did you use Markdown to insert images?
It’s okay!
1 Like
thank youuuu
idk, coding is usually better when I wait and let whoever’s teaching it… like actually teach it, instead of bombarding them with questions before I know what I’m talking about…
which, if that’s the case, please tell me
uhh so
Idk what i’m doing, so I kinda check out how everyone does things, and…
(this isn’t my code, because i don’t know how to make a table)
TAblE of cOnTenTs
Hello
Is It Me
You’re
Looking For?
//here
//I didn’t need to use < /span> for the table to work? why does the code work without </ span>?
the only thing separating the stuff in the table from the rest of the code below is [/Center]
when I take [/Center] off, the whole rest of my text also goes into the table…which is like. WHY?
so here, I just copied and pasted an image should I know the syntax for this
and it works
Hello
 but when i try the same things hereIs It Me
 it doesn't work and
#heading
that never works. isn’t it supposed to get bigger?? isn’t that correct markdown for a heading?
and why do these never work?
< span style=“background-color:black;color:white;padding:20px;”>
hi
< /span>
is there some sorta syntax i should always be following for the those blocks/tables/whatever this is called?
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ABOUT PANDAS TABLE OF CONTENT
click on the panda to go to the top
GENERAL 
DESCRIPTION DIET BEHAVIOR REPRODUCTION
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Well, I welcome questions at any time as long as it helps the person learn.
Don’t worry about spans for now. We’ll be covering them really soon.
Like just putting the image url by itself?
This looks like markdown to me. It… works when I quote it? I’m not too familiar with markdown.
I think you’re missing the space after the hashtag.
Yes, there is. I’ll go over it in the next unit/assignment, so hang tight and wait until then.
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kk!!
thank you for explaining!!!
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No problem! 
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REASONS YOU SHOULD WATCH HAIKYUU
table of contents
the characters
Haikyuu!! has a ton of characters. There are twelve players just on the main team, most of whom get regular screentime, plus two managers, their coach, and a faculty advisor. But then they need teams to play against, and all of those teams have seven regular players, all named. Add in other coaches and managers, family, friends, and alumni and you have a huge cast to work with.
But if you ask the fandom who their favorite characters are, you’ll get a ton of different answers, and you’ll hear every character in the series at least once. Most of them are fleshed out with little quirks to set them apart from the rest, and every single one of them is likeable and fun. There is no character in this series who I don’t like, not even the ones you’re supposed to hate. The great thing about sports anime is that the antagonists aren’t really villains, they’re just other kids trying to win the game, and as a result they’re just as, if not more loveable than the protagonists.
The characters also bounce off each other really well, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a relationship dynamic that isn’t fun to watch or think about.
character development
No one wants to see their favorite characters lose, but in Haikyuu!!, losing brings with it the satisfaction of seeing them get back up again, stronger than they were before. The characters ask for and receive help from their friends, change the way they think about their situation, use the play styles of their opponents as inspiration, and just work really, really hard, and you find yourself looking forward to the little training-camp filler arcs just to see what they’ll learn that’ll pay off in the next match.
And they don’t just grow as athletes, either; they grow as people. They learn that it’s not a sign of weakness to care, that you can trust other people, that inherent talent doesn’t mean much without hard work to back it up, that you can always take that first step to improving yourself, the list goes on and on. As someone who started watching this series as a freshman in high school and essentially grew up with them, watching these characters grow is an absolute delight, and it’s by far the best part of the series.
the atmosphere
This show is a lot of things, but most of all, it’s positive and inspiring. You will feel better about yourself after you watch it, and that is non-negotiable. Even during its most heartbreaking scenes, there’s always a way to look up and keep going, no matter what, and seeing these incredibly relatable characters succeed makes you believe that you can do that, too. You might cry like I did, but I can promise that the majority of the tears are happy ones, and the time you spend tearing up will be miniscule in comparison to the time you spend smiling so hard your face hurts.
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ELENA GILBERT
Elena Gilbert is the central character and the female lead of the series for the first seven seasons. She is the biological daughter of John Gilbert and Isobel Flemming, and adopted daughter of Grayson and Miranda Gilbert. She has a younger adoptive brother named Jeremy Gilbert. She has an adoptive aunt named Jenna Sommers who serves as Elena and Jeremy's legal guardian in the first two seasons of the series but was killed by Klaus Miklelson. Elena Gilbert is a descendant and doppelgänger of Katherine Pierce.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO BACK TO THE TOP
DAMON SALVATORE
Damon Salvatore is a vampire, turned by Katherine Pierce one hundred and forty-five years prior to the beginning of the main storyline. He is the son of late Giuseppe Salvatore and the older brother of Stefan Salvatore. He is portrayed as a charming, handsome and snide person who loves tricking humans, and takes pleasure in feeding on them and killing them during the early episodes of the first season.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO BACK TO THE TOP
stefan salvatore
Stefan Salvatore was born and raised in Mystic Falls to Giuseppe Salvatore and Lily Salvatore, who died when he was young. Stefan is the younger brother of Damon, and the two were best friends in life. However, this changed when the brothers fell in love with Katherine Pierce. Once Stefan discovered Katherine was a vampire, Stefan was both scared and repulsed by Katherine and vampirism in general. Katherine, however, compelled Stefan to not be afraid of her, to keep her secret, and to drink her vampire blood against his will.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO BACK TO THE TOP
Caroline Forbes-Salvatore
Caroline Elizabeth Forbes-Salvatore (née Forbes) is Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett's best friend. She was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia on October 10, 1992. From season seven she becomes one of two female leads. Caroline is the daughter of the Sheriff of Mystic Falls, Liz Forbes, with whom she has a troubled relationship that develops into a more-loving relationship. Her father, Bill Forbes, leaves her and her mother after coming out as gay. In the beginning of the series, Caroline is shown as pathetic and selfish girl. Also as shallow, self-absorbed, jealous and envious of Elena. She is also known for being insecure and competitive, especially with Elena. However, Caroline's character deepens and matures over the seasons. After she becomes a vampire, she forms a confidence in herself that is not seen at the beginning of the series. She stops looking at her life in a shallow and negative light, and her insecurities fade as the series continues.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO BACK TO THE TOP
bonnie bennett
Bonnie Sheila Bennett-Smithfield (based on Bonnie McCullough from the novels) is Elena's best friend. From season seven, she becomes one of two female leads. She is good friends with Caroline Forbes. In the beginning of the series, Bonnie discovers that she is a witch born from a line of witches. Her grandmother, Sheila Bennett, helps her learn to use her powers. When her grandmother dies, Bonnie continues training and becomes more and more powerful. In the midst of season two, she starts a relationship with Jeremy Gilbert, Elena's younger brother. She later discovers, from warlock Luca Martin, that the only way to kill Klaus, the original vampire who wants to kill Elena, is for her to get the power of one-hundred dead witches. Once she does this, she pretends to be dead in a scheme of Damon's to trick Klaus. But when she brings Klaus to the brink of death, Elijah does not kill him, as planned, and carries Klaus away before Bonnie could react.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO BACK TO THE TOP
jeremy gilbert
Jeremy Gilbert (loosely based on Margaret Gilbert from the novels) is Elena Gilbert's younger brother, later revealed to be her biological cousin. In the beginning of the series, Jeremy was emotionally damaged by the death of his parents and begins to use drugs. He was in love with Vicki Donovan, another drug user, causing a rivalry with her boyfriend, Tyler Lockwood. Vicki later breaks up with Tyler and starts a relationship with Jeremy. However, Jeremy witnesses Stefan kill Vicki (after Damon turned her into a vampire). At Elena's request, Damon makes Jeremy forget this, and Jeremy becomes more stable and stops using drugs. Jeremy then starts a relationship with a vampire named Anna, but John Gilbert, Jeremy’s uncle, kills Anna at the end of season one. Jeremy tries to become a vampire by overdosing while having Anna's blood in his system, but he fails. He was later given John's ring, which protects him from a death caused by anything supernatural. In season two, Jeremy falls in love with Bonnie Bennett and they start a relationship. Jeremy later loses both his aunt and uncle on the day of the sacrifice, leaving Elena and himself without a guardian. In the season two finale, Jeremy was accidentally shot to death by Sheriff Forbes, but Bonnie was able to bring him back.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO BACK TO THE TOP
PASTEBIN CODES
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@astrophile I honestly have a hard time understanding this week’s anchor stuff, Lumi. But I’m going to take the chance and try to do the assignment anyway. All I risk is failure…
Neil Gaiman’s Top 13 Writing Tips
1. Use lies to communicate truths
2. Acknowledge your growth areas
3. Start a compost heap
4. Reveal a little too much of yourself
5. Pay attention to the strangeness of humanity
1. Use lies to communicate truths:
Fiction stories are one of the most interesting phenomena that human beings have…Stories are part of us, and we convey truth with stories, which is fundamentally the most gloriously giant contradiction that you can ever imagine. What we’re saying is, we are using lies, we’re using memorable lies, we are taking people who do not exist and things that did not happen to those people in places that aren’t, and we are using those things to communicate true things to kids and to each other.” -Neil GaimanFor example, he wrote the novel Neverwhere to discuss homelessness and explore the stories of people who fall through the cracks in society. He essentially used the novel as his Trojan horse to communicate the concept.
“If I sat down and said I’m writing a big book on homelessness, the only people who would pick it up and read it would be people interested in a book about homelessness,” says Gaiman. “What I want to do here is write a book about living in a big city. I want to write an adventure, but I want to write an adventure which when people finish reading that story…they’re going to look at the people sleeping in the shop doorways, they’re going to look at these people and they aren’t gonna pretend they’re invisible.”
2. Acknowledge your growth areas:
The hardest time for me was starting out as a very, very young writer. I wrote short stories and sent them out to places that could conceivably publish them, and they all came back. And I looked at the stories which went out and came back and went out and came back, and I thought, ‘Okay, well one of two things is true here. Either I’m not good enough or I don’t understand the world, there’s stuff I don’t get, there’s stuff I need to know.’” -Neil GaimanJust like every other writer, Gaiman experienced a lot of rejection early in his career. He used that rejection to learn how he needed to improve.
Gaiman learned how to write stronger conflict into his stories, how to create characters that were more vulnerable and authentic, and how to craft stories that made readers keep turning the page.
Everyone has skills gaps. You must learn your gaps before you can fill them, and rejection is a great (albeit painful) way to identify those gaps.
3. Start a compost heap:
“I think it’s really important for a writer to have a compost heap. Everything you read, things that you write, things that you listen to, people you encounter — they can all go on the compost heap, and they will rot down, and out of them grow beautiful stories.” -Neil GaimanEvery successful author, musician, and artist has received questions like “What are your biggest influences?” and “Where do you find inspiration?”
Gaiman says that much of his creative inspiration has come from outside the world of writing. He credits musicians Lou Reed and David Bowie as two of the biggest influences upon his work, and he says that anything can be used as inspiration for writing.
Everything you encounter in life has the potential to influence your work: overheard dialogue in a coffee shop, that song on the radio you can’t get out of your head, the television scene that perfectly depicts the sexual tension of a first date. Don’t limit yourself to only the influences in your genre. Drink from a wide-brimmed glass of creative inspiration.
4. Reveal a little too much of yourself:
“I wasn’t really prepared to say anything true about who I was. I didn’t want to be judged. I didn’t want people reading any of my stories to know who I was or what I thought or to get in too close. And I realized that if you’re going to write…you had to be willing to do the equivalent of walking down a street naked. You had to be able to show too much of yourself. You had to be just a little bit more honest than you were comfortable with.” -Neil GaimanIf you’ve never read Neil Gaiman before, many of his books could be described as…weird. His book American Gods pits old-world mythological gods like Odin and Loki against new-world “gods” like technology and television. Anansi Boys tells the story of a man finding out his dead father was an incarnation of the spider god Anansi.
When he started out as a young writer, Gaiman worried that the types of stories he wanted to tell would give strangers too much of a view into his soul. Then he realized that’s exactly what readers wanted to see: they wanted him to spill his authentic self onto the page. Once he began doing that, he gained more readers.
Every story contains a snapshot of its creator. Are you refusing to pose for that picture? Give your readers what they want: a story with personality and authenticity.
5. Pay attention to the strangeness of humanity:
“People are so much more interesting and strange and more unlikely than anything you could make up.” -Neil GaimanWhen I watch MasterClasses, I take copious notes. As I was writing the above quote while watching Gaiman’s MasterClass, I looked out the window and watched a teenager in a fluorescent yellow jacket ride past on a black unicycle. (I swear to God, I did.)
Gaiman says, “Every little detail that you can steal from the world and smuggle with you into your fiction is something that makes your world more real for your reader.”
Strange people and stories are all around you. You just need to take the time to look for them. Great characters and stories are borne from true characters and true stories.
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