#a biochemist not a bird

[sweatermuppet]

I've been looking at submitting poetry for potential publication but am so lost as to what a cover letter looks for :/ Google has been unhelpful, as sample cover letters for publication consideration are along the lines of: hi my name is xyz, please consider me because [insert education (I have no formal writing education)] and [insert experience (I've only been published once before)]

I'm just not really sure how to structure a cover letter when I have no typical substance for one, if that makes sense. If you could help at all I would greatly appreciate it <3 hope you're doing well!

i have no formal writing education either & at one point, i had no publications. we all start somewhere! one publication is a great start

a fair amount of publishers/editors do blind reads so they won't read your author bio with your actual piece(s). i do skim bios when reading submissions but i typically read the poems first & look at full cover letters after

i've given a general bio/cover letter/statement outline before but here's an amended third person bio for people like you who feel like they don't have a lot to say:

[name] [pronouns] is an emerging poet/writer/creative [any other jobs or hobbies can be included here] from [region]. [include any education you feel is important, even if the field was outside of writing]. they've been previously published/forthcoming with [any outlets, even just the one]. they draw inspiration from [place, person, thing, experience]. they write often about [subjects]. [name] can be found on social media or [personal website] @ [social media handle].

some people mention their family. like "currently, john lives happily in minneapolis with his partner and their two dogs". some people mention hobbies such as "in their free time, they enjoy fly-fishing, birding, & mountain biking". i get submissions from people who are pastors, truck drivers, retired nurses, veterans, biochemists, cancer survivors. some bios are as brief & absurd as "[name] is busy taking naps & daydreaming about goats".

you can generally include whatever you feel like is important to you & your bio. just be aware that different publishers have different requirements, like word count

[cometsandstardust]

I’m rewatching Agents of Shield and here is a (final) list of things I genuinely forgot happened:

(and also little things i enjoy)

season seven:

- deke printed out sheriff stars

- “i just can’t seem to hold down a husband as they all just turn up with broken ribs when they give me lip” - daisy

- coulson learned about the speakeasy in a first year history course at the academy

- the first thing may says after finding out she’s in 1931, was “i’m hungry”

- “i’m a doctor, not a dame” “i’m a biochemist not a bird” fucking icon jemma simmons

- deke tells freddy that he invented the walkie-talkie

- “agent may, if i may?” enoch is so funny

- …may says she doesn’t feel anything when she wakes up, even though her empathy-ability is already present (though no one knows it yet). she wakes up and feels nothing because the only other person there is enoch, who isn’t human, and therefore doesn’t feel anything, at least not the way we do

- she also talks in a very-enoch like connotation during these scenes (same sort of lilt in her voice)

- they brought koenig onboard the zephyr and he said “excuse me if i’m not impressed” and then immediately lost his shit. he also called enoch a robot, and enoch made a very “bitch, please” face

- freddy shot koenig in the shoulder

- enoch is shown to be working as a bartender at the end of s7ep2 for koenig

- the zephyr scared two teenagers half to death when they got to the fifties

- younger daisy (aka skye ig) believed that area 51 was controlled by shield and was proven right

- the first time may showed signs of her empathy besides the monotone killer mood was when trying to single out the chronicom starting up helius and she basically had a panic attack

- also the chronicom they’re chasing has a very dottie underwood like aesthetic (ofc i’m referencing agent carter when my boy sousa is back)

- overriding the system knocked out the two chronicoms and coulson.

- the camera zoomed in on coulson’s eye and showed a circuit flickering

- the reason s7ep4 is in black and white is because of a malfunction in the wires

- sousa was considered the first fallen soldier of shield

- sousa called howard a pompous ass (he’s right and he should say it)

- mack compared the effect of sousa’s death on shield to the effect of coulson’s to the avengers

- sousa stole a motorcycle from the zephyr

- deke said he wrote the song “don’t you (forget about me)”

- he also name drops daisy in his own lyrics

- coulson’s in a tv

- sybil’s “dumb bot” acts just like a dalek for a sec

- may and yoyo sparred to try and trigger yoyo’s powers into working again

- yo-yo got stuck on the quinjet at the beginning of each loop

- in several loops, mack gets blinded by a radiation flare

- deke gives the distance from the center of the time storm in kilometers, which i initially thought was strange cause y’know american, but then i realized that deke literally grew up in space and that fitz-simmons basically created all the tech/software on board so yeah metric system

- daisy proved to simmons that she was in a loop with the fake word: “phlebotinum”

- when trying to remove the implant, on the first two tries, a lethal gas filled the room killing simmons (and the second time, daisy)

- in one loop, sousa grabbed the machine to remove the implant from the drawer instead of daisy or simmons and started coughing up blood

- also he literally grabbed it so that if something went wrong daisy wouldn’t die and lose her memories of the time loop

- may initially didn’t want to tell kora about jiaying but then brought her to see her body

- kora tried to help her mother heal by giving her energy

- simmons started forgetting fitz after malick put her in the memory machine

[gr0undzero]

⊠    ɪᴅ  .  .  .  ʟᴏᴀᴅɪɴɢ    ››    [    RICHARD MADDEN    /      34    /    CIS MAN    /    HE/HIM    ]   mercy  headquarters  is  pleased  to  officially  introduce  danya kedrov.  they  have  been  apart  of  the  organization  for  11 years,  serving  as  an intelligence  agent  and  has  been  assigned  the  codename  agent  shrike.  it's  worth  noting  that  their  file  indicates  they  have  undergone  the  solaris  treatment  and  host  electromagnetism manipulation.  according  to  our  dossier,  the  agent  exhibits  a  combination  of  adroit  and  stubborn  traits,  fitting  for  someone  reminiscent  of  fear that makes you shudder, that trickles into your dreams— everywhere, all the time. a little bird raised to be a wolf, with a hungry mouth and sharp claws.    prior  to  embarking  on  any  mission,  the  find  solace  in  listening  to  the  song  “unmade“  by  thom yorke.

full name: daniel antonovich kedrov

codename: shrike

nicknames: danya, dani

age: 34

date of birth: december 10

gender & pronouns: cis man, he / him

height: 5'9

sexual orientation: bisexual

place of birth: saint petersburg, russia

personality traits: adroit, empathetic, sensitive.

languages spoken: russian, english, french, spanish, german, mandarin, arabic.

family: anton (father), elvira (mother), anitchka (older sister), ilya (older brother, npc), twin sister.

character inspo: tbd.

HISTORY —

trigger warnings: abduction, kidnapping, murder, violence.

born in saint peterbusrg to anton and elvira kedrov, a physicist and biochemist respectively, who raised their children to be worldly, curious, and bold. however, unbeknownst to danya and his siblings, their parents were affiliated with the organization called mercy, sold information as well as aided in the research and development of the bioweapon they call 'solaris'. their connection to mercy was through an intel agent (who would later play an important role in the kedrovs' story) and because they weren't official members of mercy, they were only made to sign an nda. no actual protection was offered in exchange; the transaction was purely monetary and some hope, on anton and elvira's end, that they could make some great scientific contribution that would in turn protect the world their children would grow up in.

the role they played in the organization put them on the radar of its enemies. collateral damage, if you will. when danya was eight years old, his father was kidnapped on his way home from work, tortured, and then killed. footage was sent to the family in exchange for information from their mother, who would go missing soon after. with no immediate family to turn to, the siblings were raised by their eldest, anitchka, and since then, they've only had each other.

their older sister spent the next ten years trying to give their family some semblance of 'normal'. they continued their education, though moved from city to city around saint petersburg, moscow, samara— mostly smaller towns close to bigger cities where the older siblings could work. they all got into their fair share of trouble; danya and his twin sister in particular had a habit of conning people and stealing from stores, pickpocketing wealthy, distracted businessmen or unsuspecting tourists (speaking of which, they'd run a small, successful scheme for six months scamming foreigners in front of the kremlin until the guards finally had enough and caught them, which.......having their asses handed to them by the kremlin regiment was a Core memory for sure). needless to say the siblings learned to be scrappy and they surely learned how to fight; they knew how to get themselves out of any situation as quickly as they got themselves in it.

danya and his twin sister were eighteen, had just finished high school, when their older sister killed one of her clients in another man's favor. this would be the beginning of a rather unorthodox relationship between a man and the kedrov siblings— they knew how to get around, were scrappy enough not to be suspected of the horrors he would bid them in exchange for money and protection. with every sibling's vote, a deal was made, and for the next several years, they would embark on a journey across the globe as nomads, mercenaries for hire, donning different identities whenever they saw fit. for a while, he'd forget he was daniel; according to his passports and 'official' records, he was the german tennis prodigy dominik, the quiet librarian matteo from palermo, the tech expat damian based in beijing, jean-luc the french phd student, and so on.

the family had become desensitized to violence. though his twin sister was inarguably a lot more aggressive than he was, much more inclined to throw fists or pull the trigger without so much as a second thought, he much preferred working behind the screen, hacking into systems and making sure that his siblings got in and out of a place safely, concealing any traces that they'd ever been in a building, or even pulling up in the rental car just in time to make their escape. he was also the engineer of the family, adept at fixing vehicles and machines and even sometimes cooking up makeshift gadgets to help expedite the job at hand. do not be fooled by his bookish, mild-mannered nature, however— he's quick on his feet and has more than sufficient knowledge of the human body to know which pressure points to strike to render his opponent paralyzed as well as years of training his aim in computer games and at his hometown arcade has made for an incredibly effective and precise marksman when he needs to be on a roof or the building across the street.

they were tasked to assassinate a businessman in cairo when a woman intervened, claiming that their target was a person of interest in an ongoing operation. she was neither local police nor interpol and introduced herself as a friend of their parents' and an agent of the mercy organization. though unable to answer the whereabouts of their mother, she had taken accountability for what had happened to their father and had taken it upon herself to keep tabs on the siblings for the last fifteen years. she'd known about the work they did, the skills they possessed, and wished to recruit them into the organization. having ditched their благодетель some five hits ago, the siblings accepted the offer. it was a no-brainer for danya to join the intel division, and just from his prior experience, he passed every test with flying colors.

assigned to their home base in russia, the kedrovs would soon become some of mercy's top agents, with a success rate of 99.7% in their eleven-year stint (and counting) in the organization. they were notorious for keeping to themselves and almost exclusively working together, save for the few instances where other agents might be put on the same team with them, but they have never worked on a mission if they weren't all together in the same place. this was a request they made upon joining, a request that had been granted being that it was the least the organization could do considering what happened to their father, what he'd done for mercy. they would do this all together or not at all.

this pact would be compromised when, during a mission in rostov, their brother was abducted by people danya didn't detect on his radar. it was his job to get his siblings to safety and he'd failed. they were all immediately extracted and brought straight to mercy hq in apex city, still reeling with anger, confusion, and fear.

[apathbacktoyou]

wip wednesday!

I haven't done one of these in foreeeever but @a-biochemist-not-a-bird wanted to hear about the Black Widow!Sinara AU so... ;)

They all hear about it. How could they not? Romanova, they sneer. Traitor, they spit. Americans, they growl. Freedom, Sinara thinks, in the privacy of her own mind, so quickly come and gone that she does not look at it too closely. Instead, she snaps to attention when Madame gestures her closer, with that slight crook of her finger that always spells doom. Not for Sinara, this time. “Yelena Belova,”Madame says and Sinara goes to fetch her. They think Romanova might have had help. They don’t really think that, Sinara suspects. But they need to take their anger out somehow, through the girl who was once on a mission with the traitor, through Sinara, who doesn’t mind her bleeding knuckles when it means it’s not her face, when it means Madame did not guess her thoughts of treason, fleeting as they were.

"fun" fact: i have not touched the doc since march 2022. i did not need this info xD

But hey, maybe 2024 is the year I get back to writing!

[darkmaga-returns]

The FDA has given the green light for a Phase 1 trial of a Gates-funded self-amplifying bird flu vaccine.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US government, clinical trials are set to begin for a self-amplifying mRNA vaccine targeting the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Approximately 200 healthy adults (who are stupid enough) are expected to be enrolled for the trial.

The Defender reports: Arcturus Therapeutics announced earlier this week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a “Study Can Proceed” notification for its investigational ARCT-2304 vaccine candidate.

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher told The Defender the FDA’s notification “means Arcturus Therapeutics can begin its “experiment of injecting humans with H5N1 bird flu replicon mRNA.”

Self-amplifying mRNA injections contain an enzyme that instructs the body on how to make more mRNA. Arcturus says the vaccine is “formulated within a lipid nanoparticle” and “is designed to make many copies of mRNA within the host cell.” This enables “lower doses than conventional mRNA vaccines.”

Hulscher said the replication machinery of self-amplifying vaccines behaves “like a synthetic virus” and “allows for an unknown period of toxic antigen production.”

Writing on Substack, immunologist and biochemist Jessica Rose, Ph.D., said the new vaccine has “major red flags.” She told The Defender, “Self-amplifying mRNA products should not be used. This is an absolute disaster waiting to happen.”

According to Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist at Children’s Health Defense, “Arcturus’ self-replication platform has all the hazards of the other synthetic modified mRNA wrapped in a lipid nanoparticle, just much worse. With self-replication it can become immortal, forever antagonizing your — or your fetus’ — immune system with antigens.”

[annachum]

What often happens at Avengers Tower cleaning days :

. It's actually Nick Fury who proposed these once a month cleaning days as a way to ensure that they put some weight around the Avengers tower

. So basically Tony Stark got some of his cleaning bots in tow to help with the cleaning

. Steve and Bucky prefers more old fashioned cleaning methods. They particularly like to wash cars and ships ( similarly as they've sometimes done army tank cleaning duty in WW2 )

. Natasha be swinging from ceiling to ceiling while spraying pesticide on walls and ceiling

. Wanda be tryna use her spells for cleaning magic. It got....varying results. Let's just say she got a mix of human and magical cleaning methods instead

. Sam Wilson be blasting loud ass music during cleaning Day, resulting a bunch of them be dancing while cleaning

. Clint be sometimes scatting and whistling while doing mops

. Vision particularly likes cleaning the vases around Avenfers tower

. Bruce is VERY particular about lab cleanliness. He even got vaporization cleaning cabinets for his lab equipment and everything. Comes with being a PHD biochemist, really

. Thor actually enjoys clean Day. He be singing loudly and dancing energetically while scrubbing Pans ( and sometimes says hello to some of the birds passing by - Disney Princess energy, huh ). It reminded him of the times he sometimes does hay cleaning duty in the army camps in Campaigns he been through ( yes, even a number of Princes and Princesses aren't exempt to sometimes do hay management duty in campaigns )

. Peter Parker be also climbing on walls, furniture and ceilings to spray cleaning stuff and mop there. He technically doesn't live in Avengers tower at those points ( he lives with Aunt May at those points ), but he ofc likes to attend those Avengers Cleaning Day. He sometimes crashes over whenever Aunt May is off to a business trip or smth

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🥺🥺🥺🥺

. Ofc sometimes their associates join on the Avengers Cleaning. They are all happy to help with Cleaning day when they are free On those days

. Turns out Nick Fury is also a talented plumber and he often helps ensure the Avengers Towers' toilets are functioning properly. He actually sometimes helps with plumbing duty during his younger army/agent days in missions 🤩🤩🤩🥺🥺🥺

. Somehow mop skating became kind of a thing. It all started with Thor sees a video of it and thinks it's a great idea. And everyone in those Cleaning Days be sometimes doing that since 🤩🤩🤩🤩🥺🥺🥺🥺🤩🤩🤣🤣

. They defo be watching themselves to not slip over themselves tho

. All these Avengers got residences outside of Avengers Tower. Steve soon lives in a low key suburban house in New York as a form of second home to him, and he, Bucky, Sam and Bruce became neighbors in New York for a time. Natasha lived in an apartment condo in New York. Clint got his backyard house with his wife and kids. Thor lived with a same apartment with Jane Foster in New York until they broke up ( Thor later sold that apartment before his time in Melbourne cuz of too many memories there for him )

[fireandfolds]

i’ve been tagged by @a-biochemist-not-a-bird in this post, but i’m not very active on here lmfao

edit i was tagged again in this post but there’s no way in hell im doing this again goodnight

rules: tag 9 you want to know better (i don’t think i know enough people but anyway)

three ships (screw this, doing four): amalia true/penance adair (the nevers), elsa oldenburg/honeymaren nattura (frozen ii), alexi mayhew/emily kaldwin (dishonored ii), parvati holcomb/junlei tennyson (the outer worlds)

last song: sweet & lovely (1969), a barbershop polecat and standard written by norman starks and sung by forefront featuring mike rowe. link here. the harmonies! the tag! the last chord??? mike would make a great bass or bari for sure. growing up i loved to watch dirty jobs, so when i saw him again in my other love i was really happy. holy shit the man can sing

last movie: literally just finished watching frozen ii again, my favourite movie. makes me so emotional, especially since i watched the making of docuseries. all the snow sisters hugging makes me so happy, i get so much serotonin from that

currently watching: whose line is it anyway (uk), elementary, rizzoli & isles, SNL (s5), the golden girls, the l word, power book ii: ghost, call me kat

currently consuming: its 4:30am and im in bed so no

currently craving: a girlfriend

tagging 9 (i’m a musician i can only count to four idk how many are here but idc): @chocochipbiscuit @svpergirly @catargott @anoneun @westenray @spaceodysseyx @sapphic-luthor @moonlight-breeze-44 @nostradamus0

[daisymayjohnson]

Who is Tati Gabrielle?

ooooOooooo hi bbb

@aleksandrachaev can attest that this is literally my favorite actor/characters akdhajgdjahf

She plays, among other roles, Gaia in The 100 and Prudence in CAOS, and this is her:

andddd yeah I’m in love with both of her characters and by extension her :3

the actor seems like a super sweet teddy bear irl and unless proven otherwise, I stan her and those two characters

thanks for asking <3

[smallblueandloud]

i just see you vibing on my dash and my brain is joy

:D what are we here for if not to vibe? and also freak out about random ships and/or fandoms that no one else has heard of!

[morganalefays]

hi, you seem like a lovely person. i hope you have a nice day :)

this is such a kind message to receive! thank you so much <3 i’m having a pretty good day, i’ve been assembling some ikea furniture, went for a walk and doing some cleaning now. a very nice day to you as well :) 

[aospositivity]

Shoutout to @a-biochemist-not-a-bird for being completely and utterly amazing (sometimes hilariously dramatic but tbh that just makes it better) AND a fantastic writer!!

10.24.2020

@a-biochemist-not-a-bird

[besidemethewholedamntime]

🌺If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously, or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog!🌺

Hello! Thank you for sending this!

1. Both sides of my family have the same surname (and are most definitely not related) so I’m doubly in the one clan

2. I was either going to be named Diana, after Princess Diana, or Sarah, after Sarah Ferguson, but in the end they went with Rebecca, after nobody

3. I’m really afraid of speaking in groupchats. Even with my flatmates or my closest friends. I will agonise for so long over a message that there’s usually no point in sending it if I do

[justanalto]

you are a shiny fish

friends? friends? friends :))) also yes we should steal a shopping cart if you would like :)) and i will send you cat/frog pics!

thank you for thinking i have good vibes omg 💜💜 i did just rearrange my room (including putting up my nat romanoff poster after 7 years) but let’s do again! project time yeehaw

*goes to drink water*

thank you birdie!! you’re the best :))))

[herosofmarvelanddc]

Youuu are amaazing.

Haha thank you. You are also amazing Birdie!! 💙💙💙

[2minutes2midnight]

*hugs*

[florchis]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Thank you so much! 🤗🤗