#all the areas in an expansion relate to the central theme in pretty major ways

[remma-demma]

Thinking about people not liking what happened at the end of dawntrail like… hmm.

Did you not remember the stuff with the Yok Huy. Nobody is gone if you remember them. The phrase that’s been with us for nearly the entire game, “For those we have lost….” Emet Selch entrusting us not only with the legacy of humanity in general but specifically with the memories of the Ancients and Elpis.

Just because people are gone doesn’t mean they aren’t still with us.

But the people of Neo-Alexandria are kept from that. They can’t remember anyone they’ve lost because their memories were stolen and locked away in an eternal purgatory, unable to move on or be reincarnated. The quest where you go to the graves in Heritage Found was a big moment where I was like. Huh. This fucking sucks actually.

The endless are just computer simulations, and they exist because Sphene can’t bear to let them go. Can’t even let her living citizens mourn or carry on legacies.

And that’s not even mentioning the fact that she needs the souls of innocent *living* people to power this all.

I think it’s a really good metaphor for the digital age, becoming disconnected from our irl communities, uploading your entire life on social media. Profiles of loved ones who have passed on. AI chat bots providing temporary comfort but no real human connection. All of that technology requiring enough energy to slowly but surely contribute to the destruction of our planet.

It all seems pretty clear to me as an allegory but like, I guess some people just didn’t make that connection? Or maybe they just don’t think about all the AI stuff in the same way I do.

[prixmiumarchive]

Don’t Hug Me I’m Confused

Disclaimer: The following post contains some personal critique of certain fandom patterns and habits that I personally find strange, don’t relate to, or don’t enjoy. However, this post really isn’t that deep in those areas, and so while I’m not talking about kink at all, just kind of consider this a sort of KINKTOMATO disclaimer. What you enjoy and how you enjoy it is not my business, and your art and cosplays are things that a) seem to be of high quality and b) I could not actually accomplish so kudos to you for doing it even if it’s not my thing in its expression. You do you, and I’ll do me, and I’m not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. This is just a personal blog post / semi-review that I’m tagging in case anyone else who has watched dhmis wants to read it. This post may likely come across as pretty “anti-shipping,” but rest assured that I probably ship some weird stuff in other fandoms so I’m not judging you, or whatever.

Nursing a headache better and responding to a text, I was reminded of the existence of a weird web series on YouTube that, apparently, was released over the course of several years. The first installment of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared was shown to me by a former friend sometime after its release many years ago now. Naturally, I was pretty unsettled by it at the time in a sort of nervous-laughter, later-haunted-nightmares sort of way. However, at the time and with its sole initial video being around, the way I processed the video and its purpose was quite different from the way I process it now. I had seen that there were a couple more videos over the years, but I had never actually managed to watch the little series to its sixth installment because at some point I got disturbed ever time and quit. However, in a state of resolve and slightly greater desensitization, I finally finished it up. And I’m strangely satisfied and intrigued, particularly after watching a couple of commentary videos about it.

Rather than rehashing someone else’s explanation, I’ll simply refer to The Film Theorists two videos on the subject. I think that this YouTube channel sometimes gets a lot of raised eyebrows and bad press for reaching really hard to get shock-value, click-bait-y ~dark theories~ out of benign or extremely popular media. I haven’t really consumed their other material, so I can’t speak to that, but I can say that the two videos on DHMIS are not reaching for even more darkness and edge. Rather, they seem to be well-researched, well-reasoned explanations for what is otherwise a strangely difficult work of art to process. I say “work of art” not terribly lightly nor terribly dogmatically because I really don’t know what else to make of something that intrigues, bothers, pleases, disturbs, and fascinates me that is intended to communicate something even if that something is the particular sense of unease I am describing.

As is my custom when I don’t really know what to do with feelings about a particular work of fiction, I opened a tab to AO3 to see if fanfiction exists for that “fandom” to see if a quantifiable fandom is actually there. To my surprise, DHMIS actually had over 100 fics. So, I scrolled through the first couple of pages to see what they tended to be about or whatever. I had no particular craving or desire to read fic about this at the moment; I just wanted to know what the environment was like. And what I found was really, really deeply not what I expected.

A major part of the fandom seems to be something called “p/adlock” shipping which I’m censoring so that I’m not picking on someone’s OTP. Again, disclaimer, not judging, simply commenting. It seems to be shipping the Sketch Pad from the first installment with the Clock from the second. I really don’t know where people came up with this or why it seems to be so passionate, but I am not here to judge. It just seems like it is strangely misaimed and sort of misses the central themes of whatever the hell is going on in DHMIS. Even if I’m not sure what is going on, I’m pretty sure that it is not a romantic love story, subtextually or otherwise. Of course, there’s shipping in everything. Before you get mad at me, let me also say that it reminds me of another fandom I’m involved in in which I am one of the weird maybe-missing-the-point shippers, so I’ll get back to that.

Perhaps one of the reasons that this is such an interesting experience for me is that I feel like I’m experiencing my discovery of this fandom much the way those who discover the Portal fandom and poke around not knowing what to expect must do. I came looking for commentary or elaboration on the universe that seems to have been established in these little shorts. Instead, I find shipping that I cannot really find the thread for at all. Now, of course, I would argue that I do find subtext and reasoning and so on in Portal fandom and “chelley” (Chell/Wheatley) shipping. I also find reasons to believe that Wheatley being in a humanoid or android form makes sense in some cases. I don’t see why there are humanoid forms of already anthropomorphic set pieces and characters in DHMIS. See the above videos for a theory I’ve pretty much bought into, I think, that these characters represent props or animations or such anyway while only Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck are real characters/people/performers. (I realize they have names, maybe.)

Anyway, digressing a bit from the strange experience of seeing how a subset of fandom that is really transforming the original work (again - kudos even if not my thing, I think) being the majority when you don’t really get it from the other side of it, I also want to comment on how worth-it I found finally finishing DHMIS. It went from what felt like a strange, occasionally darkly humorous, occasionally dark-dark-dark exercise in internet meme-y nihilism to something that became so much more. Initially, watching the first couple of episodes, it felt like something that existed that sort of titillate and affirm that particular vein of teenage, edgy, oppositional defiance-y, XD-random, I wear black as it is the color of my soul, I have fantasy colored hair despite it not being goth because I like color secretly and because it bothers some conservative people, I’m angry at societal structures that have failed me and am determined to throw all the babies out with all the bathwater because I’m so angry frustration. Now, I still relate to a handful of those things. If my life allowed for it I would be a pink-hair-but-wearing-all-black kind of person some of the time. However, I find that the depth of that particular soft-laughter rage that comes with being a teenager with the experiences to develop it sort of off-putting as someone who has both been-there and has become a teacher in my adult life. I see myself in it, but I also see things that I hate both on their own merits and that I hate in the form of hating it for a person who has to go through it or go through the steps to have gotten there. In the end, though, I found that DHMIS was less late night Cartoon Network programming is the pinnacle of artistic expression and more some kind of play on nostalgia, capitalism, anxiety, power structures, creativity and its opponents, institutionalized violence, and even, maybe, the meat-packing and commercial food industries. In a way, watching it all the way through sort of felt like going through a fast-motion montage of going from being a sort of disturbed teenager to being an adult on the other side of it with a whole other set of frustrations and anxieties that can still be found in the same sort of imagery. It felt like growing up in a weird way.

Still in episodes I had seen before, I remarked to mentioned texting friend that Red Guy was my favorite when she indicated that she was watching a bit of it. I wasn’t even sure why, but in particular his reactions to the clock in the second episode really sold me. All of the characters had strange reactions to a lot of things, but his deadpan, monotone confusion, and the way in which he complies to this-might-as-well-happen sorts of circumstances until he cracks in the end and has some kind of epiphany really resonated with me. Then, I realized, it was because he was, in fact, that avatar of the adult in this situation, and that is its own kind of mind-blow because initially one does not really conceive of these characters as anything but ageless muppets. Which is its own layer of unsettling. In any case, I am really impressed with this little series. Whether or not the “film theory” is right, I feel more satisfied in the end. However, I would really recommend those videos because it totally flipped my perspective on the ending of DHMIS from “there’s no hope and not escape from this hell” or, possibly, “you might escape hell but you’re dooming someone else to replace you,” to something entirely and much more hopeful bout the drudgery of a creatively inclined adult trying to slog through the obstacles and soul-drains that our present societal pressures place on us. I really hope I figure it out in the end like Red Guy.

One final, mostly off-topic note: upon a glance, I think that maybe that film theories youtube channel is, perhaps, more genuine in its efforts to dissect internet memes than in the clickbait it produces for blockbuster movies. But then again, in a a world dictated by ad revenue, whatcha gonna do?

Given that our focuses on what we like about the series seem to be wildly different, I doubt that I’ll be hard-joining the DHMIS fandom for the most part. I enjoyed some of the content in the tag, and if you’re reading from outside it, you might check it out.

If you like or hard-relate to Red Guy and enjoy scifi (Doctor Who, The Expanse), other web series (Carmilla), or other common fandom stuff (superhero shows, DC/Marvel, select anime), you might consider messaging or following me. I’d love to talk about Red Guy with someone who kinda gets it, but again I’m not really interested in shipping in this fandom.

If you read this far, thanks and have a lovely day!

[onlinembausc-blog]

USC Online MBA Q&A - Information Session September 2019

September 2019 Info Session Questions and Answers:

Are there any industry specific elective courses in this program?

The program itself does not include electives, our curriculum consists strictly of the six courses which are delivered across five semesters that we reviewed earlier in the presentation. But having said that, you do have an opportunity as a Marshall student to enroll in electives after you’ve completed the required curriculum, the required 51 units in our program. if you do enroll in an elective after you have completed the program, you do of course pay the additional tuition for that elective. Typically, our electives are either one-and-a-half units or 3 units, so that is where you would be able to take advantage of electives.

If you are not in the LA area, then you are of course limited by the online electives that are offered at Marshall, but if you are in the LA area and wish to take an elective on-campus, you do have that opportunity after you have completed the curriculum for our program. Our electives are resident electives do include the topics that were part of that question that I believe was from Lucia, so I hope that helped.

What happens if I have to miss a class for some one-off reason what would happen then?

Of course classes are required, your presence and classes are required. We approach our online class sessions just as you would approach a class session that happens in a residential program, but having said that, you are of course all working professionals, many of our students are parents and they are juggling many different sets of responsibilities, so we understand that there will be the occasional night when you cannot make class, so for that reason we do offer recorded versions of every single one of our live classes, so within 24 to 48 hours of when the class wraps up, you will see a recording of the live class session uploaded to our learning management system, you’ll be able to access on our website the recorded version of the class if you have to miss it.

Again, that would be as a one-off as Daniel said, but that is our solution to that to the fact that yes, you know and understand and greatly respect the fact that all of our students are busy working professionals.

Could someone on the panel go into detail about the demographics of the cohort based off of gender, nationality, things of that nature?

So let’s see, we’ll start with female, we have about 35 percent that’s in the cohort that just began, let’s see GMAT is about a 630, GRE is about 305, underrepresented minorities is about 18%, the majority of the students do come from California, but we do have representation and about I believe 20 different states, so it’s definitely diverse. What other stats can I help with?

What is the age of the cohort as well, kind of the range of the age of students?

Definitely, average age is about it’s about thirty four years old and we do have students though as young as about twenty-eight, and we have students as old as I believe the early 50s, yeah early 50s. As I mentioned work experiences on average is about eight years, but we do have students that have significantly more than that, naturally we have students in their 50s so I’d say the range of work experience is probably more closer to about maybe six, all the way up to I’d say probably 20 plus years of experience, so it’s definitely a diverse group.

Miriam and another professor, they do a great job of kind of pairing students together in their first team, so that we don’t have a bunch of seasoned professionals trying to go against people that are a little bit younger. We try to make definitely make a balance to that, so does that kind of help answer?

What’s the average GMAT for the program

The average GMAT is a 630 and we do take the GRE as well, so the GRE is also accepted into the program.

What if I have to take a long break, off for a semester for let’s say work or family emergency, is that allowed? Am I allowed to take up to a semester off?

Yes, not totally, we want if you have to take a break, we don’t want you to kill yourself trying to get through the program, so yes you can definitely take a break. There are a couple caveats we ask that you complete GSBA 505 which is the first course, and to have an approved leave of absence. You should have at least a 3.0, now if you have under 3.0, you can still take a leave, it just takes a couple extra steps to when you want to come back. We definitely have students that I’ve taken a leave and come back, and you can either rejoin your cohort or you can actually join the cohort after you or two cohorts after you, depending on what course you want to pick up and take.

Can students take the executive assessment in lieu of the GMAT or GRE?

Yes, we do accept the executive assessment, however it’s designed for people that have a lot of years’ work experience, so the majority of our students that are going to be probably taking executive assessment will have probably well over ten eleven twelve years work experience, but we do offer that to students. You go in and register for executive assessment and after you complete it, you can submit your scores directly to us, if you have additional questions about that, feel free reach out to us, we’ll be happy to kind of walk you through that process.

Outside of the residential intensive week, do students still get together outside of class time to meet up?

Depending on where you’re located, we try to get together as much as we can, we actually have to look forward to the Stanford USC game, we’re trying to go here, to come back for homecoming, depending on where you’re located, but we try to get together as much as we can and that’s just one of the beauty is that, I think Brittany said how many live a lot from California, getting together is awesome, so yes.

Is a GMAT waiver a possibility?

To be considered for a GMAT waiver, it’s best that you take the executive assessment, and then from there you can work with an enrollment counselor and submit the waiver form, but you definitely should take an executive assessment if you are looking to be granted that waiver, because that’s essentially one of the ways that we would grant it.

Will you go in a little bit more detail about the residential intensive week?

I can kick it off and then if Michelle wants to chime in, because she actually lived through the residential week and to chime in, feel free but yes you’re there all day, from eight to five. We give you breakfast and lunch, sometimes snack, definitely snacks and sometimes there’s like a mixer or another type of team building activity that we do, but that class is from eight to five. You’ll learn about communication and strategy and yes, it’s pretty much.

You got to take off work once you get out of class as you guys are working on projects and just getting to know your teammates and the rest of people in your cohort, so we definitely recommend that even if you’re in the LA area, stay in the hotel and definitely, definitely, definitely take off work because it’s hard to still try to work remote, and still participate. Michelle I know you could probably give it even better synapsis of it.

What is required for the capstone project?

With regards to the capstone project, this is a project that we actually implemented in or curriculum starting with the cohort that came right after Michelle, so she actually didn’t experience it in its full format, but she did experience the original version of the capstone project which is incorporated into the last semester long course in our program. Basically, the project covers macroeconomics and corporate strategy, those are the central themes of the project, but it’s a project that asks you to explore a problem that is related to the international expansion of an American firm, and within that context, you can really add your own flavor to the project, to what you submit for the project.

When it comes to career services, what’s the difference between the online programs as opposed to maybe a full-time on-campus program?

We offer No 1 online MBA program that also offer the services of two career consultants who are exclusively dedicated to our student population, to the online MBA student population. The two career consultants who work with our program have extensive experience working with mid-career professionals, who are looking to move onward and upward in their careers, and so they will offer services that include polishing your resume, polishing your LinkedIn profile, writing the perfect cover letter for a position that you may be applying for within your industry, they offer support with salary negotiations internally within your companies or externally if you’re looking for a new position or a new opportunity.

[stickyyouthstudent]

Mario Draghi: eurozone growth depends on central bank support - business live

The president of the European Central Bank warned in a speech in Frankfurt that although the eurozone economy was ‘robust’, recovery was still heavily reliant on stimulus from the European Central Bank

Pound hits two week high amid sharp dollar sell-off

Carillion shares plunge after third profit warning

11.12am GMT

The UK government is one of Carillion’s biggest clients and is monitoring the firm’s troubles.

Reuters quotes a spokeswoman at the Cabinet Office:

The company has kept us informed of the steps it is taking to restructure the business.

We remain supportive of their ongoing discussions with their stakeholders and await future updates on their progress

10.59am GMT

“Carillion horror show continues”, is how Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, describes the latest developments at the construction firm.

He adds:

Some sort of recapitalisation was inevitable, but a possible debt for equity swap, with debt even higher than the group had anticipated, is probably as bad as anyone would have guessed.

The group has made some progress on asset sales, and it sounds like some cost savings are being made. It’s not what the group expected though, and it’s clearly not enough. It’s also probably irrelevant given the state of the balance sheet, with net debt already many multiples of the group’s market capitalisation.

10.54am GMT

Carillion shares plunged as much as 60% in early trading after the construction group involved in HS2 and Battersea Power Station issued its third profit warning of the year:

The group now expects that a combination of delays to certain PPP disposals, a slippage in the commencement date of a significant project in the Middle East and lower than expected margin improvements across a small number of UK Support Services contracts, partially offset by cost savings initiatives realised in the fourth quarter, will lead to profits for the year to 31 December 2017 being materially lower than current market expectations.

Whilst we continue to target cash collections, reduce costs, execute disposals and focus on delivering for our customers, it is clear that significant challenges remain and more needs to be done to reduce net debt and rebuild the balance sheet.

Constructive dialogue is continuing with our financial stakeholders, and I am grateful for their support. I remain focused on addressing this issue before my successor, Andrew Davies, takes up the role on 2 April 2018.

Related: HS2 contractor Carillion in fresh profit warning amid debt concerns

10.21am GMT

Love it or hate it, Black Friday is almost upon us.

In recent years Britain has embraced the American tradition where retailers slash prices the day after Thanksgiving.

Related: Black Friday 2017: where to get the best UK deals

10.00am GMT

News of Greggs controversial decision to replace the baby Jesus with a sausage roll in an advent calendar has rippled across the Atlantic:

Greggs, which specializes in the popular delicacy, apologized for replacing the baby Jesus with a pastry wrapped around sausage meat. https://t.co/R4lFlZWtZd

9.35am GMT

Draghi concludes by returning to one of his favourite themes, saying eurozone governments should do their bit to secure future economic stability by getting their “fiscal houses in order”.

The ECB will do our bit, you do yours, is the message:

ECB’s mandate is framed in terms of price stability, as this is the best contribution that we can make to the welfare of citizens. Ensuring price stability is a precondition for the economy to be able to grow along a balanced path that can be sustained in the long run. This is the guiding principle of all our monetary policy decisions.

With the recovery ongoing, now is the right moment for the euro area to address further challenges to stability. This means actively putting our fiscal houses in order and building up buffers for the future – not just waiting for growth to gradually reduce debt.

Speech Mario Draghi: Monetary policy and the outlook for the economy https://t.co/QmtGNrFobj

9.29am GMT

Here comes the “but” part of the ECB president’s speech.

Mario Draghi says that despite solid growth and rising employment, inflation is not at the point where it will pick up without stimulus from the central bank. (Eurozone inflation dipped to 1.4% in October from 1.5% in September.)

We are not yet at a point where the recovery of inflation can be self-sustained without our accommodative policy. A key motor of the recovery remains the very favourable financing conditions facing firms and households, which are in turn heavily contingent on our policy measures.

An ample degree of monetary stimulus remains necessary for underlying inflation pressures to build up and support headline inflation over the medium term.

Related: ECB to halve bond buying as it plans to scale back quantitative easing

9.26am GMT

Guardian Business has launched a daily email.

Besides the key news headlines that you’d expect, there’s an at-a-glance agenda of the day’s main events, insightful opinion pieces and a quality feature to sink your teeth into each day.

Related: Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news

9.08am GMT

Draghi is running through stats to illustrate how much the employment picture has improved in the eurozone.

Consumption is being supported by a virtuous circle between rising labour income and rising employment. Employment in the euro area has reached its highest level ever, while unemployment has fallen to its lowest rate since January 2009.

Importantly, this has taken place against the backdrop of a rising participation rate, which is now 2 percentage points above its pre-crisis level. This has been driven in particular by the increased entry of women into the workforce, whose participation rate has risen by 4 percentage points since 2008 and reached an all-time high.

8.55am GMT

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, is speaking in Frankfurt at the European Banking Congress.

He begins on a positive note on the outlook for the eurozone economy:

The euro area is in the midst of a solid economic expansion. GDP has risen for 18 straight quarters, with the latest data and surveys pointing to unabated growth momentum in the period ahead.

From the ECB’s perspective, we have increasing confidence that the recovery is robust and that this momentum will continue going forward.

8.45am GMT

The FTSE is suffering from the stronger pound this morning, Spread Ex’s Connor Campbell says:

The pound’s up 0.4% against the greenback, with the dollar losing its House tax plan-passing buzz, as Robert Mueller subpoenaed more than a dozen Trump campaign officials. Against the euro, meanwhile, sterling nudged 0.2% higher, keeping above €1.12.

This meant the FTSE continued to founder around the 7380 mark, dipping 0.2% as it struggles to escape its 6-week lows. As has been the case all week, commodities are doing their part, with a smattering of red among the oil and mining stocks helping suppress appetite in the UK index.

8.41am GMT

The FTSE 100 is down 17 points this morning, and the biggest faller among its major European peers:

8.29am GMT

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist, has been interviewed by the Guardian’s economics editor, Larry Elliott, and it’s well worth a watch if you missed it:

Related: Joseph Stiglitz: 'Trump has fascist tendencies'

8.18am GMT

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

The pound has a spring in its step this morning, hitting a two-week high against the dollar of $1.3252.

The passing of yesterday’s bill helped the US dollar close near its intraday peaks yesterday, while also helping push up US yields with the 2 year yield hitting its highest level since October 2008.

These US dollar gains were pretty short-lived and soon gave way to selling on reports that Trump officials had been subpoenaed by special attorney Robert Mueller as part of the investigation into Russian involvement in the Trump Presidential campaign.

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