#and this is such a hilariously academic insult

[pablo-neurotic]

So the other day, a student came by my office to chat. He’s a student who really likes me and looks up to me, and I’m trying to mentor him a bit. Anyway, he has often complained about another professor in the department. I don’t  comment on other professors to him or any other students, but I let him vent. However, I really do not like that professor either. (He’s a foreign teacher too btw.) This prof is very harsh with students. Both in the way he talks about them in meetings and in his classroom teaching. I mean, I haven’t observed his classes, but lots of students complain about him. He’s definitely the least liked professor in the department. And he’s just really difficult to work with as well. I hate to be on the same committees as him because he’s always late to reply on issues and is always complaining. One time, we had a meeting about teaching assignments, and he was like “I feel like there’s a clique of professors who get to teach the required courses” and was all whiny that he’d never been assigned to teach one of the core classes that have 80 students. Mind you, I’m one of the teachers in this “clique.” And like... First of all, those classes are actually onerous--it’s really hard to teach the largest class in the department--and second of all, he could just tell the chair he’d like to teach one! Anyway, it’s whatever, just an eye roll.

But last week that student came to talk to me and he was like, “I need to tell you something.” And he tells me that in this professor’s class one time, the professor was like “there’s a teacher in this department who is very well-liked, but he uses Wikipedia.” And the student thought he was referring to me even though he did not use my name. And honestly, I think he would refer to me in that way. And I was like, uhhhh what? I don’t cite wikipedia in my writing, and I don’t use it to write lectures for a class. I will look stuff up on wikipedia like in general because I’m a human being. So like that’s not true? I was pretty pissed about it. I thought about it for a while, and the only thing I can think of is that when I taught a course on Western Civilization (like ugh, this is one of the big classes he wanted to teach), I would have my students look at and discuss art from different periods and regions. I didn’t use a textbook, so I would just give students links to art in QR codes in my lecture slides. And I often use wikimedia because the images are not under copyright, and they are usually the highest resolution images available (so students can use their phones and zoom in to discuss). Could that be it? Like what a moron.

Also note, I looked up his CV and his publications are bad. One of them looks like a predatory journal (think “the internet journal of” all the disciplines). So I mean, I know he’s a deeply unhappy person who is just jealous, but I’m so annoyed that he’s talking about me (or any other professor really!) in class, and I want to confront him the next time I see him.

[divinekangaroo]

my stray headcanon:

tommy *constantly* misgenders (mis-sexes?) horses because him and his whole family including Uncle Charlie have this weird complicated mental matrix for how and when a horse is a 'he' or 'she' or 'it' based around the equally complex gendering conventions for narrowboats

which convention, from what I can tell by reading multiple narrowboat forums and at least one 16th century four page long complaint letter about indecency on narrowboats some landowner wrote to a canal company, runs something like this:

do you like the guy who owns the boat? y = the boat is she, n = the boat is it

do you think the boat is poor quality = it, but be aware this may be offensive to the owner and start a fight

is the boat in the process of being built and hasn't got hisself wet yet? = he, then he's a she after it's first run

is the boat built by this one particular Welsh dude who lives in [insert Welsh river hamlet name}? y = always a she no matter how you feel about the boat or its wet status

is the boat built by the other particular Scottish dude who lives in [random hated English hamlet name)? y = always a he unless you've actually been on the boat, then it's an it, unless it was a really good road (every lock in your favour) in which case the boat is an honorary she

was a baby born on the boat = she

is it your boat = she

is it your friend's boat = he because it might offend your friend

did the boat once go through some random tunnel = he until he goes through the tunnel again and becomes a she

[its-not-a-pen]

i love the hilarious eunuch ranking system by @welcometothejianghu so i decided to make one based on (mostly) REAL historical chinese enunchs!

in chronological order:

Warring States Period long story short, the PM is sleeping with the Empress Dowager, and he wants to extracate himself before her son (future Emperor Qin Shi Huang) gets old enough to find out. the PM finds her a suitable replacement, and the replacement is attached to a guy named Lao Ai. They pluck his beard and pass him off as a eunuch so he can sneak into the palace. Bing bang boom everyone's happy. This goes terribly wrong later, since Lao Ai tries to replace the emperor with his own kids and stages a failed coup. rest in pieces buddy...

it's very likely that Lao Ai was a ficticious character invented by Sima Qian, who will be appearing on this list later.

Qin Dynasty

Zhao Gao helped the first emperor of China conquer an empire, and administer it efficiently with his legal knowledge, but he also made the second emperor into a puppet, and weakened the empire for his own political gain. Max points of complexity, but you'd get more loyalty out of a coffee club punch card.

Before launching his soft coup, he decided to test the waters by bring in a deer and gaslighted the emperor by calling it a horse. the officials who were loyal to him called it a horse, and he executed the rest.

Han Dynasty Jiru, male favourite of Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang), the peasant scoundrel who became the founder of the Han Dynasty. look, if the emperor has a harem of hundreds of women and you manage to catch his attention, you max out in style points. simple as. for most of chinese history it was fairly common for high-ranking men, especially eunuchs, to wear make up like powder and rouge, but i decided to give Jiru some women's huadia as well, cause he's a baddie.

Jiru gets a bad rap for alledgely distracting the emperor from his duties, but lets be real, history is written by civil officials who have no shortage of professional jealousy and gender/sexuality related prejudice towards eunuchs, since they were the personal attendants of royalty and could exert a lot of influence. plus Liu Bang was already pissing in the hats of confucian scholars, most of the poor work ethic is on HIM. Jiru should get credit for making him marginally less of a troglodite.

all in all he didn't try any court intrigue so extra points for loyalty and complexity. free my man >:( he's just a Han dynasty Monica Lewinsky who got slutshamed by jealous coworkers >:(

Han Dynasty

meet the father of east asian history, sima qian. half the people on this list can owe their placement here thanks to his extremely though history books "records of the grand historian"

history at this time was mostly "creative writing" and sima qian attempted to give the practise more academic intergrety, he went out and personally interviewed people, tried to get primary sources, and got rid of most of the more fanstastical aspects. however, he was not without his biases and some texts can be seen as allegorical/veiled insults towards the Han Dynasty, especially towards Emperor Wu. unlike most of the people on this list, sima qian was from the gentry and castated later in life as a punishment for treason. he was implicated after trying to defend a friend, and could not pay the fine to commute his sentence. the gentlemen at the time were expected to die by suicide rather than live with such ignimony, but sima qian chose to live so he could finish writing the history book his father started. the "giant conspiracy" joke explained: the chinese word for penis is a homophone for "conspiracy".

[colleendoran]

Neil Gaiman's CHIVALRY: From Illuminated Manuscripts to Comics

One of the many reasons I wanted to adapt Neil Gaiman's Chivalry into graphic novel form was to create a comic as a bridge and commentary re: comics and illuminated manuscripts.

We're often told that the first comic book was Action Comics #1 featuring Superman, a collection of Superman comic strips that morphed into comic books as an art form.

Sequential art predates Action Comics #1.

Action Comics popularized sequential art book storytelling that had already appeared in other forms in fits and starts throughout history. Comic books didn't take off as a popular medium for several reasons, not least of which was the necessary printing process hadn't been invented yet and it's hard to popularize - and commercialize - something most people can never see. 

You find sequential art in cave paintings and in Egyptian hieroglyphics. I've read that comics (manga) were invented by the Japanese in 12th century scrolls.

And sequential art appears over and over again in Western art going back well over 1000 years, and in book form at least 1100 years ago.

The most obvious example of early sequential art in Western art - as a complete narrative in sequence - is the Bayeux Tapestry. 

At 230 feet long, this embroidered length of cloth was likely commissioned around the year 1070 by Bishop Odo, brother of William the Conqueror. It depicts the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the invasion of England by the Normans. (The tapestry was made in England, not in France, but it is called the Bayeux tapestry because that's where it is now.)

Imagine what a task it was to embroider this thing. Whew. And you thought it was hard learning Photoshop.

This work of art is important in the history of sequential narrative, but the Norman invasion is also important to the legend of King Arthur - and another important English legend - for reasons we'll get into later. 

It's complicated.

All this is why you see this art in the background of this page of Chivalry.

Using the Romanesque art style of the tapestry in panel 1, I've added the Latin phrase "Rex Quondom, Rexque Futurus" - "The Once and Future King", the final words of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as inscribed on King Arthur's tomb, and the title of T.H. White's famous Arthurian novel.  (EDIT) and it has been kindly pointed out to me that QUONDOM should be QUONDAM, which is hilarious and annoying and this is how history gets rewritten by accident.

My original intention was to draw this Bayeux Tapestry scene out and juxtapose it with shots of Galaad interacting with the children, but the two page sequence I imagined didn't really work as well in reality as it did in my head. 

Foremost among my concerns was that the tapestry reference might be too obscure for most readers. I wanted to weave the visual meta-text of Chivalry into the story (For further reading on this project and my use of visual meta-text, symbolism, and history in Neil Gaiman's Chivalry, go HERE. And HERE. And HERE. And Yet again HERE.) in such a way as it would enhance the experience for people who "got" the visual meaning, while not dragging things down for people who didn't. So I cut this scene down to one panel.

The tapestry is a complete, long form comic strip created over 1100 years before some people claim comics were invented. So, I loved being able to reference it here.

But even more interesting to me are the sequential art sequences that appear in illuminated manuscripts - comics in book form.

I once got into a rather vicious argument with an academic who insisted illuminated manuscripts were comics. I said no. She said yes. Then she insulted the lowly comic artist and blocked me on Facebook.

Whatever.

My point was not that you can't find sequential art in illuminated manuscripts. My point is that an illustrated book isn't de facto a comic. Most illuminated manuscripts are illustrated books. Some illuminated manuscripts contain sequential art.

Just because opera is music, that doesn't mean all music is opera.

Just because comics books are books that doesn't mean all books are comic books.

And just because some illuminated manuscripts contain sequential art, that doesn't mean all illuminated manuscripts are sequential art.

But one is.

Let me show you it.

One of the earliest examples of an illuminated manuscript with comic art is The Bible d'Etienne Harding which you can see in this really bad jpg here, sorry, best I could find.

Created around the year 1109, property of a French Cistercian monk, it combines sequences like this with pages of text and illustration.

Not a comic book IMHO, but an illuminated manuscript with sequences of text, illustration and sequential narrative.

It's no more a "comic book" than a newspaper is for having text, illustration, and comic strips in it.

IMHO, academic lady.

And here's a look at the Old English Hexateuch (hexateuch refers to the first 6 books of the Bible) which I think is far more visually complex and interesting work, and comes much closer to the illuminated manuscript as comic, but still intersperses large sequences of text and illustration with sequential storytelling sequences. So I don't consider it a comic, but a book with sequential work in it.

Now this work below is a different matter. This is from the Holkham Bible Picture Book, circa about 1330.

This thing is genius. It measures a little larger than a modern comic, around 8"x11", and almost every page of it is like this spread here. 231 pages of beautifully rendered art, with repeated use of banderoles - "speech scrolls"  (basically word balloons) -  and captions, and (mostly) real sequential art. I've never seen anything else that comes even close to it, and by all accounts, neither has anyone else. 

It may not be a modern comic book - but it's a comic book as far as I can tell. I don't think there's any other illuminated manuscript that is as complete, sophisticated, and innovative a sequential storytelling work.

If this were printed and seen by more people, the comic book medium would have taken off centuries earlier, IMHO. But it wasn't. It was tucked away in a monastery somewhere and few people ever saw it. It ended up being forgotten for centuries until it popped up again around 1816 when a banker sold it to an avid book collector, Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, who inherited Holkham Hall and its library and set about restoring and expanding it. 

The banker wrote, “a very curious MS. just brought here from the Continent. . . which I think one of the greatest curiosities I ever saw”.

Sequential art got invented over and over and over by one artist after another until one day centuries later, some teenaged boys found their newspaper strips gathered together in a cheap format, and suddenly comic books were popular and like new.

And then a lot of people who didn't seem to realize that books had had pictures in them for centuries got all up in arms about the harms of books with pictures in them.

I think it's funny that it is called the Holkham Bible Picture Book. There really was no "comic" art language when this work was created or when academics began to catalogue this sort of thing. Will they change the name now?

Who can say.

Anyway, another Holkham Bible Picture Book reference for you.

Look familiar?

I referenced it in this scene in Chivalry.

One of the fun things about the Holkham is that it opens with a discussion between a friar who has commissioned the work and the artist. The friar admonishes the artist to do a good job on the project because it will be shown to important people. And the artist responds, "Indeed, I certainly will and, if God lets me live, never will you see another such book."

He wasn't kidding.

You can see the entire manuscript HERE. 

Sponsored by my Patreon. Thank you.

[tinykittendelusion]

Seventeen as different tropes

a/n : I've gotten into a book slump again so i thought might as well try something that's going to make me want to read more :)

triggers: mentions of sex or sexual content or indicates sexual behaviour

Scoups

Workplace romance especially billionaire ceo romance where he falls in love with this girl from a small town almost like a typical hallmark movie. he gives very CEO vibes especially like business proposal kang tae moo he loves showering you with love and lots and lots of gifts.

Jeonghan

Opposites attract. I think it would be so cool if jeonghan falls for someone his exact opposite who looks like a troublemaker but is actually very innocent. It would be hilarious when at first she gets blamed for a prank he pulled making him apologise with lots and lots of kisses. Also she'd be the only person with whom he won't cheat while playing games?!

Joshua

good boy x bad girl. This is the reverse of the bad boy trope and that suits him so much Joshua is a very good gentlemanly guy until he isn't and then he's this crazy person and he'd naturally be drawn to people who take risks.

Jun

childhood friends to lovers. Honestly after watching exclusive fairytale I feel this is exactly his vibe he's a shy guy so he takes time getting comfortable and since you've known him since childhood he's the most comfortable with you. The comfort of knowing someone through all their stages of life and falling for them.

Hoshi

Enemies to lovers. Hoshi is a sweetheart that everyone knows but he's amazing at teasing people aka seungkwan in gose episodes so him having an enemies to lovers relationship makes so much sense to me. Also hoshi getting angry/pissed would be HOT.

Wonwoo

Aloof couple. Everyone except the both of you know that you both are dating. Together you both are dumb and dumber. After Hoshi accidentally ends up spilling the fact that wonwoo has a crush on you You guys would finally start dating. Both of you would be so shocked to know that the other person actually liked them too.

Woozi

Fated soulmates. Now listen to me woozi is a homebody just like me and sometimes I wish the love of my life would just come to my house and announce his existence. This is exactly what happens when you go to deliver fried chicken completely drenched in the rain and he offers you to stay and dry off before leaving.

Dokyeom

brothers bestfriend. He's your brother's friend so he should be off limits to you but he's so kind so nice and so caring you can't help but fall in love. He doesn't notice you until one day you drunk confess and then suddenly you're all that he can think about.

a/n: very much like the male lead in hidden love (c-drama)

Mingyu

reverse grumpy x sunshine. Oh he falls for the slightly broody introverted nerd. They literally collided into each other when Wonwoo dragged him to this one book convention. He was jealous of how close Wonwoo and you were. Which led to him confessing and you both dating. He absolutely adores the fact that your cute silly side is reserved only for him.

Minghao

hopeless romantic x skeptic Minghao was that person who did not believe in love at first sight cause how do you fall in love without knowing anyone that is until you walked into his life and caused him to fall literally for you. You loved this fact as you were a big romantic person. You'd often watch rom coms together and have discussions on the characters for hours.

Seungkwan

Academic rivals. YES YES YES

the banter would be off the charts. He'd be full on sassy boo who loves winning and y/n would be the same. They'd fight argue and insult each other but would be forced into spending time together and boom he's pinned you to the wall.

Vernon

Second chance. Yes the angst the pain the hurt the NOSTALGIA. everything vernon runs into you in seoul one day and it's decided that he wants you back bonus points if you have a child that he babysits and that child comes to adore him.

a/n: i think I have to cry vernon with kids would be so funny and cute and I WILL CRY

Dino

a/n: i absolutely adore these I lowkey might make all of these into longer fics.

best friends turned enemies turned lovers. the chemistry would be fire you'd both participate in a dance competition as kids but at the last moment you ditched him to dance with your crush years later you both hate each other and it gets worse when you are one of the background dancers in seventeen's world tour.

i made a longer version for dino- here

[drdemonprince]

i find fisher's anger at his students in CR almost hilarious. oh they didnt find you quite brilliant enough to perform active listening ? and so the whole thing made it into your anticapitalism book? pathetic

yeah the ego is so fucking annoying and recognizable. i find that the professors who are the most down on their students are the most insecure, pretentious people who need constant assurance of their brilliance and can't actually communicate well & listen well themselves. i personally have *never* had a problem with students disrespecting me or the work i'm trying to teach in class, not in fifteen goddamn years, and it's really just because they can recognize that i am listening to them, trying to make the material accessible to them in a variety of ways, and take their needs seriously. if a student nods off in class, is on their phone for a bit, or is chatting in the back with their bud i dont take it as some great insult. i know how it feels for a class to not be your top fuckin priority. no one needs to find my classes *that* important. i think a lot of these marxist theorist academic types have a real fuckin stick up their ass and dont know how to respect other people and meet them where they're at and it shows

[zweiginator]

seeing the words law student and patrick has awakened something in me. academic rival patrick in general has me gnawing at my enclosure.

i’m just imagining him being academically gifted the way he is with tennis. like he never puts any real effort into perfecting his craft but he’s just naturally and intuitively so good at it!! you normally wouldn’t mind something like that but he’s so goddamn cocky you can’t stand it!!

i know that coasting on talent would never fly in law school but for our fictional purposes let’s pretend like that would work

also imagining working on a group project with patrick and he’s SO laid back because he knows he’ll be able to get his part of the project done with ease and you being super stressed about him not pulling his weight. he finds your stress hilarious and is actively trying to find ways to distract you from getting your own work done.

i will be thinking about academic rival patrick for a very long time. thank you for putting this in my brain.

lawstudent!patrick who loves to see you riled up. he likes how mad you get, how you yell at him and call him names. maybe he's a masochist but a pretty smart thing like you spitting insults at him and saying he's worthless in the context of your group project really gets him going.

he'd never tell you that, and you just think he doesn't take you seriously. but it all comes to a head when he's watching tv on your couch on full volume while you're trying to outline cases and you snap at him again, telling him to fucking focus for once.

"jesus, chill out. we'll get it done." patrick shoves more popcorn into his mouth and you didn't even realize he's eating your food.

"patrick!" you stand up and grab the remote. he grabs it back, lifting it above his head as he stands up. you try to reach it by standing on the couch, but patrick grabs you by the waist and pins you down on the couch.

"we have to--" you begin to scold him again but the way he's looking down at you like you're nothing like a thing for him to play with is making you feel weird. in a good way, weird.

"we have to what?" he pushes a strand of hair away from your face. patrick's fingers brush against the waistband of your pajama pants.

you feel his erection, stiff against your cunt, still covered by his sweatpants.

"jesus christ--whatever." you yank the hem of his shirt and pull him into you. "i fucking hate you."

[littlesparklight]

I really hate it when people call ancient pieces of work fanfiction usually because they don’t like it the biggest victim being Ovid’s work but I also seen it thrown at The Telegony, just because you don’t like what it that doesn’t mean it’s fanfiction

On the one hand, I didn't (and am not sure I still would necessarily always dislike it) really mind this, because sometimes it was made in order to push back on the conception of fanfic as just "bad" and not being able to be art.

On the other - no, various ancient texts, or not so ancient ones, aren't fanfic. They can't be, that isn't how it works. Fanfic is a rather specific thing, and it's not bad (or good) just in itself, but Dante's Inferno or the Aeneid or etc and so on, isn't fanfic. And so I can certainly understand those who are really aggravated when that statement is trotted out, for whatever reason.

And so we get to the third version of "such and so is just fanfic!!" statement, the one you bring up.

When "it's just fanfic" is meant as an insult, because whoever it is doesn't like the piece of work in question. It reveals what they think not just about whatever work it's about relative to whatever piece they do like, but about fanfic. (Yes, even if they write it themself.) Because they don't like it, it's bad, and it's, thus, fanfic of something they like better.

And it's honestly kind of fucking hilarious (in an embarrassing way) to go around claiming the Telegony is "fanfic" just because someone doesn't like it. (I don't like it either!) It might be the youngest (that seems to be the academic consensus, that it is the youngest/newest to be formed and composed) of the Epic Cycle's epics, but... that still makes it (very) old. And it is using older myths or similar, just as the other epics did, even if some of said material might be younger than what the other epics use - but we can't really know that for sure.

Odysseus has children by Kirke in the Theogony already. Local (Thesprotian, Kyrenaian) genealogies for ruling dynasties would not have sprung up at the second of poetic invention of the Telegony.

And I'd just like to say that one can't really use the fact that the Ancient Greek noble families considered themselves related to various mythical heroes as some sort of... indictment of these (invented, yes, but deeply important) relationships. They're part of the foundation and reason we have any Greek myth when it comes to heroes. You have to take it all.

But yeah, the point is, whether we like a particular account, lyric, poetic, prose, drama, what have you or not, going around insisting some particular text is "fanfic" is just deeply silly at best, and stupid at worst.

It's not, after all, about "ooc" or not (even if we certainly can think something resonates with us or the character and fits them better or not), that's not how this works.

[gothicprep]

binch wife was talking to me about philosopher drama (the real housewives of athens) and she mentioned that hegel had an academic rival whose name rhymed with his.

this is a true statement – the guy’s name is Schlegel, which is hilarious because it sounds like a kindergarten insult. “Hegel Schlegel”.

but she couldn’t remember the guys last name for the life of her and said “I’m pretty sure his name was kegel”. and I honestly wish this was true, given how much of a cringey volcel hegel was. hegel and his sworn enemy, kegel.

[adultswim2021]

Xavier: Renegade Angel #3: “Weapons Grade Life” | November 19, 2007 - 12:00AM | S01E03

This show is simply too funny. 

A big element to the humor of this show is how terrible Xavier is, and how oblivious he is to his own terribleness. This is the best episode to illustrate this so far. In the opening scene, Xavier uses insulting terms to “protect” a handicapped kid from “bullies” who are actually his truly protective friends. 

Robby, the aforementioned handicapped kid, is actually a genius and is currently using his smarts to simulate magical god powers in his father’s Christian Science medical practice. The way it works is, his father uses the power of prayer to guide god’s invisible hands, which literally pick up floating surgical instruments and do actual medically-sound surgery on a patient. Like I said, it’s actually the kid using wires and magnets from a secret observational nook in the operating room. 

The kid also has his own Dexter’s Laboratory where he’s created life in a petri dish, so he’s playing god in more than one way. Xavier arrogantly pooh-pooh’s all of this, and decides that the correct thing to do would be to rat on the kid to his father. The father is so distraught that he commits suicide by setting himself on fire, but his consciousness merges with the created life in the petri dish and turns into a sentient explosion that slowly terrorizes the town. 

The episode kicks into high gear at this point, the visual gags involving the explosion are hilarious, and well-suited to the show’s intentionally-difficult animation style.  It’s able to travel around town like a kaiju, and Xavier tries to come up with a way to stop it. His solution is to lure it into the lake with a carload of the father’s favorite cakes. This is telegraphed to such a hilarious degree with ham-fisted foreshadowing. So much so that it’s hilarious that it doesn’t even work. What works is that Robby, the crippled boy, stabs the explosion with a knife, which shouldn’t work even though it does. 

The fact that Robby is smart enough and brave enough to confront the grim reality of slashing his own father with a knife to save himself and everyone else, solving a problem that Xavier himself created, still doesn’t earn Xavier’s respect. Xavier is just that much of an oblivious wad.

The show seems like it’s free-wheeling nihilistic nonsense sometimes, but you could write an academic paper about this episode. Xavier’s arrogance is based on the most shallow shit imaginable: the fact that his opponent, Robby, is physically weak in a way that he can’t help. Robby has overcome this and is actually brilliant, but Xavier narcistically sees him as a threat. It’s like when an arrogant troll uses pathetically unfunny material to try and win an argument, and you can’t convince them that they’re shit sucks, because you’re locked in conflict and constructive criticism will just seem like a disingenuous counter-attack. You can’t convince a moron they’re a moron, because they’re too much of a moron.

Shout out to my favorite joke of the episode: when the explosion runs over a group of KKK members doing guided jumping jacks. Like I said before, this show is simply too funny.

[mkecountyteenbookaward]

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Celine Bangura has a loyal social media following for her conspiracy theory obsessed observations. But internet fame doesn’t translate to real life and she finds herself on the outs with the cool kids at her high school, including her ex-best friend Brad Graeme. Brad is a star football player managing his OCD and can’t quite figure out what went wrong with Celine. Their moms have been best friends forever and the friendship turned into an academic rivalry spurred by hilarious insults. These characters were so funny and likable, and the tension only gets better when Celine signs up for a survival course in the woods and Brad shows up to complete it as well. The sparks and witty comments fly in this heartwarming and compelling romance. Celene’s family dynamic was also incredibly compelling. She was raised by a single mom and has a burning desire to prove herself to her estranged father through the survival camp. You end up rooting for Celine and Brad individually and together.

[killjoyfem]

Hilariously, mister @ultramaga blocked me after his little rant. Not only is he lacking in braincels, he’s lacking in some balls too. I mean, are the tumblr feminists very scary? Grow a pair.

And what is the source for anything you said? The skid marks left on the underwear you refuse to wash? Did they also whisper to you the uncreative insults you left me? And the amount of reaction gifs you use? Are you 45?

Yes, you posted a picture specifically of plus sized women during a protest. No lies there. There’s a million other pictures of feminists marching that look very different. But again, it does not matter. These women are just as valid as human beings as anyone else. I repeat, their bodies don’t exist so they look hot for you.

I did notify the committee. They recommended you watch better quality content.

Feminism doesn’t promote obesity. There are toxic facets of the body positive movement, but mostly feminism promotes body neutrality. Women are the majority of sufferers of anorexia, women are the majority of people who acquire plastic surgery so they look good and fit, ozempic is at an all time high and heroin chic is back. “Women being pushed into obesity” does not exist. You are living in your own made up world. I never claimed women do not care. I claimed they shouldn’t care so much. Reading comprehension?

Meanwhile, there’s not a focus on men inside of body positivity because you simply do not account for these statistics. Your sex is still the most overweight one regardless. Your “dad bods” are still widely celebrated. You don’t need a movement promoting that you get heavier, you need one that promotes some critical thinking skills amongst yourself and your followers.

“Your movement hasn’t achieved anything and you would starve to death without men”; explain to me why women are outperforming you academically now that we’re allowed to have education, then? Explain to me the right to vote, protections against workplace discrimination, and the right to make personal decisions about pregnancy? I guess they just appeared out of thin air?

Men do commit the majority of violent crimes. It’s not whataboutery. You just can’t be bothered to do research. Same for intimate partner violence. Same for rape. You’re the issue in this planet, it seems. You’re killing, bruising and violating women. Again, not feminism. And it’s definitely not up to women and our movement to fix whatever is wrong in your heads. Read a little about it before you comment next time.

I won’t reply to every little insult and outrageous claim you pulled out of your ass. You’re of no substance to me. It’s hilarious you chose a post about a movie with this very clear messaging to bitch about this. But buddy - Jodi Arias is thin and pretty enough. I hope she’s your next girlfriend. She’d treat you exactly like you deserve.

And @bebe-benzenheimer - weak rage bait. Make sure to apply some primer first though, to protect your skin.

one of my favorite parts of “the substance” is how clear the movie makes that the men you’re destroying yourself to impress are so utterly gross and not worth it at all. how it shows already beautiful women tearing themselves apart to reach the standards of males who can’t even be bothered to wash their hands after using the bathroom.

[wogism]

Wog Media Sunday Spotlight #5: Superwog "Parent Teacher Interviews" (YouTube: superwog1, 2016)

In true Sunday style, I present the fifth instalment of Wog Media Sunday Spotlights, every Sunday on wogism.blog

Superwog, the comedic genius hailing from Australia, was a youth who carved a niche for himself with his distinctive take on cultural stereotypes and everyday situations.

Born Theodore Saidden on June 17, 1995, in Sydney, he, along with his brother Nathan Saidden, have gained widespread recognition through their collaborative YouTube channel.

The heart of Superwog's comedic universe revolves around cultural clashes, wog family dynamics, and the quintessential Australian way of life. His comedic style is marked by sharp wit, exaggerated characters, and an unapologetic approach to addressing sensitive topics.

One of his standout YouTube videos, and a favourite of mine, "Parent Teacher Interviews," offers a hilarious glimpse into every student's dreaded day or night of the semester.

The skit artfully employs absurdity and farcical humour through a variety of characters, each contributing to the overall comedic brilliance.

In one scenario, a mother, adorned with ethnic flair and a fur shawl, staunchly defends her daughter's use of makeup at school, even going so far as to insult the teacher's intelligence. Meanwhile, she becomes fixated on acquiring the teacher's supposed nose from a recent surgery her sister desires.

Another scenario unfolds with an 18-year-old son, stuck at a Year 7 academic level, accompanied by his "abusive" father. The interview takes an uncomfortable turn as the teacher's attire is deemed "revealing," and the son reveals disturbing details about the physical harm endured by him and his family members.

A female student, accompanied by a legal guardian of questionable legitimacy, adds another layer of hilarity. Their odd pairing and suggestive interactions during the interview unravel a storyline suggesting he's her boyfriend, raising questions about his legal guardianship.

The skit reaches its pinnacle with a racist, white Australian mother lamenting the number of Asians in her son's year ("There's only one in the entire school", says the teacher) and advocating for expulsion. Notably, her son couldn't attend the interview as it was past his bedtime.

Superwog's "Parent Teacher Interviews" successfully portrays parents and legal guardians in unorthodox roles, using humour that elicits both quick laughs and leaves a lasting impact with memorable quotes.

In essence, the video masterfully captures the absurdity of parent-teacher interactions, showcasing Superwog's comedic prowess in navigating sensitive subjects with finesse.

As the laughter subsides, it's evident that Superwog's comedy lies in his ability to find humour in the quirks and complexities of everyday life.

Hope you enjoyed something a bit different rather than a film or TV series, it was a joy to revisit this, one of many iconic Superwog videos.

You can watch this video on YouTube, accompanied by the endless suite of videos Theo, Nathan and co have produced over the years.

Coming up to Christmas time (WTF?), I recommend the ABC special these legends took part in titled "The Difference Between Wogs & Aussies: CHRISTMAS". Enjoy!

As always -

Stay well, and be well.

Nicholas

[philosophika1]

26.09.2023

DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS:

The day begins with milk coffee, warm, not scalding; five strawberries in a small blue bowl, sweet although still half green; and two slices of toast, buttered and softened with parmesan. Last night's migraine has dissipated, so I read Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel while I breakfast.

On a more academic note, I have two ideas for papers: one on Arendt and Kierkegaard and another on Foucault and Dorian Grey. Perhaps a third paper, too. A conversation between their conclusions. But then who would read it? I am so tired of writing papers no one ever reads.

My sister and parents leave for the doctor at around 2 p.m. I stay home on account of my sore head and mostly lounge around in bed with the cat. My intention is to take advantage of the quiet to write my novel, but I seem to be having trouble starting.

At 3:30 p.m., my torment is elevated by a Whatsapp message sent by one of the officers at the student organization I started in grad school. They inform me they are resigning due to a conflict with one of the other officers, who has also resigned. Now there is no one at the helm. How can four years of hard work be undone in three weeks?! I am livid, although I try to keep it out of my response.

I read more of Bring Up the Bodies. By the time my parents and sister return from the doctor, I am sufficiently mollified. My sister heads straight for her room, my father for his office, and my mother, standing in the kitchen, bursts into tears. There has been an incident in the car; my father didn't have the cash on him to pay for my sister's appointment and hadn't told my mother. The surprise distressed her and they bickered. That is not the issue, I am referring to, the cause of the tears. They come because while my father is at the cash point, my sister's mood curdles and she begins spitting insults, saying she doesn't want to see her therapist, saying my parents, my mother especially, have ruined her life. I know these fits, or I'm coming to know them, now that I've moved back home. They're new and they come frequently, every time she's displeased or stressed; every time she has to go to a doctor or a therapist's appointment; or anything is asked of her that she isn't used to doing, like taking her plate to the dishwasher or filling her own water bottle. She erupts. Her eyes go wide, her face becomes oddly strained, taunt. I don't know her in those moments and it frightens me.

REMINDERS:

Email Shipping Company

Email Lawyer

Email other Lawyer

Maybe find a way to exist that doesn't require as many lawyers.

[animageoftoast]

A tech at the hospital I volunteer at told me I “walk gracefully, as if you don’t have a care in the world” which I found HILARIOUS because a 6 foot 2, 30 something y/o psych patient had just cornered and screamed at me until a nurse overheard and came to help and I was literally shakin and quakin in my boots trying to go do anything else besides interact with a patient for a few minutes and I don’t know if she meant it as an insult, because it didn’t seem like one in her tone but contextually it would be an insult to tell someone they move without purpose in a work setting but anyway, it made me think about how my dad would always tell me I come across as if I “don’t have a care in the world”. The same exact phrase, and I remember I hated when he’d say that, because it was a huge reminder that he didn’t know me at all. I’m the most anxious person I know. Yesterday I cried because a friend sent me a workout plan and there was something on it I couldn’t do (scoliosis) and I was too afraid to confront them to ask them to make a small revision so I just sobbed instead. For like, thirty minutes. I was also crying because the idea of doing jumping jacks in public is terrifying because my self image is, without detail, very poor - and on top of that deep seeded issues surrounding weight fill me with overwhelming shame constantly. Truthfully, I care about everything a lot, I have many cares in the world and about it! I so rarely feel seen for that. I’m not academically gifted or particularly well collected or even especially intelligent, I am just mortified by the idea of failure, and I don’t know where to place worth in myself otherwise because the idea of inherent worth *sounds* nice and all but isn’t really applicable or realistic in life. I don’t think anyone sees me, and I don’t know if that’s less or more worrying than if they did, but it’s certainly worrying, and in addition to being anxious I now also feel alone, and I’m not sure what to do with that. I’m so full of my least favorite emotion; I’m embarrassed, and all the fake it till you make it confidence in the world can’t undo that, nor the gratitude, nor the loved ones believing in you. I feel like so much time’s gone by, and if I haven’t forged a path by now that maybe I’ll be lost forever. Or maybe it’ll come to me when I’m 30, and I’ll feel ok about all the things I’ve been through and all that I’ve done and realize it was the best I could do. If I’m farther away from the person I am now, maybe my shortcomings become easier to forgive, when they aren’t so easy to remember. Maybe I’ll know where I’m going, and maybe I’ll walk a little faster.

[dieterfaust]

Dieter was in his final year of undergrad (~six years before MSQ) at the Studium when he dreamt of a starshower. Before he ever saw a vision, his Echo's passive ability (an intuition for how to find what he's looking for that's the rough equivalent of the in-game interactable sparkles) had already manifested; but since the effect is so subtle, he didn't notice. His first vision was two weeks later, when he was reading an academic paper & felt KEENLY frustrated by the author's unclear writing style; as he was paging backwards & wondering to himself where in the hells the author had gotten his results, Dieter saw a vision of the author conducting the experiment in question

Dieter came back out of it with an unusually intense migraine (something he's already prone to). He IMMEDIATELY took himself to the Sharlayan emergency room, because that was DEFINITELY a brain event; at some point, someone was able to tell him that he had had an Echo, & NOT a stroke lmao

Of course, this is hilarious, because Dieter had VERY strong opinions about Hydaelyn & the Twelve, & they were not especially... credulous. He thought the gods were either so weak that they COULDN'T intercede on their worshippers' behalf, or so callous & disconnected that they WOULDN'T; but either way, unworthy of worship. (Basically, an atheist, but in a setting where the gods are scientifically proven to exist.) So being picked out as one of Hydaelyn's chosen really felt like a slap in the face, or an intentional insult; looking at it through this lens, he disdained & resented his Echo, literally until Elidibus told him otherwise in SHB lmao

Question for the fine XIV OC havers on this lovely day:

If your character has the Echo, when did it first manifest? Was it during the MSQ or before? What did they see? How did they react? Did they tell anyone? Gimme your lore!