#cfa classes near me

[zelleducation]

Create a Study Plan: Before you begin studying, create a detailed study plan that outlines what topics you will cover and when. Set specific goals for each study session to keep yourself on track.

[thecynthh]

smart ass - M.S pt 5

synopsis - matt’s not doing to well with his schooling but is determined to get his degree and pass his classes. one essay which is a huge part of their grade haunts him with a bad mark, luckily y/n is willing to help him

notes - NOT PROOF READ, lowercase intention smut near the end, aftercare cus thats what matt specializes in, cuddles

a/n - uhm idk if yalls could tell, or if u knew but i’m a virgin and have never kissed anyone so 🫣

leave some suggestions for chris or matt fics for me to write pls as well :3

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present day a few days after their second study session

y/n pov

matt s 🐼

hey message me when ur leaving ur house. 8:46

btw we r ordering food to the house cus i dont wanna get gas. 8:47

text me what u want from CFA. 8:47

you

what in the flying fuck is CFA? 8:49

matt s 🐼

uhm hello? kid, how do u not know what CFA is???? 8:49

you

abbreviations like this is what's wrong with our generation… 8:50

matt s 🐼

kay ur so weird omfg. 5:50

CFA clearly means chick-fil-a smartass 🙄. 8:51

you

oh well then 😋. nuggets and waffle fries please 🛐🛐. 8:52

and sunjoy btww. 8:52

matt s 🐼

ew u like sunjoy? 8:53

you

u like rootbear don’t talk to me ✋. 8:52

and let me in pls im already outside :). 8:52

read at 8:52

i sling my bag over my shoulder and leave my car, waiting outside the large house with thrilling anticipation as i wait for matt to open the door. I see the fluff of his brown locks and a sweater similar to the one i’ve seen him wear before at school. i dont know why i get giddy when i see him, i dont know how we went to only speaking when madi was around too greeting each other whenever we see each other in the halls or cafe or even in our shared classes.

matt and his brothers were some of my closest friends now, after madi introduced me to them at a party, both of us got insanely drunk and made me call off crazy drinking ever since. all i remember from that night was the way matt took care of me while i was in a very vulnerable state and didn’t take advantage of me. i haven’t told anyone but madi about what happened to me when i was younger, and i’m glad she’s still taken her promise to heart, the only thing that telling her about my past shit did was make her and i closer.

i see matt in full view after he opens the door, “hey!” i say with a cheery expression despite how late it was for me.

“heyyy, thanks for coming by the way, even though you had a shift earlier.” he says sheepishly, before i left for work he messaged me begging to have another study session because he had more questions about the essay part of the exam. “oh hey lemme put your stuff in my room, just chill on the couch before the food gets here.” i pass him my backpack and laptop as he begins to walk down a hallway to make it to his room.

i move through the small entryway and become more apparent in his brothers view, “heyy y/n” nick says moving up to me for a hug, i take in his embrace.

“hi nick!!” i say excitedly. other than matt, ive hung out with nick a lot too, madi always has him over at her apartment, and even the three of us have made it a plan to meet up at our favourite bakery and talk for however long we want too a couple times a week. out of the little over a month i’ve know the triplets, nick has made a huge impact on me, and i felt safe around him, as well as chris and matt.

he lets go of me while i walk over to a slumped over chris on the couch, when he realised i was here he sits up on the edge of the couch. “sup chris,” i dap him up doing a little bro half hug with him.

“always nice to see you y/n,” he says as our arms unfold from the middle of us. i take a seat next to him with a comfortable amount of distance between us. matt returns not too long after i greet everyone. He sits down between chris and i and nick returns from the kitchen with a pepsi, root beer, bottled water and a lemonade, passing out everyone's drink knowing what each of us would ask for. matt and i give nick a thank you as he nods his head after.

nick stationed himself on the elongated part of the couch settling in with his fluffy blanket, he puts on a stranger thing episode and we all sit watching the tv. it only takes another five minutes of the episode for the doorbell to ring through the house. nick gets up immediately scurrying to the door with his fluffy blanket wrapped around him as he talks to the delivery man, thanking him and making small steps to see the rest of us. he comes back with two large bags of food planting them on the coffee table in front of all of us, before grabbing a tray of drinks after going back to the entrance.

“thank you for paying matty,” chris says, rubbing up again his brother with his lips pursed and now shoulder to shoulder with his older brother. i giggle at the sight, copying chris.

“mmmmh thanks mattyyyy” i say resting my head on the peak of his shoulder, pursing my lips as well and copying chris’ weird voice.

“you’re a fucking weirdo chris,” matt says in a disgusted voice flicking the other head that was very close to his face. “and you're welcome y/n.”

i laugh at chris’ overly dramatic reaction to what matt did to him. still giggling a bit at the sight of matt completely ignoring his brothers reaction, I say “just tell me how much i own you.”

“eh, don’t worry about it, it’s on me, plus save up for that new laptop you were talking about. i know how much you want it,” i blush slightly.

“aww thank you then,” i wrap my arms around him and squeeze him, he hands me the food that i asked for and retract back onto the couch.

“by the way, what time are we planning to stay up till? i told madi that i’ll tell her when i was heading home.” i saw looking at matt.

“well its kinda late so if you wanna stay in the guest room, im fine with that.” matt says, moving his head towards me, then breaking eye contact with the tv screen.

“im ay okay with that if you wanna stay over! plus you know your way around the house,” nick says giving his approval to matts idea of staying over.

“mhm im chill with it,” chris simply says.

“uhh yeah then, i'm down, thanks!”

we eat then say goodnight to nick and chris before we go to matt's room for some studying.

i lay down onto his bed as he walks over to his bathroom to change into some comfier clothes. while hes in there i start to think about our first study session when i found out matt had a crush on me. i thought it was very cute, but it made matt awkward on our last study night. i’m glad that he's eased up now, i just acted like i didn’t know anything and didn’t want to push on how he was feeling because I knew it would make his anxiety worse.

i come back to my senses seeing matt reappear from the bathroom door. we stayed on track for studying for an hour and a half before we eventually put on brooklyn 99 on in the background and talked.

“so, the retake is in a couple days, you think you’re ready?” i was hopeful he would be good by then because tonight felt very productive. I quizzed him on a couple of important ideas while he was playing with a baseball, throwing it up and down in the air. i learnt that he understands stuff better when he is doing something with his hands, it keeps him focused.

“hm, i’m not too sure, maybe another study sesh the day after tomorrow so by friday i’ll have all the stuff we went over fresh in my mind.” the baseball still gets thrown up and falls down in front of his face, with his hand waiting to catch it before it smacks him right on his nose. “thanks again for this,” i hear him catch it one more time before he moves his hand away from his face and looks at me just to the right of him. i'm hovering over him slightly, his eyes glow the brightest in the slight illumination from the lamp we always use when we study.

“yeah of course matt, you're my friend anyways.” our faces mirror each other, his eyes roam my faces while his hand holds the side of my face.

i toss my hair to the side of my head to lean down to kiss matt, he immediately returns the kiss enveloping my bottom lip with his. i moan into his mouth feeling him push me down and dominate me. one of his hands rests on my hip keeping me down as i pull him down with my legs letting him top me. most of his body is pressed down to mine, i lift my hips to give myself some kind of sensation i desperately crave for.

“fuck, i’m sorry are you okay with this?” matt says when he disconnects us.

i cup his chin bringing him a little closer, “i really fucking like you matt, please don’t stop.”

a smirk grows onto his face, “i really fucking like you too, you’re lucky i do.” he becomes more unserious pecking little kisses amoungst my face making a very loud “mwah” sound with each of he presses into my skin.

“matttt” i say through my sour looking face while he shows his affection.

“okay, okay, i’m done. but uh, how about we kiss again, didn’t get a good feel of it the first time.” he says with a knowing smirk on his face. i use my hand to weave through his brunette hair pulling him towards me again, we share a more passionate kiss, with knowing and love rather than lust.

it doesn’t take us long till things got more serious, his lips attach to my neck instantly sucking multiple hickeys into visible spots on my neck, moving down to my collar bone and eventually to the full and plump part of my boob. this is where my dream stopped last week, ive been trying to ignore it for the longest time but being in the moment now after thinking about it in my head makes it feel even more surreal.

his hand sneaks to the bottom of my fresh love shirt that i took from matt’s drawers when i found out i was sleeping here his fingers feel the hem of it. “is it alright if i take your shirt off?” he says with a quiet voice, almost afraid of what i’ll say.

i quickly nod in reply but that doesn’t seem good enough for him.

“words smart ass, i need words.” he says with a little bit of a condescending tone to his love tainted words.

“yes matt, you can take my shirt off too.” i say with a small giggle following after it.

he lifts the fabric to uncover the same white lace bra i was wearing while i slept over at his house by accident. “mh, i’ve been dreaming about this for a while ever since i saw you in it that morning,” he kisses the lace that travels to the small connecting piece of fabric between the two cups of my bra.

“and i know you heard what chris said to me that morning, yet you still acted like nothing was wrong.” he moves his hand to my upper back placing his hand onto my bra strap, “hey, can i take this off?”

“mhm,” my lips sealed trying to conceal my response to the amazing feeling of his hands on my body, he undoes the clip on my back with skill and purpose. the touch of his fingertips grant goosebumps to my skin in a very arousing manner.

he pulls the dainty clothing article off my arms and throws it to the floor benign absolutely amazed by my tits, they weren’t much but it seemed like matt was under a spell, he latched his lips just above my nipple to give me more hickeys, he sucks and soothes repeating this multiple times before he eventually dips down to my nipple, i feel the rush of arousal arching slightly off the bed.

i moan in response to the new sensation, i’m not exactly a virgin, but i haven’t done anything like this in a while, let alone at all for god sake. he massages the other boob, playing with the nipple with his hand the opposite of the one his mouth is very focused on.

he finally comes up for air after a little bit teasing, my thighs rub together and sits up to rip his shirt off to match my level of revealing skin, off goes his sweats as well leaving him in just his boxers, “matt, oh my god” i'm out of breath and very needy.

he continues a trail of kisses down to my clothes pussy, he looks up at me while holding the stretchy waistband of my pants, i give him a vigorous nod knowing what he was asking for.

he slides them completely off leaving me in just my underwear. he plants another sweet kids over my clothed heat which milks another desperate moan from me. “matt wait-“ he immediately comes up from my bottom half and lays beside me listening to me.

“hey we don’t have too if you don’t want too, i’m down if you just wanna go to bed in the other room, or even if you just wanna stay here and cuddle for the rest of the night.” he says before i can go ahead with what i was thinking.

“no, no i really want too it’s just, i haven’t really… done this before.” i tell him, he seems almost fully unaffected by my words.

“that’s fine, i’m here to make you feel good,” he places his hand nearing my core again, he rubs my panties over my clit moving down to feel the very apparent wet spot. “wow i’ve barely touched you and your so worked up,” his voice was sultry with a hint of a condescending tone.

“m-matt please” i struggle to say feeling the pressure he's putting down onto my throbbing clit.

“i’m gonna take these off now, okay?” he says with his fingers wrapped around the thin string of my thong that’s barely covers anything.

he slips them off admiring the sight in front of him, i almost get self conscious wanting to cover myself up with his blankets. his head dips and his hands pant onto my hips and one on my inner thigh. his tongue makes very sudden contact with my clit, he sucks and swirls his tongue around it, feeling the very heavy pressure i arch my back slighting leaning forward into his face.

his finger creeps and teases my hole before he fully plunged it into me. i heavy moan escapes my lips, “quiet now princess, can’t let nick or chris hear you.”

he continues his movements stimulating both my clit and hole at the same time, “more, please” i say with a pleading tone. he removes his finger from inside of me and replaces it with his tongue and mouth. he absolutely devoured my pussy giving me as much pleasure as he could, his mouth moving back to my clip and he slid his finger back into me moving it at a moderate pace.

i don’t try very hard to conceal my very loud moans, as soon as matt enters a second finger into my dripping cunt, i release with a pornographic moan, squeezing his head between my legs. “holy shit matt,” he licks up all of my hot cum and comes back up to kiss me.

“mmh you did so well for me, you ready for me now?” i say a needy yes while he goes back to sit back on the his headboard. he removes his boxers with such haste letting his cock spring out with a bead of pre-cum leaking out. “i wanna watch you ride me, you control the pace and how deep you wanna go.” he whispers into my ear.

he lifts me on top of him, kissing him passionately while i grind down onto his twitching cock. he lets out a guttered groan “okay, let’s do this cause i could bust just from looking at you.”

he lines himself up and holds my hips while i sink down onto him. his so thick and long, i feel him in ever existing crevasse in my cunt. “fuck yes” i say letting out a heavy breath.

“holy shit you’re so tight-“ he says between his monas and hard breathes. i begin to move myself up and down slowly, whatever pain that came at first quickly moved to pleasure as i speed up my movements.

my tits bounce every time i move up or down, my movements are set at a constant pace, “matt, i think- i think i’m gonna cum.” i say, feeling his dick twitch in my pussy again.

“come for me baby, give it to me,” he says, taking me by my love handles and moving me up and down a little faster. i came hearing his words letting out a couple of breathy moans, he follows soon after me. i feel his thick long ropes of cum fill me up and come back down dripping onto his cock.

matt does a couple of slower pumps in and out of me to ride both of us through our highs. he picks me up as if i weigh nothing and puts me down beside him laying down onto the bed.

he goes into the bathroom to retrieve a small cloth and comes back to wipe me down. he does a couple of strips to pick up as much extra cum he could. i feel him hit my clit and i whimper loudly, “oh god, i’m sorry, i know your still sensitive.” once he’s finished he goes into the bathroom and cleans himself up.

fishing his boxers from the ground he slides them on and grabs my underwear and a large t-shirt from his closet. he hops onto the bed putting on my underwear and pulling me up to put on the shirt.

“mh thank you,” i say tired and groggy.

he plants a kiss onto my forehead “anything for you smart ass.”

he comes under the covers and wraps his arms around me, intertwining our legs. we sleep peacefully until the morning

taglist - @westwiing @comet235

[lawassociate45]

6 Estate Planning Must-haves

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[psibinstitute]

What are some good certification courses for investment banking in India?

Firstly, one of the most popular certifications in investment banking is the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program. This is a globally recognized certification that covers a wide range of topics related to investment banking such as equity analysis, financial statement analysis, portfolio management, and corporate finance. The CFA program is a rigorous course that requires a lot of dedication and hard work, but it is definitely worth it in the end. It is also a great way to stand out from other candidates during job interviews and advance your career in the investment banking industry.

Another great certification program for investment banking in India is the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification. This program is focused on risk management, which is a critical aspect of investment banking. It covers topics such as market risk, credit risk, operational risk, and risk modeling. The FRM certification is also globally recognized and is a great way to enhance your skills in risk management, which is becoming increasingly important in the investment banking industry.

In my personal life, I pursued the CFA program a few years ago and it has been one of the best decisions I have made for my career. It was challenging, but it gave me a strong foundation in financial analysis and allowed me to stand out in a crowded job market. I also had the opportunity to meet and network with other professionals in the investment banking industry, which has been invaluable. So, I highly recommend considering the CFA or FRM certification programs if you are looking to advance your career in investment banking in India.

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[becomingkatie]

Today was bike to work day in the DMV (my coworker said Boston is also doing it today so I wonder how widespread it is) and I did it for the first time!! Well, I’m working from home today so I biked to one of the pit stops to get a t shirt and then biked back home, which is technically “to work” today.

Ken was trying to be a very helpful partner and I was like “I got it I got it I got it” and y’all… I did not got it. He sent me a pic of his suggested route and I was like yeah yeah yeah and then got lost at every single opportunity. So lost.

Also, it was my first ride with clipless pedals (other than at spin classes) so I was nervous about getting my feet stuck and then falling over at a stop sign, but other than one near miss I did fine! Well, “fine” is one way to put it… I struggled clipping in so rode quite a lot with at least one foot not clipped but just sitting annoyingly on the pedal. By the end of it I’d pretty much gotten the hang of it though!

And the t shirt is bright pink! And then I took Theo through the CFA drive thru for chicken minis and iced coffee, and if you ever want to see a drive thru worker light up just bring a cat with you in your car.

[spine-buster]

Alone, Together | Chapter 34 | Morgan Rielly

A/N:  Some might consider this a little bit of a filler chapter, but I actually think it’s a really important piece in establishing Bee as a person.  Anywho...hope you guys enjoy!  The next two chapters they are back in the West Coast, so you know what that means..........😇

It was going to take a while for Bee to comes to terms with the fact that two of her best friends were leaving Toronto.  In the past ten days, she had tried to feel less selfish about the situation – how it affected her and how her life would change, how sad she was about it and how she was going to cope with it – and instead focus on the positives – how Tyler being in Ottawa would be a good leadership opportunity for him on a young team, and how Naz being traded to Colorado meant he would still be on a Cup-contending team.  She tried to think about the positives for Ashley, too – how Denver was a beautiful city to raise a family in.  How the media would still be loud but much quieter than the media in Toronto.  How she’d probably be able to check her Instagram and not have DMs flood her inbox or have bunny blogs gossip about her shopping habits at Holt Renfrew based on information they heard from their sister’s friend’s brother’s girlfriend’s hairstylist’s dog walker’s niece who saw her buy her second Yves Saint Laurent bag of the month.  

It would be okay.

Bee had to believe it would be okay.  Because if any doubt arose in her about the situation, she’d have another crying episode like she did that night of July 1st, where Morgan had to hold her all night, assuring her that everything would be okay, giving her the only answers he could.  She kept trying to think of the positives.  She didn’t do things to distract herself from the situation – she genuinely internalized the reality of the situation and tried to see the positives as much as possible.  It would make her feel better, she thought, about everything.  And Morgan – bless him – was helping as much as he could.  He knew better than anybody that it wouldn’t be easy for her, and so he took it upon himself to ease the pain.  No small feat.  But he did, because he loved her, because he wanted to see genuine smiles and laughs from her instead of forced happiness.  He started a countdown to their vacation to Vancouver.  He told her about how nice Tyson Barrie and Alexander Kerfoot (Kerfy, apparently) were, and how she’d like them.  How Kerfy was already a good friend because they had grown up together and played together in Vancouver.  He bought her bigger bouquets of flowers.  They got ice cream more often.  He let her cuddle into him however and whenever she wanted, and let her fall asleep on his chest with their limbs entwined and he’d carry her to bed, holding her in his arms the entire time.

Despite the emotional minefield that was July 1st, in the following days, she managed to register herself to write the first exam for her CFA certification in December, and she passed her driving test.  She was officially a G2 class driver.  Life had to move on.  It always did.  The only thing constant is change.  

So when Morgan told her to get in the car, because he was going to take her somewhere, that it was a surprise, she was excited to.  The last time he did so they ended up in Muskoka making love for an entire weekend.  She even offered to drive there, but he said that wouldn’t be necessary, because it would spoil the surprise.  So she hopped in the passenger’s seat.  They got on the highway.  And they travelled north.  Like, really north.  North of the city, to the suburb of Vaughan, where Bee noticed Morgan turn into the driveway of Pfaff Auto, where he had gotten his Porsche, a small smile on his face as they parked the car near the front.  

“What are we doing here?” she asked as he turned off the ignition.  

“What do you think?” he asked rhetorically.  

Before she could answer, Bee noticed a man in a suit outside Morgan’s window, and she nodded her head towards it so it could grab Morgan’s attention.  The man waved enthusiastically and Morgan opened the door.  “Santi!  Hey!”

“Morgan!  Nice to see you bud!” he said as Morgan opened the door.  “This must be Bee!” Santi waved at her.  “How are you Bee?”

“I’m…good,” she said awkwardly as she saw Morgan start to get out of the car.  She followed suit and walked around to where the men were standing.  

“Morgan mentioned how you had passed your driving test.  Congratulations!” Santi said.  “We thought it would be a great idea to bring you in and welcome you into the Pfaff Family!”

“Oh?” Bee looked between Santi and Morgan.  She stood stiff in between the two men.  “Am I…you…you didn’t bring me here to pick out a car, did you?” she asked Morgan, who only smiled.  “Morgan.”

“Don’t Morgan me,” he said, his response every single time she said his name in that tone of voice.  “Let’s go inside and see our options, hmm?”

Bee didn’t really have a choice.  They were already there, Santi was already smiling and waving and ready to show her cars, and when they walked inside, other employees waved and shook hands and it was all very nice, but Bee didn’t know what to do.  She wondered if anybody could see how out of her element she was.  She felt like a visiting Princess Kate being given a tour of something she had no clue about, smiling and nodding along and asking basic questions about things to make it seem like she understood what they were talking about and comfortable with what was going on around her.  But she wasn’t.  For a person who had never owned a car before, and who had only been in the very basic cars of her friends, she really didn’t have a clue.  She knew the names, obviously, but everything else was extra.  Everything else was so…extravagant.  

Santi was nice.  Warm.  Accommodating.  To his credit, he was an excellent salesman and knowledgeable of every little detail about every car or SUV they saw or sat in.  He would usher her into the driver’s seat, he’d get into the passenger’s seat, and Morgan would slip in the backseat, and he’d go on and on about all the features.  The leather seats.  The luxury interior.  The beeping sensors for when you were reversing.  GPS Navigation.  The backup cameras.  The sunroofs.  The option for add-on DVD players for the backseat.  Luxury add-ons here.  Luxury add-ons there.

Bee had to write down all the names of the cars so she could remember them all.  The Porsche Cayenne Sport, the Mercedes Benz GLS 450, the BMW X7 xDrive 50i, the Porsche Macan Sport, the BMW Alpina B7 xDrive, the Audi A8 L 55, the BMW M5 Competition, the Mercedes Benz S-Class.  It was all so overwhelming.  There were so many things to remember.  Santi didn’t even mention gas mileage.  He didn’t mention how much it cost to fill up a tank of gas, how expensive it was to insure these cars, how expensive they were even just to maintain.  She got more and more nervous the more she thought about it.  It filled her with anxiety, being in something that was so expensive.  

These cars weren’t for her.

“What’s the price point you’re looking for?” Santi asked as they sat together in the BMW X7.  It was a beautiful crossover, no doubt, and Bee liked it, as objectively as she could like a car this expensive.  

“We’re not thinking about that today,” Morgan butt in from the backseat.  Santi gave him a smile.  She looked at him through the rear-view mirror.  

“What a guy, eh?” Santi joked, nodding his head towards Morgan.  “We’ll take care of you guys, anyway.  When Chris comes in he’ll arrange all that.  He’ll be so happy to see you.”

“Who’s Chris?” Bee finally piped up.

“Chris Pfaff, the president and CEO,” Santi said.  “After Morgan and I chose the Porsche last year Chris made sure Morgan was taken care of.  And with Morgan referring some of the other Leafs to us, there’s no way we’re not going to take care of you again.”

Bee wondered what Santi meant when he said ‘take care’, but she knew if she asked she’d seem like an idiot.  Maybe it just meant they got a good deal on the car or something.  A discount.  An add-on for only half the price.  $100 in gas gift cards, like she always saw advertised on TV.  

After what seemed like sitting in the millionth car, Santi was called away briefly, leaving Morgan and Bee alone for the first time since they parked.  They stood beside an immaculate Range Rover.  Bee looked over at Morgan, who was already looking at her.  “What do you think?” he asked her.

“I don’t want to make a decision today,” she said, knowing he wouldn’t know why.  He seemed to be having the time of his life being in all the cars.  She never understood boys’ fascination with them.

“What?”

“I don’t want to make a decision today.  I don’t…” she shook her head slightly, biting on her nail.  “I want to think about it.”

“But they--”

“I want to do my own research,” she interrupted him, not wanting to get into it now.  “I just want to go home with all the information he gave me and I want to do my own research and make my own decision.”

Morgan looked at her for a moment.  He studied her.  He saw the biting of the nail and saw her furrowed eyebrows and he nodded his head.  “Okay.  Okay.  We’ll let Santi know.”

Santi gave Bee his card and told her to call him when she made her decision.  She thanked him endlessly for all his help and information, and she and Morgan left Pfaff, beginning the long trek back downtown to their place.  Bee sat looking out the window, not saying a word, mulling over everything going on inside her head.  Morgan would take occasional glances at her, allowing them to sit in silence until they pulled into the parking garage and into their designated spot.  He knew something was going on and he wanted to know.  

“What’s wrong?”

Bee felt ashamed.  She couldn’t even look at him even though she knew he was looking directly at her.  “I don’t want any of those cars,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“What?”

“I don’t want any of those cars,” she said a bit louder so he could hear.  “I don’t…I don’t need any of those cars.”

“What do you mean you don’t need any of those cars?”

She sighed.  “I only need a car that can get me from A to B.  I’m not even going to drive it to work.  The most I’ll be driving it is up to Rocco and Clarette’s house or to go grocery shopping.  Maybe to go visit Aryne and John.  I don’t think I need a ninety thousand dollar SUV to do that.”

Morgan shifted in his seat.  “Okay…I get that,” he admitted.  “But…I mean, they can help us, you know?  The guys at Pfaff can take care of us.”

“Why do you guys keep saying that?  What does that even mean?” she asked, her voice more assertive now.  

“They can gift it to us, Briony.  Like the Porsche.”

Bee whipped her head towards Morgan.  “Gift it to us?  Like the Porsche?”

“Yeah.”

“You…” she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  “You’re telling me this Porsche is a gift.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t pay a lease payment on this thing?”

“No.”

“A financing payment?”

“No.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” she exclaimed.  “This entire fucking time we’ve been driving this car you haven’t had to pay a cent on it except for gas and insurance?” she asked.  Morgan nodded his head.  “What the fuck, Morgan?!”

“Why are you so angry?” he asked, remaining the calm one in the conversation.

“We don’t need a free car!” she yelled, unable to hold her emotions back any longer.  “We have the money to pay for a car!  We have the money to pay for any car we fucking want to and you’re telling me you’re paying nothing?!  We should be paying for a car!”

“What’s the big deal?” Morgan questioned.  

“It’s the principle!” she began.  “This is exactly what’s wrong with this entire fucking system.  I grew up with literally nothing by no fault of my own and I was still expected to pay my whole way through whatever came up in my life.  You – and I don’t mean you specifically Morgan, but people like you, other hockey players and those stupid Instagram influencer girls from here just dying to hang out with you guys for status and clout – you guys have all this money and yet you get everything for free so long as you put it on your Instagram.  It’s not fair.  It’s not fair when so many fucking people in this city are struggling to get by and working their asses off at minimum wage jobs just to afford rent and the Toronto Maple Leafs are getting free luxury cars.”

Morgan stayed quiet.  He knew she was right, like with most things, and he had never considered her perspective before.  He had failed to consider the entire situation from her perspective.  It was hard for him.  He just thought it would be a nice day out.  Go to a dealership, pick out a car.  He’d take care of it for her, like he promised her he would with everything on that dock in Muskoka.  And although she had accepted that, this wasn’t the way she wanted him to go about “taking care” of things.  She obviously wanted to do everything fairly.  “Briony…”

“I can’t believe you never told me this car was a gift,” she said, her voice much calmer now.  “Look, I’m sorry I raised my voice.  But we’re not poor.  We can afford the financing or lease payments on any car I choose to get.  And that’s the way it’s gonna be.”

“Okay,” Morgan nodded his head, his voice soft.  “Okay.  We can do that.”

“I can do that,” she corrected.  “I want to pay for my own car.  This entire time I’ve been saving my money and I can afford it.  I’ve budgeted it out.”

“But Briony--”

“Morgan--”

“I told you in Muskoka that I wanted to give you the things you want and need in life without you being uncomfortable about it.  That I didn’t want you to worry about anything ever again.”

“I know, Morgan, but please, please, you have to let me do this for myself.  Please,” she was practically begging.  “I know you want to do that for me.  I know.  That’s why you brought me to Pfaff today.  And I love you and I appreciate it and you know I do but I’m doing this for me.  You…you have no idea what it means to be to be able to buy my own car with my own money.”

Morgan could hear by the tone in her voice how much this meant for her.  He couldn’t deny that he wanted to do this for her – to get her whatever car she wanted, luxury or not – but he also couldn’t deny her the opportunity of being able to get a car herself.  For her, it was independence.  It was investing in something she never had the opportunity to before.  It meant having something of her own, when her whole life, she didn’t have anything to her name.  Who was he to deny her that?

“Okay,” he nodded his head again.  “Alright, okay.  I’m sorry Briony.”

“There is no need for you to apologize,” she said, reaching over the console to grab his hand.  “I should be the one who is sorry for raising my voice.  I just…I felt overwhelmed in there.  It was fun but overwhelming.  You’re the best boyfriend in the world for doing something like that for me.  You probably think I’m insane.”

“Why would I think that?”

Bee gave him a look.  “A girl rejecting a luxury car so she could get a cheaper one?  Who does that?”

Morgan smiled slightly, shaking his head.  He leaned over the console to give her a kiss.  “Briony McTavish does that,” he whispered once he pulled away.  “And that’s why I love her.”

“Oh yeah?” Bee smiled slightly.  

“Mhm,” Morgan kissed her again.  “You’re something else, Briony.  I’d do anything for you.  And this means so much to you.  You’ve put your mind to it.  You’ve budgeted it out and you know you’re going to be okay and that you won’t have to worry.  I would never take that away from you.”

Before their conversation could advance any further, Morgan’s phone started to ring through the Bluetooth system in the car.  On the screen on the dash, Nazem’s name flashed.  “We’ll continue this later,” he said before answering the call.  “Naz!  What’s up?  You’re on speaker with me and Bee.”

“Hey guys,” he said into the phone.  “You uh…you guys might want to make your way to Toronto General.”

“Why?” Morgan asked.  

From beside him, Bee’s jaw dropped.  “Ohmygod Naz, did Ashley have the baby?”

“Come quick.  Come meet her,” he said, a slight giggle in his voice.  

“Her?!” Bee screamed.  “Her?!  Ohmygod we’re on our way right now.”

***

“Here she is.  Baby Naylah,” Naz was smiling from ear to ear as he led Morgan and Bee through the doorway to Ashley’s room.  John and Aryne were already there, Aryne sitting in a chair and John leaning against the windowsill as Ashley cradled the tiny baby in her arms.

“Heeeyyyy,” Ashley said gently, a beaming smile on her face.  “She’s here.  She’s finally here.”

“Oh, Ashley…” Bee cooed, catching a glimpse of the little girl’s face tucked between the swaddling blanket and little hat on her head.  “Ashley, she’s absolutely beautiful.”

“How you feeling, momma?” Morgan smiled.  

“Labour was about eight hours, but everything was fine,” Ashley said.  “We came in yesterday around this time.  We’ve just been in our own little world with her until now.”

Morgan smiled and looked at Naz.  “Nazem Kadri, father,” he shook his head.  “Lord help us all.”

“That’s what I said,” John said as everybody laughed.  “Father to a girl, nonetheless.  She’s gonna make you the biggest sap in the universe.”

“She’s already got me wrapped around her little finger,” Naz shrugged his shoulders, admitting defeat.  He was still beaming, still on a high from welcoming his daughter into the world.  “I’ll admit it.  She’s gonna get whatever she wants.”

“You wanna hold her, Aunt Bee?” Ashley offered.  

Bee’s jaw dropped again.  “Oh my God.  Oh my God.  Can I?”

“She’s very calm.  She just woke up and might need a feeding soon so it’s your only chance,” Ashley smiled.  Bee moved closer towards her as Ashley placed Naylah delicately in her arms.  “Make sure you support her head.  She’s swaddled so she should be fine.”

Bee held Naylah close to her chest, rocking her back and forth.  She heard Naylah make little noises and watched as Naylah’s eyes looked up at her, studying her closely.  She knew this random, strange lady was definitely not her mom.  “Hi Naylah,” Bee cooed.  “I’m your Aunt Bee.  I’m so glad you’re finally here.”  She continued to look down at the tiny baby in her arms, marvelling at her little expressions and tiny features.  She couldn’t believe she was finally holding her.

Bee looked up briefly to see everybody smiling at her.  “Looks like you’re still the baby whisperer, Bee,” Aryne giggled, resting her hand on her bump.  “You’re gonna be back here in two months doing this all over again.”

“Bring it on,” she said, continuing to rock Naylah back and forth and cradling her small head in her hand.  “Give me all the babies and the babysitting duties and I’ll be one happy camper.”

As if on cue, Naylah began fussing a little bit, her eyes closing and lips pursing.  “Uh oh.  Spoke too soon,” Bee said.  She tried to calm her down but the attempt was futile.  Naylah continued to purse her lips until she let out a small cry.  “Looks like someone is hungry again.”

“That’s our cue,” Aryne said, standing up from her seat.  “We’ll wait outside until she’s done, maybe go grab some coffee.”

“I’ll let you guys know,” Naz said as they all began to exit.  “My sisters are coming back soon, too.  You might see them.”

John and Morgan decided to hang out in the waiting room while Aryne and Bee decided to go for a coffee run to the Starbucks.  As they were waiting for everybody’s drinks, Bee told Aryne what she and Morgan had been up to that day at Pfaff and the discussion they’d had in the car.  Bee explained her reasoning.  Morgan’s reaction.  Her insistence on getting the car on her own.  

Aryne sipped on her own coffee as she listened to Bee.  “You’ve always been really principled,” she said.  “You don’t need to apologize for anything.  I get where you’re coming from.  But I also understand where Morgan was coming from.  Especially after what you told me he said in Muskoka.  Like, I get him wanting to do that for you.”

“Me too,” Bee said.  “And I promised him I’d try to stop feeling uncomfortable about it.  And I have – I mean, the trip back to Vancouver and this bracelet are perfect examples of that,” she said, flashing the Cartier love bracelet that was still on her wrist.  “But I…a car is different.  I never thought I’d have a car.  Now I have an opportunity to get one.  I want to get one that’s economical.  I don’t want to get a BMW or Mercedes just because I can – well, just because Morgan can.  I can’t afford one of those cars on my own.  Morgan’s wanted me to save my money all this time anyway.  It’s only logical I use it to make the biggest purchase of my life thus far, right?”

“You don’t need to defend yourself, Bee, especially if it’s your own money,” Aryne said.  “Especially if it’s your own money.  Whatever you buy with what you’ve earned yourself is a big fuck you to everyone.  Car, designer bag, shoes, a book – whatever.  Fuck anybody who criticizes you.”

Bee was so thankful for Aryne.  Whenever she needed a voice of reason, someone to guide her through this crazy life and help her make decisions, she knew Aryne would always be there for her.  “You’re the best, you know that?” Bee smiled.

“You’ve told me that once or twice,” Aryne winked.  “Listen…on a similar vein of fuck-you purchases and people criticizing you, I need to ask you a question and I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me.”

Bee noticed her sudden shift in tone.  “Okay…”

“What did Sydney say to you?”

Bee was speechless.  “Wha…” she stuttered out.  “What do you mean?”

“I saw her comment on Morgan’s post for your graduation, and I saw what Morgan responded,” she explained.  “She had to have said something.  So what was it and when did she say it?”

Bee took a deep breath.  She wondered if she should just run out of the hospital to avoid this conversation.  “Aryne…she’s your friend.  I don’t feel comf--”

“What did she say, Bee?”

Bee gulped.  “Um, so it was the day of your baby shower,” Bee began.  “Ashley picked us up and we were driving through Moss Park to get on the DVP and she called it the ghetto.  When we came up on a red light I pointed out a building where I used to live and I told her how I grew up there and she was like ‘Well, thank God you got out’.”

“So that’s why Morgan made the ghetto comment,” Aryne connected the two together.  Bee nodded her head.  “How did Morgan find out?”

“Zach told him, sort of accidentally.  Because Alannah was there too and she was really upset about everything that happened and --”

“What else happened?” Aryne interjected.  Bee felt like crawling into a hole and dying.  “What do you mean ‘everything that happened’?  What else was there?”

“Um…I…” Bee tried to look for an escape.  “Listen.  Um, Morgan doesn’t know this part.  He only knows about the ghetto comment.  But Sydney…she, uh…she kind of kept making these comments…”

“About what?”

“About me.”

Aryne’s eyes darkened.  “What did she say.”

“It’s really not--”

“Briony,” Aryne’s voice was firm.  “What did she say.”

“It wasn’t a big deal, Aryne.  I dealt with it.  She uh, she sort of kept making, um, comments about my body.  Saying it was good that I chose that dress I wore with vertical stripes because they were slimming and that’s why it looked good.  And then Alannah asked about a deal on yoga pants I got and Sydney piped in and said she could recommend a personal trainer for me and that they’d ‘definitely help me with everything I need done’,” Bee used air quotes because she remembered the words said to her so vividly.  

“She said what?” Aryne seethed.  “Are you kidding me?”

“Aryne, it wasn’t a big deal.  I confronted her about it in the bathroom afterwards.  It was dealt with.”

“This happened during my baby shower?” she asked, her face utterly disgusted at what had transpired.  “What the hell is wrong with her?”

“Listen, I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt.  She was stressed about the wedding and--”

“Don’t give her the benefit of the doubt.  God, Bee, do not give her the benefit of the doubt.  You’re being too nice.  She was my friend in Long Island and I’m absolutely horrified she’d say something like that to you.”

“It’s not…” Bee began, shaking her head.  “My mom used to say stuff like that all the time.  She used to tell me I’d end up alone because nobody likes smart chubby girls.  It’s okay.  And it’s not like I haven’t heard it before in DMs.  You know what they look like.”

Aryne gave her a look – one mixed with the anger she was feeling but also with sadness at what Bee was revealing.  Aryne couldn’t imagine a mother saying something like that to a daughter.  “Bee, just because your mom used to say that sort of stuff to you, it doesn’t make it okay,” she stressed, reaching out to hold her hand.  “Nobody deserves comments like that being said about them.”

“I know.  But when that sort of stuff is said to me, people who mean nothing to me always say it.  My mom.  Fangirls.  Sydney,” Bee said.  “I told her that.  I told her she meant nothing to me and that even if she didn’t like me she needed to respect me--”

“Good.”

“—and I told her not to take me for a fucking idiot,” Bee couldn’t help but smile.  She was still sort of proud of herself for pulling out that line in the washroom.  “I think Sydney thinks she needs to put on a mix of this ‘I don’t give a fuck’ and ‘I’m the Queen B cool girl’ persona because that’s the image she’s built for herself and she lets it get to her head.  The fact that she grew up with a lot of privilege hasn’t helped that.  But I dealt with it.  She got married and had a beautiful wedding.  I’m still chubby.  It’s done.”

“Okay, but wait…” Aryne furrowed her brows.  “Morgan only knows about the ghetto comment?  Why?”

“That’s all Zach told him.”

“And you didn’t tell Morgan what you just told me?” Aryne asked.  Bee shook her head.  “Why not?”

It was Bee’s turn to give Aryne a look.  “I’m sorry, have you met my boyfriend, Morgan Frederick Rielly?” she asked, causing Aryne to giggle.  “God knows what he’d say to Syd – or Matt – if he found out.  He’d drop a nuke on Long Island if he could.”

“He is really protective of you out in the public sphere,” Aryne digressed.

“Exactly.  He had to make a phone call to Steve Keogh on Canada Day to try and solve my incessant DM issue,” Bee informed Aryne, who already knew all about the DMs sent on Canada Day.  “Despite Morgan’s best efforts he couldn’t get Steve to fly back from Europe, where he’s on vacation with his family, to handle the situation immediately.”

Aryne snorted.  “What a guy.”

“You’re telling me.”

“So then what’s the next step?” Aryne asked, fixating all the drinks into the Styrofoam holder the barista provided.

“With what?” Bee asked.

“Everything.”

Bee shrugged her shoulders.  “Just live my life.”

***

@brionymctavish: my first car!

@angiefavs: WE MATCH!!!!!

@morganrielly: lookin cute

@alynntavares: LOVE IT BEE!  I know how much this means to you!

@enzosauce: can you drive it out to Edmonton for a visit?

@stephlanchancee: um is that a Honda Civic?

                       @brionymctavish: Yup!  First one ever!

@lucygardiner_: congrats Bee!  Can’t wait to zip around town with you!

@frederikandersen31: I hope I fit in there

                       @brionymctavish: I’ll stuff you into the trunk if need be

[lizziesquire]

Aren’t you ever afraid you’ll fail? Or you’ll never accomplish your big dreams and just be ordinary? That all of this was a waste and there will be a crash soon?

hi bb!!

no.

That is--I’m not afraid that I will fail my life. Am I fearful of failures along the way? Yes, absolument! I’m scared that I won’t graduate with the honors that I want, that my grades won’t be what they want them to be. I’m scared that I may not get the jobs I am hoping for for next summer and post-grad. I’m scared that I won’t make it onto the journal that I want to be on. I’m scared that I took on too much and may lose sight of my vision for each of the organizations that I’m a part of leading and, as a result, not making the changes that I want to make for the incoming classes at my law school. I’m scared that I’ll find myself stuck in a set career path one day, with difficulties figuring out what to do next. 

But not once have I ever feared that I will fail my whole life, because I know that my life won’t be failure if I don’t let it. As in, I will never choose not to get back up again. 

As much as I joke about being the appblr poster girl for rejection, I think about just how many times I’ve personally failed myself. I didn’t get into my dream school for undergrad; I didn’t get into my dream school for law school; I didn’t get my first-choice internship for junior year summer; I didn’t get the grades I wanted last semester; I am nowhere near the level of accomplished I’d aspired to be, when I dreamt about what being 23 years old (almost 24! in exactly a month!) would be like. Does that frustrate me more often than I would like to admit? So much. Constantly. I lose sleep quite frequently over it. But! Am I afraid that it will always be this way? 

No.

I think about all of those personal failures that I’d just listed. I didn’t get into my dream college (the OGs who’d stuck around with me since the very beginning of this blog probably remember just how insufferable I had been about loving Yale......memorizing all 16 minutes of “That’s Why I Chose Yale” and knowing all the res colleges in alphabetical order? Who was I???? Why didn’t y’all tell me to shut up more?! I’m so sorry!), but I ended up a) meeting some lifelong friends at C0lby and b) getting exactly the college experience I never knew I needed, at C0rnell. I didn’t get into HLS, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise, having been able to stay in my home city, close to my family and SO, and just a 15-minute car ride away (and thus coming home often, whenever I needed the emotional support/time with my maman and papa). I didn’t get my first-choice internship for my junior year summer during undergrad, but that turned out to be the biggest blessing in the world, because I worked at a place where I didn’t have to split my time among studying for Series 6, 7/CFA Level I, retaking the LSAT, and applying to law school. Even despite having accomplished none of my personal goals, everything turned out.......more than just fine. With each punch in the gut that I’d felt in those moments, of being told no, your specific vision is not coming to fruition, I got back up again. And I’ve done it enough times to the point where that knowledge empowers me, more than anything.

I have been through it before, and I will go through it again. 

Failure makes it sound like there are these XYZ criteria of things that you need to accomplish in your life, or else it’s a failure--but that’s just the thing. It’s absolument not true. Your life is what you make of it; your failures are what you make of them; your successes, your joy, your happiness are what you make of them. I’ve “failed,” time and time again. But for someone who’s failed her way to where she is today, I’m pretty damn happy with where those closed doors have led me, via the rerouted route that I was directed toward. 

The going gets rough, for sure, but I don’t think that any of it will ever be a waste. Just because of how much of these experiences have strengthened me, made me kinder, more patient, more resilient. It terrifies me to say this, but! If I die ordinary, then so be it--I am happy with that, as long as I did my absolute best to get to where I want to be. (If the crash is referring to a recession, I still stand by my point; what’s important is that I will have my J.D., and I will figure out the rest, as they come). For what it’s worth, I don’t think that there will ever be a point where I look at myself and say, “wow, I’ve done it. I’m extraordinary.” I think that the persistent need to constantly be better, do more, will always be there... and you know what? I hope that it never goes away. Life, for me, is about constantly working towards the next thing while actively taking the time to appreciate life for where it is, in that very moment. 

this has been such a ramble but thank you so much for dropping by, and sending all my love. You are doing your best, and that’s more than enough. it will be more than enough. you are more than enough. x

[wellesleyunderground]

The Double Standard in the Wellesley CS Department: An open essay from former students of the Department

The following was submitted to us by former students in Wellesley’s Computer Science Department: 

The Wellesley Computer Science (CS) Department prides itself on preparing its students to take on both the technical and social challenges they will face in their professional futures. Questions of gender discrimination in the greater CS community are frequently discussed* with the Department’s active support evident, for example, in its funding for students’ attendance at the Grace Hopper Celebration, the conference known for being the “world’s largest gathering of women technologists”. However, the treatment of the Department’s junior faculty and lab instructors (non-tenure track positions) confers a contradictory message. 

This disparity is highlighted by the recent reappointment denial to Prof. Ada Lerner; the decision has surprised the student community given Ada’s status as a beloved professor, known for both their focus on teaching and inclusivity in the department, and their contributions to the field of computing more broadly.  We, a group of former students of the Department, question the rationale behind Ada’s dismissal and what it indicates about the treatment of junior, or pre-tenure, professors in the department.

(*We later discuss the fact that other forms of discrimination are not consistently discussed by the department, but we do note that gender discrimination in particular is frequently mentioned, owing in particular to Wellesley's status as a historically women's college.)

 A champion of all students

Prof. Ada Lerner joined the Wellesley CS faculty in 2017, immediately upon their graduation from the UW Allen School of Computer Science doctoral program, after receiving numerous tenure-track offers. Ada quickly became a favorite of students for their remarkable teaching skills, instructing students at a variety of levels, including Introduction to Computing, Data Structures, and an advanced seminar on Security & Privacy–their research area. Students frequently commend their flexible late policy, which carefully balances student mental and physical wellbeing with course content and academic achievement. A variation of Ada’s policy was implemented near universally by the Department at large.

Ada’s belief in and support for their students is further exemplified by their content delivery and expectations of students. One former student summed up their seminar course as “by far the most challenging elective I took as a computer science major, and while in any other context that might’ve been an incredibly stressful experience, Ada worked with me to make sure I could finish all the work. She by no means went easy on me, but she did give me the support I needed to finish the work.”

 “She definitely doesn’t let you off easy,” adds another student, “but she gives you the support so when it gets hard, you know you can ask questions without judgment. The material would go over my head in class and then Ada would explain it fifteen different ways until I felt comfortable.”

Ada’s research area reflects the same care and concern for the experience of marginalized populations. Their research was featured in Wellesley Magazine in Summer 2019, with the article “Online Safety for All” highlighting their focus on inclusive security and privacy, describing the field as “a subfield of security that focuses on specific populations, including marginalized or vulnerable groups like refugees or LGBTQ people, as well as groups with key roles in society, such as lawyers or journalists.” Their work recently garnered a prestigious $175,000 grant for “Understanding and Addressing the Security and Privacy Needs of At-Risk Populations” from the National Science Foundation and has been published in highly selective computing conferences, including the 2020 ACM CHI conference (24.3% acceptance rate). As former students, we note that her lab is impressively staffed with students from various grade levels who often serve as co-authors on lab publications and are actively involved in a variety of projects. A student who has worked with Ada as a research assistant jokes that they feel “almost spoiled” for having had the chance to work with a research mentor who is so considerate of student experience and learning.

Outside the classroom, Ada is an outspoken advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the Department. “Ada shows up,” one alum states. “They not only consistently attend events where students voice their concerns and celebrate their identities, they intentionally look for ways to uplift and empower marginalized student voices, asking all the right questions and putting in whatever work is necessary to aim for equity in all aspects of college life.” Ada helped lead a self-study that publicly disclosed the experiences of different student populations in the Department, with a particular focus on the roles of race, ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ identity and class, as well as the experiences of students with learning accommodations. While the results were conclusive that the CS Department, like many others on campus, had a lot of work to do, DEI efforts seemed to stall at the study’s conclusion.

Students were confused that the Department failed to implement student-facing changes the study suggested; some students noted the repeated absences of some professors and observed that some senior faculty members didn’t seem to buy in to the topic. We cannot help but wonder if some professors hostile to the DEI push led by Ada did not support her reappointment as a result of their feelings about the self-study.

All of the above leaves us puzzled by the College’s decision to terminate Ada’s tenure-track contract, making this their last year at Wellesley. The Committee on Faculty Appointments (CFA), which decides matters of faculty appointment, promotion, and reappointments on behalf of the College, handed down the decision leaving us both surprised and concerned about the integrity of the reappointment process and the potential factors affecting the decision. We note that the CFA states they make decisions based both on the recommendation of the candidate’s home department, as well as their own evaluation of a candidate’s quality of teaching, research, and service to the College. Given the information we’ve shared, we question why the College chose not to reappoint an assistant professor who is clearly beloved by students for her teaching, mentorship, support, and inclusivity.

To that end, we remind students that are bothered by the decision made regarding Ada's reappointment they can voice their concerns to the Committee on Faculty Appointments, who are ultimately responsible for reconsidering the decision. Information on that process:

You  can send emails concerning your impressions of Professor Lerner to the address: cfa@wellesley.edu.  If you want to send physical letters, they should be addressed to:

___________________________________________________________

Provost/Dean of the College

Chair of the Committee on Faculty Appointments

106 Central St

Wellesley, MA 02481

___________________________________________________________

According  to college policy, your letter will be shared with Professor Lerner and the  chair of the Computer Science department (Professor Takis Metaxas), as well  as all members of the Committee for Faculty Appointments. You may indicate in  your email whether you would like for your letter to be shared anonymously  with identifying wording removed, or with your name attached. Letters may be  submitted electronically as an email, or as an email attachment.

If  you have any further questions about this process, you can contact Jennifer Ellis, Clerk of the Committee on Faculty Appointments (jellis5@wellesley.edu).

Reflecting on departmental culture

We reflect on this decision in the context of the Department’s junior faculty at large; specifically, we are concerned by trends that we have witnessed as students in the Department interacting directly with junior faculty. We are frustrated with the way some of the more senior members of the department have handled the hiring and retention of faculty in general.

Junior faculty are held to extremely high standards that we believe the people imposing those standards wouldn’t necessarily have met at the same point in thei careers. Junior faculty are also much more likely to be approached by students, both because they teach many of the introductory classes that students will have taken by the time they must choose an advisor, and because their demographics are often more similar to those of the student population. While the formal advisor process has been restructured to take some of the load off the junior faculty, many are still approached for informal advice and guidance in a way their senior peers are not; it is also unclear if current tenure-track professors will have their research expectations reduced as a result of the excessive amount of advising they were previously providing. We also note that a particular source of emotional support for students – lab instructors – are mostly women and untenured, meaning that they do not have the job security that their peers do, and are not necessarily compensated for their mentorship in the same way.

We call on the senior faculty to make themselves more approachable to students, so that the load does not fall on junior faculty, who are also facing the pressures of research and teaching evaluations. There are existing models for this, including many adopted by Wellesley's own Math department, who host informal teas to build community and encourage interaction between senior faculty and students in various ways. We also note that along with Ada, Prof. Sohie Lee is a champion of D&I initiatives and has worked to implement new tutor training, yet she is one of the few faculty members of color and is technically a lab instructor, despite holding a PhD, This again reflects an onus of emotional and cultural labor on already overburdened pre-tenure and non-tenure track faculty.

 It is unclear to us why the Department is both unable to hire many faculty of color, and unable to retain the faculty of color that they do hire. We question whether the environment of the Department is perceived as hostile, and, if so, what can be done to change that. We theorize that, in part, the Department's hiring practices may be exclusionary, as the majority of candidates come from a small pool of highly selective CS programs, which are already known to have a host of systemic problems that make them unwelcoming environments to both people of color and those who are not cisgender men.

Moving forward

This letter has two main goals. First, we hope to make the Wellesley community aware of the double standard in the CS department, and especially encourage the upper levels of administration to investigate the treatment of junior faculty in the department. Second, we hope to encourage members of the department to reflect critically on the treatment of their peers and engage in self-reflection with regards to departmental culture. Ultimately, we believe that it is in large part these systemic problems in the department that contributed to Ada's reappointment denial, rather than official, concrete factors such as teaching, research, and service to the CS department and College at large.

We call on those involved to truly reflect on the concerns raised here and via other fora, and to commit to measurable improvement; in short, to do better, both for current students and faculty and for those to come.

[jareddillian]

You Have to Buy Bonds Even When Rates Are Low

Interest rates are currently low.

That is by far the biggest concern among bond investors. They are drowning in worry about low interest rates and their effect on bonds. So let’s address that.

Saying interest rates are currently low is another way of saying that bonds are expensive—which makes people not want to invest in bonds. Fair enough.

Stocks are also expensive—but you invest in those!

So why are you willing to invest in expensive stocks, but not in expensive bonds?

What are your alternatives?

Cash

Commodities

Real Estate

Collectibles

None of those look appealing right now.

Here’s the reality of the situation. If you have capital to spare, you—as an individual investor—are going to end up putting most of it in the stock market and the bond market, because those are the deepest, most liquid capital markets.

I suppose you could go on strike, and keep it all in cash. One day that might make sense.

I suppose you could go on strike, and keep it all in commodities, but they are not cheap to carry.

Or real estate, but that has special risks.

Stocks and bonds—those are your choices.

So I ask you again: why are you willing to invest in expensive stocks, but not expensive bonds?

Yes, it would be nice if stocks and bonds were cheaper. But that is not the world we currently live in.

Diversification

The reality is that you need both stocks and bonds to have a diversified portfolio. No matter how expensive they get.

Stocks and (most) bonds behave differently. Sometimes stocks go up and bonds go down, and vice versa. This smooths out the volatility in your portfolio.

The stock market gets volatile sometimes. I wouldn’t want my entire nest egg in an asset class that is ripping around 7% a day. The bond market is occasionally volatile, but nowhere near as volatile as stocks.

And having bonds in your portfolio does more than reduce the volatility—it also improves the risk characteristics of your portfolio. It makes your portfolio more efficient in its use of risk.

You can compare one portfolio against another portfolio to determine which one is better. And a portfolio that is mostly bonds has the most efficient use of risk, which makes it better. What I mean by that is you will have a better rate of return per unit of risk. 

It has zero to do with the actual level of interest rates. Interest rates could be negative, and you would still want bonds in your portfolio, for risk reasons.

This is called diversification. Diversification is the idea that adding something “bad” to your portfolio can actually make it good. Anyone who has done any academic work on portfolio management (including CFAs) know this is true.

Once more for those in the back, low interest rates do not mean you should not own bonds.

Some people get all huffy about low/negative interest rates. Negative interest rates are socialism! Negative interest rates are manipulation!

Maybe not.

The classical definition of interest rates is the price of money that balances the supply and demand for loanable funds. 

There is a huge supply of loanable funds out there. There is a giant wall of money that needs to find a home. There is so much money that we can’t even find places for it.

Is that a consequence of central banking? Maybe.

Do you want to fight it? Probably not.

But What About Inflation?

If you own bonds that yield 2% and inflation is 3%, you will have a real return of -1%. This is an indisputable fact. Inflation hurts bonds.

Core PCE (the personal consumption expenditures price index) recently came in at 1.6%. It seems like we should be having more inflation, but we aren’t. I personally think inflation will go up! But it isn’t going up much now.

Even if it does, what are your options? Stocks are supposed to keep up with inflation, but what if they don’t?

Actually, your options in a high-inflation environment are commodities and real estate, and there might come a point in time where inflation ramps and you want to be in commodities and real estate (like the late 1970s), but that is a very long way off.

So we are back to stocks and bonds, both of which are overvalued, and both of which you have to own. There is a chance that returns on both stocks and bonds will be low. But if you want to be invested, you have to own both of them!

Bond May Go Parabolic

Finally—and a lot of people are missing this—there is the very real possibility that bonds outperform stocks over the next few years. In fact, I see the possibility that bonds will go parabolic.

If you know anything from reading The 10th Man over the years, you know that not only do stupid things sometimes get more stupid, stupid things usually get more stupid.

Negative rates may be a bubble, but bubbles can last for years.

Stan Druckenmiller (if my memory serves me correctly) was forced to retire and convert to a family office when he lost a fight with the bond market. And that was when yields were a lot higher!

I’m not pushing anything radical here. All I am saying is this: if you are an ordinary investor, and not a macro hedge fund manager, you should have a mix of both stocks and bonds, and probably more bonds than you think. That’s it.

Get Contrarian Investment Ideas from a Wall Street Veteran

Jared Dillian writes The 10th Man, a free weekly newsletter for contrarian investors. Every Thursday, he delivers a torpedo of incisive commentary that crushes consensus thinking and exposes the true workings of “Mr. Market.”  Subscribe now!

[preranart]

Self Reflection

This semester, I developed my deep voice in Frameworks A. In this class, I spoke and participated in different conversations, debates, and information exchanges on various elements of art and the arts itself. The course instilled in me many qualities relating to art and its processes that I had never considered and that my culture had never taught me. Through this dossier, I hope to express all of my thoughts, and ideas idle, and deepen my attention by conducting a study on many Climate changes and environmental subjects, as well as the ideals of other artists.

I have been advocating for endangered species of the world through my art for the past 2 semesters and will keep doing my best for them. I have a severe phobia of all animals due to an accident when I was just over 2 years old, but I realized I can only feel for them. I cannot go near them or look at them because I won’t be able to sleep at night but I still want to work for them after coming to Melbourne I was lost, physically, emotionally, and spiritually but Critical Framework A course somehow brings me back to my senses, I randomly started talking about my inner feelings about various topics and that helped me get over my blue, I’m glad that I took this course and could return back to my old self. I started reading various random books which I read when I was finding my way into the art industry. 

As an architect, I love designing spaces and love to fill the spaces with lots of colors, which is why I started turning towards art and the environment. CFA helped me go back to my own journey again and refreshed my whole intention of mine to attempt to do art and cater to the environment. I read about my culture, read about many artists, and watch many art exhibitions, which I mentioned in the first assignment, and in this assignment. 

Through this dossier I created my little map and constructed a paved path for my upcoming semester, now I’m more confident now in myself and do not want to look back again. This course is the most important course of my life and I will be remembering it till I stop doing art. I wanted to include another post regarding “why I should use organic material as an Environmental artist?” and “why I want to use non-recyclable and non-usable material as an Environmental Artist?” and I’m still in the middle of the research.

[zelleducation]

https://www.zelleducation.com/blog/differences-between-the-cfa-levels/

Differences Between The CFA Levels

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is globally recognized as a rigorous and comprehensive qualification for finance professionals. The program comprises three levels: CFA Level I, Level II, and Level III. Each level builds upon the cf gained in the previous one, leading to the attainment of the prestigious CFA charter. In this blog post, we will delve into the intricacies of the CFA levels, explore their unique characteristics, and discuss the benefits of pursuing each level.

[no-1481]

Sorry this ended up being really long.

Get to know ur mutuals better tag thing from @snakesarenonexistent

Star sign: Gemini

Height: 5'11" ~

First 4 songs when iTunes/Spotify on shuffle

(My Spotify playlist is called guess the musical and has 100hrs of music so isn't particularly reflective of what I like to listen to)

Spotify

Spooky Mormon Hell Dream (BOM)

Dear Baby (Waitress)

Join The Parade (Tuck)

28 Hours (CFA)

iTunes

Left Behind (OBC SA)

Mama Who Bore Me (London SA)

One More At Deluxe (Island Song)

Beautiful Morning (JJ)

Ever had a song or poem written about you?

Haha. nope

When was the last time you played guitar?

Based on the amount of dust, probably a year ago.

(I'm very bad!)

Celebrity crush?

Kinda torn between Andy Mientus and Jeremy Jordan

What's a sound that you hate/what's a sound that you love?

Hate

Any sound a mouth makes (most talking, those disgusting eating sounds, just all of it. Singing is acceptable)

Love

There aren't many sounds (other than beautiful singing) that I really like, most things just drive me mad so I wear headphones at all times to drown everything else out. Sorry :(

One just occurred to me, sorry, when there’s just silence (in class) then all of a sudden someone really quickly starts scribbling cause they just got the answer. I kinda love that mad panic before u forget how u got there

Do you believe in ghosts?

Nope

Do you believe in aliens?

The universe is very big, it seems really self centred and egotistical to assume that only our planet has life. So yep. I like to think there's some awesome stuff out there. Also it's less scary than we alone are hurtling through a near infinite black void. : )

What was the last book you read?

The Element In The Room or Fermat's Last Theorem, can't remember which but they were both great and would recommend them both!

Do you like the smell of gasoline?

Can't say that I hate the smell of petrol/diesel but definitely don't love it

What's the worse injury you ever had?

Haven't broken any bones or anything like that so it's nothing major but...

Couple years ago I was longboarding (in flip flops) down my street then I sort of wobbled and turned into my neighbours fence. Side note: when you stand on a longboard and put your weight on it it bends down in the middle. The board went under their white picket fence (with my feet still on top) I fell backwards. And so the weight came of the board and pushed my feet into the bottom of their fence. It wasn't nice, there was lots of blood and tears and now I have two parallel scars down the side of my foot from where I pulled my foot out. : ) fun

Do you have any obsessions right now?

Hell yes. As of mid-June.

Nope :)

Do you tend to hold grudges against people that have done you wrong?

Omg yes. I'm so petty. Sometimes they don't even have to have done anything wrong to me. But recently discovered there's only one person I have ever actually Hated. Like hated, hated.

In a relationship?

Nope!! Never been in one actually. (People have a tendency to not like me cause I don’t bother with tact or genuine human emotion)

I guess I’m supposed to tag people now so...

@the-last-five-newsies

And anyone else that wants to :)

Hi, do a thing, I’m curious.

This is completely irrelevant it’s just that hurricane from death note is playing at the moment. Can I say that that is such a great song! Srsly love it!

[ngochasarchive]

There have been many posts recently regarding first years striking out with investment banking recruiting.

Now that we are nearing the end of the recruiting cycle, I wanted to provide an update on a prior post that was incredibly helpful for investment banking and Cornell Johnson hopefuls, linked here

'20-'21 was an undoubtedly challenging recruiting cycle for all involved. Not only were fewer firms across the Street recruiting, but the sheer uncertainly resulting from COVID-19 lent itself to much more conservative recruiting decisions, both in terms of headcount and selection. That being said, I believe Johnson held its ground and placed a significant number of investment banking hopefuls, on par versus prior year.

IB Opportunities

Nearly every firm runs a structured recruiting process on campus. Firms that came to campus this year, in no particular order, include: GS, JPM, MS, BoA, Citi, CS, UBS, RBC, Wells Fargo, Evercore, Lazard, Moelis, Greenhill, Guggenheim, Jefferies, Houlihan Lokey, Cain, MTS, Piper Sandler, Simmons Energy, Baird, TD, Greentech, Marathon Capital, and Harris Williams. We also placed at Rothschild and Miller Buckfire. Several firms that did not run processes this year include DB, BMO, William Blair, and Barclays. Classmates also received round 1 invites at PJT. As mentioned last year with respect to Goldman, some of these firms that don't consider Johnson a "core" school will cut 50-60% off the resume drop and maybe extend 3-4 round 1 invites. Johnson students placed into top groups at their respective firms.

The (Virtual) Process

The process can be largely broken up into two phases: Phase I includes on-campus interviews, briefings held by the banks, and on-campus networking. Phase II includes hours of Zoom/phone informationals and coffee chats. The process was a bit accelerated this year given the late start. Phase I kicked off a few weeks after orientation and lasted until the last week of October. Phase II ran until winter break in mid December. During Phase II, candidates were allocated 8 hours of interview slots to meet with 4 banks each week. While under normal circumstances, there would be logistical challenges of meeting with more banks each week, the virtual environment enabled candidates to meet with as many firms as possible any hour of the day. At my peak, I met with 15 banks in one week with coffee chats beginning as early as 6:30AM and as late as midnight. The virtual environment enabled candidates to cast a wider net. There are explicit instructions on where you need to be, what technicals you should be prepared to be asked, what emails to send, who to send them to, and even what specific time to send the emails. Each week, you may be cut from certain bank’s processes depending on your performance the previous week. Performance could entail a tech-screen, behavioral interviews with alumni, informationals, and all the other soft-skill interrogation that is par-for-the-course during IB recruiting from any MBA program.

While I had the benefit of not wasting 10 hours per week traveling to and from NYC, the process was absolutely exhausting. On any given day I had 2-5 hours of informationals + class. Sunday nights, when banks inform if you've been cut, can be demoralizing, and being on top of your technicals, recent transactions, and firm knowledge is mentally draining. Serious candidates were lucky to sleep 5 hours per night and were on the recruiting grind 7 days per week.

A large reason the process is so exhausting is the extremely high standards Cornell Johnson alumni have for their candidates. Candidates must first pass through Johnson alumni before being put in front of other and more senior members of the bank. Johnson alum take the recruiting process very seriously and expect excellence. Compared to a colleague at Stern I probably had 2x the number of informationals and coffee chats, reaching well north of 100. From a technical perspective, Johnson leverages its own set of technical prep questions and the 400 guide. Each week, Johnson candidates are given a set of technicals to be proficient in. Alumni are aware of where we are in the guides and those questions are all fair game to be asked in our informationals. Alumni are also aware that questions asked in informationals are shared essentially in real time over Slack and really push the boundaries of acceptable questions to ask. In one such coffee chat, the interviewer pulled up a case study over Zoom and asked that I create the pro-forma balance sheet from provided information. The technical knowledge necessary compounds and questions get more challenging week over week. Week 1 may include the simple walk me through $10 of depreciation. Week 5 will feature napkin LBOs.

Evaluating the Process

Candidly, my choice to apply to Johnson on a whim was absolutely worth it. The recruiting process was insane, but gave me the structure I needed to get an offer. The schedule was very demanding, coupled with a heavy fall course load, but the schedule gave me the chance to demonstrate my abilities. Even in a virtual environment, my class was very close and worked together throughout the process. I believe this experience creates a bond amongst first years and alumni immediately share that connection. Year over year, we are making in roads at more firms, achieving "target" status at new shops, and generally have developed an image of having the grindy/scrappy mentality that firms look for in summer associates. Johnson gets a lukewarm reputation on various forums for its place in the rankings, but Johnson is absolutely a heavy hitter in IB placement.

I will plug thoughts on competition, negatives, and closing remarks from last year's post because they remain the same:

Competition:

I did not feel competition with classmates while recruiting IB at Johnson. I am not naive; I understand that at some level IB offers are a zero-sum game. However, at Johnson, the sheer totality of structured opportunities changes the thought process from “PrestigiousBank1 has X offers this year so I am competing with my classmates for those offers” to “There are going to be at least 12 offers from one of PrestigiousBank1, PretigiousBank2, or PrestigiousBank3 where I am in the running and if I stay on my game I can get one of them.” That attitude is emphasized by the finance club and behavior which prioritizes yourself above classmates (such as backdooring processes or telling multiple banks they are your number 1 choice) is explicitly discouraged by Johnson alumni at the banks. Your classmates are your support system and alumni expect you to go through the gauntlet together. This attitude creates strong connections amongst the class which translates to a strong Wall Street network. Alumni emphasized this point repeatedly in informationals.

Negatives:

Some people would consider the structure a negative if they are supreme networkers who perform best in entrepreneurial environments. That person is not me so I can’t really speak to it. I think the largest idiosyncratic “downside” to Johnson is that the structure and close alumni network make it neigh- impossible to hoard offers. Alumni will know through their friends where you are tracking so nobody is able to sit on 5-6 offers. 95% of candidates will only have 1-2 offers at the end of the day. Frankly, I don’t consider this a downside. By limiting hoarding offers, we maximize our placement across the street.

The other downside worth mentioning is difficult to evaluate. As of this date there are a few strong candidates without offers. Still, there should be at least two more offers coming through the pipeline. From talking with friends at other business schools, this was a down year for IB recruiting but apparently there are deserving folks who strike out every single year from every single school. I don’t believe the few deserving candidates we currently have without offers are inevitable, but I also can’t identify a specific weakness in the process that led to their outcomes.

Overall:

Anybody who wants to recruit IB out of their MBA program should send an app to Cornell Johnson. It is an ideal safety for someone targeting CBS or Wharton, and if you can wrangle money out of Johnson vs going to some of the other strong finance programs at full sticker price, I think Johnson could be a no-brainer. If you are a career switcher who just wants to get into IB, Johnson will give you the opportunity to recruit across every name brand BB and EB on Wall Street. And if you are a finance stud who wants to work for the best groups at the most prestigious banks in the world, Johnson will let you control your own destiny.

----

Having a professional background in finance helps from a learning curve perspective. Those with finance backgrounds have to put a little less effort into learning technicals relative to pure career switchers that have never looked at a P&L before.

I recruited amongst CFAs and CPAs and while they were able to get their foot in the door with banks quite easily, I don't believe they were materially better off than career switchers because cultural fit and personality are far more important than technical proficiency. A few classmates had significant M&A and capital raising experience and they were by far the most sought after.

As every banker will say, technical proficiency is a "check the box". Johnson gives every IB candidate enough resources to "check the box" with every firm. At the end of the day, it comes down to cultural fit, being someone that bankers want to work with, and demonstrating interest in the career path.

---

Q:  When (if) they ask about where you see your future career path, is it frowned upon to say you'd like to end up in Corp Dev/Fin after 2 years as an associate or are they looking for the "career banker" response?

A: If you were interviewing for any other job, would you tell the hiring manager that you are planning to leave after a year to pursue something else?Conversely, if you were the hiring manager, would you give an offer to someone who doesn't really want to be there?Play the game, drink the kool aid, you were born to bank.Also, just my opinion, if you go into IB with your eyes set on something else, you will be absolutely miserable.

[femmesfollesnebraska]

Artist feature: Barbara Cone

Artist Barbara Cone, who was recently featured in Womanmade Gallery’s Process and Material exhibition, shares with LFF about her process involving struggle, her new series of sculptures, the significance of online exhibitions right now, feminism and more. Interspersed with the interview are excerpts from the artist’s recent statement about her work alongside the work created. All images (c) Barbara Cone.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 1, 58”LX25.5”WX28”D, Fir, cardboard, gesso, graphite, steel cable, velcro, hardware

I did not set out to make work about broken things, damaged things, destruction and fragility but it seems that the times we’re living in seeped into my work in mysterious and profound ways. Yet there is beauty still to be found in damaged things. The concept of Japanese wabi-sabi is very present here.  

Where are you from? How did you get into creative work and what is your impetus for creating?

Loved art most of my life but was more into writing. When I moved to Vermont I continued to write for the regional newspaper and taught various subjects at the community college. There was an excellent arts center there near Dartmouth College and I began by taking a few classes in painting. I was brand new at art making and there were a number of well-trained artists in my classes. I felt out of my depth. To make matters worse my work was often different from what was being produced around me. Out of ignorance probably I used the materials in a different way and often veered a bit off the assignment. A master artist and filmmaker had a studio on the top floor of the Arts building and was persuaded to teach an occasional class. Everyone was a bit afraid of him. He was known for his temper and his critiques could be brutal. One time he taught a class in experimental watercolor that sounded interesting to me. While he was in no way friendly, he seemed to see something in my off-kilter work that I couldn’t see, and kept tossing me new challenges. I was under his mentorship for 6 years. An artist exchange in Cuba during this time also affected my work profoundly and I moved into installation and multi-media work. A few years later in New Mexico I was introduced to encaustic and have been incorporating that element into paintings and mixed media works, and teaching encaustic printmaking.  My impetus is experimentation: I get images in my head and have to figure out how to make the work and with what. I’m not happy if I start out knowing what I’m doing. I prefer struggling with new materials and adapting materials for purposes for which they weren’t intended.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 1, Detail, 58”LX25.5”WX28”D, Fir, cardboard, gesso, graphite, steel cable, velcro, hardware 

After finishing a large body of wall-hung 3D work for a solo show in Boston in 2019, I knew I wanted to push ahead with more 3D work using crushed cardboard boxes but this time largescale constructions hung from the ceiling. I still had bags of crushed cardboard, some with tire tracks still showing on the surfaces. I bought more boxes in as many sizes as I could find. Ran over those too.

Tell me about your current/upcoming show/exhibit/book/project and why it’s important to you. What do you hope people get out of your work?

This summer I’ve been showing work in ARC Gallery and WMG in Chicago as well as locally at River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta, Maine. This November I have a solo show in Boston at the Bromfield Gallery. I’m preparing a large body of new work for the Bromfield show. I’ve completed three large ceiling hung sculptures for the show and have begun on some wall pieces. The sculptures are the latest iteration of a series I began in 2019 for a solo show in Boston at Canvas Fine Arts Gallery. The series is called C*Artifacts. The components of the pieces were made by crushing cardboard under the wheels of my car and applying one of the following to each of the components: rust, sanded gesso with graphite, encaustic, oil stick or spray paint. Last summer’s C*Artifacts show included small free-standing sculptures and wall-hung 3D pieces. I hope viewers find my most recent work interesting and a little mysterious. I also hope they can see the humor. Visitors certainly seemed to enjoy the video of me running over cardboard boxes with my car at the CFA show in 2019.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 2, 66”LX23”WX24”D, Fir, cardboard, spray paint, steel cable, velcro, hardware

I experimented further with paint and mark-making on the various crushed boxes, pushing the limits of materials like gesso, rust and spray paint. Like before, the unevenness of the surfaces resisted being coated with liquid media.  There was a lot of flipping them over and applying further coats to achieve the look I was after.  

Does collaboration play a role in your work—whether with your community, artists or others? How so and how does this impact your work?

I would say that collaboration does not play a role in my work at the moment, but I have a history of curating exhibitions. Working with exhibition artists and getting a show from Artist Call to Hanging to Opening to Closing takes many months of hard work, and is definitely a collaborative effort. The time spent was well worth it, but I’ve chosen to spend more time in the studio with my own work.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 2, 66”LX23”WX24”D, Fir, cardboard, spray paint, steel cable, velcro, hardware

Gesso is a common artist material used for preparing surfaces for painting. The gesso I used for FWD No. 1 is a specialized version for underpainting encaustic (wax-based) painting. It is especially thick and creamy, like a yogurt. It sands beautifully and stands up to pretty much anything. The graphite markings took especially well on the gessoed surface.  

Considering the political climate, how do you think the temperature is for the arts right now, what/how do you hope it may change or make a difference? It is truly a terrifying and uncertain time. I would hope that visual and performing arts would provide an alternative to what we are seeing and hearing every day about the pandemic, economic crisis and politics. Certainly the challenge right now is to give visual and performing artists exposure even though art exhibitions and performances are not taking place in their usual brick-and-mortar venues. Online shows may or may not be the answer, but it seems all we have right now. As someone who makes work that is often unusual, and may be difficult to represent adequately in a digital format, I’m concerned that some of us will be at a disadvantage. My guess is that artists have already started making work that can be well-represented digitally because they assume it is not going to be seen live in a real space. This change has implications for the making of artwork from now on.  

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 3, 63”LX20”HX57”D, Fir, cardboard, rust, steel cable, velcro, hardware

For FWD No. 2 I used both matte and enamel spray paint. The unevenness of the cardboard surfaces made for some interesting shading and runs. Turns out spray paint is quite temperamental. I gained a new appreciation for the skill it takes to make street art.  

Artist Wanda Ewing, who curated and titled the original LFF exhibit, examined the perspective of femininity and race in her work, and spoke positively of feminism, saying “yes, it is still relevant” to have exhibits and forums for women in art; does feminism play a role in your work?

With the one exception of a video installation called “Atomic Playboy,” my work does not typically have a social or political content, at least not overtly. I’m a strong feminist and have been since the 70’s and I’ve seen some very strong work with feminist content that I admire very much but somehow when I start to make work, it comes from another place.This doesn’t mean I’m not angry about the misogyny in the art world where “artist” means male and women artists are “other.” I can see the need for galleries like WMG that promote the work of contemporary women artists but am sometimes troubled by the segregation of women’s work. Famous women artists like Georgia O'Keeffe were outspoken about this and refused to show work in shows of women artists. I can see both sides. 

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 3, 63”LX20”HX57”D, Fir, cardboard, rust, steel cable, velcro, hardware 

The rusting process used for FWD No. 3 involved many steps and multiple drying times, but I liked the transformation of the torn cardboard into something you might find on the street after a fender bender.  

Ewing’s advice to aspiring artists was “you’ve got to develop the skill of when to listen and when not to;” and “Leave. Gain perspective.” What is your favorite advice you have received or given?

When I was a beginning painter and feeling frustrated by my inability to make what I saw in my head or to manage the materials, I was told, “Stop now, put this painting aside and start a new one using what you’ve learned from making this one and remember that even if you’re not happy with it, this latest painting is the only one like it in the world. You’ve just made something entirely new."

- http://www.bconeart.com/

~

Les Femmes Folles is a volunteer organization founded in 2011 with the mission to support and promote women in all forms, styles and levels of art from around the world with the online journal, print annuals, exhibitions and events; originally inspired by artist Wanda Ewing and her curated exhibit by the name Les Femmes Folles (Wild Women). LFF was created and is curated by Sally Brown Deskins.  LFF Books is a micro-feminist press that publishes 1-2 books per year by the creators of Les Femmes Folles including the award-winning Intimates & Fools (Laura Madeline Wiseman, 2014) , The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales (Laura Madeline Wiseman/Lauren Rinaldi, 2015 and Mes Predices (catalog of art/writing by Marie Peter Toltz, 2017). Other titles include Les Femmes Folles: The Women 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 available on blurb.com, including art, poetry and interview excerpts from women artists. A portion of the proceeds from LFF books and products benefit the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Wanda Ewing Scholarship Fund.

Submissions always open!

https://femmesfollesnebraska.tumblr.com/callforart-writing

[weekinethereum]

November 8, 2017

Ethereum News and Links

Top

~150m USD value of Ether frozen in Parity multi-sig bug. Most of it from Parity, a decent chunk also from Iconomi.

DevCon3: scalability looks closer than expected, which is important because some early projects (Maker, Augur, etc) are near to going live.

Jeff Coleman and Liam Horne are working on a generalized state channels project called Counterfactual. This is an important layer of infrastructure and arguably as vital as anything announced during DevCon talks. Funded by Vitalik and L4, it was announced by Liam on Twitter a few hours before Devcon.

Parity multi-sig frozen

Parity's multi-sig had another bug that has led to 150m of frozen funds.  A bug made it possible to kill the contract which the multisig looked to through delegatecall.

"I accidentally killed it."  Looking through the attacker's history, I'm skeptical of the noob cover story. There were definite attempts at theft.

Victim list.  60% Polkadot, 23% Iconomi. Deep impact but relatively few affected.  Polkadot has already said that they don't need the Ether to deliver on time.

Lots of discussion threads on forking. Pro-fork. Anti-fork. Vitalik talking about forks in a Q&A a few months ago since he is refraining from commenting at the moment. My feeling is the same as last year: I'm not an Immutability Maximalist but any fork should include a haircut to protect against moral hazard.

But all courses of action are relatively reasonable, so no need to get emotional. Let's continue to assume good intentions by everyone involved.

The Parity hack happened while Victor Maia was writing a diatribe on formal verification.  Great comment thread.

YCombinator: Crypto evolution.  Forks are "A/B testing on steroids."

Blockchains: Coercion-free consensus systems from Nick Johnson.  If you don't like the consensus, fork it!

Devcon3

DevCon3 videos from the main hall. You might want to look at the agenda, because we don't yet have individual videos, nor do we have videos of the breakout room talks.

I'd recommend watching the afternoon of day 1 if you can only watch a few videos, because the focus was on the most pressing long-term issue: scalability.  Casper, zk-snarks, TrueBit, sharding.  The Raiden demo of a robot controlled by payment channel was very cool too.

For daily recaps, I recommend David Burela: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4 or Brandon O'Brien: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4.  Or if you prefer audio: The Bitcoin Podcast did two recaps. Days 1 and 2.  Days 3 and 4.

I couldn't agree more with Livepeer's Eric Tang: "Done with the hangout portion of devcon. Time to start watching talks! #8daysofdevcon."

The day before Devcon3 at the convention center, Etherisc put on the D1Conf on decentralized insurance. They underpromised and overdelivered a great conference.  It was also by far the best food I've ever had at a conference, though Devcon3 might've been the worst food.

Notes on Nick Johnson's ENS talk.  Integration to legacy domain names is exciting.

DevCon3 security roundup

Protocol

Vlad Zamfir's Casper draft spec v0.1. Prototype codebase and paper.

Better address checksums is coming.

Vitalik: "Plasma is optimal for systems with larger sets of users and where having limited trust in some second-layer consensus mechanism is okay; state channels are best for repeated interaction between limited sets of parties."

Stuff for developers

Truffle v4.0 release - debugging, in-memory blockchain, etc

Dapp Tools from Dapphubb. The tools they use for Maker.

Livepeer on getting a protocol to the mainnet - planning for upgrades, forkability, parameter tuning, etc

OpenBounty -- $1m in bounties for development.

Azrael -- Ethereum events to Java backend from FundRequest using web3j

Free 90 min video course on dapp dev for beginners

Transmute framework - a centralized platform for dapp development

EthAlarm -- notifications of events triggered by Ethereum code

ZoKrates -- zk-SNARK toolbox from Jacob Eberhardt

Ecosystem

Eth Gas Station metropolis release -- view transaction pool filtered by account/nonce, plus better predictions. plus more transparency about how predictions are made.   When this gets released by API, it should help bring gas prices down even further.  By the way, it now costs $0.00006 to send a transaction if you're willing to wait a minute.  Lower your gas price!

A brief comparison of Name Bazaar vs. ENSListing

Ready for the next conference? Blockchain for Social Impact is November 17th in NYC. Use NEWSLETTER for 20% off.

Also, the second edition of Token Summit is December 5th in San Francisco.   Use discount code WENTS17 for 18% off.

I'm still shilling for votes in CoinDesk's Most Influential People in Blockchain. Vote for your favorite Ethereum people...and me?

Project Updates

Status announces NFC Hardwallet and new COO

AdToken roadmap

Why Decentraland uses A-Frame

SingularDTV launches Tokit

Project Announcements and Whitepapers

Nexus Mutual insurance. Impressive presentation at D1Conf.

Perun Network -- system of state channels

Interviews, Videos and Talks

Playlist of EtherealSF talks

Joseph Poon on Plasma and the relationship between public and private chains

Vinay Gupta video interview with Bloomberg BNA

Bitcoin Podcast talks to IDEX's Alex Wearn

Rhys Lindmark talks to Raine Revere

Omar Bham's series of video interviews. I asked him to put the ocean behind me if you're curious what the view looked like from the Cancun convention center

Fabian Vogelsteller talk on his Identity EIP at Ethereum London

Token Sales

Dutch auctions seem to be working pretty well, eg Raiden and Polkadot.

RocketPool is doing a proportional refund cap.

Experiments are good: Cofound.it is doing a "Playoffs" event on November 30 for their Seed program projects.

The SEC warns celebs on social media shilling.

Token Sale Projects

Grid+ rollout plan

Breaking Up the “Central Banks” of Online Poker using Ethereum on Virtue Poker

YouNow to become public benefit corporation to align with token holders

OmegaOne on why it needs a large balance sheet

General

Coinbase is getting 100k new accounts daily.

GDAX Digital Asset Framework for evaluating adding things.  Seems some tokens are coming soon.

r/Ethtrader went over 100k subscribers.

Segwit2x blinked and suspended their fork for now.

CME is doing Bitcoin futures. I'd say that means Ethereum futures are coming.

Joe Lubin on BigTech adoption of blockchains.

We warned them this would happen: Tezos hit with class action lawsuit.

The Tapscotts got caught listing advisors in their marketing docs who they hadn't even spoken to, so the fund has gotten called off.

Matthew De Silva sits down with Vitalik Buterin at Devcon and gets some personal details out of him.

Dates of note

From Token Sale Calendar:

[Truncated list this week as I don't have the post-Devcon energy to wade through all the junk.]  

Upcoming token sale start dates:

November 9 – Stayawhile

November 10 – WhenHub (pre-sale ongoing)

November 10 – Gizer

November 13 – Trippki

November 14 – Bloom

November 14 – Auctus

November 14 – SimpleToken (pre-sale underway)

November 14 – LevelNet

November 15 – Kudos Project

November 15 –  Hirematch

November 15 – Aigang

November 15 – Realisto

November 15 – Guts (pre-sale underway)

November 16– TokenBox

November 17 -- Blockchain for Social Impact conference in NYC.  20% discount using NEWSLETTER

November 20 – PROPS by YouNow

November 20 – FundRequest

November 21 – Dopameme

November 25 – Rocketpool

November 25 – Relest

November 27 – Jibrel Network

November 28 – Gazecoin

November 30 – Debitum

November 30 – Nous Platform

December 1 – Bounty0x

December 5 -- Token Summit conference in SF. Use discount code WENTS17 for 18% off

Ongoing token sales:

Grid+

Mercury Protocol

Snov

SpankChain

ScriptDrop

RockChain

PayFair

SeedsTokens

Sense Token

Leverj

Gatcoin

Privatix

Duber

Crypto.Tickets

Customization Basic Income

Matryx

WARNING: list may include or even likely includes scams and quasi-scams.  Do your own research and due diligence before putting value at risk.  Read disclaimer below.

Want to be included?  If you are building your project on Ethereum, email weekinethereum @ gmail [period] com with 1) your URL, 2) sale date and 3) a brief but convincing description of how you are using Ethereum, preferably with a link to your Github repo.  Listings are free.  But please make sure to follow those instructions.  If you don’t follow the instructions, you likely won’t get a response.

[I aim for a relatively comprehensive list of Ethereum sales, but make no warranty as to even whether they are legit; as such, I thus likewise warrant nothing about whether any will produce a satisfactory return. I have passed the CFA exams, but this is not investment advice. If you're interested in what I do, you can find my somewhat out-of-date investing thesis and token sale appreciation strategies in previous newsletters.]

If you appreciate this newsletter, thank ConsenSys

I'm thankful that ConsenSys has brought me on as an employee and given me time to do this newsletter.

My charge from Joe Lubin is pretty similar to what Status has told me: keep telling the truth and covering the space as objectively as I can.  

Editorial control is 100% me.  Blame me first and last.

No way you made it down this far?  Thanks for reading.

I'd love it if you shared this newsletter.  Link: http://www.weekinethereum.com/post/167279242888/november-8-2017 Follow me on Twitter? @evan_van_ness

This newsletter is supported by Status.im and ConsenSys (surely you have seen that we're hiring?).  Many thanks to both.

Sign up to receive the weekly email.

[mysydneymemories-blog]

At the edge of the known world, natural storytellers spin their tales

We also offered a series of intensive classes in life-writing. Sixteen people enrolled. They contributed their own stories to the production and introduced us to other great storytellers in their community. We scoured the hills recording people with our iPhones. And we coerced them to perform in our show. Twenty Stories. Twenty Legends.

The Frogley family founded Healesville Cordial Products. Pictured with a distribution truck are Gerald and Pop Frogley with Eric Hook, Norm Frogley and his son Ray.

Hop kilns at the Coranderrk reserve near Healesville. The Frogleys were early joiners. Ros great-grandmother was one of the first residents of Coranderrk, the Aboriginal Reserve created by the Victorian government in the 1860s. She was Alice Zipporah Grant known as Zippy. Ros has a beautiful collection of photographs of the four generations of her family (the Jenkins) starting at the hop gardens at Coranderrk, where her great-grandfather Thomas was the manager.

The Healesville Cordial Products range included Totem soft drinks.

An advertising calendar for Totem soft drinks. Ros husband, John Frogley, has lived in Healesville for 71 years. His grandfather founded Healesville Cordial Products (HCP). Their soft drinks quenched the thirst of the Yarra Valley for 40 years. One morning, we were invited to Dougie Jensens shed. He introduced us to his wife, Martha, and to a circle of men most of whom used to work for the sawmills. We plonked our microphone on a stool, nursed mugs of coffee and recorded 80 minutes worth of stand-up comedy. Bonga: One time Im drivin' with Misery. Hannie: Whys he called that? Bonga: Cos hes a big tall streak o misery. John: He started out bein called Mystery. Dougie: He was the butcher. Sausages. Mystery bags. Hannie: Right. Bonga: So, this day were goin to Kyneton. He had some racehorses. Hes towin the horse float and he goes: Jesus, look at that! Fancy that bloody idiot passing me on a bend. And Im goin: Its our horse float. Misery goes: You forgot to put the clip down, didnt ya? When I asked these chaps if they would each tell one of their stories on stage, their response was categoric. No bloody way. I was disappointed. One of the joys of doing this kind of work is that you rarely see people who look or sound like these men on Australian stages. You can write them, but on stage they are played by pretty NIDA graduates. But there was no point sweet-talking. These fellas were too shy. Apparently. So we asked around town and found local actors men who shared this glorious Aussie sense of humour. One member of our writers team recorded Alf Rice, the local postman. But Alf was going on holiday when the show was scheduled. So veteran actor Michael Veitch played him. Veitch is also a local. Apart from those two scenes, everyone else on stage was telling their own story. Most had never been in a show before, so we rehearsed for hours in peoples homes, in sheds and in a room upstairs at the theatre. We spent weekends recording birdsong, animal noises and the sounds of rural life. We made this our soundtrack. The performance took place in The Memo, Healesvilles renovated Memorial Hall, where Dame Nellie Melba sang Ave Maria in 1928. We had teachers, students, farmers, shopkeepers and the president of the Healesville Historical Society.

The Hello, Healesville! finale, with Hannie Rayson centre stage at the memorial hall. Credit:Michael Dickinson The local CFA captain, Graeme Bates, told the story of the day fires were raging towards Healesville in 2008. He had his leg in plaster after a work accident and had despatched all 10 trucks to fight other fires. He got a call from a bloke in the watch tower just on the top of the hill, who said, This one is coming straight for you. Im watching this thing roaring towards us with a northerly behind it, Batesy tells the community. And Im thinking, were in trouble. For the first time, Healesvilles going to burn. Then, just as the fire reaches the crest of the hill, the wind changes and the fire turns away. Graeme Bates and I carefully chose his costume from the row of fire-fighting gear hanging on pegs at the fire station. The audience loved veteran lyrebird keeper from the Healesville Sanctuary, Kevin Mason. He began working at the sanctuary in 1960. He had recordings of lyrebirds imitating kookaburras, camera shutters and even a burglar alarm. Ovarn Brown migrated from Jamaica three years ago. On his first day in Healesville, the local bank had a sausage sizzle in the main street. He thought, what place have I come to that gives away free food? When he arrived, he could not get over hard rubbish. People throw away all this stuff, he told the audience, incredulously. In his home town in Jamaica, he had to ride a bicycle without a seat. There used to be an iconic Thai restaurant in Healesville called Poppys. Skye Macfarlane told of how her mother, the eponymous Poppy, came from a small village in northern Thailand. She won the lottery which was worth $32,000 and bought herself an airplane ticket to Australia. I asked my mum why Australia and not America? Skye told the audience. She simply said, I like the kangaloo. A midwife, Sunderai Felich, regaled us with her hilarious story of three encounters with Jimmy Barnes, during which the audience spontaneously sang Working Class Man. Everyone involved was charged with the responsibility of collecting red autumn leaves. We strewed the stage with them as a tribute to the beauty of the Yarra Valley in autumn. Local artist Jenny Reddin made a replica of one of Healesvilles iconic street lamps. One key to the show was the three-minute rule. You will be surprised how much you can say in three minutes. And how little you can say, if you bang on for 10. This was our golden rule. And we were fascists about enforcing it. With the Badger Creek Womens Choir, a cellist and a guitarist, we had 49 people and a large black dog on stage. They stood on the carpet of red leaves, against a projection of a huge tree at the Maroondah dam, in full red-leafed glory. I have been working in the theatre for nearly 40 years, and there is nothing like a community show to fill your sails with euphoria and joy. Work like this reinforces the power of theatre to transform peoples lives and to transform a community. Healesville has always been a special place and now we blow-ins know it, too. Most Viewed in Lifestyle Loading https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/at-the-edge-of-the-known-world-natural-storytellers-spin-their-tales-20190610-p51w8c.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed