#its because i attended an environmental class

[raintemper]

Rain World climate change??/ Erhm this is mostly just spontaneous rambling and theories. Apologies if this seems inaccurate or if I'm overlooking something.

Anyways, this part is mostly considering downpour. In Saint's campaign we can see that the world is heavily frosted over, the rain has been replaced by what appears to be naturally occurring snowstorms. And if we bring up that one mention about how the iterators are the only sources of heat on the surface, this would make sense to why the region has changed so much after Five Pebbles' fall. (Which could also mean that during the time both Pebbles and Moon were standing, their overlapping regions would be much more tropical than others, and if their rains fell at the same time would cause significant flooding in certain areas).

If the world was naturally a frozen wasteland from the beginning (i doubt this), the process of building the iterators would have taken much longer considering the first generations' requirements of large water sources, assuming that water would largely be frozen or deep underground. Following this, it would make some sense for the ancients to build Five Pebbles so near Moon. Since the water there was already usable (which still holds up in general//under an added assumption that the ancients grew to care less and less about the iterators the longer they were left without answers. So instead of digging/finding a new water source they just placed Pebbles wherever was convenient enough).

I would assume (once again under an assumption, that the technology kickstarted from the void fluid revolution doesn't magically create eco-friendly tech and advancements) that the large amounts of iterators being built would contribute to a lot of greenhouse gases and carbon emission. Added on top of the desire to ascend and free themselves of the cycle, the longer they chase that answer the harder it is to actually live (both psychologically and physically in this sense). The iterators would render living on the surface (or at least their direct regions) near impossible with their rains, but the very existence of the iterators would also greatly affect global warming and floods on top of their already massive water output. Which would also explain why the farm arrays (assuming I'm reading the maps correctly) are on the very edges of the regions, as the heat from being so close to the iterator structures would likely wither most crops.

The ancients living on top of the iterator structures also poses another threat to their safety (assumptions once again lol, that the ancients would be susceptible to most illnesses and disease that humans do) once the ozone layer starts deteriorating from the iterator's continued existences. An increase in UV radiation which leads to skin cancers, eye damage as well as ecosystem disruption. Which also means that their crops, which might have been safe from the iterator heating due to their distance, may still be damaged and produce less yields over time. Now they have less food resources (which might not be the biggest issue considering the starvation tactic, but would probably suck for those who didn't want to starve or even ascend) and would likely have to turn to being nocturnal. All in all, making it an ever more miserable experience for the ancients who're tired of it all. Just another factor that maybe incentivized them not to wait in perpetuity for the solution.

Not to mention any mutations that the creatures would have because of this, if the early stages would overlap the ancients' presence. After some time the lizards would gotten bigger/more dangerous/aggressive and have adapted to the environment, and learned how to scale the super structures and find their way into the cities. Also the vultures, wherever they came from. Pole plants or similar variants might start appearing in their crops, if they still cared to harvest them. Repairing anything for the iterators, outside their superstructures, the broadcast lines, would also get more dangerous as the land is reclaimed by wildlife and the many predators that come with it. It might eventually even be too difficult to make internal repairs to the iterators with all the creatures finding their way inside.

[fatehbaz]

patience being tested. being forced by a bizarre unfortunate situation to adhere to university requirement technicality by taking this simple basic elementary "introduction to environmental history" class.

this class is from facilitators/program which do, like, "history of the American frontier" or "history of fishing and hunting" and still basically subscribe to that old-school twentieth-century idealization and celebration of characters like Teddy Roosevelt and reverence for a mythical arc-of-history-bent-towards-justice narrative of the often-clumsy but ultimately-benevolent US federal government and its mission to "save nature" through the miracle of "sustained yield," while heroic federal land management agencies and "heritage" institutions lead to way, staffed by exceptional individuals (appeals to nostalgia for the frontier and an imagined landscape of the American West; ego-stroking appeals to flattering self-image that center the environmentalist or academic). where they invoke, y'know, ideas like "ecology is important because don't you enjoy cross-country skiing in The Woods with your niece and nephew? don't you like hunting and fishing?" which makes it feel like a time capsule of appeals and discourses from the 1970s. and it invokes concept of "untouched wilderness" (while eliding scale of historical Indigenous environmental relationships and current ongoing colonial violence/extractivism). but just ever-so-slightly updated with a little bit of chic twenty-first-century flair like a superficial land acknowledgement or a reference to "labor histories" or "history from below," which is extra aggravating when the old ideologies/institutions are still in power but they're muddying the water and diluting the language/frameworks (it's been strange, watching words like "multispecies" and "Anthropocene" over the years slowly but surely show-up on the posters, fliers, course descriptions, by now even appearing adjacent to the agri-business and resource extraction feeder programs, like a recuperation or appropriation.) even from a humanities angle, it's still, they're talking at me like "You probably didn't know this, but environmental history is actually pretty entangled with political and social events. In fact, we can synthesize sources and glean environmental info from wacky places like workers' rolls in factories, ship's logs, and poetry from the era." and i'm nodding like YEP.

the first homework assignment is respond to this: "Define and describe 'the Anthropocene'. Do you think 'the Anthropocene' is a useful concept? Why or why not?" Respond in 300 words.

so for fun, right now in class, going to see how fast i can pull up discussion of Anthropocene-as-concept solely from my old posts on this microblogging site.

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ok, found some

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I think that the danger in any universal narrative or epoch or principle is exactly that it can itself become a colonizing force. [...] I’m suspicious of the Anthropocene as concept for the very reason that it subsumes so many peoples, nations, histories, geographies, political orders. For that reason, I think ideas like the Anthropocene can be a useful short-hand for a cluster of tangible things going on with the Earth at the moment, but we have to be very careful about how fluid and dynamic ideas become concretized into hegemonic principles in the hands of researchers, policymakers, and politicians. There’s so much diversity in histories and experiences and environmental realities even between relatively linked geographies here in Canada [...]. Imagine what happens when we try to do that on a global scale - and a lot of euro-western Anthropocene, climate change and resilience research risks doing that - eliding local specificities and appropriating knowledge to serve a broader euro-western narrative without attending to the inherent colonial and imperial realities of science and policy processes, or even attending to the ways that colonial capitalist expansion has created these environmental crises to begin with. While we, as a collective humanity, are struggling with the realities of the Anthropocene, it is dangerous to erase the specific histories, power-relations, political orders that created the crisis to begin with. So, I’m glad that a robust critique of the Anthropocene as a concept is emerging.

Text by: Words of Zoe Todd, as interviewed and transcribed by Caroline Picard. “The Future is Elastic (But it Depends): An Interview with Zoe Todd.” 23 August 2016.

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The Great Acceleration is the latest in a series of human-driven planetary changes that constitute what a rising chorus of scientists, social scientists, and humanists have labeled the Anthropocene - a new Age of Humans. [...] But what the Anthropocene label masks, and what the litany of graphs documenting the Great Acceleration hide, is a history of racial oppression and violence, along with wealth inequality, that has built and sustained engines of economic growth and consumption over the last four centuries. [...] The plantation, Sidney Mintz long ago observed, was a “synthesis of field and factory,” an agro-industrial system of enterprise [...]. Plantation legacies, along with accompanying strategies of survival and resistance, dwell in the racialized geographies of the United States’ and Brazil’s prison systems. They surface in the inequitable toxic burdens experienced by impoverished communities of color in places like Cancer Alley, an industrial corridor of petrochemical plants running along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, where cotton was once king. And they appear in patterns of foreign direct investment and debt servitude that structure many land deals in the Caribbean, Brazil, and sub-Saharan Africa [...]. [C]limatologists and global change scientists from the University of London, propose instead 1610 as a date for the golden spike of the Anthropocene. The date marked a detectable global dip in carbon dioxide concentrations, precipitated, they argue, by the death of nearly 50 million indigenous human inhabitants [...]. The degradation of soils in the tobacco and cotton-growing regions in the American South, or in the sugarcane growing fields of many Caribbean islands, for example, was a consequence of an economic and social system that inflicted violence upon the land and the people enslaved to work it. Such violent histories are not so readily evident in genealogies that date the Anthropocene’s emergence to the Neolithic Revolution 12,000 years ago, the onset of Europe’s industrial revolution circa 1800, or the Trinity nuclear test of 1945. Sugarcane plantations were already prevalent throughout the Mediterranean basin during the late middle ages. But it was during the early modern era, and specifically in the Caribbean, where the intersection of emerging proto-capitalist economic models based on migratory forced labor (first indentured servitude, and later slavery), intensive land usage, globalized commerce, and colonial regimes sustained on the basis of relentless racialized violence, gave rise to the transformative models of plantations that reshaped the lives and livelihoods of human and non-human beings on a planetary scale. [...] We might, following the lead of science studies scholar Donna Haraway and anthropologist Anna Tsing, more aptly designate this era the Plantationocene. [...] It is also an invitation to see, in the words of geographer Laura Pulido, “the Anthropocene as a racial process,” one that has and will continue to produce “racially uneven vulnerability and death." [...] And how have such material transformations sustained global flows of knowledge and capital that continue to reproduce the plantation in enduring ways?

Text by: Sophie Sapp Moore, Monique Allewaert, Pablo F. Gomez, and Gregg Mitman. "Plantation Legacies." Edge Effects. 22 January 2019. Updated 15 May 2021. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

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Geologists and other scientists will fight over [the definition of the beginning start-date of the Anthropocene] in scientific language, seeking traces of carbon dioxide that index the worst offenses of European empire which rent and violated the flesh, bodies, and governance structures of Indigenous and other sovereign peoples in the name of gold, lumber, trade, land, and power. [...] The stories we tell about the origins of the Anthropocene implicate how we understand the relations we have with our surrounds. In other words, the naming of the Anthropocene epoch and its start date have implications not just for how we understand the world, but this understanding will have material consequences, consequences that affect body and land.

Text by: Heather Davis and Zoe Todd. On the Importance of a Date, or Decolonizing the Anthropocene. ACME An International Journal for Critical Geographies. December 2017. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

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From Aime and Suzanne Cesaire, C. L. R. James, Claudia Jones, Eduoard Glissant, through Sylvia Wynter, Christina Sharpe, and so many others, critical anticolonial and race theory has been written from the specific histories that marked the Black Atlantic. [...] Glissant also reminds us, secondly, of how cunning the absorptive powers of [...] liberal capitalism are - how quickly specific relations are remade as relations-erasing universal abstractions. [...] This absorptive, relations-erasing universalism is especially apparent in some contemporary discourses of […] liberalism and climate collapse - what some call the Anthropocene - especially those that anchor the crisis in a general Human calamity which, as Sylvia Wynter has noted, is merely the name of an overdetermined and specific [White] European man. […] [T]he condition of creating this new common European world was the destruction of a multitude of existing black and brown worlds. The tsunami of colonialism was not seen as affecting humanity, but [...] these specific people. They were specific - what happened to them may have been necessary, regrettable, intentional, accidental - but it is always them. It is only when these ancestral histories became present for some, for those who had long benefitted from the dispossession [...], that suddenly the problem is all of us, as human catastrophe.

Text by: Elizabeth Povinelli. “The Ancestral Present of Oceanic Illusions: Connected and Differentiated in Late Toxic Liberalism.” e-flux Journal Issue #112. October 2020.

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The narrative arc [of White "liberal humanism"] [...] is often told as a kind of European coming-of-age story. […] The Anthropocene discourse follows the same coming-of-age [...] script, searching for a material origin story that would explain the newly identified trajectory of the Anthropos […]. Sylvia Wynter, W.E.B. DuBois, and Achille Mbembe all showed how that genealogy of [White subjecthood] was [...] articulated through sixteenth- through nineteenth-century [historiographies and discourses] in the context of colonialism, [...] as well as forming the material praxis of their rearrangement (through mining, ecological rearrangements and extractions, and forms of geologic displacements such as plantations, dams, fertilizers, crops, and introduction of “alien” animals). […] As Wynter (2000) commented, “The degradation of concrete humans, that was/is the price of empire, of the kind of [Eurocentric epistemology] that underlies it” (154).

Text by: Kathryn Yusoff. “The Inhumanities.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Volume 11, Issue 3. November 2020.

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As Yarimar Bonilla suggests in regard to post-Irma-and-Maria Puerto Rico, “vulnerability is not simply a product of natural conditions; it is a political state and a colonial condition.” Many in the Caribbean therefore speak about the coloniality of disaster, and the unnaturalness of these “natural” disasters [...]. Others describe this temporality by shifting [...] toward an idea of the Plantationocene [...]. As Moore and her colleagues write, “Plantation worlds, both past and present, offer a powerful reminder that environmental problems cannot be decoupled from histories of colonialism, capitalism, and racism that have made some human beings more vulnerable [...].” [W]e see that contemporary uneven socioecologies associated with the rise of the industrial world ["the Anthropocene"] are based [...] also on the racialized denial and foreshortening of life for the sacrificial majority of black, brown, and Indigenous people and their relegation to the “sacrifice zones” of extractive industry. [...] [A]ny appropriate response to the contemporary climate emergency must first appreciate its foundations in the past history of the violent, coercive, transatlantic system of plantation slavery; in the present global uneven development, antiblackness, and border regimes that shape human vulnerability [...] that continues to influence who has access to resources, safety, and preferable ecologies [...] and who will be relegated to the “plantation archipelagoes” (as Sylvia Wynter called them) [...].

Text by: Mimi Sheller. “Thinking Beyond Coloniality: Toward Radical Caribbean Futures.” Small Axe (2021), 25 (2 (65)), pages 169-170. Published 1 July 2021. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

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Indigenous genocide and removal from land and enslavement are prerequisites for power becoming operationalized in premodernity [...]; it was/is a means to operationalize extraction (therefore race should be considered as foundational rather than as periphery to the production of those structures and of global space). [...] Wynter suggests that we […] consider 1452 as the beginning of the New World, as African slaves are put to work on the first plantations on the Portuguese island of Madeira, initiating the “sugar-slave” complex - a massive replantation of ecologies and forced relocation of people […]. Wynter argues that the invention of the figure of Man in 1492 as the Portuguese [and Spanish] travel to the Americas instigates at the same time “a refiguring of humanness” in the idea of race. [...] The natal moment of the 1800 Industrial Revolution, […] [apparently] locates Anthropocene origination in […] the "new" metabolisms of technology and matter enabled by the combination of fossil fuels, new engines, and the world as market. […] The racialization of epistemologies of life and nonlife is important to note here […]. While [this industrialization in the nineteenth century] […] undoubtedly transformed the atmosphere with […] coal, the creation of another kind of weather had already established its salient forms in the mine and on the plantation. Paying attention to the prehistory of capital and its bodily labor, both within coal cultures and on plantations that literally put “sugar in the bowl” (as Nina Simone sings) […]. The new modes of material accumulation and production in the Industrial Revolution are relational to and dependent on their preproductive forms in slavery […]. In 1833, Parliament finally abolished slavery in the British Caribbean, and the taxpayer payout of £20 million in “compensation” [paid by the government to slave owners for their lost "property"] built the material, geophysical (railways, mines, factories), and imperial infrastructures of Britain and its colonial enterprises and empire. [...] A significant proportion of funds were invested in the railway system connecting London and Birmingham (home of cotton production and […] manufacturing for plantations), Cambridge and Oxford, and Wales and the Midlands (for coal). Insurance companies flourished [...]. The slave-sugar-coal nexus both substantially enriched Britain and made it possible for it to transition into a colonial industrialized power […]. The slave trade […] fashioned the economic conditions (and institutions, such as the insurance and finance industries) for industrialization.

Text by: Kathryn Yusoff. "White Utopia/Black Inferno: Life on a Geologic Spike". e-flux Journal Issue #97. February 2019. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

[eretzyisrael]

by Robert L. Friedman

I don’t think of myself as a naive person. But as my time at Harvard Divinity School unfolded, I was shocked to discover there was a hidden mission in some corners of the school: a fervent opposition to the existence of Israel to the point of encouraging its elimination. 

I arrived a year before the atrocities of October 7, 2023, yet there was a clear foreshadowing of the anti-Israel explosions to come, given a widespread, university-wide focus on Israel—a contemptuous obsession inflicted on no other country. For example, there is an annual student-sponsored Israeli Apartheid Week, with a campus installation calling for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, accompanied by a display in a central Harvard plaza stating, “There is no Zionist state without racism, colonialism, ethnic cleansing.” 

The delegitimization and demonization of Israel is embedded in the divinity school’s recently founded Religion and Public Life Program. The program’s offerings included the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative, which provided a field study seminar titled, “Learning in Context: Narratives of Displacement and Belonging in Israel/Palestine.” This seminar brought students to Israel and the West Bank. 

Since Harvard welcomes students to take classes from schools and departments across the university, Religion and Public Life explicitly sought graduate students from influential programs, stating, “This course is open to ALL Harvard graduate students and especially salient for current or aspiring government officials, humanitarian aid workers, journalists, educators, public health officials, legal scholars, human rights and/or environmental advocates, artists, and design planners who are eager to think in fresh ways about seemingly intractable challenges in an interdisciplinary context.” 

When these students returned from nearly two weeks in the Middle East, they were encouraged to make presentations on campus to spread the anti-Israel message. 

And that they did. In a March 2023 video posted on the divinity school’s website, five of the students who participated in the initiative describe their experiences in Israel and Palestinian territories. All fervently condemn Israel. One divinity student, who describes herself as an “anti-Zionist Jew,” discusses her struggle about whether to celebrate Shabbat in Jerusalem because “Israel tried to convince me to engage Jewishly in order to feed its agenda of suppression, control, and colonial power.”  

Another divinity student declares, “I wear my keffiyeh every Thursday for Keffiyeh Thursdays. I bring up Israel/Palestine in my classes. I talk about it with friends, and I post on social media. . . . What happens at Harvard can be a huge precedent for other schools to follow.”

The Religion and Public Life program sponsored a striking number of anti-Israel events, ranging from lectures to student presentations to book events. From 2022 to 2023, my first full academic year, it hosted, co-hosted, or advertised 16 pro-Palestinian events, by my count; in my second year, 20—almost all of which occurred after the horrors of October 7.

Here’s a typical notice from spring 2024, discussing an upcoming book talk by author Mitri Raheb, the founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem: “Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, the People, the Bible challenges the weaponization of biblical texts to support the current settler-colonial state of Israel. Raheb argues that some of the most important theological concepts—Israel, the land, election, and chosen people—must be decolonized in a paradigm shift. . . ”  

Each event I attended blamed Israel solely for every facet of Palestinian dysfunction. Each described the 1948 founding of Israel as an “illegal occupation.” 

In April 2023, I went to an event featuring talks by some of the more than 170 Harvard graduate students who had organized their own trip to the West Bank. Projected on a screen: “Bear Witness to apartheid, to settler colonialism, to military occupation, to erasure, to ethnic cleansing, to solidarity, to resistance, to Palestine.”   

A culturally diverse group of 40 speakers each presented a three-minute synopsis of their findings to a packed house—and each delivered a contemptuous broadside against Israel. There was no effort to understand the Israeli perspective, no weighing of contrary arguments.

The attendees responded to each speaker with explosive applause. Given that these Harvard grad students have enhanced odds for overachievement in their respective fields, it chills me to think about the fate of Israel in the hands of such people.

[elizaellwrites]

I've been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (+ some of its friends) for five years now, and it's so ingrained in my behavior to adapt to my condition that I don't realize it until I try to explain my daily life to other people. At this point, I can't imagine what it's like for those without these types of problems to consider...

An example: talking to my university's accessibility office:

How does it impact your ability to travel between classes?

Well, I can't really take the available buses, because they're too full to guarantee a chair, and I can't stand on a moving vehicle because it stresses my joints too much. Walking is fine, but the quick changes between classes can cause me to rush. I'm often winded when I reach my class, but it's still doable for me.

How about with stairs?

Usually, they're okay, but on some days I just take the elevator because it's a better option for pain and stability.

What about in class? Do you have any difficulty taking notes, concentrating, or remembering things you need to?

Sometimes. My hand can cramp up if I'm taking a lot of notes, and if I'm having a bad day, it's very difficult to concentrate on what's going on. I can miss things during lectures on occasion, but I just go back through the material, check lecture notes online, or ask my professor after class to fill in the blank. I just do my best to write everything down, because I can be forgetful. It's worked so far.

Are there any environmental issues that bother you, like loud sounds or brightness?

There's usually not too much noise in class that bothers me outside something falling on the floor- like a metal water bottle. I'm pretty light sensitive, but my doctor told me to limit sunglasses use because it will train my brain to rely on them. So, I just deal with it unless it's absolutely necessary.

How often are you having these bad days happening when it's difficult to move due to pain, keeping your balance, a migraine, etc.? Beside getting to lectures, how can this impact your assignments?

It depends, but it can be multiple times a week, once a week, or more spread out. I wish I could be more specific. Some days, I can't go to class at all, others, I can do partial days. It really depends. Sometimes, because I'm especially light-sensitive with a migraine, I can't really do all my homework, because most of it is online. If it's an assignment due the next day, and I have a migraine, I just can't do it.

So, we can look at helping you with mobility by making sure your classes are closer together and closer to the first floor, more flexibility with assignments and attendance, as well as giving you software during classes to make it easier for you to get the information you need by recording the lectures and taking notes for you.

Me: What?

[beneath-the-irish-sky]

May 28th - 30th

May 28th - 30th 

My day started at about 10 a.m. and I had plans to grab coffee with the group at 12 p.m. on May 28th. I had time to do some research and explore what I would like to do in my free time on the weekdays! I am so excited to be here! I love traveling, and one of my primary goals is to travel to every continent one day! In fact, I am heading to Amsterdam in the Netherlands this weekend for an adventure. I will write all about it when I return.

My teacher asked us yesterday what we were most surprised by, and I would have to say it is how green it is here. Yes, I know Ireland is known to be green, but it is still such a contrast from Phoenix, AZ. It is such a lively and vibrant green!

As anticipated, we met up at noon and walked about 15 minutes off campus. We walked through a small neighborhood and got to see what the neighborhoods of Dublin look like. When we arrived at the cafe, they informed us that we had to bring our own cups!

When we asked the cashier why, she said that it was for environmental purposes and that it is not widespread. Reducing waste is a smart idea and they have a lot of foot traffic, so it is working. We luckily found a store nearby that sold plastic cups and now we know to bring ours back for a refill.

We then joined our teacher and their family for our historical walk of Dublin! It was very interesting to learn the history and I am excited for tomorrow's lecture to further deep dive into it. I really enjoyed learning about the name Dublin and how it originated. Dublin means Blackpool, which got its name from the Vikings when they used to dock their ships in front of a castle (picture 6) in the dark waters. Hence, the black pool of water. We then walked past famous places like the Temple Bar (pictures 3, 4, & 5), known for its lively atmosphere, tourists and drinks. As we passed by the

Bank of Ireland, I learned it used to be the Parliament Building (pictures 1 & 2).

We then had a small course (learn while relaxing) overview while eating at St Stephens Green Park. It was gorgeous there! historical park and garden, located in the center of Dublin city. There is something for everyone to do there including those who are visually impaired. They take great care to be inclusive and kind. I would compare it to a miniature Central Park.

We then went back to the rooms for a while (pictures 7 & 8). I have been making friends and planning excursions with several other students. We learned Harry Styles is touring Europe and found that he will be playing at the Slane Castle outside of Dublin. How awesome is that! The concert is scheduled to last about 8 hours with 3 bands playing. Two of us booked tickets right away to the now sold-out concert on June 10th. Our section is so close to the stage. It will be an iconic kind of experience! Anything outside of Dublin proper requires planned transportation. The Slane Castle is in a rural area and about two hours away. Ireland does not have Uber or Lyft. We would have to find a bus route and purchase tickets in advance or take a taxi which could get costly and might not be there at the end of the night. We decided to go with a bus, and we are now looking for the right outfits to wear. In Ireland, you have to layer and plan for rain, cold, humidity or just a sunny day. Makes planning a bit challenging but I am up for it.

I am so excited to go and am so grateful for all the opportunities I have had on this trip. I ended my day with our group going out to a restaurant near where we got coffee that morning. I loved the atmosphere in it because it felt so welcoming.

I woke up a little later on May 29th because my class did not start until noon. We have a class on Irish history today and are learning how to navigate campus later on. I arrived at my class and attended the hour lecture that took a further deep dive into what we learned yesterday during the walking tour. It was really cool to recognize the sites that the instructor was lecturing about.

We had a break before we had to meet up for the class again to take a tour of the University College of Dublin (UCD) campus. During the break, we got food at the Centra, a convenience store that is located right by our room. We rejoined the group and met our tour guide for campus the session. This session was fascinating because not only is the Campus beautiful (pictures 9 & 10) but because I have begun to become good friends with everyone on this trip and everyone is so nice here. They are a perfect addition to this experience. We are all having a good time joking around with the tour guide and really immersing ourselves in the culture and information the guide is sharing.

After the tour, we decided to head back into the Dublin city center to get souvenirs and other things that people had forgotten to pack. We went into a store called Penny’s which is similar to a Target. We tried on clothes and quickly discovered that sizes are completely different here!  Generally, about two sizes too big!  I was pleased with the prices however because I bought a pair of good quality jeans for 10 Euros. After shopping, we stopped at McDonald's to see if it was any different than it is in the States or other countries I have visited. It was odd because this McDonald's was heavily guarded with security that would not allow you to go to the upstairs section without proof of purchase.  I also interacted with more Irish locals while standing in line and waiting for food. I met a group of young girls who were talking to me about school and what I should do in Dublin before I leave. I think that it is really awesome how people will strike up conversations with you and are willing to help no matter if they know you or not.

We soon headed back to our dorm and decided to start looking into flights to Scotland for our free weekend the third in. We were surprised by how cheap the flights were compared to the prices to go to Amsterdam and how much there is to do in Center City Eidenberg. The research was behind us now and we are still a bit jet lagged, though, I ended up staying up until about 1:30 in the morning before I finally fell asleep. An 8 hour time difference will do that.

We had to wake up early on the morning of May 30th because we had class at 9 a.m. I met up with the rest of the group, and we all walked over to our classroom at about 8:45 a.m. where we attended a two-hour lecture that taught us about the Irish language (Gaelic) and how to speak a few common phrases. It was extremely difficult! I did not know that they had three different dialects and that there are many ways to say the same word or phrase. At the end of it, I only remembered how to say my name and how to hold up a very small conversation. Very small. For instance, please is translated to "le do thoil" and thank you is "go raibh maith agat". I just hope everyone speaks english on this trip...

I really liked taking this class with this group because we all felt very unified. No one made fun of others for not understanding how to say something, nor did we make anyone feel bad for messing up. We were all very supportive and wanted the best for each other.

After the class, we had another long break where I went back to my dorm and realized that I locked myself out!  I had to go get a temporary key from the front desk before running back up and getting my stuff to go to Kilmainham Gaol (picture 11).

Kilmainham Gaol is a prison for thousands of men, women and children for minor offenses to the political uprising voices, and those who fought in battle. It is now a national monument and tells stories from those who lived out their sentences there. It was a very long bus ride and a very long walk to get there, but it was so worth it! Being able to see the place where many people in the rebellion were executed and lived out their final days was a very impactful experience that I'll never forget (picture 12 & 13).

While on this tour, I have noticed that every instructor or tour guide that we have had thus far has been very detailed and passionate about the topics they're talking about. They genuinely are so excited to teach you about their culture and about their history. I have also noticed that they are very proud of their country and where they come from! It has made for a very enlightening and fun experience.

We traveled back to our dorms and I worked on some homework that I had for class the next day.  When I was done, I met up with the group to book our flights to Scotland and to look into where we will be staying. We are really getting to know each other better! I cannot wait to see the rest of the country and to explore its neighboring countries in the upcoming weeks!

Thank you again if you're reading, and I hope you have enjoyed this Blog and pictures!

[macflorendo]

THANK YOU to life!

This is my Eulogy.

First. I would like to thank Life and God for giving me the opportunity to live and experience a taste of this world.

TO MY FAMILY. Thank you for raising me well. I am not me without any single of you. I may not express as much as needed but I want you to know that I LOVE YOU. See you soon!

I may not be the best son, not the best brother. I don’t wish to be one but I would like to believe that we are destined to be the way we are. Well, that’s where I learn from my lessons from anyway - all my mistakes.

TO THE ENVIRONMENT. I am so proud to have joined Cuernos de Negros Mountaineers Club, Inc. of Silliman University for teaching me how to love the environment. Because of that, I was able to travel to 5 countries (USA, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand) for FREE to attend different environmental programs and its alumni engagements.

Aside from being able to see different parts of the world. I am fortunate to learn that there is a problem that we need to do something about. Our children’s lives are at stake.

-

MUSIC, MAGIC, & MOVING PICTURES. MY PASSIONS. I cannot thank you enough. We have been through the happiest and most difficult times of my life. When there’s no one else to talk to and hang out with, you were there.

You even got me jobs!

-

SOUTH KOREA. You are my second home country. You made me realize that I am part of the world, a global citizen. There is the potential of anyone to make a difference even to another individual in the world. Thank you Silliman University and Hannam University for this opportunity!

I am happy I am able to learn Korean so I could understand you. Now, I am giving back by learning your language too. South Korea is beautiful. I know most of you are tired of the pressure in your country. But please, never forget your passions and purpose. There’s more to the world than getting a “good” job and lots of money.

-

EVENTS.

2011 - Moved to Dumaguete to study in Silliman University, Dumaguete City. I lived in Vernon Hall inside the campus, lived in an apartment for summer class, and then lived with mom and sister until I graduated.

2013 - I was exchange student to Hannam University in Daejeon, South Korea. That was my first time abroad. I took up Korean Language classes, Faith and Film, and Advance VIdeo Production Class. I taught English to students during my free time and that’s where I got my allowance.

2015 - I became an academic fellow on Environmental Issues under Young Southeasts Leaders Initiative. We went to Hawaii, Colorado, and Washington DC.

- I founded Food Rescue Philippines (formerly Food Rescue ASEAN)

2016 - I graduated Cum Laude from Silliman University.

March 2020. There’s an ongoing virus called COVID-19 infecting people around the world. Who knows what will happen next? We will not be always safe. I live in a dorm, I live with other people. They may be carrying the disease. I hope not. I have one roommate who still goes to work at this time. I hope he won’t bring the disease in the dorm. There’s currently 187 infected patients in the Philippines and recovery rate has not moved at all.

July 2020.  COVID cases are not easing down here in the Philippines. I heard stories of the government just making money out of this situation…

2021 - 2022. Met the worst person in my life. But thank you for making me wiser and way better.

MARCH 2023 - I got hired as Food Rescue Supervisor at Scholars of Sustenance. This is a dream come true. I used to bike and work with volunteers for this advocacy but I now work with a bigger organization that can create more impact.

JULY 2023. I will be turning 30 in 2025. I want to focus on meaningful and valuable work. I also want to create opportunities for myself and others to grow financially, and spriritually.

- 

I am happy that I have experienced many jobs. I realized that I can do so much more, and at the same time, I know I will have options when any career I would choose won’t work.

-

LOVE. Love is a BURST of emotions that happen in your body. That feeling is temporary. When choosing a partner, remember BURST.

B - Believe in each other.

U - Understand each other.

R - Respect each other.

S - Support each other.

T - Trust Each Other

-

MEANING OF MEANING

Meaning starts with ME. Everything you do should start and would meaning something to you.

MEAN has three meanings.

1. what do you mean to say

2. you are so mean

3. what does it mean

MEANING is present tense. Is it something that you currently do. It should be something that you are doing now.

-

A MESSAGE TO MY YOUNGER SELF/TO MY CHILDREN/ TO YOUNG PEOPLE:

1. Exercise more. Play more.

2. Get long hair and donate.

3. Grow a beard! (DONE)

4. Talk to more people. (ALWAYS)

5. Go to more places. Be more adventurous. (BE MORE SPECIFIC)

-

A MESSAGE TO MY FUTURE SELF:

1. Hope you are still doing what you love; performing really good magic, doing something for the environment, helping people, and sharing what you know.

2. Stay fit.

3. Be financially secure.

4. Always learn.

5. Network more. Meet more people.

6. Don’t work for a boring company with boring people.

-

TRAVELS

Countries I traveled to..

2013 - South Korea - Seoul, Daejeon, Busan, Chuncheon, Okcheon, Jeonju

2015 -  USA - Hawaii, Colorado, Washington DC

2015 - Singapore

2015 - Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

2016 - Thailand, Bangkok

2016 - Cambodia, Siem Reap

2017 - South Korea - Seoul, Daejeon, Pohang, Busan

2020 - Japan - Osaka, Nagoya

2022 - France - Paris

2023 - Thailand - Bangkok

PHILIPPINES

1. Zamboanga

2. Dumaguete

3. Manila

4. Cebu

5. Davao

6. Iloilo

7. Palawan - Puerto Princesa

8. Baguio

9. Tagaytay

10. Bohol

11. Siquijor

12. La Union

13. Zambales

14. Dapitan

15. Bacolod

16. Boracay

17. La Union

18. Pampanga

19. Bulacan

To be continued…

Edited 5/9/2019

Edited 10/2/2019

Edited 3/18/2020

Edited 3/29/2020

Edited 7/23/2020

Edited 9/6/2021

Edited 1/1/2022

Edited 4/14/2022

Edited 7/11/2022

Edited 7/1/2023

[students-and-sustainability]

Learning and The Lorax

It is a Wednesday evening in November. As a college student, this means that midterms have passed (mostly), Hallo-weekend is over, and everybody is looking forward to Thanksgiving break. For some, it may also mean that stress surrounding finals and future jobs is beginning. However, despite the looming future responsibilities, at this moment, I am content. How is this possible? It is because, at this moment, my mind is elsewhere. It has been consumed by the art in front of me. It has been consumed by… The Lorax (Chris Renaud, 2012).

You may be wondering, why is a twenty-two-year-old college student watching The Lorax with a bunch of environmental clubs on campus? How is this making any difference in the world? I will tell you how: It is teaching us to speak for the trees.

The Lorax

The Lorax, directed by Chris Renaud, is an animated family musical based on the children’s book by Dr. Seuss. Despite its colorful imagery and catchy soundtrack, it also contains meaningful messages about the dangers of capitalism and the importance of protecting nature. The film ultimately follows the story of a twelve-year-old boy named Ted who wants to impress the girl of his dreams, Audrey, by getting her her dream gift: a Truffula tree. Unfortunately, Ted and Audrey live in a town (Thneedville) that is devoid of nature. Instead of real trees, plants, and flowers, they are surrounded by plastic replicates. Virtually everything surrounding them is artificial. To win Audrey’s heart, Ted embarks on a journey outside of the walls of the town to find the man who knows what happened to the trees: The Once-ler. Using a frame narrative, the film recounts a story of environmental destruction fueled by monetary greed.

From the story the Once-ler tells, viewers learn that despite urges from the guardian of the forest, the Lorax, he destroyed the entire Truffula Forest, ultimately grinding his business to a halt as well. However, just when we think all hope is lost, after telling his story the Once-ler plants the last Truffula tree seeds. These seeds begin to restore the forest, and with this, the Lorax and other animals begin to return. The story, therefore, is one of hope. It points to the control humans have over the environment and our role in cleaning up the mess we created. We created the climate crisis. Therefore, it is our job to fight it.

The Power of Art

You may think that watching The Lorax as a college student is silly. After all, why would you watch something so childish when you could read a research paper or attend a lecture? It is true that those are important ways to become educated, however, if you do not already have a background in STEM or a burning passion for the environment, they may bore and confuse you. Not to mention, it is a lot easier to get students to come attend a screening of The Lorax with popcorn than it is to get them to sit through another lecture after a full day of classes. Sometimes, facts and data, despite their importance, cannot get the message across. Sometimes, art can motivate and inspire people in ways nothing else can.

Platonists feared art and, therefore, advocated for bans and heavy censorship. Why? Because art is powerful. It can change your perspective, alter your mood, and even inspire you to change. This can frighten some people because it challenges the idea that only other lifeforms can do things to you (Morton 79). Art is made by humans, but it is not human itself. It is nonhuman. Our recognition of the power and influence of art despite its nonhuman nature, therefore, can help us understand the importance of other nonhuman aspects of the world, like the environment.

Getting People to Care

One of the most essential parts of combatting the climate crisis is getting people, governments, corporations, etc., to change. However, before change happens, we must get people to care. Scientific papers, lectures, and facts are often unsuccessful at achieving this goal. This is where art comes in. It can move people, regardless of their political or educational background. This is why we watch The Lorax; Because maybe if our yelling about carbon emissions and the damaging effects of capitalism did not reach you, a fluffy orange guardian of the Truffula Forest can. After all, “Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Citations

Morton, Timothy. Being Ecological. MIT Press, 2019.

Renaud, Chris, director. The Lorax. Warner Bros., 2012.

[alltogetheraba1a]

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It is essential to establish trustworthy relationships with families before offering these children morally sound, scientifically supported care. Due to the high caliber of our instructor and student community, curriculum modifications are rarely necessary.

The way that the scientific community views ABA-based therapy has changed recently. ABA was founded in the 1950s by B. F. Skinner. The psychologists who developed and promoted ABA are known as applied behavior analyzers. Not just people on the autistic spectrum can benefit from this. Prioritizing one's own and one's loved ones' physical and mental health is essential. AABA therapy in my area As word of a good deed spreads, its impact multiplies tremendously. ABA has been shown in multiple studies to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. An acronym for "Applied Behavior Analysis" that is frequently used is "ABA."

For teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum, learning to prioritize therapy goals is a crucial skill. We stand a better chance of succeeding if everyone contributes in some way. After all, information has gotten out about the changes extensively. The strategy's outcomes depend on how successfully it is put into practice. You have what it takes, in our opinion, to serve as an inspiration to the youth in your neighborhood. It is intended that the mental health of young people would improve. If you enroll in our program, your chances of success will rise significantly.

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Every imaginable communication issue has been addressed and resolved by us. To ensure your child feels at ease during their session, we use tried-and-true methods. Without you, I don't know whether I could survive. The speed with which a child picks up a new language may cause an adult's mouth to fall open.

guidelines for buyers. You're fortunate to have grownups looking out for you who wouldn't risk their lives to keep you safe.

The preference will go to lower-income families. If you have any questions or issues, don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to ensure that our forthcoming meeting goes successfully.

Children from underprivileged backgrounds receive aid from the nonprofit organization "All Together". The years ahead don't seem quite as scary now that we have this new outlook. Myself, my coworkers, and the families of the kids in our care worked together to implement the "All Together" project. There's not much time left.

The All Together approach is divided into three main sections. This can involve attending outpatient therapy, getting examined out, and enrolling in social skills classes. Children and adolescents with autism and other learning disabilities get ABA therapy at All Together from Board Certified Behavior Analysts. It is universally acknowledged that these people have reached the pinnacle of their respective disciplines. The area of applied behavior analysis revolves around the idea of "natural environment teaching" (NET). Another name for environmental education is "natural environment education," or "NEE" for short. Applied behavior analysis (ABA), when included in a comprehensive treatment plan, has been shown to improve behavior, sleep patterns, family interactions, and communication.

Access to better outpatient mental health services is now more convenient for the broader Danbury, Connecticut area. Thanks to our in-depth training and years of experience in the industry, we are able to assist a diverse group of people with their mental health problems. Our medically focused approach drew inspiration from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. We can set aside our differences and collaborate well because of the mutual respect and trust that we have for one another.

Enrolling in an ABA program has numerous benefits. These results add to the increasing amount of data indicating that families attempting to address behavioral disorders would be better off investing the funds in ABA therapy. After beginning therapy, many autistic children showed significant improvement. An increasing body of research suggests that patients battling a range of diseases can benefit from ABA therapy.

Supporting Autistic Students Social interactions can be difficult for those on the autism spectrum. Children on the autism spectrum have access to a wide variety of educational options.

One of the numerous potential benefits of speech therapy is improving the patient's communication abilities.

You should start speaking to and exposing your child to it as soon as you can if you want them to grow up multilingual. They are necessary for the mental and physical development of a child. Adolescents who are having difficulty expressing themselves may benefit from speech therapy.

[lnenvs3000w24]

Blog 05: Sustainability in Guelph

For this week's blog, I wanted to give credit where credit is due and discuss my experience with sustainability, science education, and environmental education since attending school here in Guelph.

I may have had a different experience than others at university since I am a transfer student. I completed my first year of undergrad in my home city, Carleton University. Unfortunately, my experience there was not what I expected, and I decided to change schools. I am not trying to talk badly about another institution; on the contrary, I will discuss the differences I have noticed at the University of Guelph. In the article by Wals et al., 2014, "The relationship between [science education] and [environmental education] has been characterized as "distant, competitive, predatorprey and host-parasite"' (Wals et al., 2014). This statement is false because I see science and the environment intertwined daily into my student life at UofG.

Since moving here in my second year, I noticed a dramatic positive difference in sustainability regarding student involvement, campus greenery, and the city itself. I came to Guelph unaware of the students, residents, and organizations' efforts toward sustainable living and have since been pleasantly surprised. There are many different student-run events like Drop and Cop, UofG Free Store, and UofG Food Market, to name a few, which incorporate sustainable practices and educate others simultaneously. These clubs and organizations actively use sustainable methods to invite students to shop for clothing, supplies, and local produce in an environmentally friendly way. There are so many more organizations and events led by students at the university that are typically posted on the sustainableuofg instagram account. I recommend going to check it out if you haven't already. The university has additionally been awarded a gold rating for sustainability, according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (UofG News, 2022). That's something to be incredibly proud of. 

The amount of greenery on campus stood out to me when I first got here. We have beautiful mature trees in front of Johnston Greene, vines crawling on the UC and Hutt building, multiple greenhouses, a blooming garden in front of the conservatory, and a gigantic arboretum right down the street. This is not all, but some of my favourites. It is clear that the university has made an effort to incorporate nature in all its forms onto campus. The comparison between the two campuses I have been to is incredible. I also wanted to mention the variety of classes offered here at Guelph that focus on climate and environmental sustainability while incorporating actual science. Take it from me, someone who has seen the courses at another university; they don't do it like UofG. I have taken classes focusing on climate change, conservation, geology, and environmental science, and I am just a Biological Science major. The courses offered here teach students about real-world issues and implement real science to back them up. I took ENVS 3010 Climate Change Biology last semester, which truly opened my eyes. Seeing that climate change is not just a conversation to have, but an actual, scientifically backed up issue that needs urgent change. The incorporation of science and environment is inspirational here at UofG.

The city has actively engaged the community in sustainability efforts. I've spent my Saturday mornings at the farmers' markets in downtown Guelph, which feature many local farmers and entrepreneurs to support the local economy. Additionally, Guelph has many thrift stores, some vintage and some contemporary, all promoting sustainability in fashion. There has been an increasing trend in thrifting, which is an amazing trend to have on the rise. I admit I love to shop, so having a variety of thrift stores available to me allows me to shop in an affordable and sustainable way. I was also impressed to see electric buses driving around Guelph—a sight rarely seen in Ottawa. Since many students don't have cars, taking the bus is an everyday occurrence, and introducing electric buses is a significant step towards a cleaner environment.

Anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge the efforts and give credit where it is due—well done, UofG and the city of Guelph.

References:

UofG News. (2022). U of G Earns Gold Rating for Sustainability. Accessed February 8th, 2024. https://news.uoguelph.ca/2020/11/u-of-g-earns-gold-rating-for-sustainability/ 

Wals, A. E. J., Brody, M., Dillon, J., and Stevenson, R. B. (2014). Convergence Between Science and Environmental Education. Science, 344(6184): 583-584. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1250515.

[kslenvs3000w24]

Blog #2 Environmental Interpreter

Hi everyone and welcome back to my second blog. I am really excited to get into this topic because I have actually found some interest in regards to this area. I've noticed over the past couple years of school, I have left class feeling very inspired and educated and I would go on to tell family and friends the facts that I have learned and point out specific things. Although I am unsure whether I would choose a career along these lines, I could definitely see myself as an outdoor/environment interpreter. I've noticed that I enjoy educating people, especially about certain earth processes that take place, like the transfer of nutrients within ecosystems, or how plants use certain processes for different needs. I find this knowledge very fascinating and I feel as though I would be a proficient educator if I was able to teach outside on interpretive walks, hikes, and outdoor sessions.

I completed the quiz to determine my learning style and found that I was predominantly a visual and tactile learner (no surprise there!). For me personally, an overload of auditory information can really affect my ability to retain and perceive the content. However, being immersed in an environment where I get to learn/educate individuals where these processes occur and with what organisms would be an incredible learning experience whether I am the teacher or student. I would definitely blend my knowledge of the environment with an outdoor experience in order to deliver a lesson that can be understood by all. This would also include physical objects that individuals and I could touch and use while also having lots of diagrams that can be very easily understood in order to maximize the learning experience.

I strongly associate my values and ethics with preservation and practice. I am very passionate about understanding the ways in which ecosystems are impacted and how we can change our behaviours to help. Participating in numerous classes that have thoroughly taught the importance of the mutualistic relationship we share with nature has really motivated me to want to educate others on the complexity of our world and how the littlest changes can impose the greatest impacts. I have always appreciated the beauty of nature but also its resourcefulness in teaching us and I think this is a tool that should be utilized.

It's important for teaching styles to reach a wide variety of individuals thus I feel as though interpretive teaching in the setting of what you are educating people about is a great way to diversify our learning strategies. Incorporating useful learning techniques like visuals and props is a strategy that will not only encourage successful comprehension of young children but adults too (I know this because this is my preferred learning style).

I feel as though my connection and inspiration from nature would make my teaching style of educating in those kinds of environments a very uplifting and positive experience for all individuals. I think practicing my execution would act as a vital tool in checking off all the learning styles and with some more research it can be achieved. My goal is to encourage and inspire others just as I am every time I attend classes! Thanks so much for tuning in:)

Kat

[lifestreamaestheticscenter]

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[mysticetus]

thank you so so so much for the detailed ask!!! i've recently considered going into that field and that information / suggestion is super helpful for my decision :) i didn't know you were a biology major! that's so cool! how has it been so far? what kind of courses you took in high school do you use now / what do you feel are specific essential areas? i hope that doesn't sound like a strange question to ask, i've got some memory issues and knowing what specifically to focus on before i get into college could help a lot :)

no problem its not often i get to talk about the work that i do so im glad to write stuff.

when it comes to academic advice i have to preface it by saying things depend greatly on what is available to you, since “biology major” can fall under a ton of different things and im not sure theres a universal system for it … some examples ive seen are biology BS (bachelor of science) which is more useful for microbiology and if you want to go into research, biochemistry, or the medical field … biology BA (bachelor of art) which is better for macrobiology like zoology, and people looking to go into education. Theres also ecology and evolutionary biology, and more specific majors like botany, marine bio, etc ….

or your college might just have a single biology major. it really depends. my college happens to have a robust bio department and thats the main reason i wanted to go here. they usually have information on offered majors on their website but i assume youre looking at that anyway lol.

A nice piece of advice i received from someone in the field was when i attended the necropsy of an adult female sea lion, the woman performing it recommended we get a general biology degree rather than marine biology, since general bio offers you more opportunity. For example if you want to work in like… idaho studying golden eagles or kansas looking at salamander species you cant much use a marine bio degree for that. But a general bio degree is helpful in most marine bio environments. (Also marine bio is extremely competitive and the work is usually expensive but thats another conversation…)

in high school the class most useful to me was definitely physiology which was a science elective for me. It went over like…bone names and organ systems and how muscles work and all that … its still useful to me. You could also look into APES (ap environmental science) if thats something available to you. but generally i think you should take classes that are interesting to you! bio is a huge field and you may discover something really amazing if you just follow your nose.

and high school isnt all there is, you could see if theres a local museum or wildlife rescue center that takes youth workers/volunteers. More often than not facilities like this are non profit and depend on volunteer work so they might have something available. For paying jobs you could look into pet stores, sounds weird but there was an aquarium store in my town that had tons of species and the employees there are mostly really nerdy teenagers. similar situation with a reptile store near me, they literally breed chicks to feed the snakes. animal husbandry is a great way to observe like. Feeding behaviors and ecological roles. Doing work in actual places where a bio degree is applied helped inform my decision and i also learned a lot on the job. i never really freaked out about extracurriculars i just did this stuff because it seemed cool but it definitely helps with getting into college in the first place.

hope this helps

[azurite-writes]

Problem One: The Screen(s) and Digital Workspace

Part one of my multi-part doc about what I learned from doing online college at a non-online institution. This chapter: my Desktop as a Desk

     Highlighted points: learning styles, work type/function in relation to the computer 

       My biggest problem with being pushed online after being at an in-person institution was, and still is, my forced reliance on the computer. I have to sit in front of it for hours: attending classes on Zoom; checking email every three hours; accessing Moodle pages for class and out-of-class work (Moodle is what my institution uses, other web management/e-learning software platforms include PowerLearning, Blackboard, and OU Campus, among others). And the work itself can be watching documentaries, watching seminars, accessing ebook/PDF documents, annotating documents in online portals… it's a lot. People have talked at length about "zoom fatigue," as well as the eyestrain headaches that can come with staring at said screens for hours at a time. I'll talk about my own lessons learned about that later.

       The assumption among the administrators and (some) people of older generations than those currently in school seems to be that working online with computers and smartphones is more efficient. That isn't necessarily true; it all depends on the type of task and the person being expected to complete it. In my case, I cannot, for the life of me, focus on dense sections of text presented on a backlit screen. Thus, reading and answering emails is okay, but downloading scanned textbook pages to be read on a laptop screen (along with trying to highlight and annotate them) is hell on earth.

       Why is this? Different reasons for different people, but in my case it's because reading/"writing" on a screen interferes with my learning style(s), which are visual/spatial, audio, and kinetic. Audio doesn't come into play for reading on a screen, but seeing words physically in a certain location relative to other words on a page is very important to my memory of the material. Computer screens can display pretty much anything at any given time; book pages can only display whatever was permanently printed onto them. That is, the content of a book page in physical space will always be the same unless you, the reader, manipulate it; a computer screen can have any type of content displayed as long as its pixels can light up and process the information. And for me, that's a problem because I don't have any physical space to relate the information to, plus I don't get a sense of how long the document is. Recalling a passage in a printout, for me, goes like this: "I remember it was on the top-left of a page towards the beginning, the shape of the paragraph was funny too… ah, there it is." Recalling a passage on a digital scan of the same document is much harder for me by contrast: literally any of the paragraphs could have made its way to the top-left of my computer screen, if I moved the window around or zoomed in to better read the text; documents are an endless scroll upward or downwards, with (maybe) a sidebar to tell me what page I've landed on. All of my "landmarks" are functions of the program I am using to access the document. They're static and contained to a window... that can show up anywhere on my computer screen. Not conducive to the way I learn at all.

       My kinetic learning style comes into play with the computer, too. Annotating a document? In the physical world, a pen on the document itself does the trick; going through the physical movement of circling a word or making a note are things that solidify the information in my mind. Annotating a PDF document? First of all, it's difficult to do with a mouse (and God help you if you have a trackpad), and it's highly dependent on the program that the user selects to open the PDF. I could connect a drawing tablet, if I have one, but they're very expensive and their use is, again, dependent on the compatibility with whatever reader program the user selects. All this to say: annotating on the computer doesn't work for me, either. My kinetic and visual learning styles come together with note-taking. My memory is highly dependent on seeing words as they are formed by my own hand, processing them, and connecting meaning to them as they sit in a specific place on the page (am I over-explaining this? Basically, writing notes by hand and seeing where those notes are on a piece of paper help me remember them). Typing notes isn't a replacement for hand-writing notes for me; while I'm busy fixing my typos (on words I would never misspell on paper, usually, since my fingers are just moving weirdly over the keys), the professor moves on, and I'm not listening well enough to catch the fact that I've missed new information.

       The takeaway here is figure out your individual types of work relate to being on the computer. As I said, the computer hinders many aspects of my learning when it comes to memory and efficiency. As a creative tool, however, it has almost the opposite effect; writing assignments for fiction, poetry, and screenwriting classes are much more efficient on the computer. From creative thought to keystroke, I have less time to second-guess or forget my ideas, and both the immediacy and changeability of word processing programs actually works in my favor for those sorts of things.

       What I did differently from first online semester to second:

       1) I figured out which materials helped me remember my notes the best. Honestly, I wasn't even doing this when I was at in-person college, and to my detriment, but I couldn't get away with it at all once I went fully remote. Think back to when you were in lower levels of school: were there certain types of materials you gravitated towards in the classroom? Did you like basic composition notebooks with faint blue lines? Wide-ruled or college-ruled paper? Did you discover that graph paper just worked really nicely with all notes besides math, or that blank pages were less busy for your eyes? When you used pens, did you prefer blue or black ink, or did colored ink help certain things stick? If you can control what materials you use to take notes with, consider using ones akin to those from a class you either a) remembered the most fondly or b) remembered the most information from. Scour your memories of class experiences for anything, no matter how small, that may have made your life easier. Equally, take note of what tasks actually worked well digitally. Adjust accordingly.

(Personally, I found my magic formula was a 1-subject memorandum notebook — marginless, with very narrow line rulings; while I hesitate to direct you to Amazon, they are hard to find at a decent price otherwise, and you can get a 12 pack for just over $40 from them — with black ink from a 0.38-size gel pen (I used a basic Pilot G2 pen until it ran out, then bought ink refills in the smaller size). To "highlight" my notes, I circled or underlined information with a blue gel pen of the same variety. Keep in mind again that I'm learning to be a translator; this is just what works for me.)

       2) If I needed to print something out, I printed it out. Environmental guilt is something I struggled with a lot, and there was always something about staying on the computer that convinced me I was being "less wasteful" by staying digital. But with how much time and energy I ultimately saved reading a printed document that can be recycled vs the electricity I ate up spinning my wheels in front of the ebook… to me, it was worth it. If you find that helps you, too, don't be ashamed to print certain things out.

(If conserving ink and paper is a concern to you, it is possible in some viewing/editing apps to remove or cover images, either with white squares or by taking the images out completely. I have an old MacBook Pro and on current versions of Preview, one can draw shapes and fill them in white to cover parts of the scan that would eat up ink, such as blurred black borders and scanned images. For documents in a word processing program like Microsoft Word or Pages, it may also be possible to print the documents out at a smaller size, allowing more text or even multiple pages to show up on a single sheet of paper.)

| In the coming days/weeks I hope to be posting more content about how I tried to adapt to fully remote learning and the things I’ve learned along the way! Follow for updates ♥︎ |

[smuttyanimeslut]

Tea In Ba Sing Se

Paring: Zuko x gn!reader

Warnings: cussing, fluff, slight angst

Description: modern age avatar au with tea shop Zuko

Word count : 1k

Secret Tunnel softly played over the loud speakers in the Jasmine Dragon. Tightly gripped the tea cup as you blew on the steaming hot substance, your eyes locked into the boy behind the counter. The Jasmine Dragon had the best tea in all of the Earth Nation, as well as the most mysterious wait staff. The boy with the burnt eye was new, you had never seen him before, and you would have noticed him. 

Your eyes followed him over the rim of the tea cup. His movements direct and smooth. Who was he? Where did he come from? What did he do before this? He never faltered, tripped, or stumbled even when guest got under foot. What could have possibly made him so nimble? 

His voice was like honey when speaking to guest, but chipped and short when speaking to his coworkers. He didn’t seem to make friends easy. You felt drawn to him. 

His scar seemed familiar some how, even though you were sure you had never seen him. Why wouldn’t he leave your mind? 

“Hello,” you said on your third Sunday visiting the shop with the brown headed boy present. You hadn’t changed your schedule since you first stated attending the tea shop several months ago, but now it was different with him here. His name tag read Zuko.

“Hello,” he replied in his honey sweet voice, “how can I help you?” The burnt eye squinted as a small smile played at his lips. 

“Can you surprise me?” You asked, your cheeks inflamed. A confused look passed over his face as his small smile turned into a bright one. “With any type of drink.” You added. 

“You got it.” He said his gold eyes holding a new spark. The two of you exchanged money before you parted for your usual seat by the window. 

The weather outside was changing rapidly, pushing winter in with each passing moment. You brought out your laptop from your bag, and began typing away. When your tea was brought to your table, the cup read in scratchy letters, Earl Grey with a hint of almond milk. A smile played at your lips as you looked down at the lettering. 

Weeks passed like this, Zuko preparing surprise teas per your request. His messy hand writing covering the side of your to go cup. The sight of him brought a smile to your face every Sunday.

The cool air seeped into your bones as you rounded the corner to the Jasmine Dragon. The soft cotton of your grey beanie set a top your head, covering the tips of your ears as your nose ran. Your eyes began to watered as the wind picked up, fingers gripped the door handle leading into the Jasmine Dragon. 

For a moment you allowed yourself to question why you chose to make the walk here every weekend. It’s the tea and free WiFi, you reasoned, knowing good and well that wasn’t the only reason any longer. While they played a big part in your continued visits, you couldn’t discredit the pounding of your heart when you heard his voice, sweet as honey.

The ding of the shop brought you back to the world around you. Iroh, the Jasmine Dragon’s owner, stood behind the counter. You felt a slight drop in your mood as the brown haired boy was no where to be seen. 

“Good morning,” you said walking towards your window seat. 

“Good morning,” Iroh replied, his happy disposition over taking your slight melodically. 

“I think I decided on a major,” your bag slid nicely into the second seat at your table as you spoke.

“Oh yeah?” Iron asked leaning his hip against the counter, his back to you. “If you ever need a job you know you can just come to me.”

A smile played at your lips as his words filled the empty shop. You had gotten to know Iroh quiet well in the last few months. Despite what his family did, Iroh had a passion for Tea, and had started the shop because of it. Even though he only had one shop, it was known as the best in the whole region.

“I know,” you spoke bitting your lip subconsciously, “and you know I would, but my internship pays for my classes.”

A sign left the older mans mouth, “I always have to try. I know how hard they work you over there.”

“Over where?” The honey sweet voice asked from the back of the shop.

Your eyes darted to the doorway behind the counter where the brown haired boy now stood. His tan long sleeved uniform shirt stretched across his biceps as his shoulder casually leaned against the door. Carelessly, he wiped his hands on a rag before stuffing it into the front of his red apron.

“Sozin’s Comet” you explained, your voice coming out slightly quieter than before. “I work with a few other undergrads on a research project for the company. I- I hope to get placed on the Blue Spirt project when it takes off next winter.”

Zuko lazily pushed himself from the door way. “Why would you want to work with a company like that?” The words he spoke were dripping with venom as his body language and face showed indifference.

Sharply, you took a breath in, you had not expected this type of reaction. “It looked good on my college transcript, and on my resume. Plus,” you stated, your voice raising slightly, “Blue Spirit is supposed to focus on environmental issues like the over production of metals by the Fire Nation and its affect on Water Nation towns.”

Your hands slightly shook as you stared into his darkened gold eyes.

“That project was canceled.” He stated in the voice he reserved for his coworkers.

Your heart sank. That project was your ticket out of Ba Sing Se and straight to the capital city of the Fire Nation. “Oh,” you managed to reply as your body sagged. Suddenly, the scarf around your neck seemed to warm. One of your hands found its way to your beanie as it pulled it from your head, the other hand finding its way into your hair. “I might need that job then Iroh.”

After Zuko told you The Blue Spirit project had been cancelled it was announced to the company. All your email inquires about the cancellation had been dismissed with little to no replies. How did Zuko know this information before you, you wondered? And why was this mysterious boy becoming even more mysterious?

Come Sunday morning you had even more questions that you started the week with. However, when you arrived at the tea shop at your usual time you found a coffee sitting at your table. The same scratchy lettering covered the side of the cup.

“Chai tea with 2 shots espresso” it read.

“He’s off today.” Iroh said, his voice carrying across the empty tea shop. “He felt bad for last week and wanted to make up for it.”

Turning the cup more you saw, “I’m sorry I’m a dick” -Zuko

A chuckle left your throat as you stared at the cup in your hand in disbelief. “Who is he?” You asked.

“Zuko?” Iroh questioned.

Pulling the cup from your lips you hummed a response. “He’s my nephew.”

Weeks had passed, and winter was baring down harder than before. You hadn’t seen Zuko since you had found out his relation to Iroh and your Sunday ritual returned to normal pre-Zuko days.

The footsteps left in the snow disappeared in a blaze of white flurries. If you didn’t have homework due tonight, you would have stayed inside cuddled up on the couch watching tv. Instead, you were trudging through the streets of Ba Sing Se to the only tea shop with free WiFi.

“Iroh,” you said as soon as you walked through the door, snowflakes melting on your eye lashes, “I need something big and hot.”

A chuckle sounded from your left, “I’ve got this one Uncle.” His honey sweet voice said. A smile lit up Iroh’s face, as heat rushes to yours.

“Zuko,” you said, slightly surprised. He sat at your usual table, two cups placed before him, in a pair of black jeans and a wool coat to match. A maroon sweater popped out from underneath as well as the collar of a white shirt. Since the last time you saw him his hair had been cut much shorter than his once unkept mess.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” you said slowly approaching the table.

“I didn’t expect to come back.” He replied not moving from his seat. “But I had to know something.”

Seating yourself across from him you spared him another glance. His golden eyes held a new spark to them, and his plump pink lips were slightly chapped from the cold. His tongue darted out to wet them as he looked at you.

“Did you know I was in charge of the Blue Spirit project when you brought it up that day?” He asked sliding a cup in your direction.

“I didn’t.” You replied honestly. “I actually never made the connection. You seemed familiar to me in the beginning but I couldn’t place from where.”

The door of the shop opened, letting in a gust of wind from the harsh outside air. A shiver ran through your body, reminding you of your need for a warm beverage.

“Is that where you’ve been?” You asked casting your gaze downward.

“Yes,” He replied. “You reminded me why I started the project in the first place actually. I was just so frustrated when my father shot it down before I could even begin it, I ran away.”

The shop had began to fill with its regular morning crowd now, voices filling the once silent space. You brought the cup to your lips instead of responding. The warm liquid warmed you as Zuko’s eyes found their way to your lips.

Clearing your throat, you caught Zuko’s eyes. “But what does that really have to do with me.” You asked.

“Right,” a small smile lit up his face, “while I’ve been gone I’ve actually been looking into your work. I was impressed and I want you to be my partner.”

Your breath caught in your throat, and shock over took your features. “O-on the project.” Zuko rushed out after seeing your reaction. A light dusting of pink painted his features.

“I thought you said your father shot it down.” You replied neglicting to give him an answer.

His hand reached around the back of his head, scratching at the base of his neck, “He did, but that doesn’t matter anymore.” His eyes left yours as he spoke, looking off into the shop.

A frustrated sign left your lips, “and why’s that.” You replied.

The boy who spoke in a honey sweet voice, and made you surprise teas every Sunday morning sat before you, not the one who snapped at you over his own company. However, the frustration you felt these last few weeks at his absence was finally coming out.

“Spit it out Zuko.” You snapped, “I have hours of homework to do and your wasting my time.”

“My father doesn’t run the company anymore, I do.” He started, “And I would like your help if your willing to. I’m sorry for wasting your time I just-” he stopped. The hand that was at the base of his neck found yours across the table as he met your eyes. “I didn’t, no- I don’t want to leave Ba Sing Se without you. So take the job.”

The softness of his voice, mixed with the calistness of his hands disorientated you. There was a plead in his words. You didn’t reply right away, weighing your options. In the few moments of silence between you, Zuko had pulled his hand away.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out, grabbing his things, “I shouldn’t have asked you that. You barely know me. I’m just going to go.” He grabbed his car keys and tea before standing.

As he passed by, you grabbed his sleeve, following him to your feet. “I just have one question,” you said to the back of his head. Turning to look at you, he met your eyes. “Am I allowed to do this?” You asked before pulling his sleeve to crash your lips onto his.

The chatter of the Jasmine Dragon continued around the two of you as Zuko slowly moved his lips against yours. His free hand quickly found its way to your cheek, caressing it. Once you pulled away Zuko looked into your eyes.

“Yes, just not in the office.”

A smile made it way to your face, “That’s rough buddy.” You replied before pressing your lips back to his.

[thiswasinevitableid]

hello! Not sure if you’re still taking winter prompt requests, but 34 seems like it has strong NSFW OT4 potential :o)

Here you go! It is indeed NSFW

34. we’re stuck together on a group project and everyone is tired and frustrated so you suggest we take a break and build a snowman 

There are lots of things Joseph likes about attending UWV Kepler. For starters, it’s one of the oldest schools on the Interplanetary University System, meaning he’s surrounded by students from Earth and its sister planet, Sylvain. The first gate between the two worlds appeared in Kepler, giving the whole area an air of mystery that he relishes. And, at the start of the summer, the cute Sylph in his lit class asked him out. 

Barclay is soft spoken, an amazing cook, and part of a whole community of Sylphs who live on Earth full-time. Sometimes, when they’re cuddled up watching the X-Files or he’s helping Barclay in the kitchen, he looks at the other man and is awestruck that he’s chosen Stern as his boyfriend. 

As much as he loves being at school, it has downsides. For instance, while the spring semester on Sylvain uses more experiential means of testing students, the fall semester on earth ends in finals weeks, just like high school did. He’s good at tests, so while they’re a pain he doesn’t hate them. Projects don’t often bother him, but when they’re group projects he gets flashbacks to his junior year of high-school and develops a sort of pre-emptive anger at the people he knows wont pull their weight. 

The final project for his Community Development class started off well. Barclay was in the class with him, and is one of his partners. The other two in the group are Duck and Indrid, another Sylph/human romance, and in the midst of their first planning session Indrid let it slip that he and Barclay hooked up during the Sylph equivalent of high school. Duck was wholly unbothered, though that may be more to do with him being even-keel in general, and Joseph got a little distracted imagining the two of them together. 

Between his organizational skills, Duck’s environmental knowledge, Indrid’s knack for art, and Barclay’s ability to incorporate different elements, their plan for the hypothetical sustainable community center on Sylvain was chugging along. Even if Duck and Indrid kept cuddling up or stealing kisses whenever they could. It’s just a little much, in that it makes Joseph wonder what it’d be like to be between them, Indrid’s wiry frame wrapped around his back while that wide smile pressed into Joseph’s neck while Duck gave him that crooked grin and pushed his legs apart with strong hands…

Focus. He needs to focus. 

Because they have been trying to put it all together for two hours straight and have made no progress.

“...just think this bit is gonna read as convoluted. What do you think babe?” Barclay points his pen at the section in question.

“We could probably do without it.”

“Maybe” Duck pulls up the directions for the fortieth time, “I’m worried if we over-edit we’re gonna fuck up section five on the rubric. I still don’t know what he means by those last two bullet points.”

“Not sure reading them over yet again will reveal anything new.” Joseph rubs his forehead, “Indrid, what do you think.”

No reply, just a scratching pencil. 

“Indrid?”

“Earth to ‘Drid.” Duck nudges his boyfriend, who abruptly shakes his head. 

“Apologies, I got caught up in a future. How can I help?”

“Does this need to be cut?” Even Barclay sounds on edge.

“...maybe.”

“‘Drid!”

“It does not strike me as having a large impact on the grade either way.”

“Someone please just make a decision.” Barclay groans. 

“Hold on” Duck leans back to look out the window, “it ain’t snowin as hard. So, here’s what I’m thinkin; how about we take a break and get some fresh air. All four of us.” He looks pointedly at Stern, “seriously Joe, you been outside in the last two weeks?”

“Only to get from point A to point B.”

“C’mon” the shorter man hops up, heading for his coat, “last one out has to make the next pot of coffee.”

Soon they’re tromping across the lawn near Indrid’s house; because he’s a seer, the silver-haired man is in high demand by universities, governments, and businesses, which resulted in one paying his tuition and another for his house. 

“I have to do a stint as court seer anyway, I may as well take advantage of it.” Had been his explanation the first time he showed them the building, so at odds with his unkempt appearance that Joseph wondered if it was a practical joke. 

He still has no idea what kind of Sylph Indrid is, as he keeps a human form at all times. Barclay also leans that direction, but when he’d offered to show Joseph his Sylph form and Joseph practically jumped for joy before, during, and after the reveal, he became more comfortable wandering around as Bigfoot (“a bigfoot, babe”) at home. 

Indrid pauses mid-stride, turning to Duck, “An excellent idea, love.”

“Gotta let me say it first, sugar.”

“Apologies” Indrid kisses his cheek. 

“The snow ain’t turned to horrible slush yet, so: who wants to build a snowman?”

Twenty minutes later, they’re standing before a six foot tall snowman. It’s very well engineered, if he does say so himself. 

“Wonder if we can get it higher.” Duck contemplates the structure. 

Barclay winks at Joseph, slipping off his bracelet and rolling up another ball.

“Hell yeah!” Duck whoops and Indrid claps with an appreciative chirp.

“I’m going out on a limb and saying we’ve maxed out height.” Joseph shields his eyes as the snow falls in larger clumps. 

A wide grin cuts across Indrid’s face, “Not necessarily. Allow me.”

He hands his glasses to Duck and Joseph gasps; standing before them is creature coated in black and grey speckled feathers, save for his arms that are a smooth, dark grey chitin. Feathery antennae and glowing red eyes complete the picture.

“Holy shit.” 

Indrid trills, seemingly pleased by Josephs awe, and gathers a ball of snow before flapping into the air. 

“Ta-dah!” He bows, still flapping, having brought their sculpture to what must be closing in on nine feet. 

“It look a little rickety to you?” Duck whispers to Joseph.

Barclay, yelling over the sudden burst of strong wind, calls, “Indrid? You might wanna land buddy.”

“I suppose you’re--oh damn it.” 

The storm picks up, sending the top layer of the snowman straight onto Indrid, knocking him the rest of the way to the ground. 

“Fuck” Duck moves faster than Joseph’s ever seen “you okay ‘Drid?”

“C-cold, b-but otherwise f-fine.”

“Thank fuck.” With that Duck wheezes, shaking with laughter, “you shoulda seen your face.”

Indrid snickers, then sneezes. Which they all take as a sign to head inside. Having been the last one out the door means Barclay goes to start coffee, while Duck steps away to call his friend Juno to be certain she has a safe way of getting back to their shared apartment in the storm. Which leaves Joseph to be the one helping a very damp mothman dry off. 

“Why not just take your human form?” He scrubs the fantasy wicking towel along Indrid’s back.

“It would probably let me dry faster, you’re right. But I’m nervous that water droplets would stay in the feather somehow and freeze, which is unpleasant.” When Joseph finishes his head and back the Sylph poofs up, then  shakes his feathers back down. 

“That got a great deal of it, thank you. I can do my inner wings, if you’d rather go warm up.”

“It’s alright, I’m happy to help. Same motion?” He takes up position by Indrid’s extended right leg as the Sylph spreads his wings.

“Yes. Ah, be careful towards the innermost fourth. They’re sensitive.”

He nods, sets to work. As he glides the towel over the eye-spot, he murmurs, “I’m amazed you keep this form hidden.”

“It tends to alarm people.”

“Even Duck?”

A small laugh, “Only the first time, because he wasn’t expecting it. And I turned up at his window to warn him about a fire that was about to start in the dormitory.” 

“I think you look incredible.” The sincerity in his tone registers at the same instant their physical closeness does.

Indrid smiles, “So you do share Duck’s proclivities.”

“I, um, I’m not sure what you mean” He busies himself cleaning.

“You are attracted to me.” Indrid replies, folding both sets of hands in his lap. Startled, Joseph moves his hand too far in and Indrid chirps, higher than normal. 

“I’m sorry!”

“It’s alright, as I said they’re sensitive, but that does not mean they’re painful to touch.” The smile tinges with mischief and Joseph is ready to toss the rag aside and ask Indrid to let him put his fingers there when a drawl comes from the doorway. 

“Makes an even better sound if you play with his antenna.” Duck pushes off the doorframe, sauntering over as red eyes stay locked on him, “see?”

Indrid trills as Duck rubs the tip of one antennae between his thumb and finger. 

“Careful, sweet one, don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“You’re one to talk.”

Joseph doesn't know if he wants to take Indrid’s place or Duck’s, just that he’s wringing the towel so tight it’s tearing. 

“Coffees ready.” Barclay pokes his head in, chuckles, “or do you two need me to put it in hold until you’re done fucking in front of my boyfriend.”

“We would do no such thing without permission. Yours and his.” The way Indrid says it, as if Joseph is merely something can give or revoke access to, makes him cross his legs in a hopeless attempt to turn himself off. 

“Joseph?” Barclay’s voice is gentle as he joins him on the floor, “it’s up to you, babe. I’m happy to get my hands on some feathers again while you get your hands on those two but, uh, if you don’t want to or, uh, or need time-”

“I…”

Duck, blushing, sticks his hands in his front pockets, “Sorry, didn’t mean to come on too strong, was tryin to flirt a little-”

“Yes.” Joseph tosses the towel into the laundry hamper, “yes, I want this, you, all off you, oh my lord I haven’t been this turned on before. And that’s saying something” he turns to Barclay with a smile and gets a kiss in return, beard scratching his skin as the other man trails his lips down his neck. 

“That worked out nicelEEEEH, ohohyes” Indrid leans against Duck as the human plays with his antenna. Joseph crawls forward, eager to get his hands on Indrid’s wings, only for a clawed hand to come palm-up towards him. 

“Ah-ah, I didn’t give you permission to touch me, pet.”

He moans, hears Barclay growl, pleased, as Indrid chuckles. 

“Goodness, Barclay, you didn’t say he was that submissive.” Clawtips rest under his chin as Indrid keeps him in place. 

“Hold up, you two been comparin notes on fuckin humans?” Duck raises an eyebrow as Indrid nods, unashamed and Barclay goes bright pink. 

“Oh yeah? What’ve you been sayin about me, sugar?” He teases, tugging on the antenna. Indrid releases Sterns face and growls, pivoting onto his knees to trap Duck against the wall.

“That you are the finest, most accommodating human in either world and you make such lovely sounds when I bite you.”

“Sounds about right.” Duck kisses Indrid’s forehead, “but if you wanna see how Joe stacks up, I ain’t gonna complain. Long as I get a turn with him too.” He looks past Indrid to Joseph, “been wantin to know what you look like under the whole buttoned-up nerd thing.”

“No time like the present.” Joseph pulls his sweater off, grumbles as he remembers the shirt beneath it has buttons. As he undoes them, Indrid cocks his head. 

“I have an idea. Duck, remove your pants and underwear and whatever else you see fit. Barclay, stay clothed for now. Joseph, take everything else off.”

“I’m working on it.” 

“Then work faster, pet. I’ve been wanting to do this since you first touched my wings. Ah, there we are.” He purrs as Joseph kicks his boxer briefs away, “come sit in my lap.”

He does as he’s told, sighing as feathers tickle and caress his skin, “this form is even better from this angle.”

Indrid chirps softly, tongue darting out to lick his cheek as he closes his wings around him, “there will be ample time to explore it later, I promise. Right now, there is something that requires your attention.”

“OHmylord” his fingers sink into Indrid’s chest feathers as something thin and undulating teases between his legs. Two more appendages join it, one the same size and one thicker.

“To answer the question you’re about to ask, the shape has various, ah, biological functions.”

“And means you can get fucked more’n one way at a time.” Duck chimes in with what is obviously a happy memory. 

“Very true. However, for your first time, I think you can be a good boy and take the whole thing.” 

“FUCKohmyfuckinggod.” Down comes loose in his fingers as all three tendrils thrust inside him at once, twining into a single, ridged form that wastes no time in fucking as deep as it can manage. 

“Good boy.” Indrid tips his head back, purring louder, before turning his attention to Barclay, “Enjoying the show, sunburst?” The Sylph term of endearment gets a pleased rumble in reply, and Joseph steals a glance behind him to see his boyfriend palming himself through his jeans. 

“You know it, gorgeous. Seems like Duck is too.”

“Hell fuckin yeah I am.” Duck is rubbing his dick, the sight making Joseph lick his lips.

“Such an eager little human, my sweet.” Indrid glances at his boyfriend, “I think that deserves a reward.” He grips Josephs jaw with an upper hand, forcing his lips apart and his face up, “come and get it.”

Joseph moans, wiggling his hips as Duck’s two hands replace Indrid’s one. 

“Fuck, you look so goddamn good like this Joe.” He strokes his cheek, cock temptingly close.

“I don’t know, the view fromAH god, from down here is great.” He kisses Duck’s thigh, relishing the sweet smile the compliment gets him. 

“Gonna look even better in a sec. Now” he shoves his head forward, “suck my dick, pretty boy.”

He whines against slick skin, brings the hand keeping him balanced up and around to grope Duck’s ass. He loves the shape of it, and will tell the other man as much the moment his mouth is free. 

“Barclay, come here dearest” Indrid’s lower hands remain on his hips, but the upper two lift to do something he  can’t discern until there’s a zip of metal and an appreciative trill. 

“Yeah, you like the look of it little moth? Ohfuck, Indrid, baby, fuck that feels good.” A wet, rythmic sound suggests Indrid is blowing him, but when Joseph turns to look Duck jerks him back, fingers tightening in his hair. 

“Uhuh, ‘Drid gave you to me as a reward, so you’r gonna fuckin focus until I cum. Fuckin christ, wanna see just how good you look when I cum on your face, pretty boy. Nnn, fuck, bet your mouth feels even more amazin when your cummin. ‘Drid?”

“‘On ‘oment” 

A high, sharp chirp echoes through the room and Joseph can see Barclay’s hand from the corner of his eye, jerking up and down near the base of Indrid’s antennae. 

“Yeah, fuckyeah, Indrid, that’s it, fuck, can’t believe you’re lettin me cum on your feathers, god it’s gonna look so good, fuck, fuck, yeah.” Drops of cum hit the back of his next as Barclay howgrowlpurrs, Indrid’s tongue-tied reply sounding pleased with itself. 

A thud as his boyfriend drops to the floor, “Fucking-A, forgot how fast I cum from that.”

“It’s very gratifying. As for you, sweet little pet” all his claws dig into Josephs skin, the delicious pain sending whimpers up his throat, “I believe it’s time I made you cum.”

He yelps, muffled, as Indrid fucks him roughly, one tendril slipping out stroke his dick.

“Here, let me help.” Four thick fingers push in and he whines, Barclay kissing his shoulder and still letting out little growls of effort. 

“How’s that, my sweet?”

“So fuckin good, goddamn Joe, you feel fuckin perfect when you scream, heh, someone’s got a praise kink” he smirks as Joseph grabs him harder at the word ‘perfect.’

“C’mon babe, take it, you wanted all of us, remember?”

“Oh, I’m certain he does. And he’s going to feel it in the morning, I’ll make sure of that.” The tendrils still inside him curve just right and he cums, clinging to Duck’s legs as it ripples through him. Barclay pulls his fingers back, but Indrid continues fucking him, thrusts turning short and erratic as Duck grinds into his mouth. The other human cums with a groan and a string of curse words, stroking Josephs hair as he finishes. 

There’s a trill and Indrid’s wings flex, sending Duck stumbling backwards and Joseph pitching against the Sylph’s chest as he spills into him. It takes longer than usual, even accounting for the times it’s been with Barclay in his Sylph form. Just as some it drips out and down his thighs, there’s a final pulse and then the tendrils retract.

“Mmmmmmm” Indrid closes his arms and wings around him, “that was spectacular, pet.”

“Goddamn, came so hard I can’t feel my legs. You okay, Barclay?” Ducks fingers appear under Indrid’s...armpits? Wingpits? He’ll have to ask later.

“Uhuh.” A scuff as his boyfriend cuddles up with them. 

“......wait, we don’t need that section, we cover the rubric points Duck’s worried about in our ‘considerations’ portion.” Joseph sits up.

Duck guffaws, Indrid gives an amused tilt of the head, and Barclay leans over Indrid’s wing to kiss Joseph on the cheek. 

“What? Post orgasm clarity is a documented phenomenon.”

“We can fix it soon.” Indrid rubs his face, “I for one need to bathe, and given the storm will only intensify overnight and leave you all stuck here, we have ample time to fix it.” He flutters his wings shyly, “would anyone like to join me?”

An hour later they’re all clean and dry, the project is at a stopping point, and Barclay’s made fancy coffee for three of them and eggnog for Indrid. They settle in on Indrid’s nest of a bed to watch T.V, Duck in Indrid’s lap and the Sylphs wing draped over Barclay and Joseph. The weather outside chills and darkens the world, but as he nestles against soft feathers and warm fur, Duck’s hand in his, he’s got plenty of love to keep him warm. 

[othercat2]

Jam: Egg fic with worldbuilding but no title 1/?

So this is a thing I’ve been putting up on the homestuck gang discord. I decided to play with the “oviparous trolls” au thing. As you do. As usual, I have no idea of what I’m doing, and there’s a lot of worldbuilding.

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He's fussing (he is not fussing this is his first clutch okay) with the temperature controls of the incubator. Four eggs was  a reasonable sized first clutch and they were all on the small end. (But perfectly acceptable Zahhak!) Karkat snapped pictures of the speckled eggs and sent them to their genetors with his usual message of "red and blue slurry still does not make purple grubs." In honor of some of the most idiotic questions he'd  been asked by someone supposedly not a subadult. (Zahhak was lucky his matesprit put up with him.)

After egg coddling was breakfast and waiting for his attendant to arrive with his schedule. (And check his work.  Fucking up temps for a clutch could alter their projected caste or render them nonviable.) Karkat was hoping Kanaya was going to be bringing him good news from the medics; he's been on rest for what feels like forever and wants to get back to his work out. He checks the news feeds and catches up to social media. He also does a lot of shit talking at various internet hate friends. He's  doing some online shopping when Kanaya turns up. He's about to offer her a muffin and some coffee but...

"Kanaya are you okay?" She did not look okay.  "The Cavern Matre called me into her office," Kanaya says in a numb little voice. "Something terrible has happened."

Karkat felt a little thrill of panic at that. "Did something happen to my genitors?" He asked. “Zahhak doesn't  message too often but usually I'm exchanging stupid smilies and emojis with Megido by now."

Kanaya shook her head. "No this is something else. Worse."

"Worse?" Karkat asks. Kanaya nods. "The other attendants are speaking to their genetrices," she says.

"The Matres felt this would be better than simply announcing this during assembly."

"Announce what Kanaya?" Karkat asks.

Kanaya takes a breath. "Despite the strictest security measures we've discovered there's been trafficking of a genetrix bloodline."

"Holy shitfuck." It was easy to see why it hadn't been announced during assembly there would have been a fucking riot. "How?" Cavern security by necessity was tight for the very purpose of preventing kidnappings. Genetrices were trained to fight or take more extreme measures if taken. The punishments for attempting a kidnapping were gruesome.

"We don't  have all the details yet. The Church hasn't been very forthcoming."

"Of course. Mother Grub forbid they give a full report to the ones it's  relevant to." Kanaya gives him a look of reproof. Or tries to. Karkat's pretty good at staring her down.

"I'm sure we'll know more soon. There could be a reason behind the with held information."

Karkat did not agree but also didn't  want to argue. The reproductive and attending castes relative independance was hard won. It was also fragile. He knew that in the early days of his castes creation there had been total chaos until the early prototypes, led by the Signless had proven  it was more trouble than it was worth for the highbloods to try to keep their own little pet genetrix. The idea of an entire bloodline having been stolen was an immense blow. ( And horrifying purely from a stance of compassion. ) After breakfast Kanaya checked on the eggs temperature and the development of the embryos.

She checks his notations and makes a few of her own. Karkat tries not to fidget too much. They go to assembly next. Karkat takes his sickles. Out in the corridor are other adult genetrices and their attendants, all armed. The mood is too tense for the usual greetings and shit talking. Everyone heads into the assembly hall.

The Matre of the Cavern, flanked by the Matres of Medical, Education, Support, Assessment, and Genetics were on the stage. As a group they bowed. "By now you've been informed of the crime," the Matre of the Cavern says.  "We still don't have the details.  What we do know is that since  our Cavern is closest the genetrices will be brought here."

There was a flurry of questions, but the Matre of the Cavern signaled for quiet and  the Matre of Assessment stepped up. "The line has three living members. A third molt adult, a gravid adolescent and a two sweep old child. We don't  yet know if there were others that were sold elsewhere or culled."

"What's going to happen with the traffickers?" one of the older genetrices asks in a hard voice.

The Matre blinks. "They're ours of course. As always."

"Clowns," the genetrix points out as if this alone was an argument.  (It probably was. Fasces' most frequent genitors were a kismesis pair who were deacons in cult of the twin messiahs.)

The Matre's mouth twitches like she's  trying not to laugh. "I don't  think convincing them to turn over the criminals or what's  left will be a problem," she says.

More questions were asked about the situation and plans for the bloodline. Most of them were deflected, though Support indicated plans for housing and integration if possible were being discussed.  Karkat knew he wasn't the only one to shudder at the "if possible."

Assembly turned to other subjects such as the graduation of the most recent brood from the trials, the up coming Ascension for the next brood, and the Fete of the Last. (Karkat was on the decoration and planning committee for his sector of the Cavern.) There was also an announcement that due to the discovered theft, the Caverns had called off the Lottery and all genitors who hadn't taken vows were being asked to leave early. No one was especially happy about this.

After assembly was a doctor appointment where Karkat was approved for "light exercise." The doctor from long experience with her patient told him that extended sets with his sickles did not constitute light exercise. Twenty minutes a day, with a three minute increase over the next twelve weeks. "This is a monumental load of feculence in the backed up sewers of stupid bullshit I have to deal with," Karkat griped.

"I don't caaare," Zheydh almost sings. "This is what you get for over exerting yourself while gravid! You fainted and probably traumatized the class you were teaching Vantas. Then you wouldn't take my advice because quote 'you're not the one whose a waddling troll turducken.' Now I get to have my revenge."

"I hate you so much," Karkat says. "Shut up Kanaya."

"I didn't say anything," Kanaya says, amused.

"I can hear your I told you so," Karkat says, giving his attendant a glower.

"I doubt you're developing telepathy Karkat," Kanaya says teasingly.

 After the doctor appointment Karkat teaches his Lit class and goes to lunch. Then he attends  a section meeting where the main topics are morning assembly and the next environmental failure drill. (They were past due for a bolide emergency procedure. There was also strong argument for an actual raid drill.)

The meeting ran over, but he didn't get into very much trouble with his supervisor in the creche over it. The wigglers however were very sad he was late and manipulated extra story time out of him. After creche was dinner, which he shared with Kanaya.

The next few days were much the same except for an underlying simmer of anger for the traffickers. They still hadn't found out how it had happened, still weren't sure if the clowns were going to turn them over. Assembly was generally full of shouting that the Matres couldn't quite mediate.

The clown ship finally docks in the Cavern bay. It's surprisingly small and sleek and for a Church ship. (The cult had its  own shipyards and from what he'd heard their ships tended to be much bigger than standard Imperial ship  classes.) It's  painted with multicolored eyes and wings that spiral from bow to stern, and it's  maybe a quarter  the size of a cathedral ship. The ship is disturbingly named  Dance of the Angel.

Karkat is very very surprised when the Cavern Matre sends him a message that he's been asked to come with her to the ship and meet with the   Grand Highblood. "What the fuck?" Karkat asks. He waves his shelltop at Kanaya. "What is this? Am I reading this right?"

"I...it would seem so," Kanaya says. "The Grand Highblood wants to meet you."

“Why?" Kanaya gives him a look as if he's being deliberately obtuse. "Perhaps for some reason he feels is related to your Ancestor?" she suggests.

Karkat stares blankly back. "My Ancestor and nine caegars can get me a vaguely historically accurate romance novel."

"Karkat," Kanaya says. "I don't know whether you're being prickly about your Ancestor or you really believe that."

"It can be both!" Karkat says. "It's not like I have any special rank or responsibilities. Isn't it even in his will? 'If I should have a Descendant or if such should still exist in the future generations, put no burdens on him he doesn't take up.' I mean I'm  pretty sure there was a whole thing about it."

Kanaya smiles at Karkat. "Maybe that's something you could bring up with him.

 Karkat snorts. "Right I'm sure that's going to go over well," he says. There's a certain amount of fussing and preparation before Karkat is judged presentable for his meeting. Despite Kanaya's best efforts, he's never had much in the way of formal attire. There are some festival clothes, casual clothes, clothes for socializing or meeting with his genitors. But nothing really formal.

Kanaya ends up putting him into his favorite black velvet divided skirt, bright red long sleeved tunic, and a darker red robe with a wide black fabric belt. Also included were low leather boots, and a veiled hat. His only jewelry are some steel rings, and an ear cuff. He arms himself with his electric dart device (concealed) and his sickle (very much not concealed). Kanaya of course, is already dressed and perfectly made up. Her colors are the traditional jade green and black, though with  accents of genetrix bright red. She has no obvious weapons, but Karkat knows she's carrying.

"Ready?" she asks. Karkat nods, and  they both head out the door. They're met at the ship by the Matre of the Caverns, and a huge indigo, obviously a Church deacon.

"Karkat," the Matre says by way of greeting. "And Kanaya."

"Matre," Karkat and Kanaya chorus, and give a salute. They give another salute to the deacon.

"All y'all follow me," the deacon says, and heads up  gangway of the ship.

The Matre heads up first behind the deacon, followed by Karkat, with Kanaya taking up the rear. The inside of the ship is decorated much the way the exterior is. Eyes and feathered wings and spirals in rainbow hues. There are more indigo crewmen, who step aside as they pass. Karkat can hear conversation, and music, many voices singing.

The deacon leads them down several passages, and into something between an office and a sitting block. There  are low chairs and multicolored cushions everywhere, and a small dais where the Grand Highblood is sitting on more cushions in front of a low desk with books and readers scattered everywhere, along with a high end computing device. He's huge, and his paint is strangely simple. Flat, blank white, which seems to mean something to the Matre, because she gasps.

The three of them start to bow, but the Grand Highblood waves. "Sit yourselves down," the Grand Highblood says. When they've done so, (with some hesitation) he continues with, "Let me give you the full debrief," he says. "My word to your ears. There were rumors of undocumented crew and false papers. It was the legislacerators game at first, thinking it was stolen eggs or stolen grubs and wigglers, subadults. But it turned to something more heinous. A high barrister brother was bribed with a genetrix, and being not an idiot called on the church. We took over and rooted them out."

"You found only three?" The Matre of the Cavern asked. It was an oddly blunt question.

“That's on me," the Grand Highblood says. "The traffickers killed most of them, trying to destroy evidence, like they thought we wouldn't wring the truth from them. There was just the oldest of the line, the one the oldest  locked himself in a bitty room with, and the wiggler given to the barrister."

As he speaks, there's movement by the Grand Highblood's lap, behind the table. What seemed like another pile of colorful cloth turns out to be a troll. An adult genetrix, with white hair wearing what looks like second hand Church motley. He's long limbed, and skinny instead of the usual blocky build of most genetrices, and if he were standing, would be almost as tall as the Grand Highblood. He blinks sleepily at them.  "Sup."

There is a look of unmistakable fondness on the Grand Highblood's face. "You went and fell asleep on me again, thinking I'm a relaxation platform."

"No, I'm being sultry as fuck," the genetrix says.

"More like a underfed purrbeast," the Grand Highblood says. "We're at the Cavern. These are all to being your kin." The gentrix's eyes flick from the Matre, to Kanaya and Karkat. "I'm Matre Markstar, the Matre of this Cavern," the Matre says. "This is Kanaya Maryam, and Karkat Vantas, how should we call you?" "

Dhuvid Straid," the genetrix says.

"We're still in pursuit of some of the traffickers, who went on with a whole cloning lab and canisters of frozen tissue, but the most of them we'll be handing them over," the Grand Highblood says. "All mostly in one piece."

The Cavern Matre bows where she sits. "We thank you for rescuing our charges."

The Grand Highblood's mouth tilts in a slanted smile that reveals the curves of his fangs. "All I did was do my duty toward the children of the Mother, didn't I?" he casts a glance toward Karkat, deep indigo-purple eyes have a certain gleam to them. "Clever motherfucker, your Ancestor," he says to Karkat. "We the last children of the mother have a duty to each other and the future He was all sneaky talking about the castes outside of his newly formed one. You have his miraculous way with words? You've been quiet enough."

"With all respect, Highblood, if you want an argument with my Ancestor, you should hire a necromancer," Karkat says in a flat tone. The Grand Highblood laughs quietly. "It's the Descendant I wanted a word with," he says. "I promised Dhuvid his kin would be safe and together, and I won't turn them over to anyone who'd keep them apart or harm them."

Matre Markstar looks momentarily offended by that,but she recovers. "Sir, are you implying you want Teacher Vantas to mentor or take custody of the genetrice line?"

"Sister, I want him to have the care of Dhuvid's little brothers," the Grand Highbllood. "As I promised him."  A beat. "There being a matter of serendipity between us, such that I would take over his care."

"Frail and wilting flower, that's me." Dhuvid says. "I need the gentlest and sweetest pale pity."

"You speak more true than you know, rattle bones," the Grand Highblood says, amused. "With your permit I'd get to doing that, jade sister. My Descendant's taking over the hunt for the traffickers and all Church duties so I settle Dhuvid in."

 "Accommodations may be arranged, Highblood," Markstar says. "I will have the Imperial suite prepared for you."

"I'll be put up with Dhuvid by wherever Vantas is," the Grand Highblood says.

"The genetrice apartments are separate from the genitor and admittance suites," Markstar says. "Genitors generally do not go there, for obvious reasons." "Quadrants and the genitors that take vows do," the Grand Highblood points out.  "I want to see where you'll be mewing up my diamond, and see all how you'll be treating him and his kin. I'll take whatever vows the genitors that don't leave do."

"That would mean you don't leave," Karkat blurts over whatever probably more polite version of "what the fuck," Markstar was about to voice. "It is not actually like Servitors of the Genetrices down in the genetrice apartments," Karkat says, naming a series of porn videos that everyone has been warned about. (Since genitors often got weird ideas, especially the older high caste trolls still around from the last Mothergrub's broods.) "The imperial suiteblock is supposed to be all fancy and shit, according to your station. Dhuvid and his line are probably going to be in the infirmary getting checked over before anyone gets moved anywhere, anyway."

"You think I don't know what I'm asking for?" The Grand Highblood asks, voice hard."I'll stay by him, where ever he's put up."

"Enduring great privations and all that shit," Dhuvid says. He's leaning up against the Highblood's side, and despite the bland tone, there's a certain amount of tension in his shoulders. "Boss, explain me a thing, what's this argument about?" a beat. "You said it was goinng to be safe here."

"So I did,"  Grand Highblood says. "And it is, there's just these little particulars."