#personally i only give funds to student media & the library

[dying-signals]

if you’re a college student btw check if your university offers the ability to request refunds on things such as gym fees, club fees (i know some universities, such as ASU offers the ability to restrict which clubs your payment goes into, as some students are mobilizing to defund Turning Point USA on campus), etc, in all likelyhood, if you put any money into the university you may be funding things you do not agree with morally or ethically, and you do have some power to change that, evaluate where every dollar is going & if you find yourself getting a reasonable refund consider redirecting that money to a Palestinian family, or someone you know in need

[treefey]

I like this, but some parts of it feeds into the false STEM/humanities binary, which I hate.

School subjects are taught isolation from each other, and they kind of have to be, at first. However, irl they all exist simultaneously and overlapping, like engineering and architecture are art thinking skills applied to practical objects. But education has set up a hierarchy with hard sciences & engineering at the top (Social sciences like history are kind of in the middle, but since they are treated as below the "hard" sciences, I am including them when I say "humanities".)

I will never deny that there are humanities people who are absolute dingbats, but there are so many people putting information out on free forums like social media that explain history, linguistics, philosophy, and art in normal human speech. Libraries host events, people summarize research for free newspapers, bars host history profs who want to talk about their cool research. People do K-12 outreach. There are sadly still barriers to access (internet, time, $ to go to the bar, etc.), but there is also a broader cultural context that speaks to why artsy/social science-y nerds feel like they are ignored that don't have to do with their "bad" communication skills:

The US (and maybe beyond?) is going through an anti-intellectual movement rn. Many people have already had their minds made up and will not listen to any communication from experts (because they are seen as "experts"). Science is 100% not exempt from this. The amount of people I personally know who will fit any weather event into a conspiracy theory rather than entertain the idea of climate change is depressingly high. These people will only watch TikToks that conform to their pre-existing ideas.

Social media and the internet in general are run by corporate algorithms. TikTok feeds you what it thinks you're interested in, so someone interested in physics is probably not going to get the videos that explain Foucauldian philosophy super clearly or why dress history is important.

(American?) Higher ed is rife with structural issues. I've worked at a uni for nearly 12 years in a couple different disciplines. It's bad enough that higher ed is run as a business that relies on tuition $ to stay afloat. On top of that, several states have enacted "performance based funding" i.e. public unis get funding based on graduation rates. In general, this terrible for actual education. But what makes it worse is that they give the uni more $ for STEM students, actively encouraging universities to push students to those programs. Then when you think about the STUPID tuition cost, of course students are going to pick a major they think they will let them eat in the future rather than something they just like learning. And unis are BROKE because public funding has dropped, we're about to hit an enrollment cliff, economic conditions SUCK. So unis have to kill off any program not useful in the current job market to keep afloat. The people who are trying to communicate humanities & social science information are doing so from within this messy context (which sucks! you don't have time for tiktoks if you're doing your job and fighting for your department to exist!)

Issues in K-12 feed into higher ed issues. Arts programs are being removed because the solution to the "why did I learn hotcross buns and not personal finance" discourse is to remove the arts and not standardized testing, or better yet the structure where schools are funded based on their students' standardized testing scores.

Also, I love the science communication ideal. It has suffered some massive hits in practice, though. This long video/podcast from 2 pro-vax doctors (one is also a scientist) talks a little about how COVID communication failed in the US. In a non-COVID example, I personally saw how few people in my town believed the scientists/engineers that said our water was safe after East Palestine last year-- the communication was so bad, and the trust in scientists is not there. This is also not a small number of uneducated dummies. I work at a university.

Maybe outside the US or in your coastal elite towns these situations are better. I hope so

Last, in our current dichotomy, communication is a "soft skill" that falls under the humanities, and science communication is effectively an interdisciplinary course. I'm very glad it exists, but it's unfair to use that as an example on how the humanities as a whole needs to take a leaf out of science's book. More interdisciplinarity and learning from each other is the answer. Explain the blue square art like a science museum, but don't diss the art history adjunct who works 3 jobs for not making art history TikToks. Tear down STEM/humanities rift whenever possible-- we'll all be better off :)

I would be very interested in hearing the museum design rant

by popular demand: Guy That Took One (1) Museum Studies Class Focused On Science Museums Rants About Art Museums. thank u for coming please have a seat

so. background. the concept of the "science museum" grew out of 1) the wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities), also known as "hey check out all this weird cool shit i have", and 2) academic collections of natural history specimens (usually taxidermied) -- pre-photography these were super important for biological research (see also). early science museums usually grew out of university collections or bequests of some guy's Weird Shit Collection or both, and were focused on utility to researchers rather than educational value to the layperson (picture a room just, full of taxidermy birds with little labels on them and not a lot of curation outside that). eventually i guess they figured they could make more on admission by aiming for a mass audience? or maybe it was the cultural influence of all the world's fairs and shit (many of which also caused science museums to exist), which were aimed at a mass audience. or maybe it was because the research function became much more divorced from the museum function over time. i dunno. ANYWAY, science and technology museums nowadays have basically zero research function; the exhibits are designed more or less solely for educating the layperson (and very frequently the layperson is assumed to be a child, which does honestly irritate me, as an adult who likes to go to science museums). the collections are still there in case someone does need some DNA from one of the preserved bird skins, but items from the collections that are exhibited typically exist in service of the exhibit's conceptual message, rather than the other way around.

meanwhile at art museums they kind of haven't moved on from the "here is my pile of weird shit" paradigm, except it's "here is my pile of Fine Art". as far as i can tell, the thing that curators (and donors!) care about above all is The Collection. what artists are represented in The Collection? rich fucks derive personal prestige from donating their shit to The Collection. in big art museums usually something like 3-5% of the collection is ever on exhibit -- and sometimes they rotate stuff from the vault in and out, but let's be real, only a fraction of an art museum's square footage is temporary exhibits. they're not going to take the scream off display when it's like the only reason anyone who's not a giant nerd ever visits the norwegian national museum of art. most of the stuff in the vault just sits in the vault forever. like -- art museum curators, my dudes, do you think the general public gives a SINGLE FUCK what's in The Collection that isn't on display? no!! but i guarantee you it will never occur, ever, to an art museum curator that they could print-to-scale high-res images of artworks that are NOT in The Collection in order to contextualize the art in an exhibit, because items that are not in The Collection functionally do not exist to them. (and of course there's the deaccessioning discourse -- tumblr collectively has some level of awareness that repatriation is A Whole Kettle of Worms but even just garden-variety selling off parts of The Collection is a huge hairy fucking deal. check out deaccessioning and its discontents; it's a banger read if you're into This Kind Of Thing.)

with the contents of The Collection foregrounded like this, what you wind up with is art museum exhibits where the exhibit's message is kind of downstream of what shit you've got in the collection. often the message is just "here is some art from [century] [location]", or, if someone felt like doing a little exhibit design one fine morning, "here is some art from [century] [location] which is interesting for [reason]". the displays are SOOOOO bad by science museum standards -- if you're lucky you get a little explanatory placard in tiny font relating the art to an art movement or to its historical context or to the artist's career. if you're unlucky you get artist name, date, and medium. fucker most of the people who visit your museum know Jack Shit about art history why are you doing them dirty like this

(if you don't get it you're just not Cultured enough. fuck you, we're the art museum!)

i think i've talked about this before on this blog but the best-exhibited art exhibit i've ever been to was actually at the boston museum of science, in this traveling leonardo da vinci exhibit where they'd done a bunch of historical reconstructions of inventions out of his notebooks, and that was the main Thing, but also they had a whole little exhibit devoted to the mona lisa. obviously they didn't even have the real fucking mona lisa, but they went into a lot of detail on like -- here's some X-ray and UV photos of it, and here's how art experts interpret them. here's a (photo of a) contemporary study of the finished painting, which we've cleaned the yellowed varnish off of, so you can see what the colors looked like before the varnish yellowed. here's why we can't clean the varnish off the actual painting (da vinci used multiple varnish layers and thinned paints to translucency with varnish to create the illusion of depth, which means we now can't remove the yellowed varnish without stripping paint).

even if you don't go into that level of depth about every painting (and how could you? there absolutely wouldn't be space), you could at least talk a little about, like, pigment availability -- pigment availability is an INCREDIBLY useful lens for looking at historical paintings and, unbelievably, never once have i seen an art museum exhibit discuss it (and i've been to a lot of art museums). you know how medieval european religious paintings often have funky skin tones? THEY HADN'T INVENTED CADMIUM PIGMENTS YET. for red pigments you had like... red ochre (a muted earth-based pigment, like all ochres and umbers), vermilion (ESPENSIVE), alizarin crimson (aka madder -- this is one of my favorite reds, but it's cool-toned and NOT good for mixing most skintones), carmine/cochineal (ALSO ESPENSIVE, and purple-ish so you wouldn't want to use it for skintones anyway), red lead/minium (cheaper than vermilion), indian red/various other iron oxide reds, and apparently fucking realgar? sure. whatever. what the hell was i talking about.

oh yeah -- anyway, i'd kill for an art exhibit that's just, like, one or two oil paintings from each century for six centuries, with sample palettes of the pigments they used. but no! if an art museum curator has to put in any level of effort beyond writing up a little placard and maybe a room-level text block, they'll literally keel over and die. dude, every piece of art was made in a material context for a social purpose! it's completely deranged to divorce it from its material context and only mention the social purpose insofar as it matters to art history the field. for god's sake half the time the placard doesn't even tell you if the thing was a commission or not. there's a lot to be said about edo period woodblock prints and mass culture driven by the growing merchant class! the met has a fuckton of edo period prints; they could get a hell of an exhibit out of that!

or, tying back to an earlier thread -- the detroit institute of arts has got a solid like eight picasso paintings. when i went, they were kind of just... hanging out in a room. fuck it, let's make this an exhibit! picasso's an artist who pretty famously had Periods, right? why don't you group the paintings by period, and if you've only got one or two (or even zero!) from a particular period, pad it out with some decent life-size prints so i can compare them and get a better sense for the overarching similarities? and then arrange them all in a timeline, with little summaries of what each Period was ~about~? that'd teach me a hell of a lot more about picasso -- but you'd have to admit you don't have Every Cool Painting Ever in The Collection, which is illegalé.

also thinking about the mit museum temporary exhibit i saw briefly (sorry, i was only there for like 10 minutes because i arrived early for a meeting and didn't get a chance to go through it super thoroughly) of a bunch of ship technical drawings from the Hart nautical collection. if you handed this shit to an art museum curator they'd just stick it on the wall and tell you to stand around and look at it until you Understood. so anyway the mit museum had this enormous room-sized diorama of various hull shapes and how they sat in the water and their benefits and drawbacks, placed below the relevant technical drawings.

tbh i think the main problem is that art museum people and science museum people are completely different sets of people, trained in completely different curatorial traditions. it would not occur to an art museum curator to do anything like this because they're probably from the ~art world~ -- maybe they have experience working at an art gallery, or working as an art buyer for a rich collector, neither of which is in any way pedagogical. nobody thinks an exhibit of historical clothing should work like a clothing store but it's fine when it's art, i guess?

also the experience of going to an art museum is pretty user-hostile, i have to say. there's never enough benches, and if you want a backrest, fuck you. fuck you if going up stairs is painful; use our shitty elevator in the corner that we begrudgingly have for wheelchair accessibility, if you can find it. fuck you if you can't see very well, and need to be closer to the art. fuck you if you need to hydrate or eat food regularly; go to our stupid little overpriced cafeteria, and fuck you if we don't actually sell any food you can eat. (obviously you don't want someone accidentally spilling a smoothie on the art, but there's no reason you couldn't provide little Safe For Eating Rooms where people could just duck in and monch a protein bar, except that then you couldn't sell them a $30 salad at the cafe.) fuck you if you're overwhelmed by noise in echoing rooms with hard surfaces and a lot of people in them. fuck you if you are TOO SHORT and so our overhead illumination generates BRIGHT REFLECTIONS ON THE SHINY VARNISH. we're the art museum! we don't give a shit!!!

[shoujoboy-restart]

How do i stop feeling bad about being bi. / Same sex attracted? I feel the world and god hates me

A lot of instrospection and research into how normal same sex relations were WAAAAY before catholicism and after it too.

Mr Tomlinson was a farmer at Dog House Farm, which is on the site where a golf course now stands near Wakefield in West Yorkshire. He wrote the entry on 14 January 1810 in response to media reports of the execution of a naval surgeon for sodomy.

Mr Tomlinson wrote: 'It appears a paradox to me, how men, who are men, shou'd possess such a passion; and more particularly so, if it is their nature from childhood (as I am informed it is) - If they feel such an inclination, and propensity, at that certain time of life when youth genders [i.e. develops] into manhood; it must then be considered as natural, otherwise, as a defect in nature … it seems cruel to punish that defect with death.'

Mr Tomlinson goes on to question how God could allow such severe penalties for a divinely-ordained trait.

The passage was uncovered by Eamonn O’Keeffe, an AHRC-funded doctoral student in the History Faculty at the University of Oxford, while undertaking his PhD research in Wakefield Library. Although historians have written about other parts of the Tomlinson diary, this passage has not previously been brought to light.

Mr O’Keeffe said: 'In this diary we see a Yorkshire farmer arguing that homosexuality is innate and something that should not be punished by death. While Tomlinson’s writings reflect the opinions of only one man, his phrasing - ‘as I am informed it is’ - implies that his comments were informed by the views of others.

There's nothing new under the sun. At the heights of punishment and persecution of gays there are still people who cared for us and knew the way we were being treated was unfair, even the very label used against us, homossexual, was made by a gay liberation sexologist ad it meant to simply describe us normally.

I was never that religious, and my family was never too much about religion either, but we still hd clear catholic influence, my mother is a very open minded and just shrugged off both me being agnostic and me being gay so I'm very lucky for that.

But something that can help you is try to get away from concrete and boxed spirituality if you still find the need to use it, i myself think religious fundies are just sadistic narcissists: People that hate themselves so much they need to think everyone else does as well, and that even a ominipotent being that could solving droughts, famine and performing miracles instead gives a shit about who's sucking dick and wearing skimpy outfits.

Find pride in your sexuality too, don't feel ashamed of having weird fetishes or having unusual desires, as long as it's consensual and with sane informed adults you doing nothing wrong at all, explore what you like and what you dislike, and don't feel pressured to be a prude "because it's the minimum you can do as sinful homossexual" be what you want to be because it's what makes you happy and satisfied, i do personally think "conservative gay" stereotypically doesn't provide many answers for how you feel, since the least of it is gay guys that are disinterested in what benefits us and the extreme is gay dudes praising and laughing over terrorists commiting mass murder against us, so try to find a middle ground obviously.

Understand you were worth respect dozens of thousands if not millions of years ago and you have only been disrespected for barely a millenia and the world is progressing and finding space for you, find community and friends to relate with and instrospect and research to know you were always loved and there was always a place for you and there will always be no matter what.

[publiccollectors]

From the discussion “Towards A Self Sustaining Publishing Model” hosted by Printed Matter.

Some things I have learned in over 30 years of publishing since my teenage days as a zine maker, administrating my project Public Collectors, and from working in the group Temporary Services and our publishing imprint Half Letter Press.

I have just ten minutes to speak. If only one or two things that I share are useful, that’s plenty! It took me decades to understand some of this stuff.

Use every exhibition invitation with a budget to print something. Use the whole budget to print something. Make something in a large enough print run so that you have something to give away and surplus that you can sell. Your publication can be a folded sheet of paper, a booklet, a newspaper, a poster, a book, or anything in between.

Be able to print at least something at home. Buy a cheap laser printer or inkjet printer, find a used copy machine, buy a RISO or some other duplicator, carve something into a potato or a piece of foam and print it. Being able to do at least some of the printing and production at home—even if it’s on a tiny scale—will compel you to print things that you might have convinced yourself not to send out or bring to a professional printer. Hopefully the ability to print impulsively and compulsively will result in good work. Figure out how to keep making things on every scale. Look for cheap used printing equipment on Craigslist. Team up with friends and buy equipment together that you can share. Start a printing collective in your basement.

Ideally your publication should cost 1/5th or 1/6th of the retail price to make. If you sell a $10.00 publication through a store, you are probably only going to make $6.00 or less after the store takes its cut. So ideally your $10.00 book costs $2.00 or less to make. Don’t aim to just break even. Aim to make a profit so you can keep making more publications and pay for your life. Publishing will probably never be your sole income but don’t lose money on purpose. Make things that are priced fairly and look like they justify what they cost to buy. The fact that you didn’t find a more affordable way to print something is not an excuse to sell something that feels cheap and shitty for a ridiculous sum of money. Good cheap printing is easier to find than ever before. Do your homework.

Figure out the cheapest and least wasteful ways to do everything. Ask other publishers where they get their work printed. Look for local printers so you can avoid shipping fees. Ask local printers if you can pay in cash for a discount. Ask printers if there is a cheaper way to do what you want to do by adjusting the size of your paper or the paper stock or some other small shift in form. If you print things yourself, buy the paper that is on sale. Design a publication around the paper that you found for cheap. Discount warehouses sometimes have good paper. Even dollar stores sometimes have good paper. I’ve even bought paper at flea markets. Costco sells an 800 sheet ream of 24 lb paper for $6.99. I use it all the time. It rules. I also recommend getting your jugs of organic olive oil there, but you can’t print with that.

Free printing is good printing. If you have access to free printing, use it. Free printing is like free food at art openings and conference receptions. It is one of those pleasures in life that never gets old. Come up with an idea that is based around the aesthetics of whatever free printing you have access to and make the publication that way. Eat the cheese and bread. Drink the wine. Make the copies at work.

Buy bulk shipping mailers on eBay. Find bubble wrap and other packing materials in the trash. Look out for neighbors who just bought new furniture—it’s usually wrapped in miles of packing material you can use for shipping books. Boycott terrible right wing fuckers like ULINE. Seriously, they give money to everyone horrible. Trump? Check. Ted Cruz? Check. Scott Walker? Check. ROY FUCKING MOORE? CHECK FUCKING CHECK! Tear up their catalogs and use them as packing material to protect your books. Make publications that have a consistent size so you can purchase cardboard mailers in bulk and get a discount on them. Buy packing tape in bulk. Buy everything in bulk. You can store your extra reams of paper under your bed or on top of your kitchen cabinets if necessary. Be like a wacko survivalist prepper, but for office supplies. Go to estate sales and look for the home office in the house. Buy the dead person’s extra tape and staples and rulers and scissors. I’ve been using some random dead person’s staples for years because I bought their staple hoard. Staples aren’t like meat and milk. They don’t expire.

I’m against competition. Try to avoid competing with other artists for resources. If you don’t truly need the money, don’t ask for it. Artists should have a section on their CV where they list grants they could have easily gotten but didn’t apply for because they are privileged enough that they don’t need the money as much as someone else. I almost never apply for anything but the one thing I do apply for and get every year is a part-time faculty development grant from Columbia College Chicago where I teach. It pays adjuncts up to $2,500 a year to fund their projects and seems to be completely non-competitive. My union negotiated to get us more money. I have used that grant to make over a dozen publications. The value of the publications I make and sell with each grant is about three or four times the value of the grant itself. Some years I make more from the grant than I do from the limited number of classes I teach. But I don’t depend on this grant to be a publisher and I’d still be able to make things without it.

Make things in different price ranges so everyone can afford your work, but also so that you can sustain your practice. Make a publication that costs $2.00, that costs $6.00, that costs $20.00, and make something special for the fancy ass institutional libraries that have a lot of money to spare and can buy something that costs $300.00. Likewise, make things in all different size print runs. Is there something you can print 1,000 of that you can keep selling and giving away for years, to enjoy that quantity discount that comes with offset printing a large number of publications?

Collaborate with people and pay them with publications (if they are cool with that) that they can sell on their own. Sometimes this ends up being better pay and more useful than an honorarium, and it helps justify a larger print run. But see what they need—don’t assume. Barter with other publishers and sell each other’s work and let each other keep the money. This helps with distribution. Sometimes it’s easier to sell their work than it is to sell your own. Help others expand the audience for their publications.

Fund your publishing practice by asking your friends who teach to invite you to talk to their college classes about your work. Use those guest speaker fees to print something. I sometimes tell people on social media: If three or four people will invite me to speak to their class, it could fund the entire next issue of X booklet series that you like so much. This has often worked. Also, sometimes their students end up ordering publications. Sometimes lectures about publications generate more income than the publications themselves.

Have an emailing list and write newsletters to announce new publications. Stay in touch with people who like what you do. Expect to spend a ton of time corresponding with people. Have some cheap things and cool ephemera on hand that you can send people for free when they mail order your publications. Reward people who support you directly with something nice that they didn’t expect. People like handwritten notes. It’s okay if they are very short but sign the packing slip and at least write “Thank you!”

Above all, know that publishing is a life journey and not a get rich quick scheme, or even a make very much money scheme. Enjoy the experience of meeting and working with others, trade your publications with other publishers and build up an amazing library of small press, hard to find artist books. Get vaccinated and travel and sleep on each other’s couches. Be generous with your time, knowledge, resources, and work. Tell Jeff Bezos to fuck off by never selling anything you make through Amazon. Find the bookstores that you love and work with them forever. It’s nicer to have deeper relationships with fewer bookstores than surface level interactions with dozens of shops run by people you don’t know.

Think about your publishing family. Bookstore people are your family. People that organize book fairs and zine fests are your publishing family. Other publishers are your family. People who follow your work for years on end are your family. Printers and binderies are your family. The postal workers that know you by name and that you know by name are your family. The person who doesn’t care if you make the free copies at work is your family. Over thirty years later, I’m still in contact with people I exchanged zines with through the mail when I was a teenager. In some cases I still haven’t met them in person. It’s fine! They are my family. Your students are your family—particularly once they graduate or drop out, as long as they continue making books and zines. Your family is your family, particularly if they value and support your publishing practice. And for this reason, this talk is dedicated to my late father Bruce Fischer, who let me use the company copier and postage meter when I was in high school, and to my mom who sat on the floor with me and helped me hand collate and staple my zines.

That’s what I’ve got for now. Stay in touch and with luck, and enough vaccines and masks and hand sanitizer, maybe I’ll see you at a book fair. – Marc Fischer • Thank you to Be Oakley of GenderFail for the invitation to present, to the other presenters Vivian Sming, Yuri Ogita, and Devin Troy Strother, and to the wonderful people at Printed Matter for hosting this! You should be able to find the video archived on Printed Matter’s YouTube Channel.  Presented on April 2, 2021

[forestwater87]

How did you become a university Librarian? Did you do an English degree? Sorry if this is a weird question it just really interests me as I’m not sure what to do when I’m older

Eeee I got really excited about this question! 

Okay, the fun thing about librarianship is that all roads can lead to it: as long as you get an ALA-approved (assuming you’re American; if you aren’t I cannot help you) graduate degree you can do just about anything for undergrad. English majors are extremely common, just by the nature of who’s into the job, but literally it doesn’t matter; in fact, weirder and more specialized degrees can actually help in certain jobs, because they give you a ton of background info and qualifications than most of your contemporaries have.

I fell into it because I worked at a library in high school and fell in love with the environment, and when I realized I’d rather die than work in publishing (my previous life’s goal) I gravitated toward library school. I knew from the beginning that I’d need a Master’s -- and a very specific one at that -- so mostly my undergrad was just “grab a foundational degree and have fun with it.” That was really freeing, honestly. I had a ton of fun in undergrad.

Now, if you, Anon, were interested in getting into librarianship I’d have a handful of recommendations. These are all based on my very American experience, and there are probably smarter people than me with better advice but I’m the only one on this blog so heeeeerrreeeee we goooooooooo!

Undergrad

You need a 4-year degree. Full-stop. It doesn’t matter what kind, but you gotta have one to get into grad school.

Like I said, you can do just about anything for an undergraduate degree. Most of the time English is the BA of choice, because librarians love them some books, but some far less common ones that I think would be hugely helpful to a hopeful librarian would be:

Computer Science: Oh my god you need at least a baseline competency in computers/technology please you don’t have to code but you need to be able to turn a computer on and navigate just about any website/office application on just about any device at the very least you need to know how to Google

Business/Marketing: Particularly if you want to work in public libraries, where a bunch of your funding comes from begging politicians and convincing taxpayers to donate/vote to give you money

Law: If you want to be a law librarian

Medical . . . whatever, I don’t know what fields of medicine there are: If you want to work in a hospital or other medical library

History or Art History: If you’re interested in archives or museum librarianship

Education: School librarians in my state require you to be a certified teacher, and no matter what kind of library you end up in, you’ll end up teaching someone something a decent amount of the time

Communications: You’ll be doing a lot of it. Public speaking, too

Spanish/ASL/any not-the-common language: Hey, you never know what your patrons speak

Literally fucking anything I promise it doesn’t matter what you major in you will use it in a library at some point

Just be aware that you will need more than an undergrad degree. You’ll need probably 2 years of postsecondary schooling (more for certain types of librarianship), so get yourself comfortable with the idea of college.

If you’re like me (please don’t be like me), you might toy with the idea of getting a minor or two/double majoring to round out your skill set. Honestly I’d encourage it if you’re comfortable with the workload and have the time or money; like I said, there are no skills or educational background that won’t come in handy at some point. I promise. We see it all.

Along those lines, a wide expanse of hobbies can be hugely helpful too! You never know when your encyclopedic knowledge of Minecraft will be useful to a patron, but it absolutely will be.

Graduate School

All right, you’ve got your lovely little Bachelor’s Degree, maybe in something weird and esoteric for the fun of it . . . now you’re off to do more school!

It’s a bit complicated, because there are a handful of different titles an appropriate degree could have; my school called it “a Master of Science in Information Science” (MSIS), but other schools might just go with “Master’s of Information Science” (MIS), “Master’s of Library Science” (MLS), “Master’s of Library and Information Science” (MLIS) . . . it’s a mess. 

What you need to do is make sure the degree is approved by the American Library Association, who decides if a program is good enough to make you a librarian in the States. (Again, if you’re not American, good luck.)

Here’s a list of ALA-accredited programs and the schools that offer them.

The nice thing is accreditation has to be renewed at least every few years, so that means your program is always updated to make sure it’s in line with national standards. I’m not promising you’ll learn everything you need to be a librarian in grad school (oh my god you so won’t not even close hahahaha), but at least in theory you’ll be learning the most up-to-date information and methods.

(I’m curious to see how things have changed; when I was in school from 2015-17, the hot topics in library science were makerspaces (especially 3D printing), turning the library into the community’s “third space,” and learning how to incorporate video games into library cataloging and programming. No idea if those are still the main hot-button issues or if we’ve moved on to something else; I imagine information literacy and fake news are a pretty big one for current library students.)

Anyway! You pick a school, you might have to take a test or two to get in -- I had to take the GRE, which is like the SATs but longer -- almost certainly have to do all that annoying stuff like references and cover letters and all that, but assuming you’re in: now what?

There are a couple options depending on the school and the program, but I’m going to base my discussion around the way my school organized their program at the time, because that’s what I know dammit and I will share my outdated information because I want to.

My school broke the degree down into 5 specializations, which you chose upon application to the program:

Archives & Records Administration: For working in archives! I took some classes here when I was flirting with the idea, and it’s a lot of book preservation, organizing and caring for old documents and non-book media, and digitization. Dovetails nicely into museum work. It’s a very specific skillset, which means there will be jobs that absolutely need what you specifically can do but also means there aren’t as many of them. It makes you whatever the opposite of a “jack of all trades” is. You’re likely to be pretty isolated, so if you want to spend all your time with books this might be a good call; it’s actually one of the few library-related options that doesn’t require a significant amount of public-facing work. 

Library & Information Services: For preparation to work in public or academic (college) libraries. Lots of focus on reference services, some cataloging, and general interacting-with-the-public. You have to like people to go into library services in general, heads up.

Information Management & Technology: Essentially meaningless, but you could in theory work as like a business consultant or otherwise do information-related things with corporations or other organizations.

Information Storage & Retrieval: Data analytics, database . . . stuff. I don’t really know. Computers or something. Numbers 3 and 4 really have nothing to do with libraries, but our school was attempting to branch out into more tech-friendly directions. That being said, both this and #3 could definitely be useful in a library! Libraries have a lot of tech, and in some ways business acumen could be helpful. All roads lead to libraries; remember that.

Library & Information Services / School Library Media Specialist: This was the big kahuna. To be a school librarian -- at least in my state -- you need to be both a certified librarian and a certified teacher, which means Master’s degrees in both fields. What our school did was basically smushed them together into a combined degree; you took a slightly expanded, insanely rigorous 2-2.5 years (instead of the traditional 1.5-2) and you came out of it with two degrees and two certifications, ready to throw your butt into an elementary, middle/junior high, or high school library. Lots of focus on education. I started here before realizing I don’t like kids at all, then panicked and left. Back in 2017 this was the best one for job security, because our state had just passed a law requiring all school librarians to be certified with a MSIS/MLS/whatever degree. So lots of people already in school libraries were desperately flinging themselves at this program, and every school was looking for someone that was qualified. No idea if that’s changed in time.

No matter what concentration you went in with, you automatically graduated with a state certification to be a librarian, which was neat. You didn’t automatically get civil service status, though; for some public libraries you need to be put on a civil service list, which means . . . something, I’m not entirely sure. It involves taking exams that are only available at certain times of the year and I gave up on it because it looked hard. 

No one did more than 1 concentration, which is dumb because I wanted to do them all, but it takes a lot of time and money to take all the classes associated with all of them so I personally did #2, which was on the upper end of mid-tier popularity. School library and database services were far and away the most popular, and literally no one did the business one because it was basically useless, so library and archives were the middle children of which the library one was prettier.

THAT BEING SAID! Some forms of librarianship require a lot more education. A few of those are:

Law librarians: At least in my state, you gotta be a certified librarian and have a J.D. This is where the “big bucks” are -- though let’s be real, if you want to be a librarian you have zero interest in big bucks; reconcile yourself to being solidly middle-class and living paycheck-to-paycheck for the rest of your life or marrying rich -- which I guess is why it requires the most work.

School librarians: Like I mentioned, depending on the state you might need two degrees, and not all schools smush them into one. You might need to get a separate Master’s in education.

College librarians: Now, this depends on the college and the job; some colleges just need an all-access librarian, like mine. I didn’t need to specialize in anything, I just showed up with my degree and they took me. (Note: these sorts of entry-level positions tend to pay piss. Like, even more piss than most library gigs. Just a heads-up.) However, if you’re looking to get into a library of a higher-end university, you might be asked to have a second Master’s-level or higher degree just to prove you’re academic enough to party at their school. (Let’s be real, Harvard is almost certainly gonna want someone with a Ph.D. at the very least. That’s just how they roll.) Alternatively, the position might be for a specialty librarian, someone in charge of a field-specific library or field-specific reference services; if you’re being asked to head up the Science & Engineering Library at Masshole University, it’s reasonable to expect that you’ll be bringing a degree in engineering or some sort of science to the table. Colleges have so many different needs that predicting what kind of experience/education you should get is a bit of a challenge. Good luck. Some schools will help you out a bit with this; my grad school had dual degree programs where you could share credits between the MSIS and either an English or History Master’s so you could graduate with both in less time. I . . . started this, and then panicked at the thought of more school/writing a thesis and bailed, but it’s great if you’re into that idea!

What’s the point of the Information/Library Science degree?

You have to have the degree. If you don’t have the degree, you don’t get the job and you don’t make-a the money. Resign yourself to getting a Master’s degree or you’re gonna be bummed out and unemployed.

In terms of what you learn? Well, obviously it depends on the program, but I found that a lot of what I learned was only theoretically related to what I do on a daily basis. My instructors were lovely (well, the adjuncts anyway; the full-timers really didn’t want to be there and wanted to be off doing research and shit), but every library is so idiosyncratic and there’s such a massive umbrella of jobs you could get in one -- god, I didn’t even get into things like metadata services, which I learned basically nothing about in grad school but are super important to some positions -- that it’s hard to learn anything practical in a classroom.

However, besides the piece of paper that lets you make-a the money, there are two important things you should get from your grad school education:

Research skills: My god, you’re going to be doing so much research. If you’re a public librarian, you need to know how to Google just about anything. And if you’re a college librarian, being able to navigate a library database and find, evaluate, and cite sources . . . I mean, you’re going to be doing so much of that, showing students how to do that. Like a ridiculous amount of my day is showing students how to find articles in the virtual library. Get good at finding things, because much like Hufflepuffs, librarians need to be great finders.

Internship(s): Just about every library program will require an internship -- usually but not always in replacement of a thesis -- and if the one you’re looking at doesn’t, dump it like James Marsden in a romantic comedy. Internships are hugely important not only because they look good on a resume and give you some of those delicious, delicious references, but they are a snapshot of what your job is going to look like on a day-in, day-out basis; if nothing else, you’ll learn really fast what does and doesn’t appeal to you. As I mentioned, I wanted to be a school librarian for about half a semester. You know what changed my mind? My class required like 40 hours of interning at schools of each level. Being plopped into that environment like a play you’re suddenly acting in? Super helpful in determining whether or not this shit is for you.

What else should I learn, then?

Besides how to research basically anything? Here are some useful skills in just about any library:

Copyright law. Holy shit, do yourself a favor and learn about publishing/distribution laws in your state. Do you wanna show a movie as a fun program? You need to buy a license and follow super specific rules or it’s illegal! Does an instructor want to make copies of their textbook to give to the students? Make sure you know how much they can copy before it’s no longer fair use! Everything in my life would be easier if I’d taken the time to learn anything about copyright. I did not, and now I’m sad. (I lost out on a job opportunity because they wanted the librarian to be particularly knowledgeable in that kinda thing, and I was very not.)

Metadata and cataloging. In theory, you should learn this in grad school, but I was only given the bare basics and it wasn’t enough. Dublin Core, MARC-21, RDF -- there are so many different kinds of metadata schema, and I took a 6-week class in this and still don’t understand any of the words I just used in this sentence. But basically, to add items to a library catalog you often need to know how to input them into your library’s system; to an extent that’ll be idiosyncratic to your library’s software, but some of it will be based on a larger cataloging framework, so familiarity with those is very useful.

Public speaking and education. You’re gonna do a lot of it. Learn how to deal.

General tech savviness. Again, we’re not talking about coding but if you can navigate a WordPress website? If you know how to troubleshoot just about any issue with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc.? If you can unjam printers and install software and use social media you’re going to be a much happier person. At the very least, know how to google tutorials and fake your way through; your IT person can only do so much, and a lot of it is probably going to fall on you.

Social work, diplomacy, general human relations kinda stuff. You’re going to be dealing with all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, with every political view, personal problem, and life experience under the sun. You need to get very good at being respectful of diversity -- even diversity you don’t like* -- and besides separating your own personal views and biases from your work, you’ll be much better equipped to roll with the punches if you have, for example, conflict resolution training. Shit’s gonna get weird sometimes, I promise. (Once a student came in swinging around butterfly knives and making ninja noises. You know who knew how to deal with that? Not me!)

Standard English writing and mechanics. It’s not fair, but in general librarians are expected to have a competent grasp on the Standard English dialect, and others are less likely to be appreciated by the general populace. Obviously this differs based on your community and environment, and colloquialisms are sometimes useful or even necessary, but as a rule of thumb it’s a good call to be able to write “properly,” even if that concept is imperialist bullshit.

*I don’t mean Nazis. Obviously I don’t mean Nazis. Though there is a robust debate in the library community about whether Nazis or TERFs or whatever should be allowed to like, use library facilities for their own group meetings or whatever. I tend to fall on the “I don’t think so” side of the conversation, but there’s a valid argument to be made about not impeding people’s access to information -- even wrong or harmful information. 

Any other advice?

Of course! I love to talk. Let’s see . . .

Get really passionate about freedom of information and access: A library’s main reason for existing is to help people get ahold of information (including fiction) that they couldn’t otherwise access. If you’re a public librarian, you have to care a lot about making sure people can access information you probably hate. (If you’re an academic librarian it’s a little more tricky, because the resources should meet a certain scholarly threshold, and if you’re a school librarian there are issues of appropriateness to deal with, but in general more info to more people is always the direction to push.) Get ready to defend your library purchases to angry patrons or even coworkers; get ready to defend your refusal to purchase something, if that’s necessary. Get ready to hold your nose and cringe while you add American Sniper to your library collection, because damn it, your patrons deserve access to the damn stupid book. Get really excited about finding new perspectives and minority representation, because that’s also something your patrons deserve access to. Get really excited about how technology can make access easier for certain patrons, and figure out how to make it happen in your library. Care about this; it’s essential that you’re passionate about information -- helping your patrons find it, making sure they can access it, evaluating it, citing it . . . all of it. Get ranty about it. Just do it.

Be prepared to move if necessary: One of my professors told us that there was one thing that would always guarantee you a job that paid well -- this was in 2016 but still -- that as long as you had it you could do whatever you wanted. And that was a suitcase. Maybe where you live is an oversaturated market (thanks for having 6 library schools in a 4-hour radius, my state). Maybe something something economic factors I don’t really understand; the point is that going into this field, you should probably make peace with the idea that you’ll probably either end up taking a job that doesn’t make enough money or struggle a lot to even find one . . . or you’re going to have to go where the jobs are. It’s a small field. Just know that might be a compromise you have to make, unless you can get a strictly remote job.

Read: This sounds stupidly obvious but it’s true! Read things that aren’t your genre, aren’t your age range; patrons are going to ask you for reading advice all the goddamn time, especially if you’re a public librarian, so the more you can be knowledgeable about whatever your patrons might ask you about, the easier your life will be. If you’re considering librarianship you probably love to read anyway, so just ride that pony as hard as you possibly can.

Learn to be okay with weeding -- even things you don’t think deserve it: You are going to have to recycle books. You’re going to have to throw away books. You’re going to have to take books out of the collection and make them disappear in some fashion or another. There are a lot of reasons -- damage and lack of readership are big ones -- and there’s no bigger red flag to a librarian than someone saying “I could never destroy a book.” That kind of nonsense is said by people who’ve never had to fit 500 books onto a shelf built for 450. Archivists are different, of course, as are historians, and everyone should have a healthy respect for books both as physical objects and as sources of information, but you’re going to have to get rid of them sometimes, and you’re just going to have to learn how to do that dispassionately.

Have fun! No one gets into this because they want money; if you want to be a librarian, or work in any library-adjacent field, it’s because you really care about the values of librarianship, or the people in your community, or preserving and sharing as great a wealth of information as possible. Your job will often be thankless and it’ll sometimes be exhausting. There will be times where it’s actually scary. And unless you’re rich as balls, it will make you stare at your student loans and sigh with despair. (You may be living in your parents’ basement while you sigh at your loans because you can’t afford to live on your own, for an example that has zero relevance to any authors of this blog, living or dead.)  I can’t tell you if it’s worth it -- though you’ll probably find out pretty quickly during your internship, because that’s what internships are for. All I can say is that I love it, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP meme from Scream Queens Ep 4 "Haunted House" (Note: Offensive content, use at own discretion)

A girl died in this tub.

There's no record of any of these names except for one.

Oh, my god, there's two of them!

I own Halloween. It's my jam.

Halloween is the most important day of the year. It's the one day on the Gregorian calendar where you're allowed to go around terrifying children and not be branded a psychopath.

I am a future network news anchor who's super classy and has almost no fat on her body.

A lot of my fans are, like, friendless dumpy coeds at this or that nursing school in one of this country's various national armpits.

They put down their hot pockets and bask in the warm glow of what it feels like to love me.

I went shopping with my comatose grandmother's credit card and bought presents.

Oh, my god, it says my name!

I hope the severed leg brightens up your trailer park.

You're a bright light in my life, and I wanted you to know how much you impress me with your frumpy spirit.

You are so devastatingly mediocre and adorable!

I can't wait to see you in person, but before that, I'd like to see you post this all over social media, to exploit it for my own gain.

Aah! It's a rotting jack-o'-lantern!

Aah! This box is just filled with blood!

She got me a razor apple!

I stole this cadaver head from an ophthalmology student just for you.

You're the most important person in the world.

So you didn't see anyone in a red devil costume entering or leaving the house?

Are you coming to the precinct pig roast this year?

Come on, she's obviously the killer!

Do you mean to suggest I changed out of my nightgown, strapped myself into a skintight pleather red devil costume, climbed out a second-story dormer, and shimmied to the ground with a chain saw before entering a window I had left open, tried to kill you, then leapt out the window, climbed back up the wall, changed back into my nightgown,

and raced downstairs, all in the course of about 90 seconds?

Clearly that's got you a little freaked out.

I'm not gonna hold any of this against you, and I'm gonna let you be my date for the faculty Halloween party.

Attempted murder!

A guy was almost killed tonight, okay?

Now, no, I'm not a detective, hell, I ain't even a cop, but what I am is somebody who watched every one of those Cosby mysteries, okay?

See? Dismemberment!

I am so sorry that I pushed you out of my car and drove off real scared.

I just can't believe that How To Lose A Guy In 10 days is your favorite movie, too.

In precisely two and half minutes when we go in there, you let me do all the talking.

What are you dressed as?

Oh, you have a squirrel. Don't see that much anymore.

Breakfast is almost ready, we got meat today.

What can you tell us about that night?

Now, we will keep your name out of it, of course.

'm a vault,

And to get in this vault you need a key. Now, you may ask, a key to what? It's a key to meaning. Once you've found the meaning, you don't need the words. You know what I'm saying?

Please, continue with your story.

Have any of you ever heard of "negligent homicide"?

We need to dispose of this body on our own. Now, I've got everything we need in the kitchen to make sausages out of her.

I'm gonna go downstairs, shut this party down, and then we'll get the body out of here.

Somebody has to watch after the baby.

Can you at least turn on the radio?

Just leave the details to me.

We can't just act like this never happened.

She's the devil, that one.

I looked at that baby up close. I know my peas and carrots. That baby was a girl.

Your support doesn't matter.

My campaign needs a theme?

My pumpkin's drunk.

I'm hosting a haunted house to raise money for sickle cell anemia.

Why are you holding a fund-raiser, though?

I don't think you understand the magnitude of the miscalculation you just made.

I can assure you you will not be winning an election anytime soon. And when you lose, I am gonna make it my lifelong passion to destroy your reputation.

You're a stuck-up little sociopath, and everybody in this room knows it.

It might behoove you to recall that everyone here witnessed you actually murder someone

Just sharpening knives.

Put the knives down.

I don't know what came over me.

How very adolescent of you to think of this.

It vaguely smacks of something my six-year-old sister would be excited about.

It's the most disgusting disease in the history of mankind.

You get it when you don't even understand the most basic tenets of oral hygiene.

Just give the dang thing its pot of gold already!

I ain't got no candy!

Bet you're a sexy dirt-covered girl. That's what I bet you are.

Sometimes I come out here and I just rub my hands on the gravestones.

I get you more than anyone.

I also find the thought of dead bodies extremely arousing.

I just don't understand why I have all these dark feelings.

You know, I just think our generation's had it too easy, you know? We haven't seen enough horrible stuff. There's no awesome diseases randomly killing people. There's not really any awesome wars to go off to and witness horrific things you can't unsee. We, like, pulled out of all of 'em.

Sometimes I just don't even feel like I'm living, you know?

The only time I feel anything is when I'm thinking about chopping up a body.

And here you are, saddled up with an uptight girlfriend who freaked out for no other reason than the fact that you just wanted to fantasize about having sex with her lifeless corpse.

Oh, my god, I got a total chub right now.

Not scary enough.

She'll let you in the back door.

What could be scarier for an adult than a child coming to murder them?

Isn't that all of our greatest fear? That the pain, the regrets, the mistakes of our youth will destroy us in our adulthood? That we can't escape our inner child. One we would rather forget, but who, at the end of the day has all the power.

Why are you lying to me?

Something does not make sense.

You got to give me more here, okay?

I don't understand what you're getting at.

Are you on bath salts?

Why are we even here?

This house is haunted.

There's a legend in this neighborhood about a woman who wailed about her dead children. And this was the house she lived in.

These dumb ol' kids are smoking crack.

I think it's incredible what you can find out with just a quick trip down to your local library.

This can be one of the rooms for the haunted house.

What exactly do you plan on doing at this haunted house?

I was thinking we could blindfold folks and make 'em put their hands in a bowl full of grapes we peeled, so it'll feel like eyeballs.

I think the reason you want to have a haunted house party is 'cause a haunted party is like a buffet for murderers.

Yeah, yeah, you can just go around killing anybody you want and ain't nobody even gonna even notice.

Just like you chopped the arms off that dumb-ass golf guy.

Why do you have it out for me?

So now you look at me and see everything you could've been.

I hope you have a good time at you haunted party and get to murder lots of folks.

You have this way too thought out.

Isn't this kind of nice?

My sense of personal identity is completely external.

I really don't have much to offer.

I've found that my particular style of speaking and gesticulation is extremely off-putting to most boys. And girls. And anyone.

I need to eat. My blood sugar is crashing.

I'm tired of depriving myself of joy and sustenance.

I may die at the end of a serial killer's blade, but I refuse to die hungry.

Which one of you ladies would like to be my costume for Halloween? I'm going as "dude having awesome sex with you."

I mean, what in the hell's wrong with the world where a guy can't even whistle at a chick just to tell her she looks hot?

I recently took a women's studies class. Yes, because it was a requirement, but I learned a lot anyways. Like the culture that says it's okay for a man to objectify a woman for her appearance is the same culture that pressures girls as young as ten to have eating disorders.

So you're basically saying I'm the one responsible for making you look hot?

When you treat us like meat, you're no better than him!

I'm not really sure how you got my number, but I like how you took the initiative and texted me where you wanted us to meet.

Do you think you're man enough to take me inside that house and attack my crack?

I'll sure this house has an amazingly romantic basement.

Hey, so, uh, a little awkward since we're about to bone down and everything, but, um, what's your name?

Smells like roadkill.

I've never been so scared in my whole life.

All right, if we go to the police, they're gonna see I'm still rocking a mad sidepipe, and they're gonna think I had something to do with it.

We have to warn people.

All right, everybody listen up! All of your lives are in danger!

There are dead bodies! Dead bodies. Real-life dead bodies.

Did you say dead bodies?

Those are like the most lifelike dead bodies I've ever seen.

Is that a real dead body?

There are five dead bodies in that house. Laid out in horrible and deliberate macabre poses.

You are not leaving this house tonight.

You make it harder and harder to believe that you're not the killer.

I found out something really interesting, and now I have a theory.

Everything is weird about that story.

I mean, it's too big a coincidence.

We have to figure out who that woman was.

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: The Founder of an Anime and Manga Academic Journal Talks Anime Scholarship

  Anime and manga have truly begun to enter the mainstream in recent years, with pop culture icons from Michael B. Jordan to Billie Eilish becoming vocal about their love of both. Even in academia, anime and manga are becoming recognized as legitimate art forms. We had the pleasure to talk with Billy Tringali, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, a new academic publication focusing on... you guessed it, anime and manga! Tringali talks about how the journal was started, the history of anime academia in the West, and the love of the medium that lives at the core of this project.

    Could you introduce yourself and give us a brief explanation of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies?

  Hello! I'm Billy Tringali. I have a Master's of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's iSchool, and I'm the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies. I'm currently the Outreach Librarian at Emory University School of Law, where I build resources, programming, and partnerships that help support student success. I'm a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of International Women's Studies. I'm also a popular culture scholar, having presented at the Popular Culture Association's National Conference on topics ranging from building morality systems in vampiric video games to socio-cultural anxieties concerning gender and sexuality in Dracula. I am completely obsessed with anything created by Junji Ito. My favorite manga is a tossup between Death Note and A Silent Voice.  

The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies is an open-access journal dedicated to providing an ethical, peer-reviewed space for academics, students, and independent researchers examining the field of anime, manga, cosplay, and fandom studies to share their research with others. JAMS is peer reviewed by scholars with experience in these areas. The goal of JAMS is to explore anime as an art form and bring visibility to the deeper meanings, understandings, and/or cultural significance of anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms.  

  via Netflix

  I understand that JAMS was born out of your desire to preserve and champion anime and manga. Could you tell us a bit about your personal experience with the media?  

I love anime. I've been a fan of anime since I was a kid, but I didn't really start getting involved with anime and manga from a fandom perspective until high school. I founded my high school's anime club in 2009, and started attending and performing at anime conventions in New England in the same year. I started hosting anime con 'Cosplay Events' at 16, and have performed and hosted at conventions up and down the east coast. I eventually founded the Anime Boston "Cosplay Death Match" after hosting events there for several years. Highlights of managing that program included not being sure if I was getting prize support and running out to buy something to give to the winner (it was a toaster), and convincing my mother and grandmother to cosplay for the first time, throwing them into the event, and actually having my grandmother sweep the competition as Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle. (With my mom coming in second place as Cookin' Mama!) It lives forever on YouTube.   

There is something so electric about anime conventions, about being around so many people so passionate about this medium, and being able to be on stage before so many of them was some of the most wonderful parts of my teens and early 20s. I have made some of my very closest friends because of anime, and owe some of my happiest experiences to my involvement with this medium and its fandoms. Then, in April of 2017, I was fortunate enough to visit the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Wandering the museum, surrounded by shelves upon shelves of manga, I came across a message from the museum’s Executive Director that put such a passion in me. I wanted to do something to contribute to this medium. I want scholarship about anime and manga to be accessible to everyone, regardless of university affiliation. JAMS is an action taken to help achieve this goal.  

What work goes into launching an academic journal? Did you have to secure funding or institutional resources? How did you get the word out to potential contributors?  

Bringing JAMS into existence was an incredibly exciting endeavor that took a lot of hard work. I started JAMS as part of my coursework for my master's degree. I partnered with the University Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's iSchool, the University Library's Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing, and the Scholarly Commons to begin what would be a year-long notes process, during which I did research about open-access publishing and scholarly communication. Based on this research and the guidance of these offices I built the guidelines for publishing with JAMS. I had to prove there was an interest in this type of work being published and accessible, pointing to the journal Mechademia had been publishing work on anime since 2006, and the dozens of books about anime and manga have been written. But more than proving the idea of interest in anime and manga studies, I needed contributors. I needed to build an editorial board, reviewers, and potential authors. I wrote two conference papers and applied for (and received!) partial funding from the iSchool to present and attempt to pitch JAMS at two, national conferences on popular culture, the Midwest Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association's Conference and the Popular Culture Association's National Conference.   

I made and purchased business cards for JAMS, handing them out at panels on anime and manga, pitching JAMS to a variety of scholars who reacted with everything from definite interest, to mild concern, to one scholar actively doubling over with laughter at the thought of open-access publishing and anime colliding. The most amazing moment was, after a panel, when a woman pulled me aside and was eagerly asking me questions about JAMS. She wanted to know about our guidelines, about how the process of approval was going at my university, and when I looked down at her nametag I realized it was Frenchy Lunning - the founder of Mechademia, the journal which had lent so much legitimacy to the idea of JAMS!   

Meeting all these accomplished scholars and advertising JAMS at the PCA drummed up enough interest for a slot of peer reviewers and an editorial board. From there, after further evaluation of JAMS principles documentation, JAMS applied to be a part of the Illinois Open Publishing Network, and was successful. We put out our first call for papers not long after that, and published our first issue in October of 2020.

      via HBO Max

  JAMS is published through Illinois Open Publishing Network. Was accessibility a big concern for you when pursuing the creation of this journal?  

  Accessibility was my biggest concern when I was crafting JAMS. There was never a moment in time when I considered attempting to pursue the creation of this journal as anything other than open-access. I did my undergrad at a small state school in Massachusetts, and going from that to working as a graduate student in one of the largest academic libraries in the country was astounding. Millions of items at my fingertips that I never had access to before. Having so much access to so much amazing scholarship, I could only think of students at smaller universities, or fans outside of higher education that want to do this type of research. JAMS is open-access to be part of the solution to potential lack of access to scholarship about anime and manga.  

Can you give us a general sense of the types of papers you've published and that you are hoping to receive?

  JAMS publishes and is interested in high-quality work about anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms. We've had submissions, inquiries, and published works across a variety of disciplines. From analysis of the nuclear family structure in a major film, to the representation of the overlap in queer and disability cultures in a manga, to media industry history. Our Editorial Board members and reviewers come from backgrounds ranging from library and information science, to education, to literary studies. Anime and manga studies is a vast subject and extremely interdisciplinary, and because of that JAMS accepts papers from a variety of scholarly perspectives.   What is the state of anime and manga academic study in the US? Has it gained more traction parallel to the growth of the industry in the past decade?

  Anime and manga studies classes are being taught in universities across the United States. Dozens of articles are published every year that fall under anime and manga studies. People are crafting theses for their advanced degrees about anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms. It is an extremely exciting time for anime and manga studies in the United States.   

Are anime and manga studies generally taken seriously by the rest of the academic world, or is this an area of study that is still broadly fighting for legitimacy?

  I would say that any person who does academic work on popular culture has to deal with occasional comments about their research, and may need to battle harder to prove the legitimacy of their scholarship. But Shakespeare was once popular culture. And Paradise Lost is a fanfiction. Popular culture scholarship is scholarship.

  Do you (or do you plan to) collaborate with any Japanese academic centers or scholars?

  I would absolutely say that one of JAMS long-term goals would be to include more international scholars on our Editorial Board! Currently JAMS' only institutional connection is to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but papers have been submitted and published by scholars in several countries. I hope that JAMS can continue to grow, and gain further connections as we do so.  

Do you have anything you would like to say to students who want to pursue academic study of anime and manga (or just anime fans who are interested in this sort of work)?

  This is the outreach librarian in me, but if you are a student at any level of education - your librarian is your best friend! Librarians are all trained to help you find the information you need. If you want to do research on anime and manga at your institution, they can help you understand what your university library has to offer, and what resources are right at your fingertips. You also don't need to be majoring in Asian Studies or Japanese to engage in anime and manga studies! You can approach fandom from a historical perspective, perform qualitative or quantitative data-based research on using manga in a classroom setting, the sky's the limit! Additionally, there are a number of amazing resource guides put together by librarians all across the internet that are worth digging into. Your local library may also have a connection to a local university, which might give you limited borrowing privileges. Even just doing close readings and analysis of anime can make for amazing presentations at conventions and online, which might help inspire the next person to engage with anime and manga studies.

  via HBO Max

    Go check out the exciting work being published in JAMS at their website, where you can also submit any of your own academic work for consideration!

You can read an introduction to the journal here.

You can follow Billy Tringali on Twitter @BillyTringali and the journal @OpenAccessAnime.

By: Cayla Coats

[the-canary]

Monday Afternoon - B.B

Summary: There was only one decent thing about the nursing department, not that he noticed you anyways. (College!Reader/Bucky Barnes)  

Prompt: What’s her name again? 

A/N: This is for @fangirlfiction ‘s 1k writing challenge. i went to a women’s college with one exception, the music/nursing program -- this oneshot steams from some of those experiences, just without a bucky ;A: however, i hope you enjoy.

Feedback is always welcomed.

First year.

It’s that time of year for any college freshman — the first week of your classes ever . You print out all the syllabus and pack them neatly into the folder you have set aside for all your classes. You are expecting a lot of wonderful things from the extra freedom this stage has promised to set up for you.

What you didn’t expect was for your second class to be canceled in the middle of the afternoon with the professor wanting a one-pager of what does democracy mean to you?

Written outside and placed in her inbox, any emailed essays were going to ignored. Your Pol Sci 100 class was small, so you didn’t expect many would be in the library at this time — it gave you ample time to write it out and find Dr. Hill’s office on the fifth floor.

You weren’t expecting the pre-nursing and bio students to be pilling onto top of the only two printers the library had — teenagers, excited and confused, like you printing out 100 pages of powerpoint presentations before their classes started. You end up on one of the computers near the large stained glass windows, watching for a moment before going to work on this one sheet of paper.

Between looking through your social media and cat videos, it takes you two hours to finish said paper.

You’re ready to print it out when you and the rest of the library hear it — the horrible whirling from the printer as it seems to come to life, spilling papers in front of the poor boy standing next to it before dying completely.

“Sorry,” he lets a nervous chuckle as one of the older students workers and one of the librarians come up to him and ask what he did. There are a handful of people waiting for their papers to print, but after half an hour, the librarian places the sign -- out of order in front of both computers.

You sigh, unsure of what to do now to get out your paper that is due by the end of the class period, though you feel a little bad for the boy with blue eyes shuffling his feet near the corner as you get your things and search for where you can find another printer. However, not before going to the one person that caused this disaster that had been accumulated by everyone else before hand.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” is all you can say, as you stand a bit closer while seeing some people glaring daggers at him, “Probably happens all the time.”

“Thanks,” he states bashfully with a shrug, as you nod and move forward.

Eventually, you do find a printer in one of the common areas and through some careful maneuvering you are able to turn in the page before 6pm. You also do find out that the printer busting at least once is a common occurrence during the fall semester -- and that everyone hates the nursing students for that one reason.

The second time you meet Old Blue Eyes is during your Pol Sci 101 class. Wanda --the one friend you made during freshman orientation-- sits in back of you as Dr. Carter talks about the different structures of democracy and the broader political systems of the world.

“Mr. Barnes,” she declares in cold fury towards the back of the class as most of you turn to stare, “Would you mind stating some of differences between the structure of Congress and Parliament?”  

Blue eyes look up from what he was doing -- chatting with a pretty girl as the rest of the nursing students who hung in the back look at him. You had a little understanding of why they did so, but though you understood that nursing was the biggest major by far within the school, you didn’t understand why they all kept to themselves and barely interacted in any of the general education classes that you with some younger and older nursing majors.

James --from what you had learned from looking at all your class rosters-- gets up and smiles before going through the list like the back of his hand. Dr. Carter gives him a sardonic smile before going on with her lecture. The cocksure boy grins before sitting back down, glancing at the whole classroom. His eyes meet yours for just a moment as a crooked smile blooms on his face before he goes back to talking to the pretty brunette next to him.

You think nothing of it, as you go back to taking your notes.

Second Year.

Your second year of classes is more easier to handle than your first, though you aren’t without your late night binges to complete a paper in the middle of the semester here and there. At the current moment, you are watching Wanda and Natasha --a friend you made in that strange religion class you both needed for course credit-- dive into their books for the individual finals. You were sitting at the end of the table without nothing in front of you as you took out a smaller case than usual.

“Are you really going to play 3DS right now?” Natasha questions with mix of shock and anger, as you give her a bright smile before turning on the little game device. Wanda simply shakes her head.

In reality, you had completed the most frustrating finals -- your general ed courses, but Pol Sci as confusing as it could be sometimes, it came to you with ease. You could remember years and theories, top it with some fake, deep meaning to it all and you did well in filling up those little green books when it came time to for finals. It wasn’t like it was math or bio, which you scrapped by most of the time.

“I’m trying to defeat the last member of the Elite Four,” you whine, as Nat rolls her green eyes and throws her eraser in your general direction. You move out of the way and the three of you see it hit a familiar boy. You turn around completely in your chair, as James picks up the eraser from the floor and hands it to you.

“I hope it isn’t Karen and her Houndoom,” he chuckles as you frown at the mention of the character, as Nat and Wanda watch, obviously ignoring their finals for something juicer.

“I ran the floor with her last night,” you laugh, thinking about the aneurism the Pokemon leader had nearly given you, due to playing until the middle of the night just to beat her.

And even though James looked like he hadn’t slept in two or three nights, his comment was enough to make you laugh just a little. In return, his face seemed to lose some of its fatigue as those laugh lines come out with his chuckle.

“Well, good luck with beating Lance then,” James says with a smile before some girls in the back call his name.

“Good luck with your exams,” you answer back with a nod before going back to the game at hand, completely ignoring the flabbergasted looks that Wanda and Nat give you.  

Second semester is a bit harder than the first with more Pol Sci classes than before and both Dr. Carter and Dr. Hill realizing the good head that you have on your shoulders, even though you stay silent and in the back during most of their classes. Though, it also means solely evening and afternoon classes, as you wake around noon now more than ever.

However, you end up waking up right before class starts as you end running across the courtyard to the humanities building, only to notice the nursing students standing in front of the entrance with tables and edible goods in front of you. You stop and notice the badly painted sign: NURSING ASSOCIATION FUNDRAISER.

You skipping out on going to the cafeteria makes you pause and glance at all the food until you see the small packaged meals of mini-pancakes with a side of fluffy eggs. You keep staring it as your stomach rumbles.

“‘S my ma’s recipe,” a voice in front of you declare, as you look up to see James with a toothy smile and a brunette (maybe the same one from that one semester?) hanging off his shoulder. And while the sight causes you to pause for a moment, you can’t help but ask.

“And what makes them so special?” you question, as he gives you a cheeky grin, “That I should buy two...maybe even three boxes?”

“Fluffiest pancakes you’ll ever taste,” he teases back, which causes you to laugh. Blue eyes never leave your face, as you agree to buy some.

“If they aren’t the up to standard, I’m coming back to complain,” you state already walking away and heading into the hallway of the fifth floor.

“If it happens, I look forward to seeing you again,” James grins as he watches you disappear.

And while he’s disappointed he doesn’t see you for the rest of the semester, he surely does hope you enjoyed the meal.

Third Year.

You don’t see much of the main campus that semester since you are working in an internship straight in the heart of downtown and take most of your courses online as a result. You end up taking a mini course in the middle of the semester and spend the rest of your time in D.C as a result.

James doesn’t see much of the campus after his accident during the summer either.

You are sure that the Pol Sci department in some way has gotten more funding, either that or Dr. Hill had too much free time on her hands when she decides that there will be mock debates in lieu of it being on election year -- so that the young people will be excited to go out and vote , she declares. You aren’t sure why but she has you sign up for it, though you are more than fine with helping the mock presidential candidate in learning her lines.

It doesn’t help when she ends up getting sick two days before and the only one that knows everything is you.

“Please don’t make me do this,” you groan as Wanda just shakes her head, though you might be complaining she had seen you more than once in mock debate -- this were all just jitters.

“I think most of your department and I know you can do it,” Wanda reassures you with a smile and though you don’t believe her -- you tell Dr. Hill that you’ll do it anyways.

On the day of, you don’t expect the old auditorium to be so jammed packed with students, but apparently this had been promoted for weeks and some classes were even giving extra credit for it. You took a deep breath and ran through your candidate’s lists of arguments while rebuffing the other young women’s. For most of the time, you blank out and you don’t notice that most of the young women and Dr. Hill are grinning from ear to ear, the audience is enthralled with everything -- though one man in particular can’t seem to keep his eyes of you.

“ What’s her name again ?” the now buffer man with long brown-hair sitting near the back of the auditorium can’t help but question as your voice lulls some sense of peace into him, though you are fiercely defending your stance on a political issue that Bucky wasn’t really paying attention to.

You don’t know exactly how you ended up staying in the dorms, but between Wanda freaking out over her oral exam and you needing to stay a bit later than usual for a UN module -- it lead to you sleeping some hours on the floor of Wanda’s dorm room. However, it wasn’t the same as your bed which leads to you wondering around the campus for a moment, hoping that the communal cafeteria is still open in the middle of the night.

As secluded as the campus was, you still screamed a little at the sight of a man at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the new constructed fountain. It seems that he hear you come up, as he turns around and you are quick notice familiar blue eyes, though he is much bigger and now has slightly longer hair compared to the last time you had seen him.

“James?” you question softly, as you notice that he is sitting there by his lonesome as he answers back with the sound of your own name. He ends up getting up and for some unknown reason you have the urge to follow, “I haven’t seen you in awhile.”

“I saw your mock debate a few weeks ago,” he declares, turning around to look at you as he comes to sit on one of the edges of the fountain, “You were really good.”

“Oh,” you state a bit surprised, “Thank you, and how have you been?”

“Insomnia and phantom pain here and there,” he states with a sardonic smile, while moving his left shoulder back and forth.  You end up taking a seat next to him. However, instead of asking why and giving him a look full of pity, you simply nod and ask him:

“So what’s on your mind?”

Your question makes him pause of a moment, as you cock your head to the side in question. James had always known there was something that had always caught his attention when it came to you, but in that moment -- you simply staying quiet and being willing to listen grabs at his heartstrings as he talks about anything that comes to mind -- his family, his studies, Stevie, and even his accident if only vaguely.

And you just listen without a word being said, something he hadn’t had in a very long time is such a huge relief as he lets it all out. The only time you finally do ask something is when he is talking about his current courses. He had come back to have some sense of normally in his life, but he just couldn’t keep it up anymore.          

“So why did you end up choosing coming here anyways?” you can’t help but ask as James’ eyes glimmer in the lights surrounding the fountain. He pauses for a moment, playing with the water as he notices that the sun is starting to come up.

“Gotta be here for my ma, Becca, and Stevie,” he admits shyly, as he looks up at the sky as if embarrassed, “But now...I’m not so sure.”  

“I’m sure, you’ll find something you love, James,” you declare like it’s the easiest thing in the world, but as he stares at you with the first rays of morning light hitting your face -- he really wants to believe you.

Fourth Year.

“We’re sure he likes you,” Nat declares over lunch as she points her fork at you. You raise an eyebrow in confusion as Wanda shakes her head -- you weren’t sure how Nat complaining about her Statistics and Methodology class turned into her declaring Bucky liked you.

Since that night a few months back, James had turned into Bucky as he sought you out more outside of class. After deciding he was going to take an extra year to complete his degree with taking summer classes, he sought you to tell you the news and then whenever he saw  you in the library. Sometimes, you even had lunch together. You had even gone on the little shuttle for a weekend together here and there. You had even meet Steve -- an art student who was finishing his own schooling upstate. But, you were sure you were only doing it as friends, Bucky didn’t see you that way.

“You don’t see the way he looks at you,” Wanda smile, “But, we do.”

“I think you’re making too much of this,” you bite back, “He’s always been with that Dot girl, I saw them together the other day.”

“Because they’re in the same class,” Nat decides to fight off your bluff, “They haven’t been together since the end of second year.”

“Guys, seriously,” you let out a nervous laugh,”You’re putting too much thought into this.”

You get up from the table with a shake of your head before heading towards your only class for the day. They wait two seconds before they hear the sound of your name being called out loud by a familiar voice. Your two friends look at each other before shaking their heads at how foolish you were being.

The last final of your college career is on the fifth floor like always and aside from seeing Wanda in the morning, you are alone re-reading the book that is at the center of your final exam. The library is silent with the lack of students who have already finished their finals and have headed home, but you enjoy it as you sit near one of the large windows where you started this crazy chapter of your life to begin with.

The afternoon test passes you too quickly, as you end up standing in the hallway as one of the first people to finish the exam. The fifth floor was quieter than usual with no music playing and no students coming in and out of the small rooms. You walk around, enjoying the silence for the moment. Your head in the clouds and memories until you see someone waiting at the end of the hallway

“Bucky,” you declare with a soft smile, as he can’t help but return it. You ignore that he might have been watching you, “What are you doing here exactly? Aren’t your exams done with?”

You knew that Bucky had finished his exams since Thursday and he had moved out already to go back with his mom and Becca for the summer. So, you weren’t sure why he was here, even if Nat and Wanda wouldn’t stop declaring his supposed intentions since the beginning of the year.

“Waiting for you actually,” Bucky smiles as the two of you start to walk out and look at the emptying campus, though it was a bit more somber for you -- Bucky still had another semester here, you didn’t.

“I--” Bucky coughs out, as you turn to stare at him. The familiar nervousness from a boy you had tried to calm down four years ago more evident now than in any time you had known James, “If you wanted to celebrate the end of the semester with me...just you and me.”

“As in a date?” you question, somewhere between hope and despair over what your friends had been telling you, what Bucky was trying to actually mean, and your own personal feelings about the whole thing.

“Yeah, a d-date,” he stutters for just a second before giving you a bashful grin.

You end up grabbing his right arm and give him the brightest smile you can muster: “A date sounds perfect, Mr. Barnes.”

He laughs at your bad imitation of Dr. Carter before taking you down to where his car is parked. And as your college years come to an end one fine Monday afternoon, you can’t to see what life has in-store for you with Bucky at your side.        

[we-arethenewheroes]

Help me help you -part1

Read the Intro

Synopsis: "I only knew how to party and spend my money until someone didn't want it anymore"

Genre: soulmate-ish!au, fluff, angsty, non-idol!au ⚠️TWO ENDINGS

Warnings: drugs abuse, mention of sexe, (very soft I swear)

Pairing: NCT TAEYONG

Notes: it's not smut guys. Part1 of a 3 part story with a bonus chapter. Also short and easy to read. Sorry if I make any mistake :) look at this cutie plz I'm dying here

He broke up with me.

That ungrateful bastard broke up with.

After everything I've given to him he still managed to go with it, and I can't even approach him. Even the alcohol can make me feel better.

I have to do something, I can't go see my parents like That, what can I say to them? That I broke up with ? Or that he went abroad ? He died ?

"Aaaah I can't tell them that he died or they'll ask me so many questions..."

Yes, I noticed the guy looking at me, but I'm not in the mood.

...wait

I stand up, look at the guy, and just leave the bar. How can I not be in the mood..? Maybe I should just find someone I really like? Maybe it's time for me get married? Have kids?

...or maybe not? :)

I go to my car and drive to the library.

It's the only place that make me feel safe.

I've always been very smart, more than average. School was never a problem for me, and I always liked to study.

The library is quiet, and people don't look at me like I'm just meat. There's so many books, stories, and different people.

We all want the same thing: sit down with a book, and read in peace.

I take "Please Look After Mom" and sit in a corner. There's not a lot of people, just some student, kids reading Naruto in the back.

But there is one person,

One guy that appeals my attention

Not because he's very handsome, but because he seems very familiar...

...Ah! Lee Taeyong ! Wait this guy is Taeyong?? When did he became so handsome ??

Now let me share our story

Y/N, 16 years old

I already told you, I was very good at School, always straight A's, but this guy, Lee Taeyong, was too

"Y/N, A, as always. Lee Taeyong, A, I see you studied hard for this test, you have the best score"

What ? He has the best score? That's impossible!...well I mean, maybe I should just give this one to him.

Later that day, I went to the library. I really wanted to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for some reason. As I went inside, I saw Lee Taeyong in the corner, reading the 5th book of Harry Potter.

I mean, I gave him the best score but does he has to take the book I wanted to read ??

"Hum, excuse me, Lee Taeyong right ?"

He took his eyes off the book to look at me

"...Yes?"

"Are you gonna read that ? Because I really wanted to read this book and you're getting on my nerves since this morning."

"Hu- why ? Did I do something wrong?"

I just sighed, he really was clueless.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, technically.."

"Well, I already started to read. We can read together if you want, you probably already read all the books so you know the first 2 chapter right?"

"You want me to read with you?

"Why not? And I mean, no one is here anyway so if you're scared that people think that we are datin-"

"Do you think people are this stupid ? To think that we are dating ?"

I sat next to him and dragged my chair so it's closer to him. He looked at me in silence, and we just started to read our book.

Actually, that was pretty fun. After some times, we started to acknowledge one another when we saw eachother at the library. We would chat about books mostly, and how embarrassing it would be for me if people find out that we know eachother.

One day, we were reading the book again, when Taeyong looked at me,

"What are you starting at."

"You know I like you, right?"

"Yea I knew, why?"

"Oh, no just so I know that..you know."

"Lee Taeyong, don't you dare ruin this and ask me to be your girlfriend. You'll be too embarrassed to read with me afterwards. "

"Yeah... you're right"

A week after, I leart that Taeyong had moved to another country. He had a scolarship, and moved to England. And that test, that score that was better than mine, was what made him succeed.

And after almost 10 years, here he is.

Honestly I don't know what to do, I'm just standing there, a book in my hand, looking at Taeyong coming in.

He saw me,oh shit-

I turn around and start to walk in the alley when-

"Excuse me miss!"

...He recognized me.

I turn around to look at Taeyong, with a small smile. He's smiling too

"Y/N ? Is that you?"

He's even more handsome when he smiles.

"Yeah, that's me... Lee Taeyong, right..?"

He laughs, put his arm around my shoulders and ruffle my hair,

" Woaaah, it's been a while !"

"Well I guess if back then you had tell me that you were moving to England we would've keep contacts, and why are you acting like a big brother right now??" I step back to get his arm off me "and honestly, were we that close ? Hum?"

He smiles at me

"Heey, don't be like that, Hum? You always put your head on my shoulder we when we were reading,"

"Because I was tired and you were my pillow."

"We would always chat in the library,"

"About how embarrassing it would be for me if people fund out about are meetings-"

"See ? Meetings, we were friends stop denying it. You were my only friend, and I was your only true friend."

I looked at him for a moment. Then, why did you left me behind ?..

"And, I didn't told you that I was leaving because I wanted to be mysterious, in case we meet again. "

"What?"

"I wanted you to ask around, to try and know why I was missing, and the fact that you know that I moved to England prouves me you did." He smiles at my, all cheeky, I just want to slap his smile off his pretty face.

"And honestly Y/N,"

I look at him "What."

He takes a step and lean, a but to close to my face,

"Look."

"At what ?.."

"At my face. I'm handsome right ?"

Oh my Jesus

I laugh. Wow he's shameless now.

"Why would you tell me that ! Are you shameless our what ? Woaa really I'm speechless"

"So that means yes-"

"I never said that!" I cross my arms

He grin and giggle. He straighten up,

"Hey, Y/N,"

"What again"

"Let's read the Order of the Phoenix together, like the old times. Hum?"

I look at him.

"And are you gonna leave to another country like the old times..?"

He gently laughs

"No, Y/N, don't worry, I'll stay this time."

I slightly pout,

"Okay Then,"

I don't know how much time we spent in the library. We had so much to say to one other. He told me about his years in England. When he started to make friends, to be more confident. That I gave him the courage to talk to people freely, because he knew that he would make friends, if I was his friend.

He told me he still didn't date, to scared for some reason. All the girls were at his feet but he still didn't had the courage, and didn't like any girls at his school.

He said he wanted to contact me, but seeing how much I've changed, how much of a party girl I was on the social media, he got scared and stepped back.

I told him that he changed too. That he got more confident, sassier, cheekier, more handsome. I told him I also got a scholarship. That my relationship with my family got worse than ever. I told him my schedule: the day I work in the bank, at night, I was a party maker, of course shipped the part where I was addicted to drugs and alcohol, and that I had so many fling.

We gave eachother our numbers, and promised to stay in contact.

I was happy. It's true that I didn't really remember him after so many years, but I saw him, i was happy. I realised that I did miss him, and for the time we were together, I didn't feel empty anymore, like the "fun" missing in my life was filed.

When we part ways, more like getting kicked out of the library, I was excited to see him again after so many years.

When I got to my empty apartment, I took a shower, changed into my pj, and went to the kitchen to cook myself something. I got tone a message from my party people, I had to tell them I was sick and I couldn't come, the truth is, I didn't feel like I had to party tonight. Or ever again.

We started to meet a lot with Taeyong. He went to my empty apartment, I went to his crappy apartment.

"But like, Taeyong, don't you think you should move ? I know it's just a for-the-time-being apartment, but it's really crappy and suffocating in here" I say as we hear the neighbours fight.

"Yea I know, Its crappy, but Y/N, I got attached to this crappy place. Maybe I'm crappy ? I'm not like you, I never lived in a fancy place !" He say as we hear the neighbours fuck.

"Taeyong, stop lying to yourself."

"Then find me an apartment."

And that's what I did.

The next day I helped him move out of the crappy apartment to the cute apartment next to his work.

Normally, I would've bought him the apartment, and then ask him something in exchange. But I didn't do that. I found the apartment, yes, he bought his apartment.

The same day, I'm just watching TV when I hear my phone ring.

It's Taeyong.

I smile as I read his message,

"[TY]Dear Y/N,

I'm sending this very official message to summon you to my apartment, tonight, because I just meet my neighbour and he's scary. Sending you my location :)

Thanks babe"

"[Y/N]Don't call me babe."

"[TY] Yes, but you comin?"

"[Y/N]omw"

"[Y/N] Don't you think just saying that you miss me would've been less embarrassing than this lie?"

"[TY] No"

I laugh, and wait,

3...2...1-

"[TY] not that I miss you or anything it's because that's the truth !"

I take my coat and go to my car.

After a short ride, I go to Taeyong apartment and knock. He immediately open the door and pull me inside quickly.

"Did he saw you?"

"Who ?"

"My neighbour !"

I laugh "Taeyong you can stop the act"

He looks at me, debating if he should stop or not.

"Okay ! I'll stop! I missed you"

"But you saw me this morning-"

"No, you help me moved, the only time we saw eachother was when we passed eachother in the stairs." He pout, I giggle

"And when we drank that lemonade?"

"You mean when you took the biggest shot of your life and got back to work" he cross his arms, I laugh

"Ok, ok ! I'm here now, so let's eat." I make my way to the kitchen

"Eat...?" He looks at me

I turn around and look at him.

"Don't tell me... you didn't order anything...?"

He smiles. "In the oven, I order pizza 20 minutes ago"

I smile widly

"You're the best"

I go get the pizza in the kitchen and go back to the living room, where Taeyong is sat on the sofa. I put the pizza on the table, sit on the floor next to Taeyong's legs and start to eat.

We're watching a movie, laughing, eating together. I put my head on his knee

"Woah, I ate way to much"

Taeyong looks at me

"Hey Y/N,"

"Hum ?"

"You're sleeping over right?"

I look at him, "Me ?"

He pout and try to look cute. He looks like a sad puppy "Pleaase Y/Nnnnn"

"OK ok! I'll stay, but just tonight"

"Yess" he gets comfortable on the sofa and pat the space next to him "come here"

I do as he say, and sit next to him. He puts his arm around my shoulder and watch TV.

And I can't help but smile.

My heart is beating a little faster, and I feel like millions of butterflies are in my stomach.

He's staring at me. I look at him and see his eyes shining. No men ever looked at me like that.

"Taeyong..."

He just looks at me, leans in and kiss me.

His lips are soft, and his kiss is gentle.

After, he looks at me.

"I think I never dated anyone because I was waiting for you, Y/N."

I smile and look at my hands

"Pff, I knew you liked me..."

We quietly laugh.

"Can I ask you to be my girlfriend now ?"

I giggle

"You can"

He looks at me " I take this as a yes"

I look at him.

I think I just find my soulmate.

A/N: Thanks for reading ! Plz like and reblog and I hope you liked it !💚

[psychologyofsex]

Why I Deleted My Academia.edu Account and Why You Should, Too

The traditional model of academic publishing restricts access to research by putting it in the hands of private companies. As a result, I’ve had to work hard to make my research available to those who wish to read it. I’ve done so by publishing accessible summaries on this blog, by publishing as much as I can in open-access journals, and by establishing profiles on file-sharing sites like Academia.Edu and ResearchGate, which allow you to store and share full-text uploads of papers with anyone. I will keep doing the first two going forward, but I’ve grown leery of the latter and have increasingly come to realize that these file-sharing websites aren’t an effective solution to the problems of academic publishing. In fact, I’ve grown quite concerned about these sites and have come to realize that academics need to pursue other means of sharing their work. Let me explain.

Before I go on, you may want to read this post first, which explains why I switched to publishing in open-access journals whenever possible. Long story short, academics have historically given their work away to big publishing houses for free (including the copyright to our research papers). The publishers have then turned around and sold our work to libraries and subscribers for exorbitant prices—and kept all the profits to themselves. The end result is that research is typically accessible only to those with the funds to access it. Academics have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this arrangement in recent years because we’re giving our work for free to companies that are severely limiting access to it while making billions of dollars.

By contrast, open-access papers can be freely viewed by anyone with an internet connection. This is great for the general public, which subsidizes most academic research in one form or another anyway. I mean, why should the public pay for research to be conducted, and then have to pay a middleman separately in order to access the results? Open-access is also great for students at universities that don’t have massive library budgets, as well as for scholars in developing countries where research resources are scarce. 

Getting back to AcademiaEdu and ResearchGate, these are online repositories where researchers can upload copies of all of their works, which others can freely access. In other words, they provide an avenue for widely sharing research. Of course—and as I noted above—with traditional publishing, we give the copyright to our work away to journal publishers, so we usually can’t upload the final version of our articles without violating copyright law. However, most publishing agreements I’ve seen permit researchers to share the pre-publication version of their papers (i.e., the basic-looking version that you create in Microsoft Word, not the pretty version formatted by the journal. Some will allow you to share the version that has been through peer review; however, others may not). 

I painstakingly reviewed all of my previous copyright transfer agreements and, in cases where it was permitted, I uploaded pre-publication versions of my articles to file-sharing sites like AcademiaEdu and ResearchGate. 

I guess I was naïve, though. Initially, I thought those sites were solutions to the problem of poor research access. However, I’ve come to learn that these are large and growing for-profit companies that, just like journal publishers, are harvesting free labor from academics. We’re building a massive research infrastructure for them, which they’re turning around and monetizing. These are multi-million dollar companies backed by venture capital firms that see big profit potential.

In supporting companies like AcademiaEdu and ResearchGate, we’re simply transferring power and control over access to research to another set of companies—companies that can and are looking for ways to cash in on that power. For example, AcademiaEdu is currently free to access, but has a “premium” subscription model. I’d bet good money that they’ll eventually start charging everyone for access once they have a big enough repository and user base. That would just put everything back behind a paywall, thereby defeating the purpose of why many of us joined the site in the first place.

I’m also concerned about other ways they’re trying to monetize their site. For example, in 2016, AcademiaEdu toyed with charging users to get their papers “recommended” on the site. Efforts like this would have the effect of pushing self-interest over scientific advancement by giving anyone the opportunity to promote their work regardless of its quality or merit. 

So how do we get around the problems that these sites create? Here are a few things you can do:

· Stop investing your time building up places like AcademiaEdu. They’re just taking your free labor and cashing in on it. This is a big part of the reason why I recently deleted my profile with them (I also deleted it because they’re poor at policing intellectual property infringement, but that’s a whole other story). AcademiaEdu and ResearchGate have done a brilliant job marketing themselves as noble causes—places where academics can go to share research—while hiding their real goal, which is building a massive research database curated by the world’s experts that they can cash in on. As I write this, ResearchGate is the 171st and Academia.edu is the 275th most visited website in the entire world. These are incredibly powerful companies we are unwittingly building up and we don’t know what they’re ultimately going to do with the fruits of our labor—other than turn it into a huge profit, of course.

· Unfortunately, there doesn’t yet exist a non-profit equivalent of AcademiaEdu that I’m aware of. However, until that exists, one option is to post pre-prints of your work on a site like PsyArxiv, which is run by the non-profit Center for Open Science. This can at least get your work out there in some form and it will be accessible to anyone online.

· Publish your research in open-access journals whenever possible. This is the best way of ensuring that your work remains free and easy to access for the long run. If an open-access journal requires a fee to publish, try to request a waiver or apply for a grant to cover the costs. I’ve been able to get several open-access papers published without paying one cent. It shouldn’t have to cost academics money to give their research away. 

· If your research is locked behind a paywall, review your copyright agreement(s) to see what kinds of information sharing are permissible. Odds are that there’s some version of the paper you can share freely. You can share these versions on your own personal website, put them out on social media, email them to anyone who requests them, and/or store them on professional websites. For example, if you have a profile on a site like the Social Psychology Network, you have a certain amount of storage available for sharing any files you wish.

· Take advantage of institutional repositories. A lot of colleges and universities have them, and depositing your research with them can make it easier for others to access your work. For example, the University of California repository is accessible to everyone, although you must be affiliated with that university to post your work in it.

· Blog about or otherwise publish accessible summaries of your research that the average person can understand. Making academic papers more widely available is great, but they’re often written with so much jargon that only our peers can decipher them. Accessible summaries can help others to better understand our work and why it’s important.   

These are just some of the alternatives that exist for getting science out there. We’d all do well to consider investing in them in the interest of ensuring freer and wider access to research for the long haul. If you have other tips or recommendations for sharing research, weigh in with your comments below.

Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology ? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook (facebook.com/psychologyofsex), Twitter (@JustinLehmiller), or Reddit (reddit.com/r/psychologyofsex) to receive updates. You can also follow Dr. Lehmiller on YouTube and Instagram.

Image Source: 123RF/Wichapol Polpitakchai

You might also like:

Why I Started Publishing In Open Access Journals, And Why You Should Too

What Is It Like To Publish In An Open-Access Journal?

[bizcoachcharles]

Flutterwave: A Runaway Payments Solutions Success Story - Connecting Africa to the Global Economy

Before 2016, African businesses faced hard times to accept payments from visitors, and international tech heavyweights like Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc had difficulties to accept local payments from African customers. This has changed since Flutterwave entered the scene. It was founded in 2016 by a team of ex-bankers, entrepreneurs and engineers in response to this gap in the payments industry in Africa.

As a payment technology company, the main focus of Flutterwave is on helping banks and businesses provide seamless and secure payment experiences for their customers. The headquarters is in San Francisco (to leverage on Silicon Valley ) with offices in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, and Johannesburg.

 Achievements

According to the company’s website, Flutterwave currently has more than 50 bank partners, with over $2.6b payments processed in more than 100m transactions. More than 1200 developers build on Flutterwave. This is remarkable by all standards, especially for an African company.

One of the co-founders, 28-year-old Nigerian entrepreneur, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, who also co-founded Andela, served as the pioneer CEO. He was reported by CNN, as saying that he “wants Silicon Valley to fund a future where Africa is included”, and people and businesses connect with the global economy. As at the time Aboyeji stepped down as CEO last year, and handed over to his co-founder, Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave has completed its Series A Extension round of financing, and this has taken its total raised funding from inception to date to more than US$20 million. This shows investors’ confidence in the performance of the company.

In their 2018 review, Flutterwave announced that they saw a 550% growth in the customer base of Flutterwave for Business (Rave), which is now 26,000 strong. This was made possible by partnerships with existing customers, retaining their key partnerships within the financial industry, enterprise customers like Uber, Arik Air, Booking.com and Flywire, and as they welcomed new customers like DusuPay (Uganda), BroadPay (Zambia) and PennySmart (Ghana). The revamped Barter (Flutterwave for Customers) now boasts of over 30,000 customers.

Their terrific run of achievements in 2018 culminated in the Best Payments Company award at the Ghana eCommerce Awards ceremony.

 Payment Solutions

What makes Flutterwave thick? With its payment technology solution, consumers can pay for things in their local currency, while the company takes care of integrating banks and payment-service providers into its platform and this relieves businesses of the expense and burden.

The company’s award-winning payments infrastructure which is accessible via USSD, Mobile, Point of Sale and Web channels enables banks, payments companies, and businesses to do much more. The numbers from the 2018 review by the company attest to the massive adoption of these infrastructures by merchants and customers. There is no sign that the upward growth experienced by the company will abet anytime soon.

The payment solutions are listed below.

●      Rave (Flutterwave for Business) – an easy way to accept any payment method from customers and make payments, around the world online or in-store. With many positive testimonies from notable local businesses in Nigeria and beyond, signing up for rave opens up businesses to more opportunities by letting them accept a range of payment methods (card, bank account, and mobile wallet payments) from customers around the world, in person in physical stores or through app/website or on social media.

 ●      Moneywave – used to make payments to anyone around the world. It is a payment system that allows users to securely charge cards and pays accounts. It is basically an API suite that allows connection of disparate payment sources, an omnichannel platform for payments across Africa.

 ●      Barter (Flutterwave for Consumers) – used to issue and manage virtual and physical cards for retail, loyalty and expense management.

 Partnerships

To accelerate its activities in its area of focus, Flutterwave has gone into various partnerships. The following partnerships are meant to address the listed issues:

1.     Flywire + Flutterwave  – this solution integration aims to streamline payment transactions for Nigerian students, patients, and businesses to facilitate payment of foreign school fees and medical bills in Naira.

 2.     Shopify + Flutterwave – this integration makes selling online easier. It helps African businesses scale globally by integrating Rave into their Shopify store.

 3.     Alipay + Flutterwave - this gives all Flutterwave merchants access to over 1 billion Alipay users, capturing payments activity around the estimated $200 billion in China-Africa trade. Alipay is now an additional option, to card, Barter, Mobile Money and other payment channels on the Rave checkout modal.

 4.     PayAttitude + Flutterwave – this only requires a customer’s phone number for a successful payment to occur, though the customer needs to be PayAttitude customer or get it first to be able to use this payment method.

 5.     Flutterwave + Afropolitan Group – this partnership is aimed at bridging the gap between Africa & the diaspora through entertainment & ticketing.

 Developers

Flutterwave touts herself as the Google of all things Payment, with a leading community of engineers who develop the next standard of payment technology in the industry. They provide everything needed to build reliable and secure payment experiences. They make their libraries, plugins, and SDKs available so others can easily integrate and start collecting payments in minutes.

 Closing Thoughts

Before this research, I knew very little about Flutterwave. In comparison to others in their space, they are heavyweights in their rights. I’m amazed at their dedication to building payments infrastructure to connect Africa to the global economy, and all that they have achieved in just a few short years. They are truly making it easier for Africans to build global businesses that can make and accept payment, anywhere from across Africa to the global economy.  They have converted me and my business into customers for all their products. I am now following the relevant social media handles including that of the past and current CEOs. But more importantly, I am now their unofficial evangelist. You will be sure I will convert many into the Flutterwave way. Who knows, you the reader might just be one of them.

 Image credits: Flutterwave Inc

[itsclydebitches]

You mentioned piracy in a recent post and I'm curious. How do you feel about pirating things you simply don't have access to? For a very long time the anime Evangelion was not available anywhere new. Your options as a American were to either buy expensive used DVD's or pirate it. Even Crunchyroll didn't have it. Eventually a Japanese (no subtitles) blu0ray release was made, but it was costly. Finally Netflix got the rights to host it. Before that though could you fault anyone for pirating it?

Overall I’m solidly pro-pirating media because every interaction with a text comes down to the same question: Can I buy it or not? If you can buy it then you give money to the artists who rightfully deserve it and that’s fantastic. However, if you can’t buy it and abstain from engaging with the media at all you’re potentially losing more than just your own enjoyment. What does that mean? It means that: 

Maybe I wasn’t able to pay to see the first film, but pirating the first got me interested in the series so now, two years later, I’m paying to see the second when I have more funds. 

Maybe I wasn’t able to pay for the monthly streaming service hosting this TV show, but now that I’ve pirated it I’m buying related merch. 

Maybe I wasn’t able to buy this book, but I downloaded it, told all my friends about it, wrote a positive review, and potentially set the stage for other copies to be sold. 

You are, in short, functioning like a fandom: you created a thing, I love the thing, I’m going to ‘pay’ you for that thing in ways other than cash and credit. 

Pirating isn’t quite the same thing as walking into a store and snatching a book off the shelf. In that scenario you’re harming the author’s potential (or expected) revenue as well as the very real costs that the store put into buying that book in the first place. When you pirate you’re only cutting into those potential profits--profits that still wouldn’t exist if you’d said, “Well I can’t pay for it so I won’t watch/read it at all.” Now, I want to emphasize that none of the above examples are a justifiable replacement for funds. There’s a reason artists on tumblr rightfully say, “No. You’re paying me for my commission. ‘Exposure’ isn’t a valid form of payment.” What I am saying is that there’s a massive difference among a) not being able to pay for a show created by a major corporation so you gain nothing and give nothing back, b) pirating that major show and giving back in the ways that you can, and c) trying to “pirate” art off of a 21yo college student who’s just looking to buy groceries. Yes, every artist deserves to be paid for their work regardless of whether they’ve sold two copies or two million, but---while a lovely and worthwhile sentiment--that doesn’t acknowledge that a lot of people just can’t. That money isn’t going to end up in the artist’s pocket regardless. 

Ignoring for a moment the fact that a good chunk of us are Millennials/Gen Z and can’t pay for shit anyway, other reasons you might be inclined to pirate include: 

You literally do not have access to this. At all. I’m a grad student out in Ohio. There is no way I can pay/take the time to go to NYC and see Hamilton play. I can, however, download a recording of the show and then buy the soundtrack. 

Similarly, costs are not always just the cost of the media itself. My closest movie theater is a small, non-profit place that doesn’t always play the latest blockbusters. The closest AMC where I could see those blockbusters? That’s an Uber drive away. I can’t afford that on top of a $10+ ticket. 

As we’re seeing now, most people can’t afford to pay a monthly fee for multiple different streaming services. The content isn’t all in one place? We’re only going to pay for a portion of the content then. Just buy cable? Distributors need to acknowledge that we’re moving away from that format too. Most people don’t want media laden with commercials anymore, or media that requires equally expensive, specialized tech to play it on. “Specialized” here meaning it only exists for entertainment. I need my laptop to do my job. Being able to watch stuff on it is a bonus, but I’d need to pay for a laptop whether it could play films and TV or not. Actual televisions though? They only exist as a form of recreation. They’re a pure luxury. 

A common rebuttal here is, “Just buy the DVD.” Except, as said, I don’t own a TV. And Mac took out their DVD player in order to produce another expense by forcing people to buy it separately. Which I haven’t done yet. So not only are DVDs functionally useless to me at the moment, but it’s the same issue as above: the overall price is far more than the cost of the media alone. 

Sometimes---as you point out, anon---the material is simply not available in your country. It might never be available. Maybe it will be, but that’s years from now...and telling someone to wait years to see the thing all their friends are currently invested in is not the most compelling argument. 

Also yes, sometimes media stops being produced and the price skyrockets. I’ve had books I desperately wanted but they were well over $100 used for an otherwise cheap paperback. (Funds that, notably, also wouldn’t be going to that original author, editor, cover designer, etc.) 

People have always had a complex and murky definition of what amount of profit is “enough” for an author. And we need to acknowledge that. Because if we all collectively believed that every individual really had to pay for their own access than we would never lend books to friends. We wouldn’t sell used. Or allow music on Youtube. Or have libraries. No one would ever share their Netflix login. We would be far more concerned with eliminating ALL forms of “free” access if we were truly that concerned with a 1:1 transaction. Whether people want to admit it or not, there’s a middle ground between “making sure an author is fairly compensated for their work” and “making sure that people have access to the media at all.” 

It all comes down to how you’re defining that fair compensation and yes, I do think it makes a difference who the author is and what sort of compensation you’re offering. I buy all my books because pirating those tends to do more damage than pirating TV. Complicating that, I have a Netflix account and watch One Day At a Time there because they need ratings a whole lot more than Breaking Bad does. However, I pirate John Oliver because I can’t afford an HBO account on top of a Netflix account. 

Which brings us to, “Then you shouldn’t watch John Oliver at all. That’s a privilege, not a right, and if you can’t pay for it then you don’t get it.” But here’s the thing: media is important. We do need it. We need stories, almost as much as we need food, water, and shelter. It’s easy to say, “You can’t pay for the Popular New Thing so you don’t get to engage with it” and a lot harder to convince people that they should accept that situation when they’ve found access to it another way. 

You know all that research proving that when given a basic income most people still choose to work? Same principles apply. When people have access to money they will spend it on entertainment. Always. I buy books. I go out to the movies. I buy music on iTunes. I go see plays when I can. But the “when I can” portion is a complex and, for many people, rather rare scenario. I guarantee you, it’s not a dystopian future of, “If we accept piracy then no one will ever buy anything ever!” because most people want to pay artists. They want to support films like Captain Marvel. They want to buy a hardcopy book to put on their shelf. They want another copy of that film to gift to a friend. But there are times when they simply can’t do that... so what are we left with? The issue is much less a moral one than a practical one. It comes down to that original question: Can I pay for it? Most people don’t go, “I can pay for it but am choosing not to because I’m a horrible, greedy person.” They go, “I can’t pay for it so you’re not getting my money regardless. The only question now is whether I’ll lose the enjoyment of your art and you’ll lose anything that I might have given back---even if what I have to offer doesn’t mean as much to you as money.” 

[headcrossed]

A/N: no one asked for this, but I can’t stop thinking about it so here goes. Also still taking requests for these guys, if anyone’s interested!

THE RFA PLAYS DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS FOR THE FIRST TIME

SEVEN

We all know he’s the one that suggested it. Call it a team building exercise, if you will. Besides, since they’re going to be having more parties now in the future, they gotta make sure they stay strong as an organization. What better way than this?

Since no one else is experienced with this game, Seven also takes it upon himself to DM.

Even though oddly enough, he’s never really played it either... at least, not officially.

He found a rulebook when he was younger at the library, and it inspired him, but he knew he couldn’t take it home where his mom might find it.

So instead he memorized it, and when Saeran was sick he would make up a story and roleplay with him. No stats, character sheets, or anything. Just two lonely kids getting enraptured in pure imagination for a little while. It’s one of the fondest memories he has from his childhood.

I’mma be honest: Seven’s DM-ing style is basically the same as Griffin McElroy’s in TAZ.

He keeps things pretty well-balanced. Plenty of humor and shenanigans, but the more serious and emotional moments are really moving, and everyone’s surprised by this.

Zen and Yoosung and even Jaehee and V probably shed some tears over the way the story unfolds. 

He also does really good voice acting for his characters. Nowhere near on Zen’s level, like you could still kinda tell it’s him doing the voices if you couldn’t see his face, but he gets into character really easy (even Zen thinks he should audition to voice act for a game or something... ;) )

Yoosung

Aside from the obvious previous experience he might have, he probably played some one-shot campaigns with some D&D clubs on campus before. 

The first character he makes is probably a literal recreation of his LOLOL character, since it’s familiar to him, and is a good place to start with since he’s not very experienced. Besides, he’s built like a tank in LOLOL, and if he knows anything about these kinds of games, it’s that balance is key, and they need at least someone who can soak up all the damage of whatever Seven throws at them (is he afraid that he’ll make them face bosses way to big for any of them to handle and they’ll all die in the process? GOD YES)

And it turns out that concern was legit. He dies like 5 minutes in.

Scrapping that strategy, he probably will end up making a half-orc , and he ends up really enjoying this character a lot more.

Plays him... surprisingly chivalrous, probably ends up saving a princess at some point in the game.

Seven lets him romance her and... wait... HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND NOW!!!

The game doesn’t count, my sweet summer child

It’s a little awkward that she’s voiced by Seven,and even though he teases Yoosung about it (both in-game and out), quite often it’s really sweet, actually.

He really, REALLY wishes he could commission someone to do fan art of them, but he has no money T_T

Might ask V if he gets desperate enough... might

Believe it or not, Yoosung will actually ditch playing LOLOL for this.

He likes being able to see all his best friends gathered in one place, laughing and just having a good time. It warms his poor college student heart. 

ZEN

He’s not really sure how he was convinced to do this, but somehow he’s very into it 

He’s not very good at the numbers part of the game (and he usually has to ask Yoosung or Jaehee to help him with it), but he really shines in the roleplay department (I mean he’s an actor! If nothing else it’s a really good opportunity to work on his improv skills) 

Plays an high-elf bard, with a VERY high charisma stat. 

“Not very original, huh Zen? Trying to make life imitate art?” “Shut up, mistah trust-fund kid!”

AND HE PLAYS THEM EXACTLY HOW YOU WOULD EXPECT.

Flirts with EVERY ENEMY. To the point that Seven has to make his character have near-death experiences MANY TIMES to get him to stop. 

Still, somehow, by the end of the game he has amassed a harem of enemies who worship him for his god-like beauty. 

VOICE ACTS FOR HIS CHARACTER AND SINGS ACTUAL BARD SONGS HE’S MEMORIZED BEFORE-HAND (rest in peace, Jaehee)

Oh but he doesn’t stop there.

He COSPLAYS HIS CHARACTER, AND HIS WHOLE FANBASE GOES INSANE 

His bard now has a whole fandom and following irl too. He even made a separate social media account where he shares all the amazing fan art that people have drawn for his character. He even thinks that maybe they should start broadcasting their sessions or do a podcast. 

JAEHEE

Jaehee is an absolute beast at this game.

She’s read over the rulebook at least 20 times and knows it inside and out. 

Probably gets into arguments with Seven and maybe accidentally metagames once or twice. 

She should be dm-ing not seven what the hell are they all thinking? She knows the stats better, anyways 

She plays a rowdy dwarven paladin, and no one expected it.

Her logic is: it’s a fantasy-world. She can be whatever she wants, and she wants to smash things, be as rowdy as she likes, and be blunt and tell things like it is. 

Also she’s semi-intentionally trying to recreate a gimli and legolas style relationship with Zen’s character, go figure ;) it’s actually really sweet at the end of the day though they make a great fucking team.

Has her own special routine for dice-rolls that she believes will increase her odds of getting a better roll.

They all laugh at her for varying degrees for it but FOR SOME REASON IT WORKS AND SHE HAS CRAZY NAT 20 STREAKS SOMETIMES.

She ends up stealing a lot of Jumin’s kills, but she’s just roleplaying, after all. (Seven gives her bonus xp for good roleplaying too like yeah good for her for using this as an outlet) 

Frequents D&D forums a lot now. Thinking up new strategies and probably makes like a million new characters based on them that she may never play (but she hopes to, someday)

JUMIN

He’s heard of it before, and that’s no surprise with his extensive interest in small specialty businesses and the fact that the RFA has at least two members who have played it before. 

But alas, he has never played it himself.

He agrees because the level of spectacle that he’s seen around playing this game is astounding, and he’s intrigued. Thinks maybe he’ll get a new business idea out of it.

“So Jumin, what race are you going to play as?” Seven asks, innocently, as though he doesn’t know the answer.

“... you’ll see.” 

Everyone gets suspicious, but he keeps his poker-face as cool as ever. 

When they go around the table introducing their characters, he puts on his most serious face, puts his hands up in front of his face like paws, and introduces himself as his character: Elizabeth the 4th, Tabaxi Ranger

Zen has to leave the room to get over a sneezing fit, Jaehee’s glasses shatter, Seven straight up dies laughing on the floor. None of it matters to Jumin. He’s living the fucking dream.

All that being said, Jumin is definitely tries to take a more methodical approach to the game. He carefully plans out his strategies for the best strategical outcome. 

Although 

He actually ends up really enjoying it, at the end of the day.

You know he’s looking into premium gear for future sessions. Buys all the rulebooks and lorebooks, buys a bunch of really cool-looking handmade dice (that he personally tests himself for balance, to make sure they all roll true). He probably even commissions someone to make custom mini figurines for their characters. 

V

Like Zen, he’s also not quite sure how he got roped into doing this.

He’s never played, or ever really even HEARD of this game before, let alone understand how it works, but given an opportunity to hang out with the rest of the RFA and relax, he takes it. It sounds like fun to him anyway. 

He has to spend a lot of time making his character (this poor boy, he sees everyone else with their faces stuffed in the character stat books and he doesn’t wanna ask if he can borrow it ‘cause they need it to make their characters too and doesn’t want to interrupt them) 

When he finally DOES make a character, however. He goes with a Tiefling Druid. Not only do they look aesthetically pleasing and unique, but also he empathizes with how they’re treated by society as a whole. It’s kinda the perfect fit. 

He’s super clueless when they first start playing. 

Seven says “Roll for initiative” and he sits there like “wait... what do I do? ^^; ”

Jaehee, Jumin and Seven usually help him out and explain things as they go along.

As the game progresses he picks things up bit by bit. Turns out, he’s actually really good at roleplaying.

In the beginning, he plays his character as this cold and distant,  not really caring about anyone in the team, but over time that dissolves into unerring loyalty to the rest of the party. Probably created an elaborate backstory involving a long lost love, too.

Everyone gets super attached to V’s character.

But of course, OF COURSE

When they face the final boss of the arc, someone has to sacrifice themselves to defeat it.

V immediately volunteers, and is dealt a killing blow before any of the rest of them can so much as talk it through. 

As he dies, he says “My people only know hatred because they have been so hated. But... I’ve never felt that. Not with all of you. Thank you, for showing me that there’s hope for all of us!” and his character dies, with a smile on his face.

DAMNIT V NO

EVERYONE’S FUCKING CRYING NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID

All-in-all though, he had a really great time. 10/10 would play again. Maybe even starts constructing a story-based campaign in his head and wants to try DM-ing next time!

He’s always snapping super aesthetic photos of the sessions, and probably does a painting of all their characters together to commemorate their first campaign. 

SAERAN

Saeyoung invited him to play, but he says no. 

It’s childish and he has other things he wants to do.

Saeyoung doesn’t pressure him, and honestly he thought that would be the last he’d hear of it. 

However, Seven’s house is usually where they end up meeting to play (since no one else really has the room for it, and playing at Jumin’s house is ruled outright due to level of c-hair)

He’s a little annoyed, and thus stays in his room for most of the night, figuring he can wait the session out in his room.

But alas, the one thing he didn’t factor in was wanting some ice cream at 1 am.  

After a deep internal debate, he ultimately decides to leave his room to satisfy the craving, and unlocks his door. 

He wanders into the kitchen, surprisingly unnoticed, silently grabbing a spoon from the drawer and taking the carton of ice-cream out of the freezer, when he overhears something... familiar.

“BOOM! BOOM! Drums sound in the deep. A mighty roar soon follows, as the chamber rumbles with the sound, pieces of the construction tumbling to the floor of the ancient hall in its wake...” 

Seven roars, for effect. 

“Oh shit...” Zen says.

“Louder and louder, the sound draws nearer, until the sound stops at the foot of the barricaded door. Large shadows overcome what little faint light shone from beneath the door...”

*pushes up his glasses* “Roll for initiative”

“WHAT?!”, screams Yoosung, “WE JUST FOUGHT A CAVE TROLL! WE HAVEN’T EVEN HAD THE TIME TO RECOVER!”

“Shame...” Seven says, “If only there was one more party member... then you might have a chance...” 

Seven then looks over to the doorway, locking eyes with Saeran briefly.

Memories prickle at the back of his head. Memories of those same eyes lighting up as he told the same stories to him. He remembers getting lost in those stories, feeling happy deep down as he figured out what he would do next. He even remembers... smiling? 

He runs back into his room, and slams the door. 

And that’s the last the RFA sees of him...

Or so they think.

Half an hour later, he comes out of his room, pulls out one of the kitchen chairs, sits down and slams a hastily-printed character sheet. 

“Looks like you’re running into some trouble with that Balrog... tch. Amateurs.”

He made a Kenku Monk, chaotic neutral alignment.

And he completely destroys the boss that Seven had planned for them. 

DID SOMEONE SAY EDGELORD?

Probably splits from the party a bunch, but Saeyoung planned for that, so there’s usually a bunch of story-heavy side-quests waiting for him anyway, and they all eventually lead him back to the party somehow.

But truth be told, he’s not that mad about it.

Every opportunity he gets to describe exactly the kind of moves he’s exacting on the enemies they face, he takes. He explains it in creative, gory detail, and it shocks some of the other party members, but Seven seems cool with it.

That’s right kiddo, harness all that repressed rage. Let it out. 

He’s helping clean the kitchen after everyone’s gone when Seven asks,

“So? You going to play with us next session too?”

He pauses washing the snack dishes for a beat, and the corners of his lips start to twitch, just a little.

“Y-yeah, I-... I actually had a lot of fun.”

His brother pats him on the back, his hand still on his shoulder when he says “I’m glad! That’s what I was hoping to hear.”

“... Wait... you planned this from the beginning, didn’t you?”

The sly smirk on Seven’s face says it all. Bih you know he did

“... you little shit.”

[websurfergeorge]

Web Surfer George! Who...?

Another web community?  What's the difference?  A Spirit of Giving...

Hello, and thank you so much for your valuable time. Imagine, if you will, a world class online community that makes millions and millions of dollars… and then gives money away to its members and the real world community. What a powerful and interesting thought. Please, keep reading…

My name is Ronald Slaton. I am a freelance photographer in Tampa Bay, Florida. Having well over 25 years of shooting experience, teaching photography within the Hillsborough County Library System, and being a published short story author, my entire life has been shaped and driven by communicating with people. Which led me to a wonderful idea...

Web Surfer George

There are two very different and very important things about Web Surfer George. First of all, it is an "all included" online community. Not only is it open to singers and musicians, dancers and choreographers, actors and directors, and models and photographers, it also welcomes moms, dads, teachers and students, realtors, buyers and sellers and everyone in between. 

The second and most beneficial feature is that Web Surfer George is built on a foundation of giving. The average successful internet community or social network gives little more than a virtual form lettered Thank You to its members. Here is where George breaks the mold. We are designed and geared towards rewarding you for your help:

Paid Referrals - The site is in Invitation Only mode, and will remain there always. Each member has an Invitation Link and when someone joins through that link, the referring member earns a commission. Currently, it is 5% for Platinum members when a referred member pays to upgrade. Also, the commissions go as much as “five levels” deep, with additional levels of earnings as succeeding members join underneath.

What the catch? Nothing. The members join and enjoy themselves. We want active members and nothing more. And we will not, and never will, harvest and sell members’ e-mail addresses, collect and sell personal information and demographics or “claim the right” to images and other member content. That is not our Business Model.

============================================================

Enjoy an Instant Return on your efforts

Web Surfer George has a very real and useful structure. From the moment you join, fill in your information, upload content and start using it for what it is design for: showcasing you and your wonderful life.

Some of the cool things you can do as a Web Surfer George member:

Post Photos

Listen to (and upload your own) music

Watch (and upload your own) videos

Instant Message

Write your Blog

Create voting Polls

Post to public and private Forums

Create public and private Groups

Buy and sell through the online Classifieds

Earn site points for site actions

Use up to 5 Gb of Personal File Storage (future feature)

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Subscription based...?

Like all businesses, capital is all important. A web site is no different. Bills have to be paid, services secured and problems corrected. Of course, there are also management and labor costs. I can not run this on a large scale alone, and a starting workforce has to be compensated for their time, expertise and commitment. I can not expect them to take time away from other pursuits and their families, then merely offer them a warm Thank You. In short, this site can not be a dining room table "Get to it when we get to it” business. I need an Office Manager to handle the business, an executive assistant to carry out any and all tasks, a network administrator for the web site, techs for routine and emergency maintenance, updates/upgrades and fixes, a person for member services and correspondence and, of course, an accountant and an insurance agent as well as a lawyer/firm to sort out legal matters. And of course, we have our eye on an official home:

There is an update and upgrade plan, as well as a major update planned for 2019/2020.

We need to advertise and get the word out. While “word of mouth” is free and best, we do need some traditional advertising in place; print ads, posters, Google, TV, etc.

A general list is as follows:

Management & Labor Costs

Business residence leasing, utilities and insurance

Hosting, Maintenance, Updating and Upgrading

Advertisement

Legal Services

Accountant and Financial Services

Depending on your level of funding, you get membership on the site, month to month or One Year, with a referral plan of up to 5%. If enough of your friends join and upgrade, you could make back more than your investment, showing a profit to you!

$99 – Platinum membership and a 5% upgraded referral rate

===========================================================

Our strategy going forward

Okay, we have built an awesome web community, secured funding, tuned the site and relaunched an all-new and super powerful site! So, how do we go from asking for money to actually making money? In a nut shell, word of mouth and advertising will create a buzz which will drive up curiosity and spark visits. Who wouldn't want to join a site that has no ads and actually pays you to get your friends to join?

Will the site become popular and well traveled? Ask yourself; "What would my friends say if I told them I belonged to a full featured online community that has no ads, doesn't harvest your information or media, has all the great features you love and pays for referrals…?" Easy guess: Where do I sign up???  Your answer: I will send you my referral link!

============================================================

Building a bridge to the Real World

As a heavy user of online services, entertainment and research, at the end of the day, I want my time to have meant or produced something valuable. At times, after long hours on the computer, I come away feeling like I totally wasted my time. I have used systems that give points, credits and level-ups. However, nothing actually transferred over to the Real World into something I could actually use. So, I decided to design Web Surfer George to not just be a great site to be on, but also make all that surfing and clicking add up to something… real.

============================================================

Still scratching your head?

So, you don’t really like the idea of paying for a social network site. Believe me, I totally understand that not everyone will “get it.” But the truth is that one way or another we all pay, either financially or by having our personal information and media taken and sold. George has free membership, so you can show huge support by simply joining the site and helping to increase the membership numbers.

And for all the wonderful people you know, tell them to surf on over and sign up on Web Surfer George. You will still have a personal referral link that you can e-mail, post and generally share to make money.

As stated above, the site is set to "invite only," to control the spammers, drifters and cruisers. So, the only way onto George is through the members' referral links. In short, every new member will generate cash and points for an existing member!

============================================================

It all sounds pretty cool, but what about the Network Effect...?

Okay, good point, The Network Effect states that people tend to go where their friends are. So, right now, your friends are not members of Web Surfer George, and that is a wonderful benefit for you. Why, you may ask. Well, if you are the first of your family and friends to join, then they all will join through you. Suddenly, having hundreds of friends and followers means something new...

============================================================

In conclusion...

I want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to read about my web site and our mission. I hope and pray that you can and will assist in moving this venture into the mainstream, even if only by joining and using the services.

Be blessed in all that you do!

Ronald Slaton - Owner/Operator

Referral Link: Web Surfer George

[bat-besties]

On Impossibility - 3

Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 4  Chapter 5  Chapter 6  Chapter 7  Chapter 8  Chapter 9

impossible

ɪmˈpɒsɪb(ə)l

adjective

·       not able to occur, exist, or be done.

Eg. It is impossible to fund both the sports and drama programmes with the school’s limited budget. 

·       very difficult to deal with.

Eg. The situation which Logan Sanders, Student Body President, is in after he convinced the school board to cut the unsuccessful drama programmes is impossible. 

·       (of a person) very unreasonable.

Eg. Roman Prince.  

To Roman, nothing is impossible. Not following his older brother Patton to acting college, not being a loser taking on the school’s popular Student Body President and definitely not writing and performing an epic school play with no money and six cast and crew members.

A popular!Logan and loser!Roman high school AU based on @2pointomg ’s idea with eventual Prinxiety.

Edited by the wonderful @alpacasarethegreenestanimal

@barclays-sides, @romanasanders, @cashmeredragon , @entitydark, @jughead-is-canonically-aroace, @immacrazyfangirl , @narniasfinestavengingsociopath, @toolazytothinkofcreativename, @nyxwordsmith

Ask me if you want to be tagged and please tell me what you liked and anything I could improve!

Logan hurried backstage after the ordeal was over, needing his best friend. He felt awful – Roman had been out of line but it really was unfair to begin a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. Unarmed was a little harsh, perhaps the actor’s wits could be compared to that blunt wooden sword of his…

Stopping that train of thought, he went over to Virgil, who was sitting in a corner with large purple headphones jammed on. He was the Student President and had acted like a bully, that was the long and short of it, and Roman deserved an apology.

Virgil stood up when he saw Logan and knocked the headphones off his head.

Logan paused, ‘Are you good, Virgil?’

‘What the hell, man.’

Logan frowned, ‘I assure you, I was not involved in giving you the T-shirt gun. I was wondering what happened actually –’

‘I was talking about what you did to Roman.’

‘I was going to apologise, I did feel bad – ‘

Virgil slammed his hands on his head, ‘You felt bad? You felt bad, huh?’ his voice went dangerously calm. ‘You acted like a fucking dick. No! No, don’t even try to deny it. I don’t want to hear your shitty debate team response. I told you, I told you that it wasn’t your decision to cut drama, that every other Student President restrained their decision-making to putting salad bars in the cafeteria and fund-raising for new laptops. But you didn’t listen. You’re always running ideas by me, and plans, and speeches, and the one time I said no to one of your student body enrichment schemes you didn’t even listen. I told you I knew the guy, that it would kill him. I told you that before I met you he was always my group project partner in English because his friends weren’t in that class, and I didn’t have any friends at all. I told you – you didn’t listen!’

Logan broke in, scared by the anger in his friend’s voice. ‘Look, I don’t know what that has got to do with this situation. It’s pure coincidence that it was Roman you hit, and if any other person in the school had spoken like that to you I would have done the same thing. Besides - you backed my decision when I explained the numbers to you. It was the –’

‘Logical decision?’ Virgil laughed humourlessly. ‘I didn’t back your position, I backed you. I trusted you. You’re my friend. We did all these great things together, taking on the man. You made people listen when I wanted to save energy in the school. We put together that anti-bullying project with Elise, made the school stop using sex ed for scaremongering, even this,’ he gestured at the rainbow flag still hung proudly on the podium, ‘would have been impossible before you came.’

Logan scanned Virgil’s face for clues desperately when he paused, trying to work out what exactly his friend was saying.

‘The point is,’ Virgil sighed, ‘now that’s changed. You stopped Roman from doing what he loved, and then made him a laughing stock from a position of power. Logan – you’re the man.’

Virgil quickly swiped at his eye makeup, smudging it. He took a deep breath before looking Logan in the eyes. ‘I don’t want to be your friend anymore. Me – I fight the man.’

Logan stood in silence as his only friend walked away.

He did what had needed to be done.

Virgil was just prejudiced against the athletes Logan had helped because – because what, Logan? Because they used to laugh at him in PE? Because half of them thought Chad was hilarious in the recycling bin incident?

He had worked tirelessly to improve the school for two years, and the one time he was saddled with a difficult decision his friend was blinded with – empathy?

Logan didn’t need Virgil. He had his debate team, and the people he worked with in Student Council, and everyone in the school thought he was great. Virgil didn’t understand the way that Roman didn’t understand – he didn’t understand that utilitarianism and democracy were the policies Logan had to follow, not whimsy and pandering to the individual. It had been his place to make the decision, because he had a school to run and did not shirk his duty.

Logan had lost his best friend, and he didn’t run after him and beg for forgiveness, or write passive-aggressive messages on social media, or hide in a bathroom crying. Instead, he aced his trig exam, learnt a new debate technique and finished two essays in the library at lunch.

4:00pm. Logan put on his backpack aggressively normally and kept his eyes on the linoleum as he walked through the hallways. Every time the tan squares began to blur together he would pinch the skin between his thumb and forefinger and they would come back into focus. He stopped outside the auditorium door, hearing the booming voice of Roman mid-soliloquy. He’d prepared a short but sincere apology after he finished his exam early. I don’t want to do this. He had to do this. Go home. He was the Student President. I want to go home. He placed a hand on the doorknob, wrapping his fingers securely around the metal. Fuck this. Fuck all of this. I want to go home. I want to go home. The back doors of the school swung open.

Logan struggled home as though through wet concrete, his view a modern art piece of suburbia underwater. His breaths scraped like sandpaper through his mouth as he picked up speed and the air in his nose felt acidic. As he collapsed in the door he tugged off his tie (a gift from Virgil) and ripped open his collar (are you hiding vampire bite marks there?). He ran his hands through the hallway carpet, trying to calm his breath (4,7,8, Virgil, 4,7,8, breathe with me). Head in hands, he screamed silently, shaking. No-one was home so he screamed aloud. ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!’ A shaky breath. ‘AAAAAAAHHHHHH!’ He pounded up the stairs. Pulling out his phone, he scanned the texts they had exchanged the previous night, all full of nothing: Maths homework, the assembly, Virgil’s Geography presentation, a flat earth meme, nothing to preclude the fight. How long? How long had his best friend been losing his trust in him?

The boy flopped onto his bed, knocking over a funfair black-and-purple bear. Recoiling as though it were a spider, he couldn’t look the stupid toy in the face as he hid it in his wardrobe behind a stack of identical black polo shirts. 

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 48.9 - Bristol vs Queen’s, Belfast

The Humans of New York Facebook page is one of the only things on the internet that can so quickly and consistently provoke deep emotion in me. The interviewer somehow manages to get people to reveal their most private hopes and dreams to him, a complete and utter stranger. And then, with a candid photograph and a couple of transcribed paragraphs, these are shared with millions more. 

Remarkably, in a world where we are increasingly unwilling to show our true selves on social media, and instead create carefully curated phantom versions of our lives for our friends to envy and admire, this page manages to showcase its subjects at their most vulnerable, and totally unfiltered. It shines a light on the hidden lives we all lead, but if you read the comments, there are always people who seem to have forgotten the previous, amazing posts, people who instead seem to think that the person in this particular picture is the single most incredible and interesting person in the world, above all others.

The comments are all along the same lines - ‘OMG you should totally write a book!’, ‘I can’t wait for the HBO series about your life!!’ - and they all miss the point of the page. Yes, this person has lived a fascinating life, but so have all the other people in the other photos. If everyone in a Humans of New York post wrote a book we’d run out of library space - and most of the books would probably be crap because while these people might be good at baring their emotional souls they’re probably rubbish at writing books.

A level up from this is the clamour for any old sod on a reality show or talent contest to ‘get their own show’. Everyone who’s been on Love Island in the past three years has been slated to host a retail development show on ITV 2 at some point. Sometimes they get the show - Nadia from Bakeoff and Scarlett from Gogglebox to come to mind. And this isn’t to say they can’t be good when they do get the opportunity, but the fact their are so many is symptomatic of our attention-hungry culture that demands brand recognition over originality. Its the same reason so many sequels and remakes get made, despite the surplus of great ideas that can’t get funding. 

So you’ll forgive me for being a little bit skeptical of the program which preceded University Challenge tonight - Monkman and Seagull’s Genius Guide to Britain - starring two contestants from the 2016-17 series (I’ll let you figure out which two). They’d met in the semi-final, which had been described as the most anticipated match in UC History (and not just by me), before Monkman’s Wolfson College lost to Balliol in the final. The pair were a huge hit on social media (Monkman near-effortlessly, Seagull partly through doggedly tweeting everyone on the UC hashtag). Inevitably there were plenty of calls for the pair to front their own science show, and with a few books and radio specials out in the intervening years, the internet has finally been granted its wish.

With my cynical hat on I was prepared to be disappointed by what was surely just a rushed attempt to capitalise on a perceived hunger within the millennial demographic. But its hard to stay cynical when faced with Bobby Seagull and Eric Monkman. The unabashed enthusiasm they both have when learning about such idiosyncratic things as lawnmowers is infectious, and they’re charming and hilarious. Whether its discussing the accents of Greek frogs or saying hello to a troop of ducklings on the side of the road, the pair of intellectuals are eminently watchable, and the grins that are plastered across their faces burst out of the screen and onto your own. 

And part of what makes them so good at this is what made them so good at University Challenge - they know a bunch of stuff, and have an unquenchable thirst to learn a bunch more (of course the Challenge isn’t just about knowing things, but about spotting the connections between them). Its part of what makes a show about recalling random facts inherently enjoyable. Because we constantly have google at our fingertips, knowledge isn’t as important as it used to be for someone to make their way in the world, so there’s something marvelous about people reveling in curiosity for its own sake. And come to think of it, this is why Nadia’s baking show has been a hit too, people like watching people who have a real passion for the thing they’re talking about, so maybe I’ve been chatting a load of rubbish vis-a-vis the recruitment techniques of network television. Anyway, I don’t know if that sounds more pretentious or nonsensical, but I’ve rambled on for far too long so should probably get to tonights episode.

Queen’s, Belfast and Bristol are two of the teams who have made the most quarter final appearances without ever making it to the semis (Queen’s with three and Bristol six). Only one of them will have the chance to add to that tally after this evening’s game. These stats only relate to the Paxman Era of course, and Queen’s did in fact win the trophy in 1980, beating my beloved Edinburgh in the final. Queen’s have not one, but two students working towards PhDs in Exoplanet Atmospheres (I don’t think that phrase should really be capitalised but I think it deserves it). 

I’d already been prepping a paragraph on the subject before the second introduction, but apparently doctorates in Exoplanet Atmospheres are like buses. Their Captain Merritt had only gone along to see if she could beat her now-teammate Hooton, which she must have done since she’s the one in charge (I guess you could say she got there on her own Merritt... This joke would be better if I hadn’t already mentioned her name, but what else could I do?)

To make things even more surreal, there is an early starter question on exoplanets, which Hooton gets, much to his relief after a few seconds of looking worried as he imagined the hundreds of tweets that there would have been if he’d missed it. 

Basu got Bristol on the board with two starters in a row, and Le Maistre chances her luck on one of the bonuses. Asked for two names which differ by one letter, they gave Toto and Togo, rather than Tojo. Paxman asked if that was what she’d meant, and she confidently announced yes. She backed down a bit when questioned, so he didn’t give her the points, but Our Jez is getting soft in his old age so I think if she’d doubled down on the deceit then she might have gotten a five point bonus for her troubles.

Bristol then committed a series of faux-pas (which had incidentally been the answer to the picture question on French definitions for loan phrases) in the music round when they gave guesses of 1971 and 1991 when they’d been explicitly warned that all of the answers would be prime numbers. How it could have slipped all of their minds that 11 times 181 is 1991 I don’t know (and don’t get me started on the myriad of factors for 1971).

The sides traded starters back and forth, but neither could open up a big gap at any point, meaning that a quick streak from either table would likely result in victory. Unfortunately, extended and unsuccessful conferring meant that the scores remained low and tight, like a well drilled baritone a Capella group.

The second picture round went to Queen’s, and they took the next starter as well to level the scores at 110 each with only a few minutes to play. Bristol seized back the initiative, with twenty five points in a row (over two sets of questions), but negged on the next one, leaving the door wide open for Queen’s to equalise again. Unfortunately, Queen’s Breen buzzed in immediately without waiting for the end of the question (though I don’t know whether it would have helped him) and hilariously said Voltaire instead of Volta (which turned out to be wrong anyway. If it hadn’t been then this may have been more tragic). Still, there was all to play for coming into the final starter, which Basu took for Bristol to seal the win.

Final Score: Queen’s, Belfast 110 - 140 Bristol

A low-scoring, but entertaining game. Well done to both teams.Join me next week when we will see the first ever French institution appear on University Challenge (okay, they’re from the Uni of London and just based in Paris, but still)