#professor in indonesia

[hoziersrealhusband]

january 21st, 2025

first day of class is done!

engl 306: my first professor of the day ending up cancelling class for the entire week because he is in indonesia...... we had a grad student of his come out to basically just read us the syllabus and then we got to leave. we have a bit of reading to do though. i think its just one thing that he posted to canvas, but it might be two readings. im just gonna read and take notes on them both because better safe than sorry.

be 305: this professor was not in indonesia! we had to buy this weird program to do all of our class activities on. it makes sense for the class because its so big, im more just a little mad about having to pay $25 for it but whatever. atleast we are actually going to use it daily. we have daily quizzes in that class, so thursday we have a quiz and readings to do before that quiz. because of the daily quizzes though, no exams for the class! so i think ill really like this class. the quizzes are basically just on the reading we do each day. i feel confident.

tomorrow i have entr 410, engl 351 & art 132. the professor still hasnt posted the course canvas.... so we will see about that. i really have to like this professor too because the only other time this class is offered would make me have to run halfway across campus in 15 minutes, and i wont be doing that.... more tomorrow!

actually, im also starting to work on a bunch of writing. articles for my radio station and a cool book idea i have....... more things too. i also applied to the disney college program, im not set on it but its an option for the summer.

[primeviewprathamesh]

Brawijaya University: Nurturing Excellence and Innovation in Higher Education

[kbanews]

NTU Professor: Polarization of Jakarta Citizens Just Myths

JAKARTA | KBA – Sulfikar Amir, Associate Professor for Sociology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, said that polarization or division in Metropolitan Jakarta is a mere myth. He wrote this in an opinion article entitled “Exposing Polarization (in Jakarta)” on the Monday, March 13, 2023 edition of the Sindonews.com page. Sulfikar, who is also a colleague of the Governor of DKI Jakarta…

[reasonsforhope]

"Any good gardener knows what a good de-weeding can do for a vegetable garden. As it turns out, it’s much the same for coral reefs.

Following a volunteer “sea-weeding” program launched in Australia, scientists are witnessing compounding coral recovery both in quantity and diversity, and suggest that this simple method has the power to transform degraded reefs overrun by macroalgae.

In a balanced ecosystem, macroalgae is kept in check by the size and health of corals, but as extreme weather events or coral bleaching causes some sections of reef to die, macroalgae has no other neighbor keeping a check on its spread.

Over a period of three years, the joint Earthwatch Institute program led by James Cook University Senior Research Officer Hillary Smith and Professor David Bourne, also at JCU and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, has organized volunteer citizen scientists to help remove macroalgae at two experimental reef sites.

The results of the first three years of work and study have now been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, and they show a 600% increase in coral recovery rates.

“It’s just like weeding your garden,” Smith said. “Every time we return, the seaweed is growing back less and less, so this method could provide lasting benefit without requiring endless effort.” ...

The importance of the study, Smith details, is that a lot of reef recovery efforts globally are powered by expensive, high-tech, and experimental solutions. The study hoped to show that manual de-weeding was just as effective, and thereby encourage organizations or nations that lack the tech or funding of a country like Australia to pursue sea-weeding as a way of protecting their corals.

“We have yet to see a plateau in coral growth within these plots at Magnetic Island, which is characterized as one of the degraded reefs on the Great Barrier Reef,” Smith said. “We also found an increase in coral diversity, so this method is benefitting a wide range of different coral types.”

Smith said her team are now scoping other locations where the sea-weeding technique could be useful, including the Whitsunday Islands, which are home to a different species of predominant seaweed.

They also want to employ them in French Polynesia, Indonesia, and even Singapore, where experts have identified out-of-control macroalgae spread along coral reefs."

-via Good News Network, September 19, 2023

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

48,000-Year-Old Cave Painting from Indonesia: this painting shows several animals being hunted by tiny figures that are part-human and part-animal (known as therianthropes); researchers believe that this may be the earliest known depiction of mythical beings

This painting was found at Leang Bulu' Sipong 4, which is a limestone cave located on the island of Sulawesi, in Indonesia.

The panel shown here is just one part of a much larger painting that measures nearly 4.5 meters (about 15 feet) long, and it decorates the wall of a hidden chamber that was discovered back in 2017. The full-length painting portrays six animals, including two wild pigs and four anoas (which are small, buffalo-like creatures that are endemic to Indonesia). All of the animals are shown being captured, hunted, and/or pursued by tiny figures that appear to be part-human and part-animal; their vaguely human-like bodies are depicted with animalistic features such as tails, beaks, muzzles/snouts, lizard-like torsos, and horns.

Above: a digital tracing of the full-sized painting, with one of the anoas and several human-like figures magnified

It's possible that some of these animal-like traits represent masks, headdresses, or costumes, but several of the figures also exhibit more extreme features that cannot be produced by simple costumes. Researchers argue that the animal-like costumes would also be useless and impractical as hunting props, given that they mostly seem to mimic small animals like birds and lizards.

Above: two of the figures that are described as therianthropes, both of which seem to be using spears or ropes to subdue the much larger anoa

The original analysis of this painting in 2019 indicated that it was created over 43,900 years ago, but further testing in 2024 revealed that it was created even earlier, dating back to at least 48,000 years ago -- which makes this the world's second-oldest example of figurative art (i.e. artwork that depicts real or recognizable subjects, such as humans or animals).

It's unclear whether or not the animal-like figures actually represent therianthropes, but if they are therianthropic, as archaeologists speculate, then this painting would be the world's oldest known depiction of mythical beings, and it would constitute the earliest known evidence of spiritual or supernatural thinking. It is more than 8,000 years older than the famous Löwenmensch ("lion-man") carving from Germany, which has long been recognized as the world's oldest depiction of a therianthrope.

According to this article:

For whoever painted these figures, they represented much more than ordinary human hunters. One appears to have a large beak while another has an appendage resembling a tail. In the language of archaeology, these are therianthropes, or characters that embody a mix of human and animal characteristics.

"The images of therianthropes may also represent the earliest evidence for our capacity to conceive of things that do not exist in the natural world, a basic concept that underpins modern religion,” said Adam Brumm, study co-author and associate professor at the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution. “Therianthropes occur in the folklore or narrative fiction of almost every modern society, and they are perceived as gods, spirits or ancestral beings in many religions worldwide.”

These interpretations are speculative, however, and the inspiration for the painting, as well as its significance to the humans who created it, is likely to remain a mystery.

Archaeologists have been aware of Sulawesi's abundant cave art since the 1950's, but dating techniques were not used on the paintings until 2014. For decades, it was assumed that the artwork was less than 10,000 years old, but when animal paintings and hand stencils from seven different caves were finally analyzed in 2014, researchers were shocked to discover that some of the artwork was created more than 39,900 years ago -- predating most of the world's earliest known cave paintings. Since then, archaeologists have discovered and/or dated many other cave paintings from Sulawesi that date back to more than 40,000 to 51,200 years ago.

These discoveries firmly contradict the traditional (and deeply eurocentric) assumptions that had previously been made about the origins of artistic expression, as this article explains:

Previously, the oldest known cave art was thought to have first appeared in Europe 40,000 years ago, showcasing abstract symbols. By 35,000 years ago, the art became more sophisticated, showing horses and other animals.

These latest finds in Indonesia have challenged a long-standing belief that artistic expression – and the cognitive leap that may have accompanied it – began in Europe.

It’s now thought that the capability to create figurative art either emerged before Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and headed for Europe and Asia more than 60,000 years ago, or that it emerged more than once as humans spread around the globe.  

Unfortunately, many of the cave paintings in Sulawesi and other parts of Indonesia are now rapidly crumbling away as a result of climate change. The limestone surfaces of the cave walls are peeling away at an alarming rate, erasing large sections of the paintings in the process; in some caves, patches of artwork measuring 2-3cm wide are vanishing every few months.

Sources & More Info:

The Guardian: Earliest Known Cave Art by Modern Humans Found in Indonesia

Scientific American: Is This Indonesian Cave Painting the Earliest Portrayal of a Mythical Story?

National Geographic: Ancient Cave Art May Depict the World's Oldest Hunting Scene

The Leakey Foundation: Indonesian Cave Paintings Show the Dawn of Imaginative Art

Nature: Earliest Hunting Scene in Prehistoric Art

Nature: Narrative Cave Art in Indonesia by 51,200 Years Ago

The New York Times: Mythical Beings May be Earliest Imaginative Cave Art by Humans

Science: World's Oldest Hunting Scene Shows Half-Human, Half-Animal Figures -- and a Sophisticated Imagination

Smithsonian Magazine: A Journey to the Oldest Cave Paintings in the World

Art Net: Some of the Oldest and Most Revered Cave Paintings in the World Are Under Extreme Threat Due to Climate Change

Nature: Humanity's Oldest Art is Flaking Away

[thecapricunt1616]

Sampaguita (c.b. one-shot)

𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓻𝓫 (𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓑𝓣𝓒): It was your final Gala of the year, the 60th Art and Design Juried Student Exhibition. This is what you’d been working towards all year. Your Professor had assured you that you were one of the most promising Expressionist Mural painters he’d taught in quite a long time. He was quite certain you’d be commissioned, as many high paying clientele were coming to view the art that would be on display.  You stepped back, observing the large canvas mural you’d painted, resting your hand on your hips and sighing softly. 3 months of work, all leading up to this moment. There were many things you thought you would change about the work, but nothing to your eye that you painted would ever be perfect, there would always be something you wish you would have made better or omitted completely. You nervously twirled your gold and mother-of-pearl bangle over your wrist as you continued to look over it, deciding to step outside for some fresh air. You walked down the back hall, your heels clicking on the tile floor as you did so. You heard the back door close and a loud boisterous laugh “Dude dude and she was all ‘No you’re totally right man’ and that’s when-” the loud man comes around the corner holding a big box full of napkins and smacked right into you, sending you flying back on your butt and you let out a big ‘oof’ as you land.

♡ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨: The Sampaguita flower is considered the flower of love in many South Asian countries, Indonesia and the Philippines. It is used in wedding and religious ceremonies to symbolize love, devotion, purity and divine hope. ♡ 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: You & Carmy meet at your biggest gala of the year, smut ensues! ♡ 𝐖/𝐂: 10.0k+ ♡ 𝐀/𝐍:Hello all! Welcome back to another installment of "Capri can't write something short to save her life!" I've been working on this literally all week as I wanted it to be the most thoughtful and good I could come up with, as it's requested by my lovely wonderful Wormy @carmybrainworms - welcome home my little worm, me and the fellow bearblr baddies have missed you terribly! I hope you enjoy this welcome home present! ♡ 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐓𝐂: Not terribly edited (we die like men), Swearing, Smoking, Smut, Spanking, kinda dom? carmy, i think thats it! (R is 22, short, with long hair & glasses also is v petite bc it's DC to wormy but you can imagine yourself ofc :D)

♡ 𝐌𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 ♡ ➵ 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 ♡ ➵ 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 ♡ ➵ 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 / 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵 ♡ ➵ 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 ♡

It was your final Gala of the year, the 60th Art and Design Juried Student Exhibition. This is what you’d been working towards all year. Your Professor had assured you that you were one of the most promising Expressionist Mural painters he’d taught in quite a long time. He was quite certain you’d be commissioned, as many high paying clientele were coming to view the art that would be on display. 

You stepped back, observing the large canvas mural you’d painted, resting your hand on your hips and sighing softly. 3 months of work, all leading up to this moment. There were many things you thought you would change about the work, but nothing to your eye that you painted would ever be perfect, there would always be something you wish you would have made better or omitted completely. You nervously twirled your gold and mother-of-pearl bangle over your wrist as you continued to look over it, deciding to step outside for some fresh air.

You walked down the back hall, your heels clicking on the tile floor as you did so. You heard the back door close and a loud boisterous laugh “Dude dude and she was all ‘No you’re totally right man’ and that’s when-” the loud man comes around the corner holding a big box full of napkins and smacked right into you, sending you flying back on your butt and you let out a big ‘oof’ as you land.

“FUCK bro you didn’t say corner! You ok sweetheart?” a taller, leaner man with a brunette buzzcut and striking blue eyes offers you a large warm hand to help you up. “This is why Carmy is so fuckin’ uptight about this shit man! Can’t have you in the kitchen, imagine she was holding a hot pan or some shit!” he scolded the other man as you took it and he hoisted you up easily.

“M’sorry about that sweetheart, you alright?” He patted your shoulder in a friendly way. “Fuckin’ apologize!” he slaps the mans shoulder that knocked you over 

“Sorry! I’m sorry. You’re pretty, like an angel. I’m Neil” he stuck out his hand and you giggle a little bit at his forwardness. You introduced yourself as well and the other man hums

“Cool name- Sorry about this one he’s a big clutz- I’m Richie” he bent down with Neil and began picking up the napkins, and you bent down to help them as well. 

“No worries at all- sorry about that it’s my bad I wasn’t really paying attention. Sorry- are you here for the dining hall? It’s in another building I can take you there if you want” you place the last stack of napkins down in the box

“No, we're helping Bear with the catering stuff you should come!” Neil said enthusiastically to which Richie chuckled a bit. 

“It’s only for the students at the Gala and the faculty bud. You goin’t’that?” he asked you and you smile and nod.

“Totally! I uh- I actually have a piece in the show. I was actually just going to get some air- Nice meeting you guys!” you scoot past and pushed the back door open , being greeted with the scent of American Spirits.  You rolled your eyes a bit to yourself, realizing that you wouldn’t be alone, and look over to see a impossibly handsome curly blonde smoking a cigarette. 

“Sorry I- I didn’t realize someone was out here” you twirl your bangle over your wrist again, a nervous habit you’d picked up opposed to picking at your hands. 

“No worries- I’ll be out of your way soon just had to grab a smoke I know I’ll be busy the rest of the night somethin’s bound to go wrong at one of these catering things” he chuckled to himself a bit and shook his head. 

“Oh- are you Bear?” you smile a bit, recalling what the tattooed goofball that knocked you over had said. He looked at you a bit surprised, eyebrows scrunching a bit as his eyes racked over your face and frame trying to recall if you’d met before

“Sorry do I- have we met?” he took another drag, the smoke blowing out of his nose subtly as he exhaled.

God he’s hot while he smokes.

“No! I’d have remembered such a handsome face, I think I met your other coworkers in the hallway, uhh - Richie and Neil? Funny tattooed guy? Kinda knocked me on my ass but it’s cool not the first time it’s happened i’m a clutz” you said and his cheeks go pink at the compliment, chuckling.

“Jesus- Yeah he’s a fuckin idiot, m’sorry is y’r….ass ok?” he asked and you stared at eachother for a moment before bursting into giggles. 

“You wanna check?” you teased turning around and he laughed 

“I’m just making myself sound like a creep, uhhh- shit. Sorry you can probably tell that I don’t get out much- I’ll um..I’ll let you be, nice meeting you-”

“My friends call me bunny! You don’t have to go- I was actually gonna ask to bum a cigarette off you cause I’m realizing that I forgot my vape inside in my bag..” you said and he looked at you, brows raising and he chuckled a bit. 

“You use one of those damn things? These dont taste like candy er’ whatever if that’s what you want” he teased as he fished the cigarette carton out of his pocket once again and flicked it open. You rolled your eyes amusedly taking one out of the carton and putting it between your lips “I like a cigarette once in a while. You can vape inside if you’re sneaky enough most places” you mumble through the cigarette, causing him to huff a laugh as he lights it for you. 

“Isn’t that defeating the whole purpose, because you’re only supposed to use it like a cigarette?” he asked, watching as you took a long drag and did a french inhale, causing his brows to knit “And how fuckin old are you?” he muttered as he watched you pull the cigarette from your lips and hold it delicately between your fingers. 

“Old enough, I think you meant to ask where I learned this and the answer is my evil ex-boyfriend but he did teach me a cool party trick at least” you mused, causing him to chuckle again.

“Funny little thing you are huh” he mused, causing a light blush to stain your cheeks and a smile curls on your lips

“Hey I didn’t dog you for your height that’s fucked up man” you teased and he chuckled

“You aren’t from here” he said, more as a statement than anything. You look up, squinting at him

“It’s not that obvious” you retort

“Trannnsplant” he teased, making you giggle and hit his shoulder playfully

“Is this how you flirt with all the girls you meet?” you shot back, making his cheeks go that cute shade of pink again.

“Who said I was flirting?” he asked and the door got pushed open, a young pretty girl with dark braids sighing in relief. 

“There you are- Carmy! Get in here! Fak dropped an entire pan of garlic knots so I have to run back to the restaurant, which means that you have to set up the risotto and the shells and the-” 

“Got it- Chef” he stomps out his second cigarette. “It’s nice meeting you, Bunny” he said and grabs the door from the young woman. “Thanks for the cigarette, Carmy” you said, now knowing his real name other than the funny nickname his employees gave him. He looks back, flashing you a small smirk before letting the door shut behind him.

You found yourself smiling like a goof and thinking about that damned chef the entire time you finished the cigarette that he’d given you. It wasn’t often that a man who piqued your interest came about. That just being because your experiences with men up until this point hasn’t been the best, but no matter how many times you just kept going back to the same ones, so it excited you to try something new- different. 

That was if he was feeling the same way. When you got through with your cigarette you stomped out the butt with the end of your black pointy stiletto. You pulled the door open and heard the soft chatter of guests and the sort as well as the smell of some delicious food. You first made your way into the back room, washing your hands at the students sink to rid your hands of the smell of cigarettes and walking over to your locker to spray on some body spray before putting on some lip gloss to replenish what got lost on your cigarette. 

You heard the door to the art room open and a deep sigh, before the sound of running water. You carefully shut your locker and walk out to the main area again to see the same curly head, bent over the sink splashing his face with water. “So…do you like Carmy, or Bear- or did I totally rat them out by telling you that they called you Bear” you said, coming over and taking a few paper-towels out of the dispenser and offering them to him.

“Bear is a uh…” he wiped his face of the excess water, flicking it into the basen of the sink before turning off the water and looking over “Thanks- It’s a family name” he cleared his throat and wiped the paper towels over his face, slicking his curls back with a wet hand. 

“Oh- uh how’d you get that name?” you ask and he smiled a bit, crumpling up the paper towels in his large, tattooed hand

“How’d you get the name Bunny?” He shrugged a bit 

Your cheeks flush a bit and you look at your feet, shuffling them a bit, realizing even though he wasn’t as tall as the other guy you’d met with similar blue eyes earlier - even in your heels he still towered over you. “I’m jumpy when I get nervous” you said a bit shyly. 

“Shit- well I’ll try t’not let Richie around you, he’s a fuckin…bull in a china shop” he said, causing you to giggle a bit and look back up at him with a small smile. 

“So… your turn, Mister Bear” you said and he huffed a laugh, shaking his head as his cheeks got pinker at your silly comment

“Berzatto is my last name, so growin’ up me and my siblings we’d call ourselves the bears it’s…stupid, bit it stuck w’me” He said, rubbing the vein on the side of his neck and you couldn’t help but notice the sheer size of them in that moment and think about the comparison of them to your neck.

“It’s cute…so what’re you doing back here, you thinkin’ of enrolling?” you joked and he chuckled a bit.

“Big groups of people aren’t uh…really my thing I just needed a sec to y’know” he leaned on the counter, crossing his arms over his broad chest, causing his biceps to become more prominent. You nodded, resting your hip on the same countertop, playing around with your bangle bracelet.

“I get that…mine either- well it depends on my mood I guess, did you make that food? It smells really good” you said as you stare at his lips, finally finding a way to tear your eyes back to his, nibbling the inside of your lip and worrying that you were rambling. 

“I did! I did..uh me and my Sous, Sydney, Cola braised short-rib and risotto - the Cola is coke, but we can’t say that Sugar says for like legal reasons or whatever.” he said and you found yourself smiling, this guy also seems to come from a circle of nicknames.

“Sugar?” you asked and giggle a bit “Is sheee…really nice?” you asked and he chuckled again

“She uh- in a way- yeah, she is but uh. It’s a whole story” he said and brushed his hair back again. 

“Well- have you eaten?” you asked and he raised his brows, thinking for a second

“I did uh- family meal earlier, why?” he asked and you blushed a bit, shrugging with a sheepish smile 

“Y’wanna show me to the food then? Sorry it sounded really good when you said it…never had risotto before” you looked up at him and he smiled

“Course- Of course, yeah, S’not out yet, but I can sneak you a plate, come w’me” he tossed the crumpled paper towel into the garbage and you followed him as he walks you down the long corridor into a room that was long forgotten by you as the culinary arts room, since barely any people you knew took the class it flew right over your head.

It was bustling, multiple people in chefs coats running around and the same girl you saw earlier with the braids now tied back into a neat ponytail with a pretty silk scarf adorned with black and white polkadots tied around her head. “Alright were gonna be moving in 10 people I want the sweet tea out of the chiller and into the buckets tina how many minutes left on the garlic knots?” she called loudly over the clanging of the pots and pans.

A woman not much taller then you goes over to the industrial oven and checks the time, “4 minutes chef!” she called out.

“Alright so those come out I want them plated right away and for you to be brushing the garlic herb butter.” the girl with the braids called out to which the shorter woman called out another ‘Yes Chef’ 

“Wow- all professional and shit huh?” You nudge him playfully earning a chuckle from him

“Yo cousin- these fuckin forks have spots - wait-” the same Richie you’d met earlier, calls loudly over all the noise and stops when he meets your eyes.

“Hey again! I’ll stay out of your way this time, scouts honor” you joke and lean against the wall near the door to keep out of everyone's way. 

“Hey how about - actually, I’ll make you a plate with a little-a everything for you, and take it back to the uh- the room that we were in” he rested his hand on your shoulder and it nearly made you flush the way that his hand nearly swallowed it whole.

“Yeah- Uh..ok, thanks” you said, suddenly feeling intoxicated with the natural dominance he held without even seeming to realize he did so. You nodded, heading out and heels clicking quickly as you made your way down the hallway back towards the art room.

It wasn’t very long until Carmy was coming back to the art room, carrying not 1 but 2 plates of steaming food and balancing 2 cups as well on a small tray he’d likely found in the culinary arts room. “Alright- as promised- a little bit of everything for you here,” he set the plate in front of you “We got the short ribs, risotto, garlic knots, also got a little ceasar salad for you and then some sweet tea- School said no liquor it feels like a crime to not have wine with short rib but y’know rules and shit” he said, pointing to each as he explained and you once again found yourself staring at his lips and mouth watering at the way his chain dangled as he rested his hand on the table and pointed to each dish and you found yourself envisioning sucking on it.

“Yeah..” you said, looking back down at your plate and grabbing the fork he’d given you. “It smells…really good” you said, trying to clear your head of all the messy, dirty thoughts that were running through it. “Thought you said that you weren’t hungry?” you mused as you stuck your fork in some ribs before grabbing some risotto and trying it, moaning at the heavenly taste and closing your eyes as you chew.

“Holy shit you should go on fuckin masterchef er somethin’ this is fiiiire” you said with a little giggle. He chuckled a bit, chewing one of the garlic knots he’d brought for himself, that adorable pink flushing his cheeks again, this time flushing all the way to his chest. 

“Thanks I uh…I try” he said, continuing to look at his plate “Like your um…your shoes- they’re cool. They comfortable?” he asked, finally looking up at you again. You weren’t sure if he really liked them, or if he was just bad at taking compliments. Either way, it was sweet of him to mention especially for you since they were your favorite pair. 

“Why thank you very much, guys usually don’t notice stuff like that” you held your foot out, admiring your cute pointy toed shoes. 

“They uh- they remind me of Morticia Adams, No offense” he chuckled a bit and you gasp in delight.

“That is exactly the look I was going for! Thank you so much, that is a huge compliment to me actually!” you happily sipped on your iced tea, humming when you realized he had put lemon in it. “This tea is tea” you joke and he snorts a chuckle, Rolling his eyes amusedly.

“Yes- the tea is tea” he said as if it was obvious, you nod and point with your fork to the risotto

“This risotto shit? Also tea” you said and had another bite, earning an adorable confused look from him. 

“Theres- theres no tea in that where are you getting tea? What kind of tea?” he questioned, grabbing his own fork and trying a bite of the small helping of risotto he’d put on his own plate. You laughed, covering your mouth with your manicured hand and he chuckled “What! What why you laughin’ at me? There’s no tea in this!” he said again and lightly poked your arm. 

You shook your head, catching your breath from your giggle fit “Gosh how old are you - you aren’t on the internet at all?” you questioned, not able to stop yourself from eating more of the risotto and short rib he put on your plate, the stuff was proving to be addicting. 

“One place I am not is on the internet it fuckin…stresses me out I’m old school I text call , email even if youre wanting to go back even further, I guess my siblings were older then me by a bit so…never really learned how to use it. Is that some kind of slang like chill? I remembered learning that one a few years ago” he said, finishing off his plate that he’d brought and downing his cup of iced tea in nearly one go. You chuckled to yourself a bit.

“Such a guy” you teased, taking a bite of the salad he’d put on the side for you and humming in satisfaction at the way you could tell the dressing was made and not from a bottle. 

“What’s that supposta mean?! I’m fuckin thirsty kitchens hot as fuck” he chuckled, resting with his legs stretched out and his arms resting behind his head, again causing his large biceps to become even more prominent. 

God did this guy know what a slut he was?

“So why does everyone else have to wear the silly little coats but you don’t- you top dog or something?” you joked and finished off your food, grabbing his empty plate as well and throwing them away for you both.

“They aren’t silly, they’re professional, there - paint princess and I guess you could call me top dog er’ whatever. Syd’s technically my partner but I don’t put too much weight on er’” he said as you cursed yourself, dropping one of the paper plates and bending over to pick it up.

He didn’t miss the way the skirt of your little black dress rode up just enough for the ends of your lacy panties to peak out as you grabbed it off of the floor and chuck it in the garbage, standing up and feeling yourself flushed as you realized and you pull your dress back down, smoothing it before turning around to see him staring with his plump bottom lip between his teeth.

Oh.

“Cute panties, right?” you teased, figuring if he had the balls to stare he didn’t mind you pointing it out. 

“W-what? Huh?” he asked, pale cheeks turning red as tomatoes and flushing all the way down his neck. “What- like- like”

“The navy blue lace- did you not see enough to judge? Wanna see more?” you sauntered up to him, thumbing his St. Anthony chain & wrapping your finger around and tugging lightly. His breath gets caught in his throat and he looks up at you, blue eyes wide and cheeks on fire.

“Are you always this forward?” he asked, his voice lower and huskier, almost a whisper. 

You smirked friskily, leaning in and tucking back his curly hair whispering in the shell of his ear “Why, d’you like it?” you said, hand splaying out over his chest and rubbing over it gently, feeling his racing heart. 

“Drives me kinda fuckin’ crazy, if’m’honest” he pulls you to sit in his lap and you squeak in surprise, giggling a bit and wrapping your arms around the back of his neck for balance.

“Yeah? M’pretty sure it would drive your girlfriend crazy too t’see me in your lap like this” you leaned forward, brushing his hair from his eyes and he looks up at you with a small smirk.

“Do I look that much of a prick that I’d pull some chick in my lap if m’seein someone?” he gently adjusted your necklace, the soft brush of his fingers nearly giving you shivers.

“I guess I’ve just had bad experiences with pretty tattooed men…” you spoke quietly since your faces had been getting closer and closer now ever since he’d pulled you into his lap.

“Oh so I’m pretty now, mm?” he asked as you gently twirl his curls around your manicured fingers.

“I think you’ve been pretty since the day you were born but that’s just a guess” you said and gently traced your thumb over his bottom lip and dragging it down gently. While doing so, he gently took your thumb into his mouth, dragging his tongue around it sensually before beginning to suck on it. Your jaw falls slack at the action, breathing becoming heavier and a wave of warmth crashing over your core. “Do you want to see my studio?” you asked boldly and he smirks a bit, pulling off your thumb with a pop and looking up at you with those lust blown blue eyes.

“Lead the way Bunny” he said, causing you to giggle and stand up, taking him by the hand. You carefully look outside the door just to be sure that there was no prying eyes in the hallway before quickly taking his hand and leading him to the back stairwell. As a fourth year art student who had been brought in to help teach students that were your Freshman as well as grade their work- you were given access to the senior studios, and you were in one so often it had basically been claimed as yours by this point, meaning you could trust that you two wouldn’t be bothered. 

That was one of the nicest things about being a favorite of your professor, being able to work alone and without being pestered.

You’d realized both of you had been skirting around the age question. It didn’t bother you much, you’d been with older men before - and you were 22 after all, so it wasn’t like you couldn’t make your own decisions on who you slept with.

You swayed your hips a little bit extra on the way up the stairs, knowing that he was not so secretly looking at the globes of your ass being accentuated by the thin fabric of your black sundress. By the time you’d gotten to the top, and dug around in your purse to find the keys to your studio in your tote bag, Carmy was quietly and awkwardly adjusting his erection in his jeans as you fiddled with the keys due to your nails, pushing open the door and flicking open the light.

The smell of paint overcomes you, and he mutters a soft “Woah” as he looks over your various half finished and some abandoned works leaning against the wall and hung up some places, various canvases everywhere. “So you really uh…do the thing huh” he nervously rubbed over his hands as he looked over the walls. You shut the door behind you, clicking the lock just for extra security before following to where he was standing in the middle of the room. 

“I do- do you wanna try?” you asked, planting a gentle, open mouth kiss on that pretty vein on his neck, smirking at the way you heard his breath get caught in his throat when you do so. You brought your hand back up, gently rubbing over his chest and finding his chain again, playing with it. 

“I um- uh- my forte is more with pencils or- um” he stuttered as you continued, beginning to feel hot and his erection pressing more and more at the confines of its cloth prison. 

“What if…we do it together- You’ll be my muse for my final project of the year” you gently trail your hand under his shirt, feeling the toned ridges of his abs under your nimble fingers. Your smile curls up more, feeling his stomach tighten and goosebumps appearing on his flesh as you do so. 

“Uhhh- you’re um, you’re like fuckin 21 right- jesus christ” he shudders as you pop open the button of his jeans and tease down his happy trail with your jeans, tugging the hem of his boxers open with your nail and he grabs your wrist, his entire hand easily wrapping around your wrist as he pulls it back “M’not about t’fuck a kid. How fuckin’ old are you, Bunny” 

You rolled your eyes “I’m 22! Such a gentleman though- that’s okay, right?” you look up at him and he breathes what looked to be a sigh of relief and lets your wrist go. 

“Ok- sorry i’d feel like a total fuckin perv if you were younger then that- still kinda fuckin young” he chuckled a bit and stroked your hair back “I’m uh…I’m 29, is that ok with you?” he asked to which you nod enthusiastically 

“Totally cool- can we keep going now or any other burning questions, chef?” you mused and leaned in, kissing below his ear and gently nipping at the lobe. He finally gives in and squeezes your ass, spanking you lightly.

“You have a fuckin’ mouth on you, bet it getcha in trouble alot mm?” he teased with a grin as you nip at his neck “and no marks, I’ll never hear the end of it if Richie sees that I hooked up with someone here an’e’ll probably infer that it was a student since I’ve never shown any interest in dudes and uhh…all y’teachers down there are men” he tilted your face up with a firm hand. “Y’gonna let me kiss you now?” he asked in that soft low way he took on downstairs and it nearly made you melt where you were standing. 

“Please- please do” you breathe, your eyes fluttering shut as his lips met yours. It felt like an explosion of butterflies in your lower belly, feeling a pulsing begin in your panties that was red hot with want. You brought your right hand back down to his boxers, rubbing your nails playfully over the hem of them and teasingly snapping it to his skin while your left hand worked at the small knots through his sandy blonde curls. He hummed gently into your mouth when you tugged at his roots, tugging your dress over your ass so he could get a better grip on it. He teasingly tugged your panties up over your cheeks, thumbing the inside of the lace and snapping it back against the skin,

Pulling away a bit, he mutters “they are cute, by the way” he said before continuing to kiss you. He swiped his tongue over your bottom lip and you opened up immediately for him, humming when you tasted the sweet and bitter mix of iced tea and american spirits on your tongue. 

The fervent nature of your kisses had you stumbling  back, back, until the backs of your thighs were pressed to the tabletop, and he was hoisting you up by your thighs to sit down, to which you gratefully accepted. He tugged off your little black dress, pulling it over your head swiftly so he wouldn’t need to break the kiss for long. It was only moments before you felt his palms over your breasts. They were the perfect handful for him, rubbing his thumbs back and forth over your nipples causing them to perk up at the attention. 

You felt yourself gushing in your panties, unable to squeeze your thighs together to ease the pulsing ache that was starting to grow more and more. You mewled into his mouth, the panting coming out of your nose and fanning his upper lip as he nearly devoured you getting faster and more desperate as he pinched and tugged your nipple just enough to make your clit twitch. He pulled away, and you panted softly into his mouth as he asked, “I can suck on these, right?” he asked, his voice huskier and lower than before. 

“Course- please” you gently combed through his curls with your fingers as he wasted no time working his lips down your chin and jaw with hot open mouthed kisses, gently sucking and licking over all the right spots. You whine and moan as he takes your left nipple into his mouth, sucking lightly and swirling his tongue over the sensitive bud while he massages your right breast in his hand between rolling your nipple lightly in his fingers. You look down at him, jaw falling slack when you saw those icy blue eyes staring up at you, darkened and lust blown. “Jesus Carmy-” you breathed out, causing him to smirk a bit and he pulled off with a pop, licking and flicking his tongue over the now firm bud. 

“You have perfect fuckin tits” he complimented sultrily, the tips of his lips brushing your nipple lightly as he spoke, his hot breath causing that pulsing feeling in your panties to turn into a throb, and he kissed your left breast before politelly moving his attention to your neglected right one and giving it the same star treatment. You had wiggled your hips to the side of the desk, pathetically humping the corner to get any kind of relief. His eyes fluttered down to see what you were doing and he pulled away, chuckling a bit “holy shit. Y’want some help there sweetheart?” He mocked teasingly, spreading your thighs more and cupping your heat with his hand. The relief of him finally touching where you needed him most caused you to gasp lightly, pulling him into a kiss as you quickly rut your hips into his hand, groaning into his mouth as you felt yourself getting closer and closer to release. 

“Lets get these off mm?” he purrs in the shell of your ear, guiding you to lift your hips and slipping off your little blue lacy panties in one swift motion, leaving you in nothing but your stilettos. The feeling of his tattooed digit prodding at your slick entrance to gather some arousal, before swirling it around your clit. Your hips buck into his hand, feeling eager to be filled by something. 

“C-Carmy-” you breathe out, tongue darting out to wet your lips that were dry from the growing pants coming from your lips. “Need you inside” you admit, cheeks heating slightly. 

“Yeah? M’gonna need t’stretch you out Bun’” he swirled his finger back down in your wetness, prodding the first knuckle of his middle finger inside of you and watching you carefully as your head fell back in bliss at the relief it brought. A whiney moan tears from your throat as he pushed the finger inside deeper, sinking down to the second knuckle and curling it wonderfully. This action caused your hips to rut into his hand causing him to sink the rest of his finger open and the sensation was so pleasurable and intense your hand slid up your chest to massage your breast just to have something to hold. 

“More- More please” you begged, eyes opening once again to see him looking fully blissed out over you, hooded lids and parted lips, looking utterly entranced with the sight of you falling apart beneath him. 

“Sure y’can handle it? God y’fuckin tight, angel” he added another one of his thick digits and the delightful burn that came with the stretch caused the faintest of smirks to curl on your lips. Carmy in that moment felt his heart flutter, he’d never hooked up with anyone who made his heart do that before. He hadn’t even met many people who made his heart do that anyhow. He brought his lips to yours as he explored your walls with his fingers causing your brows to furrow for a moment before he pressed on a spot deep inside of you, yet to be found by any other partner. 

The feeling made your mind go blank, your head felt fuzzy and hazy around the edges and it was a white hot pleasure as he curled his fingers into the spot. In tandem, the feeling made your toes curl and back arch slightly. “Theeere it is” he muttered to himself cockily. “Y’gonna cum, Bunny? Mmm? Y’drippin’ down my hand pretty girl” he rasped in your ear, kissing the side of your head as he curled his fingers quicker, increasing his pressure and you let out sounds you had never heard yourself make before. You couldn’t find any words, you were too focused on the way your muscles were tightening and releasing, and your thighs were beginning to shake. 

It all felt too good to be nervous, but that hadn’t ever happened before. You nod fervently at his request and he rubs his palm against your clit in such a way that had him covering your mouth with his other hand and pushing you down against the desk so your screams wouldn’t be heard by the Gala-Attendees downstairs. “Tha’s it- let go baby s’ok” he purred in your ear lowly. You weren’t sure what happened or what caused it, but suddenly you felt as if you were out of your body for a moment as you heard a gushing noise.

You were snapped back into yourself though as the most intense orgasm you’d ever been privy to washed over you. You couldn’t scream, you could just squirm and shake and claw at Carmen’s buff arms as he worked you through it. “Jeeesus you fuckin soaked my hand, Bunny- hottest shit I’ve ever seen, gonna make you do it on my cock next, god- you good?” the sound of his soft yet dominant voice brought you back. You opened your eyes and looked down to see a puddle of clear water-looking liquid on the floor and looked back at Carmy, blinking a few times as you found your wits. 

He cradled your thigh under his large bicep, stroking your pussy gently as your hips lightly twitch, just looking at you and patiently waiting for your answer. “I- I did that?” you asked, a bit surprised. 

“You’ve- you never squirted like that?” he asked, and you shook your head in response. “Well let’s do it again then, mm?” he slipped his wallet out of his pocket and pulled a black foil packet out of the cash slot, that made your eyes widen as he ripped it open easily with his teeth and popped the button on his jeans. A bareskin Magnum. 

You swallowed thickly, throat suddenly feeling dry. You’d never seen a Magnum condom in real life, none of your partners had ever needed one. You’d seen them in porn, sure, but even then you found it slightly insane that there were guys who needed thicker condoms considering in health class in school they told you most people will never need specialty condoms like that. You were glad he brought his own because all you had in your bag was a regular durex, which seemed now wouldn’t ever fit. 

“Y’good?” he questioned as he tugged off his shirt in that guyish way by grabbing it by the nape of his neck and tugging it over his head, causing his gorgeous messy curls to become even more ruffled by the action. You nod again, feeling completely in a daze and there was a sharp knock at the door, and the sound of the door jiggling before your professor called your name and asked if you were in there. Your eyes widened and you held your lips up to tell Carmy to be quiet. 

“Yeah?” You called back, sitting up on your elbow to speak with him through the door.

“Are you…going to come present your mural? The donors shall be leaving soon- your work has raised the most money, the buyer wishes to meet you.” he explained and your head fell back in frustration rubbing over your face and trying to quickly come up with a lie. You didn’t want to meet anyone and talk about your art with them, especially a rich snob that likely didn’t understand anything behind it and just bought it for another one of their foyers in The Hamptons, and you also wanted to continue your time with Carmy because - the guy knew his way around a pussy and you needed to see the full of his abilities. 

“Uh- I-I’m sorry, I got….inspired. I’m working on my final project. You know how I get - Thank them for me and uh- read the description I put for it on the school site it says everything I want to!” You said quickly and he was quiet for a moment. 

“So be it….but I’d like to review what you’re working on tomorrow, please” he said and you sigh in relief.

“Thank you, Professor, You wont be disappointed” you told him and sighed softly in relief as you heard him walking away. 

“So- What are we…working on?” Carmy questioned. You got up. Going and grabbing the biggest canvas you had at the moment which perfect for your needs was one that you could comfortably lay over. Then, you grabbed a small bucket of Colombia blue paint and dump it over the canvas, lightly smearing it with your hand and tying your hair up.

“You’re gonna fuck me on this” you put your thick rimmed glasses on the desk so they wouldnt get covered in paint before carefully laying on the canvas and wiggling your ass around a bit so the lace of your panties (that would now be ruined) would add nice texture and pattern to the paint as you spread it out. He chuckled, shaking his head a bit and settling in front of you before resuming tugging his jeans off and rolling the condom on. 

“You’re quite the little character, know that?” he asked, but you didn’t really hear him as you were focused on the largest cock you’d ever seen in person staring back at you. “Yo-” he tapped your cheek gently to get your attention and you look at him

“Is that gonna fit? It just whispered in my ear and said it was gonna rip me in half- thats a third leg” you said jokingly causing him to laugh, resting his hand forward next to your waist causing his hand to become covered in paint as he lined himself up at your entrance. 

“It whispered in your ear” he snorts a laugh, his stomach swarming with butterflies. Something about this experience felt… freeing for him. He’d never met someone who made him feel so put at ease while having such a large and silly personality other then… well, other than his brother, so a lot of the feelings he was having were good but slightly overwhelming.

Both of your minds though went blank as he nudged the tip of his thick girth inside of you. Fuck you were glad that he’d stretched you out slightly with his expert fingers at first because that familiar slight burn as he split you open for him was bring tears of pleasure to the corners of your eyes. He leaned over you, caging you in with his arms as he sunk in you fully and you bit his bicep, hard to stop from screaming out. He hissed, patting your cheek lightly as he chuckles “I tap out, I tap out!” he teased “Jesus, Bun, gonna leave a bruise” he said and you blushed slightly as you pulled away, looking at the perfect divots of your teeth imprint, that he was right, would surely bruise in the shapes of your teeth. 

“Sorry…didn’t wanna scream” you said sheepishly and gently kiss over the area. 

“Y’can bite, bun’- but just a little higher up so people don’ask questions mm’?” he said gently “Can I move now?” he asked and left gentle kisses along your jaw, down your neck. When you let out a little hum he began to slowly grind with you in a way that caused the mushroom shaped tip of him to rub against that spot earlier that made you see stars. Carmen had learned years ago now, that especially with his size and shape rather then deep snapping strokes, it feels better for his partners if he does a deep grinding motion. He knew this trick worked for you as well when you began to gush and clench around him tightly, back arching and squirming below him on the canvas.

“Ho-holy fucking shit, Carm” you whine out, back arching and gasping out when you felt him rub your clit with his paint free hand, wrapping your thigh around his waist so he could hit deeper, and the new angle nearly made you squeal. 

“Oh- Fuck- Fuck Bun’ - squeezin my shit so fuckin tight, God” he nearly let out a whimper as he felt you gush around him, the creamy liquid sliding down over his balls and dripping onto the tile below. “Fuck- fuck gonna take you from behind, yea? Gonna feel so good baby” he said and before you knew what was happening you were on your stomach, breasts slipping back and forth over slick blue paint as he lined himself back up and began to thrust hard and fast from behind. Whenever he grinded up into your ass the tip of his cock gave your cervix a gentle kiss that made you see stars.

“Oh- I’m gonna cum” you whine out, paint covered hands leaving fingerprint smudges all along the canvas as he uses your hips as leverage to push and pull you back on his cock. You felt him so deep it felt as if he was in your stomach, whimpering and clenching around him in a way that made him grunt when you felt him spank your ass roughly. 

“Shiiiiit- I can fuckin feel that- gonna make you cum all over my cock babygirl- fuuuuck” he groaned, head falling back hotly as he absolutely pounded you. You were letting out sweet grunted uh’s and ah’s with each snap of his hips. Carmy spanked you again, leaving handprints of blue on your ass, before spreading your cheeks and watching the white cream sticking to his cock in strings of arousal as he continued to thrust. When you heard, and felt him release a glob of spit onto your other hole, watching mesmerized as it dripped down over your pussy, getting lost and mixing with your arousal almost immediately, that was all it took for you to reach your peak. 

Your thighs shivered, and hips bucked uncontrollably, clenching and releasing around him in a way that made his hips stutter and thrusts falter. “Christ- fuckin cumming” he warned, before burying himself to the hilt with a grunt and spilling into the condom. You laid beneath him, a panting, paint covered, sweaty mess. He caught his own breath, pulling out and gently rolling you over. 

“I think I passed out and saw god” you joked, earning a breathless chuckle from him as he tied off the condom and slipped his boxers back on, going to throw it in the trash. 

“Does this shit come off with water?” he asked you and you sat up, getting off the canvas and taking your heels off finally.

“It does…” you mutter, not expecting what was to come next. He went over to the sink in the corner of the room, setting the tap to cool water, and pumping loads of paper towels. He soaked them all, before adding soap to some and wringing them all out, before folding them up to be like little wet wipes. He came over to you, gently taking your paint covered hand with one of the soapy cloths and cleaning all of the paint from your hands before rubbing them off with the ones with just water, and repeating the process wherever there was paint. Neither of you said anything, you weren’t sure if that was just because the process was so intimate - or that you’d never had a hookup take such care of you after sex before.

“Uh- Thank you” you finally settled on, he looked up at you and smiled a bit

“F’what?” he asked, grabbing your dress for you and helping you put it on. You shrugged a bit, goosebumps covering your skin as he carefully zipped it up, his fingers soft and gentle over your skin. You felt yourself flush and look over as he tugged his jeans back on, waistband of his Calvin boxers sticking out over the waistband of them just a bit. Jesus he’s so fucking hot. 

“Being so like…nice and stuff…dunno” You took your hair back down, combing through it with your fingers. 

“I’m just doin’ what you deserve, Bunny” he said kindly as he put his shirt on.

The next day, after being sure to exchange numbers with Carmy, of course, you headed back to your studio bright and early. You unlocked the door and walked in, beginning to clean up the mess the two of you had left the night before. After a swiffer of the floors and a good wipedown of your desk, you took a proper look at the piece you two had expertly crafted together. 

Smiling at the memory, seeing fingerprints (and other prints) that only you knew what they were, grabbing more blues and some greys as well. You took your brushes, getting to work, using your brushes and hands to create a beautiful abstract mix of strokes of color. You of course got lost in the work, listening to your usual heavy rock playlist you had going when you were painting, humming to yourself a bit as the music blasts through your headphones.

Finally, you were satisfied with the way that it looked so you went over to your sink and began washing your brushes, being sure to let them dry standing so they wouldn’t ruin. You did your usual routine after, of washing up, cleaning up the studio, and leaving the canvas on your easel to dry. Finally, you dug in your jacket pocket and pull out your phone. It had been on Do Not Disturb the whole 4 hours you were working, not wanting to be bothered - and strangely see 3 texts from Carmen. You clicked them open and see

Hey - Craziest shit happened. 

Wanna come by the restaurant later?

Have something to show you.

You raised your brows, slightly confused, but send something back nonetheless 

Sure? Send the address, Need to show prof. Our collab ;) 

Slipping your phone back into your pocket, you grabbed your things and headed across campus to your professors office. When you finally got there, you took your headphones off, resting them around your neck and pausing your music before knocking on the door. You waited for a come in - before entering. He greeted you by your legal name that all your teachers called you, before asking. 

“So, I’m excited to hear what you’ve come up with for your final project” he motions for you to sit, taking his reading glasses off and setting them on his desk, crossing his hands in front of him.

“Oh- Professor- I am so excited to tell you about this, so you know how all semester you’ve been wanting me to try abstract work - but I was just too nervous to let go and let my brush do the work?” you asked and he sat up, more interested now. He had been on your case about trying abstract work, but each time you tried it became another modern escapism or surrealist painting, instead of being abstract. You found it hard for yourself to just go with shape and color other then painting a feeling or an idea. He nodded, to let you know to go on.

“Well…I finally was able to do so- I have a photo for you here, I think i’m going to call it the passion of letting go” you pull the photo up on your phone and hand it over. He put his glasses back on, holding the phone back how seniors usually do and his face lights up when he gets a good glimpse of it. 

“Oh- My- yes, I love this! This is just wonderful, I can’t wait to see it in person!” he said proudly, handing your phone back. “I wanted to let you know, that your mural was an absolute hit! It was the talk of the whole gala! I do wish you were there to see just how much it touched people.

“Was it?” You said happily, the smile on your lips grew slightly. You had been extraordinarily proud of your project, so the way it was enjoyed by so many people warmed your heart. 

“Oh yes, the gentleman that bought it was quite determined to have it, he got in bidding wars with 3 other people at the gala!” He chuckled a bit. You felt your phone buzz in your pocket and slickly check it under the desk while the professor went on about how he used one of your most recent realism works to help teach the freshman students about shading as you read over the address to the restaurant that Carmy had sent.

“I really hate to cut this short Professor, but I have to get going I just came by to finish off that painting- we can catch up more next week, yeah?” You got up, grabbing your bag and he nodded. The two of you said your goodbyes and when you left and were walking towards the L platform, you couldn't help but feel a bit giddy. 

Carmy saw the space where you were most creative, your natural environment, as far as you could tell just in your short-ish interaction with him, the kitchen was that place for him. You put your headphones back on, sending a quick text to Carmy and sharing your location until the end of the day so he could expect your arrival as you blasted music into your ears to try and calm your nerves. The train over was fairly quiet, it wasn’t rushhour yet and it was a Monday afternoon, so most people were still at work or school.

As you walked towards the restaurant with your apple maps directions being your guide, you couldn’t help but feel as if you’ve seen it before. As you continue to walk, you rack your brain, until finally you remembered. On your way to your dorm in your freshman year when you had first moved here, you had went to this amazing little sandwich shop. The Beef! Yeah! That was it, your mom had been complaining she was hungry the past 2 hours so you and her stopped at the first hole in the wall spot you could get something quick and got 2 beef sandwiches that you still dream about and never had again since your school was across town and you didn’t have any friends over on this side of town, so there wasn’t really any reason to come back here.

You hoped it wouldn’t offend Carmy, but you wanted to grab a sandwich before you stopped in because you knew if he tried it he’d love it too. You quickly cancel your route and type in ‘The Beef’ and click for directions - thankfully it was the exact same time away as The Bear so you could guess that Carmy already knew about the restaurant, oh well- their sandwiches still were fire enough you’d risk offending your new chef friend to get one. 

You continued walking and saw The Bears sign in the distance, looking around trying to find The Beef, but you didn’t see it. You figured you’d just ask Carmy where it was and grab a sandwich on the way home. As you approached The Bear, though, your apple maps chimed into your headphones 

“Arrived: In 50 feet you will see The Original Beef Of Chicagoland on your right” You crinkle your brows, a bit confused and just end the route. The stupid thing only knows how to get somewhere half the time anyways. You tugged open the restaurant door, to see Richie standing at the host stand. 

“Yo! What the hell you doin’ here tinkerbell? You dyin’ f’more garlic knots?” he teased as Carmy came out of the kitchen

“Hey! C’mere got somethin’ t’show you” Carmy came over and rested his hand on your lower back, guiding you through the dining room. Your cheeks flushed as Richie looked at the two of you confused as Carmy slid his hand to your waist and asked

“Havin’ a good day?” in that low, soft way that made your stomach have wild flutters. That caused your gaze to be torn away from a very confused looking Richie, and pull it back to the Greek-God like blonde beside you and you smiled a bit, looking up at him and nodding

“It’s ok… I have something to show you too -” you told him as he stopped in front of a door labeled *AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY* and dug keys out of his chefs coat. Jesus he looked so amazing in that coat. You could imagine him throwing you up on the desk in your studio after a long shift and pounding you in it, so excited to see you he couldn’t even get it off before he-

“Close your eyes” he stood behind you, gently covering your eyes and your breath hitched at the sudden feeling of him pressed behind you, his hard muscle pressing into your back as he holds your head to his chest, hand cupped over your eyes so you wouldn’t look. The simple gesture had your core on fire. 

“Oh- Ok- Ok they’re closed” you mutter, letting him lead the way. You heard a light switch after he pushed open the door, leading you forward and stopping in the room, 

“You ready?” he whispers in your ear before giving your neck a gentle kiss that made you shiver, your breath hitched in your throat and you gently bring your hand up, tugging his hand away from your eyes and opening them. You blink a few times, getting adjusted to the light and when you noticed nearly straight away what it was you looked up at Carmy, a shocked look on your face. 

“Who did this?” you asked, head snapping back and looking at your Sampaguita Skies mural, shades of whites and yellows and blues. 

“The crazy thing is I didn’t even fuckin’ say anything. This is uh- I run the place, but my uncle owns it - f’now, i’m uh…workin’ on that, but he’s been really into art lately, got us the gig at that gala I didn’t even wanna do it in the first place but I do what he says y’know. And uhh..yeah- hes gonna be mounting it on that empty wall next to the host stand after he gets it preserved” he explained and you blushed, shaking your head in disbelief as a smile grew on your face.

“Fuckin- crazy” you said and giggled a bit, resting a hand on your hip and looking back at him. “Hey I was gonna ask you- There was this place over on this side of town- The Beef - have you been?” You asked and he chuckled amusedly, nodding as he leaned against the wall and rubbed over his chin with a smile. 

“I uh- I have why?” he questioned

“Oh! Well… they have super good sandwiches you probably know I was kinda in the mood for one - sorry I’m not a fancy person, do you know where it is I was gonna grab one on the way home” you said and he nods.

“Yeah, lemme take you” he extended his arm for you to take 

“Wh- no! No- you’re working I wouldn’t want to put you out-” you start to decline but he stops you 

“Not putin’ me out at all, c’mere, I’ll take you to get one” he said and you finally relented. He took you by the hand, closing and locking the storage room behind him and leading you back towards the kitchen and he pushed open the doors.

“Yo Ebra- 2 italian beefs please for back of house” he called and got a heard chef In response. You look at him confused

“Carmy I know you're a good chef and everything but -”

“Welcome to the beef” he said with a cocky smile. You look at him even more confused, because you had been to the beef, and it was…not this fancy place. 

“Are you that competitive? That you can't let me have some other dudes sandwich?” you said and he guided you by the hand again, this time over to what looked like a drive through window except no space for cars, it was like a walk up window you’d have seen at Jersey Beach. 

“This - this is The Beef now, The Beef was us, but we wanted to do something bigger- and the locals would have had me burning on a stake if I stopped doing sandwiches, so we operate as 2 separate businesses but in the same building” he explained. 

“Holy shit - so you’re saying I can get a free beef sandwich whenever I want cause i'm your favorite artist in chicago?” you teased and he rolled his eyes with an amused smile, taking you with him back to an office and flicked the light on 

“Anytime Bunny, anytime. You gonna show me what you said you were workin on?” He shuts the door behind him, sitting down on the big plush black leather office chair and sighing in relief. You can only imagine how long he’d been on his feet today. You came over, plopping in his lap and wrapping your arms around his neck. 

“Mmm yea- but I deserve a kiss” you pucker your lips and he laughed a bit, before leaning in and pecking your lips sweetly 

“For what? Guilting me into having someone make you a sandwich?” he teased and you shook your head, digging your phone out of your pocket

“For not climbing you like a tree the second I saw you in your sexy little Chefs coat, I behaved myself soo well out there” you unlocked it and found the picture, showing it to him and his brows raise in surprise. 

“Shit- we made that?” he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice, zooming in on different parts to take it all in. 

“We did” you said happily, gently running your fingers through the curls at the base of his neck.  “Can we make another one t’night?”

Tagging bestie boops: @carmenberzattosgf @gallaghersgal @mouseymilkovich @daysofyellowroses @l4long-winded

[mapsontheweb]

Places with similar shape

The shape of a state is determined by the political boundaries and geography that determine its territory, and that shape impacts the politics and economies of the state. The six categories of state shapes are: compact; elongated or attenuated; fragmented; prorupted or protruded; perforated; and compound or complex.

by theflagmapguy_2.0

In a compact state, the distance from the center of the state to any boundary does not vary significantly. According to Derwent Whittlesey, a Harvard professor (1939), the ideal state should be compact ("chunky") rather than elongated. Poland is an example of a compact state. A compact state has a minimum frontier to defend, and generally roads and railways are relatively simple to provide. An elongated or attenuated state is much longer in one direction than the other. Norway and Chile are examples of elongated states. Defense and transportation can be more difficult in an elongated state. A fragmented state has several noncontiguous pieces of territory. Archipelagos such as Philippines, Indonesia, and Fiji are examples of fragmented states. A prorupted or protruded has an extension that protrudes from the main territory. Thailand is an example of a prorupted state. A perforated completely surrounds another state (country). South Africa is an example of a perforated state because it surrounds Lesotho. Compound or complex refers to states that have characteristics of multiple categories. For example, the Contiguous United States is compact, but the United States of America which includes Alaska and Hawaii is fragmented.

[temis-de-leon]

Requited unrequited love - 500 F.C.

Characters: Satan x fem!reader

Main Masterlist

500 followers masterlist

Requested by: @tinyweebsstuff

CW: misunderstandings, insecurities, jealousy. MC is afraid to fail in front of Satan and doesn't talk to him, which makes her sure that he doesn't like her; meanwhile, Satan thinks MC doesn't like him because she doesn't talk to him

.

Winter in the Devildom, as MC soon had the need to learn, showed mercy to no one, especially her. It numbed her fingers and her nose, froze her eyelashes and made her sleep restless; no amount of blankets could shield her from the cold nights in the House of Lamentation and she’d already burned her tongue more than once for drinking her tea straight out of the kettle.

She expected Hell to be a vast terrain built on molten lava and drenched in hot, humid, ashen air, but she couldn’t be more wrong. While spring and autumn were enjoyable and summer left her at least the few hours of the night to go out, winter gave her no such truce.

Knowing that her demon classmates suffered almost as much as her was her only consolation prize and maybe that was the reason why sitting on the ground with all of them during alchemy felt more like a bonfire between friends than a lesson.

The blue fire in front of them warmed the entire classroom, silky blaze licking the wooden ceiling without any threat and casting a hypnotizing light that helped nothing in keeping them awake. One of her classmates was hugging her arm, already half unconscious on her shoulder, and MC had to gather all of her strength to not rest her head on top of her friend’s to do the same. Satan was sitting next to her and, although his entire body faced the professor and the blackboard, his eyes remained fixed on her figure.

What was he thinking? He was obviously waiting, expecting her to say something about what their teacher was showing them. The lesson about Hellfire had occupied almost two weeks of their syllabus, starting in its birth, its short life in the human realm and all the uses across the Devildom, which included, of course, the existent types and those available to unauthorized public.

The one with highest temperature displayed an unnatural toxic green, a colour she’d never seen before, and only a limited number of high ranked officials could use it. Since peace roamed the Devildom, the rest of civilians could only see it in national festivities and celebrations, like Dia’s birthday.

Then there was the blue fire, the closest she’d been to the human summer sky in months. It needed supervision and experience in pyromancy, but no written permission. Lucifer had even showed it to her a couple of days ago, amused at her amazement while his brothers stared unimpressed. A certain blond, irritated at Lucifer’s inflated ego, had asked her with a strained voice if such thing existed in the human realm.

And MC could’ve told him the truth and talk about the interactions between hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur during combustion. An exothermic reaction she’d only seen in the lab under her teacher’s watchful eye and in pictures from the Ijen volcano in Indonesia.

She could’ve drawn the pathways in detail, every letter, number and line that lead to that phenomenon.

She could’ve shown her knowledge with excited intensity, letting him see her brain. The rules of the world, like recipes, following an order that gave sense to everything. Chemical elements, organic and manmade, combining and disintegrating amongst each other, against each other. Making her heart beat irregularly whenever he entered a room, keeping her awake at night thinking about him, fearing the possibility of disappointing him.

He had looked at her those couple of days ago, ignoring Lucifer’s magic, and he had asked her a simple question.  

“I don’t know” she had said in return, lying through her teeth.

Bile rose up her throat at the self-betrayal, the part of her brain that spent hours studying strange names and complicated reactions begging her to tell him the truth while her lovesick heart forced her to keep quiet.

MC couldn’t bear the idea of failing in front of him, especially in something she knew was her expertise. How stupid would she look then?

Not in a million years.

Her classmate suddenly pulled her out of her memories when he moved his head, groaning in deep slumber and hugging her arm tighter. Satan snarled beside her, bothered and disappointed.

What did he want from her exactly?

In the end, as minutes passed, the professor finally, thankfully, understood that no one was in right conditions to pay attention and let everyone enjoy the warmth of the Hellfire while offering individual tutoring for those interested.

With extreme care, trying not to wake him up, MC moved his friend’s head from her shoulder and placed it on his backpack. The sigh of his squished cheek and drool pooling under him made her chuckle and wonder, not for the first nor the last time, how did she end up being friends with creatures she didn’t even knew existed until months ago.

“Are you both close?”

Satan was looking at her, at her friend, keeping a neutral expression that left her no room to think of an appropriate response. MC tried to avoid his gaze by looking at his notebook and the details of his diagrams and his tidy handwriting, but he closed it, hiding it under his thigh to claim her attention again.

“He’s a nice friend” she said after letting out a long sigh.

Something shifted in his eyes at her words, but MC couldn’t identify it. He seemed softer all of a sudden and her heart did a backflip when she noticed, breath faltering for just a second before forcing her to keep the conversation going.

“Only during classes, though… I hardly see him outside of RAD”

“And would you want to?”

“Oh?”

He stared at her expectantly, leaning forward to keep the conversation private. Half of the group was fast asleep on the ground and their whispers were only subdued by the voices of the professor and a couple of other students.

The blue light reflected in his pupils, pulling her in, but his question confused her.

“I don’t know, it would be nice, I guess?” MC shrugged “We don’t have that much in common, so I don’t know what we would do”

“And what things do you like?”

Once again, his question threw her out of the blue. His eager eyes, although cautious, followed her every movement; he was also subtly nodding his head as if to encourage her to answer.

This was her chance, wasn’t it? Lying about her capabilities would only make her feel worse, but what if she couldn’t prove them? What if he asked something that she couldn’t answer?

“Chemistry is interesting”

She tried to appear nonchalant, ignoring the submission in her voice. It wasn’t a lie and she wasn’t giving too much, which was enough for the moment. Maybe, in the future…

“Oh, that’s great!” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes at the groans of discomfort from the rest of the group. Satan opened his notebook, immediately finding a page full of not so pretty scribbles and colourful doodles. He showed it to her, but moved with such excitement that MC couldn’t read it properly. “I got curious about the blue fire and bought some human books. It has something to do with sulphur, I’m not exactly sure how, but it does make a lot of sense. See, humans always used sulphur to keep demons away”

“And how do you use it if it keeps you away?”

“How do you use red fire if it burns you?”

“I guess that makes sense”

He chuckled, sitting closer to her so he could show his research. MC’s cheeks got warmer and a smile appeared in her face with no intention of vanishing. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, the blush that tainted his skin, which made her grin grew even wider.

“The books are in my room, so… If you ever want to check them out…”

“I’d love that!”

.

The other students loudly shushed them, getting a final shush back from the teacher.

MC looked at Satan, who smiled just as happy as her. She wondered if anyone there could hear the beating of her heart, its thuds against her ribcage, but, after seeing Satan’s blush one more time, she discovered that she didn’t care one bit.

.

[reytenstiel]

Made an AU with @vyodka where Ivo is a Professor/lecturer and Stone is a barista in a coffee shop across Ivo's campus! I wrote the fic too (in Bahasa Indonesia) : Indo College!AU

[argyrocratie]

"In “Memory Voids and Role Reversals,” Palestinian political science professor Dana El Kurd writes of her jarring experience, hearing of the October 7th massacres by Hamas while visiting the Holocaust Tower at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. She notes the historic irony of Holocaust survivors seeking security from future oppression by expelling another people from their homeland by the hundreds of thousands, ghettoizing them in enclaves enforced by military checkpoints, and controlling them with collective punishment.

The irony of a state formed as the “antithesis” to the ghetto using ghettoization as a strategy of control is not lost on Palestinians. This infrastructure of coercion went hand in hand, of course, with ever-present physical violence — imprisonment, home demolitions, air strikes and more.

She quotes Aristide Zolberg’s observation that “formation of a new state can be a ‘refugee-generating process.’”

This is not only true of Palestinians. The Westphalian nation-state, which has been the normative component of the international system since the Treaty of Westphalia, necessarily entails (especially since the post-1789 identification of nationalism with the nation-state) the suppression of ethnic identity to a far greater extent than the expression of any such identity. Every constructed national identity associated with a “State of the X People” has necessarily involved the suppression and homogenization of countless ethnicities present in the territory claimed by that state. At the time of the French Revolution, barely half the “French” population spoke any of the many langue d’oil dialects of northern France, let alone the dialect of the Ile de France (the basis for the official “French” language). The rest spoke Occitan dialects like Provençal, or non-Romance languages like Breton (whose closest living relative is Welsh). The same is true of Catalan, Aragonese, Basque, and Galician in Spain, the low-German languages and now-extinct Wendish in Germany, the non-Javanese ethnicities of Indonesia, and so on. Heads of state issue sonorous pronouncements concerning the “Nigerian People” or “Zimbabwean People,” in reference to multi-ethnic populations whose entire “identity” centers on lines drawn on a map at the Berlin Conference.

When I say official national languages were established through the suppression of their rivals, I mean things like the residential schools of the United States and Canada punishing Native children for using their own languages. Or schools around the world shaming students with signs reading “I Spoke Welsh (or Breton, or Provencal, or Catalan, or Basque, or Ainu, or an African vernacular instead of the English, French, etc., lingua franca). And so on.

And when we consider the range of artificial national identities that were constructed by suppressing other real ethnicities, we can’t forget the “Jewish People” of Israel. Its construction occurred part and parcel with the suppression of diasporic Jewish ethnic identities all over Europe and the Middle East. The “New Jewish” identity constructed by modern Zionism was associated with the artificial revival of Hebrew, which had been almost entirely a liturgical language for 2300 years, as an official national language. And this, in turn, was associated with the suppression — both official and unofficial — of the actually existing Jewish ethnicities associated with the Yiddish, Ladino, and Arabic languages.

The centuries-old languages and cultures of actual Jewish ethnicities throughout Europe were treated as shameful relics of the past, to be submerged and amalgamated into a new artificially constructed Jewish identity centered on the Hebrew language. 

Yiddish, the language spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe — derived from an archaic German dialect and written in the Hebrew alphabet — was stigmatized by Zionist leaders in Palestine and by the early Israeli government. According to Max Weinreich’s History of the Yiddish Language, the “very making of Hebrew into a spoken language derives from the will to separate from the Diaspora.” Diasporic Jewish identities, as viewed by Zionist settlers, were “a cultural morass to be purged.” The “New Jew” was an idealized superhuman construct, almost completely divorced from centuries worth of culture and traditions of actual Jews: “Yiddish began to represent diaspora and feebleness, said linguist Ghil’ad Zuckermann. ‘And Zionists wanted to be Dionysian: wild, strong, muscular and independent.’” 

This “contempt for the Diaspora” was “manifested . . .  in the fierce campaign against Yiddish in Palestine, which led not only to the banning of Yiddish newspapers and theaters but even to physical attacks against Yiddish speakers.” From the 1920s on, anyone in Palestine with the temerity to publish in Yiddish risked having their printing press destroyed by organizations with names like the “Battalion of the Defenders of the Hebrew Language,” “Organization for the Enforcement of Hebrew,” and “Central Council for the Enforcement of Hebrew.” The showing of the Yiddish-language film Mayn Yidishe Mame (“My Yiddish Mama”), in Tel Aviv in 1930, provoked a riot led by the above-mentioned Battalion. After the foundation of Israel, “every immigrant was required to study Hebrew and often to adopt a Hebrew surname.” In its early days Israel legally prohibited plays and periodicals in the Yiddish language. A recent defender of the early suppression of Yiddish, in the Jerusalem Post, argued that Diasporic languages threatened to “undermine the Zionist project”; in other words, an admission that actually existing ethnic identities threatened an identity manufactured by a nationalist ideology.

If this is true of Yiddish — the native language of the Ashkenazi Jews who dominated the Zionist settlement of Palestine — it’s even more so of the suppression of Jewish ethnic identities outside the dominant Sephardic minority. Golda Meir once dismissed Jews of non-Ashkenazi or non-Yiddish descent as “not Jews.” 

Consider the roughly half of the Israeli population comprised of Mizrahi Jews from Middle Eastern communities (including those living in Palestine itself before European settlement). Although the Mizrahim are trotted out as worthy victims when they are convenient for purposes of Israeli propaganda — the majority of them were expelled from Arab countries like Iraq after 1948, in what was an undeniable atrocity — they are treated the rest of the time as an embarrassment or a joke, and have been heavily discriminated against, by the descendants of Ashkenazi settlers. For example former Prime Minister David Ben Gurion described Mizrahim 

as lacking even “the most elementary knowledge” and “without a trace of Jewish or human education.” Ben Gurion repeatedly expressed contempt for the culture of the Oriental Jews: “We do not want Israelis to become Arabs. We are in duty bound to fight against the spirit of the Levant, which corrupts individuals and societies, and preserve the authentic Jewish values as they crystallized in the Diaspora.”

Current Prime Minister Netanyahu once joked about a “Mizrahi gene” as his excuse for tardiness. And an Israeli realtor ran a commercial appealing to “there goes the neighborhood” sentiments by depicting a light-skinned family having their Passover celebration disrupted by uncouth Mizrahi neighbors.

Nationalism and the nation-state are the enemies of true ethnicity and culture, and built on their graves. There’s no better illustration of this principle than the Zionist project itself."

-Kevin Carson, "Zionism and the Nation-State: Palestinians Are Not the Only Victims"

[kaktus-tajam]

Mulailah dari Gelisah

“Ada satu pesan terakhir?”

Ketika pada podcast LPDP aku ditanya satu pesan akhir, aku teringat nasihat mendalam dari KH Budi Ashari: “mulailah dari rasa gelisah.”

Eh gimana gimana? Rasa gelisah memangnya positif ya?

Ternyata yang dimaksud di sini adalah rasa keprihatinan pada suatu isu. Pada suatu masalah. Pada suatu problematika.

Rasa gelisah itu bisa amat berbeda di tiap orang. Ia hadir sebagai titipan pada hati tiap individu, yang beragam latar, cara pandang, pengalaman hidup, dan lingkungannya.

Kata kakak saya yang seorang dokter anak… banyaak sekalii bayi prematur di Indonesia yang tidak tertolong karena mahal dan terbatasnya inkubator. Kenapa harus impor inkubator sementara alat ini mudah dan murah dibuat? Kenapa harus mengikuti spek ukuran di jurnal ternama? Padahal realitanya di masyarakat, kamar mereka sempit dan bersebelahan dengan kandang kambing. Mana mungkin cukup? Kenapa alatnya terlalu berat sehingga sulit ditransportasi, sementara pasien kita hidup di pegunungan dengan akses jalan kaki terjal?

Ujar seorang Professor teknik mesin penggagas gerakan inkubator gratis untuk bayi prematur di Indonesia.

Aku sakit kanker kelenjar tiroid di usia muda, usia dimana seharusnya aku bersenang dan bermimpi. Tidak hanya fisikku yang sakit, mentalku jatuh. Padahal aku sendiri kuliah psikologi. Bagaimana dengan remaja dan pemuda lain di luar sana yang sendiri menghadapi sakit kronis? Yang dikucilkan? Yang tiap hari harus konsumsi obat? Yang tiap bulan tamasya-nya ke Rumah Sakit?

Ujar seorang penggerak komunitas pasien penyakit kronis.

Rasa gelisah itu tidak bisa direkayasa.

Rasa itu muncul dari belanja masalah pada realita. Muncul dari ilmu tentang kondisi ideal yang kemilau dari hasil literasi, diskusi, dan keyakinan atas ayat-ayat suci. Semakin berilmu, semakin gelisah.

Semakin tinggi ilmunya, semakin sadar akan standar ideal yang menjadi acuan, dan betapa tidak idealnya kondisi saat ini.

Sesederhana acuan penanganan “door-to-needle-time” pasien stroke 15 menit yang sulit diterapkan. Yang kemudian mendorong tim dokter saraf merevolusioner sistem pre-hospital penerimaan pasien stroke dengan mengintegrasikan alat CT scan di ambulans.

Atau sekompleks kenapa suasana kebodohan, kemiskinan, dan keterbelakangan umat terjadi di tengah masyarakat.. sementara pada kitab suci dan tuntunan Nabi telah dipercontohkan sebagai panduan. Yang kemudian membangkitkan seseorang berjuang mendirikan madrasah. Kemudian memberi akses pendidikan yang kini menjadi aliran amal… dari ribuan sekolah di Indonesia dari bangku TK hingga perguruan tinggi. Iya, KH Darwis, pendiri Muhammadiyah.

Rasa gelisah itu bukan kebetulan.

Dipertemukan tokoh ini dan itu, orang ini dan itu. Dipertemukan bacaan-bacaan buku. Dipertemukan guru-guru. Dipertemukan ujian ini, kondisi itu.

Jadi mulailah dari rasa gelisah. Jika belum menemukan rasa itu, mungkin itu tanda baik dari Allah untuk kita lebih semangat mencari ilmu, semangat belanja masalah, semangat membaca buku. Lalu temukan celah-celah itu. Celah besar antara realita dan kondisi ideal.

Berdirilah di celah itu, rasakan kegelisahannya. persempitlah celah itu, mulailah dari situ.

Nanti akan Allah bukakan jalan untuk menjawab kegelisahannya.

InsyaaAllah.

Nabi Muhammad SAW adalah orang yang amat peduli. Amat khawatir dan gelisah tentang kondisi umat dalam kondisi kebodohan dan kerusakan serta kebiadaban saat itu. Ber-tahannuts di gua Hira, bukan karena menghindari masyarakat, justru karena beliau SAW adalah sosok yang selalu hadir di tengah masyarakat.. Rasulullah SAW merasakan kegundahan, kegelisahan, keprihatinan mendalam.

Wallahua’lam.

-h.a.

Kalau kamu, rasa gelisahnya terhadap apa?

[jackoshadows]

Just a reminder that the US administration under Jimmy Carter increased and accelerated the weapons supply and military assistance to Indonesia for their massacre, ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people and occupation of East Timor.

In other words, democrats like Genocide Joe are only following in the footsteps of democrats like Jimmy Carter in funding and providing the weapons for wiping out indigenous populations in the grand American tradition of being pro-genocide.

All the praise for Jimmy Carter makes me sick. No doubt in another ten years we will see the same for Genocide Joe as liberals praise him and eulogize him.

The US played a crucial role in supplying weapons to Indonesia.[84] A week after the invasion of East Timor the National Security Council prepared a detailed analysis of the Indonesian military units involved and the US equipment they used. The analysis revealed that virtually all of the military equipment used in the invasion was US supplied: US-supplied destroyer escorts shelled East Timor as the attack unfolded; Indonesian marines disembarked from US-supplied landing craft; US-supplied C-47 and C-130 aircraft dropped Indonesian paratroops and strafed Dili with .50 calibre machine guns; while the 17th and 18th Airborne brigades which led the assault on the Timorese capital were "totally U.S. MAP supported," and their jump masters US trained.[91] While the US government claimed to have suspended new arms sales to Indonesia from December 1975 to June 1976, military equipment already in the pipeline continued to flow,[89] and the US made four new offers of arms during that six-month period, including supplies and parts for 16 OV-10 Broncos,[89] which, according to Cornell University Professor Benedict Anderson, are "specially designed for counter-insurgency actions against adversaries without effective anti-aircraft weapons and wholly useless for defending Indonesia against a foreign enemy." Military assistance was accelerated during the Carter administration, peaking in 1978.[92] In total, the United States furnished over $250,000,000 of military assistance to Indonesia between 1975 and 1979.[93]

In the cities, Indonesian troops began killing East Timorese.[40] At the start of the occupation, FRETILIN radio sent the following broadcast: "The Indonesian forces are killing indiscriminately. Women and children are being shot in the streets. We are all going to be killed.... This is an appeal for international help. Please do something to stop this invasion."[41] One Timorese refugee told later of "rape [and] cold-blooded assassinations of women and children and Chinese shop owners".[42] Dili's bishop at the time, Martinho da Costa Lopes, said later: "The soldiers who landed started killing everyone they could find. There were many dead bodies in the streets – all we could see were the soldiers killing, killing, killing."[43] In one incident, a group of fifty men, women, and children – including Australian freelance reporter Roger East – were lined up on a cliff outside of Dili and shot, their bodies falling into the sea.[44] Many such massacres took place in Dili, where onlookers were ordered to observe and count aloud as each person was executed.[45] In addition to FRETILIN supporters, Chinese migrants were also singled out for execution; five hundred were killed in the first day alone.[46]

The 'final solution' campaigns involved two primary tactics: The 'encirclement and annihilation' campaign involved bombing villages and mountain areas from aeroplanes, causing famine and defoliation of ground cover. When surviving villagers came down to lower-lying regions to surrender, the military would simply shoot them. Other survivors were placed in resettlement camps where they were prevented from travelling or cultivating farmland. In early 1978, the entire civilian population of Arsaibai village, near the Indonesian border, was killed for supporting Fretilin after being bombarded and starved.[55] During this period, allegations of Indonesian use of chemical weapons arose, as villagers reported maggots appearing on crops after bombing attacks.[55] The success of the 'encirclement and annihilation' campaign led to the 'final cleansing campaign', in which children and men from resettlement camps would be forced to hold hands and march in front of Indonesian units searching for Fretilin members. When Fretilin members were found, the members would be forced to surrender or to fire on their own people.[56] The Indonesian 'encirclement and annihilation' campaign of 1977–1978 broke the back of the main Fretilin militia and the capable Timorese President and military commander, Nicolau Lobato, was shot and killed by helicopter-borne Indonesian troops on 31 December 1978.[57]

[workersolidarity]

[South Africa demands International Court of Justice impose provisional measures on Israel to halt its assault on Gaza. South Africa's delegation underscored the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, saying it formed a 'calculated pattern of conduct by Israel indicating a genocidal intent']

🇿🇦🇮🇱 🚨 GENOCIDE TRIAL BEGINS AGAINST THE ISRAELI ENTITY AT INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

The first hearings against Israel on charges of genocide are currently being held at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on Thursday, as Israeli occupation bombing and shelling continued to massacre entire families in the Gaza Strip.

The charges, brought against the Israeli entity by South Africa, were filed with the ICJ on Dec. 29th, 2023, accusing the Jewish apartheid-State of the crime of genocide, implemented as a matter of policy against the Palestinian population of the enclave.

South Africa filed the charges with the ICJ in a meticulously crafted case that included an 84-page report compiling evidence of genocide against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation.

In the 84-page document, South Africa accuses the Israeli entity of creating conditions "conducive to [the Palestinian population's] physical destruction," which South Africa and several other Arab and African nations believe constitutes the crime of "genocide" being inflicted against the native population of the enclave, by the mostly European Jewish colonists.

The hearings, which are being held in The Hague, Netherlands, will be exclusively addressing the request by South Africa that the International community take urgent measures to direct the Israeli occupation to cease and disist its military operations in the Gaza Strip while the Court hears evidence in the case, a process that can span several years.

Hearings began with a statement by South Africa's Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, followed by a presentation from the South African representative.

Early on in the hearings, Adila Hassim, an advocate of South Africa's High Court, began setting the stage for the current conflict by describing for the Court the events of 1948 and the Nakba, arguing that the Palestinian people faced a "catastrophe" that year, with the Israeli entity depriving the Arab population of their non-negotiable Rights, such as the right of return and self-determination.

The advocate called for the immediate end to discriminatory policies targeting Palestinians, and pointed out that Israel's aggression against the Arab population has escalated.

Hassim also pointed to Israel's system of apartheid imposed on the Palestinian people, along with the blockade and siege of the Gaza Strip, and described for the Court the ways in which Israel incites violence against Palestinians, in direct contravention of the Genocide Convention.

“We, along with representatives of the state of Palestine and human rights, file this lawsuit on behalf of the citizens of Gaza who cannot live in safety,” Hassim told the Court.

Later on in the hearings, South Africa's Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, added that “no armed attack on any territory, however grave its danger (…) can justify violations of the Convention," and accused the Israeli occupation of failing to uphold its obligations under International Law and the Genocide Conventions.

Over the course of two days, the Court will hear South Africa's justifications for filing the case with the ICJ, and will hear Israel's response on Friday.

Several Arab and African nations have also voiced support for South Africa's case of genocide against the Israeli occupation, including Jordan, Turkey, Libya, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Venezuela, Namibia, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), comprising 57 Muslim-majority countries, and the members of the Arab League as well.

More than 200 Professors, academics and experts in International Law, the majority of which being from prestigious universities in the United States, have also endorsed South Africa's case against Israel.

More than 23'000 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, with nearly 60'000 wounded, 70% of whom are women and children, and with another 7'000 or more buried under the rubble.

#source

#graphicsource1

#graphicsource2

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[southeastasianists]

Timor Island might not have been a stepping stone. Many archeologists have theorized that the island, served as a sort of way station for travelers en route to destinations further south and east, like Australia. The island lies southeast of Indonesia and about 450 miles from Australia’s northern coast.

But the sheer number of artifacts — and the fact that many dated to the same time period about 45,000 years ago — instead indicates the island was targeted for colonization, according to a study in Nature Communications.

Signs of Human Settlement

The archeologists focused their effort on a cave named Laili, where they discovered an arrival signature — a drastic contrast in layers of sediment under the cave’s floor.

“Laili had an exceptionally dense layer of initial occupation material with dark organic sediment and hearths and hundreds of stone artifacts overlying sterile cave sediments, which were a pale yellow,” says Sue O’Connor, a professor at Australian National University and an author of the study. “The interface between these two units was strikingly clear.”

Besides indications of what was once a well-trod floor with several fireplaces, they found tens of thousands of stone artifacts.

“We rarely find occupation of this age so intact and well preserved […] not to mention abundant,” says O’Connor. “This is why we think initial occupation colonizing groups were quite big.”

To confirm that the cave settlement was likely the first human occupation on the island, Mike Morley, a professor at Flinders University, in Adelaide, Australia, performed chemical analysis on blocks of sediment from the excavation site as well as from other spots on the island. He found that the sediment beneath the human occupation layer from the cave sample was indeed sterile and lacked any signatures of the human occupation layer.

“This is the first time that we have found such evidence,” says O’Connor. “We have excavated over a dozen sites in Timor, and evidence for human occupation in the sites always extends down to the rocky cave base so we are never sure if we have found the earliest evidence for human arrival – because we have never found sterile sediments lacking human occupation.”

Exploring Colonists

Confirming the colonization time also helps rule out the island as an early jumping-off point to Australia, since there is evidence that humans inhabited that continent before Timor Island. O’Connor suspects early migrants to Australia travelled via New Guinea.

As for the reasons why its first settlers stopped at the island, O’Connor believes that, contrary to some earlier opinions, the inhabitants didn’t randomly stumble upon it. Instead, the colonists likely checked out several nearby islands, since many of them are visible from each other.

“I think it is highly likely that colonists explored the islands that they could see when weather and sea conditions were calm,” O’Connor says. “To that extent I suppose you could say it was ‘intentional’, maybe intentional exploration to check out new resource zones rather than intentional colonization.”

[imomisoplays]

Nasi Goreng

Halo, tombler!

We are moving to a new household! Today we follow Stella, twin sister of Vienna and daughter of Aria and Kiyoshi Ito. Stella lives in a ranch house in Chestnut Ridge with her husband Kylo, daughter Leia and son Soleil (featured in the Ham Ramen post here). Stella's husband is indeed Kylo Ren -- I originally tried to match-make her with the game's Kylo when I played Journey to Batuu but long story short, I ended up just downloading a very handsome-looking Kylo Ren (based on the real-life actor Adam Driver) from the gallery. Let's try to not think about how Stella's babies are genetically Adam Driver's simchildren. 🥴

Anyway, more about Stella: She studied Education in college and is now a professor. Lately I just made her do the bare minimum at work while focusing on her side-gig as a nectar maker (said side-gig earned the family more than $200,000 already, so...). Stella's traits are snob, cheerful, and active -- which sure is a peculiar combination to work with. But since Kylo is also an active sim, the two of them really matched each other well.

The recipe we are trying today came from the country of Indonesia, but is also commonly found in other countries on the Malay archipelago. Nasi goreng (literal meaning: fried rice) is a popular dish enjoyed nation-wide, from a tin plate at a street-food stall, or on a fine china plate in five-star hotels. The recipe we’re making today is made by @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel (click here to download the recipe). You would also need Custom Food Interactions for the recipe to appear in your game. I would like to send @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel an extra gratitude for reposting the original post in her blog. I didn't keep the draft for this post and would lost it if not because of her reblog. 🥺

Regular Saturday morning in the Ren household is everyone gathering on the kitchen, whether helping in cooking or just doing their own thing. By "their own thing", this week they’re addicted to stitching. The BRAT t-shirt Leia is wearing is from the Apple Set by @serenity-cc.

Prepping the protein and the vegetables for the dish. Most Indonesian recipes don't usually includes onion, but garlic and shallot are usually the base for many Indonesian recipes. Matter fact, there is a folktale based on garlic ("bawang putih") and shallot ("bawang merah") which you can read more here.

Since the recipe has spread and evolved during years and years of traveling in-between cultures, I don't think there's strictly any ingredient that made it a 'nasi goreng' – each and every ingredient can be substituted and alternated with other ingredient depending on the cook's taste buds. But as a Javanese person (who tends to have a preference for sweeter food), the three elements essential for a nasi goreng for me are: kecap manis, or the Indonesian sweet soy sauce; terasi or shrimp paste, and a day-old rice or refrigerated rice that has less moisture.

I love this shot of the family just existing together.

First part is to pan-fry each ingredients by itself -- usually it includes the eggs, the protein, and the vegetable.

The use of pan here is sacrilegious (as Uncle Roger would say "Haiyah!") but I understand the limitation of animations. After each ingredient is pan-fried, starts by adding oil, chopped shallots, chopped garlic, and terasi in another pan -- ideally a wok -- and sauté until aromatic. Combine the ingredients you had pan-fried previously, and add kecap manis and sambal. Cook together until the rice is nicely coated and every grain is separated.

I have to give my regards for @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel for doing an amazing work with this recipe because the condiments looks very well-researched! As displayed in the dish above, nasi goreng is commonly served with acar or Indonesian pickled cucumber, kerupuk or crackers (commonly prawn crackers), sunny side-up eggs, and what I assume look like perkedel or mashed potato fritters.

The family enjoyed nasi goreng together. If you remember Vienna’s monochromatic kitchen and dining area, and you see Stella’s house, you understand why I had a whiplash, right?

The dining table has a window that gives unique sunlight that I definitely needs to show in this photo below. We’ll still be cooking another Southeast Asian food with Stella for the next post, so stay tuned and dag dag!

P.S. History of nasi goreng is taken from this Wikipedia page, while detailed recipe are based on my own experience.

Imomiso’s note: This post is originally posted on the now deleted blog. I was able to retrieve this post thanks to @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel reblogging the post on her Tumblr 🤍

[ambuschool]

A Random Post-Conference Dinner

Menurut gue sih terkadang rencana Allah tuh lucu banget dan plot twistt?!!!

Jadi abis closing ceremony conference kemarin tuh, akutuh nungguin salah satu professor dari ANU yang aku admire banget work-nya kan, pengen ngajak ngobrol aja bentar, eh tapi dia lagi ngobrol sama orang lain. Aku tungguin, sampe setengah jam dong?! Terus aku kaya mikir "Yaudalah gausah ngobrol, minggu depan juga lo ke ANU."

Abis gitu aku melipir lah, duduk di kursi yang ada di convention center itu kan. Eh tiba-tiba aku diajakin ngobrol sama orang "So, what do you plan after this?" Dia memulai percakapn, terus gue bilang aja "Gue harus mengerjakan assignment hahaha. Aku masih ada assignment soalnya." Dan akhirnya kita ngobrol2, ternyata beliau tuh dosen di Griffith Uni yang ngajarin tentang Social Determinant of Health. Dan beliau background nya bukan health tapi antropologist, jadi, seru banget diskusinya.

Herannya, abis gitu gue kaya kesirep aja ngomong gini ke dia "Eh lo udah ada plan abis ini? Makan malam bareng, yuk?!" LIKE???!!! HEY AINNA?! GAK SOBER NIH ORANG WKWKW.

Terus yaudah kita naik tram ke arah kampus, karena gue juga ada janjian sama temen disana. Tapi akhirnya kuturun di QVM karena kayanya lebih mudah nyari di daerah city deh daripada di daerah kampus. Dan qadarullah tram stop-nya tuh pas banget depan restaurant indonesia : Kenangan! Akhirnya kuajak aja makan disitu. Mungkin baru jam 6an lah itu.

Ohiya FYI dia ini bapak-bapak, ya. Namanya Mujib, we are 17 years apart. Jadi kaya ngobrol sama mentor (tearssssss)

Terus dia aku pesenin nasi rendang, ku makan bebek goreng. Dan akhirnya kita ngobrol banyak banget tentang dunia akademik. Dan ternyata dia adalah AAS Awardee back in 2013?!!! Karena ada kesamaan jadi makin serulah ceritanya. Apalagi dia tuh originally dari Bangladesh jadi kaya bahas tentang education system LMIC dan sini.

It was a good conversation sampe aku baru pulang dari kenangan jam 9! Aku seneng bgt ngobrol sama beliau karena kubeneran dapet dukungan buat apply PhD dan aku juga bisa curhat-curhat nilaiku yang jelek dan bikin aku gak pede buat ambil PhD. Tapi dia kaya nyemangatin aku, dia lihat akutuh mampu, presentasiku bagus dan dia bilang "Doing PhD is something like working as a project/ program manager." Lol, dia ngomong kaya gitu karena in between kita ngobrol, akutuh sempet 30 minutes meeting sm orang kantor tentang project yg lagi on going, yaitu grant sebesar 100,000 AUD yang akan di-disburse ke 5 NGO di Indonesia.

Pulang-pulang dari restaurant aku tuh kaya masih euforia gitu karena bisa random kenalan sama orang terus berjam-jam ngobrolin topik akademik, dalam bahasa inggris yg bukan bahasa ibu kita berdua?! hahaha. Aku seneng juga karena ternyata aku masih aku yang dulu, yang emang seneng networking sama orang, yang mudah kenalan sama orang.

Ya Allah pokoknya 2 hari conference kemarin tuh superrrrr grateful Alhamdulillah tsumma alhamdulillah. Walau pas ngerjain PPT nya mental burden ampe nangis2, tapi kukuatkan diri dengan bilang ke diri sendiri "Lo bakal lebih menyesal ketika gak melakukan ini Ainna. Ayolah, this one will pass." dan ku submit kayanya seminggu sebelum conference, dan buat script conference-nya cuman h-1. Terus bisa networking sama orang2 yang punya interest yang sama tapi udah lebih dahulu masuk ke field itu rasanya priceless sih.

Ohiya yang ku noted juga dari conference kemarin, academic conference tuh jujur ya mirip banget sama pitching business idea, lol. Cuman lebih rigorous method, aja. Tapi kalau gaya presentasi / pitching ternyata gak harus formal, you can do the engaging way dengan apapun caranya!! OMG ya Allah bismillah2 yaa semoga conferece yang minggu depan di ANU aku bisa lebih baik dan lebih engaging!!!!

Amiin yaa rabbal alamiin!!

PS : credits to kak @asrisgratitudejournal yang alwayss gak pernah lelah dengerin curhatan aku dan nyemangatin aku terussss huhuhuhuhu. Semoga Allah balas selalu kebaikan kak Noni dan Allah lancarkan progress penulisan disertasinyaa!!!