#the problem with most writing advice posts is they try to apply hard rules about what you should and shouldn't do

[accursedthing]

Another post that's bothering me rn is that writing advice post about paragraphs. Long paragraphs are not bad!! It's just a matter of knowing how different styles of paragraph break affect the way your work is read and doing it intentionally to help instead of hinder it. You can say "hit enter every time the camera angle would change" (or however they word it) but in film that's also a style choice?? There's no objectively correct time to do it?? If you just personally don't care for long paragraphs that's fine, you don't have to read them. But your preferences aren't the same thing as objective writing advice. Personally the only useful hard rule that actually comes to mind for me, at least rn, about when to paragraph break is to not put dialogue from two different characters in the same paragraph. Just to avoid confusion. That's it!! Make your paragraphs as long or short as they need to be to serve the work you want to write! And it is most certainly not "incorrect formatting" to write a long paragraph just because some people don't have the attention span for it

[golmac]

Inform Basics: ACTIONS and RULES

Note: this is a longer post than usual, but some of it is debug content that isn't required reading.

I've been promising to talk about debugging for a long time. And, in truth, figuring out disambiguation problems with the TRACE command is debugging. But since you may not have known the term disambiguation a couple of weeks ago, that's probably not what you had in mind.

No, you were probably thinking about some hardcore, silly weirdness in your game, some very hard to pinpoint problem. Today's post is about that kind of thing. We've talked about action processing. The events of a player's turn happen in a set order. We deal with that in the actions we define. The order is, first to last:

Before

Instead

Check

Carry Out

After

Report

Of course, there are things that happen outside of these phases. For instance, if we create an EVERY TURN rule, those fire at the very end of the turn, after report rules have been processed. In the course of play, players don't have a lot of insight into the various machineries of an Inform 7 turn. A lot of it is there just to keep Inform 7 being a thing at runtime, and that doesn't interest us. There's a very complicated mapping of the turn's processes, but I think it would just discourage beginners from trying to write IF at all. So let's not. Most Inform 7 stuff just works, and that's why I like it.

Still, at times there will be a head scratcher. When that happens, we have two tools that can help us figure out what's going on. The first is ACTIONS. Let's say we have a nice, juicy 50,000-word game, and one of our testers gives us a transcript in which "jump" isn't working properly. Instead, the jump command is printing a description of the room. With ACTIONS on (just type "actions" at the command prompt in a test environment), Inform 7 will print the specific actions being attempted and let us know if they succeed or fail.

Under default conditions, with JUMP working as expected, that would look like this:

>actions Actions listing on. >jump [jumping] You jump on the spot. [jumping - succeeded]

The text in brackets is the debug content toggled by ACTIONS. If we've set actions that interfere with jumping.... well, let's look at this code as an example.

Before jumping in the lab: say "Look before you leap!". Instead of jumping: try looking.

OK, so the BEFORE is specific to the lab, but the INSTEAD applies to the entire game world. So we must have forgotten something somewhere. We can use the ACTIONS command to have a look:

>actions Actions listing on. >jump [jumping] Look before you leap!

[(1) looking] lab nice lab.

[(1) looking - succeeded]

[jumping - failed]

This gives us something to chase after! This is a pretty simple example, but ACTIONS is most useful for helping us find problems once we get to a certain level of complexity in our game world. In this example, we can see that jumping "failed" and that looking "succeeded." By "failed," we know the jumping action never completed. Most commonly, that will be caused by an "instead" rule--they stop actions from continuing, right? A control-f on "instead of jumping" is probably in order.

But what if something more devious is at work? What about a case where the ACTIONS command doesn't report anything unusual? The next step is the RULES command, which is a verbose listing of every rule that fires in the course of executing a command. Now, as I said at the start of today's post, a lot of those rules are really none of our business. Their strangeness can be intimidating when reviewing the output in RULES mode. My advice is just not to worry about it. Just like the TRACE command, only a handful is likely relevant to us, so don't pressure yourself to figure it all out.

Though by all means do, if you're curious. Just don't be bothered by it.

So brace yourself, I'm going to print the output. I'm only going to talk about the pink text, so don't worry too much about the rest. I just want you to know what you're looking for.

>rules Rules tracing now switched on. Type "rules off" to switch it off again, or "rules all" to include even rules which do not apply.

[Rule "parse command rule" applies.]

>jump [Rule "declare everything initially unmentioned rule" applies.] [Rule "generate action rule" applies.] [Rule "announce items from multiple object lists rule" applies.] [Rule "set pronouns from items from multiple object lists rule" applies.] [Rule "before stage rule" applies.] [Rule "basic visibility rule" applies.] [Rule "basic accessibility rule" applies.] [Rule "carrying requirements rule" applies.] [Rule "instead stage rule" applies.] [Rule "requested actions require persuasion rule" applies.] [Rule "carry out requested actions rule" applies.] [Rule "descend to specific action-processing rule" applies.] [Rule "work out details of specific action rule" applies.] [Rule "investigate player's awareness before action rule" applies.] [Rule "player aware of his own actions rule" applies.] [Rule "check stage rule" applies.] [Rule "carry out stage rule" applies.] [Rule "carry out jumping" applies.] nice lab.

[Rule "after stage rule" applies.] [Rule "investigate player's awareness after action rule" applies.] [Rule "report stage rule" applies.] [Rule "report jumping rule" applies.] You jump on the spot. [Rule "last specific action-processing rule" applies.]

[Rule "A first turn sequence rule" applies.] [Rule "scene change machinery rule" applies.] [Rule "every turn stage rule" applies.] [Rule "timed events rule" applies.] [Rule "advance time rule" applies.] [Rule "update chronological records rule" applies.] [Rule "A last turn sequence rule" applies.] [Rule "scene change machinery rule" applies.] [Rule "adjust light rule" applies.] [Rule "note object acquisitions rule" applies.] [Rule "notify score changes rule" applies.] [Rule "parse command rule" applies.]

So you'll see in there the text that's been troubling us. That's "nice lab," which is the room description of the lab. We can usually start by looking at the rule immediately above the output. In this case, that's the "carry out jumping" rule. Hm, ok, so let's do a ctrl-f on "carry out jumping." We'll find this:

carry out jumping: print the location's description.

What a strange bit of code! Who knows why we did it. This is why I recommend giving names to particularly experimental or impactful rules. They are printed by names during a RULES debug session. So this code:

carry out jumping (this is the dubious jumping rule): print the location's description.

Will look like this in debug:

[Rule "dubious jumping rule" applies.]

The main thing to take from all of this is this: these tools can help you understand what Inform 7 is doing with a command. Like most debug content, you don't need to understand all of it, you just need to know what you're looking for. Usually, that's going to be some or all of the output that the player is seeing. Hopefully, that information will lead to a productive search of your code. I personally found the output from RULES intimidating; I gave myself permission to only understand what I needed to understand.

OK, next time, some lighter fare. We'll look at other useful commands and features for developers and testers.

[studyof-love-and-life]

Hi! I’m a first year uni student and I was wondering if you could help me out with something? It’s my second week and I’m already having trouble balancing my time. In general, how much time should I spend on each class outside of lectures a week? If it changes things I go to a decently prestigious school

[don’t feel pressured to respond if you don’t want to. I just saw your other advice posts and thought it was worth a shot :)]

Hi lovely! Figuring out time management was hard for me when I started undergrad, too. A general rule of thumb I've heard from professors is that for every credit/hour of class you have per week, you should spend 2-3 hours outside of lectures on that class. So in theory, for a 3 credit class you should spend 6-9 hours on it per week. However, I'd say that that isn't always the case! Sometimes you don't need that much time and sometimes you might need more, and I think that comes down to the class and professor more than the school (not the most helpful answer, I know, and I'm sorry for that)

I'm just going to brainstorm some general ideas below 💕

What are you studying? If you're in STEM, you might find yourself doing a lot of problem sets (my best friend was a math major and she was constantly doing work because each class would assign a certain amount of problems, and each would take a long time to do), and maybe some readings on top of that. She said that something that helped her was working with study groups can help keep you on track, and if you like them then it's even better because then you're hanging out with a friend too. She also set a cutoff time everyday where she would stop doing work so she could have a little time for herself

For me with linguistics, I had a LOT of readings to do for all my classes. Learning how to effectively skim texts and still understand the general point is a valuable skill, and it saves a lot of time! Most professors don't expect you to remember every single detail from readings, they often just want you to understand the argument and the general takeaway so you can apply it to the class (my point with asking what you're studying is that depending on the types of assignments, you might need different tips - even though I'd say my friend's tips can apply to anyone)

On a related note, lots of people take notes while reading. I had so many readings sometimes that I didn't have time for that, so if you're in a similar situation, instead of doing detailed reading notes, try reading your chapter/article, and then take a couple minutes to figure out your top 3 concepts from it that you think are most important and write those down with a quick blurb to refer to and what chapter/article the concept is from

Plan ahead and prioritize what you NEED to get done. Sometimes you won't get to everything, and you can't be too hard on yourself about it (which is easier said than done)

I've not tried this personally but I have some friends who set timers when they have multiple classes to study for. When the timer is up, they switch to the next class so they know they at least spent some time on it (it worked for them, maybe it would work for you! Again, I've not tried it)

As classes move forward and you have essays and projects come up, try to break them down into steps over multiple days/weeks. I've found doing that helps keep me from waiting until the last minute

I live by my planner. I tend to forget things if they're not written down, and it helps keep me organized as well (I write down my assignments in different colors based on what class they're for). I've found that if I can see everything I have to do it helps me prioritize and keep on track. Also it's silly but it really feels like you're getting things done when you get to cross things off, which can be oddly encouraging

Schedule in some time for yourself when you can. Part of balancing time in uni is making sure you're not being over worked. Join a club or make sure you have time to do something you enjoy, or even just time to relax :)

I hope this helps and I'm sorry I couldn't help more! Figuring out how to balance time can be pretty tailored to the individual and the classes being taken, but I hope any of these ideas are helpful! Also feel free to keep asking me things, or DM me if you want! You're going to do WONDERUL and AMAZING things ✨️

I'm also going to tag @peregrination-studies! She is my go-to studyblr buddy for if I need any tips or encouragement or a buddy to talk to 💛 check out her blog too (also hi grace! If you have anything you'd add, feel free but of course no pressure <3)

[lottsoluv]

I used to be a mod on Dangan-Happy

This is going to be a very long post because there’s so much that happened, and I felt the need to expose the truths hidden behind the positivity everyone loves so much. Everything seems so fine and dandy on the surface, so consider this a callout post. Thank you to my friends that helped me create this.

For context:  I was Mod Chiaki, Mod Rantaro, and Mod Shuichi after a friend of mine left the blog. I would always sign my posts with emojis.

I was in a discord server made by the creators of Dangan-Happy before the blog was created. Both creators run another danganronpa blog focused on writing imagines, and I joined their server because I loved their writing and was interested in making new friends, and that I did.

When Dangan-Happy was created back in July and a link was posted in the discord server for mod applications, I applied for Chiaki immediately. I enjoyed her a lot as a character, and I knew I’d be good at emulating how she spoke through writing, and I got to make people happy while doing so. Though, before this, I had never been apart of a blog like this, I just had this blog, one that I’ve muddled in since 2013, so it was a brand new experience for me. 

I was accepted and after a couple of other people who were accepted as mods started joining the monomonomayhem discord server, the two admins created a separate section in the discord server for the mods of Dangan-Happy to communicate, away from the eyes of the fans of their original imagines blog. Everything started out fine, seeing as we barely had any asks coming in, as expected, and I became good friends with a couple of the mods that joined us. 

Around the middle of August was when things started going down hill. I became really good friends with our first Mod Izuru, Beep, and we were discussing our grievances we had with the blog, which wasn’t much honestly, such as how mod applications worked or how some of the asks were behind or just how we didn’t think some of the mods wrote their characters well, and it was all in moderation, we were just having a chat between friends, it was nothing serious and only stayed between us. None of the other mods really had any idea what was going on either, we were all just thrown to the wind.

Then, the two admins came up with a rule that no one was allowed to post asks unless either of them specified that they were ready to be sent, which became sort of a problem, seeing as they weren’t always online. Beep and I were usually the ones, at least in the beginning stages of this blog, who tried our hardest to make sure the asks got done and got posted, outside of the two admins. It felt sort of like a punch to the face, to be quite honest, but there was no animosity held toward the two admins. We still tried our hardest to help out, but the list of mods was growing and our list of asks were growing as well, we became buried underneath the voices of the newer, inexperienced mods.

Beep was a sort of hard person to get along with, and as our list of mods on Dangan-Happy grew, they had a harder time getting along with people or trusting people, so they created a group chat to talk and hang out with the people from the server that they trusted, and this eventually grew into a server, one that was not created by either of us but created by Dangan-Happy’s Mod Akane. Collectively, we agreed that the server that was created was a sort of “safe-haven” for Beep, so we only added people to the server that they trusted. We started a “rebellion” of sorts, because what we wanted was change in the way the blog was run, though we never actually did anything, it was more of a mindset. We never had any hatred toward the admins or any of the other mods.

About a week or two passed and one of the admins, Mod Kaz, updated all the mods on their current irl situation. Beep and I then told Mod Kaz that if they needed any sort of help with the blog, they should ask for it, and that the older mods that have been on the blog longer should be allowed to help more with it, and he agreed, making a new role in our discord server titled “Mid Mod,” who’s individual roles were broke up into specifics, such as “tag checking,” “grammar checking,” “overall checking,” etc. All was fine and going well, and I’ll restate, Beep and I held 0 hatred or animosity for Mod Kaz, we were only concerned for his well-being and the well-being of the blog.

Then, on September 9th, the old Mod Byakuya/Ibuki/Nagito left the blog. That being said, it was well known that Beep was an “unwilling Nagito kinnie,” and they would say all the time that they regretted not taking Nagito when they had the chance. They even covered for Mod Nagito a couple times beforehand. They were working on a Nagito mod application, when a new person joined the server, the new Mod Nagito. This alerted many of us in our little “rebellion” server. At that moment, Beep, the old Mod Miu, Mod Akane, one of the other mods, and I were in a voice chat in that server. We were just hanging out, not really doing anything in particular, when we were just all caught off guard. It hadn’t been even an hour when the mod applications were opened for a new mod Nagito. 

This topic was a hot debate between the admins and the handful of us. We were told the mod applications were “first come, first serve,” which is still just preposterous in my opinion, and that it didn’t matter how well someone was at writing a character. If they submitted the application first, then they were that mod, and no amount of refutation could convince them otherwise. This angered Beep because they were working so hard on the application, and none of it mattered. There is no anger or hatred toward the new Mod Nagito, I personally think they’re pretty good at writing Nagito and I’m glad they were chosen, but the system that the admins had set up showed its true colors. It didn’t care about quality, only quantity and efficiency. 

Beep’s anger was understood by me and the others in the voice chat with them, but that empathy did not carry over to the other mods and admins in the discord server, who decided to start their own group chat discussing whether or not to ask Beep (and I, for some reason) to leave the blog. The reason I, and the others in the voice chat, know about this conversation is because they added Mod Akane to the said group chat. Mod Akane, who was the one who created the “rebellion” server we were voice chatting in. 

At this point, we five: Beep, the old Mod Miu, Mod Akane, one of the other mods, and I, had all agreed that there were systemic flaws in the blog we were apart of, and were all relatively upset with the recent events. It was rage-inducing, watching people we worked with talking about how “mean” our friend was, even though they’ve previously stated publicly in the server and apologized for any sort of misunderstandings. I even re-read all the screenshots that were sent to us by Mod Akane before writing this (October 17th,) and it got me really angry again. During this, I talked privately with Mod Kaz about Beep’s behavior, trying my hardest to smooth things over, and again, I never once came to hate him, even after all this.

Then, finally, Beep left the blog, extremely angry after reading the group chat messages relayed by Mod Akane. Even after all of these events had transpired, the rest of us still wanted to work on the blog because we enjoyed roleplaying as these characters and enjoyed giving people advice and making them happy. Sometimes, working with some of the mods was trying, but that’s just how it is when you have such a large group of people working together. Not everyone is going to get along, some people aren’t going to like some of the others, and it’s not something people can just force. The best thing to do in a scenario such as this, at least this is what I did, is to lay low and just do your job, which I did indeed enjoy doing, despite what some of the other mods might have thought.

In fact, that’s what all 4 four of us agreed to do, just lay low and do our jobs as advice-giving roleplayers. Mod Akane was given an important role in the server, where she would stay on all of our butts about getting our asks done in a timely manner. And, that’s all fine and dandy, but she explicitly stated that she wanted to watch the blog crash and burn (along with the rest of us) after the events that transpired the day before. None of us, aside from Beep, had any sort of actual hatred toward the admins and mods themselves, only what everything was becoming.

We were all fine with this arrangement for the most part. We even, all five of us, created a separate blog, where we could roleplay as characters that we wanted to, and it was quite fun. We were all planning on leaving Dangan-Happy after it got up and running, but it never quite took off. We were all busy with our lives, and subsequently, toward the beginning of this month, October, Mod Akane had a falling out with our friend group. We both made separate servers and invited who we wanted and that should’ve been that, fair enough right?

The very next day, Mod Kaz direct messaged me and told me I was kicked from the blog. The reasoning given was that he didn’t want to work with people that hated him. To quote him: “I'm sorry to say this Tea. I had a great time working with you but due to some unforeseen circumstances and some review of your behavior I must ask you to leave the blog. I'm not going to keep fighting to run a positivity blog with someone that holds so much contempt for me. Leave the blog, I'm not going to argue or budge on this.”

In response, I told him fine. I’ve literally never held any contempt for this man, but he really deeply thinks that I’ve hated him this entire time, no matter how much we bonded over similar interests. That’s the part that bothered me at first, being kicked off a blog I loved writing for over someone thinking I hated them. Then, the bit about “review of your behavior” caught my eye. I told him I had barely said a word in the server purposefully so that I don’t hurt other people with my perceived “negativity.”

Then, I realized the problem might actually lie with the “unforeseen circumstances” portion of their message. A day earlier, there was a falling out between Mod Akane and the rest of my friends. I connected the dots, Mod Akane must’ve told Mod Kaz about everything that happened, about my friends and I getting upset over things happening surrounding the blog. It just makes no sense otherwise. I personally believed I wasn’t a problem at all concerning the blog. I tried my hardest to get my asks done on time and in character. I was good at what I did, and I loved doing what I did. And, I was outcasted, thrown out for seemingly no valid reason.

I’m not asking you to harass people, I’m just trying to explain my side in a way that these mods will see and understand. I’m just angry and confused, and I want a real, genuine answer, because I never hated Mod Kaz ever up until this bullshit. Sure, I was upset at the way things were run, I was upset with some decisions that were made, but I never hated him. And, if Mod Akane told him otherwise, I have the screenshots to prove she did the exact same as me.

This post is far from perfect, I apologize. My friends and I are just very upset and hurt. We put so much time and effort into a blog we cared for, and it turns out it’s all bullshit behind the scenes. A fake environment ruled by a toxic positivity, if you have different opinions in the way things are run, you just get removed. It’s fucked.

[trad-masculine]

I'm dating again.

Which brings a very weird feeling to it, admiting this anonymously to people who follow me for doing a Masculine style thing on a blog. Speaking of I appreciate all of you for being interested in what amounts to one person's thoughts on being a man in the 21st century.

It might be palpable that I'm in an emotionally vulnerable headspace as I write this. Which, yeah, breakup, taking some time to myself to recalibrate, back to dating after over a year in a committed thing; it's emotionally heavy.

A bias to near prejudice, or at least strong dislike approaching disgust of mine is this; I do not like weakness in men. This is a feeling, & the idea of weakness is a felt thing, it's not born of an extensive philosophy, as most of what I think & feel tends to emerge from. This is visceral, the philosophy that it has is post hoc. I'm not sure, then, if this is the truest of beliefs I have, or the most distorted.

Weakness is not emotionality. This is a profound truth for me. As, the men I most respect, I have seen almost to a man, cry & bring forth tears to their eyes over depth of feeling, either of joy, of sorrow, or of compassion. I consider an absence of emotion a form of cowardice. Perhaps the central nature of it. As by my introspection, fear of emotion is what represses all the other emotions. Rolling off of this, I respect people who Know Fear. Being scared is an honorable place to be, if the emotion is appropriate. Cowardice isn't the act of being afraid, but of being only afraid. Having nothing meaningful within you to temper your fear.

I bring this up, because I want to talk about what the social process of dating does to men.

When on a dating app, nearly every guy is a player. Those that aren't are either very confused & naive, or are working something very specific. Player to me isn't a skill or approach, but an innate psychological state, let's call it Player Mode. There is also a psychological state which we can call Commitment Mode.

Spread your seed, or tend it, so to speak.

There is all sorts of powerful brain chemistry involved & the psychological states are deeply embedded in our psyche.

There are two very distinct ways to be a player, however. A Manipulator or a Lover. Possibly a third, I'll call a Sniper.

Before we get deep into that, let's walk through what happens when when you use a dating app, although playing the field at a bar or in the wild works somewhat the same, psychologically.

You start by swiping, liking & messaging girls. Some reply back. Let's say you come across a profile & immediately start crushing on the girl. You get nervous, so your message is shit, she doesn't reply. That's brutal if you think it through, breaking a crush hurts. You have to like/message about say, 50 girls to get a date. Breaking 50 crushes isn't a viable emotional strategy to get to step one of a relationship.

*Thus the emotional train is off the tracks, & for a deep relationship to happen the feeling must be rekindled, after you start to get to know the girl. >She needs to talk you into crushing on her.*

*This* is the central problem of dating. Because of the social process we have currently, men aren't chasing crushes, & so aren't entering a first date in the headspace that builds to true commitment.

The Manipulator is afraid of commitment, & of his own emotions controlling him, so he tells himself that the number of women he can lie to & talk into sleeping with him is the measure of his Masculinity. This is hard to argue with, man to man. The moral analysis isn't worth much. But the analysis that recognizes him & outs him as a coward, that has a better chance of productive impact.

The Lover can be powerfully passionate because his emotions are brought to the fore & made active as he goes into a relationship, as he wants to feel the love, but to balance himself, he lives in the moment. Generally, he doesn't lie or promise commitment. Regardless of the intensity of his feelings, he is still very embedded in the headspace of Player Mode. Since is isn't repressing or managing himself, after a time in a relationship, that player mode returns to the forefront as the honeymoon period ends & he finds himself drawn to a new & exciting Lover.

The Sniper can be of either type as default, but he is also looking for "the one." So he's judging women very directly between what he wants to lay short term, & who might be worth more effort & is worthy of commitment. I think I'd accurately describe myself as a Lover-Sniper.

I tried to not emotionality weight these, or apply judgement to the ideas. I simply want to be concise & analytical so there is clear understanding.

A pure Sniper is rare. The emotional insecurity of not having some form of a relationship is a powerful form of anxiety. There are plenty of guys who are "snipers" because they can't get a relationship. So they are mentally in commitment mode. This is, I think, the source of porn addiction & or simping. I know of guys who are on a high level & who had the self control to turn down offers of sex & relationships until they found someone they considered worthy. I wanted to be this, intuitively as a teen, but gave up the fantasy that I could win the girl of my dreams without having the confidence that comes from experience in realationships & in bed. This can get to a very disturbed & obsessive mindset. Stalkers are pure snipers. But there are other kinds.

*

My advice to someone in that kinda spot, to my past self. It's easy to get good at sex, it's easy to get good at being in a relationship with someone who sees the potential within you. Figuring out how to get girls to the point of willing & then to turn down those girls is useful. If purity of purpose & being is important to you, don't take the first girl who throws herself at you. The regret bites for a long time. But if porn takes you to a place where you aren't getting out & talking to girls, tossing the v card is easily worth it to get your headspace fixed.

*

There isn't a psychological dynamic that is in itself correctly healthy for men regarding approach sexuality, at least in the current dating environment. Chasing Crushes isn't scalable, & that is the root problem.

There's a type of girl who is only looking for "A Long Term Relationship Only." She isn't however, inticing. She doesn't know how to be wanted & desirable. She doesn't offer anything that brings out the crush which a man will need to be in in order to shift into a healthy commitment mode with her. I'm not certain what happens there, but I have to imagine everyone involved feels they are settling, & will hurt for the entirety of the relationship.

*

I'm writing this up as I'm trying to really think through how to solve the dating situation so that it works for more people. So relationships are successful & men & women are happy in them. It's not the most elegant or beautiful or composed thought I've had or published here, but this is deeply important to me.

Love shouldn't suck. We need to collectively figure out how to Make Love Lovely Again.

So, I have an idea I want to pitch, which has been difficult to get across to people I've talked to about this, such that the idea made sense to them. But I really think I'm close to right on this.

*

Women need game. Men have game. Fuck hookup PUA's but the actual technique tools of how to appeal to women are spectacularly useful. Women need to figure out how to appeal to men, not as sexual objects, but as potential relationships. Game for men is about getting laid. Game for women should be about getting men to fall for them & only them.

"Men are responsible for making the relationship, women for keeping it."

*

There's an ancient form of girlgame passed down generations mother to daughter. Just as there was an ancient form of guygame passed down from men to boys. We need to rekindle the dance between the Masculine & feminine in the realm of sexual relationship, dating & play. This fight thing we're all doing sucks.

Like most guys I want to find someone good enough to catch my heart, but I don't want to pretend for lifetime I've found the one when I haven't.

The love of men that isnt born of a crush is slow. The path of a crush is easy to explain, but deep love is a slow thing. I've seen love at first sight, or at least very close to it. But it's from a level of deep being that's so rarely reached mutually by two people who meet such that such a lightning connection can form. But I've also seen a relationship start from a small kernel & grow into a forest.

I firmly believe there's a lot of possible paths to True Love, I've seen several myself, but normative paths of how we find each other as sexual humans make us start in places within ourselves that make reaching True Love impossible, at least without a deep course correction at some latter point.

Those of us looking for that Sacred kind of love in fairy tales, that which we burn for, need to figure out how to survive with outselves long enough to find each other & get there together. Maybe this means breaking the rules of what we thing is "proper" dating.

Honestly, whatever we do, we need to figure this bitch out & work together to get back there. I'm tired of the men VS women game, tired of the fight being the normal way of things.

Hmu if you have some thoughts on how to do this love thing better together, I'll be listening to Hozier & watching Princess Bride. ✌️

[rotationalsymmetry]

Commenting on without reblogging. (Thing is about: communicating about what you’re upset about with your partner or whomever and not making them guess.) (I don’t remember if the original post was partner specific or like...roommates. I’m thinking about partners, but this can apply to roommate conflicts as well, and anyone else you spend enough time with that you’re around each other when you’re not at your best. I’m mostly assuming one on one situations — this can be generalized to larger groups, but with 3 or more people there’s additional dynamics in play and I’m not sure how to comment on that here:)

Yes, and also I think this tends to be harder than a lot of people realize. As in: if just being told you should do that is enough, great. If not...

For those of us who would basically rather die than talk to our parents about our feelings as teens and didn’t have anyone else we could talk to about our feelings to either, it can be really hard to transition into adult relationships of equals and trust that the other person actually cares about our feelings.

For people who have especially extreme or unusual emotional reactions due to mental illness, ADHD, etc, identifying our feelings let alone talking about them can be extra hard.

For many people, figuring out how to say “I’m upset as a result of you doing x” without implying “I think it’s bad that you did x” can be challenging. Especially since a lot of people are primed to automatically hear the first as the second.

This can be even harder if you’re not sure whether you do think that it’s bad that the other person did x or not.

I don’t know what to say about people coming from abusive families, but I’m sure that adds extra layers of difficulty one way or another. Also previous abusive romantic relationships.

Basically we usually learn how to do this stuff by it being modeled to us, and a lot of us didn’t get that modeling. (Or for various reasons, got it modeled but didn’t pick it up. Or our problems and our role models’ problems are different enough that it’s not all that useful.)

Some people find it difficult to form words or say certain kinds of things under stress. This can look like deliberately choosing to stay silent when it’s actually not a choice.

The fight-or-flight stress response makes it harder to use the parts of your brain that control impulses and make rational, thought out decisions. So, knowing what to do when you’re calm and being able to do it when you’re aroused are very different things. Even more so if you’re getting into shut down/dissociation territory. (This is why “take some time apart to calm down” is such common relationship advice.)

Sometimes not only is it hard for B to read A’s feelings, but B might get it wrong. Some people look calm when they’re angry, sound angry when they’re scared, cry when they’re not sad, etc.

Oh, and also some people don’t have close relationships (or healthy close relationships) until relatively late in life, and are making their newbie relationship mistakes much later than most people.

So, what can you do?

Talk about conflicts when you’re not actively in conflict.

Make a plan for how you’re going to deal with intense feelings and/or sustained bad moods ahead of time; know your coping strategies. Let your partner know ahead of time what sorts of things tend to make you feel better or worse.

Look up communication advice (“I feel” statements etc) and either generate some rules of the road together as a couple (/household/polycule/whatever) or make some personal guidelines for yourself. (If you don’t always follow them it happens — this isn’t about whoever messes up first loses the argument, it’s about if you mess up you try to do better next time.)

If you want to keep the relationship, make sure you have a lot more positive interactions than negative ones. Even if there’s big disagreements that need to be talked through, it’s OK to take breaks and have time where you focus on enjoying each other’s company. If you’re in a frame of mind where you can do that.

Likewise, remember to say positive things about your partner etc even when you’re in conflict. “I care about you”, “I want to work through this together”, “thanks for hearing me out”, etc. You do not lose the fight by saying nice things. (Or if you do...maybe your problem isn’t a communication one.)

If either person wants to take a break from a difficult conversation, you take a break.

Think about who else you can talk to about this, or how else you can process the situation. It’s not necessarily a good idea to talk about all your relationship fights with a close family member (or another partner if you’re polyamorous) but often it’s a good idea to talk to someone. So...therapist? Bartender? Hotline volunteer? Random social media “let’s be nice to each other” group? Your dog? Maybe you’d just as soon write in your journal or go for a long walk? Sometimes if you process your feelings first, you end up having a much more constructive talk later on.

Be in process. Learning how to have healthy relationships involves a lot of highly complex and subtle skills. It’s work. It takes time. As with learning to play a musical instrument, you have to do it badly before you can do it well.

What if communication doesn’t help?

Maybe the way you tried it didn’t work or the timing was bad. Give it some time and try again later. (If it’s a big dealbreaker thing or potentially a big dealbreaker thing, get some distance if possible — communication isn’t a substitute for boundaries, and neither is patience or love or forgiveness.)

If there’s a consistent pattern of talking it out not working, or the other person seems to be acting deliberately cruel, this is probably not a good relationship (/living situation) for you. Good communication can’t make another person respect you, it only smooths things over between people who basically like and respect each other.

Couple’s counseling/family counseling is an option in some cases. I recommend only doing this if you basically trust that the other person cares about and respects you and it’s more about getting back to a previously happy relationship than trying to fix a relationship that was broken from the start. In a hostile roommate situation if you can’t move out yet, or if you’re in something that you know is a bad relationship but can’t break up yet, what you want is more boundaries, not better communication. Individual therapy might help with that, but family or couple’s therapy is generally more focused on gaining more closeness and mutual understanding, and less about setting boundaries and getting distance.

Some resources (books unless stated otherwise, authors left out because I’m feeling too lazy to look them all up but I can clarify on request):

Non-violent Communication (the book, but there’s also workshops etc): not everyone’s cup of tea, other people swear by it. It’s set up skills first/explanations second, so I recommend reading the second half first but you do you. If it’s not your thing, that’s OK.

Difficult Conversations

Feeling Good Together: this is a weird ass book, and does not differentiate between healthy relationships and abusive ones, but I’m still recommending it because the “five secrets of effective communication” is actually the communication advice that works best for me in the moment. (The “five secrets” can also be found if you poke around the Feeling Good podcast, which is free.)

Oh, yeah the Feeling Good book and the Feeling Good podcast in general, for people with depression, anxiety, etc. (note: the author/host ...has some very strong opinions, be willing to filter. There’s a ton of practical advice though, so I’m still recommending it.)

The Dance of Anger: short on practical tips, but pretty neat on theory.

Anything about CBT or DBT, or really anything else on emotional management written by therapy people.

I’m especially fond of Taming Your Gremlin on the “learn better coping strategies” front: it’s short, it’s got humor, it’s friendly to people with short attention spans, it does kinda do the “co-opting mindfulness concepts for personal gain” thing but that’s pretty hard to avoid these days, sigh.

Bouncing Back (about resilience and healing from trauma, science based but written for people who aren’t science people)

Burnout (about stress, ditto on the science thing, aimed at women, 10/10 recommend)

The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook (why so much about stress? Because dealing with “stress” is also dealing with fear and anger and hurt and resentment and frustration, that’s why. And because we all know that “stress is bad” and we’re supposed to do something about it, but most people think that means just avoiding stressful situations and WRONG.) (If you just read one, pick Burnout. But, the Workbook has a chapter on anger management so I’m including it for that if nothing else.)

How To ADHD YouTube videos, for people with ADHD and those who love them.

[ithinkthingsaboutstuff]

Well I am bored and can’t get back to sleep. So it’s time for a supergirl s5 rant no one asked for.

Now every season has its issues and there were some outside “issues” this season (COVID-19 and Melissa being pregnant) so I will keep that in mind.

That being said.

This season had problems from the word jump. This was for a few reasons.

1- The plot was all over the place

And I don’t mean, ‘oh there was not enough of [blank character] so it was bad.’ No, I mean it was literally jumping between to many elements. Like what was this season about really?

Was it about a new tech environment taking over people’s lives? Was it about an ancient occult power coming out of the shadows to “take” the earth? Was it about adjusting to a post crisis world? Was it about the Luther siblings joining forces to achieve common goal and brainy is a secret inside man?

Now I understand that most tv shows have multiple plot points to follow that’s normal and expected. However, you need to have them meet up in away that is rewarding to the viewer and makes sense for the story that you are trying to tell. And there is an old writing trick called “one step at a time” Basically it boils down to, The audience will only believe one thing at a time.

Eg. You tell the audience this character can only do something in a certain way, (like the sups and the yellow sun,) but then you say that actually never mind this is another way to do it,(like Kara can keep her speed and only her speed under a red sun). This is bad writing as there is no set up or pay off and you cheated your audience by just changing the rules you made for no reason. (Think that kid on the playground that does that “unbeatable force field” thing in a game of tag.)

This can also apply to story concepts this is called a “conflicting narrative” in season 5 this apples to leviathan.

At the start of the season (ep 1 -8) we are told that they are ancient and magical based villains, all good. 

and their big plan is to therefor, of course  *checks notes* to use advice sci fi tech to achieve their goals and do something? with the people inside, yeah that makes sense what else would they use? Magic? that thing the super family is vulnerable to? Nah.....sarcastic’s aside, if you establish one thing you can’t turn in round with no explanation. 

They actually have a good example of this concept working in this season, in ep 10 with Brainy and his changing physical appearance. 

It was set up in the ep early on that our brainy was ‘off’ compared to the other Brainy’s, we get an explanation in the bar scene with the Rath siblings and then it is built upon with a Kara and Brainy scene, then after a build up and a reason (a character based one I might add) it is then and only then that it gets revealed and guess what.... that is hands down the best ep of the season. 

I literally have re-watched that ep so many times cause it’s that good. It is great self contained episodes and builds on per established character moments and plot points (brainy’s character inconsistency and the crisis plot aftermath) it’s the gold standard of what I’m talking about.

it sets up and pays off what it is trying to do and give character base reason for the story. 

But the season as a whole don’t do this effectively because 

2- They focus on making the plot the compliment characters, and not the characters complimenting the plot.   

the blanket term for this is, this is called “build up and release” this is used to drag out tension effectively. there are 2 ways to do this but basically 

1- answer one thing, then that answer leads to another question     

2- give partial answers through out a space of time, to keep attention but not make it the only focus of any given moment.

but anyway,

season 5 has this issue where they bring up a point then either don’t carry it through or don’t ‘step it out’ in a way that leads well to the story.

remember what i said about accepting one thing at a time? now let me ask.

If Leviathan is secret why did they reveal themselves now?

I don’t know and guess what, I don’t care, because the show didn’t care either. they never set up why they came out of the shadows or why that even mattered? so why would anyone care outside of “season’s bad guys”. 

you know what this season did care about the Luther siblings. there is nothing wrong with that per say, I just don’t see why they needed Leviathan if they didn’t actually want to develop them in anyway. If the post crisis season was just about taking down the Luther’s then fine nothing wrong with that.

but here is why they NEEDED the Leviathan ‘plot’ (and i use that loosely) is that they needed it to justify Lena working with Lex and not have her come off as “too evil” that way she can say

“i’m only working with you because I want to get rid of Leviathan” 

instead of 

“i’m working with you because i have the same motives as you”

which would not play well in her “redemption” (and i use that term even looser) they kept an aspect to the story purely to complaint a character they wanted a particular outcome, so they kept a plot element around regardless of how well it actually worked with the story.    

and then there’s the bitch himself LEX (John did a great job tho tbh)

he is the biggest example of ‘plot fitting character’, Lex didn’t fail ONCE the whole season, no problems or surprises and it was “oh so easy for him” like that is just frustrating for everyone, i’m not saying “the hero’s should win all the time” No, but the villains need to earn their wins to. here is why that is an issue if you make it to easy.  

1- the audience wants to see every character have their problems with achieving their goals and how they go about solving the problems as it is and hear me out...entertaining   

2-  when a character always has things “go to plan” it feels super forced, the Human error, is built into us (the audience) as people, so to see it not come into play at all, at any point, feels fake as we all know life don’t work that way for anyone. especially if there are people actively trying to stop you. 

overall you shouldn’t force a plot to fit a character, you should write a character to fit the plot their in (or in other words have them adapted to new situations they don’t even have to do it well) 

Ironically a good example of this in s5 was William

they built up that he was a journalist and that he was hiding something, fast froward and it turned out that he was trying to uncover Leviathan (unknowingly to him) and not apart of them. 

this is a good way for a character to compliment the plot. 

they said here is a new journalist and he doesn’t even know the depths of what he is looking into and that’s a smart move.      

i’m just going to leave this clip here...

this tied in character and plot really well it exampled character and now after this scene they can shift his behaviour and have a reason for it. not just ‘oh actually he was never a jerk and he is nice now’. no it was “he is trying to achieve a goal using this method and now he has been exposed”. This gives a plot based obstacle and character reaction (that failed to work) and it works actually quiet well for a network conspiracy plot.

character completing plot.

and finally 

3- Rushed endings  

now this one is actually treaty to talk about, cause of well the COVID- 19 problems so i can’t be to judgemental about it cause that is a dick move. And on top of that the lead actress (of an action show) was pageant so they had to use he a little less (in fight scenes anyway) so again I’m not going to be a dick about it, and you know i don’t want anyone being forced to work during a pandemic if its not at all necessary. So, i will keep this brief.      

There are still things that fell flat due to being to rushed.

1- the tech/ VR take down.

It was built up for at least 10 eps and they took it down in 5 mins with a pep talk from Kara, like um ok that was easy i guess, don’t know why y’all were worried if you could fix it in an afternoon. this is not a bad plot line in theory, but it was given to much attention for the solution it was given. 

2- Leviathan lady (don’t know and don’t care what her name is) being a robot alien thing.

this one is not too bad? but it was shown way to late in the game and again they didn’t focus enough on Leviathan for this to be of any real audience value outside of a surprise/ shock value. So why should i care now? they barely did anything interesting this season but then you give me something cool 2 mins after it doesn’t matter anymore (with the others bottled). why was this not done earlier in the season? but anyway.   

3- Lena’s “redemption”  

I could write a whole separate rant about this, but for time and my sanity i won’t. but basically, my main issue is that the whole season Lena was spiralling downward and doing worse and worse things to people, and that’s fine from a story pov, but after at least 15 to 17 eps of this and countless bad decisions and judgements she dose ONE good thing and, well that’s all your needed to do, all is forgiven.

now i am all for redemption arcs but one of the main words there is ARC!!!

there needs to be a reflection, apologies, rejections and making mistakes and then truly changing for the better, and still making mistakes!!

it was disgustingly quick and it honestly made me a little uncomfortable. I want to see people grow and learn but people have to earn their own way there. and another thing redemption is not something another person should be reasonable for giving you. (*cough* Kara *cough*)  redemption is something you give yourself through hard choices, personal loses and hard work. and guess what you can do all that and still NEVER get back what you messed up, that was real change and growth is as, 

redemption, real redemption         

comes in the moments when you don’t benefit from it, Lena loses nothing in helping Kara in the end and gains everything she throw away in a minute flat. So, yeah i think it was rushed in a way that made my jaw drop in disbelief because of how badly rushed it was. 

But getting out of that head space.

I like trying to end on a positive note the only part of the ending that was not rushed was Brainy’s bottling of Leviathan, 

it was set up as a thing that be could do (ep 10),it was a hard choice to make (as it was going to kill him) and was given time to feel the full weight of the choice, the Rath sibling hand hold, then Lex taunting him and taking the bottle, and then Brainy being left there alone, Then a bit of hope with Nia’s vision. it was the best part of the ending this season and i want to see more.  that is how you don’t rush an ending let the audience feel the consequences for the character choices with the character.   

anyway season 5 rant over.

[ofasleepvisits]

Nobody Wants to Read Me Write About Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t

After reading Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t by Stephen Pressfield, I can give myself credit for doing a decent job of storytelling in my verbal life--with my family, at work--but of course there’s always room for improvement.

But I don’t think I do storytelling well enough at all in my writing, so I should probably apply some of his principles. This book isn’t exactly a simple to use how-to guide though. It’s more of a series of short, loosely-related riffs on Pressfield’s opinions on writing and storytelling. So I’m typing up my notes and going to see what I can make of them.

Overall message of the book:

It isn’t that people are mean or cruel. They’re just busy. Nobody wants to read your shit.

Reminds me of a story Walter Williams tells about meeting one of his heroes. Williams tells his hero, his wife likes to assume most people will like her, this maximizes her potential friends but also maximizes the chances of getting hurt. While he prefers to assume most people dislike him, this minimizes his chances of getting hurt, but also minimizes his amount of friends. So who’s right? His hero responded with, did it ever occur to you that most people don’t give a damn?

How do you deal with the fact that nobody wants to read your shit? Do these 3 things:

Be clear and concise. Pare you writing down to its most digestible form. 

Be fun or sexy or mischievous or interesting or original. The whole, “be so good they can’t ignore” you advice.

Apply this to everything. And I really think Pressfield means everything.

Those 3 rules are pretty good. How do I apply them? With every paragraph, sentence or word, you must be constantly asking yourself if you are giving the reader enough. I don’t do this and it sounds exhausting and is probably why I am not yet a professional writer.

Every project needs a concept. What’s the concept of this blog? Man feels compelled to write so he puts himself on a twice per week posting schedule and writes about things he is interested in that aren’t important but in reality are quite important.

Here was a good line:

it ain’t stealing if you put a spin on it

And here it gets circular. This quote reminds me of things David Perell talks about with imposter syndrome. Where everyone is an imposter so no one is an imposter. Creators have the duty to stand on the shoulders of giants and build on what is already built. And I searched Twitter to find the clip but didn’t find what I was looking for but found Perell posted a transcribed excerpt from his interview with Seth Godin. And Seth Godin references Steve Pressfield as a pioneer here.

He lists 3 situations that produce bad ideas:

trying too hard

being too formulaic

panicking 

Interestingly enough reading the rest of the book, I think you need to do all 3 of these things to succeed as well.

If something is not working, don’t look for the solution, but rather look for the problem. OK, I’m listening.

The theme is what it’s about, you need the theme to understand the problem. Knowing what your story is about give you the key to every scene and chapter. What’s the theme of this blog? Is this different than the concept? 

Then there’s this:

We discover who we are by what we say and what we do. We uncover our nature through action.

What’s my nature? I’m afraid to put it into words I think.

There’s talk of soul, of Jung and the collective unconscious, of Joseph Cambpell and myths and legends. I should reread 12 Rules for Life. Or rewatch that Guy Ritchie Joe Rogan clip. Or maybe I should actually read Jung and Joseph Campbell.

Pressfield offers the hero’s journey as an important template...

home

call to action

reject call

meet mentor, accept call

enter special world

meet villain

confront villain, win treasure

try to exit special world and go home

pursued by villain, defeat villain

return home with treasure a changed man

...and cautions stories that veer too far from it will feel slightly off to the audience.

There needs to be an inciting incident in act one (climax needs to be embedded into it somehow). The villain owns act two. I guess act three is the climax?

Start at the end. Begin with the climax, then work backward to the beginning.

Raise the stakes, get your characters in jeopardy, stakes and jeopardy work in tandem.

Pressfield likes to use all caps:

EVERY CHARACTER MUST REPRESENT SOMETHING GREATER THAN HIMSELF

Hero can’t be passive in the climax. Hero can’t be saved. Hero must do the saving.

Stories work for corporate presentations too, organize it like its fiction. Write non-fiction like fiction with act one, act two, act three. I do this to an extent but could stand to do better.

Narrative device--who tells the story, how they tell it, who do they tell it to--get it right and everything falls into place. Need to be on theme. Concept, theme, narrative device. OK. 

To make the protagonist a star, make the theme and concept a star.

Fiction is truer than truth, write what you don’t know. I don’t know how this fits into the rest of the advice.

Some other tips:

when we think in blocks of time, we acquire patience

Yep, love it, makes sense.

Thinking in multiple drafts takes the pressure off

Agree. Already do that. So I do one thing right.

No one wants to watch you stroke your own ego. No one wants to listen to your cries for attention. Because it’s boring to us.

Make it beautiful. Make it fun and sexy and interesting and I’ll buy it. I’ll wear it. I’ll tell my friends about it. Your book, your poem, your movie can even be despairing, as long as it’s profoundly conceived and takes my understanding of life a little bit deeper.

[charlotteweekly]

Hire Me.

Have you ever noticed how untrue a resume or cover letter can be? Smile if you never lied on your resume or cover letter! Who looks happy now, huh?

Why do we do that? Why can’t we stay true to ourselves? Why do we need to obey the rules and be the person someone else wants us to be? Why do we need to comply and to abide by the rules to get a job? Isn’t someone hiring you because you stand out? So why are they all looking for the same clichéd skills?

I feel employers have really high expectations regarding future team members. I totally understand their motives though. I would also want the best candidates for my company.

But when I read a job offer, I go from being enthusiastic to feeling like shit and to not applying. I get the impression they’re looking for at least two different people, but they can only afford one of them.

I’m not even mentioning this computer program that scans your resume and save your profile only if you have keywords listed in the job posting. Quite skeptic about this one! Top Resume offered me to run my resume through this ATS scan and what stood out were my motion design skills, which I barely have. My resume title is “Video Producer” and it wasn’t even mentioned. It’s not trustworthy at all! I wonder how many times my resume has been rejected even before someone read it because the layout didn’t match a computer program.  

I find it hard to meet the requirements there are in my profession. So what do I do? Do I tell myself I’m not good enough and give up? No I don’t, instead, I lie. But, once I will have sold my soul, will I be able to live up to the expectations?

To all the employers out there, wouldn’t you like to hear the truth for once?Wouldn’t you like to interview a candidate who might not fulfill your every dream but who’s honest?

So I had this idea to write a real cover letter.

I realize it might not be the perfect time to criticize the job market but why not? I know we all do our best considering the circumstances but I’m on the market and I wonder all these questions so I bet I’m not the only one.

I gathered some common skills I found in job advertisements I applied for and answered each one truthfully.

So here it goes,

Dear X team,

I am reaching out because I just read your job description for X on LinkedIn and I felt very excited and highly qualified for the position!

Also, let’s not kid ourselves I need the money.

I might not be your ideal match for the job (you have really high expectations, which I understand. I am a perfectionist myself and I’m not saying that to brag. Actually, quite the contrary, it can really slow me down sometimes) but I will work my ass off because I like winning and I’m a bad loser. If you’re worth it, I won’t let you down; I’m a very loyal person (my astrological sign is cancer just so you know who you’re dealing with).

You’re looking for someone with good communication skills. What does that mean? I always feel it’s a big deal, but really, if I can speak clearly and simply is that okay?

As far as being a team player, I’m used to it since I’ve worked on numerous short films and dealt with many departments. I’m not really a people person though. Assholes are everywhere but I’ll never engage in office gossips and I will always be respectful of everyone’s work. I thought it was worth mentioning. I’m quite an introvert but once you get to know me I’m really fun.

As a video producer, I work well in a fast-paced environment but I would love not to make a burnout. If it is so fast-paced, I suggest we do some planning and “to do lists” otherwise I might get completely stressed out.

I am a very organized person. I need to get things done ahead of schedule. That being said, that statement only works when I have a deadline otherwise my procrastination monkey (ref. Tim Urban) might take the lead.

You need a problem-solver. Well, I can tell you from experience that when you erase the entire content of a SD card, believe me, it’s the kind of mistake that lead you to the very resourceful person inside of you.

Your place seems really cool and all and I would really love to impress you by knowing a lot about your business and your work culture but I can’t really tell since I’ve never been to your offices. Maybe you could invite me over for an interview so I can make a better idea for myself and see if I can fit!

Thank you for taking the time to read my verbal diarrheoa. I hope it will catch your attention even in a bad way.

Best,

Charlotte

My article is supposed to be humorous. I don’t say every job have the same requirements. It is mostly referring to video producing jobs and only from a hundred of ads I have read and applied for.  

I wanted to write that article because it is overwhelming trying to fit into the mold and to follow all the rules society expects you to follow. You’re not alone so don’t give up!

Most importantly, do something you love! Regardless if you succeed or not, at least, you’ll be happy.

P.S.: If someone needs help to write a cover letter, for your sake and the one of your future employer, I suggest you seek advice elsewhere.

Cheers, my friends! 

Note on the picture: Me and 6 words that honestly describe me. But can you really tell who you’re dealing with from some social media pictures and a few words on a resume? I’ll leave you to that... 

[darkpoisonouslove]

I retaliate/reward you with writer asks 2, 3, 4, 12, 22, 24, 36, 37, 39 and 42 ;D

Sounds good to me. XD

Okay, let's break these down. (I've crammed things that should be separated in different paragraphs in the same paragraph because of the structure of the ask. I just think it is easier to navigate it that way even if more paragraphs would make more sense. That way every opinion is constricted in one paragraph and you can tell which point it refers to easier. (At least imo.))

(I can't put a read more link rn as I'm on mobile. Sorry.)

2. Don't use adverbs

I cannot begin to describe to you how much I LOATHE this. It is, by far, some of the stupidest writing advice I have ever read. No, I don't care Stephen King supports this. Stephen King writes mostly horror and in horror you need to maintain suspense so short and to the point is definitely better and cutting adverbs is certainly a way to do that. However, I don't think this applies to all writing. I think this isn't really a genre thing as much as it is a specific case by case thing. And in most instances I think this advice is bullshit. Think about it. Language was created to allow us to express ourselves. Cut all adverbs out of it and that narrows down your way to express yourself. It's kinda like "Oh, hey, my leading hand serves more purpose. I should probably cut off the other one because it's not that effective." Congrats, you just crippled yourself. It's the same with language. Why would you deny yourself the help of an entire group of "tools" to express yourself? I just don't understand it. I suppose you've seen the posts going around about "good" and "bad" adverbs so I won't go into that as I agree that an adverb is a good idea when it adds some meaning to the word that wasn't there before (eg. "cried happily"). Sometimes it can actually make things faster to just "tell" them rather than show them through the context. I think adverbs are as neat as any other part of language and deserve their place in writing.

3. Write what you know

Yes, you should know what the hell you're writing about. Whether it was something that you were familiar with before you started writing or you did your research on the matter. I might be a little biased on this because I kinda hate doing research so I can be swayed towards write only what you are completely familiar with but that would just make things boring. So I think you can write about stuff that isn't quite your area of expertise as long as you put the effort to research it to the proper level depending on what you need it for. If it's more of a mention, you don't need that much knowledge about it but if you intend to make it the subject of your writing, please make sure you understand what you're going to be talking about in the entirety of your story. I am begging you because when you don't, we end up with stuff like 50 Shades of Grey (and I'm not just talking about the sex parts since this book is full of poorly researched stuff that, shockingly, ends up being unbelievable at best, potentially harmful at worst). However, I think that applies to a greater degree to published fiction rather than to fanfiction but let's not get into that debate since it's a completely different topic and I already veered off course.

4. Avoid repetition

This I mostly agree with but it depends on the purpose of the repetition. If it is done in order to establish a theme or motif or to emphasize a point (without overdoing it, of course), I fully support it. (I do that a lot in my personal writing and it shouldn't be that hard to find examples of it when looking at my fics ("What Is the One Thing That Can Never Break?" is the best example of this but I have done it countless times in most of my fics if not all of them since this is one of my fave techniques).) However, there is a thin line between establishing a theme and making dead herrings aka something that is brought up repeatedly without any point to it other than boosting the word count since it doesn't lead to anything and it was already discussed at a prior point (which I might have done a few times myself in some of my longest fics). If you're bringing another angle to an issue you've already looked at or are furthering the point, you should be fine but this is indeed a thin line to tread so it demands a bit of caution. I do believe repetition can be a valuable technique in specific circumstances, though, so it all depends on how it is used.

12 is already answered here

22. Do not use semicolons

My personal opinion on this isn't very applicable to anything else because I am not really quite sure how to properly use semicolons so I avoid them. I also don't really like them in other people's writings. I'm sure they have their uses but I think a lot of authors also overuse them to make those horrendously long sentences that I hate (but have started becoming guilty of as well even though I think that if you can't remember how the sentence started at the end of it, it is too long and needs to be split in some way). It is why I haven't bothered to learn how to operate them. XD But I think that my point about adverbs should be applied here as well. It is another tool you can use and I am sure it can be helpful. So I am not necessarily against it and wouldn't tell someone to stop using them. Only, maybe try using full stops as well? And I'll try to do the same because, like I said, I have started becoming guilty of paragraph long sentences as well. (Just to be clear, sometimes longer sentences are okay. But not when literally every sentence is over 150 words. You need to break them down, spice it up with shorter sentences thrown in the mix.) Also, I think this is an instance of the trap of "bigger is better" for a lot of writers except that here it is "longer is better". It really isn't. And I can tell you why. My scenes have started getting thousands of words long and if I were to write novel, I could hit 50k words with about ten scenes. Most novels are up to 120k words total. Those would be 24 scenes in my numbers but don't you feel like a novel will need more than 24 scenes? Consice writing is definitely a good idea and it is much harder to cut things rather than to add (at least for me). Fanfiction gives more room with the word count but I still think that it is important to be able to convey your point in as little words as possible. (Btw, this is a tangent but long sentences and semicolons appear a lot in academic writing and I hate it even more there because it makes it more incomprehensible than it needs to be (and in a lot of cases it already is written to be as incomprehensible as possible). Just... start another sentence, I am begging you. This one already is a page long, for the love of everything in the world.)

24. Don't edit as you write

A complicated one. Mostly because I have done this. I used to do it a few years back. I (mostly) don't do it anymore. I might stop to edit a typo or change a sentence that just doesn't read right but nothing bigger than that. And you should, arguably, not do that either. Why? Because you may end up deleting the entire paragraph, page, chapter and all that perfecting will have been for naught. It has happened to me when I spent a ton of time perfecting the first chapters of several of my works and some of them I will never finish while others actually need to start from a different point in time so the whole chapter needs to go. Along with all of my efforts. I would say this is mostly for longer and chaptered projects since the structure of a one shot (depending on the length) is easier to figure out and you probably won't need to rearrange parts of it. And if something is really poking your eyes out, you can fix it real quick. But once you have the whole thing, it will be easier to see what needs to stay, what needs to go and what needs to be changed. Sometimes the temptation is hard to resist and it's fine if you give in as long as you're doing it with the knowledge that "yes, this may be all for nothing but I can't look at it like that for another second". Sometimes I would say that you need to go back and see where everything derailed if you can't move on. There was good advice that if you're stuck, the problem is probably a few paragraphs before the point where you hit a wall and it has helped me get over a block a time or two. However, if you can move on without touching anything, you probably should. That can also save you from deleting something that is actually good. I have felt like the whole thing I was writing was terrible but holding back from deleting or even altering anything and, instead, giving it some time to breathe has saved a few fics along the way from being completely butchered. So I think this is, generally, good advice because of the reasons I listed but just like any other rule, it can be bent and broken. (I would say fixing typos is a form of bending it which I allow myself all the time. Spelling is just really important to me.)

36. Never use a verb other than 'said' to tag dialogue

I hate this specific phrasing of it a lot. Never start any rule with never. Of course, you need to use other verbs as well since they were created to express the wide range in which a person may speak their chosen words. My problem with this is the reason that is usually given for it and that is that it distracts the reader. It has never distracted ME. Not a single time. And while I agree that using said most of the time works since people usually speak in a calm, even, steady manner which to describe as simply "said" works well enough, I think that other dialogue tags have their places too. Because people don't always say things. Sometimes they scream them, sometimes they whisper them, sometimes they hiss them, sometimes they snap and so on. Here I think a better phrasing would be to use Syndrome's lesson again that "when everyone is super, no one will be". Dialogue tags different from said are supposed to direct your attention to the change in tone. They're supposed to stand out. If everything stands out, nothing will. (This philosophy is so applicable to so many things and I think we have to take a minute to appreciate how valuable the lesson of "The Incredibles" is.) So as with every other writing tool, if used accordingly, dialogue tags (all of them, not just "said") can only be of help and will not hinder you in any way. Just don't put more frosting on the cake than there is cake, you know?

37. Do not start a sentence with a conjunction

FUCK THIS RULE so much. This one you have to keep to only in academic writing. The moment you step through the threshold of creative writing this rule should be crushed under your soles. I often start sentences with "and" or "but" because I am looking to emphasize whether this sentence agrees with the previous one or not. Think about it. When you say "I liked him. But I didn't trust him.", it reads very different from "I liked him but I didn't trust him.". It focuses your attention on that contrast and makes you pay more attention to the objection to the first sentence that comes in the second. That can be incredibly valuable and help emphasize what you're saying in a more subtle way than repetition would. This is one of my favorite techniques of focusing the attention on where I want it to be and I will never give it up. Sue me if you want. And see if I care.

39. If there's a story you want to read but it hasn't been written yet, you must write it

Must is too strong a verb. You are not obliged to write anything. I couldn't possibly write everything I want to see written in a single lifetime. Calm down there. I think what people need to understand here is more that "if you want the story done the exact way that you would do it, you will have to do it yourself because no one else will do it the very same way". Doesn't mean that someone can't come close enough (I had that luck once) but it is unlikely that they'll do it in a way that you won't have any complaints about. So, really, "if you want something done right, do it yourself". But this can also mean "you have something fresh that the world needs because no one else has done it yet" (or at least not the same way you would do it). Which is cool but you really don't owe anyone anything. If that story is what you want to read and write (emphasis on that because writing is hard and takes a lot of energy, guys), then great! Go right ahead. But if you don't feel like doing that, you can leave it alone. Someone else might do it in time but with that we loop back to my previous point. I think that you should write whatever you want to write whether no one has written it before or it has been done hundreds and thousands of times.

42. Write your first draft by hand

Very mixed feelings here. I used to do that. The main reason for that is that I didn't trust myself to edit quite as sufficiently if I wrote it directly in a document as I would if I had to transcribe it from paper to the computer. For me personally, it is easier to change sentences when there is only blank space after that sentence since I don't have to worry whether the next sentence I have will still make sense once I'm done rewriting the current one. It was just easier to change things. A way to deal with that is to just press enter a few times before you start editing the sentence so that it looks like there is nothing after it and you're free to change it as you please. However, writing directly in a document is definitely faster and since I was having a lot of things to do in a limited time, I started doing that. It helped get over the fear of a blank page to a degree. It is faster. And I don't think I have noticed a change in the quality of my fics. Not a negative one at least. I just know that if I had had to write the 10k+-word ones by hand before typing them on the computer, I would've lost it. It would've taken way more time and patience than I was willing to give these ideas. Writing the words by hand sometimes helps me feel them better, though, (if that makes sense) and I wouldn't completely give up on it. I like to go with my intuition when deciding whether to write it by hand or type it directly in a document and it has worked out well enough for me so far.

[informationsworld]

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Personal Injury Lawyers in Atlanta, Georgia

We have to also prove the subsequent:

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We should gather all evidence to prove how the slip and fall was caused by a dangerous condition that has been known by the owner from the property. Here, we attempt to prove that:

•The dog owner of your property came up with the condition.

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•Commercial Property

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Here, landlords are accountable for any slip and fall injuries reported by tenants or any other third parties in the property. Like a tenant, we can help you prove that this landlord had control over the circumstance resulting in the slip and fall. We can also prove that repairing the problem will not have been difficult or expensive and failure from the landlord to do so caused the injury.

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•Don’t Give Statements – You have to remain calm right after the accident and get away from talking with your property owner. Avoid posting information on the accident on social media. Also, you should not offer a statement to the insurer except if you have spoken to a attorney. Don’t take any blame for the accident or position it on other people.

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[myownsuperintendent]

New Fic: “Take Me to Your Leader” (Part One)

It's 2037, and Leslie Knope has just been sworn in as President of the United States, only to find her inaugural address followed by an alien invasion.  For help, she and Ben call on two experts--retired FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully--and the four team up to defeat the alien threat.  Parks and Recreation/The X-Files crossover, rated T.  Also here at Ao3.

This is my first crossover, my first Parks and Recreation fic, and one of my longest fics ever, and it’s been a lot of fun to write!  Tons of thanks to @emilysim for giving me the idea to focus on the colonization--you are the best and pushed me to actually write this.  Also tagging @how-i-met-your-mulder and @xv12 who have been very supportive of this story.

I’m splitting this into two posts because it’s long.  Part Two is here.

.....

“If they brief you on the aliens,” Ben had said to her, yesterday, “you have to tell me everything.  You can’t keep that kind of thing confidential.”

And she had thought he was joking.  Well, not joking about her having to tell him everything (Leslie knew Ben—he wouldn’t take kindly to being left out of anything even mildly science fictional), but joking about the part where they’d brief her on the aliens in the first place. She had some notes in place, of course, for what to do about intergalactic relations if the issue arose, but she hardly thought she’d need to get them out at this stage.  She’d have enough to deal with, in her first term, just on this planet.

That was what she had thought, yesterday.

It was probably what she would have thought this morning, too, if she had been thinking about aliens.  Which she hadn’t been.  She’d been thinking about her inauguration, about her address, about who would be there, about what this meant for her.

And that part had all gone well.  At least Leslie thought so.  It was hard to remember now.  She thought she remembered taking the oath of office, Ben beaming at her with pride, her own feelings to match.  She thought she remembered her speech, making all the points she’d worked over.  She thought she remembered Lady Gaga singing the national anthem.

She knew she remembered the ship.

The ship was probably what everyone else would remember too, which was annoying (okay, there were aspects of this situation that were far worse than annoying, but Leslie thought she had the right to feel at least a little irritated, on this day of all days).  You could put hours of work and care into preparing a good inaugural address, into paring down your points so that you didn’t end up pulling a William Henry Harrison, and the whole thing could be overshadowed in minutes by just one alien spaceship.  No, annoying didn’t begin to cover it.

It had started out…well, strange.  Not what Leslie would have expected, if she’d been expecting aliens.  (She’d asked Ben, on their way back to the White House, if he thought it was weird too—he certainly had more expertise in this topic—and, after citing three books and two movies, he concluded that it was, indeed, weird.)  The aliens were gray, first of all, not green like everyone said they were, although Ben didn’t think that part was especially weird, so maybe it wasn’t.  But then they had stepped from the ship and spoken.  “Earth dwellers of 2012!”

People were been staring, open mouthed.  Some screams, she didn’t know from whom.  But she thought that, as president, it was incumbent on her to do something in this situation.  “Actually,” she said, “it’s 2037.”

The head alien—well, she guessed it was the head alien, it was the one who had spoken—turned and stared at her.  It was an unnerving sensation.  “What?” it said.

“It’s 2037,” Leslie said.  “Not 2012.”

“What?”

“It’s 2037,” Leslie said.  She pointed upwards, to where the words Presidential Inauguration 2037 were projected against the sky.  “See?”

The alien looked up at where she was pointing.  “You’re kidding me,” it said.  “Shit.”  It turned its head and looked into the ship.  “You were supposed to be setting our flying speed so that we’d get here in 2012!” it shouted.  “Mind telling me what the problem was?”

An additional alien appeared from the ship at that point, rubbing its head with long fingers and explaining that none of this was an exact science, that you could do your best but you couldn’t guarantee you’d arrive at any particular place on any particular date.  And, it pointed out, Earth years were so short and insignificant anyway that twenty-five of them hardly made a difference.  The head alien didn’t seem to like this explanation much, and they engaged in some heated back and forth about the need for workplace competence, and the whole thing started to seem kind of funny, as far as alien invasions went.

“Well, they’re going to think we lack power,” the head alien was saying, “and they won’t want to do our bidding.”

“That seems like an easy fix, though,” the other alien said, and the two aliens looked at each other.  Then it took some kind of vial out of the ship—it was filled with a black substance, Leslie could see it on one of the screens—and tossed it into the crowd.  For a moment, nothing happened.  Then people started to scream—a lot more people now, screaming—and she could see this on the screen too.  Their eyes, black.

It didn’t seem kind of funny anymore.

So now they were back at the White House, trying to figure out what to do.  They were in the White House’s underground bunker, specifically.  She didn’t know why she should be surprised that it existed, but she was.  She’d brought out her binder about intergalactic diplomacy, but none of it seemed relevant somehow.  A lot of people were here, some of whom had questionable security clearance, but that didn’t seem relevant either.  The kids, for example, clustered together against the wall and looking scared.  And Ben too, of course.  She couldn’t have kept him out, even if she’d wanted to, which she didn’t.   She liked having rules, knowing what to do, but right now she was glad that none of the rules applied.  She squeezed his hand under the table, when no one was looking, and he squeezed hers back.

“We should nuke them.”  This was Harold; he was Sonia’s Secret Service agent and had already revealed himself to have a rather pessimistic view of life.  “Just nuke them, I think.”

“Harold,” Leslie said, “we’re not going to nuke them because that would involve nuking our own citizens.  Also, you’re not helping.”

“Well, I think we should nuke them,” Harold said, but he stopped talking when Leslie shot him a glare.

“The most important thing to do,” she said, “is to ensure that our people are safe.  That whatever contagion they’ve started is contained—and reversed if possible.  And we need to do it fast.”  She thought about all the people who were still out there.  About Ann.   “Then we can figure out a way to get rid of them.”

“And how are we going to do that?”  One of her military advisors.

“They’ve got to have a weakness,” Ben said.  “Aliens always do.   There’s got to be something that we can use against them.”  A babble of questions and comments arose—how they could discover the weakness, and how he was so sure that they had one anyway, and how that was going to stop the contagion, and that this was real life and not a science fiction movie, and (from Harold) that they should just go ahead and nuke them—and the meeting seemed, not for the first time, on the verge of devolving into chaos.

“President Knope,” said a quiet voice by her shoulder.  “May I make a suggestion?”

“Please,” Leslie said, turning around.  It was the FBI director, Walter Skinner.  He’d seen this country through a lot, she knew, in his many years with the bureau; he had one metallic leg and a take no crap attitude to show for them.  If he had advice for this situation, she wanted to hear it.

“Considering these circumstances,” he said, “I think there are some people you should get in touch with.  Strictly on an ad hoc basis.  They don’t have any official government status, not anymore.  But in this situation…if I were you, I’d want them in my corner.”

“Who are they?” Leslie asked.  “And how can I get in touch with them?”

He gave her the names.

.....

Maybe they had caused it somehow, Scully thought, even though she knew that that was ridiculous.  But she couldn’t help thinking it, remembering their conversation last night.

They’d been watching some flying saucer movie on TV: bad special effects, and worse dialogue, but somehow enjoyable even so.  “Do you ever miss it?” Mulder asked her, when the main couple (you could tell they were scientists because they were wearing glasses) were engaged in a pitched battle with the Martians.

She thought about it.  “Not usually,” she said.  “Not now.”  She looked over at him.  “Do you?”

“No,” he said, “not most of it.”  He looked back at the screen, and she followed his gaze; one of the scientists had dived to protect the other, and now they were moving synchronously.  “Maybe that part of it.”

She understood what he meant—that adrenaline rush, that knowing there was someone there who was always at your side.  “Yeah,” she said.  An alien ray gun nearly took off one of the scientists’ heads, then.  “I don’t miss all the almost dying, though,” she said, and he nodded at that, squeezing her hand.  “And I think we’re still pretty in sync.   Even if it’s only around the house.”

“Oh, I’m sure of that,” he said, and he smiled at her.  And they never did find out how the movie ended.

This morning, she hadn’t thought about the conversation.  They’d been otherwise occupied over breakfast; Susanna, on her way to school, had been talking a mile a minute about the inauguration.  This was the first election in which she’d been able to vote, and she’d thrown herself into the process wholeheartedly; she’d been as involved as she could with volunteering in the lead-up to the election, and she’d been overjoyed at the result.

“You guys are going to watch, right?” she asked, not for the first time.

“Yes, of course we’re going to watch,” Scully said.

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Mulder added.

“You should record it,” Susanna said.  “In case we want to watch any of it again.”  She shook her head.  “I can’t believe I have to watch it in school.  There’s going to be so many people who just don’t care.”

“Well, I’m sure you care enough to make up for them,” Mulder said, and Susanna laughed at that.

Then she looked at the clock.  “Oh, yikes, I’ve got to go,” she said, grabbing her backpack.  “See you later, Mom, Dad.”  She kissed them each quickly; she didn’t seem to consider herself too old for that, which pleased them more than they let on.

They watched from the window as she ran down the driveway, waving for the school bus, and made it in the nick of time—her usual way.  They spent the morning at home; Scully did the crossword puzzle, with Mulder offering his commentary, and they took Pip out for a run around the property.  And just before noon, they settled onto the couch to watch the inauguration.  Remembering Susanna’s words, Scully made sure to hit record.

She was sorry she’d done that, now, because Mulder kept replaying it, the scene on the National Mall.  The landing of the ship, the release of the virus.  Sometimes he played it at normal speed; sometimes he slowed it down and looked at the individual frames; once he even played it fast, which felt like the eeriest of all.  “Would you stop that?” she asked him.  “We’ve seen this at least twenty times by now.  What are you hoping for?”

“I don’t know,” Mulder said.  He hit pause, at least.  “Clues, I guess.”

“Clues to what?” Scully asked.  “We know what this is, Mulder.”  She’d known from the alien’s first words, from its address to earth dwellers of 2012.  She’d known what 2012 was supposed to mean.

They’d thought 2012 was the date of the colonization.  They’d expected it, even prepared for it, and it hadn’t happened.  And she’d thought, at the time, that somehow they’d gotten lucky.  She should have known better.  In their line of work, you never got lucky for long.

Looking at Mulder’s face, though, she knew that he felt the same: that he’d really thought they’d outrun this thing.  That after all the crap, they’d earned this, the life they had now: the two of them in their house, sharing, finally, a sense of peace, with a son who turned up for surprise visits and a daughter who surprised them every day.

Said daughter was, mercifully, all right: she’d shown up around two on the school bus, explaining that they’d sent everybody home.  She was now curled up at the end of the couch, cuddling Pip, who howled periodically; she seemed to sense the tension among her humans.

“But you guys,” Susanna said, “you know what to do about this kind of thing.”  It was half a question, half a statement; Scully could see, in her face, the vestiges of the belief that the two of them could fix absolutely anything.

She moved over to sit closer to Susanna and gave her a hug.  “We know some things,” she said.

“This isn’t our first go-round with extraterrestrials,” Mulder said. He let the television run for about two seconds and then paused it again.  “Not by a long shot.”

“And this is something we expected to happen.  Not now,” she added quickly.  “A long time ago, before you were born.  But it didn’t, and we thought…”  She cut herself off.  We thought this wasn’t our fight anymore was what she had wanted to say, but she knew she couldn’t.  In a situation like this, there was no cutting yourself off from everyone else, no sticking your head in the sand.  “Mulder, do you still have all the…?”

“Of course,” he said, setting the remote down.  “I’ll get them.”   They’d made plans in 2012, plans that had gradually overwhelmed his office; when she’d moved back in, she hadn’t seen them, although there’d been more boxes in the room, a new file cabinet.  She wasn’t surprised, really, that he hadn’t completely gotten rid of them.  She didn’t think she would have wanted him to.  That wasn’t him.  That wasn’t them.

“We’re not going to give up,” she said to Susanna, as Mulder headed for his office.  “You can count on that.  And other people won’t either.”

Susanna looked at her, thoughtfully, scratching Pip’s ears.  “Leslie will do something,” she said, sounding more hopeful than she had yet that afternoon.

“Of course she will,” Scully said.  “She’s our president now.”  What a hell of a way to start.

Her phone rang then; she didn’t recognize the number, and she considered not answering, but then she picked it up anyway.  “Scully,” she said.  It came naturally, in this situation.

“This is Dana Scully?” asked a voice on the other end.  It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“Yes, this is Dana Scully,” she said.  “May I ask who’s calling?”

“Oh, I’m so glad I caught you!” the voice exclaimed.  “This is Leslie Knope.”

She couldn’t have heard right.  “I’m sorry?”

“This is Leslie Knope,” the voice repeated, and when Scully didn’t say anything, she added, “Your president?  Not that I mean to throw my weight around.  Although in this situation…”

“I know who you are,” Scully said.  “Just…is this some kind of joke? Why are you calling me?”  Susanna was looking at her curiously.

“No, not a joke!” President Knope said.  “I was told to get in touch with you.  Can I assume you’ve seen the news?”

“Yes,” Scully said.  It was beginning to make sense now.  “Yes, I’ve seen it.”  

“Good,” President Knope said.  “That saves time.  Well, we’ve been having a meeting, obviously, to figure out what to do, and FBI Director Skinner told me that you were the people I should talk to.  You and your partner.”  Mulder walked back into the room then, carrying a couple of file folders, and Scully waved him over.

“Yes,” Scully said.  “Yes, he’s here right now.  Do you mind if I put you on speaker?”

“Go ahead,” said President Knope, and Scully put her phone down, hitting the speaker button.

“Okay,” she said.  “Okay, what would you like us to do?”

“We’d like you to get here as soon as possible,” President Knope said, and Susanna was apparently better at recognizing voices than Scully was, because her eyes nearly popped out of her head.  “And to bring any information you have that could help in this crisis.”

“Yes, we’ve been working on that already,” Scully said.  “Mulder was just getting some files together when you called.”

“That sounds perfect, then,” President Knope said; even at a moment like this, there was that energy in her voice, like they’d heard so many times over the course of her campaign.  “Do you need us to send transportation for you?”

“It’ll probably be quicker if we drive ourselves,” Scully said.  “Although…what’s it like in the city?  Chaotic, I’d assume.”

“That’s what we’re hearing,” President Knope said.  “Here, just a minute.”  They could hear her talking faintly to someone on the other end.  “Give us your license plate number,” she said, when she came back, “so they’ll know to let you through.”  Scully gave it to her, and she said, “Thanks again, both of you.  I’ll see you soon.”

When the call ended, Scully jumped up from the couch.  “Let’s get everything together,” she said, “and then let’s go.”

“Are we going…to the White House?” Mulder asked.

“Mom, was that really…?” Susanna seemed to have lost her powers of speech.

“Yes, we are, and yes, it was,” Scully said.  “To the best of my knowledge, anyway.  Mulder, are those the files from 2012?”

He nodded.  “But if we’re going in the car,” he said, “let me grab a few more things.  Just in case.”

“Great,” Scully said, and he headed back to his office.  “Honey,” she said to Susanna, “get anything you’ll need, okay?  I don’t think we should keep the president waiting.”

“Am I…am I coming with you?” Susanna asked.

“Of course you are,” Scully said.  She realized she hadn’t checked with anyone, but as far as she was concerned, this wasn’t in doubt.   “We’re not splitting up.  Not in a situation like this.”

“Are we bringing Pip too?” Susanna asked.

Scully looked at Pip.  She was the biggest dog they’d had (by far), liked to poke her nose into your lap if she felt she wasn’t getting enough attention, and was still howling intermittently.  “Sure, what the hell?”

.....

“So are they partners,” Leslie was asking Director Skinner, “or partners?”

“Trust me,” he said, “we don’t have time to get into that.”

As far as Ben was concerned, that wasn’t the most interesting question, anyway.  He’d just been told that there was a whole division of the FBI devoted to—well, to stuff that he’d always thought was fictional, essentially.  To stuff that he might have liked to believe in, but that he’d been content enough to read about in books or to watch on TV.  He had a million questions about it, things that he’d like to ask these former agents when they showed up.  But, he tried to remind himself, this wasn’t the time for him to satisfy his own curiosity.  He needed to do anything he could to contribute to helping the situation.   And he had to be here for Leslie, who he knew would go a whole week without sleeping if she thought she could solve the problem that way.   This morning, he’d been thinking about celebrating with her: it was her day, and he was so proud of her.  Right now, it didn’t look like celebrations were going to happen.

The door opened, and in came—well, maybe they were the former agents Director Skinner had told them about, although Ben couldn’t be sure.  An older man and woman, anyway.  Along with a teenage girl.  And a sizeable Newfoundland.

“Ma’am,” one of the secret service agents was saying, “I really don’t think you should bring that dog in—”

“It’s fine,” Leslie said, quickly rising from her seat.  “You’re Dana Scully and Fox Mulder?  I’m Leslie Knope.”

“Yes, that’s right,” the woman said.  “I mean, that’s who we are.   And we know that’s who you are.”  Leslie held out a hand, and she took it.  “This is our daughter, Susanna,” she added, gesturing to the girl with her free hand.  “And the dog’s Pip.”

“She’s a big fan of yours,” the man said, shaking Leslie’s hand in turn.  “The kid, not the dog.  Volunteered for your campaign and everything.”

Even in this moment—even when the world was more than a little upside down—Ben saw the Leslie he knew, the one he’d seen on the campaign trail and for a long time before that, the one who took a genuine interest in people who wanted to talk to her.  She smiled at Susanna, shaking her hand as well.  “It’s very nice to meet you,” she said.   “Thank you so much for volunteering.”

“It’s so…it’s so nice to meet you too,” Susanna said.  “I…it was…I liked doing it.”  Mulder and Scully were exchanging hellos with Director Skinner.

“Come sit down,” Leslie said.  Once they were all settled at the table, she said, “Director Skinner tells me the two of you would be the best people to help in this situation.  Any insights, off the top of your heads?”

“It’s the colonization,” Mulder said, quickly.  “We expected it in 2012, not now.  But it seems like they got their times wrong.”

“The colonization?” Leslie asked.  She reached out for one of her binders, and Ben handed it to her.  She paged through it.  “Should I know…”

“It isn’t something most people would know about,” Scully said.  “It’s been very hidden.  Hushed-up.”

“A lot of conspiracies around it,” Mulder said.  “We won’t get into all of that now.  There’s not enough time, and it’s almost impossible to fully understand, anyway.”  Ben hoped they might get into it at some point, after they’d dealt with the situation.  It sounded intriguing.

“So the aliens are trying to colonize?” Leslie asked.  “What’s their aim in that?”

“To extend their territory,” Mulder said.  “The idea is to get rid of the people.  Except for the hybrids.”

“Hybrids?”  Ben couldn’t stop himself from jumping into the conversation.

“There were human conspirators working with the aliens,” Mulder said, “and they created human-alien hybrids.”

“There were various experiments,” Scully said, “but these hybrids would be resistant to the black oil.  The substance they dropped into the crowd, during the inauguration.  It takes over people’s bodies and forces them to obey the aliens’ will.”

“Well, how can we stop it?” Leslie said, briskly.  No wondering if they could.  Straight to action.

“They developed a vaccine,” Scully said, “many years ago.  From our research, we haven’t been able to find any remaining supplies, though.   If we had access to the black oil ourselves, though, I might be able to rework it.  I don’t want to promise anything, but—”

“But if anyone can do it, Scully can,” Mulder added.  His hand was on hers, atop the table.

“How can we get you access then, Dr. Scully?” Leslie asked.  “And while you’re working on that, what else can we do?”

“I’ve been looking back through our files,” Mulder said, “things that we researched leading up to 2012.  We found, almost at the end, some evidence that there might be reserves of the oil in one spot on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.  That’s probably our best bet, in terms of geographical proximity.  And in the meantime—you can kill them by hitting them in the back of the neck.  But you have to be careful, because that releases a green substance, and it’s toxic.”

“So not as viable a large-scale solution,” Leslie said, “as the vaccine.”

“Definitely not,” Scully said.

“All right,” Leslie said.  “Let me think a minute.”  Everyone in the room was looking at her, anxiously.  For far from the first time, Ben knew.  “All right,” she said.  “Can we have the two of you go to Lake Michigan?  I can have people go with you, if that would be helpful.  And here we’ll focus on delaying them.  If you could leave me any notes you have about that back of the neck thing—if we could go over that in some more detail.  We need to buy time.”

“Of course we could,” Mulder said.  “And I think—”

He was interrupted by a commotion outside the door to the bunker.   “Look, I know she’s trying to save the world,” a voice was saying, “but I’ve got to get in there.  She needs to know this.”

“Ma’am, I don’t—”  One of the secret service agents, Ben thought.

“Look, if you could just tell them to check the television,” the first voice said.  Ben recognized it now: it was Caitlin, an aide of Leslie’s.  He hadn’t recognized it at first, he realized, because Caitlin was one of the most unflappable people he’d met; he’d never heard her sound even mildly worried, and now she sounded panicked.   “Because they need to see what’s happening, if they haven’t yet.”  At that, Leslie pressed a button on the table, wordlessly, and an image appeared on the wall.  A group of people, their eyes black.  Aliens advancing on them.  A ship flying off, in the background.

“—a scene from Pittsburgh,” the announcer was saying, “but by no means unique in the nation today.  We’re receiving reports from across the country.  The aliens are traveling fast, and the contagion with them.  So far, we have almost no information on the underlying causes of this crisis, but we will bring you more as soon as we get it.  For the moment, we can only hope that newly-sworn-in President Leslie Knope will come out strong against the aliens.”  A scream sounded in the distance; the announcer looked around nervously.  “And now, the weather and sports.”

“Of course I’m going to come out strong against the aliens,” Leslie muttered.  “What do they take me for?”  A pause.  “I think this changes some things,” she said.  “I think…I should go with the two of you.  To Lake Michigan.”  A commotion arose at this—many of the people in the room, clearly, thought she should do no such thing—but Leslie held up a hand.  “I’m the president,” she said.  “I need to be where the most important work is being done.  Even if it’s dangerous.  Especially if it’s dangerous.  We need to keep people safe.”

“But President Knope,” one of the military advisors said, “what will we do here in Washington?  Who will be in charge?”

“We’ll work out a plan for that,” Leslie said; she’d already turned her binder to a fresh page, and she had that look in her eyes that she usually did when she was about to do something that involved getting very little sleep.  “We’ll do that tonight.”

“We can’t make a whole plan in a night,” the advisor protested.  “Not for an unheard of situation like this.”

“We’re in a crisis,” Leslie said.  “We don’t have a lot of time, so we need to make this happen as fast as possible.  And it’s not unheard of.  Agents Mulder and Scully can help us, with their background knowledge.  And then tomorrow we’ll go.”  She smiled.  “It’s not like you won’t hear from me again.  I’ll still have my phone.  I think.”  She turned to Mulder and Scully.  “Do the aliens interfere with phones?”

“Not that we know of,” said Scully.

“That’s not really a part of their M.O.,” said Mulder.

“Good, good,” Leslie said.  “All right.  Now if you can show us some of those files you brought…”

As Mulder and Scully started spreading the documents out on the table, Ben turned to Leslie.  “I’m coming with you guys, you know,” he said.

He half-thought she might argue with him, tell him to stay here, that there was no point in being a political power couple if you couldn’t divide and conquer.  Instead she just smiled at him.  “Of course you are,” she said, squeezing his hand.  “I know I can’t keep you out of anything involving aliens.”

That wasn’t what he’d meant, of course—he just didn’t want the two of them to be apart at a time like this.  But he supposed she had a point.  “You’d better not,” he said, smiling back, and then they started looking over the files.

.....

This had all felt very surreal, and that was before President Knope climbed into the passenger seat and asked if anyone had thoughts on the appropriate kind of music to play on an alien-defeating road trip.

They’d left the White House this morning, the four of them.  Susanna had stayed there, along with Pip.  Mulder wasn’t wild about leaving her behind, and he knew Scully wasn’t either, but the three of them had talked about it last night, and they knew it would be a safer place for her.  They’d given her long hugs, the last thing before they left the bunker, and she’d looked at them with a fierce, hopeful expression, and she’d never reminded him more of Scully.  “You’re going to beat them,” she’d said.  Then she’d said, “Right?”, softly, and they’d hugged her again, even more tightly.

“We’ll do everything we can,” Scully had said.  “That’s a promise.”

“We’re not going to stop fighting,” Mulder had said.  “That’s not what we do, in this family.  Right?”

“Right,” Susanna had said, her voice firmer.  “I love you guys.”

“I love you too,” they’d both said, almost at the same moment.

With their last look back, they’d seen her sitting with the Knope-Wyatt triplets; they were a little older than she was, but they seemed to have gotten along last night.  He was glad they were all together.  He didn’t want to think of his daughter being alone.

And now they were in the car, the four of them—him and Scully and Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt.  This wasn’t something he’d expected, especially not at this time in his life.  A secret mission with the president.  At one point, it might have sounded exciting.  Now he just wanted to be home, but he knew that wasn’t an option.

President Knope was looking at him as she plugged in her phone.  “Any thoughts on the music?” she said.  “It’s a long drive.  Music can’t hurt.”

“We used to listen to classical music, usually,” Scully said from the back seat.

“I wouldn’t say usually,” Mulder said.  He knew this was far from the most important issue facing them at the moment, but the whole situation was so strange anyway that he figured he might as well.  “Just when you got to pick the station.”

“Which was not often enough,” Scully said.

“The two of you…did you do this often?” Ben asked tentatively.  “That was what you did at the FBI?  Fight aliens?”

“That was part of it,” Scully said.

“We investigated aliens and other paranormal phenomena,” Mulder said.  He could see Ben’s face in the rearview mirror; he looked stunned.

“Be careful about getting him started,” President Knope said.  “He’ll talk your ear off about this kind of stuff, if you let him.”

“I wouldn’t talk anyone’s ear off,” Ben said.  “I was just thinking that it would be a shame to pass up the opportunity of learning more about this.  It sounds very interesting.”

“Well, we’d be happy to tell you about it,” Mulder said.  “Pass time on the drive that way.”

“Speaking of the drive, we should get going,” President Knope said.   “I’ll start with the classical music,” she added, as Mulder started to drive.  “As requested.”

“Thank you, President Knope,” Scully said.

“Please,” she said.  “We’re going to be on a long drive together.  Call me Leslie.”

“All right,” Scully said.  She caught Mulder’s eye in the rearview mirror.  He knew she was finding this as weird as he was.  And they’d experienced some pretty weird things.

“So when you say other paranormal phenomena,” Ben asked, “what kind of things do you mean?”

“Oh, where to start?” Mulder said.  “Let’s see.  There was the flukeman…”

“He doesn’t want to hear about the flukeman,” Scully said.  “I don’t even want to hear about it.”

“No, I’m happy to hear about it!” Ben said.  “What is a flukeman?”

So Mulder explained the flukeman, as he drove, and Ben eagerly asked questions.  “Wow,” he said.  “It’s like something out of a movie.  Do you think there could be more of them?”

“Let’s hope not,” Scully said.

“Yeah, it sounds gross,” Leslie said.  “Should we stop for breakfast?”

“Now?” Ben asked.

“Well, we have to stop some time,” Leslie pointed out.  “That looks like a diner over there.  I hope they have waffles.”

“We’re just going to go into a diner?” Mulder said.  “I mean, you’re the president.”

“If being the president means I can’t go into diners,” Leslie said, “I’m resigning once we’ve dealt with the aliens.”  She laughed.   “Kidding.  Kidding.  I’d never resign.”

“I didn’t mean you can’t go into a diner at all,” Mulder said.  “I just meant right now.  We don’t have any secret service…and we’re in the middle of an alien invasion…”

“But we have to eat,” Leslie said.  He couldn’t argue with that.

“It should be fine,” Scully said.  “We’ve faced things more threatening than diner customers.”  He couldn’t argue with that either.

“And I’ll wear my coat with my hood up,” Leslie said, “so people aren’t looking at my face.  If that would help.”

They parked the car outside the diner and walked in, Leslie with her hood pulled tightly around her face.  He frankly wasn’t sure that she wasn’t drawing more attention to herself this way, but it didn’t seem worth arguing about.

There was no one in there, except for one elderly woman standing by the cash register.  “Wow,” she said.  “You four are sure brave to come out here today.”

“No customers, huh?” Scully said.

“Nah,” the woman said.  “Everyone’s either hiding or dying or being possessed by the aliens or something.  I don’t know why being possessed by the aliens would keep you from coming out to eat, though.  Maybe the aliens don’t like waffles.”  She chuckled.

“You have waffles?” Leslie asked.

“Yeah,” the woman said.  “That’s our specialty.  Why are you wearing that thing around your face?  You an alien?”

“No, no,” Leslie said.  “I’m…I’m the president, actually.”  She let her hood drop.

The woman seemed unimpressed.  “Oh,” she said.  “Table for four?”

“Yes, please,” Leslie said, and the woman led them to a booth, putting down menus.

“You’re not thinking about hiding yourself?” Scully asked her, as she was about to move away.

“Nah,” she said.  “I figure I’ve been through plenty of things worse.  And I’ve got to run this place.  Take your time with the choosing, if you want.  I don’t have anyone else to wait on.”

“Oh, we won’t take too long,” Leslie said.  “I already know what I want.  And besides, we’ve got to get moving.  We’re on a mission to stop the aliens, you know.”

The woman didn’t seem very impressed by that either.  “Oh,” she said.

Leslie announced that she was getting the waffle special, and after some consideration the rest of them all decided to do the same.   “Great,” the woman said, when they told her.  “Four waffle specials, coming up.”

“Waffles are my favorite,” Leslie said.  “Always have been.  And you should have your favorite food when you’re dealing with something like this, right?”

“Makes sense to me,” Ben said.

“I knew that, actually, about the waffles,” Scully said.  “It was in one of your videos.  Susanna showed me.”  She was quiet, then, and Mulder reached out for her hand.

Leslie must have picked up on it.  “Hey, they’ll be all right,” she said.  “Our kids are in the safest place there is, right now.  I didn’t even know the White House had that bunker.  And I’ve done a ton of research on the building.”

“She has,” Ben said.  “Two binders full?”

“Three,” Leslie said.  “Of course we worry about them—what parent wouldn’t?  But I believe they’ll be safe.  And I believe we’ll solve this.”  Mulder had never been as gung-ho about Leslie as Susanna had—it wasn’t anything personal, but by now he didn’t have much trust in the government, no matter who was in charge.  But in this moment, he could see what it was about her.  That confidence.  A certain magnetism.

“You’re right,” Scully said, and he could tell she was feeling it too.  “There’s no point in…in agonizing.  What we need to do is act.”

“Which we will do,” Leslie said, cheerfully, as their food arrived, “as soon as we’re fueled by waffles.”

They all seemed to want to avoid talking about the aliens while they ate.  “Do the two of you have other kids?” Ben asked.

“Yes, we have a son,” Mulder said.  He was still grateful that he could.  “He’s much older, though.  He lives in…Pennsylvania, now.”  He thought Jackson was living in Pennsylvania, anyway.  You could never be one hundred percent sure with him.  He wondered if it was safe, where he was.

“How long have you been together?” Leslie asked.

“That’s a complicated one,” Scully said, laughing.  “Well, we started working together in 1992.  And then…I guess…since 2000?  Officially.”

“We’ve been married almost thirty years,” Mulder offered.

“That’s great,” Leslie said.  “We met through work too, you know.  I think that’s a great place to find someone.”  She gestured with her remaining piece of waffle.  “I mean that in a completely ethical way.”

“We get it,” Scully said.  “I think you’re right.”

Leslie finished the waffle.  “All right,” she said.  “Let’s pay so we can get back on the road.”

They did so—“You all have a good one,” the woman told them—and drove off down the mostly empty highway.  Mulder wasn’t about to complain about the lack of alien interference they’d faced so far, but he did find it a bit unnerving.  He was used to being chased, to the sense that something was going to happen at any moment.  Now…it seemed like nothing was.  Just driving along as quickly as they could, having getting-to-know-you conversations.

He was telling Ben about the case with the vampires in Chaney, Texas, and Scully was, as usual, telling her own, incorrect version, when all of that changed.

They were up ahead, spanning the highway so that there was no way around them.  A line of still bodies—one or two were actually aliens, Mulder thought, but most of them were humans.  He wasn’t close enough to see their eyes, but from the way they held themselves, he would bet money that they’d been infected.

He wasn’t the only one to notice.  “Do we fight them?” Ben asked.

“If we have to,” Mulder said.  “But maybe we should turn—”  He looked in the rearview mirror.  More aliens, more people.  Filling in the road behind them.  “I guess we fight them,” he said.  “You remember what we said?  About the back of the neck?”  They were advancing towards the car now, and they didn’t look friendly.  He reached for his gun and saw Scully doing the same.  Then suddenly she stopped.

“Wait,” she said.  “Mulder, we should go that way.”  She pointed to the side of the road, a wooded area beyond it.

“In the woods?” he asked.  “Scully, are you sure?”  He wasn’t opposed to trying it, but he wasn’t sure how far they could get the car, and the suggestion didn’t seem like her.

“Yes,” she said.  “I…I’m getting something.”

“You’re…like from Jackson?” he said, and she nodded.  He remembered her visions, of course, but she hadn’t had one for a long time now.   Maybe there hadn’t been the need.

“Yes,” she said.  “I’m not sure, it’s…we should be safe, if we go that way.”  Leslie and Ben were watching them, understandable looks of confusion on their faces.

There wasn’t much time to think over the decision, especially since the first alien reached the car at that moment.  It grabbed the door handle, rattling it.  “Okay,” Mulder said.  “Let’s go.”

There was a gap in the barrier between the highway and the woods, almost as if someone had prepared it for them.  Mulder put on speed, shaking off the alien, driving through the gap and then through the woods, as quickly as he could without hitting any trees.  “Where are we going?” Ben asked, a mix of trepidation and excitement in his voice.

“And what are we doing?” Leslie asked.

“Not entirely sure,” Mulder said.

“But we should be all right,” Scully said.  “Just a little further…”

And then they were in an area where the trees thinned, and there was a head and shoulders sticking out of the ground: a young woman with light brown skin and curly hair.  “I think I see them!” she yelled, scrambling fully out of the hole, and after a moment Jackson followed her.

“Yeah, it’s them,” he said.  He walked over as Mulder parked the car.  “I’m glad you guys made it.”  A double take.  “Woah, you brought the president.”

[teampunkzine]

I wanna apply but...

I get it. We’ve all been there. Zines are a beautiful, strange thing and we just get so pumped to participate. Maybe you’ve just got wind of what a zine even is. Maybe you’ve been watching them develop from a long time, even buying some. Maybe you’ve already applied to some before. Maybe you’ve been rejected.

So, you want to apply. But...

I don’t think my art is good enough

This is a valid concern we all go through. There’s just so many pretty, popular art and fic going around and sometimes we just feel frustrated. 

But, what as the artist you may see as ‘’boring’’ or ‘’nothing special’’, as a spectator we may be extremely moved. There’s so many skilled artists and writers I’ve heard saying their creations weren’t good enough. It shakes me. 

What you think it’s not good enough, it’s usually you being very hard of yourself. Of freaking course there’s always room for improvement! And a big part of that frustration you feel with your art comes from that part of you that knows you are capable of so much more! and YOU ARE! You are a human being with the amazing skill of creation! You have the space to grow and develop as big as you want to!

But, my golden advice? Give yourself the time and patience for that growth. Don’t stop trying, don’t stop practising but also be kind with yourself. A great chunk of the artistic cycle is having blocks and resting, living experiences that will eventually help you grow as an artist and a human being. 

You are already being the best artist version of yourself that you can be at the moment.

I’m going to get rejected/ I’ve already tried in so many zines and I always get rejected 

Are you sure, though? Are you sure? Do you have physic powers? Can you see what I’m going to do next month? If you are already looking there, by the way, can you please peek and tell me if I’m going to have a gf by then?

I’d advice not giving up based on previous experiences. We are not those other zines, we are not those other mods. Hell, you are not even the same artist! You’ve grown! This is a whole different situation and experience. 

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: You may get rejected. Or you may not. You don’t know that, I don’t know that.

What I do know is that there are 0% chances of getting in if you don’t apply.

You ask for a submission of two of my best pieces. I don’t know which of my works are my best

I always have this doubt when applying for zines. It’s nerve wrecking! I feel like I get one shot and I have to do it right! 

Well, in our case, you have 2 shots. So, if you are in between 2 options, you can post both ;D 

Apart from that, I always ask a server/a friend/a pal from somewhere which one they think it’s more impressive. If it’s a fandom friend, I explain it’s for a zine. If it’s an irl person, I’m just asking their opinion for something bussiness-related.

In the case you don’t have the option of consulting someone, I reccomend you take a few days without looking or thinking about it. Then, go back and watch/read your stuff with fresh eyes. 

A few criteria to self evaluate your pieces...

Art: Think of the use of lighting/shadows, characterization, anatomy, color use. The most important question is, though... ‘’do I like this?’’ ‘’am i happy i did this?’’ . If you like it, it will work <3

Writing: Think of it being clearly redacted, of the emotion it conveys (if it fits whatchu wanted it to convey). Again, the most important question is ‘’do i like this?’’ ‘’am i happy i did this?’’’ If you like it, it will work <3

You ask for a submission of a previous Hunk+Pidge piece. I don’t have any.

We ask an example of your work depicting Hunk and Pidge for two very simple reasons. 

1) We want to see the characters through your eyes, we want to know what you bring to the table.

2) We want to rule out any possibilities of whitewashing Hunk, making him overly skinny or oversexualizing Pidge. Y’know, we just want to see beforehand you respect basic character traits like Hunk being fat and dark skinned and Pidge being a human being without anime-like titties. I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m not saying this to police you. We just want to avoid any uncomfy conversations in the future!

Apart from that? GO WILD WITH YOUR TAKE ON THEM! Add a beard on Hunk, give Pidge green hair, give everyone 80s clothes! As long as we can still see the characters we love, we are okay with you going off the mold. Hell, we encourage you to!

If you are a writer, a simple drabble with the two of them interacting would do. If you are an artist, a simple colored drawing it’s okay by us!

I’ve never been in a zine before

And if you let us be your first, that’d be our honor! It’s my first time modding a zine too!

We are not looking at your resume. So, to us, it’s not a problem. It’s okay to be scared or nervous, specially if this is your first zine! But remember: you won’t be alone! Us mods are here to guide you and help you! And you’d have the rest of the participants too! We are all new in something, this is a chance for each of us to grow and learn!

I’m not a popular artist/writer

*motions around* ...and this is not a popular team of characters... 

We are not popular ourselves. We are not looking for popular people. We are not looking at your follower count, the number of reblogs you have or the comments your fic gets. We are looking at what you offer us, at those submissions you deem your best, at your take on Hunk and Pidge, at what you can bring to the table.

Will I squeal if I recognize your name? Yes, because I’m happy someone I already know is here. Will I holler and yodelei around bc of your submission piece and see how much you bring into the table? HELL YEAH DUDE.

The application form scares me/ I haven’t even looked at it.

Oof. Filling forms for me is scary. But that’s when you know you’ve got stuff to lose! This? This is for FUN! 

An advice? Look at the form first and write down in a piece of paper what you will need. I swear, until you submit, all the times you look at the form won’t be decisive. 

I swear the more you look at it, the less scary it gets. To break it down, we ask for very basic stuff: examples of your work, examples of your work featuring Hunk and Pidge and a profile where we can peek at more of your stuff. Oh, and a mail where we can contact you. That’s the important stuff. The rest are questions to know what’s in your mind, who are we interacting with. We’d like you to fill it but if you don’t know what to answer, say just that. It’s okay <3

So, it’s okay! It’s for fun! YOU CAN DO THIS :D

You don’t want me to apply :(

There’s nothing more i want in this world right now that u filling that damned application form, boi.

IM STAYING UP TILL 4 AM TO WRITE THIS !!!!! :))))

I can’t find the application form

There you go ;)

A zine is not an élite art gallery. We do have a selection stage but we are also that space where you can practise, interact with other creators and make the best of yourself! We are just looking for passionate creators!!! Applying is the first step to get there. If you don’t apply and you want to, you are not even giving yourself the chance to participate!

As my dad says: you put the effort, the other evaluates it. You can only just control the effort and love you put in so invest your time and energy worrying about that, not about the result.

WE CAN DO THIS!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!! WE WANT YOU TO APPLY!!!!!!

love,

Mod Ami

[organisaticns]

so im due to start at cambridge university for bio natural sciences in october and i thought i would write a post about what helped me make a successful application. hopefully this is useful to some people!! (also this is an incredibly long post you’ve been warned)

if anyone wants me to do a more in depth post on one specific section, or you guys have any questions at all, feel free to drop me a message!!

choosing a course

this is the most important bit!!! you’re dedicating 3/4/5/6 years of your life to this

oxbridge as rule (esp cambridge) have slightly different courses to other universities so do your research - on their websites and at open days

i know top students are supposed to apply to oxbridge bc “it’s the best” and stuff but if the courses offered don’t interest you or you prefer how other unis teach that course, DON’T APPLY!! it’s not worth it 

generally, look at your a level/ib/etc subjects and which sort of courses they meet the entry requirements for then look at websites and stuff to try and narrow it down

talk to current students! the blog askacambridgestudent on tumblr is great, each area has an oxbridge conference each april if you can go, ask students at open days

they can tell you what it’s actually like

read some books in the subject area you’re considering, watch ted talks, go to masterclasses, do work experience

this will help you choose a course and also be useful later when you write your personal statement

okay so when i was applying people kept telling me i would only be successful if the only thing i thought about 24/7 was biology and it was the love of my life. this is not true. you can have other interests don’t believe the people that tell you that you cant

that being said you need to be passionate about your subject!! refer to bullet point 1!! they want to know that you’re interested in it and this needs to show

oxford vs cambridge

this is really hard for some people but my course is only offered at cambridge so i did not have this problem

so first see if you prefer the course offered at one of them

if not, visit both and hopefully you’ll get a better vibe from one

i have no good advice here

writing your personal statement

okay writing a ps is just not fun okay prepare yourself for that

if anyone wants a biology/natural sciences example message me and i can send you mine

this post has some really good advice

start early, aim to have it completely done and edited by early september (oxbridge deadline is 15th october)

first, think about things you want to write about - i wrote a paragraph on a book i’d read, a paragraph each on two summer schools i did, a paragraph on my epq, and a paragraph on extracurricular

things you can talk about - books, ted talks, lectures, summer schools, masterclasses, epq, independent research into stuff, work experience

when you’re writing about stuff you gotta engage with it, so dedicate a whole paragraph to one book, then take one key theme and talk about how it interested you and how you looked up other things to do with it - link it to a different concept or talk about which theory you like best if theres conflicting theories in the field etc

it’s a hard thing to do but just pick different bits you liked about the book and try to discuss it - a key theory, theme, character etc

you can be asked about your ps in interview so make sure you’re comfortable discussing the books on your ps

you also do not need to talk about multiple books if you don’t want to, i only talked about one and i know people who didn’t mention any

don’t just say things like “im passionate about biology”!! back it up with something!! say you’re passionate about one specific topic in your field and why, discuss how different things you did/read consolidated your interest, show your interest through discussion about the subject

try to link in slightly different subject areas or experiences, and definitely link everything to your course and why you’d be a good student

i managed to link my latin AS level to biology so anything is possible folks

while you want all your paragraphs to be very supercurricular based on things you’ve done and read, try and drop in some of those buzz words they love - you know like about your academic writing skills, enthusiasm, opportunity, dedication, communication, interdisciplinary skills etc.

oxbridge do not give a shit about your extracurricular but other unis do so you want one paragraph max on it and try to link it to transferable skills - it makes you a good communicator etc

write your first draft - it will be shitty but just write it, leave the intro and conclusion to last

introductions and conclusions are super hard to write but it’s doable. try to take the general idea you’re trying to include (mine was how interdisciplinary study is important to both all the sciences together and sub disciplines in bio) and write a little bit about it

it doesn’t have to be long, your intro should introduce your passion to the subject (please don’t do the whole “i’ve wanted to study bio since i was five and x happened” thing)

conclusion can be super short, just reinforce you’re excited to study your subject in a new environment and have new opportunities

look at the tsr examples for inspiration

try to make it cohesive ish? have a running theme? (like how this one has a running theme? i actually took a lot of inspiration from that ps)

don’t say things like “im a motivated and commited student with good time management skills” without smth to back it up - “while undertaking an independent research project, i developed time management skills, and researching x made me more interested bc y” is better (i mean still not incredible but i wrote that literally just now okay)

the student room has a load of examples from people who’ve already applied

read the ones in your subject, work out which bits you like and don’t like, apply to your own (be careful of plagiarism tho)

disclaimer: not all the ps on there are good

once you have a complete and awful first draft show it to a teacher

most people show it to the relevant subject teacher, but also to your tutor, the higher education adviser, oxbridge adviser

they will hopefully help you make it less awful but don’t let them change it so much it doesn’t sound like you

i showed mine to the oxbridge adviser at my school and well he laughed at it bc it was so bad so you know

but i didn’t listen to everything he said bc some of the things he wrote like no 17 year old would say

keep revising drafts, showing to teachers until you can’t stand reading it anymore then get someone else (maybe parents?) to spell check and be done with the horrible thing

no one likes their personal statement, you will read it in august and wonder how you could possibly write something so bad

the actual ucas application

make sure your predicted grades are at least as high as the entrance requirements

you don’t really have much control over your teacher reference but you can use it to mention things you couldn’t fit in your personal statement if you can convince your teachers to include stuff

make sure all your qualifications and stuff are accurate

the saq (cambridge only)

you have to fill this in straight after october 15th

it’s mostly boring admin stuff, filling in topics and class sizes etc.

you have an option to write an additional (shorter) personal statement

this is really useful if the course you’re applying to at oxbridge is different to the other courses youve applied to - such as if you applied to politics everywhere else but hsps at cambridge - use it to explain why you want to do that specific course at cambridge

but you definitely don’t have to write one, i didnt!

make sure you get this in on time

written work

for some courses you have to send in written work

i didn’t have to so i don’t have loads of advice, but make sure you send in stuff that you’re comfortable discussing at interview

they’ll be guidelines on the cambridge website and on your specific college’s website

admissions tests

not the most fun things

find the specification on the website and go through, highlighting and revising the points you don’t know

try to find some past papers and do them

this really depends on the subject you’re doing so i can’t give much more advice but if anyone needs advice specific to the NSAA shoot me a message

also, these are just part of your application and even if you came out of yours thinking it’s the worst test you’ve ever had it probably didn’t go that badly 

the NSAA is the hardest test i’ve ever sat and i thought i had done completely shit and i still got an offer so there’s still hope

interviews

okay so first, don’t believe the rumours

you know the ones where people say they got given a banana and asked to use it to explain how quantum mechanics relates to of mice and men

interviews are definitely scary, but they are nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be, and they don’t ask you weird unrelated questions

make sure you know your personal statement inside out and you feel comfortable talking about the topics/books/etc you mentioned on there in depth

keep up to date with any recent news or high profile research in your field (you don’t need to know details, just have a vague idea of what’s going on)

this is especially important if you’re applying for politics or economics or something like that

if your school offers a mock interview, definitely have one, though don’t panic if you can’t have one there’s other ways to prepare

the whole point of interview is them wanting to see how you think and how you respond to unfamiliar problems

so i looked up a list of “past oxbridge interview questions” and practised writing down a quick answer to them and thinking about how i would go about solving the problem

oxford has some examples on the “sample questions” bit here

i also used this site but remember a lot of these probably aren’t actual interview questions 

if you have an opportunity, just talk to your relevant subject teacher about the topics beyond your specification

you honestly don’t need to do too much interview prep, just do enough so you feel a bit calmer about the whole thing

hope some of that helps :)

[bosstoaster]

hey Boss, do you have any advice for a struggling writer? I love writing fanfic as a hobby and it really helps when I'm stressed. but I find it hard to actually finish anything. I get these AUs planned in my head and I start writing but I lose motivation along the way. any suggestions/tips to help with something like that? maybe I should plan more/less? begin at the end? I really love your writing and way of telling stories, you are an inspiration!

I had the same problem for a loooong long long time.  Most of my writing career actually.  So, I do have a few tips.  

But at the end of the day, motivation is always going to wax and wane.  Always.  There’s no magic cure to making that go away, as much as I’d like there to be.  If you’re looking to write a longer fic, there’s just going to be days you’re going to have to sit yourself down and write, even if you’re not sure, and especially if you think it’s no good.

But here’s some tips I do for getting me through it.  These work for my particular brain, so I’ve got no clue how they’ll work for you, but they might at least be a starting point.

1) Plan out the whole thing.  As much as you can.  

I have outlines with pieces of dialogue, mostly summation/loose (ie Shiro: How about fuck that?), which gives me an idea of the tone/direction I’m going.  At least for me, I can’t figure out where to drive if I don’t have an idea of the destination.  Then I stall out after I get through the scenes I immediately thought of and stop writing.  Planning fixes that completely, and makes sure your story is paced well (you also get a Feel for this).  Don’t feel locked into the planning, but at least you know which way to start walking, you know?

2) Don’t tell anyone the plan.  Keep it to yourself.

For me, this rule is so important I try not to talk the plot out even to empty air.  The point of writing is to tell a story.  It’s to communicate an idea that gave you a Feeling that you want to share.  If I tell someone else the blow-by-blow, I’ve shared the idea.  It’s done.  Motivation gone.  If you find that when you’ve told someone else the idea, you get excited about writing for like 12 hours and then it dies completely, try keeping it a secret.  That way you only get the gratification when you finish.

(For me, this also includes having a fic mostly completed before posting.  The ones that don’t get finished are the ones where I posted at the same time I was writing.  Coincidence?  I think NOT.)

3) Get into a writing habit

You know that feeling when you’ve been writing a lot and you have the idea and it’s just flying off the page?  Awesome, right?

Except you get to the end of that and then you’re like ‘oh I did a ton the past few days I deserve a couple of days off’.  Then you give yourself that, then another, then mmm don’t feel it today, then on and on until when you do sit down to write, it feels like your mind is under a blanket and your hands have weights on them.

That shit is Inertia.  An object at rest wants to stay at rest, and that also applies for writing.  Like any skill, it rusts when you’re not using it, and you have to shake that back off when you get to it.  It’s harder, and that sucks, but you gotta.  Simple as that.  If you don’t, it won’t be written.

I find setting 20 minute timers and making myself write and nothing else for that time helps.  Sometimes I don’t get a lot done.  A lot of times I hate what I wrote.  But I’m de-rusting, or preventing rust from forming. You can always edit it to be better, or rewrite it.  Don’t expect every word to be genius.  Keep going.

4) Contain yourself

Maybe you want to write that 300k epic space opera where every character shows up and the plot restarts four times for some new, angstier idea, and it’s going to hurt so good and you’re so READY for everyone to read it and love it.

That shit’s hard, tho. That shit’s really hard.

If you’re having trouble finishing something longer, maybe start small.  Take one adventure in Space Opera AU (which involves Shiro slingshotting around Jupiter and ending up on a living space space ship where everyone is humans painted blue or muppets and ilu if you get this extended joke).  Just write that one piece and give it a conclusion.  There!  You’ve finished a thing.  Still have a story to tell?  TIME FOR A SEQUEL.

That method has worked very well for me.  If you’re still unsatisfied, part two can be 50k.  Or write 10 sequels.  Either way, you finished something.

5) Finish

Real talk: By the time you get to the end of your fic, you will probably hate it.  Trust me.  I don’t really like the things I post.  It’s because you’ve seen the struggles, you know the perfect version in your head, you know what you had to drop or what you couldn’t figure out how to make work.

No one else has that.

Finish it.  You will learn more and accomplish more from having one complete, imperfect fic, than 1000 WIPs that you stalled out on.

Finish the fic.  There’s no such thing as perfect.  Here’s the rub: The act of writing makes you a better writer and a reader.  Astonishing, I know.  But the very act of writing the story makes the start of your story seem worse.  Because you learned.  You’re better now.  And what were you thinking?

Don’t let that stop you.  Edit if you want.  But finish. the. story.

A few years down the line, you’ll be more thankful for the stuff you completed and posted than the WIPs you can’t look in the eye anymore.

And that’s all I got.  Sorry for the long post.  If you’re looking for more tips, I do have a ‘BT gives dubious advice’ tag that might have more.  IDK.  I don’t remember shit that happened longer than a month ago.

[noona-clock]

Study: Admin B

In which we dig deeper under the surface of our favorite Noona-Clock Admins.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the gifs used in this post. I am not an astrologer nor am I a professional psychologist. These are my opinions based on the research I have done personally/as a hobby. If you disagree with any of these statements, please do so respectfully. Also, I totally understand if you do not read this. I know it’s going to be long because I have done a lot of research into my own personality. 🙄

-Admin B

Sun Sign: Aquarius (Air)

Aquarius is known to be really the most unique sign in the zodiac... which basically just translates to: Aquarians are a bunch of weirdos. Our sign is ruled by Uranus which is the planet of originality, so yeah. We’re big on individualism and being yourself and being different. So, we really are just a bunch of weirdos, but we know it. And we’re proud of it. I am definitely a weirdo, but I don’t see this as a bad thing at all. I have a wacky sense of humor, and I... am just weird! I’m not afraid to be myself and let my funny, quirky traits and habits shine through. I have a wide variety of interests which really aren’t connected to each other at all (KPOP, Star Trek, Disney, Makeup, romance novels, the British royal family, history, Harry Potter - all of which I love just about equally!). Aquarians, myself included, can also be kind of awkward and a little misunderstood at times because of this originality we value so much. That’s why it can be difficult for us to make friends sometimes. But we’re also just very choosy about who we let into our life! We know not everyone will accept us for who we are, even though Aquarians are pretty non-judgmental.

Another huge part of the Aquarius sign is the need to help people. Our symbol is the water bearer, and this signifies how we like to give things to people. We give our time, our compassion, our knowledge. We just want to better the world, and we have such huge, humanitarian hearts. I can definitely identify with this trait because I have always been extremely empathetic, and I do my best to help out anyone in any way I can. I always donate an extra two dollars at the store for homeless pets or food drives or children's’ hospitals. I rescue all my pets from shelters. I use cruelty-free makeup and skincare, and I try to buy as many of my clothes as I can secondhand to help the environment some. I know there’s so much more I could be doing, too!

Aquarians can also be really hard to break through to. I mentioned before it’s difficult for us to make friends sometimes, not only because we can be so weird and awkward but also because we have a tendency to be emotionally detached. We’re usually pretty reserved (I definitely am), and we strongly prefer not to show or talk about our emotions. We do not like confrontation, but we also tend to overthink a lot. So even though we might seem like we’re emotionally detached, there’s a lot going on in our heads. We love to analyze situations down to the bones, usually in an unhealthy way. But Aquarians are just huge thinkers in general. This aspect of the Aquarius sign definitely applies to me, as I have always had trouble expressing myself emotionally. I don’t easily say ‘I love you’ to people, though this mostly just applies in real life. I can express myself so much easier in writing because I have more time to sort out my thoughts!

Moon Sign: Cancer (Water)

WOO, GIRL. I’ve said before that having a water sign in your lunar placement is difficult, but like... having Cancer in your lunar placement? Oh, my. Cancer is the sign ruled by the Moon itself, so a water moon sign + the Moon moon sign = good luck to you. (and yes I’m now thinking of Moon Moon. Bless his heart.)

Cancers really have a bad reputation for being crybabies because we are so. dang. sensitive. Water signs are known for being the most emotional anyway, and I think Cancers might just be the most of the most emotional. They’re definitely the most sensitive, that’s for sure. And since the sign in your lunar placement defines your innermost, emotional self... Do you understand why having a Cancer moon sign is just a little tricky? Cancers make decisions with our emotions, and a lot of the time, we just have a ton of emotions. There’s basically just an emotional roller coaster going on in our heads at all times, so we can definitely come across as moody. I have always, always, always been extremely sensitive. I take things way too personally, and I let things affect me way more than they should. It really wasn’t until I learned about my Cancer moon sign that I accepted this is just who I am. I’ve always wanted to change how I react to certain situations, but I know now I just can’t. I feel things very deeply even though I don’t show it (thanks to my Aquarius emotional detachment), and while it gets annoying, it helps me connect with people.

Because Cancers are so sensitive and emotional, we are very, very good listeners. We will be there for you when you need to bitch, and while we might not always have advice for you, we will sincerely, genuinely listen to your problems, and we will truly sympathize. We’ll also try to take care of you if we can because Cancers are extremely nurturing. We like to take care of people, and my preferred method of taking care of people is doing things for them. I tend to be pretty thoughtful, and if I ever think “oh, I wish someone would do that for me,” I like to go and do just that for someone else. We’re just very helpful, strong people who will genuinely care about you and sympathize with you.

Cancers, like Aquarians, are very non-judgmental, which is another reason why we make such great listeners. You can literally tell us anything, and we’ll do our best to understand. I definitely try not to judge people because my Aquarius ass is so weird - what place do I have to judge someone else, right? The only people we’ll turn our back on is people who have wronged us or our loved ones, and this is so, so true for me. The second I find out you’ve hurt somebody I love, I’m done with you. Cancers are very protective and nurturing people!

While it can be difficult for Cancers to get close to people (because we can get kind of paranoid, think people don’t like us, and we tend to feel left out A LOT - a daily struggle for me!), we love having deep conversations. We’ll talk about anything we’re interested in for, like, hours... and we won’t let it go. We’re a very sentimental sign, and we just, in general, have trouble letting things go. But that circles right back around to being sensitive! We just have a lot of feelings!!

Chinese Astrology: Earth Snake

Just like Daesung! So is it any wonder I’m an angel? (LOL)

I never liked being a Snake growing up because I’m not a huge lover of reptiles. I like cute, fuzzy animals (that don’t have beaks), and snakes just creep me out. But whenever I would read the description of a Snake on the tray papers at Chinese restaurants, I couldn’t argue it sounded a lot like me.

Snakes are known to be very humorous but also sophisticated in a way (though I definitely do not have a sophisticated sense of humor). We prefer to eliminate small talk, instead opting for deeper, more meaningful conversations. In addition, we’re usually pretty capable in an emergency. We’re able to hold our ground and think rationally and calmly about what needs to be done. 

Snakes are always thinking ahead and making new plans (and a majority of the time we follow these plans without relying on others’ input because we’re kind of stubborn and think we know best). But we’re usually right, okay? You really cannot judge a Snake by its cover. We may seem pretty calm and somewhat lazy or laid back, but our minds are so active. We’re super alert and observant, and really, nothing gets past us. 

Snakes have very high standards for friends, and this, coupled with my Aquarian reserve and Cancer sensitivity, really makes it difficult for me to put myself out there and make friends. This is why I have a small number of very close friends, and that’s about it. I spend a lot of time with my family because they’re also included in the people I’m closest to. But Snakes - Earth Snakes, in particular - are very loyal friends who can keep a friendship for life. Once we attach ourselves to you, it’s going to take a lot to shake us off (but I mean if you really want to then just make my sister or any of my best friends cry. Then I’ll drop you in a hot second). Snakes are sensitive to criticism, though, and if we get hurt, we will never forgive and never forget. Does this sound familiar? It’s honestly still weird to me how the same traits show up over and over in these studies - not just mine! 

Women Snakes are usually graceful and elegant, and while I probably wouldn’t classify myself as either of these, I do take great care with my appearance. I like to appear more elegant and sophisticated than I truly am. I love doing my makeup and wearing nice clothes. Women Snakes are also known to be beautiful, both inside and out. Our confidence is manifested in our fashion and appreciation for classic art. This seems kind of specific, but it’s definitely true for me! My main source of confidence comes from how I make myself look (not how I naturally look, mind you). I’ve never been one to easily accept compliments, but if you tell me you like my makeup or my outfit, the words ‘Thank you’ come out of my mouth immediately. It’s something this Snake is proud of! I also do appreciate art, and whenever I’m visiting a new city (or an old city), I like to find the local art museum and spend some time there!

Numerology: Life Path 9

As I’ve mentioned in Jackson’s, Jinyoung’s, and Yugyeom’s Study, the 9 Life Path number is the most evolved in numerology and has one of the strongest vibrations because it contains the qualities of all the other numbers. 9s are seen as wise, old souls, and our main focus in life is developing our spirituality in all aspects.

9s usually have a strong inclination to follow whatever we believe in, and we’ll pursue this with great ambition and drive. We also have an authentic regard for humanity, so our goals tend to involve serving others in some way. This is certainly true for me because one of my biggest overall passions is education. I truly, truly believe education is the solution to so many problems, and every single person on this Earth deserves a good education. I was a teacher for several years before my Introverted self couldn’t take it any longer, but now I work for a software company who serves daycares and preschools for underprivileged children.

9s love serving and helping others, and it’s such a huge part of our identity that whenever we’re in need of support, people tend not to notice. But we do keep our guard up, so 9s definitely need to learn how to ask for help since it’s hardly ever obvious when we do need it. This has been something I’ve struggled with my entire life - asking for help. I always feel like a burden or like I’m annoying when I ask for something, and my Cancer self cannot handle feeling like a burden!

9s are also usually pretty creative, and while I’m certainly not creative like Jackson, Jinyoung, or Yugyeom, I like to think I am in my own way. I express my creativity through makeup, fashion, and definitely through writing. I also love to daydream, and my daydreams can get pretty involved!

MBTI: INFJ

Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging

You guys. I’m so Introverted, it’s not even funny. Not only that, I’m a shy introvert. I’m so naturally quiet and reserved, and you would not believe how many different people have commented on this, even strangers! I love staying at home, and I much prefer to be in my bed reading or on my laptop than out somewhere with a bunch of people. I think before I speak, I spend time with myself, and I just actually really like being alone. Truly, if we’re on a road trip together, I could go for hours without speaking and be just fine. That’s how quiet I am.

I also type as Intuitive, meaning I’m very imaginative, open-minded, curious, and I prefer to think about the possibilities rather than the facts or what’s already been tested as tried and true. As I mentioned in the previous section, I love to daydream, and I think daydreaming is pretty big sign of an Intuitive person over a Sensing person. Intuitives tend to talk more about ideas while Sensers talk more about facts. 

So, if you’ve read this far, it should come as absolutely no surprise whatsoever I’m a Feeling individual. I don’t even really need to go over how emotional and sensitive I am because that’s basically the whole of my Moon Sign. Funnily enough, though, this function is the one with my lowest percentage. Whereas I’m 88% Introverted, 79% Intuitive, and 71% Judging, I’m only 68% Feeling.

Finally, I type as a Judging individual which means my more extraverted function is my Feeling function. It also means I’m more structured in how I live my life. I don’t really like to keep my options open. I like to make a plan and stick to it. This is very true! If I’m ever doing something with friends or family, I get really annoyed if someone keeps bringing up ideas and options. Especially if we’ve already figured out what we want to do.

INFJs are known as The Advocate. We love to help people, but in a very ‘need to make the world a better place’ way. We don’t want to just pay for somebody’s meal at the drive-thru because we know it’s a nice thing to do. We do it because we want to start a Pay It Forward movement, to help people help others. We love having a cause, and we are relentless about making the world a better place.

Other Studies: Admin T

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