#this is the music and podcast survey of tumblr

[ghost-in-a-cup]

I am doing my part

[hellodarjeeling]

Where’s the 10+ years option?

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @tramweye  |  Twitter: freedomformages

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Q&A with tramweye

What is your OTP/OT3/etc?

Fenhawke, absolutely; no other ship even comes close. To me they were truly made for each other, I think especially Fenris needed Hawke, and even outside of romance I love their dynamic so much.

What is your favorite game?

Definitely DA2. It's a combination of a lot of things, but I mostly like how all the companions feel like an actual big family, thanks to the banter mostly. Hawke is my favorite protagonist to play, the gameplay is the most fun, just everything about that game is so encaptivating.

What do you listen to while creating?

Depends on the mood, but it's either music (my favorites are Kiltro, Florence + The Machine and Ethel Cain) or fiction podcasts/audio dramas, and very occasionally a video essay -  my favorite subjects being video games and horror movies.

[arthurtaylorlester]

i'm bad at analyzing data hence why i still havent posted the results of the horror podcast-musical-mcyt survey but what i can tell you there is one(!) cis straight horror podcast fan on tumblr. do with this information what you will

[cryptidsurveys]

Thursday, September 12th, 2024.

Are you “with” the very last person you kissed? I'm not in a relationship with anyone.

Ever dated/kissed a someone with the name Casey, Tyler, Ryan, Jordan, Colton, Rebecca, Samantha, Lauren, Taylor, or Ashley? No.

Was your last kiss, standing up, sitting down, or lying down? I actually don't remember my very last kiss.

Are you happy with the choices you’ve made? I'm not thrilled with many of the choices I've made in life, but I'm a lot happier with the choices I've been making over the last year or so. They haven't been perfect, but things seem to be moving in the right direction.

Are you excited for anything? The 21st (y'all probably know why by now, so no explanation is necessary). The Chili Festival. Autumnal foods. Upcoming trips to the Mountain Park, especially now that the leaves are starting to change. Cooler weather. Halloween/Thanksgiving vibes. Meeting up with my mom for lunch this afternoon.

Do you hate the last person you kissed? No.

You’re stuck in an elevator with one of your worst enemies, what do you do? I don't really have any enemies, but as for the person I dislike most…I'd be extremely annoyed, but I don't think I would say or do anything that wasn't related to getting out of the elevator.

Will this weekend be a good one? Saturday is iffy. It should be "okay" as long as I stay focused on the positives. Sunday should be alright. I'll be working with River and Kristen, so no issues there at least.

Are you mad at someone right now? It's like a mixture of anger and anxiety.

Do you like to listen to the radio in the car? Yeah. I pretty much always listen to classical music when I'm in the car.

Do you sleep with a fan on? Sometimes we'll leave the swamp cooler on through a portion of the night, but I don't use any fans.

How is your hair right now? Buzzed and short and currently covered by a beanie.

Have you ever broken up with someone for someone else? Yeah. One instance was silly and impulsive, and I ended up getting back together with the first person. Another instance involved breaking things off with someone new because I still wasn't over my ex and was probably hung up on the slim-to-nonexistent chance that things would work out.

How many windows are open on your computer? One window, five tabs (two for Tumblr, two for YouTube, and an online Notepad where I take these surveys).

How tall are you? About 5'3".

Is something bothering you? Yeah, but hopefully it will pass. I just have to get through the next week-ish.

Have you ever taken a shower with anyone before? I have.

Have you ever laughed at something that wasn’t meant to be funny? Plenty of times. I have a rather morbid, irreverent sense of humor.

Have you ever told someone of the opposite sex “Fuck you”? Yeah.

Do you like to cuddle? Very much.

Have you done anything sneaky lately? Yeah.

Is your hair clean? I took a shower yesterday morning, so it's not filthy.

Last night, did you go to sleep smiling? No, but I did drift off while enjoying Essential Salt's latest podcast.

Were you happy when you woke up today? I was anxious, but also looking forward to grocery shopping. I bought some fall goodies to try.

What are you drinking right now? Coffee.

Do you wear your seatbelt in the car? Yeah.

Does someone have feelings for you? No.

Have you ever been cheated on? Yeah.

Are you hard to please? Naw. I think I'm pretty easy to please. I'm relatively low-maintenance and small things can make me very happy.

What are you craving right now? Relief from overthinking. I'll be pleasantly distracted for a moment, but then the worries will creep back in, along with a racing heartbeat and a knot in my stomach.

How are you feeling right now? A whole mess of emotions I don't feel like untangling.

What are you sick of? Alex. One would think her fast-approaching exit date would make it easier on me and that I'd be on cloud nine with anticipation, but if anything it's made me less tolerant.

Are you missing anyone/something? Cats who have passed away, backpacking memories with my dad, the way I used to feel about volunteering (I still love it as a whole and have no plans to quit, but these past few weeks have been overshadowed by anxiety, anger, and dread).

Relationship to the last person you called? The last person I called was my mom.

Could you date someone shorter than you? Yeah.

Is there anybody you just wish would fall of the planet? Or simply leave my sphere of influence.

Do you wear glasses? Pretty much only when I'm driving or when I need to see a menu up on a board.

Where did you sleep last night? In my own bed.

Do you straighten your hair? No. My hair is naturally straight.

What color shirt are you wearing? I'm wearing a black t-shirt, a slate gray/blue long-sleeved shirt, and a pine green sweater.

Do you have a best friend? Ollie.

Do you wish you had the chance to go back in time and change something now? Yes and no. Yes because I wish I had handled things differently, but no because staying silent wasn't the answer either. I'm just going to have to let the chips fall where they may and come up with a better approach in the future.

Who is the last person you got a text from? My mom.

Are you excited for winter? Yesss, but I want to focus on enjoying autumn first.

When are you at your happiest? When I'm around the people I love and when I'm doing something I love.

Is there anything you wish you did today? Why haven’t you done it? Today has barely started, but some things on my to-do list include making art, washing some bed stuff, and vacuuming my room.

Do you prefer to spend your time indoors or outdoors? Indoors for the most part, but I like getting outside as well.

What were you doing before you started this survey? I put away the groceries and made breakfast.

Can you honestly say that you love yourself? Not fully, but a lot more than I used to. Recognizing even a portion of my worth has led to some interesting developments…

Do you think you spend too much time feeling upset? Lately, yes. I'm just like DUDE you really need to let this go before it consumes you and makes you do something stupid and regrettable. It feels like all of my old behavior patterns are bubbling right below the surface, but I'm trying my damnedest to choose a different path.

Is there anyone you would seriously punch right now if you had the chance? No.

Do you own a pair of uggs? I don't.

What are your plans for tomorrow? I'll be at the animal shelter for a full day.

[sw4tch]

hello dearest tumblr followers friends and mutuals, this is my message to The World:

Pls take the Tumblr Podcast/Music survey (this was a banner that appeared to me? Not sure if everyone got it or saw it bcus adblocks and stuff)

Why, you ask? (Grabs your shoulders) IN THE "which podcasts would you want us to promote, max 3" question, I NEED U TO MENTION "MALEVOLENT, by Harlan Guthrie"

That's it, I'm not ur boss anyway but if u do heed my word then just mention this podcast that i love, thank u very much

[fivestoriesfallingg]

tumblr music and podcasts survey is literally like “do you follow any communities about music on tumblr?” like girl you have NO idea

[reignitepod]

Episode #5.08 - Orzammar - Lost In All That Sky

We couldn’t put it off any longer (well we could have but Matt wanted to go here next), so it’s time to take on Orzammar. The warden and friends get thrown into a civil war between Prince Bhelen and Lord Harrowmont to determine who will be the next king and thus grant aid to the wardens against the Blight. Special thanks to Redd Spinks for our new amazing logo as well as to Radek Wade and Echoes of Oblivion for the song World of Thedas, which we use as our theme music.

Here's a link to Frankie's survey! 

You can find the show on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook!

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts!

Rate us on Spotify!

Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!

Check out this episode!

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

These are the results of the fandom survey! The survey managed to get about 100 replies, and this is part one of the results (part 2 soon to come).

I am so glad the fandom looks so spread in age!! (I feel old, guys), and it does look like about 40% of the people (participants) in the fandom joined this year, so YAY! NEW FANDOM-lings! 

Tumblr and Discord were the most used websites (and it is probably because I shared the survey on tumblr and discord).

Regarding the question: "How did you first meet arthuriana?" I answered "Sword in the Stone" and about 25% of people met Arthurian legends throught that adorable Disney cartoon. Other was the biggest response (45%) and these were the Other media added:

- Generic book/forgotten book/forgotten Children book (11) - Don't remember (5) - Someone in the family/a friend was/is a fan (3) - Morte d'Arthur or Kids adaptation of Malory (2) - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (2) - The OSP arthurian video (2) - Roger Lancelyn Green’s “King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table” (2)

Other answers were:

Books:

- "The Boy's King Arthur" - Mary Stewart's "Crystal Cave" - Pendragon Cycle (Lawhead) - Kevin Crossley-Holland's series - Marcia Williams 'King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table' - Gerald Morris' Squire's Tales series - Howard Pyles' Books

Music/podcast/online - Myths and Legends podcast - High Noon Over Camelot - Heather Dale

Shows/tv

- Magic Treehouse - Kaamelott - Prince Valiant - Gargoyles cartoon

Other:

- Paganism - Studying/studies - GAY REASONS (amazing answer) - Game of Choice: Guinevere game

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @livingmoth  |  Twitter: vividmoth

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Q&A with Michael/Livingmoth

What do you listen to while creating?

I like listening to crime podcasts and horror video essays (specifically Rotten Mango and Sagan Hawkes), because it’s interesting background noise, but not enough to distract me (unlike music).

What was your first contribution to the Dragon Age fandom?

My first ever contribution was a drawing of Fenris in traditional clothing from Kraków that I made as a gift for my girlfriend for his birthday :)

What is your favorite specific moment in the Dragon Age series?

It has to be the moment when Anders says "Ten years, a hundred years from now, someone like me will love someone like you and there will be no templars to tear them apart". I genuinely cried when he said that to me, I love him so much.

[purplesurveys]

996

This is originally an ask game that’s making the rounds here on Tumblr, but in this blog of course I answer everything. Quarantine Ask Game; questions by ghostly-nblm What’s your go-to snack? I haven’t really have one throughout this lockdown. I just snack on whatever’s available in our pantry - usually we have potato chips, salted egg chips, nuts, etc. And then sometimes my dad will whip up something for us himself, like wicked Oreos, churros, corndogs, and chocolate chip cookies. What’s a movie you could watch over and over? I could probably watch The Proposal everyday for the rest of my life and I doubt you’ll hear a complaint out of me. It’s just so funny, so lighthearted, and the entire cast meshes very well together. Favorite show to binge? Again when it comes to comfort shows/movies, I pick the lighthearted ones because they get me to relax and laugh a lot. That said, my favorite show to binge would be Friends. I recently started binge-watching it again and it feels good to come back to it after several months of not seeing an episode. 5 songs that make you want to dance? Shut Up And Dance - Walk the Moon Cinnamon - Hayley Williams Don’t Start Now - Dua Lipa Caught in the Middle - Paramore 7/11 - Beyoncé So, basically, Top 40 shit because it’s that genre that produces the most dance-y songs anyway. Pls don’t judge lmaaaaaao I like other artists I swear

5 songs that make you feel less lonely? I don’t know if I’ve ever turned to music to feel less lonely...I never really seek out that particular feeling. If anything, I listen to certain songs because I feel alone and I would want it to stay that way for the meantime.

Favorite meal to cook yourself? I always blank out at these cooking questions because I don’t know how to make anything, soz. When I start earning my own money I swear I’ll start experimenting with ingredients in the kitchen. You heard it here first. Seriously guys, when I finally get a stable income and you notice me spending it on unnecessary shit, feel free to nag me and tell me to start cooking!!! How do you “treat yourself”? With food. Food has always been my reward to myself after a long week, a hard exam, a bloody presentation, and basically after getting through something I had been dreading for a long time.   Favorite thing to do when doing self care? Surveys. Who have you been talking to the most? My family, I guess. “The most” is really pushing it though; I don’t talk a lot these days and it’s been difficult for me to sustain a conversation and not drain my battery in the middle of it. One thing you really miss right now? The past. I normally don’t think about it, but if there’s something from the past that I do miss, I end up pining hard for it. If you could be self-isolated with anyone who would it be? Angela. We haven’t seen one another in seven months so we could definitely do with spending seven months together lmao. We miss the shit out of each other. Do you have any pets? Yes :) Small update on my dogs: so for the last four months Kimi has hated having Cooper around and snarls every time he senses he’s nearby. But, and we have no clue what changed, now he has started humping Cooper and wants to be near him all the time...ugh. Favorite video games? At the early early phase of the lockdown I played Mario Kart 8 on the Switch all day long. Then for some reason I stopped and I haven’t played since like April. I haven’t played other video games. Favorite podcasts? Ear Biscuits. Andi has also started their own podcast and it debuted like a week ago; it looks extremely promising, but I’m super behind since I’ve deleted all my socials. I’ll catch up once I’m in the right state of mind and am feeling better enough to come back on my accounts. Favorite YouTubers? The main channels I watch are Good Mythical Morning and The Try Guys. But throughout the quarantine sooooooo many local celebrities have started their own vlog channels and majority of them are super fun to watch. My faves would be Andi Manzano’s, Manny Pacquiao’s daughter Mary’s, and Bea Alonzo’s. Wake up time? These days I try to be out of bed by 8:30 so I can sufficiently prepare and clean up for work, but early on in the lockdown I liked staying up all night and then waking up at like 9 or 10 AM. Sleep time? Anywhere from 10 PM to 1 AM. If you could go anywhere right now where would it be? I’d be in Sagada, vacationing by myself and doing some hiking, spelunking, reflecting, and soul-searching. I wish I can go back there someday; I just reallllly need to be out of the house and out of the city for a while.

What’s a change you want to keep when self isolation is over? There is nothing I wish to keep from this quarantine. It turned my entire life around and I wish I had all the things I had before it instead. Have you learned something? Yeah. Some of them the hard way. Any new skills? I took up a course on marketing last month so that was a lot of fun. Hobby-wise, I’ve been thinking of getting into cross-stitching so I can’t wait to buy my own kit and start with that. I’m also learning a lot of new and super helpful skills at work, like coming up with PR tactics/executions, knowing what will work for a client and what wouldn’t, photo editing, etc. It’s been the best internship experience ever. What’s a hobby you’d like to start learning? ^ The latter. I’d also love to learn how to bake, and maybe? start a vlog because it’d be nice to have an outlet where I can express myself and do new things while sharing my experiences with other people. What’s something you’d like to get better at? I constantly want to improve at my job because perfectionism. What food do you wish you had right now? Coffee shop pastries. :( God I haven’t had one of those in a while; I miss them loads. Your go to quarantine outfit? I don’t have one but man, when I do go out I tend to overdress because I rarely get an opportunity or have a reason to drive out these days, so I allow myself to look cute and all dressed up even if I’m just meant to pick up food at my grandma’s or something. What have you done today? I’ve been taking this survey, taken a shower, cried for a half hour, played with Cooper, cradled Kimi like a baby, checked my emails, and taken a few sips of coffee. Any plans for tomorrow? Work work work. What’s on your “to watch” list? The second volume of Unsolved Mysteries is finally out on Netflix so I’m hoping I get around to watching a few episodes soon. Any musicians/bands you’ve discovered? Most recent one was Chase Atlantic but I discovered them like back in July. Since I’m not listening to a lot of music these days, I’m not expecting to find new bands or singers to get into any time soon. Post a selfie right now!! Eh. Post pictures of your pets! I don’t feel like raking through my photos this morning. Maybe some other time. When was the last time you drank water? Last night at dinner. When was the last time you ate? Last night. When was the last time you got up and stretched? I can’t remember when I last did that. I usually stretch in bed, though.

Favorite song right now? This has been asked on every damn survey recently. I’m sure you’ll find my answer within the first page of my blog. Favorite social media to scroll through? It used to be Twitter until the lockdown hit and everyone stopped going out and having interesting updates. Before I deactivated everything, I loved spending time on Facebook. What’s the last thing you ate? A slice of pizza. What’s the weather like where you are? It’s a little cloudy and cold. I’m expecting it to rain today. Have you been playing animal crossing? No, but I know so many people who have been. How are you feeling? 50% meh, 50% just going through the motions. Who’s the last person you texted? Ate Alyanna. We’re both going through rough patches at the moment so we were cheering one another up. I needed that positivity a lot this morning and I’m glad we had that interaction. What does your last text message say with no context? ”Waaaaaaaa cute” Post a meme that made you laugh recently:

Outdoor activity you’d like to do right now? Hiking, mountain climbing, camping. Anything that’ll help me get disconnected from the world for a few days, really. Something you’re looking forward to when quarantine is over? Doing all those ^, traveling, being able to actually go to a workplace (once I have one), seeing my friends, going to bars again. Someone you’d like to see when quarantine is over? Everybody, man. I don’t give a shit as to who it is. Any new games coming out you want to play? Not really. I’m just waiting on GTA 6 even though there’s been like 0 updates on that front. New shows you’ve discovered? I revisited The Crown, but that’s it. I haven’t discovered anything new. Most comfortable piece of clothing you have? I find all of them comfortable; that’s why I wear them at home haha.

[affiliatedollar]

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[oodlenoodleroodle]

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/530726335?storyId=530726335

Yesterday I listened to this episode of NPR’s Invisibilia podcast from 2017 about emotions, and it has some things that are very relevant to conversations about trauma, and I really wanted to share it and I know people aren’t going to go listen to a random podcast episode while they are scrolling tumblr, so I’m just gonna quote from the transcript:

SPIEGEL: Lisa Feldman Barrett is a psychology professor at Northeastern University. And for a very particular kind of person - and I'm going to grant you it is a very, very particular kind of person - Lisa is kind of a rock star because she's someone who has come up with a new mind-blowing way of thinking about emotion. Which is why Hanna and I were super excited to talk to her. And she was excited to talk to us, too - kind of.

BARRETT: Other than the pieces on emotion, I'm a totally big fan [of the podcast].

(LAUGHTER)

SPIEGEL: According to Lisa Barrett, the show that you are listening to right now, INVISIBILIA, has consistently portrayed emotion and how emotions work incorrectly. But in our defense, the reason why we've been wrong, at least according to Lisa, is because the whole culture is wrong. We think wrong about emotions, where they come from and how they work because the way that we experience the world makes it very, very hard to think right about them.

BARRETT: How I would describe what's actually happening will not make sense to people, right? It will seem really counter-intuitive to people.

SPIEGEL: So let's begin the catalogue of wrongness with this, what Lisa says is the very first thing we are taught about emotions that is wrong.

BARRETT: Emotions are built into your brain at birth.

SPIEGEL: We've been told this over and over again, that we are wired to feel X or that evolution has wired us to feel Y because our forbearers on the African savannah had to survive, needed to respond instantly and appropriately to big bad lions and hungry tigers.

BARRETT: So there's a stimulus...

SPIEGEL: Roar!

BARRETT: ...Which triggers a circuit inside you...

SPIEGEL: Holy...!

BARRETT: ...Which causes a bodily response in you...

SPIEGEL: (Gasps).

BARRETT: ...Which then causes you to behave in a particular way.

SPIEGEL: Run!

BARRETT: You know, they're not exactly seen as reflexes, but they're as close to reflexes as you might get. If the stimulus is there, the response is obligatory. That's the view. It's an automatic reaction to the world.

SPIEGEL: Now, according to this view, you can choose how you respond to the emotion that's been triggered. You can suppress it, reframe it, make a photo collage about it. But the initial emotion itself, that is universally programmed. There is nothing you can do.

BARRETT: It just seems absolutely preposterous that an emotion could be anything other than a reaction because in a moment where someone bursts into your house with a gun, there is very little that doesn't seem like a reaction. You know, it's such a strong feeling. It feels like you've been hijacked.

ROSIN: And to me anyway, there is something profound and hopeful in this way of thinking.

SPIEGEL: It's such a beautiful and connecting idea that we all share emotions. I mean, it's the kind of idea if you cut us, we bleed. If our children die, we cry.

ROSIN: That is literally the Coke ad, right? It's the Coke ad which takes you around the world and everybody smiles.

(Singing) I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love.

SPIEGEL: We all smile when we're happy and so know the meaning of a smile when we see it in the face of someone else. Even if their skin is a different color or their culture feels strange, we know what they feel. Emotion is our universal language.

(Singing) I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

SPIEGEL: But this - apparently - is not what 25 years of studying emotion has taught Lisa. Basically you're saying, not so much?

BARRETT: For every emotion category that we have in the U.S. that we think is biologically basic and universal, there's at least one culture in the world that doesn't really possess a concept for that emotion and where people don't really feel that emotion.

SPIEGEL: Fear, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, happiness - for Lisa, there is nothing inevitable about these emotions or any emotions, including the emotion of despair.

SPIEGEL: How many emotions do you feel in a day? Recently, I found myself wondering. This morning, I woke up insecure about my worth. But by the time I got to the shower, which is about 10 feet away from where I sleep, there had been a subtle shift. I was cycling between regretful and angry.

Later at the coffee store, some music on the speakers above my head during my walk out helped me feel determined. I was energized and ready to take on the world. If I had a square jaw, it would have been set. All day long, these emotions wash over me, hundreds of them - thousands of them? I've never counted but I always seem to be feeling them.

BARRETT: Yes, they're seen as happening to you - right? - not something that you yourself make.

SPIEGEL: But that's not how Lisa sees it. Lisa is one of the most respected researchers in psychology right now, lead editor on an enormous tome on emotion. And her latest book, "How Emotions Are Made," is an attempt to synthesize emotion research from a variety of fields - neuroscience, biology, anthropology.

Which makes it hard to summarize in a pithy way, but if I had to boil it down, here's how I'd do it. The way emotion works is the opposite of what you think. Emotions aren't reactions to the world. Emotions actually construct the world.

I know, at first, it didn't make any sense to me, either. So let's start this explanation where science stories usually start these days, with the 3 pounds of meat between your ears and the very difficult job it must do all day long.

BARRETT: The reason why we have a brain is because we have to control the systems in our body. We have a tremendous number of systems.

SPIEGEL: You mostly aren't aware of all of the systems in your body that your brain is regulating.

BARRETT: Systems for glucose. We have systems for salt, systems for oxygen.

SPIEGEL: But if your brain decided to take a day off, kick back, go to the beach, you would definitely notice because you'd be dead.

BARRETT: A circulatory system.

SPIEGEL: So many systems, and all of them need to be managed perfectly in order for you to do anything - any single thing.

BARRETT: So, for example, your brain starts to change your blood pressure before you stand up because, you know, it has to make sure that blood gets to the brain with oxygen, otherwise you'll faint.

SPIEGEL: Which brings us to the obligatory fancy science word that I spent three weeks trying to pronounce correctly - interoception. Interoception?

BARRETT: Interoception is just your feeling of the sensations that come from the movements inside your body.

SPIEGEL: The easiest way to think about interoception is that it's the thing that senses the status of all these internal systems, monitors all the comings and goings. I think of it like an eye but inside your body, turned so it's looking at you.

In the same way that your eye takes in the world and then communicates what's going on to your brain, the interoception thingy surveys your body and then communicates what's going on with all these systems to your brain, only it doesn't do as thorough a job as your eye – for good reason.

BARRETT: You don't feel these sensations in very high fidelity in the way that you see things in the world with a lot of detail. And you can hear things often with a lot of detail, but you don't feel things from the inside of your body with a lot of detail because if you did, you would never pay attention to anything else in the world ever.

SPIEGEL: So your internal eye keeps things super stupid simple.

BARRETT: So the way your brain is wired is to feel interoceptive sensations - the sensations from our bodies - as simple feelings of pleasantness, unpleasantness, arousal, calmness.

SPIEGEL: That is literally all your internal eye can communicate, those four sensations.

BARRETT: Pleasantness, unpleasantness, arousal, calmness.

SPIEGEL: But all day long, it's sending your brain status updates like a teenager on Snapchat, only worse.

BARRETT: Pleasantness, unpleasantness, arousal, unpleasantness, calmness.

SPIEGEL: Feel sympathy for a moment for your brain. There it is, trapped in the dark, silent box of your skull. It's getting these updates about these important sensations in the body, but it doesn't know for certain what's causing them. That unpleasant loop in the stomach just then, was that because the body was hungry or because the man who just sat down across the table is insanely good looking?

BARRETT: Arousal, calmness.

How does it know what caused something when all it has are the effects of that thing? The answer is it has past experience, so it's guessing.

SPIEGEL: Whatever sensation you have in your body, the brain develops a theory - actually a whole bunch of theories - based on previous experience and then uses them to make a prediction about what is going on.

BARRETT: When you have an ache in your body, it asks the question essentially, you know, in this situation, in this context, the last time this happened, what was the cause of that ache? And that's really what concepts are. Concepts are your brain's using past experience in order to make sense of incoming sensory input.

SPIEGEL: OK. Let's pause on concepts because we need to talk about them and the role they play in how you feel. Your culture has a ton of emotional concepts. When you were little, a toddler, you learn them from your parents. You went to the park, and your mom and dad carefully explained to you that that feeling that you had when that two-bit kid in the red sneakers shoved you off the swing, that was anger. Acquaint yourself with that emotion, they counseled, it will likely play a major role in your teens.

SPIEGEL: Sometimes they told you not to be afraid.

SPIEGEL: Sometimes you simply watched how they responded - the contours of sadness and the things that prompted it, the experience of joy and how it was expressed. These were likely the first emotional concepts you learned but you went on. You learned regret. You learned determination. Then in college, you got introduced to the idea of schadenfreude, which during your 20s you practiced liberally.

BARRETT: That's correct.

SPIEGEL: And these concepts, these emotional concepts, they are the things that shape the raw sensations from your interoception thingy - those raw materials of pleasant, unpleasant, aroused, calm - into the actual emotions that you experience. And without these concepts, Lisa says, you wouldn't have any of the emotions that you think of as hardwired, even sadness, even fear, even all the other things that you think of as fundamental and wired into you.

BARRETT: And it's parallel for vision. For example, if you have no concepts, you will see bright and dark. You won't see objects. You know, we know this for a fact. There are people, for example, who have corneal damage or who have cataracts at birth. And then at some point in their adult life, they have a corneal transplant or their cataracts are removed, and we would imagine from the classical view that they would just be able to see everything, but they don't.

They don't see for days and sometimes weeks. And sometimes years there are things they can't see because they don't have concepts. Their brain has no past visual experience to make meaning of the visual sensations that they receive.

SPIEGEL: So all they see is light and dark?

BARRETT: All they see is light and dark.

SPIEGEL: So if you put an apple in front of them, what would it look like?

BARRETT: They wouldn't see an apple. They wouldn't even see an object.

SPIEGEL: You're saying that emotion works the exact same way? That...

BARRETT: Yes. I'm saying that instead of having blobs of light and dark, without concepts you will feel pleasant or unpleasant. You can feel pleasure. You can feel high arousal, being worked up. You can feel low activation, but you don't really feel anger, sadness, fear, disgust or any of the other emotions that we think of as being given to us by nature.

SPIEGEL: What Lisa is saying is that our concepts make the world. And it is hard to overstate how much this changes our idea of what is actually going on when we walk down the street. The usual idea is that you are taking in the true world around you and reacting to it, this real thing that exists outside of you.

But what she's saying is that everything around you is a blob until the concepts in your head shape it into a thing, and then you respond to the thing that you just created. The concepts themselves are the key.

BARRETT: Yes.

SPIEGEL: Now, if you watch the news, it's likely you've encountered a more contained version of the idea that concepts literally shape the world you see.

SPIEGEL: We've heard a lot about troubling police shootings of young black men or George Zimmerman pulling a gun on Trayvon Martin.

SPIEGEL: And part of the way that people talk about police shootings is that sometimes police are responding not to the reality of the people in front of them but to a stereotype in their head. Stereotypes are concepts. In this case, the concept that young black men are dangerous. Critics say it's that concept that shapes what the police see and can prompt them to pull the trigger when there is no actual need.

SPIEGEL: But what Lisa is saying is that concepts like these work in all of us all of the time. They take the blobs in front of us and shape them into what we see. And they take the blobs inside us and shape them into what we feel.

BARRETT: For better or for worse, experiences are constructed. And your emotional experience is not an indication of something objective about the event. That's just not true.

ROSIN: And here is the point of all this, according to Lisa.

BARRETT: That means that you have more control over your emotions than you might imagine. The horizon of control is much broader because.

ROSIN: Because concepts are not hardwired. We can change them. Ultimately, we have control.

BARRETT: Yes.

ROSIN: And this is not just a fun science fact, a trippy nugget you heard on a podcast. That's not what this is.

SPIEGEL: Like, essentially you're saying we have way more control over and therefore responsibility for our emotions.

BARRETT: Yes.

ROSIN: Control and responsibility for our emotions. It's such a puzzle. Control is fun. Who doesn't like control? But responsibility - much less fun, much, much less fun.

SPIEGEL: So if I have post-traumatic stress disorder, say, do I have control over that?

BARRETT: Well... Well, yes.

ROSIN: [Earlier in the podcast episode we told the story of] Tommy Jarrett, the trucker, [who] was traumatized [in a bad crash where a child died]. And if you look at it the court's way, Tommy's emotions start with Michael Jones, [the child’s father], who lost control of his car. But if you look at it Lisa's way, they start much earlier with the concepts in Tommy's head. In the culture where Tommy grew up, a farm in Alabama in the 1960s...

JARRETT: “A man should be strong enough to protect people.”

ROSIN: “A man should be in control of his truck and of himself. And if something goes wrong, it's his fault.” That was the underlying concept that caused Tommy to think he was a killer. So did the PTSD come from Michael Jones, or did it come from inside Tommy?

Even bringing up a question like this, it feels like a radical thing to do because we all like to assume that if we feel something, it tells us something true about the world, something that happened to me. But Lisa isn't saying that PTSD or trauma of any kind isn't real, or that people suffering shouldn't be recognized and relieved, or that we shouldn't address the individuals and systems that harm people.

She's just saying trauma isn't cancer or diabetes, where cells in your body have gone wrong. The problem has much more to do with concepts in your head created by and based in our culture. And those aren't inevitable. Those can be changed.

Lisa identifies herself as a progressive, so she really struggled when we talked about things like PTSD. But she had to admit that yes, her theory has obvious implications for lots of things in our society, even implications she doesn't like.

BARRETT: I see the risk in what I'm saying - right? - but science is science. And we have to - I feel like it's necessary to draw people's attention to what the science has to say. And in the proper context in society, in culture, people can debate the consequences. But I think, you know, I do think that it's very dangerous to treat things as objective when they're not.

SPIEGEL: Emotions are not objective. All kinds of emotions are not objective, even the emotions you have in response to a death.

...

ROSIN: So Tommy. How do we think about Tommy, his pain and the lawsuit? Lisa wants us to acknowledge that Tommy's pain, it wasn't an automatic inevitable response. It came from the concepts in his head. So does that mean he didn't deserve to win his case? Well, Lisa's just asking us to be more honest. We can say yes, it partly came from in his own head, but we as a society still think it's fair and just that he be compensated.

BARRETT: The point is that we can acknowledge the perceptions are constructed or we can ignore it and just keep doing what we're doing anyways. I think it would be much fairer if we just acknowledged how our brains actually work.

ROSIN: Our brains rely on concepts, and concepts make our world, our culture, our systems. Which is why it's useful to know which concepts are shaping us and which ones we're passing on to each other and to our children.

ROSIN: And you know what? If we make these concepts, we can unmake them. But even if we don't choose to do that, even if we decide to build the world just exactly as we've built it down to the very last brick, there in the back of our heads when we experience something that disturbs us can hover a liberating thought - this feeling I have, it doesn't have to be this way. There is nothing inevitable about the world that is.

BARRETT: You have more control over your own experience. You become more the architect of your own experience.

ROSIN: And that's exactly what Tommy did. We met up with him 10 years after the lawsuit. He ended up getting $50,000 from the court. Half went to the lawyers. And in the end, Amanda's insurance company covered it.

These days, Tommy's feeling much better. His life is great now, he says so himself. About a year after the accident, he started driving again. Now, he has his own trucking company and a motorcycle which he and his wife ride out West when they can. About the whole awful period after the accident, he understands one thing for sure now.

JARRETT: My emotions wasn't being true to me. I had every right to be upset and be hurt and distraught. I didn't need to keep telling myself that I was a killer.

ROSIN: That emotion that the court had validated, it felt real, but it wasn't telling him anything real about the world. Tommy realized that basically because he did exactly what Lisa Feldman Barrett says people should do when they feel like a powerful emotion is controlling them. He took this construct which had been in his head since he was a kid, that as a good man and a ninja of a driver he should have been able to prevent the accident.

ROSIN: And he learned a new construct. It took him a long time, more than a year, and a lot of work. And he had help from his family and from a therapist because changing the concepts we've grown up with and absorbed all of our lives is not easy at all. But eventually, Tommy did it.

He replaced his old concept with a new one that led him to the actual truth. He was not a killer. Because when that car skidded across the median, there was nothing he could have done. The new concept? Sometimes a man is not, in fact, in control.

[roses-and-grimoires]

Neverending Survey - Idristan

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Idristan Parcemel Greystone Agache

NICKNAME: None that won’t get you glared at

AGE:  37

BIRTHDAY:   11th Sun of the 2nd Astral Moon

ETHNIC GROUP: Ishgardian Elezen

NATIONALITY: Ishgardian

LANGUAGE/S: Common, Mhachi

SEXUAL ORIENTATION : Bisexual

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : Biromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:  Engaged

HOME TOWN / AREA:  The Brume, Ishgard

CURRENT HOME:  The Mist, Limsa Lominsa

PROFESSION: Voidsent hunter, chirurgeon, mercenary

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Long, straight, and pure white.

EYES: Bright green

FACE: Very angular. Could cut yourself on those cheek bones

LIPS: Thin

COMPLEXION: Lightly tanned

BLEMISHES:  Birthmark on leg

SCARS:  Too many to list

TATTOOS: Arcanima circle over heart

HEIGHT:  6′3″

WEIGHT: 200 ponze

BUILD:  Lean

FEATURES:  Striking, intent eyes, large nose

ALLERGIES:  None that he knows of

USUAL HAIR STYLE:  Ponytail

USUAL FACE LOOK :  Scowling

USUAL CLOTHING:  Longcoats, suits, vests... basically Victorian-chic. Would not be caught dead in a t-shirt or anything with too much color.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR/S: Failure, airships, loss of control, the Inquisition, dragons.

ASPIRATION/S:  To redeem himself, to wipe out all voidsent, to protect his friends and family, and to one day grow a beautiful garden.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Determined, focused, curious, protective, kind, empathetic, quick-witted.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Reckless, restless, impulsive, stubborn, prideful, spite, vain, vengeful, moody.

TEMPERAMENT:   Melancholic

SOUL TYPE/S:  Warrior

ANIMALS:  Crows

VICE HABIT/S: Alcohol

FAITH: Halone

GHOSTS?: Yes

AFTERLIFE?: Yes

REINCARNATION?:  No

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Reformist

EDUCATION LEVEL:  Scholasticate-trained

FAMILY.

FATHER : Leodaire de Corbelin

MOTHER :  Ationne Agache (deceased)

SIBLINGS : Elonne Derinloire

EXTENDED FAMILY: Bellamy Black, some half-siblings that, as far as he is concerned, don’t count.

NAME MEANING/S: None

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: None.

FAVORITES.

BOOK:  Adventure and romance novels.

DEITY: Halone

HOLIDAY:  Starlight

MONTH: April

SEASON:  Spring

PLACE: Ishgard

WEATHER: Sun

SOUND / S: The ocean, a warm fireplace crackling

SCENT / S:  Brandy, leather, flowers

TASTE / S:  Brandy, wine, stew, chocolate

FEEL / S:  Draining aether, the wind whistling past somewhere high, sinking into a hot bath after a long day’s work

ANIMAL / S:  Cats

NUMBER: 6

COLORS: White, black, green, red

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Red magic, conjury, gardening, running for his life, dancing, getting into trouble, killing voidsent.

BAD AT: Anything mechanical, controlling his temper, arcanima and math in general, making good decisions

TURN ONS: Wit, confidence, cleverness, loyalty.

TURN OFFS: Cruelty, naivety, submissiveness, “being boring”.

HOBBIES: Gardening, dancing, practicing magic, researching, charity work, traveling, swimming, blitzball.

TROPES: Byronic Hero, Deadpan Snarker, Hunter of Monsters, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, Knight in Sour Armor, Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Dr. Jerk, The Atoner, Sophisticated as Hell, Be All My Sins Remembered, Dark Is Not Evil, The Gadfly

QUOTES : “ …He wants to know that his sacrifices meant something. He wants someone to tell him that the nightmares that he sees when he closes his eyes help other people sleep better at night.”

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 : If you could write your character your way in their own movie,  what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?          

A1 :  Some sort of period piece. Likely a horror movie, given his profession.

Q2 :  What would their soundtrack/score sound like?          

A2 :  Something dark and moody, full of regret but also with just a bit of hope mixed in.

Q3 :  Why did you start writing this character?        

A3 : I fell in love with both Ishgard and the idea of making a snarky, (relatively) older character, someone driven by a sense of guilt turned into purpose. And the whole wandering hunter thing is cool, even if he’s settled down more these days.

Q4 :   What first attracted you to this character?          

A4 : I wanted to do something different from my usual nerds, and snarky grumps are fun.

Q5 :  Describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse.

A5 : It can be hard to balance making him just the right level of grumpy. Sometimes he ends up coming off a bit too nice because I OOCly don’t want to start a conflict.

Q6 :  What do you have in common with your muse?        

A6 :  We are both introverts to the extreme.

Q7 :   How does your muse feel about you?          

A7 :   I am a rather sadistic god.

Q8 :  What characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ?      

A8 :  Ahhh there’s too many to list. Solenne, of course. Michaux too, even if they aren’t really getting along atm. Lebeaux is always interesting, if antagonistic. Rashk. Synn. Lux. Bellamy (gods we need to do more stuff). And Idris and Cailan need their own buddy cop movie.

Q9 :  What gives you inspiration to write your muse ?        

A9 : Music, mainly. Podcasts.

Q10 : How long did this take you to complete ?          

A10 : Too long! Fuck you and your drafts not saving tumblr

Tagged by: @alannah-corvaine​​ Tagging: @secrets-and-aetherlight​, @veloxaraptor​, @smouldering-dream​, @fratres-fatali​, @theforestsquiet​, @rashkgeilt​, and anyone who wants to

[bookclub4m]

Episode 085 - Recent Media We’ve Experienced and Enjoyed

This episode we’re discussing recent media we’ve experienced and enjoyed. We talk Muppets, French pop music, anarchist witches, and in-depth analyses of video game lore. Plus: We talk about some books too!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Media We’ve Enjoyed

Anna’s Picks

Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley

Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition by Tsutomu Nihei

Sunshine State by Sarah Gerard

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

Come by Jain (Music Video)

I Like (the idea of) You by Tessa Violet (Music Video)

Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior: 4th Edition by Donald O. Case and Lisa M. Given

Matthew’s Picks

My Brother's Husband, Volume 2 by Gengoroh Tagame

Academia Obscura by Glen Wright

@AcademiaObscura

Chicken Chicken Chicken: Chicken Chicken by Doug Zongker

The Perfect PokéRap by Brian David Gilbert

Unraveled | Absurdly Comprehensive Game Lore

Gill & Gilbert playlist

RJ’s Picks

Hearts of Magic: Threads Entangled

One Shot podcast: Hearts of Magic, part 1

Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands

The Muppet Movie (Wikipedia)

The Muppet Movie

Trailer Movin' Right Along (song)

Robin the Frog (Muppet Wiki)

Critical Role

Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace

Meghan’s Picks

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

If Our Bodies Could Talk: A Guide to Operating and Maintaining a Human Body by James Hamblin

If Our Bodies Could Talk - The Atlantic

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Other Media We Mention

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

BLAME! Master Edition, Volume 1 by Tsutomu Nihei

Knights of Sidonia, Volume 1 by Tsutomu Nihei

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

The Dark Crystal (Wikipedia)

The Dark Crystal - Skeksis language

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Wikipedia)

Now Streaming Fizzgigs (Anna and Matthew legitimately got more enjoyment watching this video than the amount of the show they actually watched. Does the show get better? Let us know!)

this video got me a job by Brian David Gilbert

Monster Factory

Dice Friends - Trouble in P4RA-DI5E Episode 1 (Paranoia RPG)

Fuck My Nose Up by HVDES (song)

Links, Articles, and Things

Chuck Klosterman (Wikipedia)

Rio Theatre

Ontario’s interlibrary loan service is running again, but not in Peterborough (Uneven resumption of interlibrary loan in Ontario)

Changes to Interlibrary Loan Services in Ontario: Details and Frontline Impact for Public Libraries and Patrons 

Suggest new genres!

Fill out the form to suggest genres!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on October 1st when we’ll be discussing the fiction genre of American Gothic!

Then on Tuesday, October 15th we’ll be discussing suspending our disbelief when it comes to fiction plus we’ll talk about literary-themed Halloween costumes!

[eldritchsurveys]

376.

01 — Is your mood or the overall tone of your day often affected by the dreams you had the night before? >> Rarely. I mean, I don’t even remember most of my dreams, and when I do they’re usually pretty mundane. 02 — Do you listen to podcasts? If so, which ones? When do you typically listen to them? >> Not usually. 03 — Have you ever used exercise as a way of controlling/releasing your emotions? >> No. 04 — How do you define “beauty,” and to what extent does it matter to you? Do you think that beauty is something that is actually attainable? Do you actively strive to be beautiful, and to what lengths do/would you go to attain beauty? >> I don’t really have a working definition for beauty in terms of people. I think of beauty in terms of like... music, and shit, but not... people’s bodies or whatever. Either a person is attractive or unattractive to me, and that’s that -- and that means literally nothing at the end of the day anyway. I don’t strive to be “beautiful” because that doesn’t mean anything to me. Beautiful to whom? Some random people that I don’t even care about? Why? Like, the whole concept just falls apart when I think about it.

05 — How do you keep track of your finances? >> I just check the balance on my mobile banking app every so often to make sure everything’s on the up-and-up.

06 — Do you remember the very first time you came across surveys or the Xanga survey-taking community? How long after that did you take your first survey or start your own account? >> I don’t remember the first time, no, because it was like 15 years ago. I don’t remember when I first started taking surveys, either, because same reason. 07 — Do you think that there are any positive aspects or outcomes of suffering from a mental illness? If you have a mental illness, do you think it has changed you for the better in any way? >> I think I’ve gained a lot of insight about the variety of human experience by having to learn how to navigate the world in a way that makes sense to me. The “typical” path is unavailable to me because of how my brain is wired, so I’ve had to search for lesser-used paths or carve out my own, and that has been very instructive. It also makes me more tolerant of other people’s paths, because I know there are many of them and we’re all largely doing our best. (I just don’t necessarily want everyone’s path to cross mine, you dig.)

08 — What is your opinion on celebrity culture and celebrity worship? Have you ever been guilty of putting a celebrity on a pedestal? Do you think it’s somehow more acceptable/understandable to obsess over certain types of celebrities (musicians over YouTubers, say) than others? At what point do you think an obsession like that crosses the line? >> I find it a bit unnerving, and I’m sure a lot of celebrities do too. When I was a teenager I indulged in plenty of my own brand of “celebrity worship” but it was mostly self-contained (because, you know, the internet wasn’t yet the social-media beast that it is now), and I do still think of it as something that a teenager might do before they grow out of it. The fact that grown ass people who know full well that celebrities are just shiny humans are doing it is the unnerving part to me. I think it crosses all the lines when people start stalking celebrities or their families (online or offline), or tweeting rude or sexual shit to them directly, or otherwise being totally disrespectful of any boundaries that celebrity may have. People will talk about sexual harassment and shit and then turn around and tweet eggplant emojis at like Idris Elba or whatever. Fuck off with that. 09 — Do you enjoy livetweeting? If so, what sorts of things do you livetweet about? >> I don’t tweet at all. 10 — What are some expectations you had about your education or career, and how do they compare to the reality? >> I had no expectations, which is partly why I have no regrets. I was confused for a while because I couldn’t do what other people were doing (and what I was apparently expected to do), and I wondered if it was some kind of personal failing, but I learned the truth eventually. 11 — If you were to pursue a career in photography and had the opportunity and means to photograph whatever you wanted, what would most like to photograph? >> I wouldn’t want to be a photographer. 12 — Is there a certain type of clothing (outerwear, activewear, loungewear, etc.) that you enjoy shopping for more than others? >> I am really just not happy shopping for clothing at all. I do it because I must, but it’s an ordeal. 13 — Do you consider yourself an insecure person? What things are you most insecure about? >> Nah, not really. I might have moments here and there, but even in those moments I know that shit is unrealistic as hell. 14 — How concerned are you about your internet privacy? What sort of information do you avoid giving out online that others may readily offer up? What do you think of the argument that “I don’t care if [government organization] surveils me because I’ve got nothing to hide"? >> I’m not as concerned as maybe I should be, but I just can’t bring myself to care all that much. There are things that I have finally said “okay, no, I’m done with this” to, like having a facebook account, but also like... I know damn well Google is siphoning my data from me with the biggest vacuum hose possible but I’m not going to quit using Google. I think that “nothing to hide” argument is one that sounds like it makes sense when you say it, and it should, but the problem is that that only works if you have a scrupulous government... 15 — Is there someone in your life who always seems to be looking for your sympathy/pity? How do/would you deal with someone like that? >> No. People like that usually end up feeling very wronged by me. 16 — Do you tag posts for trigger/content warnings? Does it bother you when people don’t do so? >> I don’t. And no, it doesn’t bother me at all when other people don’t. 17 — Do you have any projects that you’ve been thinking of starting for a while but haven’t gotten around to? Are there any ideas for projects that you have that you don’t think you’ll ever get around to? >> ... That damn Walter O’Dim fic concept is still rattling around the back of my mind, but I don’t have anything concrete to build on so it’s just going to have to rattle around until it gives me something to work with. 18 — Are you ever afraid to post your ideas, artwork, photography, etc. online for fear that they will get stolen or not credited? >> No. My only creative output is headcanon and fanfiction and that’s pretty difficult to steal -- and honestly, even if someone did, it wouldn’t bother me. If you can take something of mine and successfully make it your own, then you have my blessing. After all, that’s exactly what I did when I wrote the fanfiction in the first place, innit? (Even if it was an original work of fiction, I would still feel the same way. I just... don’t really care, like with most things. I do think it’s rude to steal other people’s work, or post it without credit, though, because I know I’m an anomaly and most creatives DO care -- which is why I religiously try to find and post sources for uncredited work I see on tumblr.)