#unless you're an academic institution

[suga4mycoffee]

Various 'writing assistant' programs, anyone who ever took a single creative writing class, and people who think all adverbs are words ending in -ly:

ALL ADVERBS ARE EVIL. USE NONE. IF YOU USE ADVERBS, YOUR WRITING IS WEAK AND AWFUL. ADVERBS ALWAYS = WEAK VERBS, BE MORE FORCEFUL. DIE IN A DITCH WITH YOUR PRECIOUS ADVERBS.

Me, using as many fucking adverbs as I damn well please:

You aren't the boss of me, ticking boxes off of a 'how to write words good' checklist is weak writing, and you can shove your linguistic snobbery up your ass. I DO WHAT I WANT.

[satoriberry]

can we talk about how fucked up someone's head can be after going to a gender-seperated school and not normally interacting with the opposite gender for +5 years cause dawg....

[seafoamreadings]

week of may 5th, 2024

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: this week's new moon is a money and resources moon for you. if you are having any trouble in that arena or just want a boost, this is a perfect time to set related intentions. live in accordance with your highest personal values to complete the magic.

taurus: the entire week's astrology is broadly pretty supportive for you but especially the new moon. use it to reset or reinvigorate your self concept or any aspect of your appearance or personality.

gemini: focus this week on soul work as much as you can. anything to do with integrating your shadow, healing traumas, or building a healthier life are auspicious; bonus points if you can volunteer in a hospital or prison, or with marginalized people of any kind.

cancerians: homebody though you may be this is a good week for socializing, networking, making new friends, and encountering helpful people and spirits. it's ok to sit around a bit but if you need something, don't expect it to simply fall into your lap. it's much less work if you just put yourself in the right places. your intuition can guide you to them.

leo: the new moon this week is great for your public image and reputation. do job applications, get recommendation letters, take professional photos, and if you have a brand, give it a polish around this time.

virgo: an auspicious taurean new moon occurs this week giving you a boost if you are an academic or a traveler or a spiritual person. but perhaps more of a focus for you is the mercury-ceres square shortly thereafter; that cardinal tug of war can feel like you have to rush into starting something, but it's better to wait a week or so. try not to do anything that feels like too much of a chore, unless it is truly urgent. carefully avoid lending or borrowing.

libra: a recent lack of air sign activity might have you feeling a little wilty but the venusian/taurean quality of the time can also be quite supportive to you. don't expect too much from external validation but put a lot of time and care (not necessarily hard work) into yourself, your health and your happiness.

scorpio: the taurus new moon breathes new life into any committed partnerships you are in, especially romantic ones. if you're not in one it might bring one to you, or the first stirrings of one.

sagittarius: if you've felt even the slightest nudgings towards a new routine or workout plan or day to day work, try to follow that inkling! the new moon this week is auspicious for turning the mundane into sacred but daily rituals.

capricorns: the academic or religious among you benefit a lot from the new taurus moon this week. and if you are not particularly academic or religious you might find yourself having a philosophical revelation, or making extensive travel plans.

aquarius: it may be good to spend a little extra time at home this week, really caring for your body and the building or room in which you live. give it its fundamental care, and then also lovingly decorate to boost your mood and strength.

pisces: it is easier to make new friends this week than usual, or simply to make helpful connections with groups or institutions. if you've been looking for a new circle of friends, a new job, or a new organization, start networking and see what the new moon in taurus brings your way.

[hopes-peak-postal-company]

For Mod Hajime, i hope this doesnt sound weird but could you do a platonic fatherly yandere imagine post with Elias Bouchard? I like to imagine he fixates on a new Institute hire who doesnt know the fears are real and just decides "Its Child time. There is nothing I wont do to make my new child happy." But he also has to work around Jon and them getting in his way because they just dont GET that he's a Father now.

A FATHER'S LOVE!

"surely you'd choose your father over your friends, wouldn't you?"

summary. getting a job at a spooky academic institute offers toms of spooky outcomes. you just didn't expect to get a father figure and a overlyprotective friend group.

contents. platonic yandere! elias; elias is a wet cat grandpa; the archivist gang are slightly yandere; happens right after season 1

✦ It was difficult. Getting by in the big London city and rent to your flat was quite ridiculously high, even for usual london rent standard. But thankfully, a position in The Magnus Institute had opened and you managed to get the spot after wrangling out your best qualities to the HR like you're trading them.

✦ Now, you were aware of what you were getting into. I mean, an institute that's notorious for having many people going MIA or dying, but this was the only job that accepted you out of the millions you applied for and frankly, it pays better than most of them.

✦ So, you worked as the institute's librarian. It shocked you to know that they have their own personal library but at the same time, you kind of expected it. After all, it is an academic institute and there's bounds to be numerous books and soucres to cite for every statement given, regardless of how strange there are.

✦ You've met a couple on the job. Some were nice and often has small talks with you while some simply comes and goes, not even bothering to talk to you unless they're checking a book out. It was fine, of course, you can't help but feel disheartened. After all, all you do is stand by, organize the library and do nothing. It gets a bit lonely sometimes.

✦ And then, one day, a certain someone came to the library and it was no one other than big boss himself— Elias Bouchard. You never met the man before, only hearing him from Rosie and the others, but he is generally well-disliked by his own staff. You had nothing to complain about him and honestly, you find his company nice.

✦ He comes to the library whenever he has free time and then would talk to you. It wasn't just small talk, not just noise coming out of his mouth to fill in the silence, but he talked to you. He told you so many things— his opinions, his likes and dislikes —and even asked you about yours.

✦ Elias would listen intently, taking in every information about yourself in a manner so ... different from how he usually carried himself. Elias Bouchard was a prideful asshole and you knew that obviously well from just his body language, and yet when it comes to you, he is oddly soft. He reminds you almost like a dad for some reasons.

✦ And your relationship with your boss became like that. You didn't mind, you understand to some degree but even still you couldn't wrap your mind around why he chose specifically you. Maybe he didn't choose or maybe he did, but either way, this outcome was better than him hating you.

✦ But then, only a few months into your job, you suddenly got promoted to assistant archivist, joining the very few others in the archives in their day-to-day life.

✦ It was ... suffocating at first. The institute did suffer damage from the Prentiss Attack as you heard from the other employees and with the archives being the main target for the worms, it was not surprise that the Archivist and his team suffered greatly. Though injured, all of them still came back in one piece so that was a good thing.

✦ It took a while getting to know the others: Martin was the quickest to befriend and he'd bring you your favourite cup of tea whenever he can. Tim was the second, jokingly flirting with you at first but he was comfortable to be around and somehow both of your intensive knowledge on memes made the two of you friends. Sasha, on the other hand, took a bit more effort but in the end, she was just as fun and cheery as the other two outside work.

✦ Jon, on the other hand... He was wary, of course, a bit of an asshole too but you were determined to let his walls down, and so was the team. He gradually came to accept (aka get comfortable with) your existence and doesn't glare you like a cat you just rudely woke up.

✦ Elias... Elias isn't too pleased with this development though as you come find. He finds every excuse in the book to have you in office, stalling you just so he could spend more time with you. He had moved to the archives for one very specific reason and that was so he can watch you carefully.

✦ I mean, how couldn't he? You were so nice to him, oblivious to the concept of the entities and you didn't even care if he gets a bit 'spooky' (as Tim puts it) at times. In fact, he claimed you as his kid the moment you seem to play along with his 'little cryptid act'.

✦ But The Archival team... Oh, did they get on his nerves. But he couldn't do anything, no, he was sure you'll know and they'll tell you about what he truly is and he couldn't risk that. He couldn't lose you to them, so he'll have to just slightly abuse his power a bit. Just to have you be by his side a bit longer.

✦ Of course, Archivist and Co. can't stand by idly and watch him take their friend! And so, everytime Elias and one of them come to your desk at the same time, it's practically a tug of war for your affection and attention.

✦ It makes you laugh honestly, seeing them fight like this. Reminds you so much like a father trying to shoo away any his kid's admirers.... Only if you knew though, then you wouldn't be laughing.

notes. hi hii!!! tysm for requesting this!! i always wanted to write for tma but couldn't. ik this is a pretty old req (i think like .... from june i think?) and i wrote this months ago but forgot to finish

reqs are alwyas open!! and dont forget to reblog any of our works here on this blog, it help us a lot!!! ty again for requesting!

[thelustybraavosimaid]

Bro you just killed my Kid Cudi listening sesh for this. How many times are we going to go over this with you people for fuck's sake

Rhaelya stans hate Sansa because...

Let me stop you right there. I am a Rhaelya, a Jonrya, and a Jon stan. I don't think about Sansa unless I'm forced to. My hyperfixation is on certain characters. Sansa isn't on my radar enough for me to hate her. Like Jon, I feel little else but indifference for her.

Sansa being a hostage makes Lyanna...look like she was a hostage...because there are parallels in both their situations.

But it's *not* a parallel, and here's exactly why.

Rhaegar is not like Joffrey.

Rhaegar actually died with Lyanna's name on his lips, as was confirmed in the official World of Ice and Fire App.

He was also described as a "love-struck prince" by the author himself:

At last I was able to ask him the question I had sent for the tombola. I have always been fascinated by how ASOIAF embodies the theories put forward by Acemoglu and Robinson about countries with extractive institutions (which hamper development). So my question was: Why do you think the political institutions in the Seven Kingdoms are so weak? His answer: the Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen's[sic] flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them, with the small council not designed to be a real check and balance. So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn't really know what to do with the throne and then chaos. Interesting answer.

[Source]

Joffrey had no real love for Sansa. He saw her as an object to mistreat and misuse. He had no empathy and a deep lack of consideration for other people. He had her beaten because it gave him momentary gratification, because he was a psychopath. How is this comparable in any way to Lyanna at the tower of joy?

In fact, the whole point of what we are finding out about Rhaegar through Dany's chapters is to prove that Rhaegar is literally not the monster Robert has been making him out to be. That all Robert has said was due of his blind hatred of him and little more. So again, how is Lyanna's experiences in the tower of joy comparable to Sansa being beaten and harmed as a hostage in King's Landing?

How could this be a parallel, and can you back your claim with anything other than headcanons that have no basis in the books?

There is a reason why the tale of the winter rose was told to Jon specifically — because Bael the Bard and the Stark maiden is analogous to Rhaegar and Lyanna.

George says this about romance:

It's interesting, to get back to this issue of romance that you raised earlier. When I was in Spain a few years ago, I had dinner with a woman — a Spanish academic — and a big fan of both science fiction and romance, and she had read a lot of my stuff because people said I was a very romantic writer. And she sort of launched at me and said, "What are you talking about?! You are not a romantic writer, you know. Nobody ever lives happily ever after in your books!"

I was defending it, saying, "Well, but that's a different tradition of romance. I don't — I'm a romantic writer in the tradition of The Great Gatsby and Romeo and Juliet, and, you know, the Beauty and the Beast. These things don't necessarily have happy endings, but aren't the most powerful romances the unfulfilled romances — the romances where people go their separate ways, but they'll always have Paris, like in Casablanca, one of the films I showed here. You know, they go separate at the end, but they'll always have Paris." And she basically said, "No, you're wrong. They have to be happily ever after together for it to be romance, otherwise it's just sad."

[Source—clip starts at around 03:19]

This traditional telling of romance is shown quite clearly with both Bael the Bard with the Winter Rose and Rhaegar with Lyanna. Bael the Bard's tale was briefly happy:

No. They had been in Winterfell all the time, hiding with the dead beneath the castle. The maid loved Bael so dearly she bore him a son, the song says...though if truth be told, all the maids love Bael in them songs he wrote.

But also ended in tragedy:

"The song ends when they find the babe, but there is a darker end to the story. Thirty years later, when Bael was King-beyond-the-Wall and led the free folk south, it was young Lord Stark who met him at the Frozen Ford...and killed him, for Bael would not harm his own son when they met sword to sword."

"So the son slew the father instead," said Jon.

"Aye," she said, "but the gods hate kinslayers, even when they kill unknowing. When Lord Stark returned from the battle and his mother saw Bael's head upon his spear, she threw herself from a tower in her grief. Her son did not long outlive her. One o' his lords peeled the skin off him and wore him for a cloak." (Jon VI, ACoK)

Rhaegar left to fight in the War of the Usurper, lost and died. Lyanna died giving birth to Jon. And Jon died trying to save "Arya" from Ramsay.

This is what George means by a romantic love story.

And they also love Arya, because...Arya...looks like Lyanna

Or maybe we just like Arya because she's a fantastic character. Idk OP, could be that.

and isn't as hyper feminine as Sansa

This ties in quite well to the misogyny some "fans" of the series have to women like Arya. It's not because Sansa is "hyper feminine" that I don't care for her. I'm just indifferent to her. Femininity has absolutely nothing to do with it. I don't know if you know, but women can and do express themselves in different ways.

therefore her fans think she aligns with Rhaegar

?????????????

because they...hate Sansa and pretend its a love story

That is 100% the way George is taking R+L's story. This is quite literally his preferred telling of a romantic story. One where they share a brief affection for one another despite the eventual consequences, but end up separated, or worse.

Even though the point of Lyanna Stark is that her untold narrative is comparative to both Sansa and Arya

How is Lyanna's narrative comparative to Sansa? The only thing you've given was a non-parallel of being in the Red Keep/tower of joy, but there's nothing to suggest that Lyanna was trapped, beaten, or harmed there.

The king frowned. "A knife, perhaps. A good sharp one, and a bold man to wield it."

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. (Eddard II, AGoT)

--

For the first time in years, he found himself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not. (Eddard IX, AGoT)

You do not find it strange that the brother of the woman who was supposedly trapped and imprisoned at the tower of joy has no ill words to say about the man who supposedly committed such heinous crimes?

[transmutationisms]

what are ur best tips on lying for school applications bc i need to get away from home asap & my grades r shit lol

mix and match as needed:

sympathetic backstory (personal struggle, family tragedy, whatever you can write eloquently about & you don't owe the institution shit about your actual personal details unless you genuinely want to share them)

extracurricular activities (you're well-rounded! you're more than just your transcript! if you're making stuff up here, try to sound believable, but ime no one ever verifies this info, even at the graduate level, unless you're claiming to have, like, won a national award or something)

wax poetic about how you struggled in the constricting environment of your home / school, but have nurtured a deep and abiding interest in [subject] and can't wait to finally explore it in the more freeing and intellectually stimulating environment of [university]

spin it as a story of how you Learned To Be Better through a process of Trying And Sometimes Failing, and so your transcript is actually showing a record of personal growth and perseverence through academic challenges

inspiring explanation of your future plans to [save the world] and how [university] is what you need to get there, simply eliding the issue of your existing grades

you can also mitigate low grades by having stellar recommendation letters from 3-4 teachers who have known you for long enough to help you out. degree of lying varies here & obviously depends on what they're willing to say; you should always ask potential recommenders outright if they "feel comfortable giving [you] a strong recommendation" or something to that effect, and then don't use them if their answer is anything other than a resounding "yes".

best of luck to you <3

[librarycard]

hii! im not the last anon but i have a question about library school if you don't mind! do you have some kind of dissertation/comprehensive project that you're working towards, and what does that look like? i'm thinking about whether i want an mls but i can't really imagine what the scholarly work looks like/where i would want to fit into it. your program sounds really fun and i hope it's going well!

So it depends on the program, but my program has the thesis as an optional pathway for your degree. Im not planning on taking the thesis path (unless I suddenly get really invested in something and have to write about it which hasn't happened yet but I'm here for practical skills more than research). Since you can do a lot of different things with a MLIS, a lot of earning one and taking classes is about tailoring your experience to your interests and possible career plans. A thesis is definitely an option (depending on the institution), but I'd say most of the people I know in grad school aren't pursuing that option!

I'll be going into digital archives, but you can do so many different things with a MLIS. Public libraries, academic libraries, special libraries and collections, archives, corporate information and records management, research, government, non-profits, and so so so much more. Programming (for computers) and programming (for events) are also things touched on in most MLIS programs, so you can focus on those aspects as well. I mention that bc im really focused on gaining some programming skills while im in grad school so that i can continue to pursue digital libraries and archives. Theres a lot of options, it really comes down to what you are interested in!

[sol-consort]

Do aliens mature at the same rate as humans? Like humans basically reach mental and physical maturity at like 18, but salarians only live for like 40 yrs. Does that mean they would mature at like 10? Could you have a salarian and a human grow up together; and by the time both are ten, the salarian is babysitting them for a summer job?

Are Asari only considered legal adults once they’re 100? Does that mean shepherd (who is like early 30s ish) sleeping with Liara, who as far as i remember is just barely over 100, considered creepy? Or morally dubious? Like those 50 year old men who date 18 year old high school students cuz it’s technically legal?

Or are asari as emotionally and mentally mature as adults once they reach 18 and those extra years are just like fun years??

Yeah, it's different than humans.

The game doesn't state the ages of maturity outright, but we can make assumptions based on correlations and in reference to our own society.

Asari are considered grown enough to move out of their parents' home at age 60, anything younger, and it'd be like kicking a teenager out. Liara, who's a 100-year-old in ME1, mentions technically being an adult but relatively young, meaning she's not used to being taken seriously by the other asari. So we can assume their 60s are akin to our 18s, and their their second century is like being in your early 20s

Salarians - 7~8

Salarians only live up to 40 years. They mature much faster because of it. Mordin mentions that his nephew earned a university tenure at age 16—which is considered completely normal rather than impressive.

A tenure is something a university professor usually earns.

"Achieving tenure is not easy or quick. First, aspiring professors must secure a “tenure track” position after excelling in a Ph.D. program, followed in many cases by one or more postdoctoral fellowships. Then, in a probationary period that can last from 5 to 10 years, but which typically takes 7 years, faculty must demonstrate academic excellence in teaching, research and service to the community.

The probationary period is then followed by a year-long process during which a professor’s work is evaluated by peer faculty – both inside and outside of the university where they teach – as well as administrators at their institution.

If they succeed in getting tenure, they can be promoted to the rank of “associate professor with tenure.” But if they are denied tenure, usually it means they have one more year to build up their credentials and find employment at another college or university – or leave academia altogether to find work in a different industry."

Sourced article

The average age for tenure profs is 40-50 which means being 16 in Salarian years is the equivalent to that. Which raises the question just how old Mordin was-

Either way, Salarians don't have sexual Intercourse. That's why their entire species can't experience sexual attraction. It's unnecessary, and they don't need it. Evolution saw no point for it. Marriage is more of a contractual collaboration with them, unless they marry outside their species–like asari –then they'll marry for love rather than reproduction.

Two salarians rarely, if ever, need to meet to create children. Females lay eggs, and males fertilise them. 90% of the eggs end up unfertilized, which results in a male. Only fertilised eggs can birth female salarians, which makes up 10% of the population. Making female salarians held in extremely high regards, they're usually the heads of their family and only hold the most important of roles in society. You never see them on a battlefield or any of the less than aristocratic jobs...well until Andromeda anyway.

All of these societal differences show that Salarians will determine their age of maturity based on different values and factors.

Being an adult to them might not equate to when you're able to have sex—since they don't have it—or reproduce in general. Adulthood might just mean when they see you fit enough to start making your own life choices, pursue higher educations and hold down jobs. The brain reaching maturity and developing is their determining factor for qualifying as an adult rather than the body.

Let's take the average and say 16 = 45, so 45/16 = 2.8125. Round it up to 3 and we can assume a salarian develops at almost the triple the rate of a human.

A 7 years old salarian equates to 18y in human years. A childhood friendship between a salarian and a human could only work for 4 years, for the Salarian would've started puberty by that time while...the human child still haven't mastered speech.

There is also the possibility that salarians are born knowing how to walk and talk? Like sharks. Nothing implies that ingame, just a theory. Otherwise, their brains congestive abilities are super impressive to reach the development expected of an almost 3y old human child in their first year of life.

Also, considering how Salarians are taller than humans, it sounds painful af to grow up to that height in only 7 years. A 7-year-old human is barely taller than a table, and yet they still get massive growth pains. Imagine how more extreme it would be for a salarian to grow 35cm per year.

That's not considering the body maturity pains. Are their puberties also a hormonal mess like ours? Their brains process emotions at a much fast rate. A salarian can get over a sudden existential crisis about their fast approaching demise in a couple hours, while it might take weeks or months for a human.

For the rest of the Mass Effect species:

Turians / Quarians / Humans - 18

They have the same max lifespan of a human—150 years. Tali mentions quarians being very similar to humans as well. We can safely assume both races reach maturity at a similar age, give or take a couple of years bc of cultural differences.

-

Krogans / Asari - 50~60

share the long lifespans of asari, it's why so many asari are hesitant to seriously date them. It'd be as serious as getting an asari partner. With the other species–like humans, you just "stick it out" and wait for them to die. But with krogan? That's a partner for life.

We can assume they mature at a similar level, although I feel like their current society would push them to an even earlier maturaity while the asari have been living in a cushy world for so long. Maybe at 40 or 50 instead of 60?

Actually, if anything, krogans might outlive the asari.

There is no documented death of a krogan caused by true old age. Every single cause of death has been from unnatural outside influence. Wrex is easily 1000~1300 and the oldest known krogan to live was 1800.

-

Drell - 16~18

Their average lifespan is stated to be 85, with an emphasis on "average" here. It's not clear whether their terminal illness is taken into account or if it's scewing the statistics. Also, humans have an average lifespan of 80, yet many live up to 100 irl, 150 in Mass Effect.

If it's truly 85, then they might mature only slightly faster than humans, if not the exact same. I mean, that is literally just our lifespan rn. You could argue that their lifespans got reduced down by moving to the hanar homeworld, rather than extended like the rest of the galaxy.

Or that it was always 85 and they just mature slightly faster, who knows.

-

Hanar - ?

Not available information, but based on earth's jellyfish, they could be just as Immortal.

-

Protheons - ?

No available information, my assumption is that they should be on the longer average, much like asari. Either engineered or naturally since they held themselves at the top of all the other species, creme de la creme and all.

[mueritos]

Hey! Asking about your experience with being punk/punk adjacent and also in academia. How do you handle the two? Punk action and activism is grassroots, which I try to be involved in, but I feel like I’m just speaking big words and writing into an echo-chamber about gender. Like the only good I do is explaining to a group of cis people terminology. What are your experiences on this, if you have any?

Hmm. Yea this was difficult for me to balance too. I'll insert a readmore cuz this got kinda long.

I enjoy academia and research and being able to have more advanced conversations with people, but I was also sick of being in classes or circles of people who I knew would speak "woke" for the sheer fact of looking like good people, but on the down low were incredibly racist, classist, queerphobic, and just down right nasty carceral people. It was difficult trying to sift through who was safe to open up to and who wasn't, because many people were actually liberals in disguise (even if they called themselves leftists or leftist aligned). I also was never shy about being an anarchist/punk, I was the only person who wore my spiked jackets and boots to class, my outfits were loud, but I also began seeing some other queer people I knew wear their own jackets because they were encouraged by me (so that was nice).

I was doing activism on campus while in undergrad alongside the usual academic theory/research stuff, and it turns out that people actually will hate your guts the moment you start pointing out problems. The usual "YOU become the problem the second you point out THE problems", so I faced a lot of social backlash, even from other marginalized people who I had confided in about problems. My advice is that unless you're willing to become one of the most hated people on campus, don't do your activism on campus. It's a surefire way of making enemies, even enemies in people you have never met in your life. There are plenty of local orgs, food banks, and churches with programming that you could be way more productive in than trying to combat institutionalized oppression like that of an academic institution. You can try, believe me because I did, and while I learned a lot about organizing, I also learned when to give up and focus on my community instead of changing systems.

You pointed out that you're getting sick of explaining to cis people. This is definitely something you can stop doing, if you'd like. I stopped giving up my labor to educate other people (within reason) because I was one of the few trans people on campus. But I also have this value that I am not about to let some person walk around with the wrong idea about marginalized communities, so I always speak up when people say incorrect things (this has also caused some yt people to avoid me lol). Of course, you do this with compassion and with the goal of making sure their future interactions with marginalized people go better, but after a certain point, you need to be able to hold your energy for where you want to put it. Put more pressure on your institution or adjacent orgs to have things like safezone training (or bring in queer orgs for trainings/lectures). You can also just tell people some websites to check out instead of answering their questions, because surprise to them, their questions can in fact be solved by a simple search, they just are far too lazy to do that.

I dunno tho. I still struggle with growing so much in terms of punk/anarchist theory and ideas, but i have a serious lacking in actual community organizing. I'm introverted, don't like big noisy crowds, and I am quite socially anxious. Being punk is like my armor in a world that doesn't like me, because I find people fuck with me less when Im in spikes and boots. I find theory and academia so fulfilling for my virgo brain, but I also don't shame myself for not being active in local community. I know there will be a time I will be, but I also know that everyone is helping in the movement in the ways they can. It doesn't matter if that is at the food bank, in protest, on the computer, or by reading theory. All of it is equally important, and some of us aren't going to be good at everything.

I found myself feeling far more productive and alive when I was working with communities I knew would keep me safe. Started surrounding myself with more BIPOC queer people who were also working against carceral thinking, and I found my life to be way more enjoyable. connecting authentically with people who you feel safe with is just as important as organizing or protesting. You can organize or protest, but if you don't have a community to turn to, you'll burn out and won't be able to sustainably stay in the movement. Focus on energies, peoples, and love, connect authentically and have difficult conversations about love and politics and theory. You can be an academic, but still maintain the punk values you love in your daily life. Humans are made of contradicting values and experiences, we shouldn't shame each other for that and instead hold the multiple and contradicting truths in us all.

I can go on and on, but ill leave it at that. feel free to ask anything else in specific tho.

[nonclassyparty]

tuesday, 13:25, 18:02 (j.wy)

title; can you meet me halfway, right at the borderline, that's where i'm gonna wait for you, i'll be looking out, night and day, took my heart to the limit, and this is where i'll stay

summary; wooyoung is your sworn enemy but hooking up with him becomes a habit you just can't seem to quit (gen v au)

notes; part five of a drabble series called 'rule of thumb' set in the gen v universe where y/n is a bigender superhero and wooyoung is a blood bender. drabbles are posted in chronological order, there is no updating schedule.

playlist // my main masterlist // click to donate to palestine

san grumbles when wooyoung sticks his arms out between your two bodies and pushes you two apart to make room for himself in the middle.

you were showing san the drawings for an assignment that you had in one of your subjects where you had to design superhero merch. it wasn't really a useful class but you took it solely because you thought it might be fun and take some pressure off of you rather than taking something difficult for your elective to try and impress anyone.

it's not that you weren't ambitious, you'd like to be, but a bigender superhero was rarely a fan favorite and you were kind of tired this semester. if it wasn't for your friends dragging you to social events and putting your name out there, this school wouldn't care about you otherwise unless it was to use you in promotional videos to make sure everyone knows this is an 'inclusive' establishment. bullshit.

although, giving you a single-bed dorm already in your freshman year was nice. sometimes you could make due with the institution being performative.

wooyoung plasters himself to your side, looping his arm through your elbow, looking at your notebook and your brows furrow at the weird look san gives the two of you.

"oh, the little bald ones are so cute." wooyoung laughs, pointing at your top two drawings.

you frown, "that's starlight and queen maeve."

you were going to draw their hair on, of course.

he stifles a laugh, eyes holding something achingly close to endearment as he looks at you. "well, your bald starlight and queen maeve are very cute."

you pout again staring the drawings down. they weren't supposed to look cute, they were supposed to be badass.

"how were your exams?" he asks, fingers playing with the zipper of your hoodie as he presses even closer, all up in your business. you've gotten completely used to him hanging all over you, he does it to all of his friends. wooyoung is a naturally touchy and affectionate person.

"fine." you sigh, "i think i messed up one of the problems on my aerodynamics of human flight exam. it might bring my grade down."

wooyoung winces, "i doubt that's your fault, the class is a nightmare and brink always gives shit that he expects you to know even though he barely mentioned it during class or the study material."

"you got a 95 on it last year." you mumble, again embarrassed to reveal that you often compare yourself to wooyoung in terms of your academic success. you compare yourself to san and hongjoong as well but with wooyoung it's simply more personal. sworn enemies and all.

"you know that?" you stay quiet, not in the mood to disclose that you remember wooyoung jumping out of his seat last year filled with glee when the exam results were uploaded into the system.

he seems to bite back a smile, moving even closer that his nose almost brushes your cheek and you stubbornly refuse to look at him overcome with shyness. he continues quietly, "if you're not happy with your grade, i can help you prepare for the makeup exam in january, okay?"

you want to say something but you don't out of fear it'll come out choked, so you simply opt for a little nod as you pretend to do touch-ups on your (apparently) bad drawings.

"uh," you both turn to san who you completely forgot was even there, and who looks positively weirded out now. "i have class."

he turns to mingi (who you, also, forgot was even there), sitting opposite of you, "mingi you have class. let's go to class."

mingi looks up from his notebook, too engrossed in his work to pay attention to anyone else, "my class isn't for another ho-"

"you need an hour to get there, come on." san insists, already standing up and poor mingi has no choice but to pack his things up and get a move on.

san is still standing, staring at wooyoung and you, and you tilt your head to the side wondering if he's alright.

wooyoung stares blandly at him. "bye."

san opens his mouth before inevitably giving up and waving goodbye with a headshake.

well, that was weird.

"is san okay?" you ask, packing up your coloring pencils back into the pouch.

he takes your yellow pompompurin pencil case and looks at it with a small smirk before his expression turns puzzled, "what? oh, yeah. he's just an idiot."

you chuckle at that and he snorts as well when he sees the smile on your face.

"do you have anything else today?"

you shake your head.

"you wanna get food and go to my dorm?"

"okay."

-

it's a stupid question, really.

but it's been bugging you for some reason in this particular moment while wooyoung presses you against the pillows stacked up on his bed and his tongue slips inside your mouth.

he didn't give you a reason to ask it either, it was just something you were...curious about.

"are you sleeping with other people?"

wooyoung blinks at you a couple of times, face barely an inch away from yours, before he starts kissing down your neck. "no."

"why not?"

"hm?" his lips on your neck cause your breath to hitch as the warmth starts pooling in the lower pits of your stomach. you don't blame him for not following the conversation, you're barely keeping up as well.

"why not?"

he bites at your earlobe and you lightly push his arm as a reminder that you're waiting for an answer. "i don't want to."

"oh."

your lack of physical response to his advances makes him pull away. "what's the problem? do you want me to sleep with other people?"

your lips naturally tug downwards at that but you keep your thoughts to yourself. of course you don't fucking want him to sleep with other people. "it doesn't matter what i want, we aren't anything."

wooyoung groans at that, body still on top of you and holding himself up by his arms stuck on each side of your head.

"i was just curious as to why you're not?"

"and i just told you. because i don't want to."

"okay." you clear your throat feeling like you're about to walk into busy traffic on your own terms, "because you can, if you want. i don't want you to think that, like, you're not allowed or something."

"jesus christ, y/n." he gets completely off of you and sits on the bed with his legs tucked under. "okay, i get it. we're not anything and you have no problem with me sleeping with other people. i get it."

"okay." is all you can say in a much smaller voice because you kind of made him get the wrong idea. you certainly would have a problem with it but you'd never tell him that either because you know that a time will eventually come when wooyoung will find someone he actually wants. and he'll date them.

he stares at you with a frown that gets slightly deeper. "are you sleeping with other people?"

"of course not." you tell him honestly and don't miss the way his eyes glance at the left side of your chest where your heart resides. he was checking if you were telling the truth. you frown, did he really think you could want anyone else when you could be with him?

"then why do you think i am? you think i'd do something like that to you?"

"i'm not saying that." you sit up, feeling like the conversation derailed from the path you wanted it to take. you wanted wooyoung to know it was okay to have options, no matter how much it bothered you. you didn't want to be keeping him away from anything. "you wouldn't be doing anything to me, we aren't any-"

"we aren't anything, yeah, i know but i still don't want to." he firmly states, eyes gauging your reaction.

you swallow your own insecurities down and lean against his headboard. "it just makes it sound like we're exclusive or something. that's all."

"okay, maybe we should be."

"what do you mean?"

"exclusive. maybe we should be exclusive. it would be safer, for example."

"oh." you let out, scratching your cheek as you look around his room. the curtains are moved to let the sunlight in. "you'd want that?"

"i just suggested it, didn't i?"

"mmm..." you think about it, blush rising to your cheeks under his watchful gaze as he moves closer so that his leg is thrown over your thigh and he's nestled into your side.

you feel like being exclusive will only hurt you more in the long run but then again it will hurt in smaller fractions as well if wooyoung sleeps with other people.

one big hurt versus a dozen of smaller ones...they might inflict the same amount of pain if calculated properly. so you might as well decide to do it all at once when the time eventually comes. hopefully, it will feel like ripping off a band-aid.

"okay. we can be exclusive or...or if we decide to sleep with someone else we should tell each other. y'know, for safety reasons."

wooyoung's head picks up so he can look at you again, chin resting on your shoulder as he stares at you in frustration. "those are two entirely different things. i want to be exclusive, i don't want you to sleep with someone else and then come tell me about it."

you huff, "i won't be sleeping with other people."

you can't even imagine it really. you think wooyoung might've ruined you for other people. asshole.

"good. neither will i." he says simply, hand rubbing over your clothed stomach. "great. now that that's out of the way, do you want to pick up where we left off or do you want to do something else?"

you want to ask 'what else would we even do?' but you know that it will hurt his feelings again and you hate yourself for hurting him. it would be pretense either way. despite all the walls and boundaries you've put up, he's somehow managing to weasel his way through them one by one as the time goes by.

it would be a lie on your part to say that wooyoung and you have the same relationship you've had at the beginning of the semester let alone last year.

you've grown significantly closer, maybe even too close to the point where it's hard to distinguish where the friendship ends and wishful thinking begins. and you know the longer you allow for this to go on, the harder it will be to not get completely wrapped up in your delusions where wooyoung and you could be something more.

for now, you just kiss him though. you run your fingers through his soft hair and try to pour everything you are too afraid to say into the kiss, hoping he might understand. or hoping he might not.

it would be okay if whatever you tell him through kisses remains your little secret. he doesn't have to know.

[qqueenofhades]

I'm about halfway through my History BA and I have a question (I pinky promise I'm doing more research than just asking tumblr academics their opinions), but this is also me assuming you did college in both the US and the UK so forgive me if I guessed wrong and am confusing you with someone else. How does graduate school in either country compare? I'm still stuck between whether I want to go for my master's or straight to PhD so obviously I'm quite a ways away from making any important decision, but considering that I'm studying British history (primarily), it felt natural to consider getting my degree(s) abroad. Are there like, any major differences you're aware of that made university vastly different, or are they more similar than I'm thinking?? Was one situation flat out preferable to the other?? If you even have strong opinions about it at all

That is me, yes. BA in the US with one year in the UK; MA in the US; PhD in the UK; now the co-director of a US MA/PhD program, so I have an appreciable amount of experience with graduate and postgraduate education in both countries. Here are the main ways in which they compare/what the experience is like in both:

In the UK overall, the experience is much more self-directed. I only had taught coursework for the first year of the PhD; the rest of it was spent in research and writing. So compared to the American system, where you take 3 years of coursework first (such as the PhD program that I currently manage) and then write the dissertation in the last year or two (hence the designation ABD, or All But Dissertation), you're thrown into the deep end from the start. I didn't have comprehensive exams, which might be a plus if that's something you have anxiety about, but the tradeoff was that I had to complete the dissertation proposal and first full-length sample chapter in the very first year, rather than waiting for year 3, and to have that be the basis on which I was evaluated/approved to continue to the full PhD degree. If you know what you want to work on and have solid supervision, this can work out and it certainly allows you to develop your topic in depth from the start, but if this is the kind of thing that gives you heart palpitations, there is that. The bright side is that you will come out with a thesis that will need less revision to be suitable as a monograph, because you've done a higher and longer amount of work upfront. I.e. I published my PhD thesis as a monograph with a major academic press within a year of graduating, which is generally rare in the US system.

As such, the US PhD experience is overall more directed/structured and leans toward more coursework than research. The research is obviously a big part of it in a way that American undergrads rarely train in (unless they go to a fancy liberal arts writing-intensive school for undergraduate, like I did), but as noted, the dissertation is central in the UK PhD system in a way it isn't (or at least not as much) in the American system. You have pros and cons for both systems, and sometimes I wished that my intensively research-centric PhD, where it was all on me to do the research, write the research, and have something to present to my supervisors on schedule for each meeting, had more taught coursework or formal/structured contact time. You have a committee in the American system, i.e. three or four academics who will oversee your defense, whereas in the UK, at least in a history program, you only have two aside from your degree supervisor: an internal reader (within the institution) and external reader (from outside the institution). While this means fewer people whose approval you need to wrangle, my viva (final defense) ended up being a Goddamn Ordeal because my external reader, despite being a friend of my supervisor, was really not suited to read a dissertation on the subject and I don't think should have been picked for it, then was extremely unprofessional about her notes/reviews/suggestions. (My supervisor likewise apologized to me for that, so yeah, It Was Bad. Academic Trauma Ahoy.)

Master's programs in the UK are also incredibly intense; they are generally one year compared to the usual two years for most US programs, and you have to complete the coursework AND write a thesis in that time, which is not something that I really recommend for maximum sanity. (Then again, if you're getting an advanced degree in history, that might be out the window.) However, if you are working on British history, then yeah, it makes the most sense to be based in a UK university, since the archives that you will need to consult will be, obviously, far easier to access than if you need to try to cram it all into one overseas academic research trip on a postgraduate student's budget. In that case, it might make sense to just apply to a master's/PhD program in the UK upfront, to smooth the transition/amount of moving around/financial misery you will have to endure. However, word to the wise that there WILL be financial misery, especially as an international student at a UK university. The Tories have yet again jacked the visa and NHS application fees (which you will have to pay upfront for every year you intend to be there) through the roof; your tuition will be much higher (though as noted in previous asks, don't go anywhere unless they pay YOU to do it) and it is difficult to get any part-time work outside of teaching or other opportunities directly related to your degree, which are subject to the uh, totally great pay rate for junior academics. (Sarcasm. That was sarcasm.)

Basically, yeah: it depends on what kind of student you are, how much initiative you like to take, how much structure you need or don't need, what sources you anticipate needing to consult and how you're going to do that, if you're comfortable starting the dissertation right away and being ready to present a finished chapter at the end of year 1, and whether you want your graduate/postgraduate experience to focus primarily on independent research or taught courses. There are no exactly right answers to these questions and you will obviously have to think about what suits you best (along, of course, the money aspect). Good luck!

[mermaidsirennikita]

Did you see that tiktok video that's been floating around twitter of that woman going The Love Hypothesis is problematic and woman in stem publishing this book will normalize teacher/student relationships and will be used as a excuse....like what the actual fuck??

I tried to find it, but haven't been able to so I'm going off secondhand info buuuut.

a) as someone who feels pretty well-acquainted with what is and isn't problematic in a way that matters.... that book isn't, unless there's some crazy shit I'm not aware of surrounding it

b) I really need this person to make their way into the real world and realize that STEM (and academia in general) did not need this book to normalize these types of "student/teacher" relationships because uh, that should not be a normal thing but it... is, and some advisor didn't need to read TLH to go "I'm picking up on a vibe between me and my advisee.... I'm gonna do it"

c) let's dig into the phrase "student/teacher" here--while a college professor is indeed the teacher of their adult student, I've seen people use the phrase student/teacher to describe these relationships, and I think it's manipulative, at least when you're using English.... I mean, I can only speak for American English, but I'm going for it. When we use the phrase "student/teacher", it's most commonly associated with crimes that involve minor students and their teachers.

Because very few adults, in my experience as someone who's gone to college, call their professors their "teachers" here. I never did. They were my profs, more specifically my mentors or advisors if that was their role. Perhaps it's different in other countries, but I don't know any college student who used "teacher", because we associated "teachers" with "children".

I sometimes feel that language like this is used to ensure that people who wanna weigh in with zero context jump into agreeing with the OP, because OF COURSE STUDENT/TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS ARE WRONG.

d) so, why are student/professor relationships bad if the student is an adult (and mind you--undergrad, grad, and postgrad students can be older than their profs... it's not unusual, depending on the situation; I was friends with fellow students old enough to be my mom and frankly probably the professor's, too)? Because of the power imbalance that occurs when the student is learning under that professor. Whether that professor is their advisor (who may not teach them--my advisors often taught me, but not throughout my college career) or is instructing them at the moment, that professor can impact the student's academic career, from their grades to the projects they're selected for. The professor can nepo their romantic partner into an opportunity they shouldn't get; they can threaten the student into silence or a coercive relationship, as well.

Which is why higher ed institutions have rules against these adults dating each other.... but often, not when a professor dates an ADULT who happens to be a student at the school but is not in their department. If I'm an English grad student and a Math prof asks me out... I mean, I guess they could theoretically use their personal relationships with the English department to impact my life, but that is dependent on them having a personal, not professional relationship that they could make outside of work even if they weren't in the school? They have zero direct professional connections to my work, and therefore the school really doesn't have much of an ability or need to police our relationship, because we are consenting adults.

e) the book directly deals addresses this, and in fact all of Ali's STEM books that I've read address the conflicts that can come up with people (usually male) who have power over female academics in STEM... Adam is not Olive's advisor and his research doesn't interact with hers. And at the end of the day? Yes, he is a professor, she is a student........ pursuing her doctorate......... she ain't anywhere near an undergrad, even.............. But he's not teaching her, their research doesn't intersect from what I remember, and when you are an academic it is very possible that you will fall in love with a fellow adult who is further along in your career than you are and works in a similar field but does not in fact have power over your studies. Because people who have academic careers breathe their academic careers and that is how they meet people and those people have shared interests and people with shared interests sometimes like each other.

f) Ali Hazelwood knows all of these things because she is in fact a professor...............

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Harvard plagiarism scandal - ‘I wouldn't be surprised if they went after Jill Biden next!’

Andrew Doyle: Now, a huge story in America over the new year was the resignation of the Harvard president Claudine Gay, who was forced out over accusations of plagiarism after her extremely unconvincing performance in front of a congressional committee when discussing anti-Semitism on campuses.

Some commentators have portrayed her downfall as a blow for DEI, or diversity equity and inclusion, policies designed to increase diversity in the workplace. Or are they? Well, here to join me to talk about this is a man with a his finger on the pulse of the issues, the author and philosopher Peter Boghossian.

Peter, now tell us. Claudine Gay, it's been identified and she's been accused of of plagiarism in her doctrinal thesis. The response from various bodies has been to sort of protect her and deny it. The Associated Press said that plagiarism is now a weapon in the culture war from the right. What on Earth is going on? Isn't plagiarism just wrong full stop?

Peter Boghossian: Correct. So, plagiarism is basically taking ideas that are not your own and crediting them and -- one thing that's so crazy about this story is, she even plagiarized her acknowledgments. Like, she plagiarized her thank you's.

But it was-- here's the the main deliverable to this. It's not about Claudine Gay. It's about widescale, massive institutional corruption. Harvard, other institutions are now hiding dissertations so nobody can access those, because they know that the problem is endemic.

Doyle: Now, you think this is happening.

Boghossian: Oh, I know for a fact it's happening, because I know people who are pulling the dissertations, and they're going -- I'll put you this way: I wouldn't be surprised if they went after Jill Biden. Jill. Biden. Who has an EdD. They're going after everyone. I predict to you that in the very near future, the default will be, unless you can prove that your dissertation was not plagiarized, the assumption is it's going to be that you're a fraud.

Doyle: As you know, I mean, we both come from academic backgrounds and we know that the one thing you just never do is plagiarize. You don't try to pass off other people's work as your own. If you have an idea that you want to take from someone else, you credit them for that and say that.

Boghossian: Correct.

Doyle: But why would someone reach the position of president of Harvard, of all places, one of the top universities in the world, and not observe that basic rule?

Boghossian: Well that's -- okay, well, there are multiple answers to that question. One, she only had 11 publications, and for those who aren't familiar with academia, 11 publications is nothing. But even beyond, that we could talk about merit, when whether she was hired because she was a black woman, which is things nobody wants to speak honestly about.

But the problem is that the institutions themselves are complicit in the corruption. And so she was found innocent of an internal investigation of plagiarism before they even investigated. So, they didn't even do the investigation. And they lawyered up. Their lawyers threatened the [New York] Post, they had stories withdrawn and retracted about the plagiarism, Barack Obama came to her defense. But it's not about Claudine Gay. This is a question of widescale corruption in an institution. So many people have done this now. Like it is ubiquitous.

Doyle: But clearly people are seeking to protect their own for ideological reasons. You wouldn't see this kind of protection for someone who maybe had a conservative worldview within the institution.

Boghossian: No, but we don't have to worry about that or even think about that because the last -- depending on the department, the ratio of conservatives to liberals is like 98 to 1.

But, I mean, you could think about it -- forget about academia, think about the fire department. Think about just like random -- I don't know whatever board or industry you wanted. If corruption was shown, for example in the materials that it took to build bridges, why wouldn't you want to root out the corruption so people wouldn't die when they went over the bridge? I mean, it doesn't even any sense. But they're hiding -- again to pull the analogy further -- they're hiding the fact that materials, like bridges were made out of balsawood, or materials that couldn't sustain weight.

So, one of the consequences of this is not only will this further delegitimize our academic institutions, it will further delegitimize the people. The corruption is so wide scale.

Doyle: This is coming from a a sort of ideological group that believes that meritocracy is inherently a kind of racist idea, and that that really what you need to prioritize is this idea of "diversity, equity, inclusion." Can you just explain very quickly what "diversity equity and inclusion" is all about?

Boghossian: Diversity, equity and inclusion" is taking the voices of people who that have not been historically forwarded or have oppression variables, for example, the descendant of slaves and giving equity. Giving a either a balance of a proportional representation, so if African Americans are 13% of the population you have 13% of the population in the mix.

Doyle: So, what's wrong with that?

Boghossian: Well, let me just -- so if you just looked at the data at Harvard, for example, well it's what's wrong with that briefly, is it presupposes it's not a zero sum game. So, for example, if there are 100 spots and if you took the top 10% in Harvard the Asians would be over 51% of applicants but they're not they're downgraded. If you're Asian, it's just, there is systematic discrimination. It's against Asians, whites would drop a little bit, Hispanics would plummet, but African-Americans would go from 13 point - I think 2 or 3 - percent to 0.9, under 1%. So the idea is that you match the percentage of people in a population racially, we take that demographic and graft it on.

Doyle: So, equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity.

Boghossian: Correct. And to achieve that, the only way to achieve that is widescale corruption. And systemic discrimination against Ashkenazi Jews, for example. Or cold-climate Asians.

Doyle: So, yes, exactly, racial groups that will just do better, it's harder for them to get into Harvard. That's right.

Boghossian: Well, correct, which if you were, you should just say, "this is not a meritocracy, we don't find the best people, we don't hire the best people, we hire people or we matriculate students on the basis of race."

Doyle: Yes. And this is of course -- Claudine Gay's resignation was largely precipitated not just by the plagiarism, but her saying in Congress that the idea of calling for the genocide of Jews was context dependent. Whether that would violate the hate policy,

Boghossian: The very same people who were freaking out about microaggressions and trigger warnings and safe spaces, and you know, you you can't even say, "where you from?" That's a microaggression. They have Bias Response Teams, you could be brought up for a thought crime, basically. At my former employer, Portland State University, they have weaponized offices of diversity equity and inclusion against people.

Doyle: They've been punishing people for microaggressions. But calling for the genocide of Jews, that depends on the context.

Boghossian: Well, yeah, you have to understand the ideology for that. The ideology is that Jews are not looked at as an oppressed class, they're looked as "white adjacent." And "white adjacent" you're looked at as the oppressor. And so you're part of the system that keeps down African-Americans, in specific, keeps certain people, certain racial groups, from achieving. Or sexual identity groups, like trans.

Doyle: So, in short, because I know we don't have much time, this is a massive topic.

Boghossian: A massive topic.

Doyle: It feels as though what you're describing are institutions that are just no longer fit for purpose. They are no longer exercising the objectives that the universities were set out to achieve.

Boghossian: That's probably the best thing you can say about it. The best thing you can say about it is that they don't discharge their primary mission. The more honest thing to say about it is that there is a wide-scale endemic racism, and the infrastructure that supports that racism, is fraud and corruption. And they know it and they have to hide it.

Doyle: So is it on the verge of collapse?

Boghossian: Well it's on the verge of complete delegitimization. So, they will have no legitimacy anymore.

Doyle: Fascinating. No bad thing.

Boghossian: No, and it will come, my prediction is that will come to the UK at Cambridge and Oxford in a year and a half.

Doyle: Very interesting, well, we don't have much time unfortunately, so Peter Boghossian, thank you for joining us.

==

This what I've been saying for years, before this scandal ever broke out.

Claudine Gay is not the point. She's just the canary in the coalmine. She could never have gotten this far without the institution not only knowing, but actively facilitating her fraud.

DEI might be the objective, but it's not the "how." The how is rampant corruption. And that's not just deliberately abetting academic fraud at the level of a dissertation or a published paper.

It's at the level of entire fields that are illegitimate and fraudulent. Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Queer Studies, Palestine Studies, Media Studies, all the "Studies," they're all illegitimate. They're all constructed out of grievance, envy, malice and mental illness. And they exist entirely to legitimize that grievance, envy, malice and mental illness by coating it with a fascade of academic wisdom.

We spend our days talking about complete nonsense. "Misgendering," "white fragility," "intersectionality." These things are fake and illegitimate. They're no more real than "sin," "blasphemy," and "hell." They don't exist because there's evidence for the claims that underlie them; they only "exist" because some fraud in an illegitimate field invented it, and it was facilitated by institutional corruption into looking legitimate. But they never deal with evidence or falsification. It's simply assertion.

You might be thinking, but the Arts - e.g. English Literature - doesn't deal with evidence either. Correct, but it also doesn't deal with knowledge claims or make declarations of truth. Science does, but it uses evidence, and it requires claims to be testable, challengeable and falsifiable. These illegitimate domains do not, and they've been facilitated by institution-wide corruption into validating fake knowledge claims with no evidence, which go unchallenged because they suit the ideological objectives of the institution, and which simply pretends its a higher level of wisdom. When it's still just grievance, envy, malice and mental illness.

Claudine Gay is just the tip of a very large, corrupt iceberg. We have to delegitimize the poisonous domains that have been laundering this fraud. And if we can't, the institutions as a whole.

[on-stolen-sunbeams]

love chess in general, not just playing/winning because on one hand it's a battle game, a strategy game with a long history. All these academic, very serious connotations, the tournament formalwear, calculations and a duel over squares. There's no inherent advantage, we all see the same board, may the better player win. Old clubs like the Mechanics' Institute, nice pawn structures that are gorgeous. the immortal game, looking through the books of the greats that game before. chess is beautiful.

But then you have playing bullet for hours in the middle of the night, stuff like the bongcloud opening (also the crab opening, the joke opening of choice at the club I attend sometimes lmao), the most offbrand lingo. Anarchychess and, uh. scandals that are probably somewhat rare in nature in other sports. (shout out to niemann lol that was a unique one). streams and atomic chess and possibly somewhat out of pocket but also hilarious memes. bughouse and crazyhouse and chessboxing. drama of varying stakes and the viih-sou gambit. all of it, stupid and hilarious and fun and amazing.

I think a lot of people sorta ignore the second part. chess is cool but it's not just 'insert-academia aesthetic' or 'old money' (despite what tiktok seems to think). Because yeah, chess isn't super easy (unless you're Magnus or something) but it's not stuffy. That doesn't make it easier to win, or make it take less work (I genuinely have no idea how active GMs do it), but the stereotypes make it sound like something it isn't always.

[didnt-hear-cold-as-you-live]

Omg dude i get you, i thougjt for so long its about the career you want but actually the subfield is so important?? Like i wanna be an academic and me and everyone i know had to navigate a lot of tricky situations to end up in the subfield we're interested in cuz getting into the general field is no problem but actually getting the internship with the specialist in the idea you're interested in etc is not, meanwhile my friend who wants to be an editor is really interested in fiction specificallt like crime and mystery novels but got somehow caught up in the like schoolbooks publishing world and i'm like is she gonna continue with that just bc thats where she knows she can get good positions? But at the same time i get why she would. And another of my friends does like journalism/mediation and got a stellar internship at a really presitigious institution in my country and they offered her a permanent position after it and she turned them down bc she was like yeah this isn't the part of this job i'm interested in, and it means she's gonna be out of work for a bit but she seems happy with her decision

YEAH. it’s really fucked up how easy it is to get accidentally pigeonholed, cause when you’re first starting you just look down and go where the money is because you need to survive, unless you’re REALLY careful. And then one day you look up and you’re like where AM I, this isn’t what I wanted??????

So it’s like I have it but based on yeah, the nature of how fulfilling it feels, I couldn’t be further away still. It’s crazy how much a difference that makes. Cause if you’re not interested in the field you may as well be doing any other old job you didn’t want… And I feel like I’m just on this ride I can’t get off or can’t get off without temporarily slam dunking everything I worked for into a dumpster and halfway starting over with no real clue if it’ll work out again cause I can’t even believe it worked out this time. uGH.

[dvarapala]

❛     anything  can  be  turned  into  a  weapon.   ❜

weapon based sentence prompts // @salvatoraes

"anything," udyati echoes, "and anyone."

this is the closest she's come to telling him about her own past and the time before her enrollment in this academic institution.

she ducks and weaves, twirls around him. doesn't quite touch him, but doesn't allow him to get close, either. it's like a dance to a tune only she hears, with steps only she's familiar with. stefan salvatore will come to know the steps too. that is, if he sticks around long enough to learn.

her bare feet tap out a rhythm on the wooden floor of the gym.

what is it like to walk these hallowed halls when said hallowed halls are named after you? once gone, now returned. a revenant, if one had to put a name to it.

mystic falls has always been a hotbed for supernatural and extraterrestrial activity. so of course he'd be back - of course he'd be brought back.

there are strings tying him to several people. some of them are here in this very building. others are not. bonds like that cannot be broken so easily. (she would know. she does know. though does not elaborate. not really. not quite. not ever.)

and just like udyati kavya rao, stefan salvatore seems to be a walking, talking mosaic. a being made up of all the lives he's touched.

"you know," udyati hums, happy and at ease, "i've been circling around your floppy haired head for ages now. you could have done something - probably should have done something by now like throwing a tripping hex my way. unless... you're a secret mastermind and all of this is part of your ghoulish masterplan to make me lower my guard so you can strike when i least expect it? if so, i'll have you know that it won't work!"