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aleprouswitch · 8 months

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INTJ Stereotypes Survey

Just for the fun of it. I've seen this going around a few places and decided to throw my answers into the mix. This is a long post, so read under the cut:

Socially Awkward - Yes. Horribly. Even around people I know decently well, I tend to fumble my words and have weird bodily cues. I've been asked on more than one occasion at in-person jobs why I "do that". It's somewhat embarrassing and makes the social awkwardness even worse.

Really Good at One or Two Oddly-Specific Things - Yep. Those two things would probably be writing and music.

STEM Nerd - I wish. I've always been fascinated by science and would have chosen a career in a scientific field had I not been cursed with dyscalculia.

Morbid Fascinations - Hey, only I know the contents of my browser history and I'm going to keep it that way 😏

Lots of Alone Time - Definitely. I wear out easily if I have to be around people or talk on the phone for too long.

Good at School - Yes and no. There was a time in my life when my grades were suffering and that was largely due to depression, and as mentioned, I have dyscalculia so my GPA suffered as an undergrad due to having to repeat so many math courses. Concerning the last math class I had to take in college, I went to the math lab every day for tutoring and to study a week before finals. The final still took me 2 1/2 hours to complete and I was crying throughout. I barely passed the course with a D.

Unemotional - Somewhat, I guess? I have emotions, but they're not dramatic or overexaggerated like a lot of peoples', and definitely not fitting to the female/non-male stereotype.

High IQ - I took the IQ test twice - the first time gave me 123 and the second time gave me 117. I don't think either of those numbers are too shabby.

Very Strong Political Opinions - Hoooo boy, yes. This is doubly so if you get a few drinks in me. I nearly derailed a work party once for ranting about a Conservative coworker's idiotic scare tactic posts about Syrian refugees. So many visibly uncomfortable people.

Very Strong Religious Opinions - Somewhat. I'm mostly agnostic but I'm definitely not a fan of organized religion dictating what others can and can't do with their lives.

Facts Over Feelings - Yes, very much so. The truth is more important than sugar-coating something.

Plans Ahead for Everything - I try to, but we live in a very unpredictable world right now that is centered on temporary fixes and intentional instability. Being a Type A person in a Type B societal system can be tiring.

Very Organized - When it comes to my work spaces, 100% yes. Everything else? I'm a little sloppy because it doesn't concern anything immediate or urgent.

Has an Existential Crisis Like Every Other Day - Hahahahahahaha....that's what a Ni-Fi loop will do to you, kids.

Nihilistic - To a degree, yes. I don't exactly gargle Nietzsche's cum or anything, but we share similar outlooks.

Money Matters - True, although I'm not super stingy like my ISTJ/ESTJ mom is. I allow more wiggle room for (responsible) fun.

Narcissistic - I don't' think I am at all, but an ex-coworker did call me a narcissist in an argument once. I told our manager and she just laughed and said "Dora, he probably doesn't even know what the word means".

Brutally Honest - Yes, and it's cost me a lot of friendships in my life. Once again, I believe in telling the truth even if it hurts.

Not Open With Romantic Feelings - I think this is one way in which I deviate most from the INTJ stereotype. When I have feelings for somebody, I play it cool, but I let the other person know that I'm interested. Having been in a relationship for 11 years, I understand the importance of romantic feelings and try to make time for my partner and I to keep those feelings alive.

Arrogant - I've been accused of being arrogant many times in the past, so maybe I am. Eh.

Black-and-White Thinking/Bad at Accepting Other Opinions - I've struggled with this in the past, but I think I'm getting better at being more open with age.

Never Smiles - I do smile, but only if I feel like it.

Hates Parties - I like parties if it's a small get-together with good friends. I'm not too big on the ones with tons of people, super loud music, drugs everywhere, etc. No ragers for me.

Self-Centered - This is a heated one for me, because my mom always called me self-centered when I was growing up as an insult. I probably am, but it's due to the fact that at times in my life, I've felt like I'm all that I have.

Offensive Memes - Yes, back when I was in my little edgelord phase. God forbid any of those ever resurface.

Aloof - I suppose? I don't know.

Probably Wants to Take Over the World - Nah. I just want to have control over my own life and my immediate surroundings.

Good With Technology - Yes, for the most part.

Good at Math - As mentioned twice before, I have dyscalculia, so no.

Good at Written Communication but Bad at Talking to People - Why the hell do you think I'm on this website so much? I've always asserted that the words I write are much louder than the words I speak.

Bad at Expressing Emotions - I can be, but once again, I think I'm getting better about it with age.

Pessimistic - I consider myself a realist, not a pessimist, although so many people tend to think someone is being pessimistic when they're just seeing the reality of a situation.

#mbti #intj #surveys #intj stereotypes #long post

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ptitelidio · 3 years

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“Black and White Contrast” a rivetra theory

Hi Rivetra fans, actually this is my first post on tumblr and I hope you will like it. Just to say a few words before beginning my rivetra theory, I ship Rivetra sooo hard but I like and respect other ships. Please if you get to see this post and like or share my opinion, an answer would be so cool!

PS. Sorry for my English, I’m not a fluent speaker, but I try my best :) enjoy!

First, basically I called this post ‘Black and White contrast’ because I found out that the relationship between Levi and Petra is like this, a contrast, in many fields.

To show this I will use photos of manga panels, of the anime and Petra’s song, the light of two wings.

Let’s begin with the song. The first opposition we can see is in Levi personality; Petra describes Levi like that “Your sterness always stems from gentleness And I felt a warm light behind those harsh words“, basically she sees his true nature, behind the darkness, there is a light, that’s what she says.

Now the other contrast is between the painful and the happy moments she went through: “ I recall plentry of painful things.. But I made it to where I am , Free of doubts.. Sharing smiles and laughter along the way “

Now she says: “ Tiny feathers gather one by one Forming a white wing Fragile lives are lost one by one Leaving behind a black wing “

That’s when we get to read something with ‘black’ and ‘white’, here she talks about two wings, a black and a white. The white being composed of feathers (analogy with soldiers lives lost one by one), and apparently she talks about a black wing left behind... we’ll get to see more info about it further on. But it seems to be ralted with death, isn’t it?

“ Though a bird may be born to soar across the skies I’m sure it won’t be able to fly well with only one wing But you will shoulder the determination of all that is white and black And guide everyone to great distances beyond the walls “

She says that a bird can’t fly without two wings, so the black and the white ones. And he will ‘shoulder the determination of all that is white and black’, in other words the determination to fight of the deads and the living is something he has to carry on. She is talking to Levi, and says that he is the one to guide everyone beyond the walls,

Then, she finally says before dying:

“Don’t forget that you have the light of dual wings sprouting from your back And if I were to give a name to the light I felt…yes.. it would be… Hope..“

So once again that the light of dual wings (black and white) shows that he carry the spirit of the deads and the living, I repeat this on purpose because you will see that the symbolism of the contrast has not been chosen by chance, but on purpose.

The second other point is that she perceives that light as hope, obviously we understand why, Levi is considered as the humanity’s greatest, so he’s the most expected to save the Eldian people.

Now.. let’s show the black and white contrast elsewhere.

Do a black and a white wings ring a bell?

Yup... exactly. And I’ll prove that they can symbolise Levi and Petra relationship. They can also show many other relationships in the SC but here, and with the song, it takes a different dimension, like thir relationship was like a black and white wing = black -> death, sadness... and white -> light, hope, or life

Petra is dead and Levi is alive,

Petra sees light inside Levi, whereas he grew up on a dark place (underground) and frequented bad people everyday (criminels etc...)

Now let’s focus on the anime...

What do you notice in this passage? This was when they were going to the former Survey Corps HQ with Eren.

Petra’s horse is WHITE and Levi’s is BLACK, here Levi’s one does not seems so black but you can check on other photos in the Internet and you’ll see that he’s actually black, but now because of light and shadow it’s a bit light but whatever.

So, you probably notice that nearly every horse is colored in brown but not Levi’s, Petra’s and Erwin’s. Some other horses are colored in light brown but it’s not like them three, the colors are strikely different. And in the manga the horses were all brown basically, so why this change of color? Not for nothing obviously, the great messages remain in little details..

This photos shows that the horse are basically all brown.

Another contrast is Levi and Petra’s physical appearance, they are obviously different. He is black-haired, she is blond (ginger in the anime but the contrast stays with light color and dark color..) even their eyes in the anime are different but that’s not the essence of the theory, that was just a remark.

Now look at the Petra’s and Levi’s scene when she died and he looked down at her:

Isayama pictured the contrast in dark and light, notice how Levi appears in the light part of the grass and Petra in the dark one, she is dead and he’is alive. And bigger than that, there is also Levi’s Wings of Freedom emblem on his cloack, a double contrast where the white one is in the right and the black one on the left. Petra is on the ground, Levi in the air. They complete each other every time.

The contrast is even more striking in this panel:

The position of the panels for comparison, the position of the heads and eyes, Levi looking down and Petra looking up. The contrast in their hair is also emphcised here. Don’t you notice something else? If no, look at the Wings of Freedom emblem I put...

Yes... Levi is at the left (black wing) and Petra is at the right (black wing)... the analogy is here for those who searched for it.

And once again, their life status, one alive but painfully sad and the other dead but with an unfulfilled dream and she didn’t get the chance to confess to Levi, I quote:

“ And so.. I will die.. believing that.. Oh….how i wish this would last… But…it seems like my time is up… I have…one last thing…..I would like to tell you.. No… Nevermind…It’s Nothing…. “ (Petra’s song)

Let’s continue.

Remember, we said that Petra tought Levi was the hope of humanity’s survival (she says it in her song). Now, did you know that Levi thought exactly the same of her? I will show it to you, and that was basically implied on Petra’s last scene.

We all know how Petra put trust over all other things, work team was very important to her. The sentence that we remember the most of her is “trust us”, in her last scene -- when she and her team were riding horses and the Female Titan was hunting them -- she said that exact sentence to Eren.

PS: It is written in French, but you can check it in English on your own if you want.

And everybody knows that Levi didn’t know if it was the good choice whether to put his trust on his comrades or to just rely on his own strengh. Well, on that day, Levi had a strong proof that he should believe in his comrades.

Here: Petra: “Captain?!”,

Levi: “He’s a real monster, I know that very well, not only because he has Titan abilities... no matter how strong he force with which it is immobilized, no matter how resistant is the cage in whic he is held. Nobody will ever be able to bend his will”

-> So what does Levi say? He considers that Eren will to fight titans can’t be bend, in other words he is like a monster, ready to do anything to kill his enemies. But basically, Levi’s stance is that NOBODY can’t change his mind. He was sure of that.

And guess what happens? Eren hearing that from Levi wanted to prove that he was not a monster, he had enough.

Eren “ I had enough. I don’t want to be treated like a monster...”

And the phrase that Petra told him definitely convinced him to do the choice to trust his new squad.

Now look at Levi’s face... he’s startled by Eren’s decision. Yes, he who was so sure that Eren will transform, Petra’s insistence to trust his team proved Levi wrong. That’s why he was so surprised. That scene and Levi’s expression is even on the anime, if you want to check it out.

Well, nobody before succeeded to do this: make Eren change his mind, he’s usually the one to ignore Mikasa’s advices even if he cares a lot for her. Petra, even if she was not so close to him, actually succeeded this task. This startled Levi. Who could change a monster’s mind? Yes, the one to carry hope for humanity. Actually in the anime, EVERY soldier carries that hope obviously, but in that precise moment, Petra was the hope Levi wanted for humanity.

This reminds us of the song, when she says that she though Levi’s light was hope, actually she was also hope, like every one of her comrades. Now, Petra had that same light, hope.

Oh and remember that panel from Chapter 112:

Yes. “Hope for Humanity’s survival” and beside what character? Petra. Everything is linked lmao, Isayama is a pure genius.

And now that I read this panel alone, it’s like Petra could have said these lines ‘I did it... because I believed he was the hope for humanity’s survival...” in other words, I sacrificed my life for Levi because I thought he was the hope for humanity’s survival. It could fit VERY WELL, I don’t think this is a coincidence because she said the exact same thing in her song...

PS: The Wings of Freedom can represent many pairs in AOT like Erwin and Levi for example, but Petra and Levi formed the wings of freedom too. That’s not a coincidence if Erwin’s horse was also white like Petra’s one, and we know that Erwin convinced Levi to joined the SC the day Ferlan and Isabel died. That day, Levi developed the Ackerbond with Erwin when the latter stated, with his federator charisma, that we can’t get to know the future etc. So Levi had the Ackerbond with Erwin so that’s quite obvious to justify why they can represent the wings of freedom, but what was Petra for Levi apart of a squad member?

Yes, she was special for him whereas he didn’t have the Ackerbond with her, and that’s why she’s even more significant, his blood didn’t play a role in his relationship with her. The only answer I find is, simply, love.

#rivetra petra levi theory levixpetra petraxlevi rivetratheory aot

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nissakii · 3 years

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How similar are Hinata and Deku?

In a previous blog post I covered the similarities between Bakugo and Oikawa, finding out that both of those characters actually share more traits than visible at the first glance.

You can read it here, if you didn’t read it yet.

This time I will continue with another Boku no Hero academia meets Haikyuu comparison!

Deku also known as Izuku Midoriya and Hinata Shoyo, what makes them so similar?

Role model figure

In real life as well as in many stories the common role model figure is present, which the person that is the core of the story looks up to.

Both Midoriya and Hinata have that kind of person that they look up to in an unnatural and almost shackling way, that drives them to become much stronger and grow out of their weaknesses.

First of all we have Midoriya whose greatest role model and aspiring dream to become like him is Toshinori Yagi, the eighth holder of One for All.

Even before becoming his successor and inheriting the power of One for all himself, he always looked at videos on repeat of his favourite hero and role-model.

In his room as well as later on in season 3 when the U.A students moved into dorms, you can see Deku’s room filled with posters, figures and various other articles of him, making it more than a simple I look up to this person.

On the other hand we have Hinata Shoyo who overly admires the Little Giant, someone he feels connected to by their background.

Unlike Deku who found his role-model much earlier in his life, Hinata found his role-model figure around the end of elementary school.

He admired him for being such a strong Volleyball player despite his lacking height and amazing jumps that made Hinata wonder if he could do the same, and so Hinata started his path as one of the shortest middle-blockers being even shorter than the Little Giant as coach Ukai stated.

In the Karasuno team he even gets the shirt number 10, that used to be the number of the little giant and like Deku you can see the parallels between the successor and role-model.

Both of them try to step into the footsteps of their role-models as close and in the same way, being shackled down by the fact that they are chasing to become them instead of developing an individual playstyle from the get-go.

Another thing is that they are the two people who seem to be a little bit obsessed with the idea of becoming the next one after their role-model that you cannot see in any other character of the specified series, making them blind to their own weaknesses and potential as an individual, as well as their influence on their environment.

Off mode

We all know that people who are overly passionate get into their thing and suddenly switch modes as they keep babbling and showing you the world they love so much.

But as soon as you move them out of their field of passion they tend to immediately become a whole different person, as if you pushed the off-button.

This trait can be seen especially with our two young men.

Hinata who is naturally energetic and cheerful is much more nervous and easily frightened when not playing Volleyball, at times he can be even socially-awkward when it comes to certain people like girls, upperclassmen or elders.

Even Oikawa, who he challenges in season 2 indirectly or talks cheerfully about how strong he is on the court, becomes a threat that scares him into shivers when meeting in front of the bathroom outside of the court.

Also he has the habit of throwing up or using the toilet before a match, making him much more fragile, sensitive and overly-anxious when not being in the game, even more than the usual anxious characters like Asahi or Yamaguchi.

Same goes for Deku, he is someone known for his easily intimidated and jumpy personality.

While he can talk clearly and loud when in a fight or in his hero mode, he usually stutters and mutters his opinion while becoming nervous, avoiding eye-contact and fidgeting with his hands.

Here it doesn’t matter if it’s the intimidating childhood friend Bakugo or the cute considerate Uraraka, even some other students who approach him naturally make him jump and stutter sometimes.

Eyecatcher

Despite their looks and seemingly low presence when compared to their peers, both Hinata and Deku always manage to focus everybody’s eyes on them, due to several positive as well as negative reasons.

Let’s start with the positive reasons on both sides.

Hinata surprised everyone with his seemingly never-ending stamina and crazy jump-ability, making everybody focus their eyes especially the first time they see it.

Combined with Kageyama’s setting technique, the freak duo quick is one of the things that people still gape at when they see it several times.

As mentioned Deku in his off-mode is someone of not much presence, but when he fights and talks seriously, he can make everyone look at him for being one of the view who possess the essence of a true hero.

He rather sacrifices himself to save anyone he can save, fully aware of his own inability power-wise in some situations.

The first one to act as well in a dire situation.

His attacks are always progressing, surprising, combined with his analysis skills and observation his quick judgement and ideas make him unpredictable and worthy of an opponent.

On the negative side, Hinata sometimes focuses too much on jumping and getting the ball, making him seem scary and reckless, also bumping into his own teammates.

After a long time of pressure he tends to become more easy to read since he is not on the brain side of things and purely acts on instinct and his trust in Kageyama.

His opponents focus on him, block him and can see when something is wrong immediately in Hinata’s expression.

Deku is also known for acting reckless, people view him as useless in fights despite his analytical skills and strength.

This stems from his will to even sacrifice breaking bones and injuring himself in a fight to a point where he is immobilized.

An example would be the sports festival in season 2 where he indeed caught people’s eyes but in the end was viewed as crazy and reckless due to his fighting behaviour.

Judged by the cover

Like mentioned in the paragraph before, people underestimate Hinata and Deku.

Hinata for being short and Deku for several reasons, one would be that he used to be quirkless and can’t use his quirk properly another would be his shy and “wimpy” personality.

Yet they both always impress both allies and enemies with their outstanding power when they are serious about something.

Being mocked at the beginning of the battle just to make their enemies and allies wonder what more they could be hiding when doing their thing.

Therefore do not judge a book by its cover, since even a short middle-blocker can outplay you and even the former “wimpy” kid can become a more outstanding hero with an amazing quirk.

Helping hand

For the one who longs to be a hero it may be simpler to explain since it is immediately shown in the first episodes.

One of the very reasons why Deku was chosen by Toshinori is the fact that he is the first one to help and lend a hand, pushing his own life into the background while doing so.

Even when he was quirkless he rushed to the scene to save his bully and childhood friend Bakugo while he bore the risk to be kept hostage or get killed in the process.

In many other scenarios it was seen that when everybody, even much stronger heroes and aspiring heroes froze, Deku was the first one to rush in and fight for others.

Two big cases would be Kota in season three when both were almost killed by a villain, despite Kota offending Deku and even hitting him… where it hurts.

The other one in season four when he was adamant of saving Eri, even facing Overhaul who injured and killed so many with his quirk already and almost getting eradicated by Eri’s quirk if it wasn’t for him breaking his bones constantly.

In other cases he also cheers up his friends and classmates, may it be due to his nerd-talk or just him being so innocently kind.

As a parallel we have Hinata who is not a hero, but a Volleyball player yet in many scenes we can see him cheering Kageyama up, adapting to his pride by making it look like teasing.

In other cases he even tells him there is nothing to fear since he now has Hinata, giving him a safe space to move in.

Other cases would be him talking to Nishinoya to get him back in the team, as well as Asahi and cheering up Yamaguchi when he missed his pinch serve.

He all does that in a way that doesn’t make the other person feel pitiful but in his own way.

For Yamaguchi as example he told him next time he would get ten points back for sure or that they both get ten points each, and that he won’t lose to him being on the court.

With that he makes Yamaguchi feel like a threat , stealing his place on the court which results in Yamaguchi having the feeling of actually having potential and belonging to the team.

Another example would be Yachi.

When he heard her problem and story, even when she insisted she would be okay, Hinata literally dragged her to her mother and wanted her problems to be resolved.

He forced his help on her and due to his help she could full-heartedly become their new manager.

Troublemaker

Earlier the negative side of the eye catcher was mentioned, concluding that both of them recklessly work hard to achieve their dreams and forget what is around them or even in front of them.

Again, Hinata fixes so much on the ball and wants to improve immediately that he forgets that there are other middle-blockers around, crashing into them.

Also when heated up or nervous he becomes easy to read and makes a lot of mistakes since he still lacks a lot of technique when it comes to his serves and receives.

He often gets scolded by Kageyama and Coach Ukai for this behaviour, they even think of him as a potential monster when gets into that mode.

Also Hinata’s habit of bumping into several of his rivals and wanting to start a fight when he gets defensive outside of the court makes him a bit of a troublemaker when nobody of the third-years are around.

It also happened that Hinata got lost several times while focussing on running faster than Kageyama or training in general, showing his naive and innocent side as he talked to Kenma the first time who was a complete stranger.

This all can be applied to Deku who basically breaks all his bones in a fight.

He attracts villains and rivals alike, due to his presence.

His reckless behaviour made him the focus of events.

Also in season three, after being released from the hospital he sneaks out to save Bakugo with a couple of students, he does get into a fight with Bakugo on the school grounds and his quirk that he inherited from Toshinori was labelled as very similar to his quirk.

Therefore Aizawa and the rest of Class 1-A, labelled him one of the trouble students.

Unyielding

One thing both of them clearly have in common with not much words needed, an unbreakable spirit to go on with their dreams.

Even if it was shown that they both have suffered many setbacks, judgement and suffering (which they rarely show on the outside), they never stopped working hard for their dreams, if not even harder than before.

As many people watch them, call them names and ridicule even mock them, they do not give up.

Instead, they give them that one look, which is going to show them how much they are ready to give and fight to become the person they want to be.

Fanboy

Last but not least, fanboys.

Not only do their eyes glitter and shine, as well as their voices sounding much more energetic, no they do not hide the fact how amazing and admirable they find the person in front of them.

May it be villains, heroes, teammates or opponents, nobody is safe from a little smooth compliment.

Their respect for the person in front of them is big and they do not underestimate or ridicule them at all.

Deku always analyzes his allies and enemies, noting their strength and technique until he breaks out into a mutter concert he cannot stop.

He does not hold back openly complimenting and letting his inner fanboy out, even flushing from the overexcitement as seen in several cases at the cultural festival arc and sports festival arc.

A case where Deku complimented a Villain would be in season four when he finally beat Gentle and told him he was the hardest opponent he fought yet and that he thinks he made the right decision when he turned himself in.

Hinata is not much more different, unlike Deku who in general analyzes Hinata simply sees things as they are and just is amazed by them like a child.

He even rushes over telling the person in an unknown excited mix of japanese and his own description of sounds, how cool and amazing they actually were and if they could teach him.

One example would be Nishinoya and his rolling thunder, another one is Bokuto’s feint.

Just like Deku even with an opponent he doesn’t hold back as seen in season one when he first saw Oikawa play in the inter-high preliminaries along with Nishinoya, he even gave him the name Grand king and talks highly of him as he keeps saying he wants to play against him.

Some opponents are even irritated when he directly tells them during a game or after how amazing they were.

For now this is all for our favourite tangerine and cabbage boy.

Did you see any of these similarities before?

Do you have more that weren’t mentioned here?

Drop it in the comment!

Now let me take a sip of my- wait who knocked my tea off with a volleyball?!

-Makii

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365text · 4 years

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Hello! I’m a long time follower and I’ve recently been accepted to UC Berkeley as a transfer! I wanted to ask, what do you love about Berkeley? I’m trying to separate the prestige of going to THE UC from my personal feelings about the school. Getting the opinion of someone who has actually attended might be helpful. I appreciate anything you have to say!

hello !! omg “long time follower” what a CONCEPT that means you were probably here at least 4 years ago, considering i haven’t used this blog in the past 3 haha.

also, CONGRATULATIONS !! i’m so excited + happy for you ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (and i’m laughing at “THE UC” because i forget that we are also called Cal for that reason haha). v understandable to try to get a vibe about the school to separate prestige from the actual experience — i’ll try my best to share what i love about berkeley, though ofc (obligatory disclaimer) every person ultimately has different experiences at the same college, so YMMV :’)

i’m actually making/editing a video about what i’ll miss about berkeley [updated!] that im aiming to post by the end of the week heh so i’ll share it here / update this ask perhaps with a link when im done!

but in the meantime! what do i love about berkeley under the cut heh

berkeley is in general known for their academics / research opportunities! depending on what you intend to major on, it can be a really great resource to strengthen your foundations in your intended field :’) i study computer science, and imo berkeley’s CS program is pretty good — we have some particularly amazing lower division teaching faculty, and also pretty solid access to some innovative / Big Things™ research labs + professors in the field as well. i think in general their STEM is p strong, and i think various majors within the humanities as well. i would just say do your research for your respective interest in that regard, since i think some majors (ie. cognitive science) are probably “better done” at other schools? example UCSD has an actual dept. dedicated to cogsci, whereas berkeley’s cogsci program is just kind of like a program rip

i’m also in the college of Letters & Science (L&S), and what i love about that is the flexibility you have for your major of choice! transferring to EECS is now impossible (?) iirc given I started in L&S, but i was still able to major in CS (after meeting the GPA cap) which is honestly virtually the same degree — you have the same CS requirements, just without some of the COE requirements (like physics or multivariable calculus, which is fine by me LOL). being in L&S also means you’re able to double/minor in L&S majors more easily (anywhere from history to art to english to stats to data science, etc.) without needing to worry about overlapping individual college requirements!

and one more thing about academics is that it’d probably be ideal if you could talk to someone who majors in the same thing you’re interested in, as i can only really speak to my personal experience as a CS major. the school is honestly really big, and experiences vary greatly within department to department! CS department is HUGE and our class sizes pretty much never dip below like 200-300, mostly averaging around 600-700 even in the upper division. but with smaller discussions, it usually doesn’t feel that bad. but i know that experience is v different for some other majors, where their upper division classes are like 20-30 people!

there’s also a bunch of student orgs / clubs, like a lot of schools i’m sure, that you can take part in! berkeley feels like a very self-driven school, in the sense that you can really feel students’ personal motivations, which drives the vibe that student orgs typically take on (in my experience).

i personally really like the city + campus! i like how berkeley feels like a ~ community ~ and almost a combination of a suburb / metropolitan area. you can find residential areas just by walking 20 minutes north of campus; you can go downtown / into oakland with similar travel time either on foot or by bus; you’re next to BART which gives you access to a bunch of bay area cities; and even tho the campus is an “open campus” which means anyone can come onto campus, it’s not integrated into the city as a school like NYU is — which means you still do get the campus vibe/feeling! also some areas of campus are absolutely beautiful, esp. during golden hour *chefs kiss* hehe.

we have a pretty decent selection of libraries to study in too HAHA.

i think food in berkeley is def not bad either! near campus won’t be like Top Notch food and it’s not super cheap, but you get a lot more options that a lot of colleges don’t have within like 5-10 min. proximity i believe. but i am not 100% certain about that ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ but it’s p easy to find good grocery stores if you prefer to cook @ cal, and p easy to find some quick food options that aren’t bad if you’re busy either!

like all schools tho, there are plenty of pros and cons depending on what you prefer / are interested in / what kind of person you are! there are lot of things i could talk about, but i’m not sure what you’d like to hear / what would be relevant for you heh. if you have anything you’d like me to elaborate on / clarify, please do lmk!

at the end of the day, i think my personal belief is that a person’s college experience is largely shaped by their chosen community (re: people they choose to spend their time with), and if you find people that have the vibe you’re looking for in a college setting, i think it helps the overall experience a lot! sorry this is kinda rambling heh but congrats once again and GO BEARS LOL

#reply #uc berkeley #berkeley

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dudesorriso · 6 years

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Chosen (Reader x Michael Langdon) 1/3

So here’s the first part of Chosen, based on my very own ask. I’ve fallen on the Michael bandwagon and I don’t regret it at all. Part one of a Three part series.

'He looked like an Angel.'

That's what Mommy said. What did an Angel look like though? She honestly wasn't sure and asking the adults her Mother usually put in charge of her yielded no answers. Nor did her wobbly lip and giant eyes. (Though it was known that flashing those beauties at the un-proclaimed Leader of Neutrality, Papa Midnite, one might find herself with more sweets before dinner.) Pert little nose twitching, the young girl scratches with gritty nails as twinkling blue eyes dance across the stoop. LA smelled funny. With festering heat, cold people, sewage and the all-around darkness that hung in its underbelly. She could feel the grasps all around her, like a black fog they hung on the outside of her vision. Waiting to plunge their gloom into some unsuspecting person. Tapping her sneakers against the cracked cement below her, careful little fingers worry at the edges of pavement next to her. A sprout of flowers beginning to grow, weak little things they were and in her Uncle Chaz’s opinion; weeds. Their golden color brought her joy though, especially when the sun hit them just right. That glow that bounced off was what she believed her father's hair looked like. Angels had gold hair, right?

Fingers grazed across the edges, the dandelions petals flourishing just the tiniest bit under her gentle hands. Mommy said she had his eyes. Blue, the color of the sky on a clear warm day. Uncle John didn't like her Daddy too much she could tell. Anytime she'd brought him up around the older man had his fists tightening, mouth twisting like he'd eaten a sour candy and his eyes... Uncle John's eyes turned dark with rage. Like one of those inky mists had grabbed hold of him for just a second till he shrugged his shoulders, kissed her head and walked off. Sometimes she'd hear Papa Midnite and Uncle Chaz whispering about it till the former sensed her. Something about lost and fallen. Was her father lost? Did he fall off something and never come back? She knew some of the children at her school said that their parents 'fell off the wagon', did her father fall off one? Puffing a sigh, she rises from the steps to skip in front of the apartment building. While normally being in Chaz’s care was fun; filled with movie binges, greasy food, candy and video games she found a want to be outside. Something inside told her she needed to be there and even with her Uncle's confused, "Have fun?" She remained resolute, waving with a smile every time the older man peeked out from his second-floor curtains.

~*~

Her feeling hasn't gone away. Three hours have passed since she over took her mission and even as she grows bored, she keeps going. Skipping, hopping, cartwheeling back in forth and stopping occasionally to touch that little weed... It was important. She wasn't sure how she knew that, but it was.

Shadows grew, lights flicked on with a distant hum. The cicadas of the city, it brought some comfort to her. She could almost pretend she was home with her Momma in their small house with fields of green in every direction. Almost. The sound of a window plus her Uncle's voice calling down to her has her turning on her heel at the end of the street. Ten minutes she begs, but really, she doesn't know why she waits anymore. Slow foot falls, shoulders in a slump as she twists her braids, she makes her way back. That feeling in her chest still present, growing ever more as the hours waned on. Sighing dejectedly, even a bit sadly though unknown to even herself she starts up the stairs to head inside-- pop. Dust from the asphalt beneath her feet fluffs up the air, and she’s staring. Staring into the darkness, hands gripping the cement arms of her stoop as she leans over to peer.

It's like he's surrounded by light and dark at the same time. His hair a curly messed mop upon his head, golden in its glow of the street lamps. The haze of its light makes her eyes twinkle in awe. Eyes so like her own stare down the road past her, not even noticing the young child that stares so resolutely in his direction. Their color she can make out, blue like a summer sky, but right now they seem so dark. Cloudy and it makes her sad for a moment. Why was her father sad? He'd come home, almost, he had found her. Maybe it's because Mommy wasn't here? Her father probably didn't even know she existed, Mommy had said he was gone before she even knew about her. All she knew was that his face was meant to smile. A look so sad and empty didn't belong on his visage, she was sure her Mother fell for her Daddy's smile. She barely noticed his clothes, still too young to properly understand the dark congealed wetness that clung to his untucked shirt. His entirely unkempt appearance, so lost was she in this beautiful stranger that she saw her lost father. Nothing else mattered. The flower. Her hand grasped its stem, breaking it at the ground and then she’s off. In front of her beautiful father, a bashful smile on her face. She knows she filthy, hands covered in dirt, grime under her nails, her clothes sweaty from heat and playing on the ground. She's always dreamed of meeting her father, but never like this. She feels so small and inconsequential next to him.

At first, he wanders right past her, unseeing oceans glazed over in pain. Flower in hand, head tilted the slightest bit she rushes after him, his almost silent elegant footfalls and her quick rushed one’s echo on the street. It's like he doesn't even know she’s there and honestly her heart wrenches in her chest, her eyes gathering tears.

"P... pa..." if only she could get it out. Her throat feels like its closing though, her eyes running with fresh fallen tears all that can escape are choked whispers. She needs to be strong, just like her Mommy.

"D-d--daddy!" It rings in the silence of the street, one word that brings everything to a standstill. Finally, finally the man is straightening up; his movements more refined like a well-oiled machine. She watches as his shoulders lift; his neck goes straight and that almost wobbly gait change. And then he's facing her, and she’s lost in the eyes that look so much like hers, not even noticing the confused lilt that gathers above his brows.

His mouth is open no doubt to voice a question, but it closes as he processes her word. The one that entered his darkness and disoriented mood, it knocked him back to this hellhole, but he couldn't find it in himself to feel angry at the small child before him. Not as she looked at him with eyes glittering like pools of a midwinter sky. Even full of tears they looked upon him as if he hung the stars and brought about the sun. She sniffled, drawing even more of his attentiveness and how could she not? When it was as if he was looking into a portrait. It was only a few steps to her that had him crouched before the small child; she couldn't have been more than 4 or 5, and as his gaze trailed her face, he hated to say he had to deny her. He'd never so much as touched another human, there was no way the child was his. And yet their similarities were borderline uncanny. His shade of hair twisted into two chest length braids, now a tiny bit ratty most likely due to her activities. Blue jewels that stared at him in awe, hopefulness and... love. Her chin was strong, much like his own with a feminine grace that she would no doubt grow into. But she was not his. It was only after he opened his mouth after the minutes passed of careful scrutiny that she interrupted him with a flower in his face. More though a weed, its yellow gold shining vibrant and... quite healthily in her grasp.

"You're my Daddy!" She whispers reverently, her eyes glistening more as she offered him the flower. "I've been waiting for you forever... Mommy said one day you'd come back."

Him? A father? He had never even thought much on it, maybe when he was younger and a lot more innocent to this festering cesspool, they called a world but for years it hadn't crossed his mind. Once upon a time he had dreamed of maybe a wife, someone to share his life and love with. To bring home to Ms. Mead and proudly call his own. But no more than that had ever crossed his mind... Oh Ms. Mead, what would she have done in this situation? Long fingers took the flower offered to him, digits spinning it this way and that to the child’s amusement. He watched as her bangs framed her cheeks and the slightly gapped teeth rewarded him with a smile. It was there he saw it, how could he have missed it, truly he was an idiot. She radiated it so clearly now, the purity roared from her in waves and he had missed it. Its glow shifted from in her chest to her whole being that he could almost see her ghostly wings. Soft feathered and the same shade as he-- their hair. And this sparkling, unadulterated being was choosing him.

Briefly a thought entered his mind, Nephilim as they were could be dangerous to a being such as he. And yet he could sense no trickery or deceit from her. No half-truths when he glimpsed her mind and as all doors once opened, they could be entered from both sides. She did not shy away, nor did terror grow once she had touched the darkest part of his mind.

"I did," he said simply. She chose him. He would not disappoint her. Not when his reward for such a simple sentence was her arms about his shoulders and that purity and warmth pressed into his side. All too soon she was pulled away by a voice above, her excited smile stretching from ear to ear. He hated to but, one finger on her mouth and she closed it, confusion swimming in her eyes.

"They can't know yet. Our little secret, yes?" He almost missed the childlike joy and blind trust of his younger days. It had her nodding rapidly so much her braids flapped and brought a tired half smile to his face. And then she was frowning, and he ached to bring back that smile. "But... you just got here. Why do you have to go again Daddy?" Her tiny voice filled with so much sadness had his brows turned down.

"I have some things to do," he decided for honesty. Or as close as he could get, "Things that you and..." "Mommy?" "Mommy," he tested it out, finding some small thrill run through him. Eyes darkened mischievously, she had been claimed and didn't even know it yet. It was exhilarating for the most part, a game of cat and mouse was beginning, and she had no idea. "You and Mommy can't be around for them. It's too dangerous." 'And lonely,' he added in his head before looking at his daughter, 'Though not anymore.' His free hand tucked between her cheek and bangs, thumb brushing across her feature's gently. "Understand?" Blue depths took in his face, before one small hand touched his own cheek in mimicry. A sweet moment he would remember forever and be sure to replicate every chance he saw her. "I understand."

"Good, now go inside."

She was gone, turning at the door with a wave, that had him answering in kind, and bright smile before she disappeared within its depths and at once he was alone again. His hand dropped to the side, while the other twirled the flower once more before he tucked it in his pocket. Days came and went as he went on his way that not even the thought of his child could keep his previous sadness quelled. In a haze of some kind he found his way to a door, "You lost?"

Weren't we all?

@stuck-on-writing

#michael langdon x reader #michael langdon #ahs x reader #constantine #dahlwriting

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avicebro · 6 years

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Murder Children & Fate

Hello we’re going to talk about a trope I like to call “murder children”.

Introduction

I think before I can start talking about murder children I should first explain what it is. As its name implies, it’s a character who either is, or looks, like a child, and kills or is interested in killing. I do not care if the character is actually 18 or older or whatever the original source material suggests—if they look like a child and are into murder, they fit into this trope.

This is a pretty popular trope, especially in Japanese media, and it has a varying degree of success. A lot of times it’s a murder little girl character. This relates to some gross stuff and while it would be great to talk about the disgusting stuff, we’re going to focus on how to write a good murder child, and how to not.

We’ll be doing this by looking at the fate series, as I’m a huge fate fan and this is the series I know the most about.

The fate series has had a murder child since its inception. This began with Illyasviel, a character who, while she is technically 18 years old, looks like a child and in her first scene, joyfully tells Shirou that if he doesn’t summon a servant he’s going to die. This has continued as fate grows, with most of the fate spin-offs having a murder child. The only one I can personally think of off the top of my head that doesn’t have a murder child is CCC (and that’s still tentative because Elizabeth returns in CCC).

With Grand Order, we have a lot more murder children. The majority are girls but depending on how you view young Gilgamesh—how he is portrayed in Prisma Illya certainly suggests that he would fit into this category—we also have three boys.

So, we are going to dissect two of my favourite characters to demonstrate how this trope can be used to say something, and how not to.

Illyasviel von Einzbern

We’re going to focus on Stay Night for hopefully obvious reasons. Prisma Illya, while it is so close to making things interesting with Kuro, falls short and ultimately removes what made Illya interesting in the original visual novel up to the point where they had to reintroduce the original main character to make the series interesting again. But I digress.

As mentioned previously, Illya is the first murder child in the fate series. In my opinion, she is the best written. Again, I hate to be that person, but if you have the time, please read the original visual novels (novels because she does show important development in Hollow Ataraxia as well).

In the original visual novels, we learn why she acts the way she does and why she has a world view that rivals what Shirou believes in. She’s in this war to prove herself, not simply to the Einzberns, but Kiritsugu, and eventually, Shirou. She wishes to prove that despite having basically grown up by herself, she is strong, and will win the war. She pushes herself past what’s healthy for her and summons a servant that most mages would not be able to control. She’s the pinnacle of the Einzbern homunculi and if she does not win, then even the epitome of homunculi construction is useless and should be abandoned. She has a lot weighing on her shoulders.

Furthermore, she has this extreme interest in Shirou. Illya is raised believing that Kiritsugu deceives her and abandons her. She’s orphaned in this cold, empty mansion. She wishes for revenge for what Kiritsugu does to her. When she learns that she cannot get this revenge, she turns her attention to the next best thing: Shirou.

She’s jealous of him. She was left behind and Shirou got the life she wanted. She becomes enraptured in him—resulting in her kidnapping him in the Fate route and also killing him a lot in the Fate route too—and wishes to figure out what it is about him. What is it about Shirou that made it so that he was the one chosen, and not her?

This all culminates into her personality. She’s seen as a murder child because she’s seen so much death at a young age having lost both of her parents early. She has a sense of superiority because at the beginning of the war, well, isn’t she the best master? She has, by all accounts, what is considered the strongest servant and has the magical prowess to control him. Finally, she has this obsession with Shirou because she feels like he took her place. This already puts her characterization leaps and bounds against the second murder child we’ll be using for contrast.

Roche Frain Yggdmillennia

If you know anything about me, you know that I love this guy. So, I am biased. Plus, it’s pretty easy to make fun of Apocrypha. A lot of Roche’s issues stem from the fact that Apocrypha is a series where each servant is trying to fight for more time, leaving most characters not fleshed out before they are killed off.

This also doesn’t help when comparing it to Stay Night. If Stay Night had only been one route, then Medea would have been a blip, we wouldn’t know who Archer is and we wouldn’t get the mapo tofu scene. However, with Strange Fake, we know that wars of this scale can be written well. Strange Fake only has one servant less than Apocrypha and has still been able to give everyone the time they needed. But that’s another meta post.

Out of all the servants in Apocrypha, I think Spartacus is the one that gets the worst treatment. Poor berserkers. However, if I was asked about which servant I think got the second worst treatment I would probably say it’s Avicebron. And, unlike the other black masters like Caules or Gordes who got more character development, as Roche is his master, he gets probably the worst treatment of actual masters that do anything in the war, maybe behind the actual train wreck that is Celenike.

I think that also the anime does an even worse job of allocating time to Roche. If you aren’t interested in reading the light novels, I’d recommend reading the manga, as it is overall doing a better job at showcasing Roche’s true personality. However, since most people know about the anime, I’ll be discussing that primarily, sometimes talking about how the light novels and the manga portray him to back this up.

While this is not really discussed in the anime, Roche is raised by golems. As such, he dislikes humans and is awkward around them. He considers speaking to humans like talking to animals. He does not have the interactions with humans necessary to work with them. This makes him unfit for this kind of war. The only person he deems important is Avicebron, who he calls teacher, as he is another golem mage who led the field.

He is also very much a murder child. When Vlad goes out to kill the clock tower mages, he’s happy to see them being slaughtered. Later on, in the manga, he can be seen kicking the dead homunculi. When Avicebron asks him if he’d prefer to watch from inside as to not get hurt, Roche tells him he wants to see the war up close. He enjoys seeing murder.

Furthermore, he is okay with murder as long as it leads to the activation of Avicebron’s noble phantasm. He doesn’t care about who has to die as long as he can see its activation—and ultimately for Avicebron to win, so he can continue to learn as his student.

If I did not tell you this however, and you only watched the anime, you might not see this. We only see Roche interacting with another character besides Avicebron twice: once when he rolls his eyes at Astolfo:

(which funnily enough is one of my favourite reaction images)

And the other time, when he half-heartedly listens to Fiore’s commands and gives this expression to Gordes:

These two scenes, besides one line at Darnic, are the only times we see of Roche interacting with other humans. Then, we have his death.

I’ve talked about his death before and how poorly executed it was, but overall because of how little time we get for Roche, it leaves the viewer confused. On one hand, it’s a young kid who is being betrayed and murdered. On the other hand, it’s a character that we have not gotten attached to and thus we don’t have the emotional impact.

Time to compare death scenes.

Death Scenes

Illyasviel doesn’t die, if you play the visual novel correctly, until Unlimited Blade Works. Illyasviel has a lot of development in the Fate route; turning from a murderous, young girl, into Taiga’s little sister who sometimes comes over for dinner. We learn more about her interest in Shirou, and how she acts as a grail. The climax of the Fate route involves Shirou going to fight Kirei to get her back. In sum, you as the reader have gotten close to Illyasviel at this point.

(Even more if you are like me and died a whole bunch in the Fate route and got to see her in the dojo)

When you reach Unlimited Blade Works, you don’t see Illyasviel as much, as the majority of the route is about Archer and Medea. However, there is the fight at the beginning, which diverges from your first fight with Illya. Arguably she acts more like the murder child in this fight, as Shirou does not take the blow from Berserker. The next scene is her death scene.

However, the scene (both in the anime and the visual novel) is very lengthy. We get the fight between Berserker and Gilgamesh that lasts a long time—it’s not 100% one-sided like some of the other Gilgamesh fights in the series. During this scene, we also get to learn about Illyasviel’s backstory and how she and Berserker originally bonded. We learn that Berserker is losing because of he’s trying to protect Illyasviel. We also see another side of her, not the more murderous side from the Fate route, but a strong, determined master who fully believes in her servant not because of her own strength, but because of her trust in her servant.

As we have seen all these sides to Illyasviel, her death hurts even more. It creates more of an impact when Berserker is taken down. We know that because of how she was raised, that with Berserker’s death, she feels fully alone.

Now let’s compare to Roche’s death scene.

At the point where Roche goes out to visit Avicebron, we’ve had basically 3 scenes of him: the first time we meet him, where he discusses Avicebron’s noble phantasm, the scene he has explaining how he does not care about how many people need to die just as long as he gets to see its activation, and then the scene where he’s talking to Caules, Fiore and Gordes. Those are the big scenes—we get a couple others sprinkled in, like the Astolfo rolling eyes scene, and in the light novel when Avicebron asks if Roche would like to watch from inside.

In the anime especially, all we really know about Roche (if people remember him) is that he’s a golem mage who is obsessed with his teacher and will do anything to see his noble phantasm come to life. In the manga, we get the added shots of him being happy at death, but also cut down on the scene of him talking about how he wants to see the noble phantasm come true. I personally don’t mind this as we already know that this is how he feels.

This is not enough time to grow attached to the character. We already know this. We also know that something bad is going to happen to Roche—heralded by Fiore screaming ‘Roche’! and then immediately after not seeming to care about his death—as he is no longer Avicebron’s master.

In the anime, because we have only seen one side of the character, we feel bad for Roche because all we know about him is his infatuation with his teacher. This makes Avicebron deceiving him hurt even more. They mess up the scene by trying to force in the fact that they are the same.

Yes, Avicebron and Roche are similar: they both hate humans and prefer not to interact with them. This leads Avicebron to wear a mask so he doesn’t have to look at them.

Yet, from the anime, we have no leads besides Roche cooping himself in Avicebron’s workshop to suggest that he dislikes humans. Him saying that he doesn’t matter who dies as long as Avicebron’s dream comes true ties back to the only character trait he has in the anime—his adoration for his teacher. The two scenes of him interacting with someone besides Avicebron? He rolls his eyes because Astolfo wants to get off without working, and him waving off Fiore’s comments can be seen as a younger brother type ignoring his older sister.

This doesn’t point to him being a murder child. This does not point to him being the same as Avicebron.

The anime shoving this in before his death makes no sense. It’s supposed to make us feel better about his death, to not be angry about it because in the end Roche is forgiving him, but because we have no real signs of him demonstrating this hatred for humans, we can only trust Roche’s word. This coming from a character who was clinging onto life just a minute prior.

A Good Murder Child

I will be honest. I don’t like this trope.

I find it’s too closely tied to disgusting things and rarely gets executed well. However, I do like Illyasviel. The things I do like about Illyasviel are not the fact that she is a murder child; but on the other hand, when those aspects of her tied to her being a murder child are removed, like in Prillya, she loses what makes her interesting to me.

Ultimately, what makes Illyasviel a good character is her relationships with the other characters.

With Shirou, we get to see a complex character. We see her as a murderous little girl in fate, but then also a younger sister at the end. In Unlimited Blade Works we have her as a strong and competent master, who in the end has one of the harshest death scenes in the fate universe. In Heaven’s Feel, she becomes the older sister to Shirou, where we get to dive into her complicated relationship with Kiritsugu and her family, as well as her feelings about Shirou and how they conflict with her world view.

This gets added on in Hollow Ataraxia with her relationship with Angra Mainyu.

Her relationship, as a younger sister to Taiga, is sweet, and hints at what Illya may have been like if she had been raised by Kiritsugu.

Finally, through her relationship with Berserker, we get to see two lost souls finding each other and fighting. We see their bond go from a master trying to get a wild dog to do what she wants to a trusting master-servant duo both worried about each other’s well-being. When one dies, the other realizes how much they depend on the other, and how lost they are without them.

What makes Illyasviel an interesting character is that she is not just a murder child.

A Bad Murder Child

Even if we look past the anime, there’s still so many problems with Roche. Again, it mostly stems from the fact that he does not get the time to develop. We are given information about him without really the story showing us this about him.

However, this also comes from the fact that we don’t get to see him interact with other people besides Avicebron.

If he had been given the opportunity to actively show his dislike for humans, then we could have a different emotion about his death besides, “oh well that happened.”

He has the backstory to give us an interesting character. We could have had him being forced to interact with the rest of the Black faction masters. Perhaps use something that Caules or Fiore does to make him realize that oh, maybe humans can be as cool as my teacher. Make a rift between him and Avicebron before that makes him think differently. Hey, maybe instead of just having Fiore scream his name out and say to look for him and then like, not care afterwards, maybe have her find him and make him choose between Avicebron and the Black Faction. Or, since Chiron and Achilles are also used to describe the teacher and student relationship, have Chiron save him.

Even if you wished to kill Roche, maybe have Roche as the core affect Adam.

Even if you wanted him to be this murder child, demonstrate why he hates even his allies. Show clear rifts between him and the other masters. Make him act like a child. Sure, the rolling the eyes and the shrugging off works, but if he hates humans, and thinks that interacting with humans is akin to talking to animals, make him fight their plans. Have him go against their plans and almost die from it.

There is so much possibilities that could have been added into the story to demonstrate his dislike of humans that unfortunately was not given the time. Thus, in the anime, he’s only given the role of liking his servant, and because of it the only memorable thing is his death.

In comparison, there is so much more to Illyasviel than one of her death scenes. So much that type moon decided she warranted a (much worse) spin off, and she almost had a route of her own. While she is introduced as a murder child, she becomes more than that through her relationships with the other characters. Something Roche was not given.

Conclusion

I would gladly like this trope to die off the face of the earth. Especially in fate where we got already enough, especially amongst the girl characters. However, if they are going to continue writing these characters, they should take a page out of Illya’s book.

Especially the Prillya mangaka in terms of Kuro. C’mon.

We are still in the process of writing the Apocrypha manga, and as I mentioned, it is doing a much better job at portraying Roche than the anime. I’m interested to see if they will change it or not.

If you would like to discuss, especially Roche because I love him, please feel free to message me! Thank you for reading this long meta post, I have a deep love for Roche and believe he deserved better.

#roche frain yggdmillennia #meta #pollyux writes #illyasviel von einzbern

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somevestrit · 6 years

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Radio Romance | Ep 1 & 2 Review

So I have attempted to watch Radio Romance and I barely finished the first two episodes. I wasn't interested at first because the description on Viki makes it sound really bad, but then I found out Kim So Hyun is in it and became interested. She's been in so much that she's definitely had her fair share of duds, but she's a really strong actress and has been in some really good stuff as well (Moon Embracing the Sun and everything she's been in written by Park Hye Ryun to name some).

I feel like I started this show with reasonable expectations. They might have been low because the premise sounded bad or they may have been a little high because of Kim So Hyun, but either way my opinion of the show in the beginning sharply nose dived not long after it started and did not plateau until I stopped watching. Kim So Hyun, who is 18, is playing an old and tired heroine archetype that was finally left behind only a couple of years ago, and seems to be part of a weird trend to bring back old elements of K Dramas that were left behind for a reason and should never be brought back, but I won't get into that here. She's driven, brazen, and fighting to keep her head above water. Or in this case, to stay in her chosen field. Also she has the super curly, wild, and unruly hair that not so subtly represented her personality. Did I mention she's brazen?

Putting this aside since I've never liked this caricature of a strong and independent woman and the fact that even though she started off pretty weak I had faith that Kim So Hyun could layer the character and do her well, I also had issue with the age range between her and the male lead. Now, I don't have an issue with him per say, I only know him from the movie Splash Splash Love which in spite of its terrible title was actually pretty cute. The problem is that he, Yoon Doo Joon, is 28. A full ten years older than the lead actress which wouldn't be so terrible if only Kim So Hyun didn't still look very much like a teenager, maybe just turned 20, and Yoon Doo Joon didn't like very much like he was in his late twenties, maybe just turned 30. What makes it even worse is they are both apparently supposed to be the same age. The Same Age. But this is also something I could over look. Like I could over look how Yoon Doo Joon's character's friend/therapist is awkward and cringey and hard to watch and not at all funny like he's so clearly supposed to be (I'm chalking this up to bad writing or possibly a miscast or a mixture of the two because I've seen the actor, Kwak Dong Yeon, throw out some decent performances). I could also, possibly, maybe, ignore the fact that Kim So Hyun's character keeps getting mad at Yoon Doo Joon's character for always smiling even though I was always initially confused by this because I couldn't tell he was supposed to be smiling because whatever emotion the actor was going for he was most definitely not getting at.

However all these little problems, together with other things like the cheesiness that is Kim So Hyun's character's love for radio shows, together make it progressively harder to be forgiving and really distract from any good the show had to offer. Because I was interested, and part of the reason I'm frustrated is because the show had legitimately good elements that were heavily brought down by bad ones.

But honestly, the biggest offense this show had for me was something so obvious and brazen, something they didn't even try to hide, something I cannot begin to fathom why they would do it, is that Radio Romance is, at least so far as the first two episodes go, a cheap knock-off of Uncontrollably Fond. What's weird to me is I recently saw this happen with The Bride of the Water God being a cheap knock-off of Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, and while I was annoyed with Habeak (The Water God) for assassinating its source material in an attempt to get name recognition from the Manhwa and also ride off the waves (I honestly didn't mean to make that pun but since we're might as all own it) of the success of Goblin by lifting elements of it, it was at least its own story with its own characters. Radio Romance, so far, essentially lifted the bare bones of the story of Uncontrollably Fond, the characters, and the relationships between the characters. So while I can forgive one story lifting elements from another, such as a male "god" that's a couple of centuries old being magically bound to a mortal woman in modern day Korea and the woman is struggling for whatever reason, as pretty much all heroines tend to do as has been touched on previously, it's not quite the same as regurgitating the same set up for a story and characters and back story for those characters.

What's worse is once I realized just how much Radio Romance is like Uncontrollably Fond I also began realizing the elements of Radio Romance I liked were things lifted almost directly from Uncontrollably Fond. There were definitely elements lifted that I really hated, like Yoon Doo Joon's character picking up Kim So Hyun's character to carry her to his car, but most of the elements from the show that elicited any response from me were from Uncontrollably Fond.

But this is observation from the first two episodes, and maybe they get better as the series goes on. But these are serious foundational issues that I don't believe the show could recover from hardly at all in the remaining 14 episodes because the issue is the foundation itself. What's weird about this show for me, though, is I don't think they were trying to capitalize off of Uncontrollably Fond or were intentionally being lazy. There's a lot of sincerity in it already, albeit misplaced and pretty over done—and this from someone who loves a lot of sincerity in her stories—but it seems like the creators are trying to tell a well constructed story with fleshed out characters. It never felt like it was assumed the audience had watched Uncontrollably Fond so Radio Romance was building off of it.

I have absolutely no idea what the creators were thinking making an Uncontrollably Fond 2.0, nor why something that seemed to have had a lot of care put into the script was produced so poorly. Because a lot of my issues stem more from bad production than bad writing. All I do know is that if I, or anyone else, want to watch Uncontrollably Fond, then just watch Uncontrollably Fond. And this from someone who has attempted to watch the show twice and always starts off loving it but then unable to watch past episode 10 or 11. And some people will like Radio Romance. The main script wasn't terrible, if you can look past the blatant plagiarism, and there are some solid actors on the main cast, Yoon Doo Joon's and Kwak Dong Yeon's respective performances so far not withstanding. I just doubt I'll ever watch more of it.

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english-ext-2 · 7 years

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hello! just wondering about your thoughts on art degrees - are they really 'useless'? i can't think of any other way to study literature :( thank you!

I have many thoughts on this so it’s best to start with a disclaimer: I’m only speaking from my own experiences, am in no way representative of all Arts students, and definitely don’t represent employers’ perspectives (who might have very different opinions to mine).

Before I go anywhere, the following point is the most important: if you want to study literature, then study literature. There is nothing worse than picking a degree you think will be ‘employable’ only to realise you hate it (actually, what’s worse is becoming indifferent to it).

I’m clearly biased here, but Literature is good and not at all useless, and I would strongly encourage you to study it. I don’t want to say anymore else I’d go on forever, but that’s my position. The rest of my answer is under the cut because boy did it get long.

Arts in General

Firstly, arts encompasses a huge range of disciplines. In terms of diversity of knowledge, arts is far from useless. I’m at Usyd, where the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is the largest by far. It’s divided into schools, then departments. A single school, e.g. School of Social and Political Science (SSPS), has several departments. My majors fall under SSPS, the Department of Government and International Relations and the Department of Sociology and Social Work. But you’ve got education, social work, philosophy, museum and heritage studies, archaeology, media and communications, linguistics, languages, a whole range of departments under other schools too. Are all these subjects ‘useless’? Nope.

In purely humanistic terms, people with arts degrees have contributed so much to society. Where would we be without novelists, film producers, directors, script writers? Monty Python was a troupe of over-educated nerds who put their Oxford and Cambridge educations to dictionary-altering satirical use (soz Terry Gilliam, I know you’re American), and we’re better for it. Our world would be poorer without artists of all stripes and the insights that sociologists, historians, anthropologists, philosophers, linguists, etc. have made. The ultimate strike: your teachers studied Education, i.e. Arts. Without them you wouldn’t be reading this, and I wouldn’t be writing it either. Even if arts degrees are semi-jokingly characterised as useless, they’re not. (Btw I aggressively do not enjoy the STEM v Humanities debate because it reduces both sides to shitty stereotypes and gives rise to godawful Discourse, has anyone heard of polymaths.)

Types of Arts Degrees

You also have to consider the type of arts degree. Once I finish this semester I’m going to graduate with the pass Bachelors of International and Global Studies (i.e. your standard three year degree). In terms of tertiary education, it’s the most basic. I chose not to do a combined degree with, say, Law; nor did I choose to do Honours, which would’ve added an entire year to my degree doing a thesis. Arguably, arts honours and combined arts degrees are less 'useless’ than your run-of-the-mill three-year arts degrees because you supposedly gain advanced research skills and the, well, non-arts part of your combined degree (lol). (I would recommend Honours only if you’re truly, honestly looking for an intellectual challenge and are fully prepared to commit, not just riding along for the perceived employability advantage. A thesis is hard work! I have a friend in Melbourne who can testify.) Incidentally, your three-year arts degree will be an infuriating obstacle if you’re thinking of applying for grad school in North America since most universities only consider candidates who have at least a four-year undergraduate degree. On another note, I actually once met a girl who was doing combined law/arts and took a cinema elective unit because she enjoyed cinema but knew it wouldn’t likely help her find a job.

Employability

But given the state of the job market these days, almost all undergraduate degrees by themselves are next to useless. A freshly-graduated 21-year-old with a single Bachelors and nothing else to their name, no matter the discipline, won’t be zipping up the salary ladder any time soon (would probably struggle to get an entry level job, never mind kickstarting their career). We’re a long way from the days when just having a degree was proof of your knowledge and thus qualification for the job. Higher education is more accessible, and employers’ expectations have changed. The substance of the degree matters less than the transferable, or 'soft’ skills you gain at university. I’m talking leadership, adaptability (a big one), teamwork, written and verbal communication skills, cross-cultural awareness, self-management, time management, problem solving. Your grades are no longer the sole determining factor in your hiring, and may even take a back seat to strong extra-curricular or sporting achievements, or your experience in various casual/part-time jobs. In some ways it’s a welcome change for employers to expressly state they value recruits as people with talents in fields other than academia, and it’s certainly more inclusive of socio-economically disadvantaged students who might not have done well in school but are nonetheless hard workers and have displayed merit in the 'real world’.

From certain other perspectives, the job market is still capitalism, and individuals are still in competition with each other. As soon as employers make it known they’re looking for “well-rounded indvidiuals”, the students with the most cultural capital and financial resources rush off to, say, intern at a law firm, a think tank, the state government, or travel overseas to teach English in a South-East Asian country, i.e. they grab opportunities to expand their set of transferable skills. Doesn’t matter if you’re an arts student; the wealthiest are more likely to have the means to seek out and actively pursue the experiences that’ll enrich their CVs and make them more appealing to recruiters. It takes money to travel, and you need to be from a certain social milieu to know of, if not apply for, valuable career-hopping opportunities (I kid you not, one guy applied to the organisation where I volunteer wanting legal experience because his parents were allegedly dentists and not in the Right Lawyer Circles to get him a paralegal position or clerkship). All of this is a long way of saying that doing arts is but one factor amongst many affecting your job prospects.

To bring the discussion back to more pleasant grounds, big corporations (read: banks, consultancy firms, your Comm Banks and KPMGs) are recognising the skills and talents that arts students can bring to their companies. The critical thinking skills you gain from analysing those long-ass readings and putting them into practice are highly sought after because they show you’re not just someone who follows instructions, but can analyse, evaluate and synthesise information appropriate to audience, which applies to literally anything in any workplace. Usyd even has a program called ArtSS Career Ready that offers summer/winter internships with various organisations to Arts and Humanities students only.

It’s implied in the above paragraphs but what it comes down to is that you’re very likely going to end up doing something that has only the faintest relation to your degree. A student who majored in sociology might end up in a consultancy firm; a history student at St George or Westpac. If you’re going to worry about what you’re studying, worry on the basis of whether you’ll enjoy it rather than whether it fits your projected career path.

Arts Degrees in Context

So far I’ve spoken about arts degrees in very general, abstract terms, disconnected from the institutions that offer them. Does it make a difference if you study English Literature at Usyd rather than UNSW? (Usyd’s English department consistently ranks well in the QS rankings, 18th this year and the highest Australian university if you were wondering, with UNSW at equal 49th.) Though whether an English major from Usyd is more employable than an English major from UNSW, well, Usyd is ranked 4th in terms of graduate employability in the QS rankings but that’s not necessarily reflective of Usyd’s English department. Anyhow, the 'usefulness’ of a degree will rely on its quality, and that quality is directly influenced by two things: the degree structure, and the people teaching your degree. Both will of course vary from uni to uni.

Degree Structure

What do I mean by degree structure? I’m talking mandatory units or majors, and even mandatory internships. Take my INGS degree. The features that differentiate it from your generic Usyd arts degree are:

four mandatory INGS units

three mandatory language units

a mandatory one-semester exchange

a mandatory major chosen from a list (double majoring is optional)

It sounds fancy but if you were a discerning arts student you could take multiple language units and go on exchange; the list of compulsory majors we choose from is not exclusive to INGS students. The real appeal lies in the INGS units, which are themselves an interdisciplinary mix but which in my experience don’t build graduate abilities any more effectively than any other arts unit. Exchange was good though, and certainly useful in the sense I picked up a range of transferable skills (if not applicable in professional contexts then at home; baking soda and vinegar are great cleaning agents.)

My degree structure wasn’t revolutionary and didn’t necessarily equip me with skills that might make me more attractive to recruiters. Enter mandatory internships. Some universities in their arts degrees make practical experience (internships, practicums, research projects, etc.) compulsory. If this opportunity is already built into your degree and/or discipline, e.g. you have practicums if you study education, then it’s a huge advantage as you don’t have to go looking for one yourself. Macquarie University makes PACE units (Professional and Community Engagement) a requirement of graduating with an arts degree. Students get practical experience in the community with a partner organisation and undertake an “experiential learning activity”. I mention this because I’ve met Macquarie (and UNSW) interns at my volunteer workplace who’ve contributed significantly to various projects - experience that makes them competitive when they graduate. And yes, there’s a PACE unit for English! (I’ll admit that to Usyd’s credit they have the above-mentioned ArtSS Career Ready program.)

tl;dr not all arts degrees are created equal, the better ones include mandatory practical experience.

The People

Secondly, the people teaching your degree. I have thoughts (Thoughts, I tell you) on education as a collaborative effort, which I’ll just boil down to this: your teachers matter. The people you learn alongside with matter. You don’t learn in a vacuum, and yes, while you’re responsible for your education and how much effort you put into readings, assignments, asking questions, and so on, your teachers and tutors play an essential role in how you absorb and understand the material. If you’ve got a lecturer who reads slides out at a catatonic audience, that’s… not helpful. If your course coordinator gives you one-sentence replies to lengthy, well-considered questions, that’s… also not helpful. But if a teacher can engage you with what you’re learning no matter the subject, you’re more likely to develop a genuine interest in it and to do well. Good lecturers and tutors crop up in unexpected places and often at random, and the best way to find them is through word of mouth. In employability terms, these teachers make for sterling referees. If you get to know them enough, they’ll happily vouch for you.

This answer has gotten ridiculously long but I hope it addressed and assuaged any doubts you may have had.

#asks #answered #university #hsc #i guess #for anyone else considering arts #in which i overthink things again #Anonymous

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emsalterdesign3-blog · 7 years

Text

Essay

21/03/2017

Gary Anderson

11008272

Word Count; 2,755

Essay

The creative direction of my research project stems from the intersection where cognitive thinking, design and colour manifest. Specifically, it focuses on the effect colour has on our subconscious minds, and how this can consequently be used to influence consumers’ purchasing habits. From my findings within my research I will then begin to propose a colour palette to be used within my work to create a body of work that would attract a wider target market, and in-turn increase sales if the designs went to retail.

As my research project is looking at our contemporary consumer society, I began to read Ways of Seeing by John Berger, (Berger, 2008). From reading through this literature, I have been able to construct several different viewpoints on how we perceive Art and Design, and how we as individuals are confronted every day in society with a high concentration of visual imagery for publicity and product placements. This volume of visual confrontation is something that has never been seen in society elsewhere in history, as John Berger (Berger, 2008) discusses;

“In no other form of society in history has there been such a concentration of images, such a density of visual messages. One may remember or forget these messages but briefly one takes them in, and for a moment they stimulate the imagination by the way of either memory or expectation.

(Berger, J. 2008, p. 129)

The use of colour in publicity is vital as, although choices are given to consumers through product colour and design, publicity markets only one target proposal, that by buying more products we will transform our lives. Design formats and colours used within publicity also cater towards making the spectator feel dissatisfied within their own present way of life, as well as working upon our human instinct of anxiety regarding money.

Publicity persuades us of such a transformation by showing us people who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable. The state of being envied is what constitutes glamour. And publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour.

(Berger, J. 2008, p. 131)

Alternatively, the anxiety on which publicity plays is the fear that having nothing you will be nothing.

(Berger, J. 2008, p. 134)

Jean Baudrillard’s critiques of our contemporary consumer society complement these theories also. Baudrillard’s theories on this topic are discussed within Theory for Performance Studies by Philip Auslander, (Auslander, 2008). Furthermore to this, Auslander, (Auslander, 2008) engages in Baudrilard’s arguments that postmodernity images precede the real, as well as pursing thoughts that if this the case, then we are not in fact living in a world of reality, but of simulation.

“To simulate is to feign to have what one doesn’t have” (Simulacra and Simulation, p. 3). In short, simulation does not refer to reality or pretend to imitate it; rather, it constructs reality.

(Auslander, 2008).

The concept of the project initially derives from my undergraduate degree, and my chosen discussion topic, ‘Is there a link between Mental Health and Creativity?’. The choice of topic was due to my intentions of pursuing a nursing degree and subsequently becoming an art therapist. It is here that my interest in cognitive thinking and human interaction with colour became more predominant, and where my choice of career change and progression onto my MA course came from.

Despite listing several influential books within my annotated bibliography, my practice has changed course, meaning various articles mentioned are subsequently no longer of any use within the parameters of my research field. Initially, I was wanting to look at the topic of colour from a solely psychological viewpoint, and so I began to gather research on how gender differences and colour can influence our personality and social behaviour by looking at ‘Gender Differences and Color: Content and Emotion of Written Descriptions, Social Behaviour and Personality: an international journal, by Arthur, H (Arthur, 2007). I also began to look at the topic of fear in colour and how this can affect our psychological behaviour towards products by looking at Chromophobia by Batchelor, D. (Batchelor, 2000). From researching into these specific areas and developing my practice, I decided, that to ensure I fulfilled my research purpose, I needed to further narrow my research field and only look at how colour is used to influence our emotions. By narrowing my research field, I have been able to find a clearer and more concise network of literature which has helped me to discover relevant colour theories and techniques to use within my practical work.

As well as narrowing my research field, I have also made the decision to split my practise into two practical outcomes. This is due to outcome desires I have for my end of show collections. My intention is to have two separate design collections which will consist of the same colour pallets but different imagery, to contrast how colour is perceived in different forms. Both collections will use colour pallets constructed from my research into emotional reactions to colour. My aspirations will be to ensure one collection will have a predominant retail value, consisting of floral imagery and high levels of intricate embroidery and illustration, [See Image 1], similar to that of Alexander McQueen, (Alexander McQueen Limited, 2016). My second collection will consist of flat block colour and geometric shapes, again with high levels of illustration and embroidery, but the aims for this collection will be leant towards a purely visual installation aesthetic rather than practical, similar to designs within Yayoi Kusama, (Kusama, 2006) and Lars Contzen’s (Contzen, 2017) installations in galleries and in runway shows. Both designers use geometric shapes and flat block colour to construct strong and striking environments for the viewer. In an interview with Fresh Home Online Magazine, (Freshome.com, 2017) Contzen (Contzen, 2017) quoted;

In my opinion as a designer it takes more courage to use small-scale patterns. By using larger scales a room starts to “open” itself. Mostly the room appears to be more structured, puristic and it seems to have more space. Small scale patterns can quickly look nervous and can make a room seem confined and kittenish. By using patterns in general I would give the advice just to use one type of graphic. Mostly it looks great to combine the right plain colours with this chosen design to get a conceptual look.

(Sheppard, 2017)

Within my collections, I also wish to expand my horizons and challenge myself to create an aspect of design I haven’t encountered before – jewellery / neckwear design. I feel that by taking inspiration from Lars Contzen (Contzen, 2017) and creating a visual installation based collection, I can push the boundaries of my design concepts and ideas to create abstract geometric pieces to harmonise with my textile collections, and in-turn create a strong visual outcome. I feel this will also be beneficial towards my progression as a designer, as it is an area I have yet to explore in my practice.

The main outcome I wish to achieve within my research project is to understand each colour more individually, and exactly which emotions and reactions it can provoke in consumers. This is due to the use of strong, bold colours I have become known to use in my textile pieces. It has been suggested by Penny McIntire in the Visual Design for the Modern Web (McIntire, 2008), that designers should use the ‘three- colour scheme” when choosing colour palettes, consisting of using only three main colours split, 60% subtle colour, 30% medium – bright colour, and 10% vivid colour. This is a theory I would like to test in my practice by pushing the boundaries of this concept to include up to as many as 8 colours in each design whilst still having marketable designs. Throughout my practice led research I will also conduct tests using the ‘three-colour-scheme’ as well as conducting my own percentage led colour codes.

The choice to use mainly vivid and bold colours within my designs, with hues of gradient and lighter tones is also related to the research found within Gerald, J. Gorn’s journal; Effects of colour as an Executional Cue in Advertising: They’re in the Shade, (Gorn, 2017). This journal is a proposed and tested conceptual framework that depicts the links between consumer’s attitude and emotions to the value of colour in advertisements. Gorn (Gorn, 2017) discusses the effects of highly saturated colour and talks about his results for supporting the hypotheses, that advertisements with higher levels of colour value progress to greater arousal, as well as more intense feelings of relaxation towards the advertisement.

We propose a link between the chromatic strength of a color and excitement, and we do so for perceptual reasons. Since highly saturated colors have a higher percentage of the hue pigment in them than desaturated colors, they are richer, more intense, and more striking. This should make them more exciting than less saturated colors, as suggested by Valdez and Mehrabian (1994; see also Adams and Osgood 1973). Moreover, if the arousal end of a unidimensional nonarousal/arousal scale can be taken as excitement, then the empirical work of Valdez and Mehrabian (1994) would support this relationship. While the above suggests that low chroma colors are less exciting, there is no literature to suggest that duller colors, i.e., low chroma colors, would be any more or less relaxing than higher chroma colors.

One would expect that if greater feelings of excitement are produced by higher chroma colors, and higher levels of excitement are preferred, then ads with these colors should be more liked. Research is supportive of higher levels of chroma being more liked (Guilford 1934, 1939; Guilford and Smith 1959; Sharpe 1974; McManus et al. 1981).

(Gorn, 2017)

Penny McIntire, (McIntire, 2008) goes on to discuss the two most successful colour schemes used by designers within the industry. The first of these being the Monochromatic colour scheme, which employs three shades/ tints of one colour, combined to create a palette. From learning about this type of colour exploration in McIntire’s (McIntire, 2008) article I have begun to experiment constructing my own 3 tier colour shading. To carry out these experiments I chose to begin by digitally printing the shades onto white silk. I chose this process so that the dye distribution would be evenly spread out across the fabric, and to be able to alter the outcome, by changing the time scales I left the fabric to be steamed for. This created lighter and darker results depending on the increase or decrease of time. Although successful, I feel for my work and the direction I wish to go, i.e. Using a variety of bold and vivid colours, a Monochromatic colour scheme would be used as a background element within my work as opposed to being the main focus.

The second colour scheme McIntire (McIntire, 2008) discusses, is the Triadic Colour Scheme, which consists of three colours evenly spaced on the colour wheel such as Green, Purple and Orange. Triadic colour palettes are collectively vivid, even when lighter hues of these colours are used. During my experimentation of this colour scheme, I chose to digitally print onto white silk again, to ensure the consistency of colour contrast to the previous experiment was fair. The outcome of this experiment was much more successful, due to the vibrancy of the dyes, and the complimentary shades of the colours overlapping to create bold geometric prints.

Although I have changed my research path, there are two key books I will still be looking at, Designer’s Guide to Color: Bk. 5. By Shibukawa and Takahashi (Shibukawa, I. and Takahashi, Y. 1992), and, Colour, by Zelanski and Fisher (Zelanski, P.J. and Fisher, M.P.L 1998). This is due to the extensive amount of tested colour combinations and codes within. By using Designer’s Guide to Color: Bk. 5. (Shibukawa, I. and Takahashi, Y. 1992) as a key reference point I have been able to create more sample colour schemes by heat pressing onto synthetic white fabric with disperse dyes to create the strongest colours possible. By using the same dye in three sections, but altering the time scale between each one, I could create a range of different colours from one single dye. [See image 2 and 3].

Colour, by Zelanski and Fisher (Zelanski, P.J. and Fisher, M.P.L 1998) initially instigated my practice-led research, as I began by using quotations from this book, to begin my colour sampling. These quotations consisted of discussions about how we as humans elicit physical responses to colour as well as psychological, i.e. warmth and heat from the colours yellow, red and orange, as well as an increase in blood pressure and adrenalin within the body. I also briefly looked at the discussion within Zelankski and Fishers text, that using blue and green shades have also been proven to relax our heartbeat, and relax our muscles. From continuing my research throughout the book I was also able to gather the general known emotional states each colour can cause. Each colour also falls under sub-categories for their shades as to cover all area’s. [See image 4]

Throughout my research so far, I have been able to collect concise information on the emotional effects colour has on our cognitive state. Due to this information, I have been able to begin carefully selecting which colour schemes and palettes I feel evoke the most relevant subconscious emotions within our minds and use this information to progress into the next stage of development with my practice. I have chosen to begin by using colours that relate to Joy, Elegance, Envy and Luxury, such as Yellow, Black, Orange, and Purple as it has been suggested within my reading of Ways of Seeing by John Berger, (Berger, 2008) that these are aspirations, emotions and themes individuals wish to create within their own lives. I have also chosen these emotions and colours as I feel from my current colour testing within my practice, these colour schemes work well and also contrast against each other. Now that I have narrowed my colour pallet down I have also been able to experiment further with these colours, and develop more visual research by beginning to consider all the properties of each colour used, by lightning and darkening the pallets.

Going forward with my research, I am looking to begin creating research questionnaires based on the colour experiments I have tried so far. The research questionnaires will consist of individuals being shown specific colour overlays that I have created so far based upon my previous research. The individuals will then be asked to write down at least three emotions or feelings for each colour slide shown to them. Each slide will consist of the colour coding and palettes I have incorporated into designs so far. Once the questionnaires are complete, I will begin to analyse the feedback and responses, and see if they correlate with my current findings from my research literature. I will also be asking the individuals taking part in the research programme, which colour scheme they would be more inclined to buy if the product was in shops. To ensure this is a fair test of product placement I will be creating mock examples of my designs onto a range of outfits and interior pieces. This extended research and analysis of my designs will be crucial in helping to ensure my collections meet my criteria of using colours to attract consumers within my work to increase potential market value. The platform for the research questionnaire will be using an online poll, so that all submissions are anonymous to ensure a fair testing ground. The questionnaire will also have a cap at a minimum of 25 participants and a maximum of 100 participants. Individuals will be invited to take place as an open-call, as opposed to being previously selected to take part in the questionnaire. Going forward with my research I will also be continuing to look at other relevant journals and articles, such as Colour & Design, (DeLong, M. and Martinson, B. 2012) to continue learning and understanding about colour within design in more depth.

In conclusion, I feel that through the theoretical unpinning’s of my work and the research I have found, have enabled me to be able to make informed choices in the colours I have previously used, and will continue to choose in my designs, going forward. Using said colour scheme and by referring to the texts and articles within this literature, I will be able to design and construct the two strong, visual collections I aspire to create within my practice, as well as being able to attract a wider target market, which will in-turn, increase revenue if the designs went to retail.

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lucymayviscom-blog · 7 years

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Synopsis Of Study

Field of study

I will be exploring the topic of men’s mental health along with the stigma attached to men’s mental health in today’s society. I will also be studying the concept of masculinity. I wish to create an outcome that reaches out to men, telling them that it is ok to express emotion and talk about their feelings. This is something that men struggle with as they are told their whole lives to be “strong” and suppress emotions which is what causes mental health issues later on in life and high suicide rates amongst men. I want to raise awareness for this issue through my project, which is why I chose the title ‘Advocacy’. I will be using film for my final outcome because I have not had too much experience in this department and wish to extend my skills in film making/editing.

Context

My subject of men’s mental health is a very current topic in today’s society. Men are only just beginning to have their own voice on social media and through charities such as ‘Movember’ where they can openly discuss their mental health. My audience will be everyone but specifically aimed at men. I want everyone to see the video as to raise awareness and to start to encourage the men in their lives to talk about their emotions, their issues etc. I want men to benefit from the project outcome to be shown that society accepts them and their feelings and their ability to express those feelings. The audience can find my final outcome across various social media platforms and on the website of my chosen men’s mental health charity.

Methodology

My research for this project will be primary and secondary. My secondary research will be conducted through studies into men’s mental health, artist research and articles. My primary research will be conducted through men that I choose to interview to about the topic, who I hope will share their opinions and experiences on the matter. Through my interviews and filming with different men, I will be asking them specific questions stemmed from research findings relevant to my topic. I will be studying and practising how to produce effective filming so that my work will be produced to the best of my ability. I will be looking at various documentary’s to see how they are produced as a part of my secondary research.

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maxwellyjordan · 5 years

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Symposium: Crosses and constitutional clarity

Lindsay See is the solicitor general of West Virginia, which led a group of 27 other states and the governor of Kentucky in a cert-stage amicus brief in support of the petitioners in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association.

No case is ever a lock for Supreme Court review, but the odds were always in favor of the consolidated cases in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association and Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission v. American Humanist Association. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit’s decision below called for the destruction of a near-century-old war memorial honoring local soldiers who died in World War I. With a trifecta of striking facts, intractable circuit splits and doctrinal confusion, and implications for hundreds of other public memorials nationwide, there was little surprise that this case caught the Supreme Court’s eye.

The memorial at the center of this dispute is a large Latin cross standing on a pedestal in Bladensburg, Maryland. Yet despite the memorial’s obvious Christian symbolism, this is a monument that was conceived for civic, not religious purposes: Sponsored by the American Legion and a committee of mothers whose children died fighting overseas in World War I, it was built with private funds and on then-privately owned land. It was designed as a type of surrogate gravesite, with its shape chosen in conscious reflection of the fields of crosses in Europe that marked the actual gravesites of the soldiers it commemorates. It is inscribed with the names of 49 local service members, the American Legion’s symbol, and words that sound in a civic and military key, like “valor” and “courage.” It has been used consistently and exclusively for the secular purpose of honoring those who died fighting for the United States. And since it was completed in 1925, the community has surrounded it with several other war memorials honoring the fallen. In other words, as facts in establishment clause challenges go, this is about as good a draw as the memorial’s defenders could hope for.

The legal issues also called strongly for review, because the decision below reveals a doctrine in disarray. The 4th Circuit majority shoehorned the three-pronged test from Lemon v. Kurtzman into the more historical and context-based analysis that five justices (across four opinions) found appropriate for passive monument challenges over a decade ago in Van Orden v. Perry. The majority might be pardoned for this odd fusion, however, given that the Supreme Court’s decisions in this area have long been marked by competing interpretations and fractured opinions. As early as 1980, for instance, Justice John Paul Stevens called attempts to reconcile the decisions stemming from Lemon as a “Sisyphean task.” And justices on the other end of the jurisprudential spectrum have repeated that refrain ever since — as when Justice Clarence Thomas lamented in 2011 that the court’s jurisprudence has “rendered the constitutionality of displays of religious imagery on government property anyone’s guess.”

Finally, the potentially vast implications of the decision below rounded out the need for Supreme Court review. The author of the majority opinion left no question about what could be done to rectify the supposed constitutional violation, suggesting twice at oral argument that the state could simply lop off the memorial’s arms. As the bipartisan brief for the 28 states which supported certiorari shows, the same fate could befall hundreds of similar monuments and memorials nationwide. Within the 4th Circuit, the decision threatens memorials in Arlington National Cemetery and West Virginia’s Harpers Ferry alike. Without reversal, it would also call into question memorials adopting religious imagery as far apart as Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor memorial and a group of crosses in New York state meant to evoke the battlefield at Normandy, as well as countless more remembering those who fought in the Spanish-American War, the war against terrorism, and all the battles in between.

These factors make it easy to see why four justices considered this case the right vehicle to resolve the significant uncertainty around the establishment clause’s boundaries. Likewise, a majority of the Supreme Court should conclude quite easily that the Bladensburg memorial should continue to stand (with both arms). War memorials incorporating religious symbols have existed since our country’s earliest days. The cross, in particular, has taken on cultural resonance beyond its religious meaning as a marker of collective grief and respect for the dead — consider any makeshift cross marking the site of a highway fatality. And Bladensburg’s memorial specifically has stood for almost 100 years, has never been used for religious observances, was built without government funds, and was only transferred to public ownership after nearby highway construction made continued private ownership too great a safety risk.

Yet despite what should be a relatively straightforward case in terms of outcome, the more important question is whether this case will allow the Supreme Court to achieve what has so far eluded it: a rationale for passive monument challenges that can provide clear guidance for the fate of not only this memorial, but the many others nationwide too. So far, the court has been unable to coalesce on a doctrinal through-line for First Amendment challenges like these. And although the new composition of the bench may change that calculus, there is a risk that the same court that has not hesitated in recent terms to adopt minimalistic, fact-bound outcomes in what could have been blockbuster decisions will stay that course here.

After all, the same facts can build a strong case for reversal here under multiple First Amendment theories. Any approach that garners majority support is likely to be grounded in both the history and context of the Bladensburg memorial specifically and the role and perception of public war memorials more generally. The jurisprudential underpinnings of that fact-specific analysis, however, could vary widely. For example, the court could see this case as an extension of its 2014 legislative-prayer decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway, which held that, absent evidence or proselytization or disparagement, historical practice and long-standing cultural acceptance are all but conclusive. Under that approach, the 4th Circuit’s refusal to consider the Bladensburg memorial’s origins and broader context — and its choice instead to deem fatal the fact the memorial is shaped like a cross — could be seen as hostility toward religion, not neutrality. Or the court could use the same facts to reinforce a more Lemon-like approach that assesses the monument’s primary purpose and effects, or that tries to stand in the shoes of a reasonable observer who sees no government sponsorship of religion in light of the monument’s history, or because it is surrounded in the park by multiple, indisputably secular war memorials.

The upshot thus may be a repeat of Van Orden: five or more justices who vote for reversal, but no more than a plurality who agree on the reason why. And in this respect, the same strong facts that pushed for the court to hear the case could ultimately undermine its ability to provide the clarity this area of constitutional law so desperately needs. When so many of the history- and context-based factors point in the same direction, it becomes less important to say plainly which ones matter most, and why.

The importance of these constitutional questions and their profound implications for public war memorials in every state deserve better. This case stands at the intersection of how we understand the role of religious imagery in the public square, and how we honor those who die in defense of our constitutional ideals — including the First Amendment’s. The court should make clear that memorials like Bladensburg’s World War I monument are fully consistent with the First Amendment and the best of our national tradition. And it should do so in a way that accounts for the history and context of the establishment clause itself, and that provides clarity for all the challenges to follow.

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blissfulaims-blog1 · 6 years

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Some Growing Challenges In Speedy Programs In Stevia Sweetened Iso Xp

Basic Answers On Necessary Factors For Grass Fed Organic Whey Canada

Home » Slideshow: New products at Expo West ANAHEIM, CALIF. — Not far from Disneyland Park in Anaheim sits a thriving hotbed of food and beverage innovation. Natural Products Expo West in its 38th year drew more than 82,000 industry professionals to view the latest new products in the natural and organic marketplace. Natural, organic and functional food and beverage sales grew 6.7% to $144 billion last year, significantly outpacing the total food market, said Carlotta Mast, senior vice-president of content at New Hope Network, during a presentation at Expo West. “While growth did slow a bit for combined natural, organic and functional food and beverage sales last year, growth was still about 10 times that of the overall $780 billion total food industry, which saw another stagnant year of about 0.7% growth,” Ms. Mast said. “We are the growth driver for the total food industry.” One of the leading trends in new products from the more than 3,500 exhibitors is plant-based foods, Ms. Mast said. “At this year’s show you will find hundreds if not thousands of innovative plant-based products … making it possible and quite delicious for all of us to consume fewer animal-based products,” she said. And if it’s not plant-based, chances are, it’s grass-fed. Meat snacks remain a hot segment of the market, with a number of brands showcasing alternatives to traditional jerky. Epic Provisions is debuting oven-baked pork rinds, and from The New Primal comes Beef Thins, a crunchy jerky snack featuring thinly sliced cuts of grass-fed beef.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/11438-slideshow-new-products-at-expo-west

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Make Fitness A Way Of Life: Tips To Get You Started

Fitness not only makes you look better physically, but it can have far-reaching benefits for your overall health. However, many people don't know what steps to take to start a fitness program. The following techniques can start you on your road to fitness. Maintaining proper posture while exercising, even while simply walking, is important to prevent injury. Walk upright with your shoulders square and lifted. You elbows should be held at a 90 degree angle. The right arm moves forward with the left foot and the left arm moves forward with the right foot. You heel should hit ground before the rest of your foot rolls forward. Write down all the exercises that you perform in a fitness diary. Keep tabs on every type of workout; make sure you list every exercise, no matter how small. Wear a pedometer while working out so that you know exactly how many steps you've taken daily, and make sure to add that to your journal as well. Having a written record will help you track your progress as you work towards your goal. You need to have good footwear when you are working out. You stand a much higher likelihood of injuring yourself at the feet or ankles if you aren't wearing specific shoes for the activities of your routine. You can also cause foot discomfort post-workout which can prevent you from exercising later. When you work out, wear clothing that is comfortable. You may feel pressured to wear a fashionable fitness outfit, especially when working out in public. Don't let anyone pressure you into wearing something that is not comfortable for you. Don clothes which allow you freedom of movement, but don't make you feel self-conscious. When you wear comfortable clothing, you can concentrate on your fitness rather than on your attire. Do you want to be able to do chin-ups easier? Try thinking about them in a different way. Concentrate on pushing your elbows down during your chin-ups instead of obsessing over getting up to the bar. By redirecting your mindset, you will be able to do more chin-ups, and they won't seem as difficult. When done for an extended period, running has the ability to both help and harm the body. To lessen the chance of damage, for one week out of every six, only run half as far as you usually do. This cutback gives you a chance to and recuperate and rest, so you can be ready to go the next week. Failure to do this can result in permanent injuries associated with running. Get the most out of your workouts by making them more "dense." You will shed more pounds if you push yourself to squeeze in more reps in a shorter time frame. Complete a bunch of exercises in a short amount of time and you should notice your endurance and metabolism build. You will see an increase in the amount of weight you lose. Evaluate your training routine and eliminate any exercises that may be pushing you too hard. Check your pulse the day after a workout to ensure that it has returned to normal. Volunteering is not only a great way to help out your community and work on being a better person, but also a great way to gain a better looking body. Many of the things that volunteers offer to do involve healthy physical activity. It gets you up and going, plus it serves the greater good of your community. As you continue with your workouts, you will notice improvements to your health, appearance, energy and performance. Hopefully the information from this article has inspired you to embark on your own fitness program. You will find your fitness level increases as you follow these great suggestions.

Some Emerging Guidelines On Central Aspects Of Canada

But in fact, the data covers only a tiny slice of Canadian STEM graduates because of three methodological choices. First, instead of covering all universities, the data covers but three: the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, which because of their recognized high quality in tech fields and (in UBC’s case, at least) proximity to Microsoft’s and Amazon’s headquarters and their high proportions of international student enrolments, might be expected to have higher-than-average rates of students leaving the country. Yet there is not a word in the report addressing whether it makes sense to generalize across the country from these three examples. Second, the study design actually excludes most STEM graduates. Of the 30,000-odd STEM graduates produced in 2015 and 2016, only 22 programs covering 6,600 graduates were included. The report does not explain why these fields were chosen, but even a casual glance shows that mostly what is included are IT-related fields (math, computer science, computer/electrical engineering) and mostly what is excluded are more traditional science/engineering fields (civil/mechanical engineering, physics, biology, environmental sciences etc.). So while the results might be generalizable to a few specific fields, they are definitely not generalizable to STEM as a whole. Third, for what one assumes are cost reasons, the study examines not all graduates of (mainly) tech programs, but only the half which use LinkedIn and which are therefore easy to track. This is of course a massive potential source of sample bias, the kind of thing they warn about in Intro to Methods classes, because there is no guarantee at all that those who use LinkedIn have similar mobility patterns to those who do not. So, what the study actually finds is that LinkedIn-listed 2015 and 2016 grads from tech programs at UBC, Toronto and – especially – Waterloo do have a reasonably high propensity to leave Canada after graduation, with 19 per cent, 25 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively, choosing not to stay and for the most part choosing the United States as a destination. A better report title would therefore have been something along the lines of “top young tech talent from top Canadian universities gets recruited by top American tech firms.” It wouldn’t have created much policy buzz – more likely it would have been used as marketing material by the universities – but it would have had the merit of being accurate.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-is-canada-really-facing-a-brain-drain/

Want To Know More About Vitamins And Minerals? Stop And Read These Tips!

Food is wonderful! Sometimes it is hard to get enough nutrition from food. Your body can't function if it's not getting the right vitamins. You are about to find out what vitamins are able to do for you as you add them to your daily life. In order for the vitamins to be used appropriately, they must be synthesized. As a result, you have to understand the ways in which vitamins and minerals interact. For instance, calcium makes iron absorption difficult. Don't drink or eat dairy products or take your calcium supplement until about a half hour of taking your iron. To Whey Protein make sure that you get the right vitamins and minerals in the right amounts, eat a healthy diet. It is recommended that you eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruit daily. If you find this is not possible, it is a good idea to take a vitamin and mineral supplement. To have good bone health, be sure you have enough calcium in your diet. Taking vitamin D with calcium will help with the body's absorption of the calcium. Sunlight, food and supplements all provide the body with Vitamin D. All of these things allow your body to take in more calcium. The two easy ways to get vitamin D are drinking milk and getting outside in the sun. You should take vitamin D if you're not a milk lover and/or you don't spend lots of time under the sun. This vitamin can help protect bones and keep them strong. If you want to build up your red blood cells, you need iron. The red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen through the body. Women require more iron than men. This is why a woman should choose a multivitamin for women. Iron deficiency often causes exhaustion and breathing problems. Vitamin A is very important to maintaining a healthy immune system while lowering the chances of heart disease, and improving your vision. It's a toxic supplement if you take way to much of it, but 2300 IU should do for you because that's what's recommended. Carrots, squash, and dark leafy greens contain ample supplies of vitamin A. If you have reached menopause, prenatal vitamins are not a good idea. Sometimes, women will take these vitamins to help make their nails and hair grow longer. Although vitamins are good for you, after menopause you do not need as much iron. If you want to use gummy vitamins meant for children as an adult, take several of them. Adults need more vitamins and minerals than kids, so you'll need more than one. Just don't take too many since that is not good, either. Fruits and veggies are very high in vitamins and minerals. Choose fresh produce over canned to get the most out of it. They help give the body the healthy nutrients that it needs. Talk to your doctor about any nutrient deficiencies. You will need to fix any deficiencies first thing. With the economy as it is, many people are looking to quick, cheap and fast food to get them by, and missing out on valuable nutrients in the process. Take vitamins regularly to ensure you are able to keep your immune system going and covert fat into energy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having doubts about the claims made by manufacturers of certain supplements containing multiple vitamins and minerals. Many advertisements don't always share the best information. Make sure to question as often as possible. If you have doubts at all, do not take the supplement without first talking to your doctor. Eating is fun, but it's not always going to provide you with all the nutrients you require. It can be important to look for supplements. When taken appropriately and as part of a healthy diet, vitamin and mineral supplements can help improve your health. Give your body what it needs.

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comfsy · 7 years

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Reflecting on Two Years in China

By Tony Inglis

As someone who likes to write, it shouldn’t be too difficult for me to express my opinions, thoughts and experiences as words. In fact, it should be near embarrassing if I find such a task so challenging as to render me useless.

But, this is exactly how I find myself upon returning to Glasgow after two years living in China. Condensing this thing that I did into a few hundred words now seems pointless and impossible. If you can’t answer the question “So, how was China?” with anything other than some fumbling and a meaningless sentence like “oh, really great…”, that kind of non-response you give to a question so utterly gigantic and encompassing that you might as well have been asked the meaning of life, then how are you supposed to boil that time in your life down to a pithy blog post? The fact is there is no way to comprehend a solution to this problem – you just have to do it, to at least try and convey even that speechlessness, to put into words the reason why you can’t talk about it in a detailed and articulate way, if not describe the actual experience itself. What a lengthy tome it would be to even type out the events, activities, thoughts, feelings, disappointments and achievements in list form of two years living in any place, never mind somewhere as truly bewildering as China.

By pure coincidence, and the fact that niche music memoirs are extremely hard to come by in the sprawling city of Wuhan, I have been reading a couple of books that have helped me figure out what I want to say about this period in my life. One of these is Girl in a Band, written by Sonic Youth member, the endlessly inspirational and cool, Kim Gordon. Around forty-five pages in, I discovered that, due to her father’s work, she too lived for a period in east Asia, specifically Hong Kong, a mere five hours and a metro ride away from the place I called home in China. Her first impressions of the city are vivid and familiar to me:

“The air was so hot and humid it was like stepping inside a kiln, and you had to gasp to catch your breath. The smells and sounds were overpowering. My first night there, I remember knocking into people on the street, and crying, which fogged and blurred the city’s yellow lights even more. I felt so overwhelmed by Hong Kong’s heat, chaos, clamour, and odours that I was convinced I would never—never—survive there a year.”

That last sentence has resonated with me. When I arrived in Wuhan, I also had a strong feeling of helplessness, questioning my decision to go there, wondering if I would make it through my time there. Just as Gordon felt, it was almost unthinkable to consider that I would survive there. But I survived, and I lived, and adapted, and thrived, and even excelled.

The similarity of our first impressions are where the comparisons between mine and Gordon’s experiences end. She was ten years younger, not there through choice, and even the place is strikingly different. (Despite Hong Kong’s geographical proximity to mainland China, because of its culture and politics it remains wildly contrasting to its communist neighbour. Even though Gordon moved there in the mid-60s when it was less developed and prosperous than it is now, I have no doubt that it was a different transition than moving to the mainland).

China is a country where everything is different. Picking yourself up and deciding that there’s nothing that motivates you in your home to then move thousands of miles across the earth to a place where not a single thing feels familiar is quite a drastic choice to make. Food, people, weather, buildings, customs, manners, working life, relationships; ways in which you interact with the world are utterly changed as soon as you step off the plane. It’s no surprise to me, especially as a Scot, that Gordon is immediately hit by the temperature there. In the summer months, it’s unlike any kind of heat or humidity you come by in the UK and, while I often complained about how that heat and humidity was so heavy it seemed to regularly hold you down and punch you repeatedly in the face, now that I am back in Scotland and seem to have swapped the relentlessly hot for the relentlessly miserable, I have weirdly fond memories of requiring multiple showers and shirt changes each day.

Curiously, there’s a part of arriving and living in China that I didn’t really appreciate until I returned home. Coming back here, to the UK, is strange; to a country irrevocably changed by circumstances that I have felt apart from, outside of, in the years I have been away. In this time of Brexit, nationalist tensions and political and economic turmoil, it feels weird to be welcomed back with such open arms when many other people arrive here to blunt feelings of disdain and intolerance. The UK has become a claustrophobic place filled with ill feeling and superiority complexes that all stem from the complete intolerance of people different from the norm and an unwillingness to see those people live alongside you as an equal.

This was a feeling I never, ever felt in China. Two caveats: I am a white, heterosexual male and so I am completely shielded from intolerance no matter where I go; and I realise that Chinese people perhaps don’t show the same warmth to all other peoples, even to ethnic minorities that reside permanently in China. Despite this, a few things that people direct hatred towards in the UK applied to me, and my foreign friends and colleagues, as I entered China. I was leaving a country in which, at the time, I felt I couldn’t prosper. OK, it wasn’t war torn, I wasn’t forced to leave, but I felt, at that moment, that I could do better elsewhere. Again, there are caveats to this description which you might be able to garner from my writings and recordings on actually being a foreign English teacher in China (I recorded a podcast called Wuhan Weekly). But the point remains: there was no jealousy, no unfriendliness. There was only respect and total hospitality. I’m not, by any means, trying to compare this situation to a Syrian refugee who has been forced from their destroyed home; or an expert in their field who leaves a country that is ravaged economically to do a job they are completely overqualified to do; or a woman who leaves a conservative society in order to be able to live her life freely; or an elderly man who is rejected disability benefit and forced to work because he isn’t of retirement age yet and his two heart attacks don’t disqualify him from being able to job seek in the eyes of the state. I am so much more fortunate than these people, and stepping into another culture and society as an outsider has made me thankful for being that fortunate and made clear how entitled people in the UK can be and have been in the time I’ve been away.

This feeling of being an outsider is something that Kim Gordon, and Carrie Brownstein in her memoir Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, talks about a lot. I’m not sure I even deserve to call myself an outsider. But it is as an outsider I return to my home. Most of my friends no longer live in Glasgow; they have moved to London or further afield. A lot of my friends are about to become fully qualified solicitors. I’m twenty-four and essentially unemployed, though I am back at university. And I’ve just come back from China having chosen to do something quite a lot different to my peers but that was, in my opinion, no less worthwhile. It has changed me, and only for the better, and even if it has meant that I feel a little apart at the moment, I know that I’m not the only one. So now I’m sitting in my kitchen listening to Joanna Newsom looking out the window and even though it’s clear blue skies I’m daydreaming at rather than clouds of pollution, I miss China so much. The other day I listened to Courtney Barnett’s ‘An illustration of Loneliness’ – a song where the narrator, displaced from her partner, wonders where and what that partner is doing – and I am ashamed to admit I felt myself welling up. It’s not even a particularly sad song. But I too find myself wondering what is happening in a far, distant land, what the people I know are doing, envious of those I know are returning. I may not be able to sum up all the incidents, good and bad, of my time in China, but I know that I feel utterly enriched by having lived there.

Visit Tony’s blog to read more of his writing from China and beyond.

The post Reflecting on Two Years in China appeared first on roam.

Reflecting on Two Years in China published first on http://ift.tt/2vmoAQU

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outsidespaceblog · 7 years

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Reflecting on Two Years in China

By Tony Inglis

Visit Tony’s blog to read more of his writing from China and beyond.

The post Reflecting on Two Years in China appeared first on roam.

Reflecting on Two Years in China published first on http://ift.tt/2uo7aCb

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