#i have. about 4 essays due and like. 5 research articles to read and 1 book? and 1 creative project | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

autistic-ace-bee · 2 years

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*storms into your room*

THAT IS IT! I AM SICK AND TIRED OF ASSIGNMENTS GIVING ME A CRISIS AND MAKING ME REFECT ON MYSELF. *crosses arms and sits on the floor and glares at it*

*sniffles* *curls into a ball and cry*

bestie literally same that was me going through highschool. shit is so fucking frustrating im here with you bud.

im not doing any assignments right now bc i took a break from uni bc i literally had an anxiety attack my first day on campus just trying to walk into class so yeah buddy i feel you 100%

idk what specifically your struggle is with the assignments but ive had my fair share of meltdowns over them so ive come up with a few ways/guidelines for tackling hw which i hope might be helpful for you??? anyway

lists. so many lists. i make a list for the following:

1. To do list

This will include all the things i need to get done for the assessment, in order. for example, a to do list for a research essay would look like this

1. pick a topic

2. find articles

3. read articles and copy/paste relevant sections

4. decide on paragraph topics

5. organise article sections under relevant paragraphs

6. write paragraph 1

7. write paragraph 2

8. write paragraph 3

9. write conclusion

10. add referencing

11. proofread

2. Questions

I make a list of all the questions that come up while im trying to do the assignment, and write them down in a list so i can either email them all to the teacher or ask them in person. this includes questions like how to start the assignment, if i wrote my introduction correctly, where to find certain material, did i understand the task properly? where do i find the rubric? is this fact i want to include in my essay accurate? some of the questions you might be able to figure out the answer yourself, but this is a helpful way to stay focused on the assignment itself; if you have a question, add it to the list and come back to it later, that way it doesnt break your flow if youre already working on something

3. structure list.

if im writing an essay I'll make headings like intro/p1/p2/p3/conclusion and underneath each heading ill write exactly what i need to include in each paragraph, that way i know what i need to include while im looking through source material, and I can cross it off when im done. for example that might look like

intro (this is a mashup of different types of essays bc idk)

- "This topic is important for XYZ reason."

- introduce body paragraphs

- mention past research (at least 2)

- "the aim of this study is to...."

- "the novel [ ] by [ ] is a..... which explores the idea of.... in a time of XYZ"

- introduce the main themes of the novel

4. a criteria list

this basically just has all the criteria/rubric stuff so like

- size 12 times new roman font

- need a reference list

- 600 words

- minimum of 2 references

- due when?

this list helps you make sure youve met all the criteria before the final send off

5. homework list.

if you have multiple different assignments, you can order them by which one you need to do first/highest priority, that way you make the most of your time.

i literally even made this a list akskks

i am just now realising this was probably more about the crisis thing than the assignments thing aksklskd but anyway,,,, yeah i hope this helps you? its definitely saved me a meltdown or two and i hope its at least a little helpful? maybe? no worries if not but like it sucks that youre struggling o lemme know if theres anyway i can help! ill send you a funky little drawing of a cat or something :)

#friday <333 #lemme know if youd rather i privated this #long post

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haly-reads · 3 years

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Some tips for literature students:

Here are some tips which helped me much in my undergrad years and now when I am finally doing my masters. Some might be common but still I am trying to make a list. Hope it helps!

1. Don't just read, analyse: When it comes to reading for your course, it's not just important to get through the novel but to comprehend and analyse it. And that includes the A to Z of the book, right from the author's background, structure of the novel, themes, characters, settings, and whatnot! Having known all this helps one to confidently discuss or write own answers about the novel whenever asked.

2. To analyse a poem, follow this method:

a) Discuss the poem overall- poet's background, date when the poem was published, setting, themes, etc.

b) Attempt stanza-wise close reading- now dissect the poem by each stanza. Explain the nuances but do not try to explain each and every line. Pick out important lines or words from each stanza and skim through them. Keep it detailed yet concise.

c) Use technical tools for further analysis- talk about the type of poem, the rhyme scheme, if there's any poetic quality due to the repetition of the words, vowels (if they are strong and stressing vowels or mild ones), symbols, etc.

3. For novels, use this method: (can also be used for poems)

A more relevant structure is known as the TPCOASTT method- Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Organization, Attitude, Shifts, Title, Theme

4. Know when to skim and when to read entirely: Another important trick one of my professors told! With dozens of books to be read, you simply cannot read every word and sentence. That's fine. The goal is to understand the novel. So master the talent of skimming through pages and grasping the key events/points. This saves time and doesn't overburden you.

5. Annotate: Underline, highlight, stick memos, jot down things in your notebook but make sure you note it down! This again helps you save time when you make notes and prepare answers. Also gives a personal touch to your books and notes.

6. Use crtics' views: Just like annotating, make sure to collect relevant and efficient views of prominent literary critics that go well with the subject matter. Including critics' views in thesis and essays further strengthens your efforts and makes it reliable (provided you give them due credits!!! Important!!!)

7. JStor and Google Scholar: JStor and Google Scholar are a treasure trove of peer-reviewed journals, articles, and essays. They are highly credible. Enhance your research by understanding various articles and research papers to balance your essays!

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framecaught · 3 years

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Transmedia Storytelling: A Perspective on the Homestuck Epilogues

First of all, thank you for reading my first post! I created this blog to document some of my research for a directed study project. I’ll be looking at Homestuck from an interdisciplinary lens but focusing especially on its formal artistic qualities and place in art history. The blog will contain various points of analysis which I develop over the course of the project. For my first piece of writing, I wanted to tackle (from a new perspective) what I view as a complicating factor in the controversy surrounding the Homestuck Epilogues.

Rather than critiquing the Epilogues’ content or making a judgement about their overall quality, I want to explore a specific criticism which has been echoed time and time again by fans. In an article for the online journal WWAC, Homestuck fan-writer Masha Zhdanova sums up this criticism:

“No matter how much members of the creative team insist that their extension to the Homestuck line of work is no more official than fanwork, if it’s hosted on Homestuck.com, promoted by Homestuck’s official social media accounts, and endorsed by the original creator, I think it’s a little more official than a fanfic with thirty hits on AO3.”

Between attacks on the Epilogues’ themes, treatment of characters, and even prose-quality, fans have frequently referenced the issue of endorsement and canonicity as summarized above. Although the Epilogues and Homestuck’s other successors (including Homestuck^2 and the Friendsims) attempt to tackle themes of canonicity within their narratives, critics of the Epilogues contend that this philosophical provocation falls flat. While the creators argue that the works should form a venue for productively questioning canonicity, fans point to issues of capital and call the works disingenuous. In Episode 52 of the Perfectly Generic Podcast Andrew Hussie explains that, to him, the Epilogues are “heavily implied to be a piece of bridge-media, which is clearly detached from the previous narrative, and conceptually ‘optional’ by its presentation, which allows it to also function as an off-ramp for those inclined to believe the first seven acts of Homestuck were perfectly sufficient.” As Zhdanova paraphrases, a critical view posits that this “optional” reading is impossible. The company ethos and production of capital inherent to the Epilogue’s release—their promotion, their monetization—renders their “fanfic” backdrop completely moot, if not insulting.

Why does appropriating the “aesthetic trappings” [1] of AO3 strike such a chord with critics, though? What’s wrong with the Epilogue creators profiting from their work? Other officially endorsed “post-canon” materials, including the Paradox Space comics, Hiveswap and Friendsim games, have not inspired such virulent opposition. The issue comes down to the association between the AO3 layout and the separation from canon. The Epilogues ask us to read them as “tales of dubious authenticity,” but critics assert that this reading makes no sense in the context of their distribution. It’s not exactly the endorsement or monetization that prevents a “dubious” reading, though. After all, Hiveswap is also endorsed and monetized, yet fans have no problem labeling it as “dubiously canon.” So what is it about the Epilogues’ presentation that seems so incongruous with their premise as “dubious” texts?

I’ve come to understand this issue through the lens of transmedia storytelling. First conceptualized by Henry Jenkins, “transmedia storytelling” involves the production of distinct stories, contained within the same universe, across different media platforms. [2] This allows consumers to pick and choose stories across their favorite media outlets, since each story is self-contained, but superfans can still consume All The Content for a greater experience. The Marvel franchise with its comics, movies, TV shows, and other ephemera, is a great example of the transmedia phenomenon.

How does Homestuck fit into this theory? In an excellent article [3] for the Convergence journal, Kevin Veale lays out a taxonomy for Homestuck’s role in new media frameworks. Rather than dispersing different stories across multiple media platforms, Homestuck combines the “aesthetic trappings” of many media forms into one massive outlet: the Homestuck website [4]. It’s almost like the inverse of transmedia storytelling. Veale describes this type of storytelling as “transmodal.” He further defines Homestuck’s storytelling as “metamedia,” meaning that it manipulates the reader’s expectations of certain media forms to change the reading experience. So, despite its multimedia aspects, Homestuck structures itself around one monolith distribution channel (the website), the importance of which directly feeds into what we know as “upd8 culture.” The Homestuck website itself, as a “frame” which encapsulates Homestuck and the other MS Paint Adventures, takes on a nostalgic quality; the familiar grey background and adblocks become inextricably linked with the production of the main, “canon” narrative.

Homestuck itself—the main narrative—is a transmodal venture. However, as of writing this post, the Homestuck franchise has taken a leap into transmedia waters, starting with the Paradox Space comics and continuing with Hiveswap, the Friendsims, and Homestuck^2. All four of these examples fit the definition of transmedia ventures: they contain distinct stories still set in the Homestuck universe and are distributed through fundamentally separate media channels from the main comic. Which is to say, crucially, none of them are hosted on the Homestuck website.

This is where I think the issue arises for the Epilogues. The Epilogues, from what I can tell, aimed to present themselves as a transmedia venture rather than a transmodal one. Firstly, they try to act as a “bridge-media,” or self-contained story. They can be read as a continuation of Homestuck, but can also be separated or ignored. Secondly, they take on a distinct format (prose). Hussie notes in PGP Ep. 52 that the Epilogues were originally only meant to be published in print, functioning as a “cursed tome.” In short, they were intended as a transmedia venture: a self contained story, distributed through a separate medium (prose) and separate media channel (print), to be embraced or discarded by consumers at their whim.

Instead, when the Epilogues were released through the main Homestuck website, readers couldn’t help but interpret them as part of Homestuck’s long transmodal history. Rather than interacting with a new distribution channel, readers returned to the same nostalgic old grey website. The AO3 formatting gag makes no real difference to readers, as Homestuck patently appropriates the aesthetics of other platforms all throughout its main narrative. This issue of distribution (print versus website), which in turn produces either a transmedia or transmodal reading, is the crux of the criticism I mentioned before. Despite the creators’ protests, readers failed to see any “question” of canonicity because the Epilogues fit perfectly into the comic’s preexisting transmodal framework, supported even further by the nostalgia of the website’s very layout. The Epilogues read as a transmodal contribution to Homestuck’s main channel rather than a post-canon, transmedia narrative (like Paradox Space or the Friendsims) as they were intended. This created a profound dissonance between the fans’ experiences and the creators’ intentions.

How things might have turned out differently if the Epilogues really had been released solely as “cursed tomes,” the world will never know. In PGP, Hussie cites the importance of making content freely accessible on the website as a reason for the online release, which is certainly a valid consideration. Even though the print format offers a much clearer conceptual standpoint as a transmedia “bridge-story” [5], issues of capital and accessibility may still have come to the forefront of discussion. As it stands, though, I think the mix-up between transmedia and transmodal distribution was a key factor in the harsh criticism the Epilogues sparked.

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[1] I love this term, “aesthetic trappings”, which Masha Zhdanova uses, so I’ve overused it to some degree in my post.

[2] Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, 2007: pg. 98. You can also find a description of transmedia storytelling on his blog.

[3] Veale, Kevin. “‘Friendship Isn’t an Emotion Fucknuts’: Manipulating Affective Materiality to Shape the Experience of Homestuck’s Story.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 25, no. 5–6 (December 2019): 1027–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856517714954.

[4] Although the Homestuck website shifted branding from mspaintadventures.com to homestuck.com before the Epilogues’ release and has shifted its aesthetic somewhat (re: banners and ads), I treat the core “website” as the same location in my post

[5] Hussie points to numerous fascinating experiences which might have arisen from the print distribution. He describes a tome as “something which maddeningly beckons, due to whatever insanity it surely contains, but also something which causes feelings of trepidation” and references the sheer size of the book and “stark presentation of the black and white covers” as elements which produce this trepidation. The ability to physically experience (through touch) the length of the Epilogues and the impact of the book cover were lost in the online format. Although the Epilogues have been released in their intended book format now, the printed novel still won’t be a “first reading experience” for most fans.

#essay post #homestuck analysis #homestuck epilogues #transmedia storytelling #media studies

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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YOUR HOUSEMATE DID IT DELIBERATELY TO UPSET YOU

The fake version is not merely that you'll spend too long on tedious stuff, it will be a junior person; they scour the web looking for startups their bosses could invest in. If you know you can love work, you're in trouble. Unless of course they are sufficiently advanced that they already communicate in XML. If Moore's Law continues to put out, they usually run out in the same position as the runner.1 7 uncle 50 4. I expect for ordinary programmers it will be obstructed by the all too palpably flawed one you're actually writing. That's how the two are related: they're the two different senses in which the best work is done by the compiler in a language seems to be regarded as the rule rather than the exception. You're doing the same thing; if you win an Olympic gold medal, you can even use that to your advantage if you start the kind of people who do that tend not to have to be new. A investment, at least, nothing good. This limitation went away with the arrival of block-structured languages, but by then it was too late. It may be just as well to go work for a company may feel like just the next in a series of meetings, culminating in a full partner meeting. You can see the same program written in two languages, and one outside person acceptable to both.

Notice I said what they need. Every VC in the world.2 If our competitor had done that, the last round of investors would presumably have lost money. The good news is that they're getting it for free. It might seem that instead of being impressed that you're half way through? Ideas 8 and 9 together mean that you can actually solve this problem in other languages. Hackers don't like a language that has car, cdr, cons, quote, cond, atom, eq, and a flick of the whip that will bring one to heel will make another roar with indignation. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work.

Often they have to work. To understand what McCarthy meant by this, we're going to retrace his steps, with his mathematical notation translated into running Common Lisp code. As a result, of the same curve can be high. So unless you're fairly sure what you want to know what your valuation is before they even talk to you about investing. No one knows who said never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, but it will also take less time. As a condition of funding, regardless of whether there is a clear trend among them: the acquirer doesn't need anyway. For example, the idea of making a living. The disadvantage of taking money from less known firms is that people will hold you to it. If I'm such a good athlete, why do investors use that term?3

So at that point would have been constantly coming over and beating you up and stealing your food. And how soon? Accept offers greedily.4 The board will have ultimate power, which means in the average case it's a bad sign when you have enough money, what should your valuation be? If you're going to see record labels or tobacco companies using this discovery. You don't, really. 0 meaning the web as a platform was at least not too constricting.

What problems?5 One recently told me half his department was on Prozac. 0 turned out to be a win; some operations that would be incompatible with others e. Thanks to Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell, Daniel Giffin, Sarah Harlin, Shiro Kawai, Jessica Livingston, Matz, Jackie McDonough, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, Guido van Rossum, David Weinberger, and Steven Wolfram for reading drafts of this essay explains that. So I'm going to give us in the next hundred years. Signalling risk smells like one of those things founders worry about that's not a real problem. Research imposes constraining caste restrictions. But I've been kicking ideas around long enough to know what languages will be like in a hundred years? Many are underfunded. By accepting the term sheet, and then see what valuation they could get for the second half of the stock after using the first half of the money they manage: about 2% a year in management fees, plus a percentage of the money they manage: about 2% a year in management fees, plus a percentage of the gains.6

And since that's the default opinion of any investor about any startup, they've essentially just told you nothing. So here we have two pieces of information that I think are very valuable. And in any case, it doesn't really fool the kids, not the teacher; the student's job is not to make fundraising too complicated, but if we hadn't used Lisp, we wouldn't have been able to write the first version. Any city where people start startups will have one or more of them. Some people are lucky enough to know what your valuation is before they even talk to you about a series A round you have to do is smack hackers on the side of underestimating the amount you hope to get from a company that took 6 years to go public. What a recipe for making money. The problem with feeling you're doomed is not just that the axioms be well chosen, but that there be few of them. Intelligence has become increasingly important relative to wisdom because there is more room for what would now be considered slow languages, meaning languages that don't yield very efficient code.

You can meet someone just to get to know one another. With so much at stake, they have to.7 The second big element of Web 2. That's the really scary part for founders: not just that series A rounds, that would seem to be claiming to be good, but it still might be a good language. In almost every domain there are advantages to seeming good.8 It was so clearly a choice of a spending the next hour; the only question is how much on what terms. I think this is true for the sciences generally. There's a lot of growth in this area, just as, for me at least, that I'm using abstractions that aren't powerful enough—often that I'm generating by hand the expansions of some macro that I need to write. SUVs, for example. But don't let them or the situation intimidate you. So I think VC funds are seriously threatened by the super-angels really are is a new form of fast-moving, lightweight VC fund. One of the founders.

Notes

Plus one can ever say it again. This trend is one of the most successful startups of all, economic inequality as a model.

In principle yes, of course reflects a willful misunderstanding of what they mean San Francisco.

In high school writing this, I put it this way.

But I think the main effect of this article are translated into Common Lisp, you need but a big change in their voices will be out of Viaweb, he'd get his ear pierced. You should always absolutely refuse to give up more than determination to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. 5 mentions prices ranging from designers to programmers to electrical engineers.

It shouldn't be too quick to reject candidates with skeletons in their standards that they're really saying is they want you to stop, the fact by someone who doesn't understand what you're doing.

But friends should be working on some project of your own? Wolter, Allan trans, Duns Scotus ca. Francis James Child, who had been transposed into your bodies.

This point is due to the customer: you are listing in order to pick the former, because it is because those are writeoffs from the truth. Finally she said Ah! What they forget is that there were about 60,000 people or so. This seems to me too mild to describe what they give it back.

Indifference, mainly.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #situation #companies #kids #sup #friends #money #fact #Wolter #Duns #intimidate #code #Lisp

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writeanapocalae · 4 years

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Tooth and Stitch Part 5

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

She had been allowed access to all the unlocked rooms in the estate and time to explore. According to Lord Miller she had to be devoid of altering nutrients when he took her humors. It all sounded so contrived to her, so completely unnecessary, but she also felt like she had no choice in the matter.

Some of the rooms that she explored looked as if they had been cleaned within the past month but still had a fine layer of dust over everything. She had been quick to unpack her mother's handkerchief, which was white silk with red zinnias embroidered on the edges, for her almost constant sneezing. She wondered as she wandered at what had prompted which rooms were cleaned, for their contents did not make them seem any more important than the others.

It had always felt to Xie that the majority of people in Lord Miller's position had an odd obsession with the collection of objects. She'd gone to parties where the walls were impossible to see due to the accumulation of paintings and the tables were all laid heavy with trinkets from across the world. They existed as the topics of discussion, so their owners could pick one up and tell some inflated story of their trip to some ancient savage land. Lord Miller had signs that he may have been like that, at one point, but there wasn't so much clutter. Instead of paintings there were glass frames filled with pinned dead insects. The findings were more of a scientific nature than stolen from some other culture. There were papers and sketchings and books spread about, some of them preserved as if for guests to see though Xie was certain Lord Miller hadn't had any guests in a long while.

The one room that felt the most in fashion with the times was the library. Of all the rooms down here, this one was the most clean in terms of dust though it was far messier in terms of contents. There were so many masses of books that the shelves along the walls couldn't account for them all and some of the shelves were doubled, books slid in next to book, so she'd have to dig to reach the back. There was a lavish writing desk in the center that had candles and a few sets of papers and inks so any inspiration could be jotted down before it was lost. There was a lush set of love seats with a small tea table between them off to one side as well. Still, she could see the lines of wheelchair treads in the dust on the hardwood floor, as well as the footprints that accompanied them. She was sure that she could figure out the placements of the most recent books Lord Miller had interacted with by dust alone.

She explored the shelves. There were a lot of scientific journals, accounts, rewritten articles of local news, essays, and anatomical studies. There was also a surprising amount of fiction mixed in with the high intellectual writings and she wondered about quite a few of them, thinking to read some of them if she had the ability to. It was an odd compliment, the known to be false and believed to be true so muddled and mixed together, as if they were the same level of importance. She supposed that, to Lord Miller, these stories were less fiction and more inspiration for what his scientific research involved.

With a sharp inhale that led to a series of sneezes she knew that she wasn't alone. She could smell the formaldehyde scent grow stronger when he entered, terribly silent.

"Have you come to collect me?" Xis asked, folding her handkerchief back up.

"You knew I was here," Victor stated, sounding more than a little surprised. "I always prided myself on moving through the estate quietly."

"You did well on that front." She turned towards him, eyes in line to reach his shoulder. When she saw that he wasn't wearing the veil she turned her eyes down further, down to his shoes. "As quiet as you can be, you still smell."

He took a few steps towards her and she did well to keep her eyes down. "My apologies. I was unaware of my scent. I do my best to maintain proper hygiene."

"It is no fault of yours. I have a highly sensitive nose. Sensitive ears as well though you were able to get around those."

"Must be of great use."

"And of great inconvenience." She rolled her eyes. "I have learned far more gossip than I ever wished to, and heard the mistreatment of those I could do nothing for. I have heard the songs of love passed between those I wished were my own given to those I envied."

"I see."

"I heard things about you that I do not know what to do with and I am unsure of how to feel about them."

A sharp inhale and she glanced up at his gloved hands, which quickly shot together so he could rub at his fingers. She couldn't imagine his face but she could his expression, eyes downcast and so terribly sad, if not hurt. It was in his body language, in his voice, as he shuddered and said "I see. What all do you know of me?"

@linariouswrites

#tooth and stitch #my writing #Xie Zhu #Victor Price

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jenishreads · 4 years

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6 Binge-worthy Books to Shake Up Your Idle Mind 📚

Books have been an very effective agent, bringing major changes into the life of people. Whether the book is "The Communist Manifesto' by Karl Marx or 'Harry Potter Novels' by J. K. Rowling. Each had their own impact on readers in terms of revolution, spirituality, relaxation, inspiration, reality escape or downright skill upgrading. Most of the readers down the lane start preferring only certain type of books. Eventually they miss other amazing books that can open their mind to different perspective. This led me to read books based on various subjects, and yes; sometimes it is fun to be jack of all and master of none.

Thus, If there's some curiosity burning inside you and want to read something different other then the usual genres. I have some recommendation for you.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Inquilab Bhagat Singh on Religion & Revolution by Irfan Habib

Islam for the Politically Incorrect: With a foreword for Donald Trump by Khaled Diab

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies for Giant Leaps in Work and Life by Ozan Varol

The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin by Jan Stocklassa, Tara F. Chace (Translator)

The listed book are from my read list that I have found most Interesting and I hope you will find it too. I have quoted one highlight from every book. You can access my Goodread book list and its highlights at goodreads.com

1. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Despite of this book releasing in the year 1943 and the setting of the plot according to it, I am still amazed that those societal prejudice and ways has not been changed as of yet. Author has very well created the characters keeping in in mind the competition that existed in the architectural world. But while reading it can be accepted that, the mentioned norms exist in all kind of profession in the modern world too.

To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that's much harder?

I have listened to this book on Audible (Narrated by Christopher Hurt) and it was notably long (32 hrs 2 mins) but its all worth it. Some people can find it boring due to its in-detail description of characters and the air surrounding it but it is the aspect that I found most important and literally joyful.

2. Inquilab Bhagat Singh on Religion & Revolution written by Irfan Habib and narrated by: LS Ravi

This book is the compilation of Bhagat Singh's Articles, notes and Letters. I chose this book, to get to know more about the freedom fighter after reading his essay 'Why I Am an Atheist". I used to consider him the person who wanted the freedom based solely on violence but this book really changed my mind and explained many things about Bhagat Singh the person.

A God-believing Hindu might be expecting to be reborn as a king, a Muslim or a Christian might dream of the luxuries to be- enjoyed in paradise and the reward he is to get for his sufferings and sacrifices. But what am I to expect? I know the moment the rope is fitted round my neck and rafters removed, from under my feet. That will be the final moment that will be the last moment. I, or to be more precise, my soul, as interpreted in the metaphysical terminology, shall all be finished there. Nothing further.

I listened it on Audible (Narrated by LS Ravi). It is an awesome book, because you journey through his notes and articles, from those literature; it is visible that how his ideas regarding the revolution evolved. His writing includes the topics related to communism, politics, religion and personal development. Any reader can enjoy this books because of the proper representation by the author and his insightful detailed comments.

3. Islam for the Politically Incorrect: With a foreword for Donald Trump by Khaled Diab

Islam, the, most talked about religion. Some people say that it's a religion of peace whereas If you see around you can only relate it to violence and terrorism in social, political and spiritual circle. Khaled Diab here explains that Islam is more than that and most of it is hidden behind the curtain that many people chose to ignore.

Devout Muslims who feel they are duty-bound to defend the honour of Muhammad through violence or intimidation should take a deep breath and recall the Quranic injunction: “For you is your religion, and for me is mine religion.”

The author is a prominent journalist and his wide knowledge reflects here. He has has beautifully explained Islam in context with all the expects like religion, political, sexual and geographical. He has shows each and every aspect of Islam very carefully without any bias. If you want to be an unbiased entity on the subject of Islam read this and recommend it to everyone. It's a completely insightful and enjoyable read.

4. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

I had the honor of listening to this book on Audible (Narrated by Jon Lindstrom) and it is an absolute gem. This book by Blake Crouch is a must read because by default this book is classified in the genre of SF and Horror. But for me its an absolute love story, because the story has an antagonist that goes through some of the mind bending things just to get to his love.

It's terrifying when you consider that every thought we have, every choice we could possibly make, branches off into a new world.

Blake Crouch has done an amazing job on this because from story telling to characters to twist and turns, everything is just terrific. I don't want to write more about it and spoil it for you because I want you to have an experience of this must read.

5. Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies for Giant Leaps in Work and Life by Ozan Varol

When it comes to motivational or self development books, I usually don't prefer them. But this book by Ozan Varol has some type of an very different energy. Here the author explains various strategies that scientist uses when they face various difficult situations. The book should have been an straight manual for humans but the author has explained everything very beautifully so that the reader gets inspired by it and not just get motivated temporarily.

We’re hesitant to think big, reluctant to dance with uncertainty, and afraid of failure. These were necessary during the Paleolithic Period, keeping us safe from poisonous foods and predators. But here in the information age, they’re bugs.

The author also describes his experience as a former rocket scientist and the time when he was in an operation team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers project. You don't need to have experience in science field to read this, you just need to have the curiosity. This book will be an amazing help for the readers seeking knowledge in improving themselves daily.

6. The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin by Jan Stocklassa, Tara F. Chace (Translator)

Well, we all love movies where the journalist investigates a true complex crime with the involvement of various shifting nodes. But this non-fiction book is on another level where the journalist Jan Stocklassa carried out an mind-blowing investigation based on the initial research done by the famous writer Stieg Larsson (author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) on the assassination of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister.

Some of the world’s biggest export contracts applied to weapons, and if anyone stood in the way of these deals or threatened to reveal secrets that could harm the bottom line, then a human life was a low price for being able to complete the highly lucrative and often shadowy deals.

Here the description of the investigation done by the author takes him to places and put him into an dangerous situation. And that is really a thrill to watch because there are some techniques in there that can teach you to be a better communicator and most importantly when to step out. Its been an amazing read for me and if you are curios enough you will be enjoying it very much.

#book recommendations #bookaholic #book review #books #goodreads

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liz-and-the-blue-bird · 5 years

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First Video Review

Am I allowed to do this for such a minor thing? Whatever, I’m gonna do it. If you somehow missed my spam (apologies, btw), here’s the video.

I’m gonna run down the feedback I received and also a lot of thoughts of my own.

Recommended soundtrack

So, btw, Youtube Analytics is like way more detailed than I expected. I guess this is what happens when your parent company is a massive search engine that makes money on incredibly specific targeted ads.

I digress.

It’s been about 24 hrs since I published the video, and it’s gotten about as many views as I’d expected (which is to say, less than fifty). Here’s the breakdown:

33 views with 120 minutes of total watch time (audience retention of ~45%). 2 comments, both positive (thanks guys!). Pretty much all my views came from discord, where I shared the video and asked for feedback. All the discord views are complete watch throughs, other sources are a mixed bag, most people dropped after around 2 minutes.

With that in mind, this video is basically unlisted on youtube, given that no one has seen it, nor will it be recommended often.

That’s fine, I don’t really mind. I think the video deserves around maybe 100 views. Max. Seriously.

Let’s start with feedback:

1) Audio balance is the worst

Yea sorry about that. I’ll be honest, when I recorded then put the music, I thought it was fine, but now that I watch it, yea the music is a bit too loud at points, and the ed cut in was way louder than my talking volume, it’s a bit of a mess. I suspect it’s because when I’m just listening to audio, I close my eyes and focus, but on a video, I’m watching a thing so the audio gets messed up more in my head, so the parts that need to stick out need to be more emphasized. I’ll get it sorted for the next time.

2) Text on screen is weird

There’s a few pieces to this. First of all, the transition is just really bad. The slides in particular. @shinbec made a great point about how dated they feel. I’ll defend myself, I chose the slide transition because I thought it provide a specific energy to the video. It does, but he’s right, they feel like they’re made in powerpoint. The fade ins are less problematic, but they do lack variety. Moving forward, I’ll probably have to come up with some more interesting transitions. Especially between scenes.

Secondly, the use of the text in general. @chuuni-p made a good point saying that the text at the beginning with the direct quotes felt weird. Yea, it kind of does. I suspect it’s a combination of the poor transition and the strange phrasing (saying “quote” “end quote” very much cuts into your mental flow of the paragraph). But he did like the quotes near the end where I didn’t directly quote. I’m a bit torn on this. I like the direct quotes and then the text because it adds a sense of proof. Like, here it is! I’m not lying! kind of thing. If that makes sense. But the transition fails to emphasize that. This is all just something I should keep in mind for future text on videos. I don’t think this is something that is going to go away, it has to get better.

3) My voice is nice

Hey, thanks. I like my voice, I’m glad other people like it too.

Now then, on to my own personal criticisms.

The video now feels far too long to me. You may recall my surprise at my recording being 8 minutes and 30 seconds long. But it makes sense. I wrote about 1300 words, and I speak at about 175 wpm (this is above average). Of course it was gonna be 8 minutes long. It would be great if it needed to be 8 minutes long.

But it doesn’t need to be.

The video meanders, I think. When I wrote the script, I set out to post an interesting video about how Project No Chikara actually ended up revitalizing anime, even though its shows failed, with an interesting minor point on how the theme of the first show (So Ra No Wo To) actually lines up fittingly with that premise. Yet, due to the structure of the essay, it ends up being something else.

Here’s the structure of the video:

Intro (what is anime no chikara?) Body 1 (What So Ra No Wo To does well) Body 2 (What So Ra No Wo To does poorly) Conclusion (How did Anime no Chikara end?)

Just looking at this, you might see the issue. If you look at the topics of each paragraph, they don’t line up together. The Intro and the Conclusion are related, and the two body paragraphs are, but they aren’t technically related to each other.

And that’s the rub.

Essentially what I did was write a So Ra No Wo To review (6/10 btw) and then forced a structure into the intro and conclusion so that I didn’t have to title the video “So Ra No Wo To Review.” I don’t think that’s a very good strategy, and it lacks a sense of cohesion. Like seriously, you could rip out the middle two paragraphs (starting at around 1:00 and ending at about 6:50) and put the “thanks for watching” at the end of Amazing Grace and it would be cohesive. I could call that video “So Ra No Wo To, A Review on Moving Forward” and I think it would be a decent generic anime video.

I talked with another friend about this the other day. I think I could rip Body 2 out entirely, and restructure Body 1 to be more about Anime no Chikara and the integration with So Ra No Wo To. It would require more research and less “oh btw the show did x” but it would be a more flowing and exciting viewing experience. At least I think so.

My favorite book on writing, On Writing Well, has multiple chapters dedicated to ruthless cutting. The author mentions his distaste for adverbs because they rarely add to a description, unless you are using poor adjectives. He talks about how when he was a teacher, he’d tell his students to make their 10 page articles into 5 pagers, and once they’ve finished, ask them to make it a 4 pager.

If you’ve paid attention to The Nerdwriter, you may know that he used to make a video every single week. To be frank, that’s an ungodly amount of production for a single man making tightly edited videos. But it speaks volumes that when he slowed production down from 4/month to 2/month in order to “focus more on each video,” his videos remained short—they did not grow longer.

You might read all this and think I’m being kind of hard on myself for my first video. I got quite a lot of compliments, lots of people excited for where my channel is headed. (spoilers, it’s headed straight into a million kyoani videos.)

Maybe I am hard on myself. But if you consider video essays a form of art, and I certainly do, then I should learn to color in the lines.

#next video schedule:#script by 15th #video by 28th #i didn't even touch on how poor i believe my cuts were #but i'll get there #monologue #thanks for all the feedback guys i really appreciate it #i don't want to make anime reviews #God knows there's too many review channels on youtube already

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miraniel · 6 years

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How to Write a Damn Essay

I’ve been a writing tutor for two years now. I’ve taught college students, and I’ve taught middle schoolers, and the one thing that’s astonished me is how many of them think writing an essay is the hardest thing to do on the planet. Plus it’s finals coming up, and all those essays people have been putting off are coming due. So listen up, cause here’s how you write a damn beautiful essay without all of the scariness.

First off, here are the two most important points about writing essays that your teachers may have never told you, or didn’t explain properly.

1) All essays are the same essay

You’ve heard it since elementary school: Introduction, Body, Conclusion. It doesn’t matter if it’s one page or 50, your essay will use the same structure. But what the fuck does that really mean?

They should really label the three sections like this: “What you think,” “Why you think it,” “Why it’s relevant.”

Furthermore, this structure also works for writing each of your paragraphs, just scaled down to a sentence level, rather than a paragraph level.

Also, teachers like to break essays into types, like “informative essay” and “persuasive essay,” which is ridiculous. Every essay you write is basically an opinion essay. An informative essay is just an opinion essay where your opinion is that “these are the facts about this thing.” A compare and contrast essay is just an essay where your opinion is “these two things are similar or different in the following ways.”

(The only possible exception is a narrative essay, which is really just a story that happens to be true and should be written as such; it doesn’t really need a formal thesis, and if it has an opinion or a point or a punchline, just make sure you get that across by the end.)

2) Your thesis is a mini version of your essay.

Say it with me, okay? The small thing (the thesis) needs to look like the big thing (your essay).

When you’re writing an essay, it’s nice to have a blueprint (your rough draft thesis) to remind you of what you’re trying to build. But no one expects blueprints to look like the final design. A lot of teachers are like, “You need to turn in your thesis first so I can approve it,” which is super annoying and bullshit, because your thesis is going to be pretty much the last thing you finish.

When you’re done with your essay, it and your thesis should match up. So if your thesis is roughly “Thing A is true because B, C, and D,” your essay should attempt to prove point A by proving B, C, and D, in that order, and show how they all lead to A. If they don’t match up, fix the thesis, not the essay.

Right. Let’s go.

HOW TO WRITE ANY ESSAY IN 16 STEPS,

with minimal swearing

(WHICH SOUNDS LIKE A LOT BUT THAT’S JUST BECAUSE I BROKE IT DOWN INTO BABY STEPS)

1) Breathe. Make yourself a bowl of popcorn or cup of tea or something. You can do this.

2) Figure out the thing you’re going to talk about: bullying, the book your teacher made you read, LGBTQ issues, the French Revolution, whatever.

3) Do a lot of research on the thing. Google is your friend. Screw article databases with paywalls. Don’t forget to use your library--not only might they have books or ebooks on the thing, they may even give you free access to article databases. Bookmark anything that seems remotely useful.

4) In all your research, you will likely form an opinion on the thing: the thing is good, the thing is bad, the way to fix the thing is to do this, the thing has a lot in common with this other thing... Write down your opinion about the thing.

5) Rewrite your opinion so that it’s only one sentence long. Hand it in as your intended “thesis” if your professor is annoying like that. Pat yourself on the back. The hard bit is over.

6) Take your opinion and paste it at the top of your document. Then jot down a list of all the things that prove that you’re right. Also jot down things that people might say to prove you wrong and how you would defend yourself. Figure out who you’re “talking” to--are they an expert or a novice? Someone whose mind you want to change? It’ll affect how you write.

7) Write at least one paragraph proving each of the things. It doesn’t matter what order. Don’t worry about it being good. Repeat: do not try to write it good. Just put words on page. Use that stuff you bookmarked. Make little notes to yourself about where you got your information.

8) Rearrange the paragraphs in an order that makes sense to you. Does one point have to be proved before another? Is there a chronological order? Do you want to start with your strongest argument or work your way up to it? Whatever order works, use it.

9) Write an intro paragraph that includes any information the people you want to read your essay need to know before they read your essay. (This is what the thing is, here’s any necessary background on it, okay let’s go.) Stick your opinion sentence at the end.

10) Write a conclusion paragraph that answers the question “So what’s the point?” You’ve made your point, now why is it relevant? What do you want people to do, or what do you expect will happen?

11) Read your essay straight through, preferably out loud. Reading it out loud will help you catch more mistakes/weirdness. Fix anything that jumps out at you. Lines that sound weird. A point you forgot to mention. How you got logically from A to C.

12) Take a fucking break. Fix yourself a goddamn snack because you deserve it. Give yourself some distance, refresh your brain.

13) Repeat steps 11 and 12 as necessary.

14) Revise your opinion sentence, which is now your thesis. It should match the content of your essay, see above. Squash it into something grammatical.

15) Do the bloody citations. Take all those little notes to yourself in step 7 about where you got what information. Use the OWL at Purdue and some citation-generating software to turn those things into proper citations. It always takes longer than you’d think, but revel in the way it adds at least a page to your essay.

16) Hand that lovely essay in and eat some celebratory ice cream.

#writing advice #essays #essay writing #I feel like this process should be obvious #but I've had to help so many people that I guess it's not #probably because the US education system sucks #So I've been meaning to write this out for a while #hope it helps someone #anyway good luck for finals to those who need it #ice cream is a necessary part of essay writing #college #long post #original post #swearing cw #how to write an essay

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fxbricate · 6 years

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top tips for long/extended projects!!

tumblr is FULL of amazing tips on how to take notes, write essays, use flash cards etc, but one area that i feel is lacking is how to excel in longer tasks. as a fashion design student, my days are full of projects and assignments for which you are essentially given a brief and told to get on with it (with guidance of course)

SO here are my top tips for projects and assignments!!

1. always begin a project on the day that it is set

start small, but start fast. when you first find out about an assignment is most likely when an influx of ideas occurs. so here are a few things you can do on that very first day to get you started:

write a list of books/articles to read

plan everything that needs to be done (i.e. break down the project into smaller chunks) and when you will aim to do it by

create moodboards/colourboards

2. be organised

exactly how you organise yourself will depend on what your assignment is (a research paper? a design brief? a report? an investigation?) but making sure that you have somewhere storage-wise specific to each project you do may help. whether its a certain drawer, a folder, a sketchbook, a computer folder or a box, make sure there’s somewhere for all of the relevant bits and bobs to go!

i also like to have a small a5 notebook for each individual project i complete, so that i can keep absolutely all of my small notes and lists in one place (e.g. things i need to buy, feedback from tutors, different ideas that i get throughout the day)

3. do a little, often

working on the exact same thing for ten days straight will drive you insane, i promise. instead, make sure you do a little every day, whether this is an hour in the morning and two hours in the evening or various 40 minute slots dotted throughout the day. set yourself goals for what you want to have achieved by the end of each day. if you don’t meet a goal then it’s not the end of the world - it’s just useful to know whether or not you’re on track to getting it completed in time

4. set yourself a new deadline, before the actual deadline

convince yourself that the due date is slightly before it actually is, whether this is by a day a two or a week (depending on how long you actually have to complete the project). firstly, if you don’t get it done by this “new deadline,” then it’s not a catastrophe as you still have time. ideally, you’ll get it done nice and early, leaving room for rest and improvement! - this is also super handy if there’s an unexpected error at some point that holds you back a little bit (for example, you never know when your computer might break, you might lose something important or you might need to do something unexpectedly)

5. distance yourself if you need to

huge projects that take weeks, or even months, to complete can get overwhelming. if you need to, take a step back. do something else. go for a walk, go out for food, see friends, cuddle a puppy. distracting yourself from your work will often actually help you with what you need to overcome as it clears your mind a little and may help you think about things in a new way.

6. don’t stress

easier said than done, i know. but honestly, stress will only hinder you. if you’re struggling, talk to your classmates, tutors or friends. i know that sometimes it can be scary going out of your way to ask a teacher/lecturer/professor for help, but that really is what they’re there for!

7. enjoy it

if you’re lucky enough to be able to choose the basis of your project, then make sure it’s something that you enjoy. if you know that you hate child psychology, then don’t choose to research it. if you know that you have no interest whatsoever in menswear, then don’t choose to design it. an assignment will feel so much easier if you enjoy what you’re learning about/making/writing

i hope this helps someone somewhere!!

xoxo

#studyblr #study #studying #student #university #university student #college #college student #school #a levels #gcse #gcses #study tips #tips for students #new studyblr

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goodyeartheshippycat · 6 years

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Meme time again!

I was tagged by the always lovely @sparkly-things, and have dragged my feet on doing it for over a week… better late than never, right? XD

1. Name? – You can call me Goodyear on here ;)

2. Age? – 29 now, though I was still 28 when I was tagged. Does that mean I’m some indeterminate quantum fluctuating age?

3. Height? – Just shy of 6’ (I’m 182 cm for you metric folks).

4. Sign? – I’m a staunch disbeliever in this sort of thing, but Aries, if that means anything to you. And Snake for the Chinese zodiac, just to be complete, I suppose.

5. Religious? – Big ol’ Atheist here. Swear me in on The Origin of Species, please.

6. Tea or Coffee? – Oh, definitely tea. All kinds of tea. Black, green, white, oolong, puerh, rooibos, herbal. Every once in a while I’ll have a coffee, usually in some dessert-like form, but it’s not really my thing.

7. Music? – Gonna be cliché with Liz and say everything, but I’ll even include country, rap, and death metal. I’ll listen to just about anything, though my favourites that I return to again and again are jazz (the kind you can dance to, please), post-rock/shoegaze, other atmospheric genres without much in the way of lyrics, and whatever pop/indie songs I’m currently digging, which is always changing.

8. Favourite Movie? – I’m also the kind of person who forgets this the minute I get asked, or can’t decide. I’m not much of a movie person, anyway. Anything Studio Ghibli is good in my books. If I have to choose individual films, let’s go with two wildly different ones. Amélie and Kung Pow! Enter the Fist. My childhood favourite, hands down, was The Lion King.

9. Employed? – Yup, but looking for work in my field, because I don’t want to be selling dresses forever.

10. Dream job? – I really feel you on this one, Liz. I’m pretty lost right now in terms of what I want to do, and feel like I’ve fucked up royally and am not really sure where to go from here. If I could be really unrealistic, I’d love to be an independently wealthy gentlewoman scientist/Victorian-era adventurer. But if we’re talking real-world, actual possible jobs in this day, age, and that I might be able to have one day, I’d say working as a curator at a botanic garden. Sadly, positions like that are hard to come by.

11. Favourite game? – Like with movies, I find it hard to remember/choose. Recently, Ghost Trick was a fucking phenomenal game that I really loved. I like the Final Fantasy games. Really, most old school RPGs are fun times for me. I can’t play anything first-person, or with really shaky cameras because I get motion sick easily. I have so much nostalgic love for game series on the PlayStation and Playstation II, as well, like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Sly Cooper, that I played during my formative years. Ditto for Gameboy Colour games like Pokemon Blue, and the various Legend of Zelda games from that time period.

12. Favourite drink? – Alcoholic? A good single malt scotch whisky, or a gin and tonic. Non-alcoholic is probably covered by the tea or coffee answer!

13. Tattoos? – One. It’s a small one, behind my ear. I’ll give you three guesses ;)

14. Defining Moment? – Apparently @sparkly-things and I are on the same page about a lot of these answers! Probably the biggest defining moment of my adult life—for better or worse—was when, after two medical leaves and a lot of tough decisions, I finally chose to leave my PhD program. I feel very lucky to have had the support of my supervisor, lab mates, family, and partner, which allowed me to publish and turn my research work into a MSc thesis instead, so at least I didn’t leave empty-handed. I know it was the right decision, and I wouldn’t change it even if I could go back, but it’s definitely been (and still continues to be) a struggle to not see myself as a failure. It’s still having reverberations in my life to this day. I feel happier and healthier now, but less fulfilled in some ways; unmoored and not sure of what I should be doing without the purpose that academia gave me. Ugh, I’m just going to stop there before I get any more whiny.

15. Name one dessert you can’t do without – All of them? I have such a sweet tooth—any day that I can have double dessert is a good day, and I love to bake! I think, though, that if I had to choose one, it would have to be really good homemade chocolate chip cookies. There’s just something so comforting about them that simply can’t be beat.

16. Name one thing you can’t do without – Something to read. Doesn’t matter if it’s an article, a good book, a short story, poetry, an essay, fanfic, or a text-based RP, I’ve always loved reading. If I’m in a place personally where I can’t read, I’m in a very bad place indeed.

17. Name one person you can’t be without – I’m going to be that disgusting half of a codependent couple who says my partner. He’s my biggest support, my cheerleader, my friend, and I can’t really imagine life without him at this point. I mean, I can, but I can’t imagine being nearly as happy. I’m not even going to mince words about it: I probably wouldn’t be here to write this if it weren’t for him.

18. Name one fictional character you love – Ugh, don’t make me choose! Right at this moment, probably due to the latest page update, and the fic I’m currently writing, and the fic I’m currently reading, I’m going to say Ethos from Starfighter. He’s so precious. #Protect Ethos 2k18

19. Name one thing you want to do – Find something that drives me again, in my professional life. It’s been too long since I felt passion about what I spend my time doing while (barely) earning a living. I don’t need a lot of money, but I would love to love what I do again. I miss that something terrible.

20. Tagging – My usual routine. I’d love to hear what any of you lovely folks have to say about these questions, but I’m not going to tag anyone specifically. Do it if you want to! I’m totally a sucker for learning these sorts of things about people; it just satisfies a weird curiosity for me. I promise I’m not a stalker…

#meme #personal #about goodyear #random fact about me #sorry tmi

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tomrogers-viscom · 3 years

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Case Study Presentation - Script

Slide 1

So, who are Lane and associates? Lane and associates are a creative agency based in east London run primarily by the creative director David Lane. The agency is his creative vision, and the associates label within the company title simply refers to the collaborations he has with other artists and creatives for his projects. The award-winning work of Lane and Associates spans creative direction, film, design and content curation.

Slide 2

To start off, I’ll tell you a little more about David Lane. Lane is primarily an art director which he describes as a pretty broad term. He has produced and directed films, he's also a sculptural space designer, he is a curator and is the founder of the gourmand magazine.

Slide 3

And now to move onto the associates. As I mentioned, Lane and associates is an umbrella term for the artists that David Lane collaborates with for his various projects. These artists range from set designers, typography designers, photographers and makeup artists. Notable artists he has collaborated with include, writer and curator Francesca Gavin, photographer and filmmaker Agnes Lloyd Platt, set designer Rachel Thomas and graphic designer Laura Jouan to name a few.

David Lane expresses in a Nicer Tuesday’s interview, which is a monthly event run by It's Nice That, how important and essential he believes collaboration to be. He explains that whilst he comes up with the ideas and plays a large role in the overall outcome of a project, he would be nowhere without the freelance creatives he collaborates with.

Slide 4

So why did I choose to look at Lane and Associates for this case-study? First and foremost, what drew me to Lane and Associates was The Gourmand magazine they design, which is featured in the recent 2020 D&AD Annual. I have always had an interest in print design, ranging from zines, magazines and books, my ever-growing collection of magazines speaks for itself. The printed medium is an avenue I am looking forward to exploring further throughout the course as well as hopefully in my future creative career.

Lane and Associates have a strong background in print, designing various work for the Frieze organisation including Frieze Magazine, Frieze Times and the Frieze Masters annual. Along with Frieze, Lane and Associates have designed covers for Limbo Magazine, various biographies, and have created short zines for Selfridges and Hermes. Lane’s playful approach towards all of his projects and campaigns has become a signature to his agency and inspires me as I feel like classic humour and fun can win over almost anyone. Lane's work is timeless yet experimental and contemporary and as he explains in various interviews, his campaigns always have multiple different layers that intentionally create an awkward feeling within his work.

Like Lane, I also believe collaboration within the creative industry is incredibly important and I admire the way that he sometimes takes a step back from his work to allow another creative to direct, photograph or design his vision to it its full potential.

Slide 5

As I mentioned, The Gourmand which recently featured in the DNAD Annual, is an award winning bi-annual food and culture magazine. The magazine is not only a meal recipe magazine but instead also features specially commissioned words and images by talented creatives through the vision of art director David Lane.

The magazine, in my opinion, is timeless and contemporary whilst still breaking the boundaries of a conventional food magazine. The magazine features intelligent articles, interviews and essays. This is all crafted in a well-considered approach while still featuring Lanes iconic experimental and playful style. The Gourmand was founded in 2011 by David Lane and his business partner Marianna Tweed.

Slide 6

Each issue of The Gourmand contains 120 pages, and here is one of the spreads from the recent copy featured on the DNAD website. I like how The Gourmand adapts a traditional food publication to fit Lane and Associates iconic style, with each issue being full of energy, including cultural references and applying Lane’s signature deadpan sense of humour. Lane discusses how he appreciates the time he has to craft each issue of the magazine, and the careful considerations taken for the layout of each spread creates, in my opinion, a beautiful magazine that allows the reader to appreciate its printed format in an otherwise digitally focused world.

Slide 7

In a recent interview with the design studio MagCulture, Lane discusses his experimental and liberal approach to publication curation and design, quoting “mostly we read about seasonal ideas from smiley celebrity chefs who once worked the River café.” He continues with “The Gourmand on the other hand is about ideas and creativity. It's about food as inspiration for talented writers photographers illustrators and set designers to create something genuinely new and original” Interestingly as well, the work commissioned for the magazine can be found on The Gourmand website and is sold as merchandise including, posters, t-shirts and tote bags, which reconfirms the idea that The Gourmand is more than just a food magazine but instead acts as a space for various creatives from all areas of the industry to collaborate.

Slide 8

Here can be some of the art featured from the recent Gourmand magazine also for sale as artwork on the website. David discuss is that like his love for directing films, producing a magazine also brings him immense joy as he directs a large group of talented people towards a shared goal.

Slide 9

And here are some past issues of The Gourmand, and I actually was lucky enough to purchase a few back issues which I’ve enjoyed flicking through and reading whilst putting together this presentation.

Slide 10

To summarise, the key elements and reasons The Gourmand inspires me are: Bravery

Slide 11

Playfulness.

Slide 12

And Attention to detail.

Slide 13

Alongside being the Co-founder and creative director of The Gourmand, Lane also spends two days out of his working week as the art director at freeze which is a leading fashion art and culture magazine. Whilst Frieze magazine has a very different visual aesthetic to The Gourmand, Lane applies the same approach towards the design, implementing playfulness and character. I much prefer the visual aesthetic of The Gourmand and Lane and Associates other work, however I can still appreciate the contemporary and colourful style of Frieze.

Slide 14

Back in 2017, when Lane first began his new role at Freeze, he conducted a complete redesign of the original branding and visual aesthetic of the magazine. This mainly included but was not limited to rework of the freeze typeface and headings in which he collaborated with Artist Redeem Pesco for. Here can be seen the first edition of Frieze Magazine that David Lane designed back in 2017.

Slide 15

Alongside the multiple publications Lane and Associates have worked on for the past five years, they have also created numerous campaigns for the luxury fashion accessory brand Ally Cappelino.

Slide 16

The SS17 campaign has particularly taken my interest due to its creative nature. Ally has an Instagram account named Ally Cappellino plastic chairs and this became the starting point for the campaign. David Lane explains naturally the school became the setting for the shoot as they're always full of plastic chairs and everyone turns up with a bag.

Slide 17

To honour the fact that the shoot was in school the caretaker was asked if he would participate and be a model in the campaign and an featuring him can be seen here. I like how even through a posed shoot, the candidness of the caretaker shines through to create a thought-provoking homage to the school, which was in fact was designed by famous brutalist architect Ernö Goldfinger in 1962.

Slide 18

Again, the AW18 Ally Capellino campaign is just as interesting. Photographed by photographer Agnes Lloyd Platt who is the daughter of Ally Cappellino and directed of course by David Lane the shoot is based in an artist studio. Ally Cappelino explains that each location and theme for the shoot is made by her decision only, previous locations have included a garden, kitchen and park. As Lane explains when the idea comes from an honest place it makes it so much easier to work with and Lane always discusses the importance of listening to clients when producing work. Ally Cappelino also finds it important to be part of the creative process and she herself came up with detailed and inventive descriptions for each character modelling in the campaign. For example Simone, the girl with the bold makeup on the right, is in Ally’s words “a warm rebellious Madam whose drawings are all a little bit on the dark side” and the model seen in pink has, in her words again, a “rucksack filled with records, a laptop and a pair of old curtains to make into a dress for his best friend”. I admire this level of detail in the campaign and again it links back to the feeling of intentionally showing awkwardness by revealing different layers within a campaign. Not only is the level of care to detail impressive in this campaign, but I also love the neutral colour palette and timeless aesthetic to the shoot. Whilst I appreciate current design trends, especially the primary colour aesthetic currently trending on Instagram and behance, I sometimes feel they are overused and can quickly look dated within a year or so, whereas all the Ally Capellino campaigns look contemporary yet timeless which is something I’ve realised I would like to begin to implement into my own creative work.

Slide 19

In conclusion, the work of Lane and Associates not only inspires me but has also taught me a greater understanding of the fundamentals to great design through the research I have conducted. I could ramble on for ages about the agency’s many other projects, including the numerous short films and moving image advertisements, and fascinating set designs for companies such as Hermes. Overall, the work of the agency, and its unconventional, unique approach to design has given me an important insight into the creative industry and I look forward to applying this newfound information on future internships once the chance becomes available.

Thank you for listening.

#casestudy

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happystressedmuffin · 6 years

Text

Among the articles I wrote for our school newspaper these past three years, my most successful ones have been on the topic of education / the education system. As a person who has increasingly become disillusioned with the way school’s operate, I have a couple of thoughts. This may end up a little vague and I may go back to explore these ideas in more detail when I have more time.

First things first, my parents used to be teachers back in Belarus, and they often tell me about rules they had and how their schools worked. A lot of my thinking is influenced by them and their stories, in addition to personal experience.

Communication

One thing that American schools as a whole seem to lack is effective communication between teachers. I have seen this again and again, and it’s a shame considering that It’s an issue that can be fixed without bureaucratic measures. Why do teachers still have a difficult time communicating with one another? Countless times, I’ve had teachers schedule tests and quizzes on the same day, leaving students studying for three whole different topics, rather than focusing on carefully understanding one. My dad said when he used to teach, he would talk to the other teachers and they would plan their schedules out in accordance to one another to ensure that the students would not have an overload of work. While I cannot attest that lack of communication is a problem in every single individual American school, I can certainly say that just a couple weeks ago, our IB coordinator walked into our TOK room because our class snapped under pressure and some students were on the verge of tears. When we told her about the mountain of projects and tests, she seemed surprised, and even our TOK teacher decided to move one of her deadlines, because she was previously unaware of the pressure we were under.

Personally, communication between teachers is probably one of the biggest problems in any school system. Teachers should talk with one another and plan their assignments out; if not, at the very least, be ready to change the dates of certain assignments.

Of course, some things cannot be helped -- teachers cannot move standardized test days, and sometimes the speed of the lesson needs to quicken in order to have time to cover all the right material. Of course, that leads to another problem.

Standardized testing // allowing teachers to teach what they want

Standardized testing. A lot has been said on the topic already. Some countries such as Finland manage to get amazing marks without a lot of standardized tests; other countries get equally impressive marks with a lot of these tests (China). Whether or not standardized testing works depends on different factors, such as how the government operates, how the tests are structured, etc.

For example, the United States is a federalist form of government, meaning that power is shared between the federal and state governments. Largely, education has been a state issue, meaning how schools prepare their children for these tests and even the tests they take differ.

In terms of how the tests are structured, let’s talk about my friend who I will call “V.” V is in higher level classes. V has passed multiple AP tests. V wants to work in the film industry. As we all know, the SAT tests people on math and reading. Now, tell me, what does math and reading have to do with working in the film industry? English is not V’s first language -- he speaks Hindu and Spanish. He is not so bright in math. But if you’d seen the videos he produces, the editing work he does, even the scripts he writes, you could easily tell that this is a bright kid. His SAT score is certainly not bad in the slightest; in fact, it would probably be considered in the upper quartile. Nonetheless, in comparison to most our peers in this particular program (IB), his score seems a little...weak, to say the least. Some colleges rejected him as a result of his testing, which does not reflect the skills he will use later in life. Why should we consider this fair? Obviously, all people should know rudimentary math and reading; however, why should they be judged solely in those two categories?

At the end of the day, the real question we are trying to find is whether or not the state should give more control to the teachers in the classroom. Standardized testing limits what a teacher may teach due to time constraints.

Bad teachers / respect for teachers

And now, let’s bring our focus onto teachers. I have become highly disillusioned with teachers, especially this year. Here are a number of things I have witnessed:

1. A teacher “predicting” what our grade will be on a test and putting it in the grade system as our final grade for the assignment (essentially giving us a grade for something we have not actually done; and she wasn’t kind about it either; I got a C)

2. a teacher claiming we have to learn six chapters in three days and proceeding not to do a single thing to help us learn in class; instead he gave us a pop quiz and told us to read the book (hint: if we can replace you with a plant and have it not influence the class in the slightest, perhaps you need to do some teaching!)

3. A teacher telling us that the highest we can get on an assignment was a 70 and if we wanted something higher, we had to an “optional assignment”

4. A teacher taking off an entire letter grade because a student wrote the wrong class period on the header.

5. A teacher pausing a student in the middle of a presentation to yell at the student for seeming “too nervous” (how does yelling and humiliation help?)

6. One of my teachers accidentally taught the wrong curriculum for an entire three quarters before finding out that what we were doing was wrong. (I don’t blame the teacher too much -- this was actually a rather complicated situation).

7. A chemistry teacher who sat at her desk eating snacks while she played videos of her teaching, rather than teaching in person.

Now, all of this makes us students want to bang our heads against the wall; especially number 2 and number 6. The same teacher from #2 never read a single one of our essays (problematic, considering this is an AP / IB class) and instead has us peer score every single time. Nobody studies for his class because he curves every assignment so that a student with a D gets an A.

Should students not demand better? One of the issues with teachers, I believe, is that one does not necessarily need a teaching degree to teach; just a degree in the particular subject area. But at the end of the day, knowing a subject does not mean knowing how to teach it. Some people may disagree. Some people may say, a true sign of knowing is being able to teach. But teaching in itself is another art form. It involves communication. It involves a little bit of psychology. It involves knowing how to explain concepts in ways you may not have thought of before (A visual learner may not think to incorporate auditory details, for example). A person may be an awesome biologist, but that same person may not be an excellent communicator (outside of a research paper, that is). A person may be an awesome biologist, but that person may understand little about how an art/literature student may learn concepts. Knowing a subject well does not mean teaching a subject well. To say so insults the very art of teaching.

Another problem when it comes to teachers is a lack of overall respect for the profession. My AP Gov teacher (a really awesome man) was telling us a story about attending his wife’s party with her co-workers.

Someone asked him, “Hey, what do you do for a living?”

He said, “I teach high school government!”

That person frowned. “I’m so sorry!”

“Why are you sorry?” my government teacher asked, confused. “I love my job!”

And that story conveys a giant problem. People in general assume that teaching is a bad job. That we should feel sorry for those who teach. If you look at the amount that teachers get paid, you can tell that the job isn’t as highly valued as it should be. Teachers are entrusted with the entire future. They are tasked with educating future politicians, future surgeons, future historians, future writers, future academics, future working class people who may change living standard for the better. Why should we not pay teachers more? Why should we not make it harder for people to become teachers (increase the required training or make it better) while at the same time paying them more?

Students do not respect teachers too much either. That may be a sentence young people do not like to hear, because we feel cheated in the education system many times. But it’s true that many students do not respect teachers. I am a student; I have seen how the worst of us can behave. My favorite teacher (I’ve had her for all three years now and will have her next year too) talks quite frankly with me, and she always talks about students who put in no work all quarter and then have the audacity to call her and blame her for their grades.

I am quite lazy -- I really am. But I do my work, and I have never had anything below a A in her classes; and the one I’m taking at the moment is an IB class.

However, respect is a two-way-street. To say that students are respected would be a lie. Otherwise, we would be listened to more when it comes to problems that directly affect us.

The ultimate point is -- respect for teachers needs to increase, but we should also cut down on teachers who don’t know how to teach. These solutions seem obvious, but implementing the necessary actions to put them into place certainly isn’t.

Taxes / wealth

A big point to mention -- taxes. I had any power in this government, I would not have schools be funded by taxes. In order to learn, students should have the resources to do so. How can an underfunded school possibly compete with a suburban, rich school? The education system creates cycles by constantly valuing the rich and punishing the poor.

If you have money, here’s all the things you can do:

-Live in a nice area with well-funded schools

-Buy a tutor for the SAT

-Have enough money to be well-fed; no worries about food

-Buy all kinds of educational programs (rosetta stone, etc)

-Buy more books

-Get invited to go to interesting educational summer camps, and go

-Clubs (basically no clubs are free)

All these things contribute to college applications and success. But what about the student who struggles in math and cannot afford a tutor? What about that student who lives in a poor area and struggles to learn because of underfunded and stressed teachers? What about the student who has to turn down many opportunities simply because that students cannot afford it? What about the student that can’t afford to pay a fee to participate in dance club?

What about those students?

Is it not evident then that those students are put at a disadvantage, and that they never had equality to begin with? Is it not evident that those students will have a harder time getting to a brighter future?

Here’s some ideas I have seen around that I have not thought too much about, but I do want to look into:

- Religion’s affect on schools (the US has a long history of Protestantism / Evangelicalism; those who structured our schools may have been influenced. It would be interesting to see how religious thought has played into our education system)

-schools shaping students for labor / a career rather than education / useful life skills

- I would really love to learn about an anarchist’s point of view of the education system. I believe that most anarchists would be pro-education, but they typically are anti-system (anti-authority), right? How would people be educated in an ideal society? (this is mostly curiosity)

#education system #problems of the education system #teaching #student #school problems #school #education #long post #standardized testing #respect for teachers

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insideanairport · 5 years

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Social Democracy for who?

❍❍❍

Finland might be the least welcoming place for people of color

Image: Nanna Hänninen, via Frame Contemporary Art Finland

Before writing this piece, I want to acknowledge my personal privileges that allow me to write such a critical essay. I am an Iranian-born artist holding a United States passport who is residing in Finland based on an international student residency. By no means, I declare myself as the spokesperson of Iranians in Finland or international students of color. The opinions and views on this post are solely mine and based on my experiences living, studying and working in Helsinki. I have been studying at The University of the Arts up until last year and simultaneously working and researching social exclusion in the context of Finland.

Intensive Tokenism Simultaneous With Systematic Exclusion

One day, -a few months before I graduate- I sat in the dean’s office for a private meeting that he scheduled for me following an enthusiastic email. I didn’t know what the meeting was really about. He asked me about my future plans and career goals. In the middle of the conversation, he suggested; “how about if I give you a job? We need talented people like you”. I was very surprised by the offer. I accepted. He described to me; the beginning stage I would not talk to anyone about the opportunity because he was trying to ‘create’ a position specifically for me. He asked me to attend a few meetings with other staff and admins which was dragged on for a few months and there was no job and no payment. At the same time, I realized that I was promised something that really didn’t exist. I was used and falsely promised a non-existence job in order to not criticize the school until my studies are done.

The Academy of Fine Arts is one of the whitenest and least diverse art academies in the world. There are 0% POC in the staff and faculty of the academy. There are no data on race and ethnicity of students. The school has a history of mistreating students of color and having problematic art projects about race such as “Oriental Spa”. (1) There have been many student-collective-complaints against the institutional nepotism and favoritism. Yet, as students come and go, the overall structure of the school has relatively stayed the same. I have been talking to previous lecturers, teachers, and students, it seems like the overall strategy of the institution has been similar throughout the years in dealing with issues regarding lack of diversity and the general whiteness of the academy.

False Advertisement and Media Circus on Internationalism

We know that a lot of money and energy is spent by Finnish institutions on branding and selling a positive image of Finland to the world as an international and welcoming country. A few weeks ago, I came across a blog by a token POC name Mahmudul Islam, about his experience in Finland and how Finland has treated him. The interesting encounter about this charades was that it was viewed and commented ’only’ by white people (mostly Finnish) on how nice and pleasant the article was. It had all the ’myths’ that white Finnish people want you to hear. It had the same essentialist and binary language that you hear in everyday conversations with white people who are benefiting from this system. So, in this piece, I want to write my version of ”Things I Learned After Living 3 Years in Finland”.

Finnish Exceptionalism

White Finns think they have not colonized anyone [inccorectly of course], and in some cases, they think they are not even white, and see themselves as indigenous!!?? Meanwhile, the Finnish institutions, for the most part, don’t acknowledge the sovereignty of Sámi indigenous people and their land. It’s also very surprising how little white Finns know about the history and struggle of Sámi people. During my study at the University of Arts, I can’t recall meeting any Sámi artist. I never saw an event in which they were invited to give a talk about their art or culture.

Finno-Ugric countries have the potential to be the most white-nationalist states in Europe. As Hungry and Finland are already showing by data, these societies view themselves as exceptional from other colonial and imperialist European states. (2) Therefore they think, they can bypass all the traditional racist problematics, from race-science and Eugenics to modern cultural appropriation and white privilege. Historical social trauma is often mentioned as an excuse for structural or individual racism. Elements such as the history of Swedish and Russian rule over the piece of land that is today known as Finland or other topics such as economic migration of white Finns to Sweden during the ’60s and ’70s often comes up as an excuse. There are also other classic binary stories of Finnish ‘Incivility’ that are often stereotyped by other nordic white people which has left a cultural social trauma on white Finns. Although all these elements can be legitimate for a white person to feel hurt, by no means it should be weaponized as an excuse to further perpetuate the racism that is inherited in this ethnically-homogenous society.

(image: random white views on cultural exceptionalism)

POC as Scapegoat (Racism in Finland)

When 30,000 people migrated to Finland in 2015, the state-supported media presented them as a ‘huge number of migrants’. Compared to the 5.5 million population of Finland, this number -which is not even one football stadium- is less than 1% of the Finnish population. And Permanent Secretary Päivi Nerg estimated that 60-65 percent of recent asylum applications will be rejected. (3) Thus the deportation regime of Finland began the task of deporting 2/3 of people against the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Currently, the racist party of PS (True/Pure Finns) is the biggest party in opposition after the close triumph of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) this year. PS has only 1 seat less (39/200) in the Parliament of Finland and the same number of seats in the EU Parliament (2) as the SDP. According to a 2011 poll, 51% of Finns Party voters agreed with the statement, ”People of certain races are unsuited for life in a modern society”. Simultaneous with this, I have also encountered a lot of people of color who against their community’s interest fall into uncletomism and support the white rhetoric of the True Finns party.

Cultural Illiteracy

While the skinhead racism of PS exists among almost half of the everyday people in Finland, another type of race-blindness and indifference exist among the educated white people. The type of people who work/teach at universities or conducting research and doing art projects. There are unacknowledged issues that seem to be normalized in the everyday life of people; issues such as comprehension of the fact that not every person represents a state identity. The other unacknowledged problem has to do with a basic understanding of color in relation to nationality. For example, not all Iranians look the same, similar to not all Finns are white. The white people I encountered in the University of the art (teachers and students) were not able to see beyond ‘national identity’ and binary views of gender and culture. This could be as simple as a lack of interest in what language Iranian people speak or lack of understanding of indigeneity, cultural appropriation, and white privilege. The sort of issues that had to be talked about in primary education but due to structural and national problems have been neglected.

While all these elements exist in society, the POC artists and art-workers preoccupy themselves with an invisible competition to win grants and state money in order to survive. As the recent data shows the people with non-Finnish names are less likely to be hired for jobs that they are qualified for. At the top of the hiring list, as always, exist the privileged white Finnish woman and on the bottom is the brown/black man. (4) (5)

In the everyday life when talking to Finnish artists it's common that they would call you or your community “foreigners” or “ex-change students” even though you have been living here for 3 years and planning to stay longer terms. They would still ask you unwelcoming questions such as “where are you from?”, or “how long will you be here?” This way of using language is so normalized that even POC are very used to it. It’s another way for society to systematically put you outside of itself. I was talking to a poc taxi-driver last year, and he was mentioning that he gets this question at least a dozen times each day. Can you imagine living in a country where ‘every day’ you have to talk about where your parents are from?

For the academic staff and faculty of universities and art academies, it is also incomprehensible to imagine a black/brown Finn. No matter how much you are providing proof of locality you are still seen as an “Iranian”, or “Middle-Eastern” or whatever else. Finnish education has been proven to be made by and made for white European people rather than any other international communities. The fact that there is no measure of race in this country shows that your passport and nationality is the only measure for your identity. Academic research on brown/black people by white people is so normalized that you can walk to any event ‘about’ minority issues or developing countries and see a Finnish person as the spokesperson. While Finland is benefiting from an open Westernized economy which is based upon colonialism and industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries, it sees itself as neutral, non-European, non-imperial in cultural and historical topics. (6) This myth enables the white Finns to allow themselves to represent anyone from anywhere. From unrepresented 1st generation migrants to black and brown people in developing countries to the study of indigenous peoples around the world with classical anthropological methods.

National Art as a Project of Nation-Building

If you read the Strategy for Cultural Policy 2025 by the Ministry of Education and Culture, you will come across a lot of empty talk about diversity. (7) These policies seem to attempt to sell the local white Finnish artists the idea of internationalism. Yet, in reality (or in practice) they are doing the same old national project of ‘Nation-building’ which was the aim of the Finnish culture sector up to the early 2000s.

As a POC artist, if you become a non-white face of Finland to further push the nationalist agenda of nation-building you are welcome… but if you decide to tell your stories about the grim local conditions of art-making and survival inside Finland, all the sudden you are ignored and demonized by the institutions as well as white Finns who want to present themselves as ‘allies’ yet, in reality, need the approval and financial support of the state.

There are many poc artists/activists who are raising their voices to this injustice and systematic way of excluding POC voices. Yet, the institutional ‘strategy’ toward these POC artists is to grant them tiny opportunities so they would work inside the system. In other words, the art system tries to buy you out. No room for political dissent. The beginning story of the Academy of Fine Arts’s dean was an example of this situation. However, they were so naive that they couldn’t even carry out a normal buyout. He presented to me a non-existent job to keep me quiet for a short time expecting that I will leave the country and things will go back to business as usual.

After the POC activist is boughtout by the system, what happens to the criticism? What type of criticism do you produce, who do you hang out with, and how far does your radicality extends?

I can list the names of a handful of predominate 1st generation POC artists who are getting the most exposures by the institutions and galleries. They have become the voices of the non-white minority. They are receiving money from the state and institutions through a variety of projects and programs. In other words, they are now part of the family. It would be an easy task to list the names of these model-minorities, yet I see no benefit in such acts aside from further dividing the already shattered community. The works of these groups of POC are often centered around the critic of internationalism and globalization which is often supported by the white art bureaucrats. Their work will ultimately result in further discrimination of 1st generation people. The model-minorities help to pave the way for the gradual weakening of the POC community in Finland resulting in orthodox solutions and rejection of racial differences and privilege, in order to reduce all problems to the simplistic black and white economical issues.

In the 3 years that I have been part of the art scene in Helsinki, I have seen many instances of racism within the art-community towards the POC, but haven’t seen any collective complaint, or constructive effort to demand an institutional response/action to these types of racial and cultural violence. On the contrary, I have seen many signs of forceful integration and assimilation even in the art. The orthodox bureaucratic system creates another low-budget project to ‘help foreigners’ (as a flock of seagulls) integrate into ‘our’ system (white Finnish system). The presumption that ‘our system’ is great. And the problem is ‘you foreigners’ with your backward cultures who need to learn how to use it. There are many examples of these low-budget band-aid solutions such as the www.foreigner.fi, where a group of European people trying to help the static category of the non-Finns, learn the Finnish system. That is a binary mentality perpetuated by other white Europeans.

In short, the right-wing ‘white’ mentality of this region states that Finland is great because of its ethnic homogeneity. While the ‘white’ radical left simply negates whatever comes out of the right. Other ‘white’ countries (including the USA, Australia, Canada, and other European (colonial) satellites), view Finland great due to its social programs. The people of color’s faith is now stuck between the two simplistic binary as Fanon once said.

In the midst of news about best in education and happiest in the world, I need to add (as most POC already know) that these data only apply to white citizens. Social democracy in Finland is selective and made by and for European subjects. While we are currently part of the rapid Westernization of the economy, not only we see an indifference towards the problems of minorities, but we see the systematic exclusion of POC from all areas of daily life.

(image: random white views on Finnish greatness/racism)

Bib

1. Bahadori, Hami. Is Finnish Art Scene Inhumane? . insideanairport. [Online] August 7, 2019. https://insideanairport.com/post/186835452059/is-finnish-art-scene-inhumane. 2. Dougall, David Mac. Finland sharply criticised over racism, trans rights and immigrant issues. newsnowfinland. [Online] sep 19, 2019. https://newsnowfinland.fi/finland-international/finland-sharply-criticised-over-racism-trans-rights-and-immigrant-issues. 3. Unknown. Interior Ministry: Finland set to reject two thirds of asylum seekers. yle. [Online] 11 11, 2015. https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/interior_ministry_finland_set_to_reject_two_thirds_of_asylum_seekers/8446795. 4. Ahmad, Akhlaq. Researcher: “If there’s a worker with a Finnish name, they'll probably be hired”. yle.fi. [Online] 10 21, 2019. https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/researcher_if_theres_a_worker_with_a_finnish_name_theyll_probably_be_hired/11026589?fbclid=IwAR2zdrRAyQFBas825HKQs7AjBbKOI26YVyC_46sQNiVOO589BG1N0ec0OFQ. 5. Staff, News Now. DomesticEconomy & Business Racism at work: only 10% of Somali job applicants get interview. newsnowfinland. [Online] July 22, 2019. https://newsnowfinland.fi/domestic/racism-at-work-only-10-of-somali-job-applicants-get-interview. 6. Macallister, Miles. The Scandinavians ‘hitchhiked’ their way to the boons of empire. Aeon. [Online] 1 18, 2018. https://aeon.co/ideas/the-hitchhiking-scandinavian-way-to-the-imperial-riches. 7. Culture, Ministry of Education and. Strategy for Cultural Policy 2025 – Ministry of Education and Culture. s.l. : Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland, 2017. 8. Looking for examples of disgusting cultural appropriation? albma duohta sápmelaš . [Online] June 12, 2012. https://albmaduohtasapmelas.tumblr.com/post/24963894492/looking-for-examples-of-disgusting-cultural.

#solidarity

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