#maybe there’s been some sort of delay with my academic references but like.. do they really think a college professor is going to answer

[tardis-stowaway]

Calling the curious and the confused

***ETA: I love all of y’all curious folks and your very niche interests! Closing this for now because I have a bunch of queries. I’ll decide which one I’m tackling in full and contact folks tomorrow. Got a question you didn’t get a chance to send in? Consider taking it to your local library. They may even have a way to chat with or email a librarian from your home without changing out of your pajamas.***

Is there something you want or need to know?  Maybe you need some background information for that fic you’re trying to write! Maybe there’s something you want to learn (new hobby? Useful potential job skill?) but you don’t know where to begin. Maybe there’s just some question that’s been bugging you and your attempts to google it aren’t answering it to your satisfaction. How would you like to satisfy your curiosity while also helping someone (me) out?

I’m in grad school to earn a master’s in library and information science degree and thus become a librarian. One of my classes has an assignment to find someone with an information need (this doesn’t have to be a NEED-need, it’s fine if it’s idle curiosity) and do a reference consultation with them. Basically, you tell me what you want to know about, I chat with you to make sure I fully understand what sorts of information will help you best, and then I find you some resources. I can’t use my classmates or patrons at the academic library where I’m working, so I thought I’d check if any of y’all have burning questions.

(Pictured above: life goals)

Things I can offer:

-My one (1) quarter’s worth of library science training (and of course all previous life skills)

-My access to the databases, journals, and other resources of a large university’s academic library, many of which aren’t freely accessible if you don’t have a university affiliation. (Your question doesn’t have to be academic though!)

-I’ll devote more of my time to your query than a reference librarian at a desk probably would. Not infinite time, because it’s finals, but I’ll have an easier time writing my followup paper if I invest some energy into your search.

Things I cannot offer:

-If it can be solved with 5 minutes on Google, it doesn’t suit what I need from this assignment.

-On the flip side, questions that are going to require me to do days of research are also out of bounds.

-I am not yet a credentialed librarian, so my reference skills likely won’t match the near-superpower abilities of someone who’s been doing this job for years. I’ll do my best, but I’m not going to guarantee that I could resolve every query.

-I won’t completely do assignments (school or work) for you. I can point you to some useful information that may save you time, get you unstuck, etc., but from there it’s on you.

-This is hopefully obvious, but I can’t give medical, legal, or similar specialized professional advice. You don’t want me trying.

Note that we will need to do a short real time reference interview (video call or chat), and I will be writing about this for an assignment. You can stay anonymous unless you’d rather be named, but I will have to explain your question to my professor.

This post may well get crickets in response, but in the unlikely event that I get a bunch of people with questions, I’ll pick one that seems like a good match for the scope of the assignment. I may try to help other followers with their queries too, so feel free to reach out even if you see someone else has already done so, but it will be briefer and/or delayed until after the rest of my final projects.

Either comment or send me a message if interested! So, what would you like to know?

#this is mostly for my followers #(even those of you i don't know well!) #but it's okay to reblog

[mystiika]

peter; re snape’s worst memory

today i want to talk about order of the phoenix, chapter 28: snape’s worst memory as this chapter is what forms a lot of people’s opinion about the relationship peter had with the rest of the marauders.

& i want to start off by reminding people that while this is snape’s memory, harry is viewing like some third party, able to see & hear everything but can’t pick up on anyone’s feelings or thoughts so it’s all solely his perspective. now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on.

so when harry first enters the memory, he’s calling everyone by their name, save for peter, who is referred to exclusively as wormtail, already implying that he’s something less than human or that harry doesn’t believe peter should have the dignity of being called his real name. this of course i only mean in regards to description, naturally the marauders calling each other by their nicknames doesn’t fall into the same category.

❛ Wormtail looked anxious; he was chewing his fingernails, staring down at his paper, scuffing the ground with his toes. ❜

so normally, this would add to the idea that he’s stupid & that his academic skills are lacking. i chose to explain this by simply saying that the boy just don’t test well? i headcanon him as having dysgraphia ( explanation here; it’s not long ) but in short, he is by no means stupid, in fact he’s quite intelligent ( as we find out later in the series ). dysgraphia is a learning disability that makes the act of writing difficult. it leads to problems with spelling, grammar, poor handwriting & difficulty organising thoughts on paper. so, going along with this learning disability, it means that, understandably so, for tests & exams, he’s a ball of anxiety. he tries his best, but he can’t help something making the same mistakes time & time again. he relies a lot on the friends around him for help with his academics but that crutch is gone as soon as exam time rolls around. it’s only natural that he blanks & might go so far as to cheat off a neighbour if he thought it would help & he could do it without getting caught.

next the boys start cracking jokes about how of the questions was about listing five signs to identify a werewolf. ❛ Wormtail was the only one that didn’t laugh. ❜  then peter goes on to list the few he remembered but mentioned how he struggled to recall all of them & to this comes the response of ❛ “ How thick are you, Wormtail? “ James said impatiently. “ You run around with a werewolf once a month— ” ❜

it’s at this point i’d like to remind you that no matter how close the boys were, they’re still all a bunch of asshole teenage boys? they’re not equip with all the patience needed to deal with peter’s academic shortcomings all the time. & it’s only natural that they would struggle to understand why peter couldn’t just function properly like the rest of them. there’s no diagnosis, no name or term you can associate with peter’s difficulties. you can be close, & still be annoyed with each other, especially with an issue that comes up as frequently as peter’s disability. james being impatient with peter about something as small as that doesn’t mean that they’re not still best friends, it doesn’t mean that james necessarily thinks peter is actually stupid, it’s just tiring to deal with all the time. i mean, they’re only 15/16. you can’t expect all that much of them.

& here is another reminder coming your way, my peter pettigrew is canon-divergent. i mean, i can’t exactly call myself entirely canon-compliant as i blatantly ignore canon information. but i also want to say that the pieces of information ignore, are pieces that i think don’t make sense given the rest of the canon information we have. as we all know & as i won’t shut up about, peter had a lot of contradictions in regards to his character so with that in mind, the next quote we have about peter is the following:

so, the set up is that james had nicked a snitch & was playing with it. ❛ James was still playing with the Snitch, letting it zoom further and further away, almost escaping but always grabbed it at the last second. Wormtail was watching with his mouth open. Every time James made a particularly difficult catch, Wormtail gasped & applauded. After 5 minutes of this, Harry wondered why James didn’t tell Wormtail to get a grip on himself, but James seemed to be enjoying the attention..... “Put that away, will you,” said Sirius finally, as James made a fine catch and Wormtail let out a cheer, “ before Wormtail wets himself with excitement. ” Wormtail turned slightly pink, but James grinned. ❜

i’m not gonna say that peter was completely uninterested in james, that’s just stupid. but frankly, the way this played out made him seem... simple? for lack of a better word anyway. i don’t doubt that he would have been mesmerized, hell i probably would have watched interested with my mouth open too, but the idea of him gasping??? that’s dumb af. he may have a learning disability but he’s not developmentally delayed. it just doesn’t make any sense given what else we know/find out about his character. i do, however, think clapping isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but it wouldn’t come from a place of blind adoration so much as the same vibe of my friend doing some tricks with a basket ball & me going “ayyyy” & clapping in response. this is also more so the reaction i would have expected from peters ‘ cheer ’. & kind of in that vein of admiring james, i do think that peter was in love with james, whether he realized it or not. i’ve talked about it a few times before so i won’t get into it again now, but i guarantee he would have liked watching james show off, similar to way there we’re told about some girls watching him off to the side at the time. i also know that sirius or remus probably called him out on it the odd time, so it’s not exactly a surprise that sirius would have called him on it & that peter would have been embarrassed. that being said, i think it would have been accompanied by a nice, strong glare in sirius’ direction. in order to be best friends with the group, he’d have to be able to keep up with him. so if you think he’d just sit there & take it one-sided all the time, you’d be wrong. maybe not in this particular moment but you best believe he’d give it back just as much as he took.

then of course comes the bullying of snape & the whole time peter is hanging around ❛ with an avid look of anticipation ❜, ❛ watching hungrily ❜, ❛ sniggering shrilly ❜. he’s reacting the same way as everyone else, but he’s singled out using descriptors with such negative connotations. the only way it makes any sense to me is remembering that this is what harry sees, what harry thinks. kinda like when someone starts to annoy you, suddenly everything they do becomes annoying, even if it’s the same thing as what anyone else is doing, it’s gonna be annoying because you find them annoying as a whole. idk, peter doesn’t exactly seem sadistic so this is the kind of “canon information” that i ignore just because it makes no sense. it doesn’t fit the story, the plot, the relationship he has with the marauders, & most of all, the type of person i make him out to be given everything else that we know.

this whole scene just kinda downplays the friendship peter has, & makes it out to be something it’s not. people say that they only kept peter around because he was like some sort of groupie, obsessed & admiring them at all times. but it doesn’t change the fact that sirius said they all would have died for peter. died. let that sink in & then tell me that they only kept peter around to boost their self esteem.

thank u 4 coming 2 my ted talk

#❘❙❚ ┊ metas ➳ ❛ the gap between understanding & misunderstanding can best be bridged by thought ❜ #❘❙❚ ┊ p. pettigrew. character study ➳ ❛ be not afraid of growing slowly be afraid only of standing still ❜

[anhed-nia]

i just flaked out of the last session of a series of mycology classes that I signed up for this summer. this is extremely rare for me, as i typically torment myself with feelings of obligation that almost only amount to opportunities to feel bad about something. in this case, i also paid for the damn things, in an amount that turned out to be way more than they were worth. i had really high hopes for these classes; before i started my horticulture program, i was looking for opportunities to study mushrooms, but there didn’t seem to be anything in nyc besides a couple of social clubs. i follow a number of mycology organizations and farms online though, and i was thrilled when one of my favorites announced that they would be coming from upstate to teach a series of five classes in washington heights. during the introduction phase of our first class, i blithely declared that i was excited to do something that was more academic than just meetups with hobbyist groups. nobody disabused me of that idea, and they really should have.

washington heights is technically in manhattan, but for me it might as well be out of town. when the original schedule went out, it said we would meet in the afternoon, and i didn’t find out until shortly before the first session that we are actually starting at 10am. that got me up at ass o’clock to shower, gather my materials, and travel an hour and a half by train, bus, and kind of a long walk to get to the rec room of an apartment building where our first session. i realized i would be travelling a cumulative three hours for a three hour class, but i was still feeling pretty stoked. i didn’t develop a sense of dread until i got there, and saw that the room was empty except for the two organizers. they were playing reggae on a boombox and blazing a ton of nag champa, as one of them shuffled around the room barefoot waving a smudge stick around. i bit my proverbial tongue, trying to shelve my prejudices so they didn’t get in the way of the obviously awesome education i was about to get. a central coffee table was piled with all sorts of text books and dry specimens that i dove right into. i might have left right then, though, if i knew what i heard about an hour later, that they referred to this table as “the Altar.”

other people showed up as much as half an hour later, which annoyed me a little bit since i had woken up in the dark that morning to prepare for this. admittedly i don’t really understand the concept of fashionable lateness, but i felt like casually gouging 30 minutes out of a 3 hour paid event was kind of unfair. as it turned out, the instructor had failed to bring the equipment she needed for her powerpoint presentation, so we were delayed further while she tried and failed to scrounge up cables, and we missed out on visual aids and actual videos that probably would have been pretty useful. once we sat down and introduced ourselves, the second red flag popped up: a lot of the people in the room seemed to know each other. obviously that’s not bad in and of itself, but i could see what was happening. i was in the midst of a clique who were basically there to do what they would do under any other circumstances: listen to bad music, choke on incense, perform pseudo-spiritual rituals, and roll around on the floor. the difference between them and me, bigger than their intimacy and aesthetic values, was that i had paid [redacted] amount of money just to sit on the periphery of their fun hangout and listen to them sling rote revolutionary slogans and sociology jargon. some folks brought up important topics, like food sovereignty and mycoremediation, but we would never get deep enough into our topic to really address anything that interesting.

when it was my turn to talk, i realized that this was going to be an experience that i hadn’t really had since high school--my hair was wrong, my clothes were wrong, my speech was wrong, and i had been marked as a weirdo and an outsider. believe it or not, as an adult, i don’t much worry about what people might think about me, unless they force my awareness of it. i just figure i’m kind of different from a lot of people i encounter, and we can handle that with appropriate levels of polite distance. but, in the class, as the only person wearing black, and the only person in a collared shirt, and one of the only people who kept her shoes on and sat in a chair, it was impossible to ignore the discomfort people had with me. maybe it was also the fact that i failed to cite indigenous religions as part of my reason for being there, or to talk about “holding space” for healing or whatever. i actually went out of my way to be friendly and vocal, thinking i could alleviate some of the tension, but in some ways that seemed to make things worse. but i never thought i would have to worry about any of this; i mean call me crazy, but i really thought i was there to learn about fungi.

when the class finally started in earnest, my mistake became even clearer. A minor point of contention for me was the teacher’s casual snark toward the psychedelic community. i’m well aware of how bro-y that world can be, but i still thought it was kind of lame that she had to toss out barbs at drug nerds who refer to primordia as “pin sets” while doing a mean voice and rolling her eyes dramatically. maybe she felt like it was necessary to clarify that this would not be an entheogen-centric course, but she could have done better than to make fun of the way people talk. i say this because when she introduced scientific taxonomy basics, she mentioned “kingdom,” and pointedly followed it with the correction “OR QUEENDOM.” i can understand why we should challenge gendered vocabulary in non-gender-related areas, but it really made me feel like standing up and saying EXCUSE ME BUT YOU ARE USING VERY BINARY TERMS RIGHT NOW AND I WISH YOU WOULD ASSUME ACCOUNTABILITY FOR MAINTAINING A SAFE SPACE FOR EVERYONE. worse than that, when it came time to describe how substrate becomes inoculated with mycelium, she first used the correct mycological vocabulary, saying “the mycelium colonizes the soil”, and then added boldly, “BUT WE’RE NOT GOING TO USE THAT WORD.” this drove me absolutely insane. first of all, as with the kingdom/queendom distinction, she’s just making things confusing for people who are totally brand new to the topic and will absolutely need to know what the common contemporary terms are before they can make informed decisions about what kind of language they want to subscribe to later. secondly, this isn’t like the debate over reclaiming words like “queer”--”colony/colonization” is not a slur. it also doesn’t carry a moral connotation; even when we describe conquistadors colonizing central america, that doesn’t describe the inherent superiority of the spanish and inferiority of the indigenous peoples. colonization is the accepted description of a population of organisms taking over a certain area. i mean are we also working on changing the term ”ant colony” or even “artists’ colony”? is that a reasonable use of our collective political energy? and secondly, i agree that decolonizing thought is important. i remember the moment when, as an art history student, a professor taught us how to make a certain point by using the word “germinal” instead of “seminal”; i get the concept. but i don’t think that the problem of colonized thought is the use of the word “colonize” itself, and i don’t think that depriving us of the ability to describe colonization is going to help us identify and attack instances of...FUCKING COLONIZATION.

by the end of the first session...well, i couldn’t tell if it was the end exactly people had started milling around and snacking and talking about whatever, and considering our late start and just the general atmosphere of confusion, i wasn’t sure if i was supposed to wait for something else to happen. finally i just walked off, feeling pretty agitated. but, i clung to the idea that maybe further sessions would be of more value, that it was ok for the first class to consist of a bunch of shit i already knew as a result of casual interest, or could have easily looked up on wikipedia. future sessions were supposed to focus on field ID and foraging, and medicinal preparations and applications, among other things i’m ignorant of. i told myself that once the material became more stimulating, i would be naturally distracted from the dirty feet and elaborate yoga poses and insidery preaching-to-the-choir political language of my classmates, and would find myself engrossed finally in one of my favorite topics. probably i also just didn’t want to acknowledge how much money i had wasted.

what should have been the second class was postponed because the instructor’s van had broken down, which was totally understandable, although it kind of felt like par for the course considering the messiness of the previous session. unfortunately, it threw off the whole schedule, so we then wound up having two back to back days together, a regular saturday session, followed by an all-day foraging excursion that started earlier than usual and took place even further away than usual. i might as well have just gotten a hotel room up there for the weekend, but whatever, i sort of understood the risks when i signed up. the foraging session was what i was most looking forward to, and was the biggest disaster. i still hadn’t gotten the memo about how cool it was to show up as much as 45 minutes late, even for an event where we were supposed to meet up at a remote horse stable and then venture into the woods together. we didn’t get started until a least an hour, probably more after the 9am start. i’d been there since 8:50, and had to sit through an interminable playtime in which everybody did chakra-clearing breathing techniques and stretches, improv exercises and vocal warmups, and played some dumb hippy game where everybody tries to steal a stick from one another. my aforementioned sense of tortured obligation has caused me to submit to juvenile horrors like this in other circumstances, even though i thought adulthood was supposed to exempt me from this gym class bullshit, but i put my foot down this time, and sat about 25 feet away patiently waiting for the class to start, suffering some accusative glances.

the actual foraging we did was really fun, but being in the group was worse than ever. there was an excessive amount of anthropomorphizing going on, with all specimens described as “friends” that each student was encouraged to “meet” and “hang out with”, which resulted in a constant stream of high-pitched baby talk among us. i had been strongly warned against this anthropomorphizing mentality, both from a (fabulous, brilliant) druid-like arborist who taught my intro to botany class, and from the animal welfare community, all of whom correctly assert that projecting human needs and emotions onto non-human organisms is both delusional and actually dangerous for both people and the lifeforms around us...but whatever i guess. i had more immediate worries, because at some point, the baby talk gave way to improvised singing. it was brutally hot and dank in the woods, and the thrill of finding all kinds of different specimens was barely outweighed by the intense chagrin i felt as most of the group began stumbling through the creation of a hymn of gratitude to the mushrooms. sometimes we had to stop completely on the path so everyone could get in a circle and sing a round or three together. this was scheduled to be a 7 hour excursion, and by hour 3 i was seriously trying to work out at what point i would declare a family emergency or food poisoning and just run away.

part of the experience included a bit of a plant walk, led by one of the organizers who knew a lot about indigenous flora. this was sort of interesting in and of itself, and also relevant, since different mushrooms may grow on or near certain plants. but somehow, it still didn’t amount to a reasonable educational experience. half way through the hike, i noticed a classmate excitedly snatching up all the mugwort that she came across. she had been told by our guide about the many virtues of this “plant medicine”, a traditional cure-all for everything from epilepsy to PMS. what she hadn’t been told, evidently, is that mugwort is ferociously invasive, and practically impossible to get rid of. mugwort will choke out everything else around it, destroying the biodiversity that is necessary to support a healthy local ecology, losing us desirable plant life and starving out animal populations. i tried to tell her that she should be careful with that stuff, and avoid planting it in her yard if that was the fantasy, but she turned away irritably, clutching gnarled bundles of the sacred healer in her fists. it was a little thing, but somehow it really locked in the fact that i was in the wrong place. i hadn’t learned remotely as much new information about mushrooms as i should have in ~15 hours, and i had reason to believe that information we were getting could be less than reliable, or made unreliable by omission of other important facts. i had to get out of there. at some point we encountered a different mushroom group--a collection of appealing nerds in their 40s-60s called the Destroying Angels (after the deadly white amanita) who had accumulated a way cooler array of specimens than us, probably because they got started at a reasonable hour. i barely prevented myself from begging them to take me with them.

we returned to our spot near the parking lot two hours ahead of our scheduled conclusion, and as before, the situation devolved into a general hangout with no clear indication that the educational portion of the day was over. there were more songs and more games, and though i was coerced away from my boulder in the sun to join the group around their blanket, i managed to feign sleep long enough to get out of most of the activities. i was legitimately exhausted, at least.when i was thoroughly convinced that the lesson was over, i told everyone that i was too tired to continue and left, sparing myself an hour and a half of further agony.

ever since, i had been worrying about the final class. i absolutely wanted to learn about medicinal preparations and tinctures and home-growing techniques. but could it possibly be worth it? could i even be sure that the session would consist of more than what i had already learned from experience, and from unfairly maligned drug nerds on the internet? was i not too annoyed that the date of this class wasn’t even announced until four days ago, even though the class basically requires a day trip for more students than just me? by last night, the answers were perfectly clear. i let the group know that “something came up” without specifying, and bid them farewell, thanking them for their “inclusivity” among other things, which only i know is a joke. (at the end of the last i informed them all that i have ASD and don’t like to be touched, and i had the satisfying sense that they all realized that that was part of the reason i refused to join in their reindeer games) i’m vaguely concerned that i will have to deal with an annoyed instructor who literally owes me a bottle of tincture and growing materials as part of the price of the class, and who should really mail them to me now, but i can’t drag myself back to washington heights again just to avoid that nonsense. i don’t know what lesson i’m supposed to learn from this experience; maybe it’s enough to say that i don’t have to force myself to do everything i ever say i’m going to do, and also that in spite of the long way i have come from being an angry little punk poseur in college, i still hate hippies as much as ever. the end.

[xonismsx]

peter; on snape’s worst memory

since i’ve been thinking about/talking about peter a lot lately, today i want to talk about order of the phoenix, chapter 28: snape’s worst memory as this chapter is what forms a lot of people’s opinion about the relationship peter had with the rest of the marauders.

& i want to start off by reminding people that while this is snape’s memory, harry is viewing like some third party, able to see & hear everything but can’t pick up on anyone’s feelings or thoughts so it’s all solely his perspective. now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on.

so when harry first enters the memory, he’s calling everyone by their name, save for peter, who is referred to exclusively as wormtail, already implying that he’s something less than human or that harry doesn’t believe peter should have the dignity of being called his real name. this of course i only mean in regards to description, naturally the marauders calling each other by their nicknames doesn’t fall into the same category.

❛ Wormtail looked anxious; he was chewing his fingernails, staring down at his paper, scuffing the ground with his toes. ❜

so normally, this would add to the idea that he’s stupid & that his academic skills are lacking. i chose to explain this by simply saying that the boy just don’t test well? i headcanon him as having dysgraphia ( explanation over here; it’s not long ) but in short, he is by no means stupid, in fact he’s quite intelligent ( as we find out later in the series ). dysgraphia is a learning disability that makes the act of writing difficult. it leads to problems with spelling, grammar, poor handwriting & difficulty organizing thoughts on paper. so, going along with this learning disability, it means that, understandably so, for tests & exams, he’s a ball of anxiety. he tries his best, but he can’t help something making the same mistakes time & time again. he relies a lot on the friends around him for help with his academics but that crutch is gone as soon as exam time rolls around. it’s only natural that he blanks out & might go so far as to cheat off a neighbour if he thought it would help & he could do it without getting caught.

next the boys start cracking jokes about how of the questions was about listing five signs to identify a werewolf. ❛ Wormtail was the only one that didn’t laugh. ❜  then peter goes on to list the few he remembered but mentioned how he struggled to recall all of them & to this comes the response of ❛ “ How thick are you, Wormtail? “ James said impatiently. “ You run around with a werewolf once a month— ” ❜

it’s at this point i’d like to remind you that no matter how close the boys were, they’re still all a bunch of asshole teenage boys? they’re not equip with all the patience needed to deal with peter’s academic shortcomings all the time. & it’s only natural that they would struggle to understand why peter couldn’t just function properly like the rest of them. there’s no diagnosis, no name or term you can associate with peter’s difficulties. you can be close, & still be annoyed with each other, especially with an issue that comes up as frequently as peter’s disability. james being impatient with peter about something as small as that doesn’t mean that they’re not still best friends, it doesn’t mean that james necessarily thinks peter is actually stupid, it’s just tiring to deal with all the time. i mean, they’re only 15/16. you can’t expect all that much of them. 

& here is another reminder coming your way, my peter pettigrew is canon-divergent. i mean, i can’t exactly call myself entirely canon-compliant as i blatantly ignore canon information. but i also want to say that the pieces of information ignore, are pieces that i think don’t make sense given the rest of the canon information we have. as we all know & as i won’t shut up about, peter had a lot of contradictions in regards to his character so with that in mind, the next quote we have about peter is the following:

so, the set up is that james had nicked a snitch & was playing with it. ❛ James was still playing with the Snitch, letting it zoom further and further away, almost escaping but always grabbed it at the last second. Wormtail was watching with his mouth open. Every time James made a particularly difficult catch, Wormtail gasped & applauded. After 5 minutes of this, Harry wondered why James didn’t tell Wormtail to get a grip on himself, but James seemed to be enjoying the attention..... “Put that away, will you,” said Sirius finally, as James made a fine catch and Wormtail let out a cheer, “ before Wormtail wets himself with excitement. ” Wormtail turned slightly pink, but James grinned. ❜

i’m not gonna say that peter was completely uninterested in james, that’s just stupid. but frankly, the way this played out made him seem... simple? for lack of a better word anyway. i don’t doubt that he would have been mesmerized, hell i probably would have watched interested with my mouth open too, but the idea of him gasping??? that’s dumb af. he may have a learning disability but he’s not developmentally delayed. it just doesn’t make any sense given what else we know/find out about his character. i do, however, think clapping isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but it wouldn’t come from a place of blind adoration so much as the same vibe of my friend doing some tricks with a basket ball & me going “ayyyy” & clapping in response. this is also more so the reaction i would have expected from peters ‘ cheer ’. & kind of in that vein of admiring james, i do think that peter was in love with james, whether he realized it or not. i’ve talked about it a few times before so i won’t get into it again now, but i guarantee he would have liked watching james show off, similar to way there we’re told about some girls watching him off to the side at the time. i also know that sirius or remus probably called him out on it the odd time, so it’s not exactly a surprise that sirius would have called him on it & that peter would have been embarrassed. that being said, i think it would have been accompanied by a nice, strong glare in sirius’ direction. in order to be best friends with the group, he’d have to be able to keep up with him. so if you think he’d just sit there & take it one-sided all the time, you’d be wrong. maybe not in this particular moment but you best believe he’d give it back just as much as he took.

then of course comes the bullying of snape & the whole time peter is hanging around ❛ with an avid look of anticipation ❜, ❛ watching hungrily ❜, ❛ sniggering shrilly ❜. he’s reacting the same way as everyone else, but he’s singled out using descriptors with such negative connotations. the only way it makes any sense to me is remembering that this is what harry sees, what harry thinks. kinda like when someone starts to annoy you, suddenly everything they do becomes annoying, even if it’s the same thing as what anyone else is doing, it’s gonna be annoying because you find them annoying as a whole. idk, peter doesn’t exactly seem sadistic so this is the kind of “canon information” that i ignore just because it makes no sense. it doesn’t fit the story, the plot, the relationship he has with the marauders, & most of all, the type of person i make him out to be given everything else that we know.

this whole scene just kinda downplays the friendship peter has, & makes it out to be something it’s not. people say that they only kept peter around because he was like some sort of groupie, obsessed & admiring them at all times. but it doesn’t change the fact that sirius said they all would have died for peter. died. let that sink in & then tell me that they only kept peter around to boost their self esteem.

thank u 4 coming 2 my ted talk

#peter pettigrew #meta tag tba. #❘❙❚ ✘ ┊ inconsequential ▶ ❝ about peter ❞

[russiancircles]

Russian Circles Interview // The Seventh Hex

With their sixth album ‘Guidance’, Russian Circles carry on in their quest to conjure multi-dimensional dramatic instrumental narratives and to scout out new textures from their respective instruments. Songs aren’t constructed out of highbrow concepts; they’re forged out of gut instinct and base emotional response. Every Russian Circles album has had its share of new sonic vistas, and ‘Guidance’ finds the band still searching out new sounds while continuing to play to the collective strengths of guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz, and bassist Brian Cook… We talk to Brian Cook about sounding human, working within parameters and Brooklyn’s happy hour…

TSH: Talk us through the band’s creative process in the lead-up to ‘Guidance’…

Brian: I’m sure every band has their specific way that they work, and given the specific dynamic that exists between any random assortment of individuals, some things work and other things don’t. For us, given that we don’t all live in the same city and we don’t often get the opportunity to play together, and given the fact that we’re an instrumental group that values each individual component to the music, it makes sense for us to work in a manner that is very efficient on time while also allowing three voices to all have their input. If we practiced three times a week, I’m sure we would do more jamming. Instead, we only have the chance to work on new material with us all in the same room a few weeks out of the year, so there’s a lot more individual composition, and then the group practices are more about trying out ideas and putting all the pieces together.

TSH: With this record, was the band was interested in trying to achieve a kind of attention to detail and sonic diversity?

Brian: Any time you go into the studio you’re obsessing over details and trying to make something with enough variation and dynamics that it holds your interest over the span of forty minutes. At this point, I think the bigger struggle is learning how to let go of fixating on perfection and figuring out how to make a cohesive album. It’s never been easier to make a sonically rich and perfect album; that’s where modern recording technology has taken us. But how do you capture the kind of vibe that made albums from before 1975 stand the test of time? I don’t give a shit about making a record that sounds as flawless as modern active rock radio bands. Nor do I care about the current DJ-influenced obsession with making music that touches upon and references twenty different genres of music or four decades of recording technology. I just want to make something that sounds natural and human.

TSH: Was it a key aspect to have drones low in the mix on this record?

Brian: The drones were a source of debate at times. Mike employs a lot of long, sustained, looping notes when we play live, and that really helps fill out the sound and enrich a lot of the melodic elements of the band. It also makes for nice ear candy. But the more you layer a recording, the less impact each individual component has. So there were several conversations as to how many embellishments should be done on the recordings. I think we found a healthy balance.

TSH: In terms of production, how pleasing was it to have the songs produced by people who weren’t going to fall back on the current metal production techniques?

Brian: It was good to work with Kurt Ballou because he’s definitely aware of how modern metal production works, but he doesn’t go that route. We’ve done a few of our past records at Electrical Audio in Chicago, which is an amazing studio that really pushes to do everything as live as possible. But we do so much stuff with loops that it makes more sense sometimes to record everything piece by piece. And because we don’t have a lot of time to write together in the practice space, we do a lot of writing and editing in the studio. So while we love Electrical Audio, it sometimes feels like we’re disappointing their engineers with our approach. On the other end of the spectrum, most current metal records are almost more like electronic records—everything is tracked on a computer grid, everything is corrected and edited to sterile perfection, all the drum hits are either squashed or triggered into sounding identical and mechanical. So with Kurt we had a guy that knows how to capture live, unruly hardcore bands, but is also very aware of how to construct things in the studio piece by piece in a way that still captures that energy. And that was ideal.

TSH: What was the thinking in placing ‘Asa’ as the album opener?

Brian: ‘Asa’ was just something I came up with on baritone guitar without any intention of it being a Russian Circles song, but it resonated with Mike and Dave and after jamming on it a bit it felt like a good way of building into ‘Vorel’.

TSH: With ‘Vorel’, was it surprising that with all the underlying melodies the song has, it ended up being more of a dynamic track?

Brian: ‘Vorel’ is a song that had so much surface noise and so many abrasive textures going on while we were writing it that when it started coming together in the studio and all the melodies became a bit more apparent there was some concern that maybe the song wasn’t dark enough. We always aim for ugliness but somehow the light creeps back in sometimes.

TSH: ‘Mota’ is a stunning track. Talk us through how this one came about from a compositional sense…

Brian: ‘Mota’ was a product of our gear. Specifically, the opening guitar riff was something that blossomed out of Mike fiddling around with settings on one of his delay pedals. It made for an interesting almost electronic arpeggio-like sound, so we tried to build an electronic groove around it, but with our standard arsenal of instruments. And then the second half tries to counter all the melodicism of the beginning.

TSH: Since the song titles have a phonetic quality, do you prefer the idea of the title’s literal definition being disembodied from the song?

Brian: Absolutely. I realise we give listeners very little information to provide context for the songs, and that can make people obsess over the titles a bit. We don’t have lyrics. We don’t have pointed album titles or artwork that’s heavy on iconography. We like mystery.

TSH: Tell us more about yourself incorporating a Moog Taurus for a lot of the keyboard parts and also playing a lot of baritone during the set live, how this gives more range overall…

Brian: Well, Mike has a lot going on with guitar, so I don’t want to impede on his frequency range, but we do want to have a broad spectrum of sounds and dynamics, so sometimes it just works out to switch over to the baritone. As for the Taurus, that originally entered the picture so that we could play “Schiphol” live, but now I’ve found those sub-bass frequencies to be a bit of a guilty pleasure, so I try to squeeze it in whenever I can.

TSH: Since as a live band you want to create an environment and atmosphere that people can get lost in, is it a challenge to figure out how to put that onto a record and have it translate?

Brian: Mike Watt once said something along the lines of “most rock bands tour to promote an album, but fIREHOSE makes albums to support tours.” I can’t say that’s necessarily the attitude of Russian Circles, but I would say that for me personally, I can understand Watt’s stance because I’m more concerned with creating music that functions in a live setting than in making a pristine album. Being a compelling live band is even harder today than it was twenty years ago, simply because we’ve been so saturated by live music. So while there’s definitely a concern with capturing atmosphere on a record, I’m more concerned with making sure the songs work well when the three of us play them together in a room. If they work in that arrangement, I assume they’ll translate onto record just fine.

TSH: How important is it to have the creative freedom and free reign to do whatever you want with no parameters?

Brian: It can be fun to work within parameters. I went out on tour with Mamiffer last year and it was actually kind of nice to take a step back and just help fulfill someone else’s vision. It was illuminating to see how someone else’s creative process worked and to figure out how to manifest their wishes. If that was the full extent of my musical life, I’d probably be unsatisfied, but given my circumstances I found it really rewarding. But overall, yes, feeling free to do whatever you want creatively is obviously a top priority for any artist.

TSH: Is Brooklyn’s happy hour a nice way for you to unwind?

Brian: New York is so hectic that the opportunity to sit somewhere quiet and have a drink is necessary sometimes. That said, I drink less here than I did when I lived in Seattle. Those Pacific Northwesterners love their beer.

TSH: What commonly brings about a pleasing and happy band dynamic during your touring travels?

Brian: Eight hours of sleep and good coffee. I mean, working with nice people at a club, having a decent stage to work with, and being able to grab a warm meal before doors are pretty crucial too, but if we have sleep and caffeine we can usually get through anything.

TSH: Finally, heading forward, what sort of progression and development do you relish with Russian Circles?

Brian: In some ways, I feel like we achieved something on ‘Guidance’ that we’d been working towards for a while—a certain balance of elements that we’d been experimenting with on prior albums. Going forward, it would be nice to branch out and experiment more, but at the same time, I don’t want to force anything. Our approach isn’t academic or conceptual. Our aim is to make something that works on a very primal, visceral level, and that kind of stuff doesn’t work with a bunch of pre-meditated ideas. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Article Here. Photos By Andrea Petrovicova.

[the-record-columns]

Oct. 2, 2019: Columns

More interesting Kiwanis history...

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

More than a few columns in this space have been prompted by a visit from one person or another to the offices of The Record and Thursday Printing.  Admittedly, the front of our building surely will attract most any person looking for an antique store, and, after a brief apology for nothing being for sale, many a great visit has ensured. 

Some time ago, one of our customers, Terry Nichols with Wilkes Fire Systems, dropped by.  Terry very much enjoys local history and, in the course of our conversation, he asked about any pictures I may have of the Town of North Wilkesboro from earlier times.  Actually, I have a small notebook full of those pictures, thanks to two wonderful ladies, my sister-in-law Pug Welborn, who, in her own way, helped raise me; and Mrs. Elizabeth “Lib” Forester, a truly kind soul who was the go-to person for local history for many, many years.  These two ladies were always willing to dig through their things and find some photo or artifact that would help in any project.

I miss them both a great deal.

I found my notebook of pictures and showed it to Terry, but, while looking, I also uncovered my Kiwanis newsletter notebook which I compiled from the papers of local educator, attorney, and legislator Mr. T.E. Story.  Most of these newsletters are from the 1920’s and early 1930’s, and each one is printed on stationery donated by one of the members to save the club money. So, in addition to the well-written and often humorous newsletters themselves, they also provide a lot of business history for the area. 

In no time, I was flipping through the Kiwanis book, sharing with Terry some of the fascinating things I ran across in putting them together.  The club secretary for many of those years was a man called Bid Williams who was I the insurance business.  In his “thank you” note to the donor of the letterhead and the envelopes, he often injected a gentle dig or a bit of levity; and often added a quote or thought for the day.  “Usefulness is the rent we pay for the space we occupy in this world.  Some of us are way behind on the rent.”  Another favorite is “The poorest man I the world is the man who has a lot to live on and nothing to live for.”

Often in the thank you’s are short plugs for the donor's business.  When it was Marvin Brame's week, the secretary noted that one of Brame Drug Store's famous patent medicines was the “Pain Knocker” which Marvin called, The Great Eliptical Asiatical Panticurial Nervous Cordial that cures all diseases known to humanity and other beasts.” Or from 1924, when J. C. Reins, owner of Reins Brothers Monuments, donated the paper, envelopes and stamps. Bid Williams, the secretary, referred to him as “Tombstone Jim” and noted that he would take your measure, either day or night, living or dead, and promise satisfaction.  A thanks to Ed Turner of J. L. Turner and Son funeral home noted that he “...was a fine and on time undertaker.” adding, “Give him a trial and see where you'll go.  And, while we are I this vein, there is a note on the newsletter of April 10, 1931 thanking Mr. Jr. R. His, President of Turner-White Casket Company for the stationery.  It goes on to say that Jim says his WOODEN OVERCOATS are selling right along in spite of the...“REPRESSION.”

Think about that line a minute.

And I know I have mentioned this one before, but no column that includes any of Kenny's Kiwanis History would be complete without noting that some of the letterheads are as entertaining as the newsletters themselves.  There are several, including Henry Reynolds letterhead which mentions “Kitchen Sinks, Auto Parts, Plumbing Outfits, Steam Rollers, Hot Air Appliances, and, of course, Rat Traps. But the best of all is William Fletcher Absher's clothing store, Absher and Blackburn, noted on a 1828 newsletter as Western North Carolina's Leading Clothier and Haberdasher, followed by the classic line “Anything for sale that can't be found at Nike Smithey's” 

Thanks for stopping by Terry, you're welcome anytime.

Next year in Jerusalem

By AMBASSADOR EARL COX and KATHLEEN COX

Those who are proponents of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel do it under the banner of helping promote social justice for those Arabs who have decided to call themselves Palestinians.  Truth be told, ALL, Jew and Arab alike, who are native to the land of Israel are actually “Palestinians” as this term was coined to describe a region and not a nation or a particular people group. There are no Palestinians in the sense of describing a specific nation just as there is no nation made up of “Western North Carolinians.”  But the world has accepted this lie because It’s been told so many times and everyone knows that what appears in print or is reported on the television must be true!  Let’s pray the reverse is also truth – that truth told often enough becomes recognized and embraced as fact.  That’s the primary goal of the articles appearing in this column.

 BDS campaigns first appeared on the scene following Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.  On the very day Israel was reborn as a nation, this tiny, fledgling country, with no organized military and very few weapons and munitions, was attacked from every side by her Arab neighbors.  Viewed through the lens of human reasoning, an Arab victory was certain.  Before even taking its first breath, the plan was for baby Israel to die.  To everyone’s surprise, Israel crushed the invasion.  Israel proved such a formidable force of resistance that the Arab ran to the U.N. begging them to stop Israel. 

Since war did not destroy the Jews, the Arabs devised a plan to starve them out.  It started as a boycott and, while loosely organized at first, the BDS campaign took shape over the years and spread beyond the Middle East.  The Arab League, a group of Arab countries formed to promote economic health and political unity in the region, is credited with giving traction to the boycott movement.

The modern BDS movement is fueled by those Arabs calling themselves Palestinians and is supported by the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups and, through a very effective propaganda machine, has spread around the world and even infiltrated certain denominations within the Christian community. It’s grown from a boycott of Israeli goods to now include a shunning of Israel’s culture, sports, academic institutions, as well as any services provided by Israel.  As excellent as the Palestinians are at forming and promoting their anti-Israel campaigns, Israel is extremely poor at handling their own public relations.  “Tooting your own horn” is viewed by Israelis as culturally shameful.  This must change.  If the world only knew of the many Israeli products and technological advances used in our cars, homes, hospitals, and businesses, all who engage in BDS would have to return to living cave-man style or admit that they are hypocrite.  

BDS is not a peaceful campaign.  Its leadership legitimizes terrorism and the murder of Jews as ‘legitimate resistance’ claiming Israel is illegally occupying land that belongs to the Palestinians – even though there is not, and has never been, a Palestinian nation. History reveals that the entire land of Israel rightfully belongs to the Jewish people. The Holy Scriptures and modern archeology support this fact.  

Nevertheless, Israel has always had enemies wanting to destroy and wipe the nation from off the face of the earth. BDS is just one of the newer foes that have risen for that purpose, but it will not succeed.  When Jews the world over gather together outside of Israel for weddings or other celebrations, upon departure they always declare to one another, “Next year in Jerusalem!”  

Did you say Bacon?

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

I have come to understand that bacon is more than food. It seems to have the power to drive people to all sorts of levels of human experience.

Did you know that the first meal eaten on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin contained bacon? After landing at the Sea of Tranquility, the two astronauts dined on a meal that consisted of bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, a pineapple grapefruit drink and coffee; a tasty meal suited for any hero.  

On any day in the Carolinas, the smell of bacon cooking is enough to bring everyone in the house together, if only for a moment, to secure their portions of the alluring food.

Why do we like the smell and taste so much? From generation to generation, the love of bacon seems to be part of our cultural makeup and we are not alone.  Many parts of the world enjoy their version of a pork cured delight as well.

Some years ago, there was a survey taken in Canada that suggested that more than 40 percent of those surveyed would choose bacon over an intimate moment with a companion. That’s big bacon love if you ask me. Or maybe it’s just one of those surveys that makes you laugh and think at the same time.

I recently attended the N.C. Bacon Festival in Rocky Point. The first year of the festival was delayed due to Hurricane Florence. It was a wet time for everyone in the eastern part of North Carolina. A lot of damage was seen by many; however, when things dried out enough, the festival did take place for one day and attracted around 6,000 people.

In late September 2019, the N.C. Bacon Festival at Old Homestead Farm enjoyed excellent weather, 15,000 attendees, thousands of pounds of bacon and food vendors who added bacon to almost everything they offered.

For those of us who just love the smell of bacon, the bacon scented candles were a big hit.

I asked Festival Director David Crookes why this event was important to Rocky Point. He shared with me some of the challenges of our coastal communities and especially those who have experienced the damage caused from storms in recent years.

A great family-focused festival will attract people and those people will fill up at gas stations, eat at local venues, stay in nearby hotels and in general be beneficial for the local economy.

A unique festival such as this brings people together for a good time and that is what I witnessed. Sure, traffic was a challenge, some of the lines were long, but that’s all part of a successful festival and there were a lot of things for people to do.

It is for the love of bacon and a good time that these 15,000 people came together. If you wanted it, you certainly had the opportunity to indulge in a somewhat salty, smoky flavorful delight, sometimes even covered in chocolate. I talked with people who thought the chocolate covered bacon was the best thing they had ever eaten. Others were purest and did not care for it at all.

That’s the way it goes in the world of bacon. If you don’t like it one way, you will likely enjoy it in another.

Here’s to the N.C. Bacon Festival and all the bacon lovers. May the next year be even better.

To my sweet vegan and vegetarian friends, please go to the watermelon festival. I’m serious. There is a lot of bacon at this festival.

Carl White is the Executive Producer and Host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In The Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its 10th year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturday’s at noon and My 12. The show also streams on Amazon Prime. For more information visit www.lifeinthecarolinas.com. You can email Carl at [email protected]

[ichhabeschwein]

TestDAF Schreiben

In this post, I’m going to cover all the most general information about how I prepared for the TestDAF and how the test was actually administered. 

This TestDAF is a language test, which serves as one of the acceptable means of certifying your German language ability for the workplace as well as Universities. I decided to take the TestDAF as opposed to other tests, which are considered to provide equivalent language certification (Telc, DSH, etc.) because I’d heard from German instructors that the TestDAF is the most reasonable of the options. The test is more straight forward, and you don’t have to prepare for as many tricks. 

I decided quite late in the game that I was going to take this test for one of the Masters program I’m applying for in Hamburg (Uni Hamburg), since this specific program (Kosmetikwissenschaft) is small, and therefore only taught in German and only allows students to start the program with the winter semester, this didn’t leave me many options for when I could take this test. I found out that I needed to prove my language proficiency by October, in the case that I’m given an acceptance, and after completing the test, it takes up to 6 weeks to get your results back. This meant that I could only take the test in May if I wanted to be able to submit my documents in time to apply for this upcoming winter semester. I looked online, and the the majority of the testing centers had already been filled, so I ended up having to travel to Halle (an hour away) in order to take the test. So make sure you sign up early! The seats fill up fast! After I paid the 200 Euro for the test, the clock started. 

When I had made this decision, I had about a month to prepare for the test, and this was basically my one shot for this university. So I asked my lovely instructor from my intensive language training, who also teaches a prep course for this test, which materials are worth buying and using for preparation. She recommended the Fit für den TestDAF book and the practice tests 1-5 from Hueber, as well as the Prüfungstraining book from Cornelsen. There are also 2 practice tests available on the TestDAF website complete with audio data for the listening comprehension and oral portions. 

Here’s how I organized my month of studying so I could be as prepared as possible with the time I had. I wrote out a studying calendar and attempted to write in the equivalent of one whole test (3 hours in total without any breaks) on every other day in the month until the exam, with the days in between being reserved for studying and bettering my recognized weaknesses. I didn’t end up really sticking to this schedule, since it was hard for me to find 3 hours chunks of time in my days, but it at least gave me a feel of how much time I reasonably had to work through the materials. 

The order in which I worked through the materials was optimal, in my opinion. My instructor recommended me this website/worksheet, which lays out the all-important Grafikbeschreibung redemittel. Being able to describe charts and graphs is a main focus in this test, as they’re trying to assess your readiness for the academic or professional world, so I read through all of these phrases and words and picked out the ones that I wanted to memorize/master for the test and wrote out sentences with them repeatedly as my first study task. 

https://www.wirtschaftsdeutsch.de/lehrmaterialien/redemittel-diagramm.pdf

 After this, I worked my way through the Fit für den TestDAF book in order to further practice these phrases/words. This book walks you slowly through the test and gives a lot of exercises so you can improve your test skills. In this way, the book gives a good introduction to the test and allows you to build your test taking strategy very early on. Because, at the end of the day, the people who correct this test are looking for specific signs and phrases so they can accurately place you, and if you don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, you won’t score very high. The exercises also offer many new ways to formulate the sentences that the TestDAF expects to see, so you’re able to show that you can vary your language. After you’ve built this vocabulary, grammar, and strategy through this initial worksheet and prep book, you can move on to solidify these skills so they come easily, and importantly, quickly to your pen during the test.

At this point, you should be able to recognize where your weaknesses in the test lie and therefore, what you should focus on. For me, the reading and listening comprehension were gravy, and also easy to score, so I was confident in my ability in these portions. The writing portion is difficult to score yourself, but easy to improve on in a short amount of time. The oral portion was the worst for me because of the way they administer this portion. In a room with maybe 15 other students, you all listen to the same radio playing the speaking prompts, and at the same time, you all speak your response into your personal voice recorder. This makes the testing situation very hard to simulate, and makes everyone quite nervous, since it’s so unnatural. In noticing this, I decided to focus on the listening and writing portions more so than the listening and reading portions in the following prep book.

I continued on to the Cornelsen book, which is much more hands-off in its approach--it focuses more on giving a lot of examples of the exercises more so than giving learning material. For this reason, it’s good to use this book as a way of honing the skills established with the Hueber book and the initial Grafikbeschreibung reference sheet. 

Once these material have been worked through, there are 5 practice tests from Hueber that are certified from TestDAF. As a side note on their quality: I come from a scientific background, so the diagrams they ask you to describe drive me crazy. You have limited time and they are very poorly labeled sometimes, making it difficult for you to be able to understand, let alone describe them in the allotted amount of time.

As for prep test tips, always work with a timer and stay strictly by this. So when the time is up, you put your pencil down and move on, just as you would have to during the test. I made sure to score the score-able portions of the test once I completed them and to go through the writing and oral portion afterword as well to give myself critiques. Of course these portions are very difficult to give an absolute score, but after completing the prior prep materials, you will at least know what is expected from these portions and will be able to recognize if you forgot a piece they’re looking for, etc. by going through this yourself.  This also means you should record your oral portions so you can listen to them afterword. Although this seems silly, I at least become noticeably more nervous when a recorder is switched on, and this showed in my results, so it’s good to get used to the presence of a recorder while preparing.

I left one or two days before the test for just relaxing and reviewing vocabulary and the scripts that I’d more or less prepared for the writing and oral portion. I also booked and Airbnb in the city I was taking the test in so as to avoid the stress of traveling before taking the test and any unforeseeable delays due to public transit.

Taking the test

I was sure to get a full night of sleep and bring some good brain food for the test, which you’re allowed to bring into the room with you. I brought some nuts (good for brain function) and a banana (easily digested sugars to keep your energy and stamina up!) as well as a bottle of water. They give you 15 minute breaks between each portion of the test, so don’t worry about drinking too much coffee before the test  and having to pee or something. You’re also able to go into the room where you keep your personal belongings in this break time in case you want to bring anything else, but you’re not able to access your phone during the entirety of the test. 

One thing I did not anticipate in the reading portion of the test, is they did not time the different portions of the reading comprehension, but instead gave you 50 minutes in total to complete all three portions, and an additional 10 minutes to indicate your answers on the answer sheet. Because the reading portions increase in difficulty as you go through, this meant I could use the time I saved in the first task on the last task, which I liked. At my test center, they didn’t have a digital clock, which I didn’t like so bring your own watch if you prefer digital clocks, like me, but the test administrator did give time warnings.

The listening portion is played nonstop from a CD, so the timing of everything is exactly as you’ve practiced in the previous prep material.

You then get a 30 minute break so you can eat, decompress, review (if you’d like), and mentally prepare for the rest of the exam.

In the writing portion, you’re given 5 minutes to read the prompt and then 60 minutes to write. If you’ve done all of the prep material, you know this is often not a lot of time, depending on what kind of Diagram they give you to describe. Being prepared, however, you should be able to write about half of your introduction during this 5 minute prep time, and there’s no rule against you doing this. For this portion, I had memorized my catch-all introduction sentence and transition sentences, as well as the Grafikbeschreibung grammar/vocabulary and well formulated sentences for the argumentation. The faster you can write out this sort of fill-in-the-blank formulation of the paper, the more time you have to figure out what opinion is the easiest to write a lot about and how best to formulate it for your paper. At the end of the day, they don’t care what you argue, they care what words and grammar you use to argue it and how you formulate your argument. 

Once you finish the writing, you have another 15 minute break, or longer, depending on how they split everyone up for the speaking portion. As I found out through some online research, TestDAF does not listen to your answers for all of the Mündlicher Ausdruck Aufgaben. They actually start by listening to your answers for the TDN 5 tasks, which are Aufgaben 4 and 6. Only if they aren’t sure after listening to your answers for these two Aufgaben do they listen to the TDN 4 Tasks. For this reason, I worked especially hard on tasks 4 and 6 and had memorized a format to put my answers into so I could be sure that I covered the prompt well. I would also recommend bringing earplugs during this portion if you think the surrounding chatter will disturb you. I actually found it to be quite comfortable, because when a group of people all speak at the same time, you can’t make out the words of a single person, and your brain therefore can’t be distracted by any single word from a single person.

My overall impression of the test was that it was way easier than all of the practice materials. The difficulty definitely changes with the exams, so you can’t count on this, but they chose topics that were very easy to grasp, the diagrams were all very easy to understand, none of them had sources at the bottom that you had to write out, which saved you time, and in the writing portion, there were no opinions written out that you had to reformulate and write into your paper, so Nominalisierung and Verbalisierung skills weren’t needed. If these features will stay the same in future exams, however, I have no way of confirming, so it’s best to practice these skills nevertheless. 

If you have any additional questions about my experience, feel free to ask!

LG Megan

Update:

I got my results from the TestDAF back on July 4th, and I passed with better scores than I was expecting!

Here’s the breakdown of my scores:

For those of you not familiar with the grading structure, I’ve included the schema(tic) below:

Truth be told, after I wrote the written portion and there was discussion among the other test-writers about the topic and what they wrote, I realized that I straight up did not read part of the prompt and did not explicitly answer that portion of the prompt because of that. I’m guessing that that’s at least part of the reason I received a 4 on that portion, as well as the fact that I didn’t have time to read over what I wrote and catch the dumb mistakes before handing in my essay. But hey! That just goes to show that you can make those mistakes, and if you write with a high enough level of organization in your paper and include the language you know they’re looking for, you can still get a score that all German universities will accept!

[entrefrasesylibros-blog]

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[theseventhhex]

Russian Circles Interview

Brian Cook, Mike Sullivan & Dave Turncrantz

Photo by Andrea Petrovicova

With their sixth album ‘Guidance’, Russian Circles carry on in their quest to conjure multi-dimensional dramatic instrumental narratives and to scout out new textures from their respective instruments. Songs aren’t constructed out of highbrow concepts; they’re forged out of gut instinct and base emotional response. Every Russian Circles album has had its share of new sonic vistas, and ‘Guidance’ finds the band still searching out new sounds while continuing to play to the collective strengths of guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz, and bassist Brian Cook… We talk to Brian Cook about sounding human, working within parameters and Brooklyn’s happy hour…

TSH: Talk us through the band’s creative process in the lead-up to ‘Guidance’…

Brian: I’m sure every band has their specific way that they work, and given the specific dynamic that exists between any random assortment of individuals, some things work and other things don’t. For us, given that we don’t all live in the same city and we don’t often get the opportunity to play together, and given the fact that we’re an instrumental group that values each individual component to the music, it makes sense for us to work in a manner that is very efficient on time while also allowing three voices to all have their input. If we practiced three times a week, I’m sure we would do more jamming. Instead, we only have the chance to work on new material with us all in the same room a few weeks out of the year, so there’s a lot more individual composition, and then the group practices are more about trying out ideas and putting all the pieces together.

TSH: With this record, was the band was interested in trying to achieve a kind of attention to detail and sonic diversity?

Brian: Any time you go into the studio you’re obsessing over details and trying to make something with enough variation and dynamics that it holds your interest over the span of forty minutes. At this point, I think the bigger struggle is learning how to let go of fixating on perfection and figuring out how to make a cohesive album. It’s never been easier to make a sonically rich and perfect album; that’s where modern recording technology has taken us. But how do you capture the kind of vibe that made albums from before 1975 stand the test of time? I don’t give a shit about making a record that sounds as flawless as modern active rock radio bands. Nor do I care about the current DJ-influenced obsession with making music that touches upon and references twenty different genres of music or four decades of recording technology. I just want to make something that sounds natural and human.

TSH: Was it a key aspect to have drones low in the mix on this record?

Brian: The drones were a source of debate at times. Mike employs a lot of long, sustained, looping notes when we play live, and that really helps fill out the sound and enrich a lot of the melodic elements of the band. It also makes for nice ear candy. But the more you layer a recording, the less impact each individual component has. So there were several conversations as to how many embellishments should be done on the recordings. I think we found a healthy balance.

TSH: In terms of production, how pleasing was it to have the songs produced by people who weren't going to fall back on the current metal production techniques?

Brian: It was good to work with Kurt Ballou because he’s definitely aware of how modern metal production works, but he doesn’t go that route. We’ve done a few of our past records at Electrical Audio in Chicago, which is an amazing studio that really pushes to do everything as live as possible. But we do so much stuff with loops that it makes more sense sometimes to record everything piece by piece. And because we don’t have a lot of time to write together in the practice space, we do a lot of writing and editing in the studio. So while we love Electrical Audio, it sometimes feels like we’re disappointing their engineers with our approach. On the other end of the spectrum, most current metal records are almost more like electronic records—everything is tracked on a computer grid, everything is corrected and edited to sterile perfection, all the drum hits are either squashed or triggered into sounding identical and mechanical. So with Kurt we had a guy that knows how to capture live, unruly hardcore bands, but is also very aware of how to construct things in the studio piece by piece in a way that still captures that energy. And that was ideal.

TSH: What was the thinking in placing ‘Asa’ as the album opener?

Brian: ‘Asa’ was just something I came up with on baritone guitar without any intention of it being a Russian Circles song, but it resonated with Mike and Dave and after jamming on it a bit it felt like a good way of building into ‘Vorel’.

TSH: With ‘Vorel’, was it surprising that with all the underlying melodies the song has, it ended up being more of a dynamic track?

Brian: ‘Vorel’ is a song that had so much surface noise and so many abrasive textures going on while we were writing it that when it started coming together in the studio and all the melodies became a bit more apparent there was some concern that maybe the song wasn’t dark enough. We always aim for ugliness but somehow the light creeps back in sometimes.

TSH: ‘Mota’ is a stunning track. Talk us through how this one came about from a compositional sense...

Brian: ‘Mota’ was a product of our gear. Specifically, the opening guitar riff was something that blossomed out of Mike fiddling around with settings on one of his delay pedals. It made for an interesting almost electronic arpeggio-like sound, so we tried to build an electronic groove around it, but with our standard arsenal of instruments. And then the second half tries to counter all the melodicism of the beginning.

TSH: Since the song titles have a phonetic quality, do you prefer the idea of the title's literal definition being disembodied from the song?

Brian: Absolutely. I realise we give listeners very little information to provide context for the songs, and that can make people obsess over the titles a bit. We don’t have lyrics. We don’t have pointed album titles or artwork that’s heavy on iconography. We like mystery.

TSH: Tell us more about yourself incorporating a Moog Taurus for a lot of the keyboard parts and also playing a lot of baritone during the set live, how this gives more range overall…

Brian: Well, Mike has a lot going on with guitar, so I don’t want to impede on his frequency range, but we do want to have a broad spectrum of sounds and dynamics, so sometimes it just works out to switch over to the baritone. As for the Taurus, that originally entered the picture so that we could play “Schiphol” live, but now I’ve found those sub-bass frequencies to be a bit of a guilty pleasure, so I try to squeeze it in whenever I can.

TSH: Since as a live band you want to create an environment and atmosphere that people can get lost in, is it a challenge to figure out how to put that onto a record and have it translate?

Brian: Mike Watt once said something along the lines of “most rock bands tour to promote an album, but fIREHOSE makes albums to support tours.” I can’t say that’s necessarily the attitude of Russian Circles, but I would say that for me personally, I can understand Watt’s stance because I’m more concerned with creating music that functions in a live setting than in making a pristine album. Being a compelling live band is even harder today than it was twenty years ago, simply because we’ve been so saturated by live music. So while there’s definitely a concern with capturing atmosphere on a record, I’m more concerned with making sure the songs work well when the three of us play them together in a room. If they work in that arrangement, I assume they’ll translate onto record just fine.

TSH: How important is it to have the creative freedom and free reign to do whatever you want with no parameters?

Brian: It can be fun to work within parameters. I went out on tour with Mamiffer last year and it was actually kind of nice to take a step back and just help fulfill someone else’s vision. It was illuminating to see how someone else’s creative process worked and to figure out how to manifest their wishes. If that was the full extent of my musical life, I’d probably be unsatisfied, but given my circumstances I found it really rewarding. But overall, yes, feeling free to do whatever you want creatively is obviously a top priority for any artist.

TSH: Is Brooklyn’s happy hour a nice way for you to unwind?

Brian: New York is so hectic that the opportunity to sit somewhere quiet and have a drink is necessary sometimes. That said, I drink less here than I did when I lived in Seattle. Those Pacific Northwesterners love their beer.

TSH: What commonly brings about a pleasing and happy band dynamic during your touring travels?

Brian: Eight hours of sleep and good coffee. I mean, working with nice people at a club, having a decent stage to work with, and being able to grab a warm meal before doors are pretty crucial too, but if we have sleep and caffeine we can usually get through anything.

TSH: Finally, heading forward, what sort of progression and development do you relish with Russian Circles?

Brian: In some ways, I feel like we achieved something on ‘Guidance’ that we’d been working towards for a while—a certain balance of elements that we’d been experimenting with on prior albums. Going forward, it would be nice to branch out and experiment more, but at the same time, I don’t want to force anything. Our approach isn’t academic or conceptual. Our aim is to make something that works on a very primal, visceral level, and that kind of stuff doesn’t work with a bunch of pre-meditated ideas. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Russian Circles - “Vorel (Official Audio)”

Guidance

#Interview #Russian Circles

[allwhilewaiting]

Better late than never...right? 

Here is my 2017 Vision Board (digitalized this year...fancy right?)

Anyhow, let’s not delay any longer. This year I want to start with a slogan or mission statement to guide my hopes for the year. 

2017 is a year of self forgiveness, wisdom, and learning from mistakes that should not be repeated. I will use my knowledge of what I need to come alive and practice gratitude once it is achieved. 

“Think happy, be happy” : Perspective, perspective, perspective. I’m currently in a period of frustration because my big boss is really challenging me to change my perspective on a situation that is just not working for me. Although I get where she’s coming from, I am more focused on the physical change that (I think) will inspire internal change. But, as much as I hate to admit it, she has a valid point. I mean...it was my commitment to seeing physical change that got me to Greenville in the first place! And look at me, I’m worst off than before I left! (in some major ways). So this year, despite location, I need to practice using my thought life to change my reality from neutral or miserable as hell to glimmers of positivity. Easier said than done, especially with a stubborn mule like me, but I’ll try ;) 

IAM: So this is something that I really started to put into place in 2016 with my decision not to take the traditional route & get my masters straight out of college. Instead, I wanted to listen to my heart and do something that would feed off of my desires. And I must admit, I don’t miss school...not even a little. It’s been 9 months out and it still feels like I graduated a few months ago. Yea...that bad. While my academic future is still up in the air, what I need to pay more attention to now is disassociating from expectations once and for all. If I am to be honest with myself, I came to Greenville partly on pride. I have stayed in Greenville so long (6 months) partly on pride, mostly on money. Although I “said” I am being myself by joining the AmeriCorps and moving far away from home (and there is validity in that)...I would be a liar if my motives weren’t also motivated by the desire to be independent and noticed as having my sh$& together in this apartment by myself. So this year...instead of doing that, I am going to focus on doing what works for Tia. If that means that I end up back at home instead of another apartment after I leave that one, then that’s what it is. At least I’ll have some money in my pocket to pay off these bills and live a good life. If it means that I quit the AC for a better job before my term is up or because I decide that’s the next best option for Tia, then it is what it is. I gotta do what works for Tia, because I am what I am...a person who deserves the authority and autonomy to make decisions that are valuable to me first, not in the eyes of others.

Pink flower: I’ve been wanting to grow a garden, but it’s winter and my evergreen from Christmas is just about dead so...work in progress. But eventually, I want to grow a garden with pretty flowers. I almost started one last week honestly. 

Gem: I think the reason I put this on my board was to signify making some da^* money  for once! I’m tired of working for free and I’m SURE tired of being broke, I think 23 years is long enough...[Rihanna voice] Pay me what you oweme! 

Female: I love being a woman. I don’t heavily identify with my femininity in a cultural sense (I can be rather androgynous), but I really do in a physical and spiritual sense, if you will. I’m all about the #girlvibes, and I want my life to reflect that a bit more. Specifically, I want to work for an organization that benefits women, or an organization composed of women of all different types *in a respectful and controlled environment. I put the screaming woman on my board with the feminine symbol because I want to embrace my internal chaos with less restraint and more ability to cope in positive, healthy ways by showing more self-care and less self-sabotage. I want to be in more honest spaces with women where we can talk about our internal dialogues and social pressures and beautiful, interesting bodies. I want to rip off that shallow cover of what a woman is supposed to be in 2017, and really get more in tune with myself & other people who are unashamedly and proudly individualistic in their womanhood.

Trust God & Believe in Good Things To Come: Can I just say...I’m not a conventional Christian. I almost hate mainstream & traditional gospel these days (esp when I’m not in the mood for the somberness of it), and I’m starting to embrace that more than I am ashamed by it. I think part of my embracing of it has been in my expansion of understanding God’s Sovereignty, His Love, and His Omniscience. My trust of God doesn’t look like being a ‘good Christian girl’ anymore...it might look like that again in the future, but in the season I’m in now God is more like my ride or die than the principal who I suck up to & try to impress with obedience (if the reference fits). Not saying that I disregard Him in His Fullness (Judge and Savior), I’ve just resorted to believing I might be in the hood of Heaven and learn what I didn’t on earth before when I get to the golden mansion rooms...lol. So this picture on my vision board signifies that my trust and belief in God should continue to be just that...continuous. That my belief in Him wanting what’s best for me doesn’t depend on my obedience, but on His faithfulness. That I can believe in Him and love Him even though my repentance is CONSTANT (or at least needs to be because I’m all over the place!) And most importantly, I can continue believing that He loves and wants the best for me even though I’m raggedy. Amen. And one day, (one that I cannot see right now), I won’t be raggedy anymore because he’ll clean me up real good...AMEN?! So I’m believing in the best. 

Do more of what you love/Make Yourself Proud: This one kind of speaks for itself. I now know that doing what I think I love is not enough...I need to actually love it for it to be sustainable AND I need to make some real money while doing it. Finding the intersection of those three Venn Diagram circles is not easy, but I want 2017 to be when I find it. And I put the office environment in the background because I have a thing for sterile environments. I want clean, I want organized, I want orderly. This is part of the reason why I’m drawn to healthcare.

Let It Go: I want to stop harping on stuff that doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t pay my rent, if it doesn’t sustain my health, and if my God and my momma still love me in spite of it...why does it matter? Oh. It doesn’t. 2017 means let it go. Those people, those situations, those thoughts don’t matter. Stop giving a da$^ Tia. Go get your brown bag babe and enjoy a #1 combo instead lol. 

Question mark: I have questions. About myself, about my identity, hopes, dreams, motivations, morals, fundamental beliefs, and more. And all those questions need answers. They need 2017 answers. Maybe they will change in 2071, but I need a blueprint of what I am doing with myself. Because right now, I’m sort of clueless. I’m working to answer those questions slowly, but surely...on paper, with ink involved. 

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the one who is leading -Oswald Chambers: This goes back to my faith point. This is on my vision board because at the end of the day, all I have is my Hope. Hope in One that is bigger than my rationalizations, understandings, decisions, and mistakes. One that is orchestrating something much bigger than my meager self, and while I am on this journey of life...I have to surrender over my humanity to the Sovereignty of a Greater Purpose. In short, keep walking Tia. Keep moving, and keep groovin’ girl. 

2017...show me watcha got, and mind your manners please. :)