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Was wondering when the G7 would make an appearance here! It's certainly been interesting—I live close enough that I get to hear the jets whenever they go overhead. Thankfully I don't need to go travelling, so I won't have to deal with any extra security or anything. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of all this.

As for hockey, hopefully the next two games go to the Oilers! They've come back from behind before—and hey, winning two games in a row is less than three games in a row they won last year!

geez it's like calvin doesn't understand we're in a trade war right now

[oh and congrats to drai and mcjesus for taking us to the olympics in milan]

[ source ]

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Heh. I heard a cheer go up from a nearby bar when I was walking home, and my immediate thoughts were "well, I guess the Oilers won." Glad to hear my prediction confirmed!

(my second thought was that the Panthers won—I live close enough to Calgary that maybe there'd be enough salty Flames fans to fill out a bar. Glad to be proven wrong there!)

MAMAAAAAAAA [stanley]

JUST KILLED A RAAAAAAAT

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#me like hey wait a minute i recognize that submitter! hahah

Heh, yeah! I'm still a little new at this business of submitting posts like this, but I figured this was something worth submitting. Ever since I read the CBC's investigation into Valleyview's public library board and town council (and also read about stuff like Alberta's queer history in Prairie Fairies) I've had more interest in stuff like this.

Hey! I know you already reblogged @unfavorableinstigation’s post about the UCP’s recent announcement of instating new rules about books in school libraries. But I figured it’d be worth doubling up on that topic to round up some of the news articles about it. Obviously both CBC and Global have decent articles. But the article that interested me the most is The Globe and Mail’s that I linked above. Their coverage not only included statements from Premier Smith, Mr. Nicolaides (the province’s Education and Childcare minister) and the school boards involved, but it also included a few quotes from the authors of the four mentioned books as well. It’s probably the most in-depth article currently available, and is certainly worth taking the time to read.

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Thanks for posting my submission! I kind of want to apologize a little. I mean, yes this is an important issue. But given that this is now the third post after unfavourableinstigation's and hdksjsb's posts, I feel like my addition isn't all that helpful. I mean, there's only so many times you can talk about the same thing before you've said everything that needs to be said, right?

(though if you are looking for a good conversation on what the UCP and Mr. Nicolaides are trying to do, definitely check out the notes in unfavourableinstigation's post—there's a lot of good discussion there)

Also, hopefully everyone's able to see the Globe and Mail article! I was checking on it before I submitted it, and I didn't seem like it was paywalled then. Hopefully that's still true now.

Hey! I know you already reblogged @unfavorableinstigation’s post about the UCP’s recent announcement of instating new rules about books in school libraries. But I figured it’d be worth doubling up on that topic to round up some of the news articles about it. Obviously both CBC and Global have decent articles. But the article that interested me the most is The Globe and Mail’s that I linked above. Their coverage not only included statements from Premier Smith, Mr. Nicolaides (the province’s Education and Childcare minister) and the school boards involved, but it also included a few quotes from the authors of the four mentioned books as well. It’s probably the most in-depth article currently available, and is certainly worth taking the time to read.

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Not only that, but it also gives even more incentives for those who want said books banned to move public libraries into schools, as we saw with Valleyview's Public Library.

The conflict came to a head on Jan. 29, when the town-controlled majority on the board voted to close and move the library into a soon-to-be-built school complex. The space afforded to the library will be half its current size and potentially be subject to restrictive provincial rules around 2SLGBTQ+ expression in schools.

If these standards were implemented, it'd make it even more appealing for groups like Take Back Alberta to target town council seats with the aims of affecting libraries in a similar way to Valleyview.

I've been waiting for this for a while. They've finally found time to turn their attention to book-banning.

The Alberta government want to create standards around "appropriate sexual conduct" for school libraries - they would like you to conveniently ignore the 55 PUBLIC libraries this includes, please and thanks, and concentrate your thoughts very hard on The Children.

If you actually go into the Graphic Content That May Be Disturbing To Viewers that they're having the vapors about, you'll notice it's 75% queer content - Alison Bechdel's Fun Home made the list. The other one? Why, it's a deeply scarring autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in an abusive Christian home.

Please only fill this out if you're Albertan, and as always with these kinds of things, 'ware the deeply leading questions.

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I've been waiting for this for a while. They've finally found time to turn their attention to book-banning.

The Alberta government want to create standards around "appropriate sexual conduct" for school libraries - they would like you to conveniently ignore the 55 PUBLIC libraries this includes, please and thanks, and concentrate your thoughts very hard on The Children.

If you actually go into the Graphic Content That May Be Disturbing To Viewers that they're having the vapors about, you'll notice it's 75% queer content - Alison Bechdel's Fun Home made the list. The other one? Why, it's a deeply scarring autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in an abusive Christian home.

Please only fill this out if you're Albertan, and as always with these kinds of things, 'ware the deeply leading questions.

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Thanks for answering my ask! Always fun getting to read your thought process when writing your characters for BoAB.

For some additional thoughts/comments, I'd agree that they've probably worked for Parks Canada for most of their lives. The fact that they've been a relatively constant presence throughout both municipalities existence probably helps. Still, that does leave the question of what they preferred doing. Because you're right—the jobs they could have done range from "hospitality work at the hot springs" all the way to essentially being government-employed cowboys (which means there's yet more people who could claim that they're more wild west than Calvin). Adding to that, Parks role and responsibilities have changed since they were first created. To use two Banff examples, it used to have a zoo where the current Central Park is in the town and the Park used to employ strict predator control measures for wolves. Both of these aren't a thing anymore, but Nor and Jas would both have seen a this and other changes as the years went on.

On the note of hobbies, I'll also add that I like the idea of Eleanor being into writing. Part of this is due to it fitting in with other artsy stuff like movies and painting. Another part of it is that the neighbouring town of Canmore has a notable amount of authors for its population. I feel like that would definitely bleed into Nor's hobbies at least a little.

My additional thoughts aside, thank you so much for answering my ask! It's always really fun to see some of the thought process that goes into your work.

Ooh, just saw that Ask Game you reblogged. Always happy to hear more about your Alberta OCs and the creative process that goes into them, so let's go with that. How about 💼, 🎹 and 🎯 for Eleanor and Jasper if that's not too much trouble?

goooood morning let's go! be warned that a lot of this is just based on Vibes and idk horoscoping rather than concrete facts, hahaha, but it's good to start thinking about!

[ OC Asks ]

💼 - What do they do for a living?

The easy thing to say is "well of course they work for Parks Canada!" but what that actually entails is a huge range of potential occupations. Are they doing fire prevention or invasive species management? are they doing the stereotypical park warden interpretation and guided tours? are they doing routine maintenance? are they driving out at 6 am to man a cash register for a few hours with a summer student or two? are they laundering all those rented bathing suits and cleaning washrooms?

It's easy enough to say "well yeah all of it" and I'm sure with their depth and breadth of experience over the past hundred years they easily could have done a bit of all of it (or, maybe enough to get blacklisted from certain professions for a decade or two, lol)

Also thinking about how they started, Nor's initial "purpose" was for a sanitarium, so even if she's not like a Trained Medical Professional (tm) I feel like she probably still has this long standing interest in people's health. She's always running around doing different things anyway but I think she's a calm presence in a crisis and the person you want to show up with the first aid kit, whether it's from a scrape with wildlife or climbing or a burn from working in a kitchen, etc. Also somewhat ironically, I think her doing more admin work or chilling in the museum/arts centre is like a nice reprieve from being the token expert in Every Job!

Jas started life as an HBC fort - albeit not a super engaged and successful one compared to Ed, so I'm guessing the retail life was never really their strong suit. I also think Jas would have had a somewhat strained relationship with the national park / feds for a long time (partially due to the expulsion of the First Nations and Metis who were the architects of the famous cozy cabin culture of the area, partially due to kind of ignoring the authority of the HBC previously, and partially just not taking Parks Canada rules as seriously as Nor does). However, I do think Jas is a pretty hardcore naturalist and will take any excuse to be up a tree or down a cave, or out maintaining the trails etc., so conservation work with Parks Canada is still a "natural" [cough] fit for them.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

The implication from the above answer is that they both love their work, which kind of makes some obvious overlaps (is hiking and climbing a hobby if its your job? lol)

I think Eleanor - going off on the centre of the arts, of course - is the most likely to be into things like painting and film making (or at least film watching). These are hobbies that kind of force her to sit in one place and mediate for a little while.

I'm tempted to say that one of Jas' takeaways from the HBC life was an interest in textiles - although the image of them crocheting some kind of amigurumi while hanging off the side of a cliff is really funny now that I think of it. But my impression is that they're more into the ephemeral stuff like music/dance than crafting overall.

🎯 -What do they do best?

I think of the two Eleanor is the one who is better at the interpretation part of chatting to visitors, telling them why something is interesting or important or amazing, telling a story in a way that's easy to follow, and also scolding people for interacting with the park in an irresponsible way. She's also the one who picks up other languages reasonably well because she takes the opportunities to use them and to connect with people.

Apart from being the best at napping and sleeping, lol, Jas is probably the best at noticing when something has changed or is out of whack. I think despite the impressions they give other people that they're actually incredibly observant and will be the first to notice the change in season, or when there's an improvement in an ecological recovery zone/species, or even when someone is acting differently or has a new haircut. They're also just bizarrely good at navigation as part of this - Jas is the person you want on hand when you're lost in the dark (kind of like a contemporary David Thompson? hahaha)

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Hooray! Thank you for answering my ask! I'm glad you enjoyed the short—I figured it'd be a fun one for you to cover. It's interesting to hear that the NFB's channel isn't available in your country. I hadn't really thought about something like that when submitting the link. Had I known, I would have tried to find a separate upload on YouTube or tried to link to it on the NFB's website. It's certainly something interesting to consider.

As for the verdict, that's more than fair. Honestly, this was at least partly inspired by the previous submission of Lightning McQueen. While the two works are completely unrelated to each other, it is amusing to think that a crossover between the two would solve the question of whether everyone in the Pixar Cars universe would qualify to kill Macbeth. At the very least, it's really fun to see how the "martians" reinterpreted the purpose of everyday items and their purpose in a society made up of vehicles. It's also interesting to think about the fact that the narrator probably couldn't kill Macbeth. Because you're right—based on all the details revealed in the short, he doesn't seem to qualify.

Anyways. Once again, thank you so much for answering my ask! I'm glad you had fun doing it, and that you enjoyed the punchline to my ask! With this now answered, I suppose I can look at sending in another character that'll hopefully be just as amusing/interesting. Thanks!

Ooh, asks are open! Hooray! In honour of that, I'll submit my first ask. Could the "Earthlings" from the NFB animated short What on Earth! kill Macbeth?

(link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFaHArkYLsM)

In terms of arguments in favour of them, the earthlings are definitely the product of an unconventional birth—we even get to see the entire reproduction process up to and including their birth. In terms of arguments against them, well … um … I mean, there might be a reason to doubt the veracity of our martian narrator's statements on them, you know?

Anyways, thank you for answering my ask! I hope you enjoyed it!

Alright, so unfortunately, the link provided in the ask seems to be unavailable in my country, and I don't have any kind of VPN. It did take a bit to hunt down an unblocked version and I gotta say, the amount of time it took me was the perfect comedic timing for the joke of this ask to land. A+.

So, for the matter at hand: The narrator of this short film is obviously not meant to be taken seriously. This is a comedically erroneous observation of life on Earth and how "reproduction" actually works. The identity of the "parasite" would be counted and not the "Earthling" for this verdict, and that obviously differs great between individuals.

If we were to take this narrative completely seriously, though, yes, any of the "Earthlings" from this short film would be able to kill Macbeth, though Unconventional Birth Clause and probably Birth Parent Clause.

Something interesting I noticed while watching this, though, is that based on the choice of words... I don't think that the narrator could kill Macbeth, weirdly enough. His voice is clearly masculine, and he consistently refers to the archetypal "Earthling" with he/him pronouns, implying martians have the same basic gender identities in this universe. He explicitly says that "Earthlings have done away with [...] sex", which could imply that this martian society's reproduction is also analog to that of humans in real life. Given that that's all the information we have, the verdict is the same for any male human character without a detailed origin of his birth: he could not kill Macbeth. ...Weird.

Anyway, thank you for your submission! This was a fun one.

-Mod Anthem

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Ooh, nice! Those covers look very spiffy! I think my favourite is actually the back cover—the dark blue background makes both the highlighted text and the illustrations on it really pop. The front cover has that to some extent as well, but it feels more noticeable with the back to me.

Aside from that, I'm super interested in what this "bonus material" is. As someone who really loved getting a peak behind the curtain for this project, I'm really curious what behind the scenes stuff is included. It'd also just be nice to have this as a physical product—while digital stories are certainly easier to store, there's just something really nice in being able to hold what you're reading, you know! Either way, definitely looking forward to when you finish the book!

At Sea Without a Map's covers!

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…oh! This is interesting! I'm particularly curious how much (if anything) you'd change from the original. Would this basically be the entire series of posts unedited, or would there be significant changes? Or somewhere in between, with edits mostly for formatting and continuity now that you don't have to improvise as much?

Either way, I'll DEFINITELY be keeping an eye on this as it develops. I certainly wouldn't mind getting my hands on a hard copy, should one exist!

Time to buckle down and give this story the revision and publication it deserves.

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we hunt the mighty pasta BEAST

and breadsticks are its BONES

ALFREDO FLOWS inside its veins

its organs are CALZONES

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Ohhhh, I get it now. It's less that there's evil races that are evil (though that's still a thing) and more a lack of redemption. That definitely rings true. There's certainly character growth happening across the board (with a couple of notable exceptions)—but redemption is much more rare and special (or just plain non-existent) in the comic.

Thank you for your explanation! I definitely understand your point a lot more clearly now. I really enjoyed our discussion!

Hey! Got a question for you that's somewhat related to the post you reblogged about ethics in D&D recently. It reminded a bit of one of the few D&d based pieces of media I follow: The Order of the Stick, a webcomic I know you've recommended in the past. I was curious then what you thought of how OotS handles those topics, both in its goblins and specifically with Redcloak. Especially now that I've recently gotten my hands on Start of Darkness and actually have read the context for those things.

One of the last times I was asked about this I ended up saying that every good work of fiction that uses the "always chaotic evil race" trope is only good in spite of using it, and I would say that goes for Order of the Stick too.

And, to the comic's credit, I think they explore the trope in a lot more depth and with a lot more nuance than most fiction that employs it. For those who haven't read the comic, here's a brief summary:

Order of the Stick takes the standard D&D setting ideas of 1. having literal gods of evil and 2. having inherently evil races and ties them together. There are gods of evil who create evil followers to empower themselves, and are allowed to persist because the conflict between them and the followers of the good gods allows followers of both sides of the pantheon to get strong, thus feeding both sets of gods with belief. The good gods are sustained by the belief of their noble followers who in turn need the good gods' powers to fight the forces of evil, and the evil gods are sustained by the forces of evil who need to the evil gods' power in turn to keep from being wiped out by the noble heroes of good.

Order of the Stick then, in its grand tradition of deconstructing D&D tropes, has the evil races stop and realize that they're getting the shitty end of the stick in this deal. A key part of the backstory is that the goblins have a god who was not created with the other pantheons, but ascended to godhood on the belief of his fellow goblins. This god, the Dark One, has the stated goal of altering the fundamental power structure of reality so that goblins have a fairer deal - that they get decent land to live off of, heroes (or villains, technically, by necessity) who stand up for them, and, since this is a deconstruction of D&D specifically, better stats.

And we are shown, both in the main comic itself but also ESPECIALLY in the print-exclusive prequel comic Start of Darkness, that the circumstances of goblin life are so exquisitely shitty that they really do need a fundamental restructuring of reality itself to have a chance to be better. They are given harsh land to live off of, driven out of every place they try to inhabit, frequently enslaved by more powerful monsters, and generally forced to live in such desperate circumstances that they have no options BUT to resort to al life of banditry and bloodlust. Any goblins that do otherwise end up dead - well, dead quicker than their fellows, I suppose, since the ones who do commit to being evil generally don't live long either.

Which, again, goes back to the fundamental idea that these creatures were made to be canon fodder - the gods literally conspired to make goblins disposable, evil, nasty creatures who exist to die at the hands of heroes and in the service of villains. It is, explicitly and in the text of the story, a fucked up and horrible thing that was done to them.

...but the failing of this plot point, in my eyes, is that at the end of the day, it is nonetheless treated as an unavoidable fact of this world. While heroes express sympathy for the goblins upon learning of this, and irritation or even anger at the gods for making the situation in the first place, the only characters trying to actually change it are explicitly villains, and ones whose actions may unintentionally destroy all of reality itself. Because at the end of the day, they are still inherently evil beings, no matter how sympathetic they are, and they can't be saved, just mourned after they're put down.

Although maybe I'll be proven wrong on that point - the comic isn't over yet, after all, and there's a chance someone may actually change things for the better for the goblins and other inherently evil beings. I doubt it'll happen, but I've been pleasantly surprised before.

But yeah, very good comic, very well written, far more thoughtful than most others that use this trope... but I still think it would be better if goblins (and kobolds, and dragons, and so on and so forth) weren't treated as inherently evil in the first place.

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Thank you for answering my ask! It's always interesting reading your thoughts on these sorts of things.

On the note of how the goblin situation will be resolved, I feel like you'll be pleasantly surprised. The comic seems to be pointing towards a road forward, if not a solution—the negotiations between Durkon and Redcloak puts forward several first steps that could be taken towards coexistence between goblins and other races. It'd certainly seem like a waste to both dangle those options in front of the reader and repeatedly show the reader that what happened to the goblins is wrong (though I suppose I could also be unfortunately surprised).

I'm also unsure as to why you think this resolves with the villains being killed because "they can't be saved, just mourned after they're put down." I mean, yeah Xykon is almost certainly going to be destroyed. But while the comic's frank about how this will almost certainly be resolved with violence:

I disagree that the villains will be "put down." I also would suggest that you omit a few crucial details when describing the (main) villains as evil beings as opposed to evil people—that is, they're people who've specifically made choices that are evil as opposed to simply "being evil." Redcloak in particular has had this distinction spelled out. It's been explicitly pointed out by Xykon in Start of Darkness:

We'll just go about our daily business, and you can hide from the horrifying truth of what you've become—namely, a murderer who just killed his baby brother in cold blood. And hey, we can both pretend that you don't really have any options about any of the despicable actions I ask you to take from here on out—rather than acknowledging that, like Right-Eye, you do in fact have a choice. But unlike Right-Eye there, you're too chickenshit to even make it.

And more subtly by Oona in the most recent storyline:

Oona never said she was worried. Oona is pretty sure she knows what little caped man would choose.

All that is to say, I think Order of the Stick deserves a little more credit. While it's far from perfect, I disagree that the goblins plot fails in the way you describe it.

Sorry about all that—this post kind of got away from me a little. Thank you once again for answering! I hope this doesn't come off as too critical—I agree with your analysis as it pertains to the comic and the issues it inherits from D&D in general. And I appreciate that you took the time to put so much thought and care into your response. I hope you enjoyed my question!

Hey! Got a question for you that's somewhat related to the post you reblogged about ethics in D&D recently. It reminded a bit of one of the few D&d based pieces of media I follow: The Order of the Stick, a webcomic I know you've recommended in the past. I was curious then what you thought of how OotS handles those topics, both in its goblins and specifically with Redcloak. Especially now that I've recently gotten my hands on Start of Darkness and actually have read the context for those things.

One of the last times I was asked about this I ended up saying that every good work of fiction that uses the "always chaotic evil race" trope is only good in spite of using it, and I would say that goes for Order of the Stick too.

And, to the comic's credit, I think they explore the trope in a lot more depth and with a lot more nuance than most fiction that employs it. For those who haven't read the comic, here's a brief summary:

Order of the Stick takes the standard D&D setting ideas of 1. having literal gods of evil and 2. having inherently evil races and ties them together. There are gods of evil who create evil followers to empower themselves, and are allowed to persist because the conflict between them and the followers of the good gods allows followers of both sides of the pantheon to get strong, thus feeding both sets of gods with belief. The good gods are sustained by the belief of their noble followers who in turn need the good gods' powers to fight the forces of evil, and the evil gods are sustained by the forces of evil who need to the evil gods' power in turn to keep from being wiped out by the noble heroes of good.

Order of the Stick then, in its grand tradition of deconstructing D&D tropes, has the evil races stop and realize that they're getting the shitty end of the stick in this deal. A key part of the backstory is that the goblins have a god who was not created with the other pantheons, but ascended to godhood on the belief of his fellow goblins. This god, the Dark One, has the stated goal of altering the fundamental power structure of reality so that goblins have a fairer deal - that they get decent land to live off of, heroes (or villains, technically, by necessity) who stand up for them, and, since this is a deconstruction of D&D specifically, better stats.

And we are shown, both in the main comic itself but also ESPECIALLY in the print-exclusive prequel comic Start of Darkness, that the circumstances of goblin life are so exquisitely shitty that they really do need a fundamental restructuring of reality itself to have a chance to be better. They are given harsh land to live off of, driven out of every place they try to inhabit, frequently enslaved by more powerful monsters, and generally forced to live in such desperate circumstances that they have no options BUT to resort to al life of banditry and bloodlust. Any goblins that do otherwise end up dead - well, dead quicker than their fellows, I suppose, since the ones who do commit to being evil generally don't live long either.

Which, again, goes back to the fundamental idea that these creatures were made to be canon fodder - the gods literally conspired to make goblins disposable, evil, nasty creatures who exist to die at the hands of heroes and in the service of villains. It is, explicitly and in the text of the story, a fucked up and horrible thing that was done to them.

...but the failing of this plot point, in my eyes, is that at the end of the day, it is nonetheless treated as an unavoidable fact of this world. While heroes express sympathy for the goblins upon learning of this, and irritation or even anger at the gods for making the situation in the first place, the only characters trying to actually change it are explicitly villains, and ones whose actions may unintentionally destroy all of reality itself. Because at the end of the day, they are still inherently evil beings, no matter how sympathetic they are, and they can't be saved, just mourned after they're put down.

Although maybe I'll be proven wrong on that point - the comic isn't over yet, after all, and there's a chance someone may actually change things for the better for the goblins and other inherently evil beings. I doubt it'll happen, but I've been pleasantly surprised before.

But yeah, very good comic, very well written, far more thoughtful than most others that use this trope... but I still think it would be better if goblins (and kobolds, and dragons, and so on and so forth) weren't treated as inherently evil in the first place.

[fragmentaryremains]

Has anyone done this ? I hope not because I've spent way too long on what should've been a quick joke.

[fragmentaryremains]

hi hapo! just want to say thanks for all the work that you do, keeping the canadian personification side of the fandom alive. i live over 15,000 miles away from canada, but i fell in love with iamp and all its projects as a teen. 10 years later, my coursework on canadian politics and society has nominated me into a programme with a major canadian university.

if it's okay, i'd like to ask you how you deal with 'hobby burnout' when your interests align so closely with your study/work! canada's regional identities, history and politics are fascinating to me, but because of how i'm approaching academically, it saps some of the creative energy i have for my own province OC projects. even though it's important because of how inherently political personifications are, the weight of real historical and social issues sometimes bleeds into my projects more than i can handle.

thanks in advance!

[ catthatjustwokeup.jpg ]

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

wow thank you for this very thoughtful and flattering note and congratulations on DOING THE THING, that's wild! and hey if that major university is one i'm familiar with or have contacts in feel free to let me know so i can make recommendations on tasty treats and bookshops lol, but no pressure. (I am intending to stick close to academia for the foreseeable future, so it's nice to know what's going on across the country and across disciplines even when I'm not Formally Studying.)

uh well this is going to be long and rambling so i hope at least part of it makes sense and shout if there's anything I can clarify. The tongue in cheek short answer is "get a job at a university and get institutional access foreverrrrrrrr"

the hobby burn out is real for all the reasons you described and quite honestly i do what i've been doing since i was a kid who struggled making friends because i was Weird about my Interests in a way that I suspect may have been some flavour of neurodivergence that I continue to not investigate. That is, I have a handful of core interests that i cycle through and focus on when for whatever reason times get tough, it's kind of a juggling act that I will try to explain.

The Quick Fix

I think the fastest thing of Getting Away From It is having a few of those interests be Enduring, that is, the Simple Things from Childhood, if you can dust them off and get those feelings from them. While I realize going to post-secondary makes you full of Nuance and Ennui, or encountering shitty situations that ruin things for you over the course of your life is a big risk here, trying to find a grain of that you can build a pearl around is helpful. I still have been trying to beat the same Sonic games for 20+ years, I still like watching Empire Strikes Back or 1960s sitcoms when I'm feeling sick, and I still like going to the kinds of places that I loved going to as a kid like the zoo or museums to learn something from someone who's super passionate about a cool thing. It's just about making room for them and getting ready to catch them when they're coming up, which can sometimes seem impossible when you're deep into work or academia, but also necessary.

And it's also just about treating your child-self to something. I just think it's healthy once in a while to create something that would make your younger self excited or even want to be you. Take that kid with you once in a while, it's good for you both.

Personification Juggling

Within history/personifications generally, this usually results in a flip flopping between @athensandspartaadventures, which i had to quit working on and avoid during my first masters because thinking about "work" and school was so mentally draining that it ironically ended up becoming a bit of an IAMP renaissance for me, and likewise I have come back to AaSA after a long hiatus because I haven't been studying it formally since 2017, I finally got some time to read my accumulated pile of literature, and because [gestures at the current political situation].

The other thing I did within the 'fandom' (if thats what it is? i guess?) is I changed the granularity of what I was doing according to what I was thinking about at the time. For me this ultimately became @battle-of-alberta which I created primarily out of homesickness but also partially out of a retrospective need to process the "small town -> big city" transition that accompanied Becoming an Adult (tm). It occurred to me that I didn't JUST have to do either 1. Historically Brilliant Analyses With Punchlines or 2. Angry Vent Comics With Punchlines, I could also return to the sort of experiences of daily life that I was learning to notice and not just survive. I think of all the comics I do that I like doing comics about "taking the bus" or "minor annoying ways people behave in public" or "weird local news/memes" the best, even if it ultimately is very biased I think it can resonate with different people in different ways and I think the point of doing it is to get people to laugh and consider how these things do or don't match up with their own experience and to share that.

The Touch Grass Part

I think the above paragraph sort of segues nicely into "go outside, see thing that reminds you of blorbo, draw blorbo" advice, but what if you CAN'T draw blorbo???

Save your academic shit somewhere. Save those pdfs you don't have time to read, save those citations, save those quotes. Whether this is in like a physical bullet journal or a digital file or some combination, make sure you write down your sources and ideas so that 10 years after graduating you REMEMBER where to find That Thing you read on the left-hand side of some book that had a green cover. I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me and I tear my hair out thinking "if only when I posted that stupid drawing and made that vague allusion I put a link or a citation in there so i knew what I was talking about!!" You're burned out now, sure, but some day some random anon is going to come and say hey you made an impact on my life, do you have any headcanons about blorbo and squimbus? and you'll be like FUCK!! I THINK SO!! BUT WHERE!? I try to tag these things now that a lot of things come up incidentally in my work work and I try to at least write down the date of the article for each of my newspaper screencaps and hope that I'll still be able to get along with the OCR/Proquest to find it again if I need to.

Make connections that enhance and outlast fandom. I cannot emphasize enough that this fandom is THE REASON that i have friends I can crash with from LITERAL COAST TO COAST (still working on that third coast). I have been so lucky to have hosts who are willing to share their local spots with me, and to have visitors I've been able to show around my home and adopted cities. It's just good for the soul to see things through someone else's eyes. I realize that travel is expensive and not always possible, so I encourage also both online and snail mail exchanges just to hear what is different and what is similar about places on this earth, and have fun exploring physically or virtually. You might be surprised.

Channel your inner anthropologist and get totally out of your depth on something, observe your observations. This kind of is related to the "go to the zoo" thing and also the "notice being an adult thing", but say yes to weird opportunities occasionally. Go see that play, learn how to make something, attend that highly specific conference of a profession you didn't realize HAD conferences (listen i got a free ticket to an event full of arborists last year and i was mostly there for the free food but i learned stuff about trees and bats that live in trees and people who plant trees and cut down trees and?? what a nice way to spend a summer afternoon compared to doomscrolling even though i spent a lot of it apologizing for not being there for any reason other than being a plus one.)

It sucks but sometimes you need to just quit cold turkey and let it simmer for a year or something. It sucks and it hurts but honestly sometimes you just need to put a moratorium on it because thinking about it puts you into the pits of despair, and that isn't healthy. Like, I used to listen to CBC radio every morning because it was a huge source of inspiration for me, and I had to stop for a long time because i was laying in bed grinding my teeth, so instead i switched to listening in the afternoon while i'm cooking. It's ok to put as much as you can stand of it aside, it'll still be there when you're physically and mentally able to notice the connections and appreciate them again. Combine with #2 and #3 for best results, sometimes you just need to get out of your own head and see things with different eyes, i.e. if the sociopolitical shit is getting you down try to change your routine or look at something else from another angle entirely. Learn something about the natural world, or the architectural world, or the urban planning world, just try to look for another door without carrying the baggage with you and see what you find behind it.

And kind of a spin-off of the above but trying to do a thing for a non-blorbo audience is also helpful. I'm currently working for two local history orgs and one of the things I'm doing is an illustrated article/comic that has nothing to do with my previous work, but is something my previous work prepared me to do. It's nice to do something for normies that build on all the things I did for school or for blorbs without exposing myself too badly, haha. Likewise, I have a dedicated sketchbook JUST for urban sketching so that I don't feel like dying 1000 deaths when a stranger sees me sketching, and it's something I can show people irl as a document of where i've been and what i noticed without worrying about them stumbling on my weird esoteric yaoi.

Finally, speaking of weird esoteric yaoi, just get comfortable doing bad stuff. Do the worst thing you think of. Maybe don't post it unless you think it will really resonate with people, haha, but get comfortable with being uncomfortable and making things you can't stand the sight of, or things that make you laugh because they are so stupid or so bad. Do self indulgent stuff but do it BADLY on PURPOSE. Don't take anything too seriously and don't worry about things being too niche and i swear to god do Not let the work that you do for yourself hinge on some arbitrary terminally online standard of success. People will always find a way to read things in bad faith or have wrong opinions or whatever, so allow yourself to get things wrong and to be cringe and to do things that won't make sense for your own sake, not theirs.

so. I don't know if this is completely comprehensive but I hope this is a start and gives you some ideas. The only other thing that I can add off the top of my head is that eventually, school ends. Whether it turns into work or it turns into something completely unexpected, it will end and even if it doesn't end when you think it will the experience will inevitably change. What works for me might not work for you now, but it might later, or it might work for somebody, I don't know, but nothing is permanent and that's ok.

I don't know you anon but if you or someone reading this is experiencing the joys and sorrows of Being In Your Twenties still, good luck to you and it does get better. It might feel like you are completely Baby and also Overburdened with Responsibility but trust me there are going to be times where you miss it, and where you realize "i know more than i thought i did" and "wait i can revisit that thing!" and it's actually a relief.

There are always going to be points where the work is a slog and you feel like an idiot and you feel like there is so much nuance you will never grasp, and that's fine. That's just the agony of being in the Conscious Incompetence quarter of the cycle, and eventually you will remember that you can do some pretty neat stuff when you reach other parts of that cycle. Nothing is permanent, including your understanding and your skill, and isn't it wonderful to be able to build on stuff you thought you knew and also learn stuff you didn't know you would?? wild. yeah

[ you watch me sit in silence for an hour wishing i could just manifest a gif of that poorly attempted mic drop from the 22 minutes skit about the last time you'll get to have to hear justin ]

[fragmentaryremains]

Huh. I guess Vic and Ed both have living in ideal Christmas movie filming locations in common. And of course Van's just here to play their usual role of someone else.

I'm glad you're getting to enjoy spring though! Hopefully you're enjoying all the flowers over there. I certainly enjoyed the comic!

hello from the other sideee (of the mountains and the georgia strait) again

I am still in vic due to Circumstances (although I'd like to be home for my birthday this month and before the goddang federal election) so i gotta keep up my momentum with more silly comics while everything else is shit

I try not to be annoying about springtime but it sure is a source of many serotonins... still! i've got new winter boots I'd like to test back home.

It is officially mysterious Christmas film time on the island! I haven't caught any crews firsthand since I've been pretty busy, but I've heard that so far there seems to be a 1940s era Christmas movie filming downtown, and that another project has changed all the signs at a local campus to "Cal Arts" for some reason...

Vic and Van, as always, belong to the lovely and talented @orcanadian-blog

[fragmentaryremains]

…everything I learn about Warriors fills me with more and more morbid curiosity. I'm kind of curious now why the Erins seem to have this fixation on detailing birth scenes.

Either way, this was definitely a fun answer. I was already familiar with Diavolo, but it's definitely fun seeing some of the really weird (and interesting) characters that get submitted to try and kill Macbeth! Glad to see you getting back into the swing of things! Hopefully the next submission will have less detailed birth scenes…

Could Lionblaze from Warrior Cats kill Macbeth? Specifically before his prophecy powers were revoked, in which he cannot be defeated in battle

I hope you know what you just did to me. I had to crack open Leafpool’s Wish for this. I had to reread one of those scenes. I hope you know what you put me through.

I briefly mentioned Lionblaze before, but I’m now more confident in my answer: No, Lionblaze from Warriors could not kill MacBeth.

Let’s start with what you’ve specifically asked about: the powers. Lionblaze’s powers are pretty weird and I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking they just make him win all the time. That’s kind of how they’re written, after all. But the actual rule seems to be that Lionblaze cannot be injured in a battle he is specifically trying to win. This power, as far as every source I’ve ever checked has said, is purely defensive. Lionblaze cannot be hurt by others (with one notable exception but that’s more of a retcon) as long as he’s trying to win in battle. It says nothing about him being able to instantly kill any adversary, even though he…sure does use it like that. This man kills three people, and I’m fairly certain only one of them was on purpose.

In case we want to argue that this is some unspoken part of his power, he does kill Harestar a couple years after he got his power revoked, seemingly by accident, so it has nothing to do with that. Lionblaze’s power is just that he’s immune to injuries. Whether or not he uses that ability to become God’s perfect killing machine is besides the point. His power would not let him dodge the prophecy, no.

And now, the part I hated. Warrior Cats has a strange fascination with long, highly detailed birthing scenes, including some…really bad ones. Lionblaze’s birth, specifically, is given a couple paragraphs. The reason I just gave a hand-waving answer of “oh yeah maybe idk” last time is because…well, because I didn’t want to go back and read this bit again. But now I have, and now it’s everyone’s problem.

Lionblaze’s mother has some...complications in giving birth to him, and the ghost of an old friend has to come down to help her out. I’m not going into detail, but it’s in Chapter 9 of Leafpool’s Wish if you really want to check for yourself. But they do get the kid out in a way that ol’ Will Shakey would have considered a “natural birth” (though some may argue it was a tad “supernatural”, hehe)

It is also worth noting that Lionblaze is a reincarnation of another cat, who we also see the birth scene for! In that one, he comes out on the verge of death, but is fine after *checks notes* …yeah I’m not explaining all that. The point is, he’s fine. Natural birth, all checks out.

Fortunately for MacBeth, he is safe from notorious murderer Lionblaze and his overpowered passive, though Jayfeather could relentlessly torment him in his dreams, which is arguably way funnier.

Thanks for your submission!

-Mod Pepper