#and then ended up having to make three writing folios as well as study for exams 😭

[dingdongitsbees]

Hello! This is Meggy<3 I hope you're having a wonderful day/night, may I know what are you up to during this time? I remember you saying that you're in a university, may I know what you are pursuing? This is out of curiousity, so feel free to decline my questions if I'm overstepping. By the way, if you and your mutuals are in an anime together, I'd watch it LOLOLOL I also wanna see your friendship dynamics with them and how you guys handle problems (I'm thinking of an anime with a tournament arc, I don't know why LMFAO) Anyway, that's all, looking forward to your reply<3

I'm having a pretty good evening actually! especially since im trying to finish the new bes chapter to post tomorrow :)!!!

and yeah im in my second year of uni at the moment! and literally my second week in hehe, and im doing a bachelor of creative writing which is pretty fun! (as well as a minor in cinema studies which kind of happened by accident) tho i swear my writing is better than my self indulgent fics 😭

as to what im pursing in general.... great question lmao but im hoping to maybe become a book editor which would be sweet, and of course publish my own stuff cause i have far too many books ideas rocking around, and maybe even teach writing would be cool as well!! the writing world is a world of a lot of juggling different jobs so im ready to do quite a few things if i can

and if it all fails ill go back to uni and try and become a therapist 😭

and i too would watch the show LMAO and tournament arc would be so funny 😭 i would either be like second or do terribly no in between

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV Write Entry #27: Mothers and Daughters

Prompt: calculations (free write!) | Master Post | On AO3

Who wants some FEELINGS? :D As a timeline note, this takes place somewhere between 5.1 and 5.2.

--

While the Grand Dame’s Parlor was the Canopy’s premier location for food and drink, Eulmore’s upper levels still boasted numerous smaller cafés and restaurants to appease the rapacious appetites of the elite. With the return of night, however, and the radical shift in the Eulmorans’ attitudes about the exclusivity of their city, many of those businesses had begun welcoming former bonded servants, the residents of the Derelicts and Gatetown and Kholusia, and visitors from the Crystarium on the new airship circuit, altering their menus and décor to better suit the new clientele.

One of those locations was a cozy lounge overlooking Gatetown and the southern half of Kholusia, that served an excellent espresso con panna and almond biscotti. Both Alphinaud and Synnove had taken to ensconcing themselves in one of the booths along the large bay windows with their grimoires and carbuncles when they were in Eulmore, working in companionable silence. Despite their notoriety, the other patrons generally let them be—though the arcanist and the academician had both raised their eyebrows and exchanged looks when they discovered the lounge had renamed itself to The Carbuncle.

Today, however, Synnove was by herself and had shamelessly commandeered one of the circular booths, sitting cross-legged on the padded bench with a couple of grimoires spread out before her on the table. Amandina and Roksana were napping in a bundle of ears and tails in the space between her legs, the occasional squeaky snore escaping Roksana as she drooled on her sister’s ear. Synnove alternated gently rubbing each twin’s head with a finger as she worked on a programming issue.

She nearly jumped in surprise at someone clearing their throat, and she bolted upright, blinking rapidly.

“Oh, I’m so terribly sorry, Synnove, I didn’t mean to frighten you!” Dulia-Chai said, a hand over her heart and ears pinned flat. She had a folio and three thick ledgers cradled in one arm, and rather than her usual rich velvet robes, she wore a lovely, airy dress of light cotton dress, tied off with a deep violet sash, that back on the Source Synnove recognized as popular among the Ishgardian noblewomen for summer wear before the Calamity.

The arcanist shook her head to clear it of cobwebs, and warmly smiled at the woman. “Oh, no harm done, I always get lost in my head when I’m deeply involved in mathematicians,” she said, Dulia-Chai sighing in relief and her ears relaxing. Synnove tilted her head and grinned a little wider. “Would you like to join me?”

Dulia-Chai smiled in return. “I would like that very much, thank you. I have my own work to be doing today while Chai-Nuzz is at the old Stoneworks offices, and I find it easier to stay focused when I am with like-minded individuals.”

Synnove laughed and leaned over to shove aside her grimoires so they only covered half the table. “Far less likely to be bothered here than at the Parlor, too, I imagine,” she drawled.

The miqo’te rolled her eyes as she slid onto the bench, sitting down her things and beginning to spread out papers before her. “Heavens forfend that a woman enjoy some tea and biscuits in the sunshine while she balances the books!”

As Synnove laughed quietly, Amandina yawned, blinking awake and looking around curiously. The black pearl carbuncle spotted Dulia-Chai and peeped excitedly, wiggling out from under her sister and crawling over her mama’s knee to toddle across the bench to plop next to the miqo’te.

Dulia-Chai gasped in delight. “Well, hello, sweetheart,” she cooed to the carbuncle. “You’re Amandina, yes?”

Yeah! Amandina cheeped. And you’re Grammy Dulia!

Synnove felt a deep, fiery blush crawl up her face and she resolutely stared down at her equations. She had an inkling of how the babies came about their terms of address for everyone, and she was tempted to have A Talk with them about poking about emotional aether resonance responses.

Dulia-Chai, however, beamed with open joy. “Yes, I am,” she said, pleased, and carefully scooped the carbunclet into her hands and bringing her up to eye level. “Would you like to help me with these ledgers?”

Ooooooooo, Amandina said, her tails wagging in excitement, numbers! I like numbers!

“So do I!”

Quiet settled over the table shortly thereafter, one of the lounge staff delivering a fresh plate of biscotti for them plus a pot of tea for Dulia-Chai. Amandina was crouched on the miqo’te’s shoulder, avidly watching as the woman settled to the herculean task of reestablishing the Daedalus Stoneworks into a functional business. Synnove, meanwhile, eventually calmed, and quickly became engrossed in her theorems once more. The only sounds for some time were the scratching of quills and pencils on parchment, the sip of tea or coffee, the crunch of consumed biscotti, and the soft chime of a question followed by the low murmur of response.

After finishing the review of one set, Synnove rose back to proper awareness to a serious crick in her back, and she forced herself to sit upright, popping her joints and spine, and reaching her hands into the air to stretch. She rubbed her eyes, glancing over at Dulia-Chai, and raised her eyebrows.

Dulia-Chai was scowling ferociously at the parchment before her, tapping the end of her quill against the table. With her other hand, she was petting Amandina, curled up in her lap and quietly purring as she napped.

“Something wrong?” Synnove said quietly.

“Hmm?” Dulia-Chai looked up. “Oh! Well…no, I don’t think so.” She dropped her gaze back to the accounting, brow furrowing. “I believe I’ve run into the problem of staring too long at the same numbers, and now my results don’t look right. Would you mind reviewing these for me?”

“Not at all,” Synnove said, holding out her hand. Dulia-Chai passed the parchment over, and Synnove held it up, scanning the page quickly. After a moment she hummed, “Mmm, no, you’re fine.”

She glanced over to Dulia-Chai, who was staring at her in open astonishment. By sheer force of will, Synnove fought back the childhood-era urge to hunch her shoulders around her ears, but that didn’t stop her from squirming, and she only stopped when Roksana grumbled in her sleep.

“What an incredible ability!” Dulia-Chai gasped as she accepted the parchment back. “I like to think I’m quite good at mathematics, but to be able to do calculations at such a speed! How wonderful!”

Synnove grinned, a bit flustered under the praise, and shrugged a shoulder. “I’ve always been good at mathematics,” she said. “It was why I originally joined the Arcanists’ Guild back home; one of their departments focused much more on the mathematics and geometry portion of arcanima. But I ended up falling in love with the aetherophysics portion, and, well.” She gestured at the grimoires and carbuncles. “Here we are.”

Dulia-Chai looked at her slyly. “And was part of that love because it didn’t come so easily to you?”

“…Actually, yes.”

The miqo’te beamed. “How fortunate to be afforded such an opportunity. I can only hope one day that the children of Norvrandt will be able to make similar choices, to learn and study for learning and studying’s sake! Oh, your mother must be so proud.”

Despite her best effort, Synnove flinched. Roksana jolted awake, blinking blearily.

Dulia-Chai’s expression shifted to concern. “Synnove? I’m so sorry, my dear, what was it I said?”

Oh, the older woman was too perceptive by far, but as uncomfortable as it was, lying would be worse. Synnove took a breath and let it out again, slowly. “My mother,” she said quietly, “was, ah, actually quite displeased I wanted to study arcanima. My auntie, who was head of the family, always supported me, and she’s certainly proud and that’s what counts in the end, but I didn’t even tell Isolde before I went off to study, and when I returned home for winter break she was not pleased.”

The miqo’te’s jaw dropped open, disbelief on her usually kind face.

The words, normally firmly dammed away in a corner of her mind Synnove preferred to ignore, were pouring out before she could stop them. “Isolde was always a shite mother, honestly,” she said, “Auntie and Rereha’s ma had to shame her into getting me proper tutors, not just the etiquette ones, because Isolde’s plan was essentially to use me as a bargaining chip with other merchant families, not that she actually paid much attention to me. She didn’t even know what my favorite color was. We had a terrible row that break, near screamed the estate down around our ears, and then I stormed out and…I haven’t spoken to her since.”

Auntie Re says Isolde is a raging bi—

“Langauge, Roksana.”

The white pearl carbunclet grumbled. Not sorry…

Dulia-Chai seemed to regain some of her ability to talk, clearing her throat before saying faintly, “And how long ago was that?”

Synnove furrowed her brow. “Um…fifteen years ago.”

The look the miqo’te leveled on her was shrewd. “Would you say you’re happier with that state of affairs?” she said.

“…Yes. Yes, very much.”

“Good.” Dulia-Chai actually growled, her tail lashing on the bench next to her. “What a horrible fool of a woman. Fate hands her a kind, determined, intelligent daughter and she doesn’t even have the sense to be encouraging, to be proud? The loss is hers, to no longer have such a wonderful person in her life!”

Synnove flushed again, chest suddenly feeling tight, and picked up Roksana to cuddle her, ducking her head while the carbunclet papped her chin with a paw. “Thank you, Dulia,” she said. “That…that means quite a lot.”

“You’ve spoken highly of your aunt before, and I am more than glad to know you had a maternal figure to look to while growing up,” Dulia-Chai continued, “but it certainly was not fair to you to still have to deal with the frankly atrocious behavior of the woman who birthed you. I would certainly be proud of a daughter like you! Hell’s fire, I am proud of you!”

Synnove had absolutely no idea what to say to that, even as warmth flooded through her and her flush deepened. She squeaked in surprise when she felt arms wrap around her, but once she realized it was merely Dulia, she leaned into the embrace, burying her face in the older woman’s shoulder. Amandina crawled up between them to cuddle into her neck, her squeaky purrs joining Roksana’s.

“Thank you,” Synnove said, her voice muffled and watery, though she did her damnedest to not burst into overwhelmed tears in public. “I just…thank you.”

Dulia-Chai hummed soothingly and began to pet her hair. “You are, my dear, more than welcome.”

[thethoughtsfromthreeam]

Sunshine

Pairing: Maxwell Lord x OC (Evelyn “Evie” Blaker)

Warnings: None

A/N: For the first time since I started this whole writing adventure, my posting schedule has caught up with my writing and I’m currently working on part 8, with a possible part 9.  The end is in sight, y’all.

Reminder:  I ain’t ever seen Pedro Pascal in FUCK ALL, I’m just coming up with this as I go along, using imdb.com, wiki, and 84,000 tabs I got open to plan out this shit.  I also write soft versions of his characters so if you’re craving asshole vibes, I ain’t got any but my own to offer.

Tags:  @zeldasayer , @romanticgumchewer, @beskars​ , @coolmaybelateruniverse , @the-feckless-wonder, @lavenderl3mons , @pascalisthepunkest , @mandoandyodito​ , @randomness501 , @fioccodineveautunnale  

[PART 1]  [PART 2]  [PART 3]  [PART 4]  [PART 5]  [PART 6]  [PART 7]

Part 8 

Beg for Forgiveness

The great thing about telling people you aren’t available for a whole week was that no one will come looking for you when you want to be alone.  That meant that Evie could stay home and let herself cry without having to pretend everything was okay around her co-workers or anyone else.  It also meant she could ignore her phone and keep it turned off.  As a person who wore her emotions on her sleeves, she just wanted time to work through this without interruption.

There was a part of her that hated that she, a woman in her late thirties, was crying over a man like a simpering college co-ed. That she was feeling so broken hearted over Maxwell Lord of all people, a man she wasn’t even dating!  At least not dating in the traditional sense.  And they had only known each other the better part of three months.

Her brain kept screaming at her that he called her a whore, a bitch in heat.  He had been unnecessarily vicious to her, even manhandled her to the point that she was bruised.  Her fingers brushed her upper arm and she could feel the tears forming again.  She ought to hate him with her whole being.

But she didn’t.

Yes, it had only be about three months, but she felt everything so deeply and rather quickly, too.  And she had thought he felt it as well based on how he acted most of the time.  She always found herself thinking that everything about what they did together felt right to her, like she was supposed to be laying next to him, talking about their day.  That when she had been at the zoo, she couldn’t help but think a gorgeous hand carved wooden lion would have made a perfect addition to his desk. Those little things people who care for one another do for each other.

She dated periodically over the years and had a few serious relationships. Her last one ended when she found him in bed with a woman she never met before.  That relationship had been almost four years and yet the sadness she felt now was miles beyond what she had felt then.  It’s why she let herself have these long moments in bed and let herself cry.  

She laid in bed for hours before she forced herself up and into the shower.  As she let the warm water cascade over her exhausted body, she forced the last words out of Maxwell’s mouth from her mind.  She’d allow herself another day to mull over this before she formed a game plan. Although, she couldn’t be sure what that game plan was quite yet.

---***---

You get a taste of the high life and then just go running around, throwing yourself at people like some common whore?!”

“I saw you throwing yourself at Eric!  Rubbing up against him like some bitch in heat!”

The stubble along Maxwell’s jaw and cheeks was itchy, but the whiskey he had been drinking continuously since Thursday numbed him to any sensation but his self-hatred as his words continued to echo in his brain.  It was Sunday morning and he had been trying for almost three days to get ahold of Evie, but her phone went directly to voicemail and she never answered her texts.

He had been out of his mind with worry but the folio on his desk told him she was safe at home and exactly where that home was.  He stared at it, almost as if he could, through some weird psychic connection, will Evie to call him.  He knew that wasn’t possible, of course and he had sat on the information since Friday.  

Maxwell debated with himself on whether he should go to see her or not, but every time he thought he should, he held back.  For the first time in a long time, he was scared.  Scared that she’d hate him, but a small part of him was scared that she would be willing to forgive him because he felt unworthy of her love no matter how badly he craved it.

He pulled himself out of the chair in his study and wandered into the kitchen.  Marnie had left him something to eat, but he had no appetite.  Instead, he stood there, staring aimless out the window while leaning against the counter.  Things felt off-kilter since she left and if he was being deeply honest with himself, it probably was before she entered his world.  Instead, she had been this force that seemed to just pull everything together and it had been so impactful over the last few months that if she never came back, he wasn’t sure what his life was going to look like without her.

Looking at the clock, he realized that if he was going to do something, he had to decide now.  Stop being a damn chicken shit and go see her, that voice inside his head screamed at him.  He pushed himself off the counter and went upstairs to shower.  If he was going to see Evie, he wasn’t going to smell like a bar or look like death.

She deserved better.

---***---

Evie sighed as she stood in her kitchen, the fridge wide open. Nothing stood out to her and she wasn’t very hungry anyway.  With a groan, she closed the door and wandered into the living room.  From the large windows, she could see her dog, George, running around the yard, chasing the birds and she smiled briefly.  

She debated getting him from the kennel early, not wanting to talk with the chatty lady who owns it, but she needed his puppy love right now.  He had been excited to see her, as always, and he snuggled against her as she laid in bed crying the last two days.  But the beautiful fall day was too much, and he bounced out of the doggie door to do his patrol around the yard, leaving Evie alone inside.

She still felt restless and she wandered through the house, not really looking at anything.  Her home was on the outskirts of the city, located on the Hudson River, and she called it her haven for nearly a decade now.  It was a small, two-bedroom clapboard home with large windows and all its original woodwork meticulously restored by Evie and her father.

But today, this cozy space felt less of a haven and more like a cage. As she continued to pace, she debated joining George outside and doing some raking, hoping the physical exhaustion would overwhelm the emotional.  But before she could do anything, she watched as George paused and began barking, running towards the side fence.

Just as the dog began his vocalizations, she heard a car door slam outside.  Knowing that no one knew she was home yet, she walked to the hall closet and dragged out her trusty baseball bat.  As she turned around, a knock sounded on the door and she stopped, confused.  What burglar knocks on the door?  When she heard the knock again, she walked over to look out the side window.  Her jaw dropped when she saw Maxwell standing on her porch.

He was here.

And she was relieved.

She yanked open the door and stood there gawking at him, the surprised look on her face hard to hide.  Prim and proper suit-wearing Maxwell Lord was standing on her porch wearing jeans and a long-sleeved tee shirt.  She had never seen him so casual and she stayed with him for four days.  He was clean shaven, though, and later she would be a little sad not to see his beard once she learned of it.  She could see hints of exhaustion around his eyes, his laugh lines deeper than usual.

He stood there, looking sheepish and unsure of himself as Evie looked at him.  But he smartly kept his mouth shut and patiently waited for her to tell him to go or to stay. Despite everything, there was nothing particularly awkward about their silence and after a beat, Evie jump and opened the screen door, waving him in.  He saw the bat in her hands as he stepped inside and raised an eyebrow when he looked at her face.

“I’m a single woman living on my own.”  She shrugged before propping it against the wall to be put back later.

“I’m glad you have it.”  That deep voice she loved so much seemed to seep through her and Evie felt a little shiver skitter across her skin.  She closed the door behind him as he stood in her living room, looking around.  It was quaint, filled with books and photos of friends and family.  He noted she loved textile art as he continued to take it all in.  Everything about it felt warm and inviting, making Maxwell feel like he could sit in here, next to her, forever.  He then spotted George through the window and smiled.

“I didn’t know you had a dog.”  He walked closer to the window.  George had gone back to his patrols after the weird man disappeared.  As they looked out, they watched him as he stood, staring through the fence as a boat lazily passed by on the river.  “Why didn’t you bring him with you?  I wouldn’t have minded.”

“Yeah, that’s my baby.”  She walked up beside him and tapped on the window.  The dog jerked his head up and looked towards the house, his curled tail wagging.  “I didn’t want to impose, not everyone likes dogs in their personal spaces.  Besides, he has a best friend at the kennel, and I felt they could use some time together.”

“What is he?”

“The shelter said he was a shar-pei mix.  But he’s pure-bred dumbass most days.”  They watched as he turned towards the house, running straight into a tree. They both started to laugh, and the dog backed up and walked around before bounding across the yard and in through the doggie door.  

George ran up immediately to Maxwell and began sniffing him, the tail still wagging.  He bent down to pet the dog and was rewarded with several licks to the face.  He laughed and kept petting George before the dog decided he needed a nap and ran to the bedroom.

“I’m assuming you’re here to talk.”  Evie’s voice was low, and Maxwell grew serious again as he stood up.  He towered over her and something about it sent little quivers to her belly.  He nodded and she nodded back before waving at him to follow her into the kitchen.

He sat at the table and watched as she moved comfortably through the space, putting together drinks and food before setting them down.  She sat across from him and he could see how worn she was, and it cut through his heart, compounding his guilt and sadness even more.  She didn’t deserve that, and he didn’t deserve her.  They sat there for a moment; hands wrapped around steaming mugs of tea. She spoked first.

“Why would you even think that let alone say it?”  Evie sat back as she crossed her arms and looked at him.  She saw him wince and his head dropped lower as his shoulders curled in.  She was surprised to see him so. . . beaten down.  This man, who exuded power and confidence, sat across from her looking and sounding worn out.

“Because I’m a fucking idiot.”

“You got that right.”  She sipped her tea as he nodded.  He looked up and she could see how haunted his eyes were, her heart clenching because she knew that same look was in her eyes, too.  His body language told her that he was sorry, but she needed to hear it from his mouth.  He sighed deeply.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me for hurting you.”  His eyes flickered down to the bruise on her arm, exposed thanks to her short-sleeved shirt.  “I acted like a jackass and treated you terribly.  You didn’t deserve it.  And I’m sorry.  I’m so fucking sorry, Evie.  I’m so fucking sorry.”

The rawness of his voice carried the wetness of tears and she could see him looking up at the ceiling, trying to will them away.  She could feel a lump growing in her own throat at the scene. Before she could say anything else, he kept going.

“I don’t know why I did it, why I felt so jealous.  But the idea of you being with someone else when I want you all to myself gets me twisted inside. I’m pretty sure I love you, Evie.”  Her jaw dropped and she nearly did the same thing with her mug had it not been for the table.  He rushed on.  “I know that’s no excuse for the way I behaved!  I’m not excusing that!  But I had to tell you.  I needed you to hear it.  I don’t expect you to love me back, which would probably kill me, but I really need for you to know that I’m sorry, that I love you, and that I want you in my life.”

Maxwell looked down at his hands and noticed they were shaking, although he wasn’t sure which of the eight hundred emotions running through him was causing it.  He clasped them together, hoping to still them as the silence from Evie dragged on. It was so quiet; he could hear George snoring in the bedroom and the clock in the living room ticking away. He so desperately wanted to look up at Evie, but something told him to keep looking down until she said something.

Evie stared at the blond hairs on the top of Maxwell’s head, almost glimmering in the afternoon sun.  She was sure he could hear her heart hammering in her chest.  He loved her.  He loved her.  He loved her.  It was like her brain stopped processing everything after he said those words and her heart clenched painfully in her chest.  He fucking loved her.

She slowly got up from the table and walked around to him, getting on her knees.  His head was still bowed, and his eyes closed, as if bracing himself for bad news. When she placed her hands on his, he still didn’t open them.  She had never seen him so emotional and it crept into her heart.

“Max.  I love you, too.”

[maddiviner]

Dzień dobry and merry meet!

We’re all different. What works well for one witch might be a disaster for another. I believe keeping a notebook is useful for most witches, though!

I’ve written a lot about why a grimoire and keeping one can supercharge your magical practice. 

 It’s always going to be something I recommend. While not everyone can or does keep one, it’s always worth trying because for many of us it is so helpful.

The question becomes, though: how? What format should you use for your grimoire or Book of Shadows?

I’ve got an article about different types of grimoires here. Regardless of what style you choose, it can be helpful to keep it organized!

There are many advantages to keeping a binder-type notebook for a grimoire. It allows you to add and remove pages with ease! This means you can create tabbed sections for each Craft-related topic. 

You can then add to each as you see fit, without disturbing the rest. It’s also very easy to find information in your grimoire when you need it!

In the past, I used hardbound notebooks. I loved the Peter Pauper Press line of journals, and the Leuchtturm 1917. Over the past few years, though, I’ve come to appreciate the advantages of the binder system. 

I still use a normal Leuchtturm for my bullet journal. It doubles as my general magical diary and record.  

When it comes to making notes on my research and gathering Craft information, I’ve begun using a binder. It's so easy! You might want to try a similar setup. I definitely recommend it!

Supplies

To start, I purchased a six-ring A5 binder. I chose a coral-colored Carpe Diem binder, because it wasn’t too expensive and I liked the color. 

I chose A5 because it fits the size of my hands and my style of handwriting pretty well. If your hands are bigger or smaller, a different size might work for you. I also like A5 because it is quite portable. A three-ring letter-size binder could work, or even a small personal sized folio.

I filled the binder with dot grid paper.  I chose the dot grid because of its versatility. If you’re sketching, making diagrams, or drawing, the dots make measurement on the page easy. If you’re only writing, they function as lines to keep your handwriting straight and neat on the page, too.

The dots are subtle and not intrusive, too, making any art you might want to do on the pages very clean and visible. Most A5 dot grid paper is prepunched with the six ring holes, and despite this, you can even print on it!

This is good, because it allows me to print longer bits of information or diagrams. Granted, most files aren’t designed for A5 size. Yet, it’s very, very easy to resize something for that format, even if it includes images.

Organization

I added some blank tabbed dividers, labeling them with different Craft-related subjects. There’s one for Tarot, astrology, spellcraft, spiritwork, etc.

If you do this, your dividers would reflect whatever interests you. I recommend sticking to four or five different topics to start with. Any more than that can be overwhelming. 

I've written a bit of study tips for the self-taught here. If you’re a virtuoso who can juggle eight or nine topics without getting overwhelmed, go for it!  

I keep the dot grid paper in the very back of the binder. I add pages from that to the different sections as I finished them.

What to include?

Your grimoire is your own; you can include anything and  everything that you want! I included the following different sections in mine so far.

Blessings, Divination, and Spiritwork

First, I invoked celestial forces to bless this grimoire. Blessing your tools (including grimoire) can be very advantageous. You can ask the spirits and any deities you follow to bless your work. I used to have one of these at the front of mine, but recently ended up writing a separate blessing for each section.

You could devote a section to poetry or prose inspired by the spirits - I do, though I haven’t written much in it recently. Don’t ask me to ever share any of my poems, though - it ended up being very personal!

I devote a sizable part of my binder to writing about the divinatory exercises I do on my own. In other words, it's for notes on my personal Tarot, Lenormand, and scrying sessions. If you do divination, I recommend keeping such a record of your exploits!  I also sometimes keep a dream journal.

Spellcraft Details

Without a doubt, it’s useful to record your own spells and their ensuing results. If you’re starting in spellcraft, you can jot down ideas and brainstorm.

Then, you have a record of the spell’s development from start to finish! This is helpful for refining your approach to spellcraft. It helps you become more effective with it.

If you’re casting spells another witch developed, you can record those, too! Whenever I cast a spell from a book or website, I record it  by hand. I include my own notes on it, and any modifications I’ve made. 

Of course, I also include a citation explaining where I found the spell and who wrote it, too. Credit where credit is due!

The biggest thing, though? Remember to go back and record the results as they manifest. I recommend doing this in as much detail as possible, too. Keeping track of how your magic flows can help you to develop greater finesse.

Print Information

I also print out public domain texts from the Internet to add to my growing trove of information in the binder. If you’re using an A5 binder, you may have to fiddle with formatting on anything you’re printing so that it’ll fit the page. It’s not hard, though!

Many older translations of Classical texts are public domain now. So, you might include that sort of thing! And yes, most printers will print on prepunched A5 paper!

Some witchblr folks will also allow you to print their work, and add it to your personal grimoire. Be sure to check with the person in question first, though! Always keep track of where each piece of information comes from!

For the record, it’s always okay to include spells <INSERT LINK HERE> I’ve written on this blog in your personal grimoire. That is, as long as a) it’s only for personal use, and b) you credit me, even if you’re only printing it for yourself.

Personal Notes on Books, etc

I’m a big fan of taking notes when I read a book, be it a Craft-related one, or even something else. Everyone has a different way of taking notes! My notes synthesize my readings from several different books on the subject.

I took inspiration from studyblr in formatting my notes. That particular tag on here offers lot of great tips for taking notes that are effective, neat, legible and even aesthetic.

I realize the studyblr “aesthetic” isn’t quite the type of thing you’d expect from a grimoire. I like it. I can find things in my notes with ease, they’re readable, and fun to make.

Spawning

This system works well enough for a while. Soon, you’ll find that the binder gets full, unwieldy, and bursting with information. What do you do then?

When it first happened with mine, I wasn’t sure. I tried taking the pages out, tying them with string, and stacking them on my shelf. This turned out to be awful and messy, and some of them got torn.

The trick here is simply to get another binder. Look through the sections in your main binder and find which one is largest. Then, get another binder and transplant that section into it.

Keep doing this as your main binder fills up again and again. You end up with two or three different binders dedicated to different subjects. This is, to me, an excellent way of organizing things, provided you label the binders! It’s wild binder mitosis!

Thus far, my main binder has “spawned” two more - one for astrology, and one for spiritwork. I suspect other sections in the main binder will someday need to move into new binders, too.

In Conclusion

Keeping a grimoire is fun! I definitely recommend it! This article only gives one way of organizing such a grimoire, the one I use. Your methods will no doubt be different. I hope my suggestions above are inspiring and helpful, though.

Stay magical, and blessed be!

[swinburne]

A global designer helping out the next generation

From working in design studios, to lecturing, to founding a global online design community that bridges the gap between studying and working in design, Swinburne alumni Frankie Ratford has been busy since graduating. 

Written by Renee Chung, Bachelor of Design / Bachelor of Media and Communications. 

The Design Kids, who have endorsed Swinburne this year, provides global online resources to educate, inspire and connect graphic design students to industry as well as local community events and networking. 

Founder Frankie came to Swinburne as a second-year student having already completed a course in graphic design programs. 

She studied a Bachelor of Design with a major in Communication Design, and at the end of her second year, applied to the Industry Placement program, where students work in the design industry for an entire year. 

After sheer determination and perseverance, she secured employment at Chimera Design after which she returned to complete her honours. 

“It was awesome!” she says of her time at uni.   

After an almost-disaster at her graduation showcase, involving a lost final year project, she was luckily able to get contact details to send her folio off to design studio Frost* Collective.

“I wasn’t messing around,” she says of her job application process after university. 

“I'd done a tonne of research to know which studios I suited and where I wanted to go, so I was ready.” 

Two weeks after Christmas, Frankie got a call, and one week after that, she had moved to Sydney. 

Designing a global experience 

She spent the next 18 months at Frost* Collective, but found that while she loved graphic design, she wasn’t in love with the business of being a graphic designer. She decided to take six months off, ending up in Madagascar. 

It was there where she decided she wanted to help people, specifically people with an interest in design. Exploring gaps in the industry, Frankie found that getting a job after graduation was a big issue for many, so The Design Kids was born. 

Frankie helps design graduates find work in the industry. 

Since starting the organisation, Frankie has been flown to New York City, Dubai, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Dublin, Florida, Milwaukee and Melbourne to speak at design conferences. 

“There's something about speaking at international conferences that makes my heart sing - to be recognised in design still blows my mind.” 

She’s also lectured at a wide range of design universities and colleges, been invited to judge awards and been featured on blogs. 

“I am insanely grateful to be part of this amazing global community we have in design.” 

What’s next? 

“ALL THE GOOD STUFF!” says Frankie.   

The Design Kids is planning design bootcamps - applications are open at TDKbootcamps.org - in exotic locations where they take a handful of lucky designers and completely polish and make their careers in a week, then send them off into the world. 

The Design Kids will be holding events at Swinburne throughout 2019. 

They’ve just completed one in Sri Lanka and have ones in Bali, Portugal and Byron coming up. She’s also writing a book, doing design charity trips, learning UX and coaching design studios! 

10 years of success 

The Design Kids will be 10 years old this November and Frankie wants to stress that they are not recruiters. 

“The graduates figure out their (own) careers, we just have all the resources in one place for them,” she says. 

The Design Kids hold local events called #TDKtuesdays which Swinburne will be hosting three of this year in conjunction with the Swinburne Design Collective. 

“If you're going to design your life, why make it boring?!” says Frankie. 

Look out for more details about #TDKtuesdays throughout the year and if you’re a designer, check out thedesignkids.org

Written by Renee Chung, Bachelor of Design / Bachelor of Media and Communications. Renee is currently on placement at Swinburne in the Design Bureau studio.

[tevotbegotnaught]

“The conductor…in the power he has over others…it is in his interest as a human being, as well as that of his musical achievements, to resist the temptation to misuse it. Tyranny can never bring to fruition artistic-or for that matter human- gifts; subordination under a despot does not make for joy in one’s music-making. Intimidation deprives the musician of the full enjoyment of his talent and proficiency. Yet I should certainly not want to impugn the employment of earnest severity or even the occasional borrowing of the Bolt of Zeus; the latter if the hand knows how to wield it, can in exceptional situations bring surprisingly good results. Severity is a legitimate even indispensable means of dealing with people...”

Bruno Walter

In my Summer of 42 (years), I was a college freshman…again. With neither Mexican weed nor dormitory hijinks to distract me, I worked through the full Brooklyn College Core Curriculum and a handful of music courses. My degree plan also required an ensemble each semester. When the Assistant Dean interviewed me, he looked over my CV and immediately suggested their Jazz Band. After hearing them, I chose a contemporary music ensemble founded by a composition professor. Fall semester, she was on sabbatical and a trumpet prof, Juilliard guy and veteran freelancer, ran the class. To begin, he sat everyone in a circle and asked us to play “Happy Birthday" in hocket. Most of the class was unsure of the melody and some also thought it a stupid idea. With our nonstandard instrumentation, we massacred Second Viennese School composers for the rest of the term.

Spring term, the founder returned. She was just over five feet tall, brown-skinned, with narrow shoulders and mineshaft dark eyes. When she listened, her head nodded while bottomless eyes fixed on you. Raised in a distressed country, her life moved from prodigy to conservatory-trained professional with impeccable musicianship: piano, score reading, solfege, conducting, improvising, composing. Then, she came to the US, with zero money and English and rebuilt her career from scratch. At BC, she conducted the orchestra until politics pushed her out. Now, she gave composition lessons and led this ensemble.

Our roster still read as spare parts: three singers, three pianists, two flutes, violin, saxophone, clarinet, guitar; some highly skilled, others not. For most, English was a second or even third language. Our professor's first assignment: list your colleagues’ instruments, find pieces for a subset of our forces, select only pieces written after 1960, bring scores/parts for audition.

The following week, we presented our finds. First, someone showed her a John Cage duet. As she turned pages, Maestra’s face went blank .

“Why did you get this?”

A mumbled answer.

Maestra closed the score. “You got eet because eet looks easy. Didn't you? First of all, it’s a short duet. Three, maybe four minutes of music. Nothing to do on a real pro-GRAM. Not serious. Not serious at all.”

More mumbling.

“Get something else. Thank you.”

She jabbed the score into their hands, then addressed the class.

“Nothing about John Cage. John is extraordinary. When you choose music, don’t just take a name you theenk you know. Read the score. You are musicians …supposed to be….”

Next, one of the singers produced a folio. Its font, ornate and oversized. I winced. Maestra saw it was a Puccini aria with piano accompaniment and recoiled.

“After nineteen-sixty? Thees? You are kidding me!”

Again, she faced us.

“Thees is NOT opera work-SHOP. I know some of you did not make it there. I'm very sorry about that. Please find some other music to sing. There are so many good theengs. I hope you will find out. Music does not end with Verdi, Puccini.”

So it went. Gratefully, she anticipated our poor choices and suggested some pieces.

Meastra spoke Spanish to some students, aware of the terrain they navigated and supportive. Jorge, a Mexican pianist, was one of her projects. He was a skilled player, an enthusiastic and warm colleague. His giggle often broke up the class. In our third meeting, we rolled the piano front, Jorge sat on the bench. While he longed for mama's home cooking, he wasn’t missing any meals in Brooklyn. His midsection expanded well beyond his tight-waisted pants, straining shirt buttons. Maestra questioned him on preparation: “you’re playing the second movement, what about the third?”

Unaffected by the prodding, he began to play. A minute in, she said, “stop”.

He continued, eyes closed.

She shouted, “Stop! I’m telling you, STOP"

He looked over.

“JORGE….WHAT…ARE…YOU….DOING?”

It wasn’t meant as a question. Jorge smiled and gently shook his head.

“Why are you smiling? Look at you!”

Her voice leveled.

“This is not ready. It’s better, but it's not ready.”

She shifted.

“I am very worried about you. Look..at…your…STOMACH. You need to take better care of yourself. You know, pianists perform in pro-FILE. Theenk what you show to the audience.”

Jorge wasn't smiling. He put his hand on his belly.

“Everyone should con-see-der an exer-CISE pro-GRAM. I am forty years, Dio mio! Almost FEEFTY years older than some of you. Take care of yourselves.”

She dismissed him with a sweeping gesture.

“Ok, who is next? Anna, where is the list? Geeve it to me!”

Her assistant, a brilliant, tiny, Yankee grad student, always cleaned up.

Maestra partnered Jorge with another pianist for a Gyorgy Ligeti duo. Its ingenious architecture, a complex cycle revealed one beat at a time. In Yogi Berra's construction, half the score was ninety-nine percent rests. The players needed infallible inner time. While they played, Maestra leaned over the piano, right hand supporting her, left turning pages. She nodded her head slightly in tempo. The pianist's hits charged toward and away from each other like Pacman's gobbling goblins.

“You are late!” she slammed her left hand down. They went back. Another hammer blow. Back again. The piece never made it to the program.

At the end of the initial class, she approached me about Milhaud's “Le Creation du Monde", a chamber work for winds, including alto saxophone. We didn’t have the other winds, of course, but a young woodwind quintet, in residence for the year, would help out.

“Le Creation" story moves from brooding chorale to a raggy bolero where the winds pass around jumpy tunes, then strut them all, polyphonically, in a joyous finale.

At the first of four rehearsals, we were less than half personnel. Maestra had been enthusiastic about the quintet, encouraging us to meet, hear and study with them. But they were collaborating with major artists and appearing all over the world. Their residency, now in name only. No one in the group even bothered to return her emails. Our conductor was livid. (Later, the assistant assured us that Maestra never returned emails, either.) In rehearsal, the music just marked time. In long stretches with no tune and no landmarks, I fell into a hole and missed my entrance.

“What are you DOING! Counting! Count-ting! I can’t do everytheeng for you.”

Concert day was the first we all sat down to play. In the midst of my disciplined colleagues, I was a bellowing hippo. During the chorale, my slow descending notes were either out-of-tune, out-of-time, the wrong dynamic, or all three.

The baton came down hard “NO..NO..NO. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

“How can you be late. It's jazz. Jazz! You play jazz? Right? You know who is John Col-TRANE? Play it like Col-TRANE! Why should I have to tell YOU this. Come on!”

I wore other hats that night: soprano, clarinet. Still, my mind remained fogged through the Milhaud finale.

The quintet players all demolished their solos. With a huge smile, Maestra gave each well-deserved bows. When they were done, she flashed her eyes at me, scowling. Then, jerked both her hands upwards, like she was flipping a pool toy. I stood up and stared straight down.

Next semester, a composition student brought a score. It was mostly squiggles and arrows, notation designed to move the music forward without defining functional harmony or conventional melody. She conducted a circle for each “bar”. We could gauge the length of each gesture and respond in time. Simultaneously, she sang the gestures using their pitched start/end points, conducted, turned pages and offered substantive commentary. If one of us was even a second late, her glance immolated them.

I became friends with some of her students. Waiting outside her office, they often heard shouting. When the door opened, students walked out in tears. Some planned to work closely with Maestra toward their Master's or DMA. Those plans would change...

An alumni couple created an endowed chair for Maestra, protecting her from political games. To celebrate, students accompanied her to the donors’ Connecticut home for a musicale. We loaded two vans with the usual music school suspects: waifish Asian virtuoso string players, an Eastern European sturm und drang pianist, a diffident “difficult” composer, and bit players like me.

Both donors were in their eighties and fabulously rich, earnest, lefty intellectuals. The wife wore a gas mask-like apparatus, its hoses attached to a whirring box on her back. I strained to understand her speech, but her eyes shone with love and curiosity. The couple warmly welcomed us to a large room packed with guests.

I was part of a quartet: oboe, flute, clarinet and piano, playing a student work. The composer, a young Dominican guy, rising star in the program. A Caribbean undergraduate writing skilled takes on contemporary European music. His piece used the difference-tone clusters of Gyorgy Ligeti: loud, high notes, staggered and longheld, producing acoustic anomalies: window-fan undertones and piercing oscillations. Bathing in timbral waves and madly counting beats, I couldn’t find the piano part, though we made it to the end without requiring oxygen or a conductor. The composer took a awkward bow and disappeared.

With Maestra as Maitre’d we served up a baroque cello sonata, Beethoven piano music and some Sondheim. Then, our little foursome loudly dropped a turd on the buffet table.

The donor husband was one of those ruddy-faced white guys who wear baggy corduroys and turtle necks over their barrel physiques. He sought me out, towering above me as I packed up my clarinet.

“What did he mean with that piece?"

“Sir, I…I wouldn’t want to represent the composer, he never said anything about..”

“Now, you must know something.”

He was an important man accustomed to getting answers, fast and in full.

“I know my part and how it fits with the others. The woodwinds are playing difference tones, Stravinsky used...”

“Why didn’t HE explain that to us? We go to concerts all the time. Conductors explain new music. They give examples, give context. You can’t just write something like that and expect people to automatically understand it.”

Gulp....“Of course.”

“It’s his responsibility to help the audience understand the music”

I looked over. By the buffet, the composer was holding a plate, one of the string players laughing next to him. Mrs Donor approached me, extending her hand. The box on her back hissed and clicked. Above the mask, searching eyes, below, a voice from a radio in another room. Was she talking about the quartet? It was too uncomfortable. I interrupted.

“Thank you so much for your hospitality and the opportunity to play for you. You and your husband are so generous.”

She squeezed my hand and leaned in, radio transmission drowning in static. Her husband came to her side.

“My wife is saying we've been to many, many concerts of new music. Starting way back, with Lenny Bernstein. He taught us there’s always something to learn. He introduced us to many extraordinary artists”

He put his hand lightly on her back. Over her shoulder, Maestra was listening to a guest, head level with their sternum, eyes searchlights in reverse. The radio faded and its whirring submerged in the din.

We got back very late. Our vans parked by the gatehouse and turnstile on the east side of campus. A few yellow lights glowed in the music building. Maestra thanked us. We said goodnight.

Drifting on an acoustic sea, our ancestors explored sound, harnessing the waves. Between foaming peaks and psychic undertow, they found power. From our African beginnings, to the stars, every lineage counted on those who navigated, who mastered instruments, who carried in them songs and stories. They became the music, while it lasted.

[caradickson]

Evaluation (Final Thoughts)...

Now that I have finished the development stage of my project and made my four photo and lyric zines I can give an overview of the project.

I really enjoyed my graded unit project from the beginning till end. After studying for three years I feel like I finally found a project where I was able to bring my love for music and photography together, in a hands on way that stimulated me creatively. Since finding an interest in photography, it was always working in the darkroom or working with alternative processes that excited me the most. Over the past few years throughout the pandemic I was living with my mum also loves photography. We turned our basement into a darkroom and were creating cyanotypes and lumen prints throughout lockdown. I really just love the unpredictability and the uniqueness of each print that is produced from alternative photo processes. 

My graded unit project came as an adaptation/extension of my documentary zine brief from my folio 2 term. I decided to make a photo and lyric zine based on one of my songs ‘Lost Soul’. I had five images within the zine that consisted of different outdoor, landscape images as well as four floral lumen prints. The detail that was present meant that the flowers looked similar to the human form. I felt that they were a good addition to the zine and connected with the theme of the songs lyrics and theme. I really enjoyed this project and knew that I wanted to do this (and more) when we were briefed with our graded unit. Link to my documentary zine project below:

https://www.flipsnack.com/798C9D77C6F/lost-soul-zine-by-cara-dickson.html

The area that I had never tried before planning this GU project was creating cyanotype and lumen prints from digital negative photographs. I had only ever made prints using organic matter such as plants. I had looked up tutorials online and the process didn’t seem out of my abilities, plus it was something that I wanted to try and thought this would be a good time to do it. 

I found the planning of the project enjoyable and usually writing can be a struggle for me, especially articulating myself properly in an academic setting. However, with this project I found that I was able to create and write up a plan with ease and excitement.

Obstacles 

The first hurdle came when I tried to print the digital negatives. I became a member of StreetlevelPhotoworks before starting the project so that I had access to their facilities, including their printer. Once I had created my digital negative files I tried to print them on to my film, however the printer had difficulty with the film. It was struggling to recognise the type of paper and it would just spit it back out again or get jammed inside the printer. After several hours of trying to over come this issue I had to call it quits for the day and start thinking of a back up as I wasn’t able to start my cyanotype printing for my first zine without these negatives. I knew that Lachlan who works at Streetlevel had an A3 printer at home and I paid him to make up my digital negatives for me. I began making cyanotypes with flowers and plants that I had been collecting while going out on walks while I was waiting for my digital negatives to be ready. During these early stages of the project I was feeling quite stressed as time was quickly passing and I had not completed any successful prints for my zines. Once I got my negatives back I began creating the cyanotype prints for my Let Go zine and they came together rather quickly. 

Another hurdle in the project was when I came to trying to make a lumen print from a digital negative. The first print I did nothing came out on the paper, so I extended the exposure time but still had very little success after leaving it to expose for three hours. I had to adjust my plan of making lumen prints from photographs. I decided to make my first zine Let Go contain all the prints made from digital negatives of photographs I had taken, and then for my second zine What Next to just have lumen prints of plants and flowers. I was able to overcome my issue and still create prints that I loved and enjoyed the process of making. I tried to make a cyano-lumen print using a digital negative however again the results were very faint and it was going to be a struggle to get clear images from the negatives on to the paper. Again, I adjusted my original plan of making it a combination of photographs and prints from plants to just prints using organic materials. This meant that in my final zine Temporary Time I could include more cyanotypes from digital negatives along with lumen prints and cyano-lumens prints. 

Alternative Photo Processes & Plants

Flowers are a symbol of life and growth. I’ve always found a connection with the human life and with the plants around us. Plant stalks representing our bone structures and the petals representing our skin. Both in the realm of mortality. The reason why flowers are often the subject in my work is because they have their own language. You can portray a feeling or emotion with the gift of a flower with the absence of words. 

I have found that these processes are addictive. I love the anticipation of waiting and watching a print come out. You can never 100% predict the result and I like that. It’s the same with life, you can’t fully control what’s going to happen and the things that you will feel and encounter. I’ve learned to enjoy the process of my life and work, whatever the outcome.

I feel like the photo processes create a lyrical synergy. We can paint pictures with musical notes, and we can hear sounds and song through visual work. Together they create a poetic wholeness and this is what I aim to achieve. 

Even though alternative photo processing was not taught on our course or a module this year, I have developed more of an artistic voice and opinion about what I like and enjoy from doing all the projects in my HND. The other projects got me to a place where I could plan and carry out a project of my own choosing. Which is really the goal at the end of education, to find your direction or niche that you can work on and develop in the ‘real’ world of work. 

I am really pleased with how my project has unfolded and my four photo and lyric zines. I am proud of the work I have produced and grateful for what I have learned along the way. 

[chrismalcolmhnd2c]

Doorstep Portrait

©Annie Dresner

©Julie Michaelsen

“In time of test, family is best.” – Burmese Proverb.

Research the Narrative

In your workbook or blog, research Social Portraiture. There will be further tasks and support through the Contextual Studies class.

Tell the Story

Organise a group shot that will involve a minimum of three people.

Following restrictions imposed by lock down, photographers have been finding neW and inivitave ways to continue their practice of social photograhy, and in turn documenting the current situation.

You may interpret this brief in a variety of ways however the end product should display a group of sitters photographed safely on location.

The location will be the sitter’s residence or work place however consider the best place at the location to photograph the sitters. Windows, doorstep, garden shed? Have fun with the posing.

Good location, controlled lighting, co-ordinated styling, effective communication, and effective posing/composition will all add to the ‘experience’ for your sitters.

A parental consent form should also be created when any members of your group are under 16.

Edit and refine: Complete worksheet

These images should be of a quality suitable for a private client to purchase and print, retouching flaws, great composition, sharp and properly exposed.

Submission: One Final A3 folio print ready canvas with 2 significantly different images of the same group.

Initial research for Social Portraiture for “White Shirt”

https://chrismalcolmhnd2c.tumblr.com/tagged/white

Further research on Doorstep Portraiture

Coronavirus: Doorstep photo diaries capture life in lockdown

Published 21 May 2020

Magnus and Jenny have enjoyed spending more time together during the coronavirus lockdown.

Over the last eight weeks doorstep photos have provided some of the enduring images of Scotland's lockdown.

Families, couples and housemates are having socially-distant photographs taken at their front doors in an effort to record these unusual times.

Among those following the trend to create snapshots of modern life is Glasgow photographer Caro Weiss.

"I now have more than 100 shoots booked over the next four weeks," she said.

"I've done a great mix of people, artists, makers, couples, people with dogs, kids. I have been booked for an anniversary shoot, a 'should have been our wedding day' shoot, birthdays, and ones that friends have booked for their friends to cheer them up if they are finding it really tough.

"I can't wait to meet everyone. It's the highlight of my days now."

We asked some of her subjects to tell us about their lockdown experience.

Alison and Willie McBride

Alison and Willie McBride, both in their 60s, can't do their regular jobs at the moment.

"We've recently moved to this flat which fortunately has its own private garden which we are thankful for during lockdown and we spend time there reading and playing Scrabble. We sent our doorstep photos to our daughter and family living in America and our son, daughter-in-law and another daughter living in Manchester. We are trying to face this crisis with quiet resilience and the photos show a sense of being in it together and looking after each other."

Susanne Bell and Stephen Gallagher

Musicians Susanne Bell and Stephen Gallagher wanted to document lockdown with a growing bump.

"I'm currently 36 weeks pregnant and we wanted some photographs to document our lockdown with our growing bump! We've not been able to visit friends and family for three months now so we're really missing seeing them and showing off the baby bump. We are both musicians who play in bands and teach music so we are working from home with Stephen's son Johannes who is 12. We've been really lucky to have lots of musical instruments and projects to keep us busy. Stephen is in a band called Scaramanga and has been writing, recording (remotely) and releasing new music."

Jenny McLean and son Magnus

Jenny, 38, wanted to record Magnus' sixth birthday during the lockdown.

"We're coping well - we face Queen's Park, so we never feel too isolated with all the people coming and going for their daily exercise. We've kept busy through a combination of juggling work, craft projects, schoolwork and a worsening online shopping habit (I bought a 1960s swimsuit the other day… when I'm next going swimming, I have no idea!). We've been lucky to stay healthy throughout. It was Magnus's sixth birthday at the weekend so it seemed the perfect way to remember his day, and a time where - amidst the pandemic - I've felt really lucky to have more time with him, away from our usual busy lives."

Barbara Smith, Chris Macfarlane, Innes and Ishbel

Barbara, 37, Chris, 38, and their children Innes, 6, and Ishbel, 4, loved their "daft" photos.

"We are so pleased with our photos, they're so informal and more than a wee bit daft. Kids get big so quickly, it's a real treat to have a record of this time, even if it has been quite intense in parts! We are all healthy and enjoying having more family time, although I'm not sure I'm quite cut out for home schooling. I'm a wedding florist, so my business has been affected drastically, everything is either cancelled or postponed. Which at least means that I am able to take on childcare now that Chris has to work from home. He is a college tutor and is having to adapt to teaching his students online."

Cecilia Stamp, Greg Paterson and Leo

Cecilia Stamp is looking after her mum in nearby sheltered housing and has lost a family member to the virus.

"I'm a jeweller and I don't have full access to my workshop at the moment so I have been working as best I can but I really miss my workspace - especially as there's equipment I don't have at home. One of my main priorities has been looking after my mum who lives nearby in sheltered housing, doing food shops for her etc, as she can't go out. We've had a family member die from the virus down south, which was a huge shock as he was in good health, so it's been especially difficult for her too. We couldn't go to the funeral and trying to sort things remotely was a challenge."

Kenji Kitahama and Till Stowasser

Till, 42 and Kenji, 44, are both working from home.

"We're hanging in there and trying to make the best of the situation. We're very lucky in that both Till and I are able to work from home. Till is a professor and has been holding all of his lectures online since the beginning of March. I'm a bookbinder who makes bespoke photo albums and books. I run my small business from my home studio, so the lockdown hasn't affected my daily work routine a great deal. However, this is a time when I'm usually busy making wedding albums but since all of these celebrations have been cancelled or rescheduled, it's been a bit quieter. We're so grateful for all the frontline workers and of course, the postal service—who are making it possible to keep my little business afloat."

The McGarrigles

Eamon, 40 Claire, 40, Nancy, 5, and one-year-old Nena are getting used to sharing their space a lot more.

"We are currently adapting to the new way of life with Eamon now working from home. I'm no longer able to work as my place of work is temporarily closed due to Covid-19, so I am now attempting to be a home school teacher to Nancy who was in P1. We are missing our families and friends so much as we are both from Northern Ireland originally and have no family here in Glasgow. Our kids keep us sane and drive us mad in equal measures. I hope they will remember this time in their lives as the time we all got to hang out more, baked cakes, clapped with all our wonderful neighbours on a Thursday night and painted rainbows."

Terri Hawkins and Ernst

Terri Hawkins, 31 and Ernst Wolf, 2, have a flat full of flowers.

"I am a florist and rely mainly on weddings and events, so my business has been hugely affected. Me and my partner Angus fell through the cracks for government funding so we had major money panics. My business was the only way we could earn money, so we turned our living room into a dried flower workshop and came up with these flower arranging kits that people can make at home using dried flowers. They are great and keeping the whole family just afloat right now! Angus has started working for me, he's in charge of the logistics, computer stuff, ordering and I do all the making.

"Our house is a mess filled with flowers, our poor two-year-old has to watch TV every morning whilst we frantically work, we try and get it all done for lunch time then spend the day playing with our son Ernst! The online flower shop has been our families saviour, we are extremely grateful."

The Evans family - Mhairi, Maeve and Joe

Mhairi, 35, Joe, 36 and Maeve (who will be six next week) have made the best of a bad situation.

"Joe and I are working from home and juggling home schooling. We've all been lucky to be quite well but did have some mild symptoms near the beginning so went through isolation. It's pretty full on. Some days are fun, some days are really hard and we've all been up and down. Maeve is beginning to really miss her friends and her school. We're just trying to make the best of it but we miss our families and friends a lot. I have so much respect for all key workers and I'm happy to stay at home for as long as we have to if that keeps them safe."

Hazel Jane and George Windsor

Hazel Jane, 23 and Dr George Windsor, 29, had only moved in together in February and say their lockdown was a "cohabitation of fire".

"We're both lucky enough to continue working full-time from home throughout lockdown and we do this by rotating spaces between the kitchen table and the sofa. Neither of us have shown any symptoms so it's been a smooth ride in that sense, but we have certainly suffered the mental health dips that come with quarantine and won't be unhappy to see the end of it. We moved in together in February so this has been a cohabitation baptism of fire. Also, these are not the haircuts we went into quarantine with. Mine is now considerably longer, while George's DIY cut leaves lots to be desired."

Claire Jonston-Dawson, John and Eddy

Claire, 33, John, 30 and Eddy, 2 have enjoyed more time together in their "flat bubble".

"We co-own a tiny pizza restaurant with a friend, so life is completely different for us in lockdown as we are closed right now, and have been since mid-March. It has had its ups and downs, as we, like so many others, still wait to find out what financial help we're getting for our business, but restaurant aside we've adjusted to slower, much simpler days and getting to hang out together. And we know we are some of the lucky ones in this situation, so really just spend our days swinging from guilt to gratitude for our small but cosy flat bubble, to being overwhelmed and angry at the UK government."

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52706375

Further Research

Photographers taking 'doorstep portraits' capture candid picture of life in lockdown from Kent's towns and villages

By Sean Delaney

Published: 27 May 2020

Photographers across Kent are taking candid shots of households on their doorsteps in a bid to document precious family memories and drum up funds for the NHS.

The industry was among those hardest hit by the lockdown restrictions as studios, weddings and other public places were all deemed out of bounds.

Couple Charlie and Lauren Moore in Snodland Photo: Strawberry Photography

But now so-called "doorstep photoshoots" are providing families with the chance to capture some priceless memories during these difficult times.

It has also afforded snappers a safe space in which to engage with clients and neighbours while also bringing in some much needed cash for their businesses and the health service.

New mum Sarah Hunt is currently running her business Strawberry Photography from her home in Snodland.

The 32-year-old usually focusses on weddings but as these have all now been rescheduled until next year the doorstep project has been providing a new outlet in-between caring for her three month old daughter Margot.

Each session is conducted outside and in line with government guidelines on the two metre distance, although in reality Sarah says it’s closer to four or five metres because of the quality of her camera lens.

Tony Legg and Jane Pullinger-Legg who is a nurse assessor in the NHS Photo: Strawberry Photography

"It was a little bit slow at first. I think people couldn't quite grasp the idea of how it worked," she said.

Work soon began to pick up and Sarah has been booked in for various sessions around Snodland which she times around her baby's feeds.

"These have been a lot of fun and gone down really well," she said. "My approach is very relaxed and informal which enables me to create real and candid photos."

"I was doing virtual shoots and these were okay but they are just not the same as getting out and taking photos".

Sarah has snapped everyone from a funeral director to a nurse assessor and her pet pooches.

But a group she has taken shots of regularly is mums-to-be and includes one expecting mum who found out she was pregnant just days before going into lockdown.

Funeral director Gray Reigate, pictured with wife Zoe, daughter Molly and Boris the boxer Photo: Strawberry Photography

She said: "As well as family photoshoots, I have also photographed mums to be which has been so great as many of them have been in lockdown since the start of their pregnancies, so this has been a lovely way for them to show off their bumps.

"Otherwise there is going to be people being like 'oh my god' you're pregnant.

"Adapting my business to be able to create these images for people in these unprecedented times has been extremely rewarding – It's also great to just get back out there with my camera."

Payment is collected through contactless means and £5 from every shoot is donated to the NHS.

Sarah is also part of a team of Kent wedding suppliers who are putting on a wedding worth £35,000 for one lucky NHS worker.

The competition is the brainchild of Lou Finn, owner of Ashford-based Bake To The Future who has brought together 52 suppliers to donate their services for free.

The Champion family photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

Another photographer who has been doing her part for the NHS is Sevenoaks-based Estelle Thompson.

The 46-year-old has been capturing a frank snapshot of what lockdown life has been like in the small village of Fawkham in Longfield.

Estelle's calendar would usually be booked up with weddings and baby shoots at this time.

But when the Coronavirus struck her business Estelle Photography ground to a halt and as a self-employed worker says she did not qualify for government relief.

She wrote on her blog: "My heart broke every time a bride contacted me to discuss new dates for a wedding that was long awaited and now would be pushed back further."

Scarlett and Harry used the photos to wish their nanny a happy birthday, as they couldn't be with her. Photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

The snapper filled her time taking shots of her dogs and birds on the garden feeder but said nothing could match up to the joy of "capturing the personalities and cheeky smiles" of people.

"We are never photographers because it pays the bills, we are photographers because we love it," she said.

Estelle noticed people talking about a project in America called "Doorstep portraits" and decided to emulate it in her own tiny village by posting on the Fawkham community Facebook page.

The response was simply overwhelming, she says, with so many people wanting to be photographed – mostly to document what the current time is like for their children.

It was this which was to serve as her main motivator throughout the period, she adds "for those kids to be able to turn around to their own kids and show them this is what it was like".

In return Estelle asked villagers for a £10 pledge to the NHS and has now amassed more than £500 thanks to various generous donations.

Adele Barker is the new priest-in-charge at Saint Marys Photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

She said: "So, I had photographed the village, the people that live here, the rocks and the rainbows.

"It is kind of my gift, to the village that I love, where both my home and my business is."

She recalls how even her husband became a hero in the village after dressing up as a Tyrannosaurus Rex and surprising a three-year-old boy from afar while having his birthday party in lockdown.

The photographer says the idea has since "spiralled" into a time capsule, with her being asked to bury a USB containing some of the doorstep portraits.

She even snapped the new priest Adele Barker who arrived at the local church St Marys in Longfield not long before lockdown.

"So much has changed," she said. "If you look back now the first photo had daffodils, now there is blue bells."

Estelle's husband dressed up as a dinosaur to celebrate neighbour Josh who was celebrating his third birthday in lockdown Photo: Estelle Thompson Photography

But even though she misses her family and friends Estelle says she is incredibly grateful for her village neighbours.

She added: "The community during this time has just been incredible –to have their experience to document."

David and Jemma Rannard of Click:Create Rannard's Photography and Design have been offering to take family portraits outside homes but also to record important events during lockdown.

David said: "The family photos have really taken off. It is a way for people to keep in touch during these terrible times.

"When we realised people were making the effort to stage VE Day parties at home we thought it could be a natural extension of what we do."

David and Jemma Rannard and daughter Eva of Click:Create at Iwade offering VE Day photos on your doorstep

Wife Jemma, a graphic designer, is usually on hand and the couple now have an apprentice in the shape of their nine-year-old daughter Eva.

The couple charge £20 for a 10-minute photo shoot and donate £5 to the NHS.

It’s an emotional pledge for the family who sadly lost a friend to Covid-19.

And while offers of work are now coming in from different parts of the county the couple say they are having to decline them.

He explained: "It really only started as a bit of a service to villagers in Iwade where we live. We have done a few in Sittingbourne but I didn't think it was right for us to travel too far.

"It really angers me when people don't take this situation seriously and ignore the advice we are being given. The more we all sacrifice now, the quicker it will be over."

Source: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/authors/sean-delaney/

[verdiprati]

Hi there! (I love this blog btw, God bless) I'm not an opera expert, hence the anon, but a theatre buff who would very much like to hear your thoughts on Brett Dean's Hamlet if you feel like it ...

Greetings, Anon! Thank you for the compliment on my blog, and thanks for sending me a question! I like to chat and discuss stuff.

I’m not sure if you’ve seen Brett Dean’s Hamlet or not so I am not sure how much context I need to give for my remarks. I will take a stab at this, though.

The first thing I’d observe about Dean’s Hamlet is that it assumes its audience is already very familiar with the play. I think it’s watchable even if you do not know the play well, but sort of like Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, it is aimed at people who have probably read the play in school and seen multiple stage performances and/or movie adaptations of it, and who may be able to quote some of the more famous lines from memory. Hamlet is one of the most performed and most adapted pieces of theater in the world; Brett Dean and the librettist Matthew Jocelyn are well aware of that, and do not respond by trying to make the ultimate, most perfect adaptation, but rather by making something new yet recognizable, with plenty of in-jokes. 

As you may know, they sort of put the text(s) through a blender. Many famous lines and familiar characters were completely cut out; other lines were re-ordered and re-assigned. A chorus, nonexistent in the Shakespeare play, was added; as well as making up the court of Elsinore, it functions like a classic Greek chorus, commenting on and amplifying the action, and also like an extension of the orchestra, sometimes adding eerie vocal effects to the overall tapestry of sound in the auditorium. The roles of Horatio and Marcellus are greatly reduced in the Dean/Jocelyn Hamlet while the presence of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is increased in proportion to (what is left of) the rest of the play.

Probably my favorite thing about the Dean/Jocelyn adaptation of Hamlet is the fact that they deliberately selected bits and pieces of language from all three of the textual witnesses, including the so-called “bad quarto.” To back up and explain a little bit (with apologies if you know this stuff already): there is no one text of Hamlet. As with all the rest of Shakespeare’s plays, we have no manuscript in Shakespeare’s hand. What we have are various early printed editions of Shakespeare’s plays that could plausibly, in one way or another, have derived from a manuscript (or multiple manuscripts!) written by Shakespeare. In the case of Hamlet, there’s the 1603 quarto edition (Q1), the 1604 quarto (Q2), and the version included in the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (F1). The texts of Q2 and F1 are largely similar to each other and most modern editions of Hamlet are based on a melding of them, but Q1 is substantially shorter than the other two texts, a couple of the characters have different names, and some of the speeches are chopped up in ways that seem clearly erroneous (Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech is notoriously muddled in Q1). Thus Q1 has come to be known as a “bad quarto” and has traditionally been disparaged and discarded by editors trying to piece together an authoritatively Shakespearean version of Hamlet. 

There are various theories of how Q1 came to be so “bad.” I did my undergraduate thesis on the so-called “bad quarto” of Romeo and Juliet, so I spent a few months reading as much scholarship on the “bad quartos” as I could get my hands on. Some of the “bad quarto” theories are kind of crackpot. The generally-accepted explanation for how these texts came into existence, though, is piracy by memorial reconstruction: the idea is that a couple of actors in Shakespeare’s company would go to a printer and recite as much of the play as they could from memory. They would report their own parts pretty reliably, and they would have fair-to-good recall of other actors’ lines from the scenes they were in, but their recall would degrade for scenes where they were offstage. Moreover, cuts and other changes to the text might have been made in the theater in the process of bringing the play to the stage; these would be reflected in the “bad quarto” but not in other versions of the text deriving more directly from a manuscript penned by Shakespeare. On the plus side, the actors would sometimes supply stage directions in the “bad quartos” that were never specified in other textual witnesses, giving us some valuable clues about the action Shakespeare’s original audiences might actually have seen on the stage.

In recent years, there’s been some interest in reviving the so-called “bad quartos” as performance texts, with an eye towards accessing more “theatrical” versions of Shakespeare’s plays: my interest in the “bad quartos” was first hooked when I met a scholar of early modern performance studies who was directing a “bad quarto” performance of Romeo and Juliet at Oxford in the late ′90s. After finishing my Romeo and Juliet undergrad thesis, I headed off to a graduate program known for its strengths in textual studies, intending to continue in this academic vein. I actually ended up changing fields for my dissertation but I took enough graduate coursework in bibliography, textual criticism, and scholarly editing to achieve geekgasm when Dean and Jocelyn had characters alternately singing “solid” and “sullied”—a reference to a notorious editorial crux in Hamlet, one of the most famous scholarly editing problems of all time. (Here is just one person’s take on the matter.) I really enjoyed the fact that they not only used bits and pieces of Hamlet Q1 on an equal footing with pieces of Q2 and F1 but also took the spirit of a “theatrical” reading of the bad quartos as justification for their adaptation: in cutting and reordering the Hamlet scripts and reassigning many words to other characters, they were not doing anything that Shakespeare’s own company of actors didn’t do. (They did a lot more of it, though!)

Witty and intriguing little turns in the Dean/Jocelyn adaptation flew by too quickly for me to remember them all, but I remember having the impression that their version of Hamlet did a number of things to foreground the theatrical themes of the play. For instance, the whole episode of Hamlet’s trip to England was cut, but the play-within-a-play received lavish attention. (Amber Treadway composed an excellent tweet on “the most meta players scene ever.”) One tiny detail that I especially liked: Hamlet’s line “Do not saw the air too much with your hand,” from his instructions to the players, was relocated to the final duel, where it became a taunt from Hamlet to Laertes, calling attention to the aesthetic aspect of Laertes’ performance as a fencer.

By reducing the cast of soloists, minimizing some of the secondary roles, and completely cutting out all references to the Norwegian threat to the Danish state, Dean and Jocelyn shaped their version of Hamlet into a drama of two interlinked families. Hamlet, the Ghost, Claudius, and Gertrude make up one of the families; Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia make up the other; and the two are linked by Hamlet and Ophelia’s broken romance. This adaptation foregrounds Gertrude’s tenderness towards Ophelia and Laertes; up until Hamlet gave them reasons to hate him, after all, Gertrude was planning and assuming that she would soon welcome them as new relatives by marriage. Throughout the Glyndebourne staging directed by Neil Armfield, Gertrude can frequently be seen literally reaching out to other characters, touching and caressing them; she is, in this version, a dedicated peacemaker, striving—up until the moment of her own poisoning, when she realizes that her husband intends to kill her son—to hold the court together.

Another interesting presence in this version was the triply-cast role of the ghost of old Hamlet, the first player, and the gravedigger, played memorably by Sir John Tomlinson for the premiere production. I liked the fact that the opera made use of role doubling, a longstanding theatrical practice that is believed to have been used by Shakespeare’s acting company. Besides being one of the elements that made the opera feel very “theatrical” to me, it also allowed the ghost of Hamlet’s father to sort of implicitly or symbolically stick around as an ally to Hamlet. The roles of the first player and the gravedigger stand outside the two-family structure I outlined above, but they fit into another structure of Dean’s Hamlet: Team Hamlet vs. Team Claudius. As Hamlet’s bonds with his immediate family and his girlfriend are rapidly eroded, he turns to figures like Horatio, Marcellus, the players, and the gravedigger for trustworthy information and companionship. As I already mentioned, the roles of Horatio and Marcellus are minimized in this adaptation, so the roles of the first player and the gravedigger take on proportionally greater importance (even though their lines are also reduced). 

Those are my thoughts on Brett Dean’s Hamlet, or at least, as many thoughts as I can write up in an evening. Feel free to send me your thoughts too, or ask follow-up questions!

[shaizstern]

Article from WSJ: The Super Bowl of Jewish Learning

Rising anti-Semitism didn’t stop 90,000 Orthodox Jews from gathering on New Year’s Day to celebrate a religious milestone.

Attendees sing and dance during the Siyum HaShas at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Jan 1. PHOTO: KEVIN HAGEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Adam Kirsch

Jan. 3, 2020 

On the first day of 2020, some 90,000 Orthodox Jews gathered at New Jersey’s MetLife stadium for a celebration more than seven years in the making. This was the Siyum HaShas, Hebrew for “completion of the Talmud,” and it marked the conclusion of a program of religious study engaged in by tens of thousands of Jews around the world.

People who commit to Daf Yomi—Hebrew for “daily page”—read one folio page of the Talmud every day for 2,711 consecutive days, all following the same order, until they have traversed the entire text. The Talmud, which forms the basis of Jewish law, records the debates of ancient rabbis about ordinary civil matters like torts and divorce, as well as specifically religious topics like how to keep the Sabbath and celebrate holidays—not to mention the arcane ritual procedures governing animal sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Judging by recent headlines, it might have seemed like an inauspicious moment for celebrating. Just three weeks earlier and 10 miles away, a pair of anti-Semitic terrorists attacked a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, N.J., killing three people. On Dec. 28, the last night of Hanukkah, another attacker broke into the home of a rabbi in Monsey, N.Y., a Hasidic Jewish enclave, and stabbed five people. Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn have been the targets of almost daily incidents of physical and verbal abuse over the past several weeks.

These attacks did not go unmentioned in the Siyum’s daylong program of speeches by eminent rabbis. Indeed, the very first speaker—Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Jewish organization that sponsors the Siyum—warned that “the scourge of anti-Semitism is raising its ugly head once again.” Security at MetLife Stadium was tight: In the days leading up the event, Rabbi Yosef Golding, the chief operating officer of Agudath Israel, was quoted as saying, “I don’t think there will be a bomb-sniffing dog in New Jersey that won’t be in the stadium.”

One of the 2,711 pages of the Talmud. PHOTO: ALAMY

When a religious community only makes news for being victims, however, the world can gain a very distorted impression of what the life of that community is really like. The Siyum HaShas, which in the end went off without a hitch, was a rare public opportunity to see the American Orthodox community on its own terms, in an atmosphere of festivity and pride.

Most of the attendees were what is often described (by others, not themselves) as “ultra-Orthodox”—Jews who adhere strictly to traditional law and keep secular society at some degree of distance. The nearly full stadium was a sea of black hats and dark clothing, the characteristic garb of the ultra-Orthodox. In fact, a substantial part of the community was present in the stadium. Exact statistics are hard to come by, but according to a 2013 Pew Research Center report, there are an estimated 5.3 million Jews in America, of whom 10% identify as Orthodox. If those numbers are correct, then close to 20% of them were at the Siyum HaShas.

The event showed, in large ways and small, how fluently Orthodox Judaism speaks the American idiom.

The event showed, in large ways and small, how fluently Orthodox Judaism speaks the American idiom. MetLife Stadium is the home of the Jets and the Giants, and the teams’ banners and regalia decorated the stands along with signs for Pepsi and Verizon. As at a football game, the press gallery was full of reporters, and the luxury suites had been rented out to families and groups.

But this Super Bowl-like setting was permeated by references to the Talmud, which Jews were studying more than 1,000 years before Columbus. On the stadium’s video crawl, instead of statistics about touchdowns, there were statistics about Talmud: which is the shortest chapter and which the longest, or how many times a particular rabbinic sage is mentioned in the text.

Meanwhile, in between speeches, the Jumbotrons showed expertly produced videos like “Heroes of the Daf,” an inspirational montage featuring people who overcame obstacles to learn their page of Talmud every day. They ranged from ordinary fathers and husbands who got up in the dark to study before work, to Mendy Rosenberg, a Brooklyn man suffering from advanced ALS, who manages to study with the help of a computer that responds to his eye movements.

An attendee in prayer at the Siyum HaShas. PHOTO: KEVIN HAGEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

All of these students, like the majority of attendees at the Siyum HaShas, were men. Traditional Judaism reserves Talmud study for men alone, and while growing numbers of women have begun to study the text in Modern Orthodox and non-Orthodox settings, the gender division is strictly preserved in the ultra-Orthodox world (as it was in the seating plan at MetLife Stadium, where women occupied their own section). Women are able to participate in Daf Yomi only at a remove, by making it possible for their husbands to study.

Naturally, a football stadium full of people isn’t the place to go for actual insights into the Talmud, whose complexities were being honored in principle more than in practice. Indeed, while spending an hour or two daily poring over a legal text might sound like an extraordinary commitment, the truth is that Daf Yomi, from the time it was invented in Poland in 1923, was a populist approach to Talmud study. It was designed for laymen, not elite scholars, who devote all day, every day to mastering Jewish law.

And most of the men at the Siyum were not themselves completing the Daf Yomi cycle. Rather, they were there to join in a communal celebration of the idea of learning Torah—a term that, in traditional usage, encompasses not just the Five Books of Moses, but the entire system of Jewish law. One speaker, Rabbi Yissochar Frand, spoke of the “the transformative, supernatural power of Torah” on the Jewish soul, by which he meant not just abiding by the Torah’s commandments, but actively studying them.

This is perhaps the most distinctive quality of traditional Jewish spirituality: the close association between the sacred and the intellectual. Studying Talmud involves learning two ancient languages—Hebrew and Aramaic—in order to master the text’s compressed verbal style, its proliferating commentaries and its very diverse subject areas.

That text has been transmitted, first orally and then in writing, since the first centuries A.D., when rabbis in what is now Iraq created what is still called the Babylonian Talmud. In other words, it is a product of a Jewish community that lived as a minority in a much larger culture—as all Jews did in the two millennia before the creation of Israel in 1948. Jews continued to study Talmud in all those times and places, often in spite of official bans—for the Talmud has often been a focus of anti-Jewish hatred, from the Spanish Inquisition to Nazi Germany. Recent acts of violence against Orthodox Jews show that such hatred may never totally disappear. But for 90,000 people to be able to celebrate the Talmud, publicly and proudly—that would not have been imaginable in any country where Jews have lived in the diaspora, except the United States.

[pattismithpoet]

on WUTHERING HEIGHTS

In West Yorkshire, in the village of Haworth, behind the parish church, stands the Brontë parsonage Museum. Passing through the rooms, one may view the humble yet precious possessions of the Brontë family. Among these affecting treasures, in the corner of a glass case, is a white porcelain cup. It attracts the eye by the strength of the name emblazoned in gold script upon it: Emily Jane Bronte. A singular cup for a singular girl.

Emily, the fifth of six children, was born on July 30, 1818, in the village of Thornton, to Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë, an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820 they moved to Haworth, where Patrick was appointed perpetual curate. Sadly Maria died not long after the birth of their youngest child, Ann. In 1825, the two eldest sisters tragically succumbed to tuberculosis. The remaining Brontë children were schooled beneath their father's watchful eye. In their free hours, ignighted by a collective creative impulse, they became vigilant architects of a detailed country of their own design. All displayed various talents, though Emily stood somewhat apart from her siblings, in stature and in her solitary and independent disposition.

As a child she was described as having—the  eyes of a half-tamed creature,—being drawn to the unnatural, with a penchant for improvising tempestuous fairy stories. A disorderly daydreamer, she carved a bold letter E onto the mahogany surface of the common writing table and played Mozart and Brahms on a cabinet piano. Her father singled her out as the genius in the family, though not always in ways that could be conventionally measured. He taught her to shoot a pistol and no doubt sensed her likeness with his Irish kin, the strong-willed people of county Down.

She grew tall and willowy, with dark heavy tresses and somber, secretive ways. She shunned people, preferring her geese and an injured Merlin hawk she called Hero. With her rough dogs she patrolled the moorland where the windswept heather was like a billowing sea of long fragrant hair. Rejecting petticoats, she climbed the rocky terrain blanketed in mist, and tramped through cold streams that penetrated the leather boots laced beneath her skirts. Absorbed by turbulence, her deep hazel eyes barely concealed the evolving duality of her soul. Emily had no want for guides nor earthy gain. But the time came when all four siblings had to step out to make a living. Only Charlotte was offered the prospect of marriage, which she duly declined. After some failed attempts Emily found employment at Law Hill School in Halifax. She endured the excessive duties fro she was well capable of bending to a heavy workload. She too notice of her environs, with its crumbling architecture and defaced griffons, as well as the histories of strange residents. She wrote poems in the night known to no one. Initially, sustained by her vibrant imagination and the familiar rolling landscape, she bore the labors of Law Hill. But the mounting sense of confinement, combined with insomnia and melancholic fasting, eventually broke her.  

Her malaise resulted in her liberation from employment and she gratefully returned to Haworth. Emily was home—and moorland bound. Here she physically prospered, free to stride the countryside in contented solitude. She delighted in her chores and at day's end she would retire to the narrow unheated child's study and curl up to sleep in the small bed that she once shared with her sister Charlotte. In the summer of 1845, plagued with emotional set backs, the four siblings once again joined at the parsonage. It was not an altogether happy reunion as Branwell, facing professional as well as personal disgrace, arrived in a greatly deteriorated state. Indeed he painted himself out of a group portrait as if he did not merit being in his sister's company: a poignant, perhaps prophetic tableau, considering their coming accomplishments.  

Branwell’s volatile behavior governed their daily life, causing much uncertainly about the future. In the midst of such anxious turmoil Charlotte discovered Emily's poems in her open portable writing desk. Convinced of their merit, she strived to see them published. After much protesting by Emily the mission was accomplished, with a selection of poems written by the three sisters under pen names—Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell—thus blurring the gender line. Through the small produced no financial gain, the spark of ambition was ignited. Echoing the creative pastimes of their youth, the sisters initiated a new ritual. They put up their sewing a nine p. m. And, as Branwell made his rounds of the pubs, they clandestinely converged in the sitting room. Each turned to their novel, preying upon their muses, pacing around the table like players in musical chairs.

Through the endless winter of 1847 the Brontë sisters paced, sparred and provoked one another. They had written since childhood: a form of comradely self-entertainment, inventing scandalous histories, warring countries, dueling kings—their own game of thrones. At the ink-stained table, scarred in the center with a candle-burn the size of a small hand, each conceived of her heroine—drawing from the sap of their particular situations. Anne offered her own double with the gentle, empathetic Agnes Grey. In an act of proud defiance, Charlotte created the small, plain and beloved Jane Eyre. Agnes Grey and Jane Eyre each would be obliged to overcome numerous trials before securing constant and fulfilling love-on-earth by book’s end.

~~~

Another side of the heroic mirror. Moorland twilight spellbinding bleak. Wrapped in the full light of dreaming. He could hardly bear to look into their face When the shroud of illusion dropped As God made them  As God made them Absolute cruelty redeemed by absolute love The black hole of a moonless night The suddenness of punishing sin.  

introduction to the Folio Society's limited edition of Emily Bronte's WUTHERING HEIGHTS 2014 by Patti Smith

Boreas, John William Waterhouse (1903)

[made-from-starlight]

Blast from the Past, or How Not to Write a Query Letter

It has been a WHILE since I’ve been on Tumblr and I’m sorry for the disappearing act. The best news, though? I got a book deal! My YA Fantasy novel, Ash Princess, will be out from Delacorte in Spring 2018 in the US and in ten(!!!) other countries so far. I think everyone who knows me knows that this has been a long time in the works. Eight years, to be exact, from finishing my first book when I was eighteen to selling this one.

Which also breaks down to nine manuscripts. You read that right. Nine manuscripts. In hindsight, most of these could more accurately be called drafts since it took me quite a while to get the hang of editing (and relatedly, asking for help from critique partners and beta readers). So if I could give any kind of general advice, it would be that: get other eyes on your work. Ask for help from people who you trust to be critical. Listen to them and REwrite.

More specific advice? Write a compelling query letter.

One important thing to remember is that agents WANT you to succeed. They’re hoping a query will grab them, they’re hoping they’ll read material they fall in love with. But they also see a lot of queries and writing a query that stands out is a lot of work and often requires several drafts and getting critiques from others to point out things that you might be too close to notice.

I’ve interned at two different literary agencies and at one, my main job was going through the query inbox. At the other, I read submitted manuscripts, which is a topic for a different day. I had already sent my queries for Ash Princess when I started my first internship and shortly thereafter, my agent (the incomparable Laura Biagi) offered me representation, but I learned so much about writing query letters in those months that I wish I’d known years earlier because my queries pre-Ash Princess?

They sucked. You want proof? Behold: the very first query I ever wrote, at eighteen, for a YA fantasy novel in the vein of Gail Carson Levine in all of it’s cring-y glory.

To __________,

  Undoubtedly you’ve grown up hearing fairytales. Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast; classic tales full to the brim of magic, love and happily ever afters for all those who deserve them. Stories about dainty, delicate princesses, peasant girls with their heads in the clouds and heroes that are all charm and no flaws. But in reality, no one is quite so perfect, even in the realm of fairytales.

  Anything, my first full novel, is the story about three girls who live in the fantastical country of Vairleigh. There’s Violie, the blunt, brash and beautiful princess silently rebelling against a life she has no control over, Bindi the Cinderella-esque heroine who has both feet firmly on the ground, thank-you-very-much and more sense than to pine over princes and then there’s Tippa, the wide-eyed, romantic village girl who proves she’s made of tougher stuff than everyone seems to expect of her.

  When Bindi’s mother dies, leaving her orphaned at seventeen, a stroke of fate sends her to the palace on the whim of Prince Lucas, a boy she didn’t recognize a few weeks before when they met at Market Day. Once there, Bindi is ostracized by the other ladies who attend to the princess, ridiculed if she’s lucky, ignored completely if not. She finds friendship in an unusual place, the princess herself who is just as much an outcast as she is, but by choice. She also finds herself falling for Prince Lucas, despite her hardest efforts to be practical.

  After Bindi left her best friend Tippa behind in their village, Tippa relied more than ever on her fiancé Peter, whom she’d been desperately in love with since they were twelve. But when another girl turns up pregnant, claiming Peter as the baby’s father, Tippa finds herself wholly alone for the first time. She makes it through, closing herself off from romance for the pain it had already caused her. But where does that leave Jory, the scar-faced, kind-eyed knight who has been faithfully delivering letters to and from Bindi since she left?

  Violie, on the other hand, needs no one. She’s grown up with only her older brother and his despicable friend, Raif for true company. One day, she knows, she’ll be shipped off to a foreign country to secure an alliance of truce. It’s not a future she’s ever openly begrudged, though she quietly fights it in any way she can. When Raif goes from being despicable to being surprisingly alluring, Violie finds herself unwilling to part from him. Though at what cost to her country?

  Anything tells the story of three radically different girls from opposing backgrounds as they pass into adulthood and learn what love and friendship really mean.

  As stated before, Anything is my first full novel (currently just over 97,000 words), though I’ve written several unfinished stories and a few plays including one that won Critic’s Choice at the Florida District X Thespian Festival. I’m currently a freshman at Savannah College of Art and Design and aspiring to major in Performing Arts and minor in Creative Writing and British-American Studies. Thank you for taking the time to look over this and let me know if you’d like to see the full manuscript.

Sincerely,

Laura Kathleen Sebastian

A couple of side notes: I did not, in fact, end up minoring in Creative Writing or British-American Studies. Eighteen-year-old Laura was an ambitious but lazy creature. Secondly, this query could have been phenomenal and this book wouldn’t have gone anywhere. It was a godawful mess on so many levels, but let’s pretend for a second that it wasn’t. There are so many things wrong with this query alone. I’m also pretty mortified by the names I chose.

The most troubling thing about it isn’t even the embarrassing mess of typos (but check your typos, guys) it’s that there is nothing compelling about any of this. There is no sense of what the characters are working toward or what’s at stake for them if they fail. I don’t think anyone reading this would want to know more and therefore, it’s not a successful query.

The beginning paragraph could, honestly, be cut. It’s cliche and boring and I would bet most agents stopped reading one sentence in. Not that it gets much better after that.

There’s just too much happening here. Now, I had three main characters with different things going on and one of the many problems with the manuscript itself is that there wasn’t really a through-line connecting the stories. The characters knew each other and interacted, but their stories weren’t really connected. As a result, the query was impossible to write in any sensical way.

For comparison’s sake, below I’ve pasted the query I sent out for Ash Princess:

Dear __________,

Theodosia’s mother was known as the Queen of Flame and Fury, but after their country was conquered by seafaring savages and her mother executed, Theo became the Ash Princess. Taken hostage at the age of six to prevent rebellion, she has been ridiculed and abused by the Kaiser and his court for more than a decade. Though she is surrounded by those who use her country’s once sacred magic sacrilegiously, the only power Theo possesses is her sharp, conniving mind. She pretends to be broken and empty-headed in order to survive, but Theo has never stopped gathering intelligence and planning her revenge.

When the Kaiser forces her to execute her last hope of rescue, Theo vows to save herself, even if that means hurting the enemies she’s come to love. She throws herself into a plot to seduce and murder the Kaiser’s warrior son with the help of a group of magically gifted and volatile rebels, but her developing feelings for him and her close friendship with a spoiled but kind socialite blur the line between the naive girl she pretends to be and the shrewd queen she needs to become.

Cornered into impossible choices and unable to trust even those who claim to be on her side, Theodosia must stand on her own as a queen in order to to liberate her people before there is nothing left of her country but ashes.

ASH PRINCESS is a YA Fantasy novel complete at 91,000 words. It is perfect for fans of Marie Rutkoski’s THE WINNER’S CURSE and those who root for Sansa on GAME OF THRONES (but wish she had a little more gumption).

I graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2012 and am currently living in Manhattan and working as a babysitter. Previously, I interned at Housing Works Bookstore and I still volunteer there. I also have a play published with Playscripts, Inc.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Laura Sebastian

Even rereading it now, there are little things I want to change, but overall the query does it’s job. It introduces a main character (Theodosia) and shows what she wants (to reclaim her country) and it makes it clear what’s at stake if she fails (her life and the lives of her people). It also hints at complications that will arise on her journey without giving an overwhelming amount of information right up front. My agent ended up using bits and pieces of this query in my pitch letter and it still lives on in my Goodreads summary. I also can’t understate the importance of good, accurate comp titles, but again, that’s another post for another day.

In an early version of this query, I’d made the common mistake of throwing too many fantasy names of places and people right up front but an amazingly kind agent (Molly Jaffa at Folio Jr) pointed this out early on and my query became instantly better.

It’s worth pointing out that my Ash Princess query is significantly shorter than my first one, but that it accomplishes way more. This is something to think about when you write your query as well. Having seen a query inbox from the other side, I can say that agents do get a LOT of queries and that keeping things concise and compelling is the way to go.

I got no interest at all in my first query, no partial or full requests. For Ash Princess, I got quite a few requests, including one from Agent Laura!

So if you’re currently querying or getting ready to start, I hope this helps out a bit and I’m happy to answer any questions. It’s a rough path, I know. I have email folders with over 200 rejections, not including the agents who don’t reply if they aren’t interested. But hang in there. Write. Rewrite. Rewrite some more. It’ll be worth it, I promise.

[edtechlg]

Folio Thinking & Eportfolios

“Folio Thinking” and ePortfolios

A portfolio is a collection of artifacts that assists a person in telling their story of learning, growth, and accomplishment. Originally used by artisans and designers to show potential patrons what they can do. Educators have morphed the portfolio creating exercise into a process that shows students what they can do. Education has historically used a flurry of instruments to assess student progress and achievement; each one attempting to enumerate a very precise aspect of learning. 

Let’s compare traditional assessments to folios...

Tests and quizzes assess the accumulation of knowledge. In its most popular form, multiple choice, the test endevours to set up a situation and ask the student to make a decision. However, the situation isn’t always authentic and the decision isn’t always made using the skill the test desired. In contrast, a portfolio or eportfolio affords itself transparency. The viewer or evaluator knows the skill is achieved because of the evidence present, and the creator knows they have achieved mastery of the skill because they: 1. Know the standard expected of them to master the skill, 2. Evaluate their work against the expected standard, 3. Demonstrate their work meets the expected standard. 

Worksheets and homework are intended as practice, and what it is they assess tends to vary from educator to educator. Are we assessing the ability to learn a skill immediately? Are we assessing effort? There are many areas where repetition and practice are needed to master a skill, but the point to the repetition is the end point, not the practice. I practice my scales so that I can play a song on the guitar, not so that I can keep playing scales. Sadly, we also see many of these assignments fit in what I like to call the search and record category of assignments. These assignments assess your ability to find information in one source and write that information in another spot so you can turn that into your instructor. Proving that you can find information and write it down. A portfolio/eportfolio takes each of these well-intentioned activities and redefines their meaning. Rather than just practice students can log, reflect, and analyze their progress involving practice activities. The living record of research and resources accompanied with student reflection also takes the simple recording of learned information to a place where knowledge is sustained and added to rather than crammed for an assessment and then forgotten afterward.         

Essays, research papers, and student presentations come the closest to assessing verbs higher on the Bloom’s compendium. There is reflection through the revision process. Students are asked to wrestle with an idea or topic, evaluate opinions and sources, and justify assertions. That’s some high-level thinking, but still this assessment is limited by time. The paper or presentation is submitted and the learning stops. The course continues. The student continues, but that piece goes on a thumb drive somewhere to die. When you live that folio life, your work gets resurrected. You grow and learn, and that can be reflected in your work. The academic rigor of a long form assessment like the ones mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph are intensified 10 fold by the meta analysis one does with portfolio reflection. Determining the achievement of learning standards offers a new level of understanding that isn’t afforded by the modern essay writing process. 

If I had my way...

As a student pursuing a graduate degree in Educational Technology Leadership, I do not find it very relevant or meaningful to answer comprehension questions about educational technology that professors have identified as important, so they can evaluate how well I memorized information. What is important to me are the skills, research, and resources I aquire over the duration of my degree program. It is much more helpful for me to have a useful product that I created, and to be able to leverage that product to improve my professional outcomes whether that is within an institution or during a job search.    

I would much prefer to be assessed by articulating what I know through a collection of artifacts that shows evidence of learning. As an Instructional Technology Specialist, most of my time is spent trying to educate teachers about the research behind instructional practices. Keeping record of my learning in an easily accessible, digital format allows me to share the work that I do at the graduate level with the teachers I work with at the secondary level. 

Portfolio vs. Eportfolio

Physical portfolios hold a nostalgic property that connects the creator to the artifacts inside. The image of preparation, organization, and presentation coalesce into magic when a crisp portfolio accompanies a potential hire into the interview room. While a digital copy is easy to update and oftentimes much easier to access, the medium can still tend to look less polished if not done right. Through reflection an eportfolio can still give its creator a feeling of whimsy when browsing through old word documents, but where the eportfolio distinguishes itself is through the ability to easily add never-ending amounts of research and resources that would turn a physical portfolio into a file cabinet. Repurposing the eportfolio enhances the likelihood that the creator will continue to use it. Used as a resume, once you get the job, the eportfolio becomes a resource, and then maybe even an instructional tool. 

Eportfolio Test Drives

In my quest to find the right tool to create my eportfolio, I experimented with three different eportfolio options. The following is my reflection and evaluation of these three tools.  

Foliospaces is an eportfolio hosting site that takes a social media approach to the collecting of learning artifacts. It has a very Facebook/Linkedin feel to it. It is set up to make sure that you create a profile with complete contact and biographic information, and then easily facilitates social-media-like sharing and networking. There are some design options available, but this was definitely the most rigid of all of the formats. I would love this for a job search, because it would ensure that I have complete and polished information. The uniform nature of the profile also takes the aesthetic critique away. There are a lot of very portfolio-specific features such as being able to create multiple portfolios and customize access to the different portfolios. This site is free and acts as a warehouse for storing all of your professional artifacts, but it does lean heavily on the career development side of eportfolios which suggests that it doesn’t afford itself to the classroom or personal study.  

Format is a premium site that hosts eportfolios. The creator can easily add content using templates or custom designs. The page builder feature allows users to decide what information is included in the portfolio and lends itself to be used with multiple audiences. Blogs and social media integrate easily which allow for a “lifewide” reach and application. The program itself guides and gives examples, but doesn’t have required information, so in this sense it is much more like a traditional website builder but with added scaffolding to help the user create a complete eportfolio.       

Google Sites can be used to create an eportfolio in a very broad sense. Sites has many applications which allow for products to morph and change the audience and purpose. Google sites affords itself to the connection of artifacts. The click-n-drag interface mixed with the storage capacity of the Drive helps the user collect and edit in a way that feels creative and open, but in reality is constrained to the essential of page building.   

For my personal use Google Sites makes the most sense. I already use G-Suite extensively. I want some element of design freedom. Also, I want to be able to use this portfolio as a resource for my current job, a resume for potential employment, and to track projects and research. The fluidity of Google Sites allows me to construct something that is useful in more than one context

Now, if I were using eportfolios with my students (who are professional teachers at a high school in Texas) I might be more inclined to use Foliospaces rather than Google Sites, because it would prompt my students to include certain information which would be helpful to inexperienced folio thinkers. There is also a built in community on the site and by adding friends users could initiate conversation and reflection about instructional practices and other relevant topics.  

Examples of Eportfolios

PD Day Portfolio: As an Instructional Technology Specialist at a high school, I am in charge of organizing and planning professional development sessions. The content standard I would look to achieve for these sessions is that teachers evaluate, plan, and improve instructional activities that maximize student performance. At the beginning of the day, I would have all of my teachers create a goal for their own learning. Teachers would create a Google Site with evidence of their learning and takeaways or analysis for improvement to pre-existing lessons. As the constructivist theory suggests, I would want teachers to connect what they are already doing in class or what they would like to do with the learning going on during professional development. The simple nature of design lends itself to this sort of quick portfolio building, and the fact that it’s a published web page makes the product more likely to be revisited by the creator. This is what you want with teachers. You want them to refer back to artifacts from a professional development, not throwing them in a file cabinet. This type of technology integration redefines the task assigned and takes it from simply taking in new information and resources to creating authentic learning tools and creating actionable steps for implementing these tools. 

Video Lesson Eportfolio: Like most educators in 2020, I create tons of video content. This content goes into a folder and gets emailed out when teachers or students are in need of the information, but this content deserves to be published and available. A learning objective I am targeting with my faculty is to incorporate media rich resources into their lessons. Creating my own eportfolio of video lessons would allow for easy access and organization of my content. Having teachers build their own eportfolio of video content using Google Sites would also promote sharing and collaboration. This type of technology integration would be a substitution for the use of storage like Google Drive. Ease of use and organization would enhance how much these resources are used. The effectiveness of sharing of ideas and content through peer discussion and brainstorming on student growth is supported by research done by John Hattie. The gathering of these resources and presenting of them in an accessible manner supports refinement in teaching practice rather than reinvention every year or recycling of old content.

[kelsusit]

Workstation

Solution Keys

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AutoCAD (such as Mental Ray rendering) is in fact relatively light on RAM specifications and Autodesk only recommends 8GB of RAM. By enabling individuals and teams to explore all their information, content material, applications and tools on hyper-visual, constantly-on digital canvases, Prysm ignites innovative thinking, drives choices, accelerates productivity and transforms presentations into experiences. Ergotron WorkFit-TL 33-406-085 is the most recent design for desktop sit-stand workstation by Ergotron. Backup database – This allows the user to be in a position to generate a full backup of the CRM Desktop. The activation server determined the specified product crucial is invalid. One of my testers from last week recommended I run fewer automobiles in the trains fro new operators, so we will try that.

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[qwedfas]

heyy I've just heard about 'media' as a subject (im in yr10) and it sounds rly cool. what exactly is it about? what do you do? who teaches it? what are your personal experiences doing it: the good, the bad and the workload. thanks fam

Hey there!

I did media last year AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT SO SO MUCH!! It is by far my favourite VCE subject and it definitely is really really cool :) Mr Muir teaches it and he’s actually such a great and interesting teacher, and prepares you really well for anything you’ll ever do in media. 

Basically there are four things you do in media:

- The first thing is your big project that goes on for about a little more than half a year, in which you get to plan and produce your own short film, zine, audio podcast or photo series (i think there might be another one or two options although most people end up making a film or zine). You plan the hell out of this for about six months and you’ve got full creative control over what you want to do. Inside of that you’ll have to create a folio outlining how you’ve come to your decisions and explorations of different technique you’d like to explore

- While this is going on you also cover three different areas of theoretical stuff:

The first is about NARRATIVE: so you’ll be going over story and production elements (you’ll learn what these are), and how they contribute to the development of a story within a film. You’ll study two films looking at those things (such as camera, lighting, editing, character development, multiple storylines, etc), as well as looking at how their genres and styles work, and how the audience may respond to the text.

The second thing you look at is MEDIA TEXTS AND SOCIETY’S VALUES: so how different values are represented in different texts (for this i studied one film and two music videos). Your texts will come from different time period and you’ll focus on a particular discourse (for example ours was women celebrities). You’ll be looking at what values are dominate, emerging and oppositional within a text and its societal context.

Finally, you’ll be looking at MEDIA INFLUENCE AND REGULATION: this meaning the laws and policies surrounding the ownership and regulation of australian media, and different theories about the degree and ways the media can potentially influence people

In class you’ll either be watching the texts you’re currently studying, getting time to work on your long term project or developing responses in regards to the three theoretical topics. Mostly it’s a lot of independent work (for the project), but the other areas the class will often brainstorm and write some stuff together, before breaking up for our own practice and revision.  Due to the class’s typically small size you get a lot of time to have good in depth discussions with each other, but also the chance to have pratice work marked and given feedback on by Mr Muir.

 In terms of the workload you have to be ready to make something for the whole year, developing a folio and the final product. If you make a film this can mean a lot of outside of class work for filming and editing (although you get a bit of time for this in class), but otherwise the theoretical work isn’t heavy at all. As long as you write notes well and stay on to of the class work you should be fine. Honestly the only time i ever really revised the theory stuff outside of class was before a SAC and the exam.

I’ll be giving more information about Media though in our upcoming VCE subject selection sessions, so keep your ears open for that. You can come and bring me more questions to answer then :)

 Hopefully this helps!

Love, FAM xx