#im not sure this will apply universally across degrees

[uselessthimbs]

man. I'm working on compiling a list of masters programs I want to apply to, so I can narrow it down on what I can AFFORD to apply to. Because each application costs money, so I'm not applying to just everywhere like I should absolutely be able to.

the number of these master programs that want 1300 PER CREDIT HOUR (58k thereabouts USD for a 2 year master program) is BONKERS. This is more than I can expect to make in a year starting out unless I get lucky.

Granted there are schools that offer WAY less per credit hour (the main school I'm pretty sure I'll go to if they accept me is about 17k for the full degree iirc)

[fivestar-outlaw]

New Horizons (Park Seonghwa) (Epilogue)

Epilogue

Pairing: Park Seonghwa x Fem!Reader

Words: 7.0k+

Warning(s): Mentions of reader being anxious/having anxiety, some swears, drinking, i think thats it.

SMUT (18+) WARNINGS: Multiple orgasms, oral (F receiving)/ face sitting, slight cockwarming, birthcontrol used, No condom use, PiV penetration, cowgirl yeehaw

A/N: Fucking- Finally finished the epilog. Grad school is slowly but surely killing me rn. I only had time to write this during the undergrad class im taking for credits iubgouoren. I hope yall enjoy.

Reader is implied to be living in the US bc uh TIMEZONES ARE FUCKY and i didnt realize how reliant i was on mine (PST) when looking up KST

English dialogue is italicized, Korean dialogue is not

Summary: Attempting an all-nighter while playing Animal Crossing alongside your bias, you didn't expect your turnip prices to be such a high amount... nor did you expect Park Seonghwa to actually accept your offer to sell his turnips on your island.

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You sat at your desk, phone set up for a video call with Seonghwa. You felt nervous. Tomorrow is your graduation, where you'll finally be done with this aspect of your life and will be moving onto the next step. Despite the distance, you and Seonghwa were as close as ever. You both missed each other dearly but talked as frequently as possible. 

You were a little sad that he and the rest of Ateez couldn't make it to your graduation, but you understood why. You didn't have much hope when you told Hongjoong the date and he told you he'd ask if they could. You tried to tell him not to ask since you knew they would be busy with an upcoming comeback, but he insisted he'd try. He talked to you the next night saying they had a packed schedule for that week and couldn't. You figured as much but it still made you a little sad.

You hear the tone for the video call and you quickly answer it with a smile. You see Hwa sitting there, but not in his room. You couldn't quite figure out where he was. He seemed to be wearing a loose sweater and a pair of glasses frames.

"Hello, jagiya." Seonghwa smiled sweetly, he seemed tired.

"Hello, love." You respond. "How are you? You seem a little tired."

"The week has been busy."

"Aw, I'm sorry. Are you currently at a schedule?" You tilt your head. You see him look off to the side. You can see that he seems to be hiding something, but you figure it was because he couldn't talk about anything specific related to any of the filmed comeback videos.

"Yeah, we are staying at a hotel. We are going to start filming soon." He sighs. "It was a last minute decision since filming took longer than expected yesterday. I wish I could tell you everything that went wrong but I can't."

"I'm sure it'll go better today, love."

 "Thank you, jagiya. But enough about me, jagiya, how are you? Are you excited for tomorrow?"

"A mix of excited and nervous. Excited to have my degree... nervous for whatever comes next. Nervous about walking across that stage to get that empty diploma case and not having a solid next thing waiting for me." You press your lips together and glance over to your cap and gown hanging in your open closet. The whole ordeal almost seems daunting now. "I've applied for jobs in my field but I haven't heard anything back... I doubt any will get back to me when I am fresh out of university."

"I wish I was there with you, (Y/N)." He looked into the camera with a concerned expression. "You'll exceed at whatever you do. I know you will. You are smart and very determined."

"It's probably just all the nerves." You chuckle weakly.

"Just know myself and the others are cheering for you, even if we can't be there. Which, we are still sorry for by the way."

"Don't worry about it. I'll have my family film my walk across the stage and we will take lots of pictures to send to you all."

"We look forward to it." He smiles. You hear a door opening and what you believe to be Hongjoong's voice. You couldn't make out what he said but you saw Seonghwa nod before hearing the door close. "Sorry, (Y/N), I have to go. We need to get ready for filming today."

"Don't apologize, love. You got this. I'm sure you will do great." You smile and you can just tell some of the stress he was feeling dissipate. 

"I love you, jagiya." He says softly.

"I love you too." There is some hesitancy to hang up but you bit the bullet and pressed the little red button on the call. You sigh, but feel lighter. It was like talking to Hwa helped calm your worries.

---

You stood with your family for a moment before you needed to join the rest of the graduating students. You stood with them in your cap and gown and a nice outfit underneath. You couldn't help but wring your hands together. You weren't necessarily nervous, but you did feel a little anxious from the excitement now. You felt you childhood best friend place their hand on your shoulder and they give you a calm smile.

"It's going to be fine, (Y/N)." They gently squeezed your shoulder. "I doubt you'll trip, so don't worry."

"Well I wasn't worried about tripping until now." You groan. "I'm not nervous. I just... can't stay still."

"Oh (Y/N), it's okay to be nervous." Your mother coos, rubbing small circles into your upper back. "Just think about the surprise we have planned for you."

"Surprise?"

"Hun, you weren't suppose to mention that." Your father chuckles. 

"I thought I told you all I needed was just a nice dinner at my favorite restaurant." You say softly. "I hope you didn't spend too much-"

"Don't worry about it. We wanted to get you something for such a big day." Your father grinned. You were going to argue back but heard the call for graduating students to start getting in place for the ceremony.

"Make sure to film my walk please!" You said and they nodded. Your family and your best friend gives you one last hug before you go to where you were supposed to, while they went off to grab seats.

You take a deep breath as you find your spot in line with the rest of your majors getting the same degree level as you and your roommate, who also was graduating alongside you. You smiled at some of your classmates you were friendly with and chatted with them. You were given a slip of paper with your name on it by one of your professors and you were left to wait for the ceremony to start. 

You felt your phone buzz under your gown. You were glad you picked something to wear underneath with pockets. You manage to get your phone out and you smile. All of Ateez were wishing you well and saying their congrats. San even sent a selfie of them all together, which they said was taken after they finished filming. You were glad they messaged you and made sure to tell them to get some rest since it was around 6am for them.

The line you were in started moving so you quickly put your phone away and started walking with your line. You can hear lots of chatter from other graduating students and could hear the chatter from people in the stands. You and the others stood still until you heard one of the deans call you guys to enter. You hear the crowd cheer as the graduating class enters the area. You tried to pinpoint your family and your best friend but had no luck finding them in the sea of people. You take your seat and wait for the rest of the graduate students to also take their seats as the stereotypical graduation march song plays.

The song ended when everyone was finished sitting down. Next were speeches by the college president, a provosts, and a dean whom you never personally interacted with, and then two professors spoke; one is the chair of your major which made you smile. Next were student speeches, neither person you recognized.

You gulp, watching as the rows ahead of you go up one by one as they were instructed by a professor to do so. There was the constant noise of clapping with each name, followed by a few people loudly cheering for whoever just got called. You clapped along as well, watching each person receive their diploma case from the college president and walk to the side to get their picture taken professionally.

Next thing you knew the people in your row started to stand. You quickly got to your feet and follow along to the stage. You wait, taking small steps as person by person hands over their name slip and walk the stage. You were getting closer and closer to the speakers stand.

Then, it's your turn.

You made conscious steps to the speaker, not wanting to trip. You hand them your name card and wait as the person ahead finished crossing the stage. The speaker smiled and read your name into the microphone. You start walking across stage to the president as the crowd clapped.

You hear loud cheers coming from the stand on the other side of the stage, more than what you were expecting from the three people there seeing you graduate. You finally see your parents and your best friend up on their feet, your dad and friend shouting loudly. But in the row in front of them, you see eight figures also on their feet shouting as loud as they can. Immediately you can tell it is Ateez. Even with face masks, different hats, and inconspicuous clothes, you could tell they were your boys. Plus, you can easily tell Wooyoung and Mingi's voices as they were the loudest and most distinct.

A large smile broke out on your face as you kept your tears at bay. You walked the stage with your head held high. You shook hands with the college president and took hold of the diploma case. You walked to the end of the stage and carefully took the steps down. You got your picture taken and you started walking back to your seat.

You look up at the stand when you heard your name shouted repeatedly by Wooyoung, San, and Seonghwa. Each member of Ateez waved as you walked by and you made sure to wave back. You felt pure happiness in the moment.

---

When the ceremony ended and all the graduates exited the way they walked in, you immediately started making your way outside. Your parents texted saying they were waiting for you by the large oak tree. You weave your way through the sea of students and their families as fast as you could. You could see the top of the tree but you knew the trunk was still some distance away from where the ceremony was held. 

You finally breach the crowd and see your parents, your best friend, and Ateez, along with their manager. They spotted you and called your name. You immediately quickened your pace.

Wooyoung held out his arms for a hug but you passed him and immediately clung to Seonghwa. The tears you held back immediately fell as you hugged him.

"Y-You're here! I can't believe you're here! Hongjoong said you guys were busy. You said you-" You rapidly spoke.

"Slow down, jagiya." Seonghwa chuckles. He held you tightly and rubbed your back. 

"Sorry, my love." You sniffle and look to his face. Despite the black mask covering his nose down to his jaw, you can tell he has a big grin on his face. He moves a step back from you, resting his hands on your jaw. The pads of his thumbs swipe away your tears gently. "I'm so happy to see you in person again."

"I'm happy too." He carefully guided you to turn around so he could move back in front of you, his back to the crowd. He pulls down his mask and leans in, his soft lips meet yours in a loving kiss. You couldn't help but smile against his lips as it felt like world around each of you melted away. You both slowly pulled away but kept your faces close. "Congratulations. I am so proud of you, (Y/N)." He whispers and kisses each cheek, making you giggled. 

"Congratulations, (Y/N)!" Wooyoung broke the moment of peace between you both as he pulled you into a big hug. You tilt your head back and laugh, all while there rest of Ateez swarmed you for their own hugs. Your face ached from how much you were smiling.

"Seonghwa contacted us a week after you had us do that video call with him." Your mother started to explain. You remember that day well, feeling nervous for your parents to meet your long distance, idol boyfriend. But they immediately loved him and exchanged contact information; mostly just in case you got in an emergency so they could inform him. Subsequently, of course, your parents met the rest of Ateez. "They wanted to surprise you and here they are."

"Sorry I lied to you, (Y/N)." Hongjoong laughed, his smile telling you he was anything but apologetic. "Yuhno suggested the idea of it being a surprise when I ran into him before I talked it over with our company. So really, blame him."

"Hey, you could of said no, Joong-hyung." Yuhno playfully glared then set his sights on Seonghwa. "Didn't you initiate the call with her parents?"

"Yes, but Sannie and Woo also sat in on the call too." Seonghwa shot back. The group delved into a big, non-serious argument of who is to blame for the lies. You shook your head with a chuckle and went to your parents.

"Thank you for arranging this." You hug them both tightly.

"Of course, (Y/N). We could see how happy you were when we met him and how yourself you were with the rest of the group, so we knew we had to put this together for you somehow." Your father had a big smile on his face, you could see tears in his eyes. "Oh, my child is all grown up..."

"I've been grown up, dad. Don't cry, you're going to make me cry again." You chuckle, feeling that sting of tears again in your eyes. You feel arms wrap around you from behind and you knew immediately it is Seonghwa. "Did you guys settle who's fault it is, love?"

"No, but it seems everyone puts the blame back on Hongjoong." He laughs. He smiles at your parents and gives them a polite bow of his head. The rest of Ateez joined back up with your parents and your best friend. They started discussing dinner plans, you jumping in when needed for translation help.

Your smile doesn't leave your face as you lean back into Seonghwa. You could have just cheap take out with everyone and you'd be happy.

---

You said goodbye to your parents and best friend when everyone arrived back at your apartment after dinner. They wanted to let you have some time alone with Ateez. Your parents managed to reserve a private space at a great restaurant ran by a friend of your mother's. The manager went to buy snacks and drinks for the rest of you guys for tonight at a near by convenience store.

"Wow you have a nice place, (Y/N)." Yeosang compliments as he looks at the various decorations and how you and your roommate placed the minimal furniture.

"Thanks, it was a collaborative effort with my roomie. Which, be as loud as you guys want. She won't be in for a few nights since she'll be staying with her family." You smile and turn go to put leftovers from dinner in the fridge, missing the way everyone looked towards Seonghwa. "How long are you here for?"

"Just the rest of tonight. We fly back early in the morning tomorrow. We may have pulled this off but we still have busy schedules coming up." Jongho answers.

"Sorry we can't stay longer." San sighs with an apologetic smile.

"No worries, I'm happy you guys made it for today." You grin and move to sit next to Hwa on the couch, immediately leaning against him. "So I take it you guys flew in last night? Is that why you were actually in a hotel, love?"

He chuckles and nods, wrapping his arm around your shoulders. His fingers gently traced patterns on your arm. "I'm glad we got to witness this."

"Of course, I'd do the same for you guys."

"Well, if you would..." Mingi smiles as he walks in front of you, holding out several small pieces of paper for you. You gingerly take them, and look at everyone with confusion and curiosity as they surrounded the couch. Wooyoung took his spot next to you and rested his chin on your shoulder, aka, on Seonghwa's hand.

"Oh my God." You gasp as you look at each paper. They chuckled at your shock. There were several plane tickets; one to South Korea, a round trip ticket to Japan and then back to Korea, and then one back home. The next paper was a pass for the waterbomb festival coming up.

"We will email you the actual virtual tickets soon." Wooyoung said with a big grin.

"A graduation present from us and our manager." Seonghwa kissed your temple.

"This had to be so expensive..."

"Don't worry about it at all. We didn't have to pay for the waterbomb ticket and we all chipped in for the flights." Yuhno said softly from behind the couch. You felt his hand pat the top of your head a few times. There was a knock at the door and the tallest went to open the door for their manager,  who came in with two, black plastic bags and one backpack. You quickly got up to your feet and approached him with a smile.

"Thank you for all you have done."

"I should thank you for helping me keep them in line." He chuckles and hands you the plastic bags. He walks over to the couch and sets the backpack at Seonghwa's feet. "Remember, we have a flight back to Korea tomorrow. Don't drink too much. (Y/N), drink all you want."

Some time passed and everyone was lounging around in the living room of your apartment. Mingi, San, and Wooyoung took over the couch. Jongho, Yuhno, Yeosang, and their manager sat in chairs from the small kitchen table. You, Seonghwa, and Hongjoong were sitting on the floor, all while everyone watched a trashy, American reality show. You were sitting between Hwa's legs with your back against his chest while he rested against San's legs.

You felt your phone buzz in your pocket. You fish it out and unlock it, seeing it was an email notification. You tapped the notification, though you didn't read what it was for, figuring it was a promotional thing or something. You looked up at the tv screen for a moment before taking a moment to read over the contents of the email.

Your eyes slowly widened with each line you read. You felt your heart flutter as you sit up straight. You felt Seonghwa's hands on your hips and he had a curious look on his face.

"(Y/N)? What's wrong?" He asks softly, trying not to draw everyones attention. He leans forward and you can feel his chest on your back again, his chin on your shoulder. You raise your phone screen up so he can have an easier time reading the email. You turn your head just enough to see his expression turn to one of shock. You felt him wrap his arms around your waist and hold you tight as a big smile broke out on his face. "Does... Does this mean...?"

"What's happening?" Sannie asked from the couch. He leaned forward as well and you pass him your phone. You can practically feel the excitement oozing from Seonghwa. San suddenly stood up, knocking into the eldest's back. He had a huge grin, his dimple prominent on his face. 

Wooyoung snatched your phone from San and you watched as his eyes scan over the screen. He then looks up at you with a big smile. "No way!"

"Care to share with the rest of us?" Mingi asked while Yeosang muted the channel. 

"Well-" San started to speak but then clasps his own hand over his mouth for a moment. He hands you back your phone and sits back down. He eagerly gestures for you to speak. You feel Hwa's hands gently squeeze your hips.

"A job I applied for contacted me and told me they were looking for fresh faces and say they see potential with my resume, my CV, and from my letters of recommendation." You beamed and everyone looked excited for you. A sea of congratulations soon followed. You kept your beaming expression and you see Hongjoong look at you.

"There is more, isn't there?" He asked, a smile growing on his face.

"The job is located in Seoul. And they are allowing me to start towards the end of the year to give me time to get my legal documents situated and to move." 

There was a moment of silence.

Then, your apartment became chaos with pure excitement. Seonghwa, Wooyoung and San already pledged themselves to help you find a place in your upcoming visit. Mingi and Yuhno express excitement for the prospect of staying over at your new place. Yeosang, Jongho, and Hongjoong already start to make plans for when you start living there. Everyone decides to have one more drink to celebrate, their manager unable to say no to such an occasion.

---

You give each member a hug as they are about to leave for the night, saying your goodbyes. You move to hug Seonghwa but he sidesteps you and moves to stand behind you. You give him a confused look while the others chuckle.

"I'm staying with you tonight, jagiya." He pecked your cheek. The others say goodnight, their manager telling him to be read by 7am, and they all quickly leave. Now, it's just you and Seonghwa. 

"That's why he brought a backpack for you." You laugh and turn to face him. You place your hands on the back of his neck and raise a brow. "You've been nothing but surprises today. I really do appreciate it." 

"Of course. I'd do just about anything for you." He smiles sweetly and leans in to kiss you. Unlike the other kisses you two shared today, this one was longer and more passionate. You can feel his lips move against yours as he swipes his tongue along your bottom lip. You smile against the kiss. Before you could part your lips, he pulls away with a flirtatious look. 

"I love you, love." He smiles at your words. He lifts his hand up and gently traces his fingers down the side of your face, sending shivers down your spine. His arms wrap around your body and he keeps you pressed against him.

"I love you too, jagiya." He brings you into another intense kiss, his tongue invading your mouth this time. You feel his fingers curl in against your back, all while your hands find themselves in his hair. He breaks the kiss once more but rests his forehead against yours. "Would you like to celebrate a little more? We don't have to go further than this-"

"I would love to." You grin. You move from Seonghwa's grasp and take his hand, pulling him to your bedroom.

The second you closed the door, Hwa is already guiding you to your bed. He lays you down on your back while he crawls over you, his lips pressed against yours. His hands grip your hips before he starts to slide them under your shirt. He shifts his leg, placing it between your thighs. His knee is just barely brushes against your core. His hands start to gently kneed your breasts over your bra.

Seonghwa starts to trail tender kisses down from your mouth to your neck. You smile at the affection and you place a kiss of your own on the top of his head. He smirked against your neck as he gently bites your skin. You feel him shift his leg that was between your legs, applying a small amount of pressure against your cunt. You let out a soft noise from the sensation and you can feel yourself growing wetter and wetter.

You move one your hands down to the growing bulge in his pants. Seonghwa chuckled and sat up, taking your hand off him.

"Tonight is all about you, jagiya." He smiled softly. He took hold of both your wrists in his hand and held them above your head. "Let me worship you."

You felt a pleasant shiver down your spine again and you nod. Hwa let go of your hands and began kissing your neck again. This time his kisses and bites to your neck were more intense. You knew for sure you would have a couple of marks there. He released his hold on your wrists but you kept your arms about head. Your body is completely at his mercy and that had you excited.

You felt him press his leg against your aching core again and this time you rolled your hips to seek pleasure, causing yourself to moan.

"Good, jagiya." Seonghwa chuckles as he moves his face by your ear. You feel his lips brush against your ear before he gently nips it. He sat up and helped you up as well.

He hums softly, tracing his nose along your face before he kisses you again. He gently nibbles your bottom lip and stares deeply into your eyes. Hwa licks his lips as he leans down and scans your body with his eyes. You feel his hand take hold of your shirt and slowly lift it up and off your body. His fingers nimbly unclasps your bra and he tosses it off your body. 

Seonghwa's hands caress and gently squeeze your breasts, the pads of his thumbs were on your nipples as he rubbed small circles with them.  He hummed with a smile. "I missed these."

You chuckle softly. "You missed my boobs?"

"Yes." He moves himself so his face his close to them. "I missed all off you, (Y/N). I missed your face, your touch, your taste... I missed seeing your smile in person, I missed hearing your laugh right beside me. I miss you."

"I miss you too Hwa." You give his cheek a tender peck. You bite your bottom lip as his hands still kneaded your breasts and his thumbs applied some pressure. "Luckily I got that job. I'll be a lot closer to you by next year."

"Still feels so far away." He whispers and starts kissing your chest. He bites the skin and sucks, doing this until he reached your nipples. His mouth encompasses the pebbled skin. You bring one of your hands up to his head and combed your fingers through his hair. He sucks and gently nibbles, his tongue rolling over your perked bud. He does this to both nipples for a few moments before pulling away, a line of saliva briefly hangs between his lips and your skin. "I want to try something, jagiya." 

"What do you want to try, love?"

"Would you want to sit on my face and let me pleasure you?" His question makes your face flush with heat. 

"You'd want to do that? Are-Are you sure you want me to sit on your face?" You can feel yourself getting more wet by the second.

"Of course." He smiles sweetly. He sits up straight so he can meet your eyes easily, his hands slide down and gently hold onto your hips. "Like I said, jagiya, I missed your taste and I think you will look breathtaking doing so... Do you want to try this out with me?"

"Then... I would like to." You bite your bottom lip and smile. His face broke out in a grin and he helped you off your lap. He moves to lay down as you slip off your pants and underwear. You move yourself up the bed near his head and carefully placed your leg on the other side of his head. His hands slid up from behind your thighs and your ass to hold your hips. You hovered over his face, looking down at him between your legs. You were a bit hesitant to lower yourself down though. "Are you sure-"

You didn't even get to finish your question when you felt Seonghwa pull you down to his mouth. Immediately his tongue went to work against you clit. You moan, one hand bracing yourself against the wall while you bury the fingers of the other in his dark hair. A vibrator certainly worked wonders, but there is something else about his tongue. He moved his up and down against your clit before moving it in circles clockwise.

"Hwa..." You say, almost sounding breathless. He simply hums and continues his ministrations with his tongue. He nuzzles his faces against your cunt and adjust his mouth so he could lap you up. Seonghwa's tongue briefly pushes against your clit and then you feel his lips wrap around your sensitive bud, gently sucking on it. Instinctively you bite your lip to hold back your moan, making him lightly slap your ass, not enough to hurt but to get a point across. He lifts you just enough to free his mouth so he could speak.

"You said your roommate is gone for the night?" He asks and you give him a quick 'yes.' You felt his lips curl into a smile. "Then don't hold back, jagiya. It's just us."

You feel his tongue move against you again in all the right ways, making you moan again. You didn't hold it back this time and you could tell Hwa is pleased with that. He shifted underneath you and he buries his face into your cunt, he continued to gently suck and swirl his tongue around your clit. His ministrations had you squirming, slowly rocking your hips against him, and you were making all sorts of noises. 

"Seonghwa..." You whimper. You speaking his name in such a manner had him groan in pleasure. You feel him shift yet again, his grip on your hips firm. His tongue is off your clit and you feel his tongue swirl around your entrance. He penetrates you and thrusts with his tongue while his nose brushed against your swollen bud. His mouth is working wonders on your and you can feel yourself getting closer to an orgasm. Hwa doesn't relent, keeping the pleasure going and keeping you relatively still with his hands holding onto your hips. "Fuck... Hwa I'm-!"

Your walls fluttered around his tongue. You feel your thigh muscles tighten and they press against his head. A loud noise of pleasure leaves your lips as you throw your head back. Hwa squeezes and lightly massages your hips as you climax, his tongue slowly slides out from your hole and gently licks your cunt. He waits a few moments before gently guiding you off his face. You lift a leg and sit next to his head, your back against your headboard. 

Seonghwa quickly got up, licking his lips clean of your juices though his chin and nose still shined with your climax. He sits next to you and his hands caress your legs. He smiles at you, a look of satisfaction on his face, while you came down from your orgasm. 

"You have a little something on your face." You giggle and gesture around your own chin and nose. He chuckles and you watch as he swipes his fingers over his skin and then lick them clean.

"Better?" He whispers with a slight smirk. You can tell he was trying to be sexy but he still had some of your cum on him. You giggle softly making him blush and chuckle.

"Here, hold on for a moment." You get up from the bed and head out of your room to your bathroom. You grabbed a clean wash cloth, dampened it with some water, and returned to your bedroom. You hand Seonghwa the cloth and he gives you an appreciative smile, his cheeks and ears dusted with a subtle pink. You sit back down as he cleans off his face. He sets the cloth on your nightstand and looks back at you.

You watch as Seonghwa gets off the bed. His eyes scan your body with a smirk. Slowly, he took off his shirt and slid off his pants and boxers. Both of you were completely nude and you can see just how turned on he is. Hwa gets back onto your bed and gets right up to you, his face mere inches from yours.

"I love you so much, (Y/N)." He whispers. His hand comes up and gently caresses your jaw and neck.

"I love you too, Seonghwa." You smile at him, your tone soft and full of love. He smiles back and presses his lips against yours. His kiss is tender this time around. His hand cradles the back of your head to keep you in place, but you know you don't want to pull away in this moment. Your fingers graze the skin of his bare chest. You slowly brought them up to his collarbones and then his neck.

"Hmm, I want to take this all the way, jagiya." He pauses for a moment as his eyes look down at your body and then back at your face. He smirks. "I want to hear all those lovely noises you make."

"If I get to ride you, my love." You say in a sensual tone. His smirk crumbles to a flustered look at your suggestion, but he still smiles regardless.

"Is that what you want?"

"Yes." You nod and he bites his bottom lip. Seonghwa moves and sits down, his back against the headboard now. You grin, moving to stand on your legs before you throw your leg over his lap, effectively straddling him. His hands are once again on your hips as he pulls your body against his. He has a lustful and excited smile on his face.

"Condoms? I brought some-"

"No, it's fine. I trust you and I'm still taking birth control." You smile.

You reach behind and grab the shaft of Seonghwa's cock. You carefully drag his tip through your wet folds to tease him a little. You line him up to your entrance and look at his face. He gives a small nod for you to continue and you do so. You slowly lower yourself down, languidly taking him inside you. You both let out a soft moans. You sat in his lap, your hands grip his shoulders, while his cock fully inside you and you take a moment to savor the feeling.

"Ah, you feel so good, jagiya." Seonghwa mumbles, his lips barely brush against yours. You can feel his hot breath but you didn't care. His eyes were half-closed as he stared deeply into yours. You can feel his hands caressing your hips, thighs, and ass. His length twitches inside and you can tell he is full of anticipation for you to start moving. Hwa gives you a sweet smile, which contrasts with the current, steamy situation. "Take your time. You have control right now until you want me to take over."

"Thank you, love." You whisper softy and peck his lips. You wait a full two minutes before you started moving. You take a slow and steady pace, your thigh muscles flexing as you raise yourself up and down on his cock. Seonghwa's hands firmly held your hips yet he made no effort to control your movements, he simply assisted you so you wouldn't be doing all the work. 

"This feels nice." Hwa murmurs and leans his head down, his lips pressing against your neck. You feel his teeth graze your skin and he gently nips at your neck.

"Feels s'good." You moan softly. You rock your hips at a pleasurable pace. It is a very sensual moment between you both. It was just you and him, nothing else mattered. He raised his head from your neck and pressed his forehead against yours. He looked at you with pure adoration and love. His hands slide to your lower back and then moved up to your shoulder blades. You feel his arms against your sides as he hugged you close to his chest. You still moved your hips at a slow pace. 

This is a moment of passion and pleasure, but also a moment of love and bliss.

You sunk all the way down on him and gently grind your hips against him, feeling pleasure come from your clit grazing his pubic mound. Seonghwa smiles at you, enjoying how you look getting yourself off on him. He kiss your cheek and his lips linger to you skin for a few moments. You feel his fingertips press into your back and rub small circles on your skin.

You returned to moving yourself up and down on his cock. You increased your speed, sometimes focusing on his tip and then rotating to taking him all the way. Regardless  of what you did, he was moaning and groaning at all your movements. His hands were back on your hips as you leaned away from him with your hands gripping his shoulders. You both wanted to see your faces.

You feel a coil-like sensation in your lower stomach as pleasure builds up again. Your breathing is harsh and deep, and you can feel your legs getting tired... but you wanted to keep going. Seonghwa could see and feel how you your stamina is waning. He smiles sweetly and leans forward to capture your lips in a passionate yet short kiss.

"Relax, jagiya." His voice is smooth and low. He holds your hips and stops your movements. Seonghwa then starts to thrust his hips up at a quick pace. A loud moan escapes your lips as you cling on to him. He leaned forward and nibbles on your neck while you feel one of his hands move from your hip to your pubic mound. Hwa pressed his thumb over your swollen clit and started rubbing circles.

"O-Oh, Hwa..." You whimper out. You feel that heat building up more and more inside you.

"Hng- You're amazing, (Y/N)."He moaned as well, moving his head away from your neck to stare at your face. You can see he was getting close to his own release by the erotic expression on his face. 

"I-I think... I'm going to cum again." You whisper, feeling that all too familiar feeling crawl up your legs. You looked at him with all the love you could muster. The intimacy and intense feelings all added to your impending orgasm. The way the head of his cock hit that sweet spot inside you just right and his thumb swirling and applying the correct amount pressure sent you over the edge. You lean forward with your forehead against his as a loud whine leaves your mouth, your walls fluttering around his cock.

"(Y/N)-!" He groaned, still thrusting into your cunt. He stared intensely into your eyes, chasing his own climax. His breathing grows ragged and his thrusts became off rhythm. A moan tumbles from his lips as he sloppily kisses you, thrusting one last time. You feel his cock twitch inside you as his cum coats your walls. He keeps himself fully sheathed inside you as you both catch your breaths.

"Seonghwa..." You murmur, your body slumping against his, resting your head on his shoulder. His arms wrap around you and his hands gently grip the skin of your back. You feel his warm breath fan over the back of your neck as he leveled out his breathing. Seonghwa made a noise that sounded like a mix of a sigh and a moan as he rests his head against yours.

Neither of you said anything further. Seonghwa keeps his arms tight around you while you equally clinged to him. Nothing really needed to be said in this moment, the high emotions you both shared spoke enough.

Minutes passed when you finally speak up.

"We should probably clean up and get you to bed." You whisper to him, pulling your head back to look over this face.

"I want to stay like this, jagiya." He murmurs, placing his lips on your neck. "I feel so close to you like this... "

"I know, love, but we have to be up early." Hwa groaned at this, which makes you laugh.

"Stop being right."

"Come on... let's take a shower, Hwa." He reluctantly helps you off his lap, his softening length now out of you. You both get off from your bed and you lead him out your room to your bathroom. His hands remained on your waist as you both walked and then waited for the shower water to warm up. He didn't want to let go of you just yet.

After the shower and after drying off, you both go back into your room to change into comfortable clothes to sleep in. He laid down first, slipping under the covers. When you joined him, you laugh when his arms pulled you flush against his body. Seonghwa tucks your head under his chin and he holds you firmly in his arms. You chuckle and hold him just as tightly.

"I don't want to let go of you again... this feels like it's going to be harder than when you when you visited." He says with a sigh.

"I know, Hwa, I know." You mumble, already feel an ache in your chest. "Let's savor the rest of tonight together."

There is a pause.

"I love you, (Y/N)."

"I love you too, Seonghwa."

Morning came too fast your liking. You and Seonghwa awoke with your limbs practically tangled. His warmth despite the temperatures warming outside is comforting in the moment. You both reluctantly got dressed and made Hwa a light breakfast.

A little before 7am, Ateez and their manager came back over to pick Seonghwa up and of course came to say goodbye. You got an earful of teasing when they see the blemishes and marks Hwa left on your neck. You hugged each member and of course your hug lingered on Hwa, with you both gently caressing each other's backs for comfort.

Goodbyes were harder this time around, but you still had that ray of optimism due to your move to South Korea. It will be rough, but with Seonghwa, the rest of Ateez, and even their manager, you knew it would be a feat you'll overcome.

Your new horizon awaits you and your life with Seonghwa seems to be on the right track.

------------

Taglist: @stopeatread @hee0soo @tridkeys @pocketjoong-reads @seonghwaddict @lelaleleb @acciocriativity @h-nji

[weabooweedwitch]

I mean I guess from my perspective I've already explained myself pretty well, but I've had so many conversations with so many different people at this point that maybe some of it is blurring together. We ARE discussing the possibility of personality disorders that somewhat warp my perception of the truth and as I've said, I've pretty much lost the ability to empathize wirh her at all because, again, I'm constantly expected to put myself on the line for her bssicslly by obligation but when I need some emotional understanding or support, well, I get talked over, I get invalidated, I get mocked.

Oh text Miranda from across the house for a glass of water because you have a headache and emotionally badger her until she does it, but when she's so congested she can barely eat or breathe, let the litterbox literally start molding waiting for her to recover because 'I just don't like how it smells'. Oh, your super depressed daughter who's been physically abused by the husband you barely knew before getting married to is depressed and isn't going to school/doesn't have a job? Better make sure that any time you ask her for anything, if she doesn't feel like it, shove down her throat that she sits at home all day anyways while you're at work, but don't worry, when your daughter is the one working manual labor jobs and you're unemployed sitting on the couch all day, you'll just use AGE as an excuse and still badger and insult her when she's too sore to get out of bed! When I was A CHILD literally falling apart from clear mental illness and literal actual disability, I'm told I need to exercise more, im told "oh you're like a self fulfilling prophecy, it's like you WANT to be this way, it's like you give up and MAKE bad things happen to you" but when she wastes DECADES going to doctors trying to investigate issues that are just symptoms of things she already diagnosed with I'm just the absolute fucking devil for implying the reason why her body aches is because she's been overweight and physically sedentary fir big portions of her life and she barely gets any vitamin D let alone exercise

Oh, I need to apply myself more, oh, I need to have more confidence in myself, oh I need to buy things for myself if I want them, but then I start buying things for my hair and my skin and makeup because I like those things and there are also problems I am legitimately trying to fix and then it's "oh you're overdoing it, oh you're wasting money, oh you're making it worse, oh are you even researching any of this" when she's the one telling me stupid bullshit like "when you shave it grows back thicker, I had a friend in my younger days that was a dermatologist and that was what she said" 🙄

All the times she lost jobs because she just kept oversleeping and oversleeping or quit just because she lost her temper and suddenly we're on foodstamps and going to pantries again. Having to get cars every few years because she treats them poorly and they keep breaking down and then she has to take out loans or make payments to get another shitty car and then she'll forget about older payments until they're being sent to collections and they're coming after her (she literally doesn't answer her phone unless she's expecting a call because she's gotten collections calls for YEARS) and now there's stuff on my credit report because she put shit in my name and forgot about them

I literally keep turning around and there are LISTS of mistakes she had made that have significant and often financial consequences and she does them over and over and over! There were times she was taking out loans to try and get degrees and literally finished none of them. Cosmetology school, TWICE. A community college for idk a computer degree or something, never finished. Something for university of Phoenix, never finished

My public school education was DESTROYED by the constant moving. I had problems brushing my teeth as a kid ao she LIED TO ME and said I had cavities and never told me the truth until YEARS later and by that point I had stopped brushing my teeth BECAUSE OF HER LIE because it made me more depressed and told me everything was pointless.

I guess I'm just a shitty person and I'll never change, idk, I dunno what im supposed to do to fix things. I think I'm beginning to realize I'm just a shitty person who was born wrong and maybe its time I stop burning myself out for everyone else when i still have to fix my ken problems, or, something. I get talked over and invalidated at home, in the past at school, and now as an adult it's at work. It's draining. If no one wants to listen to me then I'll just keep being bitter and shitty on my own terms and just marinate innit until I finally get the stones to take some sort of action, whatever that may be, positive, negative, hopefully a positive change obviously but you never know

I'm so exhausted at this point that sometimes it really is just "shrug shrug guess I don't care anymore". It's not like I want to be this way. I'm trying. To be better. I'm trying to be perfect. And it's just never going to happen.

[autisticandroids]

Okay so this was a while back but im preety sure you had mentioned an au of yours where dean is a serial killer and cas successfully stalks him but i don't think you talked about it more than that and i just really want to hear a bit more bc that idea sounds so tastefully fucked up

okay so. weeks later i finally end up answering this ask. it inspired this post btw. anyway spn is a show that's like. all about justifications, as i said in the post inspired by this ask. it's about having no choice and doing what you have to do. and like there is the phantasy embedded in it, a phantasy that is both indulged and punished. but most importantly it's justified. the monsters are super strong to show how brave our heroes are for fighting them, the main characters let out great wails of grief every time their lady loves are violently ripped from them (even though now they are free to do whatever they want), the narrative twists to show our heroes as correct whatever they do. the fantasy (of being allowed to enact violence, of being free from feminine "control," of being right) comes first. the material construction of the universe of supernatural comes afterward. whatever the fantasy is, the universe of supernatural will provide material conditions to justify its acting-out.

and what this means is that our protagonists, dean in particular, are constantly doing just horrific things, which in any other circumstance would be unconscionable. but the universe of supernatural provides justification for these acts. the point of my serial killer au which i think about so so so much is to ask the question: what if these justifications melted out from under their feet? what if dean was left holding nothing but a lie and the weight of everything he's done?

therefore, the premise of my au is such (under the cut because this baby is long):

john and mary winchester, in the mid seventies, joined a doomsday cult known as the men of letters. the men of letters were rather unusual for a doomsday cult, in that they believed that the apocalypse could be prevented by human behavior. this started as correct living, correct worship, yadda yadda, the kind of behavior and thought control that cults are known for, but with the justification of: if you don't do this, the world will end. eventually, this escalated to human sacrifice. the men of letters managed to untraceably kill two homeless people in the late seventies. but they eventually fell apart. however, a month after john and mary left the men of letters (mostly john's choice, mary still believed), mary died in a house fire. john took it as a sign from god that actually, the men of letters were right, and the world would end unless john himself did something about it. so he took some of the (intensely numerological) theology of the men of letters. and he worked out his own formula. and he applied it to the yellow pages. and started ritualistically killed people to prevent the apocalypse, with his two sons in the back of the car.

now, obviously, this is some kind of grief induced temporary madness on john's part, shaped by the mental abuse he suffered in the men of letters. but the thing is, once you've killed a couple of people to prevent the apocalypse. well. there's this thing called the sunk costs fallacy. john wasn't gonna question his own beliefs after that.

and he raised his boys to believe it, too, or at least he raised dean to. they didn't tell sam what they did until he was twelve, and sam didn't buy it, tried to call the cops on them several times but in the end, they always prevented him. eventually sam ran off to stanford, where he now lives under a cloud of guilt that he's too loyal to his family to rat them out.

john died a few years back of a heart attack, but dean is convinced it's because he messed up a ritual two weeks before it happened, so it pushed him further into this belief system.

dean's killings (and john's before him) are ritualistic and distinctive, obviously the same killer each time. but they happen anywhere in the united states, seemingly at random, there are inconsistent amounts of time between each one (sometimes as short as days, sometimes as long as years), and there is no particular victim profile. obviously, since our killers are following an arcane mathematical formula to make their choices for them, but the police don't know that.

castiel novak is an unemployed shut-in with a small inheritance which he's living off of, a cryptography degree, and an obsession with all things morbid. he spends most of his time on the reddit true crime forums, playing amateur sleuth. by complete chance, he happens to recognize one of the symbols frequently used in corpse displays by the so-called sioux falls satanic slaughterer (so named because the first time three of his victims were in the same part of the country, it so happened that they were all in sioux falls, south dakota. this was in the late eighties.) as being mostly only used by a little known cult group called the men of letters, which dissolved in the mid eighties.

he only notices this because, as a teen, he had a special interest in cults and fringe religious groups. the men of letters weren't a particularly notable or well known phenomenon; they were small, and a lot like every other cult that formed during the seventies cult boom. (no outsider ever heard about the human sacrifice; there were rumors, of course, but they were garbled, sensationalized, and mixed up with satanic panic fodder.)

(the men of letters' two sacrifices were nothing particularly romantic or fantastical. they first lured panhandler josie sands back to their compound with promises of food and a warm bed when she admitted she couldn't get a bed at a shelter, and was thinking of getting caught shoplifting just so she could be under a roof in the county jail. the men of letters' leader, a man who took on the name alistair, forced his inner circle to dress in the ceremonial black robes he had given them when he initiated them into his nearest and dearest, and which his wife had sewn out of old bed sheets and dyed black with home made oak gall dye. these robes still left black smudges on the wearer's skin occasionally if they sweated too much. josie was laid, bound, on the altar, a slapdash thing constructed over the course of two days from scrap plywood and a couple of milk crates. a rich red tablecloth purchased at macy's for $3.99 hid its ugliness and gave it grandeur. alistair attempted to kill the struggling miss sands by bringing a sharpened kitchen knife down on her bosom and piercing her heart, but, having never killed a human or even slaughtered an animal before, was unaware of the problem presented by the human ribcage. after rather ineffectually poking at the area beneath sands' bosom with his knife while she shrieked in pain and terror for about ninety seconds, alistair tried a different tack, and slit her throat, which worked just fine, and she bled out quite nicely. the second and final victim of the men of letters was a local vagrant named larry ganem, an older gentleman who walked with a limp. he was lured back to the compound in approximately the same manner as sands, but instead of being bound, he was fed stew laced with sleeping pills. even if alistair hadn't slit his throat, he wouldn't have woken up. it's actually arguable whether he was still alive at time of sacrifice; mary winchester (eight months into her first pregnancy), who, as a member of the inner circle, was in attendance, actually tried to take ganem's pulse as he lay on the altar (now covered by a different tablecloth; the red one had turned stiff with sands' blood and been subsequently burned) and found nothing, so it is entirely possibly only sands' death can be directly laid at alistair's feet, and ganem's is the fault of mrs. ellen harvelle, who prepared the laced stew. regardless, these two deaths are lessons in the nature of human evil: it is very rarely skilled, suave, or smooth. it's often slapdash, half-hearted, and just plain incompetent. but that makes it no less grisly. alistair may have begun to drink his own kool-aid, as it were, and escalated this far out of genuine belief that the apocalypse was coming and it was up to him to stop it, but it is far more likely that he sensed the imminent collapse of his little empire, and wanted to bind his subjects to him through the horrors of shared guilt, considering two lives a small price to pay for the continued loyalty of his inner circle. and the tactic worked: the men of letters didn't start to collapse in earnest until almost four years later. perhaps if alistair had continued the killings, the men of letters could have lasted for far longer, maybe even up until the present day. but it seems that alistair, a psychiatrist by training and unused to violence, simply didn't have the stomach for it. unlike, say, john winchester, who before his time with the men of letters had done a two year tour in vietnam, during which he had killed three living, thinking human beings with the american government's go-ahead.)

anyway. castiel is the first person, ever, to make the connection between the men of letters and the sioux falls satanic slaughterer. and once that connection is made, castiel begins to research the men of letters far more in-depth. and he notices something: the theology of the men of letters was intensely numerological, filled with patterns, significant numbers, and even spiritual equations.

castiel thinks of the seemingly random selection of the slaughterer's victims, and has an epiphany.

he cracks all his fingers, and gets coding.

six months. it takes castiel six months to discover an equation that could fit the slaughterer's pattern. it's complex, but also clearly based on several of the men of letters' holy numbers, and accounts for every single one of the killings. it also suggests that there should have been two or three more deaths scattered across the years, but more than likely those did happen, it's just that they weren't reported as part of the slaughterer's portfolio.

but much more importantly, castiel's model can also make predictions. there will be two killings, fifteen days apart, in a city seven hours' drive away, six weeks from now.

so castiel waits. and he books a hotel room. and two months later, he's waiting outside 217 oak street when a shadowy figure climbs up a tree and lets itself into the upstairs window.

dean winchester is feeling particularly all alone in the world when he breaks into maisey banks' home (217 oak street). his father has been dead for half a decade, and he hasn't spoken to his baby brother for twice that. it's not like this whole grizzly saving the world business makes him a lot of friends. so once he's done killing maisey (which is easy, she was ninety three and dying of cancer anyway. she doesn't even wake up when he slits her throat) and arranging her corpse in the appropriate manner, with prayers and sigils, he turns around. and sees a man standing behind him.

smiling slightly.

as he watches dean gut this old woman.

dean freezes.

the man takes a step forward.

"you're very attractive for a serial killer who's been operating since the eighties."

dean is silent.

"family business, is it?"

silence continues.

"i'm not here to report you to police. i'm just here to see if my algorithm worked right."

and dean finally breaks his silence: "what the hell is wrong with you?"

what's fun here is that dean knows (or rather "knows") that he isn't a serial killer. so he finds what cas is doing, this amoral serial killer stormchasing, morally repugnant. because cas has no way of knowing he isn't a regular serial killer.

there's also the fact that that cas proceeds to flirt with him. aggressively. and follows him back to his motel.

but the thing is that dean is all alone in the world. and as cas continues trailing him around, he starts getting, well, flattered. and feeling a little bit less alone.

it doesn't take very long before they fall into bed. even if cas is an amoral stalker with a fetish for what dean considers a distasteful yet necessary vocation.

so. they fall into bed. they fall in love. they make a little life together, in dean's big sexy car. dean tries to explain to cas that he's saving the world. that these people's lives are a necessary price to pay. and cas seems to listen.

of course, castiel doesn't believe a word of it. but he's found that he likes dean. really likes him. and he realizes that the collapse of dean's belief system would destroy him.

so he sets about becoming as complicit in it as possible.

even to the extent where, when dean is hit by a car and ends up into the hospital a day before one killing is meant to take place, castiel agrees to take on the job. (he doesn't actually kill anyone, obviously. but he does use his extensive skill with computers to create three fake newspaper articles which make it look like he has.)

but five years later, something goes wrong. really, really wrong. dean miscalculates the formula. and by the time he checks his work, the actual date of the next kill, as demanded by the formula, has passed. in fact, so have three others. and the world didn't end.

dean collapses. he hyperventilates. all those people. all those people. for no reason. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people.

cas seems totally unfazed. dean stares at him in shock. but cas just takes dean in his arms, and whispers in his ear: "oh, dean, i never believed in the equation. i love you no matter what you've done."

and dean buries his face in cas' chest.

[thecookieraakshas]

hey this is weird but im also a biotech major (btech) and im in my 3rd year and my ass doesnt have any idea how and when to do internships any advice

HI!

So I'm finishing a 3 year BSc Hons degree and I recently got an internship for my bachelor's thesis. So I can tell you what I have experienced myself and what I have gleaned from my seniors and faculty.

There is no bad time to do an internship. I honestly wish I could have done atleast one more but certain global pandemics that must not be named meant that I couldn't do any for the bulk of my college life. But internships are all about your own skills, time management and interests. You can find part time ones during week days or full times ones during the summer break.

The harsh truth I have noticed is that getting research internships at prominent institutes is really difficult without knowing someone or having some kind of contact to get face time with your preferred researcher. HOWEVER, you should still try to contact these professors and researchers anyways. So you can do that by:

Going through the institutes website and look at their departments, faculty, professors, research groups and recent papers. Focus on identifying what exactly matches your own interests.

Prepare a CV - look through examples online. Put your information across in formal language and proofread over and over again. If you feel like your CV is lacking, sign up a course or two on Coursera, EdX or NPTEL. (Pro tip - You can just audit the course instead of paying for the certificate in Courser and EdX. The course page will have a free track or an audit option). Put almost everything in your CV in a detailed but concise manner. Try to Google "how to put ____ in a CV". Limit the size to two pages MAX.

Identify specific researchers you want to work with and familiarize yourself with their work (you don't have to go too in depth but just get an overview). Prepare a cover letter for each researcher you are interested in. And make sure to express your interest in their work and why exactly you are interested in the topic.

Send your cover letter and CV to their email id. Sit tight and hope. You can remind them of your application maybe a couple of weeks later if you don't get a reply.

You will be rejected by most of them. It's alright. It's almost certainly not personal. Try again with the next researcher.

A lot of institutions, companies and other organizations also generally have specific slots open for interns especially during the summer. So, you can find out if your university or one of your teachers can help you sign up for these or notify you when the applications are open.

NGOs are an excellent place to gain experience and contribute to society while also building up your merits and your CV. And NGOs are always looking for volunteers and interns. So, you can try to narrow your selection down to the kind of work you are interested in and apply to their HR department or even go in person of that is possible. Some NGOs also take in interns from different states to work from home with online resources. So you can look into that too.

I'm including some links to resources about making CVs and drafting cover letters:

Basics of building a CV:

Basics of cover letter drafting:

Yeah that's about how much I know right now. This is by no means an exhaustive guide. So try to reach out to a teacher you like for further guidance. You can even send them your CV and cover letter drafts so they can help you hammer out any and all kinks.

All the best!!

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

Oh my gosh so I also headcannon Jack as autistic! But im not comfortable with writing it yet because idk how. Im not autistic; my little sister is and i know a few things jack could have trouble with... but hes a grown ass man so i just dont know. Im definitely taking notes on what you write him as but could you give me some pointers?....maybe?

Im mostly referencing to Bitter with this

aaaa yeah it definitely presents differently in adults who've learned to mask, personally I don't plan to put certain things in specifically to talk about how he's autistic, I write with the background knowledge of what traits he displays, and then express them when relevant, it's relevant a lot with Jack simply due to how much it affects his life

now this is going to get long, so bare with me, because this is a whole lot more complicated than you might expect

there's really no one correct way to write Jack, since there's no one way that autism presents itself, the way I write him is based on a mix of myself and some people in my family, so I can give you a basic idea of what angle I personally come from

for one, I change the way I write about facial expressions and how emotions come across to Jack, in Jazz's chapters I'll write about the exact emotion she can see on their face, with Jack's I'll go with an obvious base emotion, but then if the person is expressing something more complicated, I'll describe their face in physical details

eg;

Jazz POV - Danny was upset, but his face was tight with frustration

Jack POV - Danny looked sad, but his eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was set in a hard line

it's a subtle difference but it's one I try to maintain throughout Bitter, Jack's POV is based on how I have trouble reading non-obvious expressions, although in my case I also have trouble looking people in the face when I talk to them, that's harder to write in an emotion driven POV story, so I made Jack better at that than I am

his interest in machines is quite obvious, since he's an inventor, and he looooves infodumping on people, he gets very excited about his passions very quickly and his mouth runs off with him, something I also have trouble with, it hasn't been a prominent trait for Jack in Bitter, because he's so out of his element he's mostly confused and in a way, almost grieving his own death, so he's been far quieter than he usually is

his special interest is obviously ghosts and machinery, and in Bitter I cover that he's got a degree in engineering, physics and mathematics. He's good at them, I like to look at it as though Jack rolled high in intelligence and low in wisdom, he's book smart, he knows things that are straightforward and have firm rules, he's less comfortable in topics that are more wishy washy and vague, biology is complicated and has too many variables, he finds it difficult to grasp, there's no one standard rule that applies to every body

I also struggle with vague and unclear directions, I need a solid structure and clear instructions, my strength is in sorting, organising, alphabetising and colour coding, I like things to Look Right, I stick to a particular routine with very specific things, and it's viscerally uncomfortable and even distressing for me to have that order disturbed, I nearly had a meltdown at work because someone had done a part of my job incorrectly, and I had to fix it, it made me genuinely upset on a personal level, it was MY system, NOBODY should be touching it, NOBODY should be moving things around, they do anyway, and I spend a portion of my shifts just frustrated and on edge because of it

Jack also has issues socially, he often says or does things that other people find uncomfortable or embarrassing, I reference that in Bitter, where Jack assumes everyone is mad at him because he said or did something stupid, this I have much experience in, while in the middle of a social situation it's easy to just do what comes naturally to you and not realise it's off putting to other people, because people often play polite and you can't tell that they're uncomfortable, even though people around you find it painfully obvious

sometimes it's easy to see in hindsight after you've been told you made something awkward or uncomfortable, but in the moment if nobody says anything about it, you can remain either totally oblivious, or become anxious and second guess every interaction you have

Jack is the oblivious type, he's fortunate to live in a family that is fairly understanding, they might get frustrated with him, or embarrassed by him, but they don't really take it personally, they KNOW he means well, they know he cares, and Jack does care, he cares a lot, he feels things a lot, he's incredibly empathetic

this is a trait that a lot of media likes to ignore in depictions of autism, because I guess it makes people with autism seem 'too normal', when tv shows always want to be like 'hey wow look at this clever asshole! isn't he clever, but also an asshole! but you can't hate him because he's ✨autistic✨ and he can't help it'

that bothers me a lot, I mean some people with autism do have trouble relating and empathising with people, my brother is one of them, but some people with autism really empathise a lot, some of us feel things very strongly, I'm highly empathetic and it's a real struggle to cope with

so yeah, it is a very complicated thing, so you need to go in with an idea of what their character struggles with, how it affects them, and when it's relevant in the story, also autism falls on a very wide spectrum, some people, like myself, are able to mask well, but that creates a big issue with identity, when you start to wonder how much of you is real and how much of you is mask, then you have to decide if you want to lower that mask and accept the social consequences of expressing yourself naturally

I have a friend who presents a little more obviously, he's very rigid in his ways and he talks like he's reading from a script, I have another friend who can socialise just fine, but will go into a total meltdown when a plan gets derailed and she doesn't know what to do next

another friend I have is highly social and incredibly boisterous, she stims with her whole body, dances around a lot, she's chaotic and that can be off-putting to people, she's had to spend a lot of her life holding that back, she's only recently started learning how to be herself shamelessly

my brother was incredibly social when he was younger, and people always really loved him, but most of that is mask, he's socially anxious and just wants to be alone most of the time, and he's a total prick to his immediate family, I don't take that personally any more, since now I understand that he's so blunt and brutally honest because he isn't masking with us, but also he still needs to be called out when he oversteps, autism might be why he has difficulty empathising, but it's not an excuse to be a complete asshole, even people with autism need to be called out on shitty behaviour, it isn't a get out of jail free card, our self expression shouldn't come at the cost of hurting other people, most of us are more than capable of learning to not be an asshole

I know this is like, A LOT, but these are the things that need to be considered when writing about autism, it is an all encompassing thing that permeates your entire life experience, I absolutely welcome people like you to try to write about it! Because I think it shouldn't be a taboo subject, and I appreciate that you asked for advice and that you want to do it respectfully, you've probably seen first hand how difficult living with autism can be, having a family member on the spectrum, so you already have some experience to draw from, I don't know your relationship with your sister or how old she is, or where on the spectrum she falls, but if possible you can ask her about her experiences in particular situations that you're having trouble writing, if that's something you and she are comfortable with

I hope this helps, just remember to keep an open mind and listen to any feedback you might get, it is very VERY easy to misrepresent autism so don't be too hard on yourself if you don't quite get it right, if someone gives you a critique, take it in stride and use it to become better ~ you can even express that in an authors note, that you want to write it accurately and invite anyone with experience to share their opinion, because like I said, it is different for everyone and my experiences are not universal, and you're welcome to run something by me every once in a while if you aren't sure about it ❤️

[officialjimmybuffett]

hiiiiii. just read your intro to kman and it’s awesome! wowowow! love it so much! i’m super curious though how do bot fights work? i mean tbh how do bots work in your wip in general??? such a cool concept i love it but i’m just super intrigued like what the bots do, what their purpose is, how they work? sorry it’s like a sh*t ton of questions i’m just like obsessing over how good your wip is and bots sound so fricking cool.

thank you!! my favorite part of worldbuilding for kman is how robots work so excuse me if i go a little ham in this ask askdfj

BOTS

bots are an essential part of society in the kman universe. their role varies slightly depending on the country, but overall they have a common purpose—to do whatever it is they were built for.

each bot has a specific job, and are named accordingly im very creative as you can tell. here’s a few common types of bots:

foodbots - tend to restaurants, bars, & food production

watchbots - a form of law enforcement/security

newsbots - inform & entertain citizens, either orally or by distributing newsticks (a holographic newspaper device that looks like a juul 😭)

fightbots - programmed & built to participate in botfights, a popular betting sport

multibot - a hybrid of two or more types of a bot, mainly in their parts & hardware; (legally) these bots are mainly owned by the wealthy

trigg is a multibot but uh. illegally upgraded

in every country (save macruvia), it is a law that all bots must be registered with their type and you must apply for a permit to upgrade or change a bot.

BOTFIGHTS

botfights are one of the main forms of entertainment in the kman universe, as well as a large source of revenue.  the sport is quite simple: two bots enter an arena and are left to fight until one of them is out of commission. think cage-fighting but legal and with robots

there are different levels of the sport:

international league

the most well-known and followed league of botfighting.  sponsors and teams with the most money and the finest bots travel all over the world to compete in arenas. tickets are expensive, every event has high-stakes betting, and always televised for the rest of the world to watch.

bots who compete at this level are the only bots who gain any respect from humans. while they still belong to and work for their owners, they have a certain degree of independence and fame. not to mention they bring in massive bank for their owners, so they’re treated well too. minor robot celebrities, if you will.

domestic leagues

as the name implies, these are botfights that remain within a country. it’s not as prestigious as the international league, but is still fairly popular, especially in larger countries with impressive domestic teams.  corruption still runs rampant in the sport, just as it would at the international level, but people enjoy it all the same

underground leagues

these are the illegal fights, of which there are two types: human orchestrated and bot orchestrated.

human orchestrated botfights are dirty, ugly things.  they force bots who sometimes aren’t even fightbots to duke it out in the ring as they drink and bet what little money they have, always looking over their shoulders for the authorities. these fights are the epitome of just how poorly bots are treated.

on the flip side, bot orchestrated fights allow bots a sliver of dignity.  these are run and organized mainly by bots who willingly enter tournaments in the hopes of earning enough money to buy their freedom, or if they’re already free, to earn a living.  fights like these allow bots to gain a little more control over their lives, even if the means are not ideal

TREATMENT

while there are common threads across borders, bot treatment varies from country to country

balu

the young, artificial nation of balu is home to some of the worst bot treatment in the world.  despite the fact that their society is heavily reliant upon bots, they still remain at the bottom of the food chain.

there are no laws protecting the rights of bots, leaving humans to often abuse, mistreat, and take advantage of their bots.  there are so many underground botfight leagues it’s nearly impossible to keep track of, not that officials often care. to be a bot in balu is to be invisible.

the ki’ran empire

traditionally, ki’ra doesn’t not have a history of treating bots well, either.  that sentiment is still held by native ki’rans to this day, especially in the military, where bots are just viewed as another means to an end.

however, since the expansion of the empire, the integration of other cultures and nations has slowly begun to change.  most noteably seen in the capital, bots can earn their freedom and live among society just as any human could.

macruvia

macruvia is the birthplace of the movement for equal treatment for bots.  they have taken initiative to pass laws protecting the rights of bots, putting in place measures to make sure they are employed fairly, housed fairly, and treated fairly.

 TAGLIST (ask to be added or removed) because there’s a shit ton of worldbuilding info on here

@whorizcn @semblanche @wlwjirou @mshelleys @sunlight-and-starskies @strangethedreamers @akoumi @peachniche @lucamused @ecritblr @the-writers-blocks @herondalelucies @nepeinthe @innocentreticent @imagination-xx @knife-dragon @all-my-novels @em-dashes @perditism @heyabella @samplewriting @prolongingtheprologue @waterfallofinkandpages @viviuyn @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables @writemares @leftover-starlight @aleswriteblr @writing-in-rain @cabvswater @aelenko @sautrns @aepreall @raripuh @kaelie-quill @mahalii @tiphansia @souliloquyyy @writeherewaiting @towntimes @kimblewrites @bonfirelights @absolute-nonsense-scribblings @overlap @an-abundance-of-unreads @nikolae @kimblewrites @danibright @halcionic

[sea-salted-wolverine]

Okay so last week was a shitkicker and was literally so bad I spent the better part of the week trying to delude myself into thinking it was a good day. Like, we're talking, "the sun is shining and I'm here to see it so today is a good day" and "I'm having a bad day- fuck me I am not haveing a bad day- I'm having a good day- I'm not having a bad day". Denial is a powerful tool for mental health, apply judiciously. I get that everyone on earth is kinda having a shitty year but it feels like things just kinda escalated in my little corner

The 7th had a huge snow storm that brought traffic to a stand still. No one could leave the house and university class was online anyway. Batshit customer demanded to pick up her gear anyway. I drove in because I was the only person with keys to the shop that could get to the building. It took me a solid 2 hours going 15mph on the highway. The snow in the parking lot was up past the fenders of my truck. Crazy lady gets 10 out of 18 of her survival suits back but the other 8 still have holes in them because our only repair tech is also the only one who answers the phone or runs the computer or handles customers or cleans or disinfects anything or stores gear. I'll give you one guess who that person is.

Did you guess me? Good for you. Fun fact this was not the case in October.

Crazy lady swans off through the snowed in parking lot and because she cant find the exit, blasts straight through the ditch and onto the road.

I say fuck it and leave. I've been at work for 2 hours. I have made 24 dollars for my trouble. It takes me another hour to get home.

The 8th is Saturday and I'm supposed to be at work. No one can drive. There was another 10 8nches of snow last night. I say fuck work and go to dig out the plow truck. The canopy over the plow truck collapses as I walk out to clear the snow of it.

I do not scream.

My partner and I get the truck running and go plow people out of their driveways and then go do the shop.

We come back home and the heater doesn't work. We just spent most of last week frantically trying to limp the thing along because no heat at -20°F is in a word fucking unpleasant. At least now its 40 degrees warmer because if the snowstorm. We take it apart again. The house smells like diesel. The house smells like exhaust. The house is not cold because the wood stove can keep up at 20 above zero but it won't keep us through the winter.

There is no saving the oil heater. We need a new one.

Its 730 and neither of us have eaten. I start rice in the pressure cooker so I can throw a tasty bite on top and call it dinner and that dies too. Explosively.

Dinner is half cooked rice and microwaved curry.

Sunday is spent finding a way to stretch our increasingly thin budget to buy a new heater. Between us we actually have 2275$ and we will still cover the mortgage. Somehow. All our Christmas gifts will be hand made this year. The next thing that breaks will stay broken.

Monday, power outages due to snow storm. No wifi, no zoom meetings. Another 8 inches of snow. This is now more snow than my city gets for the full year.

My boss calls sobbing. The dog died. Joey, an 11 year old, 130lb mastiff with a tumor the size of a football on his liver has been her constant companion for at least 8 years. The pandemic has confused the bejesus out of him because while he loves the lock down and going out to play every hour or so he doesnt really like the concept of strangers in masks. Hes a guard dog and doesnt understand that men in masks coming into the shop are not here to kill mom they're wearing masks so they don't kill mom.

Mondays the shop is closed anyway and I spend it installing the new heater. It doesn't quite fit in the space the old heater came out of but its warm.

Tuesday, I go to work, everyone cancels class, I once again gently explain to a regular that eugenics is bad. I would like to curse him out. I cant. He drops a grand on scuba gear and leaves, talking about how great his trip to Mexico will be.

I do not scream.

A friend calls to ask how I'm doing. Not great. Yea, her niether. She asks if I want to go out to the backcountry with her over the weekend. I explain that my leg physically does not move and I'm downing copious amounts of advil to remain upright. The doctor sent me in for an MRI but has not yet called back. Plus I'm supposed to go to Valdez for the weekend and actually go diving. That I can do with limited use of my leg.

She says yikes, take it easy, take care of yourself, I love you.

I say, yikes, I'm tired of taking it easy, I wanna play, I love you too.

Hit me up if your plans open up and we can do something gentle on your leg. She says.

God yes. The cold woods away from people sounds like paradise. I dont even care that it will cause me rending physical pain to get there. I need a break.

Its Wednesday. I go to school. I get pulled over. Miraculously I dont get a ticket. I'm white female and conventionaly attractive, maybe not so miraculous. I rolled through a stop sign but I'm pretty sure I couldn't afford a ticket.

I get a text in class. One of the instructors who works with the dive shop has tested positive for covid. I haven't seen the man in 2 months. I needed a spare instructor but he was nowhere to be found. But hey, evidently that's a good thing.

I go to work. I vacillate between doing the job a 4 people and having nothing to do.

I go to the grocery store because I misjudged my last monthly grocery run and even though I'm increasing my exposure I'm out of cheese and tea damnit.

The store is packed. Pandemic who?

My partner and I haven't had a date nite in a while and this week has been shitty. I want a nice dinner. I pick up a couple boxes of the carton sushi which isnt terrible and is about as nice as I can justify on the new budget. I grab a gallon of milk and a few other things. I forgot my wallet in the truck and the cashier is chill and sets my stuff aside while I grab it.

I pay and take my stuff home and realize I left one of my bags at the store. No cheese or tea for me.

Thursday. 10am my phone goes off with an emergency alert. The govoner has grown a spine in light of recent elections and is instituting a voluntary lock down. My state has 500 new cases a day. That might not sound like a lot but theres only 300,000 people in Alaska and we've got poor medical infrastructure.

Unfortunately Alaska is full of Alaskans and nobody can tell us what to do. Nothing changes. 7pm rolls around and I'm teaching scuba classes in the pool.

I load a few hundred pounds of scuba gear into the back of my truck. In a wet wetsuit. In the snow. In a fabric facemask. 6 feet apart. In the pool.

I dont get paid for pool time.

Over the summer we had 6 dive masters including me, all big burly dudes, much better suited to picking things up. Its November and I'm the only one.

The kids I'm teaching are going to Hawaii. They're 10 and 13 and so wildly excited about breathing underwater its beautiful to watch. And they're traveling to an island. In a pandemic.

Friday.

Unload scuba gear so it doesnt get stolen out of the back of my truck while I'm at class. Were doing a make up lab today. Hey of the five student in my class only one of us has covid so theres that.

My boss calls an let's me know that shes left for Valdez without me. If I'd like to make an 8 hour drive by myself in a snowstorm I'm welcome to follow.

I'm in class till an hour before shop closing. I'm not driving across town so I can run on the open sign for half an hour.

The shop stays closed on Friday.

Saturday.

I explained to everyone we had business with that the shop would be closed over the weekend and Friday. I planned on being in Valdez. Hell I canceled plans to be in Valdez.

I open the shop and immediately field calls about why we werent open. I start to explain about the Valdez trip and logistical difficulties and then I realize that shes not mad about that. The woman was here before I opened early this morning. We have never been open that early. The hours are on the door.

A regular comes in. Hes also confused as to why I'm here.

Sunday finds me curled up in bed, reluctant to leave. Getting out of bed has not played out well for me recently.

A friend comes over to chat with my partner about specialist rifle parts. This isnt that wierd, he works at a gun shop and they've been discussing upgrading my partners current rifle set up.

He is wearing a full Scottish kilt. Red tartan. Looks very lovely.

I make zucchini bread and my proportions are a little off because I have too much zucchini so it's a little over moist but it's good. I'm recovering from an asskicker of a week and next week will be better.

Monday morning:

Baby brother has covid

Dads getting the results of his rapid test tonight.

Mom isnt getting tested because she says she doesnt have symptoms but that's not the fucking point mom.

So, I'm not going home for thanksgiving. I'm not diving in Valdez. I'm not skiing backcountry.

I'm not sick. I'm not flat broke yet. I dont have a ticket. I have a job. I have people who care about me. Im managing my physical and mental health as best I can. Im just fucking exhausted.

[taylor-on-fire]

Cigarettes and Alcohol (one)

She was told to never get involved with three things; Cigarettes, Alcohol and Rock Stars.

Obviously, something fate never intended for her to live by.

Pairing: ? x Reader

Series Rating: Mature

Chapter Rating: Teen

Chapter Warnings: Swearing

~/-*•|•*-\~

The remainder of the summer had disappeared within the blink of an eye. If unpacking the rest of my belongings and furnishing the flat hadn't consumed the vast majority of my free time, my newly accumulated job had.

I had walked into Regency Cafe on my third day in London, resume in hand and extraordinarily low expectations. It was stationed five streets away from my flat, and a hub that I had scoped out soon after arriving. Because of this, I assumed that it was too good to be true, and being as popular as it was, would have copious amounts of workers and applicants alike. But, I had seemingly hit the jackpot that day. As soon as I walked into the cafe and spotted the only waitress behind the counter - a gray-haired, flustered woman in her late fifties - and mentioned the ‘Help Wanted’ sign stuck on the glass window.

‘You here for the job, Honey?’ I nodded, and she immediately thew an apron my way and hustled back to the till.

“Rose.” The woman nodded to me and slid over a tray. “That’s for table 7.”

“Y/N. Great to meet you, Rose.” I threw a tea towel over my shoulder, smiled, and picked up the tray to serve.

-

Ever since then, I had been working ten hour shifts at the Cafe. The crowds only  ever thinned out at around the three ‘o’clock mark, when it was too late to be considered lunch, and too early to be considered tea. But, even then, there was never a moment to take a breather, let alone have a smoke. I wouldn't complain though - It kept my days occupied and helped me save extra money for when the next semester started. And Rose was lovely. 

After we had locked up the cafe that first night - a pretty successful day as per usual - We had gotten talking about everything and anything over a cup of Coffee. Rose’s other two waitresses had called in sick, and with no available family to help, she was forced to fight the rush head on. Obviously that's where I came in. 

Coffee after lock-up had become some sort of ritual after I was hired, and after the hour or so chatting with the grandmother I never had over pastries, I would walk to my flat and go straight to bed. I rarely went back out once I got home, and thus hadn't scoped the area as much as I usually would. I mean, I knew of a few pubs and student clubs nearer to the university campus, and a few clothing stores, but London was huge. It would take longer than a night to discover all there was to see.

Undoubtedly, now I’d have less time to dedicate to finding the hot-spots of the city. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was awake again - Pulling on jeans and a plaid jacket haphazardly. Apparently snoozing an alarm clock six or so times eventually added up to an hour. So, now I was 65 minutes behind schedule, and would be inevitably late to the first lecture of my first semester at Uni. 

Way to make an impression, Y/N.

I checked the clock again, simultaneously buckling my sandals, and true to the time, I had 40 minutes to complete a half an hour bus ride and trek to the other side of the campus. 

Luckily, Imperial was by far the closest Uni in the area. God forbid i had applied to another college instead - I would hands down, never make it to the campus on time. Being rejected fro the course for numerous lates wouldn't come as a shock to say the least.

I made my way outside and lit up a smoke, securing my bag on my shoulder and making my way towards the near-empty bus stop. It was fairly cold outside, despite it not being too early. It was the middle of September although, and despite the summer feeling very recent, it was slowly fading out into a chilly autumn.

However, I wasn't exposed to the British temperatures for too long, as in a few minutes, I was seated at the back of the bus, willing it to go quicker to ensure that I wouldn't be late to class.

-

I had constructed a whole plan on how my mornings would go from now on, and sorted a precise routine to avoid this one situation. I didn't imagine it being disregarded so early into the school year. Yet, I was notorious for being late back home, despite my best efforts. It was evidently not a good trait.

As I hurried across the campus, barely navigating the way from memory and already five minutes late, I hoped that this wasn't an omen for what my life would be like here. 

The corridors were quiet, a few groups of people scattered around - obviously early and awaiting their first lecture - and all of their faces blending into one. I paid no heed due to the sheer rush I was attempting to downplay in the presence of other students.

The lecture hall seemed abnormally distant. But, as this thought flashed through my brain, a large notice on the wall displayed the word I was desperately searching for in black, block letters. I heaved a sigh of relief and searched for the class number. 

EB1.1...EB1.3...EB1.7...EB1.15

Seeing that I had arrived at my designated room, I paused momentarily, glancing down to check my wrist watch. Fifteen minutes late. Fifteen used to be my lucky number, but after this, I'm not too sure. I turned to walk towards the door, not looking up, and immediately came into contact with something solid.

Before I could comprehend what was happening and steady myself, I was falling backwards, the notes in my hand and bag falling everywhere. 

“Im sorry! Im so, sorry. I completely missed you there! I was just late and...” A boys flustered voice cut me from my internal monologue of how great the day was turning out to be. He immediately dropped to his knees to collect up the newly created mess, whilst simultaneously glancing back towards me. Presumably to see if I was fatally injured.

“Its fine. Im sorry. It was probably my fault.” I laughed, moving to my knees and picking up a pile of notes scattered to the left of me. “I have a terrible habit of being late to everything.”

“I should have seen you though. Are you okay? Not hurt are you?”

“I’m completely fine. despite my pride, obviously. Are you okay? I completely barrelled into you.”

We both continued to pick up the notes scattered around the corridor together, and finished rearranging ourselves in seconds flat. The man quickly stood up, holding out his free hand to me, which I grasped firmly. I let go, and he clutched his notes, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, a red blush overtaking his features.

“I’m completely okay. I must apologise again.” he spoke, still anxiously rubbing his neck. A small smile was playing on his red features.

I paused for a second and adjusted the strap on my bag.

“You said you were late to class. Whats your major?” I questioned, not much left to lose considering over a third of the first lecture was over. I looked towards the class door, knowing that I was obviously more than a quarter hour late now. This couldn't be good.

“Engineering. Electrical, more specifically. But Engineering is apparently just one big degree here.”

“Im majoring in that too. But, I prefer the Aerospace branch.”

The man smiled at that, before adjusting his shirt collar and swinging the strap of his bag over his shoulder..

“I have a friend that would love that. An Astrophysics Major.” He turned and pointed to the room EB1.15. “I guess we're headed to the same place, then?”

I nodded, smiling back.

“Y/N Y/L/N.” I raised my right hand out to the boy.

“John Deacon. Lovely to meet you.” He grasped my hand, and we shook, before splitting and turning to enter the classroom. John took the lead, entering the class before me, and holding the door open for me to enter too.

I guess chivalry isn't dead.

We both stood there momentarily, well aware of thirty or so sets of eyes turning in our direction. Under any other positive circumstances, I wouldn't be fazed, but knowing that I was in the wrong and destined to be given fails for the next academic year - and in front of so many strangers - I was uncharacteristically nervous.

From the looks of it, John also wasn't one for being thrusted under the limelight. He shot me a short, wide-eyed look, before hesitantly making his way to the lecturers desk at the front centre of the hall. I trailed behind him, probably appearing like a lost puppy, but in reality, unsure what the protocol was for such a situation.

Do i just sit down and ignore the fact that I missed half of the lecture? Or apologise profusely? At this point I’m ready to just leave campus, drop the course and move back home. Although, nothing worse than moving home immediately comes to mind.

However, John quickly spoke, explaining the issues he faced with his travel this morning etcetera, etcetera, and luckily, he included me within this tale. Apparently, we had gotten scheduled 8:15 AM bus, and due to a road-traffic accident, we were diverted for over three quarters of an hour. Credit to him for elaborating so. I was almost convinced myself that I hadn't overslept this morning.

As he concluded his tale, John took a step backwards, next to me, and awaited a response. The lecturer nodded, a blank expression on his face. He waited a second before responding.

“Ive already assigned the Initial Assignment. I want a 2,000 word essay on your reasons behind choosing Engineering as your major, the branch you major in, and the gateways this degree opens for you. Any other details are on the board.” The man held his stoic expression, and we nodded back at him, awaiting a sign to take our seats. “Michael Ford.”

I muttered my name in response, as did John, as we turned to take the only two free seats at the back of the lecture hall. We were stopped abruptly.

“Next time, don't let your romantic life come in the way of your studies.”

I froze, unsure of what to reply, other than a quick nod. I went to hurry off once again, but glanced at John who was beet red -  even redder than before in the corridor -  a wide-eyed expression on his face. It took all I had in me to not burst out laughing. 

[sol1056]

hey im the anon who asked about how you knew the stuff, sorry i wasn't too clear on what. i just read the post explaining EPs and how the behind the scene stuff worked and i wanted to know how you knew all that, like are you involved in the industry? or just a nerd?

gotcha! Well, remember how back in S1/S2, people kept pointing out Hunk could be… awfully nosy? always getting into things, asking questions?

I was over here going, YES HUNK IS MY PEOPLE. 

It’s a hallmark of a certain type of engineer: insatiable curiosity, and never satisfied with only one answer, always sure there’s more to discover. Okay, we’re not all engineers — a lot of us are Russian Lit majors — but the key is our drive to discover. We take apart, put back together, connect dots close and far, turn things around and study them from a new direction. We’re those people who randomly show up in your part of the building, poke our heads in the room and say, “so, what do all y’all do here? what’s this do? hey, what’s that?”

Despite the fact that most of us seem to be (strangely) strong introverts, that doesn’t stop us. We’ve got questions for everyone. We’ll talk to total strangers all day if we’re on the trail of a particularly interesting idea. In a nutshell, we’re utterly shameless.

I did post-production back when NLE was relatively new and the compositing applications required massive nearly-mainframe computing power. I was mostly in the sfx/cg areas, but I weaseled my way into the color suite pretty regularly. I sat in on editing sessions and was a happy lunch-fetching lackey if it got me a chance to watch the compositing team. Any lull meant a chance to chat up directors, cinematographers, producers, etc. I totally took advantage. 

It’s been awhile since I did that – and since then I’ve been a roady, a mental health & substance abuse admin, a doorman, and even owned a bookstore, before going corporate. But for every wacky thing I’ve done, I’ve also kept in touch with people I met. Frex: the friend who got me the post-production job is now an executive producer. Yes, I do call him with questions. He’s used to it. If he doesn’t know an answer, he sends me to someone who does. (Another reason we’ve been friends for so long.) One answer is never sufficient, never a reason to stop there.

Meet one novelist, get introduced to six more, and three of them write for TV. Oh, that’s handy. Should save that contact, could be useful someday. It’s actually rare for someone to say no, come to think of it. idk, as long as I can get access, I can usually get the person to tell me something I can use. 

However, since my actual area of expertise applies across many industries, I’ve worked all kinds of places. A lot of it’s client-facing, and if you think that means I’m not wandering around the client site poking my head into rooms and cheerfully interviewing people on the spot, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Now that I work at a multinational corporation, I have literally thousands of people in my network, including everyone who’s moved on to a new place. You might be surprised how many people are fine with, “hey, I work at X with Y, and Y told me you’d know this.” Of course, everyone has a bias and a view limited to their own experience, so you can’t stop there. You can’t really understand a situation without knowing the agendas of all the players. You gotta ask a bunch of people, make sure you’re getting the most rounded sense of things. 

Not really a hardship for me. It’s kinda the whole point. 

People are people everywhere (outside cultural quirks), and it’s rare I’m ever researching a single person (I’m not an investigative journalist, if you were wondering). Most of the time, I’m looking for the industry-based cultural expectations. As in, “given X and Y, what would someone who does A generally think is a reasonable action, in this situation?”  

The key is to have a believable reason for asking, and being a writer definitely qualifies. “I’m researching for a story, and I have a character who do X. I wanted to know if it’s realistic for them to know Y. Who do you think would be the best person to ask?” I frequently cold-call, and I never ask “is there someone there,” I ask who they think is the best person. A lot of times it ends up being someone that the phone operator knows (personally or by reputation) who’s full of bizarre trivia and enjoys a chance to show it off. (Plus, it’s amazing what you can learn about a person from all the other subtle cues people are unaware they’re telling, when they’re focused on their area of expertise.)

That’s how I ended up interviewing the Director of the DEA about whether a non-US-university degree would satisfy the education requirement. His letter of introduction got me monthly lunches for awhile with the DEA director in my city. (Oh, the stories I heard.) It’s how I learned about sheep subsidies from one of the top execs at the USDA, and that there’s a single surviving Civil War widow still getting a VA pension. Going in person is even more fun. You could wind up talking to one of the very few artists in the world whose speciality is touching up pre-Renaissance books so the repairs aren’t visible. Or the art historian whose job is going through the nation’s attic and identifying century-old fakes. 

I’ve talked to embassy officials from five different countries, NASA biophysicists and astrophysicists, OSHA inspectors, Nobel prize-winning economists, police detectives, celebrity chefs, environmental lawyers, arena-level sound-people, race-car drivers, potters, opera singers, patent examiners, train mechanics, fire marshals, foley artists, and club DJs. I’ve interviewed fashion photographers, farriers, puppeteers, lighting designers, Catholic bishops, bioethicists, rabbis, fighter pilots, public radio personalities, newspaper editors, chemists, club organizers, war correspondents, Episcopalian nuns (yes they exist), textile artists, prison architects, midwives, cabinetmakers, tall ship sailors, haute couture seamstresses, and civil engineers. On and on and on. 

Don’t neglect official avenues, either. The Department of Labor, the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the Screen Writers’ Guild, the list is nearly endless — any organization, union, or federal/state dept that sets or guides policy. Everyone has a bias, so what people consider normal is sometimes… not. Or they just didn’t know (or saw no need to know, the fools) the reason for A over B. You have to check the rules, because a discrepancy between what you’re told should be done versus what people tell you is actually done… is also useful to know. 

(Labor practices are definitely one of those areas, since federal labor policy is something every company must observe. It’s the law. So when a workplace seems to be violating the law, it raises a lot of interesting questions.) 

And finally, of course, there’s traditional research. Textbooks written by people in an industry can be particularly interesting, especially if it’s a book meant for readers outside that industry (which usually means a lot of firsthand anecdotes to round out the gaps). Popular articles, academic essays, post-mortem white papers, TED talks, interviews. You need to do your basic homework, because there’s no waste of someone’s time quite like asking them a question that’s patently absurd once you get past common assumptions. 

I once explained the plot of a popular SF show to a NASA astrophysicist, and his response was simply, “Every word you used was English, but those words in that order make absolutely no sense at all.” Kind of a dead-end, there. You can’t come at a top-level expert with intro-level questions. 

Since I don’t always know who I’ll stumble over next, being an information sponge means I at least have a whole encyclopedia of analogies. If I can find  common ground (cars and houses are two of the best), I can at least get a basic idea of the person’s meaning. “Oh, so it’s like when you turn the key in the ignition, and the lights don’t come on because the battery is dead?” 

It’s asking the right questions, using an open and friendly approach, and having the right timing. Remember: there is no such thing as unskilled labor; there is only undervalued labor. That is, their time is also valuable, so be brief, open, and sincere. Treat every person as if they’re an authority in something, even if you haven’t figured out what that is. 

The world is a massively complex place, and contains more things than are dreamt of in our philosophies, all of it waiting to be discovered.

Or, the shorter version:

btw: I don’t actually recommend going in person to the Dept of the Interior, though. You’ll get lost. Like, instantly. That place is MASSIVE.

[wstwood-blog1]

( scarlett leithold, cisfemale )   did  you  hear  how  SAMANTHA  WESTWOOD  is  applying  to  columbia  university  as  a  STATISTICS  major ?!     the  TWENTY  TWO  year  old is  living  in  the  WATT HALL.     i heard  that  they  got  in  because  they  are  + CHARMING  and  + OPTIMISTIC,     but  honestly  i  think  SHE  can  be  - NAIVE  and  - DEPENDENT.     they’re  a  real  GIRL NEXT DOOR.     oh  well,  only  time  will  tell  if  the  SOPHOMORE  will  make  it  til  the  end.     AESTHETICS  +  sweet  smelling  perfumes,   beachy  waves,   baby  pink,   glitter  gloss,   designer  shoes,   posting  gym / progress  pictures,   a  heart  of  gold  with  a  laugh  to  match .

hiii  lovies !   i’m  kai !   22,   she/her,   est,   n  all  that !   i’m  super  thrilled  2  be  here,   i  live  for  gossip  rps  &  i’m  so  excited  to  write  with  all  of  u  &  your  amazing  charas !!   if  u  enjoy  yelling,   dogs,   and/or  iconic  movies  ---  we’re  gonna  get  along  gr8 !   under  the  cut  i’ve  pasted  Sam’s  bio,   it’s  not  totally  finished  but  it’s  enough  to  figure  her  out  a  little  bit !!   i  also  have  a  wanted  connections  page  just  to  give  suggestions,   but  tbh  i’m  really  up  for  whatever !   n  feel  free  to  give  this  a  LIKE  for  me  to  invade  ur  IMS  for  plots !

H I S T O R Y .

    THE WESTWOODS     —     a family established in Malibu circa 1870s & ever thriving in today’s city that never sleeps .   Samantha is the daughter of Alexander and Kathryn Reeds-Westwood ;   her father is a successful banking investor that moved their company East during her freshman year of high school .   He’s the type of guy to put work before family, but makes sure they’re absolutely taken care of,   too.   He has two degrees,   one in finance and the other in psychology,   and is the main reason Sam is majoring in statistics .   He’s told her on more than one occasion that she will not be her mother     —     a socialite who’s had everything handed to her,   including her career (as the owner of a small branch of fashion boutiques scattered across the boroughs) .   She hates it,   but she’s too afraid of his disapproval to defer from the path to his version of success.   Her mother just smiles & laughs,   goes about her day seemingly unbothered     —     but under all that botox,   Sam knows she has to be hurting .   They were a happy couple once,   but people change ;   some like the seasons and not always for the better ,   but they’ve built quite an empire together .   & if they didn’t have love,   at least they had their business to keep things alive enough for her .

    Fast forward to around the time of her high school graduation,   when her parents decided to separate and her mom moved back to California   ( she only returned to the city for Sam’s ceremony & hasn’t been back since ) .   Samantha actually ended up deferring for a year & a half   ( it would’ve only been a year,   but she missed the application deadline for fall )   because she was flying back & forth between her parent’s places ;   being thrown in the middle as a pawn to their feud,   and attempting to reconcile only to fail time & again .   She’s always been caught between them,   between doing things for herself and doing the right thing,   and the latter of the two seems to get her in the most trouble .   Her mother doesn’t help by encouraging her to be young while she still is .

P E R S O N A L I T Y .

    Sam was & continues to be stellar when it comes to her academics,   which is surprising to most given the fact that she’s not the best decision maker in other aspects of her life .   She’s always been more of a leader than a follower,   & still hasn’t learned from past situations that only escalated into more trouble than it was worth .   The blonde has been through  /  put her parents through more than she’d ever admit   ( or in some instances, can remember )   which is a big contributor to why her father is strict about her future .   She’s always been involved in the athletics ;   cheerleading,   track,   and boxing     —     which she’s still into today .   She’s easily one of the sweetest girl’s you’ll ever meet,   no matter your status .   She’s super trusting,   another piece of her that often gets her into trouble ;   especially so when it comes to boys and relationships .   Sam’s had her fair share of heartbreaks,   but is a total sucker when it comes to romance and love,   so she won’t be so easily deterred .   A total party girl,   always down to have a good time even when she shouldn’t be,   & always in need of a mom friend.

[patriotsnet]

Do Republicans Vote In The Democratic Primary

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/do-republicans-vote-in-the-democratic-primary/

Do Republicans Vote In The Democratic Primary

What Is A Voter

The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, which took effect January 1, 2011, created “voter-nominated” offices. The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices.

Most of the offices that were previously known as “partisan” are now known as “voter-nominated” offices. Voter-nominated offices are state constitutional offices, state legislative offices, and U.S. congressional offices. The only “partisan offices” now are the offices of U.S. President and county central committee.

Who Can Vote In A Primary

Only Democrats can vote in the Democratic Primary.

Only Republicans can vote in the Republican Primary.

The last day to register to vote before the Primary is the 4th Saturday before the Primary.

The deadline to change party affiliation before the Primary is the last Friday in May.

You can register to vote and change your party affiliation after the Primary.

Step Four: Super Tuesday

A few other states voted in between New Hampshire and the end of February, but things really started to warm up by Super Tuesday, on 3 March.

What is Super Tuesday?

THE big date in the primary calendar, when 16 states, territories or groups voted for their preferred candidate in primaries or caucuses. A third of all the delegates available in the entire primary season were up for grabs on Super Tuesday. By the end of the day it became much clearer that Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders were the front-runners for the Democratic nomination.

The two states with the most delegates voted on Super Tuesday – California and Texas . California voted three months earlier than in 2016, making Super Tuesday even more super than normal.

States With Open Primaries For Other Elections

A similar system known as a nonpartisan blanket primary has been used in Louisiana for state and local elections since 1976, and began to be used in Washington, after numerous court challenges, in 2008.

In California, under Proposition 14, a measure that easily passed, traditional party primaries were replaced in 2011 with wide-open elections. Proposition 14, known as the open primary measure, gave every voter the same ballot in primary elections for most state and federal races, except the presidential contest.

Most primaries in New York are closed, but state law contains a provision allowing parties to use a different method if they want. Currently, only the Independence Party chooses to allow unaffiliated voters to participate.

Who Gets A Say

Some say the stricter primary systems restrict whose voice can be part of the democratic process and are therefore undemocratic. Parties can block who participates in primaries, or systems force voters to publicly identify with a party.

But Laurel Harbridge-Yong, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, says the argument for limiting voting to party members makes sense those who align with a party should get to choose the issues and candidates who represent them.

To people who study political parties Its actually quite shocking to think that you would even have something like open primaries, Harbridge-Yong says. Taken in a different context, the question would be, Why should someone whos not a Methodist be able to help pick the priest at a Methodist congregation? Of course, it would be the people that are part of that denomination or that group who are the ones that are selecting their leader.

In June, the BGA Policy team had John Opdycke, president of Open Primaries, as a guest on the BGA podcast . Opdycke advocates for primary reform across the country, and said efforts are underway in 15 or 20 states to attempt to change primary systems.

There’s a lot of momentum, there’s a lot of activity, Opdycke said. And yet this movement is still very underdeveloped, very young and the opposition comes from both political parties.

And in Illinois?

How Do You Choose

When you show up to your polling location, youll decide whether you want a Democratic or Republican primary ballot.

But after choosing a side in the primary, you have to stay in that lane through the runoff. You cant vote Republican in the primary election and then participate in a runoff election between top Democratic candidates.

That said, voting in a primary does not commit you to vote for a particular candidate in the general election. You can vote for either partys candidate in the November election.

I Dont See That Happening

Martin told me she and other South Carolina Republicans had chosen to support Sanders because Biden still held a significant lead in the state. Im not sure if we could move him with enough crossover votes to overcome Biden, she said, but thats the math were looking at is who can we cross over and vote for that mathematically will cause the most consternation.

Ultimately, she hopes that the crossover vote push will cause South Carolina Democrats the same kind of angst that weve had for years and push them toward closing their primary.

I do not think it was a result of our efforts, even if we were as successful mathematically as we could be, that everyones going to agree to close the primaries tomorrow, she told me, but said coverage of their efforts was already getting traction with Democrats in the fight for closed primaries.

I asked whether Martin was concerned that a Sanders primary victory in South Carolina pushed by Republican crossover voters could ultimately result in a Sanders presidency. She took my point, but said, I dont see that happening.

The Iowa caucuses, she said, showed that the people that make the rules in the Democrat party are not going to allow Bernie to be the nominee. Citing debate rule changes and recent remarks by Democratic Party stalwarts like James Carville, she said that there was no way the party would permit Sanders to win the nomination.

Will you support Voxs explanatory journalism?

Counties Are Doing Things A Little Differently This Time

If you live in one of the counties highlighted below, voting might look a little different this year.

In 2016, California passed the Voter Choice Act, a law aimed at modernizing the states election system, such that:

Every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail

Voters are no longer required to go to a specific polling place, but can vote at any number of voting centers or drop-off points

Voters can cast their ballots in person beginning 11 days before, and up to and including, Election Day

In 2018, five counties rolled out the new system. This year, 10 more will join their ranks. Thats fifteen counties in all containing 49% of the state population.

This is key for no party preference voters living in these counties who may not get the ballot they want in the mail. See the previous section for details.

Argument That Delegates Are Unbound

Former RNC committee member Curly Haugland and public policy consultant Sean Parnell argued in their 2016 book, Unbound: The Conscience of a Republican Delegate, that delegates are free to vote their conscience and are not bound by state or party laws to vote according to the results of party primaries or caucuses. Click on the following links to learn more about arguments for and against this interpretation of delegate binding:

See also: Democratic delegate rules, 2020

Delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention selected Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee on August 18, 2020. The national nominating convention is the formal ceremony during which the party officially selects its nominee. The delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state, territory, or Democrats Abroad at the convention.

In 2020, there were 4,750 delegates: 3,979 pledged delegates and 771 automatic delegatesmore commonly known as superdelegates.

To win the Democratic nomination, a presidential candidate needed to receive support from a majority of the pledged delegates on the first ballot: 1,991 pledged delegates.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, several states postponed their primaries. Under Rule 12 of the Delegate Selection Rules for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, no primary or caucus was permitted to take place after June 9, 2020. Any state violating that rule could have been subject to delegate reduction penalties.

Step One: The Start Line

A whole year before the primaries, the first candidates emerged from hibernation. Over the year, others woke up and eventually 28 people announced they were running to become the Democratic nominee for president.

But dwindling funds, luke-warm or public reaction and campaign infighting have, to varying degrees, led to most of them pulling out of the race.

At the start of primary season, 11 people remained in the running, a number that has now reduced to three. In theory, any one of them could become the nominee. In reality, only two now have a chance.

Each Primary Has Its Flaws

When it comes down to it, both the Republican and Democratic parties have their own unique, subtle system by which they can override the nations popular primary vote.

The days when politicians gathered in dark rooms where cigarette smoke flowed out from underneath the door are over, but that doesnt mean the existing system is completely democratic.

For both Republicans and Democrats, theres more to winning a nomination than scoring Americas majority vote.

What Is A Closed Primary Election

What is a Closed Primary Election and How Your Choice of Party Affiliation Affects You in an Election?

Federal/State Primary Elections – Even-Numbered Years

What Is a Primary Election?         

A Primary Election is a preliminary election to select, when necessary, Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan candidates who will run in the General Election contests . The direct vote of the people selects the candidates, rather than votes of convention delegates.

Nevada Is a CLOSED Primary Election State            

  Major Political Parties:

°  Democratic: If you are a registered with the Democratic Party, you may vote in your precinct’s contests which select Democratic candidates AND in all of your precinct’s nonpartisan contests.

°  Republican: If you are a registered Republican, you may vote in your precinct’s contests which select Republican candidates AND in all of your precinct’s nonpartisan contests.

 Other Political Parties and Affiliations:                       

If you are not registered as a Democratic or Republican, you may vote for ONLY Nonpartisan CONTESTS for your precinct. Minor party, other party and independent candidates  only appear in the General Election, NOT the Primary Election.

°  Minor Political Parties:  If your Voter Registration Application indicates that your party is one that is classified as “minor party,” you may vote for ONLY Nonpartisan CONTESTS for your precinct.  to view the list of officially recognized minor parties  in the State of Nevada :

TO VOLUNTEER TO BE A POLL WORKER, .

Why Some Conservatives Are Voting In Michigan’s Democratic Primary

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Katey Morse is on a journey of political atonement.

“I’ve gone on Facebook and apologized to family and friends and said hey, I made a mistake,” the 39-year-old Michigan resident said last year of her 2016 vote for Donald Trump.

Morse said that she got caught up in Trump’s celebrity and was impressed by his business record. And she assumed that the bravado she saw and heard on TV was just a character put on for the campaign trail that would subside once he got into office.

But she said she had learned since then that it wasn’t an act. A turning point for her came in March 2019, when she took her son to a Trump rally. She was horrified. Afterward, Morse had to have a conversation with the boy, then 7, about how not to talk about other people.

And as the Democratic primary season began to take shape last year, Morse started to consider voting blue.

It’s a choice some moderate Republicans across the state are also grappling with ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary contest. NBC News spent time with voters in Kent County, where Morse lives, just outside Grand Rapids. The hometown of Gerald Ford, the area is a traditionally Republican stronghold. Some Republicans here said they feel lost because they no longer recognize the party they grew up with. They’re wary enough about another four years of Trump’s presidency to consider the Democratic candidates.

No Party Preference Voters: Pay Attention

Registered Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and other party members, rest assured. You are guaranteed a primary ballot with all of your partys presidential contenders on it.

But voters who dont belong to a political party the fastest growing voting block in the state will have to navigate a more daunting set of obstacles to cast a presidential primary vote.

Some parties have members only policies:

The Republican Party

The Green Party

The Peace and Freedom Party

If you want to vote in one of these three primaries, youll have to join that party. You cant do it as a member of any other party, or even as a no party preference independent. No exceptions. 

The following three parties do allow political independents to cast ballots in their presidential primaries :

The Democratic Party

The Libertarian Party

The American Independent Party

But and this is an important caveat these voters do have to specifically request the ballot they want.

For those who vote in person, this is a cinch. Just go into your polling place when its time to vote and ask. But independents who vote by mail need to let your county know which ballot they want ahead of time.

Maybe you received a postcard that looks like this:

And if youve already received a ballot in the mail and were disappointed by the lack of presidential candidates, do notfill it out. You can always request a new ballot, but trying to vote twice is frowned upon .

Cancellation Of State Caucuses Or Primaries

The Washington Examiner reported on December 19, 2018, that the South Carolina Republican Party had not ruled out forgoing a primary contest to protect Trump from any primary challengers. Party chairman Drew McKissick stated, “Considering the fact that the entire party supports the president, we’ll end up doing what’s in the president’s best interest.” On January 24, another Washington Examiner report indicated that the Kansas Republican Party was “likely” to scrap its presidential caucus to “save resources”.

In August 2019, the Associated Press reported that the Nevada Republican Party was also contemplating canceling their caucuses, with the state party spokesman, Keith Schipper, saying it “isn’t about any kind of conspiracy theory about protecting the president … He’s going to be the nominee … This is about protecting resources to make sure that the president wins in Nevada and that Republicans up and down the ballot win in 2020.”

Kansas, Nevada and South Carolina’s state committees officially voted on September 7, 2019, to cancel their caucus and primary. The Arizona state Republican Party indicated two days later that it will not hold a primary. These four were joined by the Alaska state Republican party on September 21, when its central committee announced they would not hold a presidential primary.

Virginia Republicans decided to allocate delegates at the state convention.

Why You Need To Vote In The Primary Elections

True or false. You only need to vote in the November presidential election and not the primary elections.

FALSE!

For most American voters, the presidential primary elections matter more than the general election. Like Ive said before, if you live in a red state or a blue state, your vote in the presidential election wont make a difference. The rest of your state will overwhelming vote for a Democrat or a Republican. Your vote wont change your states outcome. .

But the primary elections are an entirely different story.

The presidential primaries determine who will represent the Republicans and the Democrats during the November election. Instead of voting between just 2 candidates, you have the choice of 3 Democrats or 12 Republicans. Unlike the general election, you actually have a chance of voting for your preferred candidate, not just the lesser of two evils.

Government 101: United States Presidential Primary

How Does the Presidential Primary Process Work?

The Convention

Prior to a general election, there is a selection process to determine which candidate will appear on the ballot for a given political party in the nationwide general election. Political parties generally hold national conventions at which a group of delegates collectively decide upon which candidate they will run for the presidency. The process of choosing delegates to the national convention is undertaken at the state level, which means that there are significant differences from state to state and sometimes year to year. The two methods for choosing delegates to the national convention are the caucus and the primary.

The Caucus

Caucuses were the original method for selecting candidates but have decreased in number since the primary was introduced in the early 1900’s. In states that hold caucuses a political party announces the date, time, and location of the meeting. Generally any voter registered with the party may attend. At the caucus, delegates are chosen to represent the state’s interests at the national party convention. Prospective delegates are identified as favorable to a specific candidate or uncommitted. After discussion and debate an informal vote is taken to determine which delegates should be chosen.

The Primary

Awarding the Delegates

Step Two: The Iowa Caucuses

The first event of the primary season isn’t a primary at all – it’s a series of caucuses, in Iowa. These took place on Monday 3 February, in somewhat chaotic fashion.

What are caucuses?

A caucus involves people attending a meeting – maybe for a few hours – before they vote on their preferred candidate, perhaps via a head count or a show of hands. Those meetings might be in just a few select locations – you can’t just turn up at a polling station.

As a result, caucuses tend to really suit candidates who are good at rousing their supporters to get out of bed. People like Bernie Sanders, for example, who performed well in Iowa this time, as did Pete Buttigieg.

Democrats’ key issues explained

Caucuses used to be far more popular back in the day, but this year, Democrats are holding only four in US states – in Nevada, North Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa.

If any candidate gets under 15% of the vote in any caucus, their supporters then get to pick a second choice from among the candidates who did get more than 15%, or they can just choose to sit out the second vote.

Why does Iowa matter?

A win there for any candidate can help give them momentum and propel them to victory in the primaries.

Why does Iowa not matter?

Iowa doesn’t represent the entire US – it’s largely white, so the way people vote there is very, very different than in other states.

How Are Primary Elections Conducted In California

All candidates for voter-nominated offices are listed on one ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary election regardless of party preference – move on to the general election. Write-in candidates for voter-nominated offices can only run in the primary election. A write-in candidate will only move on to the general election if the candidate is one of the top two vote-getters in the primary election.

Prior to the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, the top vote-getter from each qualified political party, as well as any write-in candidate who received a certain percentage of votes, moved on to the general election.

The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committee, or local office.

Primary Election Snafus Show Challenges For November Vote

Republicans’ and Democrats’ vastly different starting points help explain why the politics over voting and elections have been and likely will remain so fraught, through and beyond Election Day this year.

Sometimes it seems as if the politicians involved barely live in the same country. It has become common for one side to discount the legitimacy of a victory by the other.

And the coronavirus pandemic, which has scrambled nearly everything about life in the United States, makes understanding it all even more complicated. Here’s what you need to know to decode this year’s voting controversies.

The Rosetta stone

The key that unlocks so much of the partisan debate about voting is one word: turnout.

An old truism holds that, all other things held equal, a smaller pool of voters tends to be better for Republicans and the larger the pool gets, the better for Democrats.

This isn’t mathematically ironclad, as politicians learn and relearn regularly. But this assumption is the foundation upon which much else is built.

What The Gov: If I Voted Republican In A Primary Can I Vote Democrat In The General

Illinois primary elections force voters to ask for a partisan ballot. From primaries to the general in November, heres what you should know about party identification and voting.

This article is part of a series called “What the Gov,” where BGA Engagement Editor Mia Sato takes reader questions related to Illinois government and upcoming elections and tracks down the answers. Ask your own question here.

Voters hear a lot about party politics at all levels of government, from Congress all the way down to local municipal elections. Some voters align closely with a party and others cast their vote on a case-by-case basis. But how does party identification impact how you can vote? Several readers were stumped.

Cynthia Mosley, a retired Chicago Public Schools teacher living on Chicagos Southside, is one of them. She remembers her mother didn’t vote in the primaries because it meant saying aloud to a poll worker which partys ballot she wanted. Cynthia wondered why voters have to declare a party to vote in the primary.

Another reader was thinking forward: could she could vote for any partys candidates in the general, or did she have to be registered with that party?

Were just a few weeks out from the November election and voters have a lot of questions both about the systems Illinois has and how it plays out in the voting process. Heres what you should know.

The Presidential Primary Will Not Use The Familiar Top Two Ballot

California voters can be forgiven for assuming that political party registration doesnt really matter.

In 2010 voters backed a measure to create the states nonpartisan top two election system, in which all primary voters fill out a ballot with every candidate on it regardless of either the voters or the candidates political party. The top two winners then move on to the general election ballot even if theyre both from the same party.

In races for state legislative and congressional seats, the top two method will still reign on the 2020 ballot. 

But when you vote in the presidential primary, its back to the old partisan system: Democrats on the Democratic ballot, Republicans on the Republican ballot, and so on.

So while voting in California usually goes like this under the top two:

In the presidential primary, it looks a little more like this:

The 2020 Democratic Primary Is Giving Some Republicans Dj Vu

A large, diffuse and unyielding field of candidates is helping Bernie Sanders dominate. Republicans who tried to beat Donald J. Trump in 2016 see parallels.

FARGO, N.D. After a disappointing sixth-place finish in Nevada, which followed a less disappointing third-place finish in New Hampshire but a humbling fifth-place finish in Iowa, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota looked out at the crowd of more than 1,000 and predicted victory in the North Dakota primary at the time, more than two weeks away.

Somehow, I have a feeling this primary is still going to be going on, she said.

That much seems certain.

The no-end-in-sight nature of the contest for the Democratic nomination is alarming those in the party who are hoping to blunt the momentum of the front-runner, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The most likely way they believe that could happen a critical mass of the senators rivals drop out so voters can coalesce around a single alternative seems like the least likely outcome.

The irony is thick. Mr. Sanders, the candidate many establishment Democrats fear would have the most trouble beating President Trump in November, is benefiting from some of the same dynamics that helped Mr. Trump stampede to the Republican nomination four years ago.

As Republicans who weathered 2016 observe 2020, they are feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu. The parallels are not perfect, but there are many right down to the candidates themselves.

201620202016202020162020

[statetalks]

Do Republicans Vote In The Democratic Primary

What Is A Voter

The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, which took effect January 1, 2011, created “voter-nominated” offices. The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices.

Most of the offices that were previously known as “partisan” are now known as “voter-nominated” offices. Voter-nominated offices are state constitutional offices, state legislative offices, and U.S. congressional offices. The only “partisan offices” now are the offices of U.S. President and county central committee.

Who Can Vote In A Primary

Only Democrats can vote in the Democratic Primary.

Only Republicans can vote in the Republican Primary.

The last day to register to vote before the Primary is the 4th Saturday before the Primary.

The deadline to change party affiliation before the Primary is the last Friday in May.

You can register to vote and change your party affiliation after the Primary.

Step Four: Super Tuesday

A few other states voted in between New Hampshire and the end of February, but things really started to warm up by Super Tuesday, on 3 March.

What is Super Tuesday?

THE big date in the primary calendar, when 16 states, territories or groups voted for their preferred candidate in primaries or caucuses. A third of all the delegates available in the entire primary season were up for grabs on Super Tuesday. By the end of the day it became much clearer that Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders were the front-runners for the Democratic nomination.

The two states with the most delegates voted on Super Tuesday – California and Texas . California voted three months earlier than in 2016, making Super Tuesday even more super than normal.

States With Open Primaries For Other Elections

A similar system known as a nonpartisan blanket primary has been used in Louisiana for state and local elections since 1976, and began to be used in Washington, after numerous court challenges, in 2008.

In California, under Proposition 14, a measure that easily passed, traditional party primaries were replaced in 2011 with wide-open elections. Proposition 14, known as the open primary measure, gave every voter the same ballot in primary elections for most state and federal races, except the presidential contest.

Most primaries in New York are closed, but state law contains a provision allowing parties to use a different method if they want. Currently, only the Independence Party chooses to allow unaffiliated voters to participate.

Who Gets A Say

Some say the stricter primary systems restrict whose voice can be part of the democratic process and are therefore undemocratic. Parties can block who participates in primaries, or systems force voters to publicly identify with a party.

But Laurel Harbridge-Yong, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, says the argument for limiting voting to party members makes sense those who align with a party should get to choose the issues and candidates who represent them.

To people who study political parties Its actually quite shocking to think that you would even have something like open primaries, Harbridge-Yong says. Taken in a different context, the question would be, Why should someone whos not a Methodist be able to help pick the priest at a Methodist congregation? Of course, it would be the people that are part of that denomination or that group who are the ones that are selecting their leader.

In June, the BGA Policy team had John Opdycke, president of Open Primaries, as a guest on the BGA podcast . Opdycke advocates for primary reform across the country, and said efforts are underway in 15 or 20 states to attempt to change primary systems.

There’s a lot of momentum, there’s a lot of activity, Opdycke said. And yet this movement is still very underdeveloped, very young and the opposition comes from both political parties.

And in Illinois?

How Do You Choose

When you show up to your polling location, youll decide whether you want a Democratic or Republican primary ballot.

But after choosing a side in the primary, you have to stay in that lane through the runoff. You cant vote Republican in the primary election and then participate in a runoff election between top Democratic candidates.

That said, voting in a primary does not commit you to vote for a particular candidate in the general election. You can vote for either partys candidate in the November election.

I Dont See That Happening

Martin told me she and other South Carolina Republicans had chosen to support Sanders because Biden still held a significant lead in the state. Im not sure if we could move him with enough crossover votes to overcome Biden, she said, but thats the math were looking at is who can we cross over and vote for that mathematically will cause the most consternation.

Ultimately, she hopes that the crossover vote push will cause South Carolina Democrats the same kind of angst that weve had for years and push them toward closing their primary.

I do not think it was a result of our efforts, even if we were as successful mathematically as we could be, that everyones going to agree to close the primaries tomorrow, she told me, but said coverage of their efforts was already getting traction with Democrats in the fight for closed primaries.

I asked whether Martin was concerned that a Sanders primary victory in South Carolina pushed by Republican crossover voters could ultimately result in a Sanders presidency. She took my point, but said, I dont see that happening.

The Iowa caucuses, she said, showed that the people that make the rules in the Democrat party are not going to allow Bernie to be the nominee. Citing debate rule changes and recent remarks by Democratic Party stalwarts like James Carville, she said that there was no way the party would permit Sanders to win the nomination.

Will you support Voxs explanatory journalism?

Counties Are Doing Things A Little Differently This Time

If you live in one of the counties highlighted below, voting might look a little different this year.

In 2016, California passed the Voter Choice Act, a law aimed at modernizing the states election system, such that:

Every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail

Voters are no longer required to go to a specific polling place, but can vote at any number of voting centers or drop-off points

Voters can cast their ballots in person beginning 11 days before, and up to and including, Election Day

In 2018, five counties rolled out the new system. This year, 10 more will join their ranks. Thats fifteen counties in all containing 49% of the state population.

This is key for no party preference voters living in these counties who may not get the ballot they want in the mail. See the previous section for details.

Argument That Delegates Are Unbound

Former RNC committee member Curly Haugland and public policy consultant Sean Parnell argued in their 2016 book, Unbound: The Conscience of a Republican Delegate, that delegates are free to vote their conscience and are not bound by state or party laws to vote according to the results of party primaries or caucuses. Click on the following links to learn more about arguments for and against this interpretation of delegate binding:

See also: Democratic delegate rules, 2020

Delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention selected Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee on August 18, 2020. The national nominating convention is the formal ceremony during which the party officially selects its nominee. The delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state, territory, or Democrats Abroad at the convention.

In 2020, there were 4,750 delegates: 3,979 pledged delegates and 771 automatic delegatesmore commonly known as superdelegates.

To win the Democratic nomination, a presidential candidate needed to receive support from a majority of the pledged delegates on the first ballot: 1,991 pledged delegates.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, several states postponed their primaries. Under Rule 12 of the Delegate Selection Rules for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, no primary or caucus was permitted to take place after June 9, 2020. Any state violating that rule could have been subject to delegate reduction penalties.

Step One: The Start Line

A whole year before the primaries, the first candidates emerged from hibernation. Over the year, others woke up and eventually 28 people announced they were running to become the Democratic nominee for president.

But dwindling funds, luke-warm or public reaction and campaign infighting have, to varying degrees, led to most of them pulling out of the race.

At the start of primary season, 11 people remained in the running, a number that has now reduced to three. In theory, any one of them could become the nominee. In reality, only two now have a chance.

Each Primary Has Its Flaws

When it comes down to it, both the Republican and Democratic parties have their own unique, subtle system by which they can override the nations popular primary vote.

The days when politicians gathered in dark rooms where cigarette smoke flowed out from underneath the door are over, but that doesnt mean the existing system is completely democratic.

For both Republicans and Democrats, theres more to winning a nomination than scoring Americas majority vote.

What Is A Closed Primary Election

What is a Closed Primary Election and How Your Choice of Party Affiliation Affects You in an Election?

Federal/State Primary Elections – Even-Numbered Years

What Is a Primary Election?         

A Primary Election is a preliminary election to select, when necessary, Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan candidates who will run in the General Election contests . The direct vote of the people selects the candidates, rather than votes of convention delegates.

Nevada Is a CLOSED Primary Election State            

  Major Political Parties:

°  Democratic: If you are a registered with the Democratic Party, you may vote in your precinct’s contests which select Democratic candidates AND in all of your precinct’s nonpartisan contests.

°  Republican: If you are a registered Republican, you may vote in your precinct’s contests which select Republican candidates AND in all of your precinct’s nonpartisan contests.

 Other Political Parties and Affiliations:                       

If you are not registered as a Democratic or Republican, you may vote for ONLY Nonpartisan CONTESTS for your precinct. Minor party, other party and independent candidates  only appear in the General Election, NOT the Primary Election.

°  Minor Political Parties:  If your Voter Registration Application indicates that your party is one that is classified as “minor party,” you may vote for ONLY Nonpartisan CONTESTS for your precinct.  to view the list of officially recognized minor parties  in the State of Nevada :

TO VOLUNTEER TO BE A POLL WORKER, .

Why Some Conservatives Are Voting In Michigan’s Democratic Primary

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Katey Morse is on a journey of political atonement.

“I’ve gone on Facebook and apologized to family and friends and said hey, I made a mistake,” the 39-year-old Michigan resident said last year of her 2016 vote for Donald Trump.

Morse said that she got caught up in Trump’s celebrity and was impressed by his business record. And she assumed that the bravado she saw and heard on TV was just a character put on for the campaign trail that would subside once he got into office.

But she said she had learned since then that it wasn’t an act. A turning point for her came in March 2019, when she took her son to a Trump rally. She was horrified. Afterward, Morse had to have a conversation with the boy, then 7, about how not to talk about other people.

And as the Democratic primary season began to take shape last year, Morse started to consider voting blue.

It’s a choice some moderate Republicans across the state are also grappling with ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary contest. NBC News spent time with voters in Kent County, where Morse lives, just outside Grand Rapids. The hometown of Gerald Ford, the area is a traditionally Republican stronghold. Some Republicans here said they feel lost because they no longer recognize the party they grew up with. They’re wary enough about another four years of Trump’s presidency to consider the Democratic candidates.

No Party Preference Voters: Pay Attention

Registered Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and other party members, rest assured. You are guaranteed a primary ballot with all of your partys presidential contenders on it.

But voters who dont belong to a political party the fastest growing voting block in the state will have to navigate a more daunting set of obstacles to cast a presidential primary vote.

Some parties have members only policies:

The Republican Party

The Green Party

The Peace and Freedom Party

If you want to vote in one of these three primaries, youll have to join that party. You cant do it as a member of any other party, or even as a no party preference independent. No exceptions. 

The following three parties do allow political independents to cast ballots in their presidential primaries :

The Democratic Party

The Libertarian Party

The American Independent Party

But and this is an important caveat these voters do have to specifically request the ballot they want.

For those who vote in person, this is a cinch. Just go into your polling place when its time to vote and ask. But independents who vote by mail need to let your county know which ballot they want ahead of time.

Maybe you received a postcard that looks like this:

And if youve already received a ballot in the mail and were disappointed by the lack of presidential candidates, do notfill it out. You can always request a new ballot, but trying to vote twice is frowned upon .

Cancellation Of State Caucuses Or Primaries

The Washington Examiner reported on December 19, 2018, that the South Carolina Republican Party had not ruled out forgoing a primary contest to protect Trump from any primary challengers. Party chairman Drew McKissick stated, “Considering the fact that the entire party supports the president, we’ll end up doing what’s in the president’s best interest.” On January 24, another Washington Examiner report indicated that the Kansas Republican Party was “likely” to scrap its presidential caucus to “save resources”.

In August 2019, the Associated Press reported that the Nevada Republican Party was also contemplating canceling their caucuses, with the state party spokesman, Keith Schipper, saying it “isn’t about any kind of conspiracy theory about protecting the president … He’s going to be the nominee … This is about protecting resources to make sure that the president wins in Nevada and that Republicans up and down the ballot win in 2020.”

Kansas, Nevada and South Carolina’s state committees officially voted on September 7, 2019, to cancel their caucus and primary. The Arizona state Republican Party indicated two days later that it will not hold a primary. These four were joined by the Alaska state Republican party on September 21, when its central committee announced they would not hold a presidential primary.

Virginia Republicans decided to allocate delegates at the state convention.

Why You Need To Vote In The Primary Elections

True or false. You only need to vote in the November presidential election and not the primary elections.

FALSE!

For most American voters, the presidential primary elections matter more than the general election. Like Ive said before, if you live in a red state or a blue state, your vote in the presidential election wont make a difference. The rest of your state will overwhelming vote for a Democrat or a Republican. Your vote wont change your states outcome. .

But the primary elections are an entirely different story.

The presidential primaries determine who will represent the Republicans and the Democrats during the November election. Instead of voting between just 2 candidates, you have the choice of 3 Democrats or 12 Republicans. Unlike the general election, you actually have a chance of voting for your preferred candidate, not just the lesser of two evils.

Government 101: United States Presidential Primary

How Does the Presidential Primary Process Work?

The Convention

Prior to a general election, there is a selection process to determine which candidate will appear on the ballot for a given political party in the nationwide general election. Political parties generally hold national conventions at which a group of delegates collectively decide upon which candidate they will run for the presidency. The process of choosing delegates to the national convention is undertaken at the state level, which means that there are significant differences from state to state and sometimes year to year. The two methods for choosing delegates to the national convention are the caucus and the primary.

The Caucus

Caucuses were the original method for selecting candidates but have decreased in number since the primary was introduced in the early 1900’s. In states that hold caucuses a political party announces the date, time, and location of the meeting. Generally any voter registered with the party may attend. At the caucus, delegates are chosen to represent the state’s interests at the national party convention. Prospective delegates are identified as favorable to a specific candidate or uncommitted. After discussion and debate an informal vote is taken to determine which delegates should be chosen.

The Primary

Awarding the Delegates

Step Two: The Iowa Caucuses

The first event of the primary season isn’t a primary at all – it’s a series of caucuses, in Iowa. These took place on Monday 3 February, in somewhat chaotic fashion.

What are caucuses?

A caucus involves people attending a meeting – maybe for a few hours – before they vote on their preferred candidate, perhaps via a head count or a show of hands. Those meetings might be in just a few select locations – you can’t just turn up at a polling station.

As a result, caucuses tend to really suit candidates who are good at rousing their supporters to get out of bed. People like Bernie Sanders, for example, who performed well in Iowa this time, as did Pete Buttigieg.

Democrats’ key issues explained

Caucuses used to be far more popular back in the day, but this year, Democrats are holding only four in US states – in Nevada, North Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa.

If any candidate gets under 15% of the vote in any caucus, their supporters then get to pick a second choice from among the candidates who did get more than 15%, or they can just choose to sit out the second vote.

Why does Iowa matter?

A win there for any candidate can help give them momentum and propel them to victory in the primaries.

Why does Iowa not matter?

Iowa doesn’t represent the entire US – it’s largely white, so the way people vote there is very, very different than in other states.

How Are Primary Elections Conducted In California

All candidates for voter-nominated offices are listed on one ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary election regardless of party preference – move on to the general election. Write-in candidates for voter-nominated offices can only run in the primary election. A write-in candidate will only move on to the general election if the candidate is one of the top two vote-getters in the primary election.

Prior to the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, the top vote-getter from each qualified political party, as well as any write-in candidate who received a certain percentage of votes, moved on to the general election.

The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committee, or local office.

Primary Election Snafus Show Challenges For November Vote

Republicans’ and Democrats’ vastly different starting points help explain why the politics over voting and elections have been and likely will remain so fraught, through and beyond Election Day this year.

Sometimes it seems as if the politicians involved barely live in the same country. It has become common for one side to discount the legitimacy of a victory by the other.

And the coronavirus pandemic, which has scrambled nearly everything about life in the United States, makes understanding it all even more complicated. Here’s what you need to know to decode this year’s voting controversies.

The Rosetta stone

The key that unlocks so much of the partisan debate about voting is one word: turnout.

An old truism holds that, all other things held equal, a smaller pool of voters tends to be better for Republicans and the larger the pool gets, the better for Democrats.

This isn’t mathematically ironclad, as politicians learn and relearn regularly. But this assumption is the foundation upon which much else is built.

What The Gov: If I Voted Republican In A Primary Can I Vote Democrat In The General

Illinois primary elections force voters to ask for a partisan ballot. From primaries to the general in November, heres what you should know about party identification and voting.

This article is part of a series called “What the Gov,” where BGA Engagement Editor Mia Sato takes reader questions related to Illinois government and upcoming elections and tracks down the answers. Ask your own question here.

Voters hear a lot about party politics at all levels of government, from Congress all the way down to local municipal elections. Some voters align closely with a party and others cast their vote on a case-by-case basis. But how does party identification impact how you can vote? Several readers were stumped.

Cynthia Mosley, a retired Chicago Public Schools teacher living on Chicagos Southside, is one of them. She remembers her mother didn’t vote in the primaries because it meant saying aloud to a poll worker which partys ballot she wanted. Cynthia wondered why voters have to declare a party to vote in the primary.

Another reader was thinking forward: could she could vote for any partys candidates in the general, or did she have to be registered with that party?

Were just a few weeks out from the November election and voters have a lot of questions both about the systems Illinois has and how it plays out in the voting process. Heres what you should know.

The Presidential Primary Will Not Use The Familiar Top Two Ballot

California voters can be forgiven for assuming that political party registration doesnt really matter.

In 2010 voters backed a measure to create the states nonpartisan top two election system, in which all primary voters fill out a ballot with every candidate on it regardless of either the voters or the candidates political party. The top two winners then move on to the general election ballot even if theyre both from the same party.

In races for state legislative and congressional seats, the top two method will still reign on the 2020 ballot. 

But when you vote in the presidential primary, its back to the old partisan system: Democrats on the Democratic ballot, Republicans on the Republican ballot, and so on.

So while voting in California usually goes like this under the top two:

In the presidential primary, it looks a little more like this:

The 2020 Democratic Primary Is Giving Some Republicans Dj Vu

A large, diffuse and unyielding field of candidates is helping Bernie Sanders dominate. Republicans who tried to beat Donald J. Trump in 2016 see parallels.

FARGO, N.D. After a disappointing sixth-place finish in Nevada, which followed a less disappointing third-place finish in New Hampshire but a humbling fifth-place finish in Iowa, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota looked out at the crowd of more than 1,000 and predicted victory in the North Dakota primary at the time, more than two weeks away.

Somehow, I have a feeling this primary is still going to be going on, she said.

That much seems certain.

The no-end-in-sight nature of the contest for the Democratic nomination is alarming those in the party who are hoping to blunt the momentum of the front-runner, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The most likely way they believe that could happen a critical mass of the senators rivals drop out so voters can coalesce around a single alternative seems like the least likely outcome.

The irony is thick. Mr. Sanders, the candidate many establishment Democrats fear would have the most trouble beating President Trump in November, is benefiting from some of the same dynamics that helped Mr. Trump stampede to the Republican nomination four years ago.

As Republicans who weathered 2016 observe 2020, they are feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu. The parallels are not perfect, but there are many right down to the candidates themselves.

201620202016202020162020

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/do-republicans-vote-in-the-democratic-primary/

[tillymint7]

Gabrielle de la Puenta

The lecture with Output Galleries Gabrielle de la Puenta was really refreshing. It’s so great to see a young female artist taking the art world on by storm! Gabrielle wants to create a gallery without pomp and ceromny, bias or predudice. The gallery is dedicated to equality and inclusion of all Merseysides up and coming creatives.

Gabrielle started off after her studies with realising she wanted to help her city and had a love of working with the wider community, so she started working in community arts events management. She also managed various art organisations, but quickly realised that weren’t for her as some of them expected her to work for free, for the pleasure of it all. Creative people still need to be paid, there does seem to be this notion that organisation can get away with not paying artists but I feel we deserve to be paid for our creative talents, I have no idea why there is a trend of it being so undervalued.

The Output Gallarey is a fabulous platform for local Merseyside creatives. Gabrielle said she will even help artists pad out their work if they are struggling. There are so many talented people here in Liverpool that often get ignored in favour of already established artist from else where in the UK and abroad. So knowing there is a place like this in town is excellent to hear.

Gabrielle also mentions that she would also like to see the more established galleries and the Liverpool Biennial engaging with our local talent too. It would be lovely to see more of Merseysides resident creatives being included instead of just the dominant established artists from across the UK and abroad. I definitely think cultural diversity and equality is needed in the Biennial and it’s something they are embracing, especially in a city famous for being so culturally diverse.

It was definitely something I found intimidating and scary when considering embarking on a career in the arts. Rory Macbeth’s always says ‘that galleries are just like posh shops’ which is definitely a good perspective to remember. I used to feel like the artworld is like a strange entity your not sure you realIy want to meet just in case it chews you up and spits you out, or worse swolls you whole, but as an artist you want to create and share your work so you feel you have no choice but to approach the beast.

More and more I’m learning that you don’t always need galleries and you don’t have to wait to be offered shows. You can create and show work anywhere at anytime. If there is will there is a way. The best approach is just to keep making, apply for things and allowing your work to evolve for the love of making art.

Someone said something interesting to me the other day he said ‘these big galleries these days seem to only really be interested in you if your a white gay male’ I sincery hope this isn’t true, although it wouldn’t surprise me......but at least they have made some progress in the representation of the LBGTQ+ community. 🙌

Still sadly the fact is they are still all white and male, so not that much difference from the usual patriarchal domance the artworld and art history is so famous for idolising. Sadly the artworld is a reflection of our society.

I want to say I don’t agree with demonising all white men. We white women have to be mindful of our white privilege too although we do get some recognition it’s still out weights the representation of all other minority groups. I know there are plenty of good hard working white male and female artist out there just like our lecturers who are also fighting for equality and trying to help to put things right.

In the end I feel the bourgeoisie want us to fight amougst ourselves, race against race and gender against gender, as it creates distraction and allows them to divide and conquer!

Inclusion, equity and diversity is definitely something I feel all decent humans all over the world would really love to see happening at a much quicker rate, the breaks definitely need to be lifted. The history books and the way we teach art history needs to change especially in our schools. It’s wrong that we seem to have to wait until we get to college and university before we find out about the unacknowledge and marginalised but truly amazing female, LBGTQ+ and ethnic minority artist past and present.

We should never forget or stop acknowledging past history and all the lives lost to cruelty. Knowing this we also have to try to move forward and help to change the future like so many artist and creatives are already doing. Their is so much good happening in the world. I just have to remind myself to focus on that and to help where and when I can.

I fear so much for our children (I worry a lot as you can tell) as it feels to me that so much of the world is hurtling in the opposite direction devolving before our eyes 👀 ....I’m try not to watch too much news or to dwell on it too much, as it can be paralysing at times. I sincerely hope Im wrong and that what is happening now is just the tipping point towards real positive change 🙏

I know money is not the most important thing, but it would be good not to have to choose between feeding my family and paying the bills every month. The way society is structured it makes sure it’s virtually impossible to escape poverty once your in it.

I often imagine having the money to create anything. I can imagine it would certainly help remove so many barriers althought saying that the barriers can be so helpful at creating the unexpected.

If you are ever lucky enough to reach this level, as long as ideas are plentiful and you do have some level of skill at least, you can literally create anything you dare to dream of.

And we are back in the room 😂 and put away the soapbox.

Gabrielle decided to take the ‘I can do anything’ approach impressively without the money, proving it can be done! 🙌 She created the seemingly impossible she has created a successful gallery out of virtually nothing. She negotiated a free space and put in some hard graft. She grabbed the bull by the horns and started her own gallery with the help and support of The Invisible Wind Factory based next to Kasmir Gardens, which for oldies like me is were the Conty and Cream used to be.

Gabrielle recently introduce loyalty cards, which she kindly gave to us all. The loyalty cards are to encourage people to attend the galleries exhibitions, the prize is a limited edition badge. The gallery and gardens sound like they have a very hospitable family vibe. Gabrielle recently added a shop at the front to increase interest and encourage passing trade. It looks like all her hard work and determination is finally getting the funding and recognition it truly deserves from the arts council too. I’m definitely looking forward to visiting soon.

The Whitepube co-creator has finally broken through to the mainstream art world. Her and her fellow Whitepube co-creator Zarina Muhammad featured in Vogue a few months back. So amazing! The only started out as two girls talking from the heart, its inspirational.

I can tell Gabrielle has struggled a bit with some peoples views of her being this controlling dictator, but to be honest she seems to take it all in her stride. Her advice is to not listen......if I only could I’m working on it 🙏 ....maybe by the end of my degree I’ll of mastered it. 😂😬

Gabrielle has definitely reaffirmed to me that if something is missing as artist we should create it ourselves. This is something Iv spoken with Rory Macbeth about too, Rory had the same wise advice. If there’s a lack of something within the art community just go out and create it, don’t change you goal or stop no matter what other people say because honest determination to help evoke a much needed change can never be a bad thing.

Gabrielles seem like she is constantly busy she admits getting bored very easily if she doesn’t have loads to do..... To be honest I think getting bored it a good thing. It seem to have been marked as a negative in recent generations, but boredom allows the mind to wonder and helps with creative process. I think all this instant gratification we have now is way more damaging 🤷🏻‍♀️ .....I know I sound like a Boomer 😜😂

In saying that Gabrielle doesn’t seem short of creative inspiration at all, her next project is an outdoor gallery, which will hopefully be opening very soon.

Sadly after the Q&A I couldn’t stay to talk more with Gabrielle, due to family commitments. I would of love been there for a one to one.

I have to say she seems like one bolshy take no messing kind of lady, I have massive respect for what she stands for 🙌 for eveything she has done and is doing for creatives and our city.

Thanks for reading today’s ‘off on one’ tangent, until next time 👍

[antoniaschupkedigitaldesign]

WEEK 8

Job Research - Advertised Design Jobs That Interest Me

Job 1:

How well they match:

This job would match quite well as it is a junior digital design position and would be great as a job after graduation. It also matches my interests in creating artworks and motion graphic design.

What the job involves:

Brighterbox is a company in the influencer marketing space that helps brands and agencies find, match and report on creator relationships through insights and data-driven intelligence.

Responsibilities:

Creating digital and offline marketing and event materials

Designing artwork for the brand’s website and social media

Creating static and animated presentations

Interpreting audience data into easily digestible, creative audience insights

Ensuring the overall brand identity is adhered to across a host of touch points

Skills required:

A degree in Graphic Design or similar

Proactive creative flair

Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator skills

Powerpoint and being able to put together presentations quickly and effortlessly

Understanding of current design trends and styles

Excellent English (written and oral)

Has to love branding and telling stories

Bonus Points for video and animation skills

Skills required:

A degree in Graphic Design or similar

Proactive creative flair

Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator skills

Powerpoint and being able to put together presentations quickly and effortlessly

Understanding of current design trends and styles

Excellent English (written and oral)

Has to love branding and telling stories

Bonus Points for video and animation skills

Where they work: Central London

Hours: Full-Time

Salary range: Not specified

Role with a future?

This internship is supposed to lead to a permanent position if I did a good job and got along well with everyone. I believe it might even lead to a higher position within in the company, possibly a senior digital designer after a couple of years. I don’t think I would want to do this job for a large amount of time, but it would give me the necessary work experience in order to move on to other jobs in other companies.

How would I get this job?

I would have to have a degree in a Design course (grade not specified) which I hopefully will do in a few months’ time. I will need strongly creative portfolio to showcase my design skills and an understanding of branding and design trends. I would be most likely to get this job by demonstrating my video and animation skills as they said in the job description that that would get the candidate bonus points.

Would this be a good career for me?

I think this would be a good starting point for me as the job involves the sort of skills that have already gained through work experience and throughout my course at university.

Job 2:

How well they match:

This job fits quite well as they’re looking for a Junior Digital Designer and it matches my skill set.

What the job involves:

Createselect is a creative marketing agency that works to the goal of developing and executing exemplary integrated campaigns for their clients.

Responsibilities:

Help to create web experiences for client’s digital campaigns

Create assets including advertising, emails, social media, websites, animation and video content, as well as some print (from initial idea through to final product)

Skills required:

Extremely creative

Portfolio demonstrating understanding of layout, typography and attention to detail

Agency experience

Examples of designing the digital space

Where they work: Central London

Hours: Full Time

Salary range: Up to £25.000 per year depending on experience

Role with a future?

I believe this job would lead to higher positions as they advertise in their job description that they “help develop their staff and push them forward in their career”.

How would I get this job?

As I don’t have any agency experience yet I don’t think I might be able to get this job. I can imagine that they possibly would consider me if I had a very good degree and strong portfolio. However, I might have to gain relevant agency work experience somewhere else first.

Would this be a good career for me?

I’m sure that this would be a good career for me as the company seems to be very modern, creative and a good company to work for.

Job 3:

How well they match:

This job matches really well as it matches my skills set and I’m a fan of the brand Urban Outfitters as well as their overall brand design.

What the job involves:

The Junior Digital Designer is responsible for assisting in the creation and execution of the visual identity for the brand Urban Outfitters through ecommerce website and digital marketing materials including collaborating with designers to carry out design and production of graphics for all facets of the UO brand.

Responsibilities:

Create visual assets of Urban Outfitters digital marketing channels (email marketing campaign, lookbooks, editorial layouts, paid media, app, etc.)

Create clean formatted InDesign files, and web ready graphics

Work with project coordinator to maintain deadlines

Communicate with designers, developers and project coordinator on weekly objectives and help facilitate execution of projects with limited timelines

Collaborate with designers to create new graphics seasonal direction

Develop graphic systems that are not just visually engaging but make sense for the brand

Skills required:

BA in Graphic or Communication Design, or one year equivalent experience

Highly proficient in Adobe InDesign and Adobe Creative Suite on a Mac Platform

Detail oriented and highly organised

Advanced understanding of digital formats across screen sizes and devices

Good understanding of web technologies and standards

Expert in creating web ready artwork

Ability to handle multiple design projects in a fast paced weekly workflow

Past experience in retail or fashion related industry is a plus

Where they work: London

Hours: not specified, but I’m assuming it is full-time

Salary range: Competitive Salary Plus Benefits

Role with a future?

I’m assuming this role has the potential to lead to higher position within the Urban Outfitters design team.

How would I get this job?

I would need a degree in a Design subject and a strong creative portfolio. In the interview process I would have to show good communication skills and my ability to multitask.

Would this be a good career for me?

This might be a good career for me as I really like this brand. I’m not sure if I would want to work for such a big brand straight away though as it seems to be extremely stressful and possibly difficult incorporate personal creativity as the brand already has a really good design and identity.

My Career Aspirations

In the first year after finishing my degree I don’t think I want to go straight into a design job as I think I am not quite ready for it yet. I want/need to further develop my portfolio, personal art style and After Effects and Illustrator skills while working other jobs part-time.

After this I would like to try to get some work experience and start applying to internships. Hopefully if this works out I might be able to apply for Junior Design jobs, such as Junior Digital Designer or Motion Graphics Designer. As my preferred area is Animation and Motion Graphic Design I will try to get a job in this field. It would be nice to work for a smaller company at first and then possibly move on to a bigger company later in my career.

[optomstudies]

Hello everyone! It’s #optomstudies here again with another study tip on Part Time Work! I received the following asks from anons, thank you for prompting this! :) I’m by no means an expert, but this is the advice that I gained while looking for my own job. 

hey, i recently finished reading all your study tips so far and i just wanted to let you know that they’re super helpful!! i’m starting uni next month and im soo glad that i came across your series bc now i feel less anxious about starting!! if you have time, i would love it if you have any tips about getting a part-time job in uni? like yourself, i didn’t think that i could manage high school + part time job so i would rlly love some advice from you again if possible! 

Realise that you can juggle part time work, but don’t bite off more than you can chew. Working more than 2-3 days a week will stress you out, as you won’t have time to complete both uni work and enjoy a little destressing time. I’d advise max 1.5 days a week for a 5 day degree, and that’s if you use 80% of the remaining time studying. Count any other commitments as part of these ‘work’ hours too - if you have church, younger siblings to cook for, etc. Most unis advise 2 hours of self-study per contact hour at uni for degrees like science/engineering, and up to 4 for arts/commerce degrees! So factor that in when you’re planning. 

Research an entry level job that relates to your degree. The best types of jobs would be those in which you are assistants to the position you want to work in once you have graduated. Just ensure that the position promises you on-the-job training, as most students likely have limited employment experiences outside retail and tutoring. 

Research how to write a great first resume and practice interview skills. Your university careers website will contain plenty of information, as well as templates for your first resume to highlight your strengths. There is a wealth of information out there regarding the actual process of CV-writing and interviews, so refer to those :) Make sure you research the company you want to work with, their values and also personalise your resume and cover letter to highlight why you would be suited for that position and what you can bring as an employee. 

Hand in your resume personally to each store you apply to. Politely ask if you can speak to the manager, dress in business clothing, introduce yourself in a friendly manner and ask them to consider your resume if a position ever opens. If it’s for an advertised position, call back in 1-2 weeks to check up on them and thank them for their consideration. Even if the position is filled, you can still gain valuable information by asking them why you weren’t hired (politely of course), since you have nothing to lose. They may have noticed something about your cover letter or resume that put them off choosing, or they might let you know it was fine but they just had a more qualified individual applying. 

Prepare for common questions on interviews, and just be yourself. My manager, who was so kind as to give me a chance despite not having much work experience, told me that she liked my honesty and enthusiasm which is why she hired me. Most of the time for an entry level position, they aren’t looking too much for technical skills as they are looking for personality (well at least for retail positions anyway) and transferable skills like communication and interpersonal skills. 

I hoped this helped everyone! I do have an #employment tag but tips don’t float around the studyblr as often as posts on study methods (please send me links if you find anything, thank you!! :D) so I’ve just linked the posts here:

7 questions to ask at the end of every interview

jobs and careers masterpost by @study-well

MY STUDY TIPS

Please see my #optomstudies tag or my study tips directory (web only) for the full list of study tips + see my langblr posts + stationery + bujo spreads! ^_^

UNIVERSITY STUDY TIPS SERIES

Part 0 Choosing a Degree - what’s right for you? popular!!

> Things to Consider Before Switching Degrees!

> Changing Degrees

Part 1 Administration - choosing majors, available services, choosing class times etc.

Part 2 Getting to Class - pros and cons of attending class, when you should choose not to attend, advice about choosing a backpack and other essential equipment.

> Laptop Considerations and Recommendations

Part 3 Studying - differences between high school and uni, basic tips on how to keep on track, class types like lectures, tutorials, etc.

Part 4 Extra-Curriculars - what clubs to join, what to do outside class, and other great things to discover around campus.

Part 5 Exams - everything to know about examiners, how to prepare, what happens during the whole examination process.

Part 6 Social Life - differences between high school and university, some hard learnt lessons, etc.

Part 7 Part Time Work

Part 8 Four Secrets The Uni Tells You

Part 9 Best Study Spots On Campus

Part 10 Saving Money 1 - Food, Transport, Entertainment

Part 10 Saving Money 2 - Textbooks, Tax, Scholarships

Part 11 Adapting to Uni Study - 3 big differences from studying in high school popular!!

Part 12 How to Study From Textbooks in Uni

Part 13 Dealing with Lazy Group Members popular!!

Transitioning from High School to University popular!!

OTHER POPULAR POSTS

Weekly Planner Printable with Extra Space for Sat/Sun  popular!!

Overcoming the Planning Fallacy

Study Spaces Masterpost

Studying and your Visual System

Catching Up with Your Studies  popular!!

Sleeping and Waking Up Early  popular!!

My 2017 Planner and Bullet Journal  popular!!