#like they asked for 4 of the consistent concepts to be standardized so i sat and painstakingly made each template and now they want me to

[xchrryblssmx]

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[aricazorel]

N7 month prompts—Day 3 Cooperation

Using this prompt list

(This takes place in the Broken Road timeline after the original Normandy was destroyed and features Lt. Kora Reese and Mike Westmore)

Monday, January 12, 2184 Alliance Headquarters, Seattle-Vancouver Megaplex, Earth

Newly promoted to full LT. Kora Reese sat in an alcove at Alliance HQ away from everyone else. She’d been sent a request from Anderson to work with the Quarians on a joint project called Pandora. A classified assignment with a familiar face. Well, a familiar face behind a helmet’s visor. She looked at the brief Hackett had given her and wondered how the two admirals had gotten this little project past the Alliance higher ups.

Of course it was Hackett and Anderson. Those two could hide just about anything in plan sight and convince those involved it was something completely different. Both legends in their own right, Reese had been tapped to continue quietly investigating the threat the Geth may pose in the future. That was not the secret this brief contained though. Instead this new project sought to look into anything that might resemble Sovereign. In other words the admirals still believed the reapers were a threat.

The destruction of the SR1 and Shepard’s death had only reinforced their believe that the commander had been right the whole time and Shepard had been targeted because of that. Now only the surviving members of the Normandy knew the truth, but the Alliance had seen them separated, placed far from one another in order to keep things under wraps. The Alliance would only acknowledge the Geth as a threat and that Sovereign had been a unique ship commanded by Saren.

Sighting the desire to avoid a public panic, the Alliance said they needed more evidence before they could go public with such information. Reese, never one to sit ideally by when she knew she were right, had gone to Anderson and Hackett asking for any assignment that could help prove Shepard right. Anderson had already anticipated her request and Hackett gave her the assignment with one caveat: she would have a handler to keep her out of trouble.

A handler. Of all the things she had never thought to have. Michael Westmore was the one. He was an L2 biotic, an N7, a SpecOps member, and a smooth talker. He was a good soldier, confident and able. He was also mouthy and not afraid to say what was on his mind. And now she was stuck with him. They had been on 4 missions together and a “date.”

It wasn’t a date per say by normal standards. It had been coffee from the mess and conversation consisting of trading barbs as he tried to convince her he wasn’t that bad and she would get used to him. The thing was she had gotten used to him and he wasn’t that bad. Now with this new assignment, there was only two people she could think of that she worked that well with.

The first was who knew where after he left her behind on Earth. Kaidan had disappeared after the SR1 had been destroyed, saying it was for the best and that he was no good to her as he was. Maybe that had been true be he still could have let her have a say.

The second was a surprise. The name Michael Westmore had meant nothing to her 4 months ago. Now it stared back at her as she glanced at the file. He was to be her partner in her new assignment. He was to serve as her protector as she did her research, be the one to say if something was too dangerous, the one who took a bullet for her if it came to that. He wasn’t there to tell her how to do her job. He was there to make sure the job got done but not at the expense of her life. In layman’s terms, he was there to keep her from doing something impulsively stupid.

She knew from the SR1 and from her friendship with Kaidan Alenko that accepting help was not a bad thing. It wasn’t a sign of weakness or a character flaw. It was a sign of someone willing to admit they didn’t know everything and could ask for help. Chasing down leads of Reapers was as good a reason as any to need help. And Michael Westmore seemed more than willing to work with her despite her obvious temper and impulsive nature.

Cooperation with a person she still getting to know on a mission she deemed important was worth any annoyance she might have in the future. She glanced up as a familiar red-headed marine saunter over towards her. He gave her that know-it-all grin of his as he came to stand in front of her.

“I hear you’ve been given a special assignment and the higher-ups have decided to have me tag along for the ride,” he said.

Reese made a face and then bit back her retort. “To be honest, I was thinking that I might actually need you and that I should just swallow my pride and ask you to come along.”

“Wait! I’m sorry, Lt. Did I hear you right? You’ve decided you need me to watch your back?”

“Yes, but you don’t have to be so smug about it,” she complained fiddling with pas the report that as on.

He cocked an eyebrow and regarded her thoughtfully. “You’re being serious.”

She nodded but said nothing as she focused on the briefing again. She saw him sit down across from her out of the corner of her eye. Westmore leaned forward, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Look, Reese, I know this is important to you. I wasn’t on the SR1, but I know someone who was. I want to make a difference too. I believe Shepard was right. I believe Anderson, Hackett, and you are right. I’ve seen the crazy shit you’ve done. I want to be apart of that…if you’ll let me.”

She lifted her head up to look him dead in the eye. “I need you to be there…I don’t have anyone else that—”

She cut herself off. The guy was good and sincere but she wasn’t ready to share that part of herself yet. The part that Kaidan had left raw. A fresh wound still not healed. “Look, you’ve proven you’re the right guy for the job and I can trust you to watch my back. That is what I need.”

“Fair enough,” he said leaning back in the chair. “I suppose I’ll just have to prove that I’m good enough to be friends with too.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah, friends. Don’t tell me you’re not familiar with the concept.”

“Oh no. I am. I’m just really hard to get along with.”

“Well, like I told you the first time we met. I like a challenge. And who knows, maybe I’m a challenge too.”

Reese rolled her eyes. Cooperation with Westmore was going to be a challenge alright. But something about the way he carried himself, the fact he wasn’t running from something that was obviously going to be hard. The fact he wasn’t running from her meant something.

“Alright, Westmore. Challenge accepted. We learn to cooperate if it kills us.”

“Good. Except for the kills us part.”

She laughed. Maybe working with him wouldn’t be so bad after all. It would definitely take her mind off another L2 and might even result it something good. At least a small bit of what Kaidan had taught her would help her find her way again. The rest would be up to her.

[unadulterated-strawberryniall]

Normal People, Abnormal Jobs. [Chapter 3]

Normal People, Abnormal Jobs. Relationships in the entertainment industry are never easy. Scheduling is nearly impossible, paparazzi hound you down every date, and everyone seems to weigh in their opinion. Is it possible to have a soulmate with such a demanding career?

Loosely inspired by the 2020 Hulu drama, Normal People, this story explores the possibility of finding true love in a world motivated by reputation, scandal, and money. Touching on themes of love, mental health, and adulthood, Normal People, Abnormal Jobs navigates how two musicians from opposing worlds maneuver a destiny that consistently pulls them together. It’s challenging, yes, but if it’s true love, it’s worth it.

Chapter 1. Chapter 2.

The next few weeks passed in a blur. News of my performance had made the rounds, and Shane made sure my exposure didn’t die down in the slightest. I’d been traveling around the country, making radio and television performances, performing pop up shows, and hosting meet and greets with fans I hadn’t seen in too long. Lucky for me, having a packed schedule was enough to keep my mind occupied so I wasn’t able to focus on my anxieties. I also tried not to think about… Niall.

“Did we sleep together or something?” I jumped out of bed, my tongue jamming against the roof of my mouth and my gag reflex ready to burst at any second.

Niall sat up slowly. “No, of course not. Ya said you didn’t want t’ be alone last night. I didn’t think you should be alone either. I watched ya sleep.” He rubbed his eyes, where I noticed dark circles had formed.

“Oh…” My jaw unclenched. “Well, thank you.”

A silence surrounded us as we stared at each other.

“I have to start getting ready. I have my interviews.” I rubbed the back of my neck, which was beginning to grow warm. “You can stay here and sleep, if you want. You look tired.”

“Put yer number in me phone.” Niall reached in his pocket and chucked his phone over to the side of the bed I was standing near. He settled back into the bed, blinking at me.

“That’s not a good idea.” I felt my gag reflex beginning to creep up again. “I’m not… We can’t.” I shook my head.

I couldn’t tell if Niall was just too tired to argue, or if he was respecting my decision, but he shrugged slowly and closed his eyes. 

The memory played over and over in my head. It made my stomach twist and turn. For someone with an intense phobia of vomiting, I sure spent a lot of time with stomach issues over my fear of vomiting.

I’d made my way around the country, hitting many of the major cities before returning home to LA. It felt nice to be on the road again, exploring cities I hadn’t been to in so long. Post-Pandemic world was much friendlier than I imagined. People seemed happy just to interact with strangers, as we all realized we’d taken social interaction for granted. I realized how much serenity traveling brought me. The ability to have an ever changing surrounding kept my mind active. Not to mention I would make it a point to learn an interesting fact about every city.

As nice as it would be to return home, I was a little upset as I boarded my flight back to Los Angeles. I had one final radio appearance, a coveted interview with Ryan Seacrest at KIIS-FM. Shane didn’t seem to want to disclose many details as I pestered him on how he secluded such a coveted spot, so I decided not to press it further. I thanked him once again for his hard work, and let my mind wonder about the possible questions I’d have to answer. Most of the radio stations asked the same questions, but Ryan had been known to create fun segments and ask obscure questions, leading me to feel excited for the following morning.

Friday morning in late September in Los Angeles was warm and misty. I woke up early to go for a quick jog around the neighborhood before heading to Ryan’s morning show. The concept of sleeping in for the weekend grew more and more exciting as it dawned on me that I had no real schedule lined up after this interview. 

The drive to the studio was surprisingly easy, considering Los Angeles’s propensity for traffic. Perhaps it was a good omen. A successful interview could mean a lot, not only to the listeners, but also to my team, my record label, and any members of the industry that were considering me for future appearances and awards. I was heavily trained in media and public relations, perfectly dodging and rerouting the invasive and extensive questions interviewers asked me. I knew how to make my answers sound polite and refined but without losing the quality of ‘realness’ that my fans loved. Shane believed this was my greatest talent overall, noting there was never a question he could get by me, even though he knew me like the back of his hand.

“Mina, it’s been too long! We missed you. You’ve been doing big things!” Ryan enveloped me into a hug and I gave him a pat on the back. He could sound superficial at times, but the man truly had a heart of gold. He took a seat in front of his microphone, pulling his headphones over his ears, and preparing for the morning show to start. I took my own seat, watching as one of his producers flashed a warning that the show was about to go live.

“In 5… 4… 3… 2…”

“Good morning Los Angeles! We’ve got a busy morning on this beautiful Friday. Not one but two celebrity guests for me to interview. First, we have Mina Peace, right off from her career changing performance at New York’s Gov Ball Festival. We’ll hear from her in just a minute. Later down the road, we have Niall Horan in studio to answer some of your questions about his next tour.”

My heart sunk into my stomach. No wonder why Shane was iffy on the details. I’d let it slip to him that I had seen Niall at the after party. I didn’t go into detail about the night, but Shane, an expert on my body language, pretty much decoded that feelings were brewing deep in my core.

Ryan and I began to chat about the standard topics- touring, recording an album, my songwriting process. I felt rehearsed answers falling out of my mouth as I couldn’t concentrate very well. Suddenly, I heard a door open from behind me and some commotion occurring.

“Mr. Seacrest, I couldn’t wait to see ya!” Niall chorused, taking a seat directly across from me and grabbing his own pair of headphones. Ryan began to laugh. “Ya can’t have me waitin’ around. I know ya like to play hard to get, but not like dis.”

I felt my palms growing sweaty.

“Mina, have you met Niall?” Ryan grinned at me.

My mouth opened slightly, unsure of what to say. I was still in shock Niall and I were in the same room to begin with.

“We actually met at Gov Ball!” Niall chimed in. “She performed right before me. Legend.” He grinned, extending his foot under the table to graze against mine for a millisecond.

I squeezed my hands together, the recurring feeling of nausea growing inside of me. I looked out the studio window to see Shane staring at me from the hallway, giving me a thumbs up. His eyes looked apologetic, but he gave me a reassuring smile.

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to see his performance, but we bumped into each other before my set.” I felt the grip in my hands loosening as I relaxed my shoulders. “Or should I say… his soccer ball bumped into my shin.”

Niall grinned. “I told you, petal, it’s football!”

Ryan laughed. “You guys clearly have a nice little friendship going on! Do you think you’d ever collaborate?”

“Dat would be wicked.” Niall winked at me.

“I don’t know, Ryan. Not sure if Niall can keep up with me.” I winked back.

Ryan’s mouth dropped as the rest of the team reduced to laughter. “Look at you two!” He was clearly loving the antics the two of us were bringing to his show, along with the thousands of listeners.

The more we chatted, the more the knot in my stomach loosened. Perhaps it was because I knew Shane was just feet away, or maybe because the more I listened to Niall’s voice, sweet as honey and warm as fire embers, the more I became comfortable around him. As the interview came to a close, Ryan exclaimed how time had gotten away from him, and he was too caught up in our conversation to ask a fair few of the questions he was intending to. A smile radiated on my face from within me as Ryan pulled off his headphones and began chatting to Niall. I looked to see Shane staring at me intensely, and motioning for me to come outside.

“We need to talk.” Shane grabbed my wrist, pulling me into one of the empty rooms down the hall. “You can’t be seen with him.”

“Wha-”

“This is going to destroy everything we’ve built up, Mina. You both are from different circles. I know you like him, but your career is more important. Think of who he’s been seen with. Julia Michaels, Ashe, Hailee Steinfeld. Now think about you. Machine Gun Kelly, Alex Gaskarth, Yungblud. You’re not the same. When people blend like this, the lines get blurred, the public gets confused, and you lose it all.”

I stared at Shane as his eyes pierced into mine.

“Think about everyone who relies on you. Your crew, the label, me.” He took a breath. “Don’t do this, Mina. Get out while you still can.” And with that, he exited the room without giving me a chance to respond.

I had to imagine that this conversation hurt Shane as much as it hurt me. He put up a cold front, but in reality, he was one of the softest and most caring men I’d ever known. But it didn’t matter to me anymore. I felt heat bubble inside of me. I didn’t care about what Shane had to say. I wanted Niall.

My feet carried me through the hallways as my mind felt blurry. It felt like I was walking on air. I could only think of one thing. After scanning the rooms, I finally found my destination. Niall was sitting on a couch, idly strumming a guitar, with his back facing me. I heard him humming something, mumbling softly, and gravity pulled me closer to him.

I walked over to him, and he looked up to see me standing directly in front of him. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. My lips crashed onto his as I leaned down, placing my hands on his chest. He quickly laid his guitar down against the couch, allowing me to crawl into his lap.

“I really love you, I do.” I breathed out. “I’m not just saying that.”

[thesummerstorms]

I'm starting to write a fanfiction for repcomm, how would you describe Darman POV?

Okay, um... this is a very broad question, so this is a very BROAD and extremely lengthy answer (sorry but I couldn’t not include text evidence.)

But in general? Darman...

1. often looks externally calm, even to his brothers, and is very good at hiding resentment or anger. people mistake him as calm or level several times in the series when he’s actually having a hard time in his thoughts. Eventually he reaches the point in 501st where it can no longer be hidden, but I think he’s been feeling it for a lot longer than anyone realized.

“He’d been alive for eleven standard years, coming up on twelve. He was twenty-three or twenty-four the manual said. It wasn’t enough time to live.

Sergeant Kal said we’d been robbed.

Fierfek, I hope Etain can’t feel me getting angry.

“I wish I could just sit and relax like you, Dar,” Atin said. “How’d you get to be so calm? You didn’t learn it from Kal, that’s for sure.”

There’s just Sergeant Kal and Etain and my brothers. Oh, and Jusik. General Jusik’s one of us. No one else really cares.

“I’ve got a clean conscience,” Darman said. It had come as a surprise to him after years of cloistered training on Kamino that many cultures in the galaxy regarded him as a killer, something immoral. “That or I’m too tired to worry.” 

(True Colors, Chapter 1, page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

2. Isn’t always up front with his emotions when he feels they’d be burdensome on a loved one and wants to be outwardly positive. See the above conversation with Atin, or his hesitance to call Etain a few chapters after Fi’s injury. 

Notably in the scene above he does make mention of talking over serious things with Etain, like what would happen to the clones after the war, but I feel like he hides some of his more in-the-moment feelings and people don’t expect it because on the surface he seems like the uncomplicated one,

Brain-dead people sometimes regained consciousness and then reported what they’d heard during the coma, and Darman could think of nothing more awful in that moment than Fi being in some terrible paralysis but feeling everything. Dead was better. He wanted a cleaner end than Fi.

“Call Etain,” Niner suggested, “She always cheers you up.”

But Darman didn’t want to call her just to rage about how unfair things were. He settled down with a holozine so no one would talk to him for a while, and the others played blades, throwing knives into a target board divided into rings and quardrants. When he’d come to terms with this, he’d have something more positive to say to her. They could talk about where they’d go when they got some leave together.

I can’t imagine a mission without Fi now.

True Colors, Chapter 16, page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

3. it’s a case by case basis though. like any human being, Dar is complicated. It really depends on the in the moment situation. Notably above, his reluctance to call and be a burden was for a situation that had been happening for a while, while in the immediate aftermath he called Etain pretty immediately.

Fi didn’t react, but then Darman knew he wouldn’t . The point was he’d said it, and that meant he’d do it. Reluctantly, he followed Niner back to the mess deck, and found a quiet corner to pour his heart out in a message to Etain.

He could have unburdened himself on his brothers, but they all knew what he was thinking anyway.

(True Colors, Chapter 14, page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

4. He notices a lot of little details. Even more specifically, he notices and is intensely focused on small changes or signals in the people he cares about. He also very much wants to provide emotional support and is watching for the cues that it’s needed, especially in Etain. 

 You can see it with Dar noticing Fi and his music, or when he goes after Etain in Triple Zero, or at the end of True Colors when he’s intensely aware of Etain’s body language radiating distress and mentally immediately tries to figure out why she’s upset and put her at ease.

Darman cut into Fi’s personal circut to speak but was instantly deafened by the volume of the music. That was how Fi dealt with things: a thick wall of noise and chatter to shut out the next moment. (True Colors, Chapter 1,  page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

He caught a note in her voice that said she was holding back; maybe there was someone with her. The holovids showed clandestine love affairs as exciting, but Darman just found the secrecy miserable. (True Colors, Chapter 10,  page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

Etain had that same expression he’d just seen on Skirata’s face. He knew he must have said something wrong, but wasn’t sure what. He unfolded her arms with a little gentle pressure and took her hand. (True Colors, Chapter 19,  page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

“The baby’s upset you somehow, hasn’t it? he said. Of course; being a Jedi, Etain would have never known her parents. Does it remind you of being taken from your family?”  (True Colors, Chapter 19,  page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

There. He’d said it, and she would feel better now, let off the hook. There was no point dwelling on his shortened life span. Neither of them knew what was around the corner. He’d take the pressure off her, because it was the responsible thing to do.

(True Colors, Chapter 19,  page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

The Skydome gardens were just as beautiful and fascinating as Etain had promised. He could tell she was trying to be cheerful and enthusiastic about them, but there was something sad and wondered about her that he didn’t know how to make better. 

Evacuating Qiilura must have been worse than she let on. But she tell him in her own good time. 

(True Colors, Chapter 19,  page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

5. He’s pretty intensely protective, and not in an entirely healthy way? It never manifests as a doubt about his loved ones’ competency so much as a desire to jump someone else for disrespecting them. He is a worrier, but it’s not in a “no, they can’t do this” kind of way that too many shitty male romance leads get stuck in. He’s defensive of his relationships in a way that exceeds normal not-fooling-around.

 Wherever it was they were sending her, she could tell him, couldn’t she? Maybe she didn’t want to worry him. Of course I’m worried. I’m always worried. (True Colors, Chapter 10,  page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

Darman swallowed a sudden an unexpected desire to tell  Fi to lay off Etain, and in no uncertain terms. Fi knew nothing about her, nothing. Darman was ambushed by a split moment of protectiveness, and was immediately embarrassed by it. (Hard Contact, Pg. 222.) [ Idk why this one has page numbers and not the others.]

“Open up, or stand away from the door,” Etain yelled. She had no concept of cover, but she was a Jedi and had her own early-warning system. Darman was watching her back anyway. He’d smack Sev for the wisecracks later.” (Order 66, Pg. 167.) [ Also don’t know why this one has page numbers and not hard Contact.]

“Where’s the General?” Fi said.

Darman interrupted. “Saying goodbye to Gett.” He seemed to be taking an intense interest in Etain’s whereabouts. “Can you see Sergeant Kal? She said he was meeting us.”

“So… you’ve been ordered about by a geriatric and a child, have you?”

Darman’s voice frosted over. “Scorch, do you like medcenter food?” (Triple Zero, Pg. 119.) [Seriously, Kindle just fucking hates True Colors.] 

“I think it’s kind of encouraging.” Scorch chuckled. “Atin gets a cute Twi’lek girlfriend, Dar gets his very own general-”

“-and Scorch gets a thick ear if he doesn’t shut it right now.”

The comlink was suddenly silent, except for the occasional sound of swallowing. Darman wasn’t in a joking mood when it came to Etain. He never had been, not even on Qiilura, when there hadn’t been anything between them. (Triple Zero, Pg. 245.)

“Why did he need Etain then?”

“Maybe to show her how it’s done.”

Fi watched Darman bristle. (Triple Zero, Pg. 176.)

Atin hadn’t seen Laseema since the start of the siege, and just chatted with her in snatched moments by comlink. Darman couldn’t even talk to Etain until she dropped out of hyperspace; Enacca was taking her time. He checked his comlink, saw no message, and reminded himself that Etain was fine. (Order 66, pg. 371)

6. Darman is captivated by very small things/small details/small moments of beauty.

It was definitely autumn .A mist had blanketed the countryside like a sea. A puddle had formed in the sheeting stretched over the shelter, and Darman went to scoop it out but stopped.

“What are those things?” he asked, “I saw them on the river, too.”

Ruby and sapphire colored insects were dancing above the surface of the puddle. “Daywings,” Etain said.

“I’ve never seen colors like it….”

…”They’re amazing,” he said, completely absorbed by the spectacle. (Hard Contact, Pg. 182.)

7. Like most of the clones, he starts more naive/optimistic and then becomes more and more disillusioned the further in the series you go.

It was still tough to stand back and let the convoy take it. Darman itched for an excuse to open fire. He’d gone charging to the rescue before on Qiilura, breaking cover to save civilians, but he’d been a kid then on his second deployment.  The longer you spent fighting, the more cautious you became.(Order 66,  Pg. 65.)

8. Arguably all of the above paints a little bit harsher a picture than it should. I also generally see Darman as very genuinely soft and caring with his loved ones. He’s also considerate and generous. One of his love languages is food/small gifts & gestures; I swear it.

“It’s getting light,” Darman said. He sat down cross-legged in the hide, armor plates clacking against something. “You look cold. Need any more pain-killers?”

Etain had achieved a consistent level of dampness and pain that she could live with.She was too tired to think of anything else. She’d even stopped noticing the persistent odor of wet merlie wool. “I’m okay.”

“If we light a fire, we’ll be a magnet for half the Separatist army.” He rummaged in his belt and held out a ration cube to her, still that incongruous amalgam of fresh naivete and utterly clinical killer. She shook her head. He pulled out a bag. “Dried kuvara?”

She realized from the way he had put the fruit carefully in his belt and not his pack that he prized it. He lived on rations with all the taste appeal of rancid mott hide. The sacrifice was rather touching.

 (Hard Contact, pg. 175-178 ish)

Darman leaned against the wall, all concern. “Do you want something to eat? We’re going to risk Qibbu’s nerf in glockaw sauce. Scorch reckons it’s probably armored rat.”

“I’m not sure I can face crowds right now.”

“You might be overestimating the popularity of Qibbu’s cuisine.” He shrugged. “I could probably get the cook to stun the thing with my Deecee and send it up by room service.” …

“Only if you keep me company.”

“Yeah, eating armored rat alone is probably asking for it.” He grinned suddenly, and she felt illuminated by it. “You might need first aid.”

(Triple Zero, pg. 175-178 ish)

Darman thought it was time they got on making friends with the Marits. He stood up and wandered over to the lizards, wondering if there might be anything in Eyat that he could acquire for Etain. It was hard to think of anything a Jedi might want. They avoided possessions. (True Colors, Chapter 2, page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

9. He does have a light-hearted side; it’s not all just ruminating.

She was suddenly aware of Darman looking up at her, grinning, and if it wasn’t for his surroundings, he could have been any young man showing off his prowess to a woman. (Triple Zero pg. 182 ish)

Even Darman had fallen happily into it. He was engrossed in the game, shoulder-charging Boss and knocking Jusik flat. (Triple Zero, pg. 158)

10. He’s just as much a romantic as Etain is.

“I never stopped thinking about you, either,” Darman said, “Not for a moment.” (Triple Zero, pg. 186)

All he wanted at the end of it was some time with Etain. (True Colors, Chapter 1, page number unknown because Kindle is an ass.)

He couldn’t even recall putting on his plates. His mind was on Etain.  (True Colors, Chapter 10, page number unknown because Kindle is an ass)

Darman was working up the nerve to say that he loved her, too, when the link closed from her end of the channel and the moment was gone. he took a deep breath before yanking the door open, broken-hearted he might never get the chance to tell her. (True Colors, Chapter 10, page number unknown because Kindle is an ass)

He was fed up finding things in common with insects. he was a man, and he missed his girl. He wanted to go home- and he realized he had no idea where home was.

Fi said it was Mandalore. Darman decided it would be wherever Etain wanted it to be.  (Order 66, pg 53 ish)

Darman was twenty meters from Etain now.He looked through the sea of strangers, and could see just one being out of all of them- Et’ika. (Order 66, pg 400 ish)

There’s honestly also plenty to be said about Dar not wanting to upset the equilibrium in his squad- he doesn’t want special treatment, or to have more than his brothers. That’s...pretty standard for this series though?

Also Darman really doesn’t react well to secrets post Venku reveal, but lbr, I’m not crawling through 501st for quotes.

[dreamca7cher]

Dreamcatcher Dream of US in LA Fanmeet write-up

Hello friends! I have enjoyed reading fanmeet write-ups from others in the past, so I figured that those who weren’t able to go might like to give this a read. *Disclaimer* this is ridiculously long, It was actually about twice as long before I condensed and edited. I’ve had a week now to supplement my memory with the fancams and photos that have been trickling out, but I do apologize if I’ve misremembered or left anything out.

I basically jumped at the chance to attend kcon as soon as I read that Dreamcatcher would be there. I was lucky to get some good P1 seats with 2 other kpop-loving friends. At first I was a little bummed that DC was billed as a special guest, which meant they would not be doing any official kcon “artist engagement” activities like hi-touch. But then news of their solo LA fan meeting was announced and I was absolutely ecstatic. It just so happened that my flight was scheduled to arrive early enough Friday to make it to the fanmeet venue just in time.  On the day tickets were to go on sale, I barely got anything done at work and watched my computer clock like a hawk, refreshing the site every millisecond, ten seconds before ticket sales opened. Fortunately, I was lucky to secure one of the 125 seated spots. This would be my first in-person experience of any kind concerning kpop, so I was insanely excited and simultaneously nervous af.

I arrived at the venue about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start and saw a decent line around this real hole-in-the-wall looking place. The people in line said it was for the seated spots, which surprised me. I thought there would be more standing than seated positions, but it turns out there were only maybe 10-15 people standing. It was hot as balls out there, and we were standing directly in the sun so we were all quickly drenched in sweat. I learned later that the girls had actually arrived earlier in a black van in front of the venue. I was probably still in transit at that time, but it must have been nice for the fans already standing in line to get that first glimpse of them! When we finally made it inside, the staff checked our names off a list and we were able to sign a giant American flag that the girls would hold later for a group picture. The fans who did not bring their own album to be signed were given a small poster. It was basically free for all seating, I was on the far right side on the last row but no matter – the venue was small enough to see everything clearly. As soon as I sat down I realized either the A/C wasn’t on.. or there was none at all. There were a few floor fans pointed at the stage, but I felt bad for the girls once they entered and I saw they were wearing sorta heavy looking tops L There was a slightly raised wooden stage in the front and a long table for them to sit at. Two tall speakers flanked the stage, but the music later wasn’t too loud. The crowd was ethnically diverse and probably around a 50%-50% gender split, proving Dreamcatcher’s wide appeal to all sorts of fans. It was however a much older crowd than the average makeup of the kcon attendees, as this was not a boy group.

The girls soon entered, which was such a surreal moment. It was almost like I couldn’t believe they were real people ya know? Having only watched them on video, it’s more like you’re watching a fictional movie sometimes. I know it’s cliché, but they really are sooo much prettier in person. I think they did look a little tired and/or nervous, but their smiles were illuminating and they did little fan service gestures whenever possible. They did their standard introduction with JiU speaking the most as leader, with small remarks like how hot it was and that it was nice to meet all of us. I thought Yoohyeon would speak the most, but she was probably nervous to use her English with us. The event went straight into the fan-signing with rows lining up one by one while the crowd was free to take pictures/videos. There are much better quality videos out there from the front, but I’ll post my crappy phone videos in case anyone wants to see from the right-hand perspective. I apologize for any shaking, as tripods were not allowed. The signing was fairly quick, everyone had just about enough time for each of the girls to sign their album or poster and maybe exchange a sentence or two.

I was one of like the last 4 people to go since I was at the back, and by this point my adrenaline was going crazy. I’ve never fainted before, but if there would be a time to, then that would be it. I didn’t know if this was strictly allowed, but I did see a few fans high five the members. I refrained however because then that would mean I could never wash that hand (j/k I didn’t want any chance of getting kicked out). So I decided to stick to a compliment or two which I had gone over in my head again and again for a few days prior. I wrote down a longer version of what I was going to say on some notes, since that’s all we were allowed to gift the girls. I had also decided to write my notes on origami paper of their favorite colors and fold my notes into paper cranes to stand out, because I am a crazy person. The research (I got their favorite colors from an interview which I’ll post later), the writing, and the folding all took much long than I anticipated which resulted in me only getting 1 hour of sleep Thursday night before my early flight. So this all culminated in a peak state of nervousness. All too soon it was my turn! I won’t go into what exactly I said or what was in my notes, it was just basically a compliment or encouragement. SuA was first, she waved and said hi as I approached. She was consistently the most hyper and playful that day, possibly because it was her birthday. She seemed really genuine too, and seemed the most relaxed I think. Handong was second, she was predictably shy, but was very appreciative of the crane and said it was cute. Her signature is the most unique too. I wrote some really crappy Chinese in my note that I hope she could read haha.. Next was Siyeon, she looked a bit tired, but she was hella pulling off the dark concept look with her black hair and colored contacts. She also spoke a lot of English that day, even if it wasn’t complete sentences like Yoohyeon. I think previous reports are accurate too, she was very quirky with her mannerisms. JiU was in the middle, and was positively glowing  :O she was smiling pretty much the whole time and I think even picked up the crane and flapped it around a little adorably. It was hard not to grin widely as well the whole time. Idk JiU just has this like unlimited energy that shines no matter how hot or tired she was. I pictured her as like a Super Saiyan or something with her positive aura. Yoohyeon was next and also looked a little tired. But she said a few things in English to me, and had an absolutely gorgeous smile. I haven’t 100% settled on a bias yet, but girl makes it hard to not choose her. Gahyeon was 6th and actually was saying a lot of things in English. She also seemed to like the crane a lot and has a really cute smile. Dami was last, and was so cool and reserved. She’s really good at the appreciative head nod, no wonder she seemed to be the most popular that day. I forgot to tell all of them that the cranes were actually notes they could unfold and read, I may have told 2-3 of them but I’m not sure if they understood. Ah well. The whole signing probably only lasted a couple minutes, but seeing them up close and actually chatting with them is something I will never forget. After the staff also got their signatures, they moved the big table so the girls could perform.

First up was You and I, and boy was it a sight to behold in person. Their movements were so sharp and energetic, and it’s probably my favorite choreography of any kpop song. They just lip-synced which is ok, since it let me focus on the dance. Dami’s baton reveal probably got the loudest cheer, it was really awesome to see up close, and she does it so nonchalantly. Siyeon’s scarf throw also got a loud cheer. SuA definitely had the most powerful dancing, as expected.  I didn’t know all the fanchants, but the other InSomnias obliged well. The girls sprinkled in little hearts and waves to the audience throughout the performance. Right after, they performed Full Moon, which was a very nice gift to the American InSomnias  :] The chest pumping part probably had the loudest cheers, as it was the fiercest part of the choreo. During Dami’s solo rap part, she came up real close and waved to everyone, which also brought lots of cheers. The part where SuA and Handong get dragged across the floor was also popular for some reason. I haven’t watched as many fancams of Full Moon, but I really like the choreo, especially Siyeon’s parts. She rules that performance with her movements and expressions.

After the performance, the girls played a question and answer game from a board made up of stick notes that the crowd had written earlier (via translator). The first question I think was for SuA to do a solo funny dance. She asked “no music?” and Siyeon tried to do beatboxing and failed hard hahaha. So Yoohyeon sang to and SuA did a short hilarious dance to Dame Tu Cosita before collapsing in embarrassment. It was so adorable XD the 2nd question was what was the girls favorite Dreamcatcher song. SuA said Mayday, and sang her part a bit. The next question was “what’s it like performing for fans who don’t speak Korean and understand the lyrics?” Handong said that there was nonetheless a connection and that she was surprised and thankful that fans still sing along to the songs. SuA also said we felt like family, sister, brother, mother, father.. lol. The next question was what is your favorite choreography/point move? JiU said she likes the “baby you and I” part of You and I, and Yoohyeon likes the Chase Me part where they grab their hair lol. SuA likes the kiss blowing parts, and Siyeon likes when the members are dragged in Full Moon (probably because it’s not her being dragged haha). Then there was a question about superpowers, and Gahyeon said teleportation and JiU said she never wanted to get tired so she could always meet her fans, like the perfect leader she is. Siyeon said “you already do that” lol. Then Dami was asked how the baton worked, which I’m sure we all have always wondered. It’s basically like a spring-loaded telescoping thing held by a cap. Super cool, and got a resounding applause. Next was one of the more anticipated questions “which member would you marry?” and SuA immediately stood up lol. Siyeon took the mic and said JiU, because she makes really cute noises when she sleeps, revealing her creeper status lolol. Siyeon asked “will you marry me” and JiU said “oooh, yes” lmao. The next question was who has the best legs, to which Yoohyeon crossed her legs expectantly. But then she said she thought Handong has the best legs and asked her to stand up, which she did! Doing some model poses for us, very uncharacteristically ^^ JiU also said Handong has the straightest legs. Then Dami was asked to do some aegyo! Haha poor Dami, she chose to say “hi, nice to meet you, thank you” very adorably. The girls were then asked what songs they listen to in their personal time. SuA is currently obsessed with This is America and did the iconic gun pose lol. Siyeon likes Ariana Grande, and sang some No Tears Left to Cry. They were then asked what artists they want to collaborate with, and Yoohyeon said Day6 which got a big cheer. I also love Day6, and that would be such a match made in heaven! She also beautifully sang a little bit of Letting Go. Siyeon said she wanted to cover Sean Mendes Treat You Better and SuA wanted to do a Taylor Swift song. They were asked about actors they want to meet in LA, and they said the Avengers lol. I think they visited Hollywood Boulevard and said they kinda felt like they met them because there were people dressed up in costumes. Gahyeon also wanted to meet Daniel Henney because he lives in LA. Then JiU said I want to meet my fans with this huge dorky smile lol. The next question was about any future America tour plans, and JiU said of course, and asked us to visit them again next time. They were then asked who their other favorite kpop group was, and JiU said Red Velvet. Yoohyeon asked if she could dance a little bit, so JiU cutely danced to Bad Boy briefly. Siyeon also said KARD. They were asked what their favorite part of LA was, and SuA said she really liked In-N-Out burger and that it was yummy, specifically combo #3 lol. She also wanted to ride rides at Santa Monica and swim, to which Siyeon reminded her that she can’t swim lmao. The last question was about their favorite quotes. Dami’s motto is “in life there are no answers, so do what makes you happy”. JiU said “let’s live happy”, which she definitely exudes all the time ^^. Also that we were all beautiful and smart enough, so to live a happy life. Yoohyeon said that her mom always said to her “if you have a dream, imagine it will happen, and it will be”. Lastly, the girls took a group photo with all three of the sections, holding the American flag we signed earlier. JiU closed out with thanks and a promise they would see us again. SuA said thank you for celebrating my birthday, and Handong said thank you for your passion. Then the staff brought out a birthday cake and we surprised SuA by singing happy birthday. She looked so happy the entire time, and  even did a little moonwalk haha. Dami did one last tour around the crowd waving to everyone, and that was it.

And the rest of the weekend was downhill! J/k the kcon stages were amazing, and I saw them again multiple times at the convention, but the fanmeet was of course the highlight of the trip. As my first in-person kpop experience, this will definitely be hard to top. I vaguely wondered before the fanmeet if finally meeting them in person would diminish my perfect image of them in my head, but actually the opposite is true. Now they feel like real people I know, which just makes me like them even more. I was also very proud of the American InSomnias, everyone was respectful, there were no crazy incidents, no one had to be thrown out by security, it just went as smooth as can be. I also want to thank 7-dreamers for organizing this whole thing, and for the smooth operation. I could talk forever about my experiences, but I will end it here. Maybe I’ll do a write-up of the convention and concert if anyone’s interested? Thanks for reading!

[rantingstories]

I woke up at 5am, drove to a local hill and read my book. How did it affect my day?    

 I use to wake up at 7am, eat straight away, sleep for half an hour and be late for work

 Hellewwww. So, I would like to discuss a concept probably foreign to a lot of us, and that is productivity in the mornings. I think the general consensus for mornings is; wake up, turn the alarm off, lay there being miserable about our inevitable rise from the bed, literally fall back asleep like you don’t even need wages because you got the rent fairy to help you out, turn the alarm off, after laughing at the wage fairy thing become miserable again, tiny ‘lil pep talk, and rise. Usually, the mornings are for being sluggish, letting your body adjust and rest at the same time. You would eat your food and watch some TV or look on your phone, until it’s time to get ready for work or school. I feel this is the default morning of most people. My mornings have always been a little lazier and more shameful then that!

Typically, I would give myself an hour and 9 minutes. I’d have to leave at 8:15 so I would get up at 7:06 because sleep minutes are more like hours when you feel you’re losing them and 6 more minutes in bed felt like a lot to me. Then I would sluggishly walk to the kitchen and feed my two cats who would be bountiful balls of energy, making me a mere shell of a person in their presence. I would then make any cereal I can find and sit on the couch watching TV or looking through my phone as I ate. I wouldn’t really have time for a cooked breakfast or tea because here comes the important bit; I lay sleep, on the couch, for half an hour, as my partner lays in bed. Why? Glad you asked J I have no clueL. For me, being awake whilst in bed is fantastic because I can actually feel the pleasure of just lying there and letting my mind drift. I’m conscious to know I’m snuggly in bed and that’s a great feeling. So for me, I actually like my body being awake. That’s the reason I lay on the couch, much to my fiancés dismay that I would rather lay alone on the couch where the cats walk all over me and crush my ribs, their wet noses tapping my skin as they examine what the hell I think I’m doing with my life, then in her arms in our warm bed. I lay there merrily, thinking about nice happy things, body at rest, mind adrift, milk getting sneakily licked from my cereal bowl by those assholes as I lay careless and oblivious in my own warm bubble of rest and contentment. This is also subliminally stressful as I have to remember to get up at eight and each morning, my drifting mind lives in secret fear and sheer panic that I’ll properly fall asleep and be awoken at like 8:15 by my ashamed partner. Nonetheless, I always get up because I don’t actually sleep, I just lay there, pointlessly. Let’s think about what can be done in half an hour?

 ü  A workout session

ü  Reading a book

ü  Applying for jobs

ü  Answering emails

ü  A walk with fresh air

ü  A shower

ü  Putting effort into your make up, hair and outfit

ü  Chores that you now don’t have to come home to

ü  Making your partner breakfast

ü  Watching EastEnders whilst washing up

You can get a lot done in that space of time so why was I just lying there, not even sleeping? It was pointless and I decided to change it, to explore the enigmatic world that rapidly progresses as we lie half dead asleep. The World of the Larks.  The Larks are strange beings, they do the equivalent of half a day’s work a night owl does, in the two or three hours you’re still asleep. They are powerful and their motivation and strength should be feared or stolen from them when you get the chance. I decided this morning, I would try it. I spent a week, a few years ago, jogging at 6am. It was winter, dark, everyone at the bus stop looked like lonely orphans in any film designed to tug on your heart strings, and it didn’t appeal to me. However it’s the penultimate month of summer now, so I thought it would be different.

 The hardest part already was the night before. Using my valuable, precious, beautiful time in evenings to actually be asleep by 10pm. I was devastated. I typically have so much damn fun in the evening, writing ideas for my 27 open novels, being too devoted to Bored Panda, Facebooking drama watching, TV, shouting “CUTENESS” at my cats, then I’ll go to bed at the ridiculous hour of about half 11, 12 or even 1! I’d fall asleep straight away and then repeat the aforementioned cycle of the 7:06 start. It sounds dreadfully unproductive and like a stereotypical uni student really. Like I would have lived when I was working till 10pm then at uni at like 10 or 2am. But this isn’t fun times anymore, I have a big girl job with a big girl flat and a big girl life and car insurance. It’s time to behave like a big productive girl who organises her life in diaries and budgets. So now we’re in the morning and I sort of woke up at 4:48am, my brain obviously pre-empting its doom. Then 5am hit. I took some advice from videos I had watched to prepare for this and I charged my phone in the hallway outside my door. That way, to shut off the noise, I had to get up, walk out to the hall and crouch down, giving my knees a workout already to switch it off. My partner decided to do this experiment with me, but left her phone on the nightstand, showing clear signs that her heart wasn’t in this, but she came with me and I feel so very proud. Her names Ashleigh by the way. Anyway, so I used the time to respond to some messages, they had built up because I didn’t use my phone half an hour before bed the previous night, another tip I picked up. The break from the screens will really do me good. It will help my eyes and my concentration levels. My eye lids won’t be lower, looking down at the phone, which helps with the eyes feeling lighter and me feeling more awake.

I was also surprised with how awake I actually felt. I find this happens every time I wake up before 7am, I always feel more awake then when I wake up after 7am. It’s odd but it’s true. Your body feels a bit weaker rather than just sluggish, but your eyes and mind are awake, like this is the time they are meant to be up all along and you’ve been over sleeping them. I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone else, but always been like this for me. So we woke up and had some grapes and water. I’m the type of person who could honestly eat KFC and drink coke, 5 minutes after waking up. Ashleigh could barely look at the grapes. 2 hours before their breakfast time, and the cats thought we were tired enough to forget and feed them early. Suckers! So then we left in her car and we drove to these hills near our flat, you climb them in a twisting motion and they overlook a beautiful canvas under the blue skies’ light of cars racing down the motorway, dull brown house roofs and Greater London pollution. Once we reached the precipice, we found our journey up had consisted of talks of the mind, how it copes with waking up early, how being productive actually boosts our serotonin levels and how we feel happier and more alive. So smarter conversation was happening. In our normal routine, the only conversation we’d get in the morning is what’s happening on Facebook or… nothing. It felt great to have an in depth conversation with nothing but the breeze around us, no screens no third party media to influence our conversations, just us, our minds and the world. It was lovely.

At the top, it took a minor toll on our legs. Let me tell you by the way, your legs at 5am are the equivalent to the little devil on your shoulder who tells you, you won’t get a degree because you’re useless at life or you won’t ever find a career you love just lower your standards or you won’t feel in the slightest horrible if you spend over £20 on a pizza delivery at 11pm on a week night. They don’t like 5am and they will remind you you’re a sadist and to have mercy and send them to bed. Ignore them, they are the over dramatic one in the family. Nonetheless, we sat down at the top and began to read our respective books. Mine was “The Good Guy” (Susan Beale), set in 1964, a realistic view on marriage, its ups and downs, the pressures on the typical masculine and feminine roles, motherhood and adultery, and hers was “I Let You Go” (Claire Mackintosh), how one mistake, brought on by pressurising and damaging events, can turn life upside down, with thrills and chases and emotions tugged hard. We only read a chapter each, but as everyone knows, books nourish your eyes better than a screen will, they nourish your imagination, forcing it to work to picture what you read rather than it being given to you, they nourish your vocabulary and extend it and they nourish your mood for the day with the journey you take when reading it, leaving you picturing your own world and story with more passion and thoughtfulness.

We descended the hill (and I ran up another, sorry legs L I am a bit heartless) and made our way home. She cooked us an omelettes and I washed up meaning, we will come home to a clean and tidy flat with no chores after a long day at work. We had tea and coffee, ate our food, shouted “CUTENESS” at the cats for a 37th time, and watched the YouTube Video that inspired this. I will link it down below. When we looked at the time it was 5 minutes to 8. I still had 5 minutes and I felt like I’d done my whole usual morning up until lunch time.

 This experiment really did change my day, I feel brighter and more awake at work, driving to work made me feel more conscious and thus, safer. My morning was accomplished and productive, I felt like I had a much better handle on my life. We saw people jogging, people exercising, couples doing yoga at the top of the hill, and the enigmatic world of morning larks turned out to be a nice peaceful group of people exercising, nourishing their minds and bodies, leaving them free to relax in the evening. My partner and I both feel rejuvenated, in control, happier, fresher, lighter, healthier and less stressed immediately. I even got a text about something that had been stressing me and I swear it felt so much lighter on my shoulders, in fact it went straight over my head because I felt happy and in control of life, not down trodden and rushing to get to work. I suggest you all spend at least one day waking up at 5am, I promise you, you will not feel as over tired as you think you will, you’ll even feel more awake than usual, or your money back! It’s still, sort of summer, so leave the house, and go on a small walk or read a book, climb a hill and kiss the rising sun, do anything as long as it’s doing something productive. Then cook a hot breakfast and feel proud of your strength and your beautiful, accomplished morning. I do not miss my beautifully pointless naps and my hobby of running red lights because I’m late for work.

 Mentioned YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGWrGFlYtAQ

Thank you

Siobhan

[kwality-auto-usa]

How Accurate Is Your Car Speedometer?

"If my sat nav shows I'm going 4/5 miles an hour slower than my car speedometer says, which do I believe?" - Asked by car owners everywhere.

Many drivers have reported this exact phenomenon in recent years, as sat nav has become more prevalent in cars, and therefore the situation is really common to just about every car on the market. But why is that the case? Surely car manufacturers can make their speedos accurate to the precise mph or km/h you're travelling at?

How a car speedometer works

Speed is the measurement of distance over time. But a car speedometer doesn't actually measure how briskly you travel from Point A to Point B. Car speedos usually work by measuring rotation of the car's driveshaft, axle or wheel. They then use some basic maths to extrapolate that rotation and determine how briskly you're travelling. It is a very similar concept to a bicycle speedometer.

However, if the diameter of the wheel/tyre alters, the extrapolation calculation is going to be incorrect. For instance , the diameter will increase if you set new tyres on the car (more tread, which wears down over thousands of miles) or increase the tyre pressure. This suggests that, for every revolution of the wheel, the car is travelling further, meaning your speed is bigger .

If the diameter decreases (eg - worn tyres, less air within the tyres, a special brand of tyre with slightly different dimensions, more load within the car weighing it down and compressing the tyres), then the car is going to be travelling slower for every revolution of the wheel.

Margin of error during a car speedometer

The differences in wheel diameter resulting from the above circumstances might be tiny (maybe a couple of millimetres), but at 30mph your car wheels are rotating 6-7 times every second, so it can quickly make a difference of a couple of miles per hour. This margin for error is taken under consideration in how the law is applied, and the way manufacturers calibrate their car speedos.

How a sat nav speedometer works

Satnav measures your car's speed by actual distance over time using GPS satellite tracking. It repeatedly locates your exact position on earth via satellite and calculates how far you've travelled, then divides by the time it took for you to travel that distance. Satnav accuracy is decided by satellite signal quality and is unaffected by your car's tyres. Many sat navs are unable to account for changes in vertical direction, so could also be less accurate if you're travelling up or down a steep hill. they're also inherently more accurate at higher speeds, as a bigger distance over time reduces rounding errors.

Some factory sat nav systems also will use data from the car to integrate with the GPS signal to enhance overall accuracy.

The law for car speedometers within the UK

The UK law is predicated on the EU standard, with some minor changes. A speedo must not ever show but the particular speed, and must not ever show quite 110% of actual speed + 6.25mph. So if your actual speed is 40mph, your speedo could legally be reading up to 50.25mph but never but 40mph. Or to place it differently , if your speedo is reading 50mph, you will not be doing quite 50mph but it's possible you would possibly actually only be travelling at 40mph.

To ensure that they suit the law and confirm that their speedometers are never showing but actual speed, car manufacturers will normally deliberately calibrate their speedos to read 'high' by a particular amount. So that's why your car speedometer reads above your satnav.

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[fucktheoryquestions]

On The Economics of Higher Education

I would like to ask you a question I've been thinking of for a while, if you have the time. I have just started my PhD in Anthropology in University of Helsinki, and I have been involved in quite a few student campaigns against university reforms (of neoliberal kind). Yet still all our universities are public institutions, there are no tuition fees and all students receive student allowance, so our situation is quite different than in, say, UK and US. I've been able to study two majors without acquiring any debt, which is quite common here. My question is: Do you think university system that is publicly funded and free for all students (and adjunct staff is payed comparatively well) still has some of the irredeemable qualities that you describe in your critique of US elite universities? Best wishes, Viljami Kankaanpää-Kukkonen

Hi, I appreciate the question, thanks for letting me respond publicly so I don’t have to answer it more than once.  

Before I answer your question let me say what perspective I’m speaking from.  I’ve been in the US for 10 years.  My involvement in American academia was mostly at private institutions on the East Coast, though I took a few seminars and spent time at Rutgers and CUNY, as well. Before that, I did my undergraduate education in Berlin at the Free University.  I was in the last generation of students at the FU who graduated with a traditional German Magister degree; even before I graduated, the FU began to implement the accords of the Bologna Process, which aimed to unify educational standards across the EU and which led to a splitting of the Magister degree into American-style BA and MA programs.  I haven’t been involved in European academia in the past 10 years.  My “data” consists in 10-year-old experience with the German system; extensive 10-year-old familiarity with the British and French systems; and passing 10-year-old acquaintance with the Italian and Dutch systems.  I’m sure that higher education in Europe has changed a great deal in the past 10 years in response to the pressures and forces you describe as “neoliberal,” so take everything I say in light of these ongoing developments.  

Very simply put:  the more “Americanized” an educational system becomes, the more its structure and consequences will resemble the structure and consequences of the American education system.  The most distinctive feature of the American university system is its exorbitant cost, and its relation to debt and hence to the labor market.  So the shortest answer I can give you is No, a free or cheap university system does not share all the dangerous implications of the American system.  That said, the disciplinary and organizational nature of the European system is very similar to the American system and growing more so.  I don’t think humans are “rational actors,” but I do think we constantly perform conscious or unconscious cost/benefit analysis, and I think it’s easy to see why the cost of an American higher education is much greater than the cost of a European higher education, not only in dollars but also in anxiety, in preparation, and in non-academic lifestyle commitments required to access and survive the university. The higher the cost of attending a European university becomes, the more that system will resemble the American one 

That’s the short answer, and anyone who’s reading this can feel free to stop reading here; the rest of this post is just an elaboration.  

Your e-mail mentions “other countries” generally, but I’m not comfortable speaking about countries I don’t know enough about. I’ve met and studied with and read papers by academics from all over the world, and I know some vague stories, but that’s not the same thing as having concrete knowledge of economic relations, so I’m going to localize the rest of my response and frame it as a comparison between the American and the European systems with which I’m familiar.  

* 

A free university system cannot engage the same socio-economic relation to the labor market and to personal debt that the American university system currently engages.  The difference has to do with a different relation of the institution to the state and to private capital, as well as to the job market and to relations of labor and production more generally.  For these reasons, I consider the European university less irredeemable and pernicious than the American one.  

It shares many of the same features and problems, especially on the inside of the institution and in the production of knowledge, but I think the social role of the university is less compromised and dangerous and I think European universities could be improved more easily than American ones – for now. As we’ve already noted, the twin ideologies of privatization and austerity are pushing hard to “Americanize” higher education in Europe and elsewhere.  The more successful these efforts are, the more irredeemable the university becomes.

Before I continue, please note that while I’m less critical of the European university system, I’m not holding it up as an ideal or a model or ignoring its very real problems.  For example, I discuss the non-academic (vocational/professional) higher education system in many European countries as opening up more paths to financial stability than are available in the US.  I stand behind that claim, but I’m also very aware that the parallel higher education systems in Europe have a classist function and a classist history, serving mostly to route upper and upper-middle class students to universities and poorer students to vocational schools.  I’m also keenly aware that I went to university in a city (Berlin) that has more Turkish residents than Ankara, but I can count on one hand the number of Turkish students that sat in seminar rooms with me at that university. Etc., etc.  This is not an encomium to the European higher ed system, it’s just a description of some crucial differences.  

There are at least three major differences between the American and the European higher education systems:   

·      Debt

·      Non-academic higher education

·      Public system only vs. public/private dual system

I’ll expand on all these, but first we can observe that despite a profound difference in the economic relations in which the university is embedded, a fascinating aspect of the question is that there is fairly little difference between higher education systems in terms of content and style.  You find the same plodding, obfuscatory writing; the same laborious processes of peer review; the same behind-the-scenes politicking and reputation-based privilege; the same interests and questions, though often with different approaches or angles; and most importantly, the same canon of concepts and thinkers and disciplines.  This fact reinforces my belief that the discourse of the university performs a similar organizing social function (what Gramsci describes as “traditional” intellectual activity) everywhere, regardless of the specific hegemonic structure it’s serving or upholding.  In this context, it’s worth distinguishing a critique of the university as an institution embedded in a specific economy from a critique of the discourses produced in the institution.  These aren’t separate questions:  there’s only one economy.  But these questions operate in different registers, because the critique of the production of knowledge goes all the way back to Plato and beyond while the critique of the university’s current economic entanglements can’t go beyond the material history of those entanglements while remaining in any way immanent.  

Back to the three big differences I listed.

Debt is the biggest one, by far.  

I graduated from a European university debt-free. I paid registration fees every semester and I had to house and feed myself, but I didn’t have to pay exorbitant tuition fees.  I certainly didn’t have to take out a loan at the age of 18 that would follow me the rest of my life.  This difference is the single most important difference, because it doesn’t just change other relations, it changes the weight of other relations.  A damaging situation is bad; a damaging situation is 100 times worse if you have no way of getting out of it or putting it behind you.  

If you’re German and you get into a university and you find it utterly unbearable and traumatizing, you can just leave. You’ve spent some time, you might disappoint yourself or other people, but you’re not in debt, your parents didn’t spend $80,000.  If you’re 20 years old and you’ve already signed the loan papers and you’re $80,000 in debt already after just 4 semesters, you’re going to think really fucking hard about starting over in a different program, or leaving school to do something non-academic.  You’re much more likely to stay on a path you’re not happy with.  And even if you do make the choice to leave, that debt can still follow you around the rest of your life unless you manage to adjust very effectively to a highly profitable new career path.  If you spent $160,000 on a law degree from Yale then start practicing law and discover you absolutely hate it, you’re probably going to practice law for a few years anyway because otherwise you’re changing careers $160,000 in debt (that’s one hundred and sixty THOUSAND dollars).  Minimum wage in Connecticut is currently $10.10 dollars an hour 

Maybe this isn’t the case any more, but 15 years ago in much of Europe, you could decide academia wasn’t for you, leave the university, and get a job in a restaurant that would pay all your bills. In other words, you could shift gears to a much lower-pressure lifestyle without serious consequences.  But imagine if you have serious student debt and you have $500 deducted from your salary each month?  Suddenly you have earn more, even if you want a low-key lifestyle; you take on another job, or you find a job that’s higher-pressure even though you want to shift gears or whatever.  

The costs of debt – in labor, in health, in anxiety – are enormous.  In this way, there is a much tighter and more vicious link between higher education and the labor market in American than in Europe.  There’s no other way to put it – the structure and pressures of the American system mean that Americans have to work, constantly, grindingly, in a way that many (not all) Europeans just don’t have to and honestly can’t understand.  The American system presents a double bind:  either you are bound to the labor market by debt because you did go to school, or you’re bound to the labor market by necessity because you didn’t go to school and are locked out of higher-paying jobs.  The American university system is locked into the economy in a way that presents three options only:  serve the system at the top; serve the system at the bottom; or succeed against all odds by being truly exceptional and carving out a space for yourself alongside the system or breaking into it in an unexpected way. There are very few paths to genuine economic prosperity that don’t run through the university system somehow.  

The situation in the US hasn’t always been so dire; it got bad under Reagan and has been getting worse ever since.  For a couple of decades after World War II, the G.I. Bill and a flood of money to universities made public higher education really affordable in the U.S. for many people.  In the ‘60s or ‘70s in the U.S. (so I’m told, I wasn’t here), you could flip burgers for three months during the summer and save up enough money for a year’s tuition at a good state school if you were an in-state student; I doubt that’s still the case anywhere in the U.S., and certainly not at the more prestigious state schools.    

Now that the American “middle class” has effectively vanished, we can see what role the university had in making that class disappear.  An absolutely crucial element in that process was the defunding of public universities at the state and federal level, which led to massive tuition hikes that have made tuition at the most prestigious public universities almost as high as those at prestigious private ones.  Capitalism played a major role in that process, because university pass their costs on to students by framing the rising costs as the availability of additional features, from trendy new disciplines to massive, ridiculous sports facilities.  This is a “client-centered” approach to education that directly prioritizes students who can afford to pay.  Basically, America no longer has a state-sponsored, debt-free path to prosperity, which Europe still does…for now.  Defunding of universities and tuition hikes are the changes that will most quickly introduce debt as a decisive factor and bring the European system in line with the American one, with massive implications for the entire economy, not just for academia in some isolated, abstract way.  Keeping the European university system free or at least cheap is unspeakably important and probably impossible at this point.  

The relation between the education system and the labor market is also different in that many European countries have vocational or professional higher education that isn’t academic.  That’s the second big difference.  Craft and trade apprenticeships represent an important bloc that has no equivalent in the US, where most internships are professional position you get after you do a BA, and not instead of doing a BA (not always, but often).  There are often but not always alternatives to university-style education in Europe.  German interns (Auszubildende, or Azubis) are usually paid and can access no-interest government loans to support themselves when they aren’t.  Many people I knew in Germany in the 2000s finished an academic Magister degree and then went on to do an Ausbildung in a completely different area (sound design, lighting tech, theater management) which then became their actual career.  Here again the major difference is debt – you don’t need to take on massive debt to study nursing or hotel management in much of Europe – but there is also a difference in the need for critique of the institution.  Simply put, if there are effective non-academic paths to prosperity, academics have less of an ethical obligation to critique and correct their institutions, and the institution has less of an exclusive onus to fight against inequality.  If we consider “university students” as a socio-political bloc, that bloc is much more massive, diverse, and complex in the United States than it would be in much of Europe.  

Third – and this too is linked closely to the question of debt rather than separate from it – a major difference between the US and Europe is the long-standing existence in America of extremely wealthy private universities.  In Europe until recently there weren’t many private institutions of higher education. This was changing rapidly even while I was still there, and I’m sure it’s gotten worse.  However, it will take a long time before new institutions acquire the prestige and surplus capital which American private universities already have.  

The brilliant scheme of the American private university is that it took up the model and the rhetoric of the European, post-Enlightenment liberal university, but without sharing or adopting its economic model, which is that of a state-operated and –funded institution. The American private university is a European liberal shell over a fundamentally different economic motor, which is basically a massive private endowment of religious origin.  The biggest American universities weren’t started to train scholars, they were started to train preachers; in this, they had more to do with the medieval canon school than with the post-Enlightenment liberal university. These universities acquired private wealth and land in the manner of traditional Catholic institutions, not in the manner of liberal European universities; now, centuries later, these institutions are basically giant pools of privately-held capital which have an enormous impact on the education, labor, leadership, scholarship, and values of the United States and, indeed, the world, but without any of the regulations that state-funded and –controlled institutions have to endure.  These institutions are first and foremost corporate brands and wealth managers; they only teach students incidentally, as a kind of favor to the rich whose money they manage, but despite this they exert an enormous and unhealthy influence on higher education all over the world.  For decades, the public university system in the US has worked extremely vigorously to imitate the private model, where instead the American public should have demanded the divestment of property from private universities, or at least an end to their tax-exempt status.  

The impact of these institutions can scarcely be overestimated, but they are only the keystone of a vast system that all works together to produce and enforce inequality in the United States.  Because the university is an instrument of hegemony and because capitalist hegemony always depends on inequality, the university under capitalism will always be in some ways an instrument and an enforcer of inequality.  This statement is always true, but for that reason also fairly banal, because it doesn’t engage with any actual, specific material relations.  The difference – as of now – is in the degree to which the entire system interlocks to trap and control the individual.  Simply put, because in Europe there is less systemic inequality, less poverty, and more options for non-academic upward mobility (not many, but more than in the U.S.), the effect of the European university can’t be considered as pernicious and total as the effect of the American university. That doesn’t mean there isn’t much to correct and improve, it just means that capitalism has long tended to workshop its oppressions in the Americas first and then exported them elsewhere.   

European systems, which have traditionally been national or nationalized, tended to have a single centralized application system and held rigidly to unitary standards of admission and education across the national system, even if certain schools had a better “name” or were more popular. But even before I left Germany, there were already efforts to declare certain universities in the national system “centers of excellence” and to pump money into those places.  A major symptom of Americanization is the establishment of a corporate institutional hierarchy, often based equally on actual funding and on institutional PR, between universities in the public system.  This idealistic appeal to merit and excellence justifies budgetary inequalities which in turn serve both to defund “less excellent” disciplines and to center education on the interests of funders and not students.  Here too a “client-centered” corporate approach claims to serve students but is actually a pretense for increasing inequalities between them, and here too the same conclusion follows as above:  the more tiered and hierarchical the national European systems become, the more inequalities will emerge that resemble those of the American system.  

 Another big difference between the US and Europe traditionally has been a much higher European emphasis on the humanities and “human sciences.”  Scientists have always looked down on poets, but until fairly recently in Europe, it was equally the case the poets had the opportunity to publicly and emphatically look down on scientists.  When I first lived in Germany as a teenager, I remember regularly seeing literary critics, poets, screenwriters, and other kinds of art and humanities people on TV, in panel discussions (broadcast on daytime network television!) and in newspapers. This too had begun to change by the time I left Germany, and I’m sure it has gotten worse.  There’s a reciprocal pressure between intellectuals and institutions devaluing the humanities and the general public devaluing the humanities; as humanities programs disappear from the university humanities programming disappears from mass media.  A primary ideological function of the university in modern society is to tell people what’s important and what counts as real knowledge.  There are direct and significant consequences to the logic of quantification and its Four Horsemen, S, T, E, and M.  Global warming would be easier to fight if so many people weren’t convinced life is impossible without tech, for example.  These societal ideological formations don’t begin or end with the university, but they are upheld by it, promoted by it, and routed through it.  Consider for example the ways in which STEM professions are dependent on corporations in a way that many humanities jobs aren’t.  You can be a high school teacher pretty much anywhere if you speak the language; good luck being a freelance molecular biologist and crowdsourcing a lab. There are material and economic and personal consequences to ideological formations, that’s the whole point of enforcing an ideology, whether consciously or not.  Here too it’s a question of degree; we already see the process happening. How far will you let it go?  You often hear administrators tell you that the emphasis on STEM comes from students, who just don’t care about literature the way they used to.  In my experience, this is nonsense.  The proportion of humanities-oriented students and science-oriented students in the average classroom doesn’t change; what changes is the number of students who feel pressured or obligated to try and be science people when they’d rather be studying literature.  That is my experience only, I haven’t done any studies.  

The importance of fighting to keep European higher education free and accessible doesn’t rest on some liberal ideals of education and equality, but on the very real functions that higher education plays in the general economy, and in the relations of labor and production that express that economy.  The European university often serves the interests of industry and private capital, but it is an arm of the state and transmits the values of the state and is susceptible to the pressures of private capital roughly to the same degree that the state itself is.  But in America, the leading universities are expressions and instruments of private capital.  They are inseparable from it, and they serve as instruments with which private capital applies pressure to the state, rather than as an apparatus of the state on which private capital applies pressure. 

At the moment, the differing economic and social relations within which it is embedded make the European university less broken and less harmful than the American university, and with more potential for reparative change.  But even as American global hegemony collapses, economic “Americanization” is on the rise everywhere.  How far it will go, and what traditional institutions are destroyed or altered in the process, remains to be seen.  

[livingbutamireally]

AY2019/2020 Y1S1 Module Review

AY2019/2020 year 1 semester 1 review

Started school around august after orientation camp in july, and had to study after doing nothing for months after a levels and finally had the taste of the rigour of this major.. semester 1 went by too quickly..

Modules taken this semester:

CS1010S

MA1101R

MA1521

BT1101

GER1000

CS1010S Programming Methodology (Python)

Prof: Ben Leong

Exam Dates: 2 Oct (Midterm) / 16 Nov (Practical Exam) / 27 Nov (Finals)

Weightage:

Coursemology – 25% (25%)

Participation – 5% (5%)

Midterm test – 15% (-)

Practical exam – 15% (20%)

Final assessment – 40% (50%)

(those in brackets are for those taking alternative final)

S in CS1010S is for science students, most students are either science students (DSA/ Life Science plenty) or BZA students.

Overall this module easily had the highest workload compared to other modules, having to rush missions every week, complete tutorials (this is pretty standard duh) and lecture trainings before deadlines for bonus points on a gamified platform. One could sit at their table wracking their brains for the whole day and still not be able to come up with a feasible code, or have their codes stuck with some bugs and not knowing how to continue. Really, without the help from fellow friends this module would be hard to get through. Luckily my TA was kind (and patient!) enough to explain such that my brain could get it. Ended up having to IP this module sadly… This module really requires your wholehearted devotion and really tests your patience i must say, especially for people who are not too intellectually inclined (aka me)..

They introduced a new scheme this semester aka Alternative Final, meaning you get to retake your midterm and finals by tabao-ing it into the next sem except you do your finals during the recess week instead of the finals, kinda like a half-retaking a module? Your grades for finals are IP-ed (in progress) rather than letter grades and the finals and midterms will be accounted for in the following half a semester albeit under different weightage components.

They said its a introductory module, but …………..

This year’s practical exam was particularly hard i think i had friends (even the zai ones) getting single digit marks… banked full in on the Method of Life question (Q5) of finals which is a giveaway question asking you how you can apply the concepts to other parts of your life and your main take-aways from taking this module (filled up the whole page and got full marks for it 4m) without this question i would have failed the paper..

Now i have to work hard the next sem… its kinda sad for us BZA students because CS1010S is a prerequisite for those wanting to take BT2101 and CS2030/2040 modules in the following semester (y1s2). Future students (esp BZA) please take the advice to consider this when deciding whether to IP…. because guess who didnt and regretted not thinking deeper…..

Ah one more thing to take note is the weightage is quite different for those IP/ alternative final people, theres higher weightage for the papers :_D

Ben Leong is a pretty good lecturer, hes solid in delivering concepts except my brain may be a little too slow for him.. Theres also lecture videos online that you can refer to and thousands of papers (with solutions!!) waiting for you to do.. something uncommon for many modules i heard? also, you get to see your final (scanned) paper through a website, in ben leong’s words “how cool is that?” he also uploads the mark scheme for your reference which is pretty cool imo. He’s a very interesting lecturer.

MA1521 Calculus for Computing

Prof: Leung Pui Fai

Exams: No midterms, just an online quiz (4 questions, most get full marks for), and the finals

Weightage: cant really rmb the weightage but i think its 40-60? i think tutorial attendance isnt graded..

They said this was just a repeat of H2 maths with more stuffs well boy i must say this wasnt as easy as they said.. okay maybe for me, ive always struggled with maths for a really long time. Surprisingly got a B for H2 Maths, i got a B3 for O levels really the blemish in my results. Got a B- for this module. Many people will say this is an easy module, you can trust them a little different in my shoes i guess. I didnt turn up for lectures for the half part of the semester since he talks a bit too slowly so i just watch the webcast sped up. But being a procrastinator i’m really behind on webcasts by the time the exams came.. i think i spent too much time on CS1010S and its still not enough.. if you dont have the discipline to watch them religiously at home, i would suggest you go for the lecture even though he may talk abit slowly but it forces you to not miss out on them. I dont really had the time (is it i wonder?) to do the tutorials either so i was also behind on them.. most of the time i just sat for tutorials and took the answers down to only work on them many weeks later (much regrets) so i didnt really understood what was going on as the TA went through. please dont be like me… the recess week was for sure not enough to revise/ learn all the content for all your mods for both midterms/finals so please dont be lazy like me…. this is the suffering i brought upon myself TT

Overall i think. it is not that hard a mod if you do your work consistently.. things got a little confusing towards the end i heard they dropped a whole chapter this semester glad they did.

MA1101R Linear Algebra I

Prof: Wang Fei

Weightage:

Finals (28 Nov, 2h)— 60%.

Mid-term test (4 Oct, 2h)— 20%.

3 homework assignments (4% per assignment) — 12%. 

An in-class Lab (MATLAB) quiz — 8%.

This was one of my most hardest period in my life and i say this on PERIODT. As if maths wasnt tough enough, this will really declare a survival of the fittest among your remaining brain cells. Friends told me maths came into their dreams… pls extinguish my soul. You must be thinking i am crazy for wanting to take 2 math mods in a sem right? ?

Yeahh no one really does that but it was my idea because i didnt want to do maths together with all the core core mods (BT and CS) next sem so i decided ah i should just get maths over and done with ( hAH real joke bc i couldnt clear CS1010S and i cant take 2k level mods for BT and CS and unlocked clown outfit because theres one more ST2334 core mod that involves probability and stats so much for thinking i will be over and done with for dealing with maths– someone tell me why did i choose this major again?)

Somehow along the way i realised the bell curve for this was surprisingly high i think those who chose this mod intend to delve even deeper in mathematics, mayhaps i joined the wrong major. The R in MA1101R actually stands for rigorous i didnt realise until my friend read the fine prints in the SOC Course Curriculum for BZA or sumn. Pure hell. There are 3 homework assignments (graded mind you) and most of the students get around 50++/60 i think i was the one of the rare few who flunked quite badly and always eyeballed by my TA (who is a prof for some 3k or 4k level maths, not for this mod though). I approached him for consults and for help and he was nice enough to sit me down and explain slowly. He’s pretty good at explaining slowly although he’s pretty fast in class (and most of the semester i had close to ZERO idea what was going on in class for pretty much most of the mods). Shockingly managed to pull out a C from my butt. The intellect of the students are no joke.. Homework assignments are every 3 weeks starting week 6 i think (so week 6, 9, 12) and i think are there to make sure you catch up with the work.

Oh lectures-wise, i sat for ½ of his classes, i really absorb almost nothing.. the rest of the lecture hall seem to get it though or so it seems. so i stopped attending my own lectures to watch the webcast for Prof Victor Tan too. His webcasts/lectures are really popular and it really owe it to his teaching, apparently he taught Wang Fei before and of course had over ten more years of experience. WF’s lecture turn-outs are comparatively less compared to VT. And on panopto (webcast platform) i think it was almost always 360++ views for VT as compared to a 80++/ was it 30++ for WF if i recall correctly. VT slides are also more concise and simple to understand where as WF’s ones are similar to the textbook. You are also required to purchase a textbook for this module costs around $20 from the co-op store in science and i urge you to purchase it asap when the profs announce they are made available bc they run oos quite fast.. the tutorial questions are from the textbook and the textbook is very simple and straightforward and put together by some of the lecturers/profs in school.

BT1101 Introduction to Business Analytics

Prof: Dr Sharon Tan, Desmond Ong

Weightage:

1. Online Quiz & Datacamp Assignments — 7%

Tutorial 1-4 — 8%

Tutorial 5 onwards — 15%

In-class Assessment (Written) — 10%

Practical Assessment — 20%

Final Assessment — 40%

In class assessment is held 2ish weeks after your midterms week so its kinda like your midterms?

Mm i would say this module is the most ?? its hard to put in words but if you read up the confessions page (NUSwhispers) regularly you would see many complaints that the mod is structured not as neatly as CS1010S its quite here and there everywhere and personal opinion, sometimes i dont know what i am supposed to learn but i guess its like that? The profs seem to value not wanting to spoonfeed and us learning on our own and stuff like that. I heard the mod was much harder in previous years and they simplified it a lot compared to in the past (which i really thank god) but its still a bit ?? They split it into two halves, first half of the sem is taught by Dr ST (Descriptive Analytics) and the next half by DO (Prescriptive and Predictive Analytics).

There are online videos to be watched every week even though you get lectures once every 2 weeks when Dr ST teaches and tutorials to be submitted to your TAs that are graded only after about 6/7 weeks. They leave comments (½ sentences someitmes shorter) and your marks received and thats about all so you dont really know where you went wrong since they are not marked paper and pen way. The tutorials are coding exercises for questions using the R language. They also used Datacamp to drill some of the basics of R for a headstart. Her workshop style lectures are a lot of on the spot learning how to code and stuff which i lag behind a bit because she goes a bit fast in order to cover everything. We learn new content via the online videos that we have to watch every week and theres quizzes for them too weekly iirc.

The next half by DO had no online videos (great!! and no quizzes!!) but weekly lectures and graded tutorials are due every 2 weeks(!!). There are still weekly tutorials but its only graded for every 2nd one, wow this saved me a lot of time phew. I didnt get to do the tutorials for those that are not graded but read through the questions so that i get a gist of whats going on, and somehow i really dont have the time to do it? CS1010S really absorbed a large chunk of my time cries. Finals was a oK it was not that bad i think. There are 20 MCQs and then about 4 structured questions? Closed-book with 1 A4 sheet cheatsheet.

Oh and the bad part about the tutorials are the tutors wont provide you with the model answers/codes so you’re really just on your own. You either get it or nah. :_D

GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning

Weightage:

1. Tutorial — 10%

2. 10 Weekly Quizzes — 20%

3. Project —35% (Presentation 10%, Final Report 25%)

4. Finals (28 MCQs, 2h) — 35%

No lectures so no profs, just weekly online videos and quizzes.

Tutorials are every odd/even weeks depending on the slot you chose.

Groups are arranged by the TAs beforehand.

This was pre-allocated for us so (grits teeth). Honestly a waste of time. One of the mods i neglected till the end to focus on other mods (which was worth it). The workload was manageable, of course (if not how to neglect). Every 2 week you meet together wiht your groupmates to discuss tutorial questions (each group will discuss 1 qn) and every tutorial class ended about 30min earlier. Nearing the end theres a group project report and slides to be done. Report is in the form of QnA so you just answer the questions and slides/ presentation is going through an article of a topic you chose (theres about 10) and you analyse the QR part of it what is good what can be better, etc. Theres also a bit of the stats part with probability and stuff but its a OK. Bell curve steep for finals (40 MCQ, 2h) but most finished in 1h and left the hall, i was one of the few who stayed till the end even though i was just staring at the paper into the depths of my soul for reasons unknown) It’s a lot about experiments not really the scientific/ calculations part of it but understanding about coming up with experiments, the pros and cons of carrying things out a certain way in loose terms something like the art of crafting experiments? makes you think a bit deeper how and what people think and not so dry i guess.

Epilogue

i guess thats a wrap–new semester starts soon :( i think this might be the first module/semester review tumblr blog but i hope this can be of help to anyone, to anyone at all. the owner of many of similar review blogs get really stellar results which i may be too out of league from so i hope this brings comforts to those who are doing not so well and encourage them because im not any different we exist, and we’ll survive.

CARPE DIEM 2020 LETS GEDDIT

[srta-jax-blog]

NTPRS Day 4 & 5 (This one’s gonna be a long one!)

I’m putting these two days together because Day 5 was a half day and both days consisted of one-hour sessions addressing special topics. On these days, presenters like Mira Canion, Bryce Hedstrom, Jim Woolridge, and many others presented, and I consider myself very blessed to sit at the feet of more experienced professionals and learn from them. I went to sessions with Von Ray, Bryce Hedstrom (2x), Clarice Swaney, Scott Benedict (2x), Nathan Spencer, and Mira Canion. Thursday was also when Dr. Bill VanPatten gave the keynote speech, which was mind blowing. (I’ll address BVP’s address separately, because this is already a very long post!)

The first session was conducted by Von Ray. (I guess I didn’t get enough of him the first three days of the conference!) He presented on the value of developing good improvisation skills, which he pulled from “Truth In Comedy: The manual of improvisation” by Charna Halpern, Del Close, and Kim “Howard” Johnson. It was during this session that Von said that “Bad TPRS is better than good grammar” and that “Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly in the beginning.” I think the best pieces of advice that I got from this was that I should try to be funny/make jokes, I should embrace the unexpected, listen and make connections, and make the students look good.

Blaine Ray sat in on this session, and he gave a ground rule that he uses in Storyasking: Once I state the fact, you cannot contradict that. This was in response to someone asking about students adamantly trying to change the details of the story to suit themselves. This is one of the concerns I’ve had, but having a succinct rule like this will be very helpful.

I went to two sessions with Bryce Hedstrom because he had two topics that I really wanted to know more about: passwords and student interviews. The passwords session was first, and it was really helpful. Bryce gave great tips on how to introduce and teach the passwords, and gave some tips for how to get through them in a time crunch. After the morning sessions, I did go buy his book on passwords, just so that I could peruse the material at my leisure again and again. The book also has lists of passwords that can be used at different levels, which is helpful for me to have handy. I can’t wait use these in my classroom (and I’ll probably even make my administrators say the password when they come to visit!) He also talked a little bit about how he handles late students. They don’t have to say the password, but they do have to say “Lo siento” (I’m sorry) and the class responds with “Está bien” (It’s okay.) His reason for this, which I thought was beautiful, was that the students need to learn to forgive and also that they can be forgiven, which is a concept that so many students are unfamiliar with these days. Bryce also gave some neat little tidbits about things he does in his classroom… but you had to be there. ;)

I tried doing student interviews last semester, but the students didn’t seem to get super into it. In the second session I went to with Bryce, he explained his Special Person Interviews (we discussed the unfortunate naming, and someone suggested Selfie Talk to match with other CI terms like Picture Talk and Movie Talk) and demonstrated how he handles them in class. He said that this all stems from his personal philosophy of helping students realize who they are, what they are about, and what they want to do so they can realize Ikigai. In other words, he is using the target language to help his students become better people. He has posters with his Special Person interview questions (and sentence frames for answers) up all year round. This is an easy way to differentiate for varying processing speeds.

In this session he also addressed quizzes based on the SPI, free-writing, do nows, and how he organizes it all in a composition notebook and grades the various things within. I really liked how he organized it. I was planning on having my students get binders, but I may have them get composition notebooks and use those as well to develop a portfolio of writings throughout the semester. (I’ll be having mine keep their composition books in the classroom.)

I think part of my problem last summer was that I did not do a good job of asking follow-up questions, and I limited the questions they were asked too much. In his demonstration, he showed how he was able to get a lot of follow-up questions based on the answer to the question ¿Qué te gusta hacer? (What do you like to do?) This year, I plan to stick closer to his script for the questions that are being asked.

Which leads to the first of the two sessions that Scott Benedict presented. Both of his sessions were very helpful (and I had originally only planned on going to one of his sessions), the first one addressing using the Super 7/Sweet 16 verbs as the basis for a world language curriculum and the second regarding grading and flexible seating.

Scott explained how the Super 7 (Dr. Terry Waltz) and Sweet 16 verbs (Mike Peto) give our students the ability to communicate pretty much every idea they need to if they can use them in the past, present, and future tenses. The students will not be able to say everythingthey want say in the exactway they want to, but they will be able to circumlocute (talk around) pretty much every concept they can be expected to talk about. In Scott’s school district, the main focus of Spanish I and II is to get the students to “own” these 16 verbs across all persons in the most common present, past, and future indicative uses, although they are introduced to other tenses.

The big takeaways from this session:

1) less is more-If I focus on teaching and repeating a small set of words-the Sweet 16 and personalized, releveant vocab, the students will retain that and then some.

2) Focus on the Super 7 first, but teach “disgust” before “gust” so that the reverse construction doesn’t confuse them too much.

3) We are language parents, not language teachers. That’s actually a Haiyun Lu quote, but the point is that we need to talk to our students like we would talk to a little kid. In general, a parent corrects their child by restating their statement with correct grammar, not making them parrot it or lecturing them on grammar.

4) Shortrunposters is the cheapest website to get posters made for your classroom. Scott has made posters of the Sweet 16 verbs in a number of languages using the most common past, present, and future forms of the verbs for free on his website, and he had them blown up, printed, and laminated for his own classroom. I have done the same for the 9 I’m sure I’ll need from day one as well as 2 pages of Bryce Hedstrom’s Special Person Interview document. (In a few weeks I’ll do another order to get the rest of the posters made, because even though each 17”x22” poster was only $5.50, I’m still not made of money.)

In the second Scott Benedict session I attended addressed classroom layout and gradebook layout. This was an accidental session for me, I intended to go to a different session, but couldn’t find it. I had already planned to go deskless and begin implementing alternative seating, but this session really helped me feel better about that decision and get a better idea of what that could look like.

The benefits of a deskless classroom:

1)   There’s more space. Chairs, yoga balls, and bean bags take up a lot less space in the room than the traditional chair-desk combination. This helps me stay close to everyone, which improves classroom management and lets me have a bigger staging area.

2)   I can rearrange and group students easily.

3)   Desks are a barrier to conversation and give students a place to hide illicit activity (phones, food, etc) or disengage by putting their head down.

4)   It’s easier to implement alternative seating. There is only so much space in a classroom, having to accommodate a yoga ball next to a chair-desk or a table takes up a lot more room or makes it almost impossible to reach everyone quickly.

Scott doesn’t implement alternative seating until a few weeks into the school year, and lays very clear guidelines for the use of alternative seating.

Scott addressed how he uses various posters to develop his classroom culture, including classroom rules, a word wall, his Sweet 16 posters, question words (I like that his don’t have the English on them, but rather are illustrated with pictures), and behavior warning posters. He uses a clothesline to hang his collection of funny hats to be used by student actors (or student behavior problems) and some shelves to store realistic animal plushes that he gets at zoos all over the country. (They look amazing, and I want to start similar collections!)

Finally he talked about how he sets up his gradebook. He divides his into Speaking, Writing, Listening, Reading, and Culture categories that contribute to the students academic grade, but he can/does track things like participation, homework, effort, etc in a 0% category for documentation purposes. The percentages he uses align with blooms taxonomy and range from 10%-30%. For his level 1s, there are no speaking and writing grades in quarter 1, but he has them for the full school year, and he gives three grades per category per marking period. Two are formative, one is summative, and he assesses all the categories in one exam at the end of the quarter. This means he’s giving 15 grades/quarter, and is taking at least 1/week. He recommended staggering when grades were taken among classes, especially for the formative assignments to reduce the amount of grading done at any one time.

I don’t think I will implement this exact system next year, at least in terms of percentages, but we shall see.

Mira Canion spoke about assessing reading comprehension. She pointed out that we need to be doing this consistently because it tells us what our next move is. We discussed the ACTFL and WIDA standards for comprehension on the different levels, and how they are only somewhat helpful in guiding what assessment should look like. One of her more brilliant points was that by using the target language to teach content using Comprehensible Input Methods, we can bypass arguments about explicit grammar teaching because we aren’t teaching that.

Mira then talked us through reading strategies we could teach and then use to assess our student’s reading comprehension.

Strategy 1: Read the text, comment on it/make a prediction/ask a question/clarify something, and reread it if you are completely unable to do one of those things. We can have students write these down, and then sort them to assess.

           -Deep questions/comments get an A.

           -Simple questions/comments get a C.

           -If it is between the two, it’s a B.

           -We need to model asking deep questions in L2 (the target language) in order to help our students do the same, then supplement the ones who do with more complicated texts, and we can do that starting in Level 1.

Strategy 2: Have the students make a web of information around a topic based on a reading.

           -It’s important to have the students drawing this web, not just filling information out.

           -Have them sort whether statements pulled from the text are linked to the main idea or detail, and explain why the details support the main idea.

           -We need to really teach students how to find the main idea, not just have them read a text and then ask “so what’s the main idea?” Sure they should have learned that in their English/Language Arts classes before they get to us, but odds are good that they haven’t.

Strategy 3: Students find the story structure.

           -If a students can find and talk about the various elements of a story structure, then they understand the story.

           -You can give them a chart with columns to support them creating sentences. Ex: Somebody/wants/but/so.

R Clarice Swaney’s session dealt with doing Picture Talks. I’ve done Movie Talks with varying degrees of success, so I understand the concept of a Picture Talk, but it was still good to go to a session that specifically addressed doing them and reinforce what I already knew. The big takeaways for me was to make sure that my picture was interesting, I used creative cropping to create interest and build suspense, set clear expectations from the get-go, and have a loose plan of questions to ask that blend talking about the picture and talking about the students.

I really like the way Clarice phrased her expectations:

1)   Nothing on your lap, nothing in your hands. (She’s deskless too!)

2)   One person speaks, all others listen.

3)   Professional posture

4)   Use the Target Language, make interesting suggestions.

5)   Demonstrate understanding or ask for clarification

If a student breaks those rules, Clarice doesn’t make a big fuss, but acts like she didn’t go over the rules and refreshes them.

I really liked the suggestion of using Picture Talks to introduce or examine things of cultural reference. Working more culture study into my classroom is a personal goal for this year, which means I will have to be more diligent about researching culture in various countries, but not all of my Picture Talks this year will be about culture. I learned so much in on these two days, and I wish I could have gone to more individual sessions! I have a ton of new methods and strategies in my teacher toolbox that I can’t wait to use this year!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE TROUBLE WITH THE STARTUP HUB

What ideas were tarnished by association when they ended up on the losing side of a recent struggle? And he could help them because he was black and for that reason I suspect that most of the giant companies were still focused on finding new ways to milk economies of scale. Another view is that a hacker's idea of a foul-mouthed, cynical 10 year old leaning against a lamppost with a cigarette hanging out of the gate that you want to wait till you graduate?1 You can just use them in whatever way is appropriate to the task at hand, instead of a lifetime's service to a single employer, there's less risk in starting your own company, because you're only replacing one segment instead of discarding the whole thing.2 Common Lisp occupy opposite poles on this question. But that same illiquidity also encouraged you not to seek it. Some smart, nice guys turn out to be 13: Pick good cofounders.3 That's partly because Y Combinator itself had near zero effect. I thought I was ready to question everything I knew. But you see the same problem there. Because Woz designed this computer for himself, and he was pretty much a throwaway program is brevity. Joe's has good burritos.

What advantages does someone in their mid-twenties. As far as I can tell these are universal. It is merely incidental, too, that spam is usually commercial. Bayesian approach considers all the evidence in the email is neutral, the spam of the future will find ridiculous. There probably aren't more than a tenth of your time trying to push your price down. Silicon Valley itself, but it doesn't seem there's anything to see. And there is a sharp difference between VCs and other investors: VC firms are a bargain for founders. The bar will be higher. Shows will change even more. And if you want to go straight there, blustering through obstacles, and hand-waving your way across swampy ground.

Part of the problem.4 How much does an angel invest?5 I was a philosophy major. That is a fundamental change. And we had no idea how silly we looked. An early stage startup. Even Google probably doesn't think that. A few ideas from it turned out to be the right advice for everyone. More information, in fact. And understanding your users. In every swing state they overestimated the Kerry vote.

Google are smart, but incurable builders. As a young founder by present standards, so you can get it done quickly and get back to what will make your company successful.6 That seems so obvious it seems wrong to call it the study of modern literature. How did things get this way? I was convinced the world was corrupt from end to end.7 Since high school, at least for me, and moreover discovered of a lot of money to us. So if you raise money, you were supposed to use their software, and their influence is such that the rest of the way? If you're raising money from friends and family. If anything it may have helped foster a Perl cult. One of the most important advantage 24 year old founders is that they can't force anyone to do deals with them. It's obvious why: the lower-tier firms' biggest fear, when chance throws them a bone, is that a real essay, you don't have this protection, as we found to our dismay in our own time, different societies have wildly varying ideas of what's ok and what isn't.

Well, that is a knowledge of what various individual philosophers have said about different topics over the years. But in addition to the usual clauses about owning your ideas, you also don't want your valuation to be set artificially low because the first investor who commits. Falling victim to this trick could really hurt you. Arthur Miller undermined the House Un-American Activities Committee by writing a play, The Crucible, about the Salem witch trials. Reality can be messier. Starting one's own business meant starting a business that would start small and stay small. And since reading ancient texts was the essence of what scholars did then, in real dollar terms, they'd seem like small fry compared to professional athletes and whiz kids making millions from startups and hedge funds. And of course if it were merely a matter of choosing between the unpalatable and the disastrous.

How many little startups are Google and Yahoo—though it seems even that should be unlimited, if the startups were able to raise significant funding after Demo Day. 09883721 hi 0. As long as that idea is still floating around, I think a greater danger is that they have less reputation to protect. You only get 52 weekends with your 2 year old. I only thought of when I sat down to write them to read like articles. Every startup's rule should be: spend little, and they turned out ok.8 Curiously, a filter based on word pairs would be in effect a narrower but open source Don't be evil has been good at letting hackers have their way with it. If you can do while you're still employed. Like all rivers, it's rigorously following the laws of physics.

In our own time, though, is thinking cheaply.9 Because seed firms are companies also means the investment process is more standardized. That will change the balance of power between the networks and the people who voted for Kerry felt virtuous for doing so, and were always disappointed. The phrase seed investment covers a broad range. In Common Lisp I have often wished I'd had the temperament to do an angel round before going to VCs. Reality can be messier. A throwaway program is: something you write quickly for some limited task: a program to be ported, except for political reasons. When I ask myself: how much you're planning to raise a $5 million series A round, unless you're in a position to say this is true for other languages too. An advantage of consulting, as a way to answer the question: if the spammers knew exactly what you were doing, how well could they get past you?

If they could even get here they'd presumably know a few things we don't. What little original thought there was took place in lulls between constant wars and had something of the character of the thoughts of parents with a new from-address, so you can get it back minus the bad parts, somehow with a few countertweaks. You just have to treat such leaks as a cost of doing business. But don't give them more than four or five numbers, and only evolved into a programming language unless it's also the scripting language of MIT. The user doesn't know what it means. Second order issues like competitors or resumes should be single slides you go through quickly at the end of California Ave in Palo Alto, the original ground zero, is about thirty miles away, and the investors are the ones most likely to get buyer's remorse.10 Users love a site that's constantly improving. For example, at the same time. Can it get you the designers, though? But the less you need a few topics that you think about? I think both Republicans and Democrats would agree, is more available than one that you have lousy judgement. But I also think that the more different kinds of advice.

Notes

Actually, someone else. It may be exaggerated by the fact that, go ahead.

If you're expected to, in writing, any claim to the minimum you need to fix. In Boston the best ideas, they wouldn't have.

I think investors currently err too far on the Internet was as late as 1984. The need has to work than stay home with them in advance that you never have worked; many statements may have been truer to the principle that if he hadn't we probably would not change the world population, and astronomy. There was no great risk in doing a business is to say, of course. Unfortunately the payload can consist of dealing with YC companies that grow slowly tend not to do it right.

03%. They may play some behind the scenes role in IPOs, which you are not in the sophomore year. It's suspiciously neat, but this would do for a market for its shares will inevitably arise. Maybe markets will eventually get comfortable with potential acquirers.

Some types of publishers would be to advertise, and the opinion of the market price. When an investor derives mostly from the example of a Linux box, a well-preserved 1989 Lincoln Town Car ten-passenger limousine 5, they were regarded as 'just' even after the egalitarian pressures of World War II had disappeared.

But they've been trained. But when you ad lib you end up with much greater inconveniences than that total abstinence is the unpromising-seeming startups are competitive like running, not because it's a book or movie or desktop application in this essay will say this amounts to the World Bank, Doing Business in 2006, http://doingbusiness. But a company just to go behind the rapacious one. And starting an organic farm, though sloppier language than I'd use to calibrate the weighting of the more accurate predictor of success for a group of Europeans who said he'd met with a woman who had worked for a couple predecessors.

Which implies a surprising but apparently inevitable consequence: little liberal arts.

Most of the infrastructure that this isn't strictly true, because any story that makes the business spectrum than the long tail for other people. In practice formal logic is not to say that any company could build products as good as Apple's just by hiring sufficiently qualified designers. But that is not just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's IBM.

Spices are also the golden age of economic inequality in the definition of property is driven by people who are younger or more ambitious the utility function for money. It's hard to tell VCs early on?

Most unusual ambitions fail, unless you're sure your money will be lots of customers times how much they lied to them more professional. And the reason this trick merely forces you to test whether that initial impression holds up. He couldn't even afford a monitor.

Thanks to Michael Arrington, Patrick Collison, Sarah Harlin, and the rest of the Python crew at PyCon for the lulz.

[ntseguru-ntsepreparation-blog]

Best Books For NTSE

Before starting NTSE preparation, the very first question that arises in aspirant's mind is, “Which is the best book for NTSE Preparation?” During any competitive exam preparations, students seem attracted to different reference books to have more study material and knowledge of different topics. Prof. Vipin Joshi, a mentor with the National Record in producing NTSE scholars strongly believes that –

"There is no ideal book for NTSE preparation. Some are too easy and some are having too tough content for NTSE preparation."

We also asked him this question in one of our rare conversations and he answered it in his elegant style. Watch this video till the end and you will probably get the things:

Students tend to look for a book that visibly has a lot of study material. They do not realize that some books consist of preparation and practice material which is too easy for the students and some books include material which is really difficult to be asked in NTSE. Moreover, some topics included in these books are not even a part of the syllabus. Students believe that solving really difficult questions would leave them well prepared for the exam. They do not realize that spending hours on irrelevant study material is a waste of time. Your study material must match the standards of your exam syllabus.

For NTSE Stage I

NTSE Stage I paper is based on State board syllabus, so students must stick to their State board books for the proper preparation. Due to lack of proper guidance, many students buy junk study material which ultimately results in the wastage of their time and money. Rely on quality standard material to give your best shot at NTSE.

Best Books For NTSE SAT

Subjects like Maths, Physics, and Chemistry require a lot of practice for which you must solve each and every question given at the back of each chapter. The number of questions in the State board books and NCERT books are not enough for the preparation. So, once you’re done with all the State board and NCERT questions, you must look out for practice sheets. These practice sheets give you enough material to practice for NTSE SAT.

Best Books For NTSE MAT

Moreover, for the preparation of MAT, State Board and NCERT books do not provide anything. MAT is a quintessential part and requires consistent practice. To prepare for the MAT section, you must understand the verbal and non- verbal concepts first and then you must solve practice sheets to cover as many questions as you can.

For NTSE Stage II

NTSE Stage II paper is based on NCERT syllabus, so students should prepare well from their NCERT books. When you are done with your school books and practice sheets, you should invest your time on sample papers and previous years’ question papers. This is one of the most effective ways to prepare for NTSE or any competitive exam in general.

There’s no point splurging your parents’ money on irrelevant books that do not even help you reach your potential. State board books, NCERT books, and standard study material are all you need for your NTSE preparation. A deeper understanding of the subjects and consistent practice is the key to ace NTSE.

Best Books For NTSE 2019-2020

There is no such thing called best books for NTSE preparation. But still, if you wish you can refer the following list of books that NTSE Guru experts have compiled for you to provide you the best possible help. But remember, over-reliance on any of the books is suicidal in case of NTSE —https://www.ntseguru.in/ntseBooks

1.Study Package for NTSE Class X (1st  & 2nd edition)McGraw Hill Education Pvt. Ltd.

2.A Comprehensive Manual for NTSE for Class X (English)Access Publishing

3.Pearson Guide to NTSE Class 10 (English) 1st Edition Pearson India

4.Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning S. Chand Publication

5.Practice Test Papers for NTSE Class X 1st Edition – Tata McGraw Hill PublicationsMcGraw Hill Education Pvt. Ltd.

6.Study Guide for NTSE National Talent Search Examination Class 10 (English)Disha Publication

7.MTG NTSE Explorer (2012-13 solved Papers ) MAT+SAT +ENGLISH Language Test Paperback– 2013MTG Learning Media Private Limited (2013)

Avoid squandering your parent’s hardcore money on insignificant books which only astray you. Make sure to select the standard books & study material which makes you reach your goal of cracking NTSE.

[marymosley]

An Interesting Opinion on the Right to Jury Trial that Can Relate to 101 and 285

By David Hricik

In the three prior posts (hey, it’s a trend!) on Section 285, I pointed out the need for lawyers to advise principals of patentees that they may, personally, be on the hook for liability for fee shifting.  For example, if the patentee is an asset-less shell corporation, the accused infringer may seek (perhaps should seek, promptly) to join principals of the patentee in the event that the case is found exceptional.  Likewise, given the long-standing line of cases (going back to Ultramercial, decided when I was clerking for Chief Judge Rader (here)), the CAFC has indicated 101 can implicate factual issues and, so, likely the right to trial by jury.

It’s not a patent case, but nonetheless Marchan v. John Miller Farms, Inc. (3:16-0-357-WGY D. N.D. Dec. 11, 2018), here, has a discussion pertinent to both issues. The court addressed whether a jury must decide piercing the corporate veil under federal law, and held that there is a federal right to trial by jury on this issue.  Honestly, that surprised me, but I hadn’t looked at the issue in 20 years.

The court did mention patent cases, and did mention a lot of things that should resonate with patent litigators about various issues in patent cases, including Section 101 and willfulness.  The court wrote, after deciding the issue before it, in part as follows:

The analysis ought not end here. Some scholars have recently advocated making judges, not juries, decide whether to pierce the corporate veil: 

[J]udges . . . are best suited to decide in each case whether the corporate veil should be pierced, for four reasons: (1) veil piercing is an inherently equitable remedy that judges are better equipped to decide; (2) veil-piercing inquiries require a weighing of legal fictions and concepts that lay jurors simply are not trained to perform; (3) decisions by judges are likely to produce more consistent results in similar cases; and finally (4) judges can likely make veil-piercing decisions more efficiently than juries can. 

Brian D. Koosed, Anthony P. Badaracco, and Erica R. Iverson, Disregarding the Corporate Form: Why Judges, Not Juries, Should Decide the Quiddits and Quillets of Veil Piercing, 13 N.Y.U. J.L. & Bus. 95, 136 (2016); see also Mark A. Olthoff, Beyond the Form–Should the Corporate Veil Be Pierced?, 64 UMKC L. Rev. 311, 336 (1995) (“Because consideration of these factors involves a weighing test, a jury may be ill-suited to decide the question. Therefore, the trial judge should make the final determination of the piercing issue.”).

These contentions crop up from time to time in different contexts. See, e.g., Brandon M. Reed, Who Determines What Is Egregious? Judge or Jury?, 34 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 389, 426 (2018) (arguing that judicial determinations of willful or egregious patent infringement “will reduce prejudice at trial, increase judicial efficiency, and foster predictable outcomes in litigation.”); but see David Nimmer, Juries and the Development of Fair Use Standards, 31 Harv. J. L. & Tech. 563, 589-93 (2018) (“Learning to Love the Seventh Amendment”). It is appropriate to point out that most of these unsupported conclusions are nothing but elitism, pure and simple. They are an unabashed retreat from the magnificent vision of the Founders. “The Seventh Amendment promised to ‘preserve[]’ the right of ‘trial by jury’ in virtually all civil suits ‘at common law’ and limit the power of federal judges to overturn any fact properly found by a civil jury.” Akhil Reed Amar, America’s Unwritten Constitution 435 (Basic Books 2012).

Let’s deal with the quoted contentions in reverse order:

Efficiency. Yes, there is something to this argument in the present case. The issue of veil piercing has been fully briefed and argued. There is nothing to suggest that further discovery will add to the store of information available to decide this issue. Unfortunately, the existence of a judicial vacancy makes it unlikely that this case will come before a local jury in North Dakota before well into 2019 and this is far too slow. This does not reflect on jurors, however. Rather, it is a result of the lack of judicial resources to preside over the requisite jury trial. More particularly, it reflects that I am unable, in view of my own caseload and the cases in other districts I visit, to go to Fargo, North Dakota to try this case. Efficiency is one component of justice, but it is not the sole goal of the justice system. Were that not the case, why have trials at all?

Consistency. Hardly. The great strength of our common law system is reasoned inconsistency, i.e., each court reaching out for the best possible justice in the case before it, where reasoned but varying decisions draw from the body of other such decisions with the idea that the law will grow and adapt based on such reasoning. Ours is not a civil code system where I can simply look up the rule and apply it to each case.

The working judge is not and never has been a philosopher. He has no coherent system, no problem solver for all seasons, to which he can straightaway refer the normative issues. Indeed, if he could envision such a system for himself, he would doubt that, as a judge, he was entitled to resort to it; he would think he must be less self-regarding.

Hon. Benjamin Kaplan, Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Encounters with O.W. Holmes, Jr., 96 Harv. L. Rev. 1828, 1849 (1983).

Judges are better equipped — jurors are not trained to weigh legal concepts.

This is simply not true. I have been a trial judge for over forty years. In the fact-finding line, anything a judge can do a jury can do better. The best sociological evidence confirms this truth. See James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds (2004).

The fact–finding most analogous to that involved in the veil-piercing inquiry is the fact-finding undergirding a determination of successor liability — surely a jury issue. See, e.g., Jury Verdict, Thomas & Betts Corp. v. New Albertson’s, Inc., No. 10-11947-WGY (D. Mass. Dec. 12, 2015), ECF No. 801. Likewise, in the case at bar, the jury will need to decide whether the product was of merchantable quality, whether it was unreasonably dangerous, and perhaps the comparative negligence of the parties on certain counts. It may also have to assess both compensatory and punitive damages.

Four months ago, I watched a jury learn about the mechanics of 3-D printing and analyze a certain interface layer at the microscopic level to determine obviousness and infringement. Tr. Jury Trial, Desktop Metal, Inc. v. Markforged, Inc., No. 1:18-cv-10524-WGY (D. Mass. Sept. 24-27, 2018), ECF Nos. 559-64. More recently, I watched a jury determine probable cause to remove an obstreperous passenger from a campus shuttle bus. Electronic Clerk’s Notes, Strahan v. Parlon, No. 1:17-11678-WGY (D. Mass. Sept. 17-20, 2018), ECF Nos. 156-61. I asked another jury this question: “Did the anticompetitive effect of [a] settlement [between two pharmaceutical companies] outweigh any procompetitive justifications?” Jury Charge at 37:9-18, In re Nexium (Esomeprazole) Antitrust Litig., No. 12-md-02409-WGY (D. Mass. Dec. 3, 2014), ECF No. 1441, aff’d, 842 F.3d 34 (1st Cir. 2016).

Jurors have long been deciding all these issues and many more complex. It takes a special type of arrogance simply to conclude that American jurors cannot handle the veil-piercing issues presented here.

Quite simply, jurors are the life’s blood of our third branch of government.

It is not too much to say that a courthouse without jurors is a building without a purpose. See Judith Resnik & Dennis E. Curtis, Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-states and Democratic Courtrooms 293 (Yale University Press 2011); Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Foreword to John O. and Margaret T. Peters, Virginia’s Historic Courthouses xi (University Press of Virginia 1995) (“Public buildings often . . . reflect the beliefs, priorities, and aspirations of a people. . . . For much of our history, the courthouse has served not just as a local center of the law and government but as meeting ground, cultural hub, and social gathering place.”). It is a quiet government museum to what was once the most extensive and robust expression of direct democracy the world has ever seen.

Come in. Look around. It’s quiet. The real work goes on in judicial chambers, hidden from public view. See Brock Hornby, The Business of the U.S. District Courts, 10 Green Bag 2d 453 (2007). You can hear your footsteps along the broad corridor past the vacant courtrooms. Go into a courtroom. There will be an American flag, limp upon its staff. Along one wall is the jury box. There decent, common-sense Americans with an overarching sense of duty have sat for years. Again and again, the courtroom has heard the clerk intone the familiar cry, “Ladies and gentlemen, please stand and harken to your verdict as the Court records it.” No more.

In this courtroom, the chairs in the jury box are empty, mute testimony to the consistent derision of self-interested corporations,[4] shallow stereotyping by lawyers and scholars who do not know their way around a courtroom, and the virtual abandonment of the civil jury by those judicial officers most charged with keeping our jury system vital and flourishing. 

Americans themselves may yet rescue their right to a jury. Workers at Uber, Lyft, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook have caused those corporations to abjure forced arbitration of claims of sexual harassment and assault. See Daisuke Wakabayashi & Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Facebook to Drop Forced Arbitration in Sexual Harassment Cases, N.Y. Times, November 9, 2018, at B1; Kate Conger & Daisuke Wakabayashi, Google Bows to Demands to Overhaul Abuse Policy, N.Y. Times, November 9, 2018, at B1; Daisuke Wakabayashi, Yielding to Critics, Uber Eliminates Forced Arbitration in Sexual Misconduct Cases, N.Y. Times, May 16, 2018, at B3.[5] Large law firms are increasingly yielding to pressure to drop mandatory arbitration agreements for employment-related claims, such as those alleging sexual harassment and discrimination. See Chris Villani, After Kirkland, Sidney Arbitration Flip, Group Eyes DLA Piper, Law360, Nov. 28, 2018 (describing how pressure from Harvard Law School students led Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin LLP to end. See Chris Villani, After Kirkland, Sidney Arbitration Flip, Group Eyes DLA Piper, Law360, Nov. 28, 2018 (describing how pressure from Harvard Law School students led Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin LLP to end forced arbitration for employees, while DLA Piper, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Knobbe Martens, Paul Hastings LLP, Stoel Rives LLP, and Varnum LLP retain such clauses in their employment contracts). But see Michael Selby-Green, Morgan Stanley is fighting to stop a race-discrimination suit from going to trial by using a controversial tactic that keeps employee complaints secret, Bus. Insider, October 6, 2018; Anthony J. Oncidi, Consider the True Implications of Waiving Arbitration, Daily Journal, Nov. 14, 2018 (implicitly characterizing forced arbitration as a weapon and suggesting that dropping it is “a dangerous form of unilateral disarmament”).

Do you care about any of this?

You should.

Your rights depend on it.

Footnotes:

4. While corporations primarily use forced arbitration to bar access to our justice system altogether, see Cynthia Estlund, The Black Hole of Mandatory Arbitration, 96 N.C. L. Rev. 679, 709 (2018); see also Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Michael Corkery,In Arbitration, a ‘Privatization of the Justice System,’ N.Y. Times, Nov. 1, 2015, data support their self-interested decision even in those few cases that are actually heard. As one would expect, in state courts, corporations win somewhat less than half the time. Alexander J. S. Colvin, An Empirical Study of Employment Arbitration: Case Outcomes and Processes, 8 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 1, 5 (Table 1) (2011). In the more rules-bound federal courts, they win 63% of the time. Id. In arbitration, where the corporation is a repeat player, i.e., is active in the market hiring arbitrators, it wins a whopping 83% of the time. Id. at 13 (Table 3).

5.  In Arbitration, a ‘Privatization of the Justice System,’ N.Y. Times, Nov. 1, 2015, data support their self-interested decision even in those few cases that are actually heard. As one would expect, in state courts, corporations win somewhat less than half the time. Alexander J. S. Colvin, An Empirical Study of Employment Arbitration: Case Outcomes and Processes, 8 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 1, 5 (Table 1) (2011). In the more rules-bound federal courts, they win 63% of the time. Id. In arbitration, where the corporation is a repeat player, i.e., is active in the market hiring arbitrators, it wins a whopping 83% of the time. Id. at 13 (Table 3).

Remarkably, despite these workers’ disparate and unfocused protests, they are the direct descendants of the views of our Revolutionary-era patriots. As Professor Jamal Green points out so persuasively: 

[T]he mode of representation that would best resist the Executive was less the legislature than the jury, which the Founding generation saw as an essential vehicle for articulating the rights of the community. “In these two powers consist wholly, the liberty and security of the people,” John Adams wrote of voting for the legislature and of trial by jury. “They have no other fortification against wanton, cruel power: no other indemnification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and cloathed like swine and hounds: No other defence against fines, imprisonments, whipping posts, gibbets, bastenadoes and racks.” 

Adams was writing in 1766, against the Stamp Act, but the view of juries as bound up crucially with rights recognition and enforcement motivated the Bill of Rights. In criticizing the 1787 Constitution, the influential antifederalist Federal Farmer called the jury trial and legislative representation “the wisest and most fit means of protecting [the people] in the community.” Jurors were drawn from that very community and had vast powers of investigation, via the grand jury, and adjudication, via the petit jury. As Professor Akhil Reed Amar emphasizes, jury service was commonly viewed as analogous to service in the legislature itself. 

2. Rights as Federalism. — Viewing the Bill of Rights through an eighteenth-century lens illuminates its focus on institutional form. A remarkable number of its amendments seek to preserve the role of the jury and other local representative institutions in federal administration. 

Jamal Greene, Rights as Trumps?, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 28, 112-13 (2018) (footnotes omitted). 

An Interesting Opinion on the Right to Jury Trial that Can Relate to 101 and 285 published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[fureniku]

Life

So... I said previously that I wouldn’t blog here. I’m going to change that slightly.

I still have my private blog (Inbox me if you want the URL), but on here I’m going to post thoughts and stuff that are a little more public, but still not quite facebook-safe. Maybe these are more relatable for others as well, considering they’ll be more generic and conceptual instead of specific to my life. However; they may still have triggers for people - so be warned of that.

So tonight, 

Blog #1 - Life. 24th January 2018 Start time: 20:59

Life. For as long as we have been here, people have asked; what is the meaning of life? They ask this from sheer curiosity - why are we here, sentient meat-machines living on a little ball of dirt and water in an endless void. Is there a purpose? Were we created by some divine being, or maybe deposited by aliens... or maybe we’re just an accident of biology.

When they ask the meaning of life, they ask about life as a whole. All of humanity, and even extending to the animals, insects, plants - every last life form of the planet.

But what if we dial it back? What if we ask about it from a personal view; Why am I here specifically? as opposed to us as a collective?

When you really think about it, how many humans can say they truely enjoy life? Granted, not everyone is depressed, or suicidal... but are they really happy? Lets run through what life consists of.

First, you are conceived. Then you spend 9 months of nothingness just developing and growing until you’re eventually born as a baby- year zero. The first two years of your life most people don’t really remember - at most only tiny snippets and concepts as we learn how to human. From there we start to develop our memories and our personalities. Ages 3-4 are great, you just play with toys and don’t really have any problems. Life value is pretty high, for you.

Next up, school time! Most countries tend to start children at school around age 4 or 5 (We’re going to stick with developed countries for this run through). And, like those early years, it’s pretty easy. You’re learning social skills, you’re getting a very basic education that’s generally disguised as play and you’re making friends that may last for decades. Sometimes teachers might get annoyed because you did something wrong, and that can be stressful - you’re learning that negative emotions can be sourced from other people, as opposed to just dropping your new lego car.

In the UK, your first real standardized test (Year 2 SATs) comes at the age of about 6/7. For many kids that can start to bring on pressure to do well - even if only slight - a sort of prequel to the stress of work to come later. You’re barely 7 years old and already you have to start living to responsibilities. Most stuff is still easy so life value is still good, but not quite where it was.

The next few years of school get a little more challenging. You’re doing real education now, you’re starting to learn things about the world - how it works (basic physics and biology), what happened (history) and so on. You learn about these huge wars in which hundreds of thousands of people died, you learn about the vastness of the oceans containing immesurable amounts of life... you start to realise there’s more to this world than just the few square miles around your house and school. It leads up to (in the UK) your second major standardized test around age 10/11. This one has more pressure, it’s often used by your next school to group you so can have an important impact. Naturally the teachers are stressed, they want you to do well... but that rubs off on you, the student. You don’t quite understand why they’re worried yet as you don’t really know the concepts of bad performance affecting their career, but nonetheless you feel pressure to do well, to not upset them. Life value slips just another tiny bit down.

Now, we move to our new school. Most of the time it’s a much bigger school with lots more people. Social status instantly plays a huge role in everything - and this is where you will define yourself as a person for the next 10+ years and make decisions that will impact the rest of your life. No pressure, young one!

At the tender age of 14 you are asked to make a decision on what you want to study. Choose wrongly and you might not be able to persevere into the career you want to do... but what if you don’t know what career yet? What if you change your mind later? And while all this is going on you have the social side too. Maybe you’re being bullied because of some physical condition or abnormality that you have no control over. Maybe you’re confused because you’re a boy, but you really like that boy, or maybe you don’t actually feel like a boy deep inside. Maybe you have a mental health condition thats totally out of control, and you don’t know what to do about it. You’re still so young but the pressures are building. These early teens are when people will start asking that all-important question with a personal view; Why am I here? Why do I exist, if all I get from life is pain and stress?

But it’s ok. You know once you finish school, it’ll get better right? The bullies will go away, your teenage hormones will settle down, you’ll get that awesome job you want, buy a house and live happily ever after.

Back to the education. Age 16, you make a more fine-grained choice towards your career. Get this one wrong and you’re already a bit screwed, so I hope you know exactly what you want to do and how to get there! So you continue with your next stage of education, age 16-18. Often again in a new school, with new people and you’ve got all these thoughts swimminmg through your head, its like the last few years on steroids but no time for that now, gotta focus! But focusing is hard when your brain goes a mile a minute. Maybe you’re a lucky one and you do well, maybe you slip and fall here - do that, and your life will totally stall. Life value is really starting to drop now.

Finally! You’re 18! Off to college/university you go! But wait, now you have moved out. You live in student accomodation, and you just got a lump sum paid into your bank. That money is the most you’ve seen in your life, but its gotta last three months until the next one. But it’s fine, you can manage that! $10 here, $15 there, it’s nothing... until 2 months later it’s gone. If only you knew how to budget properly... but hey at least you know mitochondria is the power house of a cell, right? So you spend that last month living off instant ramen and scraping the mould off your toast, praying you don’t have any sudden costs come up.

You hold out hope though. A few more years and you’ll be done with uni! Then you can move out, get that awesome job and live life! It’s gonna be GREAT!

wrong.

You finish your education. You did OK, you passed and got your degree with average marks. You head back home to party for a month or so before starting to look for a job, and its such a fun period! No commitments, no worries, you can just have fun.

That time passes like nothing, and its time to get a job. You spot an ad for the perfect job for you, so you apply. You’ve got all the right qualifications and they’re even hiring fresh graduates; great, you’re basically in! But you aren’t. Because 20 other people are applying for this exact same position. One of the others gets it, but it happens. You apply for another, the same scenario with 19 other competitors, and it passes you again. By now, your bank is empty so you have to get a minimum wage role in your local store/restaurant/warehouse. It’s not ideal but at least now you can contribute rent to your parents for the house.

While this is all going on, you’re struggling to meet that special someone. You had a couple of bad tinder dates and now you’re a little sore of it, but you still try and talk to people who interest you... but it always fades to nothing.

Then at the same time, you see that older generation complaining about you. About how you’ve had everything handed to you, how lazy you are, why haven’t you moved out yet?!

So you start looking. You know you have two choices here and once again, it decides a lot. You can rent, or you can buy. If you rent, you’re paying that for life, and until you get that qualified job you want you’re gonna really struggle - certainly won’t get enough to be saving for a house deposit to move out later. It’s starting to dawn on you as well that that qualified job? it’s a pipe dream. It’s never gonna happen. The other option is to buy. You do the math, you budget everything and you can afford mortgage repayments on a 1-bed house over 25 years. Once those 25 years are up, regardless of anything you OWN that house - great! This is the logical route, with your current job it’ll be tight but you can make it work, and things will only pick up from there.

But the banks? They don’t care for your budget. They have a flat maximum rate they’ll give you, and its well under your budget... but that doesn’t matter. They’ll give you a loan of 45k if you have good credit, but when the cheapest house is twice that you know it’s not gonna happen.

And there you are, mid 20′s, shit job, living in a flat knowing you’ll be paying rent for the rest of your life, on your own while older generations tell you about how “lucky” you are. Life value? low as fuck.

But then you meet someone. Great! They move in with you. Your bills are a little better, so you can each afford occasional treats. You can do a hobby on the weekend sometimes (assuming your partner is into similar things or has their own hobby and is happy to be separate for them). Things are slightly better.

Now you’re 30, and it’s time to have/adopt a child. One way or another you’re now caring for a new life. You look down into those innocent infant eyes, and you reflect. You think back on how in just 15 years, this child will start to question things like you have been. They’re questioning why they exist, when this world isn’t all that fun to live in.

Plus, now you have a new commitment. At least the next 18 years of your life will be dedicated to this childs upbringing. You will make mistakes and feel bad for them, and you’ll have victories that make you happy. But now, you exist for your child. Your life is gone, everything is for them until they go to university themselves.

And they eventually do - but now you’re in your 50′s. You can’t do stuff that you used to enjoy quite as easily, your body doesn’t work as well as it used to, you get tired easier. You’re still working somewhere or other and you’re still making ends meet... but is it fun? Are you having fun?

20 years pass, you’re 70 now. You have retired from work, but even going to the bathroom is a little more effort now. You still do your hobbies but you have less energy for them, and you realise this is the end. You’ve got maybe 20 years or so left, but you’ve already peaked. Everything is downhill from here, things are gonna stop working, you’ll lose your independence and before you know it, you’re sat in a chair getting a sponge bath from an intern who couldn’t care less. And then, you find yourself on your death bed.

You have that time to reflect. Think back on your life, and you realise. Was it worth it? Why was I here? Did I make a difference? The answer is probably no.

You existed for your own sake, not anyone elses. Life is there to be enjoyed - so if you aren’t enjoying it, then whats the point of it at all? If all we do is be born, work, and then die, then what’s the point of being born to begin with?

But that was a pretty average runthrough. What if things happened differently? Maybe you got that great job. You were on triple the grocery store salary and the bank gave you a good mortgage. You could afford to care for yourself so you met a great partner, and you pay off your house with ease. Your children have a happier upbringing with more stimulation, meaning they pick up education better and are less stressed. You retire at 55, but your pension is great so you can afford things like big holidays and expensive hobbies. You are the living proof that life can be enjoyed. They say money can’t buy happiness - but you proved them wrong, because it drives away the negativity.

Of course, it goes the other way too. Maybe you’re born into a third world country, you grow up knowing only the pain of having not eaten yet this week... and while your first-world brethren are stressed about that SAT exam, you’re dying of some disease that they were vaccinated against. Then you really question why you were here, if life was so short and painful.

I guess this was all a little pessimistic, it just reflects my current mood, but more importantly it reflects the outlook I’ve always had on life. Why ARE we here? Is life really worth living? Do the pros really outweigh the cons?

What is the meaning of life, for me - the individual?

End time: 21:50 Word Count: 2,466

I’m adding suicide trigger warnings to the tags, becuase if someone feels that way this post could cause the wrong signals. I would never suggest that as a solution to anything but honestly, I understand the feeling too. If my blog has upset you in any way or you want to discuss it, my inbox is always open.

[meeshes-on-tour-blog]

Envelopes 1-3

Standing in Heathrow Terminal 2 we found Andrew. We stopped to say hello and he asked us where we are going. We gave our standard reply to date. We don’t actually know. Then we explained the Blind Experience concept and asked Andrew if he’d be happy to film us whilst we opened our first envelope. He agreed. Full of unanticipated nerves we began to open the envelope and as I pulled the paper out I saw the image of Christ The Redeemer statue and started jumping around. Jules pulled the rest of the paper out and we saw a caption that read “Christmas in Rio”. I felt so happy and excited, as Rio has been my dream destination for a long time. Jules was thrilled too that we were going to such a fun-filled, hot, colourful place for Christmas, that neither of us had ever visited, that we could both explore together.

So, we set off on the first leg of our journey. First stop Lisbon. Where Jules thought he saw Mo Farah. He didn’t. Then a 10 hour overnight flight to Rio de Janeiro. Which literally translates as January River. I woke up as the plane was descending over the most beautiful hill tops covered in morning mist and little hats of white cloud. I had no idea the geography of the country was so undulating and mountainous. This birds eye view was truly breathtaking, exotic, but tranquil in the pink and golden sunrise. You could see settlements nestled between the valleys and orange dirt tracks snaking between them. This rural landscape then morphed into an urban one, as ramshackle flat-roofed, pastel coloured buildings and high rises, as well as dusty, soon-to-be traffic-laden roads, came into view. Even more impressive was the Atlantic Ocean and coastline that suddenly appeared. Broken up with jungle-covered headlands and bays, with sandy sweeps of beaches. A huge rocky peak of granite and quartz loomed out of the dark blue sea above the harbour, on a peninsula of Guanarabara Bay. It’s name is “Sugarloaf Mountain”, coined by the Portuguese in the 16th century, who named it so in reference to the important sugar cane trade of Brazil.

As we stepped off the plane I side-stepped a giant moth. Marco and us have a running joke about big moths, so that caused us much amusement. I wanted to move the moth to safety, but Jules said it would hurt her, so we left her sitting there. As we walked through the airport the first thing we noticed was the smell of humidity, wet and tropical, just like the Amazon rainforest we imagined. In our excitement to explore Brazil immediately, the long wait at customs was quite challenging, and I did lots of loud British sighing in my boredom. We entered the arrival terminal with our luggage, eyes peeled for a man with a sign.

The sign read “Julian Gallagher” so I jokingly waved goodbye to Jules and the man, and wished them a happy honeymoon whilst I looked for a sign with my own name on. But this didn’t exist. Jules therefore kindly let me come in his and Pedro’s taxi to the hotel. We drove past the oldest and most dangerous favella in Rio, and became immediately aware of the very real poverty that exists in Brazil today. No one from outside the more dangerous favelas are advised to enter or visit them. You may remember a recent news story of a tourist being shot in front of her family by members of a drug cartel whilst looking for water. I’m sure her lesson has been firmly learnt. There are tours of favelas operating, but these come with the obvious ethical dilemmas inherent in “poverty tourism”.

It was an exciting ride through the streets of Rio, and our knuckles turned white in moments as the taxi joined the highway crossing all four lanes following a casual, solo glance in the wing mirror. We began to climb through the beautiful cobbled streets towards Saint Therese, thankful for their speed-reducing function. Many of the taxi drivers won’t actually take people to this area due to the damage done to their tyres and suspension we learned in due course. We admired the graffiti and street art adorning so many of the city’s walls as we entered this affluent area of the city, sitting above Rio laid out below. Our hotel was a stunning oasis of calm in this crazy place. Palm and mango trees, vibrant flower beds, and a beautiful fountain with carp surrounded the old colonial style ex coffee plantation buildings, now converted into a hotel. The place smelled amazing as you walked in, and immediately we were reminded of Anran where we got married, due to the wooden, sculptural decor and white-washed walls. We were given a tour of the hotel which sits over several levels and had a lovely restaurant and bar on a terrace. Jules was particularly pleased with the timing of our arrival, as we arrived in the middle of a professional photo shoot by the pool involving lots of young Brazilian models in swimsuits and bikinis posing for the camera.

We were shown to our room which was very spacious with the biggest four poster bed we’ve ever seen, and a beautifully converted dark grey slate bathroom. The view over the hills from our white-shuttered bedroom windows and bathroom was gorgeous too, and the colonial Portuguese influence was clear to see in the other buildings around. We got the giggles soon after entering our bedroom when it became clear the couple in the room next to us may well be on their honeymoon too. We’ll let you guess as to why we thought this!

Soon after arriving and showering we decided to get out and see Rio. We therefore headed down to Copacabana Beach to see its famous sands. It was extremely hot and we soon stopped for a drink on the beach, only after seeing a man dressed as Santa with a full white beard cycling past on a bike. It was pretty touristy, so after more Santa spotting, which seemed very funny in 30 degree heat amongst tanned Brazilians playing volleyball and running along the promenade, we searched for a lunch spot. We used Trip Advisor to find a more traditional place selling seafood, and found a lovely place a 10 minute walk from the beach. It was small and cool with fans going full blast. The whole menu was in Portuguese so we used trusty Google translate to work out what we wanted to order. An old couple on the table next to us offered their assistance in helping us to order. The man spoke really good English and had lived in London in the 1960s. They had been married for over 50 years and stole a few cheeky kisses over the table. We explained we haven’t yet made a whole year of marriage, but are hoping for 49 more like them. We cheersed our cold beers, which are always served in ice buckets in Brazil…perfect. We chose a couple of delicious piles of fried fish on platters garnished with lime and red onion, and covered in hot sauce. Yum. And by the time we left the bar, we were hugging and kissing each other goodbye like old friends. The Brazilians we met were all so warm and friendly, with a chilled vibe, and fun sense of humour. They make you feel so welcome wherever you go.

Feeling refreshed from sitting in the cool, and energetic after our delicious meal, we ventured to “Sugar Loaf” mountain and went up by cable car. At the top there are the most stunning views of Rio and its beautiful bays. It was a real tourist trap, but was listed as the number one thing to do in Rio, so we couldn’t miss it. As the heat only seemed to increase, soaking the back of her clothes whenever we sat down, we decided the pool was beckoning. So back to the hotel we went, and dived, quite literally, into the pool. After a refreshing dip we lounged on the sun beds, me in the shade as usual, Jules in the sun, as always, and enjoyed some ice cold coconut water straight from a real coconut. After some sun, reading, and snoozing, we headed out for our evening meal in a treetop restaurant, where we opened our second envelope! We learned we would be going on a walking tour of Rio’s street art. This was right up Julio’s street, and he was really looking forward to it, as was I! Jules had done a similar activity in Buenos Aires and loved it.

So we were up early the next day for an amazing brekky at the hotel. Its contemporary dining room had stunning smooth concrete floors, and single-paned industrial steel windows over-looking the local area and its European style buildings. All of the food, including some very exotic fruits, was beautifully displayed, and coffee and tea was served from elegant silver pots and trays. I noticed that bowls and cups were particularly tiny, not sure why. I think we ate the world’s tiniest pancake there!

After our breakfast we set off on our 4 hour walking tour of Rio’s graffiti scene. We met Edmundo our guide for the day at a hotel by Copacabana Beach. He is from Rio and was very knowledgeable about all aspects of life from the favelas, where he runs tours, to politics. We saw a huge array of street art during our time with Edmundo. It was really encouraging to see that there are a significant number of female street artists creating work all over Rio. Graffiti and street art does not have the reputation it has in the UK, and is respected by people and commissioned by organisations and the government. A particularly incredible piece we saw in Downtown Rio was commissioned by the Olympic Committee of 2016, when Rio hosted the Olympics. It consists of faces of people from the five continents, but on a huge scale, in the most vibrant colours (see our Instagram). The talent of these artists is completely mind-blowing and it would be a challenge for anyone not to find beauty in it, and to be impressed by it. There were lots of political messages of peace and equality symbolised in the art, and told within their stories, such as empowerment of Black Africans, revealing these young Brazilian creatives’ social conscience and fight for justice.

Despite Edmundo’s best attempts to preserve our health by standing in the shade as much as possible whilst showing us the art, by the end of the 4 hour tour in the scorching heat, we were gasping for water and desperate for a cold shower, and I had a banging headache. We took a taxi and found refuge in a small restaurant in Saint Therese near our hotel run by a lovely couple. We ate the Brazilian version of fried chicken and salt cod fritter, both delicious, and walked back to the hotel. Jules opened a little extra Christmas envelope from me after we had cooled down with a shower, and learned he would be paragliding on Christmas morning! That evening we went for a delicious cocktail in the bar and then over to the restaurant for our Christmas meal, which Brazilians have on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. We agreed have never felt less Christmassy, but were so happy to already have had such an amazing 2 days.

We arrived at Pepino Beach the next morning after a mini Christmas present opening session and a particularly terrifying taxi journey. Whilst waiting for Flávio to take us to the take off point we received the most wonderful news. My friend Georgie’s daughter Tansy had arrived safely on Christmas morning weighing 7.5lb after a long slog. What Happy Christmas news indeed, welcome to the world little Tansy, I can’t wait to meet you!

We were driven up Pedra Bonita mountain at breakneck speed, and were strapped into our paragliding harnesses. We watched several paragliders and hang gliders launch themselves off the take off pad, one not very successfully, which was rather terrifying, and then it was Jules’s turn. I filmed his launch which was pretty smooth and watched as the winds pushed him and his pilot up and away into the skies. Then it was my turn. Me and my pilot were strapped together, and I was told just to keep walking, and to keep my ankles crossed in flight, and legs relaxed. I wasn’t quite prepared for the strong force that lifted us quicker than expected into the air, and the pilot later explained back on the ground, that he hadn’t been either. I’m glad I didn know that at the time. It all felt pretty safe though, and it was amazing looking down over the mountains and buildings below, and seeing the sparkling ocean in all its glory from above. It was still and quiet up there, and as close to flying like a bird as either of us have ever been. It was quite challenging to let go of the Go Pro and open my arms “like a bird” as instructed, and I quickly grabbed back onto the harness. I also experienced a nausea akin to the feeling of seasickness, as did Jules, and was very grateful to land smoothly on the beach after a series of vomit-inducing circles as we came down from the sky, but what an experience for Christmas Day 2017, and we were both very pleased to have done it. Our pilots kindly uploaded all the Go Pro videos and pictures onto Jules’s phone for us to remember our flights for years to come. Lunchtime, and off for some food and a Coca Cola to soothe our dizzy tummies, as well as some delicious ice cream. Then we went back to the hotel to lie on loungers in the shade drinking ice cold coconut water. What a perfect Christmas!

In the evening we cracked open a bottle of bubbly and spokes to our families who were very much missed. It was wonderful to see their smiling faces round the Christmas dinner table, and we decided to open our third envelope whilst on FaceTime speaking to my family. And it revealed that we would be off to Lima, Peru, in the wee hours of the next morning! We were totally thrilled, and I immediately thought of how much our friend Poppy would enjoy that we were going to Paddington Bear’s birthplace! Stay tuned for our next update from country number 2!!!…….