#note: this post is a class assignment that we had to post publically

[horsesarecreatures]

Solar Geoengineering: What is It, Why People Support It, and How to Make It Safer

By the Atlantic States Environmental Coalition

What is Solar Geoengineering?

Have you ever felt hopelessness over global leaders’ failure to stop global warming? There may be a new way to slow global warming that can be implemented easier than you’d expect. Solar Geoengineering (SG) is “solar radiation management which attempts to increase reflection of solar radiation away from the earth in order to slow [global] warming.” The 2 primary types of SG are stratospheric aerosol injection (achieved by releasing reflective particles like sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere) and marine cloud brightening (achieved by “spraying sea water into the lower atmosphere to generate brighter, more reflective clouds”). SG is increasingly mentioned by scientists as a way to combat climate change. SG’s appealing qualities include its low implementation cost, little opposition to it from industries, and the likelihood of it having fast cooling effects on the planet. However, as you might have guessed, SG also comes with significant risks. How and where SG will change climate patterns is unknown, and it could reduce ozone in the atmosphere, which is critical for preventing harmful UV radiation from reaching earth. Additionally, while SG will lower global temperatures, it doesn’t address the root cause of climate change, which is GHG emissions. It won’t reduce other harmful effects of GHGs either, such as air pollution and ocean acidification. But perhaps most scarily, an increased reliance on SG could lead to something called “termination shock.” Termination shock would cause a rapid and extreme rise in global warming if SG were to be deployed, but suddenly terminated, due to failing technologies.

Image by the Union of Concerned Scientists

Why are Some Actors Hoping to Pursue SG as a Climate Change Mitigation Strategy? 

Despite its risks, some governments are looking at SG precisely because of its almost immediate impact on temperature reduction and ease of deployment. It’s probable that present mitigation efforts under the Paris Agreement won’t be enough to hinder catastrophic climate change. On October 24, 2024, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) reported  that collectively, countries have made no progress tackling climate change. Their report said:

"As greenhouse gas emissions rose to a new high of 57.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023, the cuts required from today are larger; 7.5 per cent must be shaved off emissions every year until 2035 for 1.5°C. Current promises are nowhere near these levels, putting us on track for best-case global warming of 2.6°C this century and necessitating future costly and large-scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to bring down the overshoot."

(Likelihood of global warming exceeding the temperature increase limits of the Paris Agreement. Source: UNEP Emission Gap Report 2024)

SG is not mentioned among the possible solutions that could reverse this dire trend by UNEP in the report. However, several actors are considering it anyway. In the U.S., the company Make Sunsets has already begun deployment of balloons that release sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. President Biden also released an executive order directing all agencies to research SG, calling it “One of the most promising [climate change mitigation] strategies.” Despite SG having garnered opposition from the international community, it’s looking increasingly likely that some countries will use it in the near future.

What Needs to be Done to Make Solar Geoengineering as Safe as Possible? 

Given the likelihood of the planet warming above what global leaders hoped for, they may need to further explore SG, but not without limitations on how it’s used. There needs to be comprehensive national guidelines on SG to prevent it from causing transboundary harm. Both NASA and the EPA in their proposed rulemakings responding to the executive order stated that they intend to create grant programs for SG research and use the data gathered to shape their future SG policies. Data collection on SG is a good start. Additionally, the agencies responding to President Biden’s executive order on SG should ensure that SG will not be subsidized at the expense of safer GHG mitigation efforts. Both NASA and the EPA should use their grant programs to place contingencies on SG research that will make actors do an equivalent amount of GHG mitigation. It doesn’t matter whether the agencies provide the money for an equivalent amount of GHG mitigation, or require applicants use their own funds. Agencies just need to ensure that SG is a supplementary rather than alternative method to combat climate change. Then agencies will reduce impacts of climate change other than temperature rise, and the severity of termination shock from possible SG cessation. If you agree with ASEC’s suggestions, please comment your support on NASA and the EPA’s proposed rulemakings at www.regulations.gov.

Thank you,

ASEC

[marlynnofmany]

In the interest of not derailing this already-long-and-awesome thread, here are some more details! (Paging @sparrows-corner and any other interested parties.)

So in my first semester of college, I took an Intro to Psychology class. I didn't expect anything special; it was just one of those general education courses that everybody was supposed to take at some point. But it turned out amazing.

What the general public didn't know at that point was someone in the college administration had screwed up and forgotten to assign a teacher to this class. Until a week before class. When several students emailed to ask why that detail was missing in the online listing.

The administration panicked, scrambled for someone-anyone-omg-who-can-drop-everything-and-teach-this-class. They called recently-graduated owners of Masters Degrees in teaching.

They found Sandy.

She was qualified and available, and much older than the average recent grad, with the confidence to go with it. This was still a daunting task, though, and she agreed on one condition: that she team-teach the class with a friend of hers who was still working on finishing his degree.

Having no other choice and seeing no real problem with this, the administration agreed. And thus was born the most glorious educational comedy act in my entire academic career. The two of them were a delight. They knew all the stuff they needed to teach, and they knew a great deal more, and they delivered lectures in a way that had everyone paying eager attention. It was great.

This friend, by the way, was awesome in his own right. While Sandy was a curly-haired white lady around middle age, Wayne was a black guy who (1) dressed in impeccable suits and (2) had cerebral palsy.

I think a lot of 18-year-old minds were quietly enlightened about a few things just from watching these two banter back and forth, one with joints more wobbly than the other. Wayne told a memorable anecdote at one point about stopping by a grocery store in sweat pants instead of his usual classy wear. The cashier asked some gentle question about what he spent his time on, assuming that he had some sort of carer following him around. The expression on her face when he told her that he taught college was one I'll never forget, and I didn't even see it.

Anyways, at the end of this semester, the two teachers asked a few of us smart kids if we wanted to be TAs (teaching assistants) for the next semester. Since most of us had already become friends during the make-a-group-and-discuss-things portions of the class, this sounded like a party that would look good on our records later. And it really was.

I TA'd for that class a few times in a row, with my buddies and the two very cool teachers. We met up outside of class for holiday parties and everything.

And, since this was during the time the Lord of the Rings trilogy was first coming out in theaters, we all dressed up in costume and went to an early screening together.

Wayne drove. His handicap placard meant we got to park at the front, which was pretty awesome.

Now, I'd met people before who knew more LotR lore than I did, but they all paled in comparison to Sandy. As I said in the notes on that other post, she shared some stories of her youth with us. When she was fourteen, she ran away to join a hippie commune. She already knew fluent elvish, and she used that to help the commune's drug-runners stay out of the clutches of the cops, by translating their drug notes into a language the cops couldn't read. With a start like that, it was unsurprising that she still knew elvish now, along with all sorts of fascinating deep lore.

She had a limited edition book that looked shockingly expensive. She made beeswax candles for all the TAs as holiday gifts, with our names written on them in elvish. I still have mine somewhere.

I haven't heard from any of these lovely people in a long time, since college moves on and so does life, but I will treasure those memories forever. I hope Sandy and Wayne and the others are doing well. They deserve the best.

[confusedmothboy]

hey!! can we hear more about ranger eddie? i want to hear about this so bad.

yes ofc!! im so sorry this took so long to answer i kept forgetting about it 😭

everything about this loser is under the cut

so i've already yapped about him immediately post crash but im gonna do it again. when they were rescued, it took about a week for tabloids to start hounding him to come out, which he did, which led to more hounding. eddie, being rescued in what would have been mid-senior year, tried continuing the classes he had as a sophomore, except the harassment he and the other survivors who tried to return faced was more than he could handle, and he couldn't stand the embarassment of being so behind his peers. he studied for months, took the SAT, essentially testing through sophmore and junior year, then, when he was 19, got his GED. almost immediately after, he and travis move away to ithica, NY. eddie needed a job while he was studying at cornell, and he found a park ranger position at taughannock falls park that paid well.

interviewer: "so i see you had a bit of an unusual gap on your resume, most kids get jobs around junior year, but this is your first?"

eddie: "something came up during that time"

interviewer: "i get it, stuff happens. well, your application notes said you're a bit of an outdoorsman? former boy scout? we get a lot of those out here."

eddie: "no, i've just spent a lot of time around nature."

interviewer: "that could mean a lot of things. you a rugged survivalist, or did you spend your summers up on a nice, well-mowed campsite in mommy and daddy's rv?"

eddie: "are you familiar with new jersey's high school soccer teams?"

interviewer: ???

eddie: "do you maybe remember -it was national news- last february, 1998, those people from the plane crash they found out in the woods after 19 months? does something about me look familiar? does 19 months of rugged survivalism count as adaquate experience for a job like this?"

he's an opprotunist. he milks the trauma the public thinks he got out there for as long as he can. average grades and an unfinished high school education makes it improbably he'd get into an ivy league school? well, cornell, have you considered that he's a special traumatized snowflake whose biggest dream of all is to go to your school? try rejecting that admissions letter. turned in an assignment late? oh, sorry professor, he was having horrifying flashbacks for exactly the amount of time it takes to get caught up on the new episodes of law and order. he gets an extension.

"eddie's a logical guy, why woudn't he realize that this job would keep him from moving on from his time in the wilderness?" i hear you ask. well, at this point eddie's not logical in a sane way. he tries to treat himself the same he would have in the times before the crash. if eddie in the spring of 1996 wouldnt have a problem working as a park ranger for four-ish years, eddie in the summer of 1999 shouldn't either. he also subconsciously doesn't know what to do with himself once he's back in society. like nat, he had a purpose in the wilderness. so he returns to the wilderness part-time to keep himself sane. and it works surprisingly well for a time. eddie's not one to be scared of wandering around the woods for days at a time, because the dangers are nothing like what he had out in the wilderness.

he puts a lot of emphasis on his role of "savior", finding lost hikers, dogs, kids out there and getting them back safe and sound. he's almost obsessive about it, taking weekends away to roam the woods just to make sure no one got left behind. he doesn't talk to his co-workers, they all know who he is and know that he thinks they're incompetent compared to him.

so how does it fall apart? in december of 2002, eddie's doing his normal patrol when it starts snowing. he doesn't like to be out during early winter, but he has to finish his shift. he's humming to himself when he sees fire going in the distance. obviously, he goes to check it, and finds a group of college age kids had started it. that wasn't unusual, he has to kick a lot of teenagers out of the woods after the park closes. but unfortunately, he stumbled on some sort of frat hazing ritual. they're all wearing cloaks, at least that's what eddie said in the report, some of them are singing around the fire, one of them is sleeping in the snow wearing basically nothing, blackout drunk.

obviously, this sets off just about every awful memory eddie has from the wilderness. he fucking loses it. he's hearing voices, he's shaking and hitting the drunk guy awake, he's seeing those culty animal masks in the shadows, he tazes one of the guys with his bear tazer, it's Bad. he doesn't stop until they all get rid of their cloaks and run away, and he realizes that there is a lawsuit incoming. he finds a hoodie with their school and frat on it that one of the guys left behind, and fucking tails these guys back to their house. they talk, he explains a lot about who he is (a stupid move that he realized could be used to blackmail him in the future if these guys are out for vengance later) he ends up paying each of the people involved a thousand out of his own pocket, tanks his savings and emergency funds, and returns to the park at damn near sunrise to hand in his badge.

thankfully, no one preses charges, so eddie's able to go back to his classes and find a new job as an intern with almost no trouble. travis, who finished getting his GED just a few months before, had to work a second job because he's not going to college. rough times of empty fridges, and they joke about needing to get back into hunting and trapping. over the next four years, they keep shoving pennies into their savings accounts before eddie gets his doctorate in 2007 and starts working as a professor, the same place he works 14 years later when the adult tl would take place

holy yap 😭🙏 hope that answered all your questions on him

[o-uncle-newt]

A very fun absurdity

I just did a post on my Holmes blog about Rex Stout that mentioned what was clearly his magnum opus, "Watson was a Woman," which claims that Watson was a woman, Irene Adler in particular, who was married to Holmes- and that the two of them produced Lord Peter Wimsey.

Stout's allegation about Wimsey being born of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler/Norton/Watson (!?!?) is obviously garbage, as contrary to the scrupulously researched and deathly serious rest of the article /s, this statement is based on Stout vaguely assigning Wimsey a birthdate around the turn of the century, when The Second Stain was published- presumably because that connotes a clear point when Holmes and Watson were no longer actively solving cases, and presumably their removal to the Sussex Downs to raise bees was also intended to provide a place for them to raise their son away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Or something.

The problem here, of course, is that Wimsey was, per his author, born in 1890, when both Holmes and Watson were in the public eye solving cases. And, like, we know who Wimsey's parents are. So that's a wash.

...or is it?

There is another possibility. Wimsey's birthdate of 1890 is mentioned a number of times, one of which is in DLS's radio story written for the Holmes birthday centennial. In this story, she helpfully situates that Wimsey's birth came just before Holmes's apparent death, and that Wimsey's father was a "minor member of Cabinet" during the period of The Naval Treaty, and thus was involved in the affair at the time. It is implied that he may have met Holmes at this juncture.

The Naval Treaty is dated, in-story, as the July after Watson's marriage. Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan in 1888, and has married her by June 1889, per Twisted Lip. Ergo, Naval Treaty takes place in July 1889.

Apropos of nothing... let's consider Sherlock Holmes's hands. We're told over the course of the stories that he has "long, white, nervous fingers" and a "delicacy of touch," which he obscures by the fact that he always has punctures and chemical stains all over them. We'll of course get back to this.

So it's July 1889. Mortimer Wimsey, Duke of Denver (or Viscount St George, unclear), is a minor cabinet minister, a position he has most certainly fallen upward into. He is in a marriage of more or less friendly detente with his wife Honoria nee Delagardie, much cleverer than he is, on whom he is constantly cheating. She's already given birth to the heir, a clear chip off the old block. One day, Mortimer comes home and tells Honoria of the calamity of the disappearance of the treaty. A month or so later, he excitedly comes home to share that the great Sherlock Holmes has found the treaty, solved the case, and saved the empire. Honoria is, of course, pleased to hear this, and even more impressed by this Mr Holmes than she already had been from other tales of his exploits which had made their way to high places.

We know that Holmes did not shy away from connections with nobility and royalty, and that for all his protestations that he did not discriminate by class in his detective practice (clearly true), in his private life he did not object to being feted by the upper classes. It was probably not that difficult for Honoria to invite him for dinner, or get herself invited to a party celebrating Holmes's accomplishment. Or perhaps it was Mortimer, respecting intelligence greater than his own, who invited Holmes. It could have happened pretty much anytime over the next few months- and, somehow, and without my attempting to explain exactly HOW, because the mind recoils, Honoria's second child resulted without her husband's involvement.

We know that Mortimer had no idea, as he seemed uncomplicatedly joyful when, as DLS noted, he came home to Honoria to tell her the news of Holmes's return. We wonder if Holmes knew- Wimsey's narration makes clear that he's not sure why Holmes let him into the 221b rooms as a young child looking for his lost cat, but what else would he do for his secret son? And, of course, the Wimsey hands, the only positive trace of Wimseyness that wasn't quite overcome by Delagarditude, were in fact Holmes hands, also delicate and sensitive. (But Gherkins had the same ha- shut up.)

And no, in case you're wondering, I have absolutely no shame. After all, as DLS herself said, the Game "must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's; the slightest touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere." And two can play that Game.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/730025691294449664/i-really-dislike-when-people-warn-about-something?source=share

This isn't about the post itself so much but I appreciate the suggestions in the replies about alternate terms to use that don't involve "warning" at all. I'm a college film professor who has often assigned content that is disturbing, and I've agonized a lot over how to do content warnings and what to call them, because while I haven't had problems so far, I know from talking to colleagues at both my and other institutions/reading studies about it that using the term "trigger/content warning" tends to turn on certain light bulbs in the heads of progressive students who are familiar with how those terms are used in progressive communities, where even if they're not that upset by that content they feel like the SHOULD be.... and those are the students who tend to cause the biggest headaches administratively if they feel like a professor who GAVE a warning didn't handle it correctly or shouldn't have been assigning the work in the first place or whatever. And that's also a thing I want to push against hard, because I've spent enough time in communities like social justice Tumblr and the feminist blogosphere before it to know that's a problem. I don't want students to think that to be a good feminist or ally or whatever that you HAVE to be unable to watch a rape scene in a film or TV show. I want to instead be able to discuss the framing of those scenes, and what is the difference between the more exploitative kinds of rape scenes we are used to vs. one that centers the feelings and experience of rape victims and is important to show because that is unfortunately a part of the human experience that we should be able to grapple with in film, like all art.

....At the same time, I don't want to just not give content warnings, because some students do legitimately need it. I've had students who had PTSD specifically request warnings from me. Ideally this should be handled by Disability Services, but we all know a lot of those offices don't do that and they often have barriers to entry that mean they don't catch every student. Plus, I want students to be able to have that who might need it but might not feel comfortable approaching me to ask for it. So there needs to be a solution that isn't just "don't give warnings at all."

Anyway, on a similar note, "warning" just isn't the right word for some of the things you want to give students a head's-up for. I for a long time resisted giving any kinds of "warnings" about consensual sex or nudity in film, because I knew American culture stigmatized that and I didn't want to add to that stigma. (And witnessing the recent discourse on Tumblr about "is it ever ok to have sex scenes in movies? is it ever useful for something besides getting people off?" (yes. easy question) has only added to that, although it's been my personal experience from teaching that the puritanical kids on Tumblr are firmly in the minority, just a loud minority, and that most of the university-age kids of Gen Z are just as edgelord about that stuff as every other generation has been at their age. I say this positively; I was an edgelord, too, still kind of am in my mid-30s, and I think it's legitimately concerning developmentally if you never go through that phase.) But I realized during the lockdown when I started screening films on Zoom - a practice I've kept up in some cases post-lockdown - and also when I assign things for students to watch on their own outside of class, that it's still a good idea to give students a head's-up for stuff, because they might be watching in public and it can be super awkward if you're in the wrong place and there's graphic sex/nudity visibly on your screen. For the same reason that most people on Tumblr asking you to tag nsfw content aren't asking because they're prudes, but because they browse at work or otherwise in public and don't want that showing up unannounced in a time when it could be awkward or get them in trouble. So I wanted to give students a head's up so they could decide ahead of time if watching in certain places was a thing they were willing to do. But I didn't want to call it a "warning," since that stigmatizes the thing.

So the stuff about "this may contain" is much better. And I feel like it's weird I didn't think about that before! Thanks!

(Sidenote: I kind of wonder if the "is there ever a reason for a sex scene?" discourse is so common on Tumblr because it's a very fandom-centric space and there are a lot of people getting their media expectations via fanfic, where when sex scenes show up it is usually at least somewhat with the intention of getting people off, and also when it shows up it tends to be a major feature of the fic - or at least people think of it that way, will decide not to read if they don't want any of that, etc. because of the way tagging systems on fic sites work. So the idea of media that includes sex where "getting the viewer off" has nothing to do with why it's there, but just because it's a part of life like anything else, or because of some other narrative purpose like "the way these two people have sex tells you about the relationship between them" etc. is just so foreign to people whose expectations are set by fanfic.)

--

TBH, last time we discussed the sex scene thing, it became clear that a bunch of people hadn't really been exposed to anything where sex scenes were well done, served a broader artistic purpose in a way that was reasonably obvious, and weren't aimed at the most cliched cishet dude audience tastes.

I don't think it's so much that fic is often horny as that fairly mainstream media contains a lot more sex and nudity than it used to, but the people telling those stories are no more varied than in the past. Some viewers feel like horny stuff that is boring and distasteful to them is inescapable, and that's exhausting.

If there's a fandom effect, I'd posit that the larger part of it is that when you hang out in a space where the default media doesn't necessarily prioritize a cliche of what cishet male viewers supposedly want, you become ever less tolerant of having the "default" shoved in your eyeballs all day long.

People have woken up to "It doesn't have to be like this" and "But I want to be the one catered to" but haven't quite gotten over the baggage of Only Men Like Porn or Sex Is Low Art or whatever.

Possibly there's some degree of effect from how fic archives are a space where people want to see only exactly what is their favorite while never seeing anything that makes them uncomfortable, which is very different from the desires of your average moviegoer at some arthouse theater.

[thislovintime]

Peter Tork at Carleton College, a special series

"Having flunked out of Carleton College, I mean, that’s probably one of the better things that happened to me in my career. I have them to thank for that." - Peter Tork, MPR, 1987 In December 1966, Peter told a journalist for the Winston-Salem Journal: “There is no compulsion for schools to teach knowledge. They do not teach wisdom. They do not teach people how to think.” It may sound like a bold statement — coming as it did from the son of an economics professor, at that — but Peter’s years at Carleton College seem to have proved to him the veracity of that assertion. In this special series, This Lovin’ Time takes a closer look at Peter’s time at Carleton College. For easier accessibility, and with minimal narration, here is the deep dive into these, to quote Peter in an interview with the Pioneer Press in 2014, “two and a third” years of Peter’s life.

The curricular

“[Peter] according to one source, was ‘very bright.’ That would seem to be the case: he managed to place out of both Freshman English and chemistry because of formidable board scores in those subjects.” - Carletonian, February 6, 1981 “When Peter was graduated from the New University High School in Storrs, he received honors in mathematics and was awarded a $400 scholarship!” - Catherine McGuire Straus, 16 Magazine, October 1967 “About the only place where Peter didn’t take his banjo was class, when he went to class. When he did attend classes, he usually went barefooted. All the teachers and professors thought that he was tremendously intelligent, but they would get mad at him because he wouldn’t study. He’d get ‘A’s’ on all his papers, and then ruin all his brilliance by not studying for the final.” - Steve Pope, Flip, October 1967 “[Peter] does not like school. He said: ‘Look at it this way. Schools — public, private and colleges — are strictly vocational institutions. Yeah, you got to have degrees if you want to get somewhere. ‘If you want to think, you do that someplace else. There is no compulsion for schools to teach knowledge. They do not teach wisdom. They do not teach people how to think.’” - Winston-Salem Journal, December 1966 “I studied, but I kept going off on tangents, particularly in my favorite subject, educational psychology. I was interested in so many aspects of it that I couldn’t organize myself. I failed, but I don’t regret it at all. I learned more from educational psychology class than anything else I ever took. I’m sure if I ever teach, it will have helped me a great deal.” - Peter, Seventeen, August 1967 “I wanted desperately to learn, but I was too interested and I kept drifting off into daydreams. Some of the teachers understood, but they couldn’t save me from being thrown out. Grades are the thing. Education is being made as full as a cold fish.” - Peter, Fabulous 208, January 1968 “During his final term [at Carleton], Tork was fascinated by an educational psychology course. ‘I’d be assigned one chapter of a book and I’d read the whole book and skip all of the other assignments,’ he recalls. ‘I was really disorganized — absolutely incapable of doing what was wanted of me.’” - Carletonian, November 1982 (x) “I took music theory in college — and when I was starving in the Village, I used to transcribe arrangements for a living. That means I would take a record and play it and then put the notes down on music manuscript paper. I was a perfectionist and my music manuscripts are still the most beautiful you’ll ever see.” - Peter, 16 Magazine’s The Monkees: Here We Are (1967) “[Eventually, Peter was] kicked out again ‘for low grades and missing chapel’ […] chapel was required [at the time].” - Carletonian, 1982

In the 1970s, of course, Peter went on to teach high school; you can read more about that in posts tagged "Tork teaching."

The extracurricular

“Dawn Patrol,” the Friday morning radio show hosted by Peter on KARL radio (x)

Peter Tork: “I didn’t think I had any problem concentrating on academia, my problem was that I didn’t do enough of it. (laughs) What I did — actually, what happened was, I really was so deeply involved in all the extracurricular activities. I was in the orchestra, I played French horn for year, it was wonderful. And I was in theater. And I was a DJ on KARL radio.” Q: “So it was the priorities were a little mixed up, I guess.” PT: “Well, you know, it’s a funny thing. I wouldn’t say so, I would say my priorities were in perfect order. Carleton did not agree, of course. I mean, they thought that my — or, I should say, they agreed, but the priorities were not their priorities for the students. Because as it turns out, obviously my priorities were in perfect order. I was into music and broadcasting and showbiz. And… which is where I belonged, and always did as it turns, but I didn’t know that at the time, see, that’s the thing about it. Having flunked out of Carleton College, I mean, that’s probably one of the better things that happened to me in my career. I have them to thank for that.” - MPR, 1987

Folk trios and groups (x)

“[At Carleton, Peter] also sang in several folk groups, including a trio he formed with Peter Basquin, ’63, and Bill Wingate, ’65. During a recent visit to Carleton, Basquin recalled that Tork used to burst into his room at three in the morning to try out new riffs that he’d composed.” - Carletonian, November 1982 “The chords for the chorus [of ‘Can You Dig It’] I’d written in college, and [they] had just stuck with me.” - Peter Tork, Head box set liner notes

The Players (x)

Plays acted in: Hamlet, Mandragola, Under Milkwood (for which Peter was also assistant director), Ulysses In Nighttown, The Underground Man

“I acted in high school and college and amateur theatricals around my hometown, I did musicals in high school and it was really — I strove to do that as well as be a musical, be a pop entertainer, folkie as it was in those days. It’s always been that way with me.” - Peter Tork, Headquarters Radio, 1989 “An adaptation of Fyodor Dostyevsky’s ‘Notes from the Underground’ titled ‘The Underground Man’ will be presented this Thursday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Nourse Little Theater. […] Members of the cast are: Lucy Lewis, Neill Peterson, Peter H. Thorkelsen [sic], Arthur Williamson, and Fips Braendel as The Underground Man.” - Carletonian, May 1962 “All the minor characters are quite competent in their parts and in conjunction with artistic blocking and excellent lighting, help to engender that enthusiasm and swift-moving excitement which is the most striking characteristic of the production.” - from the Carletonian review of “Hamlet” by Shelagh Day, November 1962 “The play [‘Mandragola’] opened and closed quite charmingly with music written for the occasion by Peter Basquin, and played by Felix Braendel, Peter Thorkelson, and Jairus Lincoln.” - from a review by Shelagh Day, Carletonian, January 1962 “‘Under Milkwood’ is a day in the life of a small, Welsh fishing village from the middle of one night to the next. It presents the life of the town, the good and bad together, sometimes comic, sometimes serious. The men of the village are played by Tom Miller, Bob Miller, Jim Hall, Peter H. Thorkelson who is also assistant director, Peter Bornstein, Ken Moss, and Fred Lott. The women’s parts are read by Eve Meyer, Pat Lee, Carrol Herbert, Ellen Rosen, Marilyn Barkley, and Ann Armstrong.” - Carletonian, February 1962 Researching Peter's time at Carleton also turned up a letter to the editor of the Carletonian, from one Peter H. Thorkelson... (x) “To the Editor: As a fringe member of the Carleton players, I would like to take exception to some of Miss Shelagh Day’s Carletonian reviews of our productions. My particular complaint has to do with Miss Day’s device of judging a play from one level above the play itself. For instance, in her review on ‘Ulysses in Nighttown,’ we are informed by Miss Day that she ‘is looking for the ideal play and prefers to judge on this basis,’ even though the play is ideal when judged ‘in the context of Carleton College…’ In her review of ‘Mandragola,’ Miss Day’s most scathing comment has to do with the theme of the pay. ‘[The play’s] one and only thought is “Sex — ain’t it wonderful!” or “Sex — what a wonderful human failing!”’ Her bitterness is more or less standard for an eighty year-old sex-starved spinster, but not for a serious reviewer of the dramatic arts who has not yet reached her majority. Yet, in the form of the first-rate rhetorician, Miss Day very cleverly managed to cast aspersions on the play’s value by casting doubt as to one part of it. Miss Day’s reviews are in general the same from one play to the next; always picking, never satisfied, but always making some concession, almost, one believes, in order to show everybody that she is open-minded. Does Miss Day have a standard criterion? Or does she use what amounts to a quadruple-standard?” - Peter H. Thorkelson, The Carletonian, January 1962

(For reference I’ve also typed up Shelagh Day’s full reviews; you can read those here.)

The friends

“[Peter] loved to stay up all night to talk about philosophy and politics, and those of us who shared Peter’s thoughts usually did so in his room. There he would talk about anything that came to his crowded and creative mind. In old faded Levis, wearing a straight T-shirt (for some reason, during his freshman year, Peter always wore faded blue-and-white horizontally-striped T-shirts), with his banjo nearby, Peter would talk… and talk… and talk. By the time Pete would be finished talking, you were convinced that what he was saying was right. He was (and still is) a very convincing talker whose arguments and thoughts would fall nicely together as he developed them. When it came to girls, however, Peter would often let his banjo do the talking. Playing love songs and ballads, he was an outgoing and popular date. As I remember, he dated very sweet and pretty girls and he used to frequently fall in love. But that’s a natural extension of Peter because he’s a very loving-type person. Yet, in his own way, he was shy… if you can imagine someone being shy and outgoing at the same time.” - Steve Pope (“who was called “Poper” by Peter during the years they were best friends on campus”), Flip, October 1967

“Peter joined Players, Carleton’s drama club, which he seemed to enjoy. In ‘Ulysses in Nighttown,’ he played the demanding role of Buck. But, apart from this, Peter didn’t take an active part in the school’s extra-curricular activities. As the year went on, Peter was maturing more and more. He was developing his private philosophy of education, which he could sum up very simply: You get a lot more from living than from learning. Living is learning. Peter thought the best thing about college was the bull sessions, the long conversations you could have with intelligent people about anything and everything.” - Steve Pope, Flip, November 1967 (x)

“While at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., [Bob] Middleton’s roommate was future rock star Peter Tork, who taught him to play the guitar. [Subsequently, in Greenwich Village] Middleton played with Tork and with Peter, Paul and Mary, and briefly with Joan Baez.” - Ellwood City Ledger, July 3, 2019

“Long before Peter Tork became a Monkee, he was living in NYC at a grotty little place on Macdougal Street, and playing in a ‘pass-the-hat’ café on West 3rd Street. I think it was called the West Wind; in any case, it was just east of 6th Avenue. It was our habit to go down to the Village from our Upper West Side digs, usually on Thursday night, to hear at least one set and give him moral support. Frequently, when we walked into the place, we doubled the size of the audience by our arrival. It was easy for Peter to see who had come in. He had a wonderful and varied set of pieces, some blue-grass, some even Broadway (I remember with particular pleasure hearing his ‘Who Will Buy?’ from Oliver.) He also did a magical arrangement of ‘Full Fathom Five’ from The Tempest. Whatever he was singing, at that particular point in his act, he would gracefully finish it, and then launch into ‘If I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate’ for me. It was a swingin’ version and I always appreciated it. […] [W]hile still part of the Monkees, he came back to NYC. Somehow, we managed to arrange a dinner for several of us at Billy Wingate’s parents’ apartment in NYC–so we were Peter H., Bill, Ann, Peter and me. You will remember that Bill and Tork shared a love of banjo playing. (Don’t remember if anyone else was there���if so, speak up!) Somewhere in the course of the evening, I admired Peter’s colorful shirt extravagantly, whereon, he took it off and offered it to me. Regrettably, I was embarrassed and didn’t take it. I’ve always been sorry about that. Many years later, when he was in the Monkee’s revival phase, I wrote to him on behalf of Beverly Brown’s dance company, which was staging a benefit for which I was the chair. He astonished all of us by sending Bev a very generous check, even though, so far as I knew, he’d never paid attention to her choreography or seen her after Carleton. He was just an incredibly sweet and generous person, whenever you were with him. […] We wrote to each other at Christmastime most years thereafter, until this past one…probably my fault, as we were consumed with the business of moving house, and I missed the correspondence. He was a wonderful, funny, companionable, creative, enthusiastic and dedicated man.” - Katie Courtice Basquin, Carleton.edu Alumni Farewells, 2019 (x)

The campus legacy

“In 1979, a group of students felt [Peter Tork’s] legacy at that institution was not being properly honored so they stole a portrait of Carleton’s first president.  It was only returned after the college agreed to officially rename a section of Carleton’s student union ‘The Peter Tork Pinball Area.’ Alas, that pinball area has since been dismantled.“ - MPR, February 13, 2014

Q: “A couple years ago, a few Carleton students held a portrait of the former Carleton president hostage until the school named a pinball room after you. What do you think of that?” Peter: “I actually have rarely been so graced with an honor. As a matter of fact, I think I can truly say it is one of the singular highest honors I’ve ever received. When I heard about the news, I practically collapsed in gratitude.” Q: “Have you been back to visit?” Peter: “I went there this past — not this past summer, summer before this past — it brought a wave of nostalgia. It’s interesting because the nostalgia that I had was for a time I never really partook in. The groves of academ, you know, are… suddenly seemed very, very attractive to me because it’s the cloistering, the ability, the chance to delve into whatever it is that you’re doing without obstruction, without distraction. That looked awfully attractive to me at the time, and I felt it too, but I don’t know that that’s ever to be.” - MPR, 1987

Sources:

The Carletonian, 1961-62, 1981-82 Winson-Salem Journal, 1966 Flip, 1967 16 Magazine, 1967 16’s The Monkees: Here We Are, 1967 Seventeen, 1967 Fabulous 208, 1968 MPR, 1987 and 2014 Pioneer Press, 2014 Head box set liner notes Carleton.edu, 2019 Ellwood City Ledger, 2019

[mathemagician93]

So I know I basically stopped posting about my 5Ds rewatch, but that’s because the podcast I was following along with went on hiatus. So the last episode I watched was Jack vs the loan shark, and while I complained about the characters assigned to the opponent of the week in other cases this was definitely an episode that worked best for Jack because he’s the signer that you most worry about getting caught in that trap (Yusei and Crow have actual work ethics, Aki and the twins have family money to fall back on). So it adds a nice layer of character struggle wondering if Jack would do something shady

But what I’m posting here for is the latest duel links event covers the Synchro arc of Arc-V, and I will fully acknowledge that judging the plot of a show based on the phone game adaptation of an arc is definitely going to miss a lot of the context, but the hilarity of how Duel Links resolves the classism in Arc-V makes me appreciate how 5Ds resolved it more

That’s not to say 5Ds does great by saying “we built a bridge and six months later classism was gone” but I at least appreciate the extenuating factors a lot more

To summarize how Duel Links presents the situation in the Synchro dimension, that version of new domino is populated by the rich Tops and the poor Commons. Every year, there is a Friendship Cup tournament to “promote unity” where losers get sent to prison. The current year has riots break out with the Commons fighting for equality. Then the protagonist duels the reigning champ so hard people stop rioting to watch, and the moment of unity inspires the entire government to say “actually division is bad so we all resign”.

(As a note, at the same time there is also an invasion from another dimension and an attempted coup from a spy within the government, but those are presented as separate plot points that are dealt with afterwards and not presented as connected to unifying the city)

And that presentation just made me appreciate the background information that made 5Ds reunification feel at least somewhat believable. Because 5Ds at least established:

1. There was a geographic divide in addition to the class divide that made it easier for the general public to ignore the problem

2. The divide was only solidified in the last two decades since zero reverse was 17 years ago, so undoing a relatively short period of classist divide in an even shorter time at least feels somewhat plausible

3. The government explicitly was enforcing the divide to try and minimize victims for an apocalyptic event that happens every 5000 years so once that is dealt with they have no reason to continue

4. The protagonists made “unite the city” a condition of them saving the world, and then saved the world, even from the government leader who started everything and went all “I will remake the world as a god” so the protagonists have plenty of blackmail material and public goodwill to ensure the change happens

Comparing this to duel links which establishes there ISNT a geographic divide, does not set up a timeline, gives no reason for why the government perpetuates the divide (beyond typical corrupt politicians), and has everyone resolve it because THIS recurring tournament had a good duel and ignoring the actual save the world plot happening—it obviously could have been worse.

And I’m sure canon Arc-V probably has a lot more context behind the plot points than can be accurately portrayed in a few text boxes in a phone game , so I’m not saying “5Ds did it better than Arc-V”. But for Duel Links? It at least made me appreciate that while the handling of the unification in 5Ds was far from perfect, it could definitely have been a lot worse

[iz-the-egoni]

I’ve been meaning to do one of these for a while so here goes…

whenever I say I’m an "elder" of disability on here or anywhere else, even IRL, the above is just one of the many things I use to justify it

the full collective of these form parts of a whole which I am deciding to show on my blog

gonna call it "The Other Kind of Rainbow Pride" 'cos of the class I was in during Primary school. One of the first dedicated autism classes in the world

NOTE that I’ve whited bits of it off so that no-one else may attempt to use this to nefarious ends

—————

I was born on the 13th of July 1992 – subsequently named "Dominic John Powers" – in England, specifically Epsom which is just outside of the south-western part of London, although I would grow up just inside of it. My bod was routinely Assigned Male At Birth, which is something that’ll bear much significance later so I’ll only bring it up when necessary

to slice a long bread short, I got diagnosed with Aspergers and ADHD, along with a couple other comorbidities, when I was about 4, which meant being put through a very emotionally brutal system in the mid 90s. Anyone who knows about English hospitals and the surrounding 'health' industry in that era will understand why that’s awful. We really were being experimented on

needless to say this left its lasting mark on me and the role I was to have now and especially later, something which I’m still working to surpass. Namely that of not quite an invalid, but neither a normality. In fact I was registered disabled by the state shortly after the DXing process, which led to a series of provisions getting issued by our council one of those being the "Blue Badge" I’ve posted above

amongst my family at the time only grandad had one, having suffered a severe and debilitating stroke about a decade prior. Indeed, much was the stigma of being a young child exiting a car parked in any disabled section and receiving abuse from the public most of whom had no idea about the implications of NeuroDiversity at the time, let alone the chronicity and complexity we faced

this continued into events which should have been fun such as at theme parks where my aidies (ADHD) made queuing impossible for me and would have caused danger on the rides had it not been compensated for. Other families accused us of "jumping the line", unaware of the challenges we dealt with in a society and culture where more than 99% of children just didn’t have the issues I and other aidies (people with ADHD) did and, in some of our cases, still do

that badge was due for renewal in 2003 which, given they expired every 3 years, means it got issued in 2000. It was my 2nd, the first being 1997. I was 5. Barely 1800 days old

and that is one of the many reasons I call myself an elder and act as such. As someone who has risen above a LOT over a long period of time, and endured much when not a lot of people were, I have in most cases almost unique experience and thus insight into many of the issues us mentally disabled people face and how it extends unto our physical existences

—————

to close then, I’ll say this…

no one is inherently more disabled than anyone else. However, some people are merely un-abled, meaning they have no advantage over anyone else. Imagine what it feels like and does to someone being actively disadvantaged. That will objectively leave you with more disability than another…

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

this is not a callout or an intentional argument; i'm genuinely saying this in good faith, because i want to improve the discussion. a gentle reminder, based on these tags but directed toward everyone who's been commenting similar things regarding the school point on this post, your experiences are not universal.

many schools do not allow readings to be available in a centralized online platform--there are, in fact, still plenty of teachers that prefer to use paper handouts, and there is absolutely nothing stopping them. many schools do not have a standard method for submitting homework online, and many teachers still assign and grade homework on paper, or assign it verbally and receive it via email rather than standardized web portal. additionally, in-class work is sometimes graded.

in much of the US, it is not a universal standard for students to be given material they missed, and in fact, if a student is sick for a week or more, there are many schools that will expel them or put them on probation, completely regardless of their health. disabled students frequently cannot complete high school, or even drop out as early as middle or elementary school (often being funneled into the juvenile detention system as a result), because they have missed more than a few days' worth of school. this is through a combination of attendance monitoring and students receiving 0s on in-class work and homework they missed while sick.

when i was a disabled student (with an IEP and heavily involved parents, no less), i received many dozens of 0s on work i was absent for due to illness. my in-person peers went to school sick all the time because they simply could not afford to miss work and still pass their grade. they could not get doctors' notes because how can you get a doctors' note for a cold? you'll be entirely better by the time your appointment rolls around.

unfortunately, simply not working while you're sick is a surefire way to fail american high school. there is no structural way to allow students to fall behind without failing their grades; between standardized testing and the deeply-embedded effects of NCLB standards, if you miss any chunk of work & lectures, you're set up to fail that entire year completely regardless of if your absence was excused or not. even if your teachers excuse you from every individual assignment, you are still primed to fail the standardized tests in your state, the content of which is specifically designed to be difficult-to-impossible to complete unless you have completed the very specific work in class prior and have attended the very specific lectures.

allowing students to submit work online and placing a webcam in front of the teacher's desk will not be perfect solutions. in fact, i think they will not really improve the educational quality of school at all; i'm a major critic of the current school system and i do not consider it salvageable. i do not think public school is appropriately educating or socializing children to begin with. but i think that, in terms of mitigating disease spread, we need to attack schools as a major vector. we stand no chance of eradicating standardized testing and the effects NCLB had on the education system are far-reaching and systemic. as best as i can tell, the only policy-level adjustments we can make are enforcing that every school has an option to complete assignments online, making the lectures physically accessible to students who are at home even if they don't get one-on-one instruction, and enforced ventilation upgrades.

so: masking: good, unequivocally. please mask and please educate others on why they should mask to make the world safer for immune compromised people to participate in.

however: masking is not my policy focus and it shouldn't be yours, either. masking is a very good mitigation against droplet-born illnesses and a slightly less effective (but still very good) mitigation against airborne illnesses, but its place in the pyramid of mitigation demands is pretty low, for several reasons:

it's an individual mitigation, not a systemic one. the best mitigations to make public life more accessible affect everyone without distributing the majority of the effort among individuals (who may not be able to comply, may not have access to education on how to comply, or may be actively malicious).

it's a post-hoc mitigation, or to put it another way, it's a band-aid over the underlying problem. even if it was possible to enforce, universal masking still wouldn't address the underlying problem that it is dangerous for sick people and immune compromised people to be in the same public locations to begin with. this is a solvable problem! we have created the societal conditions for this problem!

here are my policy focuses:

upgraded air filtration and ventilation systems for all public buildings. appropriate ventilation should be just as bog-standard as appropriately clean running water. an indoor venue without a ventilation system capable of performing 5 complete air changes per hour should be like encountering a public restroom without any sinks or hand sanitizer stations whatsoever.

enforced paid sick leave for all employees until 3-5 days without symptoms. the vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through industry sectors where employees come into work while experiencing symptoms. a taco bell worker should never be making food while experiencing strep throat symptoms, even without a strep diagnosis.

enforced virtual schooling options for sick students. the other vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through schools. the proximity of so many kids and teenagers together indoors (with little to no proper ventilation and high levels of physical activity) means that if even one person comes to school sick, hundreds will be infected in the following few days. those students will most likely infect their parents as well. allowing students to complete all readings and coursework through sites like blackboard or compass while sick will cut down massively on disease transmission.

accessible testing for everyone. not just for COVID; if there's a test for any contagious illness capable of being performed outside of lab conditions, there should be a regulated option for performing that test at home (similar to COVID rapid tests). if a test can only be performed under lab conditions, there should be a government-subsidized program to provide free of charge testing to anyone who needs it, through urgent cares and pharmacies.

the last thing to note is that these things stack; upgraded ventilation systems in all public buildings mean that students and employees get sick less often to begin with, making it less burdensome for students and employees to be absent due to sickness, and making it more likely that sick individuals will choose to stay home themselves (since it's not so costly for them).

masking is great! keep masking! please use masking as a rhetorical "this is what we can do as individuals to make public life safer while we're pushing for drastic policy changes," and don't get complacent in either direction--don't assume that masking is all you need to do or an acceptable forever-solution, and equally, don't fall prey to thinking that pushing for policy change "makes up" for not masking in public. it's not a game with scores and sides; masking is a material thing you can do to help the individual people you interact with one by one, and policy changes are what's going to make the entirety of public life safer for all immune compromised people.

[sporadic-dummy]

Final Blog Post 8: Course Reflection

This spring semester in my junior year of university, I had the chance to take an introductory game studies class that delved into the history of making games, its theory, as well as hands-on experience with game development. I was in the Monday/Wednesday section of the class, which was split up by a lecture on the former day, followed by an activity relating to the previous lecture on the latter day. The overall structure of the class was well organized, and its lecture slides accessible since the first week so there weren’t any huge surprises if you looked ahead of the material. I had heard about the class from friends who had taken the class that the class would require you to create a game, and also looking at the class scheduler noting it as an activity class requiring 8 hours of work per week I was somewhat worried. Now at the final stretch of this class, either I really improved my work ethic and time management or the class was actually not as tough as I expected. Then again, I chose to code a visual novel game with Ren’Py which is definitely a lot easier to code than in Unity with C#. Still, I really enjoyed the class and it was really intriguing and refreshing to be in an environment that facilitated game analysis in both terms of narrative and mechanics.

The textbook that we were assigned and given for free through our school accounts was pretty informative and also fairly casual with the way the author would be talking in first person towards the reader. The overall tone, though unconventional, made the topic of games and the theory behind making them a lot more approachable.

For my final, as mentioned in the first paragraph, I coded and wrote for a visual novel game and had the art implemented in it supplied by two artists in my group. I am quite interested in storytelling, though I hadn’t really put many of my ideas onto paper for public viewing so that was a daunting experience. Still, the reception that the game received during peer reviews were quite encouraging to me and I’d like to share more of my stories in my future works. As a digital art major who is rather fond of 3D modeling and comics, coding was a bit out of my comfort zone, though I was able to make it work and my efforts sufficed for the assignments’ requirements. While I wouldn’t delve into game mechanics that involve complicated physics, I wouldn’t be opposed to coding for more visual novels through Ren’Py.

(Below is a screenshot of one of my first attempts to code a player character through C#)

[talesfromasnarkylisa]

Lacey: Chapter 35

Lacy’s Diaries: September 27, 2023

Wednesdays are just the worst, are they not? 

In university, that’s when my professors love to pile up work on me - especially my math and French professors. And instead of taking notes as I should in my other classes, I end up having to secretly record the lectures as well as ask the professors one question each so one party consent recording laws can still apply so I can use that time to do work I’d have no way of properly completing if I used class time to take a lot of notes.

In the meantime, someone in the Music Refined team has decided to make me into a punching bag when it comes to assigning drafts. They were quiet for a while, then they piled on some stuff, but I never had to do this much work until now. I eventually gave up for the day from burnout. After reading a few posts from someone named Maryam123 that showed up in my feed to meme a bit with photos of burned out office workers being pointed to, I decided to text my friends and mutuals.

Dina’s behaviour when it came to her eating patterns were getting increasingly concerning to me. While she didn’t eat as much as usual before, she hasn’t decided to actively skip meals until now no matter how tired it made her outside of that one required medical fast she had to do before a doping test prior to COVID. This isn’t some religious thing, either, where you’re supposed to binge at the end of the day. On top of that, she was still on the university cheerleading squad. I might not know much about cheerleading, but I think it’s safe to say that the fatigue she’d get more and more would not be great for that.

Otto seemed to be having the time of his life at Yale - well, mostly. His main complaint now was that he had a hard time keeping friends. According to him, the friends he found through his roommate were super nice and fun for a few days before they decided to suddenly ghost him. When I asked him if he knew whether there was a common factor which might have turned them off him, he had a hard time figuring one out.

I texted Tate a bit before I went to bed. We were discussing the recent situation between Writer’s Delight and me.

Tate Sinclair (09/27/23, 9:09 PM): Did you really just go to the Writer’s Delight admins about their automated editing streamlining?

Lacey Hannah (09/2723, 9:12 PM): Yeah, why?

Tate Sinclair (09/27/23, 9:14 PM): It’s been the talk of the damn town lately. 

Lacey Hannah (09/27/23, 9:15 PM): …It has?

Tate Sinclair (09/27/23, 9:17 PM): Just about every Medium related group chat I’m in has someone talking about either you or another person complaining about the publication. I probably shouldn’t comment on this too much, but I think you have some pretty strong guts.

Lacey Hannah (09/27/23, 9:19 PM): Thanks, I’m glad you think that. If you don’t mind me asking, who first told you about this?

Tate Sinclair (09/27/23, 9:21 PM): Again, can’t say. But anyways, good luck with the drafts at Music Refined. Those must be a doozy to go through.

Duh, I thought, why else would I be up this late?

Anyways, I had a call with Betty and Carol just prior to falling asleep.

“Hey Betty!” I greeted Betty.

“Helloooo, Lacey!” Betty greeted back.

“Wait,” Carol asked, “you know each other’s real names now?”

I adjusted my headphones.

“Well, Lacey knows my real name!” Betty exclaimed. “I’m not sure if I know hers.”

I smirked.

Maybe I’ll tell her someday, I thought to myself.

“I got an Arctic Monkeys vinyl today,” Carol stated.

“Good for you,” I responded. “I’ve only ever heard one song from them.”

“Which one?” Carol asked.

I was about to tell Carol it was 505 when a voice suddenly interrupted from her end.

“Talking to your e-girls again?” the boyish voice asked.

“I’m in a call with my online friends,” Carol sighed. “They’re not e-girls, for Christ’s sake.”

“Whatever,” he answered. “Anyways, wanna watch a cartoon review video with me?”

“No,” Carol told him. “Would you please mind your own business and not dox yourself?”

Carol muted herself for a bit.

“What was that?” Betty wondered.

“That was my little brother,” Carol responded. “He used a fake voice. He wanted to watch that fucking angry cartoon reviewer with me again.”

I unmuted myself.

“Just out of curiosity,” I started, “did any of you tell other people about the situation I had with Writer’s Delight I alluded to during our conversations?”

“Not me,” Betty reassured me. “I’d never snitch on you unless you gave me permission.”

All of a sudden, I was interrupted by a text from Otto.

Otto Singh (Wed, Sep 27 at 9:50 PM): You there? I really need some advice.

I’m busy right now, sorry, I thought and answered.

“Carol?” I prompted Carol.

“Me neither,” Carol added. “Though, I did tell some people close to the Writer’s Delight team from my publication about there being complaints from an unnamed girl.”

“Maybe that’s part of it,” I stated.

Nonetheless, a vague description of an anonymous woman didn’t seem like enough on its own to trace people back to me. I pondered for a bit when all of the sudden, I realized something.

Archer, my thoughts went. Maybe he didn’t say everything: after all, I didn’t tell him everything. But whatever I told him about a vaguely categorized group combined with Carol’s description might have been enough for people to put two and two together. 

And with that, I had some potential people to confront. 

(Wattpad version: https://www.wattpad.com/1536943448-lacey-chapter-35)

[rraym0ndiasportfolio]

Collaboration as Evidence of Leadership

In my life, I have been working in management for nearly a decade. From retail to digital products, such as video games, leadership has been a part of how I function within a team. When I started at UW Bothell, I was no stranger to working in a team. However, as I started to navigate my work, I began to see that there was a difference between managing and collaboration and shared leadership. I found that management was about my expectations being placed on others, while collaboration and shared leadership was a process in which the group cultivates ideas, develops expectations, and sets deliverables. To further examine the growth of my process surrounding the subject, I look back to the first group piece, “Woodland Wintering” a board game surrounding the hibernation habits of PNW animals, and my last, a presentation on my group IMD capstone exploring light, color and sound and how they connect to human emotion.

The “Woodland Wintering” board game began as a twist on the board game “One Night Ultimate Werewolf”. As a group, we had played One Night Ultimate Werewolf in class, and had enjoyed it immensely. When we dissected the gameplay, we began to see that the fun of the game revolved around one’s use or misuse of collaboration to find the werewolf character in the game. Collaboration became an important aspect of anything we did within the game or our process in creating our game. As we continued forward in our project, I began to see that this shared value of collaboration allowed us to easily integrate the skills and ideas of every member of the group. When we finished creating the game and wrote a post mortem surrounding our experience, we all wrote about the importance of our collaboration and how it allowed for each of us to be authentic to our abilities and perspective. It taught me as a manager that I am only as good a leader as I am a listener and collaborator, an integral lesson to both student and professional life moving forward.

As I am now at the end of my time at university, I decided to reflect on how that lesson has unfolded in my current IMD capstone. My group is a diverse composition of students with a wider range of perspectives. As we began conceptualizing our project, I felt myself returning to how I understood collaboration, utilizing it as a tool that not only steered our thinking but lifted us up. By focusing on the collaboration of our ideas, I was able to share leadership with the group, allowing each one of us to have our fingerprints on the concept presented in our pitch presentation. We came together to make decisions and set milestones, understanding each other’s time constraints as items to be worked around, and not used as roadblocks. Our collaboration is what made the presentation and resulting project successful. As I look at the presentation now, I can see the fruits of the seeds planted from the “Woodland Wintering” game nearly three years ago.

Ultimately, it feels as if I have been able to uncover the secret of leadership via collaboration and gain an understanding that collaboration is not an act, it’s a mindset. My projects have shown me that collaboration is not a constraint, but an effort to include and utilize all viewpoints to create something greater as a group. It has taught me to see shared leadership as a means of partnership and allowed me to add this insight to my creative process. 

Works Cited

Raymond, Rachel “Capstone Pitch.” BIMD 491 Integrative Studio II: Practicum, Dr. Arnie Lund. Autumn 2019.

Raymond, Rachel “Woodland Wintering Board Game Documentation.” BIMD 250. Introduction to Interaction Design, Dr. Mark Chen. Autumn 2017.

[breakingnewsbreakthrough]

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Hospitals in trouble, covert gunmakers, and assembly line layoffs

10:24 a.m. EDT: "DMC, Henry Ford didn't protect patients from 'sexual predator,' class action lawsuits say"

I know that the police are prone to hyperbole in press conferences, but to label a sexual predator "one of the worst [he's] ever seen," well that's bad. You don't need me to tell you that, but this is one of two cases this month where the DMC is alleged to have covered for or facilitated abuse of a sexual nature in their facilities. I don't understand how hospital administrators can hear complaints like this and provide cover for the perpetrators, though I'm not sure it's profit-motivated like some protestors think. It's possible that money is a factor given the way our healthcare system works, but it's more likely to be a public image issue than anything having to do with money. There's already pretty low trust among some Black residents of Detroit and the area's hospitals, and allowing that trust to erode any more could have incredibly far-reaching consequences. I don't think attempting to keep this under wraps was the best choice, which is all but confirmed by how massively this has blown up in their faces. We'll all see what happens, I suppose.

1:20 p.m. EDT: "Saab to build $75M munitions production facility in Grayling"

Hmm, I didn't know they made guns! I suppose this is an example of that thing where every company either makes products or provides services for the military and/or prisons. Yes, that one. That one too. I hesitate to say this, but this is bad, actually? Michigan is so concerned with inviting industry to the state in order to revitalize it that they're not being picky about what that industry is. The site being in Grayling is suspect as well, given the military camp in the area supposedly testing privately-produced munitions. I'm not sure we need to "Make this in Michigan," Gretch, but I suppose 69 people will be gainfully employed, and that's more important than anything else.

4:15 p.m. EDT: "Skubal stifles Rays as Tigers continue surge toward playoffs"

Ah, the fabled half game. Will the boys make it this year? If they do, I hope the areas around Comerica are declared "gun-free zones," for all our sakes.

5:18 p.m. EDT: "Stellantis cuts workers at Sterling Heights, with more layoffs planned"

I wish I could hire a correspondent within the union to tell me what this means. From what I can gather, Stellantis pulled the plug on nearly 2,000 jobs, amounting to unemployment for many the union calls "supplemental employees." I hate to just recite the article at you, but that's all I've got. I have a feeling trucks aren't selling as well as the company would like, given the cuts affecting mainly the plants producing the Ram 1500s. I truly wish I could provide more insight, but unless Shawn Fain appears in my house and starts explaining the labyrinthian eccentricities of UAW-Big 3 relations to me, I'll have to leave it at this.

On a personal note:

Had therapy today. Is it shocking I'm in therapy? I know, I seem so well-adjusted.

I've been told in no uncertain terms to stop being so hard on myself, and I find that ignoring my therapist's advice is not only a waste of money, but makes me unhappy as well, so easier on myself I shall be. There's truly no upper limit on the amount of hatred I can direct inward, and I'm not sure I understand what it means to be content with oneself. In case my morose nature doesn't come across well in these posts, I tend towards self-serious and sullen, and I don't think it all can be chalked up to my clinical depression. I can't puzzle out which parts of my personality are a result of that depression and how much are truly me. How can you divorce a part of yourself from the rest and assign it a root cause? How do you know if you're wrong? I'm sure part of growing up further will be learning to find peace in my own specific "thing" and to stop looking outward for something I can only find within myself; namely who I am. I don't have a zinger or a profound statement to end on. That's all, folks.

Until tomorrow,

DM

[starkeymeow]

not so bad

college!rafe cameron x reader au

— in which rafe and y/n absolutely despise each other in public but crush in secret. rafe is failing his humanities class & is assigned y/n as his tutor . . . maybe all it took for this relationship to form was just a bit of forced proximity and some time.

warning(s): cuteness, lore, kisses

authors note: SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE but eeee we get a clear hint that y/n lived in figure 8 back home with rafe !! also in this au, rafe and y/n are aged down to 18-19 while everyone back home in obx are still 16

++ also sorry !! if u havent been added to the tag list yet ( even though uve asked ) its mostly been because i cant tag u. idk why tumblr isnt letting me but ill try to tag in comments for anyone who cant be tagged in my posts !!

seven | eight | nine

rafe had agreed to join you at the dining hall for breakfast alone to talk about last night. you’ve felt guilty since you read his message, but at the same time the sight of rafe going upstairs with that girl has you upset. you’re conflicted. you barely got any sleep last night because of it.

“i miss the waffles i’d have back home,” rafe was telling you as the two of you enter the dining hall and head straight for the food. “now it’s just sad.”

you look over at the waffle station that’s accompanied by a line of students. it’s usually this way and you can tell he means he doesn’t eat waffles anymore because of it.

“is there usually not a line leading to breakfast cooked by the private chef in your abundance of a home?” you ask him, and you approach the bagels to toast one.

“jealous?” rafe puzzles, to which you raise your eyebrows at.

“never that,” you say with a shake of your head, and you lean against the counter.

once you’ve collected all that you want to eat, you lead rafe to an empty table. the hall is loud and active, but you do your best to find something in a corner where there’s the least amount of people. you set your food down before settling down simultaneously.

“sorry for telling you to get out last night,” you start with, and you watch as rafe prepares his food. “i didn’t see your text ‘til after you fell asleep so . . . just wanted to talk today and hear you out.”

“thanks,” rafe mutters as he grabs his cup of juice, taking a gulp of it before placing it back where it was. he leans forward, crossing his arms on top of the table. “i’m assuming you saw that girl.”

“right.”

“that was . . . someone i talked to when i first got here,” he tells you, using his hands slightly to explain himself. “i met a girl the first day i was moving into my dorm. we talked for maybe like . . . a week, and then classes started and i just found other hobbies.”

you pick at your eggs. “do you mean hookups?” you ask him, and without having to look at him, you can tell he’s grimacing.

“we never even made things official but i guess she was hoping that to happen. haven’t given her a single thought since the first day of school but she caught me at the party,” he continues, and you lean back in your chair. “honestly when she brought me upstairs she was just yelling at me the whole time. i don’t know if you heard—”

“the music was loud rafe, no one heard you, i’m sure,” you tell him.

he gives you a slight glare for interrupting him. “whatever. i told her what she was saying was bullshit and she got mad at me,” he says. “i thought i should’ve told you ‘cause i . . . i don’t know. enzo and lara know about her but you don’t. didn’t want you to think i was just gonna have sex with some random girl.”

“you can do what you want rafe, it’s not like it’s any of my business if you choose to do something like that,” you say. he stares at you in silence and it’s a little concerning. you can’t read the expression at all. “but thanks for telling me anyway.”

“yeah,” rafe murmurs as, just on time, lorenzo and elara approach the table once they find you two there. you send them a smile as they come over, but rafe is still staring at you, guilt still glinting in his eye, “anytime.”

“how does morrison explore the concept of memory and its effects on identity in ‘beloved’?” you read a question to one of your assignments out loud. you’re sitting in rafe and lorenzo’s dorm with the two boys, all spread out across the room.

with an uneasy look on his face, rafe scratches the back of his head, “i don’t fuckin’ know.”

“maybe we should take a break,” you suggest, to which the boys agree to immediately. you lift your ipad off your lap and settle it down on the spot on the floor beside you, and you lay down. “i could go for some . . . something to drink maybe.”

“café?” lorenzo asks and you hum in approval. he checks his phone for the time, “i could dr . . . oh shit. no, i have to meet up with lara like now. i can’t make it guys. sorry.”

he gets up to grab his bag, and you look over to rafe to see if he’s still okay with going. it’s only five. you doubt he has anything else planned today.

rafe gets up from his bed. “i’ll drive,” he volunteers.

“let me go change first,” you say as you grab your slippers and leave to your dorm since it’s cold out. “bye lorenzo!”

“bye y/n!” you hear him call from his dorm as you slip into yours, throwing on a hoodie and changing your bottoms to wear some sweats, then pull your sneakers on. you put your hair up before heading outside where rafe is already waiting.

he’s fiddling with his keys when he spots you, and he points behind him, “let’s go.”

you follow rafe out of the dorm building and to the parking lot to find his car. this is your first time being inside. you slide into the passengers seat quietly and put on your seatbelt. within moments, rafe backs up out of his spot and drives you two out of the lot.

“thank you,” rafe says to the cashier after your order is complete and paid for, thanks to rafe. you turn around and head for the first table you see, but rafe seems to find more interest at the table in the very back corner against the window. you have no choice but to follow him.

you settle down in the chair and pull your phone out of your pocket, just to check any and all texts from family. you look like a fool as you keep checking the message app and your lockscreen notification for something, anything. rafe can tell you’re just trying to fill the void.

“remember that time when we were kids and they were hosting that charity gala,” rafe begins to recall, and your gaze slowly falls on him. “there was that ballroom dance and our parents paired us up.”

“you stepped on my foot,” you remind him.

“you were so serious trying to dance while hobbling around on one foot,” he returns, and the memory of 6-year-old you makes you smile softly. “the step was an accident by the way. i didn’t know my lefts from my rights . . . or— or remember the school play we did in 5th grade? where i was the prince and you wore a dress?”

you deadpan. “‘cause i was the princess,” you say, then shake your head. “i remember you forgot your line and i had to tell you what it was.”

“i thought you were so annoying for that,” rafe’s words causes you to laugh, and he grinned from ear to ear. “like i told my sister how much of a know-it-all you were. you showed me up in our play.”

“i remember summer camp,” you add on to the list of memories.

for a moment rafe has to think about it. “what?” he says, a little confused. “when?”

“the first year we went,” you say like it’s obvious. “the tug-of-war had me on edge for months.”

“oh!” rafe laughs when he realizes what you’re talking about. “yeah you were talking all that shit, then you guys lost and you accused us of cheating.”

“‘cause you probably were,” you play along with the bit that you’re still mad, and thankfully rafe sees right through it because he laughs again. “i couldn’t stand even looking at you after that ‘cause i felt so humiliated.”

he shrugs, “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

“shut up,” you say, kicking at his leg gently. he only smiles as his name gets called out at the front. you get up and follow rafe to the counter where he checks for both of your drinks, handing you yours, and then grabbing two straws.

rafe bites the paper open and pulls the straw out of it, then sticks it in his cup. “come on, i got something to show you,” he says with a wink, and he leads you outside quickly.

after driving just ten minutes and damn near finishing both of your drinks in the process, rafe leads you out to stairs that lead down.

from the car already, you can see a bunch of string fairy lights that go from tree to tree. it leads down a path to walk on but on one of the sides, past the concrete shoulder of the sidewalk there’s the ocean.

it’s getting darker and the blues from the sky and water just look so perfect.

“it’s beautiful out here,” you say with furrowed brows, surprised that you’ve never seen this before. “we’re just ten minutes from campus?”

“that’s what i said,” rafe agrees with you, and you laugh as you lean into him for a moment. your gaze falls upon the few people walking in either direction down the path, most are families though. you can’t help but think of yours.

you’re hoping to plan a day where your family comes down here though. it’s been in the works. so far it’s just been facetimes when everyone’s free but seeing them would feel so nice. they would love a place like this too, you’re sure of.

rafe has bitten down on his straw but he’s looking forward around the area as the two of you walk. “i spy with my little eye . . .” he trails off, and before he continues, you erupt in a laugh. “something green.”

your smile fades when he says this. that’s the worst color he could’ve picked for this game.

“oh, i wonder,” you say, sarcasm laced through your voice as you look around, pretending to think about it. “the grass. the trees. my drink.”

“you can’t go three times,” he tells you before you guess your fourth. you continue to walk beside him, taking in the fresh air. “it was your drink.”

“who could’ve guessed?”

“can you just shut up?”

soon it’s been an hour of roaming the city, with the both of you giggling and exploring your new home some more. you’re sitting on a park bench staring at the water when you and rafe walk all the way back to where you were before.

you’ve leaned your head against his shoulder as you chew on your straw, even though you’ve already finished your drink.

“did you and enzo meet just from being roommates?” you ask him after a bit of silence, and you lay your head on him a different way to look at him a bit. or try to. all you can see is his jaw and cheek. “is that how you met lara?”

he thinks about it for a moment. “yeah that’s how we met. i didn’t even wanna have a roommate but you know . . . and enzo’s a great guy. he’s never really left my side even when i told him to go away. he met lara at some party in august or something.”

���that’s cute,” you mumble, lowering your head to position it where it was before, and you stare at the water. “they’re really cute. when i met enzo it was like i couldn’t even tell he had a girl like that. but when i met lara for the first time it all just made sense.”

“they’re each others best friends,” he confirms, and it brings a smile on your face as you pull your straw away and gaze down at it. “do you miss home?”

“like every day,” you answer honestly. “every second of every hour of every day, probably ‘til i graduate and probably ‘til i die.”

“you’re not moving back home after college?” rafe asks you, and you shrug.

“was never really in my books to go back home. after i committed to this university i just assumed i’d . . . i don’t know, find a home here,” you say. “your sisters were pretty cool though.”

“you’re too old to be sarah or wheezie’s friend,” rafe says with a light scoff.

you scoff back and sit up, looking at him. “you’re friends with people like topper,” you tell him since he can’t be the one to talk. “isn’t he sarah’s age?”

“please,” rafe mutters as he averts his gaze elsewhere, “he was always just trying to get in my good graces ‘cause he likes her. or loves her. whatever.”

“they’re dating now, no?”

“before,” he says. “think she’s with that pogue now. john b.”

“pogue,” you repeat, scrunching your nose. “you can’t use that word anymore. we aren’t back home.”

“it describes him perfectly,” he says in an ‘as a matter of fact’ tone, before murmuring under his breath, “among other things.”

“they’re just kids. leave them be,” you say, and you lay back down to lean your head on his shoulder again, getting comfortable. “i’m really glad you got accepted into the same college as me, rafe.”

these words come in just a bit above a whisper, though he hears you perfectly, and it comes to a bit of a shock for him. he looks down at you quietly, before carefully moving his arm that has been resting on top of the bench to pull you in for a hug.

“me too,” he mumbles.

you get up again and lock eyes with the boy immediately. you can see him underneath the lamp post lights perfectly, just at the right darkness but just at the right brightness.

your gaze flickers down to his lips and back up to his eyes. out of impulse, you consider what feels like the craziest decision to make in that moment and lean in, but what surprises you is rafe takes advantage of the opportunity.

his hand comes up to hold the side of your face as he pulls you in, and your lips press together. it’s not a soft kiss, it’s not a gentle kiss. it’s a desperate, hungry kiss filled with all the emotions he’s been holding back.

you’re kissing like you’ve been starved of oxygen and the other is the only one who can provide it. his lips move urgently against yours, his arms wrapping around your waist to pull you closer. he doesn’t care about anything else in the world at this moment, just you and this kiss.

when rafe pulls his head back to see your eyes, he feels like he fucked up. he stares right at you, and your thoughts seem to be going behind his eyes. he starts to pull away, about to apologize, “fuck, sorry y/n, i didn’t—”

“just shut up,” you murmur before grabbing his collar and pulling him back in for another kiss. he moans softly when you do, his hands gripping your waist tighter. he loves the feeling of your lips against his, it’s almost unbearable.

his second kiss is just as desperate as the first, but this time he tries to slow it down a bit. he breaks the kiss to catch his breath, his forehead pressed against yours as he looks into your eyes. “y/n . . .” he begins, his voice shaky. “you have no idea long how i’ve been wanting to do that.”

“kept me waiting long enough,” you say as you stare deep into his eyes with a soft smile, and rafe shakes his head as he grabs your jaw and guides you to his lips again.

@svnsetcrve @sublimepenguinpeach-blog @lalalalala33 @darkcolorexpert @babyflockaaaa @lifeofleasaasa @ilyrafe @mkiverd @wxn-drlst @maybankslover @wearemadeofstardust0 @thepopcultureaddict @mounthings @mfcouture @ijustwanttoreadlols @karmasloverrr @lilithblackkk @drewsdirtyslut @rafesno1bae

[accountingacademic]

Leaving Off On A Good Note

Daily Reflection Sunday, 22 October 2023

"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." - Paul J. Meyer

Things I'm Grateful For:

Past me making an effort to stay a bit ahead on assignments, so I have space to breathe when things get a bit busy.

Highlights:

Finished slides for a presentation for my Communications course. I've been working on those slides on and off for the last week, and I'm glad to finally have them to a point I'm happy with. My presentation slot is on 1 November, but I'm doing a run-through at a public speaking club I joined (Toastmasters-adjacent), as we already got permission to use presentations we had to do for class. I'm out of practice, and the feedback would be welcome.

Challenges:

Posting this, ironically enough. I had the tab open most of the day to fill it out as I went but had closed it for my D&D game to minimize the clutter, and completely forgot about it by the time I went to bed.

Emotions:

I was a bit frustrated with my parents when I spent time doing housework. It often feels like I'm the only one doing anything around the house most of the time, and unfortunately, I'm stuck with this because no number of discussions with them will get them to do anything else.

Tomorrow's To-Do List:

Leave early to hit the gym when it opens; worry about showering after my workout.

[threebooksoneplot]

🎧 Spotify Questions 📻

One of our features we’ve had loads of fun with this season was the ability to ask you all questions after each episode. For next season we’ll be sure to bring these questions to Tumblr, too. For now, let’s look back on some of the questions we asked, and the absolutely hysterical replies you gave.

This is just a small portion of the hilarious answers that we received. You can go browse through the app and see all the responses we loved and have made available for public viewing. (Honorable mentions to everyone who gave 100% serious replies. You’re a vital member of our ecosystem here, and we cherish you.)

Note: This question, from episode 3, was our most answered question with nine responses. (You horny little Carlisle stans really had some stuff to say.) Six of you wanted to be stitched up, three of you wanted that ER experience, and Becca summed it up here:

(See our other favorites under the cut!)

Note: Unfortunately none of the immensely funny replies we received were as funny as the reality of ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ (1992) ft. Susan Sarandon. But these two made us laugh very hard:

Note: The amount of you in agreement that Edward ‘hurks’/‘vomits’ it up periodically only to eat it again is phenomenal. (Swallowing and reflux truly is for boys.) This one really hit the nail on the head here:

Note: Shannon‘s invitation for you SoCal people to come to emo nite la with her is 100% genuine.

Note: This was one of the questions where every single reply was hilarious. You guys really understood the assignment on this one. And these two were top of the class:

Note: Another question with nothing but winners in the answers you all provided. Nothing we wouldn’t expect from a Life and Death-centric question. (Seriously, make sure you go look.)

Note: A lot of great replies on this too, but this reply is just so straight-to-the point and specific that it makes me laugh even now:

That wraps it up! Remember to follow us on Spotify so that you can participate in both past and future polls and questions! And if you have an opinion on any of these questions, or any that we didn’t post here, tell us your thoughts now! It’s never too late to state your case on which Carlisle is hotter.