#or write a statement of purpose

[brave-of-worms]

I haaaaaaate job interviews

[agentlove]

something i've always loved about tma is its massive potential for someone to get attached to literally any random character and get something substantial out of it. tma fans reblog and tag with your favorite one-off/statement characters! i like seeing peoples' obscure faves and love for characters others forget exist.

graham folger's an easy pull for me but i do like him a lot, i think about all the not!them victims in general a good amount. if i had to pick someone else it would be justin gough!

[smartzelda]

Sorry guys I gotta speak my truth on this one

I'm not kidding when I say that I think that blaming shit media literacy from fans on shipping/shippers avoids the actual root of the problem to throw people you can easily throw under the bus (simply because it's not unpopular to consider people who post about ships or ship characters in media as having lesser or derivative tastes by default)

And here's why.

I think when you blame people who are "shippers" or "consume media through shipping lenses", the true root of it all is a mindset problem.

In actually, putting on shipping lenses can be helpful when trying to analyze a piece of media. When analyzing media you're supposed to approach it through a number of mindsets and put on different lenses (both to deepen your personal understanding of the media, and to pick it apart and see what you can find there (whether intentional or not on the author's part)), and different ships can be some of those lenses

When it comes to ships between main characters (for those who are genuinely willing to see what the narrative is showing with their relationship and what it's doing), there are times when analyzing it from a shipping lens may be helpful. As someone from KH fandom, I have seen people come to deeper understandings and pick canon apart in the process of analyzing a relationship that is genuinely integral to the story (platonic or not). I've also seen people get into rarepairs of characters who barely interact or who just suffer little screen time, and I've seen them come to better understandings of those side characters and how they potentially fit into the world of the media simply because people are now focusing on these characters and how they fit into the narrative.

Frankly, I resent the idea that the only way to truly objectively analyze a piece of media is by turning off the part of your brain that gets excited over relationships and individual characters. Don't get me wrong, that is a way to approach a piece of media and a valid one at that, but the truth is that we cannot be free of bias.

For instance, I was watching House MD with my parents circa last year. At some point I started heavily tuning into what was going on with House and Wilson's relationship. My parents, on the other hand, were largely watching casually. They're not thinking of character relationships or getting heavily invested in most characters, they're watching because they like watching. One of them in particular did try to analyze things that were happening in the show as they happened. However, when it came to the scene late in the series where House threw out Dominika's letter approving her American citizenship, my parents could understand that he was doing that because he didn't want her to leave, but not much beyond that. I ended up explaining to them that House's fake marriage for Dominika was an explicit parallel to when Wilson was living with House in the early seasons. Both situations started with House being none too happy about it but ultimately letting them stay, spending a considerable amount of effort getting them to leave/getting this situation to be finally over so he didn't have to deal with it anymore, and then by the time a piece of news comes through that would mean the person in question actually leaves, House hides this news as long as he can. Because he doesn't actually want them to leave and has grown attached. And by doing this he became a self fulfilling prophecy. By reacting to the truth of Wilson and Dominika leaving him the way he does, he seals his fate and they ultimately leave anyways. Maybe I ship Hilson, but becoming open to how their relationship was handled allowed me to transition to doing character studies and recognizing patterns/parallels that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't particularly care about the characters or their relationship.

Likewise, I've seen mutuals complain about how people who don't like or don't care about certain characters often overlook these characters (what they're actually like and their place in the narrative), while the mutuals in question (by default) are able to come to deeper understanding of what the writers/story is trying to do because they care about this funky guy

You can't eradicate bias when you're engaging in media analysis, but you can consciously put on a range of lenses and observe the media through different povs with the goal of understanding the media better or bolstering your reading of it. And those lenses/povs can include focusing on specific relationships or the perpective of certain characters

And this is why I say it's actually a mindset problem. Shippers and people who have this one blorbo they like a lot aren't inherently terrible "fandom brained individuals" who are the root of media analysis problems. The problem only arises when people's readings/analysis of a piece of media are inherently restrictive/narrow and self centered. Your problem is with people who view a piece of media through a ship they like but don't keep an open mind about it, and whose "media analysis"/views on canon cannot be split from fanon and their comfortability levels. These are the people whose "media analysis" starts and ends with justifying their fanon as canon, whose views on media revolve around sorting characters and relationships into categories they personally enjoy rather than trying to understand what's going on.

Here's another example.

Here we have a fictional ship we'll call uhhhh...Blanebin. this fictional ship I made up on the spot for characters that don't exist named Blane and Corbin

Person A is super into Blanebin. They're part of the main cast of characters and canonically childhood best friends, so person A (as much as they enjoy fanart and fic) is also enjoying analyzing how narratively important to each other they are. Recently, Corbin started dating another character in canon, but Person A is enjoying watching how Blane is reacting to this. "Is this potentially a tell that Blane is jealous or is having complicated feelings about this? What if he was, how would that contextualize his behavior this season? Here's what I think based on how Blane dealt with explicit jealousy last season in a different situation". It's not impossible that person A is still missing further understanding due to their obsession with Blanebin, but at the end of the day this obsession has allowed them to start picking through the characters both in and outside this relationship. It has allowed them to see potential subtext and theorize on what might happen next with these characters' relationship. Not to mention that with addition of Corbin dating someone else, instead of trying to erase this fact or state that Corbin canonically isn't into that person, Person A is trying to factor in how Corbin's current dating life affects his relationship with Blane (irregardless on personal views on the nature of Corbin's relationship with the person he's dating).

Person B is also super into Blanebin. They really enjoy fanart and fic of the characters, love obsessing over their moments together, and just feel like there's really something between the characters. To person B, every moment between them is just further proof that the writers are ship teasing them. But Corbin getting together with someone else this season? Oh that pissed person B off. They cannot believe that even though Corbin and Blane are CLEARLY gay for each other the writers had Corbin get with someone else this season. Perhaps, they think, it was even a decision specifically made to spite fans. How evil of the writers to tease a perfectly good ship and then have them not get together first? They must have been just doing those teases to get views from Blanebin shippers those scoundrels. To Person B, since Corbin started dating someone when he obviously has some chemistry with Blane (even though the series is far from over) means that Blanebin can never get together now and Corbin x person he's dating is ruining Blanebin by existing. In fact, they think, this is terrible writing for Corbin to be dating someone else because they don't like that relationship and don't see the point. Obviously if the writers were good then Corbin would have started dating Blane instead because this was supposed to be the Blanebin show.

Person C despises Blanebin. Don't get them wrong, they've always enjoyed the character's childhood friendship, but they actually have always thought Blane would have been better off with Victoria. They have a lot of moments too! But they're tired of seeing people ship Blanebin. Corbin just got together with someone else, so obviously that's not gonna work out. Plus Corbin and Blane totally has always given person C bro vibes. In fact, person C thinks, sure Corbin and Blane have a close friendship, but people shouldn't be shipping them. Person C likes Blanetoria and Blanetoria can't be canon if Corbin is in the way of it. So Person C likes to read Blanebin as siblings anyways. Sure they're canonically friends, but obviously their friendship turned into brotherhood. This means that nothing can be in the way of Blanetoria and Corbin can keep dating the person he's already canonically dating. Actually, now Blanebin just straight up makes Person C uncomfortable. Don't the pesky shippers understand that Blanebin are sibling coded because they're childhood best friends and that they're important to each other because they're brothers? It's obvious to anyone with eyes.

Sure, ships are involved here, but is the root of this problem shipping? Character A isn't as knowledgeable of other characters in the plot due to this lens they're using, but at the end of the day they're dedicated to analysis. Their love of the characters is pushing them beyond what they like or dislike to try to understand what might be happening through their lens. Not perfect, but they are slowly broadening their horizons. But Person B and C's problems here are their restrictiveness. What is or should be canon to them is tantamount to what they personally like or find comfortable. Is person C actually analyzing the this fake show when they decide to "read" Blanebin as basically canonically siblings (and this all of their moments are totally a bro thing) just because they don't like Blanebin and the idea of them getting together over Blanetoria makes them uncomfortable? Is person B actually analyzing this fake show when their "analysis" of Blanebin goes only as far as asserting it's being ship teased and deciding anything short of canonizing Blanebin is a targeted attack or "bad writing" because it's not what they wanted personally to happen?

This is what I'm talking about. This is the mindset. Shipping isn't the problem. The problem is when people marry fanon and canon to the point where they have a vested interest in superimposing their fanon over canon as "a reading" and trying to make "collective decisions" on what is canon (or what canon is trying to say) based on what does or doesn't make them uncomfortable. The problem is people being restrictive and centering their own likes and dislikes in the conversation, so they can only interact with canon "analysis" wise by deciding what is canon or should be canon "as obviously agreed on by everyone". You can't simply claim you like media analysis. To be able to analyze media and bolster your views on any given canon, you must be open to looking at it through multiple povs, to studying characters without trying to pretend things you don't like don't exist or do like do exist. There is a balance that must be kept between trying to keep objectivity and putting on specific focus/bias based upon the lenses you're putting on. You have to be willing to try to figure out what a media is doing or saying, not saying you're trying to figure out what it's saying while in actuality trying to define the narrative around what people believe it's saying in ways that suit you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[regular-tetraheathen-blog]

So im deep in the weeks of graduate school applications now and where better to go for help than strangers on the internet. I'm applying to math PhD programs and am seeking advice.

What should I focus on in my statement of purpose? I've gotten conflicting answers. Some people say focus on research, some people say focus on teaching. In my mind my purpose is so clear: go to grad school, learn "the ways," and become a math professor.

[amoremagnificentbastard]

Unfortunately, your girl has to take a break from fun writing in order to do some not-so-fun writing instead.

Hopefully that muck will be done by Tuesday and we can go back to my irregularly scheduled yelling and horny posting.

[cn-alastair-lite]

the worst, but also the funniest thing they'll make you do in archival-raport writing jobs, is to describe absolutely diabolical things that happened during meetings using the nicest words possible

[martyrbat]

a female character isn't allowed to be a character that is also female. she isn't allowed her own agency and complex motives nor any deeper emotions without it being centered around the male cast around her or a child. even if she's not a mother, she remains one because she could always potentially become a mother or she is the ‘mom character’ to the men/children around her and her actions MUST reflect that. if they don't, she's labeled a selfish bitch. if she is an (actual) mother than that's all she is—she isnt allowed deeper characterization or discussion because thats all she'll ever be, that's all she was made to be. male characters are allowed to be fathers (lireral or in the sense of providing for the people around them) with deeper feelings but a mother? never a mother.

[thebellekeys]

Sharing the Personal Statement that got me into my master’s at Oxford

This is a copy of the Personal Statement I submitted to get into my master’s at the University of Oxford in England. Yes, I got accepted into my dream master’s programme and preferred college at Oxford. No, I will not be attending Oxford in the fall despite receiving an offer for a variety of financial reasons. I recently took up a funded master’s offer elsewhere.

I’m sharing my Personal Statement as a sample for any of you younglings hoping to study at Oxford if you want an idea of what they may be looking for in the Humanities Division for graduate admission. Online resources were a great free help for me during my own application process. Do not plagiarize my shit—they’ll know. Shout out to @amchara for giving me feedback on this document during my writing process!

[dwellsinthebog]

Also not necessarily a question sorry, but speaking of ur art I want you to know I often think about your art of kyo and akaza post canon with other characters’ kids and it makes me so insane in the best way I have so many thoughts on akaza esp interacting with kids and I just really love that art and if u have any more thoughts on that I’d love to hear them :3

YESSSS i love post-canon renkaza with children!! i think they'd be the Uncles Of All Time <3

Something I haven't really gotten a chance to explore in any of my fics yet is how Renkaza feel about children, having children, building a family, and whatnot, but before all that here's the part where I do the obligatory:

YES, I don't think children are necessary to build a family, and YES, I don't think people need to have children to find fulfillment in life, and YES, people choosing not to have children does not devalue their relationships even though society has conditioned us to think of successful relationships as culminating in the contribution of children

All that being said, I personally think both Kyojuro and Akaza might in some way like the concept of having children without any actual intent to fulfill that desire.

I think for Kyojuro it would be more so a matter of expectation bleeding into personal aspiration. He grew up expecting to have children someday, probably sooner in life than other people his age, simply because it's kind of his duty to do so as the first son of his household. I don't think he necessarily feels all that burdened by this expectation because he's Kyojuro, and all his life he's shouldered the burden of his legacy with no problem, because he must. The fact that he's gay (the way I write him the vast majority of the time) doesn't really factor into the equation because he's committed to getting married to a woman anyway and either a) keeping his sexuality to himself or b) doing a lavender marriage type thing.

I do think the idea of being a father would bring him trepidation---and note the key distinction I make here between him having children and being a father.

Kyojuro's great with children! He loves them! He really looks forward to seeing his friends' kids, and he definitely feels a pang of heartache when he has to leave them! But also, being a father? Fucking terrifies him. He is so painfully aware of all the different ways he can permanently fuck up a child because he was that permanently fucked up child, and the fear of becoming a father like his own father, however irrational, haunts him.

So yeah, I think Kyojuro has a complicated relationship with fatherhood. I also think that in a Renkaza situation, he would almost be relieved to have like...an excuse to not have kids? If his partner is a literal demon, there's quite literally no situation where he would find it appropriate to raise a child in the same house as a man who is more or less constantly craving human flesh. So no adoption, no temporary custody, no accidental child acquisition for Renkaza.

I think with Akaza it's a little simpler because I don't think he ever really considers the idea of fatherhood at all. He, too, probably has a complicated relationship with the concept of parenthood in general because of how he lost both of his parents as well as Keizo, but the time and distance from "Hakuji," the person he used to be, afforded to him by his demonhood, dulls those thoughts and feelings. They feel like they belong to someone else.

It probably isn't until some sort of post-canon Renkaza situation where he even considers the idea of kids and family again because, well, he's made it out now, right? What's he supposed to do? Everyone around him is moving on in their own way, and for most of them that way is getting married and having babies. But he's a demon, and he's with a man, and so that's at least two reasons why he can't do that. Nevertheless, the life that he sees the people around him living is a life that he came so, so close to living himself. That should have been him, if Koyuki and Keizo hadn't died, and everything that happened afterward hadn't happened.

IDK I have lots of thoughts about this. I think Akaza and Kyojuro both think a lot about this too, especially as their acquaintances and friends (Kyojuro's friends, rather---and that's another thing to think about, the fact that Akaza is really, really alone post-canon and he doesn't have anyone to call family except Kyojuro) get married and start families and such.

ANYWAY ONTO HAPPIER THINGS

I think Kyojuro and Akaza would be great uncles. Kyojuro would make a point to be actively involved in the lives of his friends and their families maybe just because he doesn't want them all to drift apart, and unfortunately a lot of people do drift apart when they start families of their own.

I think Kyojuro's probably a pretty frequent visitor to the Uzuis' place? And at some point Tengen or one of the wives would probably very gently remind him that he's welcome to bring Akaza too, if he wants to, because he kind of looks pitifully lonely just visiting their bigass house with their bigass family all by himself. And then Kyojuro would probably bring Akaza around some evening, and it would be very weird and tense at first, and then as the visits continue happening it would be less weird and tense. Also, Akaza's great with the kids because they have boundless energy and so does he! Something similar probably happens with the Kamaboko squad and their families too.

From Akaza's perspective, he's probably just reluctantly tagging along at first (to the places where he is welcome...) but he find himself pleasantly surprised by the fact that he actually enjoys hanging around these people and their kids. He especially really likes kids; he likes knowing that he can choose to be gentle and kind even after....you know, everything. Also, he doesn't care when kids ask him weird or invasive questions because he'd much rather have that than people tip-toeing on eggshells around him all the time.

I could continue this post by talking about how Renkaza might interact with Senjuro's family, but I think I'll stop here because this is uhhhh 1,015 words long

[bananasofthorns]

finished my essay about Marsha, Thankk You i need to go insane about Suburbia Overture next. my god

[ask-moonbig]

altered how? and what other grians? i- can i request you submit a statment? im so confused??

and what is redstone? i think i hard etho say he had it once... didnt it put him in the hosbital?

-@archivist-of-the-void-institute

(ooc, if youd actulay like to give me a statment to either voice as grian or have you voice lmk, i do not mind writing one either :DDD (id just need your...lore) )

Those eyes that float around you all of the time! He doesn't have those. I don't know if there are any other versions of Grian but I know you and him are different.

...

Ive heard of redstone poisoning before, but never injuring someone that much! Redstone is an ore that can be used to make machines. I've heard of it making artifical intelligences and such. My mooner Mumbo is one of the masters of it. He can make amazing creations.

[moonstandardtime]

plans for today got canceled and nothing is permanent. i am always going to be left floundering. something pretty and poetic, or silly maybe. what if i ripped out the stupid pipes from the stupid floor of the stupid second floor bathroom in my house that i feel empathy for and i took those stupid rusty leaking pipes and used them for seppuku in front of my landlords house

[fishparasite]

either that revealed nothing about me or it revealed a lot. anyway

[apocalypticdemon]

i CANNOT wait for this semester to be over. 23 hours remain. God.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

nah but like

they're "seiros lapdogs" because they're fighting back against the people who attacked them completely unprovoked??? also because it so happens that thales is at garreg mach so they have to go there to reclaim the area to defeat him???

i just hate this because it's just perpetuating things about faerghus and its people that just aren't true. it frames it like they jumped into the war willingly for the church and that they're only here for the church. like nah buddy, it's not faerghus' fault you're out here fighting to protect thales and ludwig.

it also is batshit to me how he and leopold are fighting to stop faerghus from advancing but like... they know what's happening to the empire and that edelgard isn't even calling the shots anymore, yet they still stupidly fight for the very person who is literally razing their country and burning their villages. they know the empire is in shambles and that the kingdom isn't targeting them and is specifically aiming for gm to get it back from who? thales; who, mind, at this point is in his real form and not posing as arundel anymore. everything is laid out plainly, but they still act like faerghus is the bad guy.

but yeah, okay. faerghus BaD for defending themselves, fighting back, finding out who is behind all the puppeteering and heading to take him out. sure, that makes them seiros lapdogs. like what are you, an agarthan mouthpiece??? may as well be like yeah you go retreat and leave you agarthan lapdog. if they don't realize it's Someone Else in charge of course, then ludwig lapdog works fine too.

and it sucks because other than this shit, i like waldemar just fine as a character. it's just like, it feels like they forced someone to have to stick in that final faerghus BaD insult before the grand finale so they just randomly picked someone to remind us that faerghus is Always Wrong as long as they continue to fight back and prevent being attacked in the future.

waldemar here is just basically ag caspar. fighting and risking his life for thales, who is destroying the empire and basically holding the emperor hostage. if the writing here had any decent plot points, they would've all stopped and have been like hey wait, shouldn't we be fighting to get our emperor back? why are we stopping these guys from killing the people who are destroying this country?

and like, they literally went from siding with ludwig during the insurrection to siding with edelgard in this timeline to... jumping immediately back to ludwig as soon as he was at the top of the food chain (thales notwithstanding). as soon as the person in charge changes, they jump ship immediately; then of course get mad that the people they attacked are coming after them... and fighting them as they defend the very people who are letting adrestia become a literal, physical ruin.

it really just tells me that these people don't care about adrestia itself, but status, power and wealth. they don't care about the country itself as long as they're doing well. that's like, the only thing i can get from still fighting with/for ludwig/thales. the fact that they just fight for ludwig again as soon as edelgard is out of commission is also pretty gross to me. they have no loyalty at all.

and it's like, i want to like waldermar and leopold, but they come across as just selfish, entitled and only there for their own asses to be covered. and i get that - that is a realistic take on politicians, but the fact that the game regularly loops back around to faerghus BaD despite that and despite portraying these people as opportunistically selfish is like... what are they even trying to write??

[vashti-lives]

At the end of last week my boss’ kid came down with pink eye and had to stay home from school. My boss mostly worked from home that day but he did have to come in briefly so the kiddo came with, and I ended up babysitting him for like thirty minutes. It was fine, there’s plenty in here to amuse a mild mannered 7 year old for thirty minutes. He obviously liked playing with all my clayfellows, particularly once he discovered my postage scale, weighing things is apparently very fun— but the other big hit was my three hole punch.

He filled a scrap piece of paper with holes and was very disappointed to be pulled away from his project. He dad didn’t want to take it home but I told him I would treat it as art and not trash if he wrote me an artists statement to hang next to it.

Today his dad told me he had L’s artists statement and that he tried to explain to L that it wasn’t what I meant but L insisted this is EXACTLY what I meant and definitely what I wanted.

Then my boss handed me a purple post-it which reads “Artists Statement [Name]”

I fucking cackled and now it hangs in pride of place on my filing cabinet next to a water bill full of holes.