#saw another post referring to recent discussion in a way thats making me think there’s a club im not invited to

[mcybree]

man im starting to think people are out there toxic fh truthing without me

[snailsnfriends]

The Importance of Word Choice and the Dream SMP

Recently, I saw a tweet that gained my interest about c!Tommy and c!Dream’s relationship and the replies got me thinking about something that I’ve taken notice of on here and on Twitter. This thing was the importance of word choice. Here’s the tweet I was talking about, which can be found here if you would like to see it and the replies for yourself.

Now, whether or not you personally agree with this take is irrelevant to the points I’m going to make, but it’s here for reference. Let’s begin!

The importance of word choice

As we are all aware, the Dream SMP is not real. It is all written and acted out. Everyone is part of a planned narrative, and none of the characters of the SMP are real, however, like other pieces of media, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t realistic elements to the SMP, just like any other piece of media you’ve ever consumed. In this case, it just so happens that the realistic elements of the SMP are mental illness and abuse. 

So, why is word choice important here? Let’s do an exercise to help show the importance of word choice and what it may imply. Every time “c!Tommy” or “Tommy” is written here, replace it in your head with “the victim.” Do the same for Dream, but instead replace it with “the abuser.” We’ll also replace “exile” with “abuse.” Let’s start with this reply:

If we replace the words, here’s how this tweet would read: “i mean i agree with you but i also think some people need to realize that the victim kept provoking the abuser. they were both awful to each other and i think thats the whole problem” Let’s do it again with another example:

If we replace the words, here’s how this tweet would read: “the day when people realize that the abuser was willing to compromise and the only reason why the victim was even abused was bc he couldn’t keep his mouth shut is the day i finally feel peace” Let’s do it one more time:

If we replace the words, here’s how this tweet would read: “You do realize that the victim was given several chances and was originally just going to be put on probation but he fucked up that chance lmfao / i’m not saying he didn’t go through shit in abuse, blah blah blah but he was given chances and he decided to make shit worse for himself”

“Okay, sure, cool, but why does this matter? It’s just a Minecraft roleplay. You changed the words!”

But now that the words have been swapped, you can understand how poorly these takes are worded. When these character names are put into their relationship contexts, things become obvious. Instead of these being “c!Dream apologist hot takes,” they very clearly become victim blaming and abuse justification posts, stating that the victim had it coming. That they were given chances. That they deserved it. That they made it worse for themselves. I don't think I need to explain how horrible these statements are for you to understand the problem.

This is just a Minecraft roleplay, and this is just a story, but all stories have realistic elements, and when these realistic elements are mental illness and abuse, word choice is very important, because these things are real. There are real people who go through mental illness and abuse, and when c!Dream’s abusive tendencies and c!Tommy’s victimhood and trauma responses are textbook examples, you need to be very careful when discussing them, because they are bound to be relatable and they'll hit home for many people.

“Well, why do I need to be careful? Why does it matter?”

You need to be careful, because, as I said earlier, these things are real. There are real-life abuse victims who will see these responses. There are real-life people who relate to c!Tommy’s response to trauma. They will see people who are so willing to excuse or diminish abuse, and if they’re so willing to defend abusive fictional characters, how willing will they be to defend real ones? How susceptible are these people to abuse if they can’t make out the clear signs of it? Have they gaslighted others? Have they gaslighted themselves? How does this show their implicit biases? What message is this trying to send? What real-life implications do these posts have?

Everything you have ever read has been written that way for a reason. Every historical document, every textbook, every speech, every monologue, every piece of dialogue, every descriptive paragraph in a book, every news article, everything. This is exactly why word choice is important, because it implies intent and gives the text impact. You send a message through your words, so they are never empty. Whether it’s discussing the Dream SMP characters or listening to a president’s speech or reading a textbook given to you by your school, you should always try to be aware of what words are being used, why they’re being used, what emotion they’re trying to invoke in the reader, what message is trying to be conveyed, and what the words being used imply about the speaker or narrator. The entire beginning of one of the first big Dream SMP conflicts relied on words being used for battle instead of weapons because of their importance.

And with that, I’ll leave you with this:

“We don’t win wars with battles and with armour. We win wars with our words, Tommy. We’re starting a revolution, not a war.” - (Wilbur’s The Wall: 4:54, 29th July). 

Word choice is important. Always think critically about the message you’re sending with your words. They have an impact, and they matter. 

[roskimag]

I Pinned You From Across the Zoom

By Tori Frank

When you have them pinned, that’s how you know it’s real. The anonymous owners of @usc.missedconnections on Instagram discussed zoom romance and the seductive mystery of having an admirer behind the screen.

Imagine Gossip Girl, but make it all horny college students deprived of casual touch. That is the drama of @usc.missedconnections. If you don’t avidly stalk their account, you either have an unheard of self-confidence that doesn’t require any external validation, you deleted your Instagram in a fit of quarantine frenzy, or you haven’t heard of them yet, and you’re very curious about the previously stated analogy.

See the bio of the @usc.missedconnections page: “Have a message for the person whose zoom you always pin or saw from 6 ft away? Anonymously send your missed connection below!” Below sits the google form where all the virtual action happens: the flirts, the cat calls, the compliments, and the subtle roasts. It really is a good time, somewhat making up for the lack of classroom banter that would normally occur.

I sat down with the students who began the account, and we chatted about the new sensation that is dominating everyone’s feed.

Tori: My roommates and I have been following your page pretty actively, as I think a lot of people have been recently.

@usc.missedconnections just surpassed 3000 followers in the few months since their origin on September 30th, 2020

T: It’s definitely very entertaining, especially with Zoom making everything a little bit more boring and separated. It’s been really fun to follow @usc.missedconnections and see what’s the tea! To begin, how did you come up with the idea of creating this account?

Connector 1: I was between USC and another school out on the East coast. Some good friends that I went out and visited there showed me the [Instagram] page at that school, and I was like, “Hey that's a cool idea, that looks like a lot of fun.’ I texted _(Connector 2)_. I was like, “Hey here’s some dumb idea, we’ll get 50 people, we’ll get 2 responses a day. It will be kind of fun to just post them,” and we just grew from there.

T: So how many posts do you guys get a day now?

Connector 2: It’s actually ticked up a lot in what, the past like 2 weeks-ish? For a long time we had a solid 100 just in the bank, and then we slowly [opened them], but it's been 200 plus starting just recently, which is weird. We started posting more frequently to catch up.

Connector 1: Yeah I presume we get about 30-ish on average a day.

Are you intrigued yet? About 30 lucky students across the online campus are being called out for some reason another, be it their sexy voice, their mustache, their wall decorations, or the way they eat their oranges. And on the flip side, about 30 people a day are shooting their anonymous shot through the account. With anonymity of course comes a certain audacity to get real freaky over the submission form. I wondered how freaky it could get.

T: Do you post all of the ones that come, or is there some sort of filtering process?

Connector 1: We’ve had a couple instances where people have been mentioned or certain organizations that have been mentioned have requested for us to take the post down, so we’ve always just respected that if we’re ever asked to take the post down for whatever reason.

Connector 2: I periodically will go through, and I’ll be like, “This one’s weird, I don't think we need to post that,” and then I'll delete it.

_(connector 1)_ idk if you know that I do that, but um…

Connector 1: Oh probably. I mean, I’ve deleted one before.

Connector 2: Yeah, when I’m doing them sometimes I’ll be like ‘this is a little weird how can we phrase this in a way that's not exactly… yeah.

T: Yeah, what’s like the line? Because I think a lot of the time some of the things can be kind of… creepy… I mean the whole thing is like…

Connector 1: (cuts in, chuckling) Kinda creepy 

T: (agreeing) Kinda creepy, right!

There have been submissions such as:

“To ____, Did you know if you rearrange the letters of Coronavirus you get “carnivorous”? Which makes sense because I want to spend the next 14 days of quarantine eating you”

and

“____ in BUAD 497, my only motivation for coming to class is being able to pin your video and look at your beautiful face for two hours”

Connector 1: It’s interesting, um, when we first started it, we talked, and the thing we were worried most about was like cyber bullying, and I personally haven't seen many posts. You get the offhand sarcastic comments, um, which are pretty funny sometimes, but I don’t know if we... we don't really have a set filter. If we feel like something’s over the bar, then we’ll kinda edit it out. Of course a lot of the time too if we’re iffy on something we’ll text the other person and be like ‘hey what do you think of this’ so, it's no distinct line, but our goal is never to make anyone uncomfortable.

T: Yeah, I think generally it's been pretty positive, a lot of affirming things. Even sometimes not romantic, like just positive comments which is pretty cool, and it's good to see that that's been going on. 

Aw so sweet, fellow Trojans getting along so well. But this is a juicy topic. Playing the role as the reporter, I had to get the inside scoop.

T: Do you ever get messages about yourself?

Connector 1: I’ve had 2

Connecter 2: Yeah he’s had 2, I haven’t had any and I’m mad about it. I want one

Connector 1: I gave you one

Connector 2: You gave me one but I knew it was from you so it didn’t mean anything.

T: So you’re not only the owners of the account. You’re sort of participating in the game as well.

Connector 1: Oh, it’s always a blast when like you’re reading through and you know the person who it's getting written about and you’re just waiting. Yeah, that’s like my favorite part of it, and also the guessing games sometimes are a lot of fun too.

Connector 2: For a long time people were scared to tag people that it was about in the comments, but now there’s no hesitation. People will just tag everyone, which I think is really fun.

Its also fun that we don’t give the full last name because then its kinda funny when you get a really generic “Sam B” or “Lucy J” and 6 different Lucy’s get tagged and half the time we know who it really is because we saw the last name and then edited it out.

T: Why don’t you include the full name?

Connector 2: I think it’s more fun. (shyly shrugs) It’s about keeping the mystery, you know? Who could it possibly be about? 

Connector 1: We do get a lot of requests though because of that, where people are like, “Hey, is this me? Can you tell me who sent this in?” and we're like “I don't know.”

Connector 2: Yeah people DM us every day asking for things, and also sometimes people don't understand that we have a forum in our bio and they send it in thru DM, their missed connections, which sort of ruins the anonymity and its sort of embarrassing for them bc we have to be like, “please submit it in our bio,” and they have to be like “oh god now they know”

T: It’s almost like a masquerade. 

Again, I am imagining Jenny Humphrey wearing her golden mask at the Constance Billard School for Girls Masquerade Ball, prancing around Nate Archibald without him having the faintest idea of who he will be kissing. Maybe this is a little different, but the spirit is there!

T: Looking through your posts of course, a lot of them are, “Oh, I have your screen pinned, I watch you all the time in class” Do you guys do that? Do you think that that's like, Zoom behavior now, or is that still cringe?

Connector 2: Idk if I’d pin for a whole class, but I’ve been known to take a look, and based on all the things we’ve gotten sent it I guess people do. If you’re in a lecture thats boring, fair enough. I can't fault you for that. It’s so weird right now, so who knows?

Connector 1: I think it's really fun also, like, people get really creative too. A lot of them are really general but we just posted one today that had a Kanye reference. We get poetry sometimes. I love the poets. It’s a lot of fun for us and I think other people get to read the more fun posts then, like “hey I saw you”, when saying “hey I saw you” does make it, I guess, easier to match, but it’s less exciting for everybody else

T: To match... going off of that, have you heard of any success stores?

Connector 2: I have not but I desperately want to know. I think if people get married we legally have to officiate the wedding. We’ll go public to officiate the wedding. We’ll break anonymity for that.

T: Do a little daft punk moment

Connector 1: Yeah exactly. The [ones] behind the mask.

T: Do you think you want to continue it next year or post COVID in general?

Connector 1: Yeah, I mean I want to.

They talked about potential future: color schemes, contemplating a purple theme or the classic USC colors. I can tell that the account is only growing from here. It’s not like there is any shortage of desperate college students!

T: That’s exciting. I’m excited to see where the account goes!

Connector 1: Us too

T: I’m also looking forward to hopefully getting a post about myself. I have not yet. I know you guys are hiding it

Connector 1: Oh yeah, well with the 200 post back log I’m sure it’ll come out soon...

[dxitydoo]

So... the iPhone SE...

Alright this one is gonna be a long one so scroll on past if you’re not interested. If you are, then buckle up because here’s a multi-part essay about my opinions on the new SE.

For anyone that saw my post about getting a new phone and wondered what phone I got, I got the new iPhone SE (yes, I’m an Apple person. Don’t come for me).

At first, I was seeing videos of people getting excited over the phone but now, as time has gone on, those same people are now making videos criticising the phone.

Admittedly, they have some good points to bring up. The battery of the new SE is not amazing. It doesn’t outlast my dad’s XR which is somewhat annoying to say the least.

My counter-argument to that is that it lasted a whole day of me playing games on full brightness in the sunlight and didn’t die on me once which is honestly incredible after the last phone i had but anywho we’ll discuss this later.

My problem with a lot of those videos is that I feel like they’re getting the wrong end of the stick about what the SE is trying to be and they’re comparing it to the wrong phones.

The Original SE

The original SE’s main selling point (seriously why did Apple name them like this this is confusing) was that it had the newer internals of the 6S (so the faster processor, the better camera, etc) in the smaller body of the older 5S.

That was why I, and a lot of others I’m sure, liked it. Because it was a newer phone but in a size I preferred.

It also didn’t break the bank.

The old SE was praised for combining new and old in a way that complimented the old form-factor and rejuvenated in while also allowing people to access the newer features that were coming out in updates. At the time of writing this (27/04/2020), the old SE still supports new iOS updates and runs iOS 13 with minimal hiccups (not counting the fact that iOS 13 isn’t the most bug-free of updates).

But now, in 2020, the new SE is released and people are criticising it for the same thing they praised it for back in the day. They’re complaining that it has Touch ID, that it doesn’t have a edge-to-edge display, that it’s small, that the battery isn’t good, that the camera doesn’t stack up.

Look.

Everyone is free to have their own opinion. If you don’t like the SE, that’s fine. You don’t have to. No one is forcing you to. Just keep scrolling coz I do like the SE and I’m about to defend it til I run out of breath.

The “Old” Body

The SE combines old and new. That’s it’s schtick, that’s its gimmick. It was the thing for the 2016 SE, its the same for the 2020 SE. Although I would’ve loved to see an SE with an edge-to-edge display like any of the X or the 11 range, I’m not super surprised it hasn’t happened.

In fact, the small changes they have made, such as all colours now coming with a black bevel (and the better colour matching between the bevel and the screen), make it look really high-quality and beautiful honestly.

It has the same body as the 6, yes, but it doesn’t look like the 6 because of that colour-matching. And I appreciate that.

Oh! And the back being the non-metallic colour? God that’s sexy. The back is more reminiscent of the 11 (or the XR, I suppose, depending on what colour you got) than the 6 or 7. So it’s not unchanged?

Touch ID and Haptic Touch

Again, a controversial topic. The Touch ID in the SE is like the 3rd Gen or something?? I don’t actually know. But it’s several generations in at this point and it shows.

I came from the original SE, which had one of the first ever generations of Touch ID (if not the first) and the speed with which this new phone unlocks is incredible compared to the older model.

I tap the button once and the phone unlocks instantly. That is it.

Maybe it’s cumbersome to have Touch ID back again after all this time but if you’ve come from a Touch ID phone, especially one of the older models (which really... I think that’s probably the intended audience), it’s a big improvement.

And look no further for someone who was viscerally against the fake button Haptic Touch thing.

I hated the idea of it. My view was I either wanted the real button or no button at all. Full stop. End of story. You’d never change my mind.

Yeah... the new SE changed my mind.

I have the haptics turned up to the highest setting and it actually feels like a real button. Its less spongy than a real button, of course, and feels stiffer (kinda? Maybe just shallower) but its actually a really satisfying feature.

I remember first trying the fake button on the 7 and it vibrated at the wrong time or you’d try to press it to do one thing and it’d do another. It was confusing and made it very difficult to use.

I will say now I haven’t actually tried using an 8 so I can’t pass judgement on that but i like the SE.

And the Haptic Touch is really really nice.

I never thought I’d have a phone that has built-in rumble when playing games but here we are. This is the future.

Aside from being kinda nifty to feel the vibration in your hands when something happens on-screen, the Haptic Touch vibrates under your finger when interacting with the rotating dials to set timers or reblogging posts on tumblr. It’s a weird experience but not an unpleasant one and I like it way more than I was expecting to.

The Small Size

As for the size?

I really like it.

It’s big enough that it feels like a step-up from my old phone but not so big that I’m struggling to hold it (*cough cough* the XR *cough cough*).

Okay so my touch-typing is suffering a wee bit at the moment but tbh I started to struggle on my old phone before I upgraded coz the screen was just a little too small so it’s more a me thing than an it thing. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The camera.

I feel the need to mention that my last phone was the 2016 SE so, maybe it’s because my standards are really low, or maybe I’ve never owned an 11 and, therefore, have no comparison for it that way? But I don’t think the camera is bad.

In fact, I would even go so far as to say the camera is really fricking good.

After using a phone with a front-facing camera that could barely shoot 480p, stepping up to 1080p on the front is Wild™. The difference between this new camera and the old one is incredible.

If you want a camera that shoots good quality photos, has good colour balance, can actually show the sky as blue when shooting through a window (yes this is how low my expectations are), then omg this phone is incredible.

Obviously, its never gonna beat the 11 with its two cameras and its not gonna be able to contend with the 11 Pro series with their three cameras but hey, the phone is like half the price so??

The Battery

Okay, so lets talk about the battery.

I know this is a bit of a sore spot with people because iPhones recently have been coming out with bigger and better batteries every year.

I did a quick check through and, according to Apple, the battery life is about the same as both the 7 and the 8, which makes sense as they all share the same body. Unfortunately, that means that its probably a size issue. As in, thats the longest a battery of that size can last in a phone. Which is kinda annoying.

But, this is a post about my experience with the SE and I haven’t ever owned a 7 or an 8. My mum owned a 7 and the battery on that was god-awful and I’ve had a much better experience with my SE than she did.

First of all: some context.

Again, a friendly reminder my last phone was a four year old SE. It was a 64GB one as well, so you know I’m being legit (they stopped selling the 64GB (in the UK at least) about a year after the phone’s initial release).

So the battery on my old phone was absolutely fine. At first. As time went on and the phone got older, it did, unfortunately, begin to struggle.

As a reference, a few months before I replaced it (given lockdown doesn’t give the most accurate overview of what it was like to use on a day-to-day basis), it wouldn’t make it through a day at school without dying at least once, sometimes twice.

I had to carry a portable charger with me everywhere I went.

I left my house when it was on 100% and, by the time I got to school after an hour on the bus, it would be on 60-70% on a good day.

Letting your battery die everyday is really not good for it but, try as I might, I couldn’t stop it from happening.

I tell you this to let you know that my criteria for a good battery is literally just “lasts me through the day”.

I’ve had my new phone for about three days now and it hasn’t died on me once.

I played games on it in bright sunlight with the phone on full brightness for several hours straight yesterday and yet it still lasted me through the day and then some. After being off charge for 11 hours, it just about hit 20% before I put it on charge.

Today, I was on social media: tumblr, instagram, youtube, for the majority of today. Both tumblr and instagram had an uncanny ability to completely decimate the battery life of my old phone. They could reduce it from 50% to 40% after 5 minutes. But, again, no problemo for my new phone.

It got to about 50% today before I put it back on charge to go have dinner.

I’d say that lasts through the day quite nicely.

Especially given it’s getting a lot more use than it would normally because a) I’m stuck inside with nothing to do and b) shiny new phone!!!

But I digress.

So, Why Does The SE Exist?

I’m gonna be real. I don’t think the iPhone SE (2020) is trying to be anything fancy. It’s not trying to be the next iPhone 11, it’s not trying to replace the XR. If anything, it’s replacing the 8.

I don’t think the SE is a bad phone. It does everything it says it does and it does it well.

I think the YouTube reviewers have it slightly wrong. I don’t think they should be comparing the SE to the 11 or the XR because, realistically, the people who own those phones aren’t gonna be buying the SE for themselves.

The people who are gonna be buying the SE are the people who have the 5s or the old SE or the 6s or even maybe the 7. (I’m not sure how noticeable the jump would be from 8 to SE, given they have very similar specs).

They’re the kind of people who want a new phone but don’t have the money to go for the more expensive XR or 11 range.

Or maybe they don’t want a giant phone because idk bout you but I have small hands and the XR is both large and heavy and that’s not practical. Plus, the XR with women’s jeans? Really? Not happening.

So, while I understand why reviewers are comparing the SE to the 11s or the XR—because the SE has the internals of those two and is closer to them in terms of release date—I don’t think it’s actually realistic.

TL;DR

YouTube reviewers are comparing the SE to the recent phones when they should be comparing it to the older ones, which is the more likely transition. The iPhone SE has a lot more going for it than people say and I really like it.

[tourist-of-the-stars]

connieswap au character analysis

DISCLAIMER: this may never see the light of day, i mentioned it to br42 and they said it would be a great idea, but what do we know?

anyone who has read connieswap knows that the story is totally different from the source material. sure the same events happen as those in the show, but the characters themselves react differently to those situations, which domino-effect into a completely different storyline. written below are just a few of the observations i have made about the characters and why they do the things that they do. 

Connie: Connie Maheswaran, daughter of the Crystal Gem leader Citrine and the human Dough Maheswaran is being raised by the three remaining Crystal Gems: Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper (not nessisarily in that order mind you) she is caught in a horrible ballance between trying to live up to the legacy of her dead mother and carving out a name for herself (thank god she goes to therapy in the story, lord knows she needs it) 

what i notice most about connie is how much she reflects what she has learned from the gems while she was growing up: the determination that turns to stubborness from Jasper, the intellectual processing habits of Peridot that leads her to overthink things from time-to-time, and the care-free fun of Lapis that if left unchecked leads to sloppiness. much like Steven in the source material (which shall be refered to as the SM from this point forward) that balance between the three helps create a stable relationship between all of them, but also inadvertandtly puts a lot of stress on Connie to try and hold them all together. Thankfully for her the other gems are *just* emotionally mature enough to also talk to each other, and not use Connie as a medium for their own growth (looking at you SM, amythist was right, stop dumping your centuries-old complexes on a 14 YEAR OLD).

Peridot: okay, first of all i have to stop and say real quick, as much as i love P-dot in the SM, she isn’t exactly the best person (gem? one of the two). shes rude, she has overstepped her boundries when discussing other people’s feelings (see the smaller-than-average lake) and she has a tendency to focus more on herself than others. thats fine in the SM because shes a side character, and not the focus of the show, but in the AU she is one of the main focuses of the story, and therefore her actions are less justifiable. thankfully she gets a complete refresh in this story given that she has had some 300+ years AT LEAST to mellow out. 

now, back to the analyisis

Peridot’s backstory in this AU is that she was abducted by Lapis from homeworld post-rebellion, and eventually joined the Crystal Gems after realizing the potential for life on earth. because she is the only era-2 gem on earth with all the other era-1s, she is extremely protective of her limb enhancers, which she kept in working condition for the entire duration on earth despite minimal homeworld resources. when her enhancers were destroyed by Rose Quartz, she fell into a depressive slump, until after a meditative period she came to the epifany that she didn’t need her limb enhancers to still be a worthwhile member of the Crystal Gems, she unlocked her metal-bending powers (ferokinesis i know, i just can’t spell the damn word and i refuse to look it up) and more importantly, discovered new ways of merging era-1 and era-2 tech, a feat previously impossible to both earth and homeworld gems.

Peridot is extremely protective of Connie, possibly stemming from her promise to Citrine that she would take care of her, and spent the first year of Connie’s existance raising her without the support of the other two remaining gems on earth, who presumably needed the time to mourn.

What this tells us about Peridot is that she is cares deeply about her family and her charges, and often worries that she isn’t capable of doing her part, despite being arguably the most valuable member on the team with her communications and surveillance equiptment to tell the gems where their next mission is. I would guess that she overcompensates to make up for the fact that she lacks the physical strength of her companions. how this will change now that she has magneto powers, we are yet to see.

Jasper: Jasper was a soldier to pink diamond during the rebellion before Citrine convinced her that she (Citrine) was more worthy of her loyalty. the fact that Jasper may also have been in love with Citrine is besides the point. Jasper is gruff, keeps things short and to the point, and is immensly disiplined. in short, a perfect soldier, which since thats what she was created to be, makes her a perfect gem. Jasper reminds me a lot of the gentle giant trope, minus the gentle part during battle. what interests me the most about Jasper is her ability to invoke a sense of thoughtful intelect despite being the least chatty of all the gems. she has this way of saying just the right thing and nothing more, almost like a carefully calculated sword stroke. 

In the most recent chapter (ch 39) we get more context to jasper’s defection: homeworld prides itself on function; the better a gem can handle the task it it given, the more valuable it is to gem society. Jasper prides herself on being a ‘perfect’ quartz: exactly suited for her role with no failings or flaws. Despite her perfection, jasper was never able to handle one mission: defeat Citine in a fight. This cause turmoil and quite a bit of guilt for jasper, after all if she is perfect, why can’t she accomplish a simple task? This lead her to the eventual solution, either she is flawed, or her orders, and subsequently her diamond, are flawed. Eventually jasper saw that despite her ‘perfect’ diamonds efforts, the rebellion was still standing strong; with which jasper concluded that it must be her diamond that is wrong, and not herself. Even though she knows she was right, jasper still wrestles with the guilt of her decision ever day.

Lapis: ho boy, Lapis. where do i begin? Lapis was also an agent of homeworld, though through a dramatic fight between herself and Bismuth (and we are seriously never going to get that scene in cannon? *thanos voice* fine, i’ll do it myself) she decided to switch sides and single-handedly brought down homeworld’s air supperiority during the rebellion. needless to say, that kind of power needs a pretty heafty nerf to keep her in check, queue in a millenia of bad choices and even worse coping mechanisms, coupled with a large dose of PTSD and depression, possibly bipollar disorder (don’t quote me on that, i’m not a psychiatrist) and you have the most messed-up character you’ve ever seen in your life. one part crippling mental health issues, one part nuclear bomb, life for Lapis is not that fun, despite her insistance that nothing is wrong, shes totally fine thank you. 

despite her mental issues, Lapis tries so hard to keep herself in check. cracking jokes and making every situation as light as possible to keep the mood from getting too serious, binge-eating on donuts and reading mangas to distract herself from any anxieties, I think she lives in perpetual fear that she might one day crack under all the pressure of her life and sink another continent under the ocean. she copes by removing herself from the stressful situation, regardless of the consiquences because, to her at least, not destroying the world is more important than facing the dissapointment of Jasper and Peridot. man, she really needs to see that therapist that Connie is going to. 

this got way longer than i thought it would be, if its popular, i’ll post what i’ve got on the other characters in a part 2

[mrsteveecook]

LinkedIn is telling strangers to ask me for referrals to jobs I have nothing to do with

A reader writes:

This is 50% a question for you and readers’ general opinions, and 50% a request for advice. I recently got a LinkedIn message from a stranger asking if we could discuss a particular job opening in my company. It was a position I’d never heard of; I have nothing to do with hiring and there are no open positions in my department. I wrote back and said sorry for the confusion, but I wasn’t familiar with that and she might have the wrong person. She wrote back and said I was listed under the job listing, with a link to the LinkedIn posting. It was indeed an open position in my company, but in a very different department that I know nothing about. It’s a huge company. I didn’t see myself listed, but a heading under the listing said “Best way to get this job: Get a referral!” with the profile of someone else who works for the company…whom I know has nothing to do with that department either.

So my question for you/commenters: Has anyone else noticed this feature? I don’t know if LinkedIn only gave me that “referral” bit because it knows I work at the company, or if it’s showing that to everyone, with random people at the company listed. If so, that’s ridiculous, right? It’s misleading job seekers into bugging people who may not have anything to do with the position. I clicked on some other random job listings with other companies, and although I didn’t see the “get a referral” thing again, I saw a few that said “Meet the team!” and have the profiles of people listed, but I don’t know if those people actually work on the team or are just random. If random, that’s still bad, right?

Now, my request for your advice: She followed up again asking me to put her in contact with whoever’s doing the hiring so she could “discuss this issue with them.” There’s nothing to discuss because it’s LinkedIn’s mistake, not the company’s, but she may not realize that. I feel bad, so I thought I’d just respond “unfortunately I don’t know anything about this position, the best way to apply is through the instructions on the listing, blah blah.” But my boyfriend thinks she’s just trying to get me to refer her to the hiring manager to get her foot in the door, not in an honest attempt to clear it up. What’s there to clear up anyway?

This is compounded by the fact that I received another message from a different stranger asking me straight-up to put them in contact with the hiring manager so they could interview, for a different position that I also have nothing to do with. Of course I’m not going to refer a stranger, and my boyfriend says these aren’t even worth replies, because they should know better than to badger strangers on LinkedIn. What do you think? I feel bad, and a simple “apply through the listing” sounds okay to me, but he thinks this will open a window for more pushing.

WTF LinkedIn.

This is totally a feature they’ve rolled out. The “get a referral!” thing is supposed to show you people in your network who work at that company. I don’t know if they’ve since expanded that to just show random people at the company — which would be a terrible idea since it’s inviting harassment from strangers and no one wants that — or if this was a malfunction and it wasn’t supposed to list you, or if you actually might be in her network in some way but many degrees removed.

Honestly, it’s not the great idea even if it worked as originally intended (just showing you if anyone in your network works there), because the person in your network who works at the 15,000-employee company you’re applying to, and who maybe only knows you because you once accepted a sales pitch from them two jobs ago, is not necessarily equipped to refer you in any way. Some connections will be, of course! But so many won’t be that the “get a referral!” framing is pretty bad … and is going to encourage bad networking rather than good networking.

I’d have no objection to the feature if it said “see who in your network works there” … and then you could make your own judgments about what might be appropriate to ask of them. For example, sometimes it would be appropriate to ask a contact about the inside scoop on the company, when it would be really inappropriate and presumptuous to ask that person for a referral. And yet some people are going to take LinkedIn’s “ask for a referral!” as an indication that that’s actually appropriate in every situation where it appears.

LinkedIn should be encouraging good networking, not bad networking.

As for the person who contacted you … I agree with your boyfriend that she’s trying to get you to connect her to the hiring manager to get her foot in the door, not because she wants to “clear up” LinkedIn’s error. You are 100% okay just not responding. If you feel rude about that (although you shouldn’t), you could write back, “I’m sorry I can’t help. Good luck with it!” But really, you’ve already given her one polite response, she’s pushing for more, and you can just disengage.

With the other stranger who asked you to connect them with the hiring manager for a different position, you’re fine ignoring those requests too. They’re sort of the LinkedIn equivalent of spam. (That said, I don’t totally agree with your boyfriend that you shouldn’t response in case it opens a window for more pushing — I mean, it might do that but it doesn’t really matter because if someone pushes more, you can revert to ignoring at that point. It’s not like you’ve let them in your house and now you can’t get them to leave. If someone responds to your polite “sorry I can’t help” message with more pushing, you can just ignore them at that point.)

You may also like:

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LinkedIn is telling strangers to ask me for referrals to jobs I have nothing to do with was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

from Ask a Manager http://bit.ly/2FXN4YW