Some of the newer people lately have said that they don’t feel as much a part of the community as everyone else, so I figured this would be a good way to get to know each other – plus, everyone likes talking about themselves. Think of it as a Polling Place in reverse. How I envision it working is that someone posts expressing willingness to answer questions and then other people ask them whatever they want. If you want to answer questions, try to ask them too!
Patience, Please
This site is under reconstruction and will look strange for a while. We regret the inconvenience.
To get the ball rolling, I’ll volunteer as tribute.
How much music do you have memorized at any one time? Do you try to memorize it, or does it fall into place?
Entire pieces, probably between 0-1. Snippets / could maybe get through with a gun to the head, maybe 20 different pieces. I don’t really try to memorize, it just happens by the time I’ve practiced it thoroughly. That said, I hate playing from memory and I’m super insecure about it because I have memory slips (probably because I don’t actively memorize things), so in the last year or two I’ve programmed myself to avoid having to memorize – my entire recital was from music, I audition from music.
what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever performed?
My quartet did a lot of Classical Revolution / outreach / playing in atypical venues, so I’ve done my fair share of playing in bars, schools, libraries, nursing homes, etc. Bars are generally really fun because the audience is super happy and supportive. I’ve also done a fair number of outdoor weddings, and I did one in the botanical gardens. I guess maybe the weirdest, although it seemed pretty normal at the time, might have been in the dining room of a fancy ski resort in Taos? We were living there for a summer festival.
What does your practice schedule look like? What did it look like when you were in high school and undergrad?
Right now I’ve taken the summer mostly off and I’m trying to figure out how to work without the deadlines of school, so I don’t really have a schedule. In high school I think I was doing about three hours a day, usually late afternoon / evening after I did homework (I took something like 8 AP classes so the amount obviously varied day to day). Undergrad (and grad school too) I was pretty regular, practiced starting at around 8 – 11:30, 2-4 or 2-5:30 depending on orchestra and chamber rehearsals and classes, and then if I needed more time in the evenings, 7:30-10 or so. I usually wouldn’t do all that time since I’d have classes and rehearsals and gigs, but I was aiming for 5-6 hours / day and those were the times I usually blocked out. I practice best in the morning so I try to get up early and get a solid 3 hours in before lunch.
Did you ever have worries about making a living with this career, if so, how did you manage? (Actually, I’ll take any advice you’re willing to throw my way.)
oh god all the time. I had a sort of timeline in the back of my head that I’d start doing orchestra auditions second year of my Master’s, but I didn’t really commit to that until the summer before that year when it became obvious that my quartet wasn’t going to work out long-term. Basically I managed by trying to get my playing to the highest level I could and practicing obsessively, and I had musicology in the back of my head as sort of a backup plan (I’d taken some grad courses with really prominent people who encouraged me). I’d say your teacher is the single most important factor; I wouldn’t have won an audition without studying with mine. Do you know what you want to do in music (chamber music, orchestra, ?)? If you’re aiming for orchestra, I don’t really know how things work in Europe but you want to look for a teacher whose recent students are winning jobs – and what geographic area you want to work in factors into this, because the playing style in the US and Europe is really different so if you wanted to work over here, for instance, you should probably try to go to grad school here. Also, play a lot of chamber music and try to play it with people who are better than you.
Thanks!
Do you generally prefer being a soloist or do you enjoy playing in groups as well?
Most of what I do is playing in groups, and I generally enjoy that more than playing solo (partly for the above-mentioned memory thing). There’s a nice feeling of interaction that you get.
I personally only perform in rock/pop and world settings nowadays – have you considered branching out, or have you already? What’s your opinion on the state of the classical music industry?
I have considered it in the sense that I’ve known it’s an option, but I’ve never been interested. I used to fiddle and play klezmer when I was young (like elementary school young, at this point I’d have to majorly rework my bow arm to fiddle) and I took a world music course in undergrad. I like playing classical though, and most of the non-classical string groups my friends are in seem to be mostly about pretty women wearing tight clothes, which isn’t really my scene.
I think the classical music industry is doing fine, honestly. People have been predicting its demise for a hundred years, now, and audiences have always been old; that said, I think there’s a resurgence of house concerts and performances in alternative venues that is exciting. I think a lot of orchestras have suffered from bad management decisions recently / boards that try to operate non-profits (orchestras) like for-profit business, but hopefully we’re mostly over that trend now now that they’ve seen quite clearly that it doesn’t work.
Incidentally, we know several of the same people in the music world – Ren MD, Audrey A, Graham B.
SMALL WORLD.
Although it sometimes seems that nearly everyone knows Ren – haha!
I completely agree that orchestras have struggled due to their management, and love that you believe in the tenacity of the classical scene. Orchestras have certainly been trying different things to lure in audiences (check out the seattle symphony with sir mix-a-lot), but I agree that when better business decisions are made, they will be out of hot water. Thanks for your take!
Heh, we dated a few years back. I personally hate orchestral rock / pop concerts – I feel like neither the band nor the orchestra does their best work in that format. I do really like concerts where orchestras play movie soundtracks along with the movie, though, although that might be because I’m a nerd and the Star Trek 2009 concert is the thing I’m most excited about for our next season.
Second question if I may! Where did you find/buy your violin?
I play on a modern Italian violin that I’ve had since junior year of high school. My teacher in middle school / early high school actually left his teaching position at a university to go work at a major violin shop in the southwestern US, so we asked him to keep an eye out for something for me since I needed a better instrument. I got really lucky, I’ve played multiple instruments that cost $200k+ that I didn’t like as much, but it’s only worth a fraction of that. My bow (turn of the century french) was trickier, I ended up getting it from the same shop but I must have tried easily 10-15 bows before I found one that I liked. It’s really useful to have your teacher involved in the process if possible, because a lot of the time people want something better but what they choose is something that plays exactly like what they’re used to, which isn’t necessarily good.
Have you ever gotten to play a Stradivarius? What were the violins that were worth 200k+ that you got to play? How does one get to play violins one doesn’t own? Is this a common thing to do?
Yeah, I played on the Markees Strad for about an hour once and it was the best violin I’ve ever played – so smooth and buttery. I’ve played multiple Amatis but haven’t been impressed, so maybe I got bad examples, I’ve played a Gagliano, I’ve played a Guarneri (Andrea), I’ve played Guadagnini, a Testore, Grancino, a Vuillaume, a Lupot, a Pressenda, a Rocca, a Steiner, and I’m sure I’ve played others but I can’t remember. It’s pretty common, in my case I have a good relationship with a particular shop that has a lot of high end stuff and so whenever I go to get my violin worked on they let me try some of their fancy toys. The thing is, with violins, a lot of the price is determined by the reputation of who made it, so you can get bad examples of someone’s work that don’t necessarily sound good.
I get the sense I may have asked before, but are there specific things you dislike playing?
Yes. Pops concerts, anything with a lot of tremolo, stuff that seems like filler that you can’t hear anyway (I’d rather rest for 40 measures), stuff by modern composers that statistically you know you’re only going to play once but that take more than an hour to learn (usually the culprit is sixteenth notes without a discernible pattern). Bruckner.
“Anything with a lot of tremolo”; “Bruckner”. Yep, checks out.
I find tremolo kinda fun on the guitar, although I’m really bad at it.
for me on violin it’s really tiring to do and it makes my arm hurt after like five seconds
Ooh… I can only imagine.
I’ll volunteer too!
I’m fairly knowledgeable in two areas: contemporary fine art (especially printmaking), and contemporary sailing.
Who is your favorite living artist? Also, what exactly goes into printmaking?
It’s so hard to choose a favorite! I consistently return to Jeremy Deller and Bruce Nauman as favorites for their philosophy of art that’s beyond interdisciplinary. Intentionality is art, as far as I’m concerned, and if there are communicative remnants afterwards, even better!
Printmaking is making art from a matrix. Traditionally, artists use methods like engraving to create matrices (copper plates) which can produce an image printed in multiples. Prints are a bit cheaper than other forms of art on paper, like drawings and paintings, because of this. At the broadest, printmaking also includes photography, 3D printing, potato stamps, etc. I work on and off for a fine art print studio, which means that artists come in with the intention of making some sort of artwork that will exist in multiples at the end of the process. Sometimes this is traditional as having the artist draw on a metal plate, etching and engraving the image in copper, and printing the image onto paper with ink and a printing press. (Mel Bochner’s I Don’t Get It/I Still Don’t Get It, 2015, Etching with aquatint) Processes can also be nontraditional though, with printing ink, laser cutting paper, gluing on googly eyes, and dozens of tiny pasta machine made clay wigs. (Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe, 2004/2005, photogravure, etching, aquatint and drypoint with lithography, seriography, embossing, tattoo machine engraving, laser cutting and chine collé; and additions of plasticine, cut-and-pasted paper, enamel, gouache, varnish, pencil, oil, polymer, watercolor, pomade, velvet, glitter, crystals, foil paper, gold leaf, toy eyeballs, and toy ice cubes.)
this is fascinating. What’s the most involved print you’ve been involved in making?
DeLuxe has been the most involved print I’ve ever worked on in terms of precise components, and I was only involved in a small part of the production- total production time was under two years, but constantly worked on. We had a few 3″ binders full of directions and photos and overlays to get every detail of the edition reproducible.
The most technically challenging prints have been Chuck Close’s Woodburytype portraits, because we were working to reconstruct a photomechanical method that hadn’t been used in over 100 years. Total research time was about a decade, of which I was involved the last four years. Research was slow in part because the process takes about two weeks to complete, if everything is going well.
What is the contemporary sailing community like? What sort of people do you meet there?
There are a few subsections to the community, mostly overlapping: Dinghy sailors, who have their own boats, and often compete in short races. Cruisers, who live aboard their boats and travel from port to port exploring the world. Keelboat people sail on yachts 30ft+, often competing on overnight races for a few days. I was solely a dinghy sailor, until I joined a program this summer that’s gotten me sailing keel boats. There’s a lot in common with backpacking (I actually camp most often when I travel to dinghy regattas), so most sailors are outdoorsy, athletic types who like being on the water. It’s the best! Engineers especially like building and tinkering with their boats. There are also the rich, tan alcoholics, who I try to avoid.
How did you get into printmaking?
My father’s a Master Printer. He went to art school as a photography major, but the disciplines are overlapping in many places. I’ve been hanging around studios since I was a little kid.
Ask me about museums, fantasy books, writing, queer things, or anything you want. I’ve got a BA in anthropology with a minor in museum studies and I’m going back to get a master’s in museums. I’ve written sf/f short stories and poems, and some of my poems are published. I’ve hung around with authors and publishers in the science fiction and fantasy realm a lot. I’m currently helping a friend read slush for an anthology.
I might take a while to get back to these questions as I have to be packed and ready to move by Saturday.
What’s your biggest pet peeve as a reader of fantasy books? (like a trope that annoys you, etc.)
Hrm. I don’t know if it is a trope per se, but lack of diversity among the characters annoys me.
Cats or dogs?
If you could design your ideal museum, what would it have?
Cats!
I think my ideal museum would be a museum of connections. The intersections of ideas. Math and art, and, er, other interdisciplinary intersections. There would be some kind of interior courtyard/garden for making more ideas. There would be some section where the public could go and create things, possibly some sections with guidance from professionals (like that game that is protein folding) or just them creating whatever. I may come back and add more to this answer.
What’s your writing process? Do you prefer to write by hand or type? What’s your favorite thing you’ve written?
Hmm. Not sure if I have a process exactly. Before moving for grad school, I used to like to go to the botanical gardens near my house and write on a bench in a notebook, then transcribe to the computer.
Don’t think I have a favorite thing either. Sort of depends on the moment.
Favourite museum you’ve visited? Is there a museum (or several), anywhere in the world, that you dream of visiting?
For favorite museum I’ve visited, see my response to ZNZ.
I’ve heard good things about the Exploratorium in CA, the Victoria and Albert in London. I’m pretty much up for most museums.
I’m really into math education and bringing mathematical ideas to the general public so my top choice right now is probably the Museum of Math in NYC. The last time I was there, it was not yet open, and I’d love to go! Perhaps a visit to NYC MBers is in order… Someday!
What’s your favorite museum? And when you’re in a big museum and know you won’t have time to go everywhere, where do you tend to head first?
Favorite museum? Pick just one? Surely you jest! The Field Museum (Chicago), The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis), The Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford), The Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), The Logan Museum of Anthropology (Beloit, WI), The Bakken Museum (Minneapolis) all for many different reasons. The Field, Pitt Rivers, and Ashmolean all have wonderful anthropological collections. I particularly like how the Ashmolean has paintings as well. The Logan Museum, The Bakken Museum, and The MIA for familiarity. The Logan is the campus museum at my undergrad school (Beloit College) and the place where I learned many museum techniques! The Bakken Museum is somewhere I volunteered at for a while, and learned more about science education. Everytime I go back to the Twin Cities, I visit the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It has an extensive collection of art from all over the world and brings nice travelling exhibits too. My latest visit, I got to see some pages of DaVinci’s notebooks and also crocheted hyperbolic coral reefs lent by the Institute for Figuring.
On my most recent visit to the Field Museum, I went to some exhibit halls I hadn’t been to in a while. Mostly I just go first to the subject area that interests me the most so I can spend more time there and then see what I can fit in around the edges of my time remaining at the museum.
If you could take one book with you to a deserted island, for enjoyment, what would it be?
I could cheat a little and bring a volume of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, but I don’t think I’d want to spend my whole time on the island reading Shakespeare. I’m torn between that and Freedom and Necessity by Stephen Brust and Emma Bull. F+N is very long and very dense, but full of action packed adventure! So it’d take me a while to re-read and I don’t think I’d get bored re-reading it a second time.
Off-topic but on the radio show Desert Island Discs, which has pretty much this premise, the guests automatically get the Bible and a copy of Shakespeare’s complete works, and then have to choose a third book of their own. Do you (@everyone) think those are sort of the ideal default books? I love DID but I’ve always thought a more diverse audience could come up with different works of literature to be the defaults…
I definitely would think of the Bible and Shakespeare as my Ideal Defaults but that’s very much reflective of who I am as a person — i.e., religious Christian + Shakespeare is my boyfriend; it seems self-evident to me that other people would have different defaults. What about you, Chok?
Okay I need to just stop and say here that “Shakespeare is my boyfriend” is the most perfect thing anyone has ever said, and also, Shakespeare is totally your boyfriend
Honestly, I don’t think I should be put in charge of these things because I am completely liable to name Lord of the Rings as the most important work of literature of all time. (I would say that I’d want a copy of the trilogy, plus the complete appendices, on a desert island, because at least you could learn basic Quenya or something.)
I actually think I would choose the Bible, or my Bible, for one of the books- but I would submit The Romance of the Three Kingdoms for the other. I think I’d want as widely diverse a set of books as possible, just to keep things interesting; also, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is hella long, as they say in literary circles.
I think that for native English-speakers, Shakespeare and the King James Bible at least encourage re-reading because you can play a game of trying to spot all of the expressions in modern English that were used for the first time in those books. For speakers of another language, however, similar influential texts might enable similar games, like The Divine Comedy for Italian.
I’m not Christian, nor was I raised in a religious family, and I don’t think having a Bible would have any value to me on a desert (or deserted) island. I’ve tried to read it before and I found it alternately boring, nonsensical, and disturbing. I don’t know what I’d replace it with, though, maybe something like Derrida or Sartre because being stranded on an island is probably the only time I’m going to have the focus / willpower to actually read them and think about them… Or possibly some poetry – for me, e e cummings or beat poets or something – or maybe something non-western.
I read “God Is Disappointed In You” (look it up) last year. I’m not religious at all, either, but it was still interesting. It was fun being able to pick up popular stories that you just hear about all the time, and a local theater company had recently put on a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (with my sister playing in the pit orchestra), so that was a cool connection that I was able to make. All in all… good book.
heh part of what motivated me to try to read it was that I kept getting frustrated in English class when the teacher would be like “oh and did you all get the biblical reference? ok cool moving on”
Exactly! Last year my class was reading “Enders Game” together (of course, now I know all about Orson Scott Card, so… that’s all behind me) and we had this big long discussion about historical and biblical references in the book. I didn’t understand a thing.
But you do know who the original Noah was, right?
Actually, my uncle and I have this thing going on where we quote the Bill Cosby “Noah, I want you to build me an Ark” routine. So yes. I do know of the original Noah. If you were wondering, I wasn’t actually named after the biblical Noah but a guy at a gas station who helped my parents when my mom was pregnant. Apparently their car broke down or something, and he helped look at it and guide them to a repair facility. They might have been camping, too, and I think he fixed their stove. I’m not quite sure… I wasn’t exactly all “there”.
I went to a Catholic school for reasons other than anyone being Catholic, and have a largely-atheist extended family, and I enjoy showing off my random knowledge.
Also… sometimes on the dark side of the internet, arguments along the lines of “Your thing is basically a religion!” crop up? (If you don’t, you’re not missing much.) Once you’ve either self-examined your thing, rationalised away your misgivings, or shrugged and dismissed the accusers as likely wrong because this is the dark side of the internet – there is much fun to be had with whatever aspects of your thing parallel various aspects of Christianity.
I reread a good chunk of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality in 2013, back when it was up to chapter 78 out of 122. (yes, I remember the chapter numbers of the most recent hiatuses), and am already Tempted by the beginning again, so that would be a good bet.
(I recently got hold of a few hard copies of Ch1-17 and foisted one on my dad. What he got out of it was a discussion about quantum mechanics and also time travel.)
I can think of a few other things, but factoring in length I’d take that.
What did you like about it? I read up to chapter ~40 back in the day and I thought it was awful, but a lot of people seemed to really love it.
when I liked it I liked it because I thought it was funny, and I’m into the “looking sideways at an established magical universe” thing
…and then Harry turned into Ender and I finally noticed the enormous philosophical chasm between Yudkowsky and me, so I dropped it.
What classes are you taking in Museum Studies now? I’m taking an Anthropology of Museums course as part of my Archaeology MA.
Mwahaha my revival of this thread worked!
Ahem.
I’m taking Museum Education, Exhibit Design, and Assessment in Math and Science Education. Last semester I took Perspectives in Mathematics, Intro to Museum Studies, and Collections Management. My favorites so far have been Perspectives in Mathematics and Exhibit Design.
What are you reading for your Anthropology of Museums class?
A lot of stuff about collections and repatriation. Between this class and Linguistic Anthropology, I’ve really gained a new respect for Franz Boas.
But… who? What authors? Have you read Ames?
Ask me stuff! I’m really excited about this thread because I like knowing random stuff about people and I really like sharing facts about myself.
What are your top five facts about yourself?
What book/books are you currently reading?
Two truths and a lie — go.
where does the name Ros come from / what does your avatar represent? What are you most excited about right now?
Selenium- In no particular order: -I am introverted and socially anxious yet I love pretty much nothing more than being with my friends. – On a related note, I tend to have a really hard time socializing with anyone I’m not comfortable with and it’s an awkward experience all around. – I really want to get out of my hometown which is unfortunately not an option yet, for several reasons. – I really want to get married and adopt kids at some point. – I love pretty much all animals.
Fiddler- Terrier by Tamora Pierce and The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. I also finished reading Fight Club a few days ago.
Kokonilly- Okay, hmm… -I dislike the sound of oboes -I broke my pinky toe as a kid – I dislike eating eggs Have fun guessing which one’s the lie!
Lizzie- Rós is Icelandic for Rose. My middle name is Rose and I have been to Iceland and developed a fondness for the language (which I intend to learn… someday.) My avatar is the back of the album art for My Head Is An Animal by Of Monsters And Men, one of my favorite bands. I am excited about getting to see some family friends and their super cute little kid this evening (which I didn’t know was going to happen until like 10 minutes ago).
Thanks, y’all! Keep ’em coming!
What languages do you know/speak, and how fluently?
Aaah a new question thank you!
Since I’m boring and unmotivated, English is pretty much it. I know a very, very tiny amount of Dutch and a few Icelandic words. I’m planning to learn ASL soon.
Ask me more stuff! (because I am attention-seeking also I am spending most of the day in bed with ice on my face)
I suppose I’ll do one of those mini-biography things too: I’m 18, about to become a full-time college student majoring in writing and biology. I’ve been taking a few college classes on campus since Spring 2014.. Aside from that, I have been unschooled (which is an unstructured form of homeschooling) all of my life. Stuff I do / know about includes being a college radio DJ, keeping ducks, having long-distance friendships, hiking and backpacking, being a guinea pig mom, mental health issues, being queer and being an excellent writer in academic settings but having horrible sentence structure online.
Hi Rós! Do you get lots of questions about unschooling? Most annoying question you’ve been asked? The question you wish people would ask more? Common misconceptions?
Well, usually unless I’m in a question-answering mood, I just say that I’m homeschooled and then start talking about the college classes I’ve taken to avoid having to answer questions. But when I do explain the whole unschooling thing, the question that people don’t usually directly ask but sort of beat around the bush about is “how the (cake) did you actually learn anything and how on earth are you going to survive the real world”, which I have to admit is a… pretty valid question. Honestly, I’m not really sure how to answer it. I can’t pinpoint exactly how I managed to be as academically successful as I am at this point, considering that pretty much all of my pre-college education was completely unstructured. When I was younger my mom did history lessons with my brother and I, as well as the occasional spelling exercise. Math was always a thing I had to be forced to do; I had a really hard time converting the numbers and symbols in front of me into something that had actual meaning that I could work with (I still struggle with this but have gotten good grades in my college math courses so yay I guess?).
Reading and writing, on the other hand, have always come easily to me. I didn’t actually have to be taught to read- my brother, who is 7 years older than me, was learning to read when I was about 4 (he’s autistic and has particular difficulty with reading comprehension) so I would watch while he used educational computer programs. By the time I was 5 I had entirely taught myself to read, and frequently surprised my grandma by using big and/or “advanced” words. (I also was an early talker and sentence-user). And really, I’ve found that other subjects just come down to being able to use reading comprehension to get the information I need.
Oh man, I got off track here.
So. One of the most annoying questions is “how did you socialize as a kid?” Because, well, I didn’t much. For much of my childhood, I didn’t need friends or a social group- I had books and the fantasy worlds that I created. I did go to public school for half of 3rd grade and made a friend out of necessity and mutual desperation (we argued a lot and didn’t really get along well but hey, we were desperate). I did join the Girl Scouts when I was…8? but didn’t really make friends- everyone else knew each other from school and whatnot and I didn’t really fit into their groups. I joined the school band when I was 10 and continued with it until this spring, when I “graduated” which didn’t really do much for my socializing but that’s not what I wanted out of it anyway. I had one close friend from age 13-17, but that ended badly and it’s a bit unpleasant for me to talk about. Really, most of my pre-college social life was online and one long-distance friend who I met at band camp. I now have one close friend at college, an adult-ish friend type person, one semi-long-distance friend who I met at community band, various online buddies, Shadowfire, and the aforementioned band camp friend. Are my social skills poorly developed? Yes, but this may be due to my brainweird more than lack of exposure to socialization as a child.
I wish people would ask more about the benefits of unschooling and homeschooling in general, or just be interested in becoming more aware of the damage caused by the school system.
Misconceptions- probably the whole “so your mom is your teacher?” thing. Also some people who knew me when I was younger had pretty low expectations for me in some ways and well, joke’s on them now.
Oh man, this turned into this HUGE thing and I deviated from your questions a lot oops well uh congratulations anyone who actually read the entire thing?
I’m always up for questions! I’m a high school band kid and a writer, I review YA novels, compose music, and have some experience in leadership positions (wow I sound like I’m typing up a resume!) Anyway throw some questions my way! They can be as irrelevant to the above interests as you’d like.
What style(s) of music do you compose and what are your influences? Favourite instrument that you play? Favourite book series?
I got my start by making soundtracks for friends’ projects, so I’d classify my main genre as ‘soundtrack material’, but I’ve also dabbled in electronic music and soundscapes. My influences are primarily indie artists. I like seeing people like myself in the music world and wondering how I could achieve similar sounds.
My favorite instrument to play would probably be my primary instrument, tenor sax, but in non-jazz areas I have a soft spot for trombone.
My favorite book series is probably the hitchhikers trilogy. What classics. Also, I love what I’ve read of the discworld series, but have yet to read any significant amount of the books.
What instrument do you play in band?
What’s your strategy for getting people’s energy/enthusiasm up when you’re in a leadership position?
I play tenor sax in band, or at least I’m supposed to, but I end up getting stuck in the trombone or baritone section via shenanigans.
Keeping people’s enthusiasm up is actually one of the biggest challenges I face. I find it’s important to keep people from getting bored, and to move quickly from one activity to the next with smooth transition. People get bored if I’m disorganized. When speaking with my group, I try to plan out to an extent what I’m going to cover, so if the conversation stagnates or dissolves I can move onto something new.
The most important thing is to keep genuinely excited about what we’re doing. Even when tired or frustrated, there’s no way my group will be enthusiastic about a task if I’m not. Acting with a lot of energy spreads positive energy throughout the group. Of course you always get cynics who hate when you’re all positive and bubbly. I think it’s important to communicate with these individuals and tell them that you understand they’re not excited about the task at hand, but they should still work their hardest at it because that’s what they’re here for.
I hope this helps! I’m not the perfect leader and would be happy to hear from anyone else who wants to add to the conversation.
i just want to say that I was a baritone section lead my senior year of high school marching band, and (while the supportiveness of my environment seems to have been less) I’m very impressed by your attitude towards it and I feel like you are probably doing much better at leading than I was back then.
Would’ve loved to have you as my section leader in marching band, you sound fantastic at it.
Thank you so much, Tesseract and Dodecahedron! It really means a lot.
I do try to be a good leader to my section. Here’s hoping I’m able to continue doing as well as I’ve set out to.
What was the most recent dream you can remember?
Uhhhh I keep a sporadic dream diary of whenever a dream is interesting enough for me to write it down. The latest entry, from a few weeks ago, involved my favorite pasta, a music camp I used to attend, Cards Against Humanity, and kissing.
Are your book reviews published/shared in some other format? What’s a YA novel you’ve read recently that you enjoyed?
I’m part of a book club that follows the Printz nominations etc and thus reads many YA books as part of the mock-Printz setups. At the end of the year we do an awards ceremony for the books we liked and the ones that won officially, and it’s livestreamed.
This year my favorite book so far is probably Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman. It was inspired by his son’s mental illness and tells the tale of a teenager dealing with schizophrenia. The first half was good, but it was the latter half of the book that really drew me in. I don’t have much authority to say so but it really seemed like it did a phenomenal job of respectfully describing mental illness. This is obviously a topic Shusterman is very close with and I could really feel all the emotions he was writing into the story.
I volunteer! Ask me anything – like Lizzie, I study violin, but she’s way better. I grew up in Hong Kong, went to boarding school in England for two years, have just finished my first year studying in Geneva, Switzerland. At the moment I’m in France.
How many languages do you speak, and how fluently? Which is your first language?
Four – English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin.
English is my first language, but I grew up speaking both English and Cantonese – I am half-English and half-Chinese and was born/raised in Hong Kong. I speak Cantonese well, but definitely express myself best in English. I speak with a British accent.
I started Mandarin at school when I was around four, it is a “second language” in terms of fluency and vocabulary, but like with Cantonese, my accent is native. Reading and writing is more difficult. Also, I haven’t had the chance to practise my Mandarin for several years now, so I’ve likely lost some knowledge/vocabulary (though it would probably come back quickly if I spent some time in China.)
I’m fluent in French. I started learning when I was 8, now I study in Switzerland (in the French-speaking part) where classes/ talking to friends /living in general etc. is in French. I also talk to my boyfriend in French. Sometimes people I’ve met don’t immediately realise I’m not French or Swiss, which is a great compliment (I have a slight trace of an accent though).
Ich spreche nicht Deutsch.. but I’ve started learning recently. So hopefully a fifth, one day.
What music are you working on right now?
Have you moved to all those places by yourself, or has your family moved with you?
Specific pieces?
Learning at the moment (ie not ready for performance):
-Saint-Saens violin concerto no. 3 (must…not…put off…)
-Brahms violin sonatas no. 2 + 3 (1st movements)
-Mozart E minor violin sonata
-Bach B minor partita (Allemanda + Corrente) – I admit I’ve been spending less time on this one recently…
These two I’ve already performed in a small concert already, but I may play them again soon and there’s much to be perfected still, so I continue to work on:
-Bach B minor sonata for violin and harpsichord
-Schumann 3 Romances (originally for oboe)
Among other pieces that I occasionally revisit. The other day I looked at the Bach D minor partita again.
To answer your second question – no, my family hasn’t moved with me! My two years in England were at boarding school. Now I study in Switzerland. My parents still live in Hong Kong and I go back every so often. To complicate matters, my sister goes to high school in the States. (3 continents. My cousins’ family moved from China to Melbourne last year, so that makes 4, counting extended family.)
How is France? Where are you in France?
I’m staying at my boyfriend’s house, near the border with Switzerland. I’m usually here most weekends during term, but it’s nice to be here in the summer.
Have you noticed differences in teaching / playing styles between the various places you’ve lived? Also what’s the curriculum like in Geneva?
Interesting question. Difficult to say, because I never really had good teachers (until this year) – my education was really rather inconsistent to say the least. In fact I barely remember what my teacher in Hong Kong was like (I don’t think he had any influence on my playing. At the same time, my playing has changed/evolved quite significantly in the past 1-2 years.)
I did lots of playing in youth orchestras though so I could probably comment on the general atmosphere. I wouldn’t have wanted to stay in Hong Kong to study music, I don’t think. Lots of focus on being “good” and not nearly enough on musicality. Every other kid learns an instrument (it seems), but I never really observed much discussion or encouragement of what it really means to be a musician, an artist.
My teacher in England worked a lot on technique with me, and helped me with confidence (he encouraged me to apply to music colleges). So I have a lot to thank him for, but at the end of 2 years with him I had the feeling he didn’t have much more to teach me (not in the sense that “I’m so amazing, I have nothing left to learn” – for SURE I have a lot left to learn – but not necessarily from him. Hope that makes sense?) But this wasn’t at a music school or anything, I know there are really good professors of violin in England, just not at my secondary school since it wasn’t specialised in music.
So my teacher in Switzerland is the first really good musician, really good teacher I’ve had. But I wouldn’t say this school has a specific “teaching style” compared to another school or country, because each teacher is so different. There are two Russian teachers who have a very different style of teaching (I’ve had lessons), still others I’ve never met but who I’m sure play very differently, etc. In every conservatory you will find teachers from all over – maybe it helps to be in Europe – with different styles.
It is nice to be on the continent, I feel like England is a little bit “removed” from the rest of the scene (I may be wrong – of course people come and go from all over for different projects, concerts, etc. but I feel like being here puts one more at the centre of things. That is, it will do when I’m ready to start putting myself out there more. I hope.)
Sorry, this is getting really long, but for your second question: curriculum in your bachelor/undergrad would include main instrument, piano as a second instrument, harmony, counterpoint, analysis, solfège, history of music, chamber music, choir (optional for orchestral instruments but I joined anyway), “sight-reading” symphonies in an orchestra setting. It’s tricky finding groups for chamber music because the numbers are quite skewed – six classes of violin, two classes each viola and cello… Everyone participates in two or three orchestra projets a year (usually a total of ten or so, but it would be impossible to fit everyone in one orchestra), which consist of a week of rehearsals + concert(s) at the weekend.
Huh, interesting. The curriculum looks pretty much the same as most US places, minus the sight-reading, although it sounds like you guys do much less orchestra than we do.
Yeah, to be honest I do wish there was more!
SEL <3
How have you dealt with living/going to school so far away from your family? (quietly advice-seeking here)
Also, how did you get your current violin? How much of an impact do you find the specific violin you're playing has on the sound of your music?
Hello!
Skype is useful! I tend to Skype my parents about once a week, with many more Whatsapp messages in between. Otherwise, keep busy, make lots of friends, do lots of interesting things (which you will *absolutely* have the chance to do at university, I’m sure!)
I don’t know what other advice I could give, but if you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer!
I asked Lizzie the same violin question (1.7), her answer is more interesting!
My violin is nothing amazing, it’s the one I bought when I was eleven and needed a full-size, I still use the same one… We found it in a workshop/showroom of a Chinese luthier who had spent a lot of time studying in Italy, make of that what you will.
It’s a decent violin and has been more than adequate for my level most of these years, but I’m definitely reaching a point where I’m starting to feel limited by it; my teacher says the same thing (in terms of sound, expressive range etc.) So maybe in a year’s time I’ll begin looking seriously. There are foundations here (well, I know of one but there must be more) which loan good instruments to students for a couple years or the duration of their studies, which is a possibility.
Selenium – Four languages, wow! That’s amazing!
Do you think in different languages? Also, what is your favorite Hong Kong food?
Aw, thank you!
Definitely – English primarily, when I’m thinking about things alone etc.,- but if I’m having a conversation in Chinese I think in Chinese, I don’t mentally translate every sentence I want to say (that would be time-consuming!) Same goes for French. So the answer is yes, depending on my conversation partner(s), but my “default” is English.
Favourite Hong Kong food…really hard question! One of the things I love about Hong Kong is that you can find so many good restaurants for nearly all types of cuisine, on a l’embarras du choix!* We’re really spoilt for choice. That being said, to pick from local southern Chinese cuisine, I would say dim sum. Which is almost cheating because there are so many different dishes. Many kinds of dumplings, buns steamed or baked, “rice noodle rolls” (English name according to Wikipedia?), cakes etc. Dim sum tends to be a morning affair (ie breakfast), and often congee is ordered, basically a rice…gruel (consistency of thick soup), usually with things added like meat, eggs.
*Something that happens to me often; a word or phrase I’m looking for comes to me first in another language (because it seems more natural or makes more sense); I then have to think what it would be in English. Despite English being my first language. It’s…odd.
Chinese bakeries are pretty unusual as well, very different from Western (at least European) bakeries in my experience. Egg tarts are very traditional, and also very delicious. Portuguese tarts, which differ noticeably by their brown spots on the surface – brûlée – are traditional in Macau as they were a Portuguese colony, but you can find them in Hong Kong as well. è€å©†é¤…, literally “wife cake”, is made from a flaky pastry and a filling of winter melon and almond paste. Sounds weird, but it’s good. Mooncakes are very popular during the Mid-Autumn Festival – very thin crust usually imprinted with Chinese characters, a thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste, and traditionally with an egg yolk (to represent the full moon). I always preferred mine sans yolk. Very rich, very high calorie. These days you often find “ice cream” varieties, which are like mochi. Less traditional, arguably better-tasting, probably actually healthier, and very popular.
Bubble tea is possibly originally from Taiwan, but very much absorbed into our culture and ubiquitous.
Not strictly “Hong Kong” but there are lots of good restaurants with this type of cuisine there – I’m a sucker for Shanghainese food. Steamed or fried pork dumplings, noodles in a peanutty sauce with pork and scallions…my family also really likes these green beans fried with minced pork and lots of spices (may be from Sichuan originally.)
Sorry, this got way longer than I thought it would, but you’ve got me craving Chinese food now and I’m in France, where there is none to be found. Luckily, I’m going back to Hong Kong in a couple of weeks.
I can’t really come up with a snappy mini-biography/stuff I know list, so ask me anything and, if completely I’m completely ignorant of the topic, I’ll at least try to make the answer funny.
What is your favorite unusual word or expression in Österreichisches Deutsch?
Oh, that one’s really hard.
As far as words go, my favorite one isn’t unusual: it’s (die) Marille, which is what we call apricots. I love the soft way it sounds compared to (die) Aprikose, which has a hard German “k” that I hate. Generally, supermarket juices and the like will be labeled Aprikose. But since they grow locally, there’s enough backlash that people will call them by their Austrian name instead of caving in to Germanisms.
A few viennese/austrian expressions that I like, in no particular order:
– Es ist g’hupft wie g’hatscht (somewhat literally: the path the same when it’s bounced as when it’s walked) means that it doesn’t matter which method you chose to do *specific thing you mentioned before*, the outcome will be the same.
-Bist’ deppert? (are you stupid) Okay, this isn’t that much of an expression, I just like saying it because you can vent so much aggression into the hissing s. It’s not meant for an intellectual context, more for someone doing something mind-numbingly obvious completely and utterly wrong. Like shouting next to a sleeping baby (-> waking it up), or handing the cashier a ten euro bill for something that costs at least twenty euros.
-jemandem etwas zufleiß machen; This one is probably the rarest because “zufleiß” isn’t really a word, or at least not one that I’ve ever heard outside of the expression. Fleiß on it’s own means to work diligently/hard and enthusiastically. The expression means that someone went out of their way (diligently and enthusiastically) to make trouble for you specifically. Like that secretary who *accidentally* lost your records for the third time, so you have resubmit all the paperwork again.
-“Du rüttelst am Watschbaum” (you’re shaking the slap-tree) It means you’re trying someone’s patience. Since corporal punishment is no longer socially acceptable (and illegal, I think) it’s meant metaphorically. But it’s still an expression pretty much every kid has heard at some point, and it works- I used to crack up so much at the idea of a Watschenbaum, which I pictured like a pear tree with hands instead of pears, that I would stop whatever the annoying thing was that I wasn’t supposed to be doing in the first place.
“Marille” really is much prettier than “Aprikose.”
It sounds as if Austrians must be perpetually annoyed with one another.
Not really; I think I’m just annoyed at everyone right now and thusly only such expressions occur to me. Specifically, I’m thinking of declaring a minor in provoking (and being provoked by) drive instructors, which results in linguistically delightful but ultimately frustrating altercations.
Advice for someone trying to learn German?
Whatever you do, don’t neglect the gender of the nouns you’re learning. Otherwise you’ll starting picking out vocabulary fairly quickly but hit a wall when you try to speak properly. At that point, you’d have to go back and re-learn everything or resign yourself to never speaking the language properly.
Otherwise, same as any other language-immersion would be best. I’d also recommend reading German, since words are pronounced the same way as they’re written. So you’ll pick up the language just as quickly.
Oh, and don’t take public corrections too much to heart. If you make a mistake (at least in Austria) while speaking to someone in public, they’ll correct you. It’s habit (that’s how we teach our children to speak German) and it’s not rude in the cultural context. From their point of view, they’re helping you learn German (i.e. being kind), not rebuking you.
Thank you!
Why does es gibt mean there is/there are? (“it gives”?)
(By the way, I love this thread already.)
If you could eat one thing every day for a year, what would it be?
Can I eat only that? Better pick something nutritious. Off the top of my head I’d say salmon. My favorite fish, but ridiculously expensive here so I don’t eat much of it.
You mentioned recently you were going to Africa soon – what for / where? (feel free to be as specific or vague as you feel comfortable)
I’m going to South Africa to volunteer at a school and help the organization which runs to school to stay organized. I’ve wanted to do a gap year volunteering abroad for a while; I ended up in South Africa because the specific organization/job appealed to me and has a solid reputation. Since I don’t have a teaching degree I won’t be teaching core classes, just some supplemental activities (basic computer science, tutoring some kids) and doing some secretary work for the organization, since they need someone who can coordinate between the German speaking founders/donors/Austrian staff and the local (English speaking) staff.
Is there any particular reason you have such a delightful refined sense of wit? Did you acquire this skill or are you naturally gifted?
Well, my mom always said that I was a smart-,erm,-butt. I think I have a rather viennese sense of humor/sarcasm though, so it might be a cultural affliction.
What is your favorite mathematical concept? What was your favorite book when you were 11 or so?
I may be entirely incorrect here, but were you the one who had experience with scuba and free diving? (if it was you I may have more questions, if not, uh, sorry!)
Ask me anything! I like random English history facts, paleontology, computational biology, moving to California, etc. and I’m currently reading Dune, watching Mad Men/X-Files, and knitting a pair of socks. Also working at an internship for the summer and struggling to feed myself in a healthy manner.
How do you intend to try and feed yourself in a healthy manner *is very much looking for tips as a newly independent individual*
Also, if you could visit any period in English literary history, which would it be?
I eat granola and milk for breakfast every day and sometimes at lunch I try to eat salad.
Other than that, I’ve been mostly avoiding frozen foods, but I haven’t been doing so well about dinner — I make something new every week and then eat if for that entire week. So far this summer I’ve had mac and cheese for a week (I fully intend on never eating Velveeta mac and cheese ever again), cream of mushroom chicken + rice, pasta with pesto sauce + string cheese on the side (2 weeks), and Spam + rice (also 2 weeks).
You can see that dinner has been not-so-healthy.
if you want dinner suggestions, my go-to is tofu stirfry on rice. Make rice, cut up some tofu, stick it in some sauce to marinate (for instance, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, sesame seeds). When rice is nearly finished, do tofu in frying pan with frozen brocc / peas / whatever veggies you like (I like frozen because they’re precut and cheap and keep forever). Takes under half an hour, is relatively healthy, and you can change up the sauce a lot to keep it interesting.
We have this kind of thing all the time at my house.
We never make stir fry at home, but I will definitely try that!
…once I run out of leftover Korean food from when I went out to eat over the weekend.
I forgot to answer the other question! Honestly, as a minority girl it seems best to stick to the current era, but if I could pass for a ‘normal’ English person then I’d like to see basically any time before the Industrial Revolution (but only briefly, because I would probably contract TB or something and die). The Tudor era would definitely be cool to see, especially Elizabethan times with Shakespeare and all.
How difficult do you find turning the heel in socks? How complicated of knitting patterns can you do before you’re no longer able to pay attention to the tv show?
I had to completely redo the heel turn a couple times, but I think I’ve got the hang of it now. And I’ve had to rewind a couple of times because the knitting has distracted me, but I think it was just the heel turn and picking up the gusset that really took my focus from the show. (I like knitting during X-Files in particular because I find it pretty scary and so the knitting prevents me from scaring myself too much.)
Watchin’ X-Files with no lights on?
o.o I would never watch X-Files with the lights off.
The singer of “One Week”, however, did.
Not even dans la maison?
I hope the Smoking Man’s in this one.
Clearly I missed a reference… haha, my bad.
Tell me some random English history facts.
– Elizabeth I and Mary I’s cousin, Jane Grey, was briefly installed as queen against her will after Edward VI’s death because some Protestants didn’t want Mary I (a Catholic) on the throne. I say briefly because nine days later she was tried for treason and subsequently executed at less than 18 years old for a throne she never even wanted.
– After Henry I (William the Conqueror’s son) died, he left his throne to his daughter, Empress Matilda, who could have been the first Queen of England. However, her cousin Stephen claimed the throne as well, leading to a civil war called the Anarchy in which Stephen and his wife (also called Matilda) fought Matilda for the throne. Ultimately, Stephen was crowned king, but he had no children, so Matilda’s son Henry II was crowned king, skipping her.
– While Henry VIII’s wife Anne Boleyn was being executed, he was playing tennis. He was betrothed to Jane Seymour a day later.
do you knit socks two at a time or one at a time? if one at a time, how often have you knitted one sock and thought “eh, good enough?”
I didn’t know you could knit socks two at a time! But I don’t remind repetitive knitting because I do it while watching Netflix, so that has never happened to me. (This is also the first pair of socks I’ve ever knitted.)
yeah! i’ve never tried it but i’ve also never finished an actual pair of socks so i think it might be helpful
i also knit and netflix usually, but i get bored with repetition pretty quickly. unless it’s cables. i can cable for days, it’s my favorite knitting thing
are socks your favorite thing to knit? what’s your favorite kind of yarn?
I’m pretty new to knitting, so I’ve only made two things so far — the first a simple scarf comprised of only knit stitches; and then when I learned to purl, I dove head-first into cabling with a DNA scarf (I think it’s the first result if you Google it). I am now making DNA socks for my current mentor, who almost always wears socks with sandals.
I am enjoying the socks so far! I would have to try more things before I could have a “favorite” thing to knit. Right know I’m just exploring and it’s been great fun. I’ve also only knit with acrylic and *looks up yarn currently used for socks* 75% acrylic, 25% wool. I don’t mind acrylic; it’s cheap enough for my college-student budget. I’m sure that once I have a Real Income I’ll expand with fancier yarns.
i’ve seen the DNA scarf! if you aren’t already, you should get on ravelry, it’s a fantastic resource for patterns/tips/commiseration
i like acrylic! there are a lot of yarn snobs out there for some reason, but i used almost all acrylic as a poor college student too, and i still use it a lot. when you do try fancier yarns though, put alpaca on the list. it’s expensive but it’s sooo sooooft
I am on Ravelry! (Can we share outside usernames? [Afraid not, sorry! -Admin.])
I will definitely get around to trying alpaca at some point. There’s a cute little yarn store in Los Altos that I went to to buy the yarn for these socks, and the people there were very helpful and friendly! I’ll go back when I want some more non-Michael’s yarn, haha.
i’m going to do what i do best and TEST THE SNIPPING BOUNDARIES
i am easy to find on ravelry if you consider my birth year
What is your favorite mathematical concept?
Tell me more about computational biology. What areas of the field interest you? Have you done any research? What was your research on?
Hmm, perhaps I misspoke — it’s more bioinformatics than computational biology, if computational biology as you understand it is more math-y (the difference is hazy to me because my official major name is biomedical computation, and it’s a mixture of biology and CS). I do really like the concept of how the unit circle relates to the trig functions, though. I feel like if I had just learned that when I started learning trig it would have made a lot more sense to me back then.
I’ve done a small research project analyzing RNA-Seq data, and I’m currently working at a bioinformatics startup in Mountain View doing analysis of genomic data. Genomic data is what currently holds my particular interest, especially because there’s so much promise in that field — we have yet to fully understand the genome, but our abilities to process and analyze genomic data are rapidly developing as computational speeds accelerate. I think it’s really cool! Hopefully one day we can a) have some idea of what causes complex diseases such as diabetes and b) understand how to engineer crops to help reduce hunger in the world (and also many more applications that I can’t think about deeply because I’m at work).
I’ll play this game!
What’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you while sailing?
This could go SO MANY directions.
I’ve dealt with a lot of really crazy poop situations. Maritime heads (toilets) are constantly breaking, and because they work slightly differently than land toilets people tend to freak out and get kind of crazy with them. One time someone had a hard time flushing, so they tried to smush up a poop with a hand sanitizer bottle, which didn’t work, so they put the bottle back on the shelf as though it had never happened.
In a less gross direction, docking a 200′ vessel is an inherently stressful situation, but one time we did that right behind a very loud salsa band (complete with colorful strobe lights). We had to throw our docklines very carefully so we wouldn’t hit the musicians, for an idea of just how close we were.
What’s your favorite memory involving going on spontaneous adventures with close friends?
Hmm…..I’m simultaneously not sure how to choose one, and trying to think of spontaneous adventures.
One of the memories that sticks out, although it’s not strictly “with friends” is when I went on a date with someone from an ~online dating site~, we went to a bar after watching a movie, and then stole a Romney sign on the way back to my car.
More recently, one of my friends and I bought a bunch of sparklers and pop-ems at because they were on sale, and then ran through the rain with them, screeching and hollering and generally having a lovely time.
I’m a big fan of low-level adventures that also somehow seem very magical in my memory.
if you could sail anywhere, on any ship, where would you go and what ship would you take?
Everywhere, on any boat that would go. I’d love to someday go to Antarctica on the barque Europa.
Logistically speaking, how does one join a crew? Very broad question, I know – but I’d love your take on it.
It depends on the boat. Generally speaking though, there are a handful of ways to get into the sailing industry. One way is to go to school for it, there are programs that you can go to that give you a degree and a license. The other option, which I’ve taken, is to be a “hawsepiper”, meaning starting out unlicensed and learning on the job. (I don’t currently hold any USCG licensing, but depending on how much seatime I have, this fall I probably will try to test for at least an AB rating.)
A good way to get started sailing is to volunteer on vessels, every boat I’ve worked on has relied heavily on their volunteers to help their programs going. The ins and outs of the programs are all different, but regardless of how they work, you’ll get a chance to go sailing and do maintenance and learn a lot. There are also various boats that take on paying trainees. If you’re interested about any specific tall ships and want to know more, there’s a chance I’ll know at least a little about it, because there’s only so many of them around.
What are your archaeological interests?
Archaeology is very regional, and all of my experience with it is in the southeast, so that’s a starting point. For 2.5 years I worked in a lab that handled artifacts from a variety of sites around my college, but mainly we dealt with the assemblage from a place in western North Carolina, which is a dig on a Native American village called Joara, that was also a European contact site when a Spanish expedition led by Juan Pardo came up and established Ft. San Juan and Cunca (they named their forts and the towns near the forts different names) in 1567. In addition to working in the lab, I also spent a summer doing fieldwork there, and the most exciting thing we found was the trench that marked where the fort itself was, which up to that point we hadn’t been entirely sure, since the site is largely plowzone, meaning that many of the artifacts have been displaced by agriculture over the past several hundred years.
So, I’m pretty interested in that site and that region’s archaeology. I also did a project on a small property that was the location of a pharmacy around the turn of the 20th century, so from that I learned a ton about glassblowing techniques from that time period, and I really enjoyed it.
Even though most of my experience has been with prehistoric archaeology (which is a very loaded term, I know), I’m super interested in historic archaeology, because it combines my love of historical research with the thrill of finding and deciphering actual artifacts. I also think it’s really interesting to do historic archaeology, because it provides a fascinating glimpse into where the historical and physical records don’t always match, because of what people think is important to record, vs. what they actually do. I find it a really interesting perspective on people, and it makes me evaluate my own life and personal record-keeping as well.
Underwater/maritime archaeology is also interesting to me, but because of the damage that generally happens to underwater sites, I think it would be super frustrating for me, personally, to do. I also am not particularly interested in diving on sites, because I’ve never been particularly interested in diving, and to be honest, when I see shipwreck sites it really freaks out the sailor part of me. I would be interested in being on the lab-side of things for a maritime site, though.
I would gladly work with you in any of those fields if we should ever be so lucky as to cross paths again.
That would be so cool! I don’t know how involved with archaeology I’ll be in the future, because even though I did field school and worked in the lab, I only took a few classes in it, it wasn’t my major or even minor. I’m sure that my boss/prof would be happy to point me in the right direction if I wanted to get back into it though. Typing out that post made me realize again how much I really do love archaeology, and how sad I am that it’s not in my current (very vague) life plans. Maybe I’ll get back to it and shovelbum around if I need a break from sailing!
Shoot. As if I don’t have enough distractions. (I don’t.)
What does POSOC stand for?
+ how do you pronounce it? I’ve been thinking “poh-sock” all these years and it just occurred to me that I have no idea if that’s what you had in mind.
Prarilius Oob Sir Ozlips Canix.
How did the Oob Sir Ozlips get in there? I only remember you as Prarilius Canix or POSOC.
Sir Ozlips was originally an alias I conceived for sinister purposes. Those purposes were mostly YELLING and NOT USING COMMON CONTRACTIONS. I pulled him out of the mothballs to run my province of Museica while I (Prarilius Canix) explored the high seas. Oob was a similarly deputized fragment for the Pieceful Pie Planet. As I began to develop a presence on MB outside the Museica threads, though, the personae grew tiresome, and I combined them.
Those things all do indeed sound familiar! Ah, memories.
Kokonilly pronounces it correctly, though “poe-zock” is also acceptable.
A Museican captain named POSOC
Found his uniform missing a toe sock.
He cried out, “Oh, dear!
It would ruin my career
If they caught me contriving a faux sock.”
this is brilliant
What’s your favorite sound? Least favorite?
Favorite: Heavy rainfall and wind.
Least favorite: Loud, sustained, high-pitched beeping.
Who is your most inspiring hero?
Terry Pratchett, no question.
Do…
a) the solemn intonation of “I notice that I am confused”,
b) the name Scott Alexander,
c) “Miri” being used as an acronym rather than a person’s name,
mean anything to you?
a) No.
b) Yes. I spend 60% of the time agreeing with him, and he’s a good and entertaining writer, but I think he’s got some huge blind spots.
c) Yes, unfortunately.
(tl;dr I have mixed feelings about the Berkeley rationalist cluster)
Okay. I was trying to place your involvements and knowledge in various things. I don’t personally know any of that cluster except a few Australian-ish defectors *mutterbraindrainmutterheywestillhavebrianschmidtmutter* but that is a region of the Blogosphere I frequent.
Most of the rationalist-adjacents I enjoy reading are either defectors, fringe elements, or bêtes noires. I don’t know any of the big names personally, of course — only one of my close college friends is into effective altruism.
From his Wikipedia page, Brian Schmidt seems like a pretty cool guy!
Sure, ask me anything. Priority will be given to questions asked in a poetic form, with utmost urgency granted to limericks.
Piggy may become quite rude
As hangry is such a bad mood
Lettuce or rice
or flavored shaved ice,
I’ll ask what’s your favorite food!
I can’t answer that
there are few foods I don’t love
but I’ll say sushi
((That first line was a discrete sentence…. After I posted, I realized the lack of punctuation is misleading.))
Do you have any plans for the next few years? Have you ever watched the Avatar series?
My plan for the next seven years is to be in the seminary, which I’ll be leaving for in about a month. It involves lengthy, but not permanent, separations from the interwebs. I might be around during Christmas, Easter, and summer breaks (though perhaps not during the first year?). I think I probably watched a couple episodes of Avatar when it first came out.
How similar will seminary be to joining a monastery? What are the overlaps and differences between priesthood and being a monk?
A priest is a man who has been ordained and has certain powers–to offer Mass, to hear confessions, etc. A priest can be either “religious” (i.e., in a religious order, and thus a friar/monk) or “secular” (i.e., your more run-of-the mill priest that works at the church down the street). When I entered the monastery, I would have studied to become a religious priest (though there are non-priest monks there too), although there’s a lot more to monastic life as well, including vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. That monastery was also cloistered, which means that after you make your final vows, you don’t step foot outside the monastery without the specific permission of the bishop.
The seminary is basically just a school for aspiring priests, whether they’re religious or secular. The seminary I’m entering belongs to an international organization called the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, or FSSP (its initials in Latin). It’s a seven-year program, with one year of spirituality, two years of philosophy, and four years of theology. Assuming I make it through all seven years and I’m still sure that the FSSP is where I’m called to be, I’ll be ordained a priest and assigned to one of the churches that the FSSP runs. Most likely it’ll be somewhere in the U.S., though they do have churches and missions all over the world. One of the guys from my parish who was ordained ~2 years ago was sent to rural Colombia for his first assignment. Another one went to Florida. We also had four deacons (who are in their 7th year, getting ready to be ordained as priests) visiting us on rotation this past year, and they were from Virginia, England, Quebec, and Austria.
I’m actually currently working as the parish secretary at the FSSP church my family attends, so I already have an insider’s view of what a priest’s daily life is like. A lot of phone calls, a lot of emails, a lot of appointments, a lot of people complaining about anything they can think of. This morning when I got to work, there were two drunks passed out on our porch. It’s an interesting life. The pastor (priest in charge) of my parish, oddly enough, also numbers “being the CEO of a bowling alley” among his responsibilities, but that is very much an exception to the rule.
The similarities between a religious priest and a secular priest include offering Mass daily, hearing confessions, giving advice and spiritual direction, and reciting the Divine Office every day. The Divine Office is a set of prayers, some of which change every day and some of which are more constant, that every priest in the Catholic Church is required to pray every day. Most of it’s taken from the Psalms, and there’s references to the saint whose feast it is, what liturgical season it is, etc. It’s pretty cool.
The differences…there’s a lot. It’s just a totally different way of life. Monks live in a monastery in the wilderness, doing manual labor and living in a small, tight-knit community, that sort of thing. A secular priest lives right in the middle of things, having to learn hundreds of people’s names, dealing with forms and parish budgets and paperwork…a lot of paperwork, really. Weddings and baptisms and funerals and all that important stuff too, but day-to-day it’s a lot of office work. My pastor also has a soft spot for Sonic, plays on a hockey league, and enjoys polka music.
Wow, I didn’t realize seminary was such a long process. While the religious/secular distinction makes sense in context, but from a language perspective “secular priest” strikes me as rather contradictory. So seminary is the same for both, does that mean that religious priests do that before they take their final orders? How long of a process is it to get to taking final orders?
Also, aren’t priests also generally supposed to be chaste and obedient and all that, too?
I’d say that most religious orders probably have the men take their finals vows before sending them to a seminary, but it varies, I guess. Actually, the monastery I went to is trying to get to the point where they can teach everything they need to within the monastery, so they don’t have to send a monk out of the cloister for so long–it’s not good to be away from your community, your brothers, your way of life for a long time like that. They get pretty miserable having to live outside their home. The process to final vows at the monastery I went to was about six years, although it was a bit flexible in both directions.
Chastity, poverty, and obedience are called the “evangelical counsels”, in that they were recommended by Jesus in the Gospels, but they are not required for everyone. “Chastity” in context of these counsels means “celibacy”, but generally speaking, the two things are different. Everyone is called to chastity according to their state in life, whether they’re single or religious or married, and it just means a moderation of the sexual faculties. A married couple should have a healthy, loving sexual life with each other (in a perfect world, anyway), and that is chastity for them. Celibacy is a complete abstention from sexual activity.
You’re right in that all priests are supposed to be chaste and obedient and all that. But only religious take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. A vow is a much more serious, much more binding, much more complete sort of thing. A vow of poverty, for instance, means that you give up all personal right of ownership, of inheritance, of everything. The monks in a monastery own everything in common; everything belongs to everyone. If someone sends you $10 in a Christmas card, it gets shared with the whole community. A vow of obedience is basically a complete giving up of one’s will to one’s rightful superiors–the prior of a monastery, the bishop, etc. He says jump, you say how high. He says plow the driveway, you plow the driveway. Do you want to skip a community event to catch up on your sleep? Not without your superior’s permission. Naturally, the longer you’ve been there, the less micromanaging you probably need, because you learn what your superiors want without having to ask them. Breaking one of these vows is a very serious thing–the bishop and possibly the Vatican get involved, there’s serious repercussions, it could mean expulsion from the community.
Secular priests, on the other hand, don’t take these vows, because taking them would prevent them from doing what they need to do. Take poverty, for instance. A priest, in this day and age, needs to own a car. He can’t do his priestly work without owning things himself. He’s also living far away from his superior and needs to make his own decisions, so he can’t take a vow of obedience. He is still called to be chaste, as everyone is, and chastity in his case means celibacy, since he isn’t married. He promises obedience to his bishop and his superiors, but that’s much less intense than a vow. The priests in the FSSP also promise to live according to the group’s constitutions, which include living simply (no flashy cars or mansions, for instance).
What made you decide to leave the monastery & enter the seminary instead?
It’s a long story. When I get around to writing my memoirs, I’ll make sure you guys proofread it for me. The short version is, the monastery isn’t where I’m supposed to be, and I think the seminary is. Only time will tell for sure, I guess.
(SFTDP: Make what you will of the combination of those two questions
)
Have you taken note of any significant personal philosophy/theology shifts in the last year?
I’m a software engineer working at a startup in New York City, and I organize a feminist hackerspace. In a prior life, I was a musically-inclined queer teenager with a mood disorder. I also read a lot of science fiction and sometimes still write poetry on command.
Ask me (almost) anything.
what’s on your desk?
At work, nothing really but my laptop and two external monitors (yeah, I’m cool). We have long tables instead of desks so sometimes my coworker’s pictures of her kids migrate over to my part of the table though.
At home… I gave my desk to my partner to use and have yet to buy a second one. So nothing much there either.
What was the last poem you wrote about?
It was a villanelle about JavaScript.
What exactly does a feminist hackerspace consist of? It sounds really cool.
A feminst hackerspace is much like any other hackerspace – meet people who make tech-y things and make your own things communally with them – except everyone there is a feminist.
Additionally, my space has a policy of not allowing men. (If you self-ID as female (regardless of biology) or genderqueer/nonbinary you’re welcome, others must ask first and have a compelling reason or I’ll probably deny them.)
That sounds so cool! If you don’t mind me asking, can you tell us about a some of the tech-y things were made/presented at some of your hackerspaces?
So, we’re about making together, which means that it’s a many to many relationship (everyone sits around a table) instead of a one to many relationship as is common with other tech events (one person presents to others).
Some of my personal favorites include:
Google Cardboard
Pressure-sensitive light-up soft circuit
Tensegrity shapes
and, of course, anything on a 3D printer.
What is Google Cardboard?
A cheap set of tools ($25 or so for a kit) that allows you to turn your smartphone into a virtual reality headset.
Does it hold it in front of your face and have blinders, kind of like Oculus?
Yes.
What are on the walls of your room?
I just moved in May, and haven’t put up my posters again yet, so nothing, sadly
Best and worst parts of your job?
Best: I love almost all of the people I work with, I’m learning a lot, I feel the work I do is meaningful, there are ridiculous startup perks (e.g. weekly roof barbeques in the summer, an actual beer fridge. I don’t drink beer but the fact it’s there says something about our company culture I think.)
Worst: 40 hours a week, plus seven or eight hours a week commuting there/back, eats all my time and energy. Also it exacerbates my recent fears that my lack of skill at social interaction will make everyone hate me and get me fired. But, you know, that’s probably paranoia.
How do you feel about New York?
i’m going to give this the reply it deserves later, when i’m not in danger of being late for work, but tl;dr I FEEL SO MUCH ABOUT NEW YORK
I’m completely head over heels in love with New York.
Keep in mind, New York doesn’t love me, it is indifferent at best and actively hostile at worst, it takes and takes and takes until there is nothing left of you. But I was on the elevated train home at sunset today and caught the split second when you can see the Chrysler building from approximately Queensboro Plaza, and I’ve always found architecture majestic even before I started considering that I might not want to live in a suburb forever, and I am so happy to be here and I never want to leave, except for maybe when the train takes two hours to go somewhere half an hour away.
Earlier this week on the subway to work I read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, and I had an amazing number of city-themed feelings, and I still have yet to recover.
Other media suggestions for this post:
-No Cities To Love, Sleater-Kinney (song/album)
-The City, C.P. Cavafy (poem, available online)
What is your favorite mathematical concept? What are your favorite books that aren’t Ancillary Justice (I know Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie is your favorite). Where should a new amateur coder start learning? (I.E. What language to start out with on Codeacademy.)
I tried to answer this first question but got lost in a rabbit hole of number theory Wikipedia pages. So I’m going to go for the cop-out answer here and say Platonic solids, even though there’s probably something I like more in cryptography.
Ancillary Justice is not my favorite book it’s just the book with which I have been obsessed to no end for the past several months. Everyone please read it so you can feel my pain.
My favorite book is Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. Pattern Recognition (Gibson) also ranks up there.
The languages you can program in are less important than the concepts you retain. Concepts transfer; languages aren’t forever. With that said, for your life as an anthropologist or museum person, probably HTML/CSS/JavaScript will help you most, so you can make websites.
I COMMAND YOU TO WRITE ME A POEM!
And ask you: do you have a favorite underrated sci fi short story you wish more people would read?
“COMMAND†and “WRITE†and “POEM‒s what you say
Well, I guess there are harder ways to die.
I mean, I love you dearly, after all,
And poems when they’re best come from the heart.
You’re bleeding, when you write, isn’t it so?
Then, how hard can it be? Please ponder that.
It’s not innately hard, I’ll tell you that
The devil’s in the details, though, they say
The rhyming doesn’t matter. (I hope so!)
At least, I can’t fix rhymes, for I might die
Or at the very least might break my heart
When trying to write a poem for you all
I’m sorry, I misspoke, when I said “allâ€
Forgive me, for I didn’t quite mean that –
It’s just that you loom large within my heart.
Anyway, I was saying, let me say:
This poem I must write before I die
The details are the hardest part now. So,
Without further delay, I’ll start it so
That all the world can see – I do mean all –
Can see my love for you before I die,
Expressed in poem form. Now isn’t that
The sweetest thing that you’ve heard someone say?
I hope it warms the cockles of your heart.
I mentioned yours, now let’s talk of my heart.
Of many people, I do think that so, so
Many of the ones that I love say
“my love for you is most†– well, almost all.
They don’t know about you. I can say that
I love you most, at least, until we die.
I hope that neither of us ever die!
For if you did, I think that my poor heart
would break apart again. I don’t know that
Yours would, but I would certainly hope so.
Love’s best when it is double, after all,
(best when I’m not alone, my love, I say)
Your wish is my command, that’s what they say.
A poem, like it’s easy, like that’s all?
You’re tearing me apart, I love you so.
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! AND I AM SO IMPRESSED AT YOUR SKILLS WITH IAMBIC PENTAMETER???? I cannot write in iambic for the LIFE of me. I can’t believe you wrote a sestina for my silly request. AMBITION!
My heart would DEFINITELY break if you were to die, I hope neither of us ever does, and we can roam the stars as celestial cephalopods together forever instead ♥ ♥ ♥
(and I will add that short story to my list!!)
I’m just going to put on the public record that writing a sestina seemed like a much better idea at 11:30pm last night than it does now, at 6:30am, when I am about to board like three subways and a plane.
Brilliant!
Also, my favorite SF short story is “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.
That’s an amazing story — cerebral and heartbreaking at the same time.
Hey, I love answering questions! It’s fun, usually!
You’re homeschooled, right? What do you like most about homeschooling? Are there downsides?
If you could have any two superpowers for two hours, what would they be, and what would you use those two hours for?
Actually, not homeschooled anymore. I’m now a part of an online school. It’s actually pretty fun, and convenient for me because I can just go on any time and watch videos of the class and turn in my assignments, study and stuff. And I don’t have to get up early or anything like I would if I were in a public school.
And my chosen superpower for two hours would be either “Fly to Australia within two hours” or “transport someone from Australia to America within two hours” since my best and currently only friend, Alex, is from there, and we really wish we could meet in real life someday.
what are the last five things you did?
what do you find the most interesting right now?
1) Turned the fan on since it’s so stiflingly hot in here.
2) I played Minecraft for about an hour.
3) I walked around my front room daydreaming Metallica stuff.
4) Sat down on my laptop.
5) Checked Museblog to find these questions.
And right now my interest is focused on the Queen concert my dad just put on.
Which Queen concert? I like their Montreal one quite a lot, and it kind of amazes me how Freddie manages to drink so many cups of beer while he’s singing.
The one at Wembly stadium, that’s all I know.
And I just wonder how he got those front teeth.
What did you build in Minecraft?
At the time I believe I was just in my survival world, trying to find materials to craft furniture things from the mods I have.
Right now my goal is to build a ship being devoured by tentacles.
At other times, whatever comes to mind at the time
My brothers have built up a castle over time that’s pretty impressive. When they let me play with them this summer, I added a dock and a stone path leading between the dock and the castle entrance.
I also have a tendency for underwater rooms lit by glowstone.
What’s your favourite food? Least favourite?
I had discovered my favorite food this morning when dad tried something new; mashed potatoes mixed with bacon and gravy. My least favorite food would probably be when my mom makes steak. She’s the only one I know who can ruin a steak.
WHat are some of your favorite books?
I love reading H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, as you could probably tell by the July Random Thread. I also like reading fantasy books, such as the Inheritance Cycle, which starts with a book entitled Eragon. Which reminds me, I should probably start reading those again….
P.S. The Dunwich Horror is high on my list of recommendations for books; if of course you don’t mind reading through heavy accents.
dude Christopher Paolini got a lot of his stuff for the Inheritance cycle from David Eddings’ books – he literally lifted paragraphs word for word. You should check them out, they’re a lot better. I think the series is called the Belgariad.
(for more information and a blast from the past, see: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=519#comment-56341 and https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=622).
oh WOW that went down before I got to MB but I’m having sudden blinding flashbacks of when I used to interact with Eragon (I was very much a fan, and then I very much wasn’t). What a strange long-ago time.
But I’m already attached to the characters in Paolini’s series!
But you can be attached to more than one set of characters at once! It’s okay, they won’t get mad at you!
(plus a lot of the characters are very similar since he, uh, lifted them)
I loved the Eragon series and still holds a bit of nostalgia from me. I had the same sense of disillusionment when I joined the internet and found lots of people ragging on my favorite book series.
However, they do have valid points. The Eragon series takes a really overdone and cliche plot (if you put it in space, it would be Star Wars) and puts them in a generic high fantasy universe.
And it’s fine to like it! Please don’t let anyone keep you from enjoying what you enjoy. But as your experience in the literature world grows, you’ll discover that the series is largely built on a bunch of overdone concepts. (I’m personally not a big fan of the Overpowered Elf Lady trope)
Enjoy it, though! You can keep appreciating the series while acknowledging other books.
i’m a mysterious old person, a stalkery thorn in the GAPA’s past sides, a vision from the past sucked back into the vortex of muserbloggerness…or someone who has finally finished college and grad school and suddenly has a lot of time on her hands. i have degrees in english, history, library and information science, and a whole lot of experience filling out job applications and handling rejection. ask me about sci-fi/fantasy, gaming, libraries, or for embarrassing stories about your favorite older musers/GAPAs*
*stories might not actually be that embarrassing because they probably all have dirt on me too
What levels of degrees do you have in all those things, and how long did they all take you to complete?
BA in english and history, did those in four years. the dual degree was actually an accident – i was trying to double major but i never bothered talking to my adviser and i ended up taking more classes than i needed. probably could have been out of undergrad in three years, which would have been nice, but oh well.
i have a master’s in library/information science, and that took me a year to complete. it’s a two-year program. pro life tip: don’t do a two-year program in a year, especially if you’re working two jobs. i got a graduate assistantship, and the deal was i would work 20 hours a week and they would pay for a year’s tuition. so i finished the program for free, which is awesome, but it was a LOT to try to do all at once (i was also working part time in the library where i’m currently working)
What are your favorite computer / video and non-screen (so like board) games?
ooh, big questions.
i certainly spend the most time playing crusader kings 2 – it’s a grand strategy game that runs from 769 – 1453 (or 867 if you don’t have charlemagne dlc, or 1066 if you don’t have the old gods dlc, or anywhere else on that timeline if you feel like starting later in history). you essentially play as a dynasty – once your first character dies, you continue as that character’s heir, and the game ends when your family no longer holds a title. it’s a really open game, you set your own win condition and can pretty much do anything. there’s also a really active modding community (the game of thrones mod is particularly amazing)
in non-strategy terms, i love single-player RPGs (bioware owns my soul) and have been getting pretty into arcade games, especially old fighting games
i have two favorite board games, depending on the purpose i suppose? my absolute favorite board game is probably arkham horror – back in college i used to play that game with a group every friday night like a huge nerd. probably my most-played/most-vaunted board game though is betrayal at house on the hill. it’s a semi-cooperative game where the story changes each time you play, and it’s a really fantastic introduction to more serious/complicated board games. super easy to play, somewhat creative, varied, and you get to do spooky voices
i also feel like i should probably mention that my family has a traditional card game we play whenever we get together – i think i’ve talked about it on the blog before, but it’s called schmier (or smere or schmear or however else you want to spell it, apparently) and it’s pretty much only played in northern michigan, wisconsin, minnesota, and ontario but there are so many different variations that even if you do manage to find someone who’s heard of it, they probably play it slightly differently. i grew up playing this game, it’s a Big Deal in my family and it’s basically the terrifying ordeal that all SOs have to go through when they first meet the extended family (it’s similar to euchre, but a lot more complicated and the way we play involves a lot of bravado and loud trash-talking and staring each other down during the bids)
it is my absolute favorite card game
I <3 weird card games. my family plays a game called Uncle Baiting (evolved from the same stock that Uno was ripped off of) and we have the rules on github
which is to say, I'd love to learn to play s[hsalkcjlsam]r sometime
What’s your dream job?
i would love to work in videogame preservation someday! it’s kind of been ramping up as a field (despite pushback from game publishers) and i think it’d be incredibly fun
right now the kinds of jobs i’m really hoping to get are basically university jobs that focus on digital resources, especially digital preservation
It’s a fascinating field. I attended a seminar on the subject some years ago at UNC-Chapel Hill in connection with my job at the museum.
If you could live anywhere in the world other than where you live now, where would you live?
oh man i have no idea
i really like chicago. i loved living in london, but it was so expensive that i don’t think i’d want to live there very long. i’m weirdly drawn to all the barren wastelands of the north but i really want delivery food and good internet service so that’s a problem
i’m going to be visiting reykjavik pretty soon and from what i’ve seen on airbnb i’m going to absolutely love it, so i might have a more definite answer in a couple weeks! but i honestly haven’t traveled that much outside of the US and canada
GIVE ME THE EMBARRASSING DIRT ON… MYSELF! I AM SURE THERE ARE THINGS I HAVE SAID ON HERE AND HAVE PROBABLY FORGTTEN AND WILL REGRET ASKING ABOUT
Same! I wanna know what weird stuff I’ve said.
here’s your first (MB) post! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1#comment-4
i *think* this is your first gaboomba post! hopefully wayback machine links to gaboomba are allowed? https://web.archive.org/web/20040305185420/https://musefanpage.com/NewFiles/messages.html
do you still speak any welsh? (comment #11) https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=35
here’s your first post! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=172#comment-13997
…also this thread happened. which to be fair is pretty much my fault, but you also posted on it, so: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=178
SFTDP, but just wanted to mention to any younger musers that happen to be scrolling by – if you’re ever worried about being younger than average, or the quality of your posts, just remember that the choklit thread was us. we did that. you guys are great and have nothing to worry about. we once thought that posting “choklit” over and over in a block of text was a great idea. we are in no position to judge.
we were, in fact, in high school
AHHH THE OLD DAYS
that choklit thread was a masterpiece I don’t know what you all are talking about
Ooh this looks fun! Uh, useless artsy kid hopefully studying fashion design, professional pirate/cat shelter volunteer on the side.
How did you get into fashion design? What sort of things do you learn while studying it? (what sort of classes are there, what topics are covered etc.)
Haha, I’m just a sophomore this year so I’ve only just started getting into actual major-specific classes. I’ve been interested in clothing design for a while, especially with costuming (I do reenactment and have costumed or assistant-costumed a few shows, which is really fun if a lot of work). The classes at my school start out with just a general introduction and get more specific later on, covering stuff like illustration (beginning with how to translate 2D design principles to 3D items). I’ll be able to tell you more as time goes on!
Preferred brand of cloth for undergarments?
Uh, cotton?
Mithril.
Isn’t that metallic? Ouch.
What do you do as a professional pirate?
(For a second I thought you volunteered at a place that sheltered both cats and pirates. Haha!)
I’m in a stunt/performance group. We dress up as pirates, do fight shows, music, historical presentations…My character’s name is Molly, she’s Scottish and her name is a terrible joke.
(I mean we’re actors, so the cat comparison isn’t far off…)
What sort of clothes do you like? What kind of clothes would you like to design? Who are the designers that you enjoy?
I started wearing lolita recently and it’s one of the best ideas I’ve ever had, haha. In general I like a lot of frilly and floaty stuff, I refuse to wear skirts and dresses I can’t comfortably twirl in, and sometimes I like being pseudo-goth but that’s really hard in the summer. :/
Design-wise, I really enjoy costuming but assuming I can get a job doing actual clothes my ideal is designing for as many different body types as I possibly can. That’s partially selfish because finding stuff that fits me is a challenge and a half, but also there are so few good plus-size designers and argh!
I will forever and always be a sucker for Alexander McQueen, just because so much of his stuff is gorgeous and elegant and simultaneously looks like it could be worn to the apocalypse.
I love Alexander McQueen!
WHAT a good thread. I’m 18, almost a college student. I’m not an expert in anything but I’m passionately amateurish about lots of things. I like books (mainly fantasy lit, ya lit, and sometimes graphic novels but really I read anything that looks good), traditional fairytales/folk ballads, cooking, and Shakespeare. Ask me about any of those things, or anything else!
What exactly is the origin of your username?
My blogname is an — abbreviation, more or less, of my RL name which has the letters Z & N in it! I sort of want to change it, don’t really feel like it fits me anymore, but it feels like too late. (If I did change I would call myself hapax_legomenon and make people call me Hapax.)
oh my gosh is your real name Zanzibar
because that would be wonderful.
What is your favorite thing to cook?
What’s your favorite book of each of those genres and why? What’s your favorite fairy tale? (Also have you read Uprooted because I bet you would like it)
Also, teach me to cook please
What’s your favorite play by Shakespeare? Jumping on Tess’ bandwagon, can you post your favorite (easy) recipe?
Ask me anything! Other than what my name stands for.
You’ve been on MuseBlog quite a time… what’s your favorite memory from the Old Days?
17.1 – Hard to say! I have a bunch.
penguini’s Christmas Bunny Melée was pretty awesome and insane.
The Pieceful Pie Planet adventure was lots of fun.
I also liked the SSSS’s, the pie wars, and hanging out with the crew(s) on the Ships’ Logs threads.
Do you use an alarm clock, and if so what does it sound like?
BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEE–*thonk*
Is there a meal you would eat for a week? (Like if you could only eat that dish for a week.) If so, what is it?
I would eat tuna sandwiches. Tuna is great.
I could also eat dim sum for the rest of my life (Selenium got me thinking of Chinese food), but I don’t know what most of the dishes are called.
oxlin – What would you drink for a week (besides water)?
Tea. Though I couldn’t do it without water to keep hydrated generally.
Ask me… um… anything, I guess. I am 13, male, and go to public school on the Oregon coast. I can’t really think of anything more to say right now. Just ask me anything! Ookay bye now I’m tired.
What are your interests? Hobbies? Hopes and dreams?
I’m not quite sure how to discern between interests and hobbies so I’m just going to mash then all together: I’ve been playing the guitar in private lessons for just more than six and a half years now and clarinet for the past two years in my school band. I am also rather interested in various coins that have been gifted on me by grandparents who heard that I like collecting them. For example, on the table by my bed right now I have a silver Morgan dollar (US, 1881) and and a Canadian one-cent piece from 1884, along with some other random coins such as US gold dollars and a whole stack of fifty cent pieces collect from busking at the local farmer’s market (I like half dollars just because you don’t really see them much around, so I save all the ones I get). I also have a (pretty small) binder with special plastic pages FULL of foreign coins, but nothing really too special or old. Hm. What else? I do enjoy reading, and I don’t really DISLIKE writing, so I guess you could say those are kind of like interests of mine. My grandma lives in Rhode island and has a pottery studio at her home (in fact, the very house where I will be in just less than one week) and it is amazing in there. She makes plates, bowls, and cups (pottery wheels are SO MUCH FUN), and also these really detailed sea creatures out of clay, like lobsters and octopuses and “mermaids’ purses”, and tons and tons of different shells. Every time I go to visit my family on the east coast, staying in my grandparents’ house in Rhode Island, I get to work on a project that I had started the year before, and start a new one, too. This way I can finish one project (we stay only two weeks every year, so it can take up to three years to finish) and work on another in between at the same time. In fact, on top on my dresser right now is a cobra rearing up and looking at me, a project that was finally fired and glazed this year (by my grandma- she sent it to me as part of a birthday present, isn’t that smart.) Anyway, I would say that working with clay is an interest to me. Finally, my basic dream is to become some engineer who solves or helps to solve a problem, mainly global climate change. I wouldn’t want to be a civil or mechanical enginner, but more like a… biochemical engineer or something like that. Yeah.
which of the various US $1 coins is your favorite?
I actually got this coin collecting book in 2008 that has spaces throughout to push in coins and save them inside the cardboard pages. It is also full of tons of information about US coins. Although it is obviously directed at a younger audience (I got it seven years ago, after all, and it was perfect for me then), looking through the book is still interesting and I learn more stuff each time. Anyway, what I’m getting at is that there are two pages totally devoted to $1 coins, and I have so far filled it up to James Garfield (released 2011). As I’m looking through the book right now, I find that my favorites are the presidents with beards (Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Garfield), because the detail looks really cool stamped into the shiny metal. I also like William Henry Harrison, just because of his nose.
SFTDP, but you can find the book if you just Google “coin collecting for kids steve otfinoski”
Oh, wait, sailing! How could I forget sailing? My friend’s family and mine own a Merit 25 sailboat between us, and race against other boats in our Yacht Club on Wednesday nights. “Yacht club” may sound prestigious and all, but in this case, it’s not. It’s really, really not. However, it is extremely fun to participate in (partly because our boat wins or gets at least second – sometimes third place – most of the time). It’s just impossible to describe to someone who hasn’t been out on the water racing like that. Of course, there are a few of you who are much better versed in the ways of sailing, competitively or not. Surely, you can attest to my claims.
If you could time travel to anywhere (and any place), where/when would you go, and what would you do once you were there?
Assuming that you mean on earth, I would go to… wow, this is hard… probably back sometime in the Mesozoic to see a ton of amazing extinct animals like dinosaurs and their airborne and submerged cousins. Oh, did I forget to say that extinct animals fascinate me in the my last post? Because they do.
What is the most memorable thing that’s happened to you lately?
The most memorable thing recently was probably a theatre camp that I attended last week and the week before at our town’s local performing arts center. By the end of the two weeks all six groups in the camp have written a skit and put it all together in an often hilarious play. That was fun.
Have you ever been to the Cascades?
“Cascades” is a somewhat vague term, but yes, I have been to various different places throughout the Cascade range. My family usually takes a road trip on Spring Break each year, and our journeying almost always leads us east. One year, for example, our destination was John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, which took us across I-5 and through Bend, Oregon (thus crossing the mountain range). Another year we drove all the way to Utah, which brought us across again. Other times, we make areas in the Cascades our destination, such as camping at Waldo or Crater Lakes. I have also skied at Mount Hood… once (bad experience, I was little, couldn’t find a bathroom… that’s another story). My family also goes to Portland quite often (my cousins and great aunt and uncle live there, plus we spend the night at least every year before our annual trip to the east coast), so we have have been to many places easy to get to from the city, such as the Columbia River Gorge. Oh, by the way, if any MBer happens to be in the Portland area, I would highly recommend going to the Columbia River Gorge and hiking into Oneanta Gorge, as long as you remember to wear something that you wouldn’t mind wading waist-to-chest deep in (depending on the season). Oh, and some towels. The “hike” isn’t difficult at all, it’s extremely fun, and at the end there is this beautiful waterfall that you can swim out to if you’d like. I can’t even describe it. Here, look at some pictures: https : // www . google.com/search?q=oneonta+gorge&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS652&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=633&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI7ou1_L2VxwIVRSQeCh1aHQw8
Aaaaaaaaanyway, to answer the question, yes I have been to the Cascades. And it is just amazing.
That sounds like a lot of fun.
I love this thread so much.
Anyway, um, if you want to ask me questions, I’m 17, still in high school. I like lolita fashion, reading, cartoons, drawing, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, and anime. I’ll answer questions about whatever, though.
Do you actually wear lolita clothes in everyday life? (skip if the question seems stalkerish: it’s just that all the lolita fashion I’ve seen seems to require a ton of effort) If so, how do you (affordably) get them? Do you know how to sew? Does lolita fashion have any specific rules or can you pretty much wing it?
I do actually own and wear lolita, but for now I mostly save it for anime conventions/lolita meetups. (I happen to be wearing lolita as I’m typing this, but only because my new socks just came in the mail and I wanted to try them on.) I have worn it just in public while hanging out with friends before, which is an interesting experience. I also wore it to school once (on the last day) as well as to homecoming and prom. I do want to start wearing it more regularly, but like you said, it requires a lot of effort. This is part of why I’m looking to get into fairy kei (another Japanese street fashion), so I can still wear clothes I like even when I don’t feel like wearing/can’t wear lolita. (My current non-lolita wardrobe consists almost entirely of jeans and T-shirts with some kind of fandom or other reference on them, most of which I’ve had since about eighth or ninth grade.)
As for affording lolita, the best way to get lolita for good prices is to buy secondhand. Other than that, I buy a lot of secondary items (blouses, shoes, etc.) from Bodyline, which is basically the lolita’s Walmart, and save most of my money for buying name-brand dresses and skirts.
Sadly, I don’t know how to sew. I think it would be pretty cool if I did, but it would be a lot of effort to learn, and even then sewing lolita clothing is pretty difficult so it would be a long time before I could do that.
Lolita fashion actually does have a lot of rules. I don’t want to get too technical and long-winded, but basically there are certain elements that every outfit should include.
-A dress or skirt that reaches about knee length, sometimes longer, with a petticoat underneath. (This is the most important part.)
-Something to cover your shoulders, so if you’re wearing a dress that doesn’t have sleeves you should wear a blouse underneath or a cardigan or bolero over it.
-A hair accessory of some kind, like a bow, hat, bonnet, etc.
-Socks. Usually over-the-knee socks, but could also be tights or short ruffly socks.
-Shoes, which are usually flat and have a rounded toe, or boots, which are usually knee-high and have laces.
Other than that, there’s just a certain aesthetic to lolita that can’t be defined easily. So an outfit could be lolita while breaking some of the “rules,” or it could seemingly follow all the rules but not really be lolita. After looking at pictures of lolitas and getting familiar with the fashion, it isn’t too hard to understand.
I wear lolita too! Just getting started, really, but I’ve been interested in the fashion a pretty long time.
I don’t know if this is an answerable question, but what appeals to you about cartoons that you don’t get from anime, and vice versa?
Instead of two truths and a lie, three truths and two lies.
Sure, why not? I’ve been much more of a lurker than an active poster these last few years,but hello! One year left of university, studying in anthropology, spend a lot of time with the Brown Band (scatter band, not marching band), want to work in museums or publishing. From NC, go to school in RI, just got back from six weeks in Europe. Hm, not sure what else I’ve got.
Ooh, what countries did you visit in Europe? Favourite places? Highlights of the trip?
I was in Paris for four weeks taking a class about multiculturalism and French culture. It was with a program for American students abroad. One of my good friends from school was also there, and I met a number of other cool people and we all explored the city together. I’d been to Paris three summers ago with my mom, but this time for four times as long and on my own–so pretty exciting. I absolutely love it. A friend described Paris as “so much muchness,” which I think is pretty accurate–there’s just a lot to see, and do, and explore. It’s wonderful.
The program also took us to Giverny (Monet’s house and gardens) for a day, the Loire Valley for a couple days (we saw two castles and went to a wine cellar), and Prague for a weekend. Giverny is stunning, an impressionist sight all on its own. It’s not hard to see where Monet found his inspiration. The Loire Valley was nice, too; it’s hard not to love castles. The wine they gave us at the tasting was maybe my least favorite wine that I had in France, though; the sweet wine was far too sweet, and the dry one tasted strange. The bubbly one, though, was the first time I’ve agreed with John Green’s description of it as “tasting like stars.” Prague was wonderful, and a fun place to be with friends. I’m not sure it’s a city I’d choose to return to–less to my liking than others I’ve seen–but I’m glad for the opportunity to have visited.
After the class ended, University Friend and a friend from the program and I went to Amsterdam for a few days. I am in love with Amsterdam. We did a really fantastic bike tour, ate a lot of food, walked around, visited the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum (<–amazing museum), stayed in a houseboat, and accidentally dropped the key to said houseboat in the canal at midnight (which was way more amusing and less panic-inducing than it maybe should have been).
I went on to Basel, Switzerland, to meet up with a friend. (Some of you might remember that in summer 2010 I did a program in the francophone part of Switzerland for a month–this friend and I kept in touch). We went on to Budapest for four or five days. It was very, very hot outside, but Budapest is a beautiful city with an interesting history and some lovely sights.
Then I did a little bit of traveling on my own, which was amazing if just because of how incredibly liberating it felt to be traveling on my own. I've definitely been feeling the growing pains at home of feeling less and less like a kid at school and then very much being my parents' kid when I'm home. I got a little emotional walking into the first town I was staying. It was just very… free. Anyway, I went to Bayeux (in Normandy) and Dinan (in Brittany), neither of which is very big and both of which are heart-stoppingly beautiful and which I would go back to in a heartbeat.
I visited the Van Gogh Museum as well last month, it was great!
Anyway, sounds like it was a fantastic trip!
What’s the coolest thing you’ve learned related to anthropology?
Where would you like to live as an adult?
I was actually talking about this with my sister yesterday. She wants to move back to NC, maybe, and live in the mountains. I love NC, but not the state’s politics outside the little liberal pocket I live in, and not the summer weather. I’m liking New England a lot. I visited Seattle once and adored it. I wouldn’t mind ending up in Colorado.
But I find New England the likeliest scenario, mostly because it’s the only sort of forseeable plan I’ve got–I want to end up in Boston fall 2016 after I graduate. It’s near school and so it’ll be near friends, and many of my friends are from the Northeast anyway. If I move home, there will be basically no high school friends around and definitely no college ones. Graduating is going to be devastating (I hate transitions and I love my life at school), so avoiding being lonely seems sort of important. Plus, I like the area of the country.
I guess my ideal is nearer to a city than I am now (DC is the closest at five hours), but with access to things like fresh air and lots of trees and quiet, and near the sort of eclectic-homey vibe I like around here.
What exactly is scatter band? Can you tell us a bit about your experiences with it?
Ha, um, sure. I always clarify “scatter band” to distinguish us from a marching band of the type that I was in (and you are in) in high school. We do field shows, but they changed from week to week, and where a real drum corps-style marching band show has like 70-100 sets or whatever and has its members more or less constantly marching, our scatter band typically makes about three pictures on the field per show. One of them is a B, for Brown, and one of the other two almost always resembles [redacted]. (We’re very mature.) We stop in a form, play a song, and then run around the field yelling for a minute while our scriptreader reads something usually pretty silly that makes fun of the other team, and then we stop in another form and play another song. It’s all completely ridiculous and at first I missed real marching band a lot, but now I love it. It’s low-pressure, all for fun, and a really wonderful irreverent group of people. A lot of my closest friends are in the band.
We play at just about every football game in the fall (we’re… not allowed at Holy Cross anymore), which means Saturdays are always football. We travel for away games, so I’ve gotten to see speller73 in the Yale band and Beedle The Bard in the Cornell band (I think she’s not as involved anymore but I’m not sure). We also play at hockey games in the winter, although mostly just home games for that. Also, three times a year we do an ice skating show after hockey.
Hi. I’m 23 and from California, but I’ve lived in Toronto now for about 4.5 years. I study animal physiology and ecology & evolutionary biology. I learn about dogs a lot generally, but with a general focus on coat type and ethics. I have some hobbies – craftiness, cooking, plus your standard media consumption.
i would like to subscribe to Dog Facts
also tell us about your thesis! and what is your proudest crafty moment/thing you’ve crafted?
Most crafty things I do these days are paper arts. A while ago I made like 20-30 cards for people with silhouettes of their pets and they were all pretty but I’m pretty proud of just getting the mass of them done. My kind of long-term project plan is a series of geometric Hermès scarf designs. I have a Cricut (cutting machine) which saves time that way, but it’s still a ton of hours in Illustrator. But, I should end up with pieces that fit together very neatly. Here’s an example album of one of the designs I am planning on doing eventually: imgur . com/a/JVD5Q
I honestly haven’t done much lately because a) it’s a huge time sink and b) I have just a file in my filing cabinet of arts I’ve made that I don’t know what to do with.
DOGS.
Okay so, the background is, dog breeds as we know them today are a pretty modern concept. Pretty roughly speaking, breeds used to more be a group of dogs from the same place (country or region) that look mostly the same and fulfill the same task (ratting or herding or whatever). Breeds today have specific standards (that focus heavily on appearance and only a little on behaviour) and closed studbooks (meaning no new blood). These standards are enforced, you could say, primarily through dog shows. This isn’t inherently a terrible idea – if you get a puppy through a show breeder then you know that objective (in theory) people have said that the puppy’s parents are good examples of the breed (according to the standard). The thought is that good breeders will gradually improve the breed until you reach the platonic ideal of a Pekingese, or whatever. In reality, confirmation shows reward extremism. That’s the idea.
See, dog showing has internal culture and politics, and it’s expensive, and it’s competitive, and you get trends. Nearly all show bred German shepherd dogs are black and tan, even though the standard says is actually pretty permissive, with only white being a disqualifier (this is because Hitler). Anyway, if the standard for a breed says “floppy ears” and someone decides to focus on that and reward really floppy ears, then people will go for the floppiest ears because that’s what wins shows. This tendency towards extremism really has to be illustrated, so thank god I have a slideshow at the ready: goo . gl/Az3fLG
Back? Okay. So now you see that, left unchecked, breeds tend towards phenotypic extremism – their characteristic traits get exaggerated over time. Some breeds remain dual-purpose (meaning individuals can fulfil their original purpose as well as win shows) and so you see less of that (like the Vizsla). Quite a lot end up with a significant divide between working and show bred, to the point where they’re effectively separate breeds – if the working lines even continue to exist.
So, if you have a keen eye you might have noticed this trend: for pretty much every breed without a smooth and short coat, the coat has gotten longer/fluffier/bigger. This is where I started. If coat length is a trait that’s selected for across breeds, then is it a measure of extremism and can that be seen in historical records of dog shows?
As it turns out, that’s a lot of data. Just under 200 dog breeds in 7 groups (sporting, working, etc) – and many of these breeds are then further divided in inconsistent ways. Westminster Dog Show (biggest in the US) has a lot of data available online, but I’m only going back to 1930 because that’s when they had mostly settled on organization. Mostly settled. Because new breeds are added every year, and herding split off from working in the 80s.
I’m also using genetic data – there are three genes responsible for the majority of variation in coat length and texture, resulting in at least 7 different phenotypes, as seen here: goo . gl/aW7f61 – I actually list 8, because only a few Chesapeake Bay retrievers were tested and the original researchers decided they do not have a different phenotype, but I disagree.
The third data set is from an email campaign I undertook, asking breeders who had shown at Westminster to measure their dog coats for me. It was literally like 2,000 emails and it was horrible and I’m not even sure how much that’s worth.
So. My mentor (an amazing, wonderful, kind, brilliant professor in my preferred [EEB] department) is on sabbatical this year and that buys me some time. But I still have to figure out how to use/integrate this data and produce some sort of result. I’ve also been distracted by studies on links between adult dog behaviour and coat colour, sex, and juvenile behaviour. To actually make progress on my research, I’m taking a class in bioinformatics right now, and teaching myself stats programs in the meantime.
What inspired the name Fortune Cell?
Literally nothing. Basically “let me put these two words together this is how i make a username”.
Oh, by the way, thank you so much, Lizzie, for making this thread. It helps a lot, and it’s fun!
Technical theater major at community college and MuseBlogger of almost 7 years. I love space and musicals. AMA!
what’s the best show you’ve ever worked on and why?
I’m gonna say Footloose in 10th grade, because it was the first time the director trusted me to help design lighting for scenes on my own, and also the first time I wasn’t too scared to make friends with other tech people. I also really like cheesy 80s music.
What is your favourite part of technical theatre?
Also: favourite musical and fave play?
I like that I get to be creative and solve problems, and most theater people are really nice and a lot of fun to be around. I get to see all kinds of plays and musicals for free multiple times and notice new things each time, and see the results of my work in the sets and lighting design.
Favorite musical: Unfortunately, I am Rent garbage and always will be. I also really like Les Mis, Next to Normal, Heathers, BBAJ, Into the Woods, West Side Story, Newsies, Chicago, Book of Mormon, and Hairspray.
Favorite play: I don’t really know that many non-musical plays outside of ones I’ve worked on. Recently we did Lend Me A Tenor (mistaken-identity comedy set in the 1930s) at college and that was fun.
Tell me a whacky theatre story. What is the weirdest/strangest/most exciting thing that has happened in your time working in theatre?
What’s your favorite venue you’ve put on a performance in?
Ask me anything! I’m 17, I live in California, grew up moving around a lot (major stops include New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Michigan), and just graduated high school. I’m moving to England in September to go to university. My pursuits include (in order of success) cooking, language-learning, and playing the violin. I’m half-Indian- the Asian kind- and I have a fluffy dog of very little brain.
This thread is such a good idea!
What is your dog’s name? Also [holds up hand in shape of state] what part of Michigan are you from?
My dog’s name is Toby. That is, he was Toby when we adopted him- I have determined that his full name is Tobias Jedediah Doglet.
*wiggles a thumb* Ann Arbor! My parents used to work at U of M, so we lived on campus for a few years.
What languages do you speak?
Pretty much only English and Spanish, with semi-decent Hebrew. I still have vague snippets of Chinese (I can read/write more than I can speak), and incredibly bad French- we are talking incredibly bad here, like, painful.
What languages would you like to learn?
Do you feel more Western or more Asian? I guess what I’m trying to say is there a “half” or culture that you feel is more a part of you? Or that you feel like you belong to more?
Wow, that’s a really good question. I would say I feel I belong to a more Western society, but I think the Asian side of me is stronger. I am definitely more Western in terms of how I look at the world and my plans for my life. I used to reject a lot of Indian culture, especially Hinduism, because I found it sexist and homophobic. I still do, but I’m trying to get a firmer grip on Indian culture and India itself because I feel like it’s vanishing among Indian Americans of my generation.
The way I interact with people, though, is very Asian. Part of that is probably because I used to live in Asia and I live in a very Asian part of California, but part of it is also my Indian grandparents’ influence. Obviously one can’t conflate Indian culture with Singaporean or Chinese- but some things, like family duty and the concept of face, are definitely stronger in Asia, and have a heavy influence on me.
I’d be really interested in which side of you is stronger- Sel and any other mixed race/mixed culture people here?
I’m half japanese half jewish and the jewish side is definitely stronger – I’m also fourth generation in america so my japanese relatives are pretty americanized themselves.
Tricky… I think in general I identify more with European culture etc. Similar to what you said about being Western about how you look at the world and your plans for life. The career I’ve chosen to aspire to is very much a European tradition (classical music); I think the Chinese side of my family probably has a harder time understanding what exactly I do and why I want to do it. Then again, the English half find it a somewhat unusual choice too, but I feel like it’s a more prominent part of European culture. I can’t see myself living in China, Europe appeals to me more.
I think my values are more Western as well. I went to an American school for twelve years so I suppose that was a very Western influence on my way of thinking. Also, my parents have different values so it was interesting being raised with both (sometimes frustrating!) On reflection I tend to disagree with my mother on more things (on things such as careers, importance of money, my approach to relationships/what a relationship should look like etc.) She’s pretty conservative in some areas whereas my father is generally more liberal.
I don’t know if this is relevant but I look much more European than Chinese – most of the time people can’t even tell I have an Asian half.
When I’m in Hong Kong I feel very much like a Hong Konger though. So I suppose it depends as well on where I am.
I am bad at self-description, so I’m just gonna pose ~glamorously~ w/ mysterious shades 8) Ask me anything!
What was a joke you made recently that you feel really proud of yourself for thinking of?
I read this and was like, yuss, Cerulean: Master of Comedy because I make snappy wordplays to my personal delight all the time and then I couldn’t actually remember anything funny I have said ever and then I started thinking about the word “humor” and a door in the pseudoscience corridor of my brain (it’s near the cryptids corridor) opened and announced that I must have excessive black bile to form a response, bcuz i’m v srs rn, and now my brain is acting like it did its job and can move to informing me that I should break this massive sentence into multiple smaller ones but that would spoil the strain-of-consciousness aesthetic that has emerged so instead I will roll it to a gentle…stop.
along with the shades, what would make up the rest of your ideal glamorous outfit?
I have been having so many clothing feels lately, let me show you some.
For glamorrrr, in my head I have an outfit with *waves hands*
-form-fitting black tunic with front hem over my hips and train to my mid-calves, with a white and/or reflective embellishment to make it starry
-narrow black pants which have pockets
-white doc martens
-a long pearl necklace, like silent film stars wore
-some sort of very bright unatchul colored lipstick and eyeliner
-my general Ensemble Goals are: genderplayful, pretty, and edgy, i.e., like myself.
have you considered: silver doc martens?
I have two pairs (because I wore out the soles on the first pair by wearing them every day for 8+ months), would recommend, aside from that I haven’t broken in the second pair yet so they rub giant painful spots on my heels.
!!! This is a really good suggestion. Silver would reflect light even more appealingly–!
Hey Pals! I have mostly just been the occasional lurker more than active poster these past few years. But this thread looked like fun. I’m loving reading everyone’s answers!
I will join you all in this! I am a cartoonist & just finished up at University in an Illustration program. I also went to both art focused elementary & high schools. So I guess, I’d probably be pretty decent at answering any art/comics/art school related questions!
What are your favorite webcomics?
Hi Agent Lightning!
There are so many good webcomics out there it’s hard to choose!
Right now I’m loving:
Eth’s Skin
Skin Deep
and Cucumber Quest
I’ve been meaning to read Cucumber Quest for ages now! It looks so promising. Are you familiar with Bad Machinery, by the way? It’s one of my favorites.
I love John Allison’s stuff – I’ve been reading it since it was scarygoround and I have a ton of the shirts and one of the books.
Which T-shirts do you have, Lizzie? I have two really old designs. One was “Death Has A Bunny & They Are Friends” which was a cartoony death holding a rabbit. & Then I had the shirt that was a whole bunch of line drawings of animals & stuff organized to look like a skull. Both those shirts have been retired from my wardrobe, though. As they have been worn to pieces!
I have the death/bunny shirt too! I also have pangaea reunion tour, one of a teacup with a mustache, “maths is easy” with an upside down calculator, and it is okay to be you – yellow robots on a brown background. I don’t wear them any more since they don’t fit the way I like nowadays, but I still have and love them.
Yeah! Cucumber Quest is super fun! & the art & colours are A++.
I have read some of Bad Machinery. I read all of Scary Go Round, back when that was running, and had several SGR T-shirts. In fact, those might be the only webcomic related t-shirts I have! So yes, I have read some of Bad Machinery, but I am totally not up to date. It’s really fun though!
Hi Kagcomix, good to see you!
I can’t think of any questions yet, but I think I found your blog. Your drawings are awesome!
Hey ibcf! Thanks.
Hi Kagcomix!
What tools do you recommend for a new webcomic artist? What techniques do you recommend? Any good online resources?
Hey Oxlin!
I think tools aren’t that important. There are a range of digital programs from photoshop (pricey) to manga studio (pretty reasonably priced) & everything in between that people swear by, but I really think it just comes down to whatever you prefer. As with any tool, most just require practice, practice & more practice to get the hang of. Personally, I use photoshop, but that’s just because it’s (probably) the most widely used. When I first started using photoshop I was like “key commands are hard to learn I am never going to use them. I will just click on each icon” but after 4 years using the program, I pretty much only use key commands.
I am not the most advanced digital artist. I use the same brush for everything, because I work in mainly graphic, flat images. But, if you’re looking for good digital brushes to download, Kyle T Webster makes some of the best.
As far as online resources, I don’t have any that immediately come to mind. But when I was first getting in to doing more digital based art, I got into the habit of bookmarking any tutorial that crossed my path, whether or not I needed it right then. That way, when I eventually needed some tips on, say, painting gold chains, I could search my bookmarks instead of fruitlessly searching the internet on a vague memory of a cool tutorial I saw once.
I also find, art wise, just kind of studying comics/art that you like & figuring out 1. what is working in the piece & 2. how the artist did it is useful.
My final thought to this Very Long Answer is: make sure your lettering is legible! Text is one very important element of comics, and if your text isn’t legible, readers won’t get your full intended experience.
(also I’ve assumed that you were looking for digital tips, but I work in both traditional & digital mediums & a fusion of the two)
How do you combine traditional and digital mediums?
I draw & ink traditionally. So basically I draw with a pencil on paper (or bristol) & then ink with either a brush or a dip pen (I love using actual ink, not just felt tips–although they’ll work in a pinch if I’m on the go or in a rush). I then scan those drawings onto my computer & colour them in photoshop.
I also make watercolour textures & scan them into the computer & use them to colour my comics. So if you see anything that looks super textural, or like watercolour, in my work, chances are that I scanned a watercolour wash that I made & then used the lasso tool & a layer mask to block areas of the texture out to add tone to my comic.
Halloa! I’ve been wondering what you’ve been up to.
Could you tell us more about your comic? Is it something you regularly add updates to? Something you’ve been working on for a long time? And is there a way we could be subtly directed to it?
Hey gimanator!
I have a couple comics. One is a complete webcomic that is going to print sometime this fall (this comics society i’m a part of got a grant to publish a few books & mine is one of them). It’s a comic set in a universe where everyone is a monster. The local high school is suffering from an age old curse. It’s cursed to have the same grad prank every year. So our protagonists, a werewolf, a vampire, and a lizard girl, set out to hunt down a vengeful ghost, break the curse & make this senior prank one to remember.
I also draw a weekly autobio comic.
I’m over 18, but I don’t remember the blog rules on sharing outside info. I know links are a no go, but you can find me if you google me.
I’ll allow links for you college-agers, with spaces added to keep them from being live. (Live links to other sites can send unwanted bots our way.)
I’m really interested in Illustration/animation/digital art programs in general but I’m currently at a college that has only a vague Art major and I’m focusing on film and academia at the moment. From what you’ve heard, is it possible for someone like me to do a grad program at an art school just on the strength of a portfolio?
Also, have you ever used a Cintiq? I’ve never even seen one in the flesh but they look incredibly cool (and incredibly expensive). What’s it like working with one?
Hey RQ! Sorry for the late reply.
I honestly don’t know much about grad programs. And entry requirements vary from school to school, so I can’t really say one way or another. I got my undergrad in art & plan on never ever going back to school. Unless it is in a totally different field.
That said, in my undergrad, I came across people from all walks of life. A fair amount of my classmates were quite a bit older than me, having gone & lived some life & then decided that art school was what they wanted to be doing. One of my classmates was a plumber for like 5 years or something before they decided they really wanted to focus on art. So I don’t think having other life experiences/academic experiences is a detriment.
& Yup. I used a Cinitq once. They’re pretty cool & are nicer than drawing on a regular tablet. Maybe one day I’ll save up enough for one, but that day is not today ahaha. I don’t really do anything fancy digitally with my art, so I don’t feel the need to upgrade (yet) from my super basic intuos 4 tablet.
I hope at least some of this was helpful!
Does anyone want to ask me anything? I know I don’t really post that often but I’d like to think of myself as part of the community!
I’m 21 and just graduated college this June. I’m currently job searching for some ecology or genomics internships.
What is your favorite mathematical concept? What would you like to do in an ecology or genomics internship?
Aw man, I’m not much of a mathematician anymore! To tell you the truth I only kept the name to increase my post count… But I do really like mobius strips.
The thing is that I don’t really know what I want to do for a career. Working outside with insects or plants or whatever is pretty fun, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and I don’t think I’ll like any one job ecology/genetics/genomics better than any of the others so I think maybe the best option is going with what will make me the most money, which is genomics.
With genomics I like programming a bit and I kind of hopped on the computer science train a little too late… going to get a second bachelor’s is also a pie in the sky option, but I really don’t want to be exactly like my mother (she got a degree in botany and a second degree in computer science).
Honestly being so apathetic about what I want to do has been a real block. I like playing videogames, watching TV, and reading a lot more than any science job, but I need to start making money before I can get out there on my own and start being creative so it’s the science track for me.
do you still play cello? what’s your favorite thing about genomics? are you planning to go to grad school?
I don’t play cello anymore… I had a lot of issues with practicing and I had stage fright for solo stuff so I didn’t have a teacher in college. And orchestra only met once a week so I didn’t make any friends, and it was the lower orchestra so the music wasn’t as difficult, and where we practiced was always cold. It reminded me a lot of my city’s youth symphony but without the friends. So I quit. I really want to start up again, though, but that’ll have to wait until I live somewhere long enough to get a stable practice schedule and a teacher.
I like working with the data… and feeling like I’m doing something helpful. *shrugs*
I think I’ll need to go to grad school, but I’m taking at least a year off. It was a struggle getting through undergrad. From what I’ve heard grad school won’t be too much more difficult though so that’s good.
What do you want to do with genomics? What did you major in in college?
I just want to maybe work out what genes are connected to what… nothing specific, really. I’m pretty apathetic about work in general, so I decided I might as well do something that I’m at least mildly good at that won’t be completely awful.
I majored in biology after switching from physics. I discovered that I actually kind of looking at nature and small creatures so it worked out.
Eyy, I remember you! Why do you like math? (I’m assuming you like math because of your username and because you tolerated it enough to get a degree pertaining somehow to genomics.)
I like math because it’s an easy tool to solve problems. In math class there’s always a right answer and a right way to do things. Science is kind of the same way: there’s a correct procedure to investigate something. If you get it wrong, it’s obvious you’re wrong and you can work to fix it.
I hated English in high school because even though the teachers always said there were no wrong answers, there always were the answers the teacher was looking for and all the other answers. And it was difficult to figure out what the teacher was looking for (at least for me). That changed a bit in college but even with more supportive instructors I’m never confident in what I write.
Wow, it sounds like your mind works the opposite way mine does! (Math is a mystery to me; english is easy and fun)
I’d just like to say thank you for existing, because people like you design my computers and air conditioning systems and medicines so I can comfortably write music and poems.
Ahaha yeah… I like the safety of following directions and getting the right answer. That’s really why I think I’m an ISTJ, even though Meyers-Briggs isn’t the end all be all of personality.
Wow thanks for the questions! I’ll ask y’all questions, too. But it’s 11:45 right now so tomorrow.
Posting a reminder to myself to reply to this later this week when I have more than terrible phone Internet, because I have extensive experience now working in both genetics labs and field work and may be able to offer some advice (especially if you have experience or interest in plants at all)
look, here’s another old muser checking in!
20, studying folk and computer music at a small liberal arts college in the Pioneer Valley; involved my whole life in contra and morris dance, sound engineer (mainly live), queer esp with regard to gender (I use they/them)
What sort of skills and processes go into the computer music you make?
(This question is pretty vague and I invite you to elaborate on the sorts of things you do.)
OKAY SO.
yeah, super vague question there.
some things that I could talk about:
• techno contra (this is a misnomer, I’ll probably actually just talk about this in a reply to this comment)
• what I want to do for my div 3 (involves Overtone (a Clojure library), morris dancing, accelerometers, contra dancing, quite likely Max/MSP)
• what I’ve had experience with already (mostly Max/MSP; current project is to learn how to think in Clojure so that I can do more with Overtone)
• some thoughts I have about what’s super cool in electronic music right now
but also this is the time for me to say “skills? lol”
As an attempt at a real answer, I’m fascinated by algorithmic composition, and trying to figure out what that means for me. I’ve done some pretty basic experimentation with generating two-voice counterpoint in Max/MSP, and that worked okay esp for being my first foray? but I ended up brute forcing part of it, partly because the semester was ending and I didn’t want to think about it anymore…(I generated a tone, checked if it was harmonious, if not generated a new one; super bad solution really, b/c of (very slim) potential to get stuck forever)
what do you like best about contra and what do you like best about morris? also, what are your thoughts about gender roles with regards to dance styles?
I’m going to split this up into separate responses for ease of readability.
contra:
at its heart, contra is a community dance! you have partnering situations, insofar as you dance with a partner along the line (similar to square dancing in that way), but in the grand (and idealized, in some places) scheme of things, every person is dancing with the rest of the people in their longways set, if not the hall. this is particularly true in things like “long lines forward and backâ€, where you take hands along your set and go, shockingly enough, forward and back.
within that, though, you’ve got varying degrees of room for more personal interaction! in most dances at any one moment you’re in a “minor set†of four people (you, your partner, and another couple), and most of the figures have you interacting with those three people specifically.
one level more precise than that, you’ve got things like swings, where you’ve got your partner or neighbour in ballroom hold and the two of you are going around in circles (this is often seen as the hallmark of contra). this in particular gives you a /ton/ of space for personal expression; people take the swing as an opportunity to bring over a bunch of flourishes from other social dances, like swing and blues.
tl;dr I really like how many different levels of interaction there are with your other dancers
morris:
morris is this great thing where you look Really Dorky (think white (trousers and button-down shirt), bells on calves, hankies in hands) while doing remarkably strenuous things that really everybody should be impressed by but instead they think it’s The Worst. There’s a huge variety of traditions (types of morris from different villages) where some feel like you’re flying (Bledington) and others are just this huge butch show of strength (Longborough) and then you’ve got the crisp corporate ones (Bucknell) and then in Bampton you’re just kind of hop-stepping around, although people say it can look good.
I love the opportunities to test (and show off) how well I can jump, and the uniformity within the side of 6 dancers, and how much work I can put in to really get good. there’s also a strong singing culture (sort of like Rise Up Singing circles, except with better songs and from memory; singing with people is way better without a song book!) which is /amazing/, because if my only singing outlet was Sacred Harp I’d go crazy.
tl;dr test/show of physical excellence, singing
gender roles:
I have to go to work but I have a lot of feelings
In the interest of full disclosure, I pied this twice – once from my phone at work, and again this morning. I too have many feelings about gender.
but how old are you *really*
12? 13? what, you think you can just come online and lie to us like this?
and what is this “college” nonsense, you’re not old enough to go to college
…
so do you ever write new music specifically for contra or morris or do they always stick to traditional music?
if you were to invent a dance for your music what would one of the moves be?
12.5 last I checked with jade
…
me personally? no, not at this point. but they’re very much living traditions; there are a ton of bands that quote pop music (and have been for as long as I know of!) in contra dance, and there are new fiddle tunes/etc written all the time! there’s also this whole phenomenon of techno contra, which I’m pretty sure I’m about to talk about in a different answer.
the morris musical canon is a bit more limited, but it’s definitely open to incorporating new music. there are a number of teams that’ll do a dance or two to a silly tune (the Lumberjack Song comes to mind), but I’m not counting those as real additions to the musical canon, at least as yet.
then there’s English Country Dance, in which almost every dance is matched up to a tune; because of this, you generally don’t get new tunes in the repertoire unless they accompany a new dance (which does happen, relatively frequently)
I don’t really have an answer to this question. you don’t get “moves” in these dances; you have figures (patterns of moving) in contra, and while morris has both figures and “capers” (fancy jumping around), it’s difficult to come up with new ones. also, I’m not a choreographer. also, I don’t really have any relevant composed music.
no you’re 13.5 now actually!!! Don’t you remember??? we all agreed when you finally went off to college you could be
1813 (‘:Ooh! I have a couple of questions I can send your way.
Can you elaborate a bit on your work with MAX? I’ve doodled but only a little with it and have just started to teach myself openmusic (patchwork). You mentioned the counterpoint exercises – do you anticipate developing that more for something in particular? Are there other things you expect to use MAX for or at least know you want to explore more in your projects? (I also don’t have a very clear concept of what Overtone is capable of).
I also think algorithmic composition is fascinating, but what I’ve seen of it is usually employed in more… conservative ways, I guess? a la Ferneyhough, for example. Are there composers/artists/performers/etc. that you would point to as either people at the forefront of the style or that are particular favorites that you follow?
Are there particularly pertinent ways in which a queer identity affects your work or that you anticipate it will affect that way you treat the environment in which you work? For clarity: this is something I think about a lot (mostly the absence of representation in more ‘academic’ music), and I sort of feel like I have an obligation to ensure that there is representation both in my career path and in the music I write.
And lastly, how do you expect the work that you’ll make to be treated? Is it for sort of a ‘classical’ setting like the work of a lot of uni composers? Or is it meant to be more easily distributed like Agent Lightning’s EPs? Or perhaps an entirely different setting?
Oh hey, I remember you! I had no idea we were the same age–I seem to have thought of you as way cooler, and thus, older, than me. I did Scottish Country Dance for a little while but never any other forms of folk dance–I’ve heard it’s fairly similar to English Country, though?
Are you studying folk music in a dedicated program (ethnomusicology?) or is it one of your areas of interest within a broader music major? Are you interested/studying in other forms of folklore besides music and dance?
Oh hey. I’m still here, kinda.
I haven’t been around for a while and I’m sure I’ll put my foot in my mouth again (sorry in advance), but I want to try getting back into posting.
I’m 16 now, and I don’t do much except draw and struggle to finish fanfictions. I want to learn how to play the piano, learn more languages, and someday get a job in aviation.
If anyone feels like asking a question, go for it
If you don’t mind me asking, what sorts of fanfictions do you write? (i.e. what fandoms, do you like AUs etc)
Also, what made you want to learn piano? (I’m a beginning pianist myself, hehe.)
What languages do you currently speak?
I currently want to branch out into more fandoms, such as Legend of Korra, but I’m terrible at getting into new ones and keeping up with them. I don’t normally do AUs but I like writing them based off of headcanons. Even though fanfics in general start off as headcanon-y things…. Meh.
I realized how much I love music and I wanted to be able to play an instrument. And I missed my chance to be in my school’s band, so I decided to learn to play the piano.
English and minimal French, since I only started taking it in school a year ago. But I’m determined to someday be fluent in it
what do you want to do in aviation – commercial piloting? military? are there other options? what draws you toward it?
I don’t really know. I could be a commercial pilot, since I’m too nervous about joining the military. I’ve also thought about being an aerial photographer or someone who studies plane crashes. Or get a different job and just have flying as a hobby. I’m still just throwing ideas around.
And I think I’ve always had a soft spot for planes. I love flight and have been on planes for longer than I can remember.
THIS IS SUCH A GREAT THREAD and I can’t wait to ask everyone all sorts of questions!! Unfortunately I am sans Internet or even phone signal most of the past week/next several days as I work my way back towards Vegas via exciting national parks, but when I get back I’ll also do a little update on all the things I’ve been up to if anyone has questions for me about life, the desert, mermaiding, etc!
JADE when are you going to visit me I have a spare bedroom and a futon AND an air mattress
ALAS, I WILL NOT BE DRIVING BACK TO ILLINOIS AFTER ALL THIS FALL, SO I DO NOT KNOW WHEN NEXT I WILL BE PASSING THROUGH NEBRASKA
The reason for not going back is JOB GET, which I can now finally officially say. And gainful employment is good!! But it does mean our eventual (inevitable!) reunion may have to be put off a while longer
Although I will almost certainly have to go back towards IL at SOME point. Christmas time ish maybe??? i’m gonna try to skip out on thanksgiving with my family if I can so idk when else I’d be dragged back.
So, Jadestone, about this job: details, please?
A VERY BELATED REPLY but at least I’m finally talking about it BEFORE it ends: I’m working for the USGS (US Geological Survey) in Moab, Utah as a biological technician!
it’s mostly field tech stuff, later there will also be office and labwork. I heard about the position from someone from the Canyonlands Research Station here who was working with my supervisors from the Mojave on a project that we helped out with over the summer–the two offices are collaborating
on a study on plant/soil regeneration on old oil well pads on the Colorado Plateau (and someday i will write more about that project when i ever finish my summery of my projects from this summer whoops). Anyway, the guy who did the soils work with us in the field while we were doing plant measurements sent us summer interns an email when they opened tech positions at his station for the fall, and I applied & got one!
In theory, I was hired to help out with the abovementioned oil study, and also an aeolian transport sediments thing, but in practice all/a subset of the techs work on whatever project is most pressing. So my first week here, my first day was all paperwork and forms and Government Training Tutorials, but the rest of the week I helped out with a study on the invasive Tamarisk trees in the area!
A while ago they introduced a specialized beetle that lives in & kills tamarisk trees, and while my initial reaction to that sort of thing is “oh god no this always goes wrong”, it actually seems to be working very well out here. there’s some transects along the Colorado River that they’ve been monitoring yearly for I think over a decade now, measuring things like what species are on each/abundance, canopy makeup, the amount of light that filters down, ground cover, etc!
what this means for the techs: in pairs, we fight/scramble/contort ourselves through 20-150 meters of tamarisk, willows, grasses, brambles, thistles–whatever is between us and a straight shot to the river. most of the time we were crawling on hands and knees and army-crawling under branches occasionally we’d have to sort of emerge and walk across the lower canopy because there wasn’t any room to wiggle further underneath. I’m not talking about going for a hike in the woods and pushing through some branches–I mean we were actually in the dirt hauling ourselves along and wriggling through spaces no human was meant to go. to loosely quote one of the other techs, “it’s just not a place where people belong. we should not be here.”
We run a measuring tape with the first person breaking their way through; the second carries a bag with clipboard/soil corer/densitometer/datasheets/bags for dirt/bags for plants we don’t know/mosquito face nets /etc etc. once we finally barge our way to the river, we came bac and did measurements every half-meter or meter depending on which of the two sites we were at. It made me realize how bad I am at riparian plant ID!!! I probably have some of the most extensive plant taxonomy skills of the group but I was mostly lost until we could get back to the lab and some ID books.
anyway, we did that for 10 hours a day for 4 days each week during my first two weeks! and I have to say everyone told me it was gonna be terrible, but really I thought it was kind of fun having to sort of clamber through. though my standards for “an enjoyably acceptable time in the field” after my summer in the Mojave are basically 1) under 100ºF 2) no sand and/or hiking through sand dunes 3) less than 3 miles of walking. so like, maybe my bar is just set very low right now.
this week I’ve been working on a different project measuring the effect of changes in rainfall on some grassland areas. there’s a site with a bunch of plots, some of which are under rainout shelters that stop 40% of the water from entering the plot without blocking light/air. This week we went through two species of grass (Pleuraphis jamesii and Achnatherum hymenoides) and measured them in detail for all the plots (5 of each per plot/6 plots per rep/6 reps in the site), as well as some species of Ephedra that was in 18 of the plots. Basically it was a lot of careful balancing over the areas on scaffolding and counting and measuring things. We worked in pairs through and 4 of us were in the same plots for one day so we got to chat a lot, it was fun! We were working on BLM land, but we were staying overnight all week at a house the USGS sort of has continual dibs on or something from the National Park Service, so we were staying in Canyonlands National Park. SUPER beautiful area. I’ll go back to do similar work for the next two weeks, and I’m looking forward to doing a couple short hikes if we get spare time in the evenings.
I have been doing a fair bit of hiking around Moab in general! LOTS of things nearby. I’ve been to Arches National Park once this summer before I got the job & once since I’ve moved here (plus I get in free now to a bunch of parks in the sootheast corner of Utah, woooo), same with the La Sal mountains; and a handful of local stuff near the Colorado River etc. this would be a great place to get back into rock climbing and biking too… so many things I want to try! my position is only for 6 months, but it seems like they preferentially rehire techs who want to stay on, so I could probably extend it and stay longer if I decide there’s more I want to do here after this winter. We’ll see! It’s a cool place, but I’ve enjoyed my recently nomadic lifestyle a lot too, where I get to bounce around to a new landscape every half-year.
WHOOPS that’s so long again. man I don’t ever realize how much I’ve typed until i see the giant wall. anyway tl;dr, my job is cool, i’m exhausted but pretty happy with it, and I feel like this sort of work from this summer & currently is doing a lot to reinstill the excitement for science I had that academia sort of slowly suffocated much smaller during my time at college.
Can you tell us a little more about the sort of work you’re doing in the desert?
ALMOST A MONTH LATER, I FINALLY HAVE THE FREE TIME TO SIT DOWN AND REPLY TO THIS!
I guess also conveniently, since that position has now ended and I have moved away, I can talk about it without being vague about my location.
(I’m going to talk about the type of position I had first, because it was a really fabulous opportunity, and maybe other Musers might want to try it out in the future. Then I’ll talk about the actual science we got into!)
I spent this summer working as an intern through the Chicago Botanical Garden’s “Conservation and Land Management” (CLM) internship program! They place recent college graduates (you have to be reciving your degree at least by the spring after you apply (applications are accepted from mid-november through mid-january), and be no more than… 25? years old, I want to say (you CAN do them several years after graduating as long as you’re still under the age limit, or apply for them for multiple years). The main focus of these internships is botany, conservation, and ecology–but there are a few wildlife or geology or etc opportunities every year as well.
The CBG staff get all these applications, and then they ALSO get “project applications” from various mentors around the country. Then they sort through all the projects and applicants, and try to match up people with work they have experience in or have expressed interest in. Most of the projects are through government agencies–the Bureau of Land Management is the main one, but also the US Geological Survey and the National Park Service, etc!
The main focus of these internships is field work. Field work in ecological sciences can be hard to come by, especially the sort that pays you. In undergrad and after I graduated I did almost entirely labwork in my botany research positions, and I really wanted to expand so I wasn’t going to sit indoors all summer every year, because I started to go a little crazy with that.
I was matched up with the USGS in Henderson, Nevada; with a set of supervisors who hire two interns every year to work on their projects! The focus was botany, despite being with the USGS–there’s actually a biological research division WITHIN the geo survey due to Political Shenanigans many years ago, which I could get more into but will refrain. There were four main projects we worked on; although we also helped out with a bunch of others. They were:
actually ok I just finished the first project description and this is already getting long and i’m not gonna have time to finish probably, so, i will do these as seperate comments just in case i have to run!
“Ecology of Two Contrasting Endangered Endemic Dune Plants at Death Valley National Park, California”
Basically: there are two species of plant that grow only in this one specific valley (Eureka Valley) within Death Valley National Park, on the sand dunes within it. There’s a primrose (Oenothera californica ssp. eurekensis) and a grass (Swallenia alexandrae).
In general, as climate change causes temperatures to shift, plants gradually move along with their habitat zones–say, if it’s getting warmer, plants will be able to grow in areas farther north of their current location (in the northern hemisphere), and may start to die off on the southern/hotter end of their range. In mountainous regions, plants that prefer cooler climates may start growing at higher elevations–which gives the same effect.
HOWEVER, what do you do when you have no where to go?? The plight of endemic species is that, for whatever reason, they’re confined to their specific location. In this case, the primrose & grass are stuck on the sand dunes they’re currently distributed over. There’s not significant elevation gain to drastically change the temperatures across the dunes, and they’re not large enough in area for them to spread north. Hotter climate also means less rain–which is already sparse enough in the desert.
So, we’re measuring how they grow over several years, and what the weather is like in those years, to try to get an idea of how they’ll be affected.
What that means for me: We get in the car around 6am in Henderson (which is right next to Vegas), and drive 5-7 hours to Death Valley, depending on which roads are currently washed out. We get in sometime around 1pm, and hike 3 miles across the desert to our first set of sand dunes, where we then do either all the measurements on the primrose or the grass (we only have time to do one of them in the half-day we arrive). For the primrose, we hike to each location we have them and re-find individually tagged plants with a GPS, although they often get buried or eaten or die so you have to re-tag new ones every trip. We measure it’s diameter/cross diameter/height, count the leaves and buds, etc, so we can compare it to previous years growth and temperatures. For the grass, we mark an individual stem with tape, and count/measure the leaves above the marker every time we go back.
Then we go back to the car, camp out for the night, and around 5am the next morning hike back into the dunes to measure whichever of the two species we didn’t finish the first day. Then we hike back, and spend the next 3 days doing the same thing at the other two sets of dunes within the valley. Then we drive home again for the weekend. Every other week or every third week, we go back and repeat the measurements!
This is in the SUMMER in DEATH VALLEY, mind you, so generally it was somewhere in the 90ºF range and sunny. ALTHOUGH I have the WEIREDEST weather luck, so it DID rain on us no less than 3, maybe 4 times on our trips. The hottest it was for a full day of work was probably around 104-107ºF. We carried about 4L of water with us into the dunes each day–and let me tell you, if you think speed-hiking up sand dunes is bad, try doing it with a 20lb backpack of supplies.
Death Valley was amazing, though–it was so crazy to me how QUIET it was at night. No bugs, no people, no cars–just the wind, constantly rushing across the desert. Sometimes you can hear the bats if they fly low (or dive bomb the car, we never figured out for sure what they were up to there), and the kangaroo rats rustling around on the ground–or, under your tarp, if you weren’t paying attention when you set up where you were sleeping! We don’t use tents out there–it doesn’t rain (HAH except the two times it DID overnight) and it just gets too hot, and they take extra time to set up/take down. So we’d just fall asleep under the stars–and BOY were there STARS. I saw several meteors while camped out, although since I;m nearsighted I always miss a lot since i have to take off my glasses to sleep. I also frequently wished for the ability to turn off the moon, because it just got SO bright, since there were seldom clouds and it reflected off the gray sand super well.
ALL RIGHT! HERE IS AN UPDATED BIO UPON THE SUBJECT OF MYSELF! this is also gonna serve as a general life-update for me since it’s been ages and ages since I actually posted what I’ve been up to??? sorry!
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THE BASICS:
I am an ageless immortal entity that vacillates between the shapes of a giant space squid and a dragon, but for the purposes of existing in the mortal realm you can consider me a 23 year old college graduate. And this time I did not have to google my birth year to figure out my own age, which is a step up from March, I’ll have you know.
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SCHOOL:
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high school was a dark time I do my best to forget, but I went to a smallish public school in a conservative area of northern IL. I grew up about an hour away from Chicago, in the suburbs.
I went to a small liberal arts school in northern Ohio–Oberlin College. I double majored in biology and geology, and fell super in love with science in general as long as that science was not organic chemistry. I also took “excos” (1-credit, small classes for students taught by other students, that lasted a semester but met only 1-3 times a week) in herpetology, traditional irish music, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (analysis of the show), poi (which I have successfully gotten several other musers into!), sharks… there were more but i have forgotten.
I played on the quidditch team for 2 years (aka until we all got too busy to maintain it), had lots of adventures, and graduated dressed up as a dragon.
I also spent a semester studying abroad in Ireland, at the National University of Ireland, Galway. I lived in Galway but traveled all over! I loved Ireland a whole lot and left part of my heart there.
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SCIENCE:
The summer before my senior year of college, I worked in a botany lab for my advisor. The overall research was on how unusual soils have interacted with past climate changes in the Chihuahuan dessert, and the effects this has had on the distribution and diversity of plants within the region. Specifically, plants that grow only on gypsum soils–aka, gypsum endemics. What this means I did myself in lab every day, was take already-harvested plant tissue, and extract the DNA from it, which involved using fancy machines and fun chemicals like chloroform, and lots of playing around with liquid nitrogen. I mainly focused on a genus of plants called Acleisanthes, and after we got our DNA sequences back, I also wen through and manually aligned the sequences to each other/corrected errors/used this data to create a family tree of the individual plants (aka: a phylogeny). Then looking at this, we could learn things about the plants and region overall! I continued this work through my senior year, and in the summer after I graduated presented a poster about it at the 2014 annual botany conference from the Botany Society of America (BSA).
After I graduated, the professorI did my undergrad research for offered me a position working with one of his collaborators! They (and some others) were on a grant together for this project, and in the grant was included money to specifically trade undergrad students between all their labs. So, I got to go to Cambridge University in England for the summer to work on RNA isolation, which is like DNA isolation but you have to be much more careful. My position was extended and I ended up staying through to the end of November. I traveled around england lots and had some fantastic adventures with the marvelous Paul Baker!
After that,
I went home and played dragon age for 3 monthsI got an internship this March through the Chicago Botanical Garden (the person who runs the program is buddies with my undergrad advisor & came to give a talk about her research, and also gave one about this internship program, which is how i got interested in it). They’re “Conservation and Land Management” internships, so they’re partnered with various US government agencies–mostly the BLM (Bureau of Land Management), NPS (Natinal Parks Service), USGS (US Geological Survey), etc. A lot are with the “Seeds for Success” program, which harvests seeds to store in seed banks, keep handy for scientists, and send to places that want to plant that specific species.My internship is with the USGS in Henderson, NV (right next to Las Vegas, which is where I currently live), but the biological division of it (yes, it’s complicated, though I can talk about that in particular if people are interested). There’s 3 main projects we’ve been working on, which I will save the long explanation for when I reply to Agent Lighting! But basically, we travel all around Nevada, California, Utah, and a bit of Arizona (aka: the Mojave Desert!) doing field work–we often camp out in backcountry conditions for up to 5 days at a time, and I’ve worked in up to 109-112ºF heat, although that was a more stationary day. The hottest it’s been for our extended hikes has probably been around 103-105º while traversing around the sand dunes of Death Valley. Ask me anything about camping you want to know!! We don’t use tents. The science I will definitely expand on a bit more.
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HOBBIES:
Photogtaphy! I have been an amateur photographer since around 8th grade; I got my first DSLR when I was 16. I desperately need to upgrade my camera now but am balking at prices. I have taken classes in both digital and darkroom (b&w) photography.
Circus! I have been spinning poi for a little over 4 years, with many very long breaks. I did normal/glow poi at first, and my senior year of college I participated in a “fire and aerials” showcase with my college circus group, where I did a fire poi routine and we all did fire eating/breathing. I also have a contact juggling ball that I am terrible with. I can do a normal juggle (3-ball cascade) but not for long.
Books! Many fantasy & sci fi books in general. Right now I’m way into the Realm of the Elderlings universe of books by Robin Hobb, and DESPERATE for someone to talk to about them (THE NEWEST ONE CAME OUT YESTERDAY AND I AM SCREAMING). I also have an absurd number of emotions about the Animorphs books and will talk about them endlessly whether you want me to or not.
Dragon Age. I was gonna say video games, but, tbh. Dragon Age. I played DA: Inquisition for the first time in a week and a half with over 110 hours on the save file. And then played it 2 more times immediately after in the following 2 months (100 hours and 90 hours, respectively, for those playthroughs). I also dove into fanfiction for the first time with this series, both reading and writing, because I’m elf-loving garbage. I know way more lore than is necessary for these games. I don’t know what questions anyone might have about this game or whatever but I add it to this section since it ate up so much of my life/time/thoughts.
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SPORTS:
Ice Hockey! I have played for 13ish years. My mom stuck me in figure skating when I was tiny, but they told me I “went too fast” and “wasn’t trying to be graceful” so she switched me to hockey learn-to-skate instead. I started playing on a team in 3rd or 4th grade on a boy’s team that there was one other girl on, and in 5th ot 6th grade switched to an all-girls team in a league where all other teams were boys. I stayed in this league through 9th grade. 10th-12th grade, I (and most teammates from previous team) switched into a female league for various reasons. I don’t know what it’s called now since the name changed, but at the time it was the “Midwesrt Elite Hockey League” and we played against teams from Illinois, Michigan, Boston, Ohio, Colorado, Florida, and Canada. And Texas?? And maybe others. So not only midwest but most teams were. We did 4-5 tournaments a year in different places across the country so we could all play the farther teams, but mostly I played against the other teams from IL. The league was very intense and stressful but a big part of my life.
So my D partner stuck in front and I went in for the violent corner duties instead. It was a lot of fun, we practiced 1-2 times a week, and mostly played the local men’s league or fightfighter/policeman teams.
I also played in a (girls) high school league from 10th-12th grade, for a high school near my hometown (but not the school I went to). It was much more chill and relaxed, so more fun, but also–two hockey teams at once, that was a struggle.
In college, I played on a casual co-ed team. Most of the other players only had a few years of experience or weren’t very serious with it, or were even entirely new to the sport! It was a big shift, suddenly being one of the “best” players on the team for me. I really loved teaching people how to skate and working with them on stuff. I also really loved being better than most of the guys (there were 2-4 girls on the team, depending on the year, during my time here). I didn’t love the fact that as a 5’4, 125ish lb girl, I often did not have the muscle/weight to move the other team’s 6ft, 180lb dudes out of the way when playing defense in front of the net
Tennis! I did tennis all through high school and I miss it terribly. I played singles mostly, and senior year I did pretty well and got some medals from tournaments. Mostly second place. I wasn’t nationally ranked ever or anything though.
Archery! While in Ireland, I joined archery club. I mostly shot barebow although I did some recurve. It was a lot of fun and I miss it!! I went to one competition and did terrible because I was very nervous but it was a fun experience.
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MERMAIDING:
was going to be in the ‘hobbies’ section but got too long!
about 2 years ago, I discovered the world of “professional mermaiding” online and was instantly enthralled and knew I needed to become a part of it. I posted much of this descent on MB at the time. I read about 200 tutorials online, joined a forum of mermaids, and a less than a month later began to make my own mermaid tail.
My tail is made out of miliskin, which is like swimsuit spandex but a tiny bit thicker. I have a Finis Wave monofin at the end–imagine two swim fins glued together, so you have to dolphin kick while it’s on. I modified the fin to a more “mermaidy” shape, and it goes under the tail so the fabric looks like one single piece (or two sewn together if you can see the side seams). I painted scales onto it using netting fabric as a stencil, so they’re just diamond-shaped pattern hand painted onto the fabric with special metallic paint. I used goldfish colors! Orange tail, red/orange/gold for the scale paint. It is fully swimable underwater! I also have swimsuit, seashell, and seaweed-style tops to go with it to complete the “mermaid” look.
For the “professional” part: For the first year, I mostly just swam in it on my own a couple times (in the lake I live on, or my college pool) and had friends take pictures of me! Including dear Paul while I was studying abroad in Ireland, who I dragged with me to the Isle of Skye in Scotland so I could hike to the fairy pools and take magical photos there. And also Wales, but he’s the one who bribed me out for that trip.
Last summer, I decided to try branching out a bit more with it, while i was in England. Doing things like birthday parties and events for kids is tricky since you should really have performers insurance and register yourself as a business, and those laws vary from state to state, so since I was not even in the US at the time I decided to focus on the modeling side of things. I’m on a pretty popular model/photographer/makeup artist networking site, where you can post/respond to casting calls, search for people in your area to work with, etc.
There ARE some sketchy people and ‘opportunities’ with this sort of thing, but I’ve steered pretty clear of those (if you’re thinking of getting into modeling I will give you a safety lecture though!). I met up with two photographers while I was there in the end, one who contacted me, and one I sought out myself because I really fell in love with her work. Both were very professional people, and went well! There were two other photographers who I tried to get things arranged with, but timing just didn’t work out.
Mermaiding died down for the winter because everything was FROZEN, and then I moved to the DESERT. However, I have done a few shoots while here! I did one with a local photographer who was actually doing a specifically mermaid-inspired project I happened to stumble upon online, and one with a photographer from Canada who was coming to Vegas and looking to do some shooting while here, so we took pictures in a casino and also some outside in downtown Vegas. They didn’t let us into the hotel pool with my tail, alas. I also did an underwater photoshoot in a pool with another local photographer. I did two shoots where I just made my friends take pictures of me, one in Quail Creek State Park reservoir in Utah, and one in Arches National Park (but not in any arches, just in a riverbed!). At Quail Creek, I did interact with a lot of kids, which was very fun. I also have had lots of random folk/tourists take my picture or pics with me in various locations–here in Vegas, a lady who was a bit mistaken about the situation at hand took me for a street performer and gave me $2 while I was doing one shoot (since I’ve now been “paid” for it, can I call myself a professional???).
I tentatively could have a shoot with a photographer back in IL if I head back there this August, but (fingers crossed) I will be getting a job closer to here soon, so I might not head back.
Besides modeling, I would really like to branch into the entertainment and education side of mermaiding! Lots of pro mers use mermaiding as a way to educate about and promote ocean conservation, which I think is fabulous. As mentioned though–I’d need to register as a business (LLC probably) and get insurance if I was gonna be working around kids, and since that varies so much from state to state, I have it on hold while I’m living a more nomadic lifestyle.
In the meanwhile, I’m hopefully going to be making a new tail in a slightly different style, though still out of fabric (there’s 3 types of tail in general–fabric (spandex or neoprene), latex, and silicone; in price order. My fabric tail was about $100 in materials (I already had a sewing machine), a GOOD silicone tail averages $2000, although they can easily run $3000+ with custom designs and extra fins). I’ve considered selling tails, tops, and accessories, but haven’t decided for sure if I will yet. If this new style works out, it’d be a bit more unique, and then I think maybe would be more marketable–but we’ll see!
I also have a facebook page and tumblr blog for my “mersona”, as some call them. My facebook page now has over 1500 likes, and tumblr around 650 followers, though both are slowly growing. I run these social media accounts not connected to my “real” name (I go by “Mermaid Jade”), and I mostly stay “in character” as a mermaid on them, though I happily answer questions re: materials used to make my tail & tops, etc, so I’m not exactly claiming to be legitimately half-fish.
You know, I don’t think I’ve actually ever posted any pictures from my mermaiding on here??? So if you want and the GAPA(s) are okay with it, I’ll post pictures from any of the abovementioned shoots as well! I’ll count it in with the questions.
ANYWAY, THAT GOT SUPER LONG, BUT: ASK ME ANYTHING!
Jade your life is so marvelous and full of fantastic wonderful things and also oberlin??? I had no idea you went to oberlin wow?! congrats!! But yes that post was marvelous to read and is inspiring me to be productive today.
This seems like an ideal time to resurface! 21 right now and just about to head back to uni. If I had to list an area of ~expertise~ it would definitely be contemporary composition. Other important things have been philosophy and numbering among the queer folks on here with mental disorders, I suppose.
What about philosophy interests you most?
It might sound like a bit of a cop out, but it’s how it gives me a sense of how I fit into the world. Up until the end of high school I was intensely religious and constantly felt an obligation to defend my beliefs. It was a mystery to me how uninterested people could seem in response to what clearly had to be the MOST IMPORTANT THING. I was pretty aggressive about it at the time. Towards the end of high school I underwent a pretty big shift on that front because things didn’t seem to add up, and my idols shifted from people like Augustine to Nietzsche and Camus, who presented ways to try to cope with my depression.
The sense of significance stuck around, so I stayed with it (though I’m quieter about it now). These days, it’s how I prioritize gratification? or validation? I guess, and how I should be a contributor to the future (which has always been a big theme for me), so it’s stuff like Gibson’s books on the singularity and the effects that might have (or more importantly, the class stratification that bringing it up even suggests, or, in many cases, an obliviousness on that privilege side of things) or stuff like bell hooks’s writing to place race and gender into context (both personally and generally). It all tangled up with my politics right after high school.
What does your composition process look like?
It varies from piece to piece, but there are definitely things that carry over between them. Plus, I’ve settled into some habits with my last works.
Generally I try to make sure that I know what concepts I want to handle and what instruments or people I’m writing for, and then I align a form and length with the piece for that and begin allocating material, or at least planning where I want certain things to happen (slow transformation of this under this, which repeats here, is distorted here, and this theme I’ve had in my head goes here, etc).
Recently I’ve been working with pre-determined pitches (more realistically, pre-determined frameworks that I’ll change if I don’t like the sound or they don’t work or whatever), so I work on planning out pitch material alongside the form.
Then I move onto specific moments and I usually think of gestures first that I’ll plot out rhythmically and fit pitches into later, freely or according to what I’ve plotted. These can be either independent or for specific moments in time. I usually start with middle sections and a beginning and then keep doing that everywhere else until the whole piece is filled, which gives me freedom to adjust and build around the important bits.
And even for pieces that are just a couple minutes long, this ends up taking a lot of time (a lot of which is used deliberating, scrapping, or staring at a page blankly before doing something else).
It’s far from perfect, but I think it’s slowly getting me towards the kind of music I want to write.
I’m really late to this, as usual, but if anyone’s still doing these: I’m a 20-year-old film and comparative literature major and theatre minor at Northwestern. I’m asexual and somewhere on the aromantic spectrum, I’m in a sorority, and I’m really into folklore and mythology. I can tell you about any of these things or anything else you care to ask!
How is Comparative Literature treating you so far?
It’s been kind of a weird journey, honestly? I came in wanting to do Comp Lit with Spanish and Latin as my two languages, but the Spanish department was so frustrating that I dropped the idea and did other things for a while. I’ve been a Classics major and religious studies minor, an English major and dance minor, and finally settled on the three things I have now. I basically combined the stuff I’d done for English and Classics into one major so I didn’t have as many requirements left and that freed me up to take enough classes for the theatre minor. The fundamental idea of what I wanted to do hasn’t changed, though, just my approach–I wanted to do creative writing through the English department and now I’m doing it through screenwriting instead of fiction, and all the other majors were basically just ways of approaching the thing that I actually wanted to study, which is folklore and mythology. Comp lit is the best possible thing that allows me to study that and it even lets me have it as a concentration, so it’s basically just a workaround–the department is pretty disjointed in some senses but I’ve enjoyed the one course I’ve taken so far.
ain’t gotta tell me about weird journeys. Best of luck!
What sorority are you in and why did you choose it?
Do you have a favorite group of myths?
I’m currently unable to sleep from weird nerves about going to my next boat tomorrow, & it’s got me running over last-minute packing lists in my head. So here’s a generalized question for all of you: what books do you have that you’ve read before, but always bring with you to a new place? (Alternatively, am I the only person that does this?) I used to always tote around a complete works of Shakespeare, but for the last 5 years or so my constant book companion has been an increasingly dog-eared copy of the Rattle Bag, a poetry anthology that Robert gave me, & which I’ve supplemented by stuffing in extra pages with some of my favorite poems not in the book copied out in longhand.
I volunteer to be asked questions about me, myself, and I!
How long have you been on the MuseBlog?
What are your favorite books?
Hey, why not?
So, I’m guessing AEIOU is your favorite muse… Did you that gravatar, or is it from the mag?
Feather’s actually my favorite as a character, but AEIOU inspires me more.
The gravatar’s from the mag, I think from when they used to have “met our muses” pages?
Ah. I remember the MOMP. My favorite muse has always been Mimi. Or, at times, Urania. Actually, all of the muses have been my “favorite muse” one time or another.
What are good subjects to ask you about?