#compulsory creativity

[dustedmagazine]

Bruno Duplant & David Vélez—des-illusions (Unfathomless)

des-illusions by Bruno Duplant & David Vélez

Sound artists Bruno Duplant and David Vélez are well matched. Each is an artist whose work processes the world around them and their reactions to it. And they share an awareness of the personal dimensions of collaborative creation. Duplant, a multi-instrumentalist and composer from France, has made scores that doubled as letters to the artist who has expressed interest in performing said score. And Vélez, a Colombian who has recently spent several years studying in England, made his understanding of the tension between Duplant’s hopelessness about humanity’s prospects and the defiant hopefulness expressed by making new work a guiding force in his contributions to des-illusions.

According to the album’s liner notes, which you can read on its Bandcamp page, the impetus for this collaboration was a conversation the two men had about making music in a time of environmental and social crisis. Collected sounds — birdsong, bugs, rain, running water, the conversations of passing people, machinery — figure prominently in the two-part, 43-minute-long piece, which is bisected so evenly (the running times are exactly 22:00 and 21:00) that one suspects that this CD might once have been planned to be an LP. But so do played sounds, particularly pulsing and tolling synthesizer voices. Both have been subjected to interventions, having been looped, chopped and filtered so that their combinations constitute a sound environment quite distinct from the ones that were sampled to make it. The played sounds don’t mix with the environmental ones so much as they bob on top or alongside them, which might represent the relationship between humans and the world they strive to manipulate and manage. But if this is a soundtrack to our currently combusting world, it imposes a very specific combination of moods, simultaneously forlorn and persistent.

The experience of this recording may be modified by skipping the accompanying notes. Separated from their description of intent, this music’s crepuscular vibe might dominate, and hip sleep specialists could plausibly prescribe it as a possible aid for those seeking slumber. This is not, however, a failure on the part of the work to communicate, but evidence that the collaborative impulses that brought it into existence include the listener.

Bill Meyer

#bruno duplant #david velez #des-illusions #unfathomless #bill meyer #albumreview #dusted magazine #ambient music #field recordings #climate grief #compulsory creativity

[rising-above-stars]

this did wonders on tiktok

this was also my final assignment for a sociology paper

#lara rambles #lara.png #collage #art #traditional art #lesbian #wlw #poetry #comp het #compulsory heterosexuality #i use that one line from bare a pop opera a lot #imagine a creative writing/theatre student taking a 300-level sociology paper

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: April 30

"Breakeven" by The Script

#song of the day #cybersecurity videos completed today and we moved on to various types of workplace harassment and bigotry #what fun to complete four years' worth of compulsory office trainings back to back #surely tomorrow I will finish my gen-ed requirements and get to actually learn about finances. surely tomorrow. #anyway I couldn't mute or fastforward today's videos so I gave myself ten minutes to read fic as a special treat after each one finished #and at one point a character in the fic decided to use his heart and not his head and The Script started playing so loudly in my head #and did not leave #anyhow yesterday I said I'd give my two Teen Wolf song-related-fic-recs today and here they are! #fic rec #'with bloody feet across the hallowed ground' by owlpostagain - in which Stiles tells the literal truth! and it's a glorious trick! #absolutely delightful story. ticks over like perfect machinery. hits every emotional beat and then some #and 'The Sound As They Broke It Was Fearsome' by skoosiepants #an interesting setup--Teen Wolf and HP universes sort of merged--the Hale House is infinitely worse than the Shrieking Shack #also good character work but mostly it's the creativity of the merged world and the way it's introduced in the story that catches my mind #very good showing and not telling. what I think of as 'inset exposition' built right into the story #also it's a good song! 'I Guess I'll Forget the Sound I Guess I Guess' by Bodies of Water. some of the most memorable delivery ever #'up til that day I would hear them / and the sound as they broke it was fearsome #that was until your arms opened up wide / and the treasure therein was made mine'

[nitw]

i can't believe i'll be in school again soon i haven't been to any kind of school in like 2 years. terrifying. outrageous. but also exicting

#Not Gonna Lie i miss having a structured daily routine and feeling like i spend my time on something productive/useful. my adhd needs that #also i'm just so excited to be working in + learning about creative fields that i'm actually interested in!!!!!!! #while Also catching up on some of the general subjects that i've. yknow. missed out on due to my absence and /issues/ in high school HHHH #tfw you love school and want to improve yourself academically but your nd needs were never met once in your compulsory ed 👍 #leo.txt

[passiveagressiveintrovert]

So I just watched lightyear, who else cried when Alisha passed away. Buzz missed so much of her life and she will miss so much of his. I loved their friendship and I love Buzz's new friendship with Izzy. Great movie I love the message, characters and story, would recommend.

#lightyear #Movie review i guess #out on my one person date lol #end of credit scene mean more will ne coming!! yay #well done creative team!! #compulsory fuck you disney lol #lightyear spoilers

[calling-abraxas]

C.E.H. Individual

A soul is an analog—a whisp around you or me—liberty to all—packed and made compulsory. An individual withoutold customs to comply with,made antilegally devout—the law of the enlightened. Groups of “individuals,”walled in freedom-prisons—alone-together rituals—grateful in grey hedonism. Smiling faces, endless kindness,a wealth of traces of accruing prices,solitary waste in endless…

View On WordPress

#Alienation #Anarchy #Anxiety #Atomization #Capitalism #Compulsory enlightened hedonism #Creative Writing #Customs #Depression #Ethics over politics #Hedonism #Individualism #Legality #Libertarianism #relationships #sadness #Selfishness #Solitude #Traditions #writersoftumblr #writersontumblr #Writing

[narutosideblog]

.

#does anyone want to do my creative writing assignment for me #i've never wanted to study this but it's a compulsory subject #ugggģhggjfjf #personal #i hate this shit

[amalgamasreal]

SOURCE

Bit of a long video but worth a watch.

TL;DW though is that hidden in the Terms and Conditions for Google's AI Labs is a nice little poison pill that says they get access to your entire Google Drive if you opt in.

So if you're an author of some type and you keep your unpublished works in your G-Drive that means an AI will get to scrape all of it and by opting in you will have given them permission to it. The content creator goes on to predict that Google is going to let out their own streaming service where the scripts, and potentially the art if it's animated, will be almost or entirely AI generated using that scraped data as a baseline and the authors/artist's who's work was essentially stolen in its most raw form to crib from will have zero way of fighting Google on that in our current legal system.

This is of course right in the middle of the writers and actors strike where we're seeing just what lengths studios will go to in order to screw everyone but themselves.

They go on to recommend that if you keep any creative or personal works on Google Drive that you pull it off as soon as possible and delete your entire Drive. They acknowledge that of course this doesn't mean Google really deleted the data but if you do it before they start compulsory opting everyone in there's a chance your work might get overlooked. They also recommend several free editing programs that aren't run by corporations like Google with LibreOffice (the default office program of most Linux distros) being named.

Finally they go over methods of shaming Google which I feel like you just have to watch for comedies sake so I won't describe them in full.

Now this is from me: I know the majority of people don't have the ability to build and manage a big archive just for themselves, but if you're a creative NOW IS THE TIME to educate yourself on what you can do to protect your works. Cloud storage was always iffy at best, but with AI scraping entering the mix it's now downright malignant. Get a bunch of thumb drives, buy some external hard drives, if you have the money buy a pre-built NAS, and if you really want to get into learn how to build your own NAS. These are the old ways before cloud and they're coming back again, more important than ever.

#google #google docs #google drive #ai scraping #ai theft #ai generated theft #wga strike #wga solidarity #sag aftra #sag strike #libreoffice #google is cringe #delete your Google docs #embrace local back-ups

[letrune]

Why I don't like the "X is perversion"

So, let me give you the short version. I am a polyamorous transgender furry woman, likely asexual (jury is still out on that one), coming from Hungary. Every single one of these was called a perversion in one time of history, but especially now, they are treated like being either, like just being a furry, is to be at best ashamed of, and most a reason to isolate people like me from society forever - and that I should be thankful for nobody calling for my extermination at the government levels.

Except, you know. Some do. Some US and Russiand jerks had been calling for building what amounts to be gulags for being queer and furry and foreigner, and stuff people in for that alone; simply because "you are a pervert and want to harm the women and children because you are queer or a furry".

So... What do these people actually think? Someone likimg cartoonish anthro characters is to be throw into prison? Asexuals to be throw in some cell in a panopticon? Asexuals to be sent to a forced labour camp? All of us to shut up forever and never even peep online?

Because I heard thrse proposals and yes, actual ideas on how to exterminate us. To have death squads like it's Pol Pot's Cambodia. To round furries up and shoot them. To break into homes in the middle of night and drag people away for public executions. You know, this is like "let us murder anyone who likes Star Trek!".

Back in 2017 if I recall correctly, maybe 2016, I was at a protest. LGBTQ+ people wished to be tteated equally. A man from the government came over and told us: "Come on. Stop it. Be happy you are not shot into the Danube.", which is like telling anyone wishing queer equity "be happy you are not sent to Dachau.". That same sort of "just shut up and be happy we are not murder you, secondary citizens" attitude came out again a lot of time.

Furries who want to claim being a furry is inherently perverted, some queer people wanting to throw the rest under the bus to secure themselves some secondary citizen rank, and so much more...

Just feels like these people want to go "please Mr. Government, let me kill people you don't like as long as I can keep my life, I am happy to be beaten up if I step out of line but please do not hurt me, I am willing to beat others up, please just spare me". You know, quislings. People who happily handed out blindfolds and then realised there was one for themselves and got pushed to the wall too. People who happily rounded up others to be shot into the Danube, or stuffed into a cornhopper to Dachau, or called the secret police on.

This puritanical "destroy them, because being X is perverted" is obvious when you consider that they said the same of homosexuality, trans people, furries and asexuals. That they are inherently a danger and should be removed from society, any means necessary, just like how they also wanted to remove people of other countries, religions and skin colour.

These people are a danger to society and themselves, as they want others dead for simply existing. They want everyone else to fall in line to some cis-het-compulsory, patriarchal, no-creativity allowed, it-is-all-about-me world.

Furries and being queer predate agriculture. Being a xenophobe is relatively new, especially xenophobes who think the only solution is "kill anyone in this group".

#cw vent #cw mention of death

[iwanthermidnightz]

“Anyone considering the whole of Ms. Swift’s artistry — the way that her brilliantly calculated celebrity mixes with her soul-baring art — can find discrepancies between the story that underpins her celebrity and the one captured by her songs. One such gap can be found in her “Lover” era. Others appear alongside “dropped hairpins,” or the covert ways someone can signal queer identity to those in the know while leaving others comfortable in their ignorance. Ms. Swift dropped hairpins before “Lover” and has continued to do so since.

Sometimes, Ms. Swift communicates through explicit sartorial choices — hair the colors of the bisexual pride flag or a recurring motif of rainbow dresses. She frequently depicts herself as trapped in glass closets or, well, in regular closets. She drops hairpins on tour as well, paying tribute to the Serpentine Dance of the lesbian artist Loie Fuller during the Reputation Tour or referencing “The Ladder,” one of the earliest lesbian publications in the United States, in her Eras Tour visuals.

Dropped hairpins also appear in Ms. Swift’s songwriting. Sometimes, the description of a muse — the subject of her song, or to whom she sings — seems to fit only a woman, as it does in “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” “Maroon” or “Hits Different.” Sometimes she suggests a female muse through unfulfilled rhyme schemes, as she does in “The Very First Night,” when she sings “didn’t read the note on the Polaroid picture / they don’t know how much I miss you” (“her,” instead of that pesky little “you,” would rhyme). Her songwriting also noticeably alludes to poets whose muses the historical record incorrectly cast as men — Emily Dickinson chief among them — as if to suggest the same fate awaits her art. Stunningly, she even explicitly refers to dropping hairpins, not once, but twice, on two separate albums.

In isolation, a single dropped hairpin is perhaps meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they’re the unfurling of a ballerina bun after a long performance. Those dropped hairpins began to appear in Ms. Swift’s artistry long before queer identity was undeniably marketable to mainstream America. They suggest to queer people that she is one of us. They also suggest that her art may be far more complex than the eclipsing nature of her celebrity may allow, even now.

Since at least her “Lover” era, Ms. Swift has explicitly encouraged her fans to read into the coded messages (which she calls “Easter eggs”) she leaves in music videos, social media posts and interviews with traditional media outlets, but a majority of those fans largely ignore or discount the dropped hairpins that might hint at queer identity. For them, acknowledging even the possibility that Ms. Swift could be queer would irrevocably alter the way they connect with her celebrity, the true product they’re consuming.

There is such public devotion to the traditional narrative Ms. Swift embodies because American culture enshrines male power. In her sweeping essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” the lesbian feminist poet Adrienne Rich identified the way that male power cramps, hinders or devalues women’s creativity. All of the sexist undertones with which Ms. Swift’s work can be discussed (often, even, by fans) flow from compulsory heterosexuality, or the way patriarchy draws power from the presumption that women naturally desire men. She must write about men she surely loves or be unbankable; she must marry and bear children or remain a child herself; she must look like, in her words, a “sexy baby” or be undesirable, “a monster on the hill.”

A woman who loves women is most certainly a monster to a society that prizes male power. She can fulfill none of the functions that a traditional culture imagines — wife, mother, maid, mistress, whore — so she has few places in the historical record. The Sapphic possibility of her work is ignored, censored or lost to time. If there is queerness earnestly implied in Ms. Swift’s work, then it’s no wonder that it, like that of so many other artists before her, is so often rendered invisible in the public imagination.”

— NYT OPINION: Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do

#that part #simply amazing points

[holdoncallfailed]

do you ever think about the parallels between damon and graham and paul and john? the childhood best friends and inseparable creative partners, one is the pusher for the dream, and the other one is the arty emotional live wire, the jealousy, competitiveness, emotional breakdown, and dissatisfaction/unhappiness with their dynamic. eventually, one gets a new creative partner, and the wedge becomes a chasm. yet only one of them got the opportunity to fully reconcile while the other was robbed of it.

of course, they're not the same, and the level of success does make for a lot of that separation. but I see how much time and effort it took for damon and graham to rebuild their relationship, knowing it couldn't go to what it once was but still working to repair it. glad they did, especially when you hear paul say that one should never put off telling someone you love them.

yeeeesss this has been a point of great interest for myself and certain other rpf scholars on this site (hi @elena-ferrante). watching paul in get back really reminded me of damon lol...i think it's interesting that part of the tension between d&g and j&p is that the domineering control freak "spokesman" member of the pair comes across as the one calling the shots but is in fact so full of admiration for and places such a high value on the opinion of the other that he becomes sort of deferential to him... i think they all struggle(d) with their identities and public images being intertwined. but i also think that there is/was more love between them than we could possibly understand from the outside. i really sincerely think that john and paul would have reconciled if they'd been given enough time.

speaking more broadly to your point about the wedge & the chasm: i think another thing about why bands are so interesting and why they capture the public imagination is that they frequently present this homosocial fantasy of companionship that is very much rooted in an adolescent configuration of life , i.e. hanging out with your friends all the time, doing whatever you want, responsible for only yourselves, obligated to each other out of a shared passion. and that lifestyle is not compatible with The Institution of Adulthood, i.e. stable career, marriage and family-rearing, which still feels compulsory—if not totally inescapable—for most people in [heterosexual] society. a band can be a world unto itself but it is not the real world. there are soooooooooo many examples of bands falling apart once a member gets married and/or commits to a new creative partner because that development inevitably ruins the fantasy on which the band was built, consciously or subconsciously. the real world comes careening back into focus...and you can't ever get that old life back once you've deviated from it.

i think the assumption within heterosexual society that homosociality is something that one "ages out of" is very pervasive (and homophobic, natch, but we don't have to get into that now). that homosocial relationships—or even friendships more generally—are always ultimately secondary to romantic relationships (specifically marriage) is something that i think a lot of people struggle with as they move further into adulthood (i know i am lol). it just happened on a much more drastic scale for these guys because of their fame.

also so much of the stuff in this post is very damon & graham coded...

well anyway let's all kill ourselves.

#Anonymous

[airenyah]

Get to Know Me Tag :)

was tagged by @telomeke, @ranchthoughts, and @callipigio <3

do you make your bed?

not usually. both in my room at my parent's flat and now in my own flat as well i don't have a couch to hang out on and so i tend to spend a lot of time in my bed during the day bc it's more comfortable there. why make my bed in the morning if i mess it up soon enough anyway? i'll only make my bed when i'm trying to feel/look neat (like for example when people who i don't really know come over)

what's your favourite number?

23! elementary school me was veeery creative in choosing this number.... (my birthday is on a 23rd) anyway this number stuck with me and now it's just part of my personality hahaha

what is your job?

i'm a uni student and i don't have a "fixed" job where i'm employed and get money every month, but i have been working at a specific theater every summer since 2022. this year i'm actually the official assistant director. the rehearsals haven't properly started yet, but i've already one or the other task for it. can't wait for june when we're finally starting with the rehearsals!!!!!!!

if you could go back to school, would you?

depends... compulsory schooling that they make you go through from age 6 to age 15?? HELL NO. adult education? catch me taking 434353 courses on 434353 things

can you parallel park?

i don't have a driver's license

a job you had that would surprise people?

i haven't had many jobs in my life and none of them seem very surprising tbh? if you know me, at least i've worked as a graphic designer before, but i don't see how that would be surprising. also, i'm sure that i've mentioned this a few times in my tag ramblings

do you think aliens are real?

i don't think aliens are real but i also don't think aliens are not real. basically, i don't think aliens exist in the way they are depicted in movies, but if nasa came up to me and told me they found some sort of life somewhere else in the universe i'd be like "yeah i'll believe that". the universe is so vast, so it wouldn't surprise me if there really is something out there, but i don't really think about it tbh

can you drive a manual car?

as i said, i don't have a driver's license. but if i did, the answer would be yes. bc as a european you WILL be taught to drive a manual car at driving school. you could also choose to learn how to drive an automatic car, but that's really the exception to the rool. besides, idk what it's like in other countries, but in austria you're allowed to drive manual cars only if you got your license with a manual car. so getting your license with an automatic car limits your options quite a lot

what's your guilty pleasure?

i don't really feel guilty about my pleasures?? i don't always tell people that i'm really into thai bl, but that's less about feeling guilty and more of a "know your target audience" kind of thing.

tattoos?

nope. my brother has a couple of tattoos and he'd love it if i got one (i think he'd like to have a matching tattoo with me), but i can't do needles. but if i ever did get a tattoo, it would probably be something related to sicily. my brother actually has a tattoo of the trinacria

favorite color?

a really shiny dark blue and a really shiny darker red!

favorite type of music?

uhhhh.... good question?? i grew up listening to classical music and i still really like it, but i don't really listen to it anymore. these days i listen to pop music quite a lot? but that's also a very hit and miss for me, bc i tend to get overwhelmed easily with pop music. idk, just show me a song of any genre of music and i'll tell you if i like this particular song or if i dislike it my playlists tend to be full of song i have some kind of emotional connection too, though! so for example, songs that have been in series/movies that i watched or songs that my loved one's have/had in their playlists and that remind me of them, etc...

do you like puzzles?

i don't dislike puzzles, but it's not something that i would think to spend my time with

any phobias?

spiders!! i've had a phobia of spiders all my life. it's gotten a little better now, and how freaked out i am really depends on the size of the spider, where it is, if it's moving, and also how i'm feeling that day. the worst thing that could happen is a spider touching me in any way, so as long as i have enough distance between me and the spider and the spider is stationary, i'm good. i really dislike spiders right above my head, though i also have a phobia of needles. when i was 12 i had to get my blood drawn when i was sick once and i had a panic attack (or something along those lines). i've tried to avoid needles as best as i could ever since... and as a child i also had a fear of vomit. people vomiting still makes me uncomfortable, but at least i no longer run away and hide behind the door of my room hahaha

favorite childhood sport?

i've never been really athletic but i liked swimming!

do you talk to yourself?

in my own flat when i'm all by myself? yeah!

what movies do you adore?

der schuh des manitu is my problematic fave <3 apart from that, i also adore stardust and tangled and the emperor's new groove and i'm also up for marathoning high school musical, how to train your dragon, pirates of the carribean (1-3), and lord of the rings (extended edition of course) at any given point in time

coffee or tea?

tea!!!!! i LOVE tea!!!!! i had a cup of tea only an hour ago!!!! i'm not big on coffee, apart from a cappucino every once in a while which i also only drink when i'm in italy bc i just don't like it enough to spend 3-4€ on it in austria. coffee flavored things are mostly fine, but coffee as a beverage? not a big fan

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

i don't remember the first thing i wanted to be that wasn't a suggestion by my parents. possibly an actress????

tagging @newyearknwwme @moonkhao @visualtaehyun @celestial-sapphicss @cornflowershade @dimplesandfierceeyes @wack-overflow

as always, feel free to ignore!

#this was fun!! #tag game

[gashface]

SHINE: A SIMS 4 MODELING COMPETITION

Have you ever wondered, " WOW MY SIM IS SMOKING HOT, THEY WOULD KILL IT AS A MODEL"? Well lookie lookie, do I have a competition for you baby!

Welcome to "SHINE" an upcoming next top model competition, where every week you'll submit an edit based upon a prompt! You are talented and the world needs to see you...SHINE!

The competition will span from the 15th of May-17th of July.

Hosted on Tumblr

Each weekly round will feature a theme all contestants will have to follow and complete

Having complex or access to editing software is not necessary but it's a bonus having it of course.

You can expect a fun challenge, with creative prompts to get your creative minds working!

THERE WILL BE 10 participants [15 at most if I get a lot]

Fill in this document with a questionnaire about your sim-> HERE [THIS IS COMPULSORY]

You are free to submit your sim publicly on Tumblr or submit your sim submission privately in DMs to me. All I ask is you tag the sim submission if publically as "SHINETS4" and tag me ofc at @gashface

[I'd prefer if you post it publically, as it may help spread the news about the competition]

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS THE 8th of May!

You can only submit one sim.

If you drop out of the competition, you will not be allowed to join under any circumstance. This means you can go a week without submitting or however many but you won't receive any points but you are still in the competition. If you decide to drop out, that's final.

Any foul play, bullying, racism, homophobia, ableism or just overall being a dickhead will you GUESSED IT... get you removed immediately from the competition and disqualified.

You are free to be as creative as you want eg: changing hair or their style etc- THE THINGS YOU CAN'T CHANGE IS YOUR SIMS FACIAL STRUCTURE LOL OR SKIN TONE UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING SUPERNATURAL etc: FOR INSTANCE AND YOU MAKE YOUR SIM BLUE FOR IT. That is different obviously. If you are unsure, ASK.

Originality: How original or unique is your idea for the prompt; while being relevant to the week's prompt.

Story: This is where you earn points based on the description of your edit/idea for the week; and how thought-out it is

Execution: The editing/posing and overall feel of the submission [the image itself]

Style: Points related to the outfit/appearance of the sim related to the prompt and how fashionable or fashion-forward it is :)

All categories will be out of 10

1ST: CC REQUEST/Recolour- I will create something for you based upon a request [I'll do my best to fulfil the request] + This is a personal cc, and can either be made public or private depending on the winners' request. + I'll buy you a game on STEAM/EPIC if you use it [up to discussion]

2nd: Recolour request :)

3rd: A guaranteed spot in my next competition

I'm excited to see your submissions!! Don't forget to reblog/share the post to help support the competition I'm hosting <3

Big thank you to @mewo-ita who inspired me to do this :))

#sims 4 #sims4challenge #sims 4 competition #sims4 #ts4 #ts4 modeling competition #SHINETS4 #SHINE TS4 #SIMS 4 SHINE #<3 #Challenge #sims 4 challenge #ts4 shine

[autismtana]

so you wanna write a heartbreak high fic, but you're american (part 3)

I decided to create a separate post for the HSC, ATAR, uni and post-secondary study because our system is so completely different to American systems (and because my previous post was too long).

In Australia, tertiary study falls into two categories: higher education, and vocational education and training. This post will touch on university, as well as other forms of tertiary study and trades.

The uni part of this will be the longest because it tends to be the thing most people get wrong.

Preliminary/HSC

In NSW, year 11 (Preliminary) only goes for three terms. In term 4 of the calendar year in which you started year 11, you start the HSC course, which goes from term 4 of that year to term 3 of the following year. Midway through term 3, you do your trial exams (if you are doing music/drama/languages/anything with a performance/oral component/major work, you will have your practical exam/major work submission in the latter part of term 3). You then will have a graduation ceremony at the end of term 3, and your HSC exams will happen in October-November (term 4), while the kids in the grade below you are starting their HSC coursework. Nothing you do in year 11 counts towards the HSC (until term 4); in fact, nothing you do in any year up until you do your first HSC assessments counts towards your HSC. We don't have grade point averages here. Actually, your rankings in your individual subjects are probably more important than your actual marks (this video explains it). More academic kids might get a bit more competitive about rankings but also tend to want to work together to ensure that they all do well.

ATAR

After you do your HSC exams in year 12, depending on the combination of subjects you did and how well you did in your courses, you get an ATAR, which determines what courses you can get into at uni. This article explains somewhat how different subjects are scaled (because there are some that are perceived to be more difficult than others; this is objectively true in some cases, for example, advanced maths is called advanced for a reason so a higher mark in advanced should be seen as more meaningful than a higher mark in standard, but in other cases, it gets a bit more confusing. What it boils down to is certain subjects tend to attract more 'high achievers' than others, so get scaled higher. That being said, the prevailing advice is that everyone should choose the subjects they like and are good at, not what they think will get them into uni.

Higher education

Firstly, we call university "uni" here. We don't say "college" or "school" to talk specifically about university (if an Australian person is talking about going to school, they're either still in compulsory schooling, i.e. K-12, or they're a teacher). We do sooooort of have college here, but I'll touch on that later.

In Australia, kids apply for the course, not the university. Whether or not you get into the course you want is, for the most part, dependent on your ATAR. The exception is if you're applying for something like a creative arts course that might require an audition, or submission of a portfolio. Most unis offer early admission, particularly for kids who live in rural areas, and UNSW has a program for indigenous students for Business, Education, Law, Medicine, Social Work, or Science & Engineering. The most common universities you'll hear about in Sydney are USyd, UNSW, UTS, Western Sydney Uni and Macquarie, then there are ANU and UC in Canberra, LaTrobe in Albury/Wodonga, CSU in Dubbo/Bathurst/Wagga Wagga, UNE in Armidale and Newcastle Uni. There's also Notre Dame, which is a private, religious institution, and a bunch of other smaller schools.

USyd is the oldest university in NSW; it's referred to as a sandstone uni and tends to be the most sought after one that most people want to go to.

Most courses here are Commonwealth Supported, and domestic students are allowed to claim what's called HECS, meaning that you defer payment of your uni fees until you start earning a certain amount of money, and then it comes out of your taxes. In some cases, scholarships are offered, but those are generally more academic scholarships, or, say, for students studying to be teachers, they might get offered a scholarship to teach a certain school subject and as part of their scholarship get a guaranteed position at a hard-to-staff schooling area. As I said in part 2, we don't have anything like the NCAA here (it's not like the Sydney Uni basketball team has a mega rivalry with the UNSW basketball team like UNC vs Duke for example). Australian kids also don't have to pay exorbitant fees to apply for the courses they want. When I was applying to uni as a year 12 student, I paid something like $30 to UAC and applied for every arts/law course available in the Sydney area. I think there's a limit on how many courses you can apply for (maybe 16 or so) but it has been a while since I've applied for an undergrad uni course, so I could be wrong. That being said, a kid might be eligible for a scholarship if they excel at sport, but I believe they'd have to be already enrolled in the university and achieving academically at a certain level first.

Coming back to the "college" thing - a lot of kids tend to go to uni where they live and commute to and from there. That being said, sometimes kids come from towns where there are no universities, or kids from Sydney might end up going to uni interstate or to somewhere like Charles Sturt, which has campuses in Dubbo and Bathurst. "College" in Australia refers to the residential housing available to students living on campus (usually kids studying away from home, but some locals also choose to opt for this as well).

As for uni life, I'd suggest researching the different social clubs and societies different universities have.

Vocational education and training

Not everyone chooses to go to uni after they leave school. A lot of schools actually offer school-based apprenticeships and traineeships (SBATs) in a number of different industries, which counts towards the HSC and is professional work experience. Early childhood and automotive tend to be really popular. TAFE (Australia's largest vocational education and training provider) provides a lot of courses and opportunities for people (some of the courses are actually really cool; a friend of mine did a music course through TAFE and recorded a bunch of singles).

Work experience

This isn't really related to post-secondary schooling, but is still a pretty important aspect of the NSW school experience. Usually in year 10, kids spend a week doing work experience (there's actually a plot in the original Heartbreak High series about it that Jane and Leanne from Snarkbreak High talked about). Kids generally have to organise it themselves and it's usually related to a career they'd like to have after school. My younger brother did his at our local vet, and after that, he realised he no longer wanted to be a vet.

Other resources

Wikipedia (don't let anyone tell you not to use it - it's one of the best peer-reviewed journals ever and all the info on Australian schooling there is completely legit)

NESA

Bored of Studies forum

Snarkbreak High podcast (this is run by 2 Australian teachers; I think they're from Melbourne and they're currently only doing the original series but they have some great commentary, and they've even had Scott Major, aka Peter Rivers, aka Darren's dad as a guest)

Sydney Morning Herald (they always have a ton of articles about NSW schooling)

UNSW Indigenous Pre-Program

#heartbreak high #fanfic advice #basically a guide to how to write about school in australia if you're american #life in australia #i actually know way more about this shit than i have any right to wtf

[hillbillyoracle]

For the longest time I’ve been thinking these thoughts as well that I don’t think the Ace label fits me completely. It’s not completely wrong but it’s not the whole picture. Before I came to this same understanding I made the decision to not have children or get married. Now that I’m coming to terms with the fact that I actually have low energy I’m still not sure how life will look. I was starting to think that I was non commital and that my ideal relationship would just be a long term partner. I don’t think I have the energy for « society’s relationship expectations » and I don’t feel like bothering other people because I already know they don’t want to deal with me. What are some of your long term relationships tips? It’s either that or I stay single forever which is an idea that’s I’ve always considered as an option. One of the things with being Ace is that when you don’t just follow the script that’s when your the villain. Any other time our sexuality is convient for the system so it’s fine but the minute it starts disrupting their program suddenly what was once admirable is now disdained. Can we briefly mention what sexual power looks like when your this sexuality. I’m super self conscious about how I dress because I know I can’t event express my sexuality the way I want to because people might get the wrong impression. I’m not looking for anything I’m expressing myself because with the little energy I have left I use for creativity. I don’t have a problem with people doing things to signal sexual willingness my problem is the violence in our society when someone finds you hot and you don’t want to « put out » That’s not even getting into the mind games that the genders are playing with each other just the idea of it makes me not want to date. I’m tired just thinking about it. I’m really starting to imagine my life as the village witch living in the forest far from the villagers.

I also don't know that Ace/Aro really fits me but whatever I'm experiencing is at least Ace/Aro adjacent because there's a major overlap in experiences - getting frustrated with compulsory sexuality/romance, chaffing against society being organized around romantic and sexual coupling, simply not having impulses that my friends and family do. I made the decision very young that I didn't want to get married. I wanted to care for children but I didn't necessarily want to physically have any. So I knew from a pretty young age I was going a different route - in those ways I really relate to a lot of aceness.

However, I'm hearing from so many people that dating has become exhausting. And it's substantially more of a sentiment than it was say 10 years ago. Research backs this up - fewer people are dating and having sex. The younger you are, the more pronounced this is. So clearly there's also been a cultural shift in and around dating that's made it unsustainable for a lot of people as well. I'm sure that's also shaping my desire too.

So it's difficult to parse for me.

I think I have very little in the way of advice for long term relationships for a few reasons.

One, while I've been with my partner for seven years, it's been a tumultuous relationship. She was originally diagnosed with BPD and more recently was diagnosed with NPD. While I care about her a whole lot, she's not exactly emotionally available and it's taken years of painstaking effort on my part to establish norms and guide us toward a point of relative stability in our home life. Even if therapy and treatment eventually lead to her being more available, the likelihood of other aspects of a typical relationship (sexual desire, level of romantic reciprocity, etc) lining up seem low.

"Then leave!" I always hear.

No. Because on some level this works. We both are polyam/relationship anarchists who value our friendships very highly and build parts of our lives around them. We have similar preferences in how home and finances should be maintained. She has few preferences in areas I have many and vice versa. She's very good at things I suck at (bureaucracy, paying bills, speaking with officials, etc) and I'm good at things she sucks at (meal planning, ordering and organizing inventory, maintaining a social calendar, etc). While she's far from perfect, she's the most functional and helpful roommate I've ever had. I simply cannot afford to live on my own and neither could she.

So I feel like I have little to offer in the way of long term relationship advice other than don't be afraid to establish relationship norms that aren't common in other relationships. If the other person is on board, you're not harming any one. I know of no one who's been living with someone for 5+ years who has stuck 100% to the classic romantic formula for success.

My parents have been together for 30+ years and have always maintained a high degree of autonomy and alone time - even with my mom's stroke leaving her paralyzed on her right side several years ago. I have a friend who's lived separately in the same town from her long term partner of multiple years and they're both quite happy with that arrangement. I think often of the research lead I worked under who lived in a completely different city than her husband for 10+ years. They visited each other's spaces most weekends but not all.

A lot of things people swear are innately part of a relationship are really optional. The base model is respect and mutual appreciation, everything else is an upsell. Take it or leave it.

Per dressing to express - I think miscommunication is just always going to happen. People act according to their lenses and there's no way to completely circumvent that. And yeah, they're hellishly rude and can even be dangerous about that but there's no way to be totally free of it since it's so far outside of ones own control.

I have found no way to accurately communicate my sexuality/preferences through my appearance with any reliability. My classic example of this for me is that it seems like no matter how I dress, people on dating apps assume I'm a top/dom/pleasure centered. Even when I included a picture of me in self bondage and explicitly listed my preferences on one more open minded app - only seemed to get interest from bottoms/subs/pleasure centered folks. Many of whom didn't bother to ask they were so certain - just based on my look. I've just come away from those experiences pretty convinced that people see what they want to see regardless of how hard you try to communicate yourself.

So fuck em. As frustrating as it all is there's really only one path I've found - do what you want (as long as you're not hurting anyone.)

Cause like what the fuck else is there to do?

#asks #answered asks #aexuality #aromanticism #good food for thought here #thanks anon

[theuhurabang]

The Uhura Bang Schedule 2023

The Uhura Bang 2023 Full Schedule

16th May-16th June: Creator Sign-Ups. 

(Solo creator sign-ups can continue until as late as August)

16th June: primary creator sign ups close.

23rd June: First Primary Creator Check-in:

Primary Authors should have a fic description in mind, and decide if they are doing a fic, ficlet, etc.

Primary Artists should be aware that they will need at least a sketch which they can present for match-ups.

Solo Creators should have a work description in mind, and should present any written/drawn material to the mods at this stage.

Primary Creators may choose to change their role at this stage, but the 7th of July is the absolute latest in which you can drop out, or change your role. If you want to change your role, please email a mod [email protected] as soon as possible.

23rd June: First Secondary Creator Check-In: (Pre-Match-Up Check-in): Participants must tell mods any special considerations they require for match-ups.

1st July: Second Primary Creator Check-In (Pre-Match-Up Info)

Primary Authors, Primary Artists: Submit drafts/summaries/sketches for Match-Ups!

1st July: Secondary creators to submit their first/second/third choices for match-ups.

7th July: Deadline for submitting match-ups

16th July: Creator match-ups and teams announced

23rd July: (Optional) team check-in: Participants should contact us if there are any problems with their teammates.

30th July: First Team Check-In Due

Primary Authors must have a rough idea of final word count.

Secondary Authors should decide if they are writing a fic, one-shot, drabble, ficlet or poem (etc.), and have an idea of word count. Authors who are writing a full fic should submit a description or outline.

Primary Artists do not need to fill in this check-in, but may submit any other materials they have if they wish

Secondary Artists should describe any drawing ideas they have, or submit sketches.

24th August: Second Team Check-In:

Primary Authors must submit a rough draft which is at least 50% complete.

Primary Artists may upload images, but it is not compulsory.

Secondary Authors must have an outline

Secondary Artists should provide sketches.

30th of August: Second Solo Creator Check-In. Written works should be 50% complete. Illustrations should have at least an outline/rough sketch.

September: Teams should begin to discuss when they want to post for posting week.

16th of September: Third Team Check-In:

Primary and secondary Author drafts should be 75% complete & have no missing scenes [these can be listed on your outline in bullet-point form]

Artists should provide sketches

September 22nd: ALL creators submit posting availability, preferences.

September 30th: Posting schedule is made public

October 1st: Posting begins

October 22nd or sooner: Posting ends

What is the Uhura Bang?

The Uhura Bang is a combination big bang and reverse big-bang event focused on creativity, teamwork and communication. The only rule is that your work must prominently feature Uhura, and there are no word limits or minimums. Your work can be whatever length or genre you choose.

You should be 13+ to sign up. Creators who are under 18, or do not disclose their age, will only be assigned fics rated gen or teen-and-up.

Secondary Artists must complete at least one full illustration, either digital or traditional art.

Solo creators may submit photomanips or collages if they wish.

Past Entries The Uhura Bang 2021 Sign Up for The Uhura Bang 2023

#the uhura bang #the uhura bang 2023 #the uhura bang 2023 schedule #fandom event #nyota uhura #uhura