F u n k e d u p f o r j e s u s

Do exactly what you're paid for and nothing more

Absolutely refuse to be available to contact when you're off the clock

Never prioritize work over your own health, wellbeing, or family because that would be insane, it's just a job.

Have a little glass of wine

Take as long as you feel like for lunch

Deeply understand that work doesn't matter

Old Millennial American speaking here. I need you to adopt this mentality as early as possible and hold to it. The older you get, the harder it is to begin this practice and claw back the extremely unhealthy effects of a workaholic lifestyle. I am speaking from 20 years of experience.

This does not mean having a shitty attitude at work, or not doing your job, or relying on co-workers to carry your water.

This means you do what it says above. It also means not making work and productively your entire personality; not tying your productivity to your value; and not becoming so emotionally enmeshed in your work and workplace so that you are living and dying by what happens there.

A cis women's right to comfort should not be more valued then a trans man's right for safe housing.

A cis women's right to comfort should not be more valued then a trans man's acsess to SA recovery recourses.

A queer person's right to comfort should not be more valued then a trans man's right to take space in their community.

A queer person's right to comfort should not be more valued that a trans man's acsess to queer recourses.

A queer persons right to comfort should not be move valued than a trans man's right to hrt, srs, or medical transition.

used a reference for everything

thinner line art (you think thats thin? go thinner….)

sketch, then do a cleaner sketch, THEN start finalizing

THUMBNAILS

color research, picking a set palette or light/dark for each work

you like that pose? redo it one more time

USE A DAMN REFERENCE

do not rely on stylization as an excuse for anatomy

draw the goddamn background you coward

just draw the hand- a bad hand is better than a hidden hand

the rule of thirds WORKS

take a considerable break between sketch and lines/paint

know that art takes longer as you get better at it

draw the seams on clothes

stop aiming for accuracy and focus on fluidity and motion, accuracy will come with practice of those two concepts

just…do the chiaroscuro. just DO IT. no excuses it always works

stop making excuses, make yourself an art schedule/set weekly(or daily) art goals and just DO IT.

Sesame Street Memory: Lucy Liu | #ThisIsMyStreet

Lucy Liu shares a heartfelt memory of learning to speak english by watching Sesame Street and finding a family within the cast. Share your favorite Sesame Street memory on social media with #ThisIsMyStreet!

You have questions! We might have answers.

What is this collection?

As Maria puts it: this collection is a critical look at some of the things that we, the editors, think have made CQL such a hit around the world. Of course, part of that success comes from the webnovel MDZS and the show CQL themselves—we love the characters, the mystery, and the drama, who doesn’t?! However, the authors in our book also look at topics like translating danmei (both officially and unofficially), adapting danmei for new audiences, and interacting with fandoms and fanworks. The larger argument of the book is that all of these things played a huge role in CQL’s visibility and success, and we wanted to start making those moving pieces visible, especially for audiences who mainly watched CQL in translation.

You keep using the word “academic”—what does that mean, exactly? 

Maria: Ok, not to get pedantic here, but this actually touches on some things that I’m really excited about for the book. Traditionally, academic work is written by people who have a deep expertise in the subject (signified by having a PhD and doing specific kinds of research), and then the work itself is peer-reviewed (i.e., sent to other experts in the field for them to evaluate whether it’s sound, original, and interesting enough to publish, without knowing who wrote it). And both of these things are true about our book—our authors have deep knowledge and the book was peer reviewed—but also. We specifically asked for chapters from younger scholars and from fans who also have deep knowledge about topics that academia doesn’t always know or value enough, and we include an interview from the fan-translator K. who did the Exiled Rebels translation. So the hope is that: this book is academic, and also—more!

Who are you? 

Yue studies adaptation, fantasy, and popular culture texts using a feminist lens. She wrote an early, influential article about danmei adaptations and also has a book about feminist adaptations of Chinese fantasy.

Maria studies fanworks, contemporary fantasy, and genre literature. She’s scrambling to finish her dissertation right now.

How were the chapter spotlights chosen?

Voluntarily! The concept of a small social media promo was kicked around by some of the contributors and those interested in the idea filled out a short interview with what they wanted to share. We'll be posting about 2 introductions and 2 spotlights a day for the next week or so!

Are you making any money off of royalties from this book? 

LOL not even remotely

Where can I find this book? 

You can find our listing on Peter Lang’s website here. As for other retailers, a quick search should turn us up!  

How can I access this book if I cannot buy it from Peter Lang / [book retailer of choice]?

As collection editors and contributors who signed a legal agreement with Peter Lang, we have granted Peter Lang exclusive right and license to edit, adapt, publish, reproduce, distribute, display, and store our contributions, and we must cooperate fully with the Publisher if the Publisher believes a third party is infringing or is likely to infringe copyright in the contribution. 

That being said, these are academic papers, which means that contributors may make copies of the contribution for classroom teaching use! (These copies may not be included in course pack material for onward sale by libraries and institutions). Of course, any linking, collection or aggregation of chapters from the same volume is strictly prohibited.

I was trained in the dark arts of the cover letter by my mother, who is a hiring manager. And her training has paid off: I've been consistently told my cover letters are excellent. Let me pass on the wisdom.

The job of a cover letter is to give a prospective employer strictly more information than is on the resume. This is where you take the resume contents and put them into context. You look at the job requirements (you are looking at the job requirements before applying, right?) and look at your resume and ask the question (in your head) "why would a person think this candidate would be good for this job?" and your cover letter is the answer to that question. If you don't answer that question, the hiring manager is going to have to do it themselves, and you have way more information to work with than they do.

This is especially important if you're moving from one industry to another, because then the relevant connections aren't obvious. It's also very important if you're overqualified, because then you can use the letter to say "I know it looks like this job would be too entry-level for me, but I'm interested to pursue it for reasons x, y, and z". You can also use this space to explain away something that might otherwise be disqualifying, like job-hopping or a long break in employment. The tone to strike here is always matter-of-fact and constrained to topic - don't go into detail about health stuff or personal tragedy, just tell them what they need to hear: that this period of your resume was affected by [bad thing] but that it's now in the past and you're looking forward to the next chapter. Remember, one of the things they're trying to learn is whether you'd be content in this role, or whether you'd be miserable and leave after 2 months, which would force them to do all the work of hiring again. You're trying to establish that you will fit right in and not cause problems. Knowing what drew you to this job in particular (and don't just say 'money', that's true for everyone) helps with that.

This squirrel attempted to jump a full six feet (yes, I measured) from a nearby bush to the bird feeder. Its first two misses were spectacular, so much so that when it made it on the third try, I let it hang out and eat as many peanuts as it wanted.

the thing is i'm not talking about the individual level of "sometimes trans men act like jerks"

i mean saying shit like "the legal system is designed by and for men." structural systemic examples of androcentrism and misogyny that trans men objectively were not privileged in considering, and in fact are actively fucked over just as much if not more than cis women. there is no excuse for not saying "cis men" here (& as people pointed out in the notes, there's also a lot of other ways in which various marginalized men are excluded, but even just focusing on gender/sex as a lens here).

its not even about individuals internalizing toxic masculinity. and its also not even about individuals who just individually don't care about trans men! i am not making a point about how individuals think here really. the point is that across the spectrum of political ideology and feminist identification and genuine trans allyship, people consistently. CONSISTENTLY. will overlook using a three letter word to clarify that they understand trans men are not cis men and that the "men" privileged on a systemic level under patriarchy are cis men, even when its a situation which would genuinely be absurd to think trans men were considered or valued.

cis men did in fact make the legal system, bud, because cis men have been the only ones allowed to vote and become politicians and make laws. cis men have fucked over other cis men. that many feminists have been shitty about men and have presented sexism as black and white "men always benefit and women always suffer" does not mean we can ignore the fact that cis men have dominated all spheres of public life. this is a basic fact of history. it was objectively designed by cis men - wealthy cis men, white cis men, etc. but just pointing to incidences of benevolent misogyny, or ways in which men are harmed by the system, does not actually disprove the points made by feminism. if you have to pretend that the structural exclusion from people classed as women from politics and governance, and the structural suppression of these people, something no one in history ever gave a fuck about denying until after feminism had forced social change, didn't exist in order to make your points about the issues with how feminism has approached men? your point is incredibly, profoundly weak.

feminism is not a unified singular ideology. every criticism you have made of feminism as a whole has been made already, and made better with far more objective and subjective grounding, by people who you would call feminists. you are trying to counter harmful, black-and-white feminism with harmful, black-and-white anti-feminism, which is not convincing! you are getting mad at people for denying the suffering of men by denying the suffering of women, which is entirely unnecessary. you are trying to challenge a lack of nuance with a lack of nuance, etc etc. and i'm not going to debate with you on this because i know this information is freely available in plenty of places & your mind is not open to being convinced by any information at this moment.

anyways, if you ever do find yourself willing

read it or listen to it