in·spi·ra·tion

1) honeybees do not produce “extra honey.” And beekeepers don’t take some of the honey, they take all of it.

Because I am!

Beekeepers make sure hives are fed before there is pollen in the air, protected from predators and the elements, and have enough honey to sustain themselves. We don’t take all of it.

But overproduction of honey leads to stagnation in the hive. It puts stress on the queen to lay eggs, and when they inevitably fill up all their space with honey (instead of filling up the multiple empty, clean boxes of frames beekeepers might put on top of the main hive box), the queen can get so stressed she dies. If there’s a spike in the weather and the hive hasn’t prepared new queen brood, that’s it! The colony is dead. Because there wasn’t enough space for eggs and honey in the hive.

Beekeepers take excess honey. We are constantly monitoring the state of the hive, checking for parasites, analyzing the eggs for diseases, and making sure they are fed and healthy (usually with sugar water and pollen substitutes until they have made enough honey to sustain themselves in the early spring months). If a queen dies prematurely, we make every attempt to replace her to save the colony.

I know there’s an urge to patronize everyone who works in the farming industry, but try to understand the differences between small scale agriculture and industrial farming. There IS a difference. And stop spreading misinformation.

If you’re this passionate about ethical consumption, look into some of the ecofeminist research on non-hierarchal interspecies relationships (working on building animal-human relationships in a non exploitative way).

Yea Chickens are some of the most abused animals on big factory farms and I’ll be the first to admit it’s criminal and more needs to be done to regulate this.

Yes selective breeding over time has caused an increase in the ammount of eggs produced by chickens and factory farms have some messed up practices to get more eggs from them including forced moutling.

THIS IS WHY YOU SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS AND THEIR EGGS

I’ve spent the past… five? Let’s say five - the past five years analyzing the structure of Disney Musicals as part of the process to write my own/a parody of them, and the thing is that all the modern ones have roughly the same number of songs - except Mulan.

Mulan has about half, because after AGWFF ends with that unresolved final phrase, there are no more songs until the end credits, which isn’t even sung in-universe.

Mulan wasn’t even the REALM of fucking around - when they arrive at that village, when the true horrors of war are brought into the story, not only does it interrupt THAT song, it breaks the entire fucking mold - the movie’s damn genre changes; it is no longer a musical.

And the Huns represent this from the start - Jafar and Hades are notable for not having proper villain songs, but Jafar does get his Prince Ali refrain and Hades and his plan get sung ABOUT by the muses. No scene with the Huns has any singing, they are mentioned once in song (the second line of Man, natch), and they of all Disney Villains are probably the most serious - no jokes, no witty asides, no sassy delivery of dry humor. The Huns are an invading army who plan to straight up kill a fuckton of people, including children, and AGWFF’s sudden end is the moment when our happy go lucky MUSICAL protagonists finally come in contact with them and their work directly - and it breaks them. Because shit like the Huns cannot exist in happy go lucky musical world. They just exist in our world. The real world. And you can’t sing your problems away here.

Okay friend, I’m going to give you the run down. Are you sitting comfortably? 

2PM GMT - SOME TAYLOR SWIFT FANS DECIDE - FOR SEEMING ABSOLUTELY NO INTELLIGIBLE REASON - THAT THERE IS A MURAL IN NASHVILLE THAT RELATES TO TAYLOR’S NEW ALBUM

THERE ARE NO FACTS TO BACK THIS UP

TAYLOR HAS NOT SPOKEN OF THIS MURAL

HER TEAM HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF THIS MURAL

THE ONLY VAGUE LINK IS THAT IT RELATES TO HER INSTAGRAM AESTHETIC

THEY’RE GATHERING IN THEIR HUNDREDS BY THIS MURAL CONVINCED THAT SHE’S GOING TO SHOW UP

WHY?

ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING REASON

FLASH FORWARD (and we’re taking on the world together, and there’s a drawer of my things at your place) TO 5PM GMT 

AND THE ENTIRE TAYLOR SWIFT FANDOM ON TUMBLR IS BRACING FOR THEIR MOM TO CALL THEM BOO BOO THE FOOL LIKE SHE DID WHEN THEY ASSERTED CONFIDENTLY THAT BECAUSE THERE WERE FIVE HOLES IN A FENCE ON ONE OF HER INSTAGRAM PICTURES THAT A COUNTDOWN WAS HAPPENING

THEY’RE ASSUMING CRASH POSITIONS

THIS IS GOING TO BE AN OUTING OF STUPIDITY TO THE ENTIRE WORLD

NEWS CREWS ARE GATHERING —- AGAIN FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN THE FANS THINK SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN WITH ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THIS THESIS

EVERYONE ON TUMBLR IS DISTRESSED

DISMAYED

“THE WORLD WILL KNOW THAT WE’RE INSANE!!” THEY CRY, THEIR SELF-AWARENESS THEIR LAST REDEEMING FEATURE

AND THEN

WHEN ALL HOPE IS LOST

TAYLOR ‘I’M POTENTIALLY THE ONLY PERSON MORE BATSHIT CRAZY THAN MY FANS’ SWIFT GETS HER CLOWN ASS ON INSTAGRAM

AND CONFIRMS THAT IT IS HER FUCKING MURAL AND THAT SHE IS ON THE WAY THERE

“YOU FIGURED OUT (my secrets and I figure out why you’re guarded, you say we’ll never make my parents’ mistakes) THE CLUE!” SHE SHRIEKS

THERE WERE NO CLUES

NOT ONE

THEY TURNED UP IN DROVES BECAUSE THEY ALL DESPERATELY NEED TO GET A JOB

AND THEN - 6PM GMT - THIS ANGEL/DEVIL WOMAN TURNS UP AT THE MURAL AND TAKES WHAT SEEMS LIKE A SELFIE WITH LITERALLY ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE WHO’S THERE - WHICH BY THE WAY, IS ABOUT 500 PEOPLE AT THIS POINT

AND SAYS! NOTHING ABOUT THE ALBUM! NOTHING ABOUT THE SINGLE! NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING!

SHE JUST SHOWS UP AND SAYS HEY (it was enchanting to meet you) 

OUTSTANDING

LITERALLY OUTSTANDING 

WHO KNEW SUCH CLOWNERY AND TOMFOOLERY WAS POSSIBLE?

NOT I, GENTLE READER! NOT THE FUCK I!

Women’s History Month Spotlight: Mitu Khandaker

Mitu Khandaker is living the dream. She had a hobby and turned it into a career where she can make meaningful change. As a game designer, she holds a PhD on the aesthetics of interactivity in videogames and most recently founded a new studio, Glow Up Games. Her and her team are motivated to tell stories through mobile games and AI. If you’re into gaming, you’ll want to read our interview with her below.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the gaming industry.

I’m a game designer, programmer, scholar, and entrepreneur. I’m a professor at NYU Game Center and CEO and Co-Founder of new studio, Glow Up Games. I have a PhD in the aesthetics of interactivity and designing for virtual reality, and I do consulting across a range of creative and technical projects across games, AI, and immersive storytelling

I think that I have the typical story [after] I found out that creating games was an actual job. That actually happened thanks to an episode of my fave TV show when I was 13, The X-Files, which featured a storyline featuring a female “entertainment software developer’”—who, incidentally, happened to be a woman! Since then, I knew I wanted to do that, but the route I took was also typically a little unusual and eclectic. I studied Computer Engineering to Masters level at university (my other aspiration was to build cool robots), and for my final project, I designed a videogame and controller which used stress levels as input. Then I was offered the chance to do a PhD in game design and creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth, and while I was doing that, I was building all kinds of games and projects—from a location-based games startup I worked on briefly, to my first indie hit, Redshirt, which sparked my interest in social simulation and AI.

I was then part of the founding team of a game AI tools company called Spirit AI, until more recently, when I left to start a new studio, Glow Up Games. [Now I] focus on telling beautifully crafted systemic stories through games, mobile, AI, and emerging tech, and, particularly, building games for a diverse and underrepresented audience, by a diverse and underrepresented and underestimated team.

Games are such an interactive medium. How do you think game developers and their teams can create a positive, inclusive shared experience?

Games are indeed interactive, but also, they’re always about telling stories, whether through implicit systems or more explicitly. As always, I think that the key to telling better stories lies in tapping into the wider wealth of human experience. That means building more inclusive and diverse teams.

How do you see gender disparity occurring in the gaming industry? How can we change the male-dominated narrative?

Women have always been in games, but they perhaps haven’t been afforded the same platforms as our male counterparts. We need to shout about the accomplishments of women throughout gaming history, for one thing. Another is to create cultures within gaming companies where, as women and minorities, we’re truly included. For me, as a woman of color, that means building our own structures—one of my missions with Glow Up Games!

What advice would you give to aspiring women who are just starting out or wanting to join the industry?

Find mentors in people who are women or non-binary. Find peers, allies, and find people who will remind you that you’re not alone in this. I can’t underline strongly enough the value of having a good network of support.

Thanks for the interview, Mitu!

I may love Taylor’s songs but the changing of tunes before the birth of a new album sounds the sweetest.

Omar Holmon, “Precious Little Life” (via buttonpoetry)