Es muss sein

you open a tab on JSTOR to begin research for a paper. you leave momentarily for a cup of tea; when you return, there are two more tabs that you do not remember opening. you look away to find your notes, and when you look back, there are five more tabs. eventually, there are thirty tags open in your browser. you can no longer access any site other than JSTOR. somehow, this does not seem strange to you.

an article pops up in your search that, while interesting, does not seem to relate much to your research topic. still, you read it anyway out of curiosity. it cites several other articles that are also on JSTOR, and you decide to read them too. each article brings several others with it. suddenly you are an academic theseus, winding your way through the labyrinth of citations, but you have forgotten the thread that should have led you safely back. it is two in the morning and you are reading about foraging behaviors in south american flamingo. you are a shakespearean scholar. your eyes cry out for sleep, but you cannot stop reading.

you are scrolling through the pages of articles to find what you need. eventually you notice that you have seen several of these article titles before. confused, you click to the next page of articles and scroll more slowly. it is exactly the same as the last page. another attempt yields the same result. no matter how far you go, you make no progress and find no new articles. you keep scrolling.

you have been reading so long that you find you can no longer form a sentence without using “nevertheless,” “reminiscent,” or “quintessential.” you also find yourself occasionally slipping between popular academic languages. it has finally happened: you have become academia. your friends and family can no longer understand you, but you can at least read all of the literature in your field. you figure it is a fair trade.

BINDER GIVEAWAY VIII: THE MOOSENING

We’re back! And couldn’t be happier with our move to the cold, rainy, moose-filled north. We at Shapeshifters have so much to thank our loyal customers, fans, and friends for, not the least being our recently-cleared milestones of 400 and 450 sales! In commemoration and gratitude, our eighth binder giveaway will be a double! This time, two winners will be selected from the entrants.

As ever, the lucky winners will each receive one single-layer custom-sized binder in their choice of size, cut, and print. This means anything we offer that’s priced at $55 or under. Check out the store for your options.

Here be the rules:

Only reblogs count. One per blog. No giveaway blogs.

You don’t have to be following.

But your ask box must be open.

Entries from all countries are welcome.

You may reblog without entering, just tag it accordingly so we know. Signal boosts are always appreciated!

The winner will be randomly selected on **May 1st, 2016**. We will send an ask and a message notifying each winner.

If either winner does not get back to us within three days, a new winner will be selected in their place.

Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride (via sealedtome)

i can’t uncouple these in my mind

We’re really pleased to announce the line-up for our first scratch night at CPT; LIVE 1. The night will be on the 24th April with performances starting at 6pm.

We’re pleased to be joined by:

- Salome Wagaine (Spit the Pips) with Joie de Toil - Paul O'Donnell with Beautiful - Ella Simms with a piece title TBC - Not Your Nice Girl with Not Your Nice Girl - House of Idiot with The Fems

There will also be a scratch from Barrel Organ and a few other bits of fun too. We’re really excited about the night and hope to see plenty of you down there. Should be a real cracker.

More info about the artists and pieces to come - in the meantime though, make sure you reserve a ticket!