It's a biochem lab, focusing on halophiles. We just got it to express the gene we wanted, so yay!
Though my calc and chem midterm are both approaching so if I disappear, I'm trying.
* googles halophiles* Super neat Xizoh! Lab research experience is without a doubt one of the best investments you can make with your time while at college. You have my enthusiastic support to focus on school!
That being said, here's hoping your comrades can help us keep up above the autobot error threshold while you're busy. I'm certainly willing to do some botting to help keep things afloat, but I need some non-zero number of players engaged to run the game.
I get the sense people are generally busy, but if there's anything I can do to help make this more fun/appealing, please do tell me. I will definitely try.
What do y'all think? (Particularly those of you who have averaged one post every two weeks.) Are folks still in? Maybe in with changes? (And if so, what changes?)
'me too' tl;dir: you don't know any female-presenting person who hasn't been harassed and/or assaulted multiple times. Not one. Period. Picture any girl/woman you know over the age of about 13. That person has definitely been sexually harassed. Anyone who claims otherwise either isn't using the same definition of harassment (i.e. including "normal" harassment like cat-calling), or has never been either outside or on the internet (and even then, unlikely).
Here are 14 tips I liked on how we all can do better. (They're a bit gender binary, but extrapolate-able.)
I'm still in, sorry! Just happened to miss the most recent post
I'm hoping my timeline synchs back up with the rest of the party's - that should hopefully help keep me posting.
Also, I think its a bit demotivational for the current plot driving characters to be botted... was it decided in the past to keep that going?
No worries Cel, thanks for playing.
@Elioden - I came to the same conclusion back in August. We decided to try railroading it for awhile, but I think I agree that it'd be much better for the focus to be on the current PCs.
I have a plan. (And if Alaina/Dara's player returns, which I hope he does, it should be fairly straightforward to sub them back in.)
Yeah, sorry. My calc exam is tomorrow, so I will celebrate with a bunch of decent posting!
Best of luck on your exam Xizoh! I need to postpone posting by a day as well - I finally made significant progress on some job applications today, but I did very little else. Tomorrow! (Er, today. The Friday one.)
Things are starting to move pretty fast now and I don't want that to be a barrier - if anyone wants a digest of what's happened at any point, that's no problem. Let me know.
Also, for the record, Henri's player is still with us but very busy.
Btw - how'd your test go, Xizoh?
Copied from a friend:
“Click on this link, and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll. Read these stories, and scroll some more. And the next time you hear someone insinuate that women lie, or that women make stories up to gain fame, or that women are seeking attention when they publicly accuse a powerful man of sexual assault or rape, think about this endless scrolling, scrolling through dozens and dozens of women, many of whom are household names. And think about what forces are strong enough to keep them silent for decades.”
Here's a very well written account, this time set in the tech industry. The same culture of excusing 'boys will be boys' behavior to the detriment of others is also, unfortunately, present in academia. (Although it merits noting that such excuses are generally limited to white men - PoC are usually held accountable (even over-accountable) for harmful behavior.)
Not as well as I hoped, but I did some investigating, and I won't lose my scholarship with my current grade, and can replace the grade by retaking it next semester.
The grade for the midterm, or for the class? (Dang, is fall quarter over already?)
Either way, I think it's a good investment to spend more time practicing. Learning calc is like learning a new language, and if building those brain pathways takes time that probably means you're stretching yourself in a maximally beneficial way (the same way that the kinds of exercise that burn more tend to be more helpful than things that don't take as much effort).
More practice problem solving in different contexts can only help with the MCAT too, if that's still your plan.
We don't have a true midterm, but three exams and a final worth 75% of our grade. Fall quarter ends December 19th I believe.
I feel that, it's just hard for me to not understand something easily. I've never fought this hard for understanding.
MCAT? So far the plan is use the university's Bs/Ms program to get both in 5 years, and then decide where from there.
I think learning how to fight to succeed is easily the most important life skill. If everything comes easily to you, you're pretty f*cked the moment something doesn't go to plan and you don't know how to deal with it. Learning how to define a goal, evaluate your progress toward it, and (most importantly) change your strategy as necessary is invaluable.
Rewiring your brain takes a lot of effort. I had a similar experience when I first took quantum mechanics. Now I usually approach learning something challenging for me with the expectation that it'll take some time, and that's just fine. (And feel the burn. New neural pathways hurt so good.)
MCAT = Medical College Admission Test.
Unsolicited advice: You're in damn good shape in terms of professional development having already joined a research lab in your first year. It's worth exploring other research opportunities and summer programs/internships between now and your final year to get a sense of what you're into (and pad your resume, build a network, etc). If you decide you want to go on to grad school, the fall of your final year is when all the application stuff happens (effectively eight months earlier than when you graduate).
Good luck Xizoh! (Also, I doubt I'd know any more than your tutor, but the calc help offer still stands.)
Also, Happy Halloween! Here's a celebratory picture from the internet.
Here's a thoughtful series of tweets by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
I chafed at this part when I first read it: "Notion that we are putting today's standards on the past is, in itself, racist--implies only white, slave-holding, opinions matter."
But... yeah. The argument "you can't hold the past to today's standards" is bullsh!t. There is no moral framework where owning and abusing another person is acceptable. Expecting our values to be reflected in our laws and the statues/memorials on our streets is completely reasonable. They're ours, where in an equitable society ours necessarily includes all of us.
Something I didn't appreciate having grown up in upstate NY is that in most states down south this alternate "states rights" version of civil war history is actually taught in schools. If it's assumed slavery was no big deal, it's no surprise then that people don't seem to get that there's currently not equal opportunity from generations of unequal access to basic rights and/or family accumulation of wealth.
As I slowly return, I agree - I didn't have much trouble in high school, all honors everything, and when I hit the first roadblock in college (which for me was Art History and Japanese) it wrecked me and I had such a rough time getting into the mindset that this WASN'T going to be simple (I'm probably not quite in that mindset, still).
=D =D =D =D Welcome back, Henri! Hope you're settling in to your new place.
Happy Election Day! Go vote, local elections are super important! (If you're not registered, better do it now for next year before you forget.)
I'll join the illustrious ranks of voters in the spring, when our local elections are held.
There is some good advice here. Although I take a more optimistic view myself - I think you absolutely can significantly change the social environment around you for the better by having these awkward conversations.
In contrast, here is an example of the consequences of internalized sexism. Of course perjury and false accusations are serious crimes and should incur serious consequences, but false accusations of rape, sexual assault, and harassment are extremely rare. There is very little incentive for the victim to report their experience and huge cost. Meanwhile, it’s fairly common for known abusers to rise above. (See our current President, and I have no doubt Harvey Weinstein will still be rich and spend most of the rest of his life out of prison. Plus Brock Turner, a white college kid in the most cut-and-dry rape case possible (with multiple witnesses) who got only six months to ‘not ruin his future’, like he got caught for tax evasion instead of committing a violent crime).
Betsy DeVos’s repeal of guidance protecting sexual assault and harassment victims at colleges and universities gives even more control to the accused. And part of the justification, according to one of the mothers: “In my generation, what these girls are going through was never considered assault,” Judith said. “It was considered, ‘I was stupid and I got embarrassed.’”
Note that all the fault, all the responsibility of two people’s actions is on the woman in her eyes. Her son is facing consequences for something his parents never prepared him to take care with. To me that indicates a strong belief in rigid, limiting gender roles - that it's strictly the job of a woman (and her protectors) to remain unharmed. Untainted. But hey, y'know, boys will be boys, what can ya do? (White boys, anyway. I doubt we'd struggle as much to hold POC accountable for their choices/actions.)
I reckon some of the gender-based social “respect” rituals we learn as teens like ‘open doors for women’, ‘walk women home’, and ‘women are seated/served/saved first’ interfere with our perception of women as humans worthy of respect (as equals and potential future leaders) and instead reinforce them as a lesser, protected class.
There should be fairness - a balance between ensuring criminals face the consequences of their actions and that no one is punished without just cause. That balance is currently extremely skewed toward silencing the victims. The appropriate calibration is to believe the women and men who report abuse and act accordingly.
I’d advise anyone, mother or otherwise, who could use further convincing to read this letter in full.
Not the most fair to have this discussion with Cel away, but...
To add some context to Elioden's comment (which I'd like to think is true on its own): yesterday I confessed that our recent average post rate (a few per week per player) hasn't been enough to keep my GM energies afloat.
Elioden convinced me to voice that to the team here rather than abruptly calling it quits. It's not my intent to pressure y'all, and I definitely understand everyone has stuff going on, but issuing autobots* is not fun for me and I don't want the story to drag.
(*I'm not counting PCs temporarily absorbed as NPCs (as I consider Cel to be now) as issuing an autobot - that doesn't affect the RL-time pacing much.)
Obviously this game and interacting with you all means a lot to me. My ideal outcome is to figure out how to recapture players' attention and make posting fun/engaging enough to think about once every 1-2 days, and we'd recover from there. (Or in the language of our recent life advice: to use this failure as an opportunity to learn how to improve.) If that's the way we want to go, likelihood of success will dramatically increase if y'all have a think on what would better hold your attention and communicate your conclusions.
That being said, I'm balancing sentiment with return on invested labor. If folks just aren't in a good life place to make a commitment to post every day or every other day, that's okay. We can talk about how to wrap up in a satisfying way.
My perspective is that I'm really excited to play this arc, especially with this new character, so want things to move! I also think that us players bear responsibility along with the GM to make the game work. Personally I've been very bad about posting for the last while, but I'm going to try and do better.
One thing to try if we are feeling very busy/stressed is to do a really short post, like just an immediate reaction or one liner. Even that moves things along and shows interest, at least imo.
I agree with Elioden - Henri is a very fun character to play and I am excited to play out this arc with enhanced stakes, continuing to explore the world, etc. I have been bad at responding because of recent personal changes, but I should be more regular in posting now. Definitely a part of it is that I personally am trying to put longer posts out there and I need to change my mindset to a more "I should get SOMETHING out so I can help move along" rather than "I'm not at my A game today so I will wait two weeks to post something" which is definitely much worse for the health of the game.
*is listening*
(Er, reading, rather.)
((Paying attention?))
I share the above statement. This game is one of the things I look forward to in my life, and I love the world and our interactions with it. I had more a few spots where I missed posting when I should have, but I plan to do better.
Sorry for my recent delay everyone. Ahhhh measurements at a different university ahhhhhhhhhhh! On the plus side I got good data, on the minus side I worked 80 hours in 6 days, plus 6 hours driving, so I'm going to do one last drive to Boston at 3am and then crash for a week.
Hows everyone else doing? On Thanksgiving break yet Xizoh?
Suck it up. Altien demands science!
Grad school is grueling. Hang in there Elioden.
Last year on Thanksgiving, Native American protestors at Standing Rock were attacked with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons in freezing temperatures protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.
This year, South Dakota is dealing with the 200,000 gallons of oil spilled by the Keystone pipeline.
Oil spills are inevitable - we all collectively assume the risk and weigh that against the potential benefit to society. Except we don't all have an equal say. The U.S. government has a long and storied history of failing to recognize the indigenous peoples within its borders as sovereign - in this case choosing to endanger their water and land against their protests. But because we claim tribes are "sovereign", there are no representatives of native tribes in our federal government. None. We decided to risk contaminating what little land they have left without their consent, and physically attacked them when they protested. (The U.S. is happy to count them as American for their achievements, however.)
Tip: November is Native American heritage month. There's lots of cool stuff going on. See if there's something near you. Seek out indigenous voices - try to get those perspectives and amplify them if you can, say at family dinner.
Apparently sharing stories is working, at least for three people.
I've heard from friends that some minds are changing as people realize how widespread harassment/assault really is. I wonder if something similar would be effective for other issues.
I think sharing would be effective for other issues to the extant of getting issues into the light of day, but I think its not a guarantee of progress. The same thing sorta happened with the police treatment of people of color a few years ago. Cell phone camera footage spread by social media is similar to this sharing of stories, though I'd wager it vastly under reports the real frequency of abuse. It did start a dialog and get a few police chiefs sacked, though conviction of officers is very rare. So... mixed bag?
Hi all.
I apologize that I didn’t hold out until Cel returned like I’d said I would, but we’re clearly approaching zero momentum. I am sorry that this arc was not as fun and/or exciting as advertised - I’ve made some major mistakes and took some big risks that didn’t pan out. it’s been half a year and we never really got going. Bottom line: I don’t think I’ll be able to recover our momentum. If y’all want to find a new GM I’d share the maps and notes for the rest of the arc.
I was fun playing with you all. I think I’m going to retire GM Mikkel and the militarized magic universe - I wish you all the best in future games and life.
A... very unfortunate day :/ I understand and respect the decision and definitely feel partially responsible, and there's definitely parts of me that want to protest. But, sunk costs and all. It was a very good thing in my life and ultimately I'm just incredibly grateful that I got to participate in it. Good players, good characters, and of course, a very good GM. Thank you, Mikkel.
That's sad. I just like to thank you all for a wonderful introduction into pathfinder, and for just being wonderful players and GM. It was a honor.