Stories from a Historical interpreter

[idohistorysometimes]

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Hello, I am a Nonbinary Historical Interpreter specializing in the Victorian period. I also just really love history in general (along with things like cryptozoology, folklore and legends, and animals). Please feel free to ask me questions!

PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING MY WORDPRESS BLOG WHICH YOU CAN CLICK HERE A FOLLOW TOO 

(Because apparently I need to put this here now)

If you are a TERF, Nazi, racist, sexist, ableist, or history truther here to argue weird conspiracy theories with me I will personally beat you to death with my shoe.

[idohistorysometimes]

It's never too late to look at your own work, go "this is awful", and do it again to make it better

[idohistorysometimes]

As I go on my endeavor of getting published I've found that all of my work is too shit to even be touched by a reputable journal. I guess the decrease in quality is a wakeup call I need to step up my game, a lot, cause when I'm surfing around on jstor I'm reminded just how ass everything is.

This is why you learn to do shit right the first time, kids

[idohistorysometimes]

What is a Historic Interpreter

I realize that despite bringing up this term a lot in my articles, I have not actually explained what this job title means and what having t

[idohistorysometimes]

The Pathology of Vampirism: The Diseases that create monsters

Without a doubt Vampires are probably one of the most recognizable monsters we have in Western Fiction and potentially even world fiction as

Yall ever wanted to know how your favorite monster is actually a walking pathogen?

[idohistorysometimes]

The ableism of The Mütter Museum and their new administration: why “wellness” isn’t inclusion

What makes allyship preformative? Where should change happen and where should change be avoided? What makes a solution to a problem an “over

(Holds up megaphone) censoring the bodies of the disabled isn't fixing the problem Kate Quinn, nor is using random groups of people as buzzwords

[idohistorysometimes]

ah, the existential crisis of feeling i cant share any of my work because nobody will like it because it isn't more museum stories

[sherdnerdcollective]

Boston's newly re-opened archaeology lab connects the past with the present

The city of Boston has collected more than 1 million artifacts through its Archaeology Program over the past 40 years. Here's a look at some

[buckets-of-dirt]

"It's not about the stuff, it's about the story . . . A toothbrush that was found at the factory where they're made has a totally different story than a toothbrush found in an outhouse at a brothel."

YES! Context is KEY

[idohistorysometimes]

How to Analog Horror Correctly: A guide to making a series that does not suck

So, you want to make an analog horror series somewhere on the internet. Little known fact about me: outside of being a Historian, Student, a

Im back on my writing grind. Decided to so something fun in between the larger more academic pieces

[idohistorysometimes]

The great cheapening: The decline of Museum visitor experience quality (along with everything else)

Does it ever feel like Museums have become… kind of commercial recently? So I have been out of a job for the last couple months, shocking I

TLDR: I hate it

[idohistorysometimes]

Question: why the fuck am I the only person in this house bothering to decorate for Christmas. Why is it me doing everything? Where the fuck is the holiday whimsy

[idohistorysometimes]

Ultimately the thing that separates Anti-intellectualism from ignorance is "effort".

Think of it like knowing how to draw.

Not everyone starts off being able to draw perfect hands or landscapes. Expecting people to automatically be at that level is kind of dumb. And likewise, there are also factors that might impact your ability to draw that might make it more difficult for you than it might be for others. However, that difficulty does not mean it is impossible, it just means you have to put more effort into learning how to do it. And likewise, regardless of any other factors, in order to actually get better you have to build off of those skills, practice, and take the time working on the skill. It involves some personal amount of effort on your part which usually forces you to use your brain more and more as you learn more techniques. For example: "knowing how to draw" also involves learning what perspective is, learning how to sketch and do lineart, shading, learning anatomy or at least developing a style that is consistent, learning about colors and how they go together, etc. Its a lot more than just "making the thing", its learning how to do that on top of techniques and the composition of your piece. But if you just put it in an AI to make a picture (you did not make the AI either)... yeah you made the picture with prompts, yeah it might look nice, but you only got a result and none of the skills you would have learned through learning the process.

Learning information and engaging with the world is a similar way.

You dont always start out knowing everything. That is unrealistic. However, over time as you interact with topics more and more and you learn how arguments are composed, presented, how to cite sources, how to research a topic, etc... you begin to build the tools in your own toolbox which you can then use to interact with the world better. But you need to make an active effort to do that. You cant just snap your fingers and produce a result... well, you can but you are not going to develop the skills you would putting in the time to just sit down and interact with a subject in a more meaningful way. You need context to do that, and you don't learn that through TLDRs or through only listening to tweets or 30 second video clips.

[idohistorysometimes]

Also, hottake: Saying "I aint reading all that" in reference to a post or article you clicked on that happens to be longer in length and the constant need to have TLDRs and or information greatly summarized because you do not feel like reading through a full argument with context is just memeified Anti-intellectualism

[idohistorysometimes]

One of the worst parts about job hunting in the history field is that museums now seem to be run like a bizarre mixture hybrid of a for-profit entity but yet still retain a lot of the weird elitism and insularness of the traditional museum world. Its hard to get any job that actually goes anywhere or that pays above an insultingly low amount you cant even rent an apartment with, but at the same time you are expected to have several graduate level degrees and be above the age of 40 to either get a job to begin with or get any ounce of respect in the role you have. And then you got that weird third aspect of everything slowly becoming devoid of soul and meaning as administration becomes further and further divorced from the goal of what a museum does in the first place

[idohistorysometimes]

Stalin: this film needs to be historical

Also Stalin: you can't just use historical documents as the basis of your film what the fuck is wrong with you

[idohistorysometimes]

I need an editor cause holy shit the typos I find after I post an article after checking for errors several times make me disappointed in myself.

[idohistorysometimes]

im still looking for a job.