My other blogs are for specific topics. This is all the stuff I find interesting that doesn't fit in those categories. Right now, that's LotR, bipolar 2, and AO3, but it'll change.
I would like to say as an editor that when I edit someone's work I am not thinking, "WOW what an idiot this person is, can't construct a sentence to save their life!!"
What I am thinking is, "does this mean what the author intends it to mean, and if not, how can we adjust it so it does?" and also usually, "wow I'm so glad I get to read this, what a privilege it is to help people say exactly what they mean to say."
I think a lot of people get frightened by the prospect of editing and I won't pretend there aren't some editors who come at the task with a suboptimal attitude but a good editor just wants to help. They want the piece to mean exactly what you intended it to mean when they're done. They do not, if they are worth their asking rate, want to scold you for being a bad writer. They do want to make you a better one. It is a helping profession.
one of my creative writing professors once said that to evaluate a work as good or not, first you ask what the work is attempting to do, and then you evaluate how well it does it. and this is how to judge everything from critical essays to romance novels to snack packaging to theory tracts.
Part of community action and moving away from capitalist structures can be being a community caretaker. It's doing what we tend to historically identify as ""women's work"" — cooking, cleaning, childcare, gardening, needle and fiber work, etc.
It's not just for women. It's literally just a different form of labor. It's important.
It's mending not only your own clothes, but the clothes of your friends, family, and community members who do not have the ability to mend themselves. It's knitting or crocheting practical items like gloves, hats, socks, and scarves and gifting them to those who need them directly or donating them to a local org who gets them out into the community. It's making blankets out of old tshirts and wash rags out of the scraps. It's offering to watch your friend's kid for an hour or two so they can get some rest. If you have a living situation where you have access to land it's growing a garden and sharing the crop. It's making a hotdish for a friend or neighbor when they're not doing well. It's going over and doing dishes for someone who is struggling.
It's not right that women have been historically forced into doing these things under Patriarchal rule. They are tasks anyone can do to improve their lives and the lives of others around them. The idea that their Patriarchal connection to womanhood makes them unimportant or not useful is rooted in misogynist bias.
Special question / poll for the 4th of July, content warning for slavery, csa, and sexual assault:
do u think pointing out that Thomas Jefferson was Also a child molester (source)*, would help my "the Founding Fathers suck" talking points
*Source, including primary source plantation records, via Getting Word, the department of African American History at Monticello, which was Thomas Jefferson's actual plantation home. This is specifically in reference to Sally Hemmings, who was 13 years old when Thomas Jefferson began assaulting her
or like. massively backfire
public opinion survey
Help
Backfire
I'm sorry he WHAT
Not sure
Fuck US imperialism / I want to push a button
See results
Voting ended onJul 5
.....Yeah.
For this 4th of July, donate some money to Black activists and Black-led organizations if you can!
Not like the United States federal government is gonna let reparations happen any time in the foreseeable future
I especially recommend the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. It's an offshoot of The African People's Socialist Party for white allies to make reparations under Black leadership. APFP and USM have been doing incredible work, both in their hometown of St. Louis and all over the world! They've been incredibly effective in organizing for Black liberation on all fronts, from economics to housing to health to community to prison abolition to safety nets. Their newspaper, The Burning Spear is one of the only publications in Turtle Island I know of that accurately reports the genocide of Palestine, and they do active work to stop it.
I met them at an anti-war conference and as soon as I was able I signed up for monthly reparations. I will never regret it.
Uhuru Solidarity Movement is the reparations organization of white people under the leadership of the African People's Socialist Party
Everyone is negotiating with the Biblical text, I choose to do so through the lens of the greatest commandment: to love God and to love your neighbours, who are made in the Image of God
is losing weight actually possible? it kind of feels like once you gain weight it just won’t ever go away. like this one time i heard that fat cells never actually die they just deflate.
So yes and no. Yes it is true that fat cells are like little balloons, they can get larger or smaller, but they do not actually disappear. This is because fat is actually an active endocrine organ. It's responsible for producing important hormones.
Fat cells can die, but they are immediately replaced, just like all of our cells. Fat plays many important roles in the body, and eliminating these cells entirely would be really bad. The same way you wouldn't expect to ever lose lung cells or kidney cells, we don't lose fat cells.
You can think of fat cells sort of like little banks for energy. If we consume a lot of excess energy, it fills up our banks. If we consume a deficit of energy, our body can "make a withdrawal" from those banks. The funds available within them will vary, but the banks themselves are still there
But that doesn't actually mean it's impossible to lose weight, and it is possible for some people to lose weight in a healthy way. The fat cells are still there, but since they are physically smaller, it looks to us like "losing fat" even though the actual fat cells haven't gone anywhere.
Is it possible for any given person in particular? I have no way of knowing. You likely have no way of knowing either. That's why I can't encourage anyone to pursue weight loss outright. It might not be possible for you. However, if it is possible, it's going to happen as a side effect.
I think the idea that it's possible for everyone to lose body fat in healthy ways and the idea that it's impossible for anyone lose body fat in healthy ways are both false.
I also think a lot of the people who can lose some body fat in healthy ways, cannot lose as much body fat as they want in healthy ways.
I think everyone is trying to become A Thin™ Person and I do not think all bodies are naturally thin. I think what happens a lot is a person who feels like they want to lose a large amount of weight, starts adopting fitness habits and they lose a much smaller amount of weight and then hit what they call a "plateau" because the same habits aren't resulting in more weight loss.
But I think in many cases that's not a plateau, it's the body signaling "this is where I want to be."
And if that level isn't the thinness they've idoloized it becomes rationalized as "I can't lose weight." When the issue was actually just that they had unrealistic expectations about how much their weight would change.
Additionally when that weight loss is achieved, as it usually is, through short term dieting, the second that restriction period ends, the body is ready to fill its banks back up. Which happens more rapidly as a result of prolonged calorie restriction slowing down metabolism and leading to more calories being stored in fat cells
Because weight loss, when it does occur, it's only sustainable when it's a result of permanent multifaceted habit changes. If a temporary diet change results in weight loss and then your habits resume to baseline, your body is going to rapidly refill those banks and your weight may even exceed what it was pre-restriction period.
Also always remember that changing our weight, in any direction, depends not just on the habits we can directly control. It is also heavily affected by our stress levels, by our sleep quality, and of course very much by our genetics
So to answer your question: is it possible to lose weight in healthy ways? Technically yes, but it varies so significantly between people and even between different environments for the same person that it's simply never a wise gamble. And attempts to artificially control your weight will usually fail, because they require abject misery.
For those of you who aren't familiar, I live in an exceptionally flammable part of the United States, and despite the fact that every goddamn year multiple parts of my state catch fire, destroy homes and kill people, the local assholes insist on getting drunk and setting fire to a bunch of illegal explosives anyway.
In 2023, God granted me a Miracle that prevented my house from burning down.
Last year, I had to resort to Psychological and Chemical Warfare to keep the patriotic arsonists at bay.
This year is apparently An Important Birthday for the clusterfuck we have the nerve to call a nation, so despite the fact there is so much smoke in the air that the sun has literally been blood red for the last week, the pyrotechnic fetishists are out in force.
Last year, I hit upon the concept that if my neighbors were going to act like problem animals, it would make sense to use the management techniques on them that you might use on say, a Bear that was doing serious property damage. Thusly, I created The Stench, a nontoxic but FOUL smelling concoction that I could discretely spray around the flammable gatherings and render the area extremely uncomfortable to occupy for the rest of the night, forcing them to give up or move on.
If this seems harsh:
There is no story from 2024 because a grass fire was started by fireworks less than 12 miles from me and the high winds put me in the evacuation zone in under an hour.
Over fifty people lost their homes.
Errant fireworks burning my house down is a very real possibility, and I pay the price in anxiety and insurance premiums.
The Stench is noxious but harmless, and also very effective at building a buffer zone around my home. But sneaking up to parties on foot in this heat is both exhausting and nerve-wracking. There have to be more effective ways to do this
-And there is!
It involves Weeds and Business Cards :)
All of this spring, I've been battling Bindweed and my City Code Enforcement Officers.
The city code people have been professional, but the truth is that one of my neighbors is calling them on use because one of my housemates is transgender. It's extremely grating to get these notices, having to explain repeatedly that I *AM* working on the weed situation, I just have a heart condition and No Money. It's also deeply paranoia-inducing to know that the city is regularly coming by and photographing my house.
The Solution to the Bindweed is 1 gallon of high-concentration vinegar, half a cup of Borax, a quarter cup of salt, and a couple tablespoons of dish soap. Get one of those weed sprayers from a hardware store and mix it up in there. Spray it on your thistles, bindweed, kudzu, garlic mustard or whatever your local herbaceous invasive is on a day with bright sunlight, and in a few hours the entire part of the plant above the soil is Deceased. It's non-toxic to insects, pets and wildlife (just wait a few months before trying to plant anything in the area for the traces to wash out).
The only real downside to this stuff is that it smells HEINOUS.
Sure, The Stench is nauseating, but WeedFucker 5000 is genuinely painful to inhale. Again, it wont hurt people- even my asthmatic housemates can use the stuff- but boy howdy it sure smells toxic. I've got the ingredients for about 40 gallons of WeedFucker 5000 prepared and ready to go.
I've also got a disposable hazmat suit, rubber boots and gloves, respirator, goggles and a shitty little golf cart from the free section of craigslist to haul my shit around in.
I also have Business Cards!
See, the very nice officers from the City Code department left some Very Nice business cards so that I may contact them about "the fucking bindweed is gone, get off my back".
So I scanned the business card into my computer, fired up Clip Studio, and made my own business cards. I've turned my City's Abstract Triangle Logo into an Eye of Providence and the slogan of "E Pluribus Unum" to "E Plurbis Anus", Changed my city's name to a dumb pun, and stated the card originates from "The Department Of Public Nuisances".
Crucially, where the name and contact information of the real city employee has been replaced with the name and business email of the neighbor who has been bragging on facebook about calling the city code department on my home because he hates my housemate :)
It looks, at a glance, very much like the business cards of city employees. If you look at it for like 5 seconds though, there's no way it could be mistaken for the real thing.
I've printed out 500 of these bad boys and will have them on hand as I, a put-upon employee, am forced to work overtime on a national holiday doing weed mitigation, because my boss can't manage deadlines for shit.
You're mad about it? I've been out here since 5 AM! But if we don't finish by the deadline we lose the contract and I could get fired. You know what the economy is.
Here, this is my Boss's Business card- how about you send him an email about how this has ruined your barbecue?
It's golden hour now, so I'm Suiting Up and preparing to embark on some civil service in the form of Noxious Weed Eradication, and by coincidence, Fire Mitigation.
I'll report back later Tonight🫡
(If you'd like to support your local disabled storyteller in their Acts Of Public Service, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or supporting me on Patreon)
Well.
It's not quite an hour into July 5th.
I am very tired, may have destroyed my sense of smell, and am not sure if I'm proud of or VERY disappointed in my fellow citizens.
On one hand: FAR fewer fireworks parties this year!
- Only nine to last year's thirteen
- three of them had the good sense to be firing their recreational explosives out over the local reservoir
- That's far from foolproof
- and really bad for the fish
- also y'all are RIGHT NEXT to where the Bald Eagles are nesting
- but congratulations on at least attempting some risk mitigation!
On the other hand.
Absolutely NOBODY questioned why the hell I was out spraying weeds.
- In a Hazmat Suit (technically it's a coverall for painting rooms, which is much more breathable, but looks the part)
- In a Residential Area
- After Dark
- On a Federal Holiday
Like I'm glad I didn't get into a fight or something, but like.
I was Ready.
I had that conversation locked and loaded.
I MADE BUSINESS CARDS.
...But instead of Very Reasonably asking What The Fuck I Was Doing, the crowds at these parties saw me (5'0" flat, potato-shaped, sweating profusely) trundling up on the slowest and least-intimidating motor vehicle in the county*, hanging a bit out the side to spray thistles and bindweed on the streets and sidewalks**, and instead of raising a rival stink, I was instead greeted by some derisive muttering and a couple of "OH COME ON!"s, but the groups dispersed and retreated indoors or at least away from the general direction of my home.
*Like genuinely, I think Barbie's Dream Car has more horsepower than this golf cart. This thing doesn't have horsepower. It doesn't even have ponypower. It's running on duckpower. It waddles, something I didn't know a wheeled vehicle could do.
**Actually completely legal and a welcome community service in my city. Thank you Neighbor Barbara for telling me the exact part of city code that details what civilians are allowed to do about weeds on public roads, which is apparently "LOTS". Theoretically I could bill the city for my time tonight.
Do people not know how to Make A Scene anymore?
I was absolutely sure I was going to get filmed and shit thrown at me, or someone would call the cops. My beloved was terrified I was going to get shot. I at least had ONE woman shout "YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING!" at me, which isn't quite as good as being told I'm ruining Christmas, but she said it with a genuinely heartwarming anguish while gesturing to a homemade "HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!" banner, with an attempt at rendering The Evil Orange that as so enthusiastically yet talentlessly executed I almost stopped to get a picture of it. He looked like he'd been put in a wafflemaker.
I promised my beloved that I would turn around and come home at midnight, and I did, having eliminated every fireworks party and Scottish thistle in a five-block radius despite the lackadaisical maximum speed of my Steel Steed.
The complete lack of protest is honestly shocking to me. My flabbers are completely gasted. I waddled home on the golf cart in a sort of stunned silence that this HAS worked so well. The whole world is almost eerily quiet, and reeking of vinegar.
...Which is maybe why I didn't notice the cop pulling up beside me at a red light until he rolled down his window and leaned out at me.
"WHAT'RE YOU DOIN'?" He asked, in a voice that could be used as a foghorn in emergencies.
I probably would have jumped were I not currently melting into a semblance of the Chernobyl Elephant's Foot in the heat, which was the first thing that saved me.
The second was the voice of my Grandfather, coming to my aid through decades of generational memory, to tell me his words of wisdom, usually spoken right before doing something wildly inadvisable:
The Age Of Miracles Is Not Yet Over.
"Weed Mitigation!" I called back.
"CHRIST ON A BIKE, THEY GOT YOU GUYS WORKING THE HOLIDAY TOO?" He said, in the same fontissimo as before. Apparently Officer Foghorn just talks like this.
"Yep." I nodded.
"SHIT." He blared in solidarity. "WHEN DO YOU GET OFF?"
"Just finished."
"MOTHERFUCKER. THEY GOT ME OUT HERE UNTIL GODDAMN 5 AM." Officer Foghorn whined in THX.
"Shit." I commiserated.
The light turned green.
"ALRIGHT YOU GET HOME SAFE! GOD BLESS!" He waved, and drove off at something significantly above the speed limit, and I trundled on home.
I must have still looked shocked when I came in, because My Beloved immediately got up to hug me and ask if I was alright.
"The Age Of Miracles Is Not Yet Over." I nodded slowly as the animals all battered me about the legs for attention. "...For real though, absolutely nothing happened."
"What?" he squints, wobbling slightly as Charlie tries to shove him aside for better access to me. "That's... Is it weird to say I'm almost disappointed?"
"I mean, I confirmed that I inherited my Grandfather's supernatural ability to get out of trouble for no good reason, but we knew that from the code enforcement people." I shrugged. Selene finally noticed the smell of vinegar and retched in disapproval.
"How about a shower and some Ice cream?" My Beloved suggests.
So now it is July the 5th.
- My house is not ablaze
- There are four medium-sized carnivores sleeping on me
- I am freshly bathed
- and I have a pint of Americone Dream all to myself
Here's to you, your health and your happiness, and a reminder to go make good trouble. Goodnight all.
---
(If you enjoy reading about my adventures (and the occasional curious non-adventure) I'd appreciate it if you could tip me on Ko-Fi. Apparently my Patreon link is fucked but it's basically 1 in the morning and I can't be arsed.)
This is - legitimately - my favourite delivery of Shakespeare I have EVER seen (and I have seen some good-ass productions yo, in the Globe Theatre itself even). Like seriously, even though the words are unchanged, he’s stripped away ALL of the archaic pretense and assumed grandeur of ~presenting the bard~ that makes even the most wildly talented of actors and innovative of productions inherently inaccessible to a modern audience. Like, they’re still great, they can still communicate the message and (some) of the nuance, but they’re still always a step removed from being identifiable to any viewer’s lived experience. They’re still always reciting 15th century poetry. But this guy? This guy is like, screw iambic pentameter, to hell with being precious about the material, HOW WOULD AN ACTUAL PERSON SAY THIS SHIT?
Like this. And it’s beautiful. It’s beautiful to hear a soliloquy I loved so much already, and have it come to life in a way it never, ever, did before. I feel like I grasp his motivations, his twists and turns, no longer on an academic level but on a visceral, instinctive one. Because he’s presenting his mental and emotional journey in a way that speaks honestly, like a real person.
So yeah, this shit post? I love it. Deeply and sincerely.
The Rodeo Rule: you only have to do it for the first time once.
The Rohan Rule: if you are at a social function full of new people and you want to be liked, find someone doing important work like setup or food prep and offer to help.
The Tutorial Mode Rule: to navigate an unfamiliar situation where you fear you will mess up an interaction, preface the interaction by mentioning that you've never done this before, and let them know if you have a specific concern or question.
The Rocket Science Rule: most new things you want to try seem very complicated but are simple when taken step by step.
The [X] Will Remember That Rule: if you need to make small talk with the same person on a regular basis, try to save one fact or current event in their life from a given conversation and bring it up next time you talk.
The Cool Binder Rule: by wearing clothes and accessories that are to your taste instead of trying to blend in, people will be more likely to compliment you and show interest in you as a person.
It’s like. When I was told to “just be yourself” as a kid I thought it was a passive thing. Like oh easy I just have to sit here and be myself. but the reason so many people think that “being yourself” is bullshit advice is because you actually have to make active choices to do this and it WILL make your life way more fun. You have to wear t-shirts of bands that were popular ten years ago because you like them. You have to do your hair in a way that you find cute or comfortable even if it’s “so nineties”. If your friend says a food you enjoy is gross to them, you can’t be afraid to admit you casually disagree. You have to do hobbies that you’re interested in even if you’re bad at them and you cant feel like you have to get good at something before you tell people it’s an activity you do. You have to read manga and comic books in public and get piercings your relatives think are unattractive. You don’t have to tell people you dislike that you dislike them, but you don’t have to give them your time and attention either. You have to rewatch that kids show you’re nostalgic for even if you’re in your 30s. You have to change your name if you hate it, even if only a few close friends can know. You have to get fun girly drinks at the bar. You have to order hot chocolate when you don’t like coffee and black coffee when you don’t like sweet things. I am still bad at practicing this but it is the only way to make it all tolerable.
It occurred to me today that you can use Miyazaki films as a really quick way to explain the difference between urban/modern fantasy and magical realism.
Kiki’s Delivery Service: takes place in the regular world— albeit at some nebulous point in time— but also magic is real and witches are a thing. Witches exist in this world because it’s fun and we like them. It’s fantasy elements in a familiar setting— essentially urban or modern fantasy.
Porco Rosso: takes place in an extremely specific place and time and contains exactly one fantastical element— Marco’s pig head— which is never given an explanation and is never questioned as a biological impossibility. It’s clearly a metaphor and commentary on a real world issue but it’s also very much literal. This dude 100% has a pig head. No other mentions of magic are made. This is magical realism.
This story brought to you by the fact that I’ve never seen a fanfic on ao3 tagged magical realism that wasn’t actually modern fantasy.
This has been my main argument against "AI" from the very beginning.
OpenAI scraped the entire web. All of which had been a labor of love from humans. Wikipedia is the backbone of a lot of LLMs, and that was volunteer human labor. They stole it and now they're selling it back to us.
And worse, they're trying to destroy the free sources that they stole from. It's destruction of human knowledge on an unprecedented scale. The burning of the library of Alexandria has nothing on this.
It's self-defeating, too. These LLMs are still getting trained on fresh internet data, but now, in 2026, a lot of that stuff is AI slop.
So these LLM crawlers are hoovering up the output of other LLMs and folding that into their datasets. Slop eating slop. Which means they're getting dumber and more prone to hallucination than ever.
And it is accelerating as AI bots outnumber humans on the web.
So I’m in college and I have no idea what I want to major in. My heart says literature but that isn’t going to make me money and college is EXPENSIVEEEEE. So I’m looking at a program called ‘interactive art and technology’. I know graphic design itself isn’t a huge moneymaker but this program combines UX UI design, game design, programming, etc with graphic design and everything. I have no idea who to talk to to make sure that this is a lucrative career. A prof I had told me that graphic design is a lucrative career but I don’t believe her cause she’s probably been out of the market for years. I wonder if my advisors will even give me a correct answer about asking for pay (I’m kinda ashamed of asking about pay myself), and I wonder who I can ask? How do I know if it’s a good industry to work in? How can I get an honest opinion of it? (Like, I know programming is a moneymaking major but since this program is arts oriented to, I wonder if it will even be lucrative?) And what do I do if it turns out it’s not a good major to be in?
Sorry, I know that was a lot 😅😅 hope y’all have a good day!
Not to worry, pet! We have a couple of articles on the best way to choose a college major and career:
High School Students Have No Way of Knowing What Career to Choose. Why Do We Make Them Do It Anyway?
The Actually Helpful, Nuanced, Non-Bullshit Way to Choose a Future Career
Your College Major May Not Prepare You for Your Job—but It Can Prepare You for Life
The tl;dr of it all is that Glassdoor.com is a great resource for comparing salaries, getting employee reviews of companies, and figuring out what it's really like in a given profession.
We also recommend requesting informational interviews from alumni who work in the field you're targeting. Good luck, sweet pea!
Did we just help you out? Say thanks by joining our Patreon!
As an English Major let me tell you that while not stereotypical a "Money Making" degree, literature class teach you some of the most important lessons.
How to understand what you read.
In a world that is getting more and more anti-intellectual, being able to understand information is going to be a huge leg up. You could do so much with an english degree that they dont tell you. So many places are just concerned that you have a degree.
You can use that degree as an analyst, writer, or hr. Its scary, but its not useless. Granted I became a librarian and am honor bound to hype up the humanities but my point still stands. Life is full of twists and turns and what you get your degree in doesnt need to dictate your life.
Totally agree with the English major above, and adding:
You can always take classes outside your major. Maybe you do a literature degree but take a coding class. Maybe you do the art & tech major you mentioned but also do a few literature classes. You don't even have to officially minor. No one can stop you from taking classes for fun.
Also, your advisors & professors will not lie to you about pay and which fields make lots of money and which do not. They may not have the most updated information, but most of your professors (particularly the young-ish ones) will have at least a vague idea of which majors/professions lead to easy jobs and which do not. I don't know the exact starting salary for computer science/engineering, but I know my bff who majored in CE has always made a comfortable living and never had difficulty finding a job. I know my friend who did journalism was broke the entire time he was in college and had to take unpaying internships (the devil's work). I know my friend with a master's in anthropology works for a school district and is paid a medium amount but is also taking a night school coding class to open up more options. These examples aren't specific advice to you, but your younger professors will have similar examples from their friends and your older professors will have examples of students they taught who recently had to get jobs in (or outside) the field. So I would trust your professors in general, though if you get a vibe that one specifically is misinformed or untrustworthy you don't have to trust them. Just ask a different prof that you do trust or that does seem informed.
I'd also say not to pick a major or career just because it makes a lot of $$$.
Because that way there's a good chance that you'll end with good paycheck but also be very unhappy. And that can suck ass. So it's good that you're thinking about career options where you can make good money and support yourself, but also think about what you might enjoy doing.
I was a linguistics and French Literature major in college (ask me about horny troubadours!) and was frustrated with myself when I got out, because I thought my degree was kind of "useless". I went on to get a master's in wildlife ecology and I now have a very successful career as a data scientist in a variety of tech industries, and you know what? I'm one of the few people at my job who can WRITE.
I can tell a story, not just with data but with words. I can write a convincing and persuasive PRD. I can draw connections between disparate parts of my job and my company and tell others about them with metaphors that make them go "aha!".
This isn't a thing I see from the folks who didn't have a good background in literature.
"Liberal arts" degrees are very good at teaching you how to connect, how to think, how to tell a story from a jumbled mass of facts. They're good at teaching you to question sources and biases and seek out context. They're good at teaching you to break down complicated things into understandable language.
And let me tell you, that is a RARE skillset in the tech world. Once you learn how to market it, you become very appealing to employers, and even more valuable as a coworker.
Here to "second" what folks have already said. My degree is in Communication Studies, which was widely regarded as useless because it taught general com skills and theory, rather than technical skills for a specific career. I'm so glad I got it. Instead of feeling locked into a specific career path, I can apply the skills I learned to almost any job, and I have (verbal com for deescalation in a shelter, essay skills for grant writing and copy editing, interpersonal com to understand the organizational politics and what's being said between the lines).
If you're going to spend a lot of money on a degree, spend it on something you enjoy learning, or at least that interests you. A degree in a specific field is NOT a guarantee of a job in that field, no matter what the recruiters tell you. Spend your time, money, and energy on something you find worthwhile.
Software engineer here. While my computer science degree has served me well in the ten years since I graduated college, the advancements (or rather, perceived advancements) in AI are killing college grad entry level positions and the tech industry just isn't as stable as it was promised to us back when I was in college.
Now, knowing how to code is super useful, especially when the bubble pops and CEOs decide it's cheaper to pay people to code rather than burn a tree and pay OpenAI, but becoming multi disciplinary, especially in the humanities will only be more helpful not less. That said, if you're interested in coding, take at least a couple of classes in it. I think that in itself is useful foundational knowledge regardless of the degree you choose.
I changed majors 5 times! And transferred to a different school halfway through my degree. I have a friend who transferred 5 times in 4 years. Even if your school requires you to declare freshman year (my first school had such packed requirements that you had to start first semester to graduate in four years), you aren't locked in! Even with 5 major changes, I absolutely could have done the degree in 4 years if I hadn't had health issues.
I'll also seconding (third?) what twoleggedmermaid said. I have a Comm degree with a concentration in PR. I haven't had a single communications or PR job, but the skills I learned have been extremely useful in every job I've had since.
One more thing you may find helpful is that many schools have a major called something like Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, or Independent Studies. It's more work on the front end, but you essentially get to make your own major. Before I transferred and switched to Comms, I was developing a multidisciplinary track for Science Journalism, concentrating on environmental issues and human Ecology. I was combining courses from the human eco, journalism, and English, plus intro level stuff in most science fields. I was even able to design it in a way that would've let me get a Creative Writing minor, which is where my non-science passions lie.
Basically, even if you have to declare early, you aren't locked in. You have more time to take different classes and see what clicks. (Also, if you're really concerned about spending money on classes that won't help, consider getting an associates degree. It's 2 years and then you can transfer to a 4 year college and finish that in 2 years, because you already covered everything that's not in your major. )
Make a Vampire character who’s lived through several waves of the common language’s development and can’t let go if certain gramatical habbits from different time eras.
So like, thou ist a horrid creature, an absolute cur, but go off i guess
Absolutely you can and I encourage more uses of similar phrases that just completely fuck up the chronology of the english langauge. I wanna hear 15th century english mixed with surfer speak mixed with current age internet lingo like all the time.
You are an unrighteous, bastardly gullion. Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell. When you die, I will face God and walk backwards into hell just so that I can beat your ass in the afterlife too.
This whole post is gold, but the comment about the vampire’s dialect “devolving” into older and older periods when he’s angry stood out to me.
It’s a cinematic cliché for a person of any foreign nationality to revert to their native language when angry (I usually see it with Spanish-speaking characters), and my southern accent deepens as I get angrier.
It makes sense that an immortal character who saw the eras of his language change and evolve over time would speak more and more archaically as he got angrier.
