Titled: Title - Part 4

I'm sitting in my university dorm with a too-hot cup of tea next to my computer and my toes turning into icicles. I swear, at some point I'm going to write my professor an email reading, "I'm sorry I wasn't at class today, because I know we were supposed to talk about the concept of hell today, but I stepped outside and I'm pretty sure this is it. Good day."

...not to say I don't like my university. It's wonderful. I have great classes and a good dorm and easy-to-access meals, so while it's fucking freezing and I'm sure I'm ready to get frostbite (IN SEPTEMBER), I'm really enjoying myself. Honestly, besides the cold, I have few complaints.

But anyways, I know I haven't been posting regularly as of late, but I did want to share with you some of the stuff I found in the last few weeks. Here:

Who Should Decide What High School Kids are Allowed to Read? - a continuation of the debate about The Miseducation of Cameron Post. I could go into a whole rant about this at this point, but I think you should just check my tag for it and just take it from me: this is a complex issue. But yeah, this was a good refresher, and I'm glad it was posted - I don't think we should forget about this quite yet.

Publishers Gave Away 122,951,031 Books During WWII - I found this shortly after I found the article above. Can you believe this?? It's rather inspiring, especially the part about The Great Gatsby. As a writer, I'm really interested in the history of books and what gets people interested in literature. After all, I'm a reader, too (although as I stare at my desk-library of books, I get the strange feeling that I'm not quite living up to it at the moment). Anyways, read it - it's a great historical analysis of what got us back into literature.

Chester 5000 XYV - Yes, I know exactly what I'm discussing when I show this off. Chester 5000 XYV definitely has a plot that is meant for 18+ viewers, so I will let you discover it yourself, but I will note this: even if you put the mature content aside (which, really, is the whole reason some people might read it), the plot is fucking wonderful and worth a good look.

Tripping Over You - Take an extroverted dork. Then take a shy but intelligent student. Mash them together and it sounds like heaven, right? Here's the catch - they're both boys. And man, does that make for a great story. Just read it - it'll have you gushing from the cuteness before you can even properly register. Pro Tip: after reading each page, hover your mouse over it. Most of them have secret text.

A Little Known Hack from Japan to get your Notebook Organized - I haven't begun to use this because I'm a little busy right now, but this is a system that allows you to easily tag your paper notebooks so you can find thing easily and accurately. My take on it? When I sketch, I often add notes about my characters, and I've often made new characters right on the spot, right in my notebook. One of my new characters, Alexei, has almost all of her initial development right in my sketchbook! So if you want to mark which pages have character notes, certain characters in particular, random ideas, equations, etc . . . this might be worth the effort. Pro Tip: I think colored markers would make this even more visually workable.

Ms. Bardugo and the Anon Wang - Overall one of the best responses about diversity and the opposition to it. Of course, it's LGBT related, because what else would I discover? Pro Tip: This is why you do not demand to have a say in what writers write.

Why Foxes Get Respect in Japan - I found this page in the midst of looking up information about Inari, a Shinto god from Japan. Why? Err, cultural tie-ins with my fanfiction work. Nonetheless, this is an interesting read with interesting art to match. Pro Tip: Read about the kitsune and realize how badly Westerners translate Japanese mythology sometimes.

I really don't have much more to say than that! Just remember, if you ever feel like you're life's too busy . . . think of what it's like for a first-year university student in a foreign country. Then you might feel better, eheh.