Schools Reopening

 I've been holding off on this, but I have several feelings about what is clearly going on here.

As someone in academia, specifically a graduate student, I've seen the response of schools to COVID since the beginning. I'll be honest, I didn't take the disease seriously until maybe the beginning of the summer or so. But I got on board, and honestly the response of schools who had MONTHS to come up with a fall reopening plan is atrocious.

Schools are saying that there is no way to regulate students and are putting the burden on them to self-regulate, and to regulate each other. The institution that I'm at is about to stick a ton of students in a dorm without regular testing and is telling them to be careful with their social lives. Ok literally the school tweeted saying that 25 person parties are fine but 26 is too many. Which really is only going to fan the flames of the frats that are already partying. All of the responsibility is going on the students while the administration takes up none of it.

Public health measures are being actively ignored. The way you monitor large populations like this is with universal testing. As far as I can tell, very few schools are actually doing this. Whether or not it is safe to carry on without this has yet to really be studied. But hey, let's do it anyways. And while we're at it, let's stick students into crowded dorms. The number one factor for an outbreak is the density of the population. Dorms are going to be a hotbed of virus activity.

And I think it's important to note that this is going to disproportionately affect some students more than others. We already know that COVID disproportionately affects minority communities, which is just going to carry over to the students. Additionally there will be low-income students or students with unstable housing that have nowhere else to go should the school close. Which will inevitably happen, it's just a matter of time. Not to mention the fact that professors and graduate student instructors are bearing the brunt of this by being required to teach in person in some places. Seriously, everyone is protesting the plan because they don't feel safe here, and no one is listening. We're throwing those that we should be protecting directly under the bus.

All of this for what? Money clearly. The school doesn't want students to transfer and wants that sweet sweet room and board moolah. This is why we are reopening, this is why minimal resources are being put into keeping people safe. And the worst thing is that those who could pressure the school, namely those students paying room and board, have the least incentive to do so. They just want to go back to school because they miss their friends. Which is entirely understandable. But if more of them decided to put the safety of everyone ahead of their own social lives, we could maybe get some improvements around here. Unlikely to happen, seeing as how this would have happened already if it could, but I can dream.

I feel really let down here. I would transfer if I was not stuck. I would do anything else if I could. But I'm a grad student and while I'm supporting those protesting as much as I can, there isn't much more that I can do. This is going to be a rough fall and I really hope that schools shut down ASAP.

This Is Beautiful: Yoga

 I don't know guys, this past week has been rough, I'm not digging too much going on right now. Still playing "Changeling" but I wrote about that last week. And I'm reading Utopia Avenue, but I'm probably going to write an actual post about that later on. And I've started watching "Adventure Time," but I've yet to really get into it.

One thing that has been nice though is I discovered a new yoga channel, Yoga with Kassandra. She has a ton of different playlists based on length and types of yoga. I'm particularly into the Vin to Yin yoga, this is a class that starts with dynamic vinyasa yoga for strength, and ends with stable yin yoga for stretching. It's a nice mix of both types and it feels good to get both types of flow in a single session.

Hopefully things pick up next week, but also I'm starting classes soon so that's unlikely. We'll see.

“The Philosopher Queens” edited by Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting

 I found this book through Unbound, a website where you can donate to books you would like to read and support their publishing. I saw the title and thought this project sounded incredible, and something absolutely worth having in the literary world. It is super expensive to get a book published, I would encourage people to check out Unbound (regardless of whether or not you live in the UK) and support similar projects.

If someone were to ask you to name a philosopher, everyone would probably name the same couple of people. There are Plato and Aristotle as the ancient philosophers, and then possibly Kant and Nietzsche for the more recent ones. Notice what all of these names have in common? They are all male! Philosophy is incredibly male dominated, with female philosophers throughout history and in modern times often overlooked in favor of their male counterparts. This book aims to change that.

Each chapter of The Philosopher Queens gives a brief overview of a female philosopher’s life and works. I was very impressed with how much information the authors could pack into just the space of a few pages. It feels as though you have a sense of the world that these women lived in, as well as what they thought about. The summaries are excellent and very easy to read, and they name drop all of the philosopher’s major works for further reading.

The authors also clearly highlight a diverse group of women, not just the white upper-class ones that are usually highlighted in “feminist philosophy” courses. There are Asian, African, Islamic, and a whole host of other nationalities highlighted in these chapters. The authors also do not shy away from holding past philosophers accountable to their ideas. Hannah Arendt is a commonly known female philosopher who wrote about WWII and is still relevant today but has a history of racism and racist ideas. This is all brought up and grappled with, as much as it can be in such a short summary.

This is not your typical philosophy textbook with lots of jargon and unreadable sentences. The editors knew what they were doing and made this accessible to everyone. And with the equal parts of history and philosophy, there is plenty to learn about. I hope to eventually make my way through more writings by these lady philosophers, I know that there are plenty I have yet to study.

This Is Beautiful: Changeling

 This is another game I've been playing recently. It's a visual novel telling the story of a girl whose family returns to a town that they used to live in. When they originally lived there, she went missing twice which sparked rumors about her and her family, so returning here means facing the family's past. Which is not the most fun seeing as how her twin brother seems to hate her for what happened. It only gets worse when they finally move in.

At their new school, you meet Ally, who's an old friend of the family, and plenty of male characters to romance. Ally figures out that the narrator is surrounded by Faerie power, and invites her to join the club of other high schoolers that are similar. There it is revealed that Ally herself is a witch, and other students are vampires, werewolves, and Faeries as well. The story consists of the main character exploring her past and her powers while getting to know this new world and new friends.

I wasn't super into this game at first. The character design is pretty distinctive and I didn't really vibe with it at first. Not to mention that the majority of the cast is these male characters who I wasn't super into. But over time, you discover more about the characters and realize that they're more than the tropes that they are presented as. Which is actually pretty on brand for how I feel about romancing men in general. And the integration of fantasy elements with modern day high schoolers is pretty fun at times. It reminds me of a lot of YA fantasy novels I liked back in the day.

Overall the game has something like six different characters to romance, each with multiple endings. This means that I'm probably going to be playing for a while. I'm looking forward to exploring this world with Faeries and other mystical creatures, as well as resolving who the protagonist is and what secrets her past hold.

“Turn to Paige Never” by Adam Knave

 This is the latest installment of the Great Ace Digital BookBox! I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was a really interesting and fun adventure story, equal parts fantasy and sci-fi. The characters are delightful, and the whole world being built is complex yet manageable.

This story follows Paige Never, a woman known for travelling the globe and helping out people in need from supernatural forces. She is about to give up that life when she is found by Anders, a young man attempting to locate Paige and learn from her. Paige saved Anders when he was a kid, and ever since then he has wanted to follow in her footsteps. Grudgingly, Paige lets him tag along on a couple of her adventures as they investigate a group of people trying to assassinate her and muck up the Earth. This leads them to Paige’s home in another dimension and back again, with Anders learning and Paige falling back in love with her profession the whole time.

The true highlight of this book is Paige herself. A sassy badass, she is always quick to dole out impressive lines to the bad guys and do incredible things. Her main powers are in manipulating the energy around her, whether with her body or her reliable pair of WarBoots. It is sad to say, I didn’t realize until we were a couple chapters in that Paige was a woman since she was written in such a cool, smooth way. But I am so so glad that her character exists.

Beyond that, the world created in this story is incredible. I felt as though I was learning along with Anders, and that constantly new facts and organizations would be cropping up. Paige explains them all, to both Anders and the reader, in a very understandable way. Having the two of them constantly talking through their plans and especially having Anders as a stand-in for the audience definitely helped a lot, but it never takes you out of the story. Every explanation is presented in a quirky way, whether it is Paige talking about giraffes and their necks in a way that demonstrates what is wrong with the world or breaking down some basic physics to explain her job.

And the representation! Anders reveals himself to be asexual and aromantic, about the same time that Paige is shown to have dated other women. Having a duo like that is so refreshing, because it means that there is no way that they would fall for each other and thus completely side-steps all of the disgusting Bond tropes. The two of them become incredibly close friends, with Paige learning to be grateful for Anders’ questions and his company.

I adored reading this book, and I would strongly recommend it for all that are interested! In fact I would be picking up a sequel, but there does not appear to be any at this time. Paige’s world sounds incredible, and I would gladly read several more books on this sassy, smart duo any time.

This Is Beautiful: Ice Cream

As surreal as it is to walk around town with everyone wearing masks, it is nice to get out and about every once in a while. A friend of mine took me out to grab ice cream spontaneously and it was a good time. Of course it was overcrowded and there were a couple of idiots, but sometimes the benefit of doing these things can outweigh the risks. (And I did say "sometimes" there.)

I don't know, it just gets lonely when you are inside all the time. And talking to people virtually does not really capture it. And even better is when you have a common activity, like eating ice cream, to focus on. It is something that I have missed a lot, and I'm not an extrovert at all. Somehow I just miss people and being around strangers anyways.

It is important to remember to take breaks and eat ice cream with friends! Just remember to be safe while you do it.

Schools This Fall

As someone at an academic institution, I am really disappointed with the way schools are planning for the fall semester. Specifically colleges and universities, although I know that high schools aren't exactly doing super either. 

I thought that due to parental complaints schools would go online as much as possible and keep the students at home. Unfortunately I was incredibly wrong. Schools have decided to protect their own interests and let students back on campus and into crowded dorms, just so that they can make money. All of that room and board isn't cheap after all.

To top it off, schools have minimal plans for keeping the students safe. The most that I have seen is that masks are required and that students must self-quarantine for two weeks prior to returning to campus. Masks are good, rest is entirely suspect and definitely not enough to keep anyone from getting COVID. There is no way to make sure that students are actually self-quarantining before arriving on campus. And then once students are on campus, they can leave whenever they want and go to restaurants and bars and pick up COVID there. 

Not to mention that there is no way to prevent an outbreak in a dorm. Bathrooms are shared, bedrooms are shared, and there is a very high population density there. Anyone who has been in a dorm knows that colds and viruses spread around seasonally, there is no way to keep social distancing in that environment. All it takes is one person making a questionable decision and giving the coronavirus to the entire dorm population.

What this is doing is setting up the schools to blame the students when things inevitably go wrong and there's an outbreak on campus. Schools are demanding that students step up and ensure their own and everyone else's safety. It is not that they are immature and incapable of doing that, it is the lack of a safety net. Any group of individuals in that situation is bound to fail. We are seeing professional sports athletes fail at this in their bubbles, a group of young adults does not stand a chance.

This blatant protection of a school's own interests at the expense of its students' safety is honestly incredibly gross. It makes me ashamed to be a part of this school since, even though as a grad student I do not pay for tuition, just be being here is me lending them my support. And it isn't going to change unless there is an uproar from students or their parents, or the more likely situation, until there is the inevitable outbreak in a dorm that lands students and teachers in the hospital.

This Is Beautiful: Secret Little Haven

Over prelims I started a game called "Secret Little Haven." It's about a trans girl discovering herself and her identity through the internet and fandom life in the late 90s. I'm not super far into it, but I can already tell that I am going to enjoy this.

The main pull for me is the gaming format. Your computer screen essentially becomes the main character's, Alex, as she navigates the internet. You can go through her files and play minigames or write fanfiction in a word processer, and peruse an online forum through the internet. There's even a control terminal you can input lines into! It is a really cool way to incorporate creativity into a storyline and to get to know a character.

And there's the story itself about finding yourself and how interacting with different people can facilitate that. I am not very far in, but seeing the internet as a community for Alex and how she can explore the world, find people to connect with, and discover herself is really sweet. It all revolves around this magical girl show that Alex is a fan of, there are explanations online but I don't quite understand the plot. But that's fine.

I'm excited to finish it, other reviews online have said that it is super powerful and emotional. We'll just see where Alex goes from here.

Prelims

Not so much of a post, more of a life update, but I'm in grad school and I have a prelim exam on Monday so I am swamped right now. For those that don't know, a prelim exam is basically an entrance exam for your chosen grad school program. After a year or two of classes, you (theoretically) absorb all of this information and then have to demonstrate to a committee that you know enough in order to formally enter your graduate program. It is a kinda weird system, pretty antiquated as well, but it is what you have to do. And it might be one of the most stressful parts of grad school.

The specifics of the exam vary from program to program, for mine we propose a thesis project and submit a one-page summary of our goals and plan, then we present the project to a committee of four members of the department. During the presentation, the committee members are going to try and ascertain the limits of our knowledge to make sure that we know enough to enter the program. So there is definitely a lot of stress and pressure riding on this.

My proposal involves examining gene regulation within different cell states. So plenty of studies look at gene regulation within different cell types, but not many look at gene regulation in different stimulatory states. I want to amass a dataset on pancreatic beta cells in different states and see if that can give insight into type 2 diabetes. And of course it is a lot more involved than that, but that's the gist.

So no real post this week, but I just got a shipment of books in so I'm looking forward to writing about those soon!