In the Middle of the Deep, Deep Forest

My first anime was probably Rōnin Warriors. To this day, I remember very little of it, and looking at the Wikipedia page  I can't believe how relatively short a series it was. It felt like it went on for a long time when I was a kid.

I'd always appreciated anime and cartoons even growing into a young adult, something I still do to this day even though many anime fans would say I'm not really one because I don't watch everything they do, and a lot of the most popular anime series or movies I've not seen (Attack on Titan or Ghost in a Shell, for instance). Things just fit my tastes, and some just don't.

It's like how I've not gone out of the way to see the Underworld series, though I have watched one (that I barely remember, and am not even sure which one) because one of my fraternity brothers had a movie night in his room once.

So, exploring for anime I haven't seen and would actually like, let alone things in live action, has been difficult.

Simultaneously, I have a few things in queue on Hulu and I just haven't allocated time to watch them (notably Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works). So, I have what to watch, I just need to do it.

Theorizing the unexpected advocate

Theorizing the unexpected advocate

Yesim Darici did not pursue a career in advocacy. She is a scientist – a theoretical and experimental physicist with […]

Read it on news.fiu.edu

This woman is quite a thing. I wish I'd gotten to meet her.

I'd joined the Women's Studies program as a certificate candidate partly because I'd garnered nearly enough credits to get one anyway. I don't regret that decision, because I think it's brought me out of my (still quite hard and all-encompassing) shell a bit.

Seeing someone so tenacious who didn't let anyone stand in her way — though it seems she didn't notice anyway — become the director of a program that allows free thought, forward thinking, and embraces the spirit of debate and public speech is very refreshing.

But then there's this…

The FIU Instagram account had posted a picture of Dr Darici and that seemed to spawn some heated discussion on the worth of a Women's Studies degree (since the degree program itself is an option as well; the certificate was what I'd gone with, though). It was a little tense, partly because people were borderline throwing flip-off emojis (and even the Instagram account curator had hashtagged "smh").

It embodied the spirit of relatively civil discussion, though, and so that's what makes me a little glad on it. The person who'd initially instigated it, he even seemed to understand a little better why people defended the program (since he saw it, and generally seees things, as if you can't see a direct job correlation to the degree program, the degree program is worthless).

That's rather like my degree, Sociology and Anthropology. I'm nowhere near a professional anthropologist, nor am I a linguist officially. I do put my skills to work, and they help me as far as understanding people and the world. And then my certificate has helped me in expressing those thoughts a little more cogently.

So, thank you, FIU, for renewing my mind.

And now that I'm working, I can actually give back sometime relatively soon.