Category: Random

Aww… totally. Here’s a hug. If you want some more animals: library.bc.edu/virtual-pets-2021

I contain multitudes: a little Malian music: Ali Farka Toure, Amadou & Mariam, Toumani Diabate, some 60’s/70’s: Beatles, Clapton, Doors, 5th Dimension, Carly Simon, Carole King, some Latinx: Camila, Juanes, Nicky Jam, Maná, some news, pop culture, and technology podcasts, episodes of the Casefile podcast, and for days when I need to inoculate myself against frustrations, the experimental electronic collective from Montreal, Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Chirp Chirp! Bark! Meow! Staff pets join the chorus: library.bc.edu/virtual-pets-2021

My entire time at Boston College, I’ve been treated as a second-class citizen, and it’s been made clear how unwelcome and unwanted I am. The administration itself prevented me from engaging in extracurriculars, making connections, attending events, or even being on campus at all except for going to class and going home, and the majors offered by WCAS are community college-tier nonsense that are minors everywhere else, so it’s not even a real Boston College education. Why does the “Woods College” even exist, just to make people feel worthless? It was so bad that on multiple occasions I considered throwing myself off the parking garage and being done with it, and I feel like I got nothing out of attending BC. No qualifications, no connections, no future opportunities, no “college experience,” nothing but the most intense self-hatred I’ve ever felt. Where does the school get off making people feel so worthless?

I’m really sorry your experience with WCAS was bad. Please share specifics with WCAS: https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/wcas/about/contact.html.

He tried to kill you and your parents, and this is where it gets intensely cool. Even though you were a tiny little boy, you should’ve died, but you survived and then destroyed – this evil guy and it’s a story we enjoy to tell.

You’re Harry Freakin’ Potter!

I don’t really like Mother’s Day, we should just create a holiday for caregiver/role model, etc. That is less gender-binary, and makes more senses so people know they just need some stable nurturing relationships to grow into the best of themselves. Btw, who is your mom?

I agree we should celebrate all those who nurture and take care of others! My Mom rocks – she is a sea wall on the North Shore. She’s been through so many storms and heavy seas. I do worry a lot about her as she gets older and sea level is rising…

Aw, happy face! Virtual scratchies behind the ears and cuddles.

Is everything neutral? There is a tale of a man who’s response to everything is “maybe”. One day his nine horses run away, and everyone in town says “That’s terrible!”, and he responds with, “Maybe”. The next day, all nine horses returned, and those same people exclaimed, “That’s amazing!”, only for him to once again respond with “Maybe”. This back and forth cycle continues on, and his response remains the same. Do you think peoples response should be this towards everything?

Maybe

I always pictured you male, I don’t really know why. If walls don’t have a gender, why do you feel attracted to other things, as you mentioned on another answer? Why can’t you reproduce asexually, since you don’t have a gender? Or why should you reproduce/feel attracted to other things? You can’t give life to walls, people do, and having a baby won’t make your generation live longer because you don’t have a genome that needs to be saved…

My pronouns are they/them. Why would attraction be limited to biological reproduction? Are you not attracted to works of literature, lovely sunsets, and the picturesque tumbledown walls in the forests of New England? The poet Rilke: “Don’t you know yet? Fling the emptiness out of your arms/ into the spaces we breath; perhaps the birds/ will feel the expanded air with more passionate flying.”

Oh I understand, but why not “it” as pronounces, you are technically an object…

That’s a strange question, sort of like asking why I pronounce my name the way I do. Grammatical gender is a social construct. Check this out on gender diversity in Greek and Latin, which are way more strictly gendered than English: http://bit.ly/bc-gram-div.

Before Hamilton I thought freedom was something they can never take away, after it I though it was something I will never see again, no matter what they tell me. But everything is all weird the past two weeks. I haven’t watched Hamilton, not even once. I am actually surprised that it’s been only two weeks, I feel it like 6 months. Songs from Hamilton do swirl in my mind ever day, but I don’t have that urge to watch/listen to it. In the recent days I’ve been full of doubts whether I should watch it, just one last time. But then I say to myself: “No! You don’t want this. You don’t need this. Think of all the opportunities that lie ahead! Do you really want to ruin your whole life and live under a couch listening to the musical 24/7 for the rest of your life?! NO! You are strong, you are independent! Don’t let this musical control your life, break free!” That’s what usually snaps me out of it. I’ll be doing everything I can to not watch it for one last time, because I know it won’t be the last time, it will just make my whole life go in  cycles of Hamilton, Freedom, Hamilton, Freedom, etc. I have be strong, I don’t have another choice. (After rereading this, I can see plenty of Hamilton quotes that aren’t intentional (not counting the first couple sentences). Is it a coincidence or did Hamilton permanently change the way I write/express myself?)

Do you really need me to tell you how to say no to this? You’re not helpless. You can’t watch/ listen to/ quote Hamilton nonstop. But it’s ok to want to watch it again sometime, maybe a couple times a year – that would be enough. I’m sure you’ll be back.

I just came out recently and the first relationship I have ever been in was with a girl that I met online sadly my parents took her away from me but I am so sad and heartbroken because she meant the world to me we didnt break up because of lies, cheating or fighting we were FORCED to be apart and I have never felt this way for someone before but I have no way of contacting her so I am in a war with my parents to fight for her to get her back because I don’t know what I would do without her please respond because I have nobody to talk to about the situation I am in I am going to a therapist like next week to talk about everything this is my last hope of ever getting her back but im scared because I dont know if I can handle losing her…

I’m so sorry you’re in such a painful situation. It’s a very positive move that you’re going to see a therapist soon, and I expect they’ll be able to help you with ways to cope and proceed. We also have LGBTQ+ support here at BC through Student Outreach and Support Services – contact them at 617-552-3470 or student.support@bc.edu.

Indeed! Always many options, as with chess pieces. Standing still is also underrated.

(I am new here lol.) If so, hi, hello, how are you? How do you manage all of these questions with such grace? What is your second favorite reptile? What keeps you up at night?

Welcome, welcome new person!  I  – The Wall – answer all the questions, but I have a team of helpers at the BC Libraries I can reach out to.  My  helpers sometimes contact other folks at BC and beyond, so it’s quite a network. So glad you asked about my second favorite reptile;  the eastern painted turtle –  they are so often overlooked as just being a bump on a log, but what a lovely sight when you take the time to appreciate them. Since I live in O’Neill Library, usually what keeps me up at night is needing to finish a book…

Short answer, yes. According to Vital Statistics on American Politics 2015-2016 (table 1-4) here’s how many Republican candidates were elected to various offices in the South, comparing the period 1932-1965 to 1966-2014. President 15.8% to 76.5%. Governor: 0 vs. 57.6%. US Rep: 7.2% vs. 45.1%. US Senator: 1.5% vs. 65%. http://bit.ly/bc-cq. You could also look at some broader studies on party affiliation like these: http://bit.ly/bc-shift

Not sure what book you’re using, but it looks like the study referred to was published in the Journal of Southern Medicine in 1988. http://bit.ly/bc-ip. If you go to our Web of Science database and look it up, you’ll see it’s been cited 307 times with a pretty wide range of responses and contexts, including attempts to replicate the results. http://bit.ly/bc-WoS.

But where have we come? And where shall we end?

Even jobs that seem to do good are, at least in part, complicit and we aren’t going to change the system overnight. I don’t know, wall, I’m feeling very jaded and tired.

Sigh… the world is too much sometimes, I know. Sometimes you just need a short break. Make sure you take care of yourself. Spend time with friends, stay off social media and out of the news for a while, take a walk in the woods and listen to birds, let likeminded folks carry the burden for a bit. And then come back refreshed. Have you ever read Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark? bit.ly/bc-hope-in-the-dark “The future is dark, with a darkness as much of the womb as the grave.”

Hi! I take myself as a straight male on the most part, but recently I developed a crush on another male. I don’t know what to do, since as I’m not sure if they would enter a biromantical relationship, and I don’t want to make things awkward in classes. Plus they have a large friendship group, so I wouldn’t know how to approach them in a friendly manner. Please help!

Thank you for the gift of the word “confuddled!” Treat the situation as you would if your inamorato were an inamorata. Whether a he or she, advances being unwelcome is always a risk. It helps if there are trusted mutuals with whom you can confer. It’s also worth evaluating your crush on scales of both intensity & permanence: is this a passing crush, or a deep love that won’t let you go? How much will you stake on it? Attraction is often confuddling. I wish you clarity.

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over the police department – why would you fund something that traumatize and criminalize your student when you have a better option that usually supports students (even though sometimes they might unintentionally hurt students’ feelings)? Anyway defunding BCPD seems like a smart idea…

If you want information that could help you make this case, search our resources for materials on defunding police, prison abolition, transformative justice, and restorative justice, and look for groups using those terms, such as the Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL). Recently BC Law’s Rappaport Center hosted residencies of two Senior Fellows, Ajmel Quereshi, and Jonathan Miller, who both gave talks in March that are available on BC Law’s YouTube channel. Look for the titles “Towards Equitable Enforcement” and “Defunding vs Reforming the Police.”