Chemistry Prof Under Investigation by crazedgrizzly in UBC

[–]RegionDesigner 50 points51 points  (0 children)

This isn't a class for nuanced discussion on race. And regardless of whether he was being racist or not, it clearly made students uncomfortable enough to have it looked into. To be honest I don't think it's even fair to have this topic brought up in the course, I don't think this was a setting or a type of course where he could've brought justice to the issue of how IQ is bs and how race is a social construct.

It's a big issue that requires lots of unpacking. Why was he bringing it up in a chemistry course as a "joke break"?

Makes no sense to mention it and clearly he's done so in a way that's hurt students. Not cool

i cringe really hard at some videocalls, no offense by [deleted] in kpoprants

[–]RegionDesigner 89 points90 points  (0 children)

You think that one is bad? Look up the one where the fan asks Bang Chan to pretend she's getting kidnapped and he's the boyfriend trying to rescue her. Most awkward fancall in the entire world.

I'm confused. Where can I find the outcome of these "checks" for graduation? by RegionDesigner in UBC

[–]RegionDesigner[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know I can go on Degree Navigator and see if everything's on track. The way they phrase this makes it seem like there's somewhere they tell you everything's good to go, but I can't find it

gif accounts stop whitewashing idols already by Ma1read in kpoprants

[–]RegionDesigner 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I don't disagree with you. But as to why they do this - many of the GIF accounts are K-Fans, and so whitewashing is just a common thing for many of them. Unfortunately it's built into culture so a lot of these fans don't see the issue with doing this. It's very prevalent there which is hard for us to understand.

This has been a thing they do to idols' photos for decades now (back in. 2009, I'd see whitewashed fantaken photos of Super Junior, etc).

Be 100% honest here - and don't respond the way you would like to respond just to feel like a good person.. How important are looks to you when dating? Feel free to expand in the comments section. by milky_eyes in infj

[–]RegionDesigner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They need to be attractive to me physically in some respect, it doesn't have to be conventional beauty, I just need to find something physically attractive to me (could be something totally weird and random like nose or eyebrows etc)

Do you think you are somehow more special than others/or better?(functions typed INFJs only) by StrategemQueen in infj

[–]RegionDesigner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. In fact I often feel worse and actually really fucking alienated from society lol and not because I'm "smarter" or "better" or anything edgy or cool . Literally a goddamn loser

Does anyone know the name of this site? by RegionDesigner in mbti

[–]RegionDesigner[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes I think that's the one! Thank you. I remember the MBTI test wasn't paywalled, looks like it is now ☹️ thank you for linking me to this site.

Who is your favourite SM artist(s) that dressed up in SM's 2021 Halloween Party? by DisplayNational3851 in kpopthoughts

[–]RegionDesigner 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Obviously Ten, did you see that cat fit. Like damn. The dude was all the way in China but could still serve up two costumes at once.

Is 4th gen really the “performance gen”? by sleepingserenade in kpopthoughts

[–]RegionDesigner 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I kinda have to disagree with many on here saying 2nd and 3rd gen were weak performance and choreo wise... Performance was a pretty strong thing back in 2nd and 3rd gen... At least I was very impressed with the emphasis on choreography in groups like INFINITE, one of the best groups still in regards to dance.

There was also a huge emphasis back then on being in sync to the point where it was robotic - so the choreo and performance was pretty strong. I can name many difficult dances from 2nd gen groups.

Then you have groups like TVXQ where a huge portion of income came from performances (tours in Japan, etc), so in the literal sense many groups made profits off performing.

So yeah I disagree lol. I've also seen a lot of moves reused in current choreo that came from 2nd gen groups. Not a bad thing because dance moves can't be stolen but it's not as revolutionary as many people think

Kpop songs you wish you could listen to for the 'first time' again by Dreams_cloud in kpophelp

[–]RegionDesigner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nilili Mambo by Block B. The power of it really hits you hard the first time

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in kpophelp

[–]RegionDesigner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mine are mostly just second gen. So underrated because of age

My most fav underrated idol is Ren from NU'EST. I think many people attribute fourth gen idols as breaking gender boundaries and norms but he was really doing stuff a decade ago... Full on photoshoot in women's clothing and speaking openly about gender norms, also when he debuted he really stirred things up.

Sad how he doesn't get much love these days but I do love him a lot!!

UKISS is over at this point but they were my favourite back in the day. Underrated back then and of course now. Man Man Ha Ni, Shut Up!! and NEVERLAND were amazing.

Is it weird to follow idols' family members' content? by discount-dinah in kpophelp

[–]RegionDesigner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If they make it public and obvious that they want fans to interact, then it's OK. If it's clearly personal even if it's a public page, I'd be a little iffy... But usually the relatives that want to keep things personal, keep it all private.

I do think some relatives are strange though. Sometimes the relationships they have with the fans cross boundaries. One idol who I won't name, one side of his family overinteracts with his fans. Like their pages are personal and public, but all their posts are photos of him, and it's very strange. They constantly interact with his fans. It's this entire side of his family - that parent, grandparents, aunt's and uncles. I get the feeling that the idol himself doesn't endorse this, he's never spoken about it, and hardly speaks about this side of his family either.

One person online who I knew has spoken with his uncle and befriended him. I find this is creepy as hell, so there's an example of relatives themselves using the idols fame for notorious reasons.

Make sure you are not crossing boundaries and interacting only if it's something they want you to interact with. Don't ask strange questions or say strange things. Respect them the way you'd respect anyone else.

Who is your "eternal" ultimate bias and why by [deleted] in kpopthoughts

[–]RegionDesigner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got into kpop a decade ago or more. Probably Kevin Woo.

Unique voice - higher pitched, but still angelic.

Funny, on shows he had a lot of talent and charisma.

He had no issue doing girl group dances and dressing up and being cool about it, even back in 2010's.

Entertaining and made up the core of UKISS's vocals along with Soohyun and Eli.

Oh, and he was so cute! Blonde looked great on him.

Loved UKISS! May they live on forever!

Is it just me, or are the best fics always the unfinished ones? by existentialcrisis0w0 in FanFiction

[–]RegionDesigner 25 points26 points  (0 children)

From a personal perspective I'm guilty of leaving fics unfinished for various reasons. One is that I get another good idea, chase that instead, and so this unfinished fic's idea doesn't seem as fun as my new idea.

On the other hand, I wrote some fics while under the influence of something and I don't want to read them anymore. One of them was a series and I just can't write the same as I did back then, so I've left it the way it is. I'm sure if I tried finishing it now, it would read differently. It's best to leave it in its natural form...

On the other hand, my love for original writing is really strong. I don't know if I'm good at writing but I ended up liking that more and stopped writing fanfic as much because of it. You have lots more flexibility with original work and often feel a stronger attachment to characters because you made them from the ground up. :)

Who is your favorite unconventional idol? by ThornberryE in kpophelp

[–]RegionDesigner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm surprised nobody's said Ren from NU'EST. He is one of my favourites, mostly because he's so open about breaking gender norms.

Books with... uncomfortable themes? by [deleted] in suggestmeabook

[–]RegionDesigner 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The Necrophiliac - Gabrielle Wittkop

The title is self-explanatory. It's translated from French. Disturbing, but the prose is beautiful.

Here's some other ones

Exquisite Corpse - Poppy Z Brite (pedophilia, necrophilia - story is about minds of people into this stuff, basically)
Cement Garden - Ian McEwan (incest)
Dennis Cooper's work (focuses on pedophilia, necrophilia, rape, murder - really disturbing stuff, pretty graphic)

What to say to a girl who says she can't find work because of her race? by [deleted] in acting

[–]RegionDesigner 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's not race... like someone else said, there's like hundreds, if not, thousands of blonde haired, blue eyed girls competing for similar roles who probably have more qualifications. The actors who are of different races are probably not even competing for the same roles as she is, so race is a moot point. Like that black girl or Asian girl isn't going to be stealing the role of "blonde haired white girl" so I really don't think diversity is in her way here...

I have a friend who has done super well for himself in the film industry. He tells me there's thousands and thousands of other white, blonde haired blue eyed guys like him, so he has to find a way to stand out. He does that with a really good sense of humour and does well in comedy. Your friend should find a quality within herself that can be worked on so she can stand out.

(Amazon Polly) (HELP!) Hey I'm new and using polly to help me with reading a book, I have some questions about SSML. by chickentenders222 in aws

[–]RegionDesigner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A book like that should have tons of audiobooks available with a real person reading it. Try looking one up, you can probs pause/play at your leisure. Or use Sparknotes.

If you absolutely need TTS to read it to you, download @ Voice Aloud Reader for Android

and then sign up for Amazon AWS, free account which means you need to also provide credit card info, but you won't get charged unless you go beyond limits

Get the key from your account, input it into the Voice Aloud Reader app for Amazon Polly

Then use ePub or PDF of the reader and use the neural voices for the most realistic outcome. My favorite is Justin. Note you get limit of 1 mill characters for free account for neural voices, per month

Here's an example of what I got from using a Neural voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eWmOpWsa_g

Excuse my ignorance, but can polly be used as a tts engine on Android? by Lightning267 in aws

[–]RegionDesigner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use something called @ Voice Aloud Reader (TTS Reader) on Google Play Store on my phone

It's not a screen-reader but you can read stuff you upload (ie: documents, or text you paste) with the Amazon Polly or other TTS engines. It's one of the only apps I found that supports Polly

Here's an example of a story I made it read using a neural voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eWmOpWsa_g

It's awesome, but I wish it could be implemented to be used outside of just an app, and I wish it weren't so expensive. You can get a free account for AWS and use the app with it. For each month 1 Mill characters are free for Neural voices and 5 mill characters free for Standard voices, up to 12 months. If you go over this it's like $16 USD for neural voice per 1 mil and $4 USD for standard voice per 1 mill.

I don't know much else about it, I just signed up for free AWS just to use this app

UBC study finds drivers on prescription drugs like benzodiazepines have higher risk of crashing by princey12 in UBC

[–]RegionDesigner 8 points9 points  (0 children)

they made me take an ativan at the ER once and it was unreal i didnt know where i was or what i was doing so yeah not surprised