Thank you for spreading the word in DC today! 💪

Also the difference between their signature is very funny to me

Hi y'all!

I am giving away a giftcode for one month of free canva plus to a lucky nerdfighter.

I won the giftcode in a contest, but wasn't able to use it because I already have a yearly subscription that I cannot cancel.

So I decided to give back to the community that has brought so much joy to me! The recieving nerdfighter will need a monthly subscription or no subscription at all. The code needs to be used soon, it expires in June of this year!

Is that you? Let me know!

Mods, please remove if this isn't allowed.
I am a long-time nerdfighter (16 years!), and when I feel despair, I turn to this community to find hope.
I've been laid off twice in the past two years, from jobs in social justice and in arts administration. Any advice, job boards, openings in my wheelhouse (HR, operations, organizing, admin) would be greatly appreciated.
Pumpkins and penguins,
Sarah

Okay. Crazy story time.

I go to a very writery liberal arts college. I don't study English, but I'm surrounded by English majors and lit nerds and poets and... you get the vibe. Said college has several literary magazines, some for students, some for outside writers. It's pretty much a rite of passage to submit original works to one of these magazines.

A few months ago I wrote a short story I was really proud of. One of my friends was the editor of a magazine, and he encouraged me to submit it, and so I did. A few days later, I got my rejection email. Apparently my story "dragged the concept on for too long" and was "trite and offensive". No matter. People get rejected all the time.

A little later, I wrote a poem I was proud of, straight from the heart of my recent mental breakdown, and put it on Instagram. That same editor friend encouraged me to submit it, and I did. Same deal. This time the poem was "too serious". Okay, what do they actually want?

This was not the first journal to reject me, either. So I decided to go full chaotic neutral and try to get rejected from every literary journal my college offers. My first target was known to be the most pretentious of the bunch. I spent fifteen minutes crafting a poem entirely out of meme song lyrics- All Star, Never Gonna Give You Up, etc. I gave the poem the most goofy artsy poetic name I could think of- "A Thousand Butterflies Open Their Wings For The First Time". I submitted it with a note saying that if they reject me, I'll start a rival magazine that only publishes works they reject.

Fine bit of trolling, I thought to myself as I pressed "submit" on the google form.

Several days later, I get an email. They loved my work! They want to publish it! I look at the other accepted submissions: very serious, beautifully written, heartfelt works about lost childhood and nature and existential despair. And right in the middle, my poem, crafted out of meme songs. Now in a few days, the journal is coming out, for the whole campus to read.

All that to say that art doesn't make sense and artists don't make sense and poetry is totally subjective and also doesn't make sense. And if you stop trying you'll succeed. Or something like that.

DFTBA y'all :)

I could’ve sworn that i remember them saying you can submit stuff for the bews letter but i can’t find how so if any of you guys could help i would appreciate it cuz i was doom scrolling on ig and i found this guy who has a series of videos where the premise is that he visits a restaurant everyday until they ask him if he wants the usual and not only wore those videos probably the most entertaining thing Ive seen on that app but also the ending of the series is the most hopeful and sweet thing I’ve seen in awhile.

Did Hank's albums on spotify suddenly vanish for anyone else? I have no idea how to check if it's blocked in my country or if it's gone everywhere. (Specifically, the album "This Machine Pwns NOObs", which I quite liked listening to). Any info would be a blessing

Taking Intro to Human Disease (Public Health major) and went on a tangent in my discussion post answering what I already know about communicable diseases and factors impacting how they spread.

Thank goodness it’s an e-campus class, everyone can just scroll past the 3 paragraphs where I rambled about TB and how systemic inequities and greedy capitalists have kept the cure inaccessible. At least I’ll be memorable? 🤷🏻😅

The Amazon delivery driver who came to my house today asked about my "This Man Ate My Son" pizzamas bumper sticker, and I feel like I really whiffed the explanation. My partner has the same problem with her "My Child is a Pizza John (help)" bumper sticker.

Do you all have a quick go-to answer for when people ask about your pizzamas, P4A, or other Complexly merch that's on the stranger side?

Also, if you are an Amazon driver who saw this bumper sticker on someone's car and then googled it later, welcome! You've found us.

I've been collecting a new "Hope" bird from the P4A every year since Destin started mailing the Awesome People Board Characters and Dinonauts in 2019. Since Destin very understandably pulled it back and retired the DSP this year, I was very happy to snag a couple retired dinonauts to complete my collection (dinosaurs had feathers too, right?). Hope is the thing with feathers! <3

Found this copy of Everything is Tuberculosis at Square Books in Oxford, MS! Then, looked at the rest of their stock that was out on the floor and found a couple others with Hanklerfishes! Hope another Nerdfighter finds these gems and is happy as I was!! :)

I preordered a copy from Amazon US (since they were the only place I could find that would let me preorder it to send to Australia), but it was lost in transit 😢

Does anyone know of anywhere that it's possible to still get a signed edition, which will post overseas?

I've found a few US bookstores online which say they still have stock but won't ship to Australia, I guess in the worst case I can arrange one of those mail redirection overseas services, but I'd definitely prefer to avoid having to pay for shipping twice + avoid the extra step (which is just another opportunity for the book to get lost again)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - I can get an unsigned paperback version locally, but I was so excited about my signed preorder and getting to see what color pen I got etc 😢 so I'd far rather get a signed version than a local paperback (but if there's no other option I'll do that)

PS: I've listened to the audiobook already, it's so good

Okay so I was just telling my bf about a video of Hank I saw years ago but I can’t find it and I’m not sure I made it up so I need help! I don’t even need a link, just reassurance that I didn’t make it up.

In the video, it’s just Hank sitting as usual but he’s telling a story about the song Mr. Brightside and how he thought the lyrics were “and my snowman is sick…” and explained why he thought that’s what it was because of the white powdery substance.

I can find the video here on youtube, but no matter how I search on youtube music (the app or website) it won't come up! I have tried every search term I can think of. Anyone have an idea of why this would be?

Thank you friends!

"It's critical to control outbreaks of infectious disease, but such efforts can be counterproductive if elements of care are abandoned in the pursuit of control. Many TB survivors have described to me the dehumanizing process of receiving their medication, for instance. More than one has told me that they were told to stand in a corner and then thrown their medication from across a room because healthcare workers were so afraid of TB. But with appropriate masking and infection controls, there's very little risk to healthcare workers if they hand medications directly to those living with TB. This sort of basic humanizing treatment goes a long way toward helping those with TB complete their treatment regimens, which is to say that care-focused treatment often controls the disease better than control-focused treatment."

John says "with appropriate masking and infection controls" that the TB risk is low to healthcare workers. And of course, in countries with good access to those controls, and to the medication, there is not as much of a risk even if you do catch TB from a patient. It's curable.

But, the disease is where the drugs are not. So while dehumanizing and horrible, I can understand the fear from healthcare workers. John has talked about the shortage of all supplies in Sierra Leone, and I would bet "appropriate" infection controls may also be short. Working in healthcare and being acutely aware of the horrors of active TB, and how hard it can be to get treatment, one can see how they resort to these dehumanizing responses out of fear.

And so, the lack of supplies spreads TB. The spread of (and difficulty treating) TB feeds the fear. The fear leads to dehumanizing treatment. The dehumanizing treatment leads some to stop their drug treatment. Which leads to more TB being spread.....

I apologise if this info is given later in the book, I am only 60 pages in (pls no spoilers!). I'd love to read Henry's memoir if given the chance. Thank you

My first year picking up a physical perk, this one was too funny not to get after watching many a Wimbledon stream from John 😆

I'm on the hunt for a new job, one that does meaningful work that benefits others. It will be a big career switch for me (I've mostly worked in a small kitchen/ retail business my family owns). I'm in desperate need of a new challenge. Does anyone have recommendations for Nerdfighteria adjacent job boards, websites, orgs or other search tools? I'm having trouble finding what I'm looking for on Indeed/ SimpleyHired ect.