Daily Entertainment: We're Not Google, But-

[thisisnotajournal]

New personal, y'all. How's it look?

I think we ran today's DE a while back, but I can't recall who first thought it up. Feel free to speak up if you know who, though!

The players of Milliways each have their areas of expertise, and sometimes a web search just isn't enough to get the details down right for our characters. What subjects, academic or otherwise, should other muns pick your brain on?

Comments

[thisisnotajournal]

Ask me about:

- firearms! This is the big one. I wouldn't say I know everything there is to know about them, but I've been reading about them for years now (along with getting rangetime, when I get the chance), and even if I don't know the down and dirty of a specific model, I can walk you through the details of how many kinds of actions work. (Fun fact! The Sturmgewehr 44, the world's first assault rifle, was pitched to Hitler as a replacement for Wehrmacht's submachine guns, as he did not believe the short-cartridge design was an adequate replacement for the Kar98k then in use).

- military history! I specialize in the American Civil War and its aftermath (ask me about my mancrush on William Tecumseh Sherman), along with the Ostfront and Pacific War. I am also reading up on the Vietnam War!

- wildlife and conservation biology!

- military tactics and strategy! Fair warning, it's all book-learning and the specifics are really only applicable to post-WW2 conflicts, but it's in there!

- police work! I was a non-sworn officer for a time at my university's police department, and got to know many of our officers, dispatchers, and their operating procedures during that time. There's some book-learning at work here, too.

[harryhotspur]

... Shakespeare? :D that's it that's all i know

[hasthehighground]

BUT YOU KNOW A LOT OF IT \o

[bcgphoenix]

Ask me about:

- Book preservation and conservation! I've worked in a preservation lab for six and a half years; my focus is more on the manual repairs than chemical analysis, but if you want to know how to fix a book, how a book would deteriorate in x number of years under y conditions, what a book from a certain century would look like, and stuff like that, I'm your woman.

- Modern Washington, DC! I've also lived in this stupid swamp town for six and a half years, so I've got a good sense of daily life. It's not just monuments and corrupt politicians. People actually live in the city. And if your pup would, too, I'm more than happy to serve as your fact checker! (So many pieces of fiction get DC wrong that it's like my singlehanded mission in life to make sure my city doesn't get short shrift. *wry*)

- General library stuff! Does your character work in a library? So do I! Let's chat.

- Modern roller derby! I skated with a WFTDA league for a year and a half, and I'm still volunteering/officiating both on and off-skates, so I can also fact-check stuff there.

Those are the big ones I can think of off the top of my head. If anything else springs to mind, I'll come back and add it.

[onceaviking]

I'm a Dane!
Yay?

I'm a librarian (public library) and I've worked at NGOs and a huge IT corporation(web stuff and intranet stuff) before that.

I spin (wheel and spindle and random sticks), I knit, I bake.

I used to spend a lot of time with Tarot cards and runes and such. And old magic verses from various parts of Scandinavia.
And weirder things yet.

[sdelmonte]

Ask me about:

- All things Jewish. Well, maybe not the philosophical tracts of Martin Buber. And my Hebrew is, for a practicing Jew with fifteen years of yeshiva education, not amazing. But otherwise...

- All things DC Comics. Why consult Wikipedia when you have someone who's been there for every reboot since 1985?

- New York City. Its politics, its lore, its locations, and so on. (This includes all things Mets. I don't foresee much need for Mets data, but the Mets are strangely in first place today, so I feel like mentioning them.)

- The museum world. Not the art but the behind the scenes stuff. For your next caper. Not that I will tell you exactly how to rob the Klopman Diamond, but I can tell you that White Collar and The Thomas Crown Affair got it wrong. (I could also tell you how exhibitions are created, but that is even more specific than who the Mets' shortstop was in 1994.)

- Art. Sort of. I mean, I have learned a lot about art over the years, so I could help with basic stuff. Just don't ask me to explain anything contemporary.

[immortalthief]

Ask me about:

-Electrical Engineering. It's what I do for a living. Obviously I don't know everything, because there is a lot to know (which is why I am going back to school to learn more). But I should be able to help.

[camwyn]

- Horrifying diseases. I'm not a doctor, but my undergraduate major was in public health with a lot of classes in maternal/reproductive health and international health issues, and I wound up doing a lot of research on things of that nature largely for my own curiosity. I still have access to a lot of the books and materials involved and can point people in the right direction for most of them.

- Primitive/traditional archery. I'm not a crossbow or compound shooter; recurve bows and longbows, on the other hand, I collect and use, and I subscribe to several magazines on the subject.

- Network administration and Windows-based computing. This is what I do for a living.

- Radiation and what it can do to humans or animals. I was studying this in college before Interplay published the original Fallout and I haven't really stopped since.

- Aviation. My focus is on rotorcraft at the moment, but you can't get a pilot's certificate for helicopters without learning all the principles of both rotorcraft and fixed-wing flight, plus there's just so much history attached to it all that I probably count as a good source for that too.

- Low-tech survival skills. I've taken a few courses in things like winter wilderness survival. Other seasons and scenarios, I have books on the subject and can get you the information if I don't know it.

- Also I knit, do very basic crochet, and am working on learning beading (I seem to have gone from 'string pretty shiny things on an elastic cord so you can tie your curtains back' straight to 'peyote stitch necklaces, what a great idea' without stopping anywhere reasonable in between).

[fluffiest_archadian]

- The Troubles in Ireland.

- The Goidelic, Brythonic, and West Germanic language families - this includes both languages no longer used in the modern day and ones which are still extant. I can give you my best shot with Hellenic and Latino-Faliscan languages as well, but that's a slightly more risky business.

- The history of the British Isles from about the 3rd century to the present day - some eras more than others. Anything from the Norman Conquest to the Hanover era is going to be a bit more difficult for me, but I can definitely manage it.

- Irish and British politics and law.

- Protocol, law and customs relating to royalty, aristocracy, landownership, and heraldry in Britain and Ireland.


I also live with an expert on US politics and history, and I am entirely okay with asking her questions if need be.

[venerable_ibis]

Ask me about the French Revolution? I'm pretty solid on 1789-1794, and I can fake it look things up with some decent resources for French political history in ~1815-1832. Uh if you have a burning desire to know about fan-making in France in the 1820s and 1830s I can possibly help you out.

I've got a lot of resources on Ancient Egypt.

other than that i'm pretty useless sorry :(

[genarti]

Succulent plants. :p

[the_lioness]

Hmmmm. Let's see. I think I can help out with...

1) Horses! I competed for years. I'm mostly familiar with English style (hunt seat, three day eventing, etc.), but can get by re: western.

2) Washington D.C. and environs, especially Northern VA. I move away, but I always come back! For example, none of us actually call it the DMV, whatever TV shows or radio DJs like to say. Also, it's National Airport. NATIONAL. Ahem. Okay, maybe I'm just being stubborn about that one.

3) Politics, lobbying and public affairs.

4) Um... what it was like to live in Rome and London in the 1980s? Surely someone needs to know this? Anyone? *laughs*

5) Invisible disabilities.

Also I live with a physics genius and a walking Marvel encyclopedia. He's also a former player, so I feel comfortable volunteering his help. :D

you knew this was coming

[lady_mary]

HORSES HORSES HORSES HORSES

*has in fact ridden a horse before*

[bjornwilde]

~ Marvel comics, especially late 70s, 80s, and the 2000's up to the most recent Secret Wars. I skipped the 90s and have lost interest with the latest Re-Org cross-over. Most of my knowledge will be centered on the Fantastic Four.

~ Digital graphic production and the wonderful world of printing? I doubt anyone will ever use this in character but there it is.

~ Faerie and mythology? I have lots of odd bits and usually can back them up with weblinks.

~ The SF Bay area. Lived here for nearly 20 years now, both in SF itself and the surrounding area.

I think that's about it.

Love these types of DE's btw.

[varadia]

Polymer chemistry and materials science.

Some French.

Industrial research, what it's like and how things are organized.

Various mythologies and folk tales.

Catholicism in practice (US-ian-Polish.)

Marvel and DC comics, heavy on the X-men shenanigans

Pittsburgh.

[bjornwilde]

Can I just say with all the Battleworld/Secret War shenanigans, why could we have an Academy X title?

[genarti]

- Basic (though not super in-depth) knowledge of farming in the US midwest and northeast -- my family hasn't farmed for a few generations, but my family home is in farm country, even if I'm not living there right now. Also similar level knowledge of forest ecology of the same general areas.

- US academia as an institution -- I work for a university (in a humanities department, for the record), and I see a lot of the administration and faculty side of things.

- Boston

- New England in general

- Knitting, sewing, etc

- Horses

- this one is very, very disclaimer-laden, but: Arabic, basics of Islam, and the Middle East (and the experience of being an American student living in Egypt circa 2002.) I am not Muslim, I do not speak Arabic, I am not an Arab, and I am not an expert. It was my undergraduate major some years ago, and I spent a semester abroad. I can help with basics and with major pitfalls, and I'm happy to do so! It's the kind of thing a lot of people I've met don't know anything about, and I can help with the 101 level. But I also don't want to present myself as more of an expert than I am.

- some stuff about Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphic, also, although Jane (Djehuty- and Feuilly-mun) is way better than I am here

- I've dabbled in a few languages, including French, Japanese, Latin, and American Sign Language, as well as the aforementioned Arabic and really really basic hieroglyphic. I'm not fluent in any, but.

- folk dance, especially certain social dance subcultures in the US right now, and particularly Scottish dancing. I would be astounded if anyone actually needed to know this, but hey, it's definitely a thing I can talk at length about.

- uhhhh there's probably other stuff, but that's what comes to mind right now, so I'm gonna go ahead and hit post.

[alexiscartwheel]

- because this topic hasn't been covered yet (ha!): libraries! I work in a public library right now, but I also have experience in schools and universities. I worked in archives and special collections digitization for ~4 years. Basically I know something about working in or researching in some very different places.

- bands and band music! I play a bunch of different instruments (oboe, flute, piano, baritone, handbells...) and spent many years playing in concert bands, marching bands, orchestras, and other performance ensembles, both competitive and very, very not

- languages/linguistics! I speak and read some Italian, though it is growing rustier eight years since I last studied, and I know enough Spanish to hold very important conversations with toddlers at work (¿Quieres un libro?). I have some super useful knowledge of Romance linguistics and dialectical Italian too.

- 19th century British literature and also some about the contemporary book/reading culture

- Ohio, the fact that it isn't actually a giant cow pasture/cornfield, it's obsession with a college sports team, our terrible politicians (sorry about John Boehner) and the "hippie" neighborhood in which I currently reside

[tu_vas_triompher]

....true, true, some of ohio is soy fields instead

:D

[hasthehighground]

Pretty much anything else I can do here other people can do better, but:

- Non-denominational Christianity in practice (overlaps with Bible Churches, have some familiarity though no direct experience with home churches but I can easily ask). Similarly, the theology thereof. (Disclaimer: there's not much outside-of-the-Bible theology, but I can explain how the biblical stuff is seen to fit together)

- Rural small town Midwestern culture (never lived there, but spent my summers in an unincorporated village of ~100 and general township of <1000 for most of my childhood & teenage years)

- How to survive in a hot environment

- Phoenix-Area Arizona culture and climate, general facts, etc. I've lived here for 19 years.

- Whether or not you're writing PTSD believably (including explanations of things like: Dissociation, hyper-awareness, hypo-awareness, derealization, different levels and types of flashbacks, panic attacks, the types of reasoning that tend to evolve, what different stages look like, etc.). Also, general reactions to trauma. Everyone reacts differently, but there's similar logic behind it when it turns into a lasting thing.
- Corollary: How PTSD therapy generally works and several different approaches, how they decide if something requires emergency intervention, and the general set up and pre-amble to an appointment. (Not familiar with and can't explain EMDR. I mean, I could try, but it probably wouldn't be helpful.) WARNING: I am not a therapist, PLEASE do not ask me to try to therapize you.

- Marketing, particularly services marketing (treating everything as an experience to be sold, even if it's a blanket. The experience you are selling is warmth and comfort, for example. :))

- I guess some basics on longterm relationship building in one-on-one service industries? Like, I'm a tutor, but I assume it would apply to characters who are home-visit accountants and so forth.

IDK if there's anything else. I'm really good at world-building?

ETA: Oh! AND LORD OF THE RINGS. If you ever want to know too much about Lord of the Rings, I can either answer you or look it up!

And board games, likely ones a character would know and the basics of playing thereof?

[notapilot]

I may be tapping your shoulder from time to time for Sam then. (But please let me know if I ever am a bother.)

I've been pretty nervous about how I am running his counseling and have already felt like I've done things that are questionable with his and Jay's talks. It's hard to separate the movie version of counseling with what would be appropriate.

[annalalaith]

Archaeology - Southwestern US is my main focus.

Sewing and other textile arts and stuff... well what I've learned so far.

New Mexico- I live here, and have all of my life.

I am an armature at bones.



I don't know... I still need coffee.

[fairy_fixit]

Hmm..

Well, I studied Physics and Computer Engineering for my undergrad stuff. In physics I gravitated toward particle physics, quantum mechanics, and solid state stuff. I pay attention to astrophysics but didn't explicitly study it. My employers seem to love to through me at computer projects that involve tons of number crunching and numerical simulations of physics.

My current sanity-saving project is a simulation of mud. :P

[annalalaith]

mud. *giggles*

[wedic]

Ask me about:

1. Medical stuff. I am an actual doctor. (Please specify whether it is for RL or for your pups - be aware if it's for RL I may well send you to a doctor that can see/poke you because internet diagnosis is very dangerous)

2. Autism/Asperger syndrome, mental health, ridiculously high IQs (N.b. I do a lot of research for Fry but I do adapt for plot/fiction periodically).

3. The collective works of Enid Blyton/Laura Ingalls Wilder

4. The Sims 1-4

5. Minecraft

6. What it's like going to Private School and Oxford (I have never seen either accurately portrayed in fiction/the media)

7. The Simpsons.

[never_shall_yield]

Lol, the reality of Oxford is so different to the fictional. I think half the people on my course were disappointed, and the other half really REALLY relieved.

[agonistes]

The U.S. South: history, historiography, literature, popular culture, geography, religion, music, food, linguistics, folklore, politics, gender/LGBTQIA history/presence, race. Little bit about contemporary art, decorative art (think home furnishings), material culture. Kentucky is not Mississippi is not Florida is not West Virginia is not North Carolina.

Special concentrations in: the blues, Civil War memory and commemoration, Mississippi, Georgia, immigration (including Jewish, Chinese, Lebanese, Latinx, Vietnamese), and how the South's cultural (and literal) exports travel around the world.

Proficient in: discourses on North American indigeneity, especially 20th century government policy and social movements in the U.S. Conducting/organizing/using oral history interviews. Also if you need to know anything about contemporary (1980s, let's say) critical, cultural, political, philosophical, and/or literary theory -- Foucault, Derrida, all them types -- I'm your lady.

This ish is my day job; ask. Please.

[ceitfianna]

-Academia particularly small colleges: I grew up on a college campus, my mother was a professor and then a provost.

-World of American private schools and public-I've worked as a substitute teacher, private school librarian and have been going to interviews at schools all over the country, so I know stuff.

-Finding statistics about the US or odd details, one of my jobs is a fact-checker and I'm a librarian, so I'm really good at finding answers to odd questions.

-Ancient Greece and some of modern Greece-I studied Classics-know Greek and Latin with a focus on Greek literature, lived for a semester in Athens.

-The world of children's and youth librarians, ya lit, middle grade, picture books, all that kind of stuff, storytime.

-New Zealand-I lived there for three years, I know some details but also know what I don't know.

-Quakers and Philadelphia and surrounding area-I was raised as a Quaker, I've worked at a museum on Penn's Landing and grew up in the suburbs.

That's all I can think of for the moment.

[i_am_your_host]

New York City history from the 1920s to the 1940s, with emphasis on Jazz Age culture and the Prohibition Era. So basically flappers and gangsters.

[yakalskovich]

Medieval Europe & Medieval Latin: - I hold with the old-fashioned definition of the European Middle Ages as 500 - 1500 AD. Anything inside that time bracket I am at least passingly familiar with.

[runningred]

Objects Conservation and museum workings - (knuckle bump for fellow museum people!) I've worked across a lot of different museum in Australia now and specialise in organic and non-organic objects and plastics. Pretty much anything that isn't paper or textiles or paintings but I know a fair bit about those too.

Australia indigenous bark paintings - I know more about those than I'd like to.

Traditional archery and the history of bows as weapons, especially in Europe in the Dark Ages and early medieval period.

Viking history - east/west trade, the practicallies of Viking costume - dyeing, weaving, construction, weapons and armour, why horned helmets are a silly idea, Battle of Stanford Bridge, great Dark Age recipes that can be adapted to feed 150 people. Lots of other stuff. I was the main education presenter for a Dark Age reenactment group for nearly 20 years.

Star Wars collectables and tee-shirts - geek chic is my thing.

Life in most east coast cities in Australia.

And at the moment - making rag rugs.

[annalalaith]

I need to get more info on Viking stuff for the reenactment group I am in, but my University library is very very sad on the subject, especially on viking ceramics.

[cassiefuckingcage]

I don't believe myself to have anything like what I'd call expertise on matters other than the Elder Scrolls and autism.

Other things I know a semi-decent amount of stuff about: the Second World War (particularly aircraft), the medieval military, the Big Names of Western philosophy, the history of Minnesota, American law.

[1nv1nc1ble]

I've been reading comics since 1979, playing RPGs since 1980, and I read voraciously. I know a moderate amount about a lot of things, so there's a chance I might know something that others don't, or at least where to look. My brain is a weird sponge of trivia.

My SO is a forensic entomologist by training and teaches forensics at WVU, so if you need to know something about insects, dead bodies, and how they interact, I can relay the question to her and get you answer after a brief delay.

I can give you an eyes-on view of Northeastern West Virginia, in and around Morgantown and the Cheat River and Cheat Lake. I'm also pretty familiar with North Texas, but my information is about three years out of date.