There have been some fantastic autobiographical trans comics with standalone pages this year – especially on Tumblr, which does a good job of supporting their format. A few particularly notable series are My Gender Adventures, The Woman Who Was Thursday, and Gender Slices. There have also been some great new fictional comics with trans characters including Desert Rose, Melodica, and Waterlily.
Though LGBTQ representation of all kinds has increased in recent years, mlm comics in particular continue to dominate. Some new ones this year include Theurgy, Dear Boy, Valentine, Novae andLong Exposure.
There have been fewer comics with very mixed LGBTQ casts compared to 2015, but there were some very high quality ones including Yellow Hearts, In The Element, and Out and About.
Tapastic and Webtoon have both gained popularity as webcomic hosts over the past year, while Smack Jeeves has continued to fall behind. However, with some updates to Smack Jeeves’ website just released, that could be set to change in 2017.
One of the most difficult things about learning Japanese trying to understand its onomatopoeia usage. An onomatopoeia is basically a word that imitates the sound of the thing it is describing. We have a few in English like buzz, plop, and meow. Looking at those three words you might think that the Japanese version shouldn’t be so difficult. Well you’d be wrong (sorry). Mastering onomatopoeia is hard. Really, really hard. But if you use them correctly, your Japanese will sound way more natural. Even if you do not have the confidence to use onomatopoeia, familiarizing yourself with them will help you understand the seemingly strange things Japanese speakers around you are saying.
I have always had problems with these words, especially when trying to translate them into English. “He laughed loudly laughing?” No… that’s not right. I picked up Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia by Hiroko Fukuda this month in an effort to better my understanding. Let me also mention, it was pretty much the only English book I could find on the subject, so bonus points there already.
I now know firsthand that going to a car dealership is…an experience.
I went going exactly what car I wanted and I imagine that if you don’t know that much it’ll be easier for a dealership to screw you over when you get there by feeding you misinformation about a car, manipulating you into buying a more expensive model, and etc.
I had already done all my research online so I knew what I wanted. Down to the color. (Green is my favorite color!)
So boyfriend and I went (I followed Tumblr’s advice about bringing a man lol). And I test drove the car and loved it just like I knew I would. And THEN the real dealership experience began.
The bottomline is that I knew my credit score and so I knew what kind of interest rate (APR) I should expect. I also knew the manufacturer price of the car (MSRP) and I knew how much they were selling for on average in my area ($3k less than MSRP).
So I knew what I was going to pay and I had already decided on that in my head.
So dealer #1 (a white guy–this is relevant to mention lol) brings back the first set of numbers. He cushions it with making small talk and flattering me on starting my PhD in August. He also chats up boyfriend.
The numbers were bad. I could tell looking at it. Although they didn’t say the APR, I knew that my monthly rate shouldn’t be that high based on the number of months I’d be paying it. Also they only gave me $2k off MSRP.
I noted that the sticker price was too high because I can go to another dealer and get it cheaper and they knocked off another $1k.
And then I asked him what the APR was. He was very evasive and kept telling me to look at the monthly payments because that’s what “really matters.” No, what really matters is what I’m paying for the car overall which is the sticker price + state fees (unavoidable) + interest rate.
Dealer #1 finally told me the APR and it was 3x the rate I knew I was eligible for. I told him that’s not gonna work. He turned aggressive and said that I’m a first time buyer and I can’t expect better and that I’m being unrealistic to expect a lower rate and etc etc.
So I said that my bank quoted me a rate half that much and I’ll just go through them and buy later (at a different dealer). Because I want the car but there’s 2 other places I can go to get it in my area.
Then all of a sudden dealer #1 could get me a better APR. His next offer was 2x what I wanted to pay. I said nah that good enough.
Then they brought out dealer #2, who was a Black guy. He didn’t sit down and instantly start talking about the price. He said a bunch of small talk and said some stuff about being Black lol. Tryna be chummy chummy and connect with us on a racial level.
Then he tried to push the same numbers as dealer #1. I said I know I’m young and I don’t have a math background but you’re charging me way too much for this car and I’m not going to buy it at that price. Period. I said: get the APR down and I’ll buy the car. He kept telling me it wasn’t possible and I said okay…I won’t buy it.
But then he was like wait…lemme run the numbers. And ta da! He came back with the right APR. Also zero down. And payments lower than my target.
This whole process took 5 hours.
Moral of the story:
– know as much as you can before going to a dealership so you can focus on the numbers
– know your credit score so you know what your APR should be
– get approved through an independent bank for a loan so you have leverage to negotiate with a better rate from the dealer
– don’t focus on monthly payments. Times that by the amount of months so you know what you’re REALLY paying
– threaten to walk because stuff magically happens at dealerships when you do lol
shebberina 