Ruby Granger #15 Dustcore

[Saskia69]

I am glad she is admitting to this- but I think it just shows the worrying extent to her obsession with productivity

It also, in my opinion, makes so many of her older videos quite dangerous, as her followers will watch them and think that is “normal.” When it obviously has no balance and is plain UNHEALTHY. The fact she even feels like trips out to a garden centre are “Unproductive”!?

Fact: ANY LIFE EXPERIENCE can be productive if you make it. For someone who talks so much about mental health and well-being and slow living, does she not realise how essential such things are for that? That you cannot be doing work all the time if you want to have any semblance of peace and fulfilment inyour life and stay grounded.

Slow living and productivity (Aka hustle culture) are essentially two ends of a spectrum! I feel like she is trying to live two completely seperate lives and be all things to all people, no wonder she has so little sense of self. If I wasn’t so angry at the potential dancer this poses to her audience, I would just feel incredibly sorry for her. I feel like she’s just so lost within herself and I do genuinely worry how she will cope with her final year

 

[LitNerd]

Someone tell this poor girl you don’t have to ~love~ everything You’re allowed to be annoyed that you got rained on during a walk, Ruby chill!

Oh god bookshelf tour is up, my book lover self is ready for the cringe

 

[Saskia69]

Ok that video was just absurdly boring. I did however get a chuckle out of her letter writing - one letter was one nice looking letter paper, the other was written on something torn from a notepad. Do we think there's some sort of hierarchy in her friendships for who gets letters on fancy paper v bog standard notepaper? If you pissed her off, would the quality of the letter paper suddenly go down?

Also question for anyone who knows: how do diss proposals for English at Exeter work? How detailed is it meant to be, and how often do proposals get rejected? Is it necessary for her to be doing as much work on it at this point as she is? When I did mine I literally just had to pop an email to the coordinator saying "this is the area I want to look at" and that was it, I assume Exeter requires more than that?

I did English at Exe, and, from what I recall (it was 3 years ago!) the proposal is basically your working title, choice of primary texts and a brief summary of what you will explore. I think it had to be under 500 (mine definitely fit on one page!)

This was due in November, and was really just about assigning you a tutor and checking that your idea was workable. The dissertation itself is 8000 words, so we were encouraged to try doing 3 chapters of 2000 words, plus an intro and conclusion. The proposal was essentially giving a sentence or two on what each chapter will be about, plus outlining our primary texts and some suggested secondary critical texts.

It can change a lot from that though. For example, my first proposal was about the adult-child relationship in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, drawing on historic, cultural and psychological perceptions of childhood (eg: old-school views of child as “becoming”, vs the more modern take on the child as an empowered being innately worthy of respect - as the professor sees her!)

As I had to suspend my studies on health grounds just before he start of second term, I had a whole reevaluation of my dissertation in the break from university and switched to Dahl! I resubmitted a whole new proposal and changed supervisors; however, I know that the same happened for my peers who didn’t take that break, as often your first idea is either too broad, or your research takes you in another direction!

I think Ruby’s biggest issue right now is that her area of study is far too vague. It may sound niche to some, but she will honestly find herself overwhelmed with material and consequently lacking depth and focus. Has she even considered what her primary texts will be?

ps: the Tutor situation can also be a very mixed bag. For example, with the CS Lewis proposal I was assigned a professor who specialised in theology - I think they literally saw the text and thought “oh she’ll discuss religion”, whereas my preferred tutor was the one who lead the children’s lit module, and also had an interest in cultural studies. I was lucky that I finally got her when I returned and did Dahl! But it can be a very tenuous link.

 

[gossip_guy]

Mildly obsessed with the irony of that bowl saying "PLEASE SIR I WANT SOME MORE".. it's such a tiny amount of porridge.

The sheer irony and lack of self-awareness in everything she does is off the charts.

I mean, just today she's claiming an interest in learning new languages despite a storied history of barely understanding English, her first language. Focus on one thing at a time, Ruby. And drop the "I really love [insert random thing Ruby has never done or mentioned before, but now has a sudden interest in because she's being paid to]" bullshit.

Her obligatory occasional "motivational" post is essentially "Hey, don't worry about stressing yourself out completing everything on your to-do list today! Take a rest day. Then immediately get back to stressing about it tomorrow!"

Her new video, a mind-bending timewarp of bizarre continuity errors, starts off with her talking about "the Hungry Forties" while Ruby coincidentally starves herself with a tiny sliced apple.

Ruby also mentions improvements in public health and sanitation in the 1800s, while she sits in a house held together by grime and squalor, in a room that's overrun with dust and dead flies, near a bed with sheets that have gone unchanged for months.

We also get the immortal line "I wanted to share a day in my life with you as I feel like it's been a long time since I've done one." This is her third "day in the life"/routine video this month.

Zero self-awareness and no grasp of reality whatsoever.

 

[gossip_guy]

I am glad she is admitting to this- but I think it just shows the worrying extent to her obsession with productivity

It also, in my opinion, makes so many of her older videos quite dangerous, as her followers will watch them and think that is “normal.” When it obviously has no balance and is plain UNHEALTHY. The fact she even feels like trips out to a garden centre are “Unproductive”!?

Fact: ANY LIFE EXPERIENCE can be productive if you make it. For someone who talks so much about mental health and well-being and slow living, does she not realise how essential such things are for that? That you cannot be doing work all the time if you want to have any semblance of peace and fulfilment inyour life and stay grounded.

Slow living and productivity (Aka hustle culture) are essentially two ends of a spectrum! I feel like she is trying to live two completely seperate lives and be all things to all people, no wonder she has so little sense of self. If I wasn’t so angry at the potential dancer this poses to her audience, I would just feel incredibly sorry for her. I feel like she’s just so lost within herself and I do genuinely worry how she will cope with her final year

Unfortunately this is another thing she pays lip service to every now and then (presumably due to an influx of negative comments that she's deleted) but never actually sticks to.

Every few months she'll mention that she took a day to relax and it's important to do so, since not everything day or activity needs to be productive. But then she immediately returns to the compulsive grind of Notion lists, routines and endless, redundant studying and encouraging toxic "productivity".

 

[Griftwood]

Someone tell this poor girl you don’t have to ~love~ everything You’re allowed to be annoyed that you got rained on during a walk, Ruby chill!

Oh god bookshelf tour is up, my book lover self is ready for the cringe

Sweet Christ deliver us, it’s 40 minutes long.
edit: less than five minutes in and she’s already mispronounced Evelyn Waugh (both first AND last name!) and Truman Capote

 

[Deeznutslol]

Hi, thanks snom4444 and gossipguy for replying to me. I understand that you thank Ruby's busywork is inefficient. However, my problem is that gossipguy said it took her an "hour" to write the timetable she showed when we have no idea how long it took her. I don't think that's reasonable because you shouldn't accuse her of things you don't know to be true, even if you suspect them based on past behaviour. Otherwise there is misinformation about her on a publicly accessible forum.
She may have shown poor time management in previous videos, but she did not show "atrocious time management" at all in this video like gossipguy claimed - you can have your suspicions, she could have done so in the past, but like anyone she is "innocent until proven guilty" or it just becomes unfair or could be lying.

It’s just a joke about her poor time management, not meant to be taken literally. Obviously no one knows exactly how long Ruby took to write it, how on earth could we?
This seems like a pretty insignificant thing to pull someone up for on a gossip forum .

 

[snom4444]

As annoying as she came across in that video, she did actually sound more intelligent and mature than she does now.

She was probably eating a decent amount back then. Undernourishment is absolute hell on cognitive function, coherent speech, vocab size, all that jazz (as I'm sure those of us with EDs can attest to). She's definitely backslid in other ways too, but I'd guess that eating relates to a significant part of the decline.

 

[Ilaariaa]

Evuh-lyn (Eev-lyn is how the masculine name is pronounced) and she added an N to the last name so Wawn to rhyme with yawn.


Are you okay? Should we send out a rescue party?

I'm barely holding on

 

[Irec]

I find it very hard to believe she eats protein bars and even harder to believe she’s tried enough to announce the gifted one she’s received is ‘the best ever’.

Has she no shame or guilt accepting just about anything offered to her? She’s a glut.

 

[gossip_guy]

I read this as "Ruby Granger is a sell-out!"

I mean, that's not wrong...

Also I love how they proudly announce it's a "sell out" brand, when there's nearly 1400 out of 2000 ribbons still in stock that they've struggled to sell to anyone, even at the reduced price of £1.

It's also not hard to sell out of stock when you only have very small quantities (1,000 planners in this case) and never restock.

 

[Ilaariaa]

So, I was watching one of her videos from last autumn while I had my lunch (chili and rice, the equivalent of two weeks of Roobee meals I’m sure). It was this one:

Brushing aside the obvious facts that she looks healthier and eats actual food with actual nutritional value, I thought the interesting part in this was the speech she had to give and apparently totally failed at, because she was crying afterwards. So I did a little frame-by-frame sleuthing of her notes, and apparently it was a speech on ”digital learning” that Exeter had asked her to give. I’m not surprised at all that it didn’t go well, because her notes reveal that she went from ”how I got to be a successful influencer” to ”how to curate your own social media platform” to then talking about how difficult it is to adapt to online learning and how it’s important to have a good study space and dress up for lectures. Oh what I wouldn’t give to have seen this trainwreck as it was happening

Is it useful to write out your whole speech word for word like that? I've done a lot of oral exams/presentations over the years because our education system is pretty much based on oral exams and never once have I written a whole script for myself like that. Normally what you do is you make a rough outline of the speech with all the topics you want to talk about in sequence and the most relevant points about them. Did she memorize it or did she look at her notes every two seconds?

 

[pwned]

So she prepared for next year by reading one (1) children’s book, making notes on Father Christmas, and taking 40 minutes to come up with reasons why her dissertation topic is relevant (meaning she definitely hasn’t got it approved yet), and her ”day in the life” was filmed about a month ago (before the planner went on sale). Gotcha.

I still need to watch the video . . . I'm curious as to whether she will analyse aspects of Father Christmas in the context of "scarier" European St Nicholas traditions (where Nicholas travels with demons). I always thought the externalised representation of the dualistic "duties" (reward & punishment) of Father Christmas seemed older: there's something nice about having two separate beings for these two duties. It's less complicated theologically and philosophically. Yet I was thinking just now that this might purely be the result of amalgamation: stranger pagan traditions had to be folded somehow into the narrative of a saint giving gifts, so instead of allocating the punishment duties straight to the saint, the demons got to tag along with him instead. Well, I'll just watch it. I'm sure it will be frustratingly shallow.

You can find European/Alpine Christmas traditions from the same time period by searching Krampus & Nicholas. A little horror with your Christmas? Why not . . . Actually some explanations state explicitly that Nicholas and Krampus live together year-round.

 

[tuneyloon]

It's kinda funny, I have a lot of the same tastes in "stationery" as Ruby. I did skip ahead to the pen stuff bc I am somewhat of a fountain pen geek... but god I cringe at her handwriting. I hope she takes some time to improve her penmanship if she's going to keep showing it off. It's a bit embarrassing imo (yeah I'm in a petty mood). Unsolicited fountain pen tips below

I do not suggest filling your cartridge before putting it in the pen. One because you could have leaks and two, it's good to draw the ink up through the pen nib to prime the feed so it's good to write straight away. By the way, fountain pens are actually very accessible and are not just for keeping up your pompous Dickensian appearances

 

[Griftwood]

Lies right off the bat She needs a small notebook to jot down things quickly, she uses it ”more than you’d think” - footage of her scribbling something down in a brand new notebook we’ve never seen before She also needs one of her pre-printed to-do lists to do much the same. Whatever happened to keeping everything in Notion?

And, as if she didn’t already recycle enough crap from her other video a week ago, she makes sure to include a sizeable snack stash in her list of essentials

 

[Hollygeek]

As someone Australian, picnic at the hanging rock is not an aesthetic picnic story ruby... it is an extremely racist book, as it portrays indigenous Australians as monsters who rape or steal young girls

 

[buflesse]

Selling presumably gifted stuff on depop...

 

[Great_Kate]

Oh Ruby, she is baffling me. She is the busiest but kind of least productive person I can imagine. I, however will give her a massive pass on reading up on your lecture while you are on break. Many publish a list with the titles that will be relevant beforehand, even easier if it’s an in-depth look into one book. I found even just reading them on a superficial level (no notes or follow up research) gives a great foundation for the in-depth analysis in your course. And it frees up your time to work on the harder parts and for follow up reading. When I did my degree (before my country switched to a Bachelor/Master System (we basically did have to go it till the Master level. Bachelor Level did not exist and you wouldn’t graduate with a degree after just three years. A bachelor degree is therefore still looked down upon) there was a reading canon of about 100-150 books (definitely for philosophy and history. I think in literature it was the same) that were recommended to read because they could be referenced in quizzes and exams without being officially a part of your course. So yeah, you would have to read on summer break. But no way like Ruby goes on about stuff.
It’s really sad she isn’t talking more about her thesis. How did she settle in the topic? What’s it about? The development of the figure? How it was created? How it still plays a part for today’s perception? 8000 words is not much if you really want to go into it, she has to narrow the scope down if she wants to show she can work critically with her sources. What will her primary sources be? How is she organising her reading/writing (timetable)?. That would be great content for her channel. And even maybe helpful.

 

[justcantbearit]

Yeah these pictures are super random. Like in the first one the focus isn't even Ruby and the dog, it's Ruby and the other girl and they aren't even looking at the dog lmao
And the second one looks like the kind of random picture I'd send my boyfriend to show him what I'm doing at a given moment (like not the kind of picture you take to remember that moment or because the dog is looking cute). For all we know Ruby didn't even take the picture herself.
I've had my cat for 4 years I think and I have hundreds of cute/artistic pictures of her, on her own or with me or other members of my family. Last year my mom even made me a calendar with her pictures as a gift for Christmas.

My phone photos are 70% my dog, as are all my friends’ who have dogs they actually love. I suspect these photos reflect more that Ruby had no relationship with her dogs so didn’t take many (any?) than anything else.

 

[gossip_guy]

I was genuinely shocked by this video - it was laughable how she legit justified this as a 'detention' (when it so obviously wasn't) and that she actually (supposedly) remembered that many details from nursery. Being such a goody two shoes all her life I think she really had to really, really reach for a time in which she was "bad" and it ended up being nothing more than normal childhood behaviour. I will say she was very cute as a tiny blonde child though.

I've got a couple of fun words for Ruby to learn: Confabulation and mythomania.

Like most of the wildly unbelievable bullshit she comes out with, there's a 0% chance this actually happened.

To me, it’s not even that the food looks gross, or the way she looks when chewing. It’s the fact that she chooses to make a small portion of bland food lacking in nutrients, both macro and micro, and chews it up 40-50 times (lol I didn’t count but I may go back and do so when my gin and bitter kicks in), thereby throwing up an eating disorder bat signal that’s pretty hard to miss. This is the content she’s putting up, and she 100% knows what she’s doing. She’s despicable.

Yep, it's visually unappealing, but she's also electing to feature lengthy segments making her eating disgusting, tiny, nutritionally barren meals the focal point of study videos. She's also making a clear and conscious link for impressionable viewers: Eat small things and be productive. It's inexcusable.