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Mostly a very dull post haha, but this is what's going on with me right now... So, my Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. This is the high-level qualification in ELT, compared with the basic one I did at the start of my career; this is how you get senior teacher/Director of Studies type jobs or can train new teachers. It’d also be, I think/hope, a solid argument for ‘give me a job at an academy [aka a school where you don’t need the legal thing of teacher status like you do in normal schools] - I have a third of a Master’s in a teaching subject and years of experience - while I get the next qualification’. I don’t know if I’ll do that yet! Exam's at the end of November so I probably won't be around much til then, is the big thing. ( cut for deets on what’s coming & what’s nextCollapse )And then, since you normally hear in about four-six weeks after submitting coursework, I should have an escape hatch of a high-level teaching qualification ready to go in March or April. Which is VITAL. My school’s already teetering on the edge - there’ve been a couple of redundancies and it’s not a big place. The English-as-a-foreign-language industry in London was going downhill well before the Brexit referendum, and a few established schools have had to close. So if there’s no deal, meaning the economy maybe goes into freefall and the EFL industry definitely takes a serious hit from visa and international-reputation stuff and that finally does for my school - well, at least the Diploma would help me jump ship. And honestly, when the time comes round again next April for getting new jobs (we’re a seasonal business with lots of work in summer, so you change jobs in June-ish and hope they keep you on) I’m quite likely gonna leave, either way. That’ll be three years here, so at least I’ll have my first solid stint, which is especially important if I end up leaving the industry - people moving around a lot & being on limited-term contracts is common, here, but without that context I’ll look like a massive job-hopper. As for why I’m gonna leave - well, I’m not sure the school is stable. But the owners are also untrustworthy cowards, as it turns out. ( like they didn’t pay the cleaner for THREE MONTHSCollapse )So yeah… things are messy rn. I’m just glad I’m in the classroom. Sometimes it sucks to be a teacher when your management’s shitty, cos you can’t really do a slow-down or work-to-rule or anything without hurting your students, even if we were unionised. But at least we get to avoid M and J and their part-time CEO mate! This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/376154.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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There's ONE DAY LEFT to contribute to the government's consultation on the Gender Recognition Act! Stonewall has info, links, and guidance (I know, I'm still weirded out by Stonewall being not terrible on trans stuff) A link to the consultation itself. You don't need to do it all in one go; you can save and come back. You don't need to answer every question, either - I didn't, since there are a few questions where they specifically ask for trans perspectives. The Gender Reform Act means people can self-identify rather than go through this bureaucratic, expensive process in order to get a legal (as opposed to social or physical) change in gender. It means trans people's spouses can't deny their consent and stop it (!!!) and that people don't have to wait for years or get through medical gatekeeping. There are genuine steps forward here despite the trash fire of the Tories. The consultation also asks about whether non-binary people should get legal recognition - this is an opportunity. The GRA doesn't change the provisions laid out in the Equality Act - e.g. a female-only domestic violence shelter can continue keeping out trans women - but ONLY if they can show it's a reasonable, proportionate response and there are legit reasons for it, and they should provide substitute services. But denying a trans woman the right to use the women's loo etc would be illegal regardless of their legal (as opposed to social or physical, again) gender status. Given everything, and while I'm certainly no expert, this seems like a good way to handle things. GO GO GO This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/375869.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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I keep meaning to post about this and not, because recently I’ve been at work 9am - 8:30pm. (But much of it isn’t paid hours. The gig economy sucks.) BUT THAT’S RIDICULOUS cos it was crazy. Three weeks ago was Kupocon, this great little Final Fantasy con. This was my second and I was, once again, very very aware that I’d be getting a lot more out of it if I knew the franchise; it’s a tight-knit little community and I’m bad at joining it in certain ways. Didn’t dance and/or talk to strangers enough for how much fun I had when I did it. BUT still SO fun <3 I didn’t go to the actual programming; I saw some good friends and a BFF, and bought too much gorgeous art and laughed a lot and ate and drank far too much and… got kinkshamed by King Regis. SERIOUSLY. This was sometime between 11pm and midnight. @bestchocobro/ ![[profile]](https://imgprx.livejournal.net/c3fec55a651473003cede5aab6333b578b01f039/j2ZQ8uOOgmyxKFsok7VWMWqv64rsBI6l5Ed8sm9uOHYYWp2RqmIKrJS5Lz0yeUqhsIAW7gHyEGWGeACFC-7g1MEIp3R1mxcRMewsS3-AVUY) sodsta is legless, I’m only slightly less drunk but still trying to look after him. @bestchocobro’s girlfriend has gone to bed, so it’s just the two of us in our hapless drunken state. We see a luggage trolley on the way back to the party. S: Me and Girlfriend wanna get one of those. It’d be great for kink - you could tie someone up and - *gestures broadly* Me: ? Ohhh, right! Yeah! S: You could move them really easily - Me: Yeah! *clambers onto the luggage trolley and kneels up on it, with hands round the weird gold baton thing at the top, as if asking to be cuffed to it* OMG, why isn’t this a classic pervertible? You guys are actually geniuses! S: Yeah, you could - Me: *sees Jon Campling - venerable actor, epic beard-owner, daddy of Final Fantasy XV, and King Regis - coming down the corridor towards us, on the phone to someone. Our eyes meet* Me ( in tones of anguish): Oh my God. Jon Campling: *grins* S: *turns around, sees, makes sound like duck hacking up a swan* Jon Campling: *continues along his merry way past us, clearly enjoying the horror he’s inflicted, while I scramble off the luggage trolley and try to look like someone who doesn’t even know what a ‘pervertible’ IS* Me & S: *tell everyone we see for the next hour that we were KINKSHAMED BY REGIS oh my GOD* We actually didn’t tell everyone immediately on seeing them, and I even saw people that night and never actually went for OH MY GOD THE BEST WORST TALENT-AT-CON ANECDOTE JUST HAPPENED TO ME, which I feel deserves some credit. Worst part? S was cosplaying Prompto, whereas I was in a random clubbing dress and have pink-purple-and-blue hair. S is a fantastic Prompto and the best at the con (she says without bias :p) but also, you can’t swing a giant sword without hitting a Prompto at Kupocon. My hair is distinctly more memorable. I might see him in October and watch him remember that time he caught me kneeling on a luggage rack, cheerfully yelling with my drunk friend about how great it’d be for kink. KINGSHAMED This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/375554.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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OMG, guys, it’s been SO LONG. Summer’s always crazy, though - I work long hours (though not as much this summer, which is a shame financially) and there’s lots of social stuff, especially since two of my best friends are state school teachers. Work is… well, actually, it hasn’t died down yet, but it feels less mad and tiring because there aren’t as many people crammed into the school. I’m going to stay busy for a while longer, actually. Next week I’m either working crazy hours, or staying at work for crazy hours while I work on the next stages of my Diploma, i.e. the next teaching qualification. Summer’s over, so it’s time to get down to business with it. I’m hoping to stay much more in contact though. So many good posts I’m catching up on <333 Let’s do a bit of catch-up, to help me get past the feeling of it taking a lot of energy to reply to comments/interact, pls. And for all I’ve been reading a certain amount, I feel out of contact. MUST TRY HARDER. So, let’s do the tennis match meme: ask me a question in comments (RL or fandom) and I’ll answer and then ask YOU a question that’s somehow related to yours. This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/375340.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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Went back to being quiet, obviously… it’s predictable, unfortunately, cos summer is when I work ALL THE HOURS. Life is a bit unpredictable rn. My flatmates are horrible. I’m gonna move out, but it may not be until September; I’ve already moved three times in the last twelve months, so I want to (a) have time and energy to find somewhere good to stay and (b) money for moving again, which is… questionable. Although my parents will probably lend me the money if they can, because in addition to the horrible flatmates, there’s black mould in one of the kitchen cupboards. ANYWAY. At the end of May, after moving and Expo, I went back up to sodsta’s with him on Monday night. LIVERPOOL YAY <333 ( a good timeCollapse )Gonna do a solo trip to see Ocean’s 8 this afternoon, I think! I want to do something fun and my focus is too scattered for writing. Especially so I can go out and show off the newly redone hair! I missed my sister’s housewarming yesterday to go to A&E. I’m fine, thankfully, but UGH. I was gonna meet her baby-queer flatmate who is apparently desperately in need of older queer role models, lol. (I know. But I’m 28 and a teacher and overall happy, which is sooooo far away from 22-and-unemployed-and-was-recently-kicke d-out-by-parents, which I know from experience.) Let’s do my favourite I’ve-been-away meme: you ask me a question (fannish or RL) and I’ll answer, and also ask you a question that’s somehow related to what you asked me. Then we continue chatting until someone gets bored or forgets to answer :D This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/375262.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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Process & result pics under the cut :D A friend of mine did it for me! Well, friends' boyfriend, but he's definitely a friend now cos he spent hours on this on literally the second day I met him. Which was also the first day of Pride month :DDD GUYS I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT'S SO PRETTY ( it doesn't take an intellectualCollapse )This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/375024.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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HELLO. Okay, so further detail/new info on life/stress since the last post. Life has been CRAZY busy, but I got to the end and I’m on hooolidaaaaaaay yay :D Coming to you from Liverpool, more specifically from ![[dreamwidth.org profile]](https://imgprx.livejournal.net/e29404756ccdb987a7af56ba91112e82588003f4/gYvqlS1kabur_vw3QrDbE6bg53mDVunwmXWNSeqGkRz1JVAQaC7iqQfn-CBh5ppjr6OKN5W9T3quBbAp6M4NZpl2IvVyOBQL2942WIfIpXo) sodsta’s sofa. I’m here til Saturday afternoon :DDD Things I did in April and May: find and move into a new place, do a stupidly intense portion of a qualification (and pass!) then find and move into a DIFFERENT new place. Also various social things. ( cut for the extremely boring detailCollapse )Expo was fun :D Saw my faves, met a couple of lovely new people, squeed a whooooole bunch about FFXV. And now sweet relief of being off work, and physically unable to unpack more. So like - stress free! I needed a holiday SO MUCH, and now I get to spend four days hanging out with a bunch of my best beloveds :DDDDD I might do a bit of work for school… or I might just spend four days doing fannish stuff. WHO CAN SAY. This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/374586.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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I have been obsessing about this vote all week. It’s the only thing that could overcome FFXV stuff in my head. This weekend I’m a) moving, and b) seeing several friends I don’t see often c) at London Expo - aka a mini comic con - and then taking the week off. I SO NEED a holiday, and I’m gonna spend five days in Liverpool :D :D :D Staying with my biffle sodsta and seeing his delightful girlfriend S, and the beloved & much-missed creatoremagico and drazzi. Oh, plus I have to pack a bit, then move on Saturday, then unpack, do some laundry probably, and repack for Liverpool before we head off on Monday, while attempting to drink and get down with my bad self as much as possible. So I have lots to think about! Most of it good, if busy. BUT OH MY GOD. Abortion is illegal - including in cases of rape, incest, and serious fetal abnormalities - and punishable by fourteen years in prison in Ireland, which is completely fucking ridiculous. And today that might change. I hope everyone remembers Savita, a woman who died in 2012 because the hospital she was at refused to give her an abortion. (They told her ‘this is a Catholic country’ as she was dying; she was Hindu, and the baby had no chance to live anyway.) Her father and widower have both spoken out during the campaign. My cousin Jacksparrow regularly hosts Irish & Northern Irish people who’ve come over for abortions. I donate to a charity she works with, that helps defray travel and accommodation costs. The most common reason to have an abortion is that you can’t afford it, so having to travel internationally, take time off, and get accommodation - all within a limited time - is obviously a real problem. An estimated 170 000 women have left Ireland for an abortion since 1983. They’re the lucky ones, in many ways, of course. Especially the ones who can have someone with them, to help take care of them afterwards. Up to 2000 women take the abortion pill a year - and that’s bought online, so it can be hard to trust, and sometimes Customs will seize them. Northern Irish people will still be completely fucked over, of course. There are women being prosecuted there; the UN has said it’s an abuse of human rights. It’s a scandal and a shame, that abortion rights are so hideously limited in my own country [meaning within the UK]. But I was at a protest over this a few months ago and there seemed to be some hope that an Irish repeal of the eighth would help. Okay, this post has lost any internal structure it may have had, but I can’t help it. NOT THE CHURCH, NOT THE STATE, WOMEN* MUST DECIDE THEIR FATE * & others who can get pregnant This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/374430.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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Going to see Cursed Child today!!! (It is, I believe, my ninth time. Only three in the last year though, so, y’know, it’s getting better?) This time I’m seeing it with my family, for my dad’s birthday. They managed to get tickets thanks to my nudge (thanks to ![[tumblr.com profile]](https://imgprx.livejournal.net/b79355570ead9417ccd54e6ca27422b5ab2fb66a/gYvqlS1kabur_vw3QrDbE-vOEhRoMD9dsmAUWPEkB38goOA9QKYAC2u5Xqwo-oaXzRA1tHCtrEjLmz9fvM8jCw) januarium’s nudge) a year ago, and today’s the day! How they react - and how I react to their reaction - will tell me a lot about whether I should try to get them to take me to see Hamilton (which I’ve seen once already, in previews) for my birthday next February. I love this play a lot! Obvs with CC I have to be more used to people disliking it ;) although I’ve yet to meet a person who saw it onstage without at least kind of liking it. Certainly the reactions from critics and non-fandom fans have been, like, Olivier-award-record-breakingly-positive. I’ve been ramping up emotional energy this week to see my family and spend all day with them, because that can be a bit rough, but right now I’m just like CURSED CHILD AGAIN :D :D :D Plus, the joy of seeing it with people who’re unspoiled! IT’S GONNA BE GREAT. I’m hoping to sit in the middle of my family so I can enjoy their reactions to Various Unnamed Big Moments :D I am a little bit concerned, too, like… okay, so this emotional reaction took a while to form, even if it’s a comparison I saw immediately, but… I’m someone with two siblings, and parents who are good people who tried hard, but were clearly much better at parenting my siblings than me. (I was also a more difficult child.) It wasn’t really like the Harry & Albus situation but like… yeah IDK, seeing Lady Bird with my mum and sisters turned out to be a mistake. WE WILL SEE. I 100000% bet my mum cries at the end. ( cut for spoilers I guessCollapse )This is the LAST TIME with the second cast. Complete coincidence but I’m very pleased. It’s also pretty nice because I wasn’t all that impressed with the second cast the two times I saw them before, but I didn’t think they were awful - it’s exciting to get to see them having had a year to inhabit those roles, without actually having to pay £80 to think, ‘I wish Noma Dumezweni would come back’, lol. CURSED CHILD YOU GUYS (FYI: in general I love disagreement, but this is not the moment to tell me how much you hate it.) This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/374180.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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Still feeling somewhat grumpy and disappointed by the current JKR sitch, but also whatever, the text exists outside the author and I do think this is cool: For some reason I don’t think I’ve ever posted about this theory of mine, so here goes: Harry is much, much more affected by the Sectumsempra scene and what he almost did to Draco Malfoy than he seems. Lest we forget, in the book he moves on amazingly quickly: Snape sends him to get the Prince’s potions book, Harry hides his real one and brings Ron’s, and Snape gives him detention. Harry at this point is literally covered in Draco’s blood, but he’s not thinking about that: he resists getting detention (and feels it’s unfair of Snape to give it to him!) for eviscerating a classmate, because of Quidditch. Even after that, there’s never any indication that Harry feels particularly guilty. He’s upset that the Prince has led him down this path - “as if a beloved pet had turned suddenly savage - what had [the Prince] been thinking” - but that’s not at all the same. He gets a twinge of conscience when someone brings up Draco’s injury but that’s it. It’s definitely not what we’d expect from a hero who’s just committed a very messy near-murder, even if it was unintended. But this is not a criticism of Harry! Or indeed the book. Because I don’t think this is Harry being callous. I think it’s Harry being kind of damaged already and then almost killing a classmate in bloody fashion (with a spell that’s for enemies, and Harry would’ve said Malfoy was his enemy but he didn’t mean this.) I think this is, canonically and concretely, Harry going into complete and utter denial. The denial reading makes sense of what is otherwise a weird lack of guilt. Like, even if you as a reader think Harry is 0% culpable for what happens and could have happened, that’s different from the experience as a person of “I did this thing and then HIS FACE AND BODY WERE SLASHED OPEN AND THERE WAS BLOOD EVERYWHERE.” Especially from a person who often feels guilty for deaths he actively tried to prevent! The Sectumsempra scene is by far the bloodiest in the books, and while Harry’s been through a lot, that’s the first time he ever sees violent injury on that level. But it doesn’t overtly affect him. Draco disappears from his consciousness after the Sectrumsempra scene in a way that’s really weird. We don’t see Draco coming back to class. (We saw that after Buckbeak, so why not now?) We don’t see the first time he and Harry lay eyes on each other after that spell; we don’t know anything about how Draco reacts. No patented Harry-and-Malfoy glares across the House tables at meals. Literally the next time Draco appears in the text after Sectumsempra is the Tower scene, and after a book in which Harry has become “obsessed with Draco Malfoy” that is such a sharp change. But it makes sense: ( Harry is unable to cope with what happened so he’s just ignoring it ferociouslyCollapse )But all of that is significant, I think, but not THE reason why I think denial is the only reading that makes sense. Harry spends most of HBP telling anyone who’ll listen - Arthur Weasley, Lupin, Ron and Hermione, Dumbledore - that Draco Malfoy has become a Death Eater. They all dismiss him. What Harry hears in that bathroom proves that Malfoy has been threatened all year by a man Malfoy believes can kill him, and that he’s working on a project for that threatening person. GEE I WONDER WHO THAT COULD BE. And Harry doesn’t tell anyone! WHAT? ( That really only makes sense if Harry is in deep denialCollapse )Ginny even brings up Draco’s attempted use of Cruciatus as a reason he should be taken seriously as a threat, and that it’s acceptable for Harry to have reacted that way. Harry has spent the whole book up to this point trying to convince people that Draco’s a serious threat, while the others - Ron and Hermione especially - doubted that Voldemort would have made Malfoy a Death Eater. Now there’s explicit discussion about Draco’s use of an Unforgivable - who trained him to do that, hmm? - and whether Draco should be treated as a real threat. And yet in this conversation, Harry somehow doesn’t bring up how he heard Draco actually say that he’s trying to do something, and his life has been threatened if he doesn’t do it! They never even ask Myrtle about it!!! DENIAL. This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/373606.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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Literally on Tuesday night when I couldn’t sleep I wrote a post about this theory I have about Sectumsempra and Harry’s reaction to it, and then before I could post it I saw this and now I have way too much of a sour taste in my mouth. The sexism in Labour (and the left in general) is a problem but you know what’s NOT a solution? Attacking women for being women. Refusing to hate some of the most vulnerable women around or call them “men in dresses” doesn’t make you non-feminist. That’s really the opposite of true. To be clear: I don’t think JKR is some frothing-at-the-mouth queer-hater. I don’t really follow the JKR #discourse but I’ve never seen her do anything I’d describe as queerbaiting. I do think she’s shown time and again (the Native American stuff, the Dumbledore stuff etc) that she is basically the platonic ideal of a certain kind of middle-class white liberal - well-meaning, kind, but ignorant and unwilling to learn. I thought she might’ve got better on trans stuff; I saw a criticism of her for having deleted old transphobic tweets, and I don’t know the story there, but my immediate assumption at the time was that she’d said transphobic stuff and learnt better. That would be a GOOD thing. Apparently not so much. There’s been this really scary rise in transphobic stuff in the papers here in the UK, in the last couple of years, particularly in uncritical reporting of TERFs doing a publicity tour attacking trans women and the myth of kids getting gender-confirmation surgery. The Tories have tried using trans people as human shields in updating the Gender Recognition Act - basically our right-wing leading party plans to make it possible for people to legally transition without medical requirements. Which is fantastic, if probably coming out of a desire to showcase the fluffier side of a party that’s been recently investigated for human rights abuses by the UN over their cuts to disabled people’s benefits. But it’s also unleashed a tsunami of transphobia on the left, and made a bunch of TERFs way more relevant and able to get publicity. JKR hates Corbyn but she’s absolutely a Labour voice, and a relatively prominent one. Certainly she’s a celebrity who takes a definite interest in party politics as well as more general causes. This is probably the most minor way she could indicate a side but it really, really sucks seeing her back this kind of ‘supporting trans women is misogyny’ bullshit :( This was originally posted at https://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/373206.html. Comment wherever you like :) | |
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