What I’ve Been Up To…Company Wise

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I have recently volunteered for Organization for Transformative Works.

The what now?

The Organization for Transformative Works.

It’s an organization formed for the protection, promotion and predilection of fan work.

Fanfiction, fan vids, Podfic, etc etc etc

I’ve been a fanfiction writer for years. Stargate. Buffy. Supernatural. Avengers. Sometimes all mixed together. Always with love. Usually slash. Sometimes het. Occasionally…undefined, really.

And so when I was looking for something to do last summer, after we got back from California, and I saw OTW was looking for graphic artists, I signed up. And got accepted while in Cali.

So I’ve been doing it for a few months. Myself and a few others do the graphics for their blog/Tumblr/LJ posts. Usually for OTW FanNews. I tend to Tweet and/or FB them when a graphic of mine goes up. I’ve got one due next Friday, in fact.

Other than that, the company chugs along. Just got a new assignment from a previous client that will keep be busy the next week or two. Plus OTW, plus, it looks  like, a writing gig.

Of course I also still write for JUMP! Magazine.

And, as always, I’m trying to redesign the DTAT website.

So I’m keeping busy.

Although I’ve got time, if anyone needs a Graphic Artist?

The Disconnect That’s Been Bothering Me

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As anyone who follows my blog or my Twitter or my Facebook knows, I went to California this past summer.

The San Francisco Bay Area is where I lived for ten years before I emigrated to Belfast. This summer, thanks to my mom, we stayed in a beautiful holiday home in Berkeley, not too far from where my brother and his family live.

Since we were staying in a house we, obviously, had to do basic cleaning/garbage/recycling for the two weeks we were there.

And Berkeley’s recycling rules are a bit mind boggling. They do plastic, paper, glass and food. And each of these things have their own collection bin in the house to put into a ‘split bin’ on the curb on pick up day.

City of Berkeley curb side split bin. credit: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/recycling/

City of Berkeley curbside split bin. (1)

Obviously, all of this recycling costs money. The city apparently makes money from the recycling but I would imagine it is also part of property tax that my brother and all the residents pay, just as we pay Council Tax.

So the residents of Berkeley are really into saving the planet. Good for them.

However, I was stunned by the number of homeless people I saw around the city.

And a quick Google of ‘Berkeley homeless’ finds article after article of the persecution of these people, including one from this past December on the city throwing away the possessions of some of these homeless people. At the last homeless census, in 2011 (2), there were 4,341 homeless people in Alameda County and in 2009, about 680 of them lived in Berkeley.

That same article says that the city has a budget of $2.8m for helping the homeless with $1m of that going to direct services and that no one believes there are only 680 homeless in Berkeley.

To be fair, it also says the homeless numbers across the county are dropping, but that there just isn’t enough money to help everyone at the local level.

Meanwhile, the recycling plant is making $5m (3) a year to do more recycling.

I am certainly no economic expert in any way. Nor do I claim to understand the ins and outs of homelessness in the US.

But it sure seems to me that Berkeley would better serve everyone if they stopped worrying quite so much about the planet and started worrying a little bit more about the people who live on it.

Of course, I am also doubtful that those split bins make a difference anyway, since it all seems to go into one truck. Now, the truck could be split on the inside, although I can’t imagine what sort of mechanism could be sure to only place, for example, metal to the left and paper to the right. There has to be a human in there somewhere. Which costs money as well.

It should also be noted that, in some ways, I think recycling is the biggest myth and fairy tale perpetuated on the world anyway. How much energy does it take to recycle one can? What kind of fuel does that recycling take? What’s the carbon emission of all those extra trucks driving around?

I’m sure all of those things can be answered.

But I doubt anyone really wants to know what the answers are, much preferring to feel good about ‘saving the planet’.

By the way, I’m fairly sure the planet will be just fine.

The human race, on the other hand…

(1)credit: City of Berkeley Recycling

(2) source: Homeless Census

(3) source: Berkeley Recycling

Eating Less, Moving More, Gaining Control

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As I start 2014 I am exactly 23 pounds away from my goal weight. It was 20, but I gained 3 over Christmas, which isn’t actually all that bad considering I didn’t even move from house for over a week and ate all the Christmas treats!

So I’ve started seriously tracking my eating again, over at My Fitness Pal (MFP) (Tee2072 if you want to friend me) and using Pinterest (also Tee2072, come say hi!) along with my Facebook page (Eat Less Move More Gain Control).

But while I’d love people to come ‘play’ with me, what I really wanted to write about was something on MFP that bugs the shit out of me.

So part of MFP is, of course, tracking your food. It has been proven, over and over again, that a food diary is an excellent tool for helping you lose weight, even if you’re not tracking a set amount of calories. Just seeing what you’re eating can help you control what you eat.

However, with MFP, after you’re done logging for the day, it calculates how much you ate and tells you something like ‘If you ate like this every day, you’ll weigh 5 pounds by next Christmas’. However, again, if you haven’t eaten at least your base calories, those ‘given’ to you before you exercise, you also get a message saying something like ‘You don’t appear to be eating enough. You may not lose anything ever.’ However, for the third time, you also get a message automatically posted to your ‘News Feed’ that says ‘Tee finished her food and exercise diary for the day and was under her calorie goal.’

Um, what?

So, is it good or bad to not eat enough? Their program ‘yells’ at you and yet places that on your wall for your friends to like and comment on.

Am I the only one who is going O.o about this? Surely it’s a totally mixed message?

I have contacted MFP about this on their message boards but have been ignored. I will be linking to this blog post over there and emailing them as well about it as I really do think it’s a not just a mixed message but a dangerous mixed method.

It is bad to not eat enough. Starvation Mode does exist. Oh it’s not as simple as ‘don’t eat enough, starve’ but it’s not good for your body in any case.

And really? Isn’t that the point?

To do something that’s good for your body?

Happy Christmas and a Lovely New Year

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Number one resolution? Write more blog posts again.

Number two resolution? Launch my Etsy shop with knitting patterns.

Yes, I now design knitting. I’ve got a baby cardigan, a scarf and I’m working on a hat. I hope to have gloves and a scarf soon. New dimension to Designed To A Tee. 😀

Also coming up are a brand new website, designed from the back to the front from moi and maybe some greeting card designs.

So here’s to 2014. May it be happy and fruitful for all.

Is privilege the same as advantage?

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I was recently having a conversation with a good friend, who I’ll call Beth,* about the use of the word privilege and why we use it rather than the word advantage.

Beth maintains that if we used the word ‘advantage’ rather than ‘privilege’ when speaking about things like white/male privilege people wouldn’t get quite so het up about it.

Beth meant the people who have this privilege, by the way. Beth thinks the word privilege is loaded with insult and presumption due to its implication of wealth and power.

Is Beth right?

Would it matter if we said male/white advantage instead?

I do think the word privilege is more loaded because so often privilege = wealth. The privileged can have things the rest of us can’t have. And it’s very very hard to join the privileged, even if you make millions you may not be included in the ‘privileged classes’ because it’s not just wealth that creates privilege. Privilege is automatically gained through birth, skin colour, gender and other, less tangible things, that can’t be changed easily, if at all.

Advantage, though, that can be gained. Through study, through patronage, through your own gumption you can gain an advantage.

So I will never be male and attain male privilege. But I can do many many things to give me an advantage over a male. Not easily, for sure, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

However, the one advantage I will, mostly likely, never gain, is to become a man. I have no gender identity issues, I am a woman and I am happy being a woman. And so will remain a woman.

So male privilege is not something I can ever gain.

So should we change the word?

No.

I like the fact that those with privilege get upset when I call them on their privilege.

Now, I am aware that we change language all the time to things that won’t offend people. But there is a huge difference between changing disabelist or racist language and changing this.

Because changing this? Would just be another privilege.

*Beth told me he/she had no problem with my writing this post, but she/he did not want to be identified. I’m not even saying Beth is actually a woman, it’s just the first name that popped into my head when I started writing.

One Thing I Haven’t Been Not Writing About

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is Adam. I don’t have any drafts with his name on them.

There’s a few reasons for that.

Reason one is that he is older now and eventually will find himself on here, using some tech that I can’t even imagine yet, I’m sure. At that point I will remove him, if he so wishes. But I am not going to add much more about him.

Another reason is I’m still processing the fact that my son is developmentally delayed. Possibly Autistic.

I talk about it in real life with no problem. I insist I’m fine. I do everything I can to get him assessed and helped and so on. And things are falling into place, at school and with OT and other help.

But just about a year ago those words were used with regard to my son. Autistic. Delayed. Different. Not neurologically typical, but special needs. Not NT. SN.

From the moment his preschool teacher told me she wasn’t even sure he could talk, as he didn’t say a word for at least the first 2 weeks of school, I knew there was going to be something beyond him being shy. The way a mother knows.

And then the first assessments started happening. And a social and interaction delay was confirmed. And fine and gross motor skills delay was confirmed. And yet, he thrived.

He made friends. He has a gang who have continued into P1 with him.

And he continues to thrive.

And he’s still my funny, sweet, kind, polite little boy.

Who needs some special help.

All Of These Half Written Drafts

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That I can’t seem to finish.

So much crap going on in the world that I want to rage about but can’t find the energy.

Appointments for Adam as we head to some sort of SN diagnoses taking up so much head space.

Insomnia.

Looking for clients.

Tired of potential clients not returning phone calls or emails.

Life is just pretty much not great right now.

Maybe I’ll write about it next week.

The Question That Was Too Geeky To Ask At The Time

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This past week I attended a session of the Anatomy of Design lecture series as produced by the Northern Ireland Design Alliance. It was a talk by Mike Reed of Reed Words titled: Giving Voice to Ideas.

Mike is what he calls ‘a creative writer for brands’. Or, to the rest of us, a copywriter.

It was a great talk about collaborating with designers in creating branding that includes words as well as some insight into the best way to choose words for design.

During the Q&A Mike was asked what he thought the difference was between the way words were used 10 years ago and now. His answer was that the biggest difference was that people were more aware of words impact now than they were then.

And the geekiest question in the world came into my head. I spent the rest of the Q&A agonizing over a) if I should ask it and b) how to ask it without looking like the biggest geek in the world.

In the end, I didn’t ask it. So I’m going to ask it here, where I can plan it and edit it, and maybe if I tag Mike in my Twitter of this post, he’ll answer.

In Robert Heinlein’s Future History Universe, in more than one story, word science is mentioned. PR companies and Advertisers have created a whole science around the impact of words, to the point that some words are consider too ‘loaded’ to be used. That their meaning and  context were much to manipulative.

Not necessarily words we think of as un-PC today, but other words that might have sub-meanings or context that can be upsetting. Or influential to buyers and the like.

I wondered if Mike thought we might be headed in that direction. Towards a science of the impact of words. Or if we already have it to some extent.

God I’m such a Geek.

 

Personal Responsibility versus Victim Blaming

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I am really really struggling with this.

There is a thread on Mumsnet where the Original Poster (“OP”) is asking if she was wrong to tell a friend that the friend was stupid for getting blackout drunk in a house full of strangers.

The OP goes on to say that her friend accused her of victim blaming, even though nothing happened to the friend.

And so the discussion begins.

Obviously if something had happened, it would have been in no way the drunk friend’s fault. Someone being passed out drunk on the floor is not an excuse to rape, hurt, steal from or whatever. It just isn’t. If I want to walk down Royal Avenue in Belfast starkers, it’s still not anyone’s right to attack me.

But but but…

But what about personal responsibility? What about how, in this day and age, how incredibly stupid it is to get that drunk in a house full of strangers?

Hell, the stats show that getting that drunk in a room full of friends is actually more dangerous, but that’s not my point.

My point is at what point do we have to accept that we do live in a world where there are people, friend or stranger, who will take advantage of us if we get in such a state? At what point is it our responsibility to make sure we are safe rather than rely on others to watch out for us?

In an ideal world it wouldn’t matter how drunk you got, no matter where you are. We don’t live in an ideal world, do we?

I think it’s one thing to wear a short skirt and makeup and high heels and expect to be left alone.

It’s quite another to be so drunk that you don’t know your own name, never mind where you are or who is with you. There is, of course, an expectation of safety, but is that naive? Is it living in a world that doesn’t actually exist?

I absolutely 100% do not blame any woman anywhere who has ever been raped. And I believe thousands of women all over the world who no one listens to when they say they’ve been raped.

But I also believe, 100%, in personal responsibility. It’s part of being an anarchist, actually. I don’t think it’s anyone’s business how I live or how I raise my son so long as I don’t tread on anyone else’s rights. But I also believe I have a responsibility to live to the best of my ability and be a good person and treat people the way I want to be treated.

And I think part of that is not getting so stinking falling down drunk that you don’t know your own name.

Because it’s not up to anyone else to protect you. It’s up to you to protect yourself.

But, as I said at the start, I struggle with this.

And probably always will.

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby…

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And pop stars portrayal of same…

By now you’ve at least heard about, if not seen, Miley and Robin’s performance at the VMA’s. He was dressed. She was naked. She acted sleazy. He acted sleazier.

Of course, you only hear how Miley acted. Robin apparently did nothing wrong.

I mean, other than write an incredibly violent and misogynistic song and then pretend to have sex with a young lady on stage during it. A young lady who is, nearly, young enough to be his daughter.

But that’s okay. Right?

Of course it’s not fucking okay. The were both culpable in the sleaze fest that was that performance. And so were the VMA’s, both of their ‘people’ and whomever else watched rehearsals and said ‘Oh yeah, let’s put that on TV!’

And of course whomever thought the song was good enough to record and put on a CD in the first place. I blame them as well.

But mostly, I can’t believe I am going to say this…I blame society. ::cliche klaxons go off all over the world::

Seriously, though. What kind of society do we live in that multitudes of people heard that song, saw that performance and said ‘Yes! Let’s do it! Let’s put this horrible song about hurting women together with a sleazy dance and call it…art?’

And then there are some of the responses. Which aren’t, really, any better than the original.

Take this, the Australian Law Society group, Defined Lines parody of the song. It has scantily clad men and, actually…fairly scantily clad women. The women are degrading the men. The lyrics are about harassment and bigotry and are, supposedly a feminist reaction to the song.

Their reaction is almost as bad in the original. Why?

Because if you want make a statement about harassment being wrong, don’t harass others to do it. The lyrics are okay, I guess, but you can’t fight bigotry with bigotry.

You want to truly rock the world, people?

Do a parody where everyone is fully dressed. Where all parties are treated with respect and dignity.

Just as you can’t teach a child not to hit by hitting him, you can’t teach a man not to harass by harassing him.

You really really can’t.