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Carefully, Correctly Wrong
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| WIDATW |
[Oct. 12th, 2009|03:42 pm] |
Wow, it's been ages since I updated. Just been a bit too busy / stressed to do so, I guess. I figure I'll stick something up and hopefully get back in the habit.
Last week was the Tory party conference in Manchester; I was quite busy with identity activism stuff, but was happy to run across ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mr_flay in journalism mode, and spend some time with peachweeks.
This Saturday I did more identity activism, helping flyer in Fallowfield for the ID Card Con campaign. It's great fun to flyer people not to spend money, because it totally throws them. It's also a much more positive exchange - Don't get an ID card! I'm not interested. That's fantastic, have a great day! .
On Saturday night I did a big shop so greyeyedeve and I had some food in. We chilled out together and got much-needed early night. On Sunday I did some Lib Dem campaigning, including some delivery in Fallowfield. I dashed back to Levenshulme to try and make a train into town, and just missed it despite my epic cycling. I need to sort out my front light though - it's good enough to be seen by, but not great at illuminating a dark Fallowfield Loop, and only my awesome night vision saved me.
Having missed the train, Eve and I got a taxi into town to the cinema to see Zombieland, which is a very silly action-comedy zombie flick, and highly recommended. |
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| Back from Conference |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|09:13 am] |
I'm back from four-and-a-half days of Lib Dem conferencing. I did about 80% of my planned itinerary, giving me a good mixture of training sessions, fringe meetings and DELGA work. I didn't spend any time getting involved in the actual business of policy since I didn't pay the premium for the right to speak and vote, so I'm quite entertained by learning about fallouts between Nick Clegg and various party committees, none of which were visible on the ground. I met and chatted with Nick about DELGA's work, and he was very enthused that we were encouraging local parties to promote our LGBT equality record at Prides and other community events.
The only drama that hit me personally was that my useless treasurer threw a hissy fit and resigned having sat on his arse and done nothing for nine months. I'm now acting treasurer and need to make an effort to ensure we're up to speed with legal compliance. I've also been elected treasurer next year; I'm mostly au fait with the position now so hopefully it won't be too much hassle.
On the way down I stopped off at my parents. It was good to see them, and I finally came out to them about my bisexuality and told them about tartful_dodger. It's the beginning of a process of discussion, education and acceptance rather than the end, but at least we're taking the journey together as a family, and they seem broadly OK with the idea. I do feel relieved for having told them. It's nice to be able to say everybody knows about my sexuality without appending except my parents , and it's good to know that the (admittedly low) risk of alienating people very important to me has been taken.
Last night I headed out to Taurus with greyeyedeve and tartful_dodger, where a bunch of us were gathered for Celebrate Bisexuality Day. Mostly the usual suspects, plus a couple of Lib Dems I badgered into attending, but there was some pleasant company in ms_rivet, minnesattva et al. and some entertaining and rowdy debate about sexuality and gender with a drunk Lib Dem.
Today I am back at work dealing with stress and a huge mail backlog. Friday night I'll be at the BiPhoria stall at LGBT Fresher's Fair; Saturday I'll spend the morning doing identity activism at the Anarchist Bookfair. |
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| Conference Itinerary |
[Sep. 18th, 2009|01:48 am] |
In case people are interested in what I get up to at political conferences, here's my planned Conference itinerary so far, a mixture of Conference business, fringe meetings, training sessions and helping on the LGBT Lib Dems stall. There are a few overlaps where I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing yet.
( Read more... )
At least this year I'm remembering to leave time for lunch breaks... |
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| Job Fail |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|04:13 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | lib dems, work | ] |
| [ | music |
| | My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - "The Smash-Up" | ] |
I didn't get an interview for job I applied for a fortnight ago, as a PA for the Liberal Democrats. I will e-mail them and request feedback.
And now, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, at ear-splitting volume. |
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| General Update |
[Apr. 3rd, 2009|04:28 pm] |
Whoa, long time no LJ. It's indicative of just how bloody busy I've been recently. I don't feel like I've been getting much accomplished though.
Still, when I think back over the last few weeks, it seems that things are progressing - I've now got the last bookshelf assembled and fixed to the wall, laden with books (freeing up another shelf for the DVDs which were piled dangerously on top of a CD rack). I've acquired a rather comfy office chair for use with the desktop, which is great to keep greyeyedeve in a comfortable position when geeking, and also an exercise bike so she can keep in good shape. I'm looking at replacing wibblefish's TV, which is starting to flicker, with a large TFT and a new computer which can double as a PVR - this will take up less space in the living room too.
I've been doing a lot of Lib Dem leaflet delivery, often assisted by tartful_dodger. It's nice, and I'm getting to know a new ward, but also quite daunting - we've got an aggressive delivery schedule for the next 12 months and I'm struggling to cope as it is. I need more help but I'm not sure how to get it. The Moston by-election isn't helping me here, I must admit, and I've been too busy holding my own fort to go help out there. Identity activism is pretty stagnant right now. More people are volunteering to do stuff, but not enough and I'm having difficulty keeping track. LGBT Lib Dem stuff seems to have hit a bit of a rut - my accounts are overdue but I'm mostly concentrating on improving our Pride presences and campaigning.
Work has been utterly hectic. The integration process with our new corporate overlords is long and complicated, we're having to shift piles of kit around and we're learning new skills faster than we can disseminate them around the team, meaning that one or two of us are becoming single points of failure. This makes us look bad when somebody asks us to fix something and the only person who knows how to is busy with another task that only they know how to do. I've got mountains of paperwork to fill in for my new employment contract, and I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't get a pay rise with my new position.
Socially I've been out and about a little - since my last proper update I've been to the theatre with mr_turnip, minnesattva and taimatsu. Eve's new wheelchair has made spending time out and about with much more possible, and we've been out for lunch together as well as going to see Watchmen. After a few days on the buses, I fixed my broken spoke following tobestool's advice, and taking steps to avoid torsion. Took me a while to get sorted due to other commitments, but I'm back on the road and much happier for it.
I'm feeling pretty run down at the moment - there's a lot of stress in my vicinity, even if little of it affects me directly. I've been off work for the last couple of days with a headcold which has been going around, feeling like I'm letting my team down. Hopefully this weekend should be relaxing and productive without being stressful, and I can get back to work next week. |
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| Modernising Parenting |
[Feb. 20th, 2009|10:51 pm] |
As a Liberal Democrat, I can get pretty blasé about my party - most of the time our policies and values are so much better than those of the authoritarian Labour or the spineless Tories that it's easy just to criticise the party when it doesn't get things right rather than to praise it when it frequently does.
However, every now and again an article like Nick Clegg on childcare will really impress me. For a liberal party, there are plenty of grounds on which to fight battles, and most of them are easy no-brainers. ID cards are authoritarian, expensive and ineffective. Public transport is too inefficient and expensive. Low earners pay too much tax, and are too dependent on badly-administered state handouts and handbacks.
However, it's harder for us to talk about big changes in society, such as the assumptions people make about gender roles. This is the kind of territory where social conservatives get really annoyed at altering the status quo, and where people ask what difference it makes to the things that really matter . In this article Nick is clearly demonstrating historical precedence, but also relevance to the recession - blatantly the most urgent thing on people's minds currently. Men are going to lose jobs, and just getting them to think that perhaps their partners could find work while they raise children is a huge step for most people.
Of course, for me it doesn't quite go far enough; there's an assumption of two-person opposite-gender parenting here which leaves a sour taste. That's something that annoys me in Liberal Democrat rhetoric elsewhere, and something I'm trying to challenge through LGBT Lib Dems. But as a way of demonstrating that we're a liberal party prepared to challenge societal orthodoxies, both as a point of principle and for practical benefit, this article is bloody good. |
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| Exhausting Week |
[Feb. 20th, 2009|12:33 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | lib dems, work | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Black Sabbath - "Iron Man" | ] |
Gosh, this week has been one of the most draining I've had for some time. I've been on the early shift at work with an 8:30am start, well ahead of my usual 10am. The upshot of this is that I'm supposed to head home at 4pm - but the two people on the late shift have been off sick, so I've been helping the rest of the team cover. Between that sickness and holiday, we've been short-staffed in one of our busiest weeks yet.
I've also not been getting much sleep - taimatsu, tartful_dodger and greyeyedeve are all people I've been spending evening-time with, and I'd much rather be up and talking to them than sleeping. I've also had a bunch of meetings and activism keeping my evenings busy.
Still, I'm ditching at 4 today no matter what, and going home to sleep and snuggle with Eve. Tonight will involve DVDs and takeaway curry; tomorrow Eve and I will sort out our joint account for paying bills, and go to the cinema. On Sunday I'm Lib Demming and probably meeting up with Olly in the evening. |
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| General Update |
[Jan. 24th, 2009|01:22 am] |
Phew, it's been a while - now I have a busy day-job, I've had much less time to do LiveJournal justice. It's 1:30am and I'm supposed to be up at 8:30, so I'll keep this brief and talk about my trip to London last weekend...
Went to London with softfruit. Thanks to peachweeks for the crash space, sorry I didn't get more time in your excellent company. Met up with wato, kaz_pixie and muftak for tasty burger lunch. I stole Kaz's chips and she stole my pistachio ice-cream. Went to the British Library for the Taking Liberties exhibition. It's a bloody good overview of a lot of civil liberties issues from Magna Carta onwards, and I could easily have spent three or four hours in there going into issues in more depth - well worth going to, and on until the end of February. There's some natty opinion polling thing involving scanning a barcode wristband as you walk around the exhibition, and results are available online. It's not quite radical enough for my liking mind, hence the lack of the homonymous film and book in the shop, and no flyers for Convention on Modern Liberty at the end of February (which you should also all go to).
Met up with softfruit in Holborn (where the Ho-Bo-Ho-Mos live), and ended up in the pub with a bunch of bisexuals and Liberal Democrats. Ended up feeling a bit tired and fed up with polycule size queening, so headed back to where I was crashing and chatted with Miles about Ridley Scott while drinking nice Japanese whiskey.
Sunday was spent Lib Demming, which was very productive but I can't really go into details. Still, we finished ahead of schedule which meant that Jen and I got to head back on an early train, which was nice.
It was quite a busy weekend, but I saw some people I haven't seen for ages, got some useful stuff done, met new people and generally had a good time. All in all, a winner. |
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| Lib Dem: Euro Campaigning |
[Dec. 30th, 2008|02:26 pm] |
In June 2009, the UK has European elections. As a local Lib Dem activist, I will be asked to help the campaign; LGBT Lib Dems also has a campaign on the boil.
On the one hand, I'm really not a supporter of the EU. While I'm not totally opposed to it in practice, I'm not sure that the cost (in terms of bad legislation as well as money) justifies the benefit. I'm also opposed to centralisation of power in a corrupt, opaque bureaucracy on principle.
On the other hand, I like Chris Davies (the Lib Dem #1 candidate for the North West) personally. He has exposed corruption in the EU, and been criticised by the President of the EU for doing so. If we've got to have MEPs, I'd like to have MEPs like him.
On the third hand, the Liberal Democrats in Europe support software patents, mainly because they all concede to Sharon Bowles MEP's opinion as a patent lawyer. When I spoke to Chris Davies in person at Lib Dem conference in September 2008, he said that it was a complicated issue and indicated that he would support software patents in upcoming EU legislation. Software patents are one of the biggest threats not only to free software, but also to small independent proprietary software businesses which are common in the UK. I don't think I can bring myself to support a party which supports software patents.
On the fourth hand, the Lib Dem position (that the EU should recognise EUPTO-granted software patents only) is not as bad as the Labour and Tory position (that the EU should recognise USPTO-granted software patents automatically).
I'm not sure what I should do about these Euro elections, both in terms of which way I vote (leaning towards Green as per usual) and how much support I give the Liberal Democrats (leaning towards little, but worried about how it'll affect my standing within the party). I'd welcome other people's advice. |
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| Hippy Music |
[Dec. 3rd, 2008|04:17 pm] |
You know you're an enthusiast of free software and open formats when you realise that your work computer hasn't been able to play MP3 files since it was reinstalled the other week, and you didn't notice because all your music is in Vorbis...
Had a day off sick with this cold yesterday. I deliberately didn't get up and do activisty things, just actually spent a day relaxing, lying in bed, failing to get dressed, pottering on the laptop. I also missed BiPhoria! for which I'm sorry, but frankly it was just what I needed. Still lacking job motivation, but doing better than I have been.
Tonight I'm off to a bi meeting after work, followed by a Lib Dem one. I need a shave when I get home - I'm having my photo taken tomorrow for my new Corporate ID Card. Speaking of which, I've got a rant about the Queen's Speech's Stasi implications coming up.
In happier news, I have an A6 week-to-view diary for 2009, which I can start filling up with events! |
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| Week Ahead |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|10:42 pm] |
Hmm, this week is busy, but on careful inspection it turns out that most of the stuff I'm doing is social rather than activisty. Didn't quite manage an early night last night due to some fun with greyeyedeve and a rubbery new birthday present, but had a good day at work - perhaps applying for a job yesterday has cheered me up enough. I actually completed one of the sections of my current task ahead of schedule.
Tonight I've been down the pub with a crowd of geeks, civil libertarians and co-workers, and had a jolly nice time over several pints. The FAB Café is doing an awesome spicy fish finger and cheese toasty, and we firstly outstripped their capacity to toast sandwiches and then their fish finger supply. I came home where the lovely Eve fed me soup and cake, and I'll be off to bed soon.
Tomorrow is Biphoria!, which should be fun. I'm hoping to see a few friendly faces there. On Wednesday I've got a bi-activist meeting with a few Manchester faces, which should be quite productive. Thursday is my Lib Dem local party AGM; I'm standing for Membership Development Officer because I want to try actually getting stuff done. I will probably make myself very unpopular in the process, but fuck 'em. Friday is #manlug currybeer which should be fun!
I've still got a lot to do, and more jobs to apply for, and so on. However, I'm feeling pretty upbeat about things right now and I'm hoping that I can keep that momentum going forward. Continuing to apply for new jobs will probably help with that. |
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| Busy As Ever |
[Nov. 7th, 2008|12:05 pm] |
Phew, life is exhausting at the moment. I've picked up greyeyedeve's lurgy which has made things harder - I had to take Monday and Tuesday off work. On Wednesday night I went to the Platt Fields fireworks with minnesattva and andrewhickey. The display was pretty awesome and I'm glad I went, despite tiredness. I was a bit over-excited, particularly when the bonfire was lit. It burned down a bit too quickly though which was a shame.
Yesterday lunchtime I did some identity activism on local TV; I'll upload the video for that soon. Last night, I went to the town hall for the hustings for the Liberal Democrat candidate for Gorton Constituency in the next General Election. I may make a longer, friendslocked entry about this, but there were a lot of factors at play and it was a very hard choice. I think my first choice was right, but in retrospect should have cast my second preference differently. On the way to the town hall, I also caught the last post for my ballot paper for the President of the Federal Party (first preference Chandila, second Lembit), so it might actually get delivered in time to be counted.
When I got home, my Ikea stash had arrived. Eve's been up at night with her cough, and v15u4l_3rr0r is using the front room at the moment, so I put together the table and a chair to give her somewhere to sit if necessary. I managed to give myself an injury while screwing vigorously - blisters on the palm of my hand. Fnarr. O2 / Be was being a pain, refusing access to mostly US-based websites. This turned out to be a DNS rather than a routing problem, so I installed dnsmasq on my colo box, firewalled it from anywhere other than my broadband IP, and told my laptop and desktop to ignore the DNS server given to them by the ADSL router and use my colo box instead. This isn't an ideal long-term solution, but is good enough for now.
Tonight I'm off for #manlug Currybeer. Tomorrow I'm doing an identity activism stall in town, and then meeting up with sprezzatoura and thirstypixel before their gig. I should find time to get to B&Q to buy a drill and a few other bits and bobs, which will let me finish off the table assembly. On Sunday, I might be Lib Demming in Old Moat ward. |
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| Liberal Democrat Conference |
[Sep. 18th, 2008|12:23 pm] |
Admin notice: I've been offline for a week. If there's anything I missed, let me know.
Urgh. Lib Dem conference was pretty tiring. I had quite a nice time, but didn't really do much Lib Dem-related stuff. I sat around on DELGA's stall a lot, went to our fringe and AGM and social evening, and made some new friends. Spent a lot of time with roommate stephmog which was lovely.
I didn't make any training sessions, wasn't there to do policy motions, and didn't attend any of the speeches apart from the opening rally (where Henry Porter was very good on civil liberties) and Nick Clegg's closing speech which I thought was surprisingly excellent. The highpoint of the latter for me was Clegg talking about a serious need to reduce energy consumption as well as increase domestic production - and how UK industry can lead this and make money out of it.
I've still got some pretty fundamental concerns about how democratic and liberal the Liberal Democrats really are; if I'd've heard about Norman Lamb's comments on an exercise-tracking database for example, I'd've found somebody to table an emergency motion to denounce him as a complete moron. I've come away even more convinced that my local party are a bunch of useless squabblers who will never take an eminently winnable seat away from Gerald Kaufman. However, I am feeling slightly less despair over the party as a whole, possibly just from being around large numbers of committed and energetic Liberal Democrats. Even if several of them were bloggers.
I've managed to catch up on some sleep since my return to Manchester, and now need to go get all the wheels in motion for Software Freedom Day and my identity activism at the Labour Party Conference next week. It's very odd not having greyeyedeve around. |
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| Staging Post |
[Sep. 12th, 2008|11:47 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | family, lib dems | ] |
| [ | music |
| | :wumpscut: - "Die In Winter" (Seasons Change: Springtime) | ] |
At parents' gaff near Salisbury. Didn't get here until nearly midnight. I was up until 1:30am, which is still an early night by recent standards, but didn't get up until about 11am. Still slouching around in dressing gown.
Going to get up, lunch with the parents and head to Bournemouth; they're pretty busy with putting people up for a friend's wedding this weekend so they won't be driving me down after all. Still, the X3 bus from Salisbury to Bournemouth stops at the bottom of the village so I'll just grab that. I have very few plans for Bournemouth, will just check into hotel and mooch around until stephmog arrives, I suspect. |
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| Conference Packing |
[Sep. 10th, 2008|09:06 pm] |
Right, off to Lib Dem conference straight after work tomorrow, and I need to make sure I've got everything I need. softfruit - I need to pick things up tonight, or in town tomorrow, if you want me to take them with me; stephmog - I could do with contact details for the hotel since I'll be in Bournemouth before you.
- Clothes for 6 days - Friday through Wednesday
- Washkit - toothbrush, paste, soap dish, flannel, deodorant
- Laptop + charger
- DELGA admin folder
- House of Lords champagne for raffle
Ideally I'll have gotten various paperwork etc. sorted by the time Conference starts; I should also download the conference agenda, training agenda etc. to work out where I need to be when, and fill in some of the gaps with time on our stall. I also want to sit down and write out that LJ post about why I'm thinking about leaving the Lib Dems, if only so I can have my thoughts in order when I speak to people at Conference.
So, what have I forgotten? |
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| Federal Conference Trains |
[Sep. 2nd, 2008|11:05 pm] |
Right, that's my trains booked; thanks to my earlier spot it's costing me £40 instead of £120. I'm staying with stephmog and looking forward to a fun time; I just can't believe that it's only just over a week before I head off. I have got so much to do before then! |
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| Public Transport Suckage |
[Aug. 17th, 2008|01:51 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | lib dems, trains | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pissed off | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Sneaker Pimps - "Destroying Angel" | ] |
I'm booking train tickets to take me to the Liberal Democrats Federal Conference in Bournemouth in September. Looking at my return journey, a trip from Bournemouth to Manchester will set me back 100 quid. Now, tickets normally get expensive when you use multiple train companies for one journey, but this is direct, so that shouldn't be an issue.
I look instead at getting a ticket from Bournemouth to Southampton (£2) and Southampton to Manchester (£18). At first it looks like I can't manage this - I can only book advanced tickets from Bournemouth to Southampton on some trains, and the only relevant train I can book gets me into Southampton with only a minute to make my connection for Manchester. I consider that even the on-the-day price of 10 quid to get to Southampton is cheaper in total than buying a direct ticket.
Then it occurs to me that the Bournemouth to Southampton service I was looking at leaves Bournemouth at the same time as the direct service to Manchester I was originally considering. I do some double-checking, and find that it's all the same train. Getting two tickets for one journey on one train, never stepping off until I reach my destination, is £80 cheaper than getting a direct ticket for the same journey on the same train.
This is, of course, after the train companies have simplified train ticketing so we all get the best value tickets for our journey. My arse. |
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| Unexpected Writings |
[Jun. 3rd, 2008|05:17 pm] |
Not at BiPhoria! tonight; I've got a Liberal Democrat do in Levenshulme.
As seen popping around my friends list recently: Please invite me to post about an area of my life which I don't tend to mention here, which you might want to know more about. |
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