Classism

I witnessed an exchange lately where someone uttered the words "You're just a hairdresser, what do you know!?" the nature of the argument was somebody else's business so I won't go into details, that's not my story to tell; however what I can say is that the hairdresser in question has a degree in Art History and she very much has the authority correct this person.

This whole exchange however made me think about just how much other people make assumptions about someone's education and background based on the work that they do. I have a degree in Computer Science with Games Technology but I've never actually used it since I graduated from University as I never went into that field to work. I have done other jobs were elements of my education have been useful, and although I would choose a different degree if I were doing things over, I don't regret the choice I made.

Now What?

In a few of my recent posts I mentioned the health problems I am currently going through, as a small update I had a follow-up appointment with my Doctor today to discuss my test results and my suspicions have been confirmed, I do in fact have an allergy to rapeseed oil. It's been about 12 hours now since I had this confirmed and I've been mulling over the ramifications and it still hasn't fully sank in.

I'm no stranger to allergies as a concept, I've struggled with hayfever for as long as I can remember, it's just part of my life and something I learned to work around. I'm also allergic to ginger which I found out when I had sushi for the first time and went into Anaphylactic Shock later that day. This is different though, this is a little more insidious.

Digital Privilege

I talked about Parasocial Relationships in a previous post and how the evolution of technology evolved so quickly to enable us to see and hear people that aren't in the same room that it was unrealistic to expect our physiological evolution to catch up to that reality in such a short space of time.

I've been thinking about how technology enables us to revisit past moments in our lives with absolute clarity and realised that we live in a time of "Digital Privilege" that arguably previous generations never experienced. Yes cameras have been around for some time, and yes home movies were relatively common for a few decades but all of those things came with a price tag that not everyone could afford.

Why does the Queer Community care about Palestine?

This was a question asked on Reddit recently which has since been deleted, that asked why Queer people cared about Palestine when it seemingly didn't affect us, with the usual argument that the political ideology of Palestinian leadership doesn't align with the rights of Queer people. This post is a response to that question.

Justice cannot be something that is afforded only to the people you think are "worthy" such a stance breeds complacency and empowers fascism and oppression of people by their own governments. If justice is only served to people deemed "worthy" then the definition of worthy is modified until it eventually amounts to null and is served to none.

The Nostalgia Blackhole

I've been thinking a lot about the last few years as my life is shrouded in uncertainty once again and I've come to the realisation that my memory has a black hole of 5 years that it's impossible to reflect on without getting sucked in and consumed by darkness.

2017 saw the start of my journey into darkness; when my treatment for Sarcoidosis came to an end I was advised recovery would take around 2 years before I would get back on my feet. Those two years came to an end at Christmas in 2019, with the start of 2020 my renewed optimism was immediately shot down along with everyone else's. Arguably the period of depression that followed didn't come to an end until around 2022, whilst for some it simply passed its peak.

Those 5 years from 2017 to 2022 represent a minefield of memories that it is difficult to navigate in an attempt to isolate the moments of happiness. Nostalgia as Baz Luhrmann once said "is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it's worth" - this is what we try to do with our past when we look back and try to use it as a model for how we shape our future, but what happens when the past isn't something you want to return to? - when it was objectively bad with no conceivable way to spin it into something positive, what happens when a cloud doesn't have a silver lining?

In reflecting on the past 7 years of my life since my problems with Sarcoidosis began I've realised that only the last 2 years of that period could have been salvageable, unfortunately that was also a time when my mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, she had surgery and radiotherapy to remove the tumour and is now in the middle of a 5 year course of hormone therapy and in a much better place physically and mentally as she continues to make progress with her recovery.

I know the last few years haven't been easy for anyone really, the world is a complex place, one where it seems impossible to escape limitless sources of negativity. At the same time, there seems to be no counter, no endless source of positivity, and a jaded cynicism that immediately leads us to question anything that presents itself as such - the concept of anything being endless seems to be something we reject but if that truly is the case, why are we seduced by the idea of endless negativity? If nothing lasts forever, why does it feel like that is the exception?

Here we are again

In 2017 after struggling with my personal health for a while I decided to see a doctor to try and find out what was going on. Over the course of 6 months I had countless diagnostics, scans, and was poked and prodded, culminating in a fibre-optic bronchoscopy and 8 biopsies that lead to my diagnosis with a condition called Sarcoidosis. I documented this whole process on another blog during that time.

I recently decided to restore all of my old posts from almost every blog I've ever ran. They have been uploaded here, so my apologies if you happen to subscribe to this blog via feed and were probably wondering where the thousand odd posts that were recently uploaded came from. In amongst these posts are those that documented the journey I went through with Sarcoidosis