helen-louise's journal

It's still September 23rd somewhere

2020-09-24T03:36:15Z

Happy Bi Visibility Day to all the bisexuals, pansexuals, & bi/panromantic asexuals here!

I kinda slept through it in the UK but it's still going in North America and timezones to the west!

comments

The Seven Year Gap

2019-02-03T04:09:54Z

Hooray, I've been on Tumblr a matter of days and I've managed to have a huge argument with someone. They were posting about why certain Ace Attorney ships are evil, bad and wrong.

I was pointing out that actually, a 7 year age gap isn't all that much of a thing depending on what age the two people get together. Like 17 and 24 is definitely iffy (the ages the characters are in the first AA game) but what if the same two people don't get together until 28 and 35 (the ages they are in the sixth game)? ( Cut for language relating to lack of sexual consent. )

comments

Fictional Question with Real-Life Answers?

2019-01-28T22:12:11Z

I have a question regarding the story I'm currently writing (which may well get extended into a series of stories).

For background, I have these two characters who are both men aged around 25. They live and work in a fictional version of Los Angeles. (A lot of fans refer to it as "Japanifornia" because, essentially, Capcom transplanted the game from Tokyo to LA without changing very much at all.)

It has been established that they are in love with each other and would be interested in dating. However, one of them is quite badly mentally ill (bipolar disorder and PTSD) and is really worried that if they get into a relationship and it doesn't work out, he'll lose the other guy as a friend. And he doesn't have many friends to start with, owing to the fact he's famous and people only want to get to know the celebrity, not the real person underneath.

How do I get them to start dating?

See, a lot of other fans' stories have Klavier not so badly messed up to start with, and/or have them get into a relationship the apparently "standard" way, where you start off going on dates and after a few months, one of you "confesses" your love to the other one. I do remember having relationships like this in my early 20s, but not for many years - I mean, when I got together with Richard it was because I was already in love with him. Certainly, mostly meeting people online means that I don't bother to confess I'm in love until I'm at the point of being interested in a relationship.

Feel free to ask any questions which are needed for you to better understand the characters and/or fictional situation (and/or my real-life brain, haha).

comments

Dogs at Polling Stations, Voting when Blind, and Eff Off Evening Standard

2017-06-08T14:44:17Z

Am back from telling. Dogs at the Polling Station update: 5 during the hours of 1pm - 3pm.

Yay: I got licked by a very fluffy husky.
Boo: His owner was a very obnoxious Tory.

Here is an interesting video from BBC News: How do you vote when you're blind?

In other news, London's newspaper, the Evening Standard officially Went Too Far last night. It is now edited by George Osborne, who is famous primarily for being Chancellor of the Exchequer (a.k.a. Finance Minister) for David Cameron's government. Obviously, you would expect a bit of Tory bias in his newspaper.

Well, yesterday it was announced that Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, is unwell. Shadow Ministers are from the main Opposition party (currently, the Labour Party) and literally "shadow" the jobs of Government ministers. Conservatives have argued that she isn't really unwell at all, this is an excuse to get her out of the limelight because of mistakes she has been making during the Election campaign. Personally, given my chronic illnesses, it seems entirely obvious to me that a person who has previously been very competent and suddenly starts making mistakes could be ill. But hey, I'm biased in a different direction.

The Home Secretary is responsible for immigration, policing, and national security. Theresa May was previously Home Secretary, and during her incumbency the UK Home Office asked LGBT asylum seekers utterly atrocious personal questions, held traumatised people in detention, generally treated them like crap on a stick, and sent legitimate asylum seekers back to their original countries to get tortured and/or killed. The Home Secretary is also responsible for the UK's efforts to Fight the War Against Some Terrorists. It's basically the third most important job in the British Government.

The Evening Standard responded to the news of Diane Abbott's illness by commissioning this absolutely appalling cartoon. It's rude, obnoxious, and dismissive of pretty much everyone with a long-term serious health condition. The rather wonderful Jack Monroe has pointed out everything that Diane Abbott has achieved in her career. It's long, and impressive. Plenty of other politicians never accomplish this much. So why does she get so much abuse? Could it be because she dares to be middle-aged, female, black, and fat?

comments

Dinner with a Good Friend and Total Strangers

2017-04-14T17:31:40Z

Yesterday was a little surreal. First of all, a friend who I've known for 15+ years outed themselves as non-binary and planning to start a medical transition approximately 5 hours before we were due to meet in person. Of course, I have no problems whatsoever with a person changing their name and pronoun (as I said, sometimes I feel like the only person in the bi/poly community who isn't non-binary or genderqueer*)- but I usually expect to find out a bit sooner than the day we're meeting for the first time in seven months! It helps to practice the new name and pronoun for a bit by myself so I don't accidentally blurt out the wrong one with the person present.

As it was, I blurted out the wrong name within minutes, and didn't even mean to - I was trying to say "Grant", but my stupid noun aphasia (caused by high doses of venlafaxine, which is otherwise a really good medication for me) cut in and substituted the friend's old name. Just great. Fortunately, friend has indeed known me for 15+ years and has been aware of what my mental health is like when inadequately medicated, and could agree that annoying side-effect beats the state I used to be in.

Then the friend (who may out themselves here if they wish) and I went out for dinner with Shifty and two of his cow-orkers. They were all hideously late owing to their charity work being extremely disorganised, and I was very glad I wasn't sitting in the restaurant by myself. The cow-orkers asked how Shifty and I had met, we started talking about Elder Scrolls Online and the UESP Guild, and it turned out that one of the cow-orkers has been using the UESP wiki since Oblivion (2006). And he was basically fanboying at me for running the UESP Guild and knowing the site owner.

Meanwhile, my friend was talking about their wife and girlfriend, and I was talking about Grant and "my husband, Richard". I mentioned things like when the three of us go out for dinner, how they always pick the same thing and then one of them has to switch so they can try more dishes - that they don't just have the same taste in women. While not explicitly at any stage using words like "polyamory" or "open relationship".

The dinner was nice and it was not too stressful, but I was feeling pretty wiped out by the end. I seem to be fighting some sort of throat infection, which is attempting to ruin my holiday and can sod off any time now.

*I am bigender rather than non-binary or genderqueer, so I am female except when I'm not. I have somewhere between a few hours and a few days of raging gender dysphoria per month where my entire body is Wrong, and the (actually bi but scared of women) gay man in the back of my head comes out. And the rest of the time it's just fine and I want to be addressed as "she/her" and recognised as A Female Geek Doing Nerdy Things. The conclusion I've come to is that my social and political gender is female, but my sexual gender is male.

comments