Views from the Reading Room

Meme via chagrined and alias_sqbr.

At 33:
I lived in: a mid-terrace house within walking distance of the town centre. I'd moved in at the beginning of the year, from rented accommodation, after getting a job that paid enough to get a mortgage. I barely knew any of the neighbours.

I drove: nothing. Nobody taught working-class girls to drive when I wor a lass! [when I was young in the North]

I was in a relationship with: no-one. I called myself celibate, because I didn't have the vocabulary I have now.

I feared: I don't remember. Probably big things like nuclear war and environmental disasters.

I worked at: a small software house a (longish, but straightforward) bus journey away, as a computer programmer, maintaining and developing financial management systems for the construction industry.

I wanted to be: the same, but better paid with a shorter commute and fewer annoying colleagues! Working part-time for an equivalent rate would also have been excellent, as I was definitely shorter of time than of cash.

At 58:
I live in: the same house. I've had some work done on it and I paid off the mortgage the first time I was made redundant. I still know very few of the neighbours; most of them are (comparatively) new.

I drive: still nothing. The jobcentre's "removing barriers to employment" doesn't stretch to paying for driving lessons.

I am in a relationship with: no-one. I now identify as aromantic (a word I'd never encountered until I met the internet) and asexual (which, back in the day, I only knew as the term for critters that reproduce by splitting).

I fear: Nothing? I worry about things - on a global level, mostly climate change; on a personal level, mostly cashflow.

I work at: housework (not as much as I should) and looking for work (same?). I've been unemployed since I was made redundant the second time, and have pretty much given up on ever getting another job. The most important thing I'm doing, actually ... mainly consists of waiting, because my financial advisor apparently doesn't want to issue progress reports until he's done All Of The Research, and is waiting in his turn for the company currently sitting on my money to respond to enquiries. (That's "my money that I earned in an earlier decade". It's grown under their management OK, but if they want to be my actual pension provider they need better customer service.) Recent changes in the rules mean that I should be able to derive an income from it that'll last till I can afford to retire properly, while being adequate in a way that my current benefits aren't.

I want to be: retired! A bit of "the change I want to see in the world" wouldn't go amiss too, but I can't see much beyond that horizon.

Here are some more of the questions from the meme referenced in my previous post. The missing ones either don't apply to me, strike me as inappropriate, or I can't think of anything to say about them.

8. What community do you wish was more active?

The one I created, anti_recs. It's always a squee moment when somebody posts to it, but it's not the sort of thing you can run challenges on. Yeah, I know, I should promo it sometimes.

I'm subscribed to lots of communities which don't show up on my reading page and I forget about them. It would be nice if some of them were more active but I couldn't pick out one in particular. I'm usually so far behind on reading (let alone commenting, let alone posting) that I don't notice something's missing until it shows up again or somebody points it out.

9. Are there two people on your reading list that you think should meet?

I don't know, I think most of them know each other already! I expand my circle mostly by spotting people in other people's comments.

10. Tell me about your default icon.

It's a cartoon of me that I made in a dollmaker, so I'd have something representing myself that isn't a photo, because several of the people on my reading list have them and they're neat.

11. What features do you think Dreamwidth should have that it doesn't currently?

( This is the long one )

17. How many people on your reading list do you know IRL?

I don't know any of them off-line (hey! This is real life!) None of my off-line friends who I've invited are interested.

19. Any questions from the audience?

Ask me in comments! If I don't want to answer, I just won't, so there.

21. What's your favorite thing about Dreamwidth?

I don't know that I have one favourite thing. It would be either the "ad-free by design" philosophy, the responsiveness of the management, or the amazing people I've met here.

In the UK
Amnesty International is organising a mass lobby of Parliament to end violence against women, next Wednesday - particularly against the No Recourse to Public Funds rule which prevents women with insecure immigration status from escaping abuse.

Friday 30th October is Equal Pay Day: the average pay gap between men and women in the UK is 17.1%, meaning that while men in work will be paid for the full year, women in work are effectively working for free from today until 2010.

From the Dreamwidth Herald
Yesterday, dw_codesharing was changed to allow open posting. if you have spare invite codes, post to the community using the tag "codes available".

Also, free accounts now get 15 userpics instead of 6. Go out and proselytise!

Follow Friday
I don't do memes, but this meme seems like a good idea for making Dreamwidth more awesome. Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die." Just introduce us to some new things to read.

With recent linkspams in mind, some communities to follow relating to access issues:
dw_accessibility (about making the site accessible), accessibility_fail (in RL, also features occasional accessibility win), access_fandom (canonically about making fandom more accessible; hosted the Feministing-fail linkspams). You can also follow the excellent new blog FWD/Forward via their Dwth feed, disabledfeminists_feed.