I AM A REAL FANGIRL I AM! SEE: I DO MEMES AND CAPSLOCK
Here is a meme about 2010. In Summary: January to October, I didn't know you. November-December, I became besotted. Next year I promise this meme will be all about YOU. This time round some of it is still about me.
It is stolen from all the people who have already done it
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aldiara lilithilien amilee123 giorgiakerr Much love,
Yours Truly.
1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
Part 2 of 2010 is one long list of Never Done Before.
Namely: stepped through the wank into fandom deliciousness, lured by the promise of snark on the other side.
Learnt a new language – the language of SQUEE.
Oh wait, I should have started with Watched a German Soap (constantly for about three weeks), became obsessed to the point of distraction, hovered nervously near the igloo, then stuck my head above the parapet.
Then read fic. And enjoyed it.
Probably some stuff in RL but whatevs, who cares about that right?!
2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions from 2009, and will you make more for next year?
No idea and probably not.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No but I did become a little bit addicted to babies (in a very non shady way). They are like therapy. Loads of women bring their babies to work and I really recommend it. Whatever's getting you riled, 20 minutes with a baby will fix, and when it cries, you hand it back.
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4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
5. What countries did you visit?
Netherlands for work and the Czech Republic for the weekend.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Time off.
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Terrible with dates, nothing like that sticks in my memory. The Hague in October was cool though, except that I pretty much traumatised myself by having to spend so much time in our sex trafficking exhibition.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not quitting my job.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Is this like the question in interviews, what are your worst qualities? IDK, not doing more interesting stuff?
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Deafness-inducing ear-infection for the first three months of the year which I’d totally forgotten about till this moment so can’t have been that bad.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Mattress Topper. I know it’s sad but it really made my life so much better (and more comfortable). More time in bed is a good thing, y/y?
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
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All the people who come to the Helen Bamber Foundation, who are the most unbelievably resilient and awesome people on earth having survived unspeakable cruelty. f;gjvnfjzvvfjdj
All the eskimos who win at life and brought squee to mine! dfuihgrfdsijghffjiovf
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
UK Border Agency. EPIC FAIL. Also, every UK politician, consistently, for the whole year.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent and bills. (and all the seasons of OZ, idek)
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
DeRo. DeRoMarc. HoFest. Other people’s babies. Broken Social Scene playing at Heaven. Breakfast (I f-ing love meeting people for breakfast) FML. Seriously, what happened to this year, why did NOTHING HAPPEN.
Oh, oh, but, the Helen Bamber Foundation football team! Total win. Just a bunch of people forgetting about their worries (read, trauma) and playing football. And me, who is shit at football, being taught skills by former professionals from Iran, Turkey and Cameroon. And I swear to you I don’t even like football and it was the best thing I did all year.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
‘She Said’ by Plan B. (Come on, do the clicking with me).
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Both.
ii. thinner or fatter? Same.
iii. richer or poorer? Same.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Debauchery.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Complaining.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
With family, freaking them out with how much coffee I can drink and how much time I can spend on the internet. (Life Skillz)
22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Probably with the most amount of people I’ve never met ever for one year #haieskimos.
23. How many one-night stands?
None. (Spent all year getting over 2009’s disasters).
24. What was your favourite TV program?
Sons of Anarchy. Misfits. AWZ (as distilled by EKP).
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.
26. What was the best book you read?
Finally finished A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Actually worth the three years on and off it took me.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Playlists from german soaps. I’ve never felt much shame about getting lyrics wrong anyway.
Except, Kate Nash! Hello Lyrics Of Win. ‘We get on’ especially.
28. What did you want and get?
The drain in my bathroom fixed. Yeah, again, FML.
29. What did you want and not get?
World Peace, obv. (I is Ms World)
30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha. Basically did this whole meme just to spam you guys about how great this film was! (Hopefully you’re still reading). I took my first tentative steps into Bollywood and was rewarded with this blinder of modern cinema. Dibakar Banerjee has to be one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking filmmakers anywhere. There are spy cams and CCTV sex tapes and all kinds of love and mess and hurt.
31. What did you do on your birthday?
Watched ballet two nights in a row (hello Matthew Bourne) and then fled to the Lake District to hide and relax. (Another response to the horror!fest of 2009).
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If I’d discovered DeRo and the Eskimos at the beginning of the year... 3.0, GOOL... *sadfacingforever*
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Embraced androgyny? Abandoned heels.
34. What kept you sane?
Was not sane, at all, all year. (I work with lots of psychologists, so it’s pretty much diagnosed, but the good news is, I’m mostly saner than them.)
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Lauren Socha, aka Kelly on Misfits. Power slo-mo on loop forever. I wanna have fights with her and have her yell filth at me -because you know she actually speaks like that and the verbose little English student in me just flails and loves it. Also, boobies, just saying. Is shallow.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Hi Uganda, massive fail on LGBT issues, accompanied by the rest of the world in general, and at the UN.
In the UK, coalition conservative govt has my stomach in knots.
But mostly ASYLUM ASYLUM ASYLUM, things look set to get much much worse for asylum seekers (and I thought it was already rock bottom). Hi UKBA, these are people not statistics, please could we stop acting like fascist cunts, I pay taxes here and I DO NOT APPROVE. Could rant for a year but will hold it in so I don’t miss 2011.
37. Who did you miss?
Studying. #notapersonwtf
38. Who was the best new person you met?
All the Eskimos in the Igloo. And all the clients at work. This post should just repeat ESKIMOS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS over and over and that would sum up my year.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
The world has more snarky sparkle than I ever imagined. And there is no end to my love for it!
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Might ick myself out of existence with this but here have some epic Regina:
This is how it works
It feels a little worse
Than when we drove our hearse
Right through that screaming crowd
While laughing up a storm
Until we were just bone
Until it got so warm
That none of us could sleep
And all the styrofoam
Began to melt away
We tried to find some worms
To aid in the decay
But none of them were home
Inside their catacomb
A million ancient bees
Began to sting our knees
While we were on our knees
Praying that disease
Would leave the ones we love
And never come again
On the radio
We heard November Rain
That solo's really long
But it's a pretty song
We listened to it twice
'Cause the DJ was asleep
This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath
No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again
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#3-Babies=happy? DOES NOT COMPUTE. But I'm glad they make you happy :)
#20-"Life Skillz" LOLOLOLOLOL INDEED!!!!!
#32-*squishes you* I second the wish that you'd been around longer. Still, it feels like you've been with us all along, you are that much a part of us that fast. (((((((((((((((((((((((((you))))))))))))))))))))))))))
#35-AAKSDJSFJASKDJF;LADSJF Kelly's boobies make me feel funny in my pants.
#39-We call it "snarkle." ;D
Overall comment: I really would love to hear more about your job/line of work sometime. If you ever feel like telling :)
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LOL, which every way you go on babies it's going to leave some people mystified! Is it too much to say they're like marmite?
SNARKLE. lol, Snarkle. Perfection, ILUGuys!
I don't mind at all giving you the low down about work, I usually try and hold it back because it can rather gush out of me and it can feel like I'm just dumping horror all over people.
I work at a human rights charity called the Helen Bamber Foundation which works with survivors of cruelty- people who have suffered gross human rights violations. We try and provide therapy and support for them and help them with their asylum claims so they won't have to go back. It's people who have been tortured, trafficked for sex or labour, extreme domestic violence, FGM, slavery, child soldiers and people who have been hurt and traumatised by wars and conflicts. For most people, it's never just one thing, often the abuse has been life long. It's so difficult to encapsulate the things our clients have been through.
And yet almost all of them are refused entry to the UK, many of them are detained in facilities that are basically prisons, ready to be sent back.
For my job, I manage all the waiting lists and report writing and dealing with solicitors and scheduling and do the case-reading for the clinicians so they have someone with a legal perspective highlight anything that will come up in the immigration hearing.
The whole asylum/immigration process in the UK is a retraumatising experience for most people, they are interrogated by the border agency and have limited access to legal help. They have to tell their story over and over and are rejected over the most understandable inconsistencies, like getting dates wrong, which, say you're from Iran and have a different calender is probably really easy to do, or say you were kept in a dark room for 3 months, how are you really going to know how long you were there.
OMG, I can't believe I'm rambling like this all over your comment. I'm so sorry. I really don't want to bring all this into the igloo when you guys' sparkling is really the best antidote to some of my days at work. Which isn't to say that there aren't lovely amazing things that happen there. Seeing people finally get status, sometimes after 10years waiting is fantastic, seeing people engage in the arts groups we run and come out of the shell is so beautiful. Everyday something happens to warm my heart but it is also so frustrating, what we're up against and how much we can't do. We don't have enough therapists or doctors to provide half the amount of therapy people with complex trauma require.
I hope this is interesting for you, thanks for asking about it! I hope I haven't totally depressed you. I do love my job, I just wish the charity wasn't necessary. :S
ILU for asking and please forgive me throwing all this back at you!
<3
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And besides that, I find the diversity of what we do in our "real lives" fascinating. Thanks for adding your own unique color to the tapestry that of the igloo :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
*smooshes*
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and when it cries, you hand it back.
Hahahaha, yes this. I like OTHER PEOPLE'S children.
#5 makes me all Jealous and stuff.
#14. OZ! I love that show. So messed up. And also, Christopher Meloni is like sex on legs. Mmmmm...
Breakfast (I f-ing love meeting people for breakfast)
Hahahaha, it's amazing, because I do to, but I HATE getting up in the morning. It's 2PM and I'm still in bed, but if I'd been meeting someone for breakfast, I'd be all over that shit. There's something so calm about breakfast when you're out. Probably because most mornings I rush so much that breakfast is a coffee and a piece of toast AS I run to catch the bus...
#20 YES, STORY OF MY LIFE. I do this on a daily basis.
Also, I heart Bollywood. And I know that
because one day I posted about Devdas and it led to all sorts of mad flailing.Embraced androgyny?
This intrigues me. Just so you know. *is a perv*
There was a lot of asshattery with asylum seekers ("boat people". Ugh) here this year, too. I just wanted to smack every politician. A lot. Only a couple of them seemed to actually GET it, and the rest used LOWERING NUMBERS ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTRY as a voting platform. LOWERING THEM. WTF, world?
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Christopher Meloni, phaw phaw phaw. I also totally loved the brothers in OZ as well, Ryan and Cyril O'Reily, they really one me over as the series went on.
I am sensing I am winning you over about breakfast! Even if you have it at midnight, it's still the best meal ever.
WOOYeah Bollywood! I almost gave Devdas an honourable mention up there because who can say they started getting into Indian cinema and not watch/love Devdas? Epic flail! Add me to the devdas flail pile wherever it is! Lol. I'll backdate myself to get in on that action.
Haha probs made 'embraced androgyny' sound a tad more intriguing than it actually is (aka, not at all). Really I just discovered there was as much I liked in the boys section as the girls in most shops and have some nice tops and cardigans to show for it.
Yeah the things on asylum seekers that you hear from Australia sounds pretty awful too - the way the issue is in politics here as well makes it almost impossible to get people to start implementing humane policies. WTF is pretty much my stance as well! grrrrr.
So much love for your comment bb, thank yoU!
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I love Father Ray and Sister Pete. (I just love BD Wong. Even if he is godawful in Law&Order:SVU, hahaha).
I am sensing I am winning you over about breakfast!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, ACTUALLY, I INVITED MY FRIEND OUT FOR BREAKFAST THE OTHER DAY. I BLAME YOU. (There're heaps of really cool little cafes here that serve really good breakfasts, and I know that there's one place in particular that he likes, so I was like, "Duuuude, you, me, breakfast. SOON." And he was like, "Hell yes!" *loves*)
I heart Devdas. Even if it is 37 hours long. Also, if you haven't seen it already, Veer-Zaara is awesome. But Bollywood. People who don't like Bollywood obviously have Issues, because all that melodrama and sparkle and colour and singing and HOW COULD YOU NOT DIG THAT?
Hahaha, whichever way, androgyny is fun. And yes, I have a lot of guys' clothes (probably because I have two brothers, and so I get hand-me-downs as well as mixed-up-after-being-washed shirts a lot, haha). I loathe parties with "dress codes" though. I'm going to one this weekend which is something like, "Girls can wear cocktail dresses, and guys in jeans and a shirt". So I think I might embrace genderbending for a night... (hahahaha, I don't even OWN a cocktail dress).
Australia is pretty useless as far as asylum seekers goes, and I think they feel they can afford to be because we share no borders with anyone. So refugees/immigrants have fewer options, and the government has a little more control over things. But I hate that asylum seekers are used as scapegoats, or implied to be a 'threat' or some shit. Politicians, of course, are so careful not to *say* it, but they play on the media and public fear so much, because they KNOW it will get them more votes from certain areas. Seriously, it's ridiculous. And I HATE that it works. It's sickening that people are so stupid, it really is.
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Hehe that's EXACTLY my stand on babies! I LOVE them, but I can never have any of my own, cuz then I wouldn't be able to had them back!
AWZ (as distilled by EKP)
"Distilled" is like the BEST description of EKP I've ever heard!
I work with lots of psychologists, so it’s pretty much diagnosed, but the good news is, I’m mostly saner than them.)
You're totally reminding me of my Psychiatry prof. You know that saying "every psychiatrist needs a psychiatrist"?? I think they made that about her.
Also *squishcuddlehugsneverletsgo*
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And Lol, psychiatrists! Is it a rule the world over that they be absolutely mental? You are making me think, yes!
And *grins madly* for Kelly icons. That girl is storming IJ!
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