#tadrambles

[fioreofthemarch]

i was a student politics hack for one month; this is what i learned

if you follow me and actually read my rambling, directionless text posts, you may remember my somewhat melodramatic post called ‘resilience’. Well because I may as well, here’s the full story behind that post, the all-consuming thing I tried to achieve over the span of about four weeks, and the incredible transformative failure it became.

Still with me?

For the past month, I’ve been for lack of a better term, a StuPol hack. For context, I go to an Australian uni with a student union, run by elected representatives from the student body. Student unions are active to various degrees across Australia, but my university’s is by far one of the largest. Despite this, less than 10% of students on campus vote in the annual student elections and student politics is generally looked down upon as pointless or as a method of resume padding. 

The main reason for this is the campaigning that comes with the elections. Each year, when election week rolls around, campaigners flood the campus centre, approaching any and all students to try and ‘win’ their vote. This is because voting is non-compulsory, and so campaigners have to literally fight for every vote. The student body collectively fucking hates this. They hate being approached, they hate having their political beliefs questioned over lunch, they hate dealing with the awkwardly cheery cunts in party colour t-shirts begging them for a vote. They hate campaigners. I hated campaigners. But I became one of them.

Why? Because I wanted to edit the university magazine (let’s call it UniMag).

Hang on, what? I asked the same question, believe me. After applying for the position of Editor of UniMag, I quickly discovered that to get the job, I would have to win it. One would think that student media would need an inherent separation from party politics, even student politics. And while in past years the magazine has been ‘non-partisan’, in that an independent group has been elected unopposed into the Editorship, this is no longer the case. UniMag is now either edited by a group from the major left-wing party, the major radical left party, or the labour right party (since being a university, leftwing politics still dominates). This creates problems that I won’t bother elaborating on, but I will say that those problems aren’t political. Students are usually left-wing, so a politically driven magazine doesn’t create an issue of bias so much as a narrowing of content and scope. 

Putting my social awkwardness and distaste for ~the system~ aside, I decided to throw myself into my situation. I would be an Editor, no matter what it fucking took. And I went through the motions; I joined a party, I went to meetings and donated money. My fellow Editors-to-be and I memorised policy and learned to campaign. I messaged no less than 60 friends asking them to vote for me, and spent one full week outside in the September cold during campaigning. 

Campaigning itself was brutal. Many people either ignored me or told me to fuck off. Often times when I thought I’d ‘won’ a vote, a rival campaigner would steal it back. The worst incident, however, was one in which I had quite a candid conversation with a prospective voter about the lack of mental health services for students, as well as my personal struggles with depression...only to discover the ‘voter’ was actually the head of the rival party. I had been ‘stooged’ – a tactic in which campaigners pose as normal students to waste rival campaigners’ time. What hurt most wasn’t that I’d been fooled. What hurt was that I thought I had connected with that student; for five minutes, I thought they saw me as a human fucking being. And it was all a ruse, a cruel one at that, in the hopes that I would lose maybe one or two votes. 

But the week ended, and I sat by my phone waiting for the news. A fellow Editor-to-be rang me, and all she said was, “It’s a no-go, Rach”. I found out later that we lost by over 1000 votes. The rival party had adopted a winning tactic of gaining the support of some major societies on campus; powerhouses of influence over the student body like the Engineering, Law, Biomed and Science clubs. It had never been a contest; we were always going to lose. At first, I was surprisingly tranquil. The elections had always been out of my hands, so I felt no remorse. That didn’t stop me from bawling my fucking eyes out over the next few days, but at least I had no regrets. I thanked friends for their support, had a laugh at just how badly we lost, and wished the new Editors good luck. Those assholes are going to need it – I certainly won’t be there to help them along.

That’s right – I will not be writing for UniMag in any way next year. Perhaps it’s spiteful to not even write for the magazine I so desperately wanted to edit, but I won’t be there simply because I can’t be there. The day after we lost, I had an idea. I asked my now failed Editors-to-be; What if we just start our own magazine with blackjack and hookers? There was nothing stopping us; we could acquire the resources we’d need by forming a Society, which would receive funding from the university. What followed was a week of frenzied planning and soon our idea became a proposal. Adversity Magazine was born, and our application to become a society is underway. And since I personally know the President of the Societies Branch (yeah nepotism!), we have a good shot at getting approved. 

That’s not the best part; with the help of one of the 2017 Editors of UniMag, a pilot edition of Adversity Magazine is going to print in about two weeks. 1000 copies are going to be printed and distributed as part of official Student Union activities. So while myself and the other failed Editors-to-be won’t be working for UniMag – 2200 people voted against us on that front – we will still be here.  Adversity Magazine is envisioned to be supported by a Publisher’s Society, giving students the opportunity to contribute to the university’s first truly independent magazine on campus.

The name of our magazine was inspired by an iconic pre-amble given by Cannonball Adderly before a performance with his jazz quartet in 1966. Sometimes we’re not prepared for adversity, Adderly says. Sometimes we have to ask for mercy. But Adversity Magazine was our team of failed Editors doing the opposite. Its creation was the act of staring adversity in the face, and turning it into resilience.

I don’t believe we could have done this without the baptism by fire that was getting involved in Student Politics. The drive and certain amount of factional hate that we needed to reject ~the system~ was drilled into us by that brutal week of campaigning. I was never in this to pad my resume, or to launch my political career (ew lol); I just wanted to edit a magazine. And thanks to student politics, I will. 

[tadcooperretirementfunds]

I love when Spotify does the thing where it plays a whole bunch of similar songs that all go well together and they just match up real well and yes.

[tadsaur]

Well, I finally updated my iPad. I was considering going and downloading the DeviantArt app so I could get back to actually using DA again.... But the reviews on the app were so bad that it hardly seemed worth it. Not sure if I should even bother trying.

[taddraw]

I should probably post doodles from my sketchbook, since that's pretty much ALL of the drawing I've been doing lately. For some reason I keep finding excuses not to though. It's like I don't want to but I have no real reason??? It doesn't really make any sense because excluding the few ugly doodles that make it on to EVERY page(dammit), I think I like a lot of my doodles more than the finished pieces I do post.

[fioreofthemarch]

resilience

so I just lost something very important to me. Something that I put time, effort and soul into. it was so important to me that the rest of my life was on hold while I waited for it.

but I feel like I’m on the edge of a cliff, and I have a choice. I can take a step, and fall. Or I can leap forward, and fly. I can feel eyes watching me -- I’ve got a hundred of hands at my back, pushing me closer to the edge of the cliff, telling me, you gotta make this choice, you gotta make this fucking choice. 

I know for a while I’ll probably fall -- feel like shit and want to pity myself -- but there’s a chance I’ll fly, and look back at that cliff knowing that it could not break me, and that I always made a choice that I was proud of. so I’ll take that chance. I’ll leap.

[fioreofthemarch]

mundane GOT S7E02 thoughts

This is a thing I do now. spoilers obviously. 

- Transitions in this episode were smooth AF with fantastic visual comedy. That stab/pie transition 👌👌👌 - Jamie Lannister’s face this whole season so far has been a gift. The look of a man constantly alternating between ‘fuck this’ and ‘fuck you’ with the occasional 'fuck me’ thrown in. - Can we all agree dany looks fucking fly this season goddamn. PERFECT BANGS/10 - I am STILL really enjoying the slowish paced, character focused dialogue. Vary’s scene was ace, the discussion between Davos, Jon and Sansa felt natural and urgent and even Dany’s speech-y moments came across as more genuine than previous seasons. It feels like we are finally seeing Dany the Person rather than Dany the Queen. - That Missandei/Greyworm scene clearly didn’t go through a brevity edit. - Also who designs a WINTER DRESS such that it just pops open when you untie one string. The wind could blow open that dress smdh - Euron’s entrance was some WWE level shit and I fucking loved it. - Mmmmmmm get a load of that hot SQUID ON SQUID ACTION - people shittin on theon but idk man if i was staring down my psychotic uncle while my entire fleet burned around me and the people i called my kin were drowning in their own blood, id be 10 miles in the other direction before you could say 'cockless’, and I’m not even a good swimmer

[fioreofthemarch]

AO3 comments are my lifeblood now i dont need food just hook that shit into my veins

[fioreofthemarch]

so Kass was told second-hand by his mentor that some kid is the Hero of Hyrule and will some day return to defeat Ganon, but that he’ll have lost his memories and will need someone to help fill him in. 

And not only does Kass believe this, he makes it his life’s work to learn the needed songs, and proceeds to hang out in the weirdest possible places on the off chance that Link even wakes up in his life time, let alone finds him and solves the riddles -- and only THEN does he tell Link who he really is. 

Kass believes so hard in Link and in his teacher’s story that he leaves his home and his family in the hopes of passing down one song. Kass is best birb but also craziest birb

[fioreofthemarch]

my only wish for future TLOZ games is the radical one where Link has living parents

[fioreofthemarch]

The Sims 2 soundtrack will never get old I will be a desiccated husk in a nursing home listening to Sim Time Sim Place and it will still be poppin

[fioreofthemarch]

mundane GOT s7e1 thoughts

below the cut because im not a cunt, slide into my dms if you want to chat about it

Yes of course, the cold open was a fucking great scene no need to talk about that

Genuinely shocked at how slow and steady this episode felt. We spend fucking ages with the Hound to learn a) Whitewalkers comin yo b) the Hound is still a b0ss but now he’s a little more considerate and also a flame reading savant? -- I loved it, seriously. So much going on this season but we still get to take time to learn about the hearts and minds of the characters

Again with the stillness -- that entire end sequence with Dany at Dragonstone. Really hammered home the reverence of this place, the weight of this moment, but also how lonely she is as the last Targ. This is her ancestral home and its just....empty. 

Seen some people complaining about the Jon/Sansa fight? I think they both had points to make, but neither of them were ‘right’ and I really liked that. Felt like a real conversation

‘Tommen betrayed us’ wew cersei cmon jesus fucking christ he killed himself wow cersei jesus

Cersei: you’re not annoyed i blew up part of the city?  Jamie: I’m not angry im not even mad that’s amazing

I liked Euron’s washed up look. He’s a kraken yo he’s literally w a s h e d u p sorry

Ed Sheeran can fuck right off (but seriously I found his voice too ‘modern’ sounding)

[fioreofthemarch]

FTGU 12 part two is probably 24-48 hours away. I am so so so sorry for the delay. Life has gotten the fuck in the way, as has post exam binge drinking. Soon!!

[fioreofthemarch]

visiting my dad today and he apparently has a gift to remedy something i was 'upset about several years ago' i have no memory of this and hence it is doing me a serious concern guys

[fioreofthemarch]

trying to edit a technical report but being in a creative writing mindset

me: guys i think our report really lacks voice, how is the reader meant to get invested in the story my group: rachael this is a report about environmental waste management what the fuck are you talking about

[fioreofthemarch]

i’ve just discovered the Westerworld OST on spotify and I am obsessed. someone come talk to me about how fucking fantastic it is please

[fioreofthemarch]

Alrighty here we gooooo (original post) I appreciate that 3 and 4 share common factors by the way but I digress...

3. list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.

TLOZ: BOTW Zelda (wew original, but I feel like she’s very relatable anyway)

Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice

GOT: Sansa Stark

Dragon Age: Iron fucking Bull

4. do you like your name?  is there another name you think would fit you better?

I suppose so. I don’t think I would chose another name. Learning to just be me took me a while so I don’t want to change any time soon

6. Are you religious/spiritual?

No, not at all. But I believe in people and their capacity to do cool stuff and be nice so

8. What musical artists have you felt most connected to over your lifetime?

I couldn’t pick one, but a lot of bands feel very rooted in a specific ‘point’ in my life for me. Like Muse during my eDgY pUnK phase at 14 or Lorde when I left home to go to uni

9. are you an artist?

I write, so I guess so. 

12. dog person or cat person?

my blog is literally named after my cat so

15. five most influential books over your lifetime

(here’s where I reveal that I’m a poorly read normie): 1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 2. The Dark Tower by Stephen King 3. Alex Through the Looking-Glass by Alex Bellos 4. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and 5. Retromancer by Robert Rankin

16. if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?

fuck no, absolutely not. i don’t really believe in an innate ‘self’. we are our memories and our experiences and maybe a bit of genetic pre-disposition and that’s it

18. what’s your patronus?

a vague disappointment in the Harry Potter series as a whole (but probably also a cat)

20. would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?

You know where I wouldn’t want to be; Thedas. That place is fucked. Like fucked. 

21. do you love easily?

i think a lot of people are cool and attractive does that count?

24. have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

I’ve yet to meet someone who shares my utter disgust for strawberry ice-cream so no

27. do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

I look like a small hipster gremlin child with ambiguous ethnicity so yes. 

28. on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin?

i am a very closed off person to be honest, and i spend a lot of time in my head. but i’ve met people who just sort of ‘saw’ me and got who i was right away. so I’d say like 7 or 8, but once in a while I meet someone who I feel like has been under my skin the whole time (wew that got a bit pretentious sorry)

30. pick one of your favorite quotes.

“but what if climate change is a hoax and we make a better world for nothing?”