#when there’s a fucking housing crisis in Dublin

[stuckydrewx]

( @amarriageoftrueminds tags) this is too fucking true

steve rogers: pr disaster | gen | 4k

(someone asked about the full version of this, so here u go)

“Wait,” says Sam, “you had a publicist?”

“For my first five months at S.H.I.E.L.D,” says Steve. “Then she quit. Uh, decisively.”

“Well yeah, she had to keep you in line,” Bucky says with a half-smirk. “How many times did you make that poor lady want to sock you in the face?”

“Lost count,” Steve admits. “I did offer to let her, once. Seemed fair.”

Sam laughs. “I feel like you’re sitting on a story here.”

“There’s no story,” Steve tells him. Sam raises his eyebrows. Bucky’s half-smirk tilts towards a full smirk. “Seriously,” Steve repeats, “no story.”

Interlude: The Story of Steve “Walking PR Nightmare” Rogers, and How For a Short While He Single-Handedly Destroyed the Emotional Health of Eva Laura Ortiz, His Now Ex-Publicist

Keep reading

[phantom-of-the-memes]

Trinity College Dublin are union busters who support Israel

Just to recap from my last post because MORE shite has gone down.

It’s exam week and while everyone was busy studying the other day, the Provost of the University sent an email to the ENTIRE student body, basically trying to turn us against the student union. Here are some highlights:

This was in response to lobbying by the student union not to increase student fees, namely masters fees. And to instead increase the cost of tickets to the book of Kells only by a few euro. This would solve the university’s “money problems”. Which let’s face it, they don’t have. I mean where is the money from tourism going that they’d need more?

The union had put out the ultimatum in the email, saying that if their demands weren’t considered, they would increase their protests. Throughout this year the union has organised protests that block entrance to the book of Kells, once of the main things tourists come to see. These were to protest the student housing crisis, the masters fee increases, and the university’s ties to Israeli institutions and refusal to make a statement condemning or even acknowledging the genocide. Here’s a link to the student unions post on the most recent protest.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Trinity College Dublin Students' Union 🌈🇵🇸 (@tcdsu)

The student union then replied to the email (and therefore the whole student body) restating their demands and the fact that they were going to proceed with the protest. They also included a video of the provost saying she wouldn’t increase fees.

Then, the next day this story breaks on our universities news (sorry link wouldn’t work but it’s from Instagram @ trinitynews):

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?? They are also calling in prominent members of the union who participated in the protests for disciplinary meetings. I mean this is how you completely alienate your student body. Outrage obviously ensued. They defended their decision by saying they had to “protect the book of Kells”, as if the union wasn’t just silently protesting outside. People made some funny comments about that:

Due to pressure the Provost then made a bullshit ass statement on Palestine:

So in conclusion, trinity is a fucking shit show. We are so tired of tourists being prioritised over us. They have brand new incredible facilities, meanwhile the student sections of campus are run down, broken, and completely inaccessible. It’s just a normal thing for lecture equipment to not work on the daily. And yet the tourists are getting new stuff built for them!

The biggest joke of all is that tcd is supposedly the top university in Ireland, and yet anyone I speak to from other universities have better facilities than us. Which is kind of funny since they don’t get tourism, just government funding. So how are we lacking when we have money from government and tourism?

I’m not telling anyone what to do here. I just want people to be aware what they are funding by either attending or giving tourism to the university. If it makes you change your mind about this, tell them! Specifically state why!

[inact-ice]

Episode 10!!!!!

I’m almost doooooone

- aw Abby

- she’s leaving soon right, noooo

- bucks holding Abby so gently like my queen deserves

- Abby girl you better be taking a leave of absence rn to heal

- yeah I figured cause the British accent was so fake sounding

- ok bobby and Athena hintsss

- ABBY WAS IN THE OLYMPICS?!! AND NOBODY TOLD MEEEE. Ugh Abigail Clark you can do no wrong

- Bobbert, who are you getting all cute for sir??? Oh dear. Someone take this camera away from him. Chimney he’s watching porn at WORK!

- hen don’t project your cheating nonsense onto this please

- OMG THE CATFISH EPISODE! Oh yeah everyone just thought he was cheating, omg these buncha HATERS! Nobody would ever cheat on Abby bc she is perfect

- did black people write this? Why would May get twists when her hairs silk pressed? Anyways

- hello mean gay husband, your eyes are such a light brown wow.

- why are these people so chill about cheating. Hen you don’t need to have an existential crisis, just apologize and admit you did something bad

- ABBY! How are you doing girl? Oh she’s gonna travel lots to kinda fulfill her mom’s dream too? SHES BACK TO WORK- Abigail is that healthy?

- this is such a terrifying situation fr like he coulda gotten dissected! This guys’ a freak… but he’s kinda cute

- hi Karen, I’m tired of this too girl. “I love you biiiiitch, I ain’t never gon stop loving you biiitch” ass confrontation

- ABBY! Omg these main character situations are stressing my girl OUT, poor girl. Oh and these women need to stop hurting buck, like I get why but Jesus

- oh fuckkk, being ripped in half is crazy. Oh shitttttt, yeah this is a tough one. The way Bobby’s crawling is so much, he like collapsed in on himself

- ok Athena and bobby moment! OK ATHENA AND BOBBY MOMENT???

- Ayo rebar, bucks so mad wow valid. Chimney is being kind of a jerk, why’s everyone in this house so cool w/ cheating????

- does buck not know what an ip address is

- BOBBY TOOK ATHENA TO CHURCH FOR THE FIRSY DATE??? LITERALLY AND NOT EUPHAMISTICALLY?? Is he well? Not Athena being into this shit puh LEASE

- buck close your damn mouth there are MAGGOTS in the windows. Is buck gonna fight this coroner? Oh ok. Gross. Yeah fuck you coroner guy

- chimney I understand you on a spiritual level

- Abby I understand if this was all too much and you need to break up with buck bc you’d be so valid. Aw man. WAIT SHES LEAVING YES DUBLIN

- I’m realizing that the amount I like Abby might be making me dislike buck a little bit lmao, like that’s MY girlfriend sir

- Abby I will mourn your time on this show

- you know abby gets credit for buck 2.0 or whatever, but buck helped Abby change for the better in a lot of ways too. I don’t think she would have learned to prioritizeherself like this without him

- BOBBY AND ATHENA DATE YIPPEE

- Abby please don’t narrate us out worth Florence and the machine playing rn

- Karen… well I know this doesn’t affect anything again ever so whatever

- so glad chimneys gonna get railed

- ABBY DONT GO, TAKE ME WITH YOU!! WHERES THE ABBY TRAVELLING CRIMFIGHTING SUPERHERO SPIN-OFF! NO GOD WHY DONT TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME WHYYY TAKE BUCK INSTEAD

- can’t even be happy about the bobby and Athena date because I’m crying so hard.

- that was a lie, Athena you look HOT! Bobby, wear tighter pants

- ABBY NOOO, DONT PLAY THE LINE GOING OFF NOOOO and we won’t see her ever again, this city can’t survive without Batman

This episode was fine, but they should’ve focused more on Abby, I think they were trying to do a gentle perspective switch to be more in Bucks pov to really prepare us for her leaving, but i needed to see more of my queen to prepare for her leaving. She didn’t even say bye to Athena! Ig it was a fine conclusion for the first season tho, I’ll collect all my thoughts on this season later after I finish mourning

[archiefm]

         ... claws my way up from hell once more and vomits onto the dash.... hello. its nora. i used to write rory bergstrom, but if u were here before that u might remember me as greta or alma putnam or..... som1 else.... an endless carousel of trash children..... this is finn, who i actually wrote for an early version of this rp abt 5yrs back now...... grits teeth..... so forgive me if im rusty i havent written him in a long time but seein honey boy gave me a lotta finn muse n im keen to get Back On The Horse yeehaww...

DYLAN O’BRIEN / CIS-MALE — don’t look now, but is that finn o’callaghan i see? the 25 year old criminology and forensic studies student is in their graduate year of study year and he is a rochester alum. i hear they can be judicious, adroit, morose and cynical, so maybe keep that in mind. i bet he will make a name for themselves living off-campus. ( nora. 24. gmt. she/her )

shakes my tin can a humble pinterest, ma’am....

finn has a bio pasted at the bottom (n written in like.... 2015.... gross) but it’s long  so if u don’t wanna read it here’s the sparknotes summary..... anyway this was written years ago n a lot of it seems really cliche and lame now but..... we accept the trash we think we deserve

grumpy, ugly sweater wearing, tech-savvy grandpa

very dry sense of humour and embraces nihilism. 

if ron swanson and april ludgate had a baby it would be finn

he was raised in derry, just south of dublin.

from a big family. elder sister called sinead. he also has a younger sister (aoife), a younger brother (colm), and a collie named lassie because his father lovs cliches (finn hates cliches but loves his dog). 

his father was a pub landlord and his mother worked at the market sellin fruit n veg when they met but got a job as a medical receptionist when she had kids cos it meant she cld be there with them in the day and work nights.

his parents met when they were p young and fiesty and rushed into marriage cos they were catholic n just wanted to have sex. his family were literally dirt-poor, but they had a lot of love i guess

hmmmmm his relationship w his father wasn’t the best cos i can’t write character who have healthy relationships w their parents throws up a peace sign. yh, had a pretty emotionally distant, alcoholic violent father n so gets a lot of his bad habits i.e. drinking as a coping mechanism and poor anger management from him BUT anyway

as a kid he was never very motivated in class, he always had a nervous itch to be off somewhere doing something else. struggled under government austerity bcso there just wasn’t the resources to support low income families where the kids had learning difficulties n needed support. fuck the tories am i right 

his mum suggested he try sports to help w his restless energy but he was never any good at football so he took up boxing and tap dance instead. he took to tap dancing like a fish to fuckin water. as adhd n found this as a really good way to use his excess energy in a creative way

had a few run ins with the police in his early teens for spray painting and graffiti, but he straightened himself out n now actually considering becoming a detective inspector??? cops are pigs.

he had a youtube channel where he posted videos of him tapdancing and breakdancing as a kid, basically would be a tiktok boy nowadays, n had like... a small fanbase in his early teens. attended several open auditions unsuccessfully, until he was finally cast in billy eliot when he was fifteen.

during billy eliot he began dating an italian dancer called nina. they became dance partners soon after and toured across the republic with various different shows (inc riverdance lol the classic irish stereotype). their relationship was p toxic tbh, they were both very hot tempered people and just used to argue and fight all the time.

he went semi-pro at tap dancing, and nina couldn’t stand being second best so she moved back to italy with her family. ignored his texts, phone calls, etc, eventually he was driven to the point where he used his savings to buy a plane ticket, showed up at her house and she was like wtf?? freaked out and filed a restraining order accusing him of stalking.

he was fined for harassment and then returned home to derry, but after the incident with nina he quit dancing for good and finished his leaving cert before heading to university in the US to get as far away from nina and his past life as poss. and basically since he quit dancing to study forensics (death kink. finn cant get enough of that morgue. just walks around sayin beat u) he’s become a massive grump and jsut doesn’t see the good in people any more.

u’ll find finn in an old man bar drinking whiskey bc he is in fact an old man at heart or sat on his roof smoking a joint, drawing wolves and lions and skeletons and shit, playing call of duty or getting blazed or at the corner of the room in a house party ignoring everyone and scrolling through twitter. is a massive e-boy. always up-to-date on memes and internet slang. has reddit as an app on his phone

not very good at communication. rather than solve his issues by talking, he’d prefer to just solve them through fighting or running away from his problems hence why he has come halfway across the world to get away from an issue which probs cld have been solved w a few apology emails.

takes a lot to phase him, but when his beserk button gets pressed he can become a bit pugnacious like an angry lil rottweiler. in his undergrad he was in a few fist fights but doesn’t really do tht any more as he doesn’t condone violence.

 in the previous version of this rp he was hospitalised like 5 times. pls, give my son a break. stop tryin to kill him. he literaly got a bottle smashed over his head and bled out all over his favourite angora rug that was the only light of his life

works at the campus coffee shop n always whines about how he’s a slave to capitalism. always smells of coffee

lives off campus with an elderly woman named Marianne, and basically gets reduced rent bcos he makes her dinner / keeps her company. they have a great bond

fan of karl marx. v big on socialism

insomniac with chronic nosebleeds

cynical about everything. too much of a fight club character 4 his own good n has his head up tyler durden’s sphincter

always confused or annoyed

statistics

basic information

full name: finnegan seamus o'callaghan nickname(s): finn age: 25 astrological sign: aries hometown: derry, ireland occupation: phd student / former street entertainer fatal flaw: cynicism positives: self-reliant, street smart, relaxed, intelligent, spontaneous, brave, independent, reliable, trustworthy, loyal. negatives: hostile, impulsive, stubborn, brooding, pugnacious, untrusting, cynical, enigmatic, reserved.

physical

colouring: medium hair colour: dark brown, almost black eye colour: brown height: 5’9” weight: 69kg build: tall, athletic voice: subtle irish accent, low, smooth. dominant hand: left scar(s): one on the left side of his ribs from a knife wound that he doesn’t remember getting cos he was drunk distinguishing marks: freckles, tattoo of a wolf howling at a moon allergies: pollen and the full spectrum of human emotion alcohol tolerance: high drunken behaviour: he becomes friendlier, far more conversational than when sober, flirtier, and generally more self-confident.

psychological

dreams/goals: self-fulfilment, travel the globe, experience life in its most alive and technicoloured version, make documentary films, help the vulnerable in society, grow as a human being.

skills: jack-of-all-trades, very fast runner, good at thieving things, talented tap dancer, good in crisis situations, dab-hand at mechanics, musically-intelligent, can throw a mean right hook and very capable of defending himself, can roll a cigarette, memorises quotes and passages of literature with ease, can light a match with his teeth.

likes: the smell of the earth after rain, poetry, cigarettes, shakespeare, whiskey, tattoos, travelling, ac/dc, deep conversations, leather jackets, open spaces, the smell of petrol, early noughties ‘emo phase’ anthems.

dislikes:  the government, parties, rules, donald trump, children, apple products, weddings, people in general, small talk, dependency, loneliness, pop music, public transport, justin timberlake, uncertainty.fears: fear itself, drowning alignment: true neutral mbti: istp – “while their mechanical tendencies can make them appear simple at a glance, istps are actually quite enigmatic. friendly but very private, calm but suddenly spontaneous, extremely curious but unable to stay focused on formal studies, istp personalities can be a challenge to predict, even by their friends and loved ones. istps can seem very loyal and steady for a while, but they tend to build up a store of impulsive energy that explodes without warning, taking their interests in bold new directions.” (via 16personalities.com)

full bio (lame as fuck written years ago..... pleathe...)

tw homophobia

born in quigley’s pub on the backstreets of sunny dublin, young finnegan o'callaghan was thrown kicking and screaming into the rowdy suburbs of irish drinking culture. the son of a landlord and a fishwife, he never had much in the way of earnings, but there was never a dull moment in his lively estate, where asbo’s thrived, but community spirit conquered. at school, finn was pegged as lazy and unmotivated, though truly his dyslexia made it hard for the boy to learn in the same environment of his peers and only made him more closed-off in class. struggling with anger management, finn moved from school to school, unable to fit the cookie-cutter mould that school enforced on him, though whilst academic studies were of little interest to the boy, he soon found his true passions lay in recreational activities. immersed into the joys of sport from as young as four, finn was an ardent munster fan and anticipated nothing more than the day he could finally fit into his brother’s old pair of rugby boots.

his calling finally came unexpectedly, not in the form of rugger, but through dance. to learn to express himself in a non-academic way, he began tap dancing, finding therapy in the beat of his soles against the cracked kitchen tiles (much to his mother’s disgrace). it wasn’t a conscious choice, finn just realised one day that dance was something that made him feel. a king of the streets, finn made his fortune on those cobbled pavements – dancing and drawing to earn his keep. by default, finn became a street artist, each penny he earned from his chalk drawings saved in a jam jar towards buying his first pair of tap shoes. though many of his less-than-amiable neighbours called him a nancy and a gaybo, finn refused to quit at his somewhat ‘unconventional’ hobby, for the young scrapper found energy, life, and released anger through the rhythm of tap. soon he branched out into street dance, hip hop, break dancing, lyrical, his days spent smacking his scuffed feet against the broken patio into the night.

when he was thirteen he took up boxing, and as expected, his newfound ‘macho’ pastime conflicted with his dancing. the boxers called him ‘soft’; the dancers called him ‘inelegant’. he felt like two different people; having to choose between interests was like being handed a knife and asked to which half of himself he wished to cut away. he couldn’t afford professional training in dance, with most schools based in england and limited scholarships available. instead, he made the street his studio, racking up a small fanbase on youtube. when he was fifteen he made his debut in billy eliot at the olympia theatre in dublin. enter nina de souza, talented, beautiful and italian; ballet dancer, operatic singer, genius whiz kid, and spoiled brat. she was selfish, conceited, hell bent on getting her own way, and every director’s nightmare. finn fell for her like a house of cards. he’d always had a soft spot for girls who meant trouble. and so their hellish courtship began.

by the time they were seventeen, the two young swans had danced in every playhouse across the republic. they were known in theatres across the country for their tempestuous personalities, their raging arguments with one another, their tendency to drop out of shows altogether without any notice, yet the money kept rolling in and the audiences continued to grow. for three years, their families continued to put up with their hysterical fights followed by passionate reconciliations. he was too possessive, and she was too wild. their carcrash of a relationship finally came to a catastrophic halt when nina broke off the whole affair and returned to italy with her family. for months finn tried to contact her, yet his phone calls, texts, facebook messages were always ignored, until finally he was driven to drastic measures and used his savings to get a plane to her home town. when finn turned up uninvited at nina’s house she freaked out – and rightly so – she contacted her agent, accused him of stalking her, and had a restraining order placed against him. finn was arrested, held in a station overnight, and charged with harassment before he was allowed to return to dublin.

after the incident with nina, finn lost the fight in his eyes. he became far more hostile, far less likely to retaliate with his own fists, and picked fights not for the thrill of feeling his own fists pummel another into a wall, but for the sensation of his own brittle bones cracking. he dropped his tap shoes in a dumpster, stopped talking to his friends, followed his father’s advice and went back to school to complete his leaving certificate. a few short months later, and finn was packing his bags, saying his bittersweet goodbyes, and travelling half-way across the globe to be as far away as possible from his past self, his mess of a life, and most of all nina. it seemed somehow ironic that the boy who had been cautioned by the garda so much during his youth for spray painting, busking without a liscence, and raucous parties would become the grumpy, aloof overseas student studying a degree in criminology; that his once reckless spirit could be crushed so easily. 

of all things that finn could be called, straightforward would never be one of them. ever since his first days in atticus, the boy was pegged as hostile, hot-headed, cynical, rude. he seemed to spend more time in his thoughts than engaging in conversation. like a ticking time-bomb, finn’s anger was of the calm kind, liable to explode without a moment’s noticed. his unpredictable personality make him something of an enigma to those who aren’t amiable with the lad, though hostile as he may appear, he harvests a good heart. loyalty lies at the centre of his affections, and whilst his friends are few in number, he makes a lifelong partner. somewhere within finn, there’s still some fight left, but mostly he has recognised that his hedonistic lifestyle did little to leave him fulfilled – mostly, it just emptied him out – and over his three years at university has resigned himself to a nihilistic predicament.

        if u wanna plot with me pls pls pls im me or like this post!! i am always game for plots i love em so excited to write with you all here r some ideas

study buddies. finn is now a phd student so has to start takin shit seriously. he gon be in the library every day doing that independent study. if he had ppl who were also regular library goers n they get each other coffees to save time.... tht wld be sweet

ppl who love techno dj sets and going super hard on the weekends!!! fuck yea

friends with benefits. exes on bad terms. ppl he tried to date but couldnt because he’s always emotionally hung up on someone else. spicy hook up plots

ppl he met touring?? maybe ppl who were also in the entertainment industry..... anyone got a character who is ex circus hit me up

does anyone else study criminology / forensics / criminal psych / law? phd students sometimes lecture so he cld be an assistant lecturer / tutor if ur character is in a younger year

gamers !!! social recluses !!! hermits !!

finn goes to the skatepark and all the young boys there think he’s a gradnpa which he is! 

[mercureality]

I genuinely feel like a Victorian wretch rn.

Terrible living conditions and unsustainable working conditions and no financial mobility to combat either problem as my health suffers.

I’ve had to come home in the middle of the work day because I have an enormous swollen tonsil that’s impacting my airway. I’ve been sick for like 10 days at this point (not covid, thoroughly and regularly tested) and it all started with a leak in the ceiling of my bedroom which was seeing pints worth of water pouring in over just a couple hours with the heavy rain we’ve been getting.

The leak has progressed to extensive black mould and our shit landlord has just been exchanging the liability back and forth with the building management company when it’s all to do with the guy above us who owns his apartment putting in plastic decking with no drainage that’s not up to regulation. This has been going on for a month with no resolution. There was a period where the building management company were like “we don’t know who lives there, they didn’t send in their details when they took ownership so we can’t possibly contact them.” Our neighbours next door are like “he lives there and bought the apartment in cash” which who knows what the fuck is going on there. I’m sleeping on the sofa and all my things are damp and I got this sick sleeping in a damp bed in the hazard zone.

I have nowhere else to stay. My uncle is getting chemo and staying in my family home at the moment and on top of that my mum is immunocompromised so there’s no way I’m going near either of them when I’m sick.

There’s also a severe housing crisis ongoing in Dublin at the moment, so moving out is not a great option. I’m paying more than is ideal living where I am now but honestly I would probably end up paying much more very easily and I just can’t do that.

Meanwhile, since the pandemic I’ve had to use my own laptop for work. We have really heavy design and editing work and my own laptop died at Christmas. I’ve been trying to save ever since and keep having to skim my savings to keep my head above water. I had a laptop I was using on loan that’s now been burnt out and work had been like “oh we’ll cover any repairs no problem that’s clearly because of the issues you’ve been flagging since the pandemic began.” But now the laptop isn’t repairable and they’ve done a U-turn and while I’ve put in an extremely reasonable quote for a refurbished replacement of the model in question they’re like “if we were to compensate for this we would own that laptop but also we might not do that at all and you will have to cover it yourself.” After literal years of signposting this issue. So I have to replace the laptop on loan as well as somehow affording my own laptop that’s up to scratch.

I’m going to be left with zero savings heading into the winter of the energy and cost of living crisis and I’m freaking out that I won’t have my meagre life raft. I don’t even like my job but I’ve literally been looking for something else every day for over a year and it’s like my life is at a dead end.

genuinely what is the point

I’m just sitting in my grim apartment alone completely out of options feeling woeful physically and mentally.

[solo1y]

About Me

Literally none of you have been asking, so to add to the usual About Me, here’s some personal information you can ignore at your earliest convenience.

I live with my father in Ireland in a nice house in a nice town. I spend most of my time on my own and I am 100% fine with that. I’m a writer and I am definitely not making a living from it. I’m high-energy but low-maintenance. 

Things I am good at:

Writing.

Being intensely interested in everything and everyone.

Explaining exactly what I think (or feel) and why.

Keeping secrets and promises.

Cynical sarcasm.

Being chill.  

Giving gifts.

Finding the good in bad situations (and people).

Dealing with criticism.

Humour.

Remaining unflapped during a crisis.

Analysing, questioning assumptions, context, etc.

Things I am bad at:

Almost anything considered “normal behaviour”.

Social activity.

Maintaining friendships.

Taking instructions.

Getting annoyed.

Leaving the house.

Accepting praise of any kind.

Giving up.

Reading the room.

Faking emotions.

Anything “romantic”.

Hiding my feelings.

Accepting gifts.

Swallowing pills.

Taking anything seriously.

Things that have never happened:

I have never learned to swim.

I have never had any cigarettes or alcohol.

I have never gone fishing.

I have never been married in a church.

I have never hated anyone.

I have never seen Titanic or The Lion King.

I have never broken a bone.

I have never demanded an apology.

I have never gone camping.

I have never used a dating app.

I have never been stung by a bee.

I have never had a one-night stand.

Things that happened exactly once: 

I ran a marathon (Long Beach, California, 2009).

I have a degree (Classical History, UCC, 1997).

I asked John Banville a question (Borris, 2014).

I ran the South Tipperary Film Club (Clonmel, 1999).

I went to a rodeo (Houston, Texas, 2001).

I protested against Nazis (Munich, 2018).

I went on a little boat to an offshore island (Ksamil, 2021).

I was on First Dates Ireland (RTÉ 2, 2023).

Things that happened exactly twice:

I was an article in the local newspaper (1999 and 2017).

I went to France (2001 and 2014).

I got married (2003 and 2014).

I went to a Robert Fisk talk (2002 and 2014).

I got a tattoo (2007 and 2022).

I got divorced (2008 and 2019).

I saw the Divine Comedy live (2013 and 2019).

I was on a panel at Kaizoku-Con (2015 and 2017)

I went to Kosovo (2020 and 2021).

Things that happened exactly three times:

I overstayed my welcome at the British Museum (1994, 1999 and 2001).

I was dragged to Las Vegas (2003, 2008 and 2010).

I saw Eddie Izzard live (1996 in Cork, 2000 in Dublin and 2008 in Los Angeles).

Things that happen(ed) too much:

I make very inappropriate / dark jokes and I never know when I’ve gone too far.

I lived in California for six years.

My diet was sugar for a long time, so now I have Type 2 Diabetes. My blood sugar is under control so I can live a normal life. Well, as normal as it was before my diagnosis.

I would argue that the phrase “too much” does not apply here, but I buy a lot of books. The collection is starting to take over other rooms and chunks of the hall. I can stop any time. 

I say “fuck” a lot.

I get migraines. When they hit, I can be out of commission for days.

What others think of me:

Some people think I’m a genius. Others think I’m an idiot.

Some people think I’m a “people pleaser”. Others think I’m misanthropic.

Some people think I’m too dark and cynical. Others think I’m too upbeat and optimistic.

Some people think I’m too secretive. Others think I’m too open.

Some people think I take things too seriously. Others think I'm too flippant.

Some people think I'm intransigent and stubborn. Others think I let people walk all over me.

Some people think I’m intense. Others think I’m too laid-back.

(Some of these are the same people.)

Now you know.

[thedesperatehousehusband]

Tis Lucky To Be Irish

2019 has really been wild thus far. Travel has been incessant. Work has been intense. So what do we do in that situation? We take a vacation. Which means more travel but I am always OK with personal travel. There’s a lot of world to see.

Three years ago, we celebrated Juan’s dad’s 70th birthday with a trip to Prague and Budapest. We had a ball. So we suggested we take another trip together. We told him to tell us where he wanted to visit. He decided on Ireland and Scotland. We’ve been to Edinburgh but that’s it so we were totally cool with the choice.

Today I’m going to focus on Ireland. I’ll get back at you with my thoughts on Scotland.

Here are some observations on the home of leprechauns.

1. Dublin is as everyone says. You can do it justice in a couple of days. We had fun for sure. There’s cool stuff but it’s not an amazing city.

2. Despite what is anecdotally said about the food being boring, we sought out kick ass places including Michelin starred restaurants. We don’t mess around with food.

3. To that end....we need to take a detox from chips. So. Many. Fried. Potatoes. Those tubers are a thing.

4. Pubs are a dime a dozen. You can’t even count them. There’s no way to know a cool one from a blah one. They all are very similar but we did our best to seek out neat ones.

5. To that end...the Irish drink. A lot. But beer is relatively low in alcohol and no one is doing craft beers with 11% alcohol. Whiskey is plentiful. We took the advice of bartenders on which ones to try. Despite all the whiskey, a good cocktail is hard to come by. Just do your whiskey neat, with water or with a cube or two of ice. You’ll be happier.

6. Driving is intense. I did not drive. Juan did all the driving. There are interstates which are easy. City driving is fine. It’s the fucking country roads that really take you out of your element. They are narrow as fuck. They are curvy as fuck. There are cow crossings. You know what I don’t want to encounter? A switchback turn where you are blind to the fact that a two-ton bovine is meandering across the road. Nope. They were some white-knuckled moments when you had to share the narrow ass lanes with a tractor. More than once, Juan said “As soon as we park, I need a drink.” But he did an amazing job. I, however, do not think driving on the left is for me.

7. There are not nearly as many red heads as I had hoped. It’s my one disappointment.

8. I was surprised by the prominence of the Church of Ireland (which was at one point the Church of England). I just assumed everyone was Catholic. That is not the case.

9. Galway is really fun. A cultural and arts hub so we were right at home.

10. Killarney is lovely. Super cute and bustling.

11. The Killarney National Park is wonderful. We walked to Torc Waterfall and various other points of interest. The lakes are so clear. They are not muddy and murky. The air is sooooooo clean. Juan’s dad said he hadn’t inhaled such fresh oxygen in years. Mexico City is polluted AF. There are more mountains in Ireland than I expected. We saw some birds but very few critters. Maybe there are no critters in Ireland.

12. Kilkenny is a delight. The Kilkenny Castle is amazing. That was for sure a highlight.

13. Kildare is a shithole. We just stopped there for a quick look on the way back to Dublin. Big mistake. That was the only little town that felt like American little towns. Boarded storefronts. The opioid crisis. Rattle trap houses.

14. We opted not to do the Ring of Kerry. We didn’t want to devote a day to it and the driving is allegedly intense especially with tour buses. Agnes, our rented Volvo, deserves better than being nicked by a tour bus full of American seniors.

15. It really is green. Gorgeously so. The views are spectacular. There’s a lot of fucking sheep and cows. Wool and butter are important.

16. We did not find a four-leaf clover.

17. We did not find a leprechaun.

18. We did find that even good fish’n chips are still just fish’n chips.

19. To that end...their malt vinegar is clear as opposed to brown. Just another way the Irish give a big “Fuck You” to the United Kingdom.

20. And finally, for a country known to be damp, moist and rainy a big chunk of the time, we never encountered rain. Never. Not once. We hauled around umbrellas for 11 days. We always take umbrellas on trips. But it’s the one thing we are happy to never use. I don’t how we missed rain. You can call it the luck of the Irish. You can call it meteorology. I don’t care. The bottom line is we deserve nice things and we are living our best lives. And that’s why it didn’t rain. Slainté!

[xdoublev]

Adventures in Ireland! Part Three

Part One can be found here:

http://xdoublev.tumblr.com/post/166020676405/adventures-in-ireland-part-one

Part Two can be found here:

http://xdoublev.tumblr.com/post/166055989300/adventures-in-ireland-part-two

Friday, 9/29

Well the plan had been initially to sleep in, for once, but since we had decided to leave our rental car sitting in the alley until our trip back to Dublin the next day we had another early wake up call. No sleep in Ireland, indeed. I want to say I got up at some horrendous hour, 6am or something, to shower. I had mapped out how far the bus station was that would be taking us on our tour and it was just over a mile, about a half hour walk away. Our bus was to depart at 9:30, and it was suggested we arrive 10 minutes early. So we had plans to leave our hotel no later than 8:40. I went out on a quest for coffee and walked in to the first shop I saw, a Nordic coffee place? They had iced coffee on the menu so I ordered two of those. What I got.. was not what I expected. They gave me two 8 or so oz cups only slightly full with something that resembled a smoothie. It tasted coffee-ish? But definitely not my thing. But hey, new experiences amirite? I ran those back to our hotel room where mom was finishing up getting ready.

We left our hotel room on schedule and made the trek down the main road. It was simple getting there: Go quite a ways down the main road, turn left, and continue to go straight. I had somewhat mastered roads at this point, or at least I knew where to look for the road signs. And it was immensely easier to spot road signs when walking. However, we walked a good bit longer down that first road than I thought we would have to. As 9:20 crept over so closer I first started to get nervous we were going to miss our tour. I don’t think I’ve ever power walked so fast, and my poor mom was hustling behind me trying to keep up. We eventually found our turn and I’m anxiously watching the numbers on the buildings go down as we slowly get closer. About 9:20, we are about a block away when a major intersection comes up and it’s unclear which way to continue walking. Just as I was about to panic, I saw the LED “ALLEN’S TOURS” on the front of a bus in the distance. I sigh out of relief, and we are the last to check in and we get on the bus safely. Crisis averted!

Our first stop was at Carrickfergus Castle, a 12th century castle off the ocean dedicated to King William III. It was a quick stop so we didn’t have time to explore inside the castle, but we got some great shots of the outside. And there was a café nearby where we able to fill up on more sufficient caffeine! Next our bus made its way up a gorgeous coastal highway, with farms to the left of the bus and the beautiful Irish sea to the right. We had another great driver and tour guide who told us all about the towns and some history that we passed along the way. We stopped at the site of the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, but first it was a 20 minute walk up and down some gorgeous cliffs with an amazing view of the Irish Sea. I absolutely fell in love with Northern Ireland. From what I had seen of Belfast I was not super impressed with the city (Especially after such an amazing few days in Galway) but I would 100% go back just to make my way back up north where everything looks like a scene straight out of Broadchurch. The rope bridge had a pretty amazing history dating back centuries to fishers bringing in their catch. The bridge was now reinforced and maintained by their historical society. My Mom and I, both terribly afraid of heights, actually crossed the bridge, not once, BUT TWICE! And it was so worth the views.

Next stop was lunch, a cute café very close to our last stop. Everything on their menu looked excellent. Mom had an Irish stew and I had the absolute best smoked salmon I’ve ever had in my life. The salmon had been caught locally just a few towns over, and I imagine that had a lot to do with it. Next we headed up to Giant’s Causeway, which was really just another amazing view of the Irish Sea from cliffs, but you will never hear me complain about such things! We walked down to the bottom of cliffs where the waves were crashing down on rocks that you could walk out on. After about a hundred more photos (I took more photos on this excursion than I did our whole trip in Ireland) we had a little time left to kill so we killed time in a nearby pub where our driver would be back to get us soon.

Our last stop of the tour was at a spot called the Dark Hedges, which was apparently used in Game of Thrones. I wasn’t particularly interested and it was a very short stop, so we stayed on the bus and appreciated it from afar. Sadly, the way back to Belfast was not along the gorgeous coastal route, but on the normal motorway. But we headed back and got back in to Belfast with just a bit of daylight left. We started to walk back to our hotel and we got rained on. Although I suppose we can’t complain since the rain had waited until after our amazing excursion up north had ended. We were still full from our lunch from before and decided to drink at hotel pub again this evening. I got the idea that we should do post cards while we had our pints, and we had a lot of fun coming up with short stories to tell people on the backs of the post cards. I had my last two Hop House 13’s night. I’ve since checked a couple grocery stores back here in the US and they don’t appear to sell it here. So I’m happy I had as many as I did in Belfast!

Saturday, 9/30

Last full day in Ireland! We woke up early and packed up the room. I made my usual trek to go get coffee, going to a spot further up the road this time and sticking to americanos and even got a tasty blueberry muffin. We checked out of our hotel and the receptionist gave us some tips to easily make our way to the motorway and get to Dublin. We put our suitcases in the trunk of the car and went to kill what few hours we had left in Belfast. First, we located the post office and mailed off our post cards from the evening before. Then we wandered around a park and walked back to the bridge we had crossed several times at this point, but finally had time to appreciate and snap some photos of the water. The rowing team from Queens University was passing under the bridge and it really was a sight to see. We decided before we got on the road to Dublin we needed more fish and chips! So we stopped at one of the many little shops and had lunch. It was a little too greasy for me so early in the day, but delicious nonetheless and had some of the best chips I had our whole time in Ireland. As the afternoon slowly crept by, we needed to make the trek back to Dublin to return our rental car by 5pm.

Rather than saying we got lost, I prefer to say we “unintentionally saw a lot more of the Irish countryside than initially planned on.” What should have been a 2 hour trip turned in to a lot more than that and while it was still a bit stressful, we made it to Dublin to return our car just after 5pm. This all after turning down multiple wrong exits and going on a mad dash for a petrol station when we almost ran out. I blame their signs for not being very clear, hah. We got checked in to our last stay of the trip, the Maldrin, just after 6pm. This was not like our other two hotels and was more like a traditional hotel than a pub, although it was among the nicer hotels I’ve ever stayed in. We were there specifically because it was so close to the airport and we had an early flight the next day. We briefly considered staying in and resting up for our flight. But fuck that! One night in Dublin. Sleep be damned, we were gonna go have a good time.

We took our courtesy airport shuttle bus over to a bus that would take us to the oldest pub in Ireland – The Brazen Head. I figured if we were just gonna go to a pub, might as well go to a landmark pub, right? It took about a thirty minute ride on the top of the double decker bus, the same route we had ridden a few days before, before we got dropped off and found our way to the very packed and decked out pub. We enjoyed a few more pints sitting outside on a lovely last evening. We got to chat with someone visiting from San Francisco on business.

After an hour or so we headed back to our bus stop.. where we learned the hard way that you have to hail the bus if you actually want them to stop (Thanks to our random friend we made from Spain for teaching us how to hail the buses). We got back to our hotel tired but happy.

Sunday, 10/1

The alarm went off.. I don’t know. 4am? I didn’t sleep at all. Was so nervous about oversleeping. Anyways, we shuttled over to the airport. Where we had to go through security twice and then customs. A little jarring so early and with no sleep, but bearable. Upon getting through security I realized that the entire week got away from me and I didn’t buy any souvenirs. So I did some last minute shopping at the airport. And, yeah. That’s it.

This was such an incredible trip. I can’t wait to go on the next adventure <3

[jadeg2212-blog]

Varadkar is a bollocks

I’m just gonna use here to vent as to why I think our new gay Taoiseach isn’t as progressive as the empty heads I’ve been talking to think he is because nobody will have this conversation with me and it’s making me a bit agitated.

FIRST OF ALL let me give a bit of back story on the imposter. Leo Varadkar is the leader of Fine Gael, he also happens to be gay and he also happens to be the son of an immigrant. His dad is Indian and his mother is Irish, he is first generation Ireland, he was born and raised in Ireland.

Secondly he wasn’t elected as Taoiseach, I’d just like to correct all of the articles that say different. Enda Kenny resigned which meant the leader in our majority party became Taoiseach. He was elected by his party not democratically by the people. Every article that didn’t clarify that is wrong.

It’s interesting to note that his competition, Simon Coveny, who got the majority of votes from the grass roots and Leo got the majority of the votes from the politicians themselves. Politicians votes are worth two thirds of the vote leaving the grass root votes to only count for one third. So he ended up winning and I think it’s very telling that the Politicians voted for him and the grass roots didn’t. The politicians seem to have a bit of a double win on their hands now not only is Leo absolutely playing by their rules to the letter of the fucking law BUT he is gay so they can trot him out anytime somebody says they aren’t progressive.

So let me list in no particular order why Varadkar is an imposter (or more to the point, why he’s not progressive or he’s not a progressive choice for Taoiseach)

In 2010 Varadkar was accused of sexism, this is one of the reasons I feel he is anti woman. He was accused of Sexism and said ‘If anything, I went easier on Mary Coughlan because she is a woman’ yep. Because that’s what sexism is, when you don’t go easy enough of somebody. *eye roll*

In 2016 while Varadkar was health minister he claimed to not understand the question when asked if abortion was a class issue and he dismissed the question. So in Ireland, if you can afford to fly to England and have an abortion, good for you, you abort that baby, but if you are too poor to do that tough shit, you’re having it. It’s interesting to note, he is the son of an immigrant which is being touted as 'amazing progressive’ but he was born and bred in North Dublin, he comes from an affluent family, he was privately educated in secondary school and then studied law in TCD briefly before switching to Medicine and qualifying as a general practitioner in 2010. He has never been poor, he is very upper middle class at the very lowest so I think touting him as the son of an immigrant like 'oh my god, this is amazing’ is a bit deceptive because Leo definitely grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. One, a lot of the rest of us. Didn’t. And one, a lot of the women who can’t get an abortion, didn’t either.

Last month, Varadkar was asked about gender equality and responded that he would be 'fair to men’ and promised that they wouldn’t be 'marginalised’ because that is the aim of feminist around the world??? it’s not about equal rights for both sexes (which is the literal definition) but it’s about marginalising the men. Thank god they have Leo here to protect them.

Then we introduced civil partnerships in 2010 which he was against, and he was not against it for the same reasons I, or thousands of other people were against civil partnerships for reasons like there are 160 differences between that and legal marriage, which is completely unfair and not equal at all but he was against it because in his own words, speaking in the Dáil in 2009 against the civil partnership campaign he said that 'two men cannot have a child, two women cannot have a child, a child has the right to a mother and father and whenever possible the state should try vindicate that right and the right of a child to have a mother and father was much more important than two men or two women having a family’ or in other words, Leo Varadkar is a member of 'Mother and Fathers matter’ or he might as well be.

So our first openly gay Taoiseach has debated in our government against giving gay people equal rights, both the rights to adopt and the rights to a civil partnership and then he the audacity to wear a rainbow flag on the day of the marriage equality vote like he hasn’t done either of those things.

Then in 2010 Leo opened his big mouth again and said 'it’s very clear in our constitution that it’s a man marrying a woman largely with the view of having a natural family and if they are unable to do so they are obviously able to adopt and I would be of the view it doesn’t have to be for everybody but the preferable construct in a society, is the traditional family and the state through our laws should protect and promote that’ so not progressive.. at all. I understand he made these comments before he officially came out, but I don’t think it’s good enough that he never apologised for them. I understand that there are factors that play that maybe he was trying to fit in to and he was worried that somebody was going to find out that he was gay and I understand that and I have to make allowances for that but he has never publicly apologised for speaking out against the rights of the the very section of society he identifies with.

Recently in Ireland we had a citizens assembly to discuss the issue that is the eight amendment of red constitution. They voted overwhelmingly to replace the amendment and recommended with over sixty percent of the vote that Irish women should be allowed safe and legal access to abortion up to 22 weeks with no requirement to give a reason and that it should be sent forward to the Oireachtas.

Varadkar then came out and said he wanted Fine Gael to be a 'warm house’ for those who had conservative views on abortion. Our abortion situation at the moment is actually going against the U.N. court of human rights. His competitor Simon Coveny is arguably worse coming out and saying he is 'uncomfortable with women having bodily autonomy’ and Michael Martin took the biscuit by saying women should not be able to have an abortion because it’s not the babies fault. So Varadkar is not the worst here but he isn’t the progressive liberal he’s painted out to be either.

As minister for health in January 2015 Varadkar said he was pro life and said 'I understand the the unborn is a human with rights and that I do not adhere to abortion on request or in demand. I also stated and truly believe that this is a situation where there are few certainties and that family and doctors having to make extremely difficulty ethical and clinical decisions. Which is true. Like I’m 2014 where a pregnant teenage from the country side became suicidal when she realised she was pregnant and she wanted an abortion so she was told she would be given one and instead she was locked up in psychiatric care and kept there for the duration of her pregnancy. How long was she in there? Did she miss the window? Nobody knows because nobody fucking cares about woman in this country.

Varadkar in my opinion is a classist elitist who led his campaign for leadership on an anti welfare campaign and that infuriates me, he claims that his figures for welfare fraud last year were were eleven times higher than the official department figures. So it was actually eleven times more of an issue than it was actually made out to be. The official figures from the department were one. ONE. One convicted case of welfare fraud. There were ten more cases that were dropped because there wasn’t enough evidence. Varadkar figures included the ten cases that were dropped because they hadn’t enough evidence. He said things like 'only those zoo contribute to the system will benefit’ but never clarified what his idea of a contribution was so that’s quite problematic and concerning in my opinion. He also proposed to publish names of convicted welfare cheats on the internet. That’s right, the new 'progressive’ Taoiseach ran on a campaign that promised to doc people, so people who have already been convicted, who served their time or done their community service or even who have been through the justice system and had justice served. He wants to docs them. Of course everybody in FG thought this was a wonderful idea. Although he mad his whole campaign about FG calling them the 'party of people who get up early in the mornings’ Do you know who doesn’t get up early in the morning? Those who work nights, those who work shifts, those who can’t. It’s an ableist classist approach that also manages to leave out hard working people like doctors for example unemployment was at 14% its lowest under his party Fine Gael so if that were to happen again I wouldn’t expect there to be a net there to catch you. As an antidote Varadkar was quoted a few years ago saying 'Tiny Tim from the Christmas Carol should get a job’ I just hope he didn’t watch the film and the comment was coming from a complete lack of preparedness and a complete lack of research because if not he’d be insinuating a severely disable character in a children’s Christmas film should 'get a job’

In 2011 he ran a campaign as minister for social protection called 'Welfare Cheats us all’ that cost 200k to bring eleven people to court and only convicted one. If that ONE person who cheated welfare on €188 a week had to cover the cost of Varadkars campaign they would have had to claim social welfare for 22 years. Interesting Apple can get away with billions of euro in tax but ONE person cheats the welfare and the whole system has to be done away with?

As minister for health he presided over the worst A+E crisis the country has ever seen. Although in fairness, Simon Coveny who is minister for housing has presided over the worst housing crisis in the history of the country so it needs to be made clear is competition was arguably no better.

Just to add more petrol to the fire he also wants to ban strikes in the public sector. It is the fundamental right of a worker to strike to better their situation.

But sure I suppose he’s better than Enda?

[unknownentry404]

I’m literally living in the UK now cause I know how bad the housing crisis STILL is. In 2008 the world went into a recession and Ireland went into a Double Recession. And it’s still never recovered.

I didn’t go to Trinity College (above) but I did visit their library during my university degree days, through Dublin library sharing deals, when they had a book that my uni library didn’t. And it was great, and amazing in the library but outside it’s like a tourist trap- This is a collage! THE university of Ireland! A place of learning! Like any historical site, having special tours now and again in the off season, might not be unreasonable, but the sheer influx and over saturation of tourists is insane!!

There is not stopping them from entering the grounds whenever they like! There is no decorum!

The entitlement some people feel is ridiculous. Do tourists just walk around Princeton? To the point where you see tourists more than students??? This is our most prestigious college, kindly, fuck off.

Not to even mention that I believe tickets are only like under €10 or sumn, and you only get to see one page as it’s behind a glass cabinet and only gets turned every now and again. But then, I’ve never seen it so don’t know. And I’m an Irish man who went to secondary school in Kells too and even studied the Book of Kells for my Art History exam back in the day.

It should honestly be free to see, in like a heritage centre somewhere and not in a university. Always dreamed of it returning to Ceanannus Mór. . .

But yeah, the purpose of this protest is obviously to disrupt/stop the main area of tourism in Trinity and send a message to the board. Nothing to do with you. It’s our history too mind, not yours. Kindly check yourself and wander Temple Street or go to the Phoenix Park or sumn. Shoo.

Since I’ve been making posts about American/ British entitlement towards Ireland, I thought I’d talk about this video here.

I am a student at this college. It’s a big tourist attraction for many reasons, but the main one being that the book of Kells is kept here. I am also from Kells itself, but Dublin having the book and not Kells is a whole other issue.

So this protest that’s been happening over the the past few weeks is in response to the college once again raising rents for student accommodation to astronomical rates. That being when rent in Dublin (and Ireland as a whole) is already unliveable. You’d find cheaper rent off student accommodation, but it’s hardly easy to find places like this. As well as this, the majority of the student accommodation isn’t even on campus to begin with. Most are about a 45 minute luas journey away. So what the fuck are you paying for?

This protest is necessary. It’s been a long time coming. Time and time again they prioritise tourists over us. Buildings are old and falling apart, equipment isn’t functional, accessibility is god awful. I know this because I am disabled and use a rollator, but I can’t even use it on campus most days because there’s simply no ramps/ elevators in some buildings.

In one of my lectures last week we were in one of the old buildings. We had a lot of content to cover, but of course the projector wasn’t working. The professor spent fourty minutes trying to get the computer/ projector to work, but to no avail. So we have a whole lecture to catch up on! All of this while I was looking out the window at this atrocity:

A new building for tourists! Yay!

They’ve been building new school buildings for years, but of course instead of finishing them, they’ll spend their time and money on the tourists. I’m not even having an exam in one of my modules because they told the professor that there simply isn’t enough room to host our class for the exam. And it would be “too expensive” to book a venue… it’s only a class of about thirty. He had written a whole exam and we were under the impression we’d have one, but now it’s just continuous assessment I guess!

So you have to understand why we’re not exactly jumping for joy for the tourists. There are hundreds on campus everyday, just generally being annoying and entitled. And yes DISCLAIMER; not all tourists, not all Americans/ British people, blah, blah. But from my experience, you do encounter some obnoxious people everyday.

So that’s why they blocked entrance to the book of Kells. That’s why it’s disgusting for the tourists to be arguing with them and demanding entrance. For once we just want our college to prioritise us! So yeah we will revoke your entitlement, because we are the ones who study here, we are the ones who have to LIVE here.