Let’s play a game: which Disney Villain is Theresa May?

Cruella De Vil is an obvious choice and has been joyfully bandied around by the media since her rise to power…

…but despite her recently revealed support of fox hunting, I don’t think that’s quite right.

The Evil Queen perhaps?

“Bring me the heart of Jeremy Corbin”

Ursula the Sea Witch?

“You can trust me to get us a fair Brexit deal”

The Queen of Hearts?

“It’s just strong and stable leadership, my dear. People need the certainty of having their heads removed for the slightest misdemeanour, otherwise it would be chaos!”

Nope, she puts me in mind of a villain more dangerous than any of these: 

Yes, Mother Gothel, the villain of Tangled. She has no magic powers, no army of giant playing cards, no wealth or resources, no real way to compel anyone to do her bidding, except for one. She keeps Rapunzel in a tower for 18-years without a single lock by convincing her of two simple things: 1) it’s not safe outside and 2) she’s not strong enough to handle it. There are ruffians and thieves out there and “clumsy”, “immature”, “naive” and “chubby(!)” Rapunzel wouldn’t stand a chance alone. The threat of danger itself is not enough. A constant diet of criticism and self-doubt are required to keep Rapunzel in line, otherwise she might get the idea that she’s a strong independent princess who can actually do stuff without her controlling fake mother.

Gothel, and Theresa May, present themselves as the symbol of safety and security, despite not ultimately having the interests of their ‘charges’ at heart beyond what they can get out of them. “Mother knows best”, “Mother will protect you”, “On your own you won’t survive”. Critically, the key to May’s power is that we believe her when she says the country won’t be strong enough to survive Brexit. We have to buy into the self doubt and the fear and let ourselves, our public services and our communities be abused in the interests of ‘stability’. If we don’t believe it, she has nothing.

When Theresa May dismisses Jeremy Corbin as not credible, ineffective (“ditsy and a bit, well, vague”), scares us with threats of a ‘coalition of chaos’ and a weak Brexit negotiating hand, she’s playing Gothel to a tee. The truth is we don’t really know what he would be like as a PM. I for one am willing to give him a chance but if you’re not it’s ok. Vote Lib Dem (maybe they’ll pull off reversing this Brexit lark somehow), or vote Green (they always seem nice), or even vote Tory if you honestly believe in their policies. But don’t vote for May just because your scared of the alternatives. You don’t know what’s outside until you go and look, and you don’t know for sure that you’re strong enough until you try. We are stronger than Theresa May wants us to believe and she’ll do anything to keep us realising that we don’t need her or her party.

There’s nothing keeping us in the tower except ourselves.

Hello blog fans!

So it turns out that working really hard on your life goals leaves very little time to blog about them. At least that means I’m being productive! Here’s a quick update:

1) Apply for PhD

Done! PhD application is in. Putting the proposal together has taken so much work it might have been more stressful than my dissertation was! OK, maybe not, but the challenge with a PhD proposal is working out what you are going to do in advance. For my MSc I picked a topic, got a supervisor, then we started working. For the PhD I’ve picked a topic, research questions, experimental method, data analysis method, written an extensive literature review explaining why my research is important and unique, and described exactly how I’m going to do all the wonderful things I am promising. This is all stuff you need to do for an MSc dissertation too, however you generally get to work while you are on the course. This is just for an application!

But it’s done, the proposal is looking really strong and the academic staff supporting it are really pleased with what we’ve produced, so if I can at least get an interview I’ll be one up on last year ;).

2) Being healthy

Markie and I started the NHS weight loss plan, and we are doing really well sticking to it. We are also doing the Couch to 5K plan, running around the park by my work during lunch breaks. The NHS plan is calorie controlled. You work out what your ideal calorie intake should be (between 1400 to 1800 for me), and to lose weight you just stick near the bottom of the range. We’ve been doing this for about 6 weeks now and I have actually lost enough weight that my BMI is healthy, so I’ve just upped my calorie allowance to the middle of my range and am sticking with C25K. I’ve also ordered a replacement wii fit balance board to do some more stuff at home. So things are going pretty well with this life goal as well 🙂

3)Publish a book

OK, between spending lunchtimes running and evenings on my PhD proposal there’s not been any time left over to work on a book, but it’s fine. We were expecting this! We planned for it. I should really start working on it now, however I also have work to do to prepare for the PhD interview (even though I might not get one, because I don’t know how much notice I’m going to get!) so I’m still not sure how much time I’m going to have. I expect to get an email next week telling me when I’ll get an update on my application, so the next step will be to work out how long I have, what work I need to do, and how much time I have left over to edit the book. Hopefully it will be some! Of course if I don’t get an interview I will suddenly find myself with ample time for book editing in the spring… 

So that’s my update! TTFN!

Despite the curse of 2016 (and the woeful lack of new Doctor Who episodes!) it was a pretty good year for me. We had our third son, Asher, and I finished my MSc in Psychological Research Methods. While that it only 2 things they are 2 pretty big things that are jolly hard to do at the same time, and we survived. I’m proud of what I’ve done in 2016. Even though I failed NaNoWriMo :P.
So now it’s 2017, and I’m starting the new year going back to my pleasant enough admin job after maternity leave and a little bit of extra time now I’ve finished university. I wanted to set some goals, but I’ve honestly found it tricky. When I tried to list them there’s a lot of things I want to do, but really only a tiny bit of extra time when I factor in spending more time with the kids and not leaving Markie to do everything in the house (Markie is awesome). So I’ve limited myself to three primary targets that I will try to report on. Other things may sneak in (like building my Lego castle), but these are the three biggies that must be done, or else.

1) PhD Applications

My job is comfortable but it’s not really want I want to do forever. So my first job for the year is to submit PhD applications. I’m done with part-time study. It worked well for my BSc, but now we have a sizeable family to care for I need study to be my day-job, and for that I need funding. Funding applications close Feb/March time so the next few weeks will be very focused on completing this goal. If I don’t get a place, fair enough, but I must apply!

2) Health/Fitness

New Year diets are so cliche, but for the first time I’m making a commitment to be healthier so I can enjoy as much time with my family as possible. I’m not very overweight, just a couple of lbs really by BMI, but according to NHS metrics I need to lose some volume around the waist to be healthy. A quick check online revealed certain diet programmes/groups are a bit pricey. Also I don’t like going out and meeting new people at the best of times, nevermind having to get weighed in front of them and paying for the priveledge. So I’ve decided to try the free NHS weight loss guide. It’s a 12 week plan. I’m not sure exactly what is in it as I’m not reading ahead. That spoils the fun 😉

Week 1 is adjust your diet. Lots of fibre, protein, veggies, smaller portions, healthy snacks (not chocolate muffins unfortunately), and stick to 1400 calories per day. I’ve done this for one week and so far it’s not as bad as I though. It helps that Markie is good at cooking low calorie dinners! And I usually have enough calories left in my allowance for a little bit of chocolate :). I’m using an app called My Fitness Pal to track calories. It scans barcodes. It’s like living in the future!

Week 2 is to up your activity levels. I’ve been to the gym a couple of times and am starting the NHS Couch to 5K programme next week (too cold this week!). I’ve had fun shopping for fitness clothes. Using them might be less fun, but we’ll see…

Which brings us to the final goal:

3) Publish a book

Not traditional publishing, alas, but indie publishing is on the rise and my drafts keep stacking up so one way to get out of the endless editing cycle is to publish. And if I’ve learnt anything from my MSc it’s that deadlines are highly motivating, so I’m going to publish by 31st December 2017. Or else. 

Or else what?

Um, not sure really. Meh. Anyhow, that doesn’t give me loads of time. 30 chapters to edit, not really starting until after PhD applications are in, need it ready for beta readers in Summer, so I’m looking at about 3 months to blitz through my next sweep to have a hope of getting it ready in time. Yay, deadlines!

So that’s the plan for 2017. The fact I was supposed to be researching infant language acquisition when I was writing this blog post doesn’t bode well. But at least I was eating a salad at the same time…

TTFN

Warning, I am deactivating my Facebook account!

Fear not, there has been no drama. I have not had a Facebook fallout causing me to have a diva strop and never darken the door of social media again. Nor have I become so depressed at various political debates that I’m losing the will to live (though to be fair I’m not far off!). I have simply become incapable of opening up my computer without checking Facebook and I just don’t have the time to sink hours into the endless sticky web of clickbait. So Facebook has to go until I get the rest of my work/life/play balance into order. I’ll still be reachable on twitter @LeighKeating, and by email if you can solve this cryptic riddle:

My first part is Leigh, and then a full-stop

My second is Keating, and then you must drop

The shift key and press the numerical two*

At the top of the keyboard. You know what to do.

My third is a ‘mail’ that begins with a ‘g’,

Then a dot, and a suffix short for company.

Beat that spam bots 😛

*Edited to add: This particular clue only works on a mac keyboard.

You’ll need to press the apostrophe,

if you’re not an Apple addict like me!

What’s this? Back so soon? Yes, it has been less than a week since the last blog post, but I’m sure you cannot wait to find out what happens to our intrepid heroine next ;). So as promised, I present…

Episode 2: The Visitor

Tune in same time next week for Episode 3!

TTFN 🙂

I saw yesterday that The Big Bang Theory has been given another 3 seasons. Since I have watched this show almost religiously since episode 1 I was a bit surprised that first reaction to this news was disappointment. To be honest I’ve not been enjoying the show as much lately and it is mostly due to the portrayal of the characters, especially (but not limited to) the women on the show.

Let’s start with the girls. It’s a show about archetypes so we shall forgive them bubbly blonde party girl Penny, but TBBT has really missed an opportunity to represent geeky girls and women in the show. I had high hopes when they introduced some intellectual female characters as show regulars with Bernadette and Amy, but at every turn the show enforces the stereotype that girls don’t like sci-fi, or play D&D, or read comic books. Well let me tell you that I am a girl and I love sci-fi, and I play D&D, and I read comic books, and not only that, SO DOES MY MUM! But no, in the world of TBBT girls from all walks of life prefer girlie things like shoe shopping and make-overs and only boys are allowed to geek out over steam trains. The closest the show has come to having a female character who is equivalent to the boys was Lesley Winkle, who seemed to vanish quite early. I suppose it’s too much to ask for a women in the show who’s part of the inner geek group rather than just a love interest for one of the blokes. So I would like to ask TBBT writers to think carefully about what they want to do with those three years they’ve been given, and maybe take a page out of Joss Whedon’s book and give us a variety of believable girl geeks. I do like Amy and Bernadette, but the constant separation of Penny’s girls and Leonard’s boys when it comes to leisure activities is more like a Victorian dinner party than a group of friends in modern day LA.

But it’s not just the female characters that get a tough time from the writers. Let’s take Stuart. Poor Stuart, initially presented to us as a credible rival for Penny’s affection with his own comic book business, shy charm, and wonderful artistic talent. Now his character has been completely rewritten to make him a pitiful joke. The fact that his business is struggling and he has to rely on welfare to survive and is clearly suffering from depression is supposed to be funny? Yes, mental health conditions are hilarious. Please use your three seasons to give Stuart a break, the poor guy deserves it.

I could go on. Poor old Raj probably deserves a place in this rant, but it’s getting a bit long now so I’ll leave it there. Just to be clear, I know I do not have to watch this show, but I am invested in the characters and I’d like to know what happens. The fact that the stereotypes have got worse and the jokes become crueler as the seasons have gone on is what disappoints me. 3 season renewal just sends a message to the show’s makers that this is something they are doing right and it’s what people like, so they’ll probably just do it more. But we girl geeks watch the show because we like the geek culture, and we like Star Wars jokes, and we’re just as gutted as Sheldon that Firefly got cancelled. It would be nice if we could be represented, or at least acknowledged, in the next three seasons.
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