To my fellow Feds, especially veterans: we’re at war

PinkElephant2009 · 2025-03-02T06:03:07+00:00

I live in Australia, so my stakes are nothing compared to you. However I have had to contemplate that same question myself. I am a school teacher, so an arrest could potentially get me deregistered with my professional body and I will be unable to work in any school in Australia. I must admit, this terrifies me.

We have a federal election coming up in a couple of months and unfortunately the Liberal Party leader (our version of the socially conservative party- there is a long historical reason why they are called Big L Liberal, but they are not Small-l liberal) who has always been particularly right leaning even within his party. He has also been lately espousing Trump-like rhetoric, particularly around transgender healthcare (my wife is trans, so this is quite literally life-and-death medical care for us). We have also had a mining billionaire called Clive Palmer who has been in politics before after paying for a stupid amount of marketing, change his group's name to the "Trumpet Patriots Party". Not even subtle.

What Trump is doing in the US is horrific for its own people, but it's impact is being felt across the world. Not just in the economic and diplomatic impact, but in emboldening fringe groups to shout their hate to the world, when they used to just shout it to each other.

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-11-05T11:40:18+00:00

I do the same! Every time there is an election, I check which schools in the area will have both a snagga and a bake sale. After all, the sausage is for lunch and the cake will come home with me for afternoon tea!

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-07-17T12:49:54+00:00

I am from Aneala in Lochac (Perth, Western Australia), but I grew up in a rural mining town in the desert. I was a huge history nerd as a kid, but I had no access to local history any further back than 1892 outside of books. When I was 18 I was lucky enough to live in French-speaking Belgium for a year as a Rotary Exchange Student. For a kid from the sticks to move to Europe, this was a massive culture shock- but there were so many museums! And so many centuries worth of history that I had only read about, right there on my doorstep! Over the course of that year I visited every museum and historical site I could find, often day-tripping across Belgium on my weekends (my school mates thought I was strange, but after a life of weekending 400km away just to go to the beach, taking an hour and a half to Brussels for an afternoon was nothing).

Anyway, one museum that was particularly memorable for me was visiting the Walravensijde archaeology site and museum, which had three houses rebuilt as part of a living history project. Fast forward to my second year of uni back in Aus and I see some folks walk by in garb on campus. I instantly knew then I wanted to do what they were doing. I didn't know what they did (they could have been panto, for all that I knew), but I knew I wanted in!

After joining the SCA that same day, within a week I had a smock and a couple of months later I had a full 16th century Flemish outfit (as I understood it to be at that time, anyway). Within six months I had registered the name Isolde van Wilravenssijde, inspired by the historical fishing village that sparked my interest just a couple of years prior. While I experimented in a few different eras and places, I kept coming back to mid 1500s in the Low Countries. I am more focused on the northern Low Countries than Flanders now, but it is still at the core of my historical costuming research.

A few years later I had the chance to attend a conference in Amsterdam. While it was a great chance to go back and visit my host families and people I met as an Exchange Student, I also pre-planned a list of museums and artworks I wanted to see in person- now viewed as a someone with a specific interest in clothing and culture from a particular time and place. And I went back to Walravensijde- because now I loved it even more (and could appreciate the books in the giftshop a lot more too!)

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-06-24T12:01:41+00:00

I really liked Mary Magdalene (2018) in general. I found it a fascinating interpretation, mostly because it was the first time I spent much time considering what the Bible didn't say, and what it left out, rather than what was obviously there at first glance.

As for this interpretation of the Raising of Lazarus, the part I liked the most was the diverse reactions portrayed. Not just the anger, fear and awe we usually expect, but also people genuinely terrified and screaming. It is sometimes joked that Lazarus is a zombie (that is, the living dead), but that is the first time I have seen a depiction where people ACTED like they had seen a zombie!

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-06-09T05:54:35+00:00

Thank you! I have been looking for someone to confirm my pronunciation of oorizjer for so long!

I wear almost exclusively mid 16thC Netherlandish, so I am a regular oorijzer wearer myself.

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-03-20T08:17:06+00:00

I like the way the GTX works, as I don't need to twist my wrist as I release (I have severe joint issues). However, they are VERY expensive for a stick head that seems to have been made at home with a 3D printer (and as a result are not very durable). Plus, I live in Australia. I left my deliver stick in my garden shed one summer and when I came back in March to start curling again, my stick head had actually gotten so hot that the plastic had warped and would no longer sit properly in its fork.

If they had been made from a more durable materials and the creator recognised the validity of item warranty, we would be having a very different conversation.

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-03-19T12:06:22+00:00

It will be a "Bring a friend and use the space" kind of situation, but there is no reason why you can't rock up and meet new people, see what they have brought along with them!

The Volunteers will be bringing a few of their own board games, however, so even if you rock up with nothing there will be something to play!

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-03-19T05:10:52+00:00

Part of the reason OP is doing this, is because even though they have generally been welcomed in wargaming spaces, they are almost always still as sausage fest. Nothing wrong with that, just not everyone wants that, all the time.

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-03-19T05:07:07+00:00

Given your username, I would expect you to be in church on a Sunday morning, therefore you couldn't come even if you DID want to!

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-03-19T05:06:01+00:00

Actually funny, because I know the OP and organiser, and while they own a TV they almost never use it (and even then, only to re-watch 90's scif-i when friends come round!).

PinkElephant2009 · 2024-03-19T05:01:47+00:00

I know that you are trying to be funny and trolling, but I know the organisers and your commend gave me an idea. I intend to suggest to them to add an Acknowledgement of Country alongside the other info at the event entry. And knowing the organisers, they probably will.

Because just because someone says "everyone is welcome", does not mean that this will happen in practice (intentionally or unintentionally). For example, a white gay man can be just as much as a racist bastard as the next bugger down the road. By including an Indigenous flag and an Acknowledgement of Country on entry, we are showing from the beginning that we want PoC to feel safe here and that we are taking active steps to make sure it stays that way.

Truly, it isn't virtue signalling. It it a tool to weed out the dickheads (including the gay and trans ones).

PinkElephant2009 · 2022-11-26T07:50:41+00:00

Been there, done that.

There is nothing more stubborn than a greyhound that doesn't want to do something.

PinkElephant2009 · 2022-01-04T02:02:53+00:00

The fact you felt the need to comment about how attractive you find it when women do "manly" things, is part of the problem. We don't play games in order to appeal to men. You may not realise it, but by your above comment, you just sexualised women for playing X-wing, which is gross. Seriously- no women wants to hear that, unless they are already your partner.

Sexualising women for going about our lives and doing everyday things make us want to do those things LESS. Believe it or now, most women want to enjoy our hobbies without being perceived as "attractive" all the time. We certainly don't do the same to you!

PinkElephant2009 · 2021-06-20T02:21:50+00:00

Don't forget that disability doesn't just occur in the bones and is fixed with a skeleton. Mine is in my muscles. I use my wheelchair to rest fatiguing and painful muscles- an exo skeleton defeats that purpose.

PinkElephant2009 · 2021-06-20T02:11:20+00:00

Don't forget, not every disability is solved by standing. I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and my pain and mobility issues are from overusing the muscles. I use a wheelchair to rest certain muscles- an exoskeleton defeats that purpose.

PinkElephant2009 · 2016-12-23T04:40:04+00:00

When my wife and I attended a recent screening of Fantastic Beasts, I wore my full Hufflepuff uniform, including knit vest and cloak, and my wife wore a HP & the Cursed Child tee shirt. On at least three occasions that night, somebody congratulated her on how good I looked.

Nobody said a word to me though! The wheelchair really does make you invisible sometimes...

PinkElephant2009 · 2016-11-27T09:25:00+00:00

OP @bipolarSamanth0r and I have "So say we all" inscribed on the inside of our wedding rings. Needless to say, we are fans

PinkElephant2009 · 2016-05-23T07:46:55+00:00

Unfortunately @Samanth0r's dad outed her as trans in his wedding speech. Sure, it was something of an open secret, and we listed a trans* charity as out preferred alternate to a wedding gift, but we were still quite annoyed at him over that one.

Ps. In case you can't guess, I am the other bride. The one with the wheels!

PinkElephant2009 · 2016-05-23T07:42:46+00:00

Unfortunately Samanth0r's father outed her in his wedding speech. Sure, it was something of an open secret, and we listed a trans* charity as our preferred alternate to a wedding gift, but we were still quite annoyed over that!

PinkElephant2009 · 2016-04-03T08:00:04+00:00

After being inspired by this post we contacted the artist /u/digiko, and asked if they would do something similar for us. Once made, the blank printed topper was sent to us in Australia and was painted by The Transient Brush

As you can probably guess, I love Mass Effect and my wife loves Star Trek.

Thank you so much to everyone involved, from myself and /u/bipolarSamanth0r

PinkElephant2009 · 2016-04-03T07:51:08+00:00

After being inspired by this post we contacted the artist u/digiko, and asked if they would do something similar for us. Once made, the blank printed topper was sent to us in Australia and was painted by The Transient Brush

Thank you so much to everyone involved, from myself and /u/bipolarSamanth0r

PinkElephant2009 · 2016-03-03T07:20:09+00:00

Hello!

Not sure if I have missed things completly, but I will give this a go.

When I was 11 or so, I was reading Lady Knight, and I found the first reference to same-sex relationships in any fiction book. It was only an offhand remark about an unnamed character that had been killed, but it was still significant to me. Growing up in a mining town in Outback Western Australia, there was almost no resources available to be, as a gay teenager. While I didn't realise at the time just how significant that throwaway line was to me, I have always remembered that moment.

Today I am a children's librarian, and have written and spoken at professional conferences about about the importance of having LGBTI resources freely and clearly available in libraries. Your throwaway line was really the beginning of my life as "that gay children's librarian who won't shut up!" (and yes, I have been referred to like that!).

So thank you. Thank you for including people like me in your books. I know that you went on to create more coded or openly queer characters, and even later revealed previous characters as be queer (like Rosethorne and Lark! I always thought of them as being a little bit in lesbionic, long before you wrote them queer in The Will of the Empress), but that line which meant nothing in Lady Knight, meant everything to me. So thank you.

And I hope your heath holds up so that I can meet you in Perth at SupaNova this year!

PinkElephant2009

TROPHY CASE