Dublin's fair city

He wasn't even trying to be funny:

"I really like Dublin. It's not a Paradise, but it makes you not mind that you're going to die."

From one of the visiting American playwrights at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. (He actually said it this morning and was pushed to recount it by their techie. I feel it still counts.)

In progress

I have a few bits and pieces ongoing at the moment.

I stopped by This Is Knit's sale with a friend (I think it's fair that I don't have to be Not Buying Yarn if there's a sale on) and he bought this Debbie Bliss Winter Garden for me to make him a hat. I'm using the Hat Fit For A Fella pattern (Ravelry pattern page here), which I've made before, removing the brim and using my modification from the last time I made it. The cables have eaten the yarn and I still have a few inches to go, so while I've been failing to go back in and get some more, I've started working on...

a jumper! I bought this yarn (Debbie Bliss cotton, I do like cotton) as an end-of finals-present to myself last year, started this tunic (Ravelry pattern page here), realised half-way through that it was the wrong sized and ripped it out, re-started it, realised half-way through that it was the wrong size and ripped it out, and then left all the yarn in a bag until now, unable to bring myself to touch it. I think it was a good move, as a third failed attempt would have bred supervillainy-inducing levels of frustration and resentment, and that would be a very underwhelming origin story.

In the year's interim I went off the pattern - or at least how it would look in this shade - and decide to make this v-neck instead. I think I'll get more wear out of it than I would the tunic.

It's top-down and has raglan sleeves, both of which are new to me in a jumper, and I've already had to restart once because "At the same time" is my enemy. I like how it's turning out, and now I don't feel guilty for having the bag of yarn sitting in the corner of my room, silently judging me.

I spent Saturday and Sunday hiking some forty kilometres of the Wicklow Way with some members of my volunteer group. It's easy to forget, especially living in Dublin, that Ireland is quite breathtakingly stunning, despite the national pastime of complaining about Ireland.

The second photo is of Powerscourt Waterfall from a height and distance, and the last one is of Glendalough valley. When we were walking across the planks in the fourth picture, the wind was so strong and the hill so exposed that I had to lean into the wind to end up somewhat vertical, and still nearly got blown off into the bog a few times. (You might think bogs are for low-lying flat land, not the top of hills, but you would be wrong.) We got very lucky with the weather, and I got sunburned wearing the one racerback top I own, because of course I did. It's not Summer until I have uneven tan-lines.

I'm currently a a tech volunteer for the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. So far this has meant moving props between shows, but they were important props. I've sat in on two plays so far, because I am the kind of very cultured and important person who sees two plays a week - premieres, no less. Bash: Latterday Plays is very intense, dark, harrowing and excellent. My Second Self is awfully sweet, quietly hopeful, and funnier than I was expecting. The program changes next week, so I'd recommend either or both if you're in Dublin this week!

A complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about Metor's transphobic ad.

So Meteor's new ad for free wifi, it is pretty transphobic, amirite? I have until I run out of credit to decide whether to switch networks, but since just no longer giving them custom without an explanation wouldn't feel terribly effective, I've submitted a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority.

(The Advertising Standards Authority make you fill in boxes with your details, I don't just lack the ability to write a formal letter. Here's what went in the "Your complaint" box.)

"Meteor's recent ad for free wifi shows individuals going to ridiculous lengths to obtain free wifi, such as cycling after a bus providing this service. Having established this premise, the ad goes on to show a teenage boy dancing in a bar with a woman while using his phone. The woman turns around, revealing a 'masculine' jawline and stubble. As soon as the boy learns of Meteor's free wifi, he runs from the bar.

This cheap joke is, at best, small-minded and bigoted - in a country where transgendered individuals must receive a formal diagnosis of mental illness in order to have their correct gender legally recognised, it may easily be actively harmful. Meteor have argued that the person the boy is dancing with is a male drag artist - however, the joke contained within the ad only makes sense if the audience has been 'tricked' into misidentifying the boy's dancing partner as a woman, relying on the idea that transgendered women are impostors, and not real women. 

As Meteor have failed to apologise for this ad, or even to acknowledge any wrong-doing on their part, I hope you will see fit to prohibit screening of the ad."

You can complain about the ad here.

These should be mandatory.

There just isn't a word for how useful these are when you forget to put your circs back in the packet straight away.  Plus steel needles are kind of fancy.

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I'm probably going to vote for Michael D. Higgins on Thursday.  He seems dacent, and hasn't murdered anyone, which is always... the absolute baseline for giving someone power, not exactly a positive, but anyway.  In no way have I been influenced by this.