Tutoring?, A Political Statement, RPGs and Religion, Remember the Tampa, Relations, Honesty.

[tcpip]

Just returned from a Swinburne University class on media and social action where I'd been invited to give a guest presentation on how to use the media and new technologies effectively. Apparently I did well because after the class the tutor whisked me up to the office to sign me up as a teacher.

A month or so ago I have a presentation to the 11th Shed A Tier conference and gave the incorrect link to that presentation. Seeming that the presentation included the abolition of the unitary state, the abolition of specialist police and armed forces and a voluntary form of taxation, along with universal rights and social welfare, I thought I'd better post it with the correct url: Universal Rights, Common Wealth and Confederacy.

Sunday's presentation on role playing and religion went quite well. Turnout could have been better, but people were genuinely interested in the topic. Subsequent to that we played our "Outbreak of Heresy" game, where the foolish young men in their bravado attempted to storm a Hapsburg keep to drag out the lord and accuse him of heresy. The accusation held, but not after the loss of life and limb. On a related note, and through minatures gaming no less dukeofmelbourne conclusively proved to me the use and power of Hussite war wagons.

This Friday, Melbourne State Library, 5pm. Remember The Tampa. Remember SIEV X. Support human rights for asylum seekers. Yes, another action initiated by Labor for Refugees

Helped severina_242 move last week to her new home with her other partner. Obviously it means that we will see somewhat less of each other, but such is the nature of polyamorous relationships; you must always love the other person's choices and their freedom, otherwise it is rather hard to justly describe it as "free love". Just a thought on that; polyamory theory has a steeper learning curve, but once they're grounded, it's actually a lot easier to deal with relationship changes. After three years, I reckon severina_242 and I have a bit of clue about each other ;-)

Brain breaker of the week is actually two comments of extreme honesty. The first; "Normally we would storm a house killing everyone inside, whereas here we have to storm the house and keep everyone alive," said one commander. "It's not an easy job.", and the second: "If the U.S. continues to lose ground in Iraq, maybe we will be forced to pull out of the West Bank as well."

Comments

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

Man, those Hussite war wagons sure don't look like they'd work. :-/

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ahh, but they did for a while. Caused all sorts of problems to the Empire. Mobile artillery had to be developed to defeat them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussite_Wars

Did you read up on the link to the sample minatures battle at the bottom of the page?

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

Dude, I've played Europa Universalis, I know all about the Hussites. Well, except for their war wagons, apparently.

I didn't read the link coz I could see myself losing a whole evening to it. :-/

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Amazing how much history one learns through gaming...

[antayla.livejournal.com]

I think role playing games are a great way to teach, if you can figure out how to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if it became a more common teaching method; children play pretend all the time, after all.

[cinematic.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the teaching job. Well done. University jobs are hard to get, at least in my experience, as people are never keen to give them up ;)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have it yet, but they seemed pretty keen ;-)

How are you btw? Ages since you've posted on el-jay!

[antayla.livejournal.com]

"Steep learning curve" is an apt description; kudos on taking the time to learn it :). Most people I know outright reject the idea without considering the implications. The independence that one can develop from being in a polyamorous relationship(s) outweighs the initial struggle of learning to overcome rejection fears, IMHO.

[jennifergearing.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Also, it seems to me that the communication involved in the development of a poly relationship can often make boundaries much more real and tangible, indeed, because it's something the people involved need to talk about, rather than (most) 'conventional' relationships, which tend to run on unspoken and undiscussed concepts of monogamy. It took a few goes for me to fully realise the importance of that kind of communication, and I think perhaps that a poly relationship, because of its nature, is particularly good at teaching the importance of that.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

because it's something the people involved need to talk about, rather than (most) 'conventional' relationships, which tend to run on unspoken and undiscussed concepts of monogamy

As my "teacher" in such affairs once said, "people in explicit polyamorous and other unconventional relationships tend to have their sexual politics thoroughly considered because they've had to think things through and discuss them..."

[jennifergearing.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It's often through poly and other unconventional relationships that you realise the way monogamy can be interpreted so many ways. I've known people to be in monogamous/conventional relationships where both people have very different ideas about what monogamy means in terms of where the boundaries lie, but because it's accepted under this catch-all term of 'monogamy' it never gets discussed, because they assume that their conception of monogamy is the 'normal' one that their partner obviously adheres to.

Don't get me wrong, quite often the two conceptions are similar enough that the relationship works fine, or someone who is unfaithful acknowledges they were unfaithful. But sometimes that kind of assumption can be a recipe for disasters that could have otherwise been avoided.

And obviously poly relationships aren't flawless. The initial stages aren't referred to as a steep learning curve for nothing, and many people just drop the whole thing or flit from failure to failure because they're taking a long time to get through the initial sticky bits. Even then, people change, and what they want from a relationship changes, and if parties fail to talk about it, it all goes pear-shaped.

I think monogamy would probably get a better run with people so inclined if they talked about it enough so that they can acknowledge it meaning different things to different people, and realise the usefulness of finding out what kind of monogamy one is agreeing to before one enters a specific monogamous relationship.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*nods* The problem with all assummed sets of social norms is that the normative behaviour differs among class, gender, age and individuals as well as space and time!

I still remember being told in the late 70s that only lesbians wore jeans!

[jennifergearing.livejournal.com]

"I still remember being told in the late 70s that only lesbians wore jeans!"

*blinks*
*opens mouth*
*closes mouth*
I ... Nope, I got nuthin'.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Even at the tender age of eleven I thought "nah, that can't be right"...

Seriously, there once was an attitude that women who wore pants wanted to be like men... ergo...

[jennifergearing.livejournal.com]

Ah we're a strangely fascinating species, sometimes. Hell, most of the time, even. :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

"Steep learning curve" is an apt description; kudos on taking the time to learn it

As my "teacher" in such affairs described me as being naturally inclined in such a way - and then proceeded to give me a great theoretical grounding. So much of it of course depends on respecting the independence of others - and loving the expression of their will and desire.

[blot.livejournal.com]

wow. everytime I look for intelligent conversations about polyamory, I never find people having them and now you guys are having one. and I watch this space for my other interests. I wish there was a good manual for this stuff. I just got out of a failing polyamorous relationship with a bipolar person. sigh. So do you guys have any recommendations for where I can find more intelligent discussions about this? yes I have been looking through the usual live journal sludge... and haven't found anything worth watching.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I wish there was a good manual for this stuff.

There is a wealth of information here.

http://www.polyamory.org/

[antayla.livejournal.com]

This was a pretty good site also, although I don't spend much time there anymore:

http://www.polymatchmaker.com/

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the teaching job! (You do know that my sister teaches at Swinburne TAFE, don't you?)

Oh and that's three years and three months, but you never were very good at that sort of thing were you?

Dinner tonight BTW? I have a cold, but I think I'm up to a meal.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the teaching job! (You do know that my sister teaches at Swinburne TAFE, don't you?)

God, they let anyone in don't they?


Oh and that's three years and three months, but you never were very good at that sort of thing were you?

I was rounding to the nearest six months ;-)

Dinner tonight BTW? I have a cold, but I think I'm up to a meal.

Tomorrow night. Tonight I'm at NMIT.