It is important to start by stressing at the start of this that I am wearing only one hat: DPhil candidate in anthropology at Oxford University. If you think I may be wearing another hat you are mistaken. One hat Blangry.
Getting better. Lots of pills still. My hands have developed a tremor. My face tingles most of the day. My blood pressure is a lot higher than usual for me. I have insomnia from one of the pills and midday snooziness from the others. The pills are decreasing gradually and hopefully things will get better. Send cakes. Or don't. I've lost a couple of stone from effectively being off the booze since June and despite having lost it from two consecutive health crises, I'm pretty happy with it. Although apparently I am still overweight according to my BMI. Navigating health is still hard though.
<script async src="[https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js](https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js)" charset="utf-8"></script>Healthcare is really only safely navigable with the confidence to knock on doors and the knowledge to ask the right questions ("I need ciclosporin, CRP and a full blood count done"). This should not be the case and it narks me off each time I have to be posh&postgrad to do it.
— Alex (@blangry) November 8, 2019
I kicked off research last week looking at civic and political technology in the 2019 election. I've been reading a WhatsApp group around the Election Handbook, and I've been interviewing people in civic and political technology about what they think are the big issues at play.
I've been working on this, because it is a weird position to be a researcher and a part of the scene. I have been interviewing people that for the most part I already know so interviews bleed between "how is so-and-so". So far I think it is working out.
For a while in the early 2010s after giving up my ambition of being a curatorial anthropologist, I did an MA in psychosocial studies. I mostly did it because Judith Butler was the visiting tutor and that means a lot to a lanky 20 something pro-queer theorist. One of my courses was an introductory certificate in group analytic psychotherapy. So basically, I did a year's foundational training in being a group therapist. And it has been the best thing for a career as a researcher, because it taught me to be silent. People hate silence and they try and fill it with words. So I'm trying to lean on that. You wait five seconds longer than normal to interject. And people will say more things, and probably take the conversation in a better direction.
- More interviews
- SOPN day
- Trying to get to the Newspeak House Wednesday thing
- Hoping to be less ill.