Slave to the Wage

This is me pretending to read on the exact
 same spot in Chetham's Library where
 Marx used to sit when he visited Engels
 in Manchester in 1845

Today’s blog post is about your future job. There’s probably a reason why you’re studying this, hence you may already have an idea of what you’d like to do after you finish. You may even have a dream job. 

I remember I had a dream job when I was an undergraduate student, but looking back I can see it wasn’t really ambitious or relevant. I did get it, though. I’ve sort of got all the dream jobs I’ve had in my life so far. I’ve put a lot of effort into it, and even when at times I was lazy and irresponsible, I managed to find ways of making up for the damage that behaviour may have caused. I achieved this by taking new responsibilities and bringing them to completion the best way I could.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my next ideal/dream job. I really want to continue teaching, but I think that I need to complement that work with research if I want to be able to contribute to society in the ways I’m interested in. I think the ideal future job for me would be one where I can do research, while being able to disseminate the knowledge my research produces through my practice as a teacher. Of course I’d also have to publish papers, go to conferences and the like (because research institutions need to produce in order to survive in this (capitalist) world), but I firmly believe the actual dissemination takes place outside academia, and a way to achieve that is through education. 

I’d also like to disseminate the results of my work through my involvement in different NGOs and at grassroots level organisations. I’m currently volunteering in one NGO called OCAC (I’m part of their studies group) and I’m also volunteering for a campaign with SINTRACAP (we still need volunteers if you’re interested). Although these activities are not necessarily related to the research I can do or have done, I think they're a good start. However, I'd still like to be able to do what I like whilst being able to earn a living with it, so the ideal job for me would allow me to do both things without having to choose just one. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the only way I can get on in a world where we’re forced to depend on wages, without losing the motivation to go to work each day. Wish me luck!

Now what about you? Have you thought about your future job? If so, what is it and why do you want that job and not another? If you haven’t thought about that job yet, you can tell us why. Or think about the features your future job should have. Whatever you decide to tell us about your future job, make sure you:

- Do it in 210 words. 

- Leave comments on 2 of your classmates’ posts.

- Leave 1 comment on mine.

Frenz

My girlfriends.
Tans courtesy of instagram filters.

Some (cliché-loving) people say that friends are the family that you choose. That's obviously true. I don't have that many friends, but the ones I have are the ones I really want to keep around. Maybe more than I want to keep my family around sometimes, to be honest...

When I was living abroad there was a time when all I wanted to do was come back and see my friends, do things with them, have talks about serious and not so serious stuff with them, catch up with what they were doing and have some drinks or lady terremotos* together.

I have different groups of friends, most of whom I met at university. What I do with them is very similar, but varies slightly depending on who they are. For instance, with my girlfriends we have drinks, smoke some special cigs (they do, I don't) and talk about life and partners, or the lack thereof. I know that's very heteronormative and if we were in a movie we would definitely fail the Bechdel test but I don't give a damn.

I also have two friends who are married and now have children. Whenever I meet them we mostly have barbecues (my friend Javier really likes them), drink beers and catch up on our latest complaints (aka lives).

Additionally, I have some ex-colleague friends with whom I drink posh drinks, eat finger food and talk about our professional lives and nerdy interests.

When I was in Lancaster, I had a friend with whom I talked about life and our political interests always accompanied by some pints which we bought in rounds so I always got drunk and ended up hungover. I'm not proud of that, but it's a fact.

Ex-colleague friends when we took a stroll around Valpo once

It's nice having friends. The bad thing is when they start standardising their lives but you are still stuck in your twenties (even when you're 37), because that usually means you have less and less things to talk about.

Another bad thing is when we start working and are always too tired to get together, so we end up seeing each other every six months and feeling really sleepy at 11 pm. I remember when I was young and I could spend the night anywhere, just for the sake of having fun. But now I always want to spend the night in my own bed. I guess that's a sign I'm really 37. Although this is mostly a thing that sucks about (paid) labour and ageing, not friendships proper, so ignore it (or think about it and do something before the time comes!).

In this week's post you have to write about your friends. This is one of the topics you chose, so you could pretty much say whatever you want about friends and/or friendship.

One suggestion when this post was voted was to write about hanging out with friends ('dates', according to Sergio) and what you do when you get together.

Other things you could discuss are the best places to meet friends and what qualities people should have to become your friends. Personally, I'm very open, but I draw the line at racists, fascists and people who justify the coup d'etat (yes, I'm not over that and I never will. And no, I wasn't alive. I said I'm 37. Focus, people).

Whatever you choose to write, make sure you write 200 words.
Also, leave comments on at least 2 of your classmates' entries and 1 comment on MINE (I won't give up asking you to do this!).

* lady terremotos are a middle-age-crisis drink which consists of sparkling wine and pineapple ice cream. I know that's what (some?) people drink on the New Year's but if you drink it any time during the year it's called lady terremoto, just so you know (according to me, though. Patent still pending). Note that pineapple ice cream does not exist in England, or at least in the town where I was living so, yeah, I missed it.

Panic

Hello everyone.

Today's topic is one that you chose: world challenges. I could write something but I don't know anything about world challenges and I don't really feel like thinking or googling anything about it, to be honest.

I suppose you are interested in this topic and doing stuff for the world and that's probably the reason why you chose your career path, so please, go ahead and tell us something about the different challenges the world is facing today.

If you want to, you can also share some ideas on how to solve (some of) them.

You need to write at least 180 words.

And, as usual, you have to leave comments on at least 2 of your classmates' posts.