me

[buggery]

I won't be around much this week. I'm doing five days of training (three this week, two next week) for a new volunteer job I'm starting, which I'm very excited about; I'll be working with abused and neglected kids, helping to ensure they get the services they need.

The training is fun -- I've missed taking classes more than I've given much thought to since getting my university degree -- but long, 6-7 hours a day, and a 90-minute one-way commute for me. So by the time I get home at night I'm pretty wiped on top of having most of the day gone. I'll probably need to crash extra-hard come the weekend, on top of needing to do my other volunteer work on Saturday; for those of you who don't know, I help run a Saturday "soup kitchen" serving needy people who can't get to an alternate location on Saturdays, when the institutional soup kitchen downtown is closed.

I'm still thinking writing thoughts, never fear, and hopefully I'll be able to post some sort of fic content sometime this weekend. Or maybe some new-Toon-Titans / JLU-premiere squee Sunday morning.


Incidentally, if anybody is amused by the irony of my current fandom and my new job, you're not alone; and if anybody is horrified and is considering reporting me, let me remind you of three things: I won't have any unchaperoned contact with kids in the program, I'm doing this because I've been an abused child myself and I know they need more help than the system alone often gives them, and you don't know my full name anyway.

Comments

[karabou.livejournal.com]

and if anybody is horrified and is considering reporting me

That's just awful to even consider.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Within the last six months, slash fandom at large has seen supposed fen create a "blacklist" of writers who had posted R or NC-17 rated fiction to LJ in public posts, and another who gleefully reported a fanfiction writer to a fanfiction archive site for posting fanfiction in hopes of getting the writer's stories removed (successfully, I might add).

I'd love to believe people know better. I DO believe that most of them do know better. I'm more hoping to deter someone well-meaning (I am, after all, an admitted fan of, and web-published writer of, stories involving sex with fictional minors) from making a mistake than prevent an asshole from being themselves.

Not that the result would likely be anything worse than a bit of embarassment for me, if my secret life as an erotica writer were to be revealed to other people at the agency. They're pretty sensible with who they will and won't hire for the type of work I'll be doing.

[karabou.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean, I understand how some people might take it the wrong way.. but, ugh. I don't know, it's just fic. I read stuff about minors, but it's not like I'm actually going to go out and have sex with them. Anyway, I get what you mean, and btw, it's very cool that you're volunteering and everything. I work at a daycare, and working with kids can be really rewarding, especially the ones who really need it. It's good to know you're helping, you know?

[solidor.livejournal.com]

That's really, really awesome. I've been volunteering with kids for a bit now, but would really like to help in a similar facility. I'm not sure if I'm a little young to, though (twenty). Good luck on it.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Cool! What kind of volunteer work are you doing with kids now -- something like a Boys' and Girls' Club, or Scouting?

I don't think you'd be too young at all; one of the trainees in my class just got her BA, and is thus probably around your age, and actually a couple of the others look like they might be, too (I don't go round asking people their ages, though). The main things you need are reliable transportation (preferably, though not necessarily, your own car), enough time to devote to the kids you're assigned to, and a willingness to sign on for at least twelve to 24 months. I can send you more information if you want?

[solidor.livejournal.com]

A local library has a program for (predominantly) lower income kids that I've been working with -- teaching them to read, spending a couple mornings a week with them. Before that, I was reading to ESL kids. Not much (yet), but I really, really would like to help out with abused and neglected kids due to my own history as well.

Classes start again in about three weeks, so I'm going to see how much time I have between Junior year coursework and still working with the library's program and getting more involved in my campus' P.A.V.E. (People Against Violent Encounters) That's the sort of thing I would eventually like to be a part of, though. I'll be following your work there!

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

I admire you a lot for doing this. You are going to make such a difference in these kids' lives.

But I boggle over people who are unable to differentiate fantasy from reality, or conceive of the fact that others can and do. Reporting you? Man...

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I certainly hope to make that difference.

As for the other thing... nobody's tried reporting me yet, I don't think, but yeah, too many people see things as black-and-white in a world of grey (and colours).

[meret.livejournal.com]

I'll be working with abused and neglected kids, helping to ensure they get the services they need.

Bless you!

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks. In a perfect world, the system would protect every child so that none of them needed an independent agency providing oversight... or, actually, in a perfect world no child would ever be neglected or abused. We can dream.