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Getting to know you… meeting Joanna Kuchta

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So being a mature student, I do when I get the chance to ask my fellow first years, why they choose communication studies. Asking the slim little blonde who sat beside me Tuesday lead to an interesting discovery.

As Amanda Palmer has stated several times “We are the Media” and this 18 year old has certainly embraced that over the last two years. Her name is Joanna Kuchta and she describes herself as a Polish Princess living in Ireland.

She choose Communication Studies as a general communications degree but is aiming at communications as part of the fashion industry. She already models and has created her own “brand” using tumblr, twitter and instagram. She has that many followers which means she gets paid to feature items and lines on these platforms, but will only do so if she likes them and thinks they are cute.

She has a staggering 200,00 + followers in instagram http://instagram.com/joannakuchta and 89.6K followers on Twitter, https://twitter.com/pixiejoanna.

She chose the degree course in DCU rather then a fashion specific course in case she changes her mind or direction over the next few years. She is bright, smart, aware of the tools she is using and the type of messaging her ‘brand’ is composed off, be it in interviews, or her interactions on social media or her vloging via youtube.

http://www.lazyoaf.com/blog/2014/10/virtual-reality-with-elizabethcharliekuchta/

Was the last shoot she did, I look forward to seeing how she managed to juggle her fashion career and the degree over the next 3 years.

The Wanton Witch

Féile Draíochta 2014

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Féile Draíochta 2014 was awesome and even more so that my brats were there and helping out as minions and raffle ticket sellers. It was awesome to have them hanging out with other kids of pagan parents and for them to see that there is a community of people who are pagan, that while they are personally agnostic I think its important they seem community other then that of the local parish as their only model of community. They saw people all all ages, and several babes. Everyone who they encountered had time for them and didn’t speak down to them.

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I would very much recommend coming along to this, if you get the chance it’s always the first weekend in October.

I got my face painted, which is one of my own traditions and  the Dice Lady was lovely to deal with.

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Hi there!

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My name is Janet Ní Shuilleabháin, I also use the name Sharrow  online. I’m currently a Mature Student at DCU and blog about that in the  Unilife section. I am a parent  with two brats, both of whom is on the autistic spectrum. I am a feminist, gamer, geek, inquisitive person. I can be found on twitter as @Sharrow_ie

This blog was once my online scrap book but it, like myslef has evolved over the years, it now Has sections,

For my writing on  social issues check out the  Activism and Agitation.

For my  writings on generally pagan matters, check out The Wanton Witch.

For my writing out all thinks geek, gamer and fandom check out Worlds Beyond Counting.

If you need to contact me via email you can do so here: Ladyshadowsharrow [@] gmail .com

Press

I have done a certain amount of press work over the last 2 years, if you are interested in reading/listening to what I have done have a look here.

 

Comment Policy

Comments and questions are welcome, abuse is not.

I’ve not been bothered to have one of these explicitly spelt out, but after a few surges of hits to here and a selection of comments which followed all with in the same day and a very narrow time period and the ping backs have showed me were they came from well.
I am putting one in place.

I had expected there to be rational arguments and a civil discourse even with people who have differing opinions and view to my own. I enjoy discussion and debate.

But I won’t ever be publishing comments which denigrate me. If that is all your are aiming for with your comments then you are wasting your time.

Activism and Agitation

Corcaigh Abú; Cork City Council passed a motion to support a referendum to Repeal the 8th amendment

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Given the title of this blog, there maybe ancestors spinning in graves down in Kerry, but credit where it’s due.

Late last night during a 5 hour session, in which topics as varied as the lack of librarians to new cycle lanes were tackled after the summer recess, Cork City Council passed a motion to support a referendum to Repeal the 8th amendment to the Constitution.

 

 

The motion was narrowly passed, making Cork City Council the first brave set of counselors to make such a call. Over the last 12 months County Councils all over the country, have passed motions in support of a referendum on Marriage Equality, setting precedent for this type of motion.

The 8th Amendment Article 40.3.3 which is 31 years old restricts doctors from offering health care that women need and has seen over 160,000 women have to travel to the UK and increasingly women risking the 14 years possible jail sentence as laid down in the Protection of Life in Maternity law last year.

The 8th amendment is also responsible for the high court being able to make drastic care orders like those which were imposed on Miss Y. “This amendment is incapable of adaptation to human needs. It’s broken. It’s dead. It needs to come out.” stated Mairead Enright of Lawyers for Choice at a meeting to build a coalition to Repeal the 8th amendment last Saturday, it seem Cork City Council is in agreement with this.

We want to thank those brave, compassionate 12 Councillors who passed this motion and those who voted them into office in the last local election. It is going to take more brave and compassionate people taking action to make this referendum happen, you can take part by signing The Abortion Rights Campaign’s petition to repeal the 8th amendment, by taking the National Women’s Council of Ireland action to contact your TDs telling them you want the 8th amendment repealed and by joining us on the March for Choice on the 27th of September.

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Worlds Beyond

Shamrokon: what I did last weekend….

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I had been feeling the guilts that I was not at the marches on Saturday http://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/  or Sunday, http://www.marriagequality.ie/ as I was involved with running a large scifi convention.
But as problematic as Scifi/fantasy fandom can be, nothing at the convention needed smashing, which given that it was the european scifi convention it had 1,300 people from 33 countries and we had 130 program items and 113 participants, is mind boggling.

Often at these events cis white men can dominate the panels, that wasn’t the case, in fact we did have a gender disparity as we had too many women on panels. Also we had more women moderating then men, I was delighted that Cheryl Morgan who is a trans right activist as well as  is an Hugo award-winning British science fiction critic and publisher. took part on panels over the weekend and as I was moderating the Boycott panel and we talked about TERFS.

We had equal numbers of men and women displaying in the Art Show , non of the cos players were harassed, we had panels on women in 2000AD, women writers, Gender boxes in Game of thrones and real life, why women have had to use pseudonym to get published, the Hawkeye initiative, Missing Medieval Women, discussions on why fiction women write had been seen as lesser.

I let it be known that I was queer and a feminist and made sure our code of conduct included making the convention a respectful place including respecting pro nouns and the photograph policy. I had people tell me they felt safe. Our youngest and oldest panel participants were women and the youngest at 14 is the youngest ever for a Eurocon. We had 4 workshops and all of them were run by women. including Lora O’Brien. It was refreshing and awesome and all off the convention was accessible.

There were even scholar ship tickets for fans of colour and those who may not be in the financial position to afford to go http://con-or-bust.livejournal.com/. 2/5 of the guests of honor were women, Seanan McGuire andYlva Spångberg.  Seanan McGuire was wonderful to interview and referenced the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and was able to cite figures from the studies, and one of the others was Jim Fitzpatrick who  was one of the public signatories on the Anti Amendment statement opposing the pro life amendment in 1983, he is also a human rights activist.

 Shamrokon got it as right as a scifi convention can be and I am proud of what we accomplished and the people on the committee and the staff who all had social justice awareness before we started.

Activism and Agitation

Protests happening Wednesday 20th August 2014

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Dublin – The Spire at 6pm

Belfast – City Hall at 6pm

Galway – Eyre Square at 6pm

Cork – Courthouse at 6pm

Limerick – Cellar Door at 8pm

Derry – Guildhall at 6pm

Auckland – Irish Consulate at 8am

London – Irish Embassy at 6pm

Berlin – Irish Embassy at 6.30pm

The same way after the news about Savita broke, after the news of the young woman who is being referred to as MigrantX broke, protests have sprung up nationwide, and globally as far way as New Zealand.

 

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