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- $xhtml = array(
- 'title' => 'Not yet able to shed my old name fully',
- 'body' => <<<END
- <section id="general">
- <h2>General news</h2>
- <p>
- It looks like I'm going to have to masquerade as [insert my birth name here] for a little while longer.
- My head manager won't update the name on my pay cheques until I bring in a copy of my new $a[DMV] $a[ID] and new Social Security card.
- That's plenty reasonable, but I don't have the new Social Security card yet.
- Unlike the $a[DMV], the Social Security Administration doesn't give out temporary cards to use while waiting for the permanent cards to show up in the mail.
- Without my pay cheques updated, I'll need to keep at least one of my credit unions in the dark about the change so I can still deposit the cheques there.
- </p>
- <p>
- A customer came in with someone else's credit card today, but that person'd written "See ID" on the card.
- I had no choice but ti ask them for $a[ID], and when their $a[ID] didn't match, I had to decline the card.
- They were pretty angry about it, and said we'd lost a customer.
- What could I do though?
- I mean, if someone writes "See ID" on their card, they <strong>*want*</strong> this extra layer of security (though some say this actually adds a vulnerability to identity theft more than security for the card).
- They claimed the owner of the card allowed them to use it, but a thief would've said the same thing.
- The next customer in line also had that written on their card, and they claimed not to have their $a[ID] on them.
- They didn't freak out like the first customer, but they did have to cancel their order.
- I have to point out though that they were in the drive-through in a motor vehicle.
- Legally speaking, they were required to have their driver license/$a[ID] on them.
- </p>
- <p>
- One customer, when asked to sign their receipt, signed with an at sign ("@").
- That's a new one.
- I've seen a few smiles, a star, and a couple simple lines, but not an at sign.
- None of these are my problem though.
- My job is just to ask them to sign the receipt.
- If they do something else, I don't push the issue.
- </p>
- <p>
- My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
- </p>
- </section>
- <section id="dreams">
- <h2>Dream journal</h2>
- <p>
- I ha a strange nightmare last night.
- At first, the dream was fine.
- I was looking for a place to live so I could escape my unfavourable home life.
- I guess I still lived with my mother or something.
- Someone asked me if I wanted to live at their apartment.
- I agreed to live there, only to find out this single, huge apartment was sectioned off into miniature subrooms with temporary walls put up to provide us with some privacy.
- Nudity wasn't a problem though, and a few of us, myself included, inhabited the space unclothed.
- However, I didn't really run into any of them, as we all seemed to keep to ourselves.
- I did accidentally walk into someone's subroom at one point though, because I thought it was uninhabited.
- The door was in terrible shape and full of holes.
- This place was a mess, but months went by and I didn't have to pay any rent.
- </p>
- <p>
- Somehow, later in the day and with no transition, I instead lived alone in an apartment in a tall, many-storied complex.
- A nearby building made me jealous.
- It looked like my own, but had signs saying all the proceeds from rent whent to some charity.
- I quickly noticed my building was connected to that other apartment building via a large, outdoor ceiling though; they were the same complex, and were likely under the same policy of donating their income.
- Somehow though, I ended up staying the night in one of the empty rooms of this second building.
- </p>
- <p>
- Night fell, and I was in bed.
- Come to think of it, it was an actual bed, and not just a mattress on the floor like I have in the real world.
- I heard creepy sounds outside the window, and I thought someone was climbing around the outside of the building trying to somehow sap heat from the units through the windows.
- It was at this point the mostly-good dream began to become a nightmare.
- I stayed quiet and tried not to be noticed.
- I didn't want any trouble.
- At some point though, my blanket started coming off the bed toward the foot.
- Someone was in my unit, pulling my blanket off!
- I wasn't safe and I had to make a move.
- I dove off my bed down past the foot.
- However, what I found wasn't human.
- It was dark so I couldn't see very well, but the thing pulling my blanket off was a cubic blob, and now I was being pulled into it.
- Its consistency was like those gel snacks you'd find in a grocery store.
- Somehow, I came to my senses enough to realise this was a dream.
- I now understood I wasn't in danger and kept telling myself not to wake up.
- I tried to shove the blob away from me, but it kept pulling me further in.
- I wanted to remain asleep, but I realised the only way to defeat it was to end the dream; so I did.
- I forced myself to wake up.
- </p>
- <p>
- I haven't had a nightmare involving monsters such as this for ages.
- I kind of wonder what it means.
- Normally, my nightmares are just of completely-realistic situations that I'd be particularly troubled by.
- I wonder what this dream represents, especially given that I knew it was a dream near the end, tried to stay in the dream world, but had to make a retreat to the real world.
- The only part of the dream I know how to decipher at the moment is the nudity.
- It's possible I was nude in my apartment was simply because I live nude in my real-world apartment.
- However, it more likely represents exposure of self, as is common in dreams.
- It means you feel like someone's able to see you for who you really are.
- How you react to noticing your nudity represents how you feel about others seeing the real you.
- My first reaction to walking in on someone was that I hoped they hadn't seen me.
- I quickly closed the door and left.
- I didn't mind being seen nude, but I though <strong>*they*</strong> might have a problem seeing me nude.
- Fairly quickly though, I decided that I lived there too, and they could just deal with it.
- So in the real world, I probably feel like my real self is shining through in some way, and I think someone might be offended by it.
- However, I have a right to be me and they can just deal with it.
- I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with my name change.
- Others might not like my name for one reason or another.
- Some people can't figure out how to pronounce my surname right after being told how.
- Others might not like that my given name isn't indicative of sex or gender.
- However, these people can just deal with it.
- This name is a better expression of who I am than my birth name.
- But what does the rest of the dream indicate?
- I did check my deadbolt before going back to sleep though.
- It was still only about 03:00.
- </p>
- </section>
- <section id="university">
- <h2>University life</h2>
- <p>
- I've added several pages to what was said to be my reading assignment, as I think these were actually supposed to be part of the assignment too:
- </p>
- <ul>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/calendar.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.6 The Roman Calendar</a>
- </li>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/dress.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.8 Dress</a>
- </li>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/education.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.5 Education</a>
- </li>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/food.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.9 Food & Drink</a>
- </li>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/games.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.10 Holidays and Games</a>
- </li>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/numerals.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.7 Roman Numerals</a>
- </li>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/slavery.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.4 Slavery</a>
- </li>
- <li>
- <a href="https://the-romans.co.uk/women.htm">The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 5.3 The place of women</a>
- </li>
- </ul>
- <p>
- With a bit more information, I wrote up my initial discussion post for the week:
- </p>
- <blockquote>
- <p>
- Slaves were a major problem for the Roman economy.
- Many small farmers lost their land to large estates.
- Had these estates payed the small farmers to work their land, the small farmers might have still made a reasonable living.
- Instead, the large estates frequently employed slave labour.
- No one was paid for this, but employment was desperately needed by the masses.
- Many were jobless and unable to afford food.
- It's for this reason that Rome had to put in place a grain dole for the poor.
- There simply wasn't a way to provide jobs when all the jobs were taken up by slaves.
- By allowing people to keep slaves, Rome allowed itself to fall into a barely-stable (or perhaps unsustainable) mess.
- </p>
- <p>
- Slaves were abundant.
- Nearly one in three Romans was a slave.
- Labour-saving technology stagnated.
- The Romans <strong>*could*</strong> have worked on devices for making labour easier and more efficient out on farms, but why would they?
- Slave labour was a fact of life, and there were plenty of slaves to go around.
- Slaves worked in mines, digging up the metals needed by their masters.
- City jobs, such as building and maintaining public works, building pots, and being teachers; doctors; and scribes, were also filled by slaves.
- </p>
- </blockquote>
- </section>
- END
- );
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