The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

In which I get annoyed at everyday things... Is becoming increasingly more grumpy a part of the aging process? There are lots of big things to be angry about and I certainly am angry about them, but as I go about my everyday life I find the tiny irritations really wind me up. It's time for Game of Moans, Strictly Come Groaning, The Great British Hate Off, The Despair Shop... (I could almost just do a whole list of these!) One of the most annoying things I do is go to the supermarket. By the time I arrive back home, I am filled with inexplicable rage. First of all, I have to jump in the car and drive there. I do not claim to be a good driver by any means- I'm frankly pleased if I make it to my destination without having hit anything. But my reactions are fairly good. This doesn't seem to be the case with many drivers on the road. I live in a busy town with a lot of traffic and it is so annoying when drivers fail to pull out in perfectly good gaps in the traffic.  The most an...

In which I do some imagining... I thought about writing an angry piece about world events today but in the end, I settled with something much lighter. If you enjoy this experiment do give it a like wherever you saw this posted and I may well write a volume 2 at some point.  Most Sunday mornings I can be found sitting in the McDonald's near the cinema I go to having a coffee and an egg McMuffin. It's usually fairly quiet at that time but there is a steady flow of people passing through. I like to watch what's going on and imagine the stories of these people. Over the last few months, I've been constructing little vignettes about the people I see... A couple in their 50s walks across the car park, a tangible tension between them. Kevin is trying to quash the guilt after spending yesterday afternoon in Natalie from work's bed rather than on the golf course as he had claimed. He must remember to text Paul to remind him to cover if Hannah asks. Hannah meanwhile is actual...

In which I discuss how dyspraxia affects my job... The 9th-14th of October is Dyspraxia Awareness Week and as I have for the last few years I'm sharing my own experiences as a way of spreading awareness. For quite a long time I worried that dyspraxia would be a barrier to me becoming a teacher but the past year has taught me that I can find ways to manage the difficulties it can bring. I didn't feel that it affected my qualification too much, other than a period where I had to learn how to write in cursive handwriting and write it on a whiteboard at a sensible speed that was also legible and big enough for students at the back of the class to be able to read. I have largely found that with small practical things like this the solution for me is just lots of practice. A neurotypical person could probably master this without a lot of effort but if you'd have wandered into that classroom of an evening for a couple of weeks you may well have found me randomly writing the alphab...

In which I reflect on why conspiracy theories are concerning... Perhaps the most worrying outcome of the pandemic has been the rise in the belief in conspiracy theories. Previously these were views held by a tiny minority of the population and mostly revolved around relatively silly ideas like pop stars secretly dying and being replaced with a lookalike. Now there is a concerning proportion of the population that believes that the government is trying to control people with vaccines and that there is a global ring of celebrities who are trafficking huge numbers of children, as well as various other insane ideas.  How has this happened? Several researchers and journalists have found a clear correlation between the wellness community and conspiracy theories. There seems to be a direct line from mainstream ideas like yoga and meditation through to things like crystal healing and then onto full-on conspiracy theories. These ideas are spread on social media; you watch one video about cr...

In which I wax lyrical about The Jungle Book ... For reasons that I may eventually discuss, I recently found myself watching Disney's 1967 animated classic The Jungle Book . It's a film that holds a very special place in my heart. This would be my go-to VHS for many years. As long as I can remember, The Jungle Book was there. Even now, I kind of want to be Mowgli.  The animation is superb. It's a really clever balance between managing to make the animals look very much like animals whilst being able to anthropomorphize them at the same time. The designs reflect the characters really effectively too- Baloo really looks friendly and laid-back. The animation of Mowgli is really good too, allowing him to be able to attempt to replicate the other animals and also giving him facial expressions which give him more personality- he's one of the most expressive central characters in Disney history.  The film also contains some of Disney's best voice work. Sterling Holloway, ...

In which I reflect on a year of being veggie... It's now been a year since I decided to become a vegetarian. It still feels like something of a novelty but I suppose that can be put down to the strange sensation of time passing ever more quickly as you get older.  It all began in last year's searingly hot summer when I realised meat consumption was probably the biggest part of my carbon footprint and therefore cutting it out would be a step I could make against climate change. This year's summer couldn't be more different with the UK experiencing slightly lower average temperatures and much higher amounts of rainfall than normal. This has been down to relatively local climate conditions and the world as a whole has had by far the hottest year in human history. Much of the world has been struggling with temperatures around 40 degrees C and the dramatic events that come with them such as devastating wildfires and tropical storms and hurricanes. I may not have personally b...

In which I have some success... I've been meaning to write this post for about a month but haven't got around to it. I'm not sure why. I think there's a part of me that thinks I've fallen into some unrealistic fantasy and at any minute I will wake up.  On an ordinary Tuesday morning, I opened up my emails and received the news. I am now a qualified teacher. I'll be honest, I had to go and have a moment alone because I was somewhat overcome with emotion. There may have been a tear or two.  It feels like a big personal victory to me. I started university in 2010 to gain this qualification but things went wrong in the dying months of the course and I left uni in 2014 without a teaching qualification and a degree that was no use for anything else. I was traumatized by a bad experience and my already low self-esteem hit rock bottom. I basically spent the next six years trying to recover and rebuild without really any direction in my life.  Covid uprooted all our live...