Is 6.5% enough?

Today, there was a leak in the Times that said the independent body who make recommendations on teacher pay has recommended a pay rise of 6.5% for teachers in England for September. Obviously, we don’t know all the details, and funding is a key issue, but is 6.5% enough to save education?

Anecdata, but I recently met up with some friends from my teacher training course. We’re close to hitting the 5 year mark- by which point 1/3 of teachers apparently quit. Except I’m going to be the only one out of five of us teaching in England in September, an attrition rate of 80%. And I don’t think that attrition rate is so unusual, any more.

Right now, on one of the main websites which schools use to advertise vacancies, there are over 12,000 teaching/education jobs being advertised in England. It’s very roughly one vacancy for every two schools. These vacancies won’t be evenly distributed between all schools, so there will be schools in September with huge staff shortages. It’s not an exaggeration to say education is in crisis.

If we got 6.5% (and if it were funded, ensuring all teachers could receive the pay rise), would it make any difference? It’s lower than inflation, after all, and many of the things that we regularly need to buy have gone up by more than inflation in the past year.

As a brief explanation, most teachers in England are paid according to one pay scale. People get a bit more in Inner/outer London and the surrounding areas, but otherwise there’s one set of pay for the whole country. All teachers progress from the starting point M1, to M6, usually at the rate of one pay point a year. The 6.5% would be added on to all of these paypoints.

6.5% would bring M1 (the starting pay point for most qualified teachers) very close to the original Tory promise of a £30,000 starting salary for teachers. At the top of the main pay scale- M6 (which is the point at the pay scale where this would have most impact) it would increase salaries by over £2000 to £41, 332. This would be noticeable in pay packets, enough to reduce people’s financial stresses- which can enable them to cope better with a stressful working environment.

I know some of you will say £40k is a lot, but bear in mind we are talking about a postgraduate qualified professional with at least 6 years of experience. For someone with a chemistry, physics or maths degree, that could be their starting salary in industry. It’s about equivalent to the average salary of a pharmacist. In a capitalist system, pay has to be competitive.  

After M6, to increase your pay, you either need to get onto the “upper pay scale” or take on an extra responsibility payment known as a TLR. Getting on to the upper pay scale used to be relatively automatic, but now it’s much harder. It can certainly take people two or three years to progress from M6 to upper pay scale, and you’re expected to take on “whole school responsibilities” which can amount to a lot of extra work, with not that much of an increase in pay. Increasingly, in England, teacher pay is capped at M6, although there are a lot of older teachers who are on the upper pay scale, and sometimes, they find themselves getting pushed out because they are too expensive. If you move schools, there’s no guarantee of getting a UPS pay point at the new school.

TLRs are even worse in many ways. This is the way that people like heads of department and heads of year are paid. It’s a figure set by your school, within a national range, and there’s no consistency between schools. A Head of Science in one school may get £5000, whilst another only gets £3000. It’s worth noting that it’s also much harder to get a TLR in primary. Because TLRs are often the only way to increase your pay, a lot of people rush to take them on, sometimes in the second or third year of teaching. This often leads to burnout, because people take on massive responsibilities before they are ready, and the consequences can be damaging to everyone around them as well.

I do think 6.5% might be just enough to keep some people who are looking elsewhere from leaving. But the main reason people leave is often work related stress, often euphemistically called “workload”, which is largely being driven by the collapse in other services such as social services, the NHS and social care. “Workload” is also often made worse by being in a short staffed department, so it becomes a vicious cycle. I’ll write more about workload in another post.

However, the point is, the profession is on the brink of collapse. I really do believe that. I think the only way to save education would be to tempt a lot of the recent leavers back in. And 6.5% won’t be enough to do that. I don’t think 10% would be enough to do that. Without tackling the systemic problems within teaching, and without a pay system that really rewards classroom teachers doing the key, every day job that makes education functional, pay increases that don’t even match inflation aren’t enough.

How will Biden stop Israel? He has no jurisdiction in Israel. It's a different country. As much as you USAmericans like to think you're special and other countries are countries in name only, Israel still is an independent country and the USA has no legal power to order Israel to do anything. Or are people saying the US should start a war against Israel? Because that's what it would be if Biden ordered a military intervention by the USA. He can call for a ceasefire just as much as any other world leader, but Israel clearly is not going to listen.

anon you do an amazing job of dressing up your heinous defense of us complicity in israeli occupation and the genocide of palestinians in the language of anti-us imperialism. the problem is you're not spewing your bullshit at someone who doesn't know anything about israel and the united states' history, and so i will not be falling for this latest bit of vomitous apologetics and propaganda that's doing the rounds. eat a dick, but in case anyone else wants to know why anon is full of shit and why the us actually does have SOME significant leverage with israel, let me explain.

when I say the united states and joe biden as president could actually do something to stop israeli war crimes, i am not talking about military invention. i've always been anti-war with very few exceptions and i'm not about to call for war that would result in utter devastation. the us military could easily and handily force by violence israel into submission (we are good at that unfortunately) but that's horrific and it would undoubtedly result in the deaths of millions and also probably further destabilize the entire region since we're very, very good at that, too. no that's insane and also would never happen, the united states needs israel to be right where it is and maybe just a little less insane for geopolitical hegemonic and capitalist reasons. so not only am i not immoral enough to call for the brutal murder of random civilians in israel (how would that help palestinians who of course would also be brutalized) but i'm also not delusional enough to even think that's a possibility. thankfully. israel is damn lucky to have the united states as a country-sized human shield that keeps the rest of the region from throwing hands, because clearly the rest of the region is showing a lot of restraint right now. and of course that's a good thing. i don't want a fucking world war to break out.

i'm talking about money. i'm talking about aid. i'm talking about the weapons grants we send to israel, the money that israel uses to fund palestinian ethnic cleansing. that is the leverage that the united states above every other nation has with israel. and yes, israel certainly might be able to buy their own weapons, but losing us aid would be a real hit to israel. and if the us withheld its aid, my guess is the us wouldn't be the only supporter of israel to withhold financial aid.

eisenhower threatened to end all us aid to israel if israeli troops didn't withdraw from egyptian territory during the suez crisis. that did in fact work. presidents ford, carter, reagan, and hw bush all used this leverage to get concessions from israel.

of course it wouldn't mean israel couldn't continue to do horrible shit, but if the us actually held israel to account financially, they'd have several billion reasons to change course. and that would mean an end to funding iron dome... and that would probably give israel a bit more reason to chill out.

there was an article i read recently that i can't find rn of an israeli official saying that of course israel depends on us aid but i can't find it so if anyone knows what i'm talking about, send me the link.

Rounding up the OC Parenting Questions with Ibis

• How many children does your OC have?

So far he has the one and he didn't even plan on it so he's hoping this is it.

• Which child tends to receive the most attention? Why?

The one and only. Except he hasn't really given her attention due to barely knowing of her existence.

• What personal trait would your OC prefer their child/ children to develop? (kindness, sense of humor, independence, assertiveness, etc)

He expects her to be smart and hopes for a good sense of humor. He doesn't want a nerd though 🤪

• What is your OC’s greatest area of weakness as a parent? Their greatest strength?

Well so far the big weakness would be him not being there, even if it's not his fault. It also doesn't bode well for him that he always said he never wanted kids. However for strength he, first of, has money so kid is set, and most of all he's now convinced that he wants to do right by her and protect her.

• What negative events from your OC’s childhood are important for your OC to shield their own child/children from? 

Having the pink hair meant that from a young age he was sought after. While he loved the attention he learned that those seeking him wanted to steal his powers for themselves. He definitely doesn't want anyone going after his daughter, kidnap her and take her powers.

We also can't forget what happened with the sphinx and as much as he'd love to never see "that bitch" again, he knows that not only he has to go back, but he's gonna have to take his daughter at some point.

• What is your OC’s parenting style? Strict? Permissive? Absent?

Lol so far it's been absent.

• If your OC is raising children with a partner, how well do they work as a team in their parenting?

I mean she's doing all the work at the moment but he's insisting now to handle the financial side. He's mad she didn't let him sooner.

• Where does your OC want their child/children to grow? (City, suburbs, countryside, van life, etc?) Why?

He likes his hometown and either city or the suburbs where he lived sound fine to him. He just wants it to be a good place.

• How often does your OC’s child/children get to see/meet their extended family? 

Well so far it's been 0 but hopefully soon she'll be meeting everyone on dad's side. As for mom's extended family she has never met them nor is she likely to since she's the reason they disinherited mom.

• What does your OC want their child/children to have that they never had?

Freedom. Now this is bullshit but obviously Ibis feels like there was stuff he couldn't do/places he couldn't go so he'd "bowed" that he'd let his kids do what he couldn't. Let's see how his tune sings when he becomes more hands on lol.

• What does your OC think about feeding their child/children junk food? (Rarely, on occasion, every day etc)

It's ok? It's also useless because vampire and all but otherwise no big opinion.

• What is your OC’s pocket money/ spending allowance philosophy?

Have all the money! We're rich, why worry? Spend away. YOLO

• Would your OC put a TV in their child/children’s room?

Sure? I mean he had one for a while. He uses his phone more though.

• Does you OC believe children should take part in household chores?

Ironically yes. So he grew up being encouraged to "help out" and using specific chores as punishment (which happened to him a lot lmao) but he actually liked it, especially laundry. So he'd use the same "help out" philosophy.

• What is your OC’s brand name buying philosophy for their child/children? 

Have it all? Again, we're rich! He grew up with brands and wanting more brands so like why wouldn't his kid have the same?

• How far apart did your OC space their children? Why?

Just the one. It wasn't planned.

• How does your OC feel about drinking alcohol or smoking in front of their child/children?

He does both and it hasn't occurred to him that maybe he shouldn't do this in front of her. One day someone will point it out but first he's gotta be around.

•  Does your OC believe in eating together as a family every night?

🤣

I don't even know what to address first. The vampire angle. The fact he's not really part of the household. Take your pick.

• Does your OC have any special traditions they would want to pass along to their child/children?

He'll realize it later but he wants to pass down his empire.

As much as he hates the sphinx he *does* want to travel with his kid and do all the traditional family-vampire things he did with his dad. Again, he hasn't thought about this yet, he's still mostly processing her existence.

Hi

So here is a hypothetical question I’m apparently going round the tumblr asking people. Imagine you have a novel about to be published by a moderately successful publishing house and they have given you an advance that would just about allow you to take a sabbatical from your job and focus on writing full time. Netflix have got hold of a press copy of the novel and offer you a life changing amount (let’s say it would buy you your dream home and give you a little to spare). But you will have no creative control over the show Netflix will make and you will have to agree to withhold publication of the novel until Netflix want it released. Would you take the money and let the show possibly be made? Or not? Why?

♥️♥️♥️s

Hi!!!

I took a while to answer this because it was basically impossible to do it before (work), but I've been rotating this scenario in my brain ever since getting this ask.

I think that if a) Netflix actually gives me the money, as they're apparently given to try to steal content from people (and I suppose that goes for most corporations one deals with, sadly) and b) I've not yet signed anything with the publishing house, I'd sell the novel to Netflix. In the end, even if I end up hating the finished product, a life-changing amount would mean I got to write as much as I ever wanted for the rest of my life! Never mind a sabbatical, I could quit work and just dedicated myself to it.

I guess it all comes down to artistic integrity, but to me, that's not irreconciliable with giving up creative control? Maybe I'm cynical or just greedy and irresponsible, but to me artists adapting to their circumstances is just part of that life. Artists have always had sponsors and patrons, and we're not all Tchaikovsky, most people that come offering money also come with opinions and their own agenda. Of course in the ideal world, we'd be able to have complete creative control over our own creations, but that can never happen. Corporate greed aside, even if you're completely independent, the reader, the audience, they'll come with their own subjective baggage and have their own interpretation of your work... it's an illusion to think we can keep our work 'pure' and limit the way it'll be read, so making a deal with a company that will give you enough money to resolve your life in exchange to do something that would happen anyway in some form sounds good to me.

I suppose this opinion comes with the knowledge that most writers are unlikely to be recognized on the street, much less get so famous that people will only ever associate them with one thing - obvious exceptions like GRRM and JKR are too rare to count - and that Netflix is more on the 'woke' side of the spectrum than the alt-right side. I would not do it if you sent this ask using a platform that produces fascist content as an example. Also, I've done plenty of shitty things under my own name, so it's like, no matter what Netflix pulls, I can always do worse! Hell, rather than buy my dream house, I can settle for a small flat and then open my own publishing house, and publish my own garbage forever, campaign to make it part of the public school curriculum, sell it to other companies that are not Netflix, etc. What I mean is, once you're in a comfortable place financially, the sky is the limit. You can keep writing, keep creating, and what you do from then on can be as completely controlled by you as humanly possible.

I am not a "new urbanist". To the extent I think any such label is even appropriate, "new suburbanist" is the one I'd choose. That might require a bit of explanation. All too often, people who use the label have zero vision beyond moving literally everyone (except I suppose a few farmers) to dense urban cores. (I'm well aware, BTW, that the people who coined the term have a much broader vision. I'm old enough to remember e.g. when Suburban Nation was first published.) All too often, "new urbanists" themselves only live in the dense city because that's where they were born and they've never known anything else, the decision to live there having been their parents'. The problem is that their prescription won't work.

First, let's be clear about one thing. "Urban" and "suburban" are structures, not governmental boundaries. Eight-lane "stroads" lined with office parks and big-box stores are not limited to separately incorporated suburbs. Lively self-sufficient town and neighborhood centers sometimes exist in the "official" suburbs. Vast wastelands of housing and little else definitely exist within the boundaries of big cities. I lived in two different parts of Detroit when I was younger. I remember well the feeling of being nowhere near anything, despite being nominally in (what was at the time) a big city. I've seen the same in many other cities, not even limited to the US. For current purposes, "urban" or "the city" refers only to the core of a city, not to the outlying parts which are structurally the same as suburbs.

The problem with "everyone move to the city" is that it doesn't scale to the entire population. As with many things, just because some people can do something doesn't mean everyone can do it all at the same time. Even the levels of in-migration we've already seen often cause problems. Infrastructure gets strained, followed by social structure. The cries of "gentrification" go up along with rents. The "white flight" of the old days has been replaced by an even less voluntary multi-colored flight, as only the most affluent former-suburbanites move in and everyone else has to move out. And where are they moving to? Often to some of the same places those privileged few just moved out of, only re-zoned and re-built for a different kind of consumer. This just moves people around without actually solving anything. The overall structure and distribution of people, and particularly the car dependency, hardly changes at all.

What we really need to do is improve the suburbs in place. Yes, change zoning so they can be denser, mixed-use, mixed-income, etc. Re-use existing structures to provide the services those areas currently lack. Provide them with their own public transportation. Some suburbs, and even more so independent smaller towns/cities, already have much of this. People do want to - and can better afford to - live in those places. We need a hundred times more. It's a far better and more implementable solution than literally leaving the suburbs to rot. There's no way to make everyone swallow that bitter financial pill, nor is there an excuse for the ecological devastation it would entail. The way things used to be in older suburbs before "car culture" became the norm, with self-sufficient towns connected together (often via light rail), is also the best way forward. That's what I mean by new suburbanism.

I LOVE Gilmore Girls but it's weird that in a show so centred around class, it mainly only criticises the wealthy for being snooty and socially conservative. It has little to say on the wealth divide's uglier side. Its presentede that Lane, Dean & Jess couldn't go to Chilton or Yale because they weren't that academic anyway. Meanwhile it was only really Lorelai who had money problems (not Luke, Suki etc) and that was OK because she had a safety net that she was too proud/independent to use.

Hi Anon - I’m *so* sorry it’s taken me weeks to get around to your ask. But I loved your comment so much I wanted to take the time to offer a thoughtful response, especially because it’s a theme I’ve been chewing over in my head for the past few months, since I watched the latest season of AHP’s other show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

I agree that Gilmore Girls has sort of become known over the years, in culture critic circles and online fan discourse, for its unflinching portrayal of how money shapes relationships across generations. And I also agree that for how much of the show revolves around money and wealth, the show never considers the other side of the middle-class divide - it just head-fakes there very occasionally, and usually pretty awkwardly. AHP is fundamentally uninterested in writing characters who truly struggle to make ends meet, as a basic condition of their daily lives. While that’s totally fine and fair, it stands out more on a show like Gilmore Girls, where money problems are a frequent plot device, a character having to deal with the true financial consequences of not having money never actually comes to pass. She uses the struggle to succeed as mark of valor in her characters, but even if that struggle has major financial risks (like Lorelai opening the Dragonfly Inn), the show never goes there. AHP is just not interested in exploring the material consequences of losing wealth or what it means to not have any money. Rather, a lot of the plot of Gilmore Girls is about how various characters on the scale from comfortably-middle-class to old-world-wealthy interpret money, wealth, and the idea of class status to define themselves in relation to others around them, and to influence the outcomes of interpersonal relationships. While the central conceit of the show is Lorelai turning to her parents for Rory’s private school tuition, she and her daughter live a mostly financially secure middle-class life in a prosperous town. In Gilmore Girls, AHP consistently mines the concept of wealth for conflict, but it’s always for interpersonal reasons, always to show something deeper going on within the relationships of the show, it’s never to actually consider what it means to not have that wealth in the first place. Unlike Jane Austen, none of AHP’s heroines ever run the risk of truly becoming impoverished.

As a result, you get moments on the show like Lorelai borrowing $30000 from Luke (which is the equivalent of $50000 in 2022) and then it’s never mentioned again, and Rory sputtering “but I’m a Gilmore!” to Logan when his family ends up hating her. No one in Stars Hollow is actually poor in a real sense, even those characters we might think of as having more traditional “working class” jobs. Even when Lane and her bandmates rent that one-bedroom house (a whole house!), you never get the sense they are *actually* struggling to feed themselves and pay utilities. Instead, that whole experience is framed in a primarily humorous way, with Lane having to find a way to live with two gross twenty-year old boys who eat all the food and play video games instead of being responsible roomates. Luke, who lives over his diner, has enough money stowed away to not only lend Lorelai half a million dollars but also buy a huge house without telling her. Jess is one of the few characters to be framed explicitly without a penny to his name, and yet we never actually see him dealing with the reality of that except very briefly in S4 (and that backdoor pilot in S3, I guess). Besides, the next time we see him in S6, he’s clearly on his way up, with a published book and a job at an independent press. This is another example of AHP equating the struggle to become financially secure as a sign of good character. Which, of course, it’s totally fine to want to get out of shitty economic circumstances! It’s just that on GG, no one ever stays in those circumstances for very long and/or the implications of those circumstances are never really explored. Where the implications of money *are* fully explored, it’s primarily with characters who have a lot of it, like Richard, Emily, Christopher, and Logan in their relationships with Lorelai and Rory. 

I was thinking about this topic while watching S4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel a few months back, specifically the plot when Midge takes a job opening for Sophie Lennon because she’s so worried about money. The speech Sophie gives Midge about her finances, which is set in Midge’s apartment that she’s somehow bought back from Moishe in a way that was never satisfactorily explained, is very similar, almost identical, to the speech that Trix gives Lorelai in S4 about the Dragonfly Inn in “The Incredible Sinking Lorelais”, about how she’s very obviously bleeding through her original budget. Midge takes the gig, it blows up in her face just like Susie said it would, and then…well, she loses Sophie gig but we get no indication after that that her finances continue to be a source of angst. So I think of a lot of the way these themes of money and class are represented on Gilmore Girls are due to AHP’s particular quirks and interests as a writer. She likes to explore the interpersonal implications of wealth, but never the flip side of losing that wealth, nor are her depictions of the working-class and the middle-class especially realistic. Oh well! It is what it is. I wouldn’t describe AHP as a writer whose work is deeply grounded in reality. There’s a lot of fantasy in her world-building, which to be fair she has taken heat for. 

I suspect the reason the topic of money and class is a bit more sensitive within the GG fandom is because Rory has gotten so much hate over the years as the epitome of clueless white female privilege or whatever, and also because of the endless shipping wars between Jess and Logan fans. All of that discourse feels pretty exhausting to me—trying to reduce a character’s virtues down to how much money they have is pretty dumb (unless that person is a billionaire, in which case yes they are morally bankrupt). The point of Rory’s character is that she exists in the liminal space between her mother and her grandparents: she grew up with her mother in a middle class home but doesn’t reject the wealth and class status that is theoretically hers by virtue of her birth (and no, spending her early years in a shed doesn’t negate her financial privilege—sorry AHP, but the idea of Lorelai raising baby Rory in a shed on the grounds of a luxurious B&B where she worked as a maid is absolutely a rich person’s idea of what it means to be poor). Most of Rory’s blindspots I chalk up to AHP's lack of interest in figuring out how certain things work, like journalism and elite private universities.

I was going to go into a whole analysis of how class is specifically explored on the show (as opposed to money) through Rory's relationship's with Dean and Logan, but this is already a long enough essay so that will have wait for another time! Thanks so much for writing in, Anon, and for sending such a substantial ask!!

I am sorry (for what ) if you can't find any pictures of me from my teenage years. Currently I look ugly af and have 0 oz of self confidence flowing through my veins. Every time I look at the mirror, I stare at my reflection in agony contemplating life decisions that made me this monster with such a worse appearance. I hate myself so much that I can't imagine anyone loving me and I would rather stay skeptic rather than accepting sweet lies of love.

Why am I this monster inside? What happened to me? Have I always been like this? Why am I always such a child stuck in the body of an adult? Why are my bones arranged this way adding to a sloppy posture and appearance? What happened to my face? Why is everything distorted? Why can't I tolerate myself? Why are my insecurities eating me from inside?

Whatever I wear doesn't suit me. Whichever guy I like, doesn't like me at all. And not to mention the social norms I break all the time. I wish I were a guy. Its better than being an ugly girl.

Platonic friendships are hard to find. I am lost. I hate everything including myself. Need a long recess just to bring myself back. I am a great disappointment academically as well.

Dear future me, please smile a lot. Find one or two people who loves you a lot, no matter what happens (except family). Don't settle with someone who doesn't respect you and what you love. Don't mix with people who are sarcastic about your way of life. Please be more confident about dressing up girly and cutely. I hope it looks really pretty on you. I hope you achieve financial independence. I hope your aesthetic senses improve a lot. Don't be thrifty and ugly like me. Don't be an overthinker. Please learn how to play the guitar. Please sing songs and I hope the voice improves for I can't live without singing. Please be more silent and maintain the mystery within yourself. Maintain that " I don't trust anyone" mentality. Treat others with respect and give them the same treatment that you expect you to give rather than treating them the way they treated you in the past. Control your anger issues. I hope you get your ideal body. I am starving myself so that you can be pretty and have all the things that I couldn't have. Don't get too lost in nostalgia. Please finish watching all the videos of "Crash Course". Learn wherever and whenever you can but don't be pompous and too proud of it. Forget how to feel envious of others. Please be careful about your actions and don't let anyone be a victim of your ill calculated actions. Enjoy life and don't regret the moments of life that you really enjoyed. Don't be rude and learn how to control your anger issues. Always be well mannered, whoever it is. Be chivalrous with both guys and the girls. Be careful about what you say, even sarcastically. Be careful about your health and eat more vegetables and fruits. Learn how to cook some delicious dishes. Learn time management. Learn money management. Get rid of your cocky attitude. Control your addictions. Reduce your screen time. Be the scholar and read a lot of books. Finish writing the books that you've planned to write. Do star gazing often. Learn about astronomy and geology and everything in between. Know about the French and industrial revolution and all the stories your friend can't tell anyone but you. Keep your promises and secrets. Don't talk about people but talk about ideas. Its ok to be a country bumpkin something, Ig?

About the guys, be careful, I would say be extra careful about opening up. They might all be judging you by your appearance and all that "Halo Effect" if you get pretty but don't fall for it. Remember we have terrific stories to hide and haven't told these to anyone. I am sure nobody's going to look at us the same way after knowing "the history of me". I believe nobody is going to accept the things which I can't accept myself. These stuffs make me a socially unacceptable creature. And especially an unfit biological mate. Take your secrets to grave if needed be. All the guys I like, I try to forget about them, religiously, everyday , routinely. Cause I hate to engage in something that is useless and wastes my time and his, as well. Don't rush things, if you expect stuffs to bloom romantically. Zip up your lips and be silent. Don't be weird and brutally honest. Don't play with a guy's heart if you are going nowhere with this.

About family, don't leave them alone again. Be mindful of your words and actions. They were rude sometimes, made us cry till sleep, made us lose sight of reality, really disappointed in you, weren't with us when we needed them the most. Yet stay with them and protect them.

Love everyone and hate nobody, not even yourself.

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Ya boi got Dumped

Long story.

It really was for the best, and I had been planning to break up with them for a hot minute because we are NOT well aligned and I had grown to resent them instead of having ~feelings~ for them.

We got together a few years ago and it was nice. I didn't realise at the time that I was putting in all the effort, but I was. We have totally different needs/love languages. Mine is doing favours/giving things, theirs is touch. We're both autistic so I don't love long periods of touch and I thought they were the same because after we moved in together for financial reasons they insisted on having their own room and expressed that they didn't really like sharing a bed.

Anyway recently they expressed they were touch starved and unfortunately there wasn't much I could do about it, so them dumping me was best for them.

Why was it good for me? My ex is a 'Chik-fil-a queer'. They bought the hogw4rts legacy game and didn't tell any of the friend group about it despite being a generally bubbly and oversharey type of person who likes to talk about themself (to a fault, another gripe but not a huge deal as they're neurodivergent and can't help it), specifically because all of the group are queer people and would be offended. However they have an online friend group about HP fanfiction that they were probably very excited to share it with them-- I don't know, none of us have ever been introduced to them in any way. They have stated that HP was one of the few enjoyable parts of their childhood and they just didn't want to let it go despite that I could say exactly the same and JKR successfully put me off the fandom. They also bought J4mes Ch4rles products after all that individual has done but 'it was ok because it was on clearance' ????

This year they are going on an overseas trip to meet their friend group and have been so strict with money so as to not pay for their groceries. We haven't said anything before to keep the peace but I expect we will be now. If it pushes them to move out living will be EXTREMELY lean for the rest of us.

Having experienced an abusive childhood and overbearing parenting, they value their independence a lot, and it took me a little while to get used to not being a 'normal' couple and while we planned a future together, they would never accept my input on any life decisions except living together. In the beginning we talked casually about kids and agreed that if we had them, we'd adopt them, as I in particular feel strongly that we should adopt over making children. It wasn't long before they changed their mind and expressed that they were going to have their own kid, with their own body, because it was easier. I can not fertilise them so they were just going to have casual sex with randoms. They also weren't interested in my or anyone else's input in parenting, they wanted the kid all to themself like the kid wouldn't be an actual person with the need to know who their other parent is and where they came from. THAT was the point at which I decided that when I was financially independent I would be leaving them.

All in all I feel like the whole relationship they didn't think much about anyone else's feelings, despite being supportive during my lowest points, which I will always be extremely thankful for because otherwise I would have been alone. And despite resolving to break up with them when it was convenient to me, being broken up with has still hurt. In the days leading up to it they had suddenly become very very withdrawn and they lash out in anger when they're going through it, another thing I had absolutely no idea how to deal with. The breakup speech itself was very amiable and I really had nothing to say. Now their mood is back to normal like they're just happy to have got shot of me and I also feel like I can't talk to our mutual friends about it, in part because I've been sort of trained out of venting to people due to one other friend that would always tell me to 'go do something about it then', they wouldn't necessarily get my reasons for wanting out and anyway, why am I upset if I wanted out anyway? My ex is back in the group chat like normal. I've muted it. I owe my ex a little money and as I'm only working part time all my extra cash is going to paying them back as quickly as I can so I can be done with it. Once I've paid it back I'm going to start going to therapy because LORD knows everybody in this situation needs it.

A Refresher on Audit Fee Disclosures

Now that most companies have filed their 2022 annual reports and we’ve already written many posts about those disclosures, today let’s look at the next wave of 2022 reports now arriving fast and furious into the Calcbench databases.

Proxy statements.

Proxy statements can be invaluable sources of information for financial analysts, especially those at institutional investors with long-term holdings. The proxy contains information about executive compensation, expertise (or the lack thereof) among the board of directors, audit fees the company is paying, who holds large amounts of company stock, and much more.

And as always, Calcbench indexes as much of that data as possible, to allow for quick and easy analysis.

For example, Masimo Corp. ($MASI) filed its 2022 proxy statement on May 27. We randomly decided to peek at the company’s audit fees for 2022, which are disclosed on Page 69 of the document. Much to our surprise, we saw that audit fees doubled last year. See Figure 1, below.

Why the sudden spike in audit fees? From the proxy statement alone, one doesn’t know. The report of the board’s audit committee, which accompanies Figure 1 above, doesn’t discuss any significant accounting investigation that Masimo might be undertaking, or any recent merger that might have expanded the business and thus the work that Masimo’s audit firm (Grant Thornton, if you’re curious) is doing.

We did, however, use our nifty “show tag history” feature to see that this year’s jump in audit fees is indeed an eye-popping spike. See Figure 2, below.

Yikes. Suddenly Masimo’s annual audit is almost as expensive as a Taylor Swift ticket. What’s going on?

Using our Footnote Disclosure Tool, we hopped over to Masimo’s disclosures of controls and procedures; that’s where a company typically discloses weaknesses in financial reporting, which can explain a jump in audit fees. Except, Masimo reports that its financial controls and procedures are fine. Then we looked up the independent audit report from Grant Thornton.

Ah, there’s the answer: Masimo acquired a company called Sound United in April 2022 for $1.06 billion. More than $600 million of that purchase price went to assorted intangible assets, and Grant Thorton flagged the valuation of those assets as a critical audit matter.

That does not automatically mean that Masimo’s valuation of those assets was wrong. It only means that valuation of intangible assets is an important item that needs close scrutiny from the board and the audit firm; it’s also something that can keep an audit firm mighty business, which leads to higher fees.

One can also compare annual disclosures from 2021 and 2022, to get a sense of how much the merger expanded Masimo’s operations. Almost every line item on the income statement is up sharply. See Figure 3, below.

Sure, some of those increases might be due to Masimo’s natural growth or external factors such as inflation; but the Sound United merger is a big factor too.

Yet another way to look at audit fees is to chart them as audit fees per $1,000 of revenue.

In that case, Masimo in 2021 had $2.24 million of audit fees for $1.24 billion of revenue. Do the math, and that means for every $1,000 of revenue, $1.80 went to audit fees. 2022 saw $4.4 million of audit fees against $2.035 billion of revenue; that works out to $2.10 per $1,000 of revenue.

The dollars are small, but in relative terms the jump is appreciable. So the question for next year is whether audit fees per $1,000 in revenue stabilize, or go up even more. If they keep climbing, that means the auditors are keeping themselves busy. Financial analysts might want to ask why.

To Gustavo Pittaluga Ollibood, 15 February 1945 Dear Gustavo, This is the third letter I’ve written since arriving at this cultured metropolis, not counting the one I wrote to Don Paulo to compliment him on his triumphant voyage. Portuguese gentlemen are bombastic, not to mention touchy and apt to feel stung if one does not respond to their epistles. While genteel Italian men such as yourself are also liable to get tetchy and write insulting comments on menus to obscure their own idle penmanship. I know a little of everyone except you. What are you up to? What are you doing to get by and what to prevail? What are your plans? You have to reply at once and no pleading excuses, because I’ve now opened fire. Tell me about your life too, the more minute the detail the better. You can imagine just how much I crave news from my position of great solitude, without a single friend. Even my ‘acquaintances’ have given up on me as a result of my sheer apathy. I work, and I work hard and that way I can at least drug my nostalgia hypnogogically (Demetrio will be able to untangle this weird word for you that is not in the dictionary). I await our liberation and return to the homeland. What is your view, those of you over there, of the possible proximity of this return? Now, something about my work: it has wind in its sails. I am forming another new company. They have doubled my salary although there was no provision for that in my contract. Incidentally, as we now need four writers we are running a kind of competition in Mexico and I’ve encouraged Ana María’s brother to put his name forward. I’m bringing Zulueta on as my personal assistant. They have also ‘lifted’ my title to dubbing executive producer. I have complete independence, etc. If you would be interested in coming along as a musician, let me know and we’ll see. There are lots of possibilities to do other things. Mr Warner, as I said in a letter to Demetrio, is happy for me to make films in English, but he doesn’t want me to leave the department; so until it is completely organized, I won’t be able to go ahead, and when I do, it would have to be something that doesn’t stray too far from the ideological line he has always followed. I can’t see why you shouldn’t have the same kind of opportunities? We could make this count in Spain, not financially, obviously, but in terms of prestige, so that Spanish films of the future do not sink into Perojoismo. I’m surrendering myself to Hollywood as a necessary phase in my plan to work in the future on improving our own cinema. Frankly, I don’t dare invite Cruz over, because he is used to other roles in life and I don’t think he would welcome a subordinate one in a film studio, even if his boss were someone like me, who holds him in such high esteem. I got a telegram yesterday from Iris, who is down here. She’s coming to have supper with us on Saturday with René Clair and Bronja. We shall see what that great monument has to tell us. I am fully recovered from the sciatica thanks to the monastic lifestyle they have prescribed me and a wonderful chiropractor. People who don’t know me think I’m 35. Forgive me for saying how healthy and handsome I am at the moment. The only thing holding me back now is my deafness, which, if it carries on, will soon have me composing a patétique or painting a series of caprichos. Or, more likely, asking you to let me design the sets for your next ballet. Apart from the couple of glasses of wine I drink when I get home from work, I never touch alcohol. My diet consists of dried fruits or raw vegetables, with meat twice a week. I sleep on a board and if I don’t say morning prayers, it’s only because we don’t celebrate them in my house. Don Paulo’s book of recipes has arrived, and I have concluded he only wrote it to get at you. First: the author favours quality over quantity. Second: he says that Portuguese wine is good. Third: he only mentions Sherry in passing, along with Madeira, which he showers in glory. Four: he prefers Swiss cooking to Spanish. Five: aware of your preference for Monje, he speaks of decanting fine wines. Personally, what offended me most was his claim that oysters portuguaises are the best in the world. Long live God Don Rascal, weary of Versailles, your worships the Claires of Marennes and all those other crustaceans Mr Pittaluga so appreciates! It’s enough to drive you crazy. I now see Don Paulo never ventured further than Duval’s or Chez Dupont Tout Est Bon when he was in Paris. The only evidence of any good taste in his book is his observation that I make a splendid paella. In response, I am composing another book called The Primitive Palate of Brazilians, subtitled: The French Influence in Certain Backwater Villages. I should be grateful if you would transmit these delicate impressions to Don Paulo; I shall be sending him others to follow directly. Tell José Luis I’m still waiting impatiently for the letter he promised in his New Year’s card. I’ll answer him at once. Warmest regards to him and my ‘maña’ Moncha. More, most affectionate, greetings to Cruz Marín. I can still see him elevating with his presence those Harvard Club gatherings where the doormen took him for the member and Demetrio for his guest. Do not even say good day from me to that wretched Demetrio until he sends me a letter, and then I’ll see what I have to say. You may give Mercedes on the other hand, my warmest regards. This letter is to you [and] Ana María; the fact that it is more comfortable to write in the third-person singular makes it look incorrectly as if I am just writing to you. I have more news of Ana María than of you, although still in less detail than I would like. Much love to you both, Luis

Jo Evans & Breixo Viejo, Luis Buñuel: A Life in Letters

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Majorities of California adults (53%) and likely voters (52%) approve of the way President Biden is handling his job, whereas fewer disapprove (43% adults, 47% doubtless voters). Approval is just like September (53% adults and certain voters), and Biden’s approval score among adults has been at 50 p.c or greater since we first asked this query in January 2021. Today, about eight in ten Democrats approve of Biden’s job performance, in comparability with about four in ten independents and one in ten Republicans. Approval is higher within the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles than in the Inland Empire, Orange/San Diego, and the Central Valley. About half or more throughout demographic groups approve of President Biden, with the exception of those with some faculty schooling (44%). In September, a similar share of doubtless voters preferred the Democratic candidate (60% Democrat/lean Democrat, 34% Republican/lean Republican).

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Saturday 7th January 2023 @ 0212h

Hey Babu,

I’m not sure why I still write to you to be honest, you and I are in a good place in real life at the moment, there’s no awkwardness or uncomfortable silences, you actually text me unprompted to update me on things in your life now, but I guess we still only really talk at surface level.

So much happened in 2022, it feels like it simultaneously flew by and also stretched on forever, I suppose it depended on what was happening at the time, but that was a whole year we’ve been apart, well almost 13 months now.

13 months feels like it should be enough time for me to have entirely moved on and left our relationship in the past, and to an extent I have, I almost fell for 2 people last year, Cal and Josh, both of whom were so different to you, and both of whom I could actually see a future with. Circumstantially I didn’t get a chance to properly explore a relationship with either of them, however, I’m still on goof friendship terms with both... very true to my style. Sometimes I can go a whole day without thinking about you, without anything triggering a memory of us, it’s rare but it surprised me that it was possible. Thankfully now when I do think of you and us, it’s no longer painful (with the exception of major dates like birthdays/holidays/anniversaries), most of the time it is a positive thought or memory that arises, sometimes neutral, but more like remembering times with a best friend that moved away and your lives grew apart. If I stop to properly analyze my feelings for you, I don’t think it would be accurate to say I’m still actively in love with you, I definitely still love you with all my heart, and I still believe you to be the love of my life, and I think were I to go back to spending time with you frequently; I would easily fall back in love with you... I don’t know if there is a word or phrase to describe this stage, maybe in some dead or foreign language, but it is strange, and I wish I knew how long it would last, because despite the time, despite the distance, despite the clear separation of how my feelings are now to how they were 13 months ago, deep down it still feels like I’m waiting, like I know we’re destined to get back together eventually even though I know that rationally it will never be the case. I don’t have the experience or understanding to distinguish whether this is just longing for your comfort and familiarity or a cosmic sensation, I would give anything to have the answers... instead I wait; wait for things to fall into place while I work my ass off to make myself the best version of who I am. 

I kind of wish I could brag to you about how far I’ve come in 2022... I left you and 5 years of what I built my life towards behind and moved over 1000kms away across a border, I moved back to a hometown that no longer felt like home and rebuilt myself in your absence. I got my own house and started living entirely independently, I even became a mother/protector figure to the girls I live with, I began a career in medical admin and worked in both a psychology clinic and a general practice - I helped a lot of patients, I rejoined the AAFC and put my all into 335SQN - getting back into teaching and admino work, I bartended LGBTQIA+ events and emo raves, at one point I was consistently working 3 different jobs every week. I made new friends and reconnected with old, I got a loan and booked a trip to Europe where I’m going to travel through 17 different countries, I went to music festivals and house parties, I sat my GAMSAT twice, had my graduation, and was the subject of a boudoir photoshoot. I went museums and galleries, stand-up comedy, musical theatre, and the ballet. I ticked actual items off my bucket list... 

I’ve come so far, and I’ve done it completely alone, financially and emotionally, I’ve done this entirely myself. It’s empowering and invigorating and I’m proud of myself, but there is still that voice in my head that yearns for you to be a part of it, to be in it with me... we always did do a good job of taking on each other’s battles and supporting one another through our accomplishments... I loved that about us. 

I miss you Ali and my mind goes crazy thinking about what could have been if I’d never left, where would we be now... would you have fallen out of love with me regardless, would your mind have changed about marriage and children if we managed to get our own place and independence, would I have still broken up with you because of the problems we face with your lack of emotional awareness and communication skills. I’ll never know but at this point I don’t think I’ll ever stop waiting to find out.