![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogEleanor had a bad experience yesterday. Most of you have heard about it from me, her or both of us, but it still was an upsetting situation which she is going to begin trying to remedy tomorrow. It involves the management (or, rather, the lack of it) at the gym we both go to on a near-daily basis.
It's a place that values quantity of membership numbers over quality. That includes facilities ( for weeks, the leaky roof in the mens' locker room had this sign in it), equipment (often broken or lost), and, most important to this issue, staffing. The front desk is populated by about 15 people, maybe four at a time, with an average age of about 23 and an average IQ of perhaps four times that; all they do is replace hand towels, clean machines maybe once every few hours, and sell memberships and protein shakes. There are trainers, but they're contracted out to an out-of-state outfit and, in my almost four years there, have never seen one of them take any interest in anyone other than their own clients at any given moment. Some closer attention by staff- either in policy or policing- would have prevented the type of miscogynstic crap she experienced, but from past experiences with them, I don't expect either of those, and I'm told it's bad to hold your breath while exercising anyway.
----
On a more intelligent note, having gotten some nice and helpful replies to my own Call for Help with my Call for Papers, I'm happy to help out a Ph.D candidate with a call of her own.
My longtime friend Melissa (thanatos_kalos in these parts) is including in her dissertation how Torchwood represents national identity, and she's using (amongst other things) audience research. To that end, she's looking for anyone from the UK, US or Canada (or who has lived in any of those countries for more than three years) who would be willing to be interviewed via either email or Skype. The identity of anyone who participates will be carefully protected, with only anonymised quotes used in published work. If anyone wants to volunteer, please comment here and either I or she will figure out how to make the needed contact:)
It's a place that values quantity of membership numbers over quality. That includes facilities ( for weeks, the leaky roof in the mens' locker room had this sign in it), equipment (often broken or lost), and, most important to this issue, staffing. The front desk is populated by about 15 people, maybe four at a time, with an average age of about 23 and an average IQ of perhaps four times that; all they do is replace hand towels, clean machines maybe once every few hours, and sell memberships and protein shakes. There are trainers, but they're contracted out to an out-of-state outfit and, in my almost four years there, have never seen one of them take any interest in anyone other than their own clients at any given moment. Some closer attention by staff- either in policy or policing- would have prevented the type of miscogynstic crap she experienced, but from past experiences with them, I don't expect either of those, and I'm told it's bad to hold your breath while exercising anyway.
----
On a more intelligent note, having gotten some nice and helpful replies to my own Call for Help with my Call for Papers, I'm happy to help out a Ph.D candidate with a call of her own.
My longtime friend Melissa (
thanatos_kalos in these parts) is including in her dissertation how Torchwood represents national identity, and she's using (amongst other things) audience research. To that end, she's looking for anyone from the UK, US or Canada (or who has lived in any of those countries for more than three years) who would be willing to be interviewed via either email or Skype. The identity of anyone who participates will be carefully protected, with only anonymised quotes used in published work. If anyone wants to volunteer, please comment here and either I or she will figure out how to make the needed contact:)![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 08:12 pm (UTC)