beccatoria (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccatoria) wrote2010-04-27 09:52 pm
beccatoria) wrote2010-04-27 09:52 pm
Entry tags:
Vidding and Citizenship is Bananas!
Dudes, I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted anything. Nothing's really been going on. But! I did want to link you all to this post! Because Vidding is Love and YOU CAN DO IT TOO, if you want to. And you might hate it, and that's okay, but you might looooove it and the world needs more vid love. It's basically a great post about how vidding Isn't That Hard.
I mean, it can be and it can certainly be frustrating, like every other aspect of or activity in fandom, but what I think the post is really about, and what I wholeheartedly agree with, is there's this perception that the tech entry level to vidding, either in terms of owning a computer that can do it, or being able to do it creatively yourself, is SUPERHIGH, which is really isn't. Most computers sold after 2000 are going to be perfectly able to run a simple vidding program; most probably already have one.
So what I'm saying is - and I'm sure anyone who ever reads my journal already knows my opinion on this - if you want to try vidding, try it. You may not fall in love with it like me, but I guarantee you it's completely achievable.
IN OTHER NEWS:
My mother is currently in the States in phase one of what she claims is Operation Live On Two Continents but I'm convinced is Operation Move Back To America By Stealth.
Since this was kind of on my mind, I decided to look up exactly what rights I had as a US/UK dual national and learned one depressing fact and one hilarious one:
Depressing fact: the immigration laws are insane. Even though I'm a natural-born US citizen I wouldn't be able to get my husband of more than two years a green card without proving I have x amount of income per year, preferably via an American work history (which of course, if I were moving TO America, I would not have), or a family member willing to provide said cash, which is unlikely since all my close relatives are retired. This is not exactly a crippling issue since I had no plans to move to the US and if we really wanted to I'm sure we'd work it out. But, nonetheless, odd.
Hilarious fact: I was born in the US, lived there until I was a year old, then moved to the UK and have lived here ever since. I am a US citizen by virtue of birth (and my mother) and a UK citizen by virtue of being the child of a natural-born UK citizen. Fair enough. Nothing hilarious there.
Where it gets funny is if I ever had kids. America allows you to pass on US citizenship to a child born outside the US if you are (a) an American citizen (which I am) and (b) have lived in the US for at least 5 years, two of which must be over the age of 14 (which I have not). So, no dice there. Excluding issues of paternity and location, my kids will not gain automatic US citizenship.
Meanwhile, the UK allows you to pass on UK citizenship to a child born outside the UK if you are a UK citizen who was born in the UK, regardless of how long you lived there. This is not true of me. So again, were I to have a kid outside the UK, excluding issues of paternity and location, the kid would not be British.
I mean, practically this will never be an issue, and also in both cases, I could apply for my kids to be naturalised via my parents or...something confusing.
But I just think that it's crazy. If I'd done it the other way around - been born in the UK and grown up in the US, I'd get to pass on both wherever I was living when/if I had kids.
But because I did it this way around?
WHAT IF I WANTED TO GET KNOCKED UP BY A STRANGER AND THEN GO HAVE THE KID WHILE ON HOLIDAY IN FRANCE, HUH? DIDJA EVER THINK OF THAT, INTERNATIONAL CITIZENSHIP LAWS?!
Seriously, I could theoretically have a stateless child. That's kind of ridiculous.
I mean, it can be and it can certainly be frustrating, like every other aspect of or activity in fandom, but what I think the post is really about, and what I wholeheartedly agree with, is there's this perception that the tech entry level to vidding, either in terms of owning a computer that can do it, or being able to do it creatively yourself, is SUPERHIGH, which is really isn't. Most computers sold after 2000 are going to be perfectly able to run a simple vidding program; most probably already have one.
So what I'm saying is - and I'm sure anyone who ever reads my journal already knows my opinion on this - if you want to try vidding, try it. You may not fall in love with it like me, but I guarantee you it's completely achievable.
IN OTHER NEWS:
My mother is currently in the States in phase one of what she claims is Operation Live On Two Continents but I'm convinced is Operation Move Back To America By Stealth.
Since this was kind of on my mind, I decided to look up exactly what rights I had as a US/UK dual national and learned one depressing fact and one hilarious one:
Depressing fact: the immigration laws are insane. Even though I'm a natural-born US citizen I wouldn't be able to get my husband of more than two years a green card without proving I have x amount of income per year, preferably via an American work history (which of course, if I were moving TO America, I would not have), or a family member willing to provide said cash, which is unlikely since all my close relatives are retired. This is not exactly a crippling issue since I had no plans to move to the US and if we really wanted to I'm sure we'd work it out. But, nonetheless, odd.
Hilarious fact: I was born in the US, lived there until I was a year old, then moved to the UK and have lived here ever since. I am a US citizen by virtue of birth (and my mother) and a UK citizen by virtue of being the child of a natural-born UK citizen. Fair enough. Nothing hilarious there.
Where it gets funny is if I ever had kids. America allows you to pass on US citizenship to a child born outside the US if you are (a) an American citizen (which I am) and (b) have lived in the US for at least 5 years, two of which must be over the age of 14 (which I have not). So, no dice there. Excluding issues of paternity and location, my kids will not gain automatic US citizenship.
Meanwhile, the UK allows you to pass on UK citizenship to a child born outside the UK if you are a UK citizen who was born in the UK, regardless of how long you lived there. This is not true of me. So again, were I to have a kid outside the UK, excluding issues of paternity and location, the kid would not be British.
I mean, practically this will never be an issue, and also in both cases, I could apply for my kids to be naturalised via my parents or...something confusing.
But I just think that it's crazy. If I'd done it the other way around - been born in the UK and grown up in the US, I'd get to pass on both wherever I was living when/if I had kids.
But because I did it this way around?
WHAT IF I WANTED TO GET KNOCKED UP BY A STRANGER AND THEN GO HAVE THE KID WHILE ON HOLIDAY IN FRANCE, HUH? DIDJA EVER THINK OF THAT, INTERNATIONAL CITIZENSHIP LAWS?!
Seriously, I could theoretically have a stateless child. That's kind of ridiculous.
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Seriously I should just up sticks and try to be Canadian!