Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse review

I've realised that I haven't done a proper movie review in a while so I've decided to do a review of the recent Spider-Man animated movie.

It's fair to say that I was skeptical when this movie was announced, it was difficult not to feel that this was yet another poor decision by Sony motivated by greed and likely to take away from the live action Spider-Man movies. Despite Spider-Man: Homecoming setting up the potential appearance of Miles Morales this animated movie would now be the big screen debut of the Miles Morales Spider-Man. Whilst I do think Sony have a lot to answer for such as pushing forward with their Spider-Man spin-off universe (Venom being one) which although not connected to the MCU they keep teasing that it is and keep teasing the appearance of Spider-Man which very unlikely. There is also the problem of Spider-Man: Far From Home which releases in July, it's hard not to suspect that if were soley up to Marvel that it wouldn't be being released so soon after Avengers: Endgame, in fact it is already causing problems with the trailer having been released before Avengers: Endgame is actually out (it doesn't give away any major spoilers for that film but it is a problem).

Putting all of that aside I'm glad to say that I was wrong to be skeptical about this movie, it is both a very good movie and one of the best Spider-Man movies we have had. It is set in a world where Peter Parker's Spider-Man has been around for quite a while and is very well known. However the movie doesn't follow him, instead it follows a young Miles Morales, a teenager who is dealing with the challenge of moving to a new school and trying to fit in only to get bitten by a radioactive spider and gain powers of his own. He has to try and learn to use his abilities and become a hero whilst teaming up with other Spider heroes from across the multiverse to stop a major threat.

Miles Morales

It's a great looking film and the fact that it is animated means they can do stuff that wouldn't work in live action. It is very comic booky (if that makes sense) at times and each of the Spider heroes has a unique style befitting their universe. Some of the characters look a bit over the top but it doesn't detract from them too much. The action looks great and there are some fantastic fight scenes as well as awesome little touches if you are paying attention. There is one weird thing in terms of the look of the movie with some of the background having the appearance of a 3D movie if you aren't wearing 3D glasses, I only really noticed it early on in movie though.

The voice acting is definitely well-done, Nicholas Cage somewhat steals the show as Spider-Man Noir, a vigilante Spider-Man who comes from an old fashioned black and white universe. I wasn't overly fussed on Spider-Ham when I saw the trailer but thankfully he isn't too irritating. Shameik Moore is great as Miles and has a lot of great back and forth with Jake Johnson's world weary Peter Parker. The sound is also well done and helps to make The Prowler a seriously intimidating villain.

Spider-Man Noir

 It is a genuinely funny movie at times, there is plenty of slap-stick humour to keep the kids happy as well as lots of moments to entertain adults as well including one sequence which had two of my favourite comedy moments in the movie. The use of multiple Spider heroes provides a lot of potential for comedy and given the post-credits sequence there is potential for a lot more in any sequels.

Overall I'm very glad I decided to go and see this movie in the cinema, I ended up seeing it in early January in the early afternoon and it was only me and another man and his young son in the screen. It is a great looking, action-packed, funny and heart-felt movie. It's clear that a lot of effort and love went into this movie and I would definitely be interested in going and seeing a sequel.

Thanks for reading.

A New Year

Well Christmas and the New Year celebrations are now over and we are back in normal routines. For me that means I'm back on the job hunt again though I had to keep on top of my automatic job alert emails during Christmas so they didn't pile up. It is a quiet period on the job front but that is expected after the holidays. It was nice to not have to think about jobs and other things over the holidays too much. We had a nice mixture of relaxation, spending time with family and various excursions including my first trip up Cave Hill which overlooks Belfast as well as the area around where I live despite me having lived fairly close to it all my life. Christmas Day was very nice, as always I was spoilt by my parents and my brother but I think everyone was happy with what they received. We visited family members on the day and were very entertained by my cousins very hyper puppy. We had a lovely Christmas dinner just the four of us before having a relaxing night to ourselves. For New Year we never really do anything exciting, my brother was away so I just had a quiet night in with my parents.

Views from Cave Hill

For Christmas I got various different presents including a nice leather guitar strap which has been great for me as it a bit more padded and more comfortable than the seat belt style strap that I had been using as well as a multiple photo frame for my bedroom wall. I had also treated myself to a Nintendo Switch having gotten a great deal on Black Friday. I had resisted opening it until Christmas helped by the fact I was playing through God of War on the PS4 (great game!). I had gotten Mario Kart with it and I also received Mario Odyssey for Christmas. I'm really enjoying it especially the hybrid nature of it being able to play it on the TV or take the console out and play it as a handheld.

With the beginning of a new year it's hard not to think that time is flying by but at the same time it seems like a long time since the major events. 2018 was a bit of a strange year for me, after spending most of December 2017 waiting for my suggested revisions for my PhD thesis to be sent to me I finally got them at the start of January. Having submitted the thesis the first time, then having to defend it, going back to make changes to it including changes to the appearance, reference list etc. is frustrating. I spent the period from January to the middle of March working on it and it was difficult due to the examiner asking for things that weren't necessary or in some cases weren't even possible and he was very poor at responding to emails. It was also very frustrating working on such a large document in Microsoft Word when formatting what should be simple things becomes very difficult like having two images of the same size with captions on a number of pages like I had. I was finally happy with it and I submitted to my examiner only to have to wait until the middle of April to get it signed off. By this time I had started properly applying for jobs and learnt some harsh lessons about not even being invited to interview despite being qualified for a job.

With my thesis finally signed off I made my final checks before getting it printed and hardbound and submitting it to the university as well as the organisation who funded my PhD. My job search became my main focus although I've tried to also enjoy my free time while I can. I started meeting up with an employment advisor from a hearing loss charity and ended up working to improve my interview technique. I ended up having quite a few interviews in some cases I had two interviews on the one day but unfortunately didn't receive any offers despite thinking that certain interviews had gone rather well.

It wasn't all about the job hunt though, we had the excitement of our trip to London, having our original flight cancelled, then having to fly to Southampton and get a taxi to London with the surreal experience of arriving in a snow covered London late at night. 2018 was the year of my first music festival which I really enjoyed. We also had our holiday to Majorca which was lovely and two trips to the north coast although as my last post mentioned it was a rather mixed trip due to the loss of our cat Milo. There was also the disappointment of Northern Ireland's Nations League campaign but at least they showed that they can play well they just need to put the ball in the net!

One minor achievement I had this year was finally switching to a solid breakfast, no longer relying on the Fortisip drink, in fact the last time I actually had a Fortisip was when I took one with me to the music festival in August. I no longer get Fortisip on prescription and hopefully I won't ever feel the need to get it again. I try to go out for a walk every day as well as playing five a side football once a week (if we can get the numbers) as well as being a volunteer dog walker for two hours a week all of which means I feel pretty good physically though things may slip once I'm in full time employment.

My main hope for 2019 is for me to get a good job, I think once I get a job then that will open up other opportunities but that is not always the case. I imagine I will continue to deal with the BAHA issue and explore my options in terms of model and whether or not I would consider the surgery. One of my closest friends is getting married this year so i am looking forward to that and of course I am looking forward to seeing Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame which is meant to be the end of an era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Thanks for reading!

2018 movies (plus The Last Jedi and Justice League)

I have realised that it's been a while since I've really talked about movies or TV shows. I saw something on twitter today about how it's been a year since Star Wars The Last Jedi came out so I'll talk about it as well as the various superhero movies that have come out this year.

*I will be vague and try not to spoil anything.

I'm not sure if there has been a movie with so much hyperbole of opinion around it as The Last Jedi. There seems to be this idea that either you think it is awful or you think it is the best Star Wars movie ever but I imagine there are many people like myself who thought it was a mixed bag. It doesn't help that it starts off in a confusing way when you think about how The Force Awakens ended. To that some might say well the books explain what happened between that and The Last Jedi to which I would say well you shouldn't have to read the books to understand why things are the way they are. There is also the issue of how Luke Skywalker is handled with Mark Hamill himself coming out and saying he didn't agree with his characterization in this movie (that said he didn't let that affect his performance so fair play to him). That and how new characters who were great in The Force Awakens are not handled that well in this movie don't help things. It does have some exceptional moments and I do understand that Rian Johnson wanted to subvert expectations and breathe new life into Star Wars that said I think I enjoyed The Force Awakens more.

I now realise as I'm writing this that I haven't commented on Justice League yet. Going to see it was actually my first trip out after getting my wisdom tooth out last year.  Whilst Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice made me angry and frustrated and Suicide Squad was disappointing despite low expectations Justice League was just medicore. I'll say that again, Justice League the first live action Justice League movie where we see heroes such as Superman, Batman, The Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman and Wonder Woman  team up was mediocre (at best). Zach Snyder stepped away from the movie due to a personal tragedy and the director of Avengers and Avengers Age of Ultron was brought in to finish the movie. It is fair to say that the movie is a bit of a mess with lame comedy bits added, this weird focus on a Russian family that the movie keeps cutting to and an unfinished, poor quality CGI finale. It once again shows the very poor decision making that goes on at Warner Bros in terms of their DC Extended Universe. There has been much campaigning by fans of Zach Snyder for a "Snyder-cut" of the movie and as much as I think Batman V Superman was a bad movie at least it was ambitious and it was clearly setting stuff up for Justice League which was then not included. It's hard not to wonder if the original vision would've been better.

The movie was't helped by moustache-gate

Before I talk about Marvel movies I'll talk about some other superhero movies that were released this year. The first Deadpool was a great movie and it showed that Fox could differentiate themselves from Marvel Studios by making more mature (aka violent) superhero movies. It was funny and had great action and it deservedly got a lot of praise. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy Deadpool 2 anywhere near as much. I don't think it was as funny, there were too many jokes relating to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I thought it really dragged in places. It's not awful but definitely could've been better. I wasn't overly fussed on Josh Brolin as Cable or his backstory in the movie but I would be interested in seeing an X-Force movie with him and Deadpool having a smaller role.

The first Incredibles movie was released in 2004 and I think it's fair to say that it remains one of the best superhero movies. The sequel was finally released in 2018 and it was hard to know if it would meet expectations. I must confess I saw it late in its run at the cinema, I went in the afternoon expecting there not to be many people at it only to find lots of parents and their kids so I maybe didn't enjoy it as much I might've if there weren't kids stomping up and down. It definitely looks great, the voice acting is spot-on and it has some great set-pieces. That said I don't think it reaches the quality of the first movie and I don't think the villain is anywhere near as good as the villain in the first one.

2018 was a big year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first movie being Black Panther, a big budget blockbuster movie that is culturally important for having a primarily black cast. T'Challa/Black Panther had been introduced in Captain America: Civil War and despite his small screen time he came across as a very interesting and badass character. I enjoyed this movie, it's yet another polished, entertaining Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, it doesn't just feel like another generic superhero movie. That said I don't think it is perfect and I think it is overhyped a bit especially given the finale which I thought could've been better especially with the poor CGI (possibly due to priority being given to Avengers: Infinity War).

Avengers; Infinity War had a lot of pressure to live up to. This is due to it not only being an Avengers movie, being directed by the Russo brothers who directed Captain America: The Winter Solider and Civil War, being a movie featuring not just the Avengers but also other characters such as Black Panther, Spider-man, Doctor Strange and also the Guardians of the Galaxy but also finally having Thanos, a villain who had been teased since the post-credit scene of the first Avengers movie finally take center stage.  Whilst not spoiling anything I think it is fair to say that it managed to both meet and exceed expectation. It is action packed, it is funny, it has twist and turns and covers a lot of different emotions. It is a great looking and sounding film as well. Josh Brolin is fantastic as Thanos and he comes across as a real character with real weight to him despite all the CGI and motion capture used to bring him to life. Seeing it in the cinema for the first time is an experience that I will remember for a long time.

How you do a CGI villain cough*Stepphenwolf*cough

Ant-man and The Wasp was the next film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and in a way acted as a bit of a palette cleanser before Captain Marvel next March. Like the first one it is a self-contained story and is better for it. Again it is a very polished entertaining Marvel movie. It has an interesting antagonist and lots of great choreography and action. It's not going to top many people's favourite MCU movies but that is fine. Paul Rudd is proof of the brilliance of the casting of the MCU and Evangeline Lilly gets to step up and does very well. I think if there is anything to complain about is that it does juggle different baddies and plot-lines. It might have been better if one element of the plot had been given a bit more focus and time but it may be that it is revisited in future movies.

I cannot review Solo: A Star Wars Story, as I haven't seen it, nor have I seen Venom (partly out of protest due to Sony being so short-sighted and going ahead with their Spider-man spin-off universe that isn't connected to the MCU). There are a number of big movies out now that I haven't seen yet, hopefully I will be able to see at least one of them before Christmas now things are winding down a bit in terms of my job hunt.

If I don't write anything before then well please have a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

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I'm starting to really dislike November

Well it has been another large gap between updates, I'm not even sure how many people actually regularly check my blog, it would help if blogger would remember not to track my own page views. I've been rather busy on the job search front. Applying for lots of different jobs and having a number of different interviews. Unfortunately I'm still looking which is frustrating because I definitely think my interview's have improved and I am actually giving longer answers now instead of just answering the question and stopping. I've had some great feedback but it's hard not to wonder if it is a numbers game with a lot of people all applying for the same position. It has also been frustrating when companies recruitment processes aren't the best. You can apply for a job, get an interview, get a rejection and get told someone else gave a better interview only to see the same job advertised again weeks later.  In a recent case I haven't even heard back after my interview but the company are seemingly advertising the job again, this when I felt I definitely met the criteria and gave a solid interview. All of that said I know I am very lucky that I'm able to live with my parents and don't have to worry about money for food etc.

All in all it had been a rather busy few weeks with interviews etc. but we had planned a short break away up the north coast again coinciding with the Atlantic Sessions which is what we did last year. I was hopeful that this year would be a lot more enjoyable due to me being in a much better place ( see my post from that time) and that we were staying in the lovely apartment we had stayed in on our last break up the north coast. We planned that me and my parents would go up on the Thursday and my brother would join us on the Friday. We had tickets for gigs on the Friday night as well as a gig on the Saturday night and we planned to come back on the Sunday before heading to the Northern Ireland V Austria match on Sunday evening.

Unfortunately it turned out to be a rather mixed weekend. Our cat Milo who hadn't really been eating well for a while which was rather unusual for him (we had taken him to the vet who couldn't find anything obvious) but who we thought had been improving disappeared on Wednesday night. He hadn't quite been himself for a while but we thought he had maybe had a bug and was taking a bit of time to get over it. This led to a stressful night worrying that if he didn't come back we would have to cancel the trip as we couldn't leave him to come back to an empty house. Thankfully he did come back at 6am and seemed rather perky on it. We took him to the cattery and let the owner who is a lovely woman know about Milo's situation. She promised to keep an eye on him and said she would check his teeth in case that was the issue. Thursday was nice and Friday was a lovely day. Unfortunately on Friday evening we got a phone call from the owner of the cattery saying she was concerned about Milo (also that she couldn't see any issue with his teeth) and asked if it would be ok if she took him to the vet in the morning, we said yes and went out to the gigs. When we got back we had missed calls from her to say she really wasn't happy and she had taken him to our vet (who she trusted and who we have known for a long time) that night. We got a message from the vet saying that he had put Milo on a drip and would ring us in the morning. This led to another very restless night and in the morning we got the call from the vet saying he would rather speak to us in person. At this point we pretty much knew that things were really not good.

On Saturday morning we drove the long journey home and went to the vet's. He explained that Milo's rapid weight loss along with lumps he had found meant that he most likely had lymphoma which is common in cats. He explained that whilst we could prolong things with chemotherapy and steroid pills it would only be for a matter of months. We all agreed that we didn't want to put Milo through that and the best thing would be to do would be to ease his suffering. I am extremely grateful that we were able to see Milo and say goodbye to him. He clearly recognised us and was happy to see us. The whole thing was very calm and peaceful and Milo wasn't stressed at all. It's hard not to think that it would be kinder in some instances if we could do the same for humans.

It's fair to say that it was a very sad day for our family, Milo had turned up on our door as a stray kitten and adopted us as his family (we put found posters up but nobody responded). He was with us for over fourteen years and acted as a constant source of comfort and entertainment. He saw me through almost all of high school and all of university and my PhD and the time after, It is fair to say he became the fifth member of our family. Despite how upset we were unfortunately life is always moving on. Given that we were paying for the apartment and had tickets for the gig that night as well as the Northern Ireland match the next day we felt that it was better to continue as planned rather than go home and sit about being miserable. We weren't really in the mood however we had a nice meal on Saturday night and the music was good even if the venue/the many people not interested in the music were not. The Northern Ireland match ended up being very disappointing, despite how well they have played in the Nations League they had failed to get any points. We hoped that we could rescue some pride against Austria. They managed to come back from 1-0 down only to lose by conceding a goal at the very end of the match.

Last week was tough, Milo was such a big presence in our home and the most regular topic of conversation would be him. It has been difficult not to look for him in his regular spots both outside and inside the house. We miss him terribly but are trying to remember all the great times we had with him. Our neighbours who knew him have been sympathetic but not everyone is. I pity people who don't know the joy of having a pet or those who dismiss cats due to silly stereotypes. We were very fortunate that we had fourteen wonderful years with Milo. Before him we had two beagles who lived to fourteen and around fifteen and a half. We are an animal loving family and it is likely that in the future we will get another pet however it will not be for a while yet. I believe you need to take the proper time to grieve and to process things, I don't understand the people who lose a pet only to immediately get another one.

Me and Milo on the day of my PhD graduation

Sorry for not writing the most uplifting post but thanks for reading, I'm meant to be getting my BAHA on a soft band this week so I will probably write about that at some point.

Trials, interviews and some changes

Hello again, yes I am still alive, just haven't been in the mood to sit down and write a blog piece. Since the last update I've been on holiday for a week up the north coast of Northern Ireland with my parents, had a few more job interviews, been doing some more decorating and getting my new bedroom ready as well as starting to trial a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) on a soft band.

It was great to get away for a week with my parents obviously we had been away to Majorca but that was only for a week and at the start of the summer.  The north coast of Northern Ireland is very hard to beat especially for the scenery and the food! We rented an apartment in Portstewart which was lovely, plenty of room, very comfy and with great sea views. We did a lot of walking and visited Rathlin Island for the very first time. We had timed it so we could also see the air show that was so great last year unfortunately bad weather elsewhere meant there were a lot less planes and helicopters this year.

View from the apartment

View from Rathlin Island

View from RSPB centre on Rathlin

The famous Dark Hedges as featured on Game of Thrones!

On the job front I have been busy and have had a number of interviews which is reassuring but unfortunately no offers yet. It is unfortunate that it seems to be a numbers game with so many people applying for the same positions. Due to some issues with interviews I have decided to not only send a strap line explaining that I have TCS if I'm invited to interview but also arrange for my employment advisor to ring the person just so he can also explain things. This way nobody is taken by surprise and the person is fully informed it also hopefully prevents the situation of people either not reading or not properly reading/understanding the email.

I have finally been able to move into my new larger bedroom, there are still some things to get such as a light shade for the ceiling light but it is now habitable. We had real issues getting the carpet sorted but eventually got one ordered that was in stock and ready to be fitted and I'm very happy with it. One of the main advantages of my larger room is that I was able to move my electronic drum kit out of the garage which gets very cold in winter and is a bit depressing in the dark. I now have a music corner of the room with my drum kit, my guitars, my amp and my effects pedalboard all set up. I will share some pictures once I get everything moved in and the way I want it.

If that wasn't all enough to keep me busy I am also currently trialing a BAHA on a soft band. I haven't had any reason to visit the audiology department at the hospital where I went quite regularly as a kid but my mum thought it would be a good idea just to check that what I currently have is the best option for me and thought now was a good time to check it out given I'm not currently working. Long story short we have been informed that Phonak are not going to repair/service my current bone conductor hearing aid after 2020. It is somewhat ironic after my quite contentious debates with people on Facebook about BAHAs being a bit overrated that I may now have to switch to one. I do stand by my point that you shouldn't need to have surgery to have a good hearing aid and it is my opinion that a lot of the people so strongly defending BAHAs online do so because their only experience of bone conductor/behind the ear hearing aids is from years ago with big bulky, uncomfortable and not very good models.

I have been allowed to trial the Cochlear BAHA 5 which is their most recent model and meant to be very fancy. I definitely could live with it if I had to and there are not the major teething problems I had when switching from my analog to digital bone conductor hearing aid (due to all the unnecessary programs and stuff that was on it at first). However the BAHA 5 does have issues:

• Very sensitive to the touch/wind. Cannot press on it to hear slightly better (during very quiet dialogue on tv) due to the feedback
• Automatic volume reduction programme, no rhyme or reason to it, looking forward to getting this deactivated to see how better it is. Not sure if this is why it is difficult for me to hear in shops unless the person is close to the side of the mic
• Doesn't like some high pitches of sound which is a bit awkward when playing guitar, have been told it might be due to the volume reduction

I'm going back for a follow up appointment next week so hopefully will get some of these issues resolved. Also hoping to try it with some of the accessories to listen to music/connect to audio devices (like my drum kit) as that is very important to me. 

Thanks for reading!

My first music festival

Well last weekend I attended my first proper music festival i.e. not a one day festival where you get to go home at the end of the day. I attended a local music festival called Stendhal Festival which is set in Limavady (Northern Ireland). I had come close to attending before especially last year but ended up not being fussed on the idea of camping especially last year when I was in the middle of writing up my PhD thesis. It's been running for a number of years now and has a very good reputation as being a great local music festival that caters to those of all ages. It has musical acts, comedy acts and plenty of things for kids to do including workshops and other fun activities.

I went with my brother and our mutual friend, me and my brother left on Friday morning and had to battle the Belfast traffic to pick up our friend then we had a long drive to Limavady, It wasn't the most reassuring drive as we drove through periods of very heavy rain. Thankfully we arrived in the sunshine and were able to get our tent set up. We were eager to get into the main site and start enjoying the festival and we were able to start with the wonderful Malojian. I really love his music but hadn't had the pleasure of seeing him live. It was a lovely way to start my first Stendhal, By the way I definitely recommend watching a documentary about how he went to Chicago to record an album with the famous Steve Albini.

The rest of the Friday was good, I saw the Ulster Orchestra play with a number of different female artists, saw Hunkpapa (unfortunately their set was cut short) and saw Jealous Of The Birds among other acts. Me and my brother had very nice pizza for dinner. Unfortunately the Friday night was rather cold especially if you were wearing welly boots which have no insulation! It did stay dry but a number of the stages were under cover anyway. It was rather late by the time we were heading back to the tent but I slept surprisingly well.  I had bought a "self-inflating" mattress for £10 which worked quite well, I was also prepared and had brought a plastic lunch box to keep my hearing aid and my glasses in whilst I was sleeping. I probably slept better than my brother and our friend given that I couldn't hear most of the noise from the campsite!

Joshua Burnside was last on the bill on Friday night:

We got up on Saturday morning to glorious sunshine and I even put sun cream on the back of my neck just in case (probably should've put it on my face as well given I ended up somehow getting sunburnt despite the rest of the day not actually being that sunny!). I had a sausage bap for breakfast and then we started the day with the wonderful Glass Wings. The rest of the day I was all over the site at all the different stages not just for music but for a live comedy podcast as well as comedians as well. Highlights of the second day were Runabay, Rebekah Fitch, Hand Models and also Cormac Neeson of the The Answer with his side project. He and his band played on a small stage in the woods and it was such a great set. Embrace were the headliners on Saturday night, I like their old stuff but when the rain was pouring down and they are faffing about with an out of tune guitar and asking us to wish their tour manager or whatever happy birthday it didn't do much for me. We ended up going over to catch a bit of Brand New Friend who are definitely making waves now before going up to the other end of the site to catch the always fantastic Wood Burning Savages.

The weather had turned on Saturday evening and we ended up making the decision to pack up our tent and everything else and leave it back in the car. It meant that since we weren't that fussed on the band that were closing the festival we could leave slightly early and sleep in beds with a roof over our heads rather than a tent in the pouring rain (and then have to pack up a wet tent as well). Overall I really enjoyed my first festival experience. Obviously I was tired after it but it had helped that the weather had been so nice and we had been able to sit on the grass to enjoy quite a few of the acts. Not sure if  I would enjoy it as much if it rains for two days straight. I would definitely consider going back next year and now I have done it once I know a lot better what to expect and what I need to bring and what I definitely don't need to bring.

Thanks for reading.

Jobs, applications and interviews

There has been some debate recently on the TCS Facebook groups and it has got a little bit heated at times. The topic of debate is whether or not to let employers know that you have a condition, how it affects you etc. There are some people who have the opinion that they want the job on merit, that their condition has no impact on their ability to do the job and there is no reason to notify employers. Obviously it's hard not to wonder that the different attitudes may be down to people living in different countries, it's hard to know. It is something that I've had to think a fair bit about since I have been job hunting for quite a while now and have now attended five job interviews in the past few months.

Personally I have the belief that it is better to be upfront about things especially when I look noticeably different and people who don't know me find it difficult to understand me. That said it does depend on the person, some people make more of an effort to understand me than others. There are disability acts which are meant to prevent discrimination against disabled people and employers are expected to make reasonable adjustments for people who are disabled. I used to hate the term disabled with it making me think of people who were confined to wheelchairs or blind etc. that said I've come to realise that it is just a term used to describe people who are at a disadvantage. There is no shame in allowing for things to level the playing field.

I do not mention that I have TCS on my CV and I only mention it on job applications if it specifically asks about disabilities. I only make the employer aware of it if I am invited for interview. In some cases they ask you to fill out a monitor form which often has a question about any disabilities. Even in those cases I make sure to include a paragraph in my email accepting the invitation to interview about my TCS. I do not feel it is fair for me or for the interviewers for me to turn up and surprise them as it were. It is better for them to be prepared to accommodate me and not be distracted by the way I look/talk and not know why.

This is what I wrote for my recent job interview, it is slightly edited:
As I have noted in the completed Application for Employment Addendum I have Treacher Collins Syndrome as a result of which  I am hearing impaired and have some difficulties with articulation when communicating orally. I would therefore request that this be taken into account during the interview in terms of time allowed. I have been advised by a employment adviser at Action on Hearing Loss that it might be helpful if I could be provided with a written copy of the interview questions on the day. I would be happy to respond to questions in writing, but only should there be any difficulty in the interviewers understanding of my speech. 


Unfortunately this doesn't always work out. One interview I had a while back was very awkward as the HR person clearly misunderstood my email and I ended up having to write down all my answers to the questions despite saying I would be happy to answer them orally. When I went back to them by email after the interview to clarify this I was then invited to go all the way back to receive oral feedback, which I declined and thankfully got written feedback instead.

For my most recent interview I was given short notice with the interview only being a few days later. I sent the email accepting the invitation along with the paragraph above both in the employment form and in the email. Unfortunately the interview invitations was being handled by a placement student, who did not pass on the information. I went into the interview and it was clear that they were slightly taken aback and the person leading the panel had to interrupt me to let me know she was struggling to understand me and asked if that was why I had brought the notepad with me. The rest of the interview was a combination of me writing some of my answers down and answering others orally. The members of the interview panel were very friendly and overall I thought the interview went quite well. After the interview I asked my employment adviser to ring them to clarify that I had sent the information about my condition. It turns out that after the interview the person leading the panel actually went and checked if they had received any information and found out that the placement student had been off the day before the interview and hadn't passed the information on. It is unfortunate but they handled it well.

The best interview I have probably had which led to the paragraph I now send as shown above was actually for a job in a university. They gave me the questions they were going to ask me on a sheet of paper. I was allowed to answer the questions orally. I was then asked to write down the answers to the questions in a separate room. These were taken back into the interview panel for them to look at before I was brought back into the room to answer some more questions and to clarify some things.

Obviously everybody is different but I am happy with this method of dealing with interviews I have found that said I will be now asking them to confirm they have received my email before the interview. Unfortunately I know it is true that appearance is often everything that said by making them aware of it beforehand and making sure I can properly get across my skills/experience and more importantly personality then I think I might have a better chance of getting a job than turning up and expecting them to be able to understand me/not allowing me enough time etc.

In terms of my job hunt I'm now playing the waiting game. Waiting to hear back about an apitude test I completed last week, waiting to hear back about my most recent interview, waiting to hear back about other job applications I have sent in and I also have another interview in September. Wish me luck!