"End of a dark chapter"

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has said that the execution of Saddam Hussein "ends a dark chapter" in Iraq's history. Such a mind-numbingly, ignorant and down right false statement at such a time strikes me as further evidence of a puppet regime that has been erected by the US in Iraq.

People are still dying every day in Iraq as the country plummets ever more rapidly towards civil war. Shia and Sunni rivalry continues to build, areas of Baghdad, Basra and other major cities are growing into forts controlled by militarized civilians. Police forces go rogue, occupying forces are faced with daily attacks against them. It's a mess.

What did "we" really get with the execution of the former-dictator? What does it really mean? I'm inclined to think that a martyr for the Sunni minority has been created. The BBC quotes a "Security Advisor" saying that Saddam looked remorseless as he was led out to be executed. Is that really a surprise? Should we expect to see remorse from a man who all along undoubtedly believed he was doing the right thing?

One thing is for certain, this is in no way the end of trouble.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Woot woot! Title announced today! Release date please Jo?

Aaaaand.... rest.

So I have go quite a bit to say actually. I have just got back from a 10 day stint up in Yorkshire visiting my family pre-Christmas, as this year it's Andy's family's turn for Xmas proper.

Andy and I went up together on Friday 8th, the drive was alright. Saturday was particularly exciting as we met up with a dear old friend of mine who moved to the States six years ago who I haven't seen since but stayed in touch with via email. It was amazing to catch up and meet her baby girl!

Then on Sunday we had our annual Christmas walk at Howstein Gorge. We've been going there for like forty years or something, it's a multi-generational family get-together started by my grandparents at which we all gather to walk up a very steep hill and down again for a Christmas meal. When it first started they used to do a twenty mile trek across the moors, when I started going we did a couple of miles up the hill across fields and over stiles and all that, now it has degenerated into a half mile walk up the road! But the spirit remains and it's something I've always looked forward to all my life.

Except that over the last few years it has become something I do out of obligation I suppose, I don't really enjoy it as I am much more aware now of the stupid family politics and there is one particular family member who I have disliked for a good few years who I am happy to avoid. It irks that Andy gets on better with this side of my family than I do too.

Andy drove home on Monday and I stayed to catch up with friends, do some shopping and spend some time with my parents, who I don't see often these days. It was all good, especially spending the day shopping in Leeds with my girl Sarah! I got an all too short visit with my other best mate, Simon, hopefully we'll get a longer visit soon.

Then on Thursday I checked stuff online (email and the like) and found I had got my OU result for this year.... I'm pretty pleased, make that ecstatic! I was just waiting for the result of my 5000 word assignment, worth 50% of the total mark, with 82% for my coursework in the bag. Well I got 77% on the 5000 word-er! So I passed with flying colours! Yay me :D

Then the last weekend was dedicated to a trip up to Scotland to visit my eight year old niece, Maisie. I hadn't seen her since May and before that it had been a year and a half. She's such an amazing little girl, she blows my mind with how generous, intelligent and caring she is. And I discovered - much to Andy's joy - that I'm a pretty good cricket player when playing my mum, brother and Maisie! Seriously, I got a bigger reaction to this news than my OU result!

Monday I came home on the train. By a freak of good timing I was travelling first class for dirt cheap, which was nice. Free orange juice and biscuits, more room etc. But no luggage space so my extra room was taken up by my bags of Xmas presents!

It's good to be home and chilling out for a bit before heading over to Essex on Sunday for Xmas with the in-laws :-/

All my OU course materials for next year have arrived, some of which arrived before I went away and I got a start on that course already. Reading through some of the notes for the assessment of my European Politics course has got me pretty nervous. It certainly looks demanding with a 5000 word assignment in August followed by a project in September. That's alongside the 4000 word assignment and exam for the other course! I am going to be a busy bee.

I also have a full time job lined up from Jan 2nd so I am refusing to start OU work until after Xmas now, getting a serious pit stop in before I have to crack on. Besides, I need my set books before I can go any further and I'm expecting to unwrap them on Xmas day ;-p

The 5000 word essay for European Politics requires lots of independent study, outside the course materials that they send you, so I plan to be hitting the library after work every day for most of June-August.

I made a pact with Sarah about next year. We shook on it, so I have to go through with it now... 2007 will be the year I change my life. I don't make New Year's Resolutions, I never stick to them. This is different, this is an inner revolution.

First and foremost I am going to keep up the hard work with the OU. Two firsts in a row, on a roll.

Second, and very importantly, I am going to keep my job. Seriously, I have walked out of so many awful jobs before, I know this one is going to be awful in advance, but it is decent money, decent hours and easy. So I am going to stick at it while I concentrate on getting good marks so that we don't have to worry about money, I do not need that distraction.

Thirdly, I am going to sort our house out! We have so much crap around this place, I am going to flog and bin our junk, sort out a decent filing system for paperwork (bills etc.), get some more storage so we can finish unpacking - oh yes, for those who haven't seen our office, we still have crates and boxes that haven't been touched after living here for well over four years! We have actually acquired more stuff to unpack as we have gradually brought old crap from our parents' houses over the years despite having nowhere to put any of it. I am going to finish decorating the house, make sure we get the kitchen we ordered and sort the living room out with a new suite and hopefully a shiny LCD HD-readyTV if all goes well financially - which it will, see number 2.

Fourthly, I am going to shift the weight I have been lugging around for years. I did actually manage to lose it once, last year as some of you will remember, I looked fantastic for a couple of months in the summer of 2005 after losing a stone and a half between January and June. Then in September I started working at RSA (eeeeeeeeeevil) and put two thirds of it back on in the space of two months. Argh! Well, it's going again, and a little more as I didn't quite meet my target last time. My new job has a subsidised gym, so no excuses!

Finally, Andy and I are going to start dancing lessons. Somehow I will fit this in! We've both been quite inspired by Strictly Come Dancing (hey, at least I don't watch X Factor!) and I can see it being great for us to do something like this together. We get to learn a new skill, spend time together and get exercise all in one go :-)

Now then, I know it seems like I'm taking a lot on. But the thing about me is that I do tend to do better under pressure and as a teenager I was exceptionally busy, I had something on every weeknight and Saturdays, Sundays too during panto season! If I set myself these goals and make a commitment to myself (not to mention the all important hand shake) I will achieve everything I set out to do. As long as I timetable things properly it will all be doable.

So, if you don't see much of me next year, you know in advance why!

ID Cards - The Latest

OK, so now the government has admitted that the new database to store all this personal data was an expensive and insecure idea. Now they want to spread the data over three existing systems, making it even less secure and still a painfully disturbing scheme in terms of civil liberties. They want to "check everyone in and check everyone out" of the country and are still claiming that this will somehow prevent terrorism, although refraining from saying how. John Reid even admitted that ID cards will not prevent people having fake identities.

Argh!

Read the full story here and sign the No2ID petition here.

OU

Another OU year is over so I decided to blog about my progress so far with my degree. I understand that there's probably quite a few friends of mine who don't really know what it is I'm doing with my life, either because I haven't taken the time to enthuse about my education, or because we're not in close touch these days so they may have lost track of what I'm up to.

So, I started studying with the Open University after I left Aberystwyth, in November 2002. Initially I just wanted to keep studying, keep my brain from going idle. So I got a prospectus for 2003, as the Open University year runs from February to October, leaving the winter free for the majority of OU students who are mature and with families etc, the timing couldn't have been better. I picked a course that looked interesting, it was A211: Philosophy and the Human Situation. It was a 60 credit course (which I'll explain more about in a minute) starting in February 2003 and concerned six areas of contemporary philosophy; the acceptable limits of individual freedom; attitudes towards animals; environmental ethics; Darwinism and human nature; mind and matter; and philosophy of religion. It was a really interesting course that I did enjoy, but adjusting to OU study wasn't easy, I fell behind and found it difficult to catch up. I also did really badly in the exam and my overall result was what the OU call a "Grade 4 pass", basically a 3rd in traditional university marking schemes.

But I had got the bug and fallen in love with the subject, so I decided to get my degree (after having dropped out of my Drama, Film & TV Studies BA) the long way, part time.

So here's how the OU works. You can study courses of a certain number of credits, 10, 30 or 60. The most you can take in one year is 120 credits worth, this is the same as full time study at a bricks & mortar university. Those of you with degrees or currently studying will recognise this credit system as the same as traditional universities and will likely remember picking out modules of 30/60 credits to fill a year or semester.

Each course you take you can designate a qualification you want it to count towards and they offer a huge range of these, from diplomas (usually 120 credits), to open degrees (300 or 360 credits and with no subject, just a mesh of courses from all faculties), to named degrees like you would get from a bricks & mortar uni. I decided to go for a named degree, it will be BA (Hons.) Humanities with Religious Studies - because for some reason they lump loads of subjects together under Humanities and that's how they name their degrees. When I put it on my CV and tell people what my degree is in I will leave out the "Humanities" part! It will be 360 credits (that's what the Honours part is) and will be made up of 3 60 credit courses in Religious Studies, 2 60 credit courses in Philosophy and 1 60 credit compulsory course that I have to do to get the named degree.

The OU divide courses into three levels to denote difficulty and workload. I didn't bother with any level 1 courses as I had come directly from university education and none of the OU's level 1 courses interested me as they were all so vague. "Introduction to Humanities" was the obvious one and it covered everything from English Lit to History to Classical Studies. Yuck, too woolly for me. And to build a degree you don't need any level 1 courses, you need at least 120 credits each from levels 2 and 3. Are you still with me?!

So, in my second year (2004) I took A213: World Religions. As you might guess, this course consisted of the study of the six major world religions. It also looked at three core issues facing those religions; sacred space, making moral decisions and women in religion. Without boring anyone on the details these three issues made up the second half of the course, while the basics in beliefs, organisation, religious practice etc. was the first half. I did well in my assignments over the year, securing an average of 66%.... but failed my exam. Me and exams have never mixed well. So I failed the course, but was entitled to resit the exam.

Now, rather than having a second exam session in, say February or something, the OU make you wait a whole year and do the exam with the following year's students and they make you use up the number of credits of the course in question. So in my case, a 60 credit course, meant that I could do another 60 credits alongside my resit, but no more (max 120 a year, remember?) So for 2005 I applied for the resit and another course, AD317: Religion Today: Tradition, Modernity and Change, determined to stay on track for completing in 6 years.

Despite a very healthy 74 for my first assignment, I ran into trouble with this course quite early and ended up dropping it in May. I did nothing for a few months then in September began intensive revision for my resit exam. One month later I sat my exam and got really lucky with one question: I had happened to revise precisely the right thing the day before and the answer flowed very easily *smug grin*. But apart from that one answer I didn't feel too confident. Me and exams etc... Results time arrived in mid-December and I nearly had a heart attack on seeing that I had achieved 77% in the exam, was in the top 2% for my course nationwide and had got between 85-100% on that lucky question! That meant that I had secured a comfortable 1st for my second course, although the OU call it a "Grade 2 pass", a "grade 1" being over 85%.

So, into 2006 and I started again with the course I had dropped the previous year, AD317. This was a level 3 course, studying the intensive changes occurring in religion globally over the last century. It looked at the role of the internet; the role of religion on social transformations; the concept of a civil religion (Princess Diana, war memorials etc.); the patterns and differences in global and local belief and practice; and new religious movements such as Paganism.

Yeah, that last topic was tough. I thought I would love it and excel with my incredible knowledge of the subject. But no. I learned a few cold, hard truths about modern Paganism and had to seriously reassess my position on its history. But I feel better for it, difficult though it was, I feel empowered now that I'm not labouring under false impressions and have become more involved in the online community of Pagans because of it, making some interesting acquaintances. This course didn't have an exam, instead it had what the OU call an ECA - extended course assignment. It was a 5000 word essay concluding the course, the question I chose was about the role of religion in having an informed understanding of the modern world. Now I'm waiting for my results. I know I did really well in the normal assignments, my average mark being above 80%, I need 58% in the ECA to get a 1st for this year. I should be getting my result in a week or so and I'm pretty damn nervous about it.

Now then, the quick among you will have noticed that it has taken me 4 years to complete 3 courses. So in order to finish this thing in just 2 more years, I have registered for 120 credits next year. 2007 is going to be very, very hard. Both 60 credit courses are level 3, they are AA300: Europe: Culture and Identities in a Contested Continent and AA307: Religion in History: Conflict, Conversion and Coexistence.

The first is my compulsory course to get the named degree, it is essentially a European politics course, but I think it looks interesting. I had a choice of three courses for this compulsory bit and the other two looked appallingly dull, this one has some grit to it and will hopefully be relevant to my overall degree as it touches on religion in places, as well as concepts such as globalization, which I've studied already in this year's course.

The second is my final RS course and I can't wait to look at the conversion of Rome to Christianity and the Crusades, two time periods I have never studied before. It also covers the Reformation and Britain post WWII - which I also studied this year, secularization theory here I come again! (It's bull shit btw, the world ain't secularizing, not by a long shot. We like to think it is because Britain is, but look outside north-western Europe and religion is growing very rapidly and isn't detaching itself from the state.) The first batch of materials arrived last Friday and I got stuck in over the weekend, reading the introduction and getting started on the notes and exercises. There's nothing like an early start to thses things, especially when tackling two of the buggars in one year!

This will leave me with one more course to do in 2008, another philosophy course to finish what I started - what can I say? I like symmetry. AA308: Thought and Experience: Themes in Philosophy of the Mind. It covers emotion; thought and language; imagination and creativity; and consciousness. I can't wait for that one!

And as for life after the OU, well, my fellow students and I sometimes discuss this subject, for many studying with the OU becomes an obsession, they never leave but continue to study and learn, whether earning qualifications or not. It becomes such a big part of your life and I think OU students are sort of united in a way I've never found with bricks & mortar uni students. Many friends for life are made and the support we provide each other with gets to be a serious crutch! SOme of my friends on this course this year were finishing their degrees with it and towards the end of the year they turned very nostalgic. A few did actually say that even though they were finishing their degrees, they might just take a 10 credit course next year, just to keep it going a little longer. It's something about it taking 6 years, it's a big chunk of your life. It's hard to let go.

Others go into teaching or other career changes. Me? Well, this whole thing started just because I wanted a degree, any degree! Now I love my subject, I love it so much I am already looking at MAs and PhDs... not with the OU, but with bricks & mortar unis. I just want to keep on going. We'll see what happens, I'm also thinking about teaching for a few years before embarking on post grad study.

So guys, I will almost certainly need all your help and support next year if I'm going to succeed and get the high marks I have become accustomed to! Hopefully now, a few people will *get* what I'm up to and how hard I am actually working, despite being intermittently unemployed and constantly poor.

Love to all
xxx

My dirty little secret

I have decided to finally "come out" for the second time in my life (I still find it ironic that the first person I told about my sexuality was my drama teacher, she was very supportive and within a year I knew exactly why, she began sexual reassignment and became a he!).

Anyway, for a couple of years now I have been writing smutty Harry Potter fanfic. That's right, I write porn and post it on the internet. Almost nobody knows about this, Andy and my dear friend Louis have know for ages and I just told my mum about it last weekend. Telling her has given me the courage to announce it here, I'm damn proud of my writing and if anyone reading this has a problem with it keep it to yourself and don't mention it to me and we'll be fine. You don't have to read it if you don't want to.

I'm not going to put my pen name up here, or links to my writing. But, if any of you particularly fancy seeing what goes on in my filthy little mind send me an email and I'll point you to where you can find my stuff.

While I'm here I just wanted to have a bit of a rant because I just finished my second lengthy story yesterday, one that I have been writing, on and off, for over a year and it was a very tearful ending. I cried writing it and really hoped that it packed the same sort of punch as the endings of the last two actual HP books, Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince. While I have had quite a few lovely reviews, I have also had a couple of fairly nasty ones, criticising me for not including warnings or ruining the end of an otherwise good fic.

Now, I do this chiefly for myself, I don't make a living out of this although I hope to make a living writing original fiction in the future, but I am unashamedly encouraged by seeing that hit counter tick over and reading reviews praising me and begging for updates. I love that feeling that people are reading and enjoying my writing, I get a huge buzz from it. However, I will always write in a way that I like, I will always include plot twists and hooks that interest me and take the story where I want it to go. I do not pander to the audience (one reviewer demanded an epilogue to make it a happy ending!!!) And I am more than a little annoyed that people would criticise me for doing this. I am NOT about to put great big warnings on my summary, spoiling the ending for my readers, obviously some people do not want to be surprised or moved by fiction, but personally I do and I despise spoilers. If someone had told me what happened in the real HP books (again, esp the latest two) I would have been devastated and they certainly wouldn't have had me balling my eyes out the way they both did.

Why do some readers have to be so ungrateful? One review I removed because it was so spiteful and I didn't want other readers seeing it and being put off. I won't do that again though, I was just upset by that one and it was a reflexive action. If I get any more like that I will respond, politely! Take this little gem though:

"I really, really, really loved this story, a lot! But I was very disappointed by the ending; no warnings/clues in the fic, I really didn't see that one coming..."

That's sort of the point!!! And besides, there were plenty of clues, in the form of fiction conventions, describing the fears of the two lead characters and planting all too obvious hopes for the future. You know the kind you read and go "Oh no, don't get your hopes up.. it's too good to be true" That kind of thing. It is NOT my fault if people do not understand these conventions.

This story is posted on an ADULT fanfic site, readers should expect not only explicit sex scenes, but possibly shocking plots. One of my favourite authors posted a fantastic blog about this sort of thing and I hope she doesn't mind me quoting it here because she put it so well:

"Authors do not owe readers:

1. Updates. Most authors have lives outside of the fandom and readers should respect that. An occasional email or review asking when a story will be updated is fine. It's nice to know that people haven't forgotten about a story. An angry email demanding an update like a payment on an overdue bill is rude. People who send them should consider getting one of those lives outside of the fandom that I mentioned earlier. Simple solution for the unsatisfied reader: Don't read WIPs.

2. Happy Endings. Formula romance might be your preference, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. That said, in a good story, the ending, even if it's a surprise, should be inevitable, or so I've been told. Simple Reader Solution: Restrict your reading to known romance authors or to archives where stories are categorized as "Romance".

3. Quality. When you purchase a novel, you are plunking down your hard-earned money with the assumption that what you are purchasing has been edited and proofread. You have have the right to expect good grammar and a story that meets professional standards. When you read fan fiction, you aren't spending a dime and you aren't reading the work of published authors. Finding a professional quality story is nice, expecting one is simple-minded. Simple Reader Solution: Stick to moderated archives or trusted recommendations.

4. Canon Compliance. It's been said a thousand times before by better essayist than me, but I'll say it again: Only JKR writes canon. Everything else, to varying degrees, is AU. JKR said that she stays away from the nets because some of the stuff she sees scares her. If the prospect of running into a story that has Snape in fishnet stockings, stilettos, and a Frederick's of Hollywood pink satin corset is going to send you into a tizzy, take JKR's lead and stay off the nets. Simple Reader Solution: Read the submission guidelines for various archives and only read the ones that squelch all creativity require a high degree of canon compliance.

5. Their wank fantasy. Some of you, and you know who you are, seem to have an unnatural attachment to pretend wizards. Unless you've commissioned a fic, it's not reasonable to expect a writer to give your literary object d'amour all of the qualities that blow your skirt up. Some of you get quite wanky about this. Harmionians anyone? Simple Reader Solution: Get help. Seriously.

6. Their Hermione-Sue: Or Any-other-canon-character-Sue/Stu, over-invested self-insert. (That makes Hermione sound like a sex toy, doesn't it?) You're not Hermione. Simple Reader Solution: See Above.

7. Warnings. Unless the archive specifically requires them, I don't think an author is required to suck all of the suspense out of their plot with a million warnings.

I guess what I'm saying in a nutshell is that the only thing that a writer owes a reader is to follow the rules of the archive they are posting in. I view the fandom and fanfiction as a free market and for the reader it's caveat lector. That said, what's good for the reader is good for the writer. When you post your story on the big bad internet, it's with the understanding that no one is required to like it, review it, or be nice to you."

I wholeheartedly agree with this author and I'm not complaining about people being nasty exactly, I am disappointed with some people's expectations not to mention being disappointed that for those people, my story wasn't effective in the way I intended.

Kitchen, Amnesty and the White House

We have had to delay the installation of our kitchen :-( it's complicated, and boring. Anyway, it's now going to be February. Doh. Never mind.

I just got back from a weekend away at my parents', my mum organised a ceilidh for her local Amnesty group that she's been involved with for a few years now. It was fun, dancing and merriment aplenty. But now I am exhausted after spending 13 hours out of the last 72 on a coach :-/ I just want to loaf for a couple of days!

And finally, onto the main point of my blog today. This brilliant website that my brother told me about, it's hilarious. If you want a good laugh at America check it out!

The White House

You can get an alternative view of the news and buy genius merchandise, I've got my eye on a few of the bumper stickers.

Iceland

Iceland have defied the international community and undertaken the first commercial whaling there in over 20 years. Take the pledge to visit the country for your holiday after the government retracts this whaling licence that allows the slaughter of more endangered whales.

Click here to find out more.

Arrogant, ignorant, flaming wanker

Please excuse my language in this post. I am angry.

I am up in arms over this dickhead I have clashed horns with on an internet forum. The topic was trick or treating. Some people were claiming that it has only started happening in the UK in the last 20 years under the influence of America. I knew otherwise so piped up. This is what I said:

I suspect the tradition comes from an old Yule begging tradition, old women (often widows) used to to go begging from door to door saying a rhyme that varied from one region to another, records date from the mid-sixteenth century.

Distinctive Hallowe'en trick or treating can be traced back in the UK to the beginning of the twentieth century :-)

All true, as discussed at length by Ronald Hutton, leading historian on the origins of British folk customs, in his book Stations of the Sun. Which another poster suggested this guy should read.

Dickhead said:

The truth is prosaic. It came from America and is promoted by the High Street.

To which I responded with:

Are you denying the likely British roots of this tradition in the face of historical evidence? It's probable that trick or treating as we know it today was rekindled under American influence. But it's fairly obvious that the traditions both here and in America have their own individual heritages.

This is obviously speculation on my part, but not unjustifiable I think. The response I got was infuriating:

I can hardly do that if nobody presents any historical evidence.

Yes, and in ancient prehistory we all worshipped a Mother Goddess until the nasty Christians came along and stole our calendar. Do me a favour.

When advised by another poster he was being harsh he actually implied that he had prepared a much more scathing reply that he had toned down. He went on to say:

I know that but it bores me to objection when people promote nonsense about the past, about the beliefs and actions of our ancestors. Why do some people feel they must belong to an ancient tradition in order for their own beliefs to be legitimate and viable in our modern society?

Was that what I was doing?! Hardly! I despise that as much as anyone as I feel strongly that pagan literature is incredibly misleading about the origins of modern paganism and I was duped, like many people for many years before I read historical research on the matter.

All I was saying was that there was an old begging custom at Yule (by which I meant the Christmas season) that was likely transferred to Hallowe'en at some point and that Hallowe'en (note, I steered clear of the name Samhain) trick or treating can be traced back through historical records to 100 years ago. Why do arrogant wankers read things into posts that aren't there?!

I am so frustrated because the forum in question is moderated and not 24 hours, so I have to wait until 9am tomorrow to reply to the cocksucker.

Argh!

Ladylike and A New Fucking Kitchen Baby!

I cannot stop playing Ladylike - by the fabulous Storm Large. I play it full volume and sing my little heart out over and over. It's probably the best song I've ever, ever heard. Now, coming from someone who is quite prone to picking one song to worship for a several year stretch at a time and whose cd collection is (although I haven't actually counted it) rather fucking large! Yes, it is indeed that good a song, it has replaced my old favourite of approximately five years. I'm a little obsessive about it :-p

And in other news.... Andy and I are getting a NEW KITCHEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's booked for installation starting on November 20th. I am more than a little excited about this as we have been living with "hell's kitchen" for four very long years. No dishwasher, cupboards with no shelves in them, cupboards and drawers with either no handles or handles that come off when you use them, irremovable stains on the floor, awful brown tiles, dubious but unavoidable positioning of cooker next to sink and worktops too shallow to actually prepare food on! It's all going, being ripped out and thrown away in favour of shiny new cabinets and worktops, with soft close doors! We will actually have an extractor hood too and most importantly..... A DISHWASHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, just a tad excited about this :-D

Lib Dem Conference

Check out this webcast about the Lib Dem Green Tax Switch:

http://www.libdems.org.uk/news/lib-dem-ppb.html

BNTM & end of course

Well, what a couple of days. Last night was the finale of season 2 of BNTM, my little obsession. I actually try quite hard to keep this quiet, but what the hey, it's not that bad a habit. I watch ...Next Top Model - America's, Australia's & of course Britain's. I love it, it's tacky tele at its best and indulges my fashion fetish.

This season of BNTM has been very frustrating as there was one contestant that I felt a great desire to strangle right from the beginning and another who I adored and desperately wanted to win. Every week I would be crossing my fingers that the former would be sent home and the latter would stay. Well, I got one wish almost to the end, but not the other. The woman I hated only went and won the damn thing! I joked with Andy in about week 4 that she would win, but I didn't really believe she would.

The woman I like, Abbey made it to the final too and she was by far the best at the climactic fashion show. The judges sat there and deliberated, praising Abbey and I thought she could actually pull it off - the big doubt was over her figure, she actually had breasts and from the beginning they criticised her for being too "lads mag". Despite her being better on the runway and having stunning photos and the fact that the big reason for my feelings towards the other one being her negative attitude, self-doubt and self-criticism (oh and her tendency to fall apart every week over something trivial), Abbey didn't win! They picked the weepy, annoying cow who couldn't make it through a go-see without telling the client that all her photos were awful!!!

Seriously? WTF?! I have come to the conclusion that sometimes they just go for the pity vote. They pick the one who needs the biggest help up into the industry. Incidentally, not that I knew this until googling her this week, but Abbey's the girlfriend of Peter Crouch and was one of the WAGs sent home from the World Cup in disgrace. But as I try to ignore football and icky tabloids, I knew nothing of this.

Anyway. Onto the other matter... this afternoon I finished my ECA, a 5000 word essay due for the end of my course in place of an exam. It's done, it will be in tomorrow's post. So I am free again to have a social life :D and get on with the tiresome business of finding a new job :-/

The OU academic year is over, roll on winter holiday! Back to OU in February, so I have to make the most of this brief interlude when I actually have the time and inclination to read something non-academic!

Delayed Announcement

I'm not entirely sure why I've waited this long to post the joyous news... but I quit my horrific job! They didn't give a hoot about the injury I sustained there or my availability. They continually put me down for hours I did not want or could not do and ignored my requests for better hours. Mostly I was given late nights and Sundays which meant Andy and I never saw each other. It was hell, so I quit.

Now I need a new job :-/

I've applied for a bunch of teaching assistant jobs with a view to it looking good when I apply for my PGCE next year. But failing that and in the short term, I'm going to have to find something else. I just don't want to get lumbered with another job like the one I just left, it would be a waste of everyone's time. My Oracle deck suggested that hesitation and careful thought before action would be advisable right now and that I had the strength to find the right path for myself. So, money worries aside, waiting is good. Hmm.

Double Rant

OK, so I have to have one little rant about this issue, but I won't get OTT about it... But where the fuck are all the feminists?!! I feel totally alone here. I'm a freak for keeping my own name when I got married (in the last few years I can count at least six women I know who have got married and changed their names, not one who has kept their own), I'm a freak for thinking women should be paid the same wage for the same job as men. I get accused of not caring about the plight of women on an international scale just because I realise there is still inequality in our own country and other developed nations.

When I was younger, well until quite recently I suppose, I assumed that the vast majority of women my age (and a little older and younger) were feminists, or at least held a few of the same views as me. But I'm really struggling to meet another woman who thinks like I do and cares about the issues I do. It's like we got the vote then all the feminists hung up their sashes and went back to the kitchen sink.

So please, answer me this, where are all the feminists?

Second, this is ridiculous. Andy directed me to the story and at the time he was distinctly more aggravated about it than me, but having sat on it for 24 hours, I'm now kinda frustrated about it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/5297600.stm

It's a story about a woman who has been campaigning to ban violent porn after the death of her daughter by strangulation, the government have just agreed to close a loophole in the law. Now, not condoning what the guy did, he strangled her without consent and it happened that he owned some strangulation fetish porn, but this is such a gross overreaction and complete lack of understanding of humanity. OK, the guy was a killer, but I highly doubt that the films made him that way. More likely is he was predisposed to strangulation and sought out films depicting it, not every strangulation fetishist is going to kill someone, the overwhelming majority are going to practice it safely and have a safety signal arranged with their partner.

So such films are already illegal, but they're criminalising possession of "material featuring violence that is, or appears to be, life-threatening or is likely to result in serious and disabling injury". So we're actually talking about all action films, horrors, thrillers, some sci-fi and fantasy, crime dramas etc. We'll be left with a few romcoms. OK, so the wording of the law probably relates it directly to sex, rather than this general, catch-all wording quoted on the beeb. It just bothers me that the government would give in to this old lady who simply doesn't understand fetishes.

With or without porn, people are going to practice suffocation and strangulation and some people are going to take it too far and have accidents and even fewer are going to go out and kill people on purpose. It was like with the Jamie Bulger situation and people reacted by wanting to ban films like Child's Play, or with Columbine and the parents felt that Marilyn Manson was to blame. It is assuming that all people are vulnerable and easily led and that these influences are outright malicious, ignoring freedom of speech and the fact that millions of people get enjoyment out of these films and music without hurting themselves or anyone else. ARGH!!!

Birthday and Money

Ah, how time flies. I am alarmed at how fat the last year has gone. Here I am, birthday time again (tomorrow) and where am I compared to last year? I am one module closer to getting my degree; I am much happier; I am learning a new skill (POI!); I am working; I have lost touch with one or two more people; I have regained touch with one or two people; I have made new friends; I have got into new bands; we (Andy and I) have more disposable income; we are getting a new kitchen :D

I think that's about it. Before writing that list I had been thinking that not much had changed, that life was speeding by with very little progress. But I was, thankfully, mistaken!

So, the money thing, without going into emensley depressing and boring details, the money situation was bleak, dire in fact. But thanks to generosity, a degree of risk taking with investment, and a handy loan, the situation is looking up. Finally we are able to get to work on the house, starting with a new kitchen. I am significantly more excited about the kitchen than Andy, I'm the one who cooks. But he's the one who washes up and we are getting a dishwasher, so he must be happy about that. Sadly true to stereotypes, however, the aesthetics matter much more to me than him! I've had so much fun examining brochures, picking door handles, floor and wall tiles are the next step. We have had quotes, so now we need to choose whether we want to pay a "reassuringly expensive" price, or a lower price for potentially lower quality.

If any readers have kitchen-fitting horror stories, or high praise in fact, do please tell us, testimonies are the best source of information in matters like these!

So, even after the new kitchen, we are clearing a lot of niggling debts (like my course fees) and will have money left over each month for a social life and the odd CD or DVD! Yay!

DNA

Five times more people in the UK have their DNA records stored on central government records than in any other country in the world. Now DNA records do have a key role in the fight against crime - but that doesn't somehow mean that anything at all done with DNA records is therefore ok.

And there are some tough questions for Labour to answer about why they've built up DNA records far, far in excess of what is needed to help fight crime in other countries.

Questions like:-

Why should the DNA records of innocent people be kept indefinitely?

How secure really are the records? (The Observer recently pointed out that private firms have secretly been keeping DNA records that should have been destroyed.)

Where are the proper safeguards against mis-use of the data?

And what is the explanation for a quarter of the DNA records being from members of the ethnic minorities whilst they only make up under one in ten of the overall population; is there really no racial discrimination going on?

That's why last week Lynne Featherstone launched a petition with Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary, against this over-the-top database. Agreeing that DNA has important role to play in fighting crime doesn't justify keeping the DNA records for innocent people indefinitely and without proper safeguards.

You can sign the petition at this site.

Poi

I just bought my first set of poi! I got the chance to play with a friend's set at Download, loved it and seemed to do quite well for my first go. So finally I have bought my own and they're sooooo cute!

Dodgy Forum Experience

Why is it that you always encounter really rude people on internet forums? They always seem to be American, maybe that has something to do with it. What am I saying?! Obviously that's the problem. Get rid of the Americans and a forum immediately becomes civil and healthy debate flourishes rather than trading blows.

I was recently engaged with a moron (19 years old, American, avatar was a Marilyn Manson image, it was a pagan forum, the guy was clearly a wannabe) on the subject of women and the remaining inequalities in our society (rich world). He denied there was an existing inequality, or rather he felt that the scales had tipped and that women were in a better position than men (wtf?!). I mentioned in a post that I'm a feminist and his response was to highlight that word alone in the middle of his lengthy response to the rest of my post and simply state "I see". Now maybe it's just me, but that seemed awfully condescending, it was like "well, now I know not to take anything you say seriously".

Wanker. I'm all for people having different opinions to mine, but when people cling to these weird perceptions and ignore or brush off statistics as unreliable, I just want to scream. For instance, he had no trouble putting down such statistics as women earn 77% that of men in the USA. He actually had the gall to say that wages are decided by complex factors such as quality of work, implying that women's quality of work is lower than men's!!! I wonder what he would have said if I'd pointed out how few women there are in American politics. He also questioned whether it's right to want equality, giving examples of a strong, fast individual being superior to a less physically fit person and suggested that disabled individuals in wheelchairs ought to not be given job opportunities based solely on their disability.

How do people end up like that? I hope it is just his age and that as he gets older and has more contact with the world he will grow out of such awful views.

Work Induced Injuries

Last night I attended work, as usual. It was bloody hot as our air conditioning doesn't work (and head office refuses to replace it), it's been a nightmare all summer.

I was stacking glasses in the glass washer and in the process of separating two pint glasses that were a little stuck - but not very, which makes this really weird - the bottom glass exploded in my hand, slicing my ring finger open. Much swearing, screaming and crying ensued. Being stood at the sink already I thrust my hand under the cold tap and a friend working in the cafe came running. She began swearing and ran to the phone, calling the manager/first aider who appeared with first aid kit. There was rather a lot of blood, the cut was pretty deep, all plastered up I went to sit down in the staff room for a minute to calm down.

After fifteen minutes the pain was even worse so I was told to go to casualty to check for glass. Andy came to pick me up from doing the shopping, so we swang home to put frozen goods in the freezer. We took the plaster off to have a look, it was pretty gross but we decided to call our dear Dr friend rather than go sit in A&E for four hours.

He poked around, it hurt, it makes me cringe to remember. But he said he couldn't see any glass and said he wouldn't recommend stitches because it was on the side of my finger and they don't usually put stitches there as it's an awkward spot. So no A&E, but this afternoon I'm off to my doctor for a tetnus jab :-/

So, in short, work is further demonstrating its annoyingness!

Work

In time honoured tradition, I am using my blog to rant about work once again - remember back in the early days of this blog I was bitching about my insurance call centre job? That was before they figured out that allowing access to this site was perhaps an error and made it a banned site.

Well, for those who don't know, I now work behind the bar of a bowling alley. I keep reassuring myself that it is only temporary, until I finish my degree, because it is underpaid, unstimulating, sweaty work that I do not enjoy. Most of my colleagues are illiterate youngsters, I'm the same age as half of the manglement team, older than one guy (he's 20 ffs!).

So the mangler who does the rota is in the habit of giving people the wrong number of hours and hours they can't do. This one girl that I get on with really well, in large part down to our shared hatred of the manglement, she has another job that she works on Wednesday and Saturday nights, in her first few weeks at the Bowl they only gave her Wednesday and Saturday nights and then tried to put her on disciplinary for not turning up! With me, she (the mangler) keeps giving me around 3-4 hours short of the minimum I need to cover my share of the bills.

Last week they put out a memo telling us all that we cannot swap shifts except in an emergency and even then any swaps have to be approved by her or this one other mangler who is just as anal. The memo even said that there has to be give and take and that they do all they can to ensure everyone gets a fair rota. It also said that the rota goes up in plenty of time for us to say if there is a problem with our shifts. But they also reserve the right to change the rota without telling or asking us up to the first day of the week concerned.

This week my shifts got changed twice before the start of the week. At first I had Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Then Friday was added in accordance with me making a fuss that I wasn't getting enough hours. Then when I turned up on Sunday tonight's shift had been taken away, leaving me with 3 again, but one was the one I only agreed to do as an extra. To make matters worse, we had training on Sunday and tonight. When I was given shifts on both these days I was actually quite impressed that they'd worked it so that I didn't have to make an extra trip out there for the sake of one hour's training. But no, tonight's shift was taken from me and I had to go in especially for this training - which was a bunch of arse. SO there is no give on their part, we can't change our shifts but they can change them for us. It's so hypocritical.

Every time Andy takes me to work and picks me up it triples his mileage for the day. So tonight we made a point of him sitting in the bar with a book while I was in training, so as to reduce it to double for the day. On the way home we joked about him taking a second job there so that we can actually see each other occasionally, bring home some extra money and reduce the mileage on the car (be default making the mileage more worthwhile). We were just joking, but by the end concluded that it was actually a damn good idea!

It would also mean that Andy would be in a position and totally free to say all the things to manglement that we would each like to say and it wouldn't matter if he got fired because it'd only be a crappy second job anyway that need never go on his CV or anything.

SO now I'm working tomorrow night, I'm also working Sunday, so Andy and I get another fun-filled weekend in each other's company. Married people shouldn't see each other as little as we do.

Politics & Religion

Ok guys, the time has come to take part in British politics. I've pretty much emailed everyone about it so all I will say here is: take part in huge virtual conference this autumn and have your say about how you want our country to be governed. Go here: http://www.takingpower.org/index.html

On to my other point, religion. As many of you know, I am currently studying for a degree in Religious Studies and Philosophy. The current topic is new age spirituality and a core reason for me taking this particular module. As most of you also know, this is where my own spiritual inclination lies. I am finding it particularly challenging to read about my own beliefs from an academic standpoint and feeling a bit of a dope for thinking so much of myself that I would be able to be critical and objective!

What it has made me realise though, is that I need to persevere, in fact I need to read more widely on the subject. I've always adamantly believed that people should be critical of their faith, they should allow it to be challenged and I am no exception. So I have decided to read a book that I had been desperate to read for a couple of years, but on seeing the author quoted in my course material in an unfavorable light had recently sworn never to read another thing by him. I'll let you know how I get on!

Now, clicky clicky.

Extradition Treaty

Wow, I only just found out about this appalling treaty we have had with the USA since 2003. Basically they can extradite British citizens whenever they like, they don't have to press charges or produce evidence, nothing. Whereas we have to go through all the traditional procedures to extradite US citizens. This Labour initiative was presumably agreed to under pressure by Bush and it's an absolute travesty.

Yesterday the House of Commons voted on repealing this treaty and thankfully the vote went the way of human rights. Only 4 Labour MPs voted to keep the treaty!

Now we just have to write to the Solicitor General to ask him to back the vote. Please help return the rights of all British citizens, take some of the domination out of the USA, they have no right to trample all over the rest of us in this way!

Write to him at:

Mike O'Brien
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

No2ID

From LibDem email:

"Last week the Information Commissioner ruled that the Government should
publish a secret internal report into the costs and practicality of ID
cards.

The secret report produced by the Department for Work and Pensions
examines whether ID cards would really bring the benefits the Government
has claimed.

There is more on this story at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5061242.stm

The Government now has 30 days to decide whether or not to appeal
against this decision. However, the whole episode shows once again how the
Government is being far too secretive about the real impact of ID
cards.

We know only too well how badly the Government runs big IT projects, as
seen in the recent headlines about NHS projects running massively over
budget. Nor does this Government protect our privacy properly in other
databases. My colleague Lynne Featherstone recently discovered that
records from the DNA database had been sent to other countries due to lack
of proper controls -
http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/news1635-dna-database.htm

That's why it is so important to keep up the pressure on the
Government.

They should be open about the real costs of ID cards and publish the
Department for Work and Pensions report straight away. You can increase
the pressure on them by contacting your MP via
http://www.writetothem.com and asking them to raise this issue with
Government Ministers.

If you have a blog or website yourself, you can help by spreading this
story and encouraging your readers to write to their MP as well.

People can also be encouraged to sign our petition on
http://www.libdems.org.uk/noidcards

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg
Shadow Home Secretary, Liberal Democrats"

Jemima

We found Jemima, finally! We were sat by our car pouring cat biscuits into her bowl, hoping the familiar sound would bring her out. It appears that in her hurry to get to us she got herself stuck on a garage roof! We managed to get her down, with the help of the family whose garage it was, whom I had to wake up early on a Sunday morning. She is now home and strutting around looking at us as if to say "What? What d'I do?" in that oh so innocent way. Bless.

Photos

Check out photos of all sorts, including gigs, our wedding and our recent trip up north here:

www.flickr.com/photos/phoenixandy/tags

Cats and Holidays

Andy and I have just got back from our holiday. We spent 10 days with my family in North Yorkshire and had a lovely time. It was an excuse to take Andy to various places that you just don't go when you live somewhere, so we went to Brimham Rocks, Fountains Abbey and the Twelve Apostles - a stone circle on Ilkley Moor. I'm going to put some pics up on our Flickr account, I'll post a link in a bit.

Being away we left our three gorgeous cats with friends here in Bristol, however, when we got back they told us that Jemima had got out and not come back. She's been missing for 2 days and I'm very upset. We're making regular circuits around the streets where our friends live and are assured that she has been seen around by the neighbours. We're going to try taking her brother, Misty over there in his cat box, hopefully he'll make lots of noise and she'll come running.

I will post again with updates, I'm sure we'll get her back with some persistance!

The Ivories

Ok, so Andy and I went over to Thetford this weekend for our regular gathering and gaming, but with the addition of a Sisters of Mercy gig at Norwich UEA.

It's a really rare event when the support act take your breath away, and, in fact, are more enjoyable than the main act. In fact, before Saturday in Norwich, this had only happened to me once and that was Eagles of Death Metal at NIN last year. But it happened again on Saturday.

The Ivories are a fantastic new band from Leeds - hello! Yorkshire lasses like me! Their set blew me away right from the first song, they sound like nothing else out there right now, hot punk enfused with dark angst. The lead vocals are electric, spine chillingly haunting and the talent oozing from the rest of the band is palpable. I gather from their MySpace that the bassist I saw was a recent (temporary?) replacement, and the only male in the band, he did an incredible job.

Anyway, go see them live for goodness sake! I've watched the videos for their singles and while interesting and enjoyable, the live experience is the thing!

Silly stuff, links aplenty!

Not a new discovery of mine, but I thought I'd share it with people: London Underground very funny, extremely explicit lyrics, maybe best not to view at work, unless you work somewhere relaxed and groovy!

Another funny: Muppets!

Also check out my nation on Nation States, Ley Land. I used to have a nation called Froudland, and Andy had New Rootopia (he beat me to that!), but we failed to loggin to the site for a while and had our nations deleted. Since I left RSA I've had a lot of spare time and so found myself back there! The forums are particularly lively. If anyone wants to form a new region I'd be very happy to leave the West Pacific and hang out with people I know!

Speaking of Froud, have a look at one of my favorite websites here.

That's all for now. I expect I'll be back for a rant soon enough!

Wedded Bliss

This weekend was the wedding of two of my dear friends, Chris and Catherine. So Andy and I trundled up to Bolton to participate in the happy event. I had a fair amount of responsibility on this occassion, as I was not only the official videographer, but also doing make up for the bride and her maids, the two sisters of the happy couple.

The wedding itself was on Saturday in Catherine's parish church, with reception taking place at a family favorite restaurant. It was an early start for me, but make up went smoothly and everyone was on time.

The ceremony was everything one would expect from a CofE wedding! (Read into that what you will, those who know me well can guess my specific thoughts) Whenever I film a wedding I'm always thrilled to get prime position behind the vicar/registrar where I get a fantastic view of the couple! Everyone else just gets to watch the backs of heads, I get to see their happy smiling faces - or in the groom's case, nauseousness.

I had the pleasure of seeing Claire again, one of the lovely ladies from the hen weekend in Dublin and also met some of their friends from university in Lampeter, as Catherine had kindly sat Andy and I with them. They're mostly nuts, in a good way!

Sadly, Andy and I needed to get back that evening, so we left the reception after the first dance and drove back to Bristol. I'm so happy to see two of the lovliest people I know making this wonderful commitment and embarking on the long journey of life together, they are so right for each other! Congratulations, Chris & Catherine King!

"Oh shit. There goes the planet."

Right, so it begins. If you go to get a passport from this year you will be fingerprinted and subjected to a background check and issued with an ID card. This is the start of the barcode state.

Hold on to your hats kids, our nation is about to be lost, freedoms eroded, frightened people forced to hide in the worst possible conditions for fear of being exposed and shipped back to their old country to face torture and probably death. Stop and search programmes increased, further victimizing and angering ethnic minorities and causing even greater resentment among the white public.

Here's a question: these things are meant to reduce ID fraud, right? Well, what's to stop someone going to the passport office with all the current forms of ID that are apparently so easily forged, and getting an ID card in my name?

And another one: If they are not compulsory to carry, what the f*ck is the point?

And: Charles Clark, you mention the benefits to the private sector being worth millions of pounds, is that from selling the data by any chance?

"The "potential benefits to the private sector" of ID cards added up to £425m a year, said Mr Clarke. " full article.

If you know me reasonably well, you will recognise the anger and fear here. Andy and I were going to emigrate as soon as these infernal things were made compulsory, but Andy needs to renew his passport. Had we realised that from right now he would have his biometric data taken and stored for doing so we would have ensured it got done sooner. So guys, if we suddenly drop off the radar it'll be because we have left the country and become illegal immigrants ourselves!!!

My Space

Hoorah! I have a space! Check it out!

And sign up here to help me and Andy get our FREE X-Box 360!

McDonalds

I have long been a boycotter of the evil Maccy Ds. But it's not something I'm vocal about most of the time, I suppose because they've stayed out of the headlines for a few years and I've got so used to boycotting them it's a bit of a none issue for me.

I remember one occassion when I was still at school, we went on a trip to London and I very nearly ended up going off on my own when all my friends wanted to go there and I refused. If it weren't for my dear friend Simon I would have ended up wandering the streets of London at 16 years old before the mobile phone revolution (just about!), but he accompanied me to find somewhere else to eat - thanks mate!

But anyway, they have gone and got the attention of Greenpeace by buying chickens fed on soya grown on illegally logged land in the Amazon rainforest. They used to hack it down to farm cows on, and turns out they're still at it but two-steps removed in a vague effort to keep their own hands clean.

I am making a point of putting this out there not because I will ever end my boycott (as I object to them on various counts aside from this; including their business practice, treatment of staff, low level of quality - I have had food poisoning twice from them and only ever eaten there half a dozen times, not a good ratio! - etc.) even if they stop participating in this destruction, but because I think it's one of those boycotts that has waned a little in recent years and I believe now is an ideal opportunity to remind people that there are ethically-minded people out there who boycott this company and here is one reason why. It's a chance to spread the word.

So, please have a read of the information and spread the word to others, McDonalds are destroying ancient rainforests yet again, please follow the 'Take Action' link and write to the European MD to let him know that this is not acceptable. Numbers are powerful and it may well be possible to make them put a stop to their wicked ways if we all do the right thing.

It's time to change the world...

Dublin Part 2 & Job Rant

Dublin was splendid. Very expensive though, over 6 Euros per drink :-/ Temple Bar, the place to go out in the evening, is a mad street rather like Corn Street here in Bristol, but much longer. The pubs and bars are all heaving by eight and there are people busking in the cobbled street. It was a bit overwhelming but pretty cool. We ended up in this old man's pub away from the mayhem, we were literally the only females in there and attracted a fair amount of attention.

I got into a political debate with one guy, who invited us to some club or other, however we had all pretty much run out of money by this point! There was a particularly drunk man; with Dylan Moran's fabled "Irish hair", who drooled into my lap and when I didn't respond well to his advances he moved onto the girl next to me, trying to chat her up across me! Poor Claire ran away after a few minutes and not long after the barman turfed everyone out.

Fun!

So, on returning from Ireland I left my job. Not entirely by choice I must admit. There were some issues and they let me go. I fought it through the union, went to appeal and everything. But in the end the decision held and I have to admit that I'm relieved, having discovered what an unprincipled company they are I had no wish to get my job back.

Now what to do? The good news is that I'm still a Virgin Vie consultant, I am making that work and want to take it full time. So, ladies and gents, roll up roll up for your summer VV party and if you're not in Bristol I'm happy to take orders and mail the products to you! Get in touch!

Dublin Part 1 & Politics

Off to Dublin tomorrow for a hen weekend. Can't wait! Managed to get this afternoon off work to go about getting myself ready. Picked up my Euros from the Post Office, just got to get packed.

I will share the sordid details when I get back!

***

For those who don't know or haven't guseed yet, I'm passionately political! Specifically I'm a Lib Dem supporter and member. This afternoon the end of a turbulent couple of months for the party came, a new leader was elected, Sir Menzies Campbell. Personally, I voted for Simon Hughes, he would have won too if it weren't for that pesky sexuality thing.

I must admit, I'm surprised how big an effect that had on his place in the leadership contest, considering we are talking about liberals here! I understand that some people saw it that he had been misleading on the issue, but I maintain that in this society today, sexuality has no place in politics. He didn't feel the need to confess his bisexuality, it has nothing to do with his job as MP. Afterall, it doesn't matter in any other profession and historically, politics has not been kind to those of an alternative persusion. And he never lied, he said he wasn't gay and would like to get married. Well, it's true, he isn't gay, he's bi!

Anyway, what's done is done. Ming will lead the party for a few years before he decides to retire. I hope he can bring stability to the party and thoroughly convince the British public that the Liberal Democrats are a viable option for leadership. The blunt truth is that the party has enough voters already to break ground, over 20% of the vote went to them at the last general election.

However, our stupid first-past-the-post system means that this proportion of votes is not reflected in parliament - subsequently Labour is over-represented, they only acheived 36% of the vote (that's votes cast, only 22% of all registered voters voted for Labour last time) and they have a majority of seats.

The Lib Dems are seeking to change this grossly unfair system - which, incidently, isn't used anywhere else in Europe, because everyone else sees how stupid it is!

Also, I think everyone reading this is either one of those people or knows people who say they would vote Lib Dem, but they don't want the Tories back. Well, folks, simple maths says that if everyone who felt that way just voted according to their political leaning then the Lib Dems would get into power!!!

You can join the Real Alternative here. And find out more about electoral reform here and here.

Rant

Work's web filter will no longer permit me to blog from work, so entries may not be so frequent now :-/

My main rant today is on the issue of ID cards. Rational Britons, if you agree to the government's thinly veiled attempt to subvert and control us, raise your hand and say "aye" and prepare to be scowled at.

Much as I am appalled and distressed by the government's actions, I am equally disturbed by some of the opinions expressed by the Bristish public. Some comments that I have come across are:

"They'll keep all these foreigners out, keep them from causing trouble." - A work colleague, we don't speak anymore.

"Extremely good idea, this will not only put us in line with our European and American counter parts but will significantly help in sifting the real terrorist." - Someone who is yet to twig that the government want to put our biometric data on the database, something no other nation has yet done, that ID cards are not compulsory in the USA or most European countries and that ID cards would not have prevented 9/11, the London or Madrid bombings (from an MI5 representitive). What this person means to say is "illegal immigrant", clearly the same thing in their eyes.

"While I am generally not opposed to ID cards, I do very much object to having to pay for one. I have already paid for a driving licence and passport, both of which have my photograph and details on so I don't see why I should pay yet more for another card." - Again, someone who has not considered the profound difference between this and other forms of ID.

"I have no problem whatsoever carrying an ID card, and believe that the only people concerned about an 'intrusion' of their civil rights must have something to hide." - Well, the less said about this monkey the better.

"If I hear anyone else say ID cards will infringe their "right to privacy" I will scream! The UK does not have a written constitution, consequently you have no "right" to anything." - This man has never heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is oblivious to the fact that few countries do actually have a written constitution, this does not mean that the majority of human beings lack basic human rights. Rediculous man. His name is Matt Munro, he's from Bristol and this quote, along with most of the above can be found here.

This is just a taster. I have also come across plenty of people who are as concerned about this little scheme as I am. How is it possible for these people to exist in the world with so little attention to detail? And more importantly, so little care for the valid concerns of other people?!

Right now, MPs are voting on this issue, once again. Even if the government loses we all know where this is going. Tony likes this idea so much he is willing to invoke the Parliment Act on it. We are going to be forced down this road whether we like it or not.

Quite frankly I am terrified of what is happening in this country. First it's 'I went to war because I believed it was right.' Now it's 'I am going to force people to succumb to fingerprinting and iris scans, even if they have done nothing wrong and charge everyone £300 just for being a UK citizen'. There are several words that spring to mind here. Dictatorship is one. The others would invlove several *s each.

Ok, so they've agreed to say that ID cards won't become compulsory without an amendment to legislation, but every single person getting a passport from 2008 will be forced to have an ID card. And they haven't said they won't seek such an amendment later. It is complusion by the back door.

Tony says they have to make good on their election manifesto because we, the British public voted for it. Actually, at the last election Labour only got 35% of the vote, and the proportion of registered voters who turned out was just over 60%. So technically, most Bristish voters did not vote for the leading party, less than a quarter did. Therefore, all manifesto promises should be declared null and void.

The whole thing makes me so angry.

Profoundly Concerned?

I am starting to feel a sense of impending doom. This conflict between Muslims and the press over these cartoons is spiralling out of control. Yes, the paper was wrong to produce the cartoons, but they did apologise. It was out of order for various papers to reproduce the images, it was intentionally provocative.

But the violent reaction by Muslim communities all over the world is so over the top. I'm not clear on what they expect to get out of it, the paper has already apologised. And really, people dressing up as suicide bombers and waving banners that imply massive acts of violence on the scale of a holocaust doesn't exactly help to demonstrate the peacefull, loving side of Islam - a side that is prominent and important to most Muslims.

I know that there are moderate Muslims shaking their heads in dismay at the acts of some, but it certainly appears from the size and scale of the reaction that the majority of Muslims have reacted incredibly strongly.

I can appreciate the hurt and anger, but the reaction does seem extreme. I have a colleague who is Norwegian, she went home for the week last week and encountered people whose lives had been threatened but let go because they were Norwegian, not Danish, "If you'd been Danish we'd have killed you" was the reported threat. Just ordinary people, they had done nothing wrong. That scared me.

Now Condoleezza Rice is stirring things up by accusing Iranian and Syrian authorities of inciting violence. I can see this escalating further. In fact, there may be no going back now. The tennuous relations between the Muslim community and much of the rich world I feel may have been permanently shattered by overreactions on all sides.

I can't help but feel profoundly concerned about the stability of the world. How do we move on from this now?

The working week

I have come to the conclusion that my life is very dull. Since I grew up and got a propper job last September (HA!) my social life has whithered away to practically nothing.

I was desperate to work 9-5 after working odd shifts, late nights and weekends forever. Now I realise the benefit of shift work is being able to sleep in the day meant I was alive at night, when I wasn't working!

My life now consists of getting up, some days earlier than others depending on whether I go to the gym or not, going to work, suffering Bristol's wonderful bus service, eat then go to bed. The weekends are not much better. I wake up early as my body is now programmed to do so, have no energy to do anything remotely fun and because I got up early, I crash at the same time as during the week.

I think I'm driving Andy insane. I'm asleep by 9.30 pm most nights.

Does anyone else suffer from this? Is there anything I can do to inject some fun without staying up horribly late?!! I'm so old :-(

Bob Geldof

Ok, so I had a request to explain the Bob Geldof comment on my previous post.

For those who don't know, I was a huge supporter of Make Poverty History, I am also an activist and firm believer in the possibility of positive change, particularly in terms of wealth redistribution across the globe.

I also don't believe in blindly following the latest "in" thing and sadly, I feel the MPH became that last summer. When Live 8 came around I was forced to re-evaluate my position when I saw the mass-corporate involvement and read about the "gifts" that performers were presented with.

Then I heard that Bob Geldof refused to let any African performers appear at the main event in London, they were permitted short slots in Cornwall but that was about it.

Around Christmas time I also learned that Bob Geldof has been quoted as saying "Africa is not my agenda, it never has been." Or words to that effect. He does these publicity trips to Uganda and Ethiopia wearing an Armani suit and it makes me more than a little bit sick.

My eyes have been opened to the hypocrisy of the man.

I still believe that MPH was a truely ambitious and marvellous idea, and we did achieve some successes through it, but I also see that it was not motivated by pure idealism. There were many people and organisations involved purely for their own publicity and to make money off a popular idea.

I recommend for anyone who is truely passionate about addressing global poverty, human rights and learning more about the true world we live in to quickly subscribe to the New Internationalist. I have been a subscriber for about 5 years and it is the most educational and real magazine I have ever read. Check out their website http://www.newint.org but please subscribe to the printed magazine to support them financially.

2005

Because I only just got hold of one of these and it's fitting for the early days of my blog.

1.What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
Celebrated a wedding anniversary.

2.Did you make any New Years' resolutions?
No idea.

3.Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not that I'm aware of. Several impending births in the first half of this year though.

4.Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

5.What countries did you visit?
Sadly none. But my imagination travelled far and wide.

6.What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
Disposable income.

7.What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
September 12th I started my current job. Not horribly exciting but it's all I can think of right now!

8.What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Passing my exam with 77%.

9.What was your biggest failure?
Dropping out of my OU course in May (have resumed it this year, don't worry!)

10.Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really.

11.What was the best thing you bought?
My mp3 player.

12.Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The England cricket team.

13.Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Bush & Blair. And possibly Bob Geldof.

14.Where did most of your money go?
Our car.

15.What events did you get really, really, really excited about?
The release of the 6th Harry Potter book! And sadly, the Ashes, via my husband, Andy.

16.What song will always remind you of 2005?
Foresaken by Within Temptation.

17.Compared to this time last year, are you:
i.happier or sadder?
Happier.
ii.thinner or fatter?
About the same after losing over a stone and putting it back on again, doh!
iii.richer or poorer?
Richer, just about.

18.What do you wish you'd done more of?
Getting paid.

19.What do you wish you'd done less of?
Moping about.

20.How did you spend Christmas?
With Andy & my family, at their home in Yorkshire.

21.Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Probably Andy, maybe my mum.

22.Did you fall in love in 2005?
Nope. Oh no, yes I did, with Within Temptation.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Lost. And ANTM (if you don't know what it is I'm not telling, it's a bit embarassing).

26. What was the best book you read?
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery or rediscovery?
Within Temptation.

28. What did you want and get?
A job & an mp3 player!

29. What did you want and not get?
A holiday. And an mp3 player - longish story!

30. What were your favorite films of this year?
Team America: World police. (I only saw it for the first time this year)

31.What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
23, went for a Chinese with friends and got happily merry at the Bierkeller.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Went slightly trendy and then glided back towards my rock roots. Purple, always purple.

34. What kept you sane?
Well, starting The New Root fanclub and being more than a little obsessed with them is sort of evidence that I'm not really sane. In fact, I probably lost a little sanity last year.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most/least?
Sharon Del Adel the most. Too much competition for least.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
ID cards.

37. Whom did you miss?
My Nannie.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Matt M, who I only properly met in 2005.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
When life sucks beyond belief, don't give up. There's usually someone or something to help you up.

Friday

It is the end of the week and this is my first blog. I am at work (shh, don't tell) and I have that Friday afternoon lag where I really wish it was 5 o'clock and really can't be bothered to do anything. Especially when you take into account just how hard I have worked this week!

For those who don't know, I recently sold my soul to take a job in an insurance call centre. But as it turns out, the job is alright, especially when it's my team's week to do the admin stuff. i.e. this week. Plus, we have a funky department where we play games for sales and productivity with quite a lot of money to be won.

It has proved an effective incentive for me this week with productivity targets rising daily and me meeting them all week. That is, until today. I deserve a break. Anyway, as a reward for my hard work I have had the opportunity to play this week's game 4 times and won a total of £61 in vouchers. The first £60 of which was won before today! £10 Monday, £20 Tuesday and £30 Wednesday. After that wonderful rise to glory I came crashing down today with a megre £1 win. Utterly humiliating!

The game, incidently, is Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire, with £100 being the top prize. I know I cleaned out the boss, who was devastated when I won that £30 prize.

Anyway, this was my week. Now, what do I spend the vouchers on? They are high street ones, valid in places like HMV, Woolworths, even H Samuel. Suggestions are welcome.