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!