Bloody good gig

The New Root are a fantastic Bristol band who have been touring local venues for about three years now. The lead singer (Trish) and lead guitarist (Dave) happen to be very good friends of mine and Andy and we have been following them around Bristol and Bath since the beginning and seen the band go through a few line-up changes along the way. They have only ever improved with each new phase that they have gone through. Their material keeps on getting better and better, the live performance gets tighter and more professional with each gig.

The current line up looks secure and set to propel them to great success, if their recent shows at the Fleece and Louisiana are anything to go by.

Last night was The New Root's first Friday gig at the Louisiana. This is a big deal. The Louis is one of Bristol's most popular live music venues and my good friends (TNR) have been playing there for quite some time prior to their recent break from live gigs, but they had always played on week nights.

Even after a quiet period, the band left a strong enough impression from their last run of shows with the promoters and sound engineers that they have been able to walk straight into a Friday night slot. They have another Friday night gig lined up at the Croft on the 27th, another fantastic sign that their star is in the ascendant.

Of the four bands on the bill last night, TNR stood out as the most unique, the best musicians, the best material and by far the most compelling to watch. The group of friends that Andy and I took along were blown away and each vowed to come to the next gig and bring others. I heard a comment from one of them in the middle of So Alive (a fantastic new song that sticks in your head with the greatest of ease!) "How does she do that with her voice?! She's so good!" and the feedback after the set was full of glowing praise.

It's a shame they weren't the last to play, as the following band were a let down in comparison, TNR being such a tough act to follow, their set was truly the climax of the evening.

I have long believed TNR to have great potential, last night's gig demonstrated this perfectly, it being their tightest and most energetic performance to date. I have said before and I'll say it again, it would be criminal for these guys to not sore to dizzy heights of success.

I would love to see them grow in confidence a little now, though their humility is a wonderful gift, not many musicians of that calibre would be as modest about it, but their presence on stage would be improved with the ability to hide their occasional mistakes and the ability to present themselves as a complete package. If they can do this a label is sure to snap them up.

If you want to know more about The New Root check out their website and their myspace and come see them at the Croft on the 27th July :-)

Our new PM

Gordon Brown is talking about toughening so-called anti-terror laws. He's not not even moved into number 10 yet and he's already showing himself to be a frightening prospect as the first thing he wants to do is strip away even more of our civil liberties by allowing detention without charge for up to 90 days and allowing evidence from phone tapping to be admissible in court.

I read an excellent comment on the BBC, it went something like "I've been studying that total surveillance society you're building [in Britain]. How will you roll that back?" It's all very well for foolish members of the public to go along with these Draconian proposals in the name of security, safety, freedom etc. But how will we know when the "danger" has passed and how will we get back our freedom once it has been stripped away?

Yokohama?

If the opportunity to live in Japan for a year arose, would you take it? For me the answer is a very loud and resounding YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll keep you posted on this, obviously, it is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry early days yet, but there is the possibility. Fingers crossed that it will come to something.

Scientology and Falling Out

I have been part of an online Pagan community for a while now that I have got along fine with. Other groups I've joined I have quickly left again because of not clicking with the people there very well. This group though has been very friendly and there have been few differences between us. Lately however I seem to be falling out with people there more and I don't know why.

Maybe I got comfortable enough to reveal a bit more about my opinions on things and it turns out I'm just as different from them as I was from other groups before. I'm not great with people, I'm opinionated in a way that most other people aren't and I'm usually guarded about my views because I've had disagreements with people in the past that have ruined friendships.

One of the fallings out recently has been on the issue of Scientology. Very few people will know why I feel the way I do about it because I don't come out and tell people as a general rule, it's not my place to divulge it. I admit to being biased on the subject and last week after the Panorama programme, it came up on this forum.

One of the women I usually get on well with disagreed with me. I was arguing that Scientology is a cult and not a religion, she is of the opinion that the only criteria for a religion is that someone believes it! She's free to believe that, of course, but from an academic perspective it is vastly more complex than that. So we seem to have had this falling out over it, not to mention other members of the forum who are not Pagan, who I do not interact with as much, who are arguing that it is a religion on the basis that all religions are corrupt and guilty of brain-washing etc.

I find it frustrating to deal with people like that. They have their own bias that prevents them from seeing religions in a neutral way, just as I have my bias against Scientology and it simply doesn't make for healthy debate. They gang up on me as the most outspoken person against it on the discussion, no other bugger has stuck around to argue my corner with me, even though plenty of people have put their oar in to say the same as me.

I wish I was more able to back away from these discussions when they get heated, I don't want to appear to be backing away because I know I'm wrong, when that's not the reason for me backing down! I don't believe I'm wrong. Not on this. I believe my opinion is valid. I also think that I have a more healthy view of religions in general and it's hard to get through to people who have decided that all religons brainwash people!

Tony Blair's Legacy

Inspired by the three accounts on the BBC, I thought I would write my own How will history judge Tony Blair?

Economics:

Inflation is today at its highest in six years, 5.5%, causing problems for first time buyers and current mortgage payers, as well as other personal lending. Personal debt is now at a record high of £3.8 trillion and the government has little to offer on improving this situation. Blair seems quite happy with this level of debt.

There is a greater divide between rich and poor in the UK than ever before, with the wealthy having better access to services and those less well off with less access to services that would improve their lives.

Students are in debt to the tune of £16 billion, following the scrapping of grants in favour of huge loans and the introduction of tuition fees and the government have dipped into this pot several times since Labour came to power in 1997 to bail themselves out.

Health, education and transport:

Controvertial school reforms, poor funding distribution in the NHS and grossly unpopular foundation hospitals all speak for themselves. Lack of improvement to public transport and road charges widely regarded as a stealth tax leave many Britons confused as to the Labour party's attitude towards climate change; despite the rhetoric about needing to act on the issue, the UK's emmissions continue to rise year after year.

Pensions:

The labour party's treatment of pensions is under serious criticism. Blair has always backed Brown on this issue so is also to blame for the failings. In all of these economic issues, we do of course have to credit Gordon Brown with the appropriate responsibility for Labour's fuck ups, and he's our next PM. Oh joy.

Iraq:

Tony Blair will be most vividly remembered for his defiance of international and domestic opinion in invading Iraq and the extended period of conflict following that and the previous invasion of Afghanistan. His blind obedience to US President G.W. Bush has marked him in a negative way in many people's eyes.

ID Cards:

Tony Blair has pushed through his proposals for this huge waste of public funding, breaking the law on requested reports and repeatedly lying about the supposed benefits of the scheme. We can only hope that this scheme will also leave with his departure.

The Liberal Democrats have today called for a General Election to detirmine the next UK PM. This move has been criticised as there is no historical basis for such a request, despite the fact that according to a poll last week most voters want an election.

The democratic system in the UK is stale and no longer relevant for people. So what if there is no historical basis? We need electoral reform in this country, now is the perfect time to implement it. Labour have got away for too long with this Presidential style of leadership, with Tony Blair refusing to change his proposals in the face of opposition from his own party. The last 2 elections Labour have kept their place in government despite increasingly low percentage of the vote (tweaking constituency boudaries where they need to).

People are uninspired by politics, low turn outs demonstrate this clearly. However, the absence of an "none of the above" option on the ballot may be to blame to an extent we cannot judge. If this option were present how many more people would turn out to register their disatisfaction with the options, rather than being counted as apathetic?

It's time for change.

Burying Bad News

Tony Blair announces his resignation the same day the the government admit the latest rise in estimated costs for ID cards. Talk about trying to bury bad news. It's almost as bad as the day TB was taken by police for questioning the same day as the results of the Diana enquiry (he was the first PM to ever be brought in by police, yet the papers glossed over this story in favour of the enquiry results).

Almost, but not quite, the press have seen through the attempt as have other politicians and they are making sure people hear about it.

Over £5.3 billion it's going to cost now.

Anyone not persuaded by the liberty issue must be put off the scheme by the cost issue. This money would be much better spent on recruiting more police officers.

To say "no2id" click here.

Auntie Lallie

I can't take credit for the below post. This was an email sent to me and my family by my mum following the recent death of my Great Aunt Lallie. I just thought this was so wonderfully written, my mum says it all far better than I could.

I was at a "Tai Chi for Horses" clinic today when I got the news about Auntie Lallie. I had spent all morning trying to get my hips to move backwards while getting my weight to move forwards from my ankles so my weight was on the balls of my feet rather than my heels...then I got the call from my cousin Ros and knew right away what it was and climbed over the fence to take the call. I was sadder than I expected, even though I knew it was coming. I was going to have to go and tell my Dad and I went for a cry into the mane of a chestnut horse standing nearby; horses are so much easier to communicate with than people at times like this....

Auntie Lallie was so much larger than her own life and always unexpectedly generous. As Isaac said, you would know her if you saw her now from her 1930's photo on Dad's wall because her face was so full of character. One of Grandad's first memories of her is of a teacher saying "Elspeth is such a rough girl" (or "child", I'm not sure which) I asked him why the teacher said this, he doesn't know. What did she do or say? (Does anyone know now?) I talked Dad through lots of memories, he sang songs he remembered from way back, and reminisced about the family business and his mum and dad, "I'm the last of seven", he said, "five" I prompted, "no seven" he said, "mum and dad count", "of course", I said. But why would anyone have called her rough? If she was, she rose above it and beyond! My early memory of Auntie Lallie was of her telling us about some new neighbours who had moved in and brought down the tone of the place (Crescent Way). The new mother went out to call in her errant offspring by calling "Elveeeeera!!! Auntie Lallie loved doing the impression!

When we came to stay with Auntie Lallie and Uncle Sam, I remember embarrassing my parents by running into the dining room crying "Hey you lot!" (I was sent packing). Dad and I once sang Petula Clark's "Sailor", with him accompanying me on the piano. I asked my dad, did Uncle Sam really live in the garden shed? No, he said, but his cigarette coupons paid for our first radio! I was so frightened of Auntie Lallie back then, she had oriental china and bamboo place mats and clean carpets, but now I can't think why I was frightened, she wasn't scary at all, she was gentle and generous and sweet and in later years I found her funny, warm and full of life, grateful for any small favour and always pleased to hear from us. Equally, she was capable of elbowing others out of the way to get to the front, whether it be at a funeral or a feast!

I remember how Auntie Lallie enjoyed her birthday celebrations, was it her 80th, when she was presented with the album of her life, we all had such a good time, Mum and I staggered back down the lane to the B&B, I think it's the only time I ever got drunk with my Mum! You did your Charlie Brown, and all the grand children did a turn but Lallie was the star of the night!

Dad says they were the closest of the siblings and helped each other out several times. I told Dad that Auntie Lallie had said "the first will be last", he thought that was amusing, and hoped it might have been her dying words, he likes drama, but I had to tell him she'd said it some days ago. That's life.

Today, Isaac and Aysegul make tea and Dad continues to reminisce. He notices he is the last of his generation and has no long term living friends left, but is philosophical. I'll be all right, he says, and turns on the snooker. Every so often he remembers and his voice catches. He's glad we're there, but now he wants to get on with things. I try to encourage him towards thoughts of his "telegram" ( or card, as it is now). He tries to be positive, but it's even harder tonight.

(Auntie Lallie, we all love and miss you..)

As for my own thoughts and words... I didn't know Lallie well. Her 80th birthday that my mum refers to, I was about 9. I remember that walk back to the B&B. I'd had a few sips of champagne and was laughing along with my mum and Nannie, my dad kept trying to shush us. Anyway, I hardly remember Lallie from that occasion, just her laughter. I do remember her from more recent visits, most notably my Nannie's funeral two years ago. She was indeed as my mum describes her, kind and funny, tough when she needed to be!

She will be missed. May the old ones watch over her always.

Speeding

I am one of those people who thinks that speeding is stupid, irresponsible and people who do it deserve at least a £500 fine and 3 points on their lisence. However, I do also think that many of the speed limits in the UK need revising as in some places they are unnecessarily cautious. I think that higher speed limits at night are a good idea too. I do also think that the point at which penalties kick in should be further above the speed limit in some cases.

30mph limits around schools and family residential areas should be sctrict, but 40-50 limits around industrial areas needn't be, so penalties should be applied at, say, 10mph over the limit.

Anyway, the BBC have announced that one third of all cars caught speeding on cameras cannot be traced to an address! People are registering their cars with the DVLA at fake addresses or not at all to avoid getting caught. Presumably because they intend to speed!

I can understand slipping above the limit without noticing, but not registering your address because you know you're going to break the law?!! Seriously. I think this study has revealed something significant about the Great British public... some of us are complete and utter shits.

Immigration Issue

The new system was confirmed today, it will be based on points earned depending on what skills you have and how in demand those skills are. In theory, I don't mind this too much. It's a step back from the open borders that I would like to see, but I do understand that at the moment this ideal isn't possible.

What baffles me a bit though is that there are no restrictions on EU citizens because of the deal we have about European migration. This system of open borders is great, it's exactly what I want to see, I just find it disturbing that what the government seem to be saying is "we have too many immigrants, we need to tighten controls, but if you're one of us [European/white?] then come on in!"

It doesn't sit right with me. Especially given the huge influx of immigrants in the last couple of years from new EU countries, surely these are the areas we should be restricting access from? Especially as they are low-skilled workers. And this is what the government is claiming to be targetting. Personally I don't have a problem with low-skilled workers coming into the UK, most British people, myself included, think cleaning and manual labour to be beneath them! But someone has to do it!

There are also concerns that the new system will make illegal immigration worse, though this was barely mentioned in the linked bbc article.

How Wude!

I was just queueing in D&A to collect my new glasses. It was my lunch break, so I didn't have a great deal of time. Clearly, it was lots of other people's lunch break too as it was pretty busy. I was waiting over ten minutes without being seen when this woman who was stood waiting behind me barged past, heading for a gormless young man who was cleaning test pairs of glasses on the racks and demanded to be seen!!

He politely told her he couldn't help as it was only his second day but offered her a seat in an empty bay. That should have been my seat! I was there before her, I was patiently waiting to be seen, not charging around, pushing in front of people making demands!

You don't get anywhere in this life by being polite, it seems. I waited another minute then walked out. I will try and get away from work early to collect them on the way home. But really? How rude?!

Education

(Wow, 2 posts in one day... I must be bored!)

So, there's going to be a new qualification thrown into the mix. Click. Because "These are important reforms which are intended to address a major generational problem of non-participation in education and training post-16."

Riiiiiiiiight. And... "With fewer low-skilled jobs, we need more high-skilled young people,"

Now, maybe I've missed something here, but don't we have record numbers of people in FHE? And don't we have the rather severe problem that the degree has become almost meaningless as a qualification, with vast legions of graduates being forced to work in call centres? i.e. low-skilled jobs.

I agree we need more high-skilled people, skilled as in knowing a trade or business and in principle I think vocational qualifications are a good thing... it's just the wording of the article I think and the choice of quotes from people involved with the scheme. Getting more people into vocational education and out of academia is a good idea. It will hopefully return the value a degree once held. But someone has to tell the call centres that graduates are over-qualified for these roles!

It might also help by reducing the number of people who go through university not knowing what they want. I think that's the crux of the problem, so many gradutes are coming out of uni with no idea of what to do, so they go to work in call centres. Maybe universities need to give more attention to career possibilities for their students. Hopefully though, by introducing vocational qualifications lower down it will gradually have a filtering effect.

March of Political Moans!!

The latest from John Reid is to up the marital age for immigrants from 18 to 21. Excuse me, but what on earth makes him think he is authorised to detirmine what age people can marry?! Just because someone is under 21 does not mean that the intended marrige is in any way forced either. What a bizarre thing to do.

The BBC report that this move is thought to reduce the number of immigrants by 3000 a year. That doesn't seem a particularly large number to me. It strikes me as a similar publicity stunt (to make it look like the government are doing something productive) to the ban on replica swords. Both policies will have little actual effect on the perceived problem (immigration vs. violent crime) but get Labour some press coverage that appeals to the mass public who are enthralled by the tabloids.

Mad.

The Budget

Gordon Brown, on behalf of the Labour Party, is sending our country down the drain in splendid fashion. Scrapping the 10% tax bracket in favour of 20% on all earnings above 5k is just about the most ridiculous and vote-losing policy he could have come up with.

So I'm actually happy with it. Maybe now people will see sense and vote Lib Dem, the only party who gives a damn about the public or the environment!

Brown says the average family will be better off... so answer me this, how is it that out of over 22000 votes cast on a BBC poll, over 60% responded that they will be *worse* off under the new budget?!!!!

To see Ming's response to the budget and get an idea of how other people feel about Labour because of it go here:

http://www.mingcampbell.org.uk/2007/03/21/how-gordon-brown-is-taxing-the-lowest-paid-more/#more-138

The NHS "Spine" and our children's fingerprints

This government just keeps pushing the boundaries of our privacy and democracy. As if the whole thing with ID cards wasn't bad enough, I have today learned that kids are being fingerprinted in school without parental consent (link) and our medical records are going to be held on another central database like the one for ID cards, i.e. just as insecure against hacking and abuse (link).

It's not just me is it? This is getting out of control. We are talking about massive abuses of power on the part of the government. Taking intimate physical details and storing them in an insecure way and even selling them to private businesses! Children's damn fingerprints will be held on file when they get a passport.... because...? Ok, it will help identify the odd John/Jane Doe. But the reasons we have been fed for the government wanting this information have nothing to do with identifying dead bodies.

They've tried to tell us it will prevent terrorism, experts from MI5 quickly denied that one; they've tried the ID theft line, but honestly, if all our details are held in one place one quick hack will make it nice and easy for anyone determined to steal IDs. So they go for the "if you've got nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about" line. *Cough splutter* Riiiight. So it's OK for our government to invade our privacy, sell our details and make us present our ID cards at every shop, bank and service we use???!! I don't think so. One small step towards bar codes on our hands that we have to swipe all over the place.

Anyway, my point, what the heck is going to be solved by having children's fingerprints on file? Of course, we all know that most terrorist acts are carried out by under 10s! Seriously, taking the prints without permission from the parents... which they are *already* doing ... is a gross violation of the trust of the public.

Then there's this thing with our medical records. Again, it will be vulnerable to hacks and abuse and information will probably be sold at a later date. What's worse is that after a certain period of time (this year) people will not be able to opt out. This is appalling. It's all very well for people with long-term conditions that may take them to hospital, but medical bracelets are a quick effective means of communicating this. One glance at a patients wrist tells the doctor not to use penicillin or whatever, rather than postponing treatment until looking the patient up on a database, whose information may or may not be correct depending on if their information has been hacked yet!!

We can't keep letting the government get away with this bollocks. They have gone too far and we have to show them that. If you think you live in a Labour "safe seat" area then talk to your neighbours and tell them your concerns, distribute leaflets, tell people what is going on because a lot of people don't realise. And vote for who you want to lead!! For goodness sake, tactical voting screws democracy over like nothing else, it is exactly how we have been stuck with Labour for this long, despite millions of people being deeply troubled by actions taken by them, from the Iraq invasion to ID cards.

Labour make the public think that they have been fairly elected, but this simply isn't true. The first past the post system means that at the last general election Labour only received less than a third of the votes and only a quarter of the possible vote (due to low turn out)! They do not represent the majority, despite what they claim. You can find out about other options for democracy here.

Anyway, please pass on the links above and talk about what is going on, this gradual theft of our democracy and liberty. I don't mean to sound so dramatic, but I do think it's a serious problem that is in danger of happening in our sleep.

Lords Reform

On 7th March there will be another vote on Lords Reform. To urge your MP to vote for a mostly elected second chamber go here.

It's an important step in gaining actual democracy in Britain, something we don't have at the moment!

OK, seriously

"Is it a claims query?"

"Er, no, it's just an update on some treatment I'm having for a claim."

??????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's *not* a claims query? Well what is exactly then you moron?!

Jeez. This job'd be fine if it weren't for the customers.

Just not a shouter

I occasionally get people on the phone at work who can't make out what I'm saying. I don't consider myself especially softly spoken, on the phone I speak clearly and fairly loudly, more loudly than in person certainly.

Now, when someone communicates to me that they can't hear me, I speak up. Naturally. Often it's down to the caller being hard of hearing, often they are elderly (this is medical insurance, afterall). I try to be polite and friendly, but I hate raising my voice, it sometimes feels like I'm downright shouting down the phone and it's bloomin' hard to retain a polite tone when speaking *that* loudly!

Just now I had a woman who said I was very quiet. I raised my voice and said "Is that better?", and she actually said "Yes, but I still didn't hear what you said"!!!!!!!!! OK, give me a chance to repeat my question, I was damn well checking that she could hear me this time! Stupid cow.

So I changed my wording (sometimes people don't understand the meaning of "How may I direct your call?") and shouted "Which department can I transfer you to?" and she obviously wanted the helpdesk, they usually do. She sounded put out, but what did she expect when she's being a difficult person despite me trying to be helpful?!

While writing this, I've had another call from a woman complaining about being on hold. She went off on one about the message that plays saying about "one of our agents will be with you shortly" she said it sounded like the staff don't actually work for the company and we should change the wording and I should report it and she couldn't hold the line any longer! Honestly, it's only a word. If they used "administrator" people might think they're on the wrong line, they might think "administrators" can't help with their claim or something. "Advisor" might do the job, but technically I don't think we're able to give advice, that was certainly the case at the last insurance company I worked for.

This job'd be fine if it weren't for the old cronies.

Working too hard

I was lucky enough to be enjoying my temp job. It was simple, nice people and plenty of time to faff online and do coursework too.

Last Friday they offered to take me on on a three month contract. I was really pleased, I still am. It's, I think, just right for me for now and three months is a short enough term so that I can reassess things at the end of it.

I've been working very hard, I had a TMA last week and tutorial to read for and this week so far I've been reading and note taking at work and stayed late last night to get more done before heading to Andy and mine's Monday night roleplaying group.

It was a good game too, Andy's running Midnight and we ran quite late. So it was a late night after a long day of hard work. Then I didn't sleep. I chalk it up to adrenaline from the game, my head was spinning with ideas and plans for my character and I just kept waking up, if I really slept at all. Chester wanted letting out at 5.10 so I got up to do that and got a bit more sleep. I woke utterly exhausted.

Can I do this?

Life Gets In The Way

I'm not that crazy about Valentines Day, I think it's nice to take a moment (or a day) to appreciate a loved one but largely it's a commercial mess with very little hold on me. Maybe because I'm married, maybe it's a bigger deal for single people or those in the early days of a relationship.

But I still hope for the day to be a moderately happy one.

I'm temping at the moment, full time hours with about an hour and a quarter commute each way, allowing for traffic. So I am out of the house from 7.45am until 6.15pm. I'm also studying full time, I take course books to work with me and study at lunch time and sometimes at my desk between calls (I operate a switchboard on this assignment). I had my first essay of the year due in this week so all my time at home has been spent doing that for the last week.

So, I'm tired, grumpy and feeling generally pretty down. I wish I didn't have to work, I wish I could just be studying. I spend all day at work chatting to other OU students online and thinking about the work I *could* be doing. As an OU student, I don't qualify for a student loan, so have little choice but to work at least part time.

This morning I felt a pang of annoyance and disappointment when I expressed my exhaustion to Andy and he responded with an "oh" about me having to stop working full time once this assignment is over. We both knew this year would be hard and when I took this 6 week assignment I prepared him for the possibility of burn out. We discussed me getting a part time job afterwards, cafe work or something and all seemed fine. Andy says he agrees that my degree has to come first, so I am disappointed that he wasn't immediately supportive.

Tonight we had plans to have a nice meal and watch a soppy film. I hope I can shake off this feeling so we can still have a nice Valentine's evening together.

Finally

So there's now been a report to say categorically, once and for all, that *WE* cause global warming. Now, the sensible people all already knew this, but hopefully it will shut up those idiots who refused to believe it, all those "it's perfectly natural for the earth to cycle through warm periods" wankers.

Stick your "natural" argument! Maybe even Exxon Mobil will change their tune. Apparently they've actually been attempting to bribe scientists to refute the evidence lately! Wankers!

Sorry, bit wound up about it. But why should I apologise for giving a damn? Some people do seem to think I should, some people seem to think that passion is a bad thing. But where would we be without passion? Would there be anyone investigating climate change at all? Would we all just sit back and let it happen without those of us who are willing to stand up and say "NO! This has to change!"?

Japanese attempt to sabotage ban on whaling

Japan are planning to kill nearly 1000 whales this year. They are hosting a meeting in February and inviting various governments to make it appear that there is world-wide support for a lift on the whaling ban.

Denmark hold a swing vote on the issue. Under pressure they are likely to not attend the meeting in Tokyo. Write asking their officials not to attend here

Jobs

I need another new job... one day I will find one I can actually tolerate!

More on Iraq

OK, so some bright infiltrator has put camera-phone footage of the execution on the internet and it has created quite a stir. Also, Prime Minister Maliki has said he wants to step down. AND, the Baath party have posted Saddam's former deputy to lead the party.

What did I say? Eh? Civil war draws ever closer and we're caught in the middle. Well, I don't want to say it, it isn't entirely accurate, but there is a case for suggesting that it is actually our fault. Say what you like about Saddam's regime, the country was a heck of a lot more stable then. I suppose with all the infighting they're less likely to be amassing an arsenal with which to attack us... but come on, we all know how unlikely that was. Many of us were saying so before Tony took our troops marching in illegally.

On a slightly lighter note, I started my new job yesterday, training is easy. Blah.

"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!