Five things make a post
Sep. 24th, 2017 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmc281. I was just saying to my boss this week that I was quite proud of keeping my migraines under control more lately; guess what I got yesterday? So annoying, especially as I'd been looking forward to a friend's party that I ended up missing.
2. I am very slowly beginning to tackle the backlog of Stuff I Kept Putting Off While Studying; this week has been all about the clothes / fabric. I have assorted piles of worn-out clothes and out-grown clothes accumulating around my room. I pulled out all the actually worn-out stuff, and bagged that up to go to recycling. I bagged up two sets of bedding we never use for the charity shop. I bought myself some underwear that doesn't have holes in, and added all the ones that did to the recycling bags, along with my oldest & least useful bras. I sorted through my socks, and chucked a good few pairs in the recycling bags, and a few others into the charity bag. Finally I ended up sorting through my stash of pretty scarves and wraps and kept only the ones that I really love and may actually wear more than once a year. (I sort of aspire to be someone who routinely wears pretty scarves etc but in practice I am never that put-together very often.)
3. I took the charity bag to the EACH shop, and came back with a very shiny pair of not!DMs and a metallic blue stripey hat. (Amusingly, I had been whinging this week about needing new shoes for winter, and hating shoe shopping, so that was very well timed.)
4. Last Saturday I watched Robocop withfanf . He was inspired by this post (linked by andrewducker ), and I'd never previously watched it - not on purpose, just never got round to it. It's very very Paul Verhoeven isn't it? Gratuitious mixed-sex shower scene, gory violence, horrible-future-media & horrible-future-adverts. Although my reaction to the project manager with the huge glasses was a. love those glasses b. you are really enjoying imagining watsisface having his hand broken c. please tell me watsisface dies horribly after forcing a kiss on you and taking credit for your work (spoiler - he does). Watsisface really is a walking example of the unwarranted confidence of the mediocre white man.
5. Nicholas saw Trolls at holiday/after school clubs and asked for his own copy. It's not awful, and I like the music, but after sitting through it with him three times in less than a week, I think I have had enough of it for now. The trailers on it include Home (based on The True Meaning of Smekday) which I've been meaning to watch, and Nicholas is keen to do so too, so hopefully I'll enjoy that more.
2. I am very slowly beginning to tackle the backlog of Stuff I Kept Putting Off While Studying; this week has been all about the clothes / fabric. I have assorted piles of worn-out clothes and out-grown clothes accumulating around my room. I pulled out all the actually worn-out stuff, and bagged that up to go to recycling. I bagged up two sets of bedding we never use for the charity shop. I bought myself some underwear that doesn't have holes in, and added all the ones that did to the recycling bags, along with my oldest & least useful bras. I sorted through my socks, and chucked a good few pairs in the recycling bags, and a few others into the charity bag. Finally I ended up sorting through my stash of pretty scarves and wraps and kept only the ones that I really love and may actually wear more than once a year. (I sort of aspire to be someone who routinely wears pretty scarves etc but in practice I am never that put-together very often.)
3. I took the charity bag to the EACH shop, and came back with a very shiny pair of not!DMs and a metallic blue stripey hat. (Amusingly, I had been whinging this week about needing new shoes for winter, and hating shoe shopping, so that was very well timed.)
4. Last Saturday I watched Robocop with
fanf . He was inspired by this post (linked by andrewducker ), and I'd never previously watched it - not on purpose, just never got round to it. It's very very Paul Verhoeven isn't it? Gratuitious mixed-sex shower scene, gory violence, horrible-future-media & horrible-future-adverts. Although my reaction to the project manager with the huge glasses was a. love those glasses b. you are really enjoying imagining watsisface having his hand broken c. please tell me watsisface dies horribly after forcing a kiss on you and taking credit for your work (spoiler - he does). Watsisface really is a walking example of the unwarranted confidence of the mediocre white man.5. Nicholas saw Trolls at holiday/after school clubs and asked for his own copy. It's not awful, and I like the music, but after sitting through it with him three times in less than a week, I think I have had enough of it for now. The trailers on it include Home (based on The True Meaning of Smekday) which I've been meaning to watch, and Nicholas is keen to do so too, so hopefully I'll enjoy that more.
Interesting Links for 24-09-2017
Sep. 24th, 2017 12:00 pmandrewducker- Another delay for ScotRail's £370m Edinburgh to Glasgow electric train service plans
- (tags: Edinburgh Glasgow trains electricity fail )
- Superaccurate GPS Chips Coming to Smartphones in 2018
- (tags: GPS location phones viaFanf )
- Clever Machines Learn How to Be Curious (And Play Super Mario Bros.)
- (tags: games ai personality learning )
- A Ukrainian born billionaire who does biz w/ Russian oligarchs is funding Trump's legal representation via RNC
- (tags: politics Russia usa EpicWTF )
- Bringing the web up to speed with WebAssembly
- (tags: web programming thefuture )
- I'm ggoing to Thing Explaining with Randall Munroe Tickets on Wed, 4 Oct - anyone else going?
- (tags: xkcd viaSwampers )
- A 1979 War-Game That Takes 1,500 Hours to Complete
- (tags: games time history wwii )
- Why rejecting the modern world is a privileged fantasy
- (tags: Technology medicine life society )
- Watch how long a two-euro coin can balance on Fuxing train traveling at 350 kph, on #HighSpeedRail linking Beijing with Shanghai
- So, how long until we get trains that fast and smooth in the UK?
(tags: trains ) - More than half UK population has no religion
- (tags: UK religion GoodNews )
- Rick And Morty’s worst fans don’t deserve Rick And Morty
- It really bothers me that most of the t-shirts I've seen are clearly aimed at people who want to be Rick.
(tags: tv fandom fail abuse ) - Sea salt around the world is contaminated by plastic
- Because, of course, the sea around the world is contaminated by plastic
(tags: pollution plastic ocean food salt ) - I have done without any form of technology for six months and my life is utterly shit
- (tags: satire technology media )
- Students are biased against female lecturers
- (tags: patriarchy women academia OhForFucksSake )
- Project Black Bus – using taxis like buses
- (tags: technology transport taxi )
The Blood is the Life for 24-09-2017
Sep. 24th, 2017 11:00 ammiss_s_b- miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 23-09-2017
- I posted The Blood is the Life for 23-09-2017 to my dreamwidth blog
Freeways (cpatain games)
Sep. 24th, 2017 09:36 amjackhttps://captaingames.itch.io/freeways
Yesterday andrew ducker's links got me addicted to this little game. Each level is a screen with some roads coming in and some going out, and you need to join them up so the traffic can flow freely. Some connections need high traffic and need direct connections. Sometimes there's small or medium levels of traffic but lots of connections.
It's really cute how the separate screens join together to make a city with coast and mountains and houses and industrial areas. When you do all the levels in the initial 3x3 grid it expands to 5x5, then 7x7. And maybe further, I don't know.
I don't really understand the score, it clearly correlates with how good the network is, but I don't know exactly what contributes to it.
It makes some real-world motorway engineering make more sense. There's lots of situations where roundabouts work really well. Sometimes there's a couple of really busy routes which need direct connections, but then everything else just needs to be connected *at all* so you can use normal cross-roads with no flyovers at all.
Some things are bizarre. Who designed this city so SOME roads drive on the left and some on the right?
A few of the screens have a menu item to open an aerial picture of a real-world junction with similar connections and see if you came to the same sort of solution. One was a diamond interchange, with a moderate traffic road crossing a high traffic road. Another was two low-traffic roads crossing, in the middle of some fields somewhere.
There doesn't seem to be an "undo" button, am I missing something? That's realistic for working with concrete, but with the interface so clunky it would be really nice.
Edit: Also, there's a directory called save but I can't find any option to save which disinclines me to play again. Anyone know where it's hidden?
Yesterday andrew ducker's links got me addicted to this little game. Each level is a screen with some roads coming in and some going out, and you need to join them up so the traffic can flow freely. Some connections need high traffic and need direct connections. Sometimes there's small or medium levels of traffic but lots of connections.
It's really cute how the separate screens join together to make a city with coast and mountains and houses and industrial areas. When you do all the levels in the initial 3x3 grid it expands to 5x5, then 7x7. And maybe further, I don't know.
I don't really understand the score, it clearly correlates with how good the network is, but I don't know exactly what contributes to it.
It makes some real-world motorway engineering make more sense. There's lots of situations where roundabouts work really well. Sometimes there's a couple of really busy routes which need direct connections, but then everything else just needs to be connected *at all* so you can use normal cross-roads with no flyovers at all.
Some things are bizarre. Who designed this city so SOME roads drive on the left and some on the right?
A few of the screens have a menu item to open an aerial picture of a real-world junction with similar connections and see if you came to the same sort of solution. One was a diamond interchange, with a moderate traffic road crossing a high traffic road. Another was two low-traffic roads crossing, in the middle of some fields somewhere.
There doesn't seem to be an "undo" button, am I missing something? That's realistic for working with concrete, but with the interface so clunky it would be really nice.
Edit: Also, there's a directory called save but I can't find any option to save which disinclines me to play again. Anyone know where it's hidden?
[eldercare/med, Patreon] Medications Dangerous to the Elderly
Sep. 23rd, 2017 06:52 pmsidereaCanonical link: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1355110.
[We interrupt the previously scheduled rant for another rant.]
At some point, if you are so lucky, you will be old. You may already be old. Somebody you love may already be old. Old people, being people, require medical care, and are often treated – because this is basically what primary care in our society consists of – with medications.
Thing is, old bodies handle medicine differently than young ones.
( Take the liver... [3,340 Words] )
This post brought to you by the 137 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.
Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!
[We interrupt the previously scheduled rant for another rant.]
At some point, if you are so lucky, you will be old. You may already be old. Somebody you love may already be old. Old people, being people, require medical care, and are often treated – because this is basically what primary care in our society consists of – with medications.
Thing is, old bodies handle medicine differently than young ones.
( Take the liver... [3,340 Words] )
This post brought to you by the 137 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.
Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!
I don't think the Senate wants to repeal Obamacare
Sep. 23rd, 2017 09:43 pmandrewduckerI've been paying attention to the many attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)* and what's been really obvious in the last year is that the Republican majority don't actually want to repeal it.
There seem to be three different groups:
1) Republican Senators who can see that Obamacare is actually about as right-wing a way to have universal healthcare as you can get**, and don't actually want to get rid of it.
2) Republican Senators who may or may not be in favour of Obamacare, but can see that their constituents are now attached to their healthcare, will be furious if they lose it, and only have a slim majority which they are terrified of losing at the next election.
3) Republican Senators who really are against Obamacare.
The problem here is that all three groups need to pretend that they're in category (3), because they've spent the last decade telling their supporters how terrible Obamacare is, to the point where there are voters who support all of the individual parts of the bill, and even the "Affordable Care Act" but will be will be against Obamacare.
And the longer the ACA exists, and the more that voters understand about it (as is happening the more Republicans talk about it) the more popular it gets. To the point where a majority of the public are now in favour of it***. But the Republican Party now has a central point of belief that "Obamacare is bad".
Which means that in order to be against it, but not actually remove it, we're left with a few Republican Senators taking it in turns to vote against repeal, on various largely spurious grounds. Being very careful to say "Oh no, I hate Obamacare as much as the next person. But I can't vote to repeal it this time, because of a minor provision. Maybe next time." - and then the next time a _different_ Republican Senator can do exactly the same thing.
None of which means that Obamacare is safe. It's balanced on a bunch of senators believing that if they repeal it they'll lose their jobs. So every time a repeal bill is put forward they have to be persuaded _again_ that the public still cares. And I am very grateful for my US friends who are involved in getting people to phone their representatives every time it comes up.
But I am moderately hopeful that we'll make it through to the mid-terms without it being repealed. Because I don't think that a majority of the senate actually wants it to be.****
*There were over 50 of these between 2011 and 2014, goodness knows how many we're up to now
**Not surprising, as it's very similar to RomneyCare.
***But only 17% of registered Republicans. It's the swing voters who have moved.
****But don't trust me. This is just my impression from what I've read from, frankly, a long way away.
There seem to be three different groups:
1) Republican Senators who can see that Obamacare is actually about as right-wing a way to have universal healthcare as you can get**, and don't actually want to get rid of it.
2) Republican Senators who may or may not be in favour of Obamacare, but can see that their constituents are now attached to their healthcare, will be furious if they lose it, and only have a slim majority which they are terrified of losing at the next election.
3) Republican Senators who really are against Obamacare.
The problem here is that all three groups need to pretend that they're in category (3), because they've spent the last decade telling their supporters how terrible Obamacare is, to the point where there are voters who support all of the individual parts of the bill, and even the "Affordable Care Act" but will be will be against Obamacare.
And the longer the ACA exists, and the more that voters understand about it (as is happening the more Republicans talk about it) the more popular it gets. To the point where a majority of the public are now in favour of it***. But the Republican Party now has a central point of belief that "Obamacare is bad".
Which means that in order to be against it, but not actually remove it, we're left with a few Republican Senators taking it in turns to vote against repeal, on various largely spurious grounds. Being very careful to say "Oh no, I hate Obamacare as much as the next person. But I can't vote to repeal it this time, because of a minor provision. Maybe next time." - and then the next time a _different_ Republican Senator can do exactly the same thing.
None of which means that Obamacare is safe. It's balanced on a bunch of senators believing that if they repeal it they'll lose their jobs. So every time a repeal bill is put forward they have to be persuaded _again_ that the public still cares. And I am very grateful for my US friends who are involved in getting people to phone their representatives every time it comes up.
But I am moderately hopeful that we'll make it through to the mid-terms without it being repealed. Because I don't think that a majority of the senate actually wants it to be.****
*There were over 50 of these between 2011 and 2014, goodness knows how many we're up to now
**Not surprising, as it's very similar to RomneyCare.
***But only 17% of registered Republicans. It's the swing voters who have moved.
****But don't trust me. This is just my impression from what I've read from, frankly, a long way away.
I won another Crawl Sprint game!
Sep. 23rd, 2017 03:55 pmhilaritaCut for boringness for many people. But I won a Line Sprint, pretty vanilla Minotaur Fighter of Uskayaw
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
August booklog
Sep. 23rd, 2017 01:38 pmwychwood( 125. The Cat's Eye and 127. Helen Vardon's Confession - R Austin Freeman ) Not exactly Freeman's finest, but there are some nice bits tucked away here.
( 126. Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey ) I still think this book is really messed up, but the plot just about makes up for it.
( 128. Trouble and Her Friends - Melissa Scott ) Mostly interesting as a kind of historical curiosity, but if you like cyberpunk it's definitely worth a look.
( 129. Shadow Man - Melissa Scott ) Lots of cool gender stuff in this one, but I really loved the story about building for liberation that it surrounded.
( 130. Temeraire - Naomi Novik ) The simplest and also I think best of Novik's novels so far; nothing else she's written is quite this adorable.
( 131. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle ) I dunno, I love these less than I used to.
( 132. Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold ) Remains one of my consistent favourites.
( The Commonweal books - Graydon Saunders ) I wish more people were reading these, because I love them. And also that he would publish the next one, because I want to read it.
( 136. The Witch of Syracuse - Dorothy J Heydt ) These are pretty good, but not exceptional; on the other hand, they're free to download, so you could definitely try them!
( Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, books 2 and 3 ) I like these, and I like what Coates is trying to do, but I'm not sure how he's going to get there! And it's an awkward mixture of elements, at times.
( 139. Speak Its Name - Kathleen Jowitt ) A sweet little romance, with lots of student Christian politics thrown into the mix. Fab.
( 140. Servant of the Underworld - Aliette de Bodard ) This is more like the de Bodard I found in the short stories! Will be reading the sequel.
( 126. Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey ) I still think this book is really messed up, but the plot just about makes up for it.
( 128. Trouble and Her Friends - Melissa Scott ) Mostly interesting as a kind of historical curiosity, but if you like cyberpunk it's definitely worth a look.
( 129. Shadow Man - Melissa Scott ) Lots of cool gender stuff in this one, but I really loved the story about building for liberation that it surrounded.
( 130. Temeraire - Naomi Novik ) The simplest and also I think best of Novik's novels so far; nothing else she's written is quite this adorable.
( 131. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle ) I dunno, I love these less than I used to.
( 132. Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold ) Remains one of my consistent favourites.
( The Commonweal books - Graydon Saunders ) I wish more people were reading these, because I love them. And also that he would publish the next one, because I want to read it.
( 136. The Witch of Syracuse - Dorothy J Heydt ) These are pretty good, but not exceptional; on the other hand, they're free to download, so you could definitely try them!
( Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, books 2 and 3 ) I like these, and I like what Coates is trying to do, but I'm not sure how he's going to get there! And it's an awkward mixture of elements, at times.
( 139. Speak Its Name - Kathleen Jowitt ) A sweet little romance, with lots of student Christian politics thrown into the mix. Fab.
( 140. Servant of the Underworld - Aliette de Bodard ) This is more like the de Bodard I found in the short stories! Will be reading the sequel.
Interesting Links for 23-09-2017
Sep. 23rd, 2017 12:00 pmandrewducker- 'Freeways' Is a Mobile Game That Lets You Play Traffic Engineer
- (tags: games traffic transport )
- The Hobbit Was Almost Illustrated by Maurice Sendak (for its 30th anniversary)
- (tags: TheHobbit Tolkien illustration )
- Lightning storms triggered by exhaust from cargo ships
- (tags: weather shipping lightning )
- Brexit: What did we learn from Theresa May's Florence speech?
- (tags: uk Europe )
- Usher syndrome: Gene therapy restores hearing and balance (in mice)
- (tags: hearing genetics )
- New antibody attacks 99% of HIV strains
- (tags: aids vaccination thefuture GoodNews )
- How to Win a War on Drugs
- (tags: drugs portugal viaFanf )
- Laser Socks – a sweaty game pointing toward the future of computing
- (tags: lasers games )
- Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen
- (tags: security travel )
- Macron: No moving forward on Brexit until divorce points cleared up
- (tags: UK europe )
- Uber London ban: The scandals that brought down the ride-hailing app
- (tags: regulation taxi london uk )
The Blood is the Life for 23-09-2017
Sep. 23rd, 2017 11:00 ammiss_s_b- miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 22-09-2017
- I posted The Blood is the Life for 22-09-2017 to my dreamwidth blog
New Forest otters!
Sep. 22nd, 2017 07:51 pmhilaritaAnd some other things that aren't otters. But mostly, otters.
Before going to the Lib Dem party conference, Drswirly and I went to stay in Christchurch, because of its proximity to the New Forest Wildlife Centre, which has a lot of otters. Did I mention the otters?
I found Christchurch a bit stultifying, and the kind of place I don't at all feel at home in, because it's quite clear that I'm not really their type of person. Christchurch was the kind of place that had a UKIP office prominently on one of the main streets. (It's now shut, which is definitely an improvement, but Christchurch was definitely a UKIP heartland.) It was next to a curry house, which I found mildly pleasing, though I'm not so sure the curry house owners would have agreed. We went to otters first, and then later wandered round the town. (I haven't posted pictures of the town; it's not that interesting. There's a mildly interesting bit of castle, and a mildly interesting Norman church (in places), but it's not really a particularly notable example of the genre. I may upload some bits to wikimedia commons, if I can be arsed to manage their categorisation system.)
I'm going to put a cut in, because there are a lot of otters.
( Read more... )
For those people who didn't wade through the pictures of mustelidae, you should at least look at:
a gif of a contact-juggling otter!
and a short video of a giant otter squacking on command.
Before going to the Lib Dem party conference, Drswirly and I went to stay in Christchurch, because of its proximity to the New Forest Wildlife Centre, which has a lot of otters. Did I mention the otters?
I found Christchurch a bit stultifying, and the kind of place I don't at all feel at home in, because it's quite clear that I'm not really their type of person. Christchurch was the kind of place that had a UKIP office prominently on one of the main streets. (It's now shut, which is definitely an improvement, but Christchurch was definitely a UKIP heartland.) It was next to a curry house, which I found mildly pleasing, though I'm not so sure the curry house owners would have agreed. We went to otters first, and then later wandered round the town. (I haven't posted pictures of the town; it's not that interesting. There's a mildly interesting bit of castle, and a mildly interesting Norman church (in places), but it's not really a particularly notable example of the genre. I may upload some bits to wikimedia commons, if I can be arsed to manage their categorisation system.)
I'm going to put a cut in, because there are a lot of otters.
( Read more... )
For those people who didn't wade through the pictures of mustelidae, you should at least look at:
a gif of a contact-juggling otter!
and a short video of a giant otter squacking on command.
The time we went and stayed with the ducks
Sep. 22nd, 2017 06:37 pmandrewduckerJane and I went up to Nethy Bridge, near Aviemore, and stayed at the Lazy Duck in one of their Eco-Lodges. Which is a cabin built for two, with electricity, gas cooking, and (distant, wobbly) wifi, right next to a large duck pond full of a variety of different species of ducks.
( Loads of photos and four videos )
( Loads of photos and four videos )
What it’s like for girls
Sep. 22nd, 2017 03:39 pmmarnanelI've always dressed androgynously and worn my hair long since childhood, because of being nonbinary, but this was the first time I'd got this treatment. I think it gets more common after puberty?
When I was about fifteen, I participated in a thirty-mile walk to raise money for charity. The final checkpoint was a pub, and of course everyone went into the beer garden and lay down on the grass.
Now you know how when you've been exerting yourself, you can walk fine until you stop, whereupon your muscles seize up. Well, after lying on the ground for a few minutes I got up because I needed to go into the pub and find the toilet, and of course I could hardly walk. So I hobbled towards the pub door.
A middle-aged man walked up and held my elbow, saying, "Let me help you, my dear."
First thought: wtf?! Why has this creep grabbed my arm without asking?
Second thought: Oh! In these baggy walking clothes, he thinks I'm a girl.
Third thought: Wait a moment. That means that girls get this sort of treatment all the time and I'VE NEVER NOTICED.
It was seriously a life-altering moment.
When I was about fifteen, I participated in a thirty-mile walk to raise money for charity. The final checkpoint was a pub, and of course everyone went into the beer garden and lay down on the grass.
Now you know how when you've been exerting yourself, you can walk fine until you stop, whereupon your muscles seize up. Well, after lying on the ground for a few minutes I got up because I needed to go into the pub and find the toilet, and of course I could hardly walk. So I hobbled towards the pub door.
A middle-aged man walked up and held my elbow, saying, "Let me help you, my dear."
First thought: wtf?! Why has this creep grabbed my arm without asking?
Second thought: Oh! In these baggy walking clothes, he thinks I'm a girl.
Third thought: Wait a moment. That means that girls get this sort of treatment all the time and I'VE NEVER NOTICED.
It was seriously a life-altering moment.
Interesting Links for 22-09-2017
Sep. 22nd, 2017 12:00 pmandrewducker- This is what happens when you ask Twitter to buy the drinks
- (tags: birthday Twitter alcohol funny )
- Acclaimed French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars
- (tags: food reviews france stress )
- Why Is Payroll Software Hard
- (tags: software design money tax law )
- IBM contract cost for failure-plagued Phoenix payroll system jumped to total $185M
- (tags: computers money ibm epicfail )
- Council agrees business case for extending Edinburgh tram to Leith
- (tags: Edinburgh trams )
- Another problem with “we’ll just hire the best.”
- (tags: diversity psychology work )
- EU paid for report that failed to prove piracy is harmful– and tried to hide findings
- (tags: Europe piracy copyright OhForFucksSake )
- Individualized diets for irritable bowel syndrome better than placebo
- (tags: food IBS )
- Babies learn benefits of hard work by witnessing parents persevering with difficult tasks
- (tags: psychology behaviour children parenting )
- In favour of an opt-out organ donation system
- (tags: organdonor law UK )
- Why Wages Aren’t Growing
- (tags: economics wages )
- Weather forecasting is better than it’s ever been.
- (tags: viaFanf weather )
- When Amazon recommendations and dodgy journalism lead to a moral panic
- (tags: Amazon journalism panic OhForFucksSake )
- Uber London licence not renewed
- (tags: London taxi )
- Female film casting same as 100 years ago
- (tags: movies women UK viaSwampers )
- What do American college students think about the First Amendment?
- (tags: usa freespeech university polls )
- More details on Uber losing its license
- (tags: London taxi regulation )
The Blood is the Life for 22-09-2017
Sep. 22nd, 2017 11:00 ammiss_s_b- Woman seeing three men at once struggling with the admin
- RT @davidgerard: The Daily Mash accurately depicts polyamory in practice
- The Hobbit Was Almost Illustrated by Maurice Sendak…
- …but Tolkien rejected his artwork. Here's the story.
So I attended my first political Conference
Sep. 21st, 2017 03:26 pmhilarita...as a member of the Lib Dems.
tl;dr - Conference is a pretty excellent place, provided that, unlike me, you have more social skills than a dead hermit.
Quite a lot of Conference is for the srs activist and/or candidate for some kind of political office. There is a fuckton of training, if that's your sort of thing.
However, they've also put quite a lot of effort into general activities, and activities for newbies. Sadly, some of those activities clashed with Important Brexitty debates (which was a bit of a problem this year, because of the number of new people who'd joined specifically because we're one of the less fuckwitted parties over Brexit*). Also, some of these were in the evening, by which time my energy had buggered off somewhere and was having a little lie down. 8/10, would work better for those people who aren't snooze stoats.
They're also encouraging of having new people speak at Conference, which was extremely good. They were very keen to put new members to good use. I found the info on how to fill in Speaker's Cards and so on very useful. 9/10 (I'm docking one point because I'd dearly love there to be a web form, not a pdf or a piece of paper.)
The debates were generally very well run - there's a clear protocol, and people follow it. Most of the motions seemed well-chosen; I'm grateful for those people who've blogged about the process involved with choosing motions and amendments - it really helped me to work out what was going on. 9/10
OK, you get some points for having a Conference app. But you lose several points for the navigation system. Sorry. 5/10, must try harder.
And I'm incredibly glad that I got to take part in Lib Dem policy making, because, as a member, I got a vote! I could turn up, and vote on motions! It's almost like it's a democracy or something! 10/10
So - good Conference. I'm not sure I'll go again, because I'm almost totally incapable of spontaneously talking to people (I can respond when people come up to me, but this is generally insufficient for these kinds of events). Also, just being around so many people (lovely though the people were that I spoke to) was very draining. I've spent most of the past 48hrs on the sofa, with the Internet and computer games (and my partner). Fortunately, this Conference was at a time when I could roll it into my annual leave, so I have time to recover. It didn't really help that Bournemouth and my asthma don't mix well, especially with a hotel on East Cliff. I'd prefer flatter cities for Conference.
I'd like to be more involved with LD policy making, but preferably from my sofa, where I don't have to go anywhere and pretend that I can pass for a reasonably sociable human being.
* We're still being rather incoherent, split, and downright confused about how to present our extremely strong support for the EU, because every so often people whinge But The Will Of The Peeeeople... We're managing to clear the low bar set by the Conservatives and Labour, but frankly, toddlers can step over that bar nine times out of ten.
tl;dr - Conference is a pretty excellent place, provided that, unlike me, you have more social skills than a dead hermit.
Quite a lot of Conference is for the srs activist and/or candidate for some kind of political office. There is a fuckton of training, if that's your sort of thing.
However, they've also put quite a lot of effort into general activities, and activities for newbies. Sadly, some of those activities clashed with Important Brexitty debates (which was a bit of a problem this year, because of the number of new people who'd joined specifically because we're one of the less fuckwitted parties over Brexit*). Also, some of these were in the evening, by which time my energy had buggered off somewhere and was having a little lie down. 8/10, would work better for those people who aren't snooze stoats.
They're also encouraging of having new people speak at Conference, which was extremely good. They were very keen to put new members to good use. I found the info on how to fill in Speaker's Cards and so on very useful. 9/10 (I'm docking one point because I'd dearly love there to be a web form, not a pdf or a piece of paper.)
The debates were generally very well run - there's a clear protocol, and people follow it. Most of the motions seemed well-chosen; I'm grateful for those people who've blogged about the process involved with choosing motions and amendments - it really helped me to work out what was going on. 9/10
OK, you get some points for having a Conference app. But you lose several points for the navigation system. Sorry. 5/10, must try harder.
And I'm incredibly glad that I got to take part in Lib Dem policy making, because, as a member, I got a vote! I could turn up, and vote on motions! It's almost like it's a democracy or something! 10/10
So - good Conference. I'm not sure I'll go again, because I'm almost totally incapable of spontaneously talking to people (I can respond when people come up to me, but this is generally insufficient for these kinds of events). Also, just being around so many people (lovely though the people were that I spoke to) was very draining. I've spent most of the past 48hrs on the sofa, with the Internet and computer games (and my partner). Fortunately, this Conference was at a time when I could roll it into my annual leave, so I have time to recover. It didn't really help that Bournemouth and my asthma don't mix well, especially with a hotel on East Cliff. I'd prefer flatter cities for Conference.
I'd like to be more involved with LD policy making, but preferably from my sofa, where I don't have to go anywhere and pretend that I can pass for a reasonably sociable human being.
* We're still being rather incoherent, split, and downright confused about how to present our extremely strong support for the EU, because every so often people whinge But The Will Of The Peeeeople... We're managing to clear the low bar set by the Conservatives and Labour, but frankly, toddlers can step over that bar nine times out of ten.
I no longer get the hang of Thursdays
Sep. 21st, 2017 12:40 pmhollymathHad my passport interview today. Everyone told me it was fine and normal but I thought it was weird and intrusive. How many of your bedrooms look onto your back garden? Where did your parents go on their honeymoon? But it was done quickly and kindly, by a big guy with amazing facial hair and who had actually heard of Minnesota because he's an American-football player.
The worst thing about it was that we had to go all the way to Salford for it, which took ages. I turned out to also need to go back to the university because you can't sign up for language classes online, you have to go in person to the place I was twice yesterday where no one told me this. (I presume it's because they need to check the level people are at if they want to do anything other than beginner's level in their language, because there was a lot of that happening. But surely abject beginners should be able to apply with the system we have to use to do everything else?) But I filled out the form so hopefully that's done.
Which means all my bureaucracy should be done that can be done for now, which is good as all of tomorrow will be taken up with volunteer training at Manchester Museum (which is just a different kind of in-person bureaucracy, as little or none of it will be relevant to my role).
And I had a smear test today, and that's all this morning, so frankly not only am I done with today, but I think I need a medal.
For future reference, though, having a lot of local friends means a lot of them share the same doctor's surgery, and I'd heard a lot of good things about the new nurse who frankly could hardly have been worse than the old one. And she lived up to everything I'd heard about her; she didn't mention my weight, even though she did mention my blood pressure a lot which is fair enough as it was high when she checked it. She even took my height and weight which I know will be for bullshit BMI things the NHS makes them do, but while she said "Five four" as she read my height off the thingy, she then looked at the scale and said "weight...[mumbly mumble]" like she was just reminding herself long enough to go write it down (which is exactly what she was doing) so far from making a big deal of it she ensured I didn't know it at all which is the best thing for my mental health.
And when she asked if I wanted a sexual health screening done at the same time I said it was a good idea because I have two partners but it's okay and they know about each other and etc., she actually said "Oh, so you're poly?" Which left me really taken aback! I've never had a health professional know the word before. And she asked me if the partners were "male, female or other" so didn't assume sexuality or binary gender, which made me happy.
The worst thing about it was that we had to go all the way to Salford for it, which took ages. I turned out to also need to go back to the university because you can't sign up for language classes online, you have to go in person to the place I was twice yesterday where no one told me this. (I presume it's because they need to check the level people are at if they want to do anything other than beginner's level in their language, because there was a lot of that happening. But surely abject beginners should be able to apply with the system we have to use to do everything else?) But I filled out the form so hopefully that's done.
Which means all my bureaucracy should be done that can be done for now, which is good as all of tomorrow will be taken up with volunteer training at Manchester Museum (which is just a different kind of in-person bureaucracy, as little or none of it will be relevant to my role).
And I had a smear test today, and that's all this morning, so frankly not only am I done with today, but I think I need a medal.
For future reference, though, having a lot of local friends means a lot of them share the same doctor's surgery, and I'd heard a lot of good things about the new nurse who frankly could hardly have been worse than the old one. And she lived up to everything I'd heard about her; she didn't mention my weight, even though she did mention my blood pressure a lot which is fair enough as it was high when she checked it. She even took my height and weight which I know will be for bullshit BMI things the NHS makes them do, but while she said "Five four" as she read my height off the thingy, she then looked at the scale and said "weight...[mumbly mumble]" like she was just reminding herself long enough to go write it down (which is exactly what she was doing) so far from making a big deal of it she ensured I didn't know it at all which is the best thing for my mental health.
And when she asked if I wanted a sexual health screening done at the same time I said it was a good idea because I have two partners but it's okay and they know about each other and etc., she actually said "Oh, so you're poly?" Which left me really taken aback! I've never had a health professional know the word before. And she asked me if the partners were "male, female or other" so didn't assume sexuality or binary gender, which made me happy.
Interesting Links for 21-09-2017
Sep. 21st, 2017 12:00 pmandrewducker- Top tip: If you're a wanted criminal then consider not posting videos of yourself on Instagram
- (tags: crime epicfail videos location )
- Children of today are better at delaying gratification than previous generations
- (tags: psychology children self-control )
- Millennials spend three times more of their income on housing than their grandparents did
- Maybe we should build some more housing?
(tags: money housing uk ) - What do the British think of golliwogs?
- (tags: polls race racism uk )
- Brexit negotiations: how is the UK doing?
- (tags: uk Europe viaFanf )
- The extraordinary case of the Guevedoces (who's boys grow penises at age twelve)
- (tags: gender sex children puberty )
- London venue is UK's first to use digital-only ticketing
- (tags: UK tickets music )
- Ending EU free movement after Brexit would lead to more worker exploitation
- (tags: work Europe uk )
The Blood is the Life for 21-09-2017
Sep. 21st, 2017 11:00 ammiss_s_b- miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 20-09-2017
- I posted The Blood is the Life for 20-09-2017 to my dreamwidth blog