| (no subject) |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|06:35 pm] |
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Potential new housemates seem quite friendly, and between 1 and I, we're whittling down all the three and four bed places n North London to those with reasonable rent and reasonable transport. 1 is also a bit of a geek, and a musician/bass player. I begin to suspect there is some sort of magnetic core that locates geeky, slightly gothy bass players. I seem to have quite a lot of them in various circles. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|12:49 am] |
Well. This could be a much more interesting and enjoyable set of housemates. Just need to decide on whether it'll be a three or four bedroom place, by the looks of things.
Shall see how things progress. |
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| Strange dream last night... |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|01:32 pm] |
Just in case you didn't think I was odd enough. Here is what I remember of a dream I had last night.
I was in a really huge movie theater complex, but it was like I was a super VIP, like at a Premiere.
The weather was really bad outside, raining and blowing winds, like call out the national guard bad, but the screening was apparently going on without any concern.
The film was apparently a new heavily re-edited version of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The major new element was a new race had been dropped into the story line. It was a cross between an Octopus, and a Manta Ray. Think of it being more Manta Ray, but with some tentacle type arms.
There were two sets of these creatures. One had been robotically augmented, so that 40% of their bodies had been robotic, the other were all "natural". There was a civil war of sorts between the two groups, and the Empire had gotten involved. I am not sure where I had seen evidence of it, but it was clear that there was a substantial new "collectible toy" market based around these new manta ray creatures. Perhaps there were signs in the movie theater, or on TV ahead of the release.
There were hours of interactions and combat with these odd creatures, and they did a lot of hostage taking from both sides. They also had a translucent kangaroo like pouch in the front which was quite stretchy, and would be the preferred place to stash the hostages. I recall something about the two groups being different colors, something like orange and lime green, and that you could see the hostages from within the translucent pouches of the other group.
So, yeah. It was a pretty weird dream. I woke up in the morning with our larger cat, Kili hugging my feet/shins, which is quite unusual for her. I am guessing that had some effect on my dream with the tentacle part.
There you have it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|01:08 pm] |
A male midwife says that pain in childbirth is a rite of passage, so women shouldn't be trying to avoid the agony of it with all this fancy modern technology. He says it strengthens her bond with her baby. He thinks that managing pain should be done with yoga, birthing pools and alternative therapies.
He is, yes, an associate professor of midwifery. He knows far more about the technical details than I ever will, I acknowledge this, but he's saying that the rise in pain management is a sign that we shouldn't be using pain management. Sometimes even the professionally qualified can be, well, complete asshats.
We have the technology, the staff and the experience to manage pain in a way that's unlikely to have any further impact on the lives of the women involved. Why on earth should women have to endure excessive and drawn-out pain when there are safe, legal, fully supervised ways of diminishing it and making the whole experience less unplesant?
Notably, a series of females, both a physician and an actual mother, are replying to his points by saying 'but you see, it really really really does hurt. Epidurals and forceps exist for a very good reason and telling women they aren't good enough because they chose the epidural is quite damaging'.
I'm never having kids. The prospect of dealing with a sanctimonious twit who never would be able to experience the whole thing telling me that I shouldn't have some extremely effective pain management because I should have done yoga instead acts only as a further deterrent.
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| Oi, Torchwood Fans! |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|01:55 am] |
I know you are many. I know that most of you understand politics, sci-fi, and interesting writing.
I thought you might consider this recent post by journalist and blogger Penny Red entertaining, interesting, or at least worth a moment's attention and thought.
And if you like that, try the rest of her stuff (may not contain sci-fi, may contain traces of tea).
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| Quick Update |
[Jul. 12th, 2009|07:10 pm] |
| [ | Today i'm feeling |
| |  calm | ] |
Noisy will soon have two new stockists: TNS Records Distro (a record label/promoter/fanzine based in Manchester) and The Square in Harlow, which is a gig venue - hooray!
In other news, The Southend Fringe Festival went well and I have uploaded quite a lot of videos from various gigs on the Noisyzine youtube channel here - including The Pan I Am, Fever Fever, The Brownies, Devilish Presley and more.... |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 12th, 2009|09:28 am] |
I am really not a goth at all. I haven't worn black for ages, I don't listen to any old music any more and I think goths look funny in Camden. I have a tan and find beer repellant. I think I just liked not being called a fat cow and having to listen to RnB at "normal" clubs.
It's weird.
I think my all time favourite club was Sleazecore, follwed by Electrogogo.
I wish TG still did Sleazecore. |
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| eMusic |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|09:59 pm] |
| [ | Today i'm feeling |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | I 'ave been mostly listenin' to |
| | Spray - He Came With The Sleigh | ] |
My 3rd month of eMusic, and as ever, it's 'Download Day' on the 9th. 100 songs, fully legit, DRM free, for £20. And Steve Jobs doesn't get a penny (sorry, Applephiles, I've have issues with 'iCulture', I won't go into them here).
Interesting selection this time out - a couple of old Deine Lakaien eps, all the theme tunes from the first two series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet, some old Converter and Imminent Starvation stuff (ah, when power noise was real power noise and not something-core), the first two Implant EPs from the mid 90s, Kloq's version of 'Ibiza', Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio 4-track thing I'd never heard of, Clan Of Xymox's 'Heroes' EP, some Agonoize bonus tracks I never got my hands on, and best of all, some hilarious Spray songs. They've actually done a synthpop footie anthem called 'Synching For England'! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|06:15 pm] |
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Because I am not working and don't have all that much by way of savings, I have just applied for job seeker's allowance online. May as well, really. Every bit helps, and I've paid all my taxes and NICS in full for as long as I've worked.
Not sure how it all goes when you're getting pay in lieu of notice, but there's nothing about it on the site. Or if there is, I can't see it because half their links are broken.
Because I'm a single person and not yet 24, even though I am living alone without parental support, I only qualify for the lesser payment of £50.95 instead of £64.30. I'm not quite sure why I'm worth nearly £60 a month less than an older person in the same situation as me. Surely once you're legally adult, you're legally adult?
Ah well. They'll call in the next two working days, apparently. Just hope my phone lasts out, as I left the charger at the Gent's.
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| Newsburst for the day |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|10:58 am] |
BBC News is, once again, providing me with up to an hour's worth of information.
There's a new directory to opt out of- for mobile numbers this time. I don't seem to be on it, but you may wish to get yourselves off it as well, just in case.
You can now check whether it'll save you any money to fit a wind turbine to your home.
A remarkably large majority of an Austrialian town has voted to ban bottled water in order to save resources and avoid pollution.
Danone are trying a social rather than capitalist business plan in India, and it looks like it's working quite well.
Nick Griffin of the BNP is now demanding we sink immigrants' boats before they get near the coast.
Another anti-aging development- this one might actually work! But it needs a lot of refinement, as it crushes the immune system.
A teacher took a novel but very effective approach to getting her class to read, and seems to be in a lot of trouble for it.
The 11+ tests have been scrapped in Northern Ireland, but there's nothing to replace them. Lesson- never scrap something you don't have a replacement ready for.
The oldest surviving complete bible is in the process of being posted online, a full translation is due next year.
I haven't checked the papers yet, so there may be a second post later for the Independent, Guardian and Times Online.
Meantime, I'm going to listen to Nick Cave, and possibly start comparing bibles.
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|08:15 pm] |
Over the past couple of days, I've applied to nearly 35 jobs independently and through various jobsites. I've made sure that Monster, Reed, Office Angels and JobSearch all have a copy of my CV. I've polished my CV quite a lot.
I've bought two new trouser suits including blouses and a black sheath dress for the interviews I hope to get, and now I'm buggering off to a mate's place for the evening. There will be food and drink and movies. And I think he wants me to help him with some paperwork.
And tomorrow, I'll see if I can find more things to apply to.
And I am going to keep doing this until people start asking me to work for them. This may get a bit dull after a while.
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| Make London Transport accountable before 2012! |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|06:04 pm] |
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tflaccountable/
I am so sick of London transport staff - Today I got ignored standing at a bus stop, even when asking to be let on the half empty bus! This follows on from a bus driver trying to run me over then making a lewd gesture and laughing, and a ticket office man closing down his post when I wanted to check my oyster.
I have set up a petition because right now, if you complain to TFL they have a policy not to follow up the complaint with you!
I am setting my sights on 2012 signatures by the end of the year, to ask for better customer service policies and training before they go representing London with their crap staff - also have set up a facebook so you can add your horror stories :
www.facebook.com/pages/Petition-to-make-London-Public-Transport-accountable-add-your-story/115172621498
www.ipetitions.com/petition/tflaccountable/
Please pass on!
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|01:35 pm] |
I'm still at the Gent's, and currently listening to the fantastically heavy sound of the rain on the roof of the little office extension where I'm borrowing the computer for my job-hunting. I didn't expect the weather to take such a turn after the weekend, and don't have adequate clothing provisions for rain or cold. I have a lovely, fluttery, gauzy, THIN jacket, a sleeveless top with jeans, or a linen/cotton summer dress. Not suitable for rain or even a chilly breeze.
Oh dear.
Job hunting- have signed up with Monster and Jobsearch, updating my Reed profile, and have applied to a couple places and bookmarked several more. I should step it up, but it's hard to find jobs that don't require two or more years' experience in the relevant field when I only have one year.
Unrelated, I really hope this gets through- Bill Of Truth - yeah, they can get out of it by claiming its for National Security, but they can do that with anything anyway. Might still give us politicians legislated into an approximation of honesty.
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| Trip to Oregon... |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|11:42 am] |
Hi Folks,
Long time since my last post, but as most of you know, I have shifted to facebook for most of my social networking. With any luck, this will appear there as well, hopefully cut to a reasonable length...
I wanted to give a little bit of a trip report/summary of my recent adventures in Oregon.
Kasey and I went up to attend the "West/An-Tir War", which is an annual SCA event, so this was part of our medieval recreation group. This is one of the larger events on the West Coast, but the first time either of us had attended it. We are trying to get a sense which is better between the May Potrero War, near the Mexican border, and this one, in the Redwood forests of Coastal Oregon. I have to admit that I think I like this one better, even though there are lots of things that are great at Potrero. The super big initial bonus here, is that you are allowed to unload in a reasonable manner, using your car, and not like at Potrero, where you have to schlep everything from parking lots, often quite a substantial distance.
The people running the event (the Autocrats, in our SCA Lingo) definitely had some issues with expectation management not living up to what they had suggested would be available. It made us grumble a bit, but again, it was generally ok. I wasn't with the intial group that arrived first on Thursday, and had I been there, I think we could have navigated some of the "land allocation" issues a bit more successfully. Oh well, to a certain degree I was really hoping to use this event as a training scenario, so that the people I was camping with could see where things were going well on their own, and where they really did enjoy the contributions of several members who weren't able to join us this time. Kasey and I are considered the "old timers with significant knowledge" of the SCA, which is hysterical, as I keep trying to tell them, but I suppose it is all a bit relative.
It was nice to see a big group of the Kingdom of the West working together, and we were able to strengthen the bonds of friendship with several well placed people within the Society, which feels good. One of our camp, Brandon, is just getting his feet wet with regards to the War style combat within the SCA, and was extremely eager to make a good impression with the Earl Marshal, the King, and the Prince of the Mists. I think he did, but time will tell more on that front.
It was fascinating to see the group dynamic develop, as Kasey and I are seen as very calm/balancing members of the group, which seemed to be the case this weekend. I am amazed to see that basically everyone in the group "got it", with regards to group responsibilities like kitchen cleanup, and how significantly one person in particular didn't. He was a nice guy, but I was just amazed at how thick he was in this regard. The good news is that he is just one person out of a much bigger group, so his impact gets smaller as our group continues to grow. He has a lot of things that are about to be a big change in his life, so hopefully the hard lessons of life will help him through these types of issues sooner than later...
This was my first time going north of "Cloverdale" in California, let alone touching Oregon, so I was excited to see the new landscapes, and get a feel for what Northern California is really all about.
I would love to go kayaking up in the Humboldt Bay area, and just about all of the Coastline that I saw in Oregon. I will defintely try to make that happen sooner than later!
As someone who has done a lot of Theater Lighting Design (in the past), I was pretty amazed by the sun hitting the low hanging clouds and fog in the forests. Just a beautiful thing to see. I got a little nervous that I wouldn't see the sun again at times, since we basically ended up camped in a combination of coastal fog and low clouds, fun but a little bit more moist than I would have preferred. We at least know much better at what to expect next time around.
Other highlights, we ended up going to the big Kingdom of the West party on Saturday night, and this was probably the first party, where we actually felt welcomed, and like we knew some of the people. It was very nice!
On Sunday driving back down, Kasey and I stopped in at the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka, CA, and got to sample some of their brews that seem to never make it to the stores, which is always fun.
That about covers it for now. I will post a couple of pictures on my Facebook, probably this evening.
-Joel |
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| Oh, the jobs we apply for.... |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|11:49 am] |
I'm going to apply for a job as caseworker for Siobhan McDonagh, Labour MP for Morden.
She's challenged Gordon Brown on his leadership and even lost her position as whip for it. She seems to be pretty actively involved in actual work for her constituency, and she hasn't claimed her mortgage or her food or her home furnishings etc on expenses- just travel and office costs, which actually seems reasonable given the travel costs work out at about £2k/year - heck, I think I spend nearly that much on my personal travel each year.
There doesn't seem to be too much against her. I'll be sending in the application email with CV and cover sheet tomorrow. I'm aware that since I'm not a party member I may not get the job *anyway*, but I'm cheap and qualified and don't have agency rates tacked on. If you can find any reasons that I shouldn't apply, please give them here. I'm a bit wary of working for politicians, you see, even the ones that look quite nice and don't have any serious immediate conflicts with my general morality. |
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| Back into the Jungle |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|10:49 pm] |
Swift update before the internet monkey kicks me out:
Climbed Mount Roraima, hurt a lot. Came down, hurt more. Took buses and planes and boats to Mamirauá Nature reserve, a floating lodge in a flooded forest. Lots of boat trips to see monkeys, dolphins, sloths and other wondrous creatures, for a week. Travelled downriver to Manaus. Am bored of just sitting in boats. Am heading back into the jungle for five days tomorrow morning. Watched a string quintet this afternoon. Am getting through about 8 Gigabytes of photos a week, on average, when in the wild. In the city, not so much.
Happy birthday ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rodneyorpheus: I know it's a bit early, but I won't have internet. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|10:28 pm] |
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Tomorrow is my last day at work. Tonight, I am making biscuits. The first batch on Monday went quite well, so now I am making a second and slightly less carefully measured batch. Being the curious thing I am, I thought I would see what happens when you add a drop of red colouring. The mixture now looks like I butchered something and mixed its shattered bones with its entrails. But since these are almond bones and cherry and mixed peel entrails, I'm totally okay with eating that. I will see in about three minutes how the colour lasts after being baked.
If it goes well, I may experiment with blue or green at a later point, and maybe even yellow so that pictures can be made if I can cut them into pixel shaped bits.
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