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Rant

The Wonderful System

By way of a moan about the government in general, you might be interested in the state of the pension system these days. My mother was 60 on August 13th (which was a Wednesday). Two weeks later, her pension still hadn’t been paid. She started making angry calls. No one had a good explanation for this, except mutterings about ‘backlog’ and things not being ‘processed yet.’

She did finally get sent a giro for the first two weeks of her pension, last week. It should have been paid into the bank, but they seemed to be having trouble with this concept. It was dated from August 18th. Here’s the fun bit: she phoned to inquire what this meant, and they told her the pensions are only paid on a ‘from Monday’ basis, so since her birthday was on a Wednesday, she loses five days of pension simply because it didn’t fall on a Monday! (How much like an evil ‘save every penny we can get away with’ government plot does this sound?)
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Same Old Deal

The New Deal appointment I had today didn’t go terribly well, really. The person I saw seemed intent on using the word ‘mandatory’ every other sentence and underlining every single point with the clear threat of benefit cessation.

Who trains these people? Are they given any hints whatsoever about basic psychology? Or are they so used to dealing with half-witted, apathetic zombots that someone with an individual point of view is an alien concept? What is the purpose of emphasising all the negative aspects of this wretched system instead of trying to create the impression that something positive can come out of it? I might actually respond to positivity—I certainly won’t respond to browbeating, implicit threats or horribly negative words like ‘mandatory.’
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The Meaning of Life: Part 364

I had my fifth ‘mentoring’ session at the Jobcentre yesterday. The first one was back on March 19th.

At my previous appointment, two weeks ago, my mentor had been delving into ambition in a general sense. He told me he felt I was very intelligent and had a lot to offer (although, exactly what, he couldn’t specify). At one point he said, ‘Maybe you’d just like to meet Mr. Right, get married and have babies.’ (He added, ‘There’s nothing wrong with that.’) This comment amused me, really, and yet it did have something—I really don’t think I am all that ambitious per se. I’ve only genuinely realised that in the last couple of years.
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Too Much Analysis

I’ve been thinking about human interaction a bit. Bad idea. Thinking usually ends up troubling me.

Sometimes, it seems to me that a lot of human interaction is bullshit. You pretend to feel better than you really do whenever possible, pretend to be more interesting than you think you really are, and generally ‘sell’ yourself. I’m absolutely useless at doing this. You’d think, understanding the theory, I might not be quite so pathetic at it—then again, part of the problem is understanding it, because then you start to question its futility or dishonesty and open another massive can of worms. Oboy. Too much time on my hands = too much analysis.

Work situation… a brief rant…
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On Friendship and Betrayal

Ho-hum. Not too much to say right now, but trust me, I’ll have a damn good try. The dog wasn’t too well again today, but it doesn’t appear to be anything real bad (relatively speaking; and yep, I know, this blog has become Animal Hospital lately).

Paul Gravett was in town last Thursday, so we met up for a coffee and a look around Birmingham. Me, socialising. But not very much. 🙂
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A Less Than Fond Farewell

I’ve just said what is probably my final goodbye to a mailing list I’ve been a member of on and off since way back in the mists of time (well, 1996). I may rejoin at some point, but I doubt it.

It was mostly a Certain Person’s comments. I have had to put up with two years of sarcasm and thinly-veiled nastiness from this individual, and since we actually used to be (supposedly) friends, this was the last straw for me. I was also rather despairing at someone else’s sulking, re. a debate we’d had. Did someone call this place a lively discussion list? I’m afraid that’s been largely untrue for quite some time. And it seems that, now, if you do try to put some life and opinion into a thread on there, you’re accused of making personal attacks.
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Unfair Cop

Well, trip to London tomorrow and weekend break. And I really do need it. This has been a slightly stressful week—and yesterday, I was almost copped!

It was innocent enough. I went into a local Superdrug to pick up some deodorant and whatever, and when I left a security guard nabbed me and accused me of shoplifting! (No, I hadn’t been!) So he took me back into the store and insisted on checking my bag and receipt, but that wasn’t enough for him. He said, ‘I’ll have to get a female assistant to…’ Suddenly, my mind raced with paranoia! I was thinking, ‘N-n-not a strip search?’ But he went on, ‘…search your pockets.’

Unfair Cop

Then I got annoyed, and emptied the pockets of my jacket myself, exclaiming the nature of each item aloud as I did so. Apparently, this still didn’t satisfy him. He asked, ‘Whose wallet is that?’ I was about to go apeshit at that point, but another security guard showed up and started apologising for the ‘mistake’ profusely. My accuser beat a hasty retreat, and I screamed, ‘So how do I complain about that asshole?’
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