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The Office

I did buy some office-friendly clothes today, including a shirt. The venue was H&M. I usually buy stuff from M&S, since we have food from there, but they’re pricey. H&M are cheaper, although their displays are appallingly untidy and disordered. And the clothes are quite dirty in some cases; they had a pale blue shirt I might have bought had they not all been mingingly filthy and creased… okay, they can be washed and ironed, but that’s not the point.

If this sounds like I’m planning to get an office job, well, I’m not. Not really. It would entirely upset my long-term image as an arty-farty anarchist. I’m merely being… pragmatic.
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Slight Improvement?!

I’m experiencing some emotional turmoil, with various factors ever-present. My employment situation, general isolation and lack of self-belief, etc. They’re big issues, without any obvious answers, and it drags my morale down constantly. It is possible in fifteen years to go from thinking you have tons of creative potential to believing you’re worth nothing. A long cycle of non-success is usually sufficient.
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A Smart Title Eludes Me Today

I might not have been posting, but somehow, the temptation to fiddle around with the site has persisted. I don’t think I’ll ever be as happy with the design of this thing as with other, less personal ones I’ve done.

I’ve removed the short-lived dropdown menus, anyway. I don’t know how to make them validate as XHTML strict, and while I’m using ‘transitional’ right now, I want to feel able to switch if it suddenly seems like a good idea.

I need a new photo, too. The current one is kind of crap, but it’s the most recent I have (last January). I think I’ll wait until I get a haircut, which ought to be soon, because I have a feeling the Ozzy Osbourne style isn’t all that flattering…
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It’s All Good Fun

Yes, I’m still here. Interesting (if absurd) developments on the New Deal front. The manager of the course told me she agrees that it’s not really appropriate for me at the present time… but, there’s no way out of it bar getting a job or foregoing your benefit. In fact, once you’re on ND, you’re stuck on it, or something similar, until you find work—if you’ve failed to do so after the 13-week duration, you’re put onto something else… and so on, and so on, ad nauseum.

Anyway, the only other option is to go on the sick. In my case, if my GP was agreeable, it would be for stress. Yep, that’s right: stress these people have caused. You’re either sick or your life revolves around finding a job. No other options, screw individual circumstances, end of story.
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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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Boring Geeky Stuff

Like the new logo? I’m still working on the site here and there. I haven’t used graphical logos for some time, because some browsers (IE 5 & 6, at least) have issues with locally cached copies of transparent gifs. I wanted to use a jpeg instead. Hey, they look better, anyway.

What I didn’t know, until a few days ago, is that you can convert HTML colour codes into RGB ones using Windows Calculator (scientific mode), meaning you can enter the exact RGB codes into just about any decent paint prog and have a perfect match with your background, or any other colours coded into your site. No need for transparency! (Unless you’re using a textured background, anyway.)
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Going, Going, Gone!

I guess it’s time for the latest, highly entertaining house move news. *sigh* We found out (yesterday) that the flat’s already been sold. In fact, it was already sold, bar the formalities, prior to Monday when mom went to see it… shame the estate agents didn’t bother mentioning this and saving her a journey. They were very apologetic, but it’s quite shabby. I won’t mention which estate agents it was, though.
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