| lesley153
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A visiting cousin said she'd never seen anyone who had so many cleaning materials and used so little of them. I've just found a long thin bottle of cream bathroom cleaner with the word "Jif" on it. That's almost old money.
People who say they want a clean break or fresh start are not only leaving people who made them feel bad, they're also leaving supportive friends who helped them through hard times, and therefore remind them of the hard times. There's something gloriously self-indulgently pig selfish about the clean break. "Thanks, but you've served your purpose. I'm now off to find fresh people to use."
Reply #621. Jul 29 11, 5:15 PM
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| lesley153
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Is that very harsh of me? Sorry if it is.
Reply #622. Jul 29 11, 5:16 PM
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bloodandsand 
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I tend to agree with you in general, Lesley, but in my friend's case your view is somewhat harsh. All of her friends in England understood and supported her decision and we didn't feel used.
Reply #623. Jul 30 11, 5:44 AM
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satguru
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| Maybe I should be more cynical- there have always been a few people I see because they keep calling me and don't have the heart/guts/kidneys etc to turn them away. Of course had I emigrated it would have provided the ideal solution and would only dump anyone if I'd never actually wanted them in the first place, otherwise my friends have lasted for life so far from my side. There are others who were never more than short term who I was only seeing as getting to know, found they were boring and we naturally drifted apart, but once I've got to know someone and we get on then I keep them. But I know many people are not like that. |
Reply #624. Jul 30 11, 7:48 AM
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satguru
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While I'm here I haven't had a go at the news for ages, and as it's slightly more dire than usual had to pick it apart. Royal weddings. I'm poor, you're rich, you get more money, I get nothing. I should maybe celebrate? Of course not. So why do we when someone else gets married instead? We're not getting our love life sorted out, someone else is, if they were from the East End criminal fraternity we wouldn't care, so the royal family or the people our neighbours know round the corner.
Then Ed Miliband's nose operation. The leader of our opposition. He does sound like a slightly retarded kid at school, and unfortunately and far more important so are many of the things he says. My opinion but equally valid to any other. So he's had a nose operation, apparently for sleep apnoea but the media say to make him sound more normal. Now if we had an absolute political genius who sounded like Porky Pig or even Grant Mitchell I'd take a day or two to get used to it, and forget about it. Now Ed Miliband's politics are basically out of the big book of Soviet Five Year Plans. He's a straight out old fashioned totalitarian control merchant, with the added Blair quality of saying whatever he things people want him to as long as he's in opposition. Example. In power, we must raise energy prices to save the planet. In opposition, we would have taken 15p a gallon off petrol. So he's unfortunately not very straight either, which makes his actual politics fairly unimportant in comparison.
But the fact he knows changing his voice can change his popularity is an indictment on the people rather than politicians, if his policies are good bad or indifferent, as is his personality or his decency then vote on that. But if he sounds a little less backward and still cheats and has policies that would be slightly worse than what they have in Cuba, people would rather vote on his new voice? We always get what the majority deserve, but I'm not part of it. |
Reply #625. Jul 30 11, 8:07 AM
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| lesley153
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Bev, that's the joy of communicating and asking questions - so that people can put us straight rather than seething. I don't know your friend or your circumstances, so I throw out ideas based on personal experience. Sometimes they're right!
My cousin saw me as a house clearance project rather than a human, and I haven't spoken to her for eight or nine years. Oh and I bought some new "Cif" cream because the Jif is nearly empty and I realised that it worked better than the spray. *wanders off in search of green soap, blue bag, and skiffle board*
David, do you believe that it's about his voice? I wonder how much of it is about his appearance.
Reply #626. Jul 30 11, 8:30 AM
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satguru
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I never thought of his appearance, he just looks like an average Jewish boy, unlike his brother who doesn't. But once he opens his mouth the robotic drivel that comes out, which appears he doesn't even think up but is prepared in advance by the same writers who programme Obama and Chris Huhne is actually virtually meaningless and empty if you wrote it down and analysed it. All he does is blame other people, say he would do the opposite and try to scare the children with his talk of carbon emissions. He more or less represents the current state of politics in a single individual, with the one exception being he is not actually in power, but that may change. People didn't expect him to get the leadership but he did, so don't write him off. Having said that Cameron's latest speech was no better but in his case it's more of an exception as he talks a lot of sense from time to time.
Nothing special here, actually working a bit at the moment, it's finally picked up after a very quiet period although to be honest as long as I've got other things to do and enough to pay the bills it's not a big deal. And if I haven't said it here already the US budget goes to the last minute every year nowadays as they hold out for the best deal, it's how it works and not a news story. Only the media are enjoying it while the experts don't see it as an issue. Like they'd deliberately sabotage their careers, if that's at stake you can guarantee they won't slip up.
I was pleased at least my paper reported the latest NASA satellite figures that show CO2 lets most of the IR radiation (heat to us) back out, unlike a greenhouse (closed system) which is solid. Gases can't act like solids or they'd be called solids. Pretending they can until the actual measurements up there show otherwise is the most ignorant and brazen dishonesty and total insult to the profession. You don't extend a lab experiment to the whole world if it has never been tested before. As there was never a CO2 rise till our lifetimes there was no known direct record of the results till satellites, and until then it was ingenuous to claim otherwise. As you can't prove a negative the most I or anyone else has ever said is that until they can prove the effects of increased CO2 in the atmosphere directly and thoroughly then they simply don't know. Well the figures are slowly coming back now and none yet agree with their imaginary models which were simply career-boosting machines designed to maintain their incomes and status. And if this has proved them wrong on something that major then why would anyone trust them on all the others which have nothing behind them but a slightly adapted version of online gaming? Creating something for nothing has been the goal of the dishonourable since before the bible was written, and when CO2 has an absolutely fixed spectrum then the effects will begin using that, the major reason not being a lab experiment or equation, but the fact they have worked out the existing CO2 in the atmosphere contributes 1C of the 33C total above deep space. Now of course 1C at 260ppm ought to become 2C at 520, unless something else happens.
Something else is sea evaporation. Then once it evaporates it has to form clouds as if it falls back too fast as rain the clouds don't last long enough to trap heat. Also the clouds have to be the right height and shape as thin high ones do very little. So basically you'd need the sea to evaporate enough extra water to form long lasting cumulus or greater cover at a certain level enough to block enough of the reflected heat to raise the temperature above the ambient. It hasn't. CO2 is now 50% higher than 260ppm, and the rise has been 0.8C, but was rising already so can't blame CO2 for more than 0.5C. Exactly the existing effect.
How anyone can then factor in a greater warming now or ahead as we're half way along the road telling everyone so clearly even the poor children forced to learn the opposite view in half the world's schools beats me. Maybe they simply haven't seen this figure, or if have have forgotten that the whole contains the parts, which must be consistent with it. You can't get a quart from a pint pot however you rearrange the water, and can't get a more than minimal change in sea and ice levels if the temperature hasn't risen enough. The IPCC say 2C by 2100 is their safe limit, and it will struggle to reach even that as while CO2 continues to rise steadily (notice this is since energy prices have been raised significantly to 'reduce their use') the temperatures do not. CO2 has one more potential trick up its sleeve no one can measure until it happens. They all know at some point it becomes saturated. By means at A level physics or above, it reduces its ability to trap heat the more you add until it can no longer do so. I suspect the latest figures imply we are almost there or more. So when predictions tell you one thing and the results tell you another why does everyone still go with the predictions? I don't refer to everyone who worked it out already, but those who assumed we were all going to be under water by last year and still dismiss every new study replacing the earlier IPCC guesses. |
Reply #627. Jul 30 11, 5:18 PM
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satguru
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Total day off today as slept far longer than usual so just left me with the gym where I stayed for tea in their garden (minus newspapers since the added extras all vanished some time ago along with Sky Sports football every week). At least I've returned to the maximum dumbbell weights after finding I wasn't dropping them low enough to count and had to drop two weights until I could. It's 27.5 kg per arm if anyone can follow that. The hype on the news about the US debt is still rambling on despite anyone with a memory just needing to wind back a year to the identical situation and then two and three years etc. The deadline means the last (and technically not even that as they happily breach it by hours or more) moment, so they wait to negotiate until the deadline. That's not news, the news is if anything unusual happens and it can't as they'd wreck their careers and have 100% control over an agreement as and when it suits them and not the bloody media.
There was in fact no local football friendly programme I was aware of besides one match when I was working, so means I will try and go to a normal one instead in the next few weeks. Not the first one of the season as unlikely to get space but any following. There's no point having the local team survive another year if I don't see them from time to time. The next job after a long time waiting will be emptying the junk from the garage. That wouldn't take more than a couple of hours except for the remainder I need to inspect to see if there's anything I need hiding in the many boxes left from when I moved in 15 years ago. Half was water damaged so will have to go regardless (lucky I don't need many suitcases) and when that's been taken away can then tidy it properly. I will also inspect a spare pair of glasses rather than redo my others as the frames are very cheap and not the lenses. I know the ones I want and if they have them will get new lenses in them and do the others with reading only as the computer is read through the top and bottom of the lenses so better off having it all through them.
I hope to be up in time to head south tomorrow, my national photo map is growing and one aim is to beat the maximum compass points reached, just as I used to for the world. West is Chicago (1980), east is the Israel-Syria border somewhere (1972), south is Miami (1995) and north is the top of the Isle of Skye (1969). I'd say that is quite enough, I don't need to do the southern hemisphere and the only additions I'd like if possible would be a few new countries, and plenty of closer ones like Ireland and Norway I haven't been to without needing to wear myself out any more.
Now if all the news was as banal as mine then they'd only need a few minutes a day and could devote the rest of the time to more interesting programmes. And thank goodness a few more people are saying hacking private messages is not murder or theft, it's not even a crime under what we learnt before mobile phones existed, it's just standard poor journalism and obnoxious but can't see how it can be considered as anything worse. The old laws of tort were pretty specific and this never got close. |
Reply #628. Jul 31 11, 4:24 PM
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daymare
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I don't understand....hacking into a phone is not a crime?
It's evesdropping at the least and outright cruel.
Reply #629. Jul 31 11, 4:35 PM
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satguru
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It's wrong for sure, no arguing with that, but the fuss they're making about it you'd think they'd killed their puppies. Bearing in mind the story was almost 10 years old they only got concerned about it in the media when they found they'd hacked crime victims as well. When it was just politicians and celebrities everyone was reasonable, it's what journalists do, it's wrong but it's not serious. Then they found they'd done it to everyone else and suddenly the identical act became treated like murder. Well listening to other people's messages is something the police and all sorts of other people like detectives always do, legally or otherwise, and 99% of the time it's people saying sorry I missed you can you call back. Hardly revealing.
As for legality we still have no law of privacy although indirectly the EU have forced an element on us in injunctions. They can make hacking phones or anything else illegal but I'd need to check if it is and if so for how long. But as some papers are now pointing out, there are really serious events going under the radar where people are spending weeks condemning journalists for being nosy. The bankers have just received billions in bonuses for first failing and then being bailed out with our money, that didn't make the news, Gadaffi is still killing innocent people and there's a famine in Ethiopia which although we can't do a lot is barely reported. It's about priorities and it has meant they've become changed in favour of what is more gossip than something that could be fixed. |
Reply #630. Aug 01 11, 7:54 AM
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daymare
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Thank you, satguru. As always, very informative.
Reply #631. Aug 01 11, 8:43 AM
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satguru
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| Aha, no problem! My training always says to wait before I've done my homework before I announce anything. I can't always stick to it but that's the aim ;) |
Reply #632. Aug 01 11, 2:27 PM
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satguru
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Back no business, or no business in this case. It was the first day of the summer today, as forecast. Having seen a belted cardigan in a shop months ago for the first time in 35 years I returned, they just about remembered them but I took too long. Maybe there will be more for next season. I have made a small list for the week, although the ex was meant to be going out for her birthday tomorrow (giving me the day off) her ex husband took a job on and now isn't and wants to see me instead. If I can I'm aiming east on the M25 one day this week to new territory since the usual road has been unusable for a good few years and stopped me bothering.
I will however be emptying the garage as it's all been fixed, and probably look for the spare glasses as well. I'm not happy, and not so surprised the latest messages I've sent haven't been replied to, the magazine article will stand or fall on its own merits (if I can think of more I'll write another one), but not happy my Dutch friend is clearly not interested after 36 years. As far as the news is concerned I'm beginning to let it look after itself as although I am spreading the information the effect is virtually zero. The information's out there, people can check it out themselves and basically don't care. They will when they can't pay their heating bills and get power cuts, but it's a bit late by then. But at least they've been told and could have.
Otherwise it's business as usual, unusual or nonexistent. And I'm trying another dating site mainly as it's free, they haven't verified my account yet so no idea what will be lurking behind the 'enter site' message. Apart from the obvious quality I just hope there's one I can get to in less than half an hour. No long distances for me any more thank you. And will it really be free when I get to enter? Who knows. |
Reply #633. Aug 01 11, 2:59 PM
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satguru
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Business as usual? The ex called the shots today, as it's her birthday and is in the awful but very common situation of having separated from her husband but still living in the same place. He was taking her and her mother out today and he cancelled as he got a job and chose not to turn it down. Instead of going without him it was cancelled and she arranged to see me instead. I was planning a photo trip, almost ready to go and she called. So I expect I'll go tomorrow, just not worth making special plans for me or her as they all rely on other people.
So I couldn't go out as she never comes at a specific time and if I go for too long she'll call and I won't be here as I collect her from the bus stop. I got a few calls out of the way and did some washing and am now here as run out of ideas. I'm not messing up my clothes clearing out the garage, but do have to see a few neighbours as a friend has a stray cat and a week to home it before the other cats get beaten up, and will speak to the plumber as well if he's there. It's a good thing I always make lists of all these jobs as I never remember many of them otherwise. |
Reply #634. Aug 02 11, 11:34 AM
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satguru
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When I first started my few blogs one theme was my comedy routines, but unless you're either performing or being paid they run out of material sooner or later. Plus I must find more ways of creating them without references to incontinence, nose picking and man made air pollution (I'm not talking CO2 here) as everyone here is over 13.
I've never prepared it in advance, it's always come off the top of my head so basically is inspired or not and like most comedians can't turn it on at will. When I was 16 a friend of mine said I could do a routine at his discos, and continued to do so one way or another for about 10 years when I got the chance, which was of course written down otherwise I'd never have got a second go, but half was impressions which you can't do in writing, and the rest was musical which the same applies. The music continued as well although without an agent just did the odd party and restaurant until everyone including me had probably had enough. Thank goodness the performing soon got diverted to TV so I had finally achieved my ambition, not as a comedian but a hypnotist and researcher, ie my real job. Also another source of my material had always been my grandparents as they were naturally funny mainly as they took themselves so seriously. Although my grandma basically repeated the same comments one way or another right to the end, the variations were enough to keep me going, whether she got up three times in the night, whether it was a number one or number two, and (can I say this here?) if the trip was a complete waste of time (one of her pet announcements, we usually got a report after each event). It could be a generational thing as that was the one thing she shared with my other grandma who died a long time earlier. Her business was everyone's business, literally. So of course with such a grounding (and my grandma also found such topics amusing) how on earth could I not mention bodily functions as I spent my childhood listening to visit reports the same way other people hear weather reports. So it was never just the 'I've been' but the 'I've been and...'. Mealtime or not, anything goes. That's a Jewish thing as well. Health matters are not private, they are life.
Anything happens, especially beyond the everyday, and you announce it loud and proud as if you'd just won on a lottery ticket. And illnesses were not a curse but a form of one upmanship, I call it Jewish Poker, where you start with the opening gambit- 'Varicose veins' for example, and is followed with 'Feh, varicose veins, I've got diabetes', and goes on until you may end with something terminal. And the stories of endurance with symptoms and treatments. My grandma appeared to treat hospitals no differently to holidays, and if she could describe every procedure (especially had she been awake during an operation, which she wasn't) we would hear it, again, mealtimes no different. And it also applied to anything she'd witnessed there herself, hopefully in as much detail as possible. Nothing she saw put her off, it was an immunity we could all become free of mental illness with as she was basically fearless. I always said to my mother if she had her leg cut off in an accident she'd still have found a plank of wood and used it as a crutch to get the bus home.
My other grandma had no self conscious embarrassment at all. Whatever her body did in public was normal to her and had no sense of bashfulness or privacy at all. It reminded me of when the cat used to sit on the floor in the middle of a crowded room and open his legs and lick his backside. It needed doing and he just did it. Now of course she didn't quite go to those lengths, but she was quite happy to burp loudly and say something like 'better out than in' (you can see now where I picked these sort of things up) and my favourite was after a meal in a restaurant when she took her false teeth out and put them on the plate next to her. You could see my mother wanting the ground to open up and swallow her, and I was just glad I had yet another story I could bore my non-existent grandkids with 50 years from then. And both were obsessed with something you never hear much about nowadays, regularity. My older grandma swore by castor oil and syrup of figs etc, while the other lectured on the essentiality of 'being open' every day. The euphemisms dragged up by the pre-war generation were like listening to some of the best comedians of the era, except they weren't trying. And if she thought we were interested in her activities you can be sure she was interested in ours. A return from a little trip would usually be greeted by 'Did you...' whatever she thought was relevant to ask depending on the person and their relevant health situations. And she expected an answer, although most of the time we'd just say something she'd be happy with rather than the actual details, especially if it wasn't quite ideal or we'd then be quizzed exactly like Portnoy's Complaint. The survey. How many times did you go? What was it like? You get the picture, and then god forbid, when you'd completed the inquisition, the verdict. The worst pronouncement of them all was 'I think you should go to the doctor'. Not just worrying, but she'd make damn sure you did and take you there herself if necessary. I paid the price myself of being ferried to and from numerous appointments as a child by doing the same for her when she was older. What goes around comes around. You couldn't really hide much from her as she looked for clues, and even if she couldn't always prove it, she'd say 'You've been doing so and so haven't you' and you knew she'd got you, even if you didn't admit it. Now they've gone I hope more people come along to keep my stories going, and it'll take a lot of luck to do so. |
Reply #635. Aug 02 11, 9:12 PM
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bloodandsand
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What wonderful stories! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your grandmothers, David.
Reply #636. Aug 03 11, 4:25 AM
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satguru
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| Thanks Bev, they provided plenty of entertainment over the years, the second one right till 2009. She spent the evening phoning her friends and family (as she often did), said she didn't feel well and died with the phone in her hand on a call after she called me with her weekly shopping list. She was 99 and survived losing a kidney to cancer and a heart attack in the previous couple of years and carried on regardless to the very end. |
Reply #637. Aug 03 11, 1:09 PM
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bloodandsand
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And I'll bet she's somewhere in the "afterlife" complaining that she'd left something off your shopping list or worried that you'd get the wrong brand!
Reply #638. Aug 03 11, 1:40 PM
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| lesley153
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Most of all, I imagine her fretting when she thinks David needs a haircut.
Reply #639. Aug 03 11, 7:25 PM
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daymare
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Also wondering if he is eating enough and getting enough sleep.
Reply #640. Aug 03 11, 7:38 PM
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