An attempt to stop me getting in fights on other threads bcz I'm sad, lonely, bored, looking for some kind of contact etc.
I don't know that chat threads work on general ILX any more, and this will probably end up with me talking to myself and popcorn-munchers LOL-ing at the shut-in weirdo, but I miss this aspect of ILX sometimes, so, well. Here it is, Do Not Read If You Hate Me.
The age-old requests: no sport (there are whole boards for discussing That There Game now) and no reality television (though this doesn't seem to be a problem much these days, as the fashion seems to have passed.) These rules aren't an attempt to control conversation or deny fun, it's just really alienating and excluding for people who don't follow these things to sit through yet one more conversation they can't participate in or have no interest in.
Moaning of most types is welcome. But, no negging, no mansplaining, no meta, it's OK to be miserable and depressed about circumstances or ~lyfe~ but I will try to keep it positive about other posters. I'm not really looking for advice (though everyone's welcome to ask if they need it) just looking for an outlet.
And pictures of beautiful boys are always welcome.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 11:22 (twelve years ago) link
So I'm unemployed and feeling a bit weird about it because I haven't even started looking for a new job, and I don't really know what's up with that. I guess I do - that I find it so demoralising and depressing to ~put myself out there~ that I want to delay it until I'm feeling either more settled and happy with life (when?) or until I'm so desperate for money that it's unavoidable. I don't know.
I miss having somewhere to go every day. I miss my immediate colleagues at work; I miss one of the few office environments I've ever had where I'd walk in, someone would ask how I was, and I'd ask how my colleagues were, and we actually *meant* it, rather than it being some social nicety.
It's not that unemployment isn't working out how I thought. (I'm actually quite happy to not be in that industry any more! And I'm happy I'm getting so much drawing done now that I have the time!) I had just forgotten how you can spend 2 hours staring at a computer screen waiting for new answers to refresh because it's the only human contact you've had all day, and that isn't healthy.
So how are you? What's the most inspiring thing you've seen, read or thought this week? Or, if you haven't been inspired by anything, what do you think it would take to inspire you?
Also: Taking Sides: the Sea or the Woods?
I wonder if anyone at all will actually participate in this, instead of just referencing it in "clever" meta screen names, and the old ILX trick of talking about, but not talking with?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 11:28 (twelve years ago) link
hi, nice to see the cooler back!
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
I'm not so sure :-/
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
just talk about krautrock and they will come.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 13:27 (twelve years ago) link
or nyancat
Ah, I'm sorry to hear that, WCC, I remember you were happy in your previous job (am I right in thinking it wasn't the one I remember, next to the Newton Arms?).
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
Hooray for a lack of clarity - (I think) I remember your happiness about your job, but not your job, whereas I actually remember the job before that.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 13:53 (twelve years ago) link
Funny, the 'coolest' place (as in the nicest people, the most relaxed vibe in the 'get things done' kind of way) I got located at was at a SA mining corporation.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 14:01 (twelve years ago) link
It's complicated. I don't really want to talk about that job and the reasons for leaving it - no, wait, that's a lie, I would LOVE to go on at great length and detail - but, y'know, there are legal reasons I can't. So I have to just let it go. I am so relieved to be out of the industry. I feel like I totally 100% made the right choice in resigning. But I miss that sense of "place where everybody knows your name" that I had in my department.
I don't think ILX is a place where I can really recapture that any more, and it was probably a bad idea to revive the watercooler because most of the people who were on it have gone from ILX - and ILX itself now has other places to go for chat type activity.
Blah. I just thought I'd ask how everyone is. And ask if they've seen or done anything awesome lately. Even if it's only Nyancat.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 17:05 (twelve years ago) link
Taking Sides: the Sea or the Woods?
The sea, easily. But even better - losing oneself in the woods only to stumble out atop windswept cliffs overlooking the sea. (NB: this has never happened to me, but would undoubtedly be pretty rad.)
― emil.y, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
This has totally happened to me. In Cornwall of course - place called Kemmel Crease. Wandering through this beautiful wood and then - the sea through a tree break! It was amazing, but granted, not very unexpected.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 17:49 (twelve years ago) link
Hello Cooler.
Picking between woods and sea feels too much like picking between grandparents, with my mum's parents often taking me for picnics in the woods and my granny on the other side living on the south coast.
I guess I'll just say that I miss them both. (Although I probably could walk and could definitely bus to some woods from here if I got my act together, which isn't true for the sea, sadly.)
― Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 18:35 (twelve years ago) link
i used to live one street from the beach
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 18:46 (twelve years ago) link
Passing Bass Spuddette! I always get happy when I see you on t'Cooler! It is a bit of a "daddy or chips?" dilemma but that's why I asked it. The boundless possibilities expressed by both (the size of the sea, the age of trees.)
And I am jealous that you used to live one street from the beach, Pfunk, it does not make me less jealous to imagine it a very cold and windswept Scottish beach.
I am just back from dinner with a friend of mine who is the final stages of crazy in completing a PhD, and she makes me feel more like a human being again because we can say things like "problematising the indexicality of the Yorkeian craniofacial follicular register" and then piss ourselves laughing going "LOL Judith Butler speak."
I also started reading the most wonderful book, which I thought would be WCC-bait when I saw it in the library but a chapter and a half in, and I'm just o_0 in love with it. It's called Beechcombing (LOL, see why I was asking about sea vs woods?) and it's a natural history of the Beech Tree as a metaphor for human conceptions of Nature and conversation and also lots of botany and art history and just LOVE LOVE LOVE did you ever just pick up a book and think "this is so tailor made for me?"
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
Yes. It was called Gender Trouble.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:39 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, but I'm sorry, I forgot that my experiences and interests are completely invalid because I like something you don't. You can carry on laughing at me now. Cheers.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
What?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:50 (twelve years ago) link
Like, where did that come from?
Because my friend and I were laughing about Butler's prose at dinner? She's an academic (a linguist with a heavy interest in gender) so she's familiar enough with Butler to laugh about it.
You can like whatever you want, your experiences and interests are as valid as you experience them to be - I think you'll find I'm the person constantly arguing for the right of people to have their own experiences and interests accepted as valid. What I don't like is people expressing random opinions as scientific facts without the citations or studies to back them up. If you want to continue that whole argument here, which I really don't.
You're allowed to love Butler. I'm allowed to dislike her and find her impenetrable. Both options are allowed to coexist, and it makes me really quite upset when you get so defensive as to paint me as a tyrant for not liking her.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:55 (twelve years ago) link
I'm just bummed that the thread stopped being about trees and sea.
Not that I should be in here, being employed and all...
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, you're welcome to post in here if you're employed, Z! I only called it the unemployed watercooler because the previous ones were office watercoolers.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:59 (twelve years ago) link
The conversation was just bizarre because I was explaining how flummoxed I was by the difference in cultures between different internet messageboards. (the sort of thing bored linguists talk about at dinner.) That in the past week, I have had, simultaneously at the same time, open in two different windows on the same computer:
1) a thread on ILX where I am painted as an uncultured rube because I said that I find Judith Butler's prose style obfuscating
2) a thread on atease where I am being where I am mercilessly derided as an intellectual (as if this is an insult?) and accused of being a troll or possibly insane because I used a word like "salient" in conversation
It's just the irony, that both these things are possibly at once, that I am an anti-intellectual in one context for disliking Butler, and an impenetrable and possibly dangerous intellectual - that I am tarred as being *like* Judith Butler in one context while tarred for disliking her in another. It was just funny. But I guess only to me (us.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:07 (twelve years ago) link
I'm staying out of the obfuscation thread and I have no opinion on Judith Butler; I am uncultured in most contexts I suspect.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
You are so completely not uncultured. I think it's just the specific thing of being a philosophy scholar which some people have an intuitive feeling for and others just don't - the same way that I can easily wrap my head around maths or code or whatever, but I realise that other people just don't.
I have not set foot in the obfuscating thread, either. I'm glad they started a thread about it, and I'm sure it was an interesting debate, but I'm quite happy to just stay out of that one.
I am resolutely middlebrow and proud of it LOL I'm going to listen to Julianna Barwick and read my book about Beechcombing (complete with Nash paintings.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:14 (twelve years ago) link
fwiw I think the sea/woods combination emil.y mentioned is perfect. Trees and lakes are also awesome.
http://www.landuse.co.uk/sites/default/files/nodes/1237/Lake%2520District%2520National%2520Park%25202.JPG
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:16 (twelve years ago) link
Oh god I want to go on a painting holiday in the Lake District, I think that is one of those old lady occupations that I was just born for. Mountains! Woods! Lakes! Sea! Is it that bit of Cumbria where the forest covered mountains just go right up to the edge of the wild North sea and just STOP. I was reading about it in another natural history (the under the field guide to British landscape) and it made it sound so spectacular.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
full of sewage and it stunk at times. No locals went in it apart from those from the sailing club. On a hot summers day it got mobbed by glaswegians and the like.Winters were amazing though, watching the huge waves on a windy day hitting the promenade wall and flying over the grass where my mates and i played football or cricket. My friend lived on a house on the seafront (mentioned him before his big sister is a writer).
The other thing I miss there is the sunset. used to love getting on my bike and cycling all the way along to where the sailing club was and sitting on the wooden benchseat to watch the sunset. Was a great place to think. Sometimes even did my history homework there if i was home from school early.Good place to be young in and great to settle down in not so great if you're 18-35 imo. Also Prestwick was quite snobby. I was glad to move to Hamilton (being a season ticket holder at accies) but I'd gladly move back there in a shot. Our old house had a huge loft and it seems its been converted. Shame we could never afford to move there really.
ours is the one at the end on the left(next to the railway track). It has a fence there now and I can see windows on the roof where it obviously has been renovated.http://i49.tinypic.com/o7iumc.jpg
I have another pic somewhere of the front of the house but cant find it.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
What a lovely looking house! I like beaches so much more in winter - that really sounds great, that whole thing of waves! smashing! on a windy day against a promenade, that's like everything I love about Cornwall. Aw, your whole post makes it sound lovely, despite the smell and the Glaswegians. Watching the sunset and thinking, these are some of the greatest pleasures of life.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
We went up to Cockermouth for Christmas the year after my ma died. It was incredible - we had really clear weather. Sun on the water, clean air. The greatest surprise was the night skies! You could really see *depth*. I love London (when I'm not trying to negotiate buses, lolz) but I love to get out to where places where you can feel properly small.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
Feeling small in the country (in the face of SEA! MOUNTAINS! FORESTS!!!) is a much different and much nicer way of feeling small than feeling small in the city, which is the smallness of feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of people flooding into your way like lemmings.
And don't get me pining for the night skies outside of London. I've just got used to the fact that the night sky is purple-orange when in Cornwall it is velvety blue and COVERED in so so many stars, like that Kusama exhibit that Lex and I spent an hour gawping at last week.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:33 (twelve years ago) link
Looks so different now. The loft conversion, the sheds, the carport, windows,fences. so so different.My bedroom was on the left.I remember the estate agents calling it a cottage rather than a bungalow.
If anyone here ever wins the lottery will you buy it back for me please?
http://i41.tinypic.com/kbew7p.jpg
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I will totally buy it back for you. When I win the lottery. Right after I buy an entire Cornish village for myself!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
The other side of the street had proper posh houses http://i42.tinypic.com/206j1hv.jpg
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:41 (twelve years ago) link
in scottish terms that is. Quite different to where we lived before and after!
a thread on atease
good lord, what are you thinking? (well, i guess i know the answer to that, but still!) i used to be semi-regular there and still occasionally visit for what i guess is masochism's sake, and what a horrible bunch of children they are.
― shart practice (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:42 (twelve years ago) link
Are those stained glass designs in the windows? I really like those.
x-post to Merd I know, I know, I'm stupid but I want to talk about Radiohead far more than ILX will really put up with, so stupidly, I thought it might be OK to talk about Radiohead in the Radiohead section of a Radiohead messageboard? But clearly it was unacceptable.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
yeah it's 'hoppers' above the window pane and the design is engrained in them.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
Walk up my smallish street (we lived at the bottom) and walk up the next street (Ailsa Street) and this is the view
http://i44.tinypic.com/2i82no.jpg
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:51 (twelve years ago) link
Lovely. So bleak. It makes me want to post up all the beach pictures I've taken, ever, but that would be silly.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:53 (twelve years ago) link
Thread is making me want to move to remote villages with funny names on the Antrim coast, or at least make bleak dubby techno tracks named after them.
Have spent all evening going "I caaaaan't do my German homework" instead of actually doing it, have now done really lousy half-assed job which is way too short, will soon go to bed. Exciting!
― Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:58 (twelve years ago) link
prestwick sailing clubhttp://i41.tinypic.com/mlsaqd.jpg
would cycle past that all the way along to that seat to watch the sunset. There was rocks n stuff there too. Will see if i can get a photo of that
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:00 (twelve years ago) link
The bleakness is just so inspiring and lovely. It's like a Boards of Canada record played at the wrong speed.
LOL, spacecadet, that's me with my Cornish homework. Except I actually forgot to go to class last week. As in, genuinely forgot, I didn't realise it was Friday until I was eating dinner and realised I was supposed to be in Holborn (an hour away) in fifteen minutes.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:02 (twelve years ago) link
here we go. The seat was just around where the lamp post is iirc.http://i43.tinypic.com/2qk8n12.jpg
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:05 (twelve years ago) link
I kinda wish I were there. Well, except for the smell and the neds.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:08 (twelve years ago) link
I am quite excited that Cornish classes are a thing which exists outside Cornwall!
Last time my parents were in Cornwall they brought me back a book (more of a pamphlet really, probably only 10 or so pages) of Cornish words which I spent a while excitedly crosschecking against the Welsh and Breton dictionaries we stopped mr spacecadet's father putting in a skip when his linguist mother died. The Breton part was a bit tricky as it was Breton-French.
Actually I don't think we got very far on that quest, but I liked that the Breton for rain is "glao", which is like the Welsh but spelt better.
― Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:10 (twelve years ago) link
Cornish is a lot like the Welsh but spelled phonetically! It's great that way. It's funny, all Celtic minority language speakers are kind of obsessed with checking how their words translate in the corresponding cognates.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:11 (twelve years ago) link
want to explore the seafront?http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=prestwick+promenade&hl=en&ll=55.495784,-4.619318&spn=0.000741,0.002642&sll=55.495755,-4.616803&sspn=0.000748,0.003664&hnear=Promenade,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=55.495784,-4.619318&panoid=Q9jXDPb4MoXVJC_UPa0fIQ&cbp=13,281.97,,0,-2.83
ive taken you to the left so have fun going all the way to the other end
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:11 (twelve years ago) link
I want to say raining is ow kul glow (pronounced to rhyme with cow) in Cornish but I'm probably misspelling it.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:12 (twelve years ago) link
this will make it easierhttp://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=prestwick+promenade&hl=en&ll=55.495785,-4.618807&spn=0.000741,0.002642&sll=55.495755,-4.616803&sspn=0.000748,0.003664&hnear=Promenade,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=55.495801,-4.619555&panoid=GDc0R_dDdZFVqPhMfyXe1Q&cbp=13,339.49,,0,2
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:12 (twelve years ago) link
Nope, it's spelled Glaw.
Snow is "ergh" which I'm convinced is onomatopoeic for what ppl sailors say when they open their doors and think "I have to go out in that?"
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:14 (twelve years ago) link
i would like to find a pic of the council flat we lived in EK until i was 2 1/2 as i dont recall it at all. I do remember the council house in greenhills, EK, but cant find it either, it goes to a totally different address. Stupid google.Doubt the house in Blackwood will be on google maps
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:33 (twelve years ago) link
Did you have a browse along the seafront?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
A picture of the seafront at sunset. That's Arran in the distance
http://i43.tinypic.com/sn036g.jpg
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:53 (twelve years ago) link
Tides out as you can see. Used to go out quite far in summer. In winter it came up over the wall when it was stormy just in front of my friends house. Along past the sailing club and up where i posted the pic from, you got it the most. Further you went to the right it didn't go anywhere near the wall.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:55 (twelve years ago) link
I'd promise to buy your house back, but I've never bought a lottery ticket.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 00:04 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry, I fell asleep reading my beeches book.
That photo with the crepuscular rays on the clouds is incredible, Arran looks so pretty. Can't ever get streetview to work on my interweb connection, which is just as well as I'd be spending hours strolling down country lanes in like, Lamorna, if I could.
On a completely unrelated note, I have just realised that I've spent the past ages mistaking "codex" for "concordance" and I only just found out while trying to look up on wikipedia what "indexicality" actually means (approximately what I thought it meant, but it was still nice to know.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:27 (twelve years ago) link
while looking for info on the cats on iron maiden covers thing i came across thishttp://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Rock-n-Roll/witchcraft.htmThere's no thread on witchcraft in music so i thought hows about discussing it here? It's not really something I know about so not starting a thread on it.
Anyway i just kinda wondered what your mum thought of stuff like this?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:38 (twelve years ago) link
and i mean properly, not laughable articles like that
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:40 (twelve years ago) link
haha it links to this http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/04/george-w-bush-barbara-bush-and.html not heard that one before
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:51 (twelve years ago) link
I'm not sure why my mum would be bothered? I suspect, knowing her personality, she'd think it was rather laughable.
I don't know. It seems like a lot of people in rock n roll muck about with ~the occult~ just to be shocking and a bit weird, and some paranoid people within christianity take it all rather too seriously, but they strike me as the same kind of thinking level as conspiracy theorists. Hedonism and rock n roll are all intimately tied up together, hedonism and satanism are all tied up, ergo they are one and the same. But these are people who think that the Devil is an actual gentleman who walks around with red horns and a tail, rather than a metaphorical personification of evil, which is a much more complex topic.
It's strange, I have to admit I've always had a vague fascination with the occult - but the devil worshipping aspect of it (usually christian projection onto older nature cults) always just seemed silly.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:57 (twelve years ago) link
But these are people who think that the Devil is an actual gentleman who walks around with red horns and a tail,
reminds me of that witch episode in The Blackadder.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 13:00 (twelve years ago) link
What's Ed & Emsk up to these days? Is Mark C still around? I miss him.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 14:48 (twelve years ago) link
Ed's on the bike forum mostly, don't know where Emsk is about. That reminds me, we were supposed to go on a walk to the Wittenham Lumps this weekend, but seeing as I've not heard from anyone since it was first mooted, I'm going to assume that's now not gonna happen? The internet was supposed to make it easier to keep in touch with people, but in many ways it's made it harder.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 22 February 2012 15:21 (twelve years ago) link
Based on occasional attempts to hang out with Emsk over the last few years, she is probably working, whenever you read this.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 22 February 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
Our walk does appear to be happening! Hurrah for Wittenham Lumps!
Also, random mindblowing etymological fact of the day: apparently Book comes from the same atymological root as Buche (German) meaning Beech! Books are not just made from trees, in a strange way, they *are* trees.
*head explodes*
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 22 February 2012 19:39 (twelve years ago) link
this is pretty sad, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-17128997 they will only get £30 for scrap value according to the guy on the news but i dont think it's been stolen to order as there's a lot of metal theft in Scotland just now. A statue of a miner in Moodiesburn was stolen about a week after it was put up.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 21:55 (twelve years ago) link
Afternoon everybody
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:35 (twelve years ago) link
Bleurgh. Afternoon. I'm feeling kind of otherwise.
Going to force myself to draw this afternoon, but I feel like I really should be researching for the Psychogeography Gang's walk this weekend. Like, are the Wittenham Lumps actually signature Capability Brown Clumps or are they overgrown Neolithic earthworks or something else?
They appear to have their own website! Or rather, a website dedicated to Paul Nash's paintings of them. I'm worried I might get obsessed.
http://www.nashclumps.org/
Ah, it appears they are both. they are chalk outcrops, with earthworks on top, and yet the beech clumps are some of the oldest planted beeches.
A Wittenham Lump:
http://www.nashclumps.org/images/portfolio_big.jpg
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 13:29 (twelve years ago) link
But now I am worried I will see them not as their own Lumpy selves, and not even as the drawings I will no doubt make of them, but as Nash paintings.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 13:31 (twelve years ago) link
I'm sure you will have fun.
do any brits post on ilx now? it seems empty in the mornings until the yanks come online. Are they all on facebook or livejournal?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 13:47 (twelve years ago) link
I blame the Austerity, man. Austerity.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 13:56 (twelve years ago) link
i dont get the love of facebook and lj myself. or twitter.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 13:58 (twelve years ago) link
I'm usually here in the morn...
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:14 (twelve years ago) link
i miss the tales of the grout schoolrun
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:15 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, it's all "right tara youse two" either I'm out the door before them, or vice versa. They all grown up and walk to school themselves...
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:16 (twelve years ago) link
you must miss it. What age are they now?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
I mainly lurk on here these days and find that there are a diminishing number of threads I want to post on, or even comprehend from their titles. And I no longer have the kind of job or the inclination to click on 'blue writing' I don't understand (perhaps sadly).
Very busy at the moment, lots of travel. Was in Chester yesterday and will be in Leeds and Bingley on Monday!
But yes, the walk is ON. Huzzah for Wittenham Lumps!
WCC, thanks for the Buche/Book thing. It solves a mystery for me. There is a kind of finch which is called Buchfink auf Deutsch and I was trying to figure out the connection twixt books and birds!
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:26 (twelve years ago) link
there are a diminishing number of threads I want to post on,
Why I'm so glad to see the cooler back!! I really missed it.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:27 (twelve years ago) link
Yep Pfunkboy, I missed it too!
Bird was this geezer (if that's not a contradiction) -- a chaffinch:
http://www.natur-server.com/Bilder/THK/001/thk00005-buchfink.jpg
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
They are 13 and 11 (14 and 12 next month)
I don't post much about them here thesedays, they have their own Facebook profiles (around 100 pics of themselves on there).
Still, Alice is a dab hand at finding old pics posted on this place..
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:36 (twelve years ago) link
they could be posting here and you dont know! Like when enbb didn't realise who roberto spiralli was!
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:39 (twelve years ago) link
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/MarkGrout/SmallHats.jpg
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
is that them now? I forget which one is the eldest
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:45 (twelve years ago) link
Amber is the eldest.
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 14:52 (twelve years ago) link
Between books and birds, no, but between birds and beeches, and beeches and books, yes! the link between books and the paper they are made from is strong in many languages - another analogue is codex as latin for book, and codex as latin for bole. (Though that confuses me as I think of a codex being vellum.) But yes, boring linguist is boring.
I don't know. I don't think that Facebook or Livejournal have hived off any more people since the Great Schism. (Well, 77 might play a role? I don't know, I'm not on it and never will be.) I think it's just natural attrition. That a messageboard is like a forest, that you have tall oaks like Ned and Dan who have been here since day one, and then you have an undergrowth of people who come, stay for a while, and move on when their work gets busy or they have babies or whatever. The thing is, in US ILX, there's a constant refreshing of the undergrowth. But UK ILX, the recolonisation has taken much more slowly. People have left and their footprint has not been replaced. Sorry for the forest metaphor, but this beechwood book I am reading is fascinating.
Whenever I complain about ILX and think that it's awful, well, spending a couple of weeks to a month on any other messageboard quickly cures me of that. It could be so much worse. I also get that tiredness when I look at new answers, and there's *nothing* I want to talk about. My answer to that is always, start new threads! But it's tiring when you try to coax a little thread into life and find that no one at all gives a shit about sea arches except you. But every now and then I see a thread which I started, and which sputtered and went out, creep back into the SNA and suddenly it catches fire for whatever reason, and then I've got people talking about that thing I wanted to talk about, back then.
But, you know, it's kind of a slog when SNA is all American television programs and American sports and American politics etc ad nauseum and it becomes reinforcing because maybe new British ppl don't stay because they think it offers nothing for them.
But this is all boring meta blah blah blah and I'd rather talk about beech trees and chaffinches.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
I would really like to be present when a sea arch collapses and becomes a stack. That would be something.
― the feeling is surreal (snoball), Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
Vellum, parchment, whatever.
But I suppose even a parchment codex looks in profile like a hunk of wood or the bole of a tree, even when they're not made from wood pulp.
But this book thought the link between beech/buche/book might be spurious, though it was supposed to have been associated with writing on bark. Maybe.
x-post did you see the Cornish LANDSLIP video that was posted last autumn? It wasn't actually a sea arch, but it was a massive amount of a Horse (the coastal rock formation not the beast) that dropped into the sea one stormy day!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:15 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdsxtCtX5nk
― the feeling is surreal (snoball), Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
That is indeed the one, and it was slightly alarming as it was right near where I'd been staying, I've walked that particular bit of coast many times.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:19 (twelve years ago) link
Not in Cornwall, but.
The famous Marsden Rock was always a sea arch for many years.
Then, one day, it collapsed in the 'bridge' section. Leaving a big rock and a column. Then men came along and bulldozed the column away.It's still a rock, I guess...
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
Pics or it didn't happen!
Anyway, I need to stop skiving and ink my EXTREMELY POINTY AND VIOLENT spires pic that I've drawn.
Without jellyfish, despite all the requests for jellyfish.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:21 (twelve years ago) link
In Cornwall, but not a sea arch:
After that "We'll take manhattan" Bailey/Shrimpton thing, I wondered what had happened to J. Apparently she had bought a hotel in Marazion and become a recluse. Which seemed odd because I then found a recent interview with photo, and I thought to myself "A bit rubbish at being a recluse". And then I realised, I'd actually seen her. I'd gone into a hotel in M to get drinks for the family, and I noticed an oldish lady, skinny, looked 'unfriendly', but wasn't. Again, not exactly 'reclusive'..
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:23 (twelve years ago) link
I had no idea that there was a rock formation called a horse!
I wonder if it is etymologically linked with the animal (as clothes horses and the type you vault over def are) or if it's a "false friend"?
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:25 (twelve years ago) link
pic, ay? OK..
before:
http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/02/78/027889_b4c6011f.jpg
'during'
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3167/2623009640_30d382e095_z.jpg
after:
http://www.southtynesidehomes.org.uk/media/image/g/j/Marsden_rock.jpg
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:27 (twelve years ago) link
I was all ready to say that I use FB in completely different ways to ILX, when I found myself using it for a discussion on eggcorns, malapropisms and mondegreens!
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:31 (twelve years ago) link
I stand corrected! It happened!
Oh, a "Horse" - erm, I don't know if that's the actual geological name, but there are lots of rock formations in Cornwall called like, The Horse or The Tobbin Horse etc and they're probably called that because, from certain angles, they do literally look like a horse. Or at least, a Horse's head, because they're sort of triangular with a bit sticking up at the head with a sharp angle at the sea edge and a longer angle like a horse's neck towards the land. They're promontories of land where the bits on either side have either been eroded away by the sea or mined away (or both) and then the top tilts and falls into the sea at an angle. I'll try to find a photo on my iPhone, or the web.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:33 (twelve years ago) link
Tobban Horse, even.
http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/02/35/023506_268ce0cc.jpg
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:34 (twelve years ago) link
Blah. headache. I knew I shouldn't have drunk that leftover red wine last night.
Trying to figure out if I'm going to make it to Cornish class tonight. I didn't last week (my god, was that last week already?) because I let time get away from me. Dragging myself into London for an hour just seems like such a waste of time and money, no matter how much I enjoy the class.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 24 February 2012 08:56 (twelve years ago) link
23 users online. Its busier at weekends I think!
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 24 February 2012 10:22 (twelve years ago) link
that must have been a lot of leftover red wine to give you a hangover
No, it took a mere thimbleful, I think I am growing increasingly sensitive to the stuff. Which is terrible, as I do love the tastes.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 24 February 2012 10:24 (twelve years ago) link
what musics you been listening to lately? Still playing the old krautrock? turkish psych?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 24 February 2012 10:26 (twelve years ago) link
i miss tom d sending out old classics in cookie club
btw this is greathttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17013285
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 24 February 2012 10:28 (twelve years ago) link
OK that does look cool. Ocean trenches = terrifying and amazing life forms found down there, those vent-dwelling sulphur monster worms and the like.
I'm mostly listening to, erm, *mumbles and looks at feet* my imaginary boyfriend and it's embarrassing to be consuming so much comfort music but there it is. Mostly digging through the remix albums.
My discovering new music process has been brought to a grinding halt by having such a shit internet connection - I did manage to get Spodify to run, only to discover that it eats up my monthly data allowance in a matter of hours.
I think the last new thing I got was the Julianna Barwick album, which is awesome. I'm waiting for the new School of Seven Bells and Grimes albums to be physically released to get those, which will pretty much be my listening sorted for the next few months.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 24 February 2012 10:37 (twelve years ago) link
<I>2) a thread on atease where I am being where I am mercilessly derided as an intellectual (as if this is an insult?) and accused of being a troll or possibly insane because I used a word like "salient" in conversation</I>
girl I know I'm like 3 days late on this but dear god it would have saved you so much pain if you'd told me you were thinking about doing this so I could have convinced you not to.
― Melissa W, Friday, 24 February 2012 10:43 (twelve years ago) link
Fucken LOL!
Nah, it wasn't really any pain, it was more utter perplexment and confusion. (The only thing approaching pain happened when they started pulling stupid stalker shit, but I recognise my views on internet privacy are different from your average teenager's.) I guess I'm just spoiled because my experience of "Radiohead fans" is, well, "ILX Radiohead fans" i.e. you, and other people who are also intelligent, well-read and very interested in exploring ideas and concepts as well as more interesting music.
I forget that the rest of the internet that is not ILX is, well, like reading below the comment line.
It's strange, because, like, every 20 posts or so of teenagers going "LOL fuck u I don't understand" someone would wander into the conversation who would be all "wow, actual conversation, how refreshing" and say something really interesting and participate. And I had a couple of really good and interesting exchanges with knowledgeable articulate people but then there would be another wave of "OMG u r using such big words shut up LOL my cat's name is stanley." The signal to noise ratio was just too much. There's actually a higher level of intellect expressed on Cheesecake Archive, which is really saying something.
Trying to decide who to draw next. There's a really adorable RDJ pic I want to draw because I'm LOLbored but I have an awful feeling I'm going to end up drawing more Thoms because once I start, I tend not to be able to stop.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 24 February 2012 11:57 (twelve years ago) link
I guess the point is, on ILX, I am just so *not* an intellectual, in any way shape or form. But compared to the rest of the internet, I'm Judith fucken Butler. Ha!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 24 February 2012 12:00 (twelve years ago) link
hurrah ! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-17154494
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 24 February 2012 12:11 (twelve years ago) link
They're lucky they found it, that it didn't just get melted down.
I'm having a real "wah, why am I not in Cornwall" moment today. I think it's the sun.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 24 February 2012 12:42 (twelve years ago) link
you have sun?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 24 February 2012 17:19 (twelve years ago) link
I have remembered something awful about myself. I find waiting for a train oddly relaxing. I find waiting to meet someone else to catch a train incredibly stressful.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Saturday, 25 February 2012 09:35 (twelve years ago) link
Jesus Christ, Southern Oxfordshire you are SO DAMNED PRETTY, how can you be so pretty, you are killing me! Especially in the low, slanting golden light late in the day that turns the Thames into a mirror. Abingdon with your wonky inns, and your city hall on stilts, I love you. Clifton Hampden with your thatched cottages and your perfect one lane bridge, I love you. Dorchester with your genuine Tudor not mock Tudor wattle and daub and your flocks of geese and your avenue of pollarded trees I LOVE YOU SO FUCKING MUCH WHY DO I LIVE IN LONDON!?!??
What an absolutely glorious day. We didn't even make it up the Wittenham Lumps, we will have to save that for another day and another walk, we admired them from afar and nearer and nearer until they were almost on top of us, but the sun was going and we had to leg it through the gloaming to catch the bus back to Oxford as it was, but ah, another evening when the day is longer. I promise.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Saturday, 25 February 2012 22:04 (twelve years ago) link
I can't believe the Wittenham Lumps haven't been namechecked in a Half Man Half Biscuit song.
― stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Saturday, 25 February 2012 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
Dear Didcot Power Station: we know you can move about. STOP CREEPING UP ON US LIKE THAT. Thanks.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Saturday, 25 February 2012 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
sounds like you had a fun day. how many went?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Sunday, 26 February 2012 00:48 (twelve years ago) link
In the end it was just me, the Grandpoint Genie and Emsk, but though a small party, it was v v good.
God I am in pain today, though. Just had to attend to a blister the size of a 10p coin on the side of my foot!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 26 February 2012 10:45 (twelve years ago) link
IT'S BEEEHIIIIIIIIIIIND YOU!!!!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Didcot_Power_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_503369.jpg
^^^^photo really captures the almost Stonehengian presence on the landscape.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 26 February 2012 10:48 (twelve years ago) link
you think any rich pink floyd fans will buy the power station?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Sunday, 26 February 2012 11:35 (twelve years ago) link
We were talking about this on the train! how some rich Pink Floyd fans should band together and purchase Battersea Power Station, and moor a flying pig over it, and charge tourists £5 to go in and have a "Pink Floyd Experience" - they'd rake it in!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 26 February 2012 11:39 (twelve years ago) link
pink floyd members could probably afford it
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Sunday, 26 February 2012 12:04 (twelve years ago) link
Ho hum.
http://memegenerator.net/instance/15286477
I have noticed that they are playing the city where my father lives, the day after my birthday. I could play the whole "Do you love me? How much do you love me?" game, I'm kind of idly contemplating it (several family members have offered to pay my air fare to the States) but I don't think even *they* could get me in an airplane to California. Sigh.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
Santa Barbara or San Jose?
― Melissa W, Monday, 27 February 2012 13:24 (twelve years ago) link
San Jose. It's just a pipe dream, even that wouldn't get me in an airplane.
Also I'm not sure if my dad still has a flat there or if he's moved permanently to the cabin upstate.
Did you check my Flickr BTW? There's something you might like there that there's no way I'm posting to ILX ;)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 13:36 (twelve years ago) link
I don't know where your flickr is! And the San Jose venue is a big arena, not worth losing sleep over missing. I'll only be going to the Santa Barbara show because that venue is gorgeous. You should hit up my email though, there have been some things I've been meaning to mention to you that are also not ILX-appropriate.
― Melissa W, Monday, 27 February 2012 13:40 (twelve years ago) link
I've seen it. Needs tentacles, maybe not the subject's own...
― Mark G, Monday, 27 February 2012 13:44 (twelve years ago) link
It's linked from all the other pics on the Tregaskin Art Gallery thread!
Ach I'm not sure I have a recent email address for you? I suppose I can ILXmail you mine.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 13:48 (twelve years ago) link
I feel utterly ashamed that I STILL haven't sent you the hat 'n' shawl. :-( No excuse. I feel bad about it. But I also feel bad about the work/financial situation. The crisis has hit our shop as well. Ah well, we'll plough (?) through.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Monday, 27 February 2012 13:50 (twelve years ago) link
nath its great to see you back on ilx!
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 13:51 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, where's my hat? Winter is almost over! LOL, no, take your time, I don't want to hassle you about anything, especially if times are tough.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 13:54 (twelve years ago) link
Did you get my email, WCC?
― Melissa W, Monday, 27 February 2012 14:08 (twelve years ago) link
Hi Nathalie, hi Melissa.
I started writing a list of places in Oxfordshire mentioned in Half Man Half Biscuit songs but when I got to 4 I realised that even I didn't care. I'm sure there are that many for any other county too, they just don't leap out at me as much.
I just wanted to say "Uffington Wassail", really.
― Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 27 February 2012 14:23 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I feel crap about it. I have never neglected to send anyone a knitted item(or something else). Bah! I want to slap myself senseless. hah. But yeah times are very tough here. We'll pull through though. We have to. I am contemplating adding some socks. What's your shoe or foot size?
Also, I f****** hate contemporary flemish folk singers. Especially those 20sth girls. ARGH! Do NOT inflict me with that dialect! ARGH! I actually prefer kiddie music over that shit. (I am venting YES I KNOW).
I have also rediscovered the Tudors. Man, do I LOVE THAT PERIOD. The clothes! The... everything but the hygiene. lol
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Monday, 27 February 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
But Henry VIII wanking in the Tudors series. Okay, what is up with that? I thought it was so not condoned by God. Or the Pop.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Monday, 27 February 2012 14:26 (twelve years ago) link
Since when did Hank 8 care about God or the Pope, or indeed the Pop?
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 27 February 2012 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry! My mum rang! I got yr email, Melissa!
Ready to Uffington!
Wanking Tudors!
Dear god I'm so glad the Watercooler is back!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
Wait, I just typed out a proper response and added it to this thread, where did it go? Did it end up in the wrong thread? Did it end up in an email to Mel? Did it disappear into a wormhole? ARGH.
It was all about how mentioning Uffington got Pop Is Dead stuck in my head, like just seeing the Wittenham Lumps got Faust Arp stuck in my head for 2 days. And something about Tudor sex habits and views on masturbation with references to this book on 17th Century sex practices that's lined up for after I finish the book about beech trees. WHERE DID IT GO?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 14:47 (twelve years ago) link
Did it disappear into a wormhole?
i now have images of the cat in red dwarf saying "but what is it?"
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 14:54 (twelve years ago) link
I really need to find some books on medieval sex. Kindle variety. Cheap variety. Sleeeeazzzeeeee variety. Lol
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Monday, 27 February 2012 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
poor thom
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
imagine his face when you bring an iron maiden home for him
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 15:57 (twelve years ago) link
He can look for all those hidden cats
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 27 February 2012 15:59 (twelve years ago) link
hahaha (btw WCC not *that* thom that you're probably thinking of)
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 16:12 (twelve years ago) link
That gave me about 30 seconds of complete perplexment until I remembered Nathalie's husband's name. LOL.
Hidden cats.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 16:13 (twelve years ago) link
more like 30 seconds of filth in your mind with thom yorke and ancient medieval sex toys/instruments
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link
lol medieval sex toyshttp://hwaettheswyve.blogspot.com/2010/04/greetings-earthlings-after-emerging.html
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 16:18 (twelve years ago) link
I dare you WCC to GIS medieval sex toys with safe images off
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 16:20 (twelve years ago) link
nathhttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tx5XcSWHL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
Things I'd really rather not. Glad I have images turned off, in fact.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 16:23 (twelve years ago) link
oh i dont post nsfw images in here, i only posted a book nath might want from amazon.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 16:24 (twelve years ago) link
It's Colin who's supposed to be the ~expert~ on, like, Victorian perversion and historical pornography!
(This is one of those things I've had in my head for so long I've no idea any more if it's actually true, or if it's just something that got repeated in fan fiction that it became part of fanlore.)
Anyway, stop being distracting! I've got to finish this book about beeches if it kills me. Then draw The Lumps.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
as in black eyed peas?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 16:29 (twelve years ago) link
As in Wittenham? Have you not been paying attention?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 16:30 (twelve years ago) link
it was a joke
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 27 February 2012 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
Thom is not being exposed to the Tudors. Lol. But I keep talking about it. Even more annoying. I am interested in that book! Oh baby! Hehe
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Monday, 27 February 2012 17:28 (twelve years ago) link
::tries and fails to make a hilarious Tudor-themed joke about Lancasters vs Yorke::
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 27 February 2012 17:59 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHYpunHHE54
For you, WCC.
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 08:32 (twelve years ago) link
Oh.
My.
GOD.
I haven't even got more than 6 seconds into it while I wait for the video to load but...
1) he is wearing THOSE TROUSERS
2) He is doing the SEXAY THOM dance
3) They are playing MY FAVOURITE RADIOHEAD SONG IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD FOREVER
::explodes with joy::
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:11 (twelve years ago) link
There were two new tracks as well. You want?
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:16 (twelve years ago) link
nnnngggg nnnnnggggggg what do you think?
(I'm still getting over the ponytail. You are not Aphex Twin, knock it off.)
Perhaps we should revive/start a new RH thread? I don't think anyone else on the Cooler is as interested in Radiohead as we are.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:18 (twelve years ago) link
Only if it's the Melissa and WCC Radiohead thread with a DNRIYHU.
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:19 (twelve years ago) link
ILE preferably, too.
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:20 (twelve years ago) link
Oh wait! My membership got approved for That Other Forum (tm)
LOL we should totally have an ILX Radiohead and Cheesecake Fangirl Explosion (Do Not Read If You Hate Us, Or Radiohead) thread.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:20 (twelve years ago) link
I'm gonna go check out that other board, and write some epic introduce yrself post so they know what to expect (though from the "We have cake... and we have... vocabulary?" (best alternate lyrics to Kid A ever?) email I think we'll get on just fine.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:22 (twelve years ago) link
So should I post the new songs in here or are you going to find them on the Other Board or shall we start a n ew thread?
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:23 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry, my mind is still processing the reappearance of the RED TROUSERS.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:29 (twelve years ago) link
Processed yet?
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:03 (twelve years ago) link
Red trousers.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:09 (twelve years ago) link
Indeed.
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:12 (twelve years ago) link
Oh god I'll make a new thread.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:12 (twelve years ago) link
Do your worst:
Radiohead LP9 Anticipation, Fangirling and random Cheesecake Thread (Do not read if you hate Radiohead or us)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:19 (twelve years ago) link
Who is gonna tell Sal he has to post on ILM now?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:54 (twelve years ago) link
Eh? Sal who?
I feel bad about all the RH content. Here is some Cornish Ginger for balance.
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/73941968/Aphex+Twin.jpg
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:23 (twelve years ago) link
Why, will he whack you or something?
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
turangalila.
xp
haha he can try
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:29 (twelve years ago) link
Big Sally, he don' like for to post on ILM, capiche?
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:29 (twelve years ago) link
wcc- he doesn't like ILM but cant resist radiohead threads. but the anti-radiohead sentiment pisses him off. Melissa can back me up on that.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:30 (twelve years ago) link
anyway i need to ask since it seems everyone else knows. What is this cheesecake you speak of?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:54 (twelve years ago) link
Oh! Turangalila! I didn't know his IRL name. He used to post as "the not liking Radiohead awards" right? God I completely sympathise with the incessant need to ~defend~ RH, even while being completely disgusted by, like 90% of RH fans.
Cheesecake = Thom Yorke slash and, well, RH fan fiction in general. It is filth. Glorious filth.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:30 (twelve years ago) link
yeah he gets really defensive about it. He's definitely a superfan(girl) ;)
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:45 (twelve years ago) link
i wish he would post in here, I've asked him before. I know he would enjoy the nice atmosphere we usually get.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:48 (twelve years ago) link
I think he might be under the impression that I haaaaate him after we exchanged words on the Laura Marling thread? (For the record, I don't, I just thought his word choice was inappropriate, he apologised and we're all fine now. I think?)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:50 (twelve years ago) link
yeah I remember him mentioning it vaguely. I'm sure he's ok about it now.
you're quite alike sometimes actually. (i dont mean that in a bad way)
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
turangalila if you read this come post here! It's fun!
by you or others too?
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 00:23 (twelve years ago) link
It is a community of about 600 or so people!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 00:34 (twelve years ago) link
and all filthy?
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 00:45 (twelve years ago) link
Oh god I should do something with my fucking life. What's wrong with me lately?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 10:05 (twelve years ago) link
you have the thom horn
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 11:03 (twelve years ago) link
apparently adding vomiting to the migraine mix impresses people and makes them realize you are indeed not well. i discovered this today. LOL
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 11:50 (twelve years ago) link
You can't argue with a vom.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 11:52 (twelve years ago) link
oh god i get that sometimes with a really bad headache. wonder if i get migraines
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 12:04 (twelve years ago) link
Oh yeah, the vomiting and the flashing lights are the things that tend to make people take migraines super serious, as opposed to just "OMG death painz"
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 13:15 (twelve years ago) link
no flashing lights or auras or anything. which is why ive never asked the dr if i get migraines. I think the vomiting comes from the anxiety i get when i worry i'll be sick.. i hate anxiety attacks.
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 13:29 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that's the problem, that anxiety also causes vomiting, and it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. I know I get that with the auras sometimes, that if I'm in a situation where I can NOT deal with being blind for half an hour, I'll make myself feel vomitty and dizzy through worrying about it, which is not the same as when it's just due to the migraine.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 13:35 (twelve years ago) link
also i think the headaches sometimes come from my BP being a bit high. Painkillers cant do anything for those type of headaches. Same if its eye-strain because of staring at a screen.
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 13:45 (twelve years ago) link
Of course stress might be a contributing factor due to the financial situation here. lol. (I can still laugh because I HAVE to and I NEED to and it will be better ... I hope). Also oldest kid coming to sleep in our bed didn'thelp either. I love thatshe does, but my body takes the wrong position and I get neck pains as a result.
Anyway, headache practically gone. HURRAH.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:12 (twelve years ago) link
what age are your kids now?
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:36 (twelve years ago) link
Want to cry and punch things and throw tantrums like a teenager and lock myself in my room shouting "you hate me all, don't you? I know you do!!" while breaking plates. I hate my hormones. I hate them so much, please bring on early menopause because if my 40s are as hormonally wracked as my teens I'm going to be a wreck.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 1 March 2012 10:12 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry, AG, taking this to another thread...
No, I'm drawing stuff that isn't Thom, thoughtwormy stuff.
My friend who lived down the road used to threaten to come round and confiscate my pencils when I got like this, and she'd come round and drag me off for a curry and get me out of the house to engage with ~lyfe~ so I didn't burrow quite so deeply in. But since she's moved to the States, it's like no one else thinks to do that sort of thing. So I just get deeper and deeper.
Drawing is easy, you don't draw the thing, you draw the space around it.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:49 (twelve years ago) link
I should take a walk to my woods, that usually cheers me up, but it will probably be crawling with schoolchildren this time of day.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:54 (twelve years ago) link
i cant draw at all. not even a matchstick man
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 12:06 (twelve years ago) link
something weird just happened
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 14:55 (twelve years ago) link
i was browsing spotify and saw a shit ton of radiohead inc singles/eps etc http://open.spotify.com/artist/4Z8W4fKeB5YxbusRsdQVPband thought of wcc and melissa. I cant think why..
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 14:56 (twelve years ago) link
What kind of weird?
I mean, I just had a 'weird thing" happen, in terms of I went for a walk in my woods and was surrounded by a FLOCK OF LIME GREEN FERAL PARAKEETS, no, I'm not making this up, it was a real thing, and I've got photos.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 1 March 2012 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 14:59 (twelve years ago) link
what are these collectors editions spotify has? I didn't know 2xCD versions were out.
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:00 (twelve years ago) link
wcc did you know i have a couple of early Radiohead 12"s? (yes yes we know you dream of thom with a 12")
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, sorry. The feral parakeets weren't a joke. I always thought they were one of those South London urban legends, but no, they're quite real.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
not made up by the daily mail then?
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
wcc you said you cant use Spotify as you use a dongle, right?If you have a premium account this could help
Offline mode (Premium only) You can now choose to go offline in the desktop application, just as you can in the mobile apps. Some customers have asked for this. It means that you can listen to offline synched playlists and imported local music files without any P2P complications that can sometimes arise if you are, for instance, using a corporate network, or using a mobile 3G dongle.You'll find the setting under the File menu in Windows, and under the Spotify menu in Mac.
You can now choose to go offline in the desktop application, just as you can in the mobile apps. Some customers have asked for this. It means that you can listen to offline synched playlists and imported local music files without any P2P complications that can sometimes arise if you are, for instance, using a corporate network, or using a mobile 3G dongle.
You'll find the setting under the File menu in Windows, and under the Spotify menu in Mac.
Or you could use it via your smartphone if you have one.
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:16 (twelve years ago) link
I find people who don't get migraines think that throwing up is an essential part of a migraine and that if I merely stagger around clutching my head complaining that I can't see straight and then collapse in a darkened room for an hour I get told "but you don't get migraines because I used to know someone with migraines and they always threw up"
(I also get milder hemicranial headaches with nausea and less unbearable light sensitivity but no aura. I don't even know if those are migraines or not but sometimes call them migraines because it is a lot shorter than what I just said there. But yeah, everyone thinks I'm just making those up because I can still look vaguely human through them, and usually I have to as they last 2 days at a time)
Hope the parakeets scared some of the thoughtworms off. Birds eat worms, yes?
― Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:43 (twelve years ago) link
Loads of Green Parakeets in Windsor Gt pk, also: Birds were pets, they escaped, decided they liked the neighborhood and BRED!
― Mark G, Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:59 (twelve years ago) link
what are these collectors editions spotify has? I didn't know 2xCD versions were out.― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:00 (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:00 (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah, EMI did reissues: 2CD collectors version, 2CD+DVD 'box' editions, and the single discs.
― Mark G, Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:05 (twelve years ago) link
let me know when fopp has them for a fiver :)
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:11 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, some birds eat thoughtworms. But only certain ones. Magpies do, but pigeons don't. Lime green feral parakeets DEFINITELY eat thoughtworms, though.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link
Think they already did..
― Mark G, Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:29 (twelve years ago) link
Was drinking again last night, resulting in terrible insomnia and this morning a horrible red wine headache and the lingering Sunday Morning suspicion (yes I know it's only Friday, I was talking about the song) that I said something ~really awful~ on the internet.
Why do I do this to myself?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 2 March 2012 08:58 (twelve years ago) link
My kids are now six and four. YEs, they sometimes come into our bed. lol. Before I had kids, I would say "NEVAH!" but having'em now.... :-) Ah, I do find it pleasant. This coming into bed will pass and then I won't be able to cuddle and whisper "I love you"s in their ears. :-)
I also get milder hemicranial headaches with nausea a
Wow, me too!
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, 2 March 2012 09:01 (twelve years ago) link
Funny interview with Sinead O'Connor on Grauniad today
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/01/sinead-oconnor-new-album
She's one of those people that has been so demonised for MH issues, but whenever I read an interview with her, I can't help but relate to most of what she says. When ppl treat you like you're crazy it tends to make you much much more crazy.
(DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 2 March 2012 09:05 (twelve years ago) link
The comments are mostly positive, but yeah.
― Mark G, Friday, 2 March 2012 09:09 (twelve years ago) link
Well, from the second comment, it just started in with the "LOL crazeee person" shit and I just had to close the window. The stigmatisation of mental health issues just makes me super ragey.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 2 March 2012 09:16 (twelve years ago) link
in less brightly-coloured "cheered up by birds" news, some geese just flew past my window making a pleasingly harmonic noise: rippling between a high note and one a minor third down, with a less frequent rhythmic lower HONK acting as the bass
(trying not to go to the pub for lunch because I am supposed to be on a diet and also I already promised to meet someone there after work)
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 2 March 2012 11:46 (twelve years ago) link
The stigmatisation of mental health issues just makes me super ragey.
yes and what makes it even worse is the way that women with mental health issues are stigmatized whereas most of the media seems to be on the side of men who suffer from them. The protrayal of Sinead O'Connor and Britney Spears is markedly different to that of (say) Stephen Fry and Tony Slattery.
I must admit to only skimming the Guardian Sinead O'Connor article but the line which stood out was "Her unwavering campaign to hold the Vatican accountable for child abuse in the Irish church" and I thought well, if somebody should be applauded for campaigning on something it's that, but oh no, that's not what people think about when her name is mentioned, it's the MH issues and the fact she ripped a pic of the pontiff 20 years ago.
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 2 March 2012 11:55 (twelve years ago) link
Spacecadet, the sound that geese make is awesome, but the thing that most impresses me about them is the way they adopt the optimal aerodynamic formation. We were commenting on the shapes that flocks of birds adopt while on Saturday's river walk from Abingdon to Dorchester where the wide open spaces provided us with many superb vistas to admire the flocks of (in this case) gulls and lapwings.
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 2 March 2012 11:57 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, cosign on the pleasingness, both visual and auditory, nature of geese! The shapes of birds on the wings... oh god, yes! Were those Lapwings, then, that were doing those amazing maneuvers over the Thames? That makes sense.
And GG, yeah, you're right, I was trying not to say that because (posts very much in character) but there is a difference in tone between the way that women with MH issues and men are treated. Like, I don't think that men really get it that much better (though it is improving) but there is, as always an extra layer of nastiness reserved for Women With Problems that men with THE SAME PROBLEMS just don't get tarred.
I think, in a lot of ways, like, the Press owes O'Connor the most massive apology. Because it's like, 25 years ago, shouting "The Catholic church is responsible for horrendous child abuse" got her branded a nutter for the rest of time, but she has been vindicated over, and over, and over, and yet - there's no acknowledgement that she was actually right?
I wish my headache would go away. Wine, I love you, but you clearly do not love me.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 2 March 2012 12:06 (twelve years ago) link
wine, cheese and chocolate cause migraines right?
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 2 March 2012 12:12 (twelve years ago) link
Yes, and I had all three last night. ;_;
(This is not a migraine, it's just a headache.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 2 March 2012 12:13 (twelve years ago) link
i dont like the 1st 2 so it wouldn't bother me not being allowed it, but i dont fancy having migraines
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 2 March 2012 12:16 (twelve years ago) link
my aunt gets migraines with aura but no pain. she says she gets like x's in her eyes. tbh that sounds horrible
How long does it take to walk from Abingdon to Dorchester?
I should get out and do some more walks, see all the places I live near but have never visited (or not for years), but my right foot always mysteriously goes numb after a mile or two, which is stopping me going anywhere new :/
(also I am bad at hills, but that's a general unfitness thing, and not a do-I-really-need-to-pay-for-a-physio thing)
and yes, anyone with mental health issues gets a rough ride from the press, but there's also often a hint of "tortured genius"/"excitingly unrestrained wildman" available to men that just isn't to women. Although I suppose the "manic pixie dreamgirl" archetype is somewhere on that spectrum of spontaneity/raw emotion/creativity, but that's mainly just wearing kooky socks and not actually having either your issues or your creativity taken seriously.
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 2 March 2012 12:19 (twelve years ago) link
We did stop for lunch in the middle, but we started noonish? (there was some... faffing in Abingdon, LOL) and were back in Oxford by 7pm. It's a gorgeous walk, and if you don't go up the Lumps it's mostly flat and quite easy even for unfit lumps like me.
Anyway, I must get out of bed, go for a "run" and shower and get into town.
And stop wittering on about red trousers with cheesecakers.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Friday, 2 March 2012 12:22 (twelve years ago) link
My visual problems (pre or during migraines) are usually: CANT SEE A BLOODY THING. Very hard to explain. Sure I get the blotches but also I just get... weird eyesight. Also, aphasia. And like my gran says: for someone who likes to talk so much, this is pure hell. lol
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, 2 March 2012 20:24 (twelve years ago) link
I went without caffeine until 6:30 pm today, unintentionally, and by 4pm the headache was so bad I thought I was going to be sick every time I moved. And I don't even drink that much caffeine! Lolz, middle aged addictions.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Friday, 2 March 2012 23:08 (twelve years ago) link
My head hurts. I have to stop watching grainy videos of Thom Yorke performing cunnilingus on a Prophet*.
*the synth, before anyone gets any ideas
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 4 March 2012 10:39 (twelve years ago) link
was going to say..
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Sunday, 4 March 2012 10:41 (twelve years ago) link
I need to stay off that Other Forum, I've just been involved in an entirely too long discussion of sandals and being "dipped in ginger sex fur" and this cannot be good for my mental health. I'm going to go make breakfast.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 4 March 2012 10:45 (twelve years ago) link
dont dip your soldiers in ginger sex fur
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Sunday, 4 March 2012 11:03 (twelve years ago) link
Can't help conflating the images and coming up with ginger fur sandals, which I really like the idea of.
Hungover today. GB came over yesterday and we went to the British Museum. At Holborn station my iPhone got lifted out of my pocket, came home, got the phone barred, changed my passwords for *everything*, figured I would never see my Precious again. An hour later some lovely gentledude rang my dad and said "I think I've found the phone of someone you know..."
It was on the Brighton train! Teef musta dumped it I guess? Really strange. Also o.0 at the awfulness of some people vs. the crazy niceness of some other people.
Gentledude is back in London tonight so hopefully Precious and I will be reunited by bedtime.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Sunday, 4 March 2012 11:04 (twelve years ago) link
Aaaahhm, it's things like that that restore one's faith in human nature, when every now and then something does turn out for the best, glad that your Precious is coming home to you, (That reminds me, I should back up all my photos onto the computer because I've got like 1500 photos of Cornwall that I would be GUTTED if I ever lost)
Ginger fur sandals - well, so long as they're vegetarian friendly fun fur - or, rather FREEEEEHHHHHHNNND fur, that would be awesome actually, would totally wear.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 4 March 2012 11:32 (twelve years ago) link
> she says she gets like x's in her eyes.
http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/ocular-migraine.htm
― koogs, Sunday, 4 March 2012 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
I've got the Precious, I've got the Precious/does the I've-got-the-Precious dance
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Sunday, 4 March 2012 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
Happy St Piran's Day!
No idea where I'm gonna find a pasty in Streatham, mind.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 5 March 2012 09:51 (twelve years ago) link
The protrayal of Sinead O'Connor and Britney Spears is markedly different to that of (say) Stephen Fry and Tony Slattery.
possibly, but Tony Slattery hasn't been seen since, iirc.
― Mark G, Monday, 5 March 2012 09:57 (twelve years ago) link
Oh yeah, and SFry got loads of abuse at the time.
Both have 'come out' about their MH issues, Sinead and Britney have not. That is their affair, they do not deserve abuse either.
― Mark G, Monday, 5 March 2012 09:59 (twelve years ago) link
stephen fry got tons of abuse and mocking. Everyone thought he was finished.
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 5 March 2012 10:18 (twelve years ago) link
and i cant remember the last time i saw tony slattery on tv
This is bordering really close on mansplaining, and I'm not having it. Like, no one is debating that men with MH Issues don't get abuse, but that the quality and tone of that abuse can be really different when it's directed at men. This isn't a fucking oppression Olympics, and I resent the way that men just feel they *have* to point out "oh but that happens to teh mens too!" whenever anyone tries to make a point about the treatment of women. It's not necessary, and it really fucks me off. Makes me want to fuck off back to the Girl Thread and not come back.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 5 March 2012 10:21 (twelve years ago) link
The difference is that the men get their abuse in one lump, then it gets forgotten about.
Britney and Sinead get theirs drip-fed over many years, often from the same people that proport to be 'supportive' with regard other female aspects ('size-zero', etc)
― Mark G, Monday, 5 March 2012 10:27 (twelve years ago) link
New St Piran's Day display name.
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Monday, 5 March 2012 11:44 (twelve years ago) link
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7058/6807890572_79f2928e88_o.jpgBecause it is today. by john durrant, on Flickr
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Monday, 5 March 2012 11:46 (twelve years ago) link
Ooops is that as big as it looks from here? SORRY!
its just the way he's sitting
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 5 March 2012 11:48 (twelve years ago) link
Depression feels so bad today, it's like an iron band wrapped around my forehead. This came out of nowhere, the hopelessness, the desolation, the pointlessness, the sense that my whole life is just a wet blanket wrapped round me, and I'm such a wet blanket I can't conceive that anyone else would ever want me around.
And it's at this point that I start to take the ILX meta to heart, it starts repeating in the back of my head like an ugly voice: that it's always the people who are convinced that they know me ~sooooo wellllllll~ who get me and my motivations and internal movements so completely wrong. And yet, and yet... it's like they're privvy to some secret truth, they're right, they've found me out, that I really *am* that much of an asshole, and not just an asshole, but a pathetic one at that, they're right, all my friends secretly (or not so secretly) completely hate me and just wish I would go away and jesus christ, because, you know, I deeply wish I could just go away as well, but I'm chained to this malfunctioning brain like a fucking meat puppet and I hate it.
It's like that, today. And all the chatter and the cheesecake in the world can't seem to dislodge it.
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 8 March 2012 10:31 (twelve years ago) link
I can only say I... wish I could take it away. Alas, those are stupid words cause they are pointless and sound trite. Or whatever.
Here it's not great either. But in the cash register, not the brain. I am actually doing remarkably well considering I am prone to panic attacks. I guess the pills do work. lol.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Thursday, 8 March 2012 14:07 (twelve years ago) link
Thanks. I am glad that the pills are working for you. You can be proud of yourself if you're holding it together in the face of cash register problems. Blunt problems you can do nothing about. It's hard.
I dunno, I'm just... caught. I feel like I'm wasting this fantastic opportunity, when I could be doing anything in the world with myself right now, and instead I'm staring at the wall and feeling this dull grey numbness right when I need my brain to kick in and be creative, think up solutions, do stuff, you know?
I don't know. Maybe I should read Dante, maybe I should read Marcus Aurelius... it's like I have this toolkit and no idea what to do with it. I was searching for images of trees and woods for an art project and these Dore prints came up, and I was just reminded of my poor 9th grade literature teacher, trying to spoon feed the Inferno into semi-illiterate convent school girls. All those metaphors that didn't make sense when you're 14, but now it's like... damn. Where the sun is silent. I keep thinking about her because she was one of those few teachers who saw what hell I was going through and reached out to me - but thinking about it now, she was going through some kind of hell of her own, she wanted to be a playwright but her husband got a job as a director at some tinytown theatre, so there she was stuck trying to bash medieval literature into the heads of good burghers' daughters. And she told me everyone who amounts to anything hates their school years. But she never told me middle age would be worse, in different ways. I suppose she tried, through her ninth grade poetry syllabus.
I'm sorry; this makes no sense to anyone but me. I hate poetry anyway, but Dore's damn cool.
I'm glad you're OK, and you're hanging in there.
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 8 March 2012 14:58 (twelve years ago) link
Feeling rather better today. Don't know if it was forcing myself to go out and be social last night, restoring normality having dinner with a friend - or if it was the restorative power of really amazing music. Often come to the conclusion that art is the only thing in the world that really has the power to impact on one's life like that, but then again, art on your own is no fun. One needs both, I think.
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 9 March 2012 10:23 (twelve years ago) link
OMG I just textmessaged the radio program with the answer to the question "why is lou reed's nickname drella". you can win tickets for his gig. Hahahahah I DONT EVEN WANT TO SEE HIM LIVE. (Nor dead for that matter.)
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, 9 March 2012 12:56 (twelve years ago) link
LOL, that's one of those factoids that's all "why do I even *know*" this, but wasn't Drella Lou and Cale's nickname for Warhol, rather than Lou's nickname?
(ha ha, thanks to the Bowie poll, I just typed "Warhole" and had to go back and fix it.)
((Where is my "anti-Warholes" t-shirt, these days, anyway?))
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 9 March 2012 13:17 (twelve years ago) link
Ah yes! It was! Duh! :-)
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, 9 March 2012 13:41 (twelve years ago) link
Short for "Cinderella" because of how he would go to the ball.
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 14:13 (twelve years ago) link
Going back to this old login, no matter how inappropriate a name it is these days, because it's the only one that isn't banned that seems to be hooked up to a working email address any more. Apologies if anyone is completely confused by the changeover, it's not done with any bad intentions in mind.
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2012 14:34 (twelve years ago) link
ah, it seems like old times.
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 14:39 (twelve years ago) link
Yes, complete with me utterly and totally losing my mind. :-(
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2012 14:42 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/westboro_baptist_church_protest_radiohead_show.html
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 16:31 (twelve years ago) link
Argh, financial troubles are no fun.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 16:52 (twelve years ago) link
:(
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 16:55 (twelve years ago) link
Troubles suck. I'm sorry.
― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 13 March 2012 20:57 (twelve years ago) link
Today in utter solipsism, I've realised that my problem is not "the internet" - my problem is that I'm completely incompetent, both as a human being, and at human communication. So I'm just going to give up. I'm not sure what that entails.
― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 13 March 2012 20:59 (twelve years ago) link
Giving up worrying about it might be good. Giving up communicating not so much! Don't!
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 21:27 (twelve years ago) link
Asking me to give up worrying is like asking me to give up breathing. I can learn to modify or control it, but it's never going to stop, it's not in my nature.
The communication thing... I'm just trying to think of a way to express this that isn't all "oh woe is me" or (oh noes) read by someone as passive aggressive in some way. It's just...
The internet sucks. It's full of awful, horrible YouTube Commenters just looking to tear someone else down to assuage their boredom for 30 seconds. They're everywhere. And it wears me down, so much, dealing with that. Joining a music forum to talk about music, and being YouTubeCommented to death. And then finally finding a forum which isn't full of YTCs, and they don't want *me*. When even the people "defending" you are saying "I don't like her, either, but she's got a right to be here." OK, I get it. You want me to go, I'll go.
I'm clearly so bad at this, why am I even trying? And get back to ILX and it's going through one of its paroxysms of meta and just more "oh my god, you are the worst person ever" and even if you say "yes, I am the worst person ever, but I've been here 10 years and you haven't, so I will clearly mark everything I am involved with SO I AM COMPLETELY FUCKING EASY TO AVOID if you hate the kind of thing I do" and even that is just more evidence of why you are so bad and should be hated even more and pile on more of the crap that makes you defensive and anxious in the first place.
Like, what do you expect me to do? Disappear? I wish I could. If I could push a button and make me go away, I'd do it. That button doesn't exist.
This stuff hurts, and I wish it didn't, but I don't know a way to make it stop hurting.
Loneliness is just the most *pointless* emotion. I don't even understand why it exists.
OK, well, it's obvious why it does exist - because human beings are social animals, and we evolved loneliness to keep us in tribes the same way we evolved physical pain to keep us from accidentally putting our fingers in fires.
But in a post nuclear-family, atomised social landscape, no, really, what *is* the fucking point of loneliness?
Please don't tell me I'm depressed and I should go and see a doctor. I'm not depressed, what I am is incredibly lonely, and rather bored, to the point where my mind is eating itself. I just can't find a point. And it's not a physical problem, it's a problem of disconnection. And I can't see the point of reconnecting at the moment, because I can't seem to find anything I care enough about to reconnect over. There is no club that will have me as a member, and it's become too painful to try, over and again. I'm clearly so *shit* at communicating. Or maybe I'm such an awful person that everything I communicate is as bad as people seem to think it is. I don't know.
I should start writing another novel, or go to some local meetings of something. Or even start looking for a job again. (It's kind of a curse that I've saved so much money because I don't *have* to look for a job immediately, of course, I have decided to put off that particular load of depressing rejection for as long as I can.) I just can't find it in me to want to do anything except lie in bed or sometimes walk through woods.
Sorry this is so long and emo. If that offends you, you didn't have to read it. I kinda had to type it, or I felt my head would explode.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 10:14 (twelve years ago) link
I know; I am sorry I am such a downer.
I should get a livejournal or a shrink or just learn how to STFU and take it and not bleed my pain all over everyone else, it's not fair and no one wants it.
This is also a large part of the reason that most people dislike me.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 10:26 (twelve years ago) link
Oh. This is relevant this morning:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/mar/13/why-the-world-needs-introverts
I should probably find a better thread to link it on, though.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 10:51 (twelve years ago) link
Dear MB,
no, you're not going nuts just yet. This is your subconscious speaking. Here is a picture of Thom Yorke's hair doing something absolutely ~adorable~ while he fiddles with his guitar pedals, and also a Jazzmaster. Because I know how much you love Jazzmasters.
http://i.imgur.com/HLlve.jpg
The GrannyPanny trees are budding and almost in bloom, there's a new art exhibit at the library with a local artist you could be supporting, that new pub on the high street has DOOM BAR on tap, maybe you could go and sit in there and ink your sketches while drinking it, instead of moaning that you're not in Cornwall doing exactly the same thing.
Who wants a pint of Doom Bar? I do, even if you're too busy eating worms. Hell, I'll drink the Doom Bar, you draw the worms. Deal?
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 12:59 (twelve years ago) link
I was looking through the lots on an online auction house website (a real one, not ebay I mean).
The sort that has "a box of 40 LPs, to contain 2 Hendrix, 4 beatles, etc" type thing.
Anyway, I tried searching "Guitar".. bad idea.
For the rest of the day, I was like "OOH, I want one of those! And that one! And that one!"
Of course, I bid/bought nowt.
Our Alice was in an in-school 'bragging' session with some boy about how many guitars they had in their respective houses. So, we had a think-thought about it and realised we had 13.
One Bass, 4 solid body 6-strings, 2 semi-accs, 2 acoustics, 1 12-string, 2 ukes and I can't remember the last one.
That's not too shabby for a dormant musician.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 13:06 (twelve years ago) link
I remember now, it's another semi-acc, it's made from what feels like matchbox-wood, it sounds awful in an awesome way, but looks hella-cool.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 13:07 (twelve years ago) link
I wish I could still play guitar. It makes my wrist hurt too much, though. :-(
It doesn't stop me from wanting them when I see them, though.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 13:12 (twelve years ago) link
http://lot-images.atgmedia.com/SR/10623/2852614/103-20123618026_468x382.jpg
This is where you get to tell me "don't worry, they're really bad guitars actually"
(limiting myself to one pic only)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 13:15 (twelve years ago) link
Who cares if they're bad guitars if they look like that?
I bet all the strings go instantly out of tune the moment you even touch the whammy bar, though. My monstro cheapo was like that.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 13:17 (twelve years ago) link
i think MB needs to listen to doom metal, its what it was invented for!
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 13:23 (twelve years ago) link
Um, I know it's like, your favourite music of all time, but I really fail to see how listening to music I don't really like will make me anything but more miserable? :-P
One of my friends on twitter told me to switch my RH playlist for Lindstrom and see if I cheer up, and it actually seems to be working, I'm feeling more relaxed already.
(That said, I don't actually find RH depressing when I'm already down, and not even because of the power of feeling less alone when you listen to sad music when you're sad. But I don't listen to RH because it's sad or miserable or doom-y, but because it's all about resisting the sadness and the doom and the nothingness and all the bad things, which actually really makes it really positive in an odd, whiney sort of way. Which is not a vibe I ever get from doom metal, sorry, no offense if you like it and all.)
Anyway, I'm feeling more like this at the moment.
http://creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2012/02/fight_the_nothingness_0_0.jpg
rain-stained brutalism, and all.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 14:48 (twelve years ago) link
never found radiohead,smiths or joy division or anything like that depressing. its uplifting happy music!
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 14:54 (twelve years ago) link
see, there's your problem right there. You listen to happy music!!! ;)
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 14:56 (twelve years ago) link
Joy Division *is* depressing as fuck, actually. It's the sheer relentlessness of it. But that's why there's Joy Division and New Order.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 15:10 (twelve years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_metal
it quite clearly states there masonic boom should be making it with lots of hawkwind swooshy noises
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
Those men are all as ugly as dogs (and to be honest, dogs are insulted by the comparison!)
Why would I want to involve myself with a genre of music where the men are so unattractive! At least Radiohead have the consideration to be remotely sexy, despite the occasional tragic haircuts (and ponytails.)
Now I'm off to listen to Pablo Honey and laugh myself sick, and none of you can stop me.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 15:58 (twelve years ago) link
The new pub (which is called Pratts & Payne, LOL Streatham) is AWESOME. It's too nice for Streatham, it will be taken away. It has nice beer, and it has good music. It will not be allowed to stay.
That said, I had a horrible scary moment sitting there drinking my real ale, that I thought I had actually started to like Neil Young. ARGH.
Came home, put on After The Goldrush, phew, I still hate Neil Young, all is still right in the world.
It's a lovely pub, though.
p.s. what is the best version of ATG, or will this be a harder choice than Silver Dagger? I don't think the answer is Dolly Parton this time, though.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
WANT.
http://images.travelpod.com/users/coastpath/1.1273262213.hedghog-ice-cream.jpg
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 18:58 (twelve years ago) link
I know I'm talking to myself here, but I might as well carry on.
That thing - that gulf between 1) the thoughts and processes of what is going on in your own head, and why you are doing the things you are doing, and 2) how your actions are perceived and interpreted by others - that thing is killing me lately.
When I come up out of a nosedive, and look at the things that were going on and it's hard to believe that two different people could have such different perspectives on the same events. And yet, at the time, and even afterwards, it seems almost impossible to stop the crash from happening, as it's playing out. And you're just looking at this wreckage, going "but neither of us wanted this, so how did we end up with it?"
It's maddening, but also, mainly it's just saddening.
I'm kind of obsessed with talking about communication, because I'm so bad at it. But I suppose it's easier to learn Cornish than it is to learn to communicate properly.
How is everyone today? ILX seems like it's in a bit of a rut, there don't seem to be any threads about anything I find that interesting, and maybe everyone's as bored as I am, or maybe it's just a lull, or maybe I just don't have any interests any more? How are you all feeling. Is anyone even reading this except me?
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 13:08 (twelve years ago) link
I'm tracking a handful of threads on ILX in desultory sort of way, but trying to resist posting anything other than the occasional flip comment as work really is backing up around here and I can just about get away with reading while I'm on a conf call, but not posting.
I think the education thread is quite interesting, but it's mostly about American education afaict, so nothing for me to contribute.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Friday, 16 March 2012 13:13 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, threads on the American education system are slightly interesting to me, because I spent most of my education in the American system. But not really that relevant (though, granted, I'm kind of scared of how the UK system might be headed that way.) It's not just a to-MAY-to to-MAH-to level difference, I guess it does reveal deep differences.
I suppose I'm just bored because lack of money (and therefore lack of internet access to properly listen to things) is keeping me off music threads, which would normally provide my ILX reading material.
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
I thought the avant-guard thread was going to go somewhere interesting, too, but it seems to have petered out prematurely. I think I almost hate when that happens more than I hate a clusterfuck.
Oh dear, meta. Posting on ILX about posting on ILX, I think my boredom really has eaten itself and I should go back to reading my book. But it's a depressing and upsetting political tome and I think I'm avoiding finishing it.
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 13:23 (twelve years ago) link
Grab another book?
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Friday, 16 March 2012 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
I hate abandoning a book halfway through! Even if I don't like it. (And it's not that I don't like it, it's a very good and necessary book - it's just that it is incredibly bleak and at the same time, I don't want to be reading something this depressing when I'm having depressio issues to start with - but I am also aware of my staggering lack of knowledge when it comes to political subjects, and fear that throwing up my hands and saying "this is too depressing" is Part of The Problem WRT politics.)
The other books I have available to me in the reading pile are: Misogyny, The World's Oldest Prejudice (will be depressio), In Search of P.D. Ouspensky (diverting mystical shit, but I like the author from his other works) and The Icarus Girl, which I know nothing about, but I liked the name, but it also looks like it might be depressio.
Maybe I should just go back to the library and get some more inconsequential reading material.
ARGH I hate listening to Spotify on my home connection, it's just impossible, it times out ever 30 seconds, why do I even bother?
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 13:36 (twelve years ago) link
Spotify is great but what is wrong with your internet connection? You're not still using a dongle are you??
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 16 March 2012 13:42 (twelve years ago) link
Yes I am, and I should really sort it out but I can't deal with dealing with any more contracts and companies.
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 13:45 (twelve years ago) link
yes i understand that. Thankfully my dad deals with all that
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 16 March 2012 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
In other news, I just got "Alpinisms" in the chuck-in box in Fopp, £2
Bit dusty, no innersleeve/book, but hey.
― Mark G, Friday, 16 March 2012 14:15 (twelve years ago) link
Well, you can change. That's what you need to realize. I decided to lay my worries *aside*. So for long times I just decide not to think about the financial woes (not checking bank account...). My husband advised me. And it works. But of course that is another thing: the problems are now outside my head.
Anyway, it's okay. We will manage. :-)
That said, I have a headache. I need to go for a long walk. hihi.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, 16 March 2012 14:23 (twelve years ago) link
Like I said, I can learn to change, and modify/control, but expecting it to just *stop* is completely unrealistic, unattainable, and will set me up for failure, and the self-beating-up that said failure could provoke. There is no such thing as a life without worry. But there are ways of dealing with worry so that it does not become overwhelming.
It's about managing and controlling emotion, rather than either succumbing to it, or having unrealistic expectations of the limits of one's brain's abilities.
I guess maybe your "stop checking the bank account" should be my "stop looking at that forum where the terrible misunderstandings exploded" - that's the kind of thing one can divert.
Rather than letting the worry consume me to the point where I couldn't even concentrate on my homework.
Long walks are good, though, I highly recommend them.
I have finally, on about my third attempt, succeeded in getting the new Grimes album off the 4AD site. Which means that half of ILM will now hate me, but hey, I really like it. Also, it was 5/8s of the price it was going for on iTunes. Sheesh, I am starting to really hate that thing.
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 14:32 (twelve years ago) link
what is Grimes?
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 16 March 2012 15:10 (twelve years ago) link
Canadian electronic music school geek girl much beloved on the "post-Knife music" thread, who signed to 4AD and became a bit too trendy with the P4K crowd to go down well on ILM.
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 15:11 (twelve years ago) link
Also, speaking of Canadian music school geeks, tonight after Cornish class, I am going to going to the Barbican to hear O-Pal, late of this parish. That should be entertaining. Seeing ILX0rs as actual human beings - especially up onstage and doing stuff, as opposed to text based user names - is always a bit of a mind fuck.
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 16 March 2012 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
ahh i cant stand stuff like the knife and that kind of thing ilm jizzes over
yeah i bet it is.
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 16 March 2012 16:27 (twelve years ago) link
OH GOD THERE IS A SPECIAL CIRCLE OF HELL RESERVED FOR CV WRITERS.
I have just used the word "spearheaded" as a verb. I want to stab myself in the eye with a fork.
Getting out all those billion buck bang CV words like "facilitated" and "enabling users" and "assessing user needs and delivering data solutions" and I'm tempted to throw in a "maths-speaking and fridge-buzzing modes available" quote to see what FDs are paying attention.
KILL ME. KIILL ME NOW. I HATE UPDATING MY CV SO MUCH, I SOUND LIKE SUCH CORPWANK ON PAPER.
MIDDLE CLASS CV WANK IS TOTALLY A BARRIER TO ENTRY. GIVE US A JOB. READMIT ME TO THE MIDDLE CLASSES NOW. DELIVER ME FROM TESCOS ARRGGGHGHGHGHGH
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Monday, 19 March 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
"Works well individually and as part of a team"
This statement is compulsory on any CV, Lighthouse keeper or not.
― Mark G, Monday, 19 March 2012 14:28 (twelve years ago) link
I would never put that on my CV. Ever. I mean, there's padding and corporate wankspeak, but I am never going to outright lie on a CV.
― ...I KERNOW BECAUSE YOU DO (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Monday, 19 March 2012 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
Actually, it's not that much of a lie any more, I was totally a team-player at my last job. It was just that our team's favourite activities consisted of muttering darkly about the stupidity of the directors, moaning about the manager of the call centre and downloading Radiohead remixes. We had great team spirit! Though sharing complete pessimism and black humour.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 19 March 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago) link
That's the best kind!
I reckon The Monkees would have hated each other, had it not been for the management dicking them around at every oppo.
― Mark G, Monday, 19 March 2012 14:34 (twelve years ago) link
Is it really wrong that I totally want to live here?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/gallery/2012/mar/21/trading-up-trading-down-properties#/?picture=387611837&index=4
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2012 11:59 (twelve years ago) link
It's that lighthouse thing, it's that whole "other people are just too much to deal with" fantasy, isn't it? Also, I don't think you could get internet there, which would probably be a good thing, right? Ho hum.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2012 12:10 (twelve years ago) link
The most depressing thing about applying for jobs right now is realising how far "the market" and technology slid away from me while I spent 3 years treading water in that last job.
Like, how I haven't even *heard* of some of the latest developments ~in my industry~ and that is totally my fault because I should have been keeping up with it. I mean, yeah, it was demoralising working there because it was a daily struggle trying to get them to do *anything* on the database (3 years convincing them they should do basic data cleansing!) so after a couple of years, I stopped even trying to push new things on them. And I didn't want to hear about new toys because I knew I'd never get to play with them.
Part of it's real insecurity of "am I even in the right field because I don't freaking *care* about new technology any more" - like I could get the job done with excel and some SQL script writing so what do the bells and whistles really matter? Shovelling data is shovelling data, why should I care what it's done with. But there's this sense that I should care, and I should keep up - and I just didn't, in that job because I hated the industry and didn't want to do anything to help them.
And just ARGH, this is why I've been putting off looking for a new job for nearly two months, because it's so confidence-shredding just doing it. I should care about ~my career~ and I just don't, it's just something I do, not something I get excited about?
But I don't even know if this not-caring-about-work is a real thing, or part of the general anhedonia of not caring about *anything* right now.
Boo hoo, life sucks, shut up and deal, etc.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2012 12:56 (twelve years ago) link
All these jobs, and I can't see why anyone would want to hire me. If I can't see why anyone would want to hire me, why on earth would the recruiter?
I should open the council tax bill that came yesterday, that should give me some motivation to look more... motivated-ly. But it doesn't, it just makes me think "what the fuck am I doing this all *for*?" And there is no answer to that.
There are no answers, I'm talking to myself, and that's even more depressing than not talking at all.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2012 13:33 (twelve years ago) link
You'll feel better, I think, once you've settled into the job hunt. Having a set of small job-related goals to accomplish every day can produce its own motivation.
One of my real problems with work-motivation right now is that I find it so hard to shift my brain from work to personal interests and vice versa. I have to work literally every day, otherwise I forget why work is worth caring about. Orson Welles said that the reason he worked so much is that he was secretly incredibly lazy - if he wasn't always working, he would never do anything. That's me.
― Träumerei, Wednesday, 21 March 2012 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
What do you mean by work every day, though? Because if I "worked" every day my head would figuratively explode, but that's because I have such a delineation between "work" (meaning databases and crap) and "personal interests" meaning drawing and writing and stuff, and I supposed I could say, it helps to work every day meaning I do drawing or writing every day, but the idea of doing database stuff every day would be completely intolerable.
ARGH.
Anyway, I just had my first phoner interview / CV talkthrough. Which was nervewracking, just because it's been so long. That "why did you leave your last job?" question is an absolute nerve-wracker. I wish my heart wouldn't lurch in my chest when I try to answer that one, it is just heart-rate off the chart and adrenaline response, even as I'm admitting "this is awkward" and trying to explain. I suppose this will get easier with practice, but right now it's completely flummoxing. Not to let that one throw me.
― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 21 March 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
fuck unemployment
i run out of money in a month. i've got a contract job set up in may that'll cover my rent through the summer and buy me two more months to find full time work, but there'll be a gap where i'm short to pay rent in may. as it stands now i'm looking to do gig work through april that i'm hoping will fill out the coffers enough, but if worse comes to worse i may ask 3-4 people for a small loan that cumulatively should cover me til i can pay back a week or so later.
the state of VA won't give me unemployment bcz my previous job didn't deduct anything for it, so i've never paid in, so they won't give me any. and of course i'm near 2 years out of texas, where i paid into unemployment. so that's not an option.
and i'm not pretty enough to bartend.
ugh.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2012 08:08 (twelve years ago) link
Goodness! An American! You're up early! And welcome.
This is where I count myself v v lucky, in that I planned this for such a long time, and I'm really privileged that I was able to accumulate savings. I need to remind myself of that, that it could be a lot worse.
I hope that something comes through for you to fill in the gap, I know it's the most frustrating feeling in the world "I will have something in a couple of weeks, but I need to pay the rent *now*!!!" and not falling into debt because of it.
What is "gig work"? Is that contracting?
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 08:44 (twelve years ago) link
I was lucky too, I've been unemployed for 2 months now and have been making it fine, but I only had 3 months worth put away. I'd have put away more if I'd known I'd need it, of course (low rent & high pay meant that two weeks notice would have been two months rent!) but I got no notice at my last job at all. It was literally "we've decided we no longer require your services, and today will be your last day."
When I say "gig work" I just mean one-off jobs: ghostwriting, transcription, short-term content creation, that sort of thing, that would earn me enough with what's still set aside to cover May. Alternately I can ask a parent each, a friend, and my lady friend to band up and cover me til that first check comes in. Split four ways my rent isn't so bad at all.
This May gig will only be a month, but it'll cover me through to September. If I still haven't found something by late July I'm even considering hotel jobs, which is a nightmarish and sad thought given that I resigned a management spot 3 years ago resolved never to go back. But such is the deal. I've had 4 interviews, all four of which I felt quite good about, but they've all turned me down for reasons that remain a mystery to me.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2012 08:53 (twelve years ago) link
Also I'm not so much up early as up late--the sleep schedule has gradually shifted over the last month to keep me in bed later in the day and keep me up til longer and longer in the night. I should probably do something about that.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2012 08:55 (twelve years ago) link
That always happens when you're unemployed, though, doesn't it? Your sleep schedule shifts to what is actually more "natural" for you. I've actually been getting up earlier and earlier because my huge windows and poor coverings let so much light in. I was up at 7, which is distinctly odd.
Can you turn that "gig work" into a steady drip? Chasing freelance stuff like that is a pain in the arse, but if you can get it to land regularly, that can turn into something which covers a lot of holes. Or is chasing it as much of a full time job as looking for "proper" work?
Two months is not actually that long a time, at least in my experience - how long did it take to find a job last time? I totally know that panic feeling, when you're down to your last chunk of money - but that's exactly when something usually turns up.
That no-notice thing, that sucks though, that really is a kick in the teeth. (I gave no notice, but I quit on payday.) But if you can get clear to September - that's ages, that gives you loads of time. It will be alright!
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:08 (twelve years ago) link
Two months isn't so long, you're right, but given DC's unemployment numbers (and the experience of a couple of friends) I thought I'd be back at it a month ago. Last time I was unemployed it took about two and a half months to find something, and it just makes me wish I had one more month's savings put away to take the stress off.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:16 (twelve years ago) link
I always wish I had another month's savings. And another. But - in my experience only - it's that last push of desperation that makes me actually go the extra mile that finds something.
That said, that was how I ended up in my last job, and we all know how badly that turned out, so perhaps that isn't the greatest course to follow.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:18 (twelve years ago) link
Getting back to being Britishes for a minute...
PASTY TAX?!?!?! what's that about?
I thought my Cornish friends were making it up, but apparently it is a real thing in the world.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:33 (twelve years ago) link
The 'pasty tax' needs to be dropped | Politicus - Connecting People ...www.politicus.org.uk/news/the-pasty-tax-needs-to-be-droppedYou +1'd this publicly. UndoPlans by the Government to introduce VAT on hot takeaway food from bakeries and supermarkets will actually mean a pasty tax which will cost Cornwall jobs.
There's a facebook page called "Say not to the Pasty Tax", the papers are all over the Granny Tax at the mo, but the pasty's day will come..
― Mark G, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:37 (twelve years ago) link
pasty tax????
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:49 (twelve years ago) link
Toll an Pasti!
I put a link on the politics page. The Cornish are already up in arms over Granny Tax, I suspect armed rebellion is on its way. I volunteer Streatham Common as somewhat safer than Blackheath...
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:51 (twelve years ago) link
Urgh, we need to fire our employee but it means a six month pay out. ARGH!
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:02 (twelve years ago) link
Oh god, my heart feels for you. That has to be the hardest decision to have to make.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:04 (twelve years ago) link
To fire someone? If it's for your own survival, then no. I know that sounds pretty cold, but consider making a choice of feeding your kids or keeping someone on (and going bankrupt). The decision is hard in this way: where the f will we find that money?
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:43 (twelve years ago) link
As heartless as it sounds, I meant that decision as well. Going broke over the course of the next year or going broke in one big bang.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:58 (twelve years ago) link
6 month payout ! blimey how long have they worked for you ? in my world the normal rules = 1 weeks pay per year of employment
― mark e, Thursday, 22 March 2012 11:05 (twelve years ago) link
Yes but Nath lives in socialist welfare paradise, aka Europe, where there are actual unions and proper labour laws.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 11:06 (twelve years ago) link
ahh .. had no idea things were that heavily weighted to the employee.
yet another insight into how f*cked the uk workers are.
(but still things are better than US side .. at the moment)
― mark e, Thursday, 22 March 2012 11:10 (twelve years ago) link
I do understand employees should be protected, but what about employers? Like in our case, where we might face bankruptcy if we do not act quickly (and the crisis goes away). There are solutions of course, but still... I mean, fuck, we can't afford a six month payout.
She has been working for about 10 years now.
I understand the protection employees have now: we fucked'em over for way too long. Time to make a change. lol.
(Also, self-employed people can not have any unemployment income the first six months. lol Employees might be fucked over in the UK and US, employers here are pretty much on the same level: such high taxes,......)
Anyway, in the grand scheme of things, I am okay. It's a bad situation, but I do think we shouldn't complain THAT much: health is good (knock on wood). That's much more important!
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Thursday, 22 March 2012 12:38 (twelve years ago) link
I had a Watercoolery dream last week after reading the introverts article from the Graun linked above and having read a vaguely maths-related Ted Chiang short story just before bed, in which I and I alone had determined that introverts were in fact odd numbers, and extraverts were even numbers, and this knowledge was going to save mankind in some way
good luck to all ILXors with employment/money worries
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:23 (twelve years ago) link
That is the best dream ever.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
And prime numbers (being mostly odd), are introverts that just know!.
― Mark G, Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:29 (twelve years ago) link
Primes as extra special reclusive genius introverts*? Maybe there's something to it after all...
(* oh wait, I think I derided that one as a sexist myth upthread. don't expect me to be consistent in my internet rantings, please)
― instant coffee happening between us (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
WCC, save me from myself and the maddening internet arguments I get myself into on Saturday afternoons.
― Melissa W, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:06 (twelve years ago) link
What are you arguing about?
I'm right in the middle of making a cheesecake. Penderecki may be involved. (No, I'm not slashing him, it's just in the set-up. That would be BAD.)
― Masonic Boom, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:19 (twelve years ago) link
I'm arguing with a bunch of mansplaining neckbeards about whether or not the female brain is capable of enjoying film scores instead of the usual female diet of romantic comedies and issues of Cosmo. It's literally the stupidest argument I've ever had in my life.
― Melissa W, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:22 (twelve years ago) link
Evopsych was the worst thing to ever happen to the internet.
― Melissa W, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:24 (twelve years ago) link
For a start, do they know any actual women? Like, whose surname isn't .gif ? And for a second, "female brain" - what is that, I can't even.
Don't be silly, we don't enjoy film scores at all. We just gawp at Jonny Greenwood's cheekbones and oddly rhomboid jawline. What do I know, I think violin flourishes sound like serifs.
I mean, they might be right, because I don't watch films at all, ever. But that might be because my "female brain" is literally unable to actually process films that don't pass the Bechdel Test without glazing over and dying of boredom. Quick, pass me Marie Claire I need to pick next season's eyeshadow.
RETCH. Idiots aren't worth time.
― Masonic Boom, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:28 (twelve years ago) link
Me, I'm counting down until Jonny starts making Thom wear a doo-rag like Marek Mos. I can't wait, that will be awesome.
Anyone who tries to tell you about evopsych, just ask them what hunter gatherer tribes they've spent time with recently. Because most modern humans can't even conceive of what our environment was like before the Industrial Revolution, let alone what is was before the tiny crust of time that spawned the Agrarian Revolution, how can they even talk about evopsych without quoting their sources. Citations or GTFO.
― Masonic Boom, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:31 (twelve years ago) link
I just really need to stay away from all 90% male special interest internet forums.
― Melissa W, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:42 (twelve years ago) link
This is actually an incredibly invaluable lesson to learn.
And it's weird that I say that, because I've spent so much of my life in male dominated and male coded spaces IRL, and my attitude in them was always that... I had as much right to be there as they did, and I would stand up for myself, and women in general, but more in the sense of leading by example, and if, say, the Sys Admin said something sexist, I'd just look at him and cough and challenge him on it in a jokey way, and slowly, I'd start to make headway. Like, my being a woman in that space, and just existing there, would slowly start to change their ideas about What Women Were.
But on the internet, that doesn't seem to happen. There's this synergy that once a forum becomes overwhelmingly male, it just seems to generate its own momentum and resistance to, like... reality?
I used to really try to stick it out on mostly-male forums with the same intentions, of opening up space by just existing there. And it really started to wear on me, and make me angry, and unhappy. And I would wonder why I was so miserable all the time, to the point where I didn't actually like who I was, when I was in those spaces. So I stopped. And I magically stopped being so angry and unhappy all the time! (obviously I still am, some of the time) But things one can avoid... it's sometimes a good idea to avoid them. And it sucks, but if it makes you less unhappy, less unhappy is a good state.
― Masonic Boom, Saturday, 24 March 2012 18:51 (twelve years ago) link
I happened to look at this thread for the first time today... Melissa W, I've often wondered if there were any other Ilxors who also follow the F$M message boards, and now I see there's at least one. That place frustrates me no end. I'm fascinated/obsessed by film music but the level of emotional intelligence on that board is pretty appalling. Even a lot of the ppl whose music-related comments I respect greatly begin to reveal themselves as clods when subjects like this come up. Sadly, I don't know of a better place to talk about film scores on the web. ILX has certainly never engaged deeply on the subject.
― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 24 March 2012 22:13 (twelve years ago) link
Hello Jon and welcome, thanks for saying something.
I've been kinda thinking about this, because this is the kind of thing that rattles around my head and irritates me.
And I guess I started it with that quip about "do they know any actual women" because I didn't think that this was a serious discussion, I thought what would be best was just "sneer at the bad people and make jokes about TY's hair bcuz that will cheer up MW"
But now I'm thinking about it, it's like... actually, they *do* know at least one actual woman. They know MW. They just choose *not* to listen to her, because women are, you know, not worth paying attention to because we have silly ladybrains and only care about rom-coms and Cosmo magazine.
But then when you go and use a word like lack of "emotional intelligence" to describe this behaviour. Um, no. that's not the right word. Because people who can discuss films, and soundtracks, and the emotional effect of sound upon vision and how music and plot work together etc etc yadda yadda - that actually shows quite a high level of emotional literacy.
So this idea that these men are dismissing the ideas of one woman in specific and all women in general - something makes me think, hey, this is not down to lack of emotional literacy. This is down to a deep level bias, a prejudice - and that has a name and that name is sexism. You can dress it up in sciencey sounding clothes, and then it's neurosexism - but this thing, of why it's still somehow such a *surprise* to other men, that intelligent, cultured men with good taste can carry around unchallenged prejudices like sexism? Don't dress it up and excuse it and call it something it isn't, because that's kind of enabling of more continued prejudice.
Anyway, sorry, this was probably the wrong thread and I should just make a Thonny reference to make everything happy-happy again, but I just wanted to say that.
― Masonic Boom, Sunday, 25 March 2012 07:54 (twelve years ago) link
Sexism, like racism, is a branch of 'pejudice'.
The idea that you can be pre-judged by people who know little about you.
― Mark G, Sunday, 25 March 2012 09:49 (twelve years ago) link
pre-judice, obv
Well, you're right that 'emotional intelligence' is not what's lacking in these guys' attitudes toward women and ideas about 'how women process art' etc-- it is plain sexism. And i know it's dumb that it surprises me sometimes when it turns out someone who I thought I respected holds these prejudices.
But I was meaning to cite 'emotional intelligence' as a global problem with that board, which is to say these guys interact with other like children, constantly attacking/trolling each other over the tiniest perceived slights, holding these annoying vendettas against each other, etc etc, so that it's a lucky thing if there even is any discussion of music. And then one of the few posters who actually does talk about music intelligently shows his colors as an old school sexist and it's just ugh fuck life.
ITT I basically just wanted to give a shout-out to a fellow film music nerd and say 'sorry about those assholes.'
― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Sunday, 25 March 2012 14:35 (twelve years ago) link
I didn't see your responses until now! Have you posted in that thread/what's your user name? I don't post on FSM much but I'm glad to find that someone else on ILX also posts there. I wish there were a better place to read about and discuss film music. It's far from my main musical passion, but I do enjoy having a nice discussion about Herrmann from time to time.
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
OK, that makes sense, Jon, thanks for the clarification. And yeah, I suppose I should find it more surprising but I'm cynical - and find it more disappointed than surprising, I guess.
Film music is, oddly, one of my blind spots - in that it's something I should know a lot more about than I do, but that's mostly a result of my film deafness, rather than lack of interest, because, actually, I think the first 2 (possibly 3?) albums I ever bought were all soundtracks, back when albums were something I bought once every 6 months when I'd saved up my pocket money. I often think that it *should* be a way in, to film, for me. And many of the films I've managed to love or even obsess over, are ones where the soundtracking is very important to it - I guess I'm thinking of the close association between sci fi (and horror) and early electronic music. (Ironically, the only film of the past 10 years or so, whose soundtrack really moved me was Moon)
Could you maybe do an ILX thread? (Not sure if it would go on ILE or ILF or ILM) Is there one already?
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Sunday, 25 March 2012 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
lol your display name
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 16:02 (twelve years ago) link
(I had to write a cheesecake with that name. I just *had* to.)
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Sunday, 25 March 2012 16:04 (twelve years ago) link
Where do you post such things when you're done with them?
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link
The Cheesecake Archive but I don't think that one is approved yet.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 25 March 2012 16:27 (twelve years ago) link
What user name are you using there?
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link
My primary interest in the last 15 or so years has been classical music; I started getting fascinated with film music about 4 years ago because of how it uses the classical music toolbox to accomplish a quite different set of aims. I actually don't even see very many movies! I prefer to listen to the composers' angle on the story and let my sense of the film be sort of vaporous/vague.
I don't think there's ever been a hardy film music thread on ILM. Actually, I feel like a lot of ppl who would comment on such a thread keep to the ILE side. Maybe it's worth a try though.
(Melissa, my user name on fsm is my real name. I post rather sparsely there but read it frequently).
― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Sunday, 25 March 2012 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, for me my interest in film music is an extension of my interest in classical music. I'm not into the geeking out over Jerry Goldsmith or John Williams side of it at all (which most of FSM seems to be).
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 17:51 (twelve years ago) link
I really like megaliths. And long barrows. And White Horses. And megalithic long barrows that happen to be in the Vale of the White Horse near the Wlitshire / Oxfordshire border where the PRS has rambled and Pop was buried? Put those together - or just look on the recent stories, you'll work it out.
Sorry to be so cryptic. I'm still weird about it.
Jon that might be a cool thread - I know I've had discussions w ILXors (ESP Elvis Telecom) but that might have been on twitter.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 25 March 2012 17:56 (twelve years ago) link
X-post ok that's probably me and my Vangelis records out. ;-)
And I've just realized you were asking Jon not me so disregard previous post, stupid iPhone.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 25 March 2012 17:58 (twelve years ago) link
No, I asked you as well!
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 17:59 (twelve years ago) link
Are you on there? You can leave cryptic clues or just email me if you don't want to unmask.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 25 March 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
I shall email.
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 18:53 (twelve years ago) link
Done!
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
help I'm trapped in the stupidest argument I've ever had and I can't get out
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:06 (twelve years ago) link
What now? Step away from the computer when that happens. It saves so much annoyance in your life.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:23 (twelve years ago) link
STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER!!!
me?
YES, YOU
tee hee hee hee heee
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1fkof2wza1qerwoao1_400.gif
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
I'm trying to step away from the computer but The Stupidest Argument I've Ever Had keeps beckoning.
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:31 (twelve years ago) link
Is it stupider than whether or not artichoke hearts = a metaphor for oral sex?
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
Well, I'm arguing with someone who just basically said male privilege doesn't exist "because soldiers in Afghanistan".
― Melissa W, Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, one of those. Who believes that feminism is not true because, well, Patriarchy Hurts Men Too?
I used to have a great myth-busting link which went through and demolished all over those, but I, uh, lost it when I left my job.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:41 (twelve years ago) link
Ah, found it.
http://fortyshadesofgrey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/female-privilege-checklist-agogo.html
and also
http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/faq-female-privilege/
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:46 (twelve years ago) link
Melissa, just walk away for 12 hours. They are adult children, they'll start tearing into each other if you leave them to it for awhile. Gah, that paragraph about soldiering, so stupid.
(BTW I listen to shit-tons of Goldsmith, you might as well know that now-- but I know what you mean)
― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Sunday, 25 March 2012 21:47 (twelve years ago) link
just tell them you need to shave twice a day otherwise you get a beard while guys only need to shave once a day, that's bound to shut them up ;)
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Sunday, 25 March 2012 21:58 (twelve years ago) link
I have such a headache, which just won't seem to go away, no matter how many tablets I take. I hate those kind of multi-day headaches, where you go to bed and you can't get to sleep because you have a headache, then you wake up early and you just want to moan and put a pillow over your head because you have a headache.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Monday, 26 March 2012 08:53 (twelve years ago) link
i hate them too.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Monday, 26 March 2012 08:58 (twelve years ago) link
Today is a bad Nothingness and Purposelessness day and I think I should get off the interweb. :-(
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Monday, 26 March 2012 09:34 (twelve years ago) link
Firing someone is not a pleasant job. Tears. Apologies. And then during the night sleeplessness and nightmares. Bah.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 10:54 (twelve years ago) link
Oh god, I'm sorry to hear that. Did they at least know that it was a possibility, or did you have to break it to them as a surprise? That must be so awful, for both of you, especially since it's someone who's been with you for so long. Are you going to be OK, financially? 6 months salary is a lot to come up with, even at a good time, in a financial crisis, that's got to hurt.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 27 March 2012 11:31 (twelve years ago) link
We can only hope she finds a job very quickly so we don't need to pay those six months. She hadn't realized it was this bad off. But I didn't want to burden her with it (until now of course). I feel really bad because I quite like her. But otoh she has this long pay out. We don't have *zilch* as back-up. Anyway, we'll see... It's no the end of the world. We just need to get through this year (in my optimistic opinion). If we get through 2012 whole, then I think/hope we can manage.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 12:21 (twelve years ago) link
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s320x320/379039_325044460842048_100000094897907_1356940_1041793192_n.jpg
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 21:41 (twelve years ago) link
I'm too tired for (more than a handful of) words, rassensassenfrassen' work, it's eating me up, sorry you guys are having bad times.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 21:44 (twelve years ago) link
I have spent the day at the National Gallery losing myself in medieval Italian art and falling head over heels in love with 17th Century Diplomat/Spy/Agent/Art Dealers. Or rather, just one. With astonishing cheekbones. Why are we separated by 4 Centuries? we were meant to be together.
http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Van_Dyck_George_Gage_Looking_at_a_Statuette_1621-2.jpg
(This may be the wine and the limoncello talking.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 27 March 2012 22:00 (twelve years ago) link
he looks kind of like tilda swinton!
― aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 22:02 (twelve years ago) link
He is pretty.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 22:06 (twelve years ago) link
I'm in a hotel on campus at Warwick University. I'm exhausted & need to be up early tomorrow and will have a long day, but I'm not *sleepy* because I fell asleep the minute I hit my hotel room earlier and slept for over an hour. On the upside, the unplanned nap cut my headache in half.
Oh well. I have all the Anne books on audio, I will put Anne of Avonlea back on, it is dreadful stuff, but seems to work better than prozac for shutting the anxiety off.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 22:14 (twelve years ago) link
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1kjrffTvj1qbmduso1_500.gif
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 01:56 (twelve years ago) link
He is Thom Yorke channelling Tilda Swinton in Orlando = HE IS MY DREAM MAN.
I've been doing that quite a lot, too, lately. At least, the falling asleep too early because I am exhausted, and then waking up a few hours later and being unable to sleep at all. Considering you, me and Nath and our sleepless nights, we should add "insomniacs society" to the thread title.
And now I need to have a little moan that probably no one but MW will get, but I need to moan because this has made me feel awful for the second day running.
Why do people feel the need to give bad/negative reviews on amateur fiction sites? By which I mean, yes, fan fiction sites? There's something just so small and mean-spirited about it. I really do believe that in the world of fan fiction, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. It's *not* professional fiction, you're paying nothing for it except your time, and if you don't like a story, it's really easy to hit the back button and find something you do like.
If something's actually poorly written (grammatically incorrect, plotholes, whatevs) then that's fair enough - my response, when I was an editor, would be to write *privately* and say "Hey, your work shows potential, but I think you could really do with a beta editor." Because fan fiction is often so much more personal than other forms of art, it's just *rude* to publicly attack it.
I just feel really shit because I've received 2 bad reviews in as many mornings, and it's got me down. Yes, I know, I don't take criticism of any kind well (I was near suicidal over some of the reviews when I put out a pop album.) But it's just... my life feels so grey and hopeless right now, fanfic is the shiny happy place I go to feel better. It feels like people are determined to ruin even my happy-place for me.
One of them was just so off-base (completely misread a passage where I was praising something, as my "making fun of it") that it was easily dismissed. But the other one was just... whu? The complaint was "this is just straight-up wish fulfillment" which is like... HUH? ALL FAN FICTION IS WISH FULFILLMENT IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. Please show me a piece of fan fiction that isn't wish fulfillment - whether that wish is "I wish I could have sex with Thom Yorke" or "I wish Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood would have sex with each other, so I can watch" or "I wish that minor character or throwaway comment or lyric had been expanded on" or "I wish my favourite television show hadn't been cancelled after the second series." This is the nature of the thing. Complaining about wish fulfillment in fan fiction is like complaining about sugar in candy.
The problem is, my head always goes and fills in the rest of what I think they're complaining about - like, OMG, yes, it's terrible that I made the lead character someone who is not actually in the band - and even worse, godhelpus, a woman. Because I wrote it in first character, that means that that character is a MarySue and an Author Insert, because all original characters written by women are MarySues and Author Inserts. Maybe my "wishes" that I was fulfilling were too far away from their wishes. Or, more likely, that they were too *close* - I had at least two people email me after reading the story, saying "thank you for writing out something I've always secretly wanted to do with the band" (ironically, neither of them were sex-related at all.) - and they were embarrassed by their own fantasy. Or realising that other people shared that fantasy and they weren't such a special snowflake.
I don't know! Writing this out here has actually made me feel a bit better about it, but I'm still smarting. And that makes me not want to do it any more. Which basically means that one of the few last things that really brought me pleasure in life is gone. Well, I suppose I can always just write it and not publish it. But that makes me angry, like other people's prohibitions are keeping me from doing something I really want to do.
But god I hate people right now. :-(
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 08:16 (twelve years ago) link
I know the short answer is "get a life, then you won't care so much about this stupid shit."
But the thing is, as an ~artist~ (cue sound of violins playing and jack up the pretentiousness) my work p much *is* much life.
And yes, I know that lots of people don't consider fanfic to be art but I don't draw any difference between any of the things I do, drawing, writing, songwriting, fanfic, whatever. It all comes from the same place.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 08:22 (twelve years ago) link
The damn shame of it is, is that all (or, nearly all) crit/reviewing of any kind of art/production is 'performed' by someone who got it/in free.
I liked John Lydon's comment to some music journalist who was 'discussing' why he was playing Sex Pistols songs during his PIL gigs, "Did you get in to the gig free? Yeah? You know, that's fine, that's OK, just don't come on like you're my employer!"
― Mark G, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 08:29 (twelve years ago) link
No, that's completely different. When someone is reviewing a gig, for the media, they are doing a job. They are paid for the service, that's fair enough. They are paid for their opinion, and they should write their considered opinion.
When someone does a free review (they chose to hit that "review" button and use their time, for free, to give their opinion) of a free piece of art, it's like... you chose, to spend your time and effort - just to be nasty to someone? Why?
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 08:32 (twelve years ago) link
(Actually, what would make me feel better would probably be to sign up with a fake name, find their shitty stories, and go through correcting their work like a total grammar pedant. But that would *really* be a waste of time.)
((What I am going to do is get off the internet, buy bananas for breakfast, and spend today drawing, in the style of Van Dyke, because I was reminded of how much I love him. My early sketchbooks are full of copies of his self portraits, looking very fey and Cavalier.))
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 08:37 (twelve years ago) link
I would also help if I could spell Van DYCK which I clearly can't.
He was such a honey.
http://www.studio-international.co.uk/studio-images/rubens-van-dyck10/RVD410-01-b.jpg
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 08:40 (twelve years ago) link
Fuck this, seriously. Exacerbated by PMT and sleep deprivation, I know.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 08:45 (twelve years ago) link
um, maybe because they want to be that guy.
The one that gets paid to provide their opinion.
I think the distinction is that if you are putting your art up saying "pay me (or, someone) for this", then it 'invites' someone to say "no, it is not worth it"
Whereas if someone is doing it purely for the pleasure of it, it is rude to have someone else crapping on it purely because they think they can be Mr Book Reviewer.
(xposts, sorry took ages to think/type that.)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 09:02 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that's almost there, but I don't think they're looking for a job as a reviewer - or if they are, they're seriously looking in the wrong place.
It's just like... yeah, I know there are two attitudes towards "Music Criticism."
There's a whole school of thought which is all, "if you're going to spend £10 on an album or a book or whatever, here's a guide to tell you whether it's worth buying." Which is what 90% of published music criticism really is, in a nutshell. (The other 10% being the lifestyle journalism which is all, "If you want to seem like X kind of a person, listen to X music.") In which case, harsh or negative reviews are totally part of the job, and to be expected. It actually takes some talent to review a record in this style, in a way that says "I can't stand this record, but if this description appeals to you, go ahead and blow your £10."
Obviously, there's the other school of criticism which is "OMG, I just love this artist SO SO MUCH, you need to hear this, you need to have this in your life, because this piece of art will just improve your life immeasurably in every way and make you as happy as I feel, when experiencing this art!" Which I obviously, personally love, because I like stupid things like passion and enthusiasm.
But the downside to that school of criticism is that kind of Whiney-Dom axis which is "I hate this so much that everyone who likes it is stupid and I aim to dislike it as actively as possible and make people hate themselves for liking it that they end up hating it as much as I do."
Which really makes me want to stab the world in the fucking eyeballs.
I don't actually think that any of these motivations were the motivations of the two bad reviews I just got, though, I honestly think they really just thought I needed to get taken down a peg.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 10:14 (twelve years ago) link
You say they also 'write', are they competing for the same audience as you?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 10:33 (twelve years ago) link
It's an amateur site! It's not like there's anything to compete for!
Like, what, did my story get more views or more reviews than theirs? Even I'm not that petty.
Just.
I had a bit of a moan about it, but I feel awful for feeling butthurt.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 15:52 (twelve years ago) link
Wait, I know. I am the only writer to have used the word "santorum" in a Cheesecake. I win at ~lyfe~.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 16:08 (twelve years ago) link
I think that one of the things that's going on is that fandom in general (not just RH fandom but the whole concept of fandom as this overarching thing) has changed a lot in the past decade or so. Original female characters as leads in fic are considered unfashionable and gauche now, as something that only old school authors or Twilight fans might do. It's weird, because as you say it all comes out of wish fulfillment, but for some reason that specific form of wish fulfillment is currently looked down upon.
― Melissa W, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 17:53 (twelve years ago) link
No, trust me, female leads looked down on, back in 1995 when I first started publishing fan fiction on the web. They were looked down on the early 00s when I gave up and stopped writing fanfic. They were looked down on in 2007/8 when I started writing fanfic again. It is one of the near universals of fan fiction, for as long as I've been involved in fan fiction, that among many, many people, writing female leads is considered bad, awful, hated, and no matter how well developed the character is, will be derided as a "MarySue" or written off as a self insert. And it does not matter if the character *is* actually a MarySue or a self insert, it is actually the femaleness of the character that is so bad and hated. It's the same thinly disguised female loathing of femaleness that prompts female fans to specify "but I'm a ~real fan~ not - like those groupies!"
It is an attitude in fan fiction that I hate as much as I generally love the whole concept of fan fiction itself, and I have no time for it, no matter who it's coming from.
And when people talk about "wish fulfillment" and self inserts and JonnySues - my god. Everybody has their thing in any fandom that they hate. What I really particularly hate is those "Schoolboy Radiohead" stories that are set at a school which is not recognisable as *any* English boarding school, let alone Abingdon, but very clearly stinks of the suburban American high school where *that* particular writer happens to go, with all all her mates thinly disguised - *that* drives me up the fucking wall. But you know what? I recognise that's what many, many people, especially teenage girls, love in their fan fiction and *I* don't feel the need to go and leave snotty little comments on their stories telling them how I don't like them.
tl;dr: woman-hating women, active in your fandom since whenever.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 18:11 (twelve years ago) link
I mean, the whole reason that E-Me! *featured* three central female leads in its headline stories was to counteract the endless parade of "thou shalt never write women" slash-centric fan fiction.
Whenever I spend any serious amount of time in fan fiction fandom, I come to the conclusion that I love fan fiction, but although I find slash titillating as a concept, I really fucking hate the weirdly inherent misogyny of many of its supporters.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 18:15 (twelve years ago) link
I think it's slightly more complicated than that, because prominent original characters in general are regarded with a certain amount of suspicion or resentment, regardless of their gender and regardless of whether the fic is slash/femslash/het/gen. There's definitely a huge aspect of "eww, girls!" to the general attitude towards OFCs, but I think there's something else going on, though I'm not sure what motivates it.
― Melissa W, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 18:26 (twelve years ago) link
It's inherent in pop culture at large - there's a reason that so many movies - AND SO MANY BANDS - fail the Bechdel test. Because they are programmed to.
How else do you get female characters into a narrative that has none? You either queer up the male characters and make slash, or you invent original characters and make MarySues.
I mean, I know *why* original characters have a bad rep, because of a million and one PotterSues clogging up the fanosphere. But that's a question of bad writing, not an inherent flaw in original characters. It is completely ironic, given how many other people - the vast majority of people who commented or emailed, actually - told me how much they had become attached to Fiona (the original character) and "Ruth" (the semi-canonical/semi-original) So much so that when I made the choice to end the story in the middle, rather than let it run on to the bit were the two original (female) characters' stories kind of started to dominate over the pop star - people actually started commenting and emailing me and asking me to finish it because they wanted to know how things worked out between the 3 central characters.
So, for once, I actually don't think I'm seeing things when I say, this was not actually a problem with original characters, this was a problem with a story dominated by *female* characters.
And given the ending of the story, it was actually really *ironic* that the snippy commenter said "wish fulfillment" - like, uuuhhh...
Anyway, this is kind of swinging too far from the political to the personal. I don't think it's any mystery why people dislike original characters, but I also don't think it's any mystery why some writers feel the *need* to insert (female) original characters. I get really tired of reading all-male world narratives all the time. Including even my beloved slash.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
I know this is bitching about a bad review and blaming sexism, which is bad form, really.
But it's like... she has the right to hate my story. She has the right to hate all my characters and everything about the story. But when your complaint about a story is that it's "just wish fulfillment" because it's Het, while somehow STUFF THAT IS EQUALLY WISH FULFILLMENT but is all-male is somehow ... not?
I'm sick of all male worlds and all male narratives. I will disrupt them in any way possible.
I wish ILX came with a delete post button like every other forum in the universe, but I suppose if it did, I would have a post count of, like, 3 posts. :-(
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link
Multiple x-posts (not read most of the thread).
If you like Mabey's Beechcombings, I'd also recommend Deakin's Wildwood and Notes from Walnut Tree Farm.
Some mentions here:
The Nature Reader
― djh, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 20:03 (twelve years ago) link
bring it
but be understanding
― mookieproof, Thursday, 29 March 2012 07:10 (twelve years ago) link
Well now several other regulars have said they thought it was unnecessary, she's being all "oh well I didn't think it was negative."
Oh well. Yeah and I don't think you're being disingenuous or even stupid, just incredibly insensitive.
But I am filled with anger and unhappy and PMT today so I will just avoid everything.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 29 March 2012 07:36 (twelve years ago) link
Why, if the internet is so boring and hateful, can't I ever seem to get off it?
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 29 March 2012 09:03 (twelve years ago) link
ok. now i'm confused. i thought WCC = Masonic Boom.
― mark e, Thursday, 29 March 2012 10:14 (twelve years ago) link
One is me on my iPhone which tends to be cheerful & playful (& full of spelling errors) coz I'm out & about, the other tends to be me on my desktop sat in my bedroom navelgazing and hating life. Sorry for the confusion.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 29 March 2012 10:33 (twelve years ago) link
ahh ! having no such gadgets, such a situation would never have occurred to me.
― mark e, Thursday, 29 March 2012 10:43 (twelve years ago) link
Americans be SPLAININ' P-Celtic to me. My a gar.
::rolls eyes::
Pur skwith ov, Ny wrav vy mos dhe yeth an werin, haneth. Gav dhymm.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 29 March 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
You're probably not even reading this any more, Melissa, but... now it seems that they're just not approving updates to my story any more. Like, it had been sitting in the approval queue for several days now, and I thought that someone had gone on holiday (that's what happened before, the last time that happened) but now other stories are getting approved ahead of me.
And no one actually bothered getting in contact with me, to explain why (is it because of this one person who thought I was being *mean* about other stories I was actually praising, despite the fact that I explained exactly what I meant, and no one else who read the story thought I was?) or anything like that, it's just.... nothing.
I'm so bad tempered and insomniac and PMT right now that any little thing is going to set me off crying, but this is just really pissing me off.
I hate everything, and everyone right now. Why does everything have to be so damned difficult? I know that everyone thinks I'm awkward and horrible and a pain in the arse, and they usually wish I would just go away, but why does it have to be so fraught, the one thing that was bringing me any pleasure?
Everything i do turns to shit. Always.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Saturday, 31 March 2012 03:49 (eleven years ago) link
I really need to put some kind of time-lock on my modem so I can't get on the internet at 4am when I'm feeling like that. It's never as bad the next morning, and it's embarrassing to see your midnight paranoia all out there.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Saturday, 31 March 2012 09:08 (eleven years ago) link
Maybe they're going in reverse chronological order? It's all a bit haphazard there, things can get missed. I don't think that many people have access to the approval queue so things can get a bit backed up if someone's not on top of it all. I very much doubt that your story has been deemed unacceptable or anything.
― Melissa W, Saturday, 31 March 2012 10:25 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah some of the other girls said they were waiting on updates for their stories, too.
I got totally paranoid bcz one of the admins said that my latest story was "making fun of" otter stories when that was the last thing I was doing, I was actually showing huge amounts of affection + love for fan fiction in general and those authors in particular but expressed through the mouth of a sarcastic Brit.
But it's really impossible for me to be objective about stuff like that when it's 4am and I'm in the grips of the black dog and I go into that kind of flailing panic of paranoia.
I hate my brain, I hate what it does to me sometimes.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Saturday, 31 March 2012 11:01 (eleven years ago) link
Other stories not otter stories.
Jonny as an otter would be great, though. Ha!
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Saturday, 31 March 2012 11:02 (eleven years ago) link
Eep. So I have a job interview next week. Apparently.
Oh paper it looks like a great match but oh boy I'm not sure I'm prepared to start actually going for this again.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Monday, 2 April 2012 16:04 (eleven years ago) link
Excellent! Plus!
― Mark G, Monday, 2 April 2012 16:11 (eleven years ago) link
It'd mean going back to Financial Services, too, when I was pretty keen to stay on the Medical side of data but, argh.
Does anyone know any good SQL tests online? I took one as practice but I got 100% (on 15 questions) in like 2 and a half minutes so I think I need a harder test. (What's the difference between WHERE and HAVING? Come on! Too easy.)
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Monday, 2 April 2012 16:17 (eleven years ago) link
Great news! I don't know of any hard SQL tests though, sorry.
I've just knocked off work for the day, it is... nearly half past midnight, and I'm not nearly done with the doings that need doing, but my brain has kind of gone crunch so y'know, sooner or later you have to try and switch off. But how? I'm so wired now my jaw feels like it's on fire and my eyes are trying to crawl out of the backs of my eye sockets and hide in my brain-space.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Wednesday, 4 April 2012 23:25 (eleven years ago) link
k are we both learning sql to get out of the medical data field
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 5 April 2012 03:35 (eleven years ago) link
cause that would be weird
Probably the best way to test yourself on SQL is to just do it. Install MySQL and get a decent book and go to town. I'm mostly self-taught from constantly practicing at my last job amidst my prescribed tasks. It's kinda sad how proficient I am, because I cannot imagine ever wanting to do anything with that knowledge again.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 03:41 (eleven years ago) link
Ah, I did a SQL 'test' that one company had sent me the link for, I thought "ar, nae bother" and just went for it. The required pass mark was 85% and I got 80%, so that was the end of that one. (and I'm good at the SQL). should have 'revised' or at the very least had google open on another tab.
That's the thing, the actual 'quality' tests are srsly guarded off.
― Mark G, Thursday, 5 April 2012 05:47 (eleven years ago) link
LOL, no, I'm not learning SQL, I've been a SQL programmer for like 10 years. I just have to take a stupid test to prove that I can do it, and I get stupidly nervous about tests. I aced the last official one I took, and that was before another 3 years of experience (and a SQL admin course) so I don't know what I'm worried about.
And I want to *stay* in medical data, I don't want to go back to Financial Services. I hate the Finance world.
Not least because I've spent too many nights like Zora, still working when it's nearly midnight.
I was wondering where you'd been, girl, but I figured you were extra busy with work.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 5 April 2012 07:47 (eleven years ago) link
My experiences with the Financial World have been either it's late nights etcet, or it's 'almost nothing to do'...
― Mark G, Thursday, 5 April 2012 09:59 (eleven years ago) link
Another nibble for a job in a rural Oxfordshire town with CASTLES and LUMPS and looks tweely pretty as fuck so bad I want to go and live in a gingerbread and marzipan cottage there. But alas, it looks far too developer-y for me and not reporting oriented. Specialisation, I hate you so much. It's like all this stuff seems exactly the same to headhunters when they see "SQL" but you have to read between the lines of a job description.
I've no doubt that I could do it, if placed in front of the tools, it's just that I have very little experience in doing it, so convincing someone to let you do it is tough.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 5 April 2012 10:37 (eleven years ago) link
POCKET SIZED DRONEROCK BOY
http://cache.krop.com/stevekeros-4f4a830fff4b65.jpg
I mean, I know. Perspective and all, but he *is* tiny. Squeeee.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 5 April 2012 12:08 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCsn_MUHTOs
^^^^^droppin' hints
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 10:17 (eleven years ago) link
Job interview today. First one in I don't know how long, like I've forgotten how to do them.
Been told I have to take a SQL test, so I boned up on code, then got told yesterday it will be "mostly on theory" like WTF is the "theory" or SQL? Are these the things I missed going to art school instead of doing a computer science degree?
Anyway I don't even know why I'm posting on this thread, it's like tumbleweed and I should accept it.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 11 April 2012 08:47 (eleven years ago) link
Relational theory maybe? I dunno, I didn't do computer science either.
― The Eyeball Of Hull (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 11 April 2012 11:48 (eleven years ago) link
Entity Integrity? WTF is Entity Integrity?
And all that 1st form, 2nd form, 3rd form normal? I have no idea.
It was a super hard test, and every time I felt confident, it had an algorithm to make the questions harder if you got them right. Fiendish.
Anyway I was totally bummed coz I only got an 85 on the test, but they were really impressed with that anyway.
We shall see.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 12 April 2012 08:13 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah normal forms is relational theory stuff. I did look up all that stuff when I was looking to leave my last job, although my new job doesn't really involve much hardcore SQL at all. In fact it involves almost no SQL because most of the database access is handled (or obfuscated as it seems to me at the moment) via an ORM.
I was reading a book called SQL and Relational Theory that goes into those concepts. Some of it is only really useful on an academic basis, like having any nullable columns at all diverges from the relational model and is wrong. Try doing that in any database I've ever worked in will leave you in over-normalisation hell very quickly.
― The Eyeball Of Hull (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:38 (eleven years ago) link
I read up on all that stuff when I was learning database design, decided I would build everything to 3nf, then forgot all about it. I guess it's all just second nature now - I would probably have failed yr test.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:57 (eleven years ago) link
I don't know that I ever learned any of that stuff but it just kind of came instinctively through having a balance between well stored data and easily inputtable and accessible data and not having nightmare queries.
Either way, I've been called back for a second interview and the CEO wants to meet me (apparently this is standard for this company tho still nerve-wracking) so, um, yay me?
I guess it's just weird coz I'm realising how much my confidence was ripped to shreds by the stuff that went down at my last job, but coming back to realise that my skills are highly desirable to some companies, and the personality quirks that some places see as negative, others see as major selling points?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 12 April 2012 12:47 (eleven years ago) link
yay you!
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:16 (eleven years ago) link
yay
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:46 (eleven years ago) link
yes
― Mark G, Thursday, 12 April 2012 21:11 (eleven years ago) link
I really wish ILX had a reverse killfile so you could prevent your posts from ever being seen by someone. When it's like, "You don't like me, I don't like you. If you can't read me without sticking your condescending oar in, then just stay off threads you can see I started and don't fucking read me at all."
I was having a really super super good day, and now it's taken specific dudes who just can't help sticking their oars in, and I'm angry and riled when I should be going to bed. Why did I even look?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 12 April 2012 23:27 (eleven years ago) link
hurrah for the second interview, when is it?
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Friday, 13 April 2012 11:07 (eleven years ago) link
Next Tuesday.
I feel very much like I'm coming down with the flu today, so I really hope I'm over it by then. :-/
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Friday, 13 April 2012 11:18 (eleven years ago) link
that boots first defence stuff is pretty effective ime - a couple of times when i've felt like i'm coming down with something i've taken it, and i've still gone under the weather a bit but have still been functional, able to work and think and move etc
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Friday, 13 April 2012 11:46 (eleven years ago) link
Yes but that would involve getting out of bed and walking up to Boots (which would necessitate having a shower and changing out of my pyjamas.)
I think I'll just load up on Vitamin C and try to sleep. I've taken ibuprofen and codeine and it's not moved my headache at all, so I think it's best to just lie very still with a pillow over my head and a hat covering mine ears.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Friday, 13 April 2012 11:58 (eleven years ago) link
Hope you're feeling better now, my own experience is that these treatments take unaccoutably different amounts of time to kick in from one occasion to another, even if the dose is the same.
Good luck with the second interview! I'm sure you'll be over the flu by then.
I very rarely post new threads of my own these days, but I would be interested to know what Watercooler folk think about
this thread about stimuli, decision making and consciousness
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 13 April 2012 13:51 (eleven years ago) link
Making a decision -- is this an indicator of consciousness?
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 13 April 2012 13:52 (eleven years ago) link
Although I have nothing against philosophical discussion, I don't feel like I have the knowledge or expertise to contribute?
Nice picture of Thom Yorke's tits, though. Totally approve.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Friday, 13 April 2012 15:19 (eleven years ago) link
I has a job offer!
We've agreed that I start 1st May. I'm going to go to Cornwall for a week's holiday before then to clear my head and get rid of any leftover bad vibes from the way my last role ended - and then I will have to abandon ILX during office hours in order to concentrate on my awesome new role.
Although I can't talk about the company or the role because I'll be dealing with some sensitive information, I'm actually really excited about what it entails. This could be great.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:09 (eleven years ago) link
Ex+
― Mark G, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:18 (eleven years ago) link
looks like it's all worked out brilliantly - first time of asking, and i think i saw you tweet that the commute's easy too? and time for a holiday first too!
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:25 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, it's in Croydon which is half an hour away by bus, and in the opposite direction from London so not crowded.
I'm just so... that was too easy.
Because I'm used to looking for a job being a long, drawn out and torturous experience of desperation and settling for the least horrible option. This has just been so different. Partly because my headhunter was a dream to deal with - partly because it does just seem like a good fit between what they need and what they have (which means the headhunter did their research really well.)
But I suppose it's because I saved up enough money that I wasn't desperate. I didn't put my CV in for any jobs I didn't really want to be doing. I think I submitted maybe half a dozen CVs, instead of a hundred. I was really choosey, even when just speaking to headhunters about what they had on offer.
I just keep looking for the catch because this is literally the only job I've properly interviewed for (not counting phone interviews, which don't count) and ... it can't be that easy, you know? It just feels like sheer blind luck. I've had such shitty job luck for the past 5 years, how can I have suddenly got a burst of good luck in the middle of a double dip recession?
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:35 (eleven years ago) link
well, not entirely luck - you know you're skilled, prob more than most candidates, in your field, and the headhunter really does sound like the key to matching up your skills with a company that needs them - where did you hook up w/the headhunter? to have a go-between matching you up rather than flailing at job applications yourself sounds amazing.
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:40 (eleven years ago) link
I guess I should really have more confidence in my skills - like, taking a programming test I so thought I was going to fail, and then scoring higher than any candidate they'd ever seen. But also accepting the things that are negatives in one job are viewed as positives in another.
Like, being a person who is really concerned with ethics and honesty and accuracy was such a negative in my last role - because that was a company that basically sold lies. Like, the Beauty Myth stuff they were pushing all day long, it is one giant lie, so I shouldn't have been surprised when they ended up deeply implicated in a massive scandal. But when the company you're interviewing for has as part of its ethos an evaluating, watch-doggy and sometimes even regulatory role, to turn up and say "I will never lie, not even with statistics, and I am never going to sugar-coat data ever again" then they view that as a massive positive and makes you more qualified for the role. I was so scared that the reason I left my last job was going to be a massive negative black mark on my Permanent Record, but to these people, it was like "you are EXACTLY the kind of person we are looking for."
But yeah, the headhunter did some really good matching and filtering and it's just such a relief to have dealt with someone who was like that, instead of those kinds of agencies where they just try to shoehorn you into whatever is open. If anyone ever needs an IT agent, email me and I'll pass on the guy's details, because he was really good.
― Popcorn Supergay Receiver (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:53 (eleven years ago) link
Hey all. Bit of a headfuck round our way this week. Work is still bonkers. My April writing challenge has been a washout due to work. Pater is having a meltdown. And now a long-lost uncle has crawled out of the woodwork and is causing consternation. Pigeons, meet cat.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
Ms Masonic have you seenhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-17897467
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Monday, 30 April 2012 14:36 (eleven years ago) link
One of them was Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, who is performing at the town's Princess Pavilion later.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Monday, 30 April 2012 16:09 (eleven years ago) link
Just got sent home early (before the lunch they pay for, typically my sole quality meal of the day) from temp hospital job because I've got a cold and you can't have a cold in a hospital. Also informed that "because we're working so fast" I won't be needed on Friday, and that the final week I may not be needed at all. So there goes my plan for July rent. Fucking fuck. I'm gonna go home and sleep for 20 hours or so.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 14:38 (eleven years ago) link
that sucks hoos
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:53 (eleven years ago) link
Wau, I am feeling so crappy. Still not unemployed :( The b@nk just extended me until end Sept. Why do I not have the bollocks to just say 'no thanks'? I am exhausted, frustrated, and creatively bankrupt.
Meh.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Thursday, 31 May 2012 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
Because it's really scary to take that step into the unknown? Because a bird in the hand in a tough economic climate etc?
I know I owe you email! I thought of you the other day when I read the Guardian banker blog and they did the IT consultant.
All I can say is, things sometimes work out. Like, I am 100x happier in my current job. It's like a black cloud of anger & constant stress / bitterness / unhappiness has been lifted. Sometimes you gotta just close your eyes and take the leap - but it takes a lot of trust, mostly in yourself.
― Dixie Narco Martenot (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Friday, 1 June 2012 06:44 (eleven years ago) link
I'm not unemployed any more, but this seems to be the thread where I talked most about woods.
I've been reading Roger Deakin's Wildwood and now I am consumed with the desire to visit David Nash's Ash Dome.
22 (there's that bloody number again) ash trees in a woods, all bent inwards in a kind of dance to form a dome, eventually to be woven together.
http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images/159506/708539.jpg
I am liking the Roger Deakin book loads, but for some reason I keep having to stop reading it to have a bit of a think and almost a cry because it's so full of hiraeth but also beauty. Things which are already lost and things which are slowly being lost.
― a cake made of all their eyes (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Wednesday, 13 June 2012 21:44 (eleven years ago) link
...and with leafs on.
http://c48743.r43.cf3.rackcdn.com/Images/2009_07/06/0008/218380/d25bf291-97ba-43c9-a5de-9fcb967b57fb_g_570.Jpeg
^^^^this basically makes me want to give up art forever, it's so lovely.
― a cake made of all their eyes (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Wednesday, 13 June 2012 21:46 (eleven years ago) link
that last one is a black metal logo right?
― it looks like something rupert the bear would wear (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 13 June 2012 21:48 (eleven years ago) link
Nothing to do with metal. Hippies if anything.
― a cake made of all their eyes (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Wednesday, 13 June 2012 21:49 (eleven years ago) link
wolves in the throne room?
― it looks like something rupert the bear would wear (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 13 June 2012 21:55 (eleven years ago) link
Ah, my unscheduled absence has been longer than I realised.
Don't worry about the email WCC, I know you will be busy wandering in the lands of New Job and I'm very pleased about that!
I thought of you on Sunday when they ran a piece about Cornish independence in the Observer - did you see it?
Today I summoned the strength to tell my bosses I wanted to quit. Senior boss offered to restructure the project so I have some autonomy. Junior boss was pretty peeved. Don't know how I feel.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:08 (eleven years ago) link
Come work for us! We're on an almost-scary boom right now.
I'm just cautious of the word "restructuring." It's never not meant "you do way more work, with less help" in my jobs.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Thursday, 28 June 2012 08:54 (eleven years ago) link
I woke up with the words "Fourier Transform" going through my head over and over. This confuses me, as I don't know what a Fourier Transform is, or where I would have heard of it, or why it's stuck in there, but it is.
I'm feeling a bit otherwise this weekend, which is mostly PMT or something. The usual crap. I'm sick of feeling misunderstood. I'm sick of feeling like the words I say or type cannot express the feelings in my head adequately to other people in a way that they actually understand what I mean. And I'm sick of feeling like other people are some species I do not currently and may never be able to understand. Not a nice feeling, but a familiar one. It's like the Welsh Dream, but we're all actually speaking English.
I don't know why I even typed this. Gravedh a wra gwaynya pub-prys.
― The Kelvin Helmholtz Instability (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Sunday, 16 September 2012 08:15 (eleven years ago) link
god dammit. god dammit. god dammit.
― tell the kids it's 卵 (clouds), Wednesday, 26 December 2012 23:10 (eleven years ago) link
sup clouds
― Confused Turtle (Zora), Thursday, 27 December 2012 00:48 (eleven years ago) link
might not be able to pay rent this month; not a single potential employer has responded. i've been looking for two months.
my partner has been carrying most of the burden since my last job ended and i'm scared that it'll ruin our relationship unless i find something soon.
i'm just so so sick of this. i can't do it.
― tell the kids it's 卵 (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:03 (eleven years ago) link
fuck it, i'm using part of my last $20 to buy another bottle of booze.
― tell the kids it's 卵 (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:18 (eleven years ago) link
best wishes, clouds, that is a horrible place to be and i hope you find something soon
― a panda, Malmö (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:22 (eleven years ago) link
I know how stressful it is when you get made redundant and have to whore yourself out again. It is unendurable shit sometimes. Best of luck Clouds.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:48 (eleven years ago) link
clouds, didn't you intentionally not return to a job that would have taken you back and now you're avoiding applying where you might have to endure the indignity of "a tucked in polo shirt"? a shitty job is still a job, and it's hard to have tons of sympathy re a relationship-ruining financial crisis that could easily be avoided.....
― (*・_・)ノ⌒ ☆ (Je55e), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:35 (eleven years ago) link
it is hard to have sympathy, isn't it
― nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:47 (eleven years ago) link
anyway
got a call from temp agency, asked me abt availability and stuff. hoping for something but hope it doesn't fall during my family visit.
― nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:48 (eleven years ago) link
good luck clouds
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:49 (eleven years ago) link
"Most people are inherently good"
strongly agreemostly agreenot sureslightly disagreestrongly disagree
― nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:00 (eleven years ago) link
most ppl are chaotic neutral
― mookieproof, Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:02 (eleven years ago) link
clouds bro every one of your last few posts has resonated with me in the worst ways.
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:03 (eleven years ago) link
but most especially
not a single potential employer has responded. i've been looking for two months.
and
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:04 (eleven years ago) link
on the plus side, i finally did find something a couple weeks back. so keep hope alive etc etc.
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:05 (eleven years ago) link
:\
i have a feeling even shitty places like target won't hire me because they do these disgusting and invasive credit checks and i have no credit — if i had good credit i wouldn't have to apply to fucking target would i??!!!
― nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:06 (eleven years ago) link
and yeah jesse i have resorted to applying to soul crushing retail, are you happy?
― nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:10 (eleven years ago) link
Best of luck clouds, you'll find something.
― capital in ruins, thousands dead (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:17 (eleven years ago) link
yr good enough, smart enough and goddammit people like u
imo
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:19 (eleven years ago) link
Quite happy that you've deigned to consider gainful employment after voluntarily leaving the same without a fall-back plan, not for the first time, yes.
― (*・_・)ノ⌒ ☆ (Je55e), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:23 (eleven years ago) link
do music/record stores still exist? they can usually use someone who knows classical music, although it's not a good time of year for it
― mookieproof, Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:23 (eleven years ago) link
ime retail often had a trenches bonhomie that comfortable office jobs lack, and ppl sometimes at least felt sorry for you, nobody feels sorry for the office guy, so tbh the real soukcrusher is the desk effort
― banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:23 (eleven years ago) link
there are a few record stores around here at which i'd love to work, but ppl tend to hang onto those jobs for dear life afaik
darragh otm — ppl think that b/c office jobs pay higher than min wage then the ppl suffering in them don't deserve sympathy. it's impossible gauge someone else's pain against yr own.
― nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:31 (eleven years ago) link
honestly i've never minded retail. there's just no way to make anything like a decent living at it.
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:32 (eleven years ago) link
i also got no calls from any of the retail jobs i applied to during my unemployment desperation.
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:33 (eleven years ago) link
it was the hours that got me, or i'd have done the mgmt courses and be earning half again what i do now
― banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:34 (eleven years ago) link
hey are we allowed mansplain in this thread now btw
― banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:35 (eleven years ago) link
(stifled lol)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:36 (eleven years ago) link
my last retail gig was selling high-end men's clothing which for anyone who knows me is an endless lol.
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:39 (eleven years ago) link
i've only got a low-end, i had to get that shit tailored
― banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:40 (eleven years ago) link
anyway hope s/thing comes up clouds, getting cash in has to take precedence over the fulfilling lifedream stuff most of the time ime, but i hope yr e works out at a balance you can live with in the longer term
― banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:42 (eleven years ago) link
"by your affirmative keystroke you authorize an investigative report concerning past employment, mode-of-living and general reputation"
fucking hell
― nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Friday, 28 December 2012 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
you have a lovely reputation, screw them: PUSH THE BUTTON AND LOOK THEM DEAD IN THE EYE
'them'
'eye'
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 December 2012 21:50 (eleven years ago) link
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, December 27, 2012 6:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
my job of 8 years is with a company that makes cooking tools, which for anyone who knows me is too lol to even be funny.
crossing my fingers for u clouds. want u to be able to buy albums and talk to me about them.
― ~farben~ (Jon Lewis), Friday, 28 December 2012 22:04 (eleven years ago) link
i don't know if there's a 2013 unemployed thread so i'm just gonna bump this one to propose the following:
so say you have a guy who's pushing 60 and has many years of experience as a computer programmer under his belt. and say his current company is letting him go because they're moving the office to another state and the guy doesn't want to move (and even if he did want to, he'd have to quit and then re-apply for the job he currently has). and say this guy doesn't really have enough to live off of for retirement to support both himself and his wife (who doesn't work), and that he has a whole host of health issues and a mortgage and other debts and bills to pay off on top of that.
in the year of our lord 2013, is this guy pretty much screwed?
― steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 18 March 2013 17:18 (eleven years ago) link
sounds like
― j., Monday, 18 March 2013 22:25 (eleven years ago) link
computer programming isn't the most age-friendly career, it's true, but it may also depend on what technologies he's familiar with. does sound like a bad situation though, good luck to him
(suspect someone more US-based would be better placed to provide specific advice, sorry)
― susuwatari teenage riot (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 18 March 2013 22:30 (eleven years ago) link
my dad was recently in this situation and he wound up getting a contract job with a cemetery. there are jobs out there, it's just a question of looking in perhaps unconventional places.
― maura, Monday, 18 March 2013 22:53 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, the guy is my dad, also
― steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 18 March 2013 23:11 (eleven years ago) link
there's at least some time before all this happens (his current job ends next year and he'll have a pretty decent severance package). and today he underwent some significant surgery that i'm optimistic will do wonders for him, so he'll be in better shape by the time he has to seriously start dealing with this
still, hell of a spot to be in :/
― steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 18 March 2013 23:16 (eleven years ago) link
It's rough, but having computer skills is one of the few ways "make money from home, ask me how" can work out for people.
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 18 March 2013 23:17 (eleven years ago) link
ugh, i just had one of my worst interviews ever.
pro (novice) tip: if you are doing a phone interview with a group in a conference room on the other end, they will not talk on the other end.
they will just sit there and let you yak until someone says 'we have to go on to the next question' and 'we're almost out of time'.
― j., Wednesday, 22 May 2013 16:51 (ten years ago) link
WCC painfully OTM upthread.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 15 July 2013 11:44 (ten years ago) link
Latest WTF experience while trying to apply for work: I am told that the employer is only looking for people who live in certified HUBZone neighborhoods. Excuse me for not being a gentrifying opportunist.
― Word Salad Username (j.lu), Monday, 27 January 2014 16:35 (ten years ago) link
I was once turned down for a 9-to-5 office job on the basis that I didn't own a car and the nearest bus stop was *gasp* a mile away. Like they really thought it impossible that someone could walk that far. I pointed out that as a child I'd walked a mile to school every day, but they were set in their views.
― And when you f--- up, you go backwards (snoball), Monday, 27 January 2014 16:40 (ten years ago) link
Well, I guess I'm back here is where I'm at.
I can talk to myself without feeling like my presence is stopping other people from talking to themselves. I can bitch about headhunters and their dumb ways to my heart's content. I can post pictures of dirty dronerock boys without feeling like I'm imposing on other people.
I have a limit on how much headhuntry I can deal with in a day. There comes a point where I don't want to be bright! and chirpy! and personable! and employable! any more. I am sick of explaining how an overinflated salary is not a compensation for treating your employees like they aren't human beings, or for having to deal with cnuts. I am sick of explaining that no, really, *insert random town in Hampshire* is not a reasonable commute from South London. I am really sick of having to take SQL tests administered by people who know zip about SQL.
Here is a hott boy, though he is neither dirty, nor particularly dronerock, either, but he has some pretty christmas tree lights.
https://31.media.tumblr.com/77e9416010e71a4aded50b65d3111b39/tumblr_n3er0xWF8Q1qgze9ho3_1280.png
― Branwell Bell, Thursday, 3 April 2014 12:04 (nine years ago) link
Is working from home an option for you (both personally, and is an option in your line of work)? Just curious - and feel free to tell me to STFU.
I've been working from home for 3.5 now and so I am curious about other people's opinions about it. I thought maybe the solitude would do my head in but in fact this hasn't been the case at all. I think going back to sharing an office *would* do my head in tho. Think I'd need my own office if I did.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 3 April 2014 12:32 (nine years ago) link
*3.5 years*
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 3 April 2014 12:34 (nine years ago) link
No, it's not a bad question to ask at all!
i did discuss working from home at my last job (my boss and the other programmer both worked from home, and it worked really well for them) - but, in discussion, one of the things they both agreed was that working from home works really well *when* you have a partner/family life. If you work in your study for 8 hours, and then your partner and/or kids come home, and you have reasonable social interactions with them (and especially if you have a regular social life outside the home) then it's apparently fine! Also, you have to be really comfortable with being on the phone a lot, which I really am not. I have an upper limit for the amount of phone time I can face. (This was a big problem, with having an off-site boss at the last job.)
I live by myself, and I know from (6 months of unemployment or whatever at this point) that being by myself for prolonged periods of time like this, is very, very bad for my mental health. One of the things I most need from going back to work, is a regular social interaction environment, where I'm expected to turn up regularly, and perform basic small talk or whatever. I have an incredible ability to survive prolonged periods of aloneness (I currently can go 4 or 5 days at a stretch without speaking to another human being face to face) but I am also aware that it is very, very *not good for me*.
(Sometimes things like ILX can help with this. But whatever gives also takes away. There are stretches where ILX is super not-good for me.)
But, it seems there are lot of people, especially IT folk, for whom working from home is a great option! I'm just not one of them.
― Branwell Bell, Thursday, 3 April 2014 12:56 (nine years ago) link
The thing about recruiters is something to which there is no easy solution - there will be always be those who put their commission before any satisfaction of doing a job properly and enhancing people's lives by matching the right employee to the employer. I was fortunate enough to find the diamond in the rough, but I did so via LinkedIn, which I know a lot of people don't like. It did mean, however, that I was able to observe his posts on there, see that he knew and cared about the industry (as he didn't only post job stuff) and so *probably* was a decent guy before I approached him about the job I was interested in. My instincts were, fortunately, correct and he ended up being one of the very few people I endorsed publicly via the LinkedIn site.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 3 April 2014 13:28 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I recognise it's a major setback, not using LinkedIn, but I do not feel comfortable giving out so much personal and identifying information to a company that have already shown they aren't great with data issues.
Have been speaking to my old boss about references stuff, and aawww, he is so great. I do actually miss my former boss. Don't miss the rest of the company at all, but I do miss my immediate boss.
― Branwell Bell, Thursday, 3 April 2014 18:01 (nine years ago) link
Phoner interview went OK. I hate phone interviews (especially on speakerphone, because it's so hard to hear!) but it's nice to be able to do an interview on your bed, in your pyjamas. The guys who interviewed me seemed OK but it's impossible to tell without physically meeting people and seeing what the environment is like. Straight White Dudes will always describe an all-male environment as "totally relaxed, totally friendly" but it takes walking in there with breasts to find out whether it really is. When he was talking about the team, he initially said "guys" then realised I was a woman and corrected to "people" and immediately apologised for it, and we had a bit of a laugh over that, so it seemed like he's not a jerk. I don't really like the industry, but it's an industry I'm familiar with so that counts in favour, I guess. Hmmm. So much would depend on the environment. Also, formal clothes, ugh. I don't think I even have formal work clothes any more; at least not ones that fit. I suppose I can just pretend I'm cosplaying Daniel Kessler if I have to wear a suit every damned day.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 4 April 2014 12:26 (nine years ago) link
P.S. Headhunters: do not EVER call me by the diminutive of my name, not in an email, not over the phone, just not EVER. What the living fuck. Very tempted to shoot back an email saying "Thanks, Bobbie" (the headhunter's name is not Robert, but this is the kind of thing) and see how he likes it. Ugh.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 4 April 2014 12:27 (nine years ago) link
surely an interviewer should use what ever name you've used in your email, CV and covering letter? Otherwise they would be just *guessing* the diminutive of your name (given that there's at least four possibilities I can think of?).
Formal clothes is a bit :-O nowadays unless the job is client-facing (which mine is, sometimes).
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 4 April 2014 13:06 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, the job is occasionally client facing, and though I suggested the concept of "The Office Tie" which we employed at my old job, that got laughs, but they said sometimes more than one of you had to meet a client at once?
Diminutives are just... it's not even which spelling variant they would use, but the fact that he feels entitled to even use one in the first place? NO. Use the name I have on my CV, my covering letter, my email. It's pretty clear what I consider my name to be.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 4 April 2014 13:16 (nine years ago) link
Exactly.
Does someone called James get routinely called Jim?
― Mark G, Friday, 4 April 2014 13:36 (nine years ago) link
I am sure that people called James routinely get shortened to Jim or Daniel to Dan, without their consent, and usually if it matters to them, they have a way to say politely but firmly "actually, it's James" or something like that. But you know, if you had "Mark" on your CV your email your cover letter, and someone in a business setting just started calling you "Marky" - you'd give the side-eye a bit to that.
Anyway, I am back for the next round next week. I don't know how I feel about this. I will know better once I get in there and lookit the place.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 4 April 2014 14:24 (nine years ago) link
Anyway, it's just the headhunter doing that, and not the actual employer, so it doesn't matter.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 4 April 2014 14:25 (nine years ago) link
The very first phone interview I ever had was scheduled for Thursday, August 14th 2003. I got home, waiting by the phone for them to call and they never did. I tried to call them eventually - no response. Turned out that a power outage had blacked out most of the eastern US! When I got a job as an editor of an oil and energy journal the following year, the first issue I edited was about this incident and why it took so long for the power to come back on (there's no National Grid in the US so they couldn't transfer power from elsewhere. There's an Eastern grid, a Western grid and a Texas grid).
Well, the phone interview was re-scheduled....I had two further in person interviews in the UK after that - it was down to me and one another person and were struggling to make up their minds and eventually chose the other person. Maybe I had a lucky escape as it was quite a bizarre job - editing a textbook which I'd used myself at uni (new editions come out every few years) and liaising between the various authors all of whom were quite eminent names in cell biology. They always held their meetings in a big Georgian house round the corner from Abbey Road studios, and when the interviewer showed me the previous edition of the book it had a picture of them all on the back cover dressed up as the Beatles as they appeared on the cover of Sgt Pepper.
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 4 April 2014 14:50 (nine years ago) link
Although I got fed up by the time I was 5 of people saying "but what is your 1st name?" (I still get that btw) I at least haven't ever had to worry about people shortening my name.
― Scooby Doom (۩), Friday, 4 April 2014 15:06 (nine years ago) link
Haha, that's hilarious. (The Abbey Road thing, to GG.) That kind of thing could either mean that it would be a fun place to work or an absolutely awful place to work in a ~hilarious japes~ (oh god kill me now) kinda sense. But yeah, when you don't get a job, sometimes you discover ages later things that, really, you find out you're kinda relieved that they chose the other person. That power outage thing is kinda bizarre, but yeah, at least it wasn't you!
I wish I could be happier and more confident about this place. Part of it is: well, the other job that I was discussing on Monday sounded *so* amazing, and I really wanted to work there. But it would be going back to the medical world (yay!) but the whole thing is, because it's back in that world, if they knew about my previous employer and the whole scandal there (oh I still can't even bring myself to type out anything about what happened there - it was based around something that happened years before I even worked there. I was unaware of it when I was hired, and I worked my fingers to the bone to try to sort out the aftermath of it when it broke, before I resigned in protest over their disgusting and disgraceful handling of it) but all they would have to see is the name of that company, and I'd be tainted by association and I'm terrified that's what has happened. Argh, paranoia.
So I'm kinda torn between "don't really know if I want *this* job" and "had a lead on a really great job that seems to have vanished" and wish I could be feeling less ambivalent about the whole thing.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 4 April 2014 15:11 (nine years ago) link
Oh. Headhunter 2 says that ~better job~ won't actually shortlist candidates until Monday. I wish I could go back and erase the panicked post I made above. :-/
Learn to keep your mouth shut, Branwell Bell.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 4 April 2014 15:22 (nine years ago) link
Good luck with that.
― Scooby Doom (۩), Friday, 4 April 2014 15:23 (nine years ago) link
So. No word on the job I actually want, which was supposed to select candidates by "Monday". Bah. :(
I hate this uncertainty, I hate not even knowing if it's definitely not going to happen.
― Branwell Bell, Monday, 7 April 2014 16:38 (nine years ago) link
4-hour interview (including 3 tests) - I am not sure I have the stamina for this sort of thing.
I just really... I don't know. I normally come out of an interview with a quite clear sense of whether I want the job or not. I don't really have any sense of anything, except a very vague instinct that I don't want the job, and it's so vague a gut instinct that it might just entirely be PMT.
The stickler, really, is the hours. It's 45 hours a week, standard contracted hours (OK, they claim there is "an hour for lunch" but I was there over lunchtime and I saw everyone pretty much eating lunch at their desks.) That, to me, seems excessive. I can do 9 hour days maybe 1 or 2 days a week, if the workload demands it. But the idea of a 9 hour day, every day (and the potential for several days a month that they will require more) is just... no. Was I just spoiled by my last 2 jobs being 9 to 5 and 9 to 5.30? Is 9 to 6 just considered "normal" now, and those last few jobs I had were freaks?
I just can't do that whole macho competitive overwork thing. I do not get any more work done in a 9 hour day than I do in a 7 or 8 hour day. I am just more tired all the time, and tired means 1) I work slower and make more mistakes and 2) it sends my health to hell, which means I start taking loads and loads of sick days, which is really counter productive.
The job itself... I can't think of any overwhelming reason not to take it. I also don't really feel any enthusiasm at all, especially for the industry. Not that I expect to feel "OMG, yay, best job ever!" when I start a new job. (Though I did when I started the last job! - though look how awfully that turned out.) It's just... if my overwhelming response to a job interview is "I don't really want to work here" I should probably not work there. Is this a bratty, childish reaction to have, or is this a perfectly reasonable and adult reaction to have? (Especially over the hours thing.) I can't even tell any more.
― Branwell Bell, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 16:19 (nine years ago) link
ARGH. Headhunter says they want to make me an offer and all I can think is "can you take your offer, and give me 4/5 of the salary you were planning on offering, in exchange for 4/5 of those crazy working hours?"
― Branwell Bell, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 16:27 (nine years ago) link
If they really want you, there is always an opportunity to negotiate. That is, if you really want to work there as opposed to really needing to work.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:34 (nine years ago) link
I do not get any more work done in a 9 hour day than I do in a 7 or 8 hour day. I am just more tired all the time, and tired means 1) I work slower and make more mistakes and 2) it sends my health to hell, which means I start taking loads and loads of sick days, which is really counter productive.
i would put it to them in these terms tbh. good companies recognise that time flexibility helps employees and employers, especially in cases where a documented health condition is an issue. if they're completely intransigent on this they'll assuredly be a horrible company to work for in other ways as well. (unless there's an actual reason for being in the office at certain times that isn't a moronic insistence that more hours = more work done, i can think of some reasons but they wouldn't apply to your industry, i don't think)
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:43 (nine years ago) link
I have already raised the issue of flexitime/shorter hours and was met with "you could work at different times, but those are what the hours are". I did explain that there were long-term health issues which meant that regular 45 hour weeks were just not an option for me. I am not quite desperate enough at this point to *have* to take it, so I guess that leaves me in a good position to negotiate for a 4-day workweek, at which point, fine, I'll do 9 hour days. But I'm not feeling very hopeful about the option.
― Branwell Bell, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:53 (nine years ago) link
if explaining the health issues didn't even persuade them to trial you to see if you're able to do the required work in the hours you need, idk, that's a bit of a warning sign.
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:59 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, that's kinda what I'm afraid of, but that's kinda what working in Finance is like: "These are what the hours are, if you can't do them, sucks to be you."
― Branwell Bell, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:04 (nine years ago) link
I raised my concerns, and the headhunter just came back offering more money. It feels completely churlish to spurn money on that level, but at the same time "thinking that money is the answer, rather than actually addressing the issues raised" is another red flag of "this is not a place I will be happy working."
ARGH. I hate the way the try to make you feel awkward or objectionable for stating in advance what your needs and inabilities are.
And the whole "I want you to reject this more-money offer, before we go back to them with the 4 days a week offer" and it's like... NO. That is backwards. I ask for what is important to me, and if you can't get the ideal thing I want, then we negotiate from that point. I don't feel like I should have to reject an offer outright in order to ask for what I really want.
ugh ugh ugh. I wish I could just bring myself to ... I dunno, give myself permission to say "No. This isn't going to work." And again, that panicked feeling that if I say no to this job offer, there will never be another one. (Rather than "you've impressed one company enough for them to hire you, you can impress another company, that doesn't insist on 45 hour work weeks.)
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 10:20 (nine years ago) link
My last 2 jobs were 9-6. It's a pain in the arse and of course most people myself included don't take a whole hour for lunch. Maybe on Fridays if I went to the pub. My new one (which starts next week) is 9-5:30 and the commute is halved so I get to sleep in a bit and get home earlier, which is great. Sorry this is maybe not the thread to mention that.
Good luck BB, I'm pretty sure you do similar stuff to me (my main skill is databases/SQL) so I can relate to your interview stories. There do seem to be more jobs out there these days fwiw.
― Just noise and screaming and no musical value at all. (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 9 April 2014 10:28 (nine years ago) link
No, that gives me hope, because it makes me *know* that I'm not being insane or overly demanding to not want to work 9 to 6. Those are stupid hours, and any employer that actually gave a shit about the health of their employees would recognise that. Employers exist who do not insist on squeezing every last drop of effort out of their staff; this is not one of them. My last 2 jobs were 9 to 5 and 10 to 6.30. It is not unreasonable to expect to work those kinds of hours.
I feel bad now, because I had to get pretty emphatic with the headhunter's boss over the phone, and feel like I've been rude.
But I don't want to commit to a role with hours I know that I will not be able to sustain. The alternatives are: don't take the role. Take the role, end up getting very unhealthy and taking tons of sick days. Take the role, work like a dog for the first few months, then slowly start to slack off in a really underhanded way until I have the hours I desire.
It's awful feeling so bad about turning down a job, but it's clear, this is not the employer for me. "If they negotiated that way for you, then they would have to negotiate that way for everyone." Hey, you know what, if loads of people would actually negotiate for flexitime or 4/5 of their salary in return for 4/5 of their hours, maybe I'm not the weird unreasonable person, just MAYBE YOU ARE WORKING YOUR STAFF TOO HARD.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 10:45 (nine years ago) link
In other news, tomorrow is my birthday. I want to go to the seaside. Should I go to Broadstairs or Brighton?
I think Brighton looks like it's half the price and an easier journey, even though I know there are nicer walks to be had around Broadstairs. There are no sea arches anywhere in walking distance of Brighton, are there.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 10:48 (nine years ago) link
And just when I'm ready to start throwing darts at their pictures, there's this:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/8b0bf0420abdfdb16b226938d974951c/tumblr_n3rwy6Km3E1rd1g7mo1_250.jpg
Smirking bastard. Why are you so cute.
― Branwell Bell, Thursday, 10 April 2014 07:33 (nine years ago) link
Bit late, sorry, but HB BB!
― the ghosts of dead pom-bears (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 10 April 2014 21:53 (nine years ago) link
Aw, thank you Spacecadet! x
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 11 April 2014 07:40 (nine years ago) link
I don't know if I'm just being ~over-emotional~ right now, but...
Although I had an excellent birthday yesterday (chocolate biscuits, TSM, seaside, crazy Victorian architecture, Doom Bar) I kinda ruined it by checking my work-related email last night. I wish I had left that until this morning to get ... I don't even know what the word is for the emotions I'm experiencing.
It isn't disappointment, because my gut feeling through the whole process has been "I do not want that job". I should have just listened to that gut feeling, and said no flat out, and not let myself be coerced or sweet-talked into a negotiation process. But it isn't relief, either, because either the employer or the headhunter decided to just do a passing "kick you in the teeth" neg in the last email, telling me that my negotiation "left a bad impression."
(All along, I think this headhunter has acted particularly unprofessionally. For example, asking me the wrong set of questions in the initial interview (they asked me the developer questions, not the report writer questions!) Then, before the first phone interview with the employer, he said "oh, don't mention that I asked you the wrong questions, also, here are the actual questions you will be asked, look up the answers so you do well in the test - oh, but don't mention I gave you these, either!" Um. Now, obviously, I do not need any help acing a SQL query writing test, but still, that was weird.) ((I am semi-tempted to just forward that email to the guy who interviewed me at the employer and say "by the way, you were complaining about candidates who did well on the phone interview, then couldn't pass the sit-down computer test? Here's why."))
This whole world is just not something that makes any sense to me. I know, from experience, if you say to an initial offer "I think that salary looks a little low, I'd like another £2k or £3k" then headhunters will go back and negotiate. But the idea that I might say "I'm willing to negotiate for less salary in order to get more reasonable hours" is basically viewed like I just did a shit on the board of directors' table.
Oh fuck it. I am just going to consider this whole thing a bullet I have dodged. I will give myself today to feel kinda bummed and weird about it, and then throw myself back into the job search on Monday.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 11 April 2014 08:08 (nine years ago) link
Omg. You did nothing unreasonable! You dodged a bullet imo. I would not have wanted to work those hours either.
― kinder, Friday, 11 April 2014 08:24 (nine years ago) link
Thank you!
It really will be something that I pay more attention to in the future, is how many ~women my age~ there are in an office. (In that one: none.)
Because I have started thinking, like, it's impossible for me to work those kinds of hours because of my long-term health issues. But what if I had children? I don't in any way mean to equate "parenting" with "middle aged women" but still! It does make me wonder, when women my age disappear from a workplace, what the issues are. I don't know why men put up with overwork culture. But from those guys in the interview, going "I work 9 hour days, no problem" "well, I work 10 hour days!" I suspect it is that whole "macho" competitive overwork bullshit.
(Oddly, the employer that I worked for 2 jobs ago, like, 75% - 80% of their staff were women. And they were having appalling problems with their staff retention rate. The whole reason that they dropped the standard contract hours from 40 to 37.5, and also instituted flexi-time and part time, was in a deliberate effort to hold onto their staff, most of whom were women. But the reason they were even willing to consider it, was that they had 3 women on the board of directors! 2 of whom had children, and all of whom said "you know, the working hours might be a problem.")
Blah blah blah etc.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 11 April 2014 08:39 (nine years ago) link
I don't know why men put up with overwork culture.
Don't blame the victim!
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Friday, 11 April 2014 12:48 (nine years ago) link
You know, on ILX, I sometimes spend a great deal of time composing posts, and then just hitting the back button, thinking "I don't really have the energy or the emotional equilibrium to argue through the inevitable backlash right now."
And then I see the posts that other ILX0rs actually just go ahead and blithely post, and I just think "really?"
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 11 April 2014 12:53 (nine years ago) link
Instead, I am going to go and pitch some illustrations to a website that a friend of mine told to me pitch to over a year ago, but I never got around to doing because... well, because I was afraid. Because I think that would be a better use of my time and energy.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 11 April 2014 12:55 (nine years ago) link
happy bday for y'day k8!
― lex pretend, Friday, 11 April 2014 14:35 (nine years ago) link
tbf i was listening to some of the women in my office having a "who's ill the least" brag-off y/day so i've got to say that workplace tuffness feels like an equal opps disease in some ways. but otoh we work reasonably flexibly and have reasonable holidays
― waterflow ductile laser beam (Noodle Vague), Friday, 11 April 2014 14:40 (nine years ago) link
I am not going to have this argument, and especially not here, but when I hear men who do not go home and do The Second Shift bragging about the ~long hours~ they work it does ring a little hollow.
I mean, basically fuck long hours culture for a billion other reasons, but for men to even pretend this is some place where men and women are equivalents, just... come on. No.
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 11 April 2014 14:53 (nine years ago) link
no i know there's a real difference at home, and i was gonna mention it. but i have observed women acknowledge this too with a kind of competitive stoicism. my stance on the horror of long hours culture is pretty well-documented too.
― waterflow ductile laser beam (Noodle Vague), Friday, 11 April 2014 14:59 (nine years ago) link
the macho overwork thing seems to be a symptom of 'get as successful as you can as fast as you can QUICK QUICK before some bastard beats you to it' corporate bullshit whereas women often through necessity have to ascertain more of a balance throughout.I am lucky, my workplace is mainly female and treats flexible working seriously, and some of the men are taking advantage of it too (not in a bad way! I mean doing their own flex working to look after the kids etc).
― kinder, Friday, 11 April 2014 16:43 (nine years ago) link
Wonder if it's even worth applying for anything during Easter week, but trying to at least log onto the website and apply for things so at least it looks like I'm active.
I've only officially been doing this a month, but I'm already so sick of ~job search~. Need pictures of cute boys in suits.
Also, today is my estranged brother's birthday and my subconscious decided to bless me with creepy freaking dreams. Thanks for that.
― Branwell Bell, Monday, 14 April 2014 09:06 (nine years ago) link
Oh god, how does one stay focused and ~enthusiastic~ and "oh yes, I would love to interview for this job which requires weekend cover... (oh do fuck off)" in the face of endless, relentless disappointment and being asked to jump through hoops for impossible things. I'm getting to the point where I don't want to even call anyone back. But I know that I have to. Would like to just take a week off and go on holiday from looking for a job.
Anyway, here is Kessler demonstrating his fingerbanging technique:
https://31.media.tumblr.com/8ce454f747035a565aaa17fc3054968d/tumblr_n3x8rmJtND1rd1g7mo1_250.jpg
― Branwell Bell, Tuesday, 15 April 2014 09:46 (nine years ago) link
Ugh, unemployment sucks. Working from home sucks too. I'm currently working on some research for an industry body and I am going a little stir crazy, even when I change it up by going to the library or coffee shop.
I'm struggling with headhunters as well, my resume doesn't clearly identifiable box so most headhunters ignore me. That or they try and cell me 'career coaching' or CV rewriting services. I went to a meeting with one for shits and giggles and they quoted me $5000 for their services, maybe I should get into that racket. Having done this from the other side I wish more hiring managers hired like I used to, cut out the HR CV screener and the head hunter and go straight to the resume pile and LinkedIn. I hired two or three great people who never would have got in through the traditional route and turned out to be amazing. (especially the vegan punk tech writer I had to fight really hard to hire, she ended up winning the MVP award at the christmas party the year I hired her)
Also fuck a 9 hour work day. I think my peak productivity is somewhere around 35 hrs a week. i would love to be in a position to ask for a 4 day week or a 9 day fortnight but right now no-one is interested in talking to me.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 16 April 2014 00:36 (nine years ago) link
Oh god thank fuck I haven't been offered "career coaching" or "CV rewriting" because fuck that racket. I'm not convinced that any of them know more about the recruitment process than anyone who has actually... y'know, hired a body. I suppose the sheer volume of the CV pile (and how much people lie on their CVs) is the reason that managers don't do this. But when the headhunter is adding another layer of mendaciousness, rather than taking it away... I dunno. Half the ones I speak to don't understand technology, and the other half don't seem to understand that "office culture" is just as important (if not more) than tech skills, which can usually be taught.
I am well aware that I'm a tricky case, because with the right manager and the right environment I will work like a dog, and have certainly proved myself capable of it, but with the wrong manager and environment, I'm a complete fucking HR nightmare. And I have no desire to go into an HR nightmare any more than they do.
I think everyone's peak productivity is between 30 and 35 hours a week. I cannot think of a single instance where longer hours resulted in more work getting done. Work always expands to fill the available time, so you gain nothing by working longer.
I spoke to 3 different headhunters yesterday, and I'm at the point where I'm mixing up them and their jobs and which other jobs they're connected to, and I've started writing down some of it in a little notebook, but then as soon as you write it all down, you never hear from them again.
Anyway, here is a picture of Kessler, because this seems to be becoming a tradition:
http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyaeoipkvE1qcuqzco1_1280.jpg
Oh, and just as I was complaining about headhunters, there was another one on the phone. I guess I have a phoner interview tomorrow so I need to go and do some research.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 08:36 (nine years ago) link
One of the best things I ever heard about productivity was during my scrum training; that their are only 22 productive hours in a week, less if you have any kind of management responsibilities.
The thing is about CVs is I reckon that I can do pattern recognition faster than an HR wonk. I'd always pass back my shortlist to HR for initial contact and phone screening but go through the pile myself.
Top tip, I use Asana as a sort of CRM to keep my recruiters and conversations with them straight.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 16 April 2014 08:43 (nine years ago) link
If there truly are only 22 productive hours in a week (and honestly, it depends on the week, it depends on the task, it depends on the environment) what the FUCK were we expected to be doing those other 23 hours, at that awful "9 hours a day" place?
Laptop is so old (argh! I just remembered I had a dream I had to update its operating system, which I haven't done in... ooh about 4 years, ugh) that I can't install any new software on it. Probably first thing I do when I get a job is buy a new laptop and smartphone but ugh. I don't even like apple products any more.
I've got "please POH-lice me, I want you to POLL-ice" me stuck in my head and I'm laughing trying to remember if it's all Americans who pronounce "police" funny or just that particular one.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 08:48 (nine years ago) link
Who is this Kessler fellow anyway?
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Wednesday, 16 April 2014 09:06 (nine years ago) link
some bloke
― conrad, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 09:10 (nine years ago) link
I gathered that
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Wednesday, 16 April 2014 09:10 (nine years ago) link
a bloke is a bloke is a bloke
― conrad, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 09:12 (nine years ago) link
And while I am complaining, I would also like to air my irritation with the "No-Yes".
This is that horrible phenomenon whereby people manage to turn down something, without ever using the word "no" and in fact, while maintaining a cheerful air that they plan on doing something they never actually intend to do. I don't know what people get out of this. The idea that they are letting you down easy? The idea that they are not-negative, and positive, and Do Things, while all the time keeping you in this kind of suspense whereby you never actually get a "no" so that you can move on and make other plans, you just exist in this quasi-space of slowly decaying hope.
If I suggest to you, that I do A Thing for you, and you don't want to do the Thing, just say "thanks, but no thank you". Do not display enthusiasm and say "yes, let's do the thing, let me have a think and get back to you" and then... slowly ghost and then not get back to me. This is the second time this has happened in a month, with different people in different situations, and in this case, I should probably send another, more firm suggestion of instead of "I would like to do A Thing for you" I should say "I would like to do Thing X for you, I expect it will take this long" but good god I am sick of chasing people to no avail.
Also, Tumblr is failing in its appointed task of providing me with more pictures of Kessler being adorable this morning, and this is irritating.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 09:17 (nine years ago) link
This is a Kessler:
http://31.media.tumblr.com/ecdd82beeaf46415e7c91be908f50d0c/tumblr_n40ksdiONA1rjw8sqo1_1280.jpg
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 09:19 (nine years ago) link
...and another email from someone wanting to use my drawings in a local publication, with no mention of payment, but lots of mention of "exposure" and "promotion" and I am trying to get up the nerve to just write back and say "My rates for print publication are £30 for an original image, and £50 for a colour image" (which is probably actually incredibly low, because I've no idea what the market rates are, because everybody just expects you to work for free) and take it from there.
Because quite frankly, I've already had, this year, two rounds of people using my artwork for free because "it's great exposure" and quite frankly, at this point, I don't want more exposure. I want cold hard cash.
(Yes, ironic, considering that I was willing to work for the "no-yes" people for free but I'm running out of patience, not to mention cash.)
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 11:59 (nine years ago) link
Went to Epping Forest yesterday, which was lovely (in the mist and the rain) but at the same time: disappointed by total lack of bluebells. Well, maybe one tiny small patch of bluebells the size of a bathtub, hiding under a bush.
Why no bluebells? Biggin Wood, locally, is a mass of bluebells!
Is this because London is always 5 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside, so London bluebells are earlier than Essex? Or, because Epping Forest is mostly beech wood, there is so little ground cover, so no bluebells? (Though bluebells usually come out before the full leaf canopy has sprung in spring, so surely this wouldn't matter?)
Walk: lovely, but still somewhat dismayed by lack of bluebells. Where can I go (within reach of London) that has good bluebells?
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 07:42 (nine years ago) link
if you think about something very sad and then look in the mirror you might see a blue Bell.
― estela, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 08:42 (nine years ago) link
Only if I hold my breath.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 08:58 (nine years ago) link
that's a more efficient and less gloomy method than mine.
― estela, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 09:05 (nine years ago) link
Hampstead Heath or Highgate Woods for bluebells? Might also find the last of the season's wild garlic into the bargain.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 09:07 (nine years ago) link
Hampstead Heath in abundance, and there's an impressive display in a tiny park/reclaimed pavement beside the Royal Free along from Belsize Park tube
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 09:51 (nine years ago) link
I really wanted to go somewhere more exotic than Hampstead. Not that Essex is exotic but... well, ~not London~.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 10:09 (nine years ago) link
Wikipedia says that "The thicker the summer canopy, the more the competitive ground-cover is suppressed, encouraging a dense carpet of bluebells, whose leaves mature and die down by early summer."
One place that springs to mind is Coneybank Wood, nr. Great Missenden. There's a footpath running through the wood (it's a pleasant walk from Great Missenden to Wendover) and I remember the woods being awash with bluebells in early May 2009.
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=51.711544~-0.721207&lvl=15&sty=s&eo=0&q=london&form=LMLTCC
https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%22Coneybank%20Wood%22
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2444/3625834968_c232c89e2b_z.jpg
― dubmill, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 12:15 (nine years ago) link
Early May? maybe I am simply too early.
I shall have to investigate woods and walks and train times and things.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 12:36 (nine years ago) link
I am trying to get up the nerve to just write back and say "My rates for print publication are £30 for an original image, and £50 for a colour image" (which is probably actually incredibly low, because I've no idea what the market rates are, because everybody just expects you to work for free) and take it from there.
do this! exposure is worthless!! make the buggers pay! [and your rates are very reasonable]
― it definitely wasn't designed to be a pants pocket player (stevie), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 12:38 (nine years ago) link
maybe I am simply too early.
I shouldn't think so, it's nearly May already. They'll be out now.
― dubmill, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 12:41 (nine years ago) link
Maybe I just picked a bad forest! Except there were actual posters up, on the carpark billboard of "Epping Bluebells" so there surely must be bluebells in Epping forest; just not the bit I was in. I shall try another woods.
Stevie, I did do. They declined to pay, claiming they were new and just getting started and apparently the whole point of the magazine is... advertising for local businesses? I declined to do them any illustrations.
Weirdly, I got another local "community" magazine, also mainly advertising for local businesses, and it had this weird rant in the back of it, about how they were supposed to be a charity, and the printing press they run is to train and employ disabled people and apparently some people they got in to organise advertisers for them "realised how lucrative this was" and ran off with their advertisers to start their own magazine, and this is "stealing from a charity, which is just not done!" and it was all very outraged and weird and ~local politics~ and it makes me wonder if they were talking about the people that approached me? Whatever it is, it's very strange, and all quite ~local~ and kind of amusing and kind of sad in "two bald men arguing over a comb" territory.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 12:53 (nine years ago) link
"two bald men arguing over a comb"
No sexist comments please
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 15:35 (nine years ago) link
One of the worst examples of casual gender based derogatory stereotyping I've seen for a while on ilx
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 15:37 (nine years ago) link
Seriously, go fuck yourself. I'm not going to bother with a lazy zing, just get the fuck off this thread with that bullshit. You're not funny and you're not clever, you're just an asshole. This is not the place for you.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 15:40 (nine years ago) link
I am worried about going bald
― conrad, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 15:42 (nine years ago) link
Just cop to unconscious sexism - you'll feel better in the long run.
But I am buggering off, though.
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 15:45 (nine years ago) link
Branwell, I am pretty sure Trent Park has bluebells in abundance, if you fancy a trip to the northern end of the Piccadilly Line.
Just got back from Warsaw, visiting the in-laws. They live in Wilanów - fascinating place. It has a palace, which is kind of the Polish equivalent of Versailles.
They also have this at the end of their street - The Temple of Divine Providence:
http://warsawtomorrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Temple-of-divine-providence-Warsaw-Front-Wilanow-9.jpg
― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 20:28 (nine years ago) link
And having considered for a few hours, I'm back to say:
BB - it's irritating that when you're called out on something that you just use the 'this is such a lazy zing, I'm not even going to answer this. Fuck you, seriously' response e.g. exhibit a
This is really ignorant and unthinking. The long hours culture is a massive problem that affects both men and women. You may have seen reference today to Nick Clegg's speech at the launch of the Cityfathers - a group established to try to effect cultural change in this area. It's a complicated area where men suffer as do women. I assume you'd be outraged if I said, 'I don't know why women put up with x, y z [e.g. part-time jobs, lower pay etc}]
exhibit b
kind of amusing and kind of sad in "two bald men arguing over a comb" territory is into belittling men territory, even if unconsciously.
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 21:36 (nine years ago) link
it's a common saying and it is most definitely not 'One of the worst examples of casual gender based derogatory stereotyping I've seen for a while on ilx' and you know it.
― kinder, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link
or is it a US/UK thing like "scheme"
― kinder, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:08 (nine years ago) link
It's a quote by Borges abt the Falklands War
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:09 (nine years ago) link
Why don't you lecture me some more about this ~reverse sexism~, and how appalling this commonly used phrase is in conjunction with the terrible systematic gender-based oppression that men and their rights face, and then we can get into reverse racism, and how terrible white people have it in the UK, and how terribly discriminated against heterosexual people are in this culture.
Or else, you can leave a conversation you have been asked to leave, or maybe just go and fuck yourself you tedious little excuse for a human being.
No, seriously. You have all of ILX to play on, and you decide you're going to come on this thread, and have this discussion here. Spare me.
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:17 (nine years ago) link
Know what this thread needs?
Kessler, that's what it needs.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyx6ptPVWj1qzk5i5o1_1280.jpg
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:24 (nine years ago) link
Plenty of sayings have gone past their use-by date.
Worth me clarifying that what i was getting was 'worst examples of casual gender based derogatory stereotyping' ..it's the casual unthinkingness of it....but let's not quarrel like two fishwives.
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:28 (nine years ago) link
Kessler making purple sex faces.
https://31.media.tumblr.com/31c30717b9c7412f11c2f40643bb097f/tumblr_n40cfmqX9H1qmmuqeo1_500.jpg
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:30 (nine years ago) link
Kessler looking like a demented creature from the pits of hell...
https://24.media.tumblr.com/7f55b2526f574b8b4ff95c58e17b746f/tumblr_n4gc8bh2W61qgze9ho2_500.png
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:31 (nine years ago) link
Haha, yes, this facial expression just about sums it up, Danny boy.
https://31.media.tumblr.com/8ca84c3c7b124c63d72ef56ba368f485/tumblr_n3n8iaPLyj1qfh80oo4_r4_250.gif
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:35 (nine years ago) link
This is toxicity in its purest form: someone asks you about something questionable that you said, and your response is to cast aspersions at THAT person and their motives, and proceed to make the entire thing ALL ABOUT YOU and how wounded you are by these terrible allegations that something you said might have been ableist, rather than just saying "OK, yeah, sorry I could see how that could read badly, I'll try to be more careful."
― "righteous indignation shit" (Branwell Bell), Friday, February 7, 2014 9:29 AM (2 months ago)
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:42 (nine years ago) link
It's raining Kesslers, hallelujah, it's raining Kesslers...
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2814/12394739164_ff8e34fece_o.png
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:43 (nine years ago) link
giving the pathetic trolling exactly the attention it deserves, BB your beau reminds me of one of DuJour and googling it I see I'm not the only one!
― kinder, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:46 (nine years ago) link
DUJOUR MEANS POST-PUNK!
(I like it)
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:47 (nine years ago) link
There's also been EXTREMELY good news in the Cornish community tonight.
"At Midnight, Kernow Becomes an Offically Recognised National Minority of UK on par with Wales, Scotland and Ireland"
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:51 (nine years ago) link
(x-post)
Yeah:
maybe just go and fuck yourself you tedious little excuse for a human being
really deserves to be applauded.
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:53 (nine years ago) link
To celebrate, let's have some Du Jour dance moves from Kessler...
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5301/5640442078_368f6f86c0_b.jpg
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 22:55 (nine years ago) link
A cowlicked dude in need of a comb...
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3283/2832362756_b8bf50907d_b.jpg
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 23:02 (nine years ago) link
Hey BB I had a rich hairline like that Kessler when I was 26, since the male pattern baldness sequence began it far less impressive. Huh? how come people don't smile at me anymore? Oh yeah it is because I am oppressed obv !
― xelab, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 23:14 (nine years ago) link
Be more Kessler: grow sideburns!
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 23:19 (nine years ago) link
I blame Brandon for this. If he hadn't joined sodding Interpol and made me go see them my delicate sensibilities would never have been exposed to the dangerously masculine quiff of Kessler and my mind would remain unbesmirched. Damn you, Curtis! *shakes fist*
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 23:32 (nine years ago) link
His bro wrote for Select in the 90's, didn't google that just have a spergerish memory for useless information. Ted Kessler.
― xelab, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 23:38 (nine years ago) link
~Ironically~ said bro writes about ~men's issues~ for the Torygraph now!
(I didn't google that either; little Kessler tweeted one. It was actually a rlly lovely piece, to be fair)
((It's weird that I was aware of big Kessler for years because of Select, Q, etc. without connecting that they were related. But then again, I never had any reason to pay attention to anyone in Interpol unti big Curtis joined.))
(((not going to speculate on my tendency to fancy hott little brothers)))
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 00:04 (nine years ago) link
Kernow Bys Vyken!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cornish-people-formally-declared-a-national-minority-along-with-scots-welsh-and-irish-9278725.html
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 00:21 (nine years ago) link
xps I did wonder if they were related! (Otherwise people our age and older think of *Secret Army and the spin off when Kessler is mentioned)
*UK late 70s WW2 Belgian resistance drama that Allo Allo was a pisstake if (the colonel was in both funnily enough) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Army_%28TV_series%29
I saw it when it was shown on UK Gold some years ago and couldn't believe my eyes when Cliff Claven from Cheers turned up in it.
anyway sorry for interrupting about tv you probably weren't aware of BB.
― Scooby Doom (۩), Thursday, 24 April 2014 00:38 (nine years ago) link
WAHT.
By the end of this series Kessler and Brandt are closing in on Curtis, as their investigation into a murder in France has led them to the name 'Monsieur Maurice', which is Curtis's pseudonym. Brandt and Kessler pay their first visit to the Candide to locate him. Kessler's interest in Curtis poses a significant threat to Lifeline, and so it is agreed that Curtis will return to England. However Kessler begins a troop encirclement of Brussels in order to trap him. Curtis manages to escape to Switzerland by posing as bus driver for a local Hitler Youth group that is travelling out of the city on a day trip.
Of course I am now imagining various members of Interpol chasing each other around Switzerland while dressed as bus drivers for Hitler Youth groups.
No, wait, that's mine own private re-write of the programme, called Secret Machines Army.
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 08:44 (nine years ago) link
― Branwell Bell, Wednesday, April 23, 2014 11:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Fucksake, how many threads are 'yours' now? Its fucking tedious.
― online hardman, Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:13 (nine years ago) link
Do you fancy daniel kessler? thats fuckin fascinating. post pictures of him in every thread going and then cry when people post in one of 'your' threads.
― online hardman, Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:14 (nine years ago) link
"ITS ALL PREP FOR THE SLASHFIC IM WRITING"
― online hardman, Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:15 (nine years ago) link
I feel u man I too was blindsided by this being a branwell thread, didn't get that from the title, nope
― PhetamineGrrrn (wins), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:24 (nine years ago) link
lol, true, hadnt seen that but im still unrepentant.
― online hardman, Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:25 (nine years ago) link
Daniel Kessler, right, still don't know who is he though
― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:28 (nine years ago) link
do not read if you hate Google
― PhetamineGrrrn (wins), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:30 (nine years ago) link
http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7hkbxlFSy1qgugd7o6_400.jpg
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:31 (nine years ago) link
Interpol guitarist. There's also a Wall Street Journal columnist with the same name who specializes in healthcare policy.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:32 (nine years ago) link
Kessler otm xp
― PhetamineGrrrn (wins), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:33 (nine years ago) link
I wonder if that's another of his million brothers.
His father was also a journalist. There are a lot of journo Kesslers about. It seems to be a thing.
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:33 (nine years ago) link
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7hkbxlFSy1qgugd7o5_400.jpg
x-post to wins
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:34 (nine years ago) link
No the journalist is another *Daniel* Kessler! So not unless the father called all his kids Daniel a la Nicolae Ceauceșcu or George Foreman.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:37 (nine years ago) link
Oh, maybe he is a cousin or something. I dunno. No one has sat down and drawn me a family tree, like the Curtises. (There are substantially more Curtises than there are Kesslers, though. I believe there are only 3 Kessler Bros.)
Is the journo Daniel Kessler also hott tho?
(Does he also have no eyebrows? The eyebrowlessness is urgent & key in Kessler.)
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:40 (nine years ago) link
don't want to make a bad joke about "Kessler" being a murky family tree but come on
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 24 April 2014 12:50 (nine years ago) link
I'm kind of fascinated by people's families. I suppose because mine own family are all so completely estranged.
I feel ever so slightly creepy for posting this (but honestly, I assume, as a journalist, that big Kessler wouldn't have published it if his family weren't OK with it? And I got here literally from a link off a link that little Kessler posted, so it's not *that* stalky, I don't think he'd have tweeted it if he didn't want people reading it? I always feel weird with the idea of *intended audience*) but it is a beautiful and moving piece about family and history and interrelationships.
http://myoldman.org/2013/07/16/felix-kessler-by-ted/
People's secret family histories are fascinating, on a non-creepy level, just a "human interest" level. I guess it's just particularly interesting to me, because I also come from a cross-continental NY-Lon family, but in reverse (and with different skeletons in the family closet).
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 13:00 (nine years ago) link
I love that site. The dad stories are all so interesting.
Back when TK was features ed of NME, he went out with Emma from Lush (whose My Old Man entry is... something else).
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Thursday, 24 April 2014 13:26 (nine years ago) link
The other Daniel Kessler:
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/faculty_pictures/kessler-daniel-philip.jpg
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 24 April 2014 13:52 (nine years ago) link
He is not hott, but then again, he hasn't any eyebrows either.
I am struck, reading How Soon Is Now, again and again, by how tiny & inbred the UK indie scene was. But there is this level of snideness I am trying not to make about how easy it must have been to guarantee wall to wall press coverage when yr brother was the features editor of NME, and thinking how it was right to be suspicious of the level of hype they had. But then again, it was ever thus, really.
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 15:58 (nine years ago) link
Also it looks like the pitch worked and The Exciting Thing has changed from a yes-no to a do-it yes? Eep!
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 24 April 2014 16:01 (nine years ago) link
― Mark G, Thursday, 24 April 2014 16:08 (nine years ago) link
If anything, having a journo for a brother is a bit of a hindrance because all the other publications go 'nah, that's X's brother, fucken nepotism'.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Thursday, 24 April 2014 17:09 (nine years ago) link
https://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me6jcsQ2PV1qfh80oo2_r3_400.gif
Has anyone seen my ability to ~can~?
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Friday, 25 April 2014 09:09 (nine years ago) link
I am so bored with the seeming ability of even the tiniest amount of alcohol to send me into the most wretched state of hangover the next day. 2 and a half pints over 4 hours, and now I need to crawl off to find something fried. :(
― Du Jour means POST-PUNK! (Branwell Bell), Friday, 25 April 2014 09:12 (nine years ago) link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/24/girl-gives-michelle-obama-her-unemployed-fathers-resume/
― curmudgeon, Friday, 25 April 2014 20:00 (nine years ago) link
So Oxleas Wood, apparently, is where the bluebells are at right now?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmLK5L9IcAEBI3i.jpg
^^^ I am having much bluebell envy of this friend who is having much better bluebell luck than I.
I will be trying One Tree Hill, Sydenham and Dulwich woods this week. (I'm actually in search of something else, but bluebells, I am hoping, will be an added bonus.)
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Sunday, 27 April 2014 16:05 (nine years ago) link
Sigh.
I don't know if it's worse when they just ghost off into the ether, or when they come back with some totally negging "interview feedback" of some bullshit reason they're not going to hire you.
So apparently the guy I did the phone interview with interviewed me for another role a billion years ago (didn't hire me obviously) but his response was that, apparently, in the five or whatever years since the last interview, he felt I had "not progressed with *the reporting tool*" which is such patent fucking bullshit, like how would you *know*? You spent twenty minutes talking to me about the company and your role in it, and didn't ask me any actual programming questions? Because I have taken several programming tests recently (for other roles) and actually test really fucking well on the technical shit.
If someone took against you at the first interview, and actually remembered you long enough to reject you at a second interview, I can't help but feel that there was something personal going on. Not helped by the impression that when I asked about the demographics of the team, he came back with the actual words "I don't care if you're black, white, purple" then, without prompting "I don't care if you're male, female, trans..." which, really, that whole phrase is just such a "yeah, OK, you *do* actually have a problem, but you want plausible deniability." Why would you equate being "trans" with being "purple" I mean, literally, what the fucking fuck?
I had pretty much already made up my mind that I didn't want the role. It is just the casual way I'm sick of being negged by dickheads. If you don't want to give me the job, then don't give me the fucking job. There's no reason to insult me on top of it.
I was already having a rough day, but that's just wrecked it.
So of course, I'm going to go on ILX and moan about it, and now some dickhead is going to come on this thread and have a go at me for no reason for fun and games and trolling, because that's what I need right now. Truly.
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:27 (nine years ago) link
Everything is shit.
I don't know if I should ring some estate agent and put my flat on the market because I'm done here, or just skip the hassle and stick my head in an oven now. OH WAIT SHIT. It's an electric oven. Fuck this shit. Seriously, just fuck this shit.
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:28 (nine years ago) link
That is some serious bullshit! You can't base a decision on an interview from years ago, wtf. I've be seriously tempted to ask for the evidence he used to make that evaluation (of competence with the tool) except that is obviously way too *analytical* of a thing to ask from someone who will take it personally in some way.
― kinder, Monday, 28 April 2014 14:43 (nine years ago) link
It is bullshit, and I really did not need to know his stupid opinion.
You know, there are two kinds of approaches to database reporting.
One is the idea that, if you are bright, and you have an aptitude for the things and an understanding of how databases work, that the specific brand doesn't actually matter, if you have demonstrated capability with one tool, you can probably pick up a similar one just as easily. Because people who are bright, are able to adapt, and skillsets are often transferable between similar things.
The other is the idea that you have to learn one tool thoroughly, and only ever work on that tool for decades and decades, and if you haven't got that specific one thing, even if you have experience of a dozen other things like it, it's no good. Because people are stupid and not easily adaptable and knowledge is a completely un-transferable lump or something.
I am of the former, and everyone I have ever successfully worked for is the former. And if someone espouses the latter, really, that's just a sign that I should not fucking work for them anyway.
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:40 (nine years ago) link
I usually had problems convincing the agency that If I was good at X, I would be good at Y in a matter of days. But they more-or-less would say "If I can't tick box Y, I'm not allowed to put you forward"
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 15:45 (nine years ago) link
just tick box Y imo
― kinder, Monday, 28 April 2014 17:11 (nine years ago) link
In the future: just start lying, I guess.
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Monday, 28 April 2014 17:17 (nine years ago) link
'Dutch speaking? Yeah, no problem for De Groot you know...'
(orders language course..)
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 17:33 (nine years ago) link
(true story. Interview not offered)
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 17:34 (nine years ago) link
I am getting a home visit by a customer compliance officer from the DWP tomorrow. I am presuming this is because some civic minded member of hard workin' Britain from my fine little estate has reported me as a fraudster. I have nothing to hide and am not too worried but still hope whoever is responsible for this dies from the ebola, a couple of times at least.
― xelab, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:23 (nine years ago) link
Aw, geez, that sucks. I'm sorry, and hope it all goes OK. Let us know what happens (and who to give a kicking to.)
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:43 (nine years ago) link
:( good luck
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:50 (nine years ago) link
Thanks people. I don't it will be an ordeal, they are obliged to respond when somebody gets reported and like I said I have nothing to hide.
― xelab, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:57 (nine years ago) link
many years ago me and my then girlfriend had a visit from the dole because i was signing on and she was working. turned out he'd done an efficient job of tailing us and observing our more-than-friendly-flatmate-y behaviour. narcs.
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:59 (nine years ago) link
Now it seems everyone wants to be a Narc. We were discussing a suspect list and couldn't even rule out members of my partners family. It isn't as terrifying as Stalin's great purge, but some comparisons can be made.
― xelab, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:16 (nine years ago) link
That is so paranoid-making. I cannot understand the mentality of anyone who would narc like that. It's just such a petty, vindictive thing to do.
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Monday, 28 April 2014 20:20 (nine years ago) link
countries full of people like that. It doesnt even have to be an anti-benefits tory it could be someone who got kicked off and thinks others should too in revenge, divide & conquer.
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:31 (nine years ago) link
so yeah it could be anybody and that is pretty scary. if you even made enemies on a message board it could happen. a lot of people are vindictive.
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:32 (nine years ago) link
a US ilxor lost his job recently due to posting song lyrics on his fb and someone reported it. What kind of world do we live in nevermind country.
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:33 (nine years ago) link
Damn! Could you elucidate further on this ?
― xelab, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:40 (nine years ago) link
Damn! My suggestion for your compliance visit is try to have someone there with you to observe the DWP person? So many spurious sanction stories, I can't help but think it's better to have an extra pair of eyes on the situation.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:26 (nine years ago) link
― xelab, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:57 (1 hour ago)
don't let it be an ordeal, fraud as a proportion of welfare expenditure is very small and subtracting the cost of this sort of GDR level minatory 'enforcement' its net cost is probably almost nothing, the function is more to delegitimize the concept of social insurance and these 'visits' are 95% of the time essentially abusive, you shouldn't have anything to fear from them
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:58 (nine years ago) link
xelab (do i know you under a dif nick?) It says more about his states laws more than anything. But im not sure i should really say anymore about someones private stuff. I prob overstepped the mark as it is.It wont affect you tho so dont worry.
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:32 (nine years ago) link
Given what the US tends to get draconian about, I'm guessing it was some kind of lyrical drug reference?
Anyway, I need to find out if the Overground is running today.
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 08:03 (nine years ago) link
Yes it is - TFL reports good service
― Grandpont Genie, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 08:32 (nine years ago) link
Thanks! OK, I guess I need to get out of bed and go find some ancient woodlands.
*shakes fist at bluebells*
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 08:39 (nine years ago) link
RIGHT! I have walked the entire length of the Great North Woods! Starting at the Honor Oak, through Horniman Park, Sydenham Woods, Dulwich Woods, Kingswood, Norwood, Gypsy Hill (had to skip Convent Wood for being "apparently inaccessible" though after talking to a local at length, she suggested where I could hop a fence and gain access), Biggin Wood, Norwood Grove, Streatham Wood, Unigate Wood and home. It only took me 7 hours, but then I did do a lot of stopping to sketch things.
The oldest tree I saw was reckoned to be about 400 years old. LOADS of bluebells. (Dulwich Wood, in particular, gets honours for bluebells.) All kinds of wildflowers that I have forgotten the names of and will have to look up. CHEQUER TREES. Hornbeams. (God, I love hornbeams.) A completely Cthuthonic tree right at the tippy top of London (reckon it might be a laurel? It's bloody huge and ancient whatever it is.)
And I now reckon that the best view of London to be had anywhere is actually from Norwood Park. (Though, granted, that bit of Norwood is so rough that even the logs on the nature trail are chained down to stop people from nicking them. Not even kidding.)
Such a great walk. Will totally do it again to hoover up the remainder of Great North Fragments that I didn't hit on this jaunt. (Mayow Park, Grangewood Park, Sydemham Wells, others)
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 17:40 (nine years ago) link
Well that was very unexpectedly painless and brief. All I had to do was flash some i.d, dig out my tenancy agreement and sign a statement confirming I don't have greater than £6k in savings. The compliance officer couldn't get out fast enough saying he had another 6 to do. Phew!
― xelab, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 18:27 (nine years ago) link
Well, I'm glad that was painless, even if it was a hassle!
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 18:29 (nine years ago) link
Happy Beltaine / May Day / whatever!
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 1 May 2014 08:03 (nine years ago) link
Phone ringing off the hook today. Approached by 3 different companies... for the same role. :-/
Guess that means I'm qualified, though, if I turn up trumps in everyone's search criteria for it.
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 1 May 2014 09:02 (nine years ago) link
The Great North Woods walk sounds brilliant - I'd like to do that myself! Maybe accompany you next time? I'm sure Mrs GG would like to as well.
Fingers crossed for this new role.
I didn't do May Day by the way - no jumping off Magdalen Bridge for me.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 1 May 2014 10:47 (nine years ago) link
Take in Maryon Park for a quick Nick Drake tribute moment?
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Thursday, 1 May 2014 11:09 (nine years ago) link
I have totally been inside Convent Woods! I am drenched to the bone, but I was in there. It's not completely abandoned, as someone has been in there since the bluebells bloomed, so, within the past month. But OH. MY. GOD. I have seen bluebells like you would not BELIEVE. It is old growth forest with just carpets of bluebells. And brambles, oh good lord I am cut to ribbons on brambles.
I don't know that I'm going to be able to get in there again, because I took advantage of some construction which will very soon be finished and the hole I slipped in through patched up. But my god I am glad that I got in there while I got the chance. There really is a feeling and a smell and that wonderful sense of deep cooling dampness that you get from really old forests, I think because of the amount of ground cover.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 1 May 2014 14:04 (nine years ago) link
I am just a gibbering mess of bluebell appreciation right now.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 1 May 2014 14:14 (nine years ago) link
:D :D :D :D That's wonderful! Also I saw this yesterday and I want to give it to you:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/04/heritage-apples-john-bunker-maine
"In the mid-1800s, there were thousands of unique varieties of apples in the United States, some of the most astounding diversity ever developed in a food crop. Then industrial agriculture crushed that world. The apple industry settled on a handful of varieties to promote worldwide, and the rest were forgotten. They became commercially extinct—but not quite biologically extinct."
Read it!!! Now I want heritage apple trees!
― Branwell Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Thursday, May 1, 2014 9:02 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Jeez louise, I've been out of work for a year and a half and not one recruiter or employer has searched me out for ANY job. Celebrate yourself for a sec that you're in professional demand! Even if you don't want them.
― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Thursday, 1 May 2014 14:23 (nine years ago) link
Oh, what a great article! Thank you! (Though I'm somewhat worried I might be an "Apple Hipster" as described in there. Oh dear.)
But yeah, a lot of that stuff is what we were taught on our apple warden course, about how apples don't breed true, and you have to graft a cutting onto rootstock in order to propagate any variety you like. (And that's what's so amazing, when you think about it. That they are basically grafts and clones of a single tree. One living organism, that in some cases, has been living through cuttings for hundreds of years - we have an apple variety that dates to the 1700s! That is a living being that is 300 years old, just growing there in our orchard!)
I can't imagine how amazing that man's job is, being an APPLE DETECTIVE and going around hunting down rare breeds.
(And the headhunter thing, I don't know if this is a peculiar quirk of UK culture, or if it's just specifically IT professionals that get headhunted like this, but it is just the nature of the beast, and not necessarily indicative of my desirability. And I kinda do want this role, it sounds like it might be interesting.)
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Thursday, 1 May 2014 15:10 (nine years ago) link
Every time I see a job described as a 'role' (something that's come to fruition over the past decade, I guess) my internal monologue can't help but riff on I'D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY...
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Thursday, 1 May 2014 16:31 (nine years ago) link
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oEOrZB_STPc/T6-JPw6N0uI/AAAAAAAAFz4/bKrbJubG-r4/s640/drakecolour.jpg
The late Nick Drake bluebell hunting in the Old Great North Wood in 1970
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Thursday, 1 May 2014 20:16 (nine years ago) link
I just got a spam email with the title "CORNISH BLUEBELLS" and I'm just like... "stop, stop... this google bubble of the tailored internet has GONE TOO FAR this time!"
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 08:41 (nine years ago) link
yeah it's a particularly egregious piece of management speak
xxp
― goth colouring book (anagram), Friday, 2 May 2014 09:27 (nine years ago) link
You know, when I use the term "I prefer this role to the other" as opposed to "I prefer this job to the other" I am actually talking about a specific sense of the job, rather than just some meaningless "management speak" term.
This may be specific to IT recruitment, I don't know. Job titles and descriptions in IT are often either meaningless guff to satisfy HR ("Application Support Analyst" is a job title I've been hired to do) or else refer to a group of tasks which get bunched - something like "Data Analyst" or "MI Analyst" or "Data Manager" can all be referring to the same tasks and same technology - or they might not. One *job* can entail many roles. In jobs I've had in the past, I've spent part of my job in the Role of "Database Manager", adding new users and deleting locked threads, part of my job sitting in the Role of SQL programmer, in front of a compiler writing SQL queries, part of my job in the Role of Report Developer, writing a report in Crystal or just exporting chunks of data to Excel, part of my job talking to department managers and trying to tease out what report they *really* want, as opposed to what they keep telling me they want because they read a buzzword in the FT that morning and they now think they want some ~analytics~, part of my job sitting in a board meeting telling the CEO the percentage increase of new customers, and then part of my job sitting in the call centre working out why the data entry operators hate the new system so much and what can we do to the graphic user interface to make them stop making so many stupid mistakes that gum up the system and render our data meaningless.
So: one job, many roles. "Job" is the desk at which you sit. "Role" is the hat you are wearing at that moment of the day.
When I say "I would prefer Role 1 to Role 2" what I mean is that I am being recruited for two jobs, two positions which both have a job title of "MI Analyst" or whatever, but the *role* of one involves doing a wide variety of the things discussed above (which is challenging and therefore interesting) and the other *role* involves sitting in front of a SQL query writer for 8 hours a day, slinging data into spreadsheets and emailing them out (which is boring as fuck and please dear god kill me now).
Learning to discuss the *role* as opposed to the *job* is something I've had to learn how to do when dealing with IT headhunters. It's a specific sense for a specific thing, though I recognise it's not something you'd know if you weren't familiar with that world.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 10:34 (nine years ago) link
(Also, I'm not sure anyone has a right to complain about florid or meaningless prose stylings when dishing out phrases like "come to fruition" but that's just me!)
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 10:37 (nine years ago) link
yeah the prevalence of "role" in the workplace is weird
― conrad, Friday, 2 May 2014 10:43 (nine years ago) link
*sigh*
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Friday, 2 May 2014 11:37 (nine years ago) link
I dunno, Suzy. We could zing one another some more because it's fun and that's how we show affection? Or we could discuss the changing meaning of words in modern contexts coz that's also kinda fun?
But I suspect you're surfing a deadline! And I'm fractious from dealing with idiots on the phone all day long. And also should really be working on something I don't even have a deadline for, but it's a new publisher (for me) so I don't want to take forever. But I'm procrasturbating because what if it's not perfect, and also, what if they don't like it and so on. Blah. I should get back to work.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 11:53 (nine years ago) link
I see "role" being used as synonymous with "job" all the time in vacancy announcements. "This is a varied role", "Please explain how you are suited to the role", etc
― goth colouring book (anagram), Friday, 2 May 2014 12:49 (nine years ago) link
"in this role you will be require to act convincing as though you know what you're doing"
― conrad, Friday, 2 May 2014 13:19 (nine years ago) link
See, I don't believe I was zinging a friend here, or in any way being ~personal~, rather I was offering a general WTF at the rigama of 'role'. I'm pretty jaundiced when it comes to HR-speak but 'role' makes me tetchy in a lie-that-speaks-the-truth sorta way.
(Not deadline-surfing BTW, was on a tea break in the office where I'm doing a few weeks' copywriting)
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Friday, 2 May 2014 13:23 (nine years ago) link
You know what, I've explained why I used the term in the way I did; I'm not interested in scrapping with you, so I'm just going to discontinue this conversation now.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 13:26 (nine years ago) link
Right now, I'm more pissed off by the general prevalence of yet more all-male panels and all male events and all male speakers.
Got an email about something I might actually be really interested in:
Faber Social teams up with The Quietus in May to present a night of music, words and film exploring the British uncanny and modern occult in relation to our history, culture, landscape and society.
Then I flick my eyes down through the list of writers, speakers, poets, DJs. All blokes. Every single one. I categorically no longer go to all male events. I just don't have time for this. So it's disappointing when I see something I would otherwise be very interested in the topic of, but it's just a giant sausage party. Fuck that shit.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 13:29 (nine years ago) link
rigama of 'role'
otm
― conrad, Friday, 2 May 2014 13:30 (nine years ago) link
Imagine having a British occult spesh without, y'know, *witches*.
Faber are pretty notorious for making a weenie roast of Social events/panels and you can blame the relevant editor, L33 B1ack$t0n3, who has even alienated a close friend/male muse of one of his most successful authors on the basis that everything there is (direct quote) "hetty-Betty boy-bonding". I was 'girled' at one featuring another good friend and I'm not ever planning on going to another.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Friday, 2 May 2014 15:03 (nine years ago) link
just realized A Field in England is all dudes but beyond that can't think of a single film/musical group in this genre without strong female input, really quite a weird reading
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Friday, 2 May 2014 15:09 (nine years ago) link
weird like they'd have to go out of their way to be so monogender
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Friday, 2 May 2014 15:13 (nine years ago) link
I don't know what to think. The main speaker also happens to be the BFF of a certain ex of mine - I've gone to some of his events before, which were fine; don't remember if they were sausage parties, suspect not, because he's good friends with several women from that kind of ~wyrdness~ scene.
There is a certain strand of that subculture which is very boys-only, but it did tend to be overtly homosexual rather than just homosocial. Said BFF used to regularly go along to "all man" weekends with well known musical artists (my ex was invited but didn't go because it made him uncomfortable that partners weren't allowed) and it was kind of occult gay wyrdness, which is like, OK, I could see in that situation, all male being a *thing*.
But this isn't at all like that, it's just yet another boring fucking all male panel and I'm just so done with that. It's 2014, I just don't do sausage parties.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 15:47 (nine years ago) link
Mostly, at this point, I just kind of wonder... with so many people organisation's names on this thing, did no one at The Quietus or Strange Attractor, or *any* of the guests just kind of look up and go "Hmmm, can't put my finger on it, but something is *missing* here..." I just have trouble believing how common it is that no men involved with these all male panels and all male bills ever look up and go "something's ... not right here?" Like they don't even fucking *notice*?
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 16:11 (nine years ago) link
my boss just called me into his office to discuss a new "role"!
― conrad, Friday, 2 May 2014 16:15 (nine years ago) link
Like they don't even fucking *notice*?
I really think they don't!
― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Friday, 2 May 2014 16:17 (nine years ago) link
You bet they would notice an all female line-up, though!
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 16:45 (nine years ago) link
was gonna say.
― Mark G, Friday, 2 May 2014 16:45 (nine years ago) link
Have a sneaking suspicious this is why so many male events organisers are resistant to even "token women" on panels or events or gigs. Seeing one woman up there disrupts the illusion that all-male is normal or even acceptable. I get this shit all the time. My presence is "disruptive" or whatever in an all male environment that "never thought about gender before" because the mere presence of a single visible woman makes visible the massive gender elephant in the room.
Dear men: NOTICE THIS SHIT, PLEASE. I get tired of having to notice it for you.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Friday, 2 May 2014 16:52 (nine years ago) link
Hi, shit has been duly noted and passed on to Faber…
In my defence:
1. This is the first time I've sat down and looked at the line up - Yeah, shit is lame. Sorry. I'm going to ask to have me replaced on the bill if they can do it at the last minute. HOWEVER. I've done one of Lee's events before (which I never looked into the line up before either) and two of the four readers were female. I work an 80 hour week and am a hands on dad to a three year old. I have literally no social life or downtime. This is all I do. Perhaps I should have checked the gender balance of the line up before agreeing to do it but I didn't because I was in a mad rush. I'll be more vigilant next time. 2. I really, really, really resent the implication this is just par for the course for us. Take a look at the front page of the Quietus today right now and you'll see a feature on Hole's Live Through This. An interview with Courtney Love. A reissue review of Bikini Kill. A review of the Iggy Azaelia album. A news feature on Daphne Oram. A news feature on Imogen Heap. I'm in the process of setting up (it's going to be run and steered 100% by women) a national initiative to encourage and support more women to write about the arts - announcement due on the quietus before the end of the summer. The problem runs pretty deep. I had a meeting recently with the person in charge of issues regarding female performers at PRS and she said that only 14% of their massive database are female. So things are pretty fucking bleak on both sides of the fence. But genuinely we're interested in helping make things better in whatever way we can. 3. I went on Radio 6 for an hour earlier this year and picked nothing but female artists to play on the show. I didn't make a song and dance about it, it was just that they were the right artists to play that week. We don't go round patting ourselves on the back when we do stuff like this - so no, the "I bet they'd notice" comment is wrong. If we always had 100% men on the site and always worked on 100% male line ups your concerns about us being actively misogynist would be understandable. But I think it would be fairer if you looked at our record on the whole. 4. I was asked to be a part of this year's Louder Than Words festival in Manchester and literally the first thing I said in negotiations was that our involvement depended 100% on them doing something about the gender, age and race imbalance. When it's up to me and its me doing the curating, it's something paramount in my mind. But then I didn't curate this line up or have a hand in it other than agreeing to do a reading. 5. As always Branwell you have my email address: j✧✧✧@thequie✧✧✧.c✧✧ - I only saw this because someone emailed me about it. I wouldn't have read it otherwise. If you're genuinely worried about stuff on the site and not just venting steam, the best way to get us to change stuff is to email us (as well as posting stuff on forums). That way we'll get to see it.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 09:11 (nine years ago) link
I have asked a thousand times for people not to use government names on ILX. Could you maybe remember that?
Why is it *MY* job to email people about gender imbalance in panel discussions? This is precisely my point.
You are now making this all about The Quietus and all about ~you~ (quelle surprise there) because that's what you do. But can you, for once, separate yourself from this, and instead of taking it as a personal insult, accept that this is a problem that goes way, way deeper than "OMG, someone's talking shit about me and my ~thing~ on the internet?" This is the 8 billionth all male panel I've seen advertised in my inbox this year, and it's only May.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Saturday, 3 May 2014 09:35 (nine years ago) link
I do accept that it's a deep problem. As I said above, it's something we're actually interested in helping combat in several different ways. I actually thought you might want to get involved in helping us given that it's something you care about but obviously not. You made several accusations about the Quietus above. I run the site and am the only person involved with it who posts on ILX… so I replied in a polite, explanatory and conciliatory way offering to try and make amends. And as always this ends up being your cue to get even more irate with me.
I'm running a site with the help of four people. It gets five times the amount of readers that NME got at its height - when it had a staff of over 40. There is a limit to what I can do on my own. I'll say again that genuinely the offer is always there if you want to get involved in the Quietus in terms of addressing the gender balance of the stuff we do. You have my email j✧✧✧@thequie✧✧✧.c✧✧. You probably still have it from the last two times you asked if you could write for us but then never bothered getting in touch but if not here it is again.
As for the other stuff. Yeah, I agree with you but I'm not really in a position to comment on the other 8 billion panels other than to say it's genuinely lame.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 09:52 (nine years ago) link
You are deluded. I have not asked to write for The Quietus.
You approached me once back in 2008, when I was still at Plan B, about using my illustrations, and it was *you* who did not follow up.
And as yet another Cis dude who thinks that they get to toss around a name I've asked people repeatedly not to call me (this is your idea of "polite"? This is actually my idea of showing intense disrespect) I have no interest in talking to you further. Good day to you, sir.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Saturday, 3 May 2014 10:05 (nine years ago) link
You asked if you could write for me on the Quietus thread over on ILM. Go back and check it yourself if you like. I had literally no idea that it was so offensive calling you by your name it's genuinely the first time it's come up with me but I won't do it again.
I'm pretty mystified as to what it is exactly I've done wrong here. Genuinely: take it easy, there was no offence meant.
And as I've broached this particular rubicon again today - to anyone else who is reading and interested in helping us broaden out the Quietus in any particular respect; please email me: john at the quietus dot com - I'll get back to you immediately.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 10:10 (nine years ago) link
What is a "government name"? And how is he supposed to know what to call you if he may not have read the threads in which you told people what to call you?
If you're bothered by people getting your name wrong then maybe you should choose a different username again.
Doran, I emailed you/your colleague a while back regarding writing for The Quietus, he asked for some samples of my writing which I sent him but he never got back to me. I guess he didn't like the way I write which is a pity.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:05 (nine years ago) link
In other news
'Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom' on CBBC, ope episode is on Delia Derbyshire
― Mark G, Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:10 (nine years ago) link
a govt name is anyone's common first name
― james lipton and his francs (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:12 (nine years ago) link
well these guys ended our season in nov so whatever i spose
lol wrong thread
― james lipton and his francs (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:13 (nine years ago) link
"Government name" sounds kinda badass I guess. Wait tho can none of us use them or what
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:40 (nine years ago) link
Someone who isn't a poster's friend probably shouldn't be wielding their off-messageboard name in the context of debate; isn't it good netiquette to use the name they've chosen for ILX? Bramwell's friends - of which I am one - know the reasons not to address by given name here, no matter how familiar, so standard messageboard etiquette should probably cover les autres.
An interesting article was out recently re: argument strategies by men towards women, and part of the male belittling process under the guise of 'reasonable debate' was using your female adversary's given name (or, more commonly, a nickname version of said name) as a subtle form of diminishment (which is something anybody who is patronising will do to an adversary of whatever gender, but seems more prevalent in man to woman exchange). It's also incumbent on 'nice guys' to *be* that nice guy and gracefully accept a woman's attempt to consciousness-raise about their possible unconscious sexism in the same way said nice guy might reflect on fucking up in a similar way around issues of race.
Re. the Faber Social, all I really have to say it is galling to be at an event where there's a load of networking and men of similar or lower standing are being treated in a more inclusive way than a female equal. Some men notice when that's going on, but many don't or just go along to get along.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:41 (nine years ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1sZTA8RMcG8/ToTHq8phCaI/AAAAAAAAD1I/8TImdSrMtIg/s400/bramwell_uk-show.jpg http://echostains.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/branwell-brontes-barbers-tale-by-chris-firth-sm-e1269813533507.jpg?w=227&h=300
― ogmor, Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:51 (nine years ago) link
anagram: we are horrifically overworked - I try and answer every single email I'm sent by writers but I can't expect the younger members of staff to lead the hermetic lifestyle I do in order to stay on top of work. Email me this weekend with some cuts and I'll get back to you.
I have literally never heard this about female first names before or netiquette about using people's first names & I didn't know what Government name meant until a few seconds ago. However rest assured I am now fully up to speed and won't be doing it again.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 13:04 (nine years ago) link
Here's the few-days-old article in question; I admit I didn't see the use of name thing in anything other than an 'I'm trying to manage you and/or patronise you in this argument' outwith the whole sexism/privilege assertion angle before I read this and gave it a few seconds' thought, so...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/28/men-nicknames-for-women-sexist
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Saturday, 3 May 2014 13:15 (nine years ago) link
...argument' *way* outwith... erk!
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Saturday, 3 May 2014 13:16 (nine years ago) link
Will give it a read cheers. Also, I don't know who you are IRL but from what you've said, if you want to get in touch about work stuff please do. I don't have any control over this Faber event but it is an area we're moving more into.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 13:18 (nine years ago) link
Literary and mixed media events rather than taking over Faber Social that is.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 13:19 (nine years ago) link
JD, we met at a mutual friend/colleague's wake but that was ages ago. Your plans sound good! Admission-based events seem the only way to make a bit of wodge in certain areas of music and publishing, so hope participants are well looked after.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Saturday, 3 May 2014 13:45 (nine years ago) link
Well, anything we've done before the artists always get paid first, even if we don't get paid at all, which is often the case. It would be a given that we'd carry this on over to apply to writers, poets, film makers etc.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 13:50 (nine years ago) link
Branwell on stunning form in this thread
― online hardman, Saturday, 3 May 2014 15:19 (nine years ago) link
i like it when she tells people what they can and cant talk about on a messageboard
It's really amazing how, back in the days of yore, when some IRL shit went down in Nabisco's life, and he said "hey, you know, can you not use that name on the messageboard?" everybody got the message without a song and dance, and people stopped using his name.
It's really amazing how, back in the days of yore, when some crazy googlewhacking shit went down, Donut Bitch asked "hey, you know, can you not use that name on the messageboard?" everybody got the message without a song and dance, and people stopped using his name.
It's really amazing how, about 4 years ago, when some crazy IRL shit went down in my life, and I asked "hey, you know, can you please not use that name on the messageboard?" and somehow this message never gets through, and people continue to act like this is a bizarre and outré and unreasonable request to make, and I am a terrible person for even asking it.
And then the disingenuous "OMG, I have ~no idea~ what I'm supposed to have done wrong!!!" despite being told in the previous post, followed by "take it easy!" (what, you couldn't manage to slip in a "calm down, dear, no offence intended" while you were there?) is just the exact patronising bullshit I've come to expect from this specific individual.
And now we have the entire fucking rubbernecking peanut gallery of ILX clucking their tongues like a gabble of hens. What a joyful start to a bank holiday weekend!
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Saturday, 3 May 2014 15:48 (nine years ago) link
I actually had a great afternoon! I discovered three new patches of the Great North Woods that I had only glimpsed from afar.
― Bramble Bluebell (Branwell Bell), Saturday, 3 May 2014 15:49 (nine years ago) link
log off m8
― online hardman, Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:10 (nine years ago) link
Take it easy - as you well know - means I hope you're ok/may the road rise to meet you/I hope things are good for you. It does not mean what you're suggesting it does.
Disingenuous - no. I had no idea about this first name/government name thing. Why would I? Four years ago I very rarely ventured outside of metal threads.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:42 (nine years ago) link
xp booming contribution
― kinder, Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:43 (nine years ago) link
Doran, it has been requested repeatedly. I think it's a fairly reasonable assumption that ILXors in general might have taken it on board. Obviously not in this case, but you can understand how it might get extremely tiring and 'real names' should at least not be the default when people are posting under usernames.
― kinder, Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:47 (nine years ago) link
Doran, it has been requested repeatedly. I think it's a fairly reasonable assumption that ILXors in general might have taken it on board
I for one have never seen it requested. There are so many threads I never read.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:50 (nine years ago) link
xp it's also a fairly reasonable assumption that not every single person who posts here does so with the same depth of attention to detail and desire to know the ins and outs of everything that goes on
in the case of Doran I don't think I've ever seen him post outside of ILM
― From Tha Crouuuch To Da Palacios (DJ Mencap), Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:51 (nine years ago) link
This is the crux of it though isn't it? I had no idea. I've apologised three times now and I'll do it again.
I'm really very sorry.
I understand it must be tiring but does it warrant me being called a liar speaking 'bullshit'?
This is the first time I've ever, ever, ever posted on a non-music topic. Why on Earth would I know?
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:52 (nine years ago) link
You wouldn't. Bramwell overreacts, most ppl're aware of how she behaves on here
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:55 (nine years ago) link
xp I believe you, I'm just saying that if you *know a poster well enough to know their real name*, and keep up with the same 'depth of attention to detail' as to their various username changes, you might have read one of the many posts that they have posted on this topic. I am not trying to sound arsey - in fact I think you and I have friends in common.
― kinder, Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:58 (nine years ago) link
You don't KNOW her, how DARE you say that
― online hardman, Saturday, 3 May 2014 16:59 (nine years ago) link
XP: Yeah, I get it now. And believe it or not I feel bad about this. Not the least because I was genuinely trying to avoid another pointless flare up between us. Anyway, onwards and hopefully, sometimes, wherever possible, upwards.
― Doran, Saturday, 3 May 2014 17:04 (nine years ago) link
i've just eaten a salted caramel brownie, so upwards has happened
― kinder, Saturday, 3 May 2014 17:07 (nine years ago) link
I understand yr feeling bad fwiw Doran, yr intentions came across v clearly to me, but y'know
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Saturday, 3 May 2014 17:09 (nine years ago) link
Onwards, and upwards!
What is the German for sausage party? Just ask the Quietus and Faber & Faber:
http://fabermail.co.uk/interface/external_view_email.php?A923429661173225631217534228
― Branwell with an N, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 13:10 (nine years ago) link