h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*nods vaguely before collapsing back against Teuchter's shoulder and falling asleep again*

Hypatia, I love the sign.

Great signs!

Off to do a test.

I would like a pamphlet to give to parents that say that any child of theirs that irritates me will be sent to hard labour in my own sweat shop.

> Do I give him a verbal kick up the arse because he badly needs one or do I just let him get on with it until he's alienated as many people as possible?

Me, I'm a pro-active kind of gal. If somebody has a problem with me, I go talk to them about it. If I have a problem with somebody, I go talk to them about it. And seeing as you don't really care whether your brother ever talks to you again, Dreadful, you might as well tell him off. In a nice way. The truth is that you can tell him what you think of him all day, but unless he wants to change, he won't. Don't piss him off and he *might* listen to you. You are doing him a favor, after all.

As for children in public places... 'Anybody that would like to join the British Navy, lay on the ground with your eyes closed.' [WHAM!]

I'm not as mean as all that. I was a child once... a well-behaved, quiet, intelligent, and darling child, who never smeared chocolate on the furniture or spilled Kool-Aid on the carpet. Righhhhhht.

FG - the fellow employees can give you an idea of whether it's a good place to work by the nature of their complaints. And I've found the best way to encourage people to come up and talk to me is to bring a really good book to work. I would go to the smoking area on my lunch break, break out my book, and five people would try to engage me in conversation. Now that I no longer smoke, I have to read surreptitiously.

Hang in there. And don't be afraid to quit if you feel like the job is sucking the life out of you. A steady paycheck does not equal a good night's sleep, or calm nerves and a contented tummy.

I'm sorry to dump on everyone. But right now, with my new schedule, you're the only people I see on a regular basis. I could do worse, eh?

Seriously, you're a great group of friends. Online or IRL.

It's understandable. Heaven knows that I've unloaded lots of stuff here at the Atelier in the past.

I don't know about that sign....what if a parent WANTS their children to receive sugar and a puppy? That kind of thing could backfire.

I have yet to meet a parent who wants their child to have sugar and a puppy.

Only if I don't have to be around them for several months!

Only months?

Have a good night all.

[SG V] 'ning all

{SC - whose favorite t shirt of all says "The Grandparent's Revenge: Feed them sugar and send them home". }

Kelli, about your friend's scanning. A horrible message to get - and to have to live with it and worry about it for days, maybe weeks. Just be there for her/them, listen, and in that way try to help them bear it.

It is quite early in the pregnancy, isn't it? As far as I remember, I was told that they cannot see everything in a scanning. It depends on the position of the foetus. But still, the hospital people would know that and wouldn't say too much before they are almost sure of their observations. *The best of hopes.*

The Danish elections for local counsils/communities and new regions were quite backward. Now, when the elections are over, the politicians will decide which administrative body should be responsible for which tasks - it is not decided for some of the very heavy social tasks .

The whole new restructuring excercise costs nothing, the government claims, and does not allow the counsils/communities to raise the local taxes, or gives extra state funds. So in every public area - from kindergarden, school, institutions for handicapped, nature care to the care of elderly people the budgets have to be reduced.


The political discussions have been about structures, borders, technical rearrangements - NOT about what the content of the services for people will be. The hidden and partly open agenda is to privatise public service, education and social care. In black and white - if you have money you can give your children and relatives good care and education. And the rest the can have.


Assorted s, s and s for those who need and deserve, and a warm blanket for Kat .

I remember the polecat dancing as well . Am an eager 'Ask MR D-lurker'.

Morning Everyone,

Mr D, tread lightly with your kid brother. I had one once. We didn't get on until we were both mid twenties. When it came to the kick arse stage it was too late and he's no longer with us. Sometimes a person's course is set on self destruct and there's not much we can do about it, we can try, but maybe it's better done gently. You'd miss him if he wasn't there.

Hey Mol, here I am trying to get Albert set on a respectable, new career, a new start for a sad case who has sometimes found himself in circumstances not of his making and what happens, his past keeps getting dragged up. Sly innuendo and they can't touch him for that. Give the guy a break.

I do wish Cassie wouldn't want to share the fruits of her hunting with me. Another offering this morning.

<>

They should start putting signs up like that in Games Workshop stores... there's a worrying trend developing where parents dump their kids at Workshop for a few hours while they go shopping. This is fine if the kid is booked onto one of the hobby demonstrations they run but if they're not you end up with a disgruntled child moping around the shop for most of the afternoon.

Another sign they could do with is:
We do not sell – Crossword books, PlayStation games, chess sets, kites, radio controlled cars or Pokémon cards. Pokémon is NOT a trademark of Games Workshop Ltd, nor do we manufacture, distribute or otherwise involve ourselves with the game so don't get arsey when we tell you we don't have it.

I think the sign should have been "Unattended children will be fed to the Espresso Machine and Puppies"

Santra/Tartaronne - Why is the Danish government doing the restructuring? Is it because of shifting population patterns? Cost of lots of small local councils? something else?

for FG. Hope it gets easier soon.
[Candi]

Phil about the restructure of the Danish map.




It is one of the greatest/biggest reforms of the public service in many, many years. Since the last reform in 1950es we have had three bodies to take care of public affairs and public services: The state, 15 counties (regional) plus two big councils/communities with the same status as a county com council (a Copenhagen-royal-something from old times) and 252 councils/communities of very different sizes populationwise. Some with 6-8000 citizens, some with 50-200.000 citizens.

The restructure is supposed to make the public service more efficient for the same amount of money - and the government coalition wanted to loose the counties and make the public service open for private enterprise.

All three bodies have their separate election and the right to write out taxes for the services rendered. The state has the countrywide affairs, the counties the regional like hospitals, public transport, nature care, youth education and institutions for handicapped people, and the councils/communities the close citizen affairs like daycare, care for older people, schools, pensions, social support etc.

We have been decentralizing the public services for about 25 years, from state to counties to communities/councils and some of the smaller communities have a hard time to render the services properly - also because the smaller (rural) communities do not have firms with a huge turnover or rich people that will boost the tax collected.

Santra and I live in very different types of community.

Now we will have 5 big regions with limited tasks, politically governed (a compromise the coalition had to make - it wanted only administration) but the regions only have the money the communities pay for services. No right to write out tax. And 96 communities/councils made up of different fusions of smaller counties.

We've only had a few years to discuss and prepare for this reform, and according to the vox pops and polls yesterday half the voters didn't really know what was going on and what the consequences might be. Well, even the politicians haven't got a clue about certain services. For two years I've been trying to pry out of many different local politicians what exactely their politics were for certain areas of public service and which content these services should have. Nothing.

1.1.2007 the reform takes effect. As I've said before. I fear for the socially, psychiatrically, mentally, physically handicapped and needy of specialized care for a while or lifelong.