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

It's just awful when people you've admired all your life shuffle off this mortal coil, I'm referring of course to the great Bobby Vee, news of his death has just come through my wife has simply adored him since we were kids, we got to see him in concert in the early sixties, just fantastic, he'll always be the boyish popster as far as my missus is concerned, same can't be said for me as she's watched my gradual disintegration from close quarters! Oddly, Dylan was an absolutely devoted fan of Bobby's, BV gave Dylan his first paid job as a pianist in his band! Makes me realise I've been playing 'More Than I can Say' for well over 50 years, Thank's and God Bless Bobby.

Losing someone you admire isn't really a Petty Hate, IMO. It's a fact of life. I could write quite a long list of people I admire who are no longer with us. I've reached the stage where I just say "How sad!", and possibly comment on their age when they died. (Anything under about 70 is too young, 80+ is a good age.)

It is a shame that Bobby Vee has died and I do empathise with his fans, just as I empathised with David Bowie's fans when he died. It's just that those deaths don't affect me to the same extent.

John Lennon: "The end of the death age!"

Philip Jose Farmer: The Riverworld series.

Far fetched as the latter may seem, I think it is in the realm of the possible and may one day come.

This is not a Petty Hate, it's a major issue: switching from DLA to PIP. I knew it would happen, so the initial letter wasn't a shock. What annoyed me was the non-availability of the PIP helpline, as a result of which I couldn't tell them that I was going on holiday. For once a government department was efficient and the form was sent out promptly, so I ended up with just two weeks to complete the form instead of four.

I needed to change the appointment for my face-to-face assessment, which can only be done once. (I presume that they would make an exception in the event of hospitalisation. But perhaps not.) Today I received my PIP award letter, complete with the reasons for the decision. I have to say that the reasons were largely BS. The form I filled in was largely ignored. The decisions seem to be mostly based on the assessor's report. If that is the case, the assessor's report was inaccurate to say the least. It certainly didn't reflect what we told her. The description of my musculoskeletal condition was nonsense, too.

I suffer from MS, which can be aggravated by stress. I'm finding the whole process extremely frustrating and I wonder how many people have their condition worsened by it.

I've heard lots of bad experiences related to the new assessment. Also reminds me of an issue someone mentioned to me recently.
If you want to apply for a reduced TV licence fee because of being registered blind, you have to download a form, print it off and post it to them. So you have to have & be able to access to all the relevant technology etc.
The person in question has a computer but can't use it, and has no printer.

These sort of applications should be much more straightforward with different options of how to complete them.

What really bugs me about PIP is that you can only qualify for high rate mobility if (a) you can walk less than 20m, or (b) you have a mental condition that stops you going out unattended. The government wants to reduce the disabled benefit bill by at least 20% and this is how they're doing it. Standard rate mobility for PIP is more than 20% less than the high rate mobility DLA I was getting.

My ability to get around hasn't improved. If anything, it's worse. Yet I'll be penalised unless I can provide evidence that going to unfamiliar places unaccompanied causes extreme stress and anxiety.

People telling you to "just be happy," like it's a switch I can just turn on and off.


Frankly I defy anyone to live through what I've lived through and come out the other side bursting with cheerfulness, and I really don't appreciate their ill-conceived notions of how *I* should feel.

Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion?

I never liked that movie.

Is it just me or is h2g2's servers really sketchy recently?


PH: Retrying for Live Website repeatedly for days on end.

Yes, I've noticed a couple of hitches. And normally they seem to pass me by.

Double doors.

Not that the double doors are at fault, merely the inability (or perhaps unwillingness) of some to use their full capabilities.

Perhaps it is because I work in a Uni with large numbers of students passing by in no seeming hurry when I am very busy, but it drives me potty that if one door is open and the other is shut then very VERY few people seem to realise that it might be quicker for all if they blooming well opened it and then the entrance is much wider.

This is even true when people are going in opposite directions. Look people, if just one of you thought to open the other one instead of the polite but futile, 'after you', 'no after YOU' routine then BOTH of you might get there quicker.

Heh... I'm wryly amused when I meet someone at a double door, they pause and hold their door for me, and I just proceed through the door on my side.

Elsewhere I've offered my PH of folks that hold doors unnecessarily, or for unnecessarily long periods. The double door thing is a small subclass of that larger PH.

I'm less amused when I hold a door for someone following me who instead of taking over the door, merely sails through.

'Enter Only' and 'Exit Only' doors in supermarkets....

At any rate, when they force me to take the long way around to something I'd rather proceed directly to.

I don't have a door on my side!

They have a supermarket in Southampton where the way into the shopping bit involves walking all the way to the back of the shop before you get to the gate that lets you into the shopping bit.
So most people, including me, walk off the street and cut through the self-scanning area. The way I see it, each time someone does that they are providing invaluable open and honest feedback that Asda have put the entrance in the wrong place. Putting the entrance next to the door from the city centre isn't exactly a difficult idea.

<BB<

Roadworks with 'Cyclists Dismount' signs
Of course they always wait until the clocks go back and it is dark before they start digging up the roads, just to make the roadworks harder to spot.
On the way in today there was a new stretch of roadworks with 'Cyclists Dismount' signs everywhere, but no 'Motorists, get out your vehicles' or 'Pedestrains, take off your shoes' signs.

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PH: "Website is offline"

Yup - I just got that one.