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

I'll have to peruse their inventory from home and see if they've got anything I "need".

How's tricks? Had a kind of lousy week last week (a four-day week, "short" staffed at the mo, and a co-worker with attitude- not a suitable topic for public discussion, though), and while the weekend was nice and relaxing, it didn't seem quite long enough. Though I was vaguely productive. Sort of.

It's been pretty mental here too, though it is starting to chill out - Boss is off for a few days, looking after her daughter who's just had a baby. Actually it was Jan's 59th birthday two weeks ago, which means I've got 12 months to find something else, or I take over.

Si & I did our theremin workshop last Saturday. It was fun, Si had a great time hacking a walkie-talkie - but the theremins we were given to build were little kits which don't sound anything like the Plan 9 freak-outs we were hoping for, more like a Casiotone. Neither of our finished articles worked, such was the quality of our soldering, but someone on our table helped out and got the things working, at least. It was a day out, I guess - and a nice bit of encouragement to muck about with circuitry to make a racket.

Have a good peruse.

I don't know what a theremin is!

Today was much better- back to normal, I guess. It's always difficult for me when there are major changes and stuff. I'll adjust. Eventually.

You don't want to take over there? I think you'd do a damned fine job at it. And it's job security... nothing wrong with that.

Too bad you don't have 'net at home; it's be nice to chit chat sometime. Ah, well...

K and Herman are napping. K's got his first-Monday-of-the-month deejay thang at his buddy's bar (no band practice, though), so I'm amusing myself quietly while he gets a bit of rest in. He'll be there till 2 AM and we get up at 4:30 (his shift starts at 6 and I roll in around 6:30). Maybe I'll read some more of my book- I've finally gotten around to Richard Dawkins' "The Ancestor's Tale". "Good stuff" is quite an understatement!!

PS- I'm thoroughly enjoying my peruse, but will curse you when I actually Place An Order.

I can't believe a B-movie nut like you doesn't know what a theremin is!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

In fairness, I am excited about taking over, to some degree. I'm already "caretaker manager" in many respects, and it's within my capability - a trained monkey could do this, really - but I've become so immured in the state the NHS is in locally that it's become depressing, ironically enough (we work for the Mental Health Trust). I'm told my role warrants Band 3 pay, but now I finally got permanent I have to start at the bottom of 2, despite 3 years experience (people are trying to address that); and since the boss' job is 4, I'd have to jump 2 rungs to get there, which no doubt TPTB will disapprove of and palm me off with 3 which I should be on already. I'd like to find something else, better paying and more interesting, but then I'm not jumping through hoops to find it so there is a comfort zone to it, I guess.

I'm going to come out of a closet and admit I don't really like Dawkins much. No doubt he's a sharp man and I respect his stance; I've meant to read The Selfish Gene for years. But whenever I've heard him on the radio thrashing it out with some religious person he's come off as far more the cantankerous fundy than his opposition, which sort of puts me off to be honest. There have been times he's made SoRB seem like the Dalai Lama.

I may get 'net up at home again soon. I can afford it all right, but I've shied away from it for emotional reasons, really. I tend to get a bit too invested on my own, you know? I suspect you might.

By the way, all you need to do to Place An Order is tell me which ones you'd like and as long as they're in the shop, I'll get them to you. It'll be nice to give you something back for all the cool stuff you've sent recently (but not too many at once!)

Hope things chill out for you at work and best wishes to K & H.

Ah- so I've heard a theremin played, just never knew its proper name. Learn something new every day.

While I've always found Dawkins to be a little easy on the religious in general (I enjoyed Hitchens' newest more than Dawkins' recent one, but both were quite enjoyable), he really covers the biological aspects of evolution in this one thoroughly- and beautifully. With not a little humor. I'm enjoying it- and learning!

I see your point about how you feel about the NHS (though, to be honest, I have little understanding of how it *works*- we don't have that sort of system here), it's be counterproductive to give up job security because of it. I'm not entirely gung-ho about some aspects of the mortgage industry, either. However, I can certainly relate to what it's like to take a big "promotion" at work but be paid less than the typical starting pay- that happened to me when I moved into management when I worked in retail; rather than move into even the minimum salary range for the position, I merely got a percentage based pay increase. I totally understand how much it sucks to be paid far less than you should.

I think you'd do OK emotionally, regardless, but I understand what you're not saying. It's really all a matter of degree: some people you can trust, some you can't, some you can invest a little more time and energy into, some you shouldn't. Really, I think that as long as first and foremost you're making the biggest investment in yourself, you'll do fine. IMO- which you didn't ask for but you're going to get, anyway , it's never wise to attempt to do for others what you haven't done for yourself, first. People resent being used as proxies.

Things are shaping up OK at work this week- busy preparing for my monthly reports and staying under the radar, mostly.

No need to send me stuff back, but I'll definitely keep the offer in mind and if I see anything I absolutely must have, I'll let you know! Thank you.

Off to the office. Have a good rest of your Tuesday.

You too.

PS Having heard of the appaling state of healthcare provision in the US , I am constantly grateful for the existence of the NHS "free at the point of delivery" as it was designed in 1948, paid for by taxation. But it is definitely not fit for purpose any more, and creeping piece by piece toward the private sector. Too many of us is my guess.

Well, I'm fortunate in that my employer offers medical insurance as one of my benefits. The cost to me is only $80 per month for coverage with a $500 deductible. My copayment for visits to GP or immediate care is $20, and my prescription copays are $10, $10, $25 and $40. Not too bad, considering *one* of my prescriptions would run me over $300/month. Dental insurance isn't as fab- $11 a month, but only $3K a year in coverage. No biggie, as long as you don't need any fancy dental work, I suppose.

There has to be a happy medium between socialized and privatized. Of course, ideally it could either be socialized but perhaps on a sliding scale, meaning people chip in more as they can afford more, rather than HMOs refusing payment and the people who earn most paying the least? Hell, most of our elected officials get FREE healthcare at top-notch facilites. Why shouldn't they contribute at least a bit?

Incidentally, I see you liked "Dancer in the Dark" ... yeah, I was reading the annoying singer thread and am undecided as to who I'd like to nominate- though Bjork ain't it. I'm not a big fan, but I don't dislike her.

But I digress. Around the same time I finally got around to "Dancer in the Dark" (which I really liked!), I watched an Icelandic flick called "Noi the Albino". Have you seen it? If not, I recommend it... I think you'll "get" the main character really well.

Which reminds me of another, excellent Swedish film... have you seen "My Life as a Dog"? I really, really liked that one.

Hadn't heard of either of those, but looking up on imdb they sound very interesting; Noi as you say particularly... though if I lived by an Icelandic fjord, I'd probably be made up

That might not translate so well. "Made up" is a euphemism for very happy, I think it's from t'north.

Ah- gotcha. It didn't translate well, no. Thanks for the 'splanation.

Noi didn't seem like a very happy fellow. Bored, really. A really interesting little film, though.

Sounds pretty accurate

I meant to mention I found Repo Man the other day, on DVD for £2. I heard good things about it ages ago, but I had no idea how loopy it was. I particularly loved the generic cans of [food] and [drink].

That cracked me up, too. Especially the generic beer... I've never seen any technically generic beer. Glad you liked it.

You had to have guessed it was loopy, given that it's probably my single most favorite movie of all time. I bought a copy on DVD not so long ago myself. At the same shop, on the same day, I also bought used DVDs of "Suburbia", "Tapeheads", and "Reform School Girls". It just doesn't get any better than that.

I think I remember Suburbia... was it a bunch of punk kids holed up in an old hangar? Or maybe that was Romper Stomper. Sorry, my memory's shot

Reform School Girls *sounds* great, but didn't get quite the write up I was angling for.

I get how Repo Man was significant to you

Had to share; http://www.b3ta.com/board/7263588

Sweet! That's great!

Suburbia was a bunch of punk kids holed up in an abandoned house, including a little boy with a mohawk. I haven't seen Romper Stomper yet. Suburbia also had some killer footage of TSOL.

*googles TSOL*

Romper Stomper's all right, if you can stick Russell Crowe. Much better is Made In Britain (Tim Roth), and there's a lot of good press for this new one.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480025/

Something to wear around pronunciation nazis (a bit sweary)

http://www.discoo.co.uk/ringspun-tomato-p-2003.html