The Official Nonsense Thread

[Caspin]

Am still beaming, thus:

Slightly alarmed today to sit down at the computer in my PJs with a mug of coffee and some bread and jam, to watch my sim sit down at the computer in her PJs with a mug of coffee and some bread and jam.







Freaky.

In a further twist, having made a bunch of virtual cats last week, this week my colleague announced that she was getting a bunch of real cats and asked if I would take care of them while she's on holiday. Let's hope that my game is following RL rather than the other way round, otherwise things could get very weird indeed.

Will now continue grinning quietly over here. Off I go.

[Minty]

Aw, looking after de pussy woosies.

A guy at an old work got sucked into doing that by a colleague because he was too proud to admit to her he had a phobia against cats. For the sake of his manliness image, he'd get very drunk each night when he went round to their flat (yeah, the poor cat were only being fed once a day) in order to brave the ordeal of feeding it. He tried to get me to take over, but I wasn't having it (not least of all because it would have meant a daily 50+ mile round trip after work, owner of the cats living just outside of Edinburgh).

Got a ****ing "you have been selected for jury service" citation this morning. Oh thank you very much, great timing! I'm going to ask them to take me off the list & threaten them with the DWP giving them an earful if they refuse. Either that or it's time to wear underpants on my head, stick pencils up both nostrils & start going wibble if that doesn't work.

You know that new solo album Damon Albern's being praised for, up for all those awards, etc? Got to listen to it today & don't understand the fuss. Three good tracks & the rest are forgetable.

[Caspin]

(13-09-2014 09:49 PM)Minty Wrote:  Aw, looking after de pussy woosies.

Blimey, have you been having a few celebratory drams?

I think I will be fine, as the kitties will most likely come to live in my flat with me while my colleague goes away, which probably won't be until next Spring anyway. I am very squee about it though!

No I have not heard that album. I am studiously avoiding opening iTunes just now as I hear U2 are spamming everyone's accounts!

Bad luck on the jury service call up. Terrible timing indeed. I've not had one of those so far. I hope they'll let you out of it.

[Caspin]

Ah Sunday. I do like Sundays. Today I am going to try a different pub for lunch. They refurbished my usual pub (making it brighter - noooo!) and when I went there it had all new staff and a new menu that really wasn't working and the kitchen could not cope with. I missed the old staff and did not enjoy my dinner. I might give it time to settle before giving it another go, but in the meantime I shall check out another pub in the area. I remember going there for drinks but that was many years ago. Give it a try, eh. They have Barnsley chops so it cannot be too bad.

Started watching the penultimate series of 'Breaking Bad' last night. After the amazing ending to the previous series I thought they'd reached their peak and it would be all downhill from there, but a few episodes in and it seems just as good. I've enjoyed it so much. Really great actors.

Just a short while now until Scotland decides whether to demand a divorce.

Seems as though it could be a very close race right to the last minute. In a way I'll be glad when it is over as the coverage has been so annoying. I had a weird dream about it last night in which I was trying to mark my ballot paper but a cross kept appearing in the wrong box, then woke up and remembered I don't have a vote so don't need to make a decision! If I'd stayed there it would have been a different matter. I suppose if I do move back one day it might be as an immigrant, that'd add an element of excitement!

[Minty]

It's closer than they're admitting, partly because the poll companies haven't factored in the 16 & 17 year olds getting to vote properly. There's an air of the 1992 general election about the way the pollsters have conducted things, & we all remember how that one went.

The stupidest part is that in order to question the kids, they had to get their parents' permission to interview them. You can guess therefore how "private & confidential" their views counted for with mum & dad hovering around - its almost a dead cert that all the "don't knows" are really voting the opposite of their parents but won't say out loud because they don't want getting crap at home for it, they can be big enough asshats over school,their friends, their clothes & whatever without handing them more ammo.

[Caspin]

Yes, the youthful voters could really sway things. I'm glad that they've given young people a vote - they are the ones that will be left to deal with the consequences in the long term, after all. I think it must be incredibly difficult to be a 'don't know' at this point. I suppose if you really were undecided you could simply not vote at all, but I imagine there are a lot of people that want to make a decision but don't feel that they have the information they need to make the right choice. If I still lived north of the wall I think I'd be more Yes than No, but I'd still be nervous. No matter which points or questions either side raise, the other side just say "that's just scaremongering" as though that is sufficient to win the argument - for me it isn't; I want evidence and facts.

Tonight I'm off to my local cinema to watch the Young Vic's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" being beamed in.





I tried to get tickets to see it live but unfortunately failed. I absolutely love Gillian Anderson. She's such a great actress. Ah, Skully. Anyway, that should be relaxing and take my mind of referendums and other worrying things.

[Minty]

A Streetcar Named Desire? Whatever you do, never see the ballet version, another of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" to someone. A previous workplace did that as a works night out & those who went along had left before the interval.

Tomorrow's the big day, & I'd be lying if I didn't say my tum is in knots. I don't think some appreciate how big the stakes truly are - when the 1979 referendum just for a Scottish Parliament was rejected, Thatcher made a point of deindustrialising Scotland as far as possible to make us feel more dependent on being part of the UK (as the Bank of England under previous PM James Callaghan had mortgaged off 25 years of oil revenues to stop the UK from going pop). I've no doubt that all the sweet talk of pledges of extra this & extra that are cons, & we'll get hammered if no is chosen, same as last time.

You only have to look at the revelation last year that the MoD got round a ban on dumping unwanted depleted uranium shells into the Solway Firth by getting tanks to fire them into it from a MoD firing range, which explains some of the mutant fish now being caught off it. That's how much we really mean to Westminster.

One way or another this time there's no turning back, & I've a horrible feeling Scotland will make a choice that will cost us badly. I'm hoping for a miracle & Yes win, because I really feel we've nothing left to lose up here. Those in power don't care less about anywhere outside of Greater London except to exploit, & losing Scotland may bring the rest of the UK to its senses that it cannot continue to be nothing more than the colony of a city state. I've an old friend down in Devon who is a Tory councillor, & he says it may as well be the Moon for all the interest Whitehall has in their problems.

Don't believe what you're seeing in the news btw, aside from the usual thugs from the Socialist Workers Party (backing Yes now they look like they might win), the No campaign aren't being intimidated - they simply aren't around. For instance, yesterday I counted five large Yes campaign stalls in Glasgow city centre, only one for No (one of whom warned me that "independence is a plot by Rome"!). There's plenty of Yes canvassers around because most are uni students terrified of the SNP losing power & tuition fees being reintroduced, as well as long term unemployed who naturally feel there's nothing to lose.

A lot of the people that would have been involved in No appear more concerned with saving Glasgow Rangers instead (whose share price is now 19p & falling!) again - there seems to be demos outside of Ibrox every second day now over the latest twists in that saga. Good to see where some people's priorities lie - most important vote in 300 years second place to the bigot's favourite football club. Wha's lik' us!

[Caspin]

So we agree on a political matter? How nice! When this is all over we should tackle Europe (I'm kidding).

I am sure a lot of people feel just as you do about today, including me. The first thing I thought when I woke up this morning was "oh, today's the day", then my tummy flipped over. Tomorrow we will know. Yesterday someone stated that "obviously" all of the English people living in Scotland will vote no, which I thought was improbable. If an English person in England can see the attraction of a Yes vote then I'm sure many of those that live there do too. If I fudge something up and have to live with the consequences then that's fine by me. If I have to bear the consequences of someone else's perpetual fudge ups then that's an entirely different matter. And at the moment we all do that every day. I think that's how I see the whole referendum - same deal but on a national level. If Scotland votes Yes then the future's in the hands of its people, not in the hands of idiot politicians hundreds of miles away who couldn't give a poo about anyone outside the Westminster postcode, never mind anyone further afield. If I could divorce them I would! In fact I think large numbers in Wales, the North and the far South West would happily declare independence themselves if given half a chance.

Fingers crossed. Tummy upside down. Heart in mouth. Some anatomical anomalies going on here!

In other news, Streetcar was very good but I could tell that it would have been much better live. Some things work fine being broadcast into the cinema, but for others you lose something and this was in that category. I enjoyed it a lot though and Gillian Anderson was great. It was a very intimate performance in the round (so again, kind of lost if you're not there) and quite erotic - a woman sitting behind me had brought her little boy and kept covering his eyes! I've seen the film but I really cannot imagine it as a ballet!

[Minty]

Today was a busy old day. First I got a phonecall confirming the day I start my new job - 6th October. The nightmare finally over.

At the time I was getting ready to go out & vote, wanting to leave it until later to let those going to work, school or uni have their chance unhindered by someone with all day to kill. After that it was going to the local Sheriff Court to try & get them to leave me off their roll call (they said if I was drawn, I could still appeal against it pleading circumstances). I was amazed at the numbers of Yes people around still campaigning.

Outside the polling station, one of the "No" lot shoved a leaflet in my hands on my way inside, I said "thank you" & promptly neatly tore it in two to the amusement of the "Yes" lot. One less leaflet "No" had to dish out. One more leaflet "Yes" knew could be spared for someone else. I'm so tactile & innovative EA should make a game about me.

Got my plain white ballot & I spent almost half a minute in the booth looking at it, taking in this moment had come to pass, a moment I always thought I'd be long in my grave before it ever happened. I'll remember that six figure ballot number on the back until the day I die.

307 years since Scotland was united with England to bail out Scots nobles that had lost much of their money in Darién. But now at long last everyone in Scotland is getting a final say on our future, not simply our "betters".

It's weird, but it was only much later it hit me, & I'll admit I blubbed. It's a day better people than I never lived to see, people who wanted this probably more than I. We have been so lucky to get this chance - in other parts of the world freedom to choose doesn't exist or has only been won at the cost of millions of lives.

Whatever the result, I hope beyond hope that this is a day that does cause change, that it hasn't all been for nothing.

[Caspin]

Aw. Big hug. Till tomorrow, then. Going to eat a bit of cake and bite my nails till bedtime.