Sweet Zombie Jesus!

"Good God Fry, I don't know how to teach. I'm a Professor!"
-Professor Hubert Farnsworth.

I was reminded of that line when I read this article. In all honesty what was the matter with that psychologist, I quote:

Whether we experience chills in everyday listening is based on our emotional response to the music,'' says psychologist, Emily Nusbaum of the University of North Carolina who led the study.

Really? Really Einstein? Fucking hell you have got to be either thick or just never experienced listening to music(And in this day and age who hasn't) to not know that there are songs out there that give people goosebumps. I experience them everyday, due that I listen to music every day at some point.

This is what Universities spend money on?!? Researching things that are quite frankly off no fucking use to the development of human psyche(That had already been done with the introduction of music). No wonder there's always shortage of money at Uni's if that is the case.

Fucking dimwits.

To see some more fucking dumb University Research grants go over here.

Now where was I.

Yes of course, over there. Yes these are just naked ramblings as of yet, but there is going to be a point to it at some,oohhhh point. But at this point I'm just sitting here with my laptop having fun with it.

The missus went away to see her family and took the baby with her and my older daughter is now currently residing with her mum over the week. And today has consisted of, sleeping, waking up, eating breakfast, having a shower, doing the laundry, cleaning some dishes, listening to Wino(Oh yeah), watching 2 seasons of Futurama and Galaxy Quest.

All this while accomplishing nothing!

But still loving it though. As it is this is purely an exercise in writing something! ANYTHING!!

IS THERE A PARIAH IN THE HOUSE?

Wowy. New laptop in use.

It all happened by mistake in anycase. But what happened was that I wanted a laptop just for the future for any future studies. So I browsed through eBay and found a an old Dell, Dell Latitude C640 to be precise. So I bidded, maximum 50 quid. Actually thinking that I wouldn't get it. But what happened, I got it! For 36 quid!! WHAT!?!?!

What the hell is wrong with it?

It didn't have any features what so ever. Except for a keyboard and a screen, it didn't even have a battery or a charger. Ah well. Guess I just have to assemble it myself. So I bought the rest of it. My specs are currently 320 GB hard drive, 1 Gb Memory, a DVD-rewriter and to top it all off openSUSE 11.3 Operating System, because buying Winblows would have cost the same as the computer(After assembling) so fuck them. openSUSE is sweet.

And I'm a fucking nerd.

Piss arse

For a year now I've not received tax credits. The story behind that involve both slowness of my financial mind and stupidity of HM Revenue & Customs.

Really the story doesn't start until September, when I thought "Okay Kaitlyn is starting school now so I better phone the Tax Credit people and tell them about change of circumstances." In this case I was paying more for the childcare. When I did I got told that Kaitlyn was not in my care anymore! Hey, what? NOT in my care anymore! Not in MY care anymore!? Not in my care ANYMORE?!?!?! WHAT?

So I make a few phone calls, one of them to my beloved ex(barf)to see what has happened. She claims ignorance, so I phone them again. And it is true the money for that child is going nowhere and she is definitely not in my care anymore. And when I got told that I asked the lady:

Me: So according to your records, a 5 year old has moved out and is fending for herself in the big wide world?

Her: Well, sir there is nothing we can do about it at the moment, you just have to put an appeal through.

Me: No, wait just a moment. How can she NOT be in may care anymore? I mean I looking at her right now in MY living room!!

Her: Well, sir there is nothing we can do about it at the moment, you just have to put an appeal through.

Steam is forming on me now at this point.

Me: Okay I'll do that, but why was this not investigated further?

Her: According to my details we did tell you in May.

I check my records, and actually their right.

Me: But... why did you not maybe... uhh phone me?

Her: Well, sir there is nothing we can do about it at the moment, you just have to put an appeal through.

Me: Okay, okay. I get the picture. How long will the appeal take, usually?

Her: Well, sir there is noth... Up to 6 weeks.

Me: Okay, fine, I suppose I can wait that long. Send me the form please.

Her: Well, sir there is no... will do.

So hey, I get the form and write everything that I think needs to be put in there, like the minor detail of that Kaitlyn still lives with me. And I pay for the child care. And Oh yeah, She has been living with me, majority of the time, since the divorce.

So I wait.

And I wait.

Still waiting...

Finally got a letter, from HM Revenue & Customs. Saying that they'll be discussing it and getting to a final decision on 11th of February.

Discussing if she still lives with me or not? Why don't they come for a visit and have some coffee and cakes? What is there to discuss? How can they come to a decision about a thing like that?

But okay, I'll wait.

And I'll wait just a little bit longer.

Then 11th of Feb arrives. And...

...Nothing.

So I phone them again.

Me: What is happening?

Other Her: Sorry sir?

Me: So you should be! What is happening? I get told IN SEPTEMBER that it shouldn't take more then 6 weeks. I get a letter saying that final decision will be made on 11th of feb, it's now 15th. So what is happening?

Other Her: Sorry sir, I don't know what your talking about.

Me: Is this not HM Revenue & Customs?

Other Her: No, this Brazilian Embassy.

Me: Oops sorry.

Well get to HM Revenue and this correspondent says it can't be 6 weeks and the 11th of Feb was only an estimate!

Okay.

So me and my girlfriend decide to step into the offices of this respectable organization and talk to someone there. Very nice lady, who's jaw keeps falling off due to this story. So she tells me, contact the MP of this district.

His name SUPERHERO Ben Wallace of the Conservatives. I send him an e-mail and receive a reply the SAME day! So I send him another e-mail with a few more sordid details and the reply I got today:

"I am writing to let you know that I have now taken up your case with Mike Clasper, Chairman of HM Revenue and Customs."

And my only thought now? Wow, they actually do help people. There was me thinking that all that MP's do is swim a pool filled with champagne and custard on tax payers expense.

But no, he actually seems to help. And he's a TORY!

Wow.

Ah well. The story hasn't finished yet. All I can say is that Kaitlyn's school has been fantastic, and right now I feel guilty as hell that I owe them nearly 1500 quid in payment.

Private Health-Care is not human.

Capitalism has always been an idea that has fascinated me and horrified at the same time. Specially then it comes down to health-care. I come from a country that has mainly(All I think, but might be wrong) public health-care system, but I got drummed into my head by these Capitalist Yokels that a private health-care setting would be better run due to the fact that the owners would run it better as they would know where the money is coming from and going.

When I moved to Britain, I started working in a private Nursing Home. I am still getting over that experience. I just can't understand how people can make money out of elderly, mentally and physically ill people. I was led to believe that they would be better taken care of and that the staff would be better paid. But no on both accounts, staff get barely minimum wage. People don't usually work in healthcare for the money, but if your paying your staff pittance, then the care will reflect that. We're not talking big money, only enough to live on.

Plus these owners will try and save money on the most basic things. Food, staff training and get this heating! Instead they'll pay money for new wallpaper and carpets(In a fucking nursing home!!!) but that hoist that is provided and was bought second-hand and is missing a wheel has to do.

The care itself is horrible, and that's without considering that these people have lived through probably most horrific and era-changing times. Yet here they are, defecating themselves, eating food that a beggar would refuse and over-medicated as well.

Healthcare as far as I'm concerned should always be run by the local authority.

Healthcare is not a business. And you should never expect to make profit out of it, because if your making profit that means that someone is suffering which will set a whole row of dominoes falling. If a staff member calls in sick, that in return will put more pressure on rest of the staff. Which in turn will cause stress, that lowers the immune system, which in turn will cause more sickness. And in some cases these carers will be patients at the same healthcare system. And as such become more of a burden on society.

The most that healthcare should expect is to break even. The thing that councils and governments should bear in mind is that if they make sure that they run a good system, and managed to get a patient in and out in good condition, they can go to work sooner and hence pay taxes sooner. With happier healthy population, they might spend more money on other things, thus pay VAT! It's not exactly rocket-science but it does seem to bamboozle those accountants at City Hall who've got a way to personal relationship with their calculators, and who tend to think of people as statistics.

The day that people think that you should have to pay at a health-care setting to get a good treatment, is the day you stop being human.

And for those old folk it's the least they should expect from essentially building this country that we live in.

Good care shouldn't be optional, it should be mandatory.

There is one topic that crops up quite often, specially at work. It's seems to be a rather sensitive subject even though it's one of the most, if the not THE most, practised activity in the world. This topic is of course the one and only sex.

The reason it crops up quite often at work is simple. I work on a 18 bedded locked mental health unit, all MALE patient. So in some ways it's a bit like jail except with nicer staff. Except we don't have communal showers, of course.

Well one of the things that they're not allowed is sex. Well, actually that is not strictly true, their allowed to masturbate, but not allowed any stimuli for it like, porno mags, movies or even softcore porn... except under supervision from staff. Which has always tickled me. They're even forbidden to have The Sun (news)paper. Yet it's okay for them to watch Viva and 4Music!

It just boggles the mind a bit that these patients, who are sectioned and don't have any guarantee on getting off their section, are made to go without sex. Even prisoners have conjugal visits for fucks sake.

I remember a couple of years back a patient asked during a client forum meeting why they couldn't have hookers come on the ward. Which was laughed of course almightily laughed at. But it just got me thinking, Yeah why couldn't we hire maybe four hookers(Bit part paid by the clients and the rested paid by the NHS) to come one the Unit and relief some of those guys sexual tension. And justify it as Therapeutic Activity? Well it is!

Shut the Fuck up you Feminist neutered bitches!

This in turn might make some of those guys a bit more settled and less likely to have a volatile situation. There might be a few hiccups(whiteness dripping down) with this. What if some clients prefer their sex a bit more, lets say, frisky. Then hire a hooker who specialises in that! Have a questionnaire ready, come on nurses get stuck in there(well not literally of course).

The British do make me want to cry and laugh at the same time. I don't know whether these newspapers of theirs are plain stupid or if the readers of them are.

But this is about the war in Afghanistan.

What am I referring to though? Well, it's a war, yet these newspapers and their followers seem always so agog that THEIR soldiers are being killed. How dare the enemy have guns and other things that can be used to kill?!?! How WHEN WHY?!?? Well, the thing about wars, my dear ignorant people and I come from a country with NO army, is that people die. On both sides and sometimes(and this is the more tragic thing about it) the people in the middle as well. And just to let you know the British army account for 9% of the total allied forces over there.

Sorry.

I do feel sorry for the families, the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wifes, partners and children.

BUT, in my understanding of it, when you sign for the army you practically sign your own suicide note. You should know that there is the very very likely possibility that you might get killed either by the enemy or in some cases by a fuck up on your own side.

I am not tackling the issue of whether they should be there or not. If they've got the right equipment or not and so on. That is not my point.

Sorry.

War is shit and the sooner all of us collectively realise that... the better. I'll just let Bill Hicks say it:

New Beginning.