I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

Just back from hospital and the store and the UPS place...tired as hell now.

Well, seems I have some kind of allergy to some medicine they gave me...why the delay in reaction we don't know...possibly it interacted with something I took without thinking, like the alive or cold medicine. I also still have a tiny little smigeon of a shadow in my right lung...so more tests perhaps, they'll "let me know."

Apparently the lung cancer thing was just my PA being over-cautious...the nurse said she doubted it was that, but the tests will tell them one way or the other. There was the concern about the congestion in my chest tasting extremely salty, not sure why though.

Anyway, for those of you expecting packages, I will have to mail them Friday, as the UPS store charges about (not exaggerating) 300 times more than the US postal service to ship overseas. My jaw dropped when the man said, "that'll be around $300." "You what?" I asked, "It costs a lot more to ship packages outside the US via UPS, than with the postal service." Well, that's the understatement of the year, I reckon.

I decided to blow off cooking dinner tonight, so I bought a frozen ready meal of chicken biryani and basmatti rice, and a package of Punjab eggplant to stick in the microwave, and since I have to take the long walk to go and vote, I bought a frozen pepperoni pizza for dinner tomorrow, as well.

I got a mess of KFC coupons in the post today, good until the end of December. I rarely do KFC--it's not anything like it was when I was growing up. This may sound silly, but seriously, since the "Colonel" died, the people who now own the chain have driven it into the ground, and the food is rubbish, more often than not, cooked by people who don't have a clue. KFC used to be fantastic...hot and fresh and perfectly fried, now...bleh. Soggy and tasteless...or burnt to a crisp, half the time. KFC isn't really near any place I go to--and without a car, it's not really convenient me to go there just to eat--, except maybe when I go the post office or Label Shopper (a deep discount clothing shop, like TK Max), still, I suppose I should hang on to them, in case I'm ever over that way, and hungry.

Well, suppose I should go eat. I've only had two hot dogs all day--and that before noon time, and my stomach is starting to think my throat has been cut, methinks.

Have a good night all.

So...have to go to the hospital for some tests...told it might take awhile. So I have to switch my Monday shift to Friday--work is not pleased with me...hope I don't lose my job...but then, I really want to get well...life really does suck in America. Do they fire sick employees in the UK? Probalby, these days. More and more us "ordinary" workers are becoming expendable.

Charlie is having a good time. He's chasing his furry mouse--the one that has little beads inside that rattle when it moves---across the livingroom floor. I let him play by himself, 'cos I threw him his mouse...and he just walked over to it...and then, he flopped his flabby rotund self down on the floor, rolled over and gave me a look with those wide pale eyes of his, as if to say, "Now mum, you don't expect me to actually RUN after it, do you?"

So, after I go cash my check and pay the rent and post these boxes, I have to go over to the hospital...and maybe the laundromat later. And so goes my life.

Someone asked me recently, why I don't just move...to another town, state, country, etc. Honestly? I would if I could, but for one, financially it's impossible--I'd have to pay someone to pack up all my stuff for me and shift it, and I've not got those kinds of funds--nor do I have the funds for the rent on a new place: security and possibly a pet deposit...but mostly, I don't have the strength or the ambition, any longer. I'm basically human toast. I mean, the whole world could drop right out from under me these days, and I don't think I would even care, any longer....well, except about losing my cats...they are my family, for all intents and purposes. Hell, give me ten or twelve thousand, and I'd move to another country--providing I could find some way to take my cats along--in a heartbeat.

Of course, I'd probably be no better--and perhaps worse--off then I am now, but...a change of scenery would be nice, even just a little.

. Clothes Shop: Label Shopper/Peter Harris Plus...used to be Tractor Supply Company ladies wear department (only because they've got 3 month layaway), but they've stopped selling tasteful ladies casual clothes and only have have country teen slut stuff, now.

2. Furniture Shop:

Consignment stores, boot sales, jumble sales, thrift stores, Salvation Army...get the picture?

3. Sweet:

Always been partial to chocolate fudge brownies

4. City: New York City, great place to visit.

5. Drink: Coke (the beverage not the white stuff)

6. Music: Oldies, pop/rock, jazz, classical, folk, new-age, bluegrass, polka, big band, western swing, vocals/easy listening.

7. TV Series: (As some of you know, I don't get TV at home, so here's just my general favs: Dr Who, Remember WENN, Law and Order, Queer Eye (US vers.), West Wing, Columbo, Are you Being Served? Keeping Up Appearences, One Foot in the Grave, Black Books, Father Ted, Lovejoy, Cadfiel, MacGyver, Star Trek TNG, Top Chef, All in the Family, Simon and Simon, Emergency!

I'm especially thrilled, cos I just found out I can watch old episodes of Emergency! online--this was my all-time fav show when I was in my early teens--my parents couldn't pry me away from the TV set, on Saturdays. Watch episodes here:

http://www.nbc.com/Vintage_Shows/Emergency/video/episodes.shtml?__Source=ImgContent

8. Film: I guess one of my favs HAS to be Arsenic and Old Lace (an early film based on an old stage play)--Gary Grant was perfection itself, and it always makes me laugh. I bet David Tennant would be great in that part, his comedic timing and pacing would be perfect for that. The title of the play/film comes from a book that was popular at the turn of the century, called "Lavender and Old Lace," and is about a newly married man who has two eccentric spinster aunts (gota' watch out for us old maids) and a criminally insane brother--which he hasn't quite told his new wife about...well, the two charming old dears turn out to be murderers, and...well, it's really funny, trust me.

9. Workout:

What's that?

10. Pastries:

Don't generally do pastries, even before I became a diabetic...but, sometimes I'd splurge on a cheese danish or an iced cinnamon roll. I suppose I'm a bit chav there. I grew up on donuts and cookies, mostly.

11. Coffee:

Green Mountain Roasters... http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com/shop/OurCoffees

This time of year, they have a special "autumn harvest blend" that is fabulous! Perfect complement for some hot from the fryer apple cider donuts or some bread pudding...or just for a relaxing cup of coffee at the end of a good meal.

....unless you're talking ice cream, then I prefer Starbucks..their coffee ice cream and frozen frappachino bars are to die for.

This one was a bit different, that was sent to me yesterday. I started it...posting it today.

What do you for the birds and the bees?

Read Who-porn.

Seriously though, I plant flowers and I put out bread for the birds (down on the lawn, not the balcony..don't want the birds feeding my cats, ha-ha.) I had some of those big ol' black and yellow bumblebees around...but then also had some big ol' wasps too...and I feel about wasps, the way the Doctor feels like the Daleks.

2. Household products. Chemical or organic? Household chemicals contribute to indoor and outdoor pollution.

Used to use organic when I had the caravan (and also had more money). I just buy whatever I can now, as I don't have wads of cash to wave around, and organic cleaners are about five times the cost of something I can get at the one-dollar store

3. Do you junk?

I used to, all the time. Where my caravan was, the town dump was just a 5 minute drive up the road, so it was easy for me to recycle cardboard, paper, metals and stuff...and the town also picked up recycleables once a week, as well, during the bin collections.

The city of Glens Falls doesn't seem to have public bin collections--one must pay a private company to collect one's rubbish, and here we have a dumpster/skip out in the car park out back...there's no recycleable colllections, either, and the recycling center is out of town, in the suburbs.

4. Air-dry or tumble-dry? Line-drying saves money and stops carbon emissions.

Tumble dry. Again, at the caravan I had a clothes line (not to mention a washing machine), here, I live on the second floor, wash clothing in the kitchen sink, and my balcony is tiny--only can seat two people, and even that's crowded, so not really feasible for line drying. I have to do wash at the laundromat, so line drying it totally out, nowadays.

5. Old gadgets. Recycle or toss ‘em? According to the report, we have to find a way not to fill up landfills with electronic objects.

Off to the skip/dump with them. Places that recycle electronic gadgets are few and far between, where I live...without a car, totally impossible to get there, anyway...tho', that said, I did once a dryer to a dealer, for him to fix and re-sell. But...without a car and no one to carry the bloomin' things...no way. I'm all for saving the environment--have been since I was a teenager, but not at the cost of hurting my back again, na-uh.

6. Lightbulbs - incandescent or fluorescent? Fluorescent light bulbs use 70% less power and last ten times as long.

I use energy saving bulbs in two of the four lights I have on most...the other two are inaccessable to me, so I can't change them. But, that said, I never use more than a 60 watt bulb, and do try to turn off lights in rooms that are not in use.

7. Meat or veg? Meat production is energy inefficient. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat.

Okay, you know what? Too bad! Boo-hoo. I'm an omnivore so deal with it. I eat meat, I am not livestock, so there.

8. Loo paper. Virgin or recycled?

Again, when I had the caravan..and money to spare...and a car to get around to more shops...yeah, I bought recycled. Now...it's just the cheapest roll I can find--that's life in poverty-land. You have to wipe, regardless of whether a tree was killed for it or not. Besides...the pages of the Tractor Supply Company catalog are really uncomfortable....

9. Tap or bottled water? According to Newsweek, it takes a lot of oil to make and ship water bottles, and most end up in landfills.

If I buy water at all--and I only do a few times a month as a rule, it's usually flavoured bottled water--I hate the thought of buying regular water bottled...that said, the water quality and taste of tap water where I live is completely rubbish, so if I want water, I do usually by a bottle. I always used to use tap water before though...this is only the second place I've lived with bad water...the other places had quite good tap water--and the well at my caravan was once tested as nearly pure....I could have bottled it and made a mint, ha-ha.

10. Dating - metrosexual or ecosexual? Newsweek says two recyclers are better than one.]

I don't date...and, not trendy or young or pretty enough for a metrosexual...and ecosexuals tend to be a bit uptight and persnickity, if you ask me. What a drag!

So, my take is, that recycling and environmental awareness is a LOT easier when:

1. you are reasonably well-off financially

2. you have ready access and/or transport to recycle.

3. your surroundings---where you live: the type of tap water you have, distance to shops that sell enviornmentally sound goods, and distance to recycling centers, etc., whether you can hang out washing, all those things...they can make a huge difference.

It's easy for those that aren't worrying about going hungry or homeless or having your heat/electric turned off, or whether you can afford vital medicine, to dictate to people how they should live.

But, the reality is...not everyone can be enviornmentally friendly all the time, no matter how much he or she may want to. It's just too bad that so many so-called "enlightened" people, just don't get that...and don't seem to want to get it, either.

...on the BBC's Morning programme this morning, about leaving DW and, about his about to be released film, "Einstein and Eddington."

Just heard an advert on the radio:

"Do you KNOW the difference between you, and the thousands of millionares in this country (usa)? (PAUSE) They WANTED to be millionares!"

I mean....who writes this crapoloa? A 7th grader?

The advert goes on to insinuate that YOU'RE not rich, 'cos you don't really want to be...but, on the off-chance you DO have what it takes to go out there and make millions of dollars, they can help you...they have the magic formula, and all you have to do is call this toll-free number, for information....

Riight. Thing is, it takes money to make money, and if you have no money and connections...and some kind of talent--whether for finance, computers, inventing things, or in the arts or sports or whatever---and looks, let's face it: looks are everything in western culture. The fat and the ugly, the imperfect people--especially women, don't stand a chance.

Oh, I suppose, you can certainly get lucky, and marry into wealth or win the lottery---yet, no amount of trying, and working your fingers to the bone, is ever gonna' make you rich, if you haven't got SOMETHING to start with.

Me, I got three cats, a tiny apartment full of used stuff, Dr Who and my online friends--and that just has to be enough. This notion that if you want something badly enough, you'll get it, is a myth, a lie. Yes, sometimes magic happens, and you do win your goals...but, then there's people like me, who just...fail. And that's life in reality-land. Wanting and getting sometimes have no relation to one another...and sometimes in real life, even if you do get what you want out of life...holding on to it can be difficult, and dreams become dust quite easily. Just ask a lot of elderly Americans whom have just lost their 401K retirement funds.

Hello all,

I'm up at 10 am. Couldn't get back to sleep, and, I do have loads to do today before starting work at 5pm.

Feeling marginally better. Stopped coughing around half-past two in the morning, and woke with less of a sore throat.

That's the way it is with this thing...start to get better, then take a turn for the worse, then get better again. Wish it would just swing one way or the other...it's a bit like one of those days, when you're out driving your car, and it's misty--too misty to leave off your windscreen wipers, but not rainy enough for them to be much use, and then they make that awful squeeky sound that drives you bonkers.

Anyway, an overcast day, here in my part of New York state. (that'd be 185 miles north of NYC). It's 41 (5 C) out there, and just...bleh. However, it's not too, too bad this week, as it's supposed to be in the mid-50's, to low 60's F all week, with alternating clouds and sun depending on the day--in other words, typical weather for November....maybe some little snow come Saturday night....November can be so unpredictiable in New York, weatherwise. I can remember when I was a stable hand, in November of 1990, on one particular Monday, I was wearing ski bib overalls, my heavy winter jacket and gloves--it was fridgid cold and snowy...with temps in the upper teens F, yet, by Friday, I was working in a tee shirt and jeans, it had risen to around 70 degrees F....go figure. Fortunately, when you work outdoors and have little contact with people, you don't tend to get many illnesses or colds--injuries, yes--sick, rarely. Unfortunately, I work in a crowded, dirty, ill-ventilated office, and get sick a lot, these days.

Well, my tree out front of my windows has FINALLY turned. It went from green to a sickly yellow-green-gold-brown, almost overnight. It was a pretty day yesterday. Those trees that hadn't turned yet, had finally done so. There's a gorgeous red maple just down the street, and so my street, in the blue skies and sunshine yesterday, was lined with gold and red trees, and it was just charming to look at.

Another week, and it'll be months of grey, grey grey...instersperesed with white, when it snows.

I used to go down to New York City in November--not every year, but often enough. I might go to a concert, or the National Horse Show, or the the Natural History Museum and the Metropolotin Museum of Art...or, I might just window shop on 5th Avenue, Macy's, etc. There's this little department store, next to Macy's that sells really cheap clothing and stuff, and you can find some real bargains on things you might not find in my part of New York.

Ooooh, they'r playing MY song, on the radio! Now that's a strange coincidence:

Yeah, week five of my cold has begun today. I am up at half-past one in the morning, 'cos I've started the coughing again. Had a sore throat since yesterday...feel like hell. I like working with my voice, even if it is only telemarketing, and there's seldom chance to be creative about phone script....but it's pure torture with a sore throat and cough! Five blinking weeks of this...I can live with a lingering illness, certainly I've been a lot sicker than this in the last year or so, but it's really starting to depress me.

I'm tired, I want to go to sleep!

I can live with the chest congestion, the body aches, and even the sore throat...but damn, it's hard to rest with a cough...it's one of those where I won't cough for hours, but then when I do start, I basically feel like I'm gonna' hack up a lung. I'm sooo-tired.

And, the teenagers upstairs are doing an unusual amount of partying of late, and are even now, thumping and banging on their floors/my ceilings. Basically, they sound like the Jolly Green Giant having an orgy, at times.

I've tried reading. Tried writing notes for a story. Tried watching videos online...anything to get my mind off it...no luck...and the fact that the cigarette smoke from the human chimney's next door...drifts from their apartment--they have a tendency to leave their front door wide open--and somehow ends up in mine, only makes matters worse.

Well, I'm gonna' go take a hot shower and drink some tea, and then give it another shot. I thankfully work night shift tomorrow--yet, I HAVE to cash my disability check and stop by the drug store...and, go to UPS to post some packages, like I'd promised, so I won't be able to sleep more than an extra hour tomorrow, drat it all.

GOT THIS IN MY E-MAIL IN BOX. I write, and have written, ten-minute plays, but since leaving college, have only done so for my own pleasure, knowing that my skills lie elsewhere, and not (very sadly, as I do enjoy the challenge) with playwriting.

So, at no time in the last five or more years, have I gone out and looked at contest submissions...which makes me suspicious about this e-mail. I've not even been on a playwriting forum or website in over 5 years, so how did this person get my e-mail address? Okay, that particular e-mail address, I've had since 2001, so I suppose it could still be floating around some of those old theatrical and writing websites I used to visit fairly regularly....I dunno. In the back of my mind, a warning bell is dinging, so while I most certainly would have no problem writing SOMETHING that's 8 to 11 pages long in 7 or 10 days, (but quite probably not a very good something), do I really want to take the chance of having some creep in some boiler room somewhere, do something shady with this, or just as bad, messing up my computer?

Don't think so. My common sense tells me this: that something smells rotten (and yes, I'm wearing deodorant), and I think I'll pass on this...maybe write that Dr Who fiction story I've been making notes for...or finish Dark Holiday on my Wordpress Who's Stories blog...I mean, I sort of left the Doctor and Donna, out there on the moors with a dead body... I imagine that body's getting pretty ripe by now.

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PLAYWRIGHTS WANTED URGENT 15th Nov. 2008 deadline. If you wait for inspiration, you're not a writer, but a waiter...........Anonymous. Better recognize your brother. Everyone you meet....................John Lennon. THE IRAQ 10 MINUTE PLAYWRITING CONTEST Can you write a 10 minute play before 15th Nov. 2008?
Think of "IRAQ" as a metaphor for Afghanistan,Middle East,Israel,USA, UK, Iraq,muslims,jews,christians,w,saddam,osama,barney,Torah, Koran,Bible,Hijab,rights of women,Peace,War,9-11, Etc.,Etc.
If you are for or against the war, this is your chance to express yourself. How do you feel about soldiers and innocent civilians dying on both sides? Can you write about a solution? Nonpartisan. Non-sectarian. Based on real people or fascinating characters you create. A ten minute play should have a great ending, be about 7 pages and is about 1200 words, assuming you don't use words like hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian. Submission Guidelines:
1. Original,any genre,unproduced,unpublished,,not optioned
and not have won other contests. No monologues.
2. English language. 12 font.
3. Up to but no longer than 10 minutes.
4. Contact info and biography on one page.
5. List of characters with brief Bios. 6. Limit,3 scripts per writer.1 drama,1 comedy and 1 work of pure genius.
7. No email script submissions. No i.d throughout script.
8. Include 3 copies of each script. Scripts will Not be returned.
9. Donation (Not mandatory)of $1 cash or the equivalent of $1. in your currency or 3 first class usa stamps. Those who donate or do not are treated equally.
10. Contest open to earth citizens,including Canadians and Mathematicians.
11. Deadline: 15th Nov. 2008. 12. Writers will be contacted for permission to perform your play. 13. Author owns rights. Does your play have a powerful ending? Please, no registered mail.
Address: HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE THEATRE
PLAYWRITING CONTEST John O'Donnell.
P. O. Box 291 460. Los Angeles, Ca. 90029 USA.
1st prize $100. 2nd prize $25. 3rd prize $25.
Check 30th Nov 2008 on website.Semi-finalists.
The 10 best plays will have a staged reading in Los Angeles in December 2008. Contact: http://www.hollywoodsciencetheatre.com/ john (at ) hollywoodsciencetheatre.com.. John O'Donnell. Artistic Director.

From the dust of our father's, the wildflowers grow. They grow in the sunshine and shadow, in the wind and the rain. And, when it's their time, they bow their heads down, and return to the earth again---playwrite27

Meh--I was bored...

I have to sit all day on the telephone (and in my office, lol) listening to idiot after idiot...even in college I would hear the dumbest crap--from professors, students, too many people. I had a professor once tell me that the US can't have a good public transport system, because the country is "too big" and it wouldn't be practical--okay, they could build a transcontenental rail system in the mid-1800's, and we can send space shuttles out to a space station--but we can't have a good network of rail and bus public transport?

In the city where I live, they make stupid excuses as to why they don't put in safe crosswalks, and proper parking for office workers---problems that are totally solvable, and without too, too much fus or bother...but...that's just it. It's a bother. It's too much effort to stop for common sense.

Common sense. It's in short supply in America, these days. I wonder, if Americans in the 1770's, were more like Americans today, would there have even been a revolution?

Thomas Paine wrote a work called, "Common Sense." By today's neo-conservative republican standards, people like Gov. Palin and Rush Limbaugh, would have branded Paine a "Leftist Liberal" and a "Terrorist," I'm quite certain.

In fact, I would bet everything I own (okay, it's an apartment full of used furniture, horsey stuff, books and assorted knick-knacks, but...it's all I got..and I'd be willing to bet it, cos I feel I am correct) anyway, I'd bet all I have--even my old Tom Baker Dr Who poster, my autographed David Tennant post card, my 18th Century Spanish-Colonial horse bit, and my George Hoose painting--(but you cannot have my late mum's favourite knick-knack), that if you quoted some stuff from "Common Sense" to Sarah Palin, not telling her who wrote it or when, only that it was an a citizen of this country, she's call Paine a terrorist.

Paine's political pamphlet brought the rising revolutionary sentiment into sharp focus by placing blame for the suffering of the colonies directly on the reigning British monarch, George III. "Common Sense" sparked such a furor--very similar to the feelings that most Americans had the day after the Pearl Harbor attack in WWII, and 9/11---that a revolution was born.

Some quotes from "Common Sense," published in 1776:

As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing

OTHER QUOTES BY THOMAS PAINE, FROM HIS OTHER WRITINGS:

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791

If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.

Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

MORE QUOTES:

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness.

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

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To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. --Thomas Paine

So that's like, trying to give Sarah Palin brain surgery?

So, just re-installed the new computer. God, who would'a thought that I could just hook up a computer in five minutes? Not me. I was always astounded that I was able to programme the VCR...well, sort of, and really was chuffed when I could hook up the NES without instructions. Damn, I'm good!

Well, considering that I have mild DCD and serious dyscalculia, I don't think I do too badly on my own. Of course, no one can hear me mutter obsenities under my breath--and over my breath, online, thank goodness...but sometimes the neighbours get an accidental earful (thin walls).

I don't have everything installed yet, as I'm waiting on some things. But I decided to install my antivirus software, as I really don't want to get into THAT crap again, with the adware and virus.

The only other thing I did, was set up my tardis wallpaper, and Dr Who screensaver (Playwrite27 MUST have her Dr Who stuff to look at, it's a rule, okay?)

And, later, I may re-install my MVP cribbage game, as well. I like playing a bit of cribbage against the computer, while waiting for dinner/lunch to be ready. Mind you, without automatic scoring, I could never play against a human being. I will have to look around the bins in the shops, to see if I can find a cheap card game CD. I can't find the old Hoyle's one I had, which had cribbage, gin rummy, euchre, spades, whist and poker games on it.

Okay, this is a boring post, think I'll go try and find something insteresting to read...or maybe write...tho' usually the writing muse doesn't visit me till after midnight, for some reason, never could figure out why.

Have a good night all...and thousand thanks to my friend for this, I really don't know how I can ever fully thank you.