I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

I just got home from work, popped dinner in the oven--instead of pot roast, I remembered that I had some leftover BBQ chicken wings in the freezer, so it's wings and seasoned french fries for dinner....anyway, I was sat here, nibbling on my din-din, minding my own business, when I thought, "Gee, think I'll check my e-mails."

And, lo' boys and fan-girls, what do I find? Yup, my David Tennant fan girl friend e-mailed me some DT fan dribble erm-news.

Seems our favourite workaholic actor has started a new film today. I've no idea what it's called or what it's about...my friend seemed to assume I knew what she was talking about...but there's this UK film series (I think) about some girl's school, called St. Trinians?

Anyway, I gather from my friend's brief description, that DT gets to do some overacting and plays the villian, I gather--a woman-hating villian, so our Tardis Casanova is going to have to really do some reaching with this role, ha-ha.

Anyway, best of luck to the wee fella', I'm sure he'll be great in it, whatever it is.

Well, after a couple of weeks of unsettled weather, ranging from chilly and damp to steamy and humid, rain to sun, this week seems like summer's more or less arrived. Forth of July has come and gone, and we've still not had any severe storms, nor have we had any blistering hot weather (in the 90's F). It got to, I think, about 85 F, a while back, in mid-June for a few days, but other than the tropical steam bath we had on and off for the past week, the temperatures haven't been all that bad.

I've still not gone to the beach yet, though. Meh--I'll get to the lake sooner or later, this summer, for a quick "swim"--if you can call what I actually do, swimming. Because of my DCD, regular swimming is a bit difficult for me, so I just float on my back and paddle around a bit...well, I don't sink, so I guess it's all good, ey?

It's not that it's been too cold for me to swim--I've gone swimming in October, cold water doesn't bother me a whole lot, but the few times I've been well enough, or had time enough to go, it's been raining or storming, and the beach has been shut.

This week, however, it's going to be largely sunny--tho' tomorrow is supposed to be a tad overcast, and temps will be in the mid-70's to low 80's F, so that might give me a window of opportunity.

I'm feeling better today, yesterday I was completely wiped out, but today the fever's gone, and tho' I'm a bit tired, I'm pretty much over (I hope) whatever illness was plauging me the past few days. Saturday, before I went to the symphony concert in the park, I took the trolley bus to Lake George, for an ice cream. The view down the lake was amazing! The west end of the lake, and about half way down--about 10 miles I guess, was all in shadow, but the setting sun was still shining on the tops of the mountains on the east end of the lake, some 27 or 30 miles away, and the play of light and shadow, on the dark waters, on the trees on the many near and distant mountains that ring the lake---wow. Wished I still had a camera.

I often wonder if the tourists thronging the shore around the steamboat pier, truly appreciate the natural and ever-changing work of art, that rests before their eyes--or, are they too busy enjoying each other's company, or thinking about going for drinks or to the amusement park or whatever, to truly see the magic unfolding before their eyes.

Do they realize that just a mile or two from where they are standing--with throngs of tourists, traffic, fast food resturants and arcades and hotels--, lies a genuine wilderness area?

I've read about the Forth Plinth project in Trafalgar Square, on and off over the last year or so. I guess they were (and possibly still are) taking applications for participation.

For those of you like me, who live on an entirely different continent, what this is, is a combination modern art/performance art project, being done by artist Anthony Gormley.

There are four plinths in the square--three are mounted with traditional statues...the forth is empty. What is being proposed by a modern artist, is that before the plinth is surmounted by a "proper" artwork in 2010 (Admiral Nelson's ship in a bottle), is that people occupy the top of the plinth for one hour, 24 hours a day, a different person every hour, for x-number of days.

People occupying the plinth can do whatever they please--as long as it's legal. They can sit and meditate, dress up and perform, recite poetry, do quotations from Shakespeare, pose like models, sit and read, fly a kite, spout political discourse, have a picnic lunch...whatever they want.

That sounds totally cool. I'd do it...well, if I was British or a very wealthy American and could afford to hop a jet or a boat or whatever, and go over and do it.

http://www.london.gov.uk/fourthplinth/

...it was a nice day for a bus ride, anyway.

I got on the bus early, went all the way out of town, to the county municpal centre, and...my social worker wasn't in today. Damn. Two plus hours thown away for nothing, and I'm already knackered by half-past 11 in the morning. Well, the receptionist behind the bullet-proof glass at the window was nice, and set me up for an appointment tomorrow. But, it will make for a long day, trekking all the way to Lake George, then having to work tomorrow night...but, no help for it.

I can see why they need bullet-proof glass though. One fella was quite put out that he had to wait to see someone, he'd been waiting three hours, but that's the risk you take with no appointment. I guess he was agitated 'cos he had no food and no place to stay. There was girl with him, and she looked pretty strung out, hunched over in her seat, rocking back and forth. One of the security guards there, was making snide remarks under his breath to another man, about the couple, saying "none of these people would need assistance if they'd stop buying drugs."

Unfortunately, some ingorant persons tend to lump people on benefits all into one category...and not one that's benign. They don't have a clue, and don't want to. They don't understand that without benefits, some pensioners, disabled person, and people unable to find employment, suffer terribly at times. The reality is, that without any assistance, could conceiveably either starve to death, freeze to death, or die from any common ailment that goes untreated for lack of health care benefits.

Apparently, this bloke is one of them. Hopefully, he'll never lose his home/money, or become too sick to work, and need to ask for help. He probably wouldn't be able to handle poverty very well. Sorry, but it makes me so angry, when stupid people think that everyone on benefits doesn't want to work for a living. Some people treat the fact that they have a job, as a badge of honour--like they are in a specially privledged class of their own-- and that those who aren't blessed to be able to work or are unable to find work, are substandard human beings.

Sure, there's always going to be people on the dole who don't actually want to work for a living---just like there's always going to be slackers who work for a living, that don't want to actually have to work for a living....you've all met them, at one time or another, in the supermarket, in the local council/town office, at the shop, restaurant, in the office, etc.

Frosts my britches it does, when some berk harps on about people on the dole all not wanting to work....why the hell don't you just put us all in concentration camps then? Worked for Hitler. Just for the record, I've never done drugs in my life, not even weed...not that I'm judging those who do or have done, it's just that it's not my thing. I prefer to be me, to be independent of thought, and not cloud my mind or change my behaviour, with artificial stimulation...or, maybe I'm just too chicken to try that stuff.

Right now, one out of every 18 Americans are stuggling to have enough to eat. That's not a pretty picture. Locally, one of the local food pantries has had to expand their stock of food so much, that they've run out of space and need to find a new location. Many local food pantries are finding demand so high, that they've had to stop issuing people with enough food for a week, and cut down the supplies they give out to last only two or three days. Most pantries only allow people to come once a month, but some are scaling that back to once every other month...or, in the case of our local Community Action Agency, once every two months.

People who never needed assistance before, are flooding the system, and yet, some people just can't manage to pull their tiny little brains out of their arses, to see things as they are....it's easier to feel better about yourself, when you scorn those less fortunate than you, when one refuses to acknowledge that the person standing in the bread line, could easily be them.

Can't sleep. I actually went and did my week's grocery shopping at 2.15 in the morning. No queues, no waiting. Really, I just went because I was having a craving for some Fig Newtons (soft fig-filled cookies).

So, I bought a beef roast on sale for 2.50 off, thought I'd use it to make mum's old pot roast recipe with, and I also bought a small ribeye steak that was on special, and then filled out the rest of the week with hot dogs, tinned tuna, soup, fish sticks (fingers) and macaroni and cheese.

I slept most of the day, 'cos I seem to have picked up a stomach bug. I wasn't feeling great last few days, but chalked it up to a combination insomnia and the side-effects of one of my meds. But today, I had a fever, sore throat, sweats/chills, headache and all the little nasties that accompany a stomach ailment. Feeling slightly better now, thankfully, tho' a bit light-headed and feverish, still.

Maybe going out to do my shopping when I feel like this, wasn't exactly clever, but, for the most part it's over and done with (except the cat food, they didn't have the cat's brand, and yes, they are fussy...waste of money buy food they'll turn their noses up at).

Unfortunately, 'cos I slept most of the day, I now can't sleep most of the night.

I tried editing an old Dr Who story, but every time I tried to access the story to mess about with it, it kept coming up with a box that said "script error" that warned it could mess up my computer, so I guess that's one story that will never get edited, perhaps. Well, no one reads it ("Mad Country") anyway, so it's no big loss, I reckon. I was just doing it cos' it needed doing, and I needed something to do.

I have to go to Social Services tomorrow, up to Lake George. That's a bit of a hike, 'cos the bus doesn't stop there regularly, but I can take the trolley bus to the main municipal complex--the social services offices are on a side road down from the county's main offices...God forbid that the poor should be seen with the "normal" people!

I have to fill out some paperwork, and I need to see if they can help me get some better health care (not holding my breath), and help with the National Grid situation (ditto on the breath thing). I got an increase in food stamps and I don't know why, but I'm not kicking about it, it's helping me maintain a slightly more "normal" existence than I had before...well, more than I've had in a long, long time, anyway.

Trust me, I know whereof I speak: Going hungry is never pleasant, but it hurts all the more when you're working over 40 hours a week, and/or working 6 or 7 days a week, and still can't afford to eat!

So, while I dislike being on benefits, I kiss the ground and am thankful for them. Anyone who looks down their nose at people on benefits, needs to spend a few days with virtually nothing to eat, or, try to live for months without friends or family to turn to, and/or without a phone or internet or televison. Or, suffer from horrendous pain/illness, with no ability to buy medicine or pay for a doctor....or, better still, try to spend a few month's in the heart of a bitterly cold northeastern New York winter with no heat or hot water. At various times in the last three years, I've lived through all of that, and I spit (metaphorically) in disgust, on anyone who looks down on those who are forced to ask for help from the government, just to survive.

So, it's heading into 4am. I have some kind of bug in my room--possibly a Japanese beetle, that keeps biting me, as I'm sleeping. It hurts enough to wake me up, but I can't catch the darned thing. The Japanese beetles are terrible this year....one got into my hair the other day, and I couldn't get it out...yuck! They just swarm all over you! The flies are bad, as well--they always are in my city. They call this "Hometown USA," but I think they should change it to "Flytown USA." I've got bites all over me, from being out and about, Friday and Saturday.

Hope you all have a good day, I'm going to try going to bed for a bit. Cheers.

Just when i thought that this place I live in couldn't get more full of thick people...in the paper this morning was the news that some drunken tourist riding around in the mountains north of here, drove his car...into the side of a big stinking red barn!

Gives new meaning to the saying, "couldn't hit the side of a barn." Well, apparently you can--if you're a drink driver.

It seems that the out-of-state tourist took his 2003 Mazda for a little unscheduled off-roading...leaving the two-lane roadway, crossing over some rail tracks, then over a culvert, before coming to rest against the side of an old hay barn.

He was charged with misdemeanor DWI and ticketed for failure to keep right, according to the Sheriff's Office. He was released pending prosecution in the town court.

So, I've read on a forum that actor David Tennant (Dr Who, Casanova, Hamlet, Tesco's advert), that he's been nominated for yet another "Best Actor" award, this time from something called "Portal." I've no idea what or whom "Portal" is, but I wish the actor the best (*Yawn* -- excuse me) of luck.

"The award's for me Yorick, not you, so gull it!"

As someone who dotes on music, and values it's presence in my life, I will be delighted to, sometime in the next few weeks, be able to view an exhibit at the Hyde Collection here in my city, titled, "Degas and Music."

I got a brief preview this weekend, and look forward to viewing the full experience after the exhibit fully opens on 12th July.

The exhibit at the Hyde...well, here's what it says on the museum's website:

"This exhibition is the first extended study to focus on Edgar Degas’ engagement with the musical world of his day. Featuring a rich and varied group of works, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue will demonstrate how music provided the inspiration for some of his most renowned creations. Organized by the Hyde Collection, and guest curated by Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, the leading scholars specializing in the life and work of Degas, this exhibition will present paintings, pastels, prints, drawings, and sculptures by this French Impressionist artist." http://www.hydecollection.org/events/details.cfm?ID=433&dateValue=07/12/2009