Disrepute
Week from Monday 1st July 2024 - Why do people keep asking me if I went to GLASTONBURY? Do I (still) have that 'look' about me?
A couple more "ridiculously early" outings this week. I had to go out west to the COMMUNITY HOSPITAL to discuss my kidneys. Unfortunately, said facility is a good fifteen minutes' walk from the nearest public transport, so there was much wobbly hobbling to be had. That's left me feeling VERY tired and sore today, so I'm putting off the OTHER trip I have to make, to the pound shops for fresh supplies of paracetemol and vitamin-E skin cream. (I can't be the only one who always hears "Mah smile is stuck, Ah cannot go back t' yer POUNDLAND..." whenever I go past a branch of said store?!?)
On Thursday, we finally get the opportunity to #GetTheToriesOut. Nationally, it might ALREADY be a done deal... but this is FAREHAM, for gawd's sake. I'm donating my vote to the Lib Dems this time around, but I'm not hopeful that so-called 'TACTICAL VOTING' will have much impact in this particular borough. Please bear in mind that, last time around, nearly forty-per-cent of Fareham folks actually enabled Suella sodding Braverman to exist! They will do so again. There are people on The Avenue who'd habitually vote for literally ANYTHING you can stick a blue rosette on, regardless of qualification for the job or levels of toxicity. But this time there has been a peculiar 'boundary change' hereabouts, so let's see if the inclusion of WATERLOOVILLE people makes a difference...
LE TOUR DE FRANCE has kicked off... Only a few days in and THE USUAL SUSPECTS ("favourites"? Ha!) are already going at it head-to-head in the CLASS-IFFY-CAJ-SHON GIN-ERR-AHL, but once again it is the GREEN JERSEY 'points' competition that has my own attention. TEO GEOGHEGAN-HART didn't start at all and MADS PEDERSEN abandoned before stage eight, so the LiDL-TREK chaps will now require a major strategic rethink, methinks. I'm able to watch the 'whole' thing LIVE at the weekends, but I'm just sticking to the seven-o'clock HIGHLIGHTS shows during the week. The Individual Time Trial was mostly* as boring as ever, but I'm really enjoying Sunday's GRAVEL stage! Proper racing that!
(*Local lad JULIEN BERNARD, not expected to be a natural time-trialist, stopped at the top of a hill to greet his wife and family. The UCI have fined him for "unbecoming behaviour which could bring the image of the sport into disrepute" or some such nonsense. That's caused quite a brouhaha on the old SOSHUL MEEJER, I can tell you!)
GOING ALL 1640s ON YO ASS... I'd previously expressed the opinion that OPERA doesn't always make for 'GOOD RADIO', 'cos you only get half the picture. Well, I'm currently listening to CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI's "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" and I'm liking it! Somehow in this case, I'm able to forget trying to follow the 'story' and just enjoy the mad vocal melodies as purely 'abstract' music. It's the instrumentation that really carries it for me though, all lutes and flutes and scratchy viols.
Week from Monday 8th July 2024 - I have been advised by at least two clinical nurses and a renal specialist to "make an appointment with a GP" to discuss my BLOOD PRESSURE. Aye! but there's the rub! Have you tried making a GP appointment lately? I've been to the ELF CENTRE on three occasions now, but missed the window of opportunity, being told by receptionists that "we're not booking any appointments at the moment until Wednesday" or some such. Almost seems like you have have to make an appointment with the receptionist in order to book an appointment with a doctor (and who knows when THAT will be?). Ah well, not my fault, I did what I was told and made the attempt... (I managed to get just a telephone consultation in the end.)
I once again see people complaining about the latest updates to X and what a shitshow their timelines have become. I long ago established that X is all but unusable on a Firefox browsing laptop. I only ever used it for uploading pictures and other media links, but most of the time, I can't even log in now without an "OOPS! SOMETHING WENT WRONG!" message.
I can only access TWITTER via the (proper) app on my little Android 'phone. That way, I have AVOIDED all the 'upgrades' that Elno has foisted on the twitterati and still have a gleaming white version of the TWITTER app from a couple of years ago (pre-X, complete with bluebird badging). As long as it still works... I can 'like' stuff; I don't see any likeysexbots; I can wordmute anything objectionable; I can still block or mute the adverts, which are merely an annoyance. Like ALL adverts. I mostly click on the "I DON'T LIKE THIS ADVERT" option for every single one and BLOCK anything (suspicious) that has '__SHOP' in the name. Those are mostly aimed at our American cousins anyway. As I've turned OFF any targetted/personalisation settings, they can't possibly apply to me.
Switching off the algorithmic tamperings also makes a mockery of the 'FOR YOU' vs 'FOLLOWING' timeline choices. I kinda wish they weren't there at all, but sticking to 'FOR YOU' still works best for me.
But bottom line, the trick is STILL to disallow AUTOMATIC UPDATES on your 'phone and always MANUALLY install the updates that you need, ignoring that X icon everytime.
A couple more "ridiculously early" outings this week. I had to go out west to the COMMUNITY HOSPITAL to discuss my kidneys. Unfortunately, said facility is a good fifteen minutes' walk from the nearest public transport, so there was much wobbly hobbling to be had. That's left me feeling VERY tired and sore today, so I'm putting off the OTHER trip I have to make, to the pound shops for fresh supplies of paracetemol and vitamin-E skin cream. (I can't be the only one who always hears "Mah smile is stuck, Ah cannot go back t' yer POUNDLAND..." whenever I go past a branch of said store?!?)
On Thursday, we finally get the opportunity to #GetTheToriesOut. Nationally, it might ALREADY be a done deal... but this is FAREHAM, for gawd's sake. I'm donating my vote to the Lib Dems this time around, but I'm not hopeful that so-called 'TACTICAL VOTING' will have much impact in this particular borough. Please bear in mind that, last time around, nearly forty-per-cent of Fareham folks actually enabled Suella sodding Braverman to exist! They will do so again. There are people on The Avenue who'd habitually vote for literally ANYTHING you can stick a blue rosette on, regardless of qualification for the job or levels of toxicity. But this time there has been a peculiar 'boundary change' hereabouts, so let's see if the inclusion of WATERLOOVILLE people makes a difference...
LE TOUR DE FRANCE has kicked off... Only a few days in and THE USUAL SUSPECTS ("favourites"? Ha!) are already going at it head-to-head in the CLASS-IFFY-CAJ-SHON GIN-ERR-AHL, but once again it is the GREEN JERSEY 'points' competition that has my own attention. TEO GEOGHEGAN-HART didn't start at all and MADS PEDERSEN abandoned before stage eight, so the LiDL-TREK chaps will now require a major strategic rethink, methinks. I'm able to watch the 'whole' thing LIVE at the weekends, but I'm just sticking to the seven-o'clock HIGHLIGHTS shows during the week. The Individual Time Trial was mostly* as boring as ever, but I'm really enjoying Sunday's GRAVEL stage! Proper racing that!
(*Local lad JULIEN BERNARD, not expected to be a natural time-trialist, stopped at the top of a hill to greet his wife and family. The UCI have fined him for "unbecoming behaviour which could bring the image of the sport into disrepute" or some such nonsense. That's caused quite a brouhaha on the old SOSHUL MEEJER, I can tell you!)
GOING ALL 1640s ON YO ASS... I'd previously expressed the opinion that OPERA doesn't always make for 'GOOD RADIO', 'cos you only get half the picture. Well, I'm currently listening to CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI's "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" and I'm liking it! Somehow in this case, I'm able to forget trying to follow the 'story' and just enjoy the mad vocal melodies as purely 'abstract' music. It's the instrumentation that really carries it for me though, all lutes and flutes and scratchy viols.
Week from Monday 8th July 2024 - I have been advised by at least two clinical nurses and a renal specialist to "make an appointment with a GP" to discuss my BLOOD PRESSURE. Aye! but there's the rub! Have you tried making a GP appointment lately? I've been to the ELF CENTRE on three occasions now, but missed the window of opportunity, being told by receptionists that "we're not booking any appointments at the moment until Wednesday" or some such. Almost seems like you have have to make an appointment with the receptionist in order to book an appointment with a doctor (and who knows when THAT will be?). Ah well, not my fault, I did what I was told and made the attempt... (I managed to get just a telephone consultation in the end.)
I once again see people complaining about the latest updates to X and what a shitshow their timelines have become. I long ago established that X is all but unusable on a Firefox browsing laptop. I only ever used it for uploading pictures and other media links, but most of the time, I can't even log in now without an "OOPS! SOMETHING WENT WRONG!" message.
I can only access TWITTER via the (proper) app on my little Android 'phone. That way, I have AVOIDED all the 'upgrades' that Elno has foisted on the twitterati and still have a gleaming white version of the TWITTER app from a couple of years ago (pre-X, complete with bluebird badging). As long as it still works... I can 'like' stuff; I don't see any likeysexbots; I can wordmute anything objectionable; I can still block or mute the adverts, which are merely an annoyance. Like ALL adverts. I mostly click on the "I DON'T LIKE THIS ADVERT" option for every single one and BLOCK anything (suspicious) that has '__SHOP' in the name. Those are mostly aimed at our American cousins anyway. As I've turned OFF any targetted/personalisation settings, they can't possibly apply to me.
Switching off the algorithmic tamperings also makes a mockery of the 'FOR YOU' vs 'FOLLOWING' timeline choices. I kinda wish they weren't there at all, but sticking to 'FOR YOU' still works best for me.
But bottom line, the trick is STILL to disallow AUTOMATIC UPDATES on your 'phone and always MANUALLY install the updates that you need, ignoring that X icon everytime.
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