The Things Delkaetre Warns Us Against

New free-entry goth, 80s and punk night on the Holloway Road. Pre-club drinks at Big Red from 8.30pm, then moving to The Gaff for the launch of The Beauty Of Poison from 10.30pm, running till around 4am. First one is tonight, Nov 20th, and then every third Friday of the month.

Great value to warm up for your weekend- late running and absolutely free entry, with excellent transport links so you can get home at any time of the night.

I've been meaning to do this since, um, September. Pics under the cut, because I forgot to resize them before uploading and now can't quite be bothered to. But it's very pretty, and proof that as long as I wear Factor 50 sunblock, I can safely go out in the sunlight. The holiday consisted mostly of swimming with the Gent, lounging, reading, visiting ruins with the Gent and family, and eating tasty food. It was an excellent holiday.

Do you love those adorable little old fashioned box cameras? Do you despair of ever being able to use the charming little things?

Well, Instructables offers a handy suggestion! " This guide will help you to load and use your vintage 120 or 620 format box camera with 35mm film."

_pyromancer_ , I'm mostly looking at you here. I know you seem to come across the fascinating devices every time you go to Whitby, and this would allow full on steampunk photography with genuine vintage cameras.

Well done, Texas. So eager to ban the gay marriage that you may also have banned heterosexual marriage.

Dear goodness, these people are thick.

Sitting here, still not asleep at half four in the morning, listening to the gale blowing outside, my thoughts turn to... fashion. Specifically, boots and footwear.

I realise that Fashion believes that clothes will only ever look good on the hanger and not on people, and therefore picks the thinnest and least healthy of people (Stella McCartney's catwalk shots from Net A Porter being a prime example). However, surely Fashion realises that boots, unlike some clothing, will only ever look good with something in them? Good boots, and especially tall boots, will always show a bit of the shape of the leg. Therefore, to insistently show chronically underweight girls with stick-thin legs lacking any defineable shape around calf, thigh or ankle (though a wider-than-the-rest-of-the-leg lump at the knee) is totally counter purpose.

To show how beautiful your boots are, you must put beautiful legs in them, otherwise they are just leather cylinders. And to do this, you really can't keep use skinny girls. You'll need to start using girls who have legs that go in and out, and ankles the Victorians would swoon at. Seriously, guys, put some weight on your models. Especially if you're going to keep chasing this thigh-high tight black leather trend, which cannot look good unless there's a good leg in it to begin with.

Alternatively you could cheat like these guys have done and make the boots a particular shape to begin with. This may, handily enough, start to actually accommodate slightly wider calves for anyone that's got, well, calves. Now, some of the photos on the site do have people with actual legs instead of sticks in them. But it is notable that the catwalk photos (where they exist) tend to show a rather different sort of person and leg. Really, it's just not good advertising.

Boots listed above are all actually pretty good news for me, though, because it means that the mostly unornamented tall plain black boot with relatively low heel (whatever the technical term may be) is still fashionable, and thus likely to have cheap versions available elsewhere when my current boots die. Shoes remain garish and strappy, ankle boots remain Uggs. Only proper boots are improving.

Other things discovered when browsing Net A Porter- Maleficent is Alexander McQueen's muse, and Fendi has some nice but hideously expensive stuff. Goth is still "cool", but alas things like the vaguely-military/fetish Fendi dress with its d-rings and epaulettes seem unlikely to get copied into normal, affordable shops and second hand shops.

Edited to add- okay, so I've just realised that Fendi are actually just closet fetishists. Seriously, they're even designing collars with chains on, and leather bustiers.

Lovely 3D fractals, available in eye-bending bright colours (as is traditional with any sort of pretty maths-based art), and also in more subdued tones from these guys that look like studies through a microscope or views of distant, alien landscapes.

For reasons relating to NaNoWriMo, I need a public domain image of a female vampire, preferably not "modern" female vampire that can be easily associated with any time period after about 1750.
For reasons of not being a horrible Mary-Sue about things, I need one that isn't Munch's vampire, because there's no way that even a virtual cover of an unfinished book of mine will have a lead character that looks remotely like me. No redhaired lady vamps, because I'd really rather not put myself in anything I write.

If you could link me to a few that I can look at for my virtual cover, that would be awesome. I ask because some of you are really into vampires and know your resources, and my google-fu is failing me.

I spent the weekend watching movies with the Gent. I rather liked Doghouse (bunch of blokey types go a town and discover that the women are all man-hating, flesh-eating Zombirds) and Eastern Promises (Russian mafia in London), and he seems to have stopped trying to get me to watch any more Saw films. Most of the DLR, part of the train line we needed, and key bits of the tube all being down, we weren't able to make it out on Saturday. Travelling for a total of four or five hours dependent on rail replacement buses in order to have up to three hours of party didn't seem like a good exchange.
Instead, we made chocolate truffles and compared the white and green absinthe. The green has a stronger herbal taste, much more traditional, but the white is very smooth and more pleasant to my tastes. The truffles are lovely and very easy and I am so tempted to make more.
I'm going to have a nice, hot bath, a pizza, and then maybe head out to a free thing in the Docklands this evening. I've got horrible sniffles, though, so I may have to head home early for hot chocolate and bed.

Have a nice week, everyone.

When I go searching for jobs, a lot of the ones that I like the look of require a CRB check- not "we will carry out a CRB check", but "you should have a CRB check from within the last six months". A lot of hospital admin, anything in the social sector, anything related to dealing with the vulnerable- I would like a chance to work with the mentally ill, the homeless, drug users, or other any of the many other areas of the adult populace that are so often horribly neglected and poorly treated. But every job advertisement suggests to me that they expect applicants to already have a check. Alas, the CRB site says that individuals cannot get a check, only organisations. So I can't get a check done unless I apply to somewhere that needs it, but the places that need it expect you to have it already.

Am I misreading something? Should I just try to apply despite the requests that I have a recent CRB check ready before applying? How the sodding heck do I get one of these mystical items that would open up the magical world of Actually Having A Chance At Getting A Job?

And this day I am another bit closer to becoming a cyborg, for I have just found out about this. This, if you do not care to follow the link, is a very tiny circuit enveloped in silk substrate that melts away in the body, leaving just the tiny, delicate, silicon electronics.

The advance brings us closer to constantly and accurately monitoring blood sugar, a wristwatch that you can't lose, a tattoo that changes according to your mood, a "lost and found" notice with your address permanently up to date...

I want this. Human flesh is very lovely in its way, but I'd like to upgrade.

AntiChrist this evening, getting home being an interesting matter of trying to catch a series of night buses between Vauxhall and Crossharbour. Looking forward to it, though. Dancing, catching up with people I haven't seen in a while, other...

Tomorrow I'm up for Vagabonds. Might see if I can catch a movie during the day, but it being Halloween half term that idea may be hideously unwise. Will probably be sleeping till about 3pm anyway, since I don't foresee getting back before 7am even if I leave AC at 4am instead of staying till finish.

Sunday is Faith And The Muse, so I'll need to pop by the library and print out my paypal confirmation at some point today if I actually want to get into the gig.

Busy busy. I will be so hideously skint after this, but it should be worth it.

Occasionally I find that Labour's recent misbehaviour is attributed to The Evils Of Socialism, and this strikes me as a mistake. Do not mistake socialism for a faith in the Big Brother state. Socialism as a safety net, to catch and protect those who through bad luck, bad decisions, or simple unfortunate circumstances find themselves on the lowest rung of the ladder. Socialism offers healthcare, education, housing, protection to the disadvantaged and underprivileged, and indeed to anyone who needs it, regardless of station or status or sex or race. It doesn't go through your rubbish and spy on you taking your children to school. That would be to create strongly centralised aggressive power, which is very much subject to corruption because it is concentrated in the hands of a few. Socialism with secret police and CCTV is automatically protecting the government rather than the people, and as a result is bloody well not socialism.

I would also suggest that in the process of creating an adequate safety net for the people it's here to look after, a government ought to impose adequate restrictions on industry and finance to prevent the sort of abuse that we've just seen with "self regulating" freemarket capitalism and the resulting collapse of the global economy. Self Regulation does not work, it assumes that business founded on acquisition and profit will do the Right thing instead of the Profitable thing, and only a very few ethical companies do that.

Never forget. The government is not the landlord, we are not the tenants. It is the other way round. They are the tenants- we let them have the country on the understanding they do not mess it up, return it in the condition they found it, and make improvements where necessary. This is the people's nation, not the government's. If they metaphorically tear the radiator off the wall and leave puke marks on the wallpaper, we do not let them have it back at the end of their tenancy. We are the landlord, this is our country, and we'll bloody well rent to someone else next time.

Well, sort of, if reports turn out to be accurate. Ancient sunken Greek city discovered over 40 years ago has finally been given a proper look at. It's called Pavlopetri, and is believed to be around 5,000 years old. It sounds pretty incredible, and I really would love to go see it. Providing a fairly low-impact way of visiting it can be found, because I don't want to risk tourism-based damage to the site. Damage from tourists, boats and souvenir hunters is already taking a toll, and a site this important needs to be protected from that.

In other news, looks like LSD and ecstacy are back in medical investigation. Despite LSD being a Class A drug, listed as too dangerous for recreational use, and believed to have no scientific research value, there are quite a lot of people who find it very good for recreational use, excellent for personal pain relief, and to have massive medical potential. We get these articles a few times a year, and nothing seems to change regarding actual drug law or regulation, so I'm not holding my breath on common sense winning out *this* time round.

I'm not having any luck. I'm applying to everything I find that looks suitable, and there's just nothing coming up.
Do you think I should just give up on searching for any kind of job satisfaction and get a minimum wage retail job to hold me over the winter? It won't be fun, it won't be challenging, but it will pay- which is more than I'm getting now.

Just got offered a ticket to the Clockwork Quartet tonight, gig starts at 8pm... unfortunately, I decided some time ago to be at a lecture at 6.30pm and I can't see myself getting out and to the gig in time. Damn you, social life, damn you for always making sure that things clash.

... well, now imagination isn't even required! That's right folks, if you work in Manchester Airport Security, you get to stare at all the naked people you want, all day long. Right down the fake tits, body piercings and detailed genital shots. Supposedly the images are destroyed immediately, but I just can't trust that to be true. Security reasons will be issued to hold images for days or months, or unpleasant employees will start distributing photos on the interwebs, and the promises will prove false. This is not my cynicism speaking, this is the way that absolutely every single intrusive measure so far has gone.

What happens if you have trans-intolerant staff who see an attractive woman, but the scanner shows her to have a penis (pre-op trans)? Certainly the staff will be in trouble if they give her grief, but that won't necessarily stop them from doing so in the first place. This is a rather serious intrusion on people who may wish to keep their bodies to themselves for any number of reasons. Personally, I don't want to be visually strip-searched just to fly home to Northern Ireland or visit someone abroad. Parents may not want their young children's naked bodies stared at by strangers.

If you are claiming disability benefits, are mentally ill or physically disabled in some way, or are just interested in some of the issues faced, I'd point you towards BBC's "Ouch!"
Just been reading this article- a woman with ongoing mental illness, who is able to get a Freedom Pass because her mental illness is bad enough. Also about the problems she faces as someone able-bodied using a "disability" pass, because so many people don't really believe that mental illness can be just as crippling. The ongoing push to brand people on disability as scroungers and cheats is making this stigma worse and worse, and making it even harder for the genuinely mentally ill to take advantage of the few benefits they have. It not only makes it hard for them, but the constant wear of public opinion does its best to make it shameful to even try. This won't be helped, I'm sure, by Cameron's desire to kick 500,000 sick people off disability benefits.

With a physical disability, you can at least point to something and say "See my wheelchair? I am disabled. I am eligible for this travel, it's the only way I can get around." With mental illness it becomes a whole lot harder, because not everyone gets that it can affect your day to day to life in all sorts of ways. It's more difficult to explain "Thanks to my chronic depression or constant panic attacks, it's very hard for me to leave the house and I simply cannot afford to travel- even to get groceries. I am just as eligible for this travel, and it's the only way I can get around, too."

For those who don't know me- I have no disabilities or illnesses, physical or mental. I don't even have a common cold right now or a bit of October gloom, nevermind something actually detrimental to my wellbeing. But I'm fiercely interested in everything, and this happens to include disability, discrimination, and why the one shouldn't lead to the other.

Well, not really. But Duncan Bannatyne, that well known champion of moderation and sensible behaviour, has published a rant in the Guardian insisting that all smoking should be banned.

He claims that tobacco companies use colours that appeal to children on the packaging. He forgets that all colour seems to appeal to children. Even black, and we have no uncolour. The boxes look nothing like sweet packets, toys or comic books, and are so covered in DEATH DEATH DEATH warnings that I don't see how the packaging appeals to any but the strangest kids.

He says that "studies" show that 11,000 die every year from passive smoking. No link to any figures to back up that claim, no mark of whether it's UK, European or global figures. No sign of whether the figures are for all diseases linked to smoke (eg, all lung cancer and all heart disease) or only those with a proven link (in which case, do they include people whose death may also have been caused by petrol or diesel fumes, also highly carcinogenic?). No information on which studies, at all, or who they were carried out by- your choice of researcher can seriously affect your end result.

He believes that people smoking outside pubs are "killing us and our children". Most pubs don't allow children in, and those that do tend to have a smoking garden well away from the door. So unless he routinely gets his kids to sit with the smokers, I'm not seeing that link.  Here in the UK, we tend to have breezes, wind, rain, and passing traffic to cause movement of air and thus disperse the smoke so that it doesn't form a noticeable concentration for more than a few moments. If smoke worries you that much, better to wear a breathing mask- factory smoke, car fumes, dust and debris from building sites and so on are all just as likely to be in your breathing space, and are also very dangerous. You should protect yourself against all of these things, as cigarette smoke is only a fraction of the unpleasantness in the air.

He thinks that having cigarettes visible in shops is leading to children taking up smoking. In this case, surely he must also ban the display of alcohol in shops? That leads to binge drinking which damages not only the person in question, but can also cause direct violence and damage of property. People can't sell ciggies or booze to kids. It's a £5000 fine if they do. No one wants to risk that.

His understanding of the causes of heart disease in the Mauritius slums is also... well, a bit suspect.

If I ever took up smoking, it would be simply and solely to spite people like him. I don't smoke, I have no intention of ever doing so. It's just not my thing, I don't see the appeal of inhaling burning carcinogens as a mix of an addictive substance and a load of unidentified gunk. But I don't mind those who do- and while I miss the smell of smoke in pubs, I'm glad that the new smoking regulations have encouraged pubs to open up beer gardens and pleasant, heated, sheltered outdoor spaces. Attempting to ban it entirely appears to be the spiteful, miserly reaction of a hypochondriac with a grudge.

(I am being kind. I am not mentioning his hypocrisy in encouraging sunbed use in his gyms even for teenagers, or his owning nightclubs and casinos which are also likely to result in damage to health what with the alcohol, smoking outside, potential addictions, potential date rape...)

So. I've finally managed to see One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and am increasingly finding similarities between the vaguely psychotic lecherous grin of Jack Nicholson, and the vaguely psychotic lecherous grin of the Gentleman. I'm not certain whether I should be disturbed yet or not. It is to be noted that there are no further resemblances.

I've also signed up to this year's NaNoWriMo. I am telling everyone because this way a few people may occasionally ask me how it's going and I will have to actually work on it. I cannot promise that anyone gets to read it afterwards, though. They only want 50,000 words- that I can do. Quality, that I cannot promise. Nor can I guarantee that I'll actually finish the thing.

... suspiciously full of goths and girls in black PVC and latex, arrayed around coffins.
It doesn't make me want to buy their coffins, but if anyone wants to buy me the calendar for the living room they're very welcome to.
Now, I'm off to the Gentleman's place- he's feeling poorly, so I'm heading to his rather than having him trek all the way up to mine.