Xmas Past.
I listen to Jamendo so you don’t have to
My lucky day (NSFW).
After my experience with pump.io (pump eye-oh not pump dot eye-oh), I’m delighted that micro.blog is micro dot blog.
FAMILY CONNECTION RESTORED
Spent the day at my Mum’s, and a good portion of our final half an hour with her trying to fix the wifi connection on her phone.
Restarting her router slightly improved connectivity.
Just as we’re about to leave, she says, “I’ve got loads of new routers they keep sending me.”
Quickly set up her new router and now everything works perfectly.
When we got back to our caravan, I got a text. “You didn’t take the plum loaf I got you.”
THE SOUTHALL GASWORKS STORY
The story of how the remediation of Southall Gasworks highlights the environmental injustices faced by communities of colour.
The disregard for the health and concerns of these residents raises questions about the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens and the role of local government in protecting vulnerable populations.
It also highlights the potential conflicts between development, profit, and public health, and the need for greater transparency and accountability from authorities and developers.
(This is a Google NotebookLM creation, based on selected sources from my blog posts on Southall Gasworks.)
CHASING YOUTHS WITH CARVING KNIVES
How my journey into care work was a serendipitous outcome of my search for meaning and purpose beyond the confines of traditional work. At least, that’s according to Google NotebookLM, based on my Curriculum Vitae series of blog posts.
Big announcement* planned for tomorrow for #tinap aficionados.
*Not a podcast.
THE PRINCE OF ABERYSTWYTH
With the Prince of ActivityPub’s return to the fold, I can sense a #tinap reunion in the air…
XMAS 2.0
Abstract: Not another Festive Fifty podcast. Tags: podcast, jamendo, music, freedom, xmas
Following on, naturally enough, from episode one, I’m pleased to announce that, this morning, I finally got around to knocking out episode two of my much anticipated and eagerly awaited annual Xmas podcast. So here it is, at last, available for the listening pleasure of children of all ages.
As usual, I can’t be bothered to produce any show notes, but if you want to find out more about the songs I played, you can head over to Jamendo where you can listen uninterrupted by my dulcet tones, and even download said music for free.
Lastly I’d like to wish all three of my dedicated listeners a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. On the publishing frequency of this podcast, if you would like me to give it to you annually, please leave a comment below, and I will do my best to ignore it.
A CHRISTMAS CRACKER
I received some customer feedback.
A Welsh reader writes:
You disgust me!
I’m not at all shocked or surprised. I disgust myself, frequently. Thanks for validating my experience.
A Mr Tim Savage of Stratford Jobcentre writes:
Get a job!
I wasn’t at all shocked or surprised. My doctor had been signing me off sick (not fit for work) for a while. So long, in fact, that my ex-employer, quite rightly, gave up on me ever returning to ‘my’ hot desk. In employment legalese, I was dismissed through being incapable of work.
Meanwhile, Big Tim had helpfully been sending me enough money to live on every two weeks for a while, and in return I kept sending him my sick notes from my doctor.
But I guess Tim’s goodwill was running out. He asked me to fill in a questionnaire about my health and asked me to visit Norman, a nurse, so that two months after losing my job because I was incapable of work due to ill health, Norman could assess my capability for work.
Norman asked me lots of questions and asked me to move my arms about as if I was directing small aircraft in to land. He was ever so nice about it. It felt a bit like being interviewed by that very nice SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa chap off the telly, except no one came rushing in afterwards to brutally machine gun to death the people downstairs after we were done. Which was nice.
Anyway. As a result of Norman’s niceness and despite me failing to safely land any aircraft due to my two frozen shoulders, Tim decided that I was capable of work after all, and told me so. And although Tim recognised that I have an illness or disability, he wasn’t going to send me any more money to live on unless I appealed, actively started looking for work, or appealed.
All of this made me feel rather like a terrible burden on society and that society might be just a whole lot better off without me around dragging it down. And I had been feeling really pretty suboptimal anyway.
So I went back to my doctor, who signed me off sick again and gave me some anti-depressants and painkillers, and decided that of the three options given to me - appeal, look for work, or appeal - I would like to appeal. Tim wrote back straight away saying that he would send me some more money to live on as long as I send him my sick notes from my doctor. Seems fair enough.
It’s quite a difficult juggling act. On the one hand trying to get better, to get well again. On the other, remaining ill enough to be eligible for handouts. The last few months I’ve been rapidly deteriorating, hitting a new low, barely able to speak to anyone even online. Most of the time, I simply don’t feel like I have anything to say.
That said, I have some good days, and I have now almost completed my assessments for psychotherapy and expect to start in a group sometime in the new year. At my last session, the therapist said it seemed like I’d been depressed all my life, but only now (well, two years ago) asked for help. Thanks for validating my experience.
I had a good day yesterday, a good morning, at least, and decided to put it to use. So I carefully crafted for you, my dear reader, a veritable Christmas cracker of a musical podcast. Perhaps a cracker that doesn’t crack and contains no party hat or plastic toy, but only a lame joke, but a cracker nonetheless.
And here, containing my best charidee radio DJ voice, it is:
Just A Ride, Episode 1: Xmas Stocking Filler (29:15)
Sorry, couldn’t be arsed with show notes. Here’s the playlist instead.
Merry Xmas everyone. That is all.