Seemingly trivial things that annoy you
Comments
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Son's school requested I provide an over the counter medicine. Obviously I couldn't just buy this and give it to them, they wanted it to be prescribed. I spent 10 mins filling in the form online, answered the GP call during a work call* (obviously no timed slots possible) and headed off to the pharmacy. It was feeling vaguely efficient.
Pharmacy hadn't bothered to prepare it in advance and said it would take 30 mins to take something from the counter. 30 mins later, I discovered that the prescription was for a different volume to the stocked over the counter bottles leaving the pharmacy no choice, apparently, but to measure it into a different bottle and knock five years off its usable life. This rendered it useless for leaving in the school. I also couldn't have the prescription back, because it had expired.
So, back to the GP to get a new prescription...
Sometimes, life is very annoying.
*I was the second parent to be called by the GP despite filling the form in with my name, providing my phone number and being listed first choice contact with the GP.0 -
The state of trains. F@ck me, forget the staff striking. Passengers should strike.
Disgusting level of service. Utter disgrace.
They want more pay for what precisely? Doing a terrible job? They can all f@ck off.0 -
Not sure how long you have to wait but you will find secondary school to be an order of magnitude more organised.TheBigBean said:Son's school requested I provide an over the counter medicine. Obviously I couldn't just buy this and give it to them, they wanted it to be prescribed. I spent 10 mins filling in the form online, answered the GP call during a work call* (obviously no timed slots possible) and headed off to the pharmacy. It was feeling vaguely efficient.
Pharmacy hadn't bothered to prepare it in advance and said it would take 30 mins to take something from the counter. 30 mins later, I discovered that the prescription was for a different volume to the stocked over the counter bottles leaving the pharmacy no choice, apparently, but to measure it into a different bottle and knock five years off its usable life. This rendered it useless for leaving in the school. I also couldn't have the prescription back, because it had expired.
So, back to the GP to get a new prescription...
Sometimes, life is very annoying.
*I was the second parent to be called by the GP despite filling the form in with my name, providing my phone number and being listed first choice contact with the GP.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
An annual one this, the ridiculous reaction when we get a couple of slightly warmer than normal days. Does anyone really need the BBC doing articles on how stay cool and protect themselves from the sun?
Tel Aviv and possibly Athens are today's random locations that London is warmer than if anyone is wondering (Iberia is having properly hot weather so couldn't be used).0 -
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.rick_chasey said:
It's a fairly weak effort, but the DT know its frothy-mouth brigade will respond with the usual bile anyway.
There's another article demonising the 'far-left' (though it fails on not getting 'radical' in the headline).
I guess they spin the gammon bait wheel every day to decide which headlines to run.
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I thought the Tory's were in gummant?briantrumpet said:.
rick_chasey said:
It's a fairly weak effort, but the DT know its frothy-mouth brigade will respond with the usual bile anyway.
There's another article demonising the 'far-left' (though it fails on not getting 'radical' in the headline).
I guess they spin the gammon bait wheel every day to decide which headlines to run.seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
Don't worry, any music released in tge last 15 years is "new",
As she says she cycles a lot, it's a fair headline. Very strange article.rick_chasey said:0 -
I'm a cyclist too and....kingstongraham said:Don't worry, any music released in tge last 15 years is "new",
As she says she cycles a lot, it's a fair headline. Very strange article.rick_chasey said:
Is the normal refrain of someone who doesn't. Or who thinks cycling is something done on tow paths with the kids on sunny weekends.
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That's what's a bit odd. She sounds like she genuinely cycles a lot in Cambridge, thinks that the close pass was "three times the space bus drivers give you in Cambridge".First.Aspect said:
I'm a cyclist too and....kingstongraham said:Don't worry, any music released in tge last 15 years is "new",
As she says she cycles a lot, it's a fair headline. Very strange article.rick_chasey said:
Is the normal refrain of someone who doesn't. Or who thinks cycling is something done on tow paths with the kids on sunny weekends.
Quotes: "I spend half my life on two wheels, so I'm mustard keen on motorists giving bikes safe passage."
But because some other cyclists ride too fast in Richmond Park or jump lights, she doesn't like GoPro "vigilantes" who probably drive Volvo estates badly.
I guess she doesn't see herself as a cyclist because she doesn't wear lycra, which is a bit sad. The whole reason why roads need to be safer for bikes is so they aren't just for people like us.0 -
Discovering that if I use the trimmers on No.3 on the top of my head, I can get sunburnt on the crown. Back to No.4.0
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Just join the league of slapheads, do a buzz cut, no guard + SPF 50 when nessecelery and stop muckin' about.briantrumpet said:Discovering that if I use the trimmers on No.3 on the top of my head, I can get sunburnt on the crown. Back to No.4.
seanoconn - gruagach craic!2 -
I think swapping "radical" for "brutal" shows the writer has potentialbriantrumpet said:.
rick_chasey said:
It's a fairly weak effort, but the DT know its frothy-mouth brigade will respond with the usual bile anyway.
There's another article demonising the 'far-left' (though it fails on not getting 'radical' in the headline).
I guess they spin the gammon bait wheel every day to decide which headlines to run.0 -
Backwards baseball cap. That would suit him I'm sure.pinno said:
Just join the league of slapheads, do a buzz cut, no guard + SPF 50 when nessecelery and stop muckin' about.briantrumpet said:Discovering that if I use the trimmers on No.3 on the top of my head, I can get sunburnt on the crown. Back to No.4.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Nah, sideways, as in The Wire.Stevo_666 said:
Backwards baseball cap. That would suit him I'm sure.pinno said:
Just join the league of slapheads, do a buzz cut, no guard + SPF 50 when nessecelery and stop muckin' about.briantrumpet said:Discovering that if I use the trimmers on No.3 on the top of my head, I can get sunburnt on the crown. Back to No.4.
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This one's also weird, because the only place the word "left" is used is in the headline.briantrumpet said:.
There's another article demonising the 'far-left' (though it fails on not getting 'radical' in the headline).
I guess they spin the gammon bait wheel every day to decide which headlines to run.0 -
Right makes sense because people who live in bubbles like Oxford and Cambridge think it is representative. Would her attitude have changed after a year of commuting around Glasgow, I wonder?kingstongraham said:
That's what's a bit odd. She sounds like she genuinely cycles a lot in Cambridge, thinks that the close pass was "three times the space bus drivers give you in Cambridge".First.Aspect said:
I'm a cyclist too and....kingstongraham said:Don't worry, any music released in tge last 15 years is "new",
As she says she cycles a lot, it's a fair headline. Very strange article.rick_chasey said:
Is the normal refrain of someone who doesn't. Or who thinks cycling is something done on tow paths with the kids on sunny weekends.
Quotes: "I spend half my life on two wheels, so I'm mustard keen on motorists giving bikes safe passage."
But because some other cyclists ride too fast in Richmond Park or jump lights, she doesn't like GoPro "vigilantes" who probably drive Volvo estates badly.
I guess she doesn't see herself as a cyclist because she doesn't wear lycra, which is a bit sad. The whole reason why roads need to be safer for bikes is so they aren't just for people like us.0 -
The idea that Cambridge is some cycling idyll is misplaced. I am comparing to a) London and b) Sheffield.First.Aspect said:
Right makes sense because people who live in bubbles like Oxford and Cambridge think it is representative. Would her attitude have changed after a year of commuting around Glasgow, I wonder?kingstongraham said:
That's what's a bit odd. She sounds like she genuinely cycles a lot in Cambridge, thinks that the close pass was "three times the space bus drivers give you in Cambridge".First.Aspect said:
I'm a cyclist too and....kingstongraham said:Don't worry, any music released in tge last 15 years is "new",
As she says she cycles a lot, it's a fair headline. Very strange article.rick_chasey said:
Is the normal refrain of someone who doesn't. Or who thinks cycling is something done on tow paths with the kids on sunny weekends.
Quotes: "I spend half my life on two wheels, so I'm mustard keen on motorists giving bikes safe passage."
But because some other cyclists ride too fast in Richmond Park or jump lights, she doesn't like GoPro "vigilantes" who probably drive Volvo estates badly.
I guess she doesn't see herself as a cyclist because she doesn't wear lycra, which is a bit sad. The whole reason why roads need to be safer for bikes is so they aren't just for people like us.
The main reason people cycling a lot in Cambridge is a combo of 3 things. a) it's not too big, so it's easy to get around in 30 mins b) it's flat and c) they've shut a relatively large proportion of the city centre, so cycling is easily twice as fast to get around. It takes me 10 minutes to cycle to my parent's house - 25 mins in the car.
the problem is that the roads in Cambridge are really very narrow, and outside a handful of proper bike lines, the roads can't accommodate a bike and cars going both ways.
The problem is compounded by very narrow cycle lanes painted onto narrow roads, that give car drivers carte blanche to do some very close passes.
Finally, especially compared to London or Sheffield, cyclists are much keener to ignore lights, zebra crossings etc. A combo of a) more casual cyclists who don't think of themselves as "cyclists" so aren't so hot on what it looks like and are more just interested in getting home without too much effort and b) the usual nonsensical road planning.
As a result, you get *a lot* of car vs bike road rage - substantially more than you get say in London or Sheffield. The cars and bikes spend much more time in close proximity - the cars don't give the cyclists anywhere near enough room because the infrastructure doesn't really allow for it, and the car drivers are always having to go the long way around the City as they're shut off from any direct routes.
More recently there has been a spate of segregated cycle lanes being built, but they are built in such a way that they actively deter anyone going more than 15mph, unless you're comfortable hopping on and off the lane. They have also introduced seperate cyclist lights that go green 5s before the main traffic light does, which helps mitigate some of the stress setting off with a car bearing down on you.
Finally, if you're a roadie, the cars are remarkably bad at anticipating your speed and assume you're going several mph slower.0 -
Trend I have seen more recently is cars deliberately parking in the ASL to prevent cyclists getting in front and holding them up.0
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None of which is unusual, or different to Oxford, which I spent 4 years cycling around. What is drastically different is the sheer number of cyclists, at least compared to somewhere like Sheffield or where I live now. It just isn't comparable, in terms of mortal risk.0
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@briantrumpet should they have capitalised "Left" ? to my completely uneducated eye they should have done both or neitherkingstongraham said:
This one's also weird, because the only place the word "left" is used is in the headline.briantrumpet said:.
There's another article demonising the 'far-left' (though it fails on not getting 'radical' in the headline).
I guess they spin the gammon bait wheel every day to decide which headlines to run.0 -
Hmm, not sure - if the DT's style guide says that 'the Left' should be capitalised, then, logically, the far-Left is correct, even if it does look a bit weird. Might do a straw poll on my Wordnerds group and see if there's any consensus. I'm not sure that 'the Far-Left works, as it looks more like a pop group's name, rather than 'far' being a modifier of the concept of 'the Left'.surrey_commuter said:
@briantrumpet should they have capitalised "Left" ? to my completely uneducated eye they should have done both or neitherkingstongraham said:
This one's also weird, because the only place the word "left" is used is in the headline.briantrumpet said:.
There's another article demonising the 'far-left' (though it fails on not getting 'radical' in the headline).
I guess they spin the gammon bait wheel every day to decide which headlines to run.0 -
"my Wordnerds group"
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
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seanoconn - gruagach craic!0
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I have never observed any significant levels of adherence to ASLs. The problem with them is that they are just paint. For some amusement someone should do some FOIs on ASL enforcement statistics.rick_chasey said:Trend I have seen more recently is cars deliberately parking in the ASL to prevent cyclists getting in front and holding them up.
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pinno said:
@briantrumpet
Can you copy/paste that article onto here please kind sir?
The 'far-Left' one, @pinno ?
Remember, if you turn off javascript, you too can read it... but will paste if needs be.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/16/sacrificing-children-altar-brutal-far-left-ideology/0 -
Couldn't use my spanners or even a Multi-meter.briantrumpet said:pinno said:@briantrumpet
Can you copy/paste that article onto here please kind sir?
The 'far-Left' one, @pinno ?
Remember, if you turn off javascript, you too can read it... but will paste if needs be.
Copy/paste please.
seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
Serves you right for asking...pinno said:
Couldn't use my spanners or even a Multi-meter.briantrumpet said:pinno said:@briantrumpet
Can you copy/paste that article onto here please kind sir?
The 'far-Left' one, @pinno ?
Remember, if you turn off javascript, you too can read it... but will paste if needs be.
Copy/paste please.There is good evidence that many ancient societies sacrificed children to their gods. Parents in ancient Phoenician colonies in Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia and Malta slew their offspring prior to cremating them, hoping that the gods would hear their voices and bless them.
We are rightly appalled by this, though sometimes I wonder whether we understand child sacrifice far more than we’d like to admit.
I saw a video the other day featuring an American surgeon bragging that he had performed more than 3,000 double mastectomies on young women who had paid for gender reassignment, individuals confused – one might say encouraged – by those who profit from it into believing that their adolescent emotional trials can be ‘cured’, and happiness reign forever, if they subject themselves to this brutal practice.
And it is brutal – a process that often includes not only the aforementioned mastectomies but other appalling surgical processes: orchiectomy (that’s castration, in blunter language), the removal of the uterus, the demolition of the musculature of the forearm to make what is not a penis but must be referred to as such – all of that.
For someone purporting to be a physician to perform this on children, to me at least, seems like something worthy of a prison sentence.
Whatever happened to the doctrine expressed by the ancient language as primum non nocere – first, do no harm?
The Hippocratic Oath has been replaced by a delusion: a belief that can be summarised as ‘by blocking the puberty of children, and then surgically altering them, we are only restoring what is theirs by right. A child’s feelings are the final arbiters of their reproductive destiny, and any attempt to contest their gender identity risks increasing their proclivity for suicide’.
Lies. Lies. Lies. Then butchery.
Changing standards
Psychologists – those in my own personal field of medicine – have also surrendered to this groupthink. The American Psychological Association’s ‘Task Force on Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People (TGNC)’ insists that psychologists and other professional counsellors offer “trans-affirmative” care, starting with such niceties as displaying “TGNC-affirmative resources in waiting areas”. Practitioners are also asked to examine “how their language (e.g. use of incorrect pronouns and names) may reinforce the gender binary in overt or subtle and unintentional ways”.
These guidelines first read like a manual of indoctrination written by Marxist ideologues, and second like a document designed to undermine and destroy the practice of therapy itself.
But at an alarming rate these ‘guidelines’ have transformed themselves into punitive laws governing what a psychologist or counsellor may say and think in relation to their clients.
Let me make myself perfectly clear: speaking as a professional, whether in America, Britain, or anywhere, it is not the place of a therapist to “affirm” or, conversely, to deny, the “identity” of anyone whom they take into their care. People come to see a therapist, often after long and painful deliberation, because they are suffering, confused, or both. The job of that therapist is to listen, to question, and proceed with due caution, neither providing cheap advice (and thereby stealing their client’s successes or heaping failure upon them) nor assuming special knowledge of the proper outcome for a given individual.
There is simply no way that I would ever tell an 18-year old woman that she is absolutely correct if sometimes she feels more masculine than feminine (however that feeling might emerge), and that if she feels that surgery is the answer then recommend hormones that day. I would instead spend many weeks, perhaps even months or years, listening to her unwrap her story, using caution as my watchword, and help her come to some thorough and well-developed understanding of both her autobiographical history and her destiny.
That is not “affirmation” and neither is it “denial.” How could I possibly dare to do either when someone has come to me because they are mixed up and desperate – a state of twinned experience indicating a profound confusion about identity itself?
Radical new guidelines
I am focusing on the American Psychological Association (APA) because it is the body charged with establishing the norms and ideals for clinical practice in the most populous democracy on Earth – principles that will, and are, spreading around the West more broadly, including in Britain. Some of their ‘guidelines’ are appalling enough to deserve dissection:
“Guideline 1. Psychologists understand that gender is a nonbinary construct that allows for a range of gender identities and that a person’s gender identity may not align with sex assigned at birth.”
I don’t understand this radical postmodern definition of gender, one that rests on a person’s “deeply felt” or “inherent sense” of being one sex over another, regardless of biology.
Psychologically it is indisputably the case that a non-trivial proportion of males have a feminine temperament (which essentially means that they experience higher levels of negative emotions such as anxiety and the analogs of pain – grief, frustration, disappointment, depression) and are more agreeable (compassionate/polite) than typical males, and equally true that a non-trivial proportion of females have a masculine temperament. But this does not change how, objectively, professionals should measure a person’s gender.
Psychologists once cared if measurement followed standard practices of validity and reliability. Try reading, for example, a document published by the APA itself in 2014, where you will learn that a psychologist worth their salt is obliged to utilise “constructs” (i.e. terms such as “gender”) in a technically appropriate manner. This means, at the very least, that fundamental attributes must be measurable and measured properly.
But all that goes out the window when we are discussing the magic of “gender” now, which is entirely subjectively defined, even though that insistence indubitably contravenes the earlier standards. But feelings über alles, folks. And it's no joke. Particularly if you’re 15, and have undergone surgery that makes you incapable of reproducing, often to foster someone else’s sense of moral superiority or sense of self-attributed “compassion”– a word that increasingly makes me shudder when I encounter it.
New doctrines
Psychologists are also now adopting the simple-minded and anything-but-revolutionary doctrine of “intersectionality” without question. And what is that doctrine? Nothing more than the claim that human beings are characterised by identities that span multiple dimensions. Any given person has a race, ethnicity, sex, temperament (five dimensions there alone), intelligence level, etc. We’ve known that forever. It's only become a hot cultural item since fools noted the obvious fact that minority status might be additive or multiplicative. I hate to even point that out given that anyone with any sense whatsoever also knew, without any statistical training, that it was possible to be of Latino extraction, say (or even ‘LatinX’, to use that absurd, demeaning and patronising term) and female simultaneously.
One cannot question this, however, without fear of being ostracised by one’s colleagues. Note the chilling wording of Guideline 7:
“Psychologists understand the need to promote social change that reduces the negative effects of stigma on the health and well-being of TGNC people.”
In summary: if you’re not an activist (and one of our activists) then you better be watching over your shoulder.
So what should govern my behaviour as a therapist, and your expectations as a client? The answer to that is: whatever the activists deem a priority at their whim. And remember that in court, folks.
Active malevolence
I’m increasingly ashamed to be a clinical psychologist given the utter cowardice, spinelessness and apathy that characterises many colleagues and even more so my professional associations. At least in 20 years when we all come to regret this terrible social experiment I will be able to say “I said no when they all came to insist that we participate in the sacrifice of our children.” Other countries, and Britain in particular, must not make the same mistakes as in the US and elsewhere.
I cannot consent to what we are doing. I cannot abide by what have become the doctrines of my discipline. I believe that the acts of the medical ‘professional’ rushing to disfigure, sterilise, and harm young people with what are clearly ill-advised, dangerous, experimental procedures cross the line from ‘do no harm’ to outright harm.
Only if we bury our heads in the sand will sterility, impaired or absent sexual function, complex reactions to poorly understood hormones, expense – and, intermingled with all that, misery and confusion – continue for countless young people. We must address the threat posed to the integrity of the entire education system as indoctrination into the same philosophy that spawned this surgical enterprise and the APA ‘guidelines’ grows. It threatens general public trust that our peace and prosperity depends upon.
And, by the way: it will definitely be the case that a disproportionate number of children “freed” from their gender confusion would have grown up to be physically intact and fully functional gay adults. Need I point out that this unpalatable fact makes a mockery of any claim that the extended alphabet world of the LGBTQ+ coterie constitutes a homogeneous and unified “community.”
We have crossed the line from ideological possession to active malevolence – and we are multiplying our sin (there’s an intersection for you) by attributing our appalling actions to “compassion”. Heaven help us. Truly.0 -
His article makes a valid point (Although a bit laboured).
The article could be summarised to:
The practice of genital manipulation to satisfy gender confusion in children is wrong.
What it has to do with the 'left' or Marx, I haven't a clue.seanoconn - gruagach craic!0
