Collectormania, Milton Keynes, 1-3 June 2012

Here's a review of another one of these weekend convention thingies, which I attended yesterday with my husband. Collectormania was busy, popular, loud and great fun. Despite the horrible mess the building works around the venue made of the parking, everyone seemed in fairly good spirits and although it was crowded, tempers appeared calm.

I've blogged about it on RetroGT.com, link above. I'll also be doing other blogs and articles in due course, so keep your eyes peeled. After the amount of walking I did yesterday, I really need to sit still and let the words do the talking today!

Fortunately, as it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend, there is some seriously quality TV to settle down and watch. For a change.

Looking After Number One - part 1

Bob Geldof with the Boomtown Rats, 1977.

We're officially in a recession. Check. The Eurozone is having a few problems. Check. Lots of people in lots of countries, many of them in Europe, are struggling for day-to-day essentials. Check.

So what are our charities doing? Are they helping them? Can they help them? Are the mega-rich being required to give some of their mega-millions to help the unemployed who can't find jobs and those who have had benefits cut through no fault of their own?

According to the Daily Mirror, at least here in the UK, the answer is no.

Instead, still, millions of pounds worth of aid is going overseas.

Why?

Yes, it's heartbreaking to read about African kids starving, and more than annoying to hear about people in this country who will not get out of their own way to even attempt to find work, but keep producing more children for the state to support.

But the problem is now deeper than African corruption causing our well-meant donations to be funneled into the wrong places, or for freighters full of corn to be denied entry to ports until their cargo is too rotten to use.

The problem is now more than unplanned pregnancies.

The problem of people starving, and not being able to afford to eat, is now on our own doorsteps.

People are generally living longer, working longer, staying healthy longer. Youngsters today, complain many employers, have no usable skills when they leave school. And, in any case, there are many more experienced people who will work for lower pay just to be able to have a job. So the youngsters may not be able to find jobs and will end up in the situation of having to claim benefits in order to have any money at all. So why does the Government insist on giving away all this money in foreign aid when it could be used to help the poor, starving and disadvantaged in this country?

There are jobs in this area, jobs in nursing, construction, software and teaching. But no one will take them because there’s no affordable housing spare and the salaries are too low for the cost of living here.

My husband, meanwhile, is looking for a permanent job in IT hardware. Because we own a house here, and I have a job here, we have made a base here for now. But there are few permanent IT hardware jobs in this area. He’s mobile, can travel for work, but is finding that he’s overlooked for roles by employers who are receiving applications from as far away as India and Russia for positions in this country.

So, what should the Government do?

I have a few ideas which I’ll outline in the next blog, but I’d be interested to hear your views. Please comment and let me know.

Should door-to-door selling be made illegal?

We had a visit from the Jehovah's Witnesses at the weekend. This doesn't happen often, as I generally don't answer the door if I'm not expecting anyone, security and all that being what it is these days. In any case, I take dimly to being disturbed at all when I'm at home, by the doorbell or the telephone. I'm not being paid to drop what I'm doing and run to deal with someone at home, you know.

However, it made me think, as I shut the door and locked it again, that the very practice of door-to-door working is dangerous, vilified and in some cases downright stupid. The recent case of Trayvon Martin suggests that even walking through some communities can cause offence unto death for some.

Now, I've worked as a mobile marketing associate (leafleter by any other name) for an estate agent, delivered pamphlets for a political party in the run-up to a general election, and made a pretty decent second income dropping catalogues offering homewares and other goods around my neighborhood. I was threatened with having a dog set on me, told I was trespassing and had my catalogue thrown back out of a window at me (it landed in a muddy puddle in the middle of the front garden). Not to mention more dog bites, pinched fingernails in letterboxes and gates than most people should think right. But the one thing I would never do is sell anything in person door-to-door.

With the catalogues, the goods sold themselves, especially for the elderly, shift workers, stay-at-home mums and the like who couldn't or didn't make it to the shops during opening hours. Equally, I have no problem with local workmen dropping leaflets through my door announcing their availability for work, nor with the arrival of regular cards from the health food/weight loss program sellers, who are doing for themselves what I did with my catalogues. They benefit from my business, when I can afford it, and I know they make reasonable money at it too.

What I object to is actually having to go and open my front door to someone I was not expecting to see there. No matter who they are - even the postman and the meter reader get pretty short shrift at times. I don't want to hear about soffits, fascias and guttering from a nationally-known locally-founded firm offering replacement of same. When I have the money, and it looks like it needs doing, quotes will be sought and advice duly taken. I'd rather give my meter reading online, but the email asking me to do so inevitably gets lost among all the spamalicious ones in my general inbox and usually falls victim to the same fate of instant deletion to boot.

The local peddler hawking his fresh fish probably came by them illegally and usually suffers the same glare and closed door as the travelling salesman with his bits and pieces of kitchenware and other assorted junk. Yes, he carries a card saying that he is a licenced peddler, but I'm not interested. At least he's polite when I shake my head at him.

These days, even charities appear to have given up door knocking for the equally unappealing chugging. Honestly, if I want to give, I shall make the effort to do so; I don't want it in my face.

So, should the entire practice be made illegal, on safety grounds if for no other reason? A few months ago I was on my way back from the shop when I ran into the previous team of Witnesses sent to the village (and yes, they stopped me and tried to convert me there and then with shopping hanging off my arms). One was a short, well-spoken, traditionally dressed elderly woman, wrapped up warmly in a hat, woollen overcoat, scarf, leather gloves, presumably a knee length skirt, judging by the thick winter tights she had on, plus a sensible pair of stout black shoes. The other was a young, tall, broad, sub-Saharan African chap, wearing a black suit, who looked more like her hired heavy than a devout evangelist. Had they not obviously been door knocking, I would have wondered about them for a while, as that combination isn't often seen in this area, multi-ethnic though it is thanks to the University's influence.

However, judging by some of the comments overheard at the store during my time as staff there, some people would have done more than wondered, and could have potentially been outright hostile to them. I'd hate to think of well-meaning people like these having to endure the nastiness of certain sections of so-called society. One casual skim of any current affairs website will suggest that this evil streak has been too much in evidence lately, together with the associated traits of lack of morals, hatred and snooping.

I'm sure the Witnesses must have had a very low rate of success that day, because they sent another crew less than 6 months later. They elicited the same lack of interest from me this time too, but I do wonder at times about the wisdom of sending strangers into an area to canvass recruits. Given many people's attitude to the Witnesses, coupled with the fact that it was a Saturday morning, I can't imagine they met with many invites in and offers of free cups of tea.

In common with many, I expect, I will go and look for something if I want it. The internet is a wonderful invention, and I use it for most of my information requirements, whether that's contact details for a firm, instructions on how to order something, information about a particular subject...you name it, the net usually has it. I don't like people disturbing my precious downtime to try and sell me something to my face. Firms are increasingly dealing with the online world, why some of them refuse to is quite beyond me. I don't want or need a Telephone Book, a Yellow Pages or a hard copy catalogue from the store showing exactly the same goods as I can see on the website. What I do need are ways to access, view and order these items online. Because my time is precious and I'd rather be enjoying my home when I'm not in the office than traipsing around town or the store, if it's all the same to you?

My home is my castle, rather untidy and in need of a dust though it undoubtedly is. It's a brave person who actually gets through the door unscathed around here. I don't need a guard dog, I'm fierce enough on my own. Just ask my mother, who moans constantly about the firm-but-suffer-no-fools voicemail message I recorded for our number after a spate of nuisance calls when we first moved in.

No more procrastination

Right, that's it, I'm done with putting this stuff off.

I've blogged myself stupid over the last three days, one way and another. Several blogs are still in draft mode, to be addressed as and when I find a spare nanosecond.

I've also applied for a proofreading position to fit around all my other work, as I find myself with unpaid wakeful time on my hands at present, and this cannot happen.

Three of the aforementioned blogs are wild released, roaming around the the internet looking for readers.

The fourth is waiting for editorial approval.

Comments have been made on several other blogs and articles over the course of the weekend and that should hopefully lead to more comments and pageviews here too.

So, without further ado, here are the links to the three I let loose upon the world yesterday, via the RetroGT site:

A draft tidied up from 17 March: Videogames, F1 and BBC Micros
Two new releases: More retro goodness and Meanwhile, over in the Raspberry Pi corner.

And did I mention It's Speccy time! which escaped from some manic corner of my brain a few weeks ago?

Now, if you don't mind, it might be a wet Bank Holiday Monday (as usual!) in this corner of England, but I have some serious editing to do, so I'm going to log off the blog and Twitter, turn on SceneSat and let you all read this and yesterday's output while I wander off and tidy up a piece of academic history in the writing.

Fail rant

Why is nothing simple in this country?

Case in point is that I've been informed that my recurring payment for my monthly bus pass has failed and that I need to check my details. Well, fair enough, the payment (for some unknown reason!) is not done by direct debit, but via an online transaction service. Therefore, instead of being linked to my bank account (because that would be too simple, wouldn't it?) it's linked to my debit card. Which expired a month or so ago, so when the online transaction service came to process my payment this month, it failed. However, they did not remind me to input my new number until AFTER it had failed. Nor did they send out a reminder that they would be taking payment from this card which expired next month and asking whether I wanted to update my details.

In London, Oyster cards can be topped up at any machine at the station from which you wish to travel, or a recurring top up can be set up via direct debit. That's too simple a system for the management who oversee my local bus service (part of a national company which runs a virtual monopoly in this area) it seems.

(Mind you, that admitted, anything static in this city is inevitably used as a bike park so they probably didn't want to install machines at the main stops because they'd be festooned with bikes as soon as the workmen turned their backs and before the cement securing them was even dry...).

Second case in point is the situation my poor husband found himself in last week, where an employment agency had asked for his permission to put his CV forward for a job role - that he rather liked the sound of - but had neglected in the end to do so. Instead of playing safe and suggesting that another person had been selected for the role, the agent told him that he had not put his CV forward. No explanation as to why, just that he hadn't done it. Needless to say, we had A Rather Upset Husband.

On my side, at one point last year, Messrs Tax Office thought that I had two full time jobs and a part time role. This due to an overlap in procedure, where my notification of leaving one full time job and joining another had lagged somewhat. I took great pleasure in telling them that I would like to hold two full time jobs as long as I knew how to clone myself and be in two places at once.

Other things that we do in the UK which other countries do not:

• Our emergency number is 999. Not 112 (as the rest of Europe) or 911 (US). What is it in Canada, by the way? Thanks to Teddy for her input about the Australian way.
• We drive on the other side of the road to most of the world, and certainly to most of Europe.
• We have this weird idea that because we speak English, everyone else ought to, too. So why am I trilingual?
• There are some strange beliefs about the family unit in this country. According to most definitions (ie 'family ticket'):
• Mum, dad and two children is a family unit.
• Single, divorced or widowed parent with children is not.
• Couples without children are not a family unit.
• It's official. We can't seem to manage adequate public transport either. Petrol/gas for your car is expensive here (£1.40+ a litre) so you would have thought that maybe the public transport would be cheap, frequent, reliable and easy to get around on. No, course not, that would be too easy...rail replacement bus services and car parks which charge enormous amounts per hour to park are the norm.

I'm sure both my amazing readers and your opinionated blogger will come up with more ideas for this blog in due course, as the complete lunacy of life in this country seeps through.

/rant (for now.)

Zip, whizz and other whistling noises

Yes, I've been writing.

Yes, I've also been proofreading. And editing. And formatting.

It's currently work end of month cycle so I am in dire need of words, several large mugs of tea, wine and sleep after the average day spent staring at figures. Good thing the dissertation and novel writers are still in need of help or I'd be pretty desperate.

My husband, meanwhile, is keeping me well supplied with articles to add to my Squidoo lenses and inspirations for more articles to write for Suite101. I would also appear to have become involved with another retrotech writing venture (regrettably not for money) and several keynote retrotech events over the course of the next few months, articles to appear on RetroGT in due course.

In short, that blue streak...just as I like to be, running from one place to another to yet a third, falling asleep as if hit soundly on the head each night and feeling as if I am really earning my salary.

Keen eyed regular readers will notice some changes to this blog, as ever and always. Ongoing project akin to painting the Forth Bridge, that.

Stand by for more additions to the writing portfolio over the next few days as I plan on having a whole slew of blogs and articles out of my hair by the end of Sunday, not to mention an initial proofread/edit of the current client's dissertation and some more work on the futuristic novel I'm proofing.

Pricing themselves out of the market?

Here in the UK we’re hearing a lot about stimulating the economy. The Government wants us to start spending again in order to put money into the system which can then be used to generate more investment in the nation.

But the trouble is that everything is so expensive. From food through petrol/gas all the way up to treat items like concert and event tickets, it seems as if almost everything is ‘out of my price range’ these days.

Surely the way to stimulate spending, as the supermarkets have found, is to advertise bargains, deals and offers on all ranges. Not quite the pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap idea but the realisation that if something is well-priced and good quality, people will buy it. Eye-wateringly high prices for luxury items are all very well, but they won’t save the economy. Affordable basic food, clothing and transport costs are far more likely to encourage spending.

So, more of the famous BOGOF deals (Buy One Get One Free) to allow shoppers to buy necessary groceries at half price. Promotional deals on new flavours and ranges (Chocolate Philadephia is on BOGOF in my local supermarket as I type, which is also running a price cutting campaign) and 2-for-a-set-price deals on clothing. Value for money, in other words. No waste. Discount the goods which are on date to allow bargain-hungry shoppers to stock up.

Prime example: At New Year a few years ago, the same local supermarket cleared the shelves in one aisle and placed all the on date, sell by today, seasonal Christmas food in this one location, reducing all the prices by at least 50%. We were hosting a New Year’s party and were able to cater for five people for around £30. Estimated full retail price £75. Of course, we didn’t eat it all, but what was left stocked the freezer for several months and I think the last remnants were wheeled out to the church Easter supper three months later.

Further example: UK clothing retailer of note Marks and Spencer recently held an end-of-season weekend sale where everything was available for 20% off the marked price. As I already had loyalty vouchers worth over £20, I was able to purchase a new spring coat for half price. Said coat has been worn every working day for the last few weeks and will be worn a good deal more whilst the mornings and evenings are still cool. I had admired the coat when I first saw it but just couldn’t justify the price tag, even for a coat which (hopefully) will give me many years’ service. However, at half price, the offer was too good to refuse.

Our Big Book of Things That Go is also covering itself in glory at the moment too, in that our local provider is fiddling with the timetables and the London Underground just isn't working on any line we can get to when we need to get to it. Local woes include the town newspaper publishing incorrect information about services being cut, which incensed our councillor (and me) and hiking prices with no discernable improvement in services. The Tube, meanwhile, appears to be breaking into small and irretrievable pieces, just in time to cause maximum pain to the Olympic crowds. At least their ticketing system works, unlike ours here, which doesn't appear to want to any more.

Unlike certain (now cancelled) summer festival organisers, who, having announced a juicy line up with a headline band I would almost kill to see, were charging per ticket twice the price I paid for my coat for the privilege of seeing this set. Other downsides included:

• 7.25% transaction fee on tickets.
• 21% transaction fee markup on a car park pass.
• Chargeable lockers.

That added up to over £200 for two single-day passes, car parking and storage. That didn’t include the cost of food and drink purchased while on site, nor the cost of the fuel to drive to the event.

Not good.

No wonder the event was cancelled. Who has £200 to drop just like that these days? When a family of four can buy a pass to the new Warner Brothers backstage tour for £70 and the equivalent Madame Tussauds family ticket comes in at just under £100, there is little justification for hiking prices that high.

At least my husband and I were able to attend the party of the year (Beeb@30) in Cambridge for no more than the cost of fuel. We were put on the volunteer crew list for the day after one of my many anguished tweets and wails about not being able to afford tickets for the event was sent to the organisers, who promptly contacted me with the idea. (Twitter, officially an amazing network resource!) Without that good fortune, I’d have another example of being unable to afford to attend something I really wanted to be at.

I’m sure you can come up with more ideas of overpriced daily necessities, from the price of the public transport commute to work to the cost of children’s clothing. Unfortunately, when necessities are already expensive, treats are a luxury no one can afford.

(Apologies for the strange white dots at the end of each link - that's Messrs Amazon and Blogger not talking to each other or something!)