Post Christmas round up

So it is a few days after Christmas when in the grown up world the papers held under the Thirty Year Rule and a few others come out to embarrass senior politicians and their friends and talk around the Kings's New Years Honours starts leaking although you're not supposed to say a word to soul one you've had the initial letter and your reply until the official announcement is given.

We also had severe storms with rain here which worked into flooding and half the road losing power for a good number of hours.

Getting back to Christmas we had one, not that is the same Christmas as in the past as with one Aunt unwell and of course Mom not being here that's two faces missing, two hugs less apart from the rituals before that you are abruptly reminded.

Still despite everything there is Christmas, tree, nativity scene and fairy is out plus cards arranged across the window sill and mantle place and dinner is underway.

There were some presents such as the Triple Pack of Beano and Dandy annuals from past and in the case of the Beano very modern and present day.

For enjoyment later is this up to date compilation of  eighties synth pop from Erasure taking us from O L'Amour to the mid twenty tens via unforgettable songs like Stop! spread across two lps.

And then there's a Winnie the Pooh dairy which given my brain is invaluable for noting what is happening when as I forget.

I had some money to put toward some feature purchases in the new year which should see me away earlier on the year.

Christmas preparations

Apart from the usual syncropost this will be last full post on here until after Christmas  where I've been a bit busy writing cards and having my hair trimmed and restyled. 

Preparations for Christmas week here usually involve the traditional 14 day Radio Times that I still find easier to navigate than on screen electronic program guides apart from forgetting what I saw on screen seconds later.

Some of us read comics rather than the Economist and this year's 68 page special is one we'll be opening up to dip in and out of in what has for decades been a christmas ritual for some of us with seasonally themed cartoon strips with characters we grew up with like Dennis, Minnie and Gnasher and newer ones.

That's what the edition just after christmas as it usually pauses a week before looked like in the early 1980's before we went to full colour, glossy paper and bigger sized edition and no doubt there will be after Boxing Day edition this year to tuck into which after all the news on tv I'll be glad of.

Does respect still exist in families?

I've been deliberating for a few days about where I was going to put this post but actually I think it belongs here rather than my more "littles" blog.

As most of you are aware I lost my mother a while back leaving Dad and Myself as surviving household members, other immediate siblings being in relationships apart from us.

Dad has some mobility problems coming through the impact of cancer on his kidneys making its way into breathing apart from sciatica and likes to visit Mom's grave where whilst cremated there lies a headstone a couple of miles away.

Unexpectedly my younger brothers wife rung following her much delayed operation for Carpal Tunnel and he spoke with her and in the course of which he asked if they, the next time they were going could take him to the grave.

They would have to past the turning to us to get to it from where they live and she agreed with dad saying should they want a quiet moment then he'd step away.

Come Sunday, they turn up and indeed they do take him but he only finds they elect to stay in the car while he goes down a pathway rather than all walking with them pausing near the adjacent church.

They also reject any and all attempts to open a conversation about where he'd been, how they find it, or even ask him how he was feeling afterwards.

It was as if they just wouldn't speak to him as his sons father and a fellow family member even on the face of it another fellow human being where many of us just would even to those we don't know well.

We have empathy and yet there was none showing leaving him feeling he was being deliberately ignored.

He was very emotional upon his return to which I got the full blast of -and although I could use not being the sole dumping ground of his emotions you couldn't help wondering just what my brother and wife were really playing at treating him more like ghost.

On cancelling and depriving digital artists livelihoods

An increasing issue is the tendency for financial institutions to apply restrictions to either who may have a bank account for business or political purposes or to impose terms on any organization that may use their services which not about law, financial or otherwise but more about their own values.

Last year it was reported upon that the politician Nigel Farage had his Coutts account closed and only after much investigation did it transpire that behind words around meeting requirements to have one was obvious mentioning of his politics which tend to be rather like marmite.

Groups who feel well intended trans inclusion measure disadvantage or sideline those assigned as females at birth can find certain bodies they may need access to just refuse to do business with them.

You may disagree their views but is it right to deny services on that basis?

In the modern economy many publish fiction and art electronically and they often have payment options so the creators whose works are entirely legal can make a living out of it but it isn't unknown for some payment services to refuse to provide it as they don't "align" with their values.

A more worry tendency than that is to made demands on sites that host such works to remove anything and anyone in whole categories that they *think* may be problematic even if its is legal and therefore can be sold openly in physical printed form.

That happened to a raft of self published titles and creators on Kindle, the Amazon E-book service.

This also can be connected to the likes of Apple inc, setting terms for any apps via its store which caused many issues on Tumblr even when age restrictions are in place several years back and issues on Patreon where many age play or ad/dl artists whose work was legal and had suitable restrictions in place to keep minors out just mass terminating any and all accounts with either no inspection of the persons own content or rights of appeal.

Given for a good number this wasn't some hour a day side project but actually their main income as a job to have no warning and no appeal of in effect being prevented from employment with immediate consequences financially is unjust.