A diversion and fingers crossed

 It's been a queer ol' week.

He's had enough but the others have a better idea like have a party and watch something fun on tv instead.

There's been a few events that would of been marked in more normal times by such scenes this week but that wasn't possible but the stuff that was possible at least kept a balance off the impending Vaccine War between the European Union and the UK that might see our contracted vaccines confiscated and restrictions on the export of vaccines held there although many of ingredients, processes and personnel come from around the world.

This is both stupid and very dangerous, the World needs vaccines to reduce global transmission plus provide protection should people get covid and to make them it requires co-operation and this risks starting a global tit for tat battle as countries place more restrictions on ingredients and complete vaccine batches deciding to keep them for themselves.

The real issue is how to increase vaccine production and some contracts are more tighter on quantities, time scales and backed by money up front including not inconsiderable levels of investment compared to others.

One hopes it gets sorted out in a responsible way.

The other side of blogging

 

One the one hand this hasn't been a bad week keeping up with getting my tumblrs active, the blogs updated and finding time to be little me relaxing listening to some of those recordings I had for my Birthday.

Spring has sprung with the daffodils coming up on the green eventually even if it seemed odd that those in peoples gardens came out first, the birds are about and yesterday I saw a baby squirrel playing in the woods. 

Sometimes it can seem as if sharing this life may cut into having this life with lots of things going on but while it takes some doing usually I don't mind if it helps clue some people into to this life and break down a few misconceptions.

Yesterday though rather late into the evening I found this message:

"Hi I noticed you have dd1g posts. My blog doesn’t allow dd1g blogs to interact. Have a nice day though <3".

Well first things first, this person only posted ten times in April 2020 and not since so that's like nearly eleven months ago

The other thing is my Tumblr blog is NOT a ddlg blog, I never knowingly reblog anything from adult only kink tumblrs of any kind nor post anything myself that is.

Of course in the early days before minor friendly non sexual age regression was a thing on tumblr it was possible that you *may* of reblogged something from one even if the post itself wasn't.

Ever since being in nonsexual age regression communities from mid 2016 I've always checked and removed anything that might of come from such a source but when other people may spell "ddlg" in full with no deliberate use of say a 1 for an l (L), when saying on a post not to interact with a blogs that are, checking does produce false positives.

That is actually what happened and this user then blocked me 

Basically they blocked me for no good reason and you don't know where they may take it.

The Dumbed down blogger layout

 This week as I felt like doing something only to find you can no longer.

See back in 2010 they launched a new template designer which had a wysiwyg interface which enabled you to fine tune any Blogger template, changing background colours, text sizes of any elements such as links or pages and their fonts and for the page module the width of the bar so you could have a really attractive and neatly put together blog all edited on your computer with no need to use HTML editing or CSS sheets to customize it.

When they redid the interface to enter your post on to it appears someone at Google decided to dumb down the layout changes to just Text width, Right hand side margin, text size, colour and that was about it.

No doubt this was done to fit in with the idea that people want to make stand alone blogs on a smartphone to the point any customization was removed for the rest of us.

No longer could you set the text size and font of the headings, individual elements and so on.

This means I can't change the text size I originally set for pages, the colour of the current  or the length of tab bar to one that might suit any new pages I may wish to add.

To me Blogger really has lost what it had over Wordpress, a excellent layout designer negating any need to install templates and twiddle using codes to make a highly impressive blog and for what?

Education is for life

One common conception is that education is just for the young, endured for a brief period and then hung on the hat stand indefinitely but it need not be like that.

In some parts of the world substantial numbers of adults are lacking in numeracy and literacy skills often because in their own childhood educational provision was patchy or as soon as they were able to work any kind of learning stopped altogether because of their families situation.

In other instances they may not of studied the subject range  or depth many today feel is desirable to be knowledgeable.

Thus in some parts of the world it is not uncommon for adults to be taught in schools sometimes sharing in lessons, sometimes with classes just for them in school with them in effect becoming scholars again.

I can recall the bemusement of a friend who left school at the earliest possible opportunity with no academic qualifications looking back at her "that's all over with" emotions of the past as like a number of us she took her first examinations several years later.

She'd discovered learning never stops.

It also turned out that in some respects she also shared some of my more littles traits too! 

Road Map: making sense of it

It's been a fairly bright mild week with a fair amount of sunshine about, heck I even saw the first wasp of the year yesterday morning AND I had to fend him off my torque  liking it's bright colours but really there's only been one major thing on peoples minds this week.

The much talked about Roadmap  for leaving the Covid restrictions not least the lockdown was signed off by the UK Government's cabinet before being announced in the House of Commons, Monday followed by a televised address in the Evening.

Because of devolution, the Scottish Parliament, The Welsh Assembly government goverment and the Northern Ireland Assembly all have their own differing versions of it so this just plan applies to England.

You might think Public Health would be better run across the whole of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as one but nationalist politics don't favour it and as a Unionist I feel that doing things separately causes needless problems around travel and quarantine arrangements we all don't need.

For the first full month for most of us little happens beyond those in  regular Primary and Secondary Education including Further Education and a handful of those in University who actually need face to face tuition and practical work.

People in care homes can have one registered visitor which is something many have been lacking since all this started last March and deserves a welcome.

Social distancing as in 2 metres apart, masks etc stays until we're told any different.

While this "road map" has dates unlike a well known broadcaster you should note the dates are Indicative (look it up) being when it is expected things may change BUT the final go ahead will be reviewed a week before on the basis of data and scientific advice first.

It is NOT a timetable of the sort that say on one date we WILL do this regardless cos that's what is written for that date.

It is expected on March 29th the first of a series of phased rule changes  allowing of more social contacts such as gatherings in peoples gardens, the "stay at home" message changing to "Stay local" will come in and outdoor organized sports will be allowed to resume but do stay tuned to the announcements first.

By July it is anticipated things will be more normal but some measures such as face coverings and the likely need for ongoing vaccination programs to run will more likely than not to remain.

While foreign travel is seen as potentially possible no earlier than May 17th, do bear in mind a few things such as much of continental Europe is very behind vaccinations compared to us and has high infection rates so they may not want you and you might well bring any local forms of infection with you both to their country and from it.

It is possible some countries may want proof of Vaccination if they were to allow you in because actually every countries first duty is to protect its own people first and until anything is said to the contrary, you will still need to do your isolation in hotel here on arrival at your own expense.

You might was well get that in your noggin and look at staying in the UK instead!

The virus isn't going away: What is happening is through vaccination, transmission is being reduced person to person significantly and the impact of any infection hugely reduced when it comes to developing it in people so we're all safer, safe enough we expect by the summer to have less restrictions and more of a near normal life back.

You have to do your part and be a part of the solution to getting things back to where we'd all like them to be in what has been a challenging and very scary year.

Delayed anniversary

 

Just over two years and a month ago I remade a tumblr as a newer replacement to one of the group that got removed as collateral damage several years ago.

Although this blog isn't centred on it, age regression is a big thing with me so apart from having a blog specifically about that, one of the first tumblrs I had also followed the same route to the point of belonging to a Tumblr age group community.

Not everything that interests me fits within that as you will probably know if you read this blog and having lost the original slightly more grown up Tumblr I was finding I needed one for things around fashion, anime and things around elements of alg presentation that didn't fit with the setting some communities take usually born of ignorance and it's best friend, prejudice.

That tumblr was called thatboardingschoolgirl cos really it tied in to this blog interests being a scrapbook of an adult little girl as if she was magic'd away to the boarding school of her dreams jotting ideas and cutting out things that interested her.

That as we are due soon to work our way out of this lockdown is something that will help as it has over the last eleven months with the stresses and strains of it all.

Staycation

Given it's been minus seven yesterday and darn cold throughout the week even though I'm normally super hot blooded perhaps it's understandable that for some minds are focused upon Summer vacations beyond these shores.

There had been a lot of talk in the mass media about getting away for summer and the much criticised "Jab and fly" promotion by Ryan Air, an Irish company implying that in effect you get vaccinated and then we can go to all corners of the World.

Well Mike Hancock, Health secretary and Grant Shapps Transport minister have put a damp squid on that idea in tackling the problem of people who had been abroad needing to quarantine upon return and just not doing it, potentially spreading covid of different variants.

In short, people from next week will need to be booked in a hotel at their own expense if they travel from a country on a list of 33 hots spots for ten days where they will have to stay and any time outside such as going out for a smoke will be supervised.

If you do not tell the truth regarding where you have been or otherwise break the regulations then you are likely to face a ten year prison sentence because the risks to the public are huge with this virus being something that does kill and such contact would effect potentially several bystanders who may well require treatment by our stretched health service.

The travel industry isn't happy about this - far from it - but honestly unless you are going act responsibly which a good number of people haven't then you are going to have to be made to do so.

Many of us do indeed badly need a break, this last eleven months has been stressful and some more for people not least those unable to do what they normally would  and for those of us with health issues or disabilities but it is likely at some point we'll be able to do so 'at home' but going abroad where a good number of countries do not want visitors as they too battle with this awful virus really is a very bad idea.

Let's concentrate on slowly getting things going again in our own country for our children and then build up more things for adults rather than rushing off risking so much.