Going forward on Tumblr

This week hasn't been a great one with pretty bad muzzy head for a large chunk of it and as I'm typing this apart from the bang bang bang of next door erecting another shed it is raining pretty hard here, to hard to be honest for me to be out spotting the wildlife and no I don't mean Grumpy by that,lol!

I've been working a little on my Tumblr which I've had for a while now tidying the odd post up and working on the style of it as some of things I might of considering posting to be honest I had grown a bit tired of.

Part of that is really more to do with how Age Dysphoria runs in my life, I don't so much need a regressive tumblr so much as one that covers just what interests me a bit like a half and half of this blog and my other one cos I'm in the same space.

So that does have things related to manga, anime and lolita fashion mixed in with some past childhood related posts minus much of the age regression war discourse which as I've said before ironically takes you out of the very headspace you need just for arguments about terms and that.

That's always been me I feel and getting that tumblr right so I feel comfortable posting on it the stuff that matters to me is important.

The summer on temporary hold

 

The summer has been paused due to concerns over the extent of case rising of the Delta (previously known as the "Indian" ) variant until July 19th with just a few relaxations around things such as weddings and  few events going ahead as "test" events  and the break on when people and businesses can be evicted for being behind on rent shunted forward to March 2022.

Of itself that doesn't surprise me because it is generally accepted the variant is something like 60% more transmissible so you need a higher ratio of people with at least once vaccination and more including all vulnerable groups on double vaccinations to keep the transmission and hence the number of cases down.   

The good news is the vaccine especially where both doses have been given does reduce the number of severe cases up to and including needing hospitalization down and those that are seem to recover quicker than the initial Covid form so take less time in hospital.

By today all adults over eighteen will be able to book their vaccinations and a combination of intense surge testing and mass immunization in hot spots including all of the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire with their modern day "City Regions" of Liverpool and Greater Manchester cases will be flattened as well as nearby Leek here in Staffordshire where it is clearly linked to high schools and colleges so were already on eighteen plus vaccination.

I see masks and much of the one metre plus rules staying in place for the foreseeable future although it must be stressed we WILL need to live with this virus, keeping ourselves safe rather than be kept on permanent restrictions because as sad as the impact of Covid has been on health and deaths, the measures being taken to deal with it are also having a severe affect on health from operations and treatments postponed leading to people losing health, massive impacts on mental health even amongst those less vulnerable, time lost in physical well-being and education and so on.

We can't permanently pause society due to concern about NHS capacity, we need to address that capacity issue through increasing it.

Past loves and the struggles today

Not being a good week here with a muzzy head and migraine for a few days only semi-interrupted by a trip to the hairdressers so while haven't been able to prepare very much my brain was going backwards.

One of my first earworms was Sugar Sugar as performed by the Archies who had in 1969 had a tv show apart from being a massive comic giving an outlook on the teen life but having at least a dog and super clothes to grab my attention back then

It was a funny kind of era because coming in from the end of 1967 into 1968 a mixture of sophisticated productions, allied to a more child-like comic book approach to pop music and even cartoons had come in from songs like "Simon Says" the party game we played set to cheesy organ driven pop, catchphrases like "Quick, Joey Small" turned into songs and then things like the Archies and Josie and The Pussycats.

That was before you took into account things like Rupert The Bear being sang on Top of the Pops and Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by the Middle of The Road being in the charts

I always loved watching The Wizzard of Oz with it's songs I loved to sing along to.

I did see this crib sheet come up which I thought was handy.

Finally like a good number of us with autism I find small talk in parties, social get togethers and even in the world of polly ticks very hard going and remain unable to make eye contact without freaking out.

I was once told in a employment annual review to apologize for not making eye contact something which I saw as being near enough having to apologize for my autism, that I absolutely refuse to do.

It's one thing to say if someone's notices it "Due to my autism I'm afraid I'm unable to make eye contact with people" it's another to have to apologize for not being able to meet a norm due to a disability I have no control over.

The alpaca's pj's

Phew, it's been a pretty warm week here so I've had to keep up the hydration here with extra glasses of water and pop as the heat takes a fair bit out of you and I tend to run on the warm side normally as it is.

I've been outdoors a fair bit taking in the sun, meeting people as you do while I've been exploring and sunbathing trying to stay healthy after all of last years business apart from obviously having now had both of my vaccinations.

While out I spotted these Alpacas playing around, half expecting me to toss them a carrot or two otherwise they'll send a posse around. 

I think they're really cute.

Making a tape or two returned II

 Hasn't been the best week being off for part of it so Matron's been insistant that I rest and take the pills.

Following on a bit from last week, often there was a promotion often tied into things like Christmas or Summer when it came to buying your tapes as after all, compared to much else we had back then, they were more portable so we could take them to a picnic or a beach and just insert and press play.

Often such promotions would tie in with key albums the companies were prepared to allow them to use to push the sales here such as this top sellers from mid 1986 with discounted stock prices.

You can also see how the art work on the cassette editions moved from a simple squared image on the front to more complex wrap around forms that might carry all the way the way to reverse of the insert know to some as the 'j card' adding to the appeal of the cassette version.

Making a tape or too returned

We kind of mentioned this machine way back in October 2019 after writing a bit about the week before in connection with making some new tapes on the Technics cassette deck, it had died.

The Panasonic RQ-JA63 is a personal cassette player from around 1985/6 that has an all metal single direction tape transport mechanism with switching for playing type I and type II+IV tapes and a switchable dolby B circuit for playing tapes made with it.

The problem with it was the main drive belt had gone soft and broke and it took a while to find the correct length, width and finish belt to replace it with. 

After lubricating the mechanism and fitting a new belt, it sounded as good as it did new. 

I haven't mentioned pre-recorded tapes much either but this edition of The Principal of Moments by Robert Plant better know as the lead singer of Led Zeppelin is one I've had from release in 1983.

Technically it is a very high quality tape using lower noise and much better sounding genuine chromedioxide tape made by BASF and played on the tape player it sounded superb

I first bought a cassette of Foreigner 4, their 1981 hit album home to Juke Box Hero, Urgent and Waiting For a Girl Like You in early March of 1982 while at school and until cassette editions were discontinued it had been reissued in different forms.

The first significantly different one was in late 1982 when like the Robert Plant tape it was duplicated on Chromedioxide tape rather than regular brown ferric oxide tape.

I came by recent a edition from the late 80's which while using ferric tape but a very good sort used the Dolby Hx Pro system to maximize the high frequency performance on more demanding parts of the music.

The Best of Rainbow originated from a Japan only release which was later issued in the UK and Europe in late 1981 adding single versions and the otherwise unavailable on album Jealous Lover.

This was a discounted Double play tape of around 86 minutes which was useful as I bought the lp version at the time making my own tape but recently bought a used but in nice condition copy of the official UK duplicated version with the red paper labels 

These tapes do sound pretty good showing before cds and Mp3 players entered the scene just how good a compact music source the cassette could be.

Did Covid steal the elections II - outcome

It was arduous for some, having to line for a while in places as social distancing regulations meant there were restrictions  on the number people allowed in Polling Stations at any one point as you stood there with your mask on and hopefully your own pencil to mark with an X (or two) your vote but we had in person voting.

The polling staff here were glad to see the voters and a good number made use of the facilities so for all the effect the staff put in to ensuring we actually had a covid safe personal vote and the care that also delayed the counting, a great many thanks.

There was a Bye-Election for the House of Commons, the seat of the UK Parliament in the town of Hartlepool in the North-east of England which most of the media attention was focused on.

On paper you would of expected Labour to home voting for was a handed down religion in this area but something remarkable happened.

The Conservative candidate, a woman from neighbouring North Yorkshire won it by a landslide and it is fair to say it was a political earthquake.

Roll back to December 2019 in that year of elections when the single biggest electoral disaster for the Labour Party occurred.

It was said results could not get any worse and with changing the leader to something more presentable they would recover.

Well that didn't happen as vast chunks of the Midlands continued to switch with the Conservatives gaining Cannock Chase, Dudley and Bedworth and Nuneaton and parts in the North .

Labour did gain a few things the odd council in the South retained a number of the Elected Mayors but in general the vote was well down.

This week we see the outcome as the different halves of the battle it out over why, the left feeling restoring much of Corbyn's agenda, the centre left want to remove every remaining bit (and much still does) and a reshuffle.

Take two totally different politicians: Boris Johnson and Andy Burnham. You know who they are and what they're about, one was a Elected Mayor before becoming Prime Minister, one is the Elected Mayor for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority area and both have failings.

The strong point of each is they connect and have a direct connection and empathy to the voters that pulls people in who aren't necessary for their parties and they are, like them or loath them, personalities.

Sir Keith Starmer isn't one and he didn't appear to have a clear set of policies, reasons why you should vote FOR labour beyond "Tory Sleaze" and have an answer to what it is they could offer to pull the country out of Covid economically that has been at cost.

Mark Drakeford, the Labour Welsh Assembly leader at least was addressing this and it was no wonder Welsh Labour did a lot better being returned to power in the Senned.

Nationally, that must be our priority, get people back to work, support changes to improve the rights of people at work not least end the so-called "zero hours contract" that is unjust and offer hope and opportunities in what has been a challenging time for all no least the young.

In the local authorities many in Labour areas still feel that for decades of voting for them, they have seen few real changes and often a top heavy approach that discourages people from doing things to help themselves. 

That has to change if we are to raise up peoples aspirations and opportunities so people lives do improve.

For many people today this matters more than just a rosette on a person at election time.