Hi,
How’s things? Hopefully good and if not, fingers crossed they’re moving that way soon.
A break
With Child 2.0 having finished their A Levels and indeed school, the Ever Lovely Mrs J suggested the idea of an early summer holiday. Given our collective needs around travel and those of our lovely doggos, a holiday in the UK was certainly on the cards. TBH, that suits me to a tee, given I don’t like airports or long travel journeys.
The search began in North Wales and much was said about various holiday locations and Anglesey was very popular…. so how we fell upon the Peoples’ Republic of Yorkshire, I’m unsure 🤔 but very grateful 💖
We’ve had the pleasure of long walks, visits to historic sites & ruins, a meal out or three, the use of a hot tub, and the hounds have loved wandering around the enclosed garden.
It has rained a fair bit, but I don’t mind that. I find it easier to keep dry and cool, than to avoid the heat of the day. Plus, the doggos prefer more autumnal temperatures. All that and when you’re done roaming the countryside, you can always come home, dry off, and pop your PJs on to relax.
Minor edits
A wee shuffle of the YATGB menus at the top of the screen… or off the burger stack, if you’re more a smartphone person. I’ve moved the Online Safety Act notes to under About and I’ve added a new section called AI. Pretty much a long list of what I don’t use AI for, and where I do.
The latter is mostly creating images – the goblins and Mr Wenn, of course. No judgement on folk who use AI more or indeed, less, I’m only commenting on what I do with AI here on YATGB for clarity.
No news
Unless I accidentally turn on the radio or scroll on to the Beeb, Friday will be day seven of my news break.
Previously, I’d have a look at the headlines on The Graun or check my RSS app that pulls in trans* related items of interest.
I think…. I had had enough. Despite looking for the wee flecks of golden good news, there was a lot of – well, I guess they don’t call it doom scrolling for nothing. So, I took a break and went cold turkey.
I’ve replaced that doom scroll with two things. An app that pulls in nerd news – sci-fi stuff, nature, psychology, wellbeing, good news, etc. The other change has been to use the blog roll on YATGB, to see who’s posting what. At least with both of those, I’m spared the drama and blow by blow account.
Part of me feels I might be missing something important… but realistically what difference does my awareness of grifters, chancers, and the billionaire sponsored sock puppets actually make? I’d wager very little. I still pick up on the trans* action, given the blog roll links to key activist groups.
Pride
I’ll be checking my calendar to see when the city’s Pride event is on. I guess I should polish – or even replace – my homemade placard, but it does the job. I wonder if the current administration will be told to not come along? I mean we seem to be forcing trans* & gender nonconforming folk – or anyone mistaken to be that way – into nonexistent third spaces. Slow handclap for the Labour leadership and Section 28 Part 2, you absolute clowns.
Getting long in the Bluetooth
I’ve noticed my trusty old smartphone has had its last security update this month. The battery isn’t lasting as long, but it’s served me well for the last four years or so. The kicker is for the security stuff at work, my handset needs to be ‘in support’ in a few months. I’m okay now and in theory I could carry on. However, if I leave it too long, eventually some of my apps will stop working. Or at least, the features I need will be unavailable to me.
I’ll be keeping my eye out for a replacement. I’m thinking of swapping our mobile contracts to another provider as well. The current one has reduced the coverage we get at home, following a takeover by another firm last year.
Righto. Better get on with the unpacking and loading the washer up!
L x
Hi Lynn
Hope the Yorkshire break worked as a welcome rest and recharge for you and yours (doggoes included).
Perhaps the weather might have been better, but then being on the cooler side of overheating is always better. As long as you have good and waterproof coat and boots.
I can see the wisdom of suspending trans related searches to avoid endless doomscrolling. There’s more than enough of that from a handful of trans and trans ally friends on my FB feed. (One of those is letter to an MP pointing out that the EHRC ruling impacts the choice of non trans people in limiting where they can go if they are with a trans friend, or who they can see or meet with in other places.)
Some pride events have already indicated to certain councillors on an anti-trans ticket that they would not be invited to participate or even attend. Hardly surprising.
The holiday was just right, thanks Susie. Yes, it rained a bit – indeed, on one day, quite a lot 😁 – but as the hounds need a walk everyday, we’re prepared. Good boots, waterproof coats, backpack and water bowl (in case the doggos get thirsty). As you point out, wetter meant cooler and I’d rather than that. Frankly, a summer of 19 to 23C would suit me just right 😁
The EHRC nonsense is deeply upsetting and the seeming complete disregard by the current cabinet is too. I’m aware of the letters, visits to parliament, and supportive statements from allies as well. A shout out to Nadia Whittome for her hard work and the 100+ MPs who supported her pushing back.
Hopefully we can all pull together and push the idiocy back, just as we did with Section 28.
So good to hear about your break and how, unlike an ageing smartphone, you are nicely recharged again.
As far as bad news goes, I am somewhat older than you and remember the shitty early ’70s. I was brought up by a journalist and we had current affairs for breakfast, dinner and tea. He had lived through World War II bombings, Austerity, McCarthyism, the Cold War and the nuclear threat, the Oil Crisis, IRA bombing campaigns and more. His father lived through World War I, the Great Depression, fought World War II and all the rest. My father was at his most frightened in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis but he was reassured by his journalist boss, an old Romanian who’d survived being overrun in two world wars and escaped the Iron Curtain, that it wouldn’t lead to a shooting war, and so it proved. Compared to all that, the current crap is a piece of piss, to mix my metaphors. Things also looks bad simply by comparison with the easy-going twenty years of the late Nineties through mid-Teens. I am less worried than I was as a kid because the perpetrators of the current chaos are incompetent and the endless news cycle these days simply amplifies relatively unimportant stuff. The one thing to watch is Ukraine, which has changed warfare for ever and ended the 80-year rules-based order. I’m sorry about ongoing anti-trans crap in the UK, though. I think the public are not really buying it so I hope there’ll be a big turnout for Notts Pride.
Sue xx
“…somewhat older than you…” – I feel the need to ask about your skincare routine & products 😉
I think you’re right – we’ve been through worse times and come out stronger. The 80s was particularly unpleasant for queer folk, yet we fortified and flourished in protest and, frankly, just living life in spite of the toxicity of bigots.
You’re right in that Jo(e) Public aren’t bothered by trans folk. Most people are more concerned with pot holes in the road, the Cost of Living crisis, and a government that seems to be coasting not leading.
Interestingly a Freedom of Information campaign by a trans activist organisation found that the vast majority of English councils hadn’t had a single complaint about trans folk using facilities. Unsurprising given we’ve been living quietly and getting on for decades.
I guess it’s the usual grifter distraction technique of exploiting a set of useful idiots and taking in dark money.
In positive news, they’re a tiny minority and the holiday was excellent.
I’m glad you had a nice hols in Yorkshire. The weather is weird this year, isn’t it?
The news seems unremittingly awful at the moment, so I’m hoping your news break, helps you to be less anxious about it all.
Dee xxx
Thanks Dee. It was indeed a fab break. Very much enjoyed it.
Climate Change, huh? 🙂 Yes, it has been a bit odd – even for the UK, and that’s saying something! 😁 Still, I’d rather dress for the rain that try to cool off.
News… Big ooof. 😬 I am still seeing a few things, as they appear in RSS feeds or suchlike. But I do seem to be missing the blow by blow carnage and drama.
As long as your not carrying red roses, you will find the Peoples’ Republic of Yorkshire most welcoming, although Dick Turpin is giving advice to York council when it comes to car parking fees
Luckily I left the dress with the red roses at home. Wouldn’t want to be mistaken for one of the Old Enemy 😉
We didn’t go to York this holiday, so we missed out on Mr Turpin’s vehicular monetary recompense.