Alex's even longer post thread.

[ER]

I guess you're talking the Dark Souls board game, which I've never played, but if it's anything like the video games, most people are either irrevocably put-off or addicted for life. Me, I'd mug old people in shadowy alleys to pay the electric bill to play that game.

[chefzombie]

so what's his name? i'm voting for frank.

[Alex]

We've named the kitten Nergal. I'll put up some photos when he stops shredding my thigh.

Didn't get around to playing Souls, but we did play Zombies!!! and Jaws.

Went into work for my first shift. Someone from nights called in sick, so I broke the rule about not volunteering and volunteered to switch shifts this week.

Got home and went for a nap. Woke up with the kitten lying at my head and Elsa lying at my feet. The pair of them aren't exactly being sociable with each other. Nothing unexpected though. They'll get used to each other in time though.

[chefzombie]

We've named the kitten Nargal. I'll put up some photos when he stops shredding my thigh.

Didn't get around to playing Souls, but we did play Zombies!!! and Jaws.

Went into work for my first shift. Someone from nights called in sick, so I broke the rule about not volunteering and volunteered to switch shifts this week.

Got home and went for a nap. Woke up with the kitten lying at my head and Elsa lying at my feet. The pair of them aren't exactly being sociable with each other. Nothing unexpected though. They'll get used to each other in time though.

 i see that he is the little prince's familiar, i like that. he and elsa will work it out , since she's your familiar.

[Alex]

Built up a climbing frame/scratching post that Kristi had ordered for the cats. It is only slightly shorter than I am. Got no idea what the cats will make of it. Nargal has some wildcat in this parentage. That is going to be interesting...

I'd said to Kristi that I wanted to get a bookcase for the bedroom. She agreed and I sent her a bunch of designs that fitted my needs, but she went ahead and ordered a different one. It arrived today. I built it up and then looked at it. I like the design, but it is too small for what I want to put in it. When I said to Kristi it was nice but useless to me she said she'd order another one. I suggested that well, how about he'll no. I'll order one because I know what sizes I need rather than her randomly ordering furniture. Jumping in on projects and taking over isn't an uncommon thing for her, unfortunately asking for any details on what I am doing or why I am doing it isn't. Most things I do have a lot of consideration and thought behind them. It's rare I get to do something without weighing up the pros and cons in as many different ways as I can think of. Just deciding to change my plans without understanding the whys and wherefores rarely seems to work out well, not to mention irking me. I'd even said that one that she'd suggested was fine, but then she went are ordered a completely different size.

I really need to realise I just need to order these things myself. I don't like to think about how much money we've wasted over the years with me wanting one thing and Kristi getting something different, then me ordering the thing that I actually need. I wonder why I seem so unable to learn my lesson there?

Got issued more equipment.  Some of it I am wondering why? Oh well, either I'll find it useful or I won't.

[chefzombie]

you love her, and know she loves you.  you want to believe that that love means you think alike and i'd bet she thinks the same of you on occasion.you'll get to where you both understand that you don't, because that love is there. it took us around 20 years. my last f**kup along those lines was buying the strat. major mistake. his was buying the entertainment center. HUGE mistake. you'' ll get through it. 

[Alex]

I wonder which ship would have won in a fight between the Yamamoto and the Bismark? 

I'm no navy man, but barring a lucky shot I think I'd have to come down on the side of the Yamamoto.

Went for an eye test. Bowing slightly to the inevitable march of years and am getting a set of verifocals. Slightly painful to have to admit to that one, but I've been struggling to read with my normal glasses for a couple of years now. Age, such a double-edged sword. Shame I couldn't have just paused it any time between 18 and 27. I particularly wouldn't mind having the leg muscles I used to have pre age 23 or so.

My first set of shifts at work went fine. Very quiet and boring, but hey I've done that job when it is exciting and you know what, I'll take boring over exciting. No bomb scares, drunks trying to wrestle my rifle off me, officers screaming at 4am about how I should know who they are, no sergeants having a psychotic break and needing to be restrained by 11 people, no police putting fish inside people's jackets...
 
Had a meeting at Ash's school with his teacher and support staff. The educational psychatrist thinks that he is making excellent progress and that she can sign him off as not needing further support from her. I need to make more of an effort to read to him, he has made good progress with his alphabet and seems to be more ameniable to having a story read to him.

[Alex]

Pushing our to get her benefits claims sorted out has finally paid dividends for her. It took months of persuading her to actually push for what she is entitled to and I won't say they've made it easy for her. She has just been awarded a monthly payment at the highest band, and it has been backdated to 2017. It adds up to a significant amount of money for her. She was visiting us today when she got the phone call telling her. She should get the money starting next week. Considering before we met her she was surviving on £25 a week, this is going to make a big difference to her life.

I feel glad we bullied her into going for what she should be getting and put her in contact with people who knew more about the system than we did and that I'll no longer have to worry if she has had a meal that day or not.

Kristi is working this evening so it is just me and Ash chilling out. Going to get some bad movies in (preferably horror) and contemplate tomorrow.

Looks like going into next year I will be running a Call of Cthulhu game. It is based on an expedition following in the footsteps of the Starkweather/Moore one featured in At The Mountains of Madness. I was asking my friends who would be interested in playing. Only one was non-commital.



Accidently punched a door frame today and then caught my knuckles on the corner of the door. Now my knuckles lack skin. This is inconvenient and was also painful at the time.

Good job Ash wasn't around. Mind you, all his swear words thus far have came from Kristi rather than me. This provides me with a certain degree of internal confusion. He has also started saying "For gods sake", which Kristi doesn't like and keeps telling him to say goodness sake instead.

Ash pooped in my shower. The kitten pee'd in Ash's bed. Does that mean I need to take a dump in the cats tray?

I need a beer.

[Alex]

Going out for a long walk today, something I've been doing increasing these days. I don't get as much opportunity for long walks as I had previously. I just jump on the first bus and train that comes along, get off wherever looks good and let my feet guide me.

One of my friends has been running a self help business. It is one of many ventures she's engaged in over the years. When she set it up she was asking for ways she could help improve my life. She was married and divorced in less than a year, hasn't stuck to any of her businesses. Really, what makes you think you can offer me anything? The first 4 or 5 different things she started I would help advertise, order some stuff off. These days I don't even follow her new ventures on social media. I hope she finds something that she can stick to and is successful with but I just got tired of encouraging people to use her services then finding g out she's switched tack entirety and is doing something totally different.

Another friend has just gotten divorced from his wife who has transitioned to a man. He's done everything to support her/him through the process. They were living together and co-parenting, but now she is kicking him out of the house and is telling him she isn't giving him a share of the house or anything. I've seen that guy become a shell of his former self and his mental health really suffer during all of this. Just want to scream at him, slap him in the face and tell him to stop being a doormat. If that is how she (using that term to differentiate between the original male and the trans one) wants to play it then get yourself a lawyer.

At the moment all it feels we can do is help him pick up the pieces afterwards. I hope he comes round for a visit soon and I get to have a one-to-one chat. I have the feeling that in a couple of years, they'll decide they've made a huge mistake and want to transition back. She has a long history of jumping on popular bandwagons. None of which helps the people who genuinely are trans. She is the only one I've met who I don't believe is genuinely in the wrong type of body. Nonetheless, I've tried to be supportive, but I think how she is treating her ex is the end of our friendship.

[Alex]

Well here I am with time on my hands but little to do with it.

Ho hum.

When I signed onto the military no one ever mentioned the long periods of doing nothing, followed by the short periods of excitement. I'd come to crave boredom at work, because the excitement, well that would mean not only were you working for a living, but that you were earning g the extra bit you get added onto your pay for having to deal with bits that civvies don't have to deal with generally.

I sawca person yesterday with a jacket and on the back was hand painted the anarchy symbol. Above it was written Trans Rights. Nothing wrong with supporting either one of those things, but under an anarchist system you don't really have any rights. Just seems rather counter productive.

[Alex]

Due to someone going man down, here I am doing nights again. Not complaining, I offered to switch over. The longer I can avoid working g a Monday morning the better as far as I am concerned. The way things are currently set up I won't have to work one now until the end of November. I've done issuing passes on a Monday morning before and it is far from fun.

Well, I've found a channel currently  showing a bunch of old Hammer movies. That's me about as happy as I can be under the circumstances then.

The rain hasn't stopped but it has at least slackened off a bit. The sky is a lovely velvet black colour. Glad I don't have to be standing out on the gate though. If they recruit more manpower that could be on the cards though.

I've been thinking about all the girls I've been with, the different countries, the things girls from particular countries have in common... While every woman has had her own unique elements, I have found that there are what for want of a better term I'll term national traits. I briefly considered that if I had things to do over again, which country I'd want to be first, which ones I'd consider avoiding, who was the most fun.

[Alex]

Last shift to go through before I am on stand-down for 4 days. The toughest part of the job thus far is staying awake, generally about the 2 to 4 a.m. slot.

[Alex]

Hamas had to know the reaction it would get from Israel. I wonder what their endgame plan is on this one? Is some neighbouring Arab state going to invade once Israel commits large numbers to a ground invasion?

[Alex]

Felt tired yesterday evening and went for a nap. Didn't wake up until half ten and even then I was barely awake. I did get up for an hour, then went back to bed and slept until just before seven. I don't often get to sleep that long.

Feels chilly this morning. Might even pull a jumper on rather than  Technically I am on a day off today, but I need to go in this morning for a course. Human factors I think, but it might be E&D. I turn up to these mandatory courses, but I don't really pay any attention to them and only engage when I am absolutely required to do so. I've been finding that before I answer the phone at work I have to stop for a second and think how I am going to speak on it, remembering I am no longer Cpl Corbett, but Pte Corbett instead and that I don't work in MSC anymore. I thought that with 6 months off that I'd have adjusted to that a little bit quicker.

[lester1/2jr]

Alex - Netanayhu f**ked up. Hamas are terrorists who have been kept in check for decades and somehow they slipped through the cracks. Once they had done so they couldn't imagine their good fortune and did as much and as awful damage as they could. No they didn't think about the repurcussions.