I have no intention of seeing or speaking to either of you again so I do not know why you insist on sitting staring at the site.  I know you think it is threatening but it actually just makes you look a bit tragic.

Go and do something more useful.

So, today this lovely Indian author greeted me warmly on Facebook and asked me for some advice.

As a general know-it-all I was very pleased to be asked.  Three hours or so later, I am wondering if perhaps it is time I wrote something for actual money?

The dude has a publishing contract, but no marketing back up.  I wonder about the future of publishing if this is normal?  He is with a publisher I can only dream about attracting.

Anyway, I am only doing about a tenth of what I should be doing in terms of promotion, to begin with this was because I thought my writing was very outre and a bit shaky, now it is sheer laziness and the knowledge that the best thing I can do for myself is write something else rather than sit and worry about marketing.

You do need to have some awareness of the limitations of time, however, so perhaps it is time I wrote something for actual moolah, cash, kudos, etc.

This involves a lot of annoying extra tasks, mainly in the USA.  I object to sending my original documents to another country.

Anyway, it appears my strategy has paid off, if such people are asking me for advice and taking it, so I guess I should take this whole brand thing more seriously.

In which case it is time I finished the games for my beloved Wolfe and wrote the stuff for Boris.

Hopefully I will have some good news shortly.

Toodle pip,

Ina

Leave him alone, he did not actually do anything wrong to you. You would be stupid to risk your marriage over his being unpleasant, since it fits quite well with your own disparaging view of other people.

What you actually need to do is find out why you feel the need to try to make other people feel bad.  You are very young to be so desperately sad. When I was your age I was having too much fun to denigrate other people, and I was terribly shy.

He was stupid and he listened to an extremely nasty individual who was probably quite intimidating.

When you grow up you might figure it out.  In the meantime get a life and stop assuming imaginary superiority because it will make you stupid and pre-senile as well as a horrible person.

Working on something a little bit special at the moment, so nothing to report.

Back soon, munchkins,

Ina

Uff, I was just checking the books page during my interview, and it had not been set up correctly for mobile.

My apologies, this has now been corrected.

Ina

Doing a general upgrade of a variety of things at the moment.  Still not quite managing to get rid of the remaining cushion on my front, but skin, hair etc is improving a little, although I have to say, coming out of ketosis is quite aging.

Still being shoved around a little because of the last job, but I should have that dealt with in time for my next posts, which I am looking forward to very much.

The wardrobe is also changing, and I seem to be getting more, rather than less eccentric in my choices.  Stealing from history rather a lot, with a strong cosmopolitan theme running throughout.  Thinking of taking up more interesting hats.

I will be catching up with a few other things before I start, so I am looking at a week or two before I jump back into the fire.

Cross fingers that things will be better rather than worse than expected for a change.

Ooh and I nearly forgot – I managed to get a couple of things made for the updated and ‘easier to manage with one person’ Boris project, so I will be back on track with that soon too.

Toodle pip

Ina

I have just learned that I am over egging the pudding somewhat, so I think I have had a better, and certainly simpler idea.

I would, however like to discuss it, since your resources are better than mine.  It is a very simple idea and requires only me as long as you can use your local contacts.

If you are interested, I will leave a message for you in the next week or two once I have things set up.

I hope you are OK poppet, I haven’t been doing much apart from figuring out what I can take from the staring brat episodes.

Hopefully I will speak with you soon.  In the meantime, you could always email me on betterpersonproject@gmail.com if you have time and I will outline things a bit.

Ina

What my sister and all the other narcs I have attracted over the years have in common is that they detest happiness, and they really hate confidence.

The idea that other people can be content, happy or confident is horrifying to them, because they perceive it as being a state that they cannot control.

Therefore, for people like the staring brats, the silly woman I am dealing with right now, and my sister, dealing with a happy, confident and positive person is a bit like being confronted by the antichrist, and it must be stopped as soon as possible.

The crushing of any dangerous happiness or meaningful activity means that they can reassert themselves as the centre of attention and curtail any progress that does not relate to their well-being.

I have committed a revolutionary act today, which is being met with a mixture of dismay and admiration.  Simply saying no has caused a spiral of obvious abuse activity to become very clear to people who have actually been accepting this behaviour for some time.

The woman at the centre of the storm in this case has been causing problems for months, possibly years.  She spotted me the minute I walked in, and I made a point of asking her one question every day.  She very quickly became irritated with my lack of fear, and I knew that problems were bound to follow very quickly thereafter.

To give you an indication of how common this is, if you are a temporary worker you are expected to simply accept any treatment in order to continue to claim your wage.  Everyone so far has simply grumbled and moved on or been fired without complaint, so the idea of standing your ground is quite alien to the people who have administered her whims.

I had to explain at some length that I was fully confident to challenge her on the basis of knowledge that she did not have, that I would be expecting an apology and an acknowledgement that I am well aware that I will not get, and that I am concerned for all the other people that she has done this to.  Depressing people to pander to a narc is not a smart thing to do, and the manager of the office is making full use of my heel digging to put her in her place.

Unfortunately, this seems to be making her panic somewhat, so it is very likely that I will be axed in the course of this episode under some pretext.  She made a complaint about me answering a question this morning, and another one about me asking a colleague to refrain from speaking to me this afternoon.  These were the only two interactions with other people that I had, so as you can see, she too is a staring brat. She seems to be looking for evidence of unhappiness, because I have deprived her of the right to humiliate me, and I have responded by marching around with a fixed grin all day.

Meanwhile, a third party is phoning me every five minutes attempting to humiliate me into accepting her behaviour.  The idea of me saying no to a narc is horrifying to them.

I explained that I had a sister who was exactly the same, and that saying yes to them may well make your life easier, but it isn’t very smart.  I painted the picture and saw the recognition on their faces as I did so.

So, what I am working on at the moment is quite worthwhile in terms of cultural change and raising the general level of confidence and positivity, but as a personal policy it is likely to be disastrous.  That is a risk I am willing to take during this episode.  It is long overdue.

And on a lighter note, I managed to smuggle my number to floral shirt dude.  He would appear to be a gentleman, but time will tell.

First published in 2015

As promised, here is your checklist for redirecting finance in a more positive direction. It is important for you to circulate it to as many people as possible to encourage them to do the same. You can do as little or as much as you choose, but the more people redirecting their lives away from feeding what is now a seriously malfunctioning machine the better. The 1 percent that everyone complains about only became the 1 percent because the 99 percent put them there.

My suggestion is that you do one thing at a time, so that you do not become bogged down with the details.

If you are in Europe, sign this https://stop-ttip.org/

And this https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/eu-ttip-petition#petition

And this https://www.change.org/p/to-the-eu-and-uk-governments-do-not-sign-up-to-ttip

Open an account with an ethical bank, again I have posted links to some of the banks which market themselves as ethical investors on the Better Person Project  You will find them under the appropriate drop down menu.  The reason I suggest this before doing anything else is because changing all your monthly payments over to a new account is a pain in the neck, and considering the other slightly more time consuming things I will be adding to this list, it is important that you start with this.

This means that you will be encouraging positive rather than negative investments from the banks that you choose to deal with.  If we can encourage a swing towards ethical investment, it will influence the more mainstream banks to do the same.  One person matters. One thousand people matter.  One million people and we have actually achieved something. You matter.  Open the account.  If your country is not represented, find the bank in your country that invests ethically and add it to the website, please.

In the event that you hold savings, consider investing a little in a ‘lend with care’ or social capital project as you will achieve two things – first, the person you are lending to will not have to go to a bank and give them more business, and second, you will get a much better interest rate than the banks have been offering. Again, I have added links on the Better person project site, and if you find more, or better ones, you are free to add them without fear of my scraping your data, or whatever.

Stop shopping with large retailers such as supermarkets, ‘iconic’ brands etc.  The big global fashion labels in particular, are owned by about 6 investment companies.  Not that they are particularly evil investment companies, but if you wish to achieve an impact in terms of diversifying the market, you want to feed the smaller companies until they are in a position to compete.

Supermarkets are a menace, because you are lulled into giving them a proportion of your income every week, so one company benefits disproportionately by cutting costs or advertising more widely.  This is easy for a raw foodist, because chances are if you are shopping in a supermarket, you are paying too much already.  Non raw foodies will find it more difficult.

I completely understand as I sometimes do the shopping at 3am and Asda (Walmart) is the only one open, but if we are to start making a dent in this, it starts at home. Reducing your spend to the minimum and using your spending power to encourage competitors is key.

As a side effect, smaller retailers are frequently located in places where it is more practical to walk, and you may be able to use your car less.

Communications companies are just as outgrown.  Investigate smaller companies who offer the same services that you currently enjoy.  It is worth considering spending slightly more in order to grow a competing company, rather than get additional TV channels that you do not even watch thrown in as part of a deal to maintain the economic status quo with a company like Sky, Virgin or the equivalent.

It is a question of habit, and being aware that the price of convenience is the difference between being forced into a minimum wage job by a giant retailer, or opening a store yourself, if that is what makes you happy. Just as thinking before you eat makes a difference, so does thinking before you let a penny out of your wallet.

Bear in mind, if you choose to do this, that it was not entirely your fault that you were sucked into a situation where your government became powerless against the businesses that supported them.  The original book goes into quite a lot of detail as to how it was done, and how people were weakened in the face of ultra convenience.  I shall take a look at publishing the finished material, but for now – I think this is enough for us to be getting on with.  If we can get around the time consuming problems associated with rechannelling our own money, it will make it much easier for the next wave of people that get on board.

At last the website seems to be free of staring brat infestation!

At Last! Thank you that man!

Ina Disguise is out tomorrow

Much love to Boris, I am preparing a gift for you poppet.

Ina