New-blog - Ina Disguise

Another terrifying day

November 12, 2019 No Comments

The usual rubbish, with strangers making assumptions varying from:

They are married, so anybody that works with them ought to also be married in order to have something in common with them.
Artistic ability measured by ego – it sort of is, but not in the way you expect. The people who approach it as being something only they can do and therefore very special tend to be crap. You have to enslave yourself to improving to get good at anything really. These people had evidently encountered artistic types that think they are the only person doing whatever it is they do.
I am committing some sort of crime by having a brain.
There is something odd about me.
Looking at the world in any way other than as a Sky TV addicted moron is obviously dangerous.

I spent the rest of the day working on Haram Bawbag to cheer myself up. Wrote to him, but I’m not sure why I bothered as I was just saying go away. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, especially if you are a twat.

The bottom line is:

Being nasty to other people just because they are different from you does not make you special, quite the opposite, it makes you stupid and ugly. Stop doing it. I am used to it, from birth actually due to my deranged siblings, but it is extremely tiresome.

I hope Little Shiva is enjoying India and I wish I could say what I wanted to say without being selfish.

economics, motivation

Slashie

November 5, 2019 No Comments

Someone asked me what I was doing for a living, and I replied that I am a slashie. I have been a slashie for longer than the term has existed. I am very interested in work, and jobs that other people would probably sneer at always have some interesting new feature to learn.

Over the years I have covered a lot of different areas, and I am usually pretty confident about the actual work side of things. The problem with most workplaces seem to be the people.

Over the last twenty or so years, this problem seems to have been reduced by making most of the staff temporary, the idea being that the managers need some experience and get to stay, whilst everybody else is replaced frequently according to the needs of business or whether they are regarded as nice chaps, or whatever. One company I was told about, a surprisingly household name sized business, was running an entirely illegal financial project, on the basis of temporary staff who could not answer bonus seeking managers back without losing their jobs.

Unfortunately what I have seen since returning to work after taking care of my mother, is that the longer term staff tend to be actually less experienced than the temps, because they have done the same job the same way for far too long. Personality disorders abound, because they were the people nasty enough to get these ‘safe’ roles, and the workplace is hazardous for anyone with any empathy or intelligence, since these individuals inevitably get rid of anyone who is a challenge to them or who might show up their inevitable weaknesses.

This trend has been enhanced by the steady reduction in rights.

Ageism has massively increased, and now that the Conservative government have passed the responsibility for pensions to employers, it is likely to continue to increase, which is not good news for Gen X or millennials, neither of whom get to retire at all.

The solution to this for business is to create self-employed roles for people who will not be considered for full time employment because it is simply too expensive to pay into their pensions.

Therefore, we have an army of underemployed and paradoxically self-employed slashies.

I have about five jobs, a couple of other projects, and I am not that unusual. When I am asked whether I am available for yet more work, I simply move the times for things around.

Other people focus on one slashie role at a time, and burn out relatively quickly. It is far better to like work sufficiently to spend almost all of one’s time seeing what is available and making sure you are there for it.

Personally, I would ban employment agencies altogether, the cumbersome and antiquated method of employing a middle man is simply foolish when all you want is to

soak up your departmental budget to ensure it for the next year, or
bring in a team to complete a boring job nobody else wanted to do, or
fill a skills gap

There are far more efficient ways of doing those things, and people could be far better off if they were simply contracted out via the many available ways of doing it so that slashies could earn a decent living.

HR departments are also poorly managed, although how you could be expected to read 700 CVs for one job, as happens regularly now, I do not know.

The software available for reading people’s CVs so that agency or HR staff don’t have to bother is also very poor. This is not helping business find the right people at all.

Part of the reason for having an unemployed portion of the population is to enhance choice for business. It has most certainly gone rather too far if they can’t even read the CVs.

creativity

Ina the living statue

November 4, 2019 No Comments

A policeman dropped by the car the other night, and remarked that it seemed strange that Bawbag had knocked on the car window back in December.

People now knock on my car window every day. I am a living statue, although my colours are more entertaining. I was stopped in the street the other day and identified as ‘the sewing lady.’

Sometimes they want to ask about my work, today’s wanted to tell me I was amazing. Sometimes they mouth that they love me through the window. International tourists have sent photos of me back home.

I have also overheard people coming out of the pub and remarking that I am clearly having a better time than they are. They are correct, although I am beginning to wonder if I should take up listening to non-fiction audio books rather than dance music.

Dancing whilst sewing in my car actually started because I was extremely cold, and concerned about possible DVT.

Since then it has become something of a statement. Had the owner of Two Grapes not been an asshole, he would be getting a weekly dose of it for nothing. However, like all the others, he was an asshole.

Although all of this happened by accident, largely due to the actions of Little Shiva, it has been most educational. I would never otherwise have known how intoxicating sewing is to men of all ages, for a start. I am particularly fond of the sporty ones, who check the sewing as if they are watching a match. Note that they aren’t checking me out, it is definitely the sewing. Ages of men drawn to sewing have varied from 9 – 90 and social class is entirely irrelevant.

Women are more diverse. I get a few who applaud the logo, whom I like very much, some who also sew, who like to check what I am doing in passing, preferably without me noticing, and some, remarkably are extremely jealous and actively avoid looking even as their partner nudges them to tell them to.

I have had only two directly negative responses. One was a guy who objected to his date watching me work and who was actually quite frightening in his contempt for somebody who wasn’t harming him at all. He actually stormed out of the restaurant they were in, pushing his date in front of him, so I hoped that she was in the process of dumping him before he started actually hitting her. The other was a young drunk, and his equally young companions were gratifyingly horrified by his verbiage.

An interesting feature of this accidental survey is that a frighteningly large proportion of the population have never actually seen anyone sew before, and so they have no vocabulary to talk about it – they see wool, so they will ask if it is knitting, I will say no, it is sculptural embroidery and then we usually talk about colour.

Grumpy dude has been the cream of the crop for creative chat. He took a photo of my yeti boots this morning and seems to be just entertained by the fact something is happening. He isn’t as grumpy either, so perhaps I will have to come up with a new name.

Sometimes all you need is for someone to listen to you and say yes, that’s good. Sometimes that means a lot to you.

motivation

Honesty and Cowardice

November 2, 2019 No Comments

I got to thinking today, about the last year or two, and pondered a lot of what ifs. I am a bit of a hypocrite for using the word coward, when I am usually so busy standing aside to avoid confronting emotions.

What if the first job had stopped punting corporatism and started recommending actual education, for a start? I would probably still be doing it, and never leave the house. That would be a relief on one hand, and on the other, look at all the interesting stuff I would have missed.

What if Little Shiva had not been married or otherwise bothered by other people’s opinions? We might still be at the bank, living together and fighting incessantly. Perhaps we would be expecting a child. That is quite an odd thought. I certainly wouldn’t have time to be making anything. I’d probably be a lot thinner, on the plus side. My capacity for sex, along with most other things, is limited only by waking hours. That is why I tend to avoid it. My patience for cricket probably wouldn’t last long.

What if there hadn’t been a psychopath at the next bank I stumbled into? (to the point that I honestly thought I was going to have a stroke and was glad to leave) I might be enjoying a giant call centre.

What if Bawbag hadn’t been the way he was? My work might be getting some actual exposure and I might have actually got to finish it. In the event that I hadn’t managed to drag Little Shiva back to my cave, I might be engaged in some bizarre love square. I doubt it, I still prefer the belt sander, sorry bawbag. You are so nice 20 percent of the time, but the other 80 is just not worth it. You told me that yourself.

I am kind of tired of being lonely to be honest. Little Shiva came as quite a shock, because I honestly did not think I wanted a real person until the evil chemistry kicked in. Real people hurt. You miss real people when they leave the room etc. I’m still not over it.

Where is my single cute grumpy dude? I think it is probably time I met one.

creativity

Haram Bawbag

November 2, 2019 No Comments

Work is going well, I guess, I am not sure if I like it at the moment, but I am sure I will like it by the time I have completed the work. I am hoping to get it out of the studio in one piece, but there is a possibility I will have to dismantle it to remove it.

Certainly helped doing the piece of work for the other coffee shop owner, the leather is preserving colour far better.

Apart from that, mainly working on cushions at the moment.

We seem to have got rid of Little Shiva for the moment. Perhaps he is visiting his mum in India, perhaps he has finally stopped staring at me. It doesn’t matter anyway. He was too cowardly to do anything other than stare.

Speaking of cowardly, I do not need any further interference thank you. Today was very irritating and pointless.

Thank you for all the nice comments.

creativity

Update

October 31, 2019 No Comments

Working on Haram Bawbag at the moment, whilst doing the Grumpy dude stuff at work.

Changing the tone of Bawbag somewhat, as it was a bit too austere. It is quite a lot of work.

Bit fed up with the carelessness of people, particularly people that cannot be bothered looking up the meaning of straightforward words.

Not sure what they think is going to happen to them, given how they treat other people.

Apart from that, reasonably happy. Dreamt about Boris last night, oddly. We apparently render each other almost silent, which is odd.

motivation

I agree with Grumpy Dude

October 27, 2019 No Comments

You will notice I have dropped the cute from cute grumpy dude, because I suspect he is married with kids, although unlike the situation with Little Shiva, the subject has not thus far been relevant. (in Little Shiva’s case, the subject was highly relevant and could have been mentioned several times.)

I also think the reason he has been weird fits with this theory.

I think he is right. I am obviously an evil harlot because he got married some time ago, and unlike the woman in the supermarket or any other kind of shop he frequents, I am up to no good by existing. Sorry I was not as boring as expected.

Still working away on the shoes and cushions, otherwise I don’t think there is any need to speak again.

creativity

Work Update

October 24, 2019 No Comments

Things going quite well on the Grumpy Dude project, one piece ready to join the bedroom floor pile, which will make a total of five or so awaiting attention when I feel strong enough. If you could see the pile of stuff waiting to join it you would probably faint.

Started on Little Shiva and was exhausted fairly quickly due to the size and weight of the thing, but I am happy that I will be able to get it done along with the others.

Basically this stage is much heavier work and involves a lot of humphing big boxes of wool, which is why it is advisable to have several pieces to do at once so that you only have to humph the once.

Did some work on Haram Bawbag and am waiting for resin to cure and varnish to dry. The temperatures up here are so low just now that it takes twice as long as usual, so 48 hours between coats.

Apart from that, still lost in paperwork and I need to go and talk to some business people. Not sure whether they will want to supply the relevant information or whether I should adopt the suck it and see method.

I would like to meet a nice person that can manage a two way conversation and isn’t an idiot. I am really quite bored with idiots now.

creativity, motivation

Strength of Character

October 22, 2019 No Comments

I have not devoted much time to Wolfe in the last couple of years, but today’s post is about strength of character.

Strength of character was considered admirable post-war, as everyone’s lives had been touched by horror one way or another. It was understood that one does not have to be nice to do something good, and that it was more important to stand up for your core beliefs than to be popular.

This appears to be a mystery to more recent generations.

When I fell in love with Wolfe

David Avocado Wolfe

many years ago, it was very much a choice. His staff had been horrible to me, for no apparent reason, he, whilst fascinating, was fairly trivial and the stories about him were horrific at the time. I was working very hard on a very heavy book, which I have since not continued with due to massive self-doubt, and I was at a loss to why I found him compelling at all.

However he was a productive muse, and I enjoyed our brief spats, and when all the horrible stuff started happening I could not understand why. The woman referring to herself as the Avocadess appeared to think there was some sort of heirarchy that I should be aware of, and as I live in a different continent I did not really understand why it was relevant at all.

So, rather than doing what most people do, getting offended by the poor treatment and carrying on being very serious and under the radar, I started to ponder how to react to the situation positively.

This led to years and years of self-evaluation, and a basically constant gouch on Wolfe, which has led so far to this website, 35 titles, constant development work and eventually I went to meet him.

I was effectively neutered, because I was so busy thinking about how I could be good enough to meet the challenge of Wolfe effectively that I no longer wanted to participate in a relationship with anyone else.

You could look on it that I was in a situation where I was getting nothing from the several relationships I had at the time, I was not in a position to move on because I was taking care of my mother, and if you were particularly negative, perhaps as a result of watching TV and telling yourself you were over the hill, you could say I had given up. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am in the fortunate position to be hit on regularly by men young enough to be my son, despite not being particularly beautiful, on the basis of unusual levels of vibrancy.

So, basically what I am getting to with this is – you always have a choice. You can choose to wallow in your inadequacy, you can choose to hit out at other people, you can choose to be a small, nasty, self-serving individual, or you can choose to evaluate your behaviour, ignore other people and develop to the point where you are able to rise above disaster.

I chose, rather than doing what most otherwise intelligent people do and hating Wolfe and everything he stands for, to effectively fall in love with him for several years until I understood why.

And the reason? Strength of character. Wolfe has been through an awful lot, his background was not happy, he made a lot of mistakes, he has messed up far more times than you or I. His material is often gathered rather than produced, and he has been in trouble several times. And yet he still stands up and gets on with it. He spreads information that people would not seek for themselves, and in my case he gave me the self-confidence to pursue a line of research I would otherwise have kept very much on the back burner. I am now in the business myself.

That is not, however what I have to thank him for. What I have to thank Wolfe for, is for very cleverly putting together his overall presentation to tell you that the bottom line is getting it out there. What other people have to say about you is of absolutely no consequence whatsoever.

An author this morning tweeted at me that I had started a hate campaign against him. This is because he wishes to imprison a gay man for hitting on him. This author lacks the grace or capacity for the generosity of spirit necessary for a happy life.

His followers are astonished that they have spammed my facebook page for several days, and got nowhere with persuading me that persecuting a gay fan is good because this author is very moderately popular with them. The mean IQ is not high, needless to say.

Nobody has spammed him, and all I have done is simply disagree with him.

The reason I put this with the rest of the post?

Strength of character. Get some. Most of the time, the herd is wrong.

Uncategorized

Author Research Challenge

October 20, 2019 No Comments

OK I am defeated, so I am throwing this one out to the authors out there.

“Most famous author in the UK”

Lived in China for several years and brought at least one son up there.

Once stood on the balcony of an asylum with Berlusconi.

Has an exceptionally mannerless and badly behaved son.

If anyone has any ideas who this is, please reply to the tweet as comments on this website just get handbag adverts.

Thanks

Ina

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