Friday 15 February 2008

Resubmission c.c

Apparently my petition was:

classed as being in the following categories:
* Language which is offensive, intemperate, or provocative

So I have reworded it (in my mind, sugar-coated it) and resubmitted c.c

consider temporary sterilisation for girls aged 12 to 18, in order to lower teenage pregnancy, allow our children to grow up before becoming parents and allow these teenagers to instead recieve further education, giving them a better chance at well paid employment.
Teenage pregnancy is a growing problem in the United Kingdom, with teenage birthrates far exceeding those of many European countries. All previous attempts to lower the rates are demonstrably failing and aiding the creation of a growing population of children who are often fatherless and dispossessed. Few teenagers have the maturity to correctly care for their children, often being of an age where they would rather be out with their friends. Temporary sterilisation of girls aged 12 to 18 would drastically lower the teenage birthrates and allow these children to reach maturity in a normal fashion as well as further their own education, in turn creating more young adults who can and will obtain acceptable or well paid jobs.


Hrm. Not entirely sure if this will ever get through, because it is in and of itself, a 'provocative' subject. Anyway, here's hoping.

H

New Petitions - and created one

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Immediately ban NHS funding of homoeopathy and redirect the resources to proven medicine.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to support the industry by joining the growing band of people who have no confidence in The Arts Council.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish the tv license fee and introduce paid advertising to fund the bbc.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to legislate for the creation of atheist schools with an atheistic ethos to provide choice for parents.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Refuse any application submitted by the ‘Church’ of Scientology for recognition as a Religious Organisation.

And I am awaiting approval for my own petition:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to consider temporary sterilisation for girls aged 12 to 18, in order to lower teenage pregnancy, allow our children to grow up before becoming parents and allow these teenagers to instead recieve further education and contribute to society.

Teenage pregnancy is a growing problem in the United Kingdom.
All previous attempts to lower the rates have failed and created a growing population of teenagers, who think getting pregnant is a sure-fire way to recieve Government money. Few teenagers have the mental capacity to correctly care for their children and this is in turn creating a growing population of unhappy, anti-social children, most of whom will follow in their parents footsteps and further contribute to the problem.
Temporary sterilisation of girls aged 12 to 18 would drastically lower the teenage birthrates and allow these children to further their education, in turn creating more
young adults who can and will contribute to society.

As soon as I have a response, I'll let you know.

This is something I feel quite strongly about - but if you want to discuss it, go ahead.

H

Government's response to 'Faith Schools' petition

I was one of a great many who signed this petition:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools."

Details of Petition:

"Faith schools remove the rights of children to choose their own religious, philosophical and ethical beliefs. They also sanction ethnic segregation and create tension and divisiveness within society. Schools should be places where children are given a free education, not centres for indoctrination. Creationism and other religious myths should not be taught as fact regardless of the funding status of a school. Abolishing faith schools will provide children with more freedom of choice and help to promote a fully multi-cultural, peaceful society."


This is the Government's official response, posted on pm.gov.uk website:

The Government remains committed to a diverse range of schools for parents to choose from, including schools with a religious character or "faith schools" as they are commonly known.

Religious Education (RE) in all schools, including faith schools, is aimed at developing pupils' knowledge, understanding and awareness of the major religions represented in the country. It encourages respect for those holding different beliefs and helps promote pupils' moral, cultural and mental development. In partnership with national faith and belief organisations we have introduced a national framework for RE.

In February 2006, the faith communities affirmed their support for the framework in a joint statement making it clear that all children should be given the opportunity to receive inclusive religious education, and that they are committed to making sure the framework is used in the development of religious education in all their schools and colleges.

The Churches have a long history of providing education in this country and have confirmed their commitment to community cohesion. Faith schools have an excellent record in providing high-quality education and serving disadvantaged communities and are some of the most ethnically and socially diverse in the country. Many parents who are not members of a particular faith value the structured environment provided by schools with a religious character.



Did I expect anything else? Not really - I know how our Government works.

Did I hope for anything else? Yes. I had hoped, rather futiley, that they would pay attention. Apparently they did not.

I am not surprised.

H

Thursday 14 February 2008

123rd page meme - OMG ARMGDDN

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the 5th Sentence.
4. Post the next 3 sentences.
5. Tag 5 people.

Here you go:

Islam is at once the most and the least interesting of the world's monotheisms. It builds upon its primitive Jewish and Christian predecessors, selecting a chunk here and a shard there, and thus, if these fall, it partly falls also. Its founding narrative likewise takes place within an astonishingly small compass, and relates facts about extremely tedious local quarrels.

'God Is Not Great' by Christopher Hitchens

I'm finally reading it ^^ Mom leant it to me while I was in hospital and I amusingly used the 'Chapalain Department's' advert thing as the bookmark. I forgot I was using it when they kicked me out, so I've still got it.

----

Caught the program 'Wonderland: The End Of The World Tour' last night.

My gods, that was a horrifyingly amsuing example of the length the fundies go to.

Basically, about forty people were 'Chosen' (apparently by God) to go on the tour of Isreal. The troup was mostly made up of Americans, but there was a small handful of Brits.

One American couple had recently lost their twenty-something only daughter, and were still grieving. One American woman confessed that she had found God after years of alchohol and drug abuse.

Another 'Southern Country Gal' in her sixties, was grieving for her lost life (apparently she was severely beaten by her father on a regular basis and had failed to find love or even contentment in any of her six marriage to men who were invariably between 18 and 23 years older than herself) who had joined the group so that she could be cleansed of her sins in the same river in which Jesus had been Baptised.

One of the most horrifying parts, was a conversation between three of the Fundies about how they thought the Final Battle would take place. One of the women grinned and nodded knowingly as she explained that Jesus would slay all the sinners with a sword he would pull from his mouth - to which another said he always believed that passage was more like a Star Trek phaser - Jesus would speak and rain 'phaser blasts or lightning' down on the sinners, with them exploding and spraying blood everywhere.

All three of these Fundies were laughing and grinning and happily describing the waist deep blood and the exploding bodies of the 'sinners', apparently content in the knowledge that they wouldn't be there, because of the ''Rapture', and as 'True Believers', they would already be in Heaven with God.

One woman actually admitted, quite happily, that to believe in the way she did, was indeed very close-minded. She said that it was her choice to be that way.

Something the freaked me out, quite considerably, was the seventeen year old photography student, the daughter of two particularly vehement Fundies, who was almost stronger in her belief than her own parents. She quite happily admitted to believing that the presenter would burn for eternity in Hell when he died. She looked very serious as she said this, explaining that she looked forward to all the sinners and non-believers leaving God's 'presence'. She claimed that all humanity was evil, right from the word go - that babies were born evil - and that the only way to cleanse oneself of this evil was to be Baptised into the same religion as herself.

The troup were split into smaller groups to take a short flight around the Armageddon Valley, where the Last Battle (of 200 million humans and Satan, against God) is supposed to take place. Afterwards, it was found that most of the troup believed that the battle would take place within their life times, and that a not inconsiderable portion of that group further believed that it would take place in the next five to ten years. And they all looked forward to it.

Barbara - the sixty-something southern gal - came to the presenter one morning and explain to him and his crew that God had given her a vision, telling her she needed to take a photograph of them at a 'place that would be revealed to her'. So they got in the car and drove - rather aimlessly, for quite some time - until she decided they had found the right spot.

While preparing to take the photograph, the presenter asked her about her views on the Palastinians. Apparently she would quite happily tell a grieving Palastinan family that thier loved one was burning in Hell - but would take offense if someone did the same thing to an Isreali family. She nearly cried in her passion when claiming that all people had to do was BELIEVE and God would come to them.

It was an embarassingly sad sight. I honestly believe this woman should go see a councellor, rather than wallow in the despair that is her religion.

When it came time to be Baptised, the tour guides changed the venue, and the troup was baptised in an adjoining river, instead of the actual one Jesus was baptised in. Most of them wept and praised Christ as they were dunked. Barbara wept before, during and after and then claimed she had been wiped of the sins that had made her life a living Hell, that from now on she could be calm.

It was quite a sight.

It ended with one member of the group telling the presenter that he had been called to make this program for a reason, that he was now accountable, because he 'couldn't say he hadn't been told' (which is a rather brilliant piece of grammatical tongue-twistery).

All in all - I was rather horrified by the whole thing.

H

Sunday 10 February 2008

Answer me this...

I'm not sure where this came from - but if someone can give me any kind of answer, I'd be much obliged.

Concerning Mars and the inordinate amount of films/books/TV series that claim Mars was once populated by highly intelligent beings, who 'seeded' life on our own planet.

(You do a lot of thinking when you can't do much during an illness...)

Keeping in mind the amount of time it took our own planet to reach a point of evolution where a sentient creature could begin to evolve, considring the disasters that obliterated various ages of 'dinosaurs', the false starts and extinctions, the point in time where life apparently exploded, but only one out of that huge amount of life was the ancestor of all Vertebrate life and could easily have been wiped out - but wasn't - as well as our ancient ancestors killing off their own 'siblings'.

Allowing for all the random occurances of both extinction events and explosions of life, our fight from the simple mammal form to the sentient beings we now are. Also allowing for the fact that our Solar system is (in the extreme lengths of time needed to form such a thing) formed of planets that are relatively the same age.

Is Mars old enough to have evolved a life form far superior to our own, which then faced extinction to such a level, that there is now no visible evidence of it ever having existed?

Mars would have been subject to all the same problems as Earth; extinction level events on a semi regular basis, false starts, ancient ancestors killing each other off and so on. So in the given amount of time, would it have been possible for such a race to exist, reach a god-like level of technology and then be wiped out? And then for enough time to pass, that all evidence of this civilisation would no longer be visible?

Other solar systems, I am willing to allow for such a thing to happen - I am perfectly willing to allow for god-like races on other planets in other solar systems. But the idea of Mars, a planet that was once very similar to our own, at relatively the same 'age' as our own - I have problems accepting the scientific fantasy that a race of technologically superior beings could have existed.

Can anyone else give me any thoughts on this - is Mars old enough to support such a theory?

H

Friday 8 February 2008

4 Days In Hospital

Day 01:

At 16:00 went to GP, got told lump needed to be assessed at Emergency Surgical Assesment in the local hospital. By 16:30, we were there.

Saw a Nurse at 18:00, took MRSA swabs, wrote down my name, age, address, telephone number and asked me if I have a religion ("..eh, no, I'm an athiest, thanks.." *gets looked at funny*).

Saw Surgeon at 21:30, poked, prodded etc. New Surgeon had to get a second opinion, so I was poked, prodded and felt up all over again c.c Surgeon then tells me I'll need surgery to sort it out. I choose to stay overnight and be garunteed a bed, rather than have to come in in the morning and wait around for hours for a bed.

I have blood taken - but because they can't find a vein in my right arm, I have to have it from the left and sit up to do it - nearly faint and throw up (I fucking hate needles and having my blood drawn) so get given time to recover and cocodamol.

Go back to waiting room, Matt goes home to get me an overnight bag. By 11:30 am feeling like absolute shit and haven't eaten for 10 and a half hours. Nearly faint and throw up again, so doctors order the orderly to take me to my bed ASAP. Carry sick-bucket with me as I walk to it.

Am taken to ward C5 - a small six-bed room, three on each side. Exclusively female ward, with four other women there already. May, Maureen and Kizzy - I didn't catch the name of the other lady. I chose the bed to the right of the door as we come in, so have a WALL as well as curtains c.c

Sit around waiting for Matt. Nurses find me dry tuna sandwhich for dinner. Nil by mouth from midnight, so wolf it down in a hurry. Matt arrives at 00:10 and I get changed into nightgown and prepare to go to bed.

Matt leaves and I have blood pressure checked etc.

Fail to sleep all night because some poor sod a few doors down is screaming in pain all night.


Day 02:

Woken up at 06:00 ish to have blood-pressure checked again. Temperture also taken with ear-thingy. Fall asleep again for a while. Woken up at 07:30 by breakfast trolly. Watch as other people eat.

09:00 Mr Curran - my Consultant - arrives with troup of surgeons and paperwork. Get poked and prodded and felt-up again. Am told it is 'most likely a cat scratch that caused this' (to which I think 'WTF???') and am put on Augmentin antibiotics every six hours and he'll come back to check again in the morning.

Matt arrives at 09:30, but because it's not official visiting hours, we go to the visiting lounge. Tell him how mind-numbingly boring it is.

At 10:00 am called back to have venflon fitted and antibiotics administered. Really don't want to do it. Nearly break Nurse Mandy's fingers as they insert the damn thing into the back of my left hand. Then mouth tastes of burning plastic as they administer the augmentin.

Have lunch of what appears to be ground meat in gravy with side of limp runner beans. Hmmm hospital food.

Mind numbingly boring hours pass until 14:30 when Matt and Mom arrive! Official visiting hours now, so they sit with me in the ward. Mom figures out how to pay for my bedside console, so now have TV, Radio, Telephone and Internet access. (Though at this point, I only know about the TV and Radio c.c)

More mind numbingly boring hours, where I get to know Kizzy, who is in with kidney problems and has to carry around a bag that's connected to her left kidney c.c Play with the console and watch TV for a while.

Sarah is wheeled in to the bed next to mine. Pulling a saline drip around after her whenever she goes to the toilet. Appears to be in constant pain.

Matt and Mum come back again at 18:30! They bring magazines and books and my MP3 player and my sketchbook and bathing stuff and fruit pots and apple+pear coridal and chocolate ^^ They also inform me of how to make the internet work!

Get teary when they have to leave. Lots of hugs and stuff.

Share magazines with Kizzy. Get second augmentin injection. ICK. Furiously wash mouth out and complain that my hand hurts. Eat hmmm hospital dinner.

More interminably boring hours before third injection and more owwy hand. Distract self by updating DA journal and asking Becca to copy-paste it to YG for me, because I can't log in to YG while on this console.

Fail to sleep again because the ward is too hot and May (in the bed across from me) keeps crying and yelling for the Nurse.

So I turn on the internet and talk to Zorame via the Gmail chat thingy for a while. Manage to sleep.


Day 03:

Woken again at 06:00 for blood pressure and temperture check.

Eat breakfast of rubbery toast and crap cup of tea at 07:00 ish. Get bored and draw Maureen asleep in her chair.

Am informed my consultant is busy in surgery, so wont be free to see me until later. Get injected with more augmentin. Hurts hand even more. Eat chocolate to get rid of burnt-plastic taste.

Try not to listen as Kizzy cries when they stick her full of more needles. When her doctors and nurses are gone, go over to talk to her and distract her with my DA page. Giggle together for a while, until the nurse comes back to inject her with stuff.

Lots more hours of bordome and pain. Distract self by reading comments on YG and DA journals. Really don't enjoy augmentin injection.

Lunch of shepherd's pie and cabbage. Cabbage is gritty, so don't eat it. Shepherd's pie is too rich. Fall asleep and wake up to find my pudding is gone. Meh.

14:30 Becca visits! Happy time chatting and comparing venflon scars. Show her my doodles, she compliments me by adding her own doodle to my sketchbook.

Mr Curran finally makes an appearance. Declares all is going well after poking, prodding and feeling up. Must stay one more night, then go home tomorrow with augmentin in oral form.

Matt visits and tell him whats going on. Am given clean clothing.

When time comes for next augmentin injection, complain about sore hand. Pick at dinner of Beef Hot Pot and ignore pudding. Feel ill.

Hours of boredom, broken by more reading of comments on DA and YG journals, listening to Regina Spektor on MP3 player and catch Torchwood ep3 .

Spend some time chatting with Zorame on Gmail chat thingy again. Amuse her by typing erratically because of sore hand.

Last injection of the day, am given cocodamol because painy. Am injected and then feel distinctly ill. Nearly throw up. Am given anti-sick pills.

Spend night not sleeping again.


Day 04:

Woken again at 06:00 for blood pressure and temperture. Complain LOUDLY of painy hand.

Nurse checks venflon and decides it needs taking out. Hang around for ages waitng for doctor to check it.

Doctor finally checks it and decides to put new venflon in right hand. Am so tired and emotionally shit, that when she tries the first time, I nearly scream in pain and try to hit her, second time I burst into tears and third time, keep crying. Blood everywhere.

Spend hour telling myself to stop being a wimp and to stop crying. Doesn't really work. Both hands now fucking killing me and can't move them. Nurse finally takes left-hand venflon out and I cheer up a little. Am given cocodamol again.

Eat breakfast of rubbery toast, droopy weatabix and crap cup of tea. Am injected for final time with augmentin, in new right-hand venflon. Wave goodbye to Kizzy as she is discharged and sent home.

Fall asleep for a while, until nurse wakes me up and says I'm going to be discharged, so need to vacate bed. Venflon removed. Now have two bandaged hands. Take a while to wake up a bit, tidy away stuff and then fall asleep in chair for an hour.

Am taken down to discharge lounge at about 10:30. Try my best not to fall asleep at the table and wait for Matt to come pick me up. Matt arrives and I get dressed. We wait around for prescription.

Am finally given prescription! Big box of HUGE augmentin pills, big box of cocodamol and small bottle of anti-sick pills. Am told must take augmentin three times a day for 12 days. Have to come back to the clinic in 3 weeks.

Fall asleep in taxi home. Fuss with the cats for a bit. Fall asleep in own bed. Spend the day vegging out and occassionally falling asleep.


------


So.. that was my trip to the NHS Hospital c.c

My left hand/wrist is swollen and painful because of the venflom. My right hand is pretty much alright.

The lump is very much still there, but the swelling has gone down. However, it is still incredibly painful - which is why the cocodamol.

I can't sleep on my left, I can barely use my left arm for anything. Luckily, I am right handed, otherwise I'd be going mad. I nearly DID go mad, when both hands had venflons in x__x

I'll scan up my druggy-sketches later. But they were all female, so I'll just link them over.

However, I am HOME! And really enjoying being home.

I have decided that I FCUKING HATE HOSPITALS. We are going private when we get pregnant, I swear it.

Ugh.

Thankyou to absolutely everyone who commente on my journals while I was away. Your comments kept me sane and relatively happy while I was trying not to be too emotional in there.

It seems such a trivial thing - I felt like a fraud being in there with just a misterious lump.

Kizzy was in with kidney problems, Maureen had cataracts and her operation hadn't worked. May was so old and frail, I was constantly scared she'd die in her sleep. Sarah, in the bed next to me, appeared to be in constant pain, and they couldn't give her morphine anymore because she'd been on it for too long already. The woman in the far bed (I never did catch her name) couldn't move from the bed, but was constantly on the phone to relatives.

So yeah. The doctors are still unsure of what is actually wrong with me. Mr Curran's assertion that is is a cat-scratch that lead to an infection, just sounds like utter bollocks to me. My cats are indoor cats, they've never been outside. So anything they could pass on to me, is something that I could have got at any time myself. And which obviously they didn't.

Anyway - I'm going to see my GP on monday and ask him to explain to me what the Consultant didn't.

Anyway. I'm still feeling sick and carrying a sick bucket around with me everywhere. I'm still in pain and I'm still faint. So.. ugh.

Don't expect many art updates for a little while.

H
xxxx

Friday 1 February 2008

Happy Birthday To Me! *dances*

It's almost 03:00 - so....

It's my birthday! ^^ I turn 25 at 13:00!

Matt already gave me his presents XD

Naruto 11 (YAAAAAYYY!!!)
Inu Yasha 01
Claymore 01
World of Warcraft Trading Card Game starter boxset XD

I can't believe he me got the WoW card game! I was OBSESSED with Magic back in the day! Let's just see how obsessed I get with this XD

(I was soooo competative! I used to REALLY enjoy beating the shit out of people with my Red/Blue deck - which I still have somehwere c.c)

My plans for the day revolve around visiting the doc, visiting the vet and then spending the evening vegging in front of the TV c.c

H