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DIARY – JANUARY 2007
MONDAY JANUARY 1st
2007 NEW YEAR’S DAY.
For the first time, my diary has gone to a one month per page format.
This was of course national hangover day. New Year’s day is not a day for celebration and revelry, but a day for getting over New Year’s Eve.
I got to bed just before 6 AM but woke up about 10.30 AM, feeling fine, but thirsty.
There was plenty of food left over from the buffet my parents had made for their party. Beyond that, it was just an excuse to read, and work online.
I contacting my friend, Gill and thanked her for her lovely Christmas presents, and watched TV all night. I watched the Torchwood finale, which I have reviewed online.
TUESDAY JANUARY 2cd 2007.
As proof of normality having returned, I had to sign on with the employment exchange today.
I have to present them with proof of my job-hunting activity, but even they accepted that little could be done with the firms al winding down for the festive period. Actually, I was still able to show off some jib leads I had followed, but to no gain. The rest of the day was spent online, or slobbing out. I found a number of websites that mention me in one way or another, and added them to my OTHER WEBSITES pages.
I also added to the number of contact friends I have on my Blog pages at My Space. http://www.myspace.com/56954240 and Live Journal http://arthurjchappell.livejournal.com/.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 3rd 2007
I chased up some job leads, and then didn’t do much of anything. My parents fed their TV Soap Opera addiction, and my Mother still moaned when I watched Desperate Housewives later on.
THURSDAY JANUARY 4th 2007
I added some pages to Wikipedia for the first time. You can see them at Wikipedia the rest of the day was spent job hunting and web browsing.
FRIDAY JANUARY 5th 2007
Quiet day ending with a visit to the Fringe Bar for lots of drinks.
SATURDAY JANUARY 6th 2007
Wrote
some more Wikipedia material. I also joined Friends Reunited, www.friendsreunited.co.uk.
And did find several old friends in there quite quickly. Hopefully, some of
them will reply to my e-mail alerts. I
also subscribed to a website survey on TV viewing and radio listening habits,
which promises some generous raffle prize rewards but doesn’t actually pay.
I e-mailed several stories to
publishers. One story, The Slave’s Rebellion was snapped up within two
hours by a leading women’s magazine, Scarlet, and should appear in print
before the year is out.
SUNDAY JANUARY 7th 2007
An exceptional day - actually quiet until I headed to Manchester to go to FAB Café.
Later, on the way to FAB I called in to chat with my friend Tom at the church where he works. Someone had left a DVD of My Big Fat Greek Wedding lying around unclaimed for months, so he gave it to me.
I called in Safad’s for a bite to eat and headed to FAB. I had expected this to be a normal Sunday film night there, but they were closed for the post-Christmas staff party. As a regular customer and occasional dray worker I was invited in to what proved to be a tremendous night. They hired a karaoke DJ, and I performed my own rendition of the Monster Mash, which went down well despite being truly awful. I got home about 2.30 AM
MONDAY JANUARY 8th 2007
Woke up late due to the unexpectedly long night out that ended yesterday.
I updated my Blog Pages.
I was signed on to a TV and Radio survey study online, which was fun and quick to do. I realized how little TV I was watching nowadays. I actually heard the radio (I have BBC Radio Two on all day) more.
I got a job interview for Wednesday with a Charities marketing firm called Face 2 Face.
Besides that, I just finished reading a short novella, John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There?
TUESDAY JANUARY 9th 2007.
I had to sign on today, which meant getting up early. I arrived in plenty of time, finding few jobs worth applying for.
The lady who was to see me was twenty minutes late even reaching her desk, and then swore blind that she’d been calling me several times, even though I saw her walk to the desk from outside. She then faffed about, and misheard and mis-keyed every job reference code I gave her for jobs I wanted looking up. Each time, she blamed the computer for being a bit slow. They were impressed by the news of my looming interview though.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 10th 2007.
The interview was a total waste of my time and effort. Of six applicants expected, only two of us turned up. The two interviewers were late, but lectured me on the value of good time keeping, and told me how much money it could lose (£1,000’s) per year. Myself and the other Face 2 Face applicant were then separated to be taken by an interviewer each. Mine babbled on about the job in some detail, to the point where he left me with virtually no time at all to discuss why I might be a suitable candidate for it. He just told me that he would get the details from my CV, which he hadn’t even read.
The job struck me as unethical anyway. Face 2 Face gets people in the street to sign up for giving money to charities. Nothing wrong with rattling a collecting tin for me, but Face 2 Face insist on people signing to a pledge to donate minimum sums per month (usually £7.00 to £12.00) rather than just letting people decide for themselves how much to give and how often. The high-pressure sales tactics sounded akin to bullying. My interviewer seemed brainwashed by the job details. He had forgotten how much money he gave to charities personally and expected others to do so too. (Having a debt heavy income, I wouldn’t be able to afford such a luxury anyway). He told me in genuine delight how he had been asked to take such a pledge of commitment by a woman in the street years before and how he had never forgotten her sales enthusiasm.
I was told that if I got the job, I would be on a training course in Bristol on Monday. I pointed out that this gave me little time to prepare if I wasn’t to be notified before Thursday or Friday. My zealous interviewer assured me that I would hear ASAP. I suspected I would not be hearing from him again. I think my air of scepticism reflected in my intervwee manner. I never heard from Face 2 FACE AGAIN. Once more a firm just couldn’t be bothered sending me a rejection message.
I called up to Central Library to read through one of my own books, finishing Barry Longyear’s Enemy Mine. It should have been a No2ID anti-Identity Cards meeting, but nothing had been scheduled. I was at a loose end. I then called in FAB Café, and then down to the Fringe Bar before heading home.
At home, I wondered if FAB, and it’s companion business nightclub bar Satan’s Hollow had now revived their website discussion forums. (FAB CAFE FORUM - http://www.linesandcolour.com/fabcafeform/login.asp *** SATAN'S HOLLOW FORUM - http://satanshollow.hardc0re.org.uk/index.php?showforum=1 respectively). Obviously, from being linked here, they did. I had initially thought of just asking on my next visit to the bar at FAB, but then I just decided to look on the Internet, and get the answer for myself. I found them easily, and registered in right away.
The FAB Forum was fairly quiet. That for Satan’s was very lively. I wrote a basic message of introduction to myself, which as I usually do in such cases, I signed with a link to my website. I was delighted that someone read into the link right away, and also alarmed that hey focussed immediately not only on my erotica pages EROTICA (ADULTS ONLY) from the main menu, but also specifically on THE LAST TABOO which deals with my state of middle –aged virginity. I found myself quickly challenged in some incredulity and a degree of scepticism by a readership who (in some cases knowing me well for years) was astonished that I could announce this out of the blue (though the article is nearly ten years old).
It’s been some time since people who know me and have such a potential to meet me have seen my more intense soul searching confessional self-expose material. Some thought it was a wind up. A few assume (d) incorrectly that I am gay, and many advised me to find a prostitute (even recommending where to find one). On the whole, the discussion was light-hearted and I didn’t feel confronted or threatened by it at all. It’ll be interesting to see how my friends, old and new, respond when I next walk into Satan’s Hollow.
THURSDAY JANUARY 11th 2007.
More feedback on the Satan’s Hollow Forum http://satanshollow.hardc0re.org.uk/index.php?showforum=1 which has really taken off as word gets round that they have a really strange and amusing story on the threads, (i.e., Mine). Keeping up with the flow of traffic was quite tricky and exhausting. Everyone seemed very nice though.
I sent my CV off to a few firms, and later went to the .FONT - MANCHESTER SCIENCE FICTION GROUP meeting I met with a few FONT folk in FAB Café, which is going through a refurbishment at present, as the bar is being extended. We called from there to Wetherspoons for a meal, and headed to the FONT meeting itself.
One of my friends there lent me some rare Alan Moore comics, of a rather adult nature, so I’ll have to take care with those.
FRIDAY
JANUARY 12th 2007.
The messages on the Satan’s Hollow thread have been much quieter today. I started seriously upgrading my website’s presence on various message boards and newsgroups. My sponsorship links respond to clicks – ironically, it is the erotica pages that are getting the biggest readership and the sponsors won’t touch those.
In the evening, I headed for my regular routine night out in The Fringe Bar to have a few with my re-enactment Regiment friends, and discovered that there is a major beer festival in Manchester next week. Oh dear. That will be expensive.
SATURDAY JANUARY 13th 2007.
A great surprise this morning – I got a prize on the Premium Bonds. I have had bonds since I was about three. My parents thoughtfully, kindly bought some for me. My number just came up after all these years and I got a cheque for £50.00 out of the blue. It’s a shame it wasn’t a bigger win, but it’s better than nothing. Spent the rest of the day online, learning how to add TAGS to my HTML coding, and hopefully that will help to increase my web traffic. I also put Alta Vista Babel Fish on my pages, which means people abroad can translate my work and laugh at my life as well.
SUNDAY
JANUARY 14th 2007.
A quiet day adding web coding to my pages, which is very tedious to do. The evening will involve a trip to FAB though.
Arthur Chappell
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