A short time ago in a galaxy here 😭

I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if billions of people cried out in sorrow all at once.

#RIPCarrie

A new lazy low

Bruce managed a new low in laziness yesterday: he put some paper on the shredder but was too lazy to push the button that turns it on.

Un-Fucking-Believeable!

Parts of history sliding into the dark ...

Ben Haywards are closing after 105+ years.

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is also closing it's doors, after considerably longer

From The Londonist

From the Telegraph

From the Gruaniad

2016: When Death stalked the land like a big stalky thing

Some notable people who have died so far this year (to be updated as thegrim reaper swings)

Carrie Fisher
Pierre Boulez
David Bowie
Alan Rickman
Glenn Frey
Terry Wogan
Umberto Eco
Jo Cox
George Michael
Harper Lee
George Kennedy
Debbie Reynolds
George Martin
Keith Emerson
Johan Cruyff
Gary Shandling
Zaha Hadid
Cesare Maldini
Prince
Muhammad Ali
Anton Yelchin
Kenny Baker
Jimmy Young
Colin Vearncombe/Black
Dan Haggerty
Ed Stewart
Antony Jay
Carla Lane
Burt Kwouk
Gareth Thomas
Paul Daniels
Cliff Michelmore
Sylvia Anderson
Iain McGaskill
Henry Heimlich
Rick Parfitt
Frank Kelly
Gene Wilder
Arnold Palmer
Shimon Perez
Dario Fo
Pete Burns
Leonard Cohen
Janet Reno
Robert Vaughn
Fidel Castro
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Victoria Wood
Andrew Sachs
Peter Vaughan
Greg Lake
Liz Smith
Caroline Aherne
Ronnie Corbett

And John Lyle.

Stichched up

So the future of PandIS has been sorted: it's closing in 2017!

The head of the ISC had said that it's future wasn't within their remit & kciked it off the agenda. Some how cocksucker-in-chief knobhead Nicholls managed to get it put back on the agenda & forced it through. Craven Bellamy made his 1st visit to PandIS to tell them that they would be closed in July (and ask them not to tell anyone - cunt).

Both Neville & I said there's no point doing GA & July congregations then. If forced to we just do certificate framing & direct all anger etc to Martin & registry. Would mean that the last "full" graduation we'll be present at is May 20th. After that it's not our problem.

Phil feels there will be a break so that they can claim it's not in demand. Which, in turn means that there will be at least 1 year's cohort of students with no record of their 'big' day. When there is a demand (1 year 1 day later) they can appoint Lafayette without any problem.

Neville will be retiring soon anyway but they claim to be able to redeploy Natalie & Mick (no role for Phil though). One problem is that Natalie's skill-set is as a photographer. There's also the location for Mick & his kit: if he moved into Girish's room where does that leave Girish?

The next day, Sue R came in to tell me. Said I knew already. She mentioned moving Natalie to the card office or reception. When I said that there was no point doing summer events she said that Phil had said the same thing and so Martin said well you can close in September instead. As if that helps!

Also, while Phil is paid by the CHEST, Natalie, Mick & Neville are paid from the profits the business makes. Who will be paying their salaries when PandIS shuts and the move to RNB (particularly as UIS/Service Ops are supposed to be saving lots of money & it's going down anyway)?

Then we did the graduation....

Tim Milner (who was on the review committee) didn't know the decision had been made and was pretty angry (according to Phil). Had a bloke from Wolfson (?) who came & saw Phil & was also furious - colleges had apparently been promised in the summer that there would be no changes.

There was shock when I told Karen, Lori etc.

Phil is planning to fight this: looking back in copies of the "Reporter" to see if was established by council, VC or regent house (if so only they have power to disband it). Also going to gather signatures for a 'grace' so can be openly debated rather than snuck through in an obscure committee & off the agenda. He's also saying that it's corrupt.

He's sticking to July date & telling people this.

Don't think a lot of people at RNB know yet: if service that makes money can close then other non-IT/essential services (eg training or printroom) could be next.

Funny: I'll have time to go to steampunk events that I'm usually working on but now I wont have the money to do so.

FFS America!

So it's official: a racist sex-offender will be the next President of the USA.

Some thoughts/posts

• After nearly 5 months as holders of the "Stupidest People on the Planet" title, Britain's reign is over and the title returns to America.

• Well done James Comey: you've made the FBI part of the Republican party and helped prove, once again, that you can't go right to the top if you've got a uterus.

• Of course we should really feel for Trumpf’s aides who now have to figure how to deliver the mad policy bollocks he spewed on the spur of the moment throughout the campaign...

• A black president will hand over to power to a man who was heavily backed by the KKK.
  Satire is officially dead.

• NATO is fucked. If I lived in a Baltic state I'd be learning Russian right now,  in advance of Putin's re-invasion.

• Britain: Brexit is the stupidest, moronic,most self-destructive act a country could undertake.
  America: Hold my drink.

• Being a racist, bigoted, prejudicde, lying sexual predator is still more acceptable than being a woman.

Racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, prejudice, lies and threats are now the official political currency of two formally great nations ...

If only there was a term for a PM who seems to claiming to be both a Nationalist & a Socialist ...

Following May & Rudd's announcement of forcing companies to list all their foreign workers a few thoughts.

I'm wondering if Universities like Cambridge will have to list all their staff who are born outside the UK? That’s going to take ages & will reveal that a lot of staff were born outside this green & septic isle.

Similarly, will football clubs be forced to list all players & staff who were born elsewhere in the world. You know, that place that May & the 3 dunces want to do deals with.

If Theresa May follows through on this dangerous right-wing idea, she’ll need to get a new Foreign Secretary (ie. one who wasn’t born abroad).

Perhaps May & Rudd could issue some sort of coloured badge to non-UK born people. Maybe set up a register of foreigners & issue ID cards & special badges so we all know who they are? That would certainly make identifying them prior to attacking them easier for racists.

In the week we remember the ‘Battle of Cable Street” when fascists were defeated, it’s deeply depressing that their ideas seem to have been taken up by a mainstream party.

All in all, another deeply dangerous think-blurt an lurch to the right from Theresa May's 'Nazty Party'.

UK scientists dropped from EU projects because of post-Brexit funding fears

Oh goody ... It begins.

Still we don't need experts eh Pob!?!

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jul/12/uk-scientists-dropped-from-eu-projects-because-of-post-brexit-funding-fears

In other news ...

Away from the burnt & smoking remains of our EU membership & the Tory/Labour civil war there's loads of shit happening at work.

After Bruce said he wanted the printrom staffed while he was off on holiday (see 'FFS!" 28/06/16) there was a large, political (office kind) argument about me doing the packing of the photos. This is something I've been doing for around 11 years. Bruce knows this too.

The upshot of all the arguing is that I'm not doing them anymore. Phil has had to hire in 2 TES temps to do it, part-time. He's not happy. I'm not happy. But Bruce is happy and that's, apparently, what counts...

I did, as part of this find out that I'm paid from central funds so should be OK when that spaztard window-licker Nicholls* closes PandIS following yet another "review".

I was asked to go over & train my successors. They picked it up quickly but there's bound to be problems as there's a lot to take in in the space of 3.5 hours. One did a coupe of days & handed in his notice as he'd got a better job. Still not my problem!

On the plus side, I can take time off now that I don't have anything to do with photo packing (well at the moment). I can't take time off in July as i) I'm doing a graduation set-up/2 day participation/take-down & ii) Bruce decided (before this all kicked off) to take the last week of July too. He'll be in work for a paltry 50% of July (10 days out of the 20).

I've booked the 1st week in August and 4 days of half-term. Don't think he's noticed either, especially the latter yet.

When he complains I'll just repeat the 'printroom must be staffed' thing back at him and point out that I booked it in early of July (06/07 to be precise).


[* Head of the registry is a sort of anti-Midas as everything he touches turns to fucked-up shit)

Theresa May's in-tray problems & the EU

Having said that "Brexit means Brexit" PM-elect May has an awfully full in-tray. Here's just a few items.

• the markets
• Sterling
• Scotland
• the Irish border
• the Gibraltar border
• the frontier at Calais
• the need to continue compliance with all EU regulations for a free market
• re-issuing passports
• Brits abroad
• EU citizens in Britain
• farming subsidies
• Trident renewel
• HS2 (or scrapping of it)
• Heathrow expansion (or lack of it)
• the mountain of legislation to be torn up and rewritten
• attempting to re-unite her fractured party & then a deeply divided country

And all that is aside from figuring out what the actual fuck "Brexit" is and/or should look like. Alsongside this she has to keep the remaining nations on-side (or at least not piss them off too much) while she sorts stuff out.

She's already said she wont trigger Article 50, probably in early 2017. Understandably, the EU isn't happy about this. At all. Quite reasonably they say if we want out we should invoke the article & start on the 2 year negotiation. Also access to the single market requires obeying the rules which include the free movement of people.

There's already anecdotal evidence that the vote is having impacts (apart from sterling tanking etc):

• banking companies have started opening departments on the continent
• Lush has moved it's new factory to Portugal
• UK Scientists & researchers are saying that they've been told to keep their names off EU-funded research proposals for fear of funding being denied
•  UK Scientists & researchers being asked to step down from projects they are leading
• companies are scaling back or freezing investment decisions, waiting to see what deal emerges

One problem with that is that we don;rt have enough/any trained trade negotiators (having effectively out-sourced this to the EU for the last 40+ years). According;ly we are going to have to hire in people from around Europe & the world (ie immigrants) to help.

What an Eton Mess!

There's lies and there's LIES

During the referendum campaign one of the most scurrilous lies told by the "Leave" side was that we send £350m a week to Brussels which we don't. Farage, Bowel Disease, BlowJob et all all said that money could be spent on the NHS.

They even painted on the side of a fucking huge bus. And posed with said bus.

Of coarse once victory was achieved the actualité was somewhat different. Farahe went on GMTV around 08.00 and admitted that the NHS wasn't going to get £350m. Other's also said that they hadn't specifically promised it and that the sign n the side of the 60 foot bus as just a suggestion.

Not surprisingly many people are rather angry about this. Particularly the twats & smegtards who voted to leave because they are too stupid & believed this obvious bollocks.

Somebody even set up a site to calculate the money that Boris owes http://whatdoesborisowe.co.uk/

Phyrric victory

The folowing appeared in the Independent a few days after the referendum & was shared loads on social media:
------
http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/people-are-really-really-hoping-this-theory-about-david-cameron-and-brexit-is-true--bJhqBql0VZ
------
As the dust settles on the EU referendum battleground, some 33 million voters await with bated breath to see what the victors will do now that the nation has spoken to leave.

Political commentators forecast a dark future for the UK: Jeremy Corbyn has just sacked Hilary Benn to head off a coup, and Boris Johnson could be prime minister come November.

David Cameron’s decision to resign before enacting Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which sets out how a country could leave the EU, may have much bigger implications for Conservative hopefuls eyeing up the Prime Minister's seat than they bargained for.

While panic ensues, one person’s musings in the comments section of the Guardian has an interesting hypothesis on these complications:

If Boris Johnson looked downbeat yesterday, that is because he realises that he has lost.

Perhaps many Brexiters do not realise it yet, but they have actually lost, and it is all down to one man: David Cameron.

With one fell swoop yesterday at 9:15 am, Cameron effectively annulled the referendum result, and simultaneously destroyed the political careers of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and leading Brexiters who cost him so much anguish, not to mention his premiership.

How?

Throughout the campaign, Cameron had repeatedly said that a vote for leave would lead to triggering Article 50 straight away. Whether implicitly or explicitly, the image was clear: he would be giving that notice under Article 50 the morning after a vote to leave. Whether that was scaremongering or not is a bit moot now but, in the midst of the sentimental nautical references of his speech yesterday, he quietly abandoned that position and handed the responsibility over to his successor.

And as the day wore on, the enormity of that step started to sink in: the markets, Sterling, Scotland, the Irish border, the Gibraltar border, the frontier at Calais, the need to continue compliance with all EU regulations for a free market, re-issuing passports, Brits abroad, EU citizens in Britain, the mountain of legislation to be torn up and rewritten ... the list grew and grew.

The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction.

The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the notice under Article 50?

Who will want to have the responsibility of all those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?

Boris Johnson knew this yesterday, when he emerged subdued from his home and was even more subdued at the press conference. He has been out-manoeuvred and check-mated.

If he runs for leadership of the party, and then fails to follow through on triggering Article 50, then he is finished. If he does not run and effectively abandons the field, then he is finished. If he runs, wins and pulls the UK out of the EU, then it will all be over - Scotland will break away, there will be upheaval in Ireland, a recession ... broken trade agreements. Then he is also finished. Boris Johnson knows all of this. When he acts like the dumb blond it is just that: an act.

The Brexit leaders now have a result that they cannot use. For them, leadership of the Tory party has become a poison chalice.

When Boris Johnson said there was no need to trigger Article 50 straight away, what he really meant to say was "never". When Michael Gove went on and on about "informal negotiations" ... why? why not the formal ones straight away? ... he also meant not triggering the formal departure. They both know what a formal demarche would mean: an irreversible step that neither of them is prepared to take.

All that remains is for someone to have the guts to stand up and say that Brexit is unachievable in reality without an enormous amount of pain and destruction, that cannot be borne. And David Cameron has put the onus of making that statement on the heads of the people who led the Brexit campaign.

The comment, which was picked up on Twitter, has been shared thousands of times.

If true, that is some parting gift.

Politics

There's been an almighty upheaval in the world and all because of politics.

It all started with a bunch of tory boneheads. In order to neutralize these spunktrumpets, Cameron promised (and then followed through on) a referendum. He & his gormless chancellor campaigned for "Remain" whilst assorted Nazi's, Putin, Farage, Pob & BlowJob argued for "Leave".

Lots of lies were spread by the "Leave" side, such as the claim that we send £350m a week to Brussels (we don't) and that this could be spent on the NHS.

The prize bellends lost. So, in a way, did the other side (see following post). A LOT of people weren't happy about the result and there was evidence that some had voted for other reasons:

• a protest vote about austerity
• a vote against 'all them immigrants'
• a protest vote against the government 
• becuase they believed the lies about money for the NHS
• so we don't have to be in the European Championships (though, in fairness to that particular thick bitch, Hodgeson's band of twats managed that feat a few days later)

There was a story doing the rounds that the next day the 2 highest google searches were 'What is the EU?' & 'What does Brexit mean?' Places like Cornwall (voted overwhelmingly to leave) started to panic about the imminent loss of EU subsidies. Sunderland (also huge leave vote) suddenly started to panic that car makers Nissan might close the plant & move it elsewhere in the EU to maintain access to the single market.

Probably due to the toxic vitriol spewed out during the campaign, attacks on immigrants and muslims rose sharply (racists seeing their views legitimized?)

Meanwhile, having promised that he'd invoke Article 50 immediately, firing the starting gun on the 2 year leaving process, Dodgy Dave resigned and left the live grenade for somebody else.

It also emerged that the winning side didn't have a plan for leaving the EU. There was some whining that the government should have had 1 but it was pointed out that the government did have a plan - to remain in the EU & it wasn't their job to come up with a plan for the alternative. That was the job for the cunts who won.

Everybody assumed that the new PM would be BlowJob. Until the treacherous Pob stabbed him in the face, dsaying he wasn't fit to be PM & announcing that, despite saying he didn't want it & would be no good at it, he was standing to be PM. Assembled hacks and supporters were stunned when Boris announced he wasn't going to stand.

Amongst all this Mr Toad also quit as leader. Again. The Labour Party, seeing the disarray in the government immediately descended into the kind of in-fighting they specialize in, with attempts to force Jeremy Corbyn out.

Gove was treated like a leper by his party colleagues for a few days but stood anyway. As did May, Fox, Crabb & Leadsome. The last was the "breakout star" (I shit you not, that's what some hack called her) of the leave campaign. Fox was eliminated in the 1st round & Crabb resigned from the race. Gove's act of machiavellian treachery was rewarded with elimination from the race too.

That left Theresa May (front-runner & "reluctant" remainer) v Andrea Leadsom (junior energy minister and total nutjob). what a choice for the 150,000 electorate of Tory members. Which was like choosing to be shot in the face or the groin. Or like Cruella De Vil or Delores Umbridge....

Questions started to emerge about Leadsom's much vaunted experience in the city. It seemed that, far from being a high-flying exec in charge of millions & 100s of staff, she was actually a competent middle manager. One expert on the Baring's collapse (worked on it & wrote a book about experience) said he'd never heard of her. Then it turned out she might actually have been bank-rolled by her brother-in-law via a tax haven.

She was mocked mercialessly on social media for her apparently made-up CV eg I didn't have deal with this when I was a NASA astronaut.

Then people started to look at her stances on gay marriage (against), homosexuality (links to groups that promote "cures") and fox-hunting (wanted ban to be repealed to promote animal welfare).

Then she gave an interview for the Times.

In the now-notorious interview she said that she was better placed to lead Britain out of Europe as she was a mother. She said that she had a 'stake in the future' as she had kids & the May's didn't.

That provoked a MASSIVE shitstorm!

Leadsom accused the journalist of twisting her words & "gutter journalism". She challenged them to provide the transcript, saying she'd never said that. So the Times produced the transcript where she said that. They helpfully also released the audio of her saying that too.

Over the weekend appalled colleagues (and some supporters) were calling for her to apologize & stand down.

While this was all going on the pounds had tanked to lows against the dollar not seen since the 80s and the FTSE100 & FTSE250 had also had billions wiped off their values. Which is odd because Pob had said 'don't trust the experts' that predicted exactly this.

Fast forward to Monday 11/07 and around 11.30 rumours started circulating that Leadsom, having found the criticism, scrutiny & mockery "shattering" was planning to withdraw.

At just after 12 she emerged from a house, preceded by glum supporters like IDS, and read out a letter she'd sent to the 1922 committee chair, Graham Brady saying she was standing down & backing Theresa May for leader.

May herself had not long opened her campaign in Birmingham and was on her way back to London when she heard the news.

Artist's impression of Theresa May receiving the news that she'd won by standing still.

Brady said he'd consult with the board but there wasn't going to re-open the race.

Accordingly Theresa May was now the leader & PM elect.

Dodgy Dave (who had probably been looking forward to a farewell tour & 8 weeks of summer of fun) announced that he'd do 1 more cabinet meeting on Tuesday & 1 more PMQs on Wednesday. Then he'd go to the Queen & resign. She wasn't in London so she had to rip up her diary and get back pronto. Then May would be invited to the Palace to be made the new PM on Wednesday afternoon/evening.

May herself (with husband in tow) came out of the commons the give a quick statement and thank everybody before heading off to start work on her cabinet and what the hell she was going to do with the live bomb that is Brexit.

Also an issue is whether the Union can hold together. Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain, as did Northern Ireland. Scottish 1st Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, immediately said she'd prepare legislation for a 2nd independence referendum. Some politicians in Belfast (both Republican &, surprisingly, Unionist) openly talked about joining the republic to the South to remain in the EU & access the useful grants.

Phew!

Framing

Figures are finally in.

£115k on frames
£18k on college mounts
£133,605 in total

That's 65% of the total £204.7k we took over the 4 days.

We used 736 universal mounts & gave away 187 free teak 10" x 8" frames.

#megabusy #megamental

Genaral Admission Hailstorm

Late Saturday afternoon/evening, as homerton came out there was a massive storm. Heavy rain was swiftly followed by a hailstorm. The sound of the stones hitting the tent was deafening. The hail stones were 8-10mm in diameter and after it had finished it left the lawn looking like it had snowed!

FFS!

At 16.55 on Monday night Bruce said he wanted to take more time off at the end of July (he already has time booked in the weeks I will be involved in the July congregations). I said that it really didn’t matter when he was off as I would be packing photos.

He said that he wanted the printroom to be staffed in his absence. I pointed out that I was not sure how this was going to happen as I can’t work in two places at once. I also pointed out that as the two offices I work in are 2 miles apart I cannot get easily from one to the other at the drop of a hat. He recognised this and suggested I work part-time in both. I said this was "a stupid idea!".

FFS!

Having done & delivered all the leaflets (+ packed 2750 into folders) I got an email from Sue at 15.45 on Friday saying that had a meeting with Natalie & Phil & she wants to make major changes to the forms etc.

Phil did manage to talk her out of unpacking all the folders & re-printing & re-packing. Which is good as 1) don't have enough carbonless sheets & 2) don't have time to do this, given there's only a few weeks before GA starts. Pretty fucking angry about this as could have both included/consulted me and could also have decided this months ago.

Add to the above that Natalie suddenly decided she wanted to re-arrange the lawn forms. Twice.

Then she decided she wanted 500 doing for June after all. Then 1000 for June (which means there'll be 2 types of form for the same thing).

The price of postage is going up in July, which is why Sue wanted to be daft (43% for UK/EU & 50% for elsewhere!) so all the forms that are left over after GA have to be binned. The carbonless forms can't be recycled either.

What a fucking waste!

Off all the time

So Bruce has had all last week off. Now he's having tomorrow afternoon off too (presumably to do something music related).

Talk about extracting the urine!

Deliveries

Took all the printing for GA over to NMS (leaving late) and when got there there was a lorry blocking entrance. they were, slowly, unloading big metal parts (lift frame?). Aent to Downing & came back to find still there. They said they'd be an hour at least. So I got key & trolley while Bruce went round to Free School Lane. Got it all on but - fuck me! - it was as heavy as pulling a load of frames.

Up and down the back stairs 4 times was knackering too!

Got back in time to see paper being delivered. Spent 30 minutes unloading pallet int cupboards etc and Bruce turned up just as I brought the last stuff into the printroom.

x:¬(

#JFT96

27 years it’s taken to nail the lies.

27 years to decide that the 96 are unlawfully killed & that they weren’t to blame.

27 years of fighting for vindication.

At a little after 11am the jury at the Hillsborough inquest delivered their verdicts.

Those responsible: David Duckenfield & South Yorkshire Police should be held to account for killing innocent people and then blaming the corpses for their own incompetence. The lies started even as people were dying and it's lasted for decades. I hope Duckenfield & SYP chief Wright are crapping themselves now that their lies have been exposed yet again, fearing that they will end up in court for killing & then lying about it.

In particular I hope Duckenfield spends a long time in jail (27 years would seem fair), enduring getting his ring smashed in by a big-cocked sadist who hasn't heard of lube.

Every fucking day.

As for Kelvin Mackensie: I hope his genitals get bitten off by rabid rats and then somebody carves "The Truth" on his face with a stanley knife. Alternatively, he's kidnapped, has "Allah fucks children" tattooed on his face and gets a 1-way-trip to Syria.

That aside, this is a day when a gross miscarriage of justice has been undone. 

Shattered

Went to PandIS yesterday PM & got cages sorted. Then Pjil & I took a load of boxes of frames over (sackbarrow for me, trolley for him). The stairs down to the new storage area are narrow & a bit rickety - especially the 3rd one.

Suggested doing another run so went back to get more. Swappaed 'vehicles' and that's where it started to go wrong. That fucker was HEAVY! By the time we'd got to Kings Parade (after going up two slopes) I was already gasping and my legs were screaming. Also started to feel the 1st signs of a hypoglycemic attack* - shaky and sweating. Angle dragging trolley at didn't help: leaning forward meant couldn't get deep breaths in either.

By time had unloaded and got back I was completely done in. Got a bottle of Lucozade isotonic whicjh helped a bit but legs completely had it. Sat down and then got cold as clothes saturated. By the time I got home with Lou was completely done in. If it wasn't for going to Max Piggot's 18th birthday party I would have gone straight to bed.

Stil party was food (only stayed a couple of hours before limped home) and it was really good to see Cath after all her cancer problems.

* symptoms - http://bit.ly/1WJygh4

My Kingdom For A Brain

Had a job come in from Michelle (the one promoted just before the merger/the one who tried to get people to help (ie do) her do the job she was tasked with).

It's  do's & don'ts on internet use.

One instruction says that students/staff must not look at copyrighted material. Which effectively closes off the entire internet (bottom right).

Want to look at BBC content? ... Can't do that!

Read the Guardian? ... Can't do that.

Look at somebodies photos on Facebook? ... Can't do that.

Mentioned this stupidity to Kate, who mentioned it to a bloke who took the poster off to point out that we'll look more than stupid if that goes out. That said, part of me want's it to go out so when the shit hits the fan ...

PS: Added to this is the fact that, after I'd run the job, the woman who brought it down admitted that she'd forgotten to check that it was OK to run for the cost (about £10). As of Monday evening, they are still here.

[Update: after a long arguement it got changed]

An average visit

Bruce

In - 09.50

Out - 12.52

In - 14.12

Out - 14.13

In - 14.15

Out 16.28

Afternoon

BG in at the crack-of-ten.

Nearly said 'Afternoon' as a greeting.

Pointless

So Bruce came in for a meeting at 09.30 and left for an appointment (which me told me about yesterday lunchtime, though I'd heard him mention it on the phone) at Addenbrookes at 10.00.

Hardly worth bothering. Particularly as some arse kept asking the same question in different ways and getting the same answer (AKA going round in circles). What a waste of everybody's valuable time.

There's still no news on the PandIS front.

Oh shit!

Team briefing at lunchtime today and 1 thing to come out of it was the fact that it was announced 29/02/16 that PandIS had to be out of the Cockcroft Building in December and there's nowhere for the unit to go.

There's no space here & in any case the business model relies on being in the city centre.

I'm guessing that with the unit homeless and seemingly no real desire from University to sort it out that PandIS might well be be closed. Taking at least half my job with it.

Bugger!

Tis the end of days!

Bruce actually made it in just after 9am!

Run people! Run for the hills!

Agreed

At long last and after much hassle it's finally been agreed that we can have the Ricoh machines that we first asked for some 18 months to 2 years ago.

Helen came over on Friday afternoon (whilst I was at SH/PandIS) and went through the scoring with Bruce & Sue. Apparently, we'd been a bit generous with the marking so she adjusted the values and got it so that Ricoh's tender was best.

The letter of appointment (plus letters to Minolta & Xerox) have been sent and we are waiting for the contract to be signed and then we can plan the removal of the current kit & the installation of the new stuff. The only problem is my likely unavailability due to the March & April graduations (and Easter).

A chortlesome post on the F365 mailbox

FC Midtjylland v ManU

Dear LVG et al

More copier news.

Sue turned up on Thursday morning and was pretty underwhelmed by Bruce. When pointed out that we don't know if it'll do what we want responded that that shuld have been in the tender document.Sue also dismissed suggestion of stalling the process to go and look at the other machines (as can't get Ricoh to number 1 choice due to cost).

Sue did wonder why Ricoh so expensive & we said that it's because it includes everything and the others don't.

We filled in the spreadsheet & sent it off with a moaning email. Maybe we'll get the Xerox Versant 80 which looks like a good machine anyway.

Update:

Hardly worth the effort

10.10 and still no sign of McCavity (though he did email at 09.45 to say he was running late. Probably wiping one of his kid's bums for them).

Finally appeared at 10.15.

A copier, a copier etc

So having been told on numerous occasions it seems that BG is stilltrying to fix things for Ricoh.

Having spent hours rating the submissions & fiddling with the totals managed to get Ricoh to be the top rated submission. Sent off to Helen Stukely who came back with a number of points:

• if matches the criteria must have the same scores
• can only judge on the bid submission & not on previous experience (buggers up Ricoh bid)
• any comments are supposed to debrief the companies tendering not to justify why want stuff

She seems to be pushing Konika Minolta for some reason of her own. When I told this to Kate on Tuesday she went librarian poo. She said she wont have it but I doubt it's her choice!

When I told BG what Helen had said he started moaning again ... 'She might as well fill it in herself and leave us alone..." + "We'll withdraw the tender & stick with what we've got..."

Not sure we'd be allowed to do the latter.

And another part of my job disappears through no fault of my own. Time to update the CV and start looking for another job methinks before I get completely shafted by Bruce's childish refusal to contemplate anything different to what he wants.

Or I'll wait until the make me redundant & take the money!

And so it goes on (more "We'll stick with what we have/have a strait replacement/she might as well fill it in herself...")

FFS!

Thursday AM

Job in from Megan but i was busy doing badge artwork for student customer so said I'd do it later. When Bruce came in at 09.53 I asked him to do it & went back to work on the badges. He vanished so I assumed he'd done the proof and taken it over.

Friday AM

Megan asked where the job was. I asked Bruce. It turns out he hadn't done it (he read my name on the email & assumed I'd done it, despite me asking)!

Maybe if you weren't spending weeks & weeks on your son's album release you might actually be able to i) pay attention & ii) do the job you actually get fucking pad to do!

Large format printing

For several weeks MacCavity has been talking about getting a large-format printer for the printoom (though god alone knows where he intended to put it).

I kept pointing out that this would impact on PandIS and that Phil would be very unhappy at having business taken off him.

Response was that it would be useful as there's often people in department who need large prints in a hurry.*

Eventually he talked too Sue who firmly rejected the very idea!

* Serve them right for not pulling their finger out of their poop-chute and getting it done earlier.

University 'planning'

Roumours  that the Registry want to create/have their own computing service.

To put it another way, having forced the UCS & MISD to merge, they now want to create a new version of MISD.

As usual, a fucking stupid huge waste of money.

Next time Cambridge University pleads poverty remember that they may be guilty of dissimulation.

Vanishing act No 3398188484

The stores are 90 seconds walk from the printroom.

So where the fuck have you been for that 15-20 minutes?

Farewell

To Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke.

Words like 'legend' and 'genius' are bandied about too often nowadays but in the case of David Bowie they are entirely appropriate.

We shall NOT see his like again, but we DID see him. We were the ones lucky enough to share the world with David Bowie.

The future envies us

RIP David Bowie.

Roy Batty activation date

Roy Batty was 'born' on this day (08/01/2016).

In his short life, he saw amazing things.

Children

Bruce called at just after 9am to say that he'd be in late as he was dropping his kids off at the station & the dentist.

Because, apparently, they can't use a bus.

#standard

Back to work