Notices by iona 🐝 (iona@social.coop), page 46

@SpacePrincessHolly I know how you feel. Quite often I post something online and then worry myself silly about what people have said in response and don't look for ages...

@SpacePrincessHolly Are you new on Mastodon? If so, welcome :)

@SpacePrincessHolly hi :) you seem nice

@ghost_bird That's if the spam even appears in the letterbox. I got home from a lunchtime visit to the shops and found a pizza flyer literally just dumped on the doorstep

@ghost_bird Nothing good ever appears in the letterbox these days. Fun stuff comes in via email or social media.

The post these days is like the landline - only ever used by people who want to spam you or people who want to give you bad news.

Going out and about during a heatwave, I notice an awful lot more burkas being worn, the type that are being banned in various bigoted Euro countries.

Couldn't possibly be that people are wearing them just to keep cool in the heat and not for some evil religious reason, Daily Mail etc?

@theoutrider The local council do a reasonable job with limited resources under a crap central government regime, but my cashflow is sketchy at present and I always panic that it's a letter saying "your last council tax direct debit didn't go through"

Official looking letters from both the council and the bank arrive today. I just about manage to not have a full blown panic attack while opening them - I'm like Jesus Christ, what's happened?

Council: routine check to see if I am still living on my own and entitled to council tax discount
Bank: we're sending you a new debit card as your current one expires in a couple of months

I wish they wouldn't send such things in grave-looking Bad News envelopes.

@ghost_bird I never went to college or university, which often surprises people because it's sort of assumed everyone my age did!

I don't think I'd go now because the costs are far too high and my impression of it as a place where you learn and grow and meet radical interesting people and question are slightly off the mark. Under Tory governments, universities are always refocused as expensive job-training programmes with the focus on Getting A Job At The End Of It.

Sorry for tangent :)

@ghost_bird Actually, perhaps that's how Grayling is running the Transport ministry. He's mixing up Northern Rail trains with prison buses

@ghost_bird People move between these public bodies seemingly at random, and often for no reason and making no distinction between the two.

I liken it to government ministers chopping and changing between ministries - it's like, you were in charge of Justice until recently, what suddenly makes you the country's #1 authority on Transport?

@medusa Sorry, got confused as Jobcentre is the 'brand name' for the benefits office here

@medusa How does the Jobcentre work if you are in Berlin? Unless you are referring to German benefits and I am just misunderstanding. :)

@rowan Our year to win the World Cup will also be the Year of the Linux Desktop :)

@cute_weeds thank you <3

@bobstechsite You put your site, which in a lot of cases is your business, on some technology which a year later ceases to be the trendy new thing and gets abandoned. It's a pain.

@bobstechsite I am always really wary of anything that's the new hotness, especially with web technologies, because devs seem to want to chop and change everything when a trendy new technology comes along.

That is partly why I still use WP even though it's a bit shit, and Django even though it's not ideal for a lot of stuff. It's been around for a long time with very few breaking changes.

@bobstechsite Crikey, it sounds like it would have been easier to go back to Notepad to make your site

@edsu I can't read that - I have to agree to a bunch of "you agree to waive your GDPR rights" stuff before being allowed to see the text. What is the general gist? :)

@edsu Is it the real Chelsea Manning? Here, it's perfectly legal for people to change their name by deed poll so it appears on the ballot, either for humour (see the Monster Raving Loony Party) or to confuse.