Seethe

One of the problems, no, the problem about not having a job is that you don't have an income. Income is useful for a variety of humdrum boring purposes, such as paying rent and buying food, but, pinko liberal lefty Commie that I may be, I can't really deny that it is also pretty good to dispose of that disposable portion of your income on stuff. Geek spawn of pop culture and mass communications that I am, I generally like to spend my disposable income on various forms of media. At the moment there are several media items postively demanding to be viewed or owned by me. These include, but are not limited to:

1) A number of shiny new and highly cool sounding PS2 games.
2) World of Warcraft. (It's a good game, I want to play it some more).
2) Samurai Jack and Harvey Birdman on (official) DVD.
3) The new Discworld book (Thud! - the title is pretty average, but never mind).
4) A number of films on in theatres at the moment, particularly Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
5) No less than about 3 Robert Rankin books that seem to have come out recently.
6) The new Supergrass album, Road to Rouen. OK so I already downloaded it to have a listen, but now I really like it (surprise) and crave legitimacy.
7) A new cricket bag. This isn't really media, although I suppose it conveys er, my thighpad to me through itself. It would be extremely handy however, as all 5 or so zips on my old one are broken, making carrying gear along perilous to say the least, and an impossibility on a bicycle.

Clearly worst of all however:

8) Episode III on DVD.

That's right, Episode III is available to buy on DVD, has been for a number of days now, and yet I don't own it. This is a shocking lapse of form on my part, and I'm not sure I can really show my face in any kind of respectable Star Wars nerd gathering or community.

There's nothing quite so good for creating a feeling of total impotence as standing in a store reading the back of a book you would really like to buy, glancing down and realising that the little sticker that says '$23.99' is as good a giant flashing neon sign that reads: COMPLETELY UNOBTAINABLE.

Actually, I take it back, there is, and it's being thirsty, walking past the Coke machine, seeing the '$1.40' and realising the same thing.

I've stopped going into stores. It's too depressing, and there's a limit to the number of times in a week you can consider and then rapidly reject crime as a valid career option.

It's in an effort to alleviate this difficulty (somewhat) that I've started submitting myself to the grim mercies of WINZ again lately, having attended the 'WRK4U' (ecch) seminar on Monday, which is the first step in getting the dole Community Wage Unemployment Benefit. Last time I went to this thing, last year, I said that:

"...with the cunning use of OHPs, they made getting the dole sound like a tortuous process. That to even find the forms, you would need to solve a series of clues, each more fiendish than the last. That once on the dole, you would be a slave to the government, who might start to maybe think about beginning you some money in approximately 7 months time. That once you were recieving money from them, if they saw fit to arrange for your employment at a Siberian, er, husky farm, then you would damned well take that job, or be flayed to death."

This time however some young bloke whipped through it all inside 30 minutes in a friendly manner, which even more amazingly was open to irony. I have found in my occasional dealing with government departments and corporate culture that there is a totally pervasive manner of absolute earnest poker-faced seriousness which seems designed to utterly quash any mere possibilty of a suggestion that there's anything somehow funny or not somehow perfectly natural about the dehumanising way in which they operate, stop laughing, that's subversive. This guy however actually made his presentation while verbally allowing for the possiblity that none of us really wanted to be there. In an amusing fashion. He even skipped over bits that weren't relevant, i.e actually asking everyone in the room if certain situations applied to any of us before he bothered wasting 15 minutes going over the regulations of something totally irrelevant to everyone present by rote, like they normally would. I was pretty astounded, I can tell you.

Last time after the horrible seminar though, I had a really nice lady that sorted out the payments for me really quickly and didn't harass me at all, so hopefully the reverse doesn't apply here. Not sure when my appointment will be, since I rang them up to day to make one and was told their 'appointment booking system' wasn't working. Righto then, ringing up tomorrow it is.

For now though I believe it is time to go and do the dishes. Joy!

UPDATE: Additional and indeed actual joy! Nice one Ben.