For the Finns

I have this evening discovered Blogger's stats page, hitherto unknown to me. It tells me 9 page views of my blog have been made from Finland. Hi, Finland! I'm not sure what you're doing here, but welcome all the same. Perhaps you can get together with the 11 page views from Sweden, the 11 from China and the 32 page views from Russia and make some kind of Eurasian Ben's Blog Fan Club. Gotta tell you though Finland, the president of the Eurasian Ben's Blog Fan Club (EBBFC) has to be The Netherlands, because they're all the way up on 87 (Is that all your doing, Lis? Surely not. If it is I really must write more often to justify your dedication).

So, I'm unemployed. It's not the first time, but it is the first time it's happened to me since I took on the mantle of Sole Provider, and also the first time I've been compelled to move in with a set of parents. These are conditions are two that combine to make one feel a bit rubbish when one is up with one's son at 8 on a weekday feeding him a bottle and watching Pokemon, instead of er, sleeping through until 9 when it is time to get up and go to work. Look, the point is not that I'm awake or asleep, the point is that I'm not out providing and so on, and the other point is, has no-one else noticed that Pokemon is basically like dog-fighting? I mean, they get two poor animals and make them fight until one of them can't continue anymore, that's pretty horrible when you think about it. And yet dog-fighting is (rightfully) abhorred and Pokemon is a billion dollar industry (for kids). Go figure.

Anyway, it's a bit arse. And not aided by the fact that we're out in Redwood, where (sorry, Redwood) I feel somewhat cut off from the rest of human society.

You'd think this was going somewhere, wouldn't you, but nope - I just appear to be having a moan.

MOAN.