Ralph’s Place

I’d say I can see a rant coming up, but really I’m just throwing a few pennies into the fray.

IVF treatment is a privilidge, not a right. FACT. If your doctor agrees that it is suitable for you, then you get it free on the NHS. If not, and you still want to go ahead with it, you pay for it. Simple, no?

Should obese women be able to get IVF on the NHS? No. Why? Well, besides the fact that experts believe they would be at increased risk of health problems, the baby not being healthy or just not getting pregnant at all (all at the cost of thousands to the NHS), the fact that they apparently can’t look after their own health (except of course if they’re obese for reasons out of their control, such as a genetic disorder) doesn’t exactly bode well for them looking after the health of a child.

Harsh? Well probably yes. But seriously, obesity is a real problem in the UK! It’s already putting a strain on NHS resources to treat it’s related health problems, and now I’m hearing that people want the NHS to spend more money potentially putting these people at more risk, so more money can be spent treating them afterwards! What a mess, and all because (in the majority of cases) people just can’t look after themselves… by eating properly and taking a bit of exercise now and then. (And of course if the government tries to do anything to ensure people live healthier lives, like ban smoking or seriously unhealthy foods, everyone screams “Nanny state” before going on to say it’s their right to eat and do what they want… how fucked up is that!? - tbh, I’d be tempted to say “fine, but pay for your own healthcare when it all comes back to bite you in the ass” tangent…)

So yeah, that did turn into a bit of a rant, but the general public really do piss me off sometimes…

Note: Apologies if I’ve offended anyone, I know in some cases there are exceptional circumstances and these should always be considered on their own merits (in relation to my rant on NHS strain and lifestyles at least, re: IVF, I stand by my views that obese women should not receive IVF on the NHS)
Also, big post coming soon about Reading! As soon as I get the net working in the new flat!

Nothing’s ever simple… is it?

Don’t worry I’m not about to break into song Just reflecting on what should’ve been a straightforward task for today, that unfortunately strayed off course from the word go, when the “17MB” installer file reached over 70MB and counting at 15KB/Sec. A switch of proxy and a lunch break later, a 388MB beast was ready to go… the day kinda continued a bit like that. Finally wrapped up around 8pm… oh well, could’ve been worse I guess.

Off work now til next Tuesday now tho First tomorrow to help me get sorted to move house (buy essentials etc!), then Reading Festival Thurs-Sun… back to that in a sec… then bank holiday Monday to move the most of my stuff (thanks Mark for the car!).

Reading! The tickets arrived last week and the excitement is brewing. Muse, The Kooks, Feeder, Dirty Pretty Things, Arctic Monkeys and The Raconteurs are just a few of the bands playing and the weather is set to be…. wet lol. Last week MetCheck was saying up to 10mm every day, now we’re looking at a downpour just before we pitch our tent, then another on Sunday, just before we pack up our tent, with light and occasional showers inbetween. Who cares…. gonna be awesome!

More on the new flat next week btw, along with pics and stories from the mud bath

Don’t arrive home pissed when there’s a poker game going on. You’ll only end up borrowing quite a bit of cash before going all in on 8D 4D praying to see 3 diamonds on the table. The fact that it came to the last card will give you undue justification for a truly poor decision.

*sigh*

Morning realisation: Wasn’t actually the worst decision, pre flop the odds were reasonably in my favour. Oh well, fun night

A new mini-project is in the making. Plans are being laid and designs starting to go down on paper. Could very well see changes in the next few weeks! Whether they’ll work or not is another matter… it’s no small change

In other news, site was hacked last night and so the main page was down most of this morning. All fixed now I hope (they appeared to just swap any file with “index” in the filename with their own contents gloating about the hack) but if you spot anything not working quite right please let me know!

More to come soon…

Ditched the last post on the basis that, a. I can’t be bothered to bitch about IE - it’s far too easy anyway, and b. I finally (with a bit of help from Mr Mayer and a JavaScript library) managed to get the menu to look ok.

So anyway… can’t believe I forgot to mention the Beer Festival at the weekend! More beer than you could ever drink under one roof… or could you?

Yes that’s right, the Great British Beer Festival, ran out of beer! The event was so popular that by midday on Friday they had already topped their best ever attendance, and by around 4pm on the Saturday, they’d run out of beer completely! Still a great day though… tried a few really nice ales from around the country that I’d never heard of, including “Ambeardextrous”, “Top Totty” and a beer to finish off anyone’s night… “Zonked”. Top stuff