Mr Omneo Blogs…

Despite a slow start, suddenly it is the end of the week. Perhaps the bank holiday we had on Monday threw things a little, perhaps it was the Salvia I tried, also on Monday, that distorted time or maybe it was the extended glass of wine on Wednesday that resulted in me sleeping late yesterday? Whatever the reason, it feels like a month has passed in a few days and yet it also feels like nothing much has been done.

I think I really need a break, away from work, away from home, away from everything and yet…away from nothing. The reality is work isn’t depressing me, neither is home life (or what passes as it) but for some reason things just feel blah.

Perhaps it was a note from Sarah to say she was getting married in November? That realisation that something you had desired would never now be attainable. Perhaps it was getting back in regular contact with Ashley, who rather helpfully resides just outside Chicago, but who wants me to go over and spend time with her as she has a good feeling about us. True, we have kept in contact for 7 years now but there are a whole host of impracticalities that make anything meaningful next to impossible.

Sometimes it just feels like I want to run away but I have no idea to where. I saw an ad a local paper from a TV company, they were looking for people who were willing to sell everything they own to try and start up their dream life somewhere else. I liked the idea of it but I couldn’t for the life of me imagine what my dream life might be. I wonder why it is I have never had much of an idea as to what I want from life?! I seem to just coast from day-to-day, happy to make it from one day to the next without thinking much further ahead than supper-time.

Oh well, c’est la vie as they say in France and other, enlightened, parts… such as Omneo World

So, MP’s have started the process of making it possible to practise ‘hybrid embryo’ research. There has been a lot of talk about how this is immoral and would create Frankenstein creations. Bah… what a load of nonsense to that I say. The loudest voices against the research have been, unsurprisingly, those from religious groups, always a good source of amusement. I’m not sure of the numbers but with each passing year I’m sure that the ratio of ‘believers‘ vs. ‘non-believers‘ lessens so what gives this minority the right to dictate to the majority the sort of research that should be conducted? I’m sorry, but I would rather take my chances with a scientist who has been conducting some experiments using real cells as opposed to trusting some nit-wit who believes some all singing, all dancing entity just knocked up the solar system and life as we know it in 6 days.

Of course why should we trust MP’s?? Who says they know any more or less? Already we entrust the decision to a random bunch of people who have spent the last year or so trying to hide details of their expenses from the people who actually pay them… UK Taxpayers! These cretins try and invoke some bullshit about how it is an invasion of their privacy to have to reveal what they spend the £26,000 per annum they are ‘entitled‘ to claim from the tax coffers for keeping a second home. Just imagine trying that where you work! “Sorry boss, I can’t give you receipts for the £300 lunch i had as it would be an invasion of my privacy for you to know what I’m eating. So please just shut the fuck up and give me the money!” Can anyone else hear the response of, “You’re FIRED!”?

Anyway, enough of those Frankenstein creations and back to the embryos… I can reveal that pioneering British research has used the new research powers to solve the problem plaguing the Democratic Party in the US. No, I don’t mean they assassinated Hillary! As the photo shows, science is a wonderful thing!

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OK, so I’m a bit late coming to this topic, which most people in the UK are familiar with. The reclassification of marijuana from a class B drug to a class C drug right back to a class B. The theory was that as there were more ‘dangerous’ drugs out there, lowering the class would aid police in focusing their attention of the dealers of the harder stuff and free up the already over crowded prisons.

It wasn’t a re-creation of Dutch law that whilst not legalising the drug, it turned a blind eye to those smoking in designated places (coffee shops). In the UK if you were caught with a very small amount of marijuana you would get a caution. Well, I’m not sure anyone noticed the difference, other than politicians who seemed to think the public had suddenly become hopped up pot-heads, 2 puffs away from a psychotic breakdown, not helped by the story of the chef who killed a girl and had sex with her corpse. The headlines claimed, “I smoked a joint and then went out…I thought she was alive” There you go then, one joint and you can’t tell if a woman is alive or dead whilst you rape her?! Only they forgot to mention he had spent the night drinking vodka, beer and whisky together with some tequila oh and just over a gram of cocaine… but it was the joint that did him in!

The irony is, here in the UK we have ‘celebrities’ snorting coke, smoking crack and of course puffing on a spliff most days of the week, usually documented on the front page of the tabloids, but does anything happen to them? Why of course not! Heroin addict Pete Doherty was up before the judge on numerous occasions but was forever getting one last chance to clean up his act…he didn’t so he was eventually sentenced to a couple of months courtesy of Her Majesty’s Pleasure…he did a couple of weeks and was let loose. So if our laws state you only get 2 weeks for heroin, coke and crack use, all class A drugs by the way. Why on earth are they now reclassifying marijuana to class B with a maximum sentence of 5 years?? Marijuana? Just say NO, smoke crack instead, you’ll get less time in the hole! I hope whoever stated, “The Law Is An Ass” patented the expression, he or she would be minted by now!

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This morning I awoke to the sound of the postman dropping the mail through the letterbox onto the floor. For some reason it sounded as if he was forcing through the entire back catalogue of GQ so I dragged myself out of bed to find 3 miserable looking letters lying there, with a combined weight of about 100grams…go figure!

Amongst those three was one from my landlord, or rather the property management company. The company I rent from is one of those that has about 20 ‘holding’ companies which I assume is to avoid paying as much tax as possible, after all I rent from a good Jewish company!

Now, it has to be said since moving into my current abode in 2003 I’ve heard very little from them, I get the annual letters telling me I am due a gas safety check and an electrical safety check but that’s about it. I spoke to them earlier this year when the washing machine broke down but other than that nothing, which is kinda how I like it. So when I get a letter from them I can only assume it’s bad news, I wasn’t disappointed!

They were writing to advise me that they had just noticed that my lease expired on 1 September 2005 (very observant of them!) and as they assumed I wished to continue they were prepared to renew it for a year… Nothing bad so far huh? Then they named their price.. OUCH! The rent has gone up £980pa or in layman’s terms I’ll be out an extra £81.67per month… I’m hoping that’s really 3 years increases rolled into one as I can’t afford that sort of rise each year!

To be fair, I did consider myself fairly lucky not to have had an increase each year but obviously I wasn’t really going to call them up and ask, “Hey, do you feel like charging me more rent this year?” I’m just wondering if now is a good time to ask them to replace the shitty windows and perhaps re-plaster the front room wall that was damaged by water from the flat above?

I thought I’d drag out an old, slightly obscure (to some) track for you to listen to. It’s by Jefferson Airplane and is called, She Has Funny Cars. You might think it’s a strange title for a song but bear in mind it comes from an album called Surrealistic Pillow and suddenly it doesn’t seem so strange after all. Enjoy it and let me know what you think

You’ve probably heard that expression a million times. OK, perhaps not a million but enough times for it to have stuck in your head. I was watching the latest episode of House last night and it struck me how much I feel I can relate to the character Hugh Lawrie plays, Dr Gregory House. Right, now before anyone asks, I am not a doctor so it’s not an identical match but we are both arrogant, cantankerous, pedants; not that House would ever admit it and we are both loners to a certain extent. During the series you know that House does not want to be alone but he pretends to himself and others that he is alone through choice. Obviously the story line dictates that there has to be the occasional love interest but you also know that if House were to meet a woman willing to put up with him, he would change as a character and change would probably lose viewers which means also a reduction in advertising sponsorship which means it will never happen. House is alone because that’s what people want him to be.

As I lay in bed last night it struck me that I’ve been alone for more of my life than I’ve ever been with anyone, family included. I left home shortly after I turned 17 and this year I will be 37, in those 20 years I’ve never lived with a partner and I’ve been in a ‘relationship‘ for perhaps 12 of those 240 months. It’s a situation I never envisaged. When I was 15 I pictured myself settled at 30 with at least one child, a partner I loved who loved me and the usual trappings of life i.e. mortgage, car and 2 weeks in the sun every summer.

Somewhere along the line it didn’t quite go to plan. I want yet I don’t want. Life feels empty alone, I don’t care what people say about life being fulfilling as a single person, for myself, that contentment only lasts for so long. When I spoke to a friend about this she said, “We look for temporary solutions to fill the void but know it’s not right.” The problem for me is I always felt that the uncertainty of ‘filling’ the void with the ‘wrong’ person scared the shit out of me so rather than settle for a temporary solution I chose to stay single and alone, waiting for that ‘someone’ to come along. The problem is that 20 years have passed me by and I’m starting to forget who it is I’m waiting for!

As I drifted off to sleep my mind raced with thoughts of all those girls I knew before. Girls I could have easily fallen in love with but I never allowed myself to get that far. Some of those girls I still know, most probably have no idea I ever had feelings for them. I remember years ago a girl I was very taken with telling me when I did eventually tell her I liked her as more than a friend that she had no idea I ever felt like that.

Anyway… it’s Friday, it’s the weekend.. let’s all go crazy and what better way to ‘get in the mood’ than with a song? Boys and Girls I give you Incubus and Zee Deveel