Messages

Just not feeling it, the last week or so has just been grinding.  It's a relief the bill got sorted out, but I'm just tired of life to be honest.  This has been the worst Christmas in a long time and there's still new year to go.

Christmas...bah humbug.  This has been an even worse time than usual.  I just don't feel up to going on.  I had a fit the other night which always makes me feel bad.  The house is freezing and I got a minor scare when my power company tried to claim that I had used nearly £400 of heating in a month, turns out THAT was an error on their part, it was £31, not much difference.

I read Scarlet Traces, an interesting book.  Some of the artwork had a Ministry of Space aesthetic about I felt.  Never read it before, indeed, I hadn't heard of it before, but looking forward to book 2.

Wasn't Aquila and Fiends of the Eastern Front already done, and Jaegir for that matter unless there's more to collect.  I'd like any more of Savage that isn't collected to be honest, more Dredd and Hershey.

Now I've got my ex-work at me claiming they overpaid me.  Which considering I still had holiday entitlement I doubt.  They said I owe them £24 and that If I don't pay they'll take it to a 'collection agency that will add charges'

This is a company that claimed to be in the top five great places to work and continually bombarded you with messages full of corporate speak bullshit about how wonderful they were.

Ahahahahaha. It never ends. It'll be like Marvel, going on for years and years.

You know what, though: isn't it bloody amazing that not only could the Dredd collection sustain 90 books, but 2000 AD could sustain *200*? That's a hefty partwork, and the only reason these things continue is because they're viable. Otherwise it would have shut up shop at any one of the jumping-off points.

So: great news. I'm not collecting every issue now, but I'll almost certainly be grabbing several more before this thing ends. And I'm stoked at The Order being included, to finish out that run. Fantastic.

Its not just that...its space.  I had someone say to me that you can never have too many books....they haven't seen my flat. 

Sounds like good stuff, but honestly...ANOTHER 20 books.  Let this be the end please

I've got a big backlog of at least a dozen books to read.  I just haven't had the enthusiasm for general reading lately due to personal and health issues.

As an unhealthily-obsessive Dreddverse completionist, I keep looking at the remaining unknown UC vols hoping they'll have material that's never been, and unlikely to be, collected physically. Though, the rational part of me says there may be a good reason why certain stories have never been collected by this point...

I think I mentioned some time back about the 90s Hershey stories being uncollected.

There's a bunch of DeMarco episodes too, besides those included in the Mega Collection Simping Detective book. I've no idea whether they were well received on release?

Tales from the Black Museum has been released digital-only, and there's a lot there beyond the contents of the MC volume.

If you go older theres the Black Atlantic/Captain Skank stories as well.  That should have provided a nice little tie in to Apocalypse War.

Read Flesh volume 2.  I enjoyed it, but what happened with Carver and his daughter seems to have been left ambiguous.

Does Harlem Heroes Vol 2 have anything that wasn't in the phonebook edition?  My Smiths still doesnt have it in and I'm getting a little anxious

Picked up the lastest Flesh.  Still missing the second Harlem Heroes.  I know Inferno is divisive, but I have the phonebook edition and if I get it on hardback I could give the book to a friend.  I hope I can get it.

I'm looking forward to Flesh, and I had enjoyed both volumes of Button Man, a simple concept, but quite enjoyable and engaging

Well even further down the last couple of days.  As everyone knows, gone are the days there was a jobcentre in most towns.  I had to travel to the local one about 45 minutes bus ride away.  First off the bus was late but a fair bit.  It was bitterly cold despite wearing a T-shirt, Jumper, fleece, scarf, gloves and a heavy winter jacket.  Going to the jobcentre I was constantly out of breath and had a rather worrying chest pain.  Finishing there I decided to pick up a small shopping and then get the bus home.  The blasted bus service was all over the place.  After over an hour of standing in the bitter cold I was ready to collapse, literally.  When I got home I just wanted to curl up and lie down.  So I went to bed, fully clothed and with a hot water bottle and still had shivering all night.

Add to that, recently I had a phone damaged from Tesco and got a replacement.  Due to various things I incurred a £125 charge on it.  This was to be refunded when the damaged unit was refunded, all fair.  So yesterday I thought I had at least a small margin.  The council has taken £110 council tax, for the second time since putting in for UC.  Due to the lack of speed of bureacracy, i just dont know how I can survive.  Christmas is always bad because of the anniversary of my mum taking ill and dying, but this year is going to be worse.

Somethings not right.  I worked a month before being paid, I estimate I still should have had a month's pay or partial pay due.  They say there more deductions than earnings therefore I'm due nothing.  Not to mention I had about three weeks unused paid holiday.

Something isn't right, I think a visit to Citizens Advice might be in order

Depends. Some volumes already go for silly money. Others might sell in runs (such as complete Nikolai Dante). That said, my experience with partworks is it's tricky to get back what you paid (unlike with eg deluxe edition Image books, say).

Strangely enough the Nikolai Dante run is one I wouldn't give up, I had never read a piece of it till the collection.  Slaine, I couldn't really care about and there were some parts that were one or two books I wasn't mad about like Mercy Heights.

Well sorry if that sounded over dramatic, but I really am at the point I don't know what to do..

The UC team say that its possible to get an advance payment, but that puts you into debt right away.  Someone suggested that instead of going to the supermarket I get it home delivered, but I have to book about three days in advance, and there's a £6 delivery charge.

There's the woes of heating.  I'm at the moment sitting with a fleece jacket and a scarf on.  Whoever built these bloody flats obviously thought they would be perfect as iceboxes in the winter.  The time that I was working was meant to be a time of self improvement, a big thing....instead it was the start of a continuous downward spiral.