GrantTLC - Blue Chamber - Posts tagged by "".

Posts tagged with "Neighbours"

Urge to Kill....Rising

Sunday, 16. March 2008, 11:24:17

What is it really like to kill another human being? Is it terrible? Are there any repercussions apart from those laid down by human authorities? Christians believe their God proscribes the taking of life: Thou Shalt NOT snuff-out other folks, I think he said. But what if you don't believe in religion? If you don't feel there's any threat to your soul, or even if you have such a nebulous object...?

Is there any penalty then apart from guilt? 'Cos you know...I could probably deal with that...

Let me explain what has prompted this happy line of thought. My house resides in a block of four, arranged like the classical four-pane window frame. I'm bottom left, while the two flats on the upper floor are reached via a central stairwell.

The problem is those neighbours in both the flats above.

I've been in my flat for nearly six years now, and there are two problems that JUST. WON'T. GO. AWAY:

The flat up and across (Top right). The woman in there is, I think, insane, a real life chav-ette with some serious mental problems; she can't have a boyfriend without lots - and I mean LOTS - of screaming matches with that poor unfortunate (although half the time he's just as bad), most often at 3 or 4 in the morning. She's been at it for years, and only recently seems to have managed to ditch the last one, affording us all a sainted measure of blessed peace.
The flat above (Top Left). In six years there have been several people living in this flat; it has been bought and sold many times, and do you know what happens when a new person moves into a new flat? That's right, they DO IT UP. Redecorate. Rip out the old and put in what they want. There's nothing wrong with that; I completely understand that when you buy a new place, you want to make it yours as quickly as possible.

WHAT REALLY PISSES ME OFF, THOUGH, IS WHY THEY CAN'T SPEND A MONTH OR TWO, MAYBE EVEN THREE, GETTING THE WORK DONE THEN RELAX AND ENJOY THE PROPERTY THEY'VE BOUGHT? WHY DO THEY HAVE TO SPEND THE NEXT TWO YEARS HAMMERING AND BANGING AND SAWING AND DRILLING, THEN SELL THE FUCKING PLACE SO A NEW PERSON CAN START ALL OVER AGAIN? AND WHY DOES IT HAVE TO HAPPEN EVERY GODDAM MOTHER-FUCKING WEEKEND WHEN ALL i'M LOOKING FOR IS A LITTLE PEACE AND RELAXATION AFTER A WEEK AT WORK???

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!

It feels like I've been listening to either the screaming or the constant DIY for nearly the entire time I've been living here, and I'm now sick to the back teeth of both. All I have left is my ability to play my music really REALLY loudly, and fantasies of marching up there and shooting them, all of them, through the head (Relax, I'm not armed)(Well...not with a gun, anyway).

What's that line in Moby Dick about if his chest was a cannon, he'd fire his hate-filled heart at them?

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D minus 0.5

Friday, 21. December 2007, 21:27:49

Neighbours, Linux

Yes, yes, I've been writing more of the Dunkeld piece, keep your hair on. You should have something to read tomorrow, although I might now split the piece into two parts. If I throw the several thousand words of it at you all at once I have a feeling you'll all run screaming...

Meanwhile, I've been tinkering with another Linux Distro. Since the Summer I've been happily beavering away with Sabayon, an italian distro I became enamoured with due to its cutting edge package list and ease of use. But there were several problems when I started - such as the printer not working - and it seems to have recently developed several more, a couple of which are growing rather irritating as they are jamming the upgrade process itself. I'm only a beginner in the linux world, so rather than tear my hair out reading lengthy manuals and possibly making things worse I thought I'd have a look around and see what else is happening in Distro-land.

Enter Mandriva.

I downloaded a CD ISO, burned that quick-sharp, and booted up the Live CD for a preliminary look-see. After all this time with Sabayon I didn't think it was possible for Linux to impress me further, but Mandriva did just that. Quick - optimised for Pentium class processors: Easy to use - several clear and very handy control centre options (perfect for Linux novices like me): great sound - the new pulseaudio system played some startlingly clear music for me (Poor old Sabayon struggles in the sound dept, and I don't know how to fix her). It even loaded and configured drivers for my printer without so much as a complaint. The printed test page was a complete delight after all this time of having to boot back into Windows just to print a page of text. No compiz, which is a shame, but then the version I tested is an Alpha version of software being developed for release in spring of next year, which promises all the graphical frippery I could need, bleeding-edge packages across the board and even the first release of the hot new KDE window manager (v4). And can I just say I LOVE how quickly it installs software after all these months of slowly compiling it from source code! Sorry, Sabayon; unless you improve drastically in the next few months I forsee a change of Linux setup in the not-too distant future!

Finally, I just want to say that I've done bloody well today getting work finished and keeping myself awake after my neighbours up and across decided to have a screaming match at 3am that lasted OVER AN HOUR. I lost hours worth of sleep because of them, and have been in a murderous mood all goddam day. But on the bright side I'M NOW ON MY HOLIDAYS - yippee!