One Hundred & First : At Least I'll Know About The AIDS

One Hundred & First : At Least I'll Know About The AIDS: "Solidarity to All Those Who Are Doing / Have Done Exmas Recently

I'm not really sure how my exam went. I got in and understood the questions (which is a good sign) but then ended up leaving an hour before anyone else, and had precious little to write in the final question which was worth 25% of the paper. The questions themselves seemed very easy, or at least, answerable but one does not gain many marks for questions. For those interested the questions I chose to answer were :

- Why is the supply of housing said to be extremely price inelastic in the short-term?

- Give two economic arguments why Housing Benefit could increase private sector rents.

- Give three arguments why funding for new social housing should not go to Developers.

- What are the effects of rising building standards on the supply, price and demand of housing?

- What are the main economic reasons for private renting? What are the main economics reasons for being a private landlord? Do these explain the recent increases in buy-to-let?

- Since 1997 the Government have concentrated on improving the physical environment of deprived neighbourhoods. Clarify the economic rationale of such schemes with specific references to examples.

I won't bother boring you with the sorts of things I wrote about, but you can see they're the sorts of questions that someone who had watched the news a couple of times would believe they could blag. Which is pretty much what I did.

After that was over with, I immediately felt relieved but curiously drained of any desire to do anything on the (Friday) night. Which was unfortunate since it was my friends birthday and a trip to Planet Angel was planned. Everyone was planning on pilling, something I definitely didn't fancy. Partially this was because I had taken too much Ritalin that week, but mainly because the last time I took pills I felt like utter shit for the next two days (this in turn because it was the hottest day of the year the next day).

So anyway I went along to Planet Angel not planning on drinking, not planning on pilling. In a club where I generally dislike the music surrounded by people off their tits. A plan with, as far as I could see, only drawbacks.

I have no complaints. It was actually really quite enjoyable and although people's conversational skills were somewhat lacking for obvious reasons I managed to have a good couple of chats with various people. So anyway, it was a good night (although I left early). Felt great to be able to WALK back from a club without it taking hours.

And thus ended my friend's birthday celebrations. But on the subject of his birthday, tangentially I was looking at his birthday card yesterday as it lay in our front room. The card was a 'humorous and cheeky' effort, that is quite common in the UK (I'm not sure if the phenomenon is more widespread than this) which said something like

'Wishing you a big birthday and....'

[...inside...]

'...a Small Hangover!'

The card made me smile as it had a touching drawing of the recipient drawn by his young nephew. It reminded me of similar cards I received when growing up and I had my several dozen surrogate brothers and sisters who celebrated my birthday through the years.

But it got me thinking of the acceptance alcohol has in our culture. It initially occurred to me that the card's concern was misplaced ; it would be better to wish him a small or non-existent come-down. But of course, you're not going to get cards like that. Or at least, not now.

This is a trite and obvious point but I keep returning to the large inconsistencies like this which occur. Anyone who has travelled to Victoria Underground Station will have seen the large number of On-Line Poker adverts which were there by the escaltors recently. I think at one point about 50% of the adverts were dedicated to on-line poker. On one train journey with my girlfriend she noted all four ads on one side were similarly inclined. Just today a friend (who is not usually observant or astute on such matters) asked the question : 'Are on-line poker ads the new cigarette adverts'? An independent headline right there.

But the Victoria ads particularly made me smile as they were of the theme :

'A goal is just a dream with a deadline.'

'To achieve your goals ; don't sleep'

And other such inspirational Zen mottos. This amused not only because of the obviously exploitative nature of the adverts generally (HAVE DREAMS, BUY/USE OUR PRODUCT/SERVICE!), but also the product they're advertising. I briefly considered in a world of totally legalised narcotics what type of ads you might see. 'To achieve your goals ; take amphetamines and don't sleep!' was my initial thought but I'll have to say Olly's 'See the world differently : Take LSD' is the definite prize winner and would definitely beat the Economist's 'Get a new perspective' bullshit.

I'm sure the advertising geniuses which came up with the Poker slogans probably would object to their wares being compared to illegal drugs, but to me the comparison is a no-brainer. Speaking from my own experiences, I have taken various dopamine affecting substances and absolutely none has had even the vaguest effect when compared to the results of gambling. Seriously, a big win / lose will make a line of coke / speed (or the respective crash/come-down) seem like nothing at all. And then on-top of the psychological effect, you'll actually find your life circumstances have altered too. Sure, you may feel like life is coming to an end during an E comedown, but it could actually be if you've lost a bundle on the horses.

This is not to say I think there should be legal restrictions on on-line gambling, or the advertising thereof. Or even that I dislike these things (none of that is true). I just find it amusing (on a very banal level I'll grant you) that a society which broadly supports fairly harsh drug laws happily displays gambling posters where potential users are enticed to 'fulfil their dreams' or have a Party at Party Poker (complete with scantily clad woman of course).

Drug Test

I suppose the advantage of a gambling problem is no test can detect it (yet) which brings me to my other point. I have spent some time recently trying to find out what substances are tested for in standard medical blood and urine tests. The reason for this isn't because the totalitarian menace has finally engulfed Britain but because I have volunteered from some clinical testing.

From the 23rd of June I will be (hopefully) a recipient of Anthrax Vaccine Testing at Guys Hospital, London. I volunteered partially due to humanitarian spirit and partially because I hope to get paid £3.25 in expenses (I'm that broke). Mainly though I thought it'd be a useful way of getting used to / familiarising myself with hospitals, in particular injections.

You see, despite eating crap and abusing my body in various ways I've always been pretty healthy. I've been to hospital twice since I was born and they were both for damaging limbs in the pursuit of violent play. I've never had a blood test to my knowledge, nor a urine test. And I feel mildly unsettled by injections, and I think it's best to confront these sorts of things head on. Also, I've grown to despise obsessions over health more than almost anything else. People who are (unjustly) fearful over their own health tend to annoy me more than most things.

So I volunteered. Apparently I will be helping protect us from terrorist bio warfare. So remember that next time I ask to borrow twenty pence.

Anyway, they said they would do some blood tests which obviously made me worry whether certain things would show up. Apparently according to the various experts I consulted (i.e. asking my friend Richard, and reading Erowid) it seems unlikely. I also get a HIV test which is new for me (although utterly redundant, thankfully).

I shall keep you informed as to my progress. If I die of course then you all must attend my funeral."