Grrr.

With the World Cup being on, I'm watching as much footy as I can. Sometimes I'll be doing stuff at the same time, like now for example. Germany vs Curacao is on ITV, and when I do, I watch online. This match is on ITV, so I'm viewing through the ITVX app/website.

It's horrible. I've seen worse user experiences, but not many and not recently.

Looking back.

I thought I'd already posted about this before, but this young lady, Ellie Littlechild, keeps popping up in videos that are suggested to me in my YouTube feed. Not a cause for comment or even posting, but she gives me massive K vibes. It's in that vague, squint and they kinda look alike way and they have a similar figure. Plus, there's also the fact she presents film-related videos, and K was a massive film nerd. She possibly still is.

I can't find any pictures where the young lady above gives me those K vibes, but I'm a visual person, so you get pictures because I can.

Bad Internet

It's been one of those days. My office chair broke late last night, so I've been hunched over my desk, my back killing me. One of my tasks for today was to look at my private health cover and see if I can get my back seen to. I used it for my foot earlier this year, so I'm not sure how much credit is left.

I emailed the chair people and they were quick to reply, but my chair is well out of warranty, so I can't see them helping too much. And I spend so much time in it that I kinda need a new chair as a matter of urgency. My choice was to order a new one from the same people, that might get here at the weekend, or go to Ikea at the weekend for a Markus. I don't find the Markus to be that great, but it would at least be more back support than I currently have.

It took me an hour to order the new chair. Specifically, it took me an hour to pay for the chair. I tried to pay in instalments, denied. I tried another card. Denied. Then Klarna demanded that I scan a passport. I'm not a fan of that, but I need the chair. Nope, that refused to work as well. I went back to the basket and just paid it all upfront. Hurrah. That worked. let's hope they didn't lie about their delivery times and I'll have the chair by the weekend.

Then I went off to register with a gas supplier. The work I've been talking about getting done in the house is an upgrade of my heating system. So my new gas supplier sent a letter with my details and said if I registered an online account, I could do paperless billing, make payments online etc. I'm all for that. I do it for other household bills. But denied again. "We've got your details, but can't create the account. Contact your gas suppliers" FFS. What's going on with the internet this evening that everything is fucked?

So I've managed to be super pro-active this evening but not accomplish anything. 

I need to take a break from the PC because my back is killing me, but I'll be back later to check my private health. 

Grrrr.

For the first time ever, I've done something I thought I would never do. I've actually emailed my MP.

I've asked him to address the UK Online Safety Act. This was brought on by the fact that I've recently been asked for a third time to verify my age/identity with a third verification platform in order to play games.

The thing is, I play games on like 6 different platforms. I listen to music on two platforms. I am an active member of a number of social media sites. I regularly watch videos on YouTube. I am infrequently active on three different online dating applications.

And, yes, I've watched porn. My Jenni Lee and Mindy Main appreciation didn't appear out of thin air. But I do agree that it should be tightened up. However, that's what the age restriction on my ISP should do, right? 

This shit mounts up. Do I want my face or official documents to be potentially hacked? Errr... no.

So, yeah, I emailed my MP. I've distilled it into the below bullet points in case any passers by are interested in emailing their own MPs or want to add to the list about why this implementation is bad for the individual.

• Excessive Data Sharing: The Act pushes ordinary people to hand over sensitive documents or biometric data just to access everyday online services. 
• Conflicts with UK GDPR: Data protection law requires data minimisation, yet this Act forces citizens to share far more personal information than necessary. 
• Multiple Verifications: With no single trusted provider, people would need to repeat the process across platforms like Spotify, Netflix, Steam, and Reddit. 
• Increased Breach Risks: Each extra disclosure raises the chances of leaks, identity theft, or surveillance. 
• History Repeats: Equifax (147m people affected), TalkTalk (150k UK customers), and even the NHS have all suffered major breaches — why expect smaller platforms to fare better? 
• Fraud Opportunities: Scammers will exploit the situation by creating fake verification sites, tricking users into uploading passports and IDs. 
• Vulnerable Groups Targeted: The elderly and less tech-savvy will be the easiest victims of such impersonation scams. 
• Disproportionate Measures: Millions of adults’ privacy will be undermined, while safer and simpler ISP-level parental controls already exist, or should. 
• Chilling Effect: Mandatory ID checks risk discouraging free speech and lawful online activity, conflicting with rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. 
• Unbalanced Approach: The stated aim of child protection is important, but it should not come at the expense of the privacy, security, and freedoms of the entire population.

 And I might be wrong on some of these, but I am just a nerd, I am not a lawyer, so there's a lot of my own interpretation in there. But it's a GREAT email.

And why not have a picture of the aforementioned Jenni Lee while I'm at it, yeah?

Deja Vu.

I'm thinking about buying a new PC, so I am doing a tidy-up of my personal files. As part of this, I was going through some old photos, and I came across the ones I took in April 2005 when I met friends in London from my online hobby. I met USHW for the first time. R appeared as well, which I think surprised a lot of people. Actually, if I recall correctly, R turned up primarily to see me, which was a journey in itself for her. Thankfully, K had disappeared by that stage. I don't think seeing me getting along well with numerous women would have gone down well with her.

Anyway... I wasn't here to post about my reminiscing about a great weekend. It was to post that a blonde woman who was at the same event really reminded me of Chloe. 

Cute

Stumbled across some very nice pictures of Kate Mara earlier, during a particularly boring work meeting.