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A quick, cheap haircut

Details: Written by: Rod Boyle; Category: People; Published: 15 February 2018; Hits: 1192

Now a month or so before I'd shaved my head, and was in the position of needing a cheap haircut, the overall grow-in had begun to resemble a bad buzz-cut, it needed some shape.

So off to the barbers, a different one (every time!), the old school signage and location made me think that it'd be a little cheaper than the others, and, really, I didn't need much, a half inch off the sides and a cleaning of the stray hairs...

Downstairs, it's in a basement, a couple of chairs, she beckons me to sit...

I choose the wrong chair, the hairdresser quickly corrects me: "Not THAT chair, that used to be my daughters..."...

And I know now that this is going to be a long cut. Short hair, should be quick, but it isn't.

The story of the chair, she's getting more emotional as she tells it, the picture on the wall, that's her daughter, her problem, the doctor that made things worse, the eventual inadvertent OD, she's waving the scissors, getting mad, madder, the haircut, it goes, I hate this, it's all a bit too much information for a haircut, for a best friend even.

At the end I give her a hug, she's recovered somewhat, this was all too recent for her, too fresh, pay, tip, think about the last 2 Barbers I've been to, I've got to start showing them some loyalty...

Another Valentine's Day Massacre

Details: Written by: Rod Boyle; Category: Rants; Published: 15 February 2018; Hits: 1948

I don't have a TV, I don't watch the news, so I never see how these things unfold.

Helicopter circling, "Live Coverage" - ongoing, second-hand eyewitness reports of the massacre, another disgruntled student inspired by the media coverage of countless other schoolyard shootings just like it. Unbelievable. And before the week is out there will be another copycat killing, for which the networks and grubbing journalists covering it are 110% responsible. It is impossible to see how this news impacts anyone other than the friends and family of the victims, and I seriously doubt any of them would want to learn of this via the news. The "News" - if you believe it - exists only to serve it's own ratings.

For a idea of how the media adversely affects mental health and encourages people to act out on their worst impulses, read Time Magazine on the spike of suicides that followed the publicity of Robin Williams suicide. (Link: http://time.com/5137194/robin-williams-suicide-rate/).

Local news outlets for a long time have not published suicides, aware that they created copycats. That National News agencies can livestream schoolyard shootings with full knowledge of the copycats it will inspire - every schoolyard shooting since the Stockton School Shooting in 1989 can be argued is a copycat, and the blame laid squarely on the media's doorstep. This isn't news, it's first degree murder.