(no subject)

[vyvyanx]

Hmm, Friday afternoon I was still feeling ill with a curious viral-type thing, so lurked in G's room most of the day, drinking tea (which cures all ills) and playing UT and Stronghold. In the evening, G went over to GB's place to play Halo etc. on his new Xbox. A bit later, they both came and collected me, and we walked into town to the KSR. Saw GC, DM, KB, EC etc. Talked at some length to KB about Bicon and people we knew. Didn't drink that much as I still felt rather fragile. Afterwards, some people were thinking of going back to GB's place for a bit, and G wanted to, but it seemed like a long walk, I felt ill, and I needed to be in town the next morning, so I persuaded him to come back to college instead.
Saturday morning I got up and faffed on my computer for a while. MCV is back temporarily from vet stuff; we chatted on IRC a bit, and I read his long lj account of cow molestation :-) Also read long and interesting article about the poverty line and how it changes over time in any changing society: http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/povmeas/papers/elastap4.html Then went out to bank and changed Jersey notes for normal notes; also went shopping and got G lychees which I recently discovered he adores. Came back, had bath, felt ill, went back to bed with G.
We got up about 5pm (!) and G was really really hungry due to not getting around to eating anything on Friday. I was quite hungry too. I went back to Sainsbury's and got stuff for a vegetarian fry-up; cooked it; we ate it; G was still hungry so I made him some more :-) Also ate tinned lychees and mangoes - mmm! Then squabbled a bit about what to do that evening - I wanted to go to L's party at House!, which G had agreed to go to ages ago; but G now wanted to go to the KSR instead. Eventually we hit upon the cunning plan of doing both. So, went to KSR where people were sitting downstairs for once. Saw T&K, GB, EB, E, and later, Marcie. In fact, come to think of it, Marcie turned up on Friday night as well, when she came and had rather a curious conversation with me about D, in which she seemed to think I knew something which I wasn't telling her (I didn't). So, yes, people chatted and ate crisps and took photos of each other and rolled enormous roll-ups and that sort of thing. I felt rather left out at first but it was probably just excessive sobriety. MC randomly turned up later with a friend and went upstairs to play pool. I went up and chatted to him briefly, until it was time for us to head off to House!.
L's party was good; saw M&V, MCV, MBM, D, ST etc etc. Discovered that a couple of them _had_ in fact discovered my lj several months ago, when I thought no one was reading it, but never let on :-) I don't mind at all; if I'd wanted to make it really secret I'd have chosen a different username and made entries private etc. In a way it's pleasant to feel I wasn't writing into a void all that time, even though I didn't know it.
G got very drunk but seemed to have a good time, talking quite a bit to D even, and seeming to get on quite well with him. Although House! is only a short distance from G's place, he felt too ill to walk, so I got a taxi back. Then spent strange but delightful few hours talking of things I may describe later...

Comments

P1/HNOP

[kaet.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting article on poverty levels. I was worried in the British section, though, (the only bit Iread closely), that there was an implicit assumption that because P1/HNOP had increaded in real terms that the standards were getting "easier", more things were being included, people were getting away with chosing up-market aternatives, and so on. I think what's actually more likely being reflected is the increased cost of essential goods in real terms (coupled, presumably with a decreased relative cost of luxuries to keep "real terms" real). As many people become much richer and leave the budget brands and as the accompanying political will for cost-impacting regulation increases, I think that the budget brands become more expensive relavtive to other brands. Particularly if a few people become very poor, things could become (relatively) expensive for them, as it no longer becomes in the manufacturers interests to sell a very budget brand and people become more willing to accomodate levies for things like ethical production, product marketing boards, crop diversification, and so on.

Re: P1/HNOP

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I didn't think the article as a whole was trying to argue _against_ poverty measures rising in real terms, or imply that it was due to people getting away with anything - most of it seemed to be trying to demonstrate that poverty researchers have for many years recognised the "income elasticity of the poverty line" - a notion which apparently is little known among current US economists working on poverty. Indeed, in the later section on the social processes behind poverty line changes, the article suggests reasons similar to what you say in your comment: that as society's standard of living rises, things that once were unnecessary luxuries become essential, even for the poor - eg. increased car ownership leading to a reduction of public transport, obliging many people to get cars in order to get to work (maybe more relevant in the States than here!).