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Monsterism

A project log for Obsidian

Hacking MorningStar

morningstarMorning.Star 05/26/2019 at 08:138 Comments

Mother of Pearl what is wrong with these people?

Typically they sent me this in the Friday post so I got it Saturday morning. Its a habit of theirs, being the antisocial bastards they are. I have had many run-ins with this department over the last few years over benefits and rights, and they have stuck to their guns sacrificing their desk staff to the weight of logic and evidence.

And me of course.

I can get quite truculent with self-important officials, especially those who simply stick to the party line even when presented with their own ass on a plate:

Why is my daughter classed as non-dependent when clearly she is dependent?

Even Igor ruminated this was strange, but regulations are what they are. I remember clearly, its doubtful he does. One of many lies...

14 again. These events kicked off in 2014. What is it with that number? It devolves numerically to 5 (1+4), the same number of years now I've been fighting this, after 14 years raising my children alone.

Yep. Yesterday was the 25th May, the anniversary of the day I signed the tenancy of the house the kids grew up in. Where I learned to hack, where I built AIME and where I discovered myself. Its kind of a birthday - not that I observe it because it upsets me - and I could have done without the fucking council choosing that day of all to land it on me.

Cheers Arun District Council; you're off my Christmas Card List too, you dirty counts.

Its now also the anniversary of my enslavement, and worse, I've been charged 14 grand for the privilege. And now they wish to drag me in front of a magistrate and tax me against regulations in a futile attempt to disguise it.

No human language can render the emotion. I literally do not have any coherent words that come close. I do have a few that emit smoke and sparks and make mortals crap themselves and call the authorities tho.

"Haelp, Haelp! There's a Monstar!"

"Yes Love, try not to piss it off. Really."

I grow weary of this...


A thought just crossed my mind, for those of you who are still wondering why I am pissed off.

Even if I do manage to get what I am owed, and especially if I get compensation too, benefits rules mean that with capital in the bank I am not entitled to benefits.

In other words, I will have to live on the money as income, and care for Bea using it until it is gone, when I reapply for benefits. The entire time I will be unable to work, still enslaved as a carer. The faster I spend it, the faster I reapply.

I am placed under covenants with my tenancy that prevent me from running a business, keeping business vehicles or resources on the property so I cannot even work my way out fairly through self-employment.

Logic dictates I take as much money as I can and get the hack out of Dodge, begin a new life where I'll never have to give it back to the Counts.

Apparently I'm a celebrity now. I'm not keen on it as it means I dont belong to me or Bea any more, I belong to my adoring fans. Except for my ass, which belongs to my critics.

Lucky devils.

Anyway, the Counts arent having it. Like the rest of me its in great condition. ;-p

Discussions

salec wrote 05/26/2019 at 17:41 point

"I am placed under covenants with my tenancy that prevent me from running a business, keeping business vehicles or resources on the property so I cannot even work my way out fairly through self-employment."

Hmm, how about contract gigs, or producing creative content and collecting royalties on them? E.g. You already have enough good material for a novel (admittedly, it is not finished story yet, but us early readers are at the edges of our seats, biting our nails), and writing a book is not "running a business". Any passive income is fair game, I suppose.

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Morning.Star wrote 05/27/2019 at 04:37 point

I had considered taking my crazy life and rewriting it around someone taller, more handsome, more adventurous and slightly less nerdy XD

Thank you, yes. It could take me a year to break the covenants the Counts placed on me and gain my freedom. Writing is intensive, and it might give me some focus in between the anger (which is why I am not working, IRL is just *really* annoying).

As to contract or gig work, there are serious limitations on earnings (that old £20 rule) which ostensibly have been waived (Igor: We'll turn a blind eye unless you start making thousands) but I dont trust them. Entrapment has been a big feature of their campaign and I have had to develop paranoid-level antenna upgrades just to keep up.

They have to get it in writing with management level authorisation before I'll touch it with a bargepole, but the managers have formed a club for amputees to discuss my tactics, so its time for a new strategy anyway. ;-)

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Dr. Cockroach wrote 05/26/2019 at 09:04 point

As you said the other day, this has reached critical mass and is going to explode on them once and for all....

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Morning.Star wrote 05/26/2019 at 14:20 point

I made an interesting discovery, being as I am *really* poor with names.

The Operations Manager for Learning Disability across the county that is Igor's direct supervisor happens to be the same person who was manager of Social Services when the debt was discovered and made the decision to institutionalise Bea and was Igor's boss when he was a just a social worker.

It would have been her last act as manager before she, Igor, and Laura were all promoted out of their positions for successfully containing a potentially disastrous situation.

They made a pressure cooker. <Claps slowly>

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Dr. Cockroach wrote 05/27/2019 at 07:54 point

Yeah, a pressure cooker without a safety valve....

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Morning.Star wrote 05/27/2019 at 15:16 point

Oh I have hacking. And Golfing. :-D If I didnt have hacking there'd be trouble I guess.

Now there's an irony. The smart kid gets bullied and turns to hacking to stay OUT of trouble.

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salec wrote 05/26/2019 at 09:02 point

Just a little check, to avoid being hooked on a technicality ... a war is all about a ruse, so any possibility of a trap needs to be examined.

Previously you mentioned that after last time you came on top of them, you are no longer a carer, but a care manager. Does that change anything wrt this? Are you being paid for the position?

If not, I don't understand what is the point of taking tax from people already living of, and forced to live only of, Income Support, which comes from tax? For that money could stretch its legs, take a little walk around? Give you some, let you look at it and count it, then take some of it back, ... how they even got the idea?

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Morning.Star wrote 05/26/2019 at 14:06 point

Yes well spotted sir.

It is a technicality, as I remained on benefits the entire time and was only titled as a manager. I simply supervised others to do the personal care work that is illegal for me to do.

(And am still doing illegally now. I am now back to waiting for State carers to be engaged having lost both my PAs)

No, there is no point in it, and regulations declare that I dont pay it. Nobody else I'm aware of in my position pays it, and I was only paying it to prevent me becoming aware of the fact the capital existed. It only existed because they screwed up, and when they realised they panicked and tried to pull the plug.

It would have worked, but Bea is stubborn and wouldnt accept it, and I am tough as old boots. It challenged me, pushed me to the edge of reason and in my attempts to vindicate myself of their slanderous attacks became MorningStar the Many-Tentacled - when you push an innocent man he will defend himself with everything he has and I'm no exception.

I couldnt understand what they could have against me, what I could have done to deserve it, so I outed myself - and them - for the world to judge me.

It turns out I did nothing at all, they simply did not want to pay up or be exposed as fraudulent so they pushed me into the jaws of the Machine to be crushed, and unexpectedly I went right through breaking cogs as I went.

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