Still jobless.

My agency had some litter-picking work going but you needed to supply your own steel toe-capped boots. I do not own any steel toe-capped boots, nor can I afford to buy any. (My boyfriend would like to imagine that I possess steel toe-capped boots, and indeed gets quite disappointed when I tell him that I don't.)

"Aha!" you cry. "But under current legislation, your employer must provide you with any necessary proctive gear! They must render unto you a pair of steel toe-capped boots, or face the consequences!"

But I am not an employee, am I? I'm a temp. According to my contract, which is a standard document that varies little from agency to agency, I am self-employed. Therefore all protective kit is my problem, not the client's. Oh, the joys of a flexible labour market!

DIRK, meanwhile, is a sort of auto-po-playing device, which I found on Interconnected. It explores the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, and is strangely soothing.