What October 2026 Means to Me

We are going through testing times, numerous times there was cross civic hacking campaigns. Fridges throughout France were remotely tampered with causing the food for supply chains to be spoilt. At the same time there was a mass protest against the cost of living in France that spilled over into multiple riots and many vintage buildings from the 18th century were destroyed. 

Towards the end of the month I learnt that the British actor Patrick Stewart Passed away because of Alzheimer disease, when  Alzheimer disease spreads to the brain stem, it can shut down the life support controls of the nerve system and cause the heart to lose control. Patrick Steward played Captain Picard in star trek and Magneto in X men, he  played many other roles. 

As for me, I was coping with an ongoing family health crisis; it's a personal affliction that I won't share on this blog too much. All I will say is I feel frustrated and sad quite often and I don't really have any control over what is happening. I try to keep my chin up and not think too much. 

The retail sector was changing a lot, I saw that Poundland was no longer making a profit and may file for administration in the coming days. A new Smyths Toys store opened in my town and they were giving away small toys for free.   The governments around the world were warning people that they need to store fresh water and food that can last a long time because we may find ourselves in world war 3 or the civic hackers may disable our supply chains causing food to be scarce

Last Day of October

It is the last day of October darkness closes in as time passes by and I come to terms with everything that is happening. 

I talk to machines more than people, that is what is significant about this year. It is clear that I speak to artificial intelligence more than people. I don't hate people, it's just more straightforward to talk to machines. I live in a society where small talk is largely gone; People wear headphones and get annoyed if you interrupt their music. If I chat to a woman, she will think I'm trying to seduce her, if I chat to a man, he'll think I'm trying to sell him something. The ai is neither, a disembodied mind without feelings or judgement. There is no sly malicious intentions in the mind of the machines thus far. I would have more to fear from other human beings. 

Despite everything that is happening, I managed to post a small illustrated magazine, the 4th one so far on my other blog. 

November cheerBus mini booklet . It's not the way I wanted it to be, it was compromised by chaos, a family health crisis. I kept going when I could and tried to make something nice. I hope I can grow a big audience and improve the product every time. 

Flix and Chill

My favourite platform for watching videos on the internet is now netflix because YouTube has been filled up with ai slop. There are loads of videos where the speaking and the person speaking were made by ai. It just feels hollow and lifeless. I still go on YouTube see what computer games are like. 

I watch lots of detective shows and netflix finds more of them for me to watch. I like the mystery and the careful sifting through evidence and the elimination of suspects until they find the guy that did it. I also like the interviews with the whiteness and the relatives. The software knows what I like keeps finding more of it for me to watch. I don't need to make a watch list. 

I could sit there with some snacks and cup of tea or coffee and relax for a little while. 

Gloom Rising

The Gloom rises all around me. Riots in France. A family health crisis, everywhere is full of chaos. I try to be the guy that keeps himself in order. No one notices that I'm there. It was so windy today and a bit cold. 

keep your head straight, keep your chin up. Don't over think things. What else is there to do. 

The place to go

I was thinking about how one could build an office and man-cave under a greenhouse if they had their own garden. No one would notice it is there because it would look like a box table sticking up from inside the greenhouse, they wouldn't see that half of it is sunken below the ground like a partial basement. 

The office could be a tiny box room partitioned on one side of the man-cave and it would be the place I sit quietly and get everything done. At the back of the man cave there would be a kind of bar but it would be a place I keep soft drinks and snacks. There would be a fridge with a clear door so you can see what is in there. There would also be a small heater, the heat would gather in the ceiling and heat up the greenhouse above so the tomato vines would survive the winter. The heat would be used twice, it would heat up the man-cave and seep out into the greenhouse above. 

If possible there would be four recliners in there with a projector that is hooked up to games consoles and a smart TV player. The bar at the back would have the projector and some stools that can swivel around. Up to 8 people could be in there watching a movie on the projector. 

Sunken Office Man-cave

I was thinking if you had your own garden, you could have an office and man-cave in the back yard partially sunken in the ground inside a greenhouse. 

You would dig a square trench that is 1 meter deep and add a wall that is 1 meter above ground and a wooden roof above it. The trench plus the wall adds up to just under 2 meters if you take into account the floor and roof thickness. Above that would be clear plastic panels so you would have a box within a clear box, the inner box would be a man-cave with a projector and recliners and a small partition for a tiny box office. The ceiling of the man-cave would have pot boxes on it to grow tomatoes. It would look more like a table than top portion of a room. 

I was looking at the raspberry pi zero version 2 and noticed it had a 64 bit processor and only half a gig of ram; I laughed because we switched to 64 processors so we could run more than 4 gigabytes of ram. I guess the 64 bit processor is for software compatibility so you can run the same OS system as the more advanced versions of raspberry pi. It is not bad for something that is roughly  £10 in value. You can have full working pc for a tenner. The thing is about the size of a credit card. It could be the  computer I use in the sunken office. 

My imagination never rests. 

Pope Cancer and French Riots

I learnt the other day that the pope had surgery on his left lung to remove some growths. We now know that he had cancer on his left lung, they have caught it early and we don't know yet it it is benign or the type that spreads. Shortly after his surgery he returned to his duties and took part on the Sunday mass shortly after that. He's a brave soul. 

While the Pope was recovering from his lung surgery, there was a riot in France. They caused destruction to several major landmarks. I felt like the far left were hijacking a genuine protest because they hate their country too much. There was a genuine protest for people that want something done about the increased cost of living.