What April 2023 means to me

April 2023 started off as a typical April, lots of little spring time storms plus a mixture of hot and cold spells. The days were getting longer and in the middle of the month it was my son's 4th birthday. 

A civil war broke out in Sudan. Sudan is a country in East Africa that sits next to Egypt on the coast of the red sea opposite Saudi Arabia. They have a long history of military coups and civil wars unfortunately. I wish them a peaceful future. I think it was the paramilitary fighting the standard military. Two different military groups were fighting for control of government infrastructure, airports, central banks and ports. 

Towards the end of April I learned that Tucker Carlson was suspended from the fox news network. His removal from the show seemed to be a reaction to his speech he gave during the weekend before he was fired. He wants people to pray more and thinks abortions as a whole are evil and things like that. 

A few things were overlooked, they tested a new emergency alert system here in the UK but it didn't work properly, in my experience when that happens it's because the government were approaching friends or family for the contract. They possibly weren't using public bidding. When a government needs special hardware or services, they should allow private companies to bid for the contract and somehow prove they're competent. Not just approach a friend or family with connections. I'm not saying that is the truth though, only that government project failures are usually down to that. 

The other thing I noticed is many autocratic nations are banding together to share resources and currencies. They're trying to create an alternative market to the west. They're creating an eastern resource trading and power center. Perhaps the dollar will no longer be a global reserve currency in the near future. 

Brandon Robertson

A preacher called Brandon Robertson claims Jesus was racist because there was a scripture where he called a non Jewish woman a dog, in the original text it says puppy. 

In the ancient times, there were many phrases like "don't give to puppies what was intended for the children" and things like that. It wasn't racist to say that to another person in those days because they knew you weren't calling them a dog but trying to emphasise that you have priorities. When Jesus said that to the gentile woman he was trying to explain that he has a mission with the Jews first. 

I think that Brandon Robertson should stop calling the Jesus Racist, it is wrong. 

We have idiomatic phrases here in the UK also like 'don't throw the baby out with the bath water'.  This phase has nothing to do with bath water or babies, it is just a phrase. It means don't reject everything from a failure only the useless things. There are still some good things that can be salvaged from a bad thing. If someone from 2 thousand years in the future was reading our literature, they would think we're all child abusers, that we need to be reminded not to throw babies out with dirty water. Another example is "Bear in mind". It doesn't mean to keep a  bear in your brain, it means to be considerate. You see why there is a problem here. 

If Jesus was racist he wouldn't ask his disciples to go out to all nations and tell them the good news after his resurrection.

Tucker Turn

Earlier in the week on Monday I learned that Tucker Carlson was fired from his job as journalist and presenter for the fox news network. I don't think it was Rupert Murdoch's decision to fire him, I think it was the two directors he appointed in charge of Fox news. They seemed to fire him as a reaction of him giving a heart felt speech over the weekend at a conference. He was expressing his veiws on prayer and how abortions were destructive and things like that. 

The thing that concerned me was the reaction of other media and politicians in America. In my view, celebrating the deplatforming of a journalist is a form of fascism. They were forcing a person out of work because he had a view that didn't conform to theirs. If you try to get people fired from their job because they have a point of view you don't like, that makes you a fascist. It is similar to forcing people to burn books that contradicted the natzi party manifesto in 1930s germany. A politician should remain neutral when a journalist loses their job, they should be impartial. They shouldn't be celebrating or encouraging it, that is wrong! It is true fascism. Having a veiw that is not left wing isn't fascism. People are so confused. Fascism is silencing everyone that doesn't conform to your world view with violence or sanctions; using fear and intimidation to control what people say. 

The irony is that fox news is suffering because their viewer numbers have dropped dramatically so they actually hurt themselves. He posted a video on twitter and it had more views than all the videos shown on the fox news platform all together. If he doesn't do something bad, Tucker Carlson is a made man, he can get a better job or plaform for his journalism very easily. I could become a media platform's front man like Joe Rogan is for Spotify. Or he could be like Donald Trump and launch his own platform, truth social. It will be interesting to see what Tucker Carlson will do. 

Stuff Happens

I have nothing personal against Elon musk but if I was an astronaut, I would refuse to get on a space X rocket. I didn't like the way it exploded, if I was on that thing, they would be lucky to find my skeleton. I would wait a while for them to get the bugs out of the design. The other thing that happened is the UK tested the emergency alert system, I never got the message, if it was a tsunami or something like that, I would have been swept away. 

All I could do is hang on to those happy thoughts that keep me going when life feels tough. Creating a space in large windowless room with hidden compartments. A place just for liesure where the world outside doesn't exist for a while. 

Little spurts of thoughts that lift me up a bit. My brother brought his oculus vr to my son's 4th birthday party and I played golf in my back yard. That was very nice because there was a gentle breeze outside so it felt like the breeze was coming from the virtual golf course. 

Happy Zone lives on

One of the most common questions I get asked these days is why there is a bar in my sitting room. The answer is it is a sapling of my man-cave, a windowless room where I would forget the world exists. I sit in my bar for about 20 minutes every day and imagine that the rest of the world no longer exists, just the small space I'm sitting in. It is a little bubble world I go to when I need time-out. 

If the can-cave were completed, it would be a large windowless room but it would have a fake wall and fake windows that partition a smaller room; let me explain. 

On one side of the room would be a bar, in the middle of the room would be game tables like pool table and football table. At the other end of the room would be fake windows with 4 recliner chairs, a roller blind would come down Infront of the fake windows and a projector would project a games console image onto the roller blind for the fake windows. Next to the fake windows would be a fake cupboard, it is actually a doorway to the room behind the fake windows. A metallic blue walled small room with 4 pods for walking in virtual reality and it would also have a single row of cinema seats so a group of people can watch a film projected on the wall. 

The whole place is a little world with one extra rule, don't discuss the outside world. When you're in the happy zone the rest of the world doesn't exist. Just be a happy little kid for a little while. 

Coronation thought

For a short time I thought of king Charles as the  king of spades because I always saw him planting trees when he was the prince of Wales; he would be digging a hole in the ground and putting a small tree there. The emblem of the king of spades is shaped like a leaf as well. 

Imagine having a conjoined twin like that. He would say "One must do a poop" and the one guy would say no "two must do a poop". The conjoined twin would be like a special adviser to the king. How's it hanging special adviser? I haven't played any card games for a long time, except on my phone. I have solitaire type games on there. 

The other thought I had was if I would want to go on a space X rocket if I was an astronaut. Those things seem to explode all the time. I would say no for now. 

Last third of April

It's the last third of April, the last 10 days. I was thinking about all the thoughts that give me comfort, like a little boat in the ocean that refuses to take water on board. Trying my best to make every day count. 

To keep your mind steady, just let your imagination take you to places and try to create things all the time. Lots of thought experiments, none of them have to work, that's fine because they stay put. They displace all the hostile thoughts. 

In my little world it doesn't matter if no one likes you or listens to you, all that matters is your thoughts cycle through and keep moving along. That's it.

I know that so many people all around me have lost the ability to restrain their emotions, they have angry outbursts and drive their cars aggressively but I'm just a boat that keeps all the troubled waters out. 

Fresh Day

Jacob, my son. 

You're 4 years old now, the issues that are present now are we're dealing with high inflation. Some of it was caused by the pandemic, some of it was unnecessary. Some of the inflation here in the UK was caused by Lis Truss, she cut higher taxes without adjusting public spending, this forced the banks to print money, the technical term is quantative easing. The other cause of high inflation was sanctions against Russia because of their invasion of Ukraine. 

When I was a child, I remember the prime minister John Major privatised the railways and Margret Thatcher thought it was a bad idea, she thought private companies would try to shut down non profit making routes and would fail to make any long term investments in the networks improvement. Margret Thatcher privatised many publicly owned companies but she thought it would be daft to privatise the railways. She was right. 

From the start of the '90s till today the railways have drifted away from the rest of Europe's standards, British Railways are now the slowest, most unreliable and expensive to use in western Europe. The operators won't invest in technologies like trains that can run on two different types of power systems, it is cheaper to just have a diesel train so that is what many rail operators do, they use the cheapest fix so they can maximize profit and they don't get much competitive pressure because the other operators are in another area. I think the only exception I'm aware of is Thameslink, they bought trains that can run on both overhead power lines and 3rd rail, they can switch between the two so they made sure all their trains can run fully electric. They also have digital signalling systems and things like that. 

Coronation day plan

The Coronation of King Charles the 3rd will be on Saturday the 6th of April I believe. It will be in London. If I was visiting London from another city or country, I would consider all the things I could do during my stay. If I lived in a city is that was far from the ocean, I would consider taking a day trip to Southend on sea, it is the closest coastal town to London and takes about 1 hour from 'West Ham' train station on the C2c train network.  There is lots of things to do there, there is the largest pleasure pier in the world, adventure golf, an amusement park, sea front cafès, arcades and even an aquarium. Did I mention the pleasure pier is so long, it has its own railway, that's not a joke. 

The other coastal town you could visit could be Brighton, it is further away but it takes about the same time to get there because the Thameslink railway have class 700 type trains. I'm a fan of the Thameslink railway, they pushed the limited infrastructure as far as it would go and made sure all their trains could trump the speed caps on all the rails. They must have poured a lot of investment into the franchise because they have a huge operation zone, you need a lot of rollstock to pull that off, all their trains are overhead power high speed electric class 700 type trains, robust and reliable and fast. There are several stations you can get a Thameslink from, Farringdon, London Bridge, Black friars. 

If you just want to enjoy London then I would recommend walking along the Thames (🗣️Tems) river. Most the important places are around there. There are also two large amusement parks in London 'Chessington world of Adventures' in the south and 'Thorpe park' on the western edge, they're not straightforward to get to without a car unfortunately. I think there is a shuttle bus from 'Stains' train station to Thorpe Park. You could get an Uber from Chessington South train station or walk it from there. 

Sudan Civil War

This week tensions between the Sudan Military and Paramilitary fighters has escalated into a civil war. The iconic image we have of the start of the civil war was was a news presenter trying to calm everyone down and stay orderly but being interrupted by gun fire sounds. 

I think the cause of the war was the internet and social media. Back in 2011, there were rebellions breaking out in dictatorships throughout  north Africa , the term 'Arab Spring' was coined by the British news media. What happened was there was rebellions in one nation and nations nearby saw the rebellions on social media and thought it was a good idea because they want to have democracy. Many nations were inspired to rise up against their government. This wave of rebellion spread all the way to Sudan I think. Sudan has had several coups since then. Now it is the military and Paramilitary forces fighting eachother. They both want to have full control of government buildings and international airports.  

Getting About Southend

If I wanted to go to coastal town of Southend, I would take and c2c train from 'west ham' train station because the station intersects with several other train lines, Jubilee, District and Hammersmith & city lines, I would carefully use intersecting stations that share the same platform for convenience to get to west ham station; Southend-on-Sea has been reclassified as a city recently. 

If you're a tourist visiting from an area that isn't near the coast its worth doing. I recently discovered that the new the Elisabeth line intersects with a c2c train station, Stratford on the Jubilee line. That is quite useful to know. If you're close to the Elizabeth line, you could go to Stratford instead of west Ham and get the train from there. 

I still prefer 'West Ham' myself because the station is quite compact and easy to get to. You can get to 'West Ham' Station by taking a Jubilee train or district train, or even Hammersmith & City Train. I think even the DLR goes there. 

2nd Third of April

It is the Second third of April, my Son's birthday is days away and the weather is a lot warmer now. The second third of of this month started on the 11th because I mentally divide up the month into three 10 day blocks. April was filled with lots of thoughts, lots of comforting thoughts. I am a little world filled with machines that don't work hidden behind a poker face, a boat heading  for placid waters. If I'm happy, Sad, Angry or excited, nobody will know because my little world is hidden. I'm a valley filled with thoughts. 

I was playing on my Sega mega drive emulator last night.  I think the game was called light crusader, lots of dungeons and puzzles. I always try to pull myself in a balanced routine, lots of work and lots of leisure. If you feel like you're wasting your life when you're playing computer games then why not play language class audio so you learn a language at the same time? 

Trump on Trial

I learned earlier in the week that the former president of the USA, Donald Trump had been summoned to court to defend himself against numerous accusations of different types of fraud. 

There was a long list of accusations ranging from his handling of public funds to altering business records. I think the American supreme court is suspicious of him committing fraud or embezzling public money. 

I make an effort not have an opinion about politicians. I tend to favour the Republican party because they don't want to increase the abortion window into the 3rd trimester and they support the police force and things like that but generally I don't really have much of a view. It doesn't matter because I'm British anyway, it has nothing to do with me. 

Easter

It was Easter Yesterday. I tried to think of nothing. Just imagined sitting on a small boat heading up a river in the wilderness. 

The boat would go as far as possible until the river is just a stream in a marsh, barely wider than the boat itself. Then you would turn around and let the flowing water slowly carry you back out to sea. The last 3 days have been the first days when it was comfortable to go outside and sit down. It was still a bit cold outside but it was very hot in direct sunlight. 

I thought about Jesus quite often because easter is the celebration  of the resurrection of Jesus. I wondered what his voice sounds like. I wondered if he was the one that wrestled with Jacob when he thought his brother was trying to get him. 

Happy simple thoughts, waking up early in the morning and breathing fresh air from outside. I imagined living in a boat that grows it's own food. Lots of fruits all around. Lots of cherry tomatoes and peppers. 

Easter Thoughts

It's good Friday tomorrow. Good Friday is a commemoration of the death of Jesus, he laid down his own life to make a way for people to have everlasting life. In this world, most people can't even lay down a simple greeting but Jesus lay down his life so he could stand in our place. He was resurrected on a Sunday. 

I had those thoughts in my head mixed together with other thoughts. I was thinking about the easiest way to work out percentages. If they take 15% away from the price, I think to myself that 100 -15 is 85. If they move the decimal place to the front of the result you get 0.85. You can then use that number as a constant on your calculater. 15% off £2 = 2 × 0.85 = £1.70. If I want to add the percent I just move the decimal place forward two places and add 1. 

£2 + 15% = 2 × 1.15 = £2.30. That is the easiest way to work out percentages in my view. That is how I use my calculator most often. 

Another thought I had was to go on Google Maps and poke the train stations with my finger to see a list of the all the destinations of the trains. I wanted to see if any of the nearby train stations have trains that are heading somewhere interesting. On Google maps, when you click on train stations and bus stations, you get a real-time transport table showing when the vehicle is coming and where they're going to. I also used Google maps to see if there was a short cut, a short way to get about. None of the train stations where I live take you directly to the coast as far as I know. You would need to make more than one stops at hub stations to do that. 

Clay pots and Ovens

Here in Britain we use ovens to cook most of our food. Most of our food is baked or roasted. I really like the way some ovens are fan assisted. The fan moves the air around so all 3 of the shelves are the same temperature. If I set the cooking heat to 150°c, I know that all three of the shelves will be that temperature because the thermostat is in the top of the oven. 

If I turn off the fan assistance, I know only the top shelf will be 150°c, the lower shelves will be a bit cooler; I think some fans in assisted ovens aren't even electric, they have their own sterling engin. 

I like to use clay pots with lids, you can put vegetables in the clay pot without any water and they'll get steamed by their own water content; steamed veg tastes delicious with gravy. I recall that you can get about 9 full sized clay pots into an oven, 3 on each shelf. You can also bake pasta in a clay pot if you use pasta bake sauce. 

When the oven his reached the target temperature, the flame at the bottom bips down to about the size of the smallest hob flame; you are cooking 9 items on a tiny flame, or dipped heating element if the oven is electric. 

Alan Clock

I thought I would have a go at designing a clock face. I drew it by hand using small plates and cups to get the circles perfect. If I designed it on computer it would look a lot better. 

The outside edge of the clock face shows the increments of minutes. When I look at a hand clock, I look at what hour the minute hand is pointing at and multiply it by 10 then divide it by 2. For example 5 X 10 = 50,÷ 2 = 25; so when the minute hand points at the 5th hour I automatically know it is 25 minutes past because I move the decimal place over in my head so 5 becomes 50. 

6 becomes ,60, 60 ÷2 is 30 minutes. 

The Green part of my clock divides the hour into thirds. One third of an hour is 20 minutes (minute hand at 4) Two thirds of an hour is 40 minutes (minute hand at 8)Then 60 minutes is the whole hour.  Thirds of an hour are relevant to me because I divide time up into thirds. I even try to divide the month up into 10 day blocks in my head, but it doesn't work out quite right because some months have 31 days and February has 28 or 29 on a leap year. The 31st of every long month is treated as an extra day. So the 3rd Alan-week sometimes has 11 days on February it is 8 days. Close enough 😊 Don't worry though, it's just an Alan thing. 

The outside edge of the blue part of the clock shows 24 hour time, 13 at 1pm 14 at 2pm and so on. The blue part of the clock is also divided up into quarters so after 15 minutes, one quarter of an hour has passed (minute hand at 3) and half an hour at 6 and so on.  Then quarter to the next hour (minute hand at 9). 

What March 2023 Means To Me

Throughout this march, everything about spring occured close together. All the spring flowers emerged, Daffodils, Daisies, Dandelions, Buttcups, Tree Blossom. Then we had a few warm snaps where the temperature rose above 2 digits during the day. Finally we had the spring equinox where the day and night are both equal in length followed by the clocks going forward. I often thought about DNA because it is shaped like a spring. I thought to myself there are 46 long strands of DNA in our cell's nucleus. When they're not folded up into chromosomes, molecular protein machines interact with them and carryout instructions encoded. I thought to myself that twice the age of the whole universe isn't long enough for cellular life to emerge by chance because all the many protein machines inside the cell would need to form at the same time and in the same place and then their code would need to appear on the DNA. If any of them were absent, the cell would perish  The universe is 13.7 billion years old but I think 27.4 billion years isn't long enough for random reactions to create the living cell. The Earth has only been around for a fraction of the life of the universe. How could life appear from nothing in the space of a few hundred million years without thought and purpose? 

I think life emerged from the thoughts of a supreme being that is older than the universe. We came from the thoughts of God. Even the picture on this blog post came from thousands of thoughts, I thought to myself that I'm better at drawing with pencil than with pen but I like the effect of ink so I was arguing with myself, I chose ink because I want to develop my pen sketch skills. Then I thought about where my self portrait would appear in the page and many things like that. The picture is more simple than the machinery of life but it needs thought to exist, you see what I mean?

With so many thoughts, the greatest one was knowing my Nephew Lucas was ok, he was born during Spring. The newest infant in my extended family. 

Unfortunately I learned later in the month that there was another mass shooting in the USA, this time 3 young children were killed. I thought the shooter is a coward, if you want to kill yourself then leave everyone else alone! Get help if you feel like that! I don't want to think about the sad things, only the happy things.