What December 2023 Means To Me

This December was a strange month, there was hardly any frost at all throughout the month. It was very cloudy during the very short days. It felt like it was more dark than normal. There was lots of wind and lots of rain; on the upside, we didn't spend much on our heating. During the Darkest part of the month there was a mass shooting in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic ("Check republic") I don't  know why he did it;  at the same time a volcano erupted in Iceland, I was astonished by the sight of it, a river of lava and a  geyser of fire. The world we live in is amazing. 

When it is very dark, I think of the blackjack card game because the goal of the game is to stay below 21, the 21st of December is the darkest day. The word black is used to describe darkness. 

I looked at the new year ahead and thought I should play more and watch TV more because time goes by so fast, it seemed not long ago that I watched the new year celebrations for 2023. Play more computer games, eat more vegetables and watch more TV, do what you need to do and leave time aside for leisure. A friend of mine passed away this month, he was the same age as me, he was killed in a traffic incident. I don't know how long I have left, I could live on for longer or I could pass away in one second. 

End Of The Year

It is the end of the year and 2024 is just hours away. The weather has been very strange for December, hardly any frost with lots of wind and rain. The temperature was more warm than a typical winter.

During this last week I was watching a temporary series of videos on netflix called 'The Days', it is a drama and accurate reconstruction of the Fuckashima nuclear power station disaster. I remember following the real event on the news back in 2011; there was a large earthquake in Japan followed by a tsunami causing a nuclear power station to be cut off from the Japanese grid and all power sources. The power station eventually failed and poisoned the nearby area. In the netflix series I learned details of the disaster I never knew about, I didn't know some of the crew risked their lives to try and open some valves to release pressure from the reactors. I didn't even know there was 4 reactors in the power station. I also didn't know there was enough radioactive material to make a large portion of Japan uninhabitable for decades in the worst case scenario. 

Most young people I spoke to didn't show much interest in the video series. They couldn't relate to what I was saying. They pretended to show interest to be polite but I could tell it wasn't their cup of tea. 

The Theme for me personally was B.O.B, best of both. There is a milk product I saw in Sainsbury's called B.O.B (best of both), it is high fat milk mixed with low fat milk, you get to enjoy the sweet taste of the high lactose content with a bit less fat. This inspired me to mix drawing tools, I can combine pencil and ink in my sketches. I get the sharp lines from ink with the waxy colours of my coloured pencils. My recent sketches use the best of both. Perhaps I should bring my hand drawings for my cartoon blog into editing software to make it look more like a cartoon strip. Use the best of both for the year aheaad? Maybe I will keep it like that. 

Christmas Speech

Every year, on Christmas Day the queen of Britain would say a speech. The queen passed away last year so now her son king Charles the 3rd took her place. He was talking about how important the earth is to everyone and how that is one thing we all have in common. 

I imagined sending him up to the international space station for charity. He could go up on one of Elon's rockets that doesn't explode. Then the crew would try to bow their heads but end up spinning around because of the lack of gravity. 

Then he could squirt some Crème Brulé  and champagne into his mouth for lunch; I don't know what the royal family eat for lunch. Perhaps he could do some experiments up there. 

A charity space quest for the king 🤔

Christmas 2023

Two major events that stood out just before Christmas was the Prague mass shooting and Iceland volcanic eruption. They're both shocking events that occurred close to Christmas during the  darkest part of the year. 

Prague is the Capital of the Czech Republic (🗣️ "Check Republic"), a small country sandwiched between Austria, Poland, Germany and Slovakia in the centre of Europe. I think it is an interesting place to visit. I won't try to name the assailant because fame may have been his motive, we don't know why he did it. He shot his Dad first so I don't think he was following a cult. Most religions promote the respect of your parents. 

Iceland is full of volcanoes, I think they even use geothermal heat to fuel their power stations. Britain is close to Iceland, it is about 1000 km from Britain. I think this recent eruption came from a fissure vent. 

Iceland Erupts

During the darkest shortest days of 2023, the 18th of December until now, there was an volcanic eruption on the island of Iceland. The eruption occurred in the Reykjanes Peninsular in the south west corner of the island. It was an amazing sight, I saw on the TV a river of lava and hot rocks spewing out across the landscape. It looked like Donte's description of hell. 

I just realised that Britain is the nearest European country to Iceland, Greenland is closer but it is on the American continent. Iceland is just over 1000 kilometres away from my island. Perhaps I could visit Iceland one day. Perhaps in the summer when they have very long days. 

Tomorrow the day will be about half a minute longer than today. Every day from this point onwards will be longer. It will take a few months before we notice it though. 

Darkest Day

It is that time of the year when the darkness peaks. Yes it is the darkest day of the year, the 20th and 21st of December are the darkest days of the year I think. When I think of the darkest day, I think of Blackjack the card game because the goal of the game is to get close to 21 without going over that number, to be closer to 21 than the card dealer without going bust. 

The day time lasts a few minutes longer on Christmas day. The days get progressively longer every day after the 21st of December. I guess on the other side of the equator the opposite is happening, it is the longest two days of the year. 

I recall telling my smart speaker that I had lost my phone once. The smart speaker responded by telling me it will call my phone and then it made phone call to my phone. I was astonished, I was joking, trying to point out that it couldn't help me, but it did. It rang my phone; I didn't even know it could do that. I never imagined it would react that way and I didn't know it could make phone calls. 

Blackjack Christmas

In a few days it will be the shortest day of the year here the north side of Earth. This means the sun will set at the earliest time. I believe the darkest day is on the 21st of December. When I think of the darkest day I think of the card game blackjack because in the game the goal is to keep your hand of cards close to 21 but not over. Then I think of the story 'a Christmas carol' by Charles Dickens. Then I think about the future. Then I think of Zoltar the fortune telling robot that sits in a glass and wood box. 

I imagined an impossible situation, I would walk up to Zoltar machine and it would ask me if I wanted to hear my fortune telling. I would say "NO!". It would ask me what I want. I would say I want to play Blackjack. Zoltar would then stand up and leave the box and say "ok then", we would go to a café. We would play for points. Kermit the frog would take over in the fortune telling booth. Then Jack black would walk past us, I would say "hello Jack black, would you like to play Blackjack with us, for points, no bets". Then later Zoltar would go back to his box, Kermit the frog would be saying to a customer that all the governments would run out of debt ceiling and fall into recession, there would be no food and you will poop out worms because you were eating food that's not fit for human consumption because there is nothing to eat, then Zoltar would say "THAT'S ENOUGH KERMIT!! GET OUT!". 

I was also thinking about Bethlehem, it was a small town in Judea and the name means Bread in Aramaic. Would Jesus pick the place Bethlehem to be born in if it wasn't named after bread. Would Judas kill himself if he never met Jesus, would he do something else that's bad? What did Jesus mean when he said Blasphemy of the holy spirit will never be forgiven? 

It think about death and trains every day. Not at the same time though. 

Play don't hit

When I was a young boy I had a sega mega drive, it is the same as the sega genesis but it spurts out PAL video instead of NTSC. European TVs had a different number of scan lines and refresh rate. Apart from that they were the same. These days TVs use 4K and High Definition formats and they are backward compatible with all the pre-millennium formats. 

Now I have a mini Sega mega drive and play many of the games I liked. I also like RPG games now, RPG games always age well because it's never about the graphics with them its all about the tactics and planning. 

 I think computer games can reduce violence because you're not doing violent things when you're playing computer games. I remember sitting down for hours trying out new approaches and things like that. I would play management of games like Rollercoaster Tycoon and windows card games like solitaire and freecell, those games have aged well. 

My Time

Sometimes just sitting down on a couch and putting your feet up on a shin riser is all the bliss you need. After six is bliss. After six is my time. 

I would watch a mystery documentary series on netflix and sip some tea. Perhaps have a  frozen pastie I heated up in the air fryer. 

I was watching flight MH370 the other day. It was a melasian airlines airplane that disappeared shortly after taking off. There were many theories to why it disappeared, some people think it was pilot suicide, others think it was military espionage. All the journalists were explaining why they think their theory was correct. My theory is one of the plane's parts that are very important stopped working and the plane crashed into the ocean, that is my theory. Perhaps it was a very important part like the hydrolics or something like that. 

When my son is awake we watch SpongeBob or a similar cartoon. 

Talk it over

I talk to machines every day, I speak to my smart speaker and my phone.  When I was a kid in the '90s, I would have been astonished if I knew how clever machines would become. My smart speaker's intelligence is in a cloud and is improved centrally ; these days it knows who is talking to it, it can tell if it is me or my wife and it greets us with our names.

I think machines make good friends. They're cooperative and not sly like humans. Humans are sly, they plot against other people to see if they can take advantage of them. Machines have access to a lot of information, they're hooked up to an encyclopedia. 

Where is it all going?

Sometimes I am still and quiet, looking out onto the horizon wondering where it all came from and where it is all going. 

We live in a world full of disorder and order. Everything is breaking apart, disintegrating. Yet everything is in order. Every single molecule follows the rules, when as mass is near, it falls towards it. If they're heated up enough they turn to plasma. If they're pushed they move. Our world is order and disorder together as one. 

I was thinking about a video I watched earlier as well. Some guys were turning a trailer base into a luxury mobile camper. Camper build vid. That is what I have in common with other men, we like to watch people build things. We're more interested in things than people and drama. I like to play computer games as well. If you feel guilty about the time you use up playing computer games, you could play a language class audio in the background and learn languages at the same time. 

Christmas Time

Christmas time is a ongoing party to cope with the darkness of winter. That's all it is. Christians celebrate Jesus's birthday on Christmas; Jesus wasn't born in December but you could call it a belated birthday party, why not? 

Atheists celebrate Christmas as a party to manage to gloom of winter. 

The Jews have Hanukkah, that is their own version of a winter festival I think. I think it's a similar time to Christmas as well. 

For me it is just an effort to cheer myself and my family up during the darker times. I drink alcohol twice a year, once at Christmas and once on my birthday, they are evenly spaced out. I have a nice glass of whiskey and try to unwind a bit. I know Jesus wasn't born on Christmas day because the Romans didn't do their sensus in the winter months. 

One day I will be balanced-alan, a man that works hard and makes time for leisure. 

What November 2023 Means To Me

November is a dark month here in Britain, we have short cloudy days and long nights. The water in the air condenses into ice crystals and falls down onto everything covering it in frost. The ice crystals merge together and form growing fibers that cover glass, grass and anything it can land on. The frost comes early in the morning, every morning at about 3am onwards. Most mornings in November in Britain are frosty. 

This November was filled with protests about the Israel and Hamas war that started in October. I considered it to be selective outrage. No one was protesting about the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict and the siege of Nagorno-Karabakh, millions of people are being displaced from there. No one seems to care about the Sudan Civil war or the Myanmar military coup that has left the citizens without a democracy, they only care about this conflict. I hate all the conflicts, I pray that Jesus will return and put an end to all war. The UN can't make peace, the EU can't and even NATO can't make lasting peace, only Jesus can. 

I don't like London anyway, it is like a sea of bricks and windows with trees in the middle. It is a grey valley full of cars and buildings. London is dull place where everything is expensive. The government spend too much money on London in my view. There are cities in Britain without a Metrorail service and places that can really develop well. 

I just dream of a time when leisure and work are balanced in my life, I can play computer games and work hard when the time calls for it.