Paris Olympics Doesn't Exist

In my little world the Paris Olympics doesn't exist. I'm paying no attention to the event or even acknowledging it existed. In the opening ceremony I felt like they were mocking Jesus. They were recreating a painting of the last supper in a disrespectful way. 

This blog could have had more visits if I covered the Olympics but respect for Jesus is more important to me. I'm surrounded by people all the time that can't even return a simple greeting, people with no heart.  But Jesus came and lay down his life so we can have eternal life after death, that should merit some respect. I'm not rioting, I'm not threatening anyone, I'm just choosing to completely ignore the whole even as if it never existed. This may be the only time I mention Paris 2024. 

Ticket Spurting Penny Pusher

When Donald Trump was shot in the ear, I was at the coast here in Britain taking a break in sunny Southend on sea because my birthday was a few days away. The thing I like the most about going to a popular coastal town in Britain is the sea front at night time. 

I would get up after dark in my hotel room and make some tea or coffee. Then I would walk down to the sea front. Everything would be lit up with neon and led lights. The sea would be dark and the sea front road would be glistening with lights. There would be row after row of open plan arcades. I would look out to sea and see a dark mass with a few lights from passing ships in the distance. There would be a gentle sea breeze with a slight salty smell in the air and you can smell rotting sea weed, a nice smell if you're like me, it's a bit like petrichore; that after rain smell we all love. 

The best thing about the arcades is the penny pushers, they are machines where you push pennies and let them roll down into a flat bucket of coins that are slightly cascading over the edge. A small metal plough pushes the coins into the other coins and sometimes causes them to fall over the side of the bucket. They would then fall into another bucket and possibly cause more coins to fall into a opening in the machine. You can then use those ejected coins to play more. Sometimes there are little prizes nested on top of the coins. 

The best coin pushers are the hybrid ones, the ones that give you tickets for prizes when the coins drop out. Some have a light up jackpot screen that lets you win 500 tickets in one go. They have fruit machine wheels that spin when a coin breaks loose. With a tenner(£10) I can have 500 2p coins in a plastic tub and sit there for over an hour dropping coins and trying to get the timing right. Trying to dislodge more coins and little prizes, playing cards, key rings all sorts of things. I would be surrounded by all the noises of the arcade and all the music and lights everywhere. 

Before I play a coin pusher I would look for an old friend; in every arcade zone there is a zoltar machine, a fortune teller in a glass box that tells you parables with a east European accent. I don't believe the fortunes, I just like the mannerisms of the animatronic man in the box. He gives you a little card telling you your fortune and he tells you a parable. I would talk back to zoltar, I would say hello Zoltar, how are you? He can't hear me though 🙄

Overcast again

Here in Britain it is overcast with clouds again. You get a few days of sunshine then a cloudy day. As far back as I can remember it was always like that. Every sunny day we get is precious, but there is no breeze on a sunny day so it feels very very hot. It's a good time to get lost in a book when it is cloudy. There are lots of interesting books out there.  

If you're in a large arcade then it doesn't matter what it is like outside. Those coin pushers are so fun, you can get £5 of 2p coins and it would take an hour to lose all 250 of them; some of the coins will drop back out so it is more than 300 drops.  I like the ones that give you tickets when the coins drop out. There is a technique to it, skill is involved; you have to get the timing just right and get enough of them to make a wedge to push the coins in front. 

TFL Tap

If you travel from the far east side to the far west side of London by train, your payment is less than £5 as far as I know. 

If you use your phone to tap into the TFL (Transport for London) network instead of an oyster card, your phone gets a very graphical receipt. 

London is a very spaced out city, it fills the whole space of the Thames valley for that district. Yet you get change from a fiver for going all the way across it. That's not bad. 

Another July thought is how tough it has been for former president Donald Trump this Month. He Had a court hearing, then he was shot in the ear, excuse the pun.

So Close

On the 13th of July, I learned that there was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.  A young man armed with an ar-15 rifle had placed himself on the roof of a building beyond his rally site. 

A bullet was heading for Donald Trump's brain but he tilted his head slightly while he was talking so it hit his right ear lobe instead. It was a very lucky escape. I'm happy that his life was spared. It is a shame that someone standing behind him was killed. 

Two days later England were playing in the finals of the European football tournament and lost by a single goal in the last few minutes of the game. That is unlucky, better luck next time. Spain are now the European champions. So Close.

Fishless Aquarium Air Vent drama

Sometimes imagination is an effective way to break the cycle of overthinking and stress. I was thinking about a fishless aquarium subway vent for a while during this week. It is a vent shaft in a house that takes stale air out of the house but it would be big enough for a person to comfortably walk through; it is very much like a typical hallway of a house. 

The vent isn't just a vent, there are TV screens nested inside fish tanks that play videos of fish swimming around but there are no real fish in there. 

I imagined being accused of a serious crime and police got a warrant to search my home. They would turn around and ask me why there is a train network hidden behind the walls of my home, I would explain to them that it is actually a fake aquarium that turns into a micro train line. I would tell the police it is just a hobby of mine, I wanted to make a novelty micro subway train network in the spaces between the walls of my home. But I also wanted to make a fake aquarium and tell people it is real when they visit it. They would come back some months later and take a ride on my little train then they would go down to the basement and walk through the same space but all the screens and lights would turn on and it would look like they're in an aquarium. 

I would tell them to come back when I'm in the clear and I would show them how it works. How I would spent lots of time adding things to the project. Making the little stations better and improving the little trains. 

I would sit next to an empty cupboard that is the entrance to the little micro station and look at the reaction on their face when they see it. 

If I had guests, I could take their children down to the basement and show them the entrance to the fake aquarium. I would say welcome to my private aquarium, I have over 50 fish tanks inside. They would walk through it and think they're looking at real sea creatures but they're not. The halls of the aquarium would zig zag around the house all the way to the top floor. 

Fishless aquarium subway vent

The most common lie I tell is that I'm thinking nothing; I don't try to deceive anyone, the truth is time consuming and I just don't want to explain what I'm thinking about.  Imagine telling them the truth. 

I'm thinking about a fishless aquarium subway vent. A project high up on my bucket list. If I built my own home, the air vents would be big enough to walk through, like a small hall way. The air vents wouldn't just be air vents, they would be a fake aquarium, there would be apparent fish tanks with fish swimming in them, but they are just screens, there are no fish or water. The fake aquarium would also reconfigure itself into a small subway with a small train. To access the train you would open cupboard doors in certain areas of the house, the back of the cupboard would be an opening to a tiny station that is 1 by 3 metres, a tiny train that looks like a toy would take you through the air vents to other parts of the house, but the aquarium screens would be switched off so you would feel like you in a subway tunnel. The small subway train wouldn't be a real train, it would be a series of boxes with skateboard wheels screwed to the bottom, they would be dragged along by an electric bike wheel underneath. Each car on the so-called train would be just big enough for one person to sit in it. The train would be powered by metal plates with a direct current flowing through it from one side to the other, about 4 AMps. The metal plates would be screwed to the floor and also steer the train. 

There is a lot more detail to my fishless aquarium subway vent thought, it would take hours to explain it all. For example, the micro train stations would have little seats and train progress displays, glossy A2 sized posters of movies would also be on the wall. There are lots of details. Even the way the aquarium shuts off to become a subway has many details. 

Keep it simple, I'm thinking nothing. 

If I was loaded

Here in Britain if someone is loaded, it means they have come across a lot of money. If I was loaded, I would take all my hobbies to the next level. I would have a work shop where I build stuff and make test rigs and stuff like that. My man cave wouldn't just be a bar in my sitting room like it is now, it would be a whole room full of toys. 

It would be so nice to build a glass cabinet filled with collected toys. I would fill it with micro arcade machines from myArcade.com. I would collect them all. 

I would have all the Evercade games consoles and all the Evercade cartridges in another cabinet. 

No showing off, no fancy cars, just an ability to do all my hobbies nicely and have a nice home to live in. 

Tense Game

On Saturday evening at about 17:00, England played against Switzerland in the quarter finals of the European football tournament. It was a very tense game and went all the way to the penalty stage. We won on penalties. It was a very narrow escape. It reminds me of the movie Indepence Day when they were trying to escape from the alien mother ship and the doors were closing in front of them and they squeezed through the doors just in time before they closed. 

I think the game was more interesting because it was so close. 

I couldn't help but think about the swiss army knife, folding pocket multi tool. Then I was looking up the leather man pocket tool because it works in a similar way. Then I was watching videos of pocket multi tools in general. I went through several videos of folding pocket tools on YouTube. The Swiss make some very interesting things. 

All in the Hands

Many people I know feel a deep sense of dread or they feel frustrated . Here in Britain the center-right voters split into two groups, some voted for the conservative party and others for the reform party. The centre-left had one clear party to vote for, they chose Labour. About half the voting public feel upset about the outcome. The summer here in Britain is quite dark, overcast with clouds and rain. I thought I should share an idea on here to help people keep their chin up a bit. 

Joy as I know it is all in the Hands. If you keep your hands busy, you will get more joy. Making things or drawing things is the way to be happy. 

I draw pictures with pens and pencils every day. My hobby is a gift from God because I have two working hands to keep busy. If you're playing a guitar or building a test rig for experiments, the joy is the same. 

Sometimes I watch videos on YouTube of people building things. I watch other guys build all sorts of things, roller coasters in their back garden, home aquariums and ponds, test rigs for experiments and things like that. 

Use those God given gifts, make things with your hands or use your working eyes to read books. All those things can bring joy. 

The Election

Yesterday I voted for my local MP. They quickly counted all the votes and confirmed who is the current MP for high Wycombe.

It was a landslide victory for the labour party. I think the reason why is because the Reform party siphoned off some of the conservative votes. If the Reform party wasn't there, they would have voted conservative because the goals of the conservative party and the reform party are the same. To stop illegal people trafficking on the English channel and bring down some of the taxes to make Britain more competitive globally. 

The newly formed reform party acted like a wrecking ball and smashed some of the conservative votes. They split the center-right votes into two smaller groups. That is my opinion though, it may not be the truth. There were other things that may have brought down the conservatives, I remember the frivolous spending during the pandemic and the rule breaking in the cabinet. I won't name anyone but it happened too often and annoyed many ordinary people. 

I think if the Reform party wasn't there, the votes would have been very close and parliament would be hung. Perhaps we would be left with a coalition government. It's not my role in society to say who is more reliable or better. I just accept that it happened and observe the truth as I see it. 

Who let my bulls out

In my town there is a local MP candidate that had life sized printed cutouts of himself tied to some of the lamp posts. I thought it was a good idea, for a second I would think It was a real person standing there and look at him. It wasn't long before many of the cutouts were defaced, one had his head ripped off, another was pulled down and stumped on. I feel shame, he isn't even in a party, he was independent candidate. 

I imagined putting a large box in a town square full of bulls. The images on the box would represent different points of view. If people damaged the box because of loss of self control and malice, they would free the bulls and get bashed by the bulls. I would say, "who let my bulls out, who who?". They would blame me for their injuries and I would tell them I didn't let my bulls out, you did. 

I would be like those guys on the internet that prank porch pirates, they take the box and paint or poop flies out on their face. 

What June 2024 means to me

June started off a bit darker and colder than normal but things picked up later in the month. We were all aware that a general election was looming and the start of summer was very political. The exact date of the election was set to 4th of July, the American independence day; they picked a day that is easy to remember. 

The European football tournament started in june and the England team made some progress.  They just squeezed through the 16 group knockout stage and will face Iceland on Saturday. They're doing ok so far. 

I became aware that the Evercade game console company was releasing a bartop mini arcade machine and console hybrid called the Evercade alpha that will take the Evercade cartridges. We only have the specifications and images of what it will look like. I haven't seen any videos of people trying it out. They're releasing it in November I believe. Every 2 or 3 days I will look up Evercade Alpha  on YouTube to see if anyone has been given an early release to try it out for real. There are mixed opinions about the hardware, some people think it won't sell very well, others are convinced it is the best new games console Evercade has made so far and will be very popular. We'll see what happens in November I guess.