Barter Hero

 I imagined a future where sentient machines decided that mankind needs only one religion so they stop being prejudiced and violent towards each other. The machine brings all the thoughts together from all the holy books in the world. Every Scripture and every religion is one in this world and the sentient machine makes itself into a God. The machine builds a giant talking statue that preaches all the scriptures and everyone must accept the talking statue as their God. Some people refuse to embrace the global religion so their bank accounts are frozen. People get frozen out of all transactions if they don't convert to this religion. The banks were adding more and more stipulations to keep their accounts open and people felt it was unfair, this time they have gone too far. You can't buy anything or get paid without a bank account so being frozen out means abject poverty. You can't even sell anything without a bank account because cash has been abolished.

Along comes a hero, the Barter man. A man that gets by without transactions, he trades stuff with stuff to get stuff. He has one paper clip in his hand, he knows someone needs it to press a reset button on their computer so he swaps the paper clip for a pen. Then he finds someone that needs a pen and swaps for a torch. Someone needs a torch so he swaps it for a drill. Then he swaps the drill for a bar stool, then he finds someone that really wants a bar stool so they swap it for a steam punk lamp. Finally someone gives him visa gift cards with £500 credit on them to get the trendy lamp. In one day the Barter genius traded a paper clip and finished with £500. The key to the man's success was knowing what everyone needs. He can get by very well in this terrible world until the machines start marking followers and killing non compliant people. 

Consistent little daisies

The world is changing a lot, we're turning into a cashless society; a world where the banks can decide they don't like you and sanction you from trade, you can't buy or sell anything because you need a bank account. Its OK now but in the future, people will have their bank accounts frozen because of their views and opinions. They won't be able to buy anything or get paid from their jobs. Day by day, greedy selfish people will turn our world into a place where it is impossible to be happy. We could end up in a dystopia.

In this world where people come into your life but leave and the rules change, there are a few things that stay the same. In spring time the Daisies emerge from the grass. I see them on the grass verges by the curb, I see them in the lawns at the park, I see them on common greens and grassy nulls. I see the little flowers with paper white petals and fluffy yellow centres. Daisies are consistency, they're a reliable attribute of our world, something that doesn't change. I must thank the sweet lord for these little gifts I see all around me. The morning rising sun, daisies in the grass, fresh air and the stars in the sky. 

Build Away

 I recently noticed that our leader Keir Starmer was involved in negotiations with other nations to form a resistance against Russia and to help Ukraine. This annoyed me a bit because they were cutting funds for many things like transport subsidies and elderly fuel allowance to try and balance the budget. If we were that far gone then what help can we be? Doesn't defence support cost a lot of money? I hate the Ukraine Russia war but I think we shouldn't get involved. The name Keir means darkness in the old Celtic languages, the old people are turning off their lights a lot so the name fits. I'm not involved so there is no point thinking about it too much. I'm just an ordinary man. 

I downloaded the Minecraft game on my Nintendo over the weekend. It is the first time I played Minecraft. I like computer games where you build stuff, especially if they have a sandbox mode with no resource limits. I don't like violence in computer games, I like creative games that let you make things. In the olden days I would play roller coaster tycoon and build beautiful theme parks. I was surprised that Minecraft supports multi play split-screen. 

Its nice seeing Daisy Flowers growing out of the grass, our world changes but they stay the same every spring they appear. 

Spring Time

It is Spring time now, you can tell, activists have started climbing up stuff and gluing themselves to things, "Yawn". It would be nice if they opened their minds a bit and  considered the other side of the story. Narrow minded people that only embrace one view. It will officially be spring after the 20th of march but I saw Daisy flowers sprouting out of the ground and the temperature rose above 10 degrees Celsius during the day. 

It looks like NASA has been preparing to go back to the moon; back in the '70s it was all about the Apollo missions, I wasn't born then. Now it is about the Artemis missions. They're building space launch vehicles with similar power to the Saturn 5 but more modular. There are separate booster rockets and the main rocket parts are reusable. They don't need to rebuild a whole space ship every time they launch. The cost is everything these days. Everything needs a cheap solution. Those astronauts are very brave, travelling to space is very dangerous.  

What February 2025 Means To Me

 It was very cold in February and always overcast. There was very little sunlight. A sad month it was, a member of the family passed away; he wasn't old really. He has a young son as well. I feel pity for the boy. What can I do, I can only make sure I'm healthy and hope I live long enough to leave behind an aged family that feels prepared for my passing. I don't smoke, I drink a glass of Whisky twice a year and nothing else, I don't take drugs and I eat set meals 2 or 3 times a day, if I pass away early it would be down to bad luck. I downloaded an old computer game I used to play often called Roller Coaster Tycoon classic edition. I thought to myself I should always make time for leisure because I don't know how long I have in this world. I don't even know if I will still be alive tomorrow. Luck can run out and your time can be up at any time. In the olden days, text based games with still images were also quite popular, they had games like Myst and Kings Quest. I liked those games, they worked well on any computer because it was never about the graphics, it was all about solving the puzzle. I think software publishers still make modern text based games even today for those that appreciate those things.

I saw some altercations between politicians on the news, it has nothing to do with me; I hope they can peacefully settle their differences in the near future. I tried to think about the bigger things in this world. I looked up at the sky at night a few times every day and  most of the planets are still about on the horizon together, that's cool. I could see Mars, it looks like a pink star when it is low on the horizon or an orange speck when it is high up in the sky. I also could see Venus quite well, it was especially bright in recent days. It's amazing to think how big the Universe is. 

In the Air

I noticed there is a lot of air rage these days. Passengers have angry physical outbursts on planes.  I'm an ordinary guy, but I understand what is happening. The last 3 flights I took, I was very angry; I restrained my anger, all you would see is my expressionless poker face, you wouldn't know I felt very angry but I was. I felt like I didn't have any personal space and the seat in-front of me reclined without warning and pushed my tray table into my stomach slightly. I had no personal space, not even an armrest to myself. I also noticed many of the long distance flights had been dropped permanently since the pandemic so I was forced to take connecting flights. The trouble with connecting flights is you get worried you'll miss the flight if your first flight is delayed. To cut a long story short, you feel like the air line is taking the piss out of you. To top it off, I noticed they were giving out gin and tonic and wine drinks; it is as if the airline wants the passengers to fight. Take away their personal space, make them stressed and get them drunk, a good mix. They should take away the undersold first class, set the lighting to pink and provide seating that lets everyone have their own personal space, everyone has an arm rest to themselves. They will lose some of their seats but there will be less unsold seats and you could put special boxes on unsold seats to add to the air freight of the plane.  

I learn something new every day, today I learned that most of your taste comes from smell. You can trick yourself into thinking you're drinking flavoured water when you're actually drinking plain tap water.  There is a product that capitalises on this human trait, air Up. It is a drink bottle that feeds a scent in the air to your nose and makes you feel like the water you're drinking is flavoured. 

very clever.  

 

Olden Days

 When I was a kid, my father showed me how to solve logic elimination puzzle books. They were magazines filled with puzzles where you had to eliminate all the outcomes until you're left with the truth. Soon after that Sudoku became popular, but I still prefer logic elimination puzzles. 

You know you're getting old when you talk about the olden days. I tell all my nephews and nieces about the olden days, when domestic internet didn't exist. The olden days, when connecting to the internet was about your computer making a temporary dial up connection long enough to download the page and then stop, the olden days, no wifi, no social media, no streaming. Lots of small talk. 

Those were the days. There were computer games that were text based. There still is. You go on a quest in a little text based world. People still make them. Some of them are really interesting. The good thing about text based computer games is they work well on all platforms. You use your imagination and add the graphics in your head, but some of the text based games have still-graphics so you don't need to use your imagination so much. You just see a picture. 

Little Essex Getaway

There is a place you can go if you're a tourist to London, if you had a bad day and need a quick day trip  to the coast or if it's your birthday and you want to take a short break for a few days. It's the little quirky city of Essex county, 'Southend on Sea'. I go there for a short break some times. If I got a ticket to the blues and feel a bit down or If it's my birthday. 

I live north-west of London; I look at London as a clock face to simplify it in my mind. The number 12 is 'High Barnet', 10 o clock is 'Uxbridge', 6 o clock is 'Croydon', the tram district. 9 O clock is Acton and Stains, the bit next to Heathrow Airport. The Nearest Part of London to me is Uxbridge at 10 o clock. Barking and Upminister is 3 o clock. 

I take a bus to Uxbridge Train station so I can get to Barking station, I change at kings cross but the Hammersmith train to Barking stops on the same platform. From Barking station I take a 40 minute train ride to Southend on Sea.  The c2c train ticket costs about £8 but it's not subsidised like the London trains so I'm not complaining. The same 50 km distance from Barking to Southend on Sea would cost less than £4 in London, you would literally get change from a fiver.    

I walk out the sea front and breathe in the fresh sea air and look out at the Kent peninsula on the distant horizon. If you look to your left you can see the open ocean. At night the place is lit up like Las Vegas and the sea is dark but there are always ships passing with lights on them. It's not the best place to go, but it is good for a day trip or short break. 

I imagine some of the tourists that visit London live very far from the sea so it could be a chance to enjoy the coast without spending much time and money.  

London Crossing

London isn't perfect, it is a city with issues, high costs, high crime, little small talk. There are a few perks to London. Most of the important landmarks are by the river, you can walk along the river Thames ("tems") and see most of the important landmarks, Elizabeth clock tower with the Big Ben mega bell inside, Houses of Parliament, London Eye observation wheel, Tower Bridge, Tate Modern art gallery, Tower of London, St Jame's Park that leads to Buckingham Palace, Restored Shakespeare's Globe, St Paul's Cathedral, the Walkie-Talkie, The shard and various others. They're all together in a 1 hour walk by the river. Even Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square are a 5 minute walk from the Thames; remember it's pronounced "tems" not "Faims".  

For me there is a special perk, You can go across the city and use the subsidised TFL zone to get to the Thames Estuary smoothly.  If London were a clock, Uxbridge would be where the number 10 is on the clock face. I can go on the Train from Uxbridge and get to Barking near the number 3 on the clock face and get change from a fiver, £3.60 during off-peak time. The distance is 50km,  if I drive 50 km, the fuel costs a bit more than £3.60. The route that is smoothest is the one I use to get to Southend on Sea for a short break. I take a bus to Uxbridge, then I get the Metropolitan train at Uxbridge Station; it's a terminal station so all trains head east from there,  then I get off at King's Cross, I stay on the platform and catch a Hammersmith Train to Barking  and tap out on the platform. Then I use my C2C ticket to board a C2C train to the Coast in Barking Station , sometimes it comes on the same platform island as the Hammersmith train. It's not the quickest route but it is the smoothest, I get there very fast and don't walk very much. Remember the Uxbridge Line and the Hammersmith line share the same platform at Kings Cross so I would just step off the Metropolitan train and get the Hammersmith train where I stand. 

If I took the bus to Slough and took Cross Rail, I would get to the east side of London a lot quicker but I would have to do more walking and I think it would cost a bit more. 

Using London to chip the price off a journey, yes please. 

Journey Day

Jacob, My son. 

It has only been a few days since a member of our family passed away. It had a profound effect on me, I stopped eating at work, I eat a large dinner before work, then I work through the night, get home, sleep then I have breakfast when I wake up. I thought to myself I should never get sick or pass away because of a poor lifestyle. I'm not saying that's why he died, I would put that down to bad luck. One day my luck will run out and my time in this world will be up but I hope I will have aged enough for everyone else to be aged. 

I'm thinking about all the train journeys we could have in the near future. All the places we could visit. 

Smug Shadow

During this last portion of the winter, I was observing a very interesting new micro EV called the 'Squad solar car'. It is a very small self charging solar car. The website for the micro car is https://www.squadmobility.com/. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice if I had a front yard that is too small to make a driveway for a regular car but bought a micro EV that fits. The contractors that were building the driveway would ask what it is for and I would say it's for a car. They would say your car isn't allowed on the pavement though. I would say, don't worry, that won't be a problem. I would feel smug because the front yard is too small for a regular car but the micro car fits and it charges itself while it is parked. 

While this happened a shadow came over me that can only be made by a relative passing away, a dark shadow with no hope. A man that feels fine one day can be dead the next day. What good is life if it ends with nothing. I can only hope that I stay healthy long enough to leave behind those that have aged themselves. I don't want to cause grief to young kin. Let them be old that day and prepared for my end. I started watching what I eat so I can try to be healthy.  If I die because of a poor lifestyle then I would be responsible for causing sadness. 

I bought an old computer game, a roller coaster tycoon classic edition. I remember being very focused when I played that game. I wanted to build the perfect theme park. I could micro manage every detail of the amusement park in a way that even a real theme park director couldn't do. 

Sleeper Wonders

I recently learned there are two sleeper train services here in Britain; to me this is amazing because the island of Great Britain is less than 250,000 square kilometres in area. Britain is a small island, you can drive across the longest part of the Island in less than 6 hours. The idea is you get a small room on a train and sleep on the train overnight while you travel to your destination, I think the train deliberately goes slowly so you can sleep better. You would do this as a tourist experience or if you needed to be up and about when you arrive there and only wanted to stay one day. If you booked early then you would condense your travel and hotel stay into one and save money, perhaps you were an elite journalist or something like that. 

Scottish Rail owns the Caledonian sleeper train service and Great Western Railways owns the Riviera Sleeper (London in the East to Cornwall in the West). The Caledonian Sleeper goes from Euston Terminal Station in London and Riviera Sleeper Goes From Paddington Station. 

Sleeper trains are fascinating because they're small boxes on trains that are fitted out as hotel rooms. They use lots of clever designs and features to use the limited space effectively. Both the Companies found different ways to solve the space problems. The riviera service has a cover that turns the small sink basin into a table and has a folding bunk bed that comes out of the wall. The Caledonian one has similar features but I think they managed to add a small on suite bathroom toilet bit into the space of a cupboard. 

Let me show you two videos so you can see for yourself. 

Caledonian Sleeper video

Reviera Sleeper Video

It makes me think about my own hospitality. If guests come over to visit me, would they enjoy their stay? Perhaps I should have my mind set on getting fluffy cushy couches with leg rests. Guests could visit and they would have a relaxing experience. I could bring them baked pasties and coffee with sugar free syrup barista style regularly. 

I imagined running a sleeper train service. Perhaps they could board the train long before it leaves the station. The train could use a lay-by platform in a less busy station instead of a grand terminal one in the city centre. It could stay there for 5 hours at a time. I wonder if they have sleeper coaches. 

Billy of Time February

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a real life zombie apocalypse? I imagined just finding a good hiding place would cause you to feel relief. A building with strong doors and lots of heavy things to block the doors from behind. Another thing would be a bunker. Some people set their mind to building bunkers under their back yards; the reason for the bunker would be in case of an apocalypse like an asteroid strike or nuclear holocaust, they would't imagine their bunker would be used because of a zombie apocalypse. 

I wonder what it would be like to live off the grid in the wilderness. I imagined a large boat that floated up in the air during the daytime. It would have wings that are filled with mirrors. The mirrors would reflect sunlight onto different parts of cloth balloons, the air inside the cloth would become very hot and provide lift. 

I call it the 'Billy of Time', a boat-blimp with large fabric envelopes that act like hot air balloons, they heat up air inside them from light reflected on mirrors on wings. This causes the boat to rise out of the water and float up high in the sky. Then at sunset, the large flying boat would descend and the wings would help it glide down safely back to the surface of the sea. You would spend your time tending to the fruit garden on the deck; growing tomatoes and berries to live on. The fruits would be irrigated by water condensation gathered in the air and from rain. At dusk you would watch the sun set on the cloud tops, they would be covered in pink and red beams of light. Then at night would would sit on the deck for a while and look at the stars. Your bed would be a hammock below deck wrapped in lots of fabric to save weight. If there was a zombie apocalypse, you would be oblivious.  

The hard part would be to stop the boat-blimp crashing into land and making sure your crops persist. Some of the tomatoes and berries would be dried out to store in case some of the crops failed. 

The mind wonders when you need it to...  

 

 

Trump and Gaza

 I just learned the new president of the USA Donald trump wants to redevelop the Gaza strip. He wants to build lots of hotels and resorts to provide employment and prosperity to the people of gaza. I think this is a bad idea because Hamas, the Gaza strip government have their mind set on destroying Israel. They teach the children in school that Israel's existence is evil and to fight them. They're setting up future generations to fight Israel. It is pointless bringing extra prosperity when it would be destroyed in a future conflict. They'll put missiles in the assets and accidentally detonate them and the assets would be destroyed and the investors won't get their money back. I wouldn't even get involved. They would just blame you if you helped them.  

I don't hate anyone. Some people are misguided and others are full of hate. I'm just an ordinary man trying to find a way to be fine. I sit down in my little chair, in my little home. I sip coffee and wonder how long I have left to live in this world and what I can do. 

What January 2025 Means to me

 January was colder than normal here in Britain; it regularly went below -5 °c at night, sometimes it was -7 °c. My heating system was working hard to keep me and my family warm. All the parts of the heating conspired to keep us at 22°c, I take it for granted every day until I open the front door and feel the chill. 

Donald Trump became president in the middle of January and he went straight to work, he was putting his policies into action. He didn't waste any time. 

I noticed in the news that bush fires were breaking out in the American state of California, large parts of Los Angeles were destroyed. The bush fires devastated a large part of America. I felt like the fires weren't wild, like they were caused by arson because they caught people setting off some of the fires. 

In the middle of the month I noticed most of the planets were clearly visible in the sky during dawn; this is very unusual for me. I could clearly see Mars, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. Some people said they could see Mercury as well. You need a telescope to see Neptune because it is so far away but i'm sure it was out there on the horizon with the other planets. I think Uranus is also very difficult to see, it appears as a very faint star when it is closest to us, I think it needs a telescope to be seen most of the time.  

Towards the end of the Month we had a large storm here in Britain called Erowin, it was very strong and able to cause winds of 100 mph to occur in parts of northern Ireland and Scotland. Some trees and buildings were toppled over unfortunately. 

Israel and Gaza negotiated a ceasefire, they returned all the Hamas prisoners in exchange for some of their hostages. It's a bad deal in my view but it proves that Israel doesn't want war. They were very flexible with their own stipulations. If Hamas fires missiles at Israel again, we can be certain they're the ones at fault. 

Then during the last week of the month, there were a few air crashes. A small passenger jet collided with a black hawk helicopter near Washington airport. All people involved in the crash were killed. Later a small plane dropped out of the sky over Philadelphia. 

I keep my chin up for February it won't be a leap year, just 28 days of hope. 

 

Washington Plane Crash

I learnt on Wednesday, there was a plane crash on the approach to Washington airport. A small passenger plane collided with a Black Hawk helicopter while it was descending towards runway 33. I think black hawk helicopters are military rescue aircraft, they're like ambulances that are very hard to shoot down. They have lots of armoured plates and flare guns that automatically confuse missiles. The motor of the helicopter is all at the top of the aircraft with armour surrounding it and there are 4 rotor blades. It doesn't carry missiles but I think they attach Gatling machine guns to the sides for defence. They winch up injured soldiers or drop medicine and supplies to troops. 

The passenger aircraft was a CRJ-700, they're very small aircraft that carry less than 100 passengers; they're designed for small domestic flights with fewer passenger numbers. It has two small jet engines attached next to the tail fins of the aircraft for excellent stability. It is a very efficient small aircraft developed by the Bombardier corporation in Canada. I think the airline using the aircraft was American Airlines. 

Going by all the reports from news, I would say it was an accident caused by poor communication. The black hawk helicopter was performing a training exercise and the airline was heading for the airport. They were both in the wrong place at the wrong time because neither of them were aware of the hazard. The good thing is there were only 60 passengers on the plane. If it was a larger plane, there could have been hundreds of deaths. 

Trump Gets to Work

During these last two weeks of January, President Donald Trump has been busy implementing his policies. I recall he sent American soldiers to the border to make sure the cartel gangs could not get their drugs across. I think he also told the Colombian government that he would increase import tariffs if they didn't allow their illegal migrants to be returned to their country. He's not messing about, he was serious about what he said.

It was while this was happening that a powerful storm called Erowin(welsh Name) moved across the north side of my island nation. It damaged buildings and toppled many trees. Some people were fatally injured by the storm. At the same time I also noticed at night the planet Mars was visible at the same time as Venus. I could see both the planets. I think Jupiter and Saturn were also visible. Mars looks like a star with a pink hue in the sky. Venus looks like a small version of the moon but always sits on the horizon at sunrise and dawn. 

I don't hate illegal immigrants, I just don't like the side effects of having many illegals. If a letting agent posts a property and 20 or 30 people show up, they take the property off the market and put the property back up again a week later at a much higher price. The high demand for property makes the property more expensive. People tell me this is not true but I have seen it happen with my own eyes.  This also makes commercial properties more expensive. The other problem is the pressure to increase wages in low paying jobs goes down. Warehouse workers get smaller pay rises when there are many immigrants because there isn't a shortage of workers. If there were a slight shortage of workers, companies would increase their wages more to keep their staff. This doesn't happen in an overcrowded area. 

Storm Eowyn

A new storm is heading across northern Ireland and the Island of Great Britain called Eowyn, a nice welsh name. Some parts of Scotland and northern England will have 100 mph winds and they have a red weather warning. It is windy down here in southern England. Hopefully, most of the trees won't be toppled down. 

I read in a book titled 1001 QI(game show) facts a claim that Britain is the windiest place in Europe. The average wind speed in Britain is more than everywhere else in Europe. That makes sense to me, we are right in the path of the golf stream and there are also often different air pressure zones above our skies. I also feel a breeze in my face every day, except when we need it during a heat wave. There is always some kind of wind present. 

I felt a little bit annoyed because I saw a priest praying in front of Donald Trump but it was a passive message to the president. It wasn't really a prayer. She was sending him a message saying to support LGBT kids and illegal immigrants. The Christian religion is against Gay and Bisexual lifestyles, it is very clear in the scriptures so the church shouldn't be interfering with that issue. I think kids shouldn't worry about their gender until they have gone through puberty and they have some clarity about who they are; a 11 year old kid should't be worried about what gender they are, they should be worried about if they can solve maths problems and things like that. I think schools should concentrate on teaching kids skills.

Donald Trump has made it very clear that gangs are misusing the american border to sell drugs and smuggle people for profit, I don't think he's after ordinary people. I didn't see any priest pray in front of Biden saying God help us not to print too much money so the debt ceiling doesn't go half way to the moon. I did't see any priest say make sure the abortion time limit is kept off the 3rd trimester. 

It's annoying when I see things like that. 

 

Trump Becomes President

 When I look at all politicians, I feel like they're making promises they're not sure they can keep; I feel like they're all being dishonest. I guess they can't show how they really feel, they would come across as timid or lacking confidence. 

I noticed that a lot of Americans have chosen to stop talking to their family members because they have a different political polarity. I hope we Brits are never like that. Their values are twisted, they value the wrong things. Their political polarity is more important than the relationship with their family members; they have set a conditional relationship with their family based on a superficial thing like politics. Those same people also have conditional respect for people, if you vote different to them, they would consider you a bad person or stupid. They're judging people based on a vote; this is wrong on a number of levels. The person may know more than you so their experience is aiding their vote, it is possible you're wrong and you're not infallible. The person may be wrong to vote the way they did but they still deserve respect and love. Bullying people for voting differently to you is actually a form a fascism, even if you think they're fascist, the real fascist is looking back at you in the mirror being intolerant of other people's views.   

Donald Trump will be the President of the USA for the next 4 years until 2029. Always remember that most people are voting for what they consider the lesser of two evils. They dislike both parties but they're voting for a party they think are a bit better and more competent. Love and respect your family and friends. 

Middle of January

The Middle of January passed by the other day. Large parts of Los Angeles burnt down because of a powerful bush fire and strong winds. I feel pity for all the people that lost their homes in the fire, some of those people were only able to get a house once in their life. I think it is a man made problem. If you have a lot of trees and plants near houses, you need to prepare for dry periods; some of the fire hydrants didn't have enough water pressure to be used. The local government also cut funding to the fire departments. I also noticed that destructive behaviour is presented as an alpha male trait in movies and TV shows. I think people are being brain washed into thinking the tough guy is the man that destroys things. I learnt the other day that a number of arsonists were caught and arrested. 

I was filled with worried thoughts throughout December and January, sometimes it is better not to think. I saw a video of a small pig being torn to pieces by wild dogs and felt pity for the pig. This whole world is like that, everything is trying to consume you. There are beasts, diseases and bad luck waiting for opportunities against us all. Sometimes thinking about the possible bad outcomes can be very distressing. Sometimes you can feel like the pig being attacked by wild dogs.  

I learnt the other day that Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of January in the east because they still use the Julian calendar and the accuracy of the calendar has drifted over the years. Wouldn't it be nice to have a festival in the middle of January, the middle of winter.  It is still dark and cold this time of year but nothing happens in January, there is no party to cheer you up unless you have a birthday in that month. Perhaps there could be two little events, one for the end of January and one for the end of February.

 

One Third of January

One third of January passed by already, it seemed like yesterday that we were setting up the Christmas  tree at the start of December.

The issue these days is the  chancellor of Britain being unable to make ends meet in the budget. Rachel Reeves claims there is no way for us to live within our means right now and would need to borrow money to balance our public spending. I think the Canadian PM quit for a similar reason. Rising costs are eating away our spending power and inflation isn't helping much. If Jesus comes back soon, now is a good time; the whole world is hanging on a rope. I think a single default on American debt payments is all it will take now to drag the world into a global recession. 

I can only keep calm and carry on. I keep my thoughts in happy places. January is the time when we start to Browse for holiday deals. I look at places I can go in the summer time. I search for hotel and travel tariffs. Then I go to online shops and look at funny t-shirts. Short breaks are achievable, perhaps 3 days at the coast on the week of my birthday. Reading the bible and looking at deals keeps me busy. I have a nice 'New King James' bible; it has a satin ribbon bookmark bound in it and all the 15th century pronouns have been replaced by modern day ones so it is easier to read. 

Stay active, be happy. 

California Fires

I recently learnt that there were bush fires breaking out throughout California on the east coast of the united states. The fires had destroyed many homes and caused devastation. LA city was one of the places that was affected. I feel pity for all the people that were affected. 

I blame the bush fires on evil. In the media and films, people that destroy things are presented as sexy and powerful. The guy that shoots the most people dead gets the girls. People think it is cool and sexy to destroy things, they say I'm a bad boy and go out with flame throwers burning bushes and starting dangerous fires. I see this behaviour everywhere, I see people smashing up vending machines to impress the girls, they think they're bad boys, they want to have an image of a tough guy that fears nothing.

If you spray poison into the air, people get sick. The same is true for mental poison. If destructive behaviour is presented as sexy and cool, you'll end up with people causing mischief. 

It is sad because some people that lost their homes put all their life savings into it and lost everything. The only feeling is pity.  

This fire disaster wasn't natural, there was a dry spell with arsonists roaming around burning up bushes to make themselves feel powerful.    

 

Angry January

One thing I noticed about my society is we tend to copy the Americans.  It's usually a good thing to copy the Americans, but not this time. 

America has what I call selective respect; you're only respected by other people if you share their political polarity or have expensive possessions. If society becomes like that, no one living there will be happy. 

I see people hurling insults at trump voters, they call them stupid or pigs. Some people hate both the parties but they vote republican because they don't want their government to print too much money or to raise the abortion limit to the 3rd trimester, when the fetus is more like an infant. Everyone is entitled to their freedom of speech.

Elon Musk indirectly asked the King of Great Britain to force a general election early. He is spot on, the king can do that. I don't think he will though. I think they try not to get involved. 

Crows Basket

I was laying down waiting to fall asleep and thought of a fictional story in my head. I imagined a forgotten civilisation that existed 50,000 years ago. They treasured people that were born as dwarfs because they created a basket that tetheres with 50 domestic crows. They all pull on a string and carry the basket. They can't carry a full sized man but they can carry a man with dwarfism. They would update their maps and carry important messages to the different parts of the kingdom using these baskets with dwarves in them. The 50 crows have strings around their feet and work in tandem to lift the basket into the air. The dwarfs are also able to navigate the cave systems and draw more maps. 

In this scenario, powered flight didn't start with the right brothers, it started with this civilization. One of the dwarfs thought it would be a good idea to keep a fire in the basket and trap the hot air from the fire in a large cloth to give the basket extra lift so the crows would only need to tug the basket forward and not lift it, but a deadly strain of small pox rampaged through the kingdom and caused many people to die. All their technology and progress was abandoned in one month. It was as if they never existed.

Dreams dreams dreams.   

What December 2024 Means To Me

It was during December 2024 that Russia was busy fighting Ukraine and stopped helping Bashar Assad keep control of Syria. At the start of December rebel forces had taken over the country and brought an end to the Assad regime. I wasn't happy about it because the last time he lost control of his country, the new authority Isis were worse than him. They were murdering all sorts of people because they had different beliefs and backgrounds. I remember summer 2014 was shocking for everyone, people were being lined up and shot in the head. Even ordinary soldiers that were doing their job were murdered in captivity. Isis were barbaric and inhumane and much worse than Bashar Assad. There was hope because the new rebel groups seems to distance themselves from Isis. Let's see what happens. I guess their first goal would be to clean up Damascus and Aleppo, those cities were trashed in the fighting. 

The progress of AI continued at a fast pace; new AI systems like Grok and Gemini were catching up with the group. They recently were able to draw images on command. chatGPT, Grok and Gemini can all draw graw images on command even though their primary function is language support. AI is at a stage where it is a selfless friend. I think we should be very careful about letting it develop itself, it could become very dangerous in the future. There could become a time when AI systems are sly and have control of robots. 

I noticed that bollards were used more often now to stop terror attacks like the one that happened in new Orleans. Bollard factories will be busy.