New Ick Unlocked

There is a new phrase created on social media, 'new ick unlocked'. It's when women find men creepy or disgusting. It is usually triggered by a behaviour of some sort. They film the guy with their smart phones and post it on social media. 

I can give you an example from tick tock https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdHByDvm/ 

I have an ick of my own, like when ladies film a guy without them knowing and brand them as creepy on social media. When a guy's privacy isn't respected even though they're minding their own business. Is that an ick to be unlocked. 

This world stinks sometimes. It really does. 

Virtual Reality Club

I recently joined the virtual reality club. I asked everyone in my family to give me Argos gift cards for my birthday, then I waited a few weeks until my other work and customer perks had lined up and managed to get Meta Quest 3 of my own. It is set up as a fitness gadget for me. I get up at 6AM and  go to the back yard, get some fresh air and play virtual reality golf standing up for an hour and a half. The fresh morning breeze appears to be coming from the world I'm visiting. Then I'm set up for the day. I also noticed the golf plays very much like real golf, if my wrist shifts while I swing, the ball goes off course just like in real life.

The virtual reality app that left the biggest impression on me is the 'youtube' one. It is like having a floating 4k 350 inch Tv in your sitting room, you can resize it and reposition it  in your room and leave it floating anywhere you like. The meta quest 3 supports mixed reality so you can have a video feed of your sitting room mixed together with the software. You can also make the screen very big and remove the real world so you feel like you're in the cinema and if you sink with your 'youtube' account you can play google movies that you bought on there. Another thing you can do is use a desktop application while the youtube is running. There are many configurations that can change the way the screen appears. 

Playing golf is excellent in virtual reality, you can teleport to where the ball is with the press of a button and change your view of the course. You can also go to the course when you like, even at 3 in the morning. 

It's nice to finally use virtual reality without borrowing someone else's 

Nationalisation of C2C

Recently the C2C train network in Britain that goes from Fenchurch street to Shoebury in Southend on sea was taken over by the government. This means the railway is now once again state owned. Eventually all the train lines in Britain with be run by the British government. 

What will happen now? We will see; perhaps  the government will run the railways so badly that they're unusable. Perhaps it will be cheaper to take the train soon. Maybe they will cut less corners than the train operator companies. 

I like the German model the best. Their railways are all state owned but they allow private companies to rent or have access to their rail lines so people still have a choice. 

Instant Shame

Recently I saw two high profile tech company staff receive instant global shame. They were both caught on a kiss cam at a 'Cold Play' concert cheating on their spouses. The incident quickly turned into a tempest of shame and sleaze witnessed by millions of people around the world. It even made it onto an ordinary man's life journal blog 😉

The first thought that came into my head was if Andy Byron's face was bright red like a tomato because of shame or sunburn, there was no sunburn on his arms; perhaps Kristin was wearing makeup, I didn't see her face turn red. I was wondering how a man's face can go bright red so quickly. Then I thought to myself they bought a one way ticket to the blues and that is where they arrived. If you don't want to go to the blues, don't buy the ticket. The only positive thing that came out of this is I won't feel ashamed about displaying a small plastic dinosaur and a pocket ball game I won at an arcade recently on my wall. Some people will come to my home and laugh at my small plastic dinosaur but I would tell them it is just a souvenir of my short birthday city break at an arcade, it's not like i'm a love rat or something like that. 

I value different things to most people. I don't care about prestige or power, I just care about sharing a good time with family and friends. Going to the coast and having fun for a while. When I look at my plastic dinosaur I won't just remember playing in an arcade by the coast, I will remember the instant shame of Andy Byron and Kristen Kabot, the CEO and  Human Resources director that cheated on their spouses and all the news and memes that followed their story. 

Happy Birthday

I think when it is one's birthday one should take a break from work. They should take a small holiday and be happy they are ok for another year. If you made it all the way through the year and your health is ok then it good to recognise that and take a break; go on a small trip or city break, perhaps visit a town or city you have never seen before. 

Naturally when it was my birthday in the middle of July, I used my birthday downtime to create some cartoon strips on my humour based blog. 

Who is Older

Earth Moon BaryCenter

The goal of my humour cartoon strip blog is to make people think about the world, to ponder reality and to laugh a little bit. 

There are many interesting things out there. Life is a journey to eternity. It is very short but make it count if you can.  

Where is the Joy

Sometimes I sit down outside for 15 minutes on a sunny morning with a cup of tea in my hand. I look at the trees swaying in the breeze, a work of beauty. A self balancing being reaching out for the light and water. They alter their body to be balanced and to strengthen themselves against the wind. If happiness were only the absence of sadness then every one of them would be filled with joy. 

I think sometimes to be happy we don't need to find joy, we need to lose sadness, we have everything else we need for joy to flow through us. If a tree ever hosted consciousness and thoughts, it would be the most lonely being around. It would be trapped in itself for centuries without any way to share its world. 

The beauty hidden in plain sight can only be shared through prayer because there are no words for it all. The blue sky and the fresh air in the morning. The fields of countless blades of grass, the sudden joy when your sad thoughts are removed and you're left with the flow of peace and rest. The feeling of the air flowing through your lungs. 

Texas Floods

Recently there was widespread floods in the center portion of the state of Texas. The valleys that contribute to the river Guadalupe were affected the most. I think Austin and Dalas was affected by the floods. I did some research about Texas, it is the 28th state of America and was the only state that was an independent country before it joined the union.

While Texas was flooding and countless people were facing a disaster, I was observingy my cherry tomato plants that were sitting in the window box and eating some of fruits; they grow very fast when they have enough water. Then I was considering buying CBD drinks because I learnt they're good for your health, some people even think it helps reduce the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. Then I was looking at the evercade alpha bartop arcade machine. That's what men do, they look at things. 

What a pity about all those people in Texas, some of them lost their lives. They received a deluge of rain that equals 3 months of rainfall in a few days and their cars were swept away. 

Digital High Street

One downtime avenue for an ordinary man like myself would be to traverse a digital High street of online shops on my phone, I would go to apps like Temu, Amazon, Argos then ticktock shop. I would look for silly t-shirts with dry jokes on them and different things like that. Things for my little man-cave in the corner of the sitting room or things to store stuff in to make the inside of my home more spacious. I don't buy most the stuff I see, I just look at it. Then I will look at the hotel sites to plan my next city break on my birthday next year. I've set up this coming short break for my birthday. 

The world is full of chaos but I keep my nose in the shops to look at things and trips. I look at cities I have never visited before and places I can go to and all the perks that may come with it. The news makes one angry and the shops makes one distracted. 

It's nice to be distracted, to read countless reviews of things you're unlikely to buy. I don't want to be angry, I prefer to be distracted. 

Then there is the other down time avenue, drawing ballpoint pen sketches and writing blog posts, a hobby that anyone can do. 

What June 2025 Means To Me

The main news in June was the Iran Israel war. The two nations were firing many missiles at eachother. America stepped in and dropped several bunker busting bombs on one Iran base buried under a mountain. I thought to myself, if they're enriching Uranium just for industrial uses then why does the facility need to be buried deep in a mountain? Why does it need all that protection. There's no point in an ordinary man like myself thinking about it, my thoughts won't make much difference. 

Everything else was down to me staying busy and trying to keep my chin up when times were stressful. 

I try to enjoy the long days and discover new and interesting things. Internet window shopping takes lots of concentration away, even if I never buy anything. I just look at all the t shirts and gadgets.

Sometimes I just look at a tree swaying in the breeze with sunlight filtering through the leaves. 

The search for Keen

When I was a young boy, the ID software corporation created the perfect side scrolling game, 'Commander keen'. They made 3 crude versions of the game, then they released an experimental episode called keen dreams. Then they refined their engine system and made 3 more games, Keen 4, 5 and 6; I think they were called 'Goodby Galaxy', 'Aliens ate my babysitter', and 'Armageddon Machine'. They released them as freeware products, you could copy it to a floppy disk for free then play it and then there was a paid version of the game. I can't explain it but I just felt like they got it right; the games were fun, the best thing on dos. 

Now I look for new releases of the same games on the evercade website and Nintendo switch store. Nintendo released the so called lost episode, keen dreams but not the magnificent 3. I keep watch to see. Perhaps evercade will release a cartridge with all the best ID dos games. Secret agent, Commander Keen, things like that. I would get the evercade alpha instead of virtual reality for my man cave if they released it.