Stocks and shares

Jon Ronson's book "So you've been publicly shamed" is the current choice of my book club. I confess to almost giving up on it after sixty pages but I tend towards the "I've started so I will finish" school of readers.  It deals with the social media and the ways in which people, through little fault of their own, (Max Mosely aside) become the victims of hate attacks via the internet.  It reads a little like a Panorama programme and documents a number of high profile events that brought shame upon various persons. It would seem that Flickr and Facebook have become the modern day equivalent of the stocks.

Stocks were meant to inflict shame on those convicted of petty crimes that were not worthy of the hangman's time, and brought attention to individuals who in the eyes of the law had inflicted criminal acts on the local community. There are arguments that favour the return of such devices but it would seem that the social media are there first and are inflicting horrible punishments on some people.

It also seems that some are immune to the shaming process. Take the Tory front bench for example, or in Ronson's book, Max Moseley, who was discovered in a BDSM, Nazi themed club, enjoying himself enormously. The fact that his father was a well known Nazi supporter probably had a lot of bearing on the way that the press went for him. It would seem though that the exposure and the judgements made of his behaviour fell off him like water from a duck's back. He confronted the attackers and bore no shame of what he was doing.

It appears that human beings fall into two categories when it comes to shame; those who have none and those who find the experience mortifying.  Those in the latter category have frequently been driven to suicide as the result of mass personal attacks.  The attackers of course are part of a mob and remain anonymous. They have no notion of the harm that they do and are easily whipped up into a feeding frenzy like sharks given the smell of blood.  Crowd behaviour is a scary phenomenon. The Nuremberg rallies, Tory party conferences and football crowds all demonstrate the way in which masses of people in the same place can behave like one organism with only one identity. A crowd has no conscience and no capacity for shame, it allows the baser instincts of normal individuals to take over.

Do people experience little shame today?  It seems that most behaviours, as long as they are legal are publicly accepted and that shaming is an externally inflicted thing based on the prejudices of others and the capacity of humans beings for hatred and shared bigotry.

Tax credits

I do not understand the economy.  I do know though that our system demands that money is circulated and that each time it changes hands tax is paid to the government, thus meaning that all of that money should end up in government vaults. Of course if you are wealthy enough and clever enough you can ensure that you pay as little tax as possible and that you can squirrel away as much as you like in offshore accounts or in other schemes designed to help the rich.

The government borrows billions of pounds in order to finance various projects. Where does that money come from?  I assume that it comes from the bank accounts of those same tax dodgers who then profit from the loan paybacks at interest rates dictated by themselves.  Public debt is huge of course and it seems that it gets worse as time passes and yet those that lead our financial organisations pay themselves millions in bonuses every year.

So this week the nasty party decide to pass legislation to take money from the poorest and according to the media, expected the upper house to rubber stamp the bill.  Of course they didn't; you don't get into the Lords by being stupid and they know well that their very existence is precarious. To pass such a bill would have strongly associated the upper house with the nastiness of the current government and given the fickle nature of public opinion and the fragile nature of the place of the house of Lords, a yes vote would have been a suicidal step.  As it is the Lords have gained credibility and the Tories will shrug off the defeat and simply change the wording of the bill which will probably be passed next time.  They are determined to claw back money from the least well off whilst happily encouraging the wealthy to get wealthier.

It is the poorest that spend money in this country; the wealthy are more likely to spend elsewhere and so it seems to me to be nonsensical  to punish the already impoverished, but as i said - I do not understand economics.

Spectre

Yesterday we ventured into our nearest cinema complex to see the latest James Bond movie. Even though we left in plenty of time, the traffic was so bad that we arrived with only five minutes to spare. I am almost phobic about being late for anything and so we hurried in to find our rebooked seats, the lights were already dimmed and the back row was in complete darkness so  seat numbers were invisible. Fortunately we knew that we were sitting next to a gap and found our seats. The place was barely half filled when the programme began, first the interminable adverts and then the obligatory trailers of course. During this time, the place began to fill up, mostly with large people waddling to their seats carrying buckets of popcorn and monster trays of very unhealthy looking foods and large sized soft drinks.  There is a law, I am sure, that relates the lack of punctuality with the seat positions and the last to arrive are always the ones sitting in the middle of the row, thus making sure that the largest possible number of people are inconvenienced.

Next to me were two middle aged women who had a prolonged conversation whilst periodically examining their photo albums on their mobile phones and digging out consumables from crinkly packets and generally annoying me to the point where I wanted to move; but of course by this time there were no seats left.

Once the film started the volume drowned out the distractions but by this time I had remembered what I dislike about people in general and of gatherings such as this one.  I feel that many people no longer have any consideration for their fellows and feel that they can do whatever they want regardless of others.  Perhaps consideration should be taught in schools as it no longer seems to happen in families.

The film was as good as expected and kept to the Bond formula with all the usual spectacles and violence and it is good to see these things on the big screen,  but on balance I think I prefer to watch movies at home.

The end is nigh

Now that the ruling classes have the upper hand again, it seems that they do not care anything about what they say or do. They have no opposition and can do and say anything they please. In such circumstances the true face of greedy and selfish can be seen, but of course by the time of the next election will have been forgotten.

In just a few days we had Liam Fox suggesting that pensioners benefits should be axed an the basis that many of them will be dead by the next election and those that survive won't remember who was responsible.

Princess Michael of Kent declares that animals have no rights as they do not vote and pay no taxes. (Does she?) Clearly then,  children and the poor have no rights either.

Jeremy C Hunt says that those on low income need to work harder if they want more money. I wonder if he ever did a hard week's work in his life? I suspect not and certainly not for the pitiful payments that those on minimum wages receive.

The NHS is in dire straits, again, and by slow and devious means the tories are dismantling it along with many other services that this country has always been proud of.

The BBC is under attack constantly, mainly for having the audacity to present opinions that are balanced and out of step with their own pernicious plans and schemes.

They sell off to their wealthy Saudi Arabian buddies, as much of the family silver as they can get their hands on in order to feather their own nests and while all this is going on we have Cameron and Osborne cleaning that they represent the middle ground and blatantly stating that they wish to fix our society's problems.  They have no interest in fixing anything and most of the problems of our society have been created under conservative governments.  Thatcher was bad enough but the current incumbents are even further to the right and have been let off the leash.  Is this how revolutions begin?

Royalty

Someone said the other day, and I can't remember who it was, that the current Queen is the longest reigning monarch and yet in that time, she has done or said nothing that counts. I don't know enough about the royals to either agree or disagree, but it does seem to me that we have an institution that has long outlived its usefulness.  Yes there is a lot of support for the Royal family, but there is also a lot of antipathy towards the ruling classes in general. Prince Philip is the sort of person that you want to slap in the face; he doesn't give a damn about anyone outside of his privileged little circle and has the manners of a pig. Prince Charles, poor man, comes over as a well meaning but clueless buffoon while the rest of them try to keep low profiles and get on with their less than ordinary lives.

We are constantly told by the press that the economy actually benefits from having them; I am not sure how but there it is, I know so little. Is that a good enough reason to maintain the situation where a very expensive and exclusive group are given the illusion that they mean something?

Just imagine what it would be like if they actually had power.  The next monarch would probably abandon the NHS and replace it with alternative health services including homeopathy for all. Architects would all be fired and new builds would all be along neo-classical lines. He would I am sure want to be a hands on leader and would lead us into so much trouble that he would make the Tory government look competent.  Oh let us hope that it never happens.

Waiting

It is a little depressing, yet a sign of the times, to sit down in a doctor's waiting room, to find, along with the usual magazines, a collection of novels. I am sure there are places and situations where appointments are managed well, but it seems that these places are getting fewer and further between. As it happens this morning's appointment was only a few minutes late, but we were the early birds and would not normally expect the hefty delays associated with our overburdened NHS.

I was brought up to be punctual and polite. The latter tends to slip now and then but I always strive to be punctual to the extent that I am usually early for everything. When we lived on the Isle of Wight, it was a bit of a joke that whenever we went away, we were always back in plenty of time for an earlier ferry than the on we had booked.

We wait for everything it seems.  Buses and trains rarely arrive on schedule, we sit in traffic queues for hours, ferries are held up by weather conditions and immigrants desperately trying to get into the country. We wait for hours at airports, both in attempting to leave and in returning to the country, and we wait to be served in shops pubs and restaurants.

On the other hand, some facets of our lives have improved and waiting times have all but disappeared. Online purchases often arrive within a day, and TV programs can be accessed at any time with ease and no more do we wait for movies to be sent by post, they are watchable at the touch of a button.

What would we do with the time that is wasted waiting? Very little I suspect, we all seem to dash around from place to place or from job to job, slaves to the clock and desperate to save time. Whatever we do the time will pass and that, there is nothing we can do about. 

Testosterone

I do enjoy a curry. Friday nights are really made for a few drinks and a visit to a good restaurant, and so that is what we did last friday. The night started well despite getting the table nearest to the toilet, and the poppadoms were excellent.  I always think that the quality of the poppadoms and accompanying chutneys are a good indicator of the overall quality of the restaurant.

At the far end, nearest the window was a table of eight youngish people, a mix of men and women, clearly having a good time, and two of their company had extremely loud voices. AS they drank more, their volume increased almost exponentially and of course the rest of the customers had to raise their voices in order to hear and be heard.  Positive feedback meant that the loud ones got even louder and so on.

I have a hearing problem, in that only one ear works, the other being there just to stop my glasses falling off, and so all sound comes to me via the one ear. What this means is that stereo is wasted on me and that I am unable to filter out voices from a cacophony of sound. As a result I was unable to engage in the conversation at my table and was forced to enjoy the riotous shouting and laughter coming unattenuated from the far end of the room.

Noise, not only pains me but also makes me angry, and I felt the pleasure of the meal waning very quickly. I rose from my seat to confront the problem but was pulled back down - no-one likes to make a fuss do they?  The meal ended quite rapidly and we called for the bill much sooner that we otherwise might have done.  My wife headed for the loo and I seized the opportunity to head for the far end which was on my way out anyway.  I could not resist the temptation to say something and what came out of my mouth was "Thanks for the headache, enjoy the rest of your meal." I then turned and started to leave. One of their company, well out of reach muttered the word "Prick." I didn't hear it, but my son did and we went back to the table and a less than respectful slanging match began. This was rather silly and I suggested to my six foot five son, that we should leave. There were after all eight of them and I am really too old for this sort of thing. So we left and stood outside waiting for my wife and exchanging mouthed expletives thought the window.  There seemed to be some concern at the table; perhaps they imagined that we were waiting for them to come out, but there were just the two of us, one of whom was not likely to last long in a fracas.  After a few minutes of posturing, two of the guys came out, accompanied by two of the women. I thought for a moment that things were going to kick off and felt the adrenaline surge again.

As it happens, they had come out to apologise and did so with some grace I must say. We all shook hands and as soon as my wife emerged we left. They went back to their table and I hope that the other diners had a more peaceful evening as a result.

Refugees

What a fucked up world we live in. Look around and the two main culprits are politics and religion, and when the two are combined, the effects are catastrophic. Syria, like much of the middle east is a mess, the dragon is eating its own tail while millions of innocent people are suffering and being forced to leave their homes in the hope of finding a better life elsewhere. ISIS lunatics, driven by fundamentalist dogma is destabilising as much territory as it can, and other Islamic organisations are creating mayhem among the poor and dispossessed people of many African countries. Add a result we have myriads of homeless people fleeing for their lives; Muslims running from Muslims by and large, seeking sanctuary in the west, that so many Muslims despise.

In truth these are real human beings and of course they should be given a safe haven, few would argue against that, but of course the world of Islam does itself no favours.  To many in the west, the word terrorist is synonymous with Islam and over the last few decades people have begun to fear or at least distrust the Islamic world and its peoples.

The press love to stir people's emotions and recent events and images of drowned children have been tragic. We hear that these poor people are escaping from war zones and yet, it would seem that the latest wave of refugees have been living in Turkey for three years. There is no war in Turkey at the moment and I wonder why suddenly so many have decided to make a very unsafe break from the safe haven that they were living in. Why have some parents put their children at such risk simply to head for the west?

A huge wave of sympathy is engulfing people and public pressure is sure to win out and more and more of these people will be allowed into various European countries. That must happen and Islam will continue to spread throughout the western world. Populations in the west are shrinking and rather than adopting  the cultures of the host countries, many newcomers prefer to maintain their own cultures, languages and religion.  The intention of Islam to take over the world is becoming a reality and that reality is a scary one.

Provocation

I guess that this is a continuation of my last entry, in that it refers to those who seem to take offence at the slightest of provocations.  Each day we read about bloggers who are being persecuted for their beliefs, or should I say lack of beliefs, for it seems that the victims recently are being attacked because they are atheists. I some parts of this ridiculous world, to run against the tide is seen as a criminal act and the Islamic world in particular likes to murder or torture those that do not believe in what they are told to.  To rail against fundamental Islam is a brave act indeed and I respect those who take a stand and try to expose it for what it is.

On a different but related note, I feel very sorry for those thousands of migrants, leaving their homes because conditions for them are so bad and yet they travel huge distances across Europe in order to get to Calais because they think that England is some sort of paradise. Most of these migrants are from Muslim countries so why do they not make their way to Saudi Arabia or Qatar, where they would probably fit in better?  I do find it strange that people who are fundamentally anti the West, will risk life and limb to head in this direction. They are unlikely to get treated kindly by a Tory government, and the native population seems to become less and less tolerant of people that move in and fail to integrate with the culture that they have struggled so hard to become a part of.

Perhaps I should keep quiet on this issue as I really do not know a great deal about the situation as a whole, though I do feel that there should be a freedom to criticise anything and anyone, even Muslims and women.

Being offended

I don't think that I understand the word offensive. I cannot think of ever being offended in the sense that some people seem to enjoy on a regular basis. I know that there are things that I do not like or disapprove of, but to say that I am offended would have little or no meaning.

There are moves afoot to produce an exhibition of cartoons that some sectors of society may find offensive, and there are others who find the idea of offending others as offensive and so the intention to offend in itself has become a contentious issue. Why is the idea of such an exhibition being held up as an affront? Those who many take offence surely are not dragged screaming and kicking to experience such an exhibition and the majority of us probably don't give a damn one way or the other, so by reacting to the intention, the act itself is being given the oxygen of publicity.

I find it very hard to understand why those that follow religion should be upset when others attack or make fun of their beliefs. Are they so deeply insecure in what they have been told that they are angered at any sort of challenge?  I am a great devotee of the process of evolution, it seems so clear that this is the way that life on earth has come to be. It is supported by overwhelming evidence as well as sound and logical argument and yet the doorstep evangelists who tell me that it is nonsense and that the earth was created a few thousand years ago, do not offend me or even anger me. Please all you fundamentalists mock me all you like, print as many anti atheist cartoons as you like and I will laugh along with you.

If your belief is based on anything other than flimsy dogma passed down the generations, then it should be solid enough to stand up to any counteractivity thrown at it.  If the skin is so thin that you have no tolerance for the beliefs and values of others then your belief is fatuous and worth challenging.

Binge culture

We want it all and we want it now.  Matilda is two and came into the house the other day, her first words being -"I want Peppa Pig - Now."  No Hello granddad, just a demand for what she wanted. Instant gratifications seems to be the norm and I feel uncomfortable with that thought.

I am as guilty as anyone else in some respects, especially when it comes to wine and TV series. There was a time when a bottle of wine would las a couple of days and a series on TV would take weeks to watch and savour. Nowadays one bottle inevitably leads to another and it is very easy to watch multiple episodes of a series at one sitting while imbibing the aforementioned.  A bar of chocolate has a tendency to vanish almost instantly and I can order anything that I want on the internet and get it the next day. Waiting always seemed to enhance the pleasure of so many things and yet now we are not prepared to wait for very much at all. If we are kept waiting we moan and complain, convinced that our own time is far more important than anyone else's.  In all we are becoming spoiled and the next generations are simply going along with it. We cannot blame them for our shortcomings.

Sports day

I just got back from Oscar's sports day.  Restricted to the lower school it was a lovely display of children competing in a totally supportive environment and it was so nice that in every event, all that entered finished even when hopelessly beaten.  I believe that all of the children participated and a good time seemed to be had by all. Only one boy who was squeezed out of first place lay on the ground, writhing in imaginary agony, clearly having watched too much football.

It is a nice end to a school year and this was well organised. Everyone got stickers for their performances and all were cheered on for their efforts but parents grandparents and teachers alike. Oscar now moves from reception into year one and has been separated from many of his immediate friends; time will tell the effects of that move, though his teacher maintains that he has been placed with children that he works best with and that has to be a good thing.

When I was at school, sports day was generally held to be a good day. We could enter for any event that we chose and each event had a standard time or distance that we aimed to reach or better. Should you reach that standard you were awarded a house point and thus it didn't matter too much who won or lost. There were certificates for first three places but reaching the standard was the most important thing.  House points were awarded for all sorts of things during the course of the year, all sporting events counted towards the house, as did debating society, drama groups and public speaking, and at the end of the year a shield was awarded to the house that had accumulated most points during the year. All pretty meaningless in the long run but it did encourage a team ethos and gave the feeling that you could contribute something.

Many schools abandoned the house system along with most things competitive on the grounds that losing is a negative experience.  It can be, Oscar hates losing, but we cannot always be winners and learning that can only be achieved by losing. Parents and schools today seem to reward every form of behaviour and encourage kids towards mediocrity. Exams can be taken over and over again in order to achieve a grade that is acceptable and that in itself makes many exam qualifications pretty meaningless. Some grow up thinking that they are wonderful and that the world is there for the taking. They find that life is not like that and that there is competition for everything in the real world and those that can compete are the ones most likely to succeed.

Participation in sports day is important and learning to lose gracefully is also a life skill. On the other hand it is also important to try hard to succeed and to aim for a high standard in all we do even if we cannot always be number one.

The world is full of ass holes

At the front of the house, stuck away in a corner next to the garage, there is a water butt. The plastic lid was subject to the wind removing it and so I placed a couple of bricks on top to keep it in place. This morning I found the lid and the bricks missing, There was no wind last night and besides, it would be some breeze to lift two housebricks.  Someone stole the plastic lid of my water butt, probably the same person who stole the solar light that illuminated the from steps a while ago.

I can see that a passing drunk might engage in mindless vandalism but to steal two bricks and a plastic lid seems very strange to say the very least. Sometimes I despair of the human race and what it is changing into.

So fortunately I had a spare lid lying around - I don't throw much away, and that fitted perfectly. Sadly I felt the need to screw it in place, thus making it much harder to remove, though I suppose someone will tear it off if they feel the need. I never thought the day would come when I felt the need to protect a water butt.

I know that there are plenty of nice people around but it seems that they are in danger of becoming a minority and so my tendency to avoid people is encouraged once again.

There was a wonderful episode of Hancock's Half hour, when Hancock, tired of society in general becomes a hermit. I think it was called The wild man of the Woods.  Driven to desperate measures by the people that he had dealings with, he abandons society altogether and moves into the wilds of East Cheam.

His peace and quiet is short lived as others see that way of living as being desirable and soon the woods are filled with hermits and before long they have shops and a cinema set up. It seems that it is impossible to get off the bus and we are all being dragged along on the same journey.

My own need to be with people outside my small circle of friends and family, is dwindling as time passes, and although I would not wish to live alone, I wish to steer clear of something that I cannot change.

Star Wars

The latest obsession seems to be Star Wars. Not me I hasten to add, but Oscar, who, at the age of five seems to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things to do with five of the six movies. I am holding back on the Revenge of the Sith as it is rated as a 12 and I have to make some attempt to be a responsible grandparent.  We have watched all of the others together and discussed what he sees as issues at great length over and over again. For someone who talks all the way through the films he seems to be very aware of what goes on and knows all of the main characters including Darth Maul's brother who I didn't even know existed.  He clearly talks a lot about it with his school friends and of course he believes everything that they tell him.  I have tried hard to convince him that there is no Star Wars Ten and that even Star Wars Seven has yet to be released, but he insisted that his mates know the real truth.

Kids have a good  idea of the differences between good and evil, though Oscar seems to distinguish these traits through the colours of the light sabres. Even a broken stick in his imagination becomes a light sabre in his fertile imagination and he will re-enact fights over and over again, mostly choosing the character who wins, whether it be a goodie or a baddie.  It seems that the fighting is the best part for him and the space ships, battle stars and relationships other than enemies, are trivial in comparison.

Of course his sister, who is two, gets sucked in to his fantasy world and goes along with him as well as she is able, even though she has not seen any of the movies.  This is ok as far as it goes but alarmingly the other day she said to her mother - "Mummy, I choose the dark side."  I am now in trouble.

A sense of humour

At the weekend I went to the Hexagon theatre to see a performance by a stand up comedian. This was a first for me and I admit that I enjoyed his show enormously. Milton Jones manages to entertain his audience without resorting to profanities and seemingly avoided being offensive to anyone in particular. Having said that I am sure the there would be people who would have found something offensive in his jokes but it is unlikely that they would have been there in the first place. Most of us will avoid deliberately attending things that we know may be offensive and yet there are those who seek out such experiences and gain great pleasure from complaining.

Comedy is about underlining the ridiculous and of course most things that we take seriously can be seen as ridiculous  when viewed from a different perspective. We all do things that seem ridiculous to others and have all been laughed at. Mostly we brush it off but for some, being laughed at can be a torture, especially when young.

There was a time when comedians could joke about anything and offend anyone and everyone with relative impunity, but those days are long since gone.   Professor Tim Hunt, recently made some pretty poor jokes about women scientists at a convention. They were not funny or even accurate depictions of women but he has paid a huge penalty for his remarks and was forced into resigning from his job.  A career wasted and a life changed dramatically for a few misguided words that were not particularly offensive.

To lampoon Islam in any way shape or form is even more hazardous than the criticism of women. So far no-one. as far as I know has been murdered for mocking women, and yet public challenges to Islam are seen as capital offences and the world seems to have taken this on board and no-one will dare to stand up and highlight the ludicrousness of a cult that is above criticism for fear of being attacked physically.

Marge Simpson had a way with words; she loved Canada because it was "So Bland".  We are in danger of going that way. Blandness offends no-one, it challenges no-one and has nothing much to say. Things unchallenged will continue as they are, which though comfortable for some is not necessarily a good thing.  The world is in danger of levelling out and I think that in itself is pretty dull. No-one should be above criticism, even women and Muslims.

Crop failure

There is quite a lot of the Christian philosophy that I do not disagree with.  One of the fundamental tenets of most religions seems to to be about loving one's neighbour and being tolerant  of other ways of thinking.

History tells a different story however.  Wherever a state is taken over by a religion, the basic message of that religion seems to be overlooked and the reality is that it is all about power and the manipulation of people to do the will of the rich or the powerful.

People, and I include myself in this, complain that the government serves the rich at the expense of the poor. It is a truism that does not alter much whichever political party happens to be elected. Wealth corrupts, and the more we have, the more we want; there never seems to be enough and modern life seems only concerned with the accumulation of things. We are bombarded with commercials that successfully convince us that we do not have enough and so we respond by spending our money on things that we don't really need or even want.

The majority of the populace do not really give a damn about the poor and the incapable unless they happen to fall into their ranks, and so we elect a government that  appeals to the greedy and acquisitive side of human nature that seems to predominate.   There are some who care, but the numbers of poor people will always outrun the capacity of the carers to do anything for them. It is a societal issue and yet there are ways of reducing poverty on a global scale.

Many of the poorest nations are dominated by Roman Catholicism, and as such are unable to exercise free will when it comes to contraception.  So they are overpopulated and become dependent on foreign aid. Thus more people survive and breed and so on. Most poverty is due to overpopulation and this is something that can be controlled.

The churches all seem to pray for an end to poverty and yet in reality, they depend on it for their survival. The Churches are major landowners and are fabulously wealthy, and yet like the rest of us, are not prepared to shed that wealth, choosing instead to sing along with the capitalist songs and increase their wealth whilst bleating their platitudes from the pulpits. If their Jesus ever existed, which is debatable, he would be ashamed of what has sprung from the seeds that he sowed.

The Bridge

I have just finished, well not literally this minute, the Swedish/Danish crime thriller The Bridge. I confess that I have actually seen it before but it is so compelling and the visuals so good. Of course it is subtitled but that doesn't matter. It is a pretty amazing piece of TV and Sofia Helin is just gorgeous.

What prompted me to write about this, is that whilst browsing through Netflix for something to watch, I came across a second series and watched that in a couple of sittings. It was only when I had seen the second series that I realised that I couldn't remember the plot of series one and so, i watched series one again. Now i can't remember too much about series two so should I watch it again? Maybe not as by the time I see the end of it I will have forgotten series one again and so on - groundhog day.

I am the same with books. I can read and enjoy a book and only days later I forget what it was about and sometimes forget whether I have read something or not. Maybe I am just lazy but my memory has never been wonderful and in recent years it is getting worse. I find that writing this blog gets more difficult as I have difficulty remembering what I have already rambled on about.

I do remember some things well. Long term memory is pretty much intact though always there is case for suspecting the accuracy of this memories. We do tend to be pretty selective in some respects and often blank out things that we would rather not recall.

Anyway Sofia Helin, mmmmm, plays a detective with some form of autism. She finds it very hard to relate to others but has a tenacity and single minded approach that makes her a good detective. Her performance is wonderful and so believable as she tries hard to find her place in society. The story line is excellent and like most scandinavian tv, beautifully filmed and edited.

I must watch groundhog day again one of these days.

Book club

Not long ago I joined a book club. It was an attempt on my part to become more sociable,  a skill that seems to be slipping away from me as the years go by.  I find conversation more and more difficult, probably because I have less and less to say.

I missed the first meeting for some reason, maybe because I hadn't read the book, though it seems that doesn't bother some people, who turned up anyway. So anyway having flunked the first meeting, I gritted my teeth and made the effort to go to the next one. I had no idea what to expect, and frankly, my first thought went along the lines of what am I doing here. I felt like I was at the dentists with a room full of strangers waiting for something to happen. There are thirteen of us, enough for a coven, and the first meeting did feel very odd. The chosen book for that one was We are all beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, not something that I would have chosen to read, but as it  happens I did read it and found it reasonably interesting. The meeting though had a weird formality to it, each person in turn giving their own particular opinion and once we had all had a say, that was it, meeting over and the next book chosen.

The next book was The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth. Again a book that I may never have picked up as it is written in verse. However I did read it and found it strangely compelling. So I turned up to the next meeting. Opinions divided between those who loved it and those that didn't get past the first page or two. I tried to broaden the discussion and did have a degree of success though I still know almost nothing of the other members of the group and would be hard pressed to recognise any of them in a crowd. Most of them have been together as a group for quite some time and i am still a newcomer and a old fart at that.

I am not sure that it is helping me to enhance sociability, there is a get together dinner taking place next month and I cannot make that which is a pity but I probably won't be the only one. I will stick with it for a while anyway and if nothing else it gives me a new range of reading material.

The current book is To Kill a Mockingbird and it takes me back to my schooldays and O level English. I am sure that there will be plenty of issues raised in the next discussion - maybe we should take along some old O level papers and see how we do.

Post 678

I didn't realise how many posts I had created until today; 677 pages of randomness with no sense of coherence or even much sense. However it must be serving a purpose of some kind as i am still doing it. I rarely look back at what I have already said and so it is quite likely that I have repeated myself, or have covered the same issues over and over again.  I haven't had an anti religious rant for a while, so maybe I have said all that I need to on that particular issue.

I went to a concert the other night. Rochester is not far away and the sixteen were appearing there in a programme of renaissance Spanish music. Under Sir Harry Christophers, the sixteen are a remarkable  group of performers and the acoustics of the cathedral accentuated the sheer beauty of the music and of the human voice.

The evening reminded me that there are two groups of humans, those that create and those that do not. I know - an arbitrary distinction but never the less a very real one. I admire creators, and I know that I am not one of them. The real creators are those with visions that enable the evolution of the human race, whilst the vast majority of us are dragged along in their wake. The composers, the artists, the scientists, the architects and the engineers are those that make the world a much better place, while the rest of us do little more than produce problems for them to solve.

Fundamentally most of us are pretty useless. We are probably more helpless than our cave dwelling ancestors. I have never produced fire without matches or a lighter, and although I am quite practical, I  could not make the tools that I need to make anything.  Most people have never grown their own food, caught their own fish or hunted an animal. Even presented with an whole animal, most of us would have no idea how to prepare for eating.

Stranded in the wilderness, most of us would not survive. Even finding water fit to drink would be an issue and as for clothing ourselves, well no chance.  As a species we are so reliant upon those that can do things that we cannot and upon a technology that is way beyond our comprehension, and yet the things that are valued pay little homage to what is really important. As a species we have been sucked into the consumerist pursuit of money and it is those that manipulate money that seem to be valued. Bankers and other money launderers create nothing and yet they are sitting in the control seat, determining the direction and speed of our journey into oblivion.

Education is a political football that  has been manipulated and tinkered with for dogmatic ends and any real creativity in schools is being stifled before it has a chance to grow. The arts are being attacked by a government that cannot reason beyond the end of the cheque book, whilst our universities are just another tool of the marketplace.

Those that can create things that are worthwhile are becoming less and less abundant as the Conservative clone army grows and grows.  Already things are getting very bland in so many areas. Modern music is pretty much lacking originality, enabling ancient bands to keep touring, simply because what they have has not been replaced by something better.

The sixteen, and other highly skilled groups of musicians seem to attract an audience with a very narrow age range. I guess it was always thus, but what future is there for quality?

Beating my wife

I love scrabble. Well at least I did until recently. There is a scrabble app on Facebook that has enable me to play with a lot of people, many of whom I have never met. It is a pretty good app in many ways but there are some differences between it and the board game. To begin with it is impossible to cheat, or to accidentally knock the board when you are losing, scattering all the tiles on the floor.  It is also easier in some ways as you have the facility to try out words before you play them and so incorrect words cannot be challenged. As a result, some pretty odd words frequently find themselves onto the board, many of which have little or no everyday use. Of course the permitted word list grows as the language changes, and many new words are added each year - it is quite hard to keep up.

One of the secrets of success is knowing all the two letter combinations that enable the playing of overlapping words and increase your chances of fitting that seven letter word into place. Words like AA, OE, BO, QI, ZO and so on are all valid and the latter two are frequently used.

We used to play with the local vicar and his wife many years ago and adjusted the rules so that bonuses were added for any dirty word. Another variation was that you could play any word you wanted as long as you could come up with a definition that made any sense; you cannot play these fun variations online.

Anyway, it seems that the online version is having issues and I can no longer play on my computer. This is frustrating as I have many games on the go and I seem to be on a good run at the moment. I can get into the game on my iPad but somehow it just isn't the same. We seem to have lost the proper game with the plastic tiles and the ancient board and so we are limited to onscreen versions. This is just as well as online I seem to be able to beat my wife.