My Boss Was Like This Government

 I've had a pick of bosses some good (very few) most bad but listening to our utterly useless Prime Minister (in name only now I'd suggest) and his imbecile ministers you have to wonder why they are so utterly useless, charmless and on the wrong wavelength to ordinary people.  I class myself as ordinary - I know difficult to believe but there you go!

They just come up with stuff that immediately puts your back up, has no foundation in reality or doesn't appear to have one foot in reality.  They think it does, they think it is big and clever and the rest of us can hardly believe what they've said.  If you wanted to go about getting the people behind you and agreeing with you and rebuilding your reputation you'd do well to say the absolute opposite and pursue sound policies based on data, reality and good judgement.

If they aren't coming out with crazy stuff like, I don't know, making boats more buoyant by drilling holes in them, cutting the wings off of planes so they fly straighter, compulsory square tyres on motor cars then they are out cussing and dissing their opponents or practising Red Herring tactics and blatant obfuscation. WE SEE THROUGH YOU, YOU UTTER MORONS!  

Honestly it's like listening to kids in a junior school coming up with alibis over some prank that has been found out.  It really is that pathetic and at least you can laugh at children's excuses.

Attacking your opponents goes nowhere, pathetic politicians have been doing it for years but do they not know that we see through it all.  No one believes them and no one takes them seriously anymore.  They are cornered and are fighting exactly like cornered animals.  Attacking words and their meanings, attacking us because we are far to stupid to b given the vote.  No wonder people are getting seething and angry at the moment.  

Small insurrections are starting I notice little things like criminal damage to council parking machines and notices are one.  It low level civil unrest and reading between the lines it's that politicians are ignoring their voters wishes, forcing change where it is not necessary (if it ain't broke don't fix it) and forcing those who voted for them to accept things they neither voted for nor want.  All the while pissing on us and telling us it's raining. 

I like the British, they have a good level of tolerance but that's stretching and beginning to break, you can feel it and their good nature has been stretched and is about to come under more stress especially if you try and rule carrot and stick and continue to take more than you give.  I feel that things are at breaking point and that finally enough is enough.  Sit back,m grab some popcorn and Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride (Hunter S. Thompson).

I hope the present evil batch of low life politicians see their future writ large come the May elections.  Good people, don't flinch, send them into the Abyss back where they belong. 

Give & Take

I saw that someone had "taken offence" to something someone had said but it wasn't clear what offence had been given and by that I mean that there's a lot of take these days isn't there?

People are quick to take offence quite often where none was given in the first place.  I deal with things that offend me by turning off the TV, walking away, blocking and other methods.  Of course we all react differently to things and we all have something that offends us.  But if it offends me, does it offend someone else and who am I to then go around and preach to someone else that they too should be offended by something that offends me and that, in all probability they haven't seen or heard?   Today it seems that is what you need to do.  Rather than ignore you need to make other people align with your taking of offence?  Strange behaviour and for what purpose?

Then there's the other give and take that's a bit annoying.  Not sure how many times I have done this but I've bailed out a number of people over the years, financially and in some cases in the tens of thousands of pounds and do you think they have ever paid me back?  I suppose I didn't expect to be paid back in reality even though they said they would.  In two cases, I've bailed the same person out more than twice and of course now I wouldn't do it but it would mortify me if I was to ask for help, take it and then not be working hard to give it back.  I had another case where I was due quite a bit of money from a transaction and found out that someone had taken my share, again, significant money and they just said because I wasn't there at the time, they took it, had spent it and that was that!

That's all take and no give.  It's the sort of world we live in these days I suppose where there is that level of entitlement and where it is completely acceptable to do these things.  We live in a selfish, self centred world.  I'm no longer offended by it but it does seem to me that if we all eased down a bit, the world might be a better place.

Can You Hear That Click?

 When I was about 11 or 12 a friend who lived around the corner, on the way back from School, invited me in.  His dad was keen to show me his HiFi room.  Proudly he opened the door to show a barely furnished room, parquet flooring and on a low flat coffee, rectangular, table was a Bang & Olufsen Record Player and Amplifier.  There were 4 large speakers in the corner of the room and this thing was like someone from another world had sent it.

Os think early 1970s so I am not sure if it was a full quadraphonic system.  There was a single armchair in the centre of the room.

I cannot recall where he got the LP from now but he had all the gear and cleaned the LP and set it on the record deck and put on the music - it made an amazing sound, as you'd expect" but then, suddenly he said "Did you hear that?" I probably asked what and he said "That click, did you hear that click?"  AS you may know I have always had problems with one of my ears (11 or 12 operations down on that one) and I didn't hear anything at all.

I could see he was irritated by it though.  I think it destroyed his listening pleasure and he would probably have replayed it to see if he could hear the click again. Are we listening to the music or waiting for the click?  

AS an aside, when I was an early adopter of CDs I would often say to people can you hear the silence and classical and choral music really benefit from the silence so I do have some sympathy but even on my old vinyl I always felt that the click or hiss was part of the experience and let the music play!  

That Was Hard Work - So Technical

 My biggest problem with Techies has always been that they code for themselves and not for normal human beings!  By that I mean that they don't realise that an idiot like me has no idea what app the technical specifications means let alone what they do.  

I doubt any of them have read The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman which argues that products should be designed with the user's psychology in mind, prioritizing usability and intuitiveness over aesthetics.  Same with software really.  

So today I was uploading images but it was a video that had me scrambling about and thank goodness for AI which I managed to get detailed instructions and even then other software was being "helpful" and screwing it up.  Anyway, it is completed now thank goodness.

Just hard work when it really doesn't need to be!  That said, I am learning quite a bit about advertising and how algorithms work.  It's taken almost a month to get somewhere near where I want to be but now things are working.  I just need to up the volume so to speak as it really is a number game.  Not everyone who downloads your App buys it and so on.  That's the next stage.  

The Last Throw Of The Dice

 Or almost the last I think.  It hasn't been a month yet since I set off on this last gasp sales and marketing push.  If anything the results have been mixed both exciting and disappointing at the same time.  A large volume of hits and downloads but very little to show in the way of actual sales which is the disappointing bit.   Today I am going to do some last minute tweaks to see if we can boost the sales even further.  Small changes to the wording and the way targets are set and then we can run, perhaps for the rest of the month and then review where we are.

At present it's knife edge stuff I feel.  It needs the Oomph to get things moving and it needs a steady input and we aren't quite there yet results go up and down as subtle changes are made to the algorithm which is a little painful and slow sometimes (yet other times it can be like a runaway train).  It's getting the balance just right, the keywords lined up and a steady hand on the tiller as I try and navigate this new (to me) world.

If I can get a steady flow into the business and steady purchases then it will be worth a small further investment in time and money but if not, well, we tried.  It's got to be that black and white unfortunately.  Of course it is one of those things and in an environment where the present government hates businesses it isn't easy to start with.  

I just need to maintain my patient iterative approach and see where it takes me.  

Ordinary People Are Extraordinary

You think you know someone and yet, in fact you probably don't know them as well as you think you do.

I was recounting a story about someone I knew, not very well but I'd been out drinking and socializing with him many times and as much as you can I knew that he was an Actor but  in between jobs, as many actors do, he was a scaffolder.  I was regaling the story about how we travelled on the train up to London and just after the train departed on its way, he pulled out a big flask of whisky which we took nips out of on the way up so that we would be warmed up when we got there.

It often happened on the way to London or back that the flask would make an appearance, so much so that a few of us also brought our Hip Flasks too.  There was lots of banter and much jolliment all in good humour and amongst ourselves none of this upsetting other passengers and so on.

He died after a short illness one of those where they operated and stopped and then explained that they could go no further.  

At his funeral we heard about his work and then we heard about his younger days when he swum the channel and that he was indeed quite the sportsman.  a 22 mile swim is extraordinary but you'd never have know as he never mentioned it in all the times that we were friends.

Then there was another funeral that I went to when it was disclosed that another friend was a 17 year old in charge of a landing craft at D-Day.  Seventeen delivering men and materials to the beaches.  There were others and once again you just don't know of the extraordinary things they did. One shot in Italy and injured in North Africa.  

But it doesn't have to be anywhere near these to be extraordinary.  Last night this gentleman gave a wonderful piece of ritual, word perfectly and it was done brilliantly.  Considering that this poor chap has a huge disability being severely dyslexic you would never have guessed but he persevered and his friends all went and supported him as he can't see what words are in front of him in the book, this was all done without and again, a huge brave commitment by him and his friends.

If you look around at every day life all of us, everyone, do extraordinary things day in day out and we just don't realise it.  Bless us all! 

BUT.... Keeps Their Job!

 Right in your face, all the time.  Somebody heads up a department or business etc and screws up massively.  They lose huge amounts of money sometimes billions (since how did we get to billions in the past 10 years or so?) and ineptitude and stupidity surely show up huge wastes of money, loss or losing track of people and money, plant and equipment and yes, nothing happens.

If I'd have made mistakes as big as these I'd have been fired on the spot.  It's insane that they let people get away with bad decisions that appear taken on a whim rather than in a properly risk managed way.  I used to tell people that I made my living on other people's misfortune for I was always rescuing a programme or project, Code Red team assembling and effectively fire fighting projects, shutting stuff down that had run out of control and were burning through cash or losing huge amounts and you see none of that now.  Hundreds of billions of pounds of overrun - oh no problems lets give you double the contract values and extend the time for twice the number of years you assured me it will take. 

Where did we get these serial failures from and why are we rewarding them with huge bonuses and seats on the board of another company when they are eventually paid off and reluctantly moved out of their jobs. A big golden handshake followed shortly afterwards by an equally massive golden welcome so they can screw up their next employer!

The Three Year Men we used to call them.  Brought in, rapidly rising through the ranks based on the opposite of merit all of them and then despite us all warning management as the 2 1/2 years approached things would suddenly start to be exposed and they'd get found out.  Not willing to show their stupidity in employing them in the first place they get to leave with an impeccable and impressive CV and glittering and glowing recommendations!

Watching From The Sidelines As The World Crashes Around You

 It's a mess out there but perhaps some are getting their just deserts as their past catches up with them.  It's amazing how most of us already knew but those who make the decisions blink rabbit frozen in the approaching headlights of doom. 

Defending their sordid actions to the greater public the pathetic excuses roll off their tongues without a hint of irony or even humility.  Do they not realise that we see through them?  Some of us have seen through them for years.  Now evidence is there and still they shrug their shoulders and continue to lie digging their swallowing hole ever larger as the lies become less believable.

In the meantime no one appears to know that an inquiry is being undertaken on some of the heinous crimes imaginable affecting millions of children by gangs across the UK and that's about as much as I can say due to the algorithms and destruction of free speech in the country.  So something that affects those millions and has been covered up and hidden will remain hidden as it is not reported by the MSM at all.  However, go and dig down in Facebook, X etc and you will find the inquiry and read for yourself the horrors perpetrated under our very noses. 

When did it become acceptable practice to hide news from the public or bend the truth and punish anyone who says different?  There's not a word about such things, it goes against the narrative, the bias and the "world view" of our public service broadcasters and they think we don't know or don't care but it will come out and when it does, woe betide those who decided and censored us.

Anyway, popcorn is at the ready and the luvvies will soon start losing their shit when it all comes crashing down around their ears.  They will probably have to move to the bunker soon as the lies unravel and there the GREAT OZ will be found behind the curtain of shame and perhaps then we will find our way again for we have strayed from the righteous path and it's time for the series of corrections to begin.  Maybe not now but soon.  In the interim, if you can stomach it, watch the attempts in vain for those who are guilty as they speak lies and swivel their heads and eyes to find somewhere to escape too.  The modern day Antediluvians attempting to escape the flood sent by God but having no escape from those overwhelming waters.  

By that action, Mankind was saved and let's hope that when all this evil is shaken out of our society we may, once again, return to a peaceful and harmonious life without our "Elders and betters" lording it over us.  

The Ugly World

 Yuk, the world can be an ugly place and our political class are displaying their "class" once again.  What with their reaction to the Peter Mandleson and Epstein stuff going on but also their awful attack dog approach to anything.  We see them but they seem hardly to know we exist and the majority of us look on with utter contempt at these hapless low life failed human beings and wonder how did they get where they are and how do they not have any sense of humanity or self awareness about their actions and their behaviour?

The very people baying for blood when they were in opposition have behaved far worse but see no reason they should resign over their failings and failures and yet only a few years ago were looking for resignations over cake eating.  Make it make sense someone.

But that is what people wanted and voted in.  How long it has to go on for who knows?  It's just increased our distrust of politicians and the MSM.  The MSM don't appear to be reporting anything they don't think we should be allowed to know.  Shame on them.  They wonder why their viewing / listening figures are plummeting all the while feeding us lies and non reporting on important stuff that is going on.   They all need to "Read the room" as they say, Smell the coffee but they see nothing wrong in their own behaviour and actions, nothing to see here they say.  Two tier reporting to go with two tier law and order and two tier governance - laws for thee but not for me.  

It's a mess, we all knew it would be just not how long and deep it went though.  I hope it all comes out and those responsible are disgraced and pilloried. 

Naturally Cautious

 I am that.  It maybe perhaps that I have been fire fighting for most of my career sorting out other people's business problems and trying to get my customers and my own people to understand risk and manage it.  

I am normally risk averse and so watching money go out of the business on advertising and whilst getting some responses, not getting sales is setting off alarm bells everywhere.  It's no where near a problem at the moment and whilst I have committed to put some cash into the business it still sets my spidery senses off.  By that I mean that I can see the outcomes clearly and the expected outcome in my mind is to close the business (pessimistic view) and start trading in earnest (the optimistic view).  The good old plan for the best, prepare for the worst scenario.

So that's where I am now.  I've a month or thereabouts to see where it is going.  The iterative process on the marketing and advertising is taking a little longer than I expected but you have to go through logically and patiently wait for each small change to work its way through.  The algorithm needs to work out what you are doing and how it presents to users.  So I think I have three more weeks to experiment before I have tried everything possible to make a go of it or decide to close it down.  That then fits my 6 month trial of the business and I've given it every chance to succeed.  

My view is still that it needs these few weeks or trial and error although that's not fair as it isn't an error if the sales action just isn't there.  That would mean that the market doesn't exist for the App and whilst it may be amazing and all that.  If the public aren't buying it, then it is market driven.

Sentiment says it should do well but reality shows potentially that it may not be so.  

Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

 Patience my dear boy, patience.  It hasn't even been a month since I set out on this exercise to see if I have an App that's any good or is pants!  January has been about 6 months long and in reality I only set off on this business exercise three weeks ago yesterday. So expecting results to magically appear is a bit optimistic.  

It's been an iterative process and so you have to make a change based on the data you have and then wait 24 hours.  Then make a tweak here and there.  The early results were encouraging but not scientific.  The last two days have been much better in terms of hits.

It's a numbers game and I still haven't sold anything but I am getting the downloads.  It's a far different world than I thought it would be and I'm learning loads about Apple App Store.  I am also documenting each step so I know why something has been done and the rationale behind it.  

It just takes time and patience and I am not the best at that even though this is a logical progression built on data and following a plan!  It should be right up my street but, of course, it's just me wanting to get somewhere too fast! 

Clear - No Problems

 So the Dentist checked this morning and all is clear and the mark they saw is no longer there.  A big relief and so that was pleasing I must say.

I thanked her for checking it and find it in the first place it was appreciated I have to say.  The thing is I have always found is to show your appreciation and thank people for doing whatever service it is they do for you.  Thank You and Please are very powerful I find and I hope that in saying that to them,  they had a good day.  I was very pleased as you can imagine.

Getting Going - Maybe I Ought To Just Forget About It?

 I promised myself that I would set to and get these accounts done.  Have I?  No, of course not.  I've done some other accounts but not the ones I should have and I've then been distracted my my Ad campaign on the App and then Facebook stole my attention and now I'm feeling a little guilty about not having even gotten started and it's half way through the afternoon and I really cannot be arsed to do anything.

I think that I will not even attempt it right now - I can perhaps go for it tomorrow but I must first get this dentist visit over and done with.  Perhaps that is distracting me but I'm not sure quite why unless it is in the back of my mind stuff.  They noticed a white mark  on my gum where a tooth was pulled many years ago now.  Tomorrow I need to go back and see if it is still there.  If it is, then I'll need a biopsy on it.  That won't happen tomorrow and may not happen at all of course but having been bitten once by cancer, you find that everything is cancer and everything is terminal!  

That's the legacy of my cancer diagnosis and treatment.  Every ache or pain, every strange noise or the fibrillating of your heart, cough, sore throat and so on is, until proven otherwise, cancer and will kill you.  That doesn't go away and such things bring home regularly that mindset.  Of course you can rationalise that it cannot be, that you look after yourself and so on but there is always that niggle and little voice to remind you.  Even if they do see the mark on my gums, they will have to refer me and then biopsy it and diagnose it.  I think it isn't likely to be anything like that although my mind thinks differently.  

It was a crazy extraction as the tooth splintered as it was being removed and I had some bone and/or tooth fragments for a while afterwards. It was probably 14 or 15 years ago and I recall it being after it had snowed heavily and it was knee deep and I walked there after checking they were open.  I had to wrap my face and cheek because of the wind and snow flurries and walk home it took about 30 minutes when it was really a 10 minute walk.  

Oh well, let's see.  At least the Dentist spotted it and we are following up but it does churn away inside of you.  

Audience Participation

 I hate participation especially if I have paid good money to go and see something.  Pantomime is different of course.  No I mean concerts particularly.  I saw an artist complaining that their audience didn't sing along and I've never been a fan of this.  You pay a huge amount of money to hear a band play and the lead singer sing and they can't be arsed to do the chorus sticking the microphone towards the audience and I hate it.

I came to listen to them sing, end of.  The number of times someone behind me or to the side of me sings flat, doesn't know the words or is just making some sort of fill in noise is dreadful.  It spoils the whole thing and at one venue I had to ask that one person who sang loud and flat and wanted to talk their way through the rest of the performance be removed or let me be seated elsewhere.  It was atrocious and in the quiet bits where a sole was happening etc you could hear this drunken idiot above the music.

So that's my rant.  If you want me to help you sing your song, pay me!  I've paid to hear you and the band perform it isn't for me to provide your backing band or help you when you've forgotten the words to the chorus!  They charge a small fortune these days to attend a convert and you wouldn't do it during a classical concert! Rant over LOL! 

There's None So Blind

 I hate to say it but I despair at the "Blinkered Philistine Pig Ignorance" (Monty Python Architect Sketch) of the people you see on the TV, YouTube, Podcasts etc.  In complete denial even when faced with facts presented to them that are their very own facts! 

Last night they were all getting irate that someone had the temerity to point out acknowledged facts so much so that they were huffing and puffing and trying to interrupt the chaps who's turn it was to speak and not just one of them either.  Presented with facts gets these people angry and they then twist and weasel their way and think that we cannot see them or hear them or see their body language. I hope they are running scared but I doubt it.  I don't think they realise what is coming for them.  People are rightly fed up and the vast majority see through all of this and are demanding change.

It still, however, surprises me (perhaps it shouldn't) that people I thought were a bit brighter don't see it either.  Defending the indefensible and prattling on about stuff that a child would realise isn't true or even partly true.  I think because it doesn't happen to them (yet) they cannot see the societal change that has happened certainly in the past ten years but arguably longer and as it hasn't really affected them they continue on their socialist liberal value system.  We are poorer now than we were in the 90s and it perhaps is that boil the Frog approach, they just don't see or perhaps are not affected by these changes.

Locally we have had massive failures in our Water infrastructure depriving some areas for days on end and weeks of problems.  As a consumer we have seen around 30% increase in the past few years.  Food has almost doubled by my estimation in 5 or 6 years looking at my monthly expenditure,  Power bills probably doubled or tripled and people are silent or consider it OK.  It isn't sustainable and yet these smug arse politicians, regulators and businesses just spit in our faces and we don't do anything about it.  The reckoning will come I am sure, it needs to come quickly though and things need to be resolved.   

International Joke Festival

 I happened to catch the news this morning and beloved leader was commenting on how his meeting with China had gone.  I was expecting him to come out with something tangible given that China just about produce everything these days and talk about some huge trade deals but it sounded like our great leader had swapped his sweets with a lad in the playground only to find that the bag had broken and he'd lost the contents.  It was, to coin one of my oft used phrases "Utter Bollocks!"  He sounds pathetic and totally out of his depth in situations like this but I guess he will be flying home to some pretty heavy stuff.

Everywhere you look the sheer incompetence and fish out of water politicians are just screwing things up on a massive scale.  They have ideas that a twelve year old would find difficult to comprehend.  A five year old would make more sense too.  The level of stupidity is off the scale and the ideas factory is straight out of the Marxist play book with nothing thought through, no impact assessment and every time they turn around or come up with a policy it destroys people's livelihoods and businesses.  Where we need brave, strong leadership we have a rabble blown off course by every breeze.

A once great country is actually leaderless, rudderless and taking on water faster than it can be bailed out.  The economy is a Janet & John story and ideology out trumps proper fiscal management.  The way out to tackle our huge deficit appears to be to borrow more money until its paid off?  The only people who cannot appear to see all these problems are the very people nose diving us into third world status.  

Of course, it's not going to be easy to get out of the problems that successive governments have gotten us into - it's going to be horrendously tough as we look back at the wholesale destruction of our businesses and the wastelands caused through infantile dogma and rank stupidity.  Most people know that you cannot tax your way out of these problems and saying you are going for growth whilst punishing anyone who attempts to actually grow their business, better themselves etc is a disgusting stupid and pathetic.  How blind do you have to be to be told the serious impact that you are having on the economy only to double down and make it worse.  They hadn't even considered that their actions would have the massive impact they did because they hadn't thought about it.

A pox on all their houses! 

Right In Your Face - Do You Think We Don't Know?

 Today, The Labour Party published a clip of A Reform Candidate that was edited to the point of looking as if he was slating the very people he is a candidate for.  The very people who complained about how the BBC had done the same to President Trump I'd suggest.  The trend these days to use AI or to edit and put words into people's mouths has got to stop.

We all knew the pathological liar at school or work and no one took it seriously because they lied all the time but this IS serious.  These are allegedly our betters and they represent the country our current government and yet they stoop to lying and gas-lighting us and they, frankly, are not very good at it at all.  But no one will get sacked or lose their job over it and the BBC only had to fall on their swords after they were made to agree how unpleasant and thoroughly unprofessional it was and even then they sort of blamed us!  

What is it with people these days where lying and cheating are part of everything they say and everything they do.  I used to work with people of  similar attitude who when things started going wrong, instead of facing it head on and tackling the problem started a campaign of lying that dug them deeper and deeper into the sh1t.  I recall, being the Project Manager of a job that had taken a sudden and quite catastrophic turn for the worst I called the customer, told him there was a problem and that I would like to come and meet them.  I had to go into a big room with a AAA rated business, meet the sponsors and tell them that a major problem which no one could have foreseen had arisen and explain exactly what I was going to do about it.  I asked for a few days so I could work out a plan and get back to them "You've got 24 hours to solve this ...." well not quite LOL.

Unbeknown to me the salesman had picked up the problem and went into the customer without asking me (it was my job responsibility not his) and I got a call from the customer who told me that this imbecile had gone into the customer and promised him all sorts of actions (none of which were possible) and lied his socks off.  He incurred the customer's wrath, was reported to his boss and me.  We then had to read him the riot act as he just went off and unilaterally did this when we were already in a bad situation so I had to fight on two fronts.  All because he lied and I don't do that, never have, never will, no matter how difficult it gets.  

So why do people think it is acceptable for the people in high power to lie and cheat?  They already know they are in deep trouble but to hit the bottom and keep digging and make it obvious to everyone that they are propagating lies is shocking.  

I also had to have a laugh at the Green Party who had all their posters and flyers and these portable stands printed with the incorrect spelling of the constituency name that they hope will vote for them.  Probably not a good start. In trying to correct this they put out a tweet (sorry, a X) which managed to spell it wrongly again! :-)  Such is the calibre of the people wanting the locals to vote for them. 

It All Take Time And I Have Never Been Good With That

 I tend to want everything to be done "Right now!" but it never happens like that.  Things take time and during all my treatments it always took what time it took no matter if I wanted it to end sooner.  Today it is like that as Apple are implementing some changes and so my Ads aren't working properly.  So I have to wait until their servers sort themselves out and awake from their slumbers.

It's an interesting problem for me as I want to get sufficient data to make decisions about the business and so it's like an egg timer as the sands are running out - let's call it the money in the business for now and they aren't being replenished quickly enough to make it viable but without having undertaken this exercise to run the Ads I won't know what is the right area to target and if the audience will purchase the App.  It's moving slowly but you have to test each iteration out and see what the results are so you can logically dismiss or improve each part of the campaign. 

I just have to be patient and wait and it's generally a day or two at a time.  It means extending this trial and hoping the money doesn't run out in the interim!  

Breaking The Work Habits

Everyday, there's this feeling that I should be "doing something" it is strange and it only really crossed my mind yesterday that it's missing the habit of getting up and going to work.  That ritual of waking up, getting ready and then heading off to work whether walking to the station (in all weathers) or jumping in the car and travelling to a customer's location or wherever I was working at the time.

More than that is the ritual of work itself all planned out and laid out in front of you and I, for one, normally knew what I was doing weeks in advance.  Train travel meant a switch off reading a book or a newspaper, grabbing some breakfast on the way in.  Only on a very few occasions was I bored and twiddling my thumbs.

So there's this feeling of being beholden to someone and I get the inner feeling that I should be doing something.  Currently I am working on this business App and I feel that I have to do my best to get a result one way or the other.  It's more that I have attempted everything possible to get it to work.  If it works great, if it fails well I've given it a try and can shut it down.  

Getting this out of the way would actually give me the break I feel I need and then there are only a few demands on my time and so I wouldn't feel this ghostly obligation to do things that no longer exist.  I need to claim my time back.

Toxic People

 I find the world of social media to be quite toxic and divisive and more so recently.  Twitter which I use to promote both my business and my Lodge is such a place.  It is contrived, abusive and full of the most awful content.  I couldn't quite work out why I was seeing some pretty unpleasant stuff until I realised that it had switched my viewing away from those people I had chosen to follow.   So now I have switched back it is a bit more palatable but yet again I have had to mute or un-follow people who are just downright nasty.

As I need these tools for advertising and promotion I am stuck with them but the bottom line is that you need to prune out the dead wood and diseased growth.  Better still, just narrow it down to only what you are prepared to watch or listen to.  So I was out with my pruners and got rid of the disrespectful and abusive people.  

I plan to review all of this social media activity as I hope that it will only be an occasional need to get involved and not a daily, nay, hourly activity as it seems to be now.  Ideally it would be great to reduce it right down to a few minutes a day or even a week.

A lot depends on whether the business survives this next few months - I have a time limit of March to sort it out.  In sorting it out, I need to either close it or if I run it, it only need take up a few hours a week or it's not worth doing.  That is the upcoming decision and having done just about everything I can on it, the final outcome is now neither here nor there.

I've had enough of it all the truth be told and it either stands or falls based on the next few week's exercise.  And now, I don't mind one way or the other what the outcome is as I will have carried out all the possible routes to complete the product, market it and so on.  Given it every chance to live and thrive.

The chap who has made my life hell now reminds me that it isn't that important and whilst he probably doesn't realise it, his behaviour has made me not care less about it all now.  It will be what it will be and if it does all fold up then I can see my freedom ahead.

I've felt beholden to the idea and the company - it's a shame that he didn't fully commit but this happens more often than you might realise. I am trying to get away from the feeling that I must do something or that I am expected to do something it is strange as if it is some sort of work commitment that I am obliged to fulfil and yet no such contract or commitment exists.  I need to work on this as it is something that I cannot get used to.  I am meant to be retired but I am far from that and I am not enjoying my retirement as I am sorting out this business that I have been left with. 

Rodent Trouble! Again

Last year (or maybe the year before) over 40 mice in the house and I got a chap to come and fix the holes in the house and additionally do some pointing and tidying up at the same time.  Up until perhaps a week ago it seemed to have done the trick and no mice in my traps so much so that I moved the traps for a few days - I keep them active from around October to March.  I was pleased as there didn't appear to be any around.

Last week though I noticed the tell-tale signs of a few mouse droppings, set the traps and had two on two mornings.  Then we though we saw one in the living room so I set a trap and that went off within half an hour and this morning I was greeted by two and on resetting them a further one so it's looking as if we have a nest of them somewhere.  I dislike having to trap them and kill them but all the humane traps I've used do not seem humane at all and so I've gone back to the tried and tested method.  I'm not happy about it but there you are, needs must and having been ill through injecting a mouse dropping (I can't even tell you how awful that was I had to have an ambulance and crew out to me) I'm convinced that a swift dispatch is better in their terms and indeed mine.  

I cannot tell you how many times with the humane versions I found the mice dead.  If they weren't you needed to take them a number of miles away and release them into an environment they were unfamiliar with.  In one case a local cat got one of the released mice.  I was then told that moving a wild animal or relocating it was illegal!  You can't win can you?

So just another "thing to do" and an unwelcome return of a nuisance I thought I'd solved but, as I often say, we live in the country, when it's cold or food is available readily this is going to happen.

Hopefully it won't be up to the numbers of a year or two ago that was just mental and you'd get a short time with none and the next day you'd have about 4 or 5.

Concentration Or Rather The Lack Of It

 I hate being a Treasurer.  I find it one of the most difficult things because my programme and project logic is at odds with financial logic.  Whilst I grasp the concepts of a balance sheet it doesn't come naturally to me so things like in arrears and in advance payments and accruals somehow hit an invisible mental roadblock in me.

A task that an Accountant could take a few minutes doing takes me hours as I have to work out how I treat any entry that is out of the ordinary.  If it was straight income and expenses it would be easy of course because that is how most of us run our home accounts but because if the precise nature of the balance sheet and not always understanding whether an entry should or shouldn't be there is another thing.  

An advance payment made in the previous year for example was shown in the bank last year but needs to be accounted for in this year when that payment should rightly have been made.

Anyway, sat here for a few hours and all the figures are merging into one now so time for a rest and I will have to renew the efforts again tomorrow or maybe this afternoon if I feel up to it!  Such an annoying thing because really I shouldn't have problems grasping this at all but somehow my mind doesn't work the way it does on other problems that are not financial in nature albeit project accounting is no problem at all!!!

The harder I look at the figures the worse it gets and it is easier to just stop for a while and come back than making a rushed decision and then having to un-knit the work I've done.

What A Time To Be Alive?

 There's lots going on in the world and so many interesting things happening and I, like many others I imagine, watch on as our "elders & betters" make decisions based on school playground logic and turn around endlessly as their ill thought out ideas get challenged.  It does remind me of school though, the stupid unscientific assertions and I'm just waiting for one of the Cabinet members to state "My dad's bigger than your dad!" or some such unqualified statement.

When you are a Director or a Manager you actually have to be good at your job.  I think I had to be more than that, I had to be outstanding in it as I dealt with so many numpties and Muppets.  If you weren't good you got found out and those small chinks in your armour became gaping chasms and that's what we see with this government.  No one seems to actually do any real investigation before coming up with these stupid ideas, there's no foundational premise to start with either.  No coherent strategy and no integration or leadership.  It's like sailing a ship without any Captain, no Navigator and all the crew are inexperienced have a go sailors who've never sailed a ship before. But worse!

My old boss used to come in to work on any given day and like Michael Caine in the Italian Job state "I've got a great idea"  - he may well have done but generally you could drive a bus through his ideas and theories and that idea would be superseded by the next idea.  None of them had any chance at being successful as he didn't realise that having an idea and making it happen are quite different things.  Driven by ideology these imbeciles come up with ideas that turn out to be faulty and built on sand.  Rudderless, they pitch and toss around in the wild seas and become overwhelmed by the waters.

Our old work saying went along the lines of "His men would follow him anywhere...... But only out of curiosity!"  "Somewhere a village is missing it's idiot!" "Like a six pack without the plastic bit that hods it together!" and so on.  If it wasn't so serious it would be funny.  Watching us (the UK) and the rest of Europe getting roasted by President Trump was an education.  Let's hope it shocks these weak lily-livered excuses for human beings into doing the right thing.  I can only imagine the fallout from the resent WEF meeting.  Although many won't understand that the criticism was justifiably about them such is their cognitive dissonance.   

A Quiet Day Coming Up

 I've done a little every day on the business and gradually working towards seeing if it has any potential.  Quite a lot of activity yesterday means that things are now in approval and so nothing is happening until that has been done.

So I can get on with other things today.  My other accounts for example will need to be sorted and a review of finances too as I may need to support the business for a month or two whilst this work is ongoing.  I am comfortable that I've given it every chance so far - what is needed is to get it in front of enough people to see whether or not it will be a success.

At least I get the day off today as it is quite intense when you get the previous results and then have to adapt to it.  Not today though so that's good.

The Waiting Game - It Will Happen In Its Own Good Time

 I hate waiting, I like action this day and getting stuff done.  This latest iterative work really doesn't suit that approach at all.  Mainly the market is in the US and so I cannot see any results on something I do now until tomorrow!  Also waiting for approval can be 24 to 48 hours between submissions and so once again, it just means you have to wait and measure your responses..

I used to have this problem when I first wrote this blog about how you'd wait around for ever waiting to be seen or waiting to go home and concluded that it was just the speed that they worked at no matter how much I wanted it.

So it is now, I think I want an answer to my business question so I can make decisions but in reality I need to just let it work its own way out.  I am learning to live with it, I can't make it speed up and so just have to ride with the shots and then get my answers when they do their bit not when I want it.

It is giving me the opportunity to use the waiting time to do other tasks and to reflect too so it isn't a problem.  Maybe I am finally calming down?

Slowly Paying Dividends

 Last year was a bit sh1t for me and whilst things are better, there's still some of the left over disappointment and a little anger at the way I was treated.  This year I am moving slightly differently and taking stuff as it happens.  My testing of the App is going not so well these last two days but went brilliantly the previous two days.  Why's that?  Well it;s an iterative process and I need to know what works and indeed what doesn't and it doesn't matter if a day goes past without some positive result.  A negative result is just as good when you analyse it.

So I cannot do anything about it until tomorrow and that's it.  So rather than worry about it like I would have done last year, I am getting on with something that I would normally put off and rather than doing that in an intense way, I am taking my time and taking short breaks in between.  Accounts are notoriously difficult for me I really do not enjoy them at all but they need to be done and as I have to do some other work on the figures, why not tackle it and get it done?

I am also prepared now for things to go wrong with the business as well as (if I can work it out) for them to go right.  A decision point needs to come in the near future and I am comfortable with either of the outcomes, in fact I'd probably prefer the failure of the business so I can walk away from it once and for all but if there is life in it, I need to see it through and determine that commercially it is (or is not) viable.

But it is no longer the be all and end all, far from it, it's what will be will be and that is the way I am treating such things from now on.  I'd far rather be enjoying my time like some of my friends who are retired in going on holidays and trips - they are in sunnier climes and good luck to them.  I think that I would prefer to do that with my time but let's see how this short period of market testing goes and we can decide from then.

Cutting Through The Static & Gloom

 With all that is unfolding around us both at home and abroad you can be forgiven for feeling the weight of it all.  I know that I do if not for me, for my children and grandchildren.  In many ways it appears the world has gone mad and perhaps it has?  The tail wagging the dog must soon stop before the dog bites that tail clean off.

The vast majority of us live in a consensus way and I think we still have the British tolerance and spirit of fair play but, by heck, it's beginning to wear very thin indeed.  The pathetic politicians, the "be kind" brigade who are so full of tolerance only as long as you think and act like them.  If you don't you will quickly see that veil fall and a diametrically different attitude come into play.   Witness their inability to logically and calmly discuss any subject that goes against their narrative and you will soon see that you are dealing with cult like opinions and scratch beneath that surface and you will fine the worst in humanity posing as sweetness and goodness.  

I think that people have had quite enough of this, have stretched to try and meet these ignorant low IQ individuals halfway.  Remember never argue with an idiot because they will bring you down to their level and beat you with their experience! and more memorable perhaps is to "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it!"

When things don't go their way watch the way they react.  For us, the sensible normal people we accept if we have been out voted or perhaps well argued in a discussion with facts and logic.  Not them, a loss is greeted with screaming insults and behaviour you'd expect from a small toddler.  Gradually they are being exposed for the lunatic fringe they really are and it will be delicious to watch them as the world turns against them and their woke, cultist, non reality stances.  They obviously didn't go to the right schools as their sort of behaviour was beaten out of them by the time they were 16 and if not, by the end of their first week or working in the wider world.

Sit back, grab your popcorn and enjoy the bottom falling out of their world in the next 5 to 10 years.  

Patience - Not My Best Trait

 Honing in on advertising keywords and the like is an iterative process and you cannot rush it.  Sometimes it yields great results and other (like today) zero results.  You have to logically go about it and you then learn from the results and then adjust and wait again.  It's only been 6 days and I'm half way through my budget spend and results have been mixed but that's the way it is.  If you knew the right way of going about it in the first place, you'd not need to hone in this way and of course I am dealing or competing with large well funded businesses with years of experience.

I am having to learn all over again the slow and methodical process of having a plan and following it.  Follow the process as I am wont to say.  I have to wait between 6 and 12 hours after each iteration to see the results, analyse them and tweak the settings.  Only 6 days (5 and a bit to be exact) and I have had more downloads in those days than in the 3 months previous so it is doing something.  It's getting the volume that is the next step and quality and quantity too.

You cannot rush it I have to continually remind myself and the USA / UK time difference is also a determining factor. 

Twenty Years Coming Up

 How utterly crazy is that?  It will be 20 years this July that I presented with Bladder Cancer and so close to 30% of my life I've lived with that although of course, in reality it was probably 2 or 3 years of treatment and operations followed with regular check ups until about three or four years ago when I finally got the nod and was discharged.

I find my mind turning to mortality more these days.  I suppose as you start losing your friends more often and your Christmas and Birthday card lists get smaller you tend to reflect on it.  I've got my Lasting Power of Attorneys sorted out and I must sit down and finish the wishes sections which are missing some final in depth details that I need to add.  This to make it easy to erase me from Social Media and to close down my civilian and social media lives!  

I might get wobbly around July it's always bad as so many things happened at the same time and in the same year and across the years it's been a funny old period of time.  My friend and I diagnosed around the same time,. certainly in Hospital around the same time might grab our traditional breakfast meeting and perhaps react like Samuel Pepys may have done when he yearly celebrated the "Cutting of Ye Stone"

Samuel Pepys' "cutting of the stone" refers to his successful, but agonizing, bladder stone surgery (lithotomy) in 1658, performed without anaesthetic by barber-surgeon Thomas Hollier, a notoriously risky procedure where he was strapped down as a surgeon made an incision in the perineum to remove the stone, a deeply traumatic event he celebrated annually for the rest of his life. 

I believe the stone itself was displayed during the festivities!  This was the surgeon who operated on my ancestor for the same problem.  We think that by the time he was operated on the surgeon's operating tools were septic and it eventually killed our man.  You cannot even begin to imagine the painful procedure - thank goodness most of my procedures were with anaesthetic (not all).

Anyway, not that I kept any souvenirs of my procedures so they will not be produced at the breakfast in question.

Now That's Interesting

 I've been working with AI on this Advertisement campaign.  It's been very interesting and I'm massively impressed with this "teamwork" as within 4 days trying various iterative keywords we have nailed it to getting really decent hits and downloads.  Because the sales data is disconnected by two days I cannot see if we have actually sold anything yet but the download rate is now excellent and interestingly yesterday alone I had more downloads in a day than I have had in three months!

What I like about this working with AI is that I can ask stupid questions and interact with it in such a ways as to have built what looks to be a successful campaign in just a few days adjusting and refining as we have gone along I am very impressed with the results so far.  If it converts to people buying then I will be happy but also I will be in a quandary as to what to do next.  I really didn't think that it would be this successful an exercise and so maybe, just maybe, it will bear some fruit 9 years after planting the seed!  Nice.

Will The Veil Fall From The Eyes Of The Masses?

 The unbelievable erosion of our way of life continues and the writing is on the wall for those who can lift their eyes from their doom scrolling mobiles long enough to read it and moreover understand it.

This morning's ONS stats showed a 0.3 or 0.1 % growth in GDP and was once again hailed as things aren't so bad it's all going to be OK.  Of course, look a little deeper and one part is showing a recovery from the JLR hack and so that is a correction but what disturbed me was the loss of construction contribution of 1.3%!  That's huge news.  We always used to say that you could work out how economically good or bad things were by the number of cranes over London.  Coming in on the train you could see it and working in that industry you knew things were tough or booming.  

It was also telling that you can feel something boiling under now.  More elections have been delayed, things are getting progressively bad in terms of free speech yet again.  The "be nice brigade" are being anything but nice and in many ways there are things going on that should not be happening in the UK.  Banning people coming into the country because they hold a differing opinion to the Government.  Our local water company has seen massive infrastructure issues lack or no water, treatment systems gone wrong, tens of thousands affected and questions asked whether they can provide new provision for the thousands of new homes proposed. 

It's all gone to hell in a handcart and it's no wonder that the people are beginning to stir.  These people have one job and they fail utterly to do it.  Keep the people safe and deliver services to protect and grow the nation.  They keep failing miserably, trying to fix stuff that isn't broken and then when they screw that up double down and screw it up further.  Utter shambles the lot of them.  They are so out of the depth on just about everything and incompetent doesn't even go part of the way in describing what it is like.  No plans, no clue, no vision, no ideas, no leadership just nothing an abyss of low IQ mediocrity.

But I still hear people coming out with their BBC headlines completely missing the point.  Follow the money, scratch the surface, chip away the thin already cracked veneer and gasp in horror at what these people have done and where they want to lead us. Dinosaurs led by Donkeys.  It's getting worse by the day and somewhere it has to be halted when the Emperor's New Clothes are exposed for what they are.  I feel a number of us are there before the remaining citizens.  We just need to drop our gaze from our TVs, mobile phones and devices to actually see what these people are doing destroying our once great country. 

More Evidence, If Any Were Required

 In a few areas.  Initially the Digital ID about turn from the Government and this wishy washy Prime Minister who wanted to turn us in to a "Ihre Papiere, bitte!"  state.  I think someone said it was the 11th about turn and he just doesn't appear to get it does he - or his amateur school ground MPs either.  Rather than fix the problems the country has, you've bought a bloody great digger and are trying to get to the bottom as fast as you can.  Total destruction and not one thing you can look to that matches their mantra of growth!

Secondly, my App isn't performing well either and so a decision will need to be made on that.  Perhaps a few more tweaks today and see how we go?  It's all data points for whether we go forward or shut down the business (I say we in the business sense in reality it is only me).

Edit - it is 13 U turns now and perhaps some more coming in.  His back benchers can see the writing on the wall and they must be getting furious correspondence from their constituents!  

Tuesday A Blues Day?

No, not this Tuesday it isn't although it is a quiet sort of morning.  The advert I set up yesterday doesn't appear to have done much at all really so it has been tweaked to see if any traction can be had from that.  It's important as it is an experiment on the App and whether it can be seen, downloaded and more overly bought by some of the people who download it.

It's the acid test really to see if it is going to be viable.  I need to have given it every chance to succeed before pursuing it or closing it down.  There aren't that many options left open to the business if no one sees it or buys it.

It's one of those things isn't it? It is out of my hands at the moment until the results arrive and frankly the overnight results were - well - nothing at all! So a few tweaks to see if the system needed a few more dollars spent to get it to activate.

I feel that I have given it enough in the past 9 years and so it only really remains to give it the final acid test and if people buy it, great and if they don't well I tried.  

Blue Monday Apparently

 follow the money!:

"Blue Monday, typically the third Monday in January, is popularly dubbed the "most depressing day of the year," a concept created for a travel company's PR stunt, not based in science, but it serves as a timely reminder to check on mental well-being during a gloomy winter period of post-holiday blues and bad weather."

My Monday is going to be a bit different I think.  I have some accounts to complete and then I am going to do some business analysis and do a short exercise in sales and advertising / marketing.  Having got a very few downloads I am going to try an experiment with paid product placement and see where that goes.  When the period of experimentation is up or I run out of £s to run it, I can review the success or failure rate and then it gives me the information I need to either go forward or rethink the whole venture.

I would imagine that either way will be interesting as an intellectual exercise but in the back of my mind I am coming around to the idea that if I close it down then I at least get my life back and can properly retire something that this has prevented.  But who knows?

Interesting Week Coming Up

 Today I am off for my Lodge meeting and I have a fair bit of work to do, tomorrow will be banking and doing my Treasurer bit and then on Monday I will do either the first or last thing with the business.  What do I mean by that?  Well it is a make or break exercise to determine if there really is a market for the App.  It will be an interesting exercise in an area that I am unfamiliar with and we will see if people like and more importantly will buy the App.  It is a freemium offering which means you can download and try for free and if you like it you can do in-App purchases but it isn't a subscription model.

Based on that exercise, I can determine if it is worth running the business or just pulling the plug on it.  Either way, it sets the direction for 2026.  In some ways it is a key moment as in my heart of hearts I've had enough of it and I really don't feel like going through all of hassle I've suffered this past 18 months or so.  

It may be that it is freedom calling and freeing me from any further obligation to people who 2 to 3 months ago didn't want me to run the company on their behalf.  I probably should have let them win then and sit back as it all fell apart as they have / had no idea what was setup and how to operate it.  It would have crashed and burned.  It will be what it will be of course and that will be that.

Over Compensation

 On Tuesday I was late to get to the Garage because of roadworks and I guess it was about 20 - 25  minutes delay.  I did get to the Dentist in time as I had planned extra time.  Not wishing to be caught out I left 1 hour for my journey to the Dentists today.  That would allow me say 30 to 45 minutes of delay and still get there in time.

You know what's coming next, of course.  I left with an hour to spare and I was through the traffic lights and the roadworks, parked and parking paid in 14 minutes. I was in the dentist reception as it was throwing it down with rain and windy just 50 minutes early!  I didn't stop for coffee or food like I might normally do as I am sure my Hygienist would not have appreciated it.

I would rather be early than late.  Anyway all was good and so a visit in 9 months to scale & polish so that's OK then.

More crazy stuff from our politicians.  If you are distrusted and despised, keep lying etc.  What would you do?  I think I'd be on some sort of charm offensive to win back support but no, not our lot, they continue to double and triple down on policies that are there just to spite us.  There's no reason to do them, they show complete disdain for us and it appears that they'd rather be the MP for Gaza or somewhere in Pakistan than actually roll their sleeves up, dirty their hands and look after their own constituents.  

They truly are a disgusting bunch of low life scum with little or no understanding where their loyalties lie.  They need to fix stuff here, most of which they've broken in the first place.  As I wrote to our recent Council consultation "If it ain't broke, don't fix it or try to make it better" because, they never do.  Pathetic meddling and interfering with our lives and freedoms and liberties will come to a head and then we will see which way up is.  My old boss used to put his stupid oar in where it wasn't needed.  My jobs were successful despite him not because of him.  I was forever repairing relationships with customers and firefighting where he had stuck his nose in where it wasn't wanted.  Best of all is where we lost a multi million pound contract and I got the potential customer to write to our Chairman about it and why through my boss's interference and stupidity they could not award the contract to us.  We were the preferred contractor until he gate crashed a meeting and then made an arse of himself in front of the customer.  How I didn't deck him as we left the meeting I don't know but the bollocking I gave him in the middle of the street was excellent.  

The top man called me into his office to tell me off for yelling and swearing at my boss.  So I explained my position and the huge loss of revenue and the circumstances and said a letter would be forthcoming about it.  I looked around for a new job and got it a few weeks later and left them to it.

Is That Any Way To Run A ####### Ballroom?

 The phrase "Is That Any Way To Run A ####### Ballroom?'" refers to the phrase that was part of a recurring comedic line, often delivered by one character to the other, usually involving the criticism: "Is that any way to run a ####### ballroom?" It was, of course, a phrase used by the alter egos of British comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (also known simply as "Pete and Dud"). 

Indeed the phrase comes to mind every time I hear or see a Labour politician these days.   Have they no idea how pathetic they sound, how disjointed their arguments are and how awful they appear to ordinary people?  They ignore evidence right under their noses, they argue that black is white and vice versa.  It's like listening to a child arguing and having no logical clear thinking.  It is as if none of them has ever actually tackled anything bigger than ordering a sausage roll from Greggs - even then, I'm not convinced they'd not burn their mouths when attempting to eat it.

The more they argue or try to communicate the more they dig a hole for themselves.  Nothing gets better and their continued appearance pissing on me and telling me it's raining, is wearing mighty thin and not only is patience running out with them but they are now so regularly awful that it is beginning to become apparent what a shambles these politicians are to the wider public (and it is about time people started to see through it).

The slow motion car crash has taken just 18 months (or thereabouts) to demonstrate that they have no ideas, no plan, no vision, dreadful communication and things are accelerating to a financial and social disaster.  They've already run out of other people's money.

My daughter is leaving the country for "a year or two" and I wonder if she will return?  That's a difficult thing, given my age and medical history.  She's not the only one who is leaving.  Those young enough and mobile enough are "Getting the hell out of Dodge!" It is difficult enough for them to get on the housing ladder and any hard work is rewarded by vicious theft via taxes and as usual ideology trumps hard work.  They never ever get it do they?  If you punish enterprise and ambition you get nowt, zilch, nada, nothing.  Socialism has never worked but those who voted that way are now learning that they really are scumbags.  They have no idea how the vast majority of us live, not a clue, the politics of envy they call it and this is right in your face, no shame, no pity and let's hope these evil gits are drummed out of office and shunned by all reasonable law abiding people. 

What Interesting Times We Inhabit

 I find it quite hilarious in some ways when we look at the current state of politics and generally any utility business and some of the people in local Government too.

You have (or had) one job!  But rather than spend our money wisely on the services we require, they go off on some crazy vanity project or squander money on stuff that isn't actually important.  I saw one council spending money on a mural, another on suggesting that flags some 15 metres in the air made it difficult for car drivers to see!  Really! Then there are the other pseudo science things - some 150 councils have signed up to Net Zero and are haemorrhaging our money on that.  Some are putting parking restrictions and parking fees and fines up so that anytime you park it costs you.  At the same time they wine on about no one visiting the town centres and blame it on online shopping.  I suppose that is true as I can get the same things with no parking fees, no hassle, no carrying for miles to get to my car and generally 10% or more cheaper.

All the while they stuff up business rates and make the place unattractive to visit, they continue to support minority groups with grants of our money and yet ask them to deliver the services we want and they look at you as if you are mad!  The do the basics well ethos has gone, no one is sacked for cocking stuff up and more often they are rewarded.  I see one councillor screwed up so often and conducted themselves in a less than professional way but got a New Year's Honours gong anyway.

The Water company boss who presided over a complete failure of the one job he has - to supply water to people gets away with a light slap on the wrist.  In all the years of privatization it appears that they forgot what their primary role was, there is no planning, no sort of contingency plans and everyone suffers as they just do not deliver what they said they should, what they are paid for!

It's a real nightmare watching the PM and the Government just digging themselves into holes and making things worse and then telling us that they are the adults in the room!  They have no idea and don't seem to realize that we can all see how awful they are. they command no respect whatsoever and just appear to be the best incompetence duffers of a bad bunch.  It's pathetic to watch them squabbling and weasel wording and still doing nothing.  They complain about stuff not realising that they, themselves, have the absolute power to change things.  Not a bloody clue.  The most hated politicians ever I'd suggest.  Yet they think they are the complete opposite!  

It's all falling down and crumbling before our eyes but they cannot see it, do not appear to even sense it.  I kind of hope that it does come as a complete surprise to them and they fall as only those who occupy high position and are totally clueless can into the fiery pit of public anger and outrage.  How these low IQ people ever got to power if beyond me.  These sorts at my old school were separated from those who could into classes that had low expectations of any achievements at all.  

Dentist & Car Brakes Mission Completed

 That sort of worked out OK, dropped the car off at the garage but delayed due to having to take OH to the station and then running into roadworks but a quick call and five minutes late seemed to be OK.  Then the Dentists who were running late anyway, a quick inspection but need to go back to check on a spot on the gums in a month and I'm back there on Friday for the Hygienist as well hopefully the traffic will be a little less but I know now so can plan for the delay.

Back home via the Butcher and Supermarket and so that's another chore done.  Boy was it cold and I had to divert to have a breakfast and then a coffee on my way back to the garage.  It is -6 or so and it felt every bit of that.  When I got in it started to snow but that appears to have passed through now.  

At least that's the big expense on my car out of the way.  The mice have returned by  the looks of things too, I thought I saw mouse poo and put the traps out and one presented for me to dispose of on arrival to the Kitchen and so I need to check it out regularly.  I was surprised we hadn't got any this year so far but I did have the holes in house filled last year because we had so many Mice.  Way over 40.  The Sheep have disappeared from the field again.  They have been doing the Hokey Cokey this past month or so.  

Anyway the New Year is busy to start which is probably a good thing.  

Gosh It's Cold Today

 A good few degrees minus I'd say and the small amount of snow we had on Friday remains where it is in the shade.  Another day of slow but steady progress today and alleluia the accounts balanced - I hate doing accounts and I'd almost got them to balance but the chap who audits them for me is really good at finding these little errors. I'd found one of the big ones (accruals are a pain in the nether regions).  A few odd typos and we were there.  Anyway, with those done I can get onto catching up with another set of accounts and seeing how they do.  Hopefully it should be easier now.

My other accounts are done and so I just need to tidy those up and hopefully I can do that later this week.

I really do feel cold though, my hands particularly as I am typing away and the whole house feels bitterly cold.  I need to make sure I wrap up warm tomorrow as I need to take my car in to get its brakes fixed and whilst that is happening I can go to the dentist about 15 minute walk away but I imagine it will be pretty chilly walking through the industrial estate and the High Street. 

Next week is make or break with the business.  Whilst I'd set myself a target of March - sales are non-existent and actual downloads are in single figures - double if you include last years.  At least I will be able to make a decision based on some hard business facts and then will have to face the reality of it all.  

That's The Ticket

 A bit at a time and small steps works.  I have just done a few hours work on the business and in just over a week I go for a trial to see if I can drum up any interest at all as sales are sluggish to say the least but the competition is quite fierce but my model is different.  That needs my full attention and so it is a week and a bit away as there are cars to be fixed, dentist and hygienist to see as well as some other pressing jobs.

It is kind of make or break in a way to see if I can get the sales moving and it requires a little investment (speculate to accumulate) and so a short term experiment is required.  It will determine whether or not to pursue the business.  At least it will give me some ideas of where it is headed and whether to close it or not.

It's perishing cold outside and bringing in the bins was a chilly affair.  My hands still aren't warm and I've been in for half an hour!

Anyway, quite pleased that I have at least got some constructive work done and will be able to do some more this afternoon. 

I Cannot Get Going Again Today

 It's one of those things I suppose.  I want to get tucked into some work and getting things done and I just cannot get motivated at all.  I don't get it.  I have a list of stuff to do and yet three hours in I have only achieved one thing and that's it.  I go to start, get distracted, nothing gets done. Crazy. Actually two things. 

Mind you it is cold today and my fingers are freezing, overnight snow but mostly melted now and just not a lot to get me motivated.  Having said that I have actually done a few things on my listing but mainly the easiest things there is other stuff to tackle.  

Elephant eating is required and I will attempt to do that by breaking stuff into bite sized chunks.  Here goes, once more into the breach...

It's Not Easy Trying To Get Yourself Up

I think once you#ve dug yourself into the rut you are in it is quite difficult to get back out of it.  You know you need to do it but somehow, just letting it all wash over you for another hour or day is OK even if you feel bad about letting that happen.

Of course, these things cannot happen overnight and take time but I observe myself just wasting my time and deciding to play a game of Solitaire rather than getting on with what i need to do to break free.

It's a slow process and I will get there it will just take time and effort and determination to achieve it.  At least the first hurdle is out of the way - there's no more beer in the house and it was all too easy to pour a drink, watch YouTube and wallow in my depression.  I need to set to and start to tick these tasks off of my to-do list.  I managed to do some quite complex tasks and finish them before Christmas so it is achievable, I just need to settle down, get distracted less and do it.

Roll On 2026

New Year's Day. It's just another day but you can treat it as a milestone and make various changes.  I am making a few changes and the business is the first one to attempt and then my health as I cannot quite believe how much weight I have put on in the last month so I will get back on track with that.  I am not drinking either and ceremonially drank my last beer just before midnight.

It's make or break on the business and in July it is 20 years since the Bladder Cancer presented itself.  If nothing else I need to make myself fit again and to stop injuring myself with alcohol and the wrong food.  

Moving forward is the way to go without doubt but I still have the odd flash back and regrets about the past but there's nothing that can be done about those and so I will be working more on that too.  I have too many ups and downs and it needn't be so.  I think too much and get lost in endless analytical loops.