Interesting Prospect Upcoming

 The rise in Oil Heating Oil (Kerosene) is going to be problematic.  Why, I hear you ask? well unlike other fuel / energy Gas and Electric - you pay in advance and generally you future buy 3 to 6 months worth and it isn't a monthly in arrears transaction.  In my case it has gone from around 55p +VAT at 5% per litre and you have to order a minimum of 500 litres.  In a couple of weeks since the Iran conflict it has risen to £1.34 +5% per litre!

Considering I get just over £1,000 per month for my pension to fill 500 litres would take around 70% of that in one hit.  Sure it will last me 3 months maybe but consider that just last month it would have been 28% of my pension and you can see what an impact this will have.

Ah ha I hear you say but the Government are going to put £53 Million into a pot so we can be helped out.  Yes but I'd probably have to be on some form of benefit to get any assistance so it's probably not going to happen.  Bring back Covid lock down when it was 18p a litre and we could fill our socks LOL  No, not really but look at the jump in price.

Anyway, I suppose it is lucky it is coming into Spring and Summer when we use less.  I do feel sorry for those who's budgets are shot to pieces by this conflict though.  If only we had our own resources in the UK?  Wait, what? You poured concrete into the well heads, blew up the power stations and raised taxes to the point where it was economical to supply our won fuel and you stopped any further exploration deeming it better to buy the stuff extracted from the very same fields via Norway.

Foot shooting in extremis by successive politicians / governments who clamber for our votes.  Complete tossers the lot of them.  Luckily though, they aren't affected by their own decisions! 

Off We Jolly Well Go

 So the company accounts are completed and approved, signed off and delivered.  Sending them off to the Shareholders - I wonder what they'll make of them?  Of course these are from last year - they do not know that the business has effectively closed and that will become evident in a few weeks time when I will once again and I hope, for the final time, write to tell them.  

I felt a little nervous printing it all off to be sent but then again, it is what it is and they can go argue with the Accountant if they want.  I suppose they could argue with me but that will go nowhere and maybe they can try some other nonsense but let's see what happens.  I think one of them will kick off but it's no use kicking off with me as to all intents and purposes the company is no more, isn't trading and will soon not have a bank account or anything.  Good luck with that sonny Jim.  I have taken just about enough sh1t from him anyway and it's a shame that we can't settle this in the old fashioned way you know, like a duel of something LOL.  Frankly back in the day for being that annoying to me I think I would have set to and verbally abused him and then I recall that actually I did verbally abuse him!  He completely deserved that of course.

Anyway we are on the slope away now and that I hope will end this bitter nastiness.  People are strange when they fulfil their self fulfilling prophecies.  They self destruct and then blame everyone except themselves!  Well good riddance to bad rubbish!  

An Awkward Conversation With Mum

 My brother is an interesting character he's far more "emotional" than I am and added to that he reacts differently.  It was Mother's Day yesterday and I spoke to my mum on this video link I set up with here - years ago and so we see each other like that most of the time.  She was a little bit down and as she said, she's getting close to 89 now and I think she is doing great for her age but she is having ore mobility issues and so the flat has been upgraded with aids to help her get about.  The main problem is her joints are extremely painful and so every now and again she gets down and I think I would too as it takes ages to get dressed and to go anywhere.

So after I'd spoken to her my brother called me and was pretty upset that she was behaving differently and was so down - I can only guess that a few of her phrases were shocking to him but he should know her.  She's just in pain a lot.  He didn't take my Dad's death too well either and that's just the way he is.  Anyway I spoke to her again today and she was feeling a lot better and it was just a low blip as anyone might have as your mobility goes away from you and you become more conscious of it.  

It's not difficult for me just to ask my mum how its going and how is she and all that.  I'm going to arrange to go up and see her a bit more often as the cr@p of the business disappears away from my day to day.

I'm just waiting for the Accountant now so I can sort out the death throes of the business.  Once done I am free of all the rubbish and can walk away from it.  It's been a week and I am happily not involved in its administration apart from the paperwork to close it down.  Hurrah!  

A Little Outing Yesterday

 We meet 6 times a year and it was nice to go out for lunch and just enjoy the company of some friendly people.  Fascinating to be with people who are around 20 years older than us and listen to their trials and tribulations and realise that, I suppose, I'll be there soon!  They are around my mother's age I'd guess, late 80s.  

It was nice to get out and have a meal and a few zero alcohol Guinness which is possible one of the best low alcohol beers.  I though this would be nice to do it a bit more regularly and I've already set up a meeting with an old colleague of mine in April that I am looking forward to immensely.

 Here, in stupid land, we watch the government of the day continue to lie and weasel their way around things and all the time, we watch the utter levels of denial expressed by these people and the complete lack of disaster or risk planning available.  The Chancellor was faced with GDP growth figures of 0.1% for January and with all the turmoil in the Middle East  said something along the lines of "Our economic strategy is beginning to bear fruit" or some such other bollocks.  Our heating oil has more than doubled in 2 weeks.  That's doubled to way over £1.25 or more per litre, plus VAT at 5% and I paid close to 50p just a month or so ago!  Petrol and Diesel too have risen and so there's going to be an impact to the economy, even I can tell you that LOL.  We closed down most of our capabilities to be self sufficient in energy and as usual, the need to be seen to be cutting carbon (FFS) outweighs the safety and security of the very people who you are meant to keep safe and secure. 

I suppose they don't see it coming and just keep bring in ideas that piss off the electorate, make it difficult for us to live or earn a living, our bills have doubled and if I fill up my heating tank today that will be half, YES half of my pension this month just for 500 litres of fuel.  Actually it will be 2/3 rds of my pension just for heating in my house! 

In other news, the gale force winds and the rain were horrendous yesertday and the phone went off at about 00:30 this morning.  When I answered they were giving us advance notice that a power cut was imminent.  It did come eventually some 30 minutes later.  Luckily I have UPS sets for the computers and servers but the PC draws so much it switched off before I could, wake up, find a torch and struggle downstairs.  The Servers though were fine so at least I didn't have the surge problems we had a year and a bit ago!

Coming to terms with being a pensioner and being retired is funny - come on it's only day 4 LOL.  I have at least done something useful today with some finance spreadsheets and there's some Grand Prix action on TV later.  No doubt I'll be gawking at our useless PM and wondering whether he is lying every odd or every even word?  

Dismantling The Business

There isn't much to do in reality because it isn't a mega business, it has me in it, some shareholders, granted, but their input is minuscule, sub atomic in reality.  So there isn't much to close down.  A Bank Account, The websites, the emails, finalise the accounts, file those, do the Tax returns and switch off the lights on the way out.

There's a twinge of failure but I've documented everything I've done and dotted the "i"s and crossed the "t"s as the saying goes.  The contractual elements are few and sorted.  If you haven't got anyone buying your stuff, you haven't got a business and that's the bottom line, you cannot magic up stuff, you cannot argue with the situation because it is exactly what it is.  It's more profound than that even when the figures are reviewed.  In 5 months we didn't sell a thing despite over 180K views, circa 700+ Taps and 160+ downloads and no one wanted to buy it so it's a product not meeting the price-to-value expectation. 

You just know there's going to be someone who will try and argue about those figures - there always is.  But of course, they can argue but facts is facts.  

Anyway, all under way and it's quicker to tear it down than the 9 years its taken to build it.

How Utterly Bizarre

 Gosh, what a strange feeling.  I spoke to the Accountant this morning and worked out my timetable and suddenly, there's next to nothing left to do but wait.  My day after that has been empty - albeit I made some bread and wrote a few things down.  I suppose I'll get over this emptiness and not knowing quite what to do with myself.

It's a bit strange thinking what to do next because this has come as a bit of a shock.  There's some waiting to be done for sure and then a short burst of activity and that should be that, the business will close and everything can be archived and that's it.  It's not the first time I've shut a business down but it will be the last time I expect and this one is a little more complex but not overly so and I suddenly feel at a loss.  It's quite peculiar really.  I guess that happens in real life when you retire and stop working.

No doubt I will get used to it but for the moment it is a little disturbing to say the least.  I have things to do but I'm just not used to having the time and space to actually do them.  I hadn't really planned for this sudden loss of business activity.  

Who Did You Work With?

I came across a few names that reminded me of work colleagues of the past and it reminded me of how much I'd erased from my mind.  By that I mean when I was reminded I knew the names but not always where from.

I spent sometime, perhaps 14 or 15 years ago now destroying the past as I was finding it a real burden and my thoughts were all caught up with what I had and had not done.  One night I had had enough and somehow erased everything.  I imagine it is somewhere in this blog, I'd been reading either 'The Power of Now' or 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle and I'd got to a point that I no longer wanted all that baggage and bang that was it.  

If I get reminded of something I can remember parts of it but it no longer invades my mind like it used to.  An entry in a diary or the odd thought (I am writing an autobiography which triggers some things) and as I write this I recall someone I worked with in 1980! I need a name or picture to do this whereas I used to be able to tell you who I worked with but now it is only anecdotal based on specific memories good or bad.  The downside is that I look at people in old photos and struggle to recall who they were, why I took them and I should have labelled them really LOL. 

I think it is a good thing that my head is clear from all those years ago, you wouldn't have liked the utter turmoil and the constant regrets and what ifs that I went through before getting rid of it all.  It was bad and I occasionally get the flash backs and what ifs but recognize them for what they are and stop the thoughts short if I can.  Not always easy when something triggers it but at least it is very occasional now not all the time like it was.   

I Didn't Expect To Feel This Empty

 Now this is strange. I feel empty and of course, the thing that has occupied me is at an end.  I no longer need to be doing the daily advertising stuff I've done for about 3 or 4 months now nor all the other build up stuff, sales and marketing, competition analysis and so on.

Most of the things that need to be done are in process or I've done them.  A chat with the Accountant tomorrow and resolve what needs to happen to shut it all down, follow the process and hit the deadlines and there we are.  

But it is the looking around and not doing anything that is totally strange - after 9 years on this and other projects and there it is - space, emptiness and not being sure what to do with my mind and my hands :-)

I suppose I will get used to it.  It gives me time to do the things I wanted to do but procrastinated about LOL.  

Also strange that this bloke's crazy reactions to situations is a potential threat but I need to remember that he's the one with the problem, not me and I have the paperwork to throw back if he gets shirty again.  If that's all I have to worry about then it's no problems I suppose. 

New Day, New Dawn

 Maybe.  The deed is done and I've withdrawn to App from sale and closed down the website and so on. Contacted the Accountant which will take it to the next step and then we can shut it down and I can hopefully live happily ever after.

You just know that the other guy is going to be snidely about it but that's his problem.  It won't be mine - I've gone above and beyond to deliver his idea dodging his accusations and other libels too.

Anyway, that can all disappear and with it this last weird thing in my body and mind that tells me I owe people something.  It has been with me these past years that I somehow have them all on first call and "owe" them some sort of allegiance even though they never appear to owe me any?  As a Director, of course, I owe all the shareholders a duty of care and shortly that will be gone, thank God!

Then I owe allegiance only to myself.

As Nina Simone sang:

"Birds flying high, you know how I feel
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel 

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life for me, yeah
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life for me, ooh

And I'm feeling good!"

Yeah - roll on freedom from all this sh1t!      

Stroke Of A Pen

Well, an email actually and we are no longer trading and in the midst of shutting down the business.  A few clicks on the website portals and 9 year's work has been archived and that, as they say, is that.

My Accountant needs to call me back but other than that, the key elements have been disappeared - websites, shop fronts and so on.  That's the way it is and I'm hopeful that it shouldn't now be too difficult to move things on a bit and get to the end of this journey.

I feel that I have now done my bit and taken it to a logical conclusion.  There's no where to go with this anymore here but I am handing back all of the IP to it's rightful owner although through gritted teeth as he gave me (and might still do) a hard time after walking away from the project!  Oh well, it takes all sorts of course.

So there we have it, I did feel a slight wobble about it but then again.  It cannot continue making no money and that's a fact.  I have had to do what I have, end of.  He may not see it like that but he never understood some of the business side so maybe he won't understand this.  Unicorn farts and magic money trees do not occur in business.

The Day Before Tomorrow

 The inevitable decision approaches and it will be 5 months tomorrow and that neatness allows me to stop trading with 5 months data before me.  It probably isn't that important in all reality but it works in terms of my mind and how that operates.  It maybe OCD or ADHD or something but it's logical and neat in my mind.

I'll have the data to make this important decision and the whole thing looks scientific.  I'll produce a report and analytics (Get AI to help you with this bit) and it will prove positive that the market is not there.  There's been so much work that has gone into this that it should have a fitting postmortem / autopsy and a headstone.  It is there in case the other party should ever ask for it.  Hopefully he won't but it is there nonetheless.

Would it have ever reached the market had it been on time?  We will never know.  When I tell people not to fix things if they aren't broken it is for a very good reason.  When I said get it to market, if it sells then you can add new bits to it because customers are funding it but OH NO! they didn't listen and 8 years late is what you get and then only half a job too.  I actually have the original App on an old device and it is a tiny bit different to what we have now.  All that extra money and time got us.... nowhere but you can't reason with some people and you cannot change the past.  Here we are, another business that failed to get off the ground and that's the way of it.

My own business was killed by COVID and the bailing out of other businesses but not mine as it didn't qualify.  Having just invested 6 month advertising and marketing I was greeted with lock-down, no money and no customers as they were locked down too. It's just the way it is and there's nothing you can do about it.  It was going OK but not great but it was so heavily impacted that it never recovered as all of my seed money was spent with no business from that investment!  Hey ho.

So tomorrow morning and I imagine for a few days I will be taking the necessary steps to shut it down.  Basically you cease trading and that means exactly that. I need to back the business out of its arrangements and inform various people and secure the money we do have in the Bank and a series of actions.  It shouldn't take long as there isn't much there.

I feel OK about it, I've guessed this would be the outcome and I've invested some of my own money to prove it. In so far as it matters, the testing of the marketing system was necessary as I have now exhausted all avenues to make a go of it short of knocking on doors.  People are happy to download the App but not to pay for it.  A shame but the market decides not me.

And It Came To Pass

 There is a certain amount of worry that making a decision comes with and as I get older I get less courageous in my decisions and actions - not that I was particularly courageous when I was younger I guess.   

I have to make a decision about the business.  I know exactly what that decision is and yet there's a niggle at the back of my mind about it but there shouldn't be at all.  It is in fact the logical, rational and proper decision to make, to close the business.  It's not the pride of that either, there's no pride in losing money or trying to defy the forces of financial inevitability.  I just know that someone is going to kick off about it.  I suppose he can do that but in reality neither he nor I can stop the certainty that if the business carries on it will go insolvent and no one wants that.

So my fiduciary duty of care is to shut it down and to do that now (well on Monday).  It's done then and that's a fact.  I suppose people can argue about it but the facts from the data show that it will never make money and so that in itself could be tabled but why the hell should it be?  There's been no input from these people only the hurling of brickbats - I don't think they can really do anything as it stands.

At least this period of the journey will come to and end and then I can just tidy up the outstanding items and move on.  

Decision Time Beckons

 I am going to spend the weekend immersed in Rugby and F1 and in that time, I will see if the App's fortunes improve.  I kind of doubt it having given it every possible chance to thrive and paying for the privilege.  I have to say that I have found AI most helpful in doing some of the heavy lifting for me and it's been like having a small back office working for me.  Some of the computational stuff would have taken me hours but it's been done in seconds.

Despite that and the massive improvement in people looking and downloading the bottom line is that no one is actually purchasing it.  The amount of downloads is now significant and so I can but give it one more chance to flourish over the weekend when more people are active and come Monday, I am pretty certain that I will need to shut it down.

Lots of people think that is sad and I suppose it is in a way but not everything makes it to market no matter how good your idea or product might be.  That's just the way of it.  

It will mark an end to my active involvement with business leaving just one dormant business that sits there ready for the right opportunity.  That means, in a month or two I get my life back and this can all be archived and put behind me.  It does feel like a weight being lifted especially all the sh1t they put me through.  

So Monday morning it is going to be simple mathematics - how many downloads and how many sales, what's the ROI and can we afford to keep going.  I can then commence with the necessary paperwork to close it all down and who knows? Live happily ever after LOL!  

I've known for some weeks in reality where this was heading and I just needed to execute my exit strategy.  

Logic Versus Security

The first duty of Government surely must be the safety and welfare of the people who voted for you and who pay for you.

Safety and security go hand in hand and so why have they undermined our energy supplies?  Surely they must have thought about this, it's happened before when there were supply issues 2022 and in the 1970s I remember it being bad wondering whether my petrol would last long enough to get home after a long trip - luckily a kind garage forecourt man let me have a few gallons extra.

But what I mean is to show our virtue off we have cut off our very own get out of jail free card.  We didn't mothball out power stations, we blew them up, we virtually stopped our own gas and oil production and we have great quality coal under our feet to this day.  So right now we are seeing huge spikes in our fuel prices - our heating oil (kerosene) has gone from around 55p/litre to almost double that and some are paying more like £1.28 I saw yesterday.

If we are reliant on other people for our fuels yet we have out own supply that we've shut down you'd have thought heads would roll?  No, of course not its all done for CO2!  Politicians still cannot work out that the whole world is fuelled by oil and gas they think it's all Unicorn farts and Fairy dust obviously.  When are we going to get anyone in charge who understands their portfolio and doesn't put us all at risk.  A huge chunk of the population, like us, are reliant on reasonably priced heating kerosene and they've doubled our costs overnight because they don't do risk management.

Braveheart Freedom

 Well kind of I suppose.  Freedom beckons and come April I think I will be pretty much feed up from the shackles of this business that has sucked around 9 years of my life without giving me anything much back in return!  It's a shame really that it wasn't more rewarding but when you deal with incoherent, ignorant ungrateful fools, this is what happens.  I have legal responsibilities and they don't they can go on their merry way tripping you up and making life difficult all the while basking in their self righteousness and Philistine Pig ignorance!

But soon, that will be gone and there will be none of this left.  It can disappear back into the ether from whence it came and the chains can come off and I can recapture that time somehow.

Looking forward to not having to dread the post arriving or anything else like that.  

It Comes Back To Bite You

The level of incompetence in the ruling class is breathtaking in the extreme.  With the Iranian war going on, fuel prices (heating oil) have jumped over 50% in a few days.  I understand that Petrol and Diesel are jumping and luckily when I was out at the weekend I filled my tank at about the lowest rate I've seen form months.

So our Business Secretary says we must "double down" on our Carbon Neutral Targets!  What planet is this man on?  The punishment is already a huge element of tax for now scientific reason or benefit other than filling the coffers of the fat bureaucrats.  We stopped our own Oil and Gas industry and now we are facing the very thing we have all been saying that if supply from abroad that we now fully rely on starts to dry up where are you going to get your supplies from?  The stuff is right underneath our feet but is ignored in place of importing it from abroad! 

The folly of it all and these imbeciles in government just don't appear to have thought it all through.  You security relies on many things and keeping the lights on is one of them and the more they tamper with its supply the more vulnerable the country becomes.  So concerned are they with pronouns and minutiae control of our everyday lives that they forget the very basics of keeping us safe.  And worse still the uneducated metropolitan elite want more of it.  They just cannot see how dangerous this all becomes as they eat away at our liberties, choose progressiveness of the woke kind and avert their eyes from the utter hell that they are building up for us.

We have turned the heating off and will use the log fire until this blows over (let's hope it does) and will just have to see what contingency plans these idiots in charge actually have.  I suppose the good news is that at times like this it brings the fifth columnists to the surface and more people get to see them for what they are.  

NHS Bucking Fonkers

 Send us your BP readings.  Done - they are slightly above the "recommended" 120 over 80 but apparently higher than the number of 120 over 80 that everybody in the world needs!!!

If you know - you know right.

So they've asked for the next 4 day's readings.  NP I can do that so I click the link and it's not 4 days worth it's 7 days twice a day.  The NHS clearly hasn't sorted this out at all has it.

So I will give 4 readings as they asked and they can whistle for the 14 readings that the link asks for.

I kind of wonder whether all 7 billion of us can all reach the 120 over 80 target?  

Lifting The Mood

 It's all doom and gloom out there at the moment - wars and conflicts, Labour government, and so on but here, the Sun is out for the second day in a row.  It has been grey, raining and gloomy for months but now a change in the Jet Stream (I guess) and weather patterns and the move towards lighter days as we turn to face the sun means that we have blossom everywhere in our Hedgerows particularly and the birds are getting pretty excited as I see nests appearing once again.  Lighter mornings and evening and my mood becomes lifted.

I struggle every year in Autumn and Winter and this year wasn't much different and I've had a couple of pretty depressing years.  I think that will all change soon.  I am almost certain that I will close the business and that will lift a huge weight off of me.  After a few months that should all just be a memory and I can get on with being retired.  Something ties me, like it always does, to try my best and keep working as if I am actually employed by some strange force.  Conditioning from the past perhaps.  

I need to "Get it our of my head!" that I am not an employee slave and whilst I have committed to trying to do my best, surely by now, I have done that?  It all needs to go away and I need to dedicate the remaining years to enjoying myself and my family - my grandchildren too I feel have been neglected and I need to work on that - not to put things right but to actually spend some time with them (if they want to) and doing some things for my family and for me.  I have done a lot for other people and generally had that thrown back in my face so now, let's go and do things for me!

It doesn't need to be anything huge either of course.  Just enjoy the independence and look after myself would be a good start.  

Shaking My Head In Disbelief

 I am probably not alone in wondering what has gotten into people's heads?  I am willing to accept people's opinions and free speech is a given albeit not for our government who dislike it intensely. No, I'm talking about people who's only apparent reaction to almost anything is to take offence, get upset and then double down on their own belief or shoulder chip. 

There's a heavy weight people carry around these days (the Pain Body as Eckhart Tolle would describe it) who's only form of interaction is to be offended or who have ideas that make no scientific or any other sort of sense.

Where were these people for example decrying regimes that existed on the back of piles of their populations killed for ideological reasons?  They weren't there then but now that something is happening that may redress the situation they scream out how unfair it is.  Why not tell that to all the dead, maimed and injured?  Then they become defence and foreign affairs spokesmen and proudly proclaim stuff from Facebook, X and Instagram what world leaders should do and how they should do it among other grievances and the naivety of it all does make me shake my head and wonder whether these people really mean it.  I suppose they do.

There used to be a rule when I was at work which was something along the lines of "Engage your brain before selecting gear"  I wish more people would just take a deep breath, work out what their point is and then say it having worked out what the consequences of their actions and more so, wishes are. 

Dawning Realisation

 I suppose it should come as no surprise to me least of all that the business just doesn't look like it will make it.  This Tuesday a big change will take place in the way things operate and in that change will be the very last chance to see if the App will make it.

So far, some of the signs have been encouraging but having now invested 4 times more than my original budget I am empty handed despite increasing numbers of people interested but, of course, interested doesn't mean buyers.

So I sat down last night and went through the plan for shutting it all down.  I could have done that over a year ago in reality but I wanted to make sure that this long-term project actually saw the light of day and if it had (or didn't have) potential.  The reality is that we don't have the capital like our competitors to flood the market and in many ways, whilst I could put my shoulder to the problem I no longer feel inclined to do so after the way I have been treated.

So with this big change I will give it a couple of weeks and if the fortunes do not change then shut it all down.  It's an easy process but a little complicated by other factors, easy enough to get over though I'd say. 

Perhaps I will strike it lucky and it will all come good but I don't think so.  The good news about shutting it all down would be that I can walk away and get my life back.  That would be great as I was surprised how much of my time this has taken up.  

Having worked on this for 9 years or so, I do feel a little pissed off that the chap who wanted all this assistance has turned on me, walking away and leaving me to it!  I just hope that he fades into the past and never darkens my door again. 

Interesting Times

 It's a strange old world and we've got another couple of wars to deal with in the interim.  We've had a wake up call or at least those of us who are interested in this sort of thing in the Gorton and Denton By Election. The Greens winning was perhaps inevitable but the style of the campaigning and the result should ring alarm bells a bit. The Greens do not seem to be the luvvies we were led to believe and have changed into a sort of far left of Attila the Hun sort of party.  It's a protest vote, of course and that's understandable given the complete shower of excrement we have a a government at the moment but it's how they went about their win that should worry people.  Quite a bit of the canvasing wasn't done in English.  The manner in which people voted is against the "rules" but they overturned the 6th safest seat for Labour demoting them to 3rd.

So it's pretty seismic I'd say, as the two uni-parties were in 3rd and 4th Places with Green in 1st and Reform in 2nd.  In 5th trailing in were the liberal democrats but they both must have lost their deposits as they were only in the hundreds of votes not the thousands.  

I think that people may be worried about this but it is a By Election and that is going to be different to a full election.  I also think that as a protest it works well but a party that wants opne borders, houses for illegals, legalizing Cannabis and Class A drugs, de-funding the police and so on aren't serious contenders.  Their stance on Middle East Politics will get them a certain % of the vote too but quite how they square the LQBTQ community with the Muslim community will be a very interesting mashup. 

What is for sure is that the old two party system has had a shakeup and a new left and new right are appearing.  It's all a bit bitter and squalid to my view and the ugly manner in which this campaign had been conducted doesn't bode well for the future.  I still look on with abject amazement and morbid curiosity as to why I'd want any of them in government at all?  The way this lot have behaved has been disgusting and their naivety is shocking.  Grab the popcorn, settle back and watch the horror show. 

Fix - Temporary

I fixed my door mirror and it will do for now.  It's a different colour but hey ho, it will do the job and at least keeps the water off of the electrics which were exposed.  A few of the lugs were smashed up so it didn't seat quite as neatly as I'd like but a small bit of Duck Tape seems to have held the snapped clip for now.

 I have to do a bit of Motorway driving tonight so that should prove the installation one way or the other.  It's a fix and whilst it looks a bit strange it will have to do as if I'd bothered my insurance company they'd have got me to pay the excess which is about £200 anyway so for £30 it will just have to do.  

It's a car not a work of art and so I don't mind it too much.  Years ago it would have bothered me.  It did with my old Jaguar with its lovely blue and white leather interior but I really like this Volvo, it is a working car and it gets dusty and dirty and is scratched where it rubs along the hedgerows, dirty as it bounces in and out of the potholes and it does its job perfectly.

I'm about to go out to meet some people.  Annoyingly it will cost me £12.50 for the privilege with this ULEZ crap payment and like everything else that is wrong in this country at the moment we all know it makes no difference to health or air quality at all.  It's about the money.  If it was about anything else they'd ban cars wouldn't they?  You can but hope the people of this country wake up from their sleep walking, realise that the magic money tree is in fact their own purses and wallets and do something about it!  After the By Election result last night you wonder what people are thinking?  The Green party are now anything but and a few of my local councillors are Old School environmentalists and their hearts are mostly in the right place.  This new incarnation is the nearest thing to communism dressed up as "be kinder" politics I have ever seen.  Let's see what happens - it looks a bit worrying to me.

 

So What Can I Find To Moan About Today

 Probably everything.  I used to say that we men only have two faults according to me Ex.  Everything we say and everything we do!  LOL.  

And so when you look at the performance of the political parties and the point scoring that was yesterday's PMQs all bluster and no substance, much as it has been for years now and then you look at the petty potty mouthed insults in the By Election happening today it makes you wonder why on earth anyone would vote for these people.  The sectarianism on display was breathtaking and the sheer hypocrisy of the name calling beggars belief.  We are in the schoolyard again, calling out words like "Racist" and so on.  What is going on?  Is that what it has come to these days?  As I've often said here, the weaponisation of words is these days perfectly acceptable.  It's just that and I like that someone actually promoting  sectarian politics is calling out the other party for doing exactly what they are doing?  I cannot remember the actual phrase this chap I once knew used to say, something along the lines of "They are exactly what they accuse you of being" 

They do not discuss their policies they witter on about far away lands, they produce their political leaflets and videos in other languages for those who do not speak English and so on.  If that doesn't boil your piss I don't know what else would.  The messages are unhinged and totally crazy.  One of the parties wants to legalise drugs, all of the drugs, Class A included.  It wants to teach kids how to take them properly.   It wants infant schoolkids to be able to "identify" as whatever gender they want (from 4 onwards).  Can't we let kids be kids anymore?  Then there's the open borders, de-fund the Police and give housing and benefits to illegal aliens.

This is their policy and people will vote for this.  Cast your eyes across the pond and see what that brings and yet people will vote for lawlessness and a return to the Wild West.  The world's gone mad.  Let's see what the results of this By Election turn up.  Sure, it can be seen as a protest vote but who wants to vote for something that will harm you in ways you know not.  The lunatics have taken over the asylum and whether we will be able to shake loose of the insanity currently befalling us remains to be seen. 

Facing Up To Facts

 I see the business in its final throes as I continue to experiment with getting paying customers, of which, so far there are none.  It could be that this is due to the reporting issue they found a couple of weeks back which isn't showing any sales at all.  So I have to come to terms with the fact that whilst people are downloading it now, no one is buying it. And inevitably that means, the business cannot support itself and neither can I continue to support it either much further.

There's only so much cash you can throw at something and the level of work I have put in and the cash injection to pay for the advertising system just isn't producing the results in purchases but is producing downloads.  Next week a new version of that comes into being and so I can give that a few weeks to see if anything improves.  Then of course, a decision needs to be made.  Should things pick up and we get purchases and dependent on how many of those versus the cost to obtain them is the calculation that's required.

I can only keep going if the money in is greater than the money out and if not, the business needs to close.  That's unfortunate but no need to be sentimental about it.  Ii know the chap that started it with me will be less than charitable but facts is facts and that's that. 

You get attached to "your baby" and want it to do well and flourish out in the wider world but either the market isn't right or you come up against some stiff opposition or as in our case we are very late to market by some 8 years of messing around and frankly not listening to me when I suggested to stop making unnecessary futile changes.  You put the thing out there, see if they like it, see if you grow your revenues and if changes are wanted (by customers not some vanity idea) you make the changes and can charge for them.  

Any-road, here we are, decision point coming in the next few weeks and a little bit of me would prefer it to close down so I can get my life back.  

Taxi Update

 Great so I get delayed to go pick up and as I drive through the village a Royal Mail Van driving like Lewis Hamilton on a Race weekend smashes into my mirror and wipes it out - it's notorious and normally I would wind my mirrors in but he came so fast that I had to emergency slow and he just kept going.

Of course I could go via insurance but the components are readily available and less than £50 so I'll do it myself (the excess on the insurance is in the hundreds).  Typical!

Taxi Service And Is It Just Me?

 I'm driving the OH around at the moment and of course, plans have changed and it's me that has to try and accommodate such changes even though I was booked for a specific time and have built MY day around those hours!  Lucky I got the call or I would be sitting outside the wrong place!

In other news why does this happen?  I just ordered £100+ from the Butcher and used my loyalty card points.  Order is confirmed and what's just arrived in my email?  Of course 20% off for the next two hours FFS!  It's not the first time either - it's just so annoying.  Maybe I'll check when these arrive and plan my shopping around the bigger discounts! 

Other than that I see the world has gone crazy with luvvies and all their caring and sharing and be nice stuff shown up for what it is as they did not understand what Tourettes Syndrome actually is even though it was one of the films in the awards!  The world went into ATomic Meltdown and with a little real love and understanding and a knowledge of what it is, they'd have realised quite how ugly and poisonous their shallow, vapid and superficial lives really are? 

These people who tell us what to do are Philistine pig ignorant benighted and worthy of the title "The Ignorati" I think that sums it up but I have other derogatory terms if you'd like? 

SO I'm hanging around now before I go and pick up in the rush hour, another blessing - Not!  AT least I've done something useful with AI today as I got it to detail out my financial calculations for the club subscriptions.  It was really useful as I brain dumped all the details and calculations, numbers, costs and so on and it was brilliant in allowing me to look at the figures in a different light.  I have to say that it was a real Godsend and once I had the figures resolved it produced a letter to go with the figures, back up rationale and a spreadsheet to use the next time too!  That saved me a good few hours. 

Leave Us/Me Alone

Woke up to the HMRC radio advert.  Unbelievably patronizing and it sounded all the world to me like a full on piss take.  We're changing so you need to do this.  They have gone from yearly accounts for sole traders and the like to quarterly reporting.  These are sole traders mind you and they are being forced to report quarterly like some USA corporation!  What is the actual point of it apart from making life even worse for them.  They have to pay to buy "approved software" so it has to be online now too.  

I cannot be alone in looking at these draconian rules which aren't made to do anything other than piss us off and benefit the lazy gits in the Civil Service and make out lives miserable.  Does anyone actually think it will increase revenues to the Government?  In fines maybe but who has the wherewithal to do this level of administration when you are a sole trader or self employed or a landlord? 

Some spreadsheet jockey has realised that it makes their lives easier and pushed the burden on to the working guy who has to purchase software and make more of his working week as an unpaid clerk to HMRC.  When IR35 arrived I took my foot off the throttle and shut down my business.  It was hard enough to run the business anyway.  You are responsible for your own sick pay and contrary to popular belief you paid taxes at a company and personal level and NI and with all that on your plate why bother?

I hate being told what to do or having decisions made for me.  If you do that you would find immense kick back.  We used to finish work at 4 p.m. on a Friday and often my arse of a boss would say there's a meeting the other side of London at 4:30 or some such and he'd do it to everyone.  My response would be along the lines of "Well you are going to be lonely" or variants to the same.  Don't book things until you ask me - he used to be as thick as mince on this stuff.  He may not have had a home life but come Friday evening, that was family time and so tough, you set up the meeting, you go to it.

Any such order that arrived was treated the same.  You don't make up your mind on what I will do. You don't take decisions in my name or setup anything without my say so.  It makes me angry just recalling these idiots,  On one occasion someone set up an 8 am meeting for me on Monday and emailed me at 6 on a Friday evening.  I drove into work which was around 150 miles away from the meeting.  Opened my email to see this "instruction".  First, he worked for me not vice versa so had no authority to do so and as I told him when I phoned him up, he has neither the authority to do that and what made him think that I can access emails from home?  Apparently he could.  When I explained how far away I was and that the meeting was to start in a few moments and that I had not made the meeting arrangements and that he had, he had better make the apologies.  I also asked him what was wrong with a telephone call to make the appointment.

I had a lot of trouble with him until I was able to get rid of him from my team.  So don't tell me what to do, don't arrange things that I am not party too and leave me alone.  

Knowing The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing

 "Knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" is a famous quote from Oscar Wilde's 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan, defining a cynic as someone focused solely on cost or monetary worth rather than intrinsic, emotional, or ethical value. It critiques materialism and a shallow, profit-driven society. 

It's something I come across quite a bit and no more so than someone who has no idea what goes on behind the scenes and is quick to trash the work undertaken with some idea in their head about what should happen based on their life experience in the business which, in layman's terms is the square root of sweet Fanny Adams!  

I used to find this when people queried how much my quotes were for certain projects and they could not get their heads around the fact that you cannot discount people costs.  You can possibly do it on capital equipment but I cannot reduce the people and get the same work done in the same amount of time.  I used to enjoy asking them which person we should lose from the team and what part of the project didn't they want delivered!  It's my fun facts time where surely it would be easier to have a baby that rather than a lady having to produce a bay in nine months we could get 9 ladies to do it in one month!

The other one was it takes a month to build one mile of motorway and so if you increase the workforce 30 fold you can do it in a day!  Flawed logic and it's impossible to actually achieve even if you were able to as you'd also need 30 times the machinery and all the materials to arrive in the correct order and in huge quantities.  Everyone would be getting in each others way and the overall logistics just could not achieve it.

In many ways this is how politicians appear to view the world, in a way modelled by home grown spreadsheets and an idealized view of their world.  They apply their own rules to things, not asking the experts if it is (MY favourite word comping up...) DO-ABLE.  Yes, can your idea actually be feasibly implemented and of course in 101 cases out of a 100 of course it can't.  

There's also the knock on effect.  input and output, cause and effect, impact on other projects and so on.  It's what I used to do planning at an Executive (Programme) level.  I used to watch their eyes glaze over as I spoke about the overall Programme rather than the individual projects that made up that Programme and how project managers (I used to be one so I know) and sponsors were focused only on their part of the overall scheme and had no cognizance of the other things going on around them unless they were delivering into one or more of those projects.

A delay in one project could cause problems across the whole spate of projects and cause bigger problems elsewhere.  A one week delay on an individual project could cause months of delays elsewhere.  Operating at their own project they could not see the whole thing but it did have an impact.  More often than not huge impacts could be caused by something very small at the project level.

How many times I had to explain this I've lost count.  There'd always be some smart arse with no connection to the overall programme ready to offer their 'considered opinion' and we often used the phrase to laugh at them "For every problem there is a solution that is simple, neat—and wrong!"

Is it worth explaining to these people the error of their ways?  I don't know, I'm tired of attempting to do so as they get all defensive and don't listen to the explanation anyway! 

Turtles All The Way Down?

 It's beginning to feel that way I think.  Just look at the complex situation where we find ourselves in and as we scratch the very outer surface of the huge almost unimaginable web of lies, corruption and deceit I think we all know that this is hardly all of it and that it goes very deep and to many layers of depravity that we cannot or are not allowed to see.

It should shake us to our very core but we are so used to these levels of depravity and corruption that it no longer shocks us.  The can of worms is perhaps an infinite number of cans of worms each as disgusting and sickening as the previous ones.  

Are we being fed a little at a time to make it acceptable?  Are we defending out own sanity by blocking this stuff out of our minds "well it hasn't affected me or my family?"  or is there something else at play here?  

What is more concerning is that these things involve children and again, can we really fathom out what is going on or what has happened and why is no one tackling it?  We aren't being told the half of it and how deep does this scumbaggery go?   

It looks bad from the little we know of it and I imagine as it is leaked out to us in snippets it won't look as bad as what it actually is.  

Choreographed Political Theatre

 Well imagine a press release all ready and waiting for something to happen?  Really?  Of course, things don't happen these days without the spin doctor's say so and this close choreography beats and synchronized Olympic event hands down. 

It should not surprise us in the slightest but I am certain that half of the public "buy it" and the rest of us roll our eyes towards the heavens and wonder when will they realise that half of us no longer listen to (or if we do don't believe) these propaganda press releases and related actions.

It's tiresome and see through.  It insults the intelligence and undermines democracy and trust in the very people who are meant to do our bidding rather than trying all the time to rule us.  They rarely  use words that mean they are meant to rule on our behalf and instead use words like power.  "When we get power", "When we are in power".

Talking of power we had two old ladies living not far from me both fined by local enforcement officers £300 each for the heinous crime of...... leaving a charity collection bag on their doorstep for the charity van to come and collect (as per the instructions on the bag).  Not lying on the pavement or in the road, no, one their very own doorsteps.  That's the shit head low life council for you.  We pay their wages, we vote them into power, they fine our old age pensioners on the spot the bastards, I feel utter contempt for these low life gits (as you might have guessed) and everything that is wrong in the UK now can be wrapped up in that one act!

I was involved in a pubic consultation last year about parking where I explained that if they were to introduce parking fees in this particular area that it was as easy to go park on the streets nearby as there were no parking restrictions there.  Did they listen? You know the answer as well as I do and guess what?  The local roads are now clogged up with people parking and it is causing local traffic issues - obviously and no one is using the car park as predicted.  Useless pricks the lot of them.  Why ask if you aren't going to listen and what we, the ordinary general public, who are loaded with real life experience, worldly hard earned from life's hard knocks and having to face these public servant made issues every bloody day?  

It's like everyone can see what the government's next failure is going to be before they do, what fiscal crap they publish, what the budget will mean and lo and behold it comes to pass as if by magic and is a huge surprise to them and yet we've all been saying it to them since the lauched their latest policy etc.

The whole thing is beyond a joke.  It's all spin and ideology with no risk reviews.  

As I often quote from the late Sir John Harvey Jones: “Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.”

Retirement - Decision Soon

 I found myself at it again the other day,  thinking that I needed to be doing something and of course, there really isn't anything to be doing.  There is and there isn't.

The App and my journey are continuing.  I have given it until March to see what happens and then I need to make a decision either to continue or close it down.  It would be nice for it to be winner but it isn't looking as if it will be based on improving views but no actual purchases.  I am surprised a bit as it is very different to other subscription Apps but it is what it is of course.  So perhaps in another month I will be able to make that decision.

I have things to do, of course, but I still have this sort of frozen impasse where I feel I should be doing something but I am not doing it (whatever it may be) and working out what to do with myself.  I'd like to be doing something more than I am doing now but there's getting the enthusiasm for it and this want to have a rest.  Just don't do anything at all but knowing me, that's not going to happen.  I can busy myself with hobbies but so many things these days have lost their joy and I cannot be bothered.  When I do get motivated well that's different of course but where is that old spark and how do I get out of the rut I am in? 

I find myself quite settled in my home and happy with my own company but really do want to get out and sort stuff out.  I suppose I will be able to work this all out in 4 or 5 weeks time?  I hope so.

I Like A Spreadsheet

 It is interesting that I have been using spreadsheets in one way or the other for 40 or more years.  When we got them in the late 80s electronically it was a revelation as before I had been handcrafting them for quotations and bills of quantities and so on.

I was often times laughed at for showing how we could at a stroke change things and try different formulae to arrive at different views of the truth and why actually some weren't to be trusted.  You can show a profit when there isn't one etc.

They are useful to back up written work and support  plans and designs.  And so I turn to stuff I will call it, that just gets presented as "The Truth" and has no data to back it up, no well worked argument with a rationale, experiment, conclusion etc.

Just a statement made and it is, in reality, just what someone thinks, or wants me and others to think.  You see it all the time on X and Facebook someone says something, states it as fact and it's an opinion piece at best.  Challenged they go into meltdown and rather than state how the y arrived at said conclusion that they've shared with me and the world, they YELL REALLY LOUDLY and cite that as proof 😊😊.  If that doesn't work you then call their parenthood into doubt or add words like denier or similar. There is a lot of this around.  

I can call a politician whatever I like and generally I reckon I could back that up with four or five examples of evidence to say it.  I saw today someone called a politician a Fascist.  Now Mussolini and Hitler could well be called that but a politician in the UK?  Even acting like a Fascist is taking things a bit extreme in reality.  They probably mean in some cases acting like a Dictator and even then that doesn't really hit the mark.  Being an outrageous knob on the other hand would fit if indeed they were doing what they are at the moment and as a previous post highlighted just making things worse as they thrash around trying to save their jobs and digging a deeper hole.

They haven't acted anything like a Fascist - it's just that the person commentating wants them to appear in a bad light.  At the moment everyone seems to be acting in their own interests and not those of the electorate - the people who give them power.  This faux outrage that their ideology is collapsing as most of these policies must appears to allow their supporters carte Blanche to attack everyone else but their own people. Built on sand, no ROI in any decision making, no attention to the risks on the other side of their Utopian dream and the damage their rainbow coloured world of unicorns and fairies actually inflicts in the real world where we actually live.  It's pathetic and so damaging to societal cohesion and to the country's finances. 

Anyway, I think I should demand the spreadsheet when they make these claims.  

What Can I Do Next? I Know, I'll Dig Myself A Deeper Hole!

 And so it came to pass that our micro brained leader pulled off yet another action that made him more hated and despised whilst declaring that it was good for the country.  Yes our PM signed up to yet another treacherous "agreement" that makes us poorer and then explains how good it is for us all that he's done it!

It's both funny and tragic at the same time.  They appear to learn nothing and miss the point entirely.  This is some climate change nonsense with the EU who are going down the toilet faster than us probably because we have the un-flush-able turd in charge! 

It's as if he really thinks, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that this will fix things when it does the opposite.  It makes him look more of a pratt than he already is and out of touch and frankly doomed - he really shouldn't be in post but believe it or not, he's the best that the Labour party have got.  God help us all!

In so many ways it is as if these guys are in some sort of warped Disney Film.  They think they are the heroes and they really need to stop, work out that everything in their own world is wrong and come out here, the other side of the sickly sweet "all is wonderful" fantasy world they appear to inhabit and see what it is like.  What it is really like.  They appear to have absolutely no idea and their ideology and "let them eat cake" attitude will bring them down.  I hope the fall from grace is massively painful for each and everyone of them.  They are the lice and fleas of the human race, parasitically clinging on and feeding off us free.  

It's difficult enough as it is and I see my new tax code has arrived which is how we deal with things now, tax the daylights out of us and pass the proceeds onto those who presently are living off of a dwindling number of people able to pay the tax to support them.  Unchecked they will of course kill off the host.  Perhaps that is what they want but they hasten their own doom in doing so.

Of course a lot of this stuff is going on to protect what is left of his weak and feeble premiership.  

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.