Disconnecting From The Matrix

 I enjoyed the Matrix films and the underlying messages and the more I think of it, the more I feel that somehow we ended up somewhere similar.

The constant push and pull of the MSM and if you have anything to do with X or Facebook indeed any social media you'll know that you are bombarded with messaging.  Here's an exercise for you.  Compare the headlines of an event and see the similarities in the way it is reported.  Look for common headlines and phrases within the article or report.  Ask why there are common phrases and headlines?

It's a complete assault on your senses and an insult to what intelligence we've got left after they've beaten it all out of us.  Do people think for themselves anymore?  Do people believe all that is fed to them?  The looks of horror when I mention the Covid debacle, the Climate Change Scam, the use of statistics and graphs to portray information that are clearly skewed to make a point and the use of percentages without backing data are some of the things that annoy the hell out of me but are held up as dogma or an axiom by those who accuse me of being "A Denier" which is pretty sh1tty way of closing down a conversation at the same time revisiting the horrific crimes of the Holocaust....

I feel that sometimes I am just p1ssing in the wind and I am also getting that awful problem as I get older of not wanting to argue anymore.  I try and discuss things in a scientific way but getting yelled down and also gang shouted down is also a bit tiring.

My friends, let's say 95% of them, hate Donald Trump.  None of these friends are American Citizens and none of them have been to or lived in the States.  They hate Elon Musk too, once again, I'm not sure what he has done to them either?  Surely they've all used PayPal at some time or other.  But here's the thing, they are convinced the planet is getting warmer yet they've lived as long as I have and our promised Mediterranean Climate has not materialized.  Far from it.  Whilst we don't suffer the cold winters of the 50s, 60s and 70s we don't have the heat of the 30s and 40s to contend with either.  

So why are they so invested into these things?  We are fed Trump and Musk hatred by our MSM.  We believe what we are told almost without any pursuit of the truth or attempt to understand the accuracy or efficacy of the data.  Let's take another truth that's been bent way out of shape.  Take Ukraine's President Zelensky, a comedian who came to power after the US got rid of his predecessor.  I'm not a Guardian reader but go and look at the headlines of that liberal left leaning paper and you'll see they were slagging off Ukraine for Nazi leanings and other underhand stuff.  It's all there on record and then, look at after the war and butter wouldn't melt would it?   So what changed from the short time it tool a sinner to become a saint?  

No one remembers the pre-war worry about the regime.  It's all a horse of a different colour again now.  It was also like watching "Drop The Dead Donkey" (If you know you know).  Blown up buildings with glass broken yet the cars in the car park hadn't been touched?  Stuff like that was all a bit strange.  Remember the Covid dropping down dead in the street films?  It was all too contrived, not believable and done for reasons perhaps to deaden your brain and make you take sides, frighten you and make you follow orders.  I'm waiting for our Government to "Make The Trains Run On Time"  which I believe was a sort of swipe at Benito Mussolini.  If we do manage it, I think I'll have to hunker down LOL.

Back on track with all this stuff going on, it actually "does my head in!" to go back to my Sarf London roots.  It does mess with my head as I feel half or more of the people I know are brainwashed with this torrent of propaganda and half truths wrapped up in easy 5 minute sound bites.  The TDS being shown is off the scale and do people really exhibit that sort of hatred or is it just somewhere to let off steam now we no longer have the Colosseum Gladiators, Feeding the Lions with slaves, Bread and Circuses?   We perhaps need our own 'Running Man' or 'Rollerball' to keep the masses entertained with violent outlets in the hope that after they have vented they will remain peaceful until the next gore fest?

So how can I disconnect from my own Matrix connection, break the cord and live a life without having the distraction of all this noise and bad stuff?  The temptation to go off grid is huge but you are still connected as your money is in the bank and your bills need to be paid and your credit cards (if you use them) identify where you are, what you spend your money on and so on.  Your mobile phone connects you to the grid too.

My mission has to be how can you disconnect and remain both connected and disconnected at the same time?  It's not going to happen but I do need to try and separate fact from fiction and try and move away from the small screen of scrolling doom, the propaganda machine emitted by my TV screen, the nonsense garbled out by the MSM and the constant pulls on my mind by all of these.  When none of these things existed, life was much easier and safer I feel.

Let my mind gymnastics begin! 

Running A Business In The UK

 You cannot seem to do it anymore not one that relies on people that is.  Not that it is the people you have to worry about (mainly) but the new rules and regulations.  Sold to everyone as help and assistance and growth in my world it is actually the opposite of all those things.

Strengthening the employees rights is all well and good but in strengthening those it weakens business still further.  In my business, I now plan to employ no one, no one at all.  The work, such as there is, would be done by me, my AI subscriptions and if I actually need people I will offshore it (onshore if possible but I'm not confident about that).

There are now penalties to employment that mean zero hours contracts are going to be banned, that worker's rights to various things like sickness and maternity pay are available immediately to all without any trial period or the usual qualifying period.  That sick pay is paid by the employer, not via the state.  National Insurance for employers has gone up, the threshold where these kick in has been lowered significantly and minimum wage has increased.  All at once, no phasing in and no consideration for the impact.

Small businesses and those who use lots of low paid workers including catering, hospitality and care homes, cleaners etc are all facing huge increases to their wage bills.  Larger businesses have already stated they will reduce headcount and consumers will see higher prices.  It will be interesting to see what happens to inflation based on that alone.

So, no employees for me then, it doesn't make any sense and the risk reward spreadsheet is looking a little less encouraging.  If you invest your own money that's already attracted tax into a venture and it fails do you get your stake back or part of it?  Of course not but make it a success and you pay punitive taxes for your trouble.

I see that Companies House is recording record company wind ups.  Not surprising really.  These changes appear to come on on the next Tax year which is less than a month away and so perhaps we will see something happening then?  Growth has contracted and if you look at the adjusted figures not the headline ones, the ones adjusted after the published ones you'll see that most are revised downwards.  One is to three decimal places and probably only there to show, technically, that we are not in recession.  

Luckily I am not in the position many small businesses are in.  If I were I'd have to be looking long and hard about ever taking on new employees.  A new employee could, I imagine, report for work the first day and then go on long term sick and you'd have to pay them for as long as that took and no access to compensation for the loss of money and productivity.  Who, in their right mind, is going to do that?

I cannot for one minute think this is sustainable.  You would never employ anyone.  Their simplistic view that AI can do everything is so short of the mark as to be laughable.  I wonder when they'll see the error of their ways?  When the economy starts to flat line and unemployment starts to become a problem I imagine.  "They" say there are a million job vacancies and they've molly coddled the work shy introducing sitting on your arse all day acceptable during the Covid debacle so now you can sit at home with a declared condition and get paid for the privilege of doing so, moves to tackle that are met with howls of derision.  Good luck with all of that then.

For my part, I just need to stop the thieving bastards pick-pocketing my money and falsely claiming that my pension is a benefit despite me having paid in for 50 years to earn it.  I am glad that I don't have to employ anyone for my business, other than sub contractors.  It's the cost of everything going up though that will impact us all.  

Time To Blame Everyone But Yourself

 I see Rachel Thieves is playing the victim and it's all Trump and world forces that are stunting growth and blah blah blah.

She has the most irritating voice (actually most of them do) that sounds as if she could tell you all the Tram numbers and all the stops and the frequency of journeys on each line including Bank Holidays!  There's nothing remotely likeable and everyone else is at fault apart from her over the economic downturn.  She might be able to add up but that's where it ends.  None of these lot seem to consider the world outside and its impact on us.  They don't seem to appreciate qite how it all goes together and they like to think that they are in charge and if the say something it somehow magically happens.

I recall working with an organization where the story told was one of riches beyond dreams, huge amounts of money could be generated by what was, back then, a rival for the accounting business we see today and online invoice and payment systems.  BUT and here's the but, no one worked hard enough to make it happen so blinded were they with the £ssss that they took their eye off the ball and delivered a bad implementation that didn't work and everyone was left wondering why.  If you want to make money, you have to actually put some effort in.

It's all down to you too.  All this "external forces" and blaming other people is wearing a bit thin now.  You have the power, you have control and if you did something and it's not working who do you think is to blame, somebody thousands of miles away?  They had a choice to free up bureaucracy, lower tax burdens and go for growth (that's what they said, but like previous socialists they think the way to do this is to tax their way out of a problem.  Time and time again, their answer has been to drain the citizens who work and give it to those who do not, or squander it on foreign wet dreams.

The level of insular naivety is off the chart with these people, none of them can hold an audience, they have little or no charisma.  When they open their whining mouths all that comes out is lies, deceit, lack of real world thinking and bollocks and bullsh1t.  Awful dregs of self righteous, snivelling, thick, not thought out drivel.  

When I was working these were the sort of people that I dismissed from meetings and sent them back to their managers with an accurate appraisal of their usefulness to the business.  Waste of Oxygen, like a four pack of beer without the plastic thing that holds them together, depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.  You can't do that sort of thing these days but none of them would have lasted more than a few minutes in my teams.  People knew what to expect in my organization and those who preformed well did very well and were rewarded appropriately.  Those who turned up, unorganized, to make up the numbers, were sent packing.  My meetings we have you delivered what you said? Yes or No?  There is no excuse, it is either yes or no, no maybe.  If you couldn't live in that professional environment you were sent back to your manager.

So to hear all the excuses coming out shows the calibre of these chancers (for that is what they are) and it doesn't stop there.  They are showing really bad management in committee and other areas of Government too.  Just look at the Assisted Dying Bill and how that is chaired railroading through something as important as that and not allowing interested groups to be involved, riding roughshod over people's concerns and taking away the safeguards.  They deserve to be sacked for treating this Bill in such light terms when it needs proper review and all thoughts and ideas reviewed.  Of 80 (yes 80) amendments put forward only 1 is accepted and put forward.   We deserve proper professional MPs not this shower of sh1t.

And The Moral Of The Story Is......

 Get AI to help you do little things that make a difference and do write to complaints departments and be helpful and constructive.

Case One: I put in a security complaint about a rogue trader who was phishing and it was only when I viewed the transaction that I realised.  So I spoke to security, filled in a form and head nothing back - zilch.  So I rang after 6 months and they asked me to redo the form etc.  On both occasions I got an acknowledgement.  I waited another 6 months and then wrote (old fashioned letter) to the complaints department.  I used AI to help me make it a concerned formal letter but not nasty just factual as I was concerned that the trader might still be at it!  Phone call this morning,  very sorry that it's fallen off the radar.  Compensation £100.  

Case Two:  I bought some hearing filters/noise reducers and I've used them a few times now in place of my hearing aids.  They work OK and help in noisy environments to hear what people are saying.  The manufacturer asked me to review these and I just did but asked AI to assist as I wanted to add a little humour as I noticed that they had reduced in price in the last month since I bought them.  So the review said how good they were but that it was tinged with sadness as I'd paid a lot more for them than the price on the review page :-) They refunded me within 5 minutes the difference.  How good is that?

Case Three: I specifically order something that was priced as a dual pack (I wanted 2 not 1) and rather than get next day or two day delivery waited for the two weeks to get the dual pack.  Of course, just one arrived.  I complained, explained the situation all nice and calmly and factually and explained this and lo and behold.  Full refund and please keep the single one we sent you.

It doesn't take long to make the complaint and if it's factual and you aren't yelling a shouting or demanding you'll generally get some sort of resolution.  It's often better than you would have thought and if you don't ask, you don't get.

The Immunisation Of Our Senses

 We are constantly bombarded with news and views, images of atrocities, disasters and bad things.  It never ends does it?

Relentlessly wearing away at our inherent good nature and optimistic outlook on life we become immune after a while and it's all just dramatic bad news and gets worse every day.

I don't know if it is designed that way to wear us down or perhaps stuff is just that bad?  We appears to be run by morons too which doesn't help.  Apparently there's a plan.  A La Baldrick in Black Adder I imagine and I doubt it involves Turnips of any kind unless they too can be taxed at 100%.  Light is faster than sound which is why Ed Milliband always appears to be out of synchronisation and what's with the adenoidal voices these politicians have?  What's that all about are they really speaking down their noses at me or are they attempting to be the person at school who knew all the bus numbers and could tell you all the stops on route?

So - I am thinking about how I can disconnect from all of this stuff?  I did this a few years back now and just took a rest from social media other than just acknowledging birthdays.  I think that's worth doing again.  I haven't touched Twitter (my personal account) since then as it was fuelling almost a paranoia in me about things.  Full on conspiracy theorist even if most of it was based with one foot in fact.

I'm retired apart from the one project and I have time to do things but I still don't motivate myself about it.  There's big problems in my head about getting my arse into gear and doing something.  I find it difficult to actually motivate myself as many things do not interest me anymore which I find kind of sad.  I'm happy to sit here at the keyboard and at my desk doing nothing (really) rather than getting myself up, out and about.  I can do things but I just don't feel the need.

That's for me to work on and perhaps disconnection from the bombardment of my senses is the way forward.  I do tend not to watch the news and TV so much so maybe that will help me to break free?  O hope so, I know the problem, I just need to address it. 

Please Just Leave Me Alone

 It's just sickening that politicians in particular just want to f**k up your life.  Listening to Ed Millipede and the Ginger Growler yesterday telling us how well off we are going to be as they ride roughshod over people's objections and concerns was dreadful, if I ever wanted to smack someone in the mush it was him yesterday.  They have absolutely no idea what they are doing, are as thick as mince or pig sh1t if you like and lord it over us making us poorer whilst at the same time telling me that it's all good for me.

Utter heartless bastards and unbelievably ignorant too.  Who in their right mind thinks they can control the climate FFS!  Really?? You can turn the climate control knob when you haven't got much of a knob yourself?  What an utter prat.  These people are deluded if they really think that they can somehow do this. These are the alchemists of the 21st Century who can change dog poo into gold or something like that.  Completely deranged and a product of a system that rewards failure by appointing them into some high office of state!  What a mess we are in if this is the best we have.

Then there's Rachel (from accounts) Thieves who's found out that economics isn't something you can learn in evening class and unleash your homework on the public, the country and the world.  The economic chimera is yet to truly bite us - it's coming and only a month or two away.  The spite and ideological stance they take, the vitriol and hatred of the people they are meant to serve will haunt them and destroy the very thing they wanted because they are too full of venom and bile to realise that the actions they are taking are diametrically different to those they wanted.

Trump's plans are not going to help either and the miscalculations on our energy policies, heavy taxation on employment, penalising entrepreneurship, punishing working people and others in society will be the undoing of our country.  Some homework for you is to look into China's 20 year (or even ten year) growth and understand the BRICs countries power now and the size of their markets.  They are pretty much self reliant and they no longer use the US Dollar exclusively so much is hidden away.  We have outsourced almost everything to them.  The only industry they do not lead in is Aerospace but watch the next 10 years as they will catch up and overtake.

Then look at their control of key minerals - the stuff that things are built with and realise that they now use most of it and do not export them anymore.  So rare earths and things like gallium and the likes are held within their own system  The stuff that the west needs is becoming rarer and therefore more expensive and only available from unfriendly countries.  It's frightening that we argue over going green and net zero and the emerging market world aren't bothered apart from providing us with said products that we use to virtue signal our race to the bottom.  Why does no one understand the peril we are in and do something about it?  I have no idea why our leaders are so f*****g dumb?  

We have tied one hand behind our backs, made building a business in the UK unsustainable, penalised people for being successful, hammered them and us with taxes, almost impossible working conditions, stealth taxes and gotchas everywhere.  High prices, high transport costs for rubbish service, high energy, straight jacket regulations, non secure borders, high crime, huge public service bills which deliver no benefits to the majority etc.  Full foot shooting sort of stuff. We have blinkered, low IQ, career politicians who cannot see the "big picture" nor can they see the sucker punch incoming which will wreck our lives and our country.  And still "the people" happily feed on a diet of Stars on Ice (or whatever it's called), Strictly, Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders. They bend there heads to the great Smartphone and immerse Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the like and believe it to be reality.

We've even got politicians that feel they want to "Poke The Bear"  and put our troops on the border with Russia (what the hell was the United Nations for if not that?).  We can't stop people invading out own country let alone help protect another thousands of miles away.  I think they've alienated all but the people they say they represent and the die hard socialists.  I imagine they'll be coming for them too with this Spring Statement so let's see how they like it?  Thieving bastards the lot of them. 

So leave me the f**k alone.  I've paid into the system for years and my reward for putting savings by for my retirement is for them to fiscally drag me into paying more tax when using my savings, limiting by ability to make gains on my already taxed money and trying to tax the arse of my transport costs when not providing any alternative.  These damn townies think we've all got a bus stop on our doorstep, mains sewage (we don't), gas (we don't), a train station nearby (45 minutes walk on a good day for me). I could go on but I imagine you get the picture.  Somehow we need to break the general apathy in this country and get some anger building against what are, in fact, our servants.  They haven't proved themselves fit to kiss my feet and I've no time for any of them.  Wake up UK or you might just find we will be sold off to the highest bidder.

Whatever Happened To Peaceful Protest?

 I saw today that people are using Molotov cocktails and have shot at Tesla property.  Apparently they are incensed that Elon Musk, who is a major shareholder in the company is doing work on behalf of the US Government.  Since when is this acceptable?  If you have a grievance surely you write or email and complain, grab a placard and join a peaceful demonstration and do all of your protesting within the law.   

Your case might be justified in your own mind but to make it weaponised is crazy, do any of you thik that you could actually cause harm to other citizens?  Do people not think out their actions?  Not that we are allowed weapons or Molotov cocktails here in the UK but on what planet do these people exist?  It surely isn't adult, grown up, behaviour is it?  Protest if you must but don't put the safety of other at risk nor destroy people's livelihoods etc.

We had a riot many years ago where a number of people lost their jobs as a large shop was burnt down.  Do they not care about others?  Is it acceptable?  OK so those caught had the book thrown at them and rightly so.  Some where sons and daughters of very well to do families but that didn't help them escape a stay in prison.

So, why do people get enraged about what's going on?  From the little I see, the DOGE outfit have uncovered corruption, maladministration, jobs for the boys, money laundering across the world and other good works (sarc).  So do people believe that these excesses, spending tax payer dollars to shady individuals and countries are good value to the US Tax paying public?  I suppose if you were a recipient you'd be a bit upset that the gravy train had stopped.  But it doesn't make sense.  Is it that the quantum of the problem has been exposed, the curtain pulled down on the system?  IS it the shock and therefore the denial stage they are going through?

If you are familiar with Kubler Ross you might see some sort of pattern here in the grief cycle.  We often used this when we were making major corporate changes and it was very much how things would go.  Not everyone is affected in the same way.  You can also use this in terms of illness too - I refer to it a number of times with my cancer journey.

I wonder if the world has turned upside down for them and they are in the denial stage at the moment?  Who enjoys being wrong?  Their anger is making them not think through the consequences of their actions.  Their whole world and ideals have been turned upside down and maybe there's that.  It reminds me of the comedy sketch where this line was used:

The sudden realization that you might in fact be on the wrong side of history.  Is that what is causing this stupidity of action, fighting a rear guard against common sense which appears to have gone on its vacation for a good few years and may, only slowly, be returning? 

Whatever drives people to make bad decisions I have no idea.  The medicine isn't going down to well in the UK either as protesters do ever dafter things.  The general public seem hell bent on getting involved in the distraction that is Trump's State Visit and wanting to prolong a war that's taking countless lives.  I just don't get it.  Any rational person should have stopped all of this but we don't do rational rather the opposite, we shut down the world for a cold and now staring huge financial meltdown in the near future blame something else other than our own leader's incompetence and downright cowardice not to mention the depth of corruption that has underscored it.  

Look where the money goes.  Does it improve the lot of the citizen?  Do the institutions getting that money improve or become fit for purpose or do the just bloat out and provide a further enlarged service with more people employed than ever and less people treated than ever?

These things cannot be solved without some heavy drastic action.  It's the sort of stuff my colleagues and I used to do we can see the problems but politicians only want to throw money without result at it.  Throwing good money after bad doesn't sort it out, people get angry and don't like the change that is needed either.  The general level of ignorance and belief in the propaganda of our public service is surprising considering how nothing works like it should.  People resist the thing that would save their institutions because they don't like change and let's take for example the health service, would not want to see it privately run and yet some of the very best are privately run and you only need to look to the near continent to see this.  Why do we have health tourists now going outside the UK?  

Anyway, let's hope the liberals finally come to their senses.  I imagine there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the Spring Statement arrives and we find out how much more of our money the government are coming for.  When it rips out money from your pocket and your wallet you tend to then arrive at the right conclusion and smell the coffee all at once. 

Re imagining The Past

 I remember a foreman who worked for me complaining that his wife had made them late for Bingo (I had no idea that this quite fierce character played Bingo) and that, if they had been on time they would have won the jackpot but the couple just in front of them did.  A few moments earlier?  Does fate work that way? I'm not entirely convinced it does.  Like the chap next to you that won a raffle prize.  If I'd have been sold those tickets before him, would I have won?  Probably not.  

It's an interesting puzzle that just recently has been cursing my brain.  My mind is quite something in that it is always computing things and I haven't really learned to stop it doing that - I can, for a short while, but it's what I do, it's how my mind works.  Being an INTJ will do that.  I have stopped worrying about the past.  Some years ago I destroyed all of the negative thoughts in my head but there's a residue at the moment and it is to do with meeting and messaging old friends from 50 years ago.

One, it turns out, lived around the corner from me in both locations I lived in.  I only met him once in all that time at the stations one day.  It wasn't my normal train journey and he recognised me not vice versa.   All that time, many decades, walking past each others houses, even going to the same pub we never bumped into each other - we could well have been on the same train, in the same pub, supermarket etc but never met!  So I found that very strange as surely in all those years we would have bumped into each other but if we weren't looking to do that or were occupied elsewhere it wouldn't happen.  Ships passing in the night so to speak.  

Then my brain started doing other stuff and what ifs.  This was around whether, had things been different, I'd have ended up with a lady that I was close to as I discussed a few posts ago.  We hung around together, went to Paris together (in a small group), went to parties, concerts and so on.  So if things had been different?  She sent over a photo of her now and I could feel my reaction to it.  But that didn't happen, it wasn't to be and that's the annoying thing really about my mind.  Here we are, it cannot be anything but what it is now.  Would meeting up now somehow even things out, could now be the beginning of what didn't happen then?  It's a complete waste of grey cells and synapses but that's what my mind is computing.

I can dream about these things, run over in my head why certain things didn't happen at the time, another friend of mine and I had an "Interesting" evening together but nothing ever came of that or thereafter. What if? 

The bottom line is, of course, none of that can be changed at all.  It was a long time ago and we all went our different ways and we lived our separate lives not knowing what the other was up to after the point we lost touch.  If it was to be, it would have happened.  This hankering for nostalgia is probably part of my writing my memories down for genealogy purposes if nothing else. And yet, my brain wants to work out what sort of life we would have had together and is curious about that.  It's a little bit creepy too if I'm honest.  

What? The Whole Section

 Got a text from my friend over from Bulgaria - he flies in for a meeting four times a year to Luton, he's been travelling for hours already to get here.  On arrival, the whole rail network in that area of the country is down - you can't get from the airport to anywhere except by replacement bus!  Normally there's a train into London and on to us but no, not today.

How utterly annoying is that, that's the whole weekend and his travel plans are such and timings in place mean that he may not get to us at all.If I was to set out now it would take me a few hours to reach him and by then he may have made it someway towards London! 

I fear we are becoming a third world country as it just seems to get worse.  I recall the odd disruption but shutting down huge swathes.  It's disappointing as he may not even make it now - if it takes too long he will have to turn around and go back to catch his flight home!

I see that not only Luton but Stansted are also affected - that's both airports north of London.  Who plans this stuff?

Getting It Just RIght

 I have a toast to deliver tomorrow, a short speech and it needs to be short and sweet and hit the right note.  It's more of an introduction for the response to the toast which I am certain will be extremely good as the chap is a great raconteur.  Me?  I'm OK but tomorrow will be a little less off the cuff just to keep things on track!

Delighted that AI can come to the rescue on things like this.  If there's a bit you're not happy with you can get it churned around with AI which is great as it can smooth things out or can lighten the tone etc.  It's good like that.

I'm going to practice it a few times and hopefully it will all come good on the day. 

Not Being Able To Do What You Used To Be Able To Do

NO! Not that!

Something else.  For most of my working life I've been able to do most things practically.  Working on my cars, plumbing, electrics (trained electrician), brickwork, rendering, landscaping, fencing, glazing, you probably get the picture.  Being trained as a sparks, you actually learn a lot more including carpentry and so DIY and being practical are all part of things I've done and probably saved myself loads.

I took one look at the re-pointing and brickwork needed and knew I needed someone to do it for me.  My body wouldn't have stood up to all the hard work - it took two guys two and a half days to do it so I guessed that it would have taken me about a week and a half but I just knew, deep inside, that I would have ended up with a bad back, very sore knees and aching everywhere.

Age creeps up on you and suddenly you are the same age as old people.  My last major project - the driveway gates which are each over 2 metres wide and 1.8 metres tall showed me how unfit I am and also the limitations of my powers.  I had a bad back and knees from that but also noticed I got Trigger Finger which took about 3 months to get over and very painful it was too.  Having to use splints to help the repair!

I have a back and knee braces to assist and planting in the garden or any strenuous work needs to be thought through so I don't hurt or injure myself.

It's asking others to do something for you that I also find difficult although I know that they are OK with it, not being able to do something is actually an injury to your pride as much as anything.  I have a loose tap but I am not flexible enough to get behind the unit and tighten it up.  I know that A is and he's done it before and is happy to do it yet I feel like I'm some sort of burden and a failure for not being able to do it myself. It's blindingly obvious that this should happen but your mind says you can do it and your body informs you otherwise!

I see now how difficult it is to ask for help or assistance.  Very difficult indeed.  You want to do all this stuff yourself but physically, you can no longer mover mountains, leap tall buildings, catch bullets with your teeth and so on.  

Wanted - A Strong Programme Manager

 The last half of my life's work was sorting out other people's problems.  You'd have thought that all possible mistakes could have been made and by now controlled and managed.  The vast annals of programme and project failures would have been documented and lessons learned.

Not a bit of it.  It kept me employed for years and years but today I doubt I'd be in a job very long as I'd probably upset too many people and they'd all be off with some sort of PTSD or some other such.

So on an occasion I answered a plea from a customer who's projects and overall programme were just a mess.  The usual suspects, no formal specification, no measurable goals, over budget, uncontrolled change and no gelling team work, blah blah blah.  They were in a bit of a state and I did my usual thing of saying that I'd take a week or two to analyse what was going on and then bring it back on line.

Doing due diligence is key and interviewing everyone, getting the documents together and sorting out things like Programme Office and so on.  You find out a lot when you interview people.  Those who have something to hide, those who are downright hostile, those who haven't got a clue, those who lack management or financial ability and so on.

The picture comes together and it can be all sorts of things including lack of proper management and support etc., culture or lack of it, company politics etc.  After a period of time you come up with a plan. It can be shock and awe, it can be subtle like moving key personnel, it can also be hiring and firing and it can also be a realignment of individuals or the whole team.

When you act after planning it all out there needs to be a strong direction, fairness and some sort of measurement of your actions and as well as the team.  It's all basic stuff but it is fair, proportionate (to what you've found) and decisive.

So on the particular job I'm talking about.  A few £million off target and overspent, I made some sweeping changes.  Team members were sacked, some were reassigned and some were sent back to their departments with explanations as to why they were no longer part of the programme or projects underneath it.  The whole programme was tightened up and made measurable and areas where risks or gaps were discovered were to be reviewed by a new technical and management panel of various good people who would be a steering group if you like.

The impact was startling and the shock was felt around the business.  I recall having a difficult conversation with some of the people outside of the programme who were not expecting me to have gone in so fast and so deep cutting away the "Infected areas" and opening the programme up.  Did you want a strong programme manager to stop haemorrhaging money, get the programme back on track, take out the internal problems stopping it being delivered or not?  You could see how uncomfortable they were and you could see the internal politics at work.  Long term people had lost their jobs or been reassigned, my sponsor knew what I was doing but they really disliked the impact shocks.

Did they want to never get finished and continue to lose money, have lots of infighting, tie up their resources for months and years?  No but they didn't like what had to be done to do it.

Goes back to what things happen in the real world.  Stuff at the present needs to happen and the threats are already here and have been for a decade or more.  Start to look at the economic issues brought about from foot shooting political decisions and then plot the rise of India and china and the BRICs group.  There's very little left that we produce ourselves and that we do is under threat through blind ideology.  

The medicine tastes horrible but the disease really will give you a cold that will last a lifetime.  Me?  I'm p1ssing in the wind when I tell people what a power house China and India actually are and we are heading headlong into finding out. FAFO. 

Near And Yet So Far

I had noted that my friends of 50+ years were far more centrist or left of my views.  We have a meet up of old school friends and a very old school chum came along.  We haven't seen him for 50 years or so.  Crazily he lived around the corner from two of us (twice as he also lived near me in my first house).  In 50 years I only met him once at the station very briefly! 

We all had very different jobs but I was surprised at the vitriol for President Trump.  I looked at some of the hatred and wondered why they hated him so much.  He's got some horrendous problems in the US to deal with and funding a war thousands of miles away using his voter's money cannot be a popular policy along with the waste and other problems he has to tackle.  The soaring debts and imbalances are being tackled - not to everyone's liking but the medicine is intentionally bitter if he is to save the patient.  But my friends don't like the man himself.

They did not vote for him, the don't live there, they don't have an inkling of the problems he needs to tackle.  Being an INTJ of course, I do not understand the need for people to be likeable, I certainly wasn't (probably I'm still not).  I cannot deal with fools or these sort of ad hominem attacks based on nothing other than whether you like someone or not.  The sort of people who do this are the worst sort of decision makers or workers you can have I've found for they do things based on feelings and liberal ideals of the world and are often surprised that the fail, often spectacularly as their ideas crash and burn out of nowhere and they are left blinking at the wreckage wondering, "How did this happen?"

From the church going people there, it was the worst kind of wish too.  How can you wish someone, the winner of the popular vote, who is there to MAGA, the evil end they were discussing.  Then they were off on their fantasy of him becoming a dictator blah blah. Normal sensible people off on a rant about something they know little about.  I would have expected better given they took in a refugee family who then proceeded to trash their house!  Mmmm.

Oh well, we are each entitled to our opinions and I guess they can have theirs but I changed the subject rather than pile in with what I know and how the game (if it is that) is played.  I used similar tactics if needed in my professional life, especially when the boss was being an idiot.  Want to change someone's behaviour?  Either hit them in their pocket, screw up their management figures or make them stand out for some other reason.  A change in policy that is stupid can be combated by following the new rules to the tee whilst previously have warned in writing what might happen.  Stuff turns around fast when the boss attracts his boss's attention.

There's a plan, it's being followed whether we like it or not.  We know nothing of what is going on at the highest levels and it's best at the moment to watch it unfold.  It's not how we are used to and it's not always pretty but it seems to work.  If we don't understand the fundamental reasons why this is all going on, then we probably don't have the right to comment or criticize.  Follow the money, always.

Look Over There - Squirrel!

 Is there a lot of distraction techniques being used at the moment?  We look in one direction and are told to look in another.  We've got a row brewing over Ukraine and we are distracted towards that.  The TDS is surprisingly big in the UK, I cannot fathom out why because surely we can take a better look at the USA and see what actual home problems they have and are dealing with?  We worry about out £3 Trillion debt - have a look at theirs. 

I quite like the idea that we are providing assurances over securing the borders of a country that is 2000 miles away when we cannot even secure our own borders less than 60 miles from London!  Shocking stuff and to my mind, it seems a little hollow.  This government and many of its members were happy to see members of our armed forces prosecuted for carrying out orders of their government.  So why would anyone go to war for these people?  I like that someone suggested that if they do that all politicians should give up their children first to go fight and show us a good example.  It was also interesting to see how many would fight if it came to it and there's very little appetite for it.  

Whilst our man is trying to appear all statesman like and diplomatic he's overseeing the destruction of his own country and still we shake our heads and watch the car crash continuing.  Draw all the snippets of economic news together for yourself, the MSM won't tell you and in fact are still toeing the party line on many areas.  Look at food inflation, energy prices, sales of vehicles and general sales, savings and investments and job figures.  All you can see is that every action is having the opposite effect that is wanted.  The Laffer Curve in full observational view and statistics and data are beginning to mount up.

Why can a layman see this?  I think it is that these people are too near the problem and are trying to fix a problem at the coal face not doing the big picture stuff.  It was my biggest learning coming away from a technical problem solving person to a manager.  As a techie I could see the problem and I could fix it at the macro level.  In general terms that's what is happening here but a fix here will have an unwanted outcome elsewhere.  

The big picture should allow you to see the whole problem, the impacts and risks involved in taking a certain action.  Mitigating actions, likely outcomes, you know, good management practice.  And yet they don't appear to have approached this like that at all.  They weren't expecting the level of push back the impact on jobs and prices.  Their lack of vision will badly affect us all and their parochial approach will be their undoing.  

I recall the last Labour Government and their IR35 assault on contractors and businesses.  We altered our business to fall outside these measures and worked out an exit plan so we maximized our business for a short while and then shut it down and did something else.  It killed off thousands of businesses and meant that prices went up, tax income went down.  Good people left and went to work abroad draining us of some elite IT people.  That's what it is like.

The lack of incentives to build a business, employ people, pay tax etc will change our behaviour, it must do, what's the point in taking a business risk if someone just comes along and takes your money from you?  Not worth it is it?  My little business, now severely under threat, will not employ anyone in this country at all given the new laws coming in nor will we use contractors in the UK.  The normal admin required can be brought in from abroad at a decent price and low risk.

So whilst we are all looking this way, something else is happening in the other direction.... 

SQUIRREL! 

We Still Do Not See Through It.

 I'm sure many do but why is it that we speak to authority on things we know little about and additionally haven't looked at from outside of our own perspective.  Outside of our own comfort zone and our own bias?

Because it is difficult to do so I imagine.  We aren't exactly taught to do this unless you've had a scientific or perhaps a historian's training?  I don't know, maybe some other disciplines too (philosophy maybe)?  What I mean is to take a problem and to work out all the angles and to analyse what it is that needs solving (or doesn't) and to come up with a strategy (or strategies preferably) to tackle it, if it is in your remit to do so. 

I cannot solve the world's problems nor can I work out how they came about nor who is right and wrong (if there has to be a right and wrong).  I can just make the sweeping statements as all others do about how to go about things but I find that often I am on the minority side of such things.  Let's take Ukraine as an example.  I think I said just after it started what on earth are we all doing and why aren't the powers that be investigating how to mediate and find a peaceful solution.  It's like me going in against a professional boxer and expecting to win.  I might last a few rounds but I'd be permanently damaged and for what purpose?

Not a great analogy I'll agree.  But here's the upshot of all of this.  Where is the money going, what happened to all the equipment?  Who's profiting from all of this?  But worse than that is the cost in human lives, the misery and the pain, the long term damage to the countries involved.  It seems no one cares about that and happily the supporting governments pour our taxes into the killing of our fellow citizens in the name of progress and democracy.  Where's the diplomatic effort been hiding?  

The sh1tshow between the EU and USA is an interesting place to observe the demonstrable in your face nationalism on display, the flexing of muscle and the flashing of cash but what are you all doing?  Sort it out FFS.  Surely we don't think that it is in our gift to sort this out?  I see we've signed off more billions in loans when we don't really have and still it's going to be a US/Russia settlement as we are all too busy looking at our belly buttons and playing one-up-man-ship to each other in some bizarre ghoulish game. 

As mush as we try to be relevant our country and our economy are going through the cramp and pains of stagnation and deterioration but are we doing anything about it?  No, we are racing to the bottom and have bough a few shovels so that when we get there, to the bottom, we can start to dig further!  We've lost sight of our car crash even though to act now they could at least prevent it or make the impact worse.  No they've pushed their foot on the accelerator of death!

Not all, but many Facebook friends are "Standing with the Ukraine" but are they willing to send their children there?  Are they f**k!  Of course they don't want that but their present stance is exactly that.  In the Mike Tyson's "Everyone has a plan until they get hit!" world, what are these normally sane people actually proposing to do?  They appear to have TDS driving their actions and how he has managed to get under their skin is still a mystery to me.

My friends are now experts in international politics, US politics, socio-economic theory and so on.  I miss the good old days when they were experts on virology and microbiology but not so good on logic, figures and statistics (which they still aren't).  

So when I say that we do not see through all of this I mean that stuff goes on way above our pay-grade and I imagine way above those of the EU who's socialist experiment is now exposed and who present themselves globally as crying weak twats.  They are being played and manipulated so that they dance to a tune that they are not fully aware of the origin nor the underlying melody, which they think is theirs but is in fact written and used carefully by another actor.  Every step choreographed to make it look like they are exercising free will and in defiance to the tunes author and composer.

Maybe we will realise where our place is in all of this.  For the moment it feels like they are the little bullied child in the playground left with the threat that "My dad's bigger than your dad" My friends are busy changing profile pictures to flags and candles in the hope these will make a difference other than to mark them out for the virtue signalling they gravitate towards.  Quoting a Democratic party source or a X thread as justification for a continuation of war along with all the other stuff you can do.  My favourite is quoting the BBC News as proof of a point they are making not understanding that that institution is currently going through it's death throes and  is approaching it's own bunker of failure in the not too distant future. 

Asked whether I saw the Brits / Golden Globes / Oscars etc etc ad nauseam I am delighted to say that I haven't seen these now for decades I think.  If you want to see what is wrong in the world and you have a particularly good stomach for such things, then just look at the sort of people it attracts, the false images of those who pretend to be someone else as a profession telling you how to live your life whilst they prance about and proclaim world politics from their position of being, well, actors.  Yea, right.  If you see through that charade, imagine what the rest of the world show is like.  

The Interpretation Of Facts And Figures

 I should have paid more attention during school / college.  Well, luckily I did, more so at college and later on.  I love that meme where the chaps dying breath is "I got through my whole life without using Algebra!"  Or did you?

But here's the thing, go to say, Facebook or X or your <insert favourite social media or MSM here> and start to look at what they are actually showing you and dissect the data you are given.

Today, I saw a map of the UK and on it were coloured dots of all the windfarms, solar panels and so on.  It was a pretty messy thing and the dots overlapped and blotted out large areas.  No one questioned the blindingly obvious which is how large are these dots compared to the terrain location.  A few counties were obliterated in dots so they must have covered around 4 or 5 miles per dot - it was nothing other than propaganda and whilst whoever (well meaning or not) used it to demonstrate a point it actually made people angry and upset which is what it was meant to do but it bore no relationship to reality.   There are no windmills here and whilst there are a few solar panel fields, they are few and far between but it looks like there are hundreds.

Another one to look at is charts and graphs.  In recent news on Ukraine and the USA and EU funding of that war there are some graphs going around that they show demonstrate that the US isn't giving that much compared to the EU and UK.  The figures don't add up and the argument isn't how much, we know it is substantial and in the multiple billions, it's why a US citizen who doesn't even know where the Ukraine is is paying their tax dollars for it.  Hilariously people say that it is to prevent Russia invading the US?  Really?

So graphs and diagrams are simple ways to show things that fool the viewer or reader.  I like the use of Logarithmic scales on graphs - that really looks scary or my all time favourite is skewing the X and Y axis so that the point you are making shows up large.  The other trick is to only show the period that demonstrates your headline and so missing out a whole dataset is prevalent in climate change charts as it shows huge rises in temperature (say) but only compares it to recent not great  historical data.  The reason?  If they did it would not support their narrative.

I had so many people over my working life produce data and tables that when properly produced and delivered with all the data meant that they could be analysed, understood and a decision made on what you were presented with.  That's the point, I had to make decisions based on this.  My job was to challenge and check the data, assess it and then take appropriate actions.

If the data is false or made up (God preserve me from assumptions - to assume makes an Ass out of U and Me) the whole thing is useless and serves no purpose whatsoever apart from, possibly, someone trying to pull the wool over my eyes.  Lying or misdirection etc.

These things should be delivered as accurate and impartial.  These days, you can fact check pretty much anything if you take the time do some research and review what's presented to you with an inquisitive and challenging manner.  Start to ask why the chart or data is there in the first place?  Is it real information, is it backing up a position or is it plain propaganda?

Simple things are to look at Electric Vehicle sales.  Apparently they are taking off and doing well?  To check this, go and look at how the manufacturers are performing?  Note the numbers of closures, lay offs and the difficulties they have, look at their financial reports.  Go look at the Auto magazines and go past the hype, look at the massive discounts and at the registrations and mileage of the new vehicles.  Then ask why there is no real second hand market for them and you'll start to see a very different picture.  Once again. politicians have got involved in setting a market's targets and it's not what we, the buyers, want.  They've imposed all sorts of silly tariffs onto the manufacturers and additionally made cars un affordable in the process so the market is collapsing.  The companies are collapsing and yet to read what they are saying, see the adverts and the like, you'd think we all drive electric vehicles.

Take climate and warmest year eva! Records exist that show that the 1930s were much warmer than today as was the Medieval warm period and the Roman warm period but you never see those on a graph because it will skew the narrative they are pressing ahead with.  Any graph that went back will also show that there's been no catastrophic warming at all.  Compared to recent history (geological) we are still in an ice age, the poles haven't melted and for many periods there were no ice poles at all, look it up and check the data.  

Go back to the basics.  Who makes money from all of these things?  Who benefits? Who employs the "experts" and does their continued employment rely on continuing the narrative? Why do research if it leads to you losing your job?

Hang On Lads, I've Got A Great Idea!

 As that great film, The Italian Job, concludes with the coach hanging over the abyss and the gold sliding towards the back of the coach we are left teetering on the edge ourselves.  Did they get the gold, did they lose it all?  It's an interesting twist but I think back in the day the bad guys were never allowed to be seen winning. It was a simpler time back then I think.

I see that today's great idea is to change our picture on Facebook and elsewhere to "Stand with Ukraine"  I imagine candles will be lit and so on but the pressing matter of ending the war and keeping the dead, injured, missing etc below the 1,500,000 mark (the worst European disaster since Stalingrad) is being missed and the slaughter goes on.  I really don't care too much about some spat and I'm pretty certain that, as many things these days, it was stage managed in a way so that those who had drifted away returned with renewed vigour and support and dare I say, step up to the plate and sort this out FFS.  

What on earth has all that bloodshed and destruction done?  Well, I'll give you a clue.  Go and follow the money, let's see what's behind it shall we?  These days it looks to me as if we can control things from our cosy western living rooms and we haven't a clue what it is like.  We get our information from our own state propaganda machines and we are constantly lied to by our governments.  

You feel you want to do what I'd have probably done 30 years ago with disputes at work and that's to figuratively knock the two protagonist's heads together and knock some sense into them.

Here, those with already heightened Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) are flipping out and having mental melt downs and why?  I suppose these days you have to get angry with something or lose your temper with someone and why?  I don't get it.  These people have about as much knowledge of foreign affairs and diplomacy as I do which is the square root of sweet fanny Adams.  The game is being played, the pieces on the chess board are moved to a plan and we are not party to that, have no influence over it and have no idea what the endgame is in mind.  So why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about some school ground ruckus in the playground?  

I think it is some sort of Psyop myself, designed to bring the Europeans into line by getting them to rally around the bullied school boy.  But....., I've been wrong before.

I really wish people were focused on stopping the bloodshed rather than wanting to finance further weapons and prolonging the agony of, what is, an unwinnable war.  It was always going to be so despite the West's wet dream that they could beat Russia.  Getting off on this by sending someone else's sons off to fight your proxy war.  

So, keep changing your profile picture, flying your flags and rearranging your TDS allowing you to vent your spleen and at the same time reinforce and embolden our lords and masters.  

Nice Lads - Good To See

 I've had some nice lads here working on re pointing the front wall and repairing bits around the house.  They've done a nice job, interrupted by rain and the like but they've always been good humoured, polite and they've done a really nice job.  It's drawn comments from the neighbours so that is good (I think).  Maybe they'll get some more work, I hope so as it's nice to see some honest hard working, polite workmen.

My cold has come out now but I really could have done without it, but these things happen I suppose.  I am meant to be out for breakfast tomorrow and so I hope it will have gone way by then or at least be manageable.

So I must go and give a positive review for the lads and their work.  It certainly looks to have improved the wall which was in a bad state of repair.  I'll give it a blast with the pressure washer later in the year to clean the bricks themselves but they actually look very good as it is.

Cold Out Of Nowhere

 Blast it!  Sore throat and now sneezing my head off!  Where did that come from, I've hardly been out recently if the 48 hour is to be believed.  Just what I don't need as the bricklayers are her and the butcher is a just about to arrive.  I feel like bleh!

a couple of Lemsips and a big hit of Vitamin C will hopefully allow me to get through the day.

I don't think I've had a cold for around a year though so should count myself lucky I suppose but it's one of the fill your head up and affects your ears too.  Fingers crossed I can shake this off.

I've setup the new telescope so grandson 1 can see the planets all aligned today/tomorrow.  

Reconnecting To Old Friends - Mind Whir

Why you may ask is my mind whirring?  I think it is because I know now what I didn't know then.  

Have a listen to this and see if you can see what the problem is?

 Yes, it's something like that but not entirely.  It's the same with a number of the friendships from back then.  We were good friends and now I look back and think to myself, oh my goodness, that's what they meant!  I'm not very good at picking up signals at all and here I am looking back and suddenly it all makes some sort of sense in that neither of us were asking the right questions and not just this occurrence.   

I wonder what would have happened as, of course, I probably wouldn't have had the same course through life had these things happened in the order they did but blow me down, there's photos of us just being good friends and we all used to hang around together.  

Later on there's a photo of someone else and she's looking at me in a way that sort of confirms what I felt at the time but didn't act on.  

Too late now but these insights and what their ramifications may have been are interesting.  You can't change the past but you can imagine what it might have been like.  Are they regrets or just an insight?  It is often stated that "I wish I'd known then what I know now" and I can see why that would be.  I would have actually asked the question, been more certain about my ground, understood that the signs were all there but I wasn't as quick on the uptake as I should have been.  Certainly in one case I am sure of it.  Life would have been interesting indeed had that happened.  It's the same with another friend who I just hadn't realised was making lots of signs and I was just being a thicko LOL.

The band, Bear's Den are well worth a listen to.  This series of First Loves is a particular favourite but I mustn't listen for too long as it does make me a bit sad.