Friday Flannel

 

Life after a wee bout of Covid is not much different from what occurred before.  I sit here doing little, thinking little, and watching the 'to do' list slowly curl up as little has been done about that.  This however, changed today as I hoovered quickly because the boiler man is coming to check the boiler tomorrow.  This means moving a couple of things and I wanted to see the dust first and check what may be lying under there.

After that the world slowed down again, and I am glad.

The worst of Covid passed, but the lack of sleep and eating did not do any good.  I ate little yet my weight has not gone down!  This week I have eaten and slept much more, just like having a job again...

Have you noticed how facebook comes alive after 9 am, when office workers turn up for work?  

Facebook at least has ceased the absurd ideas for now.  They have bled us dry in many ways, and still do, but I think the boy is just waiting for Musk to collapse so no new initiatives appear.  Musk, and his swastika Twitter, must collapse soon.  His latest idea of charging a fee has not gone down well.  The number who will move or just drop it, I amongst them, will be great.  His followers will remain but Twitter under Musk is very dead.

With parliament closing down so the parties can have a wee jolly at others expense, I not the PM, a man called Sunak I believe, has announced yet another 'U-Turn,' after being ordered to do this by one Liz Truss.  This has angered the other right-wing zealots who thought they were running the party.  None care for the UK of course, all are concerned to win an election, keep their job, and in Truss's case, make a come-back!  Surely not?  We await the stories of lax living at the conferences any time soon.

The King, that Charlie fellow, went over to France and more or less indicated that Rishi rejecting the 'net-zero' idea was a foolish idea.  Charlie spoke up for doing something about climate change just as Rishi was doing the opposite.  Charles has always been tactful.  There is no doubt he was implying also that BREXIT was a dumb idea and ought to be reversed.  The royals have not forgotten how Boris treated them, have they?  I suspect more to come here.

Summer has ended, Autumn has arrived, I can tell by the rain outside my window, always falling at the wrong angle to clean the panes.   While the natural Englishman still wanders about in shorts and T-shirt more intelligent people are now wearing coats, and coats with hoods I note, as they can tell the temperature drop and notice the wet stuff falling on them.  Some Englishmen appear not capable of noticing this. 

I will now shut all the windows opened for air, close the doors, turn the over on to heat the place, and add another blanket on the bed.  I canny wait for January!

Algrithim Vengeance

 

So, my nephew's girl posted a picture on FaceBook.  This is not unusual.  

What was unusual was that I looked at it without dismissing it as rubbish like so many of them posted by those two are.  A picture of a young lout driving around in the snow, late at night, in a supermarket carpark.  The blurb with it claimed 'They are only having fun, let them be, and only their car or themselves will be hurt.'  

This ignored the neighbours who have their eardrums burst by the noise of course, or the damage done to the furniture in the car park, or any costs for damage, which they will not pay as they run away.  Being young enables you to be thoughtless towards others and completely taken over by whatever you are doing.  Tsk!  We never did things like this when we were young.  Of course we had no cars, only one young man amongst us had a car, and his folks had money, but that does not matter.  

Round here similar gatherings have seen dozens of cars meet, create chaos, intefere with those using the many late night facilities, and creating a huge noise nusance.  The police have cut this down, fines, bans have had an effect on the people responsible, growing up, finding work, and a girl friend has also limited the gatherings somewhat.  

All that apart, I considered a quick, appropriate reply to this facebook post, 

'Just shoot them,' I said helpfully.  

When I went on facebook later it appears I am banned again 'for violence' this time.  How can removing such youths in an efficient manner be considered 'violence,' when the US cops, and that is where facebook originates, do this daily?  It all appears confused in my mind as white supremacists, anti-vaxxers lying about Covid, or flat earth people and politicians are never removed 'for violence,' at any stage.  

It now is revealed that I am also banned from a variety of groups and other luxuries that I may miss by the time the 29 day ban has ended.  Or maybe not as the case goes. 

A close examination of all the six reasons to ban me all involve humour, only an algorithm would do this, no human reader, and all are harmless, usually posted on Twitter without a problem, also elsewhere.  

I suppose it means I will have to find other means of causing arguments, Twitter today, and somewhere else tomorrow.  Maybe I ought to visit a town centre pub tomorrow night?

 

Thursday Sunlight

It is a great delight to wake in the morning and note the lightness in the sky.  The sun has not quite risen but the sky these past couple of days has been bright and cheery.  All this indicates that in spite of the cold outside Spring warmth awaits us. Only the other day it was dark still at 7:30, now it is light before then, cloud cover permitting.  All jolly good for the 'mental health' as they say these days.

 

 

I had a quick look regarding elections, it appears the 5 year election remains but there is one or two options remaining.  I found this on Here

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) introduced fixed-term parliaments to the United Kingdom, with elections scheduled on the first Thursday in May of the fifth year after the previous general election, unless the previous general election took place between 1 January and the first Thursday in May, in which case the election takes place on the first Thursday in May of the fourth year after the previous general election.^[16]

Removing the power of the monarch, on advice of the prime minister, to dissolve parliament before its five-year maximum length,^[16] the act permits early dissolution if the House of Commons votes by a two-thirds supermajority. Parliament is also dissolved if a government loses a vote of no confidence by a simple majority and a new government is not formed within 14 days.^[17] Alternatively, a bill requiring just a simple majority in both Houses could be introduced to establish in law an earlier date for the election, which is how the date of the previous general election was set in 2019.^[18]

Thus, the next general election is due to take place on Thursday 2 May 2024, unless it is triggered earlier.^[19] Under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 parliament would be dissolved 25 working days before this date on Tuesday 26 March.^[20] Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, the Prime Minister may schedule polling day up to two months after 2 May, subject to approval by both Houses.

 

Sadly this appears to mean we cannot have an election soon, the gangsters would avoid this today.  That sad news sets the sun on my day.  Now off to bed and football!  What more could you want?

Bye the way, I have been banned again on facebook for 'encouraging violence.'  This from an organisation that refuses to remove white supremacist, racist, porn and other 'stuff' that appears decent?  Tsk!  I suppose algorythms cannot tell a joke from a threat.  Bah!

 

 

 

Bad Facebook and Spam

It's a disgrace!

I mean being banned from facebook for little things that offend no-one but facebook algorythms is bad enough, but today I was immediately banned for speaking the truth - again!  The anti-maskers/anti-vacciners were out in force today, all of them being from the USA, as you might expect.  So, quite correctly, I posted that 'All Americans were stupid!'  How can that be seen as offensive when the evidence was right in front of them?  Had facebook, which happily allows many such posts opposing the vaccine and mask wearing, all on the basis of 'freedom,' not banned me I would have posted the link to Kristin Lowery, a US mother of 4 who refused the vaccine, refused to wear a mask, and spoke out strongly against both.  She died of Covid!  'Give a voice to the vaccine uninjured' is the poster she held.  Now 4 schoolkids have no mother!  Those who encourage opposition to vaccines ought to be jailed.

This has led to me being banned for 3 days by facebook.  The post removed by facebook, and the Yanks involved free to continue spouting nonsense.  If this goes on I may dump facebook or they may dump me.  

Twitter is not so uptight, though I have myself reported several sites that were offensive, usually white supremacists, Old Firm fans, or Tory liars.  I never block decent people who I disagree with.  The hypocrisy of facebook knows no end.  I suspect however, they will continue to listen in to all the other things I do on here...

I have been getting a few if these things on facebook recently.  Usually a girl has decided that she must use this and passes it on so all her readers can join in.  They are all cons gathering info, and soon dumping adverts and who knows what onto your screen.  Naturally facebook does not stop them, I suspect they may send them out, but I never find them on Twitter.  Possibly this is because Twitter has a higher class of psychotic inebriate than facebook, possibly they just do not land on my page.  

I glanced at one email offering this morning with something 'FREE' in a bright yellow shade.  However, I dumped it to quick to take note who it was from.  Usually email is a scammer using others hacked address book, with the sending email always obscure.  

Scams appearing to be from E-bay and Amazon have passed through, and in the distant past when I knew nothing I enter details into one page thinking it genuine (about 20 years ago) and had 10 years of email spam, often 20-30 a day, for a long time afterwards.  Changing ISP ended that.  

I suppose after porn the easiest way to get rich quick is spam, or hacking into an account.  I still think getting a job safer mind.

 

Facebook, Twitter, Google and Amazon...

Facebook, Twitter, Google and Amazon are some of the social media I have been indulging in recently.  Nothing has satisfied and all appears rather dismal in truth. 
Facebook, of course went wonky after the last Microsoft download, other things now work, once I have found the fault, but facebook is dead.  I may produce a new page later but for now it lies forgotten.
Twitter I use for most of my up to date information about the real world, mostly useful.  These recent days have been dire however.  The news is depressing, little of astounding interest appears, and Boris still lies all day and gets away with it.  
Google of course remains Google.  A helpful site if you seek information and wish them to store all the info connected to you and your 'friends' in their underground servers somewhere under Greenland. 
I am choosing to use Duck Duck Go more often, they claim you cannot be tracked, but tend to use Bing, which is Microsoft I believe.  Someone somewhere is watching you always.
Amazon.  How can we leave out Amazon?  That nice Jeff Bezos does not get on too well with that nice Donald Trump so that is one good thing to say about him.  What his employees say may be different. 
Just think, we did not require such organisations 25 years ago, how did it all change?  Far seeing individuals?  Clever computer geeks?  What was it that enabled such organisations to rise so quickly and take over much of the world?  Enabled by a public unwilling to read the T and Cs, unless we are lawyers there is little point, and all of us to stupid or without the power to stop them using our, and our friends, and our next door neighbours information as they like, we see them gaining power and money by living of our backs and dumping adverts unwanted upon us.  AdBlockPlus deals with most of these on the laptop, not on the phone, and now YouTube has new adverts on every item that requires individual removal, most annoying.  This, to be honest means I rarely see actual adverts, but they do annoy.
Indeed, I was so weary of social media and the money grab today I forsook it to make soup and a rice based hash that was uneatable.  I will finish that tomorrow.  That took up several hours, most hours spent cleaning up afterwards, and awaiting the heavy rain storms forecast for this afternoon.  Of course one passing cloud has been and gone but no storm so far.
Now it is back to Twitter but little enjoyment to be seen today so far. 
It's being so cheery wot keeps me going.
I've just thought, all that soup I made, I hope it cooled quick enough or it's Ecoli time again...

Sunday Blast

The morning sun greeted me warmly at 6:30 today.  I was so impressed I soon wandered about the town, basically before anyone gets up and annoys me.  I was annoyed enough!  Facebook played up, and how.

So I wandered about, once again being given either 'funny looks' or 50pence for a cup of tea from the occasional passer-by, and slouched home and shaved my beard off and blocked the sink!  Now I had taken precautions, most of this grey mater was dumped by way of a pair of blunt scissors and a magic mirror.  However even so there was sufficient to lead to a desperate grabbing for Sainsburys best sink un-plugger, once I got the blasted thing open that is. Who can open childproof locks other than a child?

So I start again on facebook.  I had two pages, now I have none!  This could of course be Microsoft's fault,the latest download has been causing problems as always, but suddenly things went off.  I got one back but not the other and now I have none.  Obviously a new page can be created, whoopee, but then we have the bother of building it and if I do not open a new page the FBI will be wondering what I am up to, let alone all those marketing men I avoid by using 'Adblock Plus.'  Talking about that you will notice that while Adblock blocks the advert now on YouTube an advert appears, hidden by Adblock, but must be removed before going on.  That is new, Google must be feeling the pinch also, the virus hits home to the real owners of these Digital Giants!

 
Pop-ups!  How they irritate!  Almost every page demands you check the Cookies!  Every other page demands you 'Subscribe' or select a 'Weekly E-Mail,' yet none offer to just leave you alone!  They come in all shapes and sizes, brightly coloured or dull, cheery or despondent but all demanding and in the wrong place!   
Worse than this is the newspapers who insist on putting videos, often totally irrelevant to the story, on the page and opening, sound on and all, whether you like it or not.  Some have 3 seconds for you to decide, 3 seconds that are wasted as the page jumps up and down fitting the basted thing on the page.  When I am king such pop-ups will be banned, videos must be switched on by the reader, not the page, and those who disobey will be Beheaded, twice!   
Yes 'Daily Record' and yes 'Edinburgh Evening News' I mean you!!! 

May Day with Clouds and Scattered Showers...

Being May Day I looked out for the marching workers, red banners waving, storming the capitalist fortresses and freeing the workers.  Unfortunately the police had sent them back home, telling them to 'remain indoors and wash hands.'  The rich will continue to sleep safely in their beds tonight, unless a burglar passes through.  
I love these Soviet posters.  Always the people smile, always they are advancing, always the sun shines on the red flags waving as they parade.  Always missing are the millions of dead Stalin removed because he stubbed his toe against the door when he awoke in the morning.  The removing off the Tsar to aid the people sounds great, however when the Bolsheviks took over they replaced the Tsar with themselves, and Stalin soon removed them one by one.  This, in my view, is not what makes a sensible economy nor a decent society.  From the standpoint of aiding the poor Communism sounds great, human nature however always ensures some rise to the top, when there they wish to keep control irrespective of the wishes of others, equal to themselves.  'Equality' does not exist, we are all different.  A decent society aids and helps those without to have a chance to progress, it does not enrich the richest and have soup kitchens for the poorest.  When trying times came biblical kings stripped the temples and their palaces of gold to feed the needy, today the richest fail to do this, yet the richer get richer even during a pandemic!  No wonder some were attracted to Communism.  

I opened a new page on Facebook.  This is not because I am trying to hide from some people on facebook, no, no, not at all, however I am trying to avoid one or two...  In doing so I discovered I had another page, one I had made many years ago and for some reason forgotten about.  This I have adapted and made use off.  Now I have to collect the better class of people to my new page.  
All this is a result of the Lock Down.  A few days ago it affected me somewhat and I have still not quite recovered my equilibrium from that.  It will pass as will the showers that hammer down and soon become sun filled pastures.  
May Day is a Friday, that means tomorrow is Saturday a time for letting the hair down and having a good time.  I may just go out and buy some face masks instead...
Did you notice Sturgeon said Scots ought to wear face masks on public transport.  The Westminster unionists and press grumbled loudly that this was a disgraceful thing to say.  The next day Boris agreed and said it might be compulsory,the media immediately claimed this a wise move and bravo Boris.  Don't you just love having a 'Free Press?'

Tyrants...

Trump has been having a good time.  Since moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, I wonder what the staff thought about that, and pandering to the rednecks who he thinks will ignore the tales of women abused, many wives, lie after lie, the loss of staff daily he has now made a mess of both Iran and North Korea! 
Moving the embassy because of US political electorate and because he is being pulled by a string the Israeli President is holding is one thing, not a good thing, but ignoring the consequences of such action and indeed taking a one sided view as politicians always is is clearly a bad thing.  While agreeing God has placed the Jews back in their homeland, thanks to the British, it is not always right to rush ahead thoughtlessly by following the will of an ungodly Israeli leader.  All Israeli leaders since 1948 have been secular, not religious Jews.
Trump must be pleased with the report that Prince William (which one is he?) will visit Israel and go visit the West Bank also!
To add to this the ending of an agreement which the majority of EU nations thought wise, and indeed the best possible at the time, just to play the tough guy is reckless at best and plain stupid at worst.  Iran is not just another Arab nation, Iran goes back, in their own mind, to Cyrus the Great some 2500 years ago and see themselves as a big nation in that part of the world.  They do not take bullying from the west easily, especially after the treatment the UK and Russia have given them in the past.
Here the US follow Israel and Saudi in their fear of Iran.  Because of that already the Saudi's have broken Syria with the west's backing, who knows what would happen had Russia not intervened, and a region already overflowing with refugees now has millions more, but we do nothing about this.  Being Arabs and far away they really don't count do they?
Quite how Trump has gone from 'bigging up' his meeting with the North Korean leader to blowing it in such style I fail to understand.  It could be China have intervened, the trade with the US is important here, and we never know what is going on behind the scenes,especially in North Korea.  
Two nuclear nations, so called, yet Trump plays games and offers an impression of not really knowing what he is doing.  The comments made in the media may of course have been deliberate, the whole thing is likely a game Kim is playing also, but we are left wishing a more sedate, indeed intelligent, President lived in the White House.  Is there no chance we can have one soon?

Today Europeans face the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into existence today. This is an EU rule that is intended to give individuals control over what facebook and Google and the like make of your data.  So for a while lots of emails from many companies have arrived demanding we 'accept' or not, or in facebook and Google's case 'take it or leave it!   
In short a great deal of fuss from folks who will not rob us, a great deal of words from the main ones who do!  These will continue to use our data, the weird people in charge gathering the cash, the power and who knows for what reason while our precious data is transferred into adverts for those daft enough not to download 'adblockplus.'  
I am not sure it is worth the fuss but someone somewhere will continue to make money and get around these laws.  The intention is good but while these folks are now open to huge fines if found guilty of avoiding the law it will take years to sort that out and they will have the data until then.  Most of us will not see much difference.  If we don't like it we can always dump facebook and Google and that will hurt them.

Sunshine!

As I wandered in the gardens gathering Vitamin 'K' (or is it 'D'?) from the sunshine I cogitated on Theresa May's handling of these Caribbean types who have lived here fifty or so years and are being chucked out by the dozen.  It seemed to my little mind that a woman who while spending six years as Home Secretary has forgotten that during her time she ordered advertising vans to drive around 'ethnic' areas plastered with information regarding how these folks should go back home.  Nothing racist in this, just obeying the 'Daily Express' and the like.  Somewhere along the line the records of such immigrants from the West Indies have been deleted by the home Office, Labour say she did this, now today she claims this was done under the Labour government, I wonder who to believe? 
The speed in which the Tories have apologised for such blatant racism reveals how much this situation has hurt them.  Even Brexit has been put aside, or is being hidden, by the fuss.  The poor Junior Minister who first had to admit the policy of dumping folks back home was wrong was bad enough, especially as she appeared not to care one whit, but the Home Secretary Amber Rudd, she who cavorted with an 'activist' at the Party Conference, she also has admitted the wrong although again without any heart showing through.  This is driven by the desperate PM, desperate to inspire her troops, desperate to keep her job, desperate to hide the Brexit failure.
All this and the Labour opposition under Corbyn can make no headway.  It makes you laugh!

             
Sitting under this tree I had my first take of warmth today.  All around the kids were screaming, mums chasing them, people happy as Larry as the sun shone properly for the first time.  The wind chill was a nuisance but I missed it sitting here.  The warmth forced me to open my shirt and let the sun pretend we were in the Mediterranean and not Essex.  It of course did not take long for the attractive young ladies to arrive.  They gathered around offering compliments like "He will never get that belly back in that shirt!"  And "Captain Ahab, the white whale is here!"  
I hope they all get mumps.  

I suppose it is a terrible thing, facebook stealing all our info, but when they merely use it to pass on to advertisers of whatever persuasion I remain unmoved.  For years I have used  Ad Block Plus on Firefox and Chrome and rarely ever see and advert.  One or two appear for seconds and then disappear but any advert of whatever nature is hard to see on facebook or indeed anything else.
The sight of the creepy wee man Zuckerberg facing the US committee ensured any love for him was lost.  His appearance reminded me of the weird types seen in some old US movies, the one who turns out to indeed be weird, or a gangster or a zombie perhaps.  He did not appear as one you would trust in any capacity.  He also gave the impression the US committee could do nothing about him or his actions, and he is right.  With so many billionaires working alongside him no Congress committee will get far in putting him down.  
However it is worrying just how much info people can gather through 'social media.'  Fine as long as you do not become opposed to the tyranny that rules and unfortunate of you do as they will know more about you than you do.  At this point I'd like to say "Hi!" to MI6, MI5, the FBI, Scotland Yard, the CIA and Mr Putin.  The Chinese we met when they had the Olympics and their lackeys watched for any disagreement worldwide and were always ready to spout the party line.  It kept them out of jail I suppose. 
At least they will not see the adverts.

Look, blue skies!!!

Mark is Listening

It comes as no surprise that facebook, like most other internet things into which we input our information, is being used to feed us even more information.  This knowledge has recently upset many of us as it interferes with our privacy to discover that supermarkets can sell our details to those interested in swaying our opinions on foodstuffs or politics, yes Mr Putin I mean you!  The fact that billionaires with a right wing outreach and no concern for their staff, yes Mr Amazon I mean you, make use of this information to lie to us though social media and newspaper comment columns in an effort to make us vote for Brexit can also be no surprise.  This after all is what the elite have always done as the attempt to get their own way, only the machinery is different.
Propaganda has for over a hundred years spewed out of the daily newspaper, almost all owned by some magnate of some kind, especially today, all they are allowed to print has always been what was demanded by the owner in spite of some editors considering they had they right to voice their opinions.  TV and radio are also a branch of the government, though not as directly as in Russia or Iran I venture, in the UK the programmes, almost none of which I watch, are offered by brainless middle class media folk on the up with no comprehension of what 'quality' means in TV, though radio can do well but you have to seek it out sometimes.  The news however, especially in the BBC has become very much a tool of the Brexit lobby, these 'loony lefties' as the Loony right wing 'Daily Mail' calls them spout the same nonsense re Brexit that the Mail does with no questioning allowed of government policy.  A farce and one we are lumbered with.
How worried ought we to be that such folks know that you 'Checked in' to Sainsburys on Monday or posted a photo of your breakfast yesterday?  Do you think that nice Mister Putin cares about that?  I doubt it myself.  It may well be these men have had an effect on the thinking of many  in various elections, mostly by stirring emotion rather than thought, just consider how many 'bots' you meet on forums that are negative but never argue the toss to see how effective they are at emotional threat, but on the whole the majority are already half way their if they are influenced by such propaganda.  People as we know read the paper of their choice because it tells them what they wish to read rather than anything that disturbs equilibrium.  
I do not worry to much at this however the information obtained would be a blessing to Heinrich Himmler and his Gestapo had he had the opportunity to possess such and the possibility of a police state in the UK is not as hard to obtain as some think.  Hitler took power in 1933 and by 1939 had complete control of everything, similar could happen here and much quicker.  
Who would be targets of such a state?  In my view Christians are the ones most likely to be targeted. Christians strongly, or ought to, strongly oppose the Politically Correct world in which we now live.  This upside down generation tat has flooded in during the last thirty years has not brought freedom to the masses it has merely allowed people to lose their freedom and indulge themselves in themselves.  That is not freedom.  Jesus came to offer Abundant life and today's cosmos opposes that abundance and offers slavery to self.  The control via the web offered to a right wing state, e.g. China, is great but in their mental outlook the Chinese view this as a form of security, as long as prosperity continues, in the west liberal values constructed since the Reformation give us a different outlook.  Freedom of thought has been fought for and is now being eroded, soon I think it will be taken from Christians altogether, who will stand then? 

It Was Better When...

Facebook has a page just for our little town.  This is an excellent idea and many pictures, adverts and much information regarding the museum happens to appear there on occasions, I know not how.  The page is used by many to conjure up memories of Braintree from days of yore.  A great many are now living abroad, some from work, some because life causes us to move away from home and a number of women who married the abundant supply of 'rich' Americans working at the many air bases that sprung up during the second world war.  The last base did not close until the late 90's and every so often these women return with their man to see relatives and have a jolly good time.  One, now widowed, arrived last Tuesday just as we opened to wander around the shop and obtain gifts to take home again.  Such folk use the facebook page to keep in touch with their past and keep an eye on the developing town. 

One  topic is the constant whine that 'The town is not the same,' or 'It's not as good as it was,' or the grumble 'It was better in my day.'  Maybe it is because I look at history and read things from the past, maybe it is because they are grumbling old people or maybe it is because they are right I know not but this annoys me.  The town is certainly changing, it has altered in the 21 years I have been here, but what these Moaning Minnie's forget is that the town always changed and altered, and old people just like them constantly grumbled that it 'was better in the past.'  
Look at the change to the market, the difference between the crowds before 1914 compared to those in the late 30's as seen above.  No animals are seen in the top picture possibly because it was a Saturday market and Wednesday may have had animals, possibly the animals are round in the high Street, I have seen pictures of Bulls there in the 60's.  Todays market cannot compete with either but if they could bring this back would the grumbles like it?  No, they would find many complaints.
For a start the women would complain about animal leftovers on their shoes, much abounding in the past, and then complain about the inconvenience of having to go from one stall to another for the daily needs.  The convenience of Tesco's would suddenly appear bright and the quality of goods improving, let alone the amount of cash no readily available for most was just not there in the past.
the men in the top picture are complaining about the cost of a pint, almost a shilling where in the bottom picture it might have been only 3 pence in some places.  The women in the top will be fussing about fashion in just the same manner of those in the lower picture, but in the top one more will have cash to buy more readily than the majority on poor wages in the bottom picture.    
All in both pictures will be grumbling the 'Kids have it easy today, not like when we were that age.'  The kids, if still around are saying just that very thing today while in the market.

The past is another country and far too many people live in it.  They look at the town and see it when they were young forgetting that what they enjoyed was not the town but their life in the town. The town they now see does not fit in with their memory but young folks today are having exactly the same thoughts as they, but will look back in thirty years time grumbling about how the town has changed.  'What is has already been and will be again.'  I am glad I moved when younger, I am glad I moved here, because I do not look back on my Edinburgh childhood and long to return, indeed many things make me glad not to be in Edinburgh, the early 1970's were not a good time for me and my memories are not always good.  I do have good ones from all places I have stayed as well as bad but too many forget the bad things that occurred in the past and block them out viewing their youth as a good place, forgetting the fears, problems and mistakes that have left scars but can be ignored.
Braintree & Bocking had around 12,000 people between them in 1914, when I arrived there were 30,000, now there is 40,000 and things do change and not always for the better.  The car enables folks to visit the big towns for shopping at big stores, the web enables online shopping and tastes change as well as markets.  The market has stood for over 800 years and will continue for many more, ever changing and always with grumbling people fussing about nothing all around.
Maybe they all ought to learn from me, I'm not one to complain...    

Now I'm not one to Complain...

This facebook idea has some advantages, contact with far off friends, family information, radically important news concerning the football world, and an opportunity to plug the museum, which I do occasionally.
However it has problems has it not?
One obvious problem is the person wishing to become a friend, the person you have studiously avoided for ten years I mean.  They can be persistent even if you accidentally 'ignore' them three times.  Worse are the people who do that to you!
Being constantly told how to 'Find Friends' by a computer server hidden deep underground in Alaska or somewhere is also annoying, especially when 'People you may know' appears every day also.  Indeed I may know these people and I may wish to 'find friends' but I do not need to be told by some geek lout how to do it!!  Nor, when I think about it, do I need to be told what the 'top stories in my groups' happen to be as I have already read them!  
Now don't get me started on the 'Trending News' items that appear at the side.  Do I need to know about American football?  NO!  Does US stars I have never heard off mean a lot to me? NO!  In fact does any of the 'trending news' offered mean anything to me? NO it does NOT!  I am well able to find enws for myself without having tabloid pap shoved into my face.
Nor do I need lots of 'suggestions' underneath this whether individuals or 'Buy & Sell Groups!'  This doe s not mention the fact that I am in Essex and such local groups as are offered in Kent lie across the other side of the Thames estuary!!!!
Grrrrrrrrrrrr!
It begins to dawn on me that maybe making money for facebook lies behind all this....Tsk! Imagine!
Today I am irked by what people post.
Most of what is posted is OK in the long run but they way it is posted annoys.  
Christians offer 'Christian encouragement' usually by posting some famous persons words.  Several people post these, and they post several of these.  However in my view one each would be enough, if required, as they tend to lose their meaning when several run together counteracting one another. Rail enthusiasts, real 'anoraks' they, post images of trains, sometimes steam engines running at high speed sometimes diesel or electric, some foreign and most at home somewhere.  These are often excellent images and while I may be pleased to see them I see no requirement to post them all individually!  Seven pictures of a diesel, often the same one, running along a route may be interesting but surely it is not beyond the capability of the poster to put them in ONE POST!  
When four people do this at one time I get a hundred diesels or steam engines all looking the same, often being the same, filling the page.  
Sixteen shots of a disused railway can to me be interesting but if posted one at a time it is ignored by me as I HAVE A LIFE to live, why haven't you who posts?   
Children.  I know people have children, I know they are the centre of your life butnthey are NOT the centre of mine! I like to see their up to date fotos as they begin school, play for a football team and grow up, but must we have all those pictures from yesteryear once again every time facebook reminds you of what you posted a year, two years or further years ago???
I love your kids, but one day I will eat them! 
Talking about eating, must we see what you had for breakfast?...again!
Bah! 

A Miscellany

I have spent time attempting to clear up all the stuff abandoned in the last few weeks.  This was not helped by having to work yesterday afternoon when 60 charming kids came into the shop.  All well behaved and keen but having to deal with so many takes two of us.  This only lasted an hour or so but left us worn out and mentally drained, and that is dangerous when there is little to start with.
Still the kids spent nearly £3 each and that helps the museum remain open.  This is good as the Magna Carta exhibit brings in so many but we really require things local folks can identify with.  I spent some time today typing up paperwork left by a get together of folks who once worked in one of our past industries.  Some began work  in 1934 at ten shillings and sixpence a week, and they only worked every second week!  In those days women who married left work, or were forced to leave work, and single girls took their place.  It made for a turnover of staff but appears a bit daft to me.  Understandable if they have kids and should look after them but as a matter of rule it is a bit daft.

Would you believe I stopped there last night and then watched Scotland's latest debacle against Poland and forgot all about this.  Mind it was getting late and there was less to write about than I had already written which says something.

I am desperate to get out and practice some photography as I realise I need practice!   Looking at others pictures makes mine look inadequate therefore I need to get out and about but this has not been possible lately.  However I am away for a few days next week and have purchased a cheap android to see if I can put stuff up.  So far it works in many things but not Blogger, typical!  We shall see later if it works.  I may be amongst the wealthy, where the lifeboat poses the houses now cost several million a go, but I doubt I will be invited in for tea.  I did get an invite to a wedding, black tie and rich folks abounding, but have turned it down as I would look like Jeremy Corbyn amongst them and I would not upset the bride.  The twenty mile walk home late at night puts me off also.

One thing I hate is people posting pictures of their lunch!  At breakfast, lunch, in a coffee shop or watching the innumerable bloody awful rigged baking shows these folks have to post pictures of what is in front of them.  I thought about this as I looked into the stew that gurgles away on the stove.  It's food, nothing else, it either feeds you or doesn't, why post pictures every five minutes of what you eat?  There are those who every night reveal their tea to us, I refuse to look or indeed answer, whether on facebook or Twitter as I may say something offensive.  
The things people post on those 'social sites' sometimes appear strange to me.  One lass often posts one or two words as if she is answering a question.  Her 2000 may be as confused as I when she posts 'Tuesday!'  Especially when it is Sunday.   If not pictures of lunch one posts those absurd posters telling people to 'Be kind to one another,' or 'Be happy and accept others, they are just like you' yet when someone lets their dogs leavings remain on the street or doesn't say 'Thank you' she screams blue murder.  Maybe she doesn't read her posts.  Christians are just as bad, ten posting saying different things all of which go over the head or clash.  
I should say at this point that everything I post is suitable for use by each and everyone, all is relevant and never do |I repeat myself, never do I repeat myself.  Some nasty grouch may of course disagree but it is best to ignore such as they.

As I chopped up the veg for the stew, wiping away the blood that follows from actually using a sharp knife, I played a 'YouTube' Beatles miscellany.  This struck me as quieter than the 'Who' track, 'Won't get fooled again,' that I played earlier.  Both revealed a problem with YouTube and Win 10, the sound here is not as good as it was on Win 7.  Quite why this ought to be I know not but clearly it 'rasps' periodically through the song with can disturb the teenage angst that fills Beatles earlier work.  
At Tynecastle Park one day long ago as we waited the beginning of the reserve match against somebody or other the Tannoy played the Beatles 'Eight Days a Week.'  This upset Mattie Chambers the head groundsman.  He muttered about the music and offered his opinion in a full and frank manner and raced inside to fix it.  Montgomery, the assistant groundsman and others objected as this they thought was the music folks wished to hear.  A scratching sound was soon replaced with a ballad type song and a happier head groundsman.  How I identify with him when I hear the drivel that passes for music today.  Surely there is a deep crevasse somewhere suitable for Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift?


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Saturday Filler

Facebook and Twitter and any other social media you may use have great benefits when used in the correct manner.  However one of the problems of such media is the repetition of posts that mean little to you individually but are posted constantly by one of your 'friends!'  For instance one chap on Twitter likes American Football.  Now this you will realise is without a doubt one of the most dull, boring and meaningless activities known to man yet he gets very excited by this long drawn out activity.  Every thrown ball, every catch, every rare Touchdown gets a comment and not always polite!  This leads to hundreds of posts to be noted on the feed, usually in the morning as he stays up all night watching this rubbish, and ignored while an effort is made to find the important ones.  If you log onto sports or news sites or individuals repetition of the same news can also be wearing the fifteenth time it arrives.  No matter how important this is irritating and as you know I am one of the most placid people on this earth.  Facebook is similar and does reveal hidden hobbies obscure activities often obscured from the world in general.  To discover a normal individual has hobbies suitable for those less intellectually gifted can be a surprise.   On the other hand of course my own, and yours, interests can be boring to those with no life.  Then there is the 'friends.'  One lass has over two thousand 'friends!'  This comes from several large groups who she is involved with but leaves us reading posts that say important things like "It's Tuesday!" or "The Hall!"  Now around three hundred will understand this, but what about the rest? It is interesting how those who read your posts will react to your interests and your attitude towards them.  At least I find so.  Friends join on Twitter because they have read something you post and figure you are one of their type of people, soon they unfriend as they discover their mistake!  Four 'Albert Camus' became friends after one post on another Twitter post, one or two Christian quotes and whoosh they had gone!  Truth removes nihilism!
I find both these services good for keeping in touch, finding interesting information and discovering what celeb is drinking coffee at the moment.  Both services have their uses, especially if you install Adblockplus and lose the adverts.  Now if I could just remove all those blasted meaningless news stories they offer at the top of facebook!

Explain this!  Why does any man shave off all the hair on his head yet grow a dirty big beard? Does he think it looks good?  Has he become a Muslim?  It is possible Tim Howard the Everton goalkeeper, for it is he, might be looking backwards to some all American image he has deep in his subconscious, for American he is.  It may be, and I think this is the case, he is just daft! There is no doubt he is not fashion conscious.  Worse still are such men who shave the head and allow wisps of hair to grow under the chin and on the upper lip, all to often fair haired men at that, so it hardly shows.  What is the point?  The things passing fashion does to us all. 

Nothing Again.

Too tired after my hard week, too worn out after my day with the niece, too knackered by the bug and too weak after having to eat porridge instead of chips!  
The world it must be said has not noticed.  
I had to drag my weary bulk to the shops to stock up on uneatables like Cottage cheese, nuts and tins of fish.  I really just wanted milk but thought I would gather the stuff anyway.  It was once I got back I realised I got everything bar milk.  Life is no fair.  So I had to drag myself out later for that.  

One thing that drew some limited attention was the practice of taking 'selfies.' This idea appears to thrill tabloid hacks but does little for me.  Take such pics if you wish but why put them in the paper? Why fill facebook with pics of you and your travels?  The sights I wish to see, you I do not!  Especially as you hover between the camera and the building in the background.  Me, myself and I would rather see the building thanks.  I say this because the English queen has apparently been getting annoyed by brats jumping in front of her to do this, not only does it go against protocol, and she is rigid on that, but it is a nuisance. Next time one of her Beefeaters should use that pike thing to remove said pest, that would be a picture worth seeing.

Rangers, that sectarian Glasgow football club, are in trouble again.  Desperately short of cash, overpaying players and manager, the board piling cash into their pockets and the chairman looking for his huge bonus for failing and now it appears the man from JJB Sports bought the rights to rename the ground for a mean £1 some time back.  This means he could insist on naming the ground after his company, as indeed some have done, and upset the fans who in this nation do not like this idea anywhere.  Rangers have it appears been going through the courts in an attempt to buy  out this contract (bought for £1) and so far have spent £25,000 on this endevour.   You have to laugh at the greed inside this club.

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Cogitating

Syria, a land mostly ignored and up till now stable under its Assad dictatorship.
Suddenly it is rent in two by rebels, why?
The Assad regime forced a secular dictatorship on the land, this found much support among the Shia and indeed those who call themselves Christian.  While it ruthlessly suppressed any opposition in the Middle Eastern style it also allowed a great degree of controlled freedom.  People were educated, including women, and as long as you obeyed you survived.  Israel was however not keen, the border too close, previous wars left their mark and support for Hezbollah in Lebanon irked the Israeli's a wee bit.
The great powers did nothing.  Indeed deals were done which included Syria, did Assad not interrogate Islamist for the Bush regime in the US?  Now however somebody wishes to destabilise
Iran's nuclear threat and Syria is the place to do it.


A simple technique is used.  Sunni Saudi Arabia, who fear the Iran threat, and oil rich Sunni Qatar, are used to supply material to unsettle Assad.  They supply the money, the arms and other help to these 'rebels.'   Using Turkey, a key member of NATO, to supply weapons and protect the 'innocent civilians' along their border with Syria also threatens Assad.  This settled almost peaceful nation now has an army bent on slaughtering anyone who opposes the regime, uncontrolled militant groups on both sides happily killing young and old, and a 'rebel' force, now said to possess heavy weaponry, who are a mixed bunch with policies of a wide and varied kind. Nobody really knows what many of these people really look for.


Yet the west is happily encouraging this to worry Iran.  The danger is clear.  Russia and China may well take Iran's side, for whatever reason, and a new cold war, which will soon turn hot, is almost upon us.  Let us realise also that the divisions within Iran also show that nobody knows what their long term idea actually is!  Unsettling a peaceful dictatorship in Syria to attack Iran may be a clever plan to some but the results may well be catastrophic for us all.

Following on from 'friends' yesterday I got to thinking about how some folks collect 'friends' on social media sites.  In my humble opinion, and humble is the word, we only ever have two or three really close friends.  People who stick with you whatever your faults, and this because they like you.  We may also have a larger collection of a dozen or more 'friends,' possibly up to fifty or so if we belong to clubs or groups, who we regard as friends but are not going to be there forever.  We may also have a further larger group we know from such groups, work or whatever who we regard as acquaintances.  So I ask how do some folks have two or three thousand 'friends' on the 'facebook' or 'Twitter' accounts?   Are these real 'friends?'  Possibly we need another word for this?  Now famous people get followers, important folks, footballers, journalists etc, get similar followers who know and respect them, but these are not real 'friends.'  So why do folks gather hundreds of people they never will know and add them to their list?  maybe it's just me being jealous?  A handful of good people is better than hundreds you do not even have time to read or understand surely?

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The Dream

One of the good things about the internet is the dissemination of facts and news, and facts and news that are often left out of the mainstream media at that!  'Social media, ' which usually means   'Facebook' or 'Twitter,' and the many forums that cover any and every subject, added to the umpteen billion blogs, both good and bad, can have social benefits that were not available a few years ago.  Even newspaper readers are now better informed simply by trawling the worlds press for differing viewpoints.


An example of this was the pressure put upon Scottish football chairmen by their fans during the Rangers debacle. It was the use of 'social media' to generate a powerful lobby to ensure the best possible outcome for all.  Possibly this has not yet achieved the best outcome, but it has come close.  Elsewhere we have seen the 'Arab Spring' flower partly due to an educated populace using technology to drive through change in several nations.  These weapons, more powerful than guns, have so disturbed some that they are closely controlled or banned, as in China or Iran.  The one thing a dictatorship fears is truth, and weapons such as blogs, twitter and facebook can reveal the truth about situations.  The Reformation was powered by the written word with an abundance of pamphlets flying here and there.  Information during much of the twentieth century was found only in newspapers and books, and similarly to those previous pamphlets we had to choose who to believe.  Most sadly choose the easiest way to avoid trouble, often preferring the papers that say what they wish to hear, 'Daily Mail' reader like.  There are more social media than papers, and the variety of opinions are endless but we can always offer the facts to help put things right, can't we? 


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