Clear as Mud

So I answered the problem of 'how to get photos from my phone to the laptop' by obtaining a suitable USB cable.  Considering I have a box full of cables and every one was the wrong size, USB 'C' apparently is required, all mine were different, possibly used for laptops, computers and radios rather than phones!  Any how I got one today delivered by 'Hermes' the worst of all courier services.  Not only did it arrive as promised (they promised to deliver between 11 - 1 after I had gone out just before 11) they actually did deliver before one O'clock.  I saw the man push the packet through the letterbox, take the obligatory photo as they do these days and depart as I was crossing the park.  Jolly good show 'Hermes.'  Since Lock Down 'Hermes' has employed many more drivers.  Their system was poor before, the worst of all, yet it appears to me they have white van men all over the place at the moment.  There were two here today, one doing large packets and this one with the small stuff.  I wonder if it will last?

So, now I have a cable to connect the phone to the laptop, I connect, it bleeps, it registers, and then nothing!  Naturally I try all things before looking for help in the instructions.  Here, as you see, helpfully the instructions are written in Mandarin, or is it Cantonese! 
Jolly good show!
Now I believe this the chinky folk trying 'soft power' in the way the US has been doing it for years, completely ignoring the people of this land and expecting us to understand what they are talking about.  I mean, Cartoons like 'Peanuts,' or 'Garfield, 'Marvel Comics, those dreadful US comedies with canned laughter and no humour, the movies and all else is dumped upon us and we are expected to know what they are talking about.  Naturally in reverse this gets nowhere!  With the exception of one small house in Georgia where a young woman lives with her own translator.  
Possibly the Beijing Emperor hopes to do similar with his export power?  I see a problem here.  While the normal citizen can translate US speak into some form of human dialogue ( you see, we used to call that 'talk') translating Chinese characters into some form of English is unlikely for 99% of the people.  Possibly they have heard the Geordie's cry 'Huawei the lads' and got the wrong idea?  
Anyway, after some struggle I found the spot to change things and discovered that I can indeed load the laptop with bad pictures taken on my feeble phone camera.  However, I am peeved that I cannot uplift to the phone from the laptop!  There has to be a way to do this, I will discover it, even though it may take a while, in Mandarin!

Slow Sabbath...

Been a slow day.  Made slower by having to drop everything and watch Newcastle United beating Sheffield United by 3 - 0 this afternoon.  Other things had to be put aside while I gaped at the Newcastle side in a vast empty stadium.  This did not spoil the game however, I enjoyed it and was pleased at the result.  Last night the BBC gave us Bournemouth v Crystal Palace just to indicate that Bournemouth are finished and will go down.  The only hope they have is that West Ham are also chronic and may fare even worse!  

This means I have wasted no time in seeking parades or protests to pretend I care about.  In Glasgow and Edinburgh (pronounced 'Edinburra') Rangers fans act out 'British Loyalism,' which in Glasgow means attacking peaceful asylum seekers meetings and of course the police.  'Unionists' are always violent, it i the English part of their imperialistic make up.  The Glasgow police (pronounced 'Polis') often appear somewhat right wing and 'loyalist also, at least those visiting Ibrox Park, Rangers home, often find.  This time however too many punches have been thrown, too many assaults have strained the officers and I think there will be many doors 'knocked on' at 6 am soon in various 'Loyal' districts.

I did notice the weather man claiming hot weather was in the offing.  It is summer I suppose, and this means the numpties will be racing to the beaches to collect virii from close packed sun lovers. I have watched them well behaved and well spaced out on Bournemouth's well cared for beaches but others may be less disciplined.  The NHS will be looking forward to the week...

Well he tried his best but failed to rouse much in Tulsa.  He managed to enable Nigel Farage, the attention seeking Hedge Fund chancer to visit him to swell the crowds.  Nigel was barred but allowed into the US as because of 'National Interest!'  Possibly he was interested in a 19,000 seater arena in which only 6200 bothered to come and listen to Trumps lies?  

In major news it appears the Heart of Midlothian have ended their time with Daniel Stendal and replaced him with ex-manager Robbie Neilson.  I wonder if Craig offered any advice here?  With court cases ongoing, league placing uncertain, this is a bright move that will please many and annoy others.  We await with interest further developments.

Night Highway Repair

I was a bit perturbed to see this monster outside my window the other night.  There had been some noise further up the road but I did not expect a Dinosaur type machine to look in on me.

He had disappeared by morning and much later on Friday evening he turned up again, along with several large trucks.  There was much to-ing and fro-ing by these vehicles, men in bright orange suits pointing fingers this way and that while the late shoppers at Sainsburys tried to get home.

Eventually, late on, they managed to get under way.  Grumbling re the state of the potholes has risen considerably in recent days.  The road here, once made stable by Roman soldiers giving it the name 'Stane Street,' now known by less happy terms as holes appeared everywhere.  The building of two blocks of houses on either side of the road did not help, Gas, Electric and Water all took turns in digging up the road and then doing it all over again for the other side of the street.  Then faults occurred and they had to do it all over again.  Some of the workers offered to camp in the park to save time coming and going!  The temporary patches put on the road after this did not go down well with the locals, many spleens were vented!  Being some 15 years or so since this was last resurfaced the County Council has decided to resurface now.  How long will this last I wonder?

Scrape the surface and dump it straight into the lorry in front.  The Roman soldiers slogging their way along the road would have loved this machine.  I wonder how much this costs?  I must say I have not been so fascinated with men working on the roads since I was coming up for 3.  Way back then I remember what I am sure was a steamroller used by the men creating the roads in our new housing estate.  Over the Brazier hung 'Tate & Lyle' syrup tins from a short improvised metal handle.  This was their tea!  No fancy mugs in those early 50s days. 

Being right outside my window I was not going to miss this, even though I was slouched in bed when they began.  Efficiently they removed the surface, slowly walking the great machine along, careful guiding required.  Alongside the men swept the pavement clean of dust, I had to do my own window, nose and throat myself, as they followed the craft alongside.  Quite why they all wore hard Hats when nothing was going to fall on their heads was not explained. 

The sky, being almost Mid Summer, was brilliant, deep red as the night wore on.  Well after 10:30 when I managed to take that shot.

 
See how clear it is at that time, the youths happily exchanging drugs unafraid of the police who cannot get past the men working on the road way.  Clearly this lot work together often, such teamwork requires practice.  Scraping the ground requires a truck to move in front of the machine while manoeuvring backwards and forwards to fill the truck evenly.  Then when laying the tar similarly a truck has to load the laying machine carefully, tipping it's load without covering everyone in road surface.

As the light faded various machines and men in yellow outfits wandered about.  Here they were working around an electric 'hole in the road,' doing their best not to destroy it.

Filling the beast while blurring my picture.

The first layer goes down, more to come tonight I understand, and it surprised me how hard the layer was.  The men walking on it left no impression behind.  The smell of tar is much better than the dust that was flying about earlier.

Such jobs involve much intense work followed by lots of standing about while the machine gets refilled, the men in charge discuss the next move, or some hold up arrives.  The workers appeared to get on well with the few people passing by.  The wage may be quite good, especially as most of the work is done at night.

What happened to the large machinery I do not know, I awoke to find this man running about and others painting temporary white lines in the road.   There is more disruption to follow but as far as I can see they have done it with little stress on others, not counting the Sainsburys lorry that arrived at the wrong time, and left little mess.  The cynics this morning still did not appear full of joy at the work.  I think they are hoping it fails so they can say "I told you so!"

Something different

 

Something different from the virus and shambolic politicians.

Second Covid 19 Virus Wave approaching

I notice how the media today is filled with people desperate to get into the local pub.  Café's and restaurants seek urgently to open, at least in part, and it appears the threat of a deadly virus has faded somewhat.
It is understandable that a business wishes to reopen, much loss has occurred and many may never recover, this is extremely sad, especially for the small coffee shop close by that we had begun to frequent on occasion, I doubt he can have much cash put aside.  MP's and MSPs are pressurising the leaders to reopen everywhere, Cafes, restaurants, shops, Zoo's, almost anything and everything that has been closed down.  Of course in some areas the public reaction has been to make out Lock Down has ended anyway so lets just get on with it.
There is a problem with this, Covid 19 is still around.  What drugs that have been found to work are still only a partial help, and then only for some.  The deadly virus is still with us and while returning to normal is good it may also be deadly! 

Only a few days ago while I was out there were few people to be seen.  Tonight I visit Sainsburys and the car park is busy.  While we all avoid one another it is clear people have forgotten about the danger.  This is not completely forgotten just pushed to the side a wee bit.  I suspect large town centres where large shops are considering opening are less safe than Sainsburys.
The second wave is on the way...

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!!! 

Empty Saturday

That sums up my day.  Sitting here staring into space, maybe the laptop, occasionally the oven, and once I looked out of the window at the sunshine.   Not much else has been done and it does not look like that will change.  I've read the empty papers, watched yobs through things at one another in central London, grumbled on Twitter and scanned Facebook, and listened to Cello playing on YouTube.  All very nice.  Soon be time for bed, or maybe I will keep an eye on SKY-NEWS and watch the neds being belted...?

Mark Steel

Bit of Migraine tonight and canny stand the bright screen.  So here is an interesting Mark Steel performance from 2015 in Barnard Castle...

USA and Bobby

RNS

This interesting survey shed some light on the attitudes that brought Trump into power.  It reveals that some 6-% of White US evangelicals show some level of discrimination.  While never keen on they way such surveys are worked out the results do not entirely surprise me.  
White Americans are afraid!  That is why they voted for Trump.  
So many US white evangelicals worship an imaginary US rather than  their God.  The impression I get is one where being white, waving a 'Stars & Stripes' flag, having apple pie each day and a son in the military are the main indications you are a true American!
Strange as they are all descended from immigrants.
Of course none mention the holocaust that their predecessors indulged in during the 19th century, slaughtering as many Buffalo and Red Indians as possible to ensure a peace loving 'All American' state.  Some amends have been made, 'Red Indians' are now called 'Native Americans,' even though their situation has not been improved and they all had their own 'Nations' before the Europeans arrived, Cheyenne, Sioux, Apache and the like.  Still, some white hearts eased.
The sad truth is that if you follow Jesus you must put aside your nation.  Jesus comes first.
Unfortunately for many Americans the fear of Black and (now forgotten) Mexicans and Latino's has pushed aside biblical truth.  Instead of trusting Jesus and accepting their concept of nation must change they hide behind Gun law, Conservative all white politicians and a flag.  
Repentance and trust in their God must come before they find peace.  Voting for Trump to end abortion was good, abortion is murder, opposing gay sex is correct, however voting for Trump himself has proved the naysayers right, he is a Broken Reed and must be removed.  National repentance is required for the white evangelical, 40% appear to be there already, the rest must also take this step for Jesus to reign.  It will not be easy.

   

Greyfriers Bobby needs to go... 

can you imagine the trauma cats feel every time they walk past, 

they're never quite sure 

if they're going to be attacked.
Dogs have been attacking cats for thousands of years! 

All we need is a petition... or an hysterical mob!

 (My niece's somewhat sarcastic answer to statue removal!) 

Laff