It takes a little time..

I've made a graph.

(click to enlarge)

It illustrates how we need time to familiarise ourselves with something before we can begin to truly enjoy it. This applies to food, music, video games ..all sorts; and it was inspired by a conversation (slash argument) I had with my friend.

My friend plays music in a band. A folky-style band - nothing too heavy. And they have a gig coming up where they have to play three separate sets, of half an hour each. The venue isn't a pub or club, but a village fete type thing. So my friend and his little troupe aren't the main attraction, they're just one of a few local acts providing backing music as the visitors wander the various stalls and attractions.

Anyway, as they have ninety minutes to fill they're learning ninety minutes of material. A bit of a steep task - especially for such a little event. I said they should just play the same set three times. Maybe adding the odd song here or there if they want. However, my friend insisted that that would annoy people.

Obviously, I think he's wrong 😈

I actually think getting the chance to play the same set three times offers a huge opportunity they're foolish to miss out on.

First of all, the people there during the second or third set aren't necessarily going to be the same people that are there for the first. How long are these people spending there? So it's unlikely many people will hear all three sets anyhow.

Secondly, people won't even be paying attention to the music. They'll be too busy looking at the bric-a-brac and other curiosities. My friend will be lucky if he even gets noticed. (That sounds a bit harsh, lol. I don't mean it to sound that way.)

Thirdly - and this is where the opportunity arises - by having people hear a song more than once there's much more potential that it'll get stuck in their heads.

During the first set people won't consciously notice the background music, but during the second - when the songs are that little bit more familiar - suddenly they might. That's when the humming or singing along can occur. Then they notice. Then it's, "What's this?", "Who are these guys?"

You're essentially fast-tracking people through two or three gigs worth of exposure in a single day. The perfect advertisement opportunity. Three ads for the price of one.

My Friend Still Wasn't Buying It

He insisted that it doesn't work like that. More to point, he claims that he knows instantly whether he likes a song or not on the very first time of hearing it, and that other people have this instant awareness too. I think he's overestimating his powers of judgement and perception though, and underestimating how easily the brain gets tricked.

I've discussed this before on here. I think with new music it takes a few goes to get acclimatised. A good example is when you buy a new album.

You maybe buy a band's album because you like the single from it. When you start listening to the album the single itself is a joy to hear - you're tempted to just put it on repeat. However, the other album tracks are harder going. You're just not feeling them the same way. But then it happens. After a few listens some of the album tracks begin to stand out. (Assuming it's actually a decent album that is.) Then you start enjoying those tracks as much as the single. In fact, one of those other tracks could well be a future single that's yet to be released. It didn't sound like a single the very first time you put the album on, but now, all of a sudden, it does.

You're rewarded for that bit of effort and perseverance.

With the first single you didn't need to make that effort. As you'd already subconsciously heard it in the background on the radio, or in other places, multiple times before. Long before you started humming it and wanting to buy it.

So there's that little period of unfamiliarity, where it isn't enjoyable. Once you get past that the real enjoyment begins. Then, after a while, it gets overfamiliar - that's when boredom sets in. Hence the tail end of the graph.

People often complain that they're bored and that they want new music (or new food, or whatever else). But they're usually not willing to put the effort in to overcome the unfamiliarity of new things. They hear something for five seconds and say, "No, don't like it!" 😠

And the more new or unfamiliar something is the more this is the case.

For instance, say someone likes Radiohead. If you play them a band that sounds similar to Radiohead, they won't have that, "Don't Like It!" response. As it sounds familiar. However, as it's derivative and samey it'll get boring for them pretty quickly, and it'll never give them the high that Radiohead gave them.

In contrast, if you play that same person a band that sounds very different to Radiohead they will indeed have that, "Don't Like It!" first impression ..and they'll push it away. Like a baby pushing away a spoonful of unfamiliar food.

As they're unwilling to try it again they'll never get over that initial "unfamiliar" period. So they'll never get to experience the high that that music might have offered them.

It's similar with food. If someone offered me a pack of pickled onion Quavers that'd be a novel experience for me, and there'd be a slight apprehension that I might not like them. However, it wouldn't be that novel. I've had Quavers before. I've had other brands of crisps that are pickled onion flavoured. So it's not too difficult to imagine what pickled onion Quavers might be like, and it wouldn't take too long to judge their merits.

However, if someone offered me some weird food from another country, with some weird name, that I had little frame of reference for, that would be different. Then I'd need a bit more time to acclimatise. The first time trying it I'd be truly out of my depth. "Hmm. Okay, that's not too bad, I guess." It'd only be the second or third time that I'd truly settle down to comfort binge on that food (assuming I did end up liking it).

"Go on, give us another one of those whatever-they're-called. They're not too bad, actually."

Before you know it they're your new favourite food and you can't remember a time when you didn't like them.

Nevertheless, my friend really disagrees - and maybe you do too.

If I'm right his folk band are missing a trick at their gig though.

From the Back of Beyond

I'm here with another post about Beyond Meat. Since my last post on the topic I've been watching the share price bounce around. Though, saying that, the volatility seems to have disappeared somewhat. I've also bought a little more. So I'm now in a position where I can lose. Though only a few hundred dollars. Nothing criminal.

I've been doing a little bit of research too. Again, nothing major, just asking Grok questions and doing a few Google searches. Thanks to this I've learnt a few things:

• Sales for meat substitute products like Beyond Meat have dropped in the last few years. (I already knew this, but seeing some ballpark figures for 2024 helped get a better sense of things.)
• Quorn, which is big in the UK, has a presence, albeit small, in the US Market.
• The general mycoprotein production patent for Quorn ran out about fifteen years ago (the main ingredient in Quorn products is mycoprotein, derived from a fungus). Meaning any company can now make a similar product.

This is interesting to me as I normally buy what I like (stocks wise). As I mentioned on here before, unusually for me I was buying $BYND stock even though I'd never tried the product. Since then I have. In fact, I actually bought some more - and this time made cheeseburgers. Uplifting the vegan option into a vegetarian one.

However, I've also since bought Quorn pieces as well. My recent delving into this topic inspired me to revisit a dish I haven't eaten in about twenty years. As a child my mam used to make sweet and sour pork - it's kind of a family recipe. That is, the versions you'll find on the supermarket shelves aren't what I remember liking as a child. Anyway, after I first became vegetarian my mam kept making it for me, only with Quorn pieces instead of the pork. As it was the one meat-based meal that I really missed.

It's basically just rice, pineapple chunks, soy sauce, cornflour and the meat itself.

(I'm actually a big fan of pineapple in proper food. I'm one of these people that likes pineapple on pizzas. I think cooked fruit in general goes massively underused and under-explored - there's still this sense that it must be eaten either raw/cold or only as some kind of treat. A steak pie is a meal, but an apple pie is a dessert. "Why can't I have apple pie for tea?" I would always ask as a child, "I thought apples were healthy?"

That reminds me, with it being winter, I must buy a strudel. And I'll eat it as the main meal, not as a dessert.)

This brings me to the point. Part of the answer to that childhood question is the lack of protein. A meal needs some substance. Rice with pineapple chunks and some sauce isn't very filling. It would be a bit light, and not really worth the hassle of boiling all the pans. However, if you add some pork (or, in my case, Quorn), suddenly you have something a lot more satisfying. So I've been making a mess in the kitchen knocking up this meal once again. Nostalgia through tastebuds.

The Two Types of Substitute

It seems there are two types of meat substitute. One that seeks to recreate the direct experience and flavour of eating meat. The other that simply provides a substitute for the protein in dishes.

The Beyond Burger does the former. Quorn (at least the Quorn pieces that I buy) do the latter.

When I make Sweet and Sour Pork the flavour comes from the pineapple and the soy sauce, and the oil and the cornflour that I fry the Quorn pieces in. I don't really care if they taste identical to pork or not.

So, speaking on a personal level, as a consumer - and as a vegetarian - I could see Quorn being a more regular part of my shopping basket. Whereas the Beyond Burger would be less routine for me. I'd happily have a Beyond Burger on a trip to McDonald's, and I'd occasionally buy them as a, "We haven't had burgers in buns in a while," option. However, as I've mentioned before, I've never been a big fan of chomping down on a steak. That's not me. I'm not really an eating meat all the time type of person. I do need protein though. Especially in Indian/Oriental dishes where I can't just "have cheese with it." Plus, Quorn has the appeal of being a single ingredient product (pretty much).

Of course, ninety percent of the market is people who actually eat meat. Who like eating meat. Who like that taste. So, weirdly, they're more the potential market for the "direct experience" products. And that's a big market.

[The sales pitch to those people has been awful in recent years though. I'll add an addendum explaining why.]

So why don't Beyond Meat just whack out some mycoprotein pieces onto the market?

This returns us to the above bullet points. When I saw that the patent had expired my immediate thought was, "Why don't Beyond offer a similar product?" Capitalising on their global brand dominance.

Working through the question with Grok there are a few obvious hurdles. Mainly developing (and funding) the facilities/experience/knowledge to do it. As ever, nothing is so simple in real life. There's also the problem of potentially confusing the customer. Not having a clear brand signal. Plus, of course, I'm just one person. Not everyone wants what I want. Though given Quorn's success and longevity in the UK they must be doing something right.

Therefore, if I was investing in what I myself buy at the check out, I'd be a bit more inclined to invest in Quorn. (They're owned by the multinational Monde Nissan, that's listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange - a bit beyond my reach and knowledge.)

(The other famous long-established brand in the UK is Linda McCartney, whose parent is now the US food company Hain Celestial. As with Innocent, which is now owned by Coca-Cola, we're often ahead of the curve, then we get bought out.)

(AI knocked this one out, so strange

they still can't get the text right. Kinda

makes it more visual though.)

///////////////////////////

Addendum

Let's say you like ice cream, it's one of your favourite foods. Then I develop a product that's similar to ice cream.

However, instead of saying, "Hey, you like ice cream, you may also like this."

I say to you, "You're very naughty for eating ice cream. My product will completely replace it, and if I have my way you'll never eat another bowl of ice cream as long as you live."

How would you feel about my company and my product? I'm not only chastising you, I'm the guy that's taking away your favourite food, your bowl of ice cream, your childhood treat ..forever.

Not a great marketing pitch. You're probably going to hate me and my company. Fear it even. Fear I'm going to force you to change your life in some fundamental way that makes you worse off.

Well, that's been the marketing push to 90% of the market when it comes to meat substitute products. Especially during what we might call "The Woke Era."

So, lesson number one, the customer is king.

AI Art Gallery - Neo Northern Renaissance

It's snowing today. But let's not talk about today. Let's talk about yesterday. Yesterday I was playing around making AI art. I say 'making,' but really I was just typing prompts into Dezgo (my favoured image generator).

My prompts usually go along the lines of: something I'm interested in + historic artist I like

Anyway, yesterday I hit upon the, "Goth Woman painted by Jackson Pollock and Lucas Cranach the Elder ..with horoscope" aesthetic.

The mixing of two disparate artists with the medieval astrological vibe just worked for me.

Then it was just a case of generating dozens of random images to find the few that had that je ne sais quoi.

These were my picks. [Beware: not for everyone]

Welcome to my art gallery..

Then, finally, there's this one: that I'm dubbing the AI Mona Lisa. Yes, it's a touch explicit. That AI left the nipples really says something about how far the technology has come. Of course, lots of Lucas Cranach the Elder paintings feature bare-breasted women - so the inspiration is obvious. Still.. In fact, Dezgo has a tendency towards showing the female form nude, so you have to be careful. (There are a few images that I've kept that I daren't show publicly ..purely - and only! - for their artistic merits I should say.) Anyway, this one has a real allure. Like Blade Runner meets 'Allo 'Allo's "the fallen Madonna with ze big boobies."

When I'm rich enough to buy my chateau this will be hanging above the mantelpiece.

Bonfire Night Christmas Presents

I'm toying with another experiment. Today I might pay for Twitter.

Will it give me a boost in visibility, or will I just be paying for the privilege of remaining in peasant class? I'm also not sure whether to go basic (£35 for the year) or premium (£98). In essence it's like paying for advertising I guess.

I've been doing all my Christmas shopping, so maybe I should just go premium and write it off as a Christmas present to myself.

I might actually start wrapping presents today (!), which feels unfitting given it's Bonfire Night. However, I'll have a wander round the streets later on to watch the carnage and the fireworks, so I won't completely forgo the occasion.

I do like this time of year.

(I got Grok to make me an image;

I don't know why it's made me a girl)

[five minutes later..]

Okay, I've went premium. It was actually £84, not £98. Let's see what (if anything) happens.

(Dezgo popped me out this one in the meantime

- still girly, but a bit more fireworky)

Would They Fluoridate The Water In Eden

I was thinking about the future and I think everything comes back to the same question of what sort of world would you want to bring a child into. It concerns both your personal plans and the future of the wider human story.

This is why education has always been such a big thing for me. What is the point of this endless grind if even the children aren't spared the nine-til-five drudgery? From now until forever.

So this is the anchor.

What do we want for the world?

I've mentioned the folic acid in flour issue on here before. Since then I've been looking at the options for food without it. Flour is in so many products. Not just bread, but cakes, pastries, crackers, any product with breadcrumbs, the list goes on. For people that are advised to avoid folic acid for medical reasons it really is going to be a nightmare. It's a terribly irresponsible thing for a government to do. Flour is so ubiquitous in our diets. So any negative consequences are really going to be compounded.

Then I think about children. How would you raise a child in this chemical world? The very water is fluoridated. Things as simple as bread are massively fortified - by mandate.

Very little choice over schooling. Very little choice in regard diet or medical care. It's your child - you're bringing it into the world - but the state claims ownership over it. This is not a world for children, so these things need to change.

This is where my politics begins and ends.

Beyond Halloween

Okay, so I've just tried a Beyond Burger for the first time. I've never been more apprehensive about eating something.

It's a strange one for me, as I've been a vegetarian for twenty-five years - since I was a teenager - and I've never been one for meat substitutes. I've said this before on here, but I've just never had the appetite for meat. Even when I ate it I generally wasn't too keen on it. I couldn't quite escape the sense that I was eating an animal - unless the meat was very heavily disguised. Consequently, when I did make the decision to officially forgo it it was a smooth transition.

So the problem I had trying the beyond burger, ironically, was that it felt a little too much like meat. It's like spooky Halloween props. You know the severed head is just a model. You know the blood is just fake blood. Yet still, it can spook you out on some instinctive level. Especially if it looks realistic. So it kind of felt like I was cooking real meat as it sizzled in the pan.

On top of this there was also the mental apprehension about the ingredients. What is this I'm eating? Is it healthy? Is it natural?

So there was a multi-layered apprehension.

When I finally did sit down to eat it it was just like eating a regular beefburger as far as I could remember. (I bought the classic sesame seed burger buns in the end, I didn't go with wholemeal as I said I would.) It felt like when I was a kid and I had a burger from McDonald's or something.

It's that long since I ate meat that I can't really say how close to meat the taste actually was, but the vibe was the same. Again, I felt like I was eating meat, though my brain knew otherwise. So it was a little weird.

The only other meat substitute product I sometimes eat are Linda McCartney sausage rolls, lol. It's slightly different with them though. Firstly, because the pastry disguises the 'meat'. Then secondly I've been eating them intermittently for so long that I don't think of them as meat anyway. I just think of them as soya, which is what they are. So maybe it would be similar with the beyond burger after a few rounds of eating it.

Anyway, at least I can now say I've tried the product I've invested in. 

What School Should Look Like.

Let's say you're a parent. School has been abolished. You work thirty hours a week and need childcare to cover twenty of those hours. (Let's say a partner or family member looks after the child for the other ten.)

You get government vouchers to cover the cost of that twenty hours of childcare.

The beauty of this, as opposed to sending your child to school, is that it's flexible and works around you. With school your child had to be there from nine o'clock until three o'clock every day. You had to work around these hours. Making sure your child got picked up or dropped off at these times. No matter the inconvenience to you or the child. Now the childcare works around you. Mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekends. It covers the time you need covering. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Actual Education of Your Child

Now school is abolished your child has an online curriculum, chosen by you. (Though you can just follow the standard government-recommended curriculum if you'd prefer.) And they can do their work anytime they or you want them to. They simply open their laptop and get started. If they need help they can watch lessons online. Or they can ask the AI assistant. Or they can ask for help from online human teaching assistants.

When you send your child to childcare you can ask that your child spends some time doing this work. Perhaps they attend for five hours and you want them to spend two hours on education. The rest they can spend playing. The childcare worker doesn't have to be a teacher or an expert in Maths and English. All they have to do is help your child access the lessons and expert help that are available to them online.

Schools Become Education Hubs

On top of this, the place that was once your local school is now an education hub. More like a college than a school. Instead of attending rigidly from nine o'clock each day until three, as children once did, now your child simply attends for a few hours a week for specific lessons - in a timeslot that is convenient to you. Just as someone would go for a driving lesson at a specific time for that specific reason.

The government offers you ten hours of this local, in person, education to use each week. And you can use as little or as much of it as you like.

This real world education is focused on the most crucial aspects of education - Maths and English. It also offers things that develop social skills and public speaking. Such as sports, debate and drama.

So, for example, your child could have a ninety minute maths lesson on a Monday morning. Two hours of English on a Tuesday afternoon. Then drama class on Thursday evening.

As these education hubs would no longer be providing round the clock care for every child, as they did when they were schools, the quality of education offered would be dramatically improved. Instead of thirty children to a classroom, for six or seven whole hours each day, there would be one or two hour lessons that have just four or five children in the room.

There would be less time in school, but that time would be much more focused and worthwhile.

Likewise, poor or struggling families could be allocated more of this in person help with education if that was needed.

///////////

[To give a simpler example as an addendum, you could halve class sizes just by halving the length of the school day. Instead of thirty children in a classroom for six hours you could have fifteen in the morning and fifteen in the afternoon. This would be better for the actual education of the child. They'd be happier, school would be more peaceful and inducive to learning, and they'd get more care and individual focus.

However, if this happened people would cry, "But who will look after the child on the morning/afternoon when I'm at work!"

Showing again that school in its current form is little more than glorified childcare. Though people are loath to admit this. That's why school needs scrapping altogether and replacing with actual (and genuinely flexible) childcare. It's only then that an education that works for the actual sake of the child's development and learning can be put into place.]

Beyond Meme

Another interesting day in the Beyond Meat saga.

It opened high, continuing the rocket to the moon of previous days, but by the day's end it had finished slightly in the red. It's now getting hammered down more in the after hours trading. Though it's still a lot higher than it was last week.

I feel a little mercenary, as I took more profit during those early highs. It seemed wise to take the money I'd put in off the table. So whatever happens I can't really lose now. Before this week I'd invested about $650 in total. I've now sold around $700 of stock. Leaving me with about $400 worth in my account.

I've been very lucky. Especially considering I was down around $400 last week. So I've kind of came out with $400 of free stock in the end.

What happens with that stock now I don't know. My opinions have moved back and forth a little depending on what articles and videos I've been consuming. Overall I still feel it's a neat way to turn the company around. A brand that was once viewed as a darling of the globalist overlords is now rebranded as a people's stock. With those invested (and investing) in the meme perhaps also developing an emotional investment in the actual products.

And, with the company getting three more years of life thanks to the debt restructuring, there's time for that potential turnaround to bed in. So there is some outlook for optimism.

However, ..it's also a neat way to rinse retail investors as a company faces its death rattle. So pessimism might be the best armour.

As I noted yesterday, it could well be both. We see this dichotomy with Bitcoin. The endless pump and dumps and "We're Going To The Moon." The believers buying and holding for the long term. The more unscrupulous buying, but also selling to skim profits, as they fluff the hype to the true believers on the rollercoaster. Yet, as the ups and downs are skimmed, the wider Bitcoin upward trend continues.

So maybe this is similar. Beyond Meat continues into the future (and the company won't be going bankrupt - at least not any time soon), but at the same time that doesn't mean believers won't be taken for a ride along the way. (We even see the same 🚀rocket emoji and language in all the posts hyping it. So it looks like the same playbook.)

As for me, I won't be selling what I have left. I know I said that yesterday, but this time I mean it. Largely because I'm in work the next two days, so won't be sat anywhere near a screen when the markets open. I do genuinely want to hold some for the long term though, and as what I have now is essentially free it'll be a lot easier to do. So that should be the plan.

I'm also definitely going to buy some beyond burgers next week to finally try them. Hopefully that'll be my next post and I won't be having to post daily about this until then.

To Infinity and Beyond ..Meat

The cow jumped over the moon.

Well, so much for the red-faced Beyond Meat losses. Something's happened. I'm not entirely sure what. There's a short squeeze. It's a meme stock now. There's been an announcement about increased distribution with Walmart. It all seems quite convenient, but I'll pretend I haven't noticed that.

Yesterday (Monday) the stock was up over 100%. Now, today, it's up a whopping 146%.

Earlier I took some profits - I don't like to look a gift horse in the mouth. However, I'm going to continue to hold most of my stock. Overall, (including the profits taken), I'm up over $300. That's after being down over $400 just five days ago.

It's very interesting to watch ..and fun. I've accidentally ended up being involved in a meme stock moment.

I'm not quite sure where things go from here. My instinctive feeling is that this all represents (a somewhat orchestrated) turn around for the company. However, it could of course be some kind of pump and dump, where retail investors (regular folk) are encouraged to buy in for fear of missing out. Naturally, even if it is a turn around, there'll be a bit of both to some extent.

I've been watching videos about the short-selling. I'm not really one for pointing at candles on graphs, so the technical analysis is interesting, but secondary to me. I understand short-selling in theory, in the abstract, but the actual ins and outs of how it works - the who does what and when - isn't something I'm directly familiar with. So I hear this stuff, see the general numbers, but have little confidence I know what it all means in a practical sense. I get that if you've borrowed something, sold it, and now have to buy it back, you might be a bit f*cked if the price starts rising ..but how these big players actually do all that in reality, like, I don't know.

And I'd be a fool to think I do. So I'll just watch and learn. Getting a little semi-education via osmosis.

So, I've had a bit of luck, took a little profit, and now I can enjoy the ride a bit more comfortably. Though maybe it'll be the animals that get the real luck in the long term. Still, it's difficult to say. Clearly a lot can change in a few days.

/////

Oh, and it's perhaps worth adding, that the gold and silver miners (the ones that have helped fund my Beyond Meat excursion) were hugely down today. As were gold and silver in general. So it really is swings and roundabouts.

Beyond Meat - Paying for the Ride

Earlier this year I made a post asking, Will There Ever Be A Vegan Nestlé?

In that post I mentioned that I'd bought some stock in the company Beyond Meat, and I wondered aloud if we'd ever see a huge food multi-national like Nestlé that was exclusively animal friendly. Or if profitable smaller vegan companies would simply get bought up by these existing giants.

Incidentally, Nestlé's stock rose today after an announcement that they're going to be laying off 16,000 workers. So that's bad news, though I guess good news for me, as I own a little bit of Nestlé as well. The Beyond Meat shares however - they're not doing too well. To say the least. And worse still, I've been topping up my position. Buying more on the big slide down. I'm about $400 down, *grimace*.

It's not too bad though, as I'm still doing fairly well overall.

The gold and silver miners are paying for my vegan experiment. In fact, the Beyond stock is the only massively risky thing I own really.

(I kinda feel that bar might

be even higher tomorrow)

So the question is now, have I completely wasted my money? Will Beyond Meat just go out of business.

It's not looking pretty.

The short answer is, I don't know. Whatever happens I'm going to ride it to the bottom though. It was a punt to begin with, so I'm not about to bail out here when it's getting interesting. Whenever I'm in a situation like this the psychology is always very interesting too. There's a social embarrassment that comes with losing money - you look foolish. Like a loser ..literally. So there's this tendency to want to get out of the door as quickly as possible to avoid further humiliation.

For instance here I felt the need to share the graph showing I'm doing well overall to offset the negative. As if to say, "Look, I'm not an idiot, this is just a daft a little side punt that I basically did for a laugh." Though, of course, that's not true. I bought it as a punt, yes, but with the hope that perhaps there would be long term upside. Certainly not for a laugh.

If this psychology applies to me - someone that's generally happy to be an anti-social contrarian - then you can imagine how it works in the wider world. People stampeding out of a stock because the red lights are flashing. Consequently I'm always sat wondering if these investors are being sensible or just blindly panicking. Perhaps the panic itself is sensible? At least they'll save some money if they run when everyone else starts running.

Normally when I go against the grain I don't care at all. I'm comfortable riding out red numbers. The only other time I felt like an idiot was with the Russian stocks - my only other big mistake thus far. I did feel a touch of embarrassment there.

The Sberbank, Gazprom and Evraz shares are still sitting, comatose, in my eToro account, so I'm enjoying the experiment nevertheless. Perhaps they'll reanimate at some point. And maybe these Beyond Meat shares will come back from the dead. Though my slightly reddened face suggests I'm sugar-coating an obvious mistake.

Being vegetarian I also have a moral dog in the fight. Albeit I've never actually tried a beyond burger. (Again, foolhardy to invest in a product I've never even tried - normally I tend to buy things I like and use.) Really I should try one. It would be fun. Plus, with government mandating folic acid in everything I'm looking to widen my dietary options anyway.

I must remember to buy some beyond burgers - and some wholemeal flour buns - and then report back.

The wider cultural trend seems to be a move towards vegetarianism/veganism and animal welfare. However, the recent rightwards shift we're seeing in politics runs counter to this, and it's becoming fashionable to positively espouse meat-eating in these circles. The animal-friendly options being heavily associated with globalism and all its ills. I've even seen these products referred to as goyslop. The claim that these products aren't natural and healthy heightening this. So it's difficult to gauge which way the wind is blowing.

I would like to see us move away from animal products, but in a way that's positive for humans too. Perhaps the back and forth will force an evolution towards excellence. Either way, it's interesting to watch.

So, as with the Russian shares, I'm enjoying the journey, but the fare price has a been a little hefty so far.

Astrology, Rhesus Negative ..and Folic Acid in Bread

A month or so ago I found out I was rhesus negative - A negative in particular.  To be honest, I'm only mentioning it here for cynical reasons. I made a blog post about it over on my red hair blog (a place more apt for it, given some of the online woo associating RH- with redheads). Anyway, that particular post got a spike in views, so I'm mentioning it here to see what happens. It's a strange topic, as it's something that comes up online in woo-woo land, in relation to aliens and other wackiness, but it largely goes unmentioned elsewhere. It's similar to blood groups in general. They're a big deal in Japan, they make a big fuss about them. It's like a person's star sign (we'll come to horoscopes next). Here in the west it isn't considered worth mentioning though, unless for practical reasons like blood donations and so forth. The fact that I only recently found out my blood type confirming this general lack of care - and I only discovered mine because I purposely ordered a test from Amazon out of curiosity.

Astrology

More woo now. I've been taking a slight interest in astrology. Largely accidentally, as a channel I watch on YouTube dabbles in it. I'm sure it's all nonsense - it must be, right? But still it's a bit of fun and the history of it is interesting. Also, it strokes the ego a little bit. Like the rhesus negative blood, it gives a sense of, "I'm special."

"This is my chart, this is why I'm so interesting."

I mentioned that I was a Taurus on this blog not too long ago, that time in relation to childhood memories, and how it never really appealed to me. I never really saw myself as an angry, hulking bull. An unthinking hothead. However, the YouTuber pointed out that the bull isn't angry all the time. Most of the time it's solitary and placid. It's just that when it does get angry it gets really angry. Which is true of me, I must admit. A good example being this recent thing where the UK government is mandating that all plain flour must be fortified with folic acid.

I'm genuinely pissed off about it (though most of the time I tend to be shy and passive). I'm still in a mood now as a I type, even though my initial burst of annoyance was yesterday. (I wanted to overthrow the government yesterday 😅). It also annoys me that other people aren't as annoyed as I am. 

It's a bit of a detour from the astrology, but this impulse to mass medicate populations. In ways where it effectively becomes impossible or illegal to avoid it is just outrageous to me. We see the same thing with the fluoridation of water. Even if there were no health downsides whatsoever the principle alone would be worth fighting for. How dare you medicate me against me wishes.

And, as with Covid, I'm past the point of caring about public health. If the rest of the country are happy being treated like barnyard animals that's their problem. Not me.

We also recently had news that the UK government are banning restaurants from refilling sugary drinks - i.e. from giving free top-ups. Again in the name of public health. This one doesn't affect me in the slightest, but I'm peeved nonetheless. This endless interfering; this endless communism. So much money, time and effort wasted to busybody.

You really have to wonder at the mentality of the people making such rules. Some bad things that governments do make sense. For instance, censorship. I get why governments censor people. They want to exercise power, and people contradicting the narrative are a threat and hindrance to them. I don't agree with the censorship, but there's a logic to it. Bringing in a rule to ban the refilling of a cup of hot chocolate is just completely inane though. That they think the idea in the first place is telling. That they then go to such an effort to implement and enforce the idea condemns them entirely.

Give these people a China-style social credit system and they will be worse than China.

Back To Astrology

Anyway, let's back to lighter things. I got myself a birth chart thingy. (Just type 'create birth chart' or something to that effect into Google and countless free generators pop-up.)

My Moon is in conjunction with Venus, and they're both in opposition to Saturn, whatever that means. I did read some of the descriptions from the site that produced the chart and they were actually quite accurate to be fair. Especially in regard my woeful dealings with the opposite sex. Of course, there's always the tendency to pick and choose, and to see what we want to see though. The vagueness leaves a lot of room for interpretation. So it's easy to read too much into things.

Still, it's more fun than spending time trying to avoid the countless industrial chemicals the government tries to shove down our throats.

The Gary Neville Thing

For future context this is in response to Gary Neville blaming the "division in the country" on "white middle-aged men" who are putting up Union Jacks.

I've had a few digs at Gary Neville over on Twitter about his comments. However, I always try to think about how I would word things were I posting to my real life friends on Facebook. It's easy to throw around off-the-cuff remarks on Twitter, where everyone's a stranger, but on Facebook you're forced to be mindful of the people you work and live with. In the real world I have plenty of friends that are from minority backgrounds in one way or another - British-born Muslims, black and mixed-race people (some born here, some from overseas), Eastern Europeans. In fact, where I work the list of nationalities is endless: Poland, Romania, Eritrea, Nigeria, Latvia, Greece, the list goes on..

Anyway, when I think in this way it only heightens my feeling that Gary Neville is wrong. It doesn't bring me any closer to his "everything is rosy, and you're just a racist for complaining" worldview. I just think he's irresponsible, and is making things worse by throwing around the label racist.

Old Trafford

The capacity of Old Trafford - the football stadium where Gary Neville used to play - is 74,000. If they sell all 74,000 tickets for a game and someone tries to buy one more then the guy working at the ticket office has to say, "Sorry, we're sold out. No one else can enter the stadium."

The guy doesn't do this because he's racist towards the ticket buyer, or because he's filled with "HATE." He does it because he has a responsibility, and sometimes being responsible means making hard decisions. On the one hand he wants as many people to come to the game as possible. However, at the same time, he also has a duty to make sure the people inside the stadium are safe. So there's a balancing act, and trying to get that balance right means sometimes having to turn people away.

Ideally the whole world would be allowed into the stadium to watch the game, but in reality there are practical limits.

The Stadium Britannica

Of course, it's similar with countries. Ideally we'd just let everyone enter, but, in reality, there are restrictive factors ..lack of housing/infrastructure, fears over social cohesion, etc. We want a vibrant stadium, but we don't want a rowdy, violent one - where things are too overcrowded and the stewards can't control the numbers.

Again, it's a balancing act, and that means someone taking responsibility and at times saying, "Sorry, you can't enter."

Yes, it's mean. But it's also mean to turn a blind eye to homelessness, crime, ever-rising rents, and all the various other issues.

Back To Facebook

Anyway, back to posting on Facebook. Gary makes things worse, because:

a) He makes it difficult for governments to take responsibility - i.e. they can't ever say, "Sorry, you can't enter," for fear of being labelled racist. (Or, if the government is in fact too idealistic to take responsibility he provides cover for them.)

b) He's basically telling the numerous people that are from minority backgrounds, "Hey, this guy complaining about immigration rates, or putting up flags, he's racist and he hates you." Sowing more discord.

So, if I go and post on Facebook, my numerous minority friends will think, "Wow, I didn't realise he's actually a RACIST!, he must secretly hate me and not want me in the country." Not, "Oh, he wants someone responsible managing the ticket office." Which is the reality.

And this is the reality for the vast majority of the population. Yes, there are a teeny amount of genuinely racist people, but they're a tiny fraction. Most people just want policies that are practical not ideological.

It's perfectly natural that someone from another country, or from a minority background, will have a tendency to think, "They're talking about me," when they hear someone complaining about immigration. I'd think the same if I was in their shoes ..but most the time I'd be wrong. As, again, most people complaining see the issue as a practical/numbers issue, not a personal one.

People like Gary should be reassuring people that it isn't personal if they genuinely want to lessen social tensions. They should be explaining the practical limitations that all governments face and arguing for a balance. Not stirring up fears further by painting kumbaya rainbows on one side of the aisle and white Nazi bogeymen on the other.

It's in the interests of everyone here to want a safer stadium. Ultimately, homelessness and cost of living doesn't discriminate by colour, religion or nationality.

What is 'Arcade Copper Mining' ?

It's the latest craze. Everybody's doing it. Well, it's just me and my friend doing it actually. In fact, we're probably the only people in the country doing it. Basically, we're going to arcades to get 2p coins. We're mining copper ..on the 2p drop machines.

To understand why you first need to appreciate the (rather underappreciated) 2p coin.

In modern Britain, 2p and 1p coins are thought of as little better than trash. People will often throw them away even. Or just discard them on the counter as they receive their change at the store (that's if they're still using physical cash). However, it really is a case of people knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. As these coins are actually rather special. There's a certain dying romance that very few people see ..yet.

Let me explain..

Firstly, the 2ps that were minted before 1992 are solid copper, and thanks to inflation the actual copper in these coins is now worth more than the nominal value of the coin. So a copper 2p is actually worth about 5p in raw copper terms.

[This is just going by the general market price for copper. Obviously, in actuality, things aren't quite so simple. It costs money to transport and refine copper. People - in particular businesses - want to buy it at scale and in a form that's useful to them. So the copper in a handful of copper coins isn't going to be much use to anyone in reality.

Also, it's illegal to melt coins down in the UK. Even if the cost, effort and time wasn't prohibitive ..but we don't want to melt them down anyway - see the next point.]

Secondly, these coins are old. They're becoming historic. The first ones were minted way back in 1971 - that's over fifty years ago. They have the face of a now dead monarch on them. Queen Elizabeth II.

Now again, you aren't going to make much money holding onto these coins. They're not exactly rare - there are literally billions in circulation. Still, they're physical objects in an increasingly digital age. How much longer will they be in circulation? Are they one of those things that people will only begin to appreciate once they're gone?

When you think about it it's actually quite incredible that we can receive a physical piece of art that's over fifty years old in our change when we pop to the shops.

The post-1992 2p coins are just copper-plated steel. So they're little more than tokens really. Pretend 2ps. Likewise on the continent, where they have their new and modern Euro, the smaller denomination coins are just copper-plated steel. So our big copper 2ps are already something of a relic.

And none of our other coins are quite so old either. The 5p, 10p and 50p coins we now have are all smaller imitations of their original counterparts (like me, you may be old enough to remember the big ol' 5ps we used to have). The pound coins have changed too. The only other coin remaining in circulation in its original form is the 20p - and they were first minted later, in 1982. So the 1p and 2p coins are the cheapest, but, conversely, also the oldest.

And the best place to find these 2ps in large quantity is another place of nostalgia .. The Sea-front Arcade.

The arcades in British seaside towns also hold a certain dying romance. Like our pubs and decaying highstreets there's a feeling of decline. That the modern world is making them increasingly redundant. We all remember the 2p drop/coin pusher machines from our childhood. (They're actually still quite popular if my recent trips are anything to go by.) They're something we all have a certain fondness for. They've always been there - there, by the sea. With the fish 'n' chips, and the ice creams, and the teddy-pickers, and all the other arcade games.

But if (presumably when) the 1p and 2p coins are taken out of circulation they'll get taken out of circulation too. There'll be no 2ps to put into the slots. So they'll have to go as well.

Arcade Mining

So me and my friend travel to the various local coastal towns. We get a few pound worth of 2ps from the change machine. Then we keep hold of the pre-1992 copper ones and disperse the rest with relish into the slots. If we win any more copper 2ps we keep them too - the copper-plated token 2ps we win then going back into the slots, in the hope of winning more.

(I won a duck)

It's a little hobby; a little trip out. We get the fun of playing the 2p drops while we still can. And we get to mine some physical precious metal - well, semi-precious base metal - at the same time. Some little pieces of history. Complete with the little old Queen of England in relief. Like little vinyl records - only appreciated once obsolete.

So get yer-self to the seaside. Get a few seashells from the beach ..and get a handful of copper from the arcades. A few memories from the coast to take home.

A Thousand Years of Peace

I said I'd post more frequently, but today I was struggling to think what to type. Instead I was more inclined to continue editing the second book of my work of fiction. I'm not sure what draft this is. I think third, could be forth, not sure, but I'm at the stage where I'm semi-publishing each chapter on its blog as I go. This was the latest one:

Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene XIX

The chapters are labelled scenes in this second book. Everything's nice and short. Internet age friendly.

I also ended up blogging about my fpl (fantasy premier league) team. So, as per yesterday, it really is all about me.

The latest political thing is the Trump Gaza peace plan. I watched the press conference he and Netanyahu gave. It felt optimistic, so hopefully it's a big step in the right direction. Hope being the key word. I'm not sure what the expectation is.

Trump was doing his usual bravado thing. Saying things like this is going to be the first time we have peace in "thousands of years". People always get their knickers in a twist over these pronouncements. The, "He's an idiot!", "How can someone this stupid be president?!!" comments. They still struggle to understand that Trump is a salesman, and that he's honed this technique over decades. You can argue the rights and wrongs of it, but he knows what he's doing. He isn't an idiot. Of course, sometimes he does just get things wrong. Again, he's a salesman, not a historian. But it all misses the point. He's focused on outcome. He doesn't really care about the technicalities as long as what he's saying has the desired effect.

And that UN speech. Wow. You just never, ever, see a politician speak like that. It was truly incredible to watch.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

The Music of Dreams

I hear the chatter of magpies.

I said I was toying with the idea of posting more. Then, immediately after finishing that last post, something else occurred to me that I feel is worth noting down.

One thing I've been trying to improve is my sleep. I was going through a period where I was finding it very difficult to sleep (overthinking - endlessly rehearsed conversations in the mind with the trouble-making swan goddess). Anyway, I'm having very good sleep now ..thank God. And I really appreciate it. Less overthinking has helped, but also more practical things, like trying not to drink tea/coffee or eat in the hours before bed. Consciously slowing breathing has helped too.

Anyway, one consequence of sleeping more is more dreams. I've had quite a few recently. Last night I had one where some music was playing, and in the dream we (there were other people there) were trying to find out what band it was. Like when you hear a song on the radio that grabs your attention, so you search the lyrics on your phone in the hope of finding out what it is.

It was a strange dream, and I'm sure dreams are just kaleidoscope-like collages of the things that are already in your mind. However, it always amazes me that the mind can construct music in a dream. The music in this particular one was original. It wasn't something I'd heard in real life, though no doubt it was of a genre. I can't fully recall it now, sadly. There's more just that vague post-dream recollection of the sense of things. It was sort of goth rock/post-punk in vibe. That general ballpark. Still, the way the mind can do that is amazing really.

I wonder if AI works in a similar way to dreams. The way it takes all this real world information, then spits out a nearly-sensical construct of it. Or should I say, do dreams work in a similar way to AI?

Implementation vs Culture

I've been toying with the idea of posting more frequently again. I fear it might just be endless navel-gazing though, as my thoughts are all about me at the moment, and I'm kind of on vacation from politics. I'm trying to self-improve and be a better person, cliched as that sounds. Working on my weaknesses rather than indulging my strengths.

Also, I feel that politics is on autopilot currently. Everything's set. The directions of travel are obvious. We're not really at a pivot point where small nudges will make a big difference. Or where something new needs adding into the cocktail.

Labour have a huge majority. So that's something that just can't be changed at the moment. There's little point crying about it. The time for that was before the last election. People talk about an earlier general election being on the horizon, but why would you do that if you have a huge majority and you're implementing what you want to implement? And even so, Reform are broadly on the right track for if and when an election comes. So that's all happily in motion too.

It feels like there's this race going on between culture and implementation. In the UK the Blairite/globalist faction have the reigns and are just ploughing on with their plans. Meanwhile, the cultural landscape is moving in a different direction. Both feel like unstoppable trains. So the question is:

Will we see conflict or will we see synthesis?

The fact that Keir Starmer is waving union jacks and acknowledging the need for better border controls suggests we'll see synthesis. However, some of the talk around digital IDs and confronting Reform's 'racism' has more the feel of, "We're at war with our enemies."

So we'll wait and see.

In the US it's slightly different. There Trump, who's with the cultural momentum, has the reigns and is implementing his own things. And it's the more globally minded that are waiting it out. Planning for a post-Trump world. Either way, it seems everyone is planning for future battles. It's a time for sleeping on the battlefield, as I say. A good time to work on yourself ..if you're me.

Maybe I will keeping posting. Perhaps my more personal focus will be illuminating? Even if only for me. Returning to the idea of digital ID. Politically I'm completely against - I don't want the Chinese-style social credit system it may bring about. The digital dog lead is just that - a dog lead. However, on a personal level, I just don't have the fear anymore. I've kind of already accepted the coming reality of it. So that's an interesting thing to me. Is it stoicism? Is it resignation? Is it bravery? Is it a confidence that things will work out in the end? Or is it just a consequence of getting older?

Back at the outset of 2020 I had real fear, which brought with it a sense of panic and urgency. I don't have that now.

My Thoughts on the Charlie Kirk Assassination

This Charlie Kirk assassination thing has really bummed me out. Taking it on face value it's just a sad, sad thing. He seemed like such a good guy, who had so much potential. He was a key figure in the MAGA movement. The one person, from a long term strategy point of view, that you wouldn't want to lose. So it feels very hollowing, on both a personal and a political level.

However, this is the thing with the, "Taking it on face value," that I feel I have to squeeze in there. The sadness is amplified by a sense of uncertainty and dislocation. What happened? What's true and what isn't? Are my real emotions being wasted on unreal things? I try to speak in a more circumspect way these days, but as I've alluded to before on here, it's true that sometimes media/government just fabricate things. Parables are told in news form.

Everyone's a conspiracy theorist now it seems. So there's little point pretending I'm speaking some great secret here. In fact, in today's world of mass media, and now AI, you'd have to be lobotomised to not question things. In a world where artificial is so easy only a fool would accept things unthinkingly. And if you do choose not to think (as many do), the smart move is to automatically not believe the things you see on screen. As at least that way you avoid the emotional drain and the buy-in.

It's easier to not care. To console yourself that it's all just political theatre and that therefore you can cast things aside into the box labelled fiction. However, as I type, this looks very vivid and real. It looks like a man - a decent Christian family man - has been the victim of a mafia-style hit in broad daylight. The footage itself, from multiple angles, looks bloody and conclusive.

The official narrative is that it was carried out by a loony leftist with a trans girlfriend. A narrative with clear elements of soap opera. There are also other oddities: the boomer guy in glasses who originally claimed to be the shooter, who was led from the scene with his trousers around his ankles; the fact that the very question Kirk was answering was about trans shootings when he was shot. So it all leads itself to a mishmash of interpretation. A bloody act of violence wrapped in cartoons. I don't know how to fully parse it. I don't know what's happened.

And, of course, if you can't get a handle on what's happened you don't know how to respond. You find yourself fighting spooks, spectres and monsters. Are you swinging your feeble sword at a monster, or was it just a shadow? Or are the monsters fighting even bigger (and more dishonest) monsters themselves? The complexity leaves you helpless. Uncertain what the landscape is.

The one thing you can have certainty over though is your own values. In a world full of lies and violence your own actions can at least be true. Even if they tread uncertain ground. Which brings me to a point of optimism. I'm struggling to get a handle on this situation, but generally I'm quite good at reading the larger cultural landscape, and I think the major upshot of all this will be more people finding faith. It was going that way anyway, but this will only push that further. The left/right political stuff is becoming redundant, as people search for a firmer foundation to root their world upon.

In America they have a real, living Christianity, so that will swell from the upswing.

Here, in the UK, things are different. We really are a godless people. The only major living cultural reservoir in the country is Islam. So it's harder to say where things will go. Recently we've had all the flag waving on the streets. I love the Union Jack, but these political symbols are puny when stood up against the behemoth of faith-based religion. Even a nationalism rooted in ethnicity is weak as it lacks the power to convert. Once upon a time the Union Jack (and its English and Scottish parent flags) were symbols of religion as well as of nationhood. They're literally the cross. However, again, religion has to be living, and barely a single living Brit would think "Christianity" when they see these flags now. For sure, the street rabble of the English looks pathetic when compared to the church unity Americans often show.

It seems strangely unfitting to talk about the UK. Perhaps I should've saved that last paragraph for another blog post. May God bless America.

The Heart Has An Intelligence

I haven't posted here in the last few months. Mainly because I've had some dramas of the heart. I won't go into the full personal details (maybe another time, plus I'm not sure I'm out of the woods yet), but needless to say, the heart has an intelligence all of its own.

There's a reason the heart is the symbol of love. It knows and feels things the brain can't.

(I feel it's time to get this blog back to politics and other things of interest. Less of the whimsy. With the current talk being about flags and symbols this might be a good segue.)

The 🩷 symbol doesn't symbolise a country or a tribe. It symbolises the individual, and the coming together of two individuals. You have the two rounded, curvy bits at the top coming down to form a single point at the bottom. Of course, the curves can also represent the female breasts, with the downward point standing as the vagina. Turning the symbol upside down it then takes on a more phallic form. With the curves standing as the balls and the now upward point as the penis.

It really is quite a neat little symbol. Perhaps the greatest symbol.

The Little Things

Does God have a plan for me? Is there a God? If there is a God, you'd like to think he has a plan for everyone. However, when you look at all the people out there with their mundane troubles. 'All the lonely people,' as the Beatles song goes. It's hard to imagine that being the case. Then again, I feel my own life is charged with meaning, so perhaps it's dismissive to think that other people's lives aren't rich with meaning and purpose as well.

It really is the little things that make a difference. We want our lives to be like a movie. Yet we forget, or fail to realise, that movies have power because they reflect back our own lives. A good romance brings to mind our own, much deeper felt, real world romance - or failed romance. Or unrequited love. Likewise, you could turn the camera on any individual, tell their story - be it a factory worker, lollipop lady, or anyone else - and make a meaningful movie of it. So maybe the world really is rich with meaning, and we just think it's largely meaningless because we can only focus our attention on one movie at a time. Usually our own. Perhaps it's our lack of omniscience that leaves us feeling that only a few people can be important. We can't focus our care and attention on this out of the way lonely person over there ..therefore God can't be that bothered either.

The problem is, the world is too full of meaning. It overwhelms us. Every individual person is living a life that is infinitely richer and deeper than any work of fiction.

And that's just the humans. That's before we get to all the other living creatures.

This is my thing at the moment..

Recently I've been watching the late 80s/early 90s British sitcom, You Rang, M'Lord? It's my guilty pleasure. I've even been paying £1.99 per episode to watch it on YouTube I'm that hooked. I've raced through Seasons One, Two and Three, and I'm now halfway through the final season, with just two and half episodes left 😬

I only started watching it as my mam had it on in the background the other week. It inspired very vague recollections from childhood when I saw it. It rang a bell, if you pardon the pun. My first thought was Hi-de-Hi!, but no, this was something different (though the main actors are the same).

I always hated Hi-de-Hi! as a kid. There was something garish about it. That era of British culture where the women all seemed to have short hair, like Thelma from The Likely Lads. Instinctively, through a child's eyes, it just looked so wrong and un-aesthetic. That weird seventies tackiness and dislocation from natural beauty. There was just a wrongness about it all.

Perhaps I'd like Hi-de-Hi! now if I rewatched it (I'm tempted to having watched this), but it just seemed so grating at the time. Meaning my knee jerk response to seeing the same cast on screen was terror. However, it only took another thirty seconds for me to get a little sucked in. If I'm honest, it was a scene with Miss Poppy and Mr Twelvetrees that got me. It reminded me of the girl at work I like, and my own frustration with being so teased. That's the thing though with the show. What I really like about it is all the little relationships. Even though it's a silly comedy it's imbued with notions of long term infatuation. There's a certain romance and tension. It may just be me getting older, but it feels like we don't see examples of 'tension building between two people' in modern media. (Perhaps it's because modern media is so quick and short attention span now.) So watching this felt somehow better. Like entering a world where love is actually real again.

[Note: I actually used this line, "It may just be me getting older," just a few months ago in my post about the song Somebody Else, where I discussed similar ideas. I really must be in a soppy mood at the moment.]

(Miss Poppy and James Twelvetrees)

The female characters in particular are brilliant. Su Pollard as the maid Ivy is great. Her acting is really playful, but you really feel it when she longs for Mr Twelvetrees. Miss Poppy is brilliant too, just so bubbly and expressive. Such a fun character. And her monocle-wearing sister, Cissy, looks great. I really love her persona and look. She has truly great aesthetics - in contrast to the anti-aesthetics of earlier. The whole show has a real charm.

I don't have too much else to say - I just wanted to express my liking of it and leave a review really - so I'll leave things there.

(Ivy and Miss Cissy)

(The monocled Miss Cissy)

(Excuse the quality of the images, but YouTube literally blocked my laptop from taking screenshots of the episodes, so I had to take pictures of the screen with my phone. And after I paid £1.99 per episode too!

At least it adds an ethereal nostalgia though.)

Free Books - Click Here !

The much talked of, but rarely seen book is finally becoming visible. We've now got a PDF version of BOOK I available to download - for free.

Yes, this is the fiction. Someone Else's Kingdom. It can be downloaded here.

https://drive.google.com - someone else's kingdom

(An ePub version can be download here: https://drive.google.com - epub )

If you want an online preview instead you can visit the blog page:

https://someoneelseskingdom.blogspot.com

Other Free PDFs

As I'm going to pin this post to the sidebar I may as well provide links for the non-fiction works too.

The Freckled Mashiach

https://drive.google.com - the freckled mashiach

Strawberry Jam is the Best Jam

https://drive.google.com - strawberry jam is the best jam

Civilisation Judas

https://drive.google.com - civilisation judas

BIRTH FAMILY TRIBE LOVE SEX APOTHEOSIS

https://drive.google.com - BFTLSA

Oink: A Phonetic Alphabet

https://drive.google.com - oink: a phonetic alphabet