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Time as a resource, wasted

Tuesday 11 August 2026 at 11:37
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Edited by Martin Cadwell, Thursday 13 August 2026 at 15:15

Time

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Cadwell NOT Caldwell

 

Time as a resource, wasted

[4 minute read ] 

Opinion

You know, it takes longer to log into a website these days than the amount I spend on the website. Online banking takes about four minutes because my bank uses a secondary security protocol that means I have to pick up my phone and find a text message to enter the code. Even that takes longer than looking at my bank balance; I mean picking up my phone takes longer. I am not stupid so I never do any transactions online if I have logged into my bank account that day. 
 
Some websites send codes in emails which then means I spend about eight or nine minutes logging in and about ten seconds to do what I need to on the site. Someone suggested I store my passwords on my laptop! Really? There is not even a single file or document on any of my laptops with any of my personal details on it. Storing passwords on a device that has access to the internet is, to me, like unfurling a banner from Nelson's column, the Eiffel Tower; the Statue of Liberty; the Petronas Tower; the Hagia Sophia; and The Burj Khalifa with my family's names, addresses, dates of birth, and where and when they go on holiday. It is quite simply monumentally idiotic to leave a wide open door to your life. It's fine if you never go online or never store ANYTHING on you device but a single visit to a website that, today for me, was on 'Functional Imagery' will set a chain of action in motion to discover why I went there; and that happened before we had A.I. being automatically downloaded to assist with our spelling and grammar in real-time. I have predictive text all over the blooming place now. I have to regularly format the Hard Disk and re-install an old operating system with no technical support. I long to be able to make Windows XP work again. I have the disk but I cannot activate it. There used to be a CD / DVD that you could buy with an activation function in code on it. Alas, that kind of essential function has been overwhelmed by brain-washed optimism for an invasive future. 
 
How did we get to this? Once upon a time I could do things really quickly; now it takes about ten times as long to do the same task. Modern technology has slowed me down because I don't need help and support from additional software because I never, ever do anything that I don't understand and never do anything that cannot be done as a stand-alone action. There simply is no reason to complicate anything outside of data mining to add to the ability to mine ever more information.
 
Things just don't add up. I can work through the OU books for my next module(s) but I have no direction in the form of  requirements for associated TMAs and EMAs. I am largely kicking my heels. The only thing I can do is guess what I need to do and write several essays which I shall be able to use as donor essays to amalgamate components into a single essay on the same day I find out the first TMA questions to answer. Submission should then be in the first two days from the module(s) opening date. I suspect though that I shall have to wait for everyone to catch up because my module(s) also require interaction with other students. I know why the OU think it is a good idea for their students to interact but it really is so time-consuming.

Giving free-rein to thoughts and ideas means letting them breed unfettered in my mind. I, like everyone else, have the capacity to be mean and selfish, to steal intangible emotions, to worry and deny, to coerce and control. Some of us are better at it than others.

Tags: time, module, OU, resource, mine, data, personal, detail, family, landmarks
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Understanding through Sensuality

Wednesday 4 March 2026 at 08:33
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Edited by Martin Cadwell, Wednesday 4 March 2026 at 10:02

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[ 4 minute read ]

Understanding through sensuality

Understand not just learn

 

Every now and then I put my books away, back in my library (bookcases in the living room), but because my library is so far away from my office (also in my living room) I find that I select a book, carry it to my office, and tend not to immediately return it to my library (within arms reach of my desk). If I was married or lived with someone I suspect I might be more inclined to tidiness and even notice some of the biscuit crumbs that like to sneak up to the books on the floor that I haven't moved for a month or so. Oh! I sweep but I don't lift the books.

I suppose just like deliberately paying attention to someone's garden we might try to fathom how their mind works, we might also, by looking at the books someone has recently read or, in my case fail to return to the bookcases, glean some further understanding of what either entertains or distracts someone. Once, in a job interview I was asked, 'What distracts you?' The question was code for how many times a day do you look at your phone?

Some of the books on my floor, which though they are at the lowest elevation they might be at, they are in the most favoured place. Far from them being considered lowly and not important enough to be in a protected environment, they are the most interesting books to me, at this time.

Of course, there is the Roget's Thesaurus, The Concise Oxford Dictionary and Simply Psychology. There is also the Oxford Latin Dictionary; The Undercover Economist; Zen and the Brain; Encyclopedia of Superstitions; and The Fiction Writer's Handbook. The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman is in the bathroom because it has very short chapters. 

A new arrival to the floor is an AS and A2 revision book on Religious Studies.

I have three lap tops and one peripheral monitor and my garden is scrappy but at present has some Giant Winter leeks growing in it. There are about twenty growing cuttings from a Box shrub, and about twenty to thirty garlic plants struggling, as well as, when I put them outside each day, three heritage tomato plants and a single Bell Pepper plant from last season that I somehow managed to overwinter in my bedroom.

What can we deduce from this?

I like words; a lot! I am not fascinated but interested by how plants grow and like to lazily experiment with them; and computing is important to me. Actually, the last is a bit misleading in that the reason I have three laptops is because I separate tasks between the three in order that there is no obvious connectivity between all my digital actions. One of them never goes online.

The A3 and A4 size pieces of paper Blu-tacked to my walls with pithy paragraphs taken from books and online are the give-away. I am focused on understanding, which is a step beyond learning. They remain on my walls because I like to try to apply templates across different disciplines.

Yesterday, I attended a lecture on Reflective Commentaries (following some creative writing). I really wanted to contribute by telling the room that a complex system always starts with a simple system, and that a complex system cannot be created without there first being a simple system. That is the theory given by John Gall, a Systems Theorist. I had this in mind when I asked the question, 'Do you think it is a good idea to write a skeleton piece and then embroider literary devices onto it?' and later stated, 'I shall finish the story, write the reflection, and then revisit the story to make changes.'

People who highlight passages in text books and dog-ear the pages are doing the same as me with my 'Posters of Wisdom' on my walls, the latter of the two, dog-earin, is by far the furthest I would deface any book. Even if we have no bookmarks we do have cereal boxes or something to cut up into strips. The good thing about cereal boxes and strips of paper is that we can write the annotations on them that we would otherwise have written on the pages. The best thing about this is that we can remove the annotations on the strips of paper and read the text again unfettered by our prior thoughts and circumscribed beliefs. That, for me, is more about understanding than learning.

My neighbour was upset when I told him I have not read his wife's published cookery book, which they gave me a few years ago. I think he was upset because he felt I have a duty to read it because his wife put so much effort into recording her recipes and actions and then went through the publishing process. I have no duty to fulfill. Certainly, as someone with a PhD in Electronic Engineering, he was puzzled when I told him I don't follow recipes; I experiment. I may not be a good cook, but, effectively, the recipe book is as much use to me as a guidebook on Ancient Athens to someone of the period who lives in Athens, or something thereabouts in value. I like to learn and understand flavours, and find new combinations; you know, Basil goes with Tomatoes and you can't put lemon juice on mushrooms but you can put it in scrambled eggs.

I suppose I am a sensualist.

Tags: sensual, sensuality, understand, learn, learning, library, books, personal, understanding, focus
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Co-operation with persecution

Thursday 8 January 2026 at 07:02
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Edited by Martin Cadwell, Friday 9 January 2026 at 08:26

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[ 5 minute read ]

Signature Characteristics

Persecution and a Sword of Damocles

How quickly an hour passes. I keep a record of things on my laptop that have times and dates attached. My first entry today is for 04:48 o'clock, in the morning, am. I started writing this at 05:45, quarter to six o'clock in the morning. I read somewhere that schools across the UK had to replace the clocks with hands with digital clocks because the pupils couldn't otherwise read the time; hence my pointed jab about spelling out the time. For all I know not being able to understand what numbers mean when they are separated by a colon and written down might be a thing. Certainly, it never occurred to me that parents and nursery schools would not teach kids how to read the time from real clocks. Seems a bit like disfavouring them for entry into the real world to me.

I went to an online writing course for that hour where the conversation is mild and interesting. The conversation I read today was about monetising written work online. There were some questions asked about whether my posts on that site are based on true life. I realised then that despite posting pseudo-interviews of myself, in which I am brutally honest about myself; elsewhere, in the name of fiction, I make stuff up. That has made me reassess my integrity. 

Currently, I am overwhelmed by a recognition that I deleted evidence of someone else's bad behaviour in order to 'co-operate' with a dampening down of what some people consider to be only a mild spat. I had it all in hand by my own behaviour though. It sticks in my craw so bad. It is the word 'co-operate' that gets me. It stinks of a devious plan to cover up malpractice in which by my co-operation I am complicit. However, there is a 'Sword of Damocles' hanging over my head and whistle-blowing would make that sword very real.

I watched a film on a DVD a while ago; the Academy Award winning 'The Lives of Others', written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It is in German but thanks to my excellent skills at reading subtitles I understood most of it.

I think 'The Lives of Others' is based on a true story of lives in the former Soviet East Germany. It was an eye-opener for me. These days, the same level of surveillance is routine across all digital platforms, including any blog posts. Certainly Google's A.I. has read the entire internet, which includes all the work by students who use the plagiarism checking 'TurnItIn'. I think Google made that claim a few days ago.

When will humans begin to become serious about hiding their identity and more importantly, their unique personal signature of themselves? Sometimes, I find short passages of writing on my laptop that I seem to have randomly written about a subject. Because my writing style is fairly well practiced and, in the main, follows all the normal grammatical rules of other writers, I often cannot distinguish whether I copied a quote or came up with something myself. I have no doubt though that A.I. software would be able to pick out my writing signature. It is an aspect of me. If I wanted to use a pseudonym for writing, should I also learn to write differently. If I want to write an anonymous letter of complaint should I change my grammar slightly? Make mistakes?

I suppose the question I am asking myself is, who would I be deceiving? Me or the world? Outside of writing fiction, which seems to be a 'fair game' place for lying, assuming a different identity to avoid censure and cancellation of my real self seems dishonest. It is manipulative; but co-operating with something we don't agree with, and not speaking of our angst is being disrespectful to ourselves. 

I heard on LBC, the UK national radio phone-in channel, a woman complaining that she didn't think it is appropriate for the UK taxpayer to pay for appointment letters to be sent by the NHS to people who struggle with modern technology. I try to restrain my thoughts on such ideas or contrary ideas. Her overarching point was that everybody has to use modern technology (emails, websites, and mobile phones), so get on with it. 'My grandfather is ninety-three and he has no problem', she claimed. It should be understood that I might find that inflammatory and simplistic. There is little doubt in my mind from her signature characteristics of shallow linear thinking that she forced him to comply to her needs to use technology to contact him, and completely sidelined his personal comfort. 'Go and visit him as a real person you selfish cow'. Just guessing really - he might trade on the stock exchange or be a YouTuber, and she might one day save someone's life.

In Soviet East Germany, everyone had to spy on everyone else and report them for suspicious or nefarious activity. In the UK, we might as a whole, argue that it is because West Germany had a different approach towards its citizens that people in East Germany sought to free themselves from what they considered to be institutionalised persecution. Indeed, many East Germans had false identities and changed their characteristics to suit. But many did not change their characteristics and their personal signature was apparent; the Stasi cross-linked and found matches and they got caught.

Stasi - Official state security service of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (1950–1990); an abbreviation of Staatssicherheit. The intelligence service and secret police of East Germany.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stasi

Of course, I am making parallels of modern technology and the 'Stasi' and being careless of how they mesh. But, I am allowing some free-thoughts to evolve and die as they will. At the end of which I hope to be richer, if only by the exercise.

'Thank you for your co-operation.' Was that written by A.I.? Did Robocop say that?

Tags: co-operation, Stasi, persecution, bullying, personal, signature, A.I. identity, technology, signature characteristics, personal signature
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